Mesmer Patch-Preview

Mesmer

After watching mesmer builds develop following our last update, we have a few more adjustments for both chronomancers and mirages.While we think that Signet of Inspiration's new functionality is working well, it's a little too strong, so we're slightly reducing both the recharge time and the extension of the boon duration. This still leaves it a little on the strong side, but we don't want to remove it entirely. Similarly, the Danger Time trait ended up being too strong; we've been seeing some very high damage numbers coming out of chronomancers who are also bringing support skills.

Lowering the defiance-bar damage on Signet of Humility made it fairer when compared to other defiance-breaking skills, but left it in an unsatisfying place due to its high recharge time. We're lowering the recharge time in PvE areas to allow it to be used more frequently in situations where additional defiance damage is needed.

Finally, we're slightly reducing the duration of the Mirage Cloak dodge in order to make it more like the normal dodge move. When we first built the mirage specialization, we felt that the dodge window had to be larger than a normal dodge in order to compensate for the fact that the player doesn't move with the dodge. As players have become more accustomed to the specialization, we've found that this advantage is no longer necessary. Coupled with the superspeed that's granted by the other minor trait, mirages can travel significantly farther than a normal dodge while attacking. This change does not affect the window for an ambush attack, which has always been on a separate timer.

• Exhaustion: This boon now stacks in duration up to 3 times.• Confusion: This no longer deals damage when a skill is prevented from activating due to an invalid position of the target relative to the caster.

• Tides of Time: This skill's collision logic has been updated to reduce instances where the projectile could be unexpectedly destroyed. The returning wave now returns toward the current location of the mesmer rather than trying to predict the mesmer's future location based on movement speed and direction. This skill now applies quickness while traveling outward and alacrity while returning.• Well of Recall: Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 30 seconds to 25 seconds.• Signet of Humility: Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 180 seconds to 120 seconds in PvE only.• Signet of the Ether: This skill's recharge time now begins at the same time as phantasm skills are recharged.• Mirage Cloak: All applications of this skill's effect have had their duration reduced to match the duration of a normal dodge roll. This change does not affect the timing window for ambush skills.• Speed of Sand: Superspeed's duration has been reduced to match Mirage Cloak's duration.• Imaginary Axes: Reduced the amount of torment stacks applied in PvP and WvW from 3 to 1. This skill can no longer be used on targets behind the mesmer.• Ambush Assault: This skill can no longer be used on targets behind the mesmer.• Split Surge: This skill can no longer be used on targets behind the mesmer.• Signet of Inspiration: Lowered the extended durations of boons that this skill grants from 5 seconds to 3 seconds. Lowered the recharge time from 30 seconds to 20 seconds.• Axes of Symmetry: Reduced this skill's damage in WvW to match the PvP version of this skill. The number of confusion stacks that this applies is now 3 in all game modes.• Illusionary Ambush: Increased the recharge time of this skill from 20 seconds to 35 seconds in PvP and WvW only.• Mimic: Reduced the recharge time of this skill from 40 seconds to 30 seconds.• Cry of Pain: The number of confusion stacks that this trait allows Cry of Frustration to apply has been decreased from 2 to 1 in all game modes.• Ineptitude: The confusion duration of this trait has been reduced from 3 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW.• Danger Time: The bonus critical-hit chance that this trait grants against slowed enemies has been reduced from 30% to 15%.

Why has the superspeed from Speed of Sand also been reduced? Isn't it now likely to be shorter distance than normal dodge (on phone, don't have numbers and can't remember pof beta properly)?

Why has EM (both of them) not been looked at, especially considering contextual exhaustion duration changes on UC?

Can we have our vigour and jaunts back with this?

Axe 2 is going to be indirectly shown up with not being able to cover much of the animation with dodge.

Overall if MC is going back to 0.75s there needs to be a serious look at the cumulative effect other past nerfs will have given some of them (such as vigour uptime) will no longer have been an issue.

Good luck getting out of aoe's now...

Oh and they changed MC but not the ambush cast times, beautiful...

I understood the nerf to power block because danger time was buffed and used together it would be over the top, but now since they already nerfed what they wanted, they decided to nerf danger time too.

One other thing - going by the previous balance patch statement of "wanting mirage to be able to have the ability to sustain in longer engagements" - funnily these changes are going to push me even more into the high burst fast ttk gameplay... Because it will be kill fast or die, and we still are going to have the ability to unload absurd direct/condi burst on opponents. More IH condi bombs incoming... xD

Would be funny if it wasn't also so disappointing.

