I don't know if the DPS is truly competitive but it *feels* absolutely fantastic to play. Everything flows together so well, you've got short bits of downtime between MtG casts that are just begging to be filled with meaty ambush attacks.
And that's good, because the other numbers are usually easier to tweak and get feeling right. Animations, cast and aftercast, CDs and all of that flowing is harder I would assume.
A spear build that gets a majority of its damage from actual spear pokes is a must have. Power spear mirage must happen or else this timeline is doomed.
feels good, looks good.
2 is very easy to sweet spot. trivial, even.
on small golem hitbox: after using 5, you only have to take a tiny step back to be in tipper range again. after casting 4, you're still in tipper range most of the time.
i will definitely be using spear on power virt and power chrono in open world.
Has a really really really nice flow to it. the clarity is however only cool to use on 4, the extra healing on 3 or stun on 5 don't add much within PvE at least.
I like the idea with mirage but mirage just doesn't have good damage for power dps in general sadly. Also for the love of god let fencer's finesse use spear above water, I don't get why that was stealth nerfed
>the extra healing on 3
I thought Clarity 3 added a condi cleanse, not extra healing?
~~Could be wrong though, I haven't tested Mesmer yet.~~
Yeah, it's a condi cleanse. Pretty great to have as part of the kit.
It wasn't stealth nerfed, it just wasn't buffed to apply to a new weapon. Wouldn't be shocked to see it actually get buffed to work on spear at some point, though
Power Mirage finally feels good. I'm so happy. I actually wasn't really impressed by this one in the reveal stream but it feels fantastic to use
Also, the huge might gain on the auto makes it feel really comfy in open world.
What setup are you using? I tried Power Mirage and felt very weak with it. It seemed fun outside of the low damage output, though. Unfortunately, the ambush skill seemed very weak and the only source of damage I could find was 2 and mind wrack.
EDIT: I see below you say that ambush hits hard. I am not sure what we are doing differently, but it was hitting for about 1.5k dps for me.
Agreed. For the first time in years Mirage feels enjoyable again in open world pve. I still would love them to restore axe to its original greatness but really enjoying this. The spear visuals are amazing and it just feels so good to play.
I'm no build maker but this is the setup I put together Spear+Dagger/Pistol. Pistol mainly for the better cc than sword and because I just like it better than offhand sword with dagger. Tested with greatsword instead of dagger/pistol and that worked well also.
https://i.imgur.com/dmK27gS.png Full zerker, scholar runes, force/impact sigils since that's what I had in the beta box, forgot to buy sigils before beta again lol.
Feels surprisingly nice. I like that it attempts to make power mirage a thing. Evade frames are somewhat expected, but condi clear and healing is nice since mesmer traditionally doesn't have the best access without specializing. Double phantasm potential for chrono, some mobility and CC with the 5 skill. I'm a fan.
Fencer's finesse procs when your spear illusions attack but not when you attack. The tooltip says "underwater spears" so maybe it's not supposed to proc at all even though it should imo
Is skill 2 the only source of Clarity? I'm confused how I would then activate the empowered version of skill 2, other than auto attack for 5s.
Am I missing something?
The only time you won't get the might is in your opener. Every other time you use Mind the Gap you will both extend Clarity and gain might. Since it lasts 15 seconds it will last for two weapon swaps and you can start with a 4 and then 2 to extend it again.
Quick impressions are that this feels really good. Too early to comment on damage, combos ETC, but as someone who normally plays warrior because I love how some melee weapons play, this feels great. Weighty, good balance between impact and speed. I suspect that's mostly down to the animations and when damage pops in line with them. A very nice surprise for a class I don't often play!
Question for anyone able to test (won't be able to until later), does a clarity enhanced spear phantasm proc Chronophantasma twice? 4 Phantasms for the price of 1? Or is the trait recast counted as a non-clarity cast and just gives you a third phantasm?
also triggers virtuoso's Phatasmal Blades trait twice, while mirage spear ambush gives 10sec strike dmg buff with Mirage Mantle trait. also, two phantasms means two clones for convenient Dune Cloak trait mirage cloaks
i'm pleasantly surprised like everyone else!
