Guild Wars 2

I’m reluctant to poke my head in there again because I don’t want an unnecessary headache reading the usual nonsense that is posted.

Question – anyone planning to use Precog Well after this?

Personally I think while the cooldown reduction is ok, it’s still an absolutely horrible skill and a waste of space so hopefully it gets a proper rework in the future.

Agreed, there are many things in this patch that look great.

Two thumbs up, hopefully things will continue to improve in this way.

redcomyn.4651:

I am just wondering when they will take all the buffs back.

This is worrying me as well.

With the amount of misguided complaining that is likely to be generated on the forum (particularly the pvp forum), this might be a setup for a horrific nerf before the next pvp season…

I sincerely hope not, but I have doubts.

Given Flow of Time was double nerfed first from 1s to 0.75s and then with alacrity from 66% to 33%, this is a good decision to return it to 1s per illusion.

It will not break the game beyond the F5 double elite gimmick, which should be dealt with separately.

The only nerf I agree should be done which they haven’t done is prevent CSplit from working on elites and rebalance the elites for core mesmer – at least in pvp (in pve they could keep it working on elites I suppose). I expect this to happen at some point in the future.

Looking at the rest of the patch notes, nothing has really changed. Double elite is the only problem, nothing else on mesmer is “omg so OP”…

Here we go – the amount of moaning will soon cause Anet to gut something of real importance.

Before crying doom and gloom, read the patch notes – the buffs are not going to break the game. It’s not like we’ve been given 10 stacks of torment per shatter or anything.

The “meta” (I hate that word) condi builds still used Sword over Scepter, so it’s understandable to see a buff or rather fixes to Scepter – it was (and to some extent still is) a clunky weapon to use.

Flow of Time should be reverted to 1s per illusion, following the double nerf of it from 1s to 0.75s and alacrity from 66 to 33%. This is hardly gamebreaking, and allows marginally better personal alacrity through shattering, though still nowhere near as powerful as when it was 66%.

The Wells kitten well needed some cooldown reductions, especially Precognition after they gutted it.

That’s it – there’s nothing else worth noting. Ok sure they didn’t stop CSplit from working with Elites – I hope they do do this and rebalance elites accordingly for core mesmer so it’s not OP with chrono.

But otherwise I fail to see the problem – nothing has significantly changed. This moaning is ridiculous.

Azukas.1426:

LOL what’s funny is in that show where the pro players even stated that mesmer is the best 1v1 class in the game y’all ignore that. LOL

The only place where no one seems to know this is here on this sub forum, and moa + portal isn’t the only reason lol. This is why we all need to apologize to anet.

I’ll start:

I’m sorry Arenanet for jumping the gun and raging over the mesmer nerfs last patch. I know now that I was being a child, and in the long run mesmer is better off now then it ever was. Thank You.

C’mon everyone follow suit.

They buffed some things now so obviously they realised some things were cut too much (ie Flow of Time).

Therefore no apology required.

YAY FLOW OF TIME!

I’m very happy about that returned to 1 second.

Extremely happy actually – it’s excellent for the way I play.

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 know this has been quoted a lot in this thread, but kitten , you’re right on the money – I wouldn’t be surprised to see this exact list tomorrow.

Using Continuum Split for burst (and mirror images within that) is on a long cooldown so it can’t be done regularly – if done then usually once in a fight, and usually in such a way as to end the fight quickly.

What class are you playing?

What next, nerf Spatial Surge because it’s not a projectile?

As you say, with condi ascended backpiece and trinkets you could increase the damage more. Also things like Bursting sigils, but geomancy is good as well.

Personally I would rather use Restorative Mantras with Mantra of Recovery – but healing is a personal choice, it just so happens I’m not too fond of the Well of Eternity.

I would certainly take 1 stealth skill at the very least – either Decoy or Mass Invis – you need a gtfo card in wvw, and I don’t think Moa is useful solo roaming unless you’re in an organised group. Better to have additional survival.

skcamow.3527:

Ross Biddle.2367:

sink 4000 hours into mesmer

Wha?? Haven’t you heard, people can sink 50 games into mesmer and compete at the highest level in pro league. :/

50? Last I heard you only needed 1 game!

Yeah it’s a tradeoff.

There is no Mercenary gear for wvw yet as far as I know (thank goodness because that would be scary), so there must be a tradeoff of either Power or Toughness/Vitality.

Given survivability is more important than a little extra direct damage (especially given you will rarely crit and the crit will be very low damage), I’d say it is better to focus more on condi damage.

