Guild Wars 2

>The new elite spec that everyone agrees is terrible is actually fine
>The old elite spec which is the ONLY reason people ever use Mesmers for anything, anywhere, is OP

Anet “balance” in a nutshell.

Those aren’t any good either, because the only point of switching targets would be if your current target is dead, and guess what, your illusions still die on target death, so…

Five years of this. Five years, two elite specs, ZERO attention to the core contradictions of Mesmer design.

It was terrible. Clunky, weak, and unfun, and only cemented my impression that it will never replace Chrono in this or ANY content.

Of course it won’t. Mesmer has been a clunky contradiction in mechanics since the very start, a profession that is supposed to sustain illusions, yet also shatter them. This has not been addressed for five years, and Mirage isn’t addressing it either. What makes anyone think that its MANY other problems will be?

They just need to go away. It was a terrible, terrible idea, and I would prefer they just remove them and focus efforts on improving things that can actually potentially work. “Walk to a thing and touch it” while trying to do everything else you’re supposed to be doing in combat will never not be a clunky and ineffective mechanic.

Mirage: There is no reason to ever run this over Chronomancer. Elite specs are supposed to bring new mechanics and new roles, and every other profession but Mesmer is receiving them. At the moment Mirage is just another condi spec with dodges that don’t move.

After five years, shatters remain untouched. The inherent contradiction of Mesmer design, that you want us to both sustain illusions AND shatter them, continues to be ignored.

There is still time. Please boldly and courageously make drastic changes to the fundamental design of this spec, incorporating entirely new F-key mechanics and removing terrible ideas like the mirrors.

Elusive Mind is the only trait out of any of them I considered a draw for the traitline. However, I have no useful remarks to make on the rest since my hope – and the only hope for this spec – is that it is reworked so completely that the current traits will, by necessity, cease to exist.

Axe is slow, uninteresting, and unthematic as a weapon both for Mesmers and for condi specs with unreliable clone generation.

At the moment, NO ambush skills are worth spending your dodges to activate

There is no reason to ever run this over Chronomancer or even core condi Mesmer. Elite specs are supposed to bring new mechanics and new roles – and for every other profession but Mesmer, that’s what they’re getting.

After five years, shatters remain untouched. The inherent contradiction of Mesmer design, that you want us to both sustain illusions AND shatter them, has not been addressed, and will not be addressed by Mirage either in its current form.

There is still time. Please boldly and courageously make drastic changes to the fundamental design of this spec, incorporating new F-key mechanics. Remove our shatters and replace them with something. Make our phantasms into minions that don’t die when their assign targets die. Something, please.

Utilities: Underpowered and overpriced on recharge. Transferring illusions between targets is actually useless since they die when the target dies; there’s nothing to transfer and a third of your utility slots are wasted.

Mirage Cloak: Terrible. Dodges should not have to be spent to bolster offense, and removing the movement aspect from them is a nerf to one of the most core abilities in the game, moving out of AoE.

Mirage Mirror: The worst of them all. There is no redeeming feature to this awkward and useless mechanic. I cannot even begin to fathom how this mechanic made it so far into development. Needs to be completely removed from the spec altogether.

Phantasms should just be minions. That’s what they always should’ve been. The “illusions die on target death” has been five years of an awful idea slavishly adhered to for no good reason, and is responsible for the fatally contradictory design philosophy that will never stop haunting Mesmer: we’re supposed to maintain phatasms, yet they die when targets die, and we’re also supposed to shatter them.

Only clones should shatter. From the beginning, Phantasms should’ve just been minions that you summon and they fight for you. But since we can’t have that on core Mesmer, hey, that sounds like a great idea for an elite spec doesn’t it? Such an obvious idea, isn’t it? It’s almost as though it could’ve been a spec already…

Agreed. This is the same situation that arose with Revenant not being able to weapon swap, i.e. a ridiculous limitation being forced on the players because the devs are in love with a thematic notion rather than thinking about mechanical realities.

