Guild Wars 2

The thread for people that don’t know:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Skill-Changes-Coalescence-of-Ruin-and-Scorched-Earth/first

Maybe things will be better for us in the end?

I saw that a few days ago and was surprised: the forums are full of people explaining how mesmer is in a bad spot, especially shatter mesmer. It was already last season. And yet, it looks like she is discovering this fact and that the team is unaware of that…

Being optimistic, I will assume that she was unaware (because she cannot browse all the forum), but the balance team is… maybe…

I’m just imagining her compiling information, discussing with people on forums and Mesmer feedback while being enthusiastic and promising to make a change.

And then she will present her hard work to the to the balance team, and they look at each other and the whole room erupts in laughter at Gaile.

Gaile – “Hey, I’ve made some rough sketches on some balancing to mesmer that you guys forgot about, can you take a look at them?”

Balance team – LAUGHS

Developer – wipes eyes “Oh, that was completely intentional. Sorry we didn’t tell you!”

Balance team – LAUGHS HARDER

I wouldn’t hold my breath about anything happening as a consquence.

Not gonna lie, I’m glad to see for sure someone read that post. However, am I the only one slightly disappointed that she felt like there still needed to be evidence for why someone would say chrono was broken? When you read it, it almost felt like that was the first time she came across the subject. Maybe that was just me though.

i put in my two cents, hoping she’d read it. your changes seemed to reach for the stars, but honestly mesmer needs something other than glassy interrupt builds and condi trash.

It is worth the try, Gaile is oure best chance i guess.

Oh god, Gaile’s gonna bring Mesmer to the attention of the devs?

Hold on to your hats boys, nerfs incoming XD

This is a good summary that I’m glad she responded to

The devs currently working on balance undoubtedly browse the forums and reddit, I’m sure they’re aware of the general response to the mesmer changes without having Gaile bring it up, Helseth’s reddit post was prominent. OTOH maybe her feedback will get to higher ups who don’t know. There are also devs who play mesmer though, Jessica Boetticher (sp?) for one.

umm I’m wondering where Robert Gee is :P

Anyway can someone show her the maths for alacrity? Because its showed that devs have no idea how dps calculation work and reduce our role in raid from must have 1 to meh now.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

umm I’m wondering where Robert Gee is :P

I think there is only Karl left, hence the long time between small updates.

Support mesm still dcent at in raid, tbh. Not like before ofc, but not very bad

Silverkey.2078:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

umm I’m wondering where Robert Gee is :P

I think there is only Karl left, hence the long time between small updates.

The mesmer changes do remind me of Karl’s work on other professions.

Gaile seems like a nice and genuine dev.

Gaile also took a look at rangers complaining about being forced into healbots with the Druid specialization as base DPS ranger is garbage, and look where it’s left them.

Nowhere. Not a single thing has changed to make DPS rangers desirable over a healbotting druid.

I felt a bit of relief when I saw that post yesterday.

However, I’m skeptical until we hear official word on changes, or we get a new patch.

I feel there is a high likely hood for them to

A. Buff but then nerf other aspects to the point where the buff was ultimately redundant, and/or hurts core mes, or other builds more. (because they will not see the context of the other buffs and nerfs already made to the game.)

B. They DO buff us, but in a completely in consequential way and have to subsequently wait even longer to be balanced properly.

C. Dev bias keeps us down.

D. Overbuff us and everyone uses it as an excuse as for why mes is OP, we get over nerfed again next patch and we are back in the same spot we are now. Because it’s hard to trust a-net to do the proper thing in giving the middle ground (which is not that hard achieve) that would actually make us fair and balanced without being broken or crap. :/

Really though my fingers are crossed tight.

Well don’t hold your breath:

• there probably won’t be any more patch soon. The devs will at least wait for pro leagues to see how the meta takes shape.
• Bunker chrono may actually still be a thing. If the devs see that many teams still bring the build, they will assume mesmer is fine.

Personal opinion here: please don’t buff mesmer “yet” and add to the power creep. The priority is nerfing everyone to pre-HoT level. Pre-HoT was relatively well balanced, with almost all classes viable in PvP. Then, once this is done, mesmer can be adjusted if necessary. In particular, a buff to our sustain damage (which may require a nerf to burst damage, but we need to see how things have changed by then) will be most beneficial for build diversity and for PvE.

Can’t wait to get that 5% increase to scepter auto attack damage in 3 months.

