Guild Wars 2

I know IP does more damage than the individual illusion shatters, and I know I’ve seen this information somewhere, but can’t find it now. Searched these forums, checked the wiki, searched reddit, no luck. Anyone know?

Wiki About tooltip of Mind Wrack (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mind_Wrack) :

Damage: 280 (1 illusion)
Damage (2x): 378 (2 illusions)
Damage (3x): 492 (3 illusions)

Damage listed is the total damage; with more illusions the damage per illusion goes down.

So damage from MW is divided between each illusion.

I’m 100% sure IP count as a separate shatter so it deals full damage. Now if you shatter 3x illusions they deal 164 (492/3) individually while your IP AoE deals 280.

I found that too, but it’s still kind of vague since it has no discussion of how IP scales shatters per Illusion.

However, after a bit more searching (actually had to use google to search the mesmer forums for this), I found the answer – actual steady weapon target dummy testing. Conclusion:

“[Shatter Damage] W/O IP
1 Illusion: 135 × 1 = 135 (~49.45% of base Max Damage)
2 Illusions: 103×2 = 206 (~75.46%)
3 Illusions: 91×3 = 273 (~100%)

[Shatter Damage] With IP
0 Illusions: 135×1 = 135 (~49.45%)
1 Illusion: 135×2 = 270 (~99%)
2 Illusions: 103×3 = 309 (~113%)
3 Illusions 91×4 = 364 (~133%)
…
So on top of all of the other benefits, you drastically increase the scaling of Mind Wrack from approximately 49%/74%/100% to 49%/98%/111%/133%. Don’t believe me? Go try it out.
…
[IP] is a 100%/50%/33% damage increase [for 1/2/3 illusions, respectively] depending on how many Illusions you have."

Thanks to Dastion for figuring all that out.

Wow good to know. I was totally wrong. A bit disappointed though. That means IP -mesmer own damage- is weaker when you have more than 1 illusion (yeah in my head IP damage is a guaranteed damage while illusions might die before reaching their shatter target)

The one thing I’m not sure about here is, I recall reading somewhere that multiple illusions do not evenly split shatter damage, the way Dastion just averaged them together. Rather, #1 does less damage than #2, and #2 less than #3, and #3 less than IP self-shatter. And the actual damage amount each does changes depending on how many illusions are shattered.

At least that’s what I recall reading in the thread I’m still searching for. Though on the other hand I would have though Dastion would have seen that in his combat log when running his steady weapon tests, and mentioned it. So… not sure, going to have to test this myself later when I get a chance.

@kurtosis: If you read that somewhere, they were completely and totally wrong. Each illusion is 100% identical to every other illusion for the purposes of a shatter. The first will do exactly the same as the last, and phantasms behave precisely the same way that clones do.

The information that you posted from Dastion is 100% and totally correct. It fully describes the behavior of shatters. There is really 0 uncertainty in this regard.

Great, thanks for the clarification, all questions answered then!

Ha. Good to see someone benefited from that thread, and that you skipped the bit where I messed up my probability test of critting with multiple Illusions. The per damage amount for each Illusion is almost always the same, any variances are due to rounding (I.e you may have two Illusions deal 333 and the third deal 334), Vulnerability Stacks falling off or being added, or the Compounding Power trait.

IP does a lot for Shatter builds, that extra ‘guaranteed’ shatter from you really helps counter the unreliability of Shattering. It’s less helpful if you don’t go into Melee range, but iLeap (when it works) and Blurred Frenzy make doing so mostly safe. Even then, the on-demand 1s Distortion is worth the trait alone.

kurtosis.9526:

The one thing I’m not sure about here is, I recall reading somewhere that multiple illusions do not evenly split shatter damage, the way Dastion just averaged them together. Rather, #1 does less damage than #2, and #2 less than #3, and #3 less than IP self-shatter. And the actual damage amount each does changes depending on how many illusions are shattered.

At least that’s what I recall reading in the thread I’m still searching for. Though on the other hand I would have though Dastion would have seen that in his combat log when running his steady weapon tests, and mentioned it. So… not sure, going to have to test this myself later when I get a chance.

Your are probably thinking of Compounding Power (Illusions III) where it is “3% more damage for each of your active illusions” which does increase shatter damage. Thus when you shatter, the first clone shatters at 9% more damage, the second at 6% more and third at 3% more damage. IP isn’t affected by this trait though.

Dastion.3106:

Ha. Good to see someone benefited from that thread, and that you skipped the bit where I messed up my probability test of critting with multiple Illusions. The per damage amount for each Illusion is almost always the same, any variances are due to rounding (I.e you may have two Illusions deal 333 and the third deal 334), Vulnerability Stacks falling off or being added, or the Compounding Power trait.

IP does a lot for Shatter builds, that extra ‘guaranteed’ shatter from you really helps counter the unreliability of Shattering. It’s less helpful if you don’t go into Melee range, but iLeap (when it works) and Blurred Frenzy make doing so mostly safe. Even then, the on-demand 1s Distortion is worth the trait alone.

Haha, thanks again for figuring that out and posting it. I added a link to your thread on the wiki, and a summary of the results, since there was no info on this anywhere. And strangely I couldn’t even find your post with the forum search, had to do a google site search instead. Much obliged.

Xavi.6591:

Your are probably thinking of Compounding Power (Illusions III) where it is “3% more damage for each of your active illusions” which does increase shatter damage. Thus when you shatter, the first clone shatters at 9% more damage, the second at 6% more and third at 3% more damage. IP isn’t affected by this trait though.

That could be it, thanks. Glad we got that clarified too.