Guild Wars 2

1. Plague (especially Plague of Darkness)
2. Chilling Darkness Trait
3. Terror (and Fear in general … just need better base duration, imho.)
4. Corrupt Booning a Bunker Ele or Guard, frigging priceless
5. Consume Conditions, and the laughter resulting from a well-timed usage of it.

1.) Reanimator moved to a Major.
2.) Better access to Stability, imo. Even one or two other options is fine.
3.) Some improvement to Lifesteal. I’ve not given up my original goal of proper Vampire-mode, kitten it.

Here’s the score: Before we discuss any idea of …ahem… modifying Mesmer skills, we first need the following to happen:
-Every whacked little class bug fixed to an acceptable level. By which I mean workable enough that the Profession as a whole is moving along a decent keel, neither OP nor UP in any game mode. This goes for all Professions, really.

As a Thief user, you should understand that this kind of thing ends up limiting build options. And I’d like to think we all want more – not less – options. Also, you’re going to face a certain degree of resentment in this forum, especially when:
1.) Mesmers – like Thieves – constantly deal with accusations of OPness and threats of impending nerfbat.
2.) Consider the Confusion debacle a month prior. That whole bit still stings, for many here … see why asking for more nerfs is an issue?

Redscope.6215:

Advent.6193:

Surprising, no kicks in the Thief-nethers. Should I be afraid for next month?

This was not a balance patch. They’ve said that in the SotG prior to April’s patch, the next patch (this one) will be primarily bug fixes.

Take it from a guy what runs Mesmer and Thief. The Devs say plenty, but there’re a whole messload of things what get … “fixed,” and are not mentioned in Patch Notes

Parktou.4263:

WvW makes me sad…..They should just mash FC and ET together so we can actually compete with other servers in coverage….Looks like we might get devona’s rest next matchup so here’s to hopefully meeting some new zerglings ;(

Heh … we should go back to the pre-SF leaving T8 idea.
Sorrow’s Terrace of Denravi’s Crossing [STD]

Crap … sounds like whatever they re-coded made S.Return path like Phase Retreat used to. I always frigging hated that bug … >_<

Surprising, no kicks in the Thief-nethers. Should I be afraid for next month?

Heh. That one was expected … and I’m fine with it.

Things that should’ve been patched today, and weren’t:
-Staff clones/IMage/PDisenchanter using Illusionary Elasticity to bounce their attacks.
-Zerker, already. HOW many Mesmers have to go off about this one?
-Revert Blinding Befuddlement, for crying out loud. All that does is further tank build
options … Confusing Enchantments is what made Glamourbomb so hellish powerful, and that’s the LAST thing you lot even think to nerf? C’mon, guys.
-A bloody range-tooltip on Portal Exeunt. This should’ve been done at release. Thank you.
-Our current implementation of LoS ingame. It’s wonky, and needs adjusted for collision detection, ASAP.

Now, for the parts I can live with:
-Sink/Float fixes. Fun, but cheesy, and we all know it.
-Illusion of Drowning. We all knew that’d get reined in, range-wise.
-Prestige FINALLY working with P. Understanding? Hell yes.
-Clones doing something about Ranger pets, when said Ranger uses ’em to snipe whilst they run? Hell yes.

Verdict:
Mostly small stuff … and a LOT less than I expect from a patch what’s been hyped for weeks as a “bug-fixing” patch.

I just watched, and I’d have to say he’s got some pretty good ideas.
Truth is, he’s right that Control abilities are somewhat sac-kicked in PvE. There’s a reason most dungeon “speed-runs” are full ‘zerker specced. Namely that DPS is > Control. Support still works, sure. You always want heals/buffs. But … what about the ability to manipulate the enemy’s movement and attacks against them? As is, the only reason PvE Confusion (just as an example) is stronger than WvW/PvP is due to enemy attack patterns being rather slow. Unshakeable just compounds the issue, by making CC on bosses crap out easier. And that’s just PvE-wise.
But, as with all arguments, YMMV.

Similar reasons as for Mesmer-hatred. Both classes thrive on:
-Positioning and control of position. (i.e. Stealth/Shadowstep/Teleports/Lockdown/Gap-Closers)
-Deceptive combat (Feeds into the first point to a high degree)
-General mindscrewing of the enemy (Segues from points 1 and 2)

Of course, what do folk expect of the Professions favoured by Lyssa’s tricky self? Obviously flowers and cute singing, the way folk go on about “Nerf Thief!” or “Mesmer is sooooo OP!” We’re not the frigging Carebears, peeps – we’re the two jobs what specialise in dueling/dropping a lone target. Failing that, either class can at least troll a small group before turning up dead/deciding to GTFO.

