Lucinellia.9247

A bump - this issue persists as of 8th October 2022.

Nice to see the engineer skill being fixed. Hopefully some of the other areas of flashiness and painful lighting choices are reconsidered!

Hi all, With the recent patch and Mechanist becoming more prominent, while seeing a number of tweaks to its abilities, people are noticing that the visual effect noise is now quite severe for people with visual issues such as epilepsy and photophobia, leading to possible seizures and severe migraines Examples below contain flashing imagery. Examples of this can be seen here: And there are prominent visual effects that have been present in PvE for well over a year now, that are major accessibility issues, such as those during the dark phase of Ai in Sunqua Peak CM. Please can these new, and longstanding, issues be considered from an accessibility stand point? I would quite like to be able to continue playing PvE content with my partner who suffers from photophobia (and resultant migraines and nausea) for years. While they have been somewhat locked out from regularly doing Sunqua Peak CM, I don't think it is fair that they now run this risk in all group content. Thank you for considering this feedback.

Close, but no sausage. As I mentioned the G14 2020 version worked quite a bit better than the 2022 variant. I think the issue is with the AMD GPU. Sadly, for many of us, we can't avoid laptops for gaming due to travelling, space requirements and usage patterns. But, thanks for the comment that let me expand on things! I am not too sure on that. The 6900HS should be a massive improvement over the 4600HS that I had, but it really wasn't and, like I said, the lows were worse and the highs were better. I would have expected the lows to be higher given the higher CPU clockspeed in the 2022. Sadly, I think it is more related to the AMD GPU. I have returned the laptop for quality control issues and I now have a 2021 Razer Blade 14 with an 8GB RTX 3080. Apparently, the processor, a 5900HX, should be worse than the 6900HS in the 2022 G14 but the 2021 Blade 14 is just so much better. Lower fan noise, cooler temperatures and I am anywhere from 10 to 20 FPS higher in the same content if open world / busy locations but now with settings fully maxed out (which the 2022 G14 could not handle well with the 6900HS / 6800S). Raids and Fractals are effectively the same, but again the Blade 14 is happier with higher settings in GW2. I think the Nvidia The 2021 Blade 14 has just dropped in price too, due to the newer 2022 variant, so you might want to consider that. It even has a webcam! Battery life seems worse, but everything else, especially Guild Wars 2, is better. You miss out on the nice 16:10 screen, but that is about it. And to add, @SponTen.1267 - the Blade 14 feels so much more robust. I wasn't afraid to take the 2020 G14 in a bag, the 2022 made me wary while the Blade 14 reminds me of the MacBook Airs I used during grad school and my postdoc which survived a lot of flights, a lot of writing and a lot of opening and closing. So I guess I would place things as: Blade 14: + temperatures are better + fan noise is lower + port location is better + performance in GW2 is better + keyboard lighting is better + build quality - battery is worse - 16:9 vs 16:10 screen on the G14 2022 - RAM stuck at 16GB (this might be a big issue for you, it will depend) - you pay (much!!!) more for the Nvidia GPU and the build quality. There is a reason I went for the 2021 Blade 14 YMMV aspects: I think the webcam on the Blade 14 2021 is better, but that might be personal preference for colour calibration The keyboard on the Zephyrus G14 2022 is better imo - but I prefer keys with more travel depth. I will be using a Logitech MX Keys Mini anyway because I like typing on that better and I need to type a lot and also my hands are kittened due to nerve damage. If you like more shallow keys, or sharper responses, the Blade 14 is better. Trackpads are effectively the same. Resolution was indeed matched to my previous laptop and I also checked the output to an UWHD monitor for both laptops. The performance of the 2020 G14 was very similar to the 2022 G14 generally, but the 2022 variant suffered a lot more in busy areas while performing better in raids. Drivers were of course updated! I had to do that due to the horrific issues with black screen (but the laptop still running) due to Asus Calibration and vari-bright. I thought it was a driver issue at first too, but that wasn't the case.

