Guild Wars 2

So I have two questions about Mesmers.

1. Mesmer clones. I have heard that against an inexperienced player they work very well, but an experienced player can see right through them. Is this true? If I fight a player that has played for a while will I just be doomed to shatter my clones without any use out of them for trickery?

2. Durability. I heard that Mesmers are more durable than Elementalists. Though I’m not quite sure if this is just because of the possible deception of their illusions. I’m not looking for a class that has burst and durability, but I would like to be able to survive a decent amount of time in a confrontation.

To those who read the original post, the right text wouldn’t show up for my response :P .

So I haven’t tried hardcore tournaments or anything yet, but my general experience with clones is that yeah, experienced players will eventually see through them, but it also depends on what you do, and how much deception you’re trying to create. I’ve almost nothing but mesmer this whole time and I particularly enjoy facing other mesmers 1-on-1 because I feel like it’s a real test of how well I understand the prof and how well I’m seeing through that deception that I could on for that durability you were talking about.

Generally clones only do their auto-attack, run forwards (like no strafing or backpedaling), and always face their target straight on… this in itself is usually a big giveaway, but it still often takes a second when facing a mesmer to scan the battlefield and pick out the right one, and this hesitation is often what you’re trying to create, since I sincerely believe you can’t hope to keep a good player befuddled for more than, say, 3-5 seconds at a time with clone play. So if you stand still in attack range, face your target and have spawned clones in such a way that it’s not certain which is you, you’ll probably blend in and buy yourself an extra few seconds. Although not otherwise a great skill, I’m sure how you can see how Mass Invisibility would set up this kind of moment perfectly, since you and your clones would all reappear simultaneously.

The trick then is to create this deception at just the right moment to nudge your opponent to play less than ideally… against another mesmer, for instance, one moment would be when they’d like to be summoning phantasms, so that they either have to concentrate to discover which one is you, or risk blowing a phantasm on your clone. You may have to hold off from busting out your fun abilities, but if you were primarily staff, you could try to set this up so that clones are applying a dangerous bleed/burn, and your best abilities (think Chaos Storm/Armor) are already on cooldown. Footnote: the one problem with this particular approach right now is that Winds of Chaos, the staff auto-attack, looks differently when done by the clones… whoops.)

I kinda feel like for good clone deception play to work, time has to be on you side at least somewhat, since it’s difficult to do big chunks of damage at the same time as you’re hiding amongst your clones.

Clones “tricking” a player that isn’t trash isn’t even on the table. It’s extremely obvious. There’s no deception with the illusions right now.

AvuriDash.6578:

It certainly needs to be said that clone creation breaks targeting. You can cause enemies to waste some precious single-target skills with a well-timed clone.

Otherwise, there are many things that make a mesmer difficult to kill. With staff, you have access to Chaos Storm (Staff 5) and Chaos Armor (Staff 4, or leap finisher with Ethereal Field), which grant some potent defensive boons (such as Aegis and Protection; Weakness, Blind, and Cripple on enemies). The Phantasmal Defender utility summons a phantasm that soaks up half the damage you and nearby allies take. There are also multiple utilities which grant stealth. Blurred Frenzy (Sword 2) makes you invulnerable for 2 seconds, as does the Distortion shatter (up to 4s with the Illusionary Persona trait.) There are also two block abilities (Sword 4 and Scepter 2) which can be cancelled into effective skill interrupts. Then of course, you have access to the Diversion shatter and Magic Bullet (Pistol 5) for even more interrupts.

So is this the 30/30/30/30 build using GS,Staff/Pistol/Sceptor/Sword/Focus at the same time that I should be using??? You make it sound like Mesmers get all those abilities at the same time, which of course is not true.

Mesmers will make bad players scream in frustration, I have no problem identifying and killing the mesmer, clones/phantasms’ always act in the same way, they do not dodge roll, they not move in circles, clones will stand still and cast, it is very, very easy to pick the mesmer out from the clones.

I wish people would take the time to understand something before crying on the forums and asking for nerfs.

You can distract even good players with clones if you play well, but it’s not like they’re distracted long. You can expect about half a second to a second, depending on what you’re doing.

Also note this only applies to small-scale combat. In any large scale combat or surprise situation, you’re going to get more than negligible deception.

i don’t rely on clones deceiving other players, i put out my clones to apply bleed and to dispose of them for shattering.

i rely on reflection. distortion, stealth, cripples, and stun skills to survive.

i run 30 in illusions, 20 in dueling and inspiration, with a condition damage/power/precision gear set, and i use GS + scepter/pistol.

^

That sounds like a potent build, although the 20 insp with no Focus makes me giggle. What are you picking up for Inspiration traits?