Specializations

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Posted by: Menaka.5092

Menaka.5092

ANet just released some initial details about specializations:

Just started reading but I wanted to open a thread because it looks like it’s gonna be a huge change from what we know right now.

Edit: adding some quick notes

  • at level 80 you build by picking 3 traitlines of the 5 currently available (6 with the new spec I guess?)
  • then you pick one major adept, one master and one grand master from 3 available in each tier (some traits have been removed and you can’t pick two traits of the same tier anymore)
  • you have 9 major traits instead of 7, including 3 grand masters
  • there’s still 3 fixed minor traits per trait line
  • attributes are now unlinked from traitlines, will be partly refunded by increasing base stats across the board and partly by increasing stats on gear
  • they are merging some functionalities from discarded traits to the base skills (for example necro wells are ground targeted by default)

Edit2: quoting from the part 2: “We’re also making some core changes to each profession that are dependent on the elite specialization equipped […] How about a new way to shatter illusions? These are some of the changes you can expect to see for your favorite profession.”

(edited by Menaka.5092)

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Posted by: skcamow.3527

skcamow.3527

These are some bold design changes. On paper I like the ideas. While I have concern for existing builds, I’m excited for the new ones that will be created. I’m really hoping for some default profession mechanics to be included (such as DE or IP).

Note there is a 4 hour ready-up episode scheduled for tomorrow where each profession will get a block of discussion time. Anet will also be fielding many questions. You can post them here.

Kortham Raysplitter (Yak’s Bend)

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Posted by: Sebrent.3625

Sebrent.3625

It looks like it reduces the number of possible permutations for a build since you:

  • Can only pick 3 Specializations
  • Can’t Use Major Adept traits in Major Master and Major Grandmaster slots
  • Can’t Use Major Master traits in Major Grandmaster slots

While I could see this cutting into some build flexibility as there are several builds out there that currently put points into more than 3 traitlines, most invest in primarily 3 traitlines.

Additionally, as new specializations are added, we’ll eventually see more possible combinations.

A very nice bonus for this is that it reduces the number of possible permutations of trait points that can be paired together. This could help ArenaNet with handling class balance.

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.

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Posted by: Sebrent.3625

Sebrent.3625

These are some bold design changes. On paper I like the ideas but have concern for existing builds.

Note there is a 4 hour ready-up episode scheduled for tomorrow where each profession will get a block of discussion time. Anet will also be fielding many questions. You can post them here.

Biggest concern … will Deceptive Evasion be made baseline? It’s included in almost all Mesmer builds and I’d argue just as important as the cooldowns on Elementalist attunement swapping.

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.

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Posted by: messiah.1908

messiah.1908

so does it mean instead of meta builds they will make meta specialization ?
thus basically nothing major changed but maybe new roles for the mesmer with new weapon and specialization

also new way to shatter illusion was mention.

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Posted by: Menaka.5092

Menaka.5092

These are some bold design changes. On paper I like the ideas. While I have concern for existing builds, I’m excited for the new ones that will be created. I’m really hoping for some default profession mechanics to be included (such as DE or IP).

I completely agree, it’s a way bigger and deeper redesign that I tought they would undertake.

The only concern I have is that it doesn’t seem easy to add a single new trait; feels like it’s either a full specialization (or traitline if you want) or nothing. At some point it’ll be hard to think of new “roles” to for new specializations that will play nicely with what already exists.

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Posted by: Nevhie.6079

Nevhie.6079

  • attributes are now unlinked from traitlines, will be partly refunded by increasing base stats across the board and partly by increasing stats on gear

Kinda sad for this. How am i gonna raise “Condition Duration” now? I don’t want to give up my 70% Condi Dura. 3,5s Sword Immob every 6s is simply too good.

