Guild Wars 2

Below is a list of all the changes I’d like to see (in a universe that revolves around me) for the Mesmer. Most of the changes are directed at mechanics rather than numbers: I won’t be suggesting “this and that should have its damage reduced” or “this healing skill needs to heal more”, for example.

Because a lot of my changes are designed to make less-viable skills and traits viable, it may seem like almost all of my suggestions are buffs. In general, my suggestions will hopefully give the Mesmer more build diversity rather than a direct power-up.

I have also left out the underwater weapon skills as underwater combat in general is a mess at the moment: it’s not just the Mesmer that needs polish in that area.

Phantasmal berserker idea is brilliant. It would add a tremendous amount of extra micro in controlling your damage and boost overall enjoyment of doing so.

Lol some of these ideas I like, some of them I don’t like at all. The general gist though is that a lot of these upgrades would simply make them too powerful for different situations in the game. I’m curious as to what game mode you play primarily. Personally I feel that a lot of the traits are fairly balanced, but the place to look into changing them would be for the ones that just about no one uses. The fact that this class has to RELY on clones is the reason that there isn’t much diversity. There’s only so many ways you can go about making it effective.

I think some of the skill changes are okay, but again some are just.. no. As far as Wrack goes, I’ve found that as I’ve played more, I pop one clone + both weapon phants until the CD’s are up, then shatter and recast both. Since I run with Phantasmal fury it makes sense, as it gives a reason to shatter. I think it probably lacks a little effectiveness though, since you have wait until your clones have been shattered before you can start summoning new ones. Personally I think they should disappear the instant you cast a shatter spell from your clone count. I think making them shatter instantly would be a bit too much though, even with a trait. The damage for shattering clones is fine really, considering how many builds can pump out clones. Phants on the other hand, it would be nice if they had an added damage bonus just for being shattered as Phants. From what I know now, they might even have one but I haven’t looked close enough at the damage from Wrack. It’s really hard to tell sometimes. PvP dummy tests I guess.

CoF – I don’t know about this.. I only use this skill if Wrack isn’t up. I find Confusion
to be extremely weak in this game. It’s probably just due to the nature of the game, even with a full condition damage build, it doesn’t offer the kind of control over another character’s actions that it needs in order to actually control them. It’s sort of just a glorified amount of added damage, but nothing you can really rely on. The duration is far too short, however at the same time if it was longer it could quickittenurn OP. I don’t think shorter duration with higher damage is the answer, but maybe double duration with half the damage? It might make people think about just how much they are going to be attacking. I think how weak confusion is right now is probably why there are so many phant toting Mes out there at the moment.

Diversion I find quite useless outside of PvE encounters, as the time it takes for a clone to run up to someone just makes it hard to use an interrupt on demand. I guess with the trait, an AoE daze could be quite powerful, but probably quite a lackluster skill without it considering you throw away all your clones/phants. Maybe if this skill in particular was made to only throw one at a time per-target.

For GS SS ; It seems to me this would make no real difference. As a Mesmer, it’s normally super easy to tell which one the Mesmer is vs another Mes just by watching who moves what direction. Clones are so very predictable it’s not even funny. Changing attack speed isn’t going to change anything at all. Lol personally for me, Staff spam clones + high toughness and Signet of Illusions makes all your clones take a super long time to kill, while still doing some decent damage through conditions. You can really make people second guess which one they are attacking when all your clones die at nearly the same speed as you with the HP buff.

For Mind Stab.. I don’t think this is really meant to even help burst to begin with. The
damage is about = to your auto at third range, the amount of time it keeps you locked prob equiv to the channel time. The problem is that it roots you, so it’s not worth using unless you are out of the way, and you have more than one person to hit, unless of course there’s a killing blow that needs to be dealt. A slightly larger aoe would make aiming this ability a bit easier though. It’s quite easy to miss with it, simply due to the volatility of player movement. Vs PvE mobs this is rarely a problem.

