Why must Elite specs change the profession’s F mechanic?
Scrapper’s doesn’t. Daredevil’s doesn’t.
They don’t last long enough and they give an effect that’s really time-critical. It does very little when it doesn’t pop at the right time; making the current iteration only good for popping Ambushes (and not even well-timed Ambushes at that).
It would be a lot better if picking them up gives you Endurance instead. Even if it’s not a full dodge’s worth it would be better.
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Jaunt is strong. It’s like Phase Retreat, it can be used even when you’re in the middle of a cast or stunned.
Ambush skills are too inconsistent. Staff clones do normal condition damage, Sceptre clones do half duration, Sword clones do low damage and interrupts (though they don’t seem to utilise interrupt traits), and GS clones are just why. Actually GS Ambush is a huge why: the Spear ambush would fit better here.
The Ambush window is presumably short to make us choose between using Mirage Cloak defensively or offensively. The problem is with Infinite Horizons Staff and Sceptre can use it defensively while getting comparable offensive output, whereas Sword and GS cannot.
Axe and Deception skills are largely meh. False Oasis is weak and most Deception utilities don’t quite do enough for their CDs. The Mirage Mirror mechanic is nice but doesn’t last long enough and isn’t very controllable: I’d prefer if shattering a Mirage Mirror give you Endurance instead.
Mirage traits are a bit of a mess. Adepts and Masters are again rather meh. The minors aren’t that hot either. GM is where it starts getting interesting but only really between Infinite Horizons and Elusive Mind, which to me largely depends on what weapon you use due to how inconsistent Clone ambushes are.
IMO Infinite Horizons should be the GM minor and Speed of Sand should be a GM Master with a buffed effect, say 33% longer Mirage Cloak duration on top of a longer duration Superspeed (the current duration is pretty negligible).
Given Persistence of Memory got gutted the synergy isn’t even close to as strong as it used to be.
I don’t like the two new traits because they’re boring. Both of them are just straight up number boosts with some conditional bigger number boost.
They’re bandaid fixes to complaints regarding Mesmer power damage, nothing more.
And if Staff 1’s Burning could be un-nerfed that would be nice too…
When Burning was changed from a duration-stacking to an intensity-stacking condition they reduced Burning’s per-tick damage to compensate, and Burning-inflicting skills were changed to fit the new paradigm.
Winds of Chaos never got the memo. Still hasn’t.
But seriously, I don’t think Anet remembers their past patch notes. They’ll bandaid fix something, then a few months later fix the core issue, and never take the bandaid off.
Mirage Advance’s recall portion may act as a stunbreak like Shadow Return does. Or it might act like Phase Retreat where it can teleport you while stunned, but won’t break the actual CC.
If it remains available for long enough then it might be useful.
I think Mantra of Distraction had the right idea in terms of channel effects. Why not go bonkers with that: make every Mantra recharge an associated Shatter skill?
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Mantra of Pain: Reduce Mind Wrack’s CD by 5s when channel finishes.
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Mantra of Resolve: Reduce Cry of Frustration’s CD by 10s when channel finishes.
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Mantra of Distraction: Reduce Diversion’s CD by 15s when channel finishes.
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Mantra of Concentration: Reduce Distortion’s CD by 10s when channel finishes. CD increased from 15s to 20s.
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But what about Mantra of Recovery? Well…
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Mantra of Recovery: Grant 5s of Alacrity to yourself when channel finishes. Power Return no longer heals for half health when above 50% HP.
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Two reasons for this.
First, if other professions are getting Alacrity baseline Mesmer most certainly should get it too.
Second, it’s a throwback to what Mantra of Recovery originally did in GW1. Fitting, no?
I’d very much prefer if Mantras went back to being just a single charge. The main reason it was split into two charges IIRC was because of Harmonious Mantras (it used to have no effect on Mantra of Recovery for balance reasons).
That said most Mantras are better with more charges (Distraction, Resolve, Concentration and, with Mender’s Purity, Recovery), so my reasons are more thematic and… well, multicharge Mantras (particularly Mantra of Pain and Recovery) feels clunky.
