Roshyu.2987

Bladeworn I really wanted to play around with before making any final assessments, so I did. There were some issues starting out, but not so bad I felt they couldn't be fiddled with to see if they ended up feeling better. There's a lot to unpack here, so stick with me. Also, since this did take more time to ATTEMPT to fully articulate most of my thoughts, I've ended up rushing some parts so I could get all of this posted. These are just one man's set of experiences and opinions with the elite specialization, so take it with a grain of salt. I suppose I should note that I enjoyed the specialization enough to play with it a good long while, though it eventually became mostly running around with rifle and having a fiesta blasting skills like no tomorrow, which, admittedly, was great. The core concept of the gunsaber I think is genuinely great, too. This,, however, will largely be addressing issues I ran into. Traits: Minor Adept: Gun X Sword - Flow is described as being gained at a constant rate while in combat, but I ran into extended brawls (in excess of 15 seconds) with absolutely no flow generation, and since there's no generation from attacking, I was locked out of ever using Dragon Trigger. I wasn't able to discern what was causing this anomaly. Minor Master: Dragonscale Defense - This just feels...really weak. At most you'd be getting 20% protection uptime from this but...that's it. And that's assuming you're regularly using Dragon Trigger. I feel like it could maybe be merged with one of the Grandmasters since they all deal with Dragon Trigger. I would argue the core mechanic is/should be the gunsaber, not specifically Dragon Trigger, so having a minor that's related to a particular section of the core mechanic feels a bit underwhelming. Minor Grandmaster: Guns and Glory - Now this is really good and rewards timing and chaining skills effectively. It's reminiscent of Explosive Temper in engineer's Explosives trait line, but with its own spin. Not much else to say here, I just like it! Major Adept selection (All pertain to flow): I think all of these are fine. Some numeric tweaks might be in order, but it feels like I can reasonably choose something based on my intended style and each one can be meaningful. On Unseen Sword, it might be tweaked to give the Positive Flow on weapon swap rather than on hitting with the attack proc. Major Master selection (All pertain to using a final ammo round): Lush Forest feels like it might be significant ahead in power over the others here. That said, I don't think it's necessarily over-tuned, rather, that the others could be tuned upward. The barrier on Unshakable Mountain does look solid, but reducing ALL skill cooldowns after using a final round is tough thing to beat. Fierce as Fire (FaF) probably needs numeric tweaks, especially since it also has a half second internal cooldown (ICD in case I use this elsewhere). FaF should probably be streamlined to 130 range instead of 120, as 130 is what basically all really close range melee skills are. Major Grandmaster selection (All pertain to Dragon Trigger): While I don't think any of these intrinsically are bad, to have the most important selection be on a single skill that is prohibitively hard to access (at a significant level) in general play feels bad. I think this selection could do with an option to bring back regular bursts at some sort of cost if the develops feel the strict need to not have regular bursts intrinsically in the elite spec. More on this when it comes to the actual Dragon Trigger. Utility Skills: I didn't have much of a chance to look at these before the beta ended, unfortunately. My sentiments on the heal are neutral - it ties in with the intended gameplay style. The flow booster feels like a necessity if you're wanting to do anything with Dragon Trigger. The elite also feels like a must, but it's more of because of just how powerful it is and has synergy with many other aspects of the elite specialization. The remaining skills didn't seem to have anything significant at a brief glance, but like I said, I didn't have a chance to really get to these, so my opinions are pretty much moot. Gunsaber: I was really taken aback by these cooldowns initially. You basically have to take Lush Forest and/or Tactical Reload (Bladesworn elite) to make these work, which you want to because you only have one other weapon set and that set doesn't have access to its own burst skill. All skills have an explosive component to them except for Cyclone Trigger (4) which is good and reasonable. The damage on the skills themselves aren't bad, but it did just occur to me why they feel weak - their long cooldowns. I don't take much issue with how the skills perform though. There's just numerics in terms of cooldowns and damage that can be adjusted. Fundamental issues, as far as I'm concerned, aren't there. Break Step (5) should be adjusted to stop at a target, if you have one, though. It feels like it's intended to be a solid engage, given that it deals a bit of damage, counts as an explosive, and gives fury. Allowing you to stop at a target would also make give it stronger synergy with Swift as the Wind (Major Adept). Dragon Trigger + Dragon Slash: While it is comical how much damage the first burst option for the gunsaber can do, the play style is...questionable. You'll spend an exorbitant amount of time accumulating the flow or invest heavily into building it up. Then, to deal max damage, you just sit there...for 5 seconds. Sure, you could charge up for less, but, I vaguely recall it