Poking Fun

[Verdict is Vengence.6912]

As a Warrior main, I've been trying out the Warrior spear. But I haven't gotten around to the others. What spear was the most fun for you? It can be anything from meme play to optimal play.

Which class spear (and if you could mention what kind of build too) has been the most fun to you so far?

 

In case anyone is wondering, I'm playing full glass meme core warrior rifle/spear, both bursts cratering people into the ground. Very fun meme stuff.

[Bunny.9834]

Ele has been fun to play with in PvE.  Needs some tweaking (which is a given since this is beta).  Ele forum already has pretty good discussions about these issues. 

The one thing I wanna mention tho, and this is true in pretty much all of the betas I've participated in, is that this new weapon are just so undertuned.  

You want to entice the players to play with this new weapon. Start strong and balance them later. 

 

[Bris.7984]

Can't vote because we (warriors) are not equal to others.Better change the Poll.

[Fueki.4753]

My favourite is Engineer's spear. Mesmer's spear is a close second, while Thief's spear is in third place.

Place four is Necromancer's spear. Places 5 through 8 are shared by the spears for Elementalist, Ranger, Guardian and Revenant.

Firmly in last place is Warrior's spear.

[valchales.2068]

My vote went for the rev, I really like it as a concept, which I'd like to them read the feedback and adjust it. But fun is fun.

[Doggie.3184]

Out of quick first impressions:

Top: Thief was the most fun... just needs an AA chain and some small tweaks. Then Engineer~ enjoyed it quickly. Ranger (ground target leap!). 

Close but Mid: Elementalist... can't fully enjoy it without the AAs doing AoE splash damage, otherwise it could be 2nd or 3rd. I just wanna explode all the things with everything I do.

Didn't care for: Revenant... mainly cuz it felt like I was playing in slow motion. Necro felt kinda basic, nothing too exciting, especially as a follow-up to their sword which is one of the most fun weapons in game. Guardian felt weak right off the bat but I guess it's a support weapon. I'm not a fan of the camera flash animation. At least it's not as bright as it seemed in live stream but might be cuz I have bloom off. The starting position of it also feels odd, feels like I'm vomiting light.

idk really about Mesmer and Warrior, I don't play them too much but I support the name of Mesmer 2.

[Archwizard.1603]

Ele, Thief and Mesmer were definitely the most fun for the spears.

Necro, Engi and Ranger were still pretty good.

Warrior needs something more either a boon or extra effect to make it more interesting.

Rev is too slow and Guardian too weak for solo play (heal weapon that doesn't heal yourself and low damage😖)

[mirage.8046]

Excited: Engineer's spear has been so fun on the PvE side. The skills definitely need tuning and adjustments, like devastator, electric artillery, and conduit surge. Its hybrid damage works pretty well on holosmith for both power and condition builds. I love it!

Great: Mesmer's spear is also flashy and I can have fun with more melee opportunities!! 

OK: I had hopes for necro spear to be useful, but it has a lot of flaws and bad design. It's a weapon that I can replace with dual swords. However, spear's damage is respectable despite the problems. I like the theme they did here especially. 

[Doggie.3184]

28 minutes ago, Archwizard.1603 said:

Guardian too weak for solo play (heal weapon that doesn't heal yourself and low damage😖)

That's that ol' Specter logic. XD

At least they patched it eventually but still requires ally targeting so doesn't work for solo, especially with the refusal to give us back golemancy pet >.<

They shoulda learned no one likes that sort of logic.

Edited June 30 by Doggie.3184

[Panda.1967]

I actually found Warrior spear to be the most enjoyable out of all of them… Elementalist was without a doubt the worst… and I wanted to love the Elementalist’s spear

if I were to rate them from favorite to worst…

1: Warrior - I wanted a ranged spear for warrior that would make it feel like playing a Paragon from GW1… and they delivered exactly that… sure the skills are at their stongest in melee range, and sure the Autoattack could have switched between melee and ranged… but deapite all of that it felt amazing, it performed exactly as expected, and it wasn’t a hassle to use at all.
2: Mesmer - a little tricky to get the hang of, but after a little practice it felt great. The mechanics of the spear were not too difficult to pull off, in-fact they were quite forgiving actually… and the damage output was actually quite decent.
3: Engineer - almost tied for 2nd with the mesmer… there weren’t really any glaring issues with its design or execution… my only complaint is it felt a little too slow… 
4/5/6: Thief/Ranger/Necromancer - 3-way tie… no particular like or dislike here… though I should note: i am still disappointed that the 2nd chain on Thief is pure utility, the stealth skills on Ranger felt weak, and necromancer was very clearly designed for PvP only…
7: Revenant - spamming skill 5 feels aweful… seriously who actually sat down and said “spamming skill 5 as your main attack would be fun”… change it to 2 or 3 and it’d be a massive improvement… its also incredibly weak… I did less damage with Revenant that I did eith Guardian spear, and Guardian is supposed to have a low damage spear according to the devs…
8: Guardian - the illuminated mechanic is the only thing that makes this weapon even remotely usable, and its near impossible to actually make use of it… and the Symbol thay guarantees illuminated skills has WAY too short of a duration… 4 seconds is nothing when it comes to this particular effect…
9: Elementalist - I wanted to love this one… I really did… but its just aweful… the precision aiming skills are hot garbage, even landing a target dead center does terrible damage… the etchings have way way way too short of a duration, the full effect abilities of which are also too weak and need to persist longer… the dual skills on Weaver are great though… and when they said spear elementalist is a glass cannon… they weren’t joking about the glass part, but a cannon it is not… in my testing, Elementlist was the only class I died on with spear and took the longest out of everyone to kill anything…

