Guild Wars 2

Why ? I just don’t get why they can’t give Torch some love…
It was 2 blast, went bugged, then nerfed to one blast.

What’s nerfed about that? Fact is, it is a sensible modification, when one considers that the flame wave is the “blast,” anyway. Now, if they could only touch up that bloody IMage . . .

Advent.6193:

Now, if they could only touch up that bloody IMage . . .

Agree. iMage can’t even aim and land the bolt with a moving target.

I don’t really mind, it doesn’t make The Prestige UP by any means. But yeah, it would be very nice if they fix up the iMage.

To yet again sum up my suggestions about it:

1. Fix the bug where +Condition/Boon Duration doesn’t affect Illusions.
2. Change iMage’s bounce logic to enemy-ally-enemy-(ally).
3. Allow Illusionary Elasticity to at least work with Phantasms.
4. Make “magical” Phantasm projectiles (iMage, iWarlock, iDisenchanter) track their targets.
5. Reduce iMage’s conjuring CD.

It would be nice if the blast was at the beginning though I think— even if it was only 1

Anet wants you to play only 1 weapon set. The kittenness of this game is just getting worse and worse.. Scepter was already a quite bad weapon.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Anet wants you to play only 1 weapon set. The kittenness of this game is just getting worse and worse.. Scepter was already a quite bad weapon.

But double blasts could give you 100% uptime on 2 AoE Might/Retaliation if blasted on Fire/Light fields.

Esplen.3940:

Master of Timespace.2548:

Anet wants you to play only 1 weapon set. The kittenness of this game is just getting worse and worse.. Scepter was already a quite bad weapon.

But double blasts could give you 100% uptime on 2 AoE Might/Retaliation if blasted on Fire/Light fields.

Like there is no other classes that can do 2 blasts in a row? :rolleyes: and they can do it with weapons that are otherwise viable…

But not with a single skill that was on a potential 4 second cooldown.

The 4 sec CD was already fixed.
Yet, I don’t complain with this “nerf”. Makes sense that stealth does not combo blast, and that fire at the end does. Makes more sense than before actually.
I prefer that they do that and give some love to utterly useless Image than buffing even more prestige and leaving Image as it is.

Esplen.3940:

But not with a single skill that was on a potential 4 second cooldown.

can you say cluster bomb? and as someone said no 4sec cd only on it either, where cluster bomb i spammable a 5-6 times and after ini is out only a few sec cd as well. AND is the highest raw damage skill on thief shortbow as well

GummiBear.2756:

Esplen.3940:

But not with a single skill that was on a potential 4 second cooldown.

can you say cluster bomb? and as someone said no 4sec cd only on it either, where cluster bomb i spammable a 5-6 times and after ini is out only a few sec cd as well. AND is the highest raw damage skill on thief shortbow as well

I can’t argue versus that. Especially when my own 80 Thief has been SB/Dual P. for most of her existence. Cluster and Detonate Cluster are sick bastids, only saved from
complete OP-ness by the crap speed of the attack. And, arguably, the fact Thief lacks
a 1200 range option.

However, if we wish to talk weapons that are hellaciously buff, I can say two words:
Guardian Greatsword. 1 field, 3 finishers on the same weapon? It’s inarguable why
GS is a mainstay for like 90% of that class’ population.

Regardless of the blast finisher number, I also lean towards having the blast + fire damage on the initial skill trigger. Gives us a more predictable blast since we can’t manually trigger it plus it actually allows the skill to be used as an escape. At the moment, what’s the point in blinding the opponent if we end up stealthed anyways? Yes, I know that it might be good in the sense that attacks can still hit through stealth but in general, it just doesn’t seem to make sense. Also, at the moment, I find myself having to chase opponents around while stealthed so that the burning portion of the skill can be utilized. Again, I just feel as if the skill was meant to accomplish something different, like disorienting the opponent so that if THEY stick close, they get punished. Using it as an escape mechanism would make much more sense then too I feel. Hit prestige to escape only to find that they’re chasing in the exact same direction you’re fleeing? No problem, re-appearing applies blind, allowing you to more effectively continue fleeing.

