Guild Wars 2

I’ve been thinking about the possible future weapons of mesmers, and it hit me that it was odd that mesmers can summon phantasms that can use weapons that, they themselves, the mesmer can’t. We have Phantasmal Rogue: dagger, Phantasmal Warden: axe, Illusionary Whaler: harpoon gun, and Phantasmal Defender: shield. As mesmers are getting shield in Heart of Thorns, do you think there is a possibility that Anet is going to fill in the blanks per say, and give Mesmers the other weapons in future specialisations? I know pistol MH is very popular however, which out of the above weapons do you hope mesmers get access to first?

Odd things to note: Phantasmal Mage (Torch 5) doesn’t wield a weapon. It just uses it’s hands. Phantasmal Disenchanter (utility) and Phantasmal Warlock (staff 3) both wield scepters. There are no phantasms that wield a focus, a torch or a trident.

Well lets see, mesmers already have MH sword, scepter, gs, staff, spear and trident, offhand focus, torch and pistol.

We know the first spec is meant to be shield, i am hoping for a bow as the next one cause it would be interesting to see how a mesmer might use one, that or mh pistol.

Also an interesting question, what phantom will the shield bare?! Would be cool if it summoned a ranged combatant using something like a staff or lon/short bow.

Galeskyring.9617:

Also an interesting question, what phantom will the shield bare?! Would be cool if it summoned a ranged combatant using something like a staff or lon/short bow.

I’m pretty sure the shield phantasm will have taunt.

Noss.4105:

Galeskyring.9617:

Also an interesting question, what phantom will the shield bare?! Would be cool if it summoned a ranged combatant using something like a staff or lon/short bow.

I’m pretty sure the shield phantasm will have taunt.

Doesn’t mean it still wont be ranged, cough guardian cough spirit bow that doesnt damage it purges conditions last i checked, no reason the shield phantom can’t be ranged and taunt.

Hopefully anet will start clearing the mist on each spec soon.

I don’t think shield will have a phantasm skill. Anet are changing the class mechanics, it’s also been said that classes, that are only getting an OH weapon are getting compensated some other way. So I think that we are losing phantasm and clone generation (current clone and phantasm skills are getting changed) losing shatters and getting a different mechanic for the chronomancer.

Edit: words

Swift.9567:

I don’t think shield will have a phantasm skill. Anet are changing the class mechanics, it’s also been said that classes, that are only getting an OH weapon are getting compensated some other way. So I think that we are losing phantasm and clone generation (current clone and phantasm skills are getting changed) losing shatters and getting a different mechanic for the chronomancer.

Edit: words

They’d have to rework every Mesmer weapon in the game (well, every OH and 2H) not to mention a bunch of traits and utilities in order to remove phantasms and clones. They are ingrained to a huge degree into the Mesmer as a whole.

They could remove shatters easily enough and give some other triggered command related to clones, but I rather doubt they’ll remove clones altogether for that reason. Its just too much work and changes the class too much, and while they’ve said that specs are going to be like a sub-class and change up the way you play but I don’t think its going to be quite to that extent. And if I end up being wrong, then pleasant surprise I guess.

Plus, I was thinking earlier that I actually think a phantasm is the exact reason (or one of them) why Anet chose and OH weapon over a mainhand one. Mainhands don’t have phantasms, they’re all on either OH or 2H weapons. And you can’t really add one to a mainhand weapon even if you wanted to, as that would allow a single weaponset to have 3 phantasms (1 on the new MH, one on any OH, one on the 2nd weapon swap) and potentially skew balance. Considering there are entire builds based on phantasms, I think making sure they added a new one with the spec could have been something they were specifically aiming for.

As for whether they are specifically aiming to “fill out” Mesmer’s weapon with the ones our current phantasms use… I kind of doubt it, if only because of the Speargun phantasm. No class can use all 3 underwater weapon types, and I with how little attention Anet gives to underwater combat in general I kind of doubt they’ll ever add more to any class.

Besides, I think its more likely that most phantasms simply use a weapon that fits their attack. Warden essentially has Ranger’s OH Axe 5 as its attack, so it uses axes. Duelist is basically Theif’s unload, so it uses pistols just like a thief would.

I would be honest, I would love to get Iswordsman’s dodge attack on sword.

Yeah, the idea that offhand shield won’t include a phantasm/specializations are completely removing clones and such is patently absurd. Anet didn’t say ‘rebuild classes from the ground up’. They said ‘make changes to class mechanics’. We’ve already seen that there’s a keybind option for f5. Adding another shatter counts as a ‘change to class mechanics’ in my book.

To be honest fay, I am hoping that we see a change to our mechanic, along the lines of turning our clones into fields or something, that create passive effects that can be then be shattered. Essentially the mechanic is functionally the same, (an ai/construct based system) but as it becomes tied to a location rather than to physical ai, it enables a much more dueling/point holding focus to take place, something almost akin to turret engi…

Electro.4173:

Swift.9567:

I don’t think shield will have a phantasm skill. Anet are changing the class mechanics, it’s also been said that classes, that are only getting an OH weapon are getting compensated some other way. So I think that we are losing phantasm and clone generation (current clone and phantasm skills are getting changed) losing shatters and getting a different mechanic for the chronomancer.

