Guild Wars 2

Okay first off, im not saying a total rework of the trait, it is a really good trait with the immob and the chill.

But for the blind and the cripple, idk.

Okay blind for 3 secs, so lets assume target has no cleanse, with the duration of 2 sec immob, and they are blinded, i mean they would not get close to you, so after the immob the only use of blind will be 1 sec.

Next, the cripple, same duration as blind, technically you are only getting 1 sec of cripple after the immob.

If you have 30 in dom which gives you 30% condi duration, this only increases the condi by 3/4 secs. 30 in dom would also be unlikely since you will be going 30 in chaos.

The way i see it, the blind and the cripple are only used to mask other condis.

The chill is somewhat okay, it slows cd of skills, but since it on the same duration as immob, it is removed as soon as your target starts moving.

So the chill is only useful when you interrupt someone whose skills are in cd which again is hard to nail since CI is RNG.
Meaning to get the most out of chill is you have to interrupt, pray that target has skills on cd. And for chill to proc. thats 3 unreliable instances.

The only way i can think of is.

Let the 3 condis or any 1 proc after the immob. And lengthen duration. Or retain the immob and put new effects?

I was thinking the effect of power block plus immob. But no icd.

Any suggestions?

I take CI almost entirely for the immob because as you explain the other extra conditions don’t really do anything. Buffing it would be cool, but I think there are other priorities ahead of buffing a pretty solid trait already.

These are all points I have been thinking on recently as well (I get bored at work. I promise I have a life).

The Cripple is what makes the least amount of sense to me. Immobilize is just Cripple 2.0 – you get 0 value out of putting both Immobilize and Cripple on the same target. The only benefit I can see here is if the target is immune to Immobilize (is that even a thing a profession can do without also gaining Cripple immunity?) you can still apply some sort of movement hampering condition.

The same sort of thing can be said when comparing Cripple and Chilled. Chill is just straight up, no questions asked, better than Cripple (50% reduction vs. 66% AND cool down increase). If you land Cripple and Immobilize the skill has basically screwed you.

Now, I get it. It’s Chaos. It isn’t supposed to be a for sure bet on what happens – just that something good happens for us. Cool – I actually like that theme for our profession a lot. But as a Grandmaster level trait there should never be a moment where you are disappointed in the effect – all of the possible condis should be the best-in-class offering for their effect (for example, movement speed reduction).

I have been running 4/4/6 lockdown for some time but have recently considered going to 6/4/4 with Power Block.

If I am missing something here, someone please call me out.

Edit: I hate complaining without also offering a possible solution. If they wanted to take the least amount of work route I would say remove Cripple from the possible condis applied and add Weakness. This sticks with the non-damaging, control condition feel of the trait and would still offer value when paired with the immobilize.

MSFone.3026:

I take CI almost entirely for the immob because as you explain the other extra conditions don’t really do anything. Buffing it would be cool, but I think there are other priorities ahead of buffing a pretty solid trait already.

Any suggestion tho?

If I am to follow anet logic. The reasons why those soft CCs are there is because they are supposed to take up condition cleanse, which anet seems to forget that many condi-cleanses directly cleans immo, other than that they are cleanses which clean 2+ condi anyway.

There are very few cleanses that would fall into that design (a cleanse that clear less than 2 condi with no priority). That’s why it’s useless.

StickerHappy.8052:

MSFone.3026:

I take CI almost entirely for the immob because as you explain the other extra conditions don’t really do anything. Buffing it would be cool, but I think there are other priorities ahead of buffing a pretty solid trait already.

Any suggestion tho?

Sorry, yes: Increase the durations on the other conditions would be a simple buff that would really improve it, like double them.

Veruah.5302:

These are all points I have been thinking on recently as well (I get bored at work. I promise I have a life).

The Cripple is what makes the least amount of sense to me. Immobilize is just Cripple 2.0 – you get 0 value out of putting both Immobilize and Cripple on the same target. The only benefit I can see here is if the target is immune to Immobilize (is that even a thing a profession can do without also gaining Cripple immunity?) you can still apply some sort of movement hampering condition.

The same sort of thing can be said when comparing Cripple and Chilled. Chill is just straight up, no questions asked, better than Cripple (50% reduction vs. 66% AND cool down increase). If you land Cripple and Immobilize the skill has basically screwed you.

Now, I get it. It’s Chaos. It isn’t supposed to be a for sure bet on what happens – just that something good happens for us. Cool – I actually like that theme for our profession a lot. But as a Grandmaster level trait there should never be a moment where you are disappointed in the effect – all of the possible condis should be the best-in-class offering for their effect (for example, movement speed reduction).

I have been running 4/4/6 lockdown for some time but have recently considered going to 6/4/4 with Power Block.

If I am missing something here, someone please call me out.

Edit: I hate complaining without also offering a possible solution. If they wanted to take the least amount of work route I would say remove Cripple from the possible condis applied and add Weakness. This sticks with the non-damaging, control condition feel of the trait and would still offer value when paired with the immobilize.

But thats the same scenario, you only get the endurance regen decrease on weakness because fumble would be useless if the target is immobilized

StickerHappy.8052:

Veruah.5302:

snip

But thats the same scenario, you only get the endurance regen decrease on weakness because fumble would be useless if the target is immobilized

Not necessarily, targets can still attack and use skills while immobilized.

In a pure 1v1 discussion you are correct, Sticker. You can just move away from the target and shut down the need for Weakness.

I believe (and Anet, I think), however, that balancing around 1v1 is a bad course of action. Applying Immobilize and Weakness still helps out your friendly melee professions when engaging the immobilized opponent. Or if you just interrupted and are still engaging in melee range it will save you some damage taken.

Actually.. theres a bit of a pattern to mesmer RNG mechanics. It’s sort of like a slot machine in that there’s a “good” / “meh” / “bad” outcome for almost all of our RNG skills.

Staff Auto- Burning / Bleed/ Vuln
Chaos Armor- Protection / Swiftness / Regen – Blind / Cripple / Confusion
Chaos Storm – Aegis / Retaliation / Swiftness – Daze/ Weakness / Chill / Poison
Chaotic Interruption – Blind / Chill / Cripple

I really think all CI needs is just removal of the cripple. Chill still has use behind Immobilize as it slows down skill recharges.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Actually.. theres a bit of a pattern to mesmer RNG mechanics. It’s sort of like a slot machine in that there’s a “good” / “meh” / “bad” outcome for almost all of our RNG skills.

Staff Auto- Burning / Bleed/ Vuln
Chaos Armor- Protection / Swiftness / Regen – Blind / Cripple / Confusion
Chaos Storm – Aegis / Retaliation / Swiftness – Daze/ Weakness / Chill / Poison
Chaotic Interruption – Blind / Chill / Cripple

I really think all CI needs is just removal of the cripple. Chill still has use behind Immobilize as it slows down skill recharges.

I agree on how you broke down the three value categories of the skills – really nice way to look at it, Chaos.

While I am find with weapon skills/boon mechanics have a “bad” category, I am bothered by a GM trait having that. If you have invested that deeply in the line I would like to see it more like great/good/serviceable. If we swapped Cripple for Weakness I would see the breakdown being: Blind/Weakness/Chill.