Weaponmaster Winners?

[jaif.3518]

Which professions do you think benefitted from weaponmaster?

Rev - GS & SB are pretty big options now.

Necro - Pistol and Torch open up a lot, not sure about GS (seems like it's best on reaper).

I had fun with pistol on a spellbreaker, not sure it's a big win, though.  I want to try hammer mech, hammer soulbeast.

[SWLDguitar.5746]

Can't think of any that BENEFITTED.  Elite specs and their corresponding weapons were meant to mesh.  If any, herald, because shield sucks.

 

Having said that, it's purely a fun factor feature which will wear off eventually and people will complain for buffs/nerfs if they haven't already. 

[Dalent.9358]

I was really hoping to do a GS Harbinger, but it doesn't really do as well as I hoped in open world, so no way am I taking it into instanced content. Using Dagger on Chronomancer for my ranged weapon instead of GS is nice though, as is Axe+Shield Mirage to make battlefield control in open world a bit nicer.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

1 hour ago, SWLDguitar.5746 said:

Can't think of any that BENEFITTED.  Elite specs and their corresponding weapons were meant to mesh.  If any, herald, because shield sucks.

 

Having said that, it's purely a fun factor feature which will wear off eventually and people will complain for buffs/nerfs if they haven't already. 

Exactly. This feature is purely a novelty. As you said, once that wears off in a few weeks or so, people will see the blatantly obvious cracks.

 

All this does is having Anet create more work for themselves and balancing a class in a way where they are forcing a block into a shaped hole, no matter how much it can't fit. It's not healthy, in any shape or form.

 

And considering the balancing team's history a few months ago before this update, people should be afraid of the future lol.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Alcatraznc.3869]

As far as Engineer goes, I find it pretty ironic that despite getting double the amount of weapon it can now use going from 3 weapons to 6, only 1 of them end up being pretty good overall which is the hammer (who did not expect that one). Sword feels pretty underwhelming when not used with Holosmith and Mace...for DPS it's ok I suppose, I'm not too convinced by the performance especially after the confusion changes and it's a good option for support only because it's the only weapon available right now that can provide some barrier and regen.

 

Well this is something I've already mention during the test session so no real surprise here. For the most part Anet did not change much regarding weapons so I dont have much to say. I'm just waiting to see how the new weapon will perform. Hopefully it will bring something good and fun for a while

[Arklite.4013]

Revenant is definitely a big winner. SB means you have access to a decent ranged weapon without having to be a renegade. GS is a buff to all power builds because it's stronger than sword/sword and opens a lot of build flexibility.

Warrior getting dagger all over is pretty nice too.

Edited August 23, 2023 by Arklite.4013

[Voyant.1327]

I can tell you its not Mesmer, completely sucks what we lost to gain nothing at all this summer. 

Will check back after next major balance patch but there's virtually no appeal to Mesmer only players in this expansion imo. 

Edited August 24, 2023 by Voyant.1327

[Raarsi.6798]

As a warrior main, I'm definitely having fun with D/D berserker.  Primal strike with a boonrip and 50% increased damage on boonless foes feels pretty good.

Other weapons for warrior are sadly kinda meh.  Sword/torch spellbreaker might be an interesting meme build, but not really anything else good out of warrior that I can think of since bladesworn is too strike-focused for torch, while pistol is too self-contained and only comes with any sort of real benefit while on bladesworn.

[Shagie.7612]

More specifically for Rev, it's Herald and Vindi, in pvp/wvw anyways.

Renegade's traits and its legend are really bad, the only decent trait in the whole line is Heartpiercer, and it's not even a must have. Shortbow being a strong weapon was its only real appeal. It has no use anymore.

[otto.5684]

Rev for sure. SB is strong ranged weapon. And since hammer is terrible this is a big win. And GS as well. It is great on all rev power builds.

[Leo G.4501]

10 hours ago, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

Exactly. This feature is purely a novelty. As you said, once that wears off in a few weeks or so, people will see the blatantly obvious cracks.

 

All this does is having Anet create more work for themselves and balancing a class in a way where they are forcing a block into a shaped hole, no matter how much it can't fit. It's not healthy, in any shape or form.

 

And considering the balancing team's history a few months ago before this update, people should be afraid of the future lol.

Well, I figure the REAL appeal is supposed to be the new weapons they add later on.

I'll say this: this is a very unique expansion release. It's very tepid compared to the other expansions. I actually prefer it over releasing a bunch of overpowered stuff that we don't know what will happen to months down the line...I could also just be ignorant as I don't really hear anyone singing the praises of any new addition being super crazy OP. 

[Ravenwulfe.5360]

Revenant is the big winner out of this I am sure.

