[Specter Feedback Thread]

Golem

I really struggled with the shroud especially when trying to figure out a rotation. The skills were much slower than I expected. I guess it offsets how fast the rest of the thief kit can be but it made it less attractive. A small note, the wells did not look different enough. Maybe I missed something or my settings are too low but outside of come color swap I kept seeing the same shadow like figures.

 

Strikes

I played a few strikes with a low level group. Not enough players, not the correct gear or build and no team composition. While it does not carry as much as a scourge support I was really surprised to see what it can bring. Decent alac, some boons, rez, breakbars. I take back what I said after the preview and now think it can bring something to the game but it could get a few improvements. I thought that the targeting of an ally was be a bit too hard, especially when I wanted to change the target of the shroud (so I avoided most of the time and got in / out). I think sometimes I got tped backward instead of forward. While scepter works fine it also feels loaded to give thief all the tools to support. 

[Mechanist Feedback Thread]

As a disclaimer I only tried this spec on the golem + I do not play engineer enough to have a full opinion.

 

I had the same issues with mechanist and untamed. I do not see the time on F1 and F3 when they are on cd, I have to semi guess with the icon. Also like the F2 on ranger, sometimes the skill does not want to go off.

The mace had more power coefficient than I expected. I tried to replicate the condi / power build for holo and it looked like it had some good damage. I tried to maintain alacrity, it worked but was not that interesting to play (maybe my build was wrong). I had to use the mace auto a lot, a close combat mech (for the signet and aoe) and am not sure it will be better / more flexible than scrapper.

 

For Pvp I have been on the receiving end in Pvp and hum… the dps version did hurt a lot more than I expected (too much but I did read that there were bugs for might).

[Untamed Feedback Thread]

General feelings :

I did not expect to be so on point after the preview. Like I said it feels like there is a mixt of corruption and physical skills, both concepts are great and have good ideas, but in the end you miss not being able to fully commit to one. This makes it hard for me to give feedbacks, I would love to have a corruption aspect but it would need to be a full kit, not just 1 or 2 skills. The spec has a lot of drawbacks making it hard to play. (Big lol those who thought it was going to be strong and did not pay attention to the drawbacks). It will be fun in open world but right now it will require more time and some changes to see it in PvP.

• sPvp:

It was fun but I did struggle. There is a lot of management. Dps pets are still something to avoid mid because they still die quite fast and can do less than before if you are not pressing skills all the time (except birds because they stop to use screech). At least I had fun with wolf / bear / wyvern. I tried an immob build which was ok but guard / necro make it look so weak, an aoe build but it does not have enough pressure / sustain compared to other professions or a duelist (gs / sword) with lifesteal but it also was hard to pull off and had the same issues as core. I have seen some people trying condi which probably was easier to play but, just like willbender symbol, does not look like this is what the balance team had in mind. Right now I do not see it as a true bruiser / mid fighter spec.

• Pve Golem:

It had more dps than I expected but was never meant (and never will) compete with soulbeast so this is fine.

• Pve open world:

I played with hammer, spores, frost trap, lifesteal and it had a decent damage + a decent sustain.

 

Detailed impression

Pet mechanics :

I had the same issues with mechanist and untamed. I do not see the time on F1 and F3 when they are on cd, I have to semi guess with the icon. Also like the F2 on ranger, sometimes the skill does not want to go off.

The untamed pet skills are great but limited. F1 is good. F2 is a nice idea but does not feel that good since you do not have a lot of boon rip / corruption. Even with the trait it only felt great when corrupting a stab. For the F3 it took me a while to understand what was the issue. The pet will stop moving and attacking or will interrupt the skill if you ask him to do something else. Why is F3 an immobile channel? Nothing mentioned it in the tooltip. Also when pet is untamed it gets some new cool skills but what else? It does not look tankier, does not look like it deal more damage.

 

• Hammer :

Once a more big lol to all the people trying to meme with ranger warrior. It does some good damage in PvE. I will need more time to test it and get used to the swap mechanic but because it happens every 10s at best, the combo are not something I will do often. In pvp the skills have a small range, no movement, so they miss a lot and there is not much defense. (I would need more time testing but I quickly went for gs because I felt the need to survive longer). I did not even notice that I was never going the full way with hammer 3 until I watched a video from Kroof (you cannot move during this skill or it interrupts the second part). 

 

• Traits :

They were kind of weak / unexciting. Get some buff / debuff. Nothing seemed like it would totally change my playstyle.

