Azazel.7536

Oh ... my gawd! This concept looks more of an authentic leak than the crappy "songstress" one xD I would not be surprised if all this were true because it looks absolutely phenomenal (and that is also why it could never be true because ANet could never provide mesmers with such stuff again) xD The artwork, the descriptions, the details - it must have taken a lot of time to prepare. Great job!

People literally fear seeing mesmer in the patch notes because it is usually a big disaster. I feel like significant balance notes are just like: "Okay, this is a huge one, we have to please the right fanbase so that strong builds get even stronger. Did we miss anything? Ohh yea, just throw these nerfs at Chrono, we couldn't go without it, right?" And after this big-a.s.s. killer move by nerfing the already-once-nerfed traits looks like there is one last thing to happen to chrono: End of Dragons balance notes: End of Chronomancer Since the profession has been progressively nerfed to an utter crap, the ANet team has decided to remove it completely. Chrono players will receive an Exotic gear ticket for the Mirage spec as a compensation. Alternatively, if you miss alacrity, check out the Renegade spec which works magic with Firebrands. People will love you! Thank you for sticking with us. Your ANet team.

I am surprised that no one really mentioned how often the shattered illusions can miss their target, thus leaving mesmer to be a semi-performing character who has to otherwise think of another strategy to fight. For this elite specialisation, the solution to illusions should be concentrated on amplifying the mesmer itself (finally). Make the clones some sort of "guardians" who temporarily reflect or absorb damage for the Mesmer, and shatter them for a PASSIVE effect transfered on your weapon skills. Example: F1 - Passive Mind wrack: Your weapon skills deal increased damage for 5 sec....F2 - Passive Cry of Frustration - Your weapon skills inflict confusion for 5 sec . F3 - Your skills increase Quickness by 2 sec for 5 second duration. F4 with its distortion could be the only real passive and could occur for 0,5 sec after you activate any of the previous three shatters, because 1 second distortion in 50 seconds does not very much sound like a profession-exclusive attribute. But I guess that is too much to ask for because even mirage got its distortion replaced by Protection boon :x If people say that even this would require a lot of reworks, then you deliberately tolerate the current status of the shatters and you do not want to experiment with possibilites that could finally rank this profession up a little. However, I do not want the next espec to be insanely OP, because that would once again result in a cascade of tremendous nerfs. I was just implying that maybe the problem is not necessarily in either the clones or the mesmer, but the function how they affect each other and how the operate in practice. This setting would offer a new vision of the illusions, which could this time represent buffs to the mesmer itself, rather than chasing down the targets in order to deliver their frequently missing blows. Can you imagine how could it look like if, this time, the clones would not hunt their prey, but instead, would run against u and buff you up with a tiny explosion? I even think it would not require any significant changes to the current traitlines, it would only go from active shatters to passive buffs. Anyway, whatever the spec will be, I hope it won't require 3 nerfs in its existence which will butcher it completely.

I could imagine the shatter skills to have a passive nature, depending on how you build your mesmer instead of shattering them for a little damage or condi/boons. They literally feel like an unnecessary urgency which you want to summon just to shatter them. How about trying to make them persist as long as possible this time? Certain skills could passively spawn clones with retaliation, and once you create the third clone, it creates a mortal phantasm. However, there would be a counterpart to this - whenever the phantasm gets hit 3 times, it automatically shatters itself for a chosen passive shatter effect and you have to build up the clones again.. Of course, it may not sound like a completely viable option since many builds are connected via shatter skills, but some of the traits would work even as a passive effect instead of its current active counterpart. I dont know, some kind of a shift from the monotonous approach to this feature would be welcome. The attempt to make chrono shatters "something different" still resulted in...just shatters xD To have illusions like a battle companion instead of a shattering bombardment would feel better. The clones still do a crap damage, so it would not hurt any mesmer haters that much in the battle. In Pve it would be a nice twist to the gameplay and strategy planning.