AFK Crying

Nevhíe
GreatSword Mesmer
Jade Quarry, Strike Force [SF]

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Posted by: Sweeps.3059

Sweeps.3059

Well looks like we may be getting a F5 on our shatter skills.
Also I think we can saftly say that Shield is the only weapon we will be getting because they said each clasee will only get one new weapon.
Sigh no main hand pistol

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Posted by: skcamow.3527

skcamow.3527

It looks like it reduces the number of possible permutations for a build since you:

  • Can only pick 3 Specializations
  • Can’t Use Major Adept traits in Major Master and Major Grandmaster slots
  • Can’t Use Major Master traits in Major Grandmaster slots

While I could see this cutting into some build flexibility as there are several builds out there that currently put points into more than 3 traitlines, most invest in primarily 3 traitlines.

Additionally, as new specializations are added, we’ll eventually see more possible combinations.

A very nice bonus for this is that it reduces the number of possible permutations of trait points that can be paired together. This could help ArenaNet with handling class balance.

Yes this is going to be very interesting. At first I feel a bit trait locked but locking us into only 3 lines while giving us two more traits seems very, very intriguing. 9 trait points to spend in 3 lines with 3 grand masters available!

This very much feels like the original GW1 concept where you spend your points into specific attributes which more or less specialized you in that.

Kortham Raysplitter (Yak’s Bend)

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Posted by: Dondagora.9645

Dondagora.9645

Merged glamours, perhaps?!
Maybe better access to DE?!
Will we get cleanse-on-dodge?!

So many questions, all important. I think ANet’s teasing us a bit with avoiding most anything we can speculate with.

On another note, does this mean we will keep illusions? If so, perhaps new shatter skills instead?

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Posted by: Dondagora.9645

Dondagora.9645

Well looks like we may be getting a F5 on our shatter skills.
Also I think we can saftly say that Shield is the only weapon we will be getting because they said each clasee will only get one new weapon.
Sigh no main hand pistol

Um, most of us have already assumed the whole “only shield” thing as a fact given they’ve said each class is only getting one weapon per spec. I still have no idea where this MH pistol speculation is coming from given how we saw our spec with a shield in the trailer.

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Posted by: Zania.8461

Zania.8461

Looks like mesmers will still be depending on illusions. Unless their new shatter skill is +30% to damage per illusion shattered, mesmers are still going to be pure support in PvE. Going to wait until tomorrow to pass judgment, but at the moment not holding my breath.

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Posted by: MandJ.8965

MandJ.8965

It looks like it reduces the number of possible permutations for a build since you:

  • Can only pick 3 Specializations
  • Can’t Use Major Adept traits in Major Master and Major Grandmaster slots
  • Can’t Use Major Master traits in Major Grandmaster slots

While I could see this cutting into some build flexibility as there are several builds out there that currently put points into more than 3 traitlines, most invest in primarily 3 traitlines.

Additionally, as new specializations are added, we’ll eventually see more possible combinations.

A very nice bonus for this is that it reduces the number of possible permutations of trait points that can be paired together. This could help ArenaNet with handling class balance.

Wait what? So I can’t for example use the mind wrack trait and halting strike at the same time??

Momekas
Momekas Namu

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Posted by: Dethl.2875

Dethl.2875

These are some bold design changes. On paper I like the ideas but have concern for existing builds.

Note there is a 4 hour ready-up episode scheduled for tomorrow where each profession will get a block of discussion time. Anet will also be fielding many questions. You can post them here.

Biggest concern … will Deceptive Evasion be made baseline? It’s included in almost all Mesmer builds and I’d argue just as important as the cooldowns on Elementalist attunement swapping.

Doubt it. As much as that would be great for WvW/PvP, it creates scenarios in PvE where keeping 3 phantasms up and dodging are mutual exclusives. And they’re already strained as I understand, as this update won’t fix the eternal trait management mesmer dungeon runners have.

some server who knows
Foolsworn (M) | Dehtl (M) | Iofo (G) | Foolburt (W) | Fooloop (T)
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Posted by: Caelus.7139

Caelus.7139

My concerns:

-The blog post mentioned that the base stats will be spread out on the character and gear, does that mean gear choice will become even more dominant? (e.g. Zerker)

-Some people already mentioned but what happens to traits that overlap because we wanted their functionality (Halting Strike+Mind Wrack). Unless of course ANet finds a way to satisfy us with their restructuring.

