Which class do you think has been given the best elite specs of all?

[gem.9038]

When you consider all the classes, who do you think has consistently been given the best elite specs? 

[Gibson.4036]

I’d say engineer. Scrapper and holosmith are great specs, mechanist is all right for what it is.

Every other profession has at least one spec I’m totally disinterested in.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

"Best" can be a bit vague here.  Given no further clarification, I'm going to list the top two for me:

1. Mesmer.  And... there go all the mouse clicks of players confused at what I mean.  After their initial release, each of the specs ends up having to be nerfed significantly due to all of the stuff that it could do.  I think Virtuoso might be an exception to this, since I cannot remember if it was buffed before release or after.  Anyway, Chronomancer's reset button greatly magnified offensive and defensive power for the profession, Mirage's dodge-while-stunned and extended toolbox made it nigh immortal upon its release, and virtuoso's ranged cleaving damage let it rip through PVE content like a 1000 degree knife through butter.  Granted, the specs get nerfed after their release to bring them more in line. That said, they still provide unique and useful ways to play mesmer, even if they have to get number-crunched into oblivion to keep the game sane.  The only knock I can give the profession is it's poor PVP performance.
2. Engineer.  Scrapper was a stinker at release, but it's gotten significantly better.  The other two were and remain quite strong.  They each feel unique, and provide a different toolbox to approach each situation.  Scrapper has the best defensive utilities and quickness, Holosmith has offensive power with mixed engagement ranges, Mechanist dislocates the damage and buffs while also bringing alacrity and the best heals.  This is another profession where, no matter which path you go down, you'll be getting things that are fun and useful.

Why two?  Those are the only professions where I could say that all 3 e-specs are useful and fun.  All other professions had at least 1 elite specialization that I don't like for some reason or another.  

[Drarnor Kunoram.5180]

Definitely Engineer or Mesmer at this point in time.  At various points in the game's history, every profession has had a bad elite spec at some point, but for these two classes, everything sees a lot of use right now.

[Jukhy.2431]

I do agree with engi especs but I'd add firebrand and maybe renegade/herald also. My personal fave is still the reaper. Hard to decide which is the best tho.

Edited February 25, 2023 by Jukhy.2431

[Danikat.8537]

I don't think there's an objective answer to that question. I'm not even sure if I should definite my favourite elites as the ones I like most overall even if that's because I've always liked the base profession or the ones which turned a profession I don't like into one I'll play. So here's a few examples.

The ones I miss most when I go back to the core profession (or even another elite spec) are tempest and weaver. I've always liked elementalists but ever since HoT the core ele has felt like it's missing something to me by not having those extra options available.

I'm also having a lot of fun with untamed. Ranger has been my main profession since GW1, but I always had a hard time finding utility skills I really liked and felt like it was missing something. Now with the additional pet skills, the synergy you can get by swapping between the two and the teleport skill I'm having even more fun with it.

I also really like bladesworn. My warrior was the first character I boosted to 80 because I never liked the core profession and would never have played it enough to get there otherwise, but then at level 80 I didn't play it much because it just didn't interest me as much as others. The bladesworn isn't my favourite overall but for me it's a vast improvement over the core profession or the other warrior elites and makes it into something I actually want to play.

[Gibson.4036]

11 hours ago, Blood Red Arachnid.2493 said:

"Best" can be a bit vague here.  Given no further clarification, I'm going to list the top two for me:

