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[Video] Mesmer WvW/PvP-Montage Vids

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Windwalker.7421

Very nice!

kk 15

[Video] Chronomancer Roaming: "Invictus"

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Windwalker.7421

Yeah on the test mobs it worked out nicely, and I can see how in WvW roaming it would be similar for 1v1 or 1v2 fights, but in sPvP and bigger fights it was more difficult to gauge the impact that LT actually had. Plus your illusions die much more frequently in that setting, so I felt that I was getting more out of CP.

Chrono Bruiser: Update 10/11 New video+build

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Windwalker.7421

I think Vit & Toughness each serve their purpose, and the power creep has made it pretty plain that it’s tough to survive on 16-17k anymore. I agree with you that Toughness scales a little better then Vit, although both are fairly bad and should be improved IMO, but it definitely helps a bunch with reaction time to have ~18k+ HPs right now. (In sPvP I’d even say 20k+)

I agree after reaching that Toughness starts to shine, but with a low health pool and high Toughness you still often get 100-0 in no time at all, before being able to react. It all depends on personal reaction times (and lag) of course, but it’s definitely gotten harder to survive on low Vit.

This is killing Condie Mesmer builds in sPvP right now IMO, because you have a hard time getting enough Vit to make high Toughness worthwhile. I can literally be just as tanky in Marauder and a Power Chrono build, then I can in a ~16k Rabid Condie Shatter build…which makes very little sense, considering the burst killing power of the former and plain weak DoT of the latter.

[Video] Chronomancer Roaming: "Invictus"

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Windwalker.7421

Played around with an sPvP version of this first on just the Golems, but I’m starting to somewhat like Lost Time. I totally wrote it off after the nerf and some after a little testing on a very similar build even (very interrupt oriented), but I have to say there is some nice synergy between LT, Delayed Reactions, and of course Danger Time.

Had a blast with this in sPvP matches too, which surprised me a bit. I did end up getting rid of LT and went back to CP, as well as taking Time Warp. Also went with Ether Feast and thus PI in Inspiration.

Had some really good 1v1s and bigger chaotic battles, and felt that I was definitely doing pretty darn well. My favorite was a Trap DH laying down everything in 1v1, me just waiting it out and then countering with that lovely ToT=>MB=>MS=>MW=>BF combo with a Daze mantra in between. So much lockdown, and so much pain! Love it!

Thanks for sharing, was a very fun night even in sPvP with this!

Chrono Bruiser: Update 10/11 New video+build

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Windwalker.7421

I’ve been playing a similar Chaos/Insp/Chrono build since BWE2 and I have to agree, it’s been my most fun post HoT build, but more importantly the most fun Power Shatter build I’ve played in a very long while.

You can still put out very solid damage & bursts, but you can also tank a point against 2 people pretty easily.

I tried last night using Staff, as I usually play with GS, and it has it’s lure, but certainly the trade off of literally no ranged damage. I’m undecided which I like better, the pure point-scrapper, or a bit less defense in exchange for more offense and ranged damage.

Definitely a fun build though that is also very forgiving. Kinda like a Condie Shatter was pre-HoT, but sadly this just does way more reliable damage output then any Condition build right now.

[Video] Mesmer WvW/PvP-Montage Vids

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Windwalker.7421

Nice! Good info, thanks!

(Q) spvp, mesmer, and bad ping

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Windwalker.7421

Definitely would be tough or near impossible to enjoy with bad ping on a glassy Mesmer, but a Bunker Mesmer should do as well as just about any other class. Although a fairly large part of your ability to bunker does rely a lot more on actives, with 300ms ping you shouldn’t have too many issues triggering those once you get your timing down. (And learn to anticipate when to activate them.)

You’d be mainly in a team role though with fairly low killing power yourself.

At first i thougth DH was fine, but now...

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Windwalker.7421

OPd, going to get nerfed more, nuff said.

I don’t know why people bother with all this forum positioning, as if that has ever helped avoid the nerf bat to obviously OPd stuff in the past.

It’s going to get nerfed. Expect damage reduced by at least 25-50%…you heard it here first. (Not really, but maybe this time you’ll take those rose colored glasses off and actually believe it. Or not.)

Meta vs HoT?

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Windwalker.7421

lol @ p2w remark. I’ve played GW2 since launch for about 10-15 hours a week on average and have paid literally nothing but the initial starting price in those years playing a great game.

They deserve to get some more of my money.

If they wanted “p2w” they would have stocked the in-game store long ago with weapons, consumables, etc. that give the buyer meaningful advantages in PvP.

I won’t defend Anet about much very often, but I think they deserve a pretty high mark in avoiding “p2w” for an otherwise free game.

This is an expansion, and in order to sell an expansion you have to do new and neat stuff to draw folks in. Balancing that stuff takes a while. That’s just how it is.

Lastly, in WvW I am still a long way off playing as a Chrono, and I can tell you right now the standard PU/Condie roaming (aka Cancer) build still rips every Chrono I’ve run into so far (although admittedly no good ones) and seems to work just as well against DH and the rest as well.

[sPvP Guide] The ChronoWard: Bunker to Glass

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Windwalker.7421

That is the most verbose way to describe a pretty straight forward Chrono Condie-Shatter build. ;-)

However, a good source of information none the less and a lot of work and time went into it. I didn’t read large parts though, because as I said, the build concepts are pretty obvious and common as with Chrono you don’t really have that many options on how to build for Condie Shatter. (Or hybrid too. It’s all neat, but I have to say I have tested various hybrid setups with Chrono time and again, and I always end up back at either Power or Condie, but both together just never really seems to work well.)

And all that said, I feel Condie Shatter is currently rather weak in comparison to Power shatter. Even more so than before HoT and the recent patches. The old MtD was simply way stronger than any Condition build now with the nerfed MtD. I am a huge fan of Condie Shatter builds, but I mostly play Power Shatter now because it’s just so much more effective in PvP. (And unlike pre-HoT, we can be rather tanky/survivable too thanks to Shield & Wells.)

November 4 Patch

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Windwalker.7421

OK I just tested the iAvenger on the moving Golem, which is the only way you’ll see this new change. The Avenger still runs into melee range just as always, but the change is that once he starts his attack it’s much harder to outrun that attack.

The attack itself is a charge, but he unfortunately will still run into the same melee range as always when first summoned. Then if the target is moving, it’s simply a lot harder to outrun the attack itself.

It’s sadly nothing like the iSwordsman.

A slight improvement for sure, but nothing to get too excited about until ANet does something to protect summons from AE in PvP as well. (50% damage reduction would go a long way and keep things balanced.)

