GrayListen.3587

Feel very disappointed in scepter at this point. When it first released I was optimistic, the #'s could wind up pretty decent on a power build and particularly blossoming aura, you could wind up with a decent burst on a ranged attack. I ultimately abandoned it pretty quickly, though, because: Blossoming Aura, while not terrible with its #'s, seemed to require a line of sight the entire time. So if you're fighting on a hillside you might as well just forget it, because even though the enemy is sitting there with a massive otherwordly mist effect on them, you lose out on half the skill because of a rock. "Obstructed". Right. Tethers just aren't any fun. They're "ok", but they're tedious as hell and the allied-target version of Otherwordly Bond is pointless. I can exhale might and fury if I feel like it, I do not care about this skill. Its main use for me was an incredibly silly way of rejoining a group if I got separated. The visual fx. This was honestly incredibly disappointing. Genuinely disheartening and I feel bad thinking so because there are obviously some very talented artists working on this game, but seriously - these skill effects are bad. With the exception of the oversized lightsaber, none of the other skill fx even resemble the aesthetic established by the rest of the revenant toolbox and they look woefully unfinished. I almost refuse to use OB just because of how its tether reminds me of something I'd see in the original Half-Life. Feels super rushed, like we had some placeholder fx in for beta and due to time constraints they were forced to swap out a couple emitters and call it a day. And while skill mechanic/balance changes do happen - even if very slowly, I feel like it almost never happens that a weapon's visuals are outright revamped and you'd honestly have to do that for me to want to use this weapon with any regularity. So, to have those thoughts about the weapon and then to see some nerfs.. I guess at least I enjoy the core weapons well enough.

Just want to add a bit onto this. Condi builds are definitely powerful, particularly in smaller scale fights - however, it's important to keep in mind that this game has 3 modes. And sure, this is the "PvP" forum, but the various playstyles are utilized in multiple modes and scenarios of various sizes and while condi bunkers are powerful in small-scale PvP, almost all of their damage gets negated passively in larger scale fights (WvW) or even just facing a team with solid condi cleanse. Power, generally, doesn't have to worry as much about outright damage negation. Sure, blocks exist, dodges exist, but building up conditions does take time and in addition to the same things that negate a power hit (dodge, block, invulnerability, etc) - the damage recipient usually also has a good few seconds afterwards to cleanse a majority of that damage. The 2nd point I want to make which I haven't seen mentioned here - but I think it's super important... Conditions can be transferred (and converted, etc). A power build does not have to worry about its damage coming back to kill the user, generally speaking (short of projectile reflects, which is usually "oh dang, gotta wait a sec"). But you can transfer a condi user's conditions back onto them. Worse, you can transfer stacks accumulated from multiple people onto enemy players. Not many people run builds with condi transfers, but they can be very bad news for condi builds - particularly if a condi user isn't able to cleanse off of themselves what they're able to dish out. The amount of people I have had essentially defeat themselves with stacks of burning, torment, confusion - sometimes even more than they gave me (due to receiving extra stacks from their teammates), via condition transfer, is quite a lot.

