OriOri.8724

Get off your high horse dude. And stop making assumptions about who purchased story chapters and who got them for free. Personally, I just recently came back from a ~3 year break from the game, and had to buy half of LWS4 and all of icebrood saga. Plus, new players do not spend the same amount of money to get both expansions as players that were playing when they dropped, since purchasing PoF gives your HoT for free now. Is it a lot of money to purchase all of the LW story episodes at once? Yes, it is a lot of money. But that doesn't mean its unreasonable for ANet to ask you to do that. Each LW episode takes months for ANet to make. Back in LWS3 I think it was something like 6 months of development went into each episode (there were multiple teams working on different episodes in order to keep them coming out much faster than that, but pretty sure the time for each episode was around 6 months). And if you weren't playing when it was released ANet only asks you to pay $2.50 for that episode later. And if you buy an entire season you get another discount on top of that.

Again, I really do not understand your complaint? Yes, a story will not make sense if you don't go through every chapter. Why are you upset over that logic? Yes, its a lot of money to buy all of the living world seasons at once. But its several years worth of development that goes into it, that is given out for free to people who play when the content is released. There's no problem, zero, with Anet charging $2.50 for each episode after the fact

? Of course a story is going to be disjointed if you don't do it in order? I don't really see what you are complaining about in regards to it being disjointed. As for needing to purchase the story chapters, I don't see a huge problem with that. ANet put a lot of effort into them, especially the newer seasons, and without a subscription model they get all of their income from expansion and gem purchases.

Not sure how many items you are really trying to keep around, but a new character slot is $10, and its cheap to outfit them with 20+ slot bags, giving you immediate access to another ~100 items you can store. That's not too expensive imo, unless you are trying to save hundreds and hundreds of items this way

Virtuoso needs OH dagger as well. Those 2 extra weapon skills gives a lot of room to provide utility that it currently lacks, and also opens allows more build options. Mental focus could be turned into something like crits or blades inflict cripple on foes <600 range away. A ranged spec really needs some access to cripple/immob in order to keep enemies at range, and this trait is one that already doesn't really fit with the rest of the kit.

Adding new condi specs is literally refocusing the spec. You're right, there is nothing wrong with having options for a variety of playstyles. But you're ignoring the fact that you already have options for condi builds. Not every spec needs a condi build. The different elite specs are the multiple different build options you get. Not all of them need both condi and power builds

Please no. Virtuoso's design needs more focus, not less of it. It's a power focused spec, and I'd rather its traits reflect that over getting some traits for power and some traits for condi. Mesmer already has builds that focus on condi, I don't see the point of another one

It needs to get an OH dagger as well. Right now, mesmer remains the only class that does not have a single elite spec that comes with 5 new weapon skills. Every other class has at least 1 elite spec that got a 2h weapon, or got both MH and OH weapons. Some classes even got 2 specs so far that had a new 2H weapon. Plus, giving virtuoso 2 extra new weapon skills via OH dagger gives ANet room to improve on some of its design issues by giving OH dagger skills crucial functionality that a ranged power dps spec should have.

The earlier feedback comes in about new mechanics, the easier it is to change them. Whether Anet would listen to the feedback or not is up to them, but it is easier for them to listen and act on it if it comes up earlier in the development cycle. Take mirage at PoF release for example, mirage cloak combined with elusive mind was absolutely a broken mechanic. But if ANet had been able to get that feedback ~9 months before release versus the 2-3 months they had when the beta happened, they would have had time to actually redesign that mechanic. Just coming from a professional software engineer, its always easier to implement changes the earlier you receive feedback on something. Once its almost finished and is just being polished, its a lot harder to implement meaningful changes to something. Add the extra difficulty of changing mechanics at a late stage on top of Anet also having to polish the entire rest of the expansion, and its clear why there aren't any large scale changes in response to feedback from these open betas. There just isn't time for ANet to implement it

You misunderstood me. It was always possible for Anet to upgrade to DX11, it just wasn't a smart decision a few years back. And one of the major differences between now and a few years ago is that now the rendering thread is the bottleneck, but this was not always the case. Upgrading to DX11 back when the rendering thread was not the bottleneck would have provided 0 benefits.

