Guild Wars 2

Well I was quite surprised that my clones did 0 damage(using a GS).
I have tried all the weapons, all the clones do 0 damage, even the ones summoned with the utility skills.
So they have no other purpose except shatter and confusing other players?
Is this the way they actually work?

“Phantasms are more powerful than clones; they have more health and deal more damage.”

If that is so then this paragraph from the mesmer’s description on the web-site is wrong, since clones do 0 damage, and it should say:

“Phantasms are more powerful than clones; they have more health and, as opposed to the clones, they deal damage.”

Yes, clones are supposed to do minimal, if any, damage.

When you get higher level, you’ll start seeing them do 1 damage.

Their purpose is to look like you and either die or shatter.

It should be said though, you can put them to use in other ways.

Me for example, I create a clone whenever I dodge, traited them to cause bleeding damage when they crit, since they seem to share my crit change, and cause random conditions when killed. As I use two swords and stick to melee combat, the enemy is screwed when they kill them or when they don’t.

They might not deal outright damage, but they can totally be abused to cause it.

Aha, then it’s no wonder that monsters keep chasing me down, even if I “distract” them with my clones.
The only clone that actually deals some damage is the downed clone, as it inflicts confusion. =P

Thanks AkkiChan, I guess I’ll have to level up some more to “exploit” them.

Just my personal feelings, but I believe the mesmer is, currently, in PvE content, at a most shining, glorious spot when wearing Ravager-gear (Power, precision, Condition Damage) with a good chunk of melee-action and illusion support.

Now, a couple days after launch, I rejoiced because finally, my clones were doing damage again. So this left me a little confused. I happened to be logged in Mt Maelstrom, and went to go do some tests.

Not for these purposes I am a 80 Mesmer, Sword+pistol/Greatsword. The traits I have that affect clone damage are:

Empowered Illusions: Illusions do 15% more damage.
Sharper images: Critical hits from your illusions cause bleeding.

Test 1: I approached a level 65 Skelk at Oxbow Isle. I fired off Illusuionary Leap. The clone did between 3-6 damage on normal attacks, 9-12 on crits. Plus the bleed from sharper images, of course (around 40 a tick).

Test 2: I put the clone from Mirror blade to the same test. Clone hit for 2 damage each hit, crit for 4. Plus the bleed, again.

Test 3: Decoy time!
Same Skelk. (fast respawn is great for testing) Dropped decoy, 1h sword equipped. Decoy clone did 5-7 damage on a normal hit, 9-12 on a crit.

Test 4: Two heads better than 1?
As before, using Mirror Images. Had greatsword equipped at the time. 1-3 per tick normal damage at extreme close range, 5-7 per crit tick at same.

At this point I had a potential theory, and decided to test it. Off to a newbie zone!

I moved to Wayfarer Foothills and began doing the same test with the lowest level mobs I could find. The result? Clones hit for 0-1. crit for 0-1

Overall results: Clones do damage. the damage scales to level, and once below a certain threshold becomes effectively 0. They will never come CLOSE to the damage you or a phantasm does. But they are doing something.

More importantly, mob AI seems more likely to harass them now, and crits still apply sharper images, a bleed which does much more damage than the clones themselves.

Staff clone applies conditions.

Sword clone cripples.

The scepter block skill clone casts ether bolt for damage.

So only the GS clone does nothing.

Beyreva.8769:

Aha, then it’s no wonder that monsters keep chasing me down, even if I “distract” them with my clones.
The only clone that actually deals some damage is the downed clone, as it inflicts confusion. =P

Thanks AkkiChan, I guess I’ll have to level up some more to “exploit” them.

this is actually inaccurate, bey.

Think of it this way: The clone you generate casts the #1 skill of whatever weapon you generated it with.

IE: A sword clone will apply vulnerability and remove boons with it’s #1 chain.
A greatsword clone will use Spatial Surge (Which is really useless until you trait into Sharper Images, then can stack bleed very fast.)
A staff clone will cast Winds of Chaos and apply conditions.

The only real difference is they don’t do any direct damage. Their conditions are still applied fully.

Clones deal ~2% of your damage. If you deal 30 damage, 2% is 0. And even critted, 0 dmg * 1.5 is still 0.

Shaper Images is probably the most powerful trait of mesmers. With this, even GS clones are pretty useful since they don’t just distract, but also inflict Bleeding with 3 hits every ~2s. Three clones equal 9 hits every ~2s. With 50% crit, it’s 4 bleed stacks every 2s. without you doing anything.