Minors : Untamed mode is really hard to keep track of especially with all the new skills and the other minor. It might be better with time. Extra vitality is ok (not exciting but not bad). Vow of the untamed. When I talked about drawbacks after the preview I knew it was going to be hard. But I was so far, so far from expecting to melt like that. A single press of the untamed mode can destroy you, your dps, the skills you want to use and put you in a situation where you look at the 10s before being able to use it again and think “well I cannot do anything”. It is not like ele where you can use some skills to try to make up for your mistake then swap to another element. It makes an already hard mechanic super punishing.  

Debilitating blow / enhancing impact :  Not really exciting because they force you to just try to spam cc for some buff / debuff. It feels like they could be merged in one.

Fervent force : The cd reduction was fun with some strange (but understandable) restrictions.

Cleansing: It sounded ok but when I tried it I noticed that I was not swapping that often (10 cd + risk of swapping at the wrong time) which made it less appealing.  

Bolstering Unleash: I liked the power burst or extra defense after a swap but it also is a boring trait (also suffers from the cd and drawbacks of the swap and the stab trait competition).

Restorative strikes : 8-10% lifesteal sounded nice and worked well in PvE but ended up feeling like a slightly better minor in PvP.

Blinding outburst: okish, a bit too similar to go for the eye (beastmastery)

Corrupting vines: I like the corruption theme but with the cd and the lack of boon rip on ranger it does not make it that strong. 

Ferocious symbiosis : Fun on paper but I did not test it enough.

 

• Utilities:

I do not know if the lack of stunbreak is something that will damage the spec or not. I played 1 stunbreak, 1 stab, the stab trait It was hard but can work.

The heal (perilous gift) : It can be a 0 healing skill, a 100 healing skill , kill your pet and yourself (very likely) and has a long cd. I find this strange when so many mechanics are tied to the pet and cannot think of a situation where I would want to use it, even as a main tank in a raid. I do not know how to improve it. It does not reward you or your pet for taking so much risk.

Exploding spores: offer a nice burst in PvE but in PvP I only landed it on someone immobilized which makes the cc unreliable. WHY DO SO MANY RANGER SKILLS NEED AN IMMOBILE TARGET? It is not the first time it happens (druid slow seed of life, all the burst in the power soulbeast rotation, gs skills 3 and 5 missing someone moving, many more) and is so frustrating.

Mutate condition: The condi clear is strong. While I understand other people I do not think it needs a stunbreak.

Unnatural traversal: It works fine, with a short cd when it hits but I still do not want to blink in or one someone when I play ranger. I will not have a burst to follow so I would rather pick some defense. Maybe have a flip skill on hit and make it 30s all the time?

Nature’s binding: was fun to use with a short enough cd. But you need your team to follow if you take it and the opponents must not have a guard or a blink.

Forest’s fortification: A strong skill. The on hit effect can be hard to trigger on ranger because you lack aoe.

 

Edit : once again I had some fun moment playing it and think it will take a while to master all the new skills. During this beta there were a lot of people on already established builds or the other specs (which looked stronger). A lot of factors made my testing less enjoyable but I still think this spec will have a hard time being the start of a teamfighter ranger.

[Please fix warrior movement skills, it's been long enough]

7 hours ago, CalmTheStorm.2364 said:

Hard to say. I think terrain definitely plays a role, esp with Bulls charge. I personally find Rush to be the biggest offender. Rush seems to work well (relatively) when used at very long range, but when used at close or mid range, it's like a 50/50 chance of actually running away from or perpendicular to the target, even on flat terrain. I really have no idea why this happens.

 

It usually works as intended when no target is selected (i.e. you are trying to run away), but I have had multiple times where I deliberately de-selected the target and Rush ran at them anyways.

 

TLDR: Rush at your own risk.

Thank you for those explanations! I played core warrior 2 seasons ago but dropped gs for mace + axe (it was more fun and I had more success) and might have been more lucky in the past with gs. I will try it sometime.

[Please fix warrior movement skills, it's been long enough]

I hear about it often on the forums yet barely experienced it so far. Does it happens when trying almost max range? In general I use it to escape (no target) or mid range in team fight. Maybe on some terrain? 

[The Mechanist - new engineer EoD elite spec]

I expected this spec to give a new meaning to the term healbot 😄. I am a bit disappointed on the healing side. It is not as strong as a scrapper for support or has not everything like a holo. Yet it still looks like this spec has a strong dps, the stats sharing with the jade are going to be really fun for some players, the signets are good, some traits are really interesting. I think it will work, offer some good versatility, has great visuals but right now I cannot point out what seems to be missing to be more excited. Maybe I expected too much support or customization.

[The Untamed - new ranger elite spec]

I could go in depth about each skill and utility but I will be waiting to try it. It looks super fun to play with some nice utilities for small / medium fights. I never expected it to match slb or druid in pve. It does not bring support with healing or boons but has some things that ranger was missing and is going to make the pet management a bit harder (in a good way).