The dev was neither lying nor incompetent. What he was responding to at the time was a small handful of people that acted as if ANet could just swap DX9 out for DX11 by changing some options in build files and swapping to the DX11 .dll files, and that would magically give GW2 better rendering performance. Which is not true, and also incredibly ignorant. With this change Anet isn't doing that, they are actually changing the rendering code that GW2 uses to take advantage of new DX11 features that can increase performance. That's a significant change, and yet people at the time were acting as if ANet could do it over a weekend. Alongside that, if I'm remembering it correctly, there was also the fact that at the time the comment was made, the rendering thread was not the performance bottleneck on GW2, it was the main game thread. And since then Anet has done a lot of work to make the game thread run faster. If the rendering thread is not the bottleneck, then no matter how much faster you make it, you won't improve game performance at all

The more build options there are, the harder it becomes to balance all of them against each other. The more mechanics there are in game, the harder it becomes to balance all of them. Just because elite specs offer an avenue to lessen disparities (which, fwiw, is something that could also be done without elite specs and just more comprehensive balance updates) does not mean that they make balancing everythign easier. Quite the opposite is true, because there are more combinations in play in every class with each new elite spec. More combinations that could unintentionally have too much synergy and end up too powerful. To the main thread, I just wish ANet would release information about new elite specs significantly earlier in development than they currently do. On one hand, I definitely understand wanting to hold them back till they are mostly finished. But on the other, it would be helpful to get feedback earlier. Don't necessarily need full information, could be very high level like "Hey, for the next expac we're thinking of a ranged power spec for mesmers" at first. But the earlier we get information, the earlier we can provide feedback on issues that might be broken or not fun. The current cycle though, with us not getting any information until specs are almost done and the expac is being finalized, means that ANet doesn't have enough time to revamp specs significantly based on user feedback.

Switching to vulkan would not automatically have enabled GW2 to work on linux, but it *would* have meant that GW2 would no longer run on Windows Vista. Which means that ANet would have gone through the trouble of this only to *lose* players, without actually adding support for linux at all. Its just downright absurd to expect them to jump from DX9 to vulkan. Not only that, but its also significantly easier to jump from DX9 to DX11 than it is to switch over to vulkan

Agreed, confusions current design means it cannot be balanced in both PvP/WvW and in PvE. It will always be unbalanced in at least one game mode, because of the differences between a player and an NPC. And that's a design issue, not a numbers issue. As long as confusion's proc damage remains the same, regardless of how fast or slowly it procs, it can't be balanced in every game mode. I think that it can be saved without completely redesigning it though. I'd like to see the proc damage on confusion scale higher based on how long it has been since it last procced. This would allow it to still be impactful on regular NPCs who attack slow as heck, while giving ANet the ability to keep it balanced against the few bosses who do attack quickly and where it was overperforming. Normalizing attack speed between PvE and real players (i.e. making NPCs attack significantly faster) has no bearing on balancing stuff between the game modes. The fact is that players have a real person making decisions and reacting, whereas an NPC is just hardcoded to a set difficulty level by its AI. And players also have a full build to play with, whereas most NPCs have 1 or 2 different skills they can use. Also, this design is super easy to cheese. Not only does it only really work against power builds, but someone could easily just use a non-very low damaging skill to proc your confusion stacks and then negate most of the damage coming from them.

