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Evasive Mirror/Blinding Dissipation nerf severely handicaps power roaming


treizebee.2091

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@"EvilSardine.9635" said:The nerf is good. It actually makes mirage less brain dead to play. Good players will adapt and not rely on the crutch.

I'm looking forward to playing Mirage again. I stopped playing it because it felt like it had too much reward for too little risk.

Hope you can play then and show everyone how you perform well when facing class who do 2 more output per clic.Want a pic of you in top 250 because it's a high risks, high reward class. (and to prove it's not a high risks, no rewards class.) Should be easy now.Moreover it's fun to play a class with 60% traits deads.

And adaptation is what we do forever even when they cut a third of class main mecanics in 2015.There will ever be guys who still die versus mesmers even if we are hitting like noodles however the "reward wall" in the high risk, high reward concept decrease more and more.I mean I'm ok to take risks, play full zerk with little defensive trait but when the burst output is not even as strong as other bursts class plus with more prerequisites while other have better sustain tools thanks by example to perma 25 might stacks, why take risks ?

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@EvilSardine.9635 said:The nerf is good. It actually makes mirage less brain dead to play. Good players will adapt and not rely on the crutch.

I'm looking forward to playing Mirage again. I stopped playing it because it felt like it had too much reward for too little risk.

No. It was a good target for a nerf, but the nerf itself was garbage. Learn to tell the two apart. Just because something was overpowered or overperforming does not mean that the nerf it gets is a good nerf.

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Went roaming and tested my power builds after the patch - well they are basically "garbage" now since if you have little to no sustain at all (well that is how mesmer is) but the blinds were what i miss the most, they really gave you the ability to survive a fight by blinding key-enemy skills. Feelsreally bad.I moved on from Mes now (only playing Chrono in GvG since we still need that Illusion of Life), looking at Rev and Warrior now.

EDIT: I also did check (my not beloved) condi build - it also got hit hard (previous patch), takes ages to kill something since the last condi nerfs but it seems this build is still cabable of sustaining some dmg (even without blinds or reflects) as opposed to my power builds.Still - I'm not gonna roam on condi mirage - that's for sure.

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Couple of patches ago ANet said they wanted mirages to excel in longer fights, since then they nerfed all sustain options.This new one trait affects one shatter philosophy could be good if it was applied all across the board, traits affecting only one attunement, traits affecting only one skill belt, and so on.Talking about bloat, will they change steal? There's no skill in game as bloat as that one.

I doubt mesmers will ever get in a good state again, same thing happened to eles some years ago and they're still lackluster.

As for the above poster, yes skilled mirages will still do good because every single one of them changed main.

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I take issue with Anet's statement that they want "mirage to excel in longer fights" - when in reality what they've done over the last year is completely the opposite.

Mirage has much less sustain now when outnumbered in larger fights, but is still incredibly strong 1v1 duelist due to IH damage pressure.

Thus just pushes people more towards the 'dump all damage and gtfo' playstyle which is one-dimensional, because it is becoming increasingly more difficult to sustain for any significant length of time in a larger outnumbered fight.

But on the flipside I can still generate insane condi/power ambush/shatter burst combos that wreck or at least cause serious difficulty for opponents in 1v1.

I seriously don't understand what Anet are trying to do with mirage.

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@Lincolnbeard.1735 said:Couple of patches ago ANet said they wanted mirages to excel in longer fights, since then they nerfed all sustain options.This new one trait affects one shatter philosophy could be good if it was applied all across the board, traits affecting only one attunement, traits affecting only one skill belt, and so on.Talking about bloat, will they change steal? There's no skill in game as bloat as that one.

I doubt mesmers will ever get in a good state again, same thing happened to eles some years ago and they're still lackluster.

As for the above poster, yes skilled mirages will still do good because every single one of them changed main.

Don't be absurd, they'll never touch steal.

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@"Curunen.8729" said:I take issue with Anet's statement that they want "mirage to excel in longer fights" - when in reality what they've done over the last year is completely the opposite.

