Nov Balance, 2 Steps Backwards for Mesmer...

[Voyant.1327]

All I want to do is log on and have fun playing the spec/class I enjoy, it has been 2 years of this constant grief style changes where unless you're following along with the Meta, you're gonna get screwed. There are some positive ideas but there is just way too much negative with all these mesmer changes, every single balance update has been more misery and the November is more of the same, thus I'm going to break down my thoughts on all the spec changes. Others feel free to debate/argue on the merits, just try to make it constructive is all I ask. Don't need people to agree, just want to get out my views on them/add my thoughts to the table. I play a primarily heal focused Virtuoso and thus when I heard healing focused I expected positive, my mistake:

Metaphysical Rejuvenation: This trait has been reworked. Grant regeneration to nearby allies after using a healing skill, with a 10-second internal cooldown.
Why? At least the old version had purpose, this one is encouraging you to use your heal skill, which guess what...
it wasn't needed before by Heal Mesmers, so now its adding another ability to the rotation that wasn't necessary and you still haven't fixed the F5 debacle...
could've just made F5 give regen time per blade or clone vs this. (Edit: And if it's for the addition of rifle, I swear to God... don't get me started on why that's awful balancing.)

Illusionary Defense: This trait has been reworked. Grant protection to nearby allies when you use a shatter skill. Protection duration scales based on the number of shattered clones.
Another sacrifice personal survival to be a boon groupie, so now anyone who took this skill in conjunction with acting in a tank like capacity, face tanking, pulling aggro... will get screwed so that you give out protection, which you could easily acquire for yourself prior to this update. oh joy. Please stop with the Boon Spam balance philosophies already.

Chaotic Transference: This trait has been reworked. When you grant chaos aura to yourself, also grant it to nearby allies. When you grant chaos aura to an ally, also grant them regeneration.
So the one possible benefit protection could have had which was increasing Regen uptime has been removed... to provide Chaos Aura, which fine now adds regen. Still seems like Illusionary Defense and Chaotic Transference changes are a net loss, but at least this one isnt a disaster. Encouraging Staff use maybe?

Illusionary Membrane: This trait has been reworked. Gain chaos aura when you use Shatter skill 2. Deal increased condition damage when you have chaos aura.
Unless the Aura can be maintained indefinitely or the benefits are higher then the condition damage granted previously this is a net loss in DPS & Support. The only upside is that you have potentially more sources of Regen, but you're removing what Regen offers? Feels like 2 Steps Back, 1 Step Forward.

Bountiful Disillusionment: The additional boon based on which Shatter skill you use is now also granted to nearby allies. Distortion now grants stability instead of regeneration. 
This is the one that made me lose it tbh, lol.
So in trade for easy regen uptime we get now... more of what we're already getting from the skill.. So that we can share 5 stacks of Might, Vigor, and Fury (which most of us were already sharing anyways) I get it you want to turn everyone into boon support, but what in the actual? Oh right, we can give our allies stability now... still lost too much to give very little to the group beyond that. The stability change should have been made elsewhere.

Illusionary Inspiration: This trait has been moved to the minor grandmaster slot, replacing Healing Prism. This trait now increases outgoing healing in addition to its previous effect.
Not sure if losing a couple hundred healing power is going to be compensated here, but whatever less healing sources seems strange choice to me here.

Restorative Illusions: This trait has been moved to the grandmaster tier, replacing Illusionary Inspiration. The healing and condition removal now also affect nearby allies.  
So you removed a heal source, forced this one into the grandmaster tree where it is now where Illusionary Inspiration was? And then made it basically the same as the heal you replaced?
Balance Team must've had a few edibles at this point. Please share, it helps with the anxiety of reading balance updates.

Ego Restoration: This trait fills the master tier slot previously held by Restorative Illusions. Create a clone after using a healing skill.
LMAO, our options are now: Focus reduce recharge, Glamour Skills last longer, or get a clone after a heal skill.... At least before we had one choice in this slot worth taking, unless you use a focus, this is a dead column for virtually everyone. One Clone or Blade off a heal skill, really someone thought that was a good choice? One clone what every 20-25 seconds... if you can't see the issue there, well moving on...

