http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=FOTM
Flavour Of The Month
a term that has come up to describe the new trend of starting a new character to play the latest over powered class due to expansions or improvements to that class from the latest patches
I know how well power Mesmer is performing post balance update. I agree that the suggested changes to this trait are unnecessary.
You shouldn’t be out-performing the other DPS by such a large margin, though. It appears as though your DPS meter is not picking up all the data.
I barely PvP anymore and I haven’t encountered this build, so I have no opinion either way.
For people curious about what the build is capable of (like I was), Brazil posted a video a couple hours ago-
I was laughing through most of it. It looks fun in a super trolly sort of way.
I’m not saying those numbers are wrong, but I would like to see them from someone else’s perspective just for confirmation. DPS counters have a tendency to miss damage dealt from other players.
I mean if they gave it to us as Sword skill 3 I would like finally having a leap…
Oh one can only dream…
…but they say the reason we get a worse dodge is because we can carry on attacking through it…
I really want to test the raw dps benefit of attacking while dodging. Like how much of a dps increase is this really? Being able to attack during a 3/4 sec window? People throw this around like it’s the bees knees, but how good is it really? Probably negligible I’d reckon.
Mesmers were given this mechanic specifically because their personal DPS (sans Illusions) is extremely weak. Being able to dodge while attacking on most other professions would be ridiculously OP. Which, I believe, is where most of the confusion from non-mesmers is coming from. It seems extremely strong if you’re not familiar with Mesmer’s mechanics.
Its like alacrity, low impact (DPS wise) for the Mesmer. Being able to share alacrity is what broke that feature. Its much stronger on non-Mesmers (and thieves and revs).
(edited by Mikkel.8427)
I’m hoping for something like
25 condi
10% Torment duration
75 condi
15% Bleed duration
100 condi
20% Torment duration, Gain 3 secs of vigor after successfully evading an attack 10 sec icd
But we’ll probably get something that grants a bonus to Deceptions, and it will likely be more useful to thieves than it is for us.
I see everyone complaining about the new dodge, I honestly don’t think that this is the problem with Mirage, you get an awesome elite that makes up for the leap, the problem lies in other places like the lack of movement speed, a fairly mediocore new weapon with messy animations/mechanics (why the kitten is it an Axe to begin with?) and Infinite Horizon being close to useless unless you play condi or use sword for the daze.
Woah run-on sentence.
Main problem (imo) with the dodge: You don’t move. Saying that it’s not a big deal because we get Superspeed is a problem. Why? The Superspeed is a consolation prize. It’s our Minor Grandmaster. It’s not built into the dodge. Also, it doesn’t work when doing anything except running forward (which prevents us from sidestepping while casting, thereby negating the point of being able to cast “while dodging”).
Also, the super speed and the ambushes are incompatible. You’re either going to be using the ambush attack (which locks you into an animation or requires you to be at least facing your target), or you forgo the primary advantage of Mirage Cloak to utilize the super speed to reposition.
More contradictory mechanics, please!
@Esplen
After reading your (excellent) breakdown of why Mirage is worse than core Mesmer in a different thread, I now understand and can sympathize with your concerns. The Mirage really doesn’t inspire any sort of confidence.
This is a silly trait/subject to argue over. Its of very little impact. I’m letting it go.
Yes, I agree if the change is purely CDR -> flat CDR that would be nice, but in neither cases presented to us (Staff and Torch) was it only a flat CDR change.
The change to Staff was a flat CDR change… The extra toughness was bug, not a nerf.
Changing its CDR wont increase its damage potential though. Its a QoL change. Pistol doesn’t have a hard-hitting skill like ToT, Prestige or Chaos Storm for the CDR to have any sort of DPS impact. Magic bullet is actually DPS loss if you incorporate it in your rotation.
You’re also forgetting Sword phantasm for power…
Its Warlock (with all condis) > Sword > Pistol
If we’re talking about using Pistol for power, you’re going to be taking PF instead of DD so I’m not sure why that’s even relevant to this conversation.
