Guild Wars 2

I keep looking at the inspiration line and looks more like a team support line than anything else, and other classes can do this much better. The only reason I have been tempted to use it is because the devs have decided to stuff our best condi removal in there, but when I think about what else it offers it seems very weak compared to the other lines.

Has anyone found any real usefulness for this line in PvP?

On a side note I really dislike the fact that to keep this line alive, most of our condi removal is in there.

It is a bit buggy atm.

I tried domination/dueling/illusions for PvE, but I wasn’t impressed with illusions. So I switched from illusions to inspiration and the increased glamour duration+resistance and super speed+ restorative mantras+protected phantasms is something I like much better.

The one thing I hate about this patch is harmonious mantras. 8 second duration is so pitifully short, you basically have to be chain casting mantra of pain to even maintain 4 stacks, it’s absurd.

Harmonious mantras forces me to slot mantra of recovery since with the bug of it giving 2 stacks per use it’s the only mantra that actually lets me get the 5 stacks with some passable if not mediocre uptime for the 20% damage bonus.

Meanwhile a warrior has 100% uptime on his 20% damage bonus by just using his burst skill which is always ready on 10-12 seconds anyways.

The one real nice change I’d say from this patch for PvE mesmers has been mainly illusionary persona as baseline, time warp applying slow, and the inspiration glamours grandmaster.

The rest of the traits have been fairly inconsequential. Lots of interrupt traits that are useless in pve due to defiance and the longish cooldowns of mesmer interrupts relative to the duration of applied vulnerability stacks.

Mesmer lives and dies by time warp and portal for the group. Outside those utilities you would be replaced by a guardian as mesmer damage is still terrible.

It’s good condition removal, good sustain in general (Restorative Illusions and Restorative Mantras add up over time), it’s got many of our reflect traits, and both Mental Defense and Temporal Enchanter are solid even without trying to be any kind of “group support” build.

I play it because being able to clear conditions for daaaaays is, in my mind, stronger than other benefits like obscene stealth uptime or being able to ream people with Chaotic Interruption — not because that’s how you fight condition builds but because that’s how you fight immob spam.

On top of that, you get really good incidental group support, by being able to share Power Cleanse or protect an ally in a clutch moment with Distortion.

I WvW roam with Dom/Chaos/Inspiration Staff/GS CI Lockdown (or PU torch shatter, changing some traits) and doing just fine.

I am using the trait that gives condition removal on signet activation, and it’s working well for me. I switched from using 0/0/2/6/6 prepatch to domination, dueling, and chaos postpatch and its working fine for me. (PvE stuffs though, I don’t do PvP or WvW.)

Vague Memory.2817:

I keep looking at the inspiration line and looks more like a team support line than anything else, and other classes can do this much better. The only reason I have been tempted to use it is because the devs have decided to stuff our best condi removal in there, but when I think about what else it offers it seems very weak compared to the other lines.

Has anyone found any real usefulness for this line in PvP?

On a side note I really dislike the fact that to keep this line alive, most of our condi removal is in there.

I use it for WvW and for general running around like SW or Teq, it makes things super caky for me so why not ? I switch out for dungeon runs, and do not use it in SPVP.

bearshaman.3421:

I am using the trait that gives condition removal on signet activation, and it’s working well for me. I switched from using 0/0/2/6/6 prepatch to domination, dueling, and chaos postpatch and its working fine for me. (PvE stuffs though, I don’t do PvP or WvW.)

….Chaos line for PvE? What?

Some people take pride in running suboptimal / bad builds. Why? Guess it must feel good being the useless underdog…

Regarding the trait line, it’s pretty kitten good. It alone let’s be sustain melandru in Arah, alone, in melee. Or, optimize it for them juicy reflects. I find myself constantly swapping between inspiration and illusions, for reflect and dps respectively. Both are amazing lines for pve.

PvP… no idea

I like it a lot for PvP, the condition removal is amazing tbh

Just to be really clear, because I keep seeing this misinformation:

Mantra of recovery providing 2 stacks of the damage buff is not a bug. It is an interaction explicitly stated as working as intended in the patch notes.

Inspiration is awesome for WVW, heal on mantra and mantra of pain has a 1sec CD, MoP is decent extra burst…

When I don’t have to run PU for my guild, all I run is Inspiration. For Shatter, I run Dom/Duel/Insp for a few main reasons:

1) The line compliments Harmonious Mantras perfectly.
2) I run Heal Mantra (which is the superior heal imo, and I’ll explain below) and MoD/MoP.
3) Harmonious Mantras is not bugged. It gives 2 stacks because on heal, you activate “Power Cleanse”, which is a mantra. So all 3 stacks of your Heal Mantra will clear 2 condis and give 2 stacks!
4) Since your Heal provides massive condi removal, and you have condi removal on shatters, you don’t need Mantra of Resolve.
5) The team distortion can be invaluable if you know when to pop it.
6) Charging each of your 2 mantras will give ~2700k heal to you and nearby allies!

