Pre-beta post-livestream ESpec thoughts? Let's speculate!!!

[SlitheSlivier.1908]

Here is what i think:

Vindicator: high mobility, high damage, along with heavy armor and good health. It's CDs, esp its auto which appears to have a high damage will initially make this class very OP until its toned down. Regardless, it looks very fun to play with good diversity from the other specs. Im actually thinking of rolling a rev now.  I think their skill switching between the 2 modes is brilliant. I think I'm addition to this being very very fun, i do wish that this is going to also be a bit OP, both due insane flexibility and the elite skill,  but we will see.  I think it's weird/too strong that they balanced out having 1 dodge by giving it both immense mobility in the skills and have the dodge do a lot of damage, but i like the idea of the dodge doing a bit more, kinda like Daredevil.  It will make it fun.  Im both worried and very excited about this spec.  It's definitely going to be immensely fun.

 

Bladesworn: this looks very different, and in that way very fun. I don't think I'll be rolling a warrior but the spec looks really fun and really innovative.  The gunsword looks really fun. I think there are some aspects that they have to be careful of. The heal skill seems to heal for a ton and isn't a long CD. The damage is obviously a bit concerning but it was mentioned it will be smaller in competetive game modes .  My initial thought that it will be initialed a little OP, but can be easily tuned; im more worried about the Vindicator.  I'm worried the ammo might be too easy to refill, esp pistol 5 when used with pistol 4 and the elite, which seems like a very easy, very strong, ranged burst.

 

Catalyst: i think this looks cool, but worry, like the rest of ele's, will be underpowered in almost every game mode compared to the other classes. I say this because the auto attacks, along with others seemed very weak And had longer cast times compared to other classes, ESPECIALLY the Vindicator. I think they did a good job having 2 attunements at 600 range. I really would like the other 2 to have that too, however. This is because it's still a low armor, low hp class and the damage overall did not seem all the great for in-your-face compared to... everything else.  Also the utility skills are very lackluster. For an easy-to-kill class, the defensive utilities like that 3sec block one should have a much much shorter CD and it could use some more mobility.  The 3rd skill in each attunement is really cool; i love this idea.  it appears attunement can be changed quickly, which is what i was hoping for; im hoping its faster than base ele. The Sphere is a cool idea however i wish it could move with you because ele has to move around to stay alive. Or maybe make it charge faster but tbd honestly.  I also wish the sphere did much more than it seems like it will. Im excited to play this spec and see what it can do.  I worry it has too little defense (weaver at least has a lot of barrier that's not dependent on being in a "sphere") and too little damage for close range/melee combat. And I'm not sure it's really that much different from current specs; certainly not as novel as Vindicator and Bladesworn are. 

 

On a side note, i love the animations for all of the skills. 

Edited September 18, 2021 by SlitheSlivier.1908

[Bomboed.5697]

I feel weird about elite specs of this expansion. I mean, it looks like designers put a very different amount of creativity into different specs. Bladesworn and Vindicator both have a lot of going on in them, a lot of mechanics and synergies. And Catalyst has pretty boring profession mechanic, but its new weapon looks great.
While professions like Virtuoso and Willbender look pale in comparison. Especially Willbender. What it gets? An off-hand weapon and slightly reworked virtues? Thats all?

[iKeostuKen.2738]

I dont really care much for rev, but vindicator is pretty sick. I love the idea of a all in / survival phase mixture. Not to mention it's all about getting into the heat of battle and going insane. Will have fun with this in WvW by diving the backline/tails and bursting those who are off stack.

 

Warrior, just looks like a ton of fun, I love the devil trigger mechanic and will love to roam with this spec. Hopefully I can spec this for a ton of mobility and be more of a harasser/ distracted in pvp.

 

Catalyst, while I'm happy it doesnt offer only melee capabilities, isnt anything new interms of what ele already had. The hammer abilities look cool but I'm still just so disappointed with what is being shown. Maybe after trying it in game my thoughts will change but atm just not excited for it in PvP.

[Fueki.4753]

Vindicator:

It's full of things I did not want to have in a elite specialization.

Vizu was as essential (if not more) than those two in the slaying of Shiro, yet she gets omitted for no reason at all. They didn't even mention her.

Vindicator ought to have a trait to split the alliance in two and having them be two separate legends.

Alliance tactics does nothing if one chooses to play with only Core legends. I very much prefer Jalis and even Shiro over the Alliance.

The Greatsword essentially is what a reworked and more viable Staff should have been. But hey, at least they fixed Rush and Meteor Storm, while only giving the fixed versions to Vindicator, leaving Warrior and Elementalist with the old broken versions.

I don't like the skill flip concept of the Legendary Alliance.

The traits are unappealing. There should be a trait that splits the Alliance and have them be stand-alone legends.

Alliance tactics needs to do more them flip the skills. Not everyone is going to use the new Legend.

The idea of using Viktor (without the nuisance of Archemorus) and Jalis would at least be mildly appealing to me, but we can't have that.

As far as Revenant is concerned, I'll stick with Renegade.

 

Bladesworn:

The Gun-not-a-sabre almost looks mildly interesting, but it's definitely not worth the loss of an actual weapon swap.

The dragon trigger is a mixture of FF's Gunblade concept and a pop fiction Samurai, both of which have little to no appeal to me.

It will likely be used as an over-performing band-aid to cover the gaping issues of core Warrior, so Arenanet can continue to not fix them. Blooming Fire can be used while moving, so why does Hundred Blades still root the user?!

Why does Rush have to continue being bad, Vindicator's Phantom Onslaught is proof that Arenanet can make it work better?

The traits are unappealing. As far as Warrior is concerned, mine will most likely continue being a core Warrior that's parked in the Maguuma Jungle for occasional Maguuma dailies.

 

Catalyst:

I mostly like Fire and Air on hammer, but the #3 skills are universally bad.

Fire and Air are supposed to be mid-ranged, yet the #3 skills make both attunement better when used in melee.

Water and Earth ought to ranged as well.

It's just another elite specialization relying on Attunement swapping. Where the specialization that rewards players for camping one attunement?!

The boon output on the Sphere fields feel too little, yet the damage is negligible. That makes not sense.

The traits are overly reliant on attunement swap and Auras, which make Catalyst even more unappealing than the other two.

My Elementalists will both continue to be Fire Tempests. That rarely see play.

 

[Loules.8601]

2 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

Vizu was as essential (if not more) than those two in the slaying of Shiro, yet she gets omitted for no reason at all. They didn't even mention her.

So what do you plan to do, if she is a part of EoD as character or NPC? You spam about her everywhere, but don’t even try to think about other possibilities.

[Fueki.4753]

8 hours ago, Loules.8601 said:

So what do you plan to do, if she is a part of EoD as character or NPC? You spam about her everywhere, but don’t even try to think about other possibilities.

If they shoehorned Archemorus and Viktor into one Legend and made those flip over skills, the least they could have with her is being another skill flip on all five slots.

Or maybe they could have designed F2-F5 around her, instead of just making a F2 that flips over 6-0.