My dissapointment with Virtuoso.

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

TL;DR - I come to a french restaurant for some fine cuisine, yet am served a McDonald's burger.

Warrior started using pink skills?
As I watched a squadron of pigs soar across the evening sky (an event that may or not be related to fact i decided to main a mesmer after being 8 years necro main and sworn mesmer hater) I felt a deep sense of...nothing when i pondered the upcoming virtuoso spec.

It's shiny, it fixes the huge pain of illusion management (which in plain english means: your damage and shatters getting shafted by 1001 things that are beyond your control) and it's easy to manage.
Don't get me wrong, it's a great spec.

...But it's not a mesmer.

Mesmers are rule benders, warpers or reality, tricksters that get off on outplaying enemies and breaking rules that others have to follow.
Yet virtuoso, contrary to his own name seems to embrace simplicity that would make any self respecting mesmer wretch while a warrior grin.

Distortion is replaced by a simple, common-peasent block.
Skills are shiny and aoe, but are about as complex as making an order at a hot-dog stand.
If i crack my brain at possible outplays a virtuoso can make, I will have to admit that was a challenging 30 seconds of thinking..

To add insult to injury not only does the spec seem to not create any new intricate synergies with base kit beyond it's core purpose (give mesmer aoe without clones!)
but even the base synergies that should be there by no merit of spec itself (like stocked blades interacting with clone traits) weren't all there!

I'm promised a concert, but it seems like a dead simple can opener to pve mesmer issues without much room for imagination...


 

Edited September 4, 2021 by ZeftheWicked.3076

[mungozen.2379]

This was a pretty weak Beta test period. Given how many of the traits and skills were not interacting, it’s hard to say how bad Virtuoso really will be. 
 

I really hope Virtuoso doesn’t become meta, weakest gameplay and mechanics doesn’t deserve that status. 

[Zenith.7301]

Problem is the only appeal and gameplay gain of virtuoso is the same effect as Soulbeast where you cut out the weak class mechanic, except unlike Soulbeast you don't get any cool new skills in exchange.

 

In fact, at the expense of the core problems/flaws of clones in PvE and WvW you just trade aoe shatters for single target shatters, which makes no sense.

 

Why is a class with some of the worst aoe/cleave in the game being forced to have even less cleave/aoe damage?

 

On top of that the Virtuoso suffers from the Mirage/Ele syndrome where if it doesn't become an utterly dominant DPS, because it's completely devoid of utility as a DPS spec if it only does marginally more DPS than other specs, it just gets passed up.

Edited September 3, 2021 by Zenith.7301

[Silvey.4287]

I think the thing im sad about is that were coming from mirage/ chrono (rip dead pvp class) both of which had really interesting design and thematic that fit well into the mechanics of the class. I dont really see how virtuoso is anything special, chrono was deeply complexe because of wells and rewinds (rip f4), and mirage is interesting because of IH/ambush / the playstyle of almost the original PU condi builds that have been gutted for so long. Virtuoso has a ranged shatter which is interesting but doesnt feel unique, I mentioned how this could of been a psuedo specialisation I think there needs to be more mechanics added to the spec and the dagger reworked.

[mortrialus.3062]

I like the blade mechanic but even with the blade mechanic I do wish virtoso kept more of Mesmers inherent disruption element.

[Salt Mode.3780]

6 minutes ago, mortrialus.3062 said:

I like the blade mechanic but even with the blade mechanic I do wish virtoso kept more of Mesmers inherent disruption element.

Blade mechanic isnt a mechanic its just another name for ammo. So replace "Clone" with "Blades" there is no difference. However with "Clones" there are traits that are able to give bonus to clones but not blades because they dont interact the same way.

Don't let a tooltip fool you in thinking its a new mechanic, this also goes for "Psionic". Its hilarious because its like "Glamour". Just a tooltip no traits nothing to shorten CD or do any interactions whatsoever with those "new mechanics".

Edited September 4, 2021 by Salt Mode.3780