Play the spear beta event starting today!

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Try out all of the new weapons skills and give us feedback before Janthir Wilds launches.

You can find profession-specific feedback threads at the top of each profession forum:

• Elementalist
• Engineer
• Guardian
• Mesmer
• Necromancer
• Ranger
• Revenant
• Thief
• Warrior

Thank you for the feedback--and have fun!

[Novah.2510]

I'm loving Ele and Mes spearss soo muchh!! TYYYY Anetttt!!🥰💖

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

No dedicated feedback threads?

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

12 minutes ago, Lan Deathrider.5910 said:

No dedicated feedback threads?

You should see them now at the top of each profession forum!

[Lan Deathrider.5910]

49 minutes ago, Rubi Bayer.8493 said:

You should see them now at the top of each profession forum!

Yeah! \o/

[Zeivu.3615]

What feels good:

Elementalist, Ranger, Warrior

What needs major tweaks:

Thief, Revenant, Mesmer and paladin 

What needs complete overhall:

Necro, engineer, 

[Xei Han.8736]

General comment: I'm really loving the new temporary icons this time around.  So much more useful than the "construction" icons we saw in the past.

[Tuna Bandit.3786]

General Feedback:

You guys really REALLY need to rework the Buff Bar. So many classes now with these spears have a counter in that bar you have to keep an eye on...
Are we playing the game? or the UI?

I have sight problems, these classes where you have to keep an eye on stacks amongst your food, buffs, protocols, etc etc etc... Litterly undoable.

Please Anet, rework the buff bar... you cannot keep adding stuff to it, it is bloated to the extreme.

[Puddin.7450]

Mesmer stuff looks so pretty.. Like glass flowers. I love it. Except animation of 4..Phantasmal Lancer. It is just weird circles, why do that? Why not give it another flowered look to match the rest? Strange circles instead? It looks awful compared to the rest of the skills! Please change this.

[PureMage.7845]

Spear Mesmer: “Extremely boring weapon both visually and gameplay-wise. Lack of effort put into it extremely apparent.”  Mesmers always gets the short end of the stick with every update.  Spear skills lack excitement. Visual animation needs to be more better to represent Mesmer.! Stop using the same mesmer skill animation over and over and create something unique. Instead of unlocking spear, give us something more exciting. 

[Velkix.6825]

Not surprised:

1. ele gets a new garbage weapon that is only good at throw skills to bots, which is not even fun. Lack of design, just like a weapon from a random RPG.

2. warrior gets a new OP pvp weapon. Hello?

3. dev loves mes, but cant make it sense. No blade label in a power weapon and inconsistent in PVP. It is promising but underperformance so far.

4. dev cant play thief well enough, so the new weapon in beta is always too OP.

[Denise.8145]

I noticed that guardian Speer skill 2,3 and 4 all interrupt the autoattack chain and the charackter simply idles after the attack. this should be fixed.

[Rider.6024]

finally got to do some testing and

• I was appalled at how weak warrior hits even with full send zerk scholar etc

• ranger is gonna have monster pvp and roaming potential with some kinda big hits but not like gs, gonna be a really lame build to go up against tbh if its lb/spear druid with smokescale and black cat

• ele has some really high potential dps with even a nice 1/2 punch using fire 2/4 , but you lose so much utility compared to staff I dont see it working in pvp or wvw

• thief is actually gonna be a really fun twitchy melee condi daredevil build that will be absolutely ruined because of how much evade I frame spam they can have, n01 will respect it, im really glad they finally got a weapon that doesnt just eat init so quickly tho

• necro is good but boring, doesnt really hit all that hard imo, the tele scourge builds will be fun for 10 mins in pvp

• rev was kinda underwhelming, unlike others I love the animations tho

• engi seems like a really fun hybrid pve weapon but there just isnt enough power dmge to justify it, doa for pvp/wvw

• mirage mez will do well in small scale wvw and pvp but I dont see anyone taking it over existing weapons because of a lack of utility compared to existing weapons

• didnt try guard cause support isnt my thing, sure its well done cause its the fav blue child tho

In conclusion, aside from kinda sorta ranger and ele fire 2/4 there really isnt any heavy hitters in terms of 1 hit aoe power, feels bad but there is some fun to be had here, especially thief

[Selein.5237]

Mesmer: feels good. Feels like the 4 and 5 skills should have a slightly larger range and have the same range.