 

First to the dev / balance team : thank you for trying to change some stuff on ranger. It is going to be hard to push ranger in big fights. I can see a mix of multiple concept (physical skills, corruption skills) that are really cool (maybe 1 should have been pushed more?) and hope they will find a place.

 

To players: For WvW and PvP I think this spec is going to get a lot of hate and go through some hard balance times where it is not going to be seen anywhere. I can already foresee people not mentioning the extra damage taken or that you deal less damage, that now the ranger has to time everything while they keep saying “uh no skill spec”.   I just fear it will get a soulbeast treatment the moment people will freak out (and they already do without seeing it).

[New Thief Elite - The Specter]

It works a bit like I expected as an offensive support. I just thought it would heal more people or have more buffs (which are probably the part it is lacking). This spec is going to be crazy with a duo and maybe some wells are going to be seen in PvP. I do not see it as a healer in PvE either but as condi damage dealer with a few extra buff for your allies it sounds interesting.

[The Untamed - new ranger elite spec]

18 hours ago, vectorfox.6894 said:

Just coming to say i knew it wasn't super pet focused anymore than regular ranger and yet people were jumping for joy they got a pet spec the opposite to soulbeast, when lo and behold Engi was the real pet spec in this round of elites.

 

Ah Ah

[The Mechanist - new engineer EoD elite spec]

The spec looks fun but I wonder how much control and customization is actually possible. Trying to go for 3 different modes sounds hard but it could just be a change with the grandmaster. I want to see what this guy offers especially on support.

[The Untamed - new ranger elite spec]

5 minutes ago, covahlam.6391 said:

This is the press kit info anet provided to sites like massively op.

Ok thank you. Well that makes it sound more interesting.

[The Untamed - new ranger elite spec]

1 hour ago, RobinotX.1604 said:

Quote

“The untamed and their pet juggle control of a raw, primal power to defeat their foes. Their pet weakens their prey before the untamed reclaims that vicious, raw power and delivers the final strike. The untamed is a melee brawler with the ability to shift from an aggressive damage dealer to a defensive bruiser. This transition is enabled by their Unleash ability, which passes a powerful nature magic between the untamed and their pet. Pets in this unleashed state gain access to new abilities that disrupt and debilitate nearby enemies. Additionally, the untamed’s bond with their pets grants them more direct control over the default abilities of each pet, ensuring that they’ll always be ready to strike when the time is right. The hammer wielded by the untamed is also affected by their Unleashed state, allowing for an adaptable playstyle depending on the situation. For their utility skills, the untamed gains access to the cantrip skill type. These cantrips create various defensive and crowd-control effects, giving the untamed the tools they need to thrive in melee combat.”

 

Where does it come from? I am (as always) waiting for the official source tomorrow but even if 50% of what you wrote is true then this is the kind of info I would have loved to see/hear in the trailer (role / type of utilities).

[The Untamed - new ranger elite spec]

1 hour ago, Lazze.9870 said:

I'm gonna just copy myself: The ranger itself has no problem with moving targets.

I agree with most of your concerns even if right now I am mostly curious about the details of the e-spec. I just wanted to add a small note about this sentence because I think that ranger can struggle vs moving target with its most used weapon, the greatsword. I am going a bit off topic just because it bothered me way too often to just swap to gs and see my opponent running away (but I understand why you wrote this).

[The Untamed - new ranger elite spec]

Adding some extra (energy?) management on ranger is something I like the sound of even we are still missing some info to know how it works (I miss some of the management of soulbeast). It can be really cool to have to bounce effects between the pet and ourselves. It does not look like there are support skills in the trailer but if there are some decent aoes / utilities I will try it mid in PvP.  I hope it makes up for some weaknesses of core ranger.

[New Thief Elite - The Specter]

I had no expectations for thief. As soon as I heard shroud and then tether / barrier I got really interested. It can be really interesting to play in PvP (and sounds a bit scary), maybe I will give it a try in PvE. Now I will be waiting for the thief part of the stream 🙂 

[Why I'm against a No-Pet Spec for Ranger.]

I agree with op. I would love a spec that plays with the pet or even reworks it into some support mechanic as some people suggested in some other topics or changes the way you control / interact with it. Wait and see.

edit : I still hope for some magic / support skills even with the hammer around 🙂

[Why I'm against a No-Pet Spec for Ranger.]

3 hours ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

I doubt the e-spec will get rid of the pet, there is to much going around the pet on the core ranger for it to disappear. Even if people say: "soulbeast does it and it work". Truth is that soulbeast is hard to balance because it work without pet (And, no, soulbeast isn't balanced atm, it's just "fixed" in a way that people keep quiet about it).

