Guild Wars 2

(I plan to do a few of these posts and hope that experts on other skills will continue the series. The point of these are to focus in on one particular skill and only talk about that one skill. This is not a discussion about whether a skill is underpowered or overpowered. This is just a discussion on what makes the skill unique and what are the interesting applications of the skill. Other skills can have their own posts to honor them, and please don’t wait for me to make a post on the skill you want to really talk about.)

The Signet of Midnight skill interests me a lot because its utility is very dependent upon the traits a mesmer has. As an extreme example, the signet without any traits normally just allows you to blind targets around the caster and break stun every 30 seconds without any casting times. Fully traited, the skill does its usual thing every 24 seconds, adds a stack of confusion along with the blindness, cures 1 condition, and makes you invulnerable for a full second. Let’s not also ignore the fact that, regardless of traits, you get +10% boon duration while it is off its cooldown.

That said, I don’t think anyone should go so far as to actually build around the Signet of Midnight. The point I’m making is that the skill’s inclusion into your bar should be highly dependent on the traits you have already chosen, unlike other skills that a mesmer may choose based purely on its performance without traits. Based on the skills inherent effects alone, I’m pretty sure that 95% of the time, another mesmer utility will help you out much more. But if you have room for Cleansing Inscriptions or Blinding Befuddlement in your build, then suddenly the value of the skill increases dramatically.

I do leave room for including the skill in your bar while untraited for one particular reason though. Simply put, it is not as easy to replace the passive effect of the signet, particularly in staff/Signet of Inspiration builds, which I think are justified in pursuing the Signet of Midnight for its 10% boon duration.

Inherent effects aside, when traited properly, I think the signet also has a deserved place in Illusionary Persona builds that rely on getting close into melee range.

(Other “Know Your Skills”: Phantasmal Defender )

I can personally say that the value of this skill is very dependent on the traits chosen. While good on its own, a stun-break and blind on a 30sec cooldown is worth it on its own (in a sense), a single trait allows for use/need in some builds. Let’s look at the worth of taking Blinding Befuddlement to add a little damage to breaking a stun. Now I know 1x confusion on blind isn’t much of an improvement, especially since it is on a 30/24sec cooldown, but what else applies blind that would be used in conjunction with it? In the current meta the “blackwater” condition build is widely popular using scepter/torch, staff. Torch also has a blind/stealth on a 30/24 second that can be used much like the signet. While staff doesn’t have a “direct” source of blind, it does have Chaos Armor that procs not only the blind, but also the confusion. So if your using the signet in a variant of the blackwater build, or at least a build that uses torch/staff to some extent, the signet fits perfectly, when traited with Blinding Befuddlement. Now remember that is just 1 application of the signet that relies on active use/defense, and only 1 trait. If you build for the signet further, you can get even more defense with condition cure and distortion.

So after that wall of text what do I expect you all take away from it? The signet, while not the best, has a potential spot in certain builds and it can be irreplaceable in its own right.

Ps. If enough are curious about the blackwater variant I was talking about I would be glad to share.

is it 30s CD?

this
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Midnight
says it is 35.

I currently only use sig of midnight when i’m doing map exploration for longer swiftness buffs.

Helios.3598:

is it 30s CD?

this
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Signet_of_Midnight
says it is 35.

I currently only use sig of midnight when i’m doing map exploration for longer swiftness buffs.

Says its 30 seconds when I look at the page. I also use the skill enough to know its 30 seconds. That’s without the Signet Mastery trait of course.

LokiShi.2876:

I can personally say that the value of this skill is very dependent on the traits chosen. While good on its own, a stun-break and blind on a 30sec cooldown is worth it on its own (in a sense), a single trait allows for use/need in some builds. Let’s look at the worth of taking Blinding Befuddlement to add a little damage to breaking a stun. Now I know 1x confusion on blind isn’t much of an improvement, especially since it is on a 30/24sec cooldown, but what else applies blind that would be used in conjunction with it? In the current meta the “blackwater” condition build is widely popular using scepter/torch, staff. Torch also has a blind/stealth on a 30/24 second that can be used much like the signet. While staff doesn’t have a “direct” source of blind, it does have Chaos Armor that procs not only the blind, but also the confusion. So if your using the signet in a variant of the blackwater build, or at least a build that uses torch/staff to some extent, the signet fits perfectly, when traited with Blinding Befuddlement. Now remember that is just 1 application of the signet that relies on active use/defense, and only 1 trait. If you build for the signet further, you can get even more defense with condition cure and distortion.

So after that wall of text what do I expect you all take away from it? The signet, while not the best, has a potential spot in certain builds and it can be irreplaceable in its own right.

Ps. If enough are curious about the blackwater variant I was talking about I would be glad to share.

If I was running a straight up Blackwater Mesmer build, I would probably never touch the Signet of Midnight. You would certainly need to modify the build from its original. No actual argument here though since you were talking about making a variant.

Quaygal.5327:

and reflects all incoming projectiles for that 1 second.

Masterful reflection works only for F4. Blurred frenzy and Blurred inscriptions do not trigger it.

Baa.4582:

Quaygal.5327:

and reflects all incoming projectiles for that 1 second.

Masterful reflection works only for F4. Blurred frenzy and Blurred inscriptions do not trigger it.

Good to know. Sounds like a bug. I’ll fix the original post.

Quaygal.5327:

Baa.4582:

Quaygal.5327:

and reflects all incoming projectiles for that 1 second.

Masterful reflection works only for F4. Blurred frenzy and Blurred inscriptions do not trigger it.

Good to know. Sounds like a bug. I’ll fix the original post.

The bug would be for blurred inscriptions, not blurred frenzy since Anet changed the invulnerability to an evade a few patches back.

Signet of Midnight’s CD has been reduced a few patches ago. Looks like noone bothered to update the wiki.

I use it while running. So when searching for GuildBounties or gathering stuff. The + 10% boon duration (+ 30% from runes and traited focus) do help a bit with swiftness. But + 15% or + 20% would be a bit fairer. But for using the utility for this purpose only would make it even more useless than it is … so I found another one.
JadeMaw. I’m usually the player, that collects the crystals from the tentacles. Two dodges are fine, but a blinder or stunbreaker (next to blink) does fill the endurance gaps. And at jade maw there ain’t much useful utility spells anyways.

I have a pve-shatterbuild where i use signet of midnight as stunbreaker and for the invulerability so i can deal good dmg and still be able to survive(used signet of midnight because it’s an instantcast).

Before that I didn’t even think about playing with this skills active effect. As already said before it depends on your traits.