Ele: The etchings need to last longer.  I can barely complete them with nearly every spear skill having a cast time.  I also don't know what the etching's full potential is and there doesn't seem to be a way to find out.  I really like the similarity in skills between attunements but with enough differences that it feels easy to learn but brings depth to the skill use.  That said, I am very skeptical Ele Spear will play well outside of pve, in part because movement is so important to the game.  Not only am I skeptical I will get to stay in and complete my etching in a not insignificant amount of situations, I think it will be hard to target the best effects of the AoE skills.

Neither feels like it brings any utility at all to any type of group content.  Animations are rly good!

Charr and, to a lesser extent, Sylvari hands don't seem to be gripping the spear properly when looking at your character in the Hero window.

Meteor Shower needs a buff to frequency and damage. Lightning Flash needs its range increased to 1200.

Edited Friday at 03:12 AM by Selein.5237

[LittleMusing.8257]

I only have one request: I hope the lightning rod for the engineer can have more shark-like textures if you have the legendary. I'll leave the balancing to other people

[PrivateWilson.7142]

I've commented on some specific Professions, but just in general: please do something about the animations and the overal pose for the spear. It's listed as a two-handed weapon but everyone is wielding it with one hand. The default combat pose and the animations as a whole are taken straight out of the underwater combat. Please, make these animations fit what's actually happening; you're on land, and you're using this thing with two hands. For some professions like the elementalist I can see why they might need to keep a hand free, same as with the staff, but for a warrior I really feel like it's a missed opportunity to not have them be able to carry a shield alongside the spear for that iconic Phalanx experience.

Edited Friday at 08:05 AM by PrivateWilson.7142

[Firebird Gomer.9563]

Beta Feedback.... Not Spear Feedback... Beta Feedback... For a game that PRIDES itself on respecting players time I personally feel (and others will probably disagree or agree, I am not speaking for anyone but myself) that forcing us to play beta characters that earn nothing and progress our accounts nowhere is the opposite of respecting players time... When ever the weapon trials come round I create a character, land in LA, set up weapons and armor, press buttons watch animations, log out of beta character and go get on with what I need to get done in the 2 - 3 hours I have time to play and to do everything that I need I need all of that 2 to 3 hours with nothing to spare, and I don't login to the beta character again. Even tho I do really want to go play the new whatever, I have limited time to play and while I respect the people who can play for 6 to 12 hours, not everyone can.

So I would humbly like to ask that the Devs reconsider the current manner of testing and allow either everything we do or gain to be kept for our account or allow the weapons or whatever to be used on our main characters..... Oooooo why not create a Beta Equipment and Trait section instead. Allowing us to use the main characters and anything we gain or progress is ours. This would once again show respect to players time.

 

Regards

Edited Friday at 01:00 PM by Firebird Gomer.9563

[Geniusman.1760]

For Ele Spears, I wish they had more defiance options besides only using Air Twister. This is the one area that all skills need so more options for defiance break would be a good start.

[philvaneyck.1932]

Can you change that characters position while wielding a spear? its way to hunched

[DeathPanel.8362]

Ranger:

Feel clunky.  The stealth duration is a bit low.  The stealth attacks aren't impactful.  It should contain more mobility components. (ie super speed while in stealth, or some form of long range dash forward or backward.

Guardian:

Feels bad in general.  The illuminated effect needs a big buff to justify going through the motions to activate it.

