Rifle Mesmers Direct Allies to the Nearest Emergency Exit

[kharmin.7683]

2 hours ago, Flaming.4250 said:

Yes but will there be cake at the end of testing?

 

The cake is a lie.

 

Someone had to say it.

[Varis.5467]

Quote

The collapsed singularity becomes a single-use, one-way portal that an ally can use to teleport to your location! This skill can be a powerful tool to bail out an ally from a sticky situation with your careful positioning.

In an 'emergency' situation with impending doom looming over 4 of your buddies, you collapse your singularity for an emergency escape...

"Only 1 out of you lot may survive."

[ShadowKatt.6740]

1 hour ago, Crey.5263 said:

Alpha, let me dream!!! 🤣 I don't know what it would take to fix scepter torch, but i'm hopeful.

 

Together? I dunno, they're not really complimentary. As for individually, the scepter, especially post Nov 28 patch, only really does two things: Torment and Confusion. The autoattack stacks Torment and both 2 and 3 now stack confusion. So making the scepter better is just a matter of making both of those conditions better. They're doubling the torment, changing the counterspell to confuse and lowering the DC of Confusing Images, so we'll see if that maybe makes it better. As for the torch...well....what does it DO? it gives us Invisibility that we really don't have any way or reason to take advantage of, and it applies fire damage on end. So you can....sneak into a group of baddies....and set them on fire when you become visible...and then get your kitten beat? Or the phantasm that pops out, poofs a wave of fire, and that's it. It's not bad for a phantasm, I like it, but fire isn't really our bag. It also confuses and dazes which gives it some limited work, but while it can interupt there's such a delay between casting and actual damage that any interupting is purely coincidental, unless you're using it to break Defiance bars in which case it does that pretty good.

Honestly the torch is just kinda a weird weapon for mesmers because I get the theme they were going for but in practice it doesn't do much. Invisibility isn't really that useful in a game that basically revolves around killing everything you see and we're not thieves that get a special ambush out of it. Thematicly they were going for the whole FLASH and we're gone magician schtick, but it's backwards since we kinda appear in a flash instead. And to be fair to what I said earlier it does blind so at least the first incoming attack misses. It also cleanses so I guess it could potentially de-cripple you? I haven't tested that yet. It feels like a weapon that's more form over function, but that does seem like something that could be said of most weapons at launch, and it's just been so lackluster that even Anet hasn't bothered to change it.

[Knighthonor.4061]

3 hours ago, Super Hayes.6890 said:

Portal gun 😀

fun fun fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Knighthonor.4061]

1 hour ago, kharmin.7683 said:

The cake is a lie.

 

Someone had to say it.

did you search the forum for your answer?

[Doam.8305]

2 hours ago, Alpha.1308 said:

lmao

coping hard 

i mean, not as direct offense to just you, because, literally same 

Not really as its rather simple we are getting cloned based healing this month. The scepter creates clones so naturally every third swing is a wave a healing. Which in theory should pair well with rifle along with staff however they never mentioned if rifle is primarily condi or power. 

[Provocative.3561]

Underwhelmed. When I think of rifle and how other classes use the weapon, I think of mobility-CC-long range damage. I was expecting a stun or daze and an ability to blink forward for kite/catch or phase backward. Granting aoe, seems cool, especially in team fight scenarios, but mesmers kit doesn’t necessarily align with support. Slowly we’ve seen a progression of mesmer being able to grant Allie’s boons in various ways over time, opposed to the old heal Allie’s with phantasms that granted regeneration-inspiration trait line, like mantras healing on channel. The idea is there, but mesmer lacks the fundamentals to be considered support. 
Through time we’ve seen chrono be a powerful weapon and shelter in all kinds of fights. Granting aoe boons(from wells), heals. Weapons like Shield offering various boons based on patch. Not even mentioning core ult time warp, glamours, mantras, the weapon staff in general, chaos vortex etc. The idea for mesmer to support  is there but lacks a stronger foundation, to make it pop. 
Mesmer is a high mobility high damage mage class that utilizes chaos, misdirection and dominates fights when played well. What would give mesmer more “magier” things while leaning into support, is allowing boons granted to self allow it to aoe to Allie’s. Things like mirage cloak ambush ability use granting what is given to mesmer, but also to Allie’s. Things like chrono offering more boons to Allie’s when it shatters, not just quickness or alacrity but also might and fury maybe resistance? A chaos armor. Like for example, bountiful disillusionment could be granting Allie’s all those boons and it’s only to the mesmer currently. 
 

