Expanded Weapon Proficiencies Beta Feedback: Mesmer

[Rubi Bayer.8493]

Expanded weapon proficiencies are coming in 2024 during the second major update for Secrets of the Obscure, bringing a new weapon and skills for each profession. The expanded weapon proficiency beta event is live now and will run until 10:00 p.m. Pacific Time (UTC-8) on December 3.

You can leave your feedback for the mesmer in this thread.

[Cameirus.8407]

Ok, I like rifle but its clunky that the mirage ability is 600 range, which is half the range of the main rifle. A lot of mesmer abilities move you round a lot and its easy to waste the shot due to being positioned out of range.

I'd narrow the spread and make it longer range to be honest.

 

other than that I like it, and I think the visuals (esp the big purple glittery fan of the mir 1 alternate) are great. Its just a little clunky to use as it is for mirage

 

Edited November 28, 2023 by Cameirus.8407

[phokus.8934]

Skill 1 ambush:  Kind of pointless to cut the range in half while dodging with Mirage.  Opportunity cost to dodge should make it stay at 1200 with adjusted healing modifier.

Skill 4:  Pretty big wind up time for a two second stun.  The phantasm doesn't go or flow with the kit.  So at the very least, the phantasm activation needs to be sped up by .25s.

Skill 5:  Change it to be bi-directional one-time use.

[AEFA.9035]

Quick feedback on the following:

Skill 1: Ambush range like what my peers are saying.

Skill 2: I feel like this skill should be a blast finisher that you can combo with skill #3.

Skill 4: pretty slow and the tell is so obvious.

 

[RosySefein.8072]

From a PvP/WvW Perspective: 

Auto Attack: Needs some sort of clone generation.

Skill 2: The delay in the portal spawning is a bit too long. This needs to be sped up a little bit.

Skill 3: It's okay, but should be a blast finisher

Skill 4: This phantasm does NO damage in PvP and WvW. Fix this please, the stun is not enough in those game modes to justify no damage and high CD. Consider "Dodge back 600-900 range, spawning phantasm in original location" so mesmer has some mobility on this weapon. 

Skill 5: PLEASE let this be a 2 way skill. It has very little value in WvW and PvP otherwise. Unless it's highly corradiated group play it's a useless skill. The barrier and resistance don't do a lot.  

Overall, skill 5 needs to be 2 way, clone generation needs to be better and rifle 4 phantasm should do damage in PvP/WvW for it to be viable.

[Voyant.1327]

Feels like a worse version of staff with a little more meme.

Not a fan at all out how this turned out as a mesmer support main. 

[Panda.1967]

My one and only complaint is Skill 5... The one-time use portal gimmick is pretty bad to be perfectly honest... Give it atleast 3 charges for allies but also give us a 2nd flip skill to it that will allow the Mesmer to teleport to the portal location instead and apply an AoE burst heal + Barrier. Using the self teleport would consume all remaining portal charges, and maybe have the heal + Barrier scale with remaining charges.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Panda.1967

[meepeY.2867]

WvW Solo Roamers POV with Rifle (Power build) - obviously the weapon is supposed to be a "support weapon" but just some thoughts on the power coef

Auto - Pretty low damage unless you've got quickness then it's about on par with Greatsword auto
Skill 2 - Takes a bit too long/too hard to land with minimal damage. Skill feels kinda clunky to use. Compaired to things like Mirror Blade (GS 2), Illusionairy Counter (Sc 2), even Blur (S 2), it doesn't really compare in the Power department.
Skill 3 - I quite like this skill,  It's similar to Mind Stab (GS 3) but with a bit more flavour. But again it's a bit clunky to use/manually pop it - It's something I could get used to though.
Skill 4 - It's literally a worse Magic Bullet (Pistol 5) but you need to land this skill to reliably land the Skill 3+2 burst combo. The shot needs to be sped up or it needs to be changed to something more reliable.
Skill 5 - Make this a one use, two way portal. It's nice to shoot your feet for the barrier+resistance but the portal has 0 use for a solo player. You can limit the range the Mesmer can port but keep the 5k range for the friendly side of the portal.