For Zerker.. I don’t think he needs a predictable AoE path. The ONLY bad thing I can think of about this guy at the moment, is that he can’t be laid down on the ground to attack when mob’s spawn, sort of how people do this to farm karma at Penitent/Shelter’s gate. Otherwise this skill has a fairly large aoe that will normally hit anyone near him regardless. I think this AoE thing is a Mes weakness in general, as Chaos Storm is generally really weak for tagging. Either that, or at those events no one is really tagging anything, as everyone is just doing that much damage. As for the LoS, it is probably a bit OP, but no clones/phants need LoS as far as I’ve noticed? If you don’t have it, there are times when you might not get one, or you get a clone that just sits at the wall next to you. The only reason this is noticably different with Zerker, is the same as it is with Warden, and that is because it spawns on top of the enemy, or relatively close-by. As opposed to the others that spawn next to you then move to the enemy. Personally I prefer the ones that do to spawn next to the enemy, but I could see it being slightly op for things like attacking to the top of castle walls in WvW. Where it spawned would matter very little as far as PvE is concerned, except once again at those events with massive numbers of players, where timing is highly required to tag mobs.

Chaos Storm I think is fine, however this is because personally I don’t like putting a
Focus on unless I have to, so I use Chaos Storm for the speed buff while running, or
helping out with longer jumps in jumping puzzles/whatever when I’m lazy. Helps a lot in an area where you might actually have to fight, if you prefer Staff over MH/Focus.

Scepter in general to start.. I totally dropped this weapon and I don’t think I’ve looked
back once. The utility is in the clone creation on the third attack of 1, and I already
feel that Confusion is seriously weak. This could be a good weapon if you like to rotate through your shatters all the time, as it provides clones easily.

For Illusionary Counter, I think your idea is good. Mes has a lot of traits that affect
things like Confusion/Daze but not much access to them. I mean they do have a couple ways to confuse, but nothing I that I would want to even drop a trait into unless that was the ONLY focus of my entire build, in which case I would probably get stomped on totally by anything more than a 1v1. 1v1 ability just doesn’t mean anything in this game, though maybe if you weren’t focused being able to stack confusion could be powerful. I just really lack experience trying to make confusion work, because I don’t really like it period. This is obviously a recurring theme for me so probably a good point to look past my bias.

For ILeap, this really turned me off when I started using Sword. It should either have
increased range, or not let the spell even be attempted to be cast when not in range. It’s way too easy to lose this, and it’s an extremely vital part of playing MH Sword. Zerker phant shines here for that cripple utility.

Warden I find to be a real odd and hard to use skill, but extremely useful in the spots
that it’s effective. Really a super niche thing. I’m not sure if there’s anyway to make it
more generally viable without reworking the entire skill, but I see nothing wrong with
niche skills. I was actually amazed at how much damage this guy did once I hit 80 and had good gear. I think the last time I might have used this guy beforehand was back before I stopped using a focus at lvl 6 or 7. That proj reflection is real hard to use at times.

I don’t have anywhere enough experience with Torch to say anything about Prestige. I think the burn should go off as soon as the stealth is broken though, whether you break it, it ends on time, or it’s broken prematurely for any reason. Phant Mage, same as before, just wasn’t attractive to me, and I didn’t play with Torch for that reason.

IMO Mantra of Rec and Mirror are both super outshined by Ether Feast. The bonus healing from clones is just too good. WIth Mirror, I’d probably be trying to use it for the reflect, rather than the bounce which is just no good for a healing skill. MoR I tried, but it got a little too tedious for me to keep recasting the spell considering how often heals are used in this game. To me it feels like with the long channel time on Mantras, they should only need to be used once PERIOD, or should have their CD’s removed so they can be rechanneled without waiting, and then a longer channel time would be more than acceptable, and make more use out of a trait like Protected Mantras.

Veil I never looked into enough, due to the long CD time. As a matter of fact, it’s the
exact same as the Elite. So I guess you could use both together for some long time
invisibility, or just get rid of one skill or the other. Personally I don’t use either, but
I definitely know of some applications for them. Line zones are also very had to use for combos IMO. Real small.

Arcane Thievery I haven’t really even given a serious look. Full condition based builds
don’t seem very viable, or to have any real point. I mean sure you got ‘support’ but it’s
not really what people are looking for, and except in some very specific spots like maybe a group fight in a jumping puzzle? Or real small scale fights, this would be very hard to use without super coordination with the rest of your team to actually know when things are going to happen. I like the idea, but it’s extremely hard to use. For PvE, this spell probably has some very specific utility in certain boss fights, or self condition removal but that CD is huge, but with good reason which makes it very hard to use.