being mentioned that your charges increase damage exponentially, or something along those lines, so if you want the most bang for your investment, you want that really big burst. Using Dragon Slash also puts your weapon swap on cooldown. Why exactly? Also, it's rather annoying to find out what each Dragon Slash does while within the game. There are 3 different options and, and since they're locked behind Dragon Trigger, you won't have a chance to see them unless you're in combat, which means you may be at risk of getting interrupted. With regular burst skills, your skill is just there above your weapon skill bar and you can just see what it does (though I guess this little issue I have could be made for Berserker as well, to an extent). Is it a game breaking issue? No, but I do feel like you shouldn't have to lock yourself into a position in game or view the options in a third party source, such as the wiki, to find out what something does, the damage it'll do with your current stats and boons, etc. I feel/hope they can be incorporated as other F skills. One thing that a guild mate of mine and I discussed is the possibility of being able to move while charging your Dragon Trigger, but the more charges you accumulate, the slower you become, eventually becoming rooted in place at full power. Additional notes: I feel like warrior loses out on a lot of flexibility, which seems to be a core philosophy with the class. With Spellbreaker, warrior gained main and off hand dagger, meaning it got a new auto attack chain, 4 weapon skills, and a burst skill, coupled with the fact dagger is one handed, so you could make tons of new weapon combinations. With pistol, while I do like the skills, you don't get a new auto attack chain, there is no new burst to have fun with, and it is only 2 skills, they're overshadowed drastically by gunsaber, and I'm not sure how the other main hand weapons really tie in with pistol, gunsaber, and/or the elite specialization as a whole. Honestly, it feels like the elite specialization was intended to couple with rifle. 2-4 on rifle are all ammo based skills and the 5th skill also refreshes ammo. And this is just a pedantic thing, but why BLADEsworn? It's a cool name, don't get me wrong, but the core themes of the specialization are about guns and ammunition. It feels a lot more like a warrior spin on a gunslinger or the commando April Fools' joke.

Catalyst...oh man is there a lot to touch base on with this one... Bear with me on this one, guys. If you get all the way through, I applaud you. I think a lot of these are sound criticisms, ideas, and feedback, but it's a looooot to get through. If you disagree with me, that's okay, there's countless ways to go about remedying Catalyst. When imagining wielding a hammer and having an emphasis on melee and mid range combat with fields of power for yourself, my mind goes to significant, ground shattering AoEs and control, either in the form of overall area, hard control effects, or both. The class should absolutely reflect this and I don't think it currently does. Traits: These are a mixed bag. I actually thoroughly enjoy the concept of Elemental Empowerment as a unique buff, especially since it's percentage increase to stats rather than flat stats or percentage damage. I feel like Empowering Auras should be the third Major Adept in place of Energized Elements. That way, your Adept selection is picking between the 3 unique modifiers to Catalyst. I do think Empowering Auras and Hardened Auras should see some more attention, just not to the same degree of Elemental Empowerment, which seems much more like the core buff of the spec. I could actually see the Grandmasters being a selection of boosting the effectiveness of Empowering Auras, Hardened Auras, or Elemental Empowerment (currently one of the grandmasters) when at full stacks. This would give a strong tie in with the Adept selection, which, now, could probably be moved to Master tier and the current Master tier moved to adept. Utility Skills: The foundation for these is not necessarily bad, but I believe they need sprucing up. It feels bad for half of the effect to be locked behind using it while within range of the Jade Sphere, which in turn is based on your current elemental attunement. I would suggest either adding the current effects as the baseline OR keeping the current baseline and having a different secondary effect depending on the element of your Jade Sphere. Heal - Soothing Water: Change to Soothing Elements. Maintain the current healing effect, but have a unique buff applied based on your current element. ⦁ When in range of fire Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Heat, which causes some amount (either a percentage or all) of incoming strike damage to instead be taken as damage over time for the duration, like Damage Dampener in Scrapper. This also ties in with the heal being pulse, meaning you're able to manage the incoming damage more effectively and can't be burst quite as hard. When I think of soothing heat, I think of diluting and easing away pain slowly. ⦁ When in range of water Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Water, which removes damaging conditions over the duration. When I think of water magic, I think of healing, hence this design. ⦁ When in range of air Jade Sphere, gives the effect Soothing Air, which removes movement impairing conditions over the duration. When I think of soothing air, I think of the sensation of becoming lighter and being freed of inhibited movement. ⦁ When in range of earth Jade Sphere...admittedly, this