1. Mesmer.  And... there go all the mouse clicks of players confused at what I mean.  After their initial release, each of the specs ends up having to be nerfed significantly due to all of the stuff that it could do.  I think Virtuoso might be an exception to this, since I cannot remember if it was buffed before release or after.  Anyway, Chronomancer's reset button greatly magnified offensive and defensive power for the profession, Mirage's dodge-while-stunned and extended toolbox made it nigh immortal upon its release, and virtuoso's ranged cleaving damage let it rip through PVE content like a 1000 degree knife through butter.  Granted, the specs get nerfed after their release to bring them more in line. That said, they still provide unique and useful ways to play mesmer, even if they have to get number-crunched into oblivion to keep the game sane.  The only knock I can give the profession is it's poor PVP performance.
2. Engineer.  Scrapper was a stinker at release, but it's gotten significantly better.  The other two were and remain quite strong.  They each feel unique, and provide a different toolbox to approach each situation.  Scrapper has the best defensive utilities and quickness, Holosmith has offensive power with mixed engagement ranges, Mechanist dislocates the damage and buffs while also bringing alacrity and the best heals.  This is another profession where, no matter which path you go down, you'll be getting things that are fun and useful.

Why two?  Those are the only professions where I could say that all 3 e-specs are useful and fun.  All other professions had at least 1 elite specialization that I don't like for some reason or another.  

Agreed. Mesmer is my runner-up.

[draxynnic.3719]

Given the lack of criteria, I'm going to set four criteria to judge professions by:

Role versatility: Do the elite specialisations cover a broad spectrum of roles, or do they just keep covering the same roles? Note that in this criteria, I'm generally covering intent more than performance.

Playstyle variety: Do the elite specialisations cover a range of playstyles?

Functionality: How well do the elite specialisations work? Do they do what they're intended to do smoothly, or are there problems?

Enjoyment: This is pretty much my purely subjective viewpoint of "how much do I enjoy playing these elite specs". YMMV

Total: My estimate of the average of the above, with a small fudge factor in cases of uncertainty.

 

Elementalist:

Role versatility: A-. Elementalist can cover pretty much all of the major roles, although quickheal is probably awkward enough to fall short of a straight A.

Playstyle variety: D. All of the elite specs have been aimed towards melee combat, which is a problem when the core profession is advertised as being oriented towards ranged combat. Furthermore, catalyst does feel a bit like it's been made by merging ideas that weren't used for tempest and weaver. 

Functionality: C. Weaver and catalyst builds can be complex to play, with quickcatalyst being dependent on both energy and switching back to air attunement at the right time. Meanwhile, alactempest still suffers issues with being easily disrupted.

Enjoyment: C. Fun enough, but I'd probably get bored quickly if I only played ele.

Total: B-. Versatile, but has issues.

 

 

Engineer:

Role versatility: A. If it's not an encounter-specific role, you can probably find an engineer build that can do it. Condi quickness is a bit hard to pull off, though, so not an A+.

Playstyle variety: C. Similar to elementalist, they're essentially all bruisery AoE-focused melee-oriented specs with the option to revert to core features for ranged. However, they do all have a unique way of doing that, apart from them all having some form of damage aura effect.

Functionality: A-. Scrapper is not considered to be the best quickness in the world, but it works. Mechanist is fairly simple to operate. Falls short due to Mechanical Genius and holosmith overheat feeling like a bit of a "gotcha".

Enjoyment: C-. Mostly because builds still tend to end up reverting to grenades and/or mortar, and I don't really enjoy those kits.

Total: B. Would probably jump up to A for someone who enjoyed the playstyle more.

 

Guardian

Role versatility: A. Theoretically, you could cover pretty much any encounter-specific role with some variant of guardian (but see Functionality). 

Playstyle variety: A. Working from the basis of core guardian, each elite specialisation has a distinct identity. 

Functionality: C-. Dragonhunter and willbender are still struggling to find a place in the current PvE environment, although both can perform in PvP (but firebrand has been dead there for years). In particular, while alacbender is theoretically possible, it's not practical in real situations. Firebrand has been the one-spec show pretty much carrying guardian in PvE since June last year, but is currently going through its own rework chaos. 

Enjoyment: A. They may be struggling a bit on functionality at the moment, but they're fun enough that I'd find time to play them in open world at least even if they were bad.

Total: B+. A bit of love for WB and DH could push it (back) into an A.

