Guild Wars 2

MailMail.6534:

All traits don’t need to be reworked just because they aren’t effective in pvp. As apvp purist, I’m extremely happy that they’ve given us a lot of attention in terms of traits, but it’s no denying that Mesmer has been pushed out of PvE even more than before based on speculation.

That being said, here’s the traits I think are underwhelming:

• Compounding Celerity - This makes no sense. Swiftness isn’t as effective during battle as it is while… traveling from point A to point B. Having swiftness tied to clones is simply bad mechanics due to this fact.
• Illusionary Inspiration IF the CD is as large as kitten …
• Mirror of Anguish - has always been overshadowed for me. I would like it better if the CD was a bit lessoned, and it included mirroring conditions every so often as well.
• Chaotic Transference - I could only see this being used if Staff isn’t being used in a condition build. And that’s somewhat unlikely. Sword/pistol scepter/torch? idk But most condi builds use Staff and most condi builds using staff will take the staff CD. I think either up the % to 15 or change it completely to add synergy to another build.

I know, that’s why i stated that this post is from a pvp perspective. I support separation if necessary, by the way ^^.

I think mirrored anguish would perhaps have to be a “send cc” instead of “mirror cc”
to be great, but i still think that makes for a boring and a passive trait that should be reworked in my opinion.

I would use all of these except the right click camera thing

Laraley.7695:

Quadox.7834:

Avead.5760:

Quadox.7834:

From a game design standpoint, Anet is doing the right thing by not allowing evasive arcana and elemental attunement at the same time. I do not care how much you guys say that “ele needs it”- they don’t. Period. They need Alternatives. And hopefully they will add just that. I do think, however that diamond skin and stone heart are badly designed traits, diamond skin at the very least. These (and other lines’ GMs) could probably be changed to something more fitting.

I will personally probably run 6/6/0/0/6 fresh air s/f with
Burning precision- pyromancer’s training – blinding ashes
One with air (lol that buff)- X (not sure yet) – Fresh air
Renewing Stamina- Elemental contingency (probably) – Elemental attunement

Since fresh air builds crit so often this provides blinds every 3- 4 seconds and super speed approaching 50% uptime in a fight (due to fresh air).

No condi clear,no heal,11k hp ,too much protection when you should really be afraid of condies (not only the damaging ones) in exchange of a single target blind that you cant control here and there every 4 sec.
You can run something similar right now but with the actuall opness that is evasive arcana and elem attunement together so you have some condi clear and extra heal every 10 sec and more damage due to the damage modifiers in air.
Try it and tell me how it goes,and IF it didnt go that well tell me how an extra 2 fire traits/quickness for the loss of damage and evasive arcana will make it better

The fact that every ele is playing the same traits since the dawn of time up to the competitive level makes me thing that not being able to go fire and air together is not an l2p issue..that or all eles ever tried this game sucked
Maybe an extra fire aura and some protection from direct damage in earth will fix the melting to burst and to conditions..or maybe tempest will bring stealth.

Do you even know elmentalist ablities? Read on magnetic shield please. As a mesmer player, i find fresh air has condition removal for days. Actually, fresh air has more sustain than mesmer in general, with the tradeoff being stealth. Use terrain and your permanent vigor to evade the condition that you can’t clear.

I personally like blind, but you can go ahead and use water traitline like fresh air eles are doing now, or earth if you so want it. Although i do think those options are worse. Also, you actually don’t know that the build will have 11k hp, as you know nothing about the way stats will work.

That’s actually one/one of the two effective condi removals fresh air has. It’s on 25 seconds cooldown. Don’t get me wrong, the skill is great, but it’s far from ‘’condi removal for days’‘. If the ele has 30 in arcana, then it has another condi removal every 10 seconds. Phoenix does remove a condition but if you’re going to use it to do so primarily, you’ll lose on the main burst skill you have.

Maybe you missed when i said “As a mesmer player, i find fresh air has condition removal for days”. ^^

Depends on what you are used to.

Laraley.7695:

Kicast.1459:

Worst: no contest possible => thief

Hard counter of plenty of builds
No hard counter
Spammy as hell
Very low risk / high reward
Worst of all: few to none counter play => instant gap closers / never ending dodging machine / stealth spamm / stupid mobility.
In the end a disaster removing any fun.

And anet wants to give double steal ?
Just for trolling I suppose.

Best design:
I like guard…it is not selfish … positive for teamates and fair for opponents.

You’re kidding me right?
Thief has no counter? How about almost every spec in the game apart from mesmer? High reward low risk? Have you ever played thief? It’s probably one of the hardest things in game. People like you do not understand the classes at all, especially when you cannot comprehend the nature of Improvisation.

Nice try, 2/10.

Work on your reading. He wrote “no HARD counter”. A thief will lose to a guardian or an engineer if they fight them 1v1 on a point. They can, however, move away at any point in time and can even win eventually as long as they play cheesy/carefully by jumping in and out. A mesmer will die from a good thief if he gets no support from teammates. The mesmer cannot walk away, blink away or anything of the sort. The matchup besides mesmer and thief i would perhaps consider a hardcounter is Necro vs Condi Engi.

