Expanded Weapon Proficiencies Beta Feedback: Mesmer

[apharma.3741]

WvW perspective, I have used celestial, marauder and minstrel stats and I can honestly say this weapon is either a meme or the designers (especially looking at other weapons) have completely lost the plot. It has generally poor damage on the autos, the skills are decent but slow and not especially big damage and the boons it gives are nothing special, the saving grace is AoE chaos aura on skill 3 and resistance/barrier on skill 5 but this isn't a stand out compared to other support. It needs something else like quickness, alacrity or stability. It's kind of slow and kind of clunky to use with 3/5 skills being ground targeted. Also it doesn't really work that well with other weapons for support, they have just done an overhaul of chaos and inspiration to add more support to it but that's left a lot of crossovers with rifle, for example if you go chaos you have a lot of chaos aura and so regen but what a lot of support builds lack is clone generation. Add more clone generation to rifle and it will have a lot more synergy with most weapons and roles. Make that what rifle does, makes a lot more clones faster.

Auto attack: The damage is pathetic, when many other support weapons at least have decent scaling on theirs. This is to offset the healing but healing should be on skills with cool downs not on autos. Remove the heal and buff the damage so it can at least be useful on power builds.

Ambush: This is not well-made. It has egregious particle effects and adds to the visual clutter plaguing mesmer, the heal is OK, and the damage is bad but being a 1s channel you can often end up interrupting yourself.  The vigor is nice, but it doesn't do anything with infinite horizon except give more vigor. Maybe make it like death's judgement or fire a volley that heals and inflicts weakness with low damage but good power scaling.

SKill 2: Not bad the healing is good, damage is OK but could do with a little bump but it's slow to hit, it is abysmally slow to hit where people will very likely have moved out of it. Why not make it track the target and be cast on friend or foe?

Skill 3: This skill is very weird, you're trying to make a PvE and a PvP/WvW skill in one when everyone will be detonating it immediately in PvP/WvW and PvE they're not going to care about the might and fury. I would suggest buffing might and fury in traits for PvE and make this skill just abstraction. The damage and healing is good so no complaints here other than it's kinda clunky and a bit slow.

Skill 4: Pointless, literally pointless. Does no damage, takes ages to shoot, does the death's judgement beam so the enemy knows it's coming. Why do we need a single target projectile stun that takes 2s to cast on a support weapon? I'd rather have something that scales with power really well but applies chill and weakness on enemies, that works for support but I guess PvE need their breakbar...

Skill 5:  If this was just singularity shot that pulsed barrier and 1s resistance for 3s after initial shot I would be happy with it. It works on support and resistance is always nice. The portal is just someone saying "isn't this cool" while a lot of players are saying "Sure, but it's not very useful."

 

[LadyKitty.6120]

Instanced PVE healer perspective:

Overall, rifle is now extremely strong heal weapon, even to the point that Kitty would shave some raw healing off from rifle 2.

Main gripes would be slow clone generation (though that's a valid way to pay for being otherwise so strong) and rifle 5's portal being pretty easy for allies to miss so Kitty would increase its visual size a bit. (Scourge has the same issue with Sand Swell.) The concept also seems to be a bit confusing to some so making it point-to-point similar to normal portal might be better and would also make it useful for mesmer itself, even if boring (and ofc gotta require "valid path to target location" when shooting it). Many people have been making the portal and wondering "whut, why nothing happens?".

And another gripe, though that's not so much on rifle itself, is that on Heal Mirage you need to specifically focus on keeping up staff clones if you want even semi-reliable alacrity output which kinda wastes the chance of showering people with purple from all directions. It is a possibly problematic thing to ask for but to make rifle mirage a thing, please increase the Mirage Mantle alacrity duration of staff clones from 0.5s to 1.0s. That particular build already pays a hefty price in not being able to bring focus or shield for utility. If on DPS-side it would become too strong, nerf Chaos Vortex's condi durations on player from 8 to 6 seconds and on clones from 4 to 3 seconds, respectively.

