End of Dragons Elite Specialization Updates

[Lily.1935]

Specifically talking about the Harbinger.

 

I actually kinda hate the changes You've made. Like, you didn't change the traits which were the worst part of the spec and made blight both simultaneously HARDER to use and less reliable. And you didn't improve the least interesting traits of the entire spec but just kept them uninteresting and weaker.

Blight as a mechanic was perfect as it was. Being able to consume it to empower skills heavily reduces the risk of this spec and I REALLY don't like that. The risk was extraordinarily fun as this was something I had been waiting for 9 YEARS! And in a puff of smoke its gone.

 

None of my issues with the spec were addressed. Primarily that you can't access utility skills while using shroud and the fact the traits themselves are very very boring.

 

I don't mind the elixir changes TOO much, however I have issues with this as someone who plays exclusively with action cam. I WANT those blight stacks at max and keeping high blight just isn't going to be possible because of these changes. Honestly, please. Revert the blight change back to how it was and adjust the traits. Blight shouldn't be something you can just get rid of! being able to shake it off is both against the fantasy of the spec and strips the fun of playing a highly volatile play style like this!

 

LET me accidentally kill myself through my own negligence with my self destructive skill!

Edited November 24, 2021 by Lily.1935

[HeliosAlpha.3198]

So Unleash still doesn't buff the pet's stats. It only gives it new skills; skills that are quite defensive and PvP focus in nature. This was one of the problems with Untamed that was brought up on Reddit almost immediately during Beta 3.

The fantasy of Untamed is that you're working as duo with your pet and take turns being DPS and Support/Control. This fantasy doesn't get realized though, since the pet has its most damaging skills while in its regular state while the player has the most damaging skills while unleashed. This means that instead of having one DPS and one Support/Control, you have either two DPS or two Support/Control. There was a Reddit post almost right away that pointed out that the pet's skillsets between regular and unleashed should be swapped. Many people have also pointed out that the pet doesn't actually get any stat boosts from being unleashed. You'd think it could inherit some of our stats like the mech does or at least get the same Vow of the Untamed boost that the player gets.

 

There are a lot of good changes in here, but I just feel like the Unleash section missed the mark

[Dawanarth.4601]

18 minutes ago, ChronoPinoyX.7923 said:

As it says here, you only swap to the corresponding Alliance Ability when using Alliance Tactics. If this is to be believed, you're only pure Red or pure Blue now, no more mixing the two

Well that's kinda disappointing, it's not going to change much from core Revenant, at least the skill switch was (though difficult to control for the beta) an interesting concept that needed to have more player control. Now you're just gonna have a 3rd Skill pack but with the same energy pool

[The Great Al.2546]

How will the decreased hammer 3 spinning range work for air and fire, which have a further range than earth and fire? 

[suialthor.7164]

On 11/23/2021 at 11:45 AM, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

2) The two sides of Alliance Legend are most useful when aligned with matching build and gear choices, and the swapping mechanic makes it difficult to use the skills you want to.

Specific changes made in response to this feedback: Now when Alliance Legend is active, you have a 'F3' Alliance Tactics skill, which will toggle your Alliance Legend skills between Kurzick and Luxon skills at no energy cost, with a 10 second cooldown, to allow you to more specifically toggle skills on demand without activating that slot first.

3) The Vindicator perpetually feels like a hybrid and is difficult to specialize into a damage-dealing role.

You identified good issues.  However, you seem to have difficulty understanding that if gameplay focuses on avoiding half of your elite spec there might be a problem.   Does it sound fun to say hey just work around these skills we created since they are useless without proper stat support?  This is complication for no reason other than to be complicated.  Which feeds into point 3 because you will be balanced around those extra abilities.

Btw, please make that dodge replacement a spec option.  Juggling endurance on top of working around half of your elite spec does not sound fun.

[Alcatraznc.3869]

I dont know what to think about those Mechanist change. I'll start with the bad:

 

- Yeah no one will disagree that the mech does a lot of damage however it is pretty much the only thing it does: damage. Your character feels more squishy, still lacks the toolbelt skill (which can provide both damage and survivability depending on what skill you pick). I dont know if nerfing the damage was the right thing to do considering all the tradeoff you already have to pay for having a glorified pet. 