I would consider it 100% fair if thief had a hardcounter on the meta thief build, since ALL thieves play shortbow, mainly because of the mobility. Perhaps they could kill more people if they used another weaponset that is more intended for fighting rather than actually running.

The notion that thief hard counters plenty of builds is debatable, but it does feel incredibly boring and cheesy when you play for example a fresh air ele and suddenly you get stealth backstabbed, get posion, weakness, daze and 3 seconds immobilize on you instantly.

Avead.5760:

Quadox.7834:

From a game design standpoint, Anet is doing the right thing by not allowing evasive arcana and elemental attunement at the same time. I do not care how much you guys say that “ele needs it”- they don’t. Period. They need Alternatives. And hopefully they will add just that. I do think, however that diamond skin and stone heart are badly designed traits, diamond skin at the very least. These (and other lines’ GMs) could probably be changed to something more fitting.

I will personally probably run 6/6/0/0/6 fresh air s/f with
Burning precision- pyromancer’s training – blinding ashes
One with air (lol that buff)- X (not sure yet) – Fresh air
Renewing Stamina- Elemental contingency (probably) – Elemental attunement

Since fresh air builds crit so often this provides blinds every 3- 4 seconds and super speed approaching 50% uptime in a fight (due to fresh air).

No condi clear,no heal,11k hp ,too much protection when you should really be afraid of condies (not only the damaging ones) in exchange of a single target blind that you cant control here and there every 4 sec.
You can run something similar right now but with the actuall opness that is evasive arcana and elem attunement together so you have some condi clear and extra heal every 10 sec and more damage due to the damage modifiers in air.
Try it and tell me how it goes,and IF it didnt go that well tell me how an extra 2 fire traits/quickness for the loss of damage and evasive arcana will make it better

The fact that every ele is playing the same traits since the dawn of time up to the competitive level makes me thing that not being able to go fire and air together is not an l2p issue..that or all eles ever tried this game sucked
Maybe an extra fire aura and some protection from direct damage in earth will fix the melting to burst and to conditions..or maybe tempest will bring stealth.

Do you even know elmentalist ablities? Read on magnetic shield please. As a mesmer player, i find fresh air has condition removal for days. Actually, fresh air has more sustain than mesmer in general, with the tradeoff being stealth. Use terrain and your permanent vigor to evade the condition that you can’t clear.

I personally like blind, but you can go ahead and use water traitline like fresh air eles are doing now, or earth if you so want it. Although i do think those options are worse. Also, you actually don’t know that the build will have 11k hp, as you know nothing about the way stats will work.

Avead.5760:

Quadox.7834:

I agree, selfish version would work well.

Pls stop suggesting that.It doesnt solve the issue at all.
Its always the same thing with this game..A class can be super op in the sense that it is irreplaceable to every team but everybody will say nothing for years .
But when a class gets strong in the form of good self sustain everybody posts 10 nerf threads per day here..
Selfish elemental attunement will just bring more tears and wont do kitten for the support part.You ll have an “unkillable” ele again that all solo players,wvw players,hot join heroes cry all day while teams couldnt care less about replacing it when the nerfs inevitably come cause there are better options in tfs.

“We need the sustain!!” – every ele ever
“Don’t give us sustain, people will complain!”

What?
what?

Me Games Ma.8426:

Quadox.7834:

as a said, i would prefer to not have to take a trait to use my profession mechanic

they said that it can be destroyed. yes. but who the hell knows how long that will take? I don’t think that it’s cleaved in less than 4 hits. you are a little bit too hasty with your “have to take a trait to use” -.-

the only thing I really dislike is that it prevents point capture. it can be destroyed why the hell should it denie point capturing??

…which is why i only said i have a gut feeling that this is what might happen. They need to be very very careful.

From a game design standpoint, Anet is doing the right thing by not allowing evasive arcana and elemental attunement at the same time. I do not care how much you guys say that “ele needs it”- they don’t. Period. They need Alternatives. And hopefully they will add just that. I do think, however that diamond skin and stone heart are badly designed traits, diamond skin at the very least. These (and other lines’ GMs) could probably be changed to something more fitting.

I will personally probably run 6/6/0/0/6 fresh air s/f with
Burning precision- pyromancer’s training – blinding ashes
One with air (lol that buff)- X (not sure yet) – Fresh air
Renewing Stamina- Elemental contingency (probably) – Elemental attunement

Since fresh air builds crit so often this provides blinds every 3- 4 seconds and super speed approaching 50% uptime in a fight (due to fresh air).

Sword Trait in master is bad and not fun whatsoever. I would advice against using it. It could be moved to adept since the adept traits in duelling don’t synergize well and the stealth trait sucks.