Temporal Enchanter: Increased the superspeed duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds. Increased the resistance duration from 2 seconds to 3 seconds in PvE and PvP. Increased the area of effect.
Superspeed, Glamours people use are usually AoE Bubbles. Of all the changes this one didn't cross your minds at all?

Mental Defense: This trait has been reworked. Distortion grants resistance and breaks stuns for nearby allies.
This one was just brutal, we get it you hate mesmers, but removing one of the favored abilities (Lesser Phantasmal Defender) for such a long time to give Resistance (which we're already getting from the asinine F5 skill for some bloody reason) so we can... break stuns for allies, which shouldn't be stunned because we're outputting stability now. This felt like just a cheap way to be spiteful to Mesmer Mains, tbh. This is the worst downgrade of a skill I've seen in a long time, and guess what... it's in the grandmaster Trait line yet again?

The Pledge: This trait no longer reduces the cooldown of torch skills. Increased burning stacks from 1 to 2.
I get it you lowered Torch Cooldown, which is fine, no hate there, but what? 1 additional stack of burning, ok.
Sure, Guess Ammo Skill it is. Another one of those short sighted decisions that feels lazy and is going to force most to take the same skill bc there's no real options, one is clearly superior.

Compounding Power: This trait no longer increases the condition damage attribute and instead increases outgoing damage from conditions by 2% per stack.
What is even the point of this change? Nerf? Buff? I'll reserve judgment but given track record, I'm assuming nerf. 😄

Malicious Sorcery: This trait has been reworked. Confusion you inflict has increased duration. When you evade an attack, inflict confusion on the attacker.
This on evade stuff has gotta stop already, like there's times it's cool, but holy crap wtf is this, yes it's better then what the option was before but literally it's just essentially "Confusion has increased duration" and that's a choice... Compare this to any other classes options and this is a joke. This is yet AGAIN a grandmaster choice?!

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Personally am just tired of trying to come back to the game and it always being some version of this sort of balancing. I love the game it has three main flaws imo:
The Story, Solo Player Level Design both of which could help the game, but the third is the biggest problem, these balance patches are awful and while might work for those who balance around the Meta, it punishes creative players over and over for trying to make anything useful or fun to play. Video games should be rewarding and fun! This constant chaotic changes with no rhyme or reason are not fun to deal with.

As a Mesmer Support, a patch focused on amplifying that role should be a positive thing, instead this might be the worst balance patch I've dealt with (including the two June patches of doom)

 

 

Edited October 28, 2023 by Voyant.1327

[Gesbo.6420]

Why are you mad, support mesmer used to be the best build in the past before they stripped all of its supportive traits. There are so many interesting builds  that will come out of this. 

I'm particularly happy about bountiful disillusionment. When they changed it to user only I was devastated.. now that they are bringing back the 5 man buffing we are onto a good start! 

You get baseline healing on every illusions you summon in inspiration which is massive! I believe meta physical rejuvenation is supposed to be used in tandem with mantras. So you have the healing mantras trait, you have healing mantra that you can puls regen with every 10 seconds and if things get spicy you can break stun for everyone with distortion! Or heal through everything. You can have that really cool looking esper healer with virtuoso - the possibilities are endless with chaos and inspiration. 

Chaos in particular has been a bit rubbish for a while now, giving it all the supportive abilities is a good change... I feel like you just want to be mad for the purpose of being mad... but I might sing a different song when I see actual numbers 

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

Heal Mantra charges do count for every instance of "healing skill", so it works with the new Ego Restoration trait. Proccing that trait also procs Illusionary Inspiration as it summons a Clone, you can then Shatter to heal the group with the new Restorative Illusions' placement.

This synergy is further amplified with the new Chaos traitline as mentioned above, now you can share Regen and your Shatter gives boons in addition to healing. it also works with Chrono too as now it wants to spam Shatter to share Alac or Quick. 

[Mevelios.4809]

For the sake of healing/providing boons, I find the changes rather appealing, though I remain convinced some love could be given to the mantras. I'm a bit doubtful about how that healing-on-shatter will perform (if clones run in melee, how would you make use of a big heal on allies at range?) but live testing will tell.

Losing illusionary defense is a big hit however, for a melee fan like me. Finding the protection buff was already possible; losing that extra layer of defense for the precious, squishy little things we are keeps removing attraction towards melee weapons. Besides, shatter 2 will provide chaos armor to roll another chance at getting protection, so it feels redundant when you can already make use of a leaping finisher with the sword or axe in main hand (and I'm not even mentioning all mirage options).

