Nerf Auspicious Anguish...

...or buff all the other passive on disable traits.

Almost a year ago almost every on disable trait was nerfed(9 traits total, including old Auspicious Anguish) by increasing cooldowns to 90 seconds.Then, during the Dec. 10th patch, Auspicious Anguish was renamed, reworked, and buffed by not only reducing it's CD down to 50 seconds, but by resetting distortion and giving it to the player's control instead of the auto activate that the others use. There is no reason why this one trait should have received such hefty buffs while similar traits on all other classes are left in the gutter. Either raise it's cooldown to 90 seconds, or buff all the other passive on disable traits to match.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

So then why not change Hunter's Determination to refresh F3 every 50 seconds on disable??? Traited, it slows you(control effect)/damages you and therefore punishes the attacker. :Thinking:

@"Derm.4932" said:...or buff all the other passive on disable traits.

Almost a year ago almost every on disable trait was nerfed(9 traits total, including old Auspicious Anguish) by increasing cooldowns to 90 seconds.Then, during the Dec. 10th patch, Auspicious Anguish was renamed, reworked, and buffed by not only reducing it's CD down to 50 seconds, but by resetting distortion and giving it to the player's control instead of the auto activate that the others use. There is no reason why this one trait should have received such hefty buffs while similar traits on all other classes are left in the gutter. Either raise it's cooldown to 90 seconds, or buff all the other passive on disable traits to match.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

Guardian already have access to traits that recharge their f1 (on kill) and f3 (10 seconds back on every res), and a 90 second cd elite that recharges all.

Keep in mind a mesmer has 1 skill for distortion on atleast 42 second cooldown, which on top needs clones for an extended duration. The only other way for them to gain more is to sacrifice 1 utility slot or through the use of traited signets - which are higly telegraphed and require a specific build. This is no worse than other skills that trigger a "lesser" version, as both give you an additional utility skill not on your bar. For what it does (compared to full firebrand tomes, another spear or 3/5 second block) plus it requiring active play to utilize best (more clones), a 50 second cooldown is appropriate. Remember it doesn't break the stun you're in when triggering - most of the time it's instantly used to avoid the follow up damage.

@rng.1024 said:

@"Derm.4932" said:...or buff all the other passive on disable traits.

Almost a year ago almost every on disable trait was nerfed(9 traits total, including old Auspicious Anguish) by increasing cooldowns to 90 seconds.

Then, during the Dec. 10th patch, Auspicious Anguish was renamed, reworked, and buffed by not only reducing it's CD down to 50 seconds, but by resetting distortion and giving it to the player's control instead of the auto activate that the others use. There is no reason why this one trait should have received such hefty buffs while similar traits on all other classes are left in the gutter. Either raise it's cooldown to 90 seconds, or buff all the other passive on disable traits to match.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

Stopped taking you seriously when you equated 10 second F3 recharge on REVIVE to invulnerability FULL RESET on being DISABLED.1) They are completely different skills that operate under different circumstances. The only thing they share is that they both reduce recharge of some skill.2) Even if you considered them to be the same type of skill, one would be clearly superior to another. There isn't a single pvper in their right mind who would opt for a 10s class mechanic recharge upon successful revive when they can get a full reset on incoming disable every 50 seconds.

You don't actually think it's completely balanced to have A.A on a 50s cooldown while Gale Song, Reactive Lenses, Hunter's Determination, Dark Defiance, Shared Anguish, Hard to Catch, Last Stand, Eye for an Eye all retain their 90s cooldown, do you?

@rng.1024 said:

@"Derm.4932" said:...or buff all the other passive on disable traits.

Almost a year ago almost every on disable trait was nerfed(9 traits total, including old Auspicious Anguish) by increasing cooldowns to 90 seconds.

Then, during the Dec. 10th patch, Auspicious Anguish was renamed, reworked, and buffed by not only reducing it's CD down to 50 seconds, but by resetting distortion and giving it to the player's control instead of the auto activate that the others use. There is no reason why this one trait should have received such hefty buffs while similar traits on all other classes are left in the gutter. Either raise it's cooldown to 90 seconds, or buff all the other passive on disable traits to match.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

Why do you compare distortion to guardian F1 which is an offensive virtue that burns your enemy.

