Guild Wars 2

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

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…

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.

Have you ever used trapper runes? There’s nothing worse than dropping a trait that deals damage, gets triggered just after you drop it, and sticks you in revealed when you don’t want it :p

I know that happens and PU would be hindered sometimes.

The aggro/target drop and super speed would still make for one really annoying mesmer that can kite and drops “invisible” aoes with “perma invis” and “perma protection” that make kiting harder while all that “cheese ai” does the work.

Key word: Annoying: I don’t think it would actually be OP.
It would get the class nerfed as a whole somehow =/

I just hope I’ll still be able to sneak Mender’s Purity into otherwise-very-aggressive builds.

ASP.8093:

I just hope I’ll still be able to sneak Mender’s Purity into otherwise-very-aggressive builds.

Heck, I’ve been trying to do that now.
Mender’s Purity + Mantra of Recovery = our best condition cleanse + a freed up utility slot.

Sebrent.3625:

ASP.8093:

I just hope I’ll still be able to sneak Mender’s Purity into otherwise-very-aggressive builds.

Heck, I’ve been trying to do that now.
Mender’s Purity + Mantra of Recovery = our best condition cleanse + a freed up utility slot.

It’s like Traveler runes. Once you go for it, you cannot go back xd

This is finally getting me excited. Specializations sounded intriguing before, but I only really play Mesmer and the impression we were getting of “Chronomancer” didn’t seem like something I would care too much about personally (obviously once there’s some real info on it I might love it, but without that it wasn’t drawing me in). This also answers my questions about what will happen with the original/base professions to keep them up to date.

In a reorganization like this, there are surely going to be some lost choices that will be a bit disappointing, but overall this is addressing many important overarching problems that I think will lead to a better system in the long run.

Time Warp = glamour = I’m in heaven.

I was writing a post on how to improve shatter when this came out. This is what i think they mean.

We have two types of illusion, clones and Phatasim, may be only one will be able for shatter while the others not. This will also help with sustain dps and making shatter usable in pve. Not sure which will be the shatter illusion, my guess will be clones since most of our weapon skills we summon to do damage are phantasim.

Note not main hand weapons are not included.

e.g

2H weapon:
GS ? Clone (mirror blade) / phantasm (Phantasmal Berserker)
Staff ? Clone (phase retreat) / phantasm (Phantasmal Warlock)

Main Hand:
Scapter ? Clone (Ether clone) / Clone (illusionary Counter)
Sword ? Clone (illusionary leap)

Off Hand:
Pistol ? Phantasm (Phantasmal Duelist)
Sword ? Clone (illusionary Riposte) / phantasmal swordsman (phantasm)
Focus ? Phantasmal (phantasmal warden)
Touch ? Phantasmal (phantasmal mage)

Edit:

Just to add to what I was saying,

maybe we get a trait that let’s us summon an in destructible phantasim, either 1 or 2. That way we can do use DE but does not council out the summon phantasim.

This will open up a lit of different build and game play.

Josh Davis announced for tomorrow a long AMA on Twitch with a first look at the current state of traits in ANet test servers.

All aboard the hype train!

Not sure if anyone caught this little tidbit, but it sure jumped right out at me:

“I’m personally excited about a grandmaster trait that has the power to grant my character a defiance bar!” (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/)

D:

MSFone.3026:

Not sure if anyone caught this little tidbit, but it sure jumped right out at me:

“I’m personally excited about a grandmaster trait that has the power to grant my character a defiance bar!” (https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/specializations-part-two-reward-tracks-and-elite-specializations/)

D:

I’m not excited, that means we’d have to spend all our lockdown skills just to shave it off? wtf?

Am I the only one that thinks about hideous shatter + PU with 3 traitlines unlocked? Maybe even shatter PU lockdown if DE is the one that gets removed and incorporated into class mechanics.

Best of all mesmer builds and worst of all as well haha

Menaka.5092:

Josh Davis announced for tomorrow a long AMA on Twitch with a first look at the current state of traits in ANet test servers.

All aboard the hype train!

Notably, it’s covering every (non-Elite?) trait in their current forms. So we’ll find out what the consolidated traits look like sooner than we thought!

There will be some sweet new builds for mesmer. I’m personally excited about Lockdown shatter, lockdown+PU and PU+MtD hybrid/condi for WvW.

But I’m a bit nervous about all the hellish thief builds that will arise to feast on us. I hope Anet won’t screw up the new stats from gear, since thieves will have access to quite a few +dmg traits.

It is pretty exciting to see what new builds will start existing.

On the other hand some old build might break, cross your fingers it is not your favorite one!

Also they said “new ways of shattering your illusions” which kinda puts me off. I was hoping for something completely new, not just new shatter skills.

My assumption is that the new specialization alters your shatters.

Though I think it’s also possible that shatter slots may become selectable the way pets are (i.e. there’s like six shatter skills and you can pick four).

But I’m pretty sure it’s gonna be the former.

