apharma.3741

You don't understand probably because you don't think about animations, they have to be fluid and make sense within the timing of the skill. I'm not saying they should have the same animation, I'm saying that it's borderline impossible to make an offhand animation as clearly readable as magic bullet should be at a 2s stun due to being an offhand and being far smaller than a massive greatsword being held up in the air. Mesmer utilities haven't changed that much over the years and have always been kinda meh (hence why blink and decoy have been mainstays for so long), the ones that have changed have either been elite specs, redesigns and/or often been abused by elite specs like see list below. You can say it would be a stupid decision but you can see the argument for it even if you're unwilling to acknowledge or want to believe it has merit. You can see it in that Short's clip plain as day in round 3, tries to one shot the berserker with split second, doesn't manage it (looks like he fat fingered Rewinder) and goes at it again. I did have a point, core utilities that were nerfed because of continuum split: Signet of Inspiration - Literally used to prestack boons and infinitely copy or refresh. Timewarp - Quickness changes due to CS in PvE and put into PvP/WvW. CD kept high due to CS. You can choose not to care or dismiss is but that doesn't mean my point doesn't hold true. Signet of Humility - was nerfed because of chrono using it in CS and balanced around a CS cool down until recently. This video by Feint Fate really shows how abusive CS was at it's height and why aftercasts were removed randomly. There's a few other traits like phantasmal force that were also nerfed due to chrono stacking boons that don't get reset. I've stayed away from phantasms because you will just claim it's chronophantasma without realising CS is the chronophantasma to every skill once every ~90s. Wells - The point is they were always being balanced around continuum split and often not around their use or strength, so often were pretty poor. You can choose to ignore that or claim it's a non issue but that doesn't change that the presence of CS is always a limiting factor to the skills strength, something you're clearly ignoring.

Old berserker animation worked because it was a massive 2H weapon, putting one hand up in the air not be as obvious as you think due to pistols being small and that's without mentioning how silly it would look for shooting. Adding more flash to the game really isn't the answer, it's already a visual eyesore with all the "particle" effects and flashes. Chronophantasm was part of the problem but also double casting it all was the other part of the problem. CS is why most utilities on mesmer are kinda poo, because chrono can double cast them, and it's yet another reason to keep mesmer in a state of not as strong as other classes. Won't be long till they start nerfing the CS shatter burst combo which not only lets you unload massive spike damage but teleports you back to safety where you can try again if you failed. Conveniently forgetting the signet of inspiration multiple nerfs due to CS, the multiple well nerfs till they're now pretty much zone control spam. We have double moa, double gravity well and both of those are not fun at all, many people here would have less of an issue with moa if chrono couldn't use it straight after if they messed up.

Chrono without distortion is just too easy to focus down, especially as they were trying to move it away from burst damage to more consistent damage like the shatter reworks seemed to start...before being nerfed with the IP update because mesmer. Continuum split has been one of the banes of mesmer since chrono came out, doubling up on any strong utility or elite inherently has to mean they are kept weaker otherwise using them twice leads to what happened with phantasm utilities, half the wells in PvE and an assortment of other changes related to PvE tank chrono and PvP phantasm spam chrono. It's very difficult to make an offhand animation clearer as the character is only using one hand, especially if it has to be quick too, you could go completely over the top but it would look very weird and this game really does put a heavy emphasis on it's animations and style.

Then the solution to keeping the stun would be to increase the cast and animation and change the trait to be a strait CDR....oh wait they're removing them aren't they? I dunno I can't keep up with ANet devs balance philosophy as it only seems to apply when they want to make their favourite classes stronger and their least favourite weaker.

Depends if you're comparing PvP or PvE figures. In PvP/WvW the coefficients are very similar and this is the PvP forums so.... There's also other aspects to consider like ranger's greatsword is a very stacked weapon in utility, sword lacks the damage of other classes but had 2 evades and good condition access through poison to reduce healing. All in all classes are different and ranger does achieve success through slightly different means. The pet since HoT largely compliments the ranger through utility, often CC or in the case of fanged ebola cover conditions that ranger rarely has access to. Yes there's a lot of pets that are largely not used but that would always be the case with a pet selection this large, there is good variety of use though.

I'd rather they give mesmer the mobility to chase and keep up with classes or apply more cripple/chill than pack a 2s stun on a skill that's so fast casting and difficult to see coming, even with a windup animation like the put on PBS. In general I think longer duration CC, especially on hard CC that locks you out of both skills and movement should have longer casts and longer tells, it's not just a mesmer thing.

