Vinny.7260
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Posts posted by Vinny.7260
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Core
- Illusionary Membrane: Reduced incoming damage reduction from 10% to 5% in PvP only. | Nerfing the possible return of Chaos Mirage and Bunker Chrono.
- Chaotic Persistence: Reduced concentration and expertise from 250 to 150 in PvP only. | Nerfing the possible return of Chaos Mirage and Bunker Chrono.
- Illusionary Defense: Reduced damage reduction per stack from 2% to 1.5% in PvP only. | Aimed at, presumably, Chaos Mirage and Bunker Chrono... But a wiff? Could've focused Method of Madness instead.
- Auspicious Anguish: This trait now has an internal cooldown when you become disabled. There is no internal cooldown when you gain distortion. | Fairly significant change aimed at culling being rewarded eating CCs.
- Bountiful Disillusionment: Reduced vigor duration from 8 seconds to 5 seconds in PvP only. | Again, focused on Chaos Mirage and Bunker Chrono. Mostly Chaos Mirage.
- Escape Artist: This trait has been reworked. It now applies distortion to phantasms when they are summoned. | The return of Phantasmal Defense but in Illusions? Competing with Phantasmal Haste? I don't know if that'll work out. Maybe for Power Chrono to ensure they land their Phantasms more often... I can see this working out decently for Power Chrono specifically.
Chronomancer
- Stretched Time: This trait has been reworked. Flow of Time affects nearby allies. Grant alacrity to nearby allies when you summon a phantasm. | Rest in peace Bunker Chrono using wells. Perhaps Persistence of Memory might be a good choice now to give Phantasms Alacrity and bounce it back to yourself? Bunker Chrono might still be possible but changed fundamentally. Might be using Inspiration again instead of Chaos.
- Seize the Moment: This trait no longer causes Tides of Time to grant quickness and instead grants quickness to nearby allies when you summon a phantasm. | Net buff to Power Chrono with more integrated Quickness access, possibly with the intention of being equipped alongside Escape Artist. Also removes the awkwardness of forcing Shield for maximum potency. Can possibly take Pistol again.
- Well of Action: The final pulse of this skill now grants alacrity instead of superspeed. | Cool to bring back some Alacrity to a Well, but doesn't warrant Bunker Chrono sticking to Wells.
So far, buff to Power Chrono via ensuring phantasms can secure their hits (Phantasmal Berserker), and opening the option of using Pistol offhand again; gives allies more Quickness via Phantasms. Bunker Chrono might be playing entirely different now that they're not locked into Wells? Persistence of Memory instead of Shatter Storm to compound Alacrity gain from Flow of Time being AoE and giving Phantasms Alacrity to other Phantasms on Phantasm summon. Possibly Phantasm Chrono could be on the menu again?
Mirage
- Mirage can no longer dodge while immobilized or under the effects of crowd control. | This allows CCs to be more effective to a spec that already has the ability to do burst damage while dodging.
- Mirage Cloak: This trait no longer reduces the mirage's endurance in PvP and WvW. | Finally the "Bring Back Second Dodge" forum post to fizzle out!
- Chaos Vortex: Reduced clone bleeding and torment duration from 8 seconds to 4 seconds. | Shocked this wasn't touched sooner. Keeping Chaos Mirage in check.
- Imaginary Axes: Reduced clone torment duration from 4 seconds to 2 seconds in PvP and WvW. | Touching on the idea of Infinite Horizons coming back.
- Split Surge: Reduced might stacks from 2 to 1 in PvP only. | Arguably should've touched the scaling instead of the Might stacks. But I can see the reason.
- Elusive Mind: This trait now removes conditions when gaining Mirage Cloak instead of when dodging. Reduced the number of conditions removed from 2 to 1 in PvP and WvW. | This is HUGE. This is now giving the trait synergy with Desert Distortion, giving Mirage more cleanse across the board. Although the trait may not be strong enough to consider taking anymore compared to Infinite Horizons.
