Guild Wars 2

I have collecting feedback from mesmers over the last few months, relating to all game modes, and what people think is usability or versatility, to combine this into a list of suggestions/feedback regarding weaker skills/traits. I have also made suggestions based on my own opinion and opinions of non mesmers relating to what may be imbalanced. The purpose in these changes is to open up a number of new builds and buff weaker traits/skills to a point they may be viable. I do not believe anything here will make the class OP, while the condition changes would need to be monitored overall it should be ok considering the previous state of the class.

At higher levels of play mesmers are stuck with one or two builds that have little variety. These builds perform well, and we are often labeled as OP as a result, but every time Anet decides to nerf the class they seem to affect far more than they intended and as a result the build variety is constantly diminished. These suggestions are aimed to improve condition specs, confusion in general and add general variety. Please note, while I have been playing mesmer since prerelease and have ran most build varieties to test, I have not tested the new interrupt traits so likewise have not commented on these since they are new there hasn’t been a large amount of feedback on the forums. Also I have not commented on mantras as I have seen a number of builds use these very successful, so unsure how to approach these without bias or direction. I also haven’t commented on the changes to blurred frenzy or temporal curtain as these were made recently and I expect are being monitored by Anet.

Weapon Skills:

Staff:

Winds of Chaos (Skill 1)
- Increase projectile speed by 20%
- Increase the value of the vulnerability or change this to a different condition.
- Fix bounce so it bounces the full range, as it currently only bounces if the first hit and bounce are within 1200. Refer to ele staff air skill 1 for correct bounce behavior.

One of staff’s major weaknesses in pve is how slow the projectile is, combined with the bounce, makes it a lot harder to tag mobs compared to GS, which is near instant hit. The bounce behavior reduces the viability in ranged situations. These changes may make the staff more viable in PvE without making the weapon OP in pvp.

Illusionary Warlock (Skill 3)
- Increase projectile speed by 20%

Same issue with WOC, for a slow cooldown attack this is a slow and very noticeable projectile making it very obvious to dodge.

Chaos Armor (Skill 4)
- Reduce base CD to 28s.

After the projection on case change to staff, this as a weapon skill is a low weaker, knowing how quickly we can proc this via ethereal fields – it’s just as quick to cast chaos storm as chaos armor, which doesn’t make sense. A slight reduction in CD time will give the skill more value.

Scepter

Ether Bolt chain (Skill 1)
- Reduce cast/chargeup time of third part of chain to be the same as other parts of the chain. (.5s each)
- Increase projectile speed by 20%
- The third skill now applies a condition on hit – whats generally brought up is 1 stack of confusion or torment for 4 seconds. This also affects clones created while scepter is mainhand weapon.

Currently this chain is simply weak. For a condition weapon it applies no condition on the third hit. The clones are meaningless other than shattering – something a condition build requires less of and worse, they overwrite useful clones. The chain is too slow and the projectile takes too long to hit at 900 range. The first two changes makes the weapon flow better. The third, while not increasing DPS greatly (in power builds the cond won’t do much, in cond builds the DPS would be low already from a lack of power), adds a small condition to make it harder to cleanse the main conditions, also means the scepter clones are far less weak and brings them closer to staff clones in terms of viability.

Confusing Images (Skill 3)
- Fix this so as a channel it constantly hits, as it seems to stop hitting when people move in particualr ways such as when your opponent is behind you.
- Reduce the precase by 0.2 – 0.4s.

Increasing the relibility of the skill to bring it in line with mainhand sword or other mesmer weapons.

While this may seem like a huge buff to the scepter, it is only to bring it in line with other weapons. Scepter is commonly ignored as a weapon (how often do you see this used seriously in PVP or in PVE where a sword couldn’t do a better job) due to the weak skill 1 attack chain and how long the build up is on skill 3. While the second and third skills are useful in condition builds, the clones offer nothing of value (clone death traits can help, though the creation from the auto attack chain is so slow staff clones are still more viable).

