Jojo.6590

This! We need to take a step back and tone a lot of things down when it comes to access to boons, cc, healing, etc. What needs to happen is this, go back to the basics, go back to the core of each class. Each class's core provides 2-3 specific boons, 2 damaging conditions, and 2-3 debuffs (non-damaging conditions). Then you take the elite specs, which change the 2-3 boons, conditions, and debuffs your class provides. For example, let us say core Mesmer gave might, fury, and regeneration. Then you change to Chrono. Now instead of regeneration, all sources that would give regeneration now provide you with alacrity. You can do this for one boon, two, or all three. The same would be done for conditions and debuffs. Now not all of them have to change, but the idea is to allow for each class to have the ability to provide different boons/effects/conditions based on their elit spec. This then impacts their playstyle and role/functionality in different content areas without having the current issue the game has now; only a small few classes dominate in specific areas while others dominate across the board.

They MUST equalize state values for each piece of gear. For example, a helm offers a total of 100 state points (using 100 because it is an easy number for most people to understand this concept). Next, depending on the type of equipment (zerks vs assassins) will then dictate which stat(s) is the priority/main stat while the others are minor stats. This will then give the priority stat(s) more points from the 100 total than the others. In this scenario, a zerk's helm would have 50 power, 25 precision, and 25 ferocity while the assassin's helm would have 50 precision, 25 power, and 25 ferocity. What changes is how the 100 value is distributed amongst the different stat values while being restricted by the 100 stat cap. This next part is not my idea originally it is one of my guild mates, but they're spot on. Simply just remove numbers from all skills (weapons, class skills, utilities, etc) leaving just the armor/stat coefficients. This would then make your damage, healing, boon-up time, etc 100% dependent on your gear and not the current mix of odd multipliers.

Bingo, though be careful about name dropping on the forums. The real question that stands now is how much longer are the higher-ups going to keep turning a blind eye to this. (Cough* "I don't like fighting Mesmser" so I do not want it "optimal nor viable in any competitive game mode"). I know for myself I'm at a point where I'm just not investing any more money and limiting my time in the game due to this and the lack of accountability on the developers in charge of this. I'm curious to know how many more people (not just Mmeser mains) feel the same way. Maybe we need to get a poll going.

I still stick with my first views of the rifle from the beta (full rework). It just misses the mark. You'd think Anet would have learned that single-target heals did not work great on Thief with EoD. For a weapon that is supposed to be for group support, it falls short. The portal concept still feels like a gimmick that is useless in Zergs/large-scale fights and does not last long enough for people to use in both large and small/havoc fights. Skill 4 is also useless in large-scale fights, though the increased cast time/ speed feels much better. We finally get more access to ethereal fields but lack much of anything (burst, leaps, spins, etc) to combo with it. It feels awful when so many classes got increases in their mobility with EoD and SoRTO and Mesmer did not (still running blink). The weapon just feels soulless and rushed as it is just very simplistic and boring to use. However, this seems to be the direction of GW2 since EoD (at least for the classes that "people" don't want "optimal and viable" because they "don't like fighting Memser"). This is just disappointing. Especially when so much feedback was given in the beta and so much of it was neglected while other classes got full reworks on their weapon skills/weapons.

I still stick with my first views of the rifle from the beta (full rework). It just misses the mark. You'd think Anet would have learned that single-target heals did not work great on Thief with EoD. For a weapon that is supposed to be for group support, it falls short. The portal concept still feels like a gimmick that is useless in Zergs/large-scale fights and does not last long enough for people to use in both large and small/havoc fights. Skill 4 is also useless in large-scale fights, though the increased cast time/ speed feels much better. We finally get more access to ethereal fields but lack much of anything (burst, leaps, spins, etc) to combo with it. It feels awful when so many classes got increases in their mobility with EoD and SoRTO and Mesmer did not (still running blink). The weapon just feels soulless and rushed as it is just very simplistic and boring to use. However, this seems to be the direction of GW2 since EoD (at least for the classes that "people" don't want "optimal and viable" because they "don't like fighting Memser"). This is just disappointing. Especially when so much feedback was given in the beta and so much of it was neglected while other classes got full reworks on their weapon skills/weapons.

