Daishi.6027

What makes a one shot unacceptable is how it's achieved, and how much survivability you have following it. One Shotting in general is perfectly acceptable. I don't know about virtuoso in particular so maybe it has something in there capable of doing such with little investment (didn't seem so form the video), but in general Mesmer uses way more resources to achieve a one shot, or relies on a fickle bounce mechanic to land a certain way with a ranged weapon in melee that has terrible melee utility and 0 survivability. Compare this to Backstab/Maul builds that are both safe engaging and escaping and hit just as hard. Even if you could argue a shatter combo did 1.5-3k more on a medium armor class; that still wouldn't be comparable in the amount of risk. Mirage USED to be on par for the level of risk and resource expenditure, and basic math will reveal this to you if you compare, it's almost like the calculations were already done at the time 🤦‍♂️. Where we are now mesmer was already gutted before sweeping changes by CMC; and so when you bring in massive changes to everything, including mesmer which was already lesser, you maintain an imbalance. I don't fully recall when it was, I think it was before the specialization patch? I think we didn't have HoT, but we had the old FFA arena still. Anyways, there was a MASSIVE survivability nerf across the board. Mesmer went mostly untouched; because at the time Rangers in particular were out sustaining huge damage and regening HP pretty steadily, and I recall Engies getting hit really hard so they couldn't effortlessly cycle their survivability until they had a cooldown advantage. It was soo long ago and I don't fully recall which patch it was; but once that nerf came, the matchups became super even, Mesmer retained it's susceptibilities, but were able to actually finish those classes off (it was more than just ranger/ele, but I forgot I just remember those two being particularly prevalent). But then, since you had classes starting to lose to mesmers by being outplayed, instead merely getting carried by the class, like in the case of ranger passively regenning through the fight to victory; they started to complain, but they only complained because it was fair. I had hoped with CMC it was going to be a return to that; clearly not. Also just want to point out killing squishes between 25 - 70% health isn't actually a one shot, and if WvW still doesn't standardize so everyone is equal; than any footage isn't really indicative of anything.

Wanna know what's the funniest example? Thinking about mesmer's power burst. idk if this changed since virtuosos; A-net is a long way off from ever getting me to pay for an expac again. But this was true for about a decade: The most powerful combo we had required at least 2/3 utility skills upwards of 30s to pull off, being used on a ranged weapon in melee with no solid melee support, with an annoyingly bad bounce mechanic... Leaving little to no option for follow up or escape; and putting far to much of our bar on cooldown. Compare this to literally any other class; that's how you know A-net hates mesmer.

"Why are they nerfing Mirage?" This isn't a question for mirage specifically, this is a systemic and deep-seated history of mesmer as a whole. But to answer the question why it's because: Casuals cried cuz they got lost in illusions, Karl in the beginning didn't understand objective reality and never actually wanted a good balance standard only to support his bias, The "pros" who mained other classes saw mes as a threat (since it requires actually outplaying in a fair 1v1 side node when it's good) and piggy backed off the casuals crying even though any "pro mesmer" was rolling thief for tourneys that actually mattered; this is why you see so many double standards. If mesmer ever was truly OP it would be nerfed or "Band-Aid fixed" within weeks, while any other FOTM had way more than a month (with the exception of S1), and at least other classes were generally still viable after the nerfs. The entire history of mesmer regardless of elite spec is poetry of the above and everything that followed is a rhyme. For the current stanza; you can replace anything relevant with the discord, and that CMC is at best a short sighted hack.

