Poll - Which is your favorite Path of Fire elite specialization.

[Joxer.6024]

Can we get an updated version/vote now that's its been a week? Curious to see where everyone stands now that they have raided/pvp'd/wvw'd and all that with the new elites.I am still on Renegade, I REALLY want it to work but man those F skills cost so bloody much! Pop F3 at start and you instantly can only AA for a bit. And Unyielding Anguish STILL melts mobs but I am trying to use Razorclaw more. One handy bit is that the summons stay up when you swap legends, so that's handy. Pop Razorclaw and then swap to mallyx and unyielding and yea, stuff dies.FB feels really good too, burn for days. If Rev doesn't pan out then Firebrand will be my go to as Spellbreaker is really pvp only at this point and I am so over cPS.So yea, Cave Rock...clear it and redo the vote if you can? Cheers!! ;)

[Cave Rock.4869]

@Joxer.6024 said:Can we get an updated version/vote now that's its been a week? Curious to see where everyone stands now that they have raided/pvp'd/wvw'd and all that with the new elites.I am still on Renegade, I REALLY want it to work but man those F skills cost so bloody much! Pop F3 at start and you instantly can only AA for a bit. And Unyielding Anguish STILL melts mobs but I am trying to use Razorclaw more. One handy bit is that the summons stay up when you swap legends, so that's handy. Pop Razorclaw and then swap to mallyx and unyielding and yea, stuff dies.FB feels really good too, burn for days. If Rev doesn't pan out then Firebrand will be my go to as Spellbreaker is really pvp only at this point and I am so over cPS.So yea, Cave Rock...clear it and redo the vote if you can? Cheers!! ;)

Hey Joxer, thanks for letting us know how your going with your two chosen new elite specializations at the moment, the Renegade and Firebrand.

First of all i hope for you and every other Revenant main that the Renegade gets some QoL improvements to the amount of energy consumed when using skills. I wonder if a new system other than energy would be even better to make the profession more viable, but i guess only time will tell.

Secondly Joxer i have to agree that the Firebrand aesthetically is a really great new elite specialization, but in practice some say that it has flaws in its mechanics and need a little more work also just like the Renegade. But damage wise at least the Firebrand is in a very good position within the meta.

Thirdly, Joxer you asked if i can reset the poll, that is not possible at the moment with the current way that the posting and polling system works, and to be honest some of the data collected might be valuable or interesting for Arenanet to look back on in the future. I do hope that this poll in particular gave the skills and balance team plus others that work on the new + old profession elite specializations information that they found useful or valuable and are able to a) either use some of the feedback to improve upon the new elite or b) that they themselves the developers heard some positive feedback about the work they did and can take pride in how much effort they went to in bringing them to fruition. I guess along with the good has come a few bits of negative feedback but that to can be useful in correcting some past errors or mistakes in judgement during the development process.

Largely though the feed back has been incredibly positive towards this poll and i am glad i conducted it. Plus the new elite specialization have been warmly welcomed, in my opinion and a large majority of the Guild Wars 2 community. It certainly would be helpful for those who were undecided in the beginning of Path of Fire to see in which way the community was laying with their new elite specialization choices. Plus also to see the amount of views, votes and comments on this thread is just amazing because that shows one that the game has large volumes of people playing and following it and two that the new forums really have been really successful in allowing the community to freely communicate with others about the game and its recent plus upcoming changes.

Well once again thank you very much for commenting and keep us up to date on how you feel about the new elite specialization. It is really great to see that your keen to give two out of the nice new elite specializations a fairly good go. I hope you find a main elite some time real soon. Cheers bud for posting and i will let you get back into enjoying the game.

Many thanks for your participation and support of the discussion/poll from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.

[Cave Rock.4869]

Just as an update for everyone here are the positions of the new elite specializations base on the amount of votes in the poll.

1. Holosmith - 99
2. Scourge - 65
3. Firebrand - 61
4. Deadeye - 61
5. Weaver - 52
6. Undecided - 47
7. Spellbreaker - 44
8. Soulbeast - 39
9. Mirage - 31
10. Renegade - 29

I would like to ask the community do these number reflect the communities current opinion on how the new elite specializations have panned out? Please i ask if the comments that follow remain constructive and support of the development process that has gone into them and will do in the future.

I would also like to say that the grand total so far of votes is an astonishing 528 votes up until the moment of this post. Plus a staggering 9.7k views. I would like to give a big thanks you for the support and interest in this poll. Plus the participation and comments have been amazing.

