ArenaNet:Skill feedback/Mesmer/Mesmer Hex Display

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File:Mesmer Hex Display.jpg Mesmer Hex Display

<4thVariety> Issue -- 11:14, 20 May 2009 (UTC)

Discussion

Issue

Easy Mesmer Counters and the Lack of Visual Feedback of the Mesmer's Impact in Battle

Suggestion

I suggest all Mesmer hexes to no longer display their name and description on the user interface of the target.

Many Mesmer skills impact the battle such as this: Don't do A, or else B. The problem of B being that it is mostly damage, the one thing people want to cause, since depleting your enemy's health is (most of the time) the only way to win. But since the target ALWAYS knows the condition of how to avoid Mesmer damage dealt that way, the Mesmer does less damage and becomes a class which has a set of potentially high damage skills that end up only modifying behavior and not doing any damage at all. If confronted by any other class, people have to pay attention to the other player casting, in order to properly adjust their behavior. The Mesmer is the only class that awards its target with the luxury of knowing details on how to avoid further damage in plain writing after the skill has been triggered. Conditions and snares take effect immediately and require no additional trigger by the target. Amongst all the visual cues that need to be deciphered in order to minimize the receiving of damage in any given battle, the Mesmer's hexes are the easiest to avoid. AoE spells can always be mistaken for those of your own team, Mesmer hexes are deciphered at first glance and rendered almost useless in that exact moment. If you are crippled you know without looking and there is no way to counter the effect, you can only try to end it. If you are hexed you can still counter and work around the effects without ending the hex itself. That easy to read, easy to avoid gameplay mechanic is what weakens Mesmers most.

A target should know when it was hexed, but it should not be given the luxury of knowing how to get around it by simply looking at an icon. It shifts the balance of power away from the Mesmer casting. It is odd that the person having been hexed by a 15energy, 3second spell specifically aimed at their weakness, still has the advantage because he knows how to work around his new problem, or can even instantly counter it. At the same time, all players in battle should see the impact of their own Mesmer on the opposing team. Arrows fly, fire rains down, minions swarm, only the Mesmer leaves almost no visual cue as to what he is doing.

--4thvariety 11:14, 20 May 2009 (UTC)