CMC: I want every class to be like old Cele ele! CMC (paraphrasing): Yeah we could make things fairly balanced, but that's not interesting. It's fine if we kitten up, maybe we'll get'em next time. Also CMC: *Everything we have now* He doesn't care about making the game fair he basically said so and implied the mistakes didn't matter. He, like every other past and current balance devs and the discord only care about buffing their pet class, with very little understanding of the meta game as a whole and how to evolve it to a healthy meta game. His giant PvP culling wasn't the W the sheep think it, especially with the asymmetry among class defensive ability nerfs. He should never have been hired, his scope of understanding of the game was narrow minded at the start, and it shows in the current iteration of the game. Funniest part of all of it is they had an offer from someone who understood the meta, understood balance, and was even critical of their own classes design and wanting things to be fair and balanced for the entire game. But no, we got this clown and hack instead. Probably because of some stupid back room deal, or idk maybe some casting couch style deal he seems the type.

I got a funnier idea. E-mail BLM to tweet, amplify, and encourage protesting A-net's head building, accusing them of being racist, and that it's not merely coincidental that the class they systemically keep low via biased devs, and their balance discord; has an Elonian woman as default for the human character creator. :^)

I remember when split surge was actually fun to play with. Not super viable, but very fun. I used to screw around with double GS and spec into spamming mirage cloak just to go pew pew pew in the FFA arena for hours. To bad A-net nerfed everything mirage had until condi was the only thing even moderately usable, but only in the clunkiest way possible.

You can call the feature broken, but DD and Ranger's access to on demand evasion at the time was compared at the time and was considered more viable. The issue was the condi's damage application method, and just a general issue with condis for competitive modes. This is proven by Power Mirage having the same level of evasion and not over performing by any metric. The ability to cast while evading was far less impactful when you were relying on phantasms which are slow, only 2 damaging shatters which have their usual quirks and are manipulated by opponents actions. While things like Blurred Frenzy was a evasion/doge/invuln uptime loss, and sword auto converted into a leap that you may not want to use at the time. To pretend a "feature" is simply "broken" we can look at other aspects of the game. Dead Eye invisibility duration and burst with no real tell in a crazy long window. Or Thief's general ability to port in and out of ranges or out from behind walls. Ranger's endurance or HP regeneration (sometimes both), The theoretical 15 second cooldown stealth (especially against any class with AI). I could go on with things like engie and gaurd and ele over the years; but just because a feature is "Strong" doesn't make it broken. It's not that there was no counter play; there was just "different" counter play. "No counter play" is when 'all (except maybe one) classes have no option' except to just lose, or it is mechnically impossible to shut you down merely within a rotation (as in not skill based). Examples of this would be Petting zoo, OG Chrono Bunk, Hambow, OG Cele ele, etc. Also Mirage (and in some cases mesmer as a core) had massive nerfs to justify the strength of the evasion, to the point where they took 1 away. Well if the problematic part is gone; and the thing people complained about "not wanting to have to play around" has been removed: Where is the restoration of the rest of it? Clearly, the nerfs and changes to everything else over the years has not culled the other classes to sufficiently put mes/mirage on par. Things like Jaunt, Blinding dissipation (and sperate blind confusion interaction if OP), Blurred frenzy, among other traits, should be restored. Sure the game is not only played by Mesmers, but it doesn't make sense to neglect the entire class; and again it's not "no counter play" it's just "different counter play." It's not about leaving the mes alone while the rest of the players suffer. It's about having competitive balance standards (as in the mutual viability and effectiveness and matchup outcomes and options) that are objective, correct, and fair; The player base should then adapt to this. The LACK of this; is why GW2 failed as an e-sport or having any serious competitive value in the broader gaming space and led to some pretty stupid balance over the years not just for mesmer. The "vilification" is actually really huge because that creates a massive double standard, and one that can be swung any direction; and should not be catered to. If people don't like fighting against something in a game they should play a different game instead of the game gutting itself to suit those players. The barrier to entry was not that high, demanding only a relative minutiae of 'pvp game sense', the absolute lowest bar really didn't need to be catered to. And to make something unviable at a higher levels, just so that spoiled bads will maybe make it to gold is not a reasonable cost of competitive integrity.