Chaos Mirage got buffed overall, Ineptitude Mirage might be possible again, Carrion Axe might be falling off. Power Mirage might be back on the menu with the ability to use Infinite Horizons again without sacrificing a lot of sustain. ... Why didn't they touch the problematic Ambush? Mirage Thrust has be notoriously causing trouble in every meta where its aggression was superior to Chaos Mirage's defenses. They should've done something to Infinite Horizons.
Overall: Chaos Mirage, Power Mirage, and Ineptitude Mirage might be back. Carrion Axe might be taking a nap.
Virtuoso
- Bladeturn Requiem: This skill no longer blocks incoming attacks. | No damage buff or CD reduction to compensate? Weird. Maybe they had more changes in the works but couldn't get them settled out in time.
- Bladecall: If the original target of the skill is in range, the returning blades will now lock on to that enemy. If not, the blades will return to the player as normal. | Buffing Dagger to track is going to feel nice, especially with the other changes listed below.
- Unstable Bladestorm: This skill is now a ground-targeted spell instead of a projectile. The spell strikes enemies in range in addition to firing projectiles at nearby enemies. | Another Buff to reward being in team fights? Possibly combos well with Focus pull?
- Twin Blade Restoration: This skill will now always cleanse conditions when healing. The first blade will now always grant aegis, and the second blade will always grant vigor. | Should've been like this in the first place.
- Psychic Force: Reduced cooldown to 25 seconds in all game modes. | Lowering the CD of an awkward stun break, might need more buffs to even consider still.
- Blade Renewal: Reduced channel duration from 3 seconds to 2 seconds. | Less down time, more action and more open frames.
- Jagged Mind: Increased bleeding duration from 1 second to 3 seconds in PvP and WvW. | Dagger changes + this might make this more appealing, Bloodsong might be a cool choice now.
- Psychic Riposte: This trait will now always grant one blade and the unblockable effect when dodging. Reduced the number of blades granted when evading or blocking an attack from 3 to 2. | Still a really good trait, assuming the unblockable effect is moved to ONLY after dodging this could nerf the Aegis block -> block attack -> immediately press a bladesong -> get Aegis -> block ... combo.
Virtuoso is probably going to be lackluster until they can roll out the other changes they're probably negotiating in the background. Illusions/Dueling Virtuoso might be a decent option with Dagger/Pistol and Staff (or Scepter/Torch).
Overall a good list of changes for Mesmer elite specs. Mirage might be stepping up again and Power Chrono is still kicking. Virtuoso got an attitude adjustment and some buffs.
Things to look out for:
- Power Mirage
- Ineptitude Mirage
- Chaos Mirage
- Power Chrono
- Bunker Chrono (different build)
- Bloodsong Virtuoso (glass cannon condi bombing)
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The trait Archivist of Whispers being equipped causes the page count to disappear occasionally after respawning or a PvP match beginning.
Requires unequipping Firebrand to fix.
Notes for debuggers:
- Unequipping this trait causes the entire page count to disappear for a brief moment before reappearing as 5.
(Unintentionally recreated in PvP).
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On 1/20/2023 at 7:06 PM, coro.3176 said:
Counter-proposal:
- reduce cast time from 3/4s to 1/2s.
- change from single target to pbaoe untargeted
- radius: 240
- stun duration reduced from 2s to 1s
Best idea by far. Identical to Transmute Lightning and very functional.
To the OP saying it needs cleanse, just go Tools for a built-in cleanse.
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14 hours ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:
Wait, so you legit have to stop doing anything or the trait doesnt work? is this really happening? that renders it unusable what the kitten
Welcome to Mesmer. 😛
Jokes aside, yeah. Pretty much. It's unfortunately the best trait on Virtuoso anyway.
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6 hours ago, Terrorhuz.4695 said:
PvP history shows plenty of good reasons why mesmer should never have access to resustain.
You have a huge point as to why Mesmer can't have access to resustain.
A majority of its resustain mechanics, such as Restorative Illusions, Restorative Mantras, etc. Are associated to something Mesmer can readily spam or get access to without much sacrifice.
The metas that have had Mesmer be a mandatory pick have always been involved with a defensive trait line that was overperforming or a portion of the elite specialization associated was able to readily abuse that specialty.
