Guild Wars 2

Hey, this thread is not about PvE.

I’ve just been thinking that mirage could run scepter and axe and would probably perform quite good with that choice. Now what offhand weapons would you use?
Torch seems to be the only weapon that is a condition choice.
Pistol needs to be traited, sword is purely power and focus also doesn’t offer a lot of condition pressure except for sharper images.
So if we don’t take dueling we’re pretty much stuck with only one offhand option aren’t we?
What do you guys think about that? Any ideas on how we could solve that? Should we go hybrid with grieving instead? :s

Me Games Ma.8426:

Hey, this thread is not about PvE.

It is now.

Me Games Ma.8426:

I’ve just been thinking that mirage could run scepter and axe and would probably perform quite good with that choice. Now what offhand weapons would you use?
Torch seems to be the only weapon that is a condition choice.
Pistol needs to be traited, sword is purely power and focus also doesn’t offer a lot of condition pressure except for sharper images.
So if we don’t take dueling we’re pretty much stuck with only one offhand option aren’t we?
What do you guys think about that? Any ideas on how we could solve that? Should we go hybrid with grieving instead? :s

This is why I have been saying that our offhands should get a buff since finding out Mirage only gets a MH. Torch will be good for burning but mostly because stealth is OP in this game. I wouldn’t dimiss sword outright as the block followed by evade is fairly decent. Focus has no condi but it does have great utility.

I would imagine Staff (and Chrono) would still be a better pick if you can’t decide though.

You know what’s going to be hard – things like Blurred Frenzy on 12s cooldown (I really wish they’d unnerf this back to 10s) or even Chaos Storm on 35s.

Alacrity is such a huge bonus to all cooldowns that I personally am going to find it strange to use untraited weapons with normal cooldowns.

Torch is certainly my preferred choice of offhand – will probably be going Axe/Torch + Staff as I currently run Sword/Torch + Staff for Chrono in pvp, wvw and open world pve.

Now, if in the balance update next week they finally move Warden’s Feedback to a separate tier from Restorative Illusions, I will definitely pick up Focus again. It’s the stupidest thing those two traits being mutually exclusive, especially given how weak Focus is in pvp currently – using it untraited is so kitten, and there’s absolutely no point taking Inspiration and not taking RI, unless you’re doing instanced pve where RI isn’t necessary. Sorry for the digression, had to rant and get that off my chest – love Focus but the trait placement is so stupid to make it playable in any form of pvp beyond trolling and pulling people off walls in wvw…

I would LOVE to use Axe/Focus. But if Duelling is preferred over Inspiration then I’ll probably be forced to use Torch.

Never really been a fan of Pistol or offhand Sword, but depending on trait reshuffling I might try Axe/Pistol for fun. Torch would be more effective though as you’d have two detargeting skills on that set (Axe 3 and Prestige). If I’m going to play it I want to really force the opponent to struggle to maintain target – hence definitely using the other target break utility and maybe even Decoy to be annoying.

Mirage condi clear and sustain is non existant so Inspiration is still going to be manditory, its illusions generation is crap as well and Dueling has good synergy with vigor and bleeds so I find it hard to see a build that isn’t Dueling/Inspiration/Mirage.

Levetty.1279:

Mirage condi clear and sustain is non existant so Inspiration is still going to be manditory, its illusions generation is crap as well and Dueling has good synergy with vigor and bleeds so I find it hard to see a build that isn’t Dueling/Inspiration/Mirage.

New mantra of Resolve together with cleanse on dodge could be enough (then also things like The Pledge and Cleansing sigils). RI won’t be as good for Mirage as for Chrono due to no alacrity and no chronophantasma/IR so gameplay will be much less shatter spam – wasting shatters to clear condi might not be optimal. In Chrono you can do it because you’ve always got more illusions immediately and shatter skills cool down so fast.

Illusions is going to be crucial, not only for condi traits but also for things like -20% on all illusion summoning skills.

Personally I’m going to be going Duelling/Illusions/Mirage and building in energy sigils (and endurance regen food for wvw) together with suitable runes (will have to wait and see what new runes get released with PoF first) and aim for maximising evades. Also things like DE and Evasive Mirror are going to be very fun to play with.

I forgot about the pledge. Mantra of resolve could help but 24 seconds to build up a charge isn’t exactly appealing. Cleanse on dodge traits is definitly getting a fairly hefty ICD unless it loses the stun break and picking it removes a lot of our condi preasure. All those condi cleanses could add up to be enough I guess but PvP looks like its heading to even more condi spam so I’m not convinced.

You are right about Mirage not being able to shatter as much though so I’m no longer convinced Inspirations will be enough, You do get the condi removal on heal trait though.

Keep in mind, Jaunt, their elite cleanses 1 condi according to the tooltip. 3 charges with a 20 sec cooldown.

Also, i’m actually glad Mirage doesn’t seem to focus on shattering. I always found shattering to be the least interesting mechanic of mesmer. Clones & Phantasms ftw.

As for offhand I can see pistol being quite useful with Dueling. However, this all depends on how much more useful 1 or 2 phantasms will be compared to 2 or 3 illusions.