MirageOverall I like the mirage changes.My only exceptions are:

1. If mirage cloak time is reduced, mirages should be able to back up at the pace of a normal dodge roll as well. Right now mirage is screwed if it needs to move backwards, particularly in PvE where there is a lot of AoE. This is also not fair relative to other classes.
2. I would highly prefer to have EM changed in some shape or form to remove the exhaustion, even if it involves the removal of stun brakes. However, I believe the condi cleanse is an important aspect to keep.

Chrono

1. I love that they split some of the alacrity with quickness in Tides of Time.
2. I understand reducing the value of SoI relative to the wells. However, chronos need some major radius changes. It is not a reliable exception for all allies to stand in a 240 radius. This is something community members have stated way before this patch notice. This is the most disappointing aspect with chrono and mesmer at this moment for me and it is devastating that the devs increased the radius of some other skills but didn't touch the functionality or radius of the wells. Based on the patch, the devs must obviously think they are fine the way they are.

chrono impact forever dictated by the skill of others instead of yourself, RIP!Who would want to play a game like that or consider it fun?

I’m kind of glad I shelved my Mesmer in pve and pvp. Mirage definitely needed shaving on its condi output which they did. I don’t agree with their MC change though and not changing EM. Especially seeing how it can stack 3 times. So do they really think 12 seconds (realistically 12s with 100% Endurance) of Exhaustion is good?

Edit: Grammar/clarification. Typing from phone.

i like the mirage nerfs. long awaitedbut im not sure how is chrono meant to share alacrity by soi in 1 clone cs. chrono changes seems strange

@phokus.8934 said:I’m kind of glad I shelved my Mesmer in pve and pvp. Mirage definitely needed shaving on its condi output which they did. I don’t agree with their MC change though and not changing EM. Especially seeing how it can stack 3 times. So so they really think 12 seconds of Exhaustion is good?

6s currently on EM, so if that stacked 3 times from simply dodging during a daze then it's beyond ridiculous.

@phokus.8934 said:I’m kind of glad I shelved my Mesmer in pve and pvp. Mirage definitely needed shaving on its condi output which they did. I don’t agree with their MC change though and not changing EM. Especially seeing how it can stack 3 times. So so they really think 12 seconds of Exhaustion is good?

EM was already trash anyway. I think the change was to target unhindered combatant, if you remove chill cripple and immobilize you'll get 9 sec of exhaustion lmfao.

Would like to hear fatsomething (the thief) opinion on it, since he thought EM was good even with 6sec exhaustion.

@Xstein.2187 said:MirageOverall I like the mirage changes.My only exceptions are:

1. If mirage cloak time is reduced, mirages should be able to back up at the pace of a normal dodge roll as well. Right now mirage is screwed if it needs to move backwards, particularly in PvE where there is a lot of AoE. This is also not fair relative to other classes.
2. I would highly prefer to have EM changed in some shape or form to remove the exhaustion, even if it involves the removal of stun brakes. However, I believe the condi cleanse is an important aspect to keep.

Chrono

1. I love that they split some quickness with alacrity in Tides of Time.
2. I understand reducing the value of SoI relative to the wells. However, chronos need some major radius changes. It is not a reliable exception for all allies to stand in a 240 radius. This is something community members have stated way before this patch notice. This is the most disappointing aspect with chrono and mesmer at this moment for me and it is devastating that the devs increased the radius of some other skills but didn't touch the functionality or radius of the wells. Based on the patch, the devs must obviously think they are fine the way they are.

chrono impact forever dictated by the skill of others instead of yourself, RIP!Who would want to play a game like that or consider it fun?

The thing is expected this to happen after they saw how you can abuse SoI they reduced the boon extension even the number is exactly as a I predicted.I also said what will happen as an result players are forced to play an even tighter meta in PvE. I don't know how those changes effect the DPS chrono if the class is till viable it is a good chance we need another in the group meta if not things get really messy and we falling back more and more to the wvw meta

Well color me surprised, they actually hit things that needed to be hit. Not sure I agree with the MC nerf without any adjustments to other skills though, especially Ether Barrage and Chaos Vortex. Also not sure the Cry of Pain nerf was needed in PvE.

