Guild Wars 2

desu.2514:

Quote “TL;DR: Mesmer is currently the profession with the biggest build diversity”

you can be useless any way you like, its the mesmer meta.

desu you savage

Xstein.2187:

Kitten, I envy all who enjoy playing a class other than mes in gw2.

I don’t enjoy elementalist as much as mesmer, but the current mesmer is just so unplayable that I got used to it

rchu.8945:

good for you, I am about to do the same, but to a reaper alt.

Is reaper decent in PvE? I’m mostly a PvE monkey so that’s why I chose ele. Was thinking about starting the HoT content with my necro though

it was poignant and expensive. been main-ing mesmer since 2010. ill check back every once in a while to see if they fix up the profession

Krispera.5087:

It’s just annoying to keep recasting it.

Agony, torment, pain! Agony, torment, pain! Agony, torment, pain! Opposite, disorient, confuse!

GLaDOS.5897:

Alex Shatter.7956:

(i dont know why, but assassins is preferred over zerker).

Because reflects. I don’t think this is still the case nowadays.

How’d you score that username

Rabid > Carrion > dire.

Mesmers perform well with lots of precision and toughness, since traits give condition damage off toughness + undead runes. Also clones get more sturdy with toughness and not vitality.

Precision for the dueling ability that inflicts bleed on crit hits.

Additionally, precision > power for mesmer in general (i dont know why, but assassins is preferred over zerker).

Mesmers have lots of condition removal with inspiration so don’t worry about that. Condi mesmer is fun to spam sceptor 3 with, but some other profession can probably do it better. I do my best with the wanderers amulet in sPvP, dunno if it would fly in Eotm.

In its current state, Mesmer is a failed/incomplete profession. You can’t really compare it to any of the other professions because it just plainly isn’t a complete picture. Anet probably will need to rework it from the ground up like they ended up doing with GW1 mesmer in 2010-ish.

Nieguen.6235:

Karl’s speech during the guild chat shows clearly they do not even know their game.

Omg so true. “33% alacrity will mean teams will have to take twice as many mesmers”. wtf?

PvE can be resumed to taxi train, daily fractal, and raid once a week. Basically you connect in this game only for gathering the daily rewards.
Even the world rewards are worthless with a crazy economy.

I just bought an ascended hat for like 150 gold. GW1 was not like this

Levetty.1279:

3. Not just wells. Another option is to make the trait improved Alacrity make alacrity 66% on the Mesmer.

I kind of like the idea of making alacrity 66% but for shorter duration. It would encourage multiple mesmers.

Levetty.1279:

4. The reason that was changed is because of how useless it was. The best thing to do with precog which would have left the skill useful, required less work and shut the pvp whiners up would be to make the skill an invuln in pvp and an evade in PvE. It baffles me that they went with this aegis stuff instead.

No. I don’t think mesmers should be given more defensive abilities. Well of Precog deserved to be nerfed and i dont think evade/invuln should come back. I like the idea of a “hit through enemy block” mechanic because it is offensive (which mesmer needs), very unique and very nichey. It would not be good on every build. It would shine in sPvp when people are all fighting on a little point and blocking their rocks off. Maybe it could use padding: “Player attacks cannot be blocked or evaded and remove a boon on hit. At the end, all players get stamina”. But it needs to not be a spammy defense skill.

Levetty.1279:

Infact just some consideration for PvE in general while you’re butchering classes for PvP would be nice.

My point exactly. Buffing shatter/power mes would wipe out dreary bunker builds and be good in pve and pvp. I pray these suggestions get to Karl before whiny sPvP FOTMs do, or else all we’ll get is more pvp based condition / burst garbage

Gaile Gray.6029:

Oeps Rolls Necro.2594:

Gaile Gray.6029:

A message from the Skills Team:

The current behavior was an unintended consequence introduced with the 1/26 build.

Hello Gaile,

Without being sarcastic i would like to let you know about another unintended consequence with the 1/26 patch.

Its the mesmer part of the update. Its pretty broken atm and its in a sad state in pvp.
It would be really nice if you can let us know if someone is looking into that part.

Thanks anyway!

Ps. i really loved your frog in gw1

There’s a lot of feedback to read, so please don’t mind if I ask this: Do you have specific areas of concern? Also, did you post in the major feedback thread? I don’t mind asking about this, if I’m able to do so. But a general “it’s broken” isn’t as good as solid evidence.

