Shin Ryu.5802

Update: It appears to be tied to the daily reset, so that chest absolutely MUST be looted to get the unit. Yes, I'd beaten the mission fair and square only to have the chest not appear (although auto-loot picked up some random event kibble), but I got carried after getting flattened near the end of the sniper and rider mech phase today, and the chest appeared after the surviving 4(!) squad members managed to clear the final phase of the fight. So I got the turtle when I didn't really earn it, but didn't when I did. It really begs the question though, why not just tie acquisition to getting the Cantha: Keineng Overlook achievement and avoid all the weird bugginess to begin with? Then they can go back to arguing whether it was really appropriate to gate PvE content behind what is essentially raid content, which is a different thread topic.

I've finished this strike mission twice, and my auto-loot was on. Got the physical loot, but no turtle thruster controls appeared. The frustrating thing is that this is such an easy thing to fix (or prevent). Set the acquisition of the turtle thruster controls to be triggered upon getting the Cantha: Keining Overlook achievement. Arguing about whether "casuals" should be precluded from unlocking content by gating it behind a raid is one thing, but there is no argument that successful completion of said raid should at least reliably trigger the promised reward.

You're definitely not alone, and I'm glad to see the game isn't just out to get me over in particular. I just completed the Keineng Overlook strike mission fair and square today after so many attempts thwarted by lag outs and disconnects. Didn't even die, rarely even got downed. Still no turtle thruster control unit. Submitted a bug report with a screen shot to document my claim, but this last piece just isn't forthcoming. Super frustrating, and a serious fun-killer. Did all the work (multiple times in many cases, due to buggy events, like the Jade Maw being a no-show after the NPC does her intro dialogue), but still can't actually get to enjoy the one reward I've taken this major detour from actually enjoying the game to acquire. Feels bad, man.

I just completed the Keineng Overlook strike mission fair and square today after so many attempts thwarted by lag outs and disconnects. Didn't even die, rarely even got downed. Still no turtle thruster control unit. Submitted a bug report, but this last piece just isn't forthcoming. Super frustrating, and a serious fun-killer. Did all the work (multiple times in many cases, due to buggy events), but still can't actually get to enjoy the one reward I've taken this major detour from actually enjoying the game to acquire.

Did my usual beta test drive in Crystal Oasis, which offers a nice variety of enemies with cc, condi, etc. Full disclosure, I play mostly PvE, and this was a pretty casual run of only about half an hour. I like what they did with Alliance Tactics, which effectively grants access to two new legends separately rather than the former set up where the utility skills flipped between them after every use. So going with a vindicator elite effectively grants a player access to three legends at a time (Viktor and Archemorus plus any core alt). It grants players more immediate control over whether they want to be using a dps or sustain skill set, as a LOT of people had issues with the constant skill shift. That was a good solution based on a composite of players' suggestions, so I appreciate the responsiveness. The Tenacious Ruin dodge/attack is a bit faster, but I'm still not sold on the necessity of one dodge consuming the entire endurance bar and only being accessible when endurance is full. I appreciate that the newly-added Energy Meld grants slightly more frequent access to it, but it still seems like accelerating the animation to normal dodge duration so it would be more akin to daredevil's Bound dodge/attack wouldn't be "broken." Daredevil has 3 dodges, so vindicator being allowed 2 offensive dodges is only "broken" if those dodges remove the players' hit box for a prolonged/unfair period of time compared to standard dodges. On the plus side, only having one dodge forced me to rely more heavily on Imperial Guard for damage mitigation, and using it to block several hits caused True Strike to hit like a truck. Since True Strike requires 3/4 of a second to pull off, it takes a bit of tactical planning to ensure it actually connects before getting interrupted or blinded. Overall, I'd say this iteration of vindicator is a welcome improvement over the first beta. Sure, there's still room for improvement, but there is definitely progress being made in the right direction.

That's fair. I'm just saying Heaven's Palm (and just about everything else about willbender) was actually a lot WORSE before. Individual skills and certainly the virtues still need some tuning, but the overall feel of the willbender is much improved. They're certainly on the right track, and I want to let them know I appreciate the progress that has been made. I'll admit I'm primarily a PvE player, and willbender did a much better job of wrecking Veteran Fire Hydras and mobs of Forged than it did on the first outing. It is now much more responsive to player control input, and chaining skills is much more fluid. At this stage over two months out from release, I'm willing to settle for "huge step in the right direction." It's definitely not perfect, but it's at least at a point where it can be fun to play. It's a huge step up from August's beta outing, where my response was, "what did guardian players ever do to deserve this?" If it's at this stage in the development trajectory relative to where it started, I'm willing to have a little faith.

