Guild Wars 2

tobascodagama.2961:

Levetty.1279:

Apparently Signet of illusions now gives permanent swiftness? If so about kittening time. How does it work? Is it in addition to the current passive?

Signet of Inspiration. And, yeah, apparently now it grants Swiftness plus some other boon on every tick.

Sorry, Inspiration is what I meant. :p

Probably my favourite change out of the Mesmer stuff.

MailMail.6534:

Also worth noting is how incredibly strong the Minor line is in Dueling. Like omg. Vigor is so important, but it’ll be a hard choice if you’re going for a condi build.

All Minors are inherent to a trait line. Adept + are your picks.

Ross Biddle.2367:

MailMail.6534:

Also worth noting is how incredibly strong the Minor line is in Dueling. Like omg. Vigor is so important, but it’ll be a hard choice if you’re going for a condi build.

All Minors are inherent to a trait line. Adept + are your picks.

:O Shut the front door ok I feel silly. It just makes the dueling tree that much more powerful!

MailMail.6534:

Ross Biddle.2367:

MailMail.6534:

Also worth noting is how incredibly strong the Minor line is in Dueling. Like omg. Vigor is so important, but it’ll be a hard choice if you’re going for a condi build.

All Minors are inherent to a trait line. Adept + are your picks.

:O Shut the front door ok I feel silly. It just makes the dueling tree that much more powerful!

To be clear, you pick 3 Trait lines, then you have the ability to go up to GM in all three trait lines. Just to be sure you’ve got the concept of this change down~

What happened to the mantra cooldown trait? I am kinda used to having MoD on a 24 second cooldown.

Zarathustra.1458:

What happened to the mantra cooldown trait? I am kinda used to having MoD on a 24 second cooldown.

If it has vanished its more than likely baseline. Such as the +400 toughness on mantra channel.

Loving some of the changes coming our way!

My opinions below… always happy to have feedback.

Questions:
- How does the Defiance bar (or whatever it is) affect our interrupt-heavy lineup?
- With Shatters being a bigger part of many builds, will we see an improvement to illusion survival, especially after a shatter command is issued?

Pros:
- Holy lockdown, Batman! Some awesome options popping up here for interrupt builds.
- Love to see our class mechanic as the focus. Diminishing PU and clone-death can only help focus our main mechanic.
- Crazy high skill cap is implied… daze→stun→interrupt→shatter looks insane when landed!

Cons:
- Still not seeing illusion survival issues in large combat addressed
- Lockdown builds aren’t always reliable in large-scale combat (pve bosses, stab-heavy wvw)
- Mantras are still slow, boring abilities for me where they should be build-defining, exciting, unique buffs. I’d say the same for Signets/glyphs: slow, long cooldown, small impact skills.
- Having a weird time placing Chaos in a build. I’d always hoped Chaos would be our “less illusion-dependent, mage style” line and not our “defense” line.

I am looking at doing a mantra heavy chaos, dom dueling build based around MoD. I fully expect that with that kind pressure I will not even notice the lack of clones. Sword pistol looks bloody awesome in a lockdown build with the new pistol trait.

Some interesting stuff and some nice damage boost as well, but doesnt address the theif issue in pvp. Additionally, the buffs to medi guard means memser is going to likely be out in the cold still in the pvp scene.

Frost.5017:

Some interesting stuff and some nice damage boost as well, but doesnt address the theif issue in pvp. Additionally, the buffs to medi guard means memser is going to likely be out in the cold still in the pvp scene.

Yeah… I’d hate to be a thief in the face of the onslaught that’ll be a rupt Mes in the coming game.

Anyway, DO DI CH
GS Sw/Pi or Sc/Pi Sw/Sw

DO = Confounding Suggestions – Furious Interruption – Power Block
DI = Phantasmal Fury or D/D – Evasive Mirror or Blade Training – Harmonious Mantras
CH = Master of Manipulations – Chaotic Transference or MoA – Chaotic Interruption

Mirror (if manip) or Ether Fest, Decoy, Blink, MoD, MI – Donsky.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Frost.5017:

Some interesting stuff and some nice damage boost as well, but doesnt address the theif issue in pvp. Additionally, the buffs to medi guard means memser is going to likely be out in the cold still in the pvp scene.