Also, chaotic transference is NOT a good trait whatsoever. Seriously, read on the staff trait and compare- the difference is obvious and you will see that chaotic transference is bad and passive.

as a said, i would prefer to not have to take a trait to use my profession mechanic

TyPin.9860:

Quadox.7834:

I feel like with the changes we know of so far, dragonhunter is much stronger than chronomancer. I feel like they need to remove the crystal that instantly cancels the mesmer’s f5, i have this gut feeling that it will get absolutely destroyed by a gs guardian using spin or similar. Then it will be fair. I can’t even imagine using chronomancer f5 in wvwvw since the crystal will die instantly. Funnily enough, this is EXACTLY the problem mesmer already has in larger fights- phantasms and clones die. So Anet decided – “Hey, let’s add more things that die in 1 second due to Aoe cleave to the mesmer class!”

I understand the concern. However, maybe there will be some traits connected to this, to make it more resilient. It also depends on how it actually works. If it’s like engie turrets, it will be immune to conditions. And if it has some decent HP, it might just survive long enough to be useful.

This is the mesmer class (well, that can be disscussed) you are talking about. And even if it will be as you say, even if we got a trait which said “your time crystal thing is invulnerable”, it would probably be in grandmaster tier :P

Curunen.8729:

Madisonlee.9641:

All I hear is “give me the best of both worlds, let me keep DE, don’t make anything good compare to DE”

I really think this trait is damaging to our build variety

heh, actually i’m more interested in Mistrust come the patch.

Unless chronomancer has some amazing alternative (and even then) i will probably always go DE ^^

Saiyan.1704:

Vikkela.7261:

Darkness.9732:

Moreover MANY of you have always wrote that ranger is strong and without problems or limits.
Now dragonhunter reminds a ranger in its mechanics…..SOOO Why do you complain then ?

You in the correct forum? Rangers are like the easiest to kill with Guardian, including the trapper rangers and Pewpewrangers are one of the classes you can staff spam to death

Rangers (next to mesmers) dominate the 1v1 PvP arenas, just not tpvp. So when a guardian complain about rangers, it’s probably in that aspect. There are certain 1v1 ranger builds that are darn near impossible to beat.

b.o.t: Yes DH is awesome. Hater’s gonna hate.

how do mesmers dominate when they get killed by ranger, guardian and literally any thief?

For pvp, i will say this: this game almost always strives to use instant defensive utilities. Shouts, blink, decoy, cantrips, shadowstep, lightning reflexes. spectal armor, you name it. The exceptions are power necro wells and engi which has to go kits. If they want guardians to use traps in pvp they need to look at power necro. Even then, it is very likely people will go shouts/meditations and the like. When did you last see a signet guardian?

Jace al Thor.6745:

Which sucks. They gave us some really interesting stuff and I hope alacrity really makes as big an impact as they say it will to be on pair with DH because I see the f5 being very situational.

Mesmer exists to give alacrity to guardians so they can be even stronger

Why should it be baseline? If you want a mantra build, shouldn’t you have to equip the mantra trait? Isn’t this like if a warrior wanted the shout heal trait baseline (lol)?

Krispera.5087:

Mikkel.8427:

Looking for Chronomancer’s “Something just as good”

Revamped profession mechanics- Even though Guard’s mechanics were already useful in all mediums of play. While Mes mechanics are ignored in many builds, and basically useless in PvE. BUT we need to stop being lazy and use shatters anyway because blowing up half our damage and a good portion of our utility is a good thing! (???)

2-hand weapon- Enough said.

More damage modifiers- Because Guard struggled to keep a place in the meta (right? right?)

Thematically and graphically, I love what they did with Mes; extremely cool. The traits are going to have to be OUTSTANDING to compete with the only other Elite we’ve seen so far…. and I’m highly doubting that to be the case.

Then we have alacrity… but from our presentation it looked like we’ll have extremely limited access to it, and for ‘balance’ purposes they’ve put long cooldowns on shield and well skills nullifying its benefit.

Am i missing something? Maybe i need to watch the videos again.

Mesmers are overrating alacrity and F5. Alacrity is a, plain, cooldown reduction. I don’t know but the new weapon traits cooldown reduction look like a nerf to me. GS : 2% cooldown reduction on Spatial Surge (You have 3 phantasms ? Oh well, sucks for you), Interrupting on Pistol recharges 50 % (Did you miss your interrupt ? Though luck, get better), Staff and Chaos Armor (Go in the fields and get your Chaos Armor ! Oops, you got a Fire Aura instead), Scepter and Confusion. It’s like they made Alacrity to make up for it. Nerf you somehwere and give you an another mechanic to compensate. More active play I guess.

F5 is a reset button that leave you some seconds to do your stuff and rewind back. Interesting, but that’s it.

Let’s look at the shield now. A shatter fodder phantasm on block. It needs a charging time and it blocks ONE TIME. 2 if you block (Deja Vu). Why can’t we get long blocks (old mimic) ? Guardians, Warrior, Rangers, Engi have it ? If you’re familiar with off hand sword block and scepter block, there’s an after cast. If you don’t let your character do the after cast, it doesn’t do any damage. While you block ONE attack, you receive other damage sources. Super clunky. I bet the phantasm damage will suck like iMage, iDefender, iDesenchanter because it’s a ’’support’’ phantasm.