The Mirage Ambush is a total meme. I would've done more damage just auto attacking. It's range is far too short and in its current state it's not worth using. I'd recommend a rework of the ambush skill to something more impactful.

[RosySefein.8072]

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Auto - Pretty low damage unless you've got quickness then it's about on par with Greatsword auto
Skill 2 - Takes a bit too long/too hard to land with minimal damage. Skill feels kinda clunky to use. Compaired to things like Mirror Blade (GS 2), Illusionairy Counter (Sc 2), even Blur (S 2), it doesn't really compare in the Power department.
Skill 3 - I quite like this skill,  It's similar to Mind Stab (GS 3) but with a bit more flavour. But again it's a bit clunky to use/manually pop it - It's something I could get used to though.
Skill 4 - It's literally a worse Magic Bullet (Pistol 5) but you need to land this skill to reliably land the Skill 3+2 burst combo. The shot needs to be sped up or it needs to be changed to something more reliable.
Skill 5 - Make this a one use, two way portal. It's nice to shoot your feet for the barrier+resistance but the portal has 0 use for a solo player. You can limit the range the Mesmer can port but keep the 5k range for the friendly side of the portal.

 

I agree with this.

Also it's important to highlight that clone generation is really bad on rifle. 

I still stand by making skill 4 a "Dodge roll back and spawn phantasm at starting location" rather than just spawning a phantasm. It can have 600 range and if we're really ambitious make it an ammo skill.

Rifle can not be a support weapon alone. It really needs to take on a hybrid role and for that it needs at least some damage, faster animations, clone generation and mobility for the Mesmer.

Edited November 28, 2023 by RosySefein.8072
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[Curunen.8729]

Skill 1 - feels extremely weak in terms of damage. I really don't like it. Sound effects - I like that they are more muted compared with pistol, but still could have the "normal" bullet sound reduced to be a bit softer/more sci-fi blaster. Mirage ambush - yeah range is way too short, and I appreciate the sound effects aren't there yet but doesn't feel satisfying or good to use. I don't like it much at all, and wouldn't mind having the phantasms DJ sniper shot instead.

Skill 2 - kitten the ground targeting. Either make it on your target (enemy or ally), or enable snap ground target to current target for individual skills - not the blanket checkbox in the options menu. I hate this as much as I was expecting to, totally ruins the weapon for me. Utterly horrendous skill, please replace it with something else.

Skill 3 - best thing on this weapon surprisingly. The might is good, and it's fairly quick and easy to use.

Skill 4 - agree with others the windup is far too long, and there should be a player action on cast instead of waiting for the phantasm. Maybe have the player fire a shot that dazes the target for a short duration, and then summons the phantasm which has the ability to follow up with high damage and a stun?

Skill 5 - agree with those suggesting it to function both ways, still single use. So the player can make personal use of it as well, otherwise it has no mobility unlike staff.

 

Ultimately staff has mobility, alacrity (mirage), might generation, damage. Then there's dagger spamming 1200 range piercing daze on every ambush... whereas rifle appears to only have mediocre power with some healing, with a somewhat gimmicky portal. Granted I'm not the target audience for healer gameplay, but this weapon feels quite pathetic right now. It could seriously benefit from quickness on something, maybe a bit of condi on the auto, and more damage.

Edit - this is from a brief spin in wvw on rifle/staff both full power and cele. Power seems the natural way to go given no condi options, but then the damage absolutely sucks and I'd rather use any other weapon. I'll try rifle/GS and rifle/dagger next, though staff still feels better as a defensive weapon thanks to all the boons and mobility.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Curunen.8729

[itspomf.9523]

Had this been what Specter's scepter was originally, I'd say we had a decent setup for a supportive pseudo-caster role that could reasonably fill in for minor damage as well.

Unfortunately, it's not, and the skills lack any sense of impact or purpose, beyond being weirdly flashy.  It's hard to tell what's happening or what they're doing, even after reading the tooltips, and that's not a very good feeling.

[Geronmy.3298]

After the stream i am not as excited for  rifle. They put fury on the improved ambush because Chronomancer might not hit 100% without it. (Joke comment?)