The poll still continues and this is just an update. Please feel free to keep post responses to this poll and update. Plus don't just view vote away :)

[PierPiero.9142]

I voted for mirage, fresh , strong and fun

[Cave Rock.4869]

@PierPiero.9142 said:I voted for mirage, fresh , strong and fun

Hey PierPiero, thanks for voting :) That is the 100 for the Holosmith? But sounds like it was intended for the Mirage?

Cheers for participating in the poll anyways, much appreciated from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.

[Thornwolf.9721]

Renegade because I over-all love the revenant concept, I dont think its strong by any means and wont have a place really anywhere... but the others just dont touch my fantasy nerd box like Renegade does. ( I loved my ritualist so this is as close as I can get to it I Guess)

[Cave Rock.4869]

Hey Thornwolf, I suspect that you were Undecided when Path of Fire launched, but quickly found the Renegade to be your favorite. How cool is it that you can feel like the commander of a Charr legion. I also like how legendary weapons enhance the look of some of the Renegades attacks, it really is just insane how outside of the box that the Arenanet developer have really gone to with this new expansion. If you have trouble with the Renegade and are looking for another class similar to the Ritualist from Guild Wars 1, i hear that the Scourge would be your next best option. As the sand shades kind of have the same feel. I dabble just briefly with Guild Wars and i know what you mean about the Ritualist i miss it as well. I look forward to making and trying out a Renegade or Scourge as well.

Cheers for the great post Commander Thornwolf of the greatest Charr legion around ;P Hmm now you have me thinking are you an Iron or Blood Legion leader?Many thanks from Cave Rock.4869 and Bluevoltron42.

If anyone is still in the undecided category like Thornwolf was before let me know and i might be able to help you out with your decision. Additionally if you haven't picked up Path of Fire yet, do so because everyone is raving about it and are having a really great time playing the content plus also the nine new elite specializations.

[gem.9038]

The title says it all! What's your favorite new elite specialization?

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

Strangely it is the Deadeye. Though from the perspective of power creep it is one of the worst specializations, from a gameplay standpoint it is actually really fun, and it is one of the the only specs that is balanced. It is low maintenance, simple to understand, but still provides some unique utilities that the thief didn't have before.

[Cave Rock.4869]

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:Strangely it is the Deadeye. Though from the perspective of power creep it is one of the worst specializations, from a gameplay standpoint it is actually really fun, and it is one of the the only specs that is balanced. It is low maintenance, simple to understand, but still provides some unique utilities that the thief didn't have before.

Hey blood Red Arachnid, did you want to choose Deadeye? Because it shows that you voted Holosmith. Although I have to agreed with you. I have seen so many people really having a blast on the Deadeye. I think it is the satisfaction of long range kills. Plus the traits are fun to theorycraft with and make a builds for at the moment. The Deadeye feels like the most complete of all the new elite specializations.

Thanks heaps Blood Red Arachnid, for your honest post. Cheers from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.

[Smiggles.6823]

@Cave Rock.4869 said:

@Smiggles.6823 said:Hoarding HP atm in prep for Weaver dropping and playing a meleementalist. Pve/power focussed Air/Water or Air/Arcane weaver.

Can't wait!

From what we know at the moment there will be a new Path of Fire type proof of heroics which will come in WvW chests. So my belief currently is that the past points can't be used, but we will have to wait and see the patch notes guess.

Sorry, Smiggles to be the bearer of bad news.

I play pve. I had 154 ready to go as soon as I logged in. Was immediately confused by weaver and did a lot of ground hugging. Got better once I started replacing my full zerker build with celestial trinkets.

[Cave Rock.4869]

@Smiggles.6823 said:

@Cave Rock.4869 said:

@Smiggles.6823 said:Hoarding HP atm in prep for Weaver dropping and playing a meleementalist. Pve/power focussed Air/Water or Air/Arcane weaver.

Can't wait!

From what we know at the moment there will be a new Path of Fire type proof of heroics which will come in WvW chests. So my belief currently is that the past points can't be used, but we will have to wait and see the patch notes guess.

Sorry, Smiggles to be the bearer of bad news.

I play pve. I had 154 ready to go as soon as I logged in. Was immediately confused by weaver and did a lot of ground hugging. Got better once I started replacing my full zerker build with celestial trinkets.

Yeah Smiggles, I can imagine how fun a celestial Weaver would be to play in PvE. Although I fought one in WvW the other day and wow that fight became a stalemate and then bow, into a lets go do something else lol haha. I was playing as a tanky Firebrand, perhaps that could be the reason. I am still a huge fan of the Weaver also.

Cheers for the up lifting post about the Weaver elite, from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.