Tides of Time is a long cooldown skill. Oh yeah, let’s use that F5 to reduce your cooldown to 20 secs instead of 30 secs. The AA from the guardian longbow do the same damage as this skill. THE AA.

Then we get wells. Traps is constant damage (We don’t know yet about the arming time). Well is huge damage at the end. They want to remove Gravity Well (120s cooldown) float, but yet Dragon’s Maw (60s cooldown) have a 4 secs barrier and do more damage than Gravity Well. I know, it’s a clunky comparison (apples and oranges), but I just want to make you guys see the differences.

Guardians got a Virtue rework. We got ONE new shatter.

Where is our something as good for having an off hand ? I don’t see it either.

Well the pistol and staff traits are really good, the other im not sure about.

Windwalker.7421:

In all this discussion about damage modifiers, let’s not forget our own updated Mental Torment GM that adds +50% damage to MW on inactive targets, and that’s also in the same line that gives +10% vs. Vulnerable targets from a minor.

Also I thought I heard Master of Fragmentation may also have an additional damage mod? Not sure on that of course, but if not it may not be as desirable of a GM. (Although 20% increased chance to crit is not exactly bad either! )

warriors have 50% crit chance and 20% damage when opponent is cc’d. With ALL skills :P

necrofail.7439:

Impact.2780:

Best to worst:
1. Mesmer (Skills unique and well implemented, Utilities good and portal amazing, Traits great, Profession skills great)
2. Elementalist (Skills great synergy, Utilities nice, Some traits are too essential forcing pretty much the same trait setup for each build, Profession skills great)
3. Thief (Skills great, Utilities great, Traits ok some great some bad some just plain cheesey, Profession skills lacking)
4. Engineer (Skills ok, Utilities good and creative, Traits good, Profession mechanic suitable basically just extra utilities)
5. Necromancer (Skills lacking synergy, Utilities good, Traits good, Profession mechanic great but skills thereof not well designed)
6. Guardian (Skills define the roles too much instead of the traits, Utilities ok, Traits for offense are dreadful, Profession skills good)
7. Ranger (Skills lack skill and just get facerolled, Utilities ok, Traits seem poorly placed given the stats in each line, Profession mechanic allows for some abilities to be used randomly instead of at the player’s direction which is bad)
8. Warrior (Skills lack skill and just get facerolled, Utilities need work some overpowered some underpowered, Traits are really strong in every tier which is good or bad depending on your perspective since not all classes have this, Profession skill is lame)

Necro profession mechanic great? If great is being locked out of all healing we should make it so any profession using their prof mechanic can’t be healed. Sounds fair to Me. Traits are good? Have you played necro?

I know I sound pessimistic but cmon.

If you read for example his opinion on mesmer, it says “traits are great”. By that reference, i think necro traits qualify as “good”. The profession mechanic is fun and requires skill as well, but the healing thing is pretty dumb. A profession with advantages and weaknesses that has been strong and weak at different points in time isn’t too bad. However, some thing (look at you, spinal shivers) are pretty terrible. This can be said about almost all classes, however (Panic strike, PU and so on).

ArrDee.2573:

Sorry but the worst designed class is Engi! The class is balanced in a way that if you decide to use a build without kits, it will fail! Also all Engis are pigeonholed into the Explosives and Alchemy tree! When the standard trait setup is 30/x/x/20/10 with only 10 free trait points to choose from, that’s extremely bad!

The best designed class… Guardian? No other class has been in every single meta since launch!

Wahoo! Bye frands!

You are right about engi. But just because a class has been in the meta doesn’t mean it is the best designed class. It needs to be active, fun to play against and with, and such.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

Me Games Ma.8426:

Sebrent.3625:

The Guardian’s new +15% dmg trait has me concerned though since that allows this traitline + one other to give them a total of +50% dmg on their target(s).

• Big Game Hunter + Fiery Wrath + Zealous Blade + Symbolic Avenger = 15% + 10% + 5% + 20% = +50% damage … from two specializations

I guess it’s stacking by multiplication: 1*1.15*1.10*1.05*1.20=1.5939
That would mean: Bye Bye Reflect mesmer :< Hello Reflect Guardian

Yes, that’s why it rocks.

What about unschathered contender, 20% while having aegis?

Mikkel.8427:

Looking for Chronomancer’s “Something just as good”

Revamped profession mechanics- Even though Guard’s mechanics were already useful in all mediums of play. While Mes mechanics are ignored in many builds, and basically useless in PvE. BUT we need to stop being lazy and use shatters anyway because blowing up half our damage and a good portion of our utility is a good thing! (???)

2-hand weapon- Enough said.

More damage modifiers- Because Guard struggled to keep a place in the meta (right? right?)

Thematically and graphically, I love what they did with Mes; extremely cool. The traits are going to have to be OUTSTANDING to compete with the only other Elite we’ve seen so far…. and I’m highly doubting that to be the case.

Then we have alacrity… but from our presentation it looked like we’ll have extremely limited access to it, and for ‘balance’ purposes they’ve put long cooldowns on shield and well skills nullifying its benefit.