(And thanks. Froggie is doing well in Old Tyria, but I hope someday to travel with him in the Tyria of today.)

Gaile- Here’s my suggestion to the summaries offered.

TL; DR:
1. Keep alacrity at 33%
2. Improve mesmer DPS sustain
3. Reduce recharge and cast times on wells, since those were built around Chrono having more potent alacrity than they do now.
4. Change Well of Precognition to how it was during beta, making allies attacks hit through blocks. At least then it would have use on some skill bars.

Basically, alacrity is a very complicated mesmer mechanic, and any changes to it needs to be calculated very far down the line to make sure it isn’t over-powered, or completely useless. As those before me pointed out, the changes on the 26th did not do this. Mesmers are facing problems in PvP because bunker was the only thing chrono was good for. Mesmers are facing challenges in PvE right now because our very low DPS does not at all make up for our 33% alacrity support rate (in most instances). In my opinion, a proper balance to alacrity would be to buff up Mesmer in other areas like damage, so the 33% doesn’t seem like such a big nerf. That way, chrono bunker would not come back, alacrity would still seem like “a nice little extra thing”, and mesmer could still be viable as PvP shatter, or as a damage dealer in raids.

Also, the well recharge and cast times are pretty vestigial of a 66% Chrono. It’s just common sense to lower those now that wells are much less powerful. Well of Precognition was a very lazy nerf. I’m not sure how this could be fixed, but perhaps switch it back to it’s original-original function, to allow teammates to hit through blocks. Anet kind of dug its own grave on this one.

This is a good summary that I’m glad she responded to

I would prefer them to merge Medic’s Feedback with the (now nerfed) Temporal Enchanter, and have Warden’s Feedback be made a Major Adept. But I post too much. And that leaves kitten in the major masters. So nevermind.

Also details aside, none of this takes away from the value of my original post. Fine, Warden doesn’t have the highest DPS. Still, damage should be mitigated from phantasms back to weapon skills, and that wells should have recharge and cast time reduced instead of alacrity being messed with.

Seyiwaji.4082:

I remember that i blocked you because you are a bad mesmers.

1. rood. why would you even make this personal lol
2. I’ve never seen any mesmer DPS calculation ever on any forum not rely on phantasms. i’ve been hearing people cry about Anet relying on this mechanic since 2013. No, I don’t know Karl personally. It’s known even among amateurs that spatial surge and blurred frenzy are DPS killers and that phantasms are a mesmer’s best way to deal damage to stationary targets. Also, if Phantasmal Warlock was the best DPS choice, why would S/F be meta? The reflects from warden also contribute to its DPS value.

Warden is the highest DPS phantasm. I know for a fact they use phantasms to guage DPS. I just put two and two together. Point is, phantasms are unreliable and we would be better off with higher hitting AAs

Xyonon.3987:

why decrease wardens damage ? o.O

Anet calculates mesmer DPS based on how much 3 phantasmal wardens can do, which is dumb because almost no body keeps that many up at a time since enemies die fast, etc. Lowering the DPS on warden and increasing DPS on things like GS 1 or GS2 would actually make mesmer’s sustain better in WvW and PvE

Keep alacrity at 33%. Decrease well cast time and recharge. Make phantasmal berserker and warden do less damage. Increase greatsword 1 and 2 DPS. Increase sword 1 and 2 DPS.

Reduces mesmer burst in PvP so thet can stop being thieves, and gives them better support and sustain in PvE and WvW where they suck the most

katniss.6735:

It’s literally impossible to enjoy a glass cannon as ele anymore because literally every other class can do a better job of it.

Mesmer will always have it worse in every game mode

katniss.6735:

I barely ever see any Ele videos on youtube anymore. It’s just not fun anymore.

It’s been like 5 days lol

These suggestions take Chrono in the wrong direction. Chrono should be about giving allies quickness and alacrity, not spamming it on themselves. That’s what caused Anet to delete mesmer in the first place

I like the idea of merging PvE and WvW to the extent of designating certain PvE maps (Brisban Wildlands, Lornar Pass, Iron Marches, Orr) as WvW style maps that have hearts and meta events, as well as a competitive element. I’ve heard they tried this with Silverwastes and it didn’t work out too well, and the logistics are scary, but if it succeeded it could be really cool.

At the moment, WvW feels like Player vs Empty Space and PvE feels like Player vs. Map Completion.

