Engineer can do permanent alacrity now...

[Kodama.6453]

1 hour ago, Jables.4659 said:

If Cont. Split was problematic, why did they go after Distortion (and Illusionary Persona)?

That continuum split replaces distortion is how it should have worked from the very beginning. It just makes sense.

The paradigm for mesmer shatter abilities is: 1 power damage skill, 1 condi damage skill, 1 CC skill, 1 defensive skill. Continuum split potentially can fill any these roles, but it turned out that it's defensive power was one of the most problematic. Adding it on top of the core shatters was a mistake which lead to the chrono bunkers we saw rising up.

Why does chronomancer need a complete health reset on top of the powerful defensive tool which is distortion? Removing the distortion effect for this 100% health heal made sense.

1 hour ago, Jables.4659 said:

These were quick and dirty changes.  Realistically, C-Mirage is the only Mesmer build that would've been a problem after the power nerfs (if those changes hadn't happened).  The irony is that they nerfed Mirage in such a way that C-Mirage is now the only Mirage build that sort of functions.  

They try to preserve condi mirage because this has been the primary design principle behind the elite spec. While the spec (like many others) can be played in many different ways, it is pretty obvious that dealing condition damage was the prime playstyle they were aiming for with that elite spec.

I agree that removing a dodge was not really the best solution, but I think I can see why they did it. They have designed mirage with another unique mechanic: mirrors. These mirrors were supposed to be an additional source of the mirage cloak, but they don't really get used alot.

Removing the dodge helped getting the evade spam from mirage in check, while giving incentive for mirage players to use the mirrors to get additional evades for their ambush skills. These mirrors also have inherent counterplay, unlike the previous evade spam. Unfortunately, this counterplay makes mirage players still avoid the mirror mechanic alot.

Honestly, mirage's problems are most likely better solved by a bigger rework to their mechanics.

[phokus.8934]

2 hours ago, Kodama.6453 said:

That continuum split replaces distortion is how it should have worked from the very beginning. It just makes sense.

The paradigm for mesmer shatter abilities is: 1 power damage skill, 1 condi damage skill, 1 CC skill, 1 defensive skill. Continuum split potentially can fill any these roles, but it turned out that it's defensive power was one of the most problematic. Adding it on top of the core shatters was a mistake which lead to the chrono bunkers we saw rising up.

Why does chronomancer need a complete health reset on top of the powerful defensive tool which is distortion? Removing the distortion effect for this 100% health heal made sense.

They try to preserve condi mirage because this has been the primary design principle behind the elite spec. While the spec (like many others) can be played in many different ways, it is pretty obvious that dealing condition damage was the prime playstyle they were aiming for with that elite spec.

I agree that removing a dodge was not really the best solution, but I think I can see why they did it. They have designed mirage with another unique mechanic: mirrors. These mirrors were supposed to be an additional source of the mirage cloak, but they don't really get used alot.

Removing the dodge helped getting the evade spam from mirage in check, while giving incentive for mirage players to use the mirrors to get additional evades for their ambush skills. These mirrors also have inherent counterplay, unlike the previous evade spam. Unfortunately, this counterplay makes mirage players still avoid the mirror mechanic alot.

Honestly, mirage's problems are most likely better solved by a bigger rework to their mechanics.

Spoken like someone who didn't and doesn't understand Chrono sustain, especially in WvW/PvP.

Bunker Chrono in s1 had very little to do with them having Distortion.  Chronophantasma was one of the biggest culprits to bunker chrono being absolutely bananas.  There's a reason why you don't see any Chronomancers in PvP because of their lack of sustain with the loss of Distortion (among other things).

Straight from BenP's mouth, they went with one dodge because having an enemy dodge while landing cc's on them is not fun.  With energy sigils, Vigor, and two dodges, that is the reason why they nerfed Mirage dodge down to one.  Mirror's were never intended to replace dodge but supplement it with Ambush.

Mirage does not need a rework other than some changes to mirrors and how/where they spawn, bringing back its lost dodge and changing the way that you're able to dodge while hard cc'd.