Mantra Double Range Mesmer (Had 3 mantras equipped, Harmonizing Mantras for a 3% damage mod per mantra used, had 3 ammo with mantras and healed roughly 2.3k after channeling the mantra). This all combo'd together to create a spec that was capable of being very easy to resustain, had high burst potential, and had access to Portal on top of it all. This was also back when Shadowstep was able to port to spots that you could get to via jumping/etc. So Staff had a massive advantage at the time.
Chronobunker (Inspiration) was able to heal a lot, cleanse a lot, condi-bomb via Doom Sigil and Geomancy Sigil, and have a really low CD on its block due to Persistence of Memory providing a CD reduction to Phantasms when you shattered a Phantasm, and Chronophantasma caused that Phantasm to summon YET again. It also used Mental Defense to summon an additional Phantasm on a low CD... Plus Alacrity. (Which was -33% at the time).
Ineptitude Mirage was able to have a permanent supply of Regeneration via Chaotic Interruptions, Blind from CCs, Might from CCs, immobilize via CCs, and even used Deadshot (Condition Damage/Precision/Vitality/Expertise), or Wanderer (which was Toughness instead of Vitality). To just constantly shut down the match up and or just the enemy due to the permanent immobilize/blind.
Chaos Staff was able to constantly evade with perma vigor, regeneration, steady 15 might, and had reliable instant stability and ports to get away while keeping a node contested. It was basically unkillable with all of its defensive mechanics from Mirage Cloak, Desert Distortion, and Distortion itself. On top of that, it was constantly generating clones to use for Infinite Horizons, part of why Mirage has one dodge right now.
It's completely understandable why the devs are hesitant to give Mesmer back its sustain it had in the past, especially with its track record of being incredibly toxic to fight against. Not EVEN counting the playstyle and the general style Mesmer plays.Right now Mesmer has a lot of reliable builds that could be healthily adjusted instead of just re-enabling old builds. The moment you bring back the second dodge on Mirage, you're going to see Ineptitude Mirages and Staff Mirages coming around again with a reckoning.
There's also the fact that current Carrion Axe Mirage is capable of playing into players CURRENTLY and win lots of match ups due to a SINGLE trait being incredibly strong. (Power Block). Give them a second dodge and everyone is going to hate Mirage again. They still hate pink class, right now, due to Virtuoso having so much Invulnerability. AND it doesn't even have a powerful enough role to be a good pick due to how slow it is!
Anyway...
QuoteBut what if (and I'm just spitballing) scepter3 with every beamlet gave 0.25s cripple?
Just saying. If you dodge you get rid of the cripple because low duration = can't stack it, but so long as you're getting hit you're not going anywhere. Would be a great way to ensure such a long channel could actually hit something.I want to see Scepter get some changes to scale with the number of clones you have. Like Illusionary Counter inflicting an additional stack of Torment per clone on the field. Confusing Images could inflict Cripple to enemies with Torment on them. (0.5s per pulse).
I also want to see Malicious Scepter increase the potency of Compounding Power (The Illusions trait) to 3% per stack and 50 Condition Damage per stack. Remove the cooldown reduction though.
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Virtuoso's bleed on crit trait: Jagged Mind is split in WvW/PvP to only last 1 second.
Historically, Bladesong Sorrow inflicted Bleed along with the Confusion our standard F2 inflicts, but removed it to make it easier to balance Virtuoso in PvE.
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I'd love to see a Gravelord theme for Necromancer.
They could use Consecrations and get a shroud built around defense and crowd control.
Their Consecrations scale effectiveness based on their Life Force pool %.
Inspiration and Dueling on Mesmer need their identities fleshed out. Same with Arms on Warrior.
I'd love to see a Hex-based theme for Mesmer. (Like GW1).
Lose clones to instead mark a target to inflict Hexes and effects based on the number of 'strikes' or 'marks' to the enemy.
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Power chrono mesmer can be a pretty effective class to play, map dependent, teammate dependent. That's a lot of dependents in order to win and have fun in a game.
Welcome to the Mesmer rabbit hole.
