[Reverting Power Spike and Power Lock to no longer require targets]

With the recent change to Mantras such that they need to be prepared again before gaining charges, may we please revert the October 01, 2019 update which made Power Spike and Power Lock require targets? The rationale behind this is that it makes it incredibly difficult to utilize with Restorative Mantras now that the healing is once again, applied on Mantra Preparation and not on using a Mantra charge. Why can't we at least be able to cast these two ammunition abilities without a target so that we can enable the preparation of them again? This would make it A LOT smoother to gain AoE Healing out of combat, Might stacking, and Diversion cooldown reduction.

[Tankpest]

4 hours ago, Sahne.6950 said:

The problem at hand is that a Tempest can provide over 5k Healing per aura per person... For example, going thru fire once, will heal everyone around you for 20k.... That is simply overtuned. Period.

Especially after people were screaming that they need more damage and less healing in zergs.

 

How and where are you even getting this asinine number of healing 5k per aura per person? Elemental bastion has a 391 base heal and 80% healing coefficient. Let's assume that you have the following outgoing healing modifiers in a standard healing build = +82.5% outgoing healing (10% food, 15% utility, 15% aquatic benevolence, 12.5% fully stacked benevolence sigil, 10% Transference sigil, 20% fully stacked rune of the monk).

To get this so called value of 5k Healing per aura, let's look at the official wiki which has the formula for healing done and apply it to this baseless claim.

Total healing done = [(mechanic-specific base healing) + (Healing Power) * (mechanic-specific coefficient)] * (sum of healing multipliers)

Plugging in the numbers above, we get:

5000 = [391 + Healing Power*0.8]*1.825

I'm going to solve this for you because you obviously are not getting 5k Healing per aura.

5000÷1.825 = 391 + (Healing Power*0.8)

2,739.73 -391 = Healing Power*0.8

2,348.72÷0.8 = Healing Power

2,935.9 = Healing Power

So you mean to tell me that, in addition to maintaining 82.5% outgoing healing at all times, you're running around in a gear setup that grants you 2936 Healing Power? Please do tell what this mysteriously OP gear setup is, because there is no way you're getting that much healing power in a full minstrel setup. If you need me to do a number breakdown of minstrel healing power stats as well, let me know....but don't go around spreading misinformation and claims of "healing over 5k per aura per person" when I just proved to you with basic math that it's not possible.

[[Harbinger] Can't trigger Transfusion with Harbinger's Shroud]

Bump. While I appreciate that harbingers can now heal themselves when taking this trait, transfusion still seems to be bugged when you're trying to heal allies. It still only randomly works when healing allies (not yourself).

[Sundering Leap WvW Coefficient Issue]

Yes I agree with your statement. 

[Why does Transfusion heal Scourge but not Harbinger?]

Yeah can confirm. It doesn't even heal allies sometimes, let alone yourself.

[[Harbinger] Can't trigger Transfusion with Harbinger's Shroud]

Bump. This bug still exists today and I too, am experiencing similar frustrations with the OP. I've been wanting to try a support Harbinger in WvW and this trait just simply refuses to work approximately half the time. May we please fix this trait Arenanet so that the Harbinger always pulses healing and revives on nearby allies? Why is it randomly not working at times?

[Tempest Trait and Rebound Rework Ideas]

2 hours ago, Ptolomy.6984 said:

I think theres a problem in the adept traitline tho i think auras on completing an overload is kinda making all the other options relatively useless. As a support you want the auras and as a dps most likely too and im wondering if making unstable conduit baseline for tempest or at least put it in a minor trait wouldnt make it OP. Catalyst has a minor trait that gives auras, why doesnt tempest have this while this is arguably THE aura ele spec. This could open up build diversity and get a less restrictive and boring adept trait lineup

I agree with this which is why I added a third alternative competitive option in the form of Booming Voice. That way, you can still build a DPS Tempest without relying on Auras in the form of Booming Voice/Tempestuous Aria/Transcendent Tempest. Heck, you could also make a non-Aura support build in the form of Booming Voice/Harmonious Conduit/Lucid Singularity. 

[Tempest Trait and Rebound Rework Ideas]

9 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

I don't mind reducing the time to reach singularity since most of the elements don't offer enough decent skills to efficiently camp an attunement for 6 seconds (although it shouldn't be gated behind the use of aura's) but it should be accompanied with a reduced channeling time and reduced cd on overloaded attunements.

Yeah that could work - something like a 2 second channel time with a 12-15 second cooldown? 

[Tempest Trait and Rebound Rework Ideas]

3 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

I'd honestly welcome pretty much any change to the current adept and master traitline since they're complete garbage atm. I personally don't like the rebound changes, but i agree it definitely needs a rework. 

Also i've got 2 big problems with your trait rework:

Your proposed change to invigorated torrents is totally busted. The amount of auras a Tempest van provide is insane, resulting in An easy 100% uptime without the Grandmaster trait. 

