Guild Wars 2

Comments Welcomed.

Suggestion 1;

What if Mesmers had another Phantasm. This one wouldn’t count against our three. It would have to be conjured in combat and have a specific target.

Call it Phantasmal Thief. The phantasm would act like a Necromancer Blood Pet. It would steal life from it’s target and transfer conditions to it’s target. This makes sense in a Mesmer’s world. It would be a kind of complex.

Suggestion 2;

Allow Mesmers to build up 6 phantasms/clones. There’s already a precedent in Lady Kasmeer and the Corrupted Priestess of Lyssa in Arah. It wouldn’t be OP because building such a stack would take forever.
This would add a lot of skill in managing and optimizing the illusions.

I thought Kasmeer could make 10 (commoner storyline) and Jennah could make an infinite (crown pavilion).

Heck, Jennah is so “powerful” that she doesn’t even care that she’s still giving the Watchwork Knights illusionary effects/visuals even after they were taken over by Scarlet… yet she doesn’t like to fight.

Also, Kasmeer has Feedback on a 5 second cooldown and TW on a 20 second cooldown.

I was asking for real feedback. I honestly think a decent heal and / or more illusion slots would be a real boost for not much effort on anet’s part.

What’s wrong with the current heal skills? Also, I don’t think Anet would increase the number of illusions due to alleged “server limitations.”

anet is probably already having a hard time enough with players constantly summoning pets/illusions/bots/CPUs in a matter of seconds, which takes up a significant amount of memory; mesmers are doing this CONSTANTLY in combat, i doubt they’re going to give us any more illusions haha.
besides, we have a decent heal anyway, a signet for phant mesmers that heals you roughly 1k hp per second if you have the illusions up, and ether feast, which can heal loads, you just have to have the illusions up.

In a nutshell the current heal skills don’t heal enough.

The first suggestion flirts too close to the line of “all classes have the same skills, we just skinned them differently.” This would be exactly like the Blood pet, just skinned to look Mesmery. I don’t think you want to open that can of worms.

The second one would be nice, but it would instantly be rendered OP, and we’d be back at square one. I know that’s pessimistic, but it wouldn’t be the first time.

How about 1 additional Illusion? That might be enough to tip some balance.

It could be useful, depending on what the illusion did. However, that would also require ANet to rework all of the skills that are directly influenced by how many illusions are up (Ether Feast, the shatters, etc.).

What if the illusion looked like the Phantasm Rogue from our downed state, but instead of stealing life, it stole an ability from the mob/class, and used it against them? Wait, that’d be like the Thief’s steal mechanic. Grr, nevermind. Hrm… what would the additional illusion do?

Spanny.9256:

a signet for phant mesmers that heals you roughly 1k hp per second if you have the illusions up

1k hp per 3 sec. Useless everywhere except pve.

Spanny.9256:

anet is probably already having a hard time enough with players constantly summoning pets/illusions/bots/CPUs in a matter of seconds, which takes up a significant amount of memory; mesmers are doing this CONSTANTLY in combat, i doubt they’re going to give us any more illusions haha.
besides, we have a decent heal anyway, a signet for phant mesmers that heals you roughly 1k hp per second if you have the illusions up, and ether feast, which can heal loads, you just have to have the illusions up.

Yehp, because everyone has 3 Illusions up in PvE, PvP, and WvW.
If you’re running SotE for the 333 heal/second, you’re most likely doing it wrong. It’s used for the active refresh.
If you’re looking at heal/time, Ether Feast is still better, because (again, we’re assuming you have 3 illusions up at all time to maintain the 333 heal/second) it’s a total of 7480 Health Every 21 seconds (20s + 1s cast time).
Maffs: (5560Heal + 640Heal/Illus * 3Illus) / 21Sec = ~356 Health/Second.
SotE: 1000 Heal / 3Sec = ~333 Health/Second.

Now, if you want to argue that you can activate SotE for a “burst” heal, you are again wrong because that would be: 5560Heal / 36Sec = ~154 Health/Second.

The reason why SotE is such a “low” heal is because it has the same heal as Ether Feast (minus the bonus per illusion) on a longer cooldown. It’s not intended to be used except for 2 reasons:
1: You need health fast and now, and/or your illusions are dying.
2: You need to get more Phantasms out fast.