As one of the many who tested willbender during the first beta, I agonized over it and really wanted it to work despite all its flaws and built-in contradictions. I am pleased to say the biggest issues have been addressed: The "highly mobile" guardian elite actually IS highly mobile; it is now possible to cancel out of just about every skill execution both by dodge-canceling or by activating a different skill, which just makes it play and feel sooo much better! Being stuck in a committed skill animation and not even being able to dodge cancel to avoid getting a meteor to the face from a Veteran Fire Hydra wasn't a good feeling, but now it's possible to remain constantly in motion AND still apply constant pressure to enemies. Willbender now actually feels like it's gained something in exchange for the virtue passives that it had to give up. And it was actually fun! For the first time since the August beta, I'm actually looking forward to running willbender builds on my guardian. Looking at lingering complaints, some are still valid: willbender isn't a heavy hitter, willbender flames are more ornamental than effective, virtues could stand to be a bit more accessible to offset their lost passives, etc. I'm not particularly worried though. Willbender was a clunky, depressing mess during its first beta outing, and now it's just plain stupid fun to play. Yeah, it might benefit from a damage number or cooldown tweak here or there, but otherwise, slap a bow on it and call it good. I'm actually impressed that Heaven's Palm is now a reasonably functional part of the willbender skillset. It still has a long cast time that interrupts the rapid attack flow, but it's now much easier to pull off somehow. That's good, as willbender is a bit light on cc. Anything substantial to improve upon willbender without upsetting game balance? Maybe give willbender the ability to strip or steal boons. Guardians have never had that ability, but it would fit neatly within the willbender lore concept of relentless pursuit and takedown.

Same issue; getting the "Delving For Treasure" achievement back in the day left all the treasures already pre-opened and looted. Kinda surprised this hasn't been patched so the "treasures" aren't restocked daily as per jumping puzzles or strike missions.

After having made my own observations and then reading others, I'm noticing some recurring complaints that hit a chord: Playing mechanist feels a like like running support for an OP Jade Mech, and if it goes down or has to be recalled for repairs during combat, the player is basically stuck running an extraordinarily weak engi. My experience was generally positive, but yes; these complaints are pretty accurate. This got me thinking, since my own observation was that the Jade Mech might benefit from a higher level of customization, even to the point of having a "menagerie" of mechs with customizable skills: Wouldn't it make more sense to have a greater number of more simplified mechs, to effectively have a necro minion master engi instead of a beastmaster ranger engi? The mechs could persist as minions do, with each one having a specific skill that replaces their summoning skill when they are present. That could give the engi its toolbelt skills back AND allow each mech to have its associated toolbelt skill, perhaps a second command to make it just a bit more versatile than the average minion. The ability to persist and have a passive effect (similar to the current Signets, but tweaked to offset their greater functionality) would set them apart from the scrapper's Gyros. Traits could be retooled; the ones currently assigned to set specific mech skills could be freed up for use as the classic cooldown reductions on elite spec specific weapon and utility skills or to alter their functionality in some way (i.e. "Mechs gain/grant boon X," "Mech attacks inflict condi Y," etc.). It might be interesting to allow such trait choices to also affect Turret skills. Mostly just trying to think of relatively simple ways to keep what people liked while ironing out the wrinkles. After all, mechanist IS a decent concept that is generally fun to play; it just needs a little je ne sais quoi to keep it from feeling like a one-trick pony, to give it some identity beyond "super simple engi with big robot buddy." What if a utility Mech could be traited to tow one or more turrets behind it? Or perhaps that's a specific utility mech's entire ability, to automatically collect and tow any skill or trait produced item the engi drops, such as mines, turrets, or health packs--maybe limit the number to say, up to three at a time. A supply crate would become a conga line of turrets being towed behind the engineer, who could then use the mech's active skill to move them a targeted area, enemy, or ally. Well okay, maybe this one is just a bit too crazy, as making stationery effects like turrets suddenly mobile can introduce way too many unintended consequences. The basic idea is to apply a little imagination to showcase the engineer's versatile and inventive flavor, and to have the new basic mechanics still be able to synergize well with existing core skills rather than discouraging or outright replacing them.

I was just gonna say, "Neat concept; makes pets feel more relevant than ever, but feels a bit underpowered. Not horrible, but could stand some improvement." Maybe give a few paragraphs on my personal general impressions. This comprehensive, in-depth overview saved me a LOT of effort, so thanks! It's far more than I was able to observe during my one hour test run, and every issue is addressed with both constructive criticism and proposed solutions. If there is a definitive work on this thread, it's this one; agree or disagree, it's at least worth a read.

