- Alacrity nerf is fair enough.
- Precog well change is utterly weird and very boring.
- Malicious Sorcery is still not GM worthy.
- Chaos Armour change is unfair. Unlike other auras, each condition/boon only has a one in three chance of applying – therefore the blind was completely and utterly justified as it may never even proc. Simply don’t get this one.
I’m guessing there are more buffs coming to Mesmer that haven’t been mentioned? That sceptre rework? How about making those other off-hands viable? What about Phantasmal Mage? How about a buff to condi Mes so it can exist outside the confines of the Illusions specialisation? What will Chrono get to cope with those buffs to Thief that directly counter shatter Chrono?
- Alacrity nerf is fair enough.
- Precog well change is utterly weird and very boring.
- Malicious Sorcery is still not GM worthy.
- Chaos Armour change is unfair. Unlike other auras, each condition/boon only has a one in three chance of applying – therefore the blind was completely and utterly justified as it may never even proc. Simply don’t get this one.
I’m guessing there are more buffs coming to Mesmer that haven’t been mentioned? That sceptre rework? How about making those other off-hands viable? What about Phantasmal Mage? How about a buff to condi Mes so it can exist outside the confines of the Illusions specialisation? What will Chrono get to cope with those buffs to Thief that directly counter shatter Chrono?
- Alacrity nerf is fair enough. No, they should start smaller first. What is Anet’s addiction with halfing things? go 66%→50%, let the PLAYER BASE test it, and go from there.
- Precog well change is utterly weird and very boring. Precog change is… stupid… I imagine it’s in response to its usefulness in WvW as a counter to the unblockable necro well bombs? As well as its use in some PvE aspects I guess? A lower duration would’ve been better…
- Chaos Armour change is unfair. Unlike other auras, each condition/boon only has a one in three chance of applying – therefore the blind was completely and utterly justified as it may never even proc. Simply don’t get this one. No one does. We have what? 2 sources of chaos armor? Hell, to even get the kitten we’re on staff. Staff is a weak weapon outside of chaos armor and phase retreat. Staff needs some serious kittening buffs, because it’s useless even with the things mentioned.
“Unused Development Initiative. We care so much
about your feedback, that we don’t even read it.” ~ Crystal Suzuki
Chaos Armor… blind gone… What the actual kitten, ANet? The point is that it is strong in RNG.
If you’re doing this, can you just remove Ineptitude as well. It wasn’t any good before, and this certainly isn’t helping, so just remove it.
May as well kill Ineptitude since basilisk venom is unblockable and weakness will in no way stop it.
It’s pretty clear thieves are coming back in pvp, so where does that leave mesmer at?
I told you these negligent amoebas would do nothing but nerf the mesmer on PvP grounds and give negligible increases to pathetic weapons.
Meanwhile thief sword and dagger autoattacks got raised by 30% lol. Thief autoattack with sword was already 20% stronger than mesmer mainhand sword, now it’s 50% stronger.
What a joke.
The warrior nerfs are not even nerfs, since with consumables and sigils their new build actually buffs them.
Almost right, but that’s not how you math.
Mesmer sword = 1. Thief pre-buff sword = 1.2. If you boost thief sword by 30%, that’s 1.2 * 1.3 = 1.56.
Will there be more on patch day or is this the complete list?
Today was a small preview for all classes.
Spoiler alert. Today’s preview contained 90% of the meaningful balance changes, just like every time they’ve said that in the past.
Think about it…if there were that many more changes coming, they wouldn’t have spent time revealing a 5% increase in scepter attack speed.
Oh, no cyyrix, you don’t understand! What they didn’t cover on the livestream today was a significant change to the mesmer’s scepter mechanics!
You see, they’re also going to be buffing the scepter’s auto-attack damage!
By 5%!
Logic checks out, definitely an anet-worthy change.
Looking forward to the eventual changes revealed which will ultimately determine the state of mesmer for the next few months. Apparently I’m the only optimist here, pessimists feel free to continue your diatribe.
Will there be more on patch day or is this the complete list?
Today was a small preview for all classes.
Spoiler alert. Today’s preview contained 90% of the meaningful balance changes, just like every time they’ve said that in the past.
Think about it…if there were that many more changes coming, they wouldn’t have spent time revealing a 5% increase in scepter attack speed.
