Dastion.3106

This part is something that has prevented me investing much time in to the Elite Spec. It's like multiple ideas all squished together with no thought for overall design. I can get on board with meshing blade throwing with psionics by making them Psionic Blades - there is a D&D Class that does something similar (Soulknife). But if that's the ONLY Psionic thing you do (nevermind that Mesmers were already technically a Psionic/Mentalist class) with those skills then it seems weird to call them Psionics. That's like giving a class a bunch of fire based skills and making their category "Elemental". Technically true but also a bit too broad for narrow the skills are designed. And naming the class Virtuoso and the mechanic "Bladesongs" is easily my biggest pet peeve. The name has nothing to do with anything about how the class fantasy is experienced. Also: You mentioned that it felt like a "new" mechanic and I just don't feel the same way. The effects are by and large exactly the same thing just repackaged in with altered animations and delivery methods. Losing the Shatter "Illusory Persona" effect (you count as a clone) is a HUGE drawback in exchange for what? The ability to store 0-5 resource points instead of 1-4 (3 clones + yourself)? Worse scaling? Mind Wrack with 1 Clone is 71% of the potential damage(including yourself). Bladesong Sorrow with 1 Blade is 20% and deals less than half of what the 1 Clone Mind Wrack does.

It would appear that a different person than who designed the elite spec came up with the spec/mechanic name. You gave us names like Virtuoso/Bladesong that evoke a music/song thematic but the spec design is a mind dagger wielding psionicist. You might want to fix whatever bug kept these two from communicating on a single coherent design. 😕

Why Is It Called Virtuoso/Bladesong? ANet, please help me understand why you chose to call this Elite Spec "Virtuoso" and the "new" mechanic "Bladesong". Other than the spec name and mechanic name there doesn't appear to actually be any music/song theme to their kit. There isn't even some sort of base or trait support for bladesongs providing "lingering" effects which is the most basic type of music themed mechanic in MMOs there is. You play against a Chronomancer and see time based magic, you play against a Mirage and see blur/mirage based magic.... you play against a Virtuoso playing his Bladesongs and you get.... mind daggers? This is a first impression you're going to continue to receive a lot and hopefully something you care about design enough to address. Blade'songs' Are Worse Than Original Shatters All of the Bladesong effects are almost exactly the same as the default Shatter effects. The only major difference is the resource that fuels the mechanic. You lose the ability to get Shatter effects with 0 resources (daze/distortion), you lose clones taking hits for you, and you lose the excellent low-clone scaling of Shatters. For example, a 1 clone + Mesmer Mind Wrack deals 71% of a 3 clone Mind Wrack. But F1 Bladesong deals 20% per blade and based on tooltips you need 3 Blades just to match the 1 Clone + Mesmer Mind Wrack. And what do you get in exchange? The ability to stock 5 resources instead of 3 + 1 free? Besides some minor changes to targeting and delivery method this new mechanic just doesn't really deliver anything other than a cloneless version of shatter that scales poorly. The Weapon And finally, spec theme/mechanic aside... if you wanted to make a Mesmer who was all about daggers/blades everywhere then why didn't you at least let us dual wield them? That's hardly an unaccepted practice for elite specs and Mesmers have never received 5 skills from one before. This spec just seems like a handful of ideas glued together with no thought for theme or overall design.

I’ve always wanted a Mesmer pet spec where you create a permanent illusion that acts sort of like a Ranger pet. Your F abilities become pet control abilities, clone abilities act as a combo point builder, and phantasm abilities become pet commands with variable effects based on the built up illusionary power from clone abilities.