If you're the good player in the match, abuse that fact and manipulate the other team into targeting you so your peepos can get value on other nodes. I do that just fine on Core/Mirage/Chrono/Virt and juggle between P1-P2 solo q.
Also, don't buff Power Chrono. It's fine. Its issues are related to Core if anything.
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- Psychic Riposte doesn't work when you cast another skill before casting a bladesong.
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You must've been fighting a Zerker Spite Reaper using Eagle runes with Sigil of Exploitation and Separation on their Axe/Focus set.
Additionally, they must've been running the Vulnerability on Chilled trait to inflict Vulnerability, AoE Chilled when hitting a Chilled Player, and gotten all critical hits.
They must've been running Dread to get Quickness too, assuming they hit all those in the time-span of a single fear.
Point is, they must've been complete glass and you were the unlucky victim of it.
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I'm immediately thinking of the times I've watched streams of my friends playing CoD...
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Death Magic's issue is that it provides so many defensive mechanics and the only time a Necromancer will EVER take it is if it can afford it because it has high damage or can be so incredibly tanky that it's unkillable.
I do agree with the changes, for the most part, though.
I wish they'd follow their mantra with this whole removing traits TO benefit the spec overall rather than specific skill types. Death Magic has THREE traits that only benefit having Minions. Why not follow their previous idea, when they created specializations, where traits were one-stop-shops for improving certain skill types? Merge all three Minion-related traits into the GM and create space for new ones.
Death Magic Harbinger was unhealthy because of, primarily, the lack of boon strip, in the meta, and all the Weakness it had. Corrosive Poison Cloud still hasn't been properly hit with a hammer. 3s of Weakness for 4 pulses is a bit intense. Not to mention the 4 stacks of Poison generating 4 stacks of Corruptor's Fervor. CpC, alone, was generating 5 stacks of Carapace per pulse, combo on all the other conditions it could inflict and you've got perma 25+ Carapace to get Protection pulsing. CpC could be 1 stack of Poison for 5s or something.
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Psychic Riposte has been bugged since the beginning of EoD.
This trait provides an effect when dodging or blocking an attack that makes the next Bladesong unblockable.
However, when you cast ANY targeted skill before casting a Bladesong, the effect will linger but your Bladesong will lose its ability to be unblockable.
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20 hours ago, Javonovich.5280 said:
This is immensely helpful! Thank you! On the condi builds, do you see any reason to go any ammy other than carrion? Also, do you have an opinion on power vs condi? For a while, I was thinking condi was dead with the last few patches, but I've actually been having more luck with condi than power for virt.
Carrion is the most damage available while also providing sustain. Wizard you give up 200 Condition Damage to gain 100 Power and 500 Precision... And then you lose 4000 HP.
Sinister doesn't provide any benefit since you lose all your sustain to get some Precision.
1200 Condition Damage, 900 Power, 900 Vitality vs 1200 Condition Damage, 900 Power, 900 Precision.
1000 Condition Damage 1000 Power, 500 Vitality, 500 Precision.
Since Condition Mesmer (in general) has a weakness of awful resustain, you just maximize your health pool to last as long as possible. Inspiration helps with this, but you're typically better just going something like Chaos to prevent taking damage at all.
You also go Dueling for constant blinds, bleeding, and different damage prevention.
Virtuoso's biggest issue, IMO, is that Psychic Riposte is bugged and doesn't provide unblockable if you press ANY button before pressing a Bladesong when gaining the buff.
The other issue it has is that it has low mobility and isn't about moving around and more about sidenoding.
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Cracks knuckles.
Condi Virtuoso:
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Chaos: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAs+ZlFwuYqsEGKeOXvxKA-zZoKjMTh6rA5HAA
- You can swap out Confusion sigils for Cleansing to give up some duration for more cleanse.
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Dueling: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiABsqx/lFwuYqsEGKWOXvxKA-zZoKjMTherA5HAA
- You can drop Traveler for Lynx for more damage and less duration (coin toss on if it's worth it).
