Rifle on Mesmer, any update rumors?

[Val.7826]

I paused the game in the last few months, but I heard about an update that is supposed to give each f2p-spec a new weapon. Since I like the idea of a rifle on my mesmer, and I'd surely want to come back to the game to try that, I'd like to know if there are any rumors regarding the release date of this particular update.

Thanks for the answers dears 🤗

P.s. Sorry for any mistake, my English is not perfect

[AshkyLicious.4729]

The info we have at this time is that rifle is going to be a support-based weapon for mesmers 🙂

It will be released during 2024, probably in Q1 2024! Im not sure though if you need the expansion to get access to the new weapons? 

And there will be a beta for everyone to test the new weapons on 28 november iirc, so make sure you login then 🙂

[Roadkizzle.2157]

The new weapons are being billed as an update to the recent Secrets of the Obscure expansion.

So I'm assuming you'll have to own the expansion to get the new weapons just like you do to unlock Weapon Mastery.

[Val.7826]

5 hours ago, AshkyLicious.4729 said:

The info we have at this time is that rifle is going to be a support-based weapon for mesmers 🙂

Mmm... Not really a big fan of this idea on my vigil militaristic mesmer, probably a good thing for mesmers in general tho, I'll give it a shot anyway (literally I guess).

5 hours ago, AshkyLicious.4729 said:

It will be released during 2024, probably in Q1 2024!

Ok, interesting interesting

5 hours ago, AshkyLicious.4729 said:

And there will be a beta for everyone to test the new weapons on 28 november iirc, so make sure you login then 🙂

Very very interesting, I'll be there for sure!

4 hours ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

The new weapons are being billed as an update to the recent Secrets of the Obscure expansion.

This is... kinda disappointing. I will surely buy the SoTO expansion in the future, but I think this kind of update deserves to be for F2P users too, really sad.

 

Thank you both for the answers, fast and exhaustive, you deserve another hug 🤗

[Roadkizzle.2157]

1 hour ago, Val.7826 said:

Mmm... Not really a big fan of this idea on my vigil militaristic mesmer, probably a good thing for mesmers in general tho, I'll give it a shot anyway (literally I guess).

Ok, interesting interesting

Very very interesting, I'll be there for sure!

This is... kinda disappointing. I will surely buy the SoTO expansion in the future, but I think this kind of update deserves to be for F2P users too, really sad.

 

Thank you both for the answers, fast and exhaustive, you deserve another hug 🤗

I think it's likely the Rifle will be somewhat similar to the Staff. 

Probably similar damage level to the staff.

The staff is a defensive weapon but focuses on the chaotic magic. So most of it is random.

That's why I don't like the staff as a support weapon but it's fine for solo use.

The Rifle will probably have enough damage to kill things but not enough damage to compete with the DPS weapons but it will also be able to heal and provide AOE boons.

 

So in group content it'll probably be a good support weapon but it'll also probably be a good solo weapon.

 

 

Edit: I'm meaning to say I don't think you'll be able to play a Vigil Marksman in group content but you'll be fine in Solo content.

But you will be able to play a Vigil commander/medic in group content.

Edited November 10, 2023 by Roadkizzle.2157

[dead.7638]

If it has dps application, I’d rather it not be focused on conditions only.   And that probably won’t happen.   It will be treated like specter scepter and be busted and or very bad not viable off and on.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

3 hours ago, dead.7638 said:

If it has dps application, I’d rather it not be focused on conditions only.   And that probably won’t happen.   It will be treated like specter scepter and be busted and or very bad not viable off and on.

The problem with the Specter scepter is that as a DPS weapon it works well to where condi Deadeyes also use it.

 

But as a support weapon it really doesn't work with how the game is designed.

I really will be surprised if they use the same mechanic for Mesmer rifle because I think they want the new rifle to be a viable support weapon.

It'll probably have similar damage to Staff so that it will work well for solo players but won't displace Greatsword or Dagger for DPS players.

[draxynnic.3719]

Current summary:

Rifle will be support-oriented.

SotO is required (the new weapons are an expansion feature, just like elite specs were for the previous expansions).

Each of the new weapons is getting an overview in a blog post on the GW2 website at a rate of one per day. Three are already up, so mesmer's turn should come within the next six days.

Beta is Nov 28. There'll be a livestream shortly beforehand. Hopefully the recording won't have sound issues this time.

