Which New Elite Spec Is Best?

[Cynova.1236]

Which New Elite Spec Is Best?

[IndigoSundown.5419]

Here's my tier list.

 

Top Tier) Harbinger; Mechanist

 

OK Tier) Untamed; Specter; Virtuoso

 

Meh Tier) Vindicator; Bladesworn

 

Ugh Tier) Willbender

 

OMG No tier) Catalyst

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

It is a bit early to call, but right now my vote goes for the Bladesworn.  The reason why is because of the raw damage it does in PVE.  It just rips everything to shreds.  Had a couple of those things in my raid group that week, and it was like playing on easy mode.  Now, if I were to give my opinion on each of them from worst to best:

Untamed: I don't play ranger, so I don't have much thought on this.

Catalyst: The worst spec.  Its own traits and abilities fights itself, it doesn't have a role to fulfill, and whatever it tries to do it does poorly.  Currently this spec exists for me to take screenshots of my ele holding Juggernaut.

Willbender: Also pretty bad.  The damage is too low and they're surprisingly frail.  These were free kills in WvW for me.  Not sure what it is trying to accomplish, because everything you need it to do the Dragonhunter does better.

Specter: Still haven't gotten the hang of this one.  At fist glance it is just an alacrity bot, since the focus on single target heals makes it pretty bad for anything that isn't the 2v2 arena.  It's quite cumbersome to keep switching between ally and enemy to build up the bar, which builds very slowly.

Vindicator: A bad example of "throw stuff at the wall and see what sticks," because nothing sticks.  It tries to be DPS and healer at the exact same time, but its too heavily hampered by energy costs to do it.  The Greatsword is cool, though.  

Virtuoso: The epitome of mediocre.  It does damage, and it is simple to use.  That's not a lot, but sometimes that's all you need.

Harbinger: Just slightly off from being a proficient buffer.  The condi damage is decent, though.

Mechanist: Honestly, I'm surprised it's this high on the list.  It basically does the same job as the Specter, except better and in an AoE.  

Bladesworn: Does very high damage, and also can bring banners.

[Dahkeus.8243]

I don’t know that any are really better than existing PoF/HoT (mostly PoF)  elite specs, but that’s largely because they are already so powerful.

 

Bladesworn and Mechanist are really well done from a thematic/fun mechanic perspective, but neither really fill much of a missing niche.

 

Specter does the best at bringing a whole new type of gameplay to an existing profession.

 

Catalyst is probably the biggest disappointment since it’s so similar to existing elite specs while being objectively worse in almost every way.  Untamed isn’t far off.

 

Hopefully they all be better before release, but it will take a lot of work to fix things

[Zentao.6314]

I miss the "all but catalyst" option

Edited October 27, 2021 by Zentao.6314

[Tachenon.5270]

I had to go with Vindicator. So far it's the one I've had the most fun playing, even though I didn't care for the DID legendary thing. At all. Still, I found myself uttering fewer colorful metaphors while playing it. Your Mad King says... shrug.

 

Runner up: Willbender, which ranks second for most what in kittenation name, right behind Untamed.

[aspirine.6852]

Mechanist and Vindicator played best for me. Even though the vindicator is kinda exactly as the normal herald Rev. 

 

Catalyst and virtuoso felt terrible to me. Not sure if this can even be saved enough for me to play either of them. 

 

Willbender can still be saved easily if they want to.  Untamed is quite similar, can still be perfected.

 

Of all of them probably the specter interested me the least, not very surprising since the whole profession of thief is the least played class for me.

[demitel.1340]

Not judging how good or how bad these elites are, but at least they can do variety of stuff. Except Harbinger, just boons and auto attack.

[Neva Eilhart.5347]

Feels like if you asked what is the worst E-spec, there wouldn't be much of a choice. Catalyst takes the spot and I'm not even maining Ele or remotely interested in playing that class outside of my Weaver.

[Fergie.4520]

None.

They add nothing to PVE endgame, except dps?

I thought we get a broader selection in terms of support classes, but we don't HFB,ALAC,DRUID stay on #1.

All of the E-specs feel like they were designed for PVP only.

[aetemes.2603]

Whoever picked catalyst....I will keep you in my prayers.

 

I wanted to pick none..but I realised I am not strong enough to face that reality so picked spectre.

Edited October 27, 2021 by aetemes.2603

[Hattarx.5947]

I think you should correctly write which new elite BETA specs is better. As I have already written, none of these new beta specs is preferable to the existing ones. At the moment I only liked the animations of the virtuoso and the potential of the specter. I think there is still a lot of work to be done to improve them all. I would have preferred 2 new classes and a couple of new weapons but I see that things went differently.

[Dadnir.5038]

So far, most felt "unpolished" so it's hard to really decided on the "best" one. That's especially true since the question is open to each players own center of interest.

If I had to chose, I would say:

- "Make virtuoso's blades work with core traits like clone does, polish a bit the cast time and it's the best spec of the batch!"

