Guild Wars 2

Chaos: I’m so hype for that shield! I didn’t really see the knockdown effect, but I’m hoping for one.

Pyro: Something to be interested about, shield is obviously an offhand weapon. What does every offhand?

Chaos: Uh.. two skills?

Tealot: A hand on it?

Pyro: One of which is?

Chaos: The field.. and the other..

Chaos: A PHANTASM! /hypetrainexplodes!

Pyro: And something to consider, the time spell may not have even been from the shield.

SHIELD PHANTASM!
So lets see.. Our phantasms tend to copy skills from other classes, and a phantasm with a shield would take from..

Guardian
Engineer
Warrior

I’m thinking it’d likely be Guard’s Shield of Absorption if anything.

But you also have to consider that we already have a phantasm with a shield in the iDefender. What if our shield phantasm doesn’t actually use a shield at all? What if it goes the way of the Focus, with a phantasm wielding weapons completely unrelated to the shield?

Phantasmal Earthshakering Hammer Phant?
Phantasmal Empower Staff Phant?

Then again, iMage and iWarlock both wield scepters, so two Phants wielding the same weapon isn’t out of the real of possibility. What skills would you want to see from a new phantasm?

As far as I can tell, specializations will completely replace the main (F1-4) mechanic. Shield mesmers probably won’t use illusions such as phantasms at all. It’ll be something else, something new.

Shield Phantasm:

Summon a phantasm that spawns next to your opponent and fails to activate its attack. When it does attack, slow ranged projectile misses on jump or movement of any kind by enemy.

:p

See what I did there?

no dagger or pistol :/????

Too much to speculate on here But without completely reworking how the mesmer class operates and how clones and phantasms are handled (ie removing them entirely from the mesmer) You can’t exactly just remove the shatter and replace it 100%

You’d have to carry over some simbalance of the same mechanic, a way to abuse and thusly clear your illusions for a greater benefit.

Tho if Anet does remove shatters and using this new system removes illusions from play that also means no phantasm on the shield is a possibility.

There is still far too little real information on any of these things for me to comfortably do anything but assume that Anet will kitten this up one way or another…

But back on topic, If i had to guess at a shield Phantasm…

1. would be a slightly reworked Defender, which will be removed and replaced in the utility bar by something else after your “mastery” is completed..

1. something based off of the Guardian Staff, the AoE heal maybe (phant buffs allies/ does something harmful to foes)

1. Hammer from someone else, Make it a CC and watch the QQ (Back Breaker would be hilarious)

It appears that the new Mesmer shield skill used in the video appears to be a delayed time bomb ground target ability.

Target location and it goes off when duration is up and knocking down enemies inside it when it explodes.

The delayed time bomb aoe might be a specialization utility or ult and not related to shield skills.

what if we dont have sheild thats just a new skill some kind of manipulation of taking the enemy’s offhand)

I want a 2h-Hammer Phantasms, that has increased damage against AI like Turrets or minions. In the end it should one-hit f.e. rocket turrets.

Teutos.8620:

I want a 2h-Hammer Phantasms, that has increased damage against AI like Turrets or minions. In the end it should one-hit f.e. rocket turrets.

AI to counter AI, I like it.

Fay.2357:

Teutos.8620:

I want a 2h-Hammer Phantasms, that has increased damage against AI like Turrets or minions. In the end it should one-hit f.e. rocket turrets.

AI to counter AI, I like it.

Well, our AI would die after countering the other AI anyways^^

I’m probably in the minority here, but think it’d be pretty OK if the new offhand didn’t contain a phantasm. Rather, we’d get two new awesome skills to play with. After all, our “shield” phantasm already exists. Not to say the new phantasm has to be or would be defensive in nature, just that we have one that could easily have been a shield phantasm had the shield been available at launch.

skcamow.3527:

After all, our “shield” phantasm already exists. Not to say the new phantasm has to be or would be defensive in nature, just that we have one that could easily have been a shield phantasm had the shield been available at launch.

Basically, we can just guess in the wild anyway. We have no clue at all what will happen.
Since prior having access to the shield, we must specialize anyway, they can pretty much change the must-have-phantasm-rule anyway.

Teutos.8620:

Basically, we can just guess in the wild anyway. We have no clue at all what will happen.
Since prior having access to the shield, we must specialize anyway, they can pretty much change the must-have-phantasm-rule anyway.

It would be interesting to get a clone-, phantasm- or even illusionless specialization to finally have builds which aren’t crippled in large scale fights. I just wished they would have gone into more detail for this new feature. I enjoyed the presentation but the lack of more in-depth information is quite frustrating.

BTW. I noticed a butterfly animation at the feet of the Mesmer in the trailer before she casted the new spell. This might either be a graphic indicator for the specialization or a new unique skill/effect.

…Or iDefender gets moved to the shield and we get a new utility skill instead.

