Guild Wars 2

Everyone is talking about the port changes and how that is going to hurt mesmers and thieves. However, another major nerf is coming our way in the form of elite boons. That is, boons granted by elite skills. According to the China patch, boons granted by many elite skills have the following functionality: 3 3 second stacks every 3 seconds for the duration of the elite. Goodbye boon stripping and boon copying/removal. One of the mesmer’s most important roles may be getting tossed aside.

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

So we can use mimic…oh wait…we can use the new mimic…oh wait….

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

You forgot to mention Moa’d, which is really fun… Anyway, I just think “perma-stabilty” in such a strong form isn’t, well, a good sight.

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

So we can use mimic…oh wait…we can use the new mimic…oh wait….

Feedback? Warden? Curtain? Masterful Reflection? Oh Wait.

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Omg. I need to have Convo with you all so I can catch up on all the lingo. I am soooo lost.

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

You are forgetting that you can cast moa from stealth IIRC. And transformations are a different category. You cannot compare it with other elites. since you are replacing your entire weapon set with the elite.

Cast Moa and you still retain everything. Cast TW and you still have your shatters.

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

You are forgetting that you can cast moa from stealth IIRC. And transformations are a different category. You cannot compare it with other elites. since you are replacing your entire weapon set with the elite.

Cast Moa and you still retain everything. Cast TW and you still have your shatters.

That really doesn’t change my statement that there are simple ways to make the person waste their long CD elites. I don’t see why necro elites must be the exception.

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

You are forgetting that you can cast moa from stealth IIRC. And transformations are a different category. You cannot compare it with other elites. since you are replacing your entire weapon set with the elite.

Cast Moa and you still retain everything. Cast TW and you still have your shatters.

That really doesn’t change my statement that there are simple ways to make the person waste their long CD elites. I don’t see why necro elites must be the exception.

That is the point of this fix/change, to make your Elites worthwhile to use. And you do realize that 3 more classes have transformations right?

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

You are forgetting that you can cast moa from stealth IIRC. And transformations are a different category. You cannot compare it with other elites. since you are replacing your entire weapon set with the elite.

Cast Moa and you still retain everything. Cast TW and you still have your shatters.

That really doesn’t change my statement that there are simple ways to make the person waste their long CD elites. I don’t see why necro elites must be the exception.

That is the point of this fix, to make your Elites worthwhile to use.

Again, this only affects certain elites. None of them mesmer elites, and it removes a way for mesmers to counter those elites. Are you claiming this is not a nerf for mesmers?

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

You are forgetting that you can cast moa from stealth IIRC. And transformations are a different category. You cannot compare it with other elites. since you are replacing your entire weapon set with the elite.

Cast Moa and you still retain everything. Cast TW and you still have your shatters.

That really doesn’t change my statement that there are simple ways to make the person waste their long CD elites. I don’t see why necro elites must be the exception.

That is the point of this fix, to make your Elites worthwhile to use.

Again, this only affects certain elites. None of them mesmer elites, and it removes a way for mesmers to counter those elites. Are you claiming this is not a nerf for mesmers?

It is not a nerf for mesmers!

All i read nowadays when a change happens is : “Look a change! Its a Nerf!”

Okay, Thieves will be affected by this too. Fellow Necros are affected by this too.

And Why is it not a nerf? Not all mesmers carry boon-strip in pvp, So how do they handle lich form?

• Reflects is the best way.
• Run away and wait for the Transformation to end.
• LoS
• Blinds

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

You are forgetting that you can cast moa from stealth IIRC. And transformations are a different category. You cannot compare it with other elites. since you are replacing your entire weapon set with the elite.

Cast Moa and you still retain everything. Cast TW and you still have your shatters.

That really doesn’t change my statement that there are simple ways to make the person waste their long CD elites. I don’t see why necro elites must be the exception.

That is the point of this fix, to make your Elites worthwhile to use.

Again, this only affects certain elites. None of them mesmer elites, and it removes a way for mesmers to counter those elites. Are you claiming this is not a nerf for mesmers?

It is not a nerf for mesmers!

All i read nowadays when a change happens is : “Look a change! Its a Nerf!”

Okay, Thieves will be affected by this too. Fellow Necros are affected by this too.

And Why is it not a nerf? Not all mesmers carry boon-strip in pvp, So how do they handle lich form?

• Reflects is the best way.
• Run away and wait for the Transformation to end.
• LoS
• Blinds

What about mesmers who carry boon strip? Is it not a nerf to them?

