Delgato.9015

A large part of why I enjoy gw2 is it's aesthetics. My characters are beautiful, the animations are beautiful, the world is beautiful, most enemies are beautiful in their own way. The untamed is the first part of gw2 that I truly cannot say is beautiful or at the very least fits it's theme. Why does my ranger look like he's wearing the world's ugliest morph suit when he's unleased? Why is the effect so opaque and gross? Why does my wolf have cartoonish fart clouds all over him when he's unleased? Why is the colors pallet of the spec diarrhea themed???? I do not care if it ends up being the strongest, most useful, fun build in all of gw2 history, I absolutely refuse to subject my characters to this.

Now that I've had some more time to play the spec, I have to say I really do enjoy it. It provides much needed utility and a new playstyle and it might be my favorite elite spec released so far. Some changes I'd like, from a casual pve and pvp perspective: - Scepter 2 feels underwhelming and redundant. I'd like to see a small aoe version of the skill to differentiate it more from the AA. -The shadowstep on the Sc/P 3 feels awkward and unnecessary. I am not trying to get close to my ally to heal since I can comfortably do that at range and the teleport away from an enemy feels very erratic and unpredictable. I've played staff mesmer in pvp for years but I have yet to be able to come even close to the reliability of staff 2. Just remove the shadowstep and maybe put it on a reworked scepter 2. -Sc/D 3 feels VERY clunky and buggy. Half the time, the second faster shot does not happen, leaving me with a lot of wasted initiative and a disappointing blue slice on my screen. It also pales in comparison to the Sc/P 3 in terms of utility but doesn't provide a large enough boost in dmg output to justify it imo. -The shadowstep of the elite well I feel should be 900 range. 600 range for the elite just feels a bit meh. Closing thoughts: -there are quite a few bugs, the damage output seems low even for an elite spec and some of the animations feel clunky, but these issues will be ironed out eventually. -I love the spec and can't wait to play it for real.

First impressions, I am really impressed and enjoying the spec. A full cele build with travelers runes has no trouble surviving and taking down difficult enemies solo, not bounties or anything but still stuff that my other builds have struggled with. The self healing is really nice and the healing output is really high on a single target. Scepter/pistol dual attack heals for almost 2.5k then adds over 5k barrier and that just one skill. The barrier that shroud can passively apply is quite significant. The low cd on siphon means my party has permanent swiftness, fury, vigor and some might as well as whatever other boon I can steal on top of the personal stealth and interrupt. The build is capable of providing permanent alacrity with the wells trait. I love the well skills, they feel strong and impactful and I find myself using them off cooldown to heal, do damage and move around. They do feel a bit clunky though, but that can be ironed out eventually. The decrease in initiative does not feel punishing because I make much more use of my utilities and shroud. Some negatives: Scepter 2 feels redundant, just a slightly bigger AA that doesn't feel like it's worth the initiative input. Maybe a skill with a small aoe would fit in here and stand out among the thief weapon skills. The scepter weapon skill icons don't really mesh well with the art of the dagger or pistol, so they stand out visually in a bad way. The scepter animations are quite loud. I wish the shadowstep on the elite well was longer. 600 feels a bit short for an elite on a 75s cd. Overall my favorite elite spec released potentially ever. It feels mobile, elusive and sinister while adding a lot of needed utility. I really like it and can't wait to see how people make use of it in various game modes and the improvements to come.

From a PvP perspective: The dagger just seems bland as a weapon. It only deals strike damage. No cripple to keep enemies away or cc of any kind. It feels very one dimensional and not useable. I do not like the second skill requiring me to deselect my target and then look down to get a reasonable amount of damage when I'm right on top of my target. This skill just feels clunky and lacking. The entire top row of traits just feel incredible underwhelming. The virtuoso shines as a long range, bursty assassin, but these traits do little to help defend against people jumping me at all. The aegis duration is too short to be used as preemptive damage mitigation and because the bladesongs all have cast times and require targets (except the 4th one) the aegis on cast feels very clunky to use reactively. The quickness is nice but doesn't help to keep me alive once I've dodged/blocked an attack and I'm too focused on trying to escape to make use of it offensively, since I can't act while blocking or using the distortion utility. The grandmaster trait is nice but pales in comparison to the other grandmasters in terms of blade stocking. The damage from the blade attack just pathetic. I like the condition damage traits. Although, I feel the bleeding duration from the adept trait is quite short considering only weapons that apply no damaging conditions count as blades. The grandmaster stocks blades incredibly fast but only 25% bleeding damage increase seems low. The majority of condition burst still comes from confusion/torment despite these traits. Infinite Forge is an incredible trait that makes the class feel smooth but not overpowered. I still can't waste blades but my bladesongs will almost always be available. But, with all the bladesongs having cast times and obvious animations, the dueling ability of the spec is nonexistent IMO and the reactive, fast playstyle of the mesmer is basically gone. THE HEAL SKILL SHOULD NOT CANCEL IF I TURN AWAY FROM MY TARGET MIDCAST!!!!!!! Overall, I'm enjoying the virtuoso but I think it needs a lot of work.