Guild Wars 2

I’m trying to figure out how to use my mesmer best in PvE, mostly dungeon settings and events as I’ve got regular questing figured out. Is there ever a time in PvE where I’d want to use anything other than Mind Wrack as far as a shatter? The daze and confusion shatters don’t seem better than the raw damage of Mind Wrack and the protection shatter seems like more of an “oh s***” kind of thing.

Any help is appreciated!

The interrupt 1 is good against some foes that cast specific spells and diversion gives invulnerable cant go wrong with that

If you’re running a shatter build, like I do, then all of them. With Deceptive Evasion, Mirror Images, Decoy, GS 2, etc, you’ll get so many clones you can do F1-F3 with 3 clones all the time with almost no delay.
Should you? in solo PvE, mostly F1 and F2, and maybe press F3 for another stack of confusion. 9-10 stacks hit for nearly 3k, which is decent damage. In group PvE, use 3 clone shatters on all 3, because the 3 clone shatter F3 will pretty much put a 3 sec 25 vulnerability stack on the enemy, which will increase your entire group’s DPS.
If you time it well by shattering it then using mirror images do mind wreck, you’ll also get a nice group of numbers.

So in my opinion, yes. If you’re traited for shatters, all of them are good.

All of them are useful. If Mind Wrack is on CD and you want more damage, use Cry of Frustration. Contrary to popular belief, the confusion damage CAN be helpful in PvE, as most mobs use a skill or two. If you need to interrupt a powerful spell, use Diversion. If you need to protect yourself from damage, use Distortion. Honestly you should get the hang of using all four to maximize your survivability and damage. Mind Wrack is great, but the other three are just as amazing in their own niches.

TomSawyerAM.8701:

I’m trying to figure out how to use my mesmer best in PvE, mostly dungeon settings and events as I’ve got regular questing figured out. Is there ever a time in PvE where I’d want to use anything other than Mind Wrack as far as a shatter? The daze and confusion shatters don’t seem better than the raw damage of Mind Wrack and the protection shatter seems like more of an “oh s***” kind of thing.

Any help is appreciated!

Cry of Frustration needs to be timed to do anything significant, like right before the mob swings at you. It’s alright when Mind Wrack is on cooldown. Diversion however, is great at removing stacks of defiant. Distortion can be used as a clutch safety net, but it’s better to use it right before getting hit by a huge skill rather than after. You could also use it to rez allies reliably. Afaik Distortion negates every skill in game, you can solo that Hylek boss in Caledon forest without getting transformed just by using distortion every minute. You can even use it while cc’d!

Lol what I’ve noticed about Confusion in general in PvE, at least with Mesmer standard duration is that unless it’s timed really well, you can pretty much count on each stack hitting one time. Running rampager’s gear, Wrack isn’t actually that much more powerful than Frustration. If you run zerker’s though, or anything without condition damage, wrack + signet of illusions active would be a lot stronger if you want to spam shatter. That is as far as just damage goes, not counting any other utility such as vulnerability.

Cry of Frustration can be more powerful than Mind Wrack with the right build, but you can’t rely on it in a condition build like you can Mind Wrack with a power build; mainly because of the 2x CD.

Diversion as said can be great at removing 3 – 4 stacks of Defiant, other than that it isn’t really worth using if you could use MW or CoF.

MW – Is good damage with a power build, but I find it most useful when you spec for the extra crit and also have some precision.
CoF – Is a god send when it comes to condition damage, I encourage my guardians to aoe pull all mobs when he can and the CoF shatter my illusions in there, the mobs hit themselves for 3.5k Dmg when they attack. And if you time it right with mirror image you can hit for an additional MW and place even more confusion on your targets.
Distortion shatter – I use this heavily in AoE fights, since most of your clones will be turned to dust by the aoe anyway… I’d rather shatter them myself and mitigate the incoming damage, then attempt to dodge and lose my endurance and illusions in the process.
The interrupt I rarely use since daze does not stack, so you best be aiming for multiple targets with your clones, interrupt is a finesse skill which is hard to land because of the travel time of the illusion to its target. I only use it with the 30 point trait that causes the shatter effect on me as well.

i use distortion if i go melee, with your blurred frenzy, dodging and other clone tricks… lol throw in those protection traits, untouchable!! :P and then u can switch back to your ranged staff or gs or whatever no problem