Virtuoso visuals - yeah or nay?

[Shaaba.5672]

Personally, I think the visuals are a little overwhelming and I'd prefer them to be toned down. How do you feel about it?

[Lincolnbeard.1735]

Didn't vote because I like some and dislike others.

F4 is over the top.
F3 is meh.
F2 is gorgeous.
F1 is ugly af.
I like the circles on SoD and RoS and dislike the swords.
BoR is pretty cool.
Elite is trash.

So it's like 50/50.

Edited August 21, 2021 by Lincolnbeard.1735

[Shaaba.5672]

Good point. Most of them are ok, but there are a few that are very large and flashy, so it gives me the impression that the whole thing is over the top. I think if the color was desaturated even a bit it might overall bring down the visual noise. For instance, even the dagger 1 has a large purple trail that seems overly large. reduce it a bit and desaturate it and that would help. Dagger 3 it's more understandable that it needs to be seen, but I'd still rather it was toned down.

 

The F skills are colorful, but the only one I think is over the top is, as you said, F4. Whoa. RoS I am the opposite, I like the swords, but not the circle. Both are overkill. SoD I don't mind as much because it's quick and doesn't linger. Psychic force is a wash - it's large and flashy, but it's quick. The elite's animation is fine, I just think - again - it's too flashy and colorful to be lasting that long. 

 

Overall my problem is not with the animations themselves so much as that they are too large and colorful and in your face. In my perfect world, they would be a bit smaller and less colorful. It just seems that the virtuoso announces itself more than any other elite spec, minus maybe the harbinger - but the harbinger visuals are mainly focused on the character and not the enemy, so not as in your face.

[Batel.9206]

I had to vote no, because while I do like most of the visual effects, there are some massive drawbacks that I can't get past.

 

By themselves, most of the skill animations are absolutely gorgeous. The colors, the designs...so intricate and beautiful. (I also love the character animations, and amused myself way too much trying to get a good screenshot of F1's movement...all I managed was either a giant purple poof, or my character doing a deranged version of the chicken dance.) Only issue I have with them is F4's animation. Oh gosh my eyes are bleeding. It's way too large, flashy, and over-the-top.

 

The major problem? The GLOW. The bloom on everything is just eye-searing. I hope they'll tone down the flash and glow on every animation, even the daggers floating alongside the character, because it's just too much. It's quite beautiful - but rather overwhelming. I can barely even see my character in the flashing, glowing purple storm. Like I said: by themselves, the skill animations are gorgeous...but when there's a lot of them all together (as often happens in GW2's fast-paced combat), they blur together into a big mess that obscures most of what I'm trying to see, like whatever enemy I'm fighting, what the enemy is doing, etc. I haven't even done PVP with the virtuoso yet because I wouldn't be able to actually see anything.

 

Can't really play the spec for too long before I get eyestrain. 😕

[Mungo Zen.9364]

Where is my ‘meh’ option?

 

I chose no cause that’s closer to meh than yes. 

[Shaaba.5672]

1 hour ago, Batel.9206 said:

The major problem? The GLOW. The bloom on everything is just eye-searing. I hope they'll tone down the flash and glow on every animation, even the daggers floating alongside the character, because it's just too much. It's quite beautiful - but rather overwhelming.

I think this is getting to the problem I have too. It's just TOO much. I said desaturate the colors, but maybe the glow is the problem. Either way I think it should be toned down in some way.

[ChronoPinoyX.7923]

F4 is probably the worst offender of the bunch, the rest I personally enjoy though, especially since I get to be The Storm That is Approaching. Would be nice if we could alter the colours but eh we get what we're given

 

 

[Za Shaloc.3908]

Stocked blades: Blades themselves are very pretty, but they have too much bloom on them. Would like for it to get reduced. They look quite cool with my Vision though.

 

F1: Pretty nice. Not too many feelings on it. Sometimes the animation seems to get culled and I can't really notice it. The symbol in front of the player is really beautiful. 

F2: Absolutely gorgeous. My favorite animation of the e-spec. 10/10.

F3: Fine.

F4: I like the prism but dislike the blades. Part of my dislike is within the design itself; the e-spec's biggest defensive cooldown should not proc any reveal. 

 

Dagger AA: I really dislike it. IMO it's got too much bloom, but my biggest problem with it is the casting animation. It is a recycled dagger AA animation for melee attacks and doesn't at all evoke the feeling of a Virtuoso. Wish it was something more elegant. 

Dagger 2: Fine.

