Guild Wars 2

UnitedChaos.8364:

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the PvP Team:

Hi all,

PvP League Season 3 is just around the corner, and with that we’d like to let you know about a few upcoming PvP amulet changes.

The following changes will take effect on May 17:

• Mercenary Amulet will no longer be available for use.
• The cost for Viper’s Amulet will be eliminated. Anyone who had purchased this amulet prior to May 17 will be refunded the full purchase price via in-game mail.

On a related note, the balance team has been keeping an eye on how things have settled after the April 19 release, and you can expect some adjustments to some outlier skills with the launch of PvP League Season 3. More news on that front next week.

Glad to see some balance outside of the patches, but please nerf the overpowered classes…
Everyone knows how overpowered ele is. Ele van outheal druids, immune to crits, near infinite condition cleanses, 50% projectile denial all whIle tanking a team of 4 and out dps every class. It’s totally ridiculous. Necro was the #1 played class last season and all that happened was chill damage was remove and the cooldown on wells were lowered…Revenants are still able to smash relentless assault and do near 100% damage to any classy class while being incredibly mobile. Come on anet.

Looks like i’ve been playing elementalist all wrong

Wolfric.9380:

Topher.5631:

Wolfric.9380:

I already disagree on the first sentence. Yes there is much work to do to bring back diversity. But if the route is elite + 2 core being more powerful then it´s acceptable and also easier to balance then keeping all trait lines an combinations at the same level. Not to mention the selling point of expansions. What would be very bad if power creep continues. The game needs to settle at a level for elite or we can never reach diversity and balance all 9 classes or at least come close to this.

Not trying to sound rude, but how is one build per class acceptable? There are the elite trait lines, which you need to be viable, and then there are trait lines that you need in the class, otherwise you won’t work at all.

For example, I play thief. The mandatory lines are Trickery, Deadly arts, and Daredevil. In most cases (unless you have a really odd build), you need these to play properly. So that locks me into those three trait lines. It is like not taking alchemy for scrapper, or beastmastery for druid. That isn’t really build diversity when you are locked in to most of your choices already.

I agree that diversity is on the floor. But this does not mean that base classes must be on the same level as elite.

Your stance on this is hand-wavy and inaccurate. Part of me thinks you don’t want the elite specs to be nerfed because you enjoy playing the big bruiser in video games, in which case I suggest you go play Skyrim or something. There is no valid justification for elite specs that are stronger than core

Topher.5631:

Tempest:

-Reduce the healing from applying auras

-Reduce healing from water overload

-Reduce damage from air overload

-Increase recharge on “Rebound!”, “Feel the burn!” and “Flash Freeze!”

-Increase damage on all weapon skills

As an ele main I agree with most of this. But the reason why overload air is so strong is not because of its damage, but because of its burst (1/4 sec), radius (largest of overloads), and it hits 5 people. Meaningful nerfs would target those as well / instead

What about elementalist’s warhorn? Or engineer’s rifle? Or mesmer’s focus / pistol? Or the entire guardian profession? Not every weapon was designed for every game mode

MethaneGas.8357:

I can just as easily say cleansing is broken because there’s times where you deal like no damage in a condi build because of crazy enemy cleanse.

Saying condi is broken in sPvP also couldn’t be farther from the truth.

Power builds are a play style. Condition builds are a crutch

Wolfric.9380:

The changes don´t realy add to powercreep. They just make it more viable to use other traits. But yes it you are one that likes to see elite brought to core level you see power creep, but should accept that elite is ment to be better and any class will be elite + core to substiture the build. I expet elite will never be brought down to core.

The idea that elite specs should be superior to core specs is tacky in my opinion. It’s naïve to believe that “moar power = more fun!”. If I wanted god powers, I would go mod my Elder Scrolls. All they do is kill build diversity and give people in conquest headaches. Imho every profession needs hard nerfs at the moment.

Also, the theory that Anet crafted elite specializations as selling points for the expansions is underdeveloped. None of you know for sure what their marketing strategies are, please stop acting like they made a post that stated this was their idea. Anet gets most of their money from the gem store and I think plenty would buy the expansion even without the elite specs. Most of the player base is long-term and dedicated, as much as we complain. I think they should have renamed Elite Specs “Focused Specs”, as they were explicitly advertised as “alternative ways to play the same profession”, which I’d like to see the dev team turn towards.

Glyphs are probably the core elememtalist utility branch that needs the least amount if work

Grimreaper.5370:

Alex Shatter.7956:

PvP viable elementalist will inevitably come from a future elite spec. The current elementalist mechanics are just too hard to squeeze into conquest. Best case scenario: they nerf tempest’s healing abilities and make the traitlines more damage focused for PvE, and then make the next elite spec either burst / block or condition viable.

I will add that there is nothing wrong with glass tempest in PvP right now. The problem is powercreep. When other professions are so strong, it makes tempest look weaker as a 1v1 power build.

