Guild Wars 2

First I want to apologize about my English which is not my mother tongue.

I would like share my thoughts about my favorite class.

I play Mesmer since GW1 …. and I only play Mesmer.
During my first contact with the GW2 Mesmer , my first feelings were :
wow , they really did a modern version of the Mesmer . Confusion and distraction with our clones allow us to deceive and control our enemies .
Description of mesmers sounds very promising : Mesmers are masters of mirage. They weave mental magic that confounds, controls, or evokes emotion in their enemies.

But… patch after patch , I have the unpleasant feeling of losing my identity :

- The confusion, the specific alteration in our class, no longer scares our enemies . Yet it was one of the ways to control our enemy ….
Confusion, unlike other alterations , does the damage if a skill is used. But now the confusion is no longer viable . The effects are so low that no one pays attention to the stacks of confusion they have.
- The production of our clones / phantasms , the primary source of our damage and another way to distract our enemies , was diminished by moving “Phantasm Haste” to Master in Illusions.
- Mantras : how many mesmer play with mantras , even since the recent change by the patch?

I discussed with Mesmers belonging to one of a biggest guild in Vizunah and their feelings are the same as mine. Our list of builds that make us effective have been reduced, and we have less and less opportunity to feel useful (ie do something else than Veil, Portal or Null field).

I’m playing pve, pvp and wvw and I more I play, the less I see mesmers in the field. Perhaps it’s because we don’t have anymore the ability to play more than 1 or 2 builds with different play style.

I have a few suggestions to make :
- Make our phantasms/illusions alive after the target they use to be produced has been killed. That’s make the “Phantasm Haste” nerf less painful for people who don’t want to play shatter.
- Raise confusion damage or let us stack confusion more easily than today.
- Mantra can be target-able with aoe effects (like Chaos Storm)…

I do not not want to compare my class to others. I just want to find back my identity as a Mesmer. Do I am the only one with this feeling ????

Bad in Zerg, good at roaming

Butter.3024:

Bad in Zerg, good at roaming

Though, not even nearly as good as thief. I used to main mesmer, still sort of do, but in practice I really only play my thief nowdays xD.
I really liked to play a shatter build, but currently that build has too hard time against all the silly condition builds out there. I mean, my thief can’t beat all of these builds either, but at least he has easier time avoiding fights with them.

JedAil.2645:

…snip…

I discussed with Mesmers belonging to one of a biggest guild in Vizunah and their feelings are the same as mine. Our list of builds that make us effective have been reduced, and we have less and less opportunity to feel useful (ie do something else than Veil, Portal or Null field).

I’m playing pve, pvp and wvw and I more I play, the less I see mesmers in the field. Perhpas it’s because we don’t have anymore the ability to play more than 1 or 2 builds with different play style.

There actually are many different viable builds for Mesmers. For PvP, for WvW (more roaming than zerging) and for PvE. Of course, there are those “most efficient” builds (e.g. fractals, dungeons) but you do not have to do speed runs. Nobody forces you to do speedruns. Besides that, every class in such a group will be forced into a specific build. Thats not a Mesmer issue. In PvP hotjoin you will encounter many different Mesmers. In tPvP Mesmers indeed are a bit underrepresented atm. But I feel this is due to the current condition meta. Not because Mesmers are bad.

JedAil.2645:

I have a few suggestions to make :
- Make our phantasms/illusions alive after the target they use to be produced has been killed. That’s make the “Phantasm Haste” nerf less painful for people who don’t want to play shatter.
- Raise confusion damage or let us stack confusion more easily than today.
- Effect of mantra can be target-able (like Chaos Storm)…

I do not not want to compare my class to others. I just want to find back my identity as a Mesmer. Do I am the only one with this feeling ????

1. Hell no. That would be so wrong. If anything they should improve their defense against area effects. And the iMage, of course. Switching targets would be way too strong. The cooldowns are fine imho. This suggestion also does not improve your control capabalities which you miss.

2. They don’t have to increase the damage. Mesmers just need longer conditions and a condition AA (Scepter) so we can actually reapply and stack it as ANY other class does when running a condition build. Then it would make sense for at least PvP and WvW. In PvE confusion should be re-designed.

3. The damage Mantra could be very nice for area damage. I do not see it for the other Mantras, though. The daze would be too strong. The cleanse and the stability just need a larger radius. I’d rather see the Glamour traits be improved (more stacks or pulsing confusion, smaller internal timer etc.) so the Mesmer has access to more area control.

Xaylin.1860:

There actually are many different viable builds for Mesmers. For PvP, for WvW (more roaming than zerging)

Solo roaming belongs to thieves / warriors honestly.
Small team roaming is the only remaining part for mesmers.

Xaylin.1860:

There actually are many different viable builds for Mesmers. For PvP, for WvW (more roaming than zerging) and for PvE.

There are many different viable builds but we don’t have anymore the different play style we had before.

Xaylin.1860:

2. Mesmers just need longer conditions and a condition AA (Scepter) so we can actually reapply and stack it as ANY other class does when running a condition build. Then it would make sense for at least PvP and WvW. In PvE confusion should be re-designed.

+1. Scepter really need to be redesign, as torch phantasm.

Xaylin.1860:

I’d rather see the Glamour traits be improved (more stacks or pulsing confusion, smaller internal timer etc.) so the Mesmer has access to more area control.

totally agree.