Mirage has much less sustain now when outnumbered in larger fights, but is still incredibly strong 1v1 duelist due to IH damage pressure.

Thus just pushes people more towards the 'dump all damage and gtfo' playstyle which is one-dimensional, because it is becoming increasingly more difficult to sustain for any significant length of time in a larger outnumbered fight.

But on the flipside I can still generate insane condi/power ambush/shatter burst combos that wreck or at least cause serious difficulty for opponents in 1v1.

I seriously don't understand what Anet are trying to do with mirage.

But we know the answer of what they want to do with mirage don't we? ;)This is the answer, they want "mirage to excel in longer fights" by nerfing every god damn thing that makes mirage be able to stay longer in combats. And STILL they didn't give a 3rd jaunt or keep it 2 charges but reduce the cd to 20sec again ...., and their patches are so slow, not to mention it takes them long time to hit the right thing with any class changes.

Still thinking what are they going to nerf next "we probably know just don't point at things to nerf guys".

Keep that rule up Mesmer's community "Do not point at things for them to nerf regarding Mesmer" we will always get everything nerfed then we will gain nothing from the things that buff/fix things regarding Mesmer.

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I also don't see how Mirages excel in longer fights, when they lack the staying power. Sure, you can argue that with breaking target a lot and invisibility, you can prolongue a battle, but what I mostly see (and what I find most successful myself) is actually not that happening.

What the abilities with cloaking yourself, breaking target repeatedly and offering clones as target do is not prolongueing the fight. It breaks the one fight up into smaller sections, and in each section you try to execute your burst. You don't whittle opponents down, you burst them down. Currently what works very well for me is firing lots of powers hitting for more or less mediocre damage in such a short time, that if they strike, there is little the defender can do. Prolongued fighs would mean that I would be able to space the attacks out, but I feel that doesn't work well, as the attacks themselves do not hit hard enough on their own.Also, I feel I have to play that way, because it feels as if I lacked the staying power against better armored or harder-hitting classes (like those hammer skills, that rid me of 2/3rd of my hp in a single blow, or just yesterday I was hit by some kind of flame rifle or barrel skill, don't remember the exact name for over 21.000 HP - that was surely with vulnerability or some other thing) - some of the issues I personally have are surely learn to play issues. Areas are also a huge problem in terms of staying power, because these areas will not only whittle the Mirage themselves down, but also get rid of the illusions in next to no time with no additional effort.

Other Mirages I encounter mostly also seem to follow such strategies.

If Mirage were to excel in longer fights, it would maybe need some of the tools it has right now to prolongue fights: breaking targets and offering additional targets - and some different tools, like possibly making the illusions more durable offering some help against areas, and some deeper analysis in terms of attack powers that can be fired simultanously. If that were no longer possible the attack powers themselves would probably need a bigger redesign, too, because otherwise you'd likely be left not only without the tools to burst someone down, but also the singular attacks don't hit hard enough. Or maybe I got the whole class design somehow backward - in that case some official advice on how to play Mirage would be of help. ;)

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@"nthmetal.9652" said:I also don't see how Mirages excel in longer fights, when they lack the staying power. Sure, you can argue that with breaking target a lot and invisibility, you can prolongue a battle, but what I mostly see (and what I find most successful myself) is actually not that happening.

What the abilities with cloaking yourself, breaking target repeatedly and offering clones as target do is not prolongueing the fight. It breaks the one fight up into smaller sections, and in each section you try to execute your burst. You don't whittle opponents down, you burst them down. Currently what works very well for me is firing lots of powers hitting for more or less mediocre damage in such a short time, that if they strike, there is little the defender can do. Prolongued fighs would mean that I would be able to space the attacks out, but I feel that doesn't work well, as the attacks themselves do not hit hard enough on their own.Also, I feel I have to play that way, because it feels as if I lacked the staying power against better armored or harder-hitting classes (like those hammer skills, that rid me of 2/3rd of my hp in a single blow, or just yesterday I was hit by some kind of flame rifle or barrel skill, don't remember the exact name for over 21.000 HP - that was surely with vulnerability or some other thing) - some of the issues I personally have are surely learn to play issues. Areas are also a huge problem in terms of staying power, because these areas will not only whittle the Mirage themselves down, but also get rid of the illusions in next to no time with no additional effort.

