GW2 HoT beta initial thoughts

[tanithryudo]

The Classes:

Revenant - Improved a lot from the last preview, and that is just the Hammer/Jalis + Swords/Shiro combos. Still, I'm not too sure the double swords is the end all and be all of Revenant damage that people were thinking it is. My impression of it doesn't compare to the likes of Warrior/Guardian GS, Thief/Mez sword, or Ele dagger. Especially, it feels like there's not enough utility and defense baked in, unlike any other class' melee weapon. I might go back and do some further testing with non-sword weapon + Shiro legend, or sword/sword + Ventari maybe. Also, I want to check the other weapons again and see how they are doing since their buffs.

Guardian - Disappointment. Pretty much everything was an disappointment. I was so hyped on the Dragon Hunter, but it was quite meh. Longbow damage is lackluster, nor does its utility do much in PvE. Ditto traps. Both the weapon and utility skills I can see more useful for PvP than for PvE, honestly. The altered virtues...eh, too gimmicky. Plus F1 doesn't do enough damage to make up for the loss of regular F1 + Radiance + Virtues (aka everything is on fire all the time).

Mesmer - The shield is ok; not really my play style but not bad either. The wells I think are more suited for either PvE group play (dungeons/fractals) or PvP. The trait line I really like though, and will probably become my mesmer's 3rd traitline (along with inspiration and dueling) when HoT is released. Clones & phantasms everywhere! Shatter shatter everywhere MWAHAHAHA!!! *cough* Also, yay for 25% movement passive. Makes life easier everywhere else too. Have not had a chance to test the new F5; still not sure how that thing works.

Elementalist - The warhorn is decent, but seems to be very group focused and thus has its numbers balance around that. Trait line is... bland, I guess. Not great but not sucky either. The attunement overloads... ok, those were something of a disappointment, compared to what the ele is giving up (considering attunement swapping is what the rest of the whole profession is built up around). I can see x/horn + shout + aura-share builds work ok in group play (casual dungeons, WvW, maybe PvP), but arcane is still better for solo (and icebow is still king in "pro" dungeons and world bosses)


Verdant Brink: (pic)

This area gives me the impression that it's a place you need a group (or at least a partner) to move around in. A lot of places where trying to run past the enemy mobs to get somewhere will just get you dead. (Well, maybe a thief or mez specializing in stealth could do it...) I'm not sure if they meant the design to be anti-skipping. Makes it annoying to navigate solo though.

A lot of narrow paths, where a misstep is to fall to you doom. I'm of two minds on this design. It does make things tougher on people who have lag or bad keyboard/twitch response. Also, a lot of narrow passageways makes many places either confusing to navigate, or claustrophobic to to experience.

Events... all of the events on the map I was in were bugged, so I can't judge any of it.


Masteries:

Was only able to get Gliding 1. Feels a bit clunky. Maybe getting further levels in gliding will make it better, I dunno. Tried to do the mushroom mastery but it's not going anywhere. I think the slow progress is probably due to the events in VB being broken and thus not able to get xp from there. Ah well.

Comments

[cashew]

Have yet to retry rev and test out ele.

On Dragon Hunter: so, so disappointing. LB3 is useless. I tried to use it against a sniper. Died. The "destroy projectile" part of it seems to be very useless because unless the projectile just happens to be on the same x, y, and z axis, good luck trying to destroy anything. Also, there is a constant "no line of sight" despite the terrain being relatively flat. There is some serious clipping problems happening. The traps were eh, okay. The only one I found useful was the light trap. The elite trap was useless.

On Chronomancer: I like the shield, but it's definitely confusing to use. I find it actually better to stack shield and scepter, than shield and sword. The shield and scepter have about similar range. If you're too close to mobs, the skills don't get a chance to get off before getting interrupted. The wells were...eeeeeeh. Needs more boost. The F5 I found to be less than useful. The idea is that if you trigger it, a few seconds later, you return to the same state, in essence allowing you to spam a long re-charge skill twice. Basically a mimic for everything on the skill bar. Kinda gimicky with limited use, since you get dragged back to your starting point, so you can't use it to spam stealth twice in a row, which is the only time I find spamming long recharge useful.

Masteries: OMFG, I hate those mastery points. They are so impossible. Only managed to get like...2 out of the entire map. Also, the mastery entire concept is really confusing. There's too many things you can't use just because you don't have the masteries unlocked. I liked it better when you could just pick up whatever thing around you and freaking use it. I can't believe even gathering has masteries involved. Feels a little too grindy.

