So, I played the WH through OB, currently lvl 15 and spent the last 2 days doing open RvR/keep battles (although at 15 dont think we really threatened the keep).
PvE
WH is good for this. They have high damage and can burn through mobs fast making them an excellent PvE class. They also gain Incognito at 10 which makes getting items/scouting areas safer and faster. A good PvE class.
PvP
Scenarios -
WH in scenarios is kinda limited. If you dont have incognito most people see you coming and know your soft and take you out asap. Tanks love you cos you go down fast and have to melee, ranged just looks for you to drop you asap.
It is possible to get nice kills through clever positioning and once you get in close most squishies dont have much of a chance if you can get your executions off and keep in range.
Incognito makes it even more fun as you can choose your engage point plus load some accusations as you start the fight outta stealth. Have had a few fun fights where I've ripped into the backline and gotten away but even more when I've misjudged it and died.
Open RvR
Kinda a mixed bag here.
Open field fighting is great fun. On your own its not easy and you have to be very careful, you cant just watlz in and attack, thats just a quick res trip but if you sit on the edges waiting you can pick off sorcs that stayed for one more cast and stuff as the zerg retreats/advances. Its also fun to hit the respawns as they tend to be off guard until they reach the fight.
Keeps is a bit different. In attack you can sneak intot he keep and past the keep lord, great for picking off ppl manning the guns or for just causing mayhem in the keep, however your part in taking the keep is DPS but only if you have the tanks to do it (and the healers).
In defence you can have a brilliant time. I like to sneak out the postern door, run down incognito to the seige weapons, trap them and pick off ppl trying to use the weapons as well as any ranged dps. On your own its hard to survive but if there is 2-3 WH then suddenly it becomes very nasty and ppl go down fast. I'm not sayin stealth packs like DAoC but it is nice when 2 of you are incognito, one attacks and the other drops on anyone coming in to support...
Overall
Fun class. Its NOT a WoW rogue, dont think it ever will be, which is good. Its a tricky class to play because most melee has more hp/armour than you, most ranged can root and run so you need to be patient and time things right. It is very satisfying though stalking a player thorugh the trees, or working up through the keep to take out the boiling oil or the seige gunner...
You also look awesome once you get the hat and cloak
I've had a ton of fun playing WH in the beta so far, really tore people up ( even tanks - dont try beating them down, use dot attacks because they stack and the dot execution ability ).
Vs incompetant groups and good detaunt timing I've taken down groups of players in scenarios albeit at tier 1 I don't expect that kind of poor play to exist for too long.
I think the timing on Incognito is both a blessing and a curse.
In so far as we cant just stealth and afk but I do think the recast timer should be lower ~10s-15 or so that way it forces us to be sneaky bastards if we want to get up close and personal.
Dont forget we have snares, -healing% and silence abilities - putting us on cloth ( healers especially ) in group vs group is probably going to be a WHs main role, along with some tab+snapshotcc.
I think it's more polished than wows' rogue in a lot of ways.
We have the equivalent of riposte in our confess ability from a very early level, as well as snapshot from level 1 vs the deadly throw of a rogue - it feels like our ranged weapon is an important part of our arsenal as opposed to an added afterthought and %26quot;fk how do we stop mages raping rogues quite so much?%26quot; move.
i love Witch Hunter im torn between one of those or the Bright Wiz for release.
Currently playing Renard, Bright Wizzy
Yes thats nice when you can use it, but a lot of the time our playstyle is picking off stragglers and guys running back to the zerg, in 1v1 its hard to get someones back if they are not dumb In a zerg you really dont want to be attacking a tank near the other melees as you'll get squished quicker than sharma at a parmo shop.
I'm liking my witch hunter. One of the less comical characters in the game (not overly fond of the 'humour' they have given the game).
Don't like the animation for a couple of the pistol executions
Alas, I am not allowed to edit my post after 10 minutes. So...
edit-%26gt; What the heck happened to the rest of my post?
Anyway, I'm enjoying my witch hunter, but he does get bludgeoned by other players (although they do get a surprise when I unleash my 5 accusations execution or sever a nerve (or whatever it is called) ).
lvl 10/11 WH in tier 1 its really, really powerful if played right.
You roll up behind the zerg, kill a healer or two and run away before they catch you. I basically levelled in the Scenario by leaving all groups and going for solo kills. My final scenario before I dinged i did over 20k damage and made 16k xp.
Really loving it atm, although in the tier 2 scenario its harder to get those solo kills.
Admittedly this is tier one and most of the Destro players were below 10 but still, its more pointing out how fast you can solo xp in the scenarios.
got lvl 10 and my incognito buff, and another level 10 ability that you can use whilst in incognito mode... (cant recall the name of the ability - at work at the mo!) - problem is it doesnt work. I got stealth(incognito thingy), and all abilities dissapear - i assume thats to show only the abilities you can use whilst in this mode, but the one you should be able to use dissapears aswell.
Its the ability that raises 2 accusation points, and i think it damages players that move for 15 seconds... or somet simular Anyone else get this??? Or am i getting it all wrong ?
I dunno if your not spamming CD styles................
Btw nvr played 1 just trolling