Guild Wars 2

Power Block Heal, GG.

So the only good major trait is one that hard counters thiefs? Great post Sensotix really constructive and all.

RaZaC.1963:

So the only good major trait is one that hard counters thiefs? Great post Sensotix really constructive and all.

RaZaC.1963:

So the only good major trait is one that hard counters thiefs? Great post Sensotix really constructive and all.

Now that we know the release date for the feature patch, he has to change his focus to something else.

Sensotix.4106:

Mesmer: Power Block
Enemies of mesmers beware: they’ve learned how to mess with your skill recharge! The new trait for mesmers allows them to gain additional benefit when disrupting enemy skills. Power Block will be introduced to the Domination line and will change the recharge of an interrupted skill from 5 seconds to 10 seconds. This will not affect skills that have no recharge, but I’d imagine that stopping a necromancer from consuming conditions would surely put a nail in their coffin.

Useless vs thieves since they dont have a recharge on their abilities…
Thieves will still hardcounter mesmers so yea…
another useless trait

Its probably the most overpowered trait ever introduced this game.

I like it. It requires skill to pull it off. Though I imagine if they power block your much needed heal… you’re pretty much dead. :P

Basically, they only need to introduce Hexes for mesmer so you can have a (bad) copy of GW1 one. :p
./hides

GW1 Mesmer! Good job anet, late, but good job.

lol how teh kitten should i counter this as necro lol
i feel like they want us to learn fake-casting like in wow

Clay.7254:

lol how teh kitten should i counter this as necro lol
i feel like they want us to learn fake-casting like in wow

Like GW1.

if i fake cast my heal i get a cooldown of 3 sec’s, enough for an lockdown mesmer..

Nice to see more GW1-flavored Mesmer in this game.

this actually would make sense if thieves hadn’t such a kittened mechanic and the overall skill-animations would be clear.

I am quite happy about this Trait. Indeed, it make me feel more Mesmer —> CC domination.
It will be quite powerful indeed, and we still have to see how it is going to work in game. At the same time, passive healing from signet won’t really suffer from this.

Peace

Befor ppl start complaining about how OP this is, my I remind players that a Mesmer has a very poor acces to chill?
Yes, the trait is strong, however, if I would play Lockdown and had to choose between 30/20/20/0/0 and 20/20/30, I probably would still play the second one.

Interrupting a Heal and putting it on 10s CD seems nice,
however, as Lockdown builds have a huge variety of interrupts, I’d prefer Interrupting the Heal once and again after 5s, so I can get twice as much out of Halting Strike and Bountifull Interuption.

Not to mention, it is almost wothless against thieves.

The fact, that they probably only add GM traits means, that Mesmers won’t get a better way to deal with condis, as even if they would make a “anti condi GM trait” it will be placed unreachable for most builds.

Try to compare Power Block to Invigorating Precision for a second.

Thief: Invigorating Precision

Thief will be gaining a new survivability trait in their Critical Strikes line with Invigorating Precision. Five percent of damage from your critical attacks will now be returned to you as healing. With this trait, you’ll be able to sustain yourself in scenarios where your base healing just isn’t enough.

I feel for thieves, because this trait is not worth whatever time it took for designers to come up with it as glass cannons will never run this over Executioner and “bunker thieves” do not have the critical hit chance to make it useful.

I don’t play a mesmer, but I’m glad to see this. This is taking a step in the direction of GW1 for mesmers and honestly, I thought mesmers had a much more interesting role in that game.

Kudos to ANet for doing this.

This HAS to be broken. No way a necro can do anything against a mesmer after this patch. It will be easy mode for the mesmer. Seriously. And funny the two classes this OP trait doesn’t hurt = thieves and warriors because you can’t interrupt their heals or most of their skills (thieves skills don’t go on cd when interrupted).

gg

Edit: this is why they should have a PTS or actually tell us the huge changes. Because we know instantly how broken some things will be.

Edit2: to me the necromancer trait seems very very strong too. We shall see. At least it is something. Some changes. Even if they are broken I can put up with it. Change = good

Time for castbars then? Or just trying to spot weird animations inside teamfights full of particle-kitten everywhere?

Anything that brings me closer to playing a panic/Clumsiness mesmer is good enough for me.

EverythingEnds.4261:

Befor ppl start complaining about how OP this is, my I remind players that a Mesmer has a very poor acces to chill?
Yes, the trait is strong, however, if I would play Lockdown and had to choose between 30/20/20/0/0 and 20/20/30, I probably would still play the second one.

