Guild Wars 2

This topic is response to the podcast: http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2guru/b/377719641

44:20 is when Mesmers specifically are brought up.
58:40 is when the “Revealed/Stealth” topic brought up.

Greatsword and Confusing Images get a buff, “good news”. Only that I feel that giving the history with mesmer changes and bugs. I’m more than a little skeptical about how they’ll be handled.

How will the damage be handled if I have an enemy in my face , I use Spatial Surge, and my target is 1200 range away?

Will it do the weak damage, or the 1200 damage, to the guy in my face? If the answer is the “close-range” damage, I’ll be sorely disappointed, as that damage is not worth the retaliation damage I’ll likely get in return.

How much damage will be “shaved off” of Shatters? Even if they buff GS1 and Scepter 3. Lowering the damage of Shattering by more than 5-10% is not remotely a trade I’d want to make giving that lining up 3/5 targets with our beam ability is going to be an extremely rare opportunity outside of PvE/WvW zergs, and will provide us with a much quicker death via retaliation, as Greatsword 1 is already a huge offender of that.

(Fight the Urban Fractal boss for example)

We’re the one class that requires actual precision, set up, and more than a bit of luck to land our aoe abilities. (See kitten clone AI, slight inclines in terrain, pathing)

My deepest concern is that they’ll ruin the viability of our only "viable’ spec (arguable, but I mostly agree) without opening up others in light of these, very situational, probably bug riddled ‘buffs’.

Adding Condition Duration to illusions, from via runes/food/traits, would go a long way to improve the viability of another spec. As it currently stands. All it takes is someone eating the -40% Condition Duration food to COMPLETELY neutralize Staff 1’s burning effect. (Duration less than 1 second = No damage)

They talked in the podcast also about how Stealth is getting changes, no one brought up how this might impact a Mesmer as well.

From what I understand is “Revealed” will appear regardless of whatever or not you attack at the end of it’s duration. That’s a great balance move in regards to perma invis thieves, but how will it effect the mesmer? They have methods of stacking stealth, we do not.

In fact, none of our stealth stacks Decoy and The Prestige for example doesn’t stack with any other stealth out there, Mass Invis doesn’t stack with Veil. While their icon is similar, they’re seperate ‘affects’

We won’t be able to Decoy , followed by a timed Mass Invis to lengthen our invis-time.

+1 to this topic. Agreed on everything 100%

I agree… and am obscenely concerned…. Let us not forget that the buff to the greatsword is cool…. buttttttt…. the phantasmal berserker only hits 1 or 2 of its 4 (per the tool tip) attacks… So if they add this to the GS but don’t fix the berserker… again what reason do I have to use it?

And then couple this with a nerf to shatters… WTF are they thinking that is not balance its, “lets fix something that isn’t broken, ignore something that is, and destroy the best viable burst spec for this class”

thetarot.8246:

Will it do the weak damage, or the 1200 damage, to the guy in my face? If the answer is the “close-range” damage, I’ll be sorely disappointed, as that damage is not worth the retaliation damage I’ll likely get in return.

OTOH that is the only logical way it should work. Otherwise, that would be hellishly complex, and needlessly so.

“When fighting at close range with the long-range specialized weapon, target something far away so you do full long-range damage even in close-range.”

That also goes against GS’ identity as a long range weapon in the first place. If you are fighting someone next to you, change weapon. :P

Well, there are quite a few things that got me concerned about the Spatial Surge and Confusing Images’ changes.

- Will their total damage be split amongst targets or will it hit for the same amount on each one of them?
- If it’s split, will it hit for full damage if you get to hit just one target?
- If it hits fot the same amount, will it be nerfed because of its AOE potential?
- Will our clones hit multiple targets too?
- Will traits apply to all the targets they hit or just your main one?

Also, on shatters, well… Buffing 2 attacks shouldn’t justify to nerf them, as there are 2 other weapon options that won’t be buffed. Guess they should either redirect some damage out of the shatters into the other weapon’s abilities.