You could mix up some Carrion and Dire, at the expense of toughness, but I haven’t much experience in knowing if that is worth it or not.

If you drop Sword and take Scepter (which I think is better in wvw because it’s more open field so iLeap kiting isn’t as useful as in the pvp maps, and it’s only really Blurred Frenzy for survival – but it’s not mandatory) then you can drop power entirely and go full Dire (or Trailblazer mix, but I don’t know which is optimal out of those two stats).

Undead runes are fine – a great cheap option, as are Scavenger runes (the lifesteal is quite nice to have). Otherwise if you take Scepter then Tormenting is a solid choice as well, although expensive.

That condi damage is really, really low.

I’d rather swap all that soldier’s gear out for more Dire or Carrion.

Yeah good luck.

Power mesmer “works”, by the skin of its teeth – but you’ll be in for a hard time vs all the HoT elite meta specs.

You could try an x/Insp/Chrono Sword/Shield + Staff with marauder amulet – it lacks the ranged pressure and burst of greatsword, but it’s more survivable in team fights.

@Silverkey, thank for the feedback.

iWarden – it would be nice for it to heal within the attack bubble, so I don’t mind either way. At least something needs to be done to buff it and Focus in general.

Master of Manipulation was to address reflect causing reveal on mass invis, but I see your point it is definitely too powerful with the distortion and should be changed.

Neutralisation – by buff I meant an icon on your buff bar (like Lost Time) which when you have it means your next attack that hits your target will summon an iDisenchanter. That’s all it is – just a visual indicatior when it will proc.

Hall of Mirrors – tbh I really don’t like the passive anti cc, however I really wanted to put a trait with this name in there somewhere. I definitely agree to raising the ICD at least.

F3 – perhaps the AoE should only be centred on self shatter – illusions shattering only do single target daze? But if it is too much then it can go back in Master of Fragmentation as it currently is.

Channeled Restoration – I wanted to go for a single trait for each skill category – so things like Mantras having two traits in different trees I wanted to streamline to one. This one was more of an afterthought so I haven’t properly considered other options and am open to suggestion/replacement traits. Maybe it could only apply to 6/7/8/9/0 skills (heal, utilities and elite) so it doesn’t work on weapon skills? This would fit with loading your whole bar (apart from elite) up with Mantras and using Restorative Mantras, except now you would be flexible with other skills?

Shield – the only problem giving it to core mesmer is that the iAvenger gives alacrity, slow and tides of time give quickness. Ideally I wanted to keep all that unique to Chrono so there was a clear identity to the traitline. However it would be nice if all weapons were accessible no matter core or elite build.

As an additional note I also felt it important to promote hybrid builds or have no bias either towards power or condi in some traits and weapons – this is because hybrid pure offesnsive stats (like viper) should gain more reward for the extremely high risk.

Oh hell yes, this is great!

Fay.2357:

Is it wrong that my first thought upon seeing this was ’that’s a lot of work for something that’s never going to be read by a balance dev’?

lol, yeah that has been in the back of my mind the whole time.

I kind of needed to get it out of my system – and tbh it’s not like I spent hours and hours actively thinking – more like if I happened to think of something I’d amend it. I’ve just had this document kicking around for the last 2 months or so and thought it would be a waste of ideas not to post it at all. Better shared at least, even if nothing will come of it, than not.

Of course I haven’t thought through every combination and permutation of builds, so there may be some brokenly overpowered things in there. Rather it is the overall theme of the trait lines I felt needed clearer definition. The individual traits themselves can still be tweaked/moved/deleted.

So your argument then is for mesmers to be satisfied because Thieves/Warriors/Guardians are worse off?

Sure but isn’t the ideal situation that ALL classes have a good variety of useful builds?

Who is saying no to improving those classes as well? I don’t comment on it because for example I don’t know enough about warrior to suggest accurate buffs.

You may be satisfied with the current overall state of the game, but I’m not, because I believe it can be improved and Anet have the capability to do so if they choose to. Or are you saying the game is currently the best it could be?

Inspiration
Healing, support and general sustain.

