Guild Wars 2

I would really like to understand ArenaNet’s logic on how they instituted the confusion stacking mechanic for Mesmers. Confusion is the Mesmer’s area of expertise, yet stacking confusion does not feel “natural” while in play. You can only get 3 stacks here, 5 stacks there, 1 stack here, etc. It is left feeling extremely clunky and counter-intuitive.

For example, they nerfed the Scepter 1 ability in beta because it used to stack confusion with every hit. The original skill was more Mesmer-like. The original Scepter was an awesome weapon for a condition Mesmer. Now it’s just a bland weapon that is taken for Confusing Images, and occasionally the #2 ability. The number 1 ability is worthless. Three clones can be made almost instantly with Mirror Images and Phase Retreat (staff #2).

What is ArenaNet’s justification for this? They put in a debuff that was solely the Mesmer’s domain in GW1, but then they make it difficult for a Mesmer to actually get any decent number of stacks for that debuff. If it’s still like it used to be before I took a break, the Engineer was actually more reliable to stack confusion than a Mesmer. Anyone else wondering what the beep was ArenaNet thinking?

Maybe someone can explain the logic that was used to me, so I can understand the reason why the confusion mechanic for Mesmers is so lackluster/confusing (pun intended).

Logic? Ahahahahaha

This happened before my time, but from my understanding Confusion used to do 50% more damage. That combined with the auto attack generation may have been pretty out of control.

Post nerf though I would love to see Scepter stack some confusion. There are quite a few weapons with bleed on autoattacks. It’s the same principle.

Autoattack confusion was removed in the betas. Confusion was buffed to 2x value in wvw and pve on release, so the nerfed value has always been the case for pvp anyway.

I hope in 2 or 4 weeks when mesmers have their ready up that the changes will include a viable condition build that isn’t PU. At a very minimum the scepter auto attack (and confusing images slightly) should be reworked so that Clone death and boon spam isn’t needed. I also think maim the disillusioned should be either buffed or reworked to be more effective. Stacking more or longer torment would be great as a baseline, with other changes to assist that.

I’d love to see a trait that would cause a random damaging condition to be inflicted when a boon is removed. Ideally as an adept domination trait since some of the current ones suck, and so we could take shaterred concentration and maimed the disillusioned and deceptive evasion in the same build to make a more viable shatter condition build.

illusionary elasticy should work for clones on staff too :/

Sublimatio.6981:

illusionary elasticy should work for clones on staff too :/

As much as this bug should be fixed, I honestly dislike the builds that will come from it. Nobody likes builds that function purely through spamming one skill, so why would builds that function by producing 3(4) entities spamming one skill be any more interesting?

Fay.2357:

Sublimatio.6981:

illusionary elasticy should work for clones on staff too :/

As much as this bug should be fixed, I honestly dislike the builds that will come from it. Nobody likes builds that function purely through spamming one skill, so why would builds that function by producing 3(4) entities spamming one skill be any more interesting?

Also the QQ would dwarf any we have ever seen about the mesmer, and for once they’d be right. This would be totally OP combined with all the on death traits. Basically this would be a psycho buff to the build that is already the strongest 1vX build and the one that generates almost all the current QQ (condi PU).

Spamming auto-attack is horrible, but staff also lacks reliable damage outside of iWarlock and interruption traited Chaos storm. Granted that iElasticity would make condi PU more powerful, but I feel that the problematic synergy isn’t exactly comes from PU and WoC but more from PU with illusion death.

Staff itself doesn’t have much condition pressure outside of AA. So if you don’t trait for illusion death your staff doesn’t actually apply too much condition damage. Other classes’ condition builds can deliver more burst and reliable condition damage than you and your 3 fragile clones’s WoC.