Yeah… I’d hate to be a thief in the face of the onslaught that’ll be a rupt Mes in the coming game.

Anyway, DO DI CH
GS Sw/Pi or Sc/Pi Sw/Sw

DO = Confounding Suggestions – Furious Interruption – Power Block
DI = Phantasmal Fury or D/D – Evasive Mirror or Blade Training – Harmonious Mantras
CH = Master of Manipulations – Chaotic Transference or MoA – Chaotic Interruption

Mirror (if manip) or Ether Fest, Decoy, Blink, MoD, MI – Donsky.

I think you need to actually watch or at least read the thief buffs…

Thief will be able to delete other zerk ami’s. Medi guard is also going to be incredibly strong. Mesmer doesn’t have the tools set to offer support or bunker to a team, and we are going to be even more over shadowed in the zerker ami role as well.

Its still a bit too early to tell, but illusionary invig missing and IP being ‘debated hard’ to bake it into the class as base isn’t so good. IP needs to be given as a base, if nothing else to deal with the untargeted distortion delay bug. DE forces all mes into the Duelist which is unfortunate.

The mes forums here have an uhealthy stiffy for interrupts, and Fay used to be the voice of reason but something has happened to him along the way. Interrupts aren’t very reliable due to the short cast times of most skills in this game. Interrupt fishing does not equal skillful interrupting key skills.

Updated main post with Dulfy’s tl;dr.

Guess I overreacted with Harm Mantras, I’d rather play glamour (++ for PS war not blasting my ether fields) PvE may be interesting, can’t wait.

EDIT

I can’t post more frequently but :

Nevhie.6079 – The traits mentionned are baseline for the class, it’s how weaponskills work now, you don’t need to trait anything.

MSFone.3026 – It’s trait Master of fragmantation (shatters give might and confusion), that’s new UI stuff showing new modified skills.

Holy kitten that’s some insane buffs!!! :o

Edit – I haven’t seen the other class buffs yet so of course can’t comment on the relative strength.

The +100% to PU seems a little crazy.

Sebrent.3625:

IP baseline
Elasticity baseline
Manipulation range baseline
Toughness channeling mantras baseline
+15% Phantasm damage baseline

Can someone help me for explain this? I don’t really get it?

So if we spent 6 point in DOmination Line (Power) we get the Elasticity? Was looking for this bounce trait but didn’t find any T_T

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Updated main post with DUlfy’s tl;dr.

(rip pve)

Anyone else kittening notice that Mind Wrack is now a GM trait? Click on the illusions link…

Frost.5017:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Frost.5017:

Some interesting stuff and some nice damage boost as well, but doesnt address the theif issue in pvp. Additionally, the buffs to medi guard means memser is going to likely be out in the cold still in the pvp scene.

Yeah… I’d hate to be a thief in the face of the onslaught that’ll be a rupt Mes in the coming game.

Anyway, DO DI CH
GS Sw/Pi or Sc/Pi Sw/Sw

DO = Confounding Suggestions – Furious Interruption – Power Block
DI = Phantasmal Fury or D/D – Evasive Mirror or Blade Training – Harmonious Mantras
CH = Master of Manipulations – Chaotic Transference or MoA – Chaotic Interruption

Mirror (if manip) or Ether Fest, Decoy, Blink, MoD, MI – Donsky.

I think you need to actually watch or at least read the thief buffs…

Thief will be able to delete other zerk ami’s. Medi guard is also going to be incredibly strong. Mesmer doesn’t have the tools set to offer support or bunker to a team, and we are going to be even more over shadowed in the zerker ami role as well.

Its still a bit too early to tell, but illusionary invig missing and IP being ‘debated hard’ to bake it into the class as base isn’t so good. IP needs to be given as a base, if nothing else to deal with the untargeted distortion delay bug. DE forces all mes into the Duelist which is unfortunate.