Last but not least you're forcing ele to become a permanent overload channeller this way. Basically you Just swap attunement, cast a shout and pretty much instantly can start an overload. If there's anything the Tempest needs in my opinion it is a reduction/removal of the overload channel time. Nothing is more boring then to cast a skill every ~8 seconds that forces you to do nothing for 3-4 seconds. 

Thanks for the feedback! I'm open to ideas to reworking Rebound to make it truly worthy of an elite status. Perhaps a cooldown increase to allow for the application of all auras? My motivation behind this change was admittedly the Harbinger's Elixir of Ambition which may not have been the best idea to leverage. I've added an alternative rework to Rebound - let me know what you think.

1. The duration can definitely be lowered if its too much of an issue though the attempted fix here was to bake alacrity into multiple areas so as to smoothen its application. Think Alacrity Mechanist and Quickness Firebrand - they have multiple sources of their respective boon as its part of their identity. Alacrity should also be a key component of the Tempest's identity and not just a boon tacked on to a grandmaster. 

2. This is where you and I differ - I for one, enjoy the playstyle of becoming an overload channeler. That is what this elite specialization is at its core and I don't think the developers should steer away from that as its thematically, a very interesting concept. As for the question of permanent overload channeler - the reduction in elemental singularity already passively exists in the current iteration of Transcendent Tempest. As elemental singularity takes 6 seconds and Transcendent Tempest currently reduces singularity time by 33%, singularities take 4 seconds if you take this trait in the game today. My idea was to shift that into a bigger, albeit more controlled, power spike where you can potentially decide when you want to overload by providing singularity reductions after casting a shout. This creates interesting decision making potential for the player and I think that's infinitely more engaging than the passive reduction right now that exists.

Also, overloading is not doing "nothing". You're still doing damage/healing/cleansing/applying boons and conditions...I don't consider that nothing. It sounds like the playstyle is just not for you in my opinion - which is completely fine. But I don't think a reduction/removal of the overload channel time will put this elite specialization in a healthy state. It just needs additional incentives to aim for those powerful channels.   

[Tempest Trait and Rebound Rework Ideas]

17 hours ago, FrownyClown.8402 said:

You really want shouts with 45% cd reduction?

And rebound giving all auras is gross.

I'm not sure I follow - most utilities have a (potential) 45% cd reduction if you factor in alacrity and similar utility cooldown traits. Please explain what would be so wrong with giving shouts a 45% cd reduction if the same limitations don't apply to other utilities from other elite specializations? Morever, this trait is also competing with two very strong traits in the form of Invigorating Torrents and Harmonious Conduit so even if you do take the reduced recharge, you're loosing boon application on auras or stability/aegis on overloading.

I'm open to ideas to make rebound better - feel free to share them if you've got any.

[Tempest Trait and Rebound Rework Ideas]

After our beloved balance update which saw Tempests finally receive Alacrity (albeit, in a clunky manner), I figured now would be a great time to revisit the Tempest specialization as a whole to revitalize and bring it up to today's specialization standards. These ideas include: removing pain points with existing mechanics, solidifying the alacrity role by baking the boon into additional traits rather than having it tacked on lazily on a single grandmaster, and improving shouts to synergize more with the Tempest's overload mechanic.

UTILITIES

Rebound Idea #1: Reworked to now Shout and infuse your allies with arcane energy. Allies who would take lethal damage while this is active ignore the deathblow, are healed instead and granted all elemental auras for 4 seconds. If the effect expires naturally, grant all elemental auras for 4 seconds. Cooldown increased from 75 seconds to 105 seconds.

Rebound Idea #2: Reworked to now Shout and infuse your allies with arcane energy. Allies who would take lethal damage while this is active ignore the deathblow, are healed instead, cleansed of all conditions and granted an elemental aura based on your current attunement for 4 seconds. If the effect expires naturally, cleanse all conditions and grant an elemental aura based on your current attunement. 

An elite should feel incredibly powerful when casted, most notably due to their incredibly long cooldowns. While Rebound's lethal damage saves can be potentially impactful and allow for mechanic saves/ignoring, the healing is pitifully small, its secondary effects are equally lackluster and the 5 man target limit change with EoD's release hurt its niche strength. With idea #1, not only would granting all 4 elemental auras be incredibly powerful in their own right, but this would also synergize greatly with Aura traits given that you are now applying 4 instances of Auras. With idea #2, this would function as an ally-targeted A.E.D by granting condition cleansing to prevent situations in which your allies die to conditions shortly after just being saved.

TRAITS

Adept

Gale Song: Removed

Booming Voice: This trait fills the slot previously held by Gale Song.  This trait allows Shouts to reduce the time to attain elemental singularity by 3 seconds. 

While Gale Song is incredibly powerful in certain PvE encounters where CC is prevalent and an additional stun-break is required, its competitive split of increasing its recharge to 300 seconds and passive functionality make it particularly problematic for WvW/PvP. Booming voice however promotes faster Overloads for support and DPS tempests alike as the use of two shouts between rotations can enable instantaneous overloading and make it easier to maintainTranscendent Tempest's damage buff or Lucid Singularity's Alacrity effects.  