(edited by Mikkel.8427)
Torch was already a strong option, and it was made stronger by the recently changes… especially with the cleanse on 4 becoming baseline.
Staff’s change to a flat cdr was a flat buff for most builds/situations and the additional effect from the trait was untouched.
Which makes me confused about where your fear of them nerfing the bleeding on DD is coming from. Outside of its current niche (single target condi DPS) pistol is a weak OH option already… It would be insane for them to nerf it.
Keep in mind, the CC recharge is not tied to CCing via Pistol. Paired with a Shield, you can actually get major CDR. Of course, since it’s tied to off-hand only, that means you’re still limited by weaponswap cd.
I don’t think this is a good trait to look at because with almost all of the trait changes, they were buffs but they also nerfed slight aspects of the traits. Duelist’s Discipline is a major portion of Mesmer’s Condi Damage (with Sharper Images, Scepter, and now Axe being the rest).
The bulk of this trait is not the cooldown reduction, but the ability to apply bleeding.
I would argue that DD is already balanced out by making it compete with Phantasmal fury.
All of our conditional recharges were removed except for the one attached to Duelist’s Dicipline. I’d love to see this one changed also.
Does anyone actually prefer the way it is now?
Yeah nothing to say here.
Needs tweaks, but still a good spec.
Um… Did you read the comments under that vid? Even that guy says he was just having fun with the extra mobility from Mirage, but its still a terrible spec…
You could hand that guy randomly selected trait lines/traits/weapons and he would still slaughter noobs on his Mesmer. Does that make the randomly selected setup good?
Yeah the trivial “fix” to Mirage Mirror is:
- Lasts 8-12 seconds.
- All Deception-skills spawn them (making it their “thing”), including Jaunt which places it where you left.
Really? I thought the trivial fix was:
-Delete them all
-Reduce Deception cooldowns by 5-10 secs each
But dear god, you can get around fast.
Yup, we finally got our first leap skill. But the only profession whose speed we topped is Necro and Revenant. (Reaper and Rev both have long cd dashes.)
Everyone else is still just as fast as, if not faster than, Mirage.
Luckily, the only place that matters is in WvW.
PvE we’ll have mounts. PvP we have rune of the lynx.
I played the entire duration. I only sent myself a full set of ascended and infused sinister gear + weapons, though. AKA- I played condi the whole time.
As someone who plays core Mesmer (a lot), Mirage really doesn’t feel like it adds much… and a good portion of what it does add feels lame.
The heal and all the utilities feel like a waste of a slot across all game modes. Mirage advance has been the only exception, I had a lot of fun with it in WvW.
Mirrors are still useless even in PvE.
The elite utility I LOVE in all game modes, I think its awesome. I wish the damage on it would just be removed and they added some distance instead, but I think its fine as is.
The only thing axe has been good for is condi cleaving trash mobs, everywhere else its felt more like a liability.
The scepter ambush needs the kitten root removed…
The staff ambush is really solid for PvE purposes.
Sword ambush is awesome everywhere, in every build, for every occasion.
So many of the traits feel useless and under tuned. Basically everything but the GMs could be completely removed and it would have almost no impact on play. May as well just be empty slots.
(edited by Mikkel.8427)
IH was the most flavorful GM. It felt visually impactful on an elite spec that was otherwise muted. I think this is where the attachment with the trait is coming from.
Both of the other GMs were infinitely better, though. Especially against targets that were not golems…. It would not hurt my feelings to see it deleted.
(edited by Mikkel.8427)
3 stat-
Major-Condition Minor-Prec, Expertise
Major-Power Minor- Prec, Concentration
4 Stat-
Major- Condition+ Prec Minor- Expertise+ anything
I really don’t understand why people think the scepter ambush is even good… I thought it was one of the worst.
1) Root
2) Half duration condi from clones
3) Applies confusion OR torment per hit… I think a lot of people are misreading the tooltip.