Elementalist:

The glyph should be ground-targeted, not around the player, it's not synergetic with having a long-range weapon.

Warrior:

Needs more damage while in close range, and more CC effects.

 

[Imaginos.3756]

10 hours ago, PrivateWilson.7142 said:

I've commented on some specific Professions, but just in general: please do something about the animations and the overal pose for the spear. It's listed as a two-handed weapon but everyone is wielding it with one hand. The default combat pose and the animations as a whole are taken straight out of the underwater combat. Please, make these animations fit what's actually happening; you're on land, and you're using this thing with two hands. For some professions like the elementalist I can see why they might need to keep a hand free, same as with the staff, but for a warrior I really feel like it's a missed opportunity to not have them be able to carry a shield alongside the spear for that iconic Phalanx experience.

Man, I SO want to use a shield and spear on my mesmer/warrior/guardian. Heck I'd love to do the whole "Sunspear" deal on all my characters and not be stuck with just a 2h weapon. Sadly I doubt there is time for them to crunch the 5 attacks down to 3 and allow for offhand item/weapon use.

[Imaginos.3756]

21 hours ago, Tuna Bandit.3786 said:

General Feedback:

You guys really REALLY need to rework the Buff Bar. So many classes now with these spears have a counter in that bar you have to keep an eye on...
Are we playing the game? or the UI?

I have sight problems, these classes where you have to keep an eye on stacks amongst your food, buffs, protocols, etc etc etc... Litterly undoable.

Please Anet, rework the buff bar... you cannot keep adding stuff to it, it is bloated to the extreme.

They really should move the unique buff for the weapons or whatever singular class feature there is to above the health bar. At least on daredevil you can see your malice via the 5-7 dots. Trying to pick out your unique buff for your weapon, when that weapon relies on it to be up, amongst all the other icons is really difficult, especially as you mentioned with bad eyesight.

[Palador.2170]

Overall feedback, TL:DR at the bottom.

Spears are... I don't want to say "Bad", but they are very flawed due to overcomplication. With most of these sets, you're trying to manage some new gimmick or unusual trait/buff to make the weapon more effective.

Let's look at two core weapons as an example: Warrior Greatsword and Necromancer Staff. Both start with a very basic attack, be it ranged or melee. Beyond that, you get what makes the weapon interesting, but it's still pretty straight forward.

If you want them to be better, you take a trait. Warriors get stronger and faster, Necromancers get extra Life Force and unblockable marks from the staff. Spears can't do this, though, because there are no traits or trait lines to match land spears. So, the weapon skills have been complicated to give them a situational buff. In theory, it works. In practice, it's clunky and makes the weapon feel situationally weaker than a core weapon with a matching trait.

SUGGESTION: Remove the special ... whatever... on all spear sets, and replace it with a universal buff. Let's call it something like "Spear Mastery". If you have this buff, you get the bonus/improved version of everything. (And yes, some rebalancing will be needed.) Then, make a Relic that gives this buff. Instead of giving up a trait choice (and maybe being forced into a specific trait line) to boost the weapon, you give up your Relic choice. Spears become easier to use, and the cost for improving them is shifted into the build like most other weapons, instead of cluttering up the flow of combat.

TL:DR Streamline and simplify spear combat, add in a relic that makes them more powerful instead.

Edited Saturday at 02:37 AM by Palador.2170

[China.5268]

I loved elem and unlike other ppl said warrior too, but the casting time/animation for skill 1 for all ranged classes is slow and some other skills as well. 

Increasing the cast time for these will be nice 👍.

PS: I still think for ranger and mesmer should be RANGED.

[Linken.6345]

1 hour ago, China.5268 said:

I loved elem and unlike other ppl said warrior too, but the casting time/animation for skill 1 for all ranged classes is slow and some other skills as well. 

Increasing the cast time for these will be nice 👍.

PS: I still think for ranger and mesmer should be RANGED.

Why Aragorn is a ranger and use melee weapon majority of the time.