25% scepter auto attack speed increase!?!?!??!?

Sure, but to balance it, they’ll change alacrity to a boon and give it to scrapper and revenant.

Silverkey.2078:

Well don’t hold your breath:

• there probably won’t be any more patch soon. The devs will at least wait for pro leagues to see how the meta takes shape.
• Bunker chrono may actually still be a thing. If the devs see that many teams still bring the build, they will assume mesmer is fine.

Personal opinion here: please don’t buff mesmer “yet” and add to the power creep. The priority is nerfing everyone to pre-HoT level. Pre-HoT was relatively well balanced, with almost all classes viable in PvP. Then, once this is done, mesmer can be adjusted if necessary. In particular, a buff to our sustain damage (which may require a nerf to burst damage, but we need to see how things have changed by then) will be most beneficial for build diversity and for PvE.

Yeah.
A buff to sustained damage without touching burst is a major ordeal with classes that can’t easily reset a fight like a thief.

Or it would be, if our burst damage weren’t kind of pitiful on everyone except a zerker rev… Who has glint heal to reset the fight…

shrug

Regardless, there are a lot of QoL buffs that wouldn’t really be power creep.
Skills like arcane thievery, mirror images, etc that are on too high cooldowns.

Well of precog being a new dead skill (It needs to at least do 2 stab, and some kind of cleansing… Aegis is worthless.)

Bringing Well of Calamity in line with current necro’s Well of Suffering (Yes, that means buffing its damage AND increasing its cooldown. Very important to do both. Also would be cool if it slowed, would make the crit trait in chrono more valuable)

Removing the cripple/chill from Chaotic Interruption, as you’ve already immobilized them, and instead changing that out for some strong condis, like burning & poison. As an interrupt is skillful play, and skillful play should be rewarded.

Tweaking the blocks & abilities on Scepter 2 and OH sword 4, such that they spawn a clone regardless of whether it has blocked anything, as long as it hasn’t been activated.
And making it so they block more than once, perhaps 2-3 times, before preventing you from activating it.

These are pretty reasonable changes, that really shouldn’t be considered power creep.

Granted, I’ve suggested a lot of changes to Lockdown mesmer traits and stuff, that would be power creep. But again, skillful play needs to rewarded (imo).

kolompi.1287:

Sure, but to balance it, they’ll change alacrity to a boon and give it to scrapper and revenant.

It’s sad because it’s true.

MailMail.6534:

Gaile seems like a nice and genuine dev.

She isn’t a dev.

The fact that people seriously entertain the notion of this going anywhere is further evidence as to just how bad things are.

Gaile is great, she is a great communicator and a very friendly person, but she is being used as a buffer between the developers – or “team” if there is such a thing – and the players. She was sent into the WvW forum to essentially read a statement so the “team” wouldn’t have to.

Collecting feedback and passing it on is precisely what the “forum specialists” do, and that venture is yet to show any meaningful results.

They threw her in front of the firing squad, although it could be the squad is too disinterested and disheartened by now to even lock and load.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

umm I’m wondering where Robert Gee is :P

working on the next expansion?

Menaka.5092:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

umm I’m wondering where Robert Gee is :P

working on the next expansion?

Would not even buy it even if it was Gw3..f2p

Alex Shatter.7956:

This is a good summary that I’m glad she responded to

I am not going to lie, this gave me a glimmer of hope, but given Anet’s track record when it comes to Mesmers, I will believe it when it happens. Until then, I am having some fun on druid.

Nieguen.6235:

Karl’s speech during the guild chat shows clearly they do not even know their game.

Omg so true. “33% alacrity will mean teams will have to take twice as many mesmers”. wtf?

PvE can be resumed to taxi train, daily fractal, and raid once a week. Basically you connect in this game only for gathering the daily rewards.
Even the world rewards are worthless with a crazy economy.

I just bought an ascended hat for like 150 gold. GW1 was not like this

msalakka.4653:

They threw her in front of the firing squad, although it could be the squad is too disinterested and disheartened by now to even lock and load.

That’s what I think the situation is now.

All the big things have happened (HoT, Chrono, June specialisation patch) but we’ve ended up back almost exactly in the same position before all of that.

And given this cycle has been perpetuated since release I personally can’t be kittened to try and push an agenda anymore.