Edit:
Into the Void now has some serious synergy with Wells, especially Calamity. Stack’em up and prevent them from avoiding the 3rd tick. Yeah R.I.P. pulling people off ledges, but being able to stack players up like mobs will certainly have it’s uses in organized play.

Edit 2:
Very weird, all of a sudden the iAvenger is charging in at range on the first attack. It wasn’t doing it before…lag maybe? No idea, I was kinda disappointed, but it does seem that it will now start it’s charge attack from a bit further away, greatly increasing the chances of it actually landing it’s first attack before being AE mauled.

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

Condi mesmer unviable (PvP)...?

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Windwalker.7421

^ No kidding, what’s the “non-cleansing” counter play option to 10+ stacks of Burning from Guard, Ele, or Engineer? /release?

Chaotic Transference

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Windwalker.7421

I don’t really agree with the OP on Precisio-based Chaotic Transference, but I do think this trait needs a lot more to be a viable trait. Of course Mirror of Anguish needs a fat CD reduction too, but Chaotic Transference is probably even weaker than MoA.

Actually, it should probably just be a flat +300 Condition Damage. That would be a good compromise to the OP point, and the fact that even with Toughness stat the scaling on Condition Damage is just too poor for this trait to be worthwhile taking. (Especially as long as it competes with Chaotic Dampening. Condition builds are very likely to run Staff, and CD is just a way better investment than CT.

Chrono builds in pvp

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Windwalker.7421

Agree with most of what OP said, although I think Condie Shatter is sadly in a pretty bad state. The nerf to MtD was both necessary in light of Chrono, but also is a large reason why Condie Shatter is now underwhelming. Not to mention that w/o Chrono to chain shatter, it’s in an even worse state. So once again, Chronomancy required for even a subpar Condition build.

That and the nerfs to Torch #4 (indirect nerf), and the Phantasm (direct nerf), has left Condition specs in a really bad place. Then to top it all off they nerf the Pistol trait before ever even letting us test it….it’s single target and a slow multi-hit attack for christs sake! I don’t know what they thought they needed to nerf there.

1) We need at least 2 stacks of Burn on The Prestige, just to bring it back up to where it was before, and ditto for the iMage attack.

2) Add back the old +50% bonus to Torment damage on MtD, you know the one you nerfed before ever letting us test it? Now that you’ve nerfed MtD into oblivion, I think it’s safe to say this bonus would be a very good compromise between the old MtD (2x Torment per shatter) and the nerfed new one. This is a “middle of the road” giving significantly more Torment damage when people do move, with the trade off of the same low damage when they’re not moving.

3) Confusion is simply not a Condition that you can base a class around, especially when the only real AE Burst has very short duration and is on twice the CD of the Power-based relative! At the very least, increase the base duration of Confusion from Cry of Frustration from 3 seconds to 5 seconds.

4) Why are all wells Power oriented? Why are there no Condition damage oriented Wells? Well of Calamity could easily apply 2x Confusion (2 second duration) per pulse, and a final burst of 4x Confusion for 4 seconds. You could do that without the need to change anything else about it, because Confusion damage w/o Condition damage is extremely bad anyway.

5) Mistrust is in really bad shape. I have no idea why ANet claimed this thing had any potential at all, when it was obvious on paper that it was a poor GM. Traitline defining? 2 stacks of Confusion? Really? I’d rather trade this non-existent synergy that relies entirely on an extremely rare event, for a simple 5x AoE Confusion for 5 seconds centered around the interrupted target 240 radius. And even that is not enough to compete with other GMs, so it would need something else…something cool and unique to make it worth creating a Condition interrupt build around. (Which currently just isn’t viable!)

It’s sad because they had some really good ideas early on, and for some completely whacked reason went off on a nerfing parade. When you think about not only the MtD and Torch nerfs a bit ago, but add to that the PU nerf and adjustments to Chronomancy it’s easy to see why Condition Mesmers are where they are….back in the gutter where they’ve always been, even before they ever saw the Chrono patch go live!

People cry loudly about Power Mesmer burst damage, but they cry even louder whenever there is even a semblance of a competitive Mesmer condition build!

[Video] How to fight Dragonhunter by: Arken

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Windwalker.7421

Just pointing out the obvious. Don’t shoot the messenger.

Normal balanced stuff usually doesn’t need videos explaining how it’s not OPd. ;-)

And it’s not just the traps, it’s the whole package combined.

[Video] How to fight Dragonhunter by: Arken

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Windwalker.7421

It’s a general rule of thumb that threads like this only prove there is a problem, and there most certainly is.

Theorycraft: AOE Burn/confusion wvw mesmer

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Windwalker.7421

Sorry DDB, I did actually realize what you were saying/doing in the OP. I was kinda just rambling about the concept of the new channeled block + RoG as a whole.

It’s OK I guess, maybe neat in WvW for tagging, just don’t expect too much from it.

Theorycraft: AOE Burn/confusion wvw mesmer

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Windwalker.7421

I played with Runes of Guardian in a Chrono Condie build during the last BW. I wouldn’t exactly call an off-block 1s Burn “spammable” but it worked OKish. Problem is of course that a single stack of Burn isn’t that much damage, it’s when you get 5+ stacks going that it really hurts, but unfortunately we don’t have many ways of doing this. (RoG even with a lot of Burning/Condie duration didn’t do much in the way of stacking due to the 1s base.)

I’ve also tried Runes of Balthazar in combination with 20% Burn duration Sigils and of course Torch (TP & iMage) for pretty much maximum Burn we can get, but even there it was rare to see more than 3 stacks of Burning on an enemy. I’d venture to say though that this was more effective Condition damage output than RoGuardian.

In the end, we really need both The Prestige and the iMage to apply at least 2-3 stacks of Burning each. Torch is now pretty nerfed. It was not only hugely nerfed in Condition damage output as compared to before the Condition damage updates, but now also PU was nerfed by 50% and this indirectly affects Torch’s ability to compete as a viable OH. Adding insult to injury, with HoT the Torch now also finally has very strong competition in the OH slot from Shields. This was a triple whammy nerf really, and although we all know how powerful Stealth is, I don’t know if TP is going to continue carrying Torch all on it’s own as it has for many years.

A bit OT sorry, but to get back on track I don’t think that either RoGuardian nor Mistrust are going to work out as optimal choices for you.

GL! The wait is almost over! Woohoo!

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

Was Chronomancer Supposed to be a Tank?

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Windwalker.7421

Chrono is hella tanky actually!

Shield+Sword + Staff, Chaos/Chrono/Insp and Well of Precog + Well of Eternity, and either elite Well or TW…if that’s not tanky, then I don’t know what is. :-) Put a tanky amulet on that in sPvP and you’re a beast.

