Guild Wars 2

patch

Also in this update, we are implementing initial attacks on several phantasm skills, allowing the mesmer to deliver a primary attack in addition to the summon in order to provide a bit more constant pressure on your targets.

We know have them all and all attacks do less damage then the already abysmal auto attack damage of their respective weapons.

Amazing really

Wait I’m confused. Are you mad about this? To me it looks like they are just adding things similar to what they did with iMage and iWarlock. Not a bad thing.

Except for them all being terrible.

jportell.2197:

Wait I’m confused. Are you mad about this? To me it looks like they are just adding things similar to what they did with iMage and iWarlock. Not a bad thing.

Sometimes i prefered them to give 0 dmg instead of 1 dmg.

If they are suposed to increase dmg pressure they should give more dmg. Right now it only serves to break stealth/trigger retal and all the negative “trigger on hit” effects.

But wait, the best is sword phantasm. It now grants might to all sword phantasm!!
Why you wonder ( since might applied to phantasms have no effect). I can think of one! Corruption to turn it into weakness. Kappa /cry.

FJSAMA.2867:

But wait, the best is sword phantasm. It now grants might to all sword phantasm!!
Why you wonder ( since might applied to phantasms have no effect). I can think of one! Corruption to turn it into weakness. Kappa /cry.

OMG this didn’t even click with me. Might on phantasms literally does nothing, they have no idea what they are doing.

Unless it’s merely a tooltip fix they also stealth nerfed iZerker to 1s cast time (was 0.75s).

Not complaining about the actual attack additions since they’re a pure upgrade and will only cause inopportune hits in very specific circumstances.

You gain the 8 might, not the swordsman from what I understand. But to do so, you have to hit every summoned swordsman with that blow.

I’m with levetty, I’ll hop in and try it, but this isn’t what mesmer needed.

Changes that were good:

• MoF
• Mental Anguish. PvE only for now, but it will help out power based builds a lot
• MW and CoF. Small enough increases to not be broken in competitive game modes, but still its something
• IR. Illusion spam from this trait was too much and this was a good change that was justified. But I’d rather Anet look at my other suggestion (I know I made it too late, but still), and make chronophantasma baseline while removing IR entirely. Would do a LOT more to reduce illusion spam.

Changes that were neutral:

• Everything else. New attacks on the phantasms are great and all, but at the same time they don’t seem to have much pressure. Warden is probably the best one there, because it synergizes with the warden itself, but none of the rest synergize all that well.
• WoP. Technically a buff, I guess? But its still not that great of a skill since its just 1 aegis per pulse. It really should be updated to give 10-15 endurance per pulse istead of just giving 30 endurance at the end, aegis on the first 2 pulses, and blur on the last pulse.
• CS. Well I’d much rather Anet take a look over at this post instead (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Mesmer-elite-skills-redesign/first). Redesign our elites and then just make it so that CS doesn’t affect them.
• ToT, makes sense for PvP, doesn’t make sense for PvE at all.
• BD. Don’t get me wrong, its a nice change, but its not going to change anything. 2 more might stacks? 3 extra seconds of vigor? 5 extra seconds of fury?

Overall I’m happy we weren’t really nerfed, but this didn’t change anything in my opinion. Maybe these tiny changes might shake up the meta for mesmers when taken together with the changes to other classes? I doubt it though.

As long as you hit one enemy with the sword swipe, you and any iSwordmen you have out, including then one you just created, get 8 might.

The might on the iSwordman does not effect them.

It gets even odder when you think that all of this is to replace those illusion death traits. It’s true using phantasms from a stealth position will be a bit more instant. However it’s something and in normal circumstances that’s better than nothing. However the outcry happened nearly two years ago during the balance patch pre-HoT. Those people either quit, shifted classes, or play much less by now. It’s probably a change for those who will come back and check things out prior to the expansion.

I don’t see how attacks at the creation of phantasms create pressure they’ll just assist in burst dmg. Pressure would be something at the tail end in case they get destroyed or their target dies. Basically the clone death mechanic but there not big on reverting any of their changes regardless of the outcome just look at the state of leather.