1. Cantha (which will never happen)

2. PvP and PvE profession split (which will never happen)

3. Mesmer PvE sustain balance (which will never happen)

4. Original plot line (Scarlet was awesome, hire whatever intern invented her and make them your lead)

5. A dismantling of the Black Lion Chest system (which will never happen)

25% speed boost from chrono, continuum shift Moa is pretty much all we got now

but think about the esports

33% skill cost reduction for 2 seconds, if my teammates are standing still. On a 40 second recharge. Oh man, everyone’s gonna want me on their raid team now

On my previous note- Get rid of all phantasm DPS and make them do the following. Decrease their cast times. Improve mesmer DPS skills by 20-25%.

Phantasmal berserker: removes stability, inflicts vulnerability and damages breakbar

Phantasmal Mage: No change

Phantasmal Warlock: Extends duration of all conditions on foe. Decreases duration of boons on foes. Decreases condition duration on allies and increases their boon duration. Bounces.

Phantasmal Swordsman: Inflicts blind and chill. removes protection and might.

On my previous note- Get rid of all phantasm DPS and make them do the following. Decrease their cast times. Improve mesmer DPS skills by 20-25%.

Phantasmal berserker: removes stability, inflicts vulnerability and damages breakbar

Phantasmal Mage: No change

Phantasmal Warlock: Extends duration of all conditions on foe. Decreases duration of boons on foes. Decreases condition duration on allies and increases their boon duration. Bounces.

Phantasmal Swordsman: Inflicts blind and chill. removes protection and might.

apharma.3741:

I’d rather they removed the damage altogether from phantasms. Then we might have a viable dps spec which doesn’t have flaws like dps plummeting when the target dies, huge ramp up times, trash dying before your phatasms are even summoned and generally being poo. .

This. Someone frame this and put it on the wall. Mail it to the dev team. Put it on a stick and beat them up with it. Make love to it. Mesmers should not be contracted to a completely failed game mechanic and I hate how stubborn Anet is about it. If mesmer dps was calculated outside of phantasms, then maybe they would be able to pull their weight in PvE and also the 33% alacrity wouldn’t look so pointless.

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

2/10 Which is infinitely higher than I would rate the ArenaNet balance team atm.
- IGN

- Gordon Ramsey

Longing for the days of GW1 where roleplaying character value and game mode balance mattered more to Anet

Serious Thought.5394:

Can someone explain why they are “garbage”?

I didn’t say they were garbage I was just genuinely unsure as to whether people used them

Marilyn Monmemser

I just don’t usually see the point of taking them over canteips, shouts or ice bow

Maurader Amulet + rune of the soldier works great for me. Spam shouts for condition removal, use air overload +obsidian flesh, repeat

Can anyone convince me that these skills are useful and unique and do not need a rework?

REVISED ARGUMENT:

Thesis (like im in University again!): Anet relies too much on a “symmetry algorithm” that prioritizes making each profession and plot mechanic symmetrical or balanced over actual gameplay value. There are many instances were they could break symmetry in 1) skill types 2) plot mechanics 3) weapon types and 4) weapon updates and get a better result.

EXAMPLE 1: I main an elementalist. I love the it. I get upset, though, because I almost never use the Glyphs or half of the conjures. I would much rather have 6 cantrips and 2 glyphs. Or even 1 arcane skill and 3 glyphs. Or perhaps glyphs that have different uses. I don’t think the 4 arcane, 4 glyph, 4 cantrip, 4 conjure is the most efficient way to balance it.

EXAMPLE 2: I think the PvE and PvP balance is iffy. They balance the entire profession for PvP instead of thinking of different game modes. Modified skills for each game mode would be nice.

EXAMPLE 3: I like that there are multiple cities, but the idea that there is a racial city of about the same size is a bit unrealistic. I don’t think the idea that you can choose from 5 races and have exaclty the same plot is the best way for having unique play throughs. Wouldn’t it be more interesting if the Char and Humans could start in the same cities? A lot of good social commentry and plot weaving could be made in those mixed, imperfect scenarios that I think Anet is overlooking.

EXAMPLE 4: Why are all chronomancer wells exactly 3 seconds? Well of Precogition could be made to be 2 seconds, which would make it less OP and not completely kill it. Why is alacrity given out at 2 seconds per well for each well? Perhaps well of calamity, which is used less frequenly, could give 4 seconds of alacrity.

I just think the structure of balancing and plot weaving is blocky and overly perfect.