 

Mesmer

Role versatility: B+. They have alacrity, theoretically have quickness, power, and condi. Lack of strong party healing keeps them out of the A bracket, but they compensate this through having unique utilities such as portal.

Playstyle variety: A+. Not only does each elite spec have its own character, they bring significant changes to how they interact with core mechanics as well. 

Functionality: C+. Virtuoso and mirage do fairly well at what they do, but have some bugs and niggles (particularly in dual staff mirage being actively encouraged... personally, I prefer to have proper weaponswaps than being encouraged to swap between different copies of the same weapon just to trigger weaponswap effects), and chronomancer can be a bit awkward. PvP performance, including one-dodge mirage, brings it down from a B to a C+

Enjoyment: A-. Chronomancer's lost a bit of its shine as the reworks over the years have, IMO, been to its detriment, but I find mirage and virtuoso both to be fairly fun.

Total: B+. Chronomancer improvements could kick it into A, but most major changes to chronomancer have not felt like improvements.

 

Necromancer

Role versatility: B-. Quickharbinger is really the only conventional support build necromancer brings to the table, and good luck making a quickheal. Alacrity is not available, but the unique support features of scourge bring it up from a C.

Playstyle variety:  A-. There's a melee bruiser, a glassy ranged, and scourge almost completely redesigning a mechanic.

Functionality: C-. Neither harbinger nor reaper are really working in PvE at the moment, so it's somewhat being carried by scourge. In competitive, necromancer specs have their strengths, but aren't exactly at the top of the game.

Enjoyment: C-. The only one I find I really enjoy playing for long is reaper.

Total: C+. Somewhat carried by scourge and scourge's ability to carry groups.

 

Ranger:

Role versatility: B. Loses a grade for lack of Quickness (and technically speaking Alacrity doesn't come from elite specs), but it does have solid healalac and alacdps builds as well as a range of DPS builds and able to cover several encounter-specific roles.

Playstyle variety:  A-. Soulbeast and Untamed both bring opposing interactions with the pet, while Druid introduces a transformation mechanic.

Functionality: B-. Druid works pretty well at what it does, especially with more availability of ally targeting, although Celestial Avatar does feel like it's of limited benefit if you're not built as a healer. Soulbeast is fairly functional, but Untamed is a bit overly reliant on the cooldown reduction trait.

Enjoyment: C-. Druid doesn't really feel all that great on its own due to how support-oriented it is. Soulbeast and Untamed are generally okay, but similar to what I said about ele, I'd probably get bored if I only played ranger.

Total: B-. Solid, but lacks versatility.

 

Revenant

Role versatility: A. You can theoretically perform all of the major roles. 

Playstyle variety:  A-. You're pretty much always falling back on a core legend half the time, but they've done a good job overall of giving each legend its own character and in introducing distinctive mechanics. 

Functionality: B. Herald provides good quickness, although having to spam facets to do that can feel a bit awkward. Renegade buffs should help them get back into the alacrity role, but since the nerfs to Kalla's healing effects, you'd probably struggle to alacheal on renegade. Vindicator just feels a little awkward, especially when it comes to actually getting good use out of both Archemorus and Viktor - generally speaking, it's more practical to just build for one and largely ignore the other. Solid picks for most roles except alac, though.

Enjoyment: B+. I do find I rarely really make use of the Alliance switching mechanic, as discussed above, and even when accepting just using one, it can involve a bit of spamming of utility skills that can also  but jumping on people can be a fair amount of fun (especially if combined with suitable runes and sigils for messing about in open world). Herald and Renegade are both fairly enjoyable, although I find Kalla can get a bit dry over extended periods. 

Total: B+. Highly versatile, and on the cusp of an A, but I think Vindicator's issues and renegade not being able to really do an alacheal build stop it from quite crossing that cusp.

 

Thief

Role versatility: C+. You have a variety of DPS options, but support is limited to alac or alacheal, and it's still not really set up to be a healer.