Also, the elite skill in question (Renewed Focus) has a 105 second cooldown. If you gonna defend your class, at least do it right.

@"Derm.4932" said:...or buff all the other passive on disable traits.

Almost a year ago almost every on disable trait was nerfed(9 traits total, including old Auspicious Anguish) by increasing cooldowns to 90 seconds.Then, during the Dec. 10th patch, Auspicious Anguish was renamed, reworked, and buffed by not only reducing it's CD down to 50 seconds, but by resetting distortion and giving it to the player's control instead of the auto activate that the others use. There is no reason why this one trait should have received such hefty buffs while similar traits on all other classes are left in the gutter. Either raise it's cooldown to 90 seconds, or buff all the other passive on disable traits to match.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

The main difference is they want these traits to still be defensive in nature, and mesmer is the only prof who has a defensive F skill, that isn't very strong without set up. They don't have Hunter's Determination reset F3 every 50s because that'd guarantee you a 3s block for you and all your friends whenever you're CCed which is quite a bit stronger than a personal evade for 1s, or up to 4s if you set up clones and destroy your burst potential.

I personally do agree that we need more traits in line with Auspicious Anguish, hopefully some of these passive invuln traits like defy pain, and stoneform will get reworked into something closer to Auspicious Anguish, but idk how they'd be able to do it without making it weapon/skill specific or giving more classes defensive F skills (which they should not do)

@"Derm.4932" said:You don't actually think it's completely balanced to have A.A on a 50s cooldown while Gale Song, Reactive Lenses, Hunter's Determination, Dark Defiance, Shared Anguish, Hard to Catch, Last Stand, Eye for an Eye all retain their 90s cooldown, do you?

You might want to tweek your list thought...

• Elementalist: gale song: 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Engineer: Autodefense dispenser: 20 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer: Protection injection: 10 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer: Reactive lens: 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Mesmer: Auspicious anguish: 50 second ICD (no break stun)
• Necromancer: Dark defiance: 20 seconds ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian: Retaliatory subconscious: 30 second ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian: Hunter's determination: 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Ranger: shared anguish: 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Thief: hard to catch: 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Warrior: last stand: 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Revenant: An eye for an eye: 35 second ICD (no break stun)

Source: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Control_effect#Traits_which_activate_upon_an_incoming_control_effect

Edit: If you look closely, you'll see that the traits with 90 second ICD usually break stun or cast a skill that break stun while the traits with shorter cool down don't.

You're not taking Auspicious Anguish over Chaotic Dampening so it's a moot point.

@"AngelLovesFredrik.6741" said:

@rng.1024 said:

@"Derm.4932" said:...or buff all the other passive on disable traits.

Almost a year ago almost every on disable trait was nerfed(9 traits total, including old Auspicious Anguish) by increasing cooldowns to 90 seconds.

Then, during the Dec. 10th patch, Auspicious Anguish was renamed, reworked, and buffed by not only reducing it's CD down to 50 seconds, but by resetting distortion and giving it to the player's control instead of the auto activate that the others use. There is no reason why this one trait should have received such hefty buffs while similar traits on all other classes are left in the gutter. Either raise it's cooldown to 90 seconds, or buff all the other passive on disable traits to match.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

The only reason I brought up guardian was because a comparison was made between the two, with the intent to show that guardians have equally powerful tools at their disposal for the effect given on tolerable cooldowns.

I'll admit I skimmed the wiki for the elite cooldown so what's listed is the PvE value - haven't played guard in a while so that's on me.

Lastly the reason I broght f1 into this is because getting 1-3 seconds of defense every 50 seconds is far less than getting an instant offensive tome recharge as long as you tag a body in terms of abusing profession mechanics.

Edit: Removed paragraph meant for another reply

@Derm.4932 said:

@rng.1024 said:

@Derm.4932 said:...or buff all the other passive on disable traits.

Almost a year ago almost every on disable trait was nerfed(9 traits total, including old Auspicious Anguish) by increasing cooldowns to 90 seconds.

Then, during the Dec. 10th patch, Auspicious Anguish was renamed, reworked, and buffed by not only reducing it's CD down to 50 seconds, but by resetting distortion and giving it to the player's control instead of the auto activate that the others use. There is no reason why this one trait should have received such hefty buffs while similar traits on all other classes are left in the gutter. Either raise it's cooldown to 90 seconds, or buff all the other passive on disable traits to match.