I have honestly no words to get into specifics anymore, you can check my history on this and the archived forums. Been saying this same kitten since 2013, getting a lot of "confused faces" by cowards not willing to even refute claims. I only came back to keep my promise that I would try things if Mirage got it's 2nd evade back in competitive modes. But I wanna say I'm super glad I never bought end of dragons and decided long ago they don't care enough about being fair in any objective way for me to support them or the game. For me no amount of positives PvE could ever make up for the harm they did in PvP and WvW; those were the reasons I got hyped and started playing here in the first place. Other games do PvE just as good if not better, or offer better social experiences. The last thing I remember caring about is the legitimately good mount system, but that is hardly enough to make a game worth playing, and still irrelevant to my reasons for starting in the first place. Devs have been biased since 2013. There was only 2 or 3 good patches I can think of where fights for mesmer and almost every other class, as a whole was reasonably fair while allowing solid counter matchups that were not one sided auto wins. But the game is rife with double standards: I could get into every little specific skill, and standards of what we allow vs what we don't allow, resource expenditure vs safety, reengaging options, etc, etc, etc. But my personal favorite that still sickens me was PoF as a perfect allegory for the place of mesmer since 2013: Where untrue arguments against Condi Mirage was that the Mirage had to make mistakes to lose; and that was unfair. A-net silently agreed, and a year later it was considered perfectly fine for the vast majority of Mirage's matchups in reverse against it. And that was long before CMC came in with a wrecking ball. This was just one of many instances across the history of mesmer since 2012. I said it in another thread and I'm going to say it here (with a few amendments). Each and every person in charge of balance, including the discord, community outreach, and just for the sentiment of it- Anyone who ever complained about mesmer when it was objectively fully out-playable: Should be made (deserves) to ride to the titanic in a sub, with the equivalent quality of development and design as Mirage between 2018 - till now... If you object or wouldn't want to ride that; then the class shouldn't be the way it is now. A-net you failed. You're just lucky you have a bunch of sheep to keep your lights on.

^ Literally the standard of this entire F-ing game. I come back after years to see if there is any improvement just to see this kitten? All you guys ever do is gut functionality, kill viability, and add clunk. Then you turn around and create the double standard for every class while having the internal numbers that proves it underperforms. Meaning you INTEND for it to under perform or to be clunky as hell. I don't even know where to start about what's wrong with everything you guys did to the class CLEARLY in preparation for this, it just blows my mind in the worst way possible. You have a cute little beta for this pretending like you're trying to make things balanced, but we all know how this goes by now. Each and every person in charge of balance including the discord, and community outreach, should be made to take a trip to the Titanic in a Sub built with the equivalent quality of design as Mirage over the past 2 years.

I always said if Mirage got it's 2nd evade back I'd install the game and try it. But if I'm in for all the pre-existing double standards I remember, then I'm quickly uninstalling, and out again. I'm not subjecting myself to the abuse this time around. Now's your chance A-net, You got me fresh and untainted by the metas from the past few years, let's see if you've learned your lesson. No spoilers guys, if there's stupidity let me experience it first hand.

LMAO. Glad to see playing other games is the right choice.