4) Outside of the ambush attack, scepter clones apply the least condi pressure out of all our clones. Every other weapon’s clone stacks more bleeds traited with sharper images and the small amt of torment Scepter cones apply does not make up for this.
5) Long channel time
6) Root (worth mentioning twice)Don’t forget single target as well.
Yeah I actually prefer axe ambush when traited (a lot of phantasmal axes flying around) and staff ambush.
That’s right!
I also forgot its reflect-able AND I don’t know if anyone noticed this… but you can also just wiggle side to side and the whole thing misses you.
I really don’t understand why people think the scepter ambush is even good… I thought it was one of the worst.
1) Root
2) Half duration condi from clones
3) Applies confusion OR torment per hit… I think a lot of people are misreading the tooltip.
4) Outside of the ambush attack, scepter clones apply the least condi pressure out of all our clones. Every other weapon’s clone stacks more bleeds traited with sharper images and the small amt of torment Scepter cones apply does not make up for this.
5) Long channel time
6) Root (worth mentioning twice)
(edited by Mikkel.8427)
GS Ambush just needs a lot of extra damage.
Why is it that other than Scepter, our ambush attacks are generally not much noteworthy compared to the AA they replace, in any case? I mean, ambush! Shouldn’t this slice enemies open? Blow their mind? (literally) Cut them to pieces? Tear them asunder?
Instead it’s this pansy “oh I got hit again” move.
I ditched Infinite Horizon after the first day, so most of the demo weekend I wished I could just keep my normal AA over using the Ambush.
1) w/o IH it basically screams “HERE I AM”
2) Even with IH, a lot of the time you need to MOVE over using an ambush, which again screams “HERE I AM” because now your the only one NOT using the ambush.
3) Most of them were worse than just AAing…
The only ambush I was really happy to have was the sword. Even when playing condi, all the other ones were ‘meh’. I HATED the scepter’s root.
the problem is the chance for any of those trait to put perma or longer duration of slow.
Lost Time – this is the tricky part. GS and sword hits 3 times so without cd you can maintain slow effect easily.
I don’t see that as a problem. Especially since the slow/quickness nerfs, it really isn’t a powerful enough condition for that to be a concern.
Also, even if you could easily maintain 100% slow on someone, is that really more impactful than the traits you gave up?
Lost Time- It would be an interesting option if they just removed the kitten ICD! It really just kills its viability entirely. It would be fun being able to drop a feedback/AoE on a zerg in WvW and be able to spread slow the way Necros can spread Chill or perform a shatter burst combo and have all your crits actually count toward the counter.
The “Mirage is junk and needs to be completely re-designed” crowd will almost certainly be disappointed and to them Mirage will likely never be a play-style they enjoy.
My problem is – Scourge feels more Mesmer-y them Mirage :/
On the other side – it is not a real problem as I can simply play my Necro… <shrug>
Several of the new elites felt Mesmer inspired. The best part was watching them complain about their Mesmer-y mechanics.
Renegade- Why are our utilities destructible!!!?!!?
Scourge- Feels bad using so much resource and time setting up and moving these pillars…
Spellbreaker- Damage feels kinda weak and the utility this spec provides is super niche.
Honestly, they could keep everything working exactly the way it is now except for phantasms no longer shattering and everything would work great.
Then make phantasms being shatterable a feature of the trait ‘chronophantasma’.
I have viewed several of his ‘introduction’ videos. His focus in all of them has been on the positive aspects of each of the elites. He’ll skim over or briefly mention things he considers or has heard are flaws, but that’s just his style.
If you want to hear an anti-mirage rant, you can always watch Helseth’s review-
Minor Master:
Nomad’s Endurance: A Minor… A trait we can’t even choose that requires us to shatter. Bad idea. This trait should trigger off Mirage Cloak. Also increase power by 150 as well.
I like unlinking the trait from shatters, but I believe it should be changed to enhance the effect of vigor instead of granting a stat bonus. Like-
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Endless_Stamina
Infinite Horizon-
I would love to see this deleted and then have all ambush attacks enhanced. I want to be LESS dependent on my Illusions.
