Avion Blade.4869

What I had in mind is a little more support role, and a stealth option for column 3 bottom. Some cooldown decrease for deception (similar to chaotic column 1 bottom option for manipulations). If you disagree or have alternative or like how it is now, go ahead and post it! Looking forward to a nice discussion! Thanks!

Non-Selectable Passives Remain the Same: Mirage Cloak Nomad's Endurance Speed of Sand Selectable Adjustments: Self Deception: Using a Deception skill will create a clone if you have any other clones active Update In Addition to Above: Deceptions Skills Cooldown are Reduced by 20% Renewing Oasis: Gain Regeneration when you gain Mirage Cloak. The Duration of Incoming Damaging Conditions is Reduced while you are regenerating. Update in addition to the above: Grant Regeneration to allies (up to 5) when gaining Mirage Cloak. Riddle of Sand: When entering Combat your first Ambush Attack applies Confusion. This Ability Refreshes when you use a shatter skill. Update altering the Above: When entering combat your Ambush Attack applies Confusion. This Ability applies to every ambush attack. Desert Distortion: This Remains the Same. Mirage Mantle Gain Protection when Mirage Cloak Ends Update adjusting the above: Base Duration changed from 1.5 Seconds to 2 Seconds Mirrored Axes Remains the Same Infinite Horizon Remains the Same Elusive Mind Cleanse 3 conditions (instead of two). Dune CLOAK Enter Stealth for 2 seconds after Touching a Mirage mirror without attacking during the evade frame, additional touches add toward stealth; steal boons in the process. Attacking during evade frame from mirror touches will not enter stealth. *Damaging opponents from touching mirror (shattering the diamonds) does not reveal stealth or prevent stealth*. Attacking using any other attack will cause decloak. What do you think?

The axe as a main hand opens for versatility in so many ways. You can go for power also with axe if you really look at the damage it can put out with boons applied, and have the condi be a supplemental follow up to the strike. Example, you can evade a bow shot from ranger by axe 3'ing the pet to evade. Like-wise to rush toward the ranger, run past the pet but right click on the pet, then swap to staff and use staff 2 to phase retreat toward the ranger when the pet you targeted is behind you; then you can daze* the ranger with chaos storm and jaunt and then staff four to blind the ranger so they miss anti-melee skills, and take damage doing so because you put confusion on them. With off-hand sword you can sustain close melee engagements and then summon a clone to set up distortion for mirage diamond mirrors to lengthen the melee fight, then after 9 seconds swap back to staff or axe/sword for a different rotation. Playing a visi-mirage build (no-cloak; visible hence visimirage), is a high challenge and helps to improve timing and movement, for me. Cloak is good for sneak attacks, but it is more of a thief thing. Off-hand sword is underrated! The line daze when people are chasing you buys you time to do whatever!

Against accidental or on-purpose uneeded pulls: - Have it automatically go off at 25% gate/wall health instead of being pulled, recharge time is same. It will no longer be pulled by anyone. (if inner/outer keep, it applies only to inner). Boon Meta is Fine, buff Boon strip skills on all classes. - Add +1 to the number of boon strips for all classes per pulse from long cooldown pulsing skills. Add +2 boon strips to non-pulsing, long cooldown boon strips. Add +1 boon strip to short cooldown non pulsing skills. (short is less than or equal to 30 sec). This buffs any scale anti-boon fighting. Knowing the quick reapplication of boons from boon builds, this buys time for the player(s) fighting against it. It opens up more gaps in opponent's rotation for counter play and will also lead to new builds. Remove Tower Anti-Cloak Radar, remove stationary sentry anti-cloak radar. - Original Sentry and Tower no longer has radar, instead: The sentry will throw a target painter at any opponent on sight (cooldown is 60s). This allows players to counter the stealth detection of the stationary sentry, by dodging the throw. It is unblockable. If the opponent is already cloaked, he will not try to throw one, because he cannot see him and has no aggro. This allows surprise attacks to have more of an impact rather than being spotted because you moved close to a guard; and it does not remove the purpose of surveillance from sentry, it only places the cloak and detection after his painter lands, rather than on sight detection. - To replace tower sensor, Add ONE cloak-detecting mobile point-2-point moving guard near towers. This allows for counter play. This allows cloak builds to work after defeating the mobile cloak detecting guard (this guard is a non-upgrade and his respawn time is same as original sentry). This mobile guard acts like the original sentry, but is stationed and patrols near towers; detection radius is same as original sentry. Allows for teams to send only 1 person to assassinate the guard, then the rest goes in for the covert ops. 1 detection guard per tower. Add small World EXP for staying inside home territory (does not apply to corner spawn points) - Grant 25 WvW XP per 5 minutes if the player is at a team's territory when the 5 minutes end. Sure some may be afk, but at least give credit to scouts who stay at camps. Some people like doing watch-tower stuff. What do you think?