Assuming, again, that your Illusions never die. It’s still irrelevant to run SotE because you can get all 3 Phantasms (PHANTASMS, not ILLUSIONS) out within 5 seconds of a fight without activating it. Simply put on a weapon, cast the phantasms, as soon as it’s done, switch (manually through inventory or hero panel, quickly) to another weapon, cast Phantasm. Weapon Swap, cast Phantasm. Boom 3 Phantasms.

If you’re too lazy, drop a Phantasm, use your Clone Generation skill on the appropriate weapon (unless it’s Scepter, in which case cry because you should feel bad), swap weapons, use Phantasm. 3 Illusions in less than 5 seconds.

Again, all of these assumptions are based on maintaining 3 Illusions for the duration of the fight. However, things get hit and die, meaning you won’t be maintaining 3 Illusions and, since the skill is on a 3 second interval, you are actually hardpressed to maintain 3 Illusions. If a phantasm dies right before the interval ticks, you can’t replace it. If it was every second, you could wait for the next interval, but waiting 6 seconds to get the much needed heal? No thank you.

I go over the problems of SotE vs Healing signet in this post
I tried to go over both sides equally but I do main a Mesmer, so keep that bias in mind… then again, we’re on the Mesmer subforum.

I don’t see why 6 illusion slots would be a burden for ANet or OP.
MM Necros commonly run 6 minions ( counting the blood pet ).
It would take major management to use them effectively.

As to healing; Mesmer has very little condi removal ( without accepting major penalties ) and no extra health bar ala’ necro. Thief 2 shots are a common reality not to mention war immobilize followed by that stupid sword burst.

If a thief is downing you in 2 hits, you’re able to down him in 2 hits as well. This is a proven fact unless you’re naked in WvW.

If a warrior uses Flurry→Hundred Blades on you, used Blurred Frenzy right back at him if you have no condition removal ready.

When a clone is killed, it should either do a mind wrack, cry of frustration, or diversion comparable to manually shattering with one illusion.

Esplen.3940:

If a thief is downing you in 2 hits, you’re able to down him in 2 hits as well. This is a proven fact unless you’re naked in WvW.
.

Realistically speaking, a Mesmer will never 2 shot a Thief unless you sneak up on them (which rarely happens since they’re trying to sneak up on you). You can beat a thief if you’re really good, but its almost always a drawn out battle of trading stealths/fields.

Noah.9654:

Esplen.3940:

If a thief is downing you in 2 hits, you’re able to down him in 2 hits as well. This is a proven fact unless you’re naked in WvW.
.

Realistically speaking, a Mesmer will never 2 shot a Thief unless you sneak up on them (which rarely happens since they’re trying to sneak up on you). You can beat a thief if you’re really good, but its almost always a drawn out battle of trading stealths/fields.

Sure, if it’s a full zerk stealth thief coming at you, you’re probably dead if you’re also wearking zerk. But if you notice him or are capable of reacting extremely fast, you can stealth away, then prep a combo while he’s revealed and down him. He might end up downing you afterwards, but a Mesmer will win the downbattle because of Rogue.

Esplen.3940:

Noah.9654:

Esplen.3940:

If a thief is downing you in 2 hits, you’re able to down him in 2 hits as well. This is a proven fact unless you’re naked in WvW.
.

Realistically speaking, a Mesmer will never 2 shot a Thief unless you sneak up on them (which rarely happens since they’re trying to sneak up on you). You can beat a thief if you’re really good, but its almost always a drawn out battle of trading stealths/fields.

Sure, if it’s a full zerk stealth thief coming at you, you’re probably dead if you’re also wearking zerk. But if you notice him or are capable of reacting extremely fast, you can stealth away, then prep a combo while he’s revealed and down him. He might end up downing you afterwards, but a Mesmer will win the downbattle because of Rogue.

The problem is that after the first 20 seconds in a PvP match when all the points aren’t being rushed to, its vary hard to see a thief coming at you unless you’re at a vantage point. If you’re going after him while he’s already fighting, sure. However the thief’s superior mobility means that you’re going to be hard-pressed to run away and catch your breath. Usually, you’re best bet is reacting then and there and hoping you can avoid the burst.

That being said, I don’t think we need an extra illusion. I feel like 3 is plenty and its already hard to keep all 3 up anyway. What would be nice though is letting us use the downed phantasm when we’re not downed. Maybe have it inflict poison or chill.

