Guild Wars 2

With the new traits coming on the 15th ive thought up what i think could be a really powerful frontline build for mesmers. Imbued diversion+new dueling GM+masterful reflection. Basically, mesmers just became amazing in a zergs frontline and in havoc groups as well. With no ICD this could be almost permanent.

What if you get a 5+havoc group with full zerker just looking for massive zergs. Once you kill just one guy (easy with 5+ in full zerker) youd become this unstoppable, invulnerable, reflecting, massive dmg dealing ball of death. With only 5 people. (Hell, you could do it with one) once you kill one guy the effect just kind of keeps snowballing. I think if you coordinate well this could be really powerful. Since once you kill the first guy you can just use the distortion as a free stomp against any other dead players, which just increases the time of distortion, which lets you kill even more players. And multiple mesmers with this?

Im just trying to figure out how good this could be

It’s an interesting theory, but we’ll have to wait and see if this new trait has an internal cool down first.

I actually think mesmers are way under utilized it the current meta. You could easily setup a team build to be the GW2 version of r-spike that spikes individual players and those holding hands with a laughable amount of defense (including this new trait) if people just watch their positioning. Too much is generally going on these larger battles for players to read spikes coming off the GS. First step though, find 20 mesmers that want to actively refine theorycrafted builds and train.

To be fair there are tons of whacky theorycraft possibilities that are more clever than than hammer trains. PvE characters and gear causes the wvw meta to shift at a snails pace though. It’s just too hard to wipe away a whole team build and do something else entirely different.

We are going to see the interrupting (put your enemy skills on 10 sec cooldown) Mesmer of DOOM, surely, oh yeah, who also gets +1,000 healing for interrupting enemies too…nice!

Even though the trait definately opens up for some builds concerning the front line mesmer, there is one major problem with this, and this is coming for a organized guild group point of view.

In order for the build to be effective you have to keep killing stuff (one every 3 seconds). You can’t really rely on your group killing that fast when you are fighting other good organized guild groups (GvG like if you know what i’m saying :>). Also you are missing out on some important traits for the WvW mesmer if you go 30 into Dueling (Boon strip shatter mesmer or glamour mesmer).

However for normal zerging or fighting pug zergs, this would of course be very powerfull.

It is still too early to conclude anything before the new traits get in the game.

The WvW mesmer community have asked for a more group oriented skills to help the mesmer become viable again for damage or group support and if this trait was meant to be so, I would say it’s a miss.

It’s probably worth taking in pug zerg vs pug zerg, and will have some pve use somewhere, but won’t be anything like OP is picturing, especially as reflects are only projectiles.

hehe, a common pain train will treat that mesmer as an oversized piñata

I just find it funny that the class that has clones and stealth got more survivability. While ele’s who been complaining for a long time that there surive sux. No clones no stealth long cooldowns on everything is pretty much getting nothing. All the new ele traits are pretty awful. Earth was the only semi decent one but its only while your in earth attunement which is the worst attunement.

I also thought about a similar tactic, but with only 2-3 mesmers xd
But as Chrhal said, this is not what we’re looking for. We need more AoE improve (damage and support), and most of the new changes have made us even better in duels and small scale fights.

Note that some traits will be also changed, so lets hope we can see some improvements from here.

PD: The ferocity change will hurt us quite a lot, as we have a low dps, so now it’ll be even lower…

After talking with a couple veteran mesmers I know about this, I changed my mind. I thought initially like you: “perma reflect, what could go wrong?!”. However, a good point was raised: you only start to get decent reflection AFTER the fight has basically been won. You’d only see it in the middle of the fight at the earliest. On top of that, if you’re actually in the front line, the reflection won’t do as much good. In front, you’re hit mostly with melee trains.

How will this trait be best used? As a survivability trait for surviving ZvZ/BvB fights as a ranged on the outskirts. There, you are mostly hit by range. I don’t really see this as being very useful in small man groups, since by the time you start proccing it enough the fight will almost be over. That being said, I still plan to try it out as a zerg buster build, just to see what happens (i.e. like a 0/30/0/20/20 reflect PTV/VTP build)

The main point tho is with 30 illusions you share it with up to 5 people around you. The reflection would just be a bonus (but i also found out it only works on your f4 ability) you could have a full glass frontline that is still impossible to kill because of this trait

Carpboy.7145:

The main point tho is with 30 illusions you share it with up to 5 people around you. The reflection would just be a bonus (but i also found out it only works on your f4 ability) you could have a full glass frontline that is still impossible to kill because of this trait

Wait, how do you share shatter skill with your group? Did I miss something or youre wrong?

You don’t, he prolly confused clones as other real players.

Overreaction at best if facing a Zerg of upscales. Lol your f4 skill would still have. A 54.5 sec recharge for a 1 sec evade.

Ooooh check that out only 30 points needed to make the long CDs on interrupts tasteful, we’re moving up in the world.

Lol oh chuck. Clones die instantly with all the aoe spam. Our only value was veils , feedback or the best that guy that hides in a tower to port people back in. Such damaging compared to what eels can do….

The power block back line destroyer making all the eles cry (i am fearful to death by this type of mesmer role.) Waters are going to be so hard to land if an mez is watching for them.

Neftex.7594:

Carpboy.7145:

The main point tho is with 30 illusions you share it with up to 5 people around you. The reflection would just be a bonus (but i also found out it only works on your f4 ability) you could have a full glass frontline that is still impossible to kill because of this trait

Wait, how do you share shatter skill with your group? Did I miss something or youre wrong?