Hi all, I couldn't see much regarding the performance of this laptop when I was looking to buy so thought I would drop a quick post here. Sadly, I have had to return the 2022 G14 due to quality control issues and what looks to have been a case of a B-stock item being sold as A-stock as I received the item with stripped and stuck screws and the hinge broke very rapidly within days and after very light use. Anyway! In general, I found the performance of the 2022 Zephyrus G14 with an AMD 6900HS and 6800S with 16 GB of RAM to be quite disappointing in Guild Wars 2 so I don't think I would recommend that series of mobile GPUs if you primarily play GW2. Performance in instances was certainly higher than my current laptop (Asus G14 2020 with a 4600HS and GTX 1650 4GB, 16GB RAM) and felt smoother as a result however performance in open world was very similar at the same settings. Performance in locations such as Arborstone and Mistlock Sanctuary was also worse than the G14 2020 version. Maximum FPS was better with world bosses though, but the lows were lower and the highs (which were already enough on the 2020 G14) were higher. For example, at 1920 x 1200 I was getting around 35 FPS and quite a bit more stuttering with the 2022 G14 in Arborstone compared with 44 - 45 FPS and smoother camera movement on the 2020 version with a GTX 1650. I think this relates to AMD GPU, and since the game is generally better suited for Nvidia cards, I'd recommend that any other weirdos who game on smaller laptops try and stick with Nvidia cards. I hope this helps at least a couple of people!

Hello, The terrain of Kaineng Overlook is very badly bugged. Aside from the plethora of "no valid path" to target issues, the pathing and terrain problems can result in player death if certain abilities are used on an area where the arena has design issues. While I am of the opinion that the Kaineng Overlook CM is not a well considered fight due to length, mechanical clarity and visual clutter, the additional unfair difficulty caused by the use of standard abilities in expected manners results in an encounter that feels unfair as well as lacking in quality testing. The issues with pathing are relatively severe. They occur primarily with shadowsteps, but can also occur due to the Mech Rider's number ability if a player is lifted into the air in certain positions. The activation of the bug is also dependent on player range from the piece of terrain, but only for certain abilities. For example, using Infiltrator's Arrow at range will result in the player character being displaced to a safe spot but using Well of Gloom at a similar range will result in death. Some abilities also require to be further away from the offending piece of terrain - for example Jaunt and Lighting Flash. This bug can occur shadowsteps that are location, player or enemy targeted, as well as abilities used by enemies in the Sniper and Mech phase. For clear examples of this bug, please see the following: Infiltrator's Arrow from distance - no bug https://gfycat.com/lastshowyfalcon Well of Gloom - player death https://gfycat.com/scornfulserenelaughingthrush Jaunt - player death https://gfycat.com/grimrapidivorybilledwoodpecker Merciful Intervention - player death https://gfycat.com/enchantedtimelycapybara Lighting Flash - player death https://gfycat.com/lividrewardingcollie Shift Signet - player death https://gfycat.com/uniformfragrantjunebug Measured Shot - player death https://gfycat.com/sanemixeddodobird I would not be surprised if there are other terrain locations where death results by using certain abilities as there are very many more of these throughout the instance. The problem seems to be related to the cross section of the arena being raised (see https://twitter.com/Lucinellia_GW2/status/1534959291655921670?s=20&t=q9wT2U69RQtkn2pP2JkxLw). This is purely an aesthetic which only acts as a hindrance through, at best, no valid path to target and, at worst, death. It may be worth considering removing the unnecessary elevation. Finally, one bit of problematic terrain is here (near Minister Li's initial spawn point): https://i.imgur.com/zSneBZU.png While I think many other improvements are needed to be made to Kaineng Overlook CM, some of which are accessibility issues such as the problematic display of ricochet for colour blind players (similarly, the blue lines), this one seems relatively high for severity and wholly unintended. Thank you for considering this.

Leeching Venoms clearly stipulates utility venoms only so this is unlikely to be added in.

The allied targeting of Specter isn't very useful in PvE while it has its place in PvP. Unfortunately, targeting allies in PvE, instead of an enemy, can happen frequently and is an unnecessary complication for the majority of Specter PvE builds. As such, it would be really nice to have a toggle for enemy only targeting. We already have an option, and a toggle, for allied only targeting but it would be wonderful to have this extended to enemy only. That way, a modifier key could be held down or a toggle pressed for the rare occasions in PvE where ally targeting is useful (Ensolyss orb capture for example) without it being a hindrance during other moments of PvE gameplay. Thanks!