Curunen.8729:

All the big things have happened (HoT, Chrono, June specialisation patch) but we’ve ended up back almost exactly in the same position before all of that.

Which make us worse overall than before since the floor of all other classes raised (powercreeped).. Its a disgrace… Any serious balance would make the haters qq again and further nerfs would strike hard again making mesmer worse everytime in this endless declining loop.
I already gave up in giving ideas and suggestions… At least for now.. Even balance dev(s) seem biased towards this class. Doubt anything will suddenty change it…

FJSAMA.2867:

Curunen.8729:

All the big things have happened (HoT, Chrono, June specialisation patch) but we’ve ended up back almost exactly in the same position before all of that.

Which make us worse overall than before since the floor of all other classes raised (powercreeped).. Its a disgrace… Any serious balance would make the haters qq again and further nerfs would strike hard again making mesmer worse everytime in this endless declining loop.
I already gave up in giving ideas and suggestions… At least for now.. Even balance dev(s) seem biased towards this class. Doubt anything will suddenty change it…

Yeah, you’re right I’m not being critical enough.

But I can’t see it changing at all. Maybe temporarily, but ultimately we can never hold onto anything half decent that is presented to us.

Levetty.1279:

Can’t wait to get that 5% increase to scepter auto attack damage in 3 months.

#SpoilAlert #InB4CondiMesOP #HypeTrain #TheMetaIsChangingAtAnAlarmingRate

MailMail.6534:

Levetty.1279:

Can’t wait to get that 5% increase to scepter auto attack damage in 3 months.

#SpoilAlert #InB4CondiMesOP #HypeTrain #TheMetaIsChangingAtAnAlarmingRate

The hilarious thing is.
Despite the fact that I’ve never heard a single player in this game actually like fighting against condi builds (Or with them, outside of the sadism that is condi builds), ANet keeps buffing them.

It’s your lock on launchers in Planetside 2.
Your siege warfare in SC2.
Your low kick spam in fighting games (We all know the ones).

It’s that thing that is effective despite the fact that no one likes it, it requires less skill than actually playing the game, and the devs never seem to connect the dots on how to fix it.

And sometimes, IT EVEN GETS BUFFED!

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

The hilarious thing is.
Despite the fact that I’ve never heard a single player in this game actually like fighting against condi builds (Or with them, outside of the sadism that is condi builds), ANet keeps buffing them.

I use to have a bleed build before the trait overall and I have had several people tell me they liked to fight me because I was using a build that wasn’t meta. Sure, I’ve had people insulting me too but I recall more positive than negative comments.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Despite the fact that I’ve never heard a single player in this game actually like fighting against condi builds (Or with them, outside of the sadism that is condi builds), ANet keeps buffing them.

Yeah the hilarious thing is that condi is sooooo skillless. You press one button, one thing happens.

I’ll stick to my power/well/support hybrid setup. I press one button, one thing happens. Much better. So skill.

I personally don’t have high hopes if a change is going to come or if one is at all. Shatter is in a bad place, but it was never “meta”. Before HoT shatter wasn’t meta then compared to d/d cele ele, d/p thief, soldier/cele engi, burn guard, etc. I just want shatter to be in the place where it was in the meta before HoT.

I think one problem with Mesmer balance is how a lot of our very basic systems don’t work well. They work ok-ish, but they’re nothing long-term-usable, and hence balancing them is a nightmare.

Examples:

• Shatter as a class-bar-mechanic.
• Clones vs Phantasms in general.
• Phantasms as attack-types in particular.
• Clones as bomber pets (compare Animist in DAoC who was built around this concept instead of the whole thing feeling bolted on later).
• “Messing with time” as a general concept for Chronomancer.

There’s just – IMO – some very basic reworks necessary. Sure, lots of classes could use them but even ignoring my personal bias, I would start with Mesmer (second would be Warrior, actually ). What could be done:

1. Take a good, hard, long look at the Shatter bar. As a conceptual idea it makes no sense. It’s not even context-free, plus we don’t all want to use it. It’s not integral to being a mesmer. So either replace it (what I’d do), or retool the entire class top to bottom to be a ‘proper’ pet bomber, even in specs focusing little on shatter.
2. Retool Chronomancer to gave one really really strong element (either Continuum Shift or Alacrity), buff the hell out of that, then bolt a downside to it which makes this manageable. Embrace the theoretical power of “can mess with time” in fantasy settings.
3. Rethink Phantasms entirely. If Shatter is replaced as a class mechanic, this is a given anyhow. My favorite solution moves clone generation onto the F1-F4 bars, current clone skills become shatter skills destroying 1 clone for some effect, current phantasm skills temporarily empower 1 clone to deal actual damage. Effective the two are very similar however Phantasm skills don’t destroy the clone, Shatter skills do.

