Speculation...what do "the people" think will be the strongest, or even just most fun class\build with the patch on Feb 27

[Geoff Fey.1035]

Given there was almost no changes from EoD-Beta3 --> Launch, my guess is what we saw with SotO-Weaponmaster-Beta is going to be exactly how it looks at launch, with a patch re-tuning it all in May 2024 with the final content drop for SotO

[Every day pon.5386]

Guardian because imba bias per usual

[bq pd.2148]

On 2/2/2024 at 8:15 PM, Geoff Fey.1035 said:

Given there was almost no changes from EoD-Beta3 --> Launch, my guess is what we saw with SotO-Weaponmaster-Beta is going to be exactly how it looks at launch, with a patch re-tuning it all in May 2024 with the final content drop for SotO

since Tuesday (i think) the rev scepter skills have been changed in the hero panel, they are the only class with icons for these skills now and for example scepter 3 is no longer an upkeep skill but 8s (12s in WvW) cooldown skill with 7s duration, boons/conditions dont apply every 3 seconds but every second and still only 5 energy.  however the barrier on 3rd AA has been lowered a bit. 
so some changes seem to come since beta.

for the scepter itself: my rev would like the now changed scepter for healing in WvW, but i think along with rifle for mesmer that will just worsen current disparities in larger scale, putting an even greater focus on numbers and coordination over individual player capabilities, as it requires multiple people coordinating to down a supported player with the current lack of damage.
 

as for the topic: personally i would bet on anet overbuffing necro swords after the many complains for lacking impact on the skills, especially for a health cost that i expect to get reduced or changed so that their dream of power harbinger can come true. thus i expect to have a lot of fun with those.

[Dadnir.5038]

3 hours ago, bq pd.2148 said:

so that their dream of power harbinger can come true.

It's a vain dream.

They should give up this "dream" of theirs and rework the "power traits" into traits that introduce meaningful choices to the e-spec. It would be a better use of the balance team work time.

The only thing that Swords can add to "power harbinger" is to much sustain. Something that condi harbinger already have by the way.

The balance team puting serious work on Harbinger is overdue (they barely even touched it since it's release) and i'm not just talking about "power harbinger". All 3 lines of the harbinger traitline need work while Elixirs are uselessly bloated and needlessly necessary for the spec to work.

[Zzik.5873]

Engi shortbow is pretty boring to play and its even useless. I still hope for a total rework from the ground up. Not intrested in a mortar 2.0 with extra step.

[Teknomancer.4895]

I predict that the "strongest, or even just most fun class\build" will be (insert your most-hated class here), while everyone complains about how (insert your favorite here) got no love from ANet.  😆

[oscuro.9720]

On 1/22/2024 at 11:53 AM, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

Looking forward to guardian pistols.

Looking forward to seeing how the screw up support on warrior.

To me, staff warrior is already a win. I fully expect the numbers to be ducked up because that happens very frequently for Warrior (and not entirely to the fault of the balance team, Warrior is a very unique class in this game which makes it more difficult to balance).

However, staff as a weapon is fun to play, and at the end of the day that is the single most important factor when something new is coming out. Is it fun? I like playing fun things on the game I play for fun. Then being good is a plus.  

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

51 minutes ago, oscuro.9720 said:

To me, staff warrior is already a win. I fully expect the numbers to be ducked up because that happens very frequently for Warrior (and not entirely to the fault of the balance team, Warrior is a very unique class in this game which makes it more difficult to balance).

However, staff as a weapon is fun to play, and at the end of the day that is the single most important factor when something new is coming out. Is it fun? I like playing fun things on the game I play for fun. Then being good is a plus.  

Oh, it was fun, and it will become one of those weapons that warriors carry around because it is fun and useful. I do suspect that Anet will over correct on the numbers though.

[Atomnium.1532]

Assuming no change since BETA and speaking about PvE :

• Scepter Heal herald is pretty much broken, with about double the barrier that the Mechanist mace provided before a salvo of 3 nerfs. We are talking about 13k+ permanent barrier from pressing 1 and 2 and nothing else, obviously while providing about every boon in the game but alacrity with the highest boon range and the highest permanent ticking healing through the best healing% bonus of all classes and specs. Basically imagine current herald but is generating 3k barrier/sec. It also does more dps than sword by again spamming 1 and 2. Basically, the beta version is the best power weapon and the best healer weapon combined. It aint staying like that but still the most promising weapon.
• Chrono heal is probably gonna be very strong too adding even more tools to an already solid healer
• Pistol Guardian is likely the most fun and useful weapon in the dps department as it provides a lacking weapon swap to condi builds.
• Axe thief is getting nerfed, let's be honest it's just happening, the game won't go to let's have 67k dps right now. And the gameplay is actually very resident sleeper.
• Ranger mace is a decent addition to the support kit in particular but generally a cool weapon.
• Warrior staff is decent, might be very fun but really I don't see warrior butting into the support role with the terrible healing and boons it provides, might end up being another power weapon so meh.
• The other 2 weapons are practically unusable garbage, the engineer bow should basically go back to the drawing board or to the trash bin altogether as it has literrally no build where it would be a good idea to use it ever...except... afk botting... I'm guessing it's a PvP or WvW weapon(this is still probably a stretch too) and the 'new necro power weapon' does less damage than dagger auto attacks when using perfectly every single sword button, so after tuning maybe, but in the meantime it is just one more dead weapon in the necro arsenal, joinining the axe in both function and efficacy.

