[PvP] Mirage meta after balance update

So let's see what we have here /predictions for the season/.

Power mirage left unchanged, without a question still a difficult build to execute properly. There are some changes that made it a bit more viable - Spellbreaker should be more manageble, which was probably the toughest 1v1 in pvp. I'm a bit concerned about the crit immunity that they received, but that should not really change much.Holosmith is definitely going to be a meta build now, which is going to be hella annoying with all the immunity elixirs, so that's bad news for us.Thiefs were slightly nerfed but as a power mirage they weren't that tough anyway.Condi mirage definitely got stronger, it is really going to be an uneven battle in 1v1 (given equal skill level)

Condi mirage got a lot of fixes especially on axe side. I have previously used axe + offhand sword instead of staff anyways, and it seems like an even more tempting option now. I found staff not particularly synchronizing well with Mirage anyway, and the ambush buff won't help that in PvP. Now that SB and Scourge are not as tough before, melee fights will probably be less dangerous, so I really think axe will be the way to go. Haven't tested it myself in pvp though, but torment (!) and confusion stacking seems insane right now (and it was even decent before the update).

So my prediction: Condi mirage Axe/SW + SW/Torch will be meta with decent success. Staff will be a viable alternative. Power mesmer will stay as a niche profession.

What are your thoughts?

Staff will still be meta.

You already have gap closer with sword ambush and sword 2. Axe 3 is an amazing skill but overall offers nothing more than that.

Staff has the most reliable clone generation and kiting out of danger button. Also none of our off-hand has as good skill as chaos storm.

@"rank eleven monk.9502" said:What are your thoughts?

My thoughts are:"It's awesome that people are still hyped about spvp, but who else really cares?"

I'm serious, the game is 5+ years old, the competative community is long gone, 99% of all balance is done for pve. Most important of all, IF you are into successful spvp, you would not be limiting yourself to 1 class in the first place, so for dedicated spvp players it shouldn't matter which class performs how.

I'm not attacking spvp players, just genuinly wondering who really commits to 1 class for this game mode. That seems awfully niche to me.

@Exciton.8942 said:Staff will still be meta.

You already have gap closer with sword ambush and sword 2. Axe 3 is an amazing skill but overall offers nothing more than that.

Staff has the most reliable clone generation and kiting out of danger button. Also none of our off-hand has as good skill as chaos storm.Fair point. But as far as I see Axe 2 and axe ambush (you are probably not using this much tho) are the actual heavy hitters in the build (in terms of condi). Just makes confusion and torment spamming - sustain - totally unbearable for most of the classes. Not to mention you have clone generation on axe2, and if you take, sword 4 and 5 (which is actually a phantasm). That makes it 3 clone+1 phantasm generation skills.

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@"rank eleven monk.9502" said:What are your thoughts?

@rank eleven monk.9502 said:

@Cyninja.2954 said:

@rank eleven monk.9502 said:What are your thoughts?

Ah okay, that makes more sense.

@"rank eleven monk.9502" said:So my prediction: Condi mirage Axe/SW + SW/Torch will be meta with decent success. Staff will be a viable alternative. Power mesmer will stay as a niche profession.

This too. Exept I'm not that sure on the staff. And it will be running Viper or Griefing which have a decent amount of power damage which is nice when using sword mainhand. Also I think sword/sword and axe/torch is preferable because that way both weapon sets get an "oh shit button" with "The Prestige" and "Blurred frenzy" Something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAnf8cnELD1qhNqBWLDMMjlXDzv/VATgoBgmzzpMBsBiGA-jJxHQBB8JAwtyAA4kA0v9HAA