The mes forums here have an uhealthy stiffy for interrupts, and Fay used to be the voice of reason but something has happened to him along the way. Interrupts aren’t very reliable due to the short cast times of most skills in this game. Interrupt fishing does not equal skillful interrupting key skills.

Spoken like a true member of the IPSMA™ . Good luck in your future fights vs thieves I guess. You sound like you’ll need it.

Nevhie.6079:

Sebrent.3625:

IP baseline
Elasticity baseline
Manipulation range baseline
Toughness channeling mantras baseline
+15% Phantasm damage baseline

Can someone help me for explain this? I don’t really get it?

So if we spent 6 point in DOmination Line (Power) we get the Elasticity? Was looking for this bounce trait but didn’t find any T_T

If you roll a Mesmer, you get Elasticity. It’s no longer a trait. Bouncing things will bounce +1 more times.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Spoken like a true member of the IPSMA™ . Good luck in your future fights vs thieves I guess. You sound like you’ll need it.

To each their own i guess.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Nevhie.6079:

Sebrent.3625:

IP baseline
Elasticity baseline
Manipulation range baseline
Toughness channeling mantras baseline
+15% Phantasm damage baseline

Can someone help me for explain this? I don’t really get it?

So if we spent 6 point in DOmination Line (Power) we get the Elasticity? Was looking for this bounce trait but didn’t find any T_T

If you roll a Mesmer, you get Elasticity. It’s no longer a trait. Bouncing things will bounce +1 more times.

Whoaa Thx Ross. AFK theorycrafting again.

Need to get to sleep, but thinking on something (for WvW) with this… traiting veil for super speed and double stealth, with confusion on interrupts and dropping chaos storm and other attacks in the enemy zerg… I need to look at it more closely, but some of this sounds rather fun.

Double speed will be pointless and useless for 4 reasons:
- Only 1 second, so the impact will be minimal (think about first people to cross veil losing superspeed before a lot of people has crossed it).
- Being able to cleanse condition in every shatter is WAY more useful than a bit more speed for only 1s every a while.
- Superspeed is actually bugged and does not exceed maximum speed caps (OOC is the same as swiftness and in combat is only 25% faster than swiftness).
- It will mess with zergs stacking, as not everybody will receive the boon at the same time. For this reason commanders might ask not to take it (not really good that half of your zerg arrives 2-3s later than you asked).

All sound great, I’m only a bit sad because we lose our invulnerability after a kill with triumphant distortion, it added a great survivability in wvw.

so many great changes and adapt to it

condi mesmer more powerful with torment and pu and de (seem they dont want confusion 33% with both MTD why?)
powerlock mesmer got buffed (maybe more with chronomancer)
power shatter more dmg with vulnerability and reflect and evade ability

it seems inspiration line is weak compare the other lines and more support . as if now almost no one used it why now ?

Frost.5017:

The mes forums here have an uhealthy stiffy for interrupts, and Fay used to be the voice of reason but something has happened to him along the way. Interrupts aren’t very reliable due to the short cast times of most skills in this game. Interrupt fishing does not equal skillful interrupting key skills.

Woah there now, let’s not get hasty. Let’s review a couple things.

First off, lets just consider for a moment that the condition ‘slow’ is being introduced to the game. ‘Slow’ is an action speed debuff. This means that previously un-interruptable skills may very well become interruptable when under the effect of slow. Additionally, since Chronomancer is our specialization…we’re probably going to have ample access to slow.

Now, that being said…I personally don’t usually prefer to play the interrupt style. I generally lean more towards a condie-sustain type of build. To that effect, PU has been massively buffed, and the synergy between several of the traits and effects they’ve announced is potentially incredible.

Now….that also being said, I recognize that other classes are also receiving very significant buffs. I recognize things like perma-diamond skin eles potentially making things really awful for condie builds. I recognize things like thieves getting significant boosts to their damage output. I do recognize that it’s probably not going to be all sunshine and roses post-expansion.