Am i missing something? Maybe i need to watch the videos again.

You missed the fact that guardian got 3 whole new f-skills. While we got 1 new f-skill… which doesn’t really make it any better.

Edit: not that i care, i honestly don’t mind as long as the chronomancer is fun

Gibson.4036:

I think the problem, for me, comes down to lack of punch. “Dragon” and “Hunter” are very common words, and lack specificity.

Imagine if you had called the Mesmer elite, “Time Wizard” instead of “Chronomancer”. Feel the difference?

this /15chars

Jace al Thor.6745:

Aesa.4819:

All skills the Dragon Hunter got seems really strong to me, yet the devs don’t seem to mind at all. Meanwhile Mesmers get “hmm this might be a little strong somewhere (uncalled for), let’s nerf it to half effectiveness or give it a 30s ICD!” on most of their skills>.>

Yeah I get the same feeling. But until we see our full trait line it will be hard to tell. But honestly it seems like DH is way stronger than Chrono with shorter CD’s.

So far i can agree to this

Curunen.8729:

Those mirror traits/skills are looking even more juicy now. :>

Yep, but i think the trait that knockbacks can’t be reflected. I hope it will be, but i doubt it highly.

not even close to the thief in my opinion. It is extremely hard to balance a class that can use the best skills in the best situations without needing to wait for cooldowns.

DeWolfe.2174:

There are many forms of “skill” to possess. Unfortunately, in context to GW2 combat, the term skill mostly refers to the fastest pacing, quickest reaction times, and most button presses. I on the other hand much rather have a combat system and builds that reward a wider range of pacing. That favor more deliberate, patient, and thoughtful play. The dev’s speak of adding more counter play and yet, fights already do not last long enough to have decent counter play. A couple of seconds of back and forth between combatants is not valued counter play. For Hot, it seems to be bringing into the game even more offensive capabilities. So I do not believe Hot will be more “skill” based by my definition at all.

Editing to add that clone death builds should go. Confusion should be a CC and not cause damage. Retal should be outright removed from the game. Basically anything that rewards inaction should be removed.

+1 yes.

also sigils

Cynz.9437:

Jasher.6580:

Cynz.9437:

kervv.8542:

@cynz, both of the teams that you mentioned runs a thief.

not always… they have won games w/o thief/mesmer; zuik/honey can confirm

They have… but their main roster includes Thieves.

doesn’t change the fact that they have won tourneys w/o thief

and that doesn’t change the fact that they are too strong for team play

Supreme.3164:

JoshuaRAWR.4653:

Laraley.7695:

Aylpse.6280:

OP, you forget. you cant call out Thief or Ele on the forums, they are the highest skill cap classes! /scarasm

This is what map chat actually believes. Yes any class can be skillful in the right hands but to neglect every other class, call everything easy or bad and proceed to play the strongest FTOM specs and claim to be skillful is another.

Once D/D ele is nerfed, people will rave about how hard and skillful the next FOTM spec is.

Do you even play the game? People are even dropping d/d ele because they realized it’s not that good and that’s before the upcoming nerf.

D/D ele is good, people are just favouring scepter ele because it destroys people with barely any telegraphed attacks.

The only untelegraphated attack on fresh air ele is lightning strike( scepter air 2), the minor air trait does less dmg even on crit, on a full glass target( 926 toughness) that’s like 2-3k base dmg, should the sigil procs that’s another 2k dmg for a total of maybe 6k dmg on a glass cannon…..that’s not enough to even scare a thief….let alone kill any competent player

The rest of the dmg coming from a scepter ele is HUGELY announced, skills such as phoenix, dragon’s tooth…any average player can dodge those.

On a target with 1200 toughness onward, the dmg coming from a fresh air is already negligible, same can’t be said for d/p thieves, mesmer or power necros able to hit targets for over 7 dmg in one go…targets that have over 1700 toughness.

Seen that not even in the academy award tournament[amateur level] you can see a single fresh air ele…it’s safe to assume that those complaining about fresh air are simple hotjoin or low MMR soloQ players

It isn’t very strong in my opinion (except vs some), but it is still not fun to fight to me. Based heavily on sigil procs and air minor.

What? An arenanet post in the mesmer forums? I think i am dreaming, brb dripping my head in cold water.

From best to worst

Engi=Mesmer
(Unique, fun and they are both strong but have counters)
Warrior
(Simple but good, almost everything can be dodged and counterplayed)
Necromancer
(They can put out crazy pressure but are very slow and easily killed)
Elementalist
(Unique and fun concept, but cele ele is spammy and boring and fresh air is all instant damage, which isn’t fun)
Guardian
(Dragonhunter looks like a top choice, but guardian has some passive mechanics)
Ranger
(Passive traits, pet AI)
Thief
(Could be switched with ranger. Cool and active profession, but in my opinion almost impossible to balance. They have also used the same weapon since launch- shortbow)

Elementalist could have been much higher, but at the moment they are either easymode tank or instant damage gimmicky zerker.

