Guild Wars 2

Here I offer my feedback on some Mesmer Traits and Skills. As I have not yet fully experienced and tested every single Trait after the Specialization patch this list will not be comprehensive, I will only discuss what I have observed as of yet.

Shatters

It seems to me that Shatters very often miss their target if the target is running in any direction but right at you (or standing still, of course). I think that if the Illusion “connects” and perform the shatter animation, it should hit even if the target is running away.

Cry of Frustration

Damage: 81
Confusion (3s): 50 Damage On Skill Use, 30 Damage
Number of Targets: 5
Radius: 240
Range: 1,200
Recharge: 25

This Shatter is way too weak, 3s Confusion per clone shattered is hardly anything, even on Condition builds.
The Recharge is also unneccessarily high, it seems the only reason for the high Recharge was to keep the old “symmetry” of 15, 30, 45, 60 seconds Recharge on Shatters 1-4.
Both Mind Wrack and Cry of Frustration are damage shatters, the first one for Power builds and the second one for Condition builds, and only the appropriate build (Power or Condition) can make real use of the related Shatter.
Therefore it makes no sense that the Condition build Shatter has twice as long Recharge as the Power build Shatter, both Mind Wrack and Cry of Frustration should have 12s Recharge.

Shatter Traits

Maim the Disillusioned

Shatter skills inflict torment on hit. (All Shatter skills)
Torment (6s): 95 damage, 191 Damage if Moving (1 stack per clone)

This Trait has potential to be nice for Condition builds, but not in its current form.
This Trait makes it possible to apply weak Condition pressure in the form of 1 stack of Torment per clone, for each Shatter used.
A much more interesting design would be to concentrate the effect to the Condition damage Shatter, Cry of Frustration. This would encourage more active use and tactics in the form of a Condition burst at a specific moment of choice, instead of the current boring weak-but-steady Torment application for each Shatter used.
I propose the change:
Cry of Frustration inflicts torment on hit.
Torment(x3) (6s): 285 damage, 573 Damage if Moving (3 stacks per clone)

Skills

Illusionary Leap/Swap

Summon an illusion that leaps at your target, crippling them. After the initial leap, the clone will execute the Mind Slash sword chain.
Swap locations with your clone. Immobilize nearby foes (2s).

Damage: 1
Crippled (1s): -50% Movement Speed
Range: 600
Recharge: 12

This skill very often misses or fail, I assume this is a bug?
Also, when it does hit, it is possible to kill the summoned Illusion so that the Mesmer can’t swap place with it, negating the purpose of the skill (which is a Leap).
I propose a 1s Diversion (invulnerable) for the summoned Illusion, to allow the skill to actually do what it is supposed to be doing, i.e. being a “Mesmery” Leap.

Illusionary Riposte

Block your foe and create an illusion when attacked.

Damage: 672
Block Duration: 2½s
Range: 900
Recharge: 15

When the skill successfully block an attack, the “Block animation” plays which after a short pause moves the Mesmer a bit to the side, damages the enemy, and summons an Illusion. The Block animation is however rather slow, and when it plays out you can be hit from further attacks following the first blocked one, this makes the skill feel very clunky and not very responsive.
The Sword is a dueling and fencing weapon, which focus on quick actions and reactions with active defense (Blurred Frenzy, Illusionary Riposte), let it feel quick and active.
I propose that the “Block animation” is speeded up by a lot, so the Sword feels less clunky and more precise, active, and responsive.

Temporal Curtain/Into the Void

Recharge: 25

Create a wall of energy that grants Swiftness to allies who cross it while crippling foes who touch it.
Shatter your Temporal Curtain, pulling nearby enemies toward its position.

There is about a 1s delay until you can use Into the Void, after casting the Temporal Curtain. This makes the weapon feel very clunky, and if the Temporal Curtain was cast with the purpose of being used as a Pull, it often is too late to use it after the delay has passed.
I propose to reduce or remove the delay to make the weapon more responsive, make it possible to use Into the Void directly after the Mesmer has casted the Temporal Curtain.

The Prestige

Disappear in a cloud of smoke, blinding nearby foes. Reappear three seconds later, burning nearby foes.

Damage: 151
Stealth (3s): Invisible to foes.
Blind (5s): Next outgoing attack misses.
Burning (3s): 984 damage
Number of Targets: 5
Radius: 240
Combo Finisher: Blast
Recharge: 30

With the Condition changes, the Burning part of this skill became very weak at only one stack with such a low duration.
The feeling of a quick but intensive “flash” of fire when you come out of Stealth needs to be reinforced.
I propose to increase the number of Burning stacks to 5 (or at least something substantial), but keep the duration short at 3s.

Phantasmal Mage

Create an illusion that burns foes and grants fury to allies every 6s.

Damage: 244
Fury (3s): 20% Critical Chance
Burning (6s): 1968 damage
Number of Bounces: 3 (but only one bounce per target)
Range: 1,200
Recharge: 30

With the Condition changes, the Burning part of this skill became very weak at only one stack.
I think it would be interesting to design the Phantasmal Mage to increase in potency the longer it lives, that like a real fire it grows more dangerous with time.
This would be done by keeping the Burning stacks very low at 1 stack, but increase the duration of the weak 1 stack substantially (Perhaps to even 20s?). This makes it so that the longer the Phantasmal Mage stays alive and connects its attacks, the more potent the (lingering) Burn it applies will become.