@Safandula.8723 said:i like the mirage nerfs. long awaitedbut im not sure how is chrono meant to share alacrity by soi in 1 clone cs. chrono changes seems strange

I assume casting SoI in CS is now gonna effect quickness generated by ToT. But if you take two wells and mimic instead of SoI you can actually triple cast wells. I'm gonna test it out but its possible that SoI actually falls out of kit for fractals

@"Curunen.8729" said:One other thing - going by the previous balance patch statement of "wanting mirage to be able to have the ability to sustain in longer engagements" - funnily these changes are going to push me even more into the high burst fast ttk gameplay... Because it will be kill fast or die, and we still are going to have the ability to unload absurd direct/condi burst on opponents. More IH condi bombs incoming... xD

Would be funny if it wasn't also so disappointing.

Yea, it's gonna be funny to see the "Mesmer has too much evasion" crowd complain about something else they dont like, since condi burst still wasn't really addressed.Owell.Glad I switched to something else. It's looking real good for holo and ranger right now.

Great, first the absolute gutting of jaunt cooldown and now gutting of illusionary ambush, one of the skills that allowed you to actually chase other high mobility roaming classes in WvW.

I also find the reasoning for the mirage cloak nerf ridiculous. That's almost worse than purity of purpose. Almost.

Lol nice to be able to say I called it, and we'd see nerfs that also hurt power, but whatever. Can't wait to see people still call it untouchable cuz bad.

Biggest disappointment for me is 35 on Illusionary Ambush, like lol okay. Just drop 15 seconds on it I guess, were people having that much trouble finding the real one? I guess they didn't like people taking that instead of portal.

@"Daishi.6027" said:Biggest disappointment for me is 35 on Illusionary Ambush, like lol okay. Just drop 15 seconds on it I guess, were people having that much trouble finding the real one? I guess they didn't like people taking that instead of portal.The stupidest thing is that overall and compared to a targeted blink or the "high" 25s cd skills, its randomness was weighed up by its low cd. You could end up anywhere, teleporting into walls instead of on top or end up facing the wrong direction or inside zergs, but it was worth the chance. At 35s cd, its feels pointless to consider taking.

@Curunen.8729 said:Why has the superspeed from Speed of Sand also been reduced? Isn't it now likely to be shorter distance than normal dodge (on phone, don't have numbers and can't remember pof beta properly)?

Why has EM (both of them) not been looked at, especially considering contextual exhaustion duration changes on UC?

Can we have our vigour and jaunts back with this?

Axe 2 is going to be indirectly shown up with not being able to cover much of the animation with dodge.

Overall if MC is going back to 0.75s there needs to be a serious look at the cumulative effect other past nerfs will have given some of them (such as vigour uptime) will no longer have been an issue.

Good luck convincing Anet to revert all nerfs they have done . Look at dolyak stance and its laughable nerf in 1s . Brilliant solution to all problems . I think mesmer lost its crown of being Anet favorite child, now its ranger/soulbeast

RIP! Which braindead class do I switch to now? Boonbeast looks good.

Existencial question: If exhaustion is a boon does this mean that signet of inspiration will increase it's duration? Does this mean that concentration will increase it as well??!!!Ah... Philosophy, philosophy...

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Daishi.6027" said:Biggest disappointment for me is 35 on Illusionary Ambush, like lol okay. Just drop 15 seconds on it I guess, were people having that much trouble finding the real one? I guess they didn't like people taking that instead of portal.The stupidest thing is that overall and compared to a targeted blink or the "high" 25s cd skills, its randomness was weighed up by its low cd. You could end up anywhere, teleporting into walls instead of on top or end up facing the wrong direction or inside zergs, but it was worth the chance. At 35s cd, its feels pointless to consider taking.

Yeah absolutely - sometimes it doesn't move you much at all which is a problem if using it to avoid a melee cleave. Nevermind that it is also fairly weak without 3 clones out.

I see IA as the equivalent of Steal, however by itself IA is pretty harmless as an offensive tool (aside from gs ambush which hits immediately) and requires follow up of some other movement and shatter combo to do anything. Defensively it still has a rng chance to kitten up with bad placement.

Sure I was expecting it to go to 25/30s. But 35s? Lol why when you can take signet of midnight at 30s. And I guess the mc on it is also going to be 0.75s?

I was okay with the mirage changes except MC. Seems like a disadvantage now as they didn't adjust anything else to count for the fact that you just did a normal every other class dodge only your kitten is still sitting in the middle of the AoE while they are out of it.