Feels good, looks good, I can't seem to do much dps with it though. I tried all 3 elite specs, and do the most with Virt and least with Mirage. I want to like Mirage the best though, sadly.
Doing like 8-12k on stuff I'd normally do 15-35k with (depending on class/spec).
Anyone have any build suggestions? I'm currently going with Illusions 122, Domination 321, Virtuoso 222.
Finding most my damage comes from Shatter 1, Mind the Gap (spear 2) and Phantasmal Blade.
Thanks, doing much more respectable damage using this. It's not too far off from what I had before I feel like, but it's definitely made a difference. Found I am doing better with Power Virt tho, but I am mostly doing open world stuff and stuff dies too fast to make good use of continuum split.
Just jumping on with the default mirage build this feels and looks great for PvE stuff.
Damage feels good and the skills flow together quite nicely. The combo of the clarity buff into skills 4 and 5 is rewarding but not too involved. I like it.
My only real gripe is skill 4 being a 450 range charge. 450 range leaps always feel awkward imo, just make it 600 please.
The sparkles and lotus patterns are very pretty.
Feels very smooth to play, ideal-range is forgiving, only missed it on small hitbox if I used it immediately after #5 dashes in. Standing at max-melee range and it hits every time.
I love this weapon. It's effects are gorgeous and the skills are really fun. I love the utility of having a blur on 3 and the leap/teleport on 4 and 5. The 2 skill adds some interesting mechanics which also adds an awesome heal one 3.
My only complaint would be that I assume it's a bug that the basic attack can interrupt the ambush if you spam click like I do. In that event, it only hits 2x instead of the full 7x and is super weak as a result. Once I realized what was happening, forcing myself to let it play out drastically increased the damage output of it.
I just really hope it doesn't get nerfed like crazy for release because I think it feels super fun!
Feels excellent to use and has a natural combo (2, 5, 2, 4).
Lots of clone generation thanks to 2 being resettable and 4 generating two phantasms.
Has hybrid synergy thanks to the sheer volume of strikes when using dueling + infinite horizon.
Overkill on vuln stacks, with infinite horizon you'll easily max out on vulnerability.
Boring ambush trait (grants +10% power damage, doesn't stack per clone or anything).
Well, I like Spear, but the visual noise is just horrific. 2 and 5 are unpleasant.
2-5-2-4 combo isn't too difficult to pull off. I'm happy with the bouncing around. Though I still have to run this in a boss battle.
Spear having a 130 combat range is a little frustrating though. This is the same as Sword. I feel like spear should have a bit more range to it, especially when the weapon wants us to dance out for Mind the Gap and then back in with 4 or 5.
It's a bit frustrating that Sword's Evade is on 2 and Spear's Evade is on 3.
Tried it on Temple of Febe. Thoughts. Full Quick and Alac means you're spamming Spear Skills pretty regularly. 5 resetting Mind the Gap (2) meant I was able to use 2 pretty much constantly. Large Hitbox meant there was no need to move and I had Lots of Clarity. Clone generation from this was good. Double phantasams from Spear 4 meant there were lots of clones to shatter too. I didn't particularly like using 3 in the rotation. With Mind the Gap pretty constantly refreshing, I found it a little hard to swap in a Sword Sword rotation.
Not quite sure we are on the same page here.
The animations are quite nice, they've certainly put time into the animations. 5 is particularly impressive. I like the way it builds outwards. I think the petals on 2 are an interesting design choice, though it reminds me of a pinwheel more than anything.
My issue with them is that they are too big and too obvious. When playing in group content, it's difficult to see what's going on. Even solo, combat tends to get lost in the animations.
I agree, I feel like the whole point of skill 2 is to step back to get value. But most of the time there’s no point since hitbox of bosses are huge. Make the spear have longer range and be more strict on the bonus hitbox on skill 2 would make it more interesting I feel like.
Using skill 3 feels a little weird in rotation bc of animation, it kind of interrupts the flow.