Example problem 1: Chronomancers NEED to have 4 utility wells. Each well needs to last 3 seconds and give a bonus at the end. Well of Precognition was overpowered, and they couldn’t figure out how to balance it, so instead of altering it’s duration to like, 1 or 2 seconds or something, they made it give 3 ticks of aegis (wtf?)

I think you’re all looking at my specifics. The general feel of the game is Perfect Symmetry Among All Races, Plot Elements, And Game Modes. it makes it claustrophobic and unstable.

@RoseofGilead the idea that you can spend 10 dollars to add an extra crafting slot is not a point in Anets favor

Andraus.3874:

Alex Shatter.7956:

Yargesh.4965:

Humans have 2 cities.

Lions Arch is located in the center of the map and is supposed to be a city for all races.

Nope. There’s another one :-D

Ebonhawke fortress also doesn’t count lol. It’s a decorative element of its map.

Envy.1679:

Yeah, I hate balance too.

Also, a lot of the stuff you said is just plain wrong. Not like Opinion wrong. Factually wrong.

The amounts of utility skills and elite skills are unimportant. They are clearly designed to mirror each other and add up perfectly. Just because engineer has like, 5 turrets and 3 elixers doesn’t make them unique.

Yargesh.4965:

Humans have 2 cities.

Lions Arch is located in the center of the map and is supposed to be a city for all races.

No matter how much they shaft elementalist, it will not be nearly as bad as mesmer will be

I give it 2 weeks before Anet realizes that Fresh Air was already overpowered in dungeons and this change is game breaking. Looking forward to abusing it before the next cycle though

Jester.1236:

Preview happens for a class change.
People act like the world is ending
Everyone claims there “deleting there mesmer”
Everyone claims the “class is useless”
Pyro quits gw2 “again”
The people who have always played mesmer will continue, the other will hop to the new FOTM

nothing changes

? People on internet forums like to panic as a hobby, true, but the math is pretty solid on this one.

I’m packing my bags pretty much.This was the most out-of-touch update Anet has ever thrown out. What is PvE

Give all mesmer players a bunch of deldrimor and spiritwood planks so they can update their Rev/Guardian gear

Fay.2357:

Loony.3714:

Correct me if im wrong but didnt he say “there will be other buffs, these are just the ones I want to talk about” so dont panic yet

He said there will be other changes. I’m know I’m itching to see all the other nerfs to mesmer they didn’t talk about yet.

Omg so true. Can’t wait until they gut what’s left of the Chaos and Inspiration line. “Anet stability and condition removal is so OP please fix it qq”

My ideas for a balance:

1. Change function of Echo of Memory to only block 1 attack. Change function of Well of Precognition to allow allies to hit through enemy block / evade instead of giving spammy invulnerability.

2. Change Alacrity to 50%, and increase duration of applied, particularly to allies. Give new ways of applying alacrity to allies, like Winds of Chaos bouncing.

3. Increase mesmer DPS for PvE

4. Make Continuum Shift last longer or make it do something else. Where it stands it’s only good for halving the recharge of gravity well or Time Warp.

Silverkey.2078:

Fay.2357:

Silverkey.2078:

I think ideally, a-net should not nerf any core trait or skills, but just bring the elite specs in line by nerfing them directly.

If “bringing them into line” means “making mesmer totally worthless again”, I’ll pass.

That was a PvP comment. Before HoT, all professions but rangers had something to bring in PvP (and even ranger was not totally hopeless). Nothing has been removed from this balanced state, all trait lines and skills are pretty much there. You just need to reduce the extreme efficiency of the new skills and traits.

For PvE, I stand by what I said. I think alacrity can be nerfed in a reasonable way to rebalance PvP and keep mesmer useful in PvE. However, I also think alacrity should not be the only solution to mesmer’s problems there.

At some point Anet needs to realize that PVE is only about sustained DPS and that portals, phantasms, and confusion are not passable benefits. Alacrity was barely a good enough excuse to take mesmer for the last month, but anything less than what it is now is not a good enough excuse to take a mesmer over an elementalist or engineer. 50% recharge is okay, but the opportunity cost isn’t worth it.

mesmer will be fine in PvP. they have plenty going for them there. maybe they won’t be the tippy-top of the ladder anymore, but i would find it hard to believe a GW meta existed where mesmers aren’t at least mid tier pvp.

for pve though, the aclarity nerf will be the last nail in their coffin. pve is all about sustained DPS, and their aclarity in pve is what they are barely hanging on to at the moment.