Edit: words

They’d have to rework every Mesmer weapon in the game (well, every OH and 2H) not to mention a bunch of traits and utilities in order to remove phantasms and clones. They are ingrained to a huge degree into the Mesmer as a whole.

They could remove shatters easily enough and give some other triggered command related to clones, but I rather doubt they’ll remove clones altogether for that reason. Its just too much work and changes the class too much, and while they’ve said that specs are going to be like a sub-class and change up the way you play but I don’t think its going to be quite to that extent. And if I end up being wrong, then pleasant surprise I guess.

Plus, I was thinking earlier that I actually think a phantasm is the exact reason (or one of them) why Anet chose and OH weapon over a mainhand one. Mainhands don’t have phantasms, they’re all on either OH or 2H weapons. And you can’t really add one to a mainhand weapon even if you wanted to, as that would allow a single weaponset to have 3 phantasms (1 on the new MH, one on any OH, one on the 2nd weapon swap) and potentially skew balance. Considering there are entire builds based on phantasms, I think making sure they added a new one with the spec could have been something they were specifically aiming for.

As for whether they are specifically aiming to “fill out” Mesmer’s weapon with the ones our current phantasms use… I kind of doubt it, if only because of the Speargun phantasm. No class can use all 3 underwater weapon types, and I with how little attention Anet gives to underwater combat in general I kind of doubt they’ll ever add more to any class.

Besides, I think its more likely that most phantasms simply use a weapon that fits their attack. Warden essentially has Ranger’s OH Axe 5 as its attack, so it uses axes. Duelist is basically Theif’s unload, so it uses pistols just like a thief would.

Agreed, they won’t likely rip illusions out of mesmer, otherwise druids can’t be allowed to keep pets which we know they won’t take since the trailer already showed druid has pets.

If anet stripped illusions form mesmer (which is a core purpose of the concept) then rangers would lose pets as druids, and necros would lose minions as whatever their spec is and same for ele elementals. Cause if they didn’t we know the forums would be a rage pit about how it would be viewed as unfair.

But they did say they’d change mechanics, so wonder how they meant it, agreeably shatters might be changed or removed for something else. But i am kinda hoping for changeable weapon skills to add diversity there even if it would be work. Guess we have to wait and see.

Zarathustra.1458:

I would be honest, I would love to get Iswordsman’s dodge attack on sword.

Same, but i seriously doubt it, reason would be the screaming ’IT’S OP GET RID OF IT’ posts that would follow.

Phantasms are frail as it is, one that gets evade would be harped about as being too good for moments of indestructibility. But at least its attack is considered a lepa combo finisher so it gets auras form fields it leaps through, coating it in extra powers for short times like fire = flame aura which = burns when it get hit making foes suffer worse for striking said phantasm. If this particular phantasm got evade it would also break combo potential in that way.

I hope , but it’s an uthopy, that they’ll remove illusions ,clones and phantams, because they are practically unplayable in open fields (massive pve and wvw); but after years of bad decisions by arenanet around Mesmers I lost the faith. An off hand weapon and a F5 skill is not enough to compensate: elementalist will have a sword main hand with 20 skills ( if you count autoattacks as 3 skills) and others professions 5 skills (practically everyone will get a 2 handed weapon).

I really hope they’ll add another main hand weapon, reasoning:

At the moment you have:
- Sword, strong power focus
- Scepter, only condition dmg

This means when you do go power or condition in pvp you pick only one of these weapons.

Then you have these 5 offhands: focus, pistol, torch, sword, shield… all have nice mechanics and have potential in various builds but due to the main hand restriction you can only pick ONE.

=> add a main hand weapon => enable dual offhand builds => increase build variety by a kittenton.

I’m tempering my own expectations about Mesmers only receiving an off-hand shield. They said that they’re going to compensate for this but that really could mean anything. A new utility that opens up when the shield is equipped? Maybe the fabled F5 opens up to us? It’s anyone’s guess at this point but I’m not getting overly excited about what this could really mean.

phokus.8934:

I’m tempering my own expectations about Mesmers only receiving an off-hand shield. They said that they’re going to compensate for this but that really could mean anything. A new utility that opens up when the shield is equipped? Maybe the fabled F5 opens up to us? It’s anyone’s guess at this point but I’m not getting overly excited about what this could really mean.

honestly, there are bigger issues with Mesmers, many of the traits and skills should be reworked. For instsance, a grand master trait Power Block that’s completely ineffective against one class (thief) and soon another class (Revenant) is beyond any sense of logic. We need more synergy amongst our traits and kills to have more viable builds, this is the biggest reason Mesmers are not part of the meta in sPvP and lacking in other aspects of the game.