Edited December 1, 2023 by LadyKitty.6120

[ShadowKatt.6740]

3 hours ago, apharma.3741 said:

Ambush: This is not well-made. It has egregious particle effects and adds to the visual clutter plaguing mesmer,

Okay, I'm not disagreeing with you, but this has literally been my favorite part of the rifle if ONLY for the meme value. I have been testing and thoroughly enjoying a mirage built to just AmbushAmbushAmbushAmbush which has resulted in the amazing DEATH BY GLITTER! build.

The abush is still garbage, but if nothing changes I'll at least be able to laugh at it.

[Nero.7369]

I didnt test mesmer too much. But i really appreciated another kind of playstyle with the rifle.

Rifle Clones should be attached to allies as tho. Specially for those Ambush skill to actually being able to hit you allies reilable.

[RasSativa.5109]

So i did some testing on the new weapon. here are my notes (mostly tested in PVE - end game content)

 

Rifle works on chronomancer and only chronomancer. Make the ambush attack on mirage also give out alacrity. Make the healing a bit more on the ambush since you don't have wells to give out massive healing.

Skill 1: The healing feel weak but thats fine

skill 2: maybe tweak the healing or the clone generation but i don't have any issues with this skill

Skill 3: healing and booning is fine - no issues

Skill 4: In my opinnions it needs to spawn in 2 phantasms (like staff) and maybe give a boon or some cleaning next to the stun that would make the skill and riffle give out more clones

Skill 5: The barrier and resistance is great. The flip on the skill is gimicy and worthless. make it a 5 man port (so you can save your subgroup) and give out barrier or the flip but a lower amound then you get on activation. this way you can flip for porting or for extra barrier either instantly or delayed.

 

Overall the weapon is a good adition for healing on mesmer but healmesmer still needs some work. the changes that happend on 28th novermber were fine. but there is still something missing. On chronomancer you are bound to the wells with delayed healing or you can use mantras but they take long time to charge with meh healing. After the mantra is charged you need to spam it out to actually heal again.

if the weapon gets some good tweaks to clone generation and healing and maybe barrier it will be a lovely weapon.

[Jojo.6590]

A lot of good input is already stated here. I'll just quickly summarize.

 Skills are slow, EXTREMELY SLOW.  From a pvp/wvw standpoint, it needs mobility (looking at the portal on skill 5). A healer needs to be able to break combat at least once in a fight. You're forcing us to take blink losing a spot that could be used for more utility.

Skill 4 needs a rework, and we need way better clone generation. 

For the AA would like to see an action chain like many of our main hand weapons. This feels extremely lackluster. 

Currently, rifle provides a lot of healing while still being lackluster in boons and barrier. My concern is that the healing will get nerfed which would then not allow for this to compete with other healers such as Druid, Guardian, and Tempest. These classes provide decent to great healing, boons, and barrier while also still having decent damage.

Animations:

Not a fan of most of the animations. Push this portal gun concept! Why not make it so that each skill is fired through a portal that then appears around the target/area in a different way/shape/effect?! (This is going to get chaotic, but just trying to provide more fun ideas for a better concept and theming that fits Mesmer other than just purple affects.)

For example, the Mesmer fires skill 3 you see a portal open about 50-100 units in front of the Mesmer. Then below the target a bigger portal opens where the pistol shot comes out of with the typical Mesmer purple chaotic flair. 

The "mini" portal can appear in different locations around the targets in different shapes and sizes, though I prefer the simple circle/oval shape.

Skill 5 concept:

Using the portal concept above. Make this skill gain charges when skills 2-4 are used. You can even have skills 2-4 leave their portals (portals disappear after a given amount of time and/or if the skill is used again.) 

The effects of skill 5 increase based on how many portal charges/residual portals you have. Keeping the flip skill concept, you can "activate" your portal(s) causing them to pulse healing and other effects such as barrier and boons (again more effects based on charges) in a radius around them to allies while also debuffing enemies. Once the portals have been "activated" the flip skill is an "unlock" (like a door) which opens your portals to allow for 1-3 allies to use the portals to teleport to you/your current location. You can also simply have the Mesmer drop an exit portal at their location on the use of the flip skill as this may be more easy to implement. 