Illusion of Life I thought would be pretty cool.. really though I stopped using it after
very few attempts. Lower CD would probably be useful considering it isn’t actually a
revive, but I could see this being effective in maybe PvP tournaments, or later end PvE
fights.

Mimic I never even picked up, so I’m not sure about this skill. Projectile isn’t very
cleared stated, but it seems like it would be a huge waste of a CD if I absorbed some
ranged 1 skill, then had to wait another 25 secs to use it again. If you don’t take damage from the absorbed skill then I guess it’s a bit more powerful even if you do just get a 1 skill, but it’s hard to reliable pick out which skill they are using for you to be able to absorb.

Mantra of COncentration I don’t have enough experience with, but that’s because it didn’t really sound attractive, and quite honestly still wouldn’t even with a slightly longer duration. In a PvP tournament setting I guess I could see this being useful with some Mantra traits, since it’s actually very beneficial to stay alive in that sort of case if you got people focusing you first with some attempted chain CC. Otherwise though, this game is just too unpredictable.

Mantra of Distraction really same deal, it’s a huge waste of a fairly long CD + channel time to interrupt something as minimal as a 1 skill, and it’s not always a viable thing t o do depending on how many other people you have to keep track of. Another thing for 5’s pvp I guess.

Mantra of Pain I don’t think there are too many issues with, it’s just a matter of using it in the proper type of build. The damage seems a little on the small end for it taking both channel + cd time. But yeah, it’s something you either build around into full burst or probably just don’t consider period.

Mantra of Resolve also seems fine, and one where having both a CD and channel is sort of understandable, as condition removal is quite a powerful tool in certain situations.

Phant DE, I tried using this once when I needed conditions removed and it didn’t seem to do it any time that I needed it. The CD for utility phants is also extremely long considering that they can be shattered and all that. I thought both utility phants would be useful, but as I play more I find myself not using them at all.

Signet of Midnight… well I tried this out, and never tried it again. Blind is so dumbed down in this game that unless you can keep reapplying it, it’s pretty useless. That long of a CD for a single attack, especially when you hit like.. a 1 skill with it yeah. The boon duration increase is never something that I have totally traited into, and would probably only be applicable in PvP 5s. – just noting this here, as it applies much to skills like this, I believe Mes feels so weak PvE because of how situational the utility is. However spells like this one, and I think quite a few Mes skills would probably be quite strong in 5’s PvP when properly assigned a role on a team. I think when 5’s arena gets a huge mainstream crowd, this is the point where you will see true Mes diversity. PvE and 8’s PvP are really not the places it’s going to happen imo.

Mass Invis, like Veil I’m just kind of weird about. Very situational, but people have a damage mindset so something that doesn’t load out the dps seems odd to have an elite, and I’m trying to pull out of that mindset myself. Mes just isn’t a very straightforward class and replying to all of this has really made me feel that again.

This change to Moa would probably be fine, as it is a very strong CC skill. The long CD/duration are real strong for 8’s PvP. However in 5’s, lowering the duration might screw up the ‘effectiveness’ of really taking someone out of the fight. Having a shorter CD in a fight where it’s not going to go off again really makes no difference. I’m 50/50 on this issue myself, it’s just a tough skill to deal with due to it’s power.

Onto the traits..

Illusion of Vuln I never even pay attention to the effect of this, cause it’s real rough to make it a point to interrupt people at times. It seems like a trait like this being a passive thing, should mean that we should be interrupting often, but I just don’t see it. Too much micro to be constantly shattering 1 clone at a time to use the daze, while still keep track of what’s going on with everyone else in the fight at the same time.

Dazzling sounds fine, it’s just a matter of accepting that Vuln is more of a condition meant to be used by a group, not really by yourself. And since chances are you will be dazing in the middle of a fight, it’s probably in place pretty well.

Empowered Illusions … I sort of lol’d at you on this one. I imagine anyone who plays with any kind of damage focused build probably takes this trait. Even if it was 10% or even 5% most people would probably still take it, considering how core Phants are to 95% of builds that aren’t condition based. Seeing that you put REMOVE this is one of the sole reasons I decided to post on this period, and was one of the major things that made me wonder which facets of the game you normally play.