Power Virtuoso:
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Inspiration: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiABgqx3lFwuYqsEGKmWXpxKA-zZIPkMlCBMCCZB44BA
- You can swap Ether Feast for Signet of Ether for more passive sustain.
- You can also swap Dagger for Scepter for more defense and less susceptibility to projectile hate.
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Domination: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiABgqx3lFwuYqsEGKOOXpxKA-zZIPkMlC9qACYE44BA
- You can swap Ether Feast for Signet of Ether for more passive sustain.
- You can also swap Rending Shatter for Bountiful Blades and swap Dagger/Pistol to Greatsword and Sword/Focus to Sword/Pistol.
You can swap Mass Invisibility to Signet of Humility on all builds except Condi Chaos Virtuoso.
These builds have all pulled lots of weight for me in different ways. Just less-so right now due to Catalyst and Tempest's current reign with Magnetic Aura.
Edit: I avoid using Blurred Inscriptions because it removes our ability to Contribute to Node Points when using Distortion. Instead I use the second utility to fill in my gaps and generate additional pressure. Illusionary Inspiration provides lots of healing per dodge, especially with Signet of Ether equipped, and reduces our downtime on providing node contribution.
Hope this helps!
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Chaos: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PiwAs+ZlFwuYqsEGKeOXvxKA-zZoKjMTh6rA5HAA
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Why not just look at traitlines like Dueling instead of making Scepter another bad situation for Mesmer.
Why not just move Restorative Mantras to Dueling to replace Desperate Decoy or something... Instantly provides sustain. Inspiration currently holds two utility types hostage.
Idk what to do about Inspiration though.
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Previous Scepter on Catalyst:
Dragon Tooth: Blast Finisher and sometimes lucky damage.
Phoenix: Main source of damage and Blast Finisher.
Shatterstone: Low CD damage in Water.
Water Trident: Cast on your feet to heal.
Lightning Strike: Zap. Quick damage.
Blinding Flash: Blind. Normally to escape a burst or lockdown.
Rock Barrier: Precast to use Hurl before swapping into Air.
Dust Devil: Quick about-face blind and/or use to proc a FA proc.
Current Scepter on Catalyst:
Dragon Tooth: Tracking damage that sometimes disappears in rare instances. Use other skills to force people to dodge before it lands.
Phoenix: Free blast finisher and some damage. Inflicts additional burn if the target has burn.
Shatterstone: Chill to setup for Water Trident. Hits twice.
Water Trident: Hits harder and even harder if the target(s) is chilled and requires a target. Heals per target. Also has ammo.
Lightning Strike: AoE Zap. Quick damage. Inflicts Vulnerability too!
Blinding Flash: AoE Blind that can also inflict Weakness if the target(s) has Vulnerability. Also has ammo.
Rock Barrier: Grants Barrier and Resistance, precast to use Hurl before swapping into Air.
Dust Devil: AoE that pulses Blind on the first pulse. It can also inflict Cripple per pulse if the target has bleed.
Reduce the damage on DT. Reduce the damage on Water Trident (but also allow to cast from behind).
Increase the CD on Blinding Flash OR remove ammo.
Nerf the entirety of Catalyst by nerfing Elemental Celerity with a 80s CD rather than 60s if you don't want to nerf Scepter.
Right now Scepter is the problem. Catalyst is just the taxi driver.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PGgAsilZw8YZMX2LWUXexPA-zZIPjeVAZMB0wAA
Here's the build for people to enjoy until then. You can swap to Focus offhand instead of Dagger for less damage and healing but more team utility.
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Truthfully, Bloodsong is the PvE meta on all builds, to my knowledge.
Psychic Riposte is used in PvP-related modes due to how easy it is to activate.
Infinite Forge is just a worse version of both traits. I'd love to see it do something like reduce Bladesong cooldowns based on blades used in a Bladesong. Still would not be meta but cool concepts for open world maybe.
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Definitely agree with the Focus 4 thing, little details that make a world of difference.
Focus 5 could use 2 more block instances and THEN give it the second activation. The manual second activation could also count as a second blast finisher. (The extra blocks are just PvP-based buffs).
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The trait Loremaster seems to bug out when entering a PvP match when equipped.
