Play the spear beta event starting today!

[Doggie.3184]

We need more diversity in Spear posture/idle stances. Feels really odd for every class to have same one.

[Artemis.8034]

40 minutes ago, Doggie.3184 said:

We need more diversity in Spear posture/idle stances. Feels really odd for every class to have same one.

Yeah that would be nice. Seems like some of the classes i tried had some issues with the movement. Like the charge wasnt very fast nor did it go very far just a few slow feet really.

[Weindrasi.3805]

My issue with spears is the ridiculousness of throwing them, then having them magically just appear back in your hand. It's not like a bow-and-arrow or a gun, where a projectile is being shot and you (presumably) have multiple projectiles. This could potentially work for, say, elementalist because you can imagine that they manifest the spear magically, throw the magic, and then re-summon it. But for warrior? It's off-putting.

[Streamstrider.2079]

My main concerns come out of playing against beta characters using the spear in Structured PvP.

1. The effects are very "loud" compared to any other weapon effects and don't appear to be affected by turning down other player weapon effects (guessing it's because these effects count as skill effects rather than cosmetic weapon effects).
   • These effects block important visual information, and some effects block from high above the characters. For example, if I have my camera view pulled all the way back and am looking down at my character, some enemy spear effects literally block everything from view, including the characters, as the vertical position of the effect is above them instead of below. Looking at it from the side or below, it shows the effect circle way above the characters' heads like a giant disc. While in PvE this may look kinda cool (I would still want the ability to hide or dim them), it makes fighting some classes in PvP impossible because I literally cannot see what's happening. I can't even see the geometry around me.
2. Will say this since I haven't seen it said quite yet, but in sPvP, playing against spear feels completely unbalanced. I understand it's beta testing, but it feels like we are getting hit with PvE levels of damage. I am okay playing against better players and losing, even if multiple times in a row, but the situation right now is absolutely demoralizing when your teams can't escape spawn without almost instantly dying to only one or two people with a spear.
   • This issue is probably compounded by the visual effects mentioned before, which make it near impossible to see what's happening at times.
3. Third is about betas more generally. I'm very much motivated by progression and rewards, so not being able to keep anything I earn when playing a beta character leads me to making a beta character and two minutes later deleting it because I actually want to use my limited time to get things done. I completely understand if the things provided by the beta character itself (like the gear and such) cannot be salvaged, sold, or otherwise used by the account at large. I even understand if sPvP rewards are limited. I just don't want the time spent on the beta character to be completely wasted.
   • Just an addon note: In this situation, I don't even know what to do in the game or how to go about testing, because usually I might pick an activity based on reward, progression, or achievement. If I have nothing I can do in the game that accomplishes anything, I have no reason currently to play the beta character.
   • HoT beta was overall good in comparison. While you still couldn't keep rewards, it was coupled with a view of the map and the creatures within. It gave us a thing to do and explore. PoF also did this. I think it would have been nice to couple the spear beta with a preview of an area in Janthir Wilds.

[Fwog.9387]

56 minutes ago, Weindrasi.3805 said:

My issue with spears is the ridiculousness of throwing them, then having them magically just appear back in your hand. It's not like a bow-and-arrow or a gun, where a projectile is being shot and you (presumably) have multiple projectiles. This could potentially work for, say, elementalist because you can imagine that they manifest the spear magically, throw the magic, and then re-summon it. But for warrior? It's off-putting.

Nothing new though. Rev already throws hammers. I think there are a few other abilities where you throw your weapon too like warrior axe. 

[PetitPotam.9541]

I was really impressed with a lot of the creativity that was shown with the Spear skills! Always fun to see how you guys handle creating creatively different skill sets for each of the professions and their aesthetics! I have a few general comments to make on the Spear, so here they are:

1. The new temporary icons used for Spear skills were great, much better than what we've seen in the past!

2. This is more of a wish than proper feedback, but I would have loved to have seen each profession use the melee/ranged mechanics that some Spears have received. I feel like that would help Spear stand out as a unique weapon choice (besides being a new-ish weapon option in general) and would work really well for its implementation into the game, especially because I'm pretty sure it was confirmed that it will be tied to a Mastery rather than being available to wield like any other weapon type.