Minors:
Mender’s Purity
Restorative Illusions – self heal part only (no condition removal).
Healing Prism – changed to a percentage of self healing, no ICD.
Adept Major:
Medic’s Feedback
Warden’s Feedback
… – …thinking
Master Major:
Shattered Conditions – shatter skills remove 1 condition (per shatter, up to 5 allies, 240 radius AoE)
Glamourous Enchanter – (just renamed, still need to create one new Glamour skill to replace Portal)
Mental Defence
Grandmaster Major:
Channeled Restoration all skills with cast times heal you depending on the duration of the cast (health gain = casttime*1000). DOES NOT include auto attacks. Intented to be a generalisation of Restorative Mantras.
Illusionary Inspiration – Use Signet of Inspiration when summoning a phantasm. Phantasms pulse regen and a second random boon to nearby allies (same boon pool as Signet of Inspiration, 240 AoE, up to 5 allies).
Intangible Dreams – All phantasms spawn with Distortion (1s). Both you and your phantasms grant Distortion to nearby allies (1s, phantasms also share Distortion to you) whenever you give yourself Distortion or phantasms are summoned (5 allies, 10s ICD)

Illusions
Quality of life benefits for the class resource and mechanic. Not sure about the grandmaster major traits here – perhaps someone has some better ideas?

Minors:
Compounding Celerity – movement speed increased by 24% and a further 3% for each illusion you have out (3% stacks with Time Marches On)
Illusionary Persona – shatter skills cooldown reduced by 15%
Master of Fragmentation – same as current except Diversion now breaks stun.
Adept Major:
Persistence of Memory – shattering a phantasm reduces all phantasm cooldowns by 2s.
Malicious Sorcery – Scepter skills deal 20% more power and condition damage and have 20% reduced cooldown.
Psychic Siphon – conditions on you are transferred to nearby illusions (1 condition 9s ICD, whichever illusion is closest at the time).
Master Major:
Illusionary Reversion
Illusionary Retribution – The radius of every Shatter skill is increased by 10%.
Persisting Images – all illusions have increased health (100%) and spawn with retaliation.
Grandmaster Major:
Chronophantasma – (needs renaming)
The Illusionist – Illusion summoning skills have 20% reduced cooldown and all illusions attack more often (includes all clones and phantasms).
Duplication – summon an additional clone whenever you use an illusion summoning skill.

Chronomancy
Ideally being another utility line it should give a different style from Illusions so a player can make a choice between the two. Slightly modified the name to reflect it being a “normal” trait line. The focus here is on quickness, slow and alacrity. If they run both Illusions and Chronomancer then something else will suffer – be it damage, support or whatever.

Minors:
Time Catches Up
Flow of Time – Increased to 1s Alacrity per illusion shattered.
Time Marches On
Adept Major
Illusionary Haste – all illusions spawn with quickness (3s)
Memory Jolt – Gain alacrity when you block an attack using a Shield (1 second per block). Tides of Time also gives alacrity to allies (1 second per walk through).
Delayed Reactions – Dazing or Interrupting an enemy inflicts Slow (3s)
Master Major
Seize the Moment – gain quickness when you shatter or interrupt an enemy (1s per illusion, 2s on interrupt).
All’s Well that Ends Well – each tick of a well gives 1s alacrity to allies. The final tick also cures 2 conditions.
Lost Time – gain a charge every time you hit an enemy – at 3 charges your next attack inflicts slow (1s, no ICD).
Grandmaster Major
Fast Forward – Quickness lasts longer (33%) and now increases skills and actions by 100% (previously 50%)
Recall – All Alacrity lasts 100% longer
Danger Time – Gain 20% crit chance and 20% damage (direct and condition) increase against slowed enemies.

tl;dr – I cba to think about this any more but thought it best to share anyway. If I’ve missed the target and it’s kitten, please say so.

Ok I can’t be bothered to put any more effort into thinking about this so I’m just going to post it here anyway. I’ve been looking at ideas posted by various people on here and given our current situation tried to see what a few changes might do.

I know this is totally out of context in a little bubble, but I wanted to keep it simple. It’s not finished and by no means comprehensive, and I’m still not happy with some things so if anything looks kitten or wrong then please say so.

Related changes that would be needed along with the trait changes:

“Elite” spec concept scrapped – now the “elite” trait lines are simply additional normal trait lines that provide a different playstyle – either focusing on damage, support, control, or class utility.
Chronomancer renamed to Chronomancy. Unique trait line Icon removed.
Shield access removed from Chronomancy and added as standard to mesmer.
Wells access removed from Chronomancy and added as standard to mesmer.
F5 available for base mesmer – no longer a shatter skill or Chronomancy exclusive. Continuum Split deleted.
Portal is now F5 for all mesmer builds (removed from Glamour). Cooldown increased to 90 seconds.
=> One new Glamour utility skill needs creating (any ideas?)

F2 – deals 1 stack of torment for 4 seconds baseline. Cooldown reduced to 21 seconds.
F3 – AoE up to 5 targets made baseline. AoE daze only occurs on self in melee range – illusions proc single target daze.