Release will likely be when the wizard's vault refreshes (about three months from now).

 

[Levetty.1279]

On 11/10/2023 at 7:31 PM, dead.7638 said:

If it has dps application, I’d rather it not be focused on conditions only.   And that probably won’t happen.   It will be treated like specter scepter and be busted and or very bad not viable off and on.

The fact that our boon trait line is filled with condi buffs along with the focus on improving condi builds in the next patch means that it probably will be a condi weapon if it has any kind of damage potential. They are probably aiming for a Condi focused Chorno support build aka a confusion Chrono aka a terrible build.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

23 hours ago, Levetty.1279 said:

The fact that our boon trait line is filled with condi buffs along with the focus on improving condi builds in the next patch means that it probably will be a condi weapon if it has any kind of damage potential. They are probably aiming for a Condi focused Chorno support build aka a confusion Chrono aka a terrible build.

Y'know, they say that they're trying to make the mesmer more rounded, filling in those gaps that we don't have and that's why they're revamping half of our specs and giving us a rifle as a "support" weapon, but we already had that. Mesmers have always been supporty, some more than others. We were the first to have Alacrity (and the first to lose Alacrity), we've been able to spread boons, and to do a little healing. Not as good as a Guardian or Necro but that's their jobs, not ours. And of course we're awesome at condition builds, particuarly confusion and torment which is kinda our bread and butter(Torment was originally THE mesmer condition).

So where's our Strike build? They talk and talk about how they need to fill in the gaps that we're missing, but where's our straight damage strike build? In terms of pure damage we've got Greatsword I guess. It's been the highest performing damage weapon for Mesmers since launch. We got swords, and they're pretty strike-y, although their competetiveness is debatable. And F1 is strike damage. But after that....scepter is condi, staff is condi, axes are condi, daggers are condi, torch is condi, pistol is condi, focus is...hard to define, shield is....also hard to define. So if you wanted to live out your inner Leroy Jenkins and just run in, you're pretty much limited to swords, big or small.

I think what we needed with the rifle was a strike weapon updated for the modern game. Something more streamlined than the greatsword with better skill synergies. The greatsword doesn't really have synergy. I suppose you can throw your sword to inflict Vul and then pop your phantasms and after that....pretty much just auto. Mind Stab is okay but nothing special and Illusory Wave is useless most of the time. We needed an alternative, BUT Anet doesn't really care about what we need.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

46 minutes ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

Y'know, they say that they're trying to make the mesmer more rounded, filling in those gaps that we don't have and that's why they're revamping half of our specs and giving us a rifle as a "support" weapon, but we already had that. Mesmers have always been supporty, some more than others. We were the first to have Alacrity (and the first to lose Alacrity), we've been able to spread boons, and to do a little healing. Not as good as a Guardian or Necro but that's their jobs, not ours. And of course we're awesome at condition builds, particuarly confusion and torment which is kinda our bread and butter(Torment was originally THE mesmer condition).

So where's our Strike build? They talk and talk about how they need to fill in the gaps that we're missing, but where's our straight damage strike build? In terms of pure damage we've got Greatsword I guess. It's been the highest performing damage weapon for Mesmers since launch. We got swords, and they're pretty strike-y, although their competetiveness is debatable. And F1 is strike damage. But after that....scepter is condi, staff is condi, axes are condi, daggers are condi, torch is condi, pistol is condi, focus is...hard to define, shield is....also hard to define. So if you wanted to live out your inner Leroy Jenkins and just run in, you're pretty much limited to swords, big or small.

I think what we needed with the rifle was a strike weapon updated for the modern game. Something more streamlined than the greatsword with better skill synergies. The greatsword doesn't really have synergy. I suppose you can throw your sword to inflict Vul and then pop your phantasms and after that....pretty much just auto. Mind Stab is okay but nothing special and Illusory Wave is useless most of the time. We needed an alternative, BUT Anet doesn't really care about what we need.

Dagger is a pure Strike damage weapon.

The only conditions you can get from it are provided by the Virtuoso's traits and a little bit from the Mirage Ambush but that's mainly about spamming the Daze.

 

Mesmer has Sword, Greatsword, and Dagger as power weapons. 

For off hands, Sword, Focus, Pistol, and Shield do mostly strike damage except for their utility skill.

Chronomancer is only a Power spec. Condi Virtuoso is meta but Power Virtuoso is definitely able to handle itself.