No reason we can’t have Mantras with different numbers of charges of course. I don’t see Anet doing that though, they want to show off their shiny new (and for Mantras, horribly ineffectual) ammo system.
The idea is nice. The implementation is a lot worse than “leaves a lot to be desired”, it’s non-existent.
The ammo system for Mantras is very different from the ammo system on every other skill. Why?
Because the moment you use your second charge, the Mantra will stop recharging and completely lose all progress.
So all the ammo system does for Mantras is give you the “choice” of using a single charge on a disproportionately long CD.
If you use that second charge, the ammo system isn’t just figuratively non-existent, it’s literally non-existent.
If you want to take advantage of the recharge then you can never use both charges, so all it really is is a weak heal on a 20s CD.
To get the condi cleanse you then have to choose Inspiration, which is not at all “absolutely free” if you’re talking about PvE: it’s a pretty big hit to your DPS.
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Power Return is indeed instant and can be used any time. It was like that pre-patch too, you know? in fact all the patch did was heavily nerf it (halved healing above 50%, halved condi cleansing with Inspiration) in favour of giving buffs to channel-finish.
See why people have problem with this?
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I didn’t say the reduction of Mantra traits is a bad thing. We used to have what, four Mantra traits and honestly that was very crappy. They’ve been consolidated since then (Protected baseline, Empowered and Harmonious combined: although I’ll point out all three of these old Mantra trait effects are now completely removed).
Specifically Mantra of Recovery.
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Having the heal on channel-finish be stronger than the instant heal (especially with Restorative Mantras) encourages you to expend charges quickly so you can get the CD rolling for the stronger heal.
… Except the instant heals got halved in strength if you’re above 50% HP, counterintuitively encouraging you to hoard charges.
What exactly do you want Mantra of Recovery to be Anet? You can’t have “combat channelling” and “half-hearted OH CRAP button” in one skill.
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If you take Restorative Mantras (RIP Mantra traits… remember how many there used to be?) you’re almost better off going into battle with Mantra of Recovery uncharged.
Aren’t Mantras supposed to be pre-prepared spells?
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Also the ammo system works horribly with Mantras. The moment both charges are expended the ammo CD vanishes in a puff of smoke.
This plus ammo CD > channel CD and the new channel-finish effects means for most Mantras it’s almost always better to expend charges and rechannel: i.e. no different from before.
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There’s some good ideas here, but please don’t cram contradictory mechanics into the same skill.
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I’ve been finding all the complains about the bunker mesmer a bit weird, because people complaining about it never mention the other bunkers in game (ele, engi… that are actually better bunkers since they can also do some actual damage while bunkering), or how the bunkering is there to counter the classes that can kill you within 1 second.
Until I read this, and understood it all:
the class should be disabled until the balance patch comes out,EASy.
This actually express a lot, because it is the real intention of lots of people behind all this whinning. Some people just don’t want the mesmer to be in this game. And this is happening since game lauch: that explains why the mesmer has been in a non-stop nerfing train since launch. Evety time a viable build appears, it get nerfed to oblivion due to whinning. Seems like some people is still afraid of what they don’t understand.
The problem is that tempest or scrapper have actually a better sustain than chrono, except that chrono has a stupidly high near-invulnerability uptime. It has fairly average healing, but you cannot damage it for 50% of the time which is bad design.
On top of that, it has one of the best support possible, especially since no one can die around him without being rezzed near-instantly.
It makes me cringe when people misinterpret the word invulnerability when talking about mesmer.
Bit confused by what you’re getting at here. Are you suggesting Silverkey misinterpreted the word “invulnerability”, or that you’ll cringe when someone misinterprets what Silverkey said?
Either way, his exact words were “near-invulnerability”, which is true; Blur is pretty close and Distortion even closer.
In case anyone is confused, Silverkey is using the word (near) invulnerability for its dictionary-definition, not referring to the in-game effect invulnerability.