I decided to jump into this one completely blind and roll with it. As usual, I used my Invitation to the Lily of the Elon to port the beta toon to the Crystal Oasis for the usual stress testing against Forged patrols, Veteran Fire Hydras, and all the local fauna with their variety of conditions and cc. Full disclosure, I'm a multi-toon runner, and engi is often one that requires a bit more loyalty and dedication to really dive into than most other professions. Thus, from the perspective of engi main players, I'd be a "filthy casual." On balance, I really enjoyed it; it was a nice change of pace from the usual engi experience. Granting engi its own "Build-a-Bear" GOLEM pet is pretty close to what I had already envisioned as an interesting possibility for a future engi elite. However, I'm nearly certain that most engi specialists will hate it. Engineers are (in)famous for having the most complex meta skill rotations and the most options, so giving them a super-streamlined set of signet skills AND taking away their Toolbelt is probably gonna draw a LOT of hate. Personally, I didn't hate having a super-casual engi experience, and I enjoyed finding ways to cooperate with the Jade Mech and use it to its fullest advantage. My general overview: -Mace: Thematically appropriate for the engineer, and it gives engineer a few more melee options not already available to it via a Toolkit skill. Fills some small gaps in what engi could already do, and is roughly on par with weapons and Toolkits already available rather than being a particularly outstanding replacement. Satisfactory. -Core Mechanic: The absence of Toolbelt skills does sting a bit; many utility skills are selected because their corresponding Toolbelt skills are so useful; they're all a "slot one, get one free" special. That means that not slotting a new Signet skill necessarily drops that "value added bonus" from the core utility skill. Fortunately, the Jade Mech outperforms most ranger pets in its utility, and its skills can be customized to fill in the gaps created by not having the core Toolbelt. I enjoy using things in the environment to my advantage, so having a highly competent "pet" to play off of was a lot of fun. This IS the "main event" when it comes to running a mechanist, so that subjective "fun factor" is probably key to anyone's individual opinion. -Utility Skills: For a famously "busy" profession, Signets were certainly and interesting choice. Many players slot Signet skills for their passive effects and leave them, as their active effects generally have longer cast times and cooldowns than most skills. It was pretty easy to just camp out on the passives, but it wasn't hard to figure out when and how to make good use of their active effects on the fly either. Their cooldowns are reduced by the passive effect of the elite Overclock Signet rather than a trait choice, so using their actives more often makes popping Overclock Signet to activate the ultimate Jade Mech Canon a bit more costly. Again, the loss of the Toolbelt means that these aren't very "mix and match" friendly with core skills, but they are a very serviceable streamlined alternative--especially if someone wants to just camp on their passive effects and focus on using weapon skills and jade mech commands. -Traits: The new trait line is where the Jade Mech's skill set can be enhanced and customized. It's nice that the Jade Mech's skill set may be customized at all, but I feel like they could have done that another way and reserved traits for, say, granting bonuses/faster cooldowns to mace weapon skills and signet skills. The entire trait line is all about the Jade Mech and literally nothing else. Definitely an opportunity for improvement. It might make more sense to allow mechanists to collect a "menagerie" of different Jade Mech "pets" via discovery and reverse-engineering of incomplete or broken mechs or by finding schematics. However, instead of having an insane number of Jade Mechs on par with the number of ranger pets, have a smaller selection, each with its own selection of skills that can be slotted and used. It seems like a shame to only have one carbon-copy Jade Mech for every mechanist, and to have the entire Mechanist trait line be nothing but the mech's skills and properties. Yes, the Jade Mech is the mechanist's core mechanic and "main event," but that's all the more reason to give it more options and customization potential. It would also open up the potential for more Jade Mech schematics and/or skills to be unlocked via exploration and achievements, similar to the way a ranger can seek out new juvenile pets to charm and add to a menagerie--a profession exclusive reason to explore while playing that profession. Mechanist is a lot of fun as-is, but unless a bit more variety and versatility is added to the Jade Mech selection, it's a gimmick that could easily go stale. The busy skill rotation engi purists probably think mechanist is already stale and boring to play, but I think it's a "proof of concept" beta with some excellent growth potential. Worst case scenario, mechanist will still be fun to run for a while, and scrapper and holosmith are solid back up elites.