Well, there's still definitely some positive on the healing/boon abilities. I'll have a firmer opinion after actually trying it out!

[Gesbo.6420]

2 minutes ago, Mevelios.4809 said:

For the sake of healing/providing boons, I find the changes rather appealing, though I remain convinced some love could be given to the mantras. I'm a bit doubtful about how that healing-on-shatter will perform (if clones run in melee, how would you make use of a big heal on allies at range?) but live testing will tell.

Losing illusionary defense is a big hit however, for a melee fan like me. Finding the protection buff was already possible; losing that extra layer of defense for the precious, squishy little things we are keeps removing attraction towards melee weapons. Besides, shatter 2 will provide chaos armor to roll another chance at getting protection, so it feels redundant when you can already make use of a leaping finisher with the sword or axe in main hand (and I'm not even mentioning all mirage options).

Well, there's still definitely some positive on the healing/boon abilities. I'll have a firmer opinion after actually trying it out!

Mate the power fantasy of casting cry of frustration and creating ethereal shields for everyone around you makes me tingle with excitement! The fantasy behind it is amazing!

Staff Mirage with mantra of recovery and ego restoration that gives you clones on heal will solve all of mirages issues, you can drop the 2 deception skills all together and constantly pump out clones like nothing! You can bring glamour that bring resistance and super speed in larger areas and more thermal fields to combo in! (Even though I still feel temporal enchanter should pulse its boons in the fields...)

Cheonos will have all of this and all the quickness goodness that they can provide plus wells to boot!

I feel like this is one of the coolest update previews I've seen in a long while and credit should be given when credit is due. I am actually excited for once!

[Mevelios.4809]

5 minutes ago, Gesbo.6420 said:

Staff Mirage with mantra of recovery and ego restoration that gives you clones on heal will solve all of mirages issues, you can drop the 2 deception skills all together and constantly pump out clones like nothing! You can bring glamour that bring resistance and super speed in larger areas and more thermal fields to combo in! (Even though I still feel temporal enchanter should pulse its boons in the fields...)

You can't combine both, they're on the same line. It's either pumping clones through mantra use, either offering resistance & superspeed. Restorative mantras remains untouched but as I suggested it elsewhere, I'd rather see a small heal on using the charges (which will actually be the things you'll rely on if you intend on using that new Ego restoration) and buffs on the preparation cast. In addition, a lot can happen in two seconds of inactivity while preparing a mantra, which is the main reason I pretty much never rely on it for anything (and here for the projection we might have for a virtuoso, that'll be the real issue, since what could save someone during the preparation -shatters- are also casts, unlike the rest of the profession). Halving the preparation time would make it a much more interesting option especially on builds unrelated to healing, but I also get that it could end on the powerful side under quickness... Well, my only boon donkey experience is based solely on chronomancer, so I'd rather ask for the opinion of players used to that gameplay rather than rely on what I have of it.

14 minutes ago, Gesbo.6420 said:

Cheonos will have all of this and all the quickness goodness that they can provide plus wells to boot!

I also expect a real asset for boon chrono, but on the opposite I also worry that it'll just shut down other possibilities by making one elite spec "teh" boon spec. If it ends locking effectively that character profile into a single e-spec, that's no longer a "profession" buff, but a "spec" buff. Then again it doesn't come into conflict with what I thought all these could be in the topic I linked above; again, a live test will tell. Skipping all steps might just produce something excessive.

And unless it was just a happy coincidence, it feels like our short debate over what could change to restore a support mesmer (other than chrono) didn't fall on deaf ears. So if it indeed wasn't a coincidence, while many of us rarely miss the chance to yell "we never asked for this!" or "you never listen to us!", let's make it an opportunity this time around to send a positive message: thanks for giving it a chance! Let's see how this goes, and hopefully restore a gameplay that would no longer be restricted to a single spec! 😊

[dead.7638]

Yea, maybe a first.   I’m not mad at this update.

[Waffles.5632]

New changes are great. Finally Anet seems to be getting their act back together.

Mesmers will see a substantial buff to all builds, and I am looking forward to seeing how the healing builds will play out.