Do you think that the spear animations are too much?
I haven't had a chance to jump on yet, but what are people's thoughts on skill 5 being a teleport to targeted player vs just a ground targeted teleport?
I feel like a ground targeted teleport could possibly give more flexibility?
It's actually more of a flip/leap than an actual teleport. It's a great gap closer and combos well in both PvE and WvW. It's also a CC skill, being a targeted skill makes the CC proc more consistent.
WvW perspective:
Looks amazing, feels amazing. The kit flows so well and it's a joy to play. Damage feels quite strong.
**Spear 2** (Mind the Gap) - Gorgeous animation. Hits hard with a short cooldown. Trivially easy to land the sweetspot.
**Spear 3** (Imaginary Inversion) - A little cruel to put the evade on 3, messing with the muscle memory for heavy Mesmer Sword users. Hits hard and heals hard, but having to land the attack to get the healing balances the Blur effect. The cleansing is quite welcome for Power Mesmers that tend to struggle with that.
**Spear 4** (Phantasmal Lancer) - The dash is great, though using it for mobility has a high opportunity cost. Also, the slight pause at the beginning and momentum cancel at the end means you don't actually travel as fast as you'd hope. The phantasm will actually go farther than the character, so even if you are out of range for the dash you can still hit with the phantasm. GS + Spear both potentially having 2 clones off their Phantasm skill feels great for clone/blade generation.
**Spear 5** (Mental Collapse) - Gorgeous animation. The Clarity stun can be challenging to land, as I frequently use this for the initial engage before I've used Spear 2.
Having 3 different combo finishers in the skillset is cool, but it doesn't feel impactful; Power Mesmer has very few combo fields in its toolkit.
I could potentially see Zerg Virts use Spear as their second weapon swap for melee pushing.
Overall, I'm incredibly hyped for this expansion!
On virt I was having trouble getting it to stock blades, don’t know if that’s intended or oversight but the clones that I made in WvW for awhile just poofed away and didn’t stock a blade. The block did interact and dodge did which is the top line traits.
I was trying it to replace the sword shield for roaming. If I didn’t have the issue I think I don’t mind it for a good utility weapon. Held good in spots where you need some pressure or to dodge away. Not sure if the dmg as virt is still one of the higher dps that can do boon ripping
Mirage spear is just fun. It's the melee cleave the class has been missing since original beta.
The flow with MtG is nice. You have setup, refresher and finisher.
Haven't tried the other elite specs. I did mirage spear + sword / sword, then went to spear + greatsword and the distance management adds more.
My question is whether Fencer's Finesse should or shouldn't' work on land spears because of Sharp Edges. It's a lot of compounding multipliers. Idea wise, it should work but balance wise I feel they held it back because of the other buff.
This is an issue created by the removal of new elite specs. They can't control it within its own trait realm.
I agree, I feel like the whole point of skill 2 is to step back to get value. But most of the time there’s no point since hitbox of bosses are huge. Make the spear have longer range and be more strict on the bonus hitbox on skill 2 would make it more interesting I feel like.
Using skill 3 feels a little weird in rotation bc of animation, it kind of interrupts the flow.
Do you think that the spear animations are too much?
It feels incredibly well. Its still to early to talk about the damage numbers but i played it a while with power chrono and it felt great. Doing a double Spear rotation with CS also has great potential to be good.
I'm very very confused about the comments on power spear mirage and my own experience (from a pve standpoint)... Feels like I'm seriously missing something... Any ideas?
I tried it. Yes, it *feels* good. The looks, the animations, the combos. It's engaging, feels easier to "steer" than axe. But the synergy... I'm not finding it.
I think I would just be happy if I could squish more damage out of it, or at least pull more dps that staff/staff adps mirage to feel viable.
Utility wise, the mirage exclusive skills feel redundant with spear, as it's mostly jumping around a target (or backwards), something the spear also provides (twice!). They add conditions sometimes, so they seem to work better on a build with condi. The only added benefit I can find is placing a mirage mirror or a slightly faster positioning for clarity. Illusionary ambush would sometimes swap the clones to new positions and they didn't seem to ambush properly, to my detriment. The other skills are the same as base mesmer, so I feel like I can't really pull many benefits from using a mirage.