Not home for the next couple of days so all I get to do is enjoy how arenanet decides to implement changes wgich potentially increase mesmer burst which never was an issue.

Meanwhile we can expect some nerfs in the next few weeks once people decide that our burst is to high.

Sustained damage problems of mesmers fixed = none.

Also lol at might on phantasms.

“a bit more constant pressure on your target”, I only see burst damage or Mind Wrack is considered to be a constant pressure damage now?

Just increase mesmer auto attack damage, all of them, is it so hard? Oh and remove the range penalty on greatsword too

Wow just wow. Haven’t played in weeks and I can’t say I see any reason to return.

Might on Phantasms and more burst… ehl oh ehl!

Someone’s asleep at the wheel…

Yea our autos really are pathetic.

I like the one on focus.

I would like offhand sword if it did what it was intending to do… But the amount of fail associated with that is enough to break the merit of them trying.

GS needs to be AoE knock down, or a long daze matching the animation.

The buff on focus would be, again would be, good if only the Phantasmal Warden doesn’t have to whirl his axe for 5 sec

I’m pretty happy about a ~5s projectile protection tho.

Levetty.1279:

patch

Also in this update, we are implementing initial attacks on several phantasm skills, allowing the mesmer to deliver a primary attack in addition to the summon in order to provide a bit more constant pressure on your targets.

We know have them all and all attacks do less damage then the already abysmal auto attack damage of their respective weapons.

Amazing really

“We wanted more constant pressure on your targets, so we decided to make your greatsword phantasm attack do an extra 200 damage so that you’ll take more retaliation damage than you deal to them when you cast it”
—Anet probably

It seems to be a given that Phantasm skills are supposed to reveal us nowadays. So no reason to discuss that. I don’t have an opinion on underwater weapons, either. Torch, Focus and Staff are fine in my book. But the other Phantasms need to be adressed.

• Sword OH isn’t that much of a melee weapon so the attack is a bit weird. Not going to discuss the Might. But I feel a frontal/diagonal slash which causes a wave that removes boons from enemies in front of you (think GS#5 but a bit smaller) would be way more appropriate and can also justify it not dealing damage. It would also cater Sword MH AA.
• GS#4 needs its damage to be increased, or the applied stacks of Vulnerability has to be bigger. Regardless, it has to last significantly longer. I also feel that it doesn’t need a projectile and the damage could be dealt by the whirl when casting instead.
• Pistol#4. Please… it’s a bad joke. At least make it a fast(er) projectile which bounces and also applies Slow (e.g. more time to interrupt stuff). And when we’re add it: Add something useful to #5 instead of 1 stack of Confusion. Chill. Cripple. Slow. Weakness. Make a pick.

While I agree that SW offhand isn’t the best fit for a melee attack, at the same time core mesmer doesn’t have any melee skills on its offhand weapons. Focus is mid-range ish, pistol is longrange, torch is an odd combination to say the least but I’d still classify it as midrange at least due to the range on the phantasm attack. So I welcome an actual melee attack on an offhand weapon, especially since it didn’t really change one of our pre-existing attacks. But it is definitely an odd skill nonetheless.

OriOri.8724:

So I welcome an actual melee attack on an offhand weapon, especially since it didn’t really change one of our pre-existing attacks. But it is definitely an odd skill nonetheless.

We alread got AA and BF as melee attacks. And I doubt the current bonus is worth it to get into melee range for. Having to be in 130 range just makes it unecessarily hard to benefit.

Sure, the range on Torch isn’t great either, but considering Prestige Torch is way more close combat than OH Sword already (#4 = 900 range, #5 = 1200 range). Personally, I’d rather make sure I don’t get interrupted when casting my iSwordsman or get a nice combo leap finisher out of it.

AA and BF are mainhand skills, they have nothing to do with offhand weapon skills. Core memser does lack a melee offhand, which isn’t necessarily a problem. But in that light, I can appreciate Anet trying to give us an offhand, melee skill. I do appreciate the effort

OriOri.8724:

AA and BF are mainhand skills, they have nothing to do with offhand weapon skills.

I’m aware of that but, of course, they do have to do with each other. Most classic dual whielded weapons were initially designed as pairs which still is quite apparent when looking at (partly reworked) weapon traits.

