Virtuoso Feedback Thread [Merged]

[SdoRy.6839]

I had to take a double look at the grandmaster traits. Rofl. All 3 traits literally do the exact same thing, which is passive blade generation. WTF. That's literally the most uninspired, boring "design" I've ever seen. Holy hell. Who comes up with this and everybody involved thinks "wow this is a great idea!"...
Also having the Bladesongs aka Shatters with cast times as opposed to the classic Shatters makes the whole class clunky af to play. It's genuinely so bad and makes the otherwise possibly interesting spec completely unplayable for me. It just ruins all of your rotations, once you reach 5 blades you have to immediately stop what you're doing or risk getting overflown with blades. Also it just feels like an artificial delay, just overall terrible.
But seeing as basically none of the feedback for any spec was genuinely adressed I'm not surprised. Rushed expansion with good story but terrible everything else. Classic GW2 in 2022.

[TristisOris.2165]

still frustrating. Bladesong it's only a clone or phantasm, or both? some traits looks not work for them.

testing it, but it takes a time.

[Empowered Illusions] didnt work, [Vicious Expression] work. Both has same description "illusions"

[Persistence of Memory] also not. so it not a phantasm. or bug or exeption?

[Compounding Power] works but broken. have no idea what it count.

 

next worse.

[Cry of Pain] didnt work. So it's not a shatter? But u say its a shatter at [Master of Fragmentation]

definitely bug here.

Edited March 6, 2022 by TristisOris.2165

[Za Shaloc.3908]

Would love for F3 (Bladesong Dissonance) to function like Elementalist's Comet and be given 2 charges. That way it can bypass the projectile hate while still remaining blockable. I understand you are really considering counterplay to elite spec design now, but the current iteration is really horrible for interrupting anything and easily misses moving targets. 

 

I would also like to understand better what your goal is with F4 (Bladeturn Requiem). If it is intended to be used as a source of damage, the damage should be significantly buffed (at least in competitive modes, but even in PvE I'd argue it could be buffed) so it can actually be used for PBAoE cleave. If it is not, perhaps consider adding a condition cleanse per blade used. 

[mortrialus.3062]

Flying Cutter's projectile is way off center. 

https://i.imgur.com/szo2Prh.jpg

Greatsword auto for comparison.

https://i.imgur.com/0iF9TKT.jpg

Edited March 10, 2022 by mortrialus.3062

[Song of Eternity.8613]

The Virtuoso seems fun, but I notice most of it's skills have a 1200m ranged, which seems pretty excessive.

[Salt Mode.3780]

1 hour ago, Song of Eternity.8613 said:

The Virtuoso seems fun, but I notice most of it's skills have a 1200m ranged, which seems pretty excessive.

You will also notice that all of it is projectile based can get LoS and uneven terrains will miss ur target.

[Luthan.5236]

Played it a bit so far in PvE and PvP (only 1 match there lol). I do not really like it that much. One side: No need for clones ... if you did not like them. On the other hand: They were supposed to be the major thing of the mesmer.

For the PvE there is an open world buidl on meta battle (draft) ... that seems to get a high damage output. Have not tried that. It seems like it would have low survivability. The thing is: Power dps seems to want you to combine a lot of stuff - to get not only the power but also crit and high crit chance and stuff.

Condition ... seems pretty worthless - too weak on the main weapon (dagger) itself and for other weapons you could just play anothe elite spec. And the +bleed from blade requires just too much. Does additionally need a high crit chance and/or fury (to improve crit chance) while also needing you to spec for condi damage. The meta battle open world pve build though had the bleeds traits for creating additional blades to use the shatter skills (+ phantasms) for damage if I understood that one correctly.

I think I might just play something else that also can do decent damage while being able to stay alive - with having more options to tweak it while not losing either too much survivability or too much dps.

It is just not my playstyle. After getting Mechanist for my engi main ... I just wanna go back to Chrono lol. Played mesmer only as secondary main and not really that much - still more than the other professions besides engineer which I played about 98 percent of the time lol. And the jumping around with the mirage already was not too my taste. (Played Chrono for HoT and S3 through the maps and story and PoF, S4 and Icebrood the mirage.)

Chrono just so good at surviving (soloing champs in HoT) while still doing decent damage with a recommended build I had here from the forums. Also ranged with the great sword. (I just stayed ranged most of the time.) No need for a dagger as ranged weapon.

 

Edited March 13, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[Desh.7028]

Virtuoso is literally pink ranged warrior and Blades are just Adrenaline with multiple Burst options to chose from.