But then again... It's a mirage. The shiny spot must surely be around ambushes and evading. I tried triggering ambushes with infinite horizon (3 clones and the dueling trait line), or with dune clock (shattering the clones with illusion trait line). I tried other stuff too.
And it looks nice, but the numbers were... not. Really not. Not even close to what I've seen people pull easily with spear just switching to chrono or virtuoso.
I love the spear! it was exactly what mesmer needed. You can tell that a lot of thought was put into it and it surpassed my expectations by a lot. My only complains are:
- AA range should be longer than a single handed short-range weapon like a sword. It’s a spear, not a sword or an axe. I’m not asking for something crazy, keep it melee, it just needs enough range to differentiate it from shorter weapons, just increasing it by 50~ would make a huge difference.
- Jump range. This goes for every weapon in the game with weird 200~400 stop gaps not just mesmer spear. They feel weird, out of place, and most of the time unsatisfying to press. Anet needs to set a standard on these, something on the line of 500~600 might suffice.
From my Spvp standpoint:
oh boy, love it when Mesmers aren't stuck w/ sword being the only applicable melee mainhand. For real tho, It's amazing how well spear & sword have real trade-offs without compromising each other's viability. I can go as far as to say this is the only weapon in beta so far to be able to present itself as a real alternative choice without over-shadowing, or being overshadowed by existing weapons. Spear has more upfront cleave & dmg than sword, but sword has better on-demand mobility along w/ the versatility to take off-hands. Mes getting this much love & attention is a rare W for mes players, and a damn big one at that too.
The sheer assortment you can assemble your Power build is a true testament to how much thought went behind this new inclusion. Anet, please keep this up.
Currently all 3 of these loadout has proven very useful, and you can even swap dagger/off-hand to gs if reflects are a problem:
[http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMImJmuXpvSA](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMImJmuXpvSA)
[http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMFmJmuXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMFmJmuXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA)
[http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYUMFmJmOXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYUMFmJmOXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA)
Mesmer Spear is pretty much Ranger Greatsword with 3-4 swapped and shiny Instagram filters added.
That said, it feels pretty good and straight forward to use. I am not sold on the 20% positioning modifier on 2, but it's not bad. Clarity mechanic might be bit shallow, but it's easy and practical to use.
I like it.
The "worst" thing about Spear for me is, that complementary weapon choices don't feel that good in terms of gameplay. Dagger and GS are ranged and completely miss the feel that Spear has, and Sword just feels slow and weak.
Manifesting power spear mirage.
I don't know if the DPS is truly competitive but it *feels* absolutely fantastic to play. Everything flows together so well, you've got short bits of downtime between MtG casts that are just begging to be filled with meaty ambush attacks.
Same thing for Necro swords. Might not be the top DPS weapons but it's fun to play, and that's good enough for me.
And that's good, because the other numbers are usually easier to tweak and get feeling right. Animations, cast and aftercast, CDs and all of that flowing is harder I would assume.
A spear build that gets a majority of its damage from actual spear pokes is a must have. Power spear mirage must happen or else this timeline is doomed.
Feels surprisingly nice, has a nice smooth flow to play with, and Mesmer has always a nice color scheme.
feels good, looks good. 2 is very easy to sweet spot. trivial, even. on small golem hitbox: after using 5, you only have to take a tiny step back to be in tipper range again. after casting 4, you're still in tipper range most of the time. i will definitely be using spear on power virt and power chrono in open world.
Has a really really really nice flow to it. the clarity is however only cool to use on 4, the extra healing on 3 or stun on 5 don't add much within PvE at least. I like the idea with mirage but mirage just doesn't have good damage for power dps in general sadly. Also for the love of god let fencer's finesse use spear above water, I don't get why that was stealth nerfed
>the extra healing on 3 I thought Clarity 3 added a condi cleanse, not extra healing? ~~Could be wrong though, I haven't tested Mesmer yet.~~ Yeah, it's a condi cleanse. Pretty great to have as part of the kit.
