Za Shaloc.3908

Well I didn't expect much considering these would likely just be numerical changes, so with that in mind I am pleased. Surprised they didn't touch the numbers on Rain of Swords, Sword of Decimation, and Thousand Cuts, but more changes happened than I expected for what is I'm assuming the smaller and less comprehensive patch before June. Moa change will certainly be fun 😈.

Isn't mobility Willbender's schtick though? That's largely what the spec is meant to do. I don't see anything wrong with it personally, at least at its current overall power level. In my experience at least, Specters are a lot easier to catch/chase down than Daredevils. Their wells all have a cast time, and them being shadowsteps is also a double-edged sword since they have the potential of putting you into danger by compromising your positioning to get max value from their effects (context dependent of course). Beyond the wells, Specter itself offers no inherent mobility, and if you are taking a lot of wells, you are sacrificing other very valuable utilities. Personally I don't think it's an issue.

Yeah that has been my experience in instanced content too. I have really been enjoying myself on it.

Personally, I suspect they will adjust the heal/barrier numbers on Specter by lowering the base values on stuff while also increasing the coefficients. Currently the balance seems out of whack and investing in healing power should be properly rewarded. I also think they'll mess with Consume Shadows again to have it scale off of healing power.

IMO Tempest is better in cloud/small-scale because you can take advantage of the disruption that it can offer, which is one of its biggest assets. The immob and CC have higher value there as stab and cleanse uptime will likely be lower than larger scale. Tornado is also absolutely massive value on downed management, and on a very low CD for value it can bring. I've always seen Scrapper as a stacked group superpower-er kind of support and Tempest as a more independent aggressive disruptor style of support.

Yeah this was a major disappointment for me too.

Why does it matter if they are weak? It's not like they are considering them for any sort of balance reason. Them existing as they have existed does no harm to the game. Removing "clutter" as you call it doesn't solve anything when the developers have already spent the time making the skills. Personally I get a laugh out of any time I see someone pop the nornbear in WvW, or someone use leopard stealth to disengage. Just let the people that enjoy the skills enjoy them rather than removing them from the game because they don't fit your criteria of proper strength.

2. I only ever got a second account for when the fights are kitten or the matchups get stale in WvW on my main, but I rarely use it.

I've personally always felt that Druid could get stab via the CA side of Glyph of Equality. It's an AoE stunbreak like Protect Me, but has the conditional of having to be in CA so I think it could be justified as GoE is currently generally taken for daze from the non-CA side. Make celestial force more reliable so the skill can also be more reliable to access when needed.

It is intended. It's the fourth (bottom right) dye channel.

I appreciate all the replies. There are moments when I think it's strong when I get a nice 10k F1 in WvW, and then I remember that Trueshot and Rapid Fire exist. I've gotten used to the spec by now and have been enjoying myself, but I think I'm just used to playing suboptimal builds in WvW. I've talked to some really good Mesmer friends in game and it seems basically unanimous. Here's to hoping that it gets some love. There's apparently a balance patch for PvP/WvW on Monday but considering it's not game-wide, I don't think any functionality changes will be introduced.

#1 wish for me is for Scrapper to get nerfed. Group superspeed access needs to be cut hard and should be nowhere near permanently maintainable. In general even beyond the group superspeed, its kit is overtuned. I don't think Tempest needs that many buffs honestly. I think it could get a bit more group stab access, perhaps through Armor of Earth so that Fire can still be taken for the cleanses. Tempest is, to me, close to where the power level of a support should be, not Scrapper. Scrapper needs to be brought down far more than Tempest needs to be brought up. I'd like to see (support) Druid & Ventari both get buffs to their usability. Trying to cleanse on a Druid vs on a Scrapper is laughable. Not to mention CA being gated behind Celestial Force which can be a struggle to upkeep. Perhaps something can be done to pets to make them more functionable in large-scale (for Untamed's sake as well), but idk what or if it'd be possible. Vindicator makes a pretty serviceable support but IMO, Alliance is a better healer/cleanser than Ventari, so the curse of the tablet still remains. I hope they iterate more on polishing the EoD specs as most of them need quite a bit more work. I'd like to see Cele brought down in numbers as it is overtuned in its value (IMO it was totally fine before), and I'd like to see Minstrel's brought down to tri-stat. Will that ever happen? Probably not since it's directly tied to PvE, but I can dream. I have more specific changes I'd like to see for balance, but this is more in terms of the broader scale. Oh and I'd like to see all SA Deadeyes permabanned from the gamemode.

