InspectorCaracal.2970

I got moved to the right team! Thank you Anet devs 😄

Anet should swap the two of us, problem solved, no population imbalances introduced 😆

Ah THIS is the place Account: this one From: Darkhaven Current team: First Haven Needed team: Skrittsburgh WvW Guild: Murda Inc [QQ]

*raises hand* I'm on the wrong team, I got put on First Haven with pretty much nobody I know and my selected guild is on Skrittsburgh. Not to mention, the beta tab for World Restructuring shows absolutely no guild team assignments for me.

Unsure where to report this.... I set my WvW guild well before the deadline on Thursday, but I did not get sorted with my guild's team. I'm on First Haven; my guild Murda Inc is on Skrittsburgh.

I don't think we need an easy way to get defense credit, but it would be nice to get credit for doing things that actually defend the objective, like destroying enemy siege and pushing the attackers back until they give up without necessarily defeating them. Slowing down an attack doesn't really mean much if they still take the objective in the end - and if they don't, and they leave, you should be able to destroy their siege.

Yeah. I keep wishing that you could get defense credit for at least just doing damage if they don't die - like, as proof you were doing things, you know? - because when you're defending, it doesn't actually matter ultimately (except for their participation calculations) if the attackers die. What matters is if they give up and go away. If they do, we successfully defended! We should get credit for it! 😞

To be fair, while the flat WXP gain from actual actions is pretty low, I get the 250 WXP rewards from event boxes really frequently - it's probably about 60% of my WXP gain right now. Which means repairing walls for like twenty WXP when you could actually participate is a pretty bad tradeoff.

These! I was really excited about the defense weeklies because I like defending objectives more than capping them, but since I'm not in a big guild and tend to play support builds more than DPS, they've been a pain to actually get. It doesn't help that what actions get you defense event participation is cryptic at best. As far as I know, the only things were killing players and repairing walls, so now the only thing I know of is killing players? But then what happens when you drive away the attackers but nobody dies?

This is not exactly the same issue, but due to the extremely poor communication on the current beta starting, I didn't have a chance to set my WvW guild in time and did not get put with the guild I wanted to be with. If I could please be moved to Griffonfall to join my guild, I would appreciate it.

Yeah!! I love that idea! I think it would fit the concept of the class even better, honestly, because it plays into the idea of you and your pet swapping offense/defense roles which the Primal Whatsits swap is built as. I think it would be a really fun mechanic that gives a positive incentive to keeping track of where your pet is, keeps the shadowstep mobility concept, and additionally gives the ranger a much needed tool for pet-position management.

Okay so this is extremely belated re: beta testing but a convo with my SO recently reminded me of a throwaway idea I'd had when we were speculating on what the ranger espec would do, and what with the focus on shadow-stepping I want to toss this back out here: Swapping position with your pet. Like Mesmer clone swaps. I think that could be a lot more interesting than just having "shadowstep to target" on both. (yes I realize this has nothing to do with any of the identified issues with the spec but I've given up on ranger pets getting nice things lol)

The main purpose of the currently non-existent alliance system is to let people in small guilds organize and compete against big guilds, not to let the big guilds organize into even bigger groups. That's not to say there aren't potential issues and stuff with it, but the point remains that the reason you feel like it's not benefiting your guild is because it's not supposed to.

I mean, I agree in general that roamers tend to get the short end of the stick when it comes to dev attention and focus, but honestly, I've heard a lot more about this Blobs Forever thing than I've seen. The main imbalance I've noticed is actually completely counter to this "big guilds covering all the timezones" thing - my team is dead during my timezone. I've been on Giant's Rise (NA) and, despite the team being in the lead for the skirmish basically the whole week, we've been consistently in third place during my usual play hours. It's incredibly disheartening when I'm getting kitten pips and there's nothing I can do about it because 90% of my team is active at completely different time. And unlike before, I can't scurry around flipping camps on an Outnumbered map to make up the pips from being in distant third because no one's around to organize against the other teams. This isn't saying we're losing because they're blobbing and we're not, either. It feels like exactly the same level of big guild groups and small roamer groups from the other teams, just more of both. And less of both on my own team during the hours I play. I've been assuming this is because this beta didn't have any active-timezone balancing in it, which I sure hope is the case because it's either that or their player activity balancing just doesn't work.

