Mesmer Patch Notes for May 11th, 2021

[Justine.6351]

Incoming patch May 11th 2021,

 

Boon and Condition Upkittentes

Resolution

• The Retaliation boon has been renamed Resolution.
• Incoming condition kittenmage is decreased by 33%. Stacks duration.
• Unless otherwise specified, skills and traits that formerly granted or used retaliation now use resolution.

Resistance

• Nonkittenmaging conditions currently on the player are ineffective. Stacks duration.

Torment

• Deals kittenmage every second. Deals additional kittenmage to foes that are not moving. Stacks intensity.

Duration Caps for Boons and Conditions

Duration-stacking boons and conditions now behave consistently. They directly stack durations added from all sources, do not have hidden stack limits, and generally have shorter maximum durations. With most nonkittenmaging condition durations stacking to a maximum of 10 seconds, we aim to reduce situations in which players can become stuck in combat because of a long-duration condition, preventing them from using their mount.

Boons

• Alacrity: 30
• Fury: 30
• Protection: 30
• Resolution: 30
• Quickness: 30
• Resistance: 30
• Swiftness: 30
• Vigor: 30

Conditions

• Blinded: 10
• Chilled: 10
• Crippled: 10
• Immobilized: 10
• Slow: 10
• Weakness: 10

Mantras (Mesmer and Firebrand)

We acknowledge that there are significant flaws with the core gameplay innate to mantra skills, and that this problem was exacerbated in Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire™ when we switched mesmer mantras to an ammunition system, creating an incentive to not use the final charge. This is a poor user experience and something we have hoped for a long time to be able to come back and address.

Needing to prepare for combat by using a sequence of skills with a long casting time is not fun, and in most cases, using the final charge of a mantra in combat felt like a mistake. It not only denied your use of the skill for a long time, but it also required you to prepare your mantras again after the cooldown expired. Instead of being rewarding to use, mantras have been a chore; something you need to remember to do every time you change maps or respawn, or deal with after every /gg in a fractal, strike, or raid. Holding your group up while you again prepare each of your mantras never feels great either!

During the development of this balance patch, we tried several alternatives, including automatic preparation while out of combat. Ultimately, we found that the best course of action was to simplify the mantra skills and remove the preparation mechanic altogether, as this ensures that we can have consistent behavior between mesmer and firebrand mantras, as well as consistent core functionality between PvE and PvP game modes. As a result, in this balance upkittente, we have decided to rework both mesmer and firebrand mantras into simple ammunition skills.

What this means:

• No more preparing mantras before use. They are always in the “ready” mode, storing up uses.
• Firebrand mantras are no longer stronger on final charge. All uses are the same.
• Mesmer mantras no longer do something on preparing.

Some related tuning and trait changes will happen as a result. While this results in a loss of some of the current flavor inherent to the mantra skill type, we have found that the ability to easily read, understand, and use these skills in normal gameplay is a strong improvement to the play experience.

 

Mesmer

Chronomancer has been steeply overperforming in a kittenmage role in all content, leading to an environment in which the best way to tackle almost any challenge is to throw more Chronomancers at it. On the other hand, Mirage hasn’t been performing at the level we’d like it to; it’s been relegated to a kittenmage role in only a few specific boss encounters in which confusion is particularly potent. With this upkittente, Mirage will see general improved performance from the change to the torment condition, with the option of using a reworked chaos specialization that will now better synergize for condition kittenmage and support builds. We’re also creating a new possible boon support role for Mirages using the staff by changing Chaos Vortex (the staff’s ambush skill) to grant might and alacrity to up to 10 allied targets.

• Deception (Downed Skill 2): This skill is now ground targeted while on land and no longer displaces the player when summoning a clone while underwater.
• Arcane Thievery: This skill now requires a target to activate.
• Time Warp: Reduced cooldown from 180 seconds to 120 seconds. Reduced duration from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. This skill now applies 1 second of quickness and slow per pulse, for a total of six pulses over a 5-second duration.
• Mantras: Mantras no longer need to be prepared before use. They regenerate ammunition normally.

Sword

• Illusionary Riposte: This skill no longer displaces the player when summoning a clone.
• Illusionary Counter: This skill no longer displaces the player when summoning a clone.

