Guild Wars 2

After playing several games on many classes including mesmer, engineer, elementalist, and necromancer, it can has come to my attention that mantra of distraction, in combination with confounding suggestions is too strong in its current form.

First lets look at the amount of interrupts available to a mesmer. Typically you will have diversion, illusionary wave, and then chaos storm, the pistol 5 skill, or temporal curtain if you don’t go sword/torch. Those skills are all balanced and present a great deal of counterplay. Diversion takes time to set up and can be dodged, you can move out of a chaos storm, and you can dodge the GS 5. They provide skillful CC that has counterplay but is useful.

Now lets look at mantra of distraction. You precast it so you can instantly use the skill, so if you use it when someone isn;t dodging, invlun, or with a block or stability up it will hit. And when the skill only procced interrupts and dazed the target it was fine. You can still dodge and move when dazed, just not cast skills. But since confounding suggestions was buffed and made an adept tier trait (instead of a grandmaster trait), it is now far too strong in conjuction with the mantra of distraction. Sure theres a 5 second ICD, but I honestly don’t think thats enough to keep someone from literally stunlocking someone. Most builds can only afford to take 1 or 2 stunbreaks at the most, and unless that stunbreak lets you run away the mesmer will be able to stun you again in 5 seconds, and burst you while you’re stunned. Although I’m not certain of this, runes that increase stun duration could also be used to exacerbate the length of the stuns.

The problem with lockdown builds in the past is that they didn’t have enough damage to justify running them over shatter, and they actually had to proc an interrupt via chaotic interruption to apply the immobolize to lock something down. The patch gave them all the damage and burst they need from baseline traits and other various changes in the specialization that are too numerous to list here. Now, theres hardly a point in taking chaotic interruption, aside for the boonspam, since the stun from the adept trait is a more powerful and reliable form of of CC than the immobolize from a GM trait that needs an interrupt to even go through. Just use the mantra, stunblock and GS 243+mindwrack away.

I’m all for lockdown builds that rely on skill. Chaotic Interruption is fine. Powerblock, folded with halting strike, is fine. they’re skillful and reward you for proccing the interrupt. The damage from powerblock in a zerker/marauder set up is really high damage, but that seems fine as well. Confounding suggestions is not fine because it doesn’t rely on skillful intterupts and turns mantra of distraction into an instantcast stunlock button that lacks counterplay.

As it stands, unless you play a spec with lots of stability or invulns or dodges or disengage type stunbreaks, you will be hardcountered by a mesmer running the mantra with the trait. Engineers, necromancers, non celestial elementalists (or ones without armor of earth), are especially vulnerable to it.

So as to solutions, I suggest raising the ICD of confounding suggestions to at least 10 seconds, so you have more time to react before the next stunlock occurs. I’d also suggest toning down the mantra as well, either by increasing cooldown for recharging it to 40-45 seconds or nerfing its base daze duration.

TL;DR Together, Confounding Suggestions and Mantra of Distraction suck all the skill out of lockdown builds and need to be brought in line.

They should just nerf everything really.

I came in here with my pitchfork at the ready, but you only want to nerf interrupt stuff… so never mind.

I approve of this.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Confounding-Suggestions-Suggestion/first#post5204734

Good suggestion in that thread.

I agree, an ICD is needed – especially with mantras recharging in the background so you can go into a fight pretty much with 4 MoD charges (small delay for manual mantra recharge in the middle) untraited.

It is too much stunlock and I don’t think it’s good for the game.

Curunen.8729:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Confounding-Suggestions-Suggestion/first#post5204734

Good suggestion in that thread.

I agree, an ICD is needed – especially with mantras recharging in the background so you can go into a fight pretty much with 4 MoD charges (small delay for manual mantra recharge in the middle) untraited.

It is too much stunlock and I don’t think it’s good for the game.

Isn’t there a 5 second ICD? Thats how it is on the dulfy trait calculator. And yes stunlock isn’t healthy in a game this fast paced. If the fights were long and you couldn’t kill someone in one chain stun it wouldn’t be a problem.

I haven’t even experimented with MoD yet, but I agree with your overall sentiments. My suggestion without having done much thinking on the issue:

• Increase the icd to 15 seconds.
• Change the icd to work per foe similarly to Ineptitude.

MailMail.6534:

I haven’t even experimented with MoD yet, but I agree with your overall sentiments. My suggestion without having done much thinking on the issue:

• Increase the icd to 15 seconds.
• Change the icd to work per foe similarly to Ineptitude.

Head over here and voice your support to the idea:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Confounding-Suggestions-Suggestion/first#post5204814

Fay.2357:

MailMail.6534:

I haven’t even experimented with MoD yet, but I agree with your overall sentiments. My suggestion without having done much thinking on the issue:

• Increase the icd to 15 seconds.
• Change the icd to work per foe similarly to Ineptitude.

Head over here and voice your support to the idea:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Confounding-Suggestions-Suggestion/first#post5204814

+1

This is why we can’t ever have nice things. Patch has been out for a freaking day and already people are slacking at the jaws. Jesus Christ…..

Zera.8907:

This is why we can’t ever have nice things. Patch has been out for a freaking day and already people are slacking at the jaws. Jesus Christ…..

I see it like this: People are going to complain about it eventually, if cries get loud enough anet comes in to nerf it. In this way, we can get in front of the problem and actively discuss ways to tone it down before it is carelessly given a 15s ICD or something that’ll make it lousy (like poor MtD).

At least then devs have a chance to consider the input of the players actually testing the trait rather than Bobby Everyranger who just got smacked by a legitimately good lockdown Mesmer.

I would honestly suggest creating a stun chance as it used to be and increase the ICD, not MoD rofl rek build, now every other “mesmers are kitten” before are just rolling a level 2 scrub and running around like a brainless nitwit mashing keys, this irritates me especially because like many other fellow mesmers we have to conserve cool downs or face the consequences. When playing other classes I realise how unbalanced my main mesmer is. It is slightly different for WvW with larger spaces, but the thing with mesmer is, if you can’t run, you’re dead and that is not what mesmer is about. We are all about deception and timing. Now frankly… Practically a ranged thief with instant stuns.