Guild Wars 2

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at redesigning the traits for our beloved class. It is by no means a “finished” work. There’s a lot of stuff I’m not happy with, but I wanted some feedback on the ideas and the general direction I’m pointing at.

Some premises: I started doing this only because I wanted to familiarize better with our traitlines and the basic design behind our class. I don’t pretend to have the ultimate solution to all mesmer problems, I made all of this just for fun. Also: the names of the new traits are terrible, any suggestions are welcome

Trying to “drill down” and categorize our traits was enlightening to say the least: we’ve been called an “utility” class for a long time, yet we have very poor support options (only 5 traits), while a huge amount of traits are dedicated to our own survival (16 in my categorization). We have lots of major traits related to our class mechanic (14 traits somewhat related to shatters), yet only 5 for phantasms. And we have lots of traits unrelated to anything else (cooldown and range for manipulations, glamours, signets, etc).

Another thing I noticed is how many traits felt “misplaced”: for example we get confusion on clone death on a Precision/Ferocity traitline and yet Phantasm damage in a Vitality/Healing traitline. Our traits are spread all over the place and that doesn’t help while making our builds.

Finally, another point that I never liked was that I felt like some of our traitlines lack a proper focus: while Domination and Dueling are quite on point (nice synergy with the stats and traits), some others felt weird, like our Illusion traitline, tied with Condition Damage, while for a long time we didn’t have any real option for condi shatter.

I started by reworking the focus of each traitline and switching some stats around.

Domination
Focus: Control/Damage – Direct damage
Stats: Power, Condition Duration

Dueling
Focus: Damage/Survival – Phantasms
Stats: Precision, Ferocity

Chaos
Focus: Survival/Control – Conditions
Stats: Toughness, Condition Damage

Inspiration
Focus: Support/Survival – Boons & Healing
Stats: Healing Power, Boon Duration

Illusions
Focus: Damage/Support – Shatters
Stats: Vitality, Shatter cooldown

The basic idea is to make Domination and Chaos the preferred traitlines for Interrupt builds, Dueling for Phantasms, Chaos a good choice for tanky and Condi builds, Inspiration for anything support-oriented and Illusions for Shatter builds.

Edit: added a screenshot of the current iteration

Trait allocation

I moved some traits around, promoted, demoted, deleted or reworked some others and created a lot of new traits.

Domination

• Minor: Mind Crippling (new: see below), Dazzling, Domination of the Powerless (new)
• Adept Major: Halting Strike, Mental Torment, Ethereal Dazzle (new), Empowered Illusions, Crippling Dissipation, Retaliatory Shield (moved from Dueling)
• Master Major: Shattered Concentration, Powerful Enchantments (new), Blade mastery (new/reworked: see below), Illusionary Elasticity (moved from Illusions)
• Grand Master Major: Confounding Suggestions, Power Block, Empowering Mantras

Dueling

• Minor: Critical Infusion, Sharper Images, Phantasmal Strength (moved from Inspiration)
• Adept Major: Far-Reaching Manipulations, Phantasmal Fury, Masterful Reflection (moved from Chaos), Confusing Strikes (new), Precise Wrack (moved from Illusions), Persisting Images (moved from Inspiration)
• Master Major: Protected Mantras, Cleansing Inscriptions (moved from Chaos), Off-hand mastery (new/reworked), Phantasmal Haste (moved from Illusions)
• Grand Master Major: Phantasmal Compensation (new), Triumphant Distortion, Harmonious Mantras

Chaos

• Minor: Confusing Combatants (demoted and moved from Dueling), Illusionary Membrane, Chaotic Transference
• Adept Major: Desperate Decoy (moved from Dueling), Descent into Madness, Master of Manipulation, Illusionary Defense, Debilitating Dissipation, Master of Misdirection (moved from Illusions)
• Master Major: Bountiful Interruption, Blinding Befuddlement (reworked: see below), Mirror of Anguish (reworked), Malicious Dampening (new/reworked)
• Grand Master Major: Chaotic Interruption, Prismatic Understanding, Chaotic Generosity (new)

