Guild Wars 2

So, Mesmer got one of the arguably best Elite Specs in Chronomancer, the immense sustain and support they offer being rather unparallelled. But, it didn’t fix one thing that Mesmers lacked, which is sustained Damage. With the Trickster, I aim to give an alternative that excels at AoE Nuking and Sustain Damage.

Mesmer – Trickster
Weapon: Shortbow
Skill: Tricks
Mechanic: Trickster Blades will now appear behind the Trickster whenever they shatter a clone. These blades can number up to 4. When 4 Blades are created, Shatter skills are replaced with Blade Command skills.

Mechanic: Trickster Blades
With nothing but their mind, the Trickster can create powerful and very deadly Trickster Blades from pure ether to bring into battle. Whenever a Shatter skill is used, the Trickster reshapes the shattered remains of their clones into illusionary swords that hover behind their back, ready to strike at their call and beckon. 1 Blade is created for each clone shattered, the Trickster themselves included.

When 4 Blades have been created, the 4 Shatter Skills are replaced with 4 brand new Blade Command Skills that use all 4 blades at once for a devastating attack, before shattering them and returning the basic Shatter skills, necessiting for the Trickster to keep creating clones and shattering them to maintain their secondary weapon.

• Blade Impalement – Replaces Mind Wrack. Send your blades to impale your target, Damaging and stacking Vulnerability over time on them.
• Wheel of Pain – Replaces Cry of Frustration. Send your blades to circle the target Area, continuously Damaging and Crippling enemies within. Acts as a Whirl Finisher.
• Rain of Blades – Replaces Diversion. Rain your blades down at the Target Area, Immobilizing and Slowing all enemies within.
• Mental Storm – Replaces Distortion. Drive your blades into the ground before you, sending out a Cascading wave of sharp blades that Knocks Back enemies.

Note: Trickster Blades are visually identical to Whisperblade, save for two occasions:
When equipped with The Dreamer, the blades are replaced by Unicorns. When equipped with Chuka & Champawat, the blades are replaced by Tigers.

Weapon
The Shortbow might be an odd choice for a DPS weapon, but the Trickster doesn’t use the bow in a conventional way. True to their nature of deception and trickery, Trickster gets Melee Shortbow, of course with plenty more twists and turns. It excells as a high DPS weapon, especially against large Hitboxes and groups of enemies with skills such as Temporal Shot, Illusionary Acrobat and Chaotic Trap.

• Illusionary Arrow/Illusionary Blade -> Trickster’s Treat -> Mind Render – Fire an Illusionary Arrow at your target which explodes, dealing Damage to enemies near it. If your target is closer than 130 units, conjure an Illusionary dagger to strike them with, Third attack creating a delayed Pulse that will damage the target and remove a Boon after a brief time.
• Double Entandre – Clone. Fire an illusionary arrow that teleports you to your target, leaving behind a Clone that uses Illusionary Arrow.
• Temporal Shot – Fire a slow-moving Arrow surrounded by magical energy that freezes in place in front of you, Blocking enemy projectiles. The arrow pulses damage to enemies close to it and explodes after 5 strikes, dealing massive Damage to nearby enemies. If it doesn’t hit 5 times, it doesn’t explode.
• Illusionary Acrobat – Phantasm. Fire an Arcing arrow at your target that explodes in a Blinding Flash, creating a Phantasm that Attacks nearby enemies with evasive leaps and acts as a Whirl Finisher. (Phantasm uses 3x Death Blossom animations and wields daggers).
• Chaotic Trap -> Trickster’s Bounty – Fire a Spread of Illusionary Arrows connected by etheral webbing, Immobilizing enemies caught and creating an Ethereal Combo Field. Activate again to Pull all enemies caught towards you, Stealing 1 Boon from each Enemy.

Notes: Illusionary Acrobat uses the same animation as Mordrem Stalkers. The Channel is long and best against Large Hitbox enemies or groups where each leap hits all 3 times for maximum Damage.

Utility Skills
As for their Tricks, they wouldn’t be Physical Tricks like the Thief has, but Mind Tricks, Magic and Illusions that excel at misdirection and confusion. Many Trick Skills work as extended Shatter skills, using Clones you have summoned to extend their effects further.

