mes needs a 5 target big spike melee weapon not another 900-1200 range weapon

[Stand The Wall.6987]

unless they do some weird pboae stuff with rifle i'm gonna be disappointed. we have 2 melee weapons that aren't great for cleave or big spikes and 4 ranged weapons. feelsbadman

[Mell.4873]

I mean Engineer rifle has some aoe so maybe we get something like that. Cone based attacks could be a possibility too. 

[Fueki.4753]

Warrior's pistol is a melee weapon, so Arenanet could treat Mesmer's rifle similarly.

Edited October 23, 2023 by Fueki.4753

[Geronmy.3298]

If our greatsword is ranged our rifle should be melee or we riot.

[Lighter.5631]

i mean, the 5 target big spike melee is shatters no?..

the entire GS burst is melee-focused, or you lose damage

also less synergy with virt

rifle will allow ranged burst and synergy with virt.

[Mevelios.4809]

14 hours ago, Fueki.4753 said:

Warrior's pistol is a melee weapon, so Arenanet could treat Mesmer's rifle similarly.

Careful there - next thing we know, we'll be getting a vacuum cleaner rifle. Who are we gonna call?

[Fueki.4753]

26 minutes ago, Mevelios.4809 said:

Careful there - next thing we know, we'll be getting a vacuum cleaner rifle. Who are we gonna call?

And that would still end up being better than at least half of Warrior's current weapons.

[Alpha.1308]

literally uninstalling until the next expac a.g.a.i.n. if rifle isn't either melee, support, or portal themed necrostaff, i can't handle more projectile nonsense 

giving us an entire espec revolving around a class mechanic that can be A/D strafed was such a slap in the face lmao

Edited October 24, 2023 by Alpha.1308

[dead.7638]

Rifle that can cleave sounds pretty good.

[Justine.6351]

Jokes on you, it will be 900 range and come with 5 different ways to do mediocre damage.

[Blur.3465]

I just want swords to be viable T_T 
I don't like dagger swinging animations, they kill the majestic vibe for mesmer.
Staff is fantastic for Mirage, but I want a RAPIER blade! To elegantly slash and swoosh like Zorro!

[Mevelios.4809]

16 minutes ago, Blur.3465 said:

I just want swords to be viable T_T 
[...] I want a RAPIER blade!

There are a few models with mucho gusto (been using Bonetti's rapier for a looong time) but mesmer swords clearly are underperforming in PvE currently. My power mirage just can't compete, despite playing around interrupts and boon removal. In main hand, the sword itself is even overshadowed by the dagger at close range; at least the offhand is in a better state, but it's hard to disregard the shield!

[Roadkizzle.2157]

24 minutes ago, Mevelios.4809 said:

There are a few models with mucho gusto (been using Bonetti's rapier for a looong time) but mesmer swords clearly are underperforming in PvE currently. My power mirage just can't compete, despite playing around interrupts and boon removal. In main hand, the sword itself is even overshadowed by the dagger at close range; at least the offhand is in a better state, but it's hard to disregard the shield!

I REALLY want to use the shield. I keep on trying it but I just haven't been able to justify it to myself over any other Mesmer OH.

 

The other weapons Phantasms and utility just seem so much more useful than the shield.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

I'm definitely hoping for either a melee or support skill set for the rifle.

Edited October 25, 2023 by Roadkizzle.2157

[Curunen.8729]

At least rifle will look cool for fashion wars. 😉

But next time I hope we get hammer to fulfil that aoe by "turning enemies into clones" (some kind of debuff) and shattering them directly!

[Mevelios.4809]

22 minutes ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

I REALLY want to use the shield. I keep on trying it but I just haven't been able to justify it to myself over any other Mesmer OH.

 

The other weapons Phantasms and utility just seem so much more useful than the shield.

As always, it largely depends on how it's being used. The shield obviously fits its theme as an offhand on the defensive side; it can find room in a proactive play, in which you stand on purpose in the way of an attack to trigger early echo of memory/deja vu, then break the remaining of its channeling with any action instead of waiting idly. The avenger phantasms aren't as powerful as swordsmen or wardens on a single target, but they affect an area before instantly turning into shatter fodder while pulling off slow & protection (to reinforce the defensive side). What that means though is, in practice, it's a lot more usable in open world than in instanced content. That, I can't deny.

The waves of time however can offer a lot of synergies. You get the stun, the missile denial, a short-lived ethereal field in which any leap can pull a chaos armor (again for the sake of defense), the might stacks including for allies if you're missing some, and decent damages - nothing insane for a 35s CD, but that already makes several utilities with the possibility of removing 10s off its CD. It can trigger your domination or chaos specs as well.

The focus remains largely untouchable for its pull, but its phantasm has single-target whirling attacks that might be lost on multiple targets. The sword brings a defensive tool and one of the most damaging phantasms (that leaping attack doesn't always trigger however). The pistol is shy and the least efficient in regard of power builds, but can pull off a surprise in an interrupt-based build to trigger cooldown reductions (though you'll ironically refrain from using its fifth skill to focus CD reductions on the duelist). That's how I interpret it; it varies on the content, but personally I find use for the shield at least in multi-target environments where I can afford to step into attacks intentionally!