3. I also think the idle Spear animations could use some work. It's been brought up before by others in these forums, but the Spear being a two-handed weapon while clearly being held in one hand is a little odd. I also don't really like the hunchedback pose my character has to take while wielding it (especially in one hand) since it feels weird for my Elementalist to take on that type of stance, as it feels much more appropriate for something like a Warrior or Ranger. I think having an idle stance where the characters actually hold the Spear in both hands would help fix all of those issues and really help with the weapon's presentation.

Beyond that, I'm really excited to see the end result of these weapons, and hope that bringing Spear onto land is an indication of more exciting new weapon types and skill sets to come!

[Linken.6345]

36 minutes ago, Fwog.9387 said:

Nothing new though. Rev already throws hammers. I think there are a few other abilities where you throw your weapon too like warrior axe. 

dont forget both axes on ranger.

Edited Sunday at 01:20 AM by Linken.6345

[Weindrasi.3805]

1 hour ago, Fwog.9387 said:

Nothing new though. Rev already throws hammers. I think there are a few other abilities where you throw your weapon too like warrior axe. 

 

44 minutes ago, Linken.6345 said:

dont forget both axes on ranger.

The rev hammer animation always looked to me like they were using the hammer as a focus to hurl magic at an enemy. The hammer always remained in their hands. Or am I remembering incorrectly?

((Even if not, the rev's whole thing is being able to create holes into another dimension, so that can go with the "elementalist summoning a magic spear to throw". Revs, being heavily magic, could presumably pull the hammer back through the mists? It seems like less an issue with heavy-magic professions))

The warrior axe throw is just one skill in the full set, so I've been able to ignore it.

Ranger axes are as cringe to me as the ranged spear throw, and that's why I have never, ever used them.

Edited Sunday at 02:05 AM by Weindrasi.3805

[Artemis.8034]

Okay messing around with war and thief both are seriously boring with spears. They dont get any cool animations and it looks bad. So far only ele has the best versatility and cool spells. Even mesmer was was kinda meh. Rev isnt too bad its got some signature spells. I think it a little slow also, for classes that cant weapon swap like engi and ele they need some love, and ele has it, engi not so much. I feel its gonna be shortbow all over again. Ele feels like spears work best with them.

[Donari.5237]

I enjoyed all the spears.  For context, I am a almost purely pve player, very casual in terms of worrying about builds and rotations though I don't ignore them completely.  Just not a min-maxer.  I mostly kept the provided builds, though I did swap to some preferred elites and hotbar utilities, and on a couple I used legendary armor or the provided boxes to go from -- for example -- basic condi to Vipers.  I tested by going to Ember Bay and beating up destroyers in the east, plus going to some rifts for alts that needed to do supportive things for other players.

Now, I did enjoy some of them more than others.  My impressions:

Mesmer:  Very pretty, a little frustrating to need to get really close for the skills to have any impact at all.

Necro:  hmm, my notes just say "feels great" and I can't recall why at this moment.

Warrior:  Another one I didn't keep much in the way of notes besides "feels fun."  I was pleased the hanging in air evade wasn't a long freeze frame like in the announce video.  The adrenaline burst skill was satisfying.

Guardian:  I don't care for the big solid yellow effects.  Something a bit more shimmering ethereal and golden would be prettier, plus as others noted they really block vision.  Playwise it feels solid, rewarding a good rotation without being a piano, but the 2 skill is annoying when it constantly dashes you out of melee so you have to run back in after using it or avoid using it at all once in melee.

Ranger:  Feels pretty good, lots of flexibility on moment to moment attacks and lots of chances to dip into stealth for better results.