Reading through the last couple pages after having some time to think more and I think I've pinpointed a big part of why it still just doesn't feel like it delivers, and why I kept just not bothering to Unleash myself. tl;dr: the spec can't make up its mind if it wants to be condi or strike DPS To be clear: I'm not talking about traits. A lot of the EoD specs have the traits lined up like "here are the condi traits", "here are the power traits", "here are the support traits" - sure, that's fine, go ahead I guess? The thing I'm talking about is the Untamed skills. The idea behind the Unleashed mechanic is that you do more damage in Unleashed mode, right? All your hammer skills convert their CCs to direct hits. You get a straight-up damage bonus. But what about the Unleashed pet skills? They all do condi. What about the new "Ambush" skills? They also do condi. As for utilities, they don't really do damage at all - they're mostly boons. Exploding Spores is the only one that does damage - a bit of both (and the only one that has a decent chance of doing a CC but that's a different topic). So we have one half of the mechanic giving us condi, and the other half of the mechanic giving us strike damage. What are we supposed to do with that? If I'm running a condi build, why would I ever use the Unleashed hammer? If I'm running a power build, why would I ever use the Ambush skills? If I'm running Untamed, shouldn't I want to make good use of the whole spec mechanic? I don't know how to fix that, but I think either focusing on one or the other or tying condi vs strike damage to a trait choice might help? I don't know. I could also go on a lengthy speech about how it feels really bad for a CC-focused spec to have basically no utility CCs except one extremely tricky-to-pull-off combo that requires hitting your target with a different CC to begin with, but this post is already too long.

My partner and I both got sorted correctly, but he got hit with the UI thing where the team scores aren't matching the actual team he's on. I popped over here because I noticed the team match-up showing for him is the set including the team one of his other guilds got put into. I thought that info might help narrow down the bug, in case it's a consistent trend.

Disclaimer, still not an Ele main, but I do play it semi-regularly The revised Jade Sphere well mechanic feels way better than the first iteration, although I wish they lasted a little longer. They feel a lot more like the chrono wells now, which isn't a bad thing per se but I'm a little sad about losing the "deploy sphere" angle from the original concept. On the flip side, I'll take losing that if it means the mechanic is actually usable. I played around with all the hammer skills this time and I have to say it feels super weird to have a leap back but not a leap forward on a mixed-melee weapon? It makes sense for a ranged weapon, like ranger shortbow 3, but at least like half the hammer skills are melee. My complaint about the UI charge bar and placement still stands, but it's not as important now due to the change in mechanic so it's fine I guess. Overall though I think the changes are a HUGE improvement from the first iteration. It's tipped over the line from "I can see how this concept could be fun, but..." to "hey I could have fun with this once I get the hang of it".

imo the presence of unique mechanics as icons in your boon bar at all is just so other players can see it on you and know what abilities you might have. Anything that gives you different mechanics rather than simple stat buffs needs to make a significant change to your own GUI, not just an icon. And while a lot of it is stat buffs, if I'm going to make use of the ambush skills, I need to know if hitting F5 is going to put me in Unleashed mode, or take me out, and I need to know it quickly and easily. The really frustrating thing is they have the GUI visual mechanic already built into the game. Throw an effect on the skill bar. They've done it for both the other Ranger elites so far, and all three ranger elites have a mode swap. Druid gets the blue glow. Soulbeast gets the green leafy glow. And then Untamed gets nothing?? I would've expect like the silvery green vine glow like they put on the character model to go around my skill bar, but we literally got nothing. Plus, the icons themselves look basically identical. One's like a wolf face and the other's like a human face but they're the same color, they're the same size, they're facing the same way with the same shouty pose, and we always have both on the screen at the same time anyway, so they're basically useless. If the icons are supposed to be important visual cues, they need to actually look different. Doesn't matter where they are, if they're still basically the same icon. The only substantial GUI cue we get at all is that the hammer skill icons go from green-purple to bright yellow-green. IF we're using the hammer. That's really not enough.

