Guild Wars 2

Been lurking a bit, and the Sigil of Draining looks useful for mass interruption such as with Mantra of Dis, Focus, Gravity Well, Chaos Storm, and so forth. And this is meant against zergs, of course, and might be combined with Power Block [increased CD + Damage] or Chaotic Interruption [Immobilizing] to keep advantage.

Krysard.1364:

Reaper Alim.4176:

Krysard.1364:

If you want to swap your build mid game play hotjoin. Being able to swap your build in a serious match would kill the flow of the game so much. Full condi team? your team swaps to counter condi, wins the map, the enemy team swaps to power dmg, wins the map, etc etc etc. Its boring, cheesy, unbalanced and makes most rotations meaningless. Tbh it scares me a bit that theres so many ppl thinking this would be a good implementation. The game is not designed this way, this would totally destroy sPvP.

But then couldn’t the condi team swap to full power or what not? I can totally understand why such a ideal is not popular in the eyes of most GW2 sPvP players. These are the same players that said that solo queuer’s should either form a pre-made get farmed by pre-mades or just quit the game if still not happy.

This system would not go well with what’s left of the GW2’s sPvP players because, they are not here to compete they are playing this game because it is the easiest game to stomp uncoordinated players with little to no thinking about it. If you add in a layer of strategy by allowing and balancing mid game tweaks, now these players have to think a little more and there will be little of teams stomping other teams by default of build/team comp.

Dispite what most of these players say, one of the reasons why the other eSports games are much much much better then GW2’s Ranked sPvP is the fact they offer mid game counters so teams are not inherently stuck with a highly unfair match-up for the WHOLE match. More so sense the PvP team have no effect over class balance in their game mode. I say if the devs are unable to do it then allow the players to try and do it themselves. At current point very very little can be less competitive and fun then the system we have in GW2 sPvP atm.

How would this make this game more skilled/startegy based? All the contrary, it would be just how many times can you reroll to a high-mobility build that just hard-counters target X no matter the skill lvl, kill it, and then run from it when he rerolls to a build that counters you. It would actually kill the strategy the game has rotation wise, where you move to favorable match ups and avoid the other ones, and instead making it about how fast can you and your team adapt to what the enemy team is running in order to just counter it the cheesy way. Also, it would make it even harder for soloq players to face organized players, cause coordianted teams will swap to the needed comp more effectively, and win matchups by the simple fact that they run builds that counter enemy builds. How is this more skill based than what we have now?

The game right now promotes balanced builds that have a good shot against most things being played, rewarding favorable rotations and doing good in disfavored scenarios thanks to team play or personal skill level. What you propose will be a counter fest where ppl runs cheesy builds that suck but are good at leaving the respawn fast and killing one target by design, or bunkers holding the map when you have an advantge in nodes, with 0 skill attached to any of these situations. Do you rly want to see ppl stacking 3 min buffs at the start of the match, swaps to a full DPS comp, ganks 2 guys in the enemy team then swaps to a balanced comp with mesm portal, easily gains control of the map and swaps to full bunker/counter mode? Games would just be about exploiting this kind of flaws. Sry man, but gw2 is not designed/balanced to work this way, not at all.

The game right now isn’t in the best of situations, if you hadn’t noticed. Balancing, if done well, can go a long way. But since we’re not getting that, maybe we need to be a little more tolerant of changes which may make balance more lenient and increase the diversity of builds brought into games which serve more niche purposes.

Krysard.1364:

Sunshine.5014:

To all the people predicing disaster from this change:
The reason why I waited for a while to post this is to make sure Overwatch achieves a successful status first. It’s a proof that this suggestion will improve the health of gw2 pvp. In Overwatch, you not only can change the class, you can even change it without dying too. No one complains on that. Even more, people loves it, and it has become one of the best features of a PvP oriented game.

Don’t be too conservative. PvP is dying, and we need to try a radical new deal to fix it. (Beside putting the balance team under the PvP team of course—under a few months after released, Overwatch has had more balance patch than gw2 had this year! With explanation and PTR too!)

OW uses it, so it must work. 10/10 sounds like gw2 forum logic. Well, Starcraft, which is totally related to gw2 and has a similar pvp design, doesnt allow you to swap mid game, so it wont work

I don’t think you’re addressing the points that matter: PvP is spiralling down hill [has been for a while…], so what change should be made? OP, at least, understands that change is necessary for PvP to get better and has made a suggestion instead of bashing on ideas on the ridiculous platform that “this change could make things worse”.

