Guild Wars 2

Wastrel’s Punishment trait say you deal 5% more damage to “Inactive foes”.

What exactly does an “inactive foe” refer to?

Foes not using skills, that is just moving, stunned, dazed etc … Just has to do with the use of their skills

Ah-ha! That is much better than the seemingly “not engaged in combat” that I thought it meant.

Thank you for your response!

Could you post a source for that info? It would be fantastic if that were the case, but I would also like to know more specifics.

seems like a pretty weak trait imo

Lucifer.6849:

seems like a pretty weak trait imo

It is actually probably better than some others.

More often than not mobs/players will not be using skills, just auto attacks. Also, the point of a mesmer is to make foes waste their cool downs on your clones.

As opposed to other classes who usually have the +5% damage for flanking, if the target is burning, etc. The enemy not using skills is more likely to happen than them being affecting by conditions and such.

now put that with confusion….

use skill take condition damage, u dont use skill u take +5% damage anyway

if thats true it might be worth looking into

Given that a Confusion build would be focused on condition damage, which does not benefit from % damage boosts; it’s not as good as it seems: either your Confusion damage is too weak to bother people or you won’t do enough direct damage to make WP significant.

Solanu, “auto attack” is a skill.

^

This. Autoattack is a skill.

There is a good segment of time when your target is between abilities, or running, or re-targeting, etc where Wastel’s Punishment applies.

Still, the window is a bit smaller than some other similar traits across the classes. I think 10% would be more on par.

Sounds good for pursuing targets when you have a GS on WvW.

There are far better trait options in all scenarios if you ask me.

I’ve always thought it had synergy with the dazes and stuns since the other minor traits in domination are relevant to that. If you have an attack chain that dazes/immobilize/stuns in order to unleash damage, with at least 25 in domination the +5% damage on top of the vulnerability stacks from the daze/interrupts is more than just a little helpful for bursting.