Guild Wars 2

What are your thoughts on the current numbers Bountiful Disillusionment is shown to give us in the new spec system? Also, note that some of these are shared with nearby allies, so it’s also balanced for that, but it also seems to still be per shatter and not per illusion.

To the Mesmer only: 1 stack of Stability for 5 seconds

To the Mesmer and nearby Allies:
-Mind Wrack: Retaliation[5 Seconds]
-Cry of Frustration: Might[3 Stacks, 15 Seconds]
-Diversion: Fury[5 Seconds]
-Distortion: Regeneration[10 Seconds]

More Stability? More Might? Longer Durations?

I’m more concerned with the types of boon rather than numbers…

• Mind wrack is an aggressive offense shatter so it should be fury (3s?), also synergize with might on shattered strength.
• Cry of frustration is a condi/passive offense shatter so it should be protection (5s?), which synergize well with confusion and retaliation (let opponent kill themselves).
• Diversion could be anything as it is used both offensively and defensively, and the long CD could justify boon like aegis, vigor or swiftness. Fury isn’t so misplaced here but it does forces you to shatter subsequently to utilize it best.
• Distortion is good with regeneration.

But I’m just daydreaming. If we are looking at the current set up…

• 1 stack of stability for 5s is actually quite decent for a shatter, considering our shatter will have CD of 9-12s depending on alacrity or illusion line. It should be sufficient unless you’re facing CC heavy opponents like terrormancer, hammer warrior, lockdown mesmer etc. One thing of note though is this doesn’t break stun, so you have to anticipate CC.
• As devs had said in the HoT video, mesmer isn’t suppose to get hit. So I don’t know why they put retaliation on the most accessible shatter. Really no way to work around this boon. And retaliation doesn’t work so well on allies unless you have a tanky warrior or guard (with accessible healing like healway or medi) nearby.
• Cry of frustration needs increase in stack number. You can easily achieve better might stacks with CI and mantra of distraction. It shares the very same trait spot as BD but gives more might, another boon, root opponent and give another condi. 3 stacks also doesn’t really cut out for team support, should be around 5 stacks consider 20s-ish CD.
• Diversion probably needs increase in fury duration if mesmer is alone, 5s has flaws of predictability as explained above but its not exactly the duration’s problem. 5s fury is quite good for the team so I’m not sure how you can work it.
• Distortion is good so no comment.

Making it an area effect is indeed the way to go but the boons (type, duration, stacks) are slightly off. My thoughts on its current state and with regard of the incomming rework:

Mind Wrack

Quite obviously for power builds. The Retaliation uptime is nice and might actually make sense in more tanky builds. However, the devs just recently took away other sources of Retaliation. Additionally, power shatter builds are rather fragile and therefore won’t really benefit from it. I’d rather see a reasonable amount of Might.

Cry of Frustration

Might does work for Cry of Frustration but I would prefer Fury. Especially since the Duelling traitline rework the extra crit chance will be extremly valuable for any condition build.

Diversion

I’d rather have it proc Aegis since it somewhat represents a boon-ish counterpart to interrupting a foes actions or locking him down with a daze. Fury would be vasted in way too many (PvP) situations. Additionally, running Pack Runes is a way better choice for PvE or WvW when wanting Fury (higher uptime, easier access).

Distortion

Distortion is about absorbing damage. Why not make it grant Resistance? Protection would work, too. But it would be insufficient for the Mesmer himself since he is already blurred. Regeneration is crappy as hell considering that Chaos provides a sufficient amount of self-Regeneration and Inspiration can easily provide a more frequent area Regeneration through Phantasms.

Stability

The Stability is pretty nice for the Mesmer himself. Not sure if it will be enough, though.