 

-Rocket punch being moved to Mace 3 (I think it's the skill). Now this is both a bad and a good thing so this will also appear in the good part. The bad part is that Mace will feel mendatory for the Mechanist to work to its full potential. As far as I remember the damage of that skill was pretty good so, a shame non mace user will lose that skill and the extra CC.

 

-The branch still lack some sort of engineer buff/support when the mech is off field. If you dont want the golem to be permanently up just like a ranger pet, it is fine however it is still very punishing (well you're basically playing an sub engineer with 2 active branch and 1 temporary branch). As far as I know, no other class basically lose a branch when their gimmick is off field (on top of loosing one of the core engineer trait that is the toolkit). 

 

Now the good :

 

-More control on the golem movement. Nice

 

-Rocket punch may be easier to control since it is now binded to the mace. A nice indirect buff to the mace.

 

-Good signet changes.Golem inheriting boons from the engineer is actually a good a smart move.

 

-Crash down skill going from 100 sec to 50 sec is a good change. I dont think it is enough but it is a step in the good direction. Maybe the testing will prove to be enough .

 

-Good mace changes. Dont know if it will be enough but still better than no changes.

[Flying.6509]

When it comes to Vindicator, legend changes seem great. Greatsword changes are fine, we'll see in beta. Still no CC on it, or am I missing something. The one dodge thing... I really dislike the fact the I'm forced into taking it. I'd rather it had reduced effects but two dodges. Or a normal dodge, the whole spec it revolving about that flashy loaded gimmicky dodge way too much.  If it stays like this, I don't see a reason not to stick with Renegade and Herald.

[customhell.2594]

Please give Mechanist access to tool belt.

Edited November 24, 2021 by customhell.2594

[Hadi.6025]

Why have you all not address the weapon swap cool down on Dragon Trigger? No one wants to be forced to use The Gun Saber after Dragon Trigger. You are forced into a Cool down.. How was this not discussed? Who are the people that are testing this game ? Amazon Game Studios? 

[firedragon.8953]

Quote

Bladesworn

Seems better.

I'd still like to see something better done with weapon swap. Either, free access to both weapons sets +   gunsaber-mode (preferred) OR removing second weapon set and replacing with with an non-interactable "gunsaber slot" in the inventory when choosing the Bladesworn and using default weapon swap. Considering you removed all normal weapon burst skills, at least allow us the utility of carrying and freely swapping between 3 "sets" (2 weapons sets and the gunsaber kit). Getting locked out of an equipped weapon set in combat feels clunky and is pretty annoying. A big reason I chose warrior in the first place is because of weapon access.

Make Dragon Trigger F1. Warrior burst skills are default F1. It's annoying when playing across multiple warrior specs and not necessary for any reason besides confusing muscle memory. It only adds to the "clunkiness".

Main hand pistol would be a nice option with a number 2 and 3 CC skill (knockdown & stun) since burst skills have been removed, essentially reducing CC skill options. Plus it would be fun to have a gun-slinging saber-wielding warrior. It would also allow for more interesting power ranged builds (dual pistols & rifle), making the warrior something different than just "melee dps focus" which we already have.

Anyway, looking forward to testing out the updated version. Hope it has more "flow" in the sense that it actually feels smoother to play. For a profession with "flow" mechanics, things seem pretty "stop and go".
 

[Iavra.8510]

Virtuoso shatters need to be unblockable, independent of view direction and either instant cast/faster projectile speed or somehow make up for being so slow to even be remotely usable. Also, please give either Virtuoso or (better) core Mesmer 25% movespeed. Mesmer and Guardian are the only classes to not have some way to achieve this without having to sacrifice their runes, with Guardian having access to it on 2 elite specs compared to only Chrono for Mesmer + everything else that guardian has going on for it right now.

Additionally, and since you seem to want to go in that direction, change Virtuoso to be more of a ranged DPS, by: Stocking blades automatically, both in and out of combat, adding ammo to every shatter, except maybe F4. This way, we can actually stay at range and might, at long last, actually have some form of sustained damage.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Iavra.8510

[Astralporing.1957]

1 hour ago, ChronoPinoyX.7923 said:

The default is F6/F7, but you can change it in the control Options, so it's not a massive deal. Once you change it, that pretty much fixes the problem (if the changes are to be believed) 

It does not, as the keybinds are not build-specific. Or even character-specific. You change 6 and 7 class skill to f1 and f4, and suddenly core rangers, druids and soulbeasts can't use their normal keybinds anymore.

