Favorite New Elite Spec (Beta Week 1)

[Loboling.5293]

I was wondering which of the elite specs people were enjoying most during this first Beta week.

 

[SkyCake.4216]

Harbinger. I wore full Celestial and used the Undead runes. I really want to use Tormenting, but I didn't think to prepare ahead of time. Pretty much just camped at 25 Blight, melted goons, and haven't went down yet. Like many others, I do think the Elixirs are kind of boring mechanically (but really cool in concept) and the icons are also boring. The traits are okay. The Shroud interactions and gameplay make up for me, though. Some tweaks to relatively minor things such as the Blight representation would be nice. As well as something to spice up Elixirs just a tiny bit more. 

 

Willbender was also a lot of fun. I don't play a lot of Guardian (Engineer, Necro, and Mesmer are my favorites). But, with your F1 skill being reset on kills, doing something like taking a base in Drizzlewood when you're surrounded by enemies is a ton of fun. Just teleporting around like crazy. I have a friend that was hoping for a more mobile spec for Guardian and I feel like they'll enjoy Willbender. 

 

Virtuoso is super flashy. But, mechanically it's pretty boring. There was very little to think about. It almost feels like it was a spec for people that didn't like Mesmer which is an odd take for an e-spec to me. But, I've seen plenty of other Mesmers enjoy it. It was fun to farm some Drizzlewood with and then I went into Verdant Brink a little bit before getting bored. I don't see myself playing this e-spec too often once EoD launches and the newness wears off as I find Chrono, Mirage, and even taking a 3rd Core Mesmer line to be more interesting. Maybe it'll be more fun in instances or PvP/WvW with a certain build. inb4 projectiles 

 

So! Harbinger > Willbender > Virtuoso for me so far. Harbinger and Willbender are relatively close and I could see myself being swayed if I played more Guardian beforehand. Virtuoso is "meh" 

[Dadnir.5038]

Harbinger was bound to be the most popular one, it give mobility and reactivity to the slowest profession in game. Not to forget that blight isn't even close to be as bad as most players feared. Elixirs aren't really exciting but there is always utility skills that end up being less popular than other. Special bonus thanks to the elite elixir and it's 5 stabs that ease some jumping puzzle like the one in metrica (using the cumbersome lich for that was a chore).

 

Willbender bring mobility, lot of mobility to the guardian, but, very previsibly, suffer from the poor critical damage of the profession as a whole. At least it's fun to move around.

 

Virtuoso is as boring as expected. Slow like a core necromancer. At least there are some aegis and the traits allow for quick blade gen.

[Mik.3401]

My vote goes to necro based off pvp
 

Harbinger:

 excellent condition application, surprisingly strong sustain (regaining health after shroud feels basically like a continuous sustain heal cancelling incoming dps), good weapon (pistol 2 is low-key op imho), super strong aground with very quick attacks (yeah necro is faster than Mesmer it’s so deliciously ironic). Overall good synergy with core necro lines. A strong spec overall, elixirs are meh but necro is so op in general it doesn’t even change anything.

 

Virtuoso:

slow, squishy, misses most of the attacks, little synergy with core lines, extremely weak weapon , poorly designed utilities. Basically it’s a noce class to pew pew mobs in the open world nothing else in my opinion

 

Willbender:

surprisingly low damage, kind of uninspired utilises and traits. The mobility is crazy though - feels quite fun to kite on it. I don’t know if it is good as a roamer as scoring fast kill is kind of tricky playing it. Overall hard to say, it is just very strange spec, thief does it’s job better given it has stealth.

[Pouyanians.1903]

Necro minions now got nurfed and worst is that when u mount they all die 😕 sucks!

[Bunny.9834]

Harbinger was the smoothest to play out of all 3. 

The new shroud/blight mechanic will need some getting used to but not as bad as I imagined. 

Elixirs need additional effects or mechanics. Kroof has an interesting idea, which is to "flip" the effects of elixirs when you're in shroud. Make them "offensive" and AOE while in shroud. (Reverse Druid) 

 

The other two are just CLUNKY. 

 

[Za Shaloc.3908]

It was for sure Virtuoso for me. I genuinely enjoyed my time on Virt and wish I could have played it longer. There is a *ton* of critique I have for it and I think it needs a lot of work, but regardless I had a blast with the actual playstyle itself and hope that 6 months' worth of time to polish and iterate on it will do it some good.  It just seemed to click for me and if the remaining especs turn out to be lame, it will likely become my main.