Ele spear Livestream

[ippy.9048]

Hey everyone, did you watch the live stream of Ele's spear?

The range is 1200. This is truly a long-range weapon, and everything about it is cool.

The animations are also so awesome that I can only see a future where I main a spear.

Thank you, Anet!

[Mini Crinny.6190]

I'm looking forward to spamming the Haboob skill

[Tempest.8479]

The spear looks incredible, but I don't know how it's dual attacks work with Superior Elements on Weaver. Since they don't attack enemies, how will you apply weakness? Does it just apply to a currently targeted enemy? Does it just...not work at all? If it doesn't work that's a pretty significant nerf to Weaver damage, as it's a loss of a reliable 15% crit chance buff. Weakness application is also pretty big for taking less damage as well.

Other than that, I thought it looked like one of the best spears coming to the game. Ironically enough, it's because I think the recharge of primary attunement on Weaver makes it one of the best functioning weapons for the spec.

Edited June 22 by Tempest.8479

[Ragnarox.9601]

Spear seems fine for pve...

Wvw maybe viable in blobs

Pvp and roaming not very much cause 0 defensive skills.

And I hate that "here its your 1200 range" attitude, its like, hey we hate to give you range options , go play mesmer instead or hug downstate.

[CETheLucid.3964]

And furthermore, it's 1200 range. Let me reiterate that it is 1200 range. Did I mention it was 1200 range? It's 1200 range! 🤪

I also really appreciate that for the upcoming beta they've made new beta icons that aren't just different colors of the construction guy. It's little things like that that matter. I just hope they don't forget about staff since it feels like spear is set to be the new damage at range option.

Throw Meteor Shower a bone and make it a devastating attack again! A lot of the staff kit should be looked at honestly since things like the Meteor Shower nerf are ancient balance decisions for a weird (fun) interaction with Tornado.

From then till now we've had two elite specs and a new weapon. It's just not the threat it was. Or rather in the age of skill splits, Meteor Shower deserves to be strong in PvE at least.

If they just fixed that one thing about staff and called it a day I'd take it.

But enough about me whining about staff. Spear looks fantastic. I'm hoping the timing for upgrading to the next level of the magic circle isn't too strict personally. Kind of looked like Trig struggled with it a little.

Must have reasonable access to Haboob 🙏

[ippy.9048]

I think it's understandable that the staff has been relatively weakened.

From a commercial perspective, it seems like the right choice to give new power to the profession with the new expansion.

Besides, the staff has better defensive capabilities (haha).

What is subtly the best is that all the skills, not just the 5th skill, are really cool and powerful.

[ippy.9048]

Moreover, when you think about it, it makes sense that a mage who controls natural elements would become even more powerful in an environment surrounded by nature.

[draxynnic.3719]

5 hours ago, Tempest.8479 said:

The spear looks incredible, but I don't know how it's dual attacks work with Superior Elements on Weaver. Since they don't attack enemies, how will you apply weakness? Does it just apply to a currently targeted enemy? Does it just...not work at all? If it doesn't work that's a pretty significant nerf to Weaver damage, as it's a loss of a reliable 15% crit chance buff. Weakness application is also pretty big for taking less damage as well.

Other than that, I thought it looked like one of the best spears coming to the game. Ironically enough, it's because I think the recharge of primary attunement on Weaver makes it one of the best functioning weapons for the spec.

I think at least some of them are doing some damage in a PBAoE rather than just self-buffing you, but that does somewhat reinforce the "every elite specialisation is, to a greater or lesser extent, designed for melee" issue. There's also a degree to which it's somewhat evident they've found another way to wimp out of making an interesting set of dual skills. Which is somewhat understandable from a resources perspective, but still disappointing.

Will have to see how effective the spear is at setting off combos to generate auras and fuel Catalyst, too. Combined with Tempest's entire mechanic being built around PBAoEs, I'm a little concerned they've made the perfect weapon for a ranged-oriented elite specialisation that doesn't exist. YMMV on whether this is a hopeful sign that such an elite specialisation is being workshopped or not.