It is a really bad (and very confusing) design to have some of your skills use different keybinds depending on which spec you're using at the moment. It's far better to move those to their default slots (1 and 3) and push the new, espec-specific skills to F6 and F7

Also, another nitpick, this time about Spectre: Adding single target buff mechanic in a game that's been intentionally designed around making this idea non-viable (or at least annoying) seems like a weird choice. After it has been pointed out to the devs, going even further in that direction (with the intention of, apparently, making that whole mechanic completely irrelevant anywhere where it might actually matter) seems an even more dubious decision.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Astralporing.1957

[Nomad.4301]

It's hard to understate my disappointment at the Specter changes, it's like they completely ignored all the feedback from the 17(?) page thread and the multiple other threads made in the profession forum, and decided to jump straight to nerfing things.

To review:

Specter is now a spec that can only heal a single target and provides minimal boons outside of alacrity which it will only provide to a single subgroup and is of minimal usefulness to the thief itself;

It's overall DPS will drop by something like 50% due to a 66% reduction in the application of Rot Wallow Venom;

It still has to deal with the clunky mess that is trying to target single allies one-at-a-time;

Shadow shroud abilities are still absolutely worthless and clunky;

Only 2/6 of the wells will ever see any use (why is there even a power well on specter?);

As far as i can tell Siphon still requires a target to use, which means you won't be able to use it like steal to gain boons/stealth on demand like vanilla thief and DD.

I genuinely cannot see a use for specter if it goes live like this as the only thing it will be good for are literally the two things they stated in the notes (Open world healing a friend, and 2v2s 🤣). I think basically every single other support spec including things like heal scrapper and heal scourge will outperform specter in every way if things stay as they are.  It's a shame because I was actually pretty excited to see what this eSpec could've become after playing it but all of these changes look like they're going in the opposite direction of what will actually make me want to use this. Starting to look a lot like Deadeye 2.0 unfortunately 😢  (e.g a meme of a spec that only sees play in open world and maybe WvW roaming).

Edited November 25, 2021 by Nomad.4301
Fixed spacing issue

[Raiken.1476]

On 11/23/2021 at 6:45 PM, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

 

• Scavenger's Burst: Energy cost increased from 15 to 20. Recharge reduced from 10 seconds to 3. This ability now grants Fury at the same rate as Quickness. Damage has been increased to 2.25 utility modifier in PvE only.
•  
• Reaver's Rage: This ability no longer grants Fury per target struck, but instead dazes foes affected for 1.5 seconds. Damage has been increased to 2.22 utility modifier in PvE only. This ability is now useable mid-air.
•  

Why are these damage increases listed here? Those are the old damage values, at least according to wiki...

[Burial.1958]

13 minutes ago, Nomad.4301 said:

It's hard to understate my disappointment at the Specter changes, it's like they completely ignored all the feedback from the 17(?) page thread and the multiple other threads made in the profession forum, and decided to jump straight to nerfing things.

To review:

Specter is now a spec that can only heal a single target and provides minimal boons outside of alacrity which it will only provide to a single subgroup and is of minimal usefulness to the thief itself;

It's overall DPS will drop by something like 50% due to a 66% reduction in the application of Rot Wallow Venom;

It still has to deal with the clunky mess that is trying to target single allies one-at-a-time;

Shadow shroud abilities are still absolutely worthless and clunky;

Only 2/6 of the wells will ever see any use (why is there even a power well on specter?);

As far as i can tell Siphon still requires a target to use, which means you won't be able to use it like steal to gain boons/stealth on demand like vanilla thief and DD.

