Third Specialization " Bladedancer" Concept

[sirhaxalot.1793]

In this post I am going to present a potentially different vision for the third specialization of the mesmer class.Let's start off with the name - I just put Bladedancer as a name, because it's really hard to think of something else while sleep deprived. I am open to suggestions about other names, obviously, if any.

Regarding the weapon that is used, I decided to go with dual daggers, because the bladedancer will use illusions of those daggers as a ranged weapon. (I know right..sick!!).The rule of using two daggers is that you CAN NOT use a main hand dagger or an off hand dagger only. You are required to use two daggers. In a way it can be called a two handed weapon here.

Imagine this: Unsuspecting hostile mobs (or a group of plotting chickens) are roaming around, being threatening. Out of nowhere they hear the sounds of echoed blades clanking. One of them gets impaled by an illusion kunai with a chain on it, immobilized...then gets pulled into the bladedancer that is now flying with intent towards the chained mob (I'll explain weapon skills, shatters, illusions, phantasms, clones, utility skills further down the line, bear with me ok). The moment they touch, the bladedancer lunges backwards and disappears momentarily, reappearing at a striking distance of the rest of the enemies. With a hand motion or a full body spin, the bladedancer fluidly projects numerous kunai/daggers behind and/or around him, floating in the air. (he could be levitating and summoning them while his feet glow mesmery-like, instead of acrobatics and gestures.). The more powerful the bladedancer is, the more daggers float around him, used as ammunition/energy for his next spells and skills. The bladedancer uses some of the daggers to create a mesmery-shattery field for a layer of defense (like the feedback animation but around the character), uses some more to pepper the hostile enemies in an AoE zone, and finally combines the last remaining into a shuriken that strikes for more damage, the more ammunition is used, killing off the rest of the angry chicken (allegedly).

The Bladedancer roles can be dps/heal . The weapon skills can be switched up from the trait tree line of bladedancer to heal instead of deal damage. The blades shatter like glass if the bladedancer is dps, and puff like mist/butterflies/origami cranes (lol)/smaller glass particles, almost like glitter, when healing allies (we don't want people to get hurt with glass, we want them to breathe in the glitter, or enjoy the flying butterflies/cranes while getting blasted with heals).

The dual dagger ranged weapon skills are as follows:1 - Create one dagger, then two, then three (like most AA that have up to four subsequent AA varieties as far as I remember). This could be the ammo recharge criteria. It would only be used to replenish the bladedancer's ammo. They float mainly behind the character, like how the second earth skill of scepter for elementalist floats behind him, but it's blades and it's cooler. The more blades he has, the more the area behind and around him is filled (up to a balanced cap). Blade capacity is affected directly by the stacks of might the bladedancer has, up to the might cap of 25 stacks. He may have stacks and no summoned blades. He may have more blades than stacks for a short duration, meaning you won't be penalized right away, but you gotta keep those stacks up, which can be affected by the trait tree.2 - Use a certain amount of blades to form a spinning ring around the bladedancer or a targeted ally. Blades deal bleed (if near an enemy and with the dps traits), or regen/reflect projectiles if on an ally (with heal traits)3 - Shoot daggers into the ground, in a straight line up to a range, crippling and blinding enemies hit (if dps) and granting swiftness and quickness (if heal. Possibly removing CC like immobilize and chill)4 - Form a shuriken with remaining blades which can split up to 3 different phantasm shuriken and ricochet between enemies, bleeding and confusing them, or between allies to grant alacrity and fury.5 - (criteria - need to have and synch up the maximum number of blades per might stacks) Channel timed skill - Will all blades to flow around the bladedancer then rapidly expell them into every direction, applying cripple, poison, confusion, daze to every enemy hit (no cap, since we have 25 blades...why stop at 5 enemies cap?) or if heal, heal every injured friendly target (with a cap of 5 or 10 if traited). Blades can stack conditions (but not daze) or heals on the same targets, but at reduced durations (conditions) or reduced heals.

