Guild Wars 2

First of all, I LOVE the Mesmer profession. I have always wanted the opportunity to play an illusionist type character, and I feel the balance of abilities and debuffs works really well in this case. That said, there are a few major issues that have been leaving me with a bitter taste and logging in my Guardian more and more often.

1) Clones are stupid: Specifically roll clones seem to suffer this, but I have seen it on any indirectly created clones, like the ones made by the ability that instantly creates two. The problem is they completely ignore the enemy I have targeted, and stupidly run off forty miles away and aggro a room of enemies I am not even in combat with. This makes running with Mesmer in dungeons not even worth the trouble half the time. Created clones should ONLY attack what I currently have targeted when I create them. This is the biggest bug which I have heard MANY complaining about, and needs to be fixed ASAP.

2) Phantasmal Warlock doesn’t work right: I have to stand completely still and spam the button for it to ever show up, and even then it only fires half the time. Even when it does fire there is a full second lag at least before it actually shows up and the ability goes on cooldown.

3) Having clones out seems to trigger zones that scale the number of mobs around based on player count. Example: I was just in the volcano completely by myself. I solo cleared a tunnel where no one else was and had just finished defeating two lava crabs and a troll, the last enemies in that section, and had three clones out at the time, and suddenly 7 MORE MOBS appeared completely at random right on top of me!

Also, the tunnel I had just cleared with packs of 2-3 mobs respawned all with packs of 3-5 instead. Needless to say this makes solo’ing virtually impossible in any reasonably difficult encounter.

Overall I think the class has great potential. It is my first 80, and the staff/GS combo I am using is really a lot of fun. They just need to work out these few major issues to keep the game play fluid and prevent frustration burnout.

1. This problem only affects dodge clones. Mirror images works fine, you just have the wrong thing targeted, or you may have had no target at all and it autotargeted something.

2. Some of our phantasms are buggy, but the warlock is not one of them. It works quite fine. Try making sure you have a target selected before using the skill.

3. This effect only occurs during dynamic events, and I highly highly doubt that clones affect it (though I have not tested this). What you were encountering in that area was just an absurdly high spawnrate, and you will find that in various areas of the game (Orr anyone?).

However, staff + gs is a great solo pve weapon combo. Try abusing the berserker as much as you can while kiting to clear out groups of mobs like in that tunnel you described.

The thing with the warlock seems to have cleared up, so perhaps there was just a lot going on in the zone causing lag. I only really started training staff recently.

But the thing with the roll clones, is really disappointing. I rely on them to build up three quick for a shatter in tense situations, and if they’re off aggro’ing the next room instead of helping me clear my current target with more powerful shatters, well…

I’m sure it’s on the list.

You just gotta learn where to roll. If I want one to be on a certain target I run close to it and dodge, the clones aggro the closest target. However, most of the time I don’t care, shatters are AOE so the more mobs the merrier.

What Kazhiel says is true, with one major exception: Orr.

Read what many have said about these zones. The mob density and respawn rate is insanely high compared to all other zones. Not that I am complaining. But it does make roll clones more of a hazard than a boon as most of the time when running solo, I can just clear a path and move up before mobs I’ve defeated are respawning behind me, and with the roll clone glitch more often than not, they are aggro’ing these rear packs instead of the ones I am engaged in.

You need to keep some range from a lot of these mobs too, due to PBAoE and other mechanics, and roll dodging to safety is the best way to do it. I would just turn off the trait completely, but so much of Mesmer damage/survivability depends on having clones up to shatter for various effects. In a high pace zone like this, you really can’t be sitting there waiting for weapon abilities even when swapping. Plus those are needed more for timing to counter specific mob abilities.