How was virtuoso solo play?

[Lynx.9058]

I didn't have a chance to play much with the Virtuoso during the betas, I was focused more on other specs since I didn't even have a mesmer at the time.  That said, I do thematically like the psi blades and ended up making a mesmer hoping to go virtuoso once EoD releases.  I'm definitely NOT a fan of mesmer in general, and I hate that the clones/phantasms/whatever are constantly disappearing and feel unreliable, but the fact that virtuoso had 'permanent' psi blades that persisted out of combat made it feel a little more functional and less clumsy to me.

That said, most of my gameplay is solo/open world pve, and I generally gravitate towards tougher specs that can facetank stuff more easily (I main a scrapper and reaper for the most part).  I just wanted to get an idea of how tough/solo-capable the virtuoso may have been?

[Mungo Zen.9364]

I ran a beta build based around Chaos, Illusions and Virtuoso trait lines, Cele gear, Scepter/x and Staff. 
 

I could solo Champ Bounties with a little more DPS but a little less sustain than Chrono variants.

The playstyle was close to medium range, pump blades and dump as fast as possible.  It’s a shatter spec again, just without the clones. 

Edited January 27, 2022 by Mungo Zen.9364

[phokus.8934]

Mirage and Chrono do it better than Virtuoso.  It still feels pretty lackluster to me so hopefully changes come when EoD hits or shortly after.

[Mik.3401]

It has nothing new offer so you don’t even need to try it out. Unless you care about the aesthetics only. Clones make doing solo content way easier because the enemies AI is not smart enough to avoid them. When you don’t have them you automatically become the target - and this is not what Mesmer was designed to be. 

[Mell.4873]

Don't listen to the negative comments.

The main advantage virtuoso has is that the clone(blades) are pre stocked so there is no ramp up for damage.

Put focus one offhand and group the enemies together and nuke them. Chrono can do something similar but not from range which can make them very micro intentive in open world pve.

 

My rotation when playing was to focus 4(group up), weapons swap to sword offhand. Phantasm on 5 for ferocity and then hit F1 to nuke the group.

Edited January 28, 2022 by Mell.4873

[Kondor.2904]

18 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

Don't listen to the negative comments.

The main advantage virtuoso has is that the clone(blades) are pre stocked so there is no ramp up for damage.

Put focus one offhand and group the enemies together and nuke them. Chrono can do something similar but not from range which can make them very micro intentive in open world pve.

 

My rotation when playing was to focus 4 group up, weapons swap to sword offhand. Phantasm on 5 for ferocity and then hit F1 to nuke the group.

You do realise that a fully charged f1 bladesong is almost equal in dmg to a 1 clone chrono f1 shatter but has a cast time ? What ramp up you're talking about ?

The rest is also applicable to any mesmer spec, which can all shatter from 1200 range too and do not need enemies to be in a line for aoe dmg to occur...

Not sure what advantage you're talking about, virtuoso is definitely going to have an advantage over pchrono in PvE but hardly because of its regressive shatters.  

[phokus.8934]

20 minutes ago, Kondor.2904 said:

You do realise that a fully charged f1 bladesong is almost equal in dmg to a 1 clone chrono f1 shatter but has a cast time ? What ramp up you're talking about ?

The rest is also applicable to any mesmer spec, which can all shatter from 1200 range too and do not need enemies to be in a line for aoe dmg to occur...

Not sure what advantage you're talking about, virtuoso is definitely going to have an advantage over pchrono in PvE but hardly because of its regressive shatters.  

You can ignore what he says about Virtuoso and Mesmer in general.  His posting history on the subject is severely lacking critical thought and submendoza line gameplay.

Virtuoso in its current iteration is just inferior to Chrono and Mirage in every way possible and that's not up for debate.  It's true whether you believe it or not.

[Salt Mode.3780]

His posts have no merit, first he says Mirage is too strong in PvP lacks any evidence then claims he is no expert in PvP, after facts were given to him he then states that Mirage does nothing in PvP.

[Mell.4873]

2 hours ago, Kondor.2904 said:

You do realise that a fully charged f1 bladesong is almost equal in dmg to a 1 clone chrono f1 shatter but has a cast time ? What ramp up you're talking about ?

The rest is also applicable to any mesmer spec, which can all shatter from 1200 range too and do not need enemies to be in a line for aoe dmg to occur...

Not sure what advantage you're talking about, virtuoso is definitely going to have an advantage over pchrono in PvE but hardly because of its regressive shatters.  

There is way more involved to get 3 clones to stay like long enough to shatter with Chrono. Virtuoso does not have that problem pve

[Mell.4873]

2 hours ago, phokus.8934 said:

You can ignore what he says about Virtuoso and Mesmer in general.  His posting history on the subject is severely lacking critical thought and submendoza line gameplay.

Virtuoso in its current iteration is just inferior to Chrono and Mirage in every way possible and that's not up for debate.  It's true whether you believe it or not.

That a horrible thing to say about me. I am giving honest feedback to the original poster. 

