Guild Wars 2

Why are phantasms (specifically beserker, duelists, and swordsman) such a significant portion of mesmer damage?

When i heard the rumor about phantasm damage being nerfed by 20% i was overjoyed, hell it should be even more, 50% damage reduction which is redistrubuted elsewhere would be an amazing change. Phantasms require little player input and tend to reward bad players.

There’s a reason the competitive scene in gw2 is underwhelming and often mocked and a significant reason (imo) is due to AI and passive effects being too strong and resulting in low skillcaps for a lot of classes to the point where player skill has too insignificant of an impact.

I think nerfing phantasms and redistributing the damage elsewhere would go a long way in addressing this issue.

though it’s true it might reward bad players “less” I disagree bc this is just the concept of a Mesmer. we are not like other classes that might have to jump right on top of an enemy and stay in melee to hit them hard enough which means sometimes they have to get the heck out and stop all their damage. Mesmer doesn’t have the base damage with “big numbers” as some classes and is about relying on tricks and illusions to deal sustained damage while having in combat mobility and survivability. the idea of a Mesmer is unique. if the opponent fails to evade, eliminate illusions and detect which one is the real Mesmer and which is a phantasm that might hurt, this is a mistake on their part. our mechanic is to confuse and frustrate the enemy in the heat of battle, being more targets at once. I don’t think we should have to go whack someone with a sword like a warrior to get some damage in.

clone shatter builds are also pretty mindless imo, and so are condi spam, then turn and look at a thief where you can spam certain skills with ini regen and so on or a warrior spamming hammer and mace shields like every class can be argued to be mindless and not require skill… each just has a diff style. I think phantasms are right up our alley in terms of concept, like an ascalonian ghost that hits you for physical damage. phantasms are on longer cd so you still do have to set it up at the right time.

I doubt giving us base damage to land our own hits will change certain things, there’s going to be new “mindless” and rewarding ways to play, that’s just how it will be for every class

is it really ok for every spec other than shatter builds to completely ignore the class mechanic (with the exception being the occasional f4)?

i dont like AI based builds, im not saying they should be completely removed, but their effectiveness is currently way too much to the point where it is overwhelming player skill.

BlueFrog.3261:

is it really ok for every spec other than shatter builds to completely ignore the class mechanic (with the exception being the occasional f4)?

i dont like AI based builds, im not saying they should be completely removed, but their effectiveness is currently way too much to the point where it is overwhelming player skill.

Hey dude, if you do not like them, then do not play one, but your messing with my Phantasm DPS build is bad voodoo.

This is like asking “Why does guardians have so much support?” or “why does warrior do so much damage?” or “Why does engineer have so much utilities?”

Those are all class specific features, their core mechanics, like illusions and phantasms are of mesmer.
You don’t even have to use a build that focuses on clones at all and you’ll still be using them in every single mesmer build. But if you trait for phanstasm build, then of course they will be major source of damage, since mesmer’s base damage is pretty low.
Most of mesmers are relies on clones, utilites and avoiding damage.

Because other than shatter spiking (and maybe sword I guess….) Mesmer base damage is low.

If you want to nerf Phantasm damage then they need to buff overall base damage.

Hell, even condi builds rely on clones to stack up condis.

No offense but this sounds like a “QQ” thread

I’d be happy to reduce phant damage to increase our other damage attacks (remember our damage is balanced around the assumption phants are hitting too). But what i’d REALLY like is to give phants a 2nd action after being cast to allow you to destroy them or switch places with them with added effects just to make it a nice interaction because they are fire and forget spells which arent fun for anyone (yes making a perma reflect field around bosses is powerful but wouldnt it be nice to add some skill to it?)

BlueFrog.3261:

is it really ok for every spec other than shatter builds to completely ignore the class mechanic (with the exception being the occasional f4)?

i dont like AI based builds, im not saying they should be completely removed, but their effectiveness is currently way too much to the point where it is overwhelming player skill.

I can’t help but point out, what someone has already said, this sounds like a “QQ” thread. You ignored a generous reply and resupplied the complaint.

Do you play a Mesmer? Or are you having problems in WvW/PvP with mesmers? If its the latter, the community as a whole is gracious and sincere with advice.

Just to reiterate my long first reply XD But pretty much even if you up our base damage that defeats the concept of a mesmer, we aren’t supposed to need to stack on top of our enemies or whatever to deal direct damage, our damage is low because we deal damage over time while focusing on evading, combat mobility, and all kinds of tricks, if we have to deal all the damage ourselves we will just be another warrior or thief or something that needs to land hits directly

It is sort of true though, that with a heavy phantasm spec, the phantasms play the game for you… ^^

Most of the time in PvE/WvW/PvP, actually phantasms die pretty fast imo, they never last long enough to stack three phantasms, exception of maybe a weak PvE boss. So really, your phantasms get off one or two attacks and then are gone, and they don’t do that much damage… you might get 5k or something once, but think about other classes and how much direct damage they do just with one skill. it’s pretty fair.

so they’re just part of our kitten nal and tricks, not really a permanent or primary part of our fights. they require set up and timing, and regardless most opponents will go straight for you, it’s not something we hide behind either, except literally maybe the warden that reflects projectiles