William Bradley Knight.2609:

Quadox.7834:

No, the block might be too strong, depending how how long cast time.

Warriors’ shield stance is three seconds and isn’t too strong. Alternatively, it could block three attacks like guard’s focus or only block one melee attack and block ranged attacks for the duration like warriors’ riposte.

Ill take the block sure, but mesmer is not warrior. Let’s not talk about giving warrior stealth.

No, the block might be too strong, depending how how long cast time.

I think a baseline 600 radius elemental attunement is crazy and way too strong. Partly because it makes full damage eles provide amazing support without investing anything. However i do agree that if eles are ever going to use anything else than arcane traitline, selfish elemental attunement needs to be a thing. In a way, i actually like that the heals are fairly small radius as it makes the supporting more skill based rather than fire and forget. I am willing to instead support a nerf of cele warrior/engi (mainly warrior), as warrior is much much easier than ele and provides greater support in most situations.

But, as i’ve said before, be careful as to not make cele ele too strong in 1v1s.

tobascodagama.2961:

We already have a thread about this skill.

And Windwalker already made the best suggestion for what to do with it:

Windwalker.7421:

Why not just have it summon a Phantasm, and block ALL attacks while summoning ? (At least that would make those god awful Phantasm summon times useful for once!) Much easier, much more powerful, much more like a shield is expected to work!

I dont like it, too common and quite probably also too strong (depending on the casttime). I will check out the thread you linked, but i felt like i needed to bring it up again to make sure Anet sees it, otherwise it is useless. =(

rchu.8945:

Windwalker.7421:

Quadox.7834:

serenke.4806:

We’ve gotten shield and a lame name (granted “dragon hunter” is even lamer).
On paper our spec. looks at least more fun than the guard’s.
We’re not much better off than them though.

How is chronomancer a lame name?

Yeah! No kidding!

It’s certainly leaps and bounds better then Dragon Hunter on a virtue/justice based Paladin-like class. Check Google Images for “Dragon Hunter” and you get the answer to what most-people think of when they hear that term. I don’t see a lot of that looking like your fairy-winged do-gooder in that video! ;-)

Not to mention that a bow doesn’t really fit that theme either. A big-kitten crossbow maybe, but not a plain Longbow. Ever hear of a LB taking down a dragon? I mean Bard tried it, and saw where that got him! Didn’t do squat until he broke the bow in half, turned it into a ballista MacGyver style, and shot a big heavy dwarven arrow in just the one weak spot the dragon had! Sounds to me like Guardians should have gotten 2h lances. :P

Chronomancer not only sounds good, but fits the Mesmer perfectly. (And GI agrees! )

How does chronomancer fit perfectly with Mesmer?

And what’s with all the knocks against guards? Personally I am having more fun with my guard in PvP than Mesmer, at least I feel like I have a shot against most classes / builds, and I dont think that will change much in HoT. Sure, the fashion is cool, but dying in fabulous clothes to thieves constantly is no fun. All that glitters is not gold, we shall see how Mesmers fare in PvP in HOT expansion. Let’s not forget about PvE concerns (plenty new threads about it), the new traits and specialization is not helping the Mesmer in that aspect of the game either…

Of course people are going to prefer mesmer over guardian, you’re on the mesmer forums mate!

“Block the next attack. When this skull ends, summon a phantasm that slows enemies and grants alacrity to allies. If an attack is blocked, deja vu is usable for a short time.”

Dear ArenaNet, be very very careful when you implement this skill. Honestly, i dont know how you dare to make another skull that blocks only 1 attack.

I would strongly suggest you look at changing the funtionality somehow. Look at sword off hand and scepter. Neither are good weapons in a pvp situation, largely due to the block skills. They are extremely clunky and feel somewhat buggy to use. One of the reasons for this is because they one block ONE attack. This means they active from random aoes and work uncontrollably. I fear the shield block will work just as bad, summoning phantasms on an unintended target and the like. I know you want mesmer skills to be hard to use and require timing, but block skills like this often just kitten the weapon. Ranger also has a block that only blocks a single attack, but it also blocks all projectiles for the full duration. Another example is warrior sword block, which again is almost never used for the actual skillful block. Consider instead to change this ability to perhaps a blast finisher of some kind, like Phantasmal Swordsman is a leap finisher.

If it has to be a block, make SURE it doesnt feel as laggy as the sword block does. I honestly couldnt care less if the shield skills are “powerful”, but they need to feel fun and rewarding to use properly.

We only get 2 weapon skills – make sure they are good. Thank you. =)

Windwalker.7421:

Sorry but I disagree on BD and RI. They may not be everyone’s cup of tea, but to call them useless or garbage is not correct.

1) BD not only got the Stab, you may have noticed that the Boons are now AoE! This can synergize well with Boon-sharing builds based on Shattering. Your F2 Shatter when shared would give 6 stacks of Might to anyone within a 240 radius. Although I agree from a personal standpoint Retal is a little underwhelming on MW, in a group scenario this boon is not joke as Engineers & Rangers will gladly tell you. ;-) Same goes for Fury on F3. Really the only one I really dislike is the Boon on F4. For such a long CD to give such a lame Boon is very underwhelming. This should be ~3s of Protection or ~5s of Aegis.