Torch

Illusionary Mage (Skill 5)
- Decrease CD to 20s base

This is currently way to high for a phantasm which offers so little, aiming to bring this in line with other phantasms.

- Change the attack behavior to be more viable:
- Suggestion 1: Increase the confusion duration to 5s. Increase the retal duration to 5s. This means the mage will keep near constant confusion on your oppenet, forcing them to either kill the mage or suffer the constant effects of confusion/retal. This suits the cost-benefit nature of mesmer.
- Suggestion 2: Change the attack to be more like Winds of Chaos in applying a random condition/buff. If it hits an enemy, it applies chill, torment or confusion. If it hits an ally, it applies retal or might. This would be like an ‘Illusionary Mesmer’ and fit the build thematically (also Anet may finally make a mists staff as a result!)

Greatsword:

Mind Stab (Skill 3)

This needs some sort of a small buff to balance it with other skills.

Utility Skills:

Portal
- When cast the mesmer gains a timer notifier, indicating how long is left before the exit portal times out.
- When outside the 3000 range, the exist portal icon on the skillbar changes to red to indicate out of range.

Anet, if you have ever had to play utlity mesmer in WvW, you will know how essential these traits are. Failing a portal due to a slight difference in range is horrible – and often leads to others complaining at the mesmer. While practise helps, it’s often a stressful situation trying to get that perfecet portal into an enemy force, with lag and aoe spam. This does not buff the skill in anyway, just makes it slightly easier to manage.

Veil
- Lower the CD in PvE.

This is useful in wvw for team play, but the CD is crazy for pve. While it may not mean much, a reduction may make the skill more useful.

Signet of Midnight
- No longer increases boon duration by 10%
- Mesmer gains 25% movement speed while this signet passive is available.

Please considering adding this – its horrible not to have reliable speed buff outside of focus, or having to use centaur runes. While some have suggested adding this buff to Signet of Inspiration instead.

Time Warp
- This skill is now a glamor.

It’s a giant purple blob and ethereal field. How could this not be a glamor skill! With the Quickness nerf, having this with a potential CD reduction or field increase isn’t game breaking. This is already a long CD for such a skill not often used outside dungeons/golem rushes.

Polymorph Moa/ Polymorph Tuna

- This is now a manipulation skill.

Not sure how turning your opponent into a moa, or a fish, isn’t manipulative.

Core Trait Change:

- Remove Illusionary Celerity
- Reduce the CD on utility clone summoning skills by 20%
- Reduce phantasm CD by 10%

This change was overkill. Anet, if you are aiming to reduce phantasm build viability, increasing the CD by another 2s does not change much. If you are trying to reduce shatter builds, this has had no impact. What you have done, is effectively nerf 50% of the skills of all non-shatter mesmers. Why? Also, you talk about making minor balence changes yet nerf what would be the most used mesmer trait since release, without any prior warning or communication.

Removing this trait all together and balancing mesmer cool downs to what would be fair makes more sense. If something is too strong deal with it individually, not mess with a base trait affecting the entire class, that is not fair, especially on PVE players who won’t know why a phantasm build may be OP. This change has in no way assisted with build diversity and is more commonly seen as punishing the class for not running the build most commonly used in high level pvp…

- Move shattered strength to the grandmaster tier

This was already strong as a grandmaster trait, especially with boon duration, as the might also affects condition damage so the additional bleeds/confusion stacks are more punishing.

- Add a new trait to the master tier. Having something to do with confusion may add interest and value to this line, especially with the 5 point trait in this line. Some suggestions (I’ll add anymore I come across):

- Move Master of Misdirection to this place, so having 15 points gives an automatic increase in confusion duration.
- Whenever you apply confusion, apply 1 stack of vulnerability
- Confusion does 20% more damage

Traits:

Domination:

Mental Torment

- Reduce to 15% damage increase.

The constant complaint about shatter damage is often the result of this skill combined with Illusionary Persona, which in melee range, creates a damage spike that is difficult to avoid. I am not sure if this is even necessary, but a slight reduction in the benefit provided by a adept skill may balence this a little more. I’ll leave this up for discussion…

Chaos

Chaotic Revival/Retaliatory Demise
I know most classes have skills like this, but are they really required? Are they even used?

