End of Dragons Elite Specialization Updates

[psi.9304]

On 12/8/2021 at 1:10 AM, Kleshr.7358 said:

 

I want to piggyback on this.

 

I play and main a renegade because of how essential it is in both Raids and Fractals. Do I want to? No. I'm not into the class theme, im not into the concept, I don't like how the legend systems work, and I am sick of feeling like I can't play other classes because other classes don't have the same level of sheer support value as Renegade with its perma 10-man alacrity, swappable roads/spot DR. It takes serious time investment to setup all the armor sets, the build templates just to provide this level of coverage across game modes and still have time to enjoy the game for myself in open world and pvp so I'm discouraged from playing other classes I like more thematically or gameplay wise. I can't even find enjoyment in classes that I find thematically/conceptually enjoyable because *they just feel so much less effective and less equipped in comparison*

 

HONESTLY? I feel like alacrity would be best removed from the game entirely. The people that know about its value and put effort into including it in their party/composition typically know how to maintain its uptime, which COMPLETELY changes game mechanics, individual class dynamics, etc in game modes like Raids and Fractals where it's mainly being leveraged. These people are playing a very different game, with almost different classes given how huge the rotation changes are with alac uptime. If it was removed, then balancing around Raid and Fractal content would be more predictable/consistent, and the content would actually be harder as originally intended before the power creep when alac was ripped from mesmers and given to revenants of all things. This introduces a degree of inflexibility in the meta PERMANENTLY and is why Renegade + Firebrand are almost dang essential in PVE content across the game. Just because Mesmers were OP due to alac doesn't mean moving alac somewhere else fixes the problem. Now all those classes that have alac end up being the focus of meta composition and inclusion. STOP IT.

 

My T4 fractal team tried to experiment with different support setups. I went ventari renegade once, realized I couldn't heal at all in underwater fractals and got pissed, then during our night realized how essential access to quickness on top of alacrity was- So quickbrand or a quickness scrapper had to be added to the party, which was far less effective than just going Healbrand + Alacrigade as the heal+dps/support duo due to loss of other tools like stability, DR, protection and life leech. DOES THIS NOT ALARM ANY GAME DEVELOPERS/DESIGNERS? The game experience is significantly different with different support/healer setups to the point where the enjoyability/smoothness is hugely impacted which makes class and character inclusion/choice feel VERY forced. Why can't we be running tempest healers, ventari healers, scrapper healers, scourge healers with the same efficacy in fractals and raids? oh wait- we need access to alac and Healbrand mantras post-patch have been them so stupidly OP with how instantaneous they can poop out healing/cleanse that absolutely nothing else compares or holds a candle to it, and the party STILL needs alacrity.

 

I don't think people understand HOW IMPORTANT that 99% alac uptime is. I've been in T4 pugs that literally can't clear fractals when the renegade is a new player and has less than 60% uptime. It makes entire boss fights feel like an entire difficulty harder. Its like making a Tier 2 fractal feel like a Tier 4. Other classes... just stop working when stuff isn't coming off cooldown in time and it causes a cascading effect of non-uptime of everyone else's inherent support/output.

 

If the game didn't have alacrity, you'd have less shoehorn effect with the class meta. When you guys originally designed this game, it was about "dont bring the class, bring the player" and here you guys are realizing the pain you've introduced in having to balance around the reneg of that design philosophy. Now it's worse. Now everyone realizes how stupid valuable alac and quickness are and viability of an espec is being discussed entirely in terms of whether that spec has access to that boon or not, and the ability to provide 5 or 10 man coverage with full uptime. This is ridiculous! It's no longer even "dont bring the class, bring the player" its "don't bring the class or the player, just bring the boon"

 

You guys already did a major overhaul on the boon system in the march patch. Why not just kill all of alacrity too, and then make the classes viable for what they are and tune them to the content without making them a shoehorned alacrity vending machine and worrying about what specs get access to alacrity and/or quickness?

 

or why not just combine quick+alac into a new boon called superspeed, and make it accessible across all classes and just tune/balance the boon duration accessibility so you can control the tradeoffs easier without worrying about a class becoming too OP with having little to no tradeoffs? (such as Celestial Condi RR Renegades doing 100% alac uptime solo with full blown condi DPS performance?) if these boons are seen as essential to the game culture overall?

 

Sometimes I feel like ArenaNet just doesn't play their own game and realize how restrictive the balance actually is. It ruins the idea that I could be playing a class that I like- because I just can't. We need the other core supports all the time and it just feels crappy because its like "someone has to do it!"

 

Scourge, Firebrand, and Renegade dominate the PvE field, and for good reason. Make things viable by devaluing access to specific boons which is quickly becoming the meta defining mechanic of the game. It's gross. I wish I could just walk away from Revenant and play something like Warrior, Engineer, or Mesmer that actually fits my interests but I can't because OF A SINGLE STUPID BOON THAT IS SO OVER-VALUED AND GAME BREAKING THAT IT IMPACTS THE ENJOYABILITY AND ROLEPLAYING ASPECT OF YOUR ROLEPLAYING GAME.