one is hard to follow the theme set forth by the above, but running with it, Soothing Earth...This could grant barrier for each strike taken during the duration (making it stronger against rapid hits and weaker against slow hits), or providing a unique damage reduction modifier during the duration. Utility - Fortified Earth: Change to Fortified Elements. Maintain the block effect, but add a component that grants an aura based on the Jade Sphere if a number of attacks are blocked this way. This would tie in nicely with the attempted aura synergies elsewhere in the specialization. Utility - Invigorating Elements: Change to Invigorating Elements. Maintain the endurance regeneration boost, but (potentially) add an on dodge effect component while within the Jade Sphere (this could be troublesome though since Arcane has an on dodge effect already). Another option would be applying a movement/speed based effect to yourself based on the element - quickness or vigor for fire, alacrity or vigor for water, superspeed for air, and stun break for earth. Utility - Shattering Ice: Change to Elemental Strikes/Repercussions? Maintain the secondary strike on successful hits, but give a secondary effect based on the Jade Sphere - burning for fire, chill for water, blind or vulnerability for air, blind, cripple, or immobilize for earth. Utility - Relentless Fire: Change to Relentless Elements. Maintain the damage boost. I'm...actually unsure on what could be done here. Unblockable or short (.25s) daze depending on the element? This one is tough. Elite - Elemental Celerity. Oh man this thing is weak. A basic number crunch on this means you're reducing your weapon skills by, at most, 8 seconds. And the only other effect is a paltry 6 seconds of a boon (4s of protection) when used in your sphere. And this is on a 90 second cooldown? This can't be the complete skill, there's just no way. This absolutely needs a lower internal cooldown, longer boons, and/or a lower cooldown. Holy smokes. Look at this skill against Weave Self and Rebound, and it's not even close to the same caliber. MEDIC! Profession Mechanic: Jade Sphere This is clearly meant to give the Elementalist a field of power, but I don't see that happening with it as it stands. Assuming max energy, it'll be up for 15 seconds unless you're persistently gaining energy, which is going to be really hard to do if your aim is to stand in your own field of power with hammer. Things aren't just going to come to you. Recalling it puts it on full cooldown AND drains any remaining energy? Why? Give it a reposition option, drop the energy, don't make it lose energy and go on full cooldown if you recall it, incorporate energy into traits, do something to improve this. Honestly though, my call would be get rid of energy. Elementalist already has enough to juggle as is. Energy systems really aren't that fun, especially if there's little to no means of engaging with it (other than taking one Major Adept which is pitiful, especially compared to the other options). I shutter at the thought of engaging with this as it is right now. Just make a base duration and cooldown that are appropriate for its power. This thing should be a core part of Catalyst, not a chore. Hammer: General: Why is there a mix of mid and close range? It seems...kinda confusing from a design perspective, and even more so from a combat style perspective. It probably rattles me more than it does, but it does all the same. Also, I don't know if it's incomplete or not, but why does only water get a full auto attack chain while the rest are stand alone auto-attacks? I feel like if an Elementalist is going to be using a hammer, they're going to be swinging into the ground to create some serious areas of effect, eruptions, tidal waves, lightning explosions (think Thor's attack after "Give me Thanos!" in Infinity War), earthquakes. There's....very little of that. Let the hammer be an epic hammer. Skill 3: Conceptually, I think this series of skills has potential, but is currently lacking. The radius is further than your max melee, so being right where you want to be won't do anything and it's far too close for your mid range. A 5 second base duration is rather low too, even when you get all of them running, which you'd have to swap very quickly for, and this isn't Weaver. I've heard suggestion of this becoming the new profession mechanic in some fashion. What I could see occurring is that, with sufficient skill and traiting, you could start building up a sizeable volley of elemental wheels around you, then expend them all with a separate key, rather than being capped at 1 of each and the follow up being to expend them. Fire: Every weapon except for scepter, until hammer, has had a fire field, but even then, a weapon set with scepter would still get a fire field from any of the offhand options. Fire hammer has no fire field. There's a grandmaster, Persisting Flames, in fire that solely revolves around fire fields from your weapon and you don't give hammer anything to work with. Either make Triple Sear (4) a field or have Molten End (5) create one after the hit so it doesn't have internal synergy. Give us some kind of big slam that recreates a volcanic fissue. Water: This one actually feels like it has a degree of flow to it. You have an engage (4), an AoE (5, it looks way bigger than it is and SHOULD be bigger), then a frontal cleave (2, it says it hits 4 times, but I swear the animation swings 3 times only, my only gripe here really). Air: Boost the auto-attack. It's barely stronger than the