Inspiration

Vengeful Images
- Either make the retail permanent or increase to 10s.

6s seems far too low, while health may have been increased slightly, less people will be using the signet now due to the lower health bonus. Even 10s would make this more useful, knowing phantasms can be killed in 1-2 hits normally so the retal won’t provide a large damage spike. iDefender has considerable health, however taking this skill requires a utility slot, has a long CD for a phantasm, takes up an illusion slot which could be used by a more offensive phantasm and does not do a lot of damage by himself.

Phantasmal Strength
- No longer gives a bonus 15% damage.
- Phantasms now apply 3 stacks of might (5s) to themselves and nearby allies (900 range). This refreshes every 5 seconds similar to Phantasmal Healing but also affects the phantasm itself.

I expect rage for making this suggestion, but we need to be realistic. The reason phantasms can do so much damage is from the combination of the two 15% traits – both stacking and being so easy to access seems unbalanced. I expect these to be nerfed soon anyway… Also it isn’t particularly interesting or allowing higher level play having two passive bonuses like that. This change means the phantasms gives itself a small boost, while also affecting the mesmer. More so – having two phantasms up close to each other means they both have 6 stacks of might – and so does the mesmer. This suits the enchanter concept of this trait line and is thematically similar to shattered strength. Combine this with Signet of Inspiration and boon duration bonuses – you can double the might stacks on the phantasms leading to large might stacks. This also adds to the teamplay aspect of the mesmer and allows better counter play in the face enemies can steal/counter the boons. This could create some interesting might stacking sword/sword builds or support boon builds with staff/torch.

Malicious Sorcery

While this trait is interesting in the stat boost, I have to question the line placement. In a trait line called Inspiration, a trait called ‘Malicious Sorcery’ seems odd. Also this line is to do with phantasms, sustain and support, yet this buffs condition damage on a condition weapon with no phantasm related buffs. Is this intentional?

Temporal Enchanter

- Update the tooltip to state exactly how long the increase is
- Consider changing this to be a little more generous, such as a 40% increase to field uptime.

This trait seems rarely used compared to other skills in this line which are strong at the master level.

Illusions

Illusionary Elasticity

- This trait now affects staff clones
- Please ensure the bounce range is fixed, as per the notes in Winds of Chaos stated above.

Having this not affect staff clones is a major drawback on staff based condition builds. It is a 20 point trait in a line not used as much for condition builds, also taking the trait makes it far harder to manage invisibility (as the bounce from the slower projectile can proc revealed from a 2nd bounce). This simple change may open up a number of new builds based around the staff and make mesmer condition builds more viable.

I do not believe this will be OP due to the nature of Winds of Chaos. It has a 66% chance to apply a condition, and may not necessarily bounce back to the same enemy, depending on number of other enemies/allies nearby. what the trait essential does is improve the reliability of the condition distribution, hence why keeping vulnerability is not a bad thing (especially when it makes it harder to cleanse and increases Warlocks damage).

Blinding Befuddlement
- Change internal CD to 1s per target.

For a master trait, applying 1 stack of confusion every 5 seconds when a blind is used, this is far too weak. I can understand the confusion damage nerf in wvw if it was too much, but this shouldn’t have been changed so much. Mesmers cannot reliable spam blinds – and blinds are far more powerful than a stack of confusion applied a a secondary effect regardless.

Phantasmal Haste
This skill does not work properly – most phantasms cool down is not reduced by 20%, the swordsman for example isn’t effected at all. Pryo has stated this before and I believe the wiki is currently up to date with the correct information. Please fix this or state exactly what it should do in the tooltip, as at the moment many players will take it and not realize it is worthless in many situations.

Thank you to everyone for always making the forums constructive and offering feedback on the class. I have tried to compile as much as possible, both from these forums, my own experiences and in game, though apologies if I missed anything – let me know and I will update it.