Oh, no cyyrix, you don’t understand! What they didn’t cover on the livestream today was a significant change to the mesmer’s scepter mechanics!
You see, they’re also going to be buffing the scepter’s auto-attack damage!
By 5%!
Logic checks out, definitely an anet-worthy change.
Looking forward to the eventual changes revealed which will ultimately determine the state of mesmer for the next few months. Apparently I’m the only optimist here, pessimists feel free to continue your diatribe.
One could make a watertight case that your optimism is more accurately termed irrationality, and that the pessimism is more accurately termed realistic estimations based on evidence and experience.
Will there be more on patch day or is this the complete list?
Today was a small preview for all classes.
Spoiler alert. Today’s preview contained 90% of the meaningful balance changes, just like every time they’ve said that in the past.
Think about it…if there were that many more changes coming, they wouldn’t have spent time revealing a 5% increase in scepter attack speed.
Oh, no cyyrix, you don’t understand! What they didn’t cover on the livestream today was a significant change to the mesmer’s scepter mechanics!
You see, they’re also going to be buffing the scepter’s auto-attack damage!
By 5%!
Logic checks out, definitely an anet-worthy change.
Looking forward to the eventual changes revealed which will ultimately determine the state of mesmer for the next few months. Apparently I’m the only optimist here, pessimists feel free to continue your diatribe.
One could make a watertight case that your optimism is more accurately termed irrationality, and that the pessimism is more accurately termed realistic estimations based on evidence and experience.
Worry not, friend – the changes were actually announced in a neutral location (our blog). I spun up the thread in the PvP forums afterwards to start working on getting some more directed feedback on runes/amulets/sigils in PvP.
Will there be more on patch day or is this the complete list?
Today was a small preview for all classes.
Spoiler alert. Today’s preview contained 90% of the meaningful balance changes, just like every time they’ve said that in the past.
Think about it…if there were that many more changes coming, they wouldn’t have spent time revealing a 5% increase in scepter attack speed.
Oh, no cyyrix, you don’t understand! What they didn’t cover on the livestream today was a significant change to the mesmer’s scepter mechanics!
You see, they’re also going to be buffing the scepter’s auto-attack damage!
By 5%!
Logic checks out, definitely an anet-worthy change.
Looking forward to the eventual changes revealed which will ultimately determine the state of mesmer for the next few months. Apparently I’m the only optimist here, pessimists feel free to continue your diatribe.
I used to be optimistic, back when I hadn’t witnessed ANet’s balancing first hand.
And you know that their preview of changes is just crap that will go live regardless of feedback.
And given that these meager, pathetic balance changes took 4 months to conjure up, expect 4 months of being garbage until they realize they got it wrong, again.
It’s not like they do any meaningful changes unless it’s tied to a box sale hype train.
I think enough things have been said about the upcoming changes that we know about, I still hope there will be some form of compensation, well actually, I want to mention some that I would like to see:
Aftercast on GS Auto-Attack can it please go, finally, it won’t be a huge DPS increase but definitely a QoL change in terms of not having to stow the weapon in between casts (actually most of the time I can’t really be kitten d with doing that anymore)
How about to make up for the Alacrity nerf we get the extra feature, just on Mesmer of course, that Alacrity affects weapon swap as well. From my perspective the benefit won’t be amazing, or let’s say, it won’t be a game changer in terms of pvp, but gives us a little more options and an ever so slightly more fast paced gameplay
Honestly I feel like Mind Wrack ought to be exempt from alacrity to keep balance with core mesmer : Mind Wrack itself gives alacrity.
edit: I also feel that Restorative Illusions should have a cooldown, or at least a lower heal with 0 illusions. Right now you can more or less shatter on recharge for the condi cleanse + heal.
They balance PvE for party contribution, attributing supportive bonuses as bonus damage dealt by the supportive class.
Balancing DPS to all be similar is a notion that makes no sense. Rangers historically (only now not true because of the incoming damage to pets changes) had lower AA DPS than even mesmers. What makes classes used in PvE is their ability to provide the entire party with more damage than it had before. It’s why ranger/druid is good. It’s why mesmer is now very useful. It’s why PS is used on warrior, and why boons play such a critical role as to allow other players to just keep dealing damage.
