Heart of Thorns Profession Specializations AMA on Twitch - 4 hour livestream tomorrow

[Karizee]

Heart of Thorns Profession
Specializations AMA on
Twitch

by The Guild Wars 2 Team on April 23, 2015


Today we’ve given you the first taste of the brand-new specializations, and now you undoubtedly have questions that the blogs simply didn’t have enough room to answer. The good news is that you’re in luck! Join us on Twitch this Friday for a special multihour AMA (ask us anything) featuring Isaiah Cartwright, Jon Peters, and other members of the design team responsible for the new specializations in Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns™.

We’ll be answering questions from the forums and from Twitch chat, so head over to our forums and let us know what’s on your mind!

Ready Up will air live on the Guild Wars 2 Twitch channel this Friday, April 24, at noon Pacific Time (UTC-7) and will last for four hours, with each profession taking a set block of time. We’ll see you then!


https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/h...ama-on-twitch/

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Just a reminder that the AMA livestream starts at Noon Pacific. Grouch has stated that they will go over every single trait and has provided links to question threads for each game mode.

Hi all,

Tomorrow I’ll be hosting a multi-hour AMA session with members of the design team where we’ll be focusing on deep-diving the newly announced specialization system. As part of this, we’ll also be giving you a first look at the reworks of traits, including a number of skill/mechanic changes that will be going live with this system. We have a lot of stuff to talk about. This also means we’ll be going over every single trait in their current iteration in our development environment. I’ll be pulling your questions out of Twitch chat, this forum post, and posts all over the forums and having our design team address them.

You can find more information on the specialization changes (part one) here: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/s...-one-a-primer/

Tomorrow’s livestream will start at 12pm PST at http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2

Question Links:
General specializations questions thread
PvP-focused specializations questions thread
WvW-focused specializations questions thread

[carnifex2005]

Pretty good livestream. I just watched the beginning and the engineer part. Like that they are getting rid of hobosacks and the new mortar elite is basically a bazooka now but sad that grenade range is nerfed to 900 range max. Still the new skills seem to be an improvement. Can't wait to try them out.

Here are the notes from Dulfy...

http://dulfy.net/2015/04/24/gw2-spec...estream-notes/

[Sohalia]

I like all of the necro changes except for the fact that I'll now have to pick between wells, and Unholy Martyr. It'll suck, but I'm sure it means that I'll find something else that works well with my support-well build.

[Kazgrel]

Lightning hammer and frost bow getting nerfed (although no specifics mentioned) makes for a sad ele. Blasting Staff being baked in is nice. Looks like pve dps will spec fire, air, and water. PVP (which I haven't gotten into) looks to get nerfed hard by having to choose evasive arcana and elemental attunement. At face value the current specs are a bit of a debbie downer for ele. Eng changes sound good (just got mine to 80 yesterday), as do guardian and thief. Waiting for Warrior and Ranger now (having to follow the stream notes since I can't watch Twitch currently).

[zito]

Burning and poison stacks in intensity

Finally

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Did they really just do nothing for mesmers PvE wise? A fucking trait revamp system and revamping all traits and mesmers still have to go pigeon holded into reflect build for PvE? You want mesmers to have a higher skill cap? Then fucking stop making them PvP only traits.

So glad I am dropping mesmer in the expansion. Anet has been a total shit and they are nothing close to viable like how they were in GW1.

[Lazuli]

Lol mesmer as a profession was destroyed anyway in design compared to GW mesmer, should have realized that at launch.

[Arewn]

Burning and poison stacks in intensity

Finally

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Did they really just do nothing for mesmers PvE wise? A fucking trait revamp system and revamping all traits and mesmers still have to go pigeon holded into reflect build for PvE? You want mesmers to have a higher skill cap? Then fucking stop making them PvP only traits.

So glad I am dropping mesmer in the expansion. Anet has been a total shit and they are nothing close to viable like how they were in GW1.

Mesmers have generally been viable in GW2 PVE, for a long time even being considered part of Holy Trinity of dungeon classes.
A lot of these changes seem pretty good. Though I'll agree with you we're being shoe-horned into builds as usual. Just watching the livestream it was obvious exactly where each point will go for some builds. That said, it looks like we'll have more viable builds as a result in PVE.
People who chose to stay as a phantasm/reflect build will now have more option, and can easily extend into a healing role. The reduction to baseline CDs on glamours means feedback will be stronger even if you aren't specing into a reflect build.
CC (interrupts) builds will be stronger with the defiance changes, potentially making them viable in PVE. Hard to say as of yet, but if CC does become PVE-viable, mesmers will have some really nice options for it.
Shatters look like they'll be more viable in PVE too, with the potential to combine them with mantras or interrupts. Mental Torment's buff will be easy to land on most NPCs.
I've never been into condi mesmer, but I imagine there's some potential there as well.