Hope they reconsider it and add quickness or alac to it. Alac would be better so pro gamers don't run staff/rifle with 100% bd so they only need 1 boon provider or something of the sort.

Also would have liked it more as a condi/heal weapon and not power/heal but meh.

Right now the weapon seems more of a Chrono weapon rather than a mesmer one.

[Mimterest.4639]

I enjoy the rifle a lot! The ambush seems weird for being 600 range when the normal attack is 1200, but more importantly it doesn't heal the mesmer themselves and that seems like a bug?
It would also be nice if the mesmer could use the 5 skill to reposition themselves, so you have the choice of letting an ally use your portal to escape, or using the portal to escape yourself :]
The autoattack could also be a bit more.. magicky like mesmer sounds usually are? 

[hugo.4705]

OK so here's my feedback for that new weapon: (Through I do think that it lacks utility/elite skills to be like other specs)

Character animations:  Quite static through few skills are targeted making the character do hand gestures... well it is a rifle and is used not impressively.

Skills animations: Interesting illusionary effect, an interesting take of the rifle weapon...

Mechanics: I don't really understood the portal mechanic of skill 5, lease make it clearer. I placed the portal by pressing the skill and pressing it again, it just do a beam to user and do nothing else... It took me time to understand that skill 3 is a double clickable skill to make it detonate.

Damages and effects:  There are healing, might, fury, weakness and resistance... and still somehow, if only using weapons skills... it is a pretty weak weapon. Really. I think i do way more damage as Engie rifle.

It is an interesting take of the rifle weapon, with good lookng skills, but it is not really efficient in term of damage. I always struggled to find what weapon to use as mesmer and always sticked to axe mirage because to me it was the most efficient mesmer weapon and i tried most of them.

[Micah.3789]

My perspective as a heal mirage and general heal build crafter:

Skill 1: Auto attack feels fine, but the values seem a bit high for an auto that has no sequence and clones to spam it.
     - Mirage Ambush:  Pretty but clunky. Reduced range compared to auto causes far clones to run forward and possibly miss the cloak window. Testing on self: clones don't heal?

Skill 2: Nice ranged heal, but value is WAY too high for a 5 sec CD that also has regen and damage. I was getting over 3k in heal gear with no outgoing healing %.

Skill 3: More ranged healing and chaos aura on flip? Lovely. 6k (without outgoing%) burst heal on a 12 sec CD? Too high again. 

Skill 4: CC. Maybe delay is a bit long?

Skill 5: Reasonable amount of barrier and a bit of resistance. Portal effect is a neat idea, but don't see it being used much outside of very organized sPvP.

Mirage Mantle Trait: Fury is a waste. To make this weapon reasonably useful to mirage, we'd need alacrity or at least a boon extension.

In closing, the weapon feels well designed for a mesmer healer functionally (with the exception of the mirage ambush), but the healing values are massively inflated. Tested on the golem with extremely threatening damage and using ONLY rifle 1, 2 and 3 I kept myself topped off and regularly wasted over healing. Most healers have to use their entire kit to outheal extremely threatening. With added mantras, clones, shatters, and mirage ambush/wells (depending on spec), mesmer healing output will be absurd. For comparison, some of the outstanding healing weapon skills across the game (using full minstrel and monk runes): Ele water staff  'Geyser' does 5,200 healing over 4s on a 20s CD; comparably, mesmer rifle 3 is doing 5900 instantly on a 12s CD. Druid CA 3 'Lunar Impact' does 3.5k on an 8s CD but requires an energy based kit to use so won't be reliable, guard staff 2 'Holy Strike' does 2400 over 4 pulses on a 8s CD, and ele water dagger 2 'Cone of Cold' does 3450 over a 2.25s channel on a 10s CD; comparably, mesmer rifle 2 does 3k instantly on a 5s CD.