Playstyle variety: A+. Every elite specialisation has a very distinct theme. 

Functionality: D+. Thief in organised PvE has rarely really done well outside of niche builds, while in PvP, anything that breaks out of the glass cannon roamer mould tends not to last for long. Specter showed potential as a support role in PvE, but having to spam wells is awkward, and the competition has largely pushed it out.

Enjoyment: B. I found Spectre to get stale fairly quickly, but daredevil and deadeye are both quite fun to take out when the mood to employ those playstyles arises, at least in the open world.

Total: C+. The elite specs are a lot of fun... in open world.

 

Warrior

Role versatility: D. You had to know this was coming. All warrior gets from elite specialisations is more ways to do DPS. They do have access to quickness out of core, I guess, but don't have a specialised healing build.

Playstyle variety:  B. To be fair, though, there is a reasonable variety in the ways in which you do DPS, from the berserk mode of Berserker through the more regular use of single-bar bursts with Spellbreaker to Bladesworn's high payoffs for long charging times. Ranged options are still fairly lacking, however.

Functionality: C. It does power damage pretty well. Condition damage is a bit on the weak side, or at least was last I checked. Quickness builds have never really gained traction. Spellbreaker has been doing really well in PvP of late, but bladesworn's mechanic is... hard to balance in that environment. It's kinda hard to grade because when it's good it can be very good, but when it's not it can be pretty bad. It's possibly a case of Spellbreaker on its own probably being worth an A, but the other two bring that down to around a C.

Enjoyment: C. Each of the elite specialisations is fun in its own way, but they're generally things I play occasionally rather than committing heavily to, unless I have an extrinsic reason for doing so.

Total: C. The near complete lack of support in the elite specs really bring it down, but spellbreaker's strong performance keeps it from dropping to a D. Definitely room for improvement.

Edited February 25, 2023 by draxynnic.3719

[Infusion.7149]

Let us do this by process of elimination:

Guardian - willbender is not that great outside of competitive because mobility is not as valued. If alacrity willbender gets further buffs this could change such that power alac willbender sees some use outside of melee balls in WvW but you cannot play WvW effectively without firebrand. Boon rip is lacking due to theme conflicts. Since you do not need to level for PVP I would say guardian is generally a good pick.
--- ability to do fractal skips easily is a plus whether with Wings of Resolve or Merciful Intervention

X Warrior - no alacrity application and weak ranged options make this not the best class in terms of elite specs and support warrior is still lacking heal weapon (that could have been somewhat blunted by lowering Soldiers Comfort cooldown to below 5 seconds) ; bladesworn is an utter joke in PVP/WVW now and berserker is not in a great state overall even if Arc Divider is iconic. The class is being brought up by spellbreaker which has both boon rip and full counter along with a pull (if you choose to trait for it). It maybe so-called meta in PVP but if nerfs damage the defense traitline or full counter you can fully expect it to fall out of relevance again.

Revenant - Vindicator picked up 2 dodges so every spec is usable nearly everywhere (you can alac, quick, or DPS depending on spec choice) ; has boon rip and renegade has iconic CC in PvE in addition to bubble for raid or strike mechanics
--- it is worthy of note even on PvE quick herald despite spamming your facets there is no downside to doing so unlike on scrapper where you lose function gyro cooldown if it resses people or using blast gyro CC ; herald quickness is not applicable in competitive modes now due to splits
--- ability to rip stability exclusively even if the opponent has a stack of boons which is a unique feature
--- unblockable on shiro lets you hit twice through block without hassle
--- it is the best pairing with heal firebrand in PVE which is still the dominant support in fractals
--- the laziest players that do not want to excel at using energy still have autoattack herald (with shiro/jalis upkeep) to fall back on!