Master

Tempestuous Aria: Now additionally reduces the recharge of Shouts by 20% in addition to its previous effects. Increased the number of Might stacks from 2 to 3 in PvE.

Harmonious Conduit: Reworked to now Grant Stability (1 stack, 4 second duration) and Aegis (1 stack, 4 second duration) to nearby allies when starting an overload. Upon successfully completing an overload, grant Stability (1 stack, 4 second duration) to nearby allies. 

Invigorating Torrents: Now additionally allows Auras you grant to apply Alacrity for 1.5 seconds.

Shout recharge reduction and additional might stacks were added to Tempestuous Aria due to Booming Voice's new functionality. Tempests who are looking to play more offensively would therefore not want to use all their Shout utilities at once so as to not waste Booming Voice's singularity reduction. As such, lowering the recharge to allow for more interactions with Shouting and Overloading as well as slightly increasing the Might stacks should make this a more compelling option to take.

Harmonious Conduit has been simultaneously updated to finally enable Tempests the ability to grant Stability and Aegis to allies. These are boons that are often mandatory for a majority of content in the game, be it competitive or PvE, and their non-existence on an Elementalist's toolkit has significantly hampered a party's willingness to bring them for Support. Additionally, harmonizing Harmonious Conduit and Lucid Singularity's functionality (ie, provide benefits at the beginning and end of an overload) solves a major pain point with the current implementation of these two traits. Similarly, enabling Alacrity on Auras with Invigorating Torrents functions similarly to the Firebrand specialization in that they have multiple avenues to grant Quickness to their party. This assists the Tempest greatly in fulfilling a strong Alacrity Support role for a team.

Grandmaster

Transcendent Tempest: Reworked. No longer passively reduces the time to attain singularity. Now upon successfully completing an overload, gain 10% increased damage and 10% increased condition damage for 7 seconds.

Lucid Singularity:  Reworked to now Grant Alacrity to nearby allies when starting an overload. Upon successfully completing an overload, grant Alacrity and an additional effect based on your current attunement to nearby allies.

Fire - Your next strike inflicts burning. 
Water - Your next strike inflicts chill and grants Vigor.
Air - Grant an additional charge of Static Charge.
Earth - Your next strike inflicts bleed and cripple.

As Transcendent Tempest's singularity reduction has been shifted to shouts with Booming Voice, this component was removed and replaced with a 3% damage buff to strike and condition damage. As mentioned above with Harmonious Conduit, Lucid Singularity now also provides Alacrity at the start of an overload so as to still provide a benefit even if your Overload gets cancelled. While ultimately you still want to reward a Tempest for successfully completing an overload, a Grandmaster being solely contingent on a successful channel (especially an important one like Alacrity) feels incredibly painful on fights where heavy CC is prevalent or dodging is required. One single interrupt, be it through having to evade or being CC'd will halt your Alacrity uptime considerably. This change should allow Alacrity Tempests more room to breathe and to also provide additional utility, similar to the Firebrand's Quickfire. In particular, Water's Vigor bonus also has synergy with Latent Stamina to provide further synergy and niche for endurance gains.

My goal with these reworks was to not only buff Tempest to be a viable support role in all game modes, but to also update its lackluster trait and utility functions to solidify its role as a strong support. There are now multiple paths one can take when building a Tempest, with ample options that are both competitive and flavourful. Pain-points have been resolved in that Harmonious Conduit and Lucid Singularity provide initial benefits as well as additional benefits upon successfully completing an overload. Alacrity has been blended seamlessly into the Tempest's identity by also allowing Invigorating Torrents the ability to apply alacrity with aura application. Finally, shouts have been granted recharge reduction in Tempestuous Aria and an additional trait in the form of Booming Voice to directly synergize with the Tempest's core mechanic of Overloading.

Please feel free to let me know any comments and feedback you may have 🙂

[[Request] New Stat Combo's for EOD]

3 hours ago, Ganathar.4956 said:

A condi equivalent to diviner's would be the most overpowered stat set ever seen in the game.

Why would it be? What makes diviner not OP but a condi equivalent OP?

[[Request] New Stat Combo's for EOD]

I'd like to see something like +Healing Power (main), + Concentration (minor), + Toughness (minor) OR +Healing Power (main), + Concentration (main), +Toughness (minor), +Vitality (minor) as an alternative to Minstrel's. Trading personal survivability for more support.

[Specter Feedback Thread]

20 hours ago, Lucinellia.9247 said:

I didn't see a lot of people providing PvE specific support Specter feedback so I took a Celestial / Leadership / Concentration Sigil build to fractals with my casual static. The aim of these runs was to have the Specter provide alacrity, quickness, healing and barrier as well as other boons such as Fury and Vigor while one of our Firebrands covered stability and our Renegade covered Might. If you wish to see these runs, or nosy at logs, you can check out some videos here, here and here. There are further videos on the linked YouTube channel.  We did a full clear of CMs with Specter support. The group is relatively experienced with 3 fractal goddesses and members with 10k to 30k+ UFE.