-Will they finally get rid of useless traits? e.g. Downed Traits

-What if we want to get only one or two traits in a line and balance it elsewhere? Here it seems we’re locked into only 3 major traitlines.

-A defiance bar?…So…slap to the face for CC builds? Or am I overreacting?

-From the second blog post it feels like ANet is taking control on build making. Maybe that’s just me.

GW2 has taught me that being a Mesmer is about..
..being a cynical forecaster.
..being a doom-monger….and being a hopeless jinxer.

(edited by Caelus.7139)

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Posted by: Menaka.5092

Menaka.5092

It looks like it reduces the number of possible permutations for a build since you:

  • Can only pick 3 Specializations
  • Can’t Use Major Adept traits in Major Master and Major Grandmaster slots
  • Can’t Use Major Master traits in Major Grandmaster slots

While I could see this cutting into some build flexibility as there are several builds out there that currently put points into more than 3 traitlines, most invest in primarily 3 traitlines.

Additionally, as new specializations are added, we’ll eventually see more possible combinations.

A very nice bonus for this is that it reduces the number of possible permutations of trait points that can be paired together. This could help ArenaNet with handling class balance.

Wait what? So I can’t for example use the mind wrack trait and halting strike at the same time??

From the UI examples and from the description, looks like you can only have one trait in each tier. They might merge the +damage trait to the base mind wrack skill, or move halting strike somewhere else (or scrap it alltogether). We don’t really know.

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Posted by: Sebrent.3625

Sebrent.3625

Aside from the condition duration loss … which was a very good point … I’m a huge fan of them removing the stats from the trait allocations / specializations.

If you look at the current meta builds, very rarely do you see Mesmers running 6+ points in both Domination and Dueling. There are a few, but it is uncommon.

Additionally, Power shatter builds were getting “less power” than those few such builds despite wanting as much as they could squeeze in.

Furthermore, on top of some of its already glaring issues (see: Grandmaster traits), Inspiration was often made even worse by the fact that it gave Vitality and Healing … while I’m often a fan of Healing, Mesmer doesn’t have the assortment of Healing capabilities that make it worthwhile and I believe Vitality, in most cases, is one of the worst stats you can get (Toughness / Healing > Vitality)

I’m all for decoupling stats and traits as they should honestly serve two largely separate purposes.

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.

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Posted by: tobascodagama.2961

tobascodagama.2961

From the UI examples and from the description, looks like you can only have one trait in each tier. They might merge the +damage trait to the base mind wrack skill, or move halting strike somewhere else (or scrap it alltogether). We don’t really know.

I do suspect that most traits which only affect a single skill or weapon type will be going away. Though Mind Wrack is sort of an edge case, since it’s technically a class mechanic.

Still, +X% Damage to Skill Y is kind of a boring trait, so keeping it seems to be at odds with their goals for the new trait system.

Amberley Avalen – Charr Mesmer
Tanya Larina – Human Thief
Finchy Whyte – Sylvari Ranger

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Posted by: Noss.4105

Noss.4105

Looks a bit like they’re going the same route that Blizzard went with WoW from Cataclysm onward. Sure simplifying things makes balancing easier, but it also cuts from customization, and I don’t like it.

Buuuut It’s a bit too early to say how these changes will turn out.

N*** Dew Gunnar’s Hold
WvW Roaming with Mesmer

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I don’t know how I feel about all this, honestly.

On one hand, the ability to grab 3 Grandmasters means that there’s more trait points to spend, which is great. Also means more build diversity, as you can now grab Deceptive Evasion and still grab three Grandmasters (like Confounding Suggestions, Furious Interruption, and Chaotic Interruption)

But what about boon/condition duration, as others have mentioned? And forcing people entirely up traitlines means less ability to dip into other stats. (like 6/4/2/2).