Plus, it’s only after flames that you get smoke right? :P

Well, woopwop: the blind becomes very apparent when you look at our Traits. Particularily Blinding Befuddlement, in the Illusions line. Combine that with
the glamour = confusion field out of Domination and Master of Misdirection (also Illusions), slap null/feedback/TW down.
Then The Prestige is a straight-up abomination. AoE Confusion/Blind, followed by
Burn/Blast Finisher-ed Ethereal Field/Confusion. I’m convinced this kind of trickery is
why ANet’s so leery of how far they buff Torch.
Along with these lines, I need to snag another Exotic Torch. 30/20/0/0/20. Cleansing Conflag/Confusion Glamours/Blinding Befuddlement. It’d be a Glamour/Confusion + Damage spread. Could be a fun little project . . .

^
That combo has been debated in the past. Nothing new, but still only explains why The Prestige doesn’t need much buff (only the channel removal was needed, slightly shorter CD would be nice).

It does nothing to explain why the mage still sucks AND has the longest CD of any phant. Yeah, you have to balance the weapon as a whole but having a weapon with 1 good skill (that really is only good for a certain playstyle) and 1 skill that is only marginally useful at best for ANY build is rather lopsided and circumstantial. Overall, still obviously UP, and the illusion is what needs Anet’s attention more anyway.

@Gaiawolf:
We won’t argue about that bloody mage. Yea, he needs the hook-up. Like last month, even. I was mainly trying to figure out what the “logic” of leaving Torch with such a low-end Phantasm could be.
If it were up to me, we’d get: reworks on IMage/P-Disenchanter/Scepter. Fact is, those
could be argued as some of our worst stuff, and not used nearly as often as -say- Duelist or Berserker. It’s kinda annoying, tbh. Only thing what keeps the faith, is that
there are classes and skills what are far worse off.

They just want all mesmers to spam gs/staff, sword+pistol/gs or sword+pistol/staff… Scepter is useless, Torch is laughable (was sooooo good when bugged tho…)

Nuka Cola.8520:

They just want all mesmers to spam gs/staff, sword+pistol/gs or sword+pistol/staff… Scepter is useless, Torch is laughable (was sooooo good when bugged tho…)

Currently the GS is a total joke. iZerker hits for a whopping 1k and misses 3/4 of his chain… Right now a good combo I am running is scepter/sword sword/pistol tis a good combo in lieu of the GS being useless currently. And actually quite fun in WvW as you can still stack a good amount of confusion

KratosAngel.7289:

The 4 sec CD was already fixed.
Yet, I don’t complain with this “nerf”. Makes sense that stealth does not combo blast, and that fire at the end does. Makes more sense than before actually.
I prefer that they do that and give some love to utterly useless Image than buffing even more prestige and leaving Image as it is.

But it’s not stealth. It’s an AoE blast blind. The stealth is included.

I will admit that once I unlocked all the weapons skill for torch pre lvl 10 I’ve never even considered it as a weapon in my arsenal. I’ve read some good ideas for how it could be used, but I’m still not sure I like the long cooldowns.

A blast finisher at the beginning would be ideal, because who knows if the combo field will still be there in 3 seconds and if it is where you would want to be out of stealth. I think a good argument for the change would be the Guardian’s Shield of Wrath . That has a finisher at the cast even though the damage blast would happen later.

Instead of the flame blast happening automatically at the end of stealth, maybe it could be put into your weapon slot to be used at will, like portal or mantras. They did get rid of the 3 sec channel, so that could go either way, but at least people could escape a melee in stealth heal up and then go back in with a fire burst queued up (you would have to have a 5-10 sec use it or lose it cooldown to balance).

For that matter I think that to really live up to the skill name The Prestige it should be more of a gtaoe blink. The skill effects could stay mostly the same, blind field and stealth on cast, maybe a short pre-cast time. Then you teleport and flame blast at second position. It could be easily balanced as Blink is already a 30 sec cd, but gives you stun break and is instant, where this has some cast time. Blink is 900 – 1200 range, so this could be 600 – 900 traited to mimic the range of sword leap and make the trait more useful than just reducing some god awful cooldowns. Thoughts?