Of course, you got to see it within in a respective context. But how is this even an argument for your point here? Mesmer DPS has been crappy for ages. The only thing keeping Mesmers in a meta have been gimmicks. Portal. Veil. Time Warp. Currently it’s Alacrity and to some degree Quickness. Just as you said: You got to consider the additional support a class brings. However, now this thing making Mesmers at least slightly relevant is getting nerfed. Go figure why people ask for better sustained damage. It’s not rocket science. Otherwise the costs of opportunity to bring a Mesmer are too high.
Regarding the Ranger example, please don’t even go there. Mesmers had and have the same pet related issues Rangers have. Ranger Sword have been on par or even outdamaging Mesmer Sword for ages now.
Portal, Veil, Time Warp are all useful. The issue is the game gives drops & credit largely based on damage. If you play a reaper or staff wells necro , or an ele you will get massively more drops than a mesmer. This is especially true when enemies die fast.
Desolation (EU) → Yak’s Bend (US)
In your backline: Elementalist+Mesmer+Necromancer
They balance PvE for party contribution, attributing supportive bonuses as bonus damage dealt by the supportive class.
Balancing DPS to all be similar is a notion that makes no sense. Rangers historically (only now not true because of the incoming damage to pets changes) had lower AA DPS than even mesmers. What makes classes used in PvE is their ability to provide the entire party with more damage than it had before. It’s why ranger/druid is good. It’s why mesmer is now very useful. It’s why PS is used on warrior, and why boons play such a critical role as to allow other players to just keep dealing damage.
Of course, you got to see it within in a respective context. But how is this even an argument for your point here? Mesmer DPS has been crappy for ages. The only thing keeping Mesmers in a meta have been gimmicks. Portal. Veil. Time Warp. Currently it’s Alacrity and to some degree Quickness. Just as you said: You got to consider the additional support a class brings. However, now this thing making Mesmers at least slightly relevant is getting nerfed. Go figure why people ask for better sustained damage. It’s not rocket science. Otherwise the costs of opportunity to bring a Mesmer are too high.
Regarding the Ranger example, please don’t even go there. Mesmers had and have the same pet related issues Rangers have. Ranger Sword have been on par or even outdamaging Mesmer Sword for ages now.
Portal, Veil, Time Warp are all useful. The issue is the game gives drops & credit largely based on damage. If you play a reaper or staff wells necro , or an ele you will get massively more drops than a mesmer. This is especially true when enemies die fast.
- Portal
Depends. It’s very easy to force a mesmer to use this defensively, rather than aggressively.
- Veil
No. Thief smoke + Blasts is better.
And stealth lost most of its meaning when GvGs moved to Arena (Stealth isn’t really optimal there).
Veil is meh in open field Zerg v Zerg. It would be better if veil were invisible to enemies. But otherwise, you can see that someone’s veiling, and usually guess what direction they’re going in anyway. Making it pretty pointless. Not to mention, it lasts for such a short duration that everyone can just kite it out. (Thus why smoke + blasts is better)
- Time Warp
Only in PvE (Loses all meaning in PvP this patch). TW tends to override water fields in WvW.
“Unused Development Initiative. We care so much
about your feedback, that we don’t even read it.” ~ Crystal Suzuki
aNet are rushing to nerf mesmer far too quickly, without even looking at all the flaws it has already. If you are going to greatly nerf Chaos Armor and Alacrity, you should buff some of the terrible things in addition, more than 5% improvement on scepter trait…
Here are some things that could use a rework or improvement
Traits
Dueling traitline is very messy, GM Mistrust is terrible and its place is even more terrible..
Mantra traits are too spread out and bad to use in PvE
Pistol improve trait is stupid because it’s not a good weapon for interrupt builds, and its better in DPS rather than bleed stacking.
Phantasmal fury isn’t good enough… perhaps it should grant AoE fury for small amounts of time
Evasive Mirror and Manipulation Mastery screw up our stealths
Sword improve trait doesn’t provide enough Ferocity
Condition cleanse should be more spread out and accessable rather than the Inspiration traitline.
