[Live Now: Through the Veil, first major update for SotO]

4 hours ago, scerevisiae.1972 said:

the story

Agree. The story costs huge resources to create but 1) it's not fun (actually it straight-up sucks) and 2) it's minimally replayable. 

[Weaponmaster Training Beta Feedback: Elementalist]

18 hours ago, scerevisiae.1972 said:

the biggest piece of feedback i can give is that pistol is a poor thematic fit for Elementalist. Like... the worst of all the weapons possible.

 

Axe, greatsword, mace, longbow, shortbow = fine

rifle/pistol = not fine.

but as long as it's actually a ranged weapon this time, i'll deal with it.

Funny that all of the 😕 votes occurred in US time, of course americans think guns belong in a magic/fantasy game on a magic class :rollseyes: :sigh:

 

Agree that pistol is a poor fit for Elementalist.

[Hammer sucks]

I also hate it. Hated it so much I refunded my pre-purchase of EOD. No regrets.

[Get ready for the disappointment]

On 3/1/2022 at 4:54 AM, SauroN.2501 said:

I'll be visiting the forums daily for updates on catalyst. I'm not buying EOD cause of this garbage spec until it has been massively buffed. 

No way I'm buying either while it's in such bad shape. I liked harbinger during the betas but not worth buying an expansion for 1 elite spec.

[Catalyst Feedback Thread]

More than 55% of players think Catalyst is "bad" or "terrible".

More than 60% of players think Hammer is "bad" or "terrible".

If that's not clear and actionable feedback, I don't know what is.

[How would you rate Catalyst?]

Hammer shouldn't have been melee. Noone wanted a Sword v2.0 but that's what they made. Stupid. 

[Catalyst is garbage in WVW]

This was called out during the betas multiple times months and months ago but no changes were made. I don't think they care what players think. 

[Catalyst Hammer 3 cripples the specialisation]

On 2/2/2022 at 8:19 PM, Avatara.1042 said:

So this was moved to the ele forums to die.  I expect cata to be horrible.

Catalyst IS horrible. It was so bad in beta I asked for a refund on my EOD pre-purchase.

From what I have heard from my Ele friends, it was a good decision.

[Catalyst Unchanged Since Beta, Such a Disapointment. Here's how to fix it.]

Agree. The spec is really bad. No enthusiasm to play.

[Get ready for the disappointment]

I still can't believe the same team that brought us the original and brilliant D/D Ele is the same that is just about to give us the pedestrian and totally redundant hammer Ele.

How can a design team miss the mark by so far?

Another melee weapon, a dull one at that, when the only 2 ranged weapon options have been around for 9 freaking years.

Ok the weapon sucks, BUT: the profession mechanic is dull AF, the traits are unoriginal and uninspiring, the utilities are boring... the entire spec is just crap.

 

Signed, bitterly disappointed Ele main.

[Hammer should be based around 600 range cone AOEs]

20 hours ago, scerevisiae.1972 said:

There's really no getting away from the conclusion that Hammer was the weapon that noone wanted, and even if hammer were the first melee weapon for Ele (instead of the third), it would still not be a good weapon. 

QFT

[Ele has zero need of another melee weapon]

On 12/10/2021 at 7:21 PM, Winchester Smythe Anus III.2153 said:

Ele has more melee weapons (3) than ranged (2), and more melee weapons than necro (2) and mesmer (2) (the other "main" casters).

looking at main-hand weapons...

Ele: 
melee (3): dagger, sword, hammer
ranged (2): staff, sceptre 

Necro:
melee (2): dagger, greatsword
ranged (4): staff, sceptre, axe, pistol

Mesmer:
melee (2): sword, axe
ranged (4): staff, sceptre, greatsword, dagger

-------------------> Ele is a majority melee class now :wtf: :boggle: :ohgodwhy: <---------------------

[Ele has zero need of another melee weapon]

17 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

An answer here is that we've been using staff and scepter since release. Some people are bored with them.