Edited October 28, 2023 by Waffles.5632

[Dawnbreaker.4901]

Having options is nice. I'm going to have to look at the traits as they are now and compare them to the update changes so I can prepare my Mirage setup ahead of time.

I play a Dual Staff Mirage 98% of the time. I like the playstyle - If I can build a solo build and a group build that I like, then most of these changes shouldn't be a problem.

I play Open World and Story content and that's about it, and I can play just about anything and be fine. I'm not a cutting edge player by any means. Maybe I'll like these changes.

[Levetty.1279]

If they want us to start using Mantras then they need to revert that 3 second cast time nerf they slapped on them all.

[Gesbo.6420]

35 minutes ago, Dawnbreaker.4901 said:

Having options is nice. I'm going to have to look at the traits as they are now and compare them to the update changes so I can prepare my Mirage setup ahead of time.

I play a Dual Staff Mirage 98% of the time. I like the playstyle - If I can build a solo build and a group build that I like, then most of these changes shouldn't be a problem.

I play Open World and Story content and that's about it, and I can play just about anything and be fine. I'm not a cutting edge player by any means. Maybe I'll like these changes.

You knownwhat will be a fun interaction? If renewing oasis works with all the regeneration you apply to people... man I'm so excited about this patch how am I going to wait for a whole month! 

[Curunen.8729]

I'm mildly apprehensive about potential visual mess caused by encouraging so much aoe chaos aura uptime for using chaos. Would prefer chaos aura to have some downtime for variety.

 

Restorative Illusions though - my god I have been waiting for that to be moved since the Specialisations patch kitten ages ago when they put it on the same tier as Warden's Feedback. Probably one of the longest time request fulfilment on this class, if not the whole game.

[Oslaf Beinir.5842]

Well no more Restorative Illusions plus Blurred Inscriptions, a classic combo for many builds is no more.

So aside from kinda reverting the old nerfs to Bountiful Disillusionment, all these new balance changes are straight up big net negative. Also Chaos Aura spam and Confusion on evade are too passive of mechanics and do not compensate for the power lost. I am not sure about the Axe changes but other than that these are horrible changes to the traits.

[otto.5684]

I want to try the changes and see how everything fits together. My biggest concern is removing reg from distortion shatter. Was one of the easiest ways to stack reg, outside of dedicated group. 

[Micah.3789]

22 hours ago, Voyant.1327 said:

these balance patches are awful and while might work for those who balance around the Meta, it punishes creative players over and over for trying to make anything useful or fun to play. 

As an avid theory crafter and a hybrid celestial heal mirage main, do not presume to speak for me. This is literally the patch that has restored my faith in the balance dev team. Every change you listed either directly improved a trait while maintaining its integrity, or replaced dysfunctional and undesirable traits with much needed and requested support functions. All of this while building off of core mesmer features as not to exclude any E spec from utilizing them. Mesmer build craft possibilities are going to explode with these changes.

Your post reads as a personal manifesto of contempt for anything mainstream (meta), especially consolidated boon roles. While I can appreciate why someone may not prefer the boon share approach to support balance, it isn't objectively bad. Every point you make is a complaint based on niche personal preference, but stated as though it were objective criticism. I could go point by point and give my more positive perspective on these changes, but I doubt that would be productive. Have you considered that you may just not like this game, and that doesn't make it inherently bad?

[Xaylin.1860]

I don't really like the changes to Minors in Chaos but everything else looks like a win to me at least from a build diversity perspective. I like the changes a lot despite not really enjoying support Mesmer. Especially the changes to Inspiration were desperately needed. While I am disappointed ANet didn't use the opportunity to move at least 1 Utility group related trait out of Inspiration (Signets, Mantras, Glamours), Mesmer will be way better at healing and removing conditions now. Via their class mechanic. That's best that could have happened imho.

Regarding Chaos: I do like attaching specific effects to specific Shatters. However, with F2 specifically, we already have plenty modifying traits (Duelling, Illusions). For one, F2 is reaching a "Steal" situation where it could potentially do too many effects at once. Second, this kinda discriminates non Condition Mesmers. We already got Cry of Pain as a Minor trait only catering Condi despite being in a hybrid trait line which I really dislike personally. At least put a more versatile effect on it. Metaphysical Rejuvination in Isolation might be fine. But ANet is really going a bit overboard with those on Heal/Elite effects (e.g. Relics.). Yes, those are better than passive procs. But again: This overloads one single skill. Also, on Heal feels more suitable for Inspiration than Chaos after all.

