How happy are you with the EODelite specs Beta wise

[BadSanta.6527]

hey all now that we had the chance to see what the elites all  about it is time to survy , are you happy, sad , hate em ? how they compere to hot and pof . please think in general not for specific class becuse i hope anet will change stuff until the expac lunch 

[Fueki.4753]

I'm happy enough with with the overall result.

I like Virtuoso, Harmbinger and Untamed.

Spectre and Mechanist are decent too.

Willbender is a bit meh, but that's fine.

In my opinion, Vindicator, Catalyst and Bladesworn are garbage though.

Edited October 30, 2021 by Fueki.4753

[Shadowmoon.7986]

Hot and pof let us experience the starting zone and first story mission.  After the first beta event, i have not participated because i could no longer play harbringer.  I could play reaper all 3 beta events in hot and do the first meta event in VB. For PoF i could play the entire crystal desert map during be1 even though i could not play scourge. These beta events seem extremely lackluster.

 

[Ashen.1347]

I didn't play all of them, but the ones I did felt very uninspired. I enjoyed mechanist the most, but controlling that golem felt awful, and the fact that you can't use it underwater was a huge meme.

[Rogue.8235]

Happy with them.

I didn't get a chance to test catalyst and willbender, so can't comment on those.

The others are enjoyable and do have different play styles that I enjoy.  I like being able to play the same character in very different ways.  Most pleased with specter, as it is a completely different look for thief.  I'm still bouncing around like an ADHD rubber ball (as I do with pretty much every thief spec, even rifle deadeye), but the goal is shifted to make it feel different.

Virtuoso plays more like a rook than the usual knight-style of mesmer, which I enjoy

the bladesworn plays far more deliberately than all other warrior specs, which is great.

Harbinger is what I've been waiting for with necromancer for a long time.  The corruption skills kind of touched on it but was never quite there.  I relate harbinger to playing suicide-black in Magic the Gathering (you win by ripping your own arm off and beating everyone else to death with it).  I always loved the idea of using your own health pool as a resource.

Vindicator has a complexity that I really enjoy.  I love the offense/defense combination.  It's like chess in that all your moves in chess must be a great move both offensively and defensively.

I'm still testing out untamed, but so far I'm liking it.

Mechanist is fun in that I can play the engineer sideways rather than front-to-back now.  It's like a knight/bishop combination.  And iit's always fun to solo-envelop the enemy (take that Hannibal Bacar).

 

As I said, I can't comment on willbender or catalyst as I didn't have a chance to play them.

 

[decease.3215]

a few look fun... but most of them.. i would rate them meh..

[AgentMoore.9453]

I'll fully judge them when they're released, but I'm not excited for any of them right now.

[Harak.8397]

Most of them feel shallow, with very little wiggle room for exploration or any way to "make your spec your own". You are given a weapon, a trait line and go. Still some are fun ( or were fun as overtuned as they were, looking at you Harbinger and Mechanist ) but yeah, so far they are a pale shadow of what we got in HoT and PoF.  I would have said " the creative juices seem to have dried up" but then the Specter happened. While the spec isn't my cup of tea, you can't deny  that was solid "outside the box" thinking. It brought something completely new to the Thief.  Those who enjoy it will have an interesting new toy with open possibilities to experiment with.  Can't say the same of all of them though.

Here's hoping they surprise us when the "all nine" beta comes around...

[The Greyhawk.9107]

I can hardly remember anything about the lot of them, including the ones available right now, so I'm not particularly enthusiastic.

[Naxos.2503]

In general, I'm happy with whatever I can make work and be interesting. I've really had fun with Bladesworn, Mechanist and Specter. I found Untamed and Harbinger to be incomplete, needing deeper mechanics (Untamed needs unleash on other weapons and Harbinger need a different way to use Elixirs, they're too simple). Some were outright unfun, Willbender is too stiff, for something meant to be mobile, Vindicator trades off too much to gain too little, Catalyst is overly complicated for very little effect, Virtuoso is too monolithic and bland.