Traits being merged is cool. Master of Manipulation + Far Reaching Manipulations ( Manipulations go farther & reduced cooldowns) seems a given, I hope they remove the “on-revive” abilities since those really only hurt builds more than they help and contribute to newer players making bad builds. Mantras, Glamours, Signets, and Manipulations will likely all get some trait merges, which means the probability of brand new traits in all lines. Again, looking at what they’re doing with Elementalist traits makes me very hopeful, taking a flipping GRANDMASTER major and turning it into a minor? Holy crap.

Overall, this is actually much more tweaking to the traits than I expected. I had figured almost all the changes would be limited to the new specialization tree, and so many people had thrown salt all over my hype train ( /cough Pyro /cough Swish) that I had really lowered my expectations.

Looking forward to messing around with all the new stuff!

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Posted by: Sebrent.3625

Sebrent.3625

Some things I think we’ve skipped over:

Baseline Shatter Cooldown Reduction
Elementalist attunements will have reduced cooldown as a baseline due to no more stats from specialization … so we should see the cooldowns on our shatters reduced.

They reduced from 13s to 10s so a reduction of about 20% … so they would make our shatters:

  • Mind Wrack from 15s to 12s
  • Cry of Frustration from 30s to 24s
  • Diversion from kitten to 36s
  • Distortion from 60s to 48s

Additionally, they said that all abilities will be made some type. Mesmers currently have Heals and Elites that are not categorized:

  • Heal – Ether Feast
  • Heal – Mirror
  • Elite – Time Warp
  • Elite – Mass Invisibility
  • Elite – Polymorph Moa

I’m curious what category each will be put in … the options are:

  • Mantra
  • Manipulation
  • Glamour
  • Signet
  • Clone
  • Phantasm

Clone and Phantasm don’t make any sense for any of them since they don’t summon any of those … and none of them are Signets or Mantras … so that leaves:

  • Manipulation
  • Glamour

Unless they will be allowing Mesmers to have a new category type of ability.

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.

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Posted by: phokus.8934

phokus.8934

I’m looking forward to these changes as they streamline the trays and focus more on specializations. This will potentially open up different avenues of game play for each class and I’m seeing nothing but a positive outlook so far.

This may change when more I formation is released per profession but so far I’m very pleased.

I post from a phone so please excuse any references to ducks or any other auto corrections.

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Posted by: Sebrent.3625

Sebrent.3625

I think the next outcry after the “we lose stats from traits” is going to be which Major Traits “make the cut” for Adept, Master, and Grandmaster for each Specialization … I imagine there will be some disagreements there :-)

But, as we all know, “you can’t please everyone”.

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

I just read through the whole thing – very confusing, but it seems like they are putting in a lot of work.

One line which got me is “More power! You now get to select nine major traits instead of seven, including three grandmaster traits.”

Seriously?!? 9 major traits => 18 total trait points.

Will we be able to do things like 0/4/6/4/4 and so on?!?

kitten now I’m hyped.

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Posted by: Swish.2463

Swish.2463

On paper this looks like an idea to shift builds into heavier reliance on Gear while also dumbing down the trait system and preventing the dumber players from making dumb builds..

In practice i have no clue.. This new system looks extremely constrictive and has one of two paths it can go down. Either it’s great and the choices on traits were made well and the redesign was done to perfection to open up diversity for all classes. Or its a complete flop and it murders several classes chances in the “meta” while leaving others (cough, bet you anything warrior is getting that gm for a defiance bar) in all to good of a standing..

I think this is just another reinvention of the wheel we’ve had since launch and I’m just left completely unimpressed with the results and how long its taken. I will also miss having the freedom to choose from 5 trait lines to create a build.. My guardians build will be completely negated by this as well..

~Elyssion~
“Gw2, It’s still on the Table!” – Anet

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Posted by: skcamow.3527

skcamow.3527

I just read through the whole thing – very confusing, but it seems like they are putting in a lot of work.

One line which got me is “More power! You now get to select nine major traits instead of seven, including three grandmaster traits.”

Seriously?!? 9 major traits => 18 total trait points.

Will we be able to do things like 0/4/6/4/4 and so on?!?

kitten now I’m hyped.

An easier way to look at it is that you’ll have nine total traits to choose from between three trait lines.