The allied targeting of Specter isn't very useful in PvE while it has its place in PvP. Unfortunately, targeting allies in PvE, instead of an enemy, can happen frequently and is an unnecessary complication for the majority of Specter PvE builds. As such, it would be really nice to have a toggle for enemy only targeting. We already have an option, and a toggle, for allied only targeting but it would be wonderful to have this extended to enemy only. That way, a modifier key could be held down or a toggle pressed for the rare occasions in PvE where ally targeting is useful (Ensolyss orb capture for example) without it being a hindrance during other moments of PvE gameplay. Thanks!

There is a consistent bug with the use of Specter wells where if the cast and movement associated with the well coincides with a knock up ability, such as that used by the Whisper of Jormag, all skills become unusable This means that the Specter player cannot do anything other than move. Skills remain on the action bar and inputs are registered by the icon changing, but no effects occur. This persists through down state and is only removed by leaving the current map or instance.

These sound like very nice changes? Any timeframe for their implementation? As is, it is quite frustrating to properly prepare for the meta, coordinate correctly and then fail due to things like break bars not correctly appearing and there being too much movement across the platform as a result. I imagine most people will wait for these (excellent and well thought out) changes to be implemented as, with the encounter in its current state, it feels a little dispiriting.

There is just so much missing in terms of UI and UX for support Specter to work. I've tried to detail the shortcomings in this thread and I would definitely appreciate your thoughts, especially if I have missed anything or you've noticed other problems with the playstyle. At the very least, support Specter needs the Endless Night situation rethought, a moveable party UI that can be shown as a grid and this party UI to automatically function as though there are mouseover macros applied. This would allow the support Specter to be casting single target abilities on allies without losing focus on the enemy which reduces the amount of clicking, allows better cursor positioning for placement of wells and doesn't obscure information about the enemy target from the Specter.

The mode for ally targeting is a toggle, so it can at least be turned off and ignored. It is why I am surprised it was even introduced. It doesn't add anything and only takes things away. I think it is also pretty funny that even if you were to tab through allies via the next ally target, it can still target onto players that are fully dead or onto minions and NPCs. This adds to the even more maniacal energy as using allied Measured Shot on an NPC triggers the effect of enemy Measured Shot and ports the Specter backwards. It is completely unnecessary and it is very odd that Anet don't see this. If it had a niche, we would have known it from the content being much more challenging without a heal Specter! The 2v2 situation is also funny - it seems to presume that the Specter, which lacks self healing, isn't going to just get totally blown up first. It is almost certainly being blown up first. Even if it is given a use scenario, it is just so horribly cumbersome and unfun to play. Guild Wars 2 doesn't work with ally targeted healing. It is missing far too much of the absolute basics compared with other MMOs.

Yes, allied targeted heals splashing around targets to hit 3 to 5 allies would be a reasonable start. After actually having a bit of fun with the Endless Night implementation of beta 3, I was hoping that allied Sc 2 would get given more Might and splash healing, barrier and boons to more allies to make it an interesting alternative. Instead, we sadly got beta 4 Endless Night and Specter. I am almost convinced that the allied targeting mode wasn't tested. You lose so much information and utility by using it and you still face targeting difficulties due to minions and such!

Yes, since I am a Thief main and love Condi Deadeye. Sc/D seems like it was made to directly replace that. However, I am going to make my statics suffer through Specter support until they start to complain, so that more voices can raise the fundamental problems with the mess that is single target healing in Guild Wars 2.

Yes, I really don't understand how Arenanet expect support Specter single target healing to work when so much that is necessary in other games (damage patterns that ensure tank healing is important, a decent UI, reasonable UX via macros) is just completely absent. It is such a shame.

There are still numerous skill bugs with action camera, most noticeably Sc/D 3. Since this was raised lots and not resolved, I believe it requires more attention.

Support Specter is miserable to play following the changes to Endless Night and the UI elements added do nothing to help things. It really feels like the game simply doesn't support this style of play, as I outlined in this post (it is long, sorry, but I really do believe Anet are making a terrible mistake with support Specter design).