Mirage doesn't have a meta Power build but you don't use the meta builds as you say you mostly use a Staff Core Mesmer.

Mirage with Greatsword or Sword are definitely capable in their own areas.

 

 

Mesmer definitely has Power builds and didn't need another weapon to push out the current options.

 

And no. Mesmer really didn't have a support weapon.

It had staff which is a defensive weapon but it is much to random to be a good support weapon.

Scepter was used by tanks but the only support thing in it is clones.

Mesmer was only lacking two categories of weapons. A support weapon and powerful melee weapon.

[Eekasqueak.7850]

Hoping Mesmer gets hammer as a power melee option next. 

Edited November 13, 2023 by Eekasqueak.7850

[ShadowKatt.6740]

Todays reveal is the Revenant with their shiny new SCEPTER to play with....that looks like it's going to be a melee weapon. Because that's what the class with seven melee weapons and two ranged weapons needs: Another melee weapon.

You know, this actually makes me feel a bit better. Everyone's been speculating that the rifle is going to be some kind of new support shotgun or something, but it looks like I might just get a normal rifle afterall, maybe more condi based than strike based. Since they're just giving us more of what we already had.

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

You mean the class that's been asking for a supportive main hand to pair with shield for years? And Anet finally delivered it?

I don't know what's with you and the support hate but that's getting old tbh.

[phokus.8934]

3 minutes ago, ZephidelGRS.9520 said:

You mean the class that's been asking for a supportive main hand to pair with shield for years? And Anet finally delivered it?

I don't know what's with you and the support hate but that's getting old tbh.

A support weapon that's range but yet melee.  They're doing things different with these weapons which is nice but sometimes they tend to make things more complicated than what it should be.

[ShadowKatt.6740]

17 hours ago, ZephidelGRS.9520 said:

You mean the class that's been asking for a supportive main hand to pair with shield for years? And Anet finally delivered it?

I don't know what's with you and the support hate but that's getting old tbh.

You know, I was going to insult you. I didn't though. I held off, I slept on it, I came back. And I still feel like insulting you but I'm not going to do that.

Instead, I want to share this. the Tvtropes page on Crippling Overspecialization. In case you're unfamiliar, this is a concept that predated Tvtropes, hell it predates the internet. See I come from Guild Wars 1, and in Guild Wars 1 there was no such thing (practically speaking) of solo play. There were some builds that could do it, under the right circumstances, in the right conditions, but in practice the game was never built for solo play in mind. If you did go solo, you took henchmen with you to make up the difference. The reason for this is that every build was a support build. You had tanks that had to protect the casters. Healers that had to keep the tanks alive. And the casters that had to weaken the enemy so the tanks could hold them off. So you couldn't go out solo, and if you did you took henchmen with you to make up the difference.

Then we had Guild Wars 2. They wanted to steer away from that because they wanted the game to be more accessable. They stripped out the reliance on other people and made it so every class was able to hold their own. Everyone had their own heals, everyone had their own damage, everyone had their own control. Everyone was self sufficient, and you could choose the skills you liked best and play that profession. There were complaints that this homogenized the game and it did but they wanted the game to be more solo friendly and that's what they did. Now you could team up with other players if you WANTED, but it wasn't a requirement. 

Lately though there's been a big push in a new direction. Particularly for mesmers where every balance patch we've had has seen our weapons nerfed, conditions reduced, and skills changed generally for the worse. It's not a secret, we've all complained about it here. It's been making us more and more on going one of two directions: Either chase the meta and use that build for everything stripping us of our flexibility and versitility or rely on other people to do the heavy lifting for you. Granted, most meta events in the game are meant to be done by more than one person but anyone should be able to do the isolated events across the map. And that's been getting harder and harder as of late as our tools keep getting dulled to the point where, at least for myself, I actually question how much I'm actually contributing to anything I particpate in, because I actually don't want to be the freeloader in the group. I want to pull my weight.