 

Edited February 14 by Atomnium.1532

[Dadnir.5038]

4 hours ago, Atomnium.1532 said:

Assuming no change since BETA and speaking about PvE :

• Scepter Heal herald is pretty much broken, with about double the barrier that the Mechanist mace provided before a salvo of 3 nerfs. We are talking about 5k+ permanent barrier from pressing 1 and 2 and nothing else, obviously while providing about every boon in the game but alacrity with the highest boon range and the highest permanent ticking healing through the best healing% bonus of all classes and specs. Basically imagine current herald but is generating 3k barrier/sec.
• Chrono heal is probably gonna be very strong too adding even more tools to an already solid healer
• Pistol Guardian is likely the most fun and useful weapon in the dps department as it provides a lacking weapon swap to condi builds.
• Axe thief is getting nerfed, let's be honest it's just happening, the game won't go to let's have 67k dps right now. And the gameplay is actually very resident sleeper.
• Ranger mace is a decent addition to the support kit in particular but generally a cool weapon.
• Warrior staff is decent, might be very fun but really I don't see warrior butting into the support role with the terrible healing and boons it provides, might end up being another power weapon so meh.
• The other 2 weapons are practically unusable garbage, the engineer bow should basically go back to the drawing board or to the trash bin altogether as it has literrally no build where it would be a good idea to use it ever...except... afk botting... I'm guessing it's a PvP or WvW weapon(this is still probably a stretch too) and the 'new necro power weapon' does less damage than dagger auto attacks when using perfectly every single sword button, so after tuning maybe, but in the meantime it is just one more dead weapon in the necro arsenal, joinining the axe in both function and efficacy.

 

Elementalist's pistol was so bad that you managed to forget it.

[Atomnium.1532]

Ele what ? Don't know what you talking about

[Drag You Down.2615]

On 1/25/2024 at 7:48 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

Engineer shortbow: Bleh. I mean, stealing energy from other professions is an interesting concept, but I could just play those professions, they could have found something that's more uniquely engineer. It's gimmicky, in a manner more suited to kits than a base weapon on a profession without a weaponswap. Mace/shield is already a functional support set, and shortbow isn't suited to supporting mobile combat, so it's going to be hard for both sets to have a place without one choking out the other. This one isn't just bad, it potentially makes Engineer worse simply because ArenaNet is likely to try to force people to use it.

OMG don't scare me, I am terrified now when you say Anet is going to force us using it.

TBH, if engi can do weapon swap, I will TRY my best to like this shortbow. But if I have to give up Mace/Shield for shortbow, as a support, I will lose tons of boon uptime, CC and utilities. The ONLY thing shortbow can do that m/s cannot do is direct healing. But with that 180 radius tiny circles and terrible detonation, no one can catch my healing. From the point I start to drop my 2345 to the point I detonate will take 1.5 to 2 secs even with quickness, this is really not helpful.

[Drag You Down.2615]

On 1/30/2024 at 10:13 AM, Dadnir.5038 said:

On another hand healsworn be like: "You're almost dead? Wait a minute I'm about to release my burst for alacrity, I'll heal you after..."

Sigh, healbreaker is still a daydream. I still don't understand why they gave alac to bladesworn instead of spellbreaker since it already has some support aspects in its design and lore. And the fact is that bladesworn will never be able to heal, because of that long charging time of its core mechanic, and they put the alac on this dragon trigger thing is just making it even more impossible to be a healer.

[Drag You Down.2615]

On 2/8/2024 at 10:00 AM, oscuro.9720 said:

To me, staff warrior is already a win. I fully expect the numbers to be ducked up because that happens very frequently for Warrior (and not entirely to the fault of the balance team, Warrior is a very unique class in this game which makes it more difficult to balance).

However, staff as a weapon is fun to play, and at the end of the day that is the single most important factor when something new is coming out. Is it fun? I like playing fun things on the game I play for fun. Then being good is a plus.  