All right, here we go, gameplay feedback time. Unleash Cooldown change The fast swap on Unleashed mode between the ranger and the pet feels GREAT. I love it. I was getting strong "pet kit" vibes from it the first time and changing it to the kit-speed swap cooldown really makes that work. It also helps sell the feeling of working with your pet by making it feel more like a tag-team swap. Hammer skills Giving the hammer its much-needed leap skill is a life saver, so Thank You for listening to that feedback. My muscle memory hates it being on the 5 but I can get used to it. Also, as a note, I really like the CC-versus-power dynamic with the normal versus unleashed hammer modes, especially with the unleashed pet moves getting extra stuff on disabled foes. I'm not going to lie, I love CCs, and getting a whole new suite of them for ranger is possibly the thing I've been most excited for with Untamed since it was first announced. Unleashed Pet vs Unleashed Ranger While setting up your Unleashed pet feels really synergetic, being Unleashed myself feels... underwhelming, in the tag-team department. There's all this fantastic stuff in the spec for giving yourself bonuses against disabled foes, but while I can set that up for my pet, I can't have my pet set anything up for me unless I specifically pick a pet with a CC move. Not necessarily broken or a deal-breaker, it's just disappointing. Cantrips I'm not sure if I'll wind up hating vulnerability still but the tweaks to cantrips feel great. They rely really hard on chaining them with other moves in just the right way to be properly effective, but I think they'll be one of those things where when you pull it off it feels super good. Also thank god we finally have a stun break. WvW I still don't run with zergs, so I can't speak for front-line viability, but all the feedback about how any mechanics relying on your pet are going to be useless is definitely true. Having more control over your pet to keep them from being steamrolled only helps if you're not on the front line. That said, it felt potentially solid for roaming and small-group skirmishes. I think a lot of power rangers might find it a lot more complicated to play effectively than they're used to, but I like how it has so much stuff going on, even though it makes it harder to test out because I'm still on the early part of the learning curve i.e. I suck at it lol. Overall Balance I'm gonna be honest: I don't really know. I feel like running with the Marauder/Celestial gear it starts us off with should maybe be hitting harder, but it's hard to compare when I normally run condi. It could also be because I wasn't using the Unleashed hammer skills too much. Also, since they're new, I'm going to do a full subsection here on the Unleashed Ambush skills. First off: the concept is fine. Pulling in a rework of the Mirage Ambush skills is a good compromise, and I like the abilities that get stacked onto it. But. Why are they still called Ambush skills??? That doesn't make any sense at all. We're not ambushing anyone! Nature theme aside, there's no "jumping out of the bushes" kind of thing going on here. It really needs a new name. How about Unleashed Surge? or Unleashed Burst? because it's a sudden surge of primal energy? Okay, that's my immersion critique done. Moving on. The shortbow Unleash skill is a problem. Not only is it completely wrong-feeling to have a ground-target AoE on the ranger shortbow at all, but having to target the right spot on the ground during a one second window on top of all the other movement and camera controls and crap on top is just too much. I was sort of feeling like a one-second window was a little short, but I talked myself into it, because I could go for it with a quick-fire F5+1 combo concept. Not ground targeting! I don't even know how good it might be because I could never get it down in time!! I didn't check all of the Unleash skills, just the ones on weapons I've been using a lot, but that's the only one I tried that really struck me as A Very Bad Idea.

I still have gameplay feedback to work on and put together, but one of my biggest issues from Beta 3 is still here. Unleashed mode needs to be more visible in the GUI. It's still just two tiny icons that are virtually indistinguishable. It needs a full visual cue on the skill bar. Give us a green glow on the skill bar when the ranger is unleashed, at least. I know the tech is in the game, please make use of it, I'm begging you.

VERY MINOR cosmetic feedback: can my character lean over to look around the chair when backing up? Like looking out a car window? Pleeeeeease? (I understand if you won't but that would be amazing.)

Also my friend just used Bond of Faith while a passenger and while I was running and for a brief moment a giant siege turtle flew at my camera, which I don't think is how it's supposed to work. xD

Haven't tried it in co-op mode yet but so far, land movement, AMAZING, it feels heavy and clunky and walk mode is SO slow and plodding it's perfect. Only thing I think would be nice is if the momentum bar and speed built up a little more slowly? It doesn't feel very rewarding to try to get high momentum rn and that seems to be the driver's primary contribution to the shooty pewpew parts. Underwater, though, not so great. I like the "sink to the bottom" mechanic, but the "drifting" is a billion times worse even though it should be less? Water has more resistance than air, you'd lose momentum faster. And just from a gameplay angle, taking the mobility hit under water of the speed decrease is already more than enough without giving us even more of the sliding. It feels not great. Also, switching to walk mode underwater goes faster than on land, which is fine, except the walking animation is identical and the same speed, leading to a really weird look of sliding across the sandy underwater floor. And as I saw someone else mentioned, the footsteps under water make splashes, which looks really weird.

