Daishi.6027

I said since release, if we want a proper, healthy, competitive game, the core intentional design should have always been: Wiff on backstab burst = Can't escape; likely death without needing to get hit from a burst combo. Thief should have 0 tools that go through blocks, and no blinds. unless it lands the initial burst. A well timed counter against their stealth attack should spell the end. Meanwhile if it lands it's burst, it should be richer-get-richer to a kill; so long as the stealth burst window is clear enough to play around, this would be fair. As for blinking in and out of targets, that's an issue with pathing being the counter play. You should get "no path to target" if it's through a wall; game needs strict Line of Sight checks and treat "target" teleports like a line ranged attack. Thief has always been free to escape from being punished, then come back and try again when an opponent is waiting on long cooldowns. Among several other really bad decisions, this anti-competitive design is part of is why the game never became a real competitive game anyone actually cares about.

What makes a one shot unacceptable is how it's achieved, and how much survivability you have following it. One Shotting in general is perfectly acceptable. I don't know about virtuoso in particular so maybe it has something in there capable of doing such with little investment (didn't seem so form the video), but in general Mesmer uses way more resources to achieve a one shot, or relies on a fickle bounce mechanic to land a certain way with a ranged weapon in melee that has terrible melee utility and 0 survivability. Compare this to Backstab/Maul builds that are both safe engaging and escaping and hit just as hard. Even if you could argue a shatter combo did 1.5-3k more on a medium armor class; that still wouldn't be comparable in the amount of risk. Mirage USED to be on par for the level of risk and resource expenditure, and basic math will reveal this to you if you compare, it's almost like the calculations were already done at the time 🤦‍♂️. Where we are now mesmer was already gutted before sweeping changes by CMC; and so when you bring in massive changes to everything, including mesmer which was already lesser, you maintain an imbalance. I don't fully recall when it was, I think it was before the specialization patch? I think we didn't have HoT, but we had the old FFA arena still. Anyways, there was a MASSIVE survivability nerf across the board. Mesmer went mostly untouched; because at the time Rangers in particular were out sustaining huge damage and regening HP pretty steadily, and I recall Engies getting hit really hard so they couldn't effortlessly cycle their survivability until they had a cooldown advantage. It was soo long ago and I don't fully recall which patch it was; but once that nerf came, the matchups became super even, Mesmer retained it's susceptibilities, but were able to actually finish those classes off (it was more than just ranger/ele, but I forgot I just remember those two being particularly prevalent). But then, since you had classes starting to lose to mesmers by being outplayed, instead merely getting carried by the class, like in the case of ranger passively regenning through the fight to victory; they started to complain, but they only complained because it was fair. I had hoped with CMC it was going to be a return to that; clearly not. Also just want to point out killing squishes between 25 - 70% health isn't actually a one shot, and if WvW still doesn't standardize so everyone is equal; than any footage isn't really indicative of anything.

Wanna know what's the funniest example? Thinking about mesmer's power burst. idk if this changed since virtuosos; A-net is a long way off from ever getting me to pay for an expac again. But this was true for about a decade: The most powerful combo we had required at least 2/3 utility skills upwards of 30s to pull off, being used on a ranged weapon in melee with no solid melee support, with an annoyingly bad bounce mechanic... Leaving little to no option for follow up or escape; and putting far to much of our bar on cooldown. Compare this to literally any other class; that's how you know A-net hates mesmer.

"Why are they nerfing Mirage?" This isn't a question for mirage specifically, this is a systemic and deep-seated history of mesmer as a whole. But to answer the question why it's because: Casuals cried cuz they got lost in illusions, Karl in the beginning didn't understand objective reality and never actually wanted a good balance standard only to support his bias, The "pros" who mained other classes saw mes as a threat (since it requires actually outplaying in a fair 1v1 side node when it's good) and piggy backed off the casuals crying even though any "pro mesmer" was rolling thief for tourneys that actually mattered; this is why you see so many double standards. If mesmer ever was truly OP it would be nerfed or "Band-Aid fixed" within weeks, while any other FOTM had way more than a month (with the exception of S1), and at least other classes were generally still viable after the nerfs. The entire history of mesmer regardless of elite spec is poetry of the above and everything that followed is a rhyme. For the current stanza; you can replace anything relevant with the discord, and that CMC is at best a short sighted hack.

CMC: I want every class to be like old Cele ele! CMC (paraphrasing): Yeah we could make things fairly balanced, but that's not interesting. It's fine if we kitten up, maybe we'll get'em next time. Also CMC: *Everything we have now* He doesn't care about making the game fair he basically said so and implied the mistakes didn't matter. He, like every other past and current balance devs and the discord only care about buffing their pet class, with very little understanding of the meta game as a whole and how to evolve it to a healthy meta game. His giant PvP culling wasn't the W the sheep think it, especially with the asymmetry among class defensive ability nerfs. He should never have been hired, his scope of understanding of the game was narrow minded at the start, and it shows in the current iteration of the game. Funniest part of all of it is they had an offer from someone who understood the meta, understood balance, and was even critical of their own classes design and wanting things to be fair and balanced for the entire game. But no, we got this clown and hack instead. Probably because of some stupid back room deal, or idk maybe some casting couch style deal he seems the type.