If not, Torch will be better, even if its just for the burn on #4 (after the delay) and on the phantasm spawn. (just do shatter it if keeping it up is considered a dps loss.)

I’m still interested to see how phantasms will interact with mirage cloak. Will they perform an ambush attack as well? If not, will they at least attack as soon as they gain mirage cloak? If that answer is yes, then pistol OH could be pretty good if you get 3 pistol phantasms up

Really doubt phantasms will get that. Even tho I hope they do.

Levetty.1279:

I forgot about the pledge. Mantra of resolve could help but 24 seconds to build up a charge isn’t exactly appealing. Cleanse on dodge traits is definitly getting a fairly hefty ICD unless it loses the stun break and picking it removes a lot of our condi preasure. All those condi cleanses could add up to be enough I guess but PvP looks like its heading to even more condi spam so I’m not convinced.

You are right about Mirage not being able to shatter as much though so I’m no longer convinced Inspirations will be enough, You do get the condi removal on heal trait though.

Yeah definitely Mender’s Purity is the biggest loss from Inspiration. Currently I play with Mantra of Recovery using Mender’s Purity and Restorative Mantras and the condition removal/healing this provides is huge. I’m going to miss both these traits if dropping Inspiration.

Does the new Mirage heal also cleanse conditions as standard or am I mistaken?

No, so far its only GM skill and the elite that removes a condition. I think we are still missing 2 utilities though.

kitten that’s a shame.

Looks like there are some additional changes that may be worth considering. The Prestige now removes a condition without its trait. Mistrust and Ineptitude have swapped places, and it appears as though Ineptitude now applies two stacks of confusion on blind. Thematically Ineptitude belongs in Dueling, but I’ll personally miss grabbing both Mistrust and Master of Fragmentation. Will be interesting to see what other changes come through.

Allarius.5670:

Looks like there are some additional changes that may be worth considering. The Prestige now removes a condition without its trait. Mistrust and Ineptitude have swapped places, and it appears as though Ineptitude now applies two stacks of confusion on blind. Thematically Ineptitude belongs in Dueling, but I’ll personally miss grabbing both Mistrust and Master of Fragmentation. Will be interesting to see what other changes come through.

Can U give link to footages with this changes?

What, prestige removes one condition as standard? :o Oh that’s so sexy!

Hrm, meh. I mean for competitiveness ofc I like these things, but does every skill need to be a “kitchen sink” thing?

The average skill nowadays has 3-4 effects it seems, and that’s without traits.

I’d much rather have people have one go-to skill for condi removal, and well, it’s good. But it’s that. Want condi removal, take it.

I suspect the limit to 10 hotbar slots makes this inevitable though, we lack the ability to have lots of single-focus skills, with so few available everything needs to provide a little bit of everything.

pico.6402:

Can U give link to footages with this changes?

Sorry for the delay, went to bed shortly after posting. The footage is in Wooden Potato’s after show. For a brief moment he passes over The Prestige at some point. He also has the trait panel open multiple times and you can see the trait swap. Unfortunately I couldn’t find any preview video where trait lines other than Dueling, Illusions, and Mirage were open. Aurora Peachy’s long elite spec preview video has a moment where it hovers over Phantasmal Mage and I did not see any changes there. I certainly could’ve missed something and there is always the possibility one or more of these changes don’t make live.

Tnx for replie, unfortunatly WP did not showed so much like with warrior on last clip. kitten, just can’t wait till tuesday

I can’t wait to see what other buffs there are! :p Prestige baseline condi removal already makes me happy.

Also can’t wait to see what stuff is moved around in the traitlines – I so sincerely hope Warden’s Feedback is moved to adept tier or even Restorative Illusions moved to GM tier so I can enjoy using Focus again with both those traits.

Just hope they don’t kill anything/nerf anything else too hard.

A few educated guesses based on what snippets we have seen.

The fall damage reduction trait will be merged with another trait, I’m guessing the staff trait and we will get a new trait in its place. This is happening with Warrior so I am guessing its the same on all classes.

WP hovered over the normal auto attack of staff and its the same, so burning on staff will still not recieve the buff every other source of burning got when they made burning stack intensity.

Our mantras will get the same recharging mechanic that we have seen on resolve with a new effect on charging it up and a posible buff to the skill activation.

Since Staff auto isn’t getting buffed and Axe auto looks terrible, I wouldn’t hold my breath about any of our autos getting brought up to the level of other classes auto attacks. Possibly a small single digit % buff to sword since they pop up every so often.

If every class is being treated as well as Warrior, we should get a few more trait merges and new traits as well.

I’m worried about mantra of recovery.

I mean if the new mantra charge regeneration mechanic exists and it retains its low cooldown, then with its interaction with restorative mantras and menders purity (which if power cleanse is being buffed to remove 3 conditions and they don’t change this trait) is going to be an insanely powerful heal… and it’s already an insanely powerful heal when taking things like alacrity into account.

I’m fearing a cooldown nerf for it, but I hope it survives and remains a great heal.

Oh also, something might be happening to Signets. On WP stream he mentioned signet buffs it but to me it sounded like it was just Necro. But I heard another streamer (I think Bog Otter, can’t remember) mention it like it was a global buff to Signets.