Alright its released! I didn't explain 100% because I'm talking as I play, but I will make an overview soon. Enjoy the watch!

Confusion is already a good heal mitigator. If they have confusion, like a huge stack on them, and they heal; they take damage first before the heal completes, or if it is a mantra heal, they take damage simultaneous to the isnta heal. Confusion is really the condition that best fits mesmer. But having new conditions from EoD would be pretty cool.

going to reveal the rest this evening for those interested, currently at work atm. Just like to share something that may be fun/useful for others to try something new/different or revisit this style if you tried it before. But if not, I expect it to be a new style for you.

True, but most engagements are pretty good tbh. It has potential actually. Open fields are where its least favorable.

I've been posting this recently, but I wish they had the Deception Trait option (column 1 option top on Mirage spec Line), to also give 20% cooldown time reduction on deception skills.

Single target diversion daze with clones can be chained by having 3 clones up with illusionary ambush. The clones will be around the opponent from different distances and angles, so they will daze one at a time.

To a forum near you. "What Build is that?" - Thieves. Build Reveal Date: 2/12/2022. Update Video Upload 3/3/2022: (The origin of the build was based on fighting thieves, after thousands of deaths, using the build got better and better. Still learning, and growing! And I hope it is entertaining to all interested!)

If the second evade will remain lost, then please compensate by having the Deception trait option (column 1 top option of Mirage spec line), reduce deception skill cooldown by 20% like how chaos column 1 bottom option reduces manipulation skills by 20% This will make in WvW illusionary ambush go from 35 seconds to 28 seconds and the other skills of deception reduced similarly by 20% so that the mirage can almost have it's evade capabilities as it did pre-second evade removal. And, because it is selectable, it will forego mid option for condi incoming duration reduction for balance. Hopefully other people don't deny this.

Example, If I have a guild bonus icon on me, and I summon a clone, it should also apply to the clone. As far as I know, the only icons clones share also is if I am equipped with a polyluminescent undulating refractor (Cat's Shadow, or Gourde Vibrations; from the black or orange colors). For now if the mesmer target breaks, it is easy for anyone to hit the tab key or just click on clones to look at the one mesmer which has buffs when the other doesnt. Using food and utility is also like painting a target on yourself with this. The players know (for now) it is easy to find the real mesmer by tab targeting or clicking on the clones checking their icons. That is unfair to the class mechanic, and bypasses the purpose of clones and deception. I know that other mesmers are aware of this, but it is time to speak up about it. When using builds that are not dependent at cloak, the mesmer is supposed to use its target breaking abilities + clone summoning to help hide in plain sight, instead of hiding in shadows (which is more of a thief thing). Therefore, the mesmer has technically been playing handicapped because the clones do not reflect the bonuses put on the mesmer, essentially negating one of the purpose of clones. If I have food and utility on me and a guild bonus and borderland bloodlust, and I summon clones; they should also have those bonuses applied. This is so that tab-targeting is no longer the key to easily find the mesmer. For non-mesmer players fearing never finding the real mesmer, (without using the tab-target key) the mesmer gives away itself with a more frequent attack speed/rate, and obvious player-like movement. Also pay attention to the projectiles or attack the mesmer(s) give you, the one who hits you hardest is the player, and the one who is more tanky when you hit the "clone" is the player. The only icons which will not be shared to the clones are the trait producing effects such as blocking with off-hand sword (shows a sword icon), or using Illusion trait line where summoning a clone gives you a purple icon showing a damage buff, or duelist trait line option with sword icon from sword/spear attacks giving ferocity bonuses. Because it is not the clones which produce the bonuses but the summoning of the clones giving the bonus to the real mesmer. And only that bonus should be the one set apart from the other clones, the rest are shared via duplication because they are clones. The clones are already fragile and easy to kill, and if the mesmer player is standing and place acting like one, the mesmer is not dealing much dps at all compared to bursting or attacking normally instead of slowly. For now, it is easy to tab-target to look for the mesmer. The purpose of the mesmer is misdirection; but for now having buffs not shared on clones is like a self-give away. Again, if I have distortion on me, it will not be on the clones of course since they shatter. And if I am blocking with scepter or sword, that icon will not be on clones, but if I have buffs on me (not the boons but the icons shaped square from whatever field bonus such as food or towers owned by guilds with bonus), it should also be on clones. Again also, if I summon a clone with the illusion trait, the clone will not have compounding power, only the mesmer will as usual. Because the clone is not the one that summons, but the mesmer. I also forgot to add, if I have signets up, the clones will also have the signet icons, but those signets on the clones are only decoration and are inactive on the clones, only active on the player. I am sure by now you may get the point. Thanks.