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A necessary change but given that the current Chronobunker doesn’t rely as much on Block as it could (thanks to all the Unblockable attacks and especially CCs, which aren’t addressed in this mini-patch) it probably won’t make a huge difference.
I don’t think I’ve seen any Mesmer run MI anymore (unless, I suppose, they don’t have HoT). The only reason it was “fine” before is because there wasn’t a general-use Elite, now we have Gravity Well.
About a third of the people in this thread don’t even play mesmer, you can tell from their comments. So ignorant.
That’s actually extremely low compared to other “nerf Mesmer” threads.
HoT brought too much power creep. More nerfs than buffs are needed IMO.
IIRC Soldier’s is 24k HP or something. Unless a burst leaves you with less than 4k HP before you can react Soldier’s should suffice.
Even with 15k HP as a Settler Bunker I almost never get killed before I can react (Blink helps to get you instantly out of any “oh kitten” sitations you describe, or even Well of Precog). I imagine with Soldier’s it would be trivial.
Blink loses you the point, and many “oh kitten” situations last longer than the 3 seconds of precog can provide for, particularly if you get yanked out of it by a DH.
Blink does not necessarily have to teleport you off the point (and even if you have to a split second before you get back in isn’t a huge deal most of the time).
3 seconds should be more than enough time to prepare, if you’re completely out of defenses (which is the only situation I can imagine that 3 seconds of invulnerability to CCs is not enough) then the extra 4k HP is not going to save you.
Your 4k hp argument is faulty because it goes both ways. How often is a few hundred more power actually going to make a difference. In fact, it’s more likely that 4k hp will make more of a difference than a bit of power, since power damage is so heavily linked to crits and crit power, which you’ll have none of either way.
The key is if 4k HP won’t make a difference then it makes absolutely zero difference, as in it might as well not exist. Extra power however always has an effect as long as you’re dealing any direct damage at all.
What you’re saying makes zero sense.
“4k hp is small, and therefor will make zero difference, but an equally small amount of power will make a difference.”
Either that small amount of stats will or will not make a difference. Pick one, you don’t get to say yes for one and no for the other.
No no, what I mean is if the 4K HP didn’t save you then you can take that 4K HP completely away and your effectiveness for that fight remains completely unchanged. It’s essentially exactly the same fight.
On the other hand, even if extra Power did not change the result of a fight, if you take it away your effectiveness for that fight would be changed. The result might not be, but it’s definitely a “different fight”.
The only thing that matters is the outcome. As far as drastic changes to the outcome of a fight go, a tiny bit more dps from the tank is going to matter FAR less than if that tank happens to die.
Indeed, assuming the extra Vitality actually has a tangible effect on survivability. My own experiences with 15k HP (and also thinking back to the old Guardian Bunker which has even less HP) suggest that the difference between 24k and 28k seems quite negligible.
I guess, YMMV. Extra Vitality would indeed be a lot more important for a Bunker when it makes a difference, but situations where it does isn’t common. Extra Power always makes a difference, but the difference it makes is minor.
I personally lean towards more “offensive” bunker variations so I obviously prefer Power, but a dedicated Bunker would be safer going with Vitality.
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IIRC Soldier’s is 24k HP or something. Unless a burst leaves you with less than 4k HP before you can react Soldier’s should suffice.
Even with 15k HP as a Settler Bunker I almost never get killed before I can react (Blink helps to get you instantly out of any “oh kitten” sitations you describe, or even Well of Precog). I imagine with Soldier’s it would be trivial.
Blink loses you the point, and many “oh kitten” situations last longer than the 3 seconds of precog can provide for, particularly if you get yanked out of it by a DH.
Blink does not necessarily have to teleport you off the point (and even if you have to a split second before you get back in isn’t a huge deal most of the time).
3 seconds should be more than enough time to prepare, if you’re completely out of defenses (which is the only situation I can imagine that 3 seconds of invulnerability to CCs is not enough) then the extra 4k HP is not going to save you.