 

There are a number of things that need to be looked into if support Specter is to be played at all in high end instanced PvE.

 

1. Guild Wars 2 is not designed for single target healing

This is one of the most glaring issues with playing PvE Specter support. Thief specs normally have a high degree of hindrance that is, arguably, not well justified given what they bring to groups. This has spanned everything from forced movement (condi Deadeye, condi Daredevil), restricted movement (rifle Deadeye) through to lacking crowd control and having single target DPS that is not competitive with other professions that can cleave (condi Deadeye, rifle Deadeye).

 

This example of thief being  limited for reasons that are not clear, or based wholly on a thematic objective, is very prominent with PvE Specter support and the push for allied targeting healing. Most glaringly, it results in a cumbersome and awkward playstyle, as much of the time is spent fighting the UI. There will need to be a high degree of iteration and improvement of the Guild Wars 2 UI if Specter remains single target in its support. There was a degree of this during the beta, where the "Target Next Ally" keybind was improved from previously only focusing NPCs to now including NPCs and players. This keybind needs to be further improved to target only players and also ignore players that are fully dead. This would remain cumbersome, but could allow for quick targeting with appropriate keybinds and good player awareness.

Additionally, raid frames should be allowed to be customised and, particularly, moved closer to the player character model to reduce mouse movement. It would be good if these could allow tracking of select boons, perhaps via corner indicators like with the WoW addons Grid and Vuhdo.

 

Furthermore, the allied targeting reduces the amount of information available to the Specter. For example, while targeting an ally for Measured Shot and Endless Night, it is not possible to see if an enemy has a break bar. This is a hindrance that will only impact Specter healers and support and will need to be resolved if single target healing is taken further as it feels like a limitation that has not been considered as it is not an issue for any other healer or support option.

2. Allied Endless Night needs to have player prioritisation

This is the main ability that support Specters will need to single target allies for and is one of the most crucial abilities to be fixed if support Specter is to see a degree of usage in instanced PvE because it allows for sharing of quickness. Endless Night currently suffers from the issue that made Fire for Effect in Deadeye useless in PvE for just over four years(!) before it was finally fixed. Endless Night is based on proximity prioritisation, which results in quickness, barrier, Rot Wallow Venom and regeneration being dumped onto targets where it is not useful such as minions, spirits and clones. Allied Endless Night should instead prioritise players. Quickness is essential for the support Specter, as it will not see prominent use unless it is possible to provide alacrity and quickness for 5 players. This is because existing alacrity sources are applied to 10 players (Renegade and Mirage) and therefore it is more beneficial to take one of these options if something is being brought solely for alacrity. 

3. Allied Endless Night requires a high degree of repositioning

This results in a strange gameplay style where the Specter is constantly moving around the group. There will be times where this is not possible, and therefore Endless Night being a wider beam would be useful, unless it is reworked to avoid single target healing.

 

4. Allied Siphon is not useful

Allied Siphon does not gain benefits from Thrill of the Crime. At the minimum, Thrill of the Crime should work with allied Siphon, ideally Bountiful Theft should also share vigor. Allied Siphon not sharing these boons leads to a cumbersome playstyle where a support Specter not only needs to change ally targets, but needs to target the enemy in order to apply enemy-targeted Siphon before retargeting an ally. This is an awkward gameplay loop and makes the single target healing aspects even more unwieldy. This should be iterated upon, ideally by improving Allied Siphon, if single target healing is pursued further. Allied Siphon gaining these effects could be worked into Shadestep as both Shadestep, which felt lacking as a PvE support trait.

5. Well of Tears is quite useless

Well of Tears is a power DPS ability which is present on a condition damage or healing / support spec. It does not serve any useful purpose and should probably be reconsidered and reworked. Specter does not offer a high degree of condition cleanse, needing to rely wholly on Signet of Agility. A straightforward solution would be to make Well of Tears a well focused on support by removing conditions, or converting conditions to boons.

6. There is no incentive to stay in Shadow Shroud

Remaining in Shadow Shroud has no advantages for the PvE Support Specter. Instead, it only serves a purpose to quickly regenerate initiative via Quick Pockets before it is left for a large degree of burst healing via Consume Shadows. Shadow Shroud should be made more appealing for support, for example by including five-ally boon share. An obvious target for this would be to change the Grandmaster trait Hungering Darkness to allow tethering to four nearby allies at random when Shroud is accessed. With this, Mind Shock would be useful as it would apply stability to five allies (including self). Similarly, Grasping Shadows would give a useful option for healing and condition removal.

