Underwhelming Essence system

[misterman.1530]

Yeah. Would love to know the point of these "essences". Hopefully, Anet will weigh in with what they intend with them, or what the intent was that, unfortunately, did not get delivered. Either way, would love to know.

[Ayrilana.1396]

@ugrakarma.9416 said:looking at Sirens Landing that had map passives buffs too, its seems passive system dont catch up much the playerbase. ppl seems like more a active extra skill or navigation stuff like the vulcano thing(i forget the name) or the oakhearts essence.

The passives were either something you could more easily get from food or had such a long cool down that it’s impact would be negligible.

[LucianDK.8615]

I never had any problems with Sirens landing, and I never touched the weird mastery there. Was confusing, and completely neligible.

[Hevoskuuri.3891]

I honestly think there's not that many overall-useful masteries for Anet to think of anymore, as the movement/mount stuff, autoloot, fractal and raid stuff etc... are all covered.

I think the S5 masteries so far are okay, as they'll likely be more and more relevant throughout the entire saga, unlike the Siren's Landing song thing that no one ever bothered with.

Sure, it might be irrelevant at bosses that get zerked down regradless of essences or not, but it definitely makes a big impact on soloing mobs or doing small-group events, and they open the essence-locked chests as well when you're at it. So yes, they might be a 'pointless gate' and obsolete outside Bjora Marches/other saga maps, but at least they're consistent. And hopefully more impactful in the future releases.

[Bast.7253]

@"Hevoskuuri.3891" said:I honestly think there's not that many overall-useful masteries for Anet to think of anymore, as the movement/mount stuff, autoloot, fractal and raid stuff etc... are all covered.

I think the S5 masteries so far are okay, as they'll likely be more and more relevant throughout the entire saga, unlike the Siren's Landing song thing that no one ever bothered with.

Sure, it might be irrelevant at bosses that get zerked down regradless of essences or not, but it definitely makes a big impact on soloing mobs or doing small-group events, and they open the essence-locked chests as well when you're at it. So yes, they might be a 'pointless gate' and obsolete outside Bjora Marches/other saga maps, but at least they're consistent. And hopefully more impactful in the future releases.

I think they could do a mastery theme built around that skill steal that we had during the world vs world weekend. As on ode to capture signets you could have a capture signet mastery that allows you to steal unique abilities from mobs that you kill or bosses you fight. It wouldn't be the most exciting thing in the world, but if you find one that you really enjoy playing with your build you could decide what kind of special action skill you get.

There are a lot of combat oriented systems I think they could implement, whether it's taking an ability from a mob or just outright gaining a specific buff set or "on/crit" "on/hit" ability, - cooldown reductions, transform abilities that improve our existing skills or give us new ones. I think that would work well for the spirits aside from norns already having their racials. (Which are pretty lackluster in their current implementation.)

This mastery just feels either rushed and uninspired, or, a very rudimentary implementation of something they plan on building on much later. Perhaps as each episode is released they shift from just being buffs and lazer beams to genuinely impactful gameplay. I think if anything, they'll just abandon it long before that considering how poorly received this one seems to be.

It really makes me wonder if they even tested this mastery, and if they did what were the conditions they used? Were they testing open world mobs? Just testing to make sure the chests unlocked? Strike missions? Individual aspects of it, i.e. - cc breakbar percengage by itself, damage by itself, buff impactfulness by itself? Maybe it would feel better without having to stack to thirty and have a 15 minute duration, or collect little orbs on the ground?

[ruikarikun.9402]

To open the chest I need to have 30 stacks on all essence?

[Linken.6345]

@ruikarikun.9402 said:To open the chest I need to have 30 stacks on all essence?

No just need to have rank 1 for small and rank 2 for big no stacks at all needed.

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

I enjoyed completing the masteries, as I always enjoy completing things, but now that I've got the essence abilities ... I don't really notice them. Now and then the special action will pop up when I've accidentally collected enough of one color and that's nice. But it's too much fluffing around to figure out what color to collect and what to use it on, even if there are some extra boons associated with it. I just kill things and if a bonus happens, that's great.

Using the colors for the chests was ...mildly inconvenient at first. By the time I completed the masteries i was able to open all the chests without paying any attention to what colors I've collected. So, no need to think about that either. /shrug

At least they're not poorly implemented and completely annoying trash like the oakheart vine. That's something.

[LucianDK.8615]

@Zoltar MacRoth.7146 said:I enjoyed completing the masteries, as I always enjoy completing things, but now that I've got the essence abilities ... I don't really notice them. Now and then the special action will pop up when I've accidentally collected enough of one color and that's nice. But it's too much fluffing around to figure out what color to collect and what to use it on, even if there are some extra boons associated with it. I just kill things and if a bonus happens, that's great.

