Guild Wars 2

Hello all,

I am Luke. I’ve been playing Mesmer for as long as I can remember, making it my main profession. I wanted to quickly propose a couple of changes, based on close situational and theoretical analysis, post-balance patch.

Before I dive right in, a quick insight, as stated, I’ve been playing Mesmer for a very long time. I play a variation of the Meta Power Shatter build, running Illusions instead of Dominations for extra sustain and support. Although there is a general consensus amongst the Mesmer community that Power Shatter needed to be buffed due to insufficient DPS, I found that that was not necessarily the case, as the point of a Mesmer (and by Mesmer, I also mean Chronomancer, depending on the build set by the user) was to rely more heavily on burst damage, rather than sustainable damage over time.

Now, to get right to it. The changes which, in my opinion, and that of many others (upon reading Reddit and the forums, as well as communicating with players in-game) is that Mesmer was essentially brought out of line and is now not really worth playing in comparison to other professions which have a much lower learning curve, require less effort to play, yet are more sustainable and deal more damage, with less effort.

My biggest concern, as of now is Alacrity. Alacrity itself was never the problem and did not need to be nerfed. Alacrity however, was overpowered in it’s implementation, allow me to explain.

A perfect example of what I am referring to is the Bunker Mesmer build. As a Mesmer, I very much disliked this build. It did not require crazy amount of skill, and made games feel very boring, dragged out, and just not fun. The problem with the Bunker Mesmer guild was not however, solely Alacrity, only part of it. If we choose to analyze the Bunker Mesmer build, it’s strengths lied in: Almost instant revival time, AoE Quickness via Well of Action, Immunity via Well of Precognition, Blindness via Chaos Armor, and lastly, the ability to reduce cooldowns significantly over time and increase DPS over time on nearby allies. Now you may think, well Luke that IS Alacrity. Yes, Alacrity was responsible for this, but Alacrity, the mechanic was not the problem, the implementation was.

So obviously, with today’s patch, Quickness no longer affects revivals and stomps. That addresses that issue, as the Bunker Mesmer by him/herself was useless, it is through team support that is was essentially invincible and offered the same treatment for it’s nearby allies. Second issue, Well of Precognition. The well itself was overpowered, we can all agree on that. Sure, it caused for decaps if placed on a point, but who would seriously place the well right on a point? In points like mid on Legacy of Foefire, not a big issue, as if there were multiple teammates, and at least one was standing outside the well, the cap would still resume or remain contested if challenged by the opposing team. As decaps could easily be avoidable if placed strategically, the well basically granted immunity from all direct damage, again OP. Now, changing the well to grant Aegis is not a viable fix. Let me explain why. Firstly, Aegis was specifically a Guardian mechanic, it’s sort of like if we were to give the Necromancer Alacrity, it does not thematically make much sense. Apart from thematics, the well itself now becomes useless as sure, it no longer decaps points, but it now is not worth taking over other active defense utility skills. I will explain how to fix this on the next paragraph, along with all my other combined proposals. I do agree that the Chaos Armor nerf was necessary, constant blinding also made the game kind of bland.

Note I am not only speaking about Bunker Mesmer, just using it as an example to highlight why these nerfs were largely put in place and why the approach taken was not the best one. I am not discussing the other changes such as the uneventful scepter buff, and Feedback now being a ground-targeted skill, a double-edged sword.

Now, for the fixes I propose to bring the Mesmer in line. (READ BELOW IF THE ABOVE BACKGROUND IS TOO LONG TO READ)

-Split Alacrity into: Self-Alacrity and Shared-Alacrity.
— Shared Alacrity should offer a 33% Cooldown Reduction as now, after the patch.
— Self Alacrity should offer a 66% Cooldown Reduction, as prior to the patch.