100x this.

This is why hammer really needed to deliver something new not a slightly different, pure-PVE version of dagger/sword.

Total. kittening. garbage.

 

[EoD looks so bad it's not even funny]

It's too early to tell but I think they seriously missed the mark with fishing and skiffs. I could not care less.

Also, speaking of things that wildly missed the mark: Catalyst hammer. What the kitten is that kitten.

Who the hell thought Ele needed another melee weapon?

[Catalyst feels like trash]

I think the traits are pretty boring and don't change the playstyle but it's really hammer that is the true trash.

 

Mixed melee/600 range was a dumb idea. Plays like crap. 

[Rate catalyst Round 2 (beta 4)]

Bad, because the design of hammer is bad, and the traits are boring.

Hammer too similar to sword and dagger, traits too similar to tempest.

 

[Catalyst Bug Thread]

Hammer fire 2 misses often, seems like the range is too short or the cone of damage is too narrow / doesn't match the animation.

Hammer 4 target reticle doesn't match the damage area / seems too small for the animation. Also this skill seems to do way less damage than I would expect for its cooldown.

Earth and water 1 not being ranged feels like a bug, it's weird to be at 600 range and swap into these elements and not be able to do anything.

Hammer air 4 is really unreliable, sometimes it fires you back and other times it doesn't, really annoying cause it's difficult to know for sure what it's going to do.

 

[Catalyst Feedback Thread]

Hammer still sucks.

I hate the mix of mostly melee skills (14/20) with just a few ranged. We already have sword/dagger and frankly they are way better.

No evades and crappy mobility mean melee range is death.

Which makes the hammer 3 skills feel useless because I can't hang in melee range. 

I hate not having ranged attacks in water or earth. Feels really bad to be at 600 range and then swap into water/earth and not be able to do anything.

I hate having the only gap closer in the kit in water attunement.

I hate not being able to drop a field when I want because of having to build up energy, feels clunky AF.

Even the 600 range skills feel weak considering how close range you have to be to use them and how small their AOEs are. On my rev I can hammer 3 from 1200 range 240 radius for instant 10K+ per target while I evade all damage. On Catalyst hammer I can air 2 for 6-7K from 600 range but it takes several seconds of channelling and I am completely vulnerable.

I hate that outside of hammer, Catalyst feels and plays exactly like core Ele, which has been around for what, 9 years?

 

Idk the entire weapon just feels and plays like garbage because the whole weapon design is wrong. Needs consistent 600 ranged attacks in all 4 elements, and more mobility to get into and out of 600 range.

 

 

 

[Catalyst feels like trash]

It feels like trash because it *is* trash.

 

Hammer is a total design failure. I struggle to understand how the hell another melee weapon for Ele made it past the first design iteration meeting as something the community might actually want.

If however the design brief was for a mid-range caster, well 14/20 melee skills 6/20 ranged skills means they totally failed to deliver on that brief.

Either way it's a pretty huge design fail and/or FU to the GW2 community.

 

[Rate the elite specs]

I wish Anet would share their take on community feedback and patch notes on the changes they're making to the elite specs. I'd be a lot more willing to invest mt time giving detailed feedback if I could see it was making a difference.

[practical changes to fix catalyst]

I agree with most of these.

 

Hammer is far too similar to existing D/D and sword but with no evades or superspeed. At the very least, several hammer skills should be made 600 range (eg: all #1/#2 skills) and 1-2 of existing 600 range skills should be extended to 900-1200 range.

 

Hammer needs a second gap closer and an evade. D/D has 3 gap closers, 3 evades;  sword/D has 2 gap closers, 3 evades. The hammer gap closer (water #4) is probably also in the wrong element as you prob don't want to initiate combat in water attunement.

 
Agree energy makes absolute zero sense for Ele. Ele already has a resource they need to manage - attunement CDs.

 

Overall hammer is just a mess. A frustrating, slow, clunky mess. It's like the whole spec is a collection of random programmer ideas that were blended together without any regard for how the spec fits into the current game modes.

