Janthir Wilds Spear Beta Event Feedback: Guardian

[Nivi.3401]

Two things about the skill effects:

• Spear 4 uses yellow circles with the exact same shape and animation as enemy attack telegraphs. Players I've talked to find similar skills (scourge's Sandstorm Shroud, specter's Mind Shock, and ele's Updraft) already in the game to be very confusing, and say they've often reflexively dodged out of their own skills. I avoid playing these at all for this reason (it's even harder for me to tell them apart since I'm colorblind). Please change guardian spear 5 (as well as the other mentioned skills, and revenant spear 5) to use a more visually distinct ground effect instead.
• Spear 5's ground effect, while not opaque like ele and mesmer's spear skills, does not currently have an Effect LOD (though that might just still be work in progress), and isn't hidden by Hide Ally Visual Effects (but admittedly I don't know if it's useful for it to be visible to others). In its current state, it adds to the visual clutter for other players, and it might be confusing when multiple players are using guardian's spear, since only your own (visually identical) symbol makes your skills Illuminated.

[SentriX.3209]

I wonder how many people use the Rifle on mesmer, you're catering to a low % of the playerbase. Honestly you should play with traits so that people get to pick if they want a support or dps weapon. As it stands now there's no reason to pick it for either. Also give me a trait to burn enemies that are blinded...thematically you should shine so bright as to blind and burn your enemies.

Imo water spear is way better.

 

Edited Monday at 05:31 PM by SentriX.3209

[Xaylin.1860]

I tested all Spears in a rather casual PvE setting. So this is more of a first impression than a thorough assessment.

I did enjoy the weapon overall. I think it has the potential to be a good pick in certain scenarios for power or power-support hybrid builds. However, while the skills felt good, this was probably the weapon where I felt forced to weapon swap the most compared to all other classes. That's just not a great feeling for a weapon that is supposed to bounce of its skills and doesn't carry over too much when swapping out of it. The CDs aren't even to high when compared to other weapons. But being stuck in a non-chain AA is dissatisfying.

It might be beneficial to have some form of CD reduction on the AA at least for specific skills when hitting an enemy or healing allies.

[Zinnia.1842]

I encountered an issue with the Guardian spear during my beta test. As someone with smaller hands who primarily uses skills 1 through 3 for main attacks and 4/5 for support/defense, I found it inconvenient that skill #2 is a dash or movement skill. It would greatly improve gameplay flow if this skill were relocated to slot 3 or 4. Currently, I have to perform finger acrobatics to manage it, which disrupts the flow of gameplay.

 

Edited Monday at 11:40 PM by Zinnia.1842

[Josif.2015]

Daybreaking Dash: no changes needed.
Helio Rush: the tooltip says that allies get more boons if a target is illuminated, but the only boon allies get is resolution. Maybe add regeneration and vigor or some other supportive boon.
Gleaming Disc: remove the short delay for the shock wave of light.
Solar Storm: make the next attack illuminated regardless if you use this skill within range of the shards.
Symbol of Luminance: no changes needed.

[Markus.6415]

On 7/1/2024 at 6:09 PM, Nivi.3401 said:

Spear 4 uses yellow circles with the exact same shape and animation as enemy attack telegraphs.

While the enemy attack telegraphs are orange, I see that i'ts quite easy to confuse those during combat. Is anything holding them back for using blue circles? Blue clearly tells you it's not gonna hurt you and it's also not green like the boss mechanics.

Edited Wednesday at 08:28 AM by Markus.6415