3 out of 9, with 2 having potential to be better, depending on if they tweak them, and 4 needing in my opinion Serious work to be appealing (atleast to me).

[Jah Warrior.9682]

All specs need some adjusting design, bug and trait wise but the following classes look the best from a dps perspective :

Harbinger, Bladesworn, Virtuouso, Mechanist & Specter 

The following classes need some fine tuning, trait adjusting and some dps up tuning:

Will bender, Vindicator, Catalyst and Untamed. 

 

Vindicator is in a really bad spot for a lot of reasons and brings nothing to the table/ does nothing that any other Rev spec doesn't already do but better. Untamed dmg and ui is really bad too. Catalyst is a mess and Willbender needs some more deeps. Theres nothing about the last 4 that make me want to play any of them at the moment. The first five will probably be meta. But we have time. Just my two cents.

Edited October 31, 2021 by Jah Warrior.9682
Grammar

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Overall I'd say that, without some tweaks and reworked skills/traits, they're the least good out of the 3 specs.  Assuming that all of the bugs get fixed and everything gets balanced out so we no longer have huge outliers in either direction, the themes and mechanical directions taken for these just aren't that good.

• Untamed: I don't even know what this does.  I watched the video and I still can't remember.  I've fought these things in WvW, and I still don't know.
• Catalyst: Has no functional role in... any game mode.  Constantly fights against its own mechanics, and its theme weapon is a blunt version of D/D.
• Willbender: Dragonhunter with more dashes, and also no traps or good F utilities.
• Specter: It's mechanics are the most cumbersome to use that Anet has ever created.  While interesting in theory, in practice there are reasons why Anet avoided using friendly targeting for 9 years.  Has forced movement on the one skill you don't want forced movement on.
• Virtuoso: It's mesmer... without clones.  That's really it.  
• Bladesworn: the whole thing rings like they didn't know what to give the warrior for another weapon, so they created a specialized kit and gave them an off-hand pistol for some reason.  It does big number, and that is all this spec does.
• Vindicator: Arguably one of the better ones, being mirage + daredevil with a greatsword.  The new legend is a gimmick more than anything else, and basically the entire trait line exists to support the new legend.
• Harbinger: The mechanic is more interesting, but I suspect that Blight will hold it back from doing anything other than PVE.  Has boring utilities, though.
• Mechanist: In all Irony it is the king of the cool factor here, which is unfortunate because it suffers from the same problems that other AI builds do: the AI.  The utilities are also pretty boring, and the trait lines exist just to support the mech.

Out of all 9, the only ones I want to play are the Mechanist, Harbinger, and the Vindicator.  Maybe virtuoso on days where my hands hurt and I don't want to bother with complex rotations.  

[Cyndercat.7615]

Overall I find them all to be pretty disappointing. The overuse of recycled animations is painful in these specs and really makes them look like a lazy effort.

• Untamed and harbinger are just ok. Their mechanics are quite bland and feel half assed.  Id like ranger hammer if you werent forced to use it to actually gain anything from the elite.
• Virtuoso I am actually excited for, but not because its a good mesmer spec. Its not. Im excited because it fills a simple to play long range caster role that ele SHOULD have got. 
• Bladesworn and vindicator both were not what their respective classes needed from an elite, war already has plenty of bursty power specs and really needed either a support or viable pvp spec and vindicator needed a more simple power dps. For those reasons I dont think these specs are a good fit. However their mechanics are interesting ideas and fun enough to play with.
• Mechanist is fun in open world and feels strong. But its another pet AI class and AI in this game is awful. 
• Specter is the only one I really liked. Needs better ally targeting though.
• Willbender is trash. Offers nothing that DH and HB dont do better and is clunky to play. Way way too many reused thief animations so much that I felt I literally was playing a nerfed thief.
• Catalyst is the absolute worst of them all. Every single mechanic it has works against itself. Its main class mechanic is a terribly weak combo field...with huge huge ramp up and a massive CD. Wtf were they thinking. Another melee spec was NOT what ele needed but if they insisted they could have at least made it semi cohesive. They just took parts of tempest and weaver and threw them together and the result is nothing at all works. Needs an entire rework imo.