Noah.9654:

Esplen.3940:

Noah.9654:

Esplen.3940:

If a thief is downing you in 2 hits, you’re able to down him in 2 hits as well. This is a proven fact unless you’re naked in WvW.
.

Realistically speaking, a Mesmer will never 2 shot a Thief unless you sneak up on them (which rarely happens since they’re trying to sneak up on you). You can beat a thief if you’re really good, but its almost always a drawn out battle of trading stealths/fields.

Sure, if it’s a full zerk stealth thief coming at you, you’re probably dead if you’re also wearking zerk. But if you notice him or are capable of reacting extremely fast, you can stealth away, then prep a combo while he’s revealed and down him. He might end up downing you afterwards, but a Mesmer will win the downbattle because of Rogue.

The problem is that after the first 20 seconds in a PvP match when all the points aren’t being rushed to, its vary hard to see a thief coming at you unless you’re at a vantage point. If you’re going after him while he’s already fighting, sure. However the thief’s superior mobility means that you’re going to be hard-pressed to run away and catch your breath. Usually, you’re best bet is reacting then and there and hoping you can avoid the burst.

That being said, I don’t think we need an extra illusion. I feel like 3 is plenty and its already hard to keep all 3 up anyway. What would be nice though is letting us use the downed phantasm when we’re not downed. Maybe have it inflict poison or chill.

the down phantasm is our strongest phastasm. You dont need poison or chill really.

Back on topic, I’d like to see extra illusions slots as a general buff.

I don’t understand people who go “I have an idea for a buff!” and then immediately follow it with something so absurd that no one would ever integrate it into the game.. Its like writing some Professor McGonagall/Voldemort fan fiction and asking JK to shove it in a novel.

1. AoE Protection for Phantasms. There are certain bosses and encounters where out damage falls off into nothingness because the boss uses AoE attacks often, and kills all out Phantasms faster then we can summon them. Sometimes even before they can deal damage. FAR too much of our DPS is tied to them for this to happen as often as it does.
Makes Mesmer entirely useless in many fights. This would only apply to pve, having aoe as a weakness is fine in pvp.

2. Clone/Phantasms have separate maximums. Phantasms are, again, too important for damage to have them muddled up with Clones, which are spawned automaticly from various effects. Clones in PvE are functionally useless since monsters ignore them most of the time, so this wouldn’t be a major buff to strength, just a small buff to enjoyment. Might be a bit strong, but having all Clones dodge in a random direction when they player dodges would be very fun as well. Too strong in pvp though.

3. Just make Wardens remember to attack more often.

4. Clones have a chance to ‘Taunt’ an NPC with each attack, making them actually do something without stealth. As of now they are basically just there to look pretty. Granted they provide the same bonuses as Phantasms with certain skills/traits, but there is never a time you’re rather have Clones than Phantasms. MAYBE in pvp if your enemy is a moron, but never in pve.

I’d like to see an improvement to the Illusion UI. If a phantasm is slotted it should have a mini timer in its illusion spot to show the time until its next attack. Of course if you’ve played Mesmer long enough you get a good feel of phantasm attack rates, but I honestly wouldn’t mind a little bit more information on screen, so I can micromanage my illusions a tad more.

Mend pathing issues on all phantasms. This is not a buff, just a fix.
Increase damage on sword and greatsword. Both of these skills do underwhelming PvP damage. The assumption is that shatters will make up the rest of the damage..say hello to no shatters. They do exist. Currently these weapons just don’t do damage very well.
Cones/phantasms alone are fodder in PvE. Try running CoF storymode and see how far they get. Spawn them and watch them walk into all sorts of instant death. TA is the same. Spawn and watch them die to poison in 2 seconds. They are just not durable for PvE, and do underwhelming damage even on full zerker in PvP.
Restore confusion. It got nerfed dramatically too hard. We all know by virtue no one has ever run a confusion build since the nerf. Currently perplex warrior’s do a better job of a confusion build over mesmer.
Install a trait that enhances movement speed. We all wanted it, everybody else has it now..no reason to leave mesmer out.
All mesmer elites are under performing. Time warp can be fun with a heavy ele face melt team, but outside of that there is no real reason to use them. If you play through storymode in it’s entirety, you will be struggling to find a single situation that you used your elite.
Address the stalling issues on greatsword.
Scepter is also under performing..why?..the confusion issue again.