Not gonna lie, I had very low expectations of "scepter thief," and the idea of giving thief well skills seemed doomed to failure. Nevertheless, I did promise to give it the ol' college try, and geared one up for a test run out in the Crystal Oasis, where Veteran Fire Hydras, roaming bands of Forged, and hostile desert fauna are all too happy to "stress test" whatever you throw at them. On balance, I was genuinely and pleasantly surprised; it's very different, but not in any particularly bad way. I suspect thief enthusiasts might outright hate it since it's not another dps-heavy variant, but as a multi-toon player who generally laments the profession's pigeon holing into "glass canon" status, this was a welcome change of pace. Thief already has multiple builds and the two prior elite specs exploring every way a thief can burst down an enemy, so it certainly feels strange to play a thief which doesn't seem to hit very hard even with Berserker or Viper stats. However, it still leans heavily into the aspect of thief being stealthy and highly mobile. Specter seems to have been very well thought out with the goal of filling in the holes in its current abilities while still being more or less true to its core concept. In particular, it's a much more survivable and "party friendly" thief; it'll be the one preventing other players from going down for a change. Some players hate that it's actually more effective when running with allies, but I actually appreciate that thieves can have an option to harness that kind of group synergy. So the basics: -Weapon: Scepter as a weapon does feel a bit out of place for a thief, but it does fill a mid-range niche. Admittedly the weakest new feature, and the one I'd soonest abandon. However, I did enjoy using the stealth attack Shadow Squall. If there is any apparent advantage to scepter over other weapons (especially the pistol), it's the zero initiative cost, increasing the frequency with which off-hand weapon skills can be used--such as the off hand dagger skill Cloak and Dagger to inflict vulnerability and enter stealth, which creates the opportunity to unload a Shadow Squall. -Core mechanics: Siphon is an interesting variation of Steal, although it doesn't reliably auto-target as advertised, and picking out a specific priority target in a group is perhaps needlessly difficult. Shadow Shroud provides a nice suite of skills for providing support and condi. Having what amounts to a swappable toolkit adds some welcome variety into what a thief can do while in combat. -Utility skills: Admittedly, Wells are not a utility skill I would have thought to be suitable for a thief. After all, a thief can't hang stick around in one place very long. However, the specter's Well skills solve that problem by turning them all into opportunities to Shadow Step. Very nice! It's basically a mesmer's Blink with benefits, times five and (mostly) with shorter cooldowns. That, and thieves have previously had to rely on cleave or rapid sequential burn-downs when it came to trash mobs (Pocket Raptors come to mind); wells give thieves more access to aoe skills and fold them neatly into an improved sustain game. Granted, they're not as offensively powerful as a daredevil's Bound (traited dodge attack), but they make up for it in their support benefits both running solo and in groups. -Traits: The team support options are much more robust than any previous thief trait line, and condi thieves become just a bit more viable. There also seems to be reasonably good synergy with existing trait lines, particularly Shadow Arts. On balance, very well done! Naturally, I would prefer it be a bit more viable as a condi dps option, but that might just be a matter of my tweaking the trait options a bit more optimally. I'm noticing specter has no built-in way to quickly recover from stun/knock down AFTER it happens, so adding a stun break to one or more of the wells would make it a bit better rounded and play to its intended strength as a more support-oriented elite. Other players have gone into much greater detail, but I'm pretty happy with specter as-is; a little more damage and some stun-breaking would just be a good way to address many of the valid complaints without having to go very far into the weeds of precision game balance.

Hot take on the final batch of elite specs (pre beta event): Full disclosure, I've got literally nothing but the teaser trailers to go on at this point (sorry, I skipped the long intro video), so these are literally nothing more than an impression based on their respective elevator pitches. Specter: Admittedly, I was a bit disappointed when scepter was first leaked as the new thief elite's weapon. Forums had discussed the idea of great sword in one form or another, and despite trying to sell my own idea, I was converted by those who really wanted a revival of the assassin, to give thief the off-hand sword. Seeing all that interest completely ignored was a bit disheartening. Never the less, I was determined to at least give it the ol' college try. Having a necro-leaning mesmer-ish thief doesn't look horrible. I'm still a bit skeptical about scepter thief, but somewhat less pessimistic. Untamed: "Hammer ranger" raises an eyebrow, but at least the primal flavor is on-brand for the profession. Many of these elite specs have been different for the sake of being different, losing cohesion because they didn't synergize well with their core profession. The new gimmick looks like it should synergize well with existing pet traits. I'm cautiously optimistic about a ranger elite that actually leans a bit more into a core aspect of its profession identity. Mechanist: Everything seems to be perfectly on brand for the engineer; it basically gets a customizable pet golem. If anything, I'm surprised this wasn't an earlier elite spec. With any luck, the turret-related traits should synergize well with the jade golem, perhaps making turret tosser builds more viable in a variety of play modes. Making use of turrets, pets, minions, fields, and other things outside the toon itself is something I find interesting and can have fun with. Maybe it won't be a different new meta or even terribly practical; so long as it's fun to play, I won't care. For this trio, every profession already has two outstanding elite spec alternatives. Having new ways to play old favorites is nice, but I'm a bit less invested in whether these new ones have any "wow" factor when there are really good fallbacks already in place. If they're a little different, functional, and just plain fun to play, I'll be satisfied. If they turn to be the subliminal manifestation of a subconscious desire to inflict mental anguish upon players, well, it'll be time to dust off an older elite and check out what the most popular current builds are. But oh, wouldn't it be great to be positively pleasantly surprised! I'm really starting to miss that feeling...

