Guild Wars 2

I tried it with and without the trait.

Without the trait I can summon my iDuelist from 1200 range (even though it’s listed at 900 and indicator makes you believe it’s out of range). iDuelist is summoned, runs to within 900 range and starts shooting.

With the trait I can summon my iDuelist from 1200 range (even though it’s still listed at 900 and indicator makes you believe it’s out of range). iDuelist is summoned, runs to within 900 range and starts shooting.

So uhm… What’s the point of this (Master) trait again when it only seems to affect the cooldown and range of a single ability (Magic Bullet) and doesn’t appear to do anything for iDuelist?

It’s not listed but it changes the 8 physical projectile finishers from 20% to 100%
So combined with the many ethereal combo fields mesmers have and the Sharper Images minor trait you’d get along the way it can be a fun trait to mess around with.

Just tested the Phantasmal Duelist with the trait and sometimes he attacks at 1200 range and sometimes he runs forwards to about 900 range before attacking.
I’m guessing it has to do with where the phantasm appears when you summon him, if it’s behind you a bit he’d be beyond the 1200 range so would then run forward to be in range to attack.

Even if it doesn’t affect the range of iDuelists attacks it is still worth it. (Though I admit that this is probably a glitch and I too hope that they fix it.)

It lets you stay farther away from the target when summoning. On a phantasm build or a hybrid getting them out as soon as possible is key. Being able to summon this when you are running into an opponent sooner will be helpful. Also yeah the 100% finisher part is really nice. And I would take the trait just for the cool down honestly. ^^

I do agree though that it is probably a glitch. ^^

Well, I’ll have to try it again and see if there is a difference (apart from the 20%-100% which is most likely a bug).

It’s just that both with and without the trait, the range will not change on the tooltip. Yet in both cases the iDuelist can be summoned at 1200 even though the red bar indicator would say it’s not in range. However, the iDuelist would still run up to the target and only attack when at 900 range when I tested it.

So the 20%→100% is nice but it will probably be viewed as a bug and changed accordingly; leaving us with a trait that would be pretty worthless as it would not affect iDuelist at all and only boost the range/cooldown of 1 single skill (Magic Bullet). To me that’s not worth spending a Master Trait on (or even an Adept Trait).

Come to think of it, I’m really hoping that someday soon Mesmers will get the pistol as a mainhand option. At least then the Master Trait would make more sense to me.

It should affect the cooldown of iDuelist too, but the tooltip won’t show more than a 20% decrease so if you have Illusionists Celerity it won’t update (idk if the tooltip updates even without it, but afaik the cd does reduce). And summon out of range without the trait is possibly a bug that’ll get fixed, like the projectile finishing. Someday.

Phantasm range is pretty buggy as a whole, though—iWarlock does the same thing, as well as running up into the enemy’s face sometimes, and Disenchanter still has a spawn location on the opposite side of the enemy.

The cool down does affect iDuelist and it is worth only that if you are running a phantasm build.

Ah yes, I see now that the cooldown is reduced to around 12 seconds instead of 16. That’s good to know then at least.

(I’d still like a mainhand pistol though).