Your 4k hp argument is faulty because it goes both ways. How often is a few hundred more power actually going to make a difference. In fact, it’s more likely that 4k hp will make more of a difference than a bit of power, since power damage is so heavily linked to crits and crit power, which you’ll have none of either way.
The key is if 4k HP won’t make a difference then it makes absolutely zero difference, as in it might as well not exist. Extra power however always has an effect as long as you’re dealing any direct damage at all.
What you’re saying makes zero sense.
“4k hp is small, and therefor will make zero difference, but an equally small amount of power will make a difference.”
Either that small amount of stats will or will not make a difference. Pick one, you don’t get to say yes for one and no for the other.
No no, what I mean is if the 4K HP didn’t do anything then you can take that 4K HP completely away and your effectiveness for that fight remains completely unchanged. It’s essentially exactly the same fight.
On the other hand, even if extra Power did not change the result of a fight, if you take it away your effectiveness for that fight would be changed. The result might not be, but it’s definitely a “different fight”.
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IIRC Soldier’s is 24k HP or something. Unless a burst leaves you with less than 4k HP before you can react Soldier’s should suffice.
Even with 15k HP as a Settler Bunker I almost never get killed before I can react (Blink helps to get you instantly out of any “oh kitten” sitations you describe, or even Well of Precog). I imagine with Soldier’s it would be trivial.
Blink loses you the point, and many “oh kitten” situations last longer than the 3 seconds of precog can provide for, particularly if you get yanked out of it by a DH.
Blink does not necessarily have to teleport you off the point (and even if you have to a split second before you get back in isn’t a huge deal most of the time).
3 seconds should be more than enough time to prepare, if you’re completely out of defenses (which is the only situation I can imagine that 3 seconds of invulnerability to CCs is not enough) then the extra 4k HP is not going to save you.
Your 4k hp argument is faulty because it goes both ways. How often is a few hundred more power actually going to make a difference. In fact, it’s more likely that 4k hp will make more of a difference than a bit of power, since power damage is so heavily linked to crits and crit power, which you’ll have none of either way.
The key is if 4k HP won’t make a difference then it makes absolutely zero difference, as in it might as well not exist. Extra power however always has an effect as long as you’re dealing any direct damage at all.
IIRC Soldier’s is 24k HP or something. Unless a burst leaves you with less than 4k HP before you can react Soldier’s should suffice.
Even with 15k HP as a Settler Bunker I almost never get killed before I can react (Blink helps to get you instantly out of any “oh kitten” sitations you describe, or even Well of Precog). I imagine with Soldier’s it would be trivial.
Blink loses you the point, and many “oh kitten” situations last longer than the 3 seconds of precog can provide for, particularly if you get yanked out of it by a DH.
Blink does not necessarily have to teleport you off the point (and even if you have to a split second before you get back in isn’t a huge deal most of the time).
3 seconds should be more than enough time to prepare, if you’re completely out of defenses (which is the only situation I can imagine that 3 seconds of invulnerability to CCs is not enough) then the extra 4k HP is not going to save you.
IIRC Soldier’s is 24k HP or something. Unless a burst leaves you with less than 4k HP before you can react Soldier’s should suffice.
Even with 15k HP as a Settler Bunker I almost never get killed before I can react (Blink helps to get you instantly out of any “oh kitten” sitations you describe, or even Well of Precog). I imagine with Soldier’s it would be trivial.
Remember that the old Guardian Bunker ran with very little HP as well and did just fine. Obviously things are different post-HoT, but not THAT different.
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IMO Sentinel’s extra Vitality is mostly wasted because a huge part of the Chronobunker’s strength is healing. As long as you have enough health pool to buffer you against burst (and Soldier’s is more than enough) extra Vitality is wasted in most engagements.
Retaliation was removed because Anet decided it didn’t fit the Mesmer. It’s not just iMage, we used to have Retaliation on Block, revive and F2.
I think Burning fits the Torch just fine, it just needs to be stronger. I agree with Resistance instead of Fury, although Fury would be fine if its duration was greatly extended. Disenchanter has enough going for it, all it needs is reduced cast time (same with Defender) and it would be great.