Scepter – 20% attack speed made baseline.
Focus – iWarden pulses aegis (1 second, 1 second ICD) during it’s attack to allies standing within the radius of the bubble.
Into the Void – reduced ICD to 0.5s.
Mirror Blade – restored extra bounce.
Staff 4 Chaos Armour – cooldown reduced to 20 seconds. Also gives up to 5 allies in 240 radius chaos armour.

Mirror Images – cooldown reduced to 30 seconds.
Arcane Thievery – cooldown reduced to 20 seconds.
Veil – changed to 240 radius circle, pulses 2s stealth to allies and 2s reveal on enemies inside the Veil (2s between pulses, 8s duration, 60s coodlown).
Moa – reduced duration to 5s and cooldown to 90s.
Time Warp – Cooldown reduced to 120 seconds. Time Warp also gives alacrity to allies (1 second per pulse).

Reflects – no longer break stealth or cause reveal.
_________________________

Domination
I thought this line should be about debilitating and controlling your enemies, so for me it makes sense to put all the torment, vulnerability, lockdown benefits and damage enhancements in here.

Minors:
Dazzling – Dazing OR interrupting a foe inflicts vulnerability (merged)
Rending Shatter
Compounding Power – increased to 5% power and condition damage per illusion
Adept Major:
Empowered Illusions – phantasms deal more damage (15%) and illusions inflict bleeding on critical hits
The Pledge – Torch skills remove 2 conditions, and cooldown 20% faster.
Confounding Suggestions – Stun is now applied in addition to Daze. Increase Daze and Stun duration by 50%
Master Major:
Maim the Disillusioned – all shatter skills apply torment on hit (duration reduced to 4 seconds).
Harmonious Mantras – all mantras have 1 extra charge. Successfully charging a mantra replenishes 1 charge or halves the remaining cooldown of every other equipped mantra.
Induced Nightmare – gain Fury and summon an Illusionary Rogue when you daze or interrupt a foe (5s Fury, ICD same as iRogue on downed skill)
Grandmaster Major:
Mental Anguish – shatter skills deal 15% more damage and conditions applied by shatters last 15% longer (doubled to 30% if target is not using a skill at the moment of impact).
Imagined Burden – Greatsword skills deal 20% more damage and debilitate opponents (Spatial Surge inflicts 1 stack of torment 0.5 second per hit (includes clones), Mirror Blade 2 seconds of cripple per bounce, Mind Stab 2 stacks of torment for 4 seconds, iZerker 1 stack of torment for 2s per hit, iWave 3 seconds of cripple). Cooldown is reduced by 20%.
Power Block

Duelling
I felt that blinds, confusion and evasion were the main themes of Duelling.

Minors:
Critical Infusion
Blinding Dissipation
Ethereality – illusions gain Blur (1s) when hit (9s ICD per illusion).
Adept Major:
Ineptitude
Duelist’s Discipline
Evasive Mirror
Master Major
Befuddlement – all shatter skills apply 4 seconds of confusion on hit.
Blurred Inscriptions
Phantasmal Fury – phantasms have fury and pulse fury to nearby allies (5s duration, 5s ICD, 240 radius, up to 5 allies)
Grandmaster Major:
Misdirection – interrupting an enemy dazes (1s), blinds (3s), and inflicts AoE confusion (same as current) in the area around them.
Fencer’s Finesse – Sword and Spear damage is increased by 20% and cooldown is reduced by 20%. Sword and Spear attacks from you and illusions inflict 4 seconds of confusion on critical hits (no ICD).
Deceptive Evasion

Chaos
Primarily RNG boon manipulation. (fall damage traits moved to wvw/pve Mastery system)

Minors:
Chaotic Persistence
Shattered Concentration
Illusionary Defence – 5% damage reduction (power and condition) per illusion
Adept Major:
Illusionary Membrane – gain regen if you take a hit while you have at least one boon (5s regen, 9s ICD). Gain protection whenever you gain regen (3s protection, 15s ICD).
Hall of Mirrors – incoming cc effects are transferred to nearby illusions (30s ICD per enemy. The same illusion cannot take any cc twice.). Does not work without any summoned illusions which must be within 900 range. I’m not entirely happy with the passive nature of this trait but I’m struggling to think of alternative ideas – anyone got any ideas?
Chaotic Transmutation – when you apply a boon to yourself, convert one condition into another random boon (9s ICD)
Master Major:
Bountiful Disillusionment – gain might for each illusion shattered (1 stack for 5 seconds). F1 gives 2 additional stacks of might, F2 gives vigour, F3 gives 3 stacks of stability, F4 gives regen. (merged Shattered Strength)
Master of Manipulation
Neutralisation – gain “Neutralisation” (icon) when suffering from 3 or more unique conditions (or upon hitting your target when they have 3 or more unique boons). Your next attack that hits your target will also summon an iDisenchanter (ICD same as iDisenchanter).
Grandmaster Major:
Chaotic Interruption – replaced Cripple with Weakness.
Chaotic Dampening – Staff and Trident damage and condition duration is increased by 20% and recharge faster while you have Chaos Armour (3.5% per pulse). Chaos armour also gives protection (4s) and the boon/condition proc ICD is reduced to 0.5s.
Prismatic Understanding