Specifically occurs if you have a tome equipped before the match officially starts. Completely removing the ammo/page count and making it impossible to know your current pages. Requires re-entering the match entirely to resolve.
Even causes skills like Renewed Focus to not properly reset page count.
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Hammer, from a PvP perspective, has always been used as a one-shot burst wombo-combo weapon. It was more popular during the Core Medi Guard era from forever ago.
Unfortunately it has fallen behind due to the increase of mobility across the board, the damage not lining up for the effort of landing it, etc.
You can't cleave people into panicking with Hammer auto due to it being slow, you can't really make people panic with Hammer 4 since it knocks enemies too far away to hit them with Hammer 2. Hammer 5 is far too slow and movement-locks you. There's also the issue with Hammer requiring JI to, more likely, land Hammer 2... But requires sacrificing a very important stun break on a 40s cool down to land.
Hammer requires comboing multiple skills to try to land your burst and that has become practically impossible to do with specs that were originally slow becoming faster and harder to hit. (Like Harbinger).
There was some testing with Hammer and Sword/Sword being used on Willbender with the massive increase to mobility and our new teleport (our F3) becoming an AoE you can target, grants Stability, and pulses an AoE on the ground... Unfortunately it lacked sustain compared to Greatsword with Leap of Faith healing for 1.1k per hit, GS 2 hitting multiple times to activate F1-F3 more often, having a pull that we can bait people in to dodging and our GS 4 skill granting Resolution to increase our critical hit chance.
A handful of things would need to be done to Hammer to give it a better place, at least in PvP. Our knockback would have to actually be rewarding to land, aside from just interrupting or potentially getting a dangerous person away.
TL;DR: Too hard to land anything, especially with EoD specs around.
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Nerdy Suggestions below:
A suggestion of mine is to move Symbol of Protection to Ring of Warding to put a pulsing AoE inside of the Ring, justifying some extra danger. Further this by making Symbol of Protection, and Lesser Symbol of Protection, also pulse Chill while Glacial Heart is equipped and you've got yourself a much more dangerous Hammer 5 button with a fair cool down.
The end-chain on Hammer would still grant Protection but in an AoE with one instance rather than a Symbol. (Perhaps like 2.5s of Protection rather than 1s).
Another suggestion is to give Banish its damage back since it sends its target flying away and can't combo (Mighty) Glacial Blow afterwards without JI-ing, Ring of Warding, or knocking into a wall. There's also the idea of just lowering the distance it knocks enemies back the point it would be JUST in range of the PBAoE of (Mighty) Glacial Blow. (About 450 distance launch would nail this).
Zealot's Embrace needs a little more for how unreliable the skill is to land against moving targets, perhaps adding some Vulnerability to bring it closer to a dangerous skill. Could also experiment with giving it a PBAoE Blind to punish enemies up close and set the Guardian up to land a burst without being interrupted as easily. The last idea is just give it ammo and call it a day.
That's my perspective on Guardian Hammer right now.
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Hi there!
I've been tinkering with Firebrand a bit for the past couple weeks and I have some fun observations.
Burn Firebrand:
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Pros
- Lots of AoE burn
- High Burst Healing (Self)
- Decent AoE Healing
- Tome F3 Bubble reflects Harbinger projectiles
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Cons
- Lack of Cover Condis
- Lack of Mobility
- Axe #2 Bug
- No mantras
From testing I've done, Burn Firebrand seems to be the most viable option in terms of FB builds. It has lots of CC, High burst burns in team fights. Lacks in actual duels compared to various other specs. Pretty solid in team fights with the F3 AoE stab, bubble, and AoE Cleanse from F2 and finally AoE Burns.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABc2x7lJw6YgMK2JWUXfvWA-z5YXGZWBdnCOMAA
I've swapped between Focus offhand and Torch offhand on Axe. You want Shield to be separate to have a CC on both weapon sets. Legendary Lore now grants full duration Regen/Protection on F2/F3! So you can have more Protection during downtime. Swiftness from F3 #1 is your best source of mobility. Purging Flames offers additional AoE cleanse in addition to pulsing cleanse from your heal at all times. Your F1 is mainly used for quickly popping in to cast #5 or #4. Sometimes both!