Then from there, build strong concepts for the trait lines so that each of them has a very defined idea behind it. Re-tool weapons to focus them on one concept of combat each, then sort skills a-new and re-do the actual traits.

Yes, that’s a full rework. But I really can’t see Mesmer work out without that. The concept is just all over the place, at a very basic level.

Alex Shatter.7956:

Nieguen.6235:

Karl’s speech during the guild chat shows clearly they do not even know their game.

Omg so true. “33% alacrity will mean teams will have to take twice as many mesmers”. wtf?

I think what was actually said was that if they halved the duration of alacrity effects teams would just take twice as many mesmers to get the same uptime, while halving the effectiveness makes them less mandatory.

The really sad thing was the claim that 66% faster recharge meant 66% faster DPS, when a lot of builds get most of their damage from autoattacking, and some even lose damage by using non-autoattack skills.

Carighan.6758:

I think one problem with Mesmer balance is how a lot of our very basic systems don’t work well. They work ok-ish, but they’re nothing long-term-usable, and hence balancing them is a nightmare.

Examples:

• Shatter as a class-bar-mechanic.
• Clones vs Phantasms in general.
• Phantasms as attack-types in particular.
• Clones as bomber pets (compare Animist in DAoC who was built around this concept instead of the whole thing feeling bolted on later).
• “Messing with time” as a general concept for Chronomancer.

There’s just – IMO – some very basic reworks necessary. Sure, lots of classes could use them but even ignoring my personal bias, I would start with Mesmer (second would be Warrior, actually ). What could be done:

1. Take a good, hard, long look at the Shatter bar. As a conceptual idea it makes no sense. It’s not even context-free, plus we don’t all want to use it. It’s not integral to being a mesmer. So either replace it (what I’d do), or retool the entire class top to bottom to be a ‘proper’ pet bomber, even in specs focusing little on shatter.
2. Retool Chronomancer to gave one really really strong element (either Continuum Shift or Alacrity), buff the hell out of that, then bolt a downside to it which makes this manageable. Embrace the theoretical power of “can mess with time” in fantasy settings.
3. Rethink Phantasms entirely. If Shatter is replaced as a class mechanic, this is a given anyhow. My favorite solution moves clone generation onto the F1-F4 bars, current clone skills become shatter skills destroying 1 clone for some effect, current phantasm skills temporarily empower 1 clone to deal actual damage. Effective the two are very similar however Phantasm skills don’t destroy the clone, Shatter skills do.

Then from there, build strong concepts for the trait lines so that each of them has a very defined idea behind it. Re-tool weapons to focus them on one concept of combat each, then sort skills a-new and re-do the actual traits.

Yes, that’s a full rework. But I really can’t see Mesmer work out without that. The concept is just all over the place, at a very basic level.

I really hope none of this ever happens. Sure, Anet has no clue what they want this class to be but most of the above sounds like a terrible idea.

anet wil have to see after the new mandatory 1 class per team how and even if the gonna change anything
atm we can see group of
thief
scraper
necro
druid
rev

if the mesmer will enter in cause of portal and moa they might not change a thing

regarding condition
i think anet want 1-2 class of condi build to enter the meta comp. to do so they buff necro to control more boons and control almost any condition (active and passive)
but with low stacking in average
while the have the revenant and condi mesmer and high stack certain conditions

if necro will have hard time in group play (power creep) we might see mesmer entering the comp. will it be condi or power who knows.
if thief will be dominent than probably buff to GS of the mesmer dmg will be introduced

if too many condi will fly we gonna see druid/ guard/ ele comp to control them to some degree.

so i think no change till the next season as amulet changes and buff to thief dmg and necro boon rip are strong to shift the meta comp

so i guess mesmer is out for couple of months

Jayrawrd.6109:

I personally don’t have high hopes if a change is going to come or if one is at all. Shatter is in a bad place, but it was never “meta”. Before HoT shatter wasn’t meta then compared to d/d cele ele, d/p thief, soldier/cele engi, burn guard, etc. I just want shatter to be in the place where it was in the meta before HoT.

