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How would you buff power shatter? [PvP]
So condie shatter relies on the crazy synergy between clone reproduction traits, phantasm cd reduction trait after shatter to maintain a consistent damage pressure.
In chrono line, it is very obviously the slow related traits are quite weak. So some buffs there maybe useful.
Other than that, I think GS1 should receive some aftercast reduction.
Then we probably should hope for some weakness access throughout the game.
The problem is beyond mesmer really. Power mesmer (or thief) are roaming builds, aimed at killing fast the enemy to decap the point.
The problem is that most builds are so tanky that there is no way to achieve this fast killing, so you get trapped in a long 1v1 and roaming builds cannot sustain the fight so they end up loosing or simply having to disengage.
I am not sure there are ways to really buff a roaming build to make it work in the current meta (except some absurd OP buffing which would work just by brute force but not create a healthy game).
The only way to make power mesmer work is something which I believe is needed regardless: a buff to our sustained damage by boosting weapon damage and not phantasms. Actually, condi works just because it has high sustain and decent sustained damage. Power could also work the same in principle. However, let’s be clear on that, it would not be the shatter mesmer of old but simply a new “bruiser mesmer”, probably playing Paladin amulet, and being as easy (and not that fun) as current condi mesmer.
Shattered strength giving might for 20s so with strength runes you could have a decent 9-12 stacks of might and competes with MtD.
Improved alacrity could be 75-100% improving and it competes with illusionary reversion.
The slow trait GM could take 4 hits to activate instead of 5.
Reworking our sustained DPS and moving away from the failure of a mechanic of phantasms might allow for a more sustained damage build relying on shatters for spike and decent dps to overcome the insane regen/tankiness of HoT.
Though the best way would be to reduce other classes survivability in terms of damage mitigation and safety net passive procs that either reduce damage or make you immune.
(edited by apharma.3741)
In a old burst/ hit-n-run power +1 mesmer yes, the obvious choices to aim balance is domination/dueling.
Probabily in domination i would merge the first 2 minot traits and make shattered concentration the 3rd minor, giving a free slot to make a compeling major master trait. Also rending shatter, furious interruptions and imagined burden can not/ever compete with their other choices in their slot, they lack to be choice slot traits.
About dueling… I feel it lost popularity due to at first the nerf on vigor, and more recently the nerf on energy sigil that make its defining trait Deceptive Evasion lacking when ppl look at chronophantasma/Illusionary reversion combo or even Mental Defense in inspiration.
So in dueling i would probabily add passive endurance regen or x2 vigor effectivness in deceptive evasion.
Also the major adept traits offer nothing significant for power shatter mesmer… Probabily some trait that have synergy with on dodge/vigor that aim at cleansing/softing incoming damaging condies? And btw since we are in dueling, linking a whole condition aplication and traits (sharper images and dueslist discipline) to AI its inreliable… they should have something more to benefit mesmer at all times… Like bleeding duration increased or damage increased on bleeding foes on sharper images trait, duelist discipline is a a good trait, but pistol its not a good weapon. So fix pistol cause right now shield is a better and more versatile interrupt weapon on its #5, a more versatile and well-rounded #4 phantasm summoning skill, sword is a better choice for damaging phantasm and offers damage and mitigation/counter offensive via its block/counterblock/daze. Im not saying pistol phantasm is bad… But on a offensive off-hand weapon making 1 out of 2 of it skills to JUST summoning this phantasm is a bad skill and making a bad-bouncing no dmg cc on the other just kills it.
This would be changes without changing this too much and scrambling/moving traits arround to/from other trees.
To finish i still dream about an interrupt power mesmer…. A unique gameplay/role.. ( lets be serious, thief/revenant and even DH will always be better than regular shatter mesmer for roamer burst role).
A kind of bruiser with decent solo damage and sustain but excelling at “supporting” by lockdown/disable.
And interrupt could aid defensivly by disabling foes to give our allies under fire some space to breathe or aiding pure bursting classes with a timed lockdown to land their bombs on their targets.
But this build even suffers more than regular power mesmer… It have key traits spread arround many trees.. Vulnerability/damage/boon strip for stability/powerblock on domination
Fuel on dueling: blind/vigor/clone can have defensive or offensive purposes, a good thing and it fuel any shatter nuance.