Hopefully the outcry can achieve the same result that it achieved then. Just sad that drowning them in protest is the only way to ever make them see reason.

Soulbeast is a breathtaking work of art and labor of love compared to Mirage…

There won’t be another expansion. This is GW2’s last hurrah. So I hope you’re ready to play Chrono forever until the servers go offline.

What Levetty means is, instead of designing a robust, clearly mechanically envisioned spec first and then naming it, they had the name first and threw a bunch of bad and random ideas together to try to make it fit that name.

Please, please go back to the drawing board on this spec. There are so many things wrong with it it simply cannot be salvaged. Please design us another spec that:

1. Is not a condi spec. We have one of those already, and every other profession is getting specs that offer them something new and different.

2. Does not rely on clones for offense when they do not have the longevity and cannot be produced sufficiently quickly to perform in this role.

3. Does not require spending our dodges on offense.

4. Does not remove the movement from dodge rolls, which is key to moving quickly out of AoE.

5. Does not use Mirage Mirrors, which are a terrible idea. Having to slowly walk over to touch a thing which gives us nothing more than another dodge is simply ludicrous.

6. Does not use Axe, which is an unthematic weapon for Mesmers (and for condi specs, incidentally). Back before HoT, you teased us that the initial idea was for a rifle spec. Or for “Mirage”, the supposed “thief hybrid” that has a hit-and-run playstyle, what about mainhand pistol? Honestly this is one of the most confusing parts of the whole mess. Axe??

7. If it still has Ambush skills, allow us to use them without spending our dodges AND make them actually worth using AND make the use window bigger than the blink of an eye it currently is.

8. Has utility skills that are actually worth using, and are not overpriced on recharge. A 30 second recharge for a “evade backwards, if you walk back to where you were you get a dodge” skill is not something that will ever be competitive for the tiny number of utility slots we have available.

There is just so much wrong here. Please just scrap this jumble of bad and awkward ideas and start over. It’s not too late, but it soon will be.

Honestly, as a Mesmer fanatic since the beginning of GW1, this spec is terrible. All other professions are getting sweeping changes and new mechanics. We got another condi spec with dodges that don’t move. That’s it. I simply do not understand how, with all the possibilities they could’ve gone with – the early-idea rifle spec that they teased us with during HoT, illusionary weapons as kits, or a genuine punishment spec like Spellbreaker – we get something this dull, this plain. I am so astounded and disappointed.

Mantras are either bugged or still completely useless, as they don’t grant their “when fully charged” effect when they recharge…ONLY when you recast the skill from scratch – and the count recharges are also far too long anyway, usually significantly longer than actually just recasting the skill. So nothing about them has changed except they grant a paltry benefit on cast and are otherwise essentialy unchanged. After five years, they still can’t or won’t make this skill type worth a kitten .

But honestly, nothing in these changes will change how I trait or play Mesmer at all. Damage builds will never be viable as long as Phantasms can’t change targets; hilarious that they gave them a GM ramp-up trait when they will never exist long enough to ramp up, and don’t even maintain the bonus through Chronophantasma recycling.

Chronomancer alacrity-bot is and always will be our only use, even after Mirage comes out I suspect. Better luck in another two years.

These changes add nothing, improve nothing, and fix nothing.

Scepter: Lazy slap-on of conditions on the AA and +5% on MS, the weapon’s cadence is still monstrously slow and clunky, skill 2 still useless. THIS is your big scepter rework, really?

Alacrity and Quickness, the only reasons anybody tolerated us in groups, nerfed heavily.
Feedback change only makes it slower and clumsier to use instead of being a near-instant single button press.
Chaos Armor and Chaotic Dampening nerfed, because staff was such a useful weapon before, right guys?
Duelist’s Discipline still useless because we have too many other offhands.
Restorative Mantras still useless because mantras are still useless.
Furious Interruption still useless outside builds you’re already destroying in many other ways.
Evasive Mirror still useless. Seriously in contention for Mesmer’s most useless trait, which is saying a lot.
Mistrust useless.
Malicious Sorcery already covered, absolutely pointless change that does NOTHING to address the problems with scepter.
Resistance nerf.
Well of Precognition joins the ever-growing garbage pile of worthless Mesmer utilities.