Illusions traitline needs buffs, Sceptre trait again… make it like the necro scepter trait or something.. MoF is good but doesn’t stand out enough to make the line worth it. Shattered Strength was better as a minor, so it would also help Maim the Dillusioned do more damage, and Phantasmal haste is useless because no one keeps phantasms alive.. Persistance of Memory is too weak
Interrupt builds aren’t worth taking, as the traits are too spread out, lets see, there’s 4 lines with interrupt traits in them -_- srsly anet
Skills
Utility skill wells are underpowered, the necro ones do far more dps and other useful effects, while mesmer ones pulse you for the most minor damage, then the final blast can be dodged
Scepter attack speed improvement isn’t going to cut it. The weapon needs to lean towards more condi or more dps, not be a balance in between both. Confusing images should inflict another condition rather, Illusionary Counter needs a rework, as its too easy to interrupt, blind and dodge. The auto attack is too slow, in its cast and projectile s peed, and does not inflict enough pressure.
*Focus is a garbage weapon now because the only thing it was good for was swiftness, and you sacrifice a lot of healing and condition cleanse to gain reflects.
*Offhand sword is decent but Riposte could be improved further
Pistol hits like a wet noodle and its CC isn’t good enough
Torch phantasm… pls…
Shield is far too dominant over other offhands, because it’s the only weapon that can block more than 1 attack
Sword AA is too weak, maybe more might could help or just buff the sword, the first two attacks hit around 300 or 400 on bunkers, as a marauder mesmer, with zerk you could get 500. crits won’t hit over 1k. Third strike is good, but rarely hits over 3k in PvP, and over 4K in PvE. Additionally, the sword is slow without quickness.
Mesmer has little-to-none blast finishers and useful combo fields, and not enough projectile finishers to make use of etheral fields for condition pressure.
Blink and Decoy are far more convenient over any other utilities, anet still has no idea how to improve other utilities.. Mimic for example sacrifices a utility slot to use another skill twice every 90 seconds, but there’s nothing that amazing there
Barely any condition cleanse on weapon skills, none on offensive traits, none in chronomancer.
Sword 3 should stunbreak, it helped good players be more powerful with mesmer, slightly… but was something.
Greatsword auto does not tune well with the other skills, as mirror blade works better short range, and illusionary wave is short range. The AA DPS is useless in PvE
Blurred Frenzy does more damage to yourself than enemies with retaliation…
Echo of Memory, block is too short, useless in PvE unless timed well, easy to be screwed over in PvP, keep Deja Vu short, but make Echo Of Memory at least 2 seconds.
Tides Of Time moves too slow, therefore it pulses twice on each target it hits or even 3 times, removing multiple stacks of stability and dealing large damage each way it goes, the only ‘nerf’ that is necessary, but it could use a damage increase in exchange.
Phantasm utility skills are overpowered by traits, and are waste of a slot.
We don’t need two signets related to condi builds. Turn signet domination in a power stat bonus jesus christ -_- then it would blend well with interrupt builds.. if they were still a thing. Signet of Midnight should be updated to provide Expertise, or concentration as it used to be. Activation effect is not good enough to replace blink and decoy. Perhaps give it 2 seconds of distortion (3 with signet trait) in addition to aoe blind on activation, making it a useful escape skill.
Signet of Inspiration is still messed up a bit and anet STILL haven’t come up with something good to make of this, we don’t need swiftness boost now that we have chronomancer line.
If you’re going to nerf mesmer, fix some of these errors up please…
Arcane Bastion [AB]
Elementalist Mesmer Ranger
Sea of Sorrows
I heard there was a pretty good counter to confusion damage. It’s called “don’t spam skills mindlessly when you have high stacks of confusion on you”. I know, I know, that’s a high-level complicated strat, but I’m sure you can manage.
Arcane Thievery should be on a 15 second cool down also. Since mesmer needs more ways on removing boons other than shatter, which is the most commonly one used.
Siafu [Fu]
Sylvari Mesmer BlackgateHenge of DenraviBorlis PassCrystal Desert Fort Aspenwood
Honestly I feel like Mind Wrack ought to be exempt from alacrity to keep balance with core mesmer : Mind Wrack itself gives alacrity.
edit: I also feel that Restorative Illusions should have a cooldown, or at least a lower heal with 0 illusions. Right now you can more or less shatter on recharge for the condi cleanse + heal.
They balance PvE for party contribution, attributing supportive bonuses as bonus damage dealt by the supportive class.
Balancing DPS to all be similar is a notion that makes no sense. Rangers historically (only now not true because of the incoming damage to pets changes) had lower AA DPS than even mesmers. What makes classes used in PvE is their ability to provide the entire party with more damage than it had before. It’s why ranger/druid is good. It’s why mesmer is now very useful. It’s why PS is used on warrior, and why boons play such a critical role as to allow other players to just keep dealing damage.