Of course it could make things worse! But, on the other hand, it can make things better. So maybe instead of just watching the game die slowly, we can attempt to branch out with new ideas which might very well help. It works for Overwatch, so maybe it’ll work for GW2. Maybe not, but hey, let’s not dismiss it offhandedly like an idiot, yeah?

I like the idea. Maybe have 3 builds pre-made for your class and just be able to quickly swap between those.

Here’s an idea which may seem crazy, but I feel could fix a lot of our diversity problems: Mimic becoming an Elite Mantra, as the title says.

Similar CD, but it can be cast twice [three times if traited] and allow us for some very interesting glamour, phantasm, manipulation, and shatter combos.

Thoughts on this? Worries?

Silv.9207:

Fay.2357:

Silv.9207:

The main problem about Moa is the Chronomancer itself. You have a skill that can moa 2 players for 6 second every 67 seconds.

You…clearly have no idea what you’re talking about.

You never used moa after press F5, just to active it another time when the time shift end?
Try it, it’s seriously strong, and funny.

Yes, of course, we’re just saying you’re overestimating it. Moa has a good lot of counters, so it is pretty unreliable. Plus, for only 6 seconds you have to dodge around, it’s nowhere near what should be considered strong now.

Ganathar.4956:

Roles should not be dependant on the particular profession you play, they should be primarily dependant on your elite spec. I would just say build, but elite specs have turned into these build-defining trait lines. In Overwatch and in MOBAs, they keep adding different characters, who may have overlapping roles. In my opinion elite specs will, in a way, be the GW2 equivalent to adding more characters.

Maybe we should be talking about the roles of the current elite specs instead, and maybe what sort of specs should be added in the future.

Still, there are still imbalances with traits and skills outside the elite spec. These base traits and skills, I believe, should be balanced in form with certain roles the profession is decided to be based around.

sophiewhite.3149:

Dondagora.9645:

I thought this whole “Moa & Portal OP” discussion died down way back when. In fact, I’ve never before heard someone say “Portal OP”, just hilarious.

Moa is like being stunned, but okay because you have the chance to escape! Kind of like Gravity Well, except it lasts longer [nerfed to 6 seconds since I last saw it, wow] and is single target and you can dodge/move while affected. Also, unlike Gravity Well, this is more easily avoided because anything can break it [Block, Evade, Blind, etc.].

and it completely kills necros. like literally. if a necro gets hit it might as well stop playing.

So have them fix that? It wasn’t intended in the first place, they just turned it into a feature.

I thought this whole “Moa & Portal OP” discussion died down way back when. In fact, I’ve never before heard someone say “Portal OP”, just hilarious.

Moa is like being stunned, but okay because you have the chance to escape! Kind of like Gravity Well, except it lasts longer [nerfed to 6 seconds since I last saw it, wow] and is single target and you can dodge/move while affected. Also, unlike Gravity Well, this is more easily avoided because anything can break it [Block, Evade, Blind, etc.].

So, here’s something I feel has been always a thorn in the side of balance, and just want to talk about it with you guys: Roles.

I’ve been playing Overwatch and I really have to appreciate that they give every character a unique role to play in a team. Perhaps the role is not fully appreciated in a particular meta, but at the least having defined roles help in buffing or fixing a character or class to fit its particular niche.

I believe GW2’s 9 classes, while they diversify in builds, should be balanced around certain roles they should play in a team, and thus this thread is here for us to discuss what roles we believe a particular profession should fit.

I’ll use Mesmer, as it is my main, as an example:

• Lockdown Role, the role to continuously interupt and place controls/limitations on enemies, particularly countering roles which involve strong skills with large tells.

• Punisher Role, the role which punishes lack of awareness via soft methods [Confusion], particularly countering roles which rely on high DPS [meaning attack spam] or aggressive play [fast-pace].

• Equalizer Role, the role to support your team with abilities which remove the enemy from having advantages [Boons, Stealth, etc.] and undoing allies’ disadvantages [Condi]. In addition, this role can expand to reversing advantage, AKA Condi/Boon Swapping. Counters high-support and high-condition based roles.