On top of all of this, the Mesmer’s skill recharges, many of which were balanced around the expectation of having Alacrity – the REAL Alacrity – were not lowered to compensate, which means the profession is even more hobbled by this jaw-droppingly massive, hamfisted nerf.

The “balance” team has proven once again that they will not allow Mesmers to have competitive direct damage, will not allow them to have viable condition play, will not allow them to have powerful defense, and will not allow them to have compelling party support.

Do the devs have any concrete notion of what Mesmer is supposed to be? Seriously, what is the point of this profession?

You guys should try out Warframe if you’re looking for a new game. You can actually play support and still have great damage contribution. Shocking concept, I know. Can probably consider it my “main game” now, despite having been with GW for over ten years. Oh well. All things must pass.

Scepter: Lazy slap-on of conditions on the AA and +5% on MS, the weapon’s cadence is still monstrously slow and clunky, skill 2 still useless. THIS is your big scepter rework, really?

Alacrity and Quickness, the only reasons anybody tolerated us in groups, nerfed heavily.
Feedback change only makes it slower and clumsier to use instead of being a near-instant single button press.
Chaos Armor and Chaotic Dampening nerfed, because staff was such a useful weapon before, right guys?
Duelist’s Discipline still useless because we have too many other offhands.
Restorative Mantras still useless because mantras are still useless.
Furious Interruption still useless outside builds you’re already destroying in many other ways.
Evasive Mirror still useless. Seriously in contention for Mesmer’s most useless trait, which is saying a lot.
Mistrust useless.
Malicious Sorcery already covered, absolutely pointless change that does NOTHING to address the problems with scepter.
Resistance nerf.
Well of Precognition joins the ever-growing garbage pile of worthless Mesmer utilities.

Thanks so much guys. Thanks for this. You outdid yourselves in proving again, has you have many times before, that you hate Mesmers and that them being strong and useful is considered an unacceptable problem.

Whatever it is, we won’t get it. That I can promise you.

Step 1: Completely scrap the weapon’s current skills.

Step 2: The new skills:

#1: A non-projectile direct attack chain (like the Necro scepter AA) that does not create clones. Has increased Confusion and Torment to compensate.

#2: Panic. A faster casting Confusing Images that can arc to another enemy if it strikes a dazed foe, and arc again if THAT foe was dazed. 10 second recharge.

#3. Visions of Regret. Place the Visions of Regret debuff on a foe. For 10 seconds, whenever that foe deals damage, it takes X damage and a clone targeting that foe is created. (Maximum Z damage/1 clone per second.) These clones do not overwrite phantasms. 25 second recharge.

Any nerf to Alacrity will only make Mesmer less desired and less fun to play. I have no faith that the Scepter changes will go as far as they should (i.e. complete rework) either.

Xyonon.3987:

sadly the gold parts of the weapons are too “green” and look not good on my gold dyes on my mes. The “real” gold people most of the time use is warm and a shiny yellow-orange, not a yellow-green

Indeed, and that’s true for a lot of “gold” weapons Anet puts out, like the Auric weapons, which are also way too green. Meanwhile, here’s (one of) my preferred outfits/color schemes…

I wonder if one day they’ll introduce a (probably overpriced) way to upgrade it visually. Seems like such a missed opportunity.

Wrong. Also, should have.

No. The shield is an unattractive shape, wider than it is tall, and the greatsword – as ANet so often seems to like to do – is ruined by the flat end instead of coming to a point. The 1H sword is the only one that is even remotely tempting, but I have many, many other 1H skins I like already.

Thank you for once again screwing over PvE mesmers because of a flawed PvP design that promotes stalling over everything else. One wonders for how many more years your stubbornness on not splitting PvE/PvP balance will continue, even though you already learned this lesson in GW1.

Kharne.8613:

Fay.2357:

Since no balance will happen for another 1.5 months minimum, I’m expecting folks up top to eventually realize that counters to bunker Mesmer exist, they just have to play them.