Edited June 30 by Panda.1967

[sherwinator.7954]

20 hours ago, Panda.1967 said:

1: Warrior - I wanted a ranged spear for warrior that would make it feel like playing a Paragon from GW1… and they delivered exactly that… sure the skills are at their stongest in melee range, and sure the Autoattack could have switched between melee and ranged… but deapite all of that it felt amazing, it performed exactly as expected, and it wasn’t a hassle to use at all.

Nah are u sure u didn't boot up GW1 by mistake? As a warrior main and someone who isn't blinded by nostalgia i don't think it feels good or performs well, nor is it especially nice to look at.

Edited July 1 by sherwinator.7954

[Panda.1967]

50 minutes ago, sherwinator.7954 said:

Nah are u sure u didn't boot up GW1 by mistake? As a warrior main and someone who actually isn't blinded by nostalgia i think it feels and performs really bad and is even worse to look at.

No, warrior spear is great. I’m not joking nor am I blinded by nostalgia. It doesn't have any over engineered or convoluted mechanics to it, it does exactly what is expected of it, the damage felt good, the attack speed was good, the cooldowns aren’t terrible though they could be a little shorter… the only thing warrior spear could really use as an improvement is to give it some better AoE.

[sherwinator.7954]

44 minutes ago, Panda.1967 said:

No, warrior spear is great. I'm not joking nor am I blinded by nostalgia. It doesn't have any over engineered or convoluted mechanics to it, it does exactly what is expected of it, the damage felt good, the attack speed was good, the cooldowns aren't terrible though they could be a little shorter… the only thing warrior spear could really use as an improvement is to give it some better AoE.

"it does exactly what is expected of it" so to be a worse rifle? spear has little damage, abilities are hard to hit on anything that isnt cc'd or afk, it provides no boons or sustain or useful condi's for pve, low adrenaline gain and it looks and feels bad to play with.

As it is right now it's not worth taking in any mode over existing options.

Edited June 30 by sherwinator.7954

[Antycypator.9874]

Thief spear (in PvE) works good only against champions and training golem. It's absolutely trash for clearing weaker enemies — lack of cleave, skill combo fails on blind/block/miss hit.

Elementalist spear: trash for solo gaming, full power spear is worse than any celestial build (in terms of damage and survivability).

Necromancer spear: great weapon. Definately gonna choose spear over greatsword and sword.

Revenant spear: I see good potential in dealing damage, but it's too slow.

Guardian spear: mediocre weapon. Good burst, but AA sucks, Helio Rush... is more like a Helio Walk.

Mesmer spear: I like the synergy between skills, but I would be much more happier if AA was ranged against distant foes.

[Panda.1967]

23 hours ago, sherwinator.7954 said:

"it does exactly what is expected of it" so to be a worse rifle? spear has little damage, abilities are hard to hit on anything that isnt cc'd or afk, it provides no boons or sustain or useful condi's for pve, low adrenaline gain and it looks and feels bad to play with.

As it is right now it's not worth taking in any mode over existing options.

1) it was doing perfectly fine damage for me, its damage is highest in melee range due to its proximity to the warrior mechanic, and that’s honestly the only real mechanical flaw the weapon has… its a ranged weapon it shouldn’t be reliant on being in melee range to do full damage.

2) if you are having issues hitting things that aren’t CCd or afk, that is a you problem. The spear has 3 targeted AoE skills, two are ground target and an be quick cast on target with the options menu, though one of them you don’t want to be doing that with, the other is a line… maybe you aren’t used to how line AoEs work, or you haven’t bothered to read how #5 works to notice it has a built in delay…

3) not every weapon has to provide boon support or inflict conditions… and funny you complain about having issue if targets aren’t CCd when warriors spear provides multiple forms of CC. Perhaps you should try making us of its full toolkit.

4) low adrenaline gain? It felt the same as any other weapon to me… besides that is the simplest feature for them to address if you just provide the necessary feedback on it to them.

[Gaiawolf.8261]

Okay, now that the beta is officially done. I revisited some earlier initial thoughts. First off, my major point of feedback is that the dual melee and ranged attacks for some professions should be applied across the board. It's a spear! You can jab it and throw it. All professions should get a melee attack/chain AND a ranged throw on #1.