[Tempest.8479]

17 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

I think at least some of them are doing some damage in a PBAoE rather than just self-buffing you, but that does somewhat reinforce the "every elite specialisation is, to a greater or lesser extent, designed for melee" issue. There's also a degree to which it's somewhat evident they've found another way to wimp out of making an interesting set of dual skills. Which is somewhat understandable from a resources perspective, but still disappointing

I just went back to the stream to double check and none of the dual skills do any damage. With the way they're designed right now, I think an inelegant but passable solution would be to make it so that the effects they grant allow the next spear skill to trigger Superior Elements. Either that, or add a 600 radius PBAoE damage component to all of them that does like 5 damage, just so Weavers can trigger the trait.

I actually think the dual skills are a step up from pistol, which I find to be borderline unusable. They're not the flashiest skills, but they're much more mechanically sound. The air/earth anti-projectile skill was cool, and they all provide some useful utility. Recharging primary attunement cooldown is actually pretty massive imo, which is why I find it odd that there's seemingly been an oversight with the skills' interaction with Superior Elements.

52 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Will have to see how effective the spear is at setting off combos to generate auras and fuel Catalyst, too. Combined with Tempest's entire mechanic being built around PBAoEs, I'm a little concerned they've made the perfect weapon for a ranged-oriented elite specialisation that doesn't exist.

As it stands, the base skills have 4 finishers (1 per attunement), plus an additional 2 with dual skills. I think that's a pretty solid amount, so I can see it performing well with Catalyst. You can use the etchings as fields along with the sphere, so there's plenty of fields as well.

As for them having built a ranged weapon for a spec that doesn't exist, it looks like it'll likely synergize best with Weaver because it's the only spec that doesn't have built a built-in range (or range limitations) for any of its mechanics. This brings me back to my first point, because a weapon that'll seemingly excel when paired with Weaver absolutely can't render a dps trait partially or completely non-functional. If they haven't figured out a solution already without mentioning it on stream, then it definitely needs to be addressed by the time the expac launches.

[Nup.4591]

I'm actually a bit concerned about the persisting flames trait.

How do you get to 10 stacks? The etching doesn't do any damage, can it still give you the damage bonus? The other fire skills don't look like they use a fire field. 🤔

[draxynnic.3719]

1 hour ago, Tempest.8479 said:

I just went back to the stream to double check and none of the dual skills do any damage. With the way they're designed right now, I think an inelegant but passable solution would be to make it so that the effects they grant allow the next spear skill to trigger Superior Elements. Either that, or add a 600 radius PBAoE damage component to all of them that does like 5 damage, just so Weavers can trigger the trait.

Yeah, either of those could work. The former seems like it would be the better option, since that way weaver still gets to use it at range rather than all three elite specialisations expecting you to get in close with your glass cannon ranged weapon (at least in PvE). The thought crossed my mind of whether they expected players to take another adept trait, but neither of those really work with spear either.

1 hour ago, Tempest.8479 said:

I actually think the dual skills are a step up from pistol, which I find to be borderline unusable. They're not the flashiest skills, but they're much more mechanically sound. The air/earth anti-projectile skill was cool, and they all provide some useful utility. Recharging primary attunement cooldown is actually pretty massive imo, which is why I find it odd that there's seemingly been an oversight with the skills' interaction with Superior Elements.

Yeah, it's a pretty low bar to be better than pistol dual skills that manage to make the bullet system even more awkward than it is by default...

1 hour ago, Tempest.8479 said:

As it stands, the base skills have 4 finishers (1 per attunement), plus an additional 2 with dual skills. I think that's a pretty solid amount, so I can see it performing well with Catalyst. You can use the etchings as fields along with the sphere, so there's plenty of fields as well.

That's good to know - I wasn't counting the finishers, but that probably does mean there are enough. I'm also a little concerned about spear's ability to generate energy, but... how well spear works with Catalyst isn't my main concern in the first place.

1 hour ago, Tempest.8479 said:

As for them having built a ranged weapon for a spec that doesn't exist, it looks like it'll likely synergize best with Weaver because it's the only spec that doesn't have built a built-in range (or range limitations) for any of its mechanics. This brings me back to my first point, because a weapon that'll seemingly excel when paired with Weaver absolutely can't render a dps trait partially or completely non-functional. If they haven't figured out a solution already without mentioning it on stream, then it definitely needs to be addressed by the time the expac launches.