Yeah. Having more sustain than peak pre-nerf mirage, a better pet mechanic, technically more stealth with less investment, requires only one of two lines to be viable, and less setup or resource expenditure for a massive burst that is safer on a whiff, would have a forum avoid the same sentiments. 🙄 Let's not pretend simple pessimism and optimism is a factor here, that implies some sort of subjectivity. The objective realities that is even reflected in class representation, citations from pro players for a decade now, and the systemic anti-memser mentality of everyone who actually gets the say in "balance" along with the people who cry about it even when it's underperforming is clearly telling. If we are pessimistic it is only because of the historic, I myself was very optimistic until A-net disappointed again and again, with way more downs than ups. You sound like the type of person who struggles to keep out of gold, and has no understanding of anything historically; nor an understanding of the kits that shape the meta and why. That isn't intended as an insult, you are free to carry your perspective from your status, positions, and foundations of knowledge. The confused faces you get however are entirely contextual to your words, "a little bit of optimism" isn't what people are confused about when you speak. People are taking your words into context with the whole current meta particularly the upper echelons where things actually matter, as well as the historical meta as context; and what you said simply does not come close to aligning with the reality of those. And frankly it's disrespectful for you to simply dismiss it as some subjective pessimism. You said "dominating" as to imply some level of meta state apex predator, if not even the win rates or class representation reflect that you're going to need to clarify better. If you mean "they dominate in bronze, silver, and gold." Lol-okay, sure. But you need to realize that isn't what the majority of people mean when we say "dominating". Also idk why their performance in PvE matters when you made a topic talking about PvP. But if you're having fun and want to switch to mesmer, more power to you.

Does this mean the ncplatform phising detections on AV and other sites is a false positive?

(Not sure if this topic should be in accounts or bugs for forum and website, as I'm unsure if this is just an oddity with some archive server?) So I tried to log back into the forums from this website "y308845.invisionservice .com" not noticing until it was to late. This seems to be a pretty authentic clone of the forums and I wanted to be sure how back I screwed up. Or if this is A-net owned archive or something I have already changed my password now, but now I'm getting confused over which website I put my authenticator in, and want to make sure I didn't make an even bigger mistake. When trying to log in, it allows you to log in from the top right corner of the page, it said my password was wrong and "locked my account". At that point I attempted to use the reset. When attempting to reset your password the weird site takes you to: "account-dev.ncplatform .net/password-reset" which seemed odd so I realized something was wrong. So I then went to change my password the normal way, and attempting to reset the normal way the link brings me to: "https://account.arena.net/password-reset" Insight into this would be appreciated, Thanks. Edit: so digging around turns out the ncplatform link IS a Phishing scam according to some AV detection. I'm still unsure what to make of "y308845.invisionservice .com" as most websites are saying it's clear. I did attempt my old password on y308845.invisionservice .com, but I avoided the ncplatform link.