I fully agree with the build feeling much more stressful and less rewarding. One of the big problems of course is that we are still going to want to use Measured Shot / Endless Night because it is our strongest healing and support option beyond long CD wells. But things don't feel as stable now and the interesting gameplay of moving around allies to improve the pierce for spreading barrier and regen is gone. Add in that the gameplay loop of target enemy for Siphon, use Siphon, place Wells in world, move between allied targets for healing is just so much more work and effort than what any other healer or support needs to do and it just feels really pitifully unfun to play. Allied targeting mode is wildly bad. We lose so much information (can't see when CC bars are up) and so many useful abilities (applying conditions or CC to an enemy) by using it while it doesn't really benefit anything at all. Support Specter feels totally miserable now.

Support Specter remains utterly miserable to play. I made this as a separate topic here because it is pretty long, but the UI, UX and content just doesn't support it. It isn't fun and none of the new changes address the problems that the gameplay loop of targeting different allies in Guild Wars 2 is simply not enjoyable and much, much more cumbersome than any other support, for no additional reward.

The most recent patch introduced additional hot keys and bindings, presumably with the purpose of making Specter support more palatable. Sadly, the game cannot support the play style of Specter support and Arenanet should reconsider the entirety of allied targeting. UI Guild Wars 2 does not have a UI that allows for single target healing and ally targeting to be effective, which is a prime reason as to why all prior support specs did not use ally targeting. To understand the areas in which Guild Wars 2 is lacking, it is informative to compare with single targeting healing in other MMOs and I'll briefly mention how things tend to work in World of Warcraft as an example. In World of Warcraft (and other MMOs), a healer will have access to a range of UI options that are completely absent from Guild Wars 2. These UI options and elements are essential for ensuring that single target healing is enjoyable. 1. Macros. In other MMOs it is possible to write a macro that enables certain types of targeting which allows for greater awareness and ease of play. A good example of this is a target of target macro. This means that if a healer had a boss targeted and their current target took a heavy amount of damage, an ability triggered with a target of target macro would receive the effect of the heal. This allows for very quick and responsive healing. As Guild Wars 2 does not have a macro system, the support Specter wishing to use single target healing is going to have to select the target through the UI or world. This is very poor in terms of gameplay. 2. Raid frames. Raid frames in other MMOs allow for an absolute wealth of information that is sorely lacking in Guild Wars 2. Raid frames can also be customised via the UI, allowing for informative feedback on who is receiving certain healing effects. https://media.forgecdn.net/attachments/250/479/raidframeindicators.jpg As seen in these raid frames, individuals under the effect of two different heals are noted by centre icons. There are also other icons at the side, allowing the healer to track the application of other boons and these can even be configured to show conditions or encounter specific effects. Guild Wars 2 is entirely lacking this information which makes tracking aspects such as boons on allies very tricky. 3. Movable raid frames. In other MMOs, raid frames can be moved. This is quite essential because it means a player does not need to move their mouse large distances to change between placing an AoE in the world, perhaps under their character, and selecting a target for healing. As an example, that these forums do not like, please see https://i.imgur.com/AIf6mA4.png. Meanwhile, in Guild Wars 2, the raid frame is very distant from the UI which means a support Specter will have to move their cursor large distances if they wish to select a different ally (and no, the recent bindings added do not aid in this, see UX below) and then place Wells so that a group can receive alacrity. This is compounded to an even more miserable playing experience when trying to target a particular ally through the raid frame, realising you need to Siphon the boss for boons and then place wells. See also the UX sections. 4. Mouseovers. A complete mainstay of healing in most other MMOs is the mouseover or mouseover macro. This setting, or macro, allows for an ability to be cast simply by moving the cursor over an intended target's raid frame or character in the world. This reduces the amount of clicking involved in healing. Instead of healing being move cursor, click to target, press heal, move cursor, click next target, it is simply move cursor, press heal, move cursor. Guild Wars 2 is entirely lacking in this area which makes single target healing even more cumbersome. 