examining shatter hex and hex eater vortex

Shatter hex: Spell. Removes a hex from target ally. Removal effect: deals 30...102...120 damage to foes near this ally.

Anet has buffed shatter hex to a 10 second recharge and reduced the energy cost down to 10. It used to cost 15 energy

Hex eater vortex is basically an elite version of shatter hex. Hex eater vortex: Elite Spell. Removes one hex from target ally. Removal effect: deals 30...78...90 damage and removes one enchantment from foes near this ally.

Hex eater vortex used to be a very powerful skill before it was nerfed. Hex eater vortex had a 10 second recharge. at the moment it has a 15 second recharge. It was overpowered because it used to strip the old aegis, at the same time help clean up melee. It used to do a bit more damage too i believe (correct me if I'm wrong). The aegis chains are no longer meta so the reason they nerfed hex eater vortex is moot.

Hex eater vortex does less damage than shatter hex but does an area wide enchant removal effect that seems like an okay trade off. The problem now is that hex eater just became less attractive as an elite compared to its non elite version. Mesmer also have many strong elites to choose from. For example E-Surge, psychic distraction (HA), VOR. The skill needs to be more attractive to mesmers as an elite especially when you look at alternatives and its non elite counterpart.

Lets take a look at the gvg meta to see how a buff would affect hex eater vortex, when used. Hex eater vortex will strip derv enchantments sometimes this is a minor inconvenience to dervishes for the most part.

It could strip elementalist enchantments, attunements are usually covered and good positioning will stop attunement from being stripped. It can randomly remove patient and prots, that is what the elite should be doing offensive pressure while helping cleaning the frontline. Other enchant removal elites have their place.

Hex eater vortex is powerful against water eles, providing pressure and snare or blurr relief to make the frontline push for a kill with extra damage and prot strip. This might be bad for the meta. Water eles are a staple in gvg.

Against hex heavy teams this skill will shine and that a good thing. Hex teams are bad for meta they often need specialized teams to beat them. what do you know this skill is specialized skill that hurts hex users and is useful vs balanced teams.

Solution: Buff hex eater vortex recharge to be in line with shatter hex keep damage the same so as it does not become a powerful spike assist skill but as a powerful pressure skill when used in the right situation.

good... and now compare to smite hex.
I remember taking 2 mins comparing smite & shatter back in 2006... barely less laughable now...

Here is what I'm confused about. How does this skill work?

Do you take the energy of a hex off of your ally and use it to create some kind of vortex? If it's a hex eater vortex than why does it also consume enchantments?

Here is my guess: The Mesmer compresses the hex-energy into a very high density. The high-density hex-energy attracts any enchantment-energy nearby, stripping it off enemies. The vortex collapses and deals damage to enemies. But this makes no sense, why wouldn't the vortex also damage your allies, or remove enchantments from them?

Also it's not really a vortex, when you think of a vortex you think of a sort of spinning aoe effect with a duration.

Ok how about this. Maybe the hex-energy is used to cause a rupture in the ether (creative a "vacuum") and this space sucks up enchantments before immediately collapsing. How can a Mesmer possibly control who has their enchantments removed?

Does any of that really matter?

damn...more mesmer buffing wanted in every freackin thread...mesmer this mesmer that...i cant wait till they get a tone-down for pvp...

why not buff rangers...paragons...monks...hell even a rit.
u want soemthign buffed again thats already got amped?

he's not asking for another mesmer update, he is asking for a single skill to get numbers adjusted (not even a functionality change... just an adjustment in numbers). I'm not quite sure why you're getting so uptight about this.

"Does any of that really matter?"

Yes, it does, why wouldn't it?

The thread is talking about the how effective a skill is, not w/e the hell you were going on about.

@S4br3t00th: smite hex is a monk skill, it is in a different line used in different pvp bars. shatter and hex eater are both Mesmer skills in domination, comparing them does not add to this discussion.

well i see what he saying, but would it really matter if it was changed in number description?...half the community wouldnt use the change..

All I can say is that I love it when shatter hex does 114 damage to 4 people at the same time and I get insidious off of the dervish on my team.

...Why?

Mesmers are powerful enough. I'm not convinced they need more options.

agree with reaper

The title is "Examining Shatter Hex and Hex Eater Vortex"

Hex Eater Vortex: Functionality changed to; "Elite Spell. Remove a hex from target ally. If a hex is removed in this way, foes near that ally lose 1...2...4 Energy and take 5...45...50 damage."

I heard reducing damage overall and increasing shutdown was good for game... gg.

EDIT: Also, In a hex heavy meta I could argue that it would be very useful to have hex removal on my mesmer. A viable way to remove hexes and keep pressure on the other team is to use both Hex Eater Vortex and Shatter Hex. Hex Eater Vortex could be deemed worthy of elite status for the sake of having two shatter hexes being powerful enough to force making one of those two skills the elite on your skill bar.

Hex eater vortex: Elite Spell. Removes one hex from target ally. Removal effect: deals 30...78...90 damage and removes one enchantment from foes near this ally.

Change to:

Hex eater vortex: Elite Well Spell. Removes one hex from target ally. Removal effect: Creates a well at target allies location. For 8...18...20 seconds this well removes one hex from all allies in this well every 5 seconds.

So it now creates a "Vortex" that "eats" hexes periodically from allies which remain in the area of effect.

The well should be purple to fit with mesmers :3

Make hex eater vortex remove 0...2 hexes, do 30...78...90 and remove 1 enchant for every hex removed.

Definitely alot better than shatter hex and gives a nice counter to derps backed by illusion mesmers, necros or water eles.

Might be a little too good though. Make the damage non armor ignoring and applied before the enchant removal and it shouldn't be OP.

there are a lot of skill that simply are the Elite version of other skills....sometimes ANET don't have enough ideas, so take a skill, make it cost 5 energy less and recharge 5 secs faster, or add as in this case another effect which in most cases is totally useless...

Smite hex is almost the same and cost less + inflicts holy dmg nough said!