Suggestion for making Scepter useful again… Apply confusion on first and second attacks and generate clone on third (as is). That way the clones casting Ether Bolt aren’t useless. Unlike clones from Staff and Sword (conditions/buffs and boon stripping). Even if it’s 1 second it’ll still apply up to 4 stacks at a time with full “party” casting Ether Bolt.

Thoughts?

I kinda feel that mesmers confusion should have a shorter duration to the other classes, but it does a lot more damage comparatively. That might be a bad idea idk, I feel that that would be a very nice change for the mesmer for both control and damage. Nobody would just ignore the mesmer confusion damage but at the same time they know that it’s a shorter duration compared to say to an engi. So basically engi has longer confusion duration but the damage itself is weaker and mesmers have a shorter duration but the confusion damage is a lot higher compared to other classes that apply, it would also make the mesmer confusion more unique imo.

+100

im in a mainly mesmer guild and a lot of us are playing different classes atm. the confusion glamour build was one of the only viable wvw builds, but then it got nerfed to the ground, and nerf after nerf we turned into this sad state of utilitybots. as a light armor u do need viable aoe! in wvw due to necro aoe and ele aoe, our phantasms and clones are useless=no aoe for a light armor class.

then the terrible stun immobilize meta is terrible for us if we wanna fight with the zerg. u get perma interrupte, chainstunned and then the retal kills u in the end.

the mesmers role was clearly defined in gw1. i think our aoe should actually punish mindless meleetrains and that was what confusion was for us. confusion doesnt hurt u if u dont spam as the stack dont last long(yes perplexity i know itlasts too long i get it)

we need more aoe that dont require a clone or phantasm to work. no ai!!! necros=condition bombs…now mesmers are light armor too, they shouldnt be a duelist only class, they should be the punishing class for stupidity punish mindless zerglings, mindless button spammers, they should be feared not abused as a servant for veil/tw/portal!

What would be great is to also have ALL shatters function like “Distortion” where the shatter happens but the effect occurs at the target (self in this case). That then would allow shatter’s to not be affected by AoE or another option would be to have an invulnerability effect on illusions participating in a shatter.

These are ideas I have to make the class be able to realize it’s potential and also makes Diversion a bit more useful as stuns are extremely timing oriented and when you have to coordinate recognizing a skill and the run time for an illusion to get to target, it’s bananas.

I really would like the condition viability restored for Mesmer in the form of allowing more confusions and more effective dazing (diversion).

kusosama.1346:

Suggestion for making Scepter useful again… Apply confusion on first and second attacks and generate clone on third (as is). That way the clones casting Ether Bolt aren’t useless. Unlike clones from Staff and Sword (conditions/buffs and boon stripping). Even if it’s 1 second it’ll still apply up to 4 stacks at a time with full “party” casting Ether Bolt.

Thoughts?

Confusion on two of the hits might be a bit too much considering that you will be able to stack a huge amount of confusion when having 3 clones out. I would also prefer having an additional condition besides confusion so that there actually is a use for the AA in PvE.

E.g.

• 1. 1-2 stacks of confusion for 3-5s.
• 2. Burn for 1s.
• 3. Clone.

This way you would be able to stack confusion per AA if you want to. The stacks would build up slowly (vs. bursty conditions on #2 and #3) but will punish your enemy if they are not removed at a certain point. The burn is needed for PvE. Right now, there is no reasonable way to play a condition Mesmer in PvE.

JedAil.2645:

I have a few suggestions to make :
- Make our phantasms/illusions alive after the target they use to be produced has been killed. That’s make the “Phantasm Haste” nerf less painful for people who don’t want to play shatter.

Ugh… I don’t want to have to look after pets like Rangers and Necros do. I love the expendability of our illusions.

- Raise confusion damage or let us stack confusion more easily than today.

My suggestion here is to make it a trait. Perhaps just switch the Master of Misdirection from a duration to damage increase. Essentially, we should have to pay for the increase, but it should be available. Such effectiveness for confusion should be unique to memsers as well. Then add a sigil that increases confusion duration.

- Mantra can be target-able with aoe effects (like Chaos Storm)…

Mantras simply need a complete overhaul.

I do not not want to compare my class to others. I just want to find back my identity as a Mesmer. Do I am the only one with this feeling ????

No, everyone’s been frustrated for a while, but we just make the best of it : /
Many of us refuse to admit defeat. We occasionally will take a stab at confusion builds again only to find them in the same pitiful state that no amount of theory crafting will fix.

Sometimes I think they ought to combine Torment and Confusion or something like that. Slightly less damage if the enemy use a skill, but they also take continous damage and higher if they move. Bad idea direction? Don’t want to simplify things, but I always felt those 2 were like siblings.

edit: I think the main problem with mantras is they are basically made only for pvp with the charge time, or at least, where you can move from fight to fight or don’t have to dish out as much dps as possible. Feels a bit weird to rely on a trait that requires you to sit there with charged mantras as well, if you do trait for them…

I really doubt they won’t introduce trait making confusion stronger. That would make life of other players pretty difficult in a sense that they may end up with some confusion and they would have no idea if it is this normal confusion and they shouldn’t be that worried about lets say 3 stacks or it was applied by a mesmer with the trait so it is stronger and he should really cleanse it.

Having trait for confusion duration (as we already have) is one thing but having trait that will make confusion stronger will be a bit painful to implement without other players going into heavy QQ mode I think.

I can imagine adding a trait that will introduce a x% chance to add a stack of bleed or torment whenever confusion is applied to a target even tho they are currently trying to get away from the randomness. But change like that will alow to make applied confusion stronger, but enemies will still have an idea what is going on.