I can not stand the Great Sword, I’ve tried it so many times and everytime I hate it. The Mesmer Staff in the other hand is probably my favorite weapon set in the game.
Same her…personal preference really, I know it has its place. Also I really like the concept of the GS, this huge melee weapon that is actually ranged…perfect for mesmer. The execution of it is just boring for me though. I know it still comes down to hit + kite, which isn’t much different from staff, but staff feels so much better. I feel in complete control of the fight, knowing I can easily move away, even if immobilized, and I can drop all sorts of protection as needed for myself and my group. I get a similar feeling with sword/focus, which is why I run that as well. GS is always a short term experiment for me, and I don’t see that changing.
so wait, confusion is on me, and all of a sudden, I can attack my allies-but they still can’t attack me? Can’t imagine that being exploited in WvW…
I love the staff as well, every skill is good or great. The synergy between the 2 skill and 5 is great. It’s also a great way to dodge while casting anything that has a longer casting time (like the 3 skill). The three skill also has great synergy with the amount of conditions you cause, so that even in a power build, the phantasm is hitting hard, because of all the weak conditions on the opponent. And then 4 and 5 combine offense and defense. All around, a great weapon, with a great set of skills that synergize well with eachother and work well in a group.
actually with the blinding befuddlement nerf, 25 staks are not easy to get at all and i havent gotten it since the nerf. highest i got was 17, which did not enough dmg. but think about it 10 necros can do even more dmg with all their wells and some of them do not hav an aoe cap either. 6 necros 2ballistas and 1 arrowcart were able to prevent an entire zerg to enter hills lordsroom. we destroyed the arrowcart and ballista, but the wells were almost like instadeath for us.
people can avoid massive confusion dmg by slowing down their attacks, if u get hit wit lots of bleeding or heavy burning dmg u take similar dmg. pure glamour mesmers do not do any other dmg apart from confusion, but changing the aoe cap on feedback would be hard, as it reflects projectiles and nullfield rips boons and cure conditions. i would have been ok with 15-25 percent nerf without th e blinding befuddlement nerf. 50 percent is wayyy over the top!
I’ll defer to you on this stuff…I’ve only done minimal testing myself. You’re right, the blinding beffuddlement nerf was salt in the wound, and I would say, also unnecessary.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved the concept of the glam build, and liked playing one for a little (discovered it like 1 week before nerf). I also think that glam builds were a great role for mesers to play in wvw…and honestly, I don’t know how viable they are now, unless in a very coordinated group.
I think the solution would have been simple; cap the number of players every tick (or even every 5 seconds) that any of those effects can affect. As you mentioned, feedback is still potentially op’d vs a zerg…although there are some great counters to it. The solution is just to make it reflect all projectiles from 5 players, and have this update every 2 seconds or so….so the players affected may change, but it will only ever affect 5 players at once.
The annoying thing about this nerf is that glam builds needed nerfing, but this didn’t really address the issue that needed nerfing, and it nerfed everyone else.
so why were glam builds op’d? Because they dont obey the aoe limitations that affect all other aoe skills. So this made them very powerful vs a large group of players. The consequence is 10 glam mesmers could keep 25 stacks of confusion on an entire zerg. That is op’d. Here’s the other problem…they still mostly can. This only does half the dmg now, but 25 stacks is nothing to sneeze at-because youll take dmg. the nerf has therefore hurt the random player who wants to play around with glam builds. it also hurts other condition builds, since confusion is always at least part of the ddamage for mesmer condi builds.
worse still, the nerf did nothing to stop groups of coordinated mesmers from continuing to abuse glam builds…because again, the issue is that it affects the whole zerg, and that hasnt changed. So the one thing the nerf was rightfully intended to stop, it doesnt. -and it negatively affects everyone else.
Check again….altruism has a cooldown, so the first time it procs after you channel it. if you hold off on the insta-heals until the cooldown is over, they trigger it. they do niot trigger aoe heals from the mantra trait though…that’s why mantra of pain works better for group healing.
I’m not a fan of Caithe….for protagonist and mentor to a bunch of enlightened plant-people, she sure is bloodthirsty. Trehearne is fine.
sorry natsos, didn’t realize you were such a pro. Since you are emphasizing player skill so much, maybe the issue is not class imbalance, but skill imbalance? This god-like pro-mesmer you are talking about is probably doing all of those things that you refuse to do, and then some more. To make you think he is invisible, swap between three weapon sets and do great burst damage while tanking conditions. what you are referring to is either a mistake on your part..or a really amazing player who deserves to win..either way, i don’t see a reason to nerf
In response to Natsos,
1)the cooldowns on stealths is high…like 30-50 for the 4 possible stealth skills and much higher for the elite. It is possible to make a stealth build, but you lose a lot of utility/damage.
2)null field also has a 32 second cooldown-after buffing with a trait, and only lasts like 6 seconds. thats 24 seconds to get your condition damage in
3)your unwillingness to counter the class does not make it op’d.
4)you keep pointing out ll the possible things mesmers can do, but we cant do them all..sure a mesmer can be mobile, by taking blink-also on a long cooldown, and using centaur runes-available for everyone, or using focus. or maybe a gs power build can snipe from far away…but those are different builds. they cant do all that and be invisible all the time. what you’re complaining about is being killed in various ways by various builds, and you’re treating them all as the same thing.
i could go on the warrior forums and complain about how they can do so much damage and cite a glass cannon build, then i can complain about how tough they are to kill and cite a bunker build…but it ignores the fact that no one toon can do it all.
What if confusion refreshed on proc….so if you cast through it, it sticks around, and the stacks get higher….but you can let it expire and no harm done. That way confusion would work as extended pressure and dillemmas, rather than just bursts that seem excessive. I dont think the damage nerf would bother people, if you could buff the potential duration this way.
Think of all the inventory space you save not having scepters! Seriously though, swapping out clone generation for condition damage sounds great.
my issue with autoattack is that it kind of locks you in and makes gameplay boring. I think making it remember the state in the chain for 5-10 seconds would be great.
alternatively, you could make it cause weakness or chill…the sword does good power dmg, and provides defense via juking and invulnerability…the scepter could provide defense with conditions. gives it a very different flavor and makes it worth swapping to in both defensive and offensive builds…also makes it a natural alt for staff builds that may have increased condition duration.
I was playing a glam build today in wvw, didn’t feel useless at all. Before it was the obvious choice in wvw (at least vs zergs), with other stuff feeling like more specialized builds. Now it’s more in line with pvp, where it’s possibly worth it, possibly not. It’s still very versatile, still strips boons, causes blindness and does aoe damage / control to A LOT of people.
There are still very viable builds, and the mesmer is still very fun to play. Did they strike the right balance with confusion? I’m not sure…it’s really hard to tell that sort of thing quickly.
Also, others pointed out that confusion is just CC, and doesn’t really do dmg vs good players. This may be true…but then it’s either effectively healing/protecting your team by preventing them from attacking, or effectively damaging them by preventing them from healing / damage mitigating. Some builds can’t even dodge safely if they have confusion, because it procs several times. My point is just that stacking confusion is a powerful effect, whether it results in direct damage or not.
Mesmers are probably weaker than most classes from lvls 1-40. Then they become amazing. It’s just all the class defining traits require 20 points in a line. For noob mesmers, stick it out, it gets better…or just craft till 40. Better yet, test it out in pvp a bit and see if you like the playstyle…it is very tricky to do well, but once you get it, it’s amazing, versatile and very specializable.
Also leave the OP alone, I had a similar frustration early on, and at least the guy had the guts to come back and correct himself.