- "Make blight management a bit more interactive and Harbinger is the best e-spec of this batch!"

- "Make Willbender less depend less on having to hit high number of targets at the same time and it might be the best of the batch!"

- "Remove the allies thing on scepter AA and instead make it a splash effect that grant barrier to allies close to the impact and that might very well be the best spec of the batch!"

- "Polish the pet UI and AI and mechanist might be the best spec of the batch!"

I'm sorry Vindicator, Bladsworn, Untamed and Catalyst you don't appeal to me your designs are either incoherent (Vindicator), boring/re-used (catalyst/Untamed) or too extrem (Bladesworn) for my liking.

 

Edited October 27, 2021 by Dadnir.5038

[Buran.3796]

   My current tier:

Bladesworn > Specter/Mechanist > Vindicator > Harbinger > Untamed/Virtuoso > Catalyst/Willbender.

   All below top specs from HoT/PoF, but some can be tuned to work well.

[Doggie.3184]

Mechanist since the robot can basically replace you and you can just go watch Netflix or something.

[Antycypator.9874]

1. Harbinger and Virtuoso.

2. Bladesworn was fun, but I think it's overpowered.

3. Mechanist — nice concept, but it doesn't feel like engi at all. What about bringing back toolbelt, but with weaker Golem skills?

4. Vindicator — duo skills were confusing. It would be easier to customize that skill bar.

5. Specter — for a thief main, it's like being a sick kid, watching friends playing outside. Everyone's having fun, but I got a support class... single target support. Even if I wanted to be a DPS, I can't deal any serious damage.

6. Willbender — but hey, dissapointed about Specter? Try this new thief-like guardian. Just jump at that group of forged and... oh, you're downed? We forgot about survivability, but who needs it anyway? Ele downstate memes were fun.

7. Catalyst — literally unplayable and this is not a sarcasm.

[Kodama.6453]

On 10/28/2021 at 8:39 PM, Doggie.3184 said:

Mechanist since the robot can basically replace you and you can just go watch Netflix or something.

If you play open world only, yes, it will be an afk spec (not like this is actually good for the game, tho).

If you are a player who wants to clear content which is not clearable by pressing random buttons on your keyboard, it is bad. PvP/WvW/Raids.... the mechanist is unplayable garbage there.

[Grand Marshal.4098]

From comp perspective, less so design (I do value that a bit as well tho). 

 

1) Vindicator: yes f2 does nothing with core only Legends, but drop that and get GS with Sw/Sw instead of staff and see your dps skyrocket. Shiro/Jalis classic combo. Very strong duelist, very evasive for it's armor weight. Some tweaking is all it needs and some better interactions between the spec and core (frankly an issue with all beta specs). 

 

2) Harbinger: roamer style Necro. At least necros can now do all roles. Between the mobility of a Necro, the same access to corrupts and pressure the trade off is justified. Actually, I'd even say there are ways to abuse blight and harbinger shroud to make you far tankier than you think-> shroud gen traits and skills passively healing you all the time due to Harb interactions. 

 

3) Specter: No, not the healing variant. Condition tank builds are pretty kitten effective. Even power PD builds are strong. But they leave much to be desired, Daredevil already doing better in that department. With some minor tweaks this can easily become meta. I also enjoy this spec, so I don't mind buffing it, since it's probably my favorite and only enjoyed new spec. 

 

4) Mechanist: Would argue above Specter, but the AI will get predictable eventually. Not exactly a strong pvp build, more so the fact that it promotes the very meh gameplay of, stay on node with big drone that does too big dmg rn, and let it tank. Breakbar adding some good sustain there through CCs. Yes the Engi in vulnerable, but frankly if they weren't what would the point be. 

 

5) Untamed: classic ranger. Mode kinds weird. I am not a big ranger enjoyer anyway. Hammer is the best hammer for melee in the game, putting warrior hammer to shame. Not a single selfroot, baseline boonstrip, good interactions. Could use 1 more hard CC in the kit I suppose. I see untamed reaching Soulbeast levels with proper builds and making it into the meta. 

 

6) Virtuoso: spec meh. Pretty bad actually. I enjoy the fact that shatters have animations and tells now. Instant casts are bad for the game. The real deal here is moreso that Virtuoso can exploit core mesmer's kit in such a way that it can still be disruptive and this time constantly from range if needed. Overall in the low end, but we shall see how it goes. 

 

7) Willbender: the mobility is there, could use a tiny increase. Dmg was subpar for the beta. But the deal is, such mobility on guard will def give it some role. Then again, the synergies are a bit over the place, but I see prime willbender amongst the top 5 EoD specs. 

