Guild Wars 2

I never really understood the need for a nerf of ’’fix’’. Mesmer rarely sit on main hand sword to make it worthwhile. Who are really able to keep 10 stacks of it and make it useful ?

Before the ’’fix’’, it worked as long you had a sword/off sword. Which means pWarden, pDuelist gave you the stacking buff as well.

Also, if you were a scepter wielder (which is pretty rare), you could have sword off hand and stack up the buff with your scepter skills. It gave the mesmer’s scepter a damage buff as well.

It made sword and also sword off hand competitive. What’s the point to take it over Shield now ? In comparison to other classes where they only need to wear a weapon to get the ferocity benefits, Fencer’s Finesse buff uptime is not good enough. Why so stingy ?

Instead to narrow the trait choices, give us more options. It can open new builds.

Apples and oranges, k, k. But still :

Warrior : Axe Mastery – Critical axe hits gain extra adrenaline. Gain ferocity for each axe you are wielding. Reduce recharge on axe skills.

Ranger : Honed Axes – Gain ferocity while wielding an axe in your main hand. Winter’s bite is now an AoE skill. Axe skills recharge faster.

Thief : No Quarter – Landing a critical hit while under the effects of fury increases the duration of fury. Gain increased ferocity while under the effects of fury.

Revenant : Assassin’s Presence – Increase the ferocity of nearby allies.

Fencer’s Finesse is really for the reduction in sword recharges, I think

Infusion.7149:

Fencer’s Finesse is really for the reduction in sword recharges, I think

Yes, I’m not talking about the % reduction. They gave the same to ranger and warrior Axe, but easier access to Ferocity. Might as well give the ranger double ferocity like the warrior, nah ?

Not only ranger and warrior traits reduce and give 150/300 ferocity without doing anything, they actually give something more. Ranger : Winter’s Bite AoE and Warrior : More adrenaline. Mesmer ? Harder access to Ferocity with nothing more.

I agree 100%. Its already a limited buff that you have to “build up” over time and keep attacking in order to keep stacked, it doesn’t need to be further limited on top of that by making it harder to obtain as well via excluding some of your skills from activating it. Right now its pretty hard to keep up and maxed unless you have a few sword clones active. And its current incarnation is basically useless with just offhand sword, since there’s no way Riposte / Swordsman is keeping any meaningful amount of it active.

Perhaps they could just lengthen the 6s duration on the ferocity increase to 60seconds. I can get 10 stacks with sword 2 very easily , it is difficult to maintain because I pretty much always shatter the sword clones however.

edit:

@ silverkey: Imagined Burden is really for the might on autoattack much like ele’s Pyro trait that gives you might (Whenever you or a clone uses Spatial Surge, you gain might.)
Chaotic Dampening had a nerf in June , but it adds protection when you have Chaos armor
The Pledge is likely not going to be that strong ever because of the stealth on torch skills

If you haven’t noticed, mesmer got all the “we did not want plain CD reduction” or “buff that stack but you can’t really stack them” while other classes are just fine. Examples:

• “Imagined Burden”: would you really stack clones for the might instead of… I don’t know… phantasms? And all of that for 5s might?
• “Fencer’s Finesse” as OP said, though it can work in PvE where you usually camp sword
• “Harmonious Mantras”: almost impossible to reach full stack for a decent amount of time
• “Chaotic Dampening”: beautiful CD recharge…
• “The Pledge”: another one of those

Silverkey.2078:

If you haven’t noticed, mesmer got all the “we did not want plain CD reduction” or “buff that stack but you can’t really stack them” while other classes are just fine. Examples:

• “Imagined Burden”: would you really stack clones for the might instead of… I don’t know… phantasms? And all of that for 5s might?
• “Fencer’s Finesse” as OP said, though it can work in PvE where you usually camp sword
• “Harmonious Mantras”: almost impossible to reach full stack for a decent amount of time
• “Chaotic Dampening”: beautiful CD recharge…
• “The Pledge”: another one of those

The issue is that their profession designers clearly aren’t all on the same page. The concept of making CD reduction based on something for a risk vs reward type structure isn’t bad – but if you don’t apply it across the board then it’s going to fail.

There are other examples too. Some profession designers realized the relative weakness of the ‘on downed’ traits and so merged them with other effects, while some professions (Mesmers) kept them as is.

Similarly, most professions received a trait in their Mastery line which affected their new weapon set. Mesmers did not.

Dastion.3106:

The issue is that their profession designers clearly aren’t all on the same page. The concept of making CD reduction based on something for a risk vs reward type structure isn’t bad – but if you don’t apply it across the board then it’s going to fail.

The thing is, most people would be fine with these. If they actually meant an improval over 20% when playing skillfully. However, those either end up being either supbar or barely equal to flat 20% reduction when sticking to obvious and gimmicky rotations.

Dastion.3106:

There are other examples too. Some profession designers realized the relative weakness of the ‘on downed’ traits and so merged them with other effects, while some professions (Mesmers) kept them as is.

Actually, we only got a revive and fall damage trait left. But yeah, those need a check, too. However, I do believe that Medics Feedback is quite nice. Even though it can’t keep up with Protective Reviver.

Dastion.3106:

Similarly, most professions received a trait in their Mastery line which affected their new weapon set. Mesmers did not.

I think that they partly compensated through Alacrity plus the Shield#5 mechanic. To be honest, I can’t think of anything sexy we could add to Shield which wouldn’t be over the top considering how powerful it already is. Additionally, a majority of Chronomancer traits benefit the Shield either way. Do we really need a Shield trait?