The recent Ready Up stirred up quite some heat by revealing the new Grandmaster traits which is quite refreshing. I’d like to discuss Bountiful Disillusionment which will be added to the Chaos traitline. To get it out of the way: I don’t like it. But I want to explain in detail why in the hope we will get something more appropriate when the patch is released.
What is the Chaos traitline about?
While the Staff brings some aspects of support to Chaos it mainly is about self-centered survivability. Many of its traits have an aspect of randomness to represent the Chaos, for example, Debilitating Dissipation which causes random conditions or Bountiful Interruption and Prismatic Understanding which both grant random boons. Boons are a substantial part of this traitline but – again – are self-centered and therefore distinguish themselves from boons provided by Inspiration. Chaos also benefits interrupt and lockdown centered builds and caters condition focussed builds to a certain extent.
How does Bountiful Disillusionment fit into this?
Bountiful Disillusionment grants different boons when shattering which definitely fits the theme of the traitline. Sadly, that is where the fit ends.
First, while Bountiful Interruption does also cater the theme of randomness it still has a focus. It always provides Might and therefore enhances offensive capabilities through boons. The only thing random about Bountiful Disillusionment appears to be how the boons where assigned to the respective shatters. The trait provides a pseudo-randomness while apparently lacking a distinctive purpose.
Second, Chaos probably is the least favourable of all traitlines when it comes to shattering. On top of that Chaos already suffers from a lack of synergies across its Major traits. So while some people might argue that a new shatter trait in this line is reasonable because it supports the class mechanic, it makes the lack of synergy even worse. The Adept tier got three ‘filler’ traits (downstate or fall related) which I’m not going to talk about. But two of the three remaining traits contradict a shatter playstyle. Illusionary Defense requires your Illusions to stay alive. Debilitating Dissipation requires your Illusions to die and not to be shattered. The only reasonable choice left will be Master of Manipulation which is not necessarily useful for every Mesmer. On the Master tier we won’t find any traits which directly contradict Bountiful Disillusionment but we won’t find any glancing synergies either.
To sum it up, while the effect of the trait does fit the traitline the mechanic which it is tied to does not. The lack of synergies also make it very unlikely that anyone is ever going to consider picking up the trait when playing a shatter build. This becomes even more apparent when looking at Inspiration. For example, Shattered Conditions is rarely used although it actually is a very powerful trait. The main reason probably is the lack of a shatter Master trait and the lack of synergy when it comes to Minors. Bountiful Disillusionment will find itself in a very similar situation.
How well is the trait designed and how good are the benefits it provides?
As already pointed out earlier the design is a bit off. How did the devs decide which boon to add to which shatter? Do they make sense? Are they valuable?
Mind Wrack
You will gain 3s of Retaliation. 3s of Retaliation is not bad per se since Mesmers don’t have that frequent acess to it. However, Retaliatory Shield and Confusing Cry provide the same benefit at a much lower cost. Placing Retaliation on Mind Wrack is also somewhat questionable. While it does favour a power set up power shatter Mesmers are unlikely willing to get hit because of low Toughness and Vitality. Confusing Cry basically tells it all. There are other shatters which are a better fit.
Cry of Frustration
Might favours both power and conditions build so it is quite nice at the first glance. However, a shatter Mesmer will most likely go 30 Illusions which means that he already got Shattered Strength which provides a similar benefit. So in comparison this boon is not useless but doesn’t provide anything new. Of course, a condition shatter Mesmer could go for it to stack 6 stacks of Might instead of 3. However, he will have to let go of Deceptive Evasion which unarguably is more important when you are looking for offensive power.
Diversion
Fury on Diversion actually is quite nice since Mesmers do not have a lot of access to it. The downside is that a shatter Mesmer won’t have an easy time utilizing it because he just shattered.
Distoration
The Regeneration makes sense design-wise but is utterly useless. If you need Regeneration on a Mesmer you easily get it elsewhere. Distortion also covers up Protection which would proc from Illusionary Membrane.