A more simple version of the concept above is also having the "mini" portals merge rather than having 1-4 active portals. This merge would then cause the main portal (say the portal from skill 3) to increase in size (visual flavor. You can also have the Mesmer select/ground target location to have all the mini portals merge in that location). Based on the number of portals that merged would then give a usage count (3 mini portals merging means a max of 3 people can go through the big portal).

When the portals are unlocked, they will pulse chill, slow, immobilize, OR fear on nearby enemies (protecting your allies by preventing/slowing enemies from chasing them to the portal(s)).

After the portal(s) have been used they detonate providing a damage and/or debuff effect to surrounding enemies while also providing a support (healing, boons, barrier) effect to allies around the Mesmer.

Like I said, I know I was very “chaotic” in this idea/concept and I know this is hard to implement. What I hope, is that this helps open a portal of ideas (pun intended) for the rest of the community and the developers to better theme and design the weapon. 

 

[Matt H.6142]

Very nearly didn't bother writing anything; its niche is apparent, and I thought the green numbers were good.  Only, if mirage clones spawn at range, their ambush skill from IH does nothing.  I suppose you might say 'learn to play' but I know such designs get reworked to always be optimal/never miss on summons.

[godfat.2604]

Here are my suggestions for Rifle skills based on general PvE and WvW experience:

1. Friendly Fire: Make it bounce between enemies and allies. Single target is a bit painful to use.
1.5. Effervescence (Ambush): Clones need to be able to heal, too. Add alacrity so we can pair it with Staff to finally escape from wielding staff twice. If we can update the trait so that any ambush can give alacrity, then instead of adding alacrity, change Mirage Mantle to give Superspeed instead of Fury.

2. Journey: I don't feel like spamming this skill especially when it's so slow. Make it instant cast and increase the cooldown to 8 seconds. Scale the numbers accordingly. This reduces clone generation but let's solve it with the Phantasm skill. Make it also apply swiftness because Mesmer is lacking means to apply swiftness.

3. Inspiring imagery: I like this skill. Happy to keep it as is.

4. Phantasmal Sharpshooter: This skill is so bad, so my suggestion is bigger. Having CC and dealing 0 damage in competitive modes is stupid. Move this CC to skill 5 Singularity Shot. Make it 2 ammo. Reduce cooldown to 15 seconds. Make it bounce between enemies and allies. Make it able to target allies (so we have a way to apply boons from Chronomancer without an enemy target). Apply barrier and resolution when hitting an ally.

5. Singularity Shot: I don't like that this skill does nothing when the singularity expires. Accidentally collapsing it will increase the cooldown, which feels like a punishment and that's a bad gameplay experience, too. Make it similar to Inspiring Imagery instead. If it expires, apply vigor and swiftness in the area. If we collapse it instead, in additional to creating a single use portal, stun enemies in the area (move CC from Phantasmal Sharpshooter to this skill), and also flip the skill once again. When the flipped skill is used, blink to the portal and remove it. This provides a delayed Blink for mobility on Rifle. Do not increase the cooldown when the portal or blink is used. We lose vigor and swiftness if we collapse it already (like we lose might and fury if we denote Inspiring Imagery early).

If this is making Rifle overpowered, numbers can be tweaked accordingly. Some skills might be overloaded, and in that case we can remove or move some functionalities around.

[Gesbo.6420]

For some reason Journey will create a clone if you hit yourself but it will not stock a blade... A bit of a weird interaction. 

 

Phantasm feels like it needs yo be an amo skillso it can make sense and the portal should probably be 2 way. Shoot one side and the other as well  and last for much longer. for the week of testing I had about a single person actually use my portal.