[Terrorhuz.4695]

Tested it in pvp. Wouldn't play it, for the reasons that follow

- TLDR: every skill is way too slow, both animations and projectiles. People move out of the way before you can land your super slow support skills. In particular, I noticed

ABOUT THE SKILLS

- Friendly Fire: Notable exception for good design. Actually fine for what it's supposed to do, both mechanically and numerically, and the numbers on the healing from clones are also fine. Thanks for making it a projectile finisher, too. If only a random bubble didn't prevent you from supporting your allies, that is. 8/10

- Journey: Cast time is miserable enough already as it is, but why can't it be retargeted mid-cast? Why does it have 0.5s between the end of the animation and the cast? This is not the first time I notice this, what is exactly your problem with mesmer having so many nonsensical delays between end of cast time and the skill actually doing something? Swords of Decimation has 0.5s cast time, but it takes 1.15s before the skill lands; Rain of Swords has 0.75s cast time, but it takes 1.9s before the skill starts landing, Bladesong Sorrow has 0.35s cast time but it takes 1s before the projectiles actually shoot, Phantasmal Duelist has 0.5s cast time, but it takes 1s before the three projectiles actually shoot, all phantasm skills hit whenever they feel like. Consider making mesmer skills less cinematic and more playable, because they never kittening land. Just remove these nonsensical delays, since you can't even redirect your skill with instant targeting. 6/10

- Inspiring Imagery: should not use the projectile from staff ambush. Not just because it's too slow (even though it definitely is): I need to know the name of the designer who saw the holes in Kylo and was like "you know what? Rifle mesmer should be countered by THIS". 5/10

- Phantasmal sharpshooter: we reworked phantasmal warlock so that it's an actual skill, so we needed a new useless skill to take its place? 0.75s cast time, then the sharpshooter sits on its kitten for 30 minutes, then it shoots a projectile which, (assuming it wasn't blocked by any random bubble) does no damage, no significant conditions and consists entirely of a very short stun. Back to the design board you go with this one. 3/10

- Singularity shot: great idea, but the projectile needs to be faster; casting a portal should be an extremely reactive decision, and this slow projectile just can't keep up with how fast most players move. 8/10

Now, the skills themselves aren't technically that bad. BUT.

LET'S DISCUSS THE OVERALL DESIGN

- Overall, the weapon lacks any real clone generation; a problem when enemies already have a very easy time killing your very fragile NPCs. You will not be able to use your class mechanic.

- These new weapon skills are designed to support from range, but the support traits will proc in melee. Now, mesmer can't be melee in teamfights because of the whole "clones\phantasms die immediately", so the whole time I'm unsure about what to do. The obvious answer would be going virtuoso to be comfortable at range (assuming someone bothers to hit you to give you blades), but... virtuoso is totally selfish. Why would you go on a totally selfish class to support? The idea of a ranged support would be good on any class except mesmer, because mesmer provides everything in melee; and staying in melee will never work until your mechanic is tied to fragile NPCs (and the clone from rifle2 is also spawned on top of your target, to make sure it NEVER kittenING SURVIVES)

- On top of that, you're a walking talking target. You have exactly 0 tools to peel for yourself. Guardians have the shield knockback to shake off unwanted attention (on top of excellent self healing), spellbreakers have full counter on some extremely affordable cooldown (still bugged, thanks), tempests with mag aura\shocking aura will shake off a lot of unwanted attention. You don't have any movement nor decent CC to do that.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Terrorhuz.4695

[TwistedAlga.4235]

It feels very bland... I was hoping for something more '' mesmerish '' style than... this boring bland way for rifle.

[Gesbo.6420]

I dont think Temporal enchanter was properly implemented...? doesnt it have to increase the areas too?

 

[Cpt Crunch.7058]

My general thoughts on the rifle is that it is the wet-noodle of healing/support at the moment. It has some good ideas but the execution of the way certain mesmer mechanics causes the weapon to be all over the place conceptually and feels like something that I have to work against rather than something that has natural flow or just "works."

I may repeat what others have already stated but that is good, it shows where work is needed.

Skill 1 - Super weak. Does nothing AT ALL. Better to not even cast. Love the idea of targeting allies but not worth the time and effort to use on any build with any stats (power, minstrels, cele, you name it) Really awful. *One additional note: projectiles have no piercing effect and get body blocked by allies against the ally you actually want to heal 😞

Ambush - Great idea again, disappointed in the damage/healing the clones put out. If they clones had as much effect as the mesmer it would be great. At the cost of one endurance bar or mirror this is also not worth casting.