2) RI works surprisingly well if you have IP, which we all will! This is not a bad trait at all if you’re looking to bunker yourself up. The only reason this trait hasn’t seen any play, IMHO, is because it requires IP and is GM itself, so you have to give up DE to get it. That of course is silly. Now that you get IP for free, and can get RI while also getting a reasonably strong GM trait like Shattered Conditions or Ill. Insp. for boon sharing, this trait will actually kinda rock. This trait will be almost primarily responsible for creating a true bunker Mesmer! A Chaos/Insp./XXX Mesmer will be almost unkillable 1v1 and maybe even 2v1 or worse odds, every shatter insta-heals and removes a Condition.

Also to OP, I think Anet probably thought Rending Shatter would be useful in combination with Fragility, but that is really not sound reasoning considering it has to compete with the excellent (former GM!) Confounding Suggestions or Empowered Illusions. If a P-Shatter Mesmer wants to use Fragility, it would most likely be for his MW. So in order to get AE Vuln up, he would have to fist F2 or F3 shatter with Rending Shatter, and then MW. The problem is, most P-Shatter builds will probably also pick up Master of Fragmentation, making the F3 shatter AoE, and thus providing AoE Vulnerability anyway! Naturally Phantasm Mesmers would choose EI over RS.

So on second thought I agree, Rending Shatter will not see much play over the other 2 choices. It needs something more to compete with the other 2 choices.

Chaotic Transference is not a bad trait really. It’s a “pick this if you don’t use Staff and hate MoA” option. For Rabbid Condition builds, PU Condi mainly, this trait was always very popular GM minor, as it adds a pretty nice amount of Condition damage. I’m not a fan of MoA at all due to the overly lengthy CD for a very short effect, and I’d take CT over that any day. (As long as I’m Condie of course.)

Persistance of Memory is a question mark. We’ll have to see how it works out, but most people are thinking the 2% is probably wrong.

Greatsword Training is definitely not bad. It has 2 very strong GMs to compete with, but the CD reduction it offers can become extreme when 3 GS Clones are attacking along with you, and/or you’re attacking into a zergball hitting multiple people. The +100 Power is a bit weak. Seems I’ve seen other GMs give +150 stat points, and I think this would be more appropriate. (Or +200 even to better compete with the other 2 GMs.) It won’t be popular, but it’ll be used & liked by some for sure.

Many of these new CD reduction effects are going to need balancing with Chrono’s Alacrity I think. The combination could be extreme in some cases. (Staff, Torch, and GS traits.)

Chaotic transference is only for condition build, and condition builds use staff or they suck. The trait is bad.

Just a list of the traits i think need changes to be good. This is from a pvp perspective, and only includes major traits as of now.

Rending Shatter
Okay trait, i think it will be underwhelming compared for to CS, though. Again, this is from a pvp perspective.

Greatsword Training
Might be stronger than it looks, but this will most probably be a bad trait to use for PvP.

Harmonious Mantras
Really cool trait, but i find it hard to believe it can compete with DE. Needs conclusive testing from Anet.

Illusionary Defense
Has never been a good trait. Clone death weakness was always better on any build.

Chaotic Transference
I see no reason to use it

Compounding Celerity
Too short swiftness duration and in general an underwhelming trait.

Temporal Enchanter
Not nearly strong enough to make a glamour build work. Not sure what to do, maybe make a pulsing super speed in glamours or just add another effect to it.

Persistance of Memory
2% seems awfully low. It might be a typo or just needs balancing. Otherwise interesting trait.

Phantasmal Haste
Not bad trait, but shouldn’t shatter traits be in the illusions traitline? There are no traits in illusions master tier that syngergize with shatter-based builds.

The Pledge
1,5% faster while in stealth? This must be a typo since it is incredibly low.

Edit:
Sword Trait (forgot name)
Terrible choice when you can go with reflect on dodge or blind on shatter. One idea would be to merge this with the mirror trait for something like this: (Gain precision while wielding a sword. 20% reduced sword cooldown. Reflect missiles while using blurred frenzy)
_________________________________________
I am all for build diversity and i have nothing against PvP-PvE separation if necessary.
Just tell new players that enter the mists that “Some traits work differently in PvP” or something.

Concerning minors, i think that all or almost all are “good” in the patch preview notes. Some might be too strong, however. This i am not sure about.

If you would like to see some trait removed or added to the list, feel free to comment!

Wilderness survival, nature magic, skrimishing.

because its the best

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I have seen this complaint many times in the past and although yes I totally understand why people have a problem with it there is a purpose behind it.