I’m sure they’ll likely fix Greatsword Berserker, so that’s not a huge concern for me, they didn’t really address any ‘bugfixes’ in the podcast. (Or I skipped over that section.) Giving their response to the Basilisk Venom bug. (RE: “I believe our team knows about it”) and that they’ve responded to the numermous reports of it’s weakened damage already. iBerserker will likely be fixed. (and broken again in the April patch. :P)

I’m not trying to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Distress) with the post. I’m hoping for the best, but expecting the worst, as both this game, and several others in the past have histories of nerfing viable specs into the ground before introducing tried and tested other viable builds.

Further extended by my paranoia that the balance guy doesn’t necessarily know how to balance us. For example when he mentions “Restorative Mantras.” You can practically see the other mesmer player’s expressions reading “That’s a gimmick, We know about it. It isn’t viable.”

No offense to you Mr. Balance guy- but it’s exactly that , a Gimmick. I can see only one situation where Mantra heals are viable, and that’s a WvW Zerg standoff, requiring both sides to simply shoot at eacher, and not pushing. Giving the Mesmer time to cast the still lengthy cast-time, small area heal.

All other traits associated with Mantras, HINDER a build revolving around around Restorative Mantras. – Even if that were not the case, They’re still very deep in three trait trees.

thetarot.8246:

I’m sure they’ll likely fix Greatsword Berserker, so that’s not a huge concern for me, they didn’t really address any ‘bugfixes’ in the podcast. (Or I skipped over that section.) Giving their response to the Basilisk Venom bug. (RE: “I believe our team knows about it”) and that they’ve responded to the numermous reports of it’s weakened damage already. iBerserker will likely be fixed. (and broken again in the April patch. :P)

I’m not trying to spread FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Distress) with the post. I’m hoping for the best, but expecting the worst, as both this game, and several others in the past have histories of nerfing viable specs into the ground before introducing tried and tested other viable builds.

Further extended by my paranoia that the balance guy doesn’t necessarily know how to balance us. For example when he mentions “Restorative Mantras.” You can practically see the other mesmer player’s expressions reading “That’s a gimmick, We know about it. It isn’t viable.”

No offense to you Mr. Balance guy- but it’s exactly that , a Gimmick. I can see only one situation where Mantra heals are viable, and that’s a WvW Zerg standoff, requiring both sides to simply shoot at eacher, and not pushing. Giving the Mesmer time to cast the still lengthy cast-time, small area heal.

All other traits associated with Mantras, HINDER a build revolving around around Restorative Mantras. – Even if that were not the case, They’re still very deep in three trait trees.

A good move I would like to see for mantra’s is taking harmonious mantra’s out of the freaking grand master tree… Put it in master… And personaly idc what they put in grand master in its stead… The entire grand master tree in domination is sad… The other two are great… but that one just erhmmm… really?

Carighan.6758:

thetarot.8246:

Will it do the weak damage, or the 1200 damage, to the guy in my face? If the answer is the “close-range” damage, I’ll be sorely disappointed, as that damage is not worth the retaliation damage I’ll likely get in return.

OTOH that is the only logical way it should work. Otherwise, that would be hellishly complex, and needlessly so.

“When fighting at close range with the long-range specialized weapon, target something far away so you do full long-range damage even in close-range.”

That also goes against GS’ identity as a long range weapon in the first place. If you are fighting someone next to you, change weapon. :P

Yes. I imagine it’ll work like that, and at the end of the day I’d be perfectly satisfied if that is the only change that’ll happen to mesmers, but the possibility of lowering our damage in other areas (Shattering) is my biggest concern, giving the buff isn’t terribly powerful giving how difficult it’ll be to line multiple targets up, At maximum range, for maximum damage.

Even if it worked like your quote. “Target something at range to do more damage close-range” wouldn’t be terribly surprising giving. “Hellishly Complex” is probably class-defining words when you take a look at half our skills under a magnifying glass.

It would be more work for more damage, encouraging a possibly higher skill challange, and even then, You’d still have to retarget if you want your illusions to be on the right target.

My major concern with the shatter nerfs is that Mind Wrack sans Illusionary Persona isn’t overly impressive. It’s when you have Melee Mesmers with IP that it becomes nasty, since even a 1 or 2 Illusion Shatter as nasty for them as a 3 Illusion Shatter is without the trait.