To balance out this, let the grenades keep the same damage according to available stats and boon bonuses and engi trait options, but just have the grenades delay its explosion after one second. Because it is a grenade. Grenades should be delayed a bit before explosion. Edit:: Or instead of 1 second maybe half/second. You know how some aoe circle effects have a visual before the effect is in place, giving players time to dodge it. But imagine engi grenades while you are stunned or immobilized.

Celestial is necessary for the new player experience. They may not know what stats to put, so they will go for the jump starter one. After some experience and finding a playstyle, they will trade off some stats for other stats. Celestial allows players to make trinkets a core for stats, or the armor a core for stats, and then peak out on other stat specializations other than celestial, using the trinkets or weapon and armor. Variety begins with literally having an armor stat with each stat available. One thing celestial suffers at is optimization for a specific role. It is not the best dps, not the best tank, not the best healer, not the best boon keeper, not the best condition damage dealer; BUT, it makes up for it with the boons on itself just up and enough time to make you be versatile in all engagements. It can be a survival set, and buy you time to find a weakness in the opponent's cool-down rotations. You won't die to one shots, but at the same time, you wont one shot them. Your boons will last just enough to have the opportunity to deal high damage or to resist damage/effects, but not indefinitely. You have good heal to keep you standing up, but not enough to carry a team, etc. Celestial helps players path-find a role, until then, they get to have a taste of each playstyle until they pick their role for the long run. Edit: Celestial also helps you finish fights you wont finish if you were tank, and help you survive fights you wouldn't survive if you went berserker.

What is a Field Illusion? Clone Mirror Diamond (from Mirage) Virtuoso needs to have something in place to stand where a clone would be, in addition to having a blade stored above the head. The reason is that the virtuoso will suffer from not having the clones to block some projectile dps when standing behind them. Thus, instead of a clone up, a sword facing upward will spin in place, as a collectable/ready to self-shatter/ready to block, it can only do one of the three things, then disappears when activated. The spinning blade will disappear if collected by the Virtuoso, providing three stacks of might (because its a blade). Three like bountiful dissillusionment shatter f1 bonus. The spinning blade will disappear if an enemy touches it, by shattering equal to that of core mesmer power shatter F1. The spinning blade will disappear after blocking one projectile (similar to off-hand sword-4). Max of three blades can be summoned on field, in addition to the five stored blades on the head. They are separate mechanics that could work together. Onfield is not controllable, but a static mechanic, above the head is the controllable one. They only last 10 seconds long on the field. This allows for variability in addition to the blades being stored on top of the mesmer's head. These on-field blades cannot be shattered by f skills, and do not consume shatter ammo, nor act as a ammo stored. They are stationary to fill that gap/void of lack of on-field summons where a clone would stand. This is recommended for Mesmer because they need on-field summons to take advantage of utility skills. Sure, the phantasms are summoned, but they turn into ammo, which is cool, but we need something to stand in place. The reason the blade will not block melee is because it would be too much for melee players, using heavy class armor, which have an easier time literally walking through the blades, if they don't mind some damage taken.

I hope there will be fish foods for WvW with buffs for underwater combat. "Grilled Salmon" + 100 Power underwater +50 Power on Land +5% swim Speed. Something like that.

To fairly compensate for the mirage having one evade, and using a build or builds that relies on utilizing the mesmer's elusive, deceptive profession design with the mirage spec, and inspired by Chaotic trait line column 1 bottom option which reduces manipulation recharge by 20%; The following suggestion is to have Self-Deceptive trait option reduce deception cds utility skills by 20%, so that the mirage opens up for builds that improve mobility and face-tanking. Remember that the stun-breaks in evade has been removed, and mirage is reduced to 1 evade. Mirage suffers a lot from Crowd Control if they are landed with proper timing. Likewise, Mirage can avoid these by timing their evades and relocations using the teleports built into some deception skills. Remember that the mesmer that moves a lot is easy to find, but the one who is patient would be more difficult to deal with. If and only If the deceptive trait option in the mirage trait is selected, then the following utilities are affected with regard to cooldown reduction in a WvW (and PvP) Context. [False Oasis (Heal Skill) (From 25 to 20) Crystal Sands (From 20 to 16) Illusionary Ambush (35 to 28) Mirage Advance (25 to 20) Sand Through Glass (25 to 20) Jaunt (Elite) (30 to 24)] Selecting this option forgoes Renewing Oasis and Riddle of Sand. Renewing Oasis Reduces enemy-to-player condi duration and gives minor healing for a short duration per mirage evade, and riddle of sand provides confusion-to-enemy per ambush attack with shatter skill to reset it. Thus, using Self-Deception will buff Mirage's mobility if using the self-deception trait line due to reduced cool-down reduction, and equipping deception skills. What do you think?