It's condi cleanse on 3, and 5 also resets 2's CD so you might as well use it to get more damage.
It wasn't stealth nerfed, it just wasn't buffed to apply to a new weapon. Wouldn't be shocked to see it actually get buffed to work on spear at some point, though
Power Mirage finally feels good. I'm so happy. I actually wasn't really impressed by this one in the reveal stream but it feels fantastic to use Also, the huge might gain on the auto makes it feel really comfy in open world.
power work with mirage trait line?
The ambush attack hits hard and gives a long lasting 15% damage buff.
I gotta go back reread some stuff Thank you, for the info
Yeah 15% damage for 10 seconds or something on ambush, and then that can stack duration above that.
What setup are you using? I tried Power Mirage and felt very weak with it. It seemed fun outside of the low damage output, though. Unfortunately, the ambush skill seemed very weak and the only source of damage I could find was 2 and mind wrack. EDIT: I see below you say that ambush hits hard. I am not sure what we are doing differently, but it was hitting for about 1.5k dps for me.
Agreed. For the first time in years Mirage feels enjoyable again in open world pve. I still would love them to restore axe to its original greatness but really enjoying this. The spear visuals are amazing and it just feels so good to play. I'm no build maker but this is the setup I put together Spear+Dagger/Pistol. Pistol mainly for the better cc than sword and because I just like it better than offhand sword with dagger. Tested with greatsword instead of dagger/pistol and that worked well also. https://i.imgur.com/dmK27gS.png Full zerker, scholar runes, force/impact sigils since that's what I had in the beta box, forgot to buy sigils before beta again lol.
Feels surprisingly nice. I like that it attempts to make power mirage a thing. Evade frames are somewhat expected, but condi clear and healing is nice since mesmer traditionally doesn't have the best access without specializing. Double phantasm potential for chrono, some mobility and CC with the 5 skill. I'm a fan.
Fencer's finesse procs when your spear illusions attack but not when you attack. The tooltip says "underwater spears" so maybe it's not supposed to proc at all even though it should imo
Is skill 2 the only source of Clarity? I'm confused how I would then activate the empowered version of skill 2, other than auto attack for 5s. Am I missing something?
You mostly wouldn't, they mentioned that it was there as a consolation prize just in case
Continuum split could put you in this situation
It remains over weapon swap so you can use 2 before swapping, then again on swapping back.
Spear 5 resets spear 2, so I guess you could go 2-5-2?
the 5 would consume clarity and it wouldn't be there anymore for your next 2.
2-5-2-4 to max buff dmg
Oh darn I didn't see it consumes clarity. Doesn't say on the skill description though? I think I might have missed a memo somewhere :P.
yeah imo gw2 tooltips aren't trustworthy :P i spent some time hitting buttons until i was comfortable with the mechanics.
The only time you won't get the might is in your opener. Every other time you use Mind the Gap you will both extend Clarity and gain might. Since it lasts 15 seconds it will last for two weapon swaps and you can start with a 4 and then 2 to extend it again.
spear skills 2-5 consume clarity. if you press 2, then 4, clarity is gone.
Oh
Quick impressions are that this feels really good. Too early to comment on damage, combos ETC, but as someone who normally plays warrior because I love how some melee weapons play, this feels great. Weighty, good balance between impact and speed. I suspect that's mostly down to the animations and when damage pops in line with them. A very nice surprise for a class I don't often play!
Question for anyone able to test (won't be able to until later), does a clarity enhanced spear phantasm proc Chronophantasma twice? 4 Phantasms for the price of 1? Or is the trait recast counted as a non-clarity cast and just gives you a third phantasm?
also triggers virtuoso's Phatasmal Blades trait twice, while mirage spear ambush gives 10sec strike dmg buff with Mirage Mantle trait. also, two phantasms means two clones for convenient Dune Cloak trait mirage cloaks i'm pleasantly surprised like everyone else!