Gliding: Yeah, I got gliding 1 and it feels really, really clunky. First, half the time the stupid thing won't even deploy after I hit space, causing my character to fall to her death. Feels a bit like how jump works during jumping puzzles. I'm hitting the space bar, but the client isn't registering it. This is seriously annoying, because of how important having good, tight controls are for the area, and the stupid thing just won't respond to my keypresses. Second, it's really hard to judge whether you'll make it onto the ledge or not, because a few pixels are all it takes for you to come short. And the cost of failing is freaking hard. Which gets me to the map portion.

Map: I hate this map so hard. Everything feels like it's designed to kill me. I can't name the number of times I've accidentally dived off the wrong edge while trying to avoid mobs. There seems to be too much forced camera moving on a camera that doesn't work half the time. I mean, yeah, a lot of it is because my fps is crap, but that's the problem. I do have a computer that meets the specs of the stupid game, but it still runs like shit. Other areas, the old stuff, don't have problems. Hit the new area and suddenly my frame rate is shit. And that's the problem. The new areas are more taxing on the system, which I'm loathed to upgrade for a game. This is why I hate these constant upgrading MMOs that don't take into consideration that not everyone is going to have the best performing PC, yet continues to up the ante of how much processor their program needs to run smoothly. Just another reason I prefer consoles, because the developers know that there is a hardware limit to what they program and can't get over ambitious and stuff a bunch of things in that's going to crash 50% of the systems out there. (I'm just really, really bitter that GW2 used to run fine and suddenly it's slow as molasses.)

The thing is, I saw it coming with dry top and silverwastes already. Farming there is such a pain precisely because something about the "vine" part of the background absolutely kills what my computer can handle. Running event on Teq or Jormag? Fine. Vinewrath, slow and choppy. But since there's other people running around all the time, it's bearable because I don't have to be performing at top-quality to get credit. But the new HoT expansion is just...ugh.

So many things I hate right now. It makes me want to yell at the devs. It is literally not fun. Ugh. I doubt I'm going to do any more testing, since it looks like HoT is going to be unplayable for me. It's a shame really, but it looks like my GW2 progress has hit a wall unless they can figure out how not to make my computer burn into a crisp.

[tanithryudo]

I didn't think the guardian traps were gonna be useful in open world PvE the minute they said there was extra cast/after cast time on them so they're meant to be pre-placed. It just isn't workable to try and get the exact mob you want to go into trap, as opposed to pathing somewhere else, attacking someone else, or some random moa sets it off instead. Same reason most people don't use ranger traps in PvE, though at least those can be used during combat while the mob is whaling on you.

Chronomance F5 - I've seen on reddit people use it to repeat shatters for extra shatter damage/effect. Not sure how that works. I previously ran phantasm builds and thus rarely use the shatters outside of F1/F2 occasionally so I'm not very versed on effective shattering.

Masteries - Oh, you mean those glowing points that look like skill point communes? Yeah, I tried to glide to do the two that were close to the initial waypoint and could only do one of them, while always missing by a few pixels on the other. I did get two other points, one from...doing the story missions 3x on different characters, I guess? And the other one...ugh..not sure. Anyway, I'm pretty sure you can get mastery points in some ways without doing those mastery challenges things. If only the map events work, y'know.

Gliding - Fully agree... so clunky. Also, I keep finding myself trying to hit F to deploy instead of space, and by the time I realize it's already too late. They should let us rebind that key just like they do for dodge and stuff.

Map - Yeah, graphics aside, the map does feel very much more unfriendly to casual solo. Much more punishing for mistakes. Mob density is pretty high - reminds me of Orr as it was initially - especially when you consider that the verticality and narrow passages means that the same number of mobs and you are restricted to an actual smaller area for passage. Maybe if you had mushrooms and gliding you can more easily avoid and skip mobs, but getting there in the first place will be something of a pain. If only the events worked...

I feel for you on the graphics thing. Hopefully they will continue to do graphics optimization stuff like they did for older parts of GW2 in the future.

[cashew]

Guardian trap: I actually find the glowy trap kinda useful, since the aftercast isn't much of an issue when the mob is stunned and getting smacked. The other traps, however... Oh, and I was usually able to get the mobs to trigger the traps by simply standing in the trap, wait for the charge attack, then dodging left/right and watching them run right into it. Of course, that makes the trap have very, very limited use.

ChronoF5: F5 basically saves the state you're in (skill recharges, position, health, etc.) for a few seconds. You can spam all the skillz, and when the timer is up, everything resets to when you hit F5. So that's how you can spam shatters for a spike, but the setting up requires some time and the time it gives you to execute skills is pretty limited. Not as overpowered as it sounds. But it works decently well for wanting to spam certain skills twice. Again, not that overwhelming of a thing.