5. Sufficient information. There are many examples where the Guild Wars 2 UI prevents Specter from receiving sufficient information that is otherwise available to all other support options. A good example of this is in monitoring a boss's CC bar. For any other healer it is completely trivial to be aware of while healing. A Specter, however, will be targeting an ally and, due to the UI of Guild Wars 2, will not be able to see when a breakbar is occurring making abilities such as Headshot much more difficult to use. No other healer has to deal with this limitation and it is entirely a relic of the desire for allied targeted healing. UX 1. Targeting allies is a mess. We were informed that a reason for Endless Night no longer being able to pierce and hit multiple allies was that Arenanet did not want Specters clicking through the UI. Despite this, we received hot keys for ally specific targeting. These are sadly ineffective, in exactly the same way raised regarding the "target next ally" keybinding following the last beta. The Ally Targeting mode simply removes the ability to target enemies. As previously mentioned in the UI section, this puts a Specter support at a massive disadvantage relative to other healers as information is obscured from them. It also doesn't encourage gameplay that isn't switching between targets for single target healing, as the entire purpose of this UI toggle is to seemingly make it easier to target allies! However, it even fails at that! The target ally toggle still allows for the selection of minions, spirits, clones and similar. These are not targets that a Specter will be (intentionally!) trying to heal. This is a lingering issue from the target next ally hotkey which still cycles through unwanted targets such as mini pets and clones. This is a really poor user experience. While the situation of single target is already hampered by the UI elements discussed previously, targeting an ineffective target even when trying to use the provided crutches is highly frustrating, despite being in a mode that removes the information associated with enemy targets because they are deemed not important for single ally target healing. I feel this is very indicative of the massive UI and UX problems associated with single target healing - we get these band aid fixes and they aren't fully considered from the perspective of how someone that is single target healing plays. It really feels like the developers, in implementing the ally targeting mode, have completely forgotten that many of the skills a thief will want to use are enemy targeted, for example headshot, enemy siphon and the majority of shadow shroud. 2. A single target healer still wants to single target heal. This will be noted further in terms of the balance discussions, but for a single target healer to be useful, their strongest heal needs to be a single target, otherwise the entirety of the design principle is quite useless. As such, support Specters will still be trying to single target heal, even with the UI and UX issues outlined, which only exacerbates problems. Given that Endless Night remains the strongest support button that Specter has, the gameplay is still going to involve targeting allies. This will also allow for a high degree of quickness sharing (certainly on the rest of a subgroup) despite the attempted nerfs. This also applies to Shadestep resurrection on allied Siphon. This is an incredibly strong ability, yet it feels balanced by how cumbersome it is to be constantly clicking on different allies on the raid UI. 3. The amount of cursor movement is too high. Related to the issues with a single target wanting to single target heal and the need to target allies, Specter involves a lot of cursor movement and retargeting in order to heal and provide boons effectively. To share Swiftness and Fury, a Specter will want to use offensive Siphon (because allied Siphon still does not have interplay with abilities like Thrill of the Crime) and this necessitates starting with the enemy targeted, casting Siphon and then placing wells into the world. Following this, a Specter is going to heal via single target healing, because this remains our best option for healing due to the strength of Measured Shot and Endless Night. This means clicking the raid or group UI to find a target to apply healing to. This is a huge amount more commitment to heal and put out boons compared with any other healer. Content 1. Current content does not need a single target healer. This was quite clearly exemplified by the example use cases of a support Specter being given with the latest balance update. The ideas put forward for support healing were a 2v2 occasional PvP mode and playing open world with a friend. Given that both of these game modes have been successfully played by people with current elite specs and builds, that is highly indicative that there isn't really the content available for support Specter to have this defined niche. Furthermore, existing endgame content - such as raids, fractals and strikes - have all been successfully completed with no dedicated single target healers and, in fact, have been completed with solo healing and no healing. There are no damage patterns in the game (currently) that would necessitate a dedicated one-person healer. 2. Damage patterns negate much of support Specter design. Since healing in the game is not a triage environment, and other healers are able to get heals onto their allies with little more than a single button press, this means that Specter is at a disadvantage while healing via either Consume Shadows (the Specter needs to wait 5 seconds without no access to healing abilities) or via single target healing which is much less responsive as the Specter will be determining which ally to heal, selecting this ally via the UI and then using a heal. This is a high overhead that thoroughly reduces the flow of gameplay and makes support Specter feel very awkward to play mechanically, especially compared with other healers. 3. Guild Wars 2 is a fast paced game. Specter is not a fast paced healer. As noted in the points on damage patterns and UX, Specter is laborious to play with the different types of targeting involved and decision making with respect to targeting that other healers do not need to do. This would be a handful in a standard MMO, with a GCD and balanced around slower abilities. However, Guild Wars 2 is a fast paced action-combat orientated game which makes the slower pace of Specter in terms of execution much more punishing. Specter is a healer that would work beautifully in a game such as WoW. It struggles in GW2. 