Crey.5263

What's wack about it? OG mesmer's unique trait was fast casting which caused Mesmer skills to cast AND recharge faster. While the numbers would have to be tested and tuned, it doesn't seem like it's that far remove from the willbender trait that does practically the same thing https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Restorative_Virtues

https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Hypochondria and https://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Extend_Conditions It was like one of the only damaging builds you could do with inspiration magic.

I definitely drew my inspiration (no pun intended) for Mantra of Persistence from the Extend Conditions + Hypochondria combination from gw1. But I absolutely agree it could be a field that pulses too, and Glamor's don't have utilities that could find a home on a condi build so that could definitely fill out their roster. I like your take on Illusionary Weaponry. I was also thinking about that gw1 skill but I chose to go on the side of that skill that caused the user to gain increased armor, hence the chaos armor. Ignoring toughness/defense would certainly be a new mechanic that would absolutely fit og mesmer niche, but might be hard to apply since so few classes use toughness and i'm not sure if mobs have a toughness stat. I might also recommend having the skill include making the attacks unblockable. I like your Keystone signet, but that might be too powerful to be a regular utility, especially since you could mimic it and start chaining signet of illusions to nearly never run out of shatters. I think it could be feasible if it were an elite, but it'd be competing with Moa Signet. Could also be that it randomly recharges an equiped signet, but if traited recharges all others. On my Signet i recognized that there isn't a signet for power dps, now with better sleep, i'd probably change the active to cause additional hits like the Pack stance on Soulbeast or Impossible Odds on Shiro legend. I think your mantra skill getting bonuses from other skills is also really unique, but i could see how that would be fairly hard to code. I suppose skills like Mimic and Signet of Ether have the ability to see other skills on on the load out and differentiate them so it wouldn't be impossible. On the Clone skill, i definitely thought about a skill that could produce clones faster for our non-virt mesmers, but i'm secretly hoping they'll eventually free Psionics, Deceptions, and Wells from their elite specs like they did the weapons.

Mesmer has so much cheap and plentiful access to dazes, i wouldn't limit yourself to the rifle stun.

With the upcoming weapon expansion showing that we don't need to have a full new specialization to expand options in the game, I figured the next logical step afterwards would be go back to the pool of core heal/utility/elite skills and fill out the rosters with things that the utility sets don't currently have access to. Below are some of my thoughts of utilities that could fill in the gaps: Shed Identity - Clone. Summon one clone. Channel for three seconds; for each second channeled, gain resolution and resistance and and active clones absorb one condition from you. Virtuoso's lose one condition for each stocked blade. Inverse Field - Glamor. Create a six second lightning field that breaks stuns on allies and knocks down foes in the field on cast, then does so again every three seconds. Illusory Armor - Manipulation. Give allies resistance, chaos aura, and one additional aura at random. Mantra of Persistence [elite] - Mantra. Meditate charging a spell that will draw conditions from nearby enemies to your target. Extends the duration of all conditions currently affecting each nearby foe. Hypochondria- Target gains a copy of each condition affecting other foes within range. Signet of Dueling - Signet Passive: Critical hits reduce the cooldown of your weapon skills by .5s (2s icd) Signet Active: Gain 300 Ferocity for 5 s Phantasmal Minstrel [heal] - Phantasm. Heal yourself for a small amount. Summon an illusion that that blows its warhorn inflicting weakness on enemies and providing healing, swiftness, and fury to allies in the area. My goal was to stay within in the feel and style of the utility set while filling out functions that don't currently exist in that set.

If you're having trouble with Might generation, I'd recommend Relic of the Midnight King, my chrono is doing swimmingly with that now. Which leads me to wonder what is the CC ability on the rifle.

I agree there were a lot of ranged particle effects in that video for it to be a melee weapon.

i'm wondering if all of the skills (2-5) will have secondary casts, that's how it seems to read. I also wonder if it is life steal effect as currently in the game (where the damage scales with power and the healing scales with healing power) or if it is a percentage of damage dealt (thief invigorating precision, spellbreaker off hand dagger trait, and the new ranger buff)

Alpha, let me dream!!! 🤣 I don't know what it would take to fix scepter torch, but i'm hopeful.

I'm just hoping that the Unleased Mace attack grants multiple stacks of Nature's Wrath. Love my healquick Untamed, but mace has to be broken to replace my staff...

nope, mesmers get portal gun!

I've been hoping for a Bayonet rifle since they announced... oh well.

Just for the sake of being fair to Anet, they have announced some changes to scepter and torch and related traits for the November 28th patch that might bring them out of obscurity...

I'm not quite sure why we would have to choose between healing and boon for the 3 skill. And if chrono wells have taught us anything, skills that you have to wait for a pay off are really hard to land in any game mode. Hopefully it inherits from the well skill type at least since that is how it reads. Went back and looked at the description, if the singularities are going to persist for long durations they could be useful. Basically create a point that will pulse barrier, might, fury, and resistance then detonate only if needed for a burst heal and escape. I really hope downed characters can use the portal.

I for one really enjoyed the Mirage with MH Dagger. I appreciate that the animation for the ambush attack looks like the Virtuoso f1. I one v oned a friend and he said the clones felt like he was fighting 4 virtuoso which is nightmareish lol. I think it has a lot of potential to frustrate people in pvp because of the spammable dazes, which is so much fun and thematically appropriate for a class that was based on messing with your head, but because the game is almost always balanced more for pvp than pve...i imagine it will draw a nerf hammer pretty quickly.

