Guild Wars 2

I’ll be the first to say the bunker chrono needed a nerf, but after playing a few of my characters and bouncing back to mesmer I kinda realized, mesmer kinda sucks.

I’m really trying to find a selling point, but if you want to run condition reaper is better in terms of team play with chill, if I want to run a marauder build scrapper is amazing, DH is good. For how squishy power shatter is and the damage is not really that good when compared to other choices.

I feel like bunker was what it was best at in this meta and without that, I’m trying to justify why a mesmer is a better choice over a scrapper, reaper or tempest.

After the nerf, it still has some face tanking ability but not nearly as much as before. The shatter build is most definitely sub optimal and can work while running it against marauders comp, it falls flat to anything mildly bunky.. engi auramancers even some DH builds.

It’s been effectively nerfed into a support role only at this point imo. Because of the alacrity, quickness, and stability on shatter it can be extremely useful as a teamfight supporter. I threw together a build that specializes in sharing boons with the team during the teamfight and can work very well in outnumbered fights if you play it correctly with ~ 68% boon upkeep + 3% for every boon on you, you can get very close to 100% boon duration increase if you time your continuum splits with signet of illusions.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8encfCdoh1fC+fCEgilej6cDKhWzMAugMqeUb1ZF-TJxHABD8EA2uMAAXEAx3fAA

Raawk.7584:

After the nerf, it still has some face tanking ability but not nearly as much as before. The shatter build is most definitely sub optimal and can work while running it against marauders comp, it falls flat to anything mildly bunky.. engi auramancers even some DH builds.

It’s been effectively nerfed into a support role only at this point imo. Because of the alacrity, quickness, and stability on shatter it can be extremely useful as a teamfight supporter. I threw together a build that specializes in sharing boons with the team during the teamfight and can work very well in outnumbered fights if you play it correctly with ~ 68% boon upkeep + 3% for every boon on you, you can get very close to 100% boon duration increase if you time your continuum splits with signet of illusions.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8encfCdoh1fC+fCEgilej6cDKhWzMAugMqeUb1ZF-TJxHABD8EA2uMAAXEAx3fAA

That looks interesting I’ll try it out!

When on Mes I’m running Chrono power/lockdown. Sure there’s stabos to contend with etc, bunkers can be a pain chrr’chrr, but honestly since I’ve played this mes so bloody much thing’s dont really go wrong for me when I set out with an objective. What’s more, I often end up arriving at team fights and with the help of gravity well, quickly pull out an enemy team wipe which is a game turner.

Of course I can also play zerkerberker and, thanks to the meta builds people are running, also turn the tides on a match with much more straightforward effort. It’s just usually one target at a time instead of a harder to pull off, mesmer cluster kitten.

Wins always come down to supporting team comp, and perhaps more importantly, rotations. So if you don’t play with idiots you can be pretty sure of a win :)

BUUUUNKER BUSTEEEER

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseRlknhG1YZawGNwtGLnGl5OsN3AZAsALXd0WtbLA-TZBCABAcCAG+QAY/TAIo9HCrMAA

The ultimate thing is, despite all the buffs and changes Mes got, it still requires a sizable effort to produce a result. It’s just that, when that effort goes to plan, the rewards to be reaped are huge.

Mesmer is still fine as a tank, it’s just not as powerful as before. In a 30 second rotation, you’ll have the use of 1 precog and ~2 shield blocks. The total reduction in mitigation time is 3 seconds from precog and 3 seconds total from all the shield blocks for a total of 6 seconds reduction every 30 seconds.

If you were good at bunkering before, you’ll still be fine at it now. If you randomly spammed skills before, you’ll probably fail miserably now.

In reality, the actual loss of mitigation is less than 6 seconds. Precog can still be used, you just can’t stay the full 3 seconds of it, so you’ll often be able to get a second or two of safe mitigation there. Additionally, it was rare that the full 2.25 seconds of shield blocking was actually effective as mitigation. The reduction to 1.5 seconds means that you have to be more careful about the use of it. Instead of having the luxurious wiggle room of 2.25 seconds, you need to ensure that you’re popping the block when and as you actually need it.

Ultimately, it’s fine. It’s obviously weaker than before, but that’s justified. Whether it’s still stronger than tempest bunker is probably a question worth debating, but tempest is probably next on the radar for receiving nerfs to sustain. It’s still plenty viable as a bunker for normal play, and I’d be surprised if we didn’t still see several in the ESL fights.