I do think Warrior's staff is very strong, probably one of the strongest weapon in this patch in terms of support and utility. You can achieve perma duration for most boons on berserker.

But I also think that warrior healer will still be weaker than other supports. I do expect they nerf the staff a bit to make it in the same level with guardian's staff, revenant's staff and druid's staff, but buff its traits. Tactics is way too weak compared to Necro's blood magic, Rev's salvation, Guardian's honor. Engi and mesmer even have 2 supportive trait lines. Marching order is one of the worst traits in the game. Warrior elite specs also don't have the enough supportive traits to compensate this unevenness, like how specter and druid do.

No matter how staff is having crazy utilities and healing, it cannot even out the differences between the good traits and bad (relatively underwhelming or unable to interact) traits.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

I just hope the devs take our feedback to heart. Guardian pistols were fun, but the skills had some serious mechanical flaws that limited the weapons. The mesmer rifle was inspiring but could use some animation and mechanical polish. Other weapons needed more adjustments, and it would be a shame if they went live without fixes. 

[Joxer.6024]

8 hours ago, Gaiawolf.8261 said:

I just hope the devs take our feedback to heart. Guardian pistols were fun, but the skills had some serious mechanical flaws that limited the weapons. The mesmer rifle was inspiring but could use some animation and mechanical polish. Other weapons needed more adjustments, and it would be a shame if they went live without fixes. 

totally this! nailed it, now lets hope that ANET does listen............

[oscuro.9720]

19 hours ago, Drag You Down.2615 said:

I do think Warrior's staff is very strong, probably one of the strongest weapon in this patch in terms of support and utility. You can achieve perma duration for most boons on berserker.

But I also think that warrior healer will still be weaker than other supports. I do expect they nerf the staff a bit to make it in the same level with guardian's staff, revenant's staff and druid's staff, but buff its traits. Tactics is way too weak compared to Necro's blood magic, Rev's salvation, Guardian's honor. Engi and mesmer even have 2 supportive trait lines. Marching order is one of the worst traits in the game. Warrior elite specs also don't have the enough supportive traits to compensate this unevenness, like how specter and druid do.

No matter how staff is having crazy utilities and healing, it cannot even out the differences between the good traits and bad (relatively underwhelming or unable to interact) traits.

I agree. Comically, if they increase the conditional damage values on staff (CC damage multiplier and enemy target multiplier) it would be a top tier bruiser weapon on a power build because the built in support gives it so much utility and variable gameplay options compared to other Warrior weapons

[Drag You Down.2615]

1 hour ago, oscuro.9720 said:

I agree. Comically, if they increase the conditional damage values on staff (CC damage multiplier and enemy target multiplier) it would be a top tier bruiser weapon on a power build because the built in support gives it so much utility and variable gameplay options compared to other Warrior weapons

I am just happy that they said they will improve some supportive traits for warrior in the future in today's update. And the staff 3 will be ground targeting skill. At least I have more hope now. 

[draxynnic.3719]

On 2/14/2024 at 11:55 AM, Drag You Down.2615 said:

OMG don't scare me, I am terrified now when you say Anet is going to force us using it.

TBH, if engi can do weapon swap, I will TRY my best to like this shortbow. But if I have to give up Mace/Shield for shortbow, as a support, I will lose tons of boon uptime, CC and utilities. The ONLY thing shortbow can do that m/s cannot do is direct healing. But with that 180 radius tiny circles and terrible detonation, no one can catch my healing. From the point I start to drop my 2345 to the point I detonate will take 1.5 to 2 secs even with quickness, this is really not helpful.

It's all too predictable, unfortunately. It's not going to look good if they've created a new weapon that's just never used at all, and it would probably be justified by giving mace 'purity of purpose' as a melee condition weapon now that there's a dedicated support weapon.

Obviously, I'm not saying that I want this to happen, but the logic that would cause it is pretty clear.

[Mini Crinny.6190]

On 1/31/2024 at 12:06 AM, Bunny.9834 said:

def not teef, def not mesmer, def not warrior. 

 

it's gon be one of the devs favorites. guardian, ele, or necro

yee, making a condi weapon with 0 condi in air attunement, makes it seem so useful and one of the most important changes they make is that Piercing pebble now pierces

Edited February 16 by Mini Crinny.6190

[draxynnic.3719]

6 hours ago, Mini Crinny.6190 said:

yee, making a condi weapon with 0 condi in air attunement, makes it seem so useful and one of the most important changes they make is that Piercing pebble now pierces

I'm pretty sure that being the "most important change" was written with tongue in cheek. But yeah, I'm sceptical the changes to ele pistol will really help.