Yea that would be nice. It also would have been cool to see them do something like scale the damage on skill use up based on how long it had been since the target used a skill. This would make it significantly more impactful against anything that attacks slowly, and would also give Anet a way to specifically tweak confusion damage in the fights it was overperforming without impacting anything else by modifying the scaling for fast attacks. They could have set it up so that the damage in those specific encounters was something like 85-90% of what it was previously, while having the proc damage be 2-3x or even higher on enemies that attack pretty slowly. It would also help to keep a unique flavor to confusion

That's not entirely fair. They regularly listen to the feedback from people who don't play mesmer and complain about the wrong things, ending up with mesmer skills and mechanics getting nerfed to the ground without any underlying issues that created the broken builds having been addressed

Virtuoso doesn't "gain" block though, core mesmer already has blocking skills on 2 weapons, so f4 doesn't bring anything new. If you want to be as objective as possible, then don't add false "gains" to the comparison.

I think that class unique buffs are a rather lazy way to encourage more class diversity. Doing that means that ANet doesn't have to tackle any more fundamental issues with a class to give it a better reason to be used, which means that outside instanced content like that, nothing is better for those classes. But back to the original topic, time warp is just bad compared to other quickness options available in the game. It brings nothing that justifies a 2 minute CD. It suffered the same fate as everything that mesmers have, one or two builds were overperforming for various reasons, and so ANet nerfed an unrelated thing to the ground in order to bring the builds in line. When the core design flaws are the reasons for overperforming builds, and they aren't addressed, you eventually end up with a spec full of underwhelming options that just isn't nearly as much fun to play.

One more thought, it would be really nice to get an offhand dagger alongside MH dagger. So far, chrono gave us an offhand, and mirage gave us a MH weapon, but this is the third expansion now where mesmer's elite spec doesn't get 5 new weapon skills. I guess this really doesn't have much to do with virtuoso itself, more just would like to see more new weapon skills. Part of the "tradeoff" chrono gave for only having 2 new weapon skills was CS, mirage gained ambush attacks in addition to axe. And virtuoso just randomly gets a new sword 3 and that's it. I just feel like there's plenty of room for an OH dagger in this spec, thematically even. Pistol leans condi for mesmers, and the OH dagger could have cripple to help keep enemies away from you, which would support the theme of being a ranged duelist. Could also throw in something wild, like a reverse leap, to put distance between you and the thing you crippled. That would be a fun, and rather unique, skill to bring to the table

First, I think virtuouso is a beautiful spec to play. I am completely in love with all of the visuals. I'll try not to repeat all of what plenty of others have already said, and I agree with most of the criticisms. Leaving some more high level feedback though: Doesn't feel like there is a cohesive high level design for the spec - Its really made out to be a long range power spec for mesmer, but the implementation doesn't support this. The projectile speeds on dagger are far too slow to hit stuff at range, the shapeof dagger 2 is impractical for a 1200 range attack, utility/elite skills have such long cast times (on top of then waiting for animations to finish before damage starts) that anything you target can easily get out of them. And then there's mental focus which is just weird for a supposed long range spec to only boost damage at medium range or closer. Its a "long range power dps spec" without the kit to actually support that playstyle Cast times are long - Its fine to have some really impactful skills have a longer cast time, but every virtuoso skill has a high cast time. 1s heal, 1s elite (could be fine if it was more effective, but its already kind of lackluster even though it looks amazing), 1/2s, 1/2s, 3/4s for the utility skills. And the bladesongs are the worst, shatters that have huge cast times. Every skill is an investment just to cast it, which is kind of a weird decision on a spec with no surivability built in, and the payoff from the skills doesn't justify this. Blade renewal itself is also weird. Mesmer gets distortion without channeling it. Chrono gets continuum shift in place of distortion, but importantly it doesn't have to channel it, it can keep playing while its active. And virtuoso gets a channeled distortion, while already having the leastbuilt in survivability out of core mesmer, chrono, and mirage. Move the distortion from blade renewal to F4, and the block from F4 to blade renewal. Both skills need more tweaks, but at least this would make more sense. Not a lot of synergy with itself or core mesmer - It's worth mentioning again that there's no dagger trait and also no psionic trait. Then the conflict between dagger ostensibly being a ranged weapon and mental focus. Blades now persist outside of combat, but there's no way to actually generate a blade out of combat other than blade renewal (while I don't necessarily think this is the best way to improve indigo forge, one thing that could be done is to at least have it work at all times, not just in combat). Broken core mesmer traits etc... Bladesongs - Should be instant cast, or no more than 1/4s cast times on these. Swap distortion and block between F4 and blade renewal. Sharpening sorrow grants fury to the condi bladesong instead of the power one for some reason? Bladeturn refrain needs to be reworked. Bladesongs already are affected by shatter traits, and now they can also be further traited via blade traits, we really don't need yet another trait that just grants an extra boon to them. I think this is a great trait to replace with one for the dagger or for psionic skills. Also, the skills are generally underwhelming, but I suspect that's because they can now scale up to 5 blades vs the 3 illusions that shatters scale off of. Bladesong sorrow - Singling this one out because it felt the most weird to me. Its clear that you wanted the bladesongs functionality to mirror shatters (power dmg, condi dmg, daze, distortion lul no virtuoso get block), but I think that's lazy and also again works against the spec having a cohesive theme. This bears repeating, but virtuoso feels like it was designed to be a ranged power dmg spec. So why is one of its bladesongs, the one that it can actually trait the most, still condi focused, and still confusion focused no less? Staying in line with a duelists theme, I think that this should not be confusion, but more bleeding, and something like crippled or blinded. That fits in much better with the theme of being a duelist, and also helps focus this as a power dmg spec by reducing the number of damaging conditions it has innate access to. And lastly, Everything virtuoso does, another spec can do significantly better - There's no place for it, gamewide, right now. And no matter how much fun it might be to play when the expansion comes, if this remains true it will always feel bad to play a spec that isn't the best, or even second or third best, at anything its supposed to do