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Lol mesmer as a profession was destroyed anyway in design compared to GW mesmer, should have realized that at launch.

Yea, GW1 mesmer vs GW2 mesmer are essentially different classes that happen to share a theme and name.

[zito]

at least disruptors sustainment was removed. Why did they ever think that was a good idea?

[Arewn]

No kidding, it was completely worthless lol

[Shakadam]

Useless changes for Necro. Still gonna be non-existent in any PVE situation, still gonna be "meh" in spvp and condition builds took a nerf. Only really viable in WvW with wells still. The complete lack of enthusiasm by the devs when they presented Necro says it all really.

Much more exited about warrior changes on the other hand, just got all around buffs to basically everything and I'm seeing a lot of potential for interesting builds. All the shield traits rolled into one, burning on longbow auto attack, a reason to actually use burst skills in dps builds etc is all gonna be sweet as hell <3
Phalanx Strength build, which most run for pve purposes, got a massive overall DPS buff

[Deleted]

Shadow Arts buffed, minor - 50% less incoming dmg while in stealth. That's all one needs to know to realize Anet doesn't have a clue.

[Karizee]

Here's the recording of the entire livestream if anyone wants to watch. All 4:21 hours of it >

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/c/6594135

Don't have skips to each proff yet, maybe someone can notate it.

[Arlee]

Lightning hammer and frost bow getting nerfed (although no specifics mentioned) makes for a sad ele.

Ditto, but I really can't say it's an uncalled for change.

Don't have skips to each proff yet, maybe someone can notate it.

I'm pretty surprised by that honestly

[Karizee]

Here is the official youtube of the AMA, includes the skips to each profession (along with special Colin feat.)

[Arlee]

Woot, thanks

[Kazgrel]

Went over warrior and ele changes a bit more the last day or so (since those are the classes I've played most).

Elementalist doesn't appear to be in as dire of straights as I previously stated. All the changes to auras and the possibility of some sort of group buffing/synergy via aura sharing sounds somewhat fun. Surprised they rolled the "lava font when downed" trait into persisting flames, of all things. As if it needed further incentive to have (for pve at least). Air training being ferocity instead of damage % is a nerf to pretty much every weapon set except staff...which is bizzare seeing how staff (for pve) is highest dps output and pretty faceroll to play. Hope that gets changed back to a damage % modifier. As for ice bow...will not be surprised to see skill 5 nerfed to a 3 second stun (maybe with instant or shorter cast time to compensate), down from 5, while skill 4 gets a damage bonus reduction. Bizzare having an aoe attack that does more single target damage than any of the weapon's single targets. No idea what they will do to the lightning hammer.

Warrior...oh dear goodness the warrior changes look sick on paper. Berserker's Power change is exactly the way that trait should've worked to begin with. Happy to actually use burst skills instead of "hurr durr 15% moar dmg nao adrenaline full". Love the change. Also being able to run strength/arms/tactics which is basically 85% of the current "selfish" dps build, only now we (sadly) lose fast hands but in return gain Empower Allies and Phalanx Strength. The new version of the "selfish" build looks like it will be a blast for soloing. Almost wondering if that build would basically weapon swap to axe/x (x being mace most likely) for evis whenever at 25+ adrenaline rather than camping greatsword for arcing slice.

Scary part: Little is known about either class's elite prof. Tempest could very well end up being a major game changer for ele. Whatever the warrior elite prof ends up being will have to be damn near brokenly OP to be included in any PVE build. Warrior as-is will be an absolute beast.

Some extra videos:

Nike on warrior changes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH_aHnkpDr4

WoodenPotatoes on ele: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=66AF6XYhB9U

[zito]

I like how they are trying to bring complexity back to mesmers by removing clone death traits yet they didn't do anything to phantasm specs which don't involve anything but summoning a phantasm and watch them crit for 10k.

Hypocrites. They killed one of the best and only punishes of clone attacking because they want mesmers to be "hard" yet continue to allow AI specs to be a thing. Now not only clones can't survive a hit long enough for you to shatter, they will die for free with no cost to the foe.

[Deleted]

I've never used debilitating dissipation and the likes and I strongly dislike condi builds. That being said it's just retard that a profession with cleave or a ton of aoe can shutdown mesmer so easily.
It's also idiot how Anet wants to promote skillfull play yet they buffed to heaven panic strike, longbow ranger and medi guards, to name a few.