The utility skills are as follows:6 - Create 10 daggers and strike the ground forming a lotus that heals the bladedancer and heals him for the next couple of attacks, damaging enemies if in the zone with agony (if dps) or give protection and a buff that blocks the next attack or two from enemies (capped at 5 allies, only if any are inside the zone). This spell could linger on the ground, giving effects to the next 5.7 - Use some daggers to throw on the ground, creating a trap at your feet, making you invisible for 3 seconds when cast. The trap damages, slows, and immobilizes any who are in it for some time, or forms a reflective barrier for allies (if heal).8 - Break some daggers to create a smokescreen AoE that is filled with shards that blind (obviously) and bleed enemies that pass through it, refreshing blinds and stacking bleed if they keep sitting inside it, or a smokescreen with some glinting particles that gives allies stealth for 3 seconds and regeneration. Those buffs increase in duration the longer allies stay inside the smokescreen. Note - some weapon and shatter skills can be enhanced by the smokescreen, applying more bleeding and confusion stacks than usual.9 - Throw two daggers in a wide cone that can be targeted closer or farther away from the bladedancer, one at each end of the cone, to which the bladedancer can dash through. Once a dash has been used, the dagger to which the bladedancer dashed to will break. This is more of a utility item while a dps. While healing, if the bladedancer dashes to a dagger, it shatters releasing regenerative mist in a small zone around the daggers' spot. The dash (rather than the stale mesmer teleportation animation and sound) can be used only once for each dagger and the dashing is in a specific order (from left to right) .

Alternative skill (since mesmers have 4 utility skills, perhaps the other professions do too) - Use some of the daggers to create spikes on the bladedancer's back, hands, legs. If he passes through enemies he will bleed them. If enemies attack him, they will bleed. Note - dashing with the dagger skill counts if the bladedancer wishes to pass through enemies with it for a nice combo.

0 Elite skill - In a large AoE, expand all present daggers in a bubble and start dashing and destroying every dagger, raining down bleeding and blindness to enemies, or (if heal) healing for a nice amount a capped number of allies (5 or 10 if traited) in the zone). Dashing through enemies inflicts massive damage and knocks back if no breakbar is present (with normal, veteran, elite enemies).

Shatter skills are different here. The bladedancer uses dagger illusions and phantasmal shurikens. Here the clones, illusions, phantasms are transformed into "objects" . Shatters are as follows:

F1 - Use a dagger and throw it with an attached phantasmal chain on it. If you hit an enemy you immobilize them for a duration. If you use F1 again in an interval, you can pull your target and yourself towards eachother. When you hit your target you deal damage, enter stealth for 3 seconds and lunge back to a safe distance.. You can use a dagger to grapple onto terain like walls, trees, etc. We have teleportation, we have thief shortbow 5 skill, we have engineer rifle 5 skill, we have whatever other skills there are for movement. This could be cool. If it is used while on heal traits, you throw the dagger at an ally, pulling both of you towards eachother (can be used to pull downed players out of zones for example like how the scourge teleports downed people but we drag them like some sort of animal) . When your ally reaches you they get 10% healed on their current downed state.

F2 - Levitate off the ground and send all present daggers into a large AoE, cutting enemies (if dps) or send those daggers to shatter and heal, along with give random buffs to allies

F3 - Any daggers used during a set period of time will reappear as clones, dealing lower damage than a normal blade. Note - Cloned daggers will have a different color to distinguish them from freshly baked new ones.

One less Shatter since it's complex enough. I would appreciate any and all help, advice, critiques. This concept is so strange and crazy it might even work out in the end if realised.

[Obliviscaris.6937]

I kinda feel that everything described here is more a Theif's territory (and this reminds me of makes me imagine how Shiro would have fought back in Cantha's heyday, which is achingly awesome so I love this concept for that, it's no doubt very Canthan and we just need more Cantha in general!).

Can't stray too far away from the Mesmer's core themes. And when I say that I mean Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, Eye of the North, which the current Elite Specs do well. Think of the Guild Wars 1 Mesmer as the blueprint.