Past that, it’s human nature to hate something you can’t easily control or conquer.

Asura, because of the emotes + absolutely BA jumping sword-chains.

+1 million.

It’s such a logical move. Why NOT have that in, from the bloody jump? C’mon, Devs … make it happen, k?

By all means, come up with something else like this.

Frankly, it may not be “perfect,” but it’s a HELL of a lot of WvW-love in just a coupla months. Keep it coming, ANet – some of us PvE rarely, at best

Sylvari Mesmer from Day -1. Now if only Sylvari Light Cultural looked good on menfolk …

And yes, Take Root is fun for damage avoidance. Heck, any Sylvari racial can be workable in a fight, tbh.

1.) Skill lag.

2.) The “Rubber-banding” phenomenon

3.) Shagging classes/class specs (Hello, Glamour/Condition Mesmers), based on PvP logic, yet retaining other “Non-PvP” elements (i.e. Crit-damage levels, nourishments, etc.)
Either it’s “PvP” or not … enough of this half-arsing about.

4.) Repeated BL maps. I’d like to think, given time (from release, which is almost always a rush thing for a game company these days …), we could see 3 distinct BLs.

5.) Hacks and Exploits what should’ve been K.O.ed by now, but still exist. Meh >_<

6.) People’s obsession with nerfing. Bloody hells, just buff weaker stuff to be competitive, and quit the QQ. Thank you.

Aratoa.7398:

I’m pretty disappointed too, since they have gotten an advantage over HoD this week FC and ET posters have come off as extremely bitter and petty with one ‘win’ under their belts. One FC member literally saved up as many posts as he could so that he could one day post them and go “AHA”. for goodness sakes and he’s only the worst, there are multiple posts of people being smug and committing the exact same sin they cry that a few HoD posters committed.

Honestly, Detharos only did that due to the months of folk crappin on T8, saying how any T7 server what came down here would whoop our (FC/ET’s) collective tails worse than SF ever managed. And, to be truthful, neither HoD nor GoM came close to the kind of soul-crushing, morale-annihilating point gaps that SF pulled off down here. Call it petty or bitter, but the things he refers to are matters of fact. No, I’m not saying that characterises all of your people (on any of the pre-ratings mod T7 servers), but there you have it.

With that said, I bleeding well expect you gents to plant a bit of Boot into our Rectum.
Green is the preferred target of any lower-placed server, after all. Let’s rock.

Nah. The Stars are Right, is all. Expect Cthulhu to take over ANet and replace Quaggans with Deep Ones

HoD’ll find the backbone. Hell, we did. And I got into Ferg (and WvW) fresh outta SoS in the old DR/Kain days. No Roidrazer to crack a tower open for you, then … hell, 0-15 PPT days were a daily thing, it was a Good Day when you saw a red tower, tbh.

With that said, power it up, HoD – I’ve been enjoying how even our little matchup is, don’t disappoint me.

Regarding Spica’s comments:
1. You’ve only recently become Red (again). And you bleeding well made us fight to push you back down there.
2. I know of no “grudge” between our guys and ET – the most issue we tend to have is that some of your lot got a little forum-kittensure when you put us to 24th for a while.
As for me, that just fanned the flames – get us outta Red, then keep aiming higher.
Let us be honest, here. You’ll focus-fire us, when we’re having an off week. Same with HoD, this week. It’s merely the nature of the beast.

Xavi.6591:

WoW Anet.

No fix to P. Berzerker?
No fix to Scepter skill #1 confusion?
No Winds of Chaos fix for clones?

Good job.

You forgot:
No removal of Vuln from WoC?
No rework of IMage?

I’d be satisfied with #4, tbh. Why let a quadcore go to waste?
Also, #5:

Optimization by CPU architecture. As is, folk have differing experiences from an Intel system, than with an AMD. If we could optimize the game for either CPU type, it might just improve performance, overall.

TheDesertWolf.6724:

Advent.6193:

Right. ’Cause we never attack ET, or them us. You may wish to see a Doctor about those delusions, man.

trying to put words in my mouth when it’s written right there. i said Rare, give up the ruse.

It’s sarcasm. Trust me, there’ve been ET folk who say the same bleeding thing about us and HoD. It’s just tiresome, tbh. Fact is, we’re all trying to be Green, and will attack anyone what ain’t from our side.

Right. ’Cause we never attack ET, or them us. You may wish to see a Doctor about those delusions, man.

TheDesertWolf.6724:

Hey Eredon Terrace and Fergs should just marry each other.
that way you can crawl on the bottom together, or hell maybe you’ll get somewhere!