About Confusing Enchants.. I really think these Glamour Traits, along with Glamour SKillls in general are meant to be used as background noise, not something that you are going to want to drop every trait in existence into focusing on and taking a bunch of glamour skills on your bar all the time. I could be wrong on that though!

Confounding Suggestions sounds cool at first, but considering daze already does half of that effect anyway, it limits that usefulness a bit. Daze though, like Confusion is a thing I’m not a fan of. Though if you got enough ‘on daze’ traits, having this to top it off could be a bit more useful. 100% would just make a daze a stun, which could make this op if you properly timed clones. The CD is pretty long however, but 3 clones + the AoE Diversion trait could be a little op.

If this is really the case for Confusing Enchantments than I agree, however when I was running 3 clones + Staff, I didn’t see bleeds with hugely different numbers as would be apparent if the clones didn’t get condition damage. Maybe it isn’t applied to all skills but it is to some?

Retaliatory Shield was one I never even considered as Mes doesn’t have access to something to block often enough. Maybe with the proper group setups, but for anything non group it looks really meh.

That change to Protected Mantras sounds good.

Blurred Inscriptions is another thing I haven’t even considered using. It could be just me, but I normally don’t use Mantras at all, and the actives on Signets not very often. The long CD’s for rather minimal effects just make it really hard. Other skills just seem much more useful.

Furious Interruption I dunno.. for this I find Fury to be quite a powerful boon. I think the only reason this seems lackluster is due to the lack of viability of using interrupts reliably.

Chaotic Revival well… I haven’t ever considered this. Not sure I would even with that kind of change. I’m not even sure what I would put on here, unless it was a guaranteed protection or regeneration boon. Maybe a Chaos Storm instead of Armor.

Some people have said that Debilitating Dissipation is a pretty awesome trait, but personally I don’t know about whether or not, or how con damage works with this.

Retaliatory Demise, also with OP, same as above.

Mirror of Anguish is something that I have been told is pretty good, but 90s seems to be an extremely long cd. This is more or less a balance aspect I guess. Maybe in general, too much is just expected out of traits.

I think your change for Chaotic Interruption is alright, though it seems like it might be too powerful for just being a trait.

Bountiful Interruption is really the same deal of course, but I think keeping them separate might be for balance reasons. I mean if they were both one trait, it would 100% be the grandmaster one, and not the level below. But even then it would be very powerful for one single trait.

Prismatic Understanding barely even feels like a useful trait to begin with, let alone a Grandmaster one. I’m not quite sure how this made it up to Grandmaster tbh. I don’t think it needs buffed, I think it just needs to be lowered a tier and replaced with something else.

For Mender’s, does this actually work with only your healing skill, or with other things that give you a heal as well, such as traited on illusion shatters? This trait along with Mantra of Rec would unfortunately make Resolve much less useful. Even for just heals though, being able to remove a condition with your heal is pretty strong. I don’t think two is really necessary.

Restorative Mantras I’ve heard is alright, but the way it works just doesn’t seem very smooth. Your change looks good here.

Restorative Illusions probably doesn’t need this, though this is one point where it could honestly bring some more diversity to Mesmers in general if it did. Just because more people might use it and build a bit more into support roles.

Precise Wrack I think is quite fine as it is, for being such a low level trait it’s actually pretty powerful. Of course though, Domination totally outdoes it, which is a little weird. Maybe with enough +critdmg, this might make more sense though. 15% might make it viable across the board, but 20% would make it a bit too strong with access to +critdmg.

Dazzling Glamours I think is ok.. it’s just a matter of not expecting too much out of those skills I think.

Sorrrrry my post is a bit of a mess, way too tired while putting this up here, maybe I should have waited until after I got some sleep. This kind of post just so attractiveeeee though.

I really think phantasmal strength should appear in the domination line, as opposed to Wastrel’s punishment, I really don’t understand the idea of that skill anyway. +5% dmg to afk targets? Grandmaster ability? ok.

Nice post even though I don’t agree with most suggestions.

GS: I like the iZerker change a lot as well as mind stab. Mind stab really needs a bigger aoe. I’d also like if they added more damage or dazed for 1/4 sec if a boon is stripped this way.