 

7. Lack of self-quickness is frustrating

Endless Night should probably also apply quickness to the Specter. Having quickness only occasionally is relatively cumbersome for being aware of the speed of the Measured Shot / Endless Night loop.

 

8. Shadow Sap is pointless

There are no good reasons to use allied Shadow Sap. A way to improve this would be to improve the amount of Might granted (perhaps up to 8), and allow it to splash to multiple allies near to the targeted ally. This would mean that Shadow Sap and Measured Shot / Endless Night could be switched between to upkeep either Might or Quickness, giving a choice of what initiative is spent on, instead of Endless Night being the only reasonable choice for initiative when supporting.

9. Tethering to a target is not impactful due to the design of the GW2 PvE content.

Tethering lacks impact because Guild Wars 2, and the PvE encounters, have never been designed around single target healing.

 

No existing PvE content in GW2 has required a high degree of single target healing that could not have been brought by the existing AoE healers, otherwise it would not have been completed! The idea of tethering and babysitting an ally, such as a tank, does not have an established place in GW2, unlike WoW or FFXIV, and therefore the usefulness of Specter for PvE groups will be judged on the ability of the Specter to AoE heal and provide AoE boons, particularly quickness and alacrity. Thankfully, Specter has good AoE healing currently (and needs improvements in the area of boons), but this minimises the impactfulness of tethering. Please do not take this as an indication that tethering should be made more impactful in PvE - quite the opposite. I do not feel it is a good mechanic for Specter PvE healing. I am sure it has a place in sPvP, but PvE support Specter needs to remain such that tethering can be broadly ignored if it remains single ally focused.

 

Tethering could be more impactful without adding further unwieldiness, if it was possible to tether multiple allies, perhaps via a Grandmaster trait (Hungering Darkness may be a good choice here, it has no use in instanced PvE). Even if this was limited to being in Shroud and applied randomly, that could then be paired with more boon share and condition removal in Shroud in order to encourage Support Specters to use Shroud beyond Quick Pockets and Consume Shadows.
 

In general, I feel that Specter most pressingly needs better targeting and a fix to Endless Night. These two alone will make Support Specter playable, but incredibly cumbersome. Single target healing needs rethought, or the UI massively improved, if it is to be made as fluid to play as any other profession in Guild Wars 2.

Awkward bugs:

Many sources of Specter healing, such as Consume Shadows and Measured Shot, apply healing to a downed target, which does not seem intended. 

Measured Shot can send the Specter to the moon, if it is used just outside of an ally's hitbox. This does not seem intended.

General tuning:
 

If the prioritisation is not fixed on allied Endless Night, it needs to give even more quickness! Please don't actually do this, please instead improve the prioritisation of allied Endless Night on allies.

Healing feels slightly too high currently.

 

Barrier feels slightly too high currently.

 

These should probably be reduced a little.

Support Specter could be a lot of fun, but the single target aspects, limitations with boon sharing, the  clunkiness of the GW2 UI and prioritisation issues with allied Endless Night severely limit it currently.

This is a perfect list of feedback and honestly mimics everything I was going to include in a post. 

[Specter Feedback Thread]

8 hours ago, TwiceDead.1963 said:

While interesting I don't think it's a good idea to differentiate the boons given. Having your support potential be dependent on what classes are present isn't great. If put in a scenario where the Specter has the choice between tethering to a Ranger or anything else, then literally anything else will be preferable.

This is probably going to happen once people figure out the meta for what class makes the most of reduced cooldowns regardless, but I wouldn't give them anymore reasons to single classes out.

Thief already has to deal with the class-specific mechanics on steal where some ridiculously strong (Ecto) and others are trash, I just don't want more of that.

What's wrong with tethering to a ranger to grant him and (potentially) others regen? If you have higher healing power, I don't see why this would be an issue.

What do you mean by which class makes the most of reduced cooldowns? Tethering to allies doesn't reduce cooldowns, the only thing I suggested was making the Steal mechanic more interesting by setting its cooldown to 1 when used in Shadow Shroud. That way, you could really drive home the idea of a strong single target support with flexible tether swapping, Taking Amplified Siphoning would allow you to grant AoE boon support that is still aligned to the Specter's single target focus (ie, every second you could tether to a different ally to grant different boons based on what you have in your party).

The difference between the current stolen skills and the Specter ones I proposed is that none of their functionalities are normalized (Consume ecto being the strongest currently as it grants you all boons). With this however, they're all normalized in that you're only receiving 1 class-specific boon with the potential to mix in more if you take Amplified Siphoning. I don't see how there is the potential for singling out classes as every boon has its uses.

[Specter Feedback Thread]

Agree with a lot of people's voiced concerns about the weight and impact of Shadow Shroud. If it is truly being forced and advertised as a single target support, then the Tether mechanic of Shadow Shroud should have a significantly lower cooldown while in Shadow Shroud. That way, we can actively support whoever we choose since our tradeoff already is not being an AoE support while in Shadow Shroud. We shouldn't also be hampered by a ~7 second on Steal to swap our tether target. It feels disjointed and incoherent, especially given that Steal traits already do not interact with Ally Siphoning. Additionally, I'd like to see more interactions with allies when we Siphon on them. Having our ally steal be yet another barrier when our entire specialization and weapon focuses on barriers is a let down. Can we add something like this?