[Levetty.1279]

On 11/4/2021 at 1:29 AM, draxynnic.3719 said:

Personally, I think they should have put it on the grandmaster nobody takes instead of locking it to staff. That way you could alacmirage with any set of weapons, while it has the inherent tradeoff of losing IH.

This would make sense in normal games but in Guild Wars 2 AlacMirage with IH is still worse then Firebrand/Renegade.

[draxynnic.3719]

11 hours ago, Levetty.1279 said:

This would make sense in normal games but in Guild Wars 2 AlacMirage with IH is still worse then Firebrand/Renegade.

Strictly speaking, it's renegade that alacmirage is competing against, and there's at least some content in which it wins. Firebrand+Alacmirage is a valid setup.

 

They could also potentially put more on the trait in question (does anyone actually use Dune Cloak nowadays? It's a very PvP-focused trait but doesn't compete with Elusive Mind...) so it doesn't give up quite as much damage compared to IH and can have the balance fine-tuned without impacting on non-Alacrity builds. Make it so that the build actually does have a second set of skills to rotate through rather than running double staff, and it could easily be a net buff. Would certainly make it more interesting to play, IMO.

[Jables.4659]

On 11/9/2021 at 11:04 PM, draxynnic.3719 said:

does anyone actually use Dune Cloak nowadays?

Dune Cloak didn't have a chance.  Even when Elusive Mind was worse than no GM trait, Infinite Horizon was always the correct choice.  Condition builds sacrificed lambs to it, and power builds still gained value from sword clone daze chains, clone evades, and the real life confusion player's experienced when clones stopped behaving like clones.

I never understood why Dune Cloak had to give you a cheap imitation instead of actually stealing the boon on top of having damage so low that it was more detrimental (accidental self reveals) than useful.

[draxynnic.3719]

7 minutes ago, Jables.4659 said:

Dune Cloak didn't have a chance.  Even when Elusive Mind was worse than no GM trait, Infinite Horizon was always the correct choice.  Condition builds sacrificed lambs to it, and power builds still gained value from sword clone daze chains, clone evades, and the real life confusion player's experienced when clones stopped behaving like clones.

I never understood why Dune Cloak had to give you a cheap imitation instead of actually stealing the boon on top of having damage so low that it was more detrimental (accidental self reveals) than useful.

And that's a complete rework of what Dune Cloak originally did (which was applying conditions in an area around the mesmer when Mirage Cloaking) - evidently reworked into boon removal because they realised that IH was always going to be the DPS grandmaster. It shows just how effective that change was that I'd completely forgotten that it happened - I think I went in to check how much condition damage Sand Shards applied and was surprised to find that the answer was now zero.

 

Which is part of why I think the alacrity should be on Dune Cloak rather than staff ambushes. You'd make Dune Cloak actually useful in at least one mode. It would also mean that alacmirages could use a variety of weapons, maybe even power weapons, rather than being locked to dual staff. Staff's DPS potential with IH wouldn't have had to be nerfed to account for it becoming potent boon support as well. And perhaps most importantly for the people who think the current alacmirage setup is fine, it would mean that alacmirage would actually be a thing that exists underwater. There might not be many underwater combats in high-end PvE, but there is at least one, and the fact that firebrigade is still functional there might be a contributing factor to its dominance.

[Jables.4659]

@draxynnic.3719 I only remembered the change because the patch notes included a comment that referred to Elusive Mind as the defensive GM trait choice when it gave you 6 seconds of exhaustion.

As far as the Alacrity thing goes, I still can't help but say "whats the point?".  Renegade fills pretty much all of Firebrand's support gaps while providing unique offensive buffs, supplemental healing, and fantastic CC.  Chronomancer is already a time themed Mesmer support spec.  Mirage buffs would be nice, but why Alacrity of all things?

[Mell.4873]

On 11/5/2021 at 2:21 PM, Jables.4659 said:

I'm not saying that the post lay-off development team isn't unfair to Mesmer (they are), but I don't understand why anyone would care about a meme build like Alacrity Mirage.  We are talking about a build that functions by swapping between two staves and spamming ambushes.  This is the lowest IQ build I've seen from the Guild Wars franchise since Spirit-Way back in Guild Wars: Nightfall.

