Simonoly.4352

More tedious raid balancing trickling down to make Mesmer in PvP and WvW even more of a ball ache to play. It's just so boring. Also limiting the Quiet Intensity buff to PvE only is just so weird when one considers just how dire Virtuoso is in competitive modes. Anet I'm so confused 😆

Yes please - I'd very much like for the daggers to only appear when in combat. They're a bit of an eyesore and honestly it looks a bit silly having deadly psionic daggers floating over my head when chatting to story NPCs etc - it's a bit like my Virtuoso is holding a gun to the heads of these poor people.

It's a bit bizarre seeing Virtuoso in his B tier and apparently just above Mirage too. It's so heavily bugged and borderline dysfunctional that it really is delicious feed tier fodder. I don't think I've ever come up against a spec in this game that is so trivial to kill since base Engi.

Did Anet just remove the Mirror Blade nerf inherent to Virtuoso by nerfing it all other Mesmer specs? 😆 I know it's probably just a bug, but it would be hilarious if true.

I would highly recommend spending some time playing as a Thief instead. It does a lot of what one would want from Mesmer but with far more flexibility and a greater potential to actually control the map. Mesmer just doesn't have the assured "kit" required to really proliferate competitively at present. Removing the 50% endurance nerf on Mirage would be a good start, but I think the overall threat of the class needs to be upped. Not even sure where to begin with Virtuoso 😆

It's largely redundant in PvP and WvW yes due to a vast array of issues. Quite possibly one of the least threatening things to encounter: I usually kill Virtuosos on my core Mes and Daredevil builds by auto-attacking them whilst standing within their character model - it's a bit ludicrous.

Yes, whilst it's workable in PvE, it's not particularly engaging to play. Of course it does great damage against a training golem, but it's just really rather inflexible for open-world stuff. You miss out on a ton of AoE damage from shatters and you no longer have clones to draw aggro and up your sustained damage if condi - plus no more boon rip from sword clones. I tend to only use Virtuoso for encounters where there is just one target in an open-world event and my clones are being popped too easily. Otherwise it's largely redundant. I generally find the design of Virtuoso a bit confusing if I'm honest - its many facets are without cohesion and it desperately lacks a sense of purpose. The one thing that Mesmer, the original "duelling class" didn't need is another single-target specialist option. I'm quite surprised Anet didn't go down a different design path here. Ho hum, the disco twirls when you use a Bladesong still look pretty cool 🤷‍♂️

I'd quite like an update to all pistol, sword, dagger and shortbow skills when playing as Spectre so they can heal like scepter skills. I'm not really a fan of having class mechanics exclusive to one weapon only - feels a bit at odds with the original design principles of the game. Could imagine using cloak and dagger on an allied target to stealth and heal them along with me. I also want to backstab heal my allies dammit!

There really isn't any good matchups for Virtuoso, whether that be condi or power. It's all projectiles so you can just LoS to avoid the shatters or just use any old projectile block or reflect to completely neuter the Virtuoso. The main source of defense is Bladeturn Requiem and not only is this a block and therefore makes you incredibly vulnerable to any old unblockable anyone has, it also does (pitiful) damage so you also get to trigger any and all on-hit unblockables whilst apparently trying to defend yourself.😆 It is just such an incredibly easy spec to counter with any basic toolset available on any class. I'm genuinely shocked when anyone ever tells me they actually lost to a Virtuoso unless, of course, they are also a Virtuoso.

It's quite possibly one of the least threatening things to come up against in WvW right now, whether that's roaming, havoc or zerging. You can just dive into them and auto-attack within their character model as they constantly interrupt their bladesongs as they attempt to face you and actually get something off. If a Bladesong comes my way I'm just able to kite out of the way of anything that isn't Bladesong Sorrow. Condi Virtuoso is even less threatening than power as you only really need to avoid the Bladesong Sorrow burst and there's no sustained Condi damage from clones to worry about anymore. I am absolutely destroying Virtuosos on my Thief - it's not even fair 😆 I've been playing Virtuoso myself and honestly staff feels like a must against anything that has a leap/teleport in a 1v1/group encounter (that's basically everything now) or it's just too easy to melt to Cc chains plus cleave. I actually found myself playing identically to the same old core shatter burst Mesmer - pre-casting Bladesong Harmony with blink for a point-blank burst - to reliably land my bladesongs. This is of course inferior to all other Mesmer specs as you can't do ye olde Mirror Blade as well as your shatter AND it's single target so you can't punish groups. Virtuoso is very VERY much a PvE spec 🤗

When mounted you still do not stock blades out of combat. It really messes with the pace of Virtuoso as you have to wait around before mounting to get a full stock. It's quite irritating.

This is sadly my reasoning for not purchasing the expansion also and I'm not saying this to be mean or deride those who enjoy Virtuoso - the new elite specialisations just didn't meet my expectations during the beta and unfortunately new class features are a fundamental part of why I would buy an expansion. I do really hope the expansion is successful though - clearly lots of work has gone into it 🤗

In-game? Nah, Mesmer is a bit messy at present in terms of design and effectiveness. In real life? Yes, confound your enemies and impress your friends with your glam moves and butterflies.