[Yoci.2481]

People should stop encouraging them to make bad decisions. They have two choices:

1) Make work what already exists. It's not like we don't have enough skills and abilities in this game. If anything we have too many. But this is hard and makes little money short term.2) Add something that is new, shiny and op, to make people buy the expansion. This will make them some short term money and who cares about the long term health of this game when the new stuff gets inadvertently nerfed into the ground a year later.

Guess which option they will pick. :p

[sirhaxalot.1793]

@Yoci.2481 said:People should stop encouraging them to make bad decisions. They have two choices:

1) Make work what already exists. It's not like we don't have enough skills and abilities in this game. If anything we have too many. But this is hard and makes little money short term.2) Add something that is new, shiny and op, to make people buy the expansion. This will make them some short term money and who cares about the long term health of this game when the new stuff gets inadvertently nerfed into the ground a year later.

Guess which option they will pick. :p-------------------------------------------------------------------------They can recycle material from gw2 and just tweak it a liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit to make it completely different in feel and overall as a skill. For example:the F1 skill can be recycled from dragonhunter F1 skill..just with a twist that it pulls both parties into eachother like how Nautilus from League of legends and his Q spell work there, and then the backflip from World of Warcraft rogue, as a final, the stealth as a distraction or manipulation.F2 skill can be recycled from renegade F2 skill with the bombs from the portal. Just turn them into half transparent daggers instead of bombs that fly faster and you're settled..the levitation animation can be recycled from the bloodstone or ley-energy levitating toy from gemstore. Taken from Malzahar from League of Legends as one of the examples.The feedback animation on the mesmer's feet and around his body can be taken and tweaked from the actual feedback from core mesmer.And so on..I do not underestimate the creativity in Arenanet's team...but sadly, nobody's taking interest in this concept, which could turn out to be a blast for the underdog (referring to mesmer here, as I've seen) during the third expansion...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@"Obliviscaris.6937" said:I kinda feel that everything described here is more a Theif's territory (and this reminds me of makes me imagine how Shiro would have fought back in Cantha's heyday, which is achingly awesome so I love this concept for that, it's no doubt very Canthan and we just need more Cantha in general!).

Can't stray too far away from the Mesmer's core themes. And when I say that I mean Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, Eye of the North, which the current Elite Specs do well. Think of the Guild Wars 1 Mesmer as the blueprint.---------------------------------------------------------------------------------I am not familliar with GW1, alas... I don't know most of the story or political relations between nations in GW1... I do not know the core class themes regarding prophecies, factions, nightfall, eye of the north (if there's a gw1 version of it).Why should we use only one point of refference for a mesmer as a "blueprint" . Shouldn't the guys at Anet adapt and evolve to experiment with different (but still with hints from the previous versions of classes) , in order to bring something new and fresh to the table? It might be a swing and a miss, but that is, if they throw a wrench in their works.Are we really straying far away from the mesmer core theme, if the mesmer could've just evolved overtime...By turning this concept into a reality Anet shows how the mesmer, among the other classes, has "ascended" a bit further in power...hence the levitation part..The kit shows that the mesmer has adapted to using his power in an efficiently concentrated way. Sure, we him using a greatsword or a scepter as a conduit, but due to his further increase of mental power, he is able to manifest numerous illusions into the battle field, in many different forms, manipulated for various destructive or aiding purposes.

[Kodama.6453]

Mesmer's next elite spec should be a bruiser, not a dps or healer role.

Anet designed elite specs with 3 different roles so far: damage, support, and bruiser/tank.Mesmer got the support (chronomancer) and dps (mirage) elite specs covered. What is missing is their bruiser/tank elite spec.

Something that has alot of damage mitigation through blocks, the ability to stunlock targets and withstand cc with stability.

[Leonidrex.5649]

@Kodama.6453 said:Mesmer's next elite spec should be a bruiser, not a dps or healer role.