This is just to start

Coulter.2315:

I don’t understand people who go “I have an idea for a buff!” and then immediately follow it with something so absurd that no one would ever integrate it into the game.. Its like writing some Professor McGonagall/Voldemort fan fiction and asking JK to shove it in a novel.

This. Your second suggestion is ridiculous. Think about the bugs now. Then think about the potential number of bugs with 6 phantasms. Not to mention how OP it would make shatter. Not to mention the huge number of changes to mechanics, traits and gameplay. The QQ from the rest of the community would be heard in other dimensions.

And if a lot of this thread’s QQ is about losing all the time to certain professions, aside from the fact that you should L2P: sure, Mesmers don’t excel at beating certain professions like thieves, but it’s just the same across the board. Thieves get kitten d by longbow zerk Rangers, RRR Rangers, d/d eles, Guardians get kitten d by necros and warriors, anything squishy gets kitten d by thieves, and Rangers get kitten d by everyone, like one huge gang-kitten on the Ranger. Generally speaking that is. Otherwise everyone in every profession just needs to L2P then there’ll be no balance QQ.

Ithilwen.1529:

Back on topic, I’d like to see extra illusions slots as a general buff.

We are still not st the level of the NPC. so we can only crate 3 at a time. We need to be level 500 or something.
:)

But really we dont need anymore clones. Like others have said, three is enough. What we really need is a trait that allows us to crate 1 clone outside of fight. It can be any but the down state clone. Something like this.

Elite skillt:
Friendly Clone:

Summon any clone of your choice outside of combat to add you.

120 sec CD

Alternative:

Summon a random clone out of combat to add you outside of fight.

Alternative:

Summon a clone out of combat in relating to the weapon you currently have active to add you.

I just don’t understand why necro’s can use daggers, and mesmers can’t. I think it would be a great deal for dps, right?

Bryzy.2719:

Coulter.2315:

I don’t understand people who go “I have an idea for a buff!” and then immediately follow it with something so absurd that no one would ever integrate it into the game.. Its like writing some Professor McGonagall/Voldemort fan fiction and asking JK to shove it in a novel.

This. Your second suggestion is ridiculous. Think about the bugs now. Then think about the potential number of bugs with 6 phantasms. Not to mention how OP it would make shatter. Not to mention the huge number of changes to mechanics, traits and gameplay. The QQ from the rest of the community would be heard in other dimensions.

And if a lot of this thread’s QQ is about losing all the time to certain professions, aside from the fact that you should L2P: sure, Mesmers don’t excel at beating certain professions like thieves, but it’s just the same across the board. Thieves get kitten d by longbow zerk Rangers, RRR Rangers, d/d eles, Guardians get kitten d by necros and warriors, anything squishy gets kitten d by thieves, and Rangers get kitten d by everyone, like one huge gang-kitten on the Ranger. Generally speaking that is. Otherwise everyone in every profession just needs to L2P then there’ll be no balance QQ.

You seem so hell bent on enforcing ranger QQ on every corner of the forum.
You’re right in the first part, we don’t need more illusions, but you don’t understand the Mesmer class at all. The QQ is about not beating x class, it’s about x,y and z class completely nullifying us into a state of utter uselessness.
Also not that it’s relevant, but the Meta condi side point ranger eats the Meta shatter Mesmer for breakfast.

loseridoit.2756:

the down phantasm is our strongest phastasm. You dont need poison or chill really.

Whenever I run the HotW path that has the underwater boss, I intentionally go down to spawn 3 Rogues.

I also maintain 25 stacks of permanent might on my group only to have some idiot warrior use FGJ and override them.

Mmmm…

- more accessible condi removal
- more effective, or at least more creative, healing skills
- improve elite skills:
*Mass Invis: lower cast time.
*Moa: make it unblockable.
*Time Warp: Decrease CD to something more reasonable, but also decrease duration to balance it out. Something like 8secs; 180s CD or 5 secs; 120s CD is more viable.

- iLeap: make it iPort. Same cast time, but the clone ports to the target, similarly to the thief’s Sword #2. This allows it to bypass the terrain issues, while also giving the mesmer more mobility and slipperyness.