Siphon - Ally target: Grant your target barrier and a boon based on the target's shadow . If you are in shroud, additionally transfer your tether to the target and reduce the cooldown of Siphon to 1 second.

Guardian ally target: Grant aegis (3s) to your target.

Revenant ally target: Grant resistance (2s)  to your target.

Warrior ally target: Grant 3 might (5s) to your target.

Engineer ally target: Grant protection (2s) to your target.

Ranger ally target: Grant regeneration (3s) to your target.

Thief ally target: Grant swiftness (3s) to your target.

Elementalist ally target: Grant vigor (3s) to your target.

Mesmer ally target: Grant quickness (2s) to your target.

Necromancer ally target: Grant fury (5s) to your target.

Amplified Siphoning: Gain increased shadow force when hitting a foe with siphon. Grant increased barrier when targeting an ally and boons granted now apply in a radius around you.

Radius: 360

Number of Targets: 5

This would not only make Siphon more thematically interesting (ie, reverse deadeye steal), Amplified Siphoning would also now present an interesting choice for Support Specters that can either choose to grant alacrity and heal more with shadowsteps OR to grant additional AoE boons based on party composition. 

[Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons Discussion Thread: Gameplay and Elite Specializations [MERGED]]

59 minutes ago, oscuro.9720 said:

I believe that’s the intent behind many especs; to give a very different and unique way of playing a class so that it feels radically different.

See: Specter, Virtuoso, Bladesworn, Willbender, Mechanist — all these drastically change the way the class plays. They are less of an extension of the class, more of a rework in a single trait line.

Except they aren't really unique because a big portion of their playstyles already exist in the game, just in other professions. Thieves gained Necro Shroud, Warriors gained an Engineer Kit, Guardians gained Thief Shadowsteps, Engineers gained a beefed up Ranger pet...not really different if you've already delved into other classes. It just feels very lazy when you take a step back and take a good look at them.

[Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons Discussion Thread: Gameplay and Elite Specializations [MERGED]]

48 minutes ago, Flapjackson.1596 said:

I understand that PoF specs ruined the game balance and you wanted to be conservative with these.... but these are just bad. Like REALLY bad. Some of them on a conceptual level, not just numbers. Vindi, Cata, and Untamed need the most love. Mech, Harbi, and Virt after that. Willbender and Bladesworn need some changes. Specter is pretty fine and I find it hilarious that the thieves get the best designed spec. I am hopeful the Nov beta will reveal wonderful and thoughtful changes to each of these but there is some serious anxiety in the air over the state of the EoD specs.

Nailed it - they only have three weeks to turn it around in the final beta which is very optimistic. If it took them x amount of months in development time to come up with these awful specs, curb your expectations accordingly and realize that a lot won't be changed in three weeks...sadly.

[Are you hyped for...]

Agreed - this is the first expansion I haven't preordered before release. Definitely negative hype here as well. Everything is underwhelming and lacking polish, no innovation, and none of the elite specs feel fun to play. 

[So… med kit is junk on Mechanist?]

1 hour ago, iKeostuKen.2738 said:

Its actually very similar.

Beastmasters. Take a look at its minors, if the pet dies those all are useless. Same with our golem. But we also have a few traits we can tack on that are used even if the golem is dead. Also, they have said it already, 100 seconds is not final! Our elite signet also brings our mech back.

Virtue guardians. Same as above just not as heavily impacted. When those virtues are used that traitline is practically gone. Doesnt really matter if other builds can go without the traitline its function is to work with virtues, the guardians main mechanic. 

Eles. Speccing into fire and not being in fire attunement makes its traitline useless. Its effects are powerful but most of them are activated when in that attunement.  

Adding in MinionMancers. Kill there pets, while they may hold on to a bit of the carapace bonus, the traitline itself is basically down till they get them all back up.

Mechanist is in a similar position as the rest, whether it is more heavily punished or less punished. A lot of builds and classes give up a traitline when they aren't being actively used. And we still do not know the full potential of our mech to decide if it will last long in combat or not.  

Beastmasters -> still ignoring that there are two pets that you can have active vs the single pet that the engineer has. Yes, if a pet dies, you lose the pet-specific traits (this still doesn't prevent you from taking traits like Zephyr's Speed, Honed Axes, Two Handed Training, Resounding Timbre) but the cooldown is 60 seconds if a pet dies and you have access to a second pet which is a lot more forgiving. As such, you will almost always have a pet active vs the mechanist who gains a recharge increase when he recalls the pet.

Virtues--> with your example, the same can be said about every single utility trait in the game then. Once you "use" them, their effects are gone. This is a pretty weak argument with Virtues again having multiple traits that don't ONLY buff Virtues.

