Roadkizzle.2157

I like those... But I really can't imagine a charge up skill as an Auto Attack. That takes what should be an automatic skill to fill in time and turns it into a complete micro management mess. I also think the Phantasmal firing line is needed. But I really don't want the firing squad to shoot allies. I think it would be better for them to take the shot then do an AOE Boon when transitioning into clones.

Scepter is surprisingly good used on a power build. I used it quite a bit on my Power Chrono in the open world at least. The Auto Attack does pretty much the same Strike damage as the Dagger Auto Attack but also generates clones and conditions (they are only base damage though). Illusionary Counter does decent strike damage as well as the conditions, block, and clones. Scepter 3 hits like a semi when Power is buffed. The problems with Scepter is the Counter is a reactive skill so it's difficult to use, that it's single target only, and a projectile. I found fighting Chak with it in HoT was a death wish because of the amount of projectile reflects I kept almost killing myself. You have to rely on Shatters and AOE skills like the Wells to kill groups quickly. But with Power builds those are also buffed up.

Hyperbole much? If you were caring about cleansing and took Illusionary Inspiration to get passive healing then you now have no changes except an additional open trait slot because that was moved to the Minor trait. The only downside was Blurred Inscriptions now competes with Restorative Illusions and not Illusionary Inspiration. But self heals is now free on the trait line... And Blurred Inscriptions isn't what you said was needed for the trait line either.

Ego Restoration generates a ton of Clones with the mantra so it seems to be the initial meta pick for Support builds. I'm really thankful that I can take Medics Feedback, Temporal Enchanter, and Restorative Illusions. I like being able to boost Feedback and help provide some revive boosts. I understand people are upset about not being able to heal on shatters with the Signet Distortion trait. But I also think it's really funny that they changed Mental Defender to triggering on Distortion but they made it compete with the only way to get Distortion more than once every minute. I personally really like Restorative Illusions in the GM slot because I hate the Signet trait as a support. Every goddamn Signet has such a long cooldown and the Mesmer has so many good utilities I want to bring that I really don't want to be taking the Signets that aren't useful for anything other than giving one Aegis every so often. But I do feel sorry for the people that did want to use both of those traits.

Note the Axe Bleeding is only 2s. You can't stack up enough bleeding with the axe to stock blades with the trait because the conditions fall off to quickly. Virtuoso is the best DPS class for the Virtuoso. The Bladesongs work well. It's just that axe really doesn't work with the spec design. It doesn't stock blades quickly enough to use the Bladesongs as much.

Axe is slower, only provides 2 stacks of Bleeding and Torment with a full auto attack chain. Axe 3 really is about clone management giving Confusion based on the number of Axe clones but the Virtuoso doesn't have any clones. It is melee with forced movement so it puts you in dangerous situations while the Dagger is very safe. The Dagger is slightly faster and provides more Bleeding than the axe does. Dagger 2 and Dagger 3 do multiple hits giving multiple stacks of Bleeding. Dagger is ranged so you can control fights better. The dagger is just much better in my opinion than the Axe for Virtuoso.

I don't know what blocking with the Shield has to do with Regen. But I'm going to try essentially your build just with the Mirror healing skill instead of the Mantra. I'll at least be able to apply Regen without being forced to press the heal button 3 times and suffer through the excessive cooldown just for that one boon.

Well truly that's why I'm not really interested in the teleporting bullets idea many people have for the animations. The speed of rifle bullet animations is so fast that in order to make you be able to actually see a teleporting bullet animation it would take more animation frames than just firing it regularly. And what does the idea give you? Just eat up a bunch of animation time for zero in game benefit.

Is Regen uptime possible without spamming the Healing Mantra every 10 seconds? I hate the mantras and would hate to be forced to add one I have to spam constantly.

Well my post was on October 7th. The new really high benches were after the November 28th patch when they changed how the axe clones functioned and the staff Phantasms. The problem previously wasn't necessarily the highest DPS the spec could get but because of how it generated the conditions it took the longest to ramp up it's damage and was VERY easy to tank your DPS because the clones were delayed in using the Ambushes so it was too easy to interrupt their attacks.

The game has 3 options for every trait level. If each eSpec only has one viable build path then there is only ever one viable choice at each level. Having Mirage be a viable support spec can have literally zero effect on anyone trying to play Mirage as an ambushy stealthy axe wielding assassin. Just don't take the Alac/Support traits... The Alac Support Mirage WILL take the 2nd Master trait and the 1st Grandmaster trait. So as long as the 1st and 3rd Master traits and the 2nd and 3rd Grandmaster traits are viable then you're just fine... And as you say there's still the core spec lines so Inspiration and Chaos are good for the Elite Spec support traits and there are core spec lines good for DPS elite spec traits.