Other Mirages I encounter mostly also seem to follow such strategies.

If Mirage were to excel in longer fights, it would maybe need some of the tools it has right now to prolongue fights: breaking targets and offering additional targets - and some different tools, like possibly making the illusions more durable offering some help against areas, and some deeper analysis in terms of attack powers that can be fired simultanously. If that were no longer possible the attack powers themselves would probably need a bigger redesign, too, because otherwise you'd likely be left not only without the tools to burst someone down, but also the singular attacks don't hit hard enough. Or maybe I got the whole class design somehow backward - in that case some official advice on how to play Mirage would be of help. ;)

It sounds accurate to me. Mirage has strong combat mobility and active defenses, but poor healing and passive defense. This can still be an oppressive combination if damage output is high, but damage is now also quite poor for condi builds. Scepter is weak. Axe is weak. Staff is weak. Cry of Frustration is also weak. Wearing down opponents can only work if mirage is able to sustain pressure, but against many builds now not only is it not possible to sustain threatening pressure, the classes that can laugh off their damage can also deliver killing bursts themselves. It's not just sustain builds with high condi cleanse anymore.

I think nerfs like evasive mirror were a step in the right direction (although the trait should really be replaced with something that isn't completely useless!), but in combination with the long series of damage nerfs to absolutely every aspect of condi mirage damage output it's too much. Condi mirage feels anemic. I'd say staff is fine (although I'd appreciate it if we could find a way to fix the nonsense "obstructed" casts that happen constantly for no reason, thanks!). It doesn't need high damage, being a strong defensive weapon. But axe and scepter are in a terrible state right now. Especially axe, because not only is the damage poor, but you have to be at melee range to use it! I think it's time to give a little back to these weapons (scepter could probably use a redesign, honestly).

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@"Bigpapasmurf.5623" said:I cant be the only DPS build that doesnt use evasive mirror am I?

If you're playing condi mirage and using the dueling trait line, it's getting to the point where you might as well rename the entire line "deceptive evasion". It needs a rework. Too many of these traits have so little impact that they might as well not be there.

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@"Bigpapasmurf.5623" said:I cant be the only DPS build that doesnt use evasive mirror am I?

Problem is when facing some classes like soulbeast/druid and deadeye, if it is one it is not easy to handle on its own, druids can keep distance and keep hitting us without caring much, just stealth and maintaining distance, but if there is more than one enemy who uses range weapon I think it becomes hell if they know how to hit the mesmer and not illusions =p

Beside that, I honestly don't mind that its being removed I kinda only play mesmer and change builds from time to time and i have played without it, but in the end, we keep getting less traits to pick, it is becoming more like "pick this trait", this is becoming serious problem, because they are literally killing traits.

Anet are choosing lazy way to fix things or should i say mess things up, how long will it take them to start trying to revive the traits that they have killed?

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@Heartpains.7312 said:

@"Bigpapasmurf.5623" said:I cant be the only DPS build that doesnt use evasive mirror am I?

Problem is when facing some classes like soulbeast/druid and deadeye, if it is one it is not easy to handle on its own, druids can keep distance and keep hitting us without caring much, just stealth and maintaining distance, but if there is more than one enemy who uses range weapon I think it becomes hell if they know how to hit the mesmer and not illusions =p

Beside that, I honestly don't mind that its being removed I kinda only play mesmer and change builds from time to time and i have played without it, but in the end, we keep getting less traits to pick, it is becoming more like "pick this trait", this is becoming serious problem, because they are literally killing traits.

Anet are choosing lazy way to fix things or should i say mess things up, how long will it take them to start trying to revive the traits that they have killed?