Chronobunker if you were good at it before hardly change
1v1 still easy
1v2 doable
1v3 harder without wop
Now I don’t use wop rather portal or feedback for more resistance and reflect if needed or mor if more cleanse needed or blink is several map
If I am in trouble I will call for help which will arrive in 30 sec and also I will try to play more group support rather than bunkering solo a point

So in group fight bunker hardly change
In solo bunkering can be more harder

My thoughts almost exactly pre spec patch. After that it feels much better and you can escape bad situations with good success (talking WvW here) and in PvE the pet QoL change shores up the weaknesses a little better.

Imo alacrity and quickness are nice unique things people want mesmer for and power shatter is still a great burst style, chronobunker is as Pyro said good but jury is still out on whether ele is better now. It still feels gimmicky having damage split between phantasms and Mesmer though.

Scrapper and Dragonhunter are just far better, safer and more efficient dps choices. This is okay for Chronomancer because we have unique team support and bunker builds are still effective so a role still exists. But for Daredevil it just really sucks. The best Daredevil can hope for now in PvP is continued nerfs to popular bunkers builds allowing them to reprise the Thief role of roaming de-capper.

in pvp chronotank is already dead since 15/12 patch.

What a shame that devs didn t wait end january for a real balance patch.

Instead they have applied same tactic than gw2 vanilla : nerf the least played and estimated class.
remember patch 04/13, or 05/13, where glams build where destroyed because of confusion bug, and didn t when up after they found the bug.

At the moment, i can t find faith in devs.

Fay.2357:

Mesmer is still fine as a tank, it’s just not as powerful as before. In a 30 second rotation, you’ll have the use of 1 precog and ~2 shield blocks. The total reduction in mitigation time is 3 seconds from precog and 3 seconds total from all the shield blocks for a total of 6 seconds reduction every 30 seconds.

If you were good at bunkering before, you’ll still be fine at it now. If you randomly spammed skills before, you’ll probably fail miserably now.

In reality, the actual loss of mitigation is less than 6 seconds. Precog can still be used, you just can’t stay the full 3 seconds of it, so you’ll often be able to get a second or two of safe mitigation there. Additionally, it was rare that the full 2.25 seconds of shield blocking was actually effective as mitigation. The reduction to 1.5 seconds means that you have to be more careful about the use of it. Instead of having the luxurious wiggle room of 2.25 seconds, you need to ensure that you’re popping the block when and as you actually need it.

Ultimately, it’s fine. It’s obviously weaker than before, but that’s justified. Whether it’s still stronger than tempest bunker is probably a question worth debating, but tempest is probably next on the radar for receiving nerfs to sustain. It’s still plenty viable as a bunker for normal play, and I’d be surprised if we didn’t still see several in the ESL fights.

Isn’t the main problem that Precog gives distortion now, basically freeing up points to be decapped?

At any rate, currently mesmer itself is bad. Chrono’s just a bandaid which covers our inadequecies. While this is true for all elite specs, it is especially so for Chrono, which turned the sub-par Mesmer into a highly-demanded bunker, the difference showing just how much they had to add and “cover up” with Chrono.

Unless they buff our core specs, Mesmer continue to stay, more or less, underpowered.

Dondagora.9645:

Fay.2357:

Mesmer is still fine as a tank, it’s just not as powerful as before. In a 30 second rotation, you’ll have the use of 1 precog and ~2 shield blocks. The total reduction in mitigation time is 3 seconds from precog and 3 seconds total from all the shield blocks for a total of 6 seconds reduction every 30 seconds.

If you were good at bunkering before, you’ll still be fine at it now. If you randomly spammed skills before, you’ll probably fail miserably now.

In reality, the actual loss of mitigation is less than 6 seconds. Precog can still be used, you just can’t stay the full 3 seconds of it, so you’ll often be able to get a second or two of safe mitigation there. Additionally, it was rare that the full 2.25 seconds of shield blocking was actually effective as mitigation. The reduction to 1.5 seconds means that you have to be more careful about the use of it. Instead of having the luxurious wiggle room of 2.25 seconds, you need to ensure that you’re popping the block when and as you actually need it.

Ultimately, it’s fine. It’s obviously weaker than before, but that’s justified. Whether it’s still stronger than tempest bunker is probably a question worth debating, but tempest is probably next on the radar for receiving nerfs to sustain. It’s still plenty viable as a bunker for normal play, and I’d be surprised if we didn’t still see several in the ESL fights.

Isn’t the main problem that Precog gives distortion now, basically freeing up points to be decapped?

At any rate, currently mesmer itself is bad. Chrono’s just a bandaid which covers our inadequecies. While this is true for all elite specs, it is especially so for Chrono, which turned the sub-par Mesmer into a highly-demanded bunker, the difference showing just how much they had to add and “cover up” with Chrono.

