Gomes.5643

So i went back to my favourite spot for testing and had a blast again. With the new changes the class feels so much more responsive. I kinda miss the ability to oneshot veterans and elites a little due to the nerf but will take that for the shorter build up time always. With Sword/Pistol the flow skill and the traits that gives flow and stability on movement skill I kinda never had a problem to bring dragon slash through. But would still advocate for acess to stance on the other weapon set ......

I really wish to like the spec ..... and I like the concept and style ...... but I am always so bored when I play it ........ I cant even really say why exactly...... one big reason is definetly the traits which are really limiting and simple - it basically comes down to "do I like to build power, condi or support" which i dislike in general because it gives no insentive to mix and match the traits ..... and then they also simply dont do anything interesting with the mechanic. It also probably does not help that the shroud feels kinda out of place and well "normal"..... While the sand shades and reaper shroud hat cool visual thematics .... habinger feels like a mismatch of martial arts and dark alchemists themes thrown together ....

Well I tried the spec again and I still not get what it is supposed to be.... at least with the new changes it is somewhat playable but i would still consider it the worst spec from this generation. Well to be fair i never got the elementalist as a class ..... that may cloud me judgement.... Its trait tree is all over the places with aura traits (wasnt tempest supposed to be the aura spec?), this elemental empowerment which needs build up that never happens because you die to quickly, the jade sphere which needs you do stay in it to use its effects but because you have no range you need to move so often (unless you pick staff, but then you have the finishers no longer)..... This specs needs a complete redesign imo ..... and to deceide on one theme......

I sometimes had the case where my pet would run back to me when I shadow-steped it with f1 to the enemy instead of actually attacking it.

So went back to the charr civil war to test the new changes - and i must say I am impressed. The new ambush mechanic gives so much to the spec as you now want to periodically switch between the modes. Also the idea that the skills give different buffs according to the stance is good, is that also new? Cant remember. That alone makes the Untamed from a quite boring spec to one with potential. I still find it a little bit sad that they mix the CC-Brawler and Pet Master theme into one spec .... should have decided on one theme and go deep instead of wide..... but that is a major problem with this generation of specs in general..... and they will probably not change that. Anyway one change I wish they do is to diversify the "empowered pet skills" to either: a) Create a set of skills depending on the pet class (like soul beast) b) Make the skills actually empowered pet skills..... meaning that the normal petskill of f1,2 and 3 will be cast with the shadowstep, ranks, poison cloud on top of it Otherwise all the pets become quite samey ...... which definetly is not good for the pet spec od the pet class.... Oh and remove shadow step from f1 for range pets in favor of something else.....

So last but not least I managed to test my main profession on some overworld event chains in drizzlewood ..... and I must say i am a little bit underwhelmed..... While I absouletly love that you can now control all pet abilities (which to be honest should be a feature of the ranger in general), I kinda miss the "attack my target" and "return to me" functions. I would suggest attack my target to activate with f1 abilitiy (and f1 flipping to standard "attack my target" when on cooldown) and return to me then becoming f4 (petswap f5 then). But other than that i feel that the untamed doesnt really provide anything interesting ..... for a "beast master" spec there is definetly to little synergy with the pet itself and the hammer is interesting but also just a weapon. But I think there are a few ways to improve the situation in my opinion: - Let Vow of the Untamed apply the opposite on the pet. When I let the pet go rambo it shall go rambo. And if I do dmg I probably need the pet to protect me .... also more synergy, which shall be the theme of the spec. - I really like the idea from another user here that the "unleashed skills" are replaced by buffed up pet skills. The cool thing about the pet is that every pet have their own style..... with the Untamed they feel much more samey because of the unleashed mode. So the when enleashed the skills should do what they normally do + extra effect and the whole "when target is disabled do xy". Extra effects should be adjusted to pet type - e.g. melee pets have a shadowstep on f1, range pets a shadowstep away from the enemy etc. - The "When Foe is disabled do XY" is a cool theme to simulate you and youre pet are like preparing the enemy for the other one to hit, but why is it only in one direction? Pet CC should trigger the entirety of the upper trait line. Weaken the effects if it becomes to strong then but that is easy synergy which would feel cool - also nicely synergized with traits from beast mastery (taunt on f2)

How shall that work with pets that have an agressive f3 like wolf and smokescale? If I fire them I dont like the pet to then return to me. i would suggest making return to me f4 and petswap f5. Combining f1 with attack seems good. Maybe make it a flibable skill. So it be works as f1 + attackmy target normally and only attack my target when f1 is on cooldown. For traits I would suggest that the upper row (the ones about buffs etc when disabling foes) also trigger when the pet uses the cc. Maybe nerf the effects when that becomes to powerful but having that synergy with lots of pets and the beast mastery line would make the spec much more interesting imo. Even when not using hammer.

as a button I mean (f4 e.g.) - when avoiding dying I do not tend to click buttons with the mouse. No underwater mech is really bad. I know that this type of content is not high on priority but having an entire elite spec beeing completly useless there .....