Sebbl.2806:

…Or iDefender gets moved to the shield and we get a new utility skill instead.

Swiftness not tied to a weapon!

If specializations do change the main class mechanic, their best bet would not to use the standard “one clone and one phantasm” method. Phantasm mesmers and shatter mesmers are already opposed to one another, and it doesn’t make sense to try to cram in a third ability while still forcing everyone to use their traits to supply the former. They’ve been trying over and over to make the interrupt mesmer viable, so it makes sense that they would create a specialization that discards some of the current baggage and lets them flourish as hard control casters.

If they are allowing main mechanic customization, it would be better to go like so…

Shattercaster: default shatter mesmer, make and break clones. Streamline clone creation across the board and allow shatters to vary based on your weapon (ie condition/direct damage).
Dreamspinner: weaves phantasms out of their target’s nightmares. Skills allow manipulation of phantasms after casting, so they aren’t fire-and-forget.
Chronomancer: absolute lockdown. No illusions on the weapons, no shatters. Instead, six utility slots, and utilities use a shared mana pool like thieves instead of cooldowns, thus creating the perfect mastermind mesmer.

Shriketalon.1937:

If specializations do change the main class mechanic, their best bet would not to use the standard “one clone and one phantasm” method. Phantasm mesmers and shatter mesmers are already opposed to one another, and it doesn’t make sense to try to cram in a third ability while still forcing everyone to use their traits to supply the former. They’ve been trying over and over to make the interrupt mesmer viable, so it makes sense that they would create a specialization that discards some of the current baggage and lets them flourish as hard control casters.

If they are allowing main mechanic customization, it would be better to go like so…

Shattercaster: default shatter mesmer, make and break clones. Streamline clone creation across the board and allow shatters to vary based on your weapon (ie condition/direct damage).
Dreamspinner: weaves phantasms out of their target’s nightmares. Skills allow manipulation of phantasms after casting, so they aren’t fire-and-forget.
Chronomancer: absolute lockdown. No illusions on the weapons, no shatters. Instead, six utility slots, and utilities use a shared mana pool like thieves instead of cooldowns, thus creating the perfect mastermind mesmer.

I think a reasonable number of specializations for each professions would be 2.
I would be very disappointed if there is only 1. Of course, more than 2 is even better.

As for our mesmer class. I share same ideas with you:

Specialization towards more area control with reliable AoE spells and effects: Chronomancer (shifting the focus on more space and time theme)

Or
More control power over a single target enemy: Dreamweaver (keeping the original mind control theme)

If you watch closely, there’s a clock in the field. My speculation is: our specialization is about time manipulation (edit: ok, everyone said this in the other thread) and that field it’s like a reverse-timewarp, slows down movement, skills and maybe even cooldowns and projectiles.

IF in the case it is a melee based phant I could see it being similar to in how it summoned an unrelated weapon for focus.

As such I’d suspect maybe Hammer or Mace as a corresponding weapon, prob stun type CC related?

If we get a ranged phant I could foresee a Bow type phant that utilizes imob?

However It would be cool if we got a utility based phantasm, like a stationary one summoned at a ground target or current position that would pulse chills, cripples, and perhaps blinds? or Aeigis and Protection?

I’m hoping it’s not another long c/d, slow attack rate phant that gives something lame like regen… cough Torch cough

I don’t understand the specializations and weapon relation… I’ve heard that they are related so if you can only use a weapon related to the spec, if it’s time manipulation, perhaps a small haste field? – Or maybe the specializations go so far that it actually is the first weapon we get that has no phantasm? (Tho I’d find that highly unlikely)

Either way I hope w/e type of skill we get attached uses the old Mimic animation >=3

Chaos!!!! Elementalist can also use shield, and that one isn’t even a just offhand, it has a full skill range.

I rate the phantasm will be something like a aura which is creates absorbing/blocking attacks and exploding/shattering a percentage of or the damage it received, or even at a certain threshold (This could encourage mesmer point defense play). What type of damage it will be confusion or raw I have no idea, but I guess it won’t just be a CC skill but also a block sort of skill in the form of a phantasm which shields all tend to have.

This is all speculation but it would be cool to see it implemented.

Doesn’t matter how many illusions we get if they remain bugged.
We need bug fixes above all.

I think it’ll be something like sanctuary..

Fitting to shield it might be a mace phantasm with a knockdown/stun (slow attacks of course)..

Ooor based on the time theme.. something that slows enemy movement and recharge time and/or quickens your own?

Also based on the time theme, (gw1) skills like: Stolen Speed or Shared Burden would be fun to have

JurahEscorial.9147:

Ooor based on the time theme.. something that slows enemy movement and recharge time and/or quickens your own?

A Phantasm which applies point blanket area Chill and Torment would be nasty.

Guard and war can use shield, both heavy class, so why revenant can’t use shield?

Maybe phantasm’s shield will be a skill of the revenant.