I was waiting to see the elites since its the only thing I think was redeemable about EOD but having played all their betas, I really dont know if I will bother with EOD at this point. 

 

 

 

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Edited October 31, 2021 by zombyturtle.5980

[aspirine.6852]

Mechanist was fun, the rest need a lot of work for me. I know they cannot be all good for me, since I dont even like other expansion specs. But some are just so weird that I am asking what is the use of this build compared to what we have now.. I cant see me using any of them over the older ones. 

[Asum.4960]

I'm not entirely disappointed, but certainly not blown away or overly intrigued by anything either. 

 

Keeping it mostly surface level, 

 

With Mechanist I think it's cool and flashy and a good thing to have in the game, especially as accessibility option for less proficient or disabled players, but I frankly don't know enough about engie and did too little testing of it to evaluate it's efficacy or high level play desirability.

 

Bladesworn, while not quite my cup of tea, I think it's good for alternative styles of play to exist. GW2 requires fairly high APM, and while I personally really enjoy the fast paced and active combat, Bladesworn is an interesting deviation from that, although it's Utilities especially seemed fairly uninspired to me, the Gunblade and even off-hand Pistol were imo both unique and fun. Certainly has potential and thematic cohesion, for the most part, to match.

 

Specter was definitely the highlight for me so far, although it suffered greatly from bugs and especially action camera issues, making it fairly hard to enjoy in the beta. Once those are (hopefully) fixed, it looks really promising though. Great and cohesive theme, good and interesting gameplay current jankyness aside, fantastic (probably too much so) performance. I do have concerns about it's ally targeting focus though, which the game imo doesn't adequately support. But even without that, it performed well above standards.

 

Untamed had some interesting gameplay options, especially with the kind of broken CD reduction GM Trait and being able to chain disables with almost no CD felt cool, but in terms of efficacy everything felt fairly underwhelming. But even efficacy aside, it did feel like it was missing a certain something. While not entirely incompetent, it neither has a very strong or unique theme, nor great efficacy, nor a remarkable wow factor. It kind of just, is.

 

Vindicator just felt a bit clunky and confused/randomly thrown together. From the Weapon to the Dodge mechanic to the double legend, non of those defining features felt in any way cohesive with each other to me. It also has the strong disfavour of competing with arguably the most brokenly strong PoF spec in Renegade, next to which just about everything looks weak. Number tweaking can fix some things like the GS just feeling wet noodly and lacking impact, but the whole thing just felt a bit floaty while lacking a cohesive and strong theme, as well as interesting interplay between the legends.

 

Willbender for me suffered from a combination of the Untamed and Vindicator problems, as well as kind of just feeling like a more mobile but way more clunky core Guardian, lacking a certain something to wow you, and having to compete with Firebrand, one of the strongest and most interesting/versatile PoF Specs. Nothing in my time with it felt like something I hadn't done or played before in GW2, or even just Guardian - just a bit more clunky.

 

Harbinger, I mean I love Necro so it will certainly see play for me, but from lacklustre theme to some of the, if not the most disappointing and bland Utility skills and design by numbers Traits, to just far to many tradeoffs (if one can even call it still a "trade" at that extreme), there really is hardly even a spec there beyond the damage numbers in the beta. If, or rather when, they go down, there really isn't any reason to ever touch the spec. Other than DPS numbers and a single unique mobility skill allowing for some previously unavailable to Necro skips, it offers nothing any other spec doesn't do far better, without having to pay such a heavy and crippling price of >80% of the professions effective health.