Asuka Shikinami.5462:

Weapon Skills:

Staff:

Winds of Chaos (Skill 1)
- Increase projectile speed by 20%
- Increase vulnerability duration to 6s.
- Fix bounce so it bounces the full range, as it currently only bounces if the first hit and bounce are within 1200. Refer to ele staff air skill 1 for correct bounce behaviour.

One of staff’s major weaknesses in pve is how slow the projectile is, combined with the bounce, makes it a lot harder to tag mobs compared to GS, which is near instant hit. The bounce behavior reduces the viability in ranged situations. The vulnerability change isn’t much of a buff, just makes it slightly harder to cleanse the meaningful conditions like bleeding/burning. These changes may make the staff more viable in PvE without making the weapon OP in pvp.

Scepter

Ether Bolt chain (Skill 1)
- Reduce cast/chargeup time of third part of chain to be the same as other parts of the chain. (.5s each)
- Increase projectile speed by 20%
- The third skill now applies a condition on hit – I recommend either 1 stack of confusion or torment for 4 seconds. This also affects clones created while scepter is mainhand weapon.

Currently this chain is simply weak. For a condition weapon it applies no condition on the third hit. The clones are meaningless other than shattering – something a condition build requires less of and worse, they overwrite useful clones. The chain is too slow and the projectile takes too long to hit at 900 range. The first two changes makes the weapon flow better. The third, while not increasing DPS greatly (in power builds the cond won’t do much, in cond builds the DPS would be low already from a lack of power), adds a small condition to make it harder to cleanse the main conditions, also means the scepter clones are far less weak and brings them closer to staff clones in terms of viability.

Confusing Images (Skill 3)
- Fix this so as a channel it constantly hits, as it seems to stop hitting when people move in particualr ways such as when your opponent is behind you.
- Reduce the precase by 0.2 – 0.4s.

Increasing the relibility of the skill to bring it in line with mainhand sword or other mesmer weapons.

While this may seem like a huge buff to the scepter, it is only to bring it in line with other weapons. Scepter is commonly ignored as a weapon (how often do you see this used seriously in PVP or in PVE where a sword couldn’t do a better job) due to the weak skill 1 attack chain and how long the build up is on skill 3. While the second and third skills are useful in condition builds, the clones offer nothing of value (clone death traits can help, though the creation from the auto attack chain is so slow staff clones are still more viable).

WOC auto attack should be replaced with something other than vulnerability. It is a weapon that is a supportive/defensive option. Adding vulnerability does not flow with the design of it. All of the conditions being applied are either bleeding, burning, poison etc – but keeping vulnerability is not a good option.

WOC – Instead of vulnerability it should apply confusion for 2 -3 secs.
This would mean it would increase the damage of the staff but at the same it would allow for a deterrent for enemy players. When you get vulnerability with staff the only extra damage being caused is warlock or shattering. Conditions aren’t being affected by vulnerability. Confusion also has been nerfed in the past so it would be nice to have it through more applicable sources. With 3 staff clones up confusion wouldn’t be able to stack to the extreme if they limited it to 2 seconds as well.

Scepter – The scepter seems to be used as a condition weapon arguably. With the recent addition of torment it has made the scepter more viable in terms of competitive play. However, the auto-attack chain as you said, does deserve a rework

Ether bolt 1st – Apply bleed
Ether blast 2nd Apply confusion/bleed
Ether Clone- Apply poison and summon the clone.

A reliable poison would be extremely helpful to a condition Mesmer – given that it doesn’t last an extremely long time. The purpose of it would be to apply ranged pressure. The projectile speed idea should also be considered and consistent with all the attacks. Ether clone (3rd in the chain) shouldn’t have a wind up time. It offers too much time wasted because you’re waiting for the end result and are unable to take action because it leaves you stranded waiting for it to go off.

It would be nice to see if we could any confirmation as to the current state of some of the Mesmer weapons and abilities such as iMage.