I dont quite agree, a true glass tempest is going to need multiple active defensive skills sinces its sacrificing so much heal potential, especially with offhand dagger since that weapon set offers only heals and no dmg block.

With the current way overloads function they just dont flow very well with most weapon sets, tempest just feels like an odd ball, overloads do not compliment the fast paced playstyle that ele used to be.

It isn’t ideal, but I prefer it that way. I don’t miss ice bow in pve or broken D/D in pvp. I do just fine with marauder staff and marauder scepter / focus in conquest, with no healing specs. I’m pretty happy with the spike potential of a well placed Overload Air and the occasional healing that tempest provides on aura. It isn’t super meta OP overdrive like chronomancer or revenant, but do you really want that? If they updated tempest with a bunch of broken blocks and burst skills, we would just end up with another headache in s3.

PvP viable elementalist will inevitably come from a future elite spec. The current elementalist mechanics are just too hard to squeeze into conquest. Best case scenario: they nerf tempest’s healing abilities and make the traitlines more damage focused for PvE, and then make the next elite spec either burst / block or condition viable.

I will add that there is nothing wrong with glass tempest in PvP right now. The problem is powercreep. When other professions are so strong, it makes tempest look weaker as a 1v1 power build.

roamzero.9486:

mtpelion.4562:

Wall of Reflection acts as a “brain check”.

If you see the giant glowy wall, stop shooting at it.

I dont disagree but at the same time reflection is currently over the top in the game, making projectiles almost useless. Guardian isn’t the main problem though, it’s Scrapper and Ele. Magnetic Aura needs to reduce projectile damage instead of reflect, and Defense Field needs to have its CD increased (or at least make it so that such bubble effects don’t work against projectiles from inside the bubble).

If elementalist didn’t have magnetic aura, they would be insta-killed by projectiles. A reminder that even though projectile reflection is over the top, projectiles themselves are even more over the top.

Pew Pew Projectiles (PPPs) fire high damaging shots from bows and pistols like a kittening machine gun, one every 1/6th of a second. There is nothing underpowered about projectiles from thief and ranger. If you want to make magnetic aura reduce projectile damage, then make projectiles from Thief and Ranger fire at 1 per second and do realistic damage.

Does core guardian really need nerfs though?

Ross Biddle.2367:

Fay.2357:

Alex Shatter.7956:

Fay.2357:

Varezenem.2813:

Fay.2357:

Varezenem.2813:

Simonoly.4352:

Can’t tell if satire. Need more sleep.

It’s probably not a satire. Condi mes and bunker mes are highly unpopular with people pretending to be long time mesmer mains

Fixed that for you. 620 hours is a long time Mesmer main? Don’t make me laugh. Come back when you’ve cracked 3k and we’ll talk.

Didn’t say that he was a long time Mesmer main. (I’ve been rev main for longer than that.)

But AFAIK they want power shatter back over the “skilless” condi Mesmer.

You have 2 types of people complaining about condie Mesmer.

Type 1 is bads that have complained about condie Mesmer for years, even when it was awful. No matter how badly it gets nerfed, they’ll still be whining about it. This is the vast majority of complainers.

Type 2 is mesmers that have put on their rose colored glasses for reminiscing about the good old days when power shatter was used instead of condie shatter. However, they conveniently forget that power shatter was still garbage tier, played only by Helseth because he’s too stubborn to do anything else. This is a small minority though, because most mesmers aren’t so insanely myopic.

That’s the point. Everything should be garbage tier. That’s how you achieve balance. The meta was better back then because people played garbage builds and it was chill. Not ideal, but it was feasible.

Yeah, you’re totally wrong. Mesmer had nothing but garbage builds. Other classes had great builds. Your 620 hours of experience are clearly not even remotely enough to understand what the class needs and what it should be.

See, I’d compare your 620 hours vs any mesmer main with 4000+ hours who’ve pretty much played Mesmer exclusively, trying all the various builds that’ve come along aswell as theory crafting their own, combating all the shifting metas, following all the nerfs, buffs, QoL issues etc, over the entire course of the game since release (not to mention those who’ve come right through from the pre release betas).

So yah, I don’t know when you got your 620 hours in, but you certainly lack a full scope which is evident purely on the things you say.

Im sure it sucks for you to be stuck in that position as there’s really not a lot you can do about it (except perhaps study history, and take note from those who were there). That said, don’t be surprised when people disagree with you when they’re in a far more authoritative position to do so XD

You think MY position sucks? That a bunch of people with 4000 kittening hours on one profession on one video game disagree with me that their profession needs to be nerfed? What a surprise. I think if you stepped out of mesmer land for a breath of fresh air, you’ll find that I’m on the more lenient, understanding and knowledgeble side of the mesmer “haters”.

Fay.2357:

Alex Shatter.7956:

Fay.2357:

Varezenem.2813:

Fay.2357:

Varezenem.2813:

Simonoly.4352:

Can’t tell if satire. Need more sleep.