Inspiration

• Minor: Metaphysical Rejuvenation (moved from Chaos), Phantasmal Healing, Strength of the Lambs (new)
• Adept Major: Medic’s Feedback, Glamour Mastery, Protective Illusions (new), Mender’s Purity, Mantra Mastery (moved from Dueling), Compounding Celerity, Reliable Glamours (new)
• Master Major: Illusionary Thaumaturgy (new), Blurred Inscriptions (moved from Dueling), Restorative Mantras
• Grand Master Major: Empowered Generosity (new), Shattered Conditions, Restorative Illusions (reworked)

Illusions

• Minor: Illusionary Retribution, Illusionists Celerity, Shattered Strength
• Adept Major: Vigorous Revelation (moved from Inspiration), Confusing Cry, Compounding Power, Restorative Glamours (new), Illusionary Invigoration (demoted), Signet Mastery (moved from Domination)
• Master Major: Empowering Phantasms (new), Explosive Illusions (new), Bountiful Dissipation (new), Deceptive Evasion (moved from Dueling)
• Grand Master Major: Illusionary Persona, Persuasive Illusions (new), Maim the Disillusioned

New and reworked traits

• Blade Mastery, Domination Master Major: Sword, Greatsword and Spear skills recharge 20% faster. Grants 100 power and 100 precision while wielding a Sword, Greatsword or Spear.
• Blinding Befuddlement (reworked), Chaos Master Major: Applies one stack of Confusion when you Blind a foe. No ICD.
• Bountiful Dissipation, Illusions Master Major: Your illusions grant a random boon to 5 allies in a 240 unit radius when killed.
• Chaotic Generosity, Chaos Grand Master Major: Each time you apply a boon, you also apply another random boon (will not proc on itself or similar effects like Bountiful Dissipation and Bountiful Interruption)
• Confusing Strikes, Dueling Adept Major: Critical hits have a chance (30%) to inflict confusion (3s).
• Domination of the Powerless, Domination Minor Grand Master: Increase damage by 10% on targets afflicted by Immobilize, Chill, Cripple, Slow or any Control effect. (still not very happy with this)
• Empowered Generosity, Inspiration Grand Master Major: Each boon application is doubled (Intensity over Duration). For example, Mirror Blade will apply 6 stacks of Might per bounce (same duration) and Temporal Curtain 24s of Swiftness. (this is probably OP, 50% would be a better number, maybe rounding upwards for the stacks, so 1 stack becomes 2 and 5 stacks becomes 8 )
• Empowering Phantasms, Illusions Master Major: Phantasms grant Might to nearby allies (10s every 10s).
• Ethereal Dazzle, Domination Adept Major: Ethereal fields pulse Blind for 1s each second. (maybe too strong for Adept?)
• Explosive Illusions, Illusions Master Major: Illusions damage surrounding targets when killed. (the damage would be similar to the direct damage on Cry of Frustration)
• Illusionary Thaumaturgy, Inspiration Master Major: Increase healing done by 5% for each active illusion. (not healing power, but the actual healing effect)
• Malicious Dampening, Chaos Master Major: Staff, Scepter and Trident skills recharge 20% faster. Grants 100 toughness and 100 condition damage while wielding a Staff, Scepter or Trident.
• Mind Crippling, Domination Minor Adept: When you or your Illusions apply Cripple or Chill to an enemy, you have a chance (33%) to also apply Slow for 1s. (Slow will be strong, but we don’t have many sources of Chill and Cripple, so the chance seems fair even for a minor adept)
• Mirror of Anguish (reworked), Chaos Master Major: You have a 33% chance to mirror the disabling effect back to its source. No ICD. (strong, as a Master trait should be, but RNG based because… Chaos)
• Off-hand Mastery, Dueling Master Major: Off-Hand weapon skills recharge 20% faster. Torch skills remove conditions. Focus skills reflect projectiles. Pistol range is increased to 1200.
• Persuasive Illusions, Illusions Grand Master Major: Your clones mirror your behaviour, dodging, switching weapons and using the same skills you do. They still do the usual clone damage.
• Phantasmal Compensation, Dueling Grand Master Major: Increases your damage by X%, and by another X% for every Clone or Inactive Illusion. (basic idea behind this is: you get a sizable direct-damage bonus when/if you are not using your Phantasms, the numbers should be adjusted so it feels like a decent tradeoff in PVE or WvW zergs, but not overpowered)
• Powerful Enchantments, Domination Master Major: Null Field strips 2 boons and cleanses 2 conditions per pulse. Veil Stealth duration increased to 4 seconds. Portal charges increased to 30. Feedback lasts 30% more. (or maybe make Feedback 20% bigger?)
• Protective Illusions, Inspiration Adept Major: Creating a clone grants 1 second of Protection (2s ICD). (maybe OP, tweak the ICD for non-OPness)
• Reliable Glamours, Inspiration Master Major: Veil grants 3 stacks of Stability for 3s. Null Field and Feedback pulse 1 stack of Stability each second. Going through an active Portal grants 5 stacks of Stability for 5s (10s ICD for portal).
• Restorative Glamours, Illusions Adept Major: Veil grants Regen for 8s. Null Field and Feedback heal X per second. Going through an active Portal restores 30% of max health (10s ICD for portal). (again, tweak the numbers for non-OPness, considering it’s an Adept…)
• Restorative Illusions (reworked), Inspiration Grand Master Major: When you shatter your illusions, you heal yourself and your allies for a small amount.
• Strength of the Lambs, Inspiration Minor Grand Master: Gain Power based on your Healing Power (10%).