Skill 2 - Good skill. Decent healing, decent damage, nice regen and cripple. Does need to be faster in my opinion, takes too long to land. Again, I like that I can target either enemies or allies. One problem however is the clone generation, and what follows is something thats gonna carry with rifle and is one of those mesmer class quirks that needs to be resolved. Rifle clones do not target allies! This one mechanic limits skill 2, along with shatters for heals, and how rifle clones with their auto attacks behave. It is limiting the entire concept of healing to a mechanic that just isnt available unless there is ONE single enemy nearby. And yes, this also ties in to the problem of not having enough clone generation on rifle. The whole concept of mesmer healing needs to have these wrinkles straightened out otherwise everything works against everything else and fails.

Skill 3 - Pretty much knew it was going to be bad from preview. The damage is nice, the heal is nice, the boons are great, the combo + blast is fantastic...... having the effects split and having to pick and choose is garbage and ruins the whole skill. Make it one cast. Combine the healing, damage, and boons into one action and make it create a combo field that self blasts but lingers for a few seconds like chaos storm so additional combos can be performed.

Skill 4 - Another skill I knew was going to be bad from preview. Just. Doesnt. Fit. With. The. Theme. Please change this into a player-centered knockback, or backwards evade/leap. It needs to do something to help take pressure off when being focused. Currently it has practically zero effect in competitive. It's only purpose is to get a clone. A backwards evade with a phantasm that chains the current target and pulls them away combined would be a good change. Anything other than this.   *Additional note: phantasm needs enemy target, for a weapon that gives me the option to target allies, having to detarget and target an enemy and switching back feels terrible

Skill 5 - Oh boy. What to say. This skill was promoted as the crowning jewel of rifle. And yet after a few hours in WvW with my regular ganking buddies I have used this a total of ZERO TIMES. Sure I will cast for the measly barrier and resistance but never ever used the portal. Even when trying to coordinate it was impossible. Not visible enough in the middle of a fight, too short duration, casting range too short for being coupled with a 5000 unit portal. Its just the worst.  I understand a two-way range castable portal can really break the game so I ain't going to suggest what others are saying about making it a two-way portal. Instead it should work as a one-way portal with the typical entrace/exit markers as long as the duration is increased. Another alternative could be make it into something similar to thief shortbow 5 where the mesmer gets a1200 teleport to location and allows for one single ally to follow where the mesmer went. This could help save allies running to the healer for help, or another support standing next to the mesmer get out of trouble. Or dont change a thing about the skill but increase the range to something cool like 2000 units. Would help make the skill actually useful for what its supposed to do AND help make mesmer feel like a rule-breaker again. Dare to make us feel different.

Edited November 28, 2023 by Cpt Crunch.7058

[Tambaloneus.6290]

Quick question, can the portal be used by someone who is downed if you want to move them out of a killzone (red circle you can't get into to rez them)?

[glenndevis.8327]

I'm quite pleased with the weapon overall. There are some things I  think could be better though.

Friendly Fire: I love that you can target allies when necessary. (even if that's not what players will do 90% of the time)
Ambush is very beautiful but range is rather low. Clones using it with Ifinite Horizon should heal a bit more imo.
I think rifle clones should heal a little more on  their basic attacks as well.

Journey: I overall like the skill but it's quite slow. Even the clone it generates feels delayed. 

Inspiring Imagery: No real complaints. I quite like it. It's a big heal that you can use when necessary but for the most part you'll prob want to use it for the boons. I like that it's pretty much an emergency heal.

Phantasmal Sharpshooter: This skill is what I have the most problems with. I like the idea of it but I don't really like the application & honestly I don't think it fits on a "support" weapon.
I personally would have liked something that was more supportive overall but it is what it is. I just feel like people will just press it for cannon fodder to upkeep alac/quick on chrono instead of what it's supposed to be for. Due to how most of the Mesmers support traits have been reworked, the class relies quite a lot on shatters to support so players are just gnna press it on cooldown for shatter fodder. And even if you're gnna use it for breakbar damage it's still a very slow ability.