If nerfing Mesmer Block isn’t on the table then I support buffing old Blocks. Unblockable attacks (and CCs) are more common now anyhow so I think buffing old Blocks is definitely needed.
Although personally I think HoT brought too much power creep and in general overtuned stuff should be nerfed rather than weaker stuff buffed.
As to the idea itself, I think it’s a better way to do what Mesmer Block tried to do in that it punishes continually attacking a Block; as opposed to just one stray cleave or AoE pulse instantly doubling Block time.
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I always thought of it as the heavy armor is more common and does a good enough job whereas the lighter looking stuff is enchanted and made of rarer materials tougher than real metals.
When you think about it though, Guardians practice Preservation magic AND wear heavy armour. You wonder why they even bother when the magic they practice, supposedly better than most at “preservation”, is actually worse than the Destruction and Denial magic of Elementalists and Mesmers, who wear dresses.
To me it would have been more consistent if Ranger was given the DragonHunter Role, and the Guardian was given the current Druid Role. But anyways.
It would but the point of the Elite specs (whether you agree with it or not) is to give professions new roles. The problem is in some cases they go too far as to completely usurp the old order, and in others they don’t bring anything new at all.
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You’re going to end up unlocking everything anyway so it really doesn’t matter. Both are powerful specs.
Easiest way to play Mesmer is probably to stick to Greatsword and shoot pew pew laser beams. In that sense Domination may be better because the Greatsword’s trait is in Domination.
Either way though for maximum damage you want both Dom and Duel, so which one you pick first doesn’t really matter for long.
IMO the problem with Well of Precog is it’s the complete opposite of other Wells. All other Wells pulse a (relatively) weak effect and end with a strong effect, Well of Precog however pulses an extremely strong effect and ends with… honestly, I don’t think people even notice the end effect most of the time.
I think it should go back to what it used to be, pulse Unblockable and end in Blur. Or to go with one of my old suggestions, pulse damage and Confusion and end with Unblockable + Blur.
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RE: Alacrity: honestly, I think the way Alacrity is now is toxic for the Mesmer. It’s so easy to get and so strong that everything about the Mesmer is balanced around it, to the point where the base Mesmer is almost completely helpless compared to the Chronomancer. More than any other profession, the Chronomancer is a huge power creep compared to the Mesmer, and Alacrity is the reason.
In this sense I agree with Silverkey that personal Alacrity should be reduced while Alacrity sharing… not necessarily buffed, but more accessible (ATM it’s basically all down to Wells). Alacrity should be more of a support effect than a personal steroid effect.
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And yeah I think Block duration needs to be reduced slightly. It’s not really evident in the meta Chronobunker but builds that use CP and PoM can achieve ridiculously low CDs for Blocking, if it weren’t for so many Unblockable attacks and CCs post-HoT this would easily be extremely OP. As it is it’s still almost unbeatable by professions that lack Unblockable attacks.
ikr cuz there is not enough chill in this game, no?
Assuming you’re suggesting Chill as a counter to Alacrity, remember almost all Chronomancers shed conditions at the same time they gain Alacrity, so…
Well yes, personally alacrity is granted through shatters which most Mesmers are traited to clear on shatter. But one condi removed per shatter is not very great..
Aside from that, apply it after they apply the alacrity? You don’t need to completely nullify their alacrity 100% to kitten up their rotations either.
Personally I use Mantra of Recovery in my Chronobunkers, which makes me almost invulnerable to conditions thanks to Mender’s Purity. If used on CD it comes down to cleansing 2 conditions from yourself and nearby allies every 2.1 seconds thanks to Alacrity and Quickness, and because of Quickness and Stability it’s almost impossible to interrupt.
That aside, you apply Chill after they gain Alacrity. So what? They Shatter and lose the Chill and gain more Alacrity. Chill can be removed, Alacrity however cannot.
Also, Mesmers aren’t Elementalists. There isn’t a set rotation you must go through that gets thrown out of whack if your CDs change.