Yeah, that's pretty much the point I was making. If they can't make the 1200 range glass cannon weapon work well with weaver, there's pretty much going to be nothing it really works well with in PvE, unless someone finds a way to make spear work really well with three core traitlines. It's good to see the weapon arriving, but it's probably still going to be held back by elementalist elite specs going 3 for 3 on being designed with melee combat in mind. 

[ippy.9048]

Everyone, you're having really deep discussions, and it's amazing. Indeed, the synergy with the current elite specs is very important, isn't it?

But honestly, I don't think it's necessary to create synergy with all elite specs, and rather, it's okay not to. As you know, the disappointment of playing a Catalyst without a hammer is already well known.

However, what really should be noted is that after the addition of that pistol, the developers have given Ele such an amazing weapon.

So, wouldn't you like to take this opportunity to enjoy Ele Wars?

[Junkpile.7439]

Maybe not let elite specs use spear.
🙄

[Jski.6180]

It looks good over all but there is some un-balancing between the 5 self boons 1 stack of might per sec vs fury vs 1 stack of stab per sec vs healing seems a bit weak for fire. Maybe the fire flip skill dose that much more dmg then the others but 1 stack of might seems kind of pontless vs the other boons from the 5 skill.

I like to see the 1 skill get 3 target aoe nothing big just more then 1 i am not sure why they keep giving eles 1 skill single target effects on its new weapons for a few years now.

I am very much looking forwarded to playing spear and i love that it looks like the ele is using magic vs what all of the other wepons look like up to this point.

I want anet to look back at old weapons and bring them up to where spear looks like and can pull off for there given roll. Hammer pistol and staff need massive updates (dagger too but its getting a realty nice buff in the coming update.)

[igmolicious.5986]

Sadly, I really feel like ele spear seemed very tone deaf. Now the numbers may be very different in beta from what we saw on the stream, but for a "glass cannon" weapon it sure looked more like a "glass nerf" weapon from the damage side. Very concerned about duration on etchings, which are supposed to be the signature skill, since even with cooldown turned off and spamming insta-casts, it was a struggle to get them to the maximized version before the circle disappeared, and while the etching attacks look great, they also all look very easily avoidable and deal very unimpressive damage when they hit. Weaver dual skills were also very underwhelming, and way outside what we're used to seeing on those (fully self support, non-damaging), and while the primary attune cooldown removal on dual skill seems ok, it also means that you can't use your etching, cast that dual skill, fully attune, cast your 3 again and still use your etching because the etching that you have up is different. I feel like it will probably be much better in pve than competitive, which is a little bit of a letdown for me, who is primarily wvw.

Upsides: the animations and skills look absolutely amazing, and really bring out the wizard feel, and having a water attune set that is damage-focused is fantastic. Having skill types be uniform across attunes is GREAT (please keep to this in the future)! Also, as you probably heard once or twice in the stream: 1200 range ele weapon.

Best way I can describe it is going to karaoke and hearing someone sing your favorite song, only they've never heard it before. All the lyrics and background music you love are there, but the performance breaks your heart in the worst way.

Edited June 22 by igmolicious.5986

[Noodle Ant.1605]

1 hour ago, Jski.6180 said:

It looks good over all but there is some un-balancing between the 5 self boons 1 stack of might per sec vs fury vs 1 stack of stab per sec vs healing seems a bit weak for fire. Maybe the fire flip skill dose that much more dmg then the others but 1 stack of might seems kind of pontless vs the other boons from the 5 skill.

i think it counts as a fire field and #2 is a blast. ele weapon fire fields dont usually give might in the first place so at the very least its an improvement from that

34 minutes ago, igmolicious.5986 said:

Now the numbers may be very different in beta from what we saw on the stream, but for a "glass cannon" weapon it sure looked more like a "glass nerf" weapon from the damage side. Very concerned about duration on etchings, which are supposed to be the signature skill, since even with cooldown turned off and spamming insta-casts, it was a struggle to get them to the maximized version before the circle disappeared, and while the etching attacks look great, they also all look very easily avoidable and deal very unimpressive damage when they hit. 

they used funny stats in the preview and had no traits equipped (their arcane blast only had 870 tooltip damage with 12 stacks of might). its too early to say where the damage will land but i do agree the etching doesnt last for very long. they should at least let the ele hold onto flipover skill, even if its stuck in the lesser version, and swapping attunements can remove it if the ele doesnt want to cast it