Masteries: The glowing points are so, so annoying. I know there's one more that I can't get because I haven't figured out how to get there. I can only hope that you get more points from simple leveling (like skill points of old), but so far haven't seen any gained. Supposedly, the quests/story also hand out more mastery points, which makes them not necessary, but still. Just kinda annoying.

Gliding: Yeah, I kept pushing F 'cuz I was so used to hitting F when seeing the yellow tag. Bleh. Granted, once I got used to the idea of gliding = double jump, it was a little better, but not by much. Again, it's because for some reason the reaction is so, so slow and about half the time my spacebar hitting didn't register.

Map density: Uuuuuurgh. I think the map might have been designed with the idea of it being mostly group events with tons of people running around all the time. Except, y'know, that's not the case at all. Anet is severely overestimating how attractive the maps are. I mean, maaaybe if the events had super, duper rewards, there would be more people gathered around there farming day in and day out, a la SW chest farm, but as it is...no. Even with gliding/jumping, it's still going to be a pain when there are absolutely no safe areas. Even the frog city/village thing was constantly being over run by mordrem.

And speaking of, good god I hate how they place so many mobs on tiny, squeezed together areas, where one misstep will lead to your doom. I totally accidentally dodged to death more times than I care to count. The dodge mechanic is so unfriendly with the narrow ledge ways, it feels like someone saying "You know what's a great idea? Jumping puzzles but with group events on them. Yeah!" WTF.

Graphics: Managed to get things to run at a slightly more tolerable level one I ran it in windowed mode and shrank the window size. At the very least it's running. But yeah, hopefully they optimize the shit out of those areas. It seems like I'm not the only one who's having issues with it and I am not upgrading my comp just to run a computer game. Geh. I mean, I've always had low FPS, but things didn't feel like it's going out of whack until the vines showed up. I really think the vines graphics is what's killing things on my end, since I have similar problems in drytop town of prosperity and silvewastes during VW/clear mordrem events. But at least it's not the entire map and are small, limited areas. Whereas Verdant Brink is just vines, vines, vines all the time and...yeah. /rant

Oh, right, tried out Rev today with the windowed mode. Thoughts: Still feels underpowered, much prefer hammer to dual swords, glad to see weapon swapping in addition to stance swapping. Still feels slow, but well, everyone feels slow in that map. Attack wise, dual swords feels more like a dagger thief/old gw1 assassin playstyle. Needs more AoE. Shiro's skills are good for position changing, but over all, still not a fan of the class. Also, Shiro's skills are a huge, huge drain on energy. More so than the other three, so do not like. They need to change the cost of those skills. And finally, when am I going to get that holo-dragon charging skill that Rytlock has? And I hope that skill is as powerful as advertised.

Over all, I think they need to rebalance the skills for PvE if the Beta is any indication of the difficulty they're looking for. Especially the snipers, who are impossible to tell apart from other less dangerous mobs. I shouldn't be standing behind a boulder, making sure I've selected sniper, before shadowstepping to the enemy and whale on it until it drops dead and/or get sniped just as I try to attack, which happens way, way more often. Maybe they should reduce the sniping power of that skill with distance, like the way long bow skills ought to be scaled. Oh, and looks like mez/guard is going to be even more necessary, since reflect is the only way I've been able to reliably kill those things. (At least shield engies will finally get a place, I hope.)

[tanithryudo]

Mez F5 might be stronger in PvP than it is in PvE, so not really an issue for me.

Masteries - actually managed to do some events today before the event chain stalled and bugged out. However, the progression of the mastery line is feeling a big slow. Even worse that the new map is the only place you can progress the HoT masteries, which kind of sucks. At least with normal levelling, you're not locked to a single map or zone; if you hate the charr areas, you can always jump over to the norn area, etc. Can't do that with new masteries, which breeds resentment and makes it feel more grindy than it might actually be.

Gliding - I finally figured out the trick to this!! Basically, instead of just hitting space once to jump off the ledge and then space again to deploy, what you do is hit space to jump of the ledge and then DO NOT LET GO OF THE SPACEBAR! Keeping space pressed as you jump off makes the glider autodeploy and does not accidentally turn it on and then off if you accidentally hit space too many times.

Which brings me to... Needs more instructions. Everywhere. They need to tell you how this gliding shit works on some help menu you can bring up from the mastery page. Ditto for adventures. I turned one of them on and then stared blankly at the screen cuz I had no idea what I'm supposed to do next. They need to tell you what the goals are, if there's a timer, how you gain score, etc. Ugh. TUTORIAL PLZ!!


The Revenant:

I played around a bit more and I find that I much prefer using mace/axe instead of sword/sword as the second weapon set (hammer being the other weapon of course). Still using Devastation trait line. For legends, I use Dwarf, and then the second one I swap between Shiro and Ventari as needed - Shiro if I need mobility and Ventari if I'm in an event that requires point defense. That works much better for me.