So lets return to what you said above, what IS with me and the support hate that's annoying you so much and I FULLY INTEND to continue irritating you with since you deserve it: This game is not Guild Wars 1. It was never designed for you to rely on other people or henchmen just to do the game. At the same time they're continually pushing us to do just that, pushing more and more professions into some kind of support role and trying to make them all interdependant on each other just to get by, and while on a certain level that's actually a good thing, fostering new degrees of cooperation between players, there's also no alternative either. My problem is I don't want, in three or four years, to find myself in a game where I can't even leave the racial hubs or LA without having to find myself a group to run with because all the skills have been re-tuned for a more "support friendly" roll. You're annoyed because I'm complaining about THIS patch and THIS rifle, when I'm equally concerned with the patch after that, and the patch after that. You're annoyed because you can't even FATHOM the degrees of influence I'm thinking about or the breadth and depth that every decision today represents, because you're not on my level, and maybe if you did, you might have similar concerns.

I DON'T CARE about mesmers in support role. I think we should have a support role, and I thought chronos were doing that well. Mirages apparently also do it well though I see that more as a bug than a feature, which is why Anet keeps trying to nerf the staff into oblivion so the st/st mirage will go away. What I do want is for the Mesmer to be completely self sufficient. I don't think we should be able to facetank champions as a scholar profession but we should be able to walk into any fight, maybe with one or two players, and handle just about anything any other profession can. And if they keep taking away our damage, if they keep retooling our traits into more "Support" roles, I fear we will lose our self sufficiency, we will be entirely reliant on other players to get by, and at some point the mesmer even becomes a joke in the game, if we aren't already.

So go ahead and tell me how I'm wrong. I'm listening.

[draxynnic.3719]

Funny, I don't find open world noticeably harder on mesmer than other professions at the moment.

[Flaming.4250]

yes you are getting a portal gun.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/rifle-mesmers-direct-allies-to-the-nearest-emergency-exit/

[ShadowKatt.6740]

It's here! https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/rifle-

51 minutes ago, Flaming.4250 said:

yes you are getting a portal gun.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/news/rifle-mesmers-direct-allies-to-the-nearest-emergency-exit/

...You beat me to it. I'm...still iffy on this. The 3 ability they described seems okay...ish. The 5 seems like it's going to be more utility so JP mesmers can portal more people faster.

[ZephidelGRS.9520]

3 hours ago, ShadowKatt.6740 said:

~snip~

At this point dozens people have already explained everything to you but you're just clearly refusing to listen. It's sad tbh.

Quote

This game is not Guild Wars 1.

Thanks, captain obvious! So start playing it like it's Guild Wars 2, will you?

Quote

It was never designed for you to rely on other people or henchmen just to do the game. At the same time they're continually pushing us to do just that, pushing more and more professions into some kind of support role and trying to make them all interdependant on each other just to get by, and while on a certain level that's actually a good thing, fostering new degrees of cooperation between players, there's also no alternative either. My problem is I don't want, in three or four years, to find myself in a game where I can't even leave the racial hubs or LA without having to find myself a group to run with because all the skills have been re-tuned for a more "support friendly" roll. You're annoyed because I'm complaining about THIS patch and THIS rifle, when I'm equally concerned with the patch after that, and the patch after that.

Funny, I've never seen a Firebrand or even a Heal Druid needing a babysitter any where. Where is this fear even from?

And again, people already screamed to you how boon share works but you again refused to listen. In case you're still wondering, boons you apply do apply to yourself first before they're shared to allies. Which means if you have been self-booning/self-healing then literally it doesn't affect you in any way, it simply means other players now also benefit from your usual gameplay. 

Heck, you're not even FORCED to heal or share any boons. If you're just soloing in the open world who's the heck going to enforce you to do anything? Just 111111 like normal. 

Quote

You're annoyed because you can't even FATHOM the degrees of influence I'm thinking about or the breadth and depth that every decision today represents, because you're not on my level, and maybe if you did, you might have similar concerns.

Yes I really can't fathom being bitter about an MMO (read: Massive Multiplayer Online) game trying to be more social, and the reason is because you play it solo.

 

2 hours ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Funny, I don't find open world noticeably harder on mesmer than other professions at the moment.

Yeah, it's so versatile that it's the spec I use to complete achievements. Whereas with other classes I struggle with most achievements, with Mesmer I just cheese them away (i.e. double Blink on the infamous Faolain chase in HoT, or most of the "defeat this X story boss without being downed" achievements). With Mirage I even solo'ed an entire dungeon path and a couple of Fractals for Ad Infinitum because no one came to my LFG to help.

But apparently  it's too hard to stay alive in the open world for some people.  

Edited November 14, 2023 by ZephidelGRS.9520