Was the sword nerf not a nerf to mesmers because no all mesmers use sword?

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

Zmodd.5427:

I’ve read it too, Lich Form came to mind… yeah… dark times are coming.

But lich form can be reflected, blinded, LoS, Dodged, and more importantly, Reflected.

And it could be boon stripped. This thread is describing a nerf.

Okay dude. I will be constructive.

That elite is 180 seconds cd. During the first 5 seconds boon strip, your team ganged up and downed the necro. What kind of elite is that? A wasted elite. It only serves right that Transformations should be powerful or maybe tide changing elites. I for one say its justified. Given the huge CD it has.

And I’m saying this without any bias to my main mesmer or other classes.

Most elites have some counter play that can waste them. Moa can be blocked, blinded, and dodged. Time warp can be nullified by cc. And these are the mesmer elites with the longer CDs.

You are forgetting that you can cast moa from stealth IIRC. And transformations are a different category. You cannot compare it with other elites. since you are replacing your entire weapon set with the elite.

Cast Moa and you still retain everything. Cast TW and you still have your shatters.

That really doesn’t change my statement that there are simple ways to make the person waste their long CD elites. I don’t see why necro elites must be the exception.

That is the point of this fix, to make your Elites worthwhile to use.

Again, this only affects certain elites. None of them mesmer elites, and it removes a way for mesmers to counter those elites. Are you claiming this is not a nerf for mesmers?

It is not a nerf for mesmers!

All i read nowadays when a change happens is : “Look a change! Its a Nerf!”

Okay, Thieves will be affected by this too. Fellow Necros are affected by this too.

And Why is it not a nerf? Not all mesmers carry boon-strip in pvp, So how do they handle lich form?

• Reflects is the best way.
• Run away and wait for the Transformation to end.
• LoS
• Blinds

What about mesmers who carry boon strip? Is it not a nerf to them?

Was the sword nerf not a nerf to mesmers because no all mesmers use sword?

So when you don’t have boonstrip, Do you stand around there and eat all the damage?

And your second argument is irrelevant. The sword is a nerf yes, even if not all mesmers use sword.

But the argument we have right now is the stability fix/ transformations/ etc, which encompasses a different state of the mesmer because this fix AFFECTS MULTIPLE CLASSES

StickerHappy.8052:

And your second argument is irrelevant. The sword is a nerf yes, even if not all mesmers use sword.

My second argument is a direct response to your statement: "And Why is it not a nerf? Not all mesmers carry boon-strip in pvp, "

How can it not be relevant? It’s the only part of your post that directly addressed what I’m saying.

DaShi.1368:

StickerHappy.8052:

And your second argument is irrelevant. The sword is a nerf yes, even if not all mesmers use sword.

My second argument is a direct response to your statement: "And Why is it not a nerf? Not all mesmers carry boon-strip in pvp, "

How can it not be relevant? It’s the only part of your post that directly addressed what I’m saying.

The reason why its not relevant, because the sword nerf was only for mesmers, the stability change will also affect thieves, necros, guardians because of that burn trait, so basically everything that has boon removal.

So you are saying a nerf that affects more than one class is no longer a nerf?

DaShi.1368:

So you are saying a nerf that affects more than one class is no longer a nerf?

Okay dude, I don’t see what is your issue with it. You make it sound like that boonstrip is the only way to deal with the stability. You can still wait it out. You can steal it too. You can corrupt it.

So I don’t see the reason for this to be a nerf.

You can think of it of just a change of gameplay for you.

StickerHappy.8052:

DaShi.1368:

So you are saying a nerf that affects more than one class is no longer a nerf?

Okay dude, I don’t see what is your issue with it. You make it sound like that boonstrip is the only way to deal with the stability. You can still wait it out. You can steal it too. You can corrupt it.

I never said that it was the only way. I said that boon strip has been nerfed. In particular, it affects mesmers. Yes, they will have to use a different tactic, but they will have to because of a nerf.

I’ve seen no good argument that this isn’t a nerf.

StickerHappy.8052:

Okay dude, I don’t see what is your issue with it. You make it sound like that boonstrip is the only way to deal with the stability. You can still wait it out. You can steal it too. You can corrupt it.

Uhh, these examples don’t at all support your argument.

“You can steal it”:
Before: ~30 seconds of stability for you.
Now: ~3 seconds of stability for you.