Scepter used to have condusion on its AA and it caused a lot of QQ and tbh they might have been well deserved. Sure, confusion was a lot more powerfull back then, but still, getting perma confusion stacks it can be to much. Instead of confusion on staff it might be better to add another condition (torment?? i cant think of anything else that would fit) or just leave it with random bleed/burn.

As for scepter…. bleed bleed poison?? Mmmm where i have seen that?? Ohh necro septer!! Now add that 3 more times! Posion on scepter i dont think its a good idea considering you + 3 clones can be stacking it. Removing it will be useless since youll get it 1 sec later also. Probably bleed (2 stacks) and torment (1 stack) (1st and 2nd attacks) would be more balanced imh. With 3 clones out stacks would increase in intensity quite good if the duration is not to short.

Edit: keep in mind ANet LOOOOVESSS to nerf mesmers, so if something gets to good we can get hit even harder from the nerf hammer

Dess.4391:

As for scepter…. bleed bleed poison?? Mmmm where i have seen that?? Ohh necro septer!! Now add that 3 more times! Posion on scepter i dont think its a good idea considering you + 3 clones can be stacking it.

Scepter Clones only cast Either Bolt (the first part of the chain) so if it went bleed bleed poison the enemy would only be getting stacks of bleeds from the clones which isnt that op at all.

I think it would be cool if the last attack on the Ether bolt chain transferred one condition from the Mesmer to the target. Scepter clones should also do the last attack in the chain and would therefore be chucking any conditions that are applied on them at their target. A nice punishment mechanic for those targeting our clones with their conditions ;-)

Hexxen.7216:

Dess.4391:

As for scepter…. bleed bleed poison?? Mmmm where i have seen that?? Ohh necro septer!! Now add that 3 more times! Posion on scepter i dont think its a good idea considering you + 3 clones can be stacking it.

Scepter Clones only cast Either Bolt (the first part of the chain) so if it went bleed bleed poison the enemy would only be getting stacks of bleeds from the clones which isnt that op at all.

Ohh true, scepter clones only do the first attack. They should fix that also and make them do the whole chain, without sumoning another clone of course

Wouldn’t it be much more awesome if the Signet of Midnight did something mesmery, not just giving runspeed? Because honestly, solve out of combat movement at a game level please, not at a per-class level. If it’s too slow, increase the OOC-runspeed boost from 50% to 100%, then disable it stacking with any other movement speed (so we all have Swiftness speed out of combat at all times).

Staff:

1. Winds of Chaos needs a few tweaks, a slight tweak to increase damage because at the moment its less then pitiful. the “orbs” needs a speed boost, they are just to slow. I personally think the conditions need to be tweaked but not removed.

I would say have it apply a random condition out of ALL of them other then the likes of Chill, Fear and Immobilize. and have it add a random boon out of them ALL we have little/no access to some of them so i would say have them ALL on the list.

Phase Retreat – I like this, pretty much dont change it

Chaos Armor – well this just plain sucks. My changes would be add a 10% damage reduction, it being an ARMOR means that it should really have this. Just like Winds of Chaos using a attack causes a random condition of the same ones as WoC, the boons are the same as WoC as well. I think remove the 1second internal cooldown as well – not sure if the ICD is PER a character or PER an attack though.

Chaos Storm – Again have so it can inflict the same conditions and boons as WoC and Chaos Armor.

It would be nice if we got some trait options (In Chaos imo) that buffed up Chaos Armor and Chaos Storm – Like having a Trait that will make Chaos storm ONLY add Conditions, but more stacks or ONLY give Boons, again more stacks. This way the player gets to choose HOW they want to use it.

Overall i think the only condition we shouldnt have access to is Fear and Chill they dont feel very “Mesmer”

Scepter:

Auto Attack – This chain needs to to be faster, its to long and to slow. speed up the Clone spawn, add a condition to the chain, i would prefer Torment over Confusion myself but anything would Get.

Skill 2 – Change it to an Aura, instant cast Aura. Make it so that EVERYONE that attacks during its short duration gets Torment. This would allow us to continue using skills rather then having to channel it.