Anet designed elite specs with 3 different roles so far: damage, support, and bruiser/tank.Mesmer got the support (chronomancer) and dps (mirage) elite specs covered. What is missing is their bruiser/tank elite spec.

Something that has alot of damage mitigation through blocks, the ability to stunlock targets and withstand cc with stability.

somewhat true, chrono was supposed to be support, core fuck knows what, but according to the devs they wanted mirage to be a duelist, which is mainly a fancy bruiser.They simply failed at it

[Kodama.6453]

@Leonidrex.5649 said:

@"Kodama.6453" said:Mesmer's next elite spec should be a bruiser, not a dps or healer role.

Anet designed elite specs with 3 different roles so far: damage, support, and bruiser/tank.Mesmer got the support (chronomancer) and dps (mirage) elite specs covered. What is missing is their bruiser/tank elite spec.

Something that has alot of damage mitigation through blocks, the ability to stunlock targets and withstand cc with stability.

somewhat true, chrono was supposed to be support, core kitten knows what, but according to the devs they wanted mirage to be a duelist, which is mainly a fancy bruiser.They simply failed at it

Don't think that mirage really has been intended as a bruiser.Mirage has quite some emphasis on damage in my opinion, especially condition damage.

Mirage also is missing one component of the bruiser playstyle: CC.The elite spec doesn't add any hard CC to the class, nor does it improve their hard CC with additional benefits in any way.The other bruiser elite specs (daredevil, spellbreaker, scrapper...) all have that and it seems like such an integral part of the bruiser playstyle that I can't imagine they just "failed" at implementing it for mirage.

Right now, I would still consider the mirage to be the intended dps elite spec for mesmer.Also I don't now why you came up with the idea that a duelist is necessarily a "fancy bruiser". A duelist can also be a damage focused class. It just means that this damage is mostly single target then.

[otto.5684]

@Kodama.6453 said:Mesmer's next elite spec should be a bruiser, not a dps or healer role.

Anet designed elite specs with 3 different roles so far: damage, support, and bruiser/tank.Mesmer got the support (chronomancer) and dps (mirage) elite specs covered. What is missing is their bruiser/tank elite spec.

Something that has alot of damage mitigation through blocks, the ability to stunlock targets and withstand cc with stability.

I dunno if that will work though. Mesmer has strong evade capabilities. making them a bruiser could be a slippery slope, followed by lame core nerfs. Plus to an extent, chrono does play the bruiser role. It did in sPvP for almost the entire cycle of HoT. It still does, to a much weaker extent. Heck, even mirage plays as a bruiser, when it worked. It is built more towards evade to avoids damage, versus eating damage.

I suspect the next weapon will be dual handed, and will change shatters functionality, significantly. I am angling more for ranged, since mirage and chrono are primarily melee.

The OP idea might be bonkers, but I am expecting something in that line or short bow.

[Kodama.6453]

@otto.5684 said:

@Kodama.6453 said:Mesmer's next elite spec should be a bruiser, not a dps or healer role.

Anet designed elite specs with 3 different roles so far: damage, support, and bruiser/tank.Mesmer got the support (chronomancer) and dps (mirage) elite specs covered. What is missing is their bruiser/tank elite spec.

Something that has alot of damage mitigation through blocks, the ability to stunlock targets and withstand cc with stability.

I dunno if that will work though. Mesmer has strong evade capabilities. making them a bruiser could be a slippery slope, followed by lame core nerfs. Plus to an extent, chrono does play the bruiser role. It did in sPvP for almost the entire cycle of HoT. It still does, to a much weaker extent. Heck, even mirage plays as a bruiser, when it worked. It is built more towards evade to avoids damage, versus eating damage.

I suspect the next weapon will be dual handed, and will change shatters functionality, significantly. I am angling more for ranged, since mirage and chrono are primarily melee.

The OP idea might be bonkers, but I am expecting something in that line or short bow.

