Favorite New Elite Spec (Beta 4) EoD

[Loboling.5293]

What's your favorite new elite spec coming with EoD. As of Beta week 4. You can select multiple options if you enjoyed a few equally. 

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

After the recent changes to the specs... I don't like any of them.  Though if I were to pick one, it is still the mechanist.  

[Sifolstour.3210]

Ive played through beta 3 and 4 mechanist, 4 on harbringer and 4 on the untamed (open world and pvp).

 

I was quite impressed specially on the changes made for the untamed. On my opinion they have to change some stuff;

-Ambush skills are a good concept for the class and i like them all mostly, but they have to implement them properly, timers are not clear so you dont know when they are up.

-Also it would be so cool to change at least 1 of the unleashed pet skills and make them more focused on pet archetype, calling it a beast ability would be great taking profit of some of the beastmastery/wildness of survival traits out there(f2 skill will fit perfectly for this).

 

I've only played harbringer on beta 4 and those elixir improvements felt good but they need more work on some of them:

-Elixir of Ignorance/Bliss/Anguish: I feel there are more skills on core necro that outshine those and need to be improved. As an example Ignorance and Bliss could be merged into 1 elixir and grant also superspeed on the impact zone, that will leave open 1 elixir skill to work on (maybe some kind of defensive elixir with aegis and a good amount of barrier for the impact zone for more support builds builded around 5 elixirs). For Anguish remove the swiftness, double the time of quickness and add a dark field on the impact area.

    Also some adjustments on traits and skills would be great, nerfs on 3/4 shroud skills (from 900 to 600 range) hurts specially on pvp cause they also removed the life regeneration from shroud life bar, making the class so squishy and punishing roaming and decaping capabilities of the espec. Also i would love to make 3 trait changes  to make the especialization a good support and a add some strike damage buffs not making only condi focused builds viable.

-Revert back to 900 at least shroud skill number 3.

-Make skill 4 from shroud form a leap finisher.

-Wicked corruption; i would like to make it to lose torment damage/aplication on skills for added strike damage.

-Vile Vials and Twisted Medicine should be merged into 1 trait. With one trait slot open they could add something more support focused, as an example, throwing elixirs grants vigor, swiftness and recover a bit of heal on the impact zone.

 

Mechannist feels more of the same than on beta 3 but nerfed to the floor, those nerfs hurt so much the espec specially strike damage builds. With the reduction of the cooldown on mechs death they did not solve the problem, having to rely heavy on alacrity and forcing you to use signet elite to respawn the mech on death.

    Someone posted on the feedback post a good solution to the problem that i liked alot. It was something like puting a turret on mechanist shoulder on mechs death with selectable f1, f2 and f3 skills depending on trait choices.

+1 for the Untamed

Let's see what they bring on release, I can't wait!!

 

 

Edited December 10, 2021 by Sifolstour.3210

[Loboling.5293]

So for me, I had the most fun running around the open world with Virtuoso, but I also enjoyed bladesworn. I didn't bother doing any pvp or wvw, however I could see some of the design flaws, and I went into the heart of the mists to test the pvp damage of the various elite specs. 

Harbinger: Like others have said, while I really appreciate an attempt to make more interaction with blight, I found the spec more fun during the previous beta. I think if they are to remove the defense hp of shroud or not have spammable barrier, they need to accept that harbinger needs more mobility. I also miss the health regen, but I can see why it's gone. But blight needs to have more payoff, and there should be more mobility.

 

Catalyst: Just kind of meh. I really don't like the design of this class. 

 

Untamed: Felt like too much to do, fun, but not my cup of tea. I'll leave this for younger chickens. 😜

 

Specter: Adds something special for thief. 

 

Mechanist: Fun, and I like the new teleport. I'm not much into pet classes, but I can see the alure.

 

Willbender: Probably my new favorite guardian spec. Could use some tuning, better mobility, and some better sustain options. Still lots of fun to play.

 

Vindicator: Very smooth in open world, just non-stop one shotting things around me. Much better than previous beta. 

 

*Bladesworn: It's still got some big issues related to traits, cooldown timers, stowing weapons, swap gunblade cooldown, and activating dragonslash from your primary weapon. However, I found the spec, after a bunch of practice to be quite a lot of fun. I'm still sad with the design decisions for bladesworn, as I don't think warrior needed this. But I do enjoy the gameplay loop in open world pve. Needs a lot of QoL fixes that will allow for more buildcraft and versatility. Which will bring it into pvp at least. 

