Hirosama Nadasaki.6792

You could try something cheesy with stealth. Kinda works for trapper dragonhunter with longbow 2.

This effect is already present in core mesmer, on the Mental Anguish trait on the domination traitline. It means it deals bonus damage if the enemy is not in the middle of any skills or attacks at the moment, such as they're stunned or dazed.

I mean that's understandable and all, but they forgot to buff the support skills of chronomancer back.

Regarding sword 3, they'll probably make it a phantom instead of a clone. It's functionally the same and allows virtuoso to use it properly. Maybe a virtuoso trait that doubles your clone/blade generation.

Just gonna copy paste what I posted in the mesmer forum about virtuoso I'm not exactly sad or anything but it's rather... underwhelming. When the shadowed teaser art was shown it was kinda obvious that the illusion blades instead of clones mechanic would be a thing, and even though I love clones as a mechanic, I'm happy to have something that's actually unique from core mesmer for once, and the idea of creating and controlling floating illusionary blades is really cool. That being said, all the shatters still do pretty much exactly the same thing they do as a core mesmer, except they're now a pierce instead of a proper aoe (which is arguably worse). Press F1 for raw damage, press F2 for confusion, press F3 for daze, press F4 for distortion (which is now block, which is, again, worse). Also the only thing you can do with the blades is throwing them? That feels rather uninspired. We could've used them as follow-ups to our attacks, counters, pets, persistent aoes (ala renegade charr things), or even wield them. In fact, our utility skills could've been like elementalist conjure skills, but we summon illusionary weapons instead of elemental ones, adressing complaints that mesmer has the least elite espec weapon skills of all classes in the process, but all we get are projectiles? It seems like it deals good damage, and the gameplay seems cool enough at a first glance, but it just doesn't feel like enough. Nowhere near enough. On a smaller note, some of the visual effects like dagger 1 are fuzzy and ugly, hope they polish it a bit.

Another thing that's really worrying me and I'm not seeing anyone talk about is wether or not we can move while channeling the shatter skills. I'm reviewing the first look video, and he seems to never move while channeling. It's one thing to have easily dodgeable/blockable shatter projectiles, it's another if on top of that it makes us sitting ducks.

In my opinion yes, absolutely. Uniqueness is almost always welcome. Were it up to me, Mirage "shatters" wouldn't be shatters, but instead commands to the illusions that doesn't kill them, to keep more in line with the espec thematic of Mirage wanting illusions active instead of consuming them for burst.

Seems like one of the skills is more well-like, in that it's a stationary persistent circle aoe. Well, kinda more like elementalist meteor shower. The rest of the skills are just.... something.

Oh boy do I got bad news for you.

Ah, I didn't notice the vulnerability being applied. Like I said, it was just a theory. It felt like it made sense and created a playstyle.

Considering how many persistent aoes like dagger 2 and 3, shatter 4, that blade rainfall utility and the elite skill, my theory is that the traits will focus on cripple/immob rather than vulnerability.

I mean it has the name but it doesn't actually do anything song related at all. I knew a music related espec wasn't guaranteed or anything, and I'm pretty indifferent about not getting one, but I sure hope they're not counting on *this* being it.

I'm not exactly sad or anything but it's rather... underwhelming. When the shadowed teaser art was shown it was kinda obvious that the illusion blades instead of clones mechanic would be a thing, and even though I love clones as a mechanic, I'm happy to have something that's actually unique from core mesmer for once, and the idea of creating and controlling floating illusionary blades is really cool. That being said, all the shatters still do pretty much exactly the same thing they do as a core mesmer, except they're now a pierce instead of a proper aoe (which is arguably worse). Press F1 for raw damage, press F2 for confusion, press F3 for daze, press F4 for distortion (which is now block, which is, again, worse). Also the only thing you can do with the blades is throwing them? That feels rather uninspired. We could've used them as follow-ups to our attacks, counters, pets, persistent aoes (ala renegade charr things), or even wield them. In fact, our utility skills could've been like elementalist conjure skills, but we summon illusionary weapons instead of elemental ones, adressing complaints that mesmer has the least elite espec weapon skills of all classes in the process, but all we get are projectiles? It seems like it deals good damage, and the gameplay seems cool enough at a first glance, but it just doesn't feel like enough. Nowhere near enough. On a smaller note, some of the visual effects like dagger 1 are fuzzy and ugly, hope they polish it a bit.

My fave downstate is the mesmer one not too weak, not too strong, thematically fitting, and with useful abilities. Same hp for all could be a good idea, though I'd settle for a bit higher so they don't get oneshot from a simple cleave, smth like 18-20k. Alternatively, make it so reviving heals a flat amount instead of a %, so being tanky means you have a tankier downed state, but is harder to revive. Getting interrupted while reviving could also apply a small cooldown to being able to revive, rally could be adjusted so it's a 1-to-1 thing or just a big heal to downed allies instead of a full recover, etc etc. Plenty of interesting ways to adjust downed state and make it more fair.

Agreed. The downed state skills, like any other skills, need balancing. But removing downed state as a mechanic entirely just because some of the skills related to it are unbalanced is akin to removing an entire profession from the game because some of its builds are overpowered.