Obviously these are not the only playstyles, in fact hybrid styles should exist between them for sure! However, without limiting our view of what a profession should do and should not do, the game cannot be properly balanced ever.

Any thoughts on this step to balance? Any thoughts on what roles certain professions might fill?

[Of course, the main problem is that ANet never listens to these threads anyway, but hey, let’s give it a whirl for the fun of it.]

Ross Biddle.2367:

I remember somebody running IoL during S2 back in the support days for a bit of something different.

Yo.

It was a fun little thing with CS and Mimic. I may get back into things and modify it a bit. It was fun, though. I felt like a necromancer, just raising the dead over and over again. Could definitely win some fights, so long as your teammates don’t get shellshocked.

I go hybrid in PvP with Mistrust/Power-Block Chronomancer. Focuses on interrupts and can fairly easily wipe whole teams under some circumstances. Tis fun.

Loop.8106:

Hello. Ever since the beta days Moa has been either REALLY good or REALLY bad depending on the game mode.
So cutting right to it, these are my proposed changes:

Decrease duration from 10 seconds to 5 seconds. (Keep the breakbar burn amount)
While under the effect of Moa, you do not count towards point distribution.

This will make it more of a utility tool in pvp instead of the complete cheese-mode it is right now. It will give mesmers a chance to neutralize points vs some of the more tanky classes.
All of this while remaining the 180 seconds cd ofc.

Leave any feedback.

Um… heck no? Why would we nerf a combat skill to be less combat-y just so we can deny, what? 5 seconds of point capture which we can achieve by just getting on the kitten point ourselves? No. No. And again, no. Moa is fine as it is, no need for any of your “balance” ANet, please.

I want Mantra of Telekinesis.

Launch foes in an area away.
Radius: 360
Range: 1200
Damage: 700 or so with 1000 power?
Launch: 600

I feel this is more in line with Mantras and is less gimmicky than the Overload which acts like a corruption from Necro, which is basically a failure of skills.

Cynz.9437:

Ithilwen.1529:

The “soap bubble” quality of clones has been a bane of Mesmer since I began playing. I’m in my fourth year in the game.

The extreme weakness of clones doesn’t encourage shatter, it discourages it. Clones won’t survive aoe or aa spam. This means that the only reliable way to hit a shatter is to get right next to the target.

( One technique that hits most of the time is to shatter on a downed foe to interrupt the rez and damage the rescuer. It’s a real commentary on shatter that it doesn’t always hit, even then. )

This exposes the Mesmer to CC and near instant death against many classes.

If ANET sincerely wanted shatter played, they’d make the trait [Time Catches Up] baseline, increase clone hp and make clones follow the target better. Sad to say, I’m actually jealous of ranger pet ai at times.

I know mesmers that can execute their shatter combos extremey fast w/o relying on clones to survive. And oh noes, you need to go in melee and take a risk for dmg – welcome to thief life. At least you don’t need to get behind the target to get measy 3k dmg off and you have more HP.

Oh, heaven forbid we want anything other than immediate-shatter play styles!

They learn to do shatter combos extremely fast because that’s the only way they work! If you wait too long, your clones can easily be wiped and you lose 1~3/4 of your damage.

Thief’s got its own problems, let thief be fixed on its own. This is an issue which has held Mesmer back from the beginning, even when people could perform <1.5 second shatter combos.

So, to risk repeating myself, we can all do those uber-fast shatter combos. Do we want to limit ourselves to a single playstyle revolving around shatter bursts? No. The fact that Mesmer, even with those who had mastered that speed shatter combo, never broke meta [until Chronomancer, which just band-aids the issue instead of fixing it] means that there is something more fundemental which holds Mesmer back. That is normal illusion survivability, which we are asking to fix.

This is an issue with the core mechanic of Mesmer, not just a few of our skills, so even if we can do burst shatters, you’re asking us to accept that that is all we can ever be allowed. Ridiculous.

reikken.4961:

bro, there aren’t any classes that can viably not use elite spec anymore

It’s stupid as hell, but it isn’t unfair from a class vs class perspective that mesmer has to use chronomancer

It isn’t unfair class-to-class. Does that mean it isn’t ridiculous? Should that mean we shouldn’t try to fix these issues?

Personally, I’m gambling on Mesmer/Chronomancer nerfs. Because logic.