And lastly, that all being said, I recognize that there’s simply several orders of magnitude too much information that we’ve been deluged with to armchair theorycraft our way out of this mess. I didn’t reach my level of understanding about this class by sitting on the forums and tearing apart new builds that people post, contrary to what some might believe. I reached my level of understanding by playing mesmer for thousands of hours, testing, trying, experimenting, and learning.

The amount of changes that we’ve just been shown are comparable to the amount of uncertainty that we approached this game with as new players years ago. Anyone that thinks to make definite proclamations about how things will or won’t play out post-expansion is simply wrong. Anyone that claims to know what’s going to happen, what’s going to be greatest and what’s going to be worst, is just spouting empty rhetoric. The only thing that can be said with absolute certainty right now is that nobody knows what’s going to happen. We’re going to have to get the changes, play the changes, and figure it out for ourselves.

Only after that will we be able to know.

And please, the identity is in the sig, not the name.

Why are illusionary retribution, illusionist’s celerity and shattered strength all minor traits? These are all traits that are very needed in a shatter illusion build and meanwhile adept has no real useful ones for that playstyle., put one or more into Adept for crying out loud.

Overall rather disappointed, also DE will remain a must have for any shatter build.

Jelle.2807:

Why are illusionary retribution, illusionist’s celerity and shattered strength all minor traits? These are all traits that are very needed in a shatter illusion build and meanwhile adept has no real useful ones for that playstyle., put one or more into Adept for crying out loud.

Overall rather disappointed, also DE will remain a must have for any shatter build.

If you take the Illusions line you get all three.

As for the Adapt, Compounding Power lends itself to more damaging shatters (for one), The Pledge is great synergy for current standard shatter shortcomings (torch stealth is being utilized for IP shatter mes, and it provides condi remove (with an extra bounce built in to iMage post change)), and Persistance of Memory… well its hard to find perfect balance of picks everywhere on the trait tree I suppose :p.

Just noticed that boon stacking PU with Bountiful Interruption isn’t going to be possible, as BI (major trait) is now combined with GM trait CI, so you have to choose between PU and CI/BI. I used to like running BI with PU. PU will increase stealth duration by 50-100% (undecided) so that will give more boons for extra ticks, but there is nothing like pulling off an illusionary wave on a group and getting 3-4 interrupts (i.e. BI boons) stacking with PU.

Vague Memory.2817:

Just noticed that boon stacking PU with Bountiful Interruption isn’t going to be possible, as BI (major trait) is now combined with GM trait CI, so you have to choose between PU and CI/BI. I used to like running BI with PU. PU will increase stealth duration by 50-100% (undecided) so that will give more boons for extra ticks, but there is nothing like pulling off an illusionary wave on a group and getting 3-4 interrupts (i.e. BI boons) stacking with PU.

You want to play the rupt, you got to go all in baby ;D

Ross Biddle.2367:

You want to play the rupt, you got to go all in baby ;D

My mind is telling me no, but my body… my body is telling me yes!

Velimere.7685:

Ross Biddle.2367:

You want to play the rupt, you got to go all in baby ;D

My mind is telling me no, but my body… my body is telling me yes!

lol

After this patch we’re going to have one really insane shatter burst combo that does not require skill at all:

DOM-DU-CHA
Confounding Suggestions, Shattered Concentration, Mental Torment
Desperate Decoy, Blinding Dissipation, Deceptive Evasion
Master of Manipulation, Chaotic Dampening, Chaotic Interruption

The Important Traits are
Confounding Suggestions,, Dazzling, Fragility, Mental Torment, Deveptive Evasion.

Utilities: Blink, Mirror Images, Mantra of Distraction

1. Use Mantra of Distraction
2. CS stuns → unable to dodge
3. Dazzling inflicts 5 stacks of vulnerability
4. Fragility places a 10% bonus damage on vulnerable foes.
5. Dodge through your foe and activate Mirror Images
6. Hit Mind Wrack
7. Mental Torment adds a 50% damage bonus to inactive foes.