It’s probably not a satire. Condi mes and bunker mes are highly unpopular with people pretending to be long time mesmer mains

Fixed that for you. 620 hours is a long time Mesmer main? Don’t make me laugh. Come back when you’ve cracked 3k and we’ll talk.

Didn’t say that he was a long time Mesmer main. (I’ve been rev main for longer than that.)

But AFAIK they want power shatter back over the “skilless” condi Mesmer.

You have 2 types of people complaining about condie Mesmer.

Type 1 is bads that have complained about condie Mesmer for years, even when it was awful. No matter how badly it gets nerfed, they’ll still be whining about it. This is the vast majority of complainers.

Type 2 is mesmers that have put on their rose colored glasses for reminiscing about the good old days when power shatter was used instead of condie shatter. However, they conveniently forget that power shatter was still garbage tier, played only by Helseth because he’s too stubborn to do anything else. This is a small minority though, because most mesmers aren’t so insanely myopic.

That’s the point. Everything should be garbage tier. That’s how you achieve balance. The meta was better back then because people played garbage builds and it was chill. Not ideal, but it was feasible.

Yeah, you’re totally wrong. Mesmer had nothing but garbage builds. Other classes had great builds. Your 620 hours of experience are clearly not even remotely enough to understand what the class needs and what it should be.

Mesmer was fine before HoT. It wasn’t top tier, but I call that a good thing. It could veil in WvW, was a great roamer, could duel in PvP and it’s support in dungeons was decent too. The mesmer I remember was the margin profession. It was great. What makes you so bitter about it? And why do you prefer the streamlined, purple thing Anet spat out in October?

Fay.2357:

Varezenem.2813:

Fay.2357:

Varezenem.2813:

Simonoly.4352:

Can’t tell if satire. Need more sleep.

It’s probably not a satire. Condi mes and bunker mes are highly unpopular with people pretending to be long time mesmer mains

Fixed that for you. 620 hours is a long time Mesmer main? Don’t make me laugh. Come back when you’ve cracked 3k and we’ll talk.

Didn’t say that he was a long time Mesmer main. (I’ve been rev main for longer than that.)

But AFAIK they want power shatter back over the “skilless” condi Mesmer.

You have 2 types of people complaining about condie Mesmer.

Type 1 is bads that have complained about condie Mesmer for years, even when it was awful. No matter how badly it gets nerfed, they’ll still be whining about it. This is the vast majority of complainers.

Type 2 is mesmers that have put on their rose colored glasses for reminiscing about the good old days when power shatter was used instead of condie shatter. However, they conveniently forget that power shatter was still garbage tier, played only by Helseth because he’s too stubborn to do anything else. This is a small minority though, because most mesmers aren’t so insanely myopic.

That’s the point. Everything should be garbage tier. That’s how you achieve balance. The meta was better back then because people played garbage builds and it was chill. Not ideal, but it was feasible. Ever since June of last year, and especially with HoT, everything had become about BUFFFFS. So every profession has 1 good build and everything else is not just garbage, but suicide. It’s like trying to balance a scale with elephants. You can do it, but you’re only gonna get about 1 elephant on each plate, and it’s gonna be hella difficult.

I would love it if everyone played with garbage. Maybe then skill would start mattering and build diversity wouldn’t be suicide.

Also @people who think 620 hours isn’t that long, i didnt say i was a full time player. But it’s more than enough to understand the profession and how it is what it wasn’t meant to be

Vieux P.1238:

More mesmer QQ’ing? Every season it’s the same sob story. I get it, Bunker mesmer last season was bad. But we are far from that now. After the way to many nerf that mesmers has incurred in the last year alone, we are left with one viable build. ONE! & the only reason why the class is surviving pvp is not cuz of the merc amulet or the inspiration line or the high skill level that mesmer players are in. It’s cuz none of you keeping the pressure on the mesmer. It’s way to easy to kill it. You complainers are just to use to have to deal with mesmers that does no damage & that you can deal & dispatch with last. With no consequence. I’m sorry, but i feel the game more balanced then ever since this off season we are having more & more close matches then disparities.

Mesmer takes no skill to play. It is not the profession of “trickery and chaos theory”, it is the profession of “I’m not good at any other profession and I want to annoy you”. Mesmer has the reputation of being “whoa man, it looks so trippy, it must be hard to play!” but we both know that’s bull kitten. GW1 mesmer was hard to play, and I miss it dearly. I probably don’t have as many hours on GW2 mesmer as you, but I have 623, which is a pretty good chunk of my life. I can’t even play it anymore, it’s so easy and stupid. Also, it’s impossible to keep pressure on mesmer when there are 3 of them on every team and no, it isn’t easy to kill.

To start- I have 623 hours on a mesmer, and I’ve attached a screenshot below for proof. It should be evident from the picture that my photoshop skills aren’t good enough to fake that picture. I have even more mesmer hours on GW1, starting in 2008. But I can’t play the profession anymore because it’s gotten too easy and too cheesy. I played against someone last night named “New Mesmer Main”. There are 3 – 4 mesmers on every map nowadays.