This update reworks all traits that react automatically to incoming control effects by applying control effects on the attacker. Traits that immediately punish players for successfully landing their skills, particularly when they are not very visible, teach the wrong things. The reworked traits are intended to encourage more active play and to provide new opportunities for the defender without outright punishing the attacker.

You can do whatever you like, it doesn't change how each profession is different and how some have access to a wider range of defensive options and others don't.

Why it's got 50 sec cooldown and not 90 has already been answered in this thread, so I don't see the need to repeat.

Last, if 1 extra second invuln every 50 seconds is what makes or breaks your fight, then there are more efficient things to focus on than a single trait. This is meant to be baited, forcing the mesmer to lose it's ability to burst and reset the cooldown of their f4 to 50 seconds. With that much counterplay and tradeoff, the cooldown is exactly where it should be (which is the original cd).

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@"Derm.4932" said:You don't actually think it's completely balanced to have A.A on a 50s cooldown while Gale Song, Reactive Lenses, Hunter's Determination, Dark Defiance, Shared Anguish, Hard to Catch, Last Stand, Eye for an Eye all retain their 90s cooldown, do you?

• Elementalist:
  gale song
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Engineer:
  Autodefense dispenser
  : 20 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Protection injection
  : 10 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Reactive lens
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Mesmer:
  Auspicious anguish
  : 50 second ICD (no break stun)
• Necromancer:
  Dark defiance
  : 20 seconds ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Retaliatory subconscious
  : 30 second ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Hunter's determination
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Ranger:
  shared anguish
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Thief:
  hard to catch
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Warrior:
  last stand
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Revenant:
  An eye for an eye
  : 35 second ICD (no break stun)

Except invuln is better than a stun break the vast majority of the time, especially when it's not auto - proc. If anything it should have a longer cooldown. The lower cooldown for those(and you used the PvE version of protection injection) is justified seeing as they are no where near as powerful as invulnerability.

You're not taking Auspicious Anguish over Chaotic Dampening so it's a moot point.People said the same thing about chaos traitline, scepter, etc. Auspicious Anguish will see it's use eventually, especially since chaotic dampening is dependent on running staff. Better to nip it in the butt now than later when it becomes a problem.

You can do whatever you like, it doesn't change how each profession is different and how some have access to a wider range of defensive options and others don't.

Preserving class diversity isn't justification for poor balance. There is no reason why a class as strong as Mirage gets this change while dumpster specs don't.

This is meant to be baited, forcing the mesmer to lose it's ability to burst and reset the cooldown of their f4 to 50 seconds. With that much counterplay and tradeoff, the cooldown is exactly where it should be (which is the original cd).

You consider that counterplay? Are you actually playing against gold mirages that will fall for that?

@Derm.4932 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:You're not taking Auspicious Anguish over Chaotic Dampening so it's a moot point.People said the same thing about chaos traitline, scepter, etc. Auspicious Anguish will see it's use eventually, especially since chaotic dampening is dependent on running staff. Better to nip it in the butt now than later when it becomes a problem.*Nip it in the bud.

Have you even looked at the Chaos traitline? It's a purely defensive traitline that you will use staff with. Mesmer scepter is still garbage as you're heavily reliant on Confusing Images which is so hilariously countered that you shouldn't get hit by the full channel at all.

Anyways, Countless already made a spec that uses AA with signets while having Blurred Inscriptions and in theory it has a lot of Distortion uptime but when put to gameplay, it isn't necessarily good. Only because of the rotation on getting the uptime doesn't work outside of a vacuum.

@Derm.4932 said:Except invuln is better than a stun break the vast majority of the time, especially when it's not auto - proc. If anything it should have a longer cooldown. The lower cooldown for those(and you used the PvE version of protection injection) is justified seeing as they are no where near as powerful as invulnerability.

Well, Retaliatory Subconcious give Aegis which is basically the same as 1s invulnerability unless you are being hit by some multi-hit skill like Rapid Fire. It's automatic and have lower cooldown than Auspicious Anguish.

@Derm.4932 said:

@"Dadnir.5038" said:You might want to tweek your list thought...