As for the profession skills, ranked in order:

1. Thief: This weapon was really fun. Fluid, strong, and it worked really well with the initiative system due to having robust options. I loved having a good mix of conditions, mobility, and sustain on the weapon. The CC skill was nice too, and the interactions between the combo chains with #4 and #5 were great. The biggest thing it needs is rebalancing some numbers and stronger ON THE FIELD indicators for when combo skills hit or miss. I got lost in the chain so many times and had to keep looking down at my skill bar instead of at the action to know if the chain advanced.
2. Ranger: Very similar to the thief, the ranger kit comes with a great mix of utility. Not quite as fast or fluid as the thief, so it takes second place, but I really enjoyed the stealth combos, mobility, CC, and mix between melee and ranged attacks. The throw skill #3 needs to be faster. This weapon really shined with maces on the other set.
3. Mesmer: The mesmer spear is potentially a great weapon with solid heft. It has interesting skills, good AOE, decent mobility, and some sustain. However, it felt underwhelming for damage. I think it needs to be tuned up quite a bit, or else I was just missing something, but probably not, judging from other feedback. The biggest problem it had was clarity. The sweet spot for Mind the Gap needs to be a lot larger and give us a stronger visual cue on the field; similar problem to the thief chains. Also, it was difficult to track the effects of clarity on other attacks, except the phantasm, and at the same time they felt necessary to get decent production from the weapon. This was exacerbated by skills #4 and #5 acting as gap closers that put you too close to use #2, even if you were already in the proper position! Very CLUNKY! Finally, if I'm working to get clarity, it should have a graphical payoff too. Animations and graphics were great, but clarity-empowered skill should be bigger, like a brighter shockwave on #5 (BUT NOT COVER DANGER ZONES SO OPAQUELY!). Give us some of that ele animation love. LOL
4. Elementalist: First off, the weapon and skills look great! It's clear they put some effort into this, maybe at the expense of other weapons? 🤔 The skill interactions and mechanics are nice, if a little gimmicky. My biggest complaint is that it needs a bit more umph for a glass cannon. A lot of this was also down to the skill mechanics. They were a bit too tough to pull off. Etchings need to last at least 2 seconds longer. I also had trouble staying alive when under pressure without a good way to escape, but that might be on me. Still, even a glass cannon weapon needs some options to give itself breathing room, and I just couldn't find it or get to it easily. It really shined when I had someone else keeping me alive, but it didn't have enough tools to repel attackers for solo play. Also, like Mental Collapse, the backgrounds for the etchings need to be more transparent, so we can see mechanics.
5. Guardian: I really wanted to like the guardian spear. It has a great base and ideas. It has good damage for an offensive support weapon, and some good utility/support, but a few critical issues are crippling it. This thing is a support weapon that cannot support the guardian. DOA. It seriously needs some sustain, like healing yourself on 1 and 2 and probably a hard defense/aegis effect on #3. That's the biggest issue. Also Helio Crawl needs to RUSH, not crawl. WAY too slow. Fix those 2 issues, and this weapon will jump to rank 3 easily. Lower CDs for #4 and #5. 20s is too long for a symbol with current trait options; lower the boon duration if necessary. Lastly, many of the illuminated skill effects looked and felt weak. Not worth the hassle at all. If I have to do a little gimmick mechanic, make it worth it in both effects and graphics.
6. Warrior: It's really, really nice to see a new weapon without a special little gimmick you have to go through just to get it going! Of course, it's for warriors, probably the one profession that can afford a new mechanic without adding too much complexity to the class. This was a tough placement. Any given day it could go ahead of the guardian spear. It has good options. Numbers need tweaking of course, but it gives warriors both a great ranged option and some AOE up close on one weapon slot, not that they lack for close AOE. My biggest gripes are animation locks and tracking. They make the weapon feel clunkier than it needs to be. Beyond that, the berserker primal skill is not as cool as the regular aerial evade burst attack, and #3 and #5 both need shorter CDs.
7. Revenant: I had 2 different experiences with this weapon. With a renegade the weapon was brutal, strong and slow. I get what they are going for, but the animations made it feel too slow. Speed up the animations and add a building power-pulse graphic to the skills to warrant the pause, then you have something here. On vindicator, it was much smoother and even, because I could interweave my jumps and utility skill between spear attacks easier. But it wasn't as punishing for a condition damage dealer. I'm also not sold on the main mechanic of spamming skill #5. It didn't feel or look impactful. It seriously needs a stronger graphic and effect if this is the main draw.
8. Engineer: The ideas and concepts for this weapon, especially with the Lightning Rod, were really cool. I just couldn't get into it. I probably need to give it another shot, but I only lasted 30 minutes with this thing before quitting. That's probably on me. I like my engineers with guns more than melee weapons. Sorry, no real feedback here other than it didn't capture my attention like the top few.

I didn't get to testing the necromancer spear, but I don't play the profession, so I'm not sure how valuable that would be. Sorry, necro fans. Good luck with your feedback!

Thanks for a fun beta weekend and chance to test the new toys! Most were really fun, while some had some obvious issues to address. Overall, tighten up some of the animations and movements, boost some graphics where needed, and give us melee and ranged auto attacks on every profession for ALL SPEARS ALL THE PLACES!