If you replace the Chaos line with Mirage for the “Condi Mes” build from Metabattle, it has better DPS. The problem is it still suffers from basically all the same issues only making it useful for certain fights.
W/o being able to use the DPS test golem, I cant say how much more DPS it actually is, though.
Guys… Stop feeding the troll post. If he was being genuine, he would have explained what he sees in Mirage that is “extremely good” so there could be a constructive conversation about it.
There are a handful of builds that actually do function reasonably on the reddit. They feel kinda like pre-hot Thief. Which, if everyone remembers, was viable but not that great.
It seems like everyone has completely forgotten that they could play the same builds/playstyle by replacing Mirage with a core trait line and actually have more success, though…. #CoreMesmerAmnesia
My god every profession subforum has a massive victim complex
Yes, there are a lot of melodramatic responses on every class forum (including this one). The problems experienced by most of the new elite specs stem from bugs or can be addressed with some number adjustments. Its small tweaks and tuning.
The problem with Mirage is at a conceptual level. We’re one month away from release, what we’re seeing is supposed to be what we’re getting… Adjusting some numbers isn’t going to cut it.
“Yes, all professions have problems, but their problems don’t actually matter, just ours.”
Smells like Animal Farm.
That’s definitely not how that reads.
I play 6/9 of the professions regularly, and 5 out of those 6 have elite specs with solid foundations to work of off.
I do not play ranger or rev. From what I’ve read about them, they seem like they could be in a similar situation. I don’t have enough knowledge of those classes to judge them, though.
If you read what I was responding to, it contextualizes my statement.
And did you actually READ animal farm… ?
You’re doing exactly what the devs did- trying to FORCE a mechanic to work.
Change every trait/ability that produces a Mirage Mirror by removing the mirror and doing one or more of the following-
Reducing its cooldown
Granting Vigor
Granting endurance
Give Mirage the control back. The mirrors do not work.
I would like to see Infinite Horizon deleted and NOT get the effect baseline. No more clones using ambush attacks. Then have them beefed up to actually be impactful. I want LESS reliance on clones, not more…
Will-o’-the-wisp
Heal spec that requires Illusions up to heal.
Gain access to your group heals by shattering.
Off hand dagger.
No trait that competes with Grace of the Land.
To keep it balanced- Illusions cant move, they are now stationary objects.
Even core warrior has better dodge-based mechanics.
I submit into evidence this episode of boots bad builds-
Things I like about Mirage:
Animations
Sounds
Headgear Skin
Lore
I would have no problem with this heal if it had a reasonable cooldown.
My god every profession subforum has a massive victim complex
Yes, there are a lot of melodramatic responses on every class forum (including this one). The problems experienced by most of the new elite specs stem from bugs or can be addressed with some number adjustments. Its small tweaks and tuning.
The problem with Mirage is at a conceptual level. We’re one month away from release, what we’re seeing is supposed to be what we’re getting… Adjusting some numbers isn’t going to cut it.
I would have liked to see something (ANYTHING) done with our class mechanics. Mirage doesn’t touch them… doesn’t even really feel like an elite spec.
Core Mesmer mechanics are so flawed it leaves an incredible amount of creative space for them to do something, but they don’t touch them. Even chrono only added a shatter, it didn’t fundamentally change anything. Luckily, Chrono traits more than make up for it.
I don’t know who started this rumor but False Oasis does not require to be stood on
It is currently the most healing skill in the game and with Dune Cloak is works nicely in duels.
You don’t need to stay in it for the heal, but you need to stay near it for the mirror. Otherwise, it defeats the whole purpose of using it.
The only time that clones don’t replace Phantasms the Sceptre Auto.
I wish they’d change ALL clone-producing abilities to work like the scepter auto. That would be a massive QoL change.
3) as noted on the wiki superspeed “Does not grant any movement speed increase while backpedaling or strafing”. this should really be changed or fixed, depending on the original intent, since that superspeed is now what allows mirage to move at the same distance on dodge as other classes rather than a short distance.