No no no. You don’t share shatter skills. The f4 is the only source of distortion that works with masterful reflection is what i meant. However the GM trait in illusions (imbued diversion) allows you to share any source of distortion with up to 5 players in a 360 radius

Carpboy.7145:

No no no. You don’t share shatter skills. The f4 is the only source of distortion that works with masterful reflection is what i meant. However the GM trait in illusions (imbued diversion) allows you to share any source of distortion with up to 5 players in a 360 radius

Wait, what? They’re changing something about Imbued Diversion? That’s not what it does now – now, it makes your interrupt shatter (F3) hit 5 targets instead of 1 (so you can interrupt as an AOE with F3 shatter), but that’s all it does.

I think I must have missed something, I think I need to do some research. LOL

Dhampyr.2104:

Carpboy.7145:

No no no. You don’t share shatter skills. The f4 is the only source of distortion that works with masterful reflection is what i meant. However the GM trait in illusions (imbued diversion) allows you to share any source of distortion with up to 5 players in a 360 radius

Wait, what? They’re changing something about Imbued Diversion? That’s not what it does now – now, it makes your interrupt shatter (F3) hit 5 targets instead of 1 (so you can interrupt as an AOE with F3 shatter), but that’s all it does.

I think I must have missed something, I think I need to do some research. LOL

Thats not even close to what it does… All shatters are AoE to begin with. Just read the trait description

Imbued Diversion – “Diversion hits multiple targets.” The F3 Shatter is called “Diversion”. Yep, that’s what it does now.

Edit – only F1 and F2 shatters are AOE. F3 and F4 are not.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Lyssa-s-Grimoire-The-Mesmer-Handbook/first#post2916350

Feel free to read the descriptions of the shatters.

Carpboy.7145:

Neftex.7594:

Carpboy.7145:

The main point tho is with 30 illusions you share it with up to 5 people around you. The reflection would just be a bonus (but i also found out it only works on your f4 ability) you could have a full glass frontline that is still impossible to kill because of this trait

Wait, how do you share shatter skill with your group? Did I miss something or youre wrong?

No no no. You don’t share shatter skills. The f4 is the only source of distortion that works with masterful reflection is what i meant. However the GM trait in illusions (imbued diversion) allows you to share any source of distortion with up to 5 players in a 360 radius

What patch notes are you reading? the illusion gm that i read is just adding torment to shatters o.0

echo.2053:

Carpboy.7145:

Neftex.7594:

Carpboy.7145:

The main point tho is with 30 illusions you share it with up to 5 people around you. The reflection would just be a bonus (but i also found out it only works on your f4 ability) you could have a full glass frontline that is still impossible to kill because of this trait

Wait, how do you share shatter skill with your group? Did I miss something or youre wrong?

No no no. You don’t share shatter skills. The f4 is the only source of distortion that works with masterful reflection is what i meant. However the GM trait in illusions (imbued diversion) allows you to share any source of distortion with up to 5 players in a 360 radius

What patch notes are you reading? the illusion gm that i read is just adding torment to shatters o.0

I thought that was what imbued diversion did. My bad

erm not gonna happen sry. that trait is not very viable, because u need to kill in order to trigger it and we all know how amazing mes is in tagging with our multipple aoe options…oh wait thats right we dont have them unless we use the ony 1 build option out there which includes ip, we cant even make use of our shatters anymore.

anet hasnt put any effort into fixing mesmers at all. the new gm traits are all either a jok like 1k healing power on interrupts or very rng like distortion on kill. the only one that sounds interesting is the interruption one, but thats it.

zen.6091:

It’s an interesting theory, but we’ll have to wait and see if this new trait has an internal cool down first.

I actually think mesmers are way under utilized it the current meta. You could easily setup a team build to be the GW2 version of r-spike that spikes individual players and those holding hands with a laughable amount of defense (including this new trait) if people just watch their positioning. Too much is generally going on these larger battles for players to read spikes coming off the GS. First step though, find 20 mesmers that want to actively refine theorycrafted builds and train.

To be fair there are tons of whacky theorycraft possibilities that are more clever than than hammer trains. PvE characters and gear causes the wvw meta to shift at a snails pace though. It’s just too hard to wipe away a whole team build and do something else entirely different.

So take a 40 v 40 scenario. 5 of your 40 are going to be taking the time to focus down 1 at a time. Downing is half the battle as next you have to stomp/dps them to death. They have counters of course (eles mistform always a fun one), and of course you’ve got enemy ressing, warbanners, not to mention your glass cannon mesmers needing to be kept an eye on.

It’s not as clean as it appears.

All other problems aside (with new dueling trait), you don’t NEED distortion to survive as a front line mes. Your zerg provides all the healing and cleanses you need. Distortion is best used for assured stomping, and even then you need to summon clones to make that work.

Fact is you can zerker it up as much as you want, but I’d still take this into a zerg fight if I wanted to tag well and still deal decent damage. There’s just better ways to approach the issue.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vgAQRAsf7dlknpPtlpxVNcrNiYSBxkitteneUao2rVShudhA-z0CBYhYINIYNDimWIZkAhm8GiABITtIasFWFRjVJjIqWpELAwBAfv7y7u8uFCYxcA-w