Wooow, I feel like a high-priority criminal in these forums, because whatever I post it eventually gets removed :D seems like I pissed 'someone' with the real state of mesmer and now I am paying for it xD . Just for fun, take a photo guys, cause in 12 hours this comment won't be here anymore :D :D :D

Missed the free ticket because the damm TP icon did not even signalize its addition. The promotion tab is cluttered as hell anyway, so congratz to those who found the gift in the mess :D One more reason for me to follow my scheduled quit on New Year's Eve xD

@Leonidrex.5649 and you have just mentioned all three of them in one message - expect a ban :D :D joking ofc (hopefully)

No No, I did not mean you, but the guy called Lare above your comment (should have linked him to avoid chaos, yea srry). Yea I definitely agree. Even some of my friends playing other professions keep telling me whenever the heck I return from 'burnout sessions' something like: "dude, I think you came back in a wrong time. Your prof just got nerfed again"... so, what can I say to that xD And @"Veprovina.4876" , I totally agree. To me, it looks like Mesmer has become some kind of a vessel that needs to be repeatedly tortured, otherwise the playerbase would go mad because their favourite elites experienced competition and such experience is not acceptable to their liking. There is NO OTHER PROFESSION, whose elite's core mechanics have been changed this drastically...well fck that, BOTH elites' core functions. Chrono's elite-exclusive alacrity was redistributed to Revenant, and the demands for quickness are nowadays more requested from Firebrands. Both profs can provide these boons much more effectively than Chrono having both of these (which, makes sense, there is variability), BUT, if devs start making exclusive elite mechanics into common ones, there is a high probability that certain elites, or even professions, can just die out. The reason why I said "or even professions" is because I can beautifully tie it toward Mirage whose core mechanic (evasiveness/endurance) got severely screwed as well (pvp). I understand that up to a certain degree it may have performed better than expected...but holy fck, was that not a relief for mesmers who finally got an easier spec to play after the Chrono, the "Finger-killer"? Was all of that because thieves were upset about another class having the ability to jump around the battlefield, cloaked in the mist of safety? Why did not we, mesmers, started an uprising after our traits were redistributed to other professions? Once mesmer got nerfed, players logically started complaining, and they were also called "crybabies" :D I mean, what the hell xD Weren't "crybabies" those who shouted NERF MESMER until it eventually happened?

Well I would not like another support mesmer either, if it were for me, I would wanna go a pure Power DPS this time :D Gimme a hammer so I can spin-win and bump into everything around :D :D would be a nice twist for power-based builds

I am not sure but I think they are leaning toward some heavy tank elite with mesmer in the following expac, cause why would have they screwed the chrono tankiness that much otherwise? Also, mesmer has been given one-handed weapons so far in both elite specs, so this time they will probably unlock a two-handed weapon, and if it were so, I believe it would be hammer (to fit the tank even better) :D . Cause going for rifle would be kinda wild idea for mesmer :D although, a sneaking sniper with illusions does not sound bad at all :D I have heard people saying the next elite should be a bard - a natural buffer, but I believe that spot is taken by Ranger, since its first elite was healer, next one was offense, this time could possibly be some kind of boon support. Also majority of games actually provides Ranger-types of classes with Bard specs, so...Dunno, but I am truly wondering what the revelations will be

Yea, totally agree. ANet feels like a company where each member plays a profession but none of them really plays mesmer, so they are like "people are complaining about mesmer elite spec, let's nerf it" without even testing it. I can honestly say, like..RIGHT NOW, that whatever the new spec in End of Dragons will be, playerbase will scream 20 seconds before the release of the expansion to "NERF MESMER"... it's these people who do not want to have their profession screwed up, so bunch of nerfs are all accumulated into mesmer who is getting hate for no reason. People do not realize that mesmer, when it comes to difficulty, is among the hardest ones to manage and only really good people can pull off efficient results. I have been playing it for 5 years and still feel as a newb because I still tend to miss something due to its shi.tt.y mechanics. The speed of my fingers searching for the right combo in the keyboard has got to be literally twice as quick as any other class, because I also have 3 fragile summons to keep in mind, shattering them in the right moment, because otherwise I would be screwed. I am not denying that other professions require sufficient amount of time to be learnt properly, but mesmer feels like the challenge you are willing to take for satisfactory rewards but it eventually turns out to be the worst sh1t of them all. It is like climbing the Chalice of Tears for the first time, expecting exclusive rewards and eventually you get the same cr.ap as any other chest in the game. Nevertheless, I still enjoy mesmer for its uniqueness, and I do not care what will be the role of the new elite spec, whether supportive or offensive, I will take it, unless they do the same bull**** with it as what they did with previous ones. At this point, they should really focus on the role of clones in the gameplay because they are totally undermined when it comes to survivability. They are totally weak themselves, so having them explode at least for a little damage when your enemy destroys them would be a nice bonus. And I hope they will finally take into account other professions too because they have taken half the potential from mesmer and put it in other professions (alacrity, portals, etc...)