• Vanishing Act – Healing Skill. A shatter effect plays on your clones and they gain Stealth. Gain Stealth and Heal yourself for each active Clone.
• Hypnosis – You and your illusions channel Lulling energies at your target, pulsing Blind, followed by Cripple and finally Stun depending on the number of illusions alive.
• Shadow of Doubt – Shatter your clones, Sending out black orbs at surrounding enemies that attaches to them, pulsing Slow and Weakness to them for a time or until they successfully deal damage.
• Weave of Inspiration – Shatter all your clones, surrounding yourself with a magical, colourful weave for each clone shattered. Each Weave will Absorb the next incoming Projectile, shooting out to Immobilize the origin of the projectile and Steal a Boon from them.
• Now you see me… – Shatter all your clones, Taunting the enemies your clones have targeted while gaining access to “… Now you don’t.” chain skill.
  • … Now you don’t. – Break Stun, Gain Stealth and reform clones Shattered with “Now you see me…”, while stacking Confusion on Taunted enemies.
• Magic Box – Elite Skill. Stun the target, enveloping both yourself and the target in Illusionary Boxes. Blades strike into both boxes, massively Damaging and Crippling your target, before you both swap places. If the enemy is Downed by this Skill, they’re immedietally defeated. Defiant Enemies will not be displaced but instead take Break Bar Damage.

Specialization Line
The Trickster specialization line is all about Offense, offering up a wide variety of approaches towards tearing enemies asunder. The first line offers up a venue at Condition Damage, the second focuses more on sustained DPS while the third is all about creating steady opportunities for massive Bursts.

Minor Traits

• Magician – Gain access Tricks and the Trickster Blades mechanic.
• Ethereal Armaments – Gain Fury (4s) when you activate a Blade Command skill.
• Guile Hero – You deal 1% more Damage for each Boon on yourself and 2% more damage for each Boon on your target.

Adept Traits

• Adept Illusionist – Confusion you apply deals 10% more damage. Confusion duration is increased by 100% against Non-Player enemies.
• Phantasmal Rebirth – Activating a Blade Command Skill now reduces the recharge of all your Phantasm Skills by 10s. ICD: 10s.
• Shattered Armor – Remove Protection from enemies struck by your Shatter Skills.

Master Traits

• Trickster’s Guile – You and nearby allies gain 150 Expertise.
• Thought Sever – Temporal Shot now Chills enemies it strikes, and Dazes them when exploding. Shortbow Skills recharge 20% faster.
• Magician’s Assistants – Trick Skills that Shatter your clones are now also considered Shatter skills for Trait Synergy and generate Trickster Blades when used. Trick skills recharge 20% faster.

Grandmaster Traits

• Lacerating Blades – Blade Command Skills now cause Bleeding (1 stack, 3s) on enemies with each strike.
• Dancing Blades – Your Trickster Blades now continously circle around you while passive, Dealing Damage to nearby enemies constantly.
• Piercing Blades – Blade Command and Shatter skills are now Unblockable.

It’s definitly one of a best ideas for spec. for mesmers I saw.

pretty cool ideas, might want address the traits power creep. them adepts are over tuned a bit and I find people seem to over complicate these class mechanics a lot. if your giving your spec a powerful mechanic with a lot of trait synergy, the traits should be considerably weak to avoid people always taking the trait line. this trait line looks like a good swap for domination line runners if they didn’t want interrupt focused damage.

ppl would run illusions, inspiration and trickster with this. illusions for shatter synergy, inspiration because survival and your trickster line would be the pure damage line.

very good job thou

Really nice ideas and work.

Just to be sure, you’re using utility skills to shatter your illusions ? Is it a plain dismiss, or has it got side effects ?
Also, you’re saying trickster blades replace shatters. Do blade command skills also trigger the “on shatter” traits ?

ThomasC.1056:

Really nice ideas and work.

Just to be sure, you’re using utility skills to shatter your illusions ? Is it a plain dismiss, or has it got side effects ?
Also, you’re saying trickster blades replace shatters. Do blade command skills also trigger the “on shatter” traits ?