I will have to disagree with OP. Guild Wars 2 is one of the easiest and most enjoyable games to play in the modern age as a new player, even if you're going in largely blind. My wife and I purchased GW2 on launch, and had played for a couple months here or there throughout its existence - but life and other things kept us from committing much time to it, until right around the time of EoD launch. We came in on fresh characters, nothing of significance in our bank, no money accumulated, no knowledge of the gear system, confused by defiance bars, had to try out various professions for the first day or so, etc. Without a guild or anyone beyond the two of us to provide guidance, we cleared the main story - leveled our characters "naturally", had a great time, bought all the expansions/LW seasons and went through the game in the order the content was released - which was not difficult to determine. It was a great experience and it's still crazy to me that all of that content is still there, and that we were able to participate and help in metas and various other events with comparable gear and contribution to folks who'd been playing the game for 8 years straight. Even the crafting system in this game is so clean and clear compared to other MMOs. We got into WvW and were surprised to see that mounts existed (warclaws were not a thing that we recalled from the 1-2 matches we played around launch), had to figure that whole thing out, etc. But none of it was difficult, the wiki is an amazingly helpful resource, and super surprisingly we've been able to do such a huge amount of content without needing a party. We were able to play through all of the game's story and open world, hop into PvP matches, rank up in WvW, try different builds, try different gear, learn about different sources of gear, unlock our mounts, pretty much anything we wanted without needing to ask for help beyond the random players who happened to be around. There's a lot we haven't gotten into - legendaries, various achievements and collections, a lot of the guild stuff is a mystery to us, I'm still afraid to pull most of the levers in WvW, etc. But considering the age of our characters and when we got into things, I don't think it can be said that GW2 is not accessible for new players. I do know of various folks who were new to GW2 recently and seemed to have a hard time sticking with it - but they were all too eager to boost themselves to 80, dive headfirst into the "endgame" content, go grab some "meta" build a youtuber recommended, grind out a skyscale via fastest path available and never really just play the game. Had nothing to do with the game not being new-player friendly, had everything to do with new players just immediately...not wanting to be new players. And that is a personal problem.

Some quick thoughts from me: - My initial reaction is that this weapon feels like a chore. Revenant has always felt like weapons are your "there when you need it" and utilities are more about pip management, particularly on support/herald. Scepter does not feel like a weapon that's there when I need it, it feels like something I have to build up to being worthwhile. Not my favorite, though perhaps it's just in need of some tuning adjustments. - Speaking of tuning adjustments, the #1 thing I'd like to see with this weapon is being able to generate stacks for the skill 3 tether outside of auto attacks, or adjustments to the stacks per skill. I feel like anytime my tether is up I'm locked into just auto attacking - I'm draining more energy via the tether, and if I use my skill 2 during it almost feels like I've wasted time (and energy) when I could be auto attacking instead. Would be nice if skill 2 also counted as a stack for skill 3 tether (not on each pulse, but at least on the initial hit). Or perhaps the 3rd skill for the auto attack chain grants 2 stacks? Anything to shorten or add some variation in building up those stacks. - As other have said the pull is super weird. Especially in game modes like WvW where stability exists in abundance, having to build up 6 stacks on skill 3's tether - in melee range, for the privilege of being able to try to pull someone seems very silly. I don't hate the weapon, but it definitely feels like it takes over a playstyle at the moment. Optimistic about it after some tweaks and art adjustments.

Just something I'm curious about. My wife and I haven't played WvW at all since the last reset - because we were placed on completely different teams. We do not have a guild, and don't have a ton of interest in guilds or joining one. We just play the game together. We play WvW quite regularly, we enjoy it - we go where it seems help is needed and just do what we can to help the team. We were surprised to discover a few days ago that...we just can't play together. Apparently until the next reset, because I guess we were put on different teams. So we're just not playing WvW at all. I think by this point I understand what we could've done leading up to this - started a two person guild, set it as our WvW guild, etc - but that's useless at this point now that the matchmaking has happened. But, at least hopefully we'll be better prepared for when this happens next. But what I'm really curious about is - did I miss something? Like, was there an announcement somewhere reasonable that said, "Hey if you don't join a guild and set it as your WvW selection we're just gonna throw you somewhere random next week"? There are no announcements in the "News" of the game's launcher or website, I don't seem to have received an in-game mail in the weeks preceding this beta - the only heads up information I can find would've required me to come to these forums to find the "Queue Issues & Beta Announcement" thread, and that thread is only valuable if one assumes the reader comes armed with knowledge of what the new guild selection system entails. Was that all the notice there was? Are these betas that can effectively make or break an entire mode of gameplay (until next reset period, anyway) not deemed "news" that a player should have access to through a login routine? Or... in-game mail? Or even an email? I signed up - I got my satchel and everything! Even that would work. If going forward I just need to...idk, go through the forums a few times a week to see if anything upcoming might prevent me from playing with my wife, I guess I can adapt to that. But also goddamnit.