TL;DR:

• Consolidation of weapon traits in only 3 Master traits in Domination, Dueling and Chaos;
• Rework of Glamour traits and the old “Glamour meta”, now focused on Ethereal Fields instead
• Many new options for support
• Traitlines that make sense, should be easier to get all you want for one build, so you can have better build variety

I left out many traits that weren’t so bad only because I wanted to keep the number of traits the same as the current ones, but as far as we know there is no limit to the number of Major traits in each tier, so the new traits could possibly be added instead of replacing something that already exists.

This is very extensive and hard to fully take in right now, but I’ll thank you ahead of time for the effort you put into this redesign.

I’ve already spotted some really interesting ideas and concepts.

Yeah it’s a huge wall of text :P I added a screenshot of the spreadsheet, it’s a lot easier to follow

Hi is very interesting suggestion you propose, I focused Suggest some more thoughts to the confusion, because i think the mesmer needs to draw more this condition in its favor, because it is a condition typical of mesmer.

- Blinding befuddlement:

Applies one stack of Confusion when you Blind a foe. No ICD.

or

Applies 3 stack of Confusion when you Blind a foe. 6s ICD

-Malicious sorcery:

- Increased condition confusion and torment damage (only confusion and torment) while wielding a scepter (15% extra damage). Reduces recharge on scepter skills.

or

- Increased damage condition (condition 300 extra damage) and attack speed (33%), while wielding a scepter. Reduces the recharge on skills scepter. It would be a Grandmaster of illusion trait.

-Confusing Enchantments:

- Glamour skills cause confusion (3 of confusion of 5s) to foes who enter or exit their areas.

or

- Glamour skills cause confusion (1 of confusion of 5s) in the area in each pulse. Each pulse is unblockable.

New trait suggestion

-Frustrations confusing (Trait Grandmaster in Domination)

- Your confusion hurt every 3s when the enemy does not use any skills. When an enemy fails his attack (only when blindness or avoided) applies 2 of confusion (3s).

-Repentance confusing (Trait Grandmaster is Caos)

- You get retaliation (3s) when enemies with confuses hit you (50%)

I could continue to make more suggestions, then put more, but am more interested to focus on the damage condition in confusion with the mesmer. Greetings to you

I haven’t read the whole post(s) in depth, but from what I was skimming through, it all sounded very well put together, and some of those traits sounds absolutely delicious!

