Our New Mesmer Elite Specialization: The Virtuoso

[Tseison.4659]

 

What's everyones thoughts on the new announced elite spec, The Virtuoso? 🙂

🌟CHECK OUT MORE DETAILS ON THE VIRTUOSO AT THE GUILD WARS 2 WIKI!

 

🌟BETA TESTING FOR THE VIRTUOSO BEGINS AUGUST 17, 2021 to AUGUST 21, 2021! 
 

SEE YOU ALL THERE!💜

Edited August 12, 2021 by Tseison.4659

[Sodeni.6041]

I'm let down.

 

I was SO HYPED and me and many other mesmers really wanted a music themed bard elite spec. A healing/power DPS hybrid class (like firebrand is condidpds/support or scourge as well) with a shortbow (dreamer on mesmer should finally be usable!) would have been perfect. With some instruments as a game mechanic like firebrand tomes that grant more skills depending on the amount of clones used  (concept here: https://en-forum.guildwars2.com/topic/49520-third-elite-specialization-minstrel-concept/)  

 

And when I saw "Virtuoso" I was so excited but then... a blade thrower? How is that "heavily inspired by cantha" when theres minstrels there?

 

Regarding the elite spec: ONE DAGGER ONLY? What? Why did spellbreaker get 2 and we only get one mainhand weapon again when this spec should be all about daggers?

We haven't got a 2 hand elite spec weapon yet, a spear would have been cool or AT LEAST 2 daggers! Mesmer has the least amount of elite spec weapon skills out of all the classes... Give us an offhand dagger too and put the eltie skill Sword of Decimation as skill #5 it would fit perfectly and give us the dagger phantsm we get when we are downed.

 

All the skills look very similar too. Same animations, hard to tell them apart. You just throw a big purple stream or a dagger. The two utility aoes should honestly be made into one since they share the same animation and are not worth separating.

 

I'd rather have a new mobility skill, stunbreak, condi removal, or anything like that instead because this spec has NOTHING of those. Good luck surviving in pvp or wvw... especially when every attack is a projectile that can be blocked or reflected!

 

F-Skills can't be activated without a dagger up so getting a quick invulnerbility is gone (f4 changed to block only anyway...). They also have a long cast/wind up time which is pretty bad compared to core mesmer or mirage.

 

I thought at least we would get a bladedancer spec but they just throw blades, no dancing involved. The f-skills being called "bladesongs" is a very cheap approach to please all those mesmers who wanted a proper music themed class when in reality the Virtuoso has 0 music theme to it.

 

A pure dps focused spec is ok with me, still wanted to see more though. At least some more dazes or stuns, stunbreaks, non-damage condis, mobility, maybe stealth, etc. It's literally only has dps skills which feels rushed and uninspired.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Sodeni.6041

[mortrialus.3062]

Very close to exactly what I wanted.  I've wanted Chrono to be more support based and for a third mesmer spec to take up the power damage role.  I'm also very happy we get our own cloneless elite specialization the way Soulbeast is sort of a petless spec when merged. 

[psi.9304]

Visually is very cool looking but, as in all things, it would be more helpful if we could see the traits and what they do.

 

[Tharan.9085]

8 minutes ago, Sodeni.6041 said:

 

 

Regarding the elite spec: ONE DAGGER ONLY? What? Why did soulbeast get 2 and we only get one mainhand weapon again? We haven't got a 2 hand elite spec weapon yet, a spear would be cool or AT LEAST 2 daggers!

 

 

Soulbeast only got 1 dagger aswell, it had the other one before that already, good to know you know what you are talking about

[Lincolnbeard.1735]

Waiting for someone to post the tooltips of the skills.
But so far, I like the distortion utility. 
On the negative side, the shatters are still the same stuff with different name, boring...

[Dadnir.5038]

Straightforward power dps e-spec... Another dps e-spec wasn't really what I hoped to get for mesmer.

[Roda.7468]

Here's all the tooltips I could capture.  He didn't show them all.

[mungozen.2379]

This is what players asked for, and it looks like garbage.  As they said, they are breaking the rules and these elite specs will feel like different or new professions, and this doesn't appear very Mesmer.

 

I will try it out in the beta event in 3 weeks but, I am looking for a new main already for EoD.  Pistol Necro maybe......probably not tho...

[Sodeni.6041]

14 minutes ago, Tharan.9085 said:

Soulbeast only got 1 dagger aswell, it had the other one before that already, good to know you know what you are talking about

I mixed it up, sorry. Still, one dagger is so boring. We should ALWAYS get 5 skills.