 

8-9)Catalyst/Bladesworn: trash

 

 

 

 

 

[Zenakou.7853]

Wars and engies are the most fun for me with this round of specs. I think once ANet has tweaked the numbers more and polished the engie golem, we're going to see a ton of new engie players myself included. Everything else is pretty meh. In theory elixirs with necs sounds cool, but in practice it's pretty terrible and boring as hell from a gameplay point. My 2nd main is a thief and I feel like we got shafted with the scepter. It's pretty lame if you're running solo content and I didn't roll a thief to be a buff bot. What I don't understand about this community is the constant need for "roles" guardians, eles, necros, and engies can all heal and buff super well. Why the hell does thief need to fit a role that 4 other classes can do? I made my thief because I hoped he would become the GW2 version of a combat rogue from WoW. Give me dual swords and stances. GW2 has such fluid combat it's truly disappointing that ANet keeps missing the mark with maximizing their combat potential. Mesmer is boring, but pretty. Guardians look cool, but they're softer than eles. Enough said about ele, it's a joke and really needs a revamp with traits and spells. Rev was pretty meh I barely played it because it bored me. Same with ranger. 

[Sunshine.5014]

So far I have seen fans of these classes (not claiming 100% love them): Spectre, Harbinger, Mechanist, Bladesworn, Vindicator, Virtuoso.

I haven't seen any fan of these classes: Catalyst, Willbender.

[oscuro.9720]

Idk how to put what is “best”. I’m a competitive only player and a lot of the specs simply didn’t work well in competitive modes vs good players, so it’s hard to distinguish what is better or worse. I also didnt play every especially, so some won’t be included. I’ll make some tiers:

 

Worked as is in beta, to varying degrees:

Mechanist

Harbinger: 

Specter

 

Was not good, but not completely helpless: 

Blade Sworn

Virtuoso

Completely helpless:

Willbender

 

Dont know:

Vindicator: I had a guild member who could burst heal 30k+ in wvw, so as a support at least it looked good. Though I never played it.

Untamed: never fought an untamed I couldn’t no-sell, but I didn’t know any of the people playing the untamed so very wel could’ve been bad players. Didn’t play, don’t know. 
Catalyst: I’m told it’s awful, but didn’t play it because bladesworn. 
 

The specs I found most fun were:

Blade sworn, Willbender, Harbinger

[draxynnic.3719]

9 hours ago, Zenakou.7853 said:

Wars and engies are the most fun for me with this round of specs. I think once ANet has tweaked the numbers more and polished the engie golem, we're going to see a ton of new engie players myself included. Everything else is pretty meh. In theory elixirs with necs sounds cool, but in practice it's pretty terrible and boring as hell from a gameplay point. My 2nd main is a thief and I feel like we got shafted with the scepter. It's pretty lame if you're running solo content and I didn't roll a thief to be a buff bot. What I don't understand about this community is the constant need for "roles" guardians, eles, necros, and engies can all heal and buff super well. Why the hell does thief need to fit a role that 4 other classes can do? I made my thief because I hoped he would become the GW2 version of a combat rogue from WoW. Give me dual swords and stances. GW2 has such fluid combat it's truly disappointing that ANet keeps missing the mark with maximizing their combat potential. Mesmer is boring, but pretty. Guardians look cool, but they're softer than eles. Enough said about ele, it's a joke and really needs a revamp with traits and spells. Rev was pretty meh I barely played it because it bored me. Same with ranger. 

It's mostly an 'equal opportunities in high-end PvE' thing. Consider a fractal group, for instance. Groups going for high efficiency generally want a quickness supplier and an alacrity supplier, and it helps if one of those can provide some healing and/or defensive support as well. It's not practical nowadays for one build to provide both, so that's two out of five slots that are pretty much fixed, and it's usually one of those that fractal PUGs are still waiting for after everything else has been filled. If all you can do is DPS, then you're stuck with one of those three slots that anyone could fill. If you can fit into one of those support slots, though, it makes it that much easier to find groups.

 

It's one elite spec that will make high-end PvE more accessible to thieves overall. If you really just want to DPS, that's your prerogative, but there are already thief elite specs that cater to that and as long as expansions don't stop again, there will probably be a future elite specialisation with offhand sword, greatsword, or some other DPS-oriented design.

[Dahkeus.8243]

On 10/30/2021 at 2:39 AM, Kodama.6453 said:

If you play open world only, yes, it will be an afk spec (not like this is actually good for the game, tho).

If you are a player who wants to clear content which is not clearable by pressing random buttons on your keyboard, it is bad. PvP/WvW/Raids.... the mechanist is unplayable garbage there.

 

[Kodama.6453]

31 minutes ago, Dahkeus.8243 said:

 

1. Most likely going to get nerfed, I doubt that anet will allow AI to deal that much damage long term.

2. This is a benchmark against a golem, which doesn't fight back in any way. People tested mechanist in real raid situations, where damage is actually present and the mech struggles in real encounters.

[DemonCrypto.6792]

The funny thing i see here is , 18 people think bladesworn is good but.... This is a beta build of the spec and the only redeming thing (dragon trigger big dps) will be nerf , so no it's not a good e-spec.

I think the best/most stable e-specs are the 3 last one, we can really see more of the work put into it, their not totally finished but compared to all 6 first ones they are milles up in quality and proximity too finish (even with their flaws, this is still a beta).