Please Anet for the love of god delete moa bird and cut mesmer conditions in half. I would play mesmer again if they weren’t the AIDS profession. I miss when mesmers were the profession that “controlled foes with elegance and grace”, not the streamlined, keyboard mashy annoy-a-trons they have become.

Infinite Transmitation charge, or at least an option to make select outfits “free to apply”. Bring on the fashion wars

Zephyron.7081:

Dear Anet,

Birds for shoulder pads? Seriously? Listen, the ONLY awesome outfit was the Halloween one with the flaming skull and chest (not mad king, although that was cool too).

PLEASE make some bad kitten looking outfits that make me look evil! Stop with the skirts, flowers, and birds!

I also recommend that you study SWTOR’s cartel market. Look at the hundreds of armor sets that can be bought! Get your artists to work on more armor sets and/or outfits please.

You’re right. Anet, please change the birds on the shoulders to a gun beer-can volcano car

Sphinx.8014:

Hmm, what if it were like 600 gems to make the set of currently worn armor skins free to apply?

Oh I like this. Making certain sets free to apply seems like a happy medium.

Yeah I was getting ready to call out some BS on OP about power creep or lack of legendary weapons but it’s actually a good post

SyllyReth.2495:

I would buy this, even if it was per character. I would buy it for each of my characters. I don’t experiment with my look very often simply because I hate watching the number of charges dwindle.

As an elementalist, sometimes I feel “Battlemage”, and want to wear illustrious armor. Sometimes I feel “Dark Witch”, and want to wear nightmare court armor. Other times I feel nostalgic, and want to whip out my Heritage Gear. I can’t be glued to one outfit!

Freaklund.7086:

I will be taking a strictly PvE perspective.

Scepter in my eyes could stand to have some improved diversity in condi damage – bleeds and burns are in and of themselves fine, but they are found in the fire and earth attunements respectively (not counting offhands, utilities, and secondary sources like sigils). The other two are sort of left hanging.

With that in mind I would suggest some changes:

Ice Shards (Water 1): Inflicts 1 stack of Torment (4 sec) per hit, for a total of 3 stacks when all 3 icicles hit.

Shatterstone (Water 2): Instead of the 5 vulnerability stacks, the explosion now inflicts 3 stacks of bleeding (similar to the Icebrood Elementals´ version) and 2 seconds of chill. Would also be nice if the sound effect was updated to reflect the shorter animation.

Arc Lightning (Air 1): At the final hit of stage 1, inflicts 1 stack of confusion (3 sec). At the final hit of stage 2, inflicts 1 stack of confusion (5 sec). At the final hit of stage 3, inflicts 2 stacks of confusion (8 sec).

I feel like adding confusion and torment to elementalist skills would be out of character, and would kitten off the mesmers and revenants. I think the best option for a condition elementalist build would be a new elite specialization. Poison could come from smog based fire attacks, or confusion could be somehow made into an air / water thing (a rehashing of Mind Freeze and Mind Shock from GW1, perhaps).

There’s probably a million and a half reasons this will never hit the gem store but I think it would be ridonkulous

FrownyClown.8402:

Alex Shatter.7956:

FrownyClown.8402:

Scepter/x ele is pretty decent in pvp. Its mostly outshined by other dps classes in 1v1 scenerios.

The biggest thing isn’t the scepter itself but traits/utilities to go with it.

For me I like going Air/water/arcane or air/water/fire.

The best way for them to buff fire trait line to support scepter builds would be to buff burning precision to a 100% chance to burn and reduce the CD from blinding ashes to 5s. This pretty much guarentees 1 blind every 5 seconds, which is very helpful in 1v1 scenerios.

As far as the arcane traitline goes, they need to buff traits to better synergize with arcane utilities.

Arcane shield for example can be broken by a revenent or a thief in less than a second. Simply making it unpoppable and lasting a full 3 seconds would make it more useful. Also reduce its cooldown to 50s (and the trait too).

I posted some suggested changes in another forum post that better touches up on my thoughts of ele as a whole.

Fresh air builds being somewhat weak to conditions is a fair tradeoff, but it needs a fighting chance vs other dps builds, namely theif and revenent.

what is scepter good for in PvP? The burst isn’t nearly as efficient as dagger when players can dodge Dragon Tooth

dragons tooth is one of the best skills on a downed target for one. 2nd your burst rotation is very strong even if dragons tooth misses. You will land dragons tooth most often if you do a knockdown (gale is very good since its unblockable) and the enemy is out of dodges. Try to time the knockdown right after a 2nd dodgeroll if they don’t have vigor up and you will almost always hit your mark.

Scepter burst is far superior to dagger burst for the simple fact that you can do it from a safe distance.

And if you are playing tempest fresh air you can spam air overload.

Interesting. What do you think is better? Fresh air or a bolt to the heart? I can never choose

FrownyClown.8402:

Scepter/x ele is pretty decent in pvp. Its mostly outshined by other dps classes in 1v1 scenerios.

The biggest thing isn’t the scepter itself but traits/utilities to go with it.