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Also, isn’t it weird that the two tankiest classes in the game wear cloth? I mean a mesmer and a elementalist holding off multiple foes and supporting there allies with such little armor? I just think it’s strange how Anet comes up with these things…
You’re right, because this game is super realistic……
Assuming you’re pulling the “it’s a world with magic and dragons so realistic” argument, I refer you to the concept of Willing Suspension of Disbelief.
Essentially, fictional works don’t have to be realistic, they just have to be internally consistent. Magic isn’t realistic, but most fictional works handle it consistently. On the other hand, if people running around in dresses are better protected than people in heavy metal armour, the question becomes why heavy armour exists at all.
But we digress.
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I don’t see the benefit of Cele for Chronobunker. Your direct damage is low and your condition damage non-existent, and you don’t have a way of rapidly building and maintaining large stacks of Might on yourself. Healing Power doesn’t affect Mesmer heals very much. I think you’re better off running a more directly tanky amulet.
Not going to debate whether celestial is better or worse than a tanky Amulet (I personally use celestial but both sound great), but mind wrack with alacrity and CS does stack up some significant might.
The key word is “rapidly”. Mind Wrack provides three stacks every Shatter. For good Celestial damage you need to be able to build at least 10+ stacks of Might quickly.
Celestial DPS also depends on conditions, and Chronobunker, for all intents and purposes, has zero.
Do you use something other than Sw/Sh + Staff?
Are you implying that Staff does anything close to decent condition damage? Mesmer condition is almost entirely from Shatters, which a Chronobunker cannot get as it requires Illusions. Staff condition output is weak, and not being a dedicated condition build makes it almost a non-factor.
IMO the problem with Well of Precog is it’s the complete opposite of other Wells. All other Wells pulse a (relatively) weak effect and end with a strong effect, Well of Precog however pulses an extremely strong effect and ends with… honestly, I don’t think people even notice the end effect most of the time.
I think it should go back to what it used to be, pulse Unblockable and end in Blur. Or to go with one of my old suggestions, pulse damage and Confusion and end with Unblockable + Blur.
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RE: Alacrity: honestly, I think the way Alacrity is now is toxic for the Mesmer. It’s so easy to get and so strong that everything about the Mesmer is balanced around it, to the point where the base Mesmer is almost completely helpless compared to the Chronomancer. More than any other profession, the Chronomancer is a huge power creep compared to the Mesmer, and Alacrity is the reason.
In this sense I agree with Silverkey that personal Alacrity should be reduced while Alacrity sharing… not necessarily buffed, but more accessible (ATM it’s basically all down to Wells). Alacrity should be more of a support effect than a personal steroid effect.
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And yeah I think Block duration needs to be reduced slightly. It’s not really evident in the meta Chronobunker but builds that use CP and PoM can achieve ridiculously low CDs for Blocking, if it weren’t for so many Unblockable attacks and CCs post-HoT this would easily be extremely OP. As it is it’s still almost unbeatable by professions that lack Unblockable attacks.
ikr cuz there is not enough chill in this game, no?
Assuming you’re suggesting Chill as a counter to Alacrity, remember almost all Chronomancers shed conditions at the same time they gain Alacrity, so…
I agree. A meta where Guards are Burst and Mesmers are Bunker just doesn’t make sense thematically, and if Anet still holds their own profession design philosophies to be true (which was posted a few times by the Devs themselves) then the current meta represents a colossal design failure.
I don’t see the benefit of Cele for Chronobunker. Your direct damage is low and your condition damage non-existent, and you don’t have a way of rapidly building and maintaining large stacks of Might on yourself. Healing Power doesn’t affect Mesmer heals very much. I think you’re better off running a more directly tanky amulet.
Not going to debate whether celestial is better or worse than a tanky Amulet (I personally use celestial but both sound great), but mind wrack with alacrity and CS does stack up some significant might.
The key word is “rapidly”. Mind Wrack provides three stacks every Shatter. For good Celestial damage you need to be able to build at least 10+ stacks of Might quickly.
