Guild Wars 2

Proposal:
Move DE to Illusions Major Master

Add a “Make Illusion on weapon swap” to Dueling in its place, either as major adept or major master, depending on balance

Remove/combine some of the traits in illusions that nobody cares about to make room for DE

Good Results:

DE becomes slightly less powerful because it does not synergize with vigor on critical in dueling but more powerful because it does fit more naturally with the shatter trait line.

There is still a valid and controlled way to get a clone in dueling (which has other on swap traits, viz the ranger)

Shatter builds could start coming in more flavors, ones that use both the clone on swap and ones that do not. This would buff the pure shatter for sure, but that is a bit needed. It may also spawn many hybrid builds that take 20 in something other than dueling.

This also indirectly tones down the PU build by forcing them to spread points more if they want DE clone on death craziness and other good stuff in dueling(ie vigor, bleed on crit, etc)

May encourage more hybrid phantasm builds as well, since it does not couple clone creation to the dodge for survival mechanic.

Reasons:
The reason I dislike the current situation is that nobody makes a mesmer build without at least some points in dueling. The reason is that, except for phantasm, all builds need more clone generation. Making another method to create clones seems essential to actually moving away from 20 in dueling for an effective build. With the change to critical infusion, you may think twice about dueling and instead pick up the vigor on shatter trait in inspiration or something else entirely. That seems good: when it’s not obvious what every mesmer should take for their traits.

Thanks for reading.