GS is just too good for any power build to pass up especially on herald, and if you wanted to round out condition builds shortbow is awesome for that opening up even a level to condition based vindicator.

[Uete.3805]

Aside from Rev (SB and GS) and Heal Scrapper (through mace), as has been mentioned, I think the light-armored classes also got good weapon combinations. I haven't tested them all properly but I think these are worth a look:

+ Condi Necro (any spec) with pistol and torch.

+ Power (quickness) Harbinger with GS.

+ Full range Chrono with dagger.

+ Tempest with hammer.

+ Catalyst with sword+WH.

As you've all said it could just be a novelty, but those novelties make the current especs more fun. We'll see how balance and benchmarking lead the future of specs soon enough, me thinks.

[Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267]

20 hours ago, Leo G.4501 said:

Well, I figure the REAL appeal is supposed to be the new weapons they add later on.

I digress, but If That's the main appeal, then simply relying on adding in new weapons as a main incentive to purchase expansions from here on out is not sustainable. Unless they are new weapon categories into the mix, and they have shown histories of not willing to do so, we're talking about a very finite way to add more options for player.

 

Just look at warrior. They only need a scepter, a focus, a main hand pistol, and short bow. Unless you want to count Trident, that's 4 weapons that is unaccounted for. 2 main hands, 1 off hand, and 1 two handed.

 

Where do you think warriors are going to go once an entire arsenal of weapons are given to them? How are Anet going to give warrior something more options if weapons are out of the question.

 

Anyway to get back on topic, I don't see any benefit giving players more tools to work with in the manner on what they're doing. The balance is going to be atrocious then it was before. Adding more things to balance has never worked out in a MMO. I never seen it happen. This is creating a variable to make balancing more convoluted. At least elite specialization was able to contain that by restricting a weapon to that spec. Since that's no longer the case, the balance is going to suffer long term.

20 hours ago, Leo G.4501 said:

I'll say this: this is a very unique expansion release. It's very tepid compared to the other expansions. I actually prefer it over releasing a bunch of overpowered stuff that we don't know what will happen to months down the line...I could also just be ignorant as I don't really hear anyone singing the praises of any new addition being super crazy OP. 

Oh trust me, something op is going to happen. It probably won't happen today or tomorrow or even a week at that.  You have to understand that when you present players with more options to play around with, players are going to find ways to use those options to make the most broken thing ever. We have a lot more varitables to consider, varitables that the balance team won't consider or realize until it's too late.

 

Players are just blind of the novelty of it all. Once the dust has settled, the damage will be shown. Or not. People tend to be ignorant.

Edited August 24, 2023 by Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267

[Bast.7253]

From the beta I didn't see any clear winners. Some things I thought would be incredibly broken weren't because skills didn't match up to the build or playstyle and traits didn't really synergize. 

Of the ones I remember, shortbow on vindicator was nice. Hammer on tempest and weaver was nice. Pistol on scourge was nice. 

I genuinely can't remember anymore than that that felt like a boon or overly complimentary. (I think some of the mesmer unlocks were good and I heard good things but I didn't quite find the right build/weapon combo to notice.)

Don't get me wrong, I think it's a good idea. I even remember mentioning unlocking weapons for all specs in a forum post ages ago because it had a lot of potential. Without additional adjustments they didn't have as much potential as I anticipated though. 

I would have liked to see them revisit core utility skills, all utility skills, and work on making them more viable or working in missing elites but elites seem to be a major balancing issue so I can understand the hesitation. 



 

[toorichforyou.6743]

On 8/23/2023 at 10:21 AM, Thevaultdwellinggamer.4267 said:

Exactly. This feature is purely a novelty. As you said, once that wears off in a few weeks or so, people will see the blatantly obvious cracks.

 

All this does is having Anet create more work for themselves and balancing a class in a way where they are forcing a block into a shaped hole, no matter how much it can't fit. It's not healthy, in any shape or form.

 

And considering the balancing team's history a few months ago before this update, people should be afraid of the future lol.

They will read the wiki and balance accordingly.

This expansion is garbage. the new player base just doesnt realize it yet. 

[Infusion.7149]

Rev (in WvW and PvE), necro (in PvE and to lesser extent WvW), and ranger (in WvW/PvE).

Condi herald can use shortbow in PvE, power herald can use greatsword (especially relevant in WvW since it cleaves 5), power alacrity renegade can use greatsword in PvE.

Ranger gained use of hammer on soulbeast making it more relevant in WvW. In PvE all condition builds gained access to mainhand dagger while all power builds gained access to hammer.

Necro gained pistol on scourge which is a huge source of torment and additional CC , harbinger gained torch, power WvW scourge gained greatsword, while core necro gained greatsword for any power builds.

Honorable mention goes to the new PvE boon chrono with fully ranged weapons (dagger+GS).