Staff

• Winds of Chaos: Increased projectile speed by 25%. Increased casting speed by 0.1 second. Lowered aftercast animation lock by 0.2 seconds. Fixed an inconsistency with projectile behavior after bouncing. This skill now applies torment for 5 seconds to the first target struck and confusion for 5 seconds on subsequent hits to enemies. Allies hit gain might for 5 seconds and fury for 3 seconds.
• Chaos Armor: Reduced recharge to 25 seconds. This skill no longer applies a random condition to nearby foes when cast. Instead, it now applies blindness and confusion to nearby foes when cast.
• Chaos Storm: Reduced recharge to 25 seconds in PvE only.

Mirage

• Chaos Vortex (Staff Ambush): The projectile now only strikes enemies. Up to 10 nearby allies gain boons. The boons gained are now might (8 stacks, 15-second duration in PvE; 4 stacks, 6-second duration in PvP and WvW) and alacrity (3-second duration). (Note: Boons are applied near the mesmer only, not near clones.)

Chronomancer

• kittennger Time: Removed the critical-kittenmage bonus.
• Chronophantasma: Resummoned phantasm kittenmage is now 75% in PvE only.
• Seize the Moment: Quickness duration per clone kittentered has been reduced from 1.5 seconds to 1 second in PvE only.

Chaos

• Illusionary Membrane: This trait has been reworked. While regenerating, condition kittenmage dealt is increased, and condition kittenmage taken is reduced by 10%.
• Chaotic Persistence: This trait has been reworked. Gain concentration and expertise while regenerating.
• Chaotic kittenmpening: This trait has been reworked and renamed Chaotic Potency.
  • Chaotic Potency: Gain condition kittenmage. Gain additional condition kittenmage while wielding a staff. Recharge of staff skills is reduced.
• Chaotic Transference: This trait has been reworked. Chaos Armor grants 3 seconds of protection. Gain regeneration for 5 seconds with a 15-second cooldown when gaining protection.

Inspiration

• Restorative Mantras: Heal allies around you when activating a mantra. Reduced healing amount by 50%.

[phokus.8934]

Pretty junky changes and they also screwed up the word filter.

[Leonidrex.5649]

My thoughts on the patch.
change to torment -> stupid as kitten, it will make it OP in pve and kitten in pvp.
staff -> passive brainless auto + ambush gameplay is back babe
the good? potential for decent alac-mirage support/dps spec which is cool
bad? passive brainless pvp build

scepter and sword block changes are amazing feelsgood
downed 2 change is good too, feels good.

also chaos traitline looks like a mess.
the new traits that you want fight for the spot, to make it usefull you want 100% regeneration that you cant get solo
we will have to see whats gonna happen.
current meta mirage is gonna be dead after torment, but there is a good chance staff monkey mirage will be a thing again ( pvp )

edit v2
if they wanted to add new traits remove this fucking placeholder called chaotic interruption and give us a proper fucking grandmaster -.-
but nah, they would have to admit that " CI is not powerfull xd "

Edited April 30, 2021 by Leonidrex.5649

[Zoser.7245]

I'm sad to watch that they again ignored the high cooldowns of the torch skills.   They are making nice  changes to the dragonhunter longbow, engineer rifle and warrior rifle...  even in the past they added to thief's pistol a trait  "Deadly Aim" that let their pistol to pierce... Everything pierces... less  our Phantasmal Duelist.   I absolutely hate it when he shoots against a group of enemies and can only hit one.  What sad to watch others with the pierce option or by defaut and our Duelist not.

 

Well, from now you don't have to think a lot if you want to play a mesmer.  Choose a staff, end of the history.  Also ignore competitive modes unless you want to try some kind of support/tank or monk/bruiser and watch if it works more or less. Although  I'm sure of one that will try to go back and try to get the old one shot pChrono to work.

 

At least i'll have some fun updating my Renegade and Necromancer builds and  testing Scrapper, Dragonhunter and Firebrand with the changes. For my Mirage i'll probably find a broom as a staff, so that he can use it to sweep the floor while making things as a craftsman or playing history.  Is the only thing he'll do sadly, because I can't find any incentive to use it for other things.  

 

I don't know what kind of specialization they will add to the Mesmer with the next expansion. But my worst fear is that it could be a healer, a bad one whose effectiveness depends on the amount of illusions available.. Imagine it in WvW lol

Edited May 1, 2021 by Zoser.7245