4. Even open world will be a struggle - and this really highlights how GW2 is not designed for this gameplay. Allied targeting mode was introduced seemingly with the idea of making it easier for Specter to target and heal allies in open world and similar modes. However, this will limit a Specter from targeting an enemy to even apply occasional conditions or CC. Absolutely no other support faces this problem if they wish to try and heal effectively. This is compounded even further by Specter being a single target healer and therefore reliant on raid frames, which are entirely missing when playing emergent, open world content. In a group that gathers to take on a champion, a Firebrand healer can be sure that they will be applying healing to some allies, boons to their allies and will also be able to monitor the enemy for using things such as CC. Simply by using their AoE abilities, they are contributing well. A Specter, by contrast, is going to struggle to determine which allies should be healed and which should be focused on for single target healing because a UI providing information is not present, through-world targeting of allies in Guild Wars 2 is cumbersome and, if playing in allied targeting mode to try and better fulfil the role of an ally targeting healer, they are going to miss essential information about the enemies. No other profession or role needs to deal with this and the content less generally accessible for Specter support as a result. Balance 1. A single target healer still wants to single target heal. Yes, this is the same point as in UX because it really is that important and it definitely feels like it isn't being considered. Specter is stated to be a single target healer because of the misguided notion that Thieves are masters of single target (this is faulty and useless design, but a discussion for another day). We were told that Endless Night was nerfed because Arenanet did not like the notion of Specter clicking different allies to apply a single target heal. Yet, if Specter's strongest healing is a single target orientated chain, players are still going to do single target healing by selecting different allies! If this wasn't the case, Specter would not be a single target healer. 2. AoE healing will always be preferable. This relates to the points raised under content. As there is no content where single target healing is necessitated, AoE healing will be preferable because it is easier to use and provides a wider benefit to more players. Single target healing does not work in Guild Wars 2 This is for a multitude of reasons, as noted above, and I hope Arenanet start listening to the consistent player feedback that is raising this as an issue. The UI is not designed for single target healing. It lacks essential targeting and customisation options, clarity of information for tracking and crucial details about bosses are missing when playing the game via single target ally healing. Even attempts to improve the UI, such as those in today's patch, fall incredibly short of being useful. In fact, changes such as the ally targeting mode are a hindrance to playing the game at any reasonable level in challenging content as it limits information. The UX is poor. Single target healing requires far higher effort, awareness and mechanical ability compared with AoE healing. Despite this, and especially after the quickness nerf on Endless Night, there is very little reward for doing so. The moment to moment actions for Specter include enemy targeting, using abilities on enemies, AoE targeting in the world, player targeting, shadowstepping to players and using single heal abilities on players. This is a lot more commitment than alternative healers and support, who can often access their full arsenal of abilities without changing targets and, sometimes, with as little as one button press. The content does not support single target healing. There is no niche for a single target healer beyond some odd concocted examples where current AoE healers are able to excel. There are no bosses that have proven challenging because we do not have Specter healers in game currently. There are no strikes or Fractal CMs unbeaten because this niche is not filled. Balance does not support single target healing either. AoE healing is preferable and matches current damage patterns better yet Specters will still single target heal for as long as this remains better (even when it is terrible to access and play) The intentions for Specter appear very confused. We are told that Specter should focus on barrier and alacrity, yet the best way to access much of this barrier is via a single target heal and this has been actively discouraged by nerfs to Endless Night, yet encouraged by UI changes and overbearing alterations to Consume Shadows. I implore the developers to seriously reconsider if they wish to go this route. Support Specter will be played by very few people as it is awkward and frustrating to play for very little reward. There are elements of an interesting support spec present. The idea of being able to tether to allies to apply healing while DPSing is a good one. This could be made even better by having a trait that allows tethering to an entire sub group or four nearest allies for the application of healing via DPS while accessing alacrity as is done so currently. This could be interesting, it could even be fun to play, which would be a massive improvement over current support Specter which is frustrating, cumbersome and constantly fighting against a game that simply does not support it. There are very many balance issues with Specter, but the actual inherent design and how that fails to be supported by the very essence of Guild Wars 2 content and UI is far, far more glaring and a larger imposition for the success of this elite spec. Support Specter is utterly miserable to play, certainly at least in PvE content, with its current implementation.