Keep in mind that the same is true for thief, that class also has strong evade capabilities, yet they still got their bruiser elite spec with daredevil and it was even the very first elite spec they got.So I don't think that this is really a hindrance here.

Agreed on the 2handed elite spec weapon. Personally, I would enjoy the most if mesmer got an elite spec with a music theme and giving them a shortbow alongside, which they are using as some kind of magical harp (with added strings through magic).

[sirhaxalot.1793]

@"Kodama.6453" said:Mesmer's next elite spec should be a bruiser, not a dps or healer role.

Anet designed elite specs with 3 different roles so far: damage, support, and bruiser/tank.Mesmer got the support (chronomancer) and dps (mirage) elite specs covered. What is missing is their bruiser/tank elite spec.

Something that has alot of damage mitigation through blocks, the ability to stunlock targets and withstand cc with stability.

Check this though - mirage is the condi dps, but chrono splits off to 3 roles: power dps, quickness & alacrity support, AND a TANK. Every raid has a chrono as a tank.Underwater, mesmer uses the trident with somewhat melody animations. Far from a bard with a shortbow harp though. BUT...turning mesmer into a bard is cliche and predictable in my eyes. Now...turning mesmer into something so crazy it's genius self pat-pat using DAGGERS as THROWN weapons.

NOTE: (most who use daggers or backstab irl are manipulators, liars, illusionists [during magic shows they can throw daggers at an audience member, per se] ) But don't take the bad aspect from it...like that part of the idea origin.

The idea is fresh, new, can have multiple recycled mechanic elements implemented for it to work well, some can be tweaked as written and it would turn out A.MA.ZING!

Another thing that mesmer does not have, which this new specialization can bring to the table is healing!Wells with the trait are unreliable...you gotta be a mastermind to predict what'll happen after 3 seconds until the well explodes..Also you have to see into the future to know who'll be where for the zones to work (fractals are a circus ;( )The Bladedancer can have good zones in which to heal allies. Cool animations with the elite skill like those of demon hunter from World of Warcraft (one of his spells makes him dash a couple of times, each time dealing some damage).Another thing. Think of the F1 skill please...MESMERS COULD FINALLY DRAG PEOPLE LIKE ANIMALS <3 (only if on heal split-trait-path).

You guys mentioned thieves...Perhaps you were swayed away from the smokescreen skill. Well, as you already know, mesmer litterally has a smokescreen skill called Veil. But that skill is boring...this new skill is an improved version of it, hence the ascension "backstory"

@Leonidrex.5649

[Kodama.6453]

@sirhaxalot.1793 said:

@"Kodama.6453" said:Mesmer's next elite spec should be a bruiser, not a dps or healer role.

Anet designed elite specs with 3 different roles so far: damage, support, and bruiser/tank.Mesmer got the support (chronomancer) and dps (mirage) elite specs covered. What is missing is their bruiser/tank elite spec.

Something that has alot of damage mitigation through blocks, the ability to stunlock targets and withstand cc with stability.

Check this though - mirage is the condi dps, but chrono splits off to 3 roles: power dps, quickness & alacrity support, AND a

TANK

. Every raid has a chrono as a tank.Underwater, mesmer uses the trident with somewhat melody animations. Far from a bard with a shortbow harp though. BUT...turning mesmer into a bard is cliche and predictable in my eyes. Now...turning mesmer into something so crazy it's genius

self pat-pat

using

DAGGERS

as

THROWN

weapons.

NOTE: (most who use daggers or

backstab

irl are manipulators, liars, illusionists [during magic shows they can throw daggers at an audience member, per se] ) But don't take the bad aspect from it...like that part of the idea origin.

The idea is fresh, new, can have multiple recycled mechanic elements implemented for it to work well, some can be tweaked as written and it would turn out A.MA.ZING!