I did some checking, and mace/axe probably does slightly less damage than sword/sword does with berzerker stat. However, the numbers are actually pretty close enough not to matter too much in PvE. Also, most of mace damage comes from condition - lots of burning especially - which actually makes it better in modrem zones since some of those mobs tend to be tougher against direct damage and weak to conditions.

Also, mace/axe just feels less squishy to me. I think the main thing is that sword 3 is an AoE which locks you in place, so if something does AoE damage to the place you are standing on, you're forced to eat all that damage and it's hard to break the skill to get out. It sucks because comparatively speaking, thief dagger 3 (and Caithe's dagger 3) comes with evasion built in. Rev sword doesn't have that which makes that skill actually pretty bad for a DoT-PBAoE.

The mace 2+3 combo on the other hand does a lot of damage, including a lot of fire damage, and does it in a single spike or to, allowing you to bug in and then bug out and keep moving to avoid incoming damage. It also gives you (and people around you) plenty of might so it doesn't lose out to sword 3 there either.

My favorite combo: mace 2 > mace 3 > axe 4. Bursts fire field and damage, blasts fire and more aoe damage, then more might-boosted aoe damage. Plus the last skill moves you til you're behind the mob and out of whatever attack they were going to throw at you.

Also, mace 2 recharges really fast, so you could probably keep something permaburning. Even with zerk stats instead of condi, this is adds up to a lot of damage.

[cashew]

Mastery progression: OMG, so slow, like snail's pace. WTF. The crazy part is people keep defending it about how it's just right since the progression is the only thing post level 80. I want to hit them.

Gliding: Ah-ha! I will try this in the future and hope for the best. XD

Tutorials: OMG, yes! Needs so much more tutorial-ing. The stupid pop-ups are useless, mostly because it doesn't tell you anything about how to get things. Just "here, spend points when you get 'em". So useless!

Rev: Agreed that the new areas condi is superior to direct damage. I've been running condi mez and burning guard and relying pretty much on condis to take down all the enemies. So, should probably swap over to a condi build for Rev before I give up on it. (On the other hand, heavy class...sooooo not as interested. :p) Haven't made sylvari yet, but will probably make an ele one and try for a feel and see how the story differs with a sylvari. Not very happy that sylvari is the only race that gets a different dialogue. I personally would have preferred every race get something different. Then again, this is just one more proof the Sylvari are the Anet's mary sue race. Gah.

[tanithryudo]

Not sure running pure condi for revenant is workable...

I had full zerker getup using all the beta exotics (except for the backpiece which I used a ascended zerker and of course the gems inside the beta trinkets can't be changed from celestial). Then I swapped the amulet/rings/earrings out for ascended sinister ones.

I felt like there was a noticeable decrease in the damage I did with hammer afterwards. Not enough to be unable to kill things readily...but still, noticeable.

Might be an issue with how the hammer scales with the power stat, I dunno. Needs to test more in the mists with zerker vs carrion vs rampager, I guess.

(As it is I foresee my revenant fighting my engi over the sinister trinkets when HoT actually comes out...)

[cashew]

Why do they need to fight for the trinkets? You've already got them unlocked. Just buy 'em from the vendor. What else are you going to spend your thousands and thousands of badges on?

Hm. Well, hammer is a power weapon, so not surprising the damage comes down. Also, I feel like the new region is definitely more condi favorable, what with all the positioning and stuff. Condi ignores position/armor/etc. and you can just drag mobs to run into your aoe fields then wait it out in a safe corner. Fast? No. Effective? Yes.

ETA:
Oh right, I tried out the ele tempest. Warhorn less than impressive. New shouts are meh. Overcharge is a nice boost. But other than that, yeah, kinda underwhelmed. So far the best change I liked was the mez-chronomancer. Everyone else is just eh.

[tanithryudo]

I'd also have to spend 10g per trinket, blergh... Honestly I'd rather split the ascended trinkets among them and craft exotic sinister trinkets to fill up the rest of the slots.

The new Tempest warhorn and shout skills I feel are decent for group play. And I think they're really balanced around that role which is why solo play is so lackluster with them.

The elite shout (rebound) is pretty unreal for an organized dungeon, especially if they stack it on top of an chronomancer. Perma icebows icebow4 everywhere! There'd be like no need to use any other skills. XD

Fire warhorn 4 is the lazy might stack/boon share skill for zergs on the go in WvW. No need to get all fancy rotation with staff or scepter/dagger/focus. Add shouts/trated overloads onto an aurashare build and key parts of your zerg could have near-perma aura of your choice.