Fair question: What IS behind this visual decision? Short answer: Magic pollution. It makes things look...different. The basic graphic design challenge isn't just to advance Cantha 200-250 years forward in the game world, but to represent the various impacts of major events in Tyria. Events such as the death of Zhaitan, then Mordremoth, then the exploding Bloodstone (Balthazar hoovered up most of it, but a lot of it still leaked out into the world), then the destruction of Balthazar, then the death of Kralkatorrik more fully releasing all of the above. And then just for good measure, the mutually destructive kaiju battle between Jormag and Primordus. Aurene (and possibly Kuunavang) might have mitigated the fallout, but they didn't stop it. So why Cantha and not everywhere else in Tyria? Well, Canthans are apparently harnessing the magic of jade from the Jade Sea. It's quite possible they might not have fully considered the consequences of using cursed jade as an energy source. I'm thinking the use of color was one of the easier ways to portray the overabundance of magic. It was either that or add more Ley-Line Anomaly-like creatures, make everything weird and sparkly, add magic storm effects, etc. If there's a better way to represent "too much ambient magic," it's probably worth mentioning. Some people hate it because Too Much Color, and others yearn for Cantha Classic. Both are perfectly valid; I really like Shing Jea Classic in particular. However, things change; killing five elder dragons had Consequences. I think bumping up the color saturation is a reasonable way to visually represent the unintended side effects of bathing a region that was already becoming awash in magic with even more magic. Basically, magical fallout, or "magic pollution."

Okay, I'll throw an apparently unpopular opinion into this internet fire pit: It's a fantasy game, so I'm okay with weird fantastical colors. If you hate the colors, that's fair; I'm not exactly married to this color palette either. I just don't find it to be as game-breakingly awful as everyone else seems to think it is.

Having read both sides of this debate, I wonder if perhaps some sort of compromise could be reached on this the Mad King's Clock Tower. The Wintersday Winter Wonderland jumping puzzle suggests one solution: Have more than one path, each with its own difficulty level. I used to hate jumping puzzles in general and Winter Wonderland in particular, but over the years, I went from dismissing it as altogether impossible to preferring the challenge of the harder courses as my skills improved. The more challenging routes might also be a bit shorter than the "easy" path, but maybe they only seem that way because one doesn't have the luxury of stopping very long on the crumbling snowflakes. At any rate, if Winter Wonderland only ever had its "hard" path, it's unlikely I'd have stuck with it long enough to eventually conquer it. So rather than an all-or-nothing challenge cliff ("hard" mode or nothing), perhaps it would be reasonable to have an entrance ramp in the form of easier but longer paths of different difficulty levels. Perhaps the trade-off of allowing for easier routes could be slower progress toward the meta achievement and/or a lower loot haul per run. Anyway, it should still incentivize people to at least try the harder modes as they improve (or if they already have the skill) while improving accessibility for people who still find the "easy" path more than enough challenge for now.