I truly love my Thief and all the irritating things I can do in WvW, but I must admit that Shadow Portal feels like a mistake. It's so easy to remain completely hidden in a keep as a Thief because it doesn't suffer from the same cool down pressures as Mesmer. Even with a target painter thingie, if people can't actually target you, it's a bit redundant. It does feel a little bit "have your cake and eat it" in terms of what limitless stealth access + Shadow Portal can provide in WvW. I'm not sure what a solution would be though other than to completely change how Shadow Portal works. Maybe make it a utility shadow step so it can't be used to get over walls? Pfft probably a bit boring 🤷‍♂️

Aww clone death was fun and an interesting take on the punishment mechanics of Mesmer. I remember the super tanky builds that used the traits - they were pretty persistent but the condi output was quite pitiful and you could mostly ignore them and just...walk off. I think it was more of an issue for PvP - clone death traits were quite redundant in the grander scheme of things in WvW. There were ways to counter those clone death builds through the use of superior mobility and ranged attacks, but the number of people who would just dive into a bunch of clones swinging their melee weapon was quite staggering. Similar bizarre lack of community awareness was seen with glamour traits back in the day: you could drop a portal at a choke point and people would run back and forth through it, stacking up confusion and killing themselves - it was madness and very amusing. Of course neither clone death nor glamour confusion traits would be much of a threat these days, but oh lord did the community struggle with those 😆

Probably just popping the second dodge back on Mirage for WvW at least would make power Mirage a more viable option compared with other power roamers.

It is a bit of a slog playing Mesmer in WvW these days and I'd welcome some attention to the many ineffective traits plaguing the class at present. I really do think Mesmer needs more WvW versions of skills as many of the sPvP versions feel inappropriate for a game mode full of enormous battles.

This would mostly be a nerf for focus Ele as other invulnerability skills are either channeled or, in the case of Mesmer, tied to clone shatter and therefore already a damage reduction at the point of use.

I'm genuinely surprised to see nerf requests for one of the most niche grandmaster traits in the game on a class that has so little impact in all competitive game modes at present. It's an interrupt trait: it either does its thing or it's entirely redundant. You either interrupt an important skill to punish a target or your target has stability (also just general dodges or blocks to avoid CC) and literally nothing happens. To choose Power Block over the other traits occupying the same grandmaster tier is to give up either a 10-20% damage buff on shatters or a 15% damage buff (plus boons strip on CC - no interrupt needed) on all attacks. That's quite a trade-off for something as circumstantial as Power Block. If your heal or another important skills gets Power Blocked then that's just good play from the Mesmer and, honestly, in a game with so many passives now, we should be happy that people are even bothering with this trait.

Apologies if this has already been mentioned, but when using Mirror Blade on greatsword as Virtuoso, no clone is created by your target so you no longer benefit from the bounces when cast on a solo target at range. This makes the skill entirely reliant on either being in range of the bounces yourself or only being able to bounce off the pets/minions of a solo target. In theory that's fine because many bounce skills are like this when fighting a solo target, but as none of the other Mesmer specs have to worry about this as a clone is always created with Mirror Blade, this seems like quite a downgrade when choosing to be a Virtuoso. Perhaps Mirror Blade should be changed to a unique skill for Virtuoso?

It's good for doing one button 20 stacks of confusion, but after that's fixed the spec will have no real use unless a lot of the PvE content in EoD is specifically designed around Virtuoso. I'm thinking...stationary mobs with a specific debuff that makes them weak to blades 🤗

Dual swords + greatsword Mirage is all you really need for open world PvE and is really fun to play. Equip full berserkers and take Domination and Duelling specs. Swap your heal, utilities and elite according to encounters. For raids you'll probably want to go full vipers condi Mirage. Mirage is pretty great overall in PvE. You'll have a lot of fun 🤠

I'm not a big fan of the need for a blade in order to trigger Bladeturn Requiem, especially as the block is always 2 seconds regardless of the number of blades used. I think it would make more sense for this skill to be available with or without blades - it would certainly be a small step for improving the flexibility and survivability of the spec in competitive game modes.

I've been testing Virtuoso in WvW and it's honestly a bit of a struggle to get this thing going. A few pieces of feedback: 1)The restocking of blades outside of combat is nice but possibly a bit too slow - ah maybe I'll get used to it. 2) The unblockable effect of Pyschic Riposte is a real pain to utilise. I've been trying to use enemy AoE to trigger this or waiting to be attacked before considering my next bladesong with varying success but, in all honesty, this just isn't a fun way to play and feels a bit contradictory considering the rest of the specialisation's kit. 3) Dagger has no impact and feels incredibly wet to use. The damage on the auto-attack is minuscule and too reliant on the flurry; Bladecall is far too slow on the return and only of acceptable damage at point blank range; Unstable Bladestorm is okay but it passes through targets too quickly so the extent of its damage is never realised. I find it to be an unexciting and ineffective weapon. 4) Bladesongs are still really easy to avoid by simply side-stepping. I've come up against Virtuoso's who haven't been able to land a single Bladesong Harmony because I'm just wandering out of the attack - it's quite funny actually. Bladesongs really need to track better and possibly be much faster. 5) Thousand Cuts just doesn't hit things. I'm trying so hard with this kitten thing because the visual on the blades are gorgeous but the radius is so small and the damage spread out over such a long period now that it just doesn't really work. Maybe increase the radius at least? 6) The projectiles on Twin Blade Restoration are so small and get lost in the visual clutter that I often have no idea if they're hitting. Perhaps make the blades a bit more noticeable? 7) This is more of a general point, but I still think Virtuoso needs either more ways to delay melee attackers or more survivability. This could be cripple or an evade or some mobility added to dagger or a few things added to traits for us to pick from. As it stands, getting into melee range as a Virtuoso is suicide in WvW, yet there are traits and skills that want us to close the gap on our targets. We have 1200 range, but we're more effective at <600 range. We don't have any real sustain yet our traits want us to get hit. Oh Anet I'm so confused 😝

Apologies if this has already been mentioned but: 1) Neither Mental Anguish nor Superiority Complex seem to work with Bladesong Dissonance. 2) Blades do not automatically restock whilst you are mounted.