Kortham Raysplitter (Yak’s Bend)

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Posted by: Clownmug.8357

Clownmug.8357

I just read through the whole thing – very confusing, but it seems like they are putting in a lot of work.

One line which got me is “More power! You now get to select nine major traits instead of seven, including three grandmaster traits.”

Seriously?!? 9 major traits => 18 total trait points.

Will we be able to do things like 0/4/6/4/4 and so on?!?

kitten now I’m hyped.

You wouldn’t be able to do 0/4/6/4/4 because you will only be able to choose 3 out of 5 trait lines. (or 6 if you get the expansion)

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Posted by: Swish.2463

Swish.2463

I just read through the whole thing – very confusing, but it seems like they are putting in a lot of work.

One line which got me is “More power! You now get to select nine major traits instead of seven, including three grandmaster traits.”

Seriously?!? 9 major traits => 18 total trait points.

Will we be able to do things like 0/4/6/4/4 and so on?!?

kitten now I’m hyped.

nope, you will not be able to create a 0/4/6/4/4 build

you will be allowed to only create a 6/6/6 build, while having no access to the other two of your available trait lines.

You will also only have 9 choices (3 for each line) per trait teir.

~Elyssion~
“Gw2, It’s still on the Table!” – Anet

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Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

lol, I was just about to edit my post having figured out the truth but you lot are too fast! xD

Oh well, 6/6/6 is still interesting given both the current builds I play are locked in 3 trait lines anyway.

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Posted by: Shabbynovel.1072

Shabbynovel.1072

Aw man, getting excited again… These changes look cool, mesmer traits always felt scattered to me so keen to see the merging and streamlining of glamour traits etc. Plus getting categories for elites will be snazzy, time warp affected by glamour traits = fun.

Also, I know we’ve seen shield in the trailer… but no reason it couldn’t be main hand shield right? New main hand option to go with all our offhand choices, three new weapon skills instead of two…

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Posted by: Menaka.5092

Menaka.5092

The blog post mentioned that the base stats will be spread out on the character and gear, does that mean gear choice will become even more dominant? (e.g. Zerker)

Gear choice will probably be the only influence on your stats, although they mentioned Arcane influencing attunement cooldowns for Elementalists, so we might have Shatter cooldown reduction on Illusions.

Seems like a good thing to me, you don’t “waste” your attributes on stats that are not contributing to your build (like for example condition damage on a power shatter build).

Will they finally get rid of useless traits? e.g. Downed Traits

really hope so!

What if we want to get only one or two traits in a line and balance it elsewhere? Here it seems we’re locked into only 3 major traitlines.

seems like that; if the trait reorganization makes sense we won’t be needing to spread in more than 3 traitlines to make a meaningful build

A defiance bar?…So…slap to the face for CC builds? Or am I overreacting?

CC builds seems like the best way to counter that

From the second blog post it feels like ANet is taking control on build making. Maybe that’s just me.

consider that, if the new mechanics really make the class play different, they have to balance what might feel like 18 classes; streamlining the builds makes sense from that point, especially if more specializations will be added in the future

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Posted by: Advent.6193

Advent.6193

Rather seems they’re going for more of a older-style MMO/ARPG trait system. The only problem is: how fluid will the end result be? You’re losing the ability to manipulate five traitlines in favor of 3 … I can only see this being “good” if they’ve gotten rid of ALL crappy filler traits. (i.e. Downed Traits).

Malegryne (Sylvari Mesmer), Lannka (Asura Thief) – Ferguson’s Crossing: [PRD/BRB/OMFG]
Other 80s: Any but Warrior

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Posted by: skcamow.3527

skcamow.3527

Well looks like we may be getting a F5 on our shatter skills.

Confirmed here

New Mechanics
But wait, there’s more! We’re also making some core changes to each profession that are dependent on the elite specialization equipped. Have you ever wanted a different way to take advantage of all that life force? How about a new way to shatter illusions? These are some of the changes you can expect to see for your favorite profession.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/

Kortham Raysplitter (Yak’s Bend)

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Posted by: Levetty.1279

Levetty.1279

Still receiving less new skills then everybody else, still stuck with illusions in content that is becoming increasingly incompatible with them and now DE is an even bigger investment.