Chaos have lockdown flavour traits and it feed utility skills.
Inspiration is pure defensive and condi cleanse needed to last longer in this condi/bruiser fiesta.
And chrono, even having just a interrupt synergy trait, its required to play with shield… the best off hand for a build like this… Its not quite at same offensive level as pistol but can bring defense/utility also really pays off. Its also required for gravity well, again, the only elite skill that fits on a build like this.
And ofc, chronoalso fixes many lacks on mesmer… superspeed clones to make range shatter actually have a chance to land, passive movement speed trait, alacrity that give a boost to most of skills (less good skills) to give them a fresh life with shorter CDs and access to quickness, again, give clunky and slow skills a fresh breeze with faster reactions (needed for right time skillfull interruptions – your cc interrupt skill must be faster cast and travel time than the enemy skill cast time to actually interrupt them).
It also suffers from a lack of good power based amulet.. Vigilant was a good choice… but got removed cause bunker meta… Something close to it but without that much thoughness could replace it?
Also giving a try to introduce those new HoT on interrupt sigils on pvp balancing them for it? New runes to cover lacks/boost interrupt builds?
Just a few opinions… a brainstorm mostly.
(edited by FJSAMA.2867)
They should buff Mesmer GS,
Changes that I look most forward to are:
1. Reduce cast time on Mirror Blade
2. Mind Stab removes 2 boons and/or Mind Stab steals boon(-s) instead. And also could be made Unblockable.
3. Reduce cooldown on Illusionary Wave down to 25s.
Something that could also be considered.
1. Increasing GS auto attack speed or Damage
- And make GS skills less clunky at melee range.
In a old burst/ hit-n-run power +1 mesmer yes, the obvious choices to aim balance is domination/dueling.
Probabily in domination i would merge the first 2 minot traits and make shattered concentration the 3rd minor, giving a free slot to make a compeling major master trait. Also rending shatter, furious interruptions and imagined burden can not/ever compete with their other choices in their slot, they lack to be choice slot traits.
About dueling… I feel it lost popularity due to at first the nerf on vigor, and more recently the nerf on energy sigil that make its defining trait Deceptive Evasion lacking when ppl look at chronophantasma/Illusionary reversion combo or even Mental Defense in inspiration.
So in dueling i would probabily add passive endurance regen or x2 vigor effectivness in deceptive evasion.
Also the major adept traits offer nothing significant for power shatter mesmer… Probabily some trait that have synergy with on dodge/vigor that aim at cleansing/softing incoming damaging condies? And btw since we are in dueling, linking a whole condition aplication and traits (sharper images and dueslist discipline) to AI its inreliable… they should have something more to benefit mesmer at all times… Like bleeding duration increased or damage increased on bleeding foes on sharper images trait, duelist discipline is a a good trait, but pistol its not a good weapon. So fix pistol cause right now shield is a better and more versatile interrupt weapon on its #5, a more versatile and well-rounded #4 phantasm summoning skill, sword is a better choice for damaging phantasm and offers damage and mitigation/counter offensive via its block/counterblock/daze. Im not saying pistol phantasm is bad… But on a offensive off-hand weapon making 1 out of 2 of it skills to JUST summoning this phantasm is a bad skill and making a bad-bouncing no dmg cc on the other just kills it.This would be changes without changing this too much and scrambling/moving traits arround to/from other trees.
To finish i still dream about an interrupt power mesmer…. A unique gameplay/role.. ( lets be serious, thief/revenant and even DH will always be better than regular shatter mesmer for roamer burst role).
A kind of bruiser with decent solo damage and sustain but excelling at “supporting” by lockdown/disable.
And interrupt could aid defensivly by disabling foes to give our allies under fire some space to breathe or aiding pure bursting classes with a timed lockdown to land their bombs on their targets.But this build even suffers more than regular power mesmer… It have key traits spread arround many trees.. Vulnerability/damage/boon strip for stability/powerblock on domination
Fuel on dueling: blind/vigor/clone can have defensive or offensive purposes, a good thing and it fuel any shatter nuance.
Chaos have lockdown flavour traits and it feed utility skills.
Inspiration is pure defensive and condi cleanse needed to last longer in this condi/bruiser fiesta.