No you have to shatter f4 and eat the mirrors at the right time to trigger ambushes get more alacrity 

[draxynnic.3719]

6 hours ago, Jables.4659 said:

@draxynnic.3719 I only remembered the change because the patch notes included a comment that referred to Elusive Mind as the defensive GM trait choice when it gave you 6 seconds of exhaustion.

As far as the Alacrity thing goes, I still can't help but say "whats the point?".  Renegade fills pretty much all of Firebrand's support gaps while providing unique offensive buffs, supplemental healing, and fantastic CC.  Chronomancer is already a time themed Mesmer support spec.  Mirage buffs would be nice, but why Alacrity of all things?

It's an alternative, and a pretty good one in some situations. One could argue that restoring group alacrity to chronos would be better, but having viable alternatives to essential roles is good for the game. It's just that having it be in the form of double staff mirage only is a pretty clumsy approach.

[Daniel Handler.4816]

On 11/9/2021 at 5:40 AM, Kodama.6453 said:

That continuum split replaces distortion is how it should have worked from the very beginning. It just makes sense.

The paradigm for mesmer shatter abilities is: 1 power damage skill, 1 condi damage skill, 1 CC skill, 1 defensive skill. Continuum split potentially can fill any these roles, but it turned out that it's defensive power was one of the most problematic. Adding it on top of the core shatters was a mistake which lead to the chrono bunkers we saw rising up.

Why does chronomancer need a complete health reset on top of the powerful defensive tool which is distortion? Removing the distortion effect for this 100% health heal made sense.

They try to preserve condi mirage because this has been the primary design principle behind the elite spec. While the spec (like many others) can be played in many different ways, it is pretty obvious that dealing condition damage was the prime playstyle they were aiming for with that elite spec.

I agree that removing a dodge was not really the best solution, but I think I can see why they did it. They have designed mirage with another unique mechanic: mirrors. These mirrors were supposed to be an additional source of the mirage cloak, but they don't really get used alot.

Removing the dodge helped getting the evade spam from mirage in check, while giving incentive for mirage players to use the mirrors to get additional evades for their ambush skills. These mirrors also have inherent counterplay, unlike the previous evade spam. Unfortunately, this counterplay makes mirage players still avoid the mirror mechanic alot.

Honestly, mirage's problems are most likely better solved by a bigger rework to their mechanics.

Not to mention there is also dodge food, Desert Distortion, and energy sigils.

I think there is a crowd that wants to play the same elite spec in every game mode no matter how counterintuitive it is.

Hopefully virtuoso is fixed to have a greater role in large scale wvw so we stop having people complaining about one dodge. I don't see mirage getting a huge rework when it's performing well in PvE and small scale WvW.

Edited November 20, 2021 by Daniel Handler.4816

[Daniel Handler.4816]

On 10/26/2021 at 12:44 PM, Veprovina.4876 said:

And you don't have to press any buttons, just stand near your golem...

 

If this isn't the proof that Anet hates Mesmers i don't know what is.

And all of you who cried nerfs because "alacrity is too easy on mirage" can go well, let's be polite... You can go eat it...

 

Best professions in the game: Guardians and Engineers - they can do everything with ease, no effort required

Ok professions: Rangers, Revenants, Necromancers

Bad professions: Ele, Thief, Warrior

 

And then there's Mesmers....

 

Can you finally stop this cruel joke Anet? I think we had enough... 😞 

 

If we are going to be hyperbolic, it's proof that Anet hates engineers. In what game mode, other than PvE, are melee autoattacks and a pet AI considered a sign of love?

Edited November 20, 2021 by Daniel Handler.4816

[Leonidrex.5649]

On 11/5/2021 at 12:52 PM, Arewn.2368 said:

Yes, everything is proof that arena net "hates" mesmer. And certainly allowing other profs to have access to some of the OP kit mesmer swaggers around with is proof of their hatred too. 

Even though mesmer has clearly been one of the favored profs in every area of the game since launch.

 

My raid group still brings double chrono for quick/alac tanking to most fights. It can also supplement heals. And has well performing dps specs.

enjoy 0,001% of the content, fun fact. the rest of the game mesmer is medicore/bad