For me I like going Air/water/arcane or air/water/fire.

The best way for them to buff fire trait line to support scepter builds would be to buff burning precision to a 100% chance to burn and reduce the CD from blinding ashes to 5s. This pretty much guarentees 1 blind every 5 seconds, which is very helpful in 1v1 scenerios.

As far as the arcane traitline goes, they need to buff traits to better synergize with arcane utilities.

Arcane shield for example can be broken by a revenent or a thief in less than a second. Simply making it unpoppable and lasting a full 3 seconds would make it more useful. Also reduce its cooldown to 50s (and the trait too).

I posted some suggested changes in another forum post that better touches up on my thoughts of ele as a whole.

Fresh air builds being somewhat weak to conditions is a fair tradeoff, but it needs a fighting chance vs other dps builds, namely theif and revenent.

what is scepter good for in PvP? The burst isn’t nearly as efficient as dagger when players can dodge Dragon Tooth

Anet seems to have an interest in improving scepter’s burst potential by increasing damage and lowering cast delays, but I feel like this is a step sideways, and it isn’t working out that well so far. I would much rather see scepter’s offensive support get buffs. Something like:

1. Increase the radius of Dragon’s Tooth, Shatterstone and Water Trident. Make Dragon’s Tooth and Shatterstone unblockable.
2. Have water trident remove a condition
3. Make rock barrier block the next 3 attacks, and deal damage / cripple on last block (similar to arcane shield). Increase the CD of course
4. Blinding Flash should hit at least 3 targets for a skill with no damage

But I’m no expert. Should Anet focus on burst? Condition? I’m curious to see what other ele mains think

Well for starters, ditch that offhand dagger. You want either dagger / focus or staff for open world content if you’re a beginner. Warhorn if you have it. To avoid a TL;DR, here are some things you should know about elementalist:

1. Don’t run a condition build
2. Earth traitline and reflects are your best friend for solo content. Magnetic aura, obsidian flesh, aftershock, and swirling winds is pretty much manditory to learn how to use. 90% of ele deaths are from pew pew in all game modes. Not sure why you have trouble with melee, i always found ele to be very strong in close range
3. AoE overloads are your only defense against pocket raptors
4. You are the absolute bottom for survivability, but zerker is still the best choice. Once you are experienced, you will be able to solo anything easily with 11k hp

skullmount.1758:

We need less salad based stories (#BurnTheGroveDown), and more Asura/Charr centered stories.

so have you ever played the original Guild Wars? Prophecies and Eye of the North was all about Charr, and a good portion of Eye of the North was all about the Asura. It went into great detail about how Abaddon influenced the flame legion, et cetera, and how Primordus drove the Asura out of the ground. I spent a good 3-4 years of my life listening to Anet give me Charr / Asura lore. Let sylvari do things now

I went Greek goddess / nymph / dryad with mine. Elementalist named

“Nymphasia”

Murderin.8269:

Alex Shatter.7956:

if i can make it through all the HoT content (pre-patch) with a zerker ele, you can make it through today

I can assume you made it through all of the content to 100% completion without dying a single time then.

Great job, you are the best there ever was.

wow such witty very rhetoric

This isn’t on Anet’s priority list, but is anyone else bothered by the enemy clutter on Open World Maps? Sometimes I want to take my elementalist out for a walk and collect some ore in Lornar’s Pass or Mount Maelstrom or something, enjoy the beautiful scenery, and glide from cliffs, and find that there is a nuisance enemy every 10 feet.

On the flipside, enemies in OW are much too easy to kill. The whole effect makes me feel like I’m a jungle explorer using a machete to cut down grass as I make my way from point A to point B. Except instead of grass, it’s weak dredge / bandits, and instead of a machete, it’s Overload Air.

I wonder what it would be like if the OW maps were less enemy dense, but those enemies were more difficult. Like Skyrim or something.

if i can make it through all the HoT content (pre-patch) with a zerker ele, you can make it through today

mistsim.2748:

ArthurDent.9538:

Novuake.2691:

“double blink” hahaha this is funny.

I don’t disagree that mesmer is pretty strong and a little overtuned, but OP doesn’t understand the class one bit.

Maybe he was referring to the all mighty mimic which has not been gaining popularity recently but is still a thing.

my point is, double anything. if they want to.

That’s just flat incorrect. Not like opinion wrong, but fact wrong.

mistsim.2748:

double blink, double moa (on 2 people),

Wow, guess who’s never played mesmer? Continuum Shift sends you back to the place you used it, so no, you don’t get “double blink”. Mesmer does need nerfs, but please make some effort. Just in case you haven’t read about it yet, i would suggest starting here

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mesmer

But the new auras are so glassy and elegant

Well, I chose to brave the mesmer comminity in their home base, and I can admit I failed. Is there no sentiment among mesmers that their class needs nerfs and reworks though? Clearly I’m too ignorant to make a lasting balance but I really, really want someone who can to step forward.

phokus.8934:

No.

