Guild Wars 2

They posted the rest of the changes in the general forum

MESMER
General
Phantasms damage increased by 15%.
Summoned clones will now show your equipped offhand.
Fixed a bug which caused underwater clones to not show tridents.
Fixed an issue where the Illusionary Rogue’s attack was being listed as “Smoke Bomb” in the combat log. It is now referred to as “Shadow Assault”.
Skills
Mesmer skills which create bouncing projectiles now bounce 1 additional time.
Reduced recharge on Glamour skills by 20%.
Using any shatter skill now creates the shatter effect on you as well by default.
Mantras now give 600 toughness while channeling them.
Manipulation skill range increased to 1200
Pistol skills used by you and your illusions have had their range increased to 1200
Mind Wrack: Reduced recharge to 12 seconds.
Cry of Frustration: Reduced recharge to 25 seconds.
Diversion: Reduced recharge to 38 seconds. Now shows number of targets dazed (1) when untraited.
Distortion: Reduced recharge to 50 seconds. When affected by traits such as Maim the Disillusioned and Illusionary Retribution this skill now strikes 1 target.
Chaos Storm – Increased poison duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds.
Confusing Images: Added one additional strike to this skill. Strikes from this skill now display an additive total rather than individual hits. This skill now activates 50% faster.
Ether Clone (Scepter skill 1 chain 3): Adjusted the timing of this attack to flow better with the other attacks in the chain. The projectile is now launched sooner, but he attack has slightly longer aftercast. The number of clones generated per second by this chain is unchanged.
Feedback: This skill now requires a target. This change address an issue which allowed this skill to be cast at an unspecified location if the player did not have a target.
Ineptitude (Trident skill 2): This skill has been renamed to “Blinding Tide”
Illusionary Defender: Updated description of this skill to more accurately describe that it also absorbs damage directed at allies. Functionality has not been changed.
Illusionary Leap: Increased the delay before the clone is summoned by about 0.25 seconds to allow players to start casting this skill while moving within range and not have it fail. Speed up attack of illusion by about 0.35 seconds to allow better tracking against moving targets.
Mass Invisibility: This skill is now classified as a Manipulation.
Mimic: Updated functionality of this skill. This skill now causes the next utility slot skill you use within 10 seconds to recharge in 1 second. Increased recharge to 90 seconds.
Mirror: This skill is now classified as a manipulation. Additionally it now has a unique “Mirror” buff that can be applied by traits.
Polymorph Moa: This skill has been renamed to “Signet of Humility” and is now classified as a signet skill. Its passive effect reduces the duration of stun, daze, fear and taunt by 20%. Its active effect remains unchanged.
Polymorph Moa – Kick: Movement speed adjustments no longer affect the intended travel distance.
Polymorph Moa – Flee: Movement speed adjustments no longer affect the intended travel distance.

Phantasmal Mage: Instead of inflicting confusion on foes an granting retaliation on allies, this phantasm now inflicts 1 stack of burning for 6 seconds on foes an grants 3 seconds of fury to allies. Removed undocumented condition removal from this phantasm
Portal: Attempting to create a second portal entrance while you have an active portal will destroy the active portal.
Signet of Illusions: Reduced recharge to 60 seconds. This skill now specifies which skills it recharges.
Signet of Inspiration: Reduced recharge of this skill to 30 seconds. The passive for this signet now gives 5 seconds of swiftness plus one other random boon every 10 seconds. It no longer gives swiftness as one of it’s random boons.
Signet of Midnight: The passive for this signet now gives 20% condition duration instead of 10% boon duration.
Spinning Revenge (Trident 3): This still now applies chaos armor to you when cast.
Time Warp: This skill is now classified as a Glamour. It now pulses 1 second of slow every second on foes in the affected area in addition to it’s previous effect of quickness on allies.
Mind Wrack recharge reduced from 15s to 12s.
Cry of Frustration recharge reduced from 30s to 15s
Diversion recharge reduced from kitten to 38s
Distortion recharge reduced from 60s to 50s

last one

And that thread was JUST locked…. -_-

Edit:
Apparently it was incomplete :I

After a brief skim, I must praise Lyssa for her benevolence.

Changes look INCREDIBLE. So much fantastic stuff.