 

I really think clones should be able to target alliys as well. Add some spice to the shatters if  the clones are shattering on alies I think this will make the weapon actually feel like an elite spec on its own - which is the major goal with this experiment of not creating elite specs anymore.. Other than that the wapon is fun, the new changes are cool. 

Edited December 2, 2023 by Gesbo.6420

[Riot Inducer.8964]

Mesmer rifle has been my favorite of the weapons in this beta. It has everything you could want from a healing weapon set, solid heals, condi cleanses, boon application and even some barrier.

Skill 5 is also a very unique one that I like a lot. However I'm not sold on the 1 use portal option, it's extremely niche and I don't think it would be broken if it could accept more uses (in PvE at least). I also think it would be useful if a solo mesmer could use it to teleport to the singularity like a thief shortbow 5.

My main critiques of the weapon are:

1. Improve the damage of the auto attack.
2. Increase the casting speed of skill 2, currently it feels like there's a big delay between activating the skill and summoning the clone.
3. Make skill 5 have more portal uses/allow the mesmer to shadowstep to the singularity.

Edited December 2, 2023 by Riot Inducer.8964

[Flapjackson.1596]

The weapon is easily one of the most settled out of all the beta weapons. I’ll be sad to see it go. My only feedback is to spice up the Phantasm a little. Given you’re wielding a gun, it would make sense to give rifle an ammo skill. An ammo Phantasm would be a unique thing for Mesmer, and you could use it tactically. Space out the ammo to increase CC coverage, or use both to generate a firing squad and have a big CC.

[RasSativa.5109]

Some other Points i have heal mesmer is the lack of any revive possibility's next to a enhanced hand revive. Make the ilusion of life just revive allies instead of only temporary (cause in PVE that wont be the case). That way people can run more manipulations and the aegis from manipulations is good.

 

[JadenSimic.3941]

I've enjoyed the rifle a lot! It fits the heal mesmer perfectly :-) 

[ViolentMuffin.9573]

It's weird that portal on skill 2 is attached in line with rifle so that it moves when the rifle moves. I'd be better if the portal just spawned in front of the character and was static.

It would be cool if more skill animations were shooting instead of  hand-spellcasting. Makes more sense when using the weapon.

Overall the length of spellcasting seems long without quickness. If this weapon is designed with group content in mind then it'll be fine, but playing solo PvE outside of Chrono will be clunky.

I agree with making 5 a two-way portal. Shoot the beacon, activate it, and make a two way portal between where you shot and where you reactivated the skill.

All other phantasm-summoning weapon skills do sth apart from the spawning the phantasm. 4 on rifle only summons phantasm so it seems kinda weak.

[Weez.6315]

so i tried rifle mesmer again today in wvw full cele chaos inspi virtu and recorded it

Reason of Cele is to get at least some dmg off to support kills with shatters and still have some healing.

Reason for Virtu is the Clone Regeneration with the Block Trait

def missed alot of Rifle AoEs cause of long casttime and not used to the skills yet but its should be still a showcase of how bad this weapon is rn for supporting in a wvw environment.

First vid:  testing support in a 3 men group at nc outnumbered, felt pretty useless aside from the Portal goodness, the utility skill not Rifle 5

Second vid:  meme 1onX with rifle sword/shield still full support

as mentioned in my previous post Casttimes need some work, instant big heals needed, AA dmg is a joke, Rifle 5 change to mobility + 3 men portal, Phanta overhaul

Music is sponsored by Mircrosoft Audio templates x)

 

 

 

[Wielder Of Magic.3950]

Feedback on Mesmer rifle

This was the weapon that I had a very hard time to get a feel for and even now I am still wondering if I got it 'right'. 
For me it also doesn't help that we just had some pretty noticable changes to several support traits that give mesmer more healing and boon options to toy with. 
And while a lot of those changes feel good to me (and you will bring them in a support build), because these changes are new themselves it was at times hard to seperate the performance of the overall build from the performance of the rifle itself.