[AXLIB.8425]

When I heard they say new elite will offer a fundamentally different way to play the class, I was so hyped. Then mesmer elite happened. It still just the same class with the same way to play but you clone won't die now and are projectile. And once again we got cheated with another main hand weapon. I really hope the trait line is at least good for this core mesmer without clone.

[Sodeni.6041]

4 minutes ago, Mungo Zen.9364 said:

This is what players asked for, and it looks like garbage.  As they said, they are breaking the rules and these elite specs will feel like different or new professions, and this doesn't appear very Mesmer.

 

I will try it out in the beta event in 3 weeks but, I am looking for a new main already for EoD.  Pistol Necro maybe......probably not tho...

players clearly asked for a minstrel, its all over the forums

[Sarrs.4831]

Either what we saw is the spec without any talents and the talents make it interesting, or what we saw is the spec without any talents and the talents don't make it interesting

 

I hope the talents do make it interesting but I guess we'll find out soon.

[Genesis.8572]

1 minute ago, Sodeni.6041 said:

players clearly asked for a minstrel, its all over the forums

Players asked for a lot of things on the forums. 

[mungozen.2379]

1 minute ago, Sodeni.6041 said:

players clearly asked for a minstrel, its all over the forums

 

Players asked for shatterless and cloneless mesmers.  The music theme nonsense doesn't affect gameplay so I personally don't care about it.  However, perhaps they should just call the Mesmer class Divas and get it over with.

[Tungsten Monarch.6058]

I don't understand why they  just don't call it a "Blade Dancer" since there's daggers.

Virtuoso would make more sense if there was music involved.

[Obtena.7952]

4 minutes ago, Sodeni.6041 said:

players clearly asked for a minstrel, its all over the forums

SOME players clearly asked for that, not all. Personally, I think it's a tired and boring theme. Lucky for us, Anet doesn't just do what is typical to please players that expect some standard approach. 

[Daniel Handler.4816]

4 minutes ago, Tungsten Monarch.6058 said:

I don't understand why they  just don't call it a "Blade Dancer" since there's daggers.

Virtuoso would make more sense if there was music involved.

bladesong

[Sodeni.6041]

6 minutes ago, Tungsten Monarch.6058 said:

I don't understand why they  just don't call it a "Blade Dancer" since there's daggers.

Virtuoso would make more sense if there was music involved.

true, but they don't really dance either... its so sad tbh at least make a proper bladedancer.

[Roda.7468]

Yeah "virtuoso" seems kind of.. tacked on?  Like to appease the bard crowd.  Kinda sad that it would kind of rule out a true bard class, but meh, what we got is freaking awesome! I have a new main.

 

(also lmao at the narrator calling it "burly")

[Sodeni.6041]

3 minutes ago, Daniel Handler.4816 said:

bladesong

but it doesn't include any music. you just throw blades, not music.

[Vinny.7260]

I'm thoroughly impressed with the new Specialization. It'll allow Mesmer to be able to handle contesting nodes with the loss of Distortion as a defensive (instead blocking for 3s) and having a unique utility to use Distortion instead of built-in. 

 

I suspect lots of tuning will be required for it when it comes out due to the RAW damage I saw on that elite skill. 

 

There are a lot of other small things I noticed like Phantasms doing damage when despawning, which could signal to a trait hidden within the traitline or a built-in trait created. 

 

Virtuoso is going to be a great class regardless. I can already see the DPS on it being great! On top of the potential synergy with core traits to have it be devastating in a team fight/+1. 

 

(The F3 has a default 1 target limit, but Master of Disillusionment will increase that to 5, I'm curious how it'll handle that change. How will the F4 change? Maybe a reflect instead of a block? Will that affect Scepter 2 and Sword 4? I'm very curious to see how Anet handles this.)  

[mortrialus.3062]

Virtuoso is an odd name but I can't think of anything snappy that points out it makes and fires phantasmal weapons.  Phantom Blade? 

[Daniel Handler.4816]

4 minutes ago, Sodeni.6041 said:

true, but they don't really dance either... its so sad tbh at least make a proper bladedancer.

they clearly tried to give a bit of what everyone wanted but couldn't please everyone

it has somewhat of a music theme but isnt a healer

it does aoe, but it's ranged and projectile based.

 

Not sure how good it will be in fractals. but at least we have a ranged damage spec that isnt mirage greatsword with energy sigils.

Edited July 27, 2021 by Daniel Handler.4816

[aaron.7850]

I really wanted an actual healing spec.