That’s actually the worst part of the nerfed dodge mechanic. Sure I can about-face and run… but that defeats the entire purpose of the mirage cloak (being able to attack while dodging) and its much slower.
Clones don’t replace phantasms any longer.
Except Axe 2’s clone? It might be a bug or isn’t the case at all, but I remember someone being really upset by this.
IF you have 3 phantasms up, and then use ANY clone-producing ability, it WILL replace one of your phantasms.
but those Mirrors… are just godawful…. how did that get past any alpha testers to be even remotely okay?
“please don’t hit me for a few seconds while i walk over here on my melee e-spec”
and if most pre-beta testers DID mention how atrocious it was, why is anet okay with ignoring feedback…
The mirrors stayed because they’re gorgeous. Of course, that’s the ONLY reason. Its hard to believe a single E-spec could have so many awful mechanics bundled together and make it this far…
The whole profession feels like they went ahead and nerfed every skill ahead of time because they knew people would complain if mesmers were too competitive.
It feels more like they didn’t have the resources to finish all the elite specs. They had a bunch of really cool ideas that didn’t quite work together, but they went ahead and duct taped them all together anyways because they were out of time…
I blame Soulbeast and Weaver.
Amazing spec. It is a bursty, high-risk kit with lower sustain than Chrono but more sustained damage.
Also, pistol is now viable.
Insp bottom-mid-top
Illu top-bottom-bottom
Mirage bottom-bottom-midSigils: Doom/Fallibility on both
Rune: Rune of the Krait
Amulet: SageHeal: Ether Feast
Utilities: Portal Entre/Exeunt, Phantasmal Disenchanter, Illusionary AmbushElite: Jaunt
Weapons: Scepter/Torch, Axe/Pistol
Without the Dueling line you have almost zero bleeds. You have your axe autos and the procs from your krait runes.
(edited by Mikkel.8427)
The damage calculations for Confusion and Torment seem to have been changed.
The Skill activation damage on confusion looks like its been decreased by about 33%.
The passive damage on confusion looks like its close to doubled.
Torment is doing higher base dmg, but only increases by 50% when the target is moving.
I looked through the notes again, and in other areas on the forums, I don’t see anything about these changes.
Traits:
-Harmonious Mantras: This trait has been removed from the game.
-Superiority Complex: This trait replaces Harmonious Mantras and increases critical-hit damage by 15%. This bonus is further increased to 25% against foes below 50% health or foes who become disabled by stun, daze, taunt, fear, knockdown, etc.
-Mistrust: This trait has been removed from the game.
-Ineptitude: This trait has been moved to the Grandmaster trait line in Dueling, to the slot previously taken by Mistrust, and its effects have changed. This trait now causes interrupts to inflict blind for 5 seconds, and applies blind to inflict 2 stacks of confusion for 5 seconds.
-Phantasmal Force: This trait replaces the slot left open by Ineptitude and has the following effect: Phantasms gain a 1% damage boost whenever might is applied to them, and a 4% damage boost whenever they attack (maximum bonus 25%). This bonus damage lasts until the phantasm is destroyed.
-Restorative Mantras: Fixed a bug that caused this trait to show incorrect values based on the player’s Healing-Power multiplier. Lowered base multiplier by 37%. Increased Healing-Power multiplier by 25%.
-Persistence of Memory: This trait has been reworked. It now causes shattered phantasms to transfer their boons to the mesmer.
-The Pledge: This trait now grants a flat 20% recharge reduction but no longer causes torch skills to remove conditions. Instead, it causes torch skills to apply an additional stack of burning. (Does not affect phantasm attacks.)
-Mender’s Purity: This trait now casts Lesser Power Cleanse, which removes 1 condition from you and nearby allies. Fixed a bug that could cause this trait to put Mantra of Resolve on recharge. This trait now shows an effect to indicate its radius.