“How about a new way to shatter illusions? "
So, based on this quote, it’s clear that also the new elite specialisation trait line will be based on illusions: it’s too early to say something based only on this element, but if so I think we will have hard times, like now, in massive situations like open map pve and ,sadly, wvw; the problem will be always the same, illusions will not stay alive enough time to shatter them.
Let’s hope…but after 3 years I lost faith almost.

I don’t like that we won’t be able to choose more than one adept trait per tree. i.e. you wouldn’t be able to pick up both Mender’s Purity & Glamour Mastery despite going 6 points into Inspiration. And you would be forced to take one of Shattered Conditions, Restorative Illusions or Disrupter’s Sustainment. While this type of restriction will undoubtedly be easier to balance, it’s still pretty annoying.

You also won’t be able to go into more than 3 trait trees, so I’m getting ready to mourn the potential loss of Signet Mesmer. :’(

From this other interview

Ten Ton Hammer: Where Elite Specializations are concerned, it seems slightly unfair that some only get an off-hand when some get a two handed or main hand weapon (thus more skills). How are you making this appealing for professions who only get an off-hand?

Jon: Fair doesn’t always mean equal. It’s fair because we’re trying to make sure that they all get a lot of really cool things and they get a new way to define their profession. Like we did with the original professions, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one trying to make an equal number of skills one-to-one. To give an example with engineer, we made what felt like it would be like to be an engineer.

The other thing too is that the weapon is just one component of what makes a spec what it is. Weapon skills don’t define the spec. Just like the new healing skills, the new elite skills and the new traits, they complement it and altogether build the spec out. Because of that we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand, a main hand, or a two-handed weapon, it’s just part of what defines what that spec is.

I’m somewhat less hyped than before.

Please correct me if I’m thinking nonsense here.

Considering the first picture here, all utilites will be assigned to a category, which will be most likely Signets, Mantras, Manipulation, Glamour and Illusion (combining Clone + Phantasm utilities).

Soooo…. I’m totally hyped for Timewarp being assigned to Glamour and therefore being affected by traits.

Menaka.5092:

From this other interview

Ten Ton Hammer: Where Elite Specializations are concerned, it seems slightly unfair that some only get an off-hand when some get a two handed or main hand weapon (thus more skills). How are you making this appealing for professions who only get an off-hand?

Jon: Fair doesn’t always mean equal. It’s fair because we’re trying to make sure that they all get a lot of really cool things and they get a new way to define their profession. Like we did with the original professions, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one trying to make an equal number of skills one-to-one. To give an example with engineer, we made what felt like it would be like to be an engineer.

The other thing too is that the weapon is just one component of what makes a spec what it is. Weapon skills don’t define the spec. Just like the new healing skills, the new elite skills and the new traits, they complement it and altogether build the spec out. Because of that we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand, a main hand, or a two-handed weapon, it’s just part of what defines what that spec is.

I’m somewhat less hyped than before.

I can only assume that wielding a shield will give us access to new utilities, shatter functionality, or some other “fair but not equal” thing they want to give us.

I’m really hoping they at least tell us what this might be in some regards during today’s AMA.

Wasn’t there a link some time ago to a dev saying that classes that will only be getting a MH/OH weapon will be getting something “just as good”? For us this most likely means an F5 shatter, which could cause a slow/quickness effect to tie in with the chronomancer theme.

Menaka.5092:

From this other interview

Ten Ton Hammer: Where Elite Specializations are concerned, it seems slightly unfair that some only get an off-hand when some get a two handed or main hand weapon (thus more skills). How are you making this appealing for professions who only get an off-hand?

Jon: Fair doesn’t always mean equal. It’s fair because we’re trying to make sure that they all get a lot of really cool things and they get a new way to define their profession. Like we did with the original professions, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one trying to make an equal number of skills one-to-one. To give an example with engineer, we made what felt like it would be like to be an engineer.

The other thing too is that the weapon is just one component of what makes a spec what it is. Weapon skills don’t define the spec. Just like the new healing skills, the new elite skills and the new traits, they complement it and altogether build the spec out. Because of that we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand, a main hand, or a two-handed weapon, it’s just part of what defines what that spec is.

I’m somewhat less hyped than before.

I feel the same way, and I’ve been saying many are too optimistic about what changes they will be making for Mesmers in HOT.

Although specialization seems promising based on the info, remember other class and meta builds could be even more powerful before, meaning even if Mesmers’ build options are improved, they might still pale in comparison to other classes’ options with specialization.

I doubt we’ll get f5, they will convert our existing shatters into different effects imo. But yer just offhand shield is a little disappointing cause no matter what Josh says the auto attack DOES define how the spec is played.

Menaka.5092:

From this other interview

Ten Ton Hammer: Where Elite Specializations are concerned, it seems slightly unfair that some only get an off-hand when some get a two handed or main hand weapon (thus more skills). How are you making this appealing for professions who only get an off-hand?

Jon: Fair doesn’t always mean equal. It’s fair because we’re trying to make sure that they all get a lot of really cool things and they get a new way to define their profession. Like we did with the original professions, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one trying to make an equal number of skills one-to-one. To give an example with engineer, we made what felt like it would be like to be an engineer.