I like a challenge myself, so ill get beat a bunch before I adapt/overcome to the changes (the minimal changes to my build....blinding dissipation was the only real nerf). My version of fun is fights in open world, learning my strengths/weaknesses and overcoming and dropping those who beat me a peg or 2 :p

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Well, as a Power Core Mesmer this nerf to me in my perspective is good and bad. The nerf to Evasive Mirror makes Mirage's evades less annoying(which I really don't mind), but the Blinding Dissipation nerf was troubling as it give me tough time against classes like Holosmith farting their AoE, Soulbeast's unblockable attacks, Berserker's (New) Arc Divider or Deadeye's constant harassment whenever they get behind me from perma stealth, all this easily ending me in mere seconds... unable to blind them to prevent me being turned into smashed or sliced potato. I have no problem on my Power Mirage, but when I play Core Mesmer = 0 survival and became a bag offering sometimes... pretty sure this affects players that is F2P, Core, HoT (Chrono) roamers. Really wish Anet could've just rework those traits they nerf for something that is fair in defense.

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@AliamRationem.5172 said:

@"Bigpapasmurf.5623" said:I cant be the only DPS build that doesnt use evasive mirror am I?

If you're playing condi mirage and using the dueling trait line, it's getting to the point where you might as well rename the entire line "deceptive evasion". It needs a rework. Too many of these traits have so little impact that they might as well not be there.

Condi Mirage was so much cooler back when Cry of Pain, Blinding Dissipation and Ineptitude were your bread and butter and allowed you to kill people simply through condi shatters and didn't even run Infinite Horizon or Axe until nerfs made all Condi Mirages reroll towards Deceptive Evasion and Infinite Horizon spamming because that's the only damage ability worth a damn.

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@mortrialus.3062 said:

@"Bigpapasmurf.5623" said:I cant be the only DPS build that doesnt use evasive mirror am I?

If you're playing condi mirage and using the dueling trait line, it's getting to the point where you might as well rename the entire line "deceptive evasion". It needs a rework. Too many of these traits have so little impact that they might as well not be there.

Condi Mirage was so much cooler back when Cry of Pain, Blinding Dissipation and Ineptitude were your bread and butter and allowed you to kill people simply through condi shatters and didn't even run Infinite Horizon until nerfs made all Condi Mirages reroll towards Deceptive Evasion and Infinite Horizon spamming because that's the only damage ability worth a kitten.

Yeah I find this silly.

With IH and DE the playstyle is so passive and boring - whereas they should really be pushing the damage on attacks like axe 3, shatters, etc - clear animations to avoid big damage, not every dodge being relentless damage output but overall having no "teeth". Now it really makes no difference if you land axe 3 or not - just spamming ambush burst combos does the same.

Edit - in effect it's just another form of old "clone death" - except instead of passively spamming clone deaths its ambushes.

They nerfed condi mirage in a way that makes it such that the only incentivised playstyle is the most mindless in terms of applying damage.

Trouble is IH exists so all that previous stuff nerfed compounded with it if used together so something had to give. Should be minor trait or at least heavily modified to provide much larger impactful damage boost to player ambush but less from clones.

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@Curunen.8729 said:

@"Bigpapasmurf.5623" said:I cant be the only DPS build that doesnt use evasive mirror am I?

If you're playing condi mirage and using the dueling trait line, it's getting to the point where you might as well rename the entire line "deceptive evasion". It needs a rework. Too many of these traits have so little impact that they might as well not be there.

Condi Mirage was so much cooler back when Cry of Pain, Blinding Dissipation and Ineptitude were your bread and butter and allowed you to kill people simply through condi shatters and didn't even run Infinite Horizon until nerfs made all Condi Mirages reroll towards Deceptive Evasion and Infinite Horizon spamming because that's the only damage ability worth a kitten.

Yeah I find this silly.