Its like the expansion was designed just to kitten over the class.

I bet we still end up with Disruptor’s Sustainment.

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Posted by: Dondagora.9645

Dondagora.9645

The defiance bar might be a double-edged sword. While it might be harder to CC them constantly, it could have even greater detrimental affects should the bar break.

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Posted by: Sebrent.3625

Sebrent.3625

Still receiving less new skills then everybody else, still stuck with illusions in content that is becoming increasingly incompatible with them and now DE is an even bigger investment.

Its like the expansion was designed just to kitten over the class.

I bet we still end up with Disruptor’s Sustainment.

<sarcasm>

Yes, because we got this little amount of information about how the overall Specialization System works … now we know exactly how our specializations will work how skill which be changed, what will/won’t be baseline, etc., etc..

</sarcasm>

Oh wait, we know none of that yet. That’s quite a big bowl of “don’t know” to be basing your opinions off of.

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.

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Posted by: Kelthien.8593

Kelthien.8593

Really excited about the potential!

I’m SUPER surprised (or disappointed?) in the amount of negative speculation across the board. We really don’t know what the profession will look like. We don’t know where traits will end up, what our elite spec will actually do for us, or what skills will get updated. We also don’t know how frequently/rarely new elite specs will get added.

Seeing so many posts about us being ‘screwed over’ is disappointing. I’m holding out on any conclusions until we have more info. At the very least, I’m excited about a fresh coat of paint for the profession.

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Posted by: Sebrent.3625

Sebrent.3625

Just ignore it Kelthien. We could have gotten the MH Pistol we’d been asking for and those same people would complain that we only got 3 new weapon skills instead of 5 like some classes or 8/12/20 like Elementalist.

Enjoy the facts that we have and the brainstorming that they have spawned :-)

Christian. Husband. Father. Friend. Developer. Gamer.
Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them.
Better yourself.

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Posted by: Bubi.5237

Bubi.5237

Dunno why is it disappointing to you. I believe gw2 don’t have a Smiter’s Boon yet but Mimic/Distruptor’s Susta is close to it
Honestly I’m surprised that ppl still have faith in Anet

“Revenant is actual proof that devs read the necromancer forum” – Pelopidas.2140

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Posted by: Levetty.1279

Levetty.1279

Still receiving less new skills then everybody else, still stuck with illusions in content that is becoming increasingly incompatible with them and now DE is an even bigger investment.

Its like the expansion was designed just to kitten over the class.

I bet we still end up with Disruptor’s Sustainment.

<sarcasm>
Yes, because we got this little amount of information about how the overall Specialization System works … now we know exactly how our specializations will work how skill which be changed, what will/won’t be baseline, etc., etc..
</sarcasm>

Oh wait, we know none of that yet. That’s quite a big bowl of “don’t know” to be basing your opinions off of.

Outside of a Disruptor’s Sustainment joke, what in my post wasn’t based on the provided information?

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Posted by: Kelthien.8593

Kelthien.8593

Just ignore it Kelthien. We could have gotten the MH Pistol we’d been asking for and those same people would complain that we only got 3 new weapon skills instead of 5 like some classes or 8/12/20 like Elementalist.

Enjoy the facts that we have and the brainstorming that they have spawned :-)

I like the brainstorming part! that’s fun, for sure. :-)

One of the reasons I’m reserving judgment about the “just an OH shield with 2 new skills” thing is some interview Colin did a while ago. To paraphrase, if I remember, he said that professions which only get one main hand or off-hand weapon would be compensated in some other way. I’m assuming that means our “refreshed” profession mechanic, traits, or utility skills might be a bit more robust than some of the other professions who get a full 5 new weapon skills.

I’m really looking forward to the Q&A tomorrow! I hope we get a run-down on some of our new traits and what they might mean.

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Posted by: Levetty.1279

Levetty.1279

Really excited about the potential!