“You can corrupt it”:
Before: remove the boon.
Now: remove the boon, it’s reapplied after 1-3 seconds.

I agree with StickerHappy here. It is a change that effects balance on a larger scale. It affects all boon removal, including sigils. So in result, it could change the whole balance. How we will end up in this new balance depends on the actual implementation.

If for some skill staby is generated every 3 seconds, it would leave you the chance of boon stripping the staby and right afterwards applying the CC. If at all it requires better coordinated team play, or a better timed rotation.

These days you simply strip the staby and have ages time to apply your CC. After patch you might have only 3 seconds, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able. And if you miss your CC and hit the new staby stack, then you reduced it still making the target potentially susceptible to further (unkoordinated) CC…

TyPin.9860:

I agree with StickerHappy here. It is a change that effects balance on a larger scale. It affects all boon removal, including sigils. So in result, it could change the whole balance. How we will end up in this new balance depends on the actual implementation.

If for some skill staby is generated every 3 seconds, it would leave you the chance of boon stripping the staby and right afterwards applying the CC. If at all it requires better coordinated team play, or a better timed rotation.

These days you simply strip the staby and have ages time to apply your CC. After patch you might have only 3 seconds, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able. And if you miss your CC and hit the new staby stack, then you reduced it still making the target potentially susceptible to further (unkoordinated) CC…

Exactly this. Its not as if you can’t strip other boons as well. Lol.

TyPin.9860:

I agree with StickerHappy here. It is a change that effects balance on a larger scale. It affects all boon removal, including sigils. So in result, it could change the whole balance. How we will end up in this new balance depends on the actual implementation.

If for some skill staby is generated every 3 seconds, it would leave you the chance of boon stripping the staby and right afterwards applying the CC. If at all it requires better coordinated team play, or a better timed rotation.

These days you simply strip the staby and have ages time to apply your CC. After patch you might have only 3 seconds, but that doesn’t mean you won’t be able. And if you miss your CC and hit the new staby stack, then you reduced it still making the target potentially susceptible to further (unkoordinated) CC…

And I’ve not denied that there are ways to play around it. However, boon stripping is not less effective, making it a nerf. It’s a nerf that particularly affects mesmers.

StickerHappy.8052:

Its not as if you can’t strip other boons as well. Lol.

Who was making this claim?

I think the concept is alright and fair, since you don’t see lich/rampage that often. But 3 seconds are rather short for the team to chain CC. Considering the CD that other teammates have, more often than not the shatter will go into waste. This might means one less reason to bring boon strip/shatter mesmer, perhaps 5 seconds will make a happy medium?

I can definitely understand why this did this with stability. Before the stability change, these build effectively had permanent stability, while they were up. The stability stacks change meant a team could quickly use up those stacks and leave the elites defenseless. The unfortunate side effect is that it hits boon stripping rather hard.

As a side note, I think this x seconds reapply sort of reflects on why shatter mesmer isn’t dominating the celestial meta. In theory celestial builds should suffer a huge DPS drop/moderate survival drop due to boon strips, but in reality our boon strips simply can’t keep up with boon stackings. This sense of lack luster will feel stronger once the patch hits, but not by that much since necro can’t run in lich form all day.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

This might means one less reason to bring boon strip/shatter mesmer, perhaps 5 seconds will make a happy medium?

I’d want to see something like this:
“Gain one [medium duration]-second stack of stability every [short duration] seconds.”

You’ve still got stability coverage to prevent being stuck as a chain-CC piñata for 30 seconds. But, if it’s ripped or overpowered by a team effort, you don’t get ALL of it back right away. Gotta play just a bit more carefully while you’ve only got 1 or 2 stacks on you.

Wtf this whole problem is no nerf… it’s obviously a buff and I guess that anet provides methods to counter the new version of these skills.
All of you who say that this is a nerf to mesmers may be right if you consider every other class getting a buff is nerfing us BUT we do not know what will happen to us after the patch!
Maybe we finally get skills/traits to bypass stability?
Maybe boonstrip has more effect than you would think.

I’d really like to tell you to wait until the patch is released and complain when you are certain that it is a thing that works against us mesmers.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

As a side note, I think this x seconds reapply sort of reflects on why shatter mesmer isn’t dominating the celestial meta. In theory celestial builds should suffer a huge DPS drop/moderate survival drop due to boon strips, but in reality our boon strips simply can’t keep up with boon stackings.