Overall, still positive changes imho. Curious whether Quickness or Alacrity Chrono will mesh better with those.

 

Edited October 29, 2023 by Xaylin.1860

[draxynnic.3719]

It might be because F2 more typically has the sort of recharge they want on those effects. I do find that there are times I use F2 on power builds because F1 is still recharging and I have clones/blades to burn, so it's not a complete "kitten you" to power builds (and the conditions still do something even if you haven't invested in condition damage and expertise).

Edited October 29, 2023 by draxynnic.3719

[Gesbo.6420]

54 minutes ago, Xaylin.1860 said:

I don't really like the changes to Minors in Chaos but everything else looks like a win to me at least from a build diversity perspective. I like the changes a lot despite not really enjoying support Mesmer. Especially the changes to Inspiration were desperately needed. While I am disappointed ANet didn't use the opportunity to move at least 1 Utility group related trait out of Inspiration (Signets, Mantras, Glamours), Mesmer will be way better at healing and removing conditions now. Via their class mechanic. That's best that could have happened imho.

Regarding Chaos: I do like attaching specific effects to specific Shatters. However, with F2 specifically, we already have plenty modifying traits (Duelling, Illusions). For one, F2 is reaching a "Steal" situation where it could potentially do too many effects at once. Second, this kinda discriminates non Condition Mesmers. We already got Cry of Pain as a Minor trait only catering Condi despite being in a hybrid trait line which I really dislike personally. At least put a more versatile effect on it. Metaphysical Rejuvination in Isolation might be fine. But ANet is really going a bit overboard with those on Heal/Elite effects (e.g. Relics.). Yes, those are better than passive procs. But again: This overloads one single skill. Also, on Heal feels more suitable for Inspiration than Chaos after all.

Overall, still positive changes imho. Curious whether Quickness or Alacrity Chrono will mesh better with those.

 

Chaos armor is good on any type of build imho. Conditions it applies can help power builds too - weakness for example can help you survive. Boon wise it is the same thing, you can get swiftness out of it. And the fact that you don't need to spec I to it and it comes baseline is pretty nifty extra bonus! 

[Xaylin.1860]

3 minutes ago, Gesbo.6420 said:

Chaos armor is good on any type of build imho. Conditions it applies can help power builds too - weakness for example can help you survive. Boon wise it is the same thing, you can get swiftness out of it. And the fact that you don't need to spec I to it and it comes baseline is pretty nifty extra bonus! 

Getting something baseline is not a bonus if the benefit is low or none existant for certain builds (e.g. Confusion via Cry of Pain for Power builds). Chaos Armor itself is fine. But increased condition damage while affected by Chaos Armor is not. Both, increased condition duration or boon duration or both would be more versatile.

My other point also remains: Putting Chaos Armor on F2 clearly caters one playstyle while posing a bigger trade off for others.

8 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

It might be because F2 more typically has the sort of recharge they want on those effects. I do find that there are times I use F2 on power builds because F1 is still recharging and I have clones/blades to burn, so it's not a complete "kitten you" to power builds (and the conditions still do something even if you haven't invested in condition damage and expertise).

Yes, I agree with this. You have the option to use it more purposefully. But still: Is gaining Chaos Armor and Condition damage on a non Condition build worth potentially wasting Clones/Blades. In many situations it won't. 

I wonder if this will trigger without Clones. Which would remedy it at least a little bit. Would be worse from a game design perspective though 😜

[Apraxis.4803]

On 10/28/2023 at 2:43 AM, Voyant.1327 said:

I play a primarily heal focused Virtuoso

Aaaanndd ... That's about where I stopped reading lmao

[draxynnic.3719]

12 hours ago, Xaylin.1860 said:

Yes, I agree with this. You have the option to use it more purposefully. But still: Is gaining Chaos Armor and Condition damage on a non Condition build worth potentially wasting Clones/Blades. In many situations it won't. 