Support Firebrand:
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Pros
- Lots of cleanse
- AoE Aegis
- Lots of boons
- High self-sustain
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Cons
- No pressure
- Lackluster healing and peel for allies
- Page Recovery Rate bug preventing pages from showing sometimes
- No mantras
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PWABk6x3lZwuYYML2IeuSZvfA-zZJsMysCqOF8YAA
You can swap to Protective Reviver for interrupting and protecting resses, you can also swap to Stawart Speed for popping quickness to get off signet quicker. I've been toying with this build off and on to see if it can properly support compared to something like Tempest or Core Guard! It's a weird mix of capable and not. It lacks pressure similarly to Core Guardian and has high self-sustain like Core Guardian but somehow has less healing with Tome F2 lacking any sort of decent burst healing. You basically just play the same Core Guardian build but take Firebrand instead of Virtues and Mace/Shield instead of Staff and put Focus on your Sword offhand. (You could swap the offhands around to spread Aegis between the sets). It does make for some amazing condi cleanse with Tome F2 #2 and #5. Tome F2 3 and 4 are currently lackluster, especially with 4 costing 2 pages to only heal a max of 1.5k in a smallish AoE. Tome F2 5 costing 3 pages is expensive for what it does too. Could be lowered to 2 pages.
Overall Impression:
Massive improvement from previous FB! F1 is in a pretty good spot aside from #2's weakness duration being a lil low. F2's 3 is overall a little weak and 4's healing/cost needs adjusted. 5 could use a page cost reduction to 2 just to see what happens. Tome #2 could use a reduction to 1 page as well. Firebrand mantras definitely need looked at for PvP... It has so much potential to be stronger.
Suggestions:
Improve Honor's Aegis heal, heal on dodge, and make Mantra of Solace heal allies in addition to granting Aegis. Reducing Page costs + Improving Mantra of Solace synergy could land a better spot in the PvP scene. I'd love to imagine seeing a Zeal/Honor or Valor/Honor Firebrand meta about keeping allies up with well timed Aegis procs. Mantra of Truth could grant longer Weakness but no Cripple and keep 1s Blind.
Burn Firebrand needs Axe sped up and better Cover Condis. Possibly through Mantra of Truth lasting longer or Bleeds lasting longer from Unrelenting Criticism. Burn Firebrand feels the closest of all FB builds from a functionality perspective.
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31 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:
That would be a significant hit to alacmirage. Which is why my suggestion was to make Desert Distortion the baseline F4 - only giving one second of distortion regardless, but generating a mirage mirror for each clone shattered.
But that suggestion was made while tradeoffs was the policy.
That's true, perhaps they could do something along the lines of improving utilities that generate mirrors instead to compensate for it. It's really complicated without removing Blurred Inscriptions because of Inspiration needing it to reliably grant allies Aegis...
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All you have to do, imo, to give Mirage the second dodge is remove Desert Distortion. It's such a massive trait for Mirage and giving its second dodge back without nerfing the dodge traits, would bring us up.
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Weaponmaster Training Beta Feedback: Mesmer
in Mesmer
Posted
Major thing that stands out from a PvP PoV for Mirage with Dagger.
The daze on Phantom Razor. Consider removing that daze from baseline and merge into the future change to Mirage Mantle (improving Ambushes). Otherwise you're introducing a rather obnoxious playstyle. You could also just remove the daze from clones and make it a Player-only bonus.
Dagger works great as a more aggressive replacement for Scepter on Chaos Staff right now but hinges on landing all those dazes back-to-back to reset your Pistol. Could use Ineptitude for blinds. Thankfully is countered by things like Untamed's bubble, Cata's INSANE amount of Mag Aura via Signets, etc.
Dagger 2 is also using the old version of skill and doesn't track the target when not using Virtuoso.
Shield feels good, forces Virtuoso to have more downtime since the block isn't baseline anymore via F5.
Axe feels good for Core and Chronomancer.