Thoughts on specialization difficulty

[RagiNagi.1802]

Hi!

Not going to go into much discussion. Just want to hear your thoughts.

What are your top5 most difficult Specializations/builds for PVE (OW and InstanceS) to pull off (and optionally why).

I am regularly playing only few classes but it would go:

1. Untamed - Ive given it a few hours and the unleashing mechanic has not stuck to me. I end up just randomly mashing buttons. Quite a change from SoulBeast

2. Firebrand - the amount of skills is quite much, unless following a rotation, its difficult to pull off.

3. Deadeye - difficult getting used to being stationary.

4. Herald - can't get trough the whole stance mechanic lol. Constant change in utility skills is messing with my mind, also skills with double casts in Dragon..

5. Chronomancer - lots of unique profession skills, that have unique effects and have to know the mechanics quite well to pull the continuum split.

 

Hoping to get some replies. Would be interesting to see what you guys consider difficult to learn, play, execute etc.

Cheers

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

I can tell right away you have never tried anything Elementalist, especially Catalyst. But that's ok, we sometimes forget that Elementalists exist too.

[AliamRationem.5172]

Condi weaver, catalyst, chronomancer, condi kit holosmith, bladesworn?

[Panda.1967]

My top 5 most difficult especs…

1. Harbinger - I understand the mechanics of the espec just fine… my problem is that it just dies so fast… I’m sure it’s a skill issue, I’ve seen plenty of Harbingers just tear through tough fights like they are nothing… but when I try to play Harbinger I just die constantly.

2. Deadeye - who thought it was a good idea to make a highly stationary espec in a game where standing still equals death? Whats worse, the espec doesn’t even actually reward you for this in any way either… deadeye should have had a mechanic similar to Mirage Cloak to help support its stationary play style.

3. Renegade - Unlike the other two revenant especs, the Renegade has no way to quickly replenish energy. If you burn through your energy (which you will very quickly) your stuck doing next to nothing as you struggle to get back up any higher than 20% energy…

4. Herald - the upkeep costs of Facets are too high… I see other heralds effortlessly maintaining 3 or 4 facets for entire prolonged fights, meanwhile if I turn on more than 2 my energy drains so fast I’m perpetually out of energy… it makes no sense…

5. Catalyst - The whole espec is confusing… all I understand is build energy, drop orbs, spam finishers… the spec feels incomplete…

[Bleikopf.2491]

On 8/29/2024 at 10:42 PM, RagiNagi.1802 said:

2. Firebrand - the amount of skills is quite much, unless following a rotation, its difficult to pull off.

Boy, do I have a class to show you

[RagiNagi.1802]

1 hour ago, Bleikopf.2491 said:

Boy, do I have a class to show you

What do you mean? 🥸

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

When it comes to benchmarking... all of them.  However, for general use there's a couple that really stand out as just difficult and/or terrible for me.

#1: Catalyst.  I have no complaints about Tempest or Weaver.  Catalyst, however, is just inconvenient.  It's theme is that it builds up momentum through the fight, but in practice that means that anything but a stationary, cooperative enemy is going to result in missed combos, a lack of energy, terrible DPS, and ends in you eating concrete.  The mechanics don't help you with catalyst, but rather you have to actively fight against them.  The windows for DPS are also minor, and it requires lightning fast hands to pull off certain parts of the combo.  I would suggest Catalyst only for masochists.

#2: Heal Specter.  I say "heal" because the DPS versions are perfectly fine.  But the heal one... holy crap.  In order to use it effectively, you need to constantly alternate between targeting teammates and targeting the enemy, because all of your skills have vastly different effects depending on whom you're looking at.  A wrong button press on the wrong target can get you killed.  The buffs the build throws out are dependent on your anchor target, too.  Now, playing this build is tough enough in an organized group of competent players, but if you're stuck with pugs who panic and scatter it is nearly impossible to buff the team.  The anchor guy and the ally targeted player consistently run away, because they do not intuitively understand that all my projectiles and bubbles are helping them.  

#3:  Vindicator.  I'm certain that this is just a mental block or something.  The only play I regularly get with vind is when I kill the elite tengu that guards a chest that I loot every day.  However, for that fight, it feels like vindicator has gotten consistently worse through time.  The biggest issue with Vindicator is that nothing flows properly.  Everything is cumbersome, everything is clumsy, and nothing has the proper timing.  You're always fighting to maintain reduced endurance, maintain the dodge buffs, use the skills in the right order, manage energy, and defend yourself at the same time.  I took vindi out for some runs just to see if it was that particular tengu enemy, but I encounter this problem everywhere.  The profession feels bad to play now, and it does just terribly.  The only thing that Vindi has going for it is the sigil of stamina abuse.

#4: Scourge.  I swear that I'm living in the reverse world with this one.  Everybody insists that scourge is easy, but it is one of my most hated specializations.  It doesn't have any sort of set rotation, requiring a lot of improvising.  In practice, that just means I'm utterly terrible at doing any damage.  Out of all the professions, that is the one that feels the most spammy, constantly forcing me to float my hands to hit all of the buttons, and almost all of them demand to be spammed.  It hurts my hands, I have to constantly re-adjust my aim, and I spend the entire fight looking at the bar.

#5:  Ranger.  I don't play it, period.  

[WingSwipe.3084]

On 8/30/2024 at 2:23 AM, AliamRationem.5172 said:

Condi weaver, catalyst, chronomancer, condi kit holosmith, bladesworn?

Oh my god, bladesworn still exists.

I totally forgot.

[Doggie.3184]

Bladesworn - The loud sword explosions make me feel like a dog stuck in a 4th of july firework show and the rotation is just abnoxious and weird.

Axe Thief - Gives me a migraine from the loud metal scraping noise that plays with every throw... many bugs/flaws as well, very very difficult to play.

Sword Weaver - It just feels sooooooooooooo gross playing a squishy Ele with no ranged attacks... button mashy... sometimes Grenth will randomly appear just to put you out of misery.

Hammer Unwashed - Jesus Abbadon Christ they want to destroy our hands, they want carpal tunnel to consume our entire arm. You also have to make up a way to know when fart imbued unleash attack is ready since nothing shows it's on cooldown.

Hammer Catalyst - Same issue as previous~ just way too much carpal tunnel effort on a not even fun weapon. Should have just been a sword redesign instead of sending us into Grenth's sweet merciful embrace a 2nd time.

Runner-up - Holosmith. Very fun spec actually but then you literally kill yourself instantly and become sad. Or if it's pvp you get CC'd and banned from turning off your self-destruct button and die in an explosion and become sad.

Edited September 2 by Doggie.3184