That's a pretty weak trait, but good direction. I'd like to see one of two options(preferred) Gain 2 seconds of mirror and either 1 sec superspeed or 2 sec vigor when successfully dodging an attack. It doesn't just poop out superspeed and mirror, since you have to have actually dodged something instead of just using your dodge, but it keeps the same flavor the trait has. Restricting the mirror to just the dodge duration doesn't keep that flavor in my opinionReflect projectiles when evading. Just buffs all of our evades to also reflect, nothing else, the reflect effect ends when the evade does. Both of them are significantly weaker than the pre-nerfed version of the trait, but also still worth taking. I do think the bottom option is too much reflect though, which is why I prefer the first option Maybe I'm misreading what you wrote, but isn't that just the same as previous version (2s mirror on any evade) but without ICD, which would be overpowered? Busted ? Regardless what they do... the ICD in this form has to go. I'm also still salty about Master of Manipulation. I really want to regain some characteristic skills for baseline Mesmer. This includes reflects and boon removal. So I've been wondering - assuming classes got yet another trait rework and traits are shuffled around - how do you guys feel about giving Sword reflects? For example, Sword evades (#2 and #4) gain reflect. Plus standard 'Gain Ferocity, gain even more when whielding a Sword'. We would probably have to sacrifice the CD reduction but I'd be up for it.You both are misreading option 2. It would only give reflect for the duration of the evade, it wouldn't give the mirror effect at all (unless that's the only way to give reflect, mechanically). So on BF you would reflect for 1 second if you didn't have quickness. On dodging you would reflect for 0.75 seconds. Its significantly weaker than the old version, but I still think its too much, which is why I prefer the first option. @Quadox.7834 That's not at all relevant anymore, as you are talking about a trait as it existed and was meta before HoT dropped and started this never ending powercreep race. As much as I, and I'm sure a few others, would prefer we went back to where that was a powerful trait, there's no going back now, and you have to balance against the rest of the game. Bringing it up here serves only to attempt to derail the conversation

