What do you think about Paragons?

Ever since they started adding hero's into GW, players decided that they didn't need anybody to help with missions or quests. And now with the big expansion of using 7 heroes, there is no point of even having the henchman or other players around. I understand that in HM it is different, NM should be treated as HM i believe. huh?

Ever since they started adding hero's into GW, players decided that they didn't need anybody to help with missions or quests. And now with the big expansion of using 7 heroes, there is no point of even having the henchman or other players around. I understand that in HM it is different, NM should be treated as HM i believe What i meant to say was that now that we can use 7 heroes instead of 3 like it used to be before, it makes it even easier for people to play alone and not worry about PUGs. Dont' know if that kinda makes sense Aphotic :P.

BTW thank you for your response. It is really helpful.

Note: This last one is just my private opinion, but I think that ANet regrets the paragon profession. Their focus for the longest time was on GvG, and effective paragons in PvE were impossible to manage in PvP. Alot of the decisions made seem to reflect this, even statements made by individuals at ANet reflect this.
I'd personally would love to see all the nerfed skills reverted for PvE, which would be as good as a buff, but such changes don't appear to be a priority. They haven't made any indication that its not coming and anet tends to take ages to implement skill updates anyway.

They haven't explicitly stated that there will be no update, however they have announced that there will no longer be any major updates like that of the Dervish. Most people assume, then, that the Paragon will not be updated. At least, not appreciably so. Anet said that they wouldn't do any more 9-month profession overhauls. Paragons don't need a 9-month profession overhaul. They need a normal skill update, similar to what the mesmers got in a 3-month time period.

What are your thoughts on the Paragons and what are some things made you choose your Paragon as your main character? The only reason I made a Paragon was my desire to have one character of each profession. Even though she was created three years ago she still hasn't finished NF. Because I find Paragons really boring to play. On top of that - most of their spears are just plain ugly and have no business flying. Besides, I worry about Nadia developing tennis elbow so I rarely play her.

Besides, I worry about Nadia developing tennis elbow so I rarely play her. I'm glad you brought that up. Lateral epicondylitis (or tennis elbow) is a growing epidemic among paragons and is not getting the media attention necessary to spread awareness.

Please, talk to your Paragons today about preventative measures:
Take frequent breaks.
Stay in shape.
Like other sports, use equipment appropriate towards your ability, body size and muscular strength (maybe you should reconsider using that Voltaic Spear).

Like any class, it has to fit your play style. I started out playing a ranger, so I found the switch to para very comfortable and actually an improvement. If I preferred melee players or casters, I'd probably hate the para. This is what made me delete my Paragon. My main is a Warrior anyways.

I seriously don't get Anets attempt at this class other than they forgot to put spears in the game and they needed to come up with a new class for NF. The Paragon is plagued with horrible game design and some people just refuse to see it. Compare the Paragons damage capabilities to other damage dealers and tell me there's no problem. Same can be said for its support capabilities outside PvE only skills and SYG. The entire motivation line needs to be looked at(anet said it will be) and a few spear/command/leadership skills. When Anet does take a look at motivation I am hoping they make it the 3rd healing class in the game.

P.S. Why is there no shield with leadership req?

This is what made me delete my Paragon. My main is a Warrior anyways.

I seriously don't get Anets attempt at this class other than they forgot to put spears in the game and they needed to come up with a new class for NF. The Paragon is plagued with horrible game design and some people just refuse to see it. Compare the Paragons damage capabilities to other damage dealers and tell me there's no problem. Same can be said for its support capabilities outside PvE only skills and SYG. The entire motivation line needs to be looked at(anet said it will be) and a few spear/command/leadership skills. When Anet does take a look at motivation I am hoping they make it the 3rd healing class in the game.

P.S. Why is there no shield with leadership req? 1)Paragons are not and were never meant to be heavy damage dealers. They were meant to deal more weapon damage than casters can, but focus on team buffing. I will forever disagree with people saying that Paragons need AoE and more damage capabilities, because that draws the focus of what they're meant to be and their unique style. I will agree though that said unique style suffers incredibly because of the motivation line, and some command. Spear mastery could take a looking to as well, but not in the terms of AoE, or heavy damage. It draws down to a few fundamental flaws (PvE talkin. I've not the expertise to comment on PvP Paras).

-Too many useless are specific skills. Paragons and Dervishes have the least amount of skills available to them so they HAVE TO COUNT. Lyric of Purification/Zeal is staple proof of this. No one is going to bring those expecting a reliable trigger on them. Same goes, to a lesser but still noticeable extent, those that trigger on spells/attack skills. (Ideally I would actually like
-Purifying Finale, Energizing Finale and Finale of Restoration are great skills that lack a reliable trigger of such skills. This synergy can easily be turned into a paragon's version of a boonprot with one of the many useless ELITE skills in the game (looking at you, "It's just a flesh wound!")
-Too many IMS skills. Dervish had the same issue. for PvE you could use one IMS skill MAYBE, and believe me guys, Fall Back has it covered. the rest can be reworked into more useful alternatives.

Other problems?

Chants are TOO BRAINDEAD TO BE USED PROPERLY. Here's something I questioned one day. How exactly can one hear someone chanting amidst a battle of metal clangs and explosions at the same distance one can hear someone shouting?

-Why not reduce the AoE of Chants? Then we could tweak the recharge of said skills along with their power and not have to worry so much about them being too powerful because we'd have to pay attention to who we are effecting with them. I'm not talking Adjacent here. Perhaps "In the Area".
-consider HoT for motivation. Anet was, and assumingly still is worried about giving a heavily armored class powerful healing, and Healing over Time in GW is used more in a prot aspect than a healing one. Making paragons the king of AoEHoT would be an interesting step.

Leadership is also wonky. I have no suggestion on how to fix it, but they suffer FAR too much in 4 man areas, and arguable are too effective in 8 man areas.
I feel it should be noted that although Paragons tend to operate better with other paragons, I don't see this as a problem. In fact working a full/near full paragon team it's probably the most fun you can do with a paragon right now. If possibly I would love that ability, and skills that make it possible preserved :P

Spear Mastery could use going over with a comb. Spear of Fury is an example of a good skill that synergizes with what paragons do, and it's sadly the only spear attack that does this. I'd love to see more spear attacks that passively reward the paragon on doing things with shouts/chants/echos/ect. Like a simple "Deal +20 damage, your next chant casts 1 second faster" or something. Most paragons only take two or three spear skills, and they always feel like simple damage fodder, which is unfortunate.