Imagined Burden: Reduces recharge of Greatsword skills by 20%. Gain 2 stacks of might for 5 seconds whenever you or an illusion uses Spacial Surge. All of your other greatsword skills inflict cripple for 2s when they hit.

I like this, I like this a lot.

Yeah, I gotta say, I’m incredibly pleased with these changes, all of them. I think the rework to trait placement in illusions is really perfect, I think mimic is awesome, and I can’t wait to test out a whole bunch of other stuff.

PvE mesmers got thrown a bone with that sword trait, which is really nice, pMage got a good rework, and I’m loving the pDefender on evasion trait, since the primary drawback of pDefender is the cast time.

Basically, I’m surprisingly pleased with really everything in the mesmer changes, wasn’t expecting that.

Fay.2357:

Yeah, I gotta say, I’m incredibly pleased with these changes, all of them. I think the rework to trait placement in illusions is really perfect, I think mimic is awesome, and I can’t wait to test out a whole bunch of other stuff.

PvE mesmers got thrown a bone with that sword trait, which is really nice, pMage got a good rework, and I’m loving the pDefender on evasion trait, since the primary drawback of pDefender is the cast time.

Basically, I’m surprisingly pleased with really everything in the mesmer changes, wasn’t expecting that.

Just a question pyro, What’s up with all these cripple sources (shatter GM Trait tho, GS GM trait, ranger traps cripple too) do you think cripple will get a rework too?

I’m very happy with all the changes they did. Buff everything, make everyone happy. Everyone is OP in their own way.

What made me more pleased :

- Sword ferocity
- Listened to the weird cooldown reduction from GS and Scepter. Gave them flat reductions.
- Scepter activating and speed buff, making it interesting with Shield and Sword.

Got interested by :
- Mental Defense: Whenever you successfully block or evade an attack cast Phantasmal Defender on your attacker. This trait benefits from the recharge bonus provided by Illusionist’s Celerity and Persistence of Memory.

StickerHappy.8052:

Fay.2357:

Yeah, I gotta say, I’m incredibly pleased with these changes, all of them. I think the rework to trait placement in illusions is really perfect, I think mimic is awesome, and I can’t wait to test out a whole bunch of other stuff.

PvE mesmers got thrown a bone with that sword trait, which is really nice, pMage got a good rework, and I’m loving the pDefender on evasion trait, since the primary drawback of pDefender is the cast time.

Basically, I’m surprisingly pleased with really everything in the mesmer changes, wasn’t expecting that.

Just a question pyro, What’s up with all these cripple sources (shatter GM Trait tho, GS GM trait, ranger traps cripple too) do you think cripple will get a rework too?

Well, it just did get a minor rework, it doesn’t affect movement skills anymore. In general though, I think they recognize the need to help a glassy mesmer control their targets. A big failing of glassy mesmer is that you can burst, and then you’re really vulnerable. Cripple is an intensely strong control condition, and keeping your enemy crippled through constant pressure will allow you to control a fight better.

It really looks like they took some of our criticisms to heart (see the sword trait). Once again, Anet is making a fantastic turn around showing us that they are making an effort with our class. I’ve been happy with them since they initially showed changes, and they just keep getting better.

On a brief over view, it seems like they sorta tried to make things better in PvE as well.

I also have hope that “Malignant Inscriptions” can still be a thing… And that Inspiration trait line. omg.

Even buffier than before! Cool!

PolyMoa turning into a Signet is pretty unexpected, but I dig it. Strong passive on that, too. Time Warp is now a mini-Well. Mimic looks super cool combined with some of our other strong utility skills.

I’m particularly impressed that most of the lackluster-looking traits from the last preview picked up new effects. Cripple on the GS trait, Regeneration on Illusionary Inspiration (which was already looking good), Resistance on Temporal Enchanter, Blind on block/evade for Ineptitude.

Scepter buffs seem pretty legit, too. Zippier chain (you can cancel the after-cast by using another skill, right?), and its GM trait increases your attack speed. That’s on top of the buff it got from the condi changes.

And then there are all the traits that we get for free now!

The new mimic skill looks really interesting.
It could also have great synergy with the new F5 with chronomancer. Looking forward to some crazy tricks you guys come up with.