Just to push this I have tried this in full harrier gear rifle + scepter/shield/focus with Inspiration and Chaos as a base, with both Chronomancer and Mirage (I saw no reason to test with Virtuoso since Virtuoso has nothing that complements a support build in my opinion).
Especially Chronomancer felt extremely strong with a sheer endless amount of boons and a nice stream of healing with Mantra's Wells and Shatters. 
But how does Rifle fit into it?
Performancewise I feel like Rifle is only something I would swap into if I desperately need that 5.6k healing from rifle 3 (possibly with the 2.8k from rifle 2 or the 4.3k barrier on rifle 5), also known as when I REALLY need burst heals that I could not avoid with protection, aegis from F4 or from my wells, or not heal with shatters/wells/mantra/clone generation from stuff like Ego Restoration/Illusionary Reversion.

But...then I am stuck on rifle for a bit after. And Rifle has heals sure, but also a big problem: So much of mesmer's kit relies on generating and shattering clones, but rifle does a real poor job of allowing me to keep up a stream of constant clones, at least on Chrono. I honestly felt safer by just camping my scepter/X side and vomit all boons in the world through constant shattering, followed by aegis preventing damage and then the mild heals from shatters and mantra's/wells keeping people topped. You can soften the problem by holding your heal mantra for your rifle set or giving up a slot for something like Mirror Images but it is not ideal.

And there is not a lot going on aside from that raw healing on rifle if you cannot shatter as well as on other combinations. I must admit that in that way I feel a bit disappointed by the weapon. I would actually happily trade in some of the potential heals for better utility.  I'd love some area denial (like guard hammer 5) or a mini feedback of sorts. Don't forget that if you run rifle you are giving up utility from something like an off-hand shield or an off-hand focus.

A bit more practical:
Skill 1: nothing to write home about. You can heal multiple people with it, but I'd honestly prefer to generate clones with scepter for my boons.
Skill 2:  Some heal, regen and we generate a clone. It is on a 5 CD cooldown, less under alac, granted, but you would think that Anet knows how reliant current support mesmer is on shatters. With this you would take 12-15 seconds to build up max clones with just this. Now grab scepter with the auto-attack generation.
Skill 3: A burst heal. And that's all we will probably use it for, I don't think people will let it expire for might and fury. Might as well roll those two boons into the kit as it is or remove it fro something else in my opinion. 
Skill 4: Phantasm. This is....let's say not great. Low damage and a 2s stun. on 16-20s CD. That's not gonna cut it. Can we get the firing squad fantasy here? Summon multiple phantasms (each becoming seperate clones after) or make it an ammo skill? This current version isn't it.
Skill 5: Barrier is okay I guess, but I am unsure if anyone is going to use this for the portal. It is unwieldly and unclear. Portal being for 1 person only doesn't help either. I'd rather see this become a mini version of the Portal Utility skill. Reduce range, only allow 5 people to use it, but give it a bit more uptime, directly drop it between mesmer location and shot location and make it more visible.

It feels limited. It does one job and one job only. But mesmer always needs to fill multiple jobs from multiple angles and rifle is missing that versatility. Right now this feels to me like a "swap, burst heal  and pray nothing is going to happen for the next few seconds because I am on rifle and cannot do kitten about it".

As for the Mirage variant:
I had a slightly easier time to keep clones going on rifle with Mirage (hopefully to bridge the gap back to my other weaponset) with Ego Restoration + Self Deception (and then take Jaunt for my elite with each charge being able to make a clone). But compared to the Chronomancer variant I felt lacking in boons. And there was another big thing that holds Mirage back in this scenario: The Chrono version can do either Alac or Quickness (but Quickness seemed to work better), but Mirage cannot run Staff for Alac AND rifle. It needs that Staff/Staff action (because swapping to non-staff means Alac is gonna drop). But since Mirage does not have the easy aegis that Chrono has it would rely on Rifle more. But it cannot really afford to take it.
I suppose it would help if you take away Fury from the Rifle Ambush and add Alacrity there as well.