I play mesmer zerker, even if I’m support, something as an easy build tab switch for a build I made to lead the team to victory whether that be in pve pvp or WvW setting. Mesmer does offer ways to speed up their team, increase their damage, lock down enemies. And the introduction of relics has opened other ways of adding magier/supporty utility for that team aspect. Being so, I think mesmer could use a mage/support buff, to grant more boons via mirage ambush or chrono or shatters in general since that’s what I see it leaning to. Wouldn’t they compliment the already Implanted idea of granting particular boons to Allie’s, allow mesmer to grant more. 

[Doam.8305]

They want ranged based support however ranged combat doesnt work in group play. As many support skills across the board have a short range thus during world bosses and meta events we stack. So a long range support rifle is going to be camped right next to the firebrand because we need boons too.

In addition WoW has an anti idiot skill on preist that pulls the targeted player to the preist position. I used it all the time in WoW to pull people out of fire and near death situations. However this portal gun it seems that people need to accept the port instead of a forceful yank. Someone dumb enough to stand in fire is also someone dumb enough not to accept the port so they still die. I also played white mage In FF14 and they too have an anti idiot skill to yoink people to your location. If you want the portal to save lives the recipient should not have a choice in the matter and be I instantly plucked to safety.

Edited November 14, 2023 by Doam.8305
Spelling and grammer correction

[draxynnic.3719]

1 hour ago, Provocative.3561 said:

Underwhelmed. When I think of rifle and how other classes use the weapon, I think of mobility-CC-long range damage. I was expecting a stun or daze and an ability to blink forward for kite/catch or phase backward. Granting aoe, seems cool, especially in team fight scenarios, but mesmers kit doesn’t necessarily align with support. Slowly we’ve seen a progression of mesmer being able to grant Allie’s boons in various ways over time, opposed to the old heal Allie’s with phantasms that granted regeneration-inspiration trait line, like mantras healing on channel. The idea is there, but mesmer lacks the fundamentals to be considered support. 
Through time we’ve seen chrono be a powerful weapon and shelter in all kinds of fights. Granting aoe boons(from wells), heals. Weapons like Shield offering various boons based on patch. Not even mentioning core ult time warp, glamours, mantras, the weapon staff in general, chaos vortex etc. The idea for mesmer to support  is there but lacks a stronger foundation, to make it pop. 
Mesmer is a high mobility high damage mage class that utilizes chaos, misdirection and dominates fights when played well. What would give mesmer more “magier” things while leaning into support, is allowing boons granted to self allow it to aoe to Allie’s. Things like mirage cloak ambush ability use granting what is given to mesmer, but also to Allie’s. Things like chrono offering more boons to Allie’s when it shatters, not just quickness or alacrity but also might and fury maybe resistance? A chaos armor. Like for example, bountiful disillusionment could be granting Allie’s all those boons and it’s only to the mesmer currently. 
 

I play mesmer zerker, even if I’m support, something as an easy build tab switch for a build I made to lead the team to victory whether that be in pve pvp or WvW setting. Mesmer does offer ways to speed up their team, increase their damage, lock down enemies. And the introduction of relics has opened other ways of adding magier/supporty utility for that team aspect. Being so, I think mesmer could use a mage/support buff, to grant more boons via mirage ambush or chrono or shatters in general since that’s what I see it leaning to. Wouldn’t they compliment the already Implanted idea of granting particular boons to Allie’s, allow mesmer to grant more. 

Have you read the Nov 28 patch preview? IIRC, things like granting chaos aura to allies and Bountiful Disullusionment applying to allies are already on the proverbial ticket.

1 hour ago, Doam.8305 said:

They want ranged based support however ranged combat doesnt work in group play. As many support skills across the board have a short range thus during world bosses and meta events we stack. So a long range support rifle is going to be camped right next to the firebrand because we need boons too.

In addition WoW has an anti idiot skill on preist that pulls the targeted player to the preist position. I used it all the time in WoW to pull people out of fire and near death situations. However this portal gun it seems that people need to accept the port instead of a forceful yank. Someone dumb enough to stand in fire is also someone dumb enough not to accept the port so they still die. I also played white mage In FF14 and they too have an anti idiot skill to yoink people to your location. If you want the portal to save lives the recipient should not have a choice in the matter and be I instantly plucked to safety.

It probably has to be voluntary to prevent trolling. Mesmer portal trolls at meta events are bad enough without giving them a non-voluntary portal. 

[Puck.3697]

14 hours ago, LichOverlord.6329 said:

No... no, I don't think that's right at all...

