Fast Cast Mesmer/Elementalists have been used to devastating effect in PvP on numerous occasions throughout the history of Guild Wars competitive play. By coupling the Mesmer primary, Fast Casting, with the Elementalist's high-damage spells, players are able to work around the typically high cast times used to counterbalance the high damage of Elementalist spells. Layer on top of that the utility that Elementalists and Mesmers bring as midliners, and you have a character that is both deadly and difficult to counter. guild wars gold This character plays a key role in the versatile GvG builds we are trying to address with this update.

Mirror of Ice was used to further boost the damage of water spikes, which were already made more powerful by using Fast Casting to throw out multiple spike skills in quick succession. We've tied the duration of Mirror of Ice to Energy Storage, the Elementalist primary, so Mesmers won't be able to maintain it to create fast spikes at a moment's notice.

Steam was too good at being both a defensive skill with its Blind and a spike skill with strong damage, so we removed its conditional bonus damage to make it less valuable for spike builds.

Castigation Signet: increased recharge to 20 seconds.

Castigation Signet allowed heavily defensive characters to participate in spikes without negatively affecting their defensive roles, so we have adjusted its recharge to lower the overall damage output of this skill.

Hunter's Shot: removed 1 second cast and functionality changed to: guild wars gold "If this attack hits, your target bleeds for 3..25 seconds."

Melandru's Shot: functionality change to: "If this attack hits, your target bleeds for 5..25 seconds. If it hits a foe that is moving or knocked down, that foe takes +10..25 damage and is crippled for +5..15 seconds."