And there went our polite little thread, and all its funny in-jokes. Now, with that said –
Haterade supply just came in, or somethin’?

Avatar of Belle.9623:

I like how we’re settling into a nice routine. We’re going to be a nice married threesome for a long time.

Of course, and HoD’s the Family Mistress.

I could pull this off, I would just need to swap my Armour and Weapons (currently Rabid/Rampager, respectively.)
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQBYEB1jrL7qOSFatSPwNe7CB

It’d basically be a modified Mantra/Bounce spec, using Compounding Power in combination with Empowered Mantras to sling some decently painful DPS.
The Sharper Images allows for Bleed, which slows the opponent to “In-Combat Speed.” Illusionary Retribution allows for Confusion DPS, when you’re forced to Shatter. Illusionary Elasticity buffs Trident’s output. I’d use Crippling Dissipation/MoD/Moa to further lockdown the opponent’s movements (Let alone #2 and 5 from Trident.) Spear #2/4 for movement and escape.

Food:
Needed: Master Maint. Oil (More crits, more Bleeds).
Side Options: Loaf of Omnomberry Bread (More Vitality and Toughness)
Lemongrass Soup (-Condition Duration)
Rare Veggie Pizza (Better Bleed/Confusion)

Condition Mesmer, or Thief (Evasion/Condition hybrid, usually using some combo of S/D, SB, P/P)

Although, I’ll bust out the Cleric/Magi Ele or Condimancer when necessary.

I just find it funny: Fact is, a Mesmer cannot “win,” RE: Builds. Folk cry about Shatter, fine. Folk like myself main Condition … then that gets negatively impacted by the Confusion nerf business. So, we’re now back to Shatter, Immortal and Phantasm being
the “In Crowd” for Mesmer Builds.

As for the “Why?” of things: as previously stated, Confusion is the only “directly” controllable Condition a Mesmer tosses out. Bleeds are rather random (via Winds of Chaos or Sharper Images crits). Burn is HELLA random. And, then we’ve got Staff proccing Vuln, which: a.) does frack-all for Condition Damage, and b.) lowers your possible Condition DPS, by taking a stack which could be used for Bleed/Burn.

Frankly, the big issue with Glamour spec wasn’t Confusion itself, it was Confusing Enchantments lacking an AoE target limit. How hard would that alone have been to fix? As for straight damage, let’s be honest here: 25-33% would be enough (in either PvP or WvW) to make it less “OP” and more “Tactical.” Another fix that could (and should!) have been added is to stop Confusion triggering on non-attack actions, such as heal-traited Dodge or non-offensive Attunement Swaps.

And, the Blinding Befuddlement nerf was just plain foolish. Toss a 5 sec ICD on that, but I can easily swap over to my Thief and frigging Blind fools for ages? GTFO.
What’s needed, overall, is to increase Build diversity, not frigging BURY entire class specs, because someone decided to whinge. What is this, frigging Elementary School recess?

Bero, I’ve been saying that for months. Less nerfs, more bringing weaker classes/class specs up to par. Hopefully, folk’ll help you keep this topic on Page #1, and ANet’s
ahem Balance Squad looks into that possibility.

Please. We’re all beaten by the Arrow Cart Empire.

Heh, they cry “OP” about Mesmers already. As much as I honestly love those 2 ideas, we’d get nerf’d into frigging Gehenna, if they were to see the light of day. Hell, just adding offhands/duplicating boon-tags would toss enough extra chaos into the mix.

But Flappy … we like blowing up people’s siege. Hell, it gives us Fergs a warm feeling inside

Otherwise: Some rather annoying (read: fun to scrap, and/or die to) HoD over in my BL. G’way, please

jbondo.9817:

FC where are you guys at?

Like Cthulhu, we are not dead, but merely sleeping
(Actually, we’re a lotta EST folks, we’re at work/school/preppin to go to work … meh >_<)

Embolism.8106:

(Although Trident Clones are still OP with Bleeding, as they inflict it much, much faster than they did Confusion).

That, and the fact that Bleeding slows your opponent down to in-combat speed. At least you can run from Confusion, full out. But folk fear Confusion more …

With that said, maybe we could get away with a Trait that plopped 1 stack on a target in the case of a crit. It’d then add up to a little bit of the goods, but not a massive stack-dump. I’d not toss it in place of Sharper Images, though; instead, make a new Trait for that business. As it is, Bleed’s the most trustworthy thing we stack, next to our (nerfed to HELLS) Confusion. (Also, such a Trait’d need a reasonable – read: not 20+ sec. – ICD, also to limit how nasty it’d stack.)