On your bucket list:

- Petswap changed: Soulbeast does that already

- CC based: Druid does that already

- Tanky: Soulbeast have the options to be one of the tankiest thing in game, you just need to merge with a stout pet.

- Good synergy in PvP can't go along with "pet focused e-spec" because as soon as pets start to be good in sPvP people will want it nerfed.

- 4-5 new pet: That's probably a given. Thought, Panda is a bear and bears in gw2 are disappointing. Another feline with white tiger? What would it do? At this point there isn't much left to add to the felines which are the "better" base pets. So far, there is no fox in cantha lore but mythical pets would probably be: Turtle, Dragon, Phoenix and Kirin (knowing how they said they worked hard on "turtles taxi", I wouldn't be surprise to see them as a pet).

 

What the devs haven't done yet:

- Replacing the F2 skill

- A dodge spec (not really original at this point but that fit the ranger thematic)

- A spec use it's pet as a pool of blood to fuel blood spells (I've played a profession that does that in another game, it's... interesting)

- An e-spec with a spec specific pet list, losing access to the regular pet list (but not having to tame their pets).

I hope the devs tried at least one of those possibilities.

They can still toy a bit with the pet swap. Slightly before the removal of soulbeast pet swap (which made it way less interesting / fun to play) I suggested to add an animation / cast time to the pet swap so you can interrupt it and / or add a pet %heal for each Xs spend in beastmode.

[Ranger Pets in PvP]

4 minutes ago, Crab Fear.1624 said:

Then it must be a bug, because it does spawn on you.

Maybe? I have not experienced it yet. Was it once in a while or all the time? I just tried on golems and it was close to me. It sounds more like the smokescale.

If this is really a bug then yes it should be fixed.

[Ranger Pets in PvP]

2 minutes ago, Crab Fear.1624 said:

One example is wolf knockdown.

There needs to be a tell for these kind of kds and also the pulls.

Also, on pet swap the pet should spawn by the ranger, not the target.

It is not hard to understand.

Wolf has an animation and does not spawn 600 range from you.

[Ranger Pets in PvP]

I have no idea what you are talking about.

[What is your favourite Festival?]

My list looks something like that :

Winterday : This one is my favorite. Everything just works. The music, the activities, I keep wanting more of this quality.

Bazar : I love the ambiance of the bazar and the challenge provided by the champions. I am not a fan of the mob farm and wish I would find more people for the pvp activities.

Halloween: On the same level as the bazar. It has some awesome atmosphere. I am a big fan of the puzzle, the mad king dialogues, the races. Once again, just not a fan of the farm and the pvp activities are not the most fun / balanced in my opinion.

SAB : Every time I start the festival the music drives me crazy (the normal version). It works so well! Once you do it with friends and practice, even the hardcore version is fun. I just do not find it as “repeatable” as other festivals.

Dragon bash : Stunning visuals and decent activities. There is just too much farm for me.

Lunar festival : I love the dragonbash. It brings is a nice challenge and great mechanics, it just needs a little something for losing teams because sadly people tend to spawn camp / afk too much because they just want the reward. Other than that there is not much else to do compared to other festivals.

[Favorite/Least Favorite Class to Fight Against]

Highly build dependent, sometimes I cannot fight a build even if I know the weaknesses. I guess "on average" my list would look something like that:

• Mostly straightforward: Guard / Engie / Necro / Ranger
• Between ok and frustrating: Rev / Warrior 
• Not as enjoyable to fight: Ele / Mesmer / Thief

This list is not set in stone. I edited this multiple times just because I have a hard time ranking them. For example there are a lot of situations where I would rather fight an elementalist than a warrior. But they just have a few options / mechanics I do not like as much. 

[New elite specialization: The Vindicator]

This spec was hard to grasp. The dps looks good, the support part looks decent. I can see the idea behind the dual stances but I am not sure how it will play out. Rev already has some strong support option so maybe PvE builds will be more dps oriented and PvP will use both aspects?

[New Elementalist Elite Spec: The Catalyst]

It looks like this spec offers some strong aoe control (potentially creating lots of chaos) and will be fun to play in PvP. It could be good in open world too, not sure in raids even with (what seems like) a crazy amount of stat boost.

[What are you looking forward to or think looks cool about Bladesworn?]

The mechanic was quite… surprising? I wonder how easy / hard it will be to pull off. On the other hand this spec offers a lot of strong support options for PvP. I like the way fence works, guard wall 3 times is super strong, recharge on ammo is obviously strong, an equivalent of ranger lightning reflexes. It looks like this spec offers strong damage, decent sustain, good support. It sounds hard to balance but it can allow a lot of build variety.