[igmolicious.5986]

15 minutes ago, Noodle Ant.1605 said:

i think it counts as a fire field and #2 is a blast. ele weapon fire fields dont usually give might in the first place so at the very least its an improvement from that

they used funny stats in the preview and had no traits equipped (their arcane blast only had 870 tooltip damage with 12 stacks of might). its too early to say where the damage will land but i do agree the etching doesnt last for very long. they should at least let the ele hold onto flipover skill, even if its stuck in the lesser version, and swapping attunements can remove it if the ele doesnt want to cast it

With no traits, 870 on arcane blast is currently somewhere between full assassins and full marauders stats (with 15 might, no runes or infusions), which isn't encouraging for the rest of the damage we saw. I definitely agree we'll need to wait for beta to see where things settle, but want to point out that the warrior preview showed very well how power oriented and damaging it was -- same with thief -- but on ele it seemed like it was tuned way down. I know consistency isn't really something to expect in a preview, but if you're wanting to show off a "glass cannon" weapon, and the weapon doesn't even perform as well as other previewed weapons that aren't billed that way, that's at best bad preparation for the preview.

Edited June 22 by igmolicious.5986

[Markus.6415]

14 hours ago, Mini Crinny.6190 said:

I'm looking forward to spamming the Haboob skill

Jökulhlaub all the way! Enemies have to stay hydrated too

Edited June 22 by Markus.6415

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Link of stream ?

[DarkK.7368]

This again. How am I supposed to know streams happens. I even check forums daily. Going to Twitch

[Gorani.7205]

41 minutes ago, Zhaid Zhem.6508 said:

Link of stream ?

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/2177979158?t=1h12m00s

My first impression:

• Looks good on the preview, but with Dev Cheats on that completely hide the actual CD of skills (e.g. #3 has 15 sec; #5 has 25 sec), it is hard to tell how good the flow will be
• #5 skills you pretty much all want to charge up to T3 with #3, which add something "extra" to the next skill as the final charge.
• If I heard the right, only the Ele will see the etching from #5 ? Allies and foes only will see a normal indicator circle?

Edited June 22 by Gorani.7205
corrected link to beginning of Ele segment

[Zhaid Zhem.6508]

Looks fun on weaver.

[Sarm.5923]

7 hours ago, ippy.9048 said:

But honestly, I don't think it's necessary to create synergy with all elite specs, and rather, it's okay not to. As you know, the disappointment of playing a Catalyst without a hammer is already well known.

I know I'm reading a bit more into your post than what's there, but if spear as a ranged weapon doesn't synergize with the elite specs, won't that make it a dead weapon right out of the gate? Core ele isn't a viable build for anything, is it?

[Noodle Ant.1605]

1 hour ago, igmolicious.5986 said:

With no traits, 870 on arcane blast is currently somewhere between full assassins and full marauders stats (with 15 might, no runes or infusions), which isn't encouraging for the rest of the damage we saw. I definitely agree we'll need to wait for beta to see where things settle, but want to point out that the warrior preview showed very well how power oriented and damaging it was -- same with thief -- but on ele it seemed like it was tuned way down. I know consistency isn't really something to expect in a preview, but if you're wanting to show off a "glass cannon" weapon, and the weapon doesn't even perform as well as other previewed weapons that aren't billed that way, that's at best bad preparation for the preview.

its difficult to say, warr/thief may have had better stats equipped and warr definitely had traits active while ele had 0. however, it is jarring when they say things like big damage or glass cannon and then use a setup that shows the opposite

i feel like spear will be fit for a glass cannon setups (because of the range), but wont necessarily be any more damage than what we already have. my guess is that they might try to avoid invalidating sword. it could also the inexperienced ele perspective where dealing damage on spear might be more intuitive than other weapon options

[Mogsterfortytwo.6712]

1 hour ago, DarkK.7368 said:

This again. How am I supposed to know streams happens. I even check forums daily. Going to Twitch

Try GuildWars2.com - the link was in 3 of the top 5 news items right under the top banner, where news is always announced. Two of those news items were also thrown at you every time you log in on the launcher over the past week.