Guild Wars 2

Many of you might thing this is overpowered, but hear me out.

As it stands, mesmers are fine for roaming, pvp, or small group combat. I come from a WvW background and mesmers are probably the lowest dps. One aspect of our poor dps is illusions die instantly. In order for a shatter skill to work, it needs to connect with the target, except for distortion. This can also be the case among large scale PvE content. We are usually relegated to portals and veils, and hey, if we can do a little dps along the way, great.

We have no decent aoe damage. Our hardest hitting ability is iZerker. We can’t come even close to compete to the aoes and dps output of elementalist, necros, engineers, and thieves. Every class has guarenteed damage. You target an enemy or the ground, hit a skill, and it connects, unless they are using a defensive ability. Mesmers, however, are highly dependent on our illusions surviving in order to connect to the enemy.

While we have always had sub par dps due to this mechanic, it will be made even worse by getting rid of the on death traits proposed with HoT as well as the higher dependence on interrupts for damage which puts more importance on Diversion and the increase in on shatter procs.

A very simple, and in my opinion, elegant solution would be to make illusions invulnerable when using a shatter skill. This means that my intentions, and dps will be almost guaranteed. One could still kite the illusions. Another implementation of this is if I use a skill that creates a new illusion, then it would replace an illusion that is trying to get to its target and shatter. This means I would have to be disciplined not to do this or make a tough choice to sacrifice my illusion going to its target in favor of an evade or to keep myself from spamming buttons. Another reason why this wouldn’t be overpowered is that I’m still limited to shatter cool downs, and only one shatter skill actually does good dps. At least this way, I know my dps will hit.

I strongly believe this would be an excellent change to the mesmer system as in WvW and large PvE content, I can contribute more to large group play.

I don’t find it too hard(it is a bit harder, though) to hit my shatter in larger scale fights since most wvw players don’t know how to fight. Many of them cannot even react when an attack is going to hit them. Clones positioning and shatter timing play a huge role in mesmer (shatter) mechanics. If you find it hard to hit your shatters, you might have to re-consider them

Shintei.9061:

I don’t find it too hard(it is a bit harder, though) to hit my shatter in larger scale fights since most wvw players don’t know how to fight. Many of them cannot even react when an attack is going to hit them. Clones positioning and shatter timing play a huge role in mesmer (shatter) mechanics. If you find it hard to hit your shatters, you might have to re-consider them

The first sentence states it’s harder then you digress into a learn to play. The fact is this shouldn’t be an issue. The means to avoid shatter damage is by dodging not random aoe cleaves that our illusions must wade through.

No. Shatter is a burst build, not a damage over time build. You are supposed to choose the moment you burst wisely. When you need to ramp up clone production for a shatter, you need to do it quickly and in the right places so your target does not have the time or the positioning on you to react. A big cleave at a bad time can screw you sure, but thats part of the dance.

Shatter burst is among the highest in the game and is very resistant to things like block strings, aegis, blinds etc because shatter burst is comprised of lots of damage sources that hit around the same time as opposed to a big single hit. You are supposed to use it when you can create or react to a situations where your opponent is flat footed.

If you screw it up because your clone spacing is rubbish, your timing is off, your opening and positioning is wrong and you waste your burst on someone that actually has cooldowns and knows when to use them, then you need practice. Sometimes you can get most of it right but you find yourself in a fight against the wrong guy(s), in the wrong place, at the wrong time and shatter’s weaknesses are exposed. It happens.

But thats the great thing about shatter right now. Its nowhere near the top of the food chain but it forces you to play properly. More than any other zerk, it teaches you all the things you need to be good at any game – intelligent movement and positioning, proper zoning and kiting, creating pressure through opportunity costs, focusing intently on what your opponent is doing and reacting to it rather than pressing 2, random dodging and putting the ball in your opponent’s park.

All that about dancing in combat is wonderful. Except condition shatter is a damage over time playstyle. The only question is what to shatter in large scale wvw and pve where clones get killed.

Personally I don’t use shatters much because they still feel clunky. I propose that, on pressing a shatter button, all illusions should blink to the target and then shatter one second later. That will give them more of an aoe feeling and give opponents time to react. It would also make them very affective against zergs as you could target the middle and be sure to hit 5 people no matter what shatter you use.

Crossplay.2067:

Personally I don’t use shatters much because they still feel clunky. I propose that, on pressing a shatter button, all illusions should blink to the target and then shatter one second later. That will give them more of an aoe feeling and give opponents time to react. It would also make them very affective against zergs as you could target the middle and be sure to hit 5 people no matter what shatter you use.

I think that’d make a really cool Grandmaster trait, idk about core functionality though.

I read the new posts about the mesmer today. The new specialization skills sound awesome. Really. I can’t wait to play with it.

However, again, there is a lot of dependence upon shatter skills. I re-iterate my original question: why can’t illusions be invulnerable upon use of a shatter skill. In WvW and large scale PvE content, illusions die instantly and don’t connect to the target, thereby negating any shatter effects. This makes a lot of these new, awesome changes, as well as the old style dps, useless.

Please consider this.

or.. or… maybe just maybe they could simply keep clone death effect then all these topics and discussions about mechanics wouldn’t have a need to exist.

Clone Death filled kitten in the mesmer rather nicely and without it the hole has grown into a chasm. What do you do if your the clones you spent time on creating up to three and picking a shatter that has a lengthy CD fail to reach there target and actually shatter. Should they be invincible, shatter on the spot, or if the fragile things get cleaved your left with zilch and wide open for attack without a way to defend yourself because you traited for those clones those resources.

Also minions and even players target clones if they receive super armor and lets say a necro minion targeted it then that clone becomes an sponge that absorbs dmg thus having unintended side effect as while it’s indestructible it’s a wall. Simple solution is keep clone death or force everyone to shatter there phantasms. Also if you add survivability to clones then that takes away from phantasms as the longer lasting illusion. I feel this clone crit thing there trying to push also takes away if more so as at least with clone death you’d shatter for a finishing blow.