YEAH. The single-note Unleashed Pet skills are so disappointing. At least give us a variety of F3 attacks based on pet family or something? Honestly, I don't even need/want special weapon skills for unleashed mode, but I want something. A bonus effect on cantrips when Unleashed would be a reasonable, but low-dev-effort addition, so maybe we'll get something like that. Although if we are talking weapons, I had an interesting idea just now. Something that converts the CC effects on your weapon attacks to extra damage when Unleashed instead would be perfectly in keeping with the whole concept. You don't need to rebuild all the weapon skills that way, just add something (probably using the "trait" back-end) that sticks the CC effect into a damage conversion algorithm. Although it's probably more work than they want to do at this point. I also forgot to mention earlier: I really want a better UI cue for when I'm Unleashed. Celestial Avatar, your GUI goes all blue and glowy. Beastmode, your GUI goes all green and glowy. Unleashed, you... get a slightly different tiny status icon in exactly the same colors, facing exactly the same way as the other status icon? Please make being Unleashed more obvious in the GUI.

So... I don't really wanna get involved in the discussion here, I just wanna leave some feedback for the devs on my thoughts and this is the place for it, so the rest of y'all please just disregard and carry on, thank you! Moving on! I have zero experience playing a GW1 Bunny Thumper and also zero experience playing GW2 Hammer Warrior, so this is all purely my thoughts based on Untamed itself and my own playstyle and experiences on ranger. tl;dr: I like the spec in general but the Unleashed mechanic is underwhelming. First off: cantrips. I was, I admit, ambivalent about them at first, especially the shadowstep one. "Ranger shouldn't have shadowsteps," I thought. "Ranger's mobility style is all can't stop won't stop, not blinks." And I still think that's a true assessment of the class, but in practice, the shadowstep cantrip actually felt really good to use. I especially like the parallel to the Unleashed F1 skill. All of the cantrips feel pretty solid, in fact, although I didn't really try out the elite much. Second: the hammer. I love the hammer - with one exception. The lack of a leap skill feels really bad. I can see how the shadowstep cantrip is supposed to take the place of a leap for mobility, but not having a leap of any kind to keep on top of my target while wielding a melee weapon just feels awful in practice. Maybe the 3 could be a leap first with a follow-up ground slam? I understand the "bunny hop" idea that it's supposed to evoke, but I'd rather have a real leap than a cute in-joke. (Also, moving while in the middle of Savage Shock Wave looks amazingly awkward. I'll take floating around in mid-air like a shot from a fantasy martial arts flick over an animation lock any day, but I wanted to mention it.) Third: the Unleashed mechanic. To start off, let me just say: the idea itself? I love it. Swapping offensive/defensive mode back and forth between me and my pet sounds great. Sounds great. In practice, I'm immensely underwhelmed. I know people have asked for Unleashed weapon skills for all the ranger weapons, but I think that's coming from a different underlying issue, which is that you can't feel the swap in any of the mechanics. Ignoring Druid because it works so differently, but Soulbeast, you might think it'd be similar - you get a stat bonus and different F-key skills when you merge. But the actual experience of Soulbeast is super different because your pet is gone when you're merged, and you get different F-key skills depending on what your pet is, and that adds a new layer to the way you think about the game environment and aggro management and strategy. Unleashed doesn't really do that. The only think Unleashed mode has going for it in terms of actual gameplay changes are the hammer skills, which is, I think, why people want more Unleashed weapon skills. "But what about the pet?" The way the Unleashed Pet mechanic feels is just sort of like getting an extra half a pet, honestly. You get one fixed set of extra pet skills, but you still have the two pets in terms of health pools and stuff. Which isn't saying it's bad, but it doesn't add anything different to the gameplay. You just get to swap in and out your one Unleashed pet "kit" as well as swap between your two pets. It doesn't add any new layers to choosing which pets you want to use. In summary re: Unleashed modes: the only real mechanical impact it has are the hammer skills (good!) and what's essentially a kit for your pets (interesting idea, but underwhelming in practice). It needs something else to be interesting. Fourth: the visual effects It's not as bad in practice as I feared from the trailer, but I still think it's just... too much. Could we maybe get just the glowy green vines/veins part without the silvery full-body effect? Also, I don't know if it's my settings or something, but the pseudo-infusion never seems to show up on my pet, just the toxic smoke cloud. And lastly, other thoughts. I tried it out in WvW a bit - I don't do zergs so all the "front line" viability is outside of my experience anyway, but for the roaming/small group play I do, it worked pretty nicely, aside from the hammer desperately needing a leap attack. It feels so bad without one. I think that despite its weak points, the specialization as a whole is really well put-together. It's a condi/CC spec and it knows it, rather than trying to be All Of The Things, and that's great. Also, way before you started doing the teaser videos, I knew I wanted one thing: a defensive spec with Stability. And if nothing else, I got exactly that, so I'm happy!