Anyone tested Virtuoso with Inspiration?

[InsaneQR.7412]

So today i logged in to my mes er and started to unlock the spec but i havent played with it really. I looked at the traits and thought the inspiration traits could be interesting because some of them proc when stocking a blade (like heal of blade stock for example).

Has anyone tried this combo out so far? Did It give any decent results?

[Salt Mode.3780]

Sorry stand corrected it does work, still heal is extremely minimal for it to be extremely impactful.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Salt Mode.3780

[Mell.4873]

33 minutes ago, Salt Mode.3780 said:

There isnt anything in inspiration that allows you to do that. Everything requires an action to heal, so shatter heal or summon a phantasm to heal. You have to take on the action for the trait to proc.

It explicitly says it does 

Illusionary Inspiration

Summoning an illusion heals all allies around you.

Virtuoso: Triggers when stocking a blade.

[Masteis.9720]

Well, I tried Inspiration to have more sustain and it was not that bad. 

 

My build was;

Inspiration 3 2 2

Domination 1 2 2

Virtuoso 1 1 1

 

Dagger/Sword

GS

Marauder stats.

 

With Signet of the Ether, I was able to spam small healings which is very handy while soloing. Also bladesongs are easy to spam, so more sustain. 

 

[Mell.4873]

1 hour ago, InsaneQR.7412 said:

So today i logged in to my mes er and started to unlock the spec but i havent played with it really. I looked at the traits and thought the inspiration traits could be interesting because some of them proc when stocking a blade (like heal of blade stock for example).

Has anyone tried this combo out so far? Did It give any decent results?

Yes there is plenty of synergy with inspiration, f4 low cooldown goes well with Inspiring Distortion. The focus trait is there which helps lower the cooldown of Temporal Curtain which is amazing group up to help Bladesongs and ultimate.

[scerevisiae.1972]

as a WVW-roaming virtuoso, inspiration is pretty much mandatory for the cleanse, reflects, and invuln.

[Masteis.9720]

And also,

Inspiration and Illusion goes well together. Changed F1 into an ammo skill, so I can use F1 twice in a row after I land down my phantasm skills(GS 4, Sword 5 etc.).  With bonus of Quickness from the Illusion as well, I was able to spam my skills more often. So it was enough to fill DPS I get from Domination trait lines.

 

This is currently what I'm playing with: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PixAEhzlVwUZbsLmLm2WpxKA-zRRYihfOqhwIqCqSBzB-e

 

I've changed Illusionary Inspiration(heal per illusion) to Mental Defense for more DPS. But because of the taunt, this may disables Duelist's Reversal which gives boons if you evade or block.

[Xaylin.1860]

10 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Yes there is plenty of synergy with inspiration, f4 low cooldown goes well with Inspiring Distortion. The focus trait is there which helps lower the cooldown of Temporal Curtain which is amazing group up to help Bladesongs and ultimate.

Well, let's give this some context.

Any e-spec can make the same use of those traits in Inspiration as well as Temporal Curtain. This is NOT Virtuoso exclusive. Instead, Virtuoso is somewhat required to use Focus to line up enemies which other specs don't have to do to this extent. While I appretiate finally getting use out of Focus, this is more of an disadvantage than an advantage. And most certainly nothing I'd call a synergy.

As you mentioned, the only obvious advantage Virtuoso has over other Mesmer specs is the low cooldown on F4. When looking at this aspect alone, I'd say it is highly debatable whether the lower cooldown alone makes it worth picking Inspiration in combination with Virtuoso over other e-specs. Another situational advantage Virtuoso has, is a higher healing output if all conditions align. Self-healing from Restorative Illusions and group healing from Illusionary Inspiration. Ironically, with 0 HP you'll need to store up to 7-9 blades (still about 5 with 750 HP) before Illusionary Inspiration even starts to compete with Restorative Mantras. Furthermore, many people mentioned this, it will stop working at 5 blades if you don't manage (or don't want) to Shatter which puts further limitations on this specific set up. Chronomancers might get better use out of this without having to make those decisions. And even more ironically, Restorative Illusions stops scaling at 3 blades. So while Virtuoso has a faster resource regeneration, it will have to constantly Shatter at exactly 3 blades to surpass other Mesmer specs.

 

So yes... Virtuoso can utilize Inspiration. Of course, it can. But I don't see it being specifically good at it.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Xaylin.1860

[InsaneQR.7412]

@Xaylin.1860 is itlintended that restorative illusions stop sca ing at 3 blades or is it a bug? Because this kinda sounds like an unintended oversight to me if i am honest.

Edited March 4, 2022 by InsaneQR.7412

[Xaylin.1860]

To be honest, I didn't bother testing it again after the beta weekends. But I'm not aware of any documented changes. [Edit] I don't remember any official statements by ANet. But it is probably intended at this point.

 

Just to clarify though: Scaling stops at 3 blades for Restorative Illusions. It still works past 3 blades.