This is dead-on.

100,000 likes and thumbs-up and +1s and retweets.

Love the concept ASP, lots of variability and fun to play tbh. It’ll certainly make shatter mesmer invaluable at later stage of transformation.

I’m pretty sure we’ll get a thing that bypass stability Me Games Ma, and that’s slow. Hopefully slow will have significant effect like chill. I agree with you on this is more of a buff than nerf, but I doubt boon strip will be different from what we have right now unless they buff shattered concentration. Either way you had to agree that playing boon strip shatter mesmer will be less enjoyable when its been reapplied every 3 seconds.

It’s a good change, even if it’s not in our favor. But it will open new changes for the specs and current class rebalance, like buffing nufflied to prevent boons and conditions to be applied in first place. It’s just the beginning and unless we have everything HoT is gonna bring us, to QQ about such changes is useless and naive.

I can’t believe the whiners in this thread. This only really affects rangers and necromancers, both of which are in a pretty bad state.

Really, you want the ranger to use a 180 second cooldown elite whose only use is stability (which they don’t get from anywhere else besides signet of the wild, a 60 sec cd skill), and be able to destroy the only use of their elite with your 32 sec cd null field or shattered concentration?

Really? And power necromancer is even weaker than mesmer I don’t even understand why you would want to make Lich weaker, I mean Lich already gets countered hard by anyone with a deflect, and the even more pathetic aspect is that you can outrun a player who used lich and side step the projectiles.

This is a good way to annoy people with your meaningless whine, by bullying other classes that are not doing so well.

@DaShi:
You don’t see the point. The point is that this change has a way bigger impact on the whole balance of PvP. Only looking at the mesmer, one may quickly come to the conclusion, that it would be an indirect mesmer nerf. However, one has to give credit to the context. Stacking stability may well change the whole meta and how the mesmer really ends up there with this change can only be guessed atm …

Lol woot, do people think elites like plague form are weak?!

Mesmer should get a transformation elite: phantasmal form; gain stability, protection and move faster, and gain all these fun 1-5 skills.

While it is likely to hurt my Mesmer, if you look at the new WvW maps, this is likely necessary. Otherwise a single Mesmer could hold a bridge with a null field and focus.

That being said, even with this change, I could combo those two to throw several off a bridge … I just have to be quick about it :-)

TyPin.9860:

@DaShi:
You don’t see the point. The point is that this change has a way bigger impact on the whole balance of PvP. Only looking at the mesmer, one may quickly come to the conclusion, that it would be an indirect mesmer nerf. However, one has to give credit to the context. Stacking stability may well change the whole meta and how the mesmer really ends up there with this change can only be guessed atm …

Can you blame them? It seems most “balance” tend to benefit other classes, it’s time the other 5 popular classes get a taste of this medicine.

No, I dont believe Memsers should just “take one for the team” (AGAIN) in order to balance PvP. It’s time to balance PvP in favor of Mesmers.

@Rome:
I agree that ArenaNet should look at current trends of classes in competitive play and make adjustments. Looking at tournaments, there is an abundance of a small subset of the available classes that should be an obvious indicator that some changes are warranted.

However, I disagree with “It’s time to balance PvP in favor of Mesmers”. I prefer balance. I believe most do. Also, Mesmers have had times where PvP has favored them … though never in largescale fights (except maybe glamor builds pre-nerf) … but we can be quite the monster in small-scale fights … if there isn’t a Thief on the opposing side ;-)

Definitely a nerf to boon strippers in a general sense, but I think elites should be more powerful anyway (waits for Time Warp to cause Slow). Whenever someone lich forms, I literally laugh and toss them around like a gigantic kitten rag doll. It’s bad enough that Mesmer counters Necro in the first place.

You don’t see many ele/engi transformations, so I’m not too worried. Just means I’ll have to be a bit more careful with necros and not laugh at how generally useless transformations are against me.

Also, will these be 1 stack pulses or 2 stack pulses of stability?

This can been seen as an indirect ‘nerf’ to mesmer, but you guys are missing a pretty key point; boon strip bypasses all stacks of stability.

Other classes will be forced to waste 2-4 crowd control effects just to lock down that lich necro for a second or two. On the other hand, all it will take is a well placed null field or shatter to strip all stacks of stability off. If anything, this reinforces mesmer as a valuable asset for locking down these elites much faster. I mean look at AoE(Armour of Earth) on elementalist… 10 stacks of stability. They will be impossible to lock down without boonstrip (and who has more of it other than mesmer?).

tl;dr Boonstrip is going to be far more useful than other crowd control effects, as one single shatter can bypass every single stability stack. In my honest opinion, this nerfs other classes who lack boonstrip more than us ^^.