Skill 3 – Replace it. I find it to easy to be dodged unless used from stealth with the target busy attacking clones. Make it so Thakittens an instant attack that gives the condition and the damage right away.

• Generally
  • Change how out-of-combat movement works. Once out of combat you get a buff called “out of combat”. This buff increases movement speed by + 3%. Each second ooC you get one stack of “ooC”, max 11. Once you enter combat, all stacks are removed.
    This way all movement abilities (passive signets, warriors melee, engineer’s and mesmer’s are only for in-combat) and all classes are equal ooC and still have their movement ability iC. Probably make the current passive signets make the first tick of “ooC” buff with 4 stacks.
  • Change Confusion in PvE to deal either double damage or double duration.
• Staff
  • Make the 1 Vul to 3 Vuls
  • Make the 1s Burning to 1.5s Burning, so stacking condur would actually lead to something
• Scepter
  • Either increase projectiles’ velocity or reduce casttime, since those are not completely unaffected
  • Make Clones use scepter #1-1 and #1-2 (not #1-3)
  • Second Hit should cause 1 confusion with a base duration of a clone’s cycle
  • Make Scepter #2-1 do something when the cast is finished – probably autouse #2-2
• GS
  • Make Mindstab a blast finisher and increase its damage by 50% (?)
  • Increase bouncing range of GS #2 and let it favor you for the initial bounce
• Focus
  • Temporal curtain; increase height by 100% to bake it reflect projectiles above knee height.
  • Make pWarden either ground-targeted or reduce its acting range to its damage range.
• Utilities
  • Healing Mantra; add AoE heal when using a charge with 1/4 ~ 1/3 of the selfheal.
  • Damage Mantra; increase CD from 1s to 2s; add 1 stack of might (10s) to allies upon using a charge.
  • Cleansening Mantra; additional to its current effect make it remove one condition on allies, range same as Restorative Mantras
  • Stability Mantra; increase stability duration to 3~4s; stability is also granted to allies.
  • Probably make all those supportive mantra abilities a grandmaster trait in inspiration or dueling (our mantra lines).
  • Signet of midnight; change boon duration from + 10% to + 20%.
• Traits
  • Toughness on mantra charge; remove toughness grants aegis for 3s, CD 7s; or grants stability 3s, CD 8s.

Nretep.2564:

• Generally
  • Change how out-of-combat movement works. Once out of combat you get a buff called “out of combat”. This buff increases movement speed by + 3%. Each second ooC you get one stack of “ooC”, max 11. Once you enter combat, all stacks are removed.
    This way all movement abilities (passive signets, warriors melee, engineer’s and mesmer’s are only for in-combat) and all classes are equal ooC and still have their movement ability iC. Probably make the current passive signets make the first tick of “ooC” buff with 4 stacks.
    .

THIS. I think its SO unbalanced how some classes not only get 25% movement signets, they also get easily used Swiftness AND skills that move them.

Mesmer – Blink(very short range), 1 Swiftness on a weapon that isnt that great. We are by far the SLOWEST in combat and out of combat. Something needs to be done.

Maybe a change to that trait that gives 10% per a clone movement speed into something that would make it USEFUL out of combat as well???

I agree with most of what has been stated by Asuka and Nretep. especially with GS3 of Nretep, Focus changes.
Asukas changes regarding most trait most traits changes weapon skills and portal are essential! As for the elites, Time Warp agreed. Moa Morph, if there is a priority between morph and mass, i think mass invisibility should be categorized as a manipulation skill, also i think mesmers deserve a elite in the place of Morph, such as a phant or mantra, even a signet elite.. but a phatasm Elite would be awesome, one similar to Illusionary Rogue would be perfect(Downed #3/ Downed Phantasm) similar to backstab from thief.. 45-60sec skill recharge The phant attacks ever 7-8(?) (seconds)(un)(traited)((it comes out as sekittenraited wiouthout the brackets :O ) and goes invisible 2 secs before attacking, Same rules of frontstab and backstab apply.