Any reasons why besides “mesmer doesnt need nerfs l2p?”

I’m not a mesmer main anymore but these are some ideas that I had brewing to fix up core mesmer and appease the league players.

Portal / Moa

1. Portal: Turn into an f5 skill for core mesmer

—> I think chronomancer has too much support in one go. This isn’t fun to play for the mesmer, and OP to play against. I’d like to make portal a strictly core mesmer skill. This would also give mesmers a reason not to take chronomancer.

2. Moa: Active effect: Reduce duration to 3 seconds. Reduce CD to 120 seconds. On interrupt, deals damage and inflicts torment. Instant cast, breaks stun Passive effect: Change from 20% reduction on CC to 20% increased damage against confused enemies

—> I want to take the cheese out of this skill and use it as a vehicle to buff power
mesmer. The duration nerfs it to a regular CC skill, but the power boost on confused enemies will hopefully allow for more power shatter builds. Good mesmers in PvE will be able to keep constant confusion on a target if they forgo being an alacrity bot, and have actual, meaning DPS if this is stacked with some other power buffs.

Chronomancer
1. Continuum Shift: No longer affects elite skills. Duration per illusion shattered is twice as long. On cast, also affects up to three allies in a 250 radius of the user.

—> League players want CS to not affect elites? Fine by me, I’d be happy to not play a timewarp slave anymore, or a double gravity well zerger. In exchange, the duration of the shift should be increased, since it is only used for utilities / weapon skills now. In addition, I’d like to see if affect allies. With the right planning, it can still be a game changer.

2. Well of Precognition: Keep the stability as is. Remove aegis. Causes allies to block 50% of incoming attacks. At the end, gives back stamina per usual.

—> I think by giving it aegis, anet wanted to make it so WoP blocked “a bunch of attacks, but not all”. Aegis is way under powered though. I think evading 50% wouldn’t make a solo mesmer overpowered, but would definitely help a team out when the AoE starts flying.

Inspiration and Glamours
1. Temporal enchanter: No longer applies resistance and superspeed. Instead, removes a condition from allies and a boon from foes. Applies 4 seconds of retaliation. Still increases duration of glamours

—> The superspeed was useless and the resistance was OP. Still, it should fit into the inspiration traitline by offering condition removal and team support. Retaliation is a powerful offensive support that fits the GW1 mesmer theme, and I’m sad isn’t in more mesmer traits/skills. This would be very fun in WvW.

2. New Glamour – Flip: Field with a higher radius than null field, but less than TW. Increases damage done from allies by 15%, and reduces damage taken from allies by 15%. Lasts 6 seconds. 40 second CD.

—> Removing portal from the utility bar leaves a space in the glamour line. I’d like one that flat out can increase party DPS in pvp, in theme with wanting to increase mesmer as a power spec.

Condition Mesmer Changes

1. Give Maim the Disillusioned an ICD. Like 2 or 3 seconds.

2. Make sceptor 3 hit four times instead of six. Six confusions stacks at once is ridiculous.

3. Increase damage on staff 1. Change vulnerability to a stack of confusion.

Power Shatter Changes

1. Increase DPS of greatsword AA. Add confusion to GS 2 for synergy with the new moa passive skill.

2. Increase blurred frenzy and sword AA damage.

Conclusion

What does everyone think? I know some numbers should be tweaked but I’d like to know the general consensus. I know phantasms need a rework but I wanted this to be more power mesmer focused.

Curunen.8729:

As this point I seriously would be happy to see Anet delete moa and make portal an elite skill or F5 for base mesmer.

At least then the class balance can be looked at objectively, without judgement being clouded by two gimmicks.

I would love to see portal be an f5 for core mesmer

Moa duration reduced to 3 seconds. Using signet is insta-cast, breaks stun. If skill is interrupted, target is also stunned for 3 seconds. Reduce CD to 120 seconds.

Passive effect: change 20% incoming stun duration to 20% damage bonus to foes with confusion. #BringBackPowerShatter

Jekkt.6045:

Alex Shatter.7956:

Jekkt.6045:

Alex Shatter.7956:

I agree, mesmers are WAY overpowered right now. But it’s mostly because of the condition damage. Most mesmers could care less about moa

moa is only one of the problems. you can’t cleanse conditions during it, and the duration is way too long for the power creep that got added to the game.

it’s a combination of being extremely sustainable with staff/sw/sh, merc amulet and inspiration, having great utilities and elites on “half” their cooldown due to f5, combined with the ability to deal great damage and stunlocks with shield and double daze shatter.

there is basically no downside to that build.

The continuum shift doesn’t make that big of a difference. People act like continiuum shift puts Moa on a 30 second recharge. It doesn’t, it puts it on a 90 second recharge (normal for most elites), and is very difficult to time, so on average I think it puts moa on 120 second recharge. I have no idea why people are squabbling about moa. I think they recognize that Mesmer is overpowered, have never played the profession, see that they can turn people into birds, and then just blame that.