Eles--> same as Guardian really, the difference here is that Eles don't lose their attunement swap which is a core mechanic. Engineers however do lose their core mechanic which is toolbelt skills. BIG difference here. 

Minionmancers--> Sure minion traits becomes worthless if you kill them but Minions are not the only way to play Death Magic and Necros still have access to Shroud which is their core mechanic. The equivalent comparison here would be the necromancer losing Shroud to gain minions, AND having all death magic traits minion traits.

So as you can see, the mechanist is NOT in a similar position as the rest as it is incredibly punished. 

[So… med kit is junk on Mechanist?]

9 minutes ago, iKeostuKen.2738 said:

The funny thing is that many classes have this issue lol.

Beastmaster Rangers -> Pet dies? 2 Traitlines left.

Virtue Guardians -> Long cooldowns. 2 traitlines left.

Berserkers not in Berserk -> 2 traitlines left. 

Elementalist not in fire -> 2 traitlines left.

You get the idea. This is no different really.

But this is definitely different.

Beastmaster rangers -> There are a plethora of traits in this line that benefit both you and the pet. Furthermore, you have access to a swap pet mechanic whereas the engineer doesn't. Also, the cooldown for your pet dying is not 100 seconds.

Virtue guardians -> What? No. There are several builds for guardian that don't use Virtues...not speccing into Virtues doesn't make your Virtues useless.

Elementalists and fire -> Not speccing into fire doesn't make the other attunements useless. Not speccing into fire doesn't prevent you from swapping attunements.

So no, I don't get the idea because this is radically different.

[So… med kit is junk on Mechanist?]

13 minutes ago, Amadeus.5687 said:

 

The edit you made to your post make it more clear what you meant, so I get it.

I disagree with you on your evaluation on the quality of the feedback given.

Toolbelt being removed or replace is just playing with words, in the end we lost aces to all the toolbelt skills that our utility skills are balanced on. 
There is a very real loss of choices; both from the toolbelt ability's lost, but also the way the mechanist trainline work, but also because the Mech command skills a very limited in functionality.
If you compare Mechanist to our two other Elite spec it becomes quite clear how much loss of choice we get, compared to the two other elite specs

Not only this, all of your traits are largely dependent on your pet being active and alive on the battlefield. The second you need to recall your pet, you lose all mechanist traits AND the "toolbelt replacement" skills. You become SEVERELY handicapped and by the picture stills, it seems like you will have to wait longer than 10 seconds to resummon your golem (since the recharge is apparently dependent on the golem's remaining health). You basically beccome a class with only two specialization rows which is hilariously awful.

Toolbelt skills don't have this restriction- you not only lose a large percentage of useful utility skills, you also downright lose their "replacements" when your golem is dead or recalled. You don't need to play the spec to know that that's already going to be an issue so I agree 100%.

[Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons Discussion Thread: Gameplay and Elite Specializations [MERGED]]

These are some of the worst elite specs I have ever seen - a complete 180 in design philosophy  and I think we can attribute it to the inclusion of a single new hire at Arenanet - CMC. Every spec reeks of his anti-power creep beliefs which is completely baffling, given that he was only hired as a competitive designer in October 2019. Why on earth would Arenanet give a newcomer so much power in designing an expansion's elite specs for all three game modes? I understand that two of the main specialization developers left at the beginning of 2021 but again, why not let others who are more experienced in designing these specs like Karl take charge? CMC should stick to balancing the sPvP game mode and have his input removed from PvE and WvW as these ideas were poorly implemented for those game modes. Once the masses play these specs for a couple of weeks, they will see just how useless and counterintuitive they are to the game's current design.

When you compare these elite specs to the ones in HoT and PoF, the problems become so magnified, it's embarassing. You can't go from the power creep introduced in the last two expansions to the incredibly unfun and underpowered specs that EoD is bringing - it feels awful. Mesmers lose clones, Engineers lose toolbelts, Guardians lose virtues, Necros lose damage absorption from Shroud AND health, Thieves gain limited (and only if traited) AoE support with heals and barriers (no AoE boons aside from a single utility, no AoE condition cleansing) and have to wrestle with awkward ally targeting for the majority of their gameplay loop (a guildie tested the current functionality of the "Toggle Next Ally" keybind...it only targets NPCs so he was targeting minis and flame rams in WvW...yikes Anet)...the list goes on. Ally targeting is a step backwards and completely contradictory to the underlying foundation of the game explained by Jon Peters back in 2011 (article - https://booncontrol.com/threads/gw2-what’s-your-style-jon-peters-talks-about-combat.499/). The excerpt on no allied targeting specifically states " instead of watching red bars, we want you to watch your allies in the world. Making sure you are dropping ground-targeted spells effectively and moving into position to block attacks on allies is how we want players to defend each other". The specter playstyle is therefore devolutionary and goes completely against the grain of the game for the sake of being different. You are fundamentally breaking these professions with no regards to their identities or to the game's underlying systems and controls. Furthermore, build customization has been destroyed in favor of not only promoting dumbed down trait choices in which there is no room for flexibility (if I want support I pick the middle row, if I want condi I pick the bottom row...etc) but ALSO removing core mechanics which ADDITIONALLY limits trait and utility choices from core specializations.

