Chrolo.8536

These are just early experiences. I would use axe/torch (or dagger) as the main weapon alongside shortbow. Axe ambush is by far the strongest and I would use the ambush only on axe. Traitwise I use the usual condi setup (wilderness survival and skirmish). As utilities I use the cantrip cc-mushroom and survival skills, also for heal and elite. The pets can be a flavor choice in open world. This build is very potent there.

Good to see an experienced WvW veteran chiming in and offering feedback. Thanks for taking the time.

Agreed in most points. What a rushed, uninspired and bland spec this is... Impowered illusions does work though, since it increases phantasms dmg. Clone strike dmg is irrelevant anyways. Sharper images is a big oversight tough. They could just have made this working for the player character instead. This way condi virt would "work" without wasting an entire line of traits on it. The issues for this spec were forseen since the first beta - and the devs completely ignored them. Pity.

This should absolutely be adressed, escpecially on staff. Another key thing, effects on stocking a blade should still proc with 5 blades stocked.

At this point they are just putting salts into the mesmers wounds 😆

This is a condi build I run in open world. I run it with celestial or viper gear and both work very well. Viper provides more damage while celestial gives more sustain. With the sword phantasm you can maintain high amount of might stacks (need to hit the first strike in meele tough). http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAgqzlVwWZYsLmLWOXtxfA-zhyIuCIwUQrB-e This is the second build I run. It is power focused and has a much higher burst and probably higher dps then the condi build. The sustain is lower though, since jagged mind provides that much healing. It works excellent in ooen world, too. You can easily stack might and quickness. For gear you can mix and match diviners, berserker, marauder, assassin etc. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAgqzlVwWZYsLmLWOXtxfA-zhyIuCIwUQrB-e

It feels like elite specs gor like 0,5% of the development budget this time around. Other balance is also minimal and thenext balance is in sommer? Nice

That would require effort tough

They could add a trait which allows psychics to boon rip for example (per pulse on RoS and the elite). This would potentially allow it to become viable in wvw. As basically everyone pointed out, the condi line could be removed or condensed into one trait to make place for interesting trait options. But they did not adress any important feedbacks and as it looks we will be stuck with this sorry excuse of an elite spec for at least 6 months.

I think Mimic is usefull when you want to do a very specific thing, for example Blink twice in a row, give quickness, revive allies with Illusion of Life etc. I really like to have this skill in our kit for niche use. In your example I think thats not really worth it, since you also need the clone generation to make distortion worth it. Instead of Mimic you could take better alternatives. And as pointed out, it deliberately does not work with Continuum Split, since that would be op.

Just take Run of the Pack and see what happens. You share Fury to the Phantasms and they give it back to you.

You're not the only one asking these questions. I think most of don't really see the theme/point of this spec. If they wanted to make a cloneless, ranged, shatter-focused, pure-dps spec - yes, I am on board with that! But then you have to actually design it that way. Beginning from the traits, to the weapon, to the mechanic and how it all fits in with core. That vision is just not realized by the current iteration. And worst, the changes from bw1 to bw4 did not adress these issues in any way. Which signals to me, that the devs have a completly different vision for Virtuoso. But I wonder what it is?

There is no need to make the Shatters unblockable. Regarding PvP and WvW it would be enough to make them not count as projectiles. This way the enemies can still blocked them with all the regular blocking skills, but the attacks would still go through all the ubiquitous projectile hate in those modes (walls, feedback, smoke screen etc.). I don't get why this was not on the table for discussion. But I have taken the stance now, that the developers just see something in this spec that we all - the entire community - don't see. And they believe in that vision and bravely disregard the main feedback points provided by the Mesmers on this forum, because they know it will be great and we all just don't see it yet. And I can respect them for doing that. I just hope it will "click" with me at some point and I realize that I was wrong for finding the Virtuoso spec boring and without identity, and no real mechanic which adds anything exciting to the class.

Some of these sound cool, others are kitten. It doesnt really matter though, you could just randomly take some on throw them on Virtuoso and it would already be an improved, more interesting "elite" spec or whatever it is... Sorry for the mean and unconstructive comment.

I mean, you have to understand a bit where people are coming from. Of course it doesnt help and is unfair to be hyperbolic and accuse people of stuff. I am sure the devs at Anet love the game and try to make it as good as they can. But it also seems obvious that there is not enough effort going into balancing and working on the classes. Despite sometimes really good feedback things stay the same for years and that frustrates people. We already know, that a lot of the EoD Specs will be released exactly like they are now and you can't hope for more than a few bugfixes. Hopefully balancing will happen throughout 2022 but you still know that you have to deal with the mess that we have now. I am not really looking forward to Virtuoso at release and I am also not just switching my class, because I like to play on my main. Anet does a lot, but it takes them a long, long time to do so. Of course, they will do changes "based on their data" as you suggest, but it's frustrating to know that Virtuoso will eventually be fun in 2023. Of course it is very difficult for them to even know what to change. A lot of the negative feedback comes from the fact, that everyone of us only spends a limited time playing the chars during the beta week and naturally some of the frustrations are just because we are not yet used to them. And other things are really due to bad design. Its difficult for the devs to understand what is what and which changes to make. Therefore they have to be very careful with what they change. Also, if they change a lot on one class and not another you will also alienate some players because they think its unfair. Some of the things we critisise on Virtusso, like cast time on Bladesongs, may be perfectly fine and we just need to get used to it. Others, like the completely uninspired and boring trait design, are pretty obvious - IMO - and its good we give our feedback. Thats also what most of the criticism is as far as I can see. When you look at Specter for example, almost every trait changes how you play the class. On Virtouso there is not a single trait that does this. You just pick the traits based on if you play a power, condi, or "duelist build" and use your skills as you would do without them. That's objectively not good design, sorry.