Engineer - can alac, quick, DPS and in WvW scrapper is the most superspeed application ingame ; grenades are a strong ranged option even while using melee weapons , boon rip with mines, holo is decent everywhere even when not meta
--- the quickness and alacrity are not applicable in competitive modes , at its inception scrapper was horrible up until 2019 gyro rework
--- there are groups that actively write no mechanists in their description...
--- rifle leaps allow for skips in fractals but some of those skips have been removed ; sneak gyro allows for mob skips
--- bonus points for being able to moa people on core engineer
--- scrapper is a good spec for carrying players in strikes and raids since function gyro is always there (unlike blood magic transfusion on scourge) and you do not give up DPS to take it
--- being able to apply alacrity with autoattack in PvE ensures nobody will yell at you for boon uptime...

X Ranger - if you want to heal as a druid your DPS is garbage (top bench I believe is 13K); cannot apply quickness at all to others , untamed is difficult to play in terms of APM and Fervent Force is slated for nerfs making its theme sort of neutered in comparison to spellbreaker ; meme WvW specs unless you play stanceshare soulbeast with Dolyak stance

X Thief - specter support needs help , daredevil and deadeye are never requested anywhere expect at QtP pylons and Q1 lamp, in PvP thief mobility has been matched by other classes ; meme WvW spec (rifle deadeye roamers and generally not much play in squads). Base thief does not have quickness for allies and boon thief used to be a thing for 10 players so I would have liked to see stolen skills (maybe with Thrill of the Crime) on core thief being able to apply quickness to 5 players since specter cannot use stolen skills.

Mesmer - probably strongest light armor class overall even if in competitive modes it is hard countered by thieves , can alac/quick but not heal very well. Outside of Matthias, the reflect is not significant enough to bring over a firebrand reflect. Repeated changes over time have resulted in mirage no longer being the go to pick even for confusion fights such as Twin Largos or Soulless Horror (where torment functions similarly well). PvE virtuoso after numerous changes is a solid PvE DPS but you give up most of the mesmer illusion and clone flavor for it. Using Moa (Signet of Humility) is insanely fun however.
--- healing on mesmer is a meme
--- key advantage is removing boons on autoattack with sword as well as on every CC if you run Vicious Expression : this is an imperative to WvW chrono
--- second key advantage is portal for over 5 people which allows massive plays in WvW

X Necromancer - heal necro is not a thing but you can play quickness harbinger or hybrid plaguedoc scourge , reaper has been a DPS meme for years ; with the nerfs to boon rip it is a hard pick for WvW these days as opposed to when scourge was outright broken and littering the entire map with shade condi spam. Whenever necro has been strong it has been utterly degenerate whether it is dual core necro in PVP 2v2, minion bunkers, sage amulet scourges littering an entire point with AoE, and bots, etc. MOst people consider PoF era scourge in WvW the most unfun meta and a nightmare to play melee against.
--- quickness harbinger might be a thing in roaming WVW or in PVP but it is absolutely horrible in largescale due to the projectile nature of most of the shroud skills.
--- alacrity is not present on necro except for the one case of Cold War where you can convert chill to alacrity constantly

Elementalist - downstate ele memes but you can heal, alac, quick (but generally heal alac or heal quick are not that impressive). Right now catalyst is supposed to be strong in PVP with scepter, in PvE heal alac tempest is jank but in competitive modes heal aurashare tempest is a strong support ; weaver is kind of meme unless you are an ele main. Since aura healing is mutually exclusive with alacrity you are forced to choose.
--- there has been a lot of hype about catalyst but at EoD launch it was universally canned as garbage , Relentless Fire having a duration rather than unblockable stacks is part of this along with the scepter changes to Dragons Tooth in particular

===

Therefore my vote goes to revenant which has never been truly outright bad in PVP , meta in WvW in some fashion (herald), while maintaining a consistent meta or near meta pick with renegade (or herald now) in PvE. If you had a revenant pre-EOD you would still have relevance post-HAM in PvE ; in WvW the meta still is conducive to herald and vindicator mainly due to Inspiring Reinforcement and I see some revenants running ventari in WvW for the dome.