Dead weapons? What?

Like the dagger, which is run by every condi virt you see in your raid groups plus more? The axe, beloved by mirages? The staff and greatsword, iconic cornerstones of our ranged toolkit? Swords and shields, both main-hands and offhands by mesmers everywhere, especially chrono?

Are we even playing the same game?!

Tbh. The other weapons are mostly fine

Rifles gonna be a dead weapon however lol. Its a cool concept, it's a cool fantasy. But we know it's damage will be gutted as a trade off for what it does.

And what it does will only yield any reward in a extremely coordinated situation. 

That's in situations where pulling 1 player out has use to begin with. I can agree this is a awesome concept but I'd be suprised if it isn't gonna become a dead weapon 

Edited November 15, 2023 by Puck.3697

[Doam.8305]

21 minutes ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

Have you read the Nov 28 patch preview? IIRC, things like granting chaos aura to allies and Bountiful Disullusionment applying to allies are already on the proverbial ticket.

It probably has to be voluntary to prevent trolling. Mesmer portal trolls at meta events are bad enough without giving them a non-voluntary portal. 

I mention both World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 have the same mechanic minus the choice. To port to your location means to port to a safe spot if you were in a trolling position that means the mesmer themselves would have to physical be in that trolling location at the time of cast. Its not a create a port to a soon to be death field, drag over pit, or plummet to death but the exact position of the caster. In addition this game is pigeon held by short distance boon support the mesmer and everyone else will be in that small bubble as players have been taught since their first world boss. So even bad support is just going to pull stragglers to the epicenter of the zerg for boonshare with everyone else.

The technique is a god send because you waste a ton of energy healing people who merely stand in fire or stand in a soon to be nuked location. Even people that run ahead or get close enough to aggro something that shouldnt be aggroed can be corrected.

It's a tried and true MMO staple at this point for healers to physical reposition players and it helps the saved player learn as well without the death. 

As for rifle its aura sharing is coming before the rifle and as a support weapon we have other supports. Mantra and wells if people choose to play it will no doubt benefit from rifle both of which can be played with power.

That said its niche anyway as I said we stack and zerg against meta bosses so Im sorta lost on why a technique like this is even needed as why would anyone run out of a zerg. The few instances when players become bombs in strikes and whatnot they avoid the zerg but they also avoid overlapping the bomb with each other so they are to spread out for this to help their either. Our bosses are too stationary and dont posses mechanics for subgroups other then lets say a mordremoth with the tail and head but even then its seperated by platforms.

Edited November 15, 2023 by Doam.8305

[Goosekilla.2796]

I'm excited to see the whole thing, but it does feel maybe a bit niche so far? Cool, though.

My biggest concern is with that kneel animation. Based on the video it looked like that's the clone (probably #2) skill, which is really going to feel bad if it's got a rooting animation lock.

[Levetty.1279]

The "unique mechanic" of the weapon being something that only the 0.01% of the player base that cares about doing speed runs of raids will use is incredibly disappointing. but I don't expect much from the people who forced this horrid mantra mechanics on us. Do yourself a favor and just scrap the weapon and use the time to polish the other 8 classes new weapons up, it will make both Mesmers and non Mesmers happier.

1 hour ago, draxynnic.3719 said:

granting chaos aura to allies

I can not think of a less impactful ability. Like using a skill/trait that does literally nothing would result in the same outcome.

[Curunen.8729]

Ok audio seems nice also - I was worried it may be quite strong like hearing pistol phantasm all the time which would become annoying...

I agree with the sentiment for some kind of mobility. Phase Retreat is a godlike skill, easily in the top ten of the entire class, and it would be nice if rifle could have something that offers this, as I really don't want to see things go down the line of only cele Rifle/Staff for mirage.

On that note I'm really curious about the ambush. Dagger ambush is absurdly powerful in the context of previous balance patches, so while I expect that to be nerfed/redistributed one day, it's hard to see how rifle ambush can measure up. An aoe heal or defensive books around the player would be kind of boring, so hopefully it's a bit more fun than that.

[draxynnic.3719]

1 hour ago, Doam.8305 said:

I mention both World of Warcraft and Final Fantasy 14 have the same mechanic minus the choice. To port to your location means to port to a safe spot if you were in a trolling position that means the mesmer themselves would have to physical be in that trolling location at the time of cast. Its not a create a port to a soon to be death field, drag over pit, or plummet to death but the exact position of the caster. In addition this game is pigeon held by short distance boon support the mesmer and everyone else will be in that small bubble as players have been taught since their first world boss. So even bad support is just going to pull stragglers to the epicenter of the zerg for boonshare with everyone else.