Interrupting a Heal and putting it on 10s CD seems nice,
however, as Lockdown builds have a huge variety of interrupts, I’d prefer Interrupting the Heal once and again after 5s, so I can get twice as much out of Halting Strike and Bountifull Interuption.

Not to mention, it is almost wothless against thieves.

The fact, that they probably only add GM traits means, that Mesmers won’t get a better way to deal with condis, as even if they would make a “anti condi GM trait” it will be placed unreachable for most builds.

I dunno about mesmer, but for necro they said they are reworking the Death Magic trait line, so I think we will also see minor trait changes in other classes

Sensotix how many classes actually cast an interuptable heal? Only Mesmer and Necro by my count. I don’t think this trait will be worth taking just for Necros who will already die if you can get their heal as is.

If you want to use a GM interupt trait immob will still have a greater effect on the game.

umm

Rangers

Engineer’s

Also have interruptible heals

I am all about this if there is a way to turn off particle effects so I can see what the Mesmer is doing. It was bad enough dealing with PB Mesmers in GW1 (I mean that in a good way though, it required skill to avoid and skill on the Mesmer’s part to use effectively) but to have to deal with this type of Mesmer with the effect particle clutter in GW2…IDK guys.

Flytrap.8075:

Power Block Heal, GG.

Healing Signet says hi

And Sensotix is right.

I would say that this trait is simultaneously OP and UP.

For one, mesmers are already good against many classes.

The only two classes that are really keeping them out of the meta are thieves and warriors, and this trait doesnt do anything to fix that.

Terravos.4059:

umm

Rangers

Engineer’s

Also have interruptible heals

Accidentally interuptable sure or guessed. Do you want to lose immob or illusionary persona for +5secs to a guessed rupt?

Don’t think any of this matter though because 4 on-swap sigil warriors are just going to destroy everything

gg, the top 3 professions in this meta have heals that are not interruptable
healing signet
withdraw
healing spring (interrupt a 1/2 cast time please, just no)

Coulter.2315:

Terravos.4059:

umm

Rangers

Engineer’s

Also have interruptible heals

Accidentally interuptable sure or guessed. Do you want to lose immob or illusionary persona for +5secs to a guessed rupt?

Yes.. and you’d be a fool not to

Its the equiv to a bloody 10 second Silence that can’t be broken with Stun Breaks

Lordrosicky.5813:

This HAS to be broken. No way a necro can do anything against a mesmer after this patch. It will be easy mode for the mesmer. Seriously. And funny the two classes this OP trait doesn’t hurt = thieves and warriors because you can’t interrupt their heals or most of their skills (thieves skills don’t go on cd when interrupted).

gg

Edit: this is why they should have a PTS or actually tell us the huge changes. Because we know instantly how broken some things will be.

Edit2: to me the necromancer trait seems very very strong too. We shall see. At least it is something. Some changes. Even if they are broken I can put up with it. Change = good

There’s nothing a necro can do to me now if i run full interrupt spec with mantras. It has nothing to do with the patch.

EverythingEnds.4261:

Befor ppl start complaining about how OP this is, my I remind players that a Mesmer has a very poor acces to chill?
Yes, the trait is strong, however, if I would play Lockdown and had to choose between 30/20/20/0/0 and 20/20/30, I probably would still play the second one.

Interrupting a Heal and putting it on 10s CD seems nice,
however, as Lockdown builds have a huge variety of interrupts, I’d prefer Interrupting the Heal once and again after 5s, so I can get twice as much out of Halting Strike and Bountifull Interuption.

Not to mention, it is almost wothless against thieves.

The fact, that they probably only add GM traits means, that Mesmers won’t get a better way to deal with condis, as even if they would make a “anti condi GM trait” it will be placed unreachable for most builds.

Well, you should try 30/10/30/0/0 like Misha.

Terravos.4059:

Coulter.2315:

Terravos.4059:

umm

Rangers

Engineer’s

Also have interruptible heals

Accidentally interuptable sure or guessed. Do you want to lose immob or illusionary persona for +5secs to a guessed rupt?

Yes.. and you’d be a fool not to

Its the equiv to a bloody 10 second Silence that can’t be broken with Stun Breaks

The problem is… what does a mesmer have to sacrifice in order to reach that trait ?
I was thinking about a 30/10/30 build but… that way you loose deceptive evasion, and to be honest i can hardly imagine to play a mesmer without that trait.
I would prefere not to be like this, but i feel DE is mandatory in every build except a full phantasm maybe.

Coulter.2315:

Sensotix how many classes actually cast an interuptable heal? Only Mesmer and Necro by my count. I don’t think this trait will be worth taking just for Necros who will already die if you can get their heal as is.