Persuasive Illusions, Illusions Grand Master Major: Your clones mirror your behavior, dodging, switching weapons and using the same skills you do. They still do the usual clone damage. I smiled at this….

Some are pretty OP, like: Blade Mastery, Malicious Dampening, Chaotic Generosity, Empowered Generosity and Mind Crippling with Crippling Dissipation.

But loads of really good ideas!

Also triple cooldown reduction to offhand sword? Yes please.

edit: and “Ethereal Dazzle, Domination Adept Major: Ethereal fields pulse Blind for 1s each second. (maybe too strong for Adept?)” would be way too strong even for GM trait. This would make all our fields throw in a free Well of Darkness.

looks solid and i wont say don’t keep it up. there’s some well thought out stuff in here.

My only suggestion would be that in making and drafting such things out, make sure to look over things as a whole.

While it’s not possible to make some combos, it would be possible to create others and too much synergy between traits that are too strong creates a LOT of QQ and a quick and short drive to the Nerf Hammer farm.

Example :

Persuasive Illusions + Mind Crippling + Blinding Befuddlement + Ethereal Dazzle

These would not be exclusive in a 20/0/20/0/30 build.

Provided Persuasive illusions causes to gain the ability to use attacks such as Chaos Storm (Chances to proc chill) Or various other attacks that can inflict cripple (we have a handful on our weapons) This is very strong all on its own. Combine it with Slow and the Ethereal field from staffs Chaos storm and you have a huge CC bomb that also spams blind and stacks confusion through the roof.

These should probably be relocated or adjusted to be less mutual and more exclusive or just tone down the ability to exponentially escalate to outlandish potentials.

Swish.2463:

My only suggestion would be that in making and drafting such things out, make sure to look over things as a whole.

absolutely

Swish.2463:

Provided Persuasive illusions causes to gain the ability to use attacks such as Chaos Storm (Chances to proc chill) Or various other attacks that can inflict cripple (we have a handful on our weapons) This is very strong all on its own. Combine it with Slow and the Ethereal field from staffs Chaos storm and you have a huge CC bomb that also spams blind and stacks confusion through the roof.

I think my wording or Persuasive Illusions is a bit off, I only mean for the clones to drop “cosmetic” skills, without any effect on the enemy except the (very low) clone damage.
It’s only meant as a trait to increase our “visual clutter” for some defensive play.

Noss.4105:

Some are pretty OP, like: Blade Mastery, Malicious Dampening, Chaotic Generosity, Empowered Generosity and Mind Crippling with Crippling Dissipation.

You think the amount of stats from the weapon traits is too much? I don’t know… it’s sort of a nerf for scepter (from 200 to 100 condi damage), but a slight buff for everything else.

My reasoning behind it is: right now, you take the trait mostly for the cooldown, the stats are a small addiction, but nothing you can really “feel”. With strong alternatives in the Master tier, you would want more of an incentive to take the trait (the cooldown is good, but is it good enough?).

The “Generosity” traits feel a bit OP to me as well, but I liked the idea. Maybe some number tweaking (or an ICD for Chaotic Generosity) will fix it…

I don’t think Mind Crippling with Crippling Dissipation would really be OP, it’s still one chance in 3 dead clones to apply Slow for 1s (and it can be dodged/blocked, etc).

Noss.4105:

Also triple cooldown reduction to offhand sword? Yes please.

that wasn’t intended to happen :P
as I said, it’s only a first iteration

Noss.4105:

edit: and “Ethereal Dazzle, Domination Adept Major: Ethereal fields pulse Blind for 1s each second. (maybe too strong for Adept?)” would be way too strong even for GM trait. This would make all our fields throw in a free Well of Darkness.

Well of Darkness is a bit different (unblockable, blinds for 3s instead of 1) and I would argue that that skills feels underpowered.

I agree that Ethereal Dazzle in the current iteration feels too OP for Adept, although I disagree with it being too strong for GM or even Master. It would apply to Null Field, Feedback, Chaos Storm and TimeWarp, all of them are long or very long cooldowns…

I checked the wiki and thieves Black Powder is 2s blind every 2s… maybe that would be a good value for this trait too.