[Eekasqueak.7850]

I'd be fine with them making rifle long range AoE Condi and staff moving into more of a support role. 

[ShadowKatt.6740]

On 10/23/2023 at 3:58 PM, Fueki.4753 said:

Warrior's pistol is a melee weapon, so Arenanet could treat Mesmer's rifle similarly.

YOU SHUT YOUR MO- oh who am I kidding, we'll probably hold it backwards and swing it like a club.

[draxynnic.3719]

Melee rifle would be pretty silly when they could have gone with hammer if they wanted a melee option. Support-oriented is possible (rifle was apparently originally planned for chronomancer before they decided to go with clockface shield instead), but jumping to rifle being melee when more intuitive options are still available would be an odd choice, to say the least.

[Curunen.8729]

27 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Melee rifle would be pretty silly when they could have gone with hammer if they wanted a melee option. Support-oriented is possible (rifle was apparently originally planned for chronomancer before they decided to go with clockface shield instead), but jumping to rifle being melee when more intuitive options are still available would be an odd choice, to say the least.

Agreed.

I imagine rifle will be fairly standard in function like OH pistol, with appropriate flavour, and as you said having been originally intended for chrono before shield.

In the nicest possible way, I seriously don't want it to be playing music (not going to say the "b" word) or a support weapon - I would like to shoot things all cool like, bending magic bullets through time and space and do damage, power or condi.

Sure have one or two skills have some utility function, but save the healing and other stuff for a shortbow etc in the future.

We're likely going to get one weapon a year if the next expansion continues the theme anyway.

 

[Roadkizzle.2157]

45 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Melee rifle would be pretty silly when they could have gone with hammer if they wanted a melee option. Support-oriented is possible (rifle was apparently originally planned for chronomancer before they decided to go with clockface shield instead), but jumping to rifle being melee when more intuitive options are still available would be an odd choice, to say the least.

No. Hammer is going to be our healing weapon.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

13 minutes ago, Curunen.8729 said:

Agreed.

I imagine rifle will be fairly standard in function like OH pistol, with appropriate flavour, and as you said having been originally intended for chrono before shield.

In the nicest possible way, I seriously don't want it to be playing music (not going to say the "b" word) or a support weapon - I would like to shoot things all cool like, bending magic bullets through time and space and do damage, power or condi.

Sure have one or two skills have some utility function, but save the healing and other stuff for a shortbow etc in the future.

We're likely going to get one weapon a year if the next expansion continues the theme anyway.

 

As in literally just a reskin of the Revenant Short bow skills.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

We'll see what they're envisioning in 1 month.

[draxynnic.3719]

8 minutes ago, Curunen.8729 said:

Agreed.

I imagine rifle will be fairly standard in function like OH pistol, with appropriate flavour, and as you said having been originally intended for chrono before shield.

In the nicest possible way, I seriously don't want it to be playing music (not going to say the "b" word) or a support weapon - I would like to shoot things all cool like, bending magic bullets through time and space and do damage, power or condi.

Sure have one or two skills have some utility function, but save the healing and other stuff for a shortbow etc in the future.

We're likely going to get one weapon a year if the next expansion continues the theme anyway.

 

Yeah, rifles are pretty clearly designed for projecting something down the barrel. If there was no other option and ArenaNet really wanted a 2H melee option, I could see them pulling something like warrior OH pistol, but hammer is right there and there's potential to do some pretty cool stuff with mesmers using a hammer.

It is worth noting, though, that most of the weapons proposed do look to be aimed at filling gaps in the existing lineup, and rifle as a conventional ranged DPS would be a bit of an odd one out (greatsword, dagger, staff, and scepter if it gets buffed again). Meanwhile, mesmer does have trouble with being a credible healer. I really don't think rifle would ever be what they'd choose for a bard theme, but I could see it being something like Mercy's healing gun in Overwatch, druid staff in rifle form, or maybe even something like thief scepter where the functionality depends on who you target.

Or it could just be that the opportunity to bring back a previously discarded concept was too attractive to pass up.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

5 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Yeah, rifles are pretty clearly designed for projecting something down the barrel. If there was no other option and ArenaNet really wanted a 2H melee option, I could see them pulling something like warrior OH pistol, but hammer is right there and there's potential to do some pretty cool stuff with mesmers using a hammer.

It is worth noting, though, that most of the weapons proposed do look to be aimed at filling gaps in the existing lineup, and rifle as a conventional ranged DPS would be a bit of an odd one out (greatsword, dagger, staff, and scepter if it gets buffed again). Meanwhile, mesmer does have trouble with being a credible healer. I really don't think rifle would ever be what they'd choose for a bard theme, but I could see it being something like Mercy's healing gun in Overwatch, druid staff in rifle form, or maybe even something like thief scepter where the functionality depends on who you target.

Or it could just be that the opportunity to bring back a previously discarded concept was too attractive to pass up.

I'm pretty sure Rifle was chosen because they had already had skills defined for it when it was planned to be the Chronomancer weapon.

 

So the least amount of work needed for creating a Mesmer weapon would be the one where the work had been started years ago.