The Utility Skills that shatter Illusions function mechanically similar to Shatter Skills, in that they shatter any clones you have in use in order to grow stronger. They can be traited to also trigger “On-Shatter” traits using Magician’s Assistants.

Trickster Blades can be considered a Chain Skill. Once you’ve created 4 blades (Which can be done in one Shatter if you have 3 Clones out, since the Mesmer themselves now count towards shattered clones) your Shatter Skills are replaced by the Blade Command Skills until you activate one of them, at which point you regain your old Shatter skills. They do not trigger “On-Shatter” traits.

TheSwede.9512:

ThomasC.1056:

Really nice ideas and work.

Just to be sure, you’re using utility skills to shatter your illusions ? Is it a plain dismiss, or has it got side effects ?
Also, you’re saying trickster blades replace shatters. Do blade command skills also trigger the “on shatter” traits ?

The Utility Skills that shatter Illusions function mechanically similar to Shatter Skills, in that they shatter any clones you have in use in order to grow stronger. They can be traited to also trigger “On-Shatter” traits using Magician’s Assistants.

Trickster Blades can be considered a Chain Skill. Once you’ve created 4 blades (Which can be done in one Shatter if you have 3 Clones out, since the Mesmer themselves now count towards shattered clones) your Shatter Skills are replaced by the Blade Command Skills until you activate one of them, at which point you regain your old Shatter skills. They do not trigger “On-Shatter” traits.

I’m gonna need a bit more time to think about your proposed elite spec as a whole, but right now it sounds interesting.

However this does worry me with the blade command skills replacing shatters. Its a valid tactic to chain shatters together for effects, whether its loading up torment/confusion, healing/condi cleanse, or just for each shatter’s base utility. And this would negate that, which would also mean shatters at the core level might need to be reworked.

Its a really cool idea, but I’m not sure how well it fits with core mesmer.

OriOri.8724:

TheSwede.9512:

ThomasC.1056:

Really nice ideas and work.

Just to be sure, you’re using utility skills to shatter your illusions ? Is it a plain dismiss, or has it got side effects ?
Also, you’re saying trickster blades replace shatters. Do blade command skills also trigger the “on shatter” traits ?

The Utility Skills that shatter Illusions function mechanically similar to Shatter Skills, in that they shatter any clones you have in use in order to grow stronger. They can be traited to also trigger “On-Shatter” traits using Magician’s Assistants.

Trickster Blades can be considered a Chain Skill. Once you’ve created 4 blades (Which can be done in one Shatter if you have 3 Clones out, since the Mesmer themselves now count towards shattered clones) your Shatter Skills are replaced by the Blade Command Skills until you activate one of them, at which point you regain your old Shatter skills. They do not trigger “On-Shatter” traits.

I’m gonna need a bit more time to think about your proposed elite spec as a whole, but right now it sounds interesting.

However this does worry me with the blade command skills replacing shatters. Its a valid tactic to chain shatters together for effects, whether its loading up torment/confusion, healing/condi cleanse, or just for each shatter’s base utility. And this would negate that, which would also mean shatters at the core level might need to be reworked.

Its a really cool idea, but I’m not sure how well it fits with core mesmer.

Shouldn’t be a big problem. If you unload Shatters without clones, you’ll only chain into the Blade Command Skills once you’ve used all 4 (As without clones, you’ll only generate 1 Blade for each Shatter and you need 4 in total before the skills change).

If you have 3 Clones out on the first Shatter, then you’ll swap to the Blade Command Skills instantly, necessiting a slightly different rotation. For instance, you could throw down Wheel of Pain to add ticks of Bleeding with Lacerating Blades, or Immobilize enemies with Rain of Blades so that the other Shatter skills are gauranteed to hit. (Since your Shatter skills return the moment you activate a Blade Command skill, wether you successfully hit an enemy or not.)

I could imagine the following Spike rotation for a Condi Mesmer running Maim the Disillusioned and Lacerating Blades:

Cry of Frustration (3 clones) → Wheel of Pain (Blade Command) → Mind Wrack → Diversion → Distortion.