I get in PvP it may be intersting to set it up and then combo it with other skills or see what the enemy does to make them "waste" a cooldown or a dodge and follow up afterwards but the weapon in general feels... quite bad for PvP. I think this could AT LEAST be unblockable to give it more use in sPvP maybe?
Maybe for WvW the weapon is going to be good (i don't have much WvW experience) but in WvW this phantasm is probably useless.

Singularity Shot: Pretty strong skill honestly. The barrier is pretty nice. Resistance is ok and while I think the portal is going to be VERY situational I think in highly optimized groups people will be able to find good use out of it and even in some semi casual groups on voice comm & stuff I think you'll be able to save people as well. I'd love to see some of the restrictions lifted for funs sake and I guess it would be nice if the Mesmer could portal towards his singularity as well to give it some solo use mobility but oh well.

Synergies with support traits: I'm slightly disappointed with how the skills or rather heal Mesmer builds synergize. A LOT of the newly reworked traits revolve around shattering. For Chrono you even have to shatter to upkeep alac/quickness but for example Phantasmal Sharpshooter which could be used for breakbar damage is just going to be on cooldown when you need breakbar damage because it creates fodder for your shatters. 

This is just a personal opinion but i would have preferred it if  the support traits were more about tactical use & timing of your skills rather than pumping clones/phantasms/blades for fodder to get more value out of the shatter traits. Which is already how Mesmer has played in dps builds (besides maybe Mirage i guess.)
Otherwise I think support Mesmer has a lot of utility & boons.

Synergies with elite specs: I feel like this was pretty much made for Chronomancer. However because of how reliant Chrono is on shattering for their alac/quickness it synergizes very well with the reworked traits but talents but Just feels a but off to have a utility phantasm be used for fodder. 

Virtuoso... Doesn't even have any alac/quickness so not even considering it.

My biggest problem is with Mirage. And  sure this ismore of a Mirage complaint rather than a rifle one but honestly I think heal Mirage could be a very fun & unique build to play with rifle but due to how bad their alacrity application is ESPECIALLY when considering using rifle. I feel like it's 90% there to be a decent healer with rifle but the fact that you can't give enough alacrity makes it a big flop. It's so close to being good but it's completely pointless to play.

This is just a suggestion for Mirage but PLEASE change the trait to give alacrity on ANY weapon ambush additional to the unique boon they get right now.
Mirage would still have the problem of being reliant on clones to get their alac while requiring shatters to get other important boons from the support traits but at least it would somewhat work then.

Chaos Aura: Since rifle got an innate aoe chaos aura combo & the new support traits lean into chaos aura i thought i'd mention it as well.
I think it's cool to have more chaos aura sharing but i'm honestly not a fan of chaos armor at all. it's too random to the point it's not reliable at all. You could give them chaos aura and have it be near pointless. The only reason it's not useless is because of the regen that Chaotic Transference gives but it's not like we're lacking regen now anyway. I wish chaos aura got some sort of rework to make sharing it to allies more worthwhile. 
I like the idea & design of spreading chaos aura to allies. It's just a shame that it's kind of a very random (meaning it's unreliable and kinda pointless.) Protection is great. But regen (considering we already have tons of it now) and swiftness are kind of duds when those proc. There is no purpose in sharing chaos aura if the pay off of it is completely random. Just feels bad to share.

Also this was mostly feedback regarding PvE since I feel like this weapon was mostly designed for PvE. May be pretty good for WvW but I don't have enough WvW experience to talk about this.
I can talk about sPvP but I don't think this weapon is going to be very good for sPvP. Maybe some weird tanky bunker build with sword/shield but I think the weapon is too slow to be used properly in PvP.

I guess this turned more into overall feedback about heal/support mesmer using the rifle but okay. 
The few things i really hope gets looked at the most are the Phantasmal Sharpshooter being faster and not requiring to be used on cooldown for optimal boon upkeep, Mirage not requiring staff only to be able to upkeep alacrity & chaos aura actually being turned into a decent aura. I think having support traits that aren't so tied to shatters in specific would be nice too.