I wonder if this will trigger without Clones. Which would remedy it at least a little bit. Would be worse from a game design perspective though 😜

I'd presume it would work any time that F2 isn't disabled. So Chronomancer, Mirage, and core would be able to use it without clones, but chronomancer will have a longer recharge if it's not powered by clones.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

I finally got around to reading the upcoming balance changes and just....what the kitten.....

Metaphysical Rejuvenation: This trait has been reworked. Grant regeneration to nearby allies after using a healing skill, with a 10-second internal cooldown.

That was MY healing! When I was getting hurt that was MY regeneration, and now you're giving it to everyone else.

Illusionary Defense: This trait has been reworked. Grant protection to nearby allies when you use a shatter skill. Protection duration scales based on the number of shattered clones.

That was MY Damage Reduction! You've taken away DR entirely and now you're giving EVERYONE ELSE protection!

Chaotic Transference: This trait has been reworked. When you grant chaos aura to yourself, also grant it to nearby allies. When you grant chaos aura to an ally, also grant them regeneration.

This one REALLY pisses me off because I was using Chaos Shield as a minor secondary heal. Chaos Shield gives Protection, and Protection gives Regeneration. Now I don't get Protection, OR Regeneration, and everyone ELSE gets my chaos shield WITH MY REGEN!

Illusionary Membrane: This trait has been reworked. Gain chaos aura when you use Shatter skill 2. Deal increased condition damage when you have chaos aura.

I'm only slightly less miffed about this one because it's traded regen for a Chaos Aura, or Shield, or whatever they want to call it now. But we already had this with the regeneration that I was ALREADY GETTING with Chaos Shield. Now I get the extra Condi Damage, but I still don't get my regen.

Phantasmal Warlock: The phantasm summoned by this skill now inflicts torment instead of vulnerability.

So the ONLY vulnerability the staff was able to do is now gone, and it's going to do MORE torment which is already being added by two other skills. Great. Guess I'll have to find a friend to do Vulnerability for me since I'm so very useless now I can't even do that myself.
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Was it their intention to just annihilate the solo mesmer? This is all great for everyone else if you're playing in a group. Hell they don't even need you to do anything. Just throw a jumping mouse on your keyboard so it can constantly refresh their boons like the buff battery that apparently they want us to be. EXCEPT I DON'T WANT TO PLAY IN A GROUP. I am a SOLO player. I don't Party, I don't Squad, I don't Guild, and I don't need to have my entire build rebuilt to be better for all the people I'm not playing with in the first place. What is even the point of playing a mesmer at this point? Quite frankly there's already a boon build for every other profession in the game, and mesmers already had many boon builds. Now that's pretty much ALL we have.

Am I missing something here? Did I read through all those changes and somehow misinterpret something? Please explain to me what I got wrong because as far as I can tell here there is zero reason to play mesmer anymore except to be someones female dog.

[Mevelios.4809]

1 hour ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

Phantasmal Warlock: The phantasm summoned by this skill now inflicts torment instead of vulnerability.

 

So the ONLY vulnerability the staff was able to do is now gone, and it's going to do MORE torment which is already being added by two other skills. Great. Guess I'll have to find a friend to do Vulnerability for me since I'm so very useless now I can't even do that myself.

C'mon now. Two stacks per warlock, that's 4% for 5 seconds, and it's for a power-based modifier on a condi-based weapon. It's definitely something that could've been removed; grab the domination spec, that's 8 stacks for 8 secs per daze - which you'll land with Chaos storm! Especially if you play solo, you'll get more out of extra confusion stacks.

1 hour ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

Am I missing something here? Did I read through all those changes and somehow misinterpret something? Please explain to me what I got wrong because as far as I can tell here there is zero reason to play mesmer anymore

Well, playing solo is not the only way to play mesmer. Several of us are rejoicing over these announced changes, even if some have a few mitigated feelings (including me, over illusionary defense), so yes - there are reasons to keep playing mesmer!

It's not as grim as you make it out to be; it's the wording that can be confusing, since several skills refer to "provides X buff to you and nearby allies". Renegade's Heroic command reads the same way, "grant nearby allies might": in practice the renegade itself is included in this, so I highly doubt these traits will exclusively provide their buffs to allies but not to the mesmer.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

1 hour ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

I finally got around to reading the upcoming balance changes and just....what the kitten.....

