I summarized my Untamed feedback into a short video, I'm speaking mainly from a PvE / raiding perspective.
GW2 - Untamed Feedback (PvE)
The main points are:
The good
Fervent Force - Very interesting trait that leads to some very fun rotations and potential for the class. I do however note that the 0.25s ICD can feel a little frustrating if using CC abilities with a long cast, and they happen to overlap. In addition, pet CC abilities are not currently activating this trait, limiting condition builds further as they don't have nearly as much access to control abilities.
The hammer - Good power coefficients and I love the interaction between the hard CC & Fervent Force, this alone gives us a good reason to Unleash the pet.
New defensive utilities - Restorative strikes, Forest's Fortification and Perilous Gift all expand our defensive options nicely.
The bad
Only one unleashed weapon - It's disappointing to see only hammer get the unleashed treatment, this effectively restricts any condition builds into ignoring the class mechanic. My suggestion would be to at least give one condition weapon similar "Unleashed" abilities, for example the Shortbow.
No unleashed pet variation - Similarly, all pets sharing the same three unleashed abilities is somewhat underwhelming. Particularly since none of the abilities carry much weight in terms of damage, arguably the most important aspect in PvE. It would be great to see pet archetypes gain appropriate skills for their purpose. For example power based pets would get heavy hitting abilities, supportive pets gaining healing abilities, condition pets gaining condition abilities etc.
Vow of the untamed - In concept I like this trait, but the stacking damage loss means there's an enormous gap of ~35% damage between being unleashed and leashed. This makes it extremely unwise to be unleashed with the pet for any more than a fraction of a second. This stacks together with the previous issues to make the entire class mechanic very unappealing to use in a PvE setting.
Damage - The Untamed is currently uncompetitive when compared to most other classes, and even offers very little incentive to take over Soulbeast or base ranger. It's primary perk is an abundance of control abilities, but I fear this isn't enough to make it a serious consideration over the alternatives. For the record I'm generally of the opinion that damage needs to be brought down to the levels of the Untamed, rather than the alternative, but in its current state it will be extremely difficult to recommend the Untamed for anything in PvE.
Thank you for reading, overall I think the Untamed specialization is a fantastic addition to the game and I look forward to seeing it on release! 😄