Edited March 4, 2022 by Xaylin.1860
Edit regarding "intended or not".

[Curunen.8729]

For me the incentive is the Focus trait, because Dagger/Focus is quite fun in a pve sense with some nice combos.

Though I believe iWarden should give a single aegis to allies walking in its bubble radius when performing its attack.

[Mell.4873]

52 minutes ago, Xaylin.1860 said:

Well, let's give this some context.

Any e-spec can make the same use of those traits in Inspiration as well as Temporal Curtain. This is NOT Virtuoso exclusive. Instead, Virtuoso is somewhat required to use Focus to line up enemies which other specs don't have to do to this extent. While I appretiate finally getting use out of Focus, this is more of an disadvantage than an advantage. And most certainly nothing I'd call a synergy.

As you mentioned, the only obvious advantage Virtuoso has over other Mesmer specs is the low cooldown on F4. When looking at this aspect alone, I'd say it is highly debatable whether the lower cooldown alone makes it worth picking Inspiration in combination with Virtuoso over other e-specs. Another situational advantage Virtuoso has, is a higher healing output if all conditions align. Self-healing from Restorative Illusions and group healing from Illusionary Inspiration. Ironically, with 0 HP you'll need to store up to 7-9 blades (still about 5 with 750 HP) before Illusionary Inspiration even starts to compete with Restorative Mantras. Furthermore, many people mentioned this, it will stop working at 5 blades if you don't manage (or don't want) to Shatter which puts further limitations on this specific set up. Chronomancers might get better use out of this without having to make those decisions. And even more ironically, Restorative Illusions stops scaling at 3 blades. So while Virtuoso has a faster resource regeneration, it will have to constantly Shatter at exactly 3 blades to surpass other Mesmer specs.

 

So yes... Virtuoso can utilize Inspiration. Of course, it can. But I don't see it being specifically good at it.

Yeah I have to agree with this analysis. It more suggestion for why, if you wanted a pure sustain spec Virtuoso is a good low difficulty version. 

I have been doing alot more testing with Chrono vs Virtuoso and without some of the bugs being fixed right now Chrono is still on top. But I am very good at the Chrono rotation so I will keep trying virtuoso and see if I can consistently break 10k dps in open world. 

[Xaylin.1860]

47 minutes ago, Curunen.8729 said:

For me the incentive is the Focus trait, because Dagger/Focus is quite fun in a pve sense with some nice combos.

Though I believe iWarden should give a single aegis to allies walking in its bubble radius when performing its attack.

I'm living my Blade-Mesmer fantasy with Sw/Sw and D/F (not a big fan of GS). Not that it is particularly good. It is nice to try something new. But yeah, Focus could still need some love. I actually like the idea with Aegis. Even if it is just with traited Focus.

 

27 minutes ago, Mell.4873 said:

Yeah I have to agree with this analysis. It more suggestion for why, if you wanted a pure sustain spec Virtuoso is a good low difficulty version.

For sustain (not group support) Chaos might actually be better. At least for Condi Virtuoso. You could combine both, of course. But that might be overkill on the sustain side, imho.

 

[phokus.8934]

9 hours ago, scerevisiae.1972 said:

as a WVW-roaming virtuoso, inspiration is pretty much mandatory for the cleanse, reflects, and invuln.

It's really not mandatory like how core power doesn't use Inspiration.  Although not having PU could be seen as a sustain loss.

For me I got less value out of Inspiration due to the loss of IP and bladesongs having a cast time.  So I started playing power Virtuoso like core and you can drop unsuspecting players with 5 blades F1 and some follow up.

It's far from good and needs additional changes and polish to really shine.

This was in wvw roaming and small group fights.

Edited March 4, 2022 by phokus.8934

[Levetty.1279]

16 hours ago, InsaneQR.7412 said:

So today i logged in to my mes er and started to unlock the spec but i havent played with it really. I looked at the traits and thought the inspiration traits could be interesting because some of them proc when stocking a blade (like heal of blade stock for example).

Has anyone tried this combo out so far? Did It give any decent results?

Restorative Illusions doesn't scale past 3 blades and illusionary inspiration has the problem where at 5 blades you have to shatter to get rid of the blades to stock more to trigger it wheres on other specs you can overwrite clones to keep triggering it.

 

Honestly I think the line could do with some buffs in general. 

[InsaneQR.7412]

@Levetty.1279

Idk if that is intended though that it stops scaling above 3 blades. Idc though if it stops when i am at full blade height tbh because the purpose of the blades is to use them afterall.

[Salt Mode.3780]

I mean if it wasnt intended it is now, its launch and we are still in beta im pretty sure this was also mentioned prior to release hoping they would look into it.

[Levetty.1279]

4 hours ago, InsaneQR.7412 said:

Idc though if it stops when i am at full blade height tbh because the purpose of the blades is to use them afterall.

True but eventually you'll go through all your shatters or won't necessarily want to use them which puts a limit on the trait that isn't there with non Virtuoso.