OreoWolf.9564:

This can been seen as an indirect ‘nerf’ to mesmer, but you guys are missing a pretty key point; boon strip bypasses all stacks of stability.

Other classes will be forced to waste 2-4 crowd control effects just to lock down that lich necro for a second or two. On the other hand, all it will take is a well placed null field or shatter to strip all stacks of stability off. If anything, this reinforces mesmer as a valuable asset for locking down these elites much faster. I mean look at AoE(Armour of Earth) on elementalist… 10 stacks of stability. They will be impossible to lock down without boonstrip (and who has more of it other than mesmer?).

tl;dr Boonstrip is going to be far more useful than other crowd control effects, as one single shatter can bypass every single stability stack. In my honest opinion, this nerfs other classes who lack boonstrip more than us ^^.

Well, it used to be that crowd control skills cannot do anything with stability. Now they can.
So boonstrip is overall less useful compared to before.

OreoWolf.9564:

This can been seen as an indirect ‘nerf’ to mesmer, but you guys are missing a pretty key point; boon strip bypasses all stacks of stability.

Other classes will be forced to waste 2-4 crowd control effects just to lock down that lich necro for a second or two. On the other hand, all it will take is a well placed null field or shatter to strip all stacks of stability off. If anything, this reinforces mesmer as a valuable asset for locking down these elites much faster. I mean look at AoE(Armour of Earth) on elementalist… 10 stacks of stability. They will be impossible to lock down without boonstrip (and who has more of it other than mesmer?).

tl;dr Boonstrip is going to be far more useful than other crowd control effects, as one single shatter can bypass every single stability stack. In my honest opinion, this nerfs other classes who lack boonstrip more than us ^^.

sure, that all sound good on paper, but here’s the flip side of the coin – if Mesmers become more useful for boonstrip, they are also moving up as prime targets to eliminate first during confrontations. I dont think our durability is all that great, you cant be “useful” when you are eating dirt face down on the battlefield…

I would argue that with the pulsing mechanic they “nerfed” boomstrip against elite skills as well. Because now you could strip the 1-stack (wasting CD or clones), but 3 seconds later it will be reapplied.

Disclaimer: This is not a mesmer specific change, this will affect all classes across the board the same way so calling it “mesmer nerf” is just general tabloid labeling.
So yes, there will be meta shift.

This is a big change and will take a few days or even weeks to sort itself out. I think it’s actually quite hard to gauge on paper if this is a nerf or buff to Mesmers in general.

In some cases it is definitely a buff to be able to chain CC someone with low stacks of Stab, and have your 3rd or 4th CC actually hit. Sure you won’t be able to do that to the “major” Stab professions and Elite traits, but that’s kinda the point and seems balanced to me.

Let’s be clear about one thing, it doesn’t make much sense to complain that if something makes Mesmer better it is bad because that makes us a “higher priority target”.

You either continue to not have good things and be a “lower priority target” because you’re not much of a threat …

… or you become a “higher priority target” because you offer something the competitions finds worth trying to eliminate ASAP.

You either want meaningful capabilities and have to live with the consequences of possibly being targeted more …

… or you don’t do anything meaningful and are possibly targeted less because of it.

I personally prefer the former. I’ll take the pressure if it’s because I have a more meaningful role in the game.

I agree it’s kinda a kittenty situation for shatter… but the big slow moving lich that gets instantly called target on is a giant “COME KILL ME SIGN!”

I think it’s kind of a nerf for 1v1s (which still has pleanty of methods to out play even without reflects or moa mobility is all you really need)

but in a team fight I think it’s fair considering it can’t really escape, and the stability procs means it can get off a few more hits before it dies, as opposed to getting stun locked to death by a coordinated team.

It’s a strong buff yes, it affects low level play quite significantly but I think that’s ok, it means people will adapt and be better for it, and not in a terrible invasive way that forces you to roll other specs and classes.

But I think high end play could use a mixup like this, it’ll make the teamfights better.

I’m mes main and I think a change like this even if it moderately hurts our 1v1s is ultimately healthy for the game.

Besides boon stripping with a mes we’ll have plenty of time to get off our CC after a strip.