 

It's a lot nicer to play in most open world stuff than anything with clones though and the phantasms are still there. I'll have to WvW soon for the next Gift and am mostly looking forward to it but also a little worried about everything being a projectile that you could smack yourself in the face with.

 

F4 into a regular Aetherblade Scrapper doing it's projectile reflect instantly depleted my health, so that's a fun interaction on top of regular grunts having projectile reflect moves that execute instantly and while your stuff is already flying through the air.

All utilities except one are bad. High CD, low damage and/or doesn't do enough for a whole utility slot.

I can't believe I'm even saying this but the elite skill could be visually louder and more noticeable while the rain utility is very noticeable.

 

The collection weapon was locked behind my least favorite meta and Dragons needed to be ended for that but it is adequately pink and shiny.

[Luthan.5236]

After trying a bit more ... I think it can be okay. I actually got myself to try something similar ot the Open World Power Virtuoso build recommended on MetaBattle. Though I feared the low survivability ... cause of low health and toughness. (Well the Jade Bot helps a bit with more vitality.)

But it feels just so weird when with my Mechanist I now can have tankiness + damage together. Here you need to go full zerker so that it actually feels nice.

And the builds ... I think they recommend dagger +  an offhand weapon ... and greatsword on 2nd set. Why is that? Both are ranged weapons and the dagger feels sooo week. The numbers on the tooltip. The power modifier. Actually feels nice with greatsword  and phantasms to get damage ... and the crit/furty stuff + traits for extra crit damage.

But I then decided to go for dodging (vigor from trait on crit + endurance regen food - according to wiki those stack) and melee for the other set. sword/sword. For most normal mobs + vets this actually works. Doding a bit into distance and using F1 (blades stocke a bit lower with this build but I tried to mainly go for traits ...and a bit the bladesongs cause yo can't disable them).

Fully ignored dagger and the heal/utillity/elite (using core stuff there). Traited the 4th skill of offhand gives a block with short CD. (shield engineer has higher CDs here) - and a counter attack with decent damage. And the sword has stronger basic auto attack damage.

I know the dagger seems to be supposed to profit from crit (well other weapon with higher base damage profits even more) ... and from that flurry aoe attack  - but that seems bad if you stay ranged and the enemies also move (if they are melee trying to reach you). Just not my taste.

So ... I might give Virtuoso another try - trying to play more with this build. But trying to ignore dagger. (Usually I tried to use all the new weapons that came with the new elite specs.)

Edited March 15, 2022 by Luthan.5236

[medivh.4725]

Absolute garbage. Like a seating duck in PVE.
Keeps dying to monsters and mobs despite fully ascended gears.
Phantasmal Swordsman is ridiculously slow and not triggering alot of times. 
Projectiles cast times not fluid. No defense, lacking in mobility.
Its all flashly without substance or trait synergies. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by medivh.4725

[Nezekan.2671]

I don't know why you guys keep posting here. This thread was up for months and ANET did not listen to single thing we said here. I like how the second post from ANET is encouraging feedback. They must be a great liar, because they seem to believe it as well lol. The best liars are those who lie to themselves.

Virtuoso loses clones and gets inferior shatters. Yes, they are inferior in every way imaginable.

Single target
Actually less damage than core and chrono shatters
Cast times
Travel time
Travels in a straight line, can be dodged by just strafing out of the way

There is NO improvement to shatters, and it's actually a nerf. And the spec loses clone, which effectively means scepter and staff are nerfed since no clone auto will apply condis. It's a simpler version of power chrono that only does damage and nothing else. There is nothing Virtuoso can do better than other Mesmers. Absolutely nothing. This is just shameful and if I was the developer of Virtuoso, I would definitely be ashamed of it. And more so after all this feedback and ignoring it like nothing is wrong.

To ad insult to injury, ANET just buffed condi Virtuoso and did not even acknowledge how bad it is like they did untamed.

Edited March 16, 2022 by Nezekan.2671

[Every day pon.5386]

I hope Virtuoso stay SPVP because I 💙 clones

[appelflap.8310]

After playing virtuoso in wvw/ spvp for some time now I can safely say this spec is garbage (no surprise). I would give suggestions but I already did that in the past like other ppl and you've done nothing with it when eod launched so I won't give any suggestions since you don't listen anyways. After seeing that bleeding trait got buffed for blade crits in pve I noticed you guys have 0 clue what you want from this spec (again, no surprise), like are you telling me you want to make dagger a condi weapon without condi applications on the weapon itself but only through traits?? Is this your plan on how to buff it in spvp/wvw too? So no new weapon to use in spvp/wvw since it's just kitten there, no clones and worse shatters? Is this what we get?  

