My Honest Review On The Mesmer Changes

Illusionary Inspiration: This trait now causes mesmers to heal all nearby allies whenever they summon an illusion. Competitive-mode healing effectiveness is 50% of PvE.

The problem with this is that it looks good on paper, however in order for this to be really effective the amount of sustain clone generation is limited. So I'm not quite sure how this is going to play out long term, not to mention the fact that it wipes boon share on phantasm use off the map, which has more effect on pve than pvp. Also the fact that even with menders each clone only heals for 306, which isn't much in the grand scheme of things, esp for a grandmaster trait.

Confounding Suggestions: This trait no longer converts dazes into stuns. It now increases daze duration by 50% and stun duration by 25%. It is no longer split between game modes.

I can see the intention behind this change, however the implementation couldn't have been worse. If I had to guess, mantra of distraction was probably the biggest offender on this list of why they set their sights on confounding suggestions, however instead of going after the source "mantra of distraction", and redesigning you instead go after a trait and unintentionally nerf builds in collateral that were already in a good spot from a design standpoint. So now mirage thrust is nerfed, counter blade on off hand sword 4 is nerfed, the second bounce of magic bullet is nerfed, chaos storm is nerfed, and so on. I mean if anything why not just give the mantra of distraction apply immob instead of daze and then revert confounding suggestions? That way everyone wins, mantra of distraction is still pretty lethal, and the mantra and confounding don't interact with each other anymore, everyone wins.

Temporal Enchanter: This trait has been removed from the game.

I don't think too many people are going to be arguing over this change, popping portal was kinda a silly use to get resistance, the only viable glamour that gave you resistance imo was null field. It either to be scrapped or redesigned, they chose scrapped. Although I could see this having bigger impacts on wvw than spvp

Blurred Inscriptions: This trait has been moved to the Inspiration specialization at the Grandmaster tier to replace Temporal Enchanter. Its functionality has been updated. It now grants distortion when using signets and gives all signets improved functionality when active:

I'm torn about all of it, the moving the skill to traitlines, and the tweaking each signet, but my biggest question is why take away the signet cooldown reduction? That's a pretty big nerf, for a now grandmaster trait you should of kept the cooldown reduction back in there, but that's just me.

Signet of the Ether: Grants increased healing.

So with no healing power you're getting a extra 1000 healing, but now a 30 second cooldown instead of 24. That honestly isn't worth it, it would be if the cd reduction was post patch.

Signet of Domination: Strips 5 boons. For a now 45 second cd signet without the cd reduction this needs to be unblockable for it to be viable, and to compete with arcane thievery on a much shorter cooldown, that's unblockable without traiting into a grandmaster.

Signet of Illusions: Summons 1 clone.

1 clone for a 60 second cooldown signet? Really? If anything it should give you three for a minute cd ability.

Signet of Inspiration: Hits 10 targets instead of 5 targets.

This is a wvw pve change that will never mean anything in spvp, great I guess?

Signet of Humility: Applies 10 stacks of vulnerability.

This just seems like you guys ran out of ideas, vuln? For a 180cd? Let it kitten immob the target or something, jesus.

Signet of Midnight: Cures 5 conditions from the player.

This is actually a good buff to signet of midnight, 1 out of 6 ain't bad, but you gotta pump those numbers up , those a rookie numbers.

Egotism: This is a new Master tier Domination trait that replaces the slot left open by Blurred Inscriptions. It increases outgoing damage by 10% against foes with lower health than the mesmer. This trait is now split between modes and increases damage by 5% in PvP and WvW.

No sane person on the planet would ever choose a measly 5% damage boost when it's up against shattered concentration. And I'm not asking to for you just up the damage, I'm asking you to make it comparable in terms of utility to shattered concentration, in whatever way shape or form that could be. I'm willing to give ideas in due time if you actually decide to go this route.

And the best for last.

Elusive Mind: The exhaustion duration of this trait is now split between game modes and has a 6-second duration in PvP and WvW.

