Very Disappointed with Paragons

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It basically boils down to paragons having only 2 pips of energy regen. This really limited warrior's options to play other secondaries, and the paragon suffers the same fate, as his only energy advantage over warriors (shouts/chants) doesn't show up anywhere else. You can still find some nice secondary tricks just like warriors, but yes, having no energy to cast spells is indeed pretty limiting. On top of that, a fair number of the support skills seem pretty darn specific to running a specific kind of team, much like ritualists, which means they aren't generally options for a PvE pug.

Well I love paragon.....before my favourite class was the warrior for his various applications.....Ive invented some nice build like for example a caster-killer warrior, with dazing etc etc. I always hated the support kind classes....but now I simply love my paragon. U said that generally the build is the paragon/warrior with little variants; here is my build (as u can see, no one of ur skills are named here; I've already posted this build in the right topic, dun worry ):


Here is my own buildvalid for both pve and pvp; already tried it)

Paragon/Warrior

ARMOR:[all parts with a radiant insigna]
Superior Motivation[head]
Superio Vigor (or major as well)[body]
Minor Spear[gloves]
+2 energy rune[legs]
Minor Leadership[shoes]

ATTRIBUTES
Spear: 10 (9+1)
Leadership: 10 (9+1)
Motivation: 16 (12+3+1)
Tactic:0

Equip:
Spear max dmg (req 9/10)
energy+5
double adrenaline (10%)
HP+30

Shield defense:16 (req: 8/9/10/11/12/13 motivation)
HP+30
Dmg decrease -5(20%)

Skills:
Barbed Spear
Song of Restoration [E]
Ballad of Restoration
Zealous Anthem
"Watch Yourself!"
Finale of Restoration
Mending Refrain
Ress Signet

HOW TO USE IT:
1) Before the combat starts put on each of ur teammates mending refrain; use the refrain on urself then, when the rechargin time is finishing, use a song; immediatelly after u casted the song, use the refrain on the next tammate, and keep going like this. To refresh the Mending Refrain, use the next chorus immediately after that the first one has finished his effect.

2) While u are fighting keep attacking an enemy: the important thing isn't the damage, but the adrenaline that u have to gain. With this adrenaline u will use "Watch Urself!" spamming it. With the tactic attribute=0 "Watch Yourself!" will be 5 seconds long. This will grant u an always refreshing effect on your teammates mending refrains. In addition, each time you will use "Watch yourself!" you will gain a 5 energy bonus thx to your leadership attribute. You will never be out of energy even thx to the Zealous Anthem.

3)Try to change enemy and put on different enemys a bleeding effect with barbed spear. Use barbed spear only if u need energy and u have already activated the Zealous Anthem or if your enemy isn't bleeding.

4)While in combat, always spam your chorus and ballads.

I hope you'll enjoy my build


U can do loooots of things with a paragon!

I love the Command and Motivation skills (and I love Leadership primary attribute, it basically makes your shouts free with only a little investment).

The only part of paragons I didn't like so much was the Spear Mastery line. It seemed like all of the attacks were conditional in some way. Vicious Attack only causes a deep wound on a critical hit. Swift Javelin is only faster when you are under an enchantment. Slayer's Spear only deep wounds if you are almost dead. Merciless Spear only deep wounds almost dead foes. Disrupting Throw only interrupts if they are suffering from a condition! Cruel Spear, an elite, only deep wounds if they aren't moving. Some of the attacks also take 3 seconds?

One or two like this would be OK but when nearly every attack is the same. -.- Maybe that's why Barbed Spear only needs 3 adrenaline. I can see how some are supposed to work in a combo, but other classes can accomplish the same without a combo, using just the attack.

Also I haven't really tried the paragon properly yet, I was just reading the skills. It could be that after I try it out I will come back and say I love spears.

Spear of Lightning (and Barbed Spear if i have a spare slot) is all I really bother with. Don't even need Blazing Spear most of the time because of other burning sources!

I've only played my Paragon for about 3 days, but have seen a lot of similarity between its role in Nightfall, and that of a real-life Army small-unit leader in battle. Especially with the integration of the Hero Henchies. Method atthis point seems to be:

- Train and equip your Soldiers (actually common to all professions)

- Lead and command them in battle (chants, shouts, anthems, etc)

- Personnaly engage the enemy ony when you can afford the luxury OR when you must. (Save that energy for group-enhancement skills.)


I can CERTAINLY relate to the comment that "all the Paragon does is shout at people"! That's how its done in real life, although its not all shouting, and I NEVER sang my Soldiers an Anthem! :-) But I think that over time the general concensus will be that the primary weapon of the Paragon is the Team, not the Spear. Can't wait to get my Hero Henchies up to speed, and then join another Paragon w/four trained Henchies for an 8-player mission! Just like the old days: one Squad, with two Fire Teams.


Thanks for good ideas on builds!

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Neil

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I am disappointed with dodgability of spears, spear mastery skills, leadership skills and several elites(cough "The Power Is Yours!" cough).

The spear skills are gimped. Paragons as a whole are definitely not, and I love mine. <3

As for the guy who said they have the same limitations as a warrior? Wtf? Look at the searing flames build that was just posted. Let me see you run that on a warrior primary. I really doubt this guy even knows what the primary attribute does for paragons.

Actually after my comment above I went and tried a spear mastery paragon and had a lot of fun. The spear does decent damage without any attacks, and the bleeding is so easy to reapply that I had no trouble meeting conditions. I was having no problem causing bleeding, deep wounds, burning and dazed. In fact the only problem is the spears are ridiculously easy to dodge. It didn't matter that I got the monk dazed, he could avoid all my spears afterwards until the dazed was gone.

Overall I think paragons are a great support class. They aren't really an easily defined role like other classes where you know having one means something. Instead a paragon is best when your team knows and works with you to get skills that complement your team. For this reason I think their use will be a bit hazy in PvE unless a cookie cutter build is made for them.

uhhh wow... so after reading the headline post, im wondering if you bothered to take a paragon through anything.

incoming
stand your ground
watch yourself
anthem of flame
aggressive refrain
shields up (if ye want)

just those skills in one build applies a +44 armor while standing still and +94 to pericing while SU is up. a paragon plays a support role. they can do condition spam for pressure, but honestly. you cant beat a paragon for damage support. everything they have is non strippable, for the most part non interruptable, and adrenal based. with 10+ into leadership you can manage your energy with WYS.

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But if every class could do the same damage as a warrior, or the same interrupting and unmissable attacks as a ranger, then it would just be a duplicate. This is a unique class.

Unlike a warrior you don't have to be in melee range. Unlike a ranger you have better armor and adrenaline based attacks. The bulk of your skills are party buffs.

Really I wouldn't expect them to have 80 armour, ranged attacks that rarely miss and can apply deep wounds very easily with high damage attacks. I think it would be unbalanced, and it would make a ranger and warrior no longer needed.

The only problem they have that I see is the ease of dodging spears. I at least think Anet thought about the Spear Mastery line, since with a little effort I found it to be very effective. I was killing targets before the shock warrior could get near, and I was doing more damage that the ranger. I was also harder to kill than both.

You people worry too much about spear mastery.
Eventually, the skills will be improved. It is inevitable. It's like the ritualist when it started out; Channeling sucked ass. Many of the spells were buffed in later updates, however.

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