Arcane Thievery

Send three conditions you have to your foe and steal three of their boons.

Range: 1,200
Unblockable
Recharge: 45

The only problem I have with this skill is the facing-requirement, it feels like a skill you can cast even without facing the target, but it doesn’t work (AFAIK).

Traits

Chaotic Dampening

Chaos armor grants protection. Staff and trident skills recharge faster while you have chaos armor (2% each 1s pulse)

This Recharge reducing Trait feels really weak, I would like it improved in some way.

Chaotic Persistence

Outgoing boon and condition duration increase for every boon on you.

Duration Increase: 3%

This Trait seems to not be functioning at all? Otherwise I like the idea.

The Pledge

Torch skills remove conditions. Torch skills recharge faster while you are in stealth.

Conditions Removed: 1
Recharge Reduction per Pulse: 1½%
Interval: 1s

As a Recharge reduction Trait, this Trait is terrible. It also promotes passive play by forcing the Mesmer to stay in stealth. I would like this Trait reworked somehow.

I would love to hear your thought on this, and if you have any additional feedback or experiences!

Reserved 15 chars

I am firmly in support of your changes to Cry of Frustration – add torment to it and lower the cooldown to make it the primary condition shatter “burst” button.

I think 1 stack per illusion should be sufficient though, and a base cooldown of 15 seconds.

With mtd and illusionary retribution, cry of frustration applies 4 stacks of torment and 8 stacks of confusion + also deal a small amount of direct damage. i think it’s perfectly fine as it is imo

mtd is a little weak yes, but cof seems alright to me

Telekinesis.8312:

With mtd and illusionary retribution, cry of frustration applies 4 stacks of torment and 8 stacks of confusion + also deal a small amount of direct damage. i think it’s perfectly fine as it is imo

mtd is a little weak yes, but cof seems alright to me

Compare CoF to Mindwrack in a power build.

How about a 2 illusion power mindwrack compared to a 2 illusion condition CoF. It’s not like it’s always possible to get a 4 illusion shatter off…

Double the cooldown for absolutely no reason, does pathetic condi stacks and damage in a condition build compared to the insane damage of mind wrack in a power build.

Hell, compare CoF to Mindwrack in a condition build. It’s funny that the only thing CoF has over Mindwrack in a condition build is 1 measly stack of confusion per illusion – all that for double the cooldown, when it should be the go to “condition burst” shatter button.

I think the best remedy to the MtD nerf without making condition shatter too powerful (as it could have been with 2 stacks) is buffing CoF to one base stack of torment per illusion for 4-6 seconds and shaving the cooldown.

It would have minimal impact in power builds (the conditions would have negligable impact), but be excellent for condition or hybrid shatter builds.

Curunen.8729:

Compare CoF to Mindwrack in a power build.

How about a 2 illusion power mindwrack compared to a 2 illusion condition CoF. It’s not like it’s always possible to get a 4 illusion shatter off…

Double the cooldown for absolutely no reason, does pathetic condi stacks and damage in a condition build compared to the insane damage of mind wrack in a power build.

Hell, compare CoF to Mindwrack in a condition build. It’s funny that the only thing CoF has over Mindwrack in a condition build is 1 measly stack of confusion per illusion – all that for double the cooldown, when it should be the go to “condition burst” shatter button.

I think the best remedy to the MtD nerf without making condition shatter too powerful (as it could have been with 2 stacks) is buffing CoF to one base stack of torment per illusion for 4-6 seconds and shaving the cooldown.

It would have minimal impact in power builds (the conditions would have negligable impact), but be excellent for condition or hybrid shatter builds.

probably for now, cof with another confusion or torment seems like a good choice, but considering balance patches every 2 weeks screams pre heart of thorns balance. chaotic dampening cd nerf, chill nerf yesterday etc..

i’m pretty sure they’re looking at alacrity with our present cooldowns.

Also, in condition builds, every shatter applies confusion + torment compared to power builds which probably might apply confusion if illusions trait line is chosen which deals peanut damage.

Condition needs every shatter (F1, F2 and even wasting the utility daze of F3) to still make up less damage than a single power mind wrack wrack burst combo with GS or similar. And damage that will very likely not go all the way due to cleansing.

Anyway, I agree and am also banking on alacrity at this point, as well as the chrono illusion traits – it could probably be as you say the reason for the mtd treatment and could be mandatory in condition shatter builds in the future.

Illusionary Riposte is apparently bugged, I just noticed recently. It doesn’t create illusion upon blocking. Not sure if anyone noticed this bug since no one hardly ever uses offhand sword. Played 50-100 games in ranked or unranked since the specialization took place and never seen a mesmer who was using sword as offhand. Maybe this one indeed needs a rework otherwise, no one will ever use it. How about evade for 1/2 sec, or gain boon after blocking, its phantasm do aoe damage or apply torment. Just needs to tweak a bit and this weapon will have a potential I think.

knkasa.2608:

Illusionary Riposte is apparently bugged, I just noticed recently. It doesn’t create illusion upon blocking.

It is a bit wierd, because I have had it create a clone sometimes, and sometimes not. Perhaps the clone-creation is cancelled if another action is taken too quickly?