There's no could be, you are wrong about the stat difference. In the original state of the game ranger damage coefficients were lower due to the pet but it's really not the case anymore. Don't just take what I say as gospel check the coefficients on the wiki: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Greatsword They're all very similar between classes.

Also for some reason downstate shroud makes the number 1 skill do twice as much damage while being uncleavable! 😄

CS is a balancing nightmare, ANet can't even balance around a 20% CDR trait, you think they can handle a double cast anything mechanic? Also killing the mote 9/10 times isn't done because you're usually forced to play defensively during CS. Magic bullet animation is fine, pistol trait is for interrupts so the cast and animation have to be fast. What is stupid is the 2s stun on something designed to interrupt. 0.5-1s daze but applies to each foe.

Mesmer: Distort/Diversion/bladesong return the stomp Guardian: Aegis the stomp Revenant: Legend swap effects...probably a dud though Kalla skills might down a player. Warrior: Burst skill won't work so I guess Full counter? Could be troll. Necromancer: Full shroud but no way to use it though scourge might get value. Elementalist: Yeah no use. Engineer: Battering ram, toss elixir X, big ole bomb, grenade barrage Thief: Steal? Maybe the bundle might be of use but yeah another dud.

Condi rev had insane WvW sustain with tormenting runes. Imagine the old rune effect on harbinger... While I agree the change to regeneration was a massive healing hit, it was a much needed nerf because of how much torment rev and (in PvE where it's largely not nerfed) mirage.

Yeah...I know. I've played just about every mesmer build there is to make in WvW and honestly I've just stopped playing it because it's so much easier and more enjoyable playing something else especially ranger. Ranger is so completely broken in WvW, has more mobility than anything but possibly thief and maybe full mobility warrior and has all the combat potential or better than 90% of classes. I'm still new to it so need to practise smokescale stealth on demand combos but once that's down I can stealth on demand, take 50% less damage for a fairly long time, perma prot, 15-25 stacks of might, perma fury, vigor, swiftness and plenty of stability while passively applying poison on every attack. Depending on build I can immobilise and daze spam you to the point where it's just flat out worse than being moa'd because you can't move or use skills unless you have a teleport and cleanse like warriors sprint or mech shift signet. Can I play decent on mesmer, yes but it's not fun to play from such a disadvantage and never be able to chase someone down to get the kill while they can disengage from you, heal up and range pressure you while some other potato keeps you in combat.

Have you ever thought it's actually because you are wrong? Great example of scourge though, like firebrand it did most things and was a balancing problem immediately when it came out. Had tons of self sustain, cleansed allies, made the game awful to play for enemies, corrupted everything it was a mess. It had to be nerfed into the floor so that it won't be played in PvP/WvW because the mechanical design of doing almost everything is busted. STOP FORCING YOUR WILL ON OTHER GAME MODES AND PEOPLE!

Yes and ANet has stuck to that completely. You pick a CLASS and it can fill any role you want through TRAITS and now ELITE SPECIALISATIONS. Do you not remember core? You filled any role but most trait lines were specialised to either bring direct damage, conditions, healing/support, defence/support and then you had the class line usually that affected your class mechanic. Elite specialisation is NOT your class, it is freely swappable at all times and you should be swapping it like you would normal trait lines. This is why they added build templates, equipment templates and all that other stuff. If you're after D&D role play and making the game fit around your role playing here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1086940/Baldurs_Gate_3/

That is what I said: "mesmers and thieves (back then) were a lot more mobile than many other classes or they had the stealth to disengage more reliably from a bad situation that other classes didn't have." I know that mesmers can't catch anything now because of biased balancing around making everything faster, while giving mesmer with one hand (mirage thrust) and then taking with the other (2 dodges -> 1 dodge) while adding more mobility to elite specs and the final insult warclaw.

2v2 and 3v3 TDM the way it is now promotes 2 things: 1. Alpha strike is king. Anything on any class that will let you eliminate 1 person from the other team should give you the win. 2. It eliminates the entire concept of balancing around cool down due to cool downs being reset between rounds. The mode is flawed, ANet doesn't balance around it for good reason and you shouldn't either. It was designed to be a fun little thing between seasons but over they years we've seen just how broken stuff can be in each case. Do not look at 2v2 and 3v3 TDM as something good, look at it as a cautionary tale of how broken the game can be without the checks and balances in sPvP.