Full disclosure: I ran the bladesworn in PvE on the Crystal Oasis map; WvW and PvP experiences will certainly vary. My initial reaction last week was that activating Dragon Trigger for an optimum Dragon Slash burst was too clunky and far too easily canceled by enemies or even the player's own accidental movement. Since that gimmick was pretty much the only reason for running a bladesworn, that was kind of a big deal. Now that I've learned to make judicious use of skills like Flow Stabilizer and Trigger Guard to prevent interruptions, it feels a lot better. The Dragon Slash succeeds far more often, and there's actually something to do while charging up besides accidentally putting Dragon Trigger on 8 second cooldown. That said, Dragon Trigger could still stand a little improvement. Some suggested modifications: -Several people have already mentioned that the Dragon Slash variant icons need some differentiation so players can tell them apart at a glance. This is probably already in the works, as literally no other skill kit has an identical set of icons for skills. -I'm not sure why Flicker Step needs to be its own skill. It would probably suffice to alter the dodge mechanic to become Flicker Step while Dragon Trigger is active as dodges already allow for the player to choose a direction. This would make it far more useful and accessible in combat. It would also free up a skill slot to add in another Dragon Slash variant, or way to speed up Flow accumulation or charging. -Remembering not to move while in Dragon Trigger is a matter of practice and discipline, but it's also--how do I say this charitably? Unnecessary. It would make more sense to either have Dragon Trigger root the character in place similarly to the deadeye's Kneel rifle skill, or to allow for a much slower, shuffling walking speed resembling an iaido master circling an opponent. It's very strange that a daredevil can't even dodge cancel out of many of its staff skill animations but the bladesworn can baby step right out of Dragon Trigger and lose access to it for 8 seconds. Otherwise, I found some nice synergies with existing warrior skills: "Shake It Off!" has an "ammo" count (as do most Shout skills), so the Major Master Traits all grant some bonus for using the final "round," and Tactical Reload grants an extra use. Bull's Charge has a three second knockdown, so chaining it with Dragon Trigger is a viable tactic. And of course, a warrior's banners never go out of style. Some of my earlier complaints still stand: Granting the warrior access to the pistol was largely irrelevant, and having the new core profession mechanic revolve completely and exclusively around Greatsword 2.0 renders weapon choices irrelevant in general, and having an elite core profession mechanic feel this clunky is bad. However, I am slowly warming up to bladesworn, and it might not be nearly as unfixable as I initially thought.

Revisiting vindicator after reading a butt ton of commentary and seeing where I agree and disagree: Well, I still enjoy the novelty and rhythm of having utility skills toggle between types, even though very few people agree. As a multi-toon player who (eventually) learned to drive a weaver, planning around vindicator's skill flips on the fly really wasn't hard. Admittedly, having the mixed utility types does dilute whatever role vindicator might fill, and it's ultimately something of a novelty twiddle that doesn't really enhance anything, so the haters have a very fair point. So what could be done to address that? Someone mentioned adding the Alliance legends as two separate legends to allow for players to choose which focus they'd prefer. This is not a horrible idea, as it allows more options for players who really want to lean into a particular play style to mix and match as they please. But wouldn't that mean one or the other would go unused by someone who wanted to primarily focus on damage OR support/sustain? I can think of two responses to that offhand: 1. Deal with it and just accept that many players will give one legend or another of the pair a good leaving alone, or 2. if the devs are really married to the idea of players choosing a build which incorporates both new legends, reward that choice by making that a condition of having Alliance Tactics available, and change Alliance Tactics to function similarly to the druid's Celestial Avatar, granting limited access to a crazy powerful skillset. What a horrible run-on sentence that last one was; Charles Dickens would be proud. Back on topic... The dodge mechanic consensus is that there is simply too much time spent up in the air. Yes, the character's hit box is out of enemy reach for all that time, but the player has very little to do in the interim but pick a landing spot. I suggested speeding it up to take only normal dodge speed and function more like a daredevil's Bound; others have suggested it should function more in line with a daredevil's #5 staff skill Vault, which is very similar. Either way, it might not be unreasonable to allow vindicator to have a standard two dodges. Yes, the Final Fantasy dragoons are a cool concept, but in my humble opinion, the dragoon's unique Jump command doesn't translate well into Guild Wars 2.

My quick take on bladesworn: The weapon: Pistol is an off-hand only that happens to be almost completely irrelevant. If a warrior is going to get the pistol, why not have it be something that can be equipped in either or both hands? Well, again, it's because it's largely irrelevant, and primarily only exists for flavor. The utility skills: Appropriately enough, most are conducive to optimizing the specialization's new profession mechanics, the Gunsaber and Dragon Trigger. The profession mechanics: Is primarily a gunblade from Final Fantasy VII, with the serial numbers filed off and re-branded as a "Gunsaber." For whatever reason, adrenalin is replaced with "Flow," because the concept of channeling "Ki" to power up what are essentially iaido sword techniques was apparently too radical. The gunsaber is actually not a bad weapon; it's just a variant greatsword. However, there is literally no reason to play one unless one intends to make their fighting strategies around maximizing its unique ultimate technique, Dragon Slash, which is ostensibly hella kewl. Like, almost as much damage as an Arc Divider-spamming berserker can do in five seconds, but in a single all-or-nothing strike that can be interrupted, canceled, and placed on an 8 second cooldown by just about everything--including but not limited to taking a single step in any direction. Want to know ultimate frustration? Try using Dragon Slash against a swarm of dust mites. Yeah, dust mites. *sigh* Since we're pretty much stuck with bladesworn as the new warrior elite, I may as well offer some suggestions for making it a bit more playable: --When Dragon Trigger is activated, either pin the character in a manner similar to when the deadeye uses its Kneel skill, or allow for greatly reduced movement speed without causing Dragon Trigger to completely cancel and go into cooldown. -Allow Dragon Trigger to be canceled without being forced into its full 8 second cooldown. If a person chooses to voluntarily dodge out of it, perhaps shorten the cooldown to 3 seconds. Having to restart Dragon Trigger to build up power from scratch is already punitive enough. -Actually, would it kill the concept entirely to allow for Dragon Trigger to be unbroken by dodging? That way, Triggerguard and Flicker Step could be scrapped in favor of adding two new variants of Dragon Slash. Just thinking out loud... -I'm a bit surprised that there wasn't a Pulmonary Impact style delayed damage burst added to any of the existing Dragon Slash variants. It's a pretty well established trope to have the sword master protagonist attack with blinding speed, then for the enemies to react to the damage after a delay, usually after the sword is re-sheathed. Perhaps that could be incorporated into a new Dragon Slash variant.