Scepter: it needs to be sped up a lot. It’s about as fast as molasses. The damage could use some loving too. The block is nice damage, but it needs to last longer in duration. Things attack way too slow in PvE for it to be useful. But really, the scepter just needs to be redone or something… filling in the clone factory or confusion niche isn’t working for it. Maybe my opinion will change once they split confusion for pvp and pve.

Focus: I would like to see iWarden run between spins. It’s so kittening annoying that i cast it and the mob/opponent immediately moves. Sometimes you can reposition yourself to have it at least absorb the projectiles, but even then it can spawn at the weirdest spot. So frustrating.

Torch: Agreed. Channel needs to be removed desperately. The burn either needs to be at the beginning of the cast or at the end. IF they keep it at the end, then we should be able to press 4 again, cancel the stealth, and have the burn be applied on demand. iMage is just lol.

Manipulation: the problem with illusion of life is that it’s not entirely useful in dungeons. 15 seconds to kill something isn’t very doable in a lot of cases. Most other spells are a waste of a slot right now. Mimic and A.Thievery could be really fun with some tweaks.

Mantras: Would like to see them more group based outside of traits. I.e Concentration = group stability; resolve = 2 conditions off self, 1 off of group; pain = next attack causes 2 stacks of [condition] for group; distraction = you daze, group applies blind; recovery = group regeneration. This could add a LOT to mantras and mesmer.

Signet: SoMidnight is terrible. 10% boon duration is not worth the utility slot (at most we’re talking 0.3 seconds added), and a 30 second CD for blind is a joke. It just needs to be redone. Inspiration could use a 900 range increase and faster boon application imho.

And I also really agree on the traits and elites. Most of our grandmasters are anything but, and veil of invis is not elite quality skill, even with a CD reduction.

Wastrel’s Punishment is an interesting idea, but more Adept than Grandmaster level. Here’s my idea for Grandmaster traits…

First, overall design idea:

• Each line has one GM Trait which enhances our Illusions (and normally also their Shatters) in a line-fitting way.
• Each line also has one GM Trait which enhances our non-Illusion gameplay in a line-befitting fashion.
• I consider the Mesmer themed around the concept of someone who supports the offense by distracting and debilitating opponents. As a result I see Domination less as a line focused around damage, but around binary debuffs (Cripple / Vulnerability and such). I see Dueling as our main damage dealing line, and I’d rework the trait-lines to more clearly focus on their goals – see Elementalists or Rangers or Engineers.

Domination

• All your Illusions and all your Shatter abilities cause extra damage to enemies, as a percentage on your Power. Distortion will grant you Reflection instead of dealing damage. This merges the Distortion grants Reflection trait!
• All attacks done against inactive targets cause 3 stacks of Vulnerability for 5 seconds. Enemies are considered inactive if they are not actively channeling or casting an ability.

Dueling

• Conjuring an Illusion against a target will make existent Illusions switch targets to the new one. This only applies to Illusions created from hotbar abilities. _This means this won’t trigger from 25% HP stealth or dodge clones.
• When you suffer a critical hit, you gain Might for 6 seconds. If you reach 5 stacks you lose the stacks but gain Fury for 4 seconds.

Chaos

• If your Clones are shattered or destroyed by enemies, they will randomly cause Cripple, 3 stacks of Vulnerability or Weakness to nearby enemies. Phantasms will cause Burning, 3 stacks of Bleeding or 3 stacks of Confusion. This merges the on-clone-death trait!
• Every time you are afflicted by a condition, you gain a random boon.

Inspiration

• Your Phantasms ignore Shatter-commands, unless there are no Clones remaining.
• As long as you have at least one Mantra charge on any Mantra remaining, you and allies around you have a chance to gain Regeneration when damaged.

Illusion

• Shattering Illusions produces the effect on you as well. I’m keeping this one since it’s sort-of the defining part of Illusions right now.
• You can have a fourth Illusion active, however you cannot have a fourth Phantasm at the same time, and Clones will still replace a third Phantasm if available.

Obviously this would all need tons of number balancing.

best and most constructive post i have seen..

keep the good work i hope devs will read it.

I agree with most gone post my opinion the next day I basicly only post here so I can fin it again.

I agree with most suggestions, but to be honest i m too lazy to commnet on all of them.