As long as you have stun breaks, stability, and condition cleanses built into your build; and some method of escaping a difficult situation, you should be fine roaming. Your vitality is low, which means a high burst from condition damage will be your weakness if not cleansed; especially if your heal is very low. Someone with low healing will be at a disadvantage if their heal skill is interrupted. However, because of your dps, you can end fights quicker, or force the opponent to be defensive, thus less dps on you. According to your weapon set, the best method of escaping a tight situation is to have swiftness boon up while your opponent is crippled. You already have high DPS because of good power above 2000+, therefore do not burst in a 1v2+, but spread your dps out to leave a window of escape. Typically bursting can get one opponent down for a kill, but you become open to attack from another. I like the reflect on your axe 5. You are using a non-bow build, which is eye catching.

There are sigils that inflict chill on crits with chances, and foods with chill on crits as well, and I think runes too, and then if you combine those with a class that can dish out chills with traits and/or weapons/utilities, it makes it really powerful. I'm probably just one of the people that encounters them more than others in the same way someone might be running into burns more than I do.

Chill is the condition I die to when it is reapplied too quickly First it makes you move slowly (on foot), and second it slows recharge time. That is two things in one condition. Okay that is fine, but let us talk about the reapplication of it (meaning to say, it comes back after being cleansed by another skill or the same skill). The issue, is that even if cleansed, it can be quickly reapplied, making your cleanse skills kind of vain, but also useless due to recharges being mitigated. It is not like cleansing a huge stack of other condis, and then when those condis are reapplied, it is not as deadly as the bulk stack you just cleansed because they need to land the same burst to get the same damage. But, chill doesn't stack, just one application of it does wonders for the opponent. And it lands the same effect even after the cleanse. Now I don't die to chill the moment it is there, but I die to it because it is reapplied easily (after all my cleanses are exhausted). It is literally something that should be talked about. I understand this is a condition that is helpful for certain classes, and that is fine, it is a counter to quickness boons, and to high mobility builds, benefiting the slow mobility classes. I believe chill could be adjusted to where it is not so bad during the day, but it is really bad during the night. So the 66% slow movement speed and 40% slower recharge time would be night time, and then for the day time 33% movement speed reduction and 20% slower recharge time would make sense. As for burn, we could do something similar, more deadly during the day, not as deadly at night. Instead of flat-line same damage day/night, could be 33% more deadly day, 33% less deadly at night. In this way, certain conditions would be stronger during one half of the day. This might even open up for further discussions on other conditions being affected by day/night effects or even adjusted effects. For example: Bleed could become more unique in that, it is initially not deadly, but every second, or tick afterward, it does more damage then the tick before (hence bleed), but it is the one condition that is auto-cleansed by any heal (even if it doesn't have a condition cleanser). For example, each tick could do 1.1 more damage than prior, until cleansed or condition time expires. Instead of 100, 100, 100, each tick. It could be, 100, 110, 121, 133, etc (this is just a single bleed unit). Bleeding is worse if you don't heal it, or condi cleanse. For balance, give all classes the ability to auto-heal bleed, built it to any heal skill, so that against condi, heal skills always heal bleed. Therefore, bleed is much more punishing, if you don't use condi cleanse, or normal heal skill. Thus, bleed condition could force an early heal to put opponents out of their comfortable rotations in skill use. Torment was already reworked, so I won't talk about that. Confusion seems fine to me, it is balanced in that you don't take damage by not using skills, except for the tiny damage when applied regardless. Fear is fine. Immobilize is fine. What do you think, let me know! Looking forward for some insights. I like to see variation in condition usage.

I have witnessed a warclaw use of going through the gap in the gate on that tower, jumping from the left side on top of the foundation (facing the gate from the outside). I think it is hard to do, and it is an exploit. Mind you, I saw this once, it is a glitch I think. If anyone has seen similar then it needs to be addressed and dealt with. I believe it is repeatable though. Edit: I think they used warclaw one also to dismount mid-air and then that transitions them into the otherside, hence the opponent was seen first with warclaw, then on foot.