-Chaotic Dampening: This trait now grants a flat 20% recharge reduction to staff and trident skills instead of scaling the recharge reduction with Chaos Armor. Fixed a bug that caused this trait to grant an unlisted 50 Toughness while wielding a staff or trident.
-Descent into Madness: The skill fired by this trait has been renamed to Lesser Chaos Storm. This trait now casts Lesser Chaos Storm when you use your healing skill in addition to when you take falling damage.
Mesmer
In addition to being integrated into the new ammo system, mesmer mantras are seeing a comprehensive overhaul. When we took a look at the traits available to mantras, we found that harmonious mantras and restorative mantras had conflicting purposes. Restorative mantras are most effective when you are restocking your mantra charges, but harmonious mantras made it harder to do this. With new mantras in the upcoming firebrand specialization, we wanted to make sure that mesmer mantras had gameplay that was unique to them. Our decision was to focus mesmer mantras on combat casting, which meant removing harmonious mantras and adding additional bonuses to mesmer mantras when they are fully restocked. The removal of harmonious mantras also allowed us to make the active effects stronger since we no longer had to worry about the balance skewing that adding a third cast would create. Removing harmonious mantras also gave us space to build a new Dueling Grandmaster trait that favors Precision builds.
Profession:
-Cry of Frustration: Fixed the vigor skill fact that appears when Bountiful Disillusionment is present so that the correct 8-second vigor duration is indicated.
-Illusionary Warlock: Fixed a bug that caused this phantasm’s attack to not increase in damage against foes with certain conditions.
-Illusionary Berserker: The attack from this phantasm now has a consistent move distance and is unaffected by enhancements that change movement speed.
-Continuum Split: Fixed a bug that could cause this skill to go on a longer-than-expected recharge when traited with Master of Misdirection.
Weapon Skills:
-Phantasmal Berserker: Fixed a bug that caused this skill to not display legendary-weapon projectile effects.
-Spatial Surge: Slightly increased its beam width.
-Blurred Frenzy: This skill now goes on full cooldown if it is canceled.
-The Prestige: This skill now removes 1 condition when activated.
Utility Skills:
-Signet of the Ether: Increased the healing rate to once per second instead of once per 3 seconds. The healing per pulse has been reduced to preserve approximate healing per second.
-Mantras: Mantra skills will no longer display their number of charges in the enhancement bar and will instead use the ammo system. Reduced cast time by 0.5 seconds. Mantras no longer grant bonus Toughness while channeling. Ammo count has been set to 2. Recharges between casts have not changed.
-Mantra of Recovery: When fully charged, this skill now heals for a small amount.
Power Return: Count recharge has been set to 20 seconds. Lowered base healing by approximately 33%. Heal amount is increased while below 50% health.
-Mantra of Concentration: Reduced recharge to 15 seconds. Count recharge has been set to 30 seconds. When fully charged, grants a stack of stability and aegis for 5 seconds.
Power Break: Removed unnecessary range skill fact. Cleaned up ambiguous language about stun breaks.
-Mantra of Distraction: When fully charged, this skill reduces the recharge of Diversion by 15 seconds.
Power Lock: Count recharge has been set to 24 seconds. Updated skill description to reflect that this skill hits multiple targets.
-Mantra of Pain: When fully charged, gain 8 stacks of might for 5 seconds.
Power Spike: Count recharge has been set to 10 seconds. Inflicts 5 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds on foes not using skills. Updated the skill description to reflect that this skill his multiple targets.
-Mantra of Resolve: Reduced recharge to 12 seconds. When fully charged, gain resistance for 2 seconds.
-Power Cleanse: Count recharge has been set to 24 seconds. Increased the number of conditions removed from 2 to 3. Added an effect to indicate skill area.
-Arcane Thievery: This skill has been unsplit and now has a 25-second recharge in all game modes.
-Signet of Midnight: The signet’s active effect now grants stealth for 2 seconds but no longer applies vulnerability or cripple. The recharge has been increased from 25 seconds to 30 seconds.
(edited by Mikkel.8427)