Celestial DPS also depends on conditions, and Chronobunker, for all intents and purposes, has zero.
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People also used to fantasise about Mesmer Portal highways and recursive Signet of Inspiration boon sharing. Turns out trying to get a bunch of Mesmers to synchronise is harder than herding cats.
IMO the problem with Well of Precog is it’s the complete opposite of other Wells. All other Wells pulse a (relatively) weak effect and end with a strong effect, Well of Precog however pulses an extremely strong effect and ends with… honestly, I don’t think people even notice the end effect most of the time.
I think it should go back to what it used to be, pulse Unblockable and end in Blur. Or to go with one of my old suggestions, pulse damage and Confusion and end with Unblockable + Blur.
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RE: Alacrity: honestly, I think the way Alacrity is now is toxic for the Mesmer. It’s so easy to get and so strong that everything about the Mesmer is balanced around it, to the point where the base Mesmer is almost completely helpless compared to the Chronomancer. More than any other profession, the Chronomancer is a huge power creep compared to the Mesmer, and Alacrity is the reason.
In this sense I agree with Silverkey that personal Alacrity should be reduced while Alacrity sharing… not necessarily buffed, but more accessible (ATM it’s basically all down to Wells). Alacrity should be more of a support effect than a personal steroid effect.
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And yeah I think Block duration needs to be reduced slightly. It’s not really evident in the meta Chronobunker but builds that use CP and PoM can achieve ridiculously low CDs for Blocking, if it weren’t for so many Unblockable attacks and CCs post-HoT this would easily be extremely OP. As it is it’s still almost unbeatable by professions that lack Unblockable attacks.
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*Stop attacking into blocks, they have 2-3 effects that happen when they block
*Stop attacking into blocks
*STOP ATTACKING INTO BLOCKS
This one is actually really difficult as just one stray attack from one person is required to trigger it, and if the Mesmer knows what they’re doing it’s basically impossible to avoid: you can Block just before an attack hits, or easier still run into an enemy AoE while blocking to ensure it procs.
Dragonhunter + Reaper takes care of any bunker Chronomancer with no problems. This is of course assuming the Chrono has no additional support.
Which incidentally are the two professions that fell out of favour with Metabattle as the Chronobunker rose.
The only reason MI saw use before is because Mesmers lacked a generally useful Elite, and MI was the closest. It is in fact quite weak as Elites go, and now that Gravity Well is in the picture MI has been thrown into the gutter.
If you’re after group cleansing your best bet is Mantra of Recovery with Mender’s Purity. With on-demand Quickness and Stability you have little to worry about being interrupted, and with Alacrity the low CD gets even lower. It’s also the strongest Mesmer heal (especially when you take Restorative Mantras) so there’s that too.
An alternative (or perhaps complementary) route is to focus on group Resistance instead. Stack boon duration, get Temporal Enchanter +/- Medic’s Feedback. Pair with Bountiful’s Resistance on Split, maybe use SoI to share the Resistance you get, and everyone can laugh at conditions (until a Banish Enchantment hits you all).
I don’t see the benefit of Cele for Chronobunker. Your direct damage is low and your condition damage non-existent, and you don’t have a way of rapidly building and maintaining large stacks of Might on yourself. Healing Power doesn’t affect Mesmer heals very much. I think you’re better off running a more directly tanky amulet.
I think the main problem with Staff is not the mediocre autoattack (though that certainly doesn’t help) but the fact that it has no other skill that deals condition damage. Sceptre has an even weaker autoattack but is considered a much stronger condition weapon thanks to two very powerful condition damage skills.
Warlock needs to do more for condition damage, and I might even suggest giving Chaos Storm a condition bite.
Maintaining permanent Alacrity already isn’t difficult, making it affected by boon duration bonuses would make it completely trivial. From a sPvP standpoint this would probably make permanent Alacrity reliably maintainable on not just yourself but allies as well.