I got a funnier idea. E-mail BLM to tweet, amplify, and encourage protesting A-net's head building, accusing them of being racist, and that it's not merely coincidental that the class they systemically keep low via biased devs, and their balance discord; has an Elonian woman as default for the human character creator. :^)

I remember when split surge was actually fun to play with. Not super viable, but very fun. I used to screw around with double GS and spec into spamming mirage cloak just to go pew pew pew in the FFA arena for hours. To bad A-net nerfed everything mirage had until condi was the only thing even moderately usable, but only in the clunkiest way possible.

You can call the feature broken, but DD and Ranger's access to on demand evasion at the time was compared at the time and was considered more viable. The issue was the condi's damage application method, and just a general issue with condis for competitive modes. This is proven by Power Mirage having the same level of evasion and not over performing by any metric. The ability to cast while evading was far less impactful when you were relying on phantasms which are slow, only 2 damaging shatters which have their usual quirks and are manipulated by opponents actions. While things like Blurred Frenzy was a evasion/doge/invuln uptime loss, and sword auto converted into a leap that you may not want to use at the time. To pretend a "feature" is simply "broken" we can look at other aspects of the game. Dead Eye invisibility duration and burst with no real tell in a crazy long window. Or Thief's general ability to port in and out of ranges or out from behind walls. Ranger's endurance or HP regeneration (sometimes both), The theoretical 15 second cooldown stealth (especially against any class with AI). I could go on with things like engie and gaurd and ele over the years; but just because a feature is "Strong" doesn't make it broken. It's not that there was no counter play; there was just "different" counter play. "No counter play" is when 'all (except maybe one) classes have no option' except to just lose, or it is mechnically impossible to shut you down merely within a rotation (as in not skill based). Examples of this would be Petting zoo, OG Chrono Bunk, Hambow, OG Cele ele, etc. Also Mirage (and in some cases mesmer as a core) had massive nerfs to justify the strength of the evasion, to the point where they took 1 away. Well if the problematic part is gone; and the thing people complained about "not wanting to have to play around" has been removed: Where is the restoration of the rest of it? Clearly, the nerfs and changes to everything else over the years has not culled the other classes to sufficiently put mes/mirage on par. Things like Jaunt, Blinding dissipation (and sperate blind confusion interaction if OP), Blurred frenzy, among other traits, should be restored. Sure the game is not only played by Mesmers, but it doesn't make sense to neglect the entire class; and again it's not "no counter play" it's just "different counter play." It's not about leaving the mes alone while the rest of the players suffer. It's about having competitive balance standards (as in the mutual viability and effectiveness and matchup outcomes and options) that are objective, correct, and fair; The player base should then adapt to this. The LACK of this; is why GW2 failed as an e-sport or having any serious competitive value in the broader gaming space and led to some pretty stupid balance over the years not just for mesmer. The "vilification" is actually really huge because that creates a massive double standard, and one that can be swung any direction; and should not be catered to. If people don't like fighting against something in a game they should play a different game instead of the game gutting itself to suit those players. The barrier to entry was not that high, demanding only a relative minutiae of 'pvp game sense', the absolute lowest bar really didn't need to be catered to. And to make something unviable at a higher levels, just so that spoiled bads will maybe make it to gold is not a reasonable cost of competitive integrity.

I have honestly no words to get into specifics anymore, you can check my history on this and the archived forums. Been saying this same kitten since 2013, getting a lot of "confused faces" by cowards not willing to even refute claims. I only came back to keep my promise that I would try things if Mirage got it's 2nd evade back in competitive modes. But I wanna say I'm super glad I never bought end of dragons and decided long ago they don't care enough about being fair in any objective way for me to support them or the game. For me no amount of positives PvE could ever make up for the harm they did in PvP and WvW; those were the reasons I got hyped and started playing here in the first place. Other games do PvE just as good if not better, or offer better social experiences. The last thing I remember caring about is the legitimately good mount system, but that is hardly enough to make a game worth playing, and still irrelevant to my reasons for starting in the first place. Devs have been biased since 2013. There was only 2 or 3 good patches I can think of where fights for mesmer and almost every other class, as a whole was reasonably fair while allowing solid counter matchups that were not one sided auto wins. But the game is rife with double standards: I could get into every little specific skill, and standards of what we allow vs what we don't allow, resource expenditure vs safety, reengaging options, etc, etc, etc. But my personal favorite that still sickens me was PoF as a perfect allegory for the place of mesmer since 2013: Where untrue arguments against Condi Mirage was that the Mirage had to make mistakes to lose; and that was unfair. A-net silently agreed, and a year later it was considered perfectly fine for the vast majority of Mirage's matchups in reverse against it. And that was long before CMC came in with a wrecking ball. This was just one of many instances across the history of mesmer since 2012. I said it in another thread and I'm going to say it here (with a few amendments). Each and every person in charge of balance, including the discord, community outreach, and just for the sentiment of it- Anyone who ever complained about mesmer when it was objectively fully out-playable: Should be made (deserves) to ride to the titanic in a sub, with the equivalent quality of development and design as Mirage between 2018 - till now... If you object or wouldn't want to ride that; then the class shouldn't be the way it is now. A-net you failed. You're just lucky you have a bunch of sheep to keep your lights on.