So I use the Mantra Heal over Ether Feast for a few reasons. You get 3 stacks of it with the HM trait. In total, it provides ~7800-8200k heals. The biggest thing for me is that it’s instant cast. You can heal yourself while CC’d in someones burst or knocked down, giving you the needed health to escape. I normally charge my mantras while in stealth, but you can also use them to soak up some damage since they give an additional 600 toughness.

Also, PU is bound to be nerfed soon and will probably see a stealth time reduction, as well as some sort of change to the Confounding Suggestions trait. But that’s my reasoning why I run Insp over Chaos/Illusions!

Cheers!

-Lumenel / Hexual

Inspiration is great, I run it all the time. It’s one of the best balance trait lines we have now, and thank god it is actually worth something after so long. The cleanses and sustain it gives is great. As said above it’s an awesome alternative to PU for those wanting to devote a line to defense.

With all the crying for nerfs I expect them, but the worst imo would be to mess with inspiration.

Inspiration is really strong imo. I run it with the BD from chaos, I’m shatter but my boons and sustain is out of this world, I run full zerker and I feel like a tank.

Kaamau.5341:

Inspiration is really strong imo. I run it with the BD from chaos, I’m shatter but my boons and sustain is out of this world, I run full zerker and I feel like a tank.

So funny you said this. What I have been running in wvw food buffs guard stacks it is fun.

Vague Memory.2817:

I keep looking at the inspiration line and looks more like a team support line than anything else, and other classes can do this much better. The only reason I have been tempted to use it is because the devs have decided to stuff our best condi removal in there, but when I think about what else it offers it seems very weak compared to the other lines.

Has anyone found any real usefulness for this line in PvP?

On a side note I really dislike the fact that to keep this line alive, most of our condi removal is in there.

I run Inspiration over PU.

its more fun than PU.

PU is for cheesy noobs who cant even play without it.

Inspiration is my favorite Trait Line right now. Temporal Condi Shatter rekts 1v1. It supports your team in a more classic GW1 way in that your utilities/skills have dual effects, negative for enemies and positive for your team.

Inspiration is a mainstay now in the PvP meta for mesmer at ESL levels, evidenced by most mesmers taking dom/duel/insp in most builds. Sure you see some taking dom/duel/chaos but recently inspiration is winning the day due to it’s stellar team support and individual sustain it offers on a zerker amulet.

skcamow.3527:

Inspiration: sustain it offers on a zerker amulet.

This. Sorry Rylock/metabattle.

skcamow.3527:

inspiration is winning the day due to it’s stellar team support and individual sustain it offers on any amulet.

fixed.

skcamow.3527:

Inspiration is a mainstay now in the PvP meta for mesmer at ESL levels, evidenced by most mesmers taking dom/duel/insp in most builds. Sure you see some taking dom/duel/chaos but recently inspiration is winning the day due to it’s stellar team support and individual sustain it offers on a zerker amulet.

I’ve talked with supcutie a bit about this actually. He feels that double mes is actually a better choice than mes-thief, provided one mes is running insp, and the other is running PU, as it gives the PU mes thief-y capabilities but with mesmer utility and control.

At least until the sledgehammer nerf that’s inevitably going to come down because we are not thieves and only thieves and warriors should be bursting people as hard as they do.

Count the amount of significant nerfs compared to something like an 8% healing signet nerf lol. Backstab, stealth spam still a thing. But you know, PU is totally OP and needs to be erased even though its stealth doesn’t grant you access to one of the hardest hitting, highest power scaling abilities in the game.

Meanwhile Cry of Frustration is still kitten since release, with double the cooldown of mindwrack and only a small fraction of its damage.

I love inspiration. i use it all the time.

Well, I use all of them all the time. Depends on the build; ignoring bugs I think they are all useful.

For example, my current world boss build, where i’m just running from world boss to world boss, consists of inspiration with temporal enchanter and harmonious mantras from the dueling line, taking mantra heal, condi cleanse, and stunbreaker, and temporal enchanter with feedback and time warp from the inspiration line.

for the adept master trait, I medics feedback. That gives me condi cleanse on both heal and condi cleanse mantra whch scrubs off Fear for one, which some of the world bosses cause; I use the stun breaker for things like the knockdowns that golem mk2 and teq cause for example; feedback I admit I sometimes change with other things, but as an example its great for teq’s fingers; time warp to speed up killing the bosses. Etc etc.

and time warp is the only one I’m specifically using to enhance the group; great that the mantras do it too, but its fine for me.