Dagger 3: My least favorite of all the skills. From my perspective, Virtuoso is a very refined and controlled approach to Mesmer. This skill really feels chaotic (it has the name "storm" in the name, so makes sense). While a theme inherent to Mesmer, it just doesn't really fit for me. Likely just personal taste. Would prefer for the F4 animation to get toned down a bit and moved to this skill.

 

Twin Blade Restoration: not much to say about it. It's a heal skill, didn't really expect much. 

Rain of Swords: Pretty, if a bit excessive. I do like it a lot.

Sword of Decimation: Too similar to Rain of Swords. IMO this skill design itself  is also too similar to RoS

Psychic Force: Pretty cool.

Thousand Cuts: Really pretty but quite small tbh. Wish it were a little more noticeable.

 

I should also note that the sound effects of all the skills are really lovely. They really add to the experience.

 

[Yoci.2481]

It looks pretty. Maybe a bit much but it doesnt bother me.

[Genesis.5169]

Yeah i do the swords look good with ad infinitium.

[Fueki.4753]

I like the animations.

[Mik.3401]

The animations in themselves are ok, however the visual clutter is just too large. I’d say other Mesmer specs feel clean in comparison (and they have very busy animations already)

[De Bourgogne.9642]

don't like dagger 3 rest is good

[Curunen.8729]

I love the floating/rotating symbols when casting F skills, utilities or the elite - though maybe the overhead symbol of eg rain of swords could have some visual reduction for other players.

 

Dagger auto feels a little off given it is essentially slinging a projectile attack, whereas the reverse grip slash seems like it should be some kind of instant strike on the target rather than something with travel time. Not too fussed though.

 

The rest of it looks great.

 

Audio for F skills could be a little more impactful. I love the audio overall for the spec.

[Leonidrex.5649]

Personally I think the visuals are too HUGE and eye-catchy. 
they replaced one visual clutter with another.
Its fine to have massive clutter on a skill, if it has a long cooldown, and high impact.
but falling swords and dagger 3 are very low cd spammable, same with shatters.
1 Increase cooldowns on dagger 3, dagger 2 ( compensate by making them better, give boons/condis/cc as it has nothing )
2 make the F1-2-3 shatters converge into mesmer hand that he holds to his chest and fire from there, less visual clutter hovering.
3 falling swords utility covers the kittening shy like a kittening flare, some people look at the game from top to bottom and that covers entire kittening floor, that has to be changed too

[Lincolnbeard.1735]

36 minutes ago, Leonidrex.5649 said:

2 make the F1-2-3 shatters converge into mesmer hand that he holds to his chest and fire from there, less visual clutter hovering.

Don't you dare change F2 goddamnit! It's the only thing that got me addicted to virt.

[Zenith.7301]

Like the core virtuoso and utility skills. The dagger skills I don't like at all, they should look a lot sharper and mirrorish, not pink powdery and blurry.

[Salt Mode.3780]

They put all the effort into Virtuoso clutter to make it more obvious that you are there while spending no effort to work on traits/utilities. OFC they want to make it flashy its like a lighthouse to signal people that there is a free kill lol.

[otto.5684]

I like them, but they are a bit much.

[AXLIB.8425]

I mean if they nerf the visual then the only redeeming quality of virtuoso is gone

[Xaylin.1860]

31 minutes ago, AXLIB.8425 said:

I mean if they nerf the visual then the only redeeming quality of virtuoso is gone

You'd still whield 5 blades for cooking competitions on skiffs.

 

Chop chop chop! 🔪🔪🔪

[Jijimuge.4675]

I like the visuals on the whole, especially the F2 and Thousand Cuts.  I think the F1 is nice too.

IMO Thousand Cuts has a great animation and am glad to see it's not been overdone.  To me, that's just right.

I agree with Za Shaloc that the crystal orb (for the block) on the F4 is fine, but find the circling blades too much.  IMO I think the blades should be toned down a bit.

However, the visuals on Rain of Swords and Sword of Decimation are way too much clutter for me...especially when they're other players' effects.  It's really the "sky circles" that I find most intrusive.  I also think the animations are a bit too similar for these 2 skills.

[Sir Alric.5078]

I really liked the gorgeous animations of the Virtuoso, so i'm hoping they won't be tuned down (or worse, removed) when EoD launches next February. I'm still mad over the fact that they removed the mantra's animations for Mesmers and Firebrands (yes, it was annoying having to recast the mantra every time you changed map, but couldn't they have found a solution that didn't involve erasing the pretty visuals? ç_ç), and i don't want to be disappointed again. 

[Allarius.5670]

I could only see the blades from the Bladesong skills about 1/4 of the time or less. I tried messing around with various settings but I couldn't figure out why that was the case.