[Sylvi.8372]

Virtuoso and Migraines

 

Hi Anet Team, though I would like to play Virtuoso more, unfortunately, the lights from skill effects trigger my migraine. 😬 (For those with more serious health issues than mine when it comes to bright lights, god forbid it triggers epilepsy or something. 😬🙏)

 

On Virtuoso, maybe because it’s bright pink lights, or maybe because some of the skills cover the area in a huge swath of pink, it really triggers my migraine or at least headaches. 😔

 

(Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy the unlimited blade works-like effects. I enjoy the Virt’s playstyle and can still cope with gearing issues. In my opinion, the blades look beautiful and covering the area in blades has my anime-loving part motivated.)

 

I can cope with the pink light effects on my Chrono and Mirage. On Virtuoso, maybe because of it’s bright pink lights, or maybe because some of the skills cover the area in a huge swath of bright sparkly pink, it really triggers my migraine or at least headaches. 😔

 

I’d like to play it more but this is preventing me from playing the spec. 🥺 Can we have a way to customize it or cooe with it?

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Chrysline.2317
Brevity

[Sylvi.8372]

===========

Extra details to the light issue above:

— I’ve unlocked all 27 elite specs (on 18 characters), and mostly play Ranger, Rev, and Guardian. Player since November 2020. While the Soulbeast has this bright green aura, and the Guardian spits out blue light like crazy, and the Unbound & Volatile unlimited gathering tools are very bright and painful — I can still somehow cope for those by zooming out and looking away. They’re small enough, centered on the player character, and their light colors can still be coped with.

— My computer can handle the graphics and motiom is smooth. Overpaid for my GPU (RTX 3070 during the shortages), so I get some ROI by having GW2 graphics on max/ultra settings.
 

IIRC, I have “limit detail of particle effects turned on.” Depending on the context, my FPS is usually 60 to 90. (Max of 165 in raid instances, average of 30 during Ley-line Anomaly.)

— I’ve already turned off HDR and Dynamic contrast ratio on my gaming monitor. (27”, IPS, 165Hz, Lenovo). The brightness is already rather low, if I go lower the rest of the game will be too dark.

Since I play on 18 characters (3 ‘mains’), it’s not practical to change the saturation, brightness, and contrast every time I switch to Virtuoso. (It would hasten the monitor buttons’ wear and tear.)

============

In summary, Virtuoso skill lights and AoE too bright they trigger migraines. (Player has decent set-up.) Even though the player/s find the spec fun, it’s preventing them from playing. Help?

Edited March 31, 2022 by Chrysline.2317

[Mell.4873]

Lol I read through all the posts here, my one take away is that no one knows what they are doing when playing Virtuoso.

I mean Virtuoso is one of the top open world elites at the moment being able to pull very high DPS while providing heal support to nearby allies.

I mean it can't do everything like providing alac or quickness but does it need to? Honestly the skill ceiling is managing the lines of sight for bladesongs. This is even more true for WvW where you are liable to die if you Bladesongs into a zerg. 

[Urphen.2857]

No one cares about open world, being proud about open world numbers says all about you.

We all know better than you what we are doing, you can't even pull out the chrono Rotation that's why you like virtu it's a easy to play class for casuals that wanna flex how good they are and you makes it even worse because you take open world numbers for it.

What are you even doing here if you like virtu that much? I mean no one here is taking you serious anymore with all you kitten threads that shows how bad your knowledge of mesmer and the game is.

[Ombras.2853]

Virtuoso should really, really spawn with full daggers.

In WvW is extremely annoying to change map every 5-10 minutes and being unable to mount up because of this reason.

Either that, or let daggers spawn even when mounted.

That’s not a feature, change it please.

[Za Shaloc.3908]

6 minutes ago, Ombras.2853 said:

Virtuoso should really, really spawn with full daggers.

In WvW is extremely annoying to change map every 5-10 minutes and being unable to mount up because of this reason.

Either that, or let daggers spawn even when mounted.

That’s not a feature, change it please.

 

My recommendation: every time you respawn/change maps, use Blade Renewal and then mount up and be on your merry way. If you don't normally take it, swap to it really quickly to use it and then swap back to your normal utility. 