Edited November 29, 2023 by glenndevis.8327

[HotDelirium.7984]

The rifle has a slight identity crisis since the meta rn is healalac or healquick and it can only do both of those on Chrono. Heal mirage will not be a thing unless maybe the ambush gives too much heals and quickness. Mantra heals take way too long to prime to be useful. You could even up the damage on the ambush to make it more viable in pve.

skill2- the mesmer should really shoot in the air if its going to come down on their head and that pink (guardian skill) is it a bit too goopy with its effect. We shoot a bullet and it looks like we dropped a huge water balloon on them. I'd tighten that effect up.

skill4-this skill doesn't fit the kit, mesmer has a ton of ways to give cc so why not another heal skill with maybe a boon, the sniper bullet removes condis and gives swiftness/quickness.

skill5- I think this one way portal is just too niche for real gameplay. Most battles we fight in a tight area so will be almost no point in a portal saving one person. Maybe in wvw but if ur far away and need a portal eveyone is probly about to die anyways. I think the portal should happen  after the first skill and shouldnt have to be triggerd and gives whoever goes through it a buff of some sort or even extend boons on them, somethin juicy.

 

[RosySefein.8072]

1 hour ago, Tambaloneus.6290 said:

Quick question, can the portal be used by someone who is downed if you want to move them out of a killzone (red circle you can't get into to rez them)?

No. You can not portal someone in downstate to you for res. 

[Tambaloneus.6290]

19 minutes ago, RosySefein.8072 said:

No. You can not portal someone in downstate to you for res. 

That's a shame, it'd be great if it was like that one scourge thing that pulls downed to your feet automatically even.

[Sodeni.6041]

 

If Mesmer's Rifle wants to compete with other top-tier support classes, it - for sure - needs more to it than the current iteration, especially on support Mirage.

The fact that you don't get either Alacrity or Quickness with it really hinders the effectiveness of this weapon. If you play support Mirage you constantly have to switch between Rifle and Staff. Rifle ONLY heals, staff ONLY gives Alacrity. This is a big problem and feels bad to play.

So if you are in an urgent situation and your allies need burst healing (which Rifle has little to begin with), they have to wait until you can switch weapon again to Rifle, since Staff has zero healing capability. It makes this weird gameplay-loop where you can only use 50 % of your support kit at a time. No other support-class has that.

Druid can always jump into Avatar form, heal AND give Alacrity at the same time. They have many utilities, healing skills and an elite that actually gives good healing and support. The Mesmer doesn't have that. Healing Mantra is not enough of a burst heal, considerung you have to recharge it as well. The other healing abilities are tied to shattering clones which is counter-intuitive since clones heal and give Alacrity with Infinite Horizon.

Honestly, I think you should change the Alacrity buff to apply on Rifle Ambushes as well or make it apply to any Ambush skill in general with a trait (with a reduction of damage if you take that trait). In my opinion Mirage as a whole elite specialization needs a trait-rework to begin with but for now this would be the easiest "fix" to actually make Rifle Mirage usable.

Staff would still need to get some more support abilities to compete with Rifle, maybe tie it to traits so Staff can be also used for healing allies in some way.

Also, the portal on skill 5 should have a way longer duration to make it useful. Why not give it 20 seconds duration and make it usable for 5 players? Then it would help a lot and be a niche weapon.

Another big problem I have: Every skill on Rifle just takes too long. If you need CC you have to cast skill 4 AND wait until the sharpshooter shoots. If you want to have a portal fast you first have to use the skill 5 and then use it again to flip the skill over into a portal. Same goes for skill 3 if you want to have burst healing, you need to use it, wait, use it again and then the heal comes after a delay. Same thing with skill 2. They need to be way faster especially if you want to use them in fractals or raids where you often need fast CC or healing.

Off-topic: I think Infinite-Horizon should be basekit, since it's the entire theme of Mirage - blending in with your clones. Then balance the elite specialization around that. I'd love to have different Grandmaster traits that either give Alacrity or Quickness to allies when using an Ambush attack depending on which trait you use. Then Heal-/Support-Mirage would be in a great state if Rifle gets some tweaks as well.