 

 

^This right here, with alac and Quickness added to the game has cause so much chaos that we can't go back. They either make were everyone is equal and be on par as these two classes or just get rid of it. They have literally killed mesmer for that matter, but these two classes get to get away with it, now you adding more classes that are able to provide it still better then the class that had it first! If they want everyone do everything then make it fair across the board then.

 

[Puck.3697]

7 hours ago, psi.9304 said:

^This right here, with alac and Quickness added to the game has cause so much chaos that we can't go back. They either make were everyone is equal and be on par as these two classes or just get rid of it. They have literally killed mesmer for that matter, but these two classes get to get away with it, now you adding more classes that are able to provide it still better then the class that had it first! If they want everyone do everything then make it fair across the board then.

 

Tbh it could go deeper. 

100% uptime on all boons means every proffession, new elite and every change is balanced around you being 100% uptime. 

It's fine to have unique things i.e spirits, banners and more unique supportive mechanics proffessions can have. And DPS boons to work like burst CDs. But permanently just means Ur characters pushed 3 steps backwards. To then be pushed 3 steps forward. 

It also means less unique things can exist for individual speccs as now. 

Every speccs base attack speed etc etc has to be the same across the board because quickness and alacrity. You lose so much control over individuals rotational speed by homogenizing it via buffs 

[psi.9304]

12 hours ago, Daddy.8125 said:

Tbh it could go deeper. 

100% uptime on all boons means every proffession, new elite and every change is balanced around you being 100% uptime. 

It's fine to have unique things i.e spirits, banners and more unique supportive mechanics proffessions can have. And DPS boons to work like burst CDs. But permanently just means Ur characters pushed 3 steps backwards. To then be pushed 3 steps forward. 

It also means less unique things can exist for individual speccs as now. 

Every speccs base attack speed etc etc has to be the same across the board because quickness and alacrity. You lose so much control over individuals rotational speed by homogenizing it via buffs 

I would not even know where to begin, the changes in this game and how they balance everything is all over the place and is just a mess. Would it be better if we just didn't have 100% boon time?

[Puck.3697]

7 hours ago, psi.9304 said:

I would not even know where to begin, the changes in this game and how they balance everything is all over the place and is just a mess. Would it be better if we just didn't have 100% boon time?

If we didn't have 100% boon uptime, alot of the power creep wouldn't of happened really. 

Boons put a level of trinity into the games PvE, which some players will advocate for. But yeah being balanced around having every boon in the game does put a limit on core proffessions power. 

It would espically help open world players if proffessions were balanced around their kits and not 100 boons at minimum. 

And in unorganised play / PuGs it would improve the situation. 

It will have pros and cons some want it others don't realistically. 

 

[WhoWantsAHug.3186]

On 11/24/2021 at 3:51 PM, RetributionZero.1347 said:

Virtuoso is useless in PvP, useless in WvW, and now as a low-mobility low-defensiveness (yeah, getting rid of the ability to distort on shatters because you cant shatter without blades, not to mention them not being instant-cast) spec with nerfed damage, will be pretty useless in PvE as well. Can we please stop ignoring the major issues, and please decide what this class wants to be? If it's going to be condi DPS, delete the power tree and give more options to apply conditions. If it's going to be power, delete the condi tree and give some options with unblockable and ability-combination use. As it stands, virtuoso is not only the worst mesmer spec, but it's unfun as well.

Now im not saying that virtuoso is good, but it is much more survivable in pvp than people think. The combination of aegis, extra mobility on sword 3(this is virtuosos saving grace and the only reason i play it), and a 25 second CD on f4 makes virtuoso decently durable. When you also factor in how ranged shatters plays into damage avoidance, it makes playing safe much easier.

When building full dmg zerker like i do, i find virtuoso much harder to kill than any other version of mesmer. However it's still a C-D tier spec 

[Mesket.5728]

So along the nerfs to elementalist, the silence treatment to warriors,... willbender got a buff on their alacrity output... im dying here lol this cant be for real

[Flori.2194]

6 hours ago, Mesket.5728 said:

So along the nerfs to elementalist, the silence treatment to warriors,... willbender got a buff on their alacrity output... im dying here lol this cant be for real

At this point I really think the devs that are responsible for class design and balancing are secretly working for Squenix and FF Online or even World of Warcraft to force a few players back...

[Zaret.1450]

Ill just say, untamed buff is just a lazy balance, maybe it gets better stuff later but this one is a lazy one, also sry but sigils working on legend swap on rev was a feature not a bug, juat say you wanted to nerf it but dont think were stupid please.

If anet doesnt have time to fix ghings say so, were working on it please wait, and thats better than making nonsense fixes