What I mean is, each trait line has its uses. I use the trait line for certain roaming bulds too; for instance, mental defense along with persistent images and protected phantasms when i’m building a phanasmal killer build if I want to keep the phantasms alive a bit longer.

Inspiration adds a great deal of utility

The traits that really stood out to me as golden are:

• Mender’s Purity + Mantra of Recovery/Power Return = Group goodbye conditions (double stack when traited for Harmonious Mantras)
• Inspiring Distortion: Group distortion. Throw in Blurred Inscriptions from Domination to further the shenanigans.
• Illusory Inspiration: Haven’t implemented this GM in my builds, but I can only imagine the havoc.

savacli.8172:

Inspiration adds a great deal of utility

The traits that really stood out to me as golden are:

• Mender’s Purity + Mantra of Recovery/Power Return = Group goodbye conditions (double stack when traited for Harmonious Mantras)
• Inspiring Distortion: Group distortion. Throw in Blurred Inscriptions from Domination to further the shenanigans.
• Illusory Inspiration: Haven’t implemented this GM in my builds, but I can only imagine the havoc.

Add in Restorative Mantras for PvE sustain, traited Focus against anything with projectiles and low mobility (like all of Caudecus’ Manor…), or Temporal Enchanter for longer TW pain and pseudo-cleanse on immobilise/weakness.

Inspiration always was good in terms of traits, but wasting 300-600 stat points hurt a lot.

Inspiration was probably one of the most significant improvements we’ve gotten. It’s a bit overshadowed by the “soon to be nerfed” stuff, but once we see those adjustments roll in I think Inspiration will become even more popular.

I don’t think I’ve even seen anyone properly use Inspiring Distortion, especially in a Signet build in a team environment. The Boonstorm builds are definitely looking very solid. Taking Chaos, Insp, and either Dom or Duel is a really powerful combo of personal sustain, awesome team utility, and still solid damage output especially when the Might stacks fly. (In Marauder even.)

In fact, before Anet nerfs anything, they should consider first either boosting the effects of Toughness in general and/or at least reworking any non-Marauder Amulets aside from maybe Zerker. Basically any non-Marauder gear is near useless in comparison. It’s LONG overdue that Anet makes both Toughness and to an even larger degree Healing more worthwhile investing into. (The latter may be more of a Mesmer issue, I don’t know.)

Back on topic though, Inspiration is awesome and also balanced, so it’s unlikely to be the target of any direct nerfs.

I hope that Anet will temper the needed nerfs with needed improvements elsewhere. The entire Illusions line turned out as lackluster as it looked on paper, once MtD was nerfed. Naturally, it needs fixes to the broken Scepter GM (which should be Master IMO), and MoF clearly needs buffs to compete. However, the real issue are the rest of the traits, most of which are lackluster and have little/no synergies with either Condition or Power builds.

Windwalker.7421:

Back on topic though, Inspiration is awesome and also balanced, so it’s unlikely to be the target of any direct nerfs.

Healing Prism says hello.

I won’t be holding my breath when it comes to my trust in Anet’s balancing.

The nerf to healing prism makes so little sense. Yes, having to spam out the healing was too much but why not change it to be a % of the healing shared, like with the engi trait? There, fixed. :S

In PvP I slot in domi/dueling/inspi whenever I want to have mantra of distraction and not being a liability to someone else (in condi sense). See Ross’ video about that, I’m pretty much running the same.

In WvW though, PU has become so powerful that you’re almost at a disadvantage for not slotting domi/dueling/chaos for power or dueling/chaos/illusions for condi. Inspi is still strong, just overshadowed by Chaos. But I still enjoy having domi/dueling/inspi or dueling/inspi/chaos (chaotic interruption) whenever I’m roaming with a group, those stuns/interrupts at key moments are important in focus fires.

…And this is all the more important against foes that abuse golem buff (+100% speed & +100% damage) who just spam skills and tried to kill people in vicinity. Been encountering those foes alot lately and without the right interrupts my group could die even when outnumbering them.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

…And this is all the more important against foes that abuse golem buff (+100% speed & +100% damage) who just spam skills and tried to kill people in vicinity. Been encountering those foes alot lately and without the right interrupts my group could die even when outnumbering them.

Pretty sure the proper response to golem exploiters is to just log off and play something else for a week. You could report them if you want, but it’s become abundantly clear that Anet couldn’t care less about the myriad exploits contained within their “event”.

As an aside, the path of exile expansion is fantastic, skyforge is somewhere between okish and decent, and dragon nest is great as always.

I am also using Inspiration line. The thing is that since I started using double mantra (heal & MoD) I cannot separate it from dueling line. So I am left with domination when on pvp (for CS) and chaos when on wvw (for PU), like someone previously mentioned.