Warriors are supposed to be the melee profession which is why all of their ranged (Longbow, Rifle, Harpoon Gun) weapons are few and pretty mediocre. Warriors also don’t use any real form of “magic” and are strictly sweat and steel. Without high mobility it would be nearly impossible for a Warrior to effectively stay on their target. Just look at power Necro’s for an idea. Imagine if they didn’t have Dark Path (teleport) or Life Blast (Death Shroud ranged AA). They’d pretty much be forced to use Axe no matter what because it’s their only somewhat ranged weapon and it’d be the only way for them to ever hit a target. Warrior’s are in a similar position. Their weapons give them the mobility necessary to stick on top of people to deal damage, without it, they would simply be too easy to kite.

The unfortunate downside for opponents is that the mobility needed for a Warrior to attack his or her enemies can also be used to run away. The same can be said for various other professions however such as Thief and their shortbow, Ranger and their sword/greatsword and Engineer and their Slick Shoes, Rocket Boots and Juggernaut (elite).

I would agree with this if it wasn’t so that longbow is warriors strongest weapon, except for the mobility part.

When you are running, press about face followed by withdraw, followed by about face again just after. I guess.

serenke.4806:

We’ve gotten shield and a lame name (granted “dragon hunter” is even lamer).
On paper our spec. looks at least more fun than the guard’s.
We’re not much better off than them though.

How is chronomancer a lame name?

Thief is a safe bet for years and years to pass and to come, probably. Engi is also a safe bet, i would say.

Soon™ /15chars.

ResJudicator.7916:

zapv.8051:

Elemental attunement is far too strong to be made baseline as it is. It also has boons attached to it, meaning it is unlikely to be made baseline. Also, the ele changes are a dream compared to what necros got, so it could be worse.

EA seems strong only because ele is the only class whose class mechanic doesn’t confer any inherent benefit. Unless traited, there’s no real benefit associated with the ability to swap attunements. True, the Ele has more overall weapon skills, but the ele’s weapon skills have already been balanced around this fact, so in the end it’s not an inherent advantage. Specifically, the ele’s access to 20 weapon skills is already balanced by the fact that the ele’s weapon skills are generally weaker or have longer cooldowns compared to other classes. To the point where several ele weapon skills aren’t even worth casting (shatterstone, I’m looking at you).

Every other class’s mechanic confers a substantive benefit even when untraited. Warriors get a hard-hitting skill. Guardians get access to burning, on-demand aegis, etc. Thieves get a free teleport + stolen item. Rangers get two pets with their own set of skills. Necros get a second life bar. Etc.

Making a selfish version of EA baseline would bring the Ele’s class mechanic up to this same level.

I agree, selfish version would work well.

mistsim.2748:

Lux.7169:

This game is far too forgiving and rewarding for the amount of dodges we are given. If anything it should punish people a LOT more for failing to dodge appropriately.

for this to work, they need to increase cast times of many abilities and overall slow the pace down. otherwise it’s too easy for kitten y specs like d/p thief to bait dodges. there are also a slew of hard-hitting abilities that simply aren’t dodgeable, unless you use intuition or guess.

Very true, i would like it to be this way, but partly because stealth exists in this game it would be very hard to do, since you could bait dodges by just standing in stealth. However, i would like to see sigil of energy changed to give vigor instead or something.

Perhaps stealth should never have been made sharable to all profesions, but this is a whole other topic.

I will clear some things up. Firstly, the stealth bomb actually happens all the time in top play, it is very common. In fact, d/p is used over s/d alot because of the stealth and the panic strike immob.

Secondly, i don’t want ALL instants to be removed, as this wouldn’t work for the game. For example, defensive instants are fine since they don’t kill a person for no visible reason. Also, things like backstab is fine since it only does damage, has to be lined up in close range and is supposed to be stealthy. We are talking major things that are undodgable for no reason. Overcharged shot, Scepter immob, Death Shroud 3 fear, Panic Strike, and so on. Outside of a 1v1, getting hit by one can kill you for no reason other than luck. Sure, you can say that you can “predict” guardian scepter 3, but think about how it really works in game. Either they will wait for a dodge and use it on you, or just use it right after swapping to scepter. It doesn’t matter either way, since it is practically impossible to react to. Hammer immob is however how an immobilize skill should work (perhaps even too slow).

They are balanced but kinda easy compared to other zerkers, save for in fights vs cele classes.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Of course, coolness is objective, and we’ve still more to discover about this new class but…

The Dragon Hunter!

• Guardians.. a supporty class is getting more… active support?
• Guards get a longbow.
• Class Mechanic (Virtues) changed. Burning Virtue now .. Burns more! Healing Virtue now grants a leap along with its heal, making it .. Less accurate? Aegis virtue creates a shield that shelters allies from all damage; can’t really hate on that one it’s pretty tight.
• Traps! Made of light! Sorta like symbols but now more Ranger-esque!

Sorry guards, but nothing here is really all that impressive at first glance, hopefully the stream tomorrow will shed more light (get it? get it!?!) on this elite specialization. The Chronomancer spec seems like a much more dramatic change of style from core Mesmer than Hunter does for Guardian.

One down.. Six more to go! Who do you think will have the coolest specialization? I’m betting Necros may give us a run for our money. Dat Greatsword.

Is coolness objective? So it is a fact that chronomancer is cooler?

Do you mean subjective?