Now that we talk about the rifle ambush:  It looks fun, but when your clones use it they don't heal. And that's a bummer. If the ambush gets Alacrity and clones using it also provide the heal part we might be able to figure something out (if all clones heal with each mirage cloak ambush there might also be room for Blurred Inscriptions instead of Restorative Illusions for Aegis if we work in a signet). Right now I am not feeling it on Mirage.

All in all I feel that rifle is very one-dimensional and it feels useable because it gets carried by the Inspiration/Chaos buffs, instead of Rifle hard-carrying Heal/Support mesmers.
Maybe I am looking at this entirely wrong, I don't know.
But as it is, rifle still hasn't fully convinced me.

Edited December 4, 2023 by Wielder Of Magic.3950

[draxynnic.3719]

I suspect that the reason there's only one rifle phantasm is so that there's only one stun. I wonder if a system where there's two phantasms but the stun only triggers if they both hit could work? A single hit could just be a cripple, immobilise, or the like - something that could set up for the stun if they don't hit simultaneously, but which isn't interrupting skills on its own and is easier to get out of.

[hkonea.7495]

1.  i  recommended to add RIFLE weapon skill 5 to the down state ppl and be able to press F ,  Since you want to create a support type, be more thorough.

2.  [restorative illusions] blend it in  -----Minor Adept/ Master/ Grandmaster trait  , to shore up the fragmented mesmer's traits.   And redo new Major Grandmaster eg...Suffering a critical hit causes weakness comdition to

the enemy..And gain swiftness and heal 500hp 

3.  suggest add virtuoso f3 shatter skill  to radius 240 and explode first and then eject.

4.   suggest -----bladeturn requiem added "revealed" 6 sec. u cant stealth

5. suggest -----Change mirror images and decoy to phantasm skill replaced clone title

6. suggest ----Convert signet of humility and signet of inspiration to each other

7. SUGGEST ----Change BOUNTIFUL BLADES TRAIT  to one of BERSERKER Phantasmal and rotate greatsword like core warrior F1 SKILL..  COVER RANGER AND MELEE

MIRAGE 'S RIFLE AMBUSH This effect is very good. I hope ANET will do more of this effect on MESMER in the future.

 

Edited December 4, 2023 by hkonea.7495

[Chrome.6798]

This is from a PvP Standpoint. Mesmer Rifle didnt do anything IMO barley healing no DPS. I would much Prefure a DPS option with rifle like Deadeye 2.0 but anyways uhh Mesmer Rifle 5 would be more effective if you could shoot your portal and you as the player casting it could use the portal and portal out of danger would make better use out of it cause some people are blind and wont use it so use it for yourself. Also make the Phantasm do some dmg on stun cause like i said before there is Absolut no dps variant. and make the Mirage ambush like a Deaths Judgement on deadeye  or something cause i felt like a spray bottle in the middle of summer that doesnt work 

[Varis.5467]

2 hours ago, Chrome.6798 said:

... like a spray bottle in the middle of summer that doesnt work 

This alone sums up the rifle almost too well. 

[Weez.6315]

I think support mesmer has the rawr healing output for a proper Support but the way how it is implemented doesnt fit into pvp and wvw, but in pve.

Support traits have a too low range and the Rifle Heals are too slow and not bursty enough.

In this clip https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCrOZnOC-MM&ab_channel=Mimsy i survive better than most other supports would but that doesnt make it a good support but a bunker build. So if that selfish healing and Support output could reach partymembers in a more reliable way, it might be a good support, granted Dmg/ soft CCs and Rifle 5 get an overhaul too

 

[Roadkizzle.2157]

On 11/29/2023 at 8:23 AM, Goosekilla.2796 said:

I think this is overall a good weapon. It does what it's supposed to do: heal.

The problem is that it's currently entirely propped up by numbers. It is an absolute PUMPER for healing, but doesn't have any other actually useful utility. As soon as it gets a numbers nerf, it will immediately be dropped like it's hot. Biggest offenders here are 4 and 5 skills.