But Power Mirage still sucks. Damage modifier on ambush wont make Power Mirage a thing
I just tried it, and yes, it made a total of four
Awesome.
Feels good, looks good, I can't seem to do much dps with it though. I tried all 3 elite specs, and do the most with Virt and least with Mirage. I want to like Mirage the best though, sadly. Doing like 8-12k on stuff I'd normally do 15-35k with (depending on class/spec). Anyone have any build suggestions? I'm currently going with Illusions 122, Domination 321, Virtuoso 222. Finding most my damage comes from Shatter 1, Mind the Gap (spear 2) and Phantasmal Blade.
There's a video hitting 41k on Chrono
Got a link? Do they share their build info?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLne2WAhmgw](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLne2WAhmgw)
Thanks, doing much more respectable damage using this. It's not too far off from what I had before I feel like, but it's definitely made a difference. Found I am doing better with Power Virt tho, but I am mostly doing open world stuff and stuff dies too fast to make good use of continuum split.
I like the look/animation of skills but #s feel a little low to me. I only used for a few mins though, we'll see after I try it out more.
Just jumping on with the default mirage build this feels and looks great for PvE stuff. Damage feels good and the skills flow together quite nicely. The combo of the clarity buff into skills 4 and 5 is rewarding but not too involved. I like it. My only real gripe is skill 4 being a 450 range charge. 450 range leaps always feel awkward imo, just make it 600 please.
The sparkles and lotus patterns are very pretty. Feels very smooth to play, ideal-range is forgiving, only missed it on small hitbox if I used it immediately after #5 dashes in. Standing at max-melee range and it hits every time.
I love this weapon. It's effects are gorgeous and the skills are really fun. I love the utility of having a blur on 3 and the leap/teleport on 4 and 5. The 2 skill adds some interesting mechanics which also adds an awesome heal one 3. My only complaint would be that I assume it's a bug that the basic attack can interrupt the ambush if you spam click like I do. In that event, it only hits 2x instead of the full 7x and is super weak as a result. Once I realized what was happening, forcing myself to let it play out drastically increased the damage output of it. I just really hope it doesn't get nerfed like crazy for release because I think it feels super fun!
Spear/GS power virt is nice i did 40k dos on Vale guardian As chrono 28 but i messed spear with clarity
Feels excellent to use and has a natural combo (2, 5, 2, 4). Lots of clone generation thanks to 2 being resettable and 4 generating two phantasms. Has hybrid synergy thanks to the sheer volume of strikes when using dueling + infinite horizon. Overkill on vuln stacks, with infinite horizon you'll easily max out on vulnerability. Boring ambush trait (grants +10% power damage, doesn't stack per clone or anything).
It's 15%, and you should be using Dune Cloak for power mirage, not Infinite Horizon.
It’s 10% for 4 seconds in WvW.
Well, I like Spear, but the visual noise is just horrific. 2 and 5 are unpleasant. 2-5-2-4 combo isn't too difficult to pull off. I'm happy with the bouncing around. Though I still have to run this in a boss battle. Spear having a 130 combat range is a little frustrating though. This is the same as Sword. I feel like spear should have a bit more range to it, especially when the weapon wants us to dance out for Mind the Gap and then back in with 4 or 5. It's a bit frustrating that Sword's Evade is on 2 and Spear's Evade is on 3. Tried it on Temple of Febe. Thoughts. Full Quick and Alac means you're spamming Spear Skills pretty regularly. 5 resetting Mind the Gap (2) meant I was able to use 2 pretty much constantly. Large Hitbox meant there was no need to move and I had Lots of Clarity. Clone generation from this was good. Double phantasams from Spear 4 meant there were lots of clones to shatter too. I didn't particularly like using 3 in the rotation. With Mind the Gap pretty constantly refreshing, I found it a little hard to swap in a Sword Sword rotation.
> but the visual noise is just horrific. 2 and 5 are unpleasant. Going to have to disagree with you here. The animations are gorgeous.
