Feedback:User/Damysticreaper/Mesmer skills

Mesmer skills
User	Damysticreaper
Categories	Skill feedback → Mesmer  → Other

An ongoing complain about the mesmer post-buff is that it has been overbuffed, primarily it's ability to deal armor ignoring AoE damage and it's energy denial ability. I mostly adjusted those 2 abilities and reduced both the power of the AoE damage and energy denial. Altough the mesmer still has a large ammount of energy denial options most of the individual skill have it's energy loss effect reduced. For the armor ignoring AoE damage it is now mostly dealt by the elite skills. There are still some non-elite options but most of them have their power reduced or are more conditional.

There are several skills that have been changed/buffed as well, primarily elite skills to rival the power of the most commonly used elites; Psychic Instability, Panic, Migraine, Ineptitude and Energy Surge (the last 2 have received a small nerf). Several interrupts have also been improved to compete with the standard.

This suggestion is mostly an attempt to reduce the power the strongest of the mesmer skills wich dominate it's play and improve the power of several mostly unused skills as compensation and trying to find a proper balance between these skills.

Domination Magic

Enchanter's Conundrum 10 1 15 Elite Hex spell (10 seconds). Also hexes adjacent foes. Enchantments cast on these foes activate 100...180...200% slower. Initial effect: removes an enchantment from target foe and foes adjacent to target foe. Removal effect: deals 10...82...100 damage.

Energy Burn 5 2 15 Spell. Target foe loses 1...4...5 energy. Deals 15 damage for each point of energy lost.

Energy Surge 5 2 15 Elite Spell. Target foe loses 1...4...5 energy. Deals 20 damage to target and nearby foes for each point of energy lost.

Hex Eater Vortex 5 ¼ 6 Elite Spell. Removes a hex from target ally or foe. Removal effect: deals 15...63...75 damage and causes 1...3...3 energy loss to nearby foes.

Overload 5 ¼ 5 Hex spell (5 seconds). Causes -1...3...3 health degeneration to target foe. End effect: deals 5...41...50 damage.

Power Flux 5 ¼ 12 Elite Spell. Interrupts a spell or chant. Interruption effect: deals 30...102...120 damage to target foe and nearby foes and interrupts nearby foes.

Psychic Distraction 5 ¼ 12 Elite Spell. Interrupts an action. Interruption effect: if you interrupted a skill that skill is disables for 5...11...12 seconds for target foe and all other foes.

Shatter Storm 5 ¼ 15 Elite Spell. Removes a mesmer hex from target foe. Removal effect: removes 1...3...3 enchantment[s] from target foe and deals 10...34...40 damage each second (5 seconds) to foes adjacent to the initial location of target foe.

Fast Casting

Ether Lord 5 1 8 Enchantment spell (15 seconds). Target foe loses 3 energy. For each point of energy lost your next 1...3...4 spell[s] have +0...2...2 Domination Magic and +0...2...2 Illusion Magic.

Symbolic Posture 10 20 Stance (20 seconds). Your next 0...2...3 signets recharge 75% faster.

Symbols of Inspiration 5 1 10 Elite Skill (5...25...30 seconds). This skill becomes target's elite skill. Elite skills use your Fast Casting attribute. Whenever you use a signet you gain 1...8...10 energy.

Illusion Magic

Confusing Images 10 2 20 Hex spell (5...13...15 seconds). Also hexes foes adjacent to target foe. These foes attack 50% slower. End effect: You gain 1...6...7 energy.

Conjure Nightmare 15 2 10 Hex spell (2...8...10 seconds). Also hexes foes adjacent to target foe. Causes -8 health degeneration.

Conjure Phantasm 10 1 7 Hex spell (15 seconds). Causes -3...6...7 health degeneration to target foe

Images of Remorse 5 ¼ 5 Hex spell (5 seconds). Causes -1...3...3 health degeneration. Deals 5...41...50 damage if target foe is attacking.

Recurring Insecurity 10 1 15 Elite Hex spell (10 seconds). Causes -1...4...5 health degeneration to target foe. Whenever target foe uses a skill one other nearby foe is also hexed with this hex (10 seconds). Deals 5...41...50 damage whenever this hex is applied to foes that are not hexed with this skill.

Signet of Illusions 5 Elite Signet. You gain +1...2...2 Illusion Magic. Your next spell uses your Illusion Magic attribute.

Signet of Midnight ¼ 10 Elite Signet. Interrupts an attack of target foe and foes adjacent to target foe. Interruption effect: deals 20...68...80 damage and inflicts blindness condition (2...8...10 seconds). Causes a knock down to target foe and foes adjacent to your target if target foe is using an attack skill.

Inspiration Magic

Energy Drain 5 1 15 Spell. Target foe loses 1...4...5 energy. Heals for 50 and gain 5 energy for each point of energy lost.

Energy Tap 5 1½ 20 Spell. Target foe loses 1...4...5 energy. Gain 3 energy for each point of energy lost.

Ether Signet 2 8 Signet. You lose 3 energy. You gain 20...56...65 health for each point of energy lost.

Hex Eater Signet 1 12 Signet. Removes a hex from target ally or foe. Removal effect: you gain 1...8...10 energy.

Mantra of Recall 10 15 Elite Stance (5...17...20 seconds). Your hex spells last 25% longer, recharge 25% faster and cost 25% less energy to cast.

Power Leech 5 ¼ 15 Elite Hex spell (4...9...10 seconds). Interrupts a spell or chant. Interruption effect: steals 5...13...15 energy from target foe and causes -2 energy degeneration.

Signet of Recall 1 10 Signet (10 seconds). Your next hex spell recharges 5...25...30% faster and costs 1...6...7 less energy (minimum cost 1 energy).