[Cave Rock.4869]

As an update I also wanted to say thanks to any Guild Wars 2 players or those interested in the game who watched my video and gave me so much support. As a person new to making Youtube videos I would like to say a big thank you to any of my fellow MMO gamers female or male who were among the 1500 viewers. That is just crazy to me as I have 5 subscribers. :astonished:

Now what is even cooler is that my video reached every continent and some places in the world that I would never have imagined. Just to name a few Estonia, Barbados, Malta and Bahrain. I really hope that the multi lingual subtitles were able to assist in getting old and current players plus new people to pick up Path of Fire and join in on the fun of Guild Wars 2.

Not only that I hope I helped out people with limitations on their lives to get the same experiences as others, such as those who are deaf or hard of hearing. Deaf or people hard of hearing also needed a way to find out about the new experiences that Path of Fire would bring in an overview of the expansion and a discussion about the nine new elite specializations as well.

I am really proud that I took on this huge challenge of my first YouTube video for Guild Wars 2. In doing so I overcame personal anxiety/panic attacks associated with social phobia etc, as I was so nervous whilst making and producing it.

Also at this time I had both financial and medical troubles.

Firstly financial debt meant I had to sell my old gaming computer and therefore was unable to play Guild Wars 2, and would miss out on Path of Fire's launch :(. I hated knowing I would miss out gaming with my friends and participating in my favorite hobby or down time playing Guild Wars 2. It help to relieve the stress of real life issues for me, kind of like a therapy in a way.

Secondly medical troubles meant more bills to pay and less chance to save money. See I have cancer at the moment and am receiving treatment currently. Plus I just found out at the age of 35 that I have a congenital birth defect called Spina Bifida, which has caused me to have terrible trouble with my back and other complications. MRI bills are terribly expensive :(

Needless to say the road back to financial and medical stability looked rough and plus my gaming days looked to be a thing of the past.

With all those troubling feelings or times on my mind I still kept positive and thought what can I a little known Australian male veteran MMO player, do for Guild Wars 2 the game of my choice, Arenanet and the GW2 or gaming community in general. I pondered and eventually got to work putting together what I knew about the expansion and the new elites to make my video to help out all those who I have mentioned before in this post. As I felt like nothing could stop me spreading the word of mouth about my favorite game to others who don't know about it or the newest expansion. I knew that if I did this in the future their might be a game waiting for me to come back to eventually. I would try my hardest and that I did with the best of my ability during uncertain and troubling times.

After reaching so many people I can only look back now with pride in what I and many others have accomplished for Guild Wars 2 over the last few months. I think we did great everybody!

After missing the launch and much of the early fun I can now say I am back in the game again but in a kind of limited form running of an external hard drive attached to a 10 year old laptop. All settings set on low or off. But my hopes and wishes to be gaming once again with my friends has been fullfiled. Its frustrating with frames per second of less than 10-15 in all areas but hey I can play so I shouldn't complain.

To me that is another cool point to make is that this game can run on some computers from 2007 or before that time period. That is mind boggling to me. It just means so many people can play even if they don't have the money for a top notch gaming system. They to can have fun gaming with friends just like me even with a limited budget.

A kind friend helped out and got me Path of Fire, so I just wanted to thank that person. Otherwise I would not have been able to play the expansion content with everybody, because the currency conversion rate is pretty steep from US dollars to Aus dollar. A copy would have set me back about 40 - 60 dollars depending on what version I wanted. For my family: wife and two kids both under the age of 10, that is a lot of money out of the weekly budget. So I am extremely grateful to that person who helped me out, because I would have still been unable to play the game with my friends. During a time like this with cancer I need all the support and friendship I can get to keep me positive, happy and stress free.

Moving on, also I recently won a twitch contest that joinjess was running for a copy of Heart of Thorns. I could have kept it for my first alt account but instead my first idea was to give it away so it had an active user and to a person whom I thought would be another good ambassador for the game. An old friend I met in a previous MMO that I used to play with whom I had stayed in contact with over the seven years since we last gamed together. Lets just say that account found a good home. Many thanks goes out to joinjess for running the contest. Also when I got back into the game I had some great surprises waiting in the mail from UnityJebro, who also ran contests for many outfits etc. Those two are just a few of the great streamers who helped me to stay in touch with the game when I was unable to play. Even now that I can I still just like to go and hang out watching their streams and chat with them and the best MMO community ever those old, current and new players of Guild Wars 2.

At times you might even find a dev lurking :) they are also exceptionally cool to chat or hang out with on the streams. Additionally the devs are very professional on the forums and help out by keeping the Guild Wars 2 community up to date and informed about what has or is going to happen with the game.