I think that would make more sense if the rifle were a ranged weapon. I effectively gave this theory crafted weapon loadout 2.5 ways to gap close: a short leap, a shadow step, and an immobilize. I think it would arguably be closer to the warlock phantasms on staff since it doesn't require a trait to summon multiple phantasms, but my thinking was that the firing squad of musket rifles aligned more thematically with a bayonet playstyle and was distinct enough from the pistol phantasm unload. Overall, I think the concept of using the rifle like a spear weapon and mixing the occasional shot in could be neat.

IF Rifle must be ranged: I'd hope for 1200 or 1500 ranged condi weapon (I'm in the camp that Virt is a condition class, but that doesn't make the dagger a condi weapon). That way it doesn't have to compete with GS. I'd be more excited if the Rifle was our first 2H melee weapon with high power coefficients. I think it would have to "shoot", but i'd hope for the following: Skill 1: Illusory Bayonet - A 300 range attack chain ending in a flurry of multi-hit thrusts (3 targets) . Because deep wound from gw1 isn't a thing anymore, I'd want it to inflict 1 stack of poison (5s) to reduce healing (which also isn't a condi that mesmer has a lot of access to). Ambush. 900 cone teleport 3 targets into melee range and inflict slow (kind the reverse of the revenant skills that teleport away). Skill 2: Blinding Bang- 600 range high damage cone (5 targets). Inflicts Blind. Blast finisher (something else Mesmer has little access to) Skill 3: Butt Strike - 450 range leap finisher melee strike (1 target), inflicts daze when striking from the front. Knocks down when flanking. Skill 4: Repositioning - 900 or 1200 range shadow step behind the target, gain might and/or fury. (if the weapon must have a clone generation, I'd put it here, but I was thinking of including something more powerful in the skill 5 that might justify not having a separate clone generation skill) Skill 5: Firing Squad- 1200 range, shoot a bullet that Immobilizes. Summon three phantasms that kneel then shoot a shot at 1500 range. (I recommended three if there wasn't a clone generation skill, it would probably be two if 4 generated a clone)

I have been saying this for years "GIVE US A MH WARHORN" that would be an excellent support weapon and be very bard like.

I think the moment they gave Elementalist a 2H weapon (that's 20 new skills for them) or when they inexplicably gave the the warrior MH +OH dagger at the same time (every other spec only got one weapon, and spellbreaker still would have thematically worked if it had been either) any arguments of "giving the classes equal amounts of new skills" went out the door. I like Axe for thief because gw1 axe was about critting, but off hand sword would have been nice too.

No they'll do something different like a hammer phantasm...

Ah gotcha, I thought you were suggesting that it be merged with the one that converts boonstrip into barrier....a trait with absolutely no one asked for, especially when them taking away boon corrupts left and right... But I will say, that trait may have been salvageable for competitive play (pvp/wvw) if the conversion to barrier was an aoe for allies, then it may be able to compete with desertshroud.

I think that would be in direct conflict with the design goal which a lot of the community found favorable. If you tie it to utilities, you force supports to bring 3-4 of that utility to maintain uptime and they also have to be used off-cooldown which means you can't use them for reaction or advanced gameplay. I think what they did with Chrono was a step in the right direction because they tied it to something that is already in their skill rotation; they no longer have to bring 2-3 wells just to keep uptime. Druid is probably the hardest to tie to the profession mechanic because of the nature of it's form. If we compare it to the Harbinger, where they naturally want to go into their form and stay in in it as long as possible, it feels good for that to be the boon application method. I don't know druid well enough to suggest alternatives but, i'd assume if you accept the parameters that have been identified (they want it to be specific to only 1 elite spec & they are moving away from pigeonholing people's utility choices/usage), I think if they wanted something tied to the druid elite spec that doesn't disrupt their game play...they could possibly tie it to the generation of astral force? Maybe every 10-15 % of your astral force gauge being filled pulses alacrity? I think this would still necessitate you to go into astral form every once in a while to empty the gage, but would let you do that at natural intervals in the fight or in reaction. It would also have the benefit of not making you spam something or do something outside of your normal rotation to generate the boon.

Wouldn't that mean that you couldn't take the Desert Shroud trait? I found it's pulsing barrier was necessary to meet the upkeep.

Was anyone able to get to 100 percent alac uptime? I feel like I was spamming shades and barrier skills (which didn't feel good doing so) and I still couldn't maintain 100% alac uptime. I think Mech can get away with this playstyle because they have a weapon that pulses barrier in their auto attack + pulsing barrier from mech + 2 skills that gives a large infusion of alac/barrier every 20 seconds. Not that I think the game should be balanced around it... but considering that a Renegade can hit one skill and get 20s of alacrity, it kinda feels like we're working twice as hard to get half as far. And while our condition removal is incredible, our healing is still grossly subpar compared to the meta. I think if instead of the new dagger trait giving life force on hit(which we absolutely didn't need), it pulsed a small barrier in the area, it might be more viable. Of course, if that was the case, our condition cleanse would be infinite, so I can understand why that probably isn't realistic. Probably the better option is to increase the base alac provided by the trait to about 3 seconds In the current iteration, I can't see the meta allowing people to play healscourge when other supports just do it better.

(Full disclosure, i'm not a thief player, but I like things to make sense. So if i'm missing something about the game play, I won't take offense if you correct me....) With Guardian receiving MH + OH pistol, Rangers getting MH + OH mace, and Necromancers getting MH +OH Sword...Why don't thieves also get the OH Axe in addition to their MH? I understand it would likely require some development of dual skills, but right now this class only has two options for OH weapon and this could introduce a lot of versatility and it seems like the perfect expansion to do it. To my knowledge, thief doesn't have a HUGE weapon pool it's not like they're going to run out of options before the warrior does...