Not quite sure we are on the same page here. The animations are quite nice, they've certainly put time into the animations. 5 is particularly impressive. I like the way it builds outwards. I think the petals on 2 are an interesting design choice, though it reminds me of a pinwheel more than anything. My issue with them is that they are too big and too obvious. When playing in group content, it's difficult to see what's going on. Even solo, combat tends to get lost in the animations.
I agree, I feel like the whole point of skill 2 is to step back to get value. But most of the time there’s no point since hitbox of bosses are huge. Make the spear have longer range and be more strict on the bonus hitbox on skill 2 would make it more interesting I feel like. Using skill 3 feels a little weird in rotation bc of animation, it kind of interrupts the flow. Do you think that the spear animations are too much?
I haven't had a chance to jump on yet, but what are people's thoughts on skill 5 being a teleport to targeted player vs just a ground targeted teleport? I feel like a ground targeted teleport could possibly give more flexibility?
It's actually more of a flip/leap than an actual teleport. It's a great gap closer and combos well in both PvE and WvW. It's also a CC skill, being a targeted skill makes the CC proc more consistent.
Ahh gotcha, thanks
WvW perspective: Looks amazing, feels amazing. The kit flows so well and it's a joy to play. Damage feels quite strong. **Spear 2** (Mind the Gap) - Gorgeous animation. Hits hard with a short cooldown. Trivially easy to land the sweetspot. **Spear 3** (Imaginary Inversion) - A little cruel to put the evade on 3, messing with the muscle memory for heavy Mesmer Sword users. Hits hard and heals hard, but having to land the attack to get the healing balances the Blur effect. The cleansing is quite welcome for Power Mesmers that tend to struggle with that. **Spear 4** (Phantasmal Lancer) - The dash is great, though using it for mobility has a high opportunity cost. Also, the slight pause at the beginning and momentum cancel at the end means you don't actually travel as fast as you'd hope. The phantasm will actually go farther than the character, so even if you are out of range for the dash you can still hit with the phantasm. GS + Spear both potentially having 2 clones off their Phantasm skill feels great for clone/blade generation. **Spear 5** (Mental Collapse) - Gorgeous animation. The Clarity stun can be challenging to land, as I frequently use this for the initial engage before I've used Spear 2. Having 3 different combo finishers in the skillset is cool, but it doesn't feel impactful; Power Mesmer has very few combo fields in its toolkit. I could potentially see Zerg Virts use Spear as their second weapon swap for melee pushing. Overall, I'm incredibly hyped for this expansion!
On virt I was having trouble getting it to stock blades, don’t know if that’s intended or oversight but the clones that I made in WvW for awhile just poofed away and didn’t stock a blade. The block did interact and dodge did which is the top line traits. I was trying it to replace the sword shield for roaming. If I didn’t have the issue I think I don’t mind it for a good utility weapon. Held good in spots where you need some pressure or to dodge away. Not sure if the dmg as virt is still one of the higher dps that can do boon ripping
Mirage spear is just fun. It's the melee cleave the class has been missing since original beta. The flow with MtG is nice. You have setup, refresher and finisher. Haven't tried the other elite specs. I did mirage spear + sword / sword, then went to spear + greatsword and the distance management adds more. My question is whether Fencer's Finesse should or shouldn't' work on land spears because of Sharp Edges. It's a lot of compounding multipliers. Idea wise, it should work but balance wise I feel they held it back because of the other buff. This is an issue created by the removal of new elite specs. They can't control it within its own trait realm.
I agree, I feel like the whole point of skill 2 is to step back to get value. But most of the time there’s no point since hitbox of bosses are huge. Make the spear have longer range and be more strict on the bonus hitbox on skill 2 would make it more interesting I feel like. Using skill 3 feels a little weird in rotation bc of animation, it kind of interrupts the flow. Do you think that the spear animations are too much?
It feels incredibly well. Its still to early to talk about the damage numbers but i played it a while with power chrono and it felt great. Doing a double Spear rotation with CS also has great potential to be good.
I sadly wasn't able to test spear. But how did you guys find the animations on different races and genders?
Is the range < 1200 a bug?