Azukas.1426:

Curunen.8729:

I can see you get a kick out of being a martyr, but this is getting long in the tooth now.

What’s the point in making a thread if you’re not open for discussion? I think it’s best to leave it be and accept you won’t convince the other 99% of the population that are not at the top of pro league, and neither will they convince you. Just agree to disagree and leave it be.

Funny thing is I am open for discussion. I find that this sub forum is not very open minded when taking into account the entire game, and it’s pretty hilarious the mindset of anet hating mesmers prevalent here.

So after getting tons of flack for calling for chronobunker nerfs/etc and saying mesmers will be fine afterwards….I once again took the opportunity to start the discussion on how lucky we mesmers are.

Now the people who are opposing such a positive thread are the ones who are in denial and only like to complain. I’ve yet to see ANY factual evidence to refute my FACTUAL justified truth.

There is evidence – try playing anything other than the “meta” condi build and it’s immediately apparent that it is below par when facing anything from a Rev to a condi Necro.

Look at power mesmer – any power mesmer build. Due to HoT power creep on other classes it struggles to compete when played at an equal skill level. The least Anet could do is restore the extra bounce on Mirror Blade.

Edit: look at interrupt/lockdown builds – they’ve pretty much died out because of the amount of brainless anti cc and other easily accessible cc in the game.

Or better yet, try playing any build at all without taking Moa and Portal. An equally skilled player on another class will be more useful – hence mesmer being a vessel for those two skills.

Having one relatively mindless shatter spam condi build (or rather two pivotal skills) be so called meta and being satisfied with the state of the class are two totally different things. I can’t speak for anyone else but I don’t disagree that players are taking mesmer in these tournaments. I do disagree that it somehow means all is perfectly fine.

For the record, two things which may convey my point of view – I never played chronobunker because I don’t enjoy that playstyle, and I stopped playing power shatter with the June 23rd patch despite it being my favourite build before that, because I did not like how easy it became with the MoD/CS/PU/mantra stuff – but several misguided nerfs and the dawn of HoT have put power mesmer in a worse state than this time last year, which is quite an unbelievable achievement.

As long as the patch next week nerfs other elite specs hard (certainly reaper, scrapper, druid, herald, and perhaps some shaves on others) – for example all the passive bullkitten like passive taunts and passive blocks then this might allow more variety in mesmer builds to surface again.

Can we make bets for gold, because balance is kind of like a lottery?

5 gold they nerf Blink’s cooldown. Any takers?

phokus.8934:

Razor.9872:

Interpret Interrupt.3824:

Remember builds like
2|4|0|2|6

I prefer to run 10/20/0/10/30.

Or the fabled Mesmer 30/30/30/30/30 build that everyone thought Mesmers ran.

That’s not a thing of the past – people still think mesmers run that. xD

I can see you get a kick out of being a martyr, but this is getting long in the tooth now.

What’s the point in making a thread if you’re not open for discussion? I think it’s best to leave it be and accept you won’t convince the other 99% of the population that are not at the top of pro league, and neither will they convince you. Just agree to disagree and leave it be.

flog.3485:

@Curunen When was focus ever useful in pvp? Coz as far as I remember the meta Mesmer has mostly been sword/torch and greatsword in shatter or greatsword/staff in shatter? Did I miss something? Because, believe me I personally tried many many many times to create a build which would take advantage of focus skill 5 and the answer is that it will never be usable simply because in a pvp environment players move too fast whether it was pre-hot or pre-rework of all specialization lines.

Before players got so much free cc and anti cc, and also before Into the Void had the 1s ICD on it (which at the time may have been relevant but right now should be reduced to at most 0.5s) you could pull and control enemies into shatter combos with the iWarden, together with its high damage and when it was feasible to trait. Granted this was a long time ago.