Regarding GM traits I find them a bit meh. The only one I truly like is Temporal enchanter (although if it lowered glamour cds too would have been much appreciated). Mental defense is ok but 25 sec cd is a bit too long and Illusionary Inspiration is just… for boonsharing builds I guess.

The only thing really wrong wth Inspiration is the Healing Prism nerf.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

In PvP I slot in domi/dueling/inspi whenever I want to have mantra of distraction and not being a liability to someone else (in condi sense). See Ross’ video about that, I’m pretty much running the same.

In WvW though, PU has become so powerful that you’re almost at a disadvantage for not slotting domi/dueling/chaos for power or dueling/chaos/illusions for condi. Inspi is still strong, just overshadowed by Chaos. But I still enjoy having domi/dueling/inspi or dueling/inspi/chaos (chaotic interruption) whenever I’m roaming with a group, those stuns/interrupts at key moments are important in focus fires.

…And this is all the more important against foes that abuse golem buff (+100% speed & +100% damage) who just spam skills and tried to kill people in vicinity. Been encountering those foes alot lately and without the right interrupts my group could die even when outnumbering them.

i hate to say this, but I wouldnt call it abusing the golem bluff… its the whole point of the event!

Morfedel.4165:

i hate to say this, but I wouldnt call it abusing the golem bluff… its the whole point of the event!

As long as they’re still in a golem, yes.

I tried using inspiration. I really did. I tried using it with mantras, and without mantras. Well it is just so boring. And it still took forever to kill anything.

Morfedel.4165:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

In PvP I slot in domi/dueling/inspi whenever I want to have mantra of distraction and not being a liability to someone else (in condi sense). See Ross’ video about that, I’m pretty much running the same.

In WvW though, PU has become so powerful that you’re almost at a disadvantage for not slotting domi/dueling/chaos for power or dueling/chaos/illusions for condi. Inspi is still strong, just overshadowed by Chaos. But I still enjoy having domi/dueling/inspi or dueling/inspi/chaos (chaotic interruption) whenever I’m roaming with a group, those stuns/interrupts at key moments are important in focus fires.

…And this is all the more important against foes that abuse golem buff (+100% speed & +100% damage) who just spam skills and tried to kill people in vicinity. Been encountering those foes alot lately and without the right interrupts my group could die even when outnumbering them.

i hate to say this, but I wouldnt call it abusing the golem bluff… its the whole point of the event!

There is a widely used and very easy to do exploit where you can force the supercharged buff onto players not in a golem.

Fay.2357:

Morfedel.4165:

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

In PvP I slot in domi/dueling/inspi whenever I want to have mantra of distraction and not being a liability to someone else (in condi sense). See Ross’ video about that, I’m pretty much running the same.

In WvW though, PU has become so powerful that you’re almost at a disadvantage for not slotting domi/dueling/chaos for power or dueling/chaos/illusions for condi. Inspi is still strong, just overshadowed by Chaos. But I still enjoy having domi/dueling/inspi or dueling/inspi/chaos (chaotic interruption) whenever I’m roaming with a group, those stuns/interrupts at key moments are important in focus fires.

…And this is all the more important against foes that abuse golem buff (+100% speed & +100% damage) who just spam skills and tried to kill people in vicinity. Been encountering those foes alot lately and without the right interrupts my group could die even when outnumbering them.

i hate to say this, but I wouldnt call it abusing the golem bluff… its the whole point of the event!

There is a widely used and very easy to do exploit where you can force the supercharged buff onto players not in a golem.

Really? I’d missed this. Wow. well then, yeah, that sucks. but the event wont last much longer, so….

jportell.2197:

I tried using inspiration. I really did. I tried using it with mantras, and without mantras. Well it is just so boring. And it still took forever to kill anything.

If having self-sustain on a zerker build is boring, I’ll take it!!

Inspiration is useful in fractals when the situation calls for consistent reflection. It also helps the mesmer to deal with conditions by bringing more options to remove them.

It synergies well with the Domination line’s Blurred Inscription. The distortion sharing helps save the party in occasions when there are no blinds or reflections available.

EiLrahc.8076:

Inspiration is useful in fractals when the situation calls for consistent reflection. It also helps the mesmer to deal with conditions by bringing more options to remove them.

It synergies well with the Domination line’s Blurred Inscription. The distortion sharing helps save the party in occasions when there are no blinds or reflections available.

While true, the main thrust of this thread is PvP, as designated by the OP. Inspiration has always been a staple of PvE builds for mesmer, and always will be.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/pvp/Ranked-PvP-Mesmer-Gameplay/first#post5304483

Some good gameplay using Inspiration with a burst build.