The technique is a god send because you waste a ton of energy healing people who merely stand in fire or stand in a soon to be nuked location. Even people that run ahead or get close enough to aggro something that shouldnt be aggroed can be corrected.

It's a tried and true MMO staple at this point for healers to physical reposition players and it helps the saved player learn as well without the death. 

As for rifle its aura sharing is coming before the rifle and as a support weapon we have other supports. Mantra and wells if people choose to play it will no doubt benefit from rifle both of which can be played with power.

That said its niche anyway as I said we stack and zerg against meta bosses so Im sorta lost on why a technique like this is even needed as why would anyone run out of a zerg. The few instances when players become bombs in strikes and whatnot they avoid the zerg but they also avoid overlapping the bomb with each other so they are to spread out for this to help their either. Our bosses are too stationary and dont posses mechanics for subgroups other then lets say a mordremoth with the tail and head but even then its seperated by platforms.

I would bet good money that if it was non-voluntary, people would find a way to use it to troll. Even assuming that there were no bugs that could be exploited and it worked exactly as you envision, being teleported to where the mesmer is standing is no guarantee it won't be a troll - the mesmer might (through having planned the troll out) have some means of surviving the location that the person who gets pulled does not, and there are lots of ways to troll people that don't necessarily require actually killing them - yanking them away from a chest or some other objective, for instance.

It's worth noting that the original portal was originally automatic, but that got changed real quick.

I recognise that it can work in other games, but those games have a different culture. I'd assume (and certainly hope) that in those games you can't yank someone who isn't in your party or squad. The method you suggest would absolutely work in something like a raid group, where someone who repeatedly trolls will probably quickly find themselves persona non grata. Meta event squads, on the other hand, are an entirely different ball game.

[Yasai.3549]

I'm a little upset that it seems the Rifle isn't designed to direct enemies to exit from life. 

[mirage.8046]

Rifle's portal on skill 5 to reel an ally into safety sounds like the opposite of pulling enemies with focus skill 4. could it finally be possible to complement the dagger or greatsword with rifle's boon support!?!? 

I'm hoping for a projectile block or a mobility skill on rifle, because for a support weapon to work, it needs to offer defensive skills as well. 

[Pie.2167]

Still hoping for a firing squad phantasm!

[Hot Boy.7138]

rifle feels too crude a weapon for my mesmer to choose. She is too elegant. A long bow would have suited her better. Or another slicing weapon. Will I need the expansions to play with the new weapons?

[draxynnic.3719]

2 hours ago, Hot Boy.7138 said:

rifle feels too crude a weapon for my mesmer to choose. She is too elegant. A long bow would have suited her better. Or another slicing weapon. Will I need the expansions to play with the new weapons?

Yes, the new weapons are considered part of the SotO expansion.

[Gesbo.6420]

I really hope they add a phantasmal rifle skin and while at it a proper phantasmal dagger!

[ShadowKatt.6740]

7 hours ago, Hot Boy.7138 said:

rifle feels too crude a weapon for my mesmer to choose. She is too elegant.

Annie Oakley says Hi.

[vrauns.3215]

15 hours ago, Varis.5467 said:

In an 'emergency' situation with impending doom looming over 4 of your buddies, you collapse your singularity for an emergency escape...

"Only 1 out of you lot may survive."

You already have a portal skill that can port more, so.

Edited November 15, 2023 by vrauns.3215

[Assolador.3598]

18 hours ago, Alpha.1308 said:

so.... to counter my point of unused stuff, you only mention the used stuff....

are you... reading?

tell me what effectively uses scepter and isn't basically a meme

torch is underwhelming at best 

and those two are essentially bad in all 3 modes

and GS is almost unused in pve aside from meme tagging 

i didnt say they all are bad all the time (again, except the two you shockingly didn't mention)

and im not saying rifle will be

im just saying if this is usable in all 3 game modes, it'd be more beneficial

and im not even saying it wont be, im just concerned because of everything else going on in the class

how long have we had mental defense trait dead useless? who is picking virt aoe stunbreak skill and which game mode? is anyone using any mirage utility skills?

this is a broader issue that im concerned about when stuff is dumpstered and left there 

Im litterally using torch and scepter right now, can solo a team of silver players, how is it not good, lmfao

[HotDelirium.7984]

9 hours ago, Pie.2167 said:

Still hoping for a firing squad phantasm!

Would be so cool if that's what the ambush skill is