Now Luke, that’s dumb, as discussed on the balance stream, this will just mean players can bring more Mesmer and the Bunker nightmare returns. NOPE. Let me explain: By making Shared Alacrity only come from one source, and not stackable on duration, Chronomancers are still giving a nice buff to their teammates without causing a significant, game-changing DPS increase or even Defensive increase.

Self Alacrity, which can only be applied to the Mesmer themselves is stackable in duration and behaves like it did prior to the patch.

As this patch included changes like the end of Stomp and Quickness Revive, and this change proposes a weakened Alacrity (current version) to be shared to teammates without stackable duration, the Bunker Mesmer can NOT make it’s way back. That and with DPS changes to classes such as the Thief, who is now on-par with other professions, damage wise, this broken build will no longer have a chance to be a thing.

Now that the most crucial change is taken care of, what about Well of Precognition? Well, sure, don’t give it Evasion, that is overpowered, but also do not give it Aegis, that is underpowered and just not in line thematically with the Chronomancer. Instead, change Well of Precognition’s mechanic to AoE Condition Immunity (nice counter to Necro and Cond-Rev) and make it a combo field which grants Evasion for those who leap through it. This will add a nice set of utility to the Mesmer and allow for stategic gameplay of allies in high-pressure situations.

These two small changes will not only restore Chronomancer to have it be in line with the current Meta, which of course is still in development, which I acknowledge, but allow the Mesmer to be a viable and fun profession to play once again.

Thank you for reading!

I’ve already gone into detail about why this wouldn’t work (Doesn’t actually deal with Chrono Bunker).

An important thing to note, is that Chrono Bunker would still function without Sentinels/Celestial amulet. Or any of the tank amulets they removed.

However, the quickness nerf already pushed Chrono Bunker into a bad position.
If it were to need anything else after that, it would’ve been a small alacrity tweak (As alacrity was arguably “too strong” in PvE.)
Say, 66% -> 50%. Which wouldn’t have kittened people off.
It would still hurt, and might have been too much in and of itself.

But, it would’ve been better than what we got…

However, that changes nothing for every other mesmer role.

The quickness nerf kills Chrono in PvP.

Just to stomp a class, we need a source of stability (Are you running Chaos/That clunky kitten mantra?) or our distortion.

However, quickness let us bypass that for some classes.
Like Necro, necro’s fear took a bit to actually go off, so you could stomp him faster than he could save himself.

OP? Perhaps, perhaps not.

But lets not forget quickness res’s, which made Chrono Bunker absolutely ridiculous, as it could come into a team fight and res literally everyone.

Rather than removing the effects of quickness/slow on this aspect of the game, I would’ve like to have seen the effect lowered for it.

If necro’s fear could go off before quickness stomped it out, that would be reasonable. So a nerf to its efficacy IN THIS ONE AREA would have been reasonable.

BUT LETS FACE IT, ANet removed quickness/slow stomps, because they had a bug they couldn’t figure out how to fix.
The quickness/slow bugged stomps to hell and back.

So now, we’re back to spending our very few defenses to try and get a stomp out in a close fight, as cleaving really isn’t an option on a class with such low sustained damage.

sigh
I’ve wasted too much time on this forum. ANet won’t read any of this anyway.

I think we’re agreeing, but in different means. I apologize that I failed to mention that I was looking at the PvP side of the coin, I do not PvE often and quite honestly do not have enough PvE experience to form a solid opinion on the state of the profession there.

As you did say (and I agree), a big mechanic of the Chrono was quickness on revival and allowing others to stomp with quickness via Well of Action. I do agree that Quickness stomps were crucial in the Mesmer’s survival, however, as it was originally bugged and it did make much of the game feel trivialized, as stated, I don’t think it necessarily was a bad change (even though I personally would have preferred if Quickness still affected stomps, but not revivals).

As you said, yes, I do agree the Chrono Bunker build would still “function”, but it would by no means be effective as it would be taken down very quickly and not be able to set the same parameters as it did before, mainly due to the changes in stomping and revival.

I do however insist that Alacrity should be split and not have been nerfed. All chrono builds are suffering because of it.