• Elementalist:
  gale song
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Engineer:
  Autodefense dispenser
  : 20 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Protection injection
  : 10 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Reactive lens
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Mesmer:
  Auspicious anguish
  : 50 second ICD (no break stun)
• Necromancer:
  Dark defiance
  : 20 seconds ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Retaliatory subconscious
  : 30 second ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Hunter's determination
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Ranger:
  shared anguish
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Thief:
  hard to catch
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Warrior:
  last stand
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Revenant:
  An eye for an eye
  : 35 second ICD (no break stun)

Source:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Control_effect#Traits_which_activate_upon_an_incoming_control_effect

Edit: If you look closely, you'll see that the traits with 90 second ICD usually break stun or cast a skill that break stun while the traits with shorter cool down don't.

However, Auspicious anguish don't give you invulnerability, it only reset a CD. How do you use a skill when being controled? How do you move out of the damage area when being controled? That's why a trait that automatically break stun for you when CC is strong. I'm not saying that resetting Distorsion CD isn't a strong effect but it won't help you cope with the sh*t you are in when you receive this CC.

PvP players always complain about "passive" defense effects, A.A just isn't a passive invuln that allow you to escape a CC. That said, you can ask for A.A to instead proc "lesser" signet of midnight when CC'd and I'd totally support a normalized 90s CD on the trait.

@Derm.4932 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Derm.4932 said:You don't actually think it's completely balanced to have A.A on a 50s cooldown while Gale Song, Reactive Lenses, Hunter's Determination, Dark Defiance, Shared Anguish, Hard to Catch, Last Stand, Eye for an Eye all retain their 90s cooldown, do you?

• Elementalist:
  gale song
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Engineer:
  Autodefense dispenser
  : 20 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Protection injection
  : 10 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Reactive lens
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Mesmer:
  Auspicious anguish
  : 50 second ICD (no break stun)
• Necromancer:
  Dark defiance
  : 20 seconds ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Retaliatory subconscious
  : 30 second ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Hunter's determination
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Ranger:
  shared anguish
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Thief:
  hard to catch
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Warrior:
  last stand
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Revenant:
  An eye for an eye
  : 35 second ICD (no break stun)

You're not taking Auspicious Anguish over Chaotic Dampening so it's a moot point.People said the same thing about chaos traitline, scepter, etc. Auspicious Anguish will see it's use eventually, especially since chaotic dampening is dependent on running staff. Better to nip it in the butt now than later when it becomes a problem.

You can do whatever you like, it doesn't change how each profession is different and how some have access to a wider range of defensive options and others don't.

This is meant to be baited, forcing the mesmer to lose it's ability to burst and reset the cooldown of their f4 to 50 seconds. With that much counterplay and tradeoff, the cooldown is exactly where it should be (which is the original cd).

So you want all professions to play alike? If that's the case there are games out there that will give you just that. Guild Wars 2 is not one of them. There are supposed to be favourable matchups, has been like this from the very start. Elite specs directly alleviated any vulnerabilities one core profession had against another.

And Mirage isn't a class. Unless you want to argue this is too op of a trait for core mesmer.

Doesn't matter if they fall for it or not - that's simply how it's implemented. If you don't pressure the mesmer, of course he don't need it. It doesn't even proc if it's off cooldown, so the point is moot. We can't balamce the game around people who do not use their skills.

@Jeknar.6184 said:

@"Derm.4932" said:Except invuln is better than a stun break the vast majority of the time, especially when it's not auto - proc. If anything it should have a longer cooldown. The lower cooldown for those(and you used the PvE version of protection injection) is justified seeing as they are no where near as powerful as invulnerability.

Yea I wanna know why the OP isn't complaining about this too?Cause they function basically the same.

Or what about this skillhttps://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Autodefense_Bomb_Dispenser

Cause blind is the same as an Invuln. now apparently

@Solori.6025 said:

@Jeknar.6184 said:

@"Derm.4932" said:Except invuln is better than a stun break the vast majority of the time, especially when it's not auto - proc. If anything it should have a longer cooldown. The lower cooldown for those(and you used the PvE version of protection injection) is justified seeing as they are no where near as powerful as invulnerability.

90 sec cd or riot! AOE pulsing invulnerability! Savagery!

Have you even looked at the Chaos traitline? It's a purely defensive traitline that you will use staff with. Mesmer scepter is still garbage as you're heavily reliant on Confusing Images which is so hilariously countered that you shouldn't get hit by the full channel at all.