Why is it so easy?
You have 1s to pull it of, you just need to be fast with your skills.
1s stun is something most players do not stundbreak → your chance to burst.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Jelle.2807:

Why are illusionary retribution, illusionist’s celerity and shattered strength all minor traits? These are all traits that are very needed in a shatter illusion build and meanwhile adept has no real useful ones for that playstyle., put one or more into Adept for crying out loud.

Overall rather disappointed, also DE will remain a must have for any shatter build.

If you take the Illusions line you get all three.

As for the Adapt, Compounding Power lends itself to more damaging shatters (for one), The Pledge is great synergy for current standard shatter shortcomings (torch stealth is being utilized for IP shatter mes, and it provides condi remove (with an extra bounce built in to iMage post change)), and Persistance of Memory… well its hard to find perfect balance of picks everywhere on the trait tree I suppose :p.

Wait waaaait, you get all the minor traits? I may not have read the new trait system thorouhgly :o

Jelle.2807:

Wait waaaait, you get all the minor traits? I may not have read the new trait system thorouhgly :o

Just like with the current trait system, if you invest 6 points into any given trait line, you get every minor trait.

Expectation: Cool changes, but my favourite build broken due to trait overlap

Reality: Here have 15 different buffs for your specific build (I counted) we nerfed like 2 things and you don’t use them anyway.

:]

I’m not really sure how it will turn out with changes to other classes too, but looking through them mesmer and engi easily stood out as the most interesting.

Me Games Ma.8426:

After this patch we’re going to have one really insane shatter burst combo that does not require skill at all:

3 illusions diversion, gs2/sw3+3 + dodge + mindwrack could hit preeeeetty hard

After not being able to sleep – hyyyyype – I had another look at the screen caps and what to give feedback on the previewed changes. Note, that this of course is my personal view and it might differ from others based on my preferences or the way I play the game.

Overall I liked most previewd changes although I might not grasp their whole effect on all classes. When it comes to the Mesmer I’m pretty pleased with many changes and I’d even say we got one of the better reworks.

I’ll go through all traitlines and write down some thoughts.

Domination
It looks pretty solid and many people have suggested introducing something like Fragility. The new mechanic of Greatsword Training looks very interesting and I’m looking forward to how it will be balanced. The secondary bonus is pretty boring, though. Sleep deprived as I am right now I can’t come up with an alternative but I’m hoping for something more intriguing.

Dueling
While I like the overall theme/direction I feel that this traitline is a bit messy. I see placement issues and there are also quite a few traits which could be combined or reworked differently.

Duelists Discipline, Phantasmal Fury and Sharper Images

• No way to pick DD + PF despite obvious synergy
• Bleeds on DD just mimics Sharper Images which is boring. I’d love to see something different.

Blade Training and Evasive Mirror

• No way to pick BD and EM despite obvious synergy.
• Secondary effect on BD is boring. Why not ‘Gain Fury for x seconds when evading.’? etc.
• Switching BD and DD could solve the synergy issue.

Desperate Decoy

• Still pretty bad since it can screw with you quite hard.
• No synergy with other traits.
• Options: Remove it. Or add a point blanked blind. If it stays, it needs a buff.

Chaos
I like the clean up in this line. I can’t wait to see how the new Chaotic Persistence and Chaotic Dampening play out. However, there is still room for improvement.

Descent into Madness

• All fall-damage traits should have a combat-relevant component.
• For example: Gain Fury when knocked down, knocked back, … yadda yadda.

Illusionary Defense

• Lackluster mechanic in many parts of the game. Area effects say high.
• Very limited synergy with available grandmaster traits.
• Lackluster effect.
• Possible Replacement: Rework Debilitating Dissipation. Shatters inflict nearby foes with a random condition (Bleeds, Weakness, Cripple).

Chaotic Transference

• I overall dislike those traits but why keep them when stats are no longer supposed to drive our decisions when picking a traitline? The trait feels like a placeholder.
• A Revenant-like mechanic (copying conditions to foes) would be more exciting than a raw stat boost.

Inspiration
Overall a solid rework.