A lot of good input is already stated here. I'll just quickly summarize. Skills are slow, EXTREMELY SLOW. From a pvp/wvw standpoint, it needs mobility (looking at the portal on skill 5). A healer needs to be able to break combat at least once in a fight. You're forcing us to take blink losing a spot that could be used for more utility. Skill 4 needs a rework, and we need way better clone generation. For the AA would like to see an action chain like many of our main hand weapons. This feels extremely lackluster. Currently, rifle provides a lot of healing while still being lackluster in boons and barrier. My concern is that the healing will get nerfed which would then not allow for this to compete with other healers such as Druid, Guardian, and Tempest. These classes provide decent to great healing, boons, and barrier while also still having decent damage. Animations: Not a fan of most of the animations. Push this portal gun concept! Why not make it so that each skill is fired through a portal that then appears around the target/area in a different way/shape/effect?! (This is going to get chaotic, but just trying to provide more fun ideas for a better concept and theming that fits Mesmer other than just purple affects.) For example, the Mesmer fires skill 3 you see a portal open about 50-100 units in front of the Mesmer. Then below the target a bigger portal opens where the pistol shot comes out of with the typical Mesmer purple chaotic flair. The "mini" portal can appear in different locations around the targets in different shapes and sizes, though I prefer the simple circle/oval shape. Skill 5 concept: Using the portal concept above. Make this skill gain charges when skills 2-4 are used. You can even have skills 2-4 leave their portals (portals disappear after a given amount of time and/or if the skill is used again.) The effects of skill 5 increase based on how many portal charges/residual portals you have. Keeping the flip skill concept, you can "activate" your portal(s) causing them to pulse healing and other effects such as barrier and boons (again more effects based on charges) in a radius around them to allies while also debuffing enemies. Once the portals have been "activated" the flip skill is an "unlock" (like a door) which opens your portals to allow for 1-3 allies to use the portals to teleport to you/your current location. You can also simply have the Mesmer drop an exit portal at their location on the use of the flip skill as this may be more easy to implement. A more simple version of the concept above is also having the "mini" portals merge rather than having 1-4 active portals. This merge would then cause the main portal (say the portal from skill 3) to increase in size (visual flavor. You can also have the Mesmer select/ground target location to have all the mini portals merge in that location). Based on the number of portals that merged would then give a usage count (3 mini portals merging means a max of 3 people can go through the big portal). When the portals are unlocked, they will pulse chill, slow, immobilize, OR fear on nearby enemies (protecting your allies by preventing/slowing enemies from chasing them to the portal(s)). After the portal(s) have been used they detonate providing a damage and/or debuff effect to surrounding enemies while also providing a support (healing, boons, barrier) effect to allies around the Mesmer. Like I said, I know I was very “chaotic” in this idea/concept and I know this is hard to implement. What I hope, is that this helps open a portal of ideas (pun intended) for the rest of the community and the developers to better theme and design the weapon.

BINGO.

These comments speak volumes about how the current Mesmer community feels. We've given you so much input for balance and yet have been ignored and yet now we're asked for input?! Where is the proof that you're actually listening to us? Otherwise, just like all of the input many of us have given over balance, this is a waste of all of our time. Your game isn't hurting because of content it is hurting due to biases in class balance.

WB..sorta.