Sword/Focus + Staff or GS was powerful.

But now Shield does everything Focus does better, it’s a joke. The measly pull on curtain is passively nullified by so much bullkitten and iWarden can’t keep up with the powercreep/pace of the game.

Add to that they decided to have Restorative Illusions compete with Warden’s Feedback means it is suicide to trait Focus anymore.

I don’t know when anyone decided Focus should be a pve only weapon but I totally disagree with this concept given that it was one of our best weapons in the past. I would like to see it have it’s time in the limelight again.

apharma.3741:

Curunen.8729:

messiah.1908:

<snip>
i think every class should have at least 3 builds to play around . but atm there is only 1

This is the problem – there is ONLY condi, and it’s still just a vessel for a glorified Portal/Moa bot.

Try to play power, interrupt or use weapons like Focus or Offhand Sword and you may as well gg when faced with competent players.

If they’re going to nerf condi even more (it has been continually nerfed since the June 23rd patch anyway), then they’d better provide something for power and other mesmer playstyles.

Believe me I hate mindless shatter spam, but that’s the only efficient way to play mesmer now. It’s stupid.

Lol, interrupt build. That thing might as well be dead and buried with all the stab extra stab given out like candy. Stab for necros, extra stab for berserkers, on CC traits for rev and DH, stab on dodge for rev and engy. Think the only things it will work on is thieves and eles, maybe rangers if you outlast RaO.

Still it’s fun to see a scrapper ragequit when you kill them in a duel on power shatter.

lol, yeah this is the problem.

It’s easy to bandy around words like “meta” this and “meta” that, but so what – mesmer has kind of devolved into a homogenised, pretty boring overall playstyle plus one or two gimmicks (moa/portal).

I seriously want to use Focus again and be competitive – but it’s borderline useless right now, nevermind the HoT powercreep and outright replacement weapons like Shield…

messiah.1908:

<snip>

i think every class should have at least 3 builds to play around . but atm there is only 1

This is the problem – there is ONLY condi, and it’s still just a vessel for a glorified Portal/Moa bot.

Try to play power, interrupt or use weapons like Focus or Offhand Sword and you may as well gg when faced with competent players.

If they’re going to nerf condi even more (it has been continually nerfed since the June 23rd patch anyway), then they’d better provide something for power and other mesmer playstyles.

Believe me I hate mindless shatter spam, but that’s the only efficient way to play mesmer now. It’s stupid.

lol, no surprises.

Well it already got nerfed when they reduced MtD from 2 stacks to 1, so I don’t care tbh.

I just hope they give something back for power – like the extra bounce on mirror blade…

This is the most annoying bug especially now with it happening with Revenants and Rangers – who are able to melt your hp in seconds if you don’t emote out of it…

And yeah the biggest joke is for the Revenant – on a kitten passive BS nonsense…

I hope they are finally able to fix this in the next big patch.

Fluffball.8307:

Sieran > Tybalt

I like you.

Furajir.3815:

Warriors, Guards and Thieves have NEVER been meta. Ever. Never ever. Less than 0 times. It’s about time Anet realizes that some classes have been on top for far too long. Speaks volumes.

Eh? Seriously?

lol, good joke.

skcamow.3527:

Curunen.8729:

Anyway, for some serious buffs to Focus I’d like to see

1. Reduced ICD between Temporal Curtain and Into the Void to 0.5s
2. The iWarden now pulses aegis to allies within its attack radius while attacking (5 allies max, 1 second aegis every second => 5 pulses total per attack).
3. Moved Warden’s Feedback to adept tier in Inspiration. Moved Restorative Mantras to Master tier.

I really really want to use Focus again in pvp and not feel as if I’m shooting myself in the foot.

I’m with you on the focus buffs. It’s honestly my favorite OH still to this day. I disagree about the swap of warden’s feedback/restorative mantras. Restorative Illusions is still way too compelling in that case.

Rather, I’d say move warden’s feedback to minor and remove the absolutely useless persisting images altogether. That would permit taking the focus trait + restorative illusions and open up more potential play for the focus. It still wouldn’t trump shield for OH in the current meta but I would certainly use sc/f – sw/sh.

Trouble is no weapon trait is a minor, and it would be a useless minor if you don’t take Focus.
EDIT: oops I think I just realised what you meant when you said minor – you mean adept major in place of persisting images?

Yes right now traiting Focus makes you lose Restorative Illusions which is a huge handicap in the current state of the game – and for an offhand weapon trait it doesn’t make sense to be above Adept tier. I agree persisting images is a mediocre trait and can easily move/be deleted if necessary – perhaps swapped with Warden’s Feedback and then replaced by something else in Master major?