CntrlAltDefeat.1465:

3 x illusions/phantasms.
= approximately 7500-11000 HP on your damage.

Mesmer rarely only has the one clone present. These clones can track opponents in a simplistic way. They can deal damage while the player performs other functions. They mitigate damage while the player performs other functions. The clones are never centered directly on the player and are spread. You think that is not enough and they need more health. Interesting.

These are assumptions you make under the best possible scenario. In every other scenario, however, clones and phantasms are cleaved and eliminated almost immediately by AoE if they aren’t shattered immediately by the Mesmer. The Chronomancer may have solutions for this, such as creating clones and giving phants an extra shatter before death, but the core Mesmer has no such safety and is often restricted to shatter-focused builds. It also pigeons us into using Deceptive Evasion if we don’t use Chronomancer.

So, yes, it isn’t enough that illusions, supposedly our DPS and shields, are unable to perform their functions because AoE and cleave remove them without trying. It is also not enough that this flaw causes us to be forced into a single trait line to be potentially viable, and has been around since the beginning of the game.

I, too, find it interesting.

[Sorry, I got heated as I wrote this.]

MadVisions.4529:

keep in mind that mesmer is unviable atm becouse of other professions got broken designs not becouse of low dmg or lack of invulns and mitigations(lol) or low phantasm health.

Low phantasm/clone health has always been an issue of Mesmer, this isn’t just a problem in the recent meta. In WvW, we’ve never been an important part of the zerg besides veil and the occasional port. In PvP, we’ve been unable to break into meta until Chronomancer because AoE and cleave turn our “pets” with which our potential DPS is split with [much like how Ranger damage is split between the Ranger and the Pet] into nil.

This isn’t to buff Mesmer into the meta, it is to fix a major flaw in Mesmer’s design which has held us back since the beginning.

Ananeos.4587:

As the title says. There is absolutley no reason why this 50% hp restriction exisits. For those who are in the dark:

Clone PvE: 4,171
Clone PvP/WvW: 2,433
Phantasm PvE: 5,821
Phantasm PvP/WvW: 3,396
Phantasmal Defender PvE: 12,476
Phantasmal Defender PvP/WvW: 7,278

THIS is the reason why your phantasms instantly die to everything in PvP, because of literally no valid reason.

Gonna post this in the PvP forums, I’ll quote you~

This is a good idea which addresses [not fully fixing, but very much beneficial] many of Mesmer’s problems. Illusion survivability has always been at the center of Mesmer’s issues, with shatters and phantasms being unable to survive AoE.

Fivedawgs.4267:

Ithilwen.1529:

You don’t understand. Channeled skills should not be untargeted by invisibility. This is according to the wiki. Confusing Images is a channeled attack.

Ranger Rapid fire is a channeled skill. It can’t be evaded by invisibility or short range teleport. So, if ranger hide evades a channeled attack like Confusing Images; Then Ranger has a significant defensive advantage.

Who said it untargeted anything, unless I am wrong the rabger hide just switch target. Then again, I don’t know rangers mechs.

I say, test it and maybe get it on video, from the Ranger’s perspective since you can’t tell much the other way around.

I’ll check this out too.

I think a lot of people who normally complain have just stopped playing as much…

I’ve found a strange synergy with Mistrust and Power Block, which I’ll explain.

Mistrust stacks confusion which punishes skill use. Power Block gives long-term denial on certain big skills. Together, the pressure put on the opponent is heavier than usual. They don’t want to spam skills, so they spam dodge to avoid damage on their off-break. Saves me some rupts for when they’re ready. Power Block limits their options, and Mistrust punishes their every choice.

This works in solo and team fights, as the confusion isn’t nothing to laugh at combining it with an extra 6 stacks during their stun using Confusing Images. 10 stacks, and counting. Often breaks thieves when you can catch them.

Chaotic Interruption may give you a temperary advantage and [YAY] more condi, but the fallout of Power Block works well in backing them into a corner with few good options.

Mistrust’s condi, of course, is easily cleansed. You just have to apply it again. 4 stacks of confusion, while not devastating, isn’t particularly bad in terms of not-want-to-spammability. You can survive them wasting a cleanse or two on a couple of rupts. You’ve got plenty!