I made a topic about the subject awhile back, attempting to point this out so that if there were any nerfs they’d fall in the right place, the last thing the base mechanic needs is lower damage.

I’m confused how nerfing Shatter Damage is somehow supposedly made up for by making GS 1 AoE.

What if we’re on one target and trying to burst them down? How does GS piercing even help us?

It’s a nerf, ANet. Call it a nerf.

Yeah, I don’t think people realize that it is two traits combined that make Mind Wrack mean.

Mental Torment is a straight +20% damage … very obvious the effect of this
Illusionary Persona is +1 shatter.

0 illusions, that’s an infinite increase (lol)
1 illusions, that’s a 100% increase (1+1)
2 illusions, that’s a 50% increase (2+1)
3 illusions, that’s a 33% increase (3+1)

The 3 illusion shatter is the “meanest”. If you take damage +20% + 33% then it is either:

• +53% (1 + 0.2 + 0.33)
  or
• +59.6% (1.2 * 1.33)

That’s a large increase in damage.

I believe most people understand already that those two traits drastically improve Shatters. With them, they’re a potent weapon with proper setup.

Without those two traits. Shattering isn’t very powerful at all. It’s laughable damage. The main concern of “Shaving Damage of Shattering” is if they specifically target the class mechanic as a whole, and not through the tweaking of traits.

The feared method reduces the effect of all Mesmers of all specs. Which is already lackluster in regards to Shattering (If not focused on shattering exclusively) , and further creating a divide between what is, and what isn’t a viable spec.

The tweaking of traits, is a better method, but still not good without offering something more in other trait lines, in combination of bugfixes that have been plaguing our class since launch.

Maybe they’re simply changing the top end though – we honestly don’t know!

For all we know Illusionary Persona could be changed to supply 1 “virtual” clone but only if you’re below 3.

I really hope this nerf to shatters doesn’t completely ruin my shatter focused build. I currently never use a scepter and rarely the greatsword. I’m very very shatter focused, and have been for a while. I feel like if shatters are nerfed much I’ll have to completely learn an entire new play style which would make me very sad as I have a ton of fun with what I’m doing now.

Look folks. We all hate change, especially when we are satisfied what the status quo is. However, change isn’t always a bad thing. Let the patch come out, figure out what anet really changed, what new thing they broke, and only then should we mope around about what happened. No sense in needless doom and gloom before it is justified.

Each class have their strong and weak traits and skills utilities , one of our strong traits and skill utilities is Shatter. I have not seem much complaints in the forums about our shatter, yet they want to Nerf it? Sadly there will no longer be any need to play this class anymore. I Fear they will Never be Satisfied with Mesmer’s until this class is cripple to the ground into Oblivion.. Most Certainly I will not bear witness when that happen.. Which is why I’m Prepared to jump ship to my Nemesis, The All Mighty Invincible Thief. Why you ask? they have one of the best buff traits and skill utilities in this game in which will Never be tempered with into Oblivion. The Great Era’s of Mesmer’s will soon be Forgotten. Goodbye My Love., You Will Forever Always Be In My Heart; For I Couldn’t Save You From Your Pain.

I saw this coming months ago. Started leveling a warrior, because apparently 20k hits with one skill isn’t OP in PvE while the nerf everything else.

Mere Image.8376:

I saw this coming months ago. Started leveling a warrior, because apparently 20k hits with one skill isn’t OP in PvE while the nerf everything else.

As they said, Warriors are way more than ok fine in PvE, but too frail in PvP. This is the potential worst-case situation for any game dev, because you have to buff and nerf at the exact same time, you can’t do it consecutively or your playerbase declared jihad.

thetarot.8246:

I can see only one situation where Mantra heals are viable, and that’s a WvW Zerg standoff, requiring both sides to simply shoot at eacher, and not pushing.

And to trigger runes of the centaur

Honestly I am confused. They are nerfing shatter builds based off…what? Shatters can be avoided, I run at least one CC breaker on any of my WvW toons precisely for situations where a player lines me up to telegraph burst i.e. 100b warriors, Shatter Mesmers etc…In the past week, I think I’ve only been hit once by a shatter Mesmer, other times I CC break, dodge roll, block etc… There are multiple counters.