So I went to my usual testing routine (drizzlewood meta chain) and i must say that the mechanist is - as previously expected - the second most fun to play from the new batch (shortly after bladesworn). I went with pistol/pistol (mace feels a little weird, its 1 is an melee animation for a range attack without projectile ????) and a condition based mech and the event chains felt great. Mech was tanking well enough and did enough AoE dmg to feel significant even without proper gear. Cooldown on dead is a little high, it forces you to takethe new elite. And a "come to me" button like the ranger has would be really appreciated. But one thing I didnt really get. Did I do something wrong or is the mech really unasable underwater? That would be horrible as then the mechanist cannot be used in any mission etc where underwater content is present....

Well technically that tradeoff can be quite low ..... considering the tradeoff of the untamed is literally "we need you to choose if you like a 10% dmg or survivabillity penalty ..... which is already compensated with a 15% buff on the other thing .... so have fun with your new mechanics..... Ok to be honest the mech is a much cooler mechanic then the one of the untamed but still ....

Old F3 is return to me. I definetly saw the button for that on the untamed - seems to be f4 now. F1 is attack target - which still should be applied when commanding the autoattack (new f1).

Did we then actually loose something for it? Like petswap again? Because currently it seem the Untamed is the better ranger.

Well from the amount of tech, skills and animations needed to make it work I would say definetly. If it also plays fun I will see on the beta next week.

So did they clarify that the additional pet skills are only for the untamed? It sounded like it is a general thing .... as even the golem had 3 skills ....

Well it is interesting that literally every class subforum are of the opinion that their class got the short stick and that every other spec is much better.

Well its certainly the spec with the most work put into. The theory that it was originally planned to be a golemancer released with ice brood saga seems to be true. Currently my favourit next to bladesworn.

I think that is exactly how the utilities will work. The passive part will probably give some buffs to the Golem and the active part will let him do some attacks.

Utilities are signets as far as we now. Means that toolbelt could very well be replaced by "Powerful Mech Command Skills". Or just the signets Toolbelt skills are called "Mech Command"

The same problem as the bladesworn then? Anet really should think about spec mechanics skins .... they could be even sold over the shop 😁

Good thing that at least the engi elite specs never disappoint. The Machinist is exactly what I expect from a an elite spec. Cool mechanic that adds to the theme of the class and is connected to the lore of the expansion .... hopefully they get the implementation right ..... Seems like i need to create a new asura engi after all .....

Well at least now the shadow arts from the old assassin are finally here. Currently the spec looks really blank buts that mostly because we dont know how it works. Actually i liked the idea from woodenpotatoes video that the Spectre (I actually quite like the name .... even if it is not really part of canthan worldbuilding .....) maybe doing big things with stealth. Like for example removing their ability to go actually invisible but therefore going into this shadowform (why is it called shroud? Come on Anet thats a low hanging fruit.....) or at least charging the ressource for it ..... which then allows for powerful buffs and debuffs (which the original shadow arts were all about) when activated. So in short - the shadow form sounds promissing .... but it would be a waste ifits just like a normal schroud (meaning charge it with dmg done and it gives 5 random skills )...... so lets hope.....

Well if we would include that open world bosses wouldnt get a single attack out because they are blindend all the time when 50 players stack blind on them….

While „A Realm Reborn“ is probably unnecessary, a „Cataclysm“ like expansion would maybe be interesting. While GW2 does not have the same problems as original FF14, it is true that the core maps were not designed with mounts and gliding in mind (because it didnt exist then) and the power creep introduced by the first big trait rework made the content extremly easy. So one expansion focusing on the rework of core tyria instead of some other unknown land I would definitely buy. But „A realm reborn“ only if its actually GW3. I dont buy a game I already own again.

Well we quite certainly know that WoW used new races as big marketing tools for some of their expansions and that it seemingly was effective as they had continued to do that. Therefore it "can work". If it works for Guild Wars 2 obviously depends on what is offered and what ressources it would costs to create.

I think maybe also the costs for voice acting is a reason why they dont do it. Not only would you need to record every dialogue from the player from all expansions with the new Actors, but also in future you need for every line hire another two VA for each additional race. Still would love Tengu thought. Even pay money for it. That new races can work as expansion seller we know from WoW, which have done that for every second expansion.