Is that after the mirror blade nerf? I really think we need shatter to be better than that state.

I actually think Mesmer/Chrono is pretty well balanced right now. There’s well defined weaknesses and strengths, plus there’s a unique buff that allows us to interact with groups outside of healing or dps. The only major buff that I think needs to occur is CD reductions as compensation for the alacrity nerf when it’s so blatantly obvious that the Chrono CDs were balanced around the old alacrity.

The problem is, the only other class that is also quite balanced right now is Warrior/Berserker. Necro/Reaper and Thief/Daredevil were relatively well balanced, until the last balance patch introduced an awful amount of power creep into these two classes as well. I think Anet will actually continue to buff Daredevil (in the wrong way) in the next ‘balance’ patch <sigh>

Simonoly.4352:

I actually think Mesmer/Chrono is pretty well balanced right now. There’s well defined weaknesses and strengths, plus there’s a unique buff that allows us to interact with groups outside of healing or dps. The only major buff that I think needs to occur is CD reductions as compensation for the alacrity nerf when it’s so blatantly obvious that the Chrono CDs were balanced around the old alacrity.

The problem is, the only other class that is also quite balanced right now is Warrior/Berserker. Necro/Reaper and Thief/Daredevil were relatively well balanced, until the last balance patch introduced an awful amount of power creep into these two classes as well. I think Anet will actually continue to buff Daredevil (in the wrong way) in the next ‘balance’ patch <sigh>

lol, sorry I disagree that both War and Mes are “well balanced”, not viable is the better way to describe them.

“2/9 classes are balanced and the rest are too powerful” is a nonsensical idea.

Balance is only meaningful as a relative term. If the majority are powerful, and the minority are not, the minority are underpowered and the majority are balanced by definition.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

“2/9 classes are balanced and the rest are too powerful” is a nonsensical idea.

Balance is only meaningful as a relative term. If the majority are powerful, and the minority are not, the minority are underpowered and the majority are balanced by definition.

I disagree. We don’t only have classes, we have builds. There were many viable builds before the expansion, less now because of how elite specs are mandatory.

So actually in terms of builds, we have 6-7 OP builds and dozens non-OP ones.

There is 2 reasons why I would rather have a general nerf of the elite specs instead of buff of the core specs:

• the OPness of elite specs is not only relative but absolute: they have bad mechanics which makes them unfun to play against. Constant block/evades, constant CC, constant debilitating conditions, etc…
• bringing elite specs down is the best way to ensure build diversity.

That does not mean that some things can’t be buffed. We did not have perfect build diversity before HoT, some traits/skills are obviously UP. But in overall class balance, I actually think everything should be rebalanced to pre-HoT level. I want a meta where the old (unbuffed) bunker guard and shatter mesmer are good, that is my reference point.

Carighan.6758:

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Despite the fact that I’ve never heard a single player in this game actually like fighting against condi builds (Or with them, outside of the sadism that is condi builds), ANet keeps buffing them.

Yeah the hilarious thing is that condi is sooooo skillless. You press one button, one thing happens.

I’ll stick to my power/well/support hybrid setup. I press one button, one thing happens. Much better. So skill.

The negative thing about condi builds isn’t “i press one button, one thing happens”.

The problem is that condi builds, like all of the things I mentioned from other games, directly counter pressure.

Confusion and torment are beyond perfect examples of this.
You actually doing an activity, like moving or attacking, causes you to take even more damage.

That in itself wouldn’t be too bad.

Except that it’s also a DOT. Damage over time.

Essentially it forces a player into a conundrum when faced with it.

A hard condi bomb, is death. No matter how much condi cleanse you have (Cause not all of it is going to be on demand).
I’ll define hard as large amounts of more than 3 conditions dumped onto a person. Preferring to get as much spread as possible, so that less of the damage can be effectively cleansed.

Which is why burn guard is just an annoying class that insta kills people that don’t take condi cleanses.
It’s a gimmick.

Boon corrupt necro?
Is not a gimmick. It can apply pretty much any condi in this game.

It’s also even more counter pressure due to it corrupting a player’s buffs.

So, the conundrum?

You have to choose whether to dodge out of the fight, or attempt to pressure through the condis.

From experience, pressuring through the condis doesn’t work too often.

“But power builds are also counter pressure!”