They should not be nerfing abilities that take at least some degree of timing and skill to line up and execute, they just seem to further toning down the game for people (likely casuals) who don’t use cantrips or counters of any kind or don’t bother to dodge and then get walloped by a Mesmer Shatter / Blurred Frenzy bomb that you can avoid.

As for the GS1 changes I hope GS still retains viability as a ranged weapon, it’s the only real one we have. Is this just an indirect way of nerfing Power builds that use GS??

Couple this with the proposed changes to stealth, honestly I am disappointed. I play a stealth heavy Mesmer build for WvW which I absolutely love, I happen to use GS and Sceptre with Torch Off-hand.

I don’t really know what to think about the stealth changes, but it just seems to me that aNet don’t really know what to do with thieves and Mesmer’s are getting caught up in their attempts to fix thieves by changing the way stealth works

Make our stealth and swiftness stack, that would be a good start. Do the same for condition durations and so on. There’s way too much arbitrariness and exceptions people don’t understand in almost every part of the game already (the defiant mecanic and its exceptions as another example).

thetarot.8246:

This topic is response to the podcast:
How much damage will be “shaved off” of Shatters? Even if they buff GS1 and Scepter 3. Lowering the damage of Shattering by more than 5-10% is not remotely a trade I’d want to make giving that lining up 3/5 targets with our beam ability is going to be an extremely rare opportunity outside of PvE/WvW zergs, and will provide us with a much quicker death via retaliation, as Greatsword 1 is already a huge offender of that.

(Fight the Urban Fractal boss for example)

We’re the one class that requires actual precision, set up, and more than a bit of luck to land our aoe abilities. (See kitten clone AI, slight inclines in terrain, pathing)

My deepest concern is that they’ll ruin the viability of our only "viable’ spec (arguable, but I mostly agree) without opening up others in light of these, very situational, probably bug riddled ‘buffs’.

When they commented on that to me it seemed like Xeph backed them into a corner that would cause more rage @ mesmers if they didn’t say anything.

3 ways to throw clones -> Mirror blade, Zerker, and warden. two phantasms and a clone everything else would have to use the crappy pathing (which I don’t think they can do to much about unless you want even more silly bugs like clones tripping over a stump and dying, or endlessly running into walls) a mesmer with this line up even with triple hit beam GS is not going to cause ranged mass destruction no more than we already can.

not to mention full range already takes a hit since you can’t land your 30 traited ipersona.

But if they have to! I suggest a 10% nerf to shatter then buff mental torment to 30% so it still evens out for full shatter builds, and players can hybrid without being too OP.

@OP I agree with everything you said +1

Though personally I’m not to worried about our invisibility, we have so many things to use between them till the revealed debuff is off.

Iruwen.3164:

thetarot.8246:

I can see only one situation where Mantra heals are viable, and that’s a WvW Zerg standoff, requiring both sides to simply shoot at eacher, and not pushing.

And to trigger runes of the centaur

Nonsense! There is a better way to do that! Just get any transform item and use the heal button. For example Endless Griffon Tonic. You use the 6 ability to end the transformation at the same time, triggering the swiftness from Runes of Air/Centaur, without consuming your heal!

Heck, you can even grant yourself Swiftness from said runes when there isn’t actually a skill available in the slot! (Hit your heal skill underwater, in Dolphin form in the Underwater fractal for example) (You’ll need 7 runes of the centaur for it though, as helm is replaced by breathing mask underwater)

thetarot.8246:

Iruwen.3164:

thetarot.8246:

I can see only one situation where Mantra heals are viable, and that’s a WvW Zerg standoff, requiring both sides to simply shoot at eacher, and not pushing.

And to trigger runes of the centaur

Nonsense! There is a better way to do that! Just get any transform item and use the heal button. For example Endless Griffon Tonic. You use the 6 ability to end the transformation at the same time, triggering the swiftness from Runes of Air/Centaur, without consuming your heal!