The point I was making was about side node, not about it's over all usage. "no one plays it to side node" like the way any other build not designed to side node isn't played to side node. It could side node before the specialization patch and maybe a bit after since it's thief matchup was a little closer. To some degree true, but the super speed is tied to stealth, and Chaos is the stealth line. Considering Stealth is something mesmer relies on for it's roaming I'd argue it IS the proper line. Problem is since Dom and Duel are taken you can't slot illusions- and even if you could slot illusions you'd still lack the same frequency of attack, survivability, and stealth compared to a thief taking Trickery and Shadow arts. Par for the course at this point. THIS is the thing I'm getting tired of. A-net, the scrubs in gold, an the decent people who want to remove a rival to compete with be like : "Mesmer has a viable role! Quick! Nerf it by 50%" You know... Like the kittening evade- like we're arguing about now. I'm sorry but no. These are not similar in anyway. Ele going Water to Earth offers coverage against most burst options and is available again long before the opponents options, and setup for their options return. Thief and Ranger evade spam and lines that enable it are not only more synergistic, but are up far more frequently than the limited access to stealth that PU scales off of. When a mesmer can whiff, stay in stealth, AND still have enough stealth+blink to retry their mirror blade combo- and the ability to escape on a second whiff; ONLY THEN we can pretend this is analogous in anyway. What I'm saying is that even if those lines were diverse, even IF you could take more defensive lines; the issue at hand is that wilderness survival is better than Chaos+Insp combined. Why?????????? Because A-net thinks illusions are enough. - They aren't. I think it needs away more of an overhaul than this. But I mean, I'm for it. I think we're getting bogged down on the definition of impact. But "Impact" unless you simply mean "effectiveness" isn't the issue at hand, the problem is Mesmer has a line to buff stealth but has far too limited access to stealth and over committed on their bar that has to many mandatories to be decent as it is. Compared to thief who can spend just spend 9 ini, a very uncostly resource when trickery is literally restoring, to grant 4 seconds of stealth on their best pvp weapon set, while getting a ton of value including movement speed, cleaning, etc. Meanwhile mesmer stealth cooldowns are all around 30 seconds if not more (lol decoy 40 wtf.), and relying on relatively slow methods of doing damage. (Just wanna point out even ranger can stealth more. Especially against a mesmer who's illusions don't evade unless mirage- but oh wait we cut that in half. 😒) Yeah, except Thief with this can still evade more than Mirage outside of desert distortion which... I also have issues with (on demand evade will always be superior to lengthy durations, and things that you have to literally walk on.. and that's not even mentioning that in longer fights even with desert distortion Mirage ends up with less over time), let alone core Mesmer. Which is a problem even if we ignore that deadly arts alone is enough to out pace dom+dueling. idk if it's your point or not, but just to point out even before things like mh sword were nerfed it was still kind of a bad side-noder compared to the others until mirage, and before that Chrono before alacrity got nerfed. At least for as you point out, power builds. But this is why everyone keeps going condi, I've even seen rumblings of it for virtuoso too (and everyone at the time called me crazy lol) To be clear, it has no viable options for defense. And my argument is that it doesn't do damage, and doesn't have good defensive lines; because the class was not designed well. They rushed it for release, didn't like the standards it applied to the game- and started gutting it without offering enough concessions to let it thrive- everything was a gut and a nerf. The reason for which being the misattribution of how powerful illusions actually are when people actually understand the mechanic- and it's incredibly weak compared to literally anything else. This is also why virtuoso fails in pvp, because it's built off a core designed class that had all the baseline strength stripped away from it. Sure, there is the dependence on traits to do pretty much anything, that isn't incorrect; But the synergy isn't there, there wasn't enough time to establish it properly. Not that I can cite without getting people in trouble over NDA. But to be more accurate: rushed is more apt, "unfinished" is the reasonable inference when you look at the first year or two of the game, and the lack of synergy of the traits even then. It's not nonsense. Chrono originally fixed the issue that of the lengthy cooldowns and over commitment given to core, allowing it to have the resources it needed to compete. It allowed for more frequency with chrono split and chrono phantasma. Outside of the utility skills, for PvP Chrono originally was like the Trickery line of Mesmer. Chorno is honestly how core mesmer should have been released. And if you want trade offs playing give and take from that. But then... 50% Nerfs lol. I strongly disagree. Every 1v1 matchup was far more fair and in line and equal. In both instances, the class didn't lose to simple factors of attrition until heavy nerfs. A standard which was only discouraged when Cele ele existed, but