You probably can’t hurt a fly, but you’re almost immune to 2-3 attackers, and can dish out some solid team-support as well. :-)

Nerf Confounding Suggestions

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Windwalker.7421

That’s a whole lot of tears over a very short duration single target stun with a 5 sec CD. Your suggestions are ludicrous to say the least, might as well remove CS as an option if you’re going to bury it like that.

Sounds like the typical “someone got owned in 1v1 in a GvG/WvW game” whine thread.

In the list of things that need balance adjustments in regards to 1v1 balance, if that should ever be Anet’s goal, I’d say there are at least a dozen other issues of higher priority.

From veil bots to alacrity bots.

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Windwalker.7421

Although I agree with Pyro in principle, I also agree with the statements made about AWtEW. For now at least, Alacrity is a 100% Mesmer thing, and then you have to ask yourself, is it the intent of the design to have a 100% uptime of AE Alacrity? I’m pretty sure ANet was actively trying to avoid just that, and thus I fully expect changes to come before HoT is released.

I too think it’s pretty clear that AWtEW is a key issue behind this over abundance of Alacrity. I don’t have a problem at all with Pyro’s view on optimized builds, that’s plain common sense! However, I also think it’s common sense that 100% Alacrity uptime, even if difficult/skillful to achieve, should not be possible.

We have a well now that gives a considerable amount of AE Alacrity, and we have a ton of self Alacrity that will make the CD on that well very low. That on top of F5 means we can easily drop 15s of AE Alacrity without breaking a sweat. Personally, I think that’s a ton of group utility right there, without the need to get an additional 2s off every other well on top, leading to the perma-Alacrity issue.

That we can achieve perma-Alacrity on ourselves is less of an issue IMO, although probably still a bit over the top, but it is clearly OPd to have a permanent (or even near permanent) uptime of AoE Alacrity.

The role is great! I don’t think the OP has a point at all about being an “Alacrity bot”. The notion doesn’t really make sense as the “bot” part implies it’s based on a mundane & repetitive play-style that is skill-devoid. I am glad Anet found an entirely new and wanted role for both PvE and PvP, and I’m delighted that we Mesmers get this new role, but that doesn’t meant I want it to be OPd right off the bat.

We will be just as wanted/needed for our AoE Alacrity if the uptime is a more reasonable 60-75% max.

MTD Needs to be Revisited

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Windwalker.7421

I’d rather see Cry of Frustration be given 1 stack of torment per illusion for 6 seconds base.

And leave MtD at one stack.

This provides one Condi “burst” shatter button in F2 without making every other shatter button into simple faceroll for huge condition stacks.

In addition to this, the Confusing Combatants trait can be restored instead of the Fury trait – which will not benefit people running Dire or anything ridiculously tanky with low precision in wvw as it requires crits to proc confusion. It will also benefit non native condition weapons allowing greater variety and flexibility in builds.

I believe those two changes would be a good start to making Condi shatter competitive while maintaining some constraints on gameplay.

I am Alpha, and I approve this message.

Agreed, great suggestions there!

BWE3 Chronomancer Feedback Thread

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Windwalker.7421

Agree with most of the above.

I noticed a bug with Well of Eternity. I was running 1k Healing and it claimed the initial heal would be well over 3k, but the actual heal stayed at 2.8k. I didn’t really check into whether the Healing was not scaling or what, but it seemed that the initial heal was about the same with and w/o Healing. (Again didn’t check to make sure, I just noticed the numbers being off.) Other than that, WoE is awesome now! Really great for group play.

I agree with the iAvenger and I’m at a bit of a loss why it was implemented as yet another AE Cleave fodder Phantasm. Hard to fathom. Other than that it’s a pretty solid Phantasm, but the attack rate is simply way too low. Oh yeah, another bug! The iAvenger is unaffected by Phantasmal Haste. I’d like to see the attack rate go from ~8s to ~6s. The damage is OK and is AE with 5 targets, I like that, but it’s simply too slow for a melee range phantasm. Let’s hope we see that improvement to summons and AE cleave damage they take.

The other wells looked in good shape as well! I really like Precognition and Recall now. Both are very useful. The Elite one is decent enough too. It’s great for interrupt builds and the damage is nice as well.

That’s all for now!

MTD Needs to be Revisited

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Windwalker.7421

The problem is, what ANet doesn’t like about condi Mesmer is the burst from high stacks of Confusion and/or Torment. So, this suggestion is moving in exactly the opposite direction from where ANet is trying to go.

I don’t think anyone knows where Anet is trying to go, with the “possible” exception of Anet themselves.

That being said, whatever it is they want, all they achieved is to gut a previously “decent” trait into neigh uselessness. There was and is no remotely competitive Condition Mesmer build without the old MTD, and even with it it was highly debateable that a Condie Shatter build was really competitive.

The nerf was completely unneeded and very knee-jerk. It was also extremely heavy-handed. That needs to be undone.

Now I personally favor 2x Torment for 3-4 seconds. That’s still a huge nerf to the old MtD, but it’s more of a nerf to potential total damage output, rather than the nerf we have now which absolutely neutered actual realistic damage output by 50%.

By cutting duration in half, you’d still have a 50% damage nerf over time, but would leave MtD’s deadliness of short-duration burst Condition damage for people whom are both too stupid to stop moving and not use cleanses. Surely, Anet intended Torment to do just that.

What we have now is that most classes can simple safely ignore Torment damage completely unless they happened to get hit with the Scepter #2 on top of fully eating a shatter burst or two.

Most classes also are able to completely negate most Mesmer Condition damage output via completely passive Condition removal.

Another option would be to give back the +50% Torment damage on moving targets for MtD that Anet had originally intended with the recent overhaul patch. That would actually be a very interesting way to improve MtD without undoing the current nerf. This would merely strengthen the original design intent behind the Torment condition; you move, you die. Period.

The fact is, people are running around in Torment with near impunity, unless they get massive stacks on them in very short duration. (Or with lots of cover conditions, which we largely lack, especially in the AE variety.)

In fact both Confusion and Torment currently lack in the punishment they give for completely avoidable action. While burns are left with literally no counter-play aside from cleanses, these two conditions have very effective and intuitive counter-play options, and still do less DPS in the worst-case scenario then Burns do. Pathetic!

Balance Patch Discussion on Twitch

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Windwalker.7421

All looks pretty good. I don’t mind the “baby step” boosts.

Robert, what about that fix to Duelist’s Discipline? I remember you saying you already fixed it and that it was slated to go live in an upcoming balance patch soon. It’s sorely needed IMO.