• Engineer would get a #2 vote as well since holo has never been outright bad in PvP, WvW scrapper no longer dominates team compositions but still remains the top pick if you want superspeed, in PvE you can play quick or alac. Scrapper also happens to be quite forgiving in WvW and PvE alike, whereas mechanist is probably the most forgiving PvE spec right now.
• Guardian (#3) cannot alac without some hassle although it is likely the top alac pick in WvW currently (chrono needs wells for alac so uptime is worse, tempest will pick aura healing normally), DH is not always good everywhere (reportedly it was common in low tier PVP with trapper runes), firebrand has been bad in PVP ever since mantra of solace was changed to 200 healing even if meta in PVE/WVW.  Core support guardian has been a staple for ages so that sort of offsets this.

Considered:

• Mesmer (#4) would be a decent pick if it was not far weaker in competitive modes (you mostly see chrono these days but when distortion was missing on chrono you would see nearly none). It cannot heal well, alac mirage is janky against trash mobs, and lastly we are no longer in the chrono+druid era. Mirage still has one dodge in competitive modes which makes it unpolished and virtuoso requiring projectiles no matter your build makes it unwieldy in competitive modes without unblockable trait (Psychic Riposte).
• Elementalist (#5) is highly sensitive to mechanics and boon uptime and quite glassy unless you run a build with sustain at the cost of DPS as seen in competitive modes. In competitive modes typically ele mains played it, up until scepter buffs the only elementalists you normally see are aurashare tempests. Weaver has never been that accessible but this past year or so condi weaver had scepter+focus slip into mainstream which mostly uses two attunements.

Eliminated: warrior, ranger, necromancer, thief due to missing one PvE boon and niche usage

 

Edited February 25, 2023 by Infusion.7149

[Gaiawolf.8261]

I would say mesmer. Each of the especs have a distinct, fun playstyle and change the way the profession mechanics are used in interesting ways. They give the mesmer versatility while having their own thematic identity. 

Honorable mentions go to thief and elementalist for their distinct playstyles and themes even though party roles are limited for thief. Also a mention for firebrand. Dragonhunter and willbender are okay, but firebrand is so good and solely represents an iconic fantasy staple all on it's own, the divine caster (which often has several subclasses of its own in other games), that it's versatility carries the archetype all by itself.

[Atomnium.1532]

Engineer is kind of the obvious choice. And there are no other profession with that level of choice, role-picking and well executed gameplay designs available in an engineer.

[the krytan assassin.9235]

It seems to be quite an unpopular opinion, but i really think that elementalist should be one of the top pics (when looking at the current state). 

Good build diversity, can cover most roles in pve, each specialization is viable in every gamemode (although Weaver is abit on the weaker side in pvp). It has incredible dmge potential (3/5 PvE top dps builds are ele atm) very strong in support & pugzerg dps in WvW  and 2 meta roles in pvp aswell. All weapon(sets) are viable across the specializations. Access to ranged power& condi dps and melee power& condi dps. Multiple different builds in WvW & pvp, with different roles aswell. 

Only 3 big downsides are: catalyst could be abit more inclusive to certain weapons & EE creates an unnecessary skillgap. Tempest could use abit more interesting trait options, especially some buffs to damage. Espec utilities are quite strong, but could use abit more identity. 

Edited February 26, 2023 by the krytan assassin.9235

[draxynnic.3719]

10 hours ago, the krytan assassin.9235 said:

It seems to be quite an unpopular opinion, but i really think that elementalist should be one of the top pics (when looking at the current state). 

Good build diversity, can cover most roles in pve, each specialization is viable in every gamemode (although Weaver is abit on the weaker side in pvp). It has incredible dmge potential (3/5 PvE top dps builds are ele atm) very strong in support & pugzerg dps in WvW  and 2 meta roles in pvp aswell. All weapon(sets) are viable across the specializations. Access to ranged power& condi dps and melee power& condi dps. Multiple different builds in WvW & pvp, with different roles aswell. 