That's a pretty weak trait, but good direction. I'd like to see one of two options (preferred) Gain 2 seconds of mirror and either 1 sec superspeed or 2 sec vigor when successfully dodging an attack. It doesn't just poop out superspeed and mirror, since you have to have actually dodged something instead of just using your dodge, but it keeps the same flavor the trait has. Restricting the mirror to just the dodge duration doesn't keep that flavor in my opinionReflect projectiles when evading. Just buffs all of our evades to also reflect, nothing else, the reflect effect ends when the evade does. Both of them are significantly weaker than the pre-nerfed version of the trait, but also still worth taking. I do think the bottom option is too much reflect though, which is why I prefer the first option

no we cant perma evade, DD is kitten weapon set nerfed to the ground its fun to troll on but thats it.sword/pistol i mean really? another troll weapon set?Used by faeleth in monthly AT. Troll weapon set . Get on his levelvault, yes more or less maybe in small scale fight but in a blob ur "non evade frame" will soak up tons of conditions/dmg ull die pretty quick if not in group withi prefer a invul and evades from mirage and whoever said this is about core mirage, then dont pull daredevil into this and go nag about core thief, which is pretty much only thief build left to play in PvP/WvWThread not even about cmirage its about core traits and unfairness and bias, in stupid attempt to nerf mirage, obviously to make core mesmer even more garbage than it is and nerf as much builds as possible at once.btw on serious note why would u mesmers want more power?u can 100 > 0 most classes in 1 rotationI can slot core/DRD/DEADEYE for oneshot on the same classes mesmer can oneshot as you say but problem is ALL of they are unviable just as the mesmeru have nice bunker buildsDestroyed with scepter nerf. Look at mAT. Scrappers everywhere,not even soulbeasts. The only 1 chrono was brought by frenchies that cant play anything else apparently.u have nice hybrid buildsWhat hybrid builds? Have you seen scepter nerfs? Have you seen axe nerfs as 67% damage? What nice about it ?see i dont play mesmer main i just play ones in a blue moon, but i think mesmer doesnt need a "big" change it might need some very little tweaks here and there but for sure doesnt need more power.You dont play mesmer but think its fine ? Every single nerf on core was either unjustified or over kill.@"Irenio CalmonHuang.2048"I really dont understand, its hard to nerf overperforming skill by 10-25% and see if its need more? Waiting for months and then suddenly nuke it from orbit with 50-67% is fine? Why every nerf on mesmer is 50% or more ?Portal duration 50% duration nerf. Scepter damage 50% nerf. In the past Warlock on staff had 50% damage nerf despite not doing any significant damage. Chrono shield 50% damage nerf. Cry of pain 50% of confusions were deleted. Blind shatter trait basically was deleted with reflect on evade. Axe ambush is 67% damage nerf...IA 75% cd increase. Ineptitude nerfed by 60% in duration.Must be a magic number. Holo Leap history (Originally it would crit for 7k on a 2 second cooldown [Yes, 2 second cooldown] in Photon Forge after might stacking with Corona Burst) August 28, 2018 The damage of this skill has been reduced by 17% in PvP only. March 27, 2018 Reduced damage by 17% in PvP only. November 07, 2017The swiftness or superspeed applied by this skill is now applied at the end of the leap rather than at the start. September 22, 2017 Path of Fire release:Holo Leap has been added to the game. It's so weird how Arenanet is very moderate with their nerfs when it comes to Engineer. Multiple patches in a row where it's been left completely untouched outside of buffs to scrapper and core. Not really that weird. When Anet balances engineer (and pretty much every class other than mesmer/thief), they actually take the time to think about why something is overperforming, and go after the root issue, usually. With mesmer and thief, they never do that, and just randomly nerf shit. Which means core issues that make some builds OP are never truly addressed, and inevitably something gets nerfed into oblivion when it lands in their warpath to "balance" these 2 classes.

Don't be absurd, they'll never touch steal.

No. It was a good target for a nerf, but the nerf itself was garbage. Learn to tell the two apart. Just because something was overpowered or overperforming does not mean that the nerf it gets is a good nerf.