Heck, you can even grant yourself Swiftness from said runes when there isn’t actually a skill available in the slot! (Hit your heal skill underwater, in Dolphin form in the Underwater fractal for example) (You’ll need 7 runes of the centaur for it though, as helm is replaced by breathing mask underwater)

Now that is a nifty trick. Thanks for sharing that with us.

i knew they will nerf shatter and shatter is our only aoe so gg with that especially for pve… I have no problem with them changing Spatial Surge to hit multiple targets if you’re lined up but X damage on Y range should be removed (on longbows as well, this thing sucks) completely from GS and deal good damage at any range (don’t make this another joke damage spell like the staff auto)

edit: btw is the shatter CD being fixed this patch or do we have to wait this summer/Fall!?

I dont think it would be so bad if the burst from shatter specs were toned down. People say its our only “viable” spec but i think what they should say is that its our most powerful. A shift in the meta of mesmer build optimization couldnt hurt if it led to a diversity of more equally viable options.

pinkbunnies.4620:

I dont think it would be so bad if the burst from shatter specs were toned down. People say its our only “viable” spec but i think what they should say is that its our most powerful. A shift in the meta of mesmer build optimization couldnt hurt if it led to a diversity of more equally viable options.

As multiple people including myself have shown quite effectively, an offensive shatter build is far from being the only viable spec that mesmers are able to run. However, if anet goes overboard on nerfing shatters, not only will they quite possible remove one of the most fun types of mesmer to play, they also will catch up almost every single mesmer build in the collateral damage.

Still waiting on the patch notes before I start crying a river.. but.

When Jon said “it works on up to 5 people, you could potentially stack up to 25 stacks of confusion now instead of just 5”

Great, except tpv kitten v5, and you almost never fight 5v5.
So the assumption that “25 stacks of confusion is pretty op” is in itself wrong.
So At maximum 99% of the time it’s a maximum of 20 stacks, okay that’s still ridiculously strong

With a Confusing Cry shatter or glamour setup you could stack up that confusion preeeetty fast if people stand in your fields.

Wait this is starting to sound familiar, a mono condition build? like the Bleed thief who’s effectiveness is effectively zero 90% of the time because of Aoe cleanses personal cleanses etc?..

Edit : Are you kidding me ? P + is + 5 is filtered ?

Darnis.4056:

Still waiting on the patch notes before I start crying a river.. but.

When Jon said “it works on up to 5 people, you could potentially stack up to 25 stacks of confusion now instead of just 5”

Great, except tpv kitten v5, and you almost never fight 5v5.
So the assumption that “25 stacks of confusion is pretty op” is in itself wrong.
So At maximum 99% of the time it’s a maximum of 20 stacks, okay that’s still ridiculously strong

With a Confusing Cry shatter or glamour setup you could stack up that confusion preeeetty fast if people stand in your fields.

Wait this is starting to sound familiar, a mono condition build? like the Bleed thief who’s effectiveness is effectively zero 90% of the time because of Aoe cleanses personal cleanses etc?..

Edit : Are you kidding me ? P + is + 5 is filtered ?

It’s a massive buff to the skill… 5 stacks of confusion to up to 5 targets is huge. In WvW you’ll be hitting a lot of people with that confusion. Yes it’s just one condition but it’s hardly the only condition available to mesmer.

The condition thief on the other hand has very limited access to the other conditions (he often needs to use a utility to add others) which was why it was brought up in the video specifically about thief and not mesmer…

Aberrant.6749:

Darnis.4056:

Still waiting on the patch notes before I start crying a river.. but.

When Jon said “it works on up to 5 people, you could potentially stack up to 25 stacks of confusion now instead of just 5”

Great, except tpv kitten v5, and you almost never fight 5v5.
So the assumption that “25 stacks of confusion is pretty op” is in itself wrong.
So At maximum 99% of the time it’s a maximum of 20 stacks, okay that’s still ridiculously strong

With a Confusing Cry shatter or glamour setup you could stack up that confusion preeeetty fast if people stand in your fields.

Wait this is starting to sound familiar, a mono condition build? like the Bleed thief who’s effectiveness is effectively zero 90% of the time because of Aoe cleanses personal cleanses etc?..