I’m not sure if this is the way to go about it. Sure, corrupt it into Chill, but Inspiration gobbles conditions up anyway and corruption isn’t exactly the most common mechanic.
Mantra heal is great for the sentinel meat shield build, it really negates conditions extremely well when the heal is backed up with quickness and alacrity, in order to load up on condition removal.
You’re wrong. Well of Eternity is better for Bunker Mesmer, for couple of reasons.
Aside from sharing a bit of Alacrity and group healing, Mantra of Recovery is leaps and bounds better than Well of Eternity because 1. it has far higher HPS and its weaknesses are easily covered with on-demand Quickness and 2. with Mender’s Purity it removes far more conditions from ALLIES (people always seem to forget this isn’t just a personal cleanse) over time.
Well, you can always ask for nerfs to specific classes/builds. But nerfing a specific build will only result in the next best thing emerging for the same role.
The problem is not bunker chronomancer, it’s the meta being as it is.
Well Chronobunker is a big part of the meta so… yes, it kinda is a Chronobunker problem.
Personally I think the whole idea of Mesmers, the distraction and misdirection profession, being the best facetankers is just wrong. A tough Mesmer is fine but the Bunker Crown shouldn’t be on the Mesmer’s head.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
- Well of Precognition becoming Distortion instead of Blur. This puts it in the invulnerability category, but reducing some counterplay such as warding effects, shocking auras.
- Temporal Enchanter (resistance and super speed) changed to only affect nearby allies.
- Mender’s Purity – 10 second ICD on Power Cleanse, like other ‘on heal’ minors.
- Instead of Well of Precog becoming Distortion, I’d like to see it go back to what it was in Beta: pulsing Unblockable, ending with Blur. That should fix its current issues without pushing it out of the picture too much.
- Maybe I’m missing something but isn’t that exactly how Temporal Enchanter works now?
- I suggested the exact same change for Mender’s Purity back when Mantras recharged in the background. Everyone hated it, apparently. I still think it’s needed though, I don’t see why this minor should benefit Mantra of Recovery far more than every other healing skill.
Blindness isn’t the point, it’s the extra confusion you get on shatters from the combination of blinding dissipation and ineptitude.
Quite negligible. The vast majority of your damage is coming from Torment, not Confusion; and especially not if your opponent’s half-decent. If they’re not you’ll be wiping the floor with them without that extra Confusion stack anyway.
As for Deceptive Evasion, Inspiration gives you Mental Defence; which is affected by Alacrity, Illusionist’s Celerity and Persistence of Memory. This gives you a zero cast time Defender on a very low CD that also fuels Chronophantasma and Persistence of Memory, giving you more Phantasms (including from Mental Defence) and more importantly, more Blocks (which, incidentally, proc Mental Defence!).
Disgusting synergy. For Condi Bunkers, Mental Defence is comparable to Deceptive Evasion in terms of illusion generation, while also providing a whole host of other benefits.
Finally, by taking Inspiration you free up a utility slot and can choose a stronger self-heal if you desire, while having more condition cleansing (not to mention healing) than if you took the two condition cleansing skills without Inspiration. Given how strong Mesmer utilities are, freeing up a slot is a pretty big deal.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
I really wouldn’t call a Condi Bunker’s damage “massive”, it’s really quite mediocre compared to other Condi specs. But it does its job and you’ll definitely put out a lot more pressure than if you went Chaos-Insp.
On the flip side you have very little team support so I wouldn’t play Condi Bunker in an organised team. The ability to share Quickness, Alacrity, Protection and a bit of Stability trumps selfish survivability.
Remove their stealth abilities.
bunker mes no stealth
Yeah that one made me smile. Further proof that most people who complain about Mesmers have no idea what’s going on.
Well, immediately post-specialisation the Mantra “bug” made Mesmers part of the meta. But of course Anet’s allergic to doing things right so instead of fixing it so it isn’t OP they just hammered it until it stopped moving.
I loved the Mantra build. Yes it was OP but it had a lot of potential if Anet was willing to go with it.
But no they neutered it good without realising that they accidentally did something right.