Of course, you got to see it within in a respective context. But how is this even an argument for your point here? Mesmer DPS has been crappy for ages. The only thing keeping Mesmers in a meta have been gimmicks. Portal. Veil. Time Warp. Currently it’s Alacrity and to some degree Quickness. Just as you said: You got to consider the additional support a class brings. However, now this thing making Mesmers at least slightly relevant is getting nerfed. Go figure why people ask for better sustained damage. It’s not rocket science. Otherwise the costs of opportunity to bring a Mesmer are too high.
Regarding the Ranger example, please don’t even go there. Mesmers had and have the same pet related issues Rangers have. Ranger Sword have been on par or even outdamaging Mesmer Sword for ages now.
Portal, Veil, Time Warp are all useful. The issue is the game gives drops & credit largely based on damage. If you play a reaper or staff wells necro , or an ele you will get massively more drops than a mesmer. This is especially true when enemies die fast.
No no no no no no no and no! You are not touching restorative illussions, or nerfing anything in the inspiration trait line!
Horrible suggestion, just horrible! Seriously, core mesmer got problems and you want to nerf it further… tha fuq!
Seriously I get so kittened when people wanna nerf the only thing that acually work as it is! And to that guy (Henrik) who want devs to go and change things in inspiration, so condi cleanse get more spread, I say this!
You have to choose! Sure core mesmer needs alot of help, but you cant get everything in one spec either!
Inspiration line is fine, and anything that isnt a buff, will break mesmer further! Leave inspiration alone!
I don’t really understand the hammering Mes is in for. The nerfs go beyond meta bunker control (note druid was left untouched) to the point where I’m not sure what their agenda for Mes is. If you want to look at unholy sustain go no further than Scrapper, for ridiculous I win buttons go to DH, Reaper and Revs, but really what does mes excel at now.
Personally I never played full bunker because it is boring compared to active engagement. Another nerf to alacrity wasn’t necessary in my view (for PvP) and also effects shatterers. A simple solution is half alacrity but double the duration for alacrity on illusion shatter so it stays the same. Also I do find it funny that chill doesn’t get the same treatment despite being the counterpart of alacrity.
The agenda is to kick Mesmer out of the meta. That’s what the actions say.
I read them differently. The agenda is to remove chronobunker from viability, along with the other super-bunkers that exist right now. However, this agenda is being executed with a shortsightedness that neglects to ask the question of “are any other mesmer builds viable right now?”
Will there be more on patch day or is this the complete list?
Today was a small preview for all classes.
Spoiler alert. Today’s preview contained 90% of the meaningful balance changes, just like every time they’ve said that in the past.
Think about it…if there were that many more changes coming, they wouldn’t have spent time revealing a 5% increase in scepter attack speed.
Oh, no cyyrix, you don’t understand! What they didn’t cover on the livestream today was a significant change to the mesmer’s scepter mechanics!
You see, they’re also going to be buffing the scepter’s auto-attack damage!
By 5%!
Logic checks out, definitely an anet-worthy change.
Looking forward to the eventual changes revealed which will ultimately determine the state of mesmer for the next few months. Apparently I’m the only optimist here, pessimists feel free to continue your diatribe.
One could make a watertight case that your optimism is more accurately termed irrationality, and that the pessimism is more accurately termed realistic estimations based on evidence and experience.
Will there be more on patch day or is this the complete list?
Today was a small preview for all classes.
Spoiler alert. Today’s preview contained 90% of the meaningful balance changes, just like every time they’ve said that in the past.
Think about it…if there were that many more changes coming, they wouldn’t have spent time revealing a 5% increase in scepter attack speed.
Oh, no cyyrix, you don’t understand! What they didn’t cover on the livestream today was a significant change to the mesmer’s scepter mechanics!
You see, they’re also going to be buffing the scepter’s auto-attack damage!
By 5%!
Logic checks out, definitely an anet-worthy change.
Looking forward to the eventual changes revealed which will ultimately determine the state of mesmer for the next few months. Apparently I’m the only optimist here, pessimists feel free to continue your diatribe.
One could make a watertight case that your optimism is more accurately termed irrationality, and that the pessimism is more accurately termed realistic estimations based on evidence and experience.
Sure
I’d like to take a moment to say I told you so.
Hehe I know you’ve been so itching to say that for over a week now.