And hey, give them credit, there’s a lot to read :P. They may read it, just not post.

Toaly.7243:

I think we’re agreeing, but in different means. I apologize that I failed to mention that I was looking at the PvP side of the coin, I do not PvE often and quite honestly do not have enough PvE experience to form a solid opinion on the state of the profession there.

As you did say (and I agree), a big mechanic of the Chrono was quickness on revival and allowing others to stomp with quickness via Well of Action. I do agree that Quickness stomps were crucial in the Mesmer’s survival, however, as it was originally bugged and it did make much of the game feel trivialized, as stated, I don’t think it necessarily was a bad change (even though I personally would have preferred if Quickness still affected stomps, but not revivals).

As you said, yes, I do agree the Chrono Bunker build would still “function”, but it would by no means be effective as it would be taken down very quickly and not be able to set the same parameters as it did before, mainly due to the changes in stomping and revival.

I do however insist that Alacrity should be split and not have been nerfed. All chrono builds are suffering because of it.

And hey, give them credit, there’s a lot to read :P. They may read it, just not post.

They nerfed glamour traits that no one has ever seriously used (And were also useless because resistance is corruptible). Did a minor buff to scepter that doesn’t actually function as a buff because the actual projectile is so slow that it bugs the attack chain.
Killed the entire chrono traitline.
Yes, killed it. It’s useless outside of the super speed on clones, movement speed minor, and continuum shift.

I challenge you to seriously find a use for the alacrity/quickness on shatter. Or the crit on slowed enemies. Or the slow on interruption. Or alls well that ends well. Or the slow on a certain number of crits.

Lockdown mesmer already has an extremely high skill cap, with less rewards than standard shatter mesmer.
30% more crit on a class with 40%+ crit standard, doesn’t really matter. Especially when the prerequisite is that you do your burst while the enemy is slowed.

How accurate do they expect us to be with that? Give us slow on shatter or something kitten .

Oh, and have I mentioned that they’ve been silent about these mesmer changes on the forums & reddit?
Completely silent, despite having plenty of time to converse with pro mesmer players, or just the general player base.

DESPITE HAVING A CDI FORUM THAT THEY HAVEN’T USED FOR ABOUT A YEAR

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Toaly.7243:

I think we’re agreeing, but in different means. I apologize that I failed to mention that I was looking at the PvP side of the coin, I do not PvE often and quite honestly do not have enough PvE experience to form a solid opinion on the state of the profession there.

As you did say (and I agree), a big mechanic of the Chrono was quickness on revival and allowing others to stomp with quickness via Well of Action. I do agree that Quickness stomps were crucial in the Mesmer’s survival, however, as it was originally bugged and it did make much of the game feel trivialized, as stated, I don’t think it necessarily was a bad change (even though I personally would have preferred if Quickness still affected stomps, but not revivals).

As you said, yes, I do agree the Chrono Bunker build would still “function”, but it would by no means be effective as it would be taken down very quickly and not be able to set the same parameters as it did before, mainly due to the changes in stomping and revival.

I do however insist that Alacrity should be split and not have been nerfed. All chrono builds are suffering because of it.

And hey, give them credit, there’s a lot to read :P. They may read it, just not post.

They nerfed glamour traits that no one has ever seriously used (And were also useless because resistance is corruptible). Did a minor buff to scepter that doesn’t actually function as a buff because the actual projectile is so slow that it bugs the attack chain.
Killed the entire chrono traitline.
Yes, killed it. It’s useless outside of the super speed on clones, movement speed minor, and continuum shift.

I challenge you to seriously find a use for the alacrity/quickness on shatter. Or the crit on slowed enemies. Or the slow on interruption. Or alls well that ends well. Or the slow on a certain number of crits.

Lockdown mesmer already has an extremely high skill cap, with less rewards than standard shatter mesmer.
30% more crit on a class with 40%+ crit standard, doesn’t really matter. Especially when the prerequisite is that you do your burst while the enemy is slowed.