We’ve got new support-y stuff in Inspiration that’s really cool, like a Distortionist build[Distortionshare? Team Distortioning? Maybe Invulnshare? Nothing catchy comes to mind] where we can combine our signets, shatters, and phantasms to give allies distortion every 5 seconds and good regen. I can also see some possible good use for Mental Defense in a sword build so that I can get up-close and personal with an iDefender or two in tow to help tank that damage with some possible easy condi cleansing and heal from Restorative Illusions. All around, great support options.

What really got me was Time Warp. It’ll be Slowing and Quickening without any extra traits! Hell, we can trait for Super Speed and the enemy will be practically standing still in comparison. How fun!

And, while many trait shifting between lines and tiers were surprising, the one I’m Auber-excited for is MtD! They made it freakin’ Master tier! This’ll open up some options for condi mesmers looking into Illusion’s GM’s, which have all been redone in one way or another to all look very appealing.

Can’t wait to be trying these out~

Not sure on the cooldown but mimic with chrono will be pretty crazy.

I’d prefere the boon duration on signet of Midnight.

I’m not too sure on Phantasmal mage we will have to see, will probably work out better but I do wonder why all our fury access is so short.

Really liking the new GS and sword cooldown traits. A lot.

Unexpected and nice buff to Time Warp.

Inspiration is looking better but I still think it the galmour trait is rather poor.

Confusing images buff! New scepter trait should help make the weapon feel better but maim builds now getting a source of cripple with Master of Fragmentation will be tough to give up.

I still don’t think they have done much in regards to giving incentives for phantasm builds using shatters though other then they will just have to.

Dissapointed that we are still lacking in blast finishers.

Overall I like them, much better then I was expecting.

I’m also loving the synergy in chaos.

You’ve got faster cooldowns on staff skills from chaotic dampening, and that gives you prot, which is a boon. Then staff skills give you boons, and then all 3 grandmasters in chaos pump out boons when you use them.

Then you’ve got the minor that increases outgoing condition/boon duration by 3% per unique boon on you.

I’m really loving the synergy in these traits.

Other fun things include how the 15% scepter action speed buff will make the block trigger faster, and note that mender’s purity ‘is affected by harmonious mantras’, which means that using mender’s purity, heal mantra, and harmonious mantras will double-tap on the mantra buff when you activate the heal.

Good stuff. I hope everyone doesn’t start playing Mesmer now.

Robert Gee, I know I’ve been a bit of a downer on you, but I gotta say I’m impressed that you’ve been reading the forums and chosen to implement really good changes that include good stuff for PvE mesmers as well.

Most of the traits have been revamped to be really well done. I do wish some stuff was made baseline like warden’s feedback but that’s minor.

Now you just need to…buff mesmer autoattacks and address illusion survivability in dungeons and wvw in regards to aoe spam.

condie shatter can be quite good especially after the condition gets enhanced by vulnerability. Now you can actually benefit a lot from domination line for condie shatter to do crazy damage.

Nerf phantasmal mage ? now inflict 1 burning and 1 fury on allies? or continues to inflict retaliation and confusion with burn and rage? please clarify doubts ¡¡

I LOVE almost everything I’m seeing. Only thing that is missing is Ether Feast… what did it become? Did i miss something?

Angel de Lyssa.4716:

Nerf phantasmal mage ? now inflict 1 burning and 1 fury on allies? or continues to inflict retaliation and confusion with burn and rage? please clarify doubts ¡¡

Burning and Fury only~

Unsure of the stacks, but if it’s only one burning that’d be a shame[since we had 4 Confusion stacks before]. Though might be fine since Burning is quite powerful. Fury might also be useful for our condi builds for condi-on-crit minors in Dueling.

I love all of these changes. I even squealed when I saw a couple of them.

The only change I didnt like was the lack of change with thiefs stolen skill ectoplasm and their new improvisation trait which allows them to use it kittenING TWICE as if once wasnt bad enough.

Fay.2357:

StickerHappy.8052:

Fay.2357:

Yeah, I gotta say, I’m incredibly pleased with these changes, all of them. I think the rework to trait placement in illusions is really perfect, I think mimic is awesome, and I can’t wait to test out a whole bunch of other stuff.

PvE mesmers got thrown a bone with that sword trait, which is really nice, pMage got a good rework, and I’m loving the pDefender on evasion trait, since the primary drawback of pDefender is the cast time.

Basically, I’m surprisingly pleased with really everything in the mesmer changes, wasn’t expecting that.