 

*Virtuoso: Just fun. It's a bit too single target for my tastes, even if it's not really limited that way. But going between groups of mobs and just blowing them up is a ton of fun. It really feels like an upgraded core mesmer that trades convenience and higher damage for less defense. My new favorite open world mesmer build. (Along with Willbender, who became my new favorite open world guardian build)

[Puck.3697]

Vindicator and harbinger. Although harbinger needs alot of work it's just fun to play around with 

[Alcatraznc.3869]

I only actively played Mechanist since it is most likely the spec I'll be playing the most.

 

I decided to not really touch other spec to give myself a feeling of new stuff when the expansion will be released

[Raiken.1476]

Probably the Specter now. Still like the Bladesworn, and Harbinger switched places with Vindicator where the Harbinger is now the broken mess that offers nothing over others and the Vindicator is the cool and fun to play new take on the class now that it offers almost decent damage and the skills don't flip.

[Dahkeus.8243]

I find it interesting that Catalyst now performs so well (at least in PvE DPS, although it seemed to do well in some of what I saw of PvP as well), but it's the leas popular.  Not entirely surprising since the overall direction of the spec is...well...kinda directionless.

 

I'm sure I'll eventually enjoy Vindicator, but it's still not really appealing to me much, unfortunately.  I just don't like the single dodge mechanic.  It's like Daredevil where you're encouraged to use your dodge for offensive/utility purposes, except you don't have 2 more dodges to use for when you actually need to avoid something.  Unlike Mirage, you also don't have a ton of other ways to prevent/avoid damage either. 

 

Mechanist was the winner for me though.  I really love how this spec is shaping up and is performing well despite being called things like an "RP spec".  AI has some issues, but the ridiculous amount of barrier and alacrity that it provides still seems to keep it performing well.

[Loboling.5293]

So it seems like Catalyst, Untamed, Bladesworn and Willbender are the least 'appreciated'. 

I'll just comment on why these classes weren't my pick.

Catalyst: The concept of another melee elementalist that rapidly cycles between the elements to unleash combos feels not very fresh. The additional combo field mechanic (jade sphere) is alright, but not very interesting. Catalyst doesn't seem to set out to accomplish anything new for elementalist, and the gameplay loop is pretty samey. It's hard to compete with Weaver, so perhaps by contrast, this spec seems to lack flavor and direction. It's still fun to play though, if you like what ele already is. 

 

Untamed: It felt like there was a bit too much going on, which made the class feel clunky. And even removed in part, the mechanic looks terrible. Visually you're passing around some nasty kitten, and to pull off the execution, you lack some of the tools to make it intuitive and smooth. That said, I think the gameplay is quite fun, and I'm surprised there aren't more tryhard players who are willing to put up with the micromanagement to get out what this spec offers. 

 

Bladesworn: I think a lot of people are still disappointed with the direction for this class. When warriors clearly wanted a support spec, and/or a ranged spec, they got neither. I personally felt this way when it was announced. However, I find the gameplay loop of the bladesworn really fun, which puts it as one of my favorite new specs to play. So I'm not surprised it's low, but I think it has more to do with it's limited contribution to the warrior kit, and how clunky it's mechanic is for pvp/wvw, which is one of the biggest complaints for warrior in general (that and cc on damage), it's hard to land damage with it against good players. So they made a spec that makes this issue much worse... Shame, because it actually is a lot of fun to play in PvE. 

 

Willbender: I found this class fun, but I couldn't quite put my finger on why I wasn't overly interested. I think it feels a bit incomplete. It's not just lacking polish, but it's not reaching very far beyond core guardian. I think they should look into it's personal sustain, and lean more heavily into it's movement. This is a spec dedicated to movement, like the daredevil was, I think it should feel really fast. It's fun, but it's just kind of bland to some extent. I think if it had 1200 range teleports and leaps, and truly gameplay shifting patterns, it would probably rank a lot higher. 

[Zacchary.6183]

Specter was extremely promising in the healing department. I didn't need any healing power whatsoever to bring powerful healing. 1.6k per shadowstep to allies using sword 2 and wells. 5-20k burst heals using consume shadows which was really great for insta-ressing multiple people at the same time. I honestly think it has the best healing and ressing potential in the game, even after the big nerf.