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It just kinda rubs me the wrong way, and makes me feel like there's a massive design flaw there, in that the utility they provide is so f*cking powerful that it getting nerfed means that you take more mesmers to achieve the same effect.
It kind of reminds me of an issue WoW had a long time back----Actually, it's quite similar, funnily enough, considering they both revolve around buffs that involved making your allies attack faster.
In WoW there's a buff called "Bloodlust" which has, historically increased your haste stat, making you attack/cast faster----and later on, even reducing the duration of various cooldowns.
At first, "Bloodlust" was limited to the Shaman class
But because Bloodlust was such a massively powerful raidwide CD, it meant people were taking Shamans as a mandatory slot----Even if the player sucked, even if the shaman itself was poorly geared, poorly specced, poorly built, and poorly played, Bloodlust alone was far too powerful to pass up
They eventually remedied this by spreading the love around, and giving other classes to the same buff (sharing the same cooldown, of course)
Mages got "Time Warp"
Leatherworkers could craft "Drums of War" (Currently known as "Drums of Fury")
And much later on, hunters could tame Core Hounds which grant Ancient Hysteria...
As of today, 3 different classes now have access to the same effect----And a profession can create an item that recreates a similar, but slightly weaker effect allowing all classes to provide it, albeit at a reduced effectiveness.
I think.... it's time to give mesmer more DPS, and give other classes a way to help provide groupwide quickness.
It's nearly impossible to balance such an effect when only one class has adequate ability to stack it.
If only one class has it, they're going to be mandatory---You're making that class mandatory.
As it stands in GW2, we have classes that are brought because their DPS is high, and we have classes that are brought because their utility is good.
And you know what? That's alright if not every class has to have everything----But no class should have access to something that no other class does (Hell, Blizzard even gave Death Knight tanks the ability to Battle-Rez players, because they realized that it was too powerful of a tool for Restoration Druids to have to themselves)
But... there needs to be more protection and safeguards.
Most classes, if they get nerfed, they get nerfed, and then they're done, and they're not worth bringing along compared to other options. Without being the absolute highest DPS, they have a hard time competing.
Then you've got Mesmer and Warrior where, if they get nerfed, you don't trade them out for other things---You trade other things out for more of them.
What happens when they nerf Quickness/alacrity generation so much that you just can't justify taking more mesmers to upkeep quickness?
Then they're done for, and every single class hurts because of it
Mesmer is the lynchpin of balance in this game. If it gets pulled, everything falls apart.
TL;DR QUICKNESS AND ALACRITY ARE FAR TOO POWERFUL OF EFFECTS TO BE LIMITED TO A SINGLE CLASS----FOR THE HEALTH OF THE GAME AND ITS COMMUNITY, MESMER NEEDS MORE FLEXIBLE PERSONAL DPS AND OTHER CLASSES NEED ACCESS TO SUBSTANTIAL GROUPWIDE QUICKNESS AND ALACRITY-LIKE EFFECTS----OTHERWISE, MESMER IS FAR TOO VALUABLE AND INCAPABLE OF BEING PROPERLY BALANCED
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