What can I say about this? It seems that the vocal minority forums warriors have nerfed this trait, again. At this point I honestly wouldn't be sure as what's better, a 6 second icd to elusive mind or 6 seconds of exhaustion would be worse, I'm actually leaning towards an icd because atleast then we can still dodge while stunned just without breaking the cc when elusive mind is on cooldown, with this we are literally left with nothing. Even if they do change it to a 6 second icd, an easy way of showing when elusive mind is back up is to just just change the dodge bar color from orange to blue when it's ready. Not to mention the fact that by also doing this, you're also nerfing the condition clear as well with this, which is twice as bad. So yeah, I'd honestly rather see a 6 second icd than this. You effectively gutted the trait.

Thanks for reading

Countless

Core Mes doesn't need any nerfing but Mirage deserved every single bit of nerfing that it has received. Hands down, no argument behind it.

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:Core Mes doesn't need any nerfing but Mirage deserved every single bit of nerfing that it has received. Hands down, no argument behind it.

If you're going to argue against it, state your case.

Powermirage will still be strong. "Same" amount of damage, but no stun through daze.Elusive Mind will be replaced by IH, which is arguably stronger in alot of situations.

Supportchrono got slapped a bit, now you need 2 in raids/WvW to make up for the changes.

With the new coming IH Meta people will start complaining about getting bombed with vulnerability and harder to spot the "real" mesmer.IH will increase the damage output through more vuln. Mirages can still dodge when stunned to not get damaged, it just wont stunbreak.

Hybrid and Condimirages will be more common again, making people cry about that aswell.

I suspect mirage thrust was also in ArenaNet's sights with the confounding suggestions change. In the long run, I could see that being something that makes dazes from mesmers easier to balance overall: in its old form, every daze that mesmers could produce needs to be balanced according to the possibility that it will be a stun instead.

Your suggestion for changing Mantra of Distraction is a case in point. MoD isn't supposed to be an immobilise. It's an interrupt, one of the last remaining vestiges of the GW1 mesmer's style of interrupts. If it doesn't stop someone from doing what they're trying to do, it's not doing what it's supposed to do.

Confounding Suggestions, however, turned an interrupt into a complete halt which has a high chance of being fatal if performed well. But it's not supposed to be an immobilise. It's supposed to be an interrupt.

In the case of Elusive Mind... I've gotta say, this feels like a boonsmiting to me. They don't know what to do with it, so they're making darned sure it's not worth taking until they do come up with something.

My thoughts on the changes.

Temporal enchanter- now makes this THE ONLY skill type without a corresponding trait. Maybe in a future patch?

Illusionary Inspiration- Scaling with healing power needs to be massively increased to be worth a damn in PvP.

Blurred Inscriptions- The only signet that makes this trait viable for PvP is Signet of Midnight. Without a corresponding recharge reduction all of the other actives are meaningless especially since distortion prevents capture contribution.Mesmers have other ways of dealing with condis that, including arcane thievery which is a shorter CD and transfers condis not just remove. Still no reason to take inspiration really.

Confounding Suggestions- I wonder if power mesmer will still take it. I imagine rending shatter with MW does 20% more damage will now be taken. We'll see I guess. Power was still kind of a one hit wonder.

Egotism- Lol they are prolly gonna Nerf shattered concentration trait to force people to take this. Or they could maybe do something with the useless Furious interruption trait. ???

Elusive Mind- I didn't take it before. Damn sure won't take it now. How long before people are moaning about Infinite horizon.

Edit: I remember them saying this was gonna be a patch mostly about weapon traits, none of the mesmer weapon traits were touched. Troll level 100 Anet.

@Trevor Boyer.6524 said:Core Mes doesn't need any nerfing but Mirage deserved every single bit of nerfing that it has received. Hands down, no argument behind it.

There is still a lot of ground to cover like mobility and sustain. While i'm happy that EM isn't so oppressive anymore, they still haven't looked at core issue of mirage. Being able to dodge through stunning without EM is really shitty and there is 0 counterplay to that, that's 2 semi stunbreaks every 10 seconds. In matter of fact, with current EM, i would prefer to run this way, there is very few long lasting stuns in the game to not just be able to dodge anyway. Every single other class gets punished for having their class mechanic CC. Druids lose CA uptime, warrs lose their burst bar, necros lose life force. What does mirages lose when cc? Dodge bar? lol

They need to also gut sword ambush 2 mobility. Reduce range by half and be targetted only. You shouldn't be allowed to have more mobility than thieves while being on a S tier weapon. Remember ride the lightning? I remember.