Definitely. That is the aspect I hate about being a mesmer - other professions literally require lesser effort to pull off an effective combo using several keybinds while I need to have Continuum Split ready for every single encounter to be relevant :D and that is the most irritating thing. In PVE I am literally the slowest particle when it comes to dealing with stuff, because, not only does the mesmer have a very limited field range (basically focuses the damage onto the target where the clones spawn), it also happens they very often fail to deliver hit, miss, or disappear before you shatter them. It is like playing a profession with half the potential. You need to think way too much in the process, and it does not even pay off really, while certain professions just keep smashin one key and spin-win the hell out of it. I would love to say that I am proud of choosing the class because I can honestly say I have put a LOT of time understanding its mechanics since I am mostly mesmer-exclusive player, but seeing that it would take 1/4 the time to achieve the same output with a ranger or a thief with much more efficiency in return makes me kinda frustrated. And yea lol, mirage...People could come back and throw a shame at us that "Are you stupid or what? Mirage is annoying as hell and you keep saying mesmer is bad? F--- off" or so...but daaaayum, mirage was out for like 3 months before severe nerfs happened to it and even worse happened later to both chrono and mirage, ever since then they have been reduced to crap :D You would expect at least an equivalent of compensation for such nerf but nope, they take 5 things away and replace them with one useless addition. As a chrono, I basically cannot really put together a trio of traitlines to make it as effective as I would, because for me, Domi (for GS) is necesarry and Duel (for the sake of crit rate) is a MUST if I want to be at least a little bit dps-relevant. But then, I would also love to have Illusions since they offer pretty badass bonuses for clones, but as I said, I wanna be a chrono so that does not somehow fit the maths :D Mesmer would literally have to use all the traitlines at once to be on par with other professions :D :D

Assuming that the OP is outraged about "mesmer not being fixed" obviously expresses his anger toward it being screwed, because I could not imagine anyone complaining about mesmer being too strong in its current state after all the impactful nerfs :D I will agree with anyone who claims that mesmer is being tortured massively so other professions are happy - I play a "hybrid" chrono which focuses mainly on Power DPS and equal distribution of Quickness and alacrity. I have got ascended gear and trinkets, providing me with nearly 80% precision (20% is from Dueling trait) and nearly 200% crit damage. If I trained long enough, I could possibly manage to pull off a really long periods with having quickness and alacrity uptimes, but (as I already mentioned) I am DPS specc. GS / s+s, wearing Knight's armour, which is an incredible compromise where you get more precision in exchange for vitality, but still have that toughness for survivability too.... HOWEVER, despite all these beautiful things which I am thrilled about, the excitement ends as soon as any other profession joins the battle and wipes the floor with their 3-4 skills rotations twice/thrice as fast as I do. You can take basically any profession, whether ranger or warrior (I am not even discussing Berserker who spins everything to death in a fraction of seconds) and guys, this is JUST PVE aspect. Mesmer IS slower that everyone else in any game mode and the effort it takes to make significant difference is huuuge. From long cooldowns to poor damage, only because "we have clones"....jeesus, a set of completely useless mirrors who die quicker than they are summoned with nearly zero damage, while, for instance, ranger has an animal spawn which lasts until its death and can put out more damage than my phantasm. AND the profession itself kills things quicker, so there is like 3:0 in favour of ranger in comparison. And that is just one class. The most ridiculous thing I have experienced was Power Druid in exotics who exterminated waves of mobs quicker than me :D that really did hurt my feelings...

Guys, there is some weird magic around this game, and I am definitely sure it's neither unbound nor volatile...today I have been crashing a lot with many different errors which actually kept kicking me off of my internet connection. The same has been happening to me upon visiting the website/forums, although for now it seems to be stable (yet). I don't know whether it's been due to the recent updates or what, but everytime they add something, a new update or a patch, the connectivity gets worse...

This game is going down to hell - whenever they add a new update, it either launches an enormous wave of disconnects or starts making the server crash constantly (exactly the same situation with Champions update).....BUT, eventually, the problem is on our end, isn't it? I'm tired of being told that bs all the time...