And chrono, even having just a interrupt synergy trait, its required to play with shield… the best off hand for a build like this… Its not quite at same offensive level as pistol but can bring defense/utility also really pays off. Its also required for gravity well, again, the only elite skill that fits on a build like this.
And ofc, chronoalso fixes many lacks on mesmer… superspeed clones to make range shatter actually have a chance to land, passive movement speed trait, alacrity that give a boost to most of skills (less good skills) to give them a fresh life with shorter CDs and access to quickness, again, give clunky and slow skills a fresh breeze with faster reactions (needed for right time skillfull interruptions – your cc interrupt skill must be faster cast and travel time than the enemy skill cast time to actually interrupt them).
It also suffers from a lack of good power based amulet.. Vigilant was a good choice… but got removed cause bunker meta… Something close to it but without that much thoughness could replace it?
Also giving a try to introduce those new HoT on interrupt sigils on pvp balancing them for it? New runes to cover lacks/boost interrupt builds?Just a few opinions… a brainstorm mostly.
Yeah dueling suffered from two vigor nerfs and one energy sigil nerf.
Independent of game mode, I don’t want to buff Shatter, I want to replace it as the F1-F4 skills. For two reasons:
- It’s difficult to balance in regards to specs, seeing how it is supposed to be our class mechanic.
- It isn’t context free. It relies on generating clones/phantasms first.
The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.
I think the main issue with power shatter vs condi shatter is that condi shatter manhandles your core mechanics to do condis on every shatter via illusions.
Power just doesnt have that option. There is little synergy between a constant supply of clones and a cooldown on f1.
I play interrupt power shatter almost exclusively in PvP, and got up to diamond with it last season, with a winrate of around 60%. I definitely don’t think it’s terrible, but it is most certainly underpowered. HoT brought a lot of blocks, evades, sustain, and AoE, especially for Scrapper, Tempest, and Dragonhunter, which power shatter has always historically suffered from. Plus, the total lack of condition removal still hurts a lot.
Personally, I’d like to see some of these buffs:
1.) Buffs to the slow traits in Chronomancer, particularly removing the ICD on Lost Time and/or decreasing the amount of critical hits for it to proc. The slow traits were weak before the recent slow nerf, and now they’re even worse, but if they were buffed, they’d help power shatter a lot.
2.) Buffs to greatsword. In particular, Mirror Blade has an enormous cast time. Giving Mesmer unblockable CC in the form of Illusionary Wave would be nice too, but might be a bit too much.
3.) Buffs to the Dueling trait line. Replacing Desperate Decoy (the crappy trait that’s only good for interrupting your heals) with some kind of trait that allows Mesmer to dodge more for Deceptive Evasion would be great.
4.) I think Domination is a strong trait line that synergises really well with power shatter. The only thing I’d change is perhaps giving underused traits such as Furious Interruption, Rending Shatter, etc, a bit more strength.
5.) Power shatter just needs more sustained damage. The damage Mesmer deals when all his phantasms/shatters are on cooldown is just pitiful. Compare power shatter to any other burst build from any other class. Each one has sustained damage ranging from decent to great, even when its burst is down, AND none of them rely on illusions which get absolutely eaten up by AoE. A cooldown reduction to Mind Wrack or increased power scaling on the sword AA / greatsword AA would be very much appreciated.
6.) Why does Blurred Frenzy hit eight times? That’s eight procs of retaliation.
7.) Increased baseline health on illusions in general is sorely needed. Mesmer as a whole relies so heavily on its clones and phantasms. Condition Mesmers don’t need to worry about this as much thanks to them being able to afford taking Inspiration (for Persisting Images) and Signet of Illusions (for the passive), but power shatter can’t take either of those, especially the former, without sacrificing more than it’s worth.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head.
The prestige (torch) removing 1-2 condi’s baseline – power mesmer has traditionally struggled with conditions.
GS3 removing 2 boons instead of one – As others have mentioned already; in its current state it has been losing the boon application/removal arms race since HoT.
I actually think Mirror Blade is pretty fair right now in terms of its cast time / damage. I would go with boosting its might/vulnerability duration to help a power mesmer’s sustained damage.
Desperate Decoy – Even more clunky than theif’s Last Refuge blinding powder trait because it cancels your casting. Would like to see this reworked; my suggestion would be to give us the Mimic buff instead, thereby giving us 2x chance to use the utility of our choice.