Not in the same way. You see, power builds have to actively hit someone to keep them in combat.
A damage over time will keep someone in combat for a lot longer.

Resetting fights is a powerful tool in this game. Burning someone’s expensive high damage cooldowns, resetting so that you’re in a better position than they are, and then killing them, is pretty standard.
That is, when you’re not fighting condi builds, who directly prevent you from resetting for a long time.
Long enough for some of their cooldowns to come back.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

“2/9 classes are balanced and the rest are too powerful” is a nonsensical idea.

Balance is only meaningful as a relative term. If the majority are powerful, and the minority are not, the minority are underpowered and the majority are balanced by definition.

Not true if you have an outside baseline, which we do, with PvE.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

A hard condi bomb, is death. No matter how much condi cleanse you have (Cause not all of it is going to be on demand).
I’ll define hard as large amounts of more than 3 conditions dumped onto a person. Preferring to get as much spread as possible, so that less of the damage can be effectively cleansed.

A hard direct damage bomb is death, too. No matter how many avoids you have (which you could have used against the conditions, too :P ), since you’re not going to have all be available at all times.

Only difference is that you want it stacked instead of spread out.

I’m still surprised “DoTs” (as a concept) are perceived so alien in GW2, over all. “Takes time to deal damage” as a tradeoff for “Deals more damage” isn’t exactly something recently thought up.
Now granted, GW2 does it a bit different because it uses “Has extra counters” as the balance because for some reason fights have to be over in 3 seconds here and hence 3-6 seconds is a viable DoT duration. Not, you know, 18s, 24s, 60s or all the other DoT durations I’m used to from other MMOs.

I have no confidence at all in anet’s “balance” team. At this point, I don’t even believe that they have good intentions.

I’ll believe positive news when I see it.

Carighan.6758:

I think one problem with Mesmer balance is how a lot of our very basic systems don’t work well. They work ok-ish, but they’re nothing long-term-usable, and hence balancing them is a nightmare.

Examples:

• Shatter as a class-bar-mechanic.
• Clones vs Phantasms in general.
• Phantasms as attack-types in particular.
• Clones as bomber pets (compare Animist in DAoC who was built around this concept instead of the whole thing feeling bolted on later).
• “Messing with time” as a general concept for Chronomancer.

There’s just – IMO – some very basic reworks necessary. Sure, lots of classes could use them but even ignoring my personal bias, I would start with Mesmer (second would be Warrior, actually ).

I agree with this.

Carighan.6758:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

“2/9 classes are balanced and the rest are too powerful” is a nonsensical idea.

Balance is only meaningful as a relative term. If the majority are powerful, and the minority are not, the minority are underpowered and the majority are balanced by definition.

Not true if you have an outside baseline, which we do, with PvE.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

A hard condi bomb, is death. No matter how much condi cleanse you have (Cause not all of it is going to be on demand).
I’ll define hard as large amounts of more than 3 conditions dumped onto a person. Preferring to get as much spread as possible, so that less of the damage can be effectively cleansed.

A hard direct damage bomb is death, too. No matter how many avoids you have (which you could have used against the conditions, too :P ), since you’re not going to have all be available at all times.

Only difference is that you want it stacked instead of spread out.

I’m still surprised “DoTs” (as a concept) are perceived so alien in GW2, over all. “Takes time to deal damage” as a tradeoff for “Deals more damage” isn’t exactly something recently thought up.
Now granted, GW2 does it a bit different because it uses “Has extra counters” as the balance because for some reason fights have to be over in 3 seconds here and hence 3-6 seconds is a viable DoT duration. Not, you know, 18s, 24s, 60s or all the other DoT durations I’m used to from other MMOs.

I feel like the catch here, is that GW2 is more reaction time based (action oriented). Where as your other MMOs (WoW) are not.

How do I react to a damage bomb?
I pop an stun break, and use an invuln. Presuming I’m not immob’d, I might get away thanks to my snappy reaction there.

What about a condi bomb?

Well, unless I predict it coming before hand… I’m probably going to die. As you still take condi damage from any active conditions you have on you, while invulnerable.

In such a case, it feels like there was nothing you could do by yourself to save yourself.

Now, ofc, when you get out of the bad habit that is not preemptively blowing a cooldown for damage you know is incoming. Because it feels bad to do so.
Then you’ll likely survive those incidents.
Clearly they were counter-able.

It just doesn’t feel like it some times :/.