Edit : Are you kidding me ? P + is + 5 is filtered ?

It’s a massive buff to the skill… 5 stacks of confusion to up to 5 targets is huge. In WvW you’ll be hitting a lot of people with that confusion. Yes it’s just one condition but it’s hardly the only condition available to mesmer.

The condition thief on the other hand has very limited access to the other conditions (he often needs to use a utility to add others) which was why it was brought up in the video specifically about thief and not mesmer…

A venom caltrop p/d thief can stack 6 separate conditions with in about 1.5 seconds.. I know it I’ve done it… Its powerful as hell… Don’t kid your self on the amount of access a thief has to conditions… They can apply weakness and poison with steal.. Plus bleeds and vulnerability… This is before they use those utility skills… Sooo you were saying?

Yea A p/d thief, I was talking about the mono condi d/d thief… which is more like a Scepter/x staff build that it feels like the devs are pushing us towards.

“it works on up to 5 people, you could potentially stack up to 25 stacks of confusion now instead of just 5” So are they expecting the whole spvp enemy team to line up for my confusion? If that’s all they’re doing to scepter this buff is worthless. Even in wvw since scepter is 900 range MI isn’t impressive with its imaginary 25 stacks of confusion.

Mesmers have unique utility that makes them viable regardless of spec. Shatter specs may be the main way to go right now, but that’s because of how much better it is compared to other specs and not because other specs don’t make it worthwhile to use a mesmer.

Also, don’t look a gift horse in the mouth with stuff like the GS buff. If you really don’t like the piercing, then just stay at max range and only target your main enemy. At least you don’t have to invest in talent points for this like some other, less viable classes do *cough*ranger*cough*.

I just curious if they lower shatter dmg and increase GS and scepter dmg, will they buff other weapon slots dmg aswell? Cause if you balance more dmg on 2 weps but nerf dmg for class itesl its a ner to everyone who not use the naimed weps.

/Osicat

They didn’t even say they would be nerfing shatter damage this patch.

They said (in responce to Xeph) “We might have to shave a little bit off of the shatter damage. So we’re going to watch for that.”

We’ll have to wait and see but it doesn’t sound like it’ll be in this patch from the wording that they used.

It’s @ about 49m in if you want to go and listen to it again.

As far as people needing to “line up” just pew pew into a crowd and you’ll do massive damage. It’s akin to complaining about any other aoe skill needing people to bunch up to do lots of damage… I really don’t see the problem.

It sounds like a massive buff to these two skills with no drawbacks slated for this current patch to me.

They never said they were increasing gs and scepter damage. Or did I miss it?

Cuz adding a straight line AoE is not really increasing damage…

kerona.3465:

They never said they were increasing gs and scepter damage. Or did I miss it?

Cuz adding a straight line AoE is not really increasing damage…

Increasing maximum damage potential is increasing damage for all intents and purposes. That is a silly semantic argument to make.

kerona.3465:

They never said they were increasing gs and scepter damage. Or did I miss it?

Cuz adding a straight line AoE is not really increasing damage…

They didn’t really say either way as far as the gs… but I would figure that at first it would be the same damage just to more players as with other piercing attacks in this game.

If they lower the damage and therefore you need to hit more targets that would be more interesting gameplay to me. It would make the GS more suited for aoe and less suited for 1v1.

The chances to proc sigils would increase with more players being hit multiple times with each attack and something like the damage from a sigil of fire won’t be changed.

Regardless if they lower the initial impact of the scepter beam though… that’s a large condition damage increase.