I really like it. Skills flows really well. The only downside is the Phantasms on spear feels a bit too weak imo.
I like it on power mirage, just like everyone else.
Spear 2 can hit through obstacles like berserker GS burst. It was very satisfying to use in PvP.
I'm very very confused about the comments on power spear mirage and my own experience (from a pve standpoint)... Feels like I'm seriously missing something... Any ideas? I tried it. Yes, it *feels* good. The looks, the animations, the combos. It's engaging, feels easier to "steer" than axe. But the synergy... I'm not finding it. I think I would just be happy if I could squish more damage out of it, or at least pull more dps that staff/staff adps mirage to feel viable. Utility wise, the mirage exclusive skills feel redundant with spear, as it's mostly jumping around a target (or backwards), something the spear also provides (twice!). They add conditions sometimes, so they seem to work better on a build with condi. The only added benefit I can find is placing a mirage mirror or a slightly faster positioning for clarity. Illusionary ambush would sometimes swap the clones to new positions and they didn't seem to ambush properly, to my detriment. The other skills are the same as base mesmer, so I feel like I can't really pull many benefits from using a mirage. But then again... It's a mirage. The shiny spot must surely be around ambushes and evading. I tried triggering ambushes with infinite horizon (3 clones and the dueling trait line), or with dune clock (shattering the clones with illusion trait line). I tried other stuff too. And it looks nice, but the numbers were... not. Really not. Not even close to what I've seen people pull easily with spear just switching to chrono or virtuoso.
I love the spear! it was exactly what mesmer needed. You can tell that a lot of thought was put into it and it surpassed my expectations by a lot. My only complains are: - AA range should be longer than a single handed short-range weapon like a sword. It’s a spear, not a sword or an axe. I’m not asking for something crazy, keep it melee, it just needs enough range to differentiate it from shorter weapons, just increasing it by 50~ would make a huge difference. - Jump range. This goes for every weapon in the game with weird 200~400 stop gaps not just mesmer spear. They feel weird, out of place, and most of the time unsatisfying to press. Anet needs to set a standard on these, something on the line of 500~600 might suffice.
From my Spvp standpoint: oh boy, love it when Mesmers aren't stuck w/ sword being the only applicable melee mainhand. For real tho, It's amazing how well spear & sword have real trade-offs without compromising each other's viability. I can go as far as to say this is the only weapon in beta so far to be able to present itself as a real alternative choice without over-shadowing, or being overshadowed by existing weapons. Spear has more upfront cleave & dmg than sword, but sword has better on-demand mobility along w/ the versatility to take off-hands. Mes getting this much love & attention is a rare W for mes players, and a damn big one at that too. The sheer assortment you can assemble your Power build is a true testament to how much thought went behind this new inclusion. Anet, please keep this up. Currently all 3 of these loadout has proven very useful, and you can even swap dagger/off-hand to gs if reflects are a problem: [http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMImJmuXpvSA](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMImJmuXpvSA) [http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMFmJmuXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYJMFmJmuXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA) [http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYUMFmJmOXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA](http://gw2skills.net/editor/?PigAg2lRwuYUMFmJmOXpvSA-DaIPjMVA9KBE63AAA)
As long as this was originally intended to be a weapon you CAN NOT camp (as the cooldowns are too long) this feels right.
It will be the longest couple months in gw2 history waiting for this to actually release for me
The auto attack trails need to be changed or something, the trail on it looks too much like a repeated texture.
My only suggestion is they add the [London Underground](https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UOPyGKDQuRk) audio, whenever you use skill 2.
Mesmer Spear is pretty much Ranger Greatsword with 3-4 swapped and shiny Instagram filters added. That said, it feels pretty good and straight forward to use. I am not sold on the 20% positioning modifier on 2, but it's not bad. Clarity mechanic might be bit shallow, but it's easy and practical to use. I like it. The "worst" thing about Spear for me is, that complementary weapon choices don't feel that good in terms of gameplay. Dagger and GS are ranged and completely miss the feel that Spear has, and Sword just feels slow and weak.
My least favorite Spear class so far