I genuinely cannot see a use for specter if it goes live like this as the only thing it will be good for are literally the two things they stated in the notes (Open world healing a friend, and 2v2s 🤣). I think basically every single other support spec including things like heal scrapper and heal scourge will outperform specter in every way if things stay as they are.  It's a shame because I was actually pretty excited to see what this eSpec could've become after playing it but all of these changes look like they're going in the opposite direction of what will actually make me want to use this. Starting to look a lot like Deadeye 2.0 unfortunately 😢  (e.g a meme of a spec that only sees play in open world and maybe WvW roaming).

 

 

 It was clear that it will end up as a gimmick. 

[Zombie.3746]

Are u really nerfing range on skills 3 & 4 shroud (devouring cut & vouracius arc) from Harbinger? Cmon... Now its a reaper 2.0. This is so bad... I dont even want to buy the expansion anymore.

[Teletric.3821]

Quote

Rocket Punch is now activated when you use Mace 3 (Prototype Rocket Fist), and the mech will use its Rocket Punch on the same target as your Prototype Rocket Fist.

What if we aren't running mace? Will the mech will just not use Rocket Punch?

Also, the toolbelt is the core mechanic of the Engineer profession, why not just make it like the last 2 elite specs where the the F5 turns into the profession mechanic and we retain our F1-F4 toolbelt skills while the mech isn't deployed? The tradeoff for playing mechanist is simply too great for what we get, because we're essentially losing 50% of the utility of all our utility skills in the process. 

Edited November 25, 2021 by Teletric.3821
Clarification

[Tails.9372]

1 hour ago, Jalad Lantana.3027 said:

My impression when I tried the Mechanist was that the Mech was way OP in PVE, so much I expected it to get nerfed.  It was tanky enough and had enough damage it could solo elites, while the player sat down and watched. 

This is actually not true, in the last beta I excessively tested how good the mech was without player intervention and it was definitely below elite level (but above veteran level), assuming no upscaling.

Champions, even the ones in stating areas, absolutely destroyed it 1v1.

Edited November 25, 2021 by Tails.9372

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

35 minutes ago, Astralporing.1957 said:

It does not, as the keybinds are not build-specific. Or even character-specific. You change 6 and 7 class skill to f1 and f4, and suddenly core rangers, druids and soulbeasts can't use their normal keybinds anymore.

It is a really bad (and very confusing) design to have some of your skills use different keybinds depending on which spec you're using at the moment. It's far better to move those to their default slots (1 and 3) and push the new, espec-specific skills to F6 and F7

Yeah that's a fair point, forgot this is a game that sticks every character under the same control schemes. At this point, I'd settle for customizable UI if they aren't going to swap them around, so I can resize the icons and just click on them instead rather than go through the hassle of sorting controls

Edited November 25, 2021 by ChronoPinoyX.7923

[De Bourgogne.9642]

So virtuoso still unplayable in WvW and PvP, the only changes were really just bug fixes and more blade generation that barely anypne asked for and was never an issue. Also nerfed in PvE? Despite being just pure dps with 0 utility which is pretty bad. 

[Heisen.2315]

Bladesworn still unable to draw/stow their gunsaber? Some kitten to be honest.

[Heisen.2315]

2 minutes ago, Heisen.2315 said:

Bladesworn still unable to draw/stow their gunsaber? Some kitten to be honest.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/pu7cba/please_let_us_stowdraw_our_gunsaber/

[Every day pon.5386]

On 11/23/2021 at 9:45 AM, Fire Attunement.9835 said:

can now use Mirror Images and Decoy without a target to gain blades out of combat

omgawd! Now I can have conversations with myself ingame like IRL!

(if Clones also spawn, which may not but would be fun)

Edited November 25, 2021 by Every day pon.5386

[Alpha.1308]

3 hours ago, Kitta.3657 said:

I had hoped you would've heard us on how these issues make playing Virtuoso very problematic (especially the projectiles part) and found the majority of these changes to be so shallow.

honestly, after seeing mirage utilities sit useless for so long in every game mode, along with plenty of other issues, like mesmer traits overall, Well of Precognition, etc, i honestly never had a shred of hope left to expect them to listen at all

also letting the boon "support" chrono meta build being such a lackluster excuse for a spec, given its wasted stat distribution and total utility, actually allowing it to exist 

Edited November 25, 2021 by Alpha.1308

[Boogiepop Void.6473]

Not seeing the issues with targeting and action camera on the Spectre being addressed...