If you want to use a GM interupt trait immob will still have a greater effect on the game.

Mesmer also have one interruptable heal (signet of the ether + distortion from Blurred inscriptions) with the advantage of also negate damage while activating the signet.

Blurred inscription grants you distortion after using the signet not while casting it. So its still interruptable.

cuge.5398:

The problem is… what does a mesmer have to sacrifice in order to reach that trait ?
I was thinking about a 30/10/30 build but… that way you loose deceptive evasion, and to be honest i can hardly imagine to play a mesmer without that trait.
I would prefere not to be like this, but i feel DE is mandatory in every build except a full phantasm maybe.

It’s hard but doable to play without DE, though you do get used to it after awhile. I played a 30/0/30/10/0 lockdown for awhile that worked decently well. This new trait isn’t going to change anything about the matchup with necros though. A lockdown mes already shuts down a necro (and a couple others) hard.

cuge.5398:

Blurred inscription grants you distortion after using the signet not while casting it. So its still interruptable.

Well in that case forget that. Thanks for the info.

I also would appreciate it more, if we would get sth which enables Mesmer to deal better with thieves.
Lockdown works well versus casters, but isn’t that effective against a lot of other classes, e.g. thief.

The point is you’d sacrifice Illusionary Persona or Immob and another condi for +5sec disable. People seem to be reading “10sec disable” its an extra 5.

Yes it will be OP vs necros but you’d rather have access to immobs and IP vs everything else.

The mesmer lockdown trait is nice, but you guys are both blowing it out of proportion, and not realizing its potential at the same time. Currently if you interrupt a heal, that person is likely dead anyhow – halting+no heal+another burst = dead.

All because a dev thinks it’d be great on a heal… well that just demonstrates that perhaps they do not have the experience with current lockdown to see why this is not novel.

At the same time, 10s lockdown on other critical skills is nice. Well, certain skills. Lockdown currently suffers due to Asuras, particle effects, and instant casts.

Also, as Sensotix rightfully pointed out – this does not help vs. Thief. But the thief problem is one that several glass roamers face, not just mesmer. Also, for all the thief fans, no – I’m not saying nerf thief, but I am saying that thief is the best roamer, hands down, simply because equally played, they will crush any other glass roamer and provide the best reliable burst for team fights.

Actually I think this is going to be very strong against warrior, mostly for rupting the short CD burst skills. Interrupting combustive and earthshaker will make the war nearly useless, and vulnerable to condis.

Brigg.6189:

Actually I think this is going to be very strong against warrior, mostly for rupting the short CD burst skills. Interrupting combustive and earthshaker will make the war nearly useless, and vulnerable to condis.

Stances and healing signet would like to say hi to you….

^Notice how I said make the war useless not kill him outright. Stability only lasts for a few seconds, and typically should be reserved for rezzing/stomping in team fights. The rest of the time, I can rain hell on those big telegraph abilities.

Warr stability lasts quite a long time (balanced stance: 8-14s depending on traits), and lockdown mesmers traditionally are not tanky. But it would work nicely once they are out of stability, if the mes is still alive.

Don’t worry about Power Block – Mesmers aren’t even viable in the current meta anyway.

So unless the completely rearrange things, you won’t ever have to worry about Power Block.

You guys don’t make much sense to me: how are warrior’s stability a problem to mesmers? Most lockdown mesmers use Shattered Concentration anyways, which is in the same trait line…

Thieves on the other hand…

Thedenofsin.7340:

Don’t worry about Power Block – Mesmers aren’t even viable in the current meta anyway.

So unless the completely rearrange things, you won’t ever have to worry about Power Block.

ESL today and the three top teams are all running mesmers

Quadox.7834:

You guys don’t make much sense to me: how are warrior’s stability a problem to mesmers? Most lockdown mesmers use Shattered Concentration anyways, which is in the same trait line…

Thieves on the other hand…

Oh sweety just a point of information, mesmer boon removal targets stab AFTER taking every other boon it can. The priority queue for mesmer boon removal is utterly ridiculous. Thieves on the other hand get it as first target.

Jackums.3496:

Too bad this trait will require 30 in Domination. But I play shatter. I’m sure there are plenty of interrupt Mesmers out there that are drooling over this trait.

I have about 2 cups of drool.

eta-
If you’re running an interrupt Mesmer and you rupt their heal, it SHOULD already be over. This new skill simply all but guarantees it if you’re a bad interrupt Mesmer. :P

Don’t forget taking that GM trait means not taking another one. It’s not like all mesmers will have it. Plus interrupt mesmer is very hard to play compared to most other PvP specs.