😂 These answers are killin' me. Thanks guys.

I've been playing power Virtuoso pretty hardcore since EoD dropped and have spent a lot of that time dueling. And during that time dueling, I have spent a lot of time losing. I know I am far from being a skilled Mesmer player so I don't think I have the best perception of how I should fare in certain matchups, ans I'm having trouble figuring out which ones I should be winning. For reference I have only spent time in WvW, but I'm curious about PvP too. My experience so far is that the power Rangers I have fought feel easier. I have been running Dom/Illu, so struggle against most Cele and TB builds. Thieves still totally bully me. The EoD spec I have struggled with the most has been by far the Bladesworn, which against decent players has generally ended with me being completely destroyed by them. In your experiences so far, are there any specs that pVirt soft or hard counters?

Oof, I posted this nearly two years ago. Please let this old thread rest, I gave up on any hope of ANet improving it (though I still do admittedly like my ideas a lot).

This only happened to you since EoD launched? What kind of alternate reality are you playing in? EoD hasn't changed anything for the worse because at least people are experimenting more with (subpar) builds again. The fewer Cele Scrappers and Renegades in the game mode, the better. For myself, roaming got notably worse with the Warclaw, got a lot harder with the big 2020 balance patch, and then the nail in the coffin was the buff to Cele. The balance patch in and of itself wasn't a fully bad thing, but the lack of followup for it has been really unfortunate.

HoT > PoF > EoD. Hard for anything to beat HoT for me honestly. Although I put EoD last I am still enjoying myself a lot. The maps for all expacs are exquisite (seriously, the environmental artists for this game are outstanding), but the sheer intricacy of the HoT maps takes the cake for me. PoF rates above EoD because the mounts are phenomenal and I think the elite specs were generally more polished. Also the night skyboxes.

It would be nice too if ANet remembered that downstate was not adjusted in the big balance patch and cleaving a body now is even harder. Makes outnumbered fights even more of an uphill battle. Reduce downstate health and damage. Ranger pet rez should be disabled after the pet is interrupted.

It's sad that after all this time Mirage has had one dodge, they still thought it was a good idea to implement it on a new elite spec.

ANet made the correct choice with the nerf to the heal dodge: nerfing it at base value while still enabling support builds to profit from it to an impactful degree by buffing the coefficients. Nothing should ever give you that much sustain at base value except for your own personal healing skill. The middle dodge is still good if you build it correctly and the prot it offers will still offer you sustain. IMO with the heal dodge nerfed to a healthy degree, it will also be easier to balance the elite spec. I hate to say it, but the heal dodge was a big bandaid to the elite spec that covered up some of its flaws. With the sustain nerf and the GS5 (over?)nerf, hopefully the issues Vindi faces will become more apparent.

Personally I'd run cleansing/x on sword/sword and cleansing/energy on staff. IMO cleansing is worth a double slot now considering the spec doesn't have much inherent cleanse. The other slot is pretty flex and to your liking.