 

But yeah, would be nice to have them recharge while mounted. Have also thought it'd be nice to have some sort of resource recharge function at spawn on each WvW map that let's you charge your resource (life force, celestial force, shadow force, etc.) so you don't have to go around killing trash mobs out of respawn. Only to work at default respawn and not any other waypoints. I believe it works that way for repairs already.

[Ombras.2853]

1 minute ago, Za Shaloc.3908 said:

 

My recommendation: every time you respawn/change maps, use Blade Renewal and then mount up and be on your merry way. If you don't normally take it, swap to it really quickly to use it and then swap back to your normal utility. 

 

But yeah, would be nice to have them recharge while mounted. Have also thought it'd be nice to have some sort of resource recharge function at spawn on each WvW map that let's you charge your resource (life force, celestial force, shadow force, etc.) so you don't have to go around killing trash mobs out of respawn. Only to work at default respawn and not any other waypoints. I believe it works that way for repairs already.

There are several ways to restock blades. You mentioned BR, I can also just walk using all the mobility skills (Sword3, Staff2, Blink, Focus4, whatever). But every single option makes so that, in case you have to fight immediately or almost, you are down a skill. And it’s honestly annoying by itself, cuz it shouldn’t be happening, regardless of the actual outcome. So, yes, we can bypass the issue. But why would we, just make it respawn with full blades.

[Mell.4873]

5 hours ago, Urphen.2857 said:

No one cares about open world, being proud about open world numbers says all about you.

We all know better than you what we are doing, you can't even pull out the chrono Rotation that's why you like virtu it's a easy to play class for casuals that wanna flex how good they are and you makes it even worse because you take open world numbers for it.

What are you even doing here if you like virtu that much? I mean no one here is taking you serious anymore with all you kitten threads that shows how bad your knowledge of mesmer and the game is.

Chrono is my Main open world class, I use it more than Virtuoso so I don't know where you are getting your information from. I did once state that it took me a year to learn Chronomancer since I found the rotation to hard to commit to muscle memory.

I have received more flack because I don't play Virtuoso enough and prefer Chrono or Mirage in most open world content so I don't know where you are coming from. I mean check my post history if you want.

[Urphen.2857]

2 hours ago, Mell.4873 said:

Chrono is my Main open world class, I use it more than Virtuoso so I don't know where you are getting your information from. I did once state that it took me a year to learn Chronomancer since I found the rotation to hard to commit to muscle memory.

I have received more flack because I don't play Virtuoso enough and prefer Chrono or Mirage in most open world content so I don't know where you are coming from. I mean check my post history if you want.

Not gonna search yor post about it, maybe you edited already but I'm sure other saw it too where you statet that the rotation is to hard so you use your own version.

Don't even care since i said it that at this point no one is taking you serious anymore.

Maybe you should edit all you posts because everyone contradict itself 🤷‍♂️

 

[Mell.4873]

19 minutes ago, Urphen.2857 said:

Not gonna search yor post about it, maybe you edited already but I'm sure other saw it too where you statet that the rotation is to hard so you use your own version.

Don't even care since i said it that at this point no one is taking you serious anymore.

Maybe you should edit all you posts because everyone contradict itself 🤷‍♂️

 

That is exactly what I said but I went on to say I did learn it eventually. What helped me learn it was attempting to master the Soulbeast sic em rotation which is just had convaluted. 

Also I do contradict myself which is the point, I have been on this forum for along time and my opinions change. Well whatever it's not like you will listen. 

[katte nici.9483]

On 4/6/2022 at 10:36 AM, Ombras.2853 said:

Virtuoso should really, really spawn with full daggers.

In WvW is extremely annoying to change map every 5-10 minutes and being unable to mount up because of this reason.

Either that, or let daggers spawn even when mounted.

That’s not a feature, change it please.

I don't think they can let you spawn blades when mounted, at least not without reworking how the entire mount system works. What happens when you mount up is the game will remove all your traits and skills in the background and only give them back when you dismount. So while on a mount you technically are a Core Mesmer and not Virtuoso any more so you can't get blades..

[Ombras.2853]

42 minutes ago, katte nici.9483 said:

I don't think they can let you spawn blades when mounted, at least not without reworking how the entire mount system works. What happens when you mount up is the game will remove all your traits and skills in the background and only give them back when you dismount. So while on a mount you technically are a Core Mesmer and not Virtuoso any more so you can't get blades..

Yep, and that’s the reason why I’m advocating for spawning with full blades. It doesn’t require any rework, truly.