Same goes for Torch! Come on! The Prestige got a huge nerf due to the new Burn stacking mechanics, it should definitely have been given 2-3 stacks of Burning just to make it as strong as it was before the condie damage updates. The same goes for the Torch Phantasm, going from 4x Confusion for 4 secs (?) to 1 silly stack of Burning for 5s is a gigantic nerf to what already was the worst Phantasm. Please at least increase it to 2 stacks Burn maybe for only 3 seconds.

Secondly, I find it a bit strange to boost Sword AA, and leave Scepter -and Condie builds in general- even further behind. I saw little wrong with the Sword AA, certainly not as compared to Scepter AA! I like the change, don’t get me wrong, but our really poorly performing MH is still Scepter! (I saw that the Daredevil was getting their Dagger projectile speed increased in BWE3, and I really wondered why is this never considered for all the terrible projectiles we have to live with and suffer through? Both Scepter and Staff need their projectile velocity increased by at least 33%. IMO that would probably also help with the reliability issues, making it harder to avoid being hit solely by moving. Leave staff Clone attacks as is.)

Along with the 50% gutting of MtD, these indirect/inadvertent (I hope) Torch nerfs have left Condie Mesmer Builds in pretty poor shape at the moment! (Confusion simply still is not a great/reliable Condition, and our primary source of burst Confusion comes from the F2 which has a very short duration. The CD on F2 is still far too big for what you get in return, and it should be a much more significant AE burst shatter for Condition builds. In fact now that non-condie builds get far less “incidental” condition damage out of F2, I think it’s high time to boost the condition application of CoF a bit.)

Last but not least, I would like to see a bit of an overhaul on amulets in sPvP. The Marauder amulet is the clear winner, far more so than Zerker before it IMO, and the math is pretty easy to see why. I also feel that once again the options for Condition builds are pretty poor, nothing rivaling what Marauder does for Power builds IMO.

Keep up the good work!

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

[Suggestion]Phantasm Survivability Rework

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Windwalker.7421

I certainly agree with the basic premise of improving Phantasm survivability vs. AE/cleave, but I think this is overly complex and unintuitive for both the Mesmer and the enemy. It also carries a major downside to Phantasm survivability vs. direct attacks, which IMO is already weak and doesn’t need to get any worse.

You mentioned this part:

“One of the mistlock instabilities causes non-targeted mobs to take half damage. "

So why all the other complex rules, when you already found a much easier solution? Simply make Phantasms take half damage from indirect AE/cleave. Done!

I realize this won’t solve all problems entirely, especially from a WvW PoV, but it’s a big step in the right direction with much less risk of breaking things.

Also, I personally don’t think it’s reasonable to ask for any sort of complete immunity to AE, even with added trade-offs elsewhere. I think the goal should simply be to give Phantasms a bit more of a fighting chance in low-to-medium AE/cleave environments.

I also think the Distortion on summon trait should be baseline, with the trait adding an additional 1s Distortion. Between 2s of Distortion on summon, and 50% immunity to cleave, I personally think Phantasm survivability would be fine.

Bulwark Gyro

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Windwalker.7421

Yeah the more I saw actual footage of the Scrapper, the more I thought it certainly looked neat, but not amazing either. Now I realize there are going to be a lot better Scrapper builds then what we saw in the PoI vids, but nothing I saw made me think I’ll be facing anything as tough as say a d/d Elementalist is now.

On the other hand, looking at the Engie forums just makes me laugh and cry at the same time. So many people denouncing stuff they haven’t played, proclaiming the end of the Rifle, useless Gyros, etc. etc. etc. Really sad. I have to say I’m glad Mesmers were much more excited and positive about Chronomancy when it was first revealed, and considering where Engineers currently are I find it a bit hard to believe them complaining about some really powerful stuff coming their way. (but yes, if you’re not into melee/support on your Engie, then you may well choose to forego the Scrapper. That’s kinda the idea of Elite specs; provide new alternative play styles, not totally replace all older ones!)

Chronomancer Changes for BWE3

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Windwalker.7421

Been thinking about the numbers on Wells and the Well trait. Well of Recall giving a really solid 5s of Alacrity at the end is a good change IMO. However, in my opinion at least (yes untested just plain math) AWtEW is very likely going to give too much Alacrity, which is likely to result in adjustments.

So I have a suggestion to make preemptively…

I think AWtEW would be a solid trait choice with a simple & intuitive “+25% Effect on final tick.” For damaging wells it’s 25% increased damage, for Well of Action it would give another 1.5s of Alacrity, and for Eternity it would add 25% to the final heal. (+25% to the 35 Endurance of the Precognition Well, etc.)

It really would fit well with the traits name & intention, no pun intended, and not leave us with builds that go all out Wells + Shield and give ludicrous amounts of Alacrity to our team.

Especially if the Shield Phantasm is actually done correctly, which I really implore Robert to do, where it doesn’t insta-die before at least getting off 1 attack, then we’re looking at a lot more AoE Alacrity in BWE3 then even in BWE2.

I also think 2s Alacrity on AWtEW is kinda boring TBH, and I never liked the Cleansing either. I think Well’s are largely about that 3rd tick, and the name AWtEW implies “a grand finale” so this would really support that design.

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

Chronomancer build for BWE3

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Windwalker.7421

I want to try this bunker/interrupt just for kicks. I wanted BD for the Stab, Fury, and Resistance (F5). I think the stability might be important for using the Well of Eternity, you really don’t want to miss that final heal pulse.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8encfC1fi1oBmpBEgiFij6sBugOzMASgFq+S30QF-TJxHABPXGIgnAAK7PAwFBAA

Basically the point is you’re extremely hard to kill, bring a load of team utility (heals, cleanses, fast resses) and annoying as hell due to tons of interrupts that apply Slow. With slow on enemies you get +30% crit rate so you start doing a bit more damage, though damage will certainly be pretty weak.

With ~28k HPs, >2k Toughness, Insp+Chaos, lots of Etherals for Protection, and a load of AE & self condition clearing, as well as lots of CC/interrupts.

It’s probably a bit overkill on the defense, but I definitely want to try it in unranked arena to bunker on point. Could easily go with CI and change MD to II to share boons instead, maybe All’s Well & IR/IA and give up on damage altogether.

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

Chronomancer Changes for BWE3

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Thanks for your reply and clearing that up, but surely you understand the very valid concern that in melee range this Phantasm will very likely fail to deliver its attack just the same as the bounce attack did, or quite possibly even worse.

If the point was consistent, which you even bolded, than I’m not sure this is going to be the way to go…at least not until we finally see code that improves all Illusions/pets/summon/etc chances to survive cleave damage for more than a split second.

If this Phantasm has any duration involved in that melee attack, or has to run into range to attack, then it will quite probably fail far more than the bounce-based Avenger before it.