How accurate do they expect us to be with that? Give us slow on shatter or something kitten .

Oh, and have I mentioned that they’ve been silent about these mesmer changes on the forums & reddit?
Completely silent, despite having plenty of time to converse with pro mesmer players, or just the general player base.

DESPITE HAVING A CDI FORUM THAT THEY HAVEN’T USED FOR ABOUT A YEAR

Well,, although the changes you highlighted definitely do hurt the Mesmer (regarding Quickness and Slow), they also affect every other class that relied on it.

I am trying to focus solely on the state of the Mesmer, it’s traits, and unique mechanics (in this case, Chronomancer).

Although Alacrity does not on it’s own remedy the on-going issue known as the Mesmer-Tango (Nerf, Buff, Nerf, Buff, etc…) it most certainly allows bursts which we can all agree the Mesmer relies on to be executed more frequently.

With that said, the cooldown reduction on Shatters, such as Diversion and Distortion could potentially save your life.

I played a couple of games today after the patch and found my sustain to be okay, but there was definitely still much missing, and bursts were just not the same. I was actually even running a build similar to my favorite build prior to the patch, which includes Runes of Melandru for Toughness and Berserker Ammy for Raw power. Bursts were okay, just lacking in substance, as stated. Since I don’t usually run the Domination trait line, but instead the Illusion trait line, I found that my sustain was indeed okay, but not as good as it was prior to the patch, and mind you, sustain was not OP at all. Mesmer is mostly skill-based and has a high skill cap, as you mentioned (on some builds at least).

Prior to the patch I was running Runes of Durability (which was removed), and Berserker Ammy which is why I switched to Runes of Melandru in the mean time; less vitality, but reduced condi damage fairs well, especially now with Necro Buffs.

All in all, I strongly believe Alacrity needs be restored and balanced with how I mentioned above.

There is another thing that I don’t see right. If you split the alacrity in stackable for yourself and not stackable for others, that can make you or your team to potentially take bad decisions because you usually play using your skills when you need them, but that will force you to waste alacrity that your near teammates can receive. One consequence of that could be see your teammates asking for alacrity forcing you to take bad decisions about when use your skills. Plus the different duration from the skills overwriting the others… Too complex or bad to take decisions. With the nerf to 33% for your allies maintaining the personal alacrity in 66% after the quickness nerf should be enough. The stacking alacrity (66%) on us with or actual dps shouldn’t be a problem, and in our allies with the 33% too, even more if it’s only provided from one unique source… although i see problems implementing the unique source when there is more than one mesmer near. The 33% stackable for others is more friendly to the devs, and even 30% or 28% stackable before the complexity of program to deceide what mesmer you should stack or not… etc.

They could fold iit into the trait “Improved Alacrity – Increases Duration and Effect of Alacrirty by 50%”

Bringing it up to 50% increased recharge on Mesmer.

Although this does further nullify the existance of the other 2 major traits (even more than now).

Coulter.2315:

They could fold iit into the trait “Improved Alacrity – Increases Duration and Effect of Alacrirty by 50%”

Bringing it up to 50% increased recharge on Mesmer.

Although this does further nullify the existance of the other 2 major traits (even more than now).

I’m cool with that, however.
Why not just make alacrity a flat 50% across the board (I know, I know. I’m suggesting this YET AGAIN) and call it a day?

You’ll never make those other 2 traits viable. So don’t even consider balancing them. They need to be flat out replaced. Same with all the GMs except for Chronophantasm, which I suppose is still useful in PvE.

Honestly, it’d be easier to go with the original design intent, “alacrity is something which is mostly for the Chronomancer herself”, and remove AWTEW in its current state, then buff Alacrity back up.

If then issues crop up due to well balance, can always move a very strong alacrity well onto the elite slot and the – already gutted, anyhow – gravity well to a utility skill.