The tie in is when you rupt them while they trigger confusion damage. Sure, they can’t spam for a bit, but you renew your offer of 4 confusion stacks for the next 6 or whatever seconds and bench another skill on their bar.

Well, that’s all in my defense. It isn’t all damage-focused, but more pressure-focused.

Ok, to avoid having this thread hijacked, any experienced mesmer have an opinion on the build I posted for PvP?

Damage is transferred to one, though it’s likely that the other one will then take half of that… Experiment?

So, here’s a build I’ve been using with great success.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAreWnsICNqh1oBOoBEgilTjqMDeuoreav2tlMAShgC-TJRHABA8EAQqMg57PgwpAAA

The style of play is Lockdown/Interrupt. Also, while I’m using Carrion in this, I actually use Mercenary, but the editor hasn’t been updated yet.

Uses Power Block and Mistrust together so each interrupt punishes the enemy during the stun/daze and afterwards with damage. Chronomancer is for increasing the amount of CC and the sustain of shield.

Thoughts?

Mantra of Pain needs some looking at. Right now it’s just too weak.

Gaile Gray.6029:

direx.8207:

@ Gaile Gray – However by that logic if lots of people are saying something on the forums or in game and we don’t see it in the patch notes is it reasonable to assume it’s not being listened to? Because that’s what it feels like much of the time. And since there’s no way to tell without dev comments what’s being payed attention to people tend to assume they’re not being listened to unless told otherwise, and then when patch notes hits and doesn’t list a change to what they were talking about it confirms they’re being ignored instead of perhaps something just not being ready to release yet.

No, it’s not reasonable to make that assumption. If changes are not made, that is in no way an indication that (1) the devs are unaware of a situation or (2) they are willfully choosing to ignore reasonable and practicable feedback.

The fact that something is not changed could be related to the fact that the suggestion is not reasonable, is not practical, or or cannot be achieved in a specific timeframe but may (or will) happen in the future.

Random examples:

• Not Reasonable: I say “Give Ranger pets +1000 to their skills!” Ok, clearly that’s just not reasonable.
• Not Possible: Someone says “Give everyone access to limitless inventory space.” This is technologically impossible. Or, someone suggests, “Give everyone who bought your base game in 2012 every expansion pack for free, forever.” That completely ignores the costs of development over the years and the general costs of keeping the lights on.
• Not in This Timeframe: Someone says “Make changes to ZYX!” Well, as you know, changes happen all the time, and the fact they didn’t happen in January doesn’t mean they are dead in the water, simply that more time is needed to develop them.

As I said, those were off-the-cuff examples, but the main point is that feedback given is not an order placed, but an idea shared. Whether it comes to pass is dependent on many factors, as I’m sure you can appreciate.

These are fairly extreme examples. Isn’t the point being the general feeling is that when there is no response to a highly supported change, and thus no discussion, that therefore the Devs aren’t listening?

I understand not going to every thread with ridiculous requests to give a response, but for certain balance recommendations it would really help the community’s morale if Devs deliver the stance on certain decisions and why. Or else we’re left thinking that a request to, let’s say, adjust numbers on a fairly unused trait/skill was never looked at.

This is more specifically addressing inactivity from the Devs in discussing balance decisions with the PvP and Profession-specific communities. The community looks at these balance patches and sees the balance team overshooting a nerf or buff and thus a further disconnection between Dev and player. Without active communication with the community playing the changes, I don’t see how balance can be accomplished.

SlimChance.6593:

It is more GM worthy than DD, just because Mistrust gets triggered on “interrupt”. We have tons of way to “interrupt”, across multiple weapons and utility skills.

DD affects 2 skills on 1 weaponset.

So you’d rather force a “theme” rather than design things in a way which plays in a more synergetic way?

SlimChance.6593:

No it does matter.

DD is not strong enough compared to HM and DE. Heck, HM isn’t strong enough compared to DE.

Nothing compares to DE, in terms of raw flexibility. Against HM, I’d say DD is up there in usefulness, with this change at least.

SlimChance.6593:

Sorry, but no.

DD is NOT GM worthy. It only affects an offhand weapon.. a whole 2 skills. Maybe, if we had pistol mainhand, so it would affect both MH and offhand, I could see it. (i.e. Imagine Burden)

GM traits are supposed to be “Build defining”. Unless you add something more to it, its not good enough.