Obviously I haven’t seen it, so it’s hard to judge, but from the information we have this is a very valid concern considering our current melee-range Phantasms performance & life expectancy in combat. (Even the iDefender, with a much higher HP pool, dies instantly in AE cleave; and still dies way too quickly against a single opponent.)

Obligatory Druid cynicism thread

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

I’m pretty sure they data mined glyphs for Druids, you know, those useless elementalist utilities.

At least there’s something useless for Elementalists!

Which we all know in no way means it will be useless for Rangers.

As if they’re going to make an Elite line that won’t leave the majority of players of a class drooling to buy HoT. ;-)

Whatever it will be, it will be pretty OPd or at least it will be really cool/unique if not OPd. Then after HoT releases the real balancing phase starts, and 6 months down the road we might see something resembling balance.

Inspiring Distortion in PvP

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

OP is right, both of those situations need a fix. Either make it give Blur to the team instead, or lift the “no cap” restriction for team mates.

Bulwark Gyro

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Oh look at the nice green grass over there! That’s where I want to live!

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I think the Scrapper sounds like fun and I’m glad Engineers have something to look forward to with HoT even if some/many don’t think they like their new shinies.

I think we have plenty to look forward to as well, and as much as I can agree that the utility that summons an iDefender is in great need of improvement, I fail to see any relevance in comparisons with the Gyros.

The iDefender utility is one of many poor Mesmer utilities, and one of many more useless utilities across the game. Yes, it needs to be boosted. This has far less to do with the iDefender itself, and absolutely nothing to do with Gyros or Engineers for that matter.

I will definitely be trying out the Scrapper, which is a rare thing for me to get interested in any other profession besides Mesmer.

Chronomancer Changes for BWE3

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Thanks Robert, really awesome changes and I can’t wait for BWE3 to come now. Finally and OH that has a reliable defensive component! Finally a channeled block! yay!

That alone is enough to do the happy dance!

The Well stuff also looks really cool.

As others have pointed out, the amount of player feedback you’ve taken into consideration for improving Chrono lately is highly appreciated!

GG!

Making shield useful in PvE.

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

This whole post is so wrong. Alacrity is a fantastic mechanic, you just have to use it properly.

Awe give him some credit! I think the first 3 paragraphs were spot on! He just got Alacrity wrong, probably based on that “silly math” that was thrown out early on when Alacrity was first revealed.

I think he correctly pointed out the weakness of Robert’s argument on Shield DPS being low. As has been repeatedly pointed out, most other classes are also not using their Shields for the same poor trade off between offense and defense. (Not to mention we’re continually told that inter-profession comparisons are invalid anyway!)

Now I’m not saying I want to see Shield turned into a DPS power-house, even though it kinda fits the same strangeness of Mesmer GS, but at least the defense or utility must somewhat balance out the loss in damage output! Clearly it doesn’t do that, especially as far as #4 and the Phantasm go. (Poor summon mechanic. Poor damage with mediocre short-duration effects on a very disliked form of attack. Poor attack rate.)

It’s clear they balanced the iCapt with the absolute best case scenario in mind, a scenario that virtually never actually happens in game as it would pretty much require a single AFK opponent. (And even then I think it’s still pretty bad! lol!)

If You Could Make ONE Change to Chrono...

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

It is bad design if a master trait is great with a specific GM, but terrible without it

Purely as an aside, I disagree with this. This is called “synergy” and is not bad design.

Absolutely, unequivocally untrue. I ran condi shatter in BWE1 with and without CP, and I can say that it was great with both.

Ahh OK, so because you played it and feel it was “great” then I guess that must be so! I guess my own experience was wrong then! /getoveryourself

Sorry, but Condie Shatter couldn’t have been “great” as even with IR+CP and DE it wasn’t and isn’t “great”, and certainly not since the MtD nerf. It’s was/is at best “barely viable” against semi-competent opponents.

No, it was clearly implemented because there was a lot of whining on the forums. The entire history of that nerf speaks for itself, you’re resorting to hyperbole to back up an insufficiently reasoned point.

Agree with the first sentence at least. As for hyperbole and the “insufficiently reasoned point” remark, I retort that you’re a bit quick to resorting to personal attacks based purely on your own subjective opinion.

Condition Shatter is hardly in a good spot right now, and is looking to be largely worse off than before the recent patches. Since it was not even considered to be a viable alternative to Power Shatter then, by accounts of the majority of Mesmers on this board and in game, it isn’t exaggerated to claim that any change that further negatively impacts the Condition Shatter playstyle might relegate it to a worse “niche build” spot than it was before the recent patches.

Unlike you (apparently), I do not believe that the unnerfed IR alone is enough to replace DE/Dueling. This means that if we do what you propose, then even with CP or IR, I will need DE for adequate illusion generation. That means we’re right back at the same bad design as before, requiring Dueling for any remotely competitive shatter build.

You claim insufficient reasoning, but please name me a Power Shatter Chronomancer build that won’t take Dueling? What are you going to drop Dueling for? Chaos? Insp? Ill? Please! Dueling just has way too much to offer to Power Shatter.

So we still have Dueling as a must have for the most popular Mesmer shatter build. So why are we discussing changing IR to compete with CP? Are we improving build diversity with that, or do we want to keep the BWE1 IR at all cost, even if it means screwing over other potential builds in the process?

Another question for you. Will your proposed change decrease the illusion generation for non-Dueling Chronomancers over what they had in BWE2? The only truthful answer is a resounding yes! Obviously! Duh! That alone is proof enough that my reasoning is quite sound, thank you very much!

I repeat, you’ve given no good reasoning behind your assertion that DE would be required, especially compared to the current 2-illusion regime.

lol! Now you’re just getting silly. No good reason? Assertion? DE has been a requirement for shatter builds for the entire game’s existence! This is a fact shared by pretty much anyone who has ever had a clue about any form of shatter-based Mesmer play. People have time and again tried to create Shatter builds that didn’t take DE, but they all failed miserably in presenting these builds as being competitive/viable. Do you deny this?

So having established that DE is in fact a requirement for shatter based play right now, please tell me how we will replace DE as a must-have skill for Chronomancers? By nerfing it’s illusion generation capabilities? Surely you jest! That’s some sound logic right there! lol! If anyone is lacking good reasoning here, it is you!

There are plenty of people who feel that even the unnerfed IR + CP was not enough to replace the reliable clone generation of DE for Power Shatter builds. How do you think that either CP or IR alone will stack up to DE? They won’t. Period. What you’re proposing makes no sense from a build diversity point of view, as it leaves DE as a requirement for shatter-based play. (Which has become even more fundamental to Mesmers than before!.)

