Guild Wars 2

Heya I have recently been trying out a Mesmer and I have noticed that clones do not do much damage, what is the point of them in pve?

They are an externalized resource for your Shatter mechanic. Ever play a combo point class in other MMOs? (Namely WoW Rogues/Druids in cat form, but some other MMOs too). It’s like that, except your resource is a physical Illusion.

On the one hand it’s bad because it makes the resource less reliable since they die so easily (especially in higher end content). On the other hand they can distract aggro from you and are helpful to stand behind to block projectiles for you.

Ever tried to hit F1? If you got some practice, try F2 – F4.

On higher levels, they help me a lot to solo all those champions.

You have to see ’em as resource you got to manage. Unfortunately, it is all more or less trait related, so the Mesmer is a class that needs time to evolve.

Staff clones do some damage from conditions. Sword clones apply vulnerability and remove boons. When you have 15 pts in Dueling, all clones apply a bleed stack on crits.

Other than that, they do negligible damage, but serve as meat shields, shatter fodder, and possibly apply some other conditions with traits.