 

Virtuoso, I enjoyed the Psyblade theme and it certainly has potential, but there was a lot of clunkyness they'll have to iron out before launch. Moving away from the overly visual clutter of general Mesmer clone spam gameplay certainly is an improvement gamehealth wise, but if it bodes well for the spec itself we'll have to see. 

 

Catalyst like most before just felt somewhat lacking in theme while suffering from jank and efficacy issues. Much like Harbinger, Willbender, Untamed or Vindicator, I feel like there are so many desired and classic class fantasies for those professions that are still left untapped, but instead we kind of just got thrown together mechanics with a random name. Especially for Hammer as weapon, I expected a slower more deliberate playtsyle with more "ompf" behind it's abilities, rather than the usual floaty Ele piano ability spam. Truly a missed opportunity for some (literally) earth shattering skills. It's not beyond salvage, but it does need a lot of work.

[Funky.4861]

You can't tell us not to refer to any specific class because that will really skew the results. If i'm a thief main i'd be thrilled with spectre; if i was a ranger main i'd be disappointed with untamed.

 

Bad survey limits are bad.

[JewelsJessica.5249]

I didn’t really get to play all of them but my favourites so far is: (in order)

 

1. Mechanist

2. Untamed

3. Catalyst

4. Specter

 

I didn’t really get to play any of the others, but I really enjoyed playing the ones I did, so much so that I was sad it was only for a short time. But that’s okay, when the expansion comes out, I will be able to play, & I’m so excited about it.

 

Mechanist was mind blowing. I didn’t die, not even once. I have never played Engineer as it has never really appealed to me, but this is so amazing, how could I not appeal to it now?
 

Untamed made Ranger even more appealing. I already have one character as a Ranger Soulbeast but I cannot wait to have this one too. Like Mechanist, I didn’t die. Both so easy to play.

Catalyst, I got to play a little bit & I liked how easy it was to play. It was also not easy to die *insert laughing emoji here* 

 

Specter I do like but it was easier to die, as it’s a bit too spongy. You press every attack mode  & wait until you can hit a foe again. Thief was like the Engineer, haven’t been interested in playing at all until now, but I do hope it can be more improved. 
 

I wish I got the chance to play the others, however, I’m looking forward to actually playing the whole End of Dragons Expansion. So a massive hit for me.

[Tarragon.4302]

Mez and rev elites are the only ones i liked. Everything else felt sub par but would be better with some minor tweaking.  Except for ele elite. Ele elite needs a complete rework since it felt fundamentally clunky and not fun to play. No clue who thought ele needed another melee spec for the glass cannon mage

[Caid.4932]

I dont love them really.

I think they range from kind of ok, where you can see where and how to bring it up to a decent level without gutting them. On the opposite end you have catalyst where mechanically i dont think i have a single good thing to say about it, i'd want drastic changes to 90% of the skills, traits and mechanics

In terms of efficacy they dont compete with PoF classes and probably wouldn't do too well compared to HoT.

I think they'll get there in the end despite all that.

[kaleyl.7890]

With forgiveness and no intention of offending ... ArenaNet has disappointed me greatly with the new elites and sadly is going from bad to worse.

The EOD elites seem, for the most part, to have been done without much sense, as if they had run out of ideas, forced to complete a rotation so that all classes can, make use of the entire repertoire of weapons instead of giving it a certain role or function.

More than elites, in EOD they should have focused on a rework of skills and attacks, and introduced new types of weapons that would give much more game.

For example, one of my favorite classes is Warrior, and many players were crying out for a type of warrior game that resembles a monk or a gladiator, that could use spears as a weapon (out of water) and even carry it with shield. But no, they decide to make an elite with a seedy attempt at Final Fantasy Pistol Saber.

Sorry but ... I hope the rest of the EOD content makes up for the new elite specs.

[Pifil.5193]

Mechanist and harbinger were fun because they were hugely overpowered. Harbinger had pretty dull utilities though.