Just a question pyro, What’s up with all these cripple sources (shatter GM Trait tho, GS GM trait, ranger traps cripple too) do you think cripple will get a rework too?

Well, it just did get a minor rework, it doesn’t affect movement skills anymore. In general though, I think they recognize the need to help a glassy mesmer control their targets. A big failing of glassy mesmer is that you can burst, and then you’re really vulnerable. Cripple is an intensely strong control condition, and keeping your enemy crippled through constant pressure will allow you to control a fight better.

Fair points, so they are bandaiding the warrior nike cripple immunity by boosting sources.

Good changes, too bad, TE is still bad, superspeed on feedback? so now you can target with allies with feedback im guessing?

BB got a nice perk, too bad it competes with malicious sorcery (WHICH HAS A BLOCK, .smh)

I’m liking the changes!
Inspiration still feels a bit all over the place… some of the traits still feel very ‘selfish’ and only affect you or your phantasms. Persisting Images and Protected Phantasms, for example.

Scepter is the most surprising to me… Some solid buffs there that I can’t wait to try out. Will Insp/Ill/Chrono be a crazy illusion factory? 2 phantasms from the shield and Deja Vu, another Defender on-demand from the block, plus a 15% faster attack speed on the auto… all with heavy Alacrity up-time and reduced cooldowns from Illusions…

Mimic looks awesome as well. Doubling up on a utility, essentially, could be amazing. Feedback, Glamour, and Null field immediately come to mind. Our wells are great candidates too… Gosh.

Kelthien.8593:

2 phantasms from the shield and Deja Vu, another Defender on-demand from the block, plus a 15% faster attack speed on the auto… all with heavy Alacrity up-time and reduced cooldowns from Illusions…

Only problem with using Shield 4 and the iDefender trait is that the Defender will overwrite one of your iCaptainAmericas.

Tough choices for Inspiration Master. WF and PP (looks like no CD) are both really good, and RI is quite nice too.

tobascodagama.2961:

Kelthien.8593:

2 phantasms from the shield and Deja Vu, another Defender on-demand from the block, plus a 15% faster attack speed on the auto… all with heavy Alacrity up-time and reduced cooldowns from Illusions…

Only problem with using Shield 4 and the iDefender trait is that the Defender will overwrite one of your iCaptainAmericas.

Not if you shatter them!
I’ve been trying to think of builds which could shatter but without the dependency on Dueling for DE. The volume of phantasms/clones with shield+scepter might just be enough!

Dondagora.9645:

Angel de Lyssa.4716:

Nerf phantasmal mage ? now inflict 1 burning and 1 fury on allies? or continues to inflict retaliation and confusion with burn and rage? please clarify doubts ¡¡

Burning and Fury only~

Unsure of the stacks, but if it’s only one burning that’d be a shame[since we had 4 Confusion stacks before]. Though might be fine since Burning is quite powerful. Fury might also be useful for our condi builds for condi-on-crit minors in Dueling.

oh no …. ¡¡¡¡ I hope they put as it was before, or to increase the burn for 2 stack, although I prefer 1 x confusion and 1 x burn, or 4x confusion. U.U

tobascodagama.2961:

Kelthien.8593:

2 phantasms from the shield and Deja Vu, another Defender on-demand from the block, plus a 15% faster attack speed on the auto… all with heavy Alacrity up-time and reduced cooldowns from Illusions…

Only problem with using Shield 4 and the iDefender trait is that the Defender will overwrite one of your iCaptainAmericas.

Possibly, but that depends on the order. If it goes iD>iC then the iD will be overwritten. If iC>iD, then the iC will be overwritten. This’ll need to be clarified later on, though we’re far far away from getting Elite Specs for now.

Let’s be serious here guys. How often will you have 3 phantasms out for longer than 10s? And if you are tanky or have enough sustain, you wouldn’t foolishly be smashing away at clone summoning skills anyway right?!

eta – even when I was running a clerics signet tank build, I never had the opportunity to overwrite phantasms with other phantasms.

Ah, also, I just remembered: That Trait which summons iDefender will have iDefender’s CD on it as well, so we’ll just be getting two Captain Americas and 1 iDefender. Works out.