I have to say though that i strongly dissagree with removing Empowered Illusions.
After all Domination is the line that offers Power and therefore this trait suits this trait line.
I think that both Empowered Illusions and Phantasmal Strenght should be available.

But if u put a gun on my head and tell me that i have to remove one of them, then i’d suggest removing Phantasmal Strenght since it is a damage boost deep in a defensive/supportive trait line.

Also, about Scepter and Focus i agree with the suggestions. I find these 2 weapons to be mediocre at best. Scepter lacks a specific orientation (not a power based, nor a condition based weapon)and Focus has the worst Phantasm, which is perhaps the worst skill i ve seen in the 5 classes i ve tried so far.

Only things I want, make Mind Stab a blast finisher, put all the phantasm abilities on 5 (keep hitting the wrong ones when switching from focus off hand to GS), make Phantasmal Warden a ground target ability or something (its a waste when it ends up off somewhere out of the way :C ), and fix Portals duration to actually match the tooltip.

The reason I want Empowered Illusions removed is because it is basically the same thing as Phantasmal Strength, and two traits that do exactly the same thing (in the same profession) is a sign of lack of polish. My grounds for its removal has nothing to do with balance (so the comment of what game mode I play is irrelevant).

In case you don’t see what the problem is, say we have 10 traits that all boost Phantasm damage by 10%. Sure you can take all 10 traits and get a 100% Phantasm damage boost (balance issues aside), but it’s obvious that the trait system of this profession has some serious issues.

If you didn’t play the Beta you would not know the history behind Empowered Illusions: Clones used to do far more damage than they do now, so Empowered Illusions was different to Phantasmal Strength then as it also boosted Clone damage. Then they reduced Clone damage to nothing, so EI essentially became a Phantasm damage booster just like PS.

(Of course, Phantasm builds still took both traits back then: in fact they’d probably take EI over PS if they had to choose, as EI used to boost Illusion damage by 30% while PS boosted Phantasm damage by 25%; but the point is you didn’t always want both traits: EI is sought by Clone damage builds, which had no use for PS.)

As for removing Phantasmal Strength instead, that is a valid option: the reason I choose to remove Empowered Illusions is because the Inspiration line seems more geared for Phantasms/Support, but you could make a case of Domination fitting better as it is about Damage/Control.

I would say that many Mesmer skills do need quite a bit of work.

While I am not opposed to your ideas, Mesmer skills and traits need to be reworked so that the Mesmer class has the utility it represents instead of being split into clear cut shatter builds or minion builds as it is now. I would like the shatter skills to possibly have a MUCH shorter CD but only shatter one clone/phantasm at a time. This would allow for more control/micro and blur the line between a shatter build and a illusion build.

As for you skill suggestions, I would say instead of increasing Spatial Surge’s damage and cast time, just give it piercing. It would still function the same, but it would give the GS a more unique feel compared to other Mesmer weapons as well as close the gap for procing targets that exists between the Mesmer and other professions.

I think our skills are – except the thematically nonfitting Moa Morph – a good selection. Many individual ones need low~medium work, but then so do many skills of most other classes.

Our traits are a quite unique mess, OTOH. Our lines show a vague hint of theme in some cases (Inspiration, Illusions, Chaos), and none in others (Domination, Dueling). Independent of that the actual traits are all over the place, and don’t establish a “skill theme” to go with the spec line.

This is different to other classes like say, Elementalist or Ranger, where each line very clearly focuses on a specific “aspect” of being class X, and then enhances it and adds that theme to other abilities. Example given, the healing effects of an Elementalist Water spec extend to more than pure water mode spam.

We lack this theming, hence our seemingly random builds and lack of diversity.

While I do think our traits could benefit from a drastic rehaul, Anet is unlikely to want to consider this; so I tried to suggest minor tweaks to our traits that would make them less of a mess instead of major changes.

Yes I’m aware. I need to write down a topic which ones I’d swap and then which ones I’d buff/nerf. Not adding/removing many, but simply shuffling them a bit.

As it turns out, Phantasmal Disenchanter already strips two boons/cleanse two conditions. I should’ve checked it more thoroughly, although in my defense it is difficult to assess it when dummies don’t hit back; and sparring NPCs are difficult to assess (you want to avoid death in the process) and are disappointingly stingy with boons/conditions.