I’m SUPER surprised (or disappointed?) in the amount of negative speculation across the board. We really don’t know what the profession will look like. We don’t know where traits will end up, what our elite spec will actually do for us, or what skills will get updated. We also don’t know how frequently/rarely new elite specs will get added.

Seeing so many posts about us being ‘screwed over’ is disappointing. I’m holding out on any conclusions until we have more info. At the very least, I’m excited about a fresh coat of paint for the profession.

They promised Mesmers another pass over/refinement of their traits back in beta, still not received it.

I’ll believe it when I see it.

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Posted by: Xaylin.1860

Xaylin.1860

Some quite exciting news. I do like the changes we see so far. However, we will have to see which traits they move, re-work, remove and introduce before we can really judge how it affects our class.

I can see IP becoming a Shatter trait line grand master minor when looking at what they did to Aquatic Benevolence. However, I feel extremly uneasy when thinking about DE. As long as they don’t change something rudimental about clone generation or making DE innate regardless of specialization choices we will see Duelling remaining a mandatory line. For me personally, that would overshadow my joy for gaining a third grandmaster major trait.

Additionally, I’m scared as hell that Mesmers will get trap utilities. That clock-spell they showed in the trailers… Please just… don’t. Whua.

Well looks like we may be getting a F5 on our shatter skills.

Confirmed here

Wouldn’t be sure about gaining a fifth shatter. They could easily just change how the existing ones work when picking the new elite specialization.

Some things I think we’ve skipped over:

Baseline Shatter Cooldown Reduction
Elementalist attunements will have reduced cooldown as a baseline due to no more stats from specialization … so we should see the cooldowns on our shatters reduced.

It’s a faster recharge rate so you would have to calculate it differently. But yeah, I’m quite happy about that. It might have a bigger impact on other classes, though (Elementalist, Thief, Warrior).

Additionally, they said that all abilities will be made some type. Mesmers currently have Heals and Elites that are not categorized:

  • Heal – Ether Feast [Illusions]
  • Heal – Mirror [Manipulation]
  • Elite – Time Warp [Glamour] – Duuuh!
  • Elite – Mass Invisibility [Manipulation]
  • Elite – Polymorph Moa [Manipulation]

Added my guesses.

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Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

The blog post mentioned that the base stats will be spread out on the character and gear, does that mean gear choice will become even more dominant? (e.g. Zerker)

Gear choice will probably be the only influence on your stats, although they mentioned Arcane influencing attunement cooldowns for Elementalists, so we might have Shatter cooldown reduction on Illusions.

Seems like a good thing to me, you don’t “waste” your attributes on stats that are not contributing to your build (like for example condition damage on a power shatter build).

Will they finally get rid of useless traits? e.g. Downed Traits

really hope so!

If you look at the proposed elementalist water traits and compare it to the old ones, only two traits were taken away (fall damage which is probably in a different line and a terrible trait that will probably get merged with an arcana trait or deleted). Only 9 majors instead of 13 but 2 of the “new traits” are 2 old traits merged together. One trait even got a huge buff with frost aura instead of regeneration on crit. It has a less is more effect/quality over quantity feel.

Overall, if you play ele a lot, these changes look awesome. What’s amazing about the redesign is I can already see so much flavor in just ONE traitline. Full dps in water or full support or cantrip bunker or auramancer can be “viable” playstyles that will change how you play the class. Stop drop and roll is still that one weird trait thats… maybe some niche can be found.

Stats being removed/shifted to armor is a good thing IMO. Gear will just be knobs used to tune power, condi, defense, and sustain up or down as you wish. This is actually how it’s always been…. but some peoples skulls are really think and this change will hopefully get through to more people.

So if the ele preview is anything to go by, what does this mean for mesmer? Glamour mastery and temporal enchanter will likely be merged. (based off of the new cantrip mastery or vital striking aquamancer merge). Shattered conditions & vigour on shatter will probably get merged. Random crappy traits removed etc.

For domination worries about traits like halting strike, keep in mind that grandmaster vs adept doesn’t mean anything anymore as far as power level/dipping is concerned because you will ALWAYS go 6 or nothing into the trait line.