now CMC praises it as a gold standard, and the double standard is that everyone is allowed to remain neutral until mistakes are made except for mesmer who loses because of resource limitations. (by resources I don't JUST mean illusions btw I hope this is clear) As for your claim about chrono, until they did some weird buffs with danger time (that were also quickly nerfed) people went condi pretty quick (implying the reliance on traits to do damage as you pointed out earlier) after the alacrity nerf, because it was safer and higher damage for lower investment. Core Power roamer was better than Power Mirage at roaming. Core power roamer being able to slot chaos forced the opposing team to focus really well on map awareness or get nuked, arguably it did this even better than thief (to bad it couldn't actually fight if it whiffed). It couldn't 1v1 on a point like power mirage, but that also wasn't it's role. Power Mirage with a distinct lack of stealth made mirror blade combo far more out playable. Yes- sure Core Power wasn't "good" by a meta standard even though people complained even until that was nerfed too. (I remember fighting in that thread for a long time too lol. But I guess mesmer can't have anything ever. Meanwhile thief go Brrrrrrrr) But it had a defined role and it was better than mirage at it. This here is why people think you're probably trolling and you get a bunch of confused faces. Chrono is only fairly balanced compared to core because, Chrono got nerfed to garbage, like how Core is garbage, and it took buffing Chaos- a line the others can't really afford to take, to make core not garbage in a very spicic way that was still inferior to theif, meanwhile at a time when Chorno was garbage. Only for Core to be made garbage again. Like honestly... If all 4 are garbage, and Mirage is "too strong" but Mirage is the only one that can compete in a very specific way by relying on condi [so traits and crap as we've established]. (that is still, as pointed out much earlier by other people, doesn't even have top player victories in tourneys) Then the response should be to bring everything to Mirage's level- AND buff mirage. now sure you can do that by buffing core up the wazoo... But then you still retain the pointless negative on Mirage that shouldn't even exist. If you want to puff Core mes in ways that are kind of crazy and fun like giving it portal on a f5, but then Mirage being restored to how it was and NOT get these new things like that from core; 100% with you go do it. But to say mirage shouldn't get it's second evade because you want to buff core is not reasonable, and I promise you it will not be as effective as you seem to think it will be. You can buff core so it leans into the roamer roll, and you can buff chrono in ways irrespective of mirage. This isn't mutually exclusive to mirage getting it's 2nd evade back. Lmao, "far more fair" The only thing that made mirage OP was it's condi application. If it's survivability was what made it unfair that is a double standard to the rest of the game. I don't really see the issue. PU was more of a problem when Phantasms were omnipresent the one shot can be countered by map awareness and if they whiff they are kind of screwed and unlike a thief can be chased unless they use selfish portal. Omg and if that is inconsistent with the REST OF THE GAME forcing that standard on a class does nothing more than kitten the class. Let's say I agree and that is a standard we should be striving for... That involves rebuilding core memser to not be garbage and as synergistically well designed as the likes of ranger, thief, ele, etc. And to make it on par with everything, by either nerfing or buffing everything up to this new standard; and somewhere in there re-forming the elite specs around the new core mesmer. Even if this were the objectively best thing we could do, it's not a realistic thing to argue for. A-net's arm could maybe be twisted into giving it's second evade back. Looking at the hindsight CMC realizing it 's a bad idea type of thing. But what you expect is to many resources and a long fought endeavor. Unless you somehow think core mesmer is actually viable and good... We have all the time prior to HoT, prior to the specialization patch even; to show that it's actually not. Idk how it is since the nerfs, it honestly never should have been nerfed. But yeah One shot roamer- it actually had a decent affect on the meta and forced players to be more cognizant of map awareness and enemy movements or get punished for it. It's not unfair you can avoid any stealth one shot from any class with any bit of anticipation and reads- the only reason why PU roamer was strong and had any amount of value was that unlike a thief who could delay their stealth virtually in front of you, and could refresh their stealth on a whim, and let you waste your much longer to refresh defensive resources (which is a lot less fair than PU's single attempt)... PU would go half way across a map and maybe nuke you if you don't take precautions. But a whiff would be a lot worse for them than it would be for the thief. You might not like it- but you said you fun was more than two builds. You seem to have no accepted what happens if you dislike the available builds. For the longest time in PvP every class had 1 or 2 viable builds irrespective of elite specs, with a few exceptions from the medium classes, idk if that's true now; but I'd presume it's likely. You didn't, you probably couldn't gauge from the inflection but I'm merely saying you can't tell me such, and that's the problem with your argument you're focusing on it only in relation to mirage. No you mistake me. I don't care one way or another if core is balanced to Chrono. At no spot in the game is this standard being applied, does Core of any class Raid? I actually don't know, but I'd have to presume if anything does it's the exception and not the rule. You can argue it should, but this forum thread isn't for that, you're talking about all the classes. I also am perfectly fine for core mesmer buffs. I'm also all for Chrono getting Chrono Phantasma back and us getting 3 viable specs. - This is what you seem to be against. 