- Sword #4 (iRiposte?): holy hell, the aftercast if the counter procs takes forever. I feel so vulnerable when that happens. Also reduce the cast time of the second part of the skill so that people could reliably interrupt with it.

- iMage: not sure how to fix this…perhaps increase the duration of confusion/retal?

- Mimic/Echo: more incentive for this skill? Perhaps have Echo double the damage/effect of the projectile absorbed?

Personally, I’m not a fan of the phantasm utility skills and think they should be scraped altogether lol. at least reduce their cast time to the weapon phantasms: 1 second.

I would like some trait that makes the enemy lose target on us on clone generation. So if you create a clone(not phantasm) the enemy has to target the real mesmer again and cant just keep the target locked like it is right now. Mesmer is not confusing anyone except new players and sometimes with help of Decoy. This trait would need a cooldown though, otherwise it would be too strong(maybe 8-10seconds).
Also decreased channeling time on Mantras would be nice or just replace them with something more useful/make some of them aoe.
In general speed up some animations and casting times.
EDIT: In addition finally make Timewarp a glamour skill, so we can trait at least one of our elites…

Technically you can trait Mass Invisibility with PU.

Oh I don’t like PU that much so I forgot about it. I just think that Timewarp feels much like a glamour skill and should be handled as such.
In my opinion every elite on every class(except racials) should be in some way able to be supported through traits.

Rework mantras. Make them basically 3 charges. And the trait which increased their numbers previously, should make them stronger. Like healing mantra heal more (and % of heal for others in aoe), condi mantra strip more condis, stability mantra break stun from others and longer stability + vigor, distraction mantra stunning target, pain mantra more dmg, aoe, stripping boons.

And add elite mantra that launches target away. (force unleash)

Another idea, or rather bug fix: make phantasms and clones use our % dmg increase! Phantasm is MY attack, MY spell, why doesn’t it deal 10% more dmg? sigil says it increases MINE dmg and phantasm is obviously my dmg….

Sublimatio.6981:

Rework mantras. Make them basically 3 charges. And the trait which increased their numbers previously, should make them stronger. Like healing mantra heal more (and % of heal for others in aoe), condi mantra strip more condis, stability mantra break stun from others and longer stability + vigor, distraction mantra stunning target, pain mantra more dmg, aoe, stripping boons.

And add elite mantra that launches target away. (force unleash)

Another idea, or rather bug fix: make phantasms and clones use our % dmg increase! Phantasm is MY attack, MY spell, why doesn’t it deal 10% more dmg? sigil says it increases MINE dmg and phantasm is obviously my dmg….

I like the mantra idea, although ur buffs to the trait are a bit much. Maybe something like 20% more effectiveness on pain and healing, 50% longer on daze/stab, and 1 addn condi removal?

And yea, I think it’s weird that phantasm don’t proc certain sigils. I noticed i also won’t get vigor on crit from phantasm attacks. Although i guess phantasms procing air/fire sigils might be too op in pvp lol

Maybe I different kind of clone that replicates the player more (in terms of movement and use of different abilities) but does not effectively do any damage. its just really confusing.

Sublimatio.6981:

Rework mantras. Make them basically 3 charges. And the trait which increased their numbers previously, should make them stronger. Like healing mantra heal more (and % of heal for others in aoe), condi mantra strip more condis, stability mantra break stun from others and longer stability + vigor, distraction mantra stunning target, pain mantra more dmg, aoe, stripping boons.

And add elite mantra that launches target away. (force unleash)

Another idea, or rather bug fix: make phantasms and clones use our % dmg increase! Phantasm is MY attack, MY spell, why doesn’t it deal 10% more dmg? sigil says it increases MINE dmg and phantasm is obviously my dmg….

I like the charge idea. But the channeling duration should be reduced by a sec or so. Also if we have 3 charges by default, whats a good new trait for Harmonious mantras?

how to buff mes:

1 fix bugs
2 fix bugs
3 rework mantras
4 unnerf glamours and other nerfs
5 buff aoe
6 give us aoe
7 buff confusion and nerf perplexity so it becomes a mes speciality again
8 fix bugs
9 fix ai
10 fix bugs
11 rework ai, rework weapons, rework all ai even more!
11 did i mention fix bugs?

Mesmers have bugs?