I’m not saying that this has always been successful on ANets part or that they can’t be combined in other ways. But it’s a very obvious design decision they made. Even if this wasn’t the case, how would you evaluate a melee OH without taking the only melee MH into account?

My personal opinion on Sword OH is that there has never (or at least very rarely, e.g. #4.2 interrupt) been a good reason to play it close combat in the past. In this context, the new attack feels counterintuitive. I’d rather have an at least medium range attack.

I agree, its a counter-intuitive attack. It doesn’t fit thematically with OH sword at all. Now that all of the phantasms have additional effects though, I’m going to evaluate them and figure out what I’d like to see instead.

Fay.2357:

Levetty.1279:

patch

Also in this update, we are implementing initial attacks on several phantasm skills, allowing the mesmer to deliver a primary attack in addition to the summon in order to provide a bit more constant pressure on your targets.

We know have them all and all attacks do less damage then the already abysmal auto attack damage of their respective weapons.

Amazing really

“We wanted more constant pressure on your targets, so we decided to make your greatsword phantasm attack do an extra 200 damage so that you’ll take more retaliation damage than you deal to them when you cast it”
—Anet probably

And happily reveal you from stealth.

On the bright side, it can proc fire/air sigil for burst! Now we just need to test it out in Pv….

oh

I’m glad fire/air sigils were removed. They did nothing but add spam to the game.

OriOri.8724:

I’m glad fire/air sigils were removed. They did nothing but add spam to the game.

Fully agreed. My one gripe is that they didn’t go far enough, and left virtually all autoattacks in a state where on top of causing 2-4 effects by themselves they can have another 2-3 stapled on via traits.

Instead of, you know, being an autoattack. Dealing damage. Nothing more.

Carighan.6758:

OriOri.8724:

I’m glad fire/air sigils were removed. They did nothing but add spam to the game.

Fully agreed. My one gripe is that they didn’t go far enough, and left virtually all autoattacks in a state where on top of causing 2-4 effects by themselves they can have another 2-3 stapled on via traits.

Instead of, you know, being an autoattack. Dealing damage. Nothing more.

Yea, I wish they had addressed auto attacks as well. Being able to trait them to do more stuff is one thing that is debatable as to whether its a good thing or not, but the worst offenders are the auto attacks that apply conditions or boons baseline. There should be a few exceptions of course, for condi weapons. But in those cases the autos themselves should be dealing little to no power damage and just applying conditions. And it really should be limited to a single condition per auto chain (so necro scepter and rev mace would have to be changed, along with any others I missed).

If autoattack is truly the root of problem then have them not work on autoattack. Plain removal just strip fresh air ele of what little value they have and make mesmer GS even more pathetic outside of your one trick pony.

Personally I don’t think air/fire are any more powerful than the new sigils we’re getting, and its removal is very redundant after many power builds got significant nerfs to damage and/or sustain.

No one said auto attacks are the root of any problem. But at the same time there’s no reason for auto attacks to be applying boons or conditions. Its just pure spam. Rebalances would of kittening course be needed, but really no autos should be applying condis or boons, especially baseline.

ive never felt sorry for Mesmer about anything, but I gotta say the extra summon attacks are really kittenin weak.

Though I still hate the fact that casting phantasmal berserker from stealth reveals you now, i must admit that the animation definitely grew on me

Illusions should be permanent as long as you are in combat and many problems would be solved.
Increase dmg of Phantasms .
Improve mantra traits for better power mesmer play i.e. All triggered mantras also trigger on your illussion positions.
Reduce CD on some utilities i.e. Illusion of life with 90s CD would high enough instead of 120s.
Make arcane thievery a stunbreak and if you break stun with it your target get stunned/dazed/launched etc. instead.
Well of precognition: Instead of giving Aegis give block for all effected. (this can be counter played and a 3s block isnt that high).

Nullfield maybe attached to mesmer and moving with him (could be a little bit to strong but i am.not sure)
Phantasmal defender give Aegis in addition to protection for better defense while casting.

tgese are my ideas for improving Power mesmer/ anti condi gameplay.