As others have pointed out, this phantasm skill really needs to do something else to make it worth using. Some evade frames or even just an AOE aegis on initial cast would do a lot to make this skill something that anyone will use outside of hitting breakbars in pve (and questionable even there because of the extremely long wind up).

The 5 skill is way too niche. Cool idea, but especially for the cooldown penalty - which is particularly egregious in pvp (50 sec for a single-use one-way portal that I can't even use myself!?) - the flip skill on this is honestly just a fat-finger trap. As others have pointed out, self mobility would be really nice here. I think there are other options as well, though. Maybe put an AOE pull or other hard cc on the flip skill to help peel? I could even see moving the resistance to the flip skill along with maybe throwing stability, superspeed, and/or ally stunbreak on there so that the main skill is a barrier (sustain) pump and the flip is more concentrated on getting out of a bad situation. It just needs something to actually make using that flip skill a serious situational decision point and not a mistake.

I think you've captured my thoughts.

 

Yes the rifle heals. It seems to have potentially some of the biggest heals in the game. But once the devs realize that they've given the Mesmer massive heals those numbers are going to come down... And what does the Rifle have left?

 

It really doesn't provide much else for support.

Might and Fury which are easily available everywhere else. Staff, Shield, Wells, Shatters.

The only thing special is Regen and Barrier every 20 seconds but it makes the players job harder with the long Phantasm cooldown and clone generation for providing Protection and Quick or Alac.

[Roadkizzle.2157]

On 11/30/2023 at 1:56 AM, Shaman.2034 said:

Heal quick chrono with the rifle is an absolute beast in PvE. The only part of the kit I think is lackluster is the portal on 5, I'd rather let it expire without flipping it to keep a lower cooldown on the AoE Barrier. The only thing I would consider adding is a way to revive allies faster, like how ele staff geyser can be traited to do that, but it's a very strong weapon already and pumps out a huge amount of burst and sustained healing. One single button supplies 100% Fury uptime, another single button supplies 100% Regeneration uptime, it's super easy to use and very effective. If it shipped exactly how it is now, I wouldn't complain at all

Sure you have easy Regen and Fury...

But what are you having to do in order to maintain uptime in Quick/Alac or Protection? 

When I was testing the rifle out those felt much more difficult to maintain than Regen and Fury are with the existing weapons.

[Raven.8156]

I genuinely enjoyed the riffle on Mesmer. 

 

Enjoyment 1: 

Healing from non-ground target weapon auto-attacks is fun. There needs to be more of this, in general, to promote ranged play and movement; away from the boring stacking habits. I see comments stating that the damage is low. I would rather have a weapon designed around healing. There are plenty of other weapons that deal damage and I think it's a fair trade-off if the support capability is high.

Complaint 1:

I do think the portal duration on Rifle 5 is very short. For casual players such as myself (or perhaps I just have a severely slow response time) it is not practical to use as it expires way too quickly. What's the big deal if the portal duration exists for a long time? 

Complaint 2:

The AOE on Rifle 3 may be larger. In practice, allies run out of the AOE target before my pinky bullet travels through the pinky portal. If it will have a small AOE, perhaps the healing reward should be fatter 😗

Edited December 5, 2023 by Raven.8156

[ShadowKatt.6740]

4 hours ago, Roadkizzle.2157 said:

I think you've captured my thoughts.

 

Yes the rifle heals. It seems to have potentially some of the biggest heals in the game. But once the devs realize that they've given the Mesmer massive heals those numbers are going to come down... And what does the Rifle have left?

 

It really doesn't provide much else for support.

Might and Fury which are easily available everywhere else. Staff, Shield, Wells, Shatters.

The only thing special is Regen and Barrier every 20 seconds but it makes the players job harder with the long Phantasm cooldown and clone generation for providing Protection and Quick or Alac.

Know what could have sidestepped the whole thing? If they would have just given us a strike weapon with 1500 range that could let us plink baddies from afair with some sweet benefits for crits befitting a precision weapon. I still dream about my clone rifle squad that I'll never see.