What has put GW2 PvP in the state it's in is the fact that, for the past few years, they've released 2 or 3 minor balance patches per year to pvp and they often miss the mark on top of that. PvP games rely on frequent fine-tuning to maintain a healthy balance, not to mention introduction of new elements to break up the mold. GW2 has neither of those, the game mode is effectively abandoned by development. Downed state has nothing to do with sPvP's current situation, it's a scape goat by people who just don't like the mechanic for personal reasons.

No. Downed state is a fundamental aspect of gw2 combat, around which several skills are made. Learn to play with it or go play WoW Arena.

This is an MMO, it's not meant to be played solo in the first place. But yes, they should've designed it so specializing in something comes at the cost of other functions, though that isn't what we have now outside of raids.

In my opinion the biggest issue with their execution of "no holy trinity" design is that they designed the classes to be able to fill every role rather than any role. Being able to customize your class so you can make it a healer, a tank, a damage dealer, a support, or whatever else you want on a whim is amazing, however in GW2 you can be all or at least multiple of those things at the same time, which effectively kills teamwork; if each party member can fill every need they might have, then they start playing only around themselves, and don't need to interact with the rest of the group they're playing with. It makes the game feel like a solo game even when you're in the middle of a crowd doing an open world meta event or some such.

It is an opinion yes, but it's not dismissable because of it. If a majority of people share this opinion it's definitely a real issue. And while it's true chrono and mirage still have a little flavour to them, it's at an all time low. Playing mirage or chrono feels no different than playing core mesmer, unlike weaver to elementalist, scourge to necromancer, or holosmith to engineer. Yes, CS adds a lot of flavour and it's really unique, but like I mentioned it's one small duration skill on a huge cooldown in an espec kit that's otherwise unchanged, unlike those 3 examples where you're constantly experiencing the difference. "Flavour can't come before balance." I think that's a matter of design philosophy, for me balance is worthless if it comes at the cost of the class identity. This issue is very visible on FFXIV for example; they've homogenized all healer classes to balance them, and there was a huge backlash since they now feel completely identical. Balance is important of course, but maintaining the identity and feel of the class should always be a priority when balancing imo.

Phantasm-to-clone conversion would actually be an example I had in mind. Of course it did have a positive impact balance and gameplay-wise, but imo it was born from a core issue with mesmer. Since the game release, mesmer damage was vastly reliant on shattering, but phantasms required you to leave them on the field, so there was a conflict. Phantasm rework fixed that conflict, but it did so by further solidifying that shattering as much as possible is the intended mesmer gameplay. When I started playing, the official description for mesmer gave me the impression that mesmers were supposed to keep their illusions alive, to distract and disorient the enemy, when I soon realised it's vastly more optimal to use your clones like shatter ammo it just seemed so bland and counter to the thematic. For Chronomancer, they have cut down the quickness, slow, and alacrity output over time, and on top of that they've given alacrity to other classes and even to Mirage. The wells were never really that flavourful, they have a clock face because "time", but didn't really give any impression of manipulating time, Continuum Split is the most unique and flavourful thing in Chrono's kit, but it's a 6 second effect gated behind a massive cooldown that they've increased over time, and now the time-related buffs/debuffs that Chrono can apply are on the same level as most other classes so it's not even a niche that it can fill in properly. The fact that Mirage can output more alacrity than Chrono is just ridiculous. Mirage's thematic is basically a core mesmer, but even more elusive and slippery. Naturally that was severely affected when they cut down the dodge count in half, but they also increased the cooldown of illusionary ambush and sand through glass by a considerable amount, both skills that gave Mirage a lot of mobility and elusiveness, and on top of that removed a charge from Jaunt. The fact boon-mirage is now so effective is also a mood-killer since it's kinda immobile. And most recently, the rework to mantras removed all flavour from the ability class, now it's just a bland instant-cast effect on an ammo system. It doesn't even have anything remotely mantra-like to it anymore, nor anything that sets it apart from any other skill-type in any way. As a minor note, they've given the portal ability to necro and thief. It doesn't change much of anything for mesmer but I'm still salty about it since it was such an iconic skill.

It's not a matter of whether the class/espec is performing good or not, it's about the flavour of it. They've been steadily removing flavour from mesmer and its especs over time and now it's a stackpiled mess that struggles between identity and balance.

Conquest is not dying. PvP is dying. Because it's a neglected game mode that gets 1 minor balance patch twice a year and has stayed fundamentally the same since the game was released. I have been playing pvp for quite a while and nowadays about 1 in every 50 or so matches does anyone in the team say anything actually relevant to the match, every other time it's always just flaming, raging, or vaguely passing the blame to someone else in a completely unproductive way. Chat is absolutely irrelevant in solo Q in the best cases. In the worst cases it's actually detrimental.

Turn off team and map chat and focus on your actual performance. Your team will rarely have something worthwhile to say.

Remove it and give it back to chrono. It was dissapointing enough that they added alacrity to other classes despite repeatedly touting that alacrity was chrono's unique mechanic, the fact that chrono isn't even the best alacrity supplier anymore is just poor game design.