So there is no reason that halting strike couldn’t be merged with power block or confounding suggestions for a new grandmaster. Or maybe power block/confounding into 1 trait. Illusion of vulnerability/halting strike could be another combo. Rending shatter… deleted or merged with something stronger. Halting BLOCK!

When I first thought of what the new specialization would look like, I guessed there would be a 6th traitline for that spec and I was hoping for a bit more stat freedom but I didn’t think Anet would be willing to rework so much. I am really looking forward to these changes.

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Posted by: tobascodagama.2961

tobascodagama.2961

Well looks like we may be getting a F5 on our shatter skills.

Confirmed here

Wouldn’t be sure about gaining a fifth shatter. They could easily just change how the existing ones work when picking the new elite specialization.

F5 Shatter is a pretty safe bet (I’m like 90% certain this is what it actually means), but “new way to shatter your illusions” actually does leave some room for other interpretations.

Amberley Avalen – Charr Mesmer
Tanya Larina – Human Thief
Finchy Whyte – Sylvari Ranger

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Posted by: MandJ.8965

MandJ.8965

It looks like it reduces the number of possible permutations for a build since you:

  • Can only pick 3 Specializations
  • Can’t Use Major Adept traits in Major Master and Major Grandmaster slots
  • Can’t Use Major Master traits in Major Grandmaster slots

While I could see this cutting into some build flexibility as there are several builds out there that currently put points into more than 3 traitlines, most invest in primarily 3 traitlines.

Additionally, as new specializations are added, we’ll eventually see more possible combinations.

A very nice bonus for this is that it reduces the number of possible permutations of trait points that can be paired together. This could help ArenaNet with handling class balance.

Wait what? So I can’t for example use the mind wrack trait and halting strike at the same time??

From the UI examples and from the description, looks like you can only have one trait in each tier. They might merge the +damage trait to the base mind wrack skill, or move halting strike somewhere else (or scrap it alltogether). We don’t really know.

Thx mate.

Hm, I don’t know if i like all these changes. Sure, merging all these abilities could work, but it could kill the build diversity. And removing the stats of the traitlines I don’t like, too. Hmm

Momekas
Momekas Namu

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Posted by: Dadnir.5038

Dadnir.5038

They also announced a specialisation with traps. Feel like it’s for the mesmers and I must say (even if I’m against this specialization name) that it could fit for the so called chronomancer that would be able to trap it’s foes in temporal loops…

No core profession should be balanced around an optional elite specialization.

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Posted by: Dondagora.9645

Dondagora.9645

Well looks like we may be getting a F5 on our shatter skills.

Confirmed here

Wouldn’t be sure about gaining a fifth shatter. They could easily just change how the existing ones work when picking the new elite specialization.

F5 Shatter is a pretty safe bet (I’m like 90% certain this is what it actually means), but “new way to shatter your illusions” actually does leave some room for other interpretations.

Too much room. It could be a new shatter, altered shattered skills, maybe completely different ones, or maybe our illusions turn into AoE fields. Of course, I feel like a new shatter is definitely a strong possibility, but at the very least I feel the 90% confidence can be put in that our current shatters will be changed.

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Posted by: Dondagora.9645

Dondagora.9645

They also announced a specialisation with traps. Feel like it’s for the mesmers and I must say (even if I’m against this specialization name) that it could fit for the so called chronomancer that would be able to trap it’s foes in temporal loops…

Magical traps could be cool, depending. We’ll have to see.

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Posted by: DuckDuckBOOM.4097

DuckDuckBOOM.4097

They also announced a specialisation with traps. Feel like it’s for the mesmers and I must say (even if I’m against this specialization name) that it could fit for the so called chronomancer that would be able to trap it’s foes in temporal loops…

0/0/6/0/0/6 with a wild card!
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Superior_Rune_of_the_Trapper
Super speed and stealth on trap
Illusion spam!
PU!!!
Get nerfed =/

It’s a cool idea but could wind up broken mostly because of those runes. I think the traps are going to go towards a class that can “abuse” stealth with more traits. They could nerf the runes but that’s unlikely.