Been no-lifing Virtuoso because I have had a lot more free time than usual lately. Mostly been playing power and have generally been enjoying myself. In solo roaming I have been faring decently, but I'd rate it probably like B- tier or so as it just doesn't hold up to the top tier stuff. Dueling I have been losing a kitten-ton of fights, not gonna lie, but I am still a pretty new Mesmer player so that is probably a big factor. In small-scale it feels a bit weak but it is still enjoyable and you can have impact there. It feels really bad in large-scale. My damage is neither high nor consistent enough to have a significant enough impact. Randomly dodging in AoEs in order to proc the unblockable trait feels awkward but is basically the only way you'll do damage. I see absolutely NO reason you'd ever want one in a squad over other dps options. Honestly I am majorly disappointed that ANet didn't work on the specs more. The fact that there are still bugs that have existed since the first beta that are EXTREMELY easy to test is such a shame. I was expecting major polish to happen between the last beta and EoD launch, but there was barely anything done. The balance team really dropped the ball with this and the fact that we have to wait til summer for a balance patch that may barely even impact WvW is the icing on the cake. A lot of the specs feel like they are still in beta. They UI is still horribly unaccmodating to support Specter and there is so much to juggle and micromanage when playing it *because* the game and UI were not built around it. The allied tab targeting system is still scuffed. No, I don't want to heal your kittening mini llama. With all that negativity aside, I 100000% prefer the WvW balance landscape of EoD launch over PoF launch. Even the most egregious of EoD builds right now aren't even that bad at all. What I have noticed in my very lengthy time dueling many different specs is that they are all actually pretty enjoyable to fight (aside from Mechanist, but the spec is totally unfit for WvW as a whole so the least it can be is an okay duelist). Harbinger is probably the best example of this: it does absolutely massive damage but it also die so much more quickly. The fights are fast-paced and exponentially more fun than the dumb core Necro bunker builds. I much prefer this over the absolute toxic fun-killing nightmare of PoF launch condi Mirage and the total gamemode-breaking abomination that was Scourge. Fighting the EoD specs doesn't make me want to quit the game like PoF did. Not to say that things are where they should be in terms of spec balance and polish, but just that I appreciate that they weren't so outlandish with some of their design principles. I just hope that they put in the effort to polish their work more. It doesn't really bother me much at all that none or few of the specs will change the large-scale meta, but I do want to feel like I am playing a complete product and not a half-baked project.

Although there may be another way, they are craftable and tradeable. You can buy the armor recipes from the trading post or from Chin-Hwa in Seitung Province (just east of the Daigo Ward waypoint) for unusual coins. The recipes are for all weights as the skins are the same. I believe all of the recipes require the Jade Insignia of the Harrier, which is *also* purchasable via Chin-Hwa or TP. Unlocking one skin will unlock it for all armor weights.

If I could adjust the shatters, I would: F1 - Bladesong Harmony: Increase velocity by ~20-33%. Possibly reduce cast time to 0.5s like you mentioned OP. F2 - Bladesong Sorrow: Remove the piercing effect. Instead, each blade explodes in a 240-unit radius around the target. Gives it a reliable AoE component as the piercing effect is awkward due to how the spell works and where the blades travel from. F3 - Bladesong Dissonance: Give it 2 charges. Now behaves like Elementalist's "Comet" rather than a poorly-tracking projectile. The current iteration is a total joke. F4 - Bladeturn Requiem: Either massively increase the damage or give it a condition cleanse per blade used. I'd like to see GS2 gain a unique functionality like Sw3 as you get no bounce from it if you use it on a solo mob out of bounce range. Would be nice to see Thousand Cuts get an increased size. is Prime Light Beam size too much to ask for? Possibly lol, but it is so thin right now. Would also be nice for Psychic Force to get an evade component to cover the cast time. Still don't know if I'd use it but at least that way you can't be CC'd mid-cast. I don't think a short stack of stab would be enough to justify slotting it over another stunbreak, but an evade may. Rain of Swords & Sword of Decimation I agree both feel undertuned. Max I have gotten while nearly full glass is like 5k Sword of Decimation on a downstate, but generally it's between like 1.5k and 3k which is super weak for a skill that has an interaction with downstate. Rain of Swords should be close in strength to Necro's Well of Suffering as @Infusion.7149 mentioned.

Probably hammer Catalyst and Untamed. There are a lot of moving parts and things to micromanage. I don't think it is a bad thing just any means, just that there is a learning curve. Supporting on Specter without a squad to see health bars has been challenging too 😅.