@"Nebilim.5127" said:Druids lose CA uptime, warrs lose their burst bar, necros lose life force. What does mirages lose when cc? Dodge bar? lol

1. It's not really "lol" seeing as they won't be able to dodge after the stun ends (no endurance left), so it still counts.
2. Endurance is their special mechanic indeed seeing as they're going to be short on free (protected) casts and ambush skills after the stun ends.

The opportunity cost for the mirage is already there, you just need to learn to think a bit differently.

Airdive is correct. Less endurance for mirage also means less damage potential because they rely on their ambushes to do stuff. Ofc they can get Ambushes from Distortion as well but it still counts, and that forces a trait choice on the master tier. But also if they want Distortion from Signets, they'll have to go Inspiration which is not optimal. So, what I'm seeing here is more tough choices for Mesmer/Mirage. There are nerfs here for both prevalent builds which I'm happy about. I don't think it's quite enough yet but we'll see.

@Airdive.2613 said:

@"Nebilim.5127" said:Druids lose CA uptime, warrs lose their burst bar, necros lose life force. What does mirages lose when cc? Dodge bar? lol

1. It's not really "lol" seeing as they won't be able to dodge after the stun ends (no endurance left), so it still counts.

You also need to understand that the mirage is effectively not being punished for missing a dodge against a cc. Sure they lose their ambush but it is way better than getting their asses bursted and killed like every other class that needs to sacrifice a slot for a stunbreak AND a dodge for the burst, that's not mentioning that endurance is much easier to build class mechanic than the other ones. They have basically 2 opportunity as is, they can dodge the cc and attack at same time or fail the dodge and avoid getting punished/killed, thus making the opponent miss their burst and blow cooldowns off. The advantages are way better than the "disadvantage" that is so easily mitigated by a million things that build endurance. Imagine a sigil that gives necros half bar of life force or druids CA or even warriors burst.

If Im not wrong, sigil of humility turns you into moa... So you wanted the sigil to, in addition to removing all the possible defences other than dodges, get immob to remove it too? Lol

@"Noha.3749" said:Powermirage will still be strong. "Same" amount of damage, but no stun through daze.Elusive Mind will be replaced by IH, which is arguably stronger in alot of situations.

That's bullshit. The whole point of taking EM in a Power-Mantra shatter build was condi cleanse. Having at least some form of condi cleanse is mandatory for any competitive build.

If you run EM you have that "some form". It's not the best cleanse, ofc, but still better than nothing.Which allows you some flexibility in your Utilities. In that case - Mantras.

Now with IH people will have to take either Arcane Thievery, or Null Field.Instead of Mantras.Which kinda eliminates the point of mantra build, since you won't have a place for mantra, lol.

@Tiah.3091 said:

@"Noha.3749" said:Powermirage will still be strong. "Same" amount of damage, but no stun through daze.Elusive Mind will be replaced by IH, which is arguably stronger in alot of situations.

Pretty much this. Portal and Blink are all but stapled to competitive mesmer builds, so that leaves just one slot for another utility. If you're not getting condition cleanse out of your traits, and you're not running chronomancer to get it from Well of Eternity, that's your entire utility bar spoken for.

Well, mirages suffering a little bit more versus condibuilds is fair imo.Mirage has and is still a really strong duelist and roamer, even pointholder.

Mesmers in general are strong against most builds out there (most, not all). And every professions has its cons. Now mesmers cons is more obvious than before conditions.

I think its fine, i dont wanna be "great" versus everything and dont think anything should be great versus everything.

sorry but ...all changes are good to me especially the dodge trait one.

@draxynnic.3719 said:In the case of Elusive Mind... I've gotta say, this feels like a boonsmiting to me. They don't know what to do with it, so they're making darned sure it's not worth taking until they do come up with something.

Yeah this is certainly what it looks like, a temporary measure. I wonder what they might have planned for it in the future.

@draxynnic.3719 said:Pretty much this. Portal and Blink are all but stapled to competitive mesmer builds, so that leaves just one slot for another utility. If you're not getting condition cleanse out of your traits, and you're not running chronomancer to get it from Well of Eternity, that's your entire utility bar spoken for.