 

eg. how is hammer catalyst intended to fit into WVW? It can't heal well, can't support well, doesn't have ranged damage, doesn't have good AOE damage, doesn't have good mobility so struggles to get into range... it's just awful.

[Catalyst Feedback Thread]

Overall, I think it's pretty bad, like 2-3 out of 10 level bad. Mainly because the design has MAJOR problems; see below

Things I like:
* conceptually, a 600-900 range bruiser is a good space (even though i would have preferred a 1200 range hybrid to compete with staff).
* animations are pretty

Things I don't like:
* playstyle is WAY too similar to D/D and sword as 2/3rds of hammer skills are melee -- a few melee skills are OK but 2/3rds melee skills? that is bad, i think at least ALL the #1/#2 skills should be 600+ for consistency 
* the F5 field is immobile / single-instanced, severely limiting its relevance. 
* the energy mechanic is really pointless; should just be a fixed duration
* I dislike that the field type change with current element, it may be technically cool but functionally it's bad
* the whole spec is just so slow and lumbering.  For a low HP/low armour melee/600 range class i would expect a lot of mobility and evades or superspeed but there is nothing, it's just slow and easy to kill.
* no condi cleanse on hammer; water #5 requires targets in melee range
* I really dislike that traits are aura-based because auras were tempest's thing. Seems lazy.
* I especially dislike having all these aura traits when there is only 1 field, that's super bad design.
* the utilities are just really bad, i  wouldn't use any of them, they're garbage. I would have expected utilities to provide unconditional superspeed or mobility, condi cleanse, projectile reflect to compensate for melee/600 range but there is none of this.
* the elite is the best of the utilities but still super un-impactful
* the #3 skills are way too short for their impact, not worth the opportunity cost of even casting them, need to be at least 3 sec longer. The finale skill should 1200+ range.
* i hate that melee-600 means I'm going to be forced into running celestial gear again and forced into a speed rune because terrible mobility. Honestly though, I doubt I will ever play this spec because of all the other bad things above.

 

Overall I'm just super disappointed . This is nothing like the spec I wanted and is way too much like a worse version of D/D + sword with a worse version of tempest's aura traits.

I really hate it. I really hope you substantially rework. 

[Catalyst is badly designed]

I played it for 4 hours today. It's as bad as I feared. It's slow and clunky and is nearly exactly the same playstyle as sword weaver.

I mean I like sword weaver but sword weaver was melee + a little ranged and hammer is EXACTLY THE SAME - melee plus a little ranged. Why couldn't hammer have been an actual melee/ranged hybrid? At least that would have been something different.

I honestly hate it in its current form, I pray there's going to be a substantial rework.

[Catalyst is badly designed]

Watched the video a bunch of times and have mulled it over for several days since. No I don't need to play it to foresee the big design flaws. Succinctly:

1. heavily based around auras and field combos but only 1 aura skill (earth #4) and *zero* fields, only the F5, which takes time to build up. makes no sense.
2. the F5 field is stationary. that makes it nearly useless in a large parts of the game. i also *really* dislike the "energy" limitation, it feels very "tacked on" and the UI for it is also kinda bad. (i realise this is beta but the mechanics of it are what i really care about)
3.  the utilities are *really* bad. really under-tuned overall, tied to the (frankly terrible) profession mechanic, and just lacking in all the things i would actually want as a low-health, low-armour ostensibly melee spec 
4. also of concern is a total lack of access to swiftness/superspeed/mobility when there is only 1 gap closer (when other melee specs are getting several)

 

 

Of course I will give it a good go when beta drops but IMO the above design flaws are really glaring and are going to make Catalyst annoying to play solo as it's heavily reliant on others putting down fields. 

 

thx for reading.

[map placement]

anyone know how to resize the map? i resized map to its maximum size by using the vcorner drag but map is still not large enough for my liking --- i have a very large monitor and map is tiny.