Compounding Celerity

• Again, not a fan. Lackluster mechanic in many areas of the game.
• In combat Swiftness is a rather lackluster benefit considering our in combat mobility.
• Does not ‘inspire’ nearby allies.
• Possible replacement: Grant 1s area swiftness per nearby ally (cap 5) each 5s.

Restorative Illusions

• Both Shattered Conditions and Vigorous Revelations are area effects.
• Why not this one as well?

Temporal Enchanter

• This one made me cry since it is so underwhelming.
• Nobody picked Temporal Enchanter in the past. The duration increase isn’t potent enough. Super Speed for 1s won’t help it either.
• Since it was stated that Glamours are now supposed to be solely supportive (buh, almost confirms my fear of offensive trap utilities on Chronomancers), here are two possible additions or alternative effects: 1. Periodically heal allies within a Glamour. 2. Reduce cooldowns for x% for each second within a Glamour.

Illusions
This traitline now has become a proper condition traitline which is great news. However, there still are some odd choices here. Persistence of Memory and Phantasmal Haste suggest that there should be a reason for Phantasm Mesmers to go for this traitline. But there really isn’t since it lacks an appropriate grandmaster trait to go with those kind of builds.

Compounding Power

• Not going into detail. I despise those traits.
• Power effect in an now almost exlcusively condition line.
• Possible replacement: Gain power and condition damage per nearby ally (cap 5).

Persistence of Memory

• Interesting concept although numbers would have to be tweaked.
• Doesn’t make up for the lack of a proper Phantasm grandmaster trait.
• Suggestion: Increase your condition duration for x% for xs when shattering an Illusion.

Phantasmal Haste

• Same as above: Why go Illusions for Phantasms when it lacks a related gm trait?
• Move it to Inspiration.
• Replace it with Illusionary Invigoration.

Blinding Befuddlement

• Gnaaah! That cooldown! This better be per target!
• Global cooldown diminishes synergies with: Prestige, Blinding Dissipation and Signet of Midnight. [Edit]: How could I forget the snowball runes?

tobascodagama.2961:

Vague Memory.2817:

The greatsword skill reductions at 2% on spatial surge hit means you have to hit 10 times to get to the present value of 20%, this seems quite low considering we don’t know how this will stack, for how long, and if a ICD is involved.

You or your clones need to hit 10 times, so it’s not as bad as it sounds.

2% is also either a placeholder or a text error, the same number came up several times during the necromancer/mesmer segment when it seemed clear that the actual numbers being planned were different. Not sure I like a trait that basically tells me to camp greatsword to benefit, though.

For Greatsword Training the max cooldown refresh per 1 autoattack is:
4 units using spatial surge (you and 3 clones)
3 hits per spatial surge → 12 hits
3 targets being hit by each spatial surge → 12*3= 36
36*2% of your cooldowns refreshed with the numbers how they are atm
means we get with best possible outcome with 3 clones up each hitting 3 foes 72% of our cooldowns reseted per 1.5 seconds

I’ll tell you how to make Compounding Celerity interesting.

Have it grand a little bit of Superspeed instead of Swiftness when you shatter.

Frost.5017:

The mes forums here have an uhealthy stiffy for interrupts, and Fay used to be the voice of reason but something has happened to him along the way. Interrupts aren’t very reliable due to the short cast times of most skills in this game. Interrupt fishing does not equal skillful interrupting key skills.

Yeah I don’t like how a vocal minority has got Anet to focus so heavily on interrupts. If these people are so desperate for an interupt Mesmer why don’t they reinstall GW1 where that playstyle will actually be useful.

Jelle.2807:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Jelle.2807:

Why are illusionary retribution, illusionist’s celerity and shattered strength all minor traits? These are all traits that are very needed in a shatter illusion build and meanwhile adept has no real useful ones for that playstyle., put one or more into Adept for crying out loud.

Overall rather disappointed, also DE will remain a must have for any shatter build.

If you take the Illusions line you get all three.