@Curunen.8729 said:Why has the superspeed from Speed of Sand also been reduced? Isn't it now likely to be shorter distance than normal dodge (on phone, don't have numbers and can't remember pof beta properly)?

Why has EM (both of them) not been looked at, especially considering contextual exhaustion duration changes on UC?

Can we have our vigour and jaunts back with this?

Axe 2 is going to be indirectly shown up with not being able to cover much of the animation with dodge.

Overall if MC is going back to 0.75s there needs to be a serious look at the cumulative effect other past nerfs will have given some of them (such as vigour uptime) will no longer have been an issue.

FYI, forward move distant with superspeed under 0.75s is 300, which is exactly the same as a dodge roll, while strafing moves 270.

Being able to cover your channel skill with dodge that prevent being interrupted is very powerful. Why do you think that it is normal that it should be able to cover a long channeling skill which would be easily interrupted if it is used by other profession? Waiting for the right moment to use a skill is healthy for the game. Just spamming it without a chance to be interrupted is not. Not to mention that you also gain ambush skill after you cover a skill with dodge.

@Curunen.8729 said:

@Dawdler.8521 said:

@"Daishi.6027" said:Biggest disappointment for me is 35 on Illusionary Ambush, like lol okay. Just drop 15 seconds on it I guess, were people having that much trouble finding the real one? I guess they didn't like people taking that instead of portal.The stupidest thing is that overall and compared to a targeted blink or the "high" 25s cd skills, its randomness was weighed up by its low cd. You could end up anywhere, teleporting into walls instead of on top or end up facing the wrong direction or inside zergs, but it was worth the chance. At 35s cd, its feels pointless to consider taking.

IA is not only a blink. It comes with very strong utilities. Evade, break target, and ambush skill gained by the player and clones. You said that it is not so good as a gap closer, but with power build it can be comboed with sword ambush or gs ambush. With condi build you can follow it by axe 3, or scepter 3, or jaunt. How is it useless as a gap closer?For example, roll for initiative(meta utility for S/D thief) gives evade, initiative point and stunbreak has a CD of 40s. I guess you condi mirage main have to actually learn to see enemy animation to dodge, decide what to dodge, time your skill, but not just rotate your CD. Just like me as a thief main, if i miss one steal to mirage in duel on a point, i lose. Do you condi mirage have the same problem? Now i would say it condi mirage now actually requires more skill to use but still very strong. Spamming skill is not a winning strat now.

@bennypig.6428 said:

@Curunen.8729 said:Why has the superspeed from Speed of Sand also been reduced? Isn't it now likely to be shorter distance than normal dodge (on phone, don't have numbers and can't remember pof beta properly)?

Why has EM (both of them) not been looked at, especially considering contextual exhaustion duration changes on UC?

Can we have our vigour and jaunts back with this?

Axe 2 is going to be indirectly shown up with not being able to cover much of the animation with dodge.

Overall if MC is going back to 0.75s there needs to be a serious look at the cumulative effect other past nerfs will have given some of them (such as vigour uptime) will no longer have been an issue.

Regarding cover cast - I only talk about axe 2. Nothing else, because no other mesmer skill has the same problem (everything else will be fine as it always was).

It is the only weapon skill aside from sword and axe auto attack that requires to melee to function (nevermind how mediocre it is aside from axe 3 clone spawn setup). Mesmer is one of the classes that has always been highly disincentivised from auto attacking in melee range - because it can't take much punishment, hence the gameplay of go in for burst and back out again.

The other melee skill - blurred frenzy - has built in evade for this reason, even though more often it's used defensively.

Sometimes yes you can axe 2 through someone without taking much damage, but a lot of the time if not using dodge to protect it's a case of eating more damage than dishing out... Kind of double edged sword there.

I would actually prefer that the evade frame from axe 3 was moved to axe 2 for this reason and now hope to see this happen in a future patch.

Axe and Cry of Pain nerfs are good. Changes to how ambush skills can't be used on targets behind you also good (for the most part).

I'm unsure about the Mirage Cloak change. Seems to amplify issues with needing to get out of AoE immediately in all game modes. Especially if you need to go backwards. One way to possibly reduce the impact of this though: put that Jaunt charge back!

The change to exhaustion is going to, of course, make Elusive Mind an even worse trait. The potential to having exhaustion durations of 10 seconds plus seems very very broken. No trait is worth such a massive penalty and, quite frankly, Mesmer doesn't need this trait - just needs to be changed entirely now.