this weekend the new elitespecs where up for grabs and testing in the PvP environment..
so whats your opinion after testing them
here is mine top to bottom..
1Elementalist, endlesly combining the 4 elementals for the best effects, so much fun, finally a true mellee option with the sword, but even staff has become more fun and challenging, still the best visuals ingame, just using sword fire skill 2 every 8 secconds makes my day..
2 Ranger, moving in and out of soulbeast form, it gives you 3 different spells/pet type, you do the math with over 30 pet types and 2 pets alive.. this gives a huge amount of buildfreedom, which is very welcome to the class, with the druid being very narrowminded...
3 Engineer, also a very very nice spec, the heat mechanic is a nice adition to the class, altough the new skills could end up with a very narrow path, as they are the only ones integrating with the heat mechanic (espescially the toolbar part)
4 Necromancer, finally a support spec for the necromancer, i like the shade mechanic, reminds me a little of the mesmer..
5 Guardian, i was planning to main this spec, i love the aesthetics, but the recharge times on virtues combined with the limited amount of chapters in the tomes, really makes this a lot less fun... if the tomes would have worked like the engineers kits, then this would be the most fun.. but with the charges, they feel worse then elementalist weapon summonings.. since everyone seems to agree, i hope this might change before release.. they still have a month
6 Revenant, which i mained during Hot at release, its just more of the same mechanic, which in the end takes away from your freedom of building your own character. The annimations and the newly added summons are a nice touch tough..
7 Mesmer, i never like the mesmer, to chaotic for me, which became even worse with the new elite class
8 Thief, a ranged sniper class, not my thing, thief was my 2nd class to main in HOT, but it seems time to move one, i do realize others might love the change
9 Warrior, the only class i never got to 80, and still the only class i have no intention in playing, so i didnt touch it this weekend..
with another 9 elite specs, the game is getting close to some of the build diversity of GW1, the horizontal progression works for me.. i am looking forward to the new story content and areas and trying out the mounts... but mostly i am in love with the combat of this game, its by far my favorite... and the 9 new elite builds only make it better...
i have a month left on making a decision, on what to main in this expansion, nit just looking at the new elite spec, but also at everything else these classes have to offer... having both the druid for grouping, as well as the new soulbeast spec, makes the ranger very tempting..
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
Comments
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
i can not understand why they never added that...
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
2. Ranger's soulbeast seems to be put together by bunch of devs on acid trip 24hours before demo. Buggy with crappy stances, weak dagger and feels clunky.
3. Engi holosmith seems to make the class gameplay much easier overall. Nice damage. The best animation of all elite specs imo.
4. Necro's shade mechanic will have problem over mobile target.
5. Guardian - skipped, couldn't be bothered cuz i just hate Guardian in general.
6. Revenant's Renegade shortbow animation is nice. Like Necro, the summons are fixed and will have problem against mobile target. Herald seems to be superior over this. Shortbow seems to be condi centric weapon.
7. Mesmer's Mirage new dodge mechanic is rubbish considering the game is now ground ground aoe fest. It's literally suicide against ground aoe with long duration.
8. Thief's Deadeye kneeling mechanic is clunky and hard to get used to. Rifle's auto is 'so so' but has very strong burst. Looks like good for wvw. Lack sustain for top end pve and lack aoe for open world pve.
9. Warrior's spellbreaker has nice dagger off hand 5 animation (flashy). Overall, it doesn't feel as great as berserker elite and core warrior. Only tested as power build.
Holosmith is probably the best imo and soulbeast is literally the worse.
There are lots of boon stripping skills and utilities, converting them to torment. Anet is certainly pushing for these two things for new xpac. We'll probably get mobs with lots of annoying boons ala karka.
Whether they'll modify the rest of GW2 to align with this probable new changes, only time will tell.
Overall, it's not a great demo imo. I'm still not convinced to fork out money for the new xpac after 2 demos tbh.
The only (sub)class that has a spammy rotation is staff Daredevil.
..Cake..
In term of "spammy", GW2 has always been spamfest since day 1. It's the way the combat mechanic works. Though bring in new elite specs along with more clusterfk visuals and combat mechanics in PoF will certainly add to the problem without doubt. This is a non issue for ppl who still playing the game throughout close to 5 years. It certainly won't help with potential new players that dislike "spammy".
We can't tell for sure how OP the new elite specs from the demo. Because it is impossible to do so.
The elite spec demo is in Mists area, spvp and WvW, where sigils/runes limited and gears are normalised. A lot of the HoT elite seems to be pvp centric (may be it's just my impression). Whether it can be mix/modify to create top high end dps build; it still can't be determined due to limited nature of the demo.
At first glance, imo there are few that will probably gets bat nerfs. Gazelle's charge, Maul+Sick'Em in Soulbeastmode, Holosmith's elite, and Daredevil's probably is going to get bit of nerf too (it can crit @30-40k one shotting with rifle).
The reception of the elite specs demo in general seems to be a little subdued to rather mix in their subforum. Personally, i think HoT's elite was far more impressive back then when it was first shown off during betas.
1-deadeye will be annoying to play against, its ranged with many stealth and shadow steps, pretty cheesy,
2-holosmith is fun to play, yolo class, im gonna play it,
3-so many people say scourge is op, it will be nerfed for sure,
4-new guardian has new skill options which is good, but skills has to many fire spam that is bad because conditions make pvp cheesy, i dont like it,
5-new ele spec is meh..
6-new rev spec is underpowered, and its bad copy of core mesmer, standing illisions are useless in pvp, they designed for pve,
7-new ranger looks fun, interesting, i wish they add shape shifting too.
8-new mesmer reminds me core pu mesmer builds, it will bring condi spam to the game, anet loves cheesy pvp i guess.
9-spellbreaker, i hate the name, i didnt even try this one, i avoid it,
i think PoE elite specs are designed for pve too, just like HoT. i'll wait and see. new expansion will be good in pve side. but pvp side time will tell.