With IH and DE the playstyle is so passive and boring - whereas they should really be pushing the damage on attacks like axe 3, shatters, etc - clear animations to avoid big damage, not every dodge being relentless damage output but overall having no "teeth". Now it really makes no difference if you land axe 3 or not - just spamming ambush burst combos does the same.

Edit - in effect it's just another form of old "clone death" - except instead of passively spamming clone deaths its ambushes.

They nerfed condi mirage in a way that makes it such that the only incentivised playstyle is the most mindless in terms of applying damage.

Trouble is IH exists so all that previous stuff nerfed compounded with it if used together so something had to give. Should be minor trait or at least heavily modified to provide much larger impactful damage boost to player ambush but less from clones.

PvP wise I look at Infinite Horizon as similar to necromancer minions, ranger spirits, engineer turrets in that it's the kind of thing that shouldn't be very good in PvP and should kind of just be a PvE thing. Other things about condition mirage should have been incentivized, namely shatter skills, skill shots like Axe and Scepter 3, and Ambush Attack without Infinite Horizon.

Sadly they let it linger on too long, did loads of PvP nerfs to all the wrong things, and made Elusive Mind immensely detrimental to run with little benefit.

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Blinding dissipation nerf should be reverted. Mirror is reasonable, but should have come first and been weighed then, not AFTER all the survivability nerfs.

Mirage is supposed to last long in fights, and nerf after nerf has gutted this, and the ONLY sound decision that was made for their survivability was normalizing mirage cloak duration.

It did not need reduced vigor, it did not need reduced jaunts, Ambush didn't need +15 seconds. The only thing that needed to be toned down was Condi, and maybe chrono bunk. Power was innocent and had the most "fair" burst in the entire game. All you had to do was avoid that and you could contest power mirage on virtually any build and this was after daze = stun was already removed. (Fair in that requiring: well placed bounces for a combo you can mitigate with a single dodge, requiring a 30 sec c/d blink, or at best a 3 - 6 seconds stealth [across two cooldowns]. Compared to the damage a warrior or engie can pull off with their innate survivability, or Malicious backstab from perma stealth.)

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@EvilSardine.9635 said:The nerf is good. It actually makes mirage less brain dead to play. Good players will adapt and not rely on the crutch.

I think that's more or less what Shorts said, and he's one of the most skilled mesmers in the game. I'm glad to see that there are intelligent changes being made, it brings us closer to the ideal of players using skill to triumph instead of being class carried.

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@Rotten Bones.2391 said:

@EvilSardine.9635 said:The nerf is good. It actually makes mirage less brain dead to play. Good players will adapt and not rely on the crutch.

I think that's more or less what Shorts said, and he's one of the most skilled mesmers in the game. I'm glad to see that there are intelligent changes being made, it brings us closer to the ideal of players using skill to triumph instead of being class carried.

He is also missing the point, regardless of his status.

Nerfing Evasive Mirror is good - it should have happened on pof launch, just took general population ages to realise how good it was with mirage evade spam (same with people calling axe and detargets kitten until they realised how strong they are).

This doesn't dismiss the way it has been nerfed which is stupid - because it is still passive and skilless, however on a longer icd unable to reliably keep track of when it procs makes it largely RNG/luck based.

So now we have a useless and equally skillless trait that can range from passively dropping an opponent to half health if lucky, to procing at the wrong moment and doing nothing.

So overall it effectively removes choice by making a trait so useless it's not worth picking. How is this a good thing?

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@Rotten Bones.2391 said:

@EvilSardine.9635 said:The nerf is good. It actually makes mirage less brain dead to play. Good players will adapt and not rely on the crutch.

I think that's more or less what Shorts said, and he's one of the most skilled mesmers in the game. I'm glad to see that there are intelligent changes being made, it brings us closer to the ideal of players using skill to triumph instead of being class carried.

I agree to some extent. Nerfs were needed as condi mirage had too much damage paired with excellent sustain.