Unless they buff our core specs, Mesmer continue to stay, more or less, underpowered.

The dilemma they’ve created is that you can’t buff a core line without buffing an elite spec -_-u

Ross Biddle.2367:

Dondagora.9645:

Fay.2357:

Mesmer is still fine as a tank, it’s just not as powerful as before. In a 30 second rotation, you’ll have the use of 1 precog and ~2 shield blocks. The total reduction in mitigation time is 3 seconds from precog and 3 seconds total from all the shield blocks for a total of 6 seconds reduction every 30 seconds.

If you were good at bunkering before, you’ll still be fine at it now. If you randomly spammed skills before, you’ll probably fail miserably now.

In reality, the actual loss of mitigation is less than 6 seconds. Precog can still be used, you just can’t stay the full 3 seconds of it, so you’ll often be able to get a second or two of safe mitigation there. Additionally, it was rare that the full 2.25 seconds of shield blocking was actually effective as mitigation. The reduction to 1.5 seconds means that you have to be more careful about the use of it. Instead of having the luxurious wiggle room of 2.25 seconds, you need to ensure that you’re popping the block when and as you actually need it.

Ultimately, it’s fine. It’s obviously weaker than before, but that’s justified. Whether it’s still stronger than tempest bunker is probably a question worth debating, but tempest is probably next on the radar for receiving nerfs to sustain. It’s still plenty viable as a bunker for normal play, and I’d be surprised if we didn’t still see several in the ESL fights.

Isn’t the main problem that Precog gives distortion now, basically freeing up points to be decapped?

At any rate, currently mesmer itself is bad. Chrono’s just a bandaid which covers our inadequecies. While this is true for all elite specs, it is especially so for Chrono, which turned the sub-par Mesmer into a highly-demanded bunker, the difference showing just how much they had to add and “cover up” with Chrono.

Unless they buff our core specs, Mesmer continue to stay, more or less, underpowered.

The dilemma they’ve created is that you can’t buff a core line without buffing an elite spec -_-u

If you buff all core specs to Elite-level, then… maybe? You’d have to give each core spec mechanics that compete with the Elite so 3 core specs could compete with an Elite. This would require, however, new mechanics and not just coefficient changes.

Basically… it’s difficult.

Dondagora.9645:

Fay.2357:

Mesmer is still fine as a tank, it’s just not as powerful as before. In a 30 second rotation, you’ll have the use of 1 precog and ~2 shield blocks. The total reduction in mitigation time is 3 seconds from precog and 3 seconds total from all the shield blocks for a total of 6 seconds reduction every 30 seconds.

If you were good at bunkering before, you’ll still be fine at it now. If you randomly spammed skills before, you’ll probably fail miserably now.

In reality, the actual loss of mitigation is less than 6 seconds. Precog can still be used, you just can’t stay the full 3 seconds of it, so you’ll often be able to get a second or two of safe mitigation there. Additionally, it was rare that the full 2.25 seconds of shield blocking was actually effective as mitigation. The reduction to 1.5 seconds means that you have to be more careful about the use of it. Instead of having the luxurious wiggle room of 2.25 seconds, you need to ensure that you’re popping the block when and as you actually need it.

Ultimately, it’s fine. It’s obviously weaker than before, but that’s justified. Whether it’s still stronger than tempest bunker is probably a question worth debating, but tempest is probably next on the radar for receiving nerfs to sustain. It’s still plenty viable as a bunker for normal play, and I’d be surprised if we didn’t still see several in the ESL fights.

Isn’t the main problem that Precog gives distortion now, basically freeing up points to be decapped?

Problem? Not sure about that. Change? Yes.

Basically, you can’t drop precog on a point and afk for 3 seconds. You can still use it to protect stomps/ressing if necessary, and you can drop it halfway off a point, allowing you to walk on and off it to acquire a second or two of relief without decapping fully.

I don’t think the changes were that dramatic or unwarranted. I just wish they’d finally address other stupidly OPd crap like DH traps, condie Reavers, the AE stealth gyro’s CD, etc.

In the case of the DH they could just make points much larger, or the radius on their traps a little smaller…but in the end the damage is still broken as well. Yeah there are some counters, but there were always plenty of counters to MtD, the recent bunker Mesmer too, and anything else I can think of that got nerfed into oblivion. Didn’t save those things either. Between the insane damage and low CDs, it’s just plain broken.

At least for pug PvP, there is no stronger indicator of which side will win then how many Guardians you see on each team, up to at least 3. Whoever has 1+ more than the other side, tends to win in my experiences. No other profession/build even comes close to having this blatantly pre-calculable effect on a match’s outcome.