When in reality, the problem is Mesmer’s INSANE access to condition burst. Like, if you’ve ever played Mesmer, you know that you can put 6 stacks of confusion and 4 stacks of torment on someone in less than one second, and then stunlock them with a plethora of skills, including or not including moa. Gravity well is just as bad. In addition, Mesmer’s inspiration and chaos line give them up the wall access to stability and condition removal / resistance. This turns good ones into super warriors. Moa really doesn’t do much by itself.

I’m terrified that a lot of hatred is going to be spilled on CS/Moa in the next few weeks when people are getting stomped by chronomancers, it will be nerfed, but Mesmer will still dominate everything, and people will ask "but no birdie why am I lose "

as i said, moa, or f5+elites in general, is just part of the problem. for all i care, they could reduce the duration to 5s and lower the cooldown of moa, add a skill that removes conditions and moa is “balanced”.

I personally don’t care what they do with Moa. I think it’s a dumb skill and would be happy to see it just removed. Here’s what definitely needs to happen though:

—> cut confusion stacks from Confusing Images from 6 stacks to 3, or at least
increase the CD from 12 seconds to like 20 or so
—> put an ICD on Main the Disillusioned
—> make Tides of Time only stun once
—> put an ICD on Restorative Illusions
—> rebalance Bountiful Disillusionment stability from 5 seconds to 3 seconds

This would create actual lasting change

Jekkt.6045:

Alex Shatter.7956:

I agree, mesmers are WAY overpowered right now. But it’s mostly because of the condition damage. Most mesmers could care less about moa

moa is only one of the problems. you can’t cleanse conditions during it, and the duration is way too long for the power creep that got added to the game.

it’s a combination of being extremely sustainable with staff/sw/sh, merc amulet and inspiration, having great utilities and elites on “half” their cooldown due to f5, combined with the ability to deal great damage and stunlocks with shield and double daze shatter.

there is basically no downside to that build.

The continuum shift doesn’t make that big of a difference. People act like continiuum shift puts Moa on a 30 second recharge. It doesn’t, it puts it on a 90 second recharge (normal for most elites), and is very difficult to time, so on average I think it puts moa on 120 second recharge. I have no idea why people are squabbling about moa. I think they recognize that Mesmer is overpowered, have never played the profession, see that they can turn people into birds, and then just blame that.

When in reality, the problem is Mesmer’s INSANE access to condition burst. Like, if you’ve ever played Mesmer, you know that you can put 6 stacks of confusion and 4 stacks of torment on someone in less than one second, and then stunlock them with a plethora of skills, including or not including moa. Gravity well is just as bad. In addition, Mesmer’s inspiration and chaos line give them up the wall access to stability and condition removal / resistance. This turns good ones into super warriors. Moa really doesn’t do much by itself.

I’m terrified that a lot of hatred is going to be spilled on CS/Moa in the next few weeks when people are getting stomped by chronomancers, it will be nerfed, but Mesmer will still dominate everything, and people will ask "but no birdie why am I lose "

I agree, mesmers are WAY overpowered right now. But it’s mostly because of the condition spike / burst ability and strong access to stability / condition removal. Most mesmers could care less about moa

Great patch. Happy with most things. Things I was kind of hoping for:

1. nerf to msmer condition damage and buffs to mesmer power (flat)

2. nerf to ele AoE heals, and buffs to ele burst. CD reduction on elites. fix arcane overload CD reduction

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

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

the CD reduction on wells and Flow of Time buff fix a lot, actually

i wish they nerfed conditions and buffed power shatter

CutesySylveon.8290:

Lol I never said it wasn’t due for a nerf. I know reaper is too strong in the condi department and that, to me is more so, but not entirely, due to the state of condi in general atm. Chill damage is fine, it’s the upkeep and application of it that’s unbelievably out of hand. I was against all the added corruption because it doesn’t solve the boon spamming problem properly and it just makes condi stronger and pushed towards more. The answer to all the free boons tossed around is to tone them down, not buff corruption/stripping options. Power Nec is not a bad option as a build, but in the current meta it is, and that’s an issue. Condi reaper, super tank scrapper, hyper support tempest, rev as a whole (the class is a mess on both ends of the OP and worthless scale) are all in dire need of addressing and toning down.

Here’s my idea of what needs to happen to each of those professions:

—> I’d like Reaper to have a higher skill cap. Make the shouts stronger, but affect less targets and have longer CD. Buff corruptions, but give them longer CD more drawbacks (self poison, self bleed, like in GW1). Allow for skill chaining (more things like- if target foe is chilled, then inflect stacks of torment). Make reaper AA hit less people. Buff core necromancer damage output (if they did this, i might pick mine up again). The profession itself takes like no skill to play at the moment (really)

—> Scrapper just needs CC checked imo. Nerfing Thunderclap and gyro explosion daze thing would be a huge quality of life bonus for all spvpers. Slick shoes needs a huge nerf. Scrapper has survivability that needs toned down too, but all i think is that numbers need to be tweaked.