 

Willbender was like a worse dragonhunter with Revenant sword. Could be good but it didn't work well with the tiny dashes.

 

Vindicator was clunky and reminded me of a worse implementation of the herald with the skill flipping and a bad daredevil knock-off with terrible dodge replacements.

 

Catalyst just felt plain off to me. Dull concept that was painful to play.

 

Bladesworn I didn't really get but I didn't play it much.

 

Spectre, I can't see being used too much. I mean, sure you have single target buffing and healing but so what? I'd rather bring one of the other healers the ones that deal damage to the enemy as well as heal a bunch of allies.

 

Virtuoso was OK, might use it in open world as you get to keep your "clones" between fights.

 

The Untamed seems a bit dull to me but I didn't play that much either.

 

All in all I feel these were a pretty poor batch of elites. They seem worse than the elites we got with HoT and PoF. Less cohesive and more cobbled together. I'm looking forward to the next beta to see what if anything they do to them. Hopefully the clunky feel of some of these is down to bugs.

 

If not then I guess it's a matter of waiting to see which they rework in the future.

[Sparrowspoo.8209]

I haven't been playing as long as others but I didn't want to play any of them. I wanted a new class or new weapons like someone else said like monk. All I remember about them is a lot of jumping around and flashy effects. I just think if they keep these as they are it will be a huge fail. 

[Demirincar.4103]

The only one I'm REAAAAALLY excited for is Mechanist; that elite spec is the reason I'm gonna buy the Ultimate Edition instead of Standard and use the character slot to finally make an Engineer.

Also pretty excited for Untamed regardless of the current issues it has (I'm sure Anet will work it out somehow by launch). I love playing with minions/pets so I was very disappointed with both Soulbeast and Druid when I returned to the game after a 7 year break.

I didn't try the beta but I did hear some talk about Bladesworn making healing shouts build viable again so I'm happy I'll finally be able to play my Warrior again. I haven't played my Revenant since getting her to 80 but I'm happy Vindicator will finally give me a chance to use my Sunrise on that character.

Not interested in the other new elite specs, I'm very happy with the HoT specs for my other characters and Mirage from PoF.

[ScottBroChill.3254]

Lucky for me my main classes are ele and rev... haha. Maybe it's because they're the classes I know the most so I'm more critical but both seem directionless and like they don't know what they're doing. Catalyst is about staying in the fight to build up stats and strength but has zero survival skills making it a sitting duck. It's f5 kinda makes the quickness it provides more effort than it's worth, with having to camp air to keep it up but simultaneously being encouraged to rapid swap attunements for hammer 3 and such. Just a lot of contradictory designs where you're supposed to stay in battle but can't, need to use combos but hammer relies on f5 for fields, etc. 

Vindicator is just more of the same. Damage+healing support. Like every other rev spec. forcing the new legend to be a dual thing is stupid because of how stats and builds work in this game, you can't really build a good damage/healing hybrid without it being unbalanced in some kind of way. The dodge is cool but just incredibly random, the healing dodge is really the only one that makes sense because you aren't going to waste your 150 endurance costing dodge to slow your dps and for damage, it's just bad design that doesn't do enough and leaves you defenseless. 

With the especs as a whole a lot of the designs seem a little shallow conceptually and most seem like they weren't really designed with a role in mind and don't know how theyre going to fit in a comp. Most trait lines seem like theyre trying to let people build for power, condi, and/or support, but that kind of makes the trait options one dimensional.

Honestly, most of this stuff could probably just be number tweaking problems, it's just that with bad numbers everything is going to feel ineffective and the specs won't accomplish what theyre trying to. This could possibly be the reason for them feeling like they have no place in a team comp. 

[Doul.9314]

Anet missed the chance to do Deathstroke for Thief, wielding dual swords (pistols and daggers core thief).

We already have Daredevil, Deadeye (Bullseye), why not to do a Slade Wilson tribute?

I am very disappointed about this.