Chronomancer currently has defensive support, offensive support, power DPS, and now likely a condi DPS build. Firebrand has a HealQuick, CondiQuick, and CondiDPS. Scourge can be AlacHeal, Alac DPS, or pure DPS. Classes throughout the game have multiple builds that are all viable for providing both DPS as well as Support either sacrificing only a little DPS or a lot. That makes for a much more fun game where you can have multiple options for how to play a character or a role that you want. For the upmost top tier difficulty content yes options are much more limited but for 99% of the game a wider variety of available build is much better than only having one viable build for each spec.

? They only increased the amount of healing the Virtuoso can do. Restorative Illusions now heals the group while before it didn't. Healing Prism did but that was only every 10 seconds, was less than Restorative Illusions and triggered on your Illusion summons. Sure you can provide more boons now but the Inspiration Virtuoso only got more healing.

The update didn't decrease the amount of damage enemies do. So what changed in the Nov 28th update that you don't need as much healing?

No. The OP had their names mixed up. The thread title says Illusions but the first post only talks about Inspiration traits. Illusions traitline is meta for all Virtuoso builds and I love using it for my Chrono when I'm doing open world content. I'd love if I could make a Chrono DPS build using the traitline but you can't have everything. I'm really thankful for the inspiration changes. I'm glad that I can have the Revive traits alongside the healing traits... But I'm very well aware that there are many people upset at the change competing with Blurred Inscriptions.

People don't want Alacrity to leave Chronomancers. They want both Chronomancers and Mirages to be able to choose between a support build and DPS builds. You just don't see people complaining about the Chronomancer quick/Alac because they have been able to provide them in the past few patches while Mirage couldn't. Every profession has two specs that can provide support. Why should Mesmer be the only one where you can only provide support if you're a Chronomancer? It's much more healthy for the game to have the varied build options instead of every spec only restricted to one playstyle. This current patch Mirage seems to be able to be a very good damage dealer with the Axe. Snowcrows has the benchmarks for 46k-48k. It'll be more difficult than other builds but it's a capable damage dealer and still a much worse support spec than Chrono. You'll still see people talking about Mirage support. But not because Mirage is the only valid support spec for Mesmer but because Chrono is already a viable support spec so doesn't really need as much attention paid to it.

I understand how you are getting the thoughts. Mirage IS talked about a lot... But with regards to the rifle it's a bit opposite to what you're seeming to think. Since the June balance patch the Mirage is LITERALLY the least played spec in group content. Like it literally only was played for 0.5% of plays tracked by the GW2 Wingman site. Meanwhile Virtuoso was one of the most played specs in the game. Mirage is the meta choice for complete Solo content and that's it. The people talking about what the rifle can do for the Mirage is purely out of a desire to make it viable in group content while it currently isn't.

Sure I guess you can play Mantra instead of Mesmer. But then you really don't need any Regen on the Rifle at all because you're getting 12 seconds of Regen from Metaphysical Rejuvenation every time you're trying to get 8 seconds of Protection. I just think rifle really doesn't provide enough as a support outside of heals which will be gutted if/when they simply adjust numbers. It could afford to not provide healing on either 2 or 3 and instead provide other lacking support. I think the Phantasm should work like the firing line people have been asking for. Immediately summon 2 Phantasms beside you which join you in a powerful shot at the target. Then they linger for an extra second or two and turn into clones providing something like Resolution to the group. All with a 12-15 second cooldown like the staff or greatsword. This will help with boon coverage giving clones for shattering and phantasm summoning and a lacking boon for the mesmer.

So what you actually want is not what you said. What you actually want is for the Dagger Auto Attack chain to do enough damage for it to do as much DPS as Greatsword. Because the reason dagger is not used for continuous fighting is really just that it does not have the DPS of the other weapons.

Are you sure that you don't have full blades when the Phantasms are done? Because it heals when the phantasm is created and when it transitions into a clone. But as the Virtuoso works on stocking blades it only will get the second heal if you don't have full blades. So you may be only seeing one heal if you haven't used a Shatter recently.

Well luckily the dagger isn't far off your dream. 1. Fast auto attack chain that generates a life force. 2. Ranged Life Siphon but it's not all that small. 3. Ranged Attack that rips boons, immobilizes, and removes boons, and bleeds. So really it seems more like you're just wanting the current dagger but it to have less self healing and the current Dagger 3 to have it's functionality split into two skills... But with Swiftness added.

Sure you have easy Regen and Fury... But what are you having to do in order to maintain uptime in Quick/Alac or Protection? When I was testing the rifle out those felt much more difficult to maintain than Regen and Fury are with the existing weapons.

I think you've captured my thoughts. Yes the rifle heals. It seems to have potentially some of the biggest heals in the game. But once the devs realize that they've given the Mesmer massive heals those numbers are going to come down... And what does the Rifle have left? It really doesn't provide much else for support. Might and Fury which are easily available everywhere else. Staff, Shield, Wells, Shatters. The only thing special is Regen and Barrier every 20 seconds but it makes the players job harder with the long Phantasm cooldown and clone generation for providing Protection and Quick or Alac.

Axe 2 is really no more than the third attack in a chain. It really doesn't have enough differentiating it from Axe 1 to justify being a separate skill.

Which they changed away from for a reason.