4 if you count virtuoso getting buffed. What I'm against is keeping mirage with one evade, and the argument that buffing core to the point of viablility somehow negates mirage from having it's second evade restored... Especially when you yourself gave examples that would buff it in a way that would not impact mirage. You can do all this and Core mirage will still not be viable- Sorry. Ya- We told A-net what to focus on at the time and make PvP/PvE splits if it screwed with raids. They ignored us; instead they started to nerf everything else until CMC went "Hold my beer!" This is a very old anti-meta ideology for gw2. One that is not consistent with the game nor functional within it's current systems. Even if you could argue that this is what we should strive for, it's been 10 years and the status quo has mostly been the same. The faces change, and the details sometimes differ; but the context is the same. That's not what I was disagreeing to. I was disagreeing with your perspective of mirage's over all clunk, and saying you can have that perspective if you want. Yes, you can get survivability equal to a ranger with Wilderness Survival and BM (Fun fact there was a few 1v1 player run tournies at the time that actually banned used of these two traits together.) To bad you do no damage, have worse pets, and they do damage even without marksman allowing them to take an elite spec; AND they get to hold the point. idk what's changed or if that's even viable anymore; but I'm sure even if this isn't accurate now there's something similarly apt. That's the standard I want for mirage. If you want other mesmer's to have roles too that's fine, but you will probably never be able to get core to side node against the rest of the game without a complete overhaul. A-net is incentivized to not make mechanical changes. It's a lot of effort and resources on their part that they'd rather not spend so they usually just keep adjusting numbers. I mean this is my argument for why Chorno and Mirage did not need trade offs, and why I called it inherent. Where we disagree is how far that "garbage" goes. You think just buffing core would be enough- I think you need an entire mechanical overhaul to make core "good", and I'm basing that by comparing it to other core classes. This is why I mostly quit. Really I'm only even active on the forums now cuz of you. kitten! let me enjoy my remorseful melancholic retirement!😜 While I complain endlessly like a grizzled war veteran... Or I guess more like an abused spouse is more accurate? I mean that's what they did to mirage in the first place tho when they realized they couldn't balance condi mirage... You know A-net INSTEAD OF LISTENING AT THE TIME. But in all seriousness, No it wont. But what it will do is take away the clunk to our only viable pvp build. They had 10 years to get it right. I preached the exact same stuff at the time, everything that was objective was Ignored every time, things aren't getting better; I want to play a build I used to enjoy and was at the very least fair. No one complained about it at the time, it wasn't taking top slots, it's only sin was the condi variant had to much output and that's the part that needed to be fixed. Your first step is rare, your second step pretty much never happens and if it does it's a double standard against mesmer for all the reasons I've listed before. The last one has always confliced with the double standards of the second and that's why GW2 was dropped from ESL and why Petting Zoo, and Hambow, and old cele ele, and all the other crap that persists till now existed and I have to assume even from not playing continues to exist. I do have a bias towards it, but I don't think I have an unrealistic one- nor do I misrepresent it. Everything I've said about it was factually accurate. I'm not looking for it to be the apex predator; I'm biased towards it because it was fun, and fair. Everyone had the tools to beat you, and you had the tools to beat almost everyone, even the DareDevil matchup was relatively fair- the most balanced mes v thief matchup since release. Both playing optimally would end in a stalemate and you'd be pushing for your opponents mistakes. It is my belief that ALL classes in this game should follow this standard. I LOVED early power Chrono too, I like Power mirage a bit more cuz I have a bias towards big beams, but I really did love this too, and personally I wasn't super fond of all these danger time centric builds that would be buffed into viability then quickly nerfed out- but those had their charm too. I even pointed out what Chrono fixed for core when it first came out earlier in my post. ...But I've acquiesced that we're not getting that back; and I think that's still irrelevant to asking for the second evade. Also I'm not leaving you confused faces (except I did on that one cuz I think it's funny.)