Another thing that mesmer does not have, which this new specialization can bring to the table is healing!Wells with the trait are unreliable...you gotta be a mastermind to predict what'll happen after 3 seconds until the well explodes..Also you have to see into the future to know who'll be where for the zones to work (fractals are a circus ;( )The Bladedancer can have good zones in which to heal allies. Cool animations with the elite skill like those of demon hunter from World of Warcraft (one of his spells makes him dash a couple of times, each time dealing some damage).Another thing. Think of the F1 skill please...MESMERS COULD FINALLY DRAG PEOPLE LIKE ANIMALS <3 (only if on heal split-trait-path).

You guys mentioned thieves...Perhaps you were swayed away from the smokescreen skill. Well, as you already know, mesmer litterally has a smokescreen skill called

Veil

. But that skill is boring...this new skill is an improved version of it, hence the

ascension

"backstory"

@"Leonidrex.5649"

Giving thief a rifle and making them a sniper was also "cliche and predictable", but it still happened, didn't it?A bard like elite spec is something that got requested for a long time by many people, it got suggested as a possible elite spec for many different classes even. Not just mesmer, but people also mentioned thief and ranger as possible candidates. The trident skill you mention, in my opinion, makes it more likely to happen and not less likely.

Trident confirms that music is already an intended theme for the mesmer, but it is represented poorly. Just this one skill is referencing it, I think we should build up on that.Again, there are precedent cases. Electricity has always been a theme for engineer on some skills (shield, AED toolbelt, etc), yet we still got scrapper as an elite spec centered on electricity as a theme.

Chronomancer may get used as a tank, but that doesn't mean that they are intended tanks. They are designed as a support spec, primarily boon support with some healing on the side. Scrappers, as an example again, are also used in support builds even if they are not designed as supports, they are bruisers. Engineer needs a dedicated support spec, just like mesmer is still missing a dedicated bruiser spec.

[Xaylin.1860]

While 'I want GS or Landspear for next Elite' or 'Gimme edgy Ninja oder Shadowknight spec.' make me cringe a little - no judgment, just not for me - everyone should be able to express their own preferences on what they'd like to see in the next expansion. I'm more in Kodamas camp - wanting a Bard or Minstrel (with Longbow, though... nicer skins) - a Blade- or Sworddancer spec sounds perfectly fine for Mesmer themewise.

I don't 100% agree with Kodama when distinguishing e-specs (DPS/Support/Bruiser). It think that there are more overlaps and 'grey areas' depending on the baseline class. But overall he/she (sorry, don't know <3 ) is right. There seem to be certain outlines and some rules for the e-specs and there should be. Otherwise the devs wouldn't make a good job (not saying they are always succeeding ;) ). You yourself say that the Bladedancer is DPS and Healing, but you mainly talk about DPS. So... what is it? If Mirage was reworked to be a proper Bruiser, sure, it could be DPS. Otherwise I'd rather see something CC and Interrupt/Lockdown focussed than a flashy DPS-spec. Flavorwise, it feels a lot like Mirage, though. Yes, different cultural background. But basically the same.

Aside from personal preference I do see some issues with your concept:

• It basically only works within itself. You have to pick D/D. You have to pick the Utilities. Otherwise you're handicapped. Or at least can't reach the maximum of Blade-stacks. This didn't work well with neither Mirage (Mirage Mirrors), Holosmith (Heat) nor Berserker (Berserker Duration). It limits build diversity and lacks synergy with the baseline class. And your concept takes this to even bigger extremes. It is not impossible to implement but defies the whole class/traitsystem.
• Your F-skills are messy. F1 is bloated functionality-wise, F2 is basically just a visual change, F3 seems difficult to balance. And I'm not sure what it is supposed to do besides cluttering the screen? And how do F-skills exactly work with Clones? Or doesn't it? Because I only use Daggers anyway? I'm confused.
• If your concept is based on 'pick a GM and change the gameplay': What does the third GM do? Maybe I just overread...?