Inspired by the 20% recharge reduction for the Chaos Trait Line Option: Master of Manipulation, which reduces recharges for mirror, blink, arcane thievery, and mimic; and factoring mirage only having 1 evade, and that more builds could be utilized; It would be nice for Self-Deception reduce recharges of deception utility skills by 20 Percent. (WvW context) [- False Oasis would be brought down to 20 seconds from 25 - Crystal Sands would be 20 from 25 - Illusionary Ambush would be 28 instead of 35 - Mirage Advance would be 20 from 25 - Sand through glass would be 16 from 20 (or is it 20 from 25?) - Jaunt would be 24 from 30] = If and only if, Self-Deception was selected. This is a trade off from defensive trait option: renewing Oasis which helps against condi, and offensive: Riddle of Sand, which contributes confusion per ambush attack with shatter resets Mirage needs to have a bit more options against being caught in multiple stuns and knock-downs due to: - fragility of class to begin with - only one evade available and built-in stun removal, removed - its chaotic interruption as a built-in immobilization when interrupting enemies, was removed Therefore, because it's ability to immobilize other's has been diminished, and its ability to help itself from being immobilized is diminished, then I humbly promote an improvement to it's ability to avoid being immobilized, by having a little more mobility. Result: - Improves mobility, and provides consistency with some traits reducing weapon recharges, and other traits reducing utility recharges. - opens doors for more creative mirage builds. Balance forecast: - countering this is simply done by killing the clones asap - look for mirage that moves too much like a player, or look for icon buffs (which is another topic discussion I will post). - When a mirage has self-deception, they are weaker to condi, and do not produce regeneration when evading (this is the current event now) Wdyt?

If I have staff and swap to staff; an actual second weapon equipped; I don’t have to wait for the skill cooldown; the cooldown is fresh because it is a different staff. if I have axe off sword; and I switch to second axe/Offsword; the cooldown resets. of course switching back to the original set those cooldowns will need to complete. Wdyt?

Each class is different in defense against getting conditions landing on them. The trick is to not get hit by a condition bomb via a circle or insta cast. Some classes cleanse conditions built into heals, or evades, or in the use of skills/utilities; others cleanse through swapping with their target's boons with conditions. Again, some classes also have traits to tweak condition duration; and then there are sigil bonuses or reductions and food for anti-condi. Conditions bypass armor to counter toughness and armor defence stats; and conditions are useful in WvW for multi fights. Power builds at the moment are very good at sniping or single targeting an opponent who is weakening over a battle of attrition. The balance between power and condition is best used with a lean on power, and less on condi. The reason is so if you get boon or condition flipped the counter against you doesn't do much, and your power damage is still high enough to spike up with precision or ferocity boons or class-trait bonuses whenever you want to surge or burst play. Toughness depends on your class again, if its jumpy you can lessen the toughness, if its slow, you can increase the toughness. Concerning trait tweaks for classes; some specializations have combination uses: Healing Power and Power work togetherToughness and Condition Work togetherPrecision Power and Ferocity Work TogetherCondition and Concentration work togetherExpertise and Boons work together. I highly recommend having at least three of your equipment be used with all celestial; for example, my accessory and rings are all celestial stats ascended, and the armor can be some full gear, and my weapons either celestial or matching the armor set. To explain this; the current meta shifted towards condition emphasis; which means condition cleanses are in massive use. More cleansing use means less DPS overall and less mobility overall for almost all players; if they want to sustain in a fight. By going a few on celestial, and specialized on whatever 3 or 4 set armor/weapon stats, or celestial weaps and specialized armor for your build, will help determine where you can peak in a fight (burst/land a bomb, etc). As of now, if you can get maybe 800 Condition damage stat, and perhaps 1800+ power, and some 2300+ toughness, you are balanced and can handle most fights up to a 1v3 with the best use of the environment for your class. If you go 2000+ power, you can be great in 1v1, but are most likely vulnerable in a multi fight. If your condition damage is less than 700, you are missing out on some important dps. So, the current meta option is to go full Power with healing power, toughness an some condi cleanse; or to go hybrid with emphasis on power, and secondary condi, or go full condition damage, condi cleanse, and healing power, since toughness is countered by condi. [This is if you want to be a pure DPS build] If you want sustainability, i recommend the core celestial, and sub-specialized examples I mentioned above. I won't reveal much, but I have been experimenting on a non-cloak mirage jumper build and I have been handling fights really well!, so I'm passing on these stat balance philosophies to see if people are familiar with it, or have noticed its effectiveness. Ever wondered why you lost a fight when your opponent was down to 15 percent health? perhaps you emphasized too much on toughness and not enough on power, or condition damage, so that is where you can make the adjustment tweak in your build so you can make it you are down to 40 percent and they are downed and you win.