As for the Adapt, Compounding Power lends itself to more damaging shatters (for one), The Pledge is great synergy for current standard shatter shortcomings (torch stealth is being utilized for IP shatter mes, and it provides condi remove (with an extra bounce built in to iMage post change)), and Persistance of Memory… well its hard to find perfect balance of picks everywhere on the trait tree I suppose :p.

Wait waaaait, you get all the minor traits? I may not have read the new trait system thorouhgly :o

You pick three trait lines in this system, and you get the whole of each trait line, meaning you can go all the way to 3 GM.

Fay.2357:

Frost.5017:

The mes forums here have an uhealthy stiffy for interrupts, and Fay used to be the voice of reason but something has happened to him along the way. Interrupts aren’t very reliable due to the short cast times of most skills in this game. Interrupt fishing does not equal skillful interrupting key skills.

Woah there now, let’s not get hasty. Let’s review a couple things.

First off, lets just consider for a moment that the condition ‘slow’ is being introduced to the game. ‘Slow’ is an action speed debuff. This means that previously un-interruptable skills may very well become interruptable when under the effect of slow. Additionally, since Chronomancer is our specialization…we’re probably going to have ample access to slow.

Now, that being said…I personally don’t usually prefer to play the interrupt style. I generally lean more towards a condie-sustain type of build. To that effect, PU has been massively buffed, and the synergy between several of the traits and effects they’ve announced is potentially incredible.

Now….that also being said, I recognize that other classes are also receiving very significant buffs. I recognize things like perma-diamond skin eles potentially making things really awful for condie builds. I recognize things like thieves getting significant boosts to their damage output. I do recognize that it’s probably not going to be all sunshine and roses post-expansion.

And lastly, that all being said, I recognize that there’s simply several orders of magnitude too much information that we’ve been deluged with to armchair theorycraft our way out of this mess. I didn’t reach my level of understanding about this class by sitting on the forums and tearing apart new builds that people post, contrary to what some might believe. I reached my level of understanding by playing mesmer for thousands of hours, testing, trying, experimenting, and learning.

The amount of changes that we’ve just been shown are comparable to the amount of uncertainty that we approached this game with as new players years ago. Anyone that thinks to make definite proclamations about how things will or won’t play out post-expansion is simply wrong. Anyone that claims to know what’s going to happen, what’s going to be greatest and what’s going to be worst, is just spouting empty rhetoric. The only thing that can be said with absolute certainty right now is that nobody knows what’s going to happen. We’re going to have to get the changes, play the changes, and figure it out for ourselves.

Only after that will we be able to know.

And please, the identity is in the sig, not the name.

I am perfectly willing to say now with 100% confidence of being right that Temporal Enchanter is useless and nobody will bring Blinding befuddlement over the other two GMs in illusion.

Halting Strike was merged into Power Block but also Halting Strike DMG was increased.
The Mesmer we were seeing was in PvP Heart of Mists.
With a full power build for PvP now we can get a tooltip value of 775
in the stream the Mesmer was skilled on Vitality (had like 24k hp) but had a Power Block dmg value of 877

So this mesmer had less power and had a higher dmg on halting strike.

Levetty.1279:

I am perfectly willing to say now with 100% confidence of being right that Temporal Enchanter is useless and nobody will bring Blinding befuddlement over the other two GMs in illusion.

Quoted for truth.

Levetty.1279:

Fay.2357:

Frost.5017:

The mes forums here have an uhealthy stiffy for interrupts, and Fay used to be the voice of reason but something has happened to him along the way. Interrupts aren’t very reliable due to the short cast times of most skills in this game. Interrupt fishing does not equal skillful interrupting key skills.

Woah there now, let’s not get hasty. Let’s review a couple things.

First off, lets just consider for a moment that the condition ‘slow’ is being introduced to the game. ‘Slow’ is an action speed debuff. This means that previously un-interruptable skills may very well become interruptable when under the effect of slow. Additionally, since Chronomancer is our specialization…we’re probably going to have ample access to slow.

Now, that being said…I personally don’t usually prefer to play the interrupt style. I generally lean more towards a condie-sustain type of build. To that effect, PU has been massively buffed, and the synergy between several of the traits and effects they’ve announced is potentially incredible.