Revenant:  I liked it, though I generally don't like playing Rev.  The big red spiky mines didn't seem to get triggered much just due to how crowds of mobs pathed when I was soloing them.  It'll take some practice to make those effective to use.

Thief:  Felt rather squishy my first test.  I did better the second try, so it's a l2p learning curve.  (One of my mains is a daredevil, I'm very familiar with Thief play, it was just the spear moves that threw me).

Elementalist:  Surprisingly less squish than Thief.  I don't play Ele much though I have played Weaver enough to understand the way it works.  I found myself fairly instinctively choosing dual attunements for nifty Spear 3 actions.  Even without a lot of healing power on the build I stayed up against groups of destroyers.  The effects were also very pretty.  Edit:  I forgot to mention that I agree the full charge of the circle is too hard too reach and too short to do anything with, not to mention it's unclear what it actually does for you.  I noticed this issue in the dev stream, in fact, that the circle usually vanished before even one skill had been used in it.

Engineer:  Felt *brutal*.  I enjoyed it enough, along with my mostly randomly made charr, that I've remade her and used my shared slot 80 boost for it.  She awaits her August spear.

All told, Engineer won out for getting an alt made specifically to focus on spear even though I went into this intending to make a Light or Heavy so as to use legendary armor.  My various mesmers may well swap one weapon set to spear as a secondary weapon.  Ditto with my necros, who might even change out dual swords for a spear.  Everyone else will situationally be swapped to spear or ignore it, though I'll make sure everyone has one in their bags in case they want to fiddle with it.

And, well, I'm going to need many, many more spear skins to suit everyone's varying aesthetics.

Edited Sunday at 11:57 PM by Donari.5237

[Imaginos.3756]

All the spears should have the auto attack be a ranged throw if not in melee and switching to melee like some of the classes do. They all should do that.

[Fueki.4753]

8 hours ago, Weindrasi.3805 said:

This could potentially work for, say, elementalist because you can imagine that they manifest the spear magically, throw the magic, and then re-summon it. But for warrior? It's off-putting.

If magic works as an excuse for Elementalist, it works for Warrior and every other profession as well.

Every profession, including Warrior and Engineer, uses magic.

[TwistedAlga.4235]

I love Warrior spear!

Ranger, Mesmer and Elementalist are fun and great too!

Engineer and Guardian pretty nice too

Necro and Thief was OK.

I dont really like Revenant..

[Imaginos.3756]

On a skin related note the Lionguard Harpoon skin (a spear skin) was only available in pvp and it has been removed for some reason. Please add this to the regular pve lionguard cultural weapon skin vendors so we can get this spear ingame again.

[Gotejjeken.1267]

Wasn't the beta supposed to end at 10PM PST?

It's 11AM lmao.  

[CinnamonBun.7894]

This is my review for Open World spear.

Common Minus: skills feel clunky.

1. Engineer

- I love spear with engineer because I can build with condition damage (not test power yet) but the survivability is good for Open World(OW). Damage stable.

2. Thief

- Damage OK but skills 2 and 3 feel very hard to use and slow animation. Number 4 is throwing ???? and number 5 is blocking ??? I do not understand skill 4 especially since other skills are melee. Survival is OK. I wish there is 1 teleport skill since spear is closed combat.

3. Guardian

- Is this only for support role? skill cancellation is high and no damage when it comes with condition build and willbender. Skills look lame.

4. Revenant

- Skill Cancellation is high, skill 4 and 5 really slow animation and easy to cancel, mobs can attack faster than you. When use with Renegade, energy so costly and survival is low. I think spear pair with Vindicator better than Renegade.

5. Warrior

- The only think I can pair spear with is Berserker. Skills are amazing and I love to play but no condition build (at least bleeding) and survial is above average.

6. Ranger

- I used Untamed and I absolutely love it. One thing I don't like is skill 5 which is clunky, slow and cooldown of other skills when skill 5 is activated are high.