They’ll catch on eventually, they generally do. It just usually takes them a while.

You speak of counters, yet you do not list them to try to get your point accross.

It is not our job to help other classes beat us. The heavy lifting of coming up with counters is their responsibility.

Most accurate way to predict Anet balance:

Consider thoughtfully the most reasonable and elegant option. Come up with a smart, low-impact solution, one that would strike a chord with anyone’s common sense appreciation of the situation.

Then do the opposite of whatever that was.

This cycle will persist until the day they finally stop being stubborn about PvE/PvP balance split, just as they finally, after years, stopped being stubborn about it in GW1.

This only highlights the continued need for a PvE/PvP balance split, and ANet’s continued stubbornness in refusing to implement it, just as they were stubborn about it in GW1 for years before finally doing it, to the great benefit of the game. How they have forgotten the lessons of the past is beyond me, but it is time to relearn them.

Shut up. I love my purple fire and I hate these “reduce visual noise” changes.

Pepsi.8907:

Yeah… I know, I hope too much

Was speaking to the OP, not you.

Shield does not need “tuning”. It’s in a phenomenal place just as it is. Stop trying to fix – and by that I mean ruin – what isn’t broken.

How about “tuning” Scepter instead.

How about no.

Also,Eather Feast or Well of Eternity?

Neither. Go Signet of the Ether with Blurred Inscriptions, which also recharges Echo of Memory. Incidentally, I prefer Illusions over Inspiration due to reduced illusion recharge, reduced shatter recharge, and Persistence of Memory, which synergizes so well with Chronophantasma. This too reduces the recharge of Echo of Memory, for even more blocking/iAvenger spam.

On the other hand, Insipiration doesn’t really offer anything. Persisting Images is completely unnecessary now with the change to “pet” damage and the increased speed of our shatter cadence. The heal from Restorative Illusions is paltry, and Illusionary Inspiration, while a great skill in a party-based build, really offers nothing in open world PvE.

I really think you’re best served to switch out Inspiration for Illusions and go with Persistence of Memory, Shattered Strength/Phantasmal Haste, and Master of Fragmentation.

Ghostwind.4380:

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

The Zerk vs. Sin debate is a contentious issue. Basicially – I believe – Zerk is better if you’re alone and not counting on optimal boosts like 25 Might, banners, etc. and Sin is better in a group invironment where you can rely on having those bonuses. But really, it’s only a slight difference, and either one is fine, although I’ve never gone wrong with all Zerk myself. It’s just simpler, too.

Do you use mostly zerk in HoT? Just wondering since I’ve read zerk is mainly to be avoided in HoT (although I run full zerk on my ranger and do just fine).

Also, is a power build better for mesmer solo in HoT than a condi-build? I’ve run mostly condi-build with staff with good success, but maybe power is better?

In full Zerk I have 100%ed all maps, soloed the story all the way through, and done all metaevents in HoT, no problem. I can’t speak to other professions, but with the borderline unfair amount of active damage avoidance we Mesmers have at our disposal now, survivability should not be a major problem as long as you pay attention and play skillfully.

The Zerk vs. Sin debate is a contentious issue. Basicially – I believe – Zerk is better if you’re alone and not counting on optimal boosts like 25 Might, banners, etc. and Sin is better in a group invironment where you can rely on having those bonuses. But really, it’s only a slight difference, and either one is fine, although I’ve never gone wrong with all Zerk myself. It’s just simpler, too.

Really? Glad I’ve been sticking with SotE.

Power is always a safe bet.

A step in the right direction. Now please fix the currently broken Fractal Weapons skins collection. I have multiple skins in the bank that are not being counted.

Seeing their stowed weapon, which is all that is talking about, isn’t. Obviously if the shield is “out”, you’ll see it.

Faction.4013:

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

Maybe actually try it before coming in here with wrong information.

Little bit of unnecessary hostility, there?