—> Elementalist needs auramancer to be run into the ground. I’m guessing the overloads did so much AoE damage that anet decided to make all the tempest traits support. If they just got rid of the “heal on aura” trait, “regen on aura” trait, replaced it with attunement specific abilities (auras grant stability while attuned to earth, lightning strike-on-hit when air, increased ferocity while fire, and heal water) would encourage more build diversity and cut the healing by a lot. Or just replacing it with stability and quickness (ICD). TL;DR tempest traits need an overhaul.

Reaper needs nerfs in the same way that every profession needs nerfs after Hot powercreep. Even though OP isn’t articulating well doesn’t mean reaper shouldn’t have it’s numbers tweaked, especially in it’s access to poison stacks, raw damage and CC (chill, fear). It is also the only profession with meaningful access to boon conversion, with no checks on it other than some transient, self-inflicted vulnerability. Even the CDs are low for it. OP doesnt have specifics because literally all of reapers skills are out the door easy to spam and target everyone. A toddler could could rush in, click “Chilled to the Bone!”, “Rise!”, and “Nothing can save you!”, enter RS for stability and then go AA the rest of the match with the other 3 reapers on the map. I stopped playing necro before HoT cause i thought it was too easy. Now it’s just gotten ridiculous. I main elementalist and even i admit that tempest is AIDS too. C’mon guys, own up. Every match has like 4 necromamcers because they are the easiest profession to play besides guardian. They are the only proffession with 2 meta builds. I am gobsmacked people genuinely believe reaper isn’t even the slightest bit overpowered.

Imb4 “but reaper takes skill to master and teefs and no mobility or ranged. Also all i can run is power qq”- too kittening bad. Crazy concept: reaper can have downsides and still be a critically overpowered noob magnet. All you can run is deathly chill or corruptomancer? Aww poor baby. Guess what warrior can run? Away from ranked.

Regon Phoenix.8215:

1) Too much AOE spam. Only few dedicated classes/builds should be able to spam AOE. Now every class can launch AOE all around and pvp battles is more like AOE battles than anything else.

Maybe.

Regon Phoenix.8215:

2) Too many CC.

Yes

Regon Phoenix.8215:

ELEMENTALIST
4) Aura build have too much sustain. It is nearly impossible to kill bruiser elementalist 1v1.

Sure?

RANGER
8) Druid have too much sustain. Same as bruiser elementalist – nearly no one can kill it in 1v1.
9) Deals too much damage having this much of sustain. I have literally seen Druid fight off 3 people, not dying, while downing at least one out of three every 5-10 sec.
10) Pets are too strong. I have seen Bristleback F2 dealing 14k damage.

You pulled #9 and #10 out of your kitten

Regon Phoenix.8215:

NECROMANCER
11) Greatsword should be reapers main tool and strongest weapon, but it isn’t. Greatsword is the worst weapon for reaper, even axe is better.
12) No defensive tools, no mobility abilities. The one thing necromancer can do is dealing damage. That is pretty boring, even if damage is quite good at the moment (reaper only, though, because core necromancer is weaker than anyone).
13) Minions are weak and useless. The only use for minions necromancer have while leveling up. In pvp, however, minions are dead weight and usually are used only for Death Nova trait.
14) Same as warrior, necromancer have only 1 (well, maybe 2) viable builds.

In other words, I am a self identified Lord of Darkness and I want Anet to buff the kitten out of reaper. No thank you

Regon Phoenix.8215:

ENGINEER
20) Pretty much all bad (OP) things about other classes combined into one: deals too much damage, have only one viable build (scrapper), have too high sustain, too much CC and so on.
21) Have too many defensive tools.

Fine

Regon Phoenix.8215:

MESMER
22) Continuum Shift is game breaking and should be removed.
23) Power build deals too much damage. Combine it with stealth, clones and other strong abilities – most of other classes can’t do anything against power mesmer. (same could go for condition mesmer, but condition mesmer have lower damage)

What planet are you on? Mesmer power shatter is pathetically weak. Talk to literally anyone who mains mesmer and they will tell you “Yes, for ages we have been waiting for Anet to nerf our condition damage and buff power shatter, cut the cheese from moa/portal/chronomancer so people on forums stop kittening about us”. If you are losing to power shatter mesmer then you need to go back to Queensdale and practice on some bandits

Exedore.6320:

See as ANet has no clue how to balance properly, I expect the reaction to be:

• “WTF are they thinking?”
• Laughter at the sheer stupidity of it all
• Hanging head in disappointment at what used to be a great and fun game

They’ll probably:

• Buff warriors and thieves unnecessarily
• Nerf the wrong thing on ele and necro which end up not affecting them
• Leave scrappers OP
• Buff druids
• Try to buff unused revenant legends
• Make some elaborate nerf to chronomancer Moa that either does nothing or ends up making the skill completely useless
• Remove an amulet or two because that’s the problem…

What they really should do:

• Nerf all HoT specs. All need nerfed, just some more than others.

i laughed and then i cried