In short, we're not only getting direct surface value tradeoffs (ie, Engineers losing toolbelts) but we're also getting indirect tradeoffs in that we are restricted in our trait/utility choices because these mechanics no longer work (Engineer's Medkit no longer has a heal because of the lacking toolbelt, toolbelt traits do not work with Mech skills, core utilities becoming useless without their associated toolbelt). This, coupled with the uninspired homogenization of mechanics (for example - Engineers gaining a Ranger pet, Thieves gaining a Necro Shroud, Guardians gaining Thief Shadowsteps) is the definition of anti-fun. We've already seen this play out in multiple ways during the betas, here are a few examples:

1. Harbingers resorted to playing "zero blight" builds because while the spec was advertised as a high-risk, high-reward, it played out as a high-risk very low reward build. Instead of going in to accumulate blight, people were simply going into Shroud to run away because the loss of both their HP and damage absorption meant that they would be free kills if they stayed in too long. Therefore, poorly implemented.
2. Willbenders in an EoD-exclusive sPvP tournament hosted by MightyTeapot did not even select traits because the tradeoffs were so negatively impacting the guardian, that it was a downright nerf to your character picking any trait in that line. Bugged animations and cast times as well. Therefore, poorly implemented.
3. Virtuosos have a random condition damage line despite being given a power weapon?? No one in their right mind played it and even when it was played, it failed to do any sort of competitive damage. Poorly implemented.
4. Catalysts failed from both a creative and usability standpoint. Confused identity, an unholy hybrid of tempest and Weaver, useless utilities, a very janky core mechanic with an even jankier energy limitation, laziness with not creating an Earth field on the Jade Sphere and instead granting a Poison Field, another melee weapon with not enough distinctions to differentiate it from other melee weapons...probably the worst elite spec of the 9 revealed.
5. Mechanists receiving a Mech who's buggy AI refuses to cooperate with the player's controls. Botched pathing (which was acknowledged on stream with no fixes???), no controls for "Return to Me", a trait line that solely benefits the Mech, no toolbelts rendering a large number of current utilities underpowered, and an incredibly punishing Recall have forced players to take the Elite Signet to ressurect it when it inevitably runs off to die. Poorly implemented as our defining mechanic requires us to slot an entire elite to work around its poor AI/overly punishing recall but to also turn on "Avoid Combat" to prevent its random off-screen deaths

I will hold out my decision to preorder until the end of the final beta and observe if the community's feedback was taken seriously though I doubt there were will be any mechanical changes this close to release. I understand that power creep makes it difficult for developers to balance but at the same time, this was already introduced in both expansions. I don't think the solution either is to nerf PoF and HoT specs to make these more appealing as the player base has already been accustomed to this heightened level of power. Taking it away would result in severe backlash which I don't think this company could recover from - just look at the backlash from the Chronomancer rework and that was not nearly as bad as the level of nerfing required to make EoD specs viable alternatives. These new specs require a fundamental change to the overall state and playability of the current game which is simply not possible unless the game is completely rewritten and scrapped. These are thematically some of the best designed elite specs but their implementations are unacceptable and their place in the current game is nonexistent.

The original intention of switching from the previous trait system to the specialization system introduced in Heart of Thorns was to limit the amount of choices each player can make but to make each choice more impactful. These specs however downright destroy that ideology by forcing you to take certain traits to make the specialization function on a barebone level. Devolutionary functionalities, unimaginative traits, lazy homogenization, and the direct/indirect tradeoffs of said specs make them all incredibly frustrating and limiting to play. Being a competitive player does not necessarily equate to being a successful competitive designer so CMC needs to stick to sPvP balancing and let more experienced specialization designers take the reigns. 

[So… med kit is junk on Mechanist?]

Am I reading this right? The cooldown on Recall Mech scales proportionally with the health percentage of the golem and Crash Down? So if I recall the mech when it's at 50%, it's not a 15 second cooldown (10 second base + 5 extra seconds based on percentage) but 60 seconds?!? (10 second base + 50 extra seconds based on Crash Down)

Also on topic, I have lost complete faith in Anet with the reveal of this expac. These are the worst elite specs I've seen by far and there are WAY too many tradeoffs for gaining miniscule benefits. Losing toolbelts on engineers is awful in that the class was balanced around their existence (including Med Kit's heal). Removing that AND tying an absurd cooldown on the golem recall means that you'll be fighting with only two trait rows for a long time if you need to recall your golem.

[(Mirage) Chaos Vortex Bug , Sept 21 2021 [Merged]]

Hoping this gets fixed tomorrow! I want to play my mesmer again...