Thoughts on the preset templates.

[trias_e]

I played probably 2/3 of the preset templates during the weekend beta.  Overall I quite liked the Flame Savant class, whoever designed it is just brilliant. Most of the other class designs I was somewhat underwhelmed with. The Flame Savant (Me/E) setup was a PBAE bomber:

2 PBAE nukes, 1 PBAE DOT, 1 PBAE nuke which then flies out to your target becoming a pbae/ranged hybrid. The next 3 were mana conservation spells, very important because you weren't primarily an elementalist. Channeling (this spell was just meant for PBAE bombers) gives you 1 mana back when you cast a spell for any enemy around you. Fire Attunement reduces mana cost of fire spells by 30% basically while you have it up.

And finally the elite spell, mantra of recall, which definitely kicks ass. Its an enchantment which costs 15 mana to keep up, and gives no effect whatsoever. However, when you drop it, it gives you back 29 mana. Now it has a 1 sec. cast time and a 10 sec. recast time. Basically, in the beginning of a game, you can hit it and have it in reserve (because you're at full mana anyways so the -1 mana regeneration won't hurt you). Then you run in burn all of your mana on PBAE's, drop Mantra of Recall, gain 29 mana, and continue PBAEing. You can also cast it in mid fight and drop it immediately for a quick 14 mana increase.

3 of these in a group, and you would just, freaking, destroy. I'm already thinking of group designs to take advantage of this setup. Have a W/Mo that runs in first who specializes in laying down wards to protect your casters. Have a W/E who specializes in knockdown. Have a ranger/mesmer who specializes in snaring opponents. Add a couple healers, one straight healer and one protection healer with status condition removal. That would be amazing fun.

[Xilren's Twin]

I played some this weekend myself and enjoyed at lot of the templates, but definately want to play some sort of ranged bastard overall.

BTW, with that PBOE blatser concept, there a nice Ele enchantment spell you can get which runs for 60 seconds a shot; while it's up every time you cast a spell you are healed for the mana cost of that spell.  That could prove very useful to this build...

Xilren

[Krakrok]

I also played a bunch of the templates as well as the LVL 1-10 random PvP arena with my lvl 10 ranger/necro.

The Pyromaniac template has that Aura of Restoration spell which gives back 336% of energy spell cast as a heal . It has 14 in fire magic and all the fire blaster and AE spells. I found myself just spamming Flare though as it did 44 dmg, cost 5 energy, and 0 recast time. This character also had 71 mana and +4 energy regen. Basically nuts. The way to take down the Wa/Mo's with it was to drop fire storm on them and then spam flare.

I don't remember all the names of the other templates but one of the other ones I tried had 4 trap spells and a spell that did 126 dmg to myself and gave +5 energy regen or something like that to the target ally. It must have been a ranger because I also had Troll Ungent and some other heal AE spell. The traps sucked as far as I could tell. They might work better in the guild battles as you could trap the gate etc.

The one warrior template I tried was pretty much crap. I think I also tried the Lightning Sniper or whatever it was called. That one wasn't too bad (R/E) as it had two +16 dmg spells to attacks. So my bow would be doing 30-50 lightning dmg with them both up (or 70-100 against casters). It also had a ranger spell which did double or triple dmg if the target was casting. And lastly it had Thunderclap which did AE knockdown on the target if they were hit with lightning dmg.

The real winner was the Healer template though. It had your standard healing spells (and NO dmg spells) but it also had 14 in healing prayers, 40 mana, and +4 energy regen. I only ran into two things that shut the character down: backfire and energy steal. We were playing in the random 4v4 arena and the group I had with the Healer template char won 53 times in a row before they shut the server down (aka we were undefeated). The random group was Wa/Mo, Wa/Mo, Ra/Mo, and Mo/Me(?) which was my character.

[hyperspaced]

trias_e: Damn you, that is *my* template :D

I played just about every ranger/elem/mesm combo and I must say that template does seem to be the best. I like the powerful AE nukes as well as slow/regen mana.

[Viin]

I didn't get much time to play this beta-weekend, but when I did I played the Ranger/Warrior template.

The first thing I said once my first arena started: Where the frick is my bow?! They give you an axe.

Interesting combo, though. With the Ranger's speed enchancing abilities I was able to do extra damage, run faster, and do extra damage to casters. Coupled with the warriors ability to interrupt spell casting and other skills, I felt like a Rogue straight out of WoW!

[e_bortion]

I am also eager to try these templates:

Pet Spec Ranger / Slow Spec Mesmer - Tactics: Run out into battle until a warrior begins chasing, put the pet on them and use slows and knockdown to stay just out of their range while pet nibbles them.

Pet Spec Ranger / Debuff Spec Necro - debuff the crap out of target and send pet to keep them occupied while sniping away

Buff Spec Ranger / Debuff Spec Necro - just curious to see how this would do :D

Ice Elem / Slow Mesmer: good crowd control and damage control I would think

[e_bortion]

I am almost definately going to go Necro/Mesmer