Ranger downstate is strong but the general rule is you always either cleave out or stomp a ranger. The only thing that imo needs doing is to fix the invulnerable pet during lick wounds bug that sometimes happens, it's too strong a rez skill for you to not be able to do anything to stop it.

3/4 of Tempest overloads are damage orientated? You're not right there. Fire - Might giving and some burns, I can give you at most a half and half here but it's offensive buffing. Air - Yes this is the only damage focused part but it's main power comes from the buff it applies to allies to do more damage, the overload isn't great damage. Water - Self explanatory, completely support. Earth - Is about protection to allies and immobilising enemies, it's debuff/boon support if anything and the damage is pathetic. The damage on all overloads for the time cast is not good at all. So no I'm not making tempest into support, it is support unless you're blind and have never looked at the traits. Even Snow Crows recommends playing tempest as hybrid support because it lends itself so completely to the role and that's even after people tried to make it into damage support. Firebrand has 2/3rds of it's mechanics as support, conveniently forgetting that as well as that out of it's 6 mantras 4 are support...that's 2.3rds so no you're wrong here too. Even looking at traits out of the 9 selectable traits only 2 are damage focused and I'm being generous with quickfire. Scrapper has always been in a weird spot where it has 4 support gyros/wells and 2 non support....wait I've heard this before. It's weapon and traits are more bruiser but it's always had ally support, this is the closest to not being a support, which I said. Druid isn't the odd one out unless you're ignoring that 2/3rds of the classes above are support focused to, you know, push your own agenda instead of actually looking at the whole spec instead of cherry picking F1 or that damage is present on overloads. The whole thing is you talking from what seems to be almost an exclusive solo PvE/open world view, druid was ALWAYS very popular in raids, it was literally meta for years. Even when spirits were nerfed to remove unique damage buffs it was still popular because it provided great support, the only difference is that others started being able to compete once ANet started simplifying the support/dps system. Tempest was always considered one of the hardest carry supports, it's just that it didn't give as much as druid so wasn't meta unless you needed the massive healing. Stop talking from your one small fantasy niche and start considering the wider game please. "bring the player not the profession" yes and good players wouldn't bring support thief in core just as they wouldn't bring support untamed because that just isn't their forté. A good player doesn't push square pegs through round holes, simples.

Yes, they're whole new directions for the (meant to be) well rounded base class, however if they do not specialise you just end up with different colours of homogenised elite specs. Funny how the guy I quoted said about imposing my will on others when you quite literally have done the same while I've always maintained you can play what you want, just that it shouldn't be the optimal way to play the elite spec in a certain way.

In terms of WvW I think it's more of a case of mesmers and thieves (back then) were a lot more mobile than many other classes or they had the stealth to disengage more reliably from a bad situation that other classes didn't have. Then we got more homogenisation via elite specs which made every class have a spec that was super mobile except a lot of the time they didn't have to be glass cannons to do it too as it was built on that more battle capable base compared to mesmer/thief. Everything changed when the fire nation warclaw attacked and even the slowest and most battle capable builds were as mobile out of combat as mesmer/thief. Were mesmer and thief compensated for this? Thief was....I guess mesmer has Virtuoso meme block and invuln spam but it's nowhere near the levels of engineer and ranger in WvW where they have 3 mobile very capable damage specs.

WSR was just an example, there's tons of 15-30 man guild groups who are just as good it's just guilds change every other month as people take breaks, swap guilds and drama. You don't crack them, they move on because they get bored of farming the same few people and don't want to PPT. Though it's nice to know enkidu is a PPTer, that explains his viewpoint.

A simple continuum split letting them have 2 bites at the cherry with almost no downside would have perhaps gone down a bit easier for all of us. That magic bullet probably shouldn't be 2s stun for such a quick casting skill designed to interrupt (the pistol trait reinforces this) a key ability.

No that's fine then. I think there's not really a lot of good ways for it to work outside of saying alliance is almost the same as server now and who you're guild is allied with or not will determine who you play with.

Homogenising to the extent where everything is the same is obviously too far but I do think getting rid of unique stacking buffs per class was a step in the right direction. Warrior wasn't called banner b***h for no reason and we certainly don't want people only wanting you for 1 buff. I think they're getting to a decent middle ground by saying every class should have a quickness or alacrity providing build and a dps build for PvE and the simplification has a lot of benefits for LFG while being more welcoming for people who play 1 or 2 specific classes. Simplification isn't always a bad thing but yes we don't want to get to a homogenised state like we see with PvP amulets.