No Attribute

Expel Hexes 5 ¼ 7 Elite Spell. Removes 2 hexes from target ally. Removal effect: removes a condition for each hex removed.

Lyssa's Balance 5 1 15 Spell. You gain energy equal to the difference of your energy and target foe's energy if you have less energy than target foe. You lose energy equal to the difference of your energy and target foe's energy if you have more energy than target foe.

Signet of Disenchantment 2 20 Signet. Removes an enchantment from target foe.

Web of Disruption 5 ¼ 15 Hex spell (10 seconds). Also hexes foes near target foe. The next time a foe hexed with this spell is interrupted all other foes hexed with this spell are also interrupted and this hex ends.

Summary

One of the main points that needs to be adjusted is the mesmer's ability to deal armor ignoring damage with ease. To counter that my advice is to make chaos damage be affected by armor rating and change multiple skills that deal armor ignoring damage deal chaos damage instead.

Energy Denial

One of the main points I focused on for the rebalance is the mesmer's energy denial skills. I reduced the energy loss of multiple skills that cause unconditional energy loss. Energy Burn, Energy Surge, Energy Tap and Energy Drain have their energy loss decreased and their effects that scale with their energy loss increased. In the case of Energy Burn and Energy Surge the damage they deal is still around the same amount of damage they currently deal. Energy Tap and Energy Drain have been buffed a bit in that they both recharge faster and Energy Drain has its energy gain increased and gained a healing ability as well to promote its use a bit more.

Ether Lord has been moved it to Fast Casting and I overhauled it's effect. It now removes 3 energy from the targeted foe and following the attribute increase of the "Lord" nomenclature it increases your Domination Magic and Illusion Magic attributes. Even though Ether Lord barely saw any play, this new effect causes a lot less direct pressure on the opponent's energy bar.

Interrupts

I also changed several interruption skills, mainly the elite interrupts

Power Flux has been changed into an elite version of Power Spike and deals AoE damage when it succesfully interrupts as well as interrupting other foes near the interrupted foe. With this change the Mesmer has a more offensive elite interruption spell when compared to other crowd control interruption elites such as Psychic Instability or Panic. The effect of Power Flux has been merged with Power Leech and Power Leech now steals energy when it succesfully interrupts a foe instead of stealing energy each time the interrupted foe casts a spell. This new version makes it a combination of Power Leech and Power Drain and with the immediate reward with it currently it and in general a much more rewarding elite interruption spell.

I changed Psychic Distraction it into an elite version of Complicate. The main difference would be that it recharges faster and costs less energy and affects all foes in range rather than just the foes in the area of the interrupted foe. It's current version is only useful for interrupting trough anti interrupt skills, but for an elite skill that is much too limited and in general other elite skills allow you to play a far more effective build than Psychic Distraction currently does.

Signet of Midnight has seen some play in some PvP as a defensive tool to keep attackers off of the spellcasters but other than that has been performing very poorly in general so I dediced to change it. I made it into an elite Signet of Clumsiness that interrupts the attack of multiple foes and deals damage and inflicts blindess when it interrupts an attack. Like Signet of Clumsiness it also causes a knock down when it interrupts an attack skill to make it more rewarding when used skillfully.

Web of Disruption, instead of being a hex that interrupts twice I changed it into a hex that supports interruption. The next time a foe hexed with Web of Disruption is interrupted all other foes hexed with Web of Disruption are interrupted as well and Web of Disruption end on all these foes. This makes it similar to Panic and can disrupt a spike quite effectively because it also triggers when an attack has been interrupted.

Damage

Shatter Storm has been changed into an elite version of Shatter Delusions. It removes a mesmer hex from the targeted foe and removes an enchantment from that foe. Following the the "Storm" nomenclature removal it deals damage each second for 5 seconds to foes adjacent at the location of the foe that lost a mesmer hex. The current version of Shatter Storm sees no play whatsoever and to fit its name a bit better according to its nomenclature I decided to make it an elite skill for the Shatter Delusion type builds.

I changed Overload to be more rewarding when used in combination with hex removal spells such as Shatter Delusion and Shatter Storm. Instead of dealing damage when the targeted foe is using a skill it now deals it's damage when it ends. As a Mesmer you would rather punish the opponent using skills with interruptions or hex spells like Backfire or Mistrust and an optimized skill bar isn't big enough for Overload so I changed it to be the most optimal for the type of builds it is used in. This change also makes it function better as a cover hex.

Images of Remorse simply has its activation time reduced to make it more effective and see more play, and like Overload let it function better as a cover hex. Its current 2 second activation time is holding this skill back way too much.

Conjure Phantasm and its counterpart Conjure Nightmare has been changed to be more effective mid to late game and to be a bit more different from eachother. Instead of its duration scaling with its attribute the health degeneration of Conjure Phantasm now scales with its attribute to have it deal more damage at a higher investment. It is a good skill early in PvE when enemies have low health and you don't need to have a high investment into Illusion Magic for it to be decent but it simply becomes underwhelming in mid to late game and in PvP. As for Conjure Nightmare I made it closer to its original function causing a set -8 health degeneration but made it an AoE hex instead. Its duration has been reduced and its recharge increased but this version has been designed to pressure multiple foes at once with health degeneration whereas Conjure Phantasm is better to pressure a single foe.

Recurring Insecurity has been buffed to be able to spread itself over a group of enemies like Disease each time a foe hexed with it uses a skill. With this change it will cause a significant amount of pressure over a large group that will be difficult to deal with because of its continuously recurring nature within a group and its ability to inflict damage each time it is applied to a foe who isn't hexed with it which can make hex removal punishing rather than beneficial when it is done in poor coördination and teamwork. Since it can spread itself now it no longer renews itself when it ends on a foe that is already hexed with a different hex so it doesn't become too overwhelming.

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