How does that make any sense? CP+IR has 0 defensive value, not being able to take both doesn’t magically make up for the defensive traits of Chaos or Inspiration as it is.

I can’t believe I have to explain this, but it makes me wonder if you did in fact play Condition Shatter Mesmer before at all. How does it not make sense? It’s not CP+IR that gives defense, it’s the lack of Dueling/DE as a required specline that —if required-- would absolutely pigeonhole Condition Shatter Chronomancers into a single build! (Chrono/Ill/Dueling)

And without Chronomancy, the whole Condition Shatter concept is lacking in viability anyway, thanks to the harshness of the MtD nerf! So there would be no alternative to the above mentioned build. You need the F5 mechanic to churn out enough Confusion + Torment to be remotely competitive as an AE Condition applying class. What you do not absolutely need is Dueling! Yeah it’s a lovely line, even for Condition Shatter, and DE is still highly desirable. Some/many will still choose to go Duel/Chrono/Ill, and that’s great it should be a strong option! (note build diversity!) However, even in the BWE2 state of IR, you do not absolutely need DE/Dueling, and gaining the defense from Chaos or Inspiration is also highly desirable for a build-concept designed around damage over time.

If you move IR to GM and make it compete with CP rather than synergizing with it, you all but cement DE as a requirement for Condition Shatter builds. (And IMO other potential newer builds as well, such as tanky/bunker style builds.) That not only stymies build diversity, but leaves Condition Shatter weaker defensively than ever before. (and arguably it is already offensively weaker thanks to the MtD & Torch Burn nerfs)

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

Making shield useful in PvE.

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Plus even with an aura, 1 second of alacrity every 8 (the approximate attack rate of the phantasm as documented by the wiki) seconds per phantasm without phantasmal haste is atrocious for how little damage the phantasm does.

It rivals the torch’s iMage for worst phantasm of the bunch.

Agreed and I’ve said as much. The Shield #4 and IMO Shield in general is not a PvE or PvP issue, it’s clearly a Shield issue. The Phantasm is terrible in both play modes. Period. The block is also terrible in both play modes, as having to press a button to block a single attack is only very rarely worthwhile the time it took to press the button. Having to do this twice in a row to block just 2 attacks is plain asinine! (And let’s face it, it’s a terrible summoning mechanic. Slow and/or unreliable. Bad!)

Bounce attacks are the third nail in the coffin that is the iCapt! Here again, bad in both PvE and PvP, and hugely hated by Mesmers everywhere for it’s SLOW, unreliable/buggy, and RNG driven nature! The 8s attack rate is simply an insult to a gaping chest wound! Clearly this brilliant design choice was made due to Alacrity…which comes on an unreliable, slow, bounce attack for a pitiful 1s duration whenever it happens to find a friendly target. It thus draws on a feedback loop of suckage!

There is just little more to say! The Shield will be a largely unused OH for both PvP and PvE when the dust settles, if things stay as they are. (The novelty took only 1 BWE for me to weak off! I stopped using Shield for 99% of BWE2, despite the fact that I really wanted to like shield! I think it could be a fantastic OH, but currently it simply isn’t.)

Yeah Shield #5 is pretty good, but that is the only thing that Shield currently has going for it and it has a rather long CD. Considering we already kinda got screwed on only getting an OH weapon with 2 new skills, I personally feel ANet owes it to Mesmers that both of those skills are worthwhile! (In all game modes!)

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

If You Could Make ONE Change to Chrono...

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Illusionary Reversion – No longer has an illusion requirement, but is swapped with Seize the Moment.

Could someone please explain the logic of this terrible nerf some of you are advocating? I fail to see how this would do anything but cement DE/Dueling as a must-have line for all shatter builds.

With IR and CP you can do very well without DE for both Power or even Condition shatter builds. Please don’t ask to have that taken away by such a silly idea as to make us choose between the two.

This would kill off Chronomancy as a viable specialization for Condition Shatter builds, and with that really kinda kill the whole idea thanks to the huge MtD nerf, which was clearly implemented due to Chronomancy in the first place! Being forced into DE/Dueling would mean a single build path for Condition Shatter, and it would leave you very very vulnerable without being able to take up either Chaos or Insp.

Terrible idea…sorry.

Chronomancer: power or condi?

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

I played Chrono/Power first BWE and Chrono/Condie second BWE, and I can say I had a ton of fun playing either. Both are really solid, but Chrono/Condie of course can be a lot more tanky in nature.

This BWE I played mostly Chrono/Ill/Insp in rabid amulet with Scavenger Runes and Sigils of Leeching. I was a tough nut to crack, that’s all I can say. As I complained elsewhere, Condie damage output in group fights is still a big issue, especially since both Torment and Confusion have innate counters that halve damage without the need to cleanse. It’s not terrible, but in most cases simply can’t measure up to power/shatter.

If they fixed our Torch Burns, we’d be in a really good spot even with the gutting of MtD. The Prestige needs to give 3 stacks of 3s Burning, period. Anything less is a huge nerf to this ability as compared to it’s performance in the past 2 years!

The Torch Phantasm would probably be ok with 2 stacks of 5s Burning, or better yet 3 stacks of 3s. How Anet figured that 4 stacks of Confusion for 4 (?) seconds should equal to 1 stack for 5s of the new Burn is beyond me. The math must have escaped them.

Oh well, it’s still a fun build and most of the time it’s a pretty solid combination of survivability & damage output.

[BW2] Chronomancer Feedback Thread

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

I don’t think the changes in Illusionary reversion were really effective since you can always combine it with DE to generate clones fast. In pvp chronomancers still have insane burst at the moment.

I don’t see the point here. If you’re taking both DE and Chrono, then you should have very strong Clone generation. Anything less would mean DE remains a must have. In the scenario you give, DE+IR+CP is totally overkill. The “insane” burst you allege, is solely due to Mind Wrack for Power Shatter Mesmers, which will be on a 15s timer in the build you describe. (minus Alacrity) Only through F5 will you ever need 3 more Illusions for a near instant follow-up MW, which of course is the whole design of Chronomancy. (And has plenty of counter-play, as this combo is among the most Telegraphed combos in the game! See a Rift appear? React! Dodge/block/invuln/evade)

Besides, the second 3-Illusion MW is easily achievable in other ways, and doesn’t have anything to do with IR. (No matter how you nerf it, it’s easy to get 2x 3-Clone MW off in short order using the F5 Shatter. You can use MI to make it trivial even, but CP+DE alone are also enough even without IR.)

I agree with what some people said above, giving this trait an internal cooldown or making it compete with chronophantasm in the grandmaster tier would be better options.