first in the chain for water and is the second weakest overall with no bonus. Give it vulnerability or weakness, or make it pack a bigger punch. Hurricane of Pain (2) - either make it deal some amount of damage around us since we're swinging our hammer around in a circle really fast or make it a standard 1/2 to 1 second cast time. Given the style of the rest of the weapon, I actually think Wind Storm (4) is okay. Shock Blast (5) could probably do with a projectile speed increase. Earth: With what we've traditionally seen from the auto-attack's animation (like the Geomancy sigil) and earth itself, I'd expect a bleed component to this. Whirling Stones (2) feels far too slow for too little damage. Assuming full berserker gear and Scholar runes, Vindicator's greatword 2 only deals about 20% less damage for about a quarter of the cast time. Immutable Stone (4) should be revisited in some fashion as it's what Fortified Earth should be (see above). Also, I just realized how silly the description is. "If you block an attack, gain an aura based on your current attunement." But it's an earth skill...Was the description/functionality of this and Fortified Earth switched accidentally? Because I could see Immutable Stone giving barrier if it's allowed to finish channeling and Fortified Earth giving an aura based on attunement since, well, you could actually be in different attunements. Ground Pound (5)...oh Ground Pound. With full celestial gear and Divinity Runes, it deals 940 damage, 4662 damage over 14.5 seconds from 5 stacks of bleed, and immobilizes for 4.25 seconds in 240 radius at a 1 second cast time and 30 second cooldown. 5602 damage, 14.5 seconds to do it, 1 second cast time, 30 second cooldown. Churning Earth (dagger 5) deals 1587 damage, 8951 bleed damage over 11.5 seconds from 12 stacks of bleed, and cripples for 6 seconds in a 360 radius at a 2 second cast time and a 30 second cooldown. 10538 damage, 11.5 seconds to do it, 2 second cast time, 30 second cooldown. Overall, I think I'd take the Churning Earth. Dagger should not be doing hammer's job better. And dagger also has a skill called Earthquake that causes a 2 second knockdown. Why do both skills of offhand dagger sound cooler than the entirety of earth hammer? The TL;DR: Traits: Generally favored sentiments, but could use some tweaks to create slightly greater focus. Utilities: Keep the base line effect and have the secondary effect occur in Jade Sphere, as it currently does, but have it be based on your attunement, which is also your sphere's, rather than a single element. Hammer: General design space needs work across the board, from damage numerics to cast times to size of AoEs. For those that made it through all of that, bless you and hopefully at least some of it seems rational enough and that ANET picks out some things from this massive list.

I'm really only posting because I've run into something that I've not seen get brought up. This is just a bug/unintended side effect of changing the dodge that I noticed - removing effects on dodge doesn't occur. Goop from chak (with the associated mastery) and Feeding from eels in Path of Fire are the 2 things I've noticed and tested that aren't removed on the Vindicator dodge, where normal dodges otherwise would, but any other similar effects I'm sure are also affected. You'll definitely want to look into that, ANet. Since I'm here, I may as well throw in my two cents. Utilities and Traits: With regards to utilities, I'm just echoing what's largely been said before, but I do have some, hopefully, productive feedback. This first idea is not my own and stems from someone on reddit, but it does tie in with my issue of a single F skill (other than legend swap), which I find sad given that Renegade had 3. The idea in question though is that you have different F skills to swap all utilities to one legendary or the other - Archemorus and Saint Viktor. You could still maintain the full flip where they all just swap to whatever the other skill is. My own idea would be that you effectively combine each skill within a given slot, have base line effects for each, and have a set of major traits that controls if they boost the offensive aspect, the support aspect, or hybridize for a moderate amount. Personally, I think this philosophy would tie in soundly with the current grandmasters, as they follow this scheme, which was even pointed out during the livestream. Additionally, I think it would fit better with the general theme of the legendary alliance. Having separate skills for each feels like they're isolated, rather than working together, especially since they have cooldowns affecting both simultaneously as well. With this though, if it were implemented, I would probably move the dodge majors to the master tier, have these new majors be the grandmasters, and have the current masters (the ones that affect endurance generation) become the adepts. Greatsword: I don't have much to say here, but it is growing one me. I'm thinking I will grow to like it more, especially if improvements are made to the rest of Vindicator as a whole to make it a more cohesive package. I absolutely love the sound effect on Imperial Guard (GS4, the block). Modified dodge: As a base line concept, I like it, but, as mentioned at the very start, it needs to function as a normal dodge for certain things and it still needs tweaking. I'm not sure where others stand, but it could probably bear to be shortened - you're in the animation for at least 3 seconds. For better or worse, that's really all I have on it right now.