Metaphysical Rejuvenation: This trait has been reworked. Grant regeneration to nearby allies after using a healing skill, with a 10-second internal cooldown.

That was MY healing! When I was getting hurt that was MY regeneration, and now you're giving it to everyone else.

Illusionary Defense: This trait has been reworked. Grant protection to nearby allies when you use a shatter skill. Protection duration scales based on the number of shattered clones.

That was MY Damage Reduction! You've taken away DR entirely and now you're giving EVERYONE ELSE protection!

Chaotic Transference: This trait has been reworked. When you grant chaos aura to yourself, also grant it to nearby allies. When you grant chaos aura to an ally, also grant them regeneration.

This one REALLY pisses me off because I was using Chaos Shield as a minor secondary heal. Chaos Shield gives Protection, and Protection gives Regeneration. Now I don't get Protection, OR Regeneration, and everyone ELSE gets my chaos shield WITH MY REGEN!

Illusionary Membrane: This trait has been reworked. Gain chaos aura when you use Shatter skill 2. Deal increased condition damage when you have chaos aura.

I'm only slightly less miffed about this one because it's traded regen for a Chaos Aura, or Shield, or whatever they want to call it now. But we already had this with the regeneration that I was ALREADY GETTING with Chaos Shield. Now I get the extra Condi Damage, but I still don't get my regen.

Phantasmal Warlock: The phantasm summoned by this skill now inflicts torment instead of vulnerability.

So the ONLY vulnerability the staff was able to do is now gone, and it's going to do MORE torment which is already being added by two other skills. Great. Guess I'll have to find a friend to do Vulnerability for me since I'm so very useless now I can't even do that myself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Was it their intention to just annihilate the solo mesmer? This is all great for everyone else if you're playing in a group. Hell they don't even need you to do anything. Just throw a jumping mouse on your keyboard so it can constantly refresh their boons like the buff battery that apparently they want us to be. EXCEPT I DON'T WANT TO PLAY IN A GROUP. I am a SOLO player. I don't Party, I don't Squad, I don't Guild, and I don't need to have my entire build rebuilt to be better for all the people I'm not playing with in the first place. What is even the point of playing a mesmer at this point? Quite frankly there's already a boon build for every other profession in the game, and mesmers already had many boon builds. Now that's pretty much ALL we have.

Am I missing something here? Did I read through all those changes and somehow misinterpret something? Please explain to me what I got wrong because as far as I can tell here there is zero reason to play mesmer anymore except to be someones female dog.

You do realize that giving allies boons don't take the boons away from you don't you?

You give yourself Regen from Metaphysical Rejuvenation when you are giving it to allies also. So you still have your Regen but you can also help out allies.

 

I love the change to Metaphysical Rejuvenation because I never had any control over when it was triggered. But with being able to control the trigger in this trait and also chaos aura it'll be much easier as a solo player to actually get and maintain Regeneration.

 

Mesmer had minimal access to Protection. As a solo player my mesmer is going to have higher defence because I'll have permanent Protection where it was way to unreliable before.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

34 minutes ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

You do realize that giving allies boons don't take the boons away from you don't you?

You give yourself Regen from Metaphysical Rejuvenation when you are giving it to allies also. So you still have your Regen but you can also help out allies.

 

I love the change to Metaphysical Rejuvenation because I never had any control over when it was triggered. But with being able to control the trigger in this trait and also chaos aura it'll be much easier as a solo player to actually get and maintain Regeneration.

 

Mesmer had minimal access to Protection. As a solo player my mesmer is going to have higher defence because I'll have permanent Protection where it was way to unreliable before.

Why do I need regeneration when I JUST used a healing skill? That's like...more healing on my already healing. Before it was a SECOND heal that triggered when your HP ran low. The same is true of Chaotic Transference. I could use my heal OR I could heal with my 4. Or I could use them both if I was really in trouble. So yes, I'm pissed.

And no, I don't realize that giving allies boons doesn't take them away from myself. Because that's not what it says. I am taking the skills literally as they are written. And literally as they're written they screwed the mesmers. Or at least they screwed me. I get that I'm the minority here and everyone else is doing cartwheels because they'll make their group happy now when previously if you showed up as a mesmer you got the boot. And if that's the way things are going I guess I need to find something else to play. No, I'm not leaving the mesmer profession. The profession left me.