^ Literally the standard of this entire F-ing game. I come back after years to see if there is any improvement just to see this kitten? All you guys ever do is gut functionality, kill viability, and add clunk. Then you turn around and create the double standard for every class while having the internal numbers that proves it underperforms. Meaning you INTEND for it to under perform or to be clunky as hell. I don't even know where to start about what's wrong with everything you guys did to the class CLEARLY in preparation for this, it just blows my mind in the worst way possible. You have a cute little beta for this pretending like you're trying to make things balanced, but we all know how this goes by now. Each and every person in charge of balance including the discord, and community outreach, should be made to take a trip to the Titanic in a Sub built with the equivalent quality of design as Mirage over the past 2 years.

I always said if Mirage got it's 2nd evade back I'd install the game and try it. But if I'm in for all the pre-existing double standards I remember, then I'm quickly uninstalling, and out again. I'm not subjecting myself to the abuse this time around. Now's your chance A-net, You got me fresh and untainted by the metas from the past few years, let's see if you've learned your lesson. No spoilers guys, if there's stupidity let me experience it first hand.

LMAO. Glad to see playing other games is the right choice.

Yeah. Having more sustain than peak pre-nerf mirage, a better pet mechanic, technically more stealth with less investment, requires only one of two lines to be viable, and less setup or resource expenditure for a massive burst that is safer on a whiff, would have a forum avoid the same sentiments. 🙄 Let's not pretend simple pessimism and optimism is a factor here, that implies some sort of subjectivity. The objective realities that is even reflected in class representation, citations from pro players for a decade now, and the systemic anti-memser mentality of everyone who actually gets the say in "balance" along with the people who cry about it even when it's underperforming is clearly telling. If we are pessimistic it is only because of the historic, I myself was very optimistic until A-net disappointed again and again, with way more downs than ups. You sound like the type of person who struggles to keep out of gold, and has no understanding of anything historically; nor an understanding of the kits that shape the meta and why. That isn't intended as an insult, you are free to carry your perspective from your status, positions, and foundations of knowledge. The confused faces you get however are entirely contextual to your words, "a little bit of optimism" isn't what people are confused about when you speak. People are taking your words into context with the whole current meta particularly the upper echelons where things actually matter, as well as the historical meta as context; and what you said simply does not come close to aligning with the reality of those. And frankly it's disrespectful for you to simply dismiss it as some subjective pessimism. You said "dominating" as to imply some level of meta state apex predator, if not even the win rates or class representation reflect that you're going to need to clarify better. If you mean "they dominate in bronze, silver, and gold." Lol-okay, sure. But you need to realize that isn't what the majority of people mean when we say "dominating". Also idk why their performance in PvE matters when you made a topic talking about PvP. But if you're having fun and want to switch to mesmer, more power to you.

Does this mean the ncplatform phising detections on AV and other sites is a false positive?

(Not sure if this topic should be in accounts or bugs for forum and website, as I'm unsure if this is just an oddity with some archive server?) So I tried to log back into the forums from this website "y308845.invisionservice .com" not noticing until it was to late. This seems to be a pretty authentic clone of the forums and I wanted to be sure how back I screwed up. Or if this is A-net owned archive or something I have already changed my password now, but now I'm getting confused over which website I put my authenticator in, and want to make sure I didn't make an even bigger mistake. When trying to log in, it allows you to log in from the top right corner of the page, it said my password was wrong and "locked my account". At that point I attempted to use the reset. When attempting to reset your password the weird site takes you to: "account-dev.ncplatform .net/password-reset" which seemed odd so I realized something was wrong. So I then went to change my password the normal way, and attempting to reset the normal way the link brings me to: "https://account.arena.net/password-reset" Insight into this would be appreciated, Thanks. Edit: so digging around turns out the ncplatform link IS a Phishing scam according to some AV detection. I'm still unsure what to make of "y308845.invisionservice .com" as most websites are saying it's clear. I did attempt my old password on y308845.invisionservice .com, but I avoided the ncplatform link.