I might actually use that poly signet.. and I love how they changed Mimic a second time. Most changed ability in the game xD

Illusionary Leap: Increased the delay before the clone is summoned by about 0.25 seconds to allow players to start casting this skill while moving within range and not have it fail. Speed up attack of illusion by about 0.35 seconds to allow better tracking against moving targets.

This does look like a slight nerf to me that our most used combo burst will be 0.25 slower.

Exciton.8942:

Illusionary Leap: Increased the delay before the clone is summoned by about 0.25 seconds to allow players to start casting this skill while moving within range and not have it fail. Speed up attack of illusion by about 0.35 seconds to allow better tracking against moving targets.

This does look like a slight nerf to me that our most used combo burst will be 0.25 slower.

Meh, worth it given all the rest we got. Won’t be too bad.

Scepter speed trait + iDefender on evade + Deceptive Evasion

Not thinking very much, but this combo means that the clone factory builds are even crazier?

I was too hyped with engi changes, but seeing the Mesmer, wow, so many good things.

I’m not a theorycrafter, but what is the general consensus on a supportive mesmer according to these changes?

Yeah, I’m excited for the changes. Lots of new stuff, but some stuff was looked over.

-no change to Consume Plasma

The new Mimic sounds really cool, but nothing was done to Arcane Thievery? (just the baseline 1200 range increase) How about a reduced cooldown or up the number of conditions/boons transferred??

Mirror of Anguish is unchanged, its just re-worded to accurately state what it does. Meanwhile, Ranger’s get a similar “Shared Anguish” that transfers CC to their pet. They both have the same 60 second ICD. It rarely got used before, so why would it we take it now?

Would of been nice to see a little more Glamour love? Besides just the reduced recharge and Temporal Enchanter trait.

How about more field finisher’s in OUR skills? Freaking Engi has got finisher’s up the wazooo!!!!

yhvh.8703:

Scepter speed trait + iDefender on evade + Deceptive Evasion

Not thinking very much, but this combo means that the clone factory builds are even crazier?

I was too hyped with engi changes, but seeing the Mesmer, wow, so many good things.

I’m not a theorycrafter, but what is the general consensus on a supportive mesmer according to these changes?

Note that iDefender trait is basically on a 16-20 second ICD due to the traits which use skills inheriting the CD of that skill as well, since it’s basically casting a shadow version of it.

Dondagora.9645:

yhvh.8703:

Scepter speed trait + iDefender on evade + Deceptive Evasion

Not thinking very much, but this combo means that the clone factory builds are even crazier?

I was too hyped with engi changes, but seeing the Mesmer, wow, so many good things.

I’m not a theorycrafter, but what is the general consensus on a supportive mesmer according to these changes?

Note that iDefender trait is basically on a 16-20 second ICD due to the traits which use skills inheriting the CD of that skill as well, since it’s basically casting a shadow version of it.

Yup. Combined with Signet of Ether and Ilusionist’s Celerity and Persistence of Memory you’ll be popping out iDefenders at a pretty good rate. I’m very curious about an Inspiration/Illusions/Chronomancer build.

For anyone who’s wondering what happened to ether feast, i think it might be the same thing as the guardian shelter:

Josh Davis.6015:

Nevz.3058:

Ye what about Shelter as Mora asked? Is it going to be under the meditations category or consecrations category?

Shelter will not be getting a skill category. It would probably need to be adjusted in someway if we did do it – and it’s fine where it is right now.

holy kitten i came back to Gw2 at the right time i love these mesmer changes!

double veil for WvW !

azizul.8469:

double veil for WvW !

And a few engineers happily throw some aoes on top with Lock on trait.
The majority of your zerg will be revealed!

Well, that’s the funny side of have new things. We are only one piece of the puzzle and devs are the only one with the tools to adjust it. So, have fun theorycrafting and finding new builds, team composition, etc. We can see some funny weeks in the horizon. Plus the expansion.

Exciton.8942:

azizul.8469:

double veil for WvW !

And a few engineers happily throw some aoes on top with Lock on trait.
The majority of your zerg will be revealed!

Its probably a poorly worded sentence that cause your misunderstanding, but Lock On has an ICD, meaning it’ll only reveal the first person in stealth then go into CD. Same idea as our glamour zerg build in the past.

P.S. unless specified like our Ineptitude, where it says ICD per foe

Few disappointments like restorative illusions, confusing combatant and loss of 50% torment damage, but I generally like the change.