7. Elementalist

- I do not know why Fire skill with spear with no burning condition but Earth has bleeding? Also skill 5 of fire and earth feel weird to me because I spawned a magic circle and had to use again which is slow if I use signet restoration to heal.

8. Mesmer

- I have a mirage build for solo and use this with spear. Overall is good because of traits but I disappoint that skills kinda lame (3 , 4 and 5) just spin and spin and no condition damage, but I like the mirage skill 1 which IMO is so cool and survival is ok.

9. Necromancer

- I tested only one time and delete since it generally not good. skills lame, no damage just like sword.

And that is my thought about spear. I love to see spear as a attack weapon rather than just support. Overall is not bad at all but need improvement.

 

[SpottedWithin.8062]

1000% love the new icons in this beta compared to the construction icons of the last! 

I also agree in general with some others that are stating it: I would really love it if all the classes got an auto attack that got the ranged and melee treatment. It just feels cooler and would make spear unique.

I only play a few classes and centered my attention on those, but my friends play others and I'm sure I missed a few things that other mains of that profession can speak for but here are my first impressions on the vibe of spear gameplay I got on each. 

 

Professions I play:

Necromancer: Vibe: Very fun! Impression: spvp/WvW weapon. As a reaper main I had great fun using spear 4 to jump up on siege on cliffs in WvW to scare enemies with my mobility. Not really sure how the soul shards mechanic works. Perhaps I'm dumb, I was just having too much of a fun time with spear 4. I was a bit skeptical about it being 1200 and unlockable, but after further testing with a friend it's easily side stepped so there is counterplay for the vigilant, which is good!

Mesmer: Vibe: Very Fun! Impression: WvW weapon. With the clarity mechanic and the surrounding flower skill (I forgot the name) being range band based I think it really helps lend itself to small scale havoc and being surrounded. Mostly played it on mirage (am a Chrono enjoyer) but I tried to take the spear with what specs y'all gave us and can see why you placed it with mirage. 

Ranger: Vibe: Fun Impression: Uncertain. It has very nice visuals, like Mesmer, but I agree with what some are saying in that the stealth is way too short of a duration. By the time I hovered my cursor to see the flip over skill, it was back to normal.

Engineer: Vibe: Very Fun! Impression: PvE weapon/possibly PVP. All together it just flows very nicely, especially with holosmith. The fact that there is also a leap and a blast finisher baked in is *chef's kiss* for scrappers too. Feels like an engineer weapon, not just a holosmith weapon, which is appreciated!

Professions I got second hand info on but tinkered with:

Elementalist: Vibe: Pretty but frustrating. Impression: PvE weapon. While the visuals are flashy, the duration of time you have before you need to "set off" your 5 skill again seemed too short and had both me and my friend (who mains tempest) playing a mini game in the corner. Speaking of tempest, it feels like there is no time for overloads. It's definitely made as a weaver weapon - which is reflected in the beta kit they give, but still. Not sure how it plays on Cata tho, but I'd presume similarly as tempest.

Warrior: Vibe: Theme is there, numbers need tweaking/"Am I doing this wrong?" Impression: Uncertain. I've heard from multiple people that just seemed confused on warrior spear and it seemed to hit like a wet noodle in WvW. The theme is there, but idk the numbers enough or warrior, especially berserker (as I usually play SB) enough to give more feedback than that.

Guardian: Vibe: Eh Impression: Uncertain. It was okay, but the main thing of note was "Why doesn't Helio Rush, heal *me* too."

Professions I looked at:

Revenant: Vibe: Visually cool. Impression: Uncertain. I'm not enough of a Rev main to pretend to understand Rev things xD.

Thief: Vibe: Very Nice. Impression: spvp/WvW weapon. Mobility go brr. But in all seriousness, I like the play style of this weapon on thief, at least in the golem room, cause I didn't take it for a real world test drive. But I saw some folks very mobile in WvW.