I can see your point. In my case, the Mesmer is both my main and the one class that caused me to snag this game. No way I’m tossing the guy out at this point … although, I have been investing in other EQ on the side. Still keeping my Rabid stuff, though – especially those grindy-frigging Ascendeds.

Those butterflies get everyone. And the purple.
As for keeping an eye on the “real” Mesmer, there are a few ways:

The “cheap” way (that ANet should really fix …)
Turn off NPC names. IIRC, this shows a name over the actual Mesmer only. But, yea – it’s a cheese method, and should really be dealt with.

Non-cheap:
Clones lack the following: Offhand Weapons, Dodging ability, any attack besides the weapon’s autoattack, and nourishment/guild buffs. Phant attacks are different in nature, but still one attack spammed infinitely.

Phant or straight Condition. Got armour for both.

We’re missing something here … something like … a score update?

Lukian Darkblade.8012:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pS6NBjrsOTg

Best thing ever. xD

(Dies laughing …)
Bloody hells, man … what’re you on? Start sharing, blast it!

Downed #2 is an unpredictable You-Know-What. Although I’d have to vote Engineer for Worst Downed State. At least Mesmers don’t pull the guy what downed ’em close for a nice hug

Atherakhia.4086:

The confusion change is warranted and welcome. While the damage was easy to avoid, that’s not an excuse for making something insanely overpowered. If the class is legitimately harmed by the nerf, and ANet feels they want the mesmer to have a viable condition build, the solution would be to give the class more condition based spells. Remove confusion from ether bolt and give it burning for example.

But no, confusion needed the change and I would hope it’s never reverted (re-reverted? since it was this way to begin with….)

Meh. More like: remove that shoddy Vuln from Mesmer Staff. I’d prefer it replaced with something what’ll help on our stacking, but even just nixing the blasted thing will improve a Condition Mesmer’s ability to stack DPS through bleeds and the occasional burn.
As for Scepter. Scepter needs more than love, it needs a wee bit of Yandere Obsession, especially now. Molasses-speed AA chain, and the CI Beam channels almost as slow as Meteor Storm.
Fact is, for most Mesmers, Confusion’s extra damage is a lot like Burn on Guardians. Any Mesmer with a build using 15+ Illusions does rely on that extra DPS alongside their Shatters.
A better “nerf” would’ve been working on the Traits that made Glamourbombing “OP,”
as opposed to a full-on shafting. As far as straight damage, 25-33% would’ve brought
it downward, and not blasted it into space dust. Failing that, the Condition could’ve
been modified on duration or limited in stacks applied.

It was, Roo. The issue there, is that Confusion is woven into the class’ mechanics at a pretty fundamental level. As such, they didn’t just crapcan Glamourbombers, they also smacked the crap outta Condition Mesmers, like what I run. (Or should say, ran – putzing about with a Phant build, for the nonce.)

Tell me about it – I just swapped my Rabid Exotic Armour out for some Knights (rare, till I get enough bloody Gold). Went Phant build … yea, it works, but it’s not what I and others wanted to run. Even with goodly Precision and Superior Earth on Staff, my build (as straight Condition) pumps out nowhere near enough to drop fools.

Also, Sebrent – the problem with condition combos is that Staff’s hobbled by random Vuln procs. If it packed something other than that, then we’d actually not be doing that bad, atm.

(Something else I noticed: it also seems Armour and damage reduction’s kinda wonky.
Cranked to 2800 Armour last night, and was still getting slapped for mad damage.)

This is absolutely logical. Hope the Devs go for it.

Hmm – was thinking something similar, but using my Runes of the Undead on the armour. I’ve noticed two things post-patch: 1.) With straight Condition, I’m stuck with the enemy at 20-40% Health, and then they heal; 2.) Is it me, or does Armour seem to reduce damage less now? You figure -between my Mesmer and Thief- both roll out with 2500-2800 Armour value … and it’s like the both of ’em get smacked a good bit harder than before.

All they need to do, is remove that kitten Vuln offa Staff. We’d then have much more controllable Conditions. As it is, Confusion getting snookered shafts a degree of damage from Mesmers in general, especially Condi builds.

I’m surprised they don’t retweak it for Weakness effect. Logic being, your target’s inhaled all of that smoke, and it’s chokin ’em out for a bit. Seems logical.

(spoken to an ANet Dev …)
I find your lack of buffs … disturbing.

And they say I’m paranoid …
Seriously, Cross – when I woke up this morning, Ferg packed frigging 35 PPT. Why do you persist in thinking we’re working with HoD? They boot up in our tails, too. Y’know?