You can’t nerf IR enough to avoid this “insane” burst aspect of the F5 shatter and the Chronomancy line as a whole, so why completely nerf IR into uselessness? Sorry, moving it to GM would be a terrible idea! It can’t hope to compete with Chronophantasm and would clearly be redundant!

A CD is also a bad idea in general, unless you make it 3s or less, and even then it’s clunky and less reliable than the current IR. Most of all, such a nerf would be targeted at nothing! It would amount to a random nerf to a decent & competitive trait, possibly leaving it un(der) used. It wouldn’t change a thing as far as Power bursting goes, and Condie bursting is an absolute non-issue anyway.

I played a Condie Shatter all BWE and we’re still significantly weaker at Condition damage output then Burn-based Eles, Guardians, and Engineers. It’s still viable and fun, but I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve seen a Confusion or Torment tick of over 2k on a player all BWE. Now compare that to any of the above professions, who constantly apply 2500+ Burn ticks on you! Even one tick hurts a lot and outside of a Cleanse/Resistance there is NO counter play option! Totally unlike Confusion and Torment, both of which have a very simple counter play option that halves their DPS! (It’s ludicrous to imagine why we keep seeing Condie Mesmer getting nerfed over and over again, while all these Burning lunatics are left untouched!)

Please, leave IR alone! The requirement of 2 Illusions is fine and together with Chronophantasms allows for a realistic alternative to DE. The fact that you can still choose to take both DE and IR+CP is no different for any other resource-based class with multiple traits to boost that resource. There are significant trade-offs in doing that!

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

[BW2] Chronomancer Feedback Thread

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Since I am done playing for this BWE I will share a few things I am concerned with from the PoV of a Condition Shatter Chronomancer, which is what I mostly played this WE.

1) I am still annoyed at a lot of the nerfs Conditions have taken. One that I think is particularly unfair at the moment is how badly Torch was nerfed…and in all the wrong ways. I mean The Prestige Burn being basically reduced by ~50% or more in damage for Condition Mesmers, far worse for Power ones. This absolutely should and must apply 3 stacks of Burn to be back up to par where it was. It was never the Burn that concerned people and now it’s plain weak. Same goes for the Torch Phantasm Burn, it should also apply 3 stacks of burning for 3s. (Or at least 2x for 5s.) That the damage was nerfed, while the Stealth portion was significantly boosted, is just a tad ironic.

2) Shield OH. Pretty bad, sorry. If adding another bad OH was the point of this expansion for Mesmers, then I’d call it a success I guess. I really wanted to like it, I gave it a serious try and almost did kinda like it, but it is fundamentally flawed like pretty much all Mesmer OHs are. I would love to see the Shield #4 turned into a plain old 2-3 second full block that summons the Phantasm after ~1 second, or of course when canceled. (With an additional effect when canceled?) The 2x single blocks are a tad less bugged then our other blocks, and the summoning of the Phantasms is much smoother, but 2 blocks that each have to be actively engaged to block just a single attack is plain silly in a game with such a high pace of combat. You can easily take 5+ hits in the time it takes you to physically activate it just to block a single attack. We need a reliable defense on the OH, or it is IMO fatally flawed. That a Shield OH has such a poor defense is quite frankly silly design. Both the 2x Phantasms and the #5 are IMHO pretty gimmicky and not that useful…that’s a bit harsh. I mean in relation to the lacking defense, they simply don’t give a proper payoff reward for losing the much-needed defense that Torch provides. (At the very least the Shield Phantasm should outclass Torchs’ then, but it’s hard to say who would win the race for being the second worse Phantasm. Bounce attack. Sigh. We wanted less of it, not more…or at least increase the projectile speed of all of our bounces by 33-50%. )

3) Mistrust is also way too weak to be a GM. Not going to make any suggestions, but it’s plain bad. If we were just creating new useless GMs, I fail to see the point of the overhaul. There should be a concerted ongoing effort to eliminate bad GMs. I’m not talking about “less popular” ones, I mean BAD ones. This one is plain bad for a GM trait.

4) The 15% attack speed from Malicious Sorcery should be baked into the otherwise even more broken Scepter. The only reason this sees any use is the lack of other options for Condie Mesmers. If you had implemented the improved Confusing Combatants, which you should have btw, then you would have seen people choose Sword over Scepter as a Condition weapon. Sad that we didn’t get that choice just becasuse of GS (I guess?), which easily could have been solved differently. (Although the Fury is absolutely lovely! )

I didn’t care much for the Elite well, I liked the Float one better. It was more unique and cool, too bad we got ourselves nerfed there. I guess an interrupt Mesmer would love it, otherwise I found it fairly minimal impact as compared to TW, MI, or Moa. Outside of Calamity, the wells are all fairly uninteresting IMHO. I also don’t like the change to All’s Well that Ends Well. It’s not terrible, but also not terribly interesting.

Despite all this complaining, I had a blast during the beta though!

I think Condie Chronomancer is in pretty good shape, but it wouldn’t be OPd to fix up TP & iMage Condition damage.

Last BWE I mostly played Power Shatter and also had a lot of fun with that too. So despite all the nagging, things are looking pretty good for Mesmers.

Wells: Pulse Despair, End with Happiness

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

I definitely in support of adding a damaging condition to one of the wells. I don’t understand why Condie always gets the red headed stepchild treatment, and is completely overlooked in Mantras and Wells.

Both the damaging Mantra and Well should get a Condition damage component. It would be balanced to simply add this on top of current values, as without Condition damage these Confusion/Torment stacks do very little damage and both have innate counters. So adding 3 stacks of 3 second duration Confusion/Torment per tick of the Well will not be OPd in the least. (Same for the Mantra too really.)

Come on Robert, this is a no brainer! With MtD gutted, please give us some more means to apply AE Confusion/Torment via Well of Calamity or Mantra of Pain!

[BW2] Chronomancer Feedback Thread

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Windwalker.7421

Can’t really say I agree that the IR nerf was bad at all. I am playing Condie shatter even, which means spamming shatters like crazy, more so than a Power shatter ever would/should, and I’m seeing solid results from IR. I am playing w/o dueling so no DE, and relying solely on IR + Chronophants for illusion generation.

There are still times I have all shatters down, and 2-3 illusions up.

Chronophantasm is simply awesome, and that’s what makes IR still work well IMO.

I was a proponent of a 2s CD on IR before, but at this point the current change seems more fluid actually. I’d hate to see a 5 sec CD on it as some have suggested, as this would severely cripple its effectiveness in ways that the 2 illusion limit simply doesn’t.

Now a 2s CD would work just fine, and I wouldn’t mind trying that out, but if it’s anymore than 2s CD, I’d rather keep this 2 illusion limit.

Be careful what you ask for…I guess.