It doesn’t matter, I think, so long as the synergy throughout the whole line makes it worth it.

Xaylin.1860:

I meant Fencers Finesse, sorry.

Ah~ Makes more sense. Perhaps push DD up to Master, FF up to GM, and Mistrust to Adept?

baylock.1703:

Am I only 1 much more fun than last build stop crying I started playing hybrid mesmer dueling crono illusion with sinister scrapper runes and gs scepter shield

Yes, you are the only one.

Xaylin.1860:

I wouldn’t mind.

I still would prefer switching DD with Master Fenster, though. Quite obviously, Evasive Mirror isn’t as powerful as ANet thought. So why not finally enable us to benefit from it when running Sword?

Wouldn’t work, since DD is a weapon-based trait, thus wouldn’t work as a minor. Also, both traits switched benefit quite a lot from the switch.

DD benefits from being able to have synergy with Phantasmal Fury, thus additional bleed from Sharper Images.

Mistrust benefits from being able to synergize with both DE or Harmonious Mantras, both improving Mistrust’s effectiveness.

More synergy on the whole with minimal collatoral damage to existing builds.

This is a decent idea, actually. It adds to the synergy of both traits and I don’t believe it takes anything away [at least not much] from any build’s effectiveness which uses them.

kybraga.7103:

Hope for you all to know.
Alacrity isn’t that big of a deal, half the ‘decent’ mesmers didn’t/don’t notice the difference.
Heck, half the decent mesmers don’t even need to use Alacrity.
Shatter mesmer is still viable. Why not try that out guys? Get some fresh air from all that invulnerability.

I’m a half-decent mesmer, and would like to say that I really do hate Shatter Mesmer. It’s basically a copy of the thief, just harder and less efficient.

Mesmers were nerfed by the Alacrity/Quickness/Slow change with little compensation to everything else outside of quality of life changes. Mistrust’s buff doesn’t count as compensation, because it was too weak in the first place, you simply adjusted the numbers to make it how it should have been.

Lumpy.8760:

official? arenanet acknowledged your guild?

They haven’t taken us down yet for running a guild on the forums, so… yes?

Melanion.4892:

I think we can all agree with the disappointment that was today. When Ruby and co said that there were more balance changes which they wouldn’t address, I expected at least 4 which weren’t mentioned per profession, not just 1 or 2… For mesmer the only unexpected changes were to mistrust and feedback…

Not unexpected, really. We’ve been asking ANet for these two little QoL changes. Mistrust is kitten, and Feedback was hard to utilize. We gave them things we knew they could handle; Adjust the code by a few numbers and maybe copy-pasta a line or two, and there we go. Truly, we have so much to be grateful for that they finally got to this.

Serious Thought.5394:

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Serious Thought.5394:

Has anyone tried cancer perma block mesmer yet? If not, I recommend it. Makes PU look like a teddy bear.

I have, I feel like a decap druid does it better.
The biggest thing is that it pressures and decaps far point. But druids already do that.

I do think Mesmer needs light buffs, so don’t get me wrong. I just get confused when the community acts like its never played without alacrity before.

Whats your defense build btw?
Mine is Mercenary (trying to find runes/sigils but so far Guardian and Chronomancer ones are funny) with Dueling, Chaos, and Chronomancer (debating swapping to Illusions). Using triple well and the stun mantra. I got a penta kill yesterday from all the aoe condis that hit from 6 well bombing. Small moments like that make me really happy.

It was different when alacrity wasn’t around. There weren’t Elite specs. And here’s Chrono, built around having Alacrity, now with its effectiveness halved.

Not unplayable, but definitely throws us down quite a few notches.

Fay.2357:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

A martial-arts based MMO? Dude.. I’m trying to play guild wars here. I just got back! What is this greatness you are distracting me with?

All I wanted from guild wars was a martial arts class. =[ If B&S (which for a second I thought was Batman and Superman) has a Capoeira-based style I think I may never play any other game ever again

You’re gonna need to clean yourself up after seeing Kung (forum censors this word) Master.

Personally, I’m thinking of heading Blade Dancer. Has that mystic combatant thing going on~

Ok, wait a minute, why was our Resistance nerfed? BD’s was on the shatter with the longest CD, and Temperal Enchanter is barely used as is. This doesn’t make sense to me.