Having said that, if we're being honest, they over-nerfed it. The class now has both poor damage output and poor passive sustain. Since mirage is forced to balance both offense and defense around endurance, it's now quite difficult to apply sufficient pressure without overextending. This is particularly true against the flavors of the moment: holo, scrapper, soulbeast, as well as any class with better than poor damage output paired with strong cleansing and mobility (e.g. weaver, some thief builds).

In my opinion, axe needs some of its damage back, scepter needs a straight rework, cry of frustration needs to deal meaningful damage again, vigor uptime needs to be increased somewhat (it's practically not even there anymore!), and both blinding dissipation and evasive mirror should be reworked or replaced completely as they are worthless in their current forms.

It might also be appropriate to re-evaluate the cooldown changes on some skills. It was not appropriate to increase IA cooldown by 75% and jaunt is all but worthless in its current form. Also, this has been an issue from the beginning, but add to my wishlist either removing the cast time on mirage advance or increasing the range to 1200! It feels clunky and could be a great skill otherwise!

Condi mirage is no longer invulnerable from range and it's always been quite vulnerable at melee range. It can't afford to go all out on offense and even when it does, its damage output is now too low against too many classes. What ends up happening is you burn through your endurance and your opponent simply laughs off the damage. Only unskilled opponents who stand in place and let you burst them are threatened by condi mirage burst now. Anyone who simply dodges and moves around can survive for too long, forcing the mirage to disengage without properly pressuring them. When the counter-attack comes, mirage has long cooldown teleports and stealths...which aren't actual sustain. Mirage can run away. That's about it.

What do you guys think? Am I the only one seeing this?

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@Xaylin.1860 said:Both clearly are nerfs, but 'severely' is a bit dramatic and it affects condition Mesmers just as much as power Mesmers.

  • Power can go Master Fencer.Power is only efficient on chrono right now.
  • CoF is available to every Mesmer. Using it just for blinding is actually more justifiable for power than condition builds.Cry of Frustration is good for condi builds which is why it impacts Mirage more than say chrono
  • Evasive Mirror had a too huge uptime. We'll see whether 10s ICD might be too long or not.People started running EM more because of other nerfs that impacted evades (vigor, speed of sand, axe 3 evade, sword 2 evade all nerfed in the last year) they need EM without some other viable defensive replacement which they didn't get. Just the opposite. It also impacts Condi more because they have less mobility than power spec because of the sword ambushes leap and the fact that sword is a pure power weapon. Additionally, the nerf to Evasive Mirrior as others pointed out is now totally random. with a 10 sec cooldown you cannot use it as needed because it is tied to dodge. So if you dodged in the last 10 seconds and then want to activate the reflect its on cooldown. In other words, its random and passive now. But before I wasnt passive because I before all that was needed was to ensure you had enough energy to pull a dodge and time it well to reflect. it was always limited because it was always only tied to mirages serverely nerfed dodge/evade or the chaos trait which required you change your build in a way that reduces damage in favor of defense (chaos or illusions). Now it has no real trade off option, its just a nerf and not a well done one either.

In my opinion, Mirage is supposed to be elusive and have good sustain. They are supposed to be hard to target/hit if played correctly. They are supposed to be able to 1 v n if played well and out sustain and have a chance at ccing and moving while they wear the opponent(s) down. Very similarly to a good thief. The recent nerfs have pushed many to do just the opposite, they have been forced to try things like running bunker which lacks mobility but maintains some sustainability which then necessitates some way of dealing with all the 1200 range 1 shot attacks u encounter in wvw from rangers, and deadeyes which is evasive mirrior. Trust me people would much rather run the blindness + confusion on blindness traits in the same dueling line if they didnt need the reflects.

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@AliamRationem.5172 said:What do you guys think? Am I the only one seeing this?Yea what you said sounds about right to me. I would agree. The main reason I object to the changes to Evasive Mirror or Blinding dissipation is the timing. What I mean is, it might have seemed fine before all of the other changes you mentioned, but happening now without some new alternative or a reversal of previous changes it seems like a bad change. I too would not have minded this nerf say a year ago or so.

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