Only 3 big downsides are: catalyst could be abit more inclusive to certain weapons & EE creates an unnecessary skillgap. Tempest could use abit more interesting trait options, especially some buffs to damage. Espec utilities are quite strong, but could use abit more identity. 

Elementalist falls down on a couple of points:

The first is that for a profession with three elite specs, there isn't a huge variety in playstyle. Weaver and catalyst both promote rapid attunement switching while augmenting their offensive and/or defensive capabilities with stance-like utilities. Catalyst and tempest are both built around auras and plonking down special fields for each element that harm enemies (at least in PvE...) and buff allies. All three elite specs are optimised for melee or at least close combat, although weaver and to a lesser extent catalyst can build around it. There are differences in details, but in overall feel catalyst still feels like a cross between weaver and tempest rather than really being its own thing.

The other is how they grant the important boons in PvE. Alactempest is now less susceptible to CC, but probably still more than other alac builds except possibly willbender, and has a tight radius. Quick catalyst requires regular attunement swapping while making sure you can drop the air sphere on cooldown. 

[ZeftheWicked.3076]

Necro.

Why? Pretty simple. The question is about best elite specs, not best outcomes. Many profession have very good foundations which
means that even with mediocre e-spec result will be at the very least good. Looking at you revs and guards.

Core necro on the other hand - oh boy. That's one green-haired freckled tuna smelling stepchild of distant redneck family's dog...
Poor damage, slow abilities, cc ragdoll, playstyle generally crippled compared to other core professions.

Want to run around as power necro? Sucks to be you - you'll be cc ragdolled the moment you think about melee as core necro.
Want to be a true witch doctor with fears and all the DoTs? Sucks to be you - expertise is very hard to come by pre 80 and necro is the slowest profession of all when it comes to ramping up condi damage.
Want to run around as support? Sucks to be you! Even warriors will do better, since they  got party quickness as core profession.

It's only with e-specs that necro turns into a real profession (outside of competitive where core necro is a thing). Massive damage spikes, plentiful access to quickness (except for scourge), new support capabilities (boonshare on harb, barriers and BiS ressing on scourge), one man army vs Open world, likely BiS...

[Hector.7806]

Honestly dont know how people say Mesmer, after the horrible dodge nerf. That change alone broke Mirage, as even if you can play it.

It just feels bad to play it differently that the rest of the game.

[Blood Red Arachnid.2493]

10 hours ago, Hector.7806 said:

Honestly dont know how people say Mesmer, after the horrible dodge nerf. That change alone broke Mirage, as even if you can play it.

It just feels bad to play it differently that the rest of the game.

Partly it is because we remember how mirage was with both of their dodges.  They were reduced in dodging because they would chain their invulnerability skills together and none of them prevented the mesmer from attacking or performing another action.  In PVP this let mirage guard on point forever while the entire team struggled and failed to kill it, and WvW roamers were left in a similar boat because few could reliably outrun the mirage.  There is much lamentation over Anet not giving mirage their second dodge back yet, but Anet hasn't done so because they haven't figured out a way to do it without making mirage OP or nerfing everything else to such an immense degree.

Partly it is because, from a PVE standpoint, the mirage has potentially the highest overall solo performance in the game.  For reference, I played as a mirage while duo-ing the Migraine achievement, and with mirage I was capable of soloing it all the way until Tybalt would get summoned.  The high mobility, the near limitless access to non-impeding evades/invuln, the clones that draw aggro and stick around to do damage, the diverse core mesmer toolbox, everything there creates an incredibly well-rounded fighter capable of handling just about any situation.  

[draxynnic.3719]

21 hours ago, Hector.7806 said:

Honestly dont know how people say Mesmer, after the horrible dodge nerf. That change alone broke Mirage, as even if you can play it.

It just feels bad to play it differently that the rest of the game.

I took that into account, but it's worth keeping in mind that this only applies in competitive and other professions have problems too.