I like the Mistrust change, though. I’ll be sure to try it out.

Here’s an idea that might be fun with Precog: Each pulse of Precog gives a stack of a charge which turns your next attack into a 1/4s Daze, essentially an interruption skill now. We won’t have the usual defensiveness, but it gives our team a plethora of interrupts for a short time and can synergize with various skills and traits, such as using this with Mantra of Pain for a pseudo MoD.

Nook.3876:

Illconceived Was Na.9781:

Nook.3876:

Khyan.7039:

Mesmer is not strong, it’s his spec, chronomancer. Do a boss in pve without and with a chrono, you will see the difference.

Alacrity have to be nerfed even in PvE. Definitely.

If so, why then do specialization? You need to compare the Mesmer and Chronomancer, you need to compare it with other classes, because it and obtain the final balance. The Mesmer has always been the smallest DPS in the game, and with the release of Chronomancer it was compensated, and now again want to turn into disabled. Why? It’s PvE!

Elite specs are supposed to be competitive with non-elite, not superior. Right now, Chrono is vastly superior to vanilla mesmer (as is pretty much the case for all the other elites, outside of niche uses).

Any elite specialization is not even close to normal. This applies to all classes.

Yup, so you can see why we’re pretty kittened at ANet’s rhetoric pre-HoT. “Different, not better” BS. We need the core specs buffed real bad. Nerf the elites, sure, but buff the core definitely.

skcamow.3527:

Fay.2357:

Sharkey.9805:

cyyrix.6105:

skcamow.3527:

Levetty.1279:

Will there be more on patch day or is this the complete list?

Today was a small preview for all classes.

Spoiler alert. Today’s preview contained 90% of the meaningful balance changes, just like every time they’ve said that in the past.

Think about it…if there were that many more changes coming, they wouldn’t have spent time revealing a 5% increase in scepter attack speed.

Oh, no cyyrix, you don’t understand! What they didn’t cover on the livestream today was a significant change to the mesmer’s scepter mechanics!

You see, they’re also going to be buffing the scepter’s auto-attack damage!

By 5%!

Logic checks out, definitely an anet-worthy change.

Looking forward to the eventual changes revealed which will ultimately determine the state of mesmer for the next few months. Apparently I’m the only optimist here, pessimists feel free to continue your diatribe.

I used to be optimistic, back when I hadn’t witnessed ANet’s balancing first hand.

uhohhotdog.3598:

Dondagora.9645:

uhohhotdog.3598:

All that would do is create a super speed meta of everyone just running around in circles capping and running to the next. Speed and stealth.

The hide and seek meta

Explain to me, please, in detail why this Hide-and-Seek meta you describe would be the valid strategy given my changes. This is important, since you can spout some rhetoric without an ounce of truth to the word. I believe this hypothetical meta of yours doesn’t truly represent the scenario I am presenting, and would like to be enlightened to the truth of your statement.

If you can cap a point simply by walking over it and fighting in it makes it neutral the best strategy would be to go look for uncapped points and run to the next. Stealth so they don’t see you coming for the point. Defending has no value if it remains neutral. Probably some traps to slow down the other team when they cap it.

In this case, does defending not have it’s own purpose? How does it have no value if it can prevent the opponent from gaining points? How does attacking a defended point not have value if your presence can neutralize their score?

Rather than this “Hide-and-Seek” meta which I don’t see being effective [because holding a point for a moment will be outweighed by holding it long-term], I imagine a more duel-oriented meta in which teams will be incentivized into aggressing on Far Point, for the dual purpose of gaining points and neutralizing points.

Foggy.9213:

What about Stronghold, WvW? I dont see that working out. I like conquest how it its tho

What about them? This is about conquest in PvP.

I won’t say you can’t like the current conquest, but I do believe the issues this addresses are part of a larger issue in the game’s balance.

uhohhotdog.3598:

All that would do is create a super speed meta of everyone just running around in circles capping and running to the next. Speed and stealth.

The hide and seek meta

Explain to me, please, in detail why this Hide-and-Seek meta you describe would be the valid strategy given my changes. This is important, since you can spout some rhetoric without an ounce of truth to the word. I believe this hypothetical meta of yours doesn’t truly represent the scenario I am presenting, and would like to be enlightened to the truth of your statement.