My quick take on vindicator: The utility skills swapping between offensive and sustain/support after every use was actually very interesting, and it was curiously easy to get into a rhythm where the right one just happened to be available at the right time; it never felt necessary to forcibly swap them using Alliance Tactics. Opinions and experiences vary, but I generally liked it. Okay, maybe not ALL of it... The weird dodge mechanic was just baffling to me. Sure, the devs are likely fans of Final Fantasy games and wanted a dragoon Jump attack, and the prolonged absence of a hitbox is used to justify having only one dodge. Imperial Guard and Battle Dance did help fill the gap of a missing dodge, but I still found myself wishing it were still there. It would just make more sense to remove the landing zone targeting ability and shorten the jump animation to something commensurate with a normal dodge and mechanically have the dodge function more like a daredevils's Bound. That way, there can still be two dodges and the dodge is still primarily going to be used to enter a fray rather than to escape one. Given the dps potential of existing rev elite spec metas, giving the vindicator two Bound dodges with that extra telegraph of a high jumping animation isn't going to be overwhelming. Vindicator is unlikely to replace a classic dual sword renegade or herald build in any context; I will likely run it for fun and novelty value while keeping a more practical elite build handy on the other build tab for when I actually need something that can dps and stay alive for realsies.

There are already several much better and in-depth commentaries on catalyst, so here's my quick take: Overall, it's not horrible, but it's just mediocre compared to the core profession and substandard compared to any given elite spec. Elite specializations shouldn't necessarily outperform everything else, but they should always feel like a step up from their base profession instead of just a lateral extension. Catalyst just feels like a particularly mediocre flavor of core elementalist. Weapon skills: Hammer is an interesting choice, it feels new and different and it has a generally well-balanced skill set. It also has weird melee-range holes in its striking distance when using long range skills, so it's still a bit buggy. Overall, it's just different. It's probably fixable, and several other people have offered solid suggestions to that end. Utility skills: Functional, but generally lackluster. All gain some marginal value-added bonus when and if the character happens to be standing in a Jade Sphere field of the same element, but that is a depressingly rare circumstance. They need to be reconsidered with an eye toward whatever a catalyst is supposed to be. Profession mechanic: This is where every elite really should stand out from its core profession in a good way. For the catalyst, it gains the Jade Sphere, a tiny immovable elemental field of minimal consequence. It's also something that will be on cooldown more often than it's actually deployed. If the field were larger and it was something that could be deployed any time it wasn't already active, this might be something of real consequence. As it stands, the Jade Sphere only exists to create tiny combo fields that grant boons and to justify slotting one or more augment utility skills.

I think the fact that they actively censored the word "sceptor" (as in the main hand caster weapon) in both of our comments pretty much sums up everyone's feelings on this one. Yeah, I'll try to be fair and give it the ol' college try, but I'm looking forward to it about as much as trying my first witchetty grub (i.e. not really much at all). I'm really hoping that the "leak" will turn out to be a huge misdirection on this one and that they actually lean right into full ninja mode for thief.

Absolutely fair. I gave harbinger a test run against some fire hydras, forged, and other random critters in Crystal Oasis with an eye towards ignoring any flaws that weren't totally fatal. It was quickly playable, but yes, that could easily translate into "boring" in the long run--or as you aptly put it, "lazy and uninspired." Another criticism I've seen a lot that resonated with my experience is that harbinger seems to be hodge-podge of too many things at once, and thus doesn't fully deliver on any one coherent theme. Admittedly, I didn't feel as invested in dissecting harbinger the way I did willbender, as both of necro's previous elite specializations, reaper and scourge, are both already really fun to play. For guardian, dragonhunter was solid and useful, but firebrand felt pretty meh despite having its virtues function as modified versions of the Tome toolkit elite skills (that no one used or missed when they were removed). Because necro already has two top notch elites available to fall back on, the new elite spec could have been anything short of having a literal kitten Shroud core mechanic that did nothing but leave stains on the ground and smell bad and I'd probably have shrugged it off. In the case of harbinger, "throwing a little positive feedback" probably entailed turning a blind eye towards its flaws. But don't worry! The harbinger discussion thread is an autopsy the devs aren't likely to ignore, and your concerns are very well represented even in the small sample of comments I've read.