Mesmer scepter is far from garbage. It's easily among the commonly used weapons for duelist mirage after portal nerf due to it's insane condi and power pressure.

Anyways, Countless already made a spec that uses AA with signets while having Blurred Inscriptions and in theory it has a lot of Distortion uptime but when put to gameplay, it isn't necessarily good. Only because of the rotation on getting the uptime doesn't work outside of a vacuum.

Because his build was focused on giving up a lot much just for distortion. Any overpowered trait isn't going to save a build if the build itself is bad - and none of his builds in particular have been relevant since the original Chronobunker that killed sPvP.

Well, Retaliatory Subconcious give Aegis which is basically the same as 1s invulnerability unless you are being hit by some multi-hit skill like Rapid Fire. It's automatic and have lower cooldown than Auspicious Anguish.

Retaliatory Subconscious doesn't give you the option to save your aegis for later. If A.A. worked the same way(as in, auto proc on cc) it would be fine.

So you want all professions to play alike? If that's the case there are games out there that will give you just that.Wanting a trait that is incredibly stronger than all others (that was given to a spec that was already top in the meta) to be balanced != wanting all professions to play alike. Increasing the cooldown to 90s isn't going to suddenly going destroy class diversity. By that logic, balance patches should never occur, since they, by definition, are there to balance classes to be on the same level. And I don't know why you're bringing matchup favorability into this, seeing as I haven't mentioned it. Matchup favorability != overall class balance. You really are bad at putting words in my mouth, that's for sure.

Doesn't matter if they fall for it or not - that's simply how it's implemented.It isn't counterplay, as you initially claimed, if it requires someone to be braindead. A good mirage will either use distort from the trait immediately to actually negate a follow up burst, or save it for later if not needed. You don't "counterplay" anything. He gets ahead in that situation period.

And if it doesn't proc it just means you get it down the line, so the point isn't moot.

@Solori.6025 said:

@Jeknar.6184 said:

@"Derm.4932" said:Except invuln is better than a stun break the vast majority of the time, especially when it's not auto - proc. If anything it should have a longer cooldown. The lower cooldown for those(and you used the PvE version of protection injection) is justified seeing as they are no where near as powerful as invulnerability.

Do you actually think these two traits are basically the same? An invuln, even at 1s is immensely more powerful than a single aegis. One will save you when the enemy team focuses you. One will stop condition ticks. One will stop unblockable attacks. One will stop bursts that occur in multiple skills/attacks. Which one do you think that is? And that's assuming 1s - it can be as high as 3s.

But more importantly, A.A. gives you the option to use distort whenever you please. It has the potential to go way beyond just being an automatic proc on disable. It gives you way more options.

@Dadnir.5038 said:

@Derm.4932 said:

@Dadnir.5038 said:You might want to tweek your list thought...

• Elementalist:
  gale song
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Engineer:
  Autodefense dispenser
  : 20 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Protection injection
  : 10 second ICD (no break stun)
• Engineer:
  Reactive lens
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Mesmer:
  Auspicious anguish
  : 50 second ICD (no break stun)
• Necromancer:
  Dark defiance
  : 20 seconds ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Retaliatory subconscious
  : 30 second ICD (no break stun)
• Guardian:
  Hunter's determination
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Ranger:
  shared anguish
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Thief:
  hard to catch
  : 90 second ICD (break stun)
• Warrior:
  last stand
  : 90 second ICD (cast a skill that break stun)
• Revenant:
  An eye for an eye
  : 35 second ICD (no break stun)

Source:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Control_effect#Traits_which_activate_upon_an_incoming_control_effect

Edit: If you look closely, you'll see that the traits with 90 second ICD usually break stun or cast a skill that break stun while the traits with shorter cool down don't.

@Derm.4932 said:

Have you even looked at the Chaos traitline? It's a purely defensive traitline that you will use staff with. Mesmer scepter is still garbage as you're heavily reliant on Confusing Images which is so hilariously countered that you shouldn't get hit by the full channel at all.

@phokus.8934 said:

@Derm.4932 said:

Have you even looked at the Chaos traitline? It's a purely defensive traitline that you will use staff with. Mesmer scepter is still garbage as you're heavily reliant on Confusing Images which is so hilariously countered that you shouldn't get hit by the full channel at all.