The ally targeting mode that seems to have been introduced as a band aid for the misguided design of support Specter being single target is not useful, it does not make Specter easier to play and does not resolve any of the outstanding UI or design issues. Please, please consider if this is actually the direction you want to try and move the Specter elite spec and the game. Guild Wars 2 is not design, be that in terms of UI, UX, content and damage patterns, to support single target healing in the slightest. Currently, Specter and the changes required to try and support it are a massive step in the wrong direction compared with what Guild Wars 2 is and should be. The design should absolutely be rethought.

Renegade and Mirage definitely need their alacrity share reduced to five targets otherwise all of the EoD alacrity share specs are dead on arrival. Renegade then seriously needs its DPS reduced, condi RR basically removed and trade-offs for the high amount of CC it can offer.

I think you are misunderstanding what makes Healbrand so strong. Healbrand certainly doesn't need full Minstrels to succeed - you can run Celestial and Seraph variants for more offensive builds without issue and a Celestial Firebrand definitely does more DPS than a Celestial support orientated Specter (as of the previous beta, we need to see how things are on Tuesday but with Endless Night being single target now for Rotwallow Venom, I can't see how the offense of support Specter goes up). It doesn't matter that Firebrand cannot do such a large singular instance heal as Specter because, as I noted in my other post, GW2 healing is not a triage environment. The damage patterns do not reward, or even allow, for large singular healing to be important. And despite GW2 not being a triage environment we still have barrier and Aegis which really minimises the usefulness of raw healing. Firebrand excels because of the sheer amount of Aegis that is being put out. Aegis is stronger than barrier (which, in turn, is better than raw healing for healing priority) and Firebrand can apply so much of it that the raw healing doesn't really matter. Add to the Aegis the ability to cover a huge number of damage reducing boons when needed (Tome 2, Tome 3- and this is without a 5 second windup where you cannot do any substantial healing or sustain) and it is just far better than what Specter offers. Why even worry about maintaining barrier or topping up health pools when you can just block things? Theorycrafting is fine, and it definitely has its place, but it doesn't reflect how things work in practice. Take Rifle Deadeye for example - it looks like it should be a very strong performer in raids on the simplified situation of a golem, yet due to how fights work and the limitations of how damage is dealt it doesn't compete.

Yes, but you are going to be able to access more useful healing via Endless Night. I don't really understand where you get the idea of "force" from - mind explaining that? Is this Shadow Force? If so, we don't even need to worry about that because Consume Shadow in its beta 4 form is not useful (see below). The other thing to keep in mind is that Measured Shot / Endless Night taken together has a targeted heal from MS, splash heal from TD and SS on MS shadowstep, splash barrier from Shadestep and then you have a very high amount of targeted barrier, quickness and regen from Endless Night. Endless Night also does a lot more barrier than 4,515. When I was testing it with a Celestial build, it was closer to 8k. That is such a strong mix of healing and eHP that IS just isn't going to compete. My biggest issue with Consume Shadows as a heal is that the time you spend in it is dead time due to Shadow Shroud skills being pretty awful. This means that the time you spend building the heal, the party is likely recovering health since this isn't a triage environment. The only real situation I could see where it would be useful in PvE is going to be situations like CA 25% immune phase. You could sit in Shroud and build for the barrier and recovery heal but that is a pretty limited use case. In moment to moment combat, we are still going to be switching targets for MS and EN. It will be interesting to see how Anet responds. Endless Night was nerfed to try and get us to stop clicking different targets in a PvE environment but the designers don't seem to understand that if you make very strong single target healing, the healer will want to click through different targets and use that heal. This is really basic MMO design and I am kind of shocked that Anet is falling for this obvious design trap.