I do not like the reasoning for shatter damage nerfs.
They basically said that by adding AoE potential on beam attacks they might have to cut down on shatter AoE.
This might sound reasonable if you think about it, but keep in mind the GS is a long ranged weapon, while shattering is the complete opposite of it.
In order to deal really high AoE damage you need to stand in the enemy zerg, then summon your 3 illusions and blow them up immediatly after, since they wont live for long.
If you try the same thing with a GS you run in the problem that you might be able to have 2 illusions (GS 2+4) for a short time, but you probably wont get a third illusion in close range in time (before the other 2 get smashed).
Some kind of fear I have is that with the incoming changes they might just put the mesmer into kind of a pigeon hole, where you just have to run GS+illusion builds, just because of some sort of superiorty. GS builds already allow you (at least in my experience) to make a lot more mistakes and require less setup.
I actually would like to see some buffs to the offhand choices, as well as more buffs to the scepter, since if feel its place pretty much only comes with “effect on illusion death”.
Of course one might say: Nobody can stop you from using the weapon/set/build/etc you want to, but I don’t think anybody would really deny having even choices builds/weapons.

This deeply concerns me… I’m extremely happy with my mesmer right now. The fact that they talk about destroying my build makes me a bit scared. Plus the GS “Buff” doesn’t sound much like a buff if it can be blocked by other mobs.
Shatter IMO are no OP, because they can be avoided and killed. It’s like saying Hundred Blades is OP… if you’re stupid enough to stand in it, then you deserve to get blown up.

I am personally pretty excited about the GS skill change. I think it’s gonna be awesome. But I’m majnly thinking of sPvP.

Pyroatheist.9031:

kerona.3465:

They never said they were increasing gs and scepter damage. Or did I miss it?

Cuz adding a straight line AoE is not really increasing damage…

Increasing maximum damage potential is increasing damage for all intents and purposes. That is a silly semantic argument to make.

When you’re only fighting 1 person, it’s the furthest from a semantic argument you can think of.

Well tbh, fight only one person and it happens to be a mesmer, or other summon class the beem will help kill off clones and pets, so one kind of bonus.

30% dmg nerf on mindwrack!!
i called it!!

Grounder.7381:

30% dmg nerf on mindwrack!!
i called it!!

Oh god I hope not.. But if that happens everyone and their mom that still plays Mesmer isn’t even touching the GS anymore and we are all going for the immortal build lol.

jportell.2197:

Grounder.7381:

30% dmg nerf on mindwrack!!
i called it!!

Oh god I hope not.. But if that happens everyone and their mom that still plays Mesmer isn’t even touching the GS anymore and we are all going for the immortal build lol.

hahaha.. yeah! that might just happen to all the mesmer “survivor” of the SoTG.
behind the roundbout things bout beam and all.. i think they are trying to nerf shatter!
if i recall correct ,mesmer shatter has the “deal 100% more dmg” bug.. that’s been undetected since beta,..
so maybe were looking at, nerf 50% all shatter dmg.. as in, “fix the bug that let shatter deals extra dmg” or “shatter dmg has now follow the tooltip”.
from my opinion though, shatter are the only burst dmg we have. all others are just summons.. and its dmg aren’t that OP…
we might be hit with the nerf hammer the hardest out of all classes after SoTG.
i think piercing beams are the compensations for it….

I heard from someone that quickness was getting nerfed. Don’t no if its true but that’s what i heard.

i’ve got bad news for the mesmers.

i became a mesmer after every build i use on engineer got nerfed into the ground (total of 4 builds). now i run a GS shatter mesmer.

pinkbunnies.4620:

I dont think it would be so bad if the burst from shatter specs were toned down. People say its our only “viable” spec but i think what they should say is that its our most powerful. A shift in the meta of mesmer build optimization couldnt hurt if it led to a diversity of more equally viable options.

This. While the shatter build is potent, we’re really one-trick ponies with a lot of possibilities, but only one min/max option. I’ll take a nerf to shatters if it means a buff to scepters and an overhaul of skill and traits that complimented features removed in beta.

In addition, the devs are reworking condition damage seeing as they based a profession around it (necro) and capped the damage. This will open a lot of doors for us as well.

Aberrant.6749:

As far as people needing to “line up” just pew pew into a crowd and you’ll do massive damage.

5 Stacks of confusion on 5 people isn’t actually “massive”, even at the 1800 condition damage I’m currently at. Plus it’s channeled and only 900 range. If the enemies aren’t stupid or aoe cleansed, it’ll do pretty much nothing and will only work in WvW zergs. It’s a nice addition, but it doesn’t really improve the scepter in general.