You're forgetting about the ambush that has the ability to deal significant condition damage and is relatively spammable compared to the 2-5 skills. Most of the condi pressure from scepter's weapon skills comes from it's ambush. It's also has a significant 1200 range on it and is even stronger when you consider Scepter has more reliable clone generation meaning better ambushes paired with IH. You can kite extremely well with Scepter while doing high pressure. Running Scepter is enough to tip the Core Guard/cMirage matchup to at least 50-50 which alone is a good enough reason to run it in ranked.

@phokus.8934 said:

@Derm.4932 said:

Have you even looked at the Chaos traitline? It's a purely defensive traitline that you will use staff with. Mesmer scepter is still garbage as you're heavily reliant on Confusing Images which is so hilariously countered that you shouldn't get hit by the full channel at all.

Illusionary counter is on a 6s CD in PvP and WvW not 8s and less when traited. Scepter is very strong and does need nerfing but so do a lot of things across multiple classes.

Regarding Scepter - from a mesmer vs mesmer mirror match perspective, it's a case of being overpowered in the wrong way and at a significant disadvantage to axe, sword even staff or GS, simply because the auto is single target, the block is single target and the line cleave of scepter 3 is awkward to hit all of it on the right target - kind of a problem with stealth, detargeting and illusions... The other weapons offer more utility such as mobility from staff 2 or on demand evade from sword or axe, and crucially better aoe/cleave which makes damage easier to land vs opponent mesmer.

Certainly the damage is obscene for confusing images and should be reduced, and the torment duration from the block is too long - scepter needs some new design rather than just buffing damage application, because otherwise it will always remain extremely awkward to use and either be useless or ridiculously overpowered in specific scenarios (ie not vs another mesmer who uses sword or axe etc).

Regarding this trait AA - yes I'm still scratching my head at why this is a thing. Sure on on hand I'd never use Chaos unless using Staff which means Chaotic Dampening is kind of a no brainer, but on the other hand this is an unnecessarily powerful trait with too much synergy/potential for abuse in niche scenarios - not saying general gameplay because distortion spam is a gimmick that doesn't achieve much other than staying alive, but still would rather not see another refresh for a powerful mechanic such as Distortion when we already have Signet of Illusions or Chrono F5 to access it again, nevermind other ways to access invuln such as traited signets.

@Curunen.8729 said:Regarding Scepter - from a mesmer vs mesmer mirror match perspective, it's a case of being overpowered in the wrong way and at a significant disadvantage to axe, sword even staff or GS, simply because the auto is single target, the block is single target and the line cleave of scepter 3 is awkward to hit all of it on the right target - kind of a problem with stealth, detargeting and illusions... The other weapons offer more utility such as mobility from staff 2 or on demand evade from sword or axe, and crucially better aoe/cleave which makes damage easier to land vs opponent mesmer.

Certainly the damage is obscene for confusing images and should be reduced, and the torment duration from the block is too long - scepter needs some new design rather than just buffing damage application, because otherwise it will always remain extremely awkward to use and either be useless or ridiculously overpowered in specific scenarios (ie not vs another mesmer who uses sword or axe etc).

Regarding this trait AA - yes I'm still scratching my head at why this is a thing. Sure on on hand I'd never use Chaos unless using Staff which means Chaotic Dampening is kind of a no brainer, but on the other hand this is an unnecessarily powerful trait with too much synergy/potential for abuse in niche scenarios - not saying general gameplay because distortion spam is a gimmick that doesn't achieve much other than staying alive, but still would rather not see another refresh for a powerful mechanic such as Distortion when we already have Signet of Illusions or Chrono F5 to access it again, nevermind other ways to access invuln such as traited signets.

I would much rather the revert A.A. to it's old version and put the 90s CD on it. Call it a day

@"Solori.6025" said:I would much rather the revert A.A. to it's old version and put the 90s CD on it. Call it a day

Well, no. I think ANet did well in removing trait that punish CC by CC. Look, the OP is ready to accept a proc of "signet of midnight" instead on a 90s CD, isn't it perfect? Afterall, it's potentially an auto breakstun, area blind, 2s stealth, 1 second distorsion and 5 condi cleanse when CC on a 90s CD. Who wold say "no" to that?