Virt: Change to Dagger 3 is great and highly welcomed. I'm curious about the damage of f5 given it is no longer a block. However, having an aoe melee damage shatter is nice and should round out Virt's kit more. However, Thousand Cuts needs to be changed so that it is a V/cone-shaped aoe. On the point of Virt's survivability, I'd also suggest taking away regen on duelist reversal and replacing it with 3 stacks of might rather than nerfing all of the chaos trait line. Other than this hopefully we can get better-designed/ reworked utilities for Virt one day. The change to the heal is a step in the right direction. Mirage: So many of us told the team not to release Mirage with its current dodge mechanic as dodging while CCed was/is way too strong. I'm glad to see this finally fixed. However, I do believe not being able to do this while immobilized is too much. I do hope this "rule" is also applied to other classes with unique dodges. There were a lot of trait reworks for many of the other classes and yet not much for Mesmer, odd. Infinite Horizon(IH) NEEDS TO BE A BASELINE TRAIT for Mirage. In anticipation of giving Mirage back two dodges two things were done. First, the ambush abilities were nerfed AGAIN for the 100th time. This again pigeon holds (FORCES) people using Mirage into taking IH. Seconded, again in anticipation the Chaos line was nerfed. If you are nerfing several aspects of a CORE TRAIT LINE to balance ONE elite spec then the issue is the ELITE SPEC, this applies to all classes. Because of this I rather hold off on the Mirage "buff" and wait to give it back its 2ed dodge. This was a massive issue for the past two balance teams before this one. They aggressively nerfed classes/issues in every way possible rather than doing one or two aspects at a time and focusing on the Elite spec causing the issue. Chrono: Still needs a full trait rework as does most of Mesmer. However, changes to quickness and Alac are a step in the right direction.

Bingo!

Agreed and thank you! Signet of Illusions needs to be looked at. It reset all shatters minus continuum split. This has caused many of the issues people still complain about with Mirage ("endless distortion") as well as with Virtuoso. It currently rewards the Memser for wasting and not correctly timing their defensive shatters while punishing the other person for correctly baiting out these shatters. On top of this Virt needs to lose blade renewal if it is keeping distortion as a shatter. I prefer if we go this route because otherwise Virt will be forced to take blade renewal losing two utility slots (one for blink) and reducing build diversity.

Want to track by 3-month windows. Not monthly as currently, it is still not consistent as you can see from the link. GW2 spiked at 8.2k in September 2022. However, it is now down to 5.5k (total not consistently active, this is sitting around 1-3k) as of Match 30th 2023. Given this changes when there are and are no content drops. However, a year out of an expansion with WvW and PVP as the two major game modes other than strikes, raids, and legendaries to keep people interested is rough. Don't get me wrong 5.5k is still good, but the drop for just a year is what is the red flag (about 3k). And again this is just the number of people who've downloaded/played through Steam, not people who are constantly staying which is why you need to look at the data in quarters. Which is steadily decreasing. The current 24-hour peak at 4.7k while the highest peak was 8.3k seven months ago is a massive loss from a business standpoint. A healthy system of balance is needed, a good way to see if balance is healthy is by looking at what classes are meta and how often the meta changes for each game mode. This has not been changing much in the way of WVW and PVP while with minor changes in PVE. Link: Steam Charts GW2

Just here to remind people about the discord leaks of specific balance leads stating they do not want ANY variation of Memser viable nor optimal in "competitive" game modes. One of them was one who actually designed the Virtuoso Elite while the other failed to sell it in the beta streams. The game is struggling to retain and pick up new players even with Steam and lack of content is not the reason, but anyways back to Lost Ark for my competitive PVP fix.

I'll jump to what you can do when Moaed since a lot of threads are popping up complaining about it. Use this link for a reference to the skills you have when Moaed. Just a reminder that stab and aegis block moa as well as dodging, blocks, blind, LOS, and any immune-to-damage skills. Moa Skills and info I see so many players of all levels go right for skills 2 kick and 5 flee when Moaed. Do Not do this. Dodge first then use skills 2 and 5 to LOS. When we go to moa we are going to hard CC you right after to interrupt the flee and then hard burst and CC again. Nothing throws a Mesmer off more than attacking/running at them after you've been Moaed. Using the information above you can skill 2 at the Mesmer which will apply cripple for a based duration of 3 seconds. This will help slow the Mesmer down a little allowing you to create distance and LOS while waiting for Moa to end. You can also use skill 4 Screech too which will apply weakness for a based duration of 3 seconds. This will reduce the Mesmers damage and endurance regeneration allowing you to more easily survive and LOS using skill 5. Remember that moa is affected by your stats, traits, ruins, and sigils. Look over the skills to see what synergizes with your setup. This can allow you to catch the Mesmer off guard and do decent damage to them and or even down them (yes, this does happen and it is funny as ***** when it does). At the end of the day, it is about buying time for 6 seconds which is not that long and you're provided with 5 skills to do this.