That's how I played it during the beta whether is better than a chrono main is up for debate untill in launches. Probably not though since chrono is melee

[Noodle Ant.1605]

virt and mesmer in general isnt something youd want to facetank on, maybe except condi builds in defensive gear. power builds are better played as bursty dps and prefer not to be hit at all, unless youre ok turtling and taking your time whereas condi can just slap on trailblazers + torment runes or something

virt doesnt make mesmer any more tankier and is perhaps the least tanky mesmer spec because it was designed to “not take hits” by staying at range (despite not being given any additional mobility, or even swiftness/cripple). aegis and a shorter f4 cd is more helpful in mitigating a few stray ranged hits rather than constant melee pressure. that being said, virt is for those who always end up playing outside of melee range (max-range gs campers are horribly inefficient). it can be played in melee and tank hits with trailblazers etc, but i dont think thats how virt was intended to be played

[Salt Mode.3780]

In a game where people stack melee for buffs wells etc rarely will u ever be in true 1200 range dishing out dmg unless its open world, but in a Raid standpoint unless u r going to be the dedicated kiter for mechanics which often times will be on someone that has more sustain in their kit you will never really be using its full range. As well as you have a trait that makes u do more dmg mid to close range so you have that working against u.

 

[otto.5684]

I liked it in the first beta. The second one not as much. It is medium range, for optimal damage. Its sustain is pretty weak. It also has issue with moving enemy targets with small hit boxes.

[Justine.6351]

I like the f1 skill and the utility skills but I wouldn't trade clones and chronomancer for it in open world. If you like doing bag events like in Orr then the dagger skills might be cool for tagging trash.

[FarmBotXD.1430]

13 hours ago, Justine.6351 said:

I like the f1 skill and the utility skills but I wouldn't trade clones and chronomancer for it in open world. If you like doing bag events like in Orr then the dagger skills might be cool for tagging trash.

gs would be better there, since it has 1200 range and can pierce, you can even switch targets during cast to tag several enemies with 1 GS auto, or you can even go mirage and ambush GS to tag 3 targets each dodge

[Justine.6351]

2 hours ago, FarmBotXD.1430 said:

gs would be better there, since it has 1200 range and can pierce, you can even switch targets during cast to tag several enemies with 1 GS auto, or you can even go mirage and ambush GS to tag 3 targets each dodge

Do you even play dagger? It is 1200 range and pierces too. It also has a 1200 range cone attack and a giant whirling dot skill with huge range and radius.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

52 minutes ago, Justine.6351 said:

Do you even play dagger? It is 1200 range and pierces too. It also has a 1200 range cone attack and a giant whirling dot skill with huge range and radius.

You can tab target while casting GS1 which allows you to hit multiple new targets in one cast (usually 2-3). This is the advantage over Dagger tab targeting.

In the last Beta, I tried Dagger a number of different ways, but it never 'clicked' as being the better weapon choice in any situation.  GS and Staff still feel better as ranged weapons, hopefully that changes when EoD drops.

Edited January 29, 2022 by Mungo Zen.9364

[Justine.6351]

4 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

You can tab target while casting GS1 which allows you to hit multiple new targets in one cast (usually 2-3). This is the advantage over Dagger tab targeting.

In the last Beta, I tried Dagger a number of different ways, but it never 'clicked' as being the better weapon choice in any situation.  GS and Staff still feel better as ranged weapons, hopefully that changes when EoD drops.

Doesn't tab targeting just target closest? Or do you not bother with the pierce.

[Waywolf.9357]

Lets look into it when EoD gets live...i still wait for the teased Mesmer rework 

we allc an now theorycraft the worst, call me a moron cause i still have some hope ANet will do some fair tweaks  #hahanotreally

 

Edited January 30, 2022 by Waywolf.9357

[Mungo Zen.9364]

10 minutes ago, Justine.6351 said:

Doesn't tab targeting just target closest? Or do you not bother with the pierce.

You can bind a key to ‘next enemy’, ‘previous enemy’ and ‘nearest enemy’ separately if you desire.  There are the same options for ‘Ally’ as well. 
 

These can be found in Keybinds under targeting. 

[Justine.6351]

2 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

You can bind a key to ‘next enemy’, ‘previous enemy’ and ‘nearest enemy’ separately if you desire.  There are the same options for ‘Ally’ as well. 
 

These can be found in Keybinds under targeting. 

Eh, dagger 3 still way better aoe. Less brains too.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

5 minutes ago, Justine.6351 said:

Eh, dagger 3 still way better aoe. Less brains too.

Better AoE than what?

[Justine.6351]

2 hours ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

Better AoE than what?

Gs skills obviously.

[Mungo Zen.9364]

Just now, Justine.6351 said:

Gs skills obviously.

Not sure how you transitioned the conversation from tab targeting with GS AA (and how to set it up) to suggesting Dagger AoE skill is better than GS AoE skills.

But it’s good to see someone thinks any Dagger skill is better than another weapon. There is a lot of dislike for Dagger as it was presented. 

[Justine.6351]

Just now, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

Not sure how you transitioned the conversation from tab targeting with GS AA (and how to set it up) to suggesting Dagger AoE skill is better than GS AoE skills.

But it’s good to see someone thinks any Dagger skill is better than another weapon. There is a lot of dislike for Dagger as it was presented. 

Uh you should go back and reread the chain.