I would like to give a final big thanks for the support, help and kind words I have heard from so many people from the Guild Wars 2 community. I am thrilled to see the community grow and come together since the launch of Path of Fire on the 22 of September 2017.

Cheers from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42, I will keep on fighting to stick around and continue to tell others about this great game of ours that we truly like to play with all our friends and the wider Guild Wars 2 community. It really is the best massive multiplayer online game and community that you will ever find in this era.

[Cave Rock.4869]

Hey all just as an update Holosmith is still in the lead at the moment with 112. It is the only elite to get above 100 votes. I wonder why people like it so much? Any ideas, is it the flashiness or fun factor. Cheers from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.

[LightningWolfTigerBear.672]

Mirage, hands down. Not only is it a blast to play, it's also a visual spectacle which is great because I'm a total sucker for aesthetics. I've been having so much fun bouncing around with the axe skills and Deceptions while watching phantasmal axes whirl in every direction.

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:Strangely it is the Deadeye.You voted Holo tho.

@Cave Rock.4869 said:Hey all just as an update Holosmith is still in the lead at the moment with 112. It is the only elite to get above 100 votes. I wonder why people like it so much? Any ideas, is it the flashiness or fun factor. Cheers from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.I imagine the visual effects are a big selling point for a lot of folks. Holo really does look awesome.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

@LightningWolfTigerBear.6725 said:Mirage, hands down. Not only is it a blast to play, it's also a visual spectacle which is great because I'm a total sucker for aesthetics. I've been having so much fun bouncing around with the axe skills and Deceptions while watching phantasmal axes whirl in every direction.

@Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:Strangely it is the Deadeye.You voted Holo tho.

Yeah, I figured out what the deal with that is. The poll was made on September 15th. At that time, all of the experience I had with the elite specs was minimal, and it was still during the beta. At the time, the Holosmith was the clear winner. However, after the expansion launched and I got a lot of practical experience with the new specs, the Deadeye came out on top as my favorite one to play.

[Cave Rock.4869]

Hey all I have an interesting question to pose, something that my friend mentioned last night struck a cord with me. Okay now here goes, do you sometimes refuse to play a profession because you think it is too overpowered in the meta? I guess my take on this is I play the one I enjoy the most for its aesthetic or playstyle and nothing will stop me playing that profession. Would you not or refuse to play your favorite elite specializations/profession because it was easy mode, unchallenging or overpowered? Or do like playing something that is hard to master, challenging or underpowered?

Cheers from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42, just some random questions I am pondering at the moment. Anyone else do the same?

[Geisterlicht.6083]

Meanwhile i got to say Holosmith. I love the visual effects and the general theme of the spec.Still a little sad, that the pve-balance is not quite right (yet). I still hope that Anet will fix this in a future update.

[Cave Rock.4869]

@Geisterlicht.6083 said:Meanwhile i got to say Holosmith. I love the visual effects and the general theme of the spec.Still a little sad, that the pve-balance is not quite right (yet). I still hope that Anet will fix this in a future update.

Yeah many folks seem to have a love hate relationship with the Scourge, it's the best way I could put it. While on the otherhand most start off loving the Holosmith and then go I wish it had more oomph. Cheers for the post Geisterlich. It was a much needed and on the top of current discussion that Scourges are causing havoc and an uproar in SPVP because each team almost requires two to win a match. I shall ponder on this some more over the next few days, from Cave Rock and Bluevoltron42.

[MyPuppy.8970]

Well, weaver, cause i'm an ele to the core, and one of the few no one's complaining about.

[Harry Foud.1935]

I voted for Mirage cause Mesmer is my main. I love that we get the axe. The problem is that Mirage has so many bugs and problems it's just sad. Just read that if you're interested https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/discussion/9261/mirage-bugs-and-problems-i-hope-for-a-response-from-anet#latestOverall it feels like Mirage just like Renegade got the short end of the stick.

[Ghostt.1293]

Reaper till i die cuz of GS reasons

[RedSPINE.7845]

I only play one character, my beloved engineer charr so it would be dumb to vote for the one I play. I chose Soulbeast because for me, it's the best design for an elite spec, bringing brand new stuff to the original profession but also new ways to use the old stuff, and that's what make this elite spec that good to me. I'm so sad Holosmith or Scrapper didn't use the original engineer tools.

[Redfeather.6401]

I am really liking Renegade the best. I think when the poll came out last month I liked Soulbeast?

[Agent Noun.7350]

Mirage is an absolute blast to play and I'm actually a little surprised by that. In PvE, at least, you really should just embrace its condition damage focus and never ever let go of that axe, and you'll have a fantastic time.