Oh heaven forbid you have to use ONE utility skill for condi clear.

Spellbreaker meta build uses TWO utility slots for condi clear/resistance. Featherfoot Grace AND Shake it Off.Core Medi Hammer Guard meta build uses TWO slots, Smite condition and contemplation of purityFirebrand mantra bunker meta build uses Contemplation of PuritySoulbeast uses Dolyak Stance

@Spartacus.3192 said:

@draxynnic.3719 said:Pretty much this. Portal and Blink are all but stapled to competitive mesmer builds, so that leaves just one slot for another utility. If you're not getting condition cleanse out of your traits, and you're not running chronomancer to get it from Well of Eternity, that's your entire utility bar spoken for.

Agreed. Having to dedicate utility skills to deal with condi cleanse is not new or unorthodox. everyone certainly had to do it to deal with condi mirage and still will.

@Nebilim.5127 said:

@Airdive.2613 said:

@Nebilim.5127 said:Druids lose CA uptime, warrs lose their burst bar, necros lose life force. What does mirages lose when cc? Dodge bar? lol

1. It's not really "lol" seeing as they won't be able to dodge after the stun ends (no endurance left), so it still counts.

Hence think differently and try to rely less on a oneshot control-burst combo. Then there's both less need to cry about mirage cloak AND less "oneshot kill" pressure on all other professions who seem to be crying all over the forums about how bursty the meta has become.

@Airdive.2613 said:

@Nebilim.5127 said:

@Airdive.2613 said:

@Nebilim.5127 said:Druids lose CA uptime, warrs lose their burst bar, necros lose life force. What does mirages lose when cc? Dodge bar? lol

1. It's not really "lol" seeing as they won't be able to dodge after the stun ends (no endurance left), so it still counts.

Completely irrelevant to the argument and an entire different issue altogether. If there was no bursts, they would be the best point contesters in the game because they actually have mobility on top of chaining evasion.

@Nebilim.5127 said:

@Airdive.2613 said:

@Nebilim.5127 said:

@Airdive.2613 said:

@Nebilim.5127 said:Druids lose CA uptime, warrs lose their burst bar, necros lose life force. What does mirages lose when cc? Dodge bar? lol

1. It's not really "lol" seeing as they won't be able to dodge after the stun ends (no endurance left), so it still counts.

Entirely relevant in the sense of "if you can't beat them in a control-burst oneshot combo, invent another strategy". That's learning to play 101.

Mesmer should never have been able to dodge while cc'd, much less break stun on every dodge.

While I don't agree that exhaustion is the right way to nerf the trait, I don't think it should exist at all.

@shadowpass.4236 said:Mesmer should never have been able to dodge while cc'd, much less break stun on every dodge.

While I don't agree that exhaustion is the right way to nerf the trait, I don't think it should exist at all.

Its the right way. How can I explain it? Everything is or should revolve around risk vs reward. Being able to dodge while stunned is A HUGE reward. So what was the risk initially? It really didn't have one. So the way it looks now is that if you are stunned, then use your stun breaker. If your stun breaker is on CD or you don't have one. You take the risk of losing your stamina regen in order to dodge while stunned. That sounds fair since you are able to do a action when normally you would not be able to. Some people say that a ICD would of been better, no it would not be the same. A ICD isn't as punishing as it allows the Mesmer to continue to play like normal after being allowed a action when they were stunned. That isn't a very big trade off what the trait does. Anet made the right move, finally.

@Aza.2105 said:

@shadowpass.4236 said:Mesmer should never have been able to dodge while cc'd, much less break stun on every dodge.

While I don't agree that exhaustion is the right way to nerf the trait, I don't think it should exist at all.

Still nothing to do with EM, see Mirage Cloak

I think the signets change is a PvE change. It has very limited impact on PvP.

Power shatter needed a change more than a nerf. If you did not have CC break and cleanse you had very limited counter play against power Mesmer. Removing Stun on daze was a very good change. Alternatively, they could have nerfed F1. I think this works better. My issue is that outside of shatter, GS does not do much in PvP.

Elusive mind, the change is silly. Honestly, I think this trait should never existed. But making it obsolete does not do anyone any favors. I guess everyone now will use infinite horizon in every game mode. So much for diversity...