Using the colors for the chests was ...mildly inconvenient at first. By the time I completed the masteries i was able to open all the chests without paying any attention to what colors I've collected. So, no need to think about that either. /shrug

At least they're not poorly implemented and completely annoying trash like the oakheart vine. That's something.

As said earlier, your buff stacks is irrelevant for the chests. All what matters is rank 2 of each mastery to be able to open small and medium chests.

[Zoltar MacRoth.7146]

@LucianDK.8615 said:

@Zoltar MacRoth.7146 said:I enjoyed completing the masteries, as I always enjoy completing things, but now that I've got the essence abilities ... I don't really notice them. Now and then the special action will pop up when I've accidentally collected enough of one color and that's nice. But it's too much fluffing around to figure out what color to collect and what to use it on, even if there are some extra boons associated with it. I just kill things and if a bonus happens, that's great.

Using the colors for the chests was ...mildly inconvenient at first. By the time I completed the masteries i was able to open all the chests without paying any attention to what colors I've collected. So, no need to think about that either. /shrug

At least they're not poorly implemented and completely annoying trash like the oakheart vine. That's something.

As said earlier, your buff stacks is irrelevant for the chests. All what matters is rank 2 of each mastery to be able to open small and medium chests.

That... makes it even more pointless. It means it's just a matter of time before you open the chests. There's really no skill to it. :/

[Ameepa.6793]

I honestly have not even bothered to find out what they do or try to stack them, or felt the need to do that.. just wanted the masteries to be able to open the chests..

[miraude.2107]

I've had to walk away a few times from posting because of how I view this mastery but after playing again today I can honestly say. I hate it. I'm not even wanting to spend the mastery points and instead use them for something useful hate it.I've made no secret I don't like Siren of Orr. It was a cool concept that failed to deliver and was relegated to just one map that cost 7 mastery points to unlock. The rngness of it made it clunky. This new mastery is like they looked at Siren of Orr and went 'Let's add some unnecessary steps on it on top of grind to make it even CLUNKIER.' I'm sorry, Clayton, I know you put work into this but lord, the only useful part of this mastery are the locks and the barriers.First up, the build up of having to get 30 orbs to top it off is a frustration, especially if you want to use it against something like the Boneskinner or whatnot. Oh joy, I have to plan ahead to hit that and maintain it for the event. Or find one of the chests, personally tag it to be able to get back to it quickly and go farm the orbs. On top it only lasts 15 minutes if you don't sit there collecting more orbs to make sure it doesn't expire.Second, it adds even more visual clutter onto the ground of a game that already has the complaint of that. I didn't even know the Svanir bombers during the meta dropped orbs because I couldn't even see them because of all the aoe on the ground. I don't even know if the Construct at the end of the meta drops orbs and, if it does, I wouldn't know anyway because of the glitter bomb going off of player skills and the snowstorm effect on screen. Which also added to the frustration of I couldn't even see the aoe of the Construct or the Boneskinner because of the visual clutter. Does the Boneskinner drops orbs? Again, don't know can't really see the ground.

Now it is an interesting concept but, the Ooze Pit/Triple Trouble did this better. Having us stand in a spot off to the side to get a Raven buff and then pewpew would have been okay. Better would have been this:First off, audio beep so you know the skill is actually available. Second, it'd be worth it to build up and spend the mastery points on this new thing if they had taken the Siren of Orr Chancel of Echoes (have it be a Spirit Raven that shows up or something) and when you touched it, it gave you that 15 minute buff that would fire the pewpew cannon. You'd still have to kill mobs to get it but the only grind would be the XP and remembering where the chests are.And I think it this way because of dealing with Raven in the story. Nothing Raven does screams at me that it wants me to kill mobs over and over again to gain its power. Raven is the philosopher. Early encounters with it has it given you riddles. In the story, it's giving you moral dilemma questions. Raven doesn't really fit the kill this over and over again motif. It does fit with a 'I see you fighting and send one of my brood as aid' and feels a bit more lore friendly despite Researcher Yarixx exploitation.

[Linken.6345]

@miraude.2107 said:SnipFirst up, the build up of having to get 30 orbs to top it off is a frustration, especially if you want to use it against something like the Boneskinner or whatnot. Oh joy, I have to plan ahead to hit that and maintain it for the event. Or find one of the chests, personally tag it to be able to get back to it quickly and go farm the orbs. On top it only lasts 15 minutes if you don't sit there collecting more orbs to make sure it doesn't expire.

Again you dont need the buff to open chest after you have leveled the 3 lines to level 2 you can open all the chests on any toon you like fresh from black citadel just walk to chest an boom open.