Mell.4873

Not every class has access to a shield so it did limit the counter play.

Your breakdown makes the landscape of classes look great. Before this Firebrand was the defactoro pick for any quickness/dps role and maybe an over nerf is what is needed to bring other specialisation into the limelight. Then once they nerf them or buff Firebrand everything will be balanced and viable. I have been waiting for along time for people to accept the idea that Chronomancer can provide quickness and has amazing synergy with other classes like Renegade due to traited Signet of Inspiration

Dragon Hunter is Guardian Low Intensity Build. I think every Guardian player will just have to face the fact that Dragon Hunter will never be a top DPS with its playstyle being the way it is. Your only hope is that the next elite has a more complex playstyle which is more rewarding to play DPS. I guess Willbender could be that one day.

The Low Intensity Build is still there. They have only lowered the damage in PvP/WvW which is understandable since it dominated certain gamemodes.

I think you over estimate how often Engineer players use rifle for anything other than mobility and CC. Most of killing was done via Grenade and Morter Kit. It was very easy to one shot low health players with either of these kits.

Maybe use one of the many Engineer kits. I mean rifle wasn't always this good and now you have a very good reason to go back to them. What was destroyed was the a single weapon that did it all. Engineers were never only about a single weapon, kits offered the highest DPS for Engineers when used correctly.

Not every class had good access to barriers, shields, reflects. I think the main problem I saw was it really skewed the meta to classes that had these tools, like Elementalist. Every player just ran something to counter and Engineer combinations. Line of sight was useful becouse the number of bullets, quickness and mobility Engineer had. Boon removal also meant nothing since reapplication was instant.

The only reason it's bad is becouse you have to preform a rotation to provide boons most other Quickness and Alacrity providers can click one skill.

I think that is still very strong, A 5k or even 10k Dps drop from a total of 35k to provide boons is still very strong while most healers are under 5k dps. I believe the highest DPS boon provider is Mirage at 28k but that's with regeneration uptime and a perfect rotation.

It dominated low ranks, in the high tiers playera were better and could focus them down or line of sight them. Still though the absurd number of bullets that Scrapper could produce with quickness didn't give some builds many options to not get bursted down.

What context do you need that much CC. If you are talking about Fervent Force, then the CC we have is fine (maybe not Path of Scars that needs a nerf) If you mean breakbars we have tones of really good Pet skills that can do it for us.

I completely agree with your ESO analysis but i came from that game back to GW2 since even when they do nerf stuff in this game, they don't completely remove what made the class unique. A perfect example is a year to two into ESO they removed the percentage-based life leaching from Nightblade. This completely removed my ability to gain Mana back as percentage of my total Mana which ruined my playstyle. Mech in this instance has not removed the burst element to the rifle only reduced the number of shots. The mech being lower damage when not being close to ranger is a nerf (when mech is not behaving) but again doesn't invalidate the playstyle.

Hahahahah, I kind of agree. I could never get into Holosmith, it always felt like a poor man's Warrior Burst skill.

I have a good test run with Rifle; it honestly isn't that bad. With quickness it has the same feel, it's just not as rapid fire as before.

Well, we can only hope

I see this as a positive since the way I see the auther love for the class is based on the pure flexibility of Firebrand. Being able to cycle tomes meant you could do 30k+ dps also while providing some boons was very OP. This exactly why Firebrand and Scourge dominated pre-EoD content and why we have the silly idea that DPS should not be selfish. These changes if the devs got it right will mean a more fit for purpose role.

Maybe soon, this current patch was more pve focused.

It was always going to be a problematic class and this is only furthered by Mirage. As soon as you pair Clones with a core GW2 mechanic "Dodge" you have a recipe for repeated nerfs or changes. To be perfectly honest I think there is a silver lining to this in the long run. The more Elites they add the more things like Mirage having a dodge to damage mechanic seems less OP. I think main proof of this is they have begun removing almost all the tradeoffs.

Its a mix, I would say for Strikes and Raids people prefer different roles for there intrinsic utility but for Fractals most don't trust professions that don't normally preform that role. Its much easier to sell a party on an Alacrity Mirage than a Alacrity Chronomancer because Mirage is the most popular version.

This game does a good job with being a very much a pick your own playstyle with each Classes traitline being focused on a particular mechanic but this doesn't really come together until you get and Elite Specialization. For the most part each specialization is the extension of one or two of the core trainlines. For Example Ranger's Nature Magic being a precursor to Druid traitline. So yeah you are stuck with Core if you are not level 80. Your best bet to reach max level is use one level 80 to max the others, that or do a tone of PvP or WvW for Tomes of Knowledge. If you PvP or WvW a lot you can spend the relevant currency to also unlock hero points, maxing one Elite Specialization right away like Mechanist.

My recommendation is to play a specialization even though you stated you don't want to yet due to complexity. Core is essentially a diluted version of the class, with no real focus or purpose. Which in practice will make it even harder to play since you don't have anything to focus on. This can be non other exemplified with Mesmer, Core has almost no synergy with itself. A Build with it would require such mind boggling theory crafting and gear that its not worth it. Throw in Virtuoso and now you have a focus, Bleed = Healing. With that alone all your gear/traits can focus on getting the most healing out of your bleed damage and blade generation.

In PvP Clones and Phantasms are pretty irrelevant outside maybe Mirage which can swap places with them. Virtuoso although is claimed to be Low Intensity class is anything but when played by a Pro.

Its all good and well you say that but the reality is they are doing almost no damage when they go immune, only 2 of the three possible damage immunity skills still let you attack and even those 2 require you to shatter to cast them for a long duration.

We all know Deadeye is going to suffer a Meta change (or Nerf). As compensation for this more PvE focused Deadeye can we see Quickness Party generation be added to Fire for Effect. Original: Hitting your marked target with a stolen skill grants 8 Might (12s), Fury (12s) to allies around your mark and to allies around you. Buffed: Hitting your marked target with a stolen skill grants 8 Might (12s), Quickness (6s) to allies around your mark and to allies around you. This would bring Thief inline with other Elites that have both boons being generated by one of its specializations.

Hmm I largely agree with everything you said but I will go back to Pessimism point. If all you look at is the negatives the Mesmer profession will go no where, its the same with me countering it by being too positive. Mesmer is nether the best or worse pick for a given role, so you can always find something better (or worse). Its just a class that you can swap builds around in. I often find the best thing a Mesmer can do is change builds, even in sPvP where you cant during the game you can still try and change your match up by swapping pre-game. Again I will back to my main Point, Mesmer can do everything. In WvW which I do at least attempt to play Mesmer (not sPvP), I just swap between various stall playstyles. Chronomancer is more for large Zergs, Mirage for small skirmishes, Virtuoso for direct duels. I play it all or nothing so if I get outplayed while then so be it, same way I play Untamed in WvW. PS: If everyone spent all there time playing what is Meta then will leave the game when that Elite gets nerfed hence the Mesmer Pessimism.