The other thing too is that the weapon is just one component of what makes a spec what it is. Weapon skills don’t define the spec. Just like the new healing skills, the new elite skills and the new traits, they complement it and altogether build the spec out. Because of that we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand, a main hand, or a two-handed weapon, it’s just part of what defines what that spec is.

I’m somewhat less hyped than before.

So if I’m understanding thus right, our new traits/utilities are soooo good that we only get an offhand?

See, now its things like this that make me unsure. Considering Anet hasn’t exactly shown that they know what to do with Mesmer (..Disruptors Sustainment) Its really hard to accept how certain they are that these new abilities will really be all that amazing. X.x

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Menaka.5092:

From this other interview

Ten Ton Hammer: Where Elite Specializations are concerned, it seems slightly unfair that some only get an off-hand when some get a two handed or main hand weapon (thus more skills). How are you making this appealing for professions who only get an off-hand?

Jon: Fair doesn’t always mean equal. It’s fair because we’re trying to make sure that they all get a lot of really cool things and they get a new way to define their profession. Like we did with the original professions, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one trying to make an equal number of skills one-to-one. To give an example with engineer, we made what felt like it would be like to be an engineer.

The other thing too is that the weapon is just one component of what makes a spec what it is. Weapon skills don’t define the spec. Just like the new healing skills, the new elite skills and the new traits, they complement it and altogether build the spec out. Because of that we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand, a main hand, or a two-handed weapon, it’s just part of what defines what that spec is.

I’m somewhat less hyped than before.

So if I’m understanding thus right, our new traits/utilities are soooo good that we only get an offhand?

See, now its things like this that make me unsure. Considering Anet hasn’t exactly shown that they know what to do with Mesmer (..Disruptors Sustainment) Its really hard to accept how certain they are that these new abilities will really be all that amazing. X.x

To be honest, it is true that a weapon doesn’t “define” a spec: you can play shatter with pretty much every weapon combo we have, altough the playstyle will be very different depending on the weapons you use.

But going from “you’ll get something just as good” to “we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand” slowed down the hype train a lot.

That’s understandable … but you can also look at it from another perspective.

Necromancer gets Greatsword. That comes with 5 weapon skills. Done.

Mesmer gets OH Shield. That comes with 2 weapon skills that can be paired with two different sets of 3 weapon skills (Sword or Scepter). We have more possible combinations where we could find a use for the Shield. Perhaps it has some cool combinations with one or both of these weapons.

Necromancer won’t get to do that. It’s all-or-nothing with the greatsword.

For all we know, Chronomancer unlocks OH Shield + 3 Utility skills where the Necro spec gets GS + 0 Utility skills. That wouldn’t necessarily be a “just as good” scenario, since we have a ton of really good Utilities already.

Or, it could be that the Necro spec actually replaces the Death Shroud state with a different form transformation that doesn’t have a separate skillbar. In which case they’d be net-neutral on “weapon” skills despite gaining a two-hander.

Well, the Q&A session today should illuminate a lot of these things.

I am worried about ANets track record on what are considered broken classes. Developers seem to only look at fringe cases – the best case scenario. Sure, mesmer with 3 phantasms up can do excellent damage. But how often does that actually happen? Theoretical limit is high, but in practical application you can almost never reach it. This was similar for conditions. But this bleed stack will do 100000 damage over 100 seconds, thats 1k dps! Its amazing! Why are you complaining? Because 1) it takes 30s to get the stack up and 2) by the time the stack is up the target is dead.

The game was designed to be fast paced, but neither conditions nor phantasms go well with fast paced combat as they have long build-up times and can be removed with relative ease. Most condition classes can use direct damage and perform adequately. Mesmers are hard-tied to illusions for damage.

I hope AMA will prove me wrong, I really do. But I am not holding my breath.

@Zania:
Well-written way to express your concerns. Some others could learn from you.

I think even those of us having some fun theorycrafting have the same concerns you do. We’re not oblivious to the various “bad” changes that we don’t agree with. I’m sure if you’ve seen some of my other posts you’re aware of this :-p

Eff that. I got the swaggiest shield in the world ready for when HoT drops and kitten sure Ima make it work.

If shield offers two AoE abilities, with one of them damaging, I’m likely going to try to make sw/sw – sc/sh work.

Ugh.. More I think about the shield, more I want a mainhand dagger instead.

I’m hoping for that Shield AOE …

When I’m running a dungeon and we stack … I’m stuck with Sword + Focus / +Offhand with no AOE damage … it’s aggravating. I could instead gear to switch to Greatsword, but after #2, #3, #4 I’m stuck with an attack that sucks as close range until my weapon swap cooldown is finished.

Norn Mesmers … we’re going to actually look good with a Shield … especially with HotW Armor on Take that tiny Mesmers :-p

So…. F5 might be for Engineers.

Got to admit that I’m slightly annoyed about the Moa-Elixir.