Yeah maybe it’s the newbness of some/many players, but people have had ample time to adjust now, and the fact is they simply haven’t. It’s far more likely that DH traps are simply overpowered. And how come bunker Mesmer and MtD or any Mesmer nerfs always seem to get addressed in a VERY timely manner, while Guardians and some others seem to be bullet-proofed vs. nerfed for long periods before they’re finally addressed?

Guardians have had top status for far too long even before HoT, and it’s a bit sick that they also made sure their elite would be at/near the very best. That’s not balance, but simply a popularity contest that Mesmer, Thief, etc. simply will never win.

The change of precog means now it is not about spamming anymore. You have to think for using it. I don’t mind that change, it makes the skill cap a bit higher and we will see less bad mesmers everywhere.

Silverkey.2078:

The change of precog means now it is not about spamming anymore. You have to think for using it. I don’t mind that change, it makes the skill cap a bit higher and we will see less bad mesmers everywhere.

it makes me think

if we dont see in tommorow esl bunker mesmer it means thay they were noobs as they spam tkills……
if we see it mean bunker mesmer is still working

maybe we see DH as a counter to them having a comeback…

messiah.1908:

Silverkey.2078:

The change of precog means now it is not about spamming anymore. You have to think for using it. I don’t mind that change, it makes the skill cap a bit higher and we will see less bad mesmers everywhere.

it makes me think

if we dont see in tommorow esl bunker mesmer it means thay they were noobs as they spam tkills……
if we see it mean bunker mesmer is still working

maybe we see DH as a counter to them having a comeback…

I don’t think there is an ESL tomorrow. It’s holiday break.

Windwalker.7421:

-whining about DH-

Have you tried dodging? I’m serious. You’re going on and complaining about traps covering a point, so why don’t you just get off the point? There’s no excuse for standing in a bunch of traps and then dying because you didn’t think to dodge out of them. If you’re playing a bunker build that needs to stay on a point…then you can tank the traps with zero problems.

DH are a noob-stomper. This is evident in the comp choices for the esl matches. There were a couple DH here and there, but primarily they weren’t used. This is because the DH is by and large a one-trick-pony that can be countered by a pinch of positioning and a dash of skilled play.

Imo zerk chronoshatter can’t kill decent zerk trap DH at 1×1 on a point (unless used stealthed moa). I don’t mean a duel where u can try to kite him, but a capped enemy point. So if you play shatter and see dh defending point – it is just a waste of time try to decap. I can dodge, but I need too much dodges. Range isn’t an option, melee isn’t too. DH will just outsustain you. Though much of DH players are strictly bad and just staying at a point (and not using LoS, eating berserker, etc).
You can +1 him or rotate with teammate on counter build (sustain, heavy condy, etc)m but it is a pain in soloq.

Mak.2657:

Imo zerk chronoshatter can’t kill decent zerk trap DH at 1×1 on a point (unless used stealthed moa). So if you play shatter and see dh defending point – it is just a waste of time try to decap. I can dodge, but I need too much dodges. Range isn’t an option, melee isn’t too. DH will just outsustain you. Though much of DH players are strictly bad and just staying at a point (and not using LoS, eating berserker, etc).

if you run power mes that it can be hard and might cost you time to kill him if the point his. in wvw mesmer wins

messiah.1908:

Mak.2657:

Imo zerk chronoshatter can’t kill decent zerk trap DH at 1×1 on a point (unless used stealthed moa). So if you play shatter and see dh defending point – it is just a waste of time try to decap. I can dodge, but I need too much dodges. Range isn’t an option, melee isn’t too. DH will just outsustain you. Though much of DH players are strictly bad and just staying at a point (and not using LoS, eating berserker, etc).

if you run power mes that it can be hard and might cost you time to kill him if the point his. in wvw mesmer wins

Yeah I just edited my post (" I don’t mean a duel where u can try to kite him, but a capped enemy point.")
And even at duel situation i not so sure shatter mesmer would win. Probably against impudent dh, who allow to kite him you have better chances. But idk tbh – not wvwing after hot.

i had 2 games with my team we were 2 support mesmer with 1 bunker ele and 1 zerk guard (pug was rev/warrior)
we won twice and got 2 pips . and i though we had no dmg against the enemy which had (rev,necro,engi,guard,mes)

didnt use wop at all. guard took 30% hp with feedback and necro bounce with his staff.

i felt less tankish but the rotation was good so even if i killed took them 3 to put me down after 30-60 sec

i hope we dont see more nerf to support mesmer or it will be lost

the only class which give me trouble was gaurd and combined with necro boon rip / power mesmer boon rip could pressure me without stability