Overall, I feel like your mainly looking for a certain aesthetic rather than a new role for Mesmer? ;)

[Obliviscaris.6937]

@sirhaxalot.1793 said:

@Yoci.2481 said:People should stop encouraging them to make bad decisions. They have two choices:

1) Make work what already exists. It's not like we don't have enough skills and abilities in this game. If anything we have too many. But this is hard and makes little money short term.2) Add something that is new, shiny and op, to make people buy the expansion. This will make them some short term money and who cares about the long term health of this game when the new stuff gets inadvertently nerfed into the ground a year later.

Guess which option they will pick. :p

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

They can recycle material from gw2 and just tweak it a

liiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiitle bit

to make it completely different in feel and overall as a skill. For example:the F1 skill can be recycled from

dragonhunter

F1 skill..just with a twist that it pulls both parties into eachother like how Nautilus from League of legends and his Q spell work there, and then the backflip from World of Warcraft rogue, as a final, the stealth as a distraction or manipulation.F2 skill can be recycled from

renegade

F2 skill with the bombs from the portal. Just turn them into half transparent daggers instead of bombs that fly faster and you're settled..the levitation animation can be recycled from the bloodstone or ley-energy levitating toy from gemstore. Taken from Malzahar from League of Legends as one of the examples.The feedback animation on the mesmer's feet and around his body can be taken and tweaked from the actual feedback from core mesmer.And so on..I do not underestimate the creativity in Arenanet's team...but sadly, nobody's taking interest in this concept, which could turn out to be a blast for the underdog (referring to mesmer here, as I've seen) during the third expansion...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

@"Obliviscaris.6937" said:I kinda feel that everything described here is more a Theif's territory (and this reminds me of makes me imagine how Shiro would have fought back in Cantha's heyday, which is achingly awesome so I love this concept for that, it's no doubt very Canthan and we just need more Cantha in general!).

Can't stray too far away from the Mesmer's core themes. And when I say that I mean Prophecies, Factions, Nightfall, Eye of the North, which the current Elite Specs do well. Think of the Guild Wars 1 Mesmer as the blueprint.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not familliar with GW1, alas... I don't know most of the story or political relations between nations in GW1... I do not know the core class themes regarding prophecies, factions, nightfall, eye of the north (if there's a gw1 version of it).Why should we use only one point of refference for a mesmer as a "blueprint" . Shouldn't the guys at Anet adapt and evolve to experiment with different (but still with hints from the previous versions of classes) , in order to bring something new and fresh to the table? It might be a swing and a miss, but that is, if they throw a wrench in their works.Are we really straying far away from the mesmer core theme, if the mesmer could've just evolved overtime...By turning this concept into a reality Anet shows how the mesmer, among the other classes, has "ascended" a bit further in power...hence the levitation part..The kit shows that the mesmer has adapted to using his power in an efficiently concentrated way. Sure, we him using a greatsword or a scepter as a conduit, but due to his further increase of mental power, he is able to manifest numerous illusions into the battle field, in many different forms, manipulated for various destructive or aiding purposes.

Okay well in that case the idea is tacky and I hate it. I did try but this idea craps all over what the Mesmer is.

[necromaniac.7629]

omg you might be right!

[Mik.3401]

On 7/4/2021 at 5:02 PM, necromaniac.7629 said:

omg you might be right!

Think so too, it even matches the projectiles above Mesmer in the concept art

[Salvatore.3749]

Anyone think the new Mesmer specialization will utilize illusory weaponry? That was a skill back in Guild Wars 1. ANET typically takes utility skills from other core professions and transfers them to new specializations; like Elementalist cantrips to Deadeye cantrips. Could this be like the spirit weapons that guardian uses? But, with a shatter mechanic instead? 

 

[Aeolus.3615]

 

that's the 1st thing when i saw the image on Anet blog

 

https://d3b4yo2b5lbfy.cloudfront.net/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/dd294Mystery_Dark.png

 

It m8 work with ilusionary weapons at least blades, the 1st thing i tough are those just symbols of the new spec above the mesmer or are those ilusionary blades to throw at enemies???? well they can be both 🙂

Edited July 12, 2021 by Aeolus.3615