First time actually posting on the forums...ever. I normally wouldn't, but I definitely want my voice to be heard on these elite specs. Hopefully I'll get around to doing Virtuoso. Context: I'm a raider that plays a lot of PvE, sometimes plays WvW (when I do, which is typically every few weeks or months, I tend to binge), and has touched PvP only every now and again (played the 3v3 season, and before that, it's been like 2 years since I last played). I would consider myself a necro main, both reaper and scourge - if I need something done in open world, especially anything hard, they're my go to. I was actually very skeptical of Harbinger. I was hoping for hammer or shield, pistol seemed outlandish to me. I'm not sure what I was expecting in the shroud. Obviously, we've still got more time to spend with these elite specs and more to learn, so this is just a preliminary review of my experience as of the first day and thoughts may not be fully composed. I may have more thoughts later with more play testing. Apologies if there are any minor errors. It's 2:50 a.m. and the brain and eyes are starting to get tired. Traits: For the most part, I do like the idea of a point in each tier being for a different archetype. The big drawback here is the loss of some potentially more unique traits. That said, I think trying to incorporate power into Harbinger is a mistake and that those individual points could be used on another form of utility. I'd consider Reaper the go to for power, especially as we've seen it dive harder into that field and cut back on condi with Scourge's introduction. I feel Scourge and Harbinger have opportunities to go back and forth with each other as condi and support specs, each filling different niches for both of those archetypes. If we're sticking with having a power component to Harbinger, however, I would say give the power Adept a secondary component like the condi Adept has to make it feel more significant. For raiding purposes, I do like the condi Grandmaster, but I can definitely understand the pain point of it being melee when so much else is very much ranged. Also, it feels a bit much like Desert Shroud on Scourge, except that you have to trait for it. At a personal level, I like the condi trait options. I've not played enough with the power options to say much else on them. I do like the option of Harbinger being a boon support to contrast the Scourge's barrier/healing support. Utility Skills: I agree with the general consensus that the Elixirs are bland. They definitely need some flare. They cover all of the bases and aren't bad in that regard. One or two to supplement a build definitely isn't bad in my book. I don't really know how to improve upon their lackluster given that they aren't really BAD per se, just...meh. Ambition (elite) is crazy and I do love it. I feel like Anguish could do something else since we have the Quickness Grandmaster trait. I really don't have much helpful feedback on the Elixirs, unfortunately. Harbinger Shroud: I absolutely love the feel of skills 1 and 2. 3 and 4 feel out of place on what feels like a ranged dominate specialization. One or the other would be fine, but having 2 movement skills feels silly, to be frank. I'm not sure what aspect to tweak on it, but I feel skill 5 could use some sort of adjustment. Pistol: Having initially been very skeptical, I'm pleasantly surprised with how pistol has been handled. I'm not sure what kind of flare people want from a pistol. There's only so much to be done with a gun. It honestly feels nice to be able to swap main-hands (scepter and pistol) rather than off-hands or no swapping at all. A different weapon might have been in order, but as of now, I have no complaints. Blight: This definitely seems to be divisive from what I've seen. As of the time of writing this, I don't have any significant qualms. However, I did expect to see more interaction between Blight and skills/traits. The only means of stacking are entering shroud and using Elixirs, if I recall. And the only means by which they fall off is by duration. I feel like their should be more interfacing with the mechanic in some fashion, ranging from certain tiers of Blight affecting skills/traits like Holosmith with Heat, to more varied ways to add or remove Blight, with removing having some sort of cost or bonus, depending on how that aspect is viewed. Miscellaneous: While it is certainly fun to see DPS in the 35-36k range on the golem, the drawbacks to meet that end feel far to heavy when compared to getting 31-32k with Scourge, which is infinitely safer and has a lot of built in utility without additional investment. Edit 1: Traits: Deathly Haste, the quickness grandmaster, while I like it, is very reminiscent of Reaper. I think one or the other could use more identity. When thinking about what I wanted to see from a boon spec for Harbinger, I wanted to see alacrity, not quickness.