Are all the new espec useful?

[montecristo.1324]

Just wanted to discuss about this.

Willbender seems to tackle one of the guardian problem, mobility, and reinvent the class removing the support part of virtues.

Virtuoso the same seems to focus on remove some issue Mesmer have in wvw, even tho projectiles in wvw are not so nice 

 

I just don't get some ideas from anet. For example willbender and DH seems to have similar role, virtuoso and Chrono the same. New ele brings nothing new to the table, ele have a lot of combo fields, has a more than viable melee spec and tempest being boons. Etc.

 

My question is, are these new espec designed to improve classes or are just designed because it sound cool to give ele a magic sphere etc?

 

[WindBlade.8749]

6 hours ago, montecristo.1324 said:

Just wanted to discuss about this.

Willbender seems to tackle one of the guardian problem, mobility, and reinvent the class removing the support part of virtues.

Virtuoso the same seems to focus on remove some issue Mesmer have in wvw, even tho projectiles in wvw are not so nice 

 

I just don't get some ideas from anet. For example willbender and DH seems to have similar role, virtuoso and Chrono the same. New ele brings nothing new to the table, ele have a lot of combo fields, has a more than viable melee spec and tempest being boons. Etc.

 

My question is, are these new espec designed to improve classes or are just designed because it sound cool to give ele a magic sphere etc?

 

catalyst give quickness, wich will make it 10 more asked in lfg than tempest.

Edited September 18, 2021 by WindBlade.8749

[montecristo.1324]

33 minutes ago, WindBlade.8749 said:

catalyst give quickness, wich will make it 10 more asked in lfg than tempest.

Is it enough? I mean FB is way better than this, if you want to do istanced PvE you have weaver

[Heika.5403]

8 hours ago, montecristo.1324 said:

Virtuoso the same seems to focus on remove some issue Mesmer have in wvw, even tho projectiles in wvw are not so nice 

 

The purpose of Virtuoso is not to give developers headaches in the future.  So i don't expect any rework or improvements more than bugs fixed.

 

For WvW is something easy to hunt or ignorable. Also, by design, it will kill itself often if not killed by collateral damage.

[Dadnir.5038]

The goal of an e-spec is not to be "useful" but to open new gameplay options for a profession.

- Virtuoso no longer build clones in exchange for the ability to keep up to 5 dagger with them. It change a lot the gameplay of the mesmer since he will no longer have source of low damage/conditions to pester it's foes and act as decoys.

- Harbinger trade the shroud 2nd health bar and up to 50% of it's max health pool for boons and a bit of "mobility".

- Willbender lose a lot of support for "mobility", "selfishness" and offensive options.

- Vindicator is like a mini-revenant in itself, with an unhealthy focus on it's e-spec's legend. If it change the way core legends skills worked to be like the way the alliance legend does it would have truly opened a new gameplay.

- Bladesworn focus on a single weapon instead of being the master of all weapons. It's not a bad idea but personally I loath the concept of the gunsaber.

- Catalyst don't offer a new gameplay outside of the amazing hammer's ability. This e-spec give a lot of possibilities to the elementalist (through both new boons and a midrange gameplay) so players might find it ok, still the spec concept is disappointing outside of it's hammer (which is supposed to be an optional weapon).

[Wintermute.5408]

9 minutes ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

The goal of an e-spec is not to be "useful" but to open new gameplay options for a profession.

What's the point of a spec if it's so useless nobody plays it? Like spellbreakers in pretty much every game mode.

9 minutes ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

- Harbinger trade the shroud 2nd health bar and up to 50% of it's max health pool for boons and a bit of "mobility".

Deal of a kittening century.

I see cata as a less punishing option over weaver, with more range than it, and with different boon support from tempest. Personally, I'll sleep that much better knowing that DPS eles I meet now can play something that isn't in downstate 90% of the time.

WB and HB are so kitten redundant and boring though. I mean, look at cata quickness mechanic? Now look at HB one...

Edited September 18, 2021 by Wintermute.5408

[Fueki.4753]

The new elite specialization are useful, since they mostly make the gameplay feel fresh again by introducing new ways to play the game.

However, we don't know yet whether or not they will be viable (or even wanted at all) for endgame content.

 

[Dadnir.5038]

31 minutes ago, Wintermute.5408 said:

Like spellbreakers in pretty much every game mode.

If I recall well, spellbreaker was very strong at it's release.

33 minutes ago, Wintermute.5408 said:

WB and HB are so kitten redundant and boring though. I mean, look at cata quickness mechanic? Now look at HB one...

HB is a true necromancer, a lot of great idea but all poorly executed. Providing boon is nice but but doing it semi-passively is indeed boring. Having blight is nice as well but the only thing you do with it is building it on yourself which is... boring.

Catalyst isn't especially great as well, all the budget have been (well) spent into the hammer. I'm sorry but the F5 isn't exciting at all.

[Loules.8601]

1 hour ago, Wintermute.5408 said:

What's the point of a spec if it's so useless nobody plays it? Like spellbreakers in pretty much every game mode.

1 hour ago, Dadnir.5038 said:

Spellbreaker - top-tier in PvP if we talk about spec-mechanics (yep, bad numbers, but...) 
And until last year, Spellbreaker was S+ tier in PvP

So it's useless to try tell us that Spellbreaker - useless 😄

[Wintermute.5408]

1 hour ago, Loules.8601 said:

Spellbreaker - top-tier in PvP if we talk about spec-mechanics (yep, bad numbers, but...) 
And until last year, Spellbreaker was S+ tier in PvP

So it's useless to try tell us that Spellbreaker - useless 😄

I stand corrected then, but my point is still up. There should be a purpose and a niche for a spec.

[SeTect.5918]

This transformed into a spellbreaker discussion somehow but since Spellbreaker has open world solo builds...
 

And is very good in wvw, better than berserker since months...
Noting here that the solo build for spellbreaker is without the buffs by 11 may.
(Spellbreaker buff, defense traitline buff)

How to even come to this conclusion? Just because its not as good as dps as berserker in pve?
 

On 9/18/2021 at 8:25 PM, Loules.8601 said:

Spellbreaker - top-tier in PvP if we talk about spec-mechanics (yep, bad numbers, but...) 
And until last year, Spellbreaker was S+ tier in PvP

So it's useless to try tell us that Spellbreaker - useless 😄

Agree. And its still better than berserker in WvW and has better sustain in PvE.

But people often just seem to care about numbers. This reminds me of the poeple saying scourge needs a dps buff. Like 37.4k with that sustain wouldnt be enough.

Edited September 20, 2021 by SeTect.5918