I’ve been playing a bit of Sc/F Sw/T and agree it is sad what has happened to Focus – arguably our most fun weapon, currently in a poor state (left behind in HoT power creep, and completely outclassed by Shield). Although from my brief testing people seem to have forgotten how to dodge Into the Void recently (I imagine because the majority are using Shield or Torch) which can be quite funny.

Anyway, for some serious buffs to Focus I’d like to see

1. Reduced ICD between Temporal Curtain and Into the Void to 0.5s
2. The iWarden now pulses aegis to allies within its attack radius while attacking (5 allies max, 1 second aegis every second => 5 pulses total per attack).
3. Moved Warden’s Feedback to adept tier in Inspiration. Moved Restorative Mantras to Master tier.

I really really want to use Focus again in pvp and not feel as if I’m shooting myself in the foot.

Castigate.5470:

^^^ i will literally faint if they increase cd of blink and decoy rofl

Part of me wants to see it happen, just for the all chaos that would follow.

Especially blink – slap that on a 60s cooldown and I wonder what effect it would have.

Alright lets have a go:

Restorative Illusions – added a 10s ICD. Requires shattering one illusion plus self to function.
MtD – reduced torment duration to 4 seconds.
F5 – Increased cooldown to 120s. No longer functions with elites. Can use a maximum of 3 skills within the duration – using a 4th skill instantly snaps you back to the rift.
Moa – Increased cast time to 3s, halved duration to 5s.
Portal – reduced exit duration to 5s. Increased cooldown to 120s.
Echo of Memory/Deja Vu – reverted to single block.
Tides of Time – now has a max target cap of 5.
Flow of Time – reduced alacrity duration to 0.5s
Blink – increased cooldown to 60s.
Decoy – increased cooldown to 60s
Shattered Concentration – added 5s ICD

Oh, and…. Focus buffs!
Temporal Curtain – raised the height by 2%
iWarden – increased attack radius by 20.

I’d rather they buff other things like giving back the extra bounce on Mirror Blade…

yeah very common now thanks to rev and rangers taunt – and then they usually rek you unless you emote or blurred frenzy out of it… :/ i hate it.

I can only answer a few questions because I don’t know anything about raids.

1. Chrono line is a quality of life/bandaid/utility line, you can play power, condition or hybrid builds. It lends itself well to condition because of only needing one other line (Illusions) to benefit, but it’s not the only option.

4. Don’t use the same build in wvw and pve – they are two completely different playing fields with different priorities. wvw depends if you want to play in small, medium or large groups, or intend to solo roam – determines how self sufficient your build needs to be for survival or whether you have a given role as part of a group. Condi is all the rage in pvp at the moment, but just jump into some hotjoin (practice) matches and decide what you like for yourself – it is more fun that way and you might discover your own preference.

5. For HoT I think the basic gliding, updraft, mushroom jumping and nuhoch wallows are the priority. After that it’s up to you – I think it’s worth going in for Itzel poison lore and nuhoch stealth detection. I don’t know about Central Tyria masteries because I haven’t levelled any of them yet.

aelfwe.4239:

- Moa Duration reduced to 5 sec.

- Portal cd nerfed to 180 sec.

- Shield Block will now block 1 single attack rather than blocking for the whole duration of the skill

- Clones will be showed on a different color to help people target chrono.

- Scepter atk speed increased

- Moar hpwr using unusefull utilities\traitlines

- Fixed server crash

lol, the scary thing is that looks believable! :o

This is a particular instance I find Sword/Torch far better than Scepter/Shield, and one of the main reasons I prefer that weapon set (with Staff being the second weapon).

You can evade their shatters, use extra stealth (which in a mesmer vs mesmer fight is always an advantage), cleave with all of your attacks (sword hits aoe, torch hits aoe, staff is aoe bouncing, aoe F3 with Master of Fragmentation because you don’t need MS). All of that makes life so much easier – the flipside being you need to coordinate skill usage into burst condition application, enhanced by mirror images and F5.

When they’ve burnt a few shatters is the ideal time to unload a huge condi bomb (assuming Inspiration for shatter cleanse). If they’re not running Inspiration then you are more able to avoid their damage and and equally able to burst them back.

Yeah, having to /sit or whatever your way out of the rev’s passive taunt and ranger’s pet taunt is awful and often leads to you losing a lot of health if not being killed.