Nope, completely warranted. People who go to correct others without knowing what they themselves are talking about, and without having even tried it out for themselves before doing so, should expect no less. Actually I was much more civil than I could’ve been.

Silverkey.2078:

Just to make things clear: master of fragmentation change the “distorsion” shatter to reflect projectiles, not the “distorsion” effect. So your signet will not reflect anything but you will indeed evade the damage for 1s.

That’s not true though. You can see when you use a signet that you gain the “reflection” effect in your effects bar, and you will actually see projectiles bouncing off you when you do it. MoF gives reflection to all signets when traited with BI. Maybe actually try it before coming in here with wrong information.

Since I never see anyone talking about it, here goes. In my experience, Signet of Midnight traited with Blurred Inscriptions is an amazing utility skill. Ignore the passive, it’s all about the active effects. It’s an instant, on-demand distortion (reflection if you have MoF), stunbreak, condition cleanse, and AoE blind, all on a fairly short recharge that is even shorter now with Alacrity. This skill has saved me so many times. Whether to recover from a CC at a critical moment, distort through big damage, or to cover your heal activation, this skill will save your life on a regular basis.

Especially now in the expansion, where mob CCs are very common and we Mesmers can go down very quickly if we aren’t careful, this skill never leaves my bar. If you haven’t ever given it a shot, I recommend you give it a fair trial. You may be surprised at how much you come to rely on it.

frifox.5283:

Once you go chrono you’ll be pumping avengers for perma party aclarity, which are nowhere near close to the usual swordsman/duelist dps. Your personal DPS will be the bigger chunk of the dps.

Yes, and Persistence of Memory will help you get those Avengers out faster and more consistently. Also, in a group environment you shouldn’t be worried about maximizing DPS as a Mesmer anyway, so your point is null.

I’ll move on when it’s justified. Atm I don’t see that being the case.

Your mistake, but that’s fine.

frifox.5283:

- about 50% vigor uptime
- 20% sword reduction = more dps = more active evades (even with aclarity)
- phantasm bleeds on crit
- Fencers Finesse
- perma fury at 75% or below

-Unnecessary with the blocks we now have, plus Well of Precognition, plus Blurred Inscriptions for distort on signet use, optionally.
-Blurred Frenzy is a DPS loss over sword AA since it got buffed. As for evades, see previous point.
-Useless in a power build. I don’t even notice it’s gone.
-A tiny bonus easily made up in other ways.
-Unnecessary.

frifox.5283:

I intentionally left it out since that trait competes with Compounding Power, which is a very good dps trait especially where you can now actually keep your illusions out pretty well. And, I haven’t explored that synergy enough to judge whether it’s worth giving up CP.

Compounding Power is a bad trait because a Mesmer’s personal damage is terrible compared to the damage phantasms do, which is not affected. With Chronophantasma, Persistence of Memory can constantly pump out new phantasms – which will feed your shatters, so you’ll be doing more personal damage than you would’ve been anyway, especially with Shattered Strength.

It’s time to move on from Dueling. We were dependent on it for so long because we had nothing better. Now we do. Let go of your dependence on it and learn the power of pure phantasm-shatter.

Drop Dueling and go with Illusions instead. Persistence of Memory, Shattered Strength, and the recharge reductions on illusions and shatters is all amazing with Chronophantasma and/or Illusionary Reversion. You can Mind Wrack on recharge and still have illusions out constantly.

Dueling has nothing going for it anymore. With Alacrity you don’t need the recharge reduction on Sword, Mantras are outclassed by other utilities once again, and DE is not a good enough reason to take a whole traitline now that we have Chrono’s superior Illusion-retention traits.

The point is they shouldn’t have to “deal with it”. This should never have been an issue in a cosmetic-based game to begin with. Now that other professions getting shields to use has raised the visibility of the problem, it’s time something was done about it.

Carighan.6758:

How would you do it? It’s a serious question, as having both on the back would lead to tons of clipping, but carrying the shield on the arm leads to tons of clipping, too.

Conveniently, I posted not one but TWO possible solutions right in the first post!