[OMFG] Beta Build-Testing List!

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

I have to say, the IR nerf is not as bad as I expected. The interaction with Chronophantasms makes it pretty easy to still get some nice chains off even without DE.

It’s still really nasty in a Condie Shatter build.

Something nastier than PU mesmers?

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Doritos are OPd!

Nerf that garbage NOW Frito-Lay!

Why do mesmer lack blast finishers?

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

The number and type of fields are part of class design. If you want to get more competitive fields be prepared to give up stuff from mesmer.

I have to wonder if you even read what I say, or if you did, how you could misinterpret it so grossly.

Let me clarify by retorting to your childish drivel considering the Mercedes (clearly a Pinto but whatever) and the fire fields.

I clearly said I don’t want fire fields, or more blast finishers even aside from maybe 1 working/usable one on either GS3 or making the Torch one actually useable.

What I said was I want ALL combo fields that are currently clearly inferior to the likes of Fire & Water, to be boosted in some way. I even said, I don’t care if this boost is fairly minor and leaves Fire & Water kings, as I don’t want to copy what they have and they clearly cover some of the most important aspects of PvP combat.

What I am saying is make the Light Aura not terrible, for example. Boost all the current effects on Light, Etheral, Dark, etc. to get something, anything at all, to bring them just one step closer to Fire and Water (and Smoke).

That’s how you balance abilities. You don’t create 2 God Mode combo fields, and put utter crap on the others, and then leave it like that forever! That’s stupid! There is nothing wrong with making all combo fields slightly more competitive to each other. This is not going to make Mesmers Blast their Etheral fields for 25 stacks of AoE Might, nor will we be blasting our Etheral fields for multiple free heals.

I’m talking, add a Boon and/or Condition here or there to each of the sub-par fields to bring them up a notch. Then wait and see, let it play out, and if it’s still bad then revisit them again 6 months later.

Cram your Mercedes crap, no one is asking for Fire/Water Fields here that I’ve seen.

It’s about a legitimate complaint that the one Blast finisher we have is clearly unusable in a tactical way, especially with PU, and that the fields we have access to are often not a boon but a detriment to our teams!

Why do mesmer lack blast finishers?

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Yet both are detrimental in comparison to Fire, Water, Smoke, Dark, and covering those up with a crappy Ethereal Field and to a lesser degree, light field in ANY aspect of the game is a sure way to kitten people off.

Bingo! That’s what I’m saying. That really needs to change. There is no reason why the other fields can’t be made at least a little more competitive.

Same goes for balance between Blast and the other finishers, most of which are terrible as well in comparison to Blast.

Why do mesmer lack blast finishers?

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Many thanks for the straight answer on this. We have been asking about this for a logn time, and it’s good to just get an answer.

I don’t mind the design all that much, but I agree that you should spend some time evaluating the effectiveness of the various blast finishers. Very little balancing has been done here, and the balance between them has always been quite terrible.

Clearly Fire+Blast and Water+Blast are much stronger than pretty much any other finisher/field combo. I think it would make sense to better balance these combo effects amongst themselves. Bring up the less desirable ones like Etheral field. I realize they will never all be equally desirable, but currently the gap is so huge that it leaves plenty of room to improve weaker ones without in any way affecting the desirability of stronger ones like Fire and Water.

Lastly, I agree with the principle that Mesmer shouldn’t be a blast-focused class, but I also don’t think that should mean they get literally no reasonably useable blast finishers at all! So I agree with those that ask for TP to at least Blast at the start rather the end of the skill. (This issue was also greatly exacerbated by PU.)

Also I agree that a Blast Finisher fits the GS#3, and even that would still be far from turning Mesmers into a Blast-finisher oriented profession. We would still completely lack the ability to stack Might ourselves as we have no Fire fields, and equally no means to heal ourselves using Water fields.

Of course, alternatively, you could leave the Blast finishers as is, and just make The Prestige drop a short duration Fire field just before the current Blast Finisher goes off! :-)

Many bug fix, still no duelist's discipline

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

course, you could always argue that even a small amount of testing would have revealed that 22sec of continuous stealth might have balance issues…..

Has it ever occurred to you that perhaps they did know exactly how it would work out, and decided it’s something they wanted, or at least wanted to try out, on the Mesmer?

I could be wrong too and TP and/or PU will get the bat come next patch! So be it! I’ll roll with those punches too. It’s just getting annoying to read this incessant whining about something that is at best “maybe kinda” OPd, probably more along the lines of “very strong” actually.

The mere fact is you’re not killing anything or anyone by having a lot of stealth uptime. Fact also is, we have a lot more anti-stealth abilities in the game then before, and there is really only one single game-mode in which this plethora of stealth can even be considered very effective. In PvE it’s completely useless. In sPvP also it’s very questionably effective, and comes at too high a cost at other abilities. In general WvW, as in zerg vs. zerg fights, siege battles, etc. it’s literally worthless.

That leaves us with solo roaming in WvW, the one single place where PU+TP shines. A game mode that clearly is not balanced around. So calling PU+TP overpowered is really quite disingenuous. It is simply blind to the realities that this view can at best be supported by a single niche game-mode, one that is generally not considered to be a cornerstone of game balance.

In the greater scheme of game balance, I’d say PU and TP are rather near the bottom of “urgent adjustments” to powerful/OPd traits.

Especially considering the very severe nerfs we’ve already eaten since the big overhaul patch, more than any other profession.

(edited by Windwalker.7421)

Offhand Sword 4 Needs Improvement

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Posted by: Windwalker.7421

Windwalker.7421

Although some of the suggestions made are cool and could provide for some interesting play options, I tend to side with simple obvious fixes to better ensure you’re improving the balance of the game.

I think it’s pretty plain that Torch is not used for it’s awesome Phantams, or the damage that it brings to the table. It mainly provides Stealth, which can be used both offensive and defensively. So people are quite willing to sacrifice a terribad Phantasm just to get the #4 skill.

What Sowrd #4 needs is for the block to be a real block, a full 2s of blocking attacks. That’s still at least 50% shorter than many/most other blocks on other classes. The counter attack is really nice, but yes it needs to execute faster to make it both harder to avoid and eat less damage yourself while doing it. As I said before, you should be able to simply cancel your block and perform your counter-attack/summon at any time during the channel. You’d perform the attack on your target and only if you blocked anything, otherwise you launch the Daze projectile attack.

So it’s basically the same as now, only more fluid, reliable, and most of all getting real defense out of this skill. It’s the defense that is needed to make it competitive with Torch IMO.

Lots of people would love to take OH Sword over Torch, as it wouldn’t interfere with decapping, but generally speaking a Mesmer simply can’t afford to lose the defense.