That’s one other reason I like mainhand sword because blurred frenzy fixes this bug allowing you to move again, and it’s a lot easier than having to type an emote in chat…

One thing with ascended trinkets – you can’t have two of the same type, eg two offensive slot rings – one has to be offensive, the other defensive. Also I don’t think Trailblazer trinkets exist other than the amulet you get from the Living Story reward?
I’d honestly go with Tormenting runes in wvw if playing scepter, and run full Dire.

Ineptitude isn’t that great anymore tbh and sometimes negatively interferes with spawning shield phantasms or landing scepter torment block – it’s annoying to get a “miss” shown on screen instead of “block” and can mess up your play. Malicious Sorcery is great for the scepter attack speed boost and also Master of Fragmentation while weak allows for aoe F3 which is great in itself when facing more than one enemy.

1) The main problem here is having zero condition removal, so you’ll melt fast to incoming conditions. You could drop Signet of Illusions and instead take Mantra of Resolve.

2) Again zero condition removal – so while you can output some sick damage with Mistrust and Shatters, you can also melt hard to incoming conditions.

3) The reason why so many play Inspiration is Restorative Illusions and Mender’s Purity allows free choice of utility skills – eg Mirror Images for instant condi burst (and extra stunbreak), Signet of Illusions for shatter refresh, Portal, Veil or whatever you like.

Edit: also in wvw I’d go with mass invis or gravity well instead of moa. Moa is great in organised tpvp but not so much in wvw.

Sword:
+ kiting, survival (no worry about unblockable attacks – ie necro wells) and cleave
- no native condi application, low damage if not playing power builds

Scepter:
+ condi application/damage, clone generation
- single target (confusing images is not easy to hit multiple targets), single block

Staff:
+ kiting, aoe (auto attack, storm, armour), res/stomp support and control through chaos storm daze, and boons.
- weaker (relative) damage, iWarlock sucks in condi builds and chaos armour (skill 4) is extremely weak.

Up to you. Some play Sc/x Sc/x, some Sw/x Sc/x, some Sc/x Staff and some Sw/x Staff. Depends on the situation and how you prefer to play. Shield of course makes up for lack of defence on scepter, but again not against unblockable attacks.

Sigils are entirely personal preference, I don’t think there is a best choice here. I like double doom for consistent poison application (one more condi to cleanse and makes it difficult for enemy to heal). Otherwise on swap like geomancy, or extra condi damage like bursting are all good.
Runes – tormenting, scavenging, undead, nightmare all good.

1) Depends. If you’re using Scepter/x + Staff then you could go full dire in wvw. If you’re using Sword then some power helps, although bear in mind the direct damage is low. I wouldn’t say power is needed – more like a beneficial side effect of amulets like Carrion or Mercenary, because the other amulet choices are inferior. In wvw however I found it better to go with more toughness instead of power.

2) Not many people play Duelling over Chrono (Illusions and Inspiration are most common other choice) so no Sharper Images, which means crit isn’t really necessary.

3) I personally prefer higher damage ticks in shorter time, because players will cleanse anyway so I don’t find lower condi damage with extra duration to be worthwile, given the condis will likely be removed before reaching their full duration. However ymmv so you can play around and see what you like. I’ve played carrion+scavenging+bursting sigils and carrion+tormenting+bursting and tbh in practice I don’t notice a whole lot of difference. The former gives more burst condi damage, the latter gives more sustained torment application.

4) In wvw I’d still say dire or trailblazer are right up there. In pvp carrion or mercenary – because the extra vitality is a good buffer against conditions and rabid is kind of useless because of no Sharper Images. The extra power is a bonus.

Fay.2357:

A rev, on the other hand, has the passive taunt bs that’s liable to let them autoattack away 50% of your health if you have the audacity to try and cc them.

As a side note, this has to be one of the most annoying passive gameplay elements. Not to mention that you can get the bug unable to move or use skills at the same time.

I wish Anet would delete all of these passive proc traits across the classes and replace them with interesting choices – but I guess that would be too much work…

Nothing is ever “fine” until every single trait and every single weapon and utility skill are equally (but not identically) viable for each class, to be able to use the maximum variety of builds possible.

Therefore no, it is currently not fine and never will be, but is on a continuous process of change.

Belial.9350:

Curunen.8729:

Remove portal and moa – watch all mesmers disappear instantly.

Nah you can’t remove portal, it actually takes a brain to use that properly. Remove the double block and double moa.

It’s good portal takes a brain to use.

But I believe if portal (or moa) didn’t exist, no one would bring mesmers on their team over other classes.

Remove portal and moa – watch all mesmers disappear instantly.