Guild Wars 2

I’m currently running a pretty classic condition mesmer for WvW(staff, scepter+torch, lots of invisibility, etc). I found myself playing against another mesmer, and struggled a little (still learning).

But it did prompt a question: when fighting against a mesmer, will your clones/phantasms tend to stay on the actual mesmer or will they be fooled by the enemy mesmer’s clones? Is my staff phantasm pretty worthless, in this case? I’m guessing they’re fooled, and in an MvM situation I have to rely on the conditions-on-kill from my illusions as well as my direct confusion application and so forth, but wanted to verify. (The fight was too frantic for me to pay attention to what my illusions were attacking)

Also, if the illusions are fooled by the enemy illusions, will they die when the illusions they are targeting die? Or will they actually switch since it’s still technically the same enemy? Hope that makes sense.

Thanks for your help!

—
basepi

Mesmer illusions are “locked” to a target when you create them. Specifically whatever target you have when you create them (that’s why they all require a target to be used). Whatever target they’re locked to when you use the ability, they’ll continue to attack until they die.

So whether your illusions are “fooled” depends on whether you’re fooled. If you target the real Mesmer when you summon your clones / phantasms, they’ll stay on the real target just fine. If you target a clone when creating them, then they’ll be stuck to that fake until it dies.

The only exception to this is the Deceptive Evasion trait, which spawns a clone “locked” onto the nearest attackable being (even ambient creatures) rather than what you have targeted.

Ah, great news! Thanks for the clarification. I’m happy that it’s all dependant on my skill (even though it will take work to perfect).

Deceptive Evasion was as I expected. But I rely on those to do damage when they’re overwritten, not with their attacks, so it’s fine.

That being said, if the mesmer stealths, the illusions will re-target onto a nearby target, then re-target onto the original target when they unstealth.

I’m just glad they retarget after stealth — was afraid stealth would fool them permanently or something.

Pyroatheist.9031:

That being said, if the mesmer stealths, the illusions will re-target onto a nearby target, then re-target onto the original target when they unstealth.

It seems to me that if the target stealths and moves out of range, the illusions will re-acquire a new target nearby and won’t resume the original target when they come back.
Is this true?

keenlam.4753:

Pyroatheist.9031:

That being said, if the mesmer stealths, the illusions will re-target onto a nearby target, then re-target onto the original target when they unstealth.

It seems to me that if the target stealths and moves out of range, the illusions will re-acquire a new target nearby and won’t resume the original target when they come back.
Is this true?

This is accurate and also sort of awesome.

Normally, illusions will dissipate if they lose their target. However, if the target stealths and runs out of range, illusions will simply stay where they are, and will immediately latch onto the first unfortunate soul to show up.