For the most part, I try to keep an open mind about some of the more unusual thematic choices. However, I totally agree that when and if they can lean into what a profession's main theme actually is and still make it feel like a fresh new way to play it, that is the absolute "win." And it's interesting that you mentioned those weapons in particular... A few years ago, I pitched a greatsword ninja-like thief elite spec for whatever Canthan expansion might be coming down the pike, complete with a substitution justu-like counter that would cause the player to disappear and leave a log behind when hit, having them reappear above or behind the enemy for the counterstrike. Some people liked it, while others counter-pitched the idea for an assassin with an off-hand sword. One of these was so thoughtful and detailed that I was cool with abandoning my own idea to jump on the assassin train. Why? Because it already fit so well with what a thief is supposed to be! So yeah, while I'll still give--wait...did you say scepter? Really? A Scepter thief? While I'll still give it a fair trial and try to find a way to enjoy whatever it is, it's fair to say it will be--how do I put this charitably? Thematically jarring.

I'd like to throw a little positive feedback in this thread. tl;dr: I appreciate how they are running the elite specialization beta events, and the willingness to take risks in re-imagining what each profession can be allowed to do, right down to their core mechanics. Even when an idea falters in its initial beta iteration, there is hope that constructive player feedback will be taken to heart before launch. Forum grief notwithstanding, the devs have evidently put a lot of effort into this elite spec beta, and I am grateful for that. First, as a multi-toon player who has a character in each profession, I'm actually grateful that Anet is (at least initially) running these elite spec betas for just three professions at a time. That made it easier to look at each one in a bit more depth and take more time to offer constructive criticism about what worked and what didn't. It also made it a little easier to keep an open mind when it came to some really unexpected design choices, as it was possible to spend a bit more tweaking and test driving them with a variety of equipment and builds . Second, I'm glad that Anet is willing to take risks and at least try to deliver something extraordinary and unexpected for the new elite specializations, new specs that fundamentally still have the same flavor as the core profession, but which offer new ways to play them. It's a huge risk to run with an idea that doesn't yet have popular support; many players will reflexively hate the new elite specializations simply because they don't comport with the direction they thought would be taken. Even if players present with an open mind, there are the potential issues invariably created by delving into uncharted territory; every profession's core mechanic so far got a substantial revision. Virtuoso: Admittedly, I was a little skeptical about the idea of a mesmer with neither clones nor persistent illusions to draw aggro or supplement attacks. Fortunately, the Bladesongs offered more real variety than Shatter skills, and having dagger skills be effective at max range means that this mesmer can kite very effectively even without equipping a greatsword. It felt a little like a classic bomber aoe-dps elementalist, but with classic mesmer flavor. Perhaps most importantly, it was just plain stupid fun. Harbinger: This one was a complete swerve from anything I was expecting, and the whole Blight mechanic was threatening to be a real-time balance accounting nightmare that might take weeks to really master. My hopes weren't terribly high for this one, but I found it to run pretty smoothly. It ran sort of like an alchemist engineer, but with the shroud acting a crazy toolkit. Harbinger has drawn a lot of hate from many beta players, but I found it to be strangely intuitive. Not many players seem to agree with this experience, but even though nearly everything about harbinger felt new and different, I found it surprisingly easy to pick up and run. Might need some fine tuning, but already plenty enjoyable as presented. Willbender: To be brutally honest, this one really needed work. Willbender was ostensibly supposed to be an offense-oriented, high mobility, rapid attacking elite spec, but suffered from having inexplicable motion and/or action locks built into its skill animations. That, and it had poor synergies and outright contradictions built into its trait lines. However, there were many players (myself included) really want Willbender to work, saw its potential, and who took the time to add plenty of good ideas to the willbender elite spec discussion thread. A common opinion (which I happened to share) was that allowing the willbender greater freedom of action and movement would all but resolve most of its current issues. With all the constructive criticism to build on, the next iteration of willbender could be downright amazing. Chin up, devs; you've taken a lot of grief over the past week or so, but most of us players genuinely appreciate your efforts. Keep up the good work!