Now….that also being said, I recognize that other classes are also receiving very significant buffs. I recognize things like perma-diamond skin eles potentially making things really awful for condie builds. I recognize things like thieves getting significant boosts to their damage output. I do recognize that it’s probably not going to be all sunshine and roses post-expansion.

And lastly, that all being said, I recognize that there’s simply several orders of magnitude too much information that we’ve been deluged with to armchair theorycraft our way out of this mess. I didn’t reach my level of understanding about this class by sitting on the forums and tearing apart new builds that people post, contrary to what some might believe. I reached my level of understanding by playing mesmer for thousands of hours, testing, trying, experimenting, and learning.

The amount of changes that we’ve just been shown are comparable to the amount of uncertainty that we approached this game with as new players years ago. Anyone that thinks to make definite proclamations about how things will or won’t play out post-expansion is simply wrong. Anyone that claims to know what’s going to happen, what’s going to be greatest and what’s going to be worst, is just spouting empty rhetoric. The only thing that can be said with absolute certainty right now is that nobody knows what’s going to happen. We’re going to have to get the changes, play the changes, and figure it out for ourselves.

Only after that will we be able to know.

And please, the identity is in the sig, not the name.

I am perfectly willing to say now with 100% confidence of being right that Temporal Enchanter is useless and nobody will bring Blinding befuddlement over the other two GMs in illusion.

For the most part, on TE, agreed. Could have some use in WvW, though, for some situational mobility.

As for BB, it’s still being held back by the ICD. It can’t compete with the others if we’re unable to take advantage of it to the max by both speccing for blind and having it work every time instead of having to count little mental ticks and hope we time things perfectly.

Velimere.7685:

Levetty.1279:

I am perfectly willing to say now with 100% confidence of being right that Temporal Enchanter is useless and nobody will bring Blinding befuddlement over the other two GMs in illusion.

Quoted for truth.

I think we’re forgetting that Blinding Befuddlement also increases confusion duration. Here’s where I see Blinding Befuddlement being decently strong:
Dueling: Phantasmal Fury – Blinding Dissipation – Mistrust
Chaos: Illusionary Defense – Chaotic Dampening – Chaotic Interruption
Illusions: Persistence of Memory – Malicious Sorcery/Sum of All Fears – Blinding Befuddlement
Scepter/Pistol+Staff with Decoy/Blink/MoD

You have a lot of confusion provided by these traits. Chaos armor uptime is high and proccing confusion/blind/protection. Interrupts are proccing confusion and sometimes blind +moar confusion. Illusions crit confusion/bleeding. You either get 5 stacks of torment every 6s on block or a long lasting torment on every 5 stacks of confusion (depending on how Sum of All Fears actually works). You also have the AOE blind on shatter for emergency situations which will cause confusion.

The build would be pretty stream lined into focusing solely on confusion for the most part, but I see it being strong due to the duration and stacks you can unload in several different ways. It still competes with 2 otherwise strong gm traits but I think we’re underrating it’s potential due to previous perceptions despite other traits being added that actually give this trait a buff.

^this, +1
/15 char

MailMail.6534:

Velimere.7685:

Levetty.1279:

I am perfectly willing to say now with 100% confidence of being right that Temporal Enchanter is useless and nobody will bring Blinding befuddlement over the other two GMs in illusion.

Quoted for truth.

I think we’re forgetting that Blinding Befuddlement also increases confusion duration. Here’s where I see Blinding Befuddlement being decently strong

What’s the point with the ICD, tho? It’s not like mesmer has been known as a class that can perma-blind… I think we only have scepter 2/2, torch, a chance on chaos armor and the blind on shatter to apply blind… 2 stacks of confusion – even if applied AoE with a shatter – isn’t really earth shaking for a grand master that has two very good alternatives. On a lucky multiple interrupt with Mistrust (for example, several people ressing someone) you can apply 2*N stacks AoE since Mistrust doesn’t appear to have an ICD, at least in the current iteration…

forum bug /15chars