Part of me really wants to engage in this because it looks far more interesting than what we currently have.

I really like your consolidation of weapon cooldown traits, which both makes sense and also makes room for more interesting new traits and should have the effect of increasing trait choice in any build.

The other part of me is concerned with wasting effort on an exercise that will 99% be ignored by the people who have the power to implement such changes…

@Menaka
Yeah, I think the stats for the weapon traits are too strong, considering you’d potentially get CD reductions for both weapon sets. Just compare to other weapon traits across the professions.
I like the idea of Chaotic Generosity, but without ICD you could stack yourself full of boons with staff.

Also I think you’re mistaking Crippling Dissipation with Debilitating Dissipation, Crippling Dissipation is always cripple.

Mesmer with proper stats on traitlines with useful skills? INFERIOR! :o

I like this, rly good work man… but Anet /carelsess at Mesmer since game start. For some reason i think some ppl at Anet hate mesmer. My traits Idea:

For DPS phantasm(its more pve):
Adept Inspiration Trait>Phantom Decive: Pantoms Are immune to AoE attacks(including Boos AOE, but still cleave works on them)

Why/ idea
Im sick of this that i spend 5s to summon phantoms then they die insta in 0,5s its not how a “3D curses” should work

Illusion Ttrait:

Grand Master>Phantom Master> You cast phantoms 50% faster, they do 50% more dmg, and attack 50% faster (Numbers can get more balance if need)

why/idea
Im rly miss strong phantom build, i think as GM Illusion is best place for it for every mode in game, its can be combined with Inspiration(Phantom Decive)/Dueling for strong Phantom dps, and make us free frome Mantra builds.

Inspiration Trait:
Grand Master Inspiration> Illussional Influence> clones, Phantoms on kill or shatter provide now Blast Finisher

why/idea
ITs counter part to strong phantom dps, and take an advantage for phantoms being easy to kill to provide team support

More PvP Chaos Trait

Adept or Grand Master Chaos> Blackout: Ethernal fields now have 50%chance to Daze their Targets

why/idea
I rly want a comeback of Interrupt Mesmer, as Adept it will work great with 6 Domination 4 Chaos 4 in anything else next good viable build.

Curunen.8729:

The other part of me is concerned with wasting effort on an exercise that will 99% be ignored by the people who have the power to implement such changes…

probably… but the act of creation (especially if you set some “constraints” to it) is fun and keeps our brains alive!

… and one can always hope they get some hints from this

Noss.4105:

@Menaka
Yeah, I think the stats for the weapon traits are too strong, considering you’d potentially get CD reductions for both weapon sets. Just compare to other weapon traits across the professions.

I would surely love a similar consolidation on other classes (for example, Warriors). I don’t think weapon traits provide so much diversity that they deserve a single trait for each weapon, it feels to me like a waste and a silly constraint to build diversity.

The amount of stats is the same you would get from any food buff. Doesn’t really feel like “too much” to me, but numbers can always be tweaked

Noss.4105:

I like the idea of Chaotic Generosity, but without ICD you could stack yourself full of boons with staff.

True. It really needs an ICD. kitten , I hate ICDs

Noss.4105:

Also I think you’re mistaking Crippling Dissipation with Debilitating Dissipation, Crippling Dissipation is always cripple.

Yep, but Mind Cripple only has a 33% chance to apply Slow, so – on average – 1 clone death every 3 will apply it (if it doesn’t get dodged/blocked/etc), doesn’t feel really OP to me, but again, numbers can be tweaked…

Menaka.5092:

Yep, but Mind Cripple only has a 33% chance to apply Slow, so – on average – 1 clone death every 3 will apply it (if it doesn’t get dodged/blocked/etc), doesn’t feel really OP to me, but again, numbers can be tweaked…

Oh right, I missed that. My bad.

Bring back the offensive potential of glamours already devs.