Guild Wars 2

So it’s no secret that Torch is widely considered the worst offhand weapon set for mesmer. Personally, I disagree. After playing around with Sword/torch for over 3 weeks, in pve and dungeons, i’ve found some things it’s good at.

-The mage- While it was buffed some time ago to be a 3X3 confusion, Mage is still the worst damaging phantasm at our disposal. (excluding disenchanter and defender) However, with the buff came Retaliation, and that gives it a great support role for melee fighters.

-Prestige- What i’ve noticed is that almost EVERYONE hates this skill, simply because you sit there for 4 seconds while you get pounded by aoe. While the execution may be annoying, It does have a very good use. It’s TWO blast finishers. Yes, that’s right. The Aoe blind at the beginning counts as one, and the reappearance after is one. This makes it absolutely wonderful with an ele. 2 Mass heals? check. in a fire field, 6 stacks of might for everyone, etc.

So don’t sell this weapon short, simply because people say it’s useless. it most certainly isn’t.

However, with the buff came Retaliation, and that gives it a great support role for melee fighters.

Explain? Before it was 3s retaliation and 9s confusion. Now it’s 3s retaliation and 3s of confusion *3.

Some people dislike the new confusion on it, I’d like it, if I was cond build that is.

As for Prestige, seems Leap at first use and Blast after the channeling.

It is definitely nice to use as a blast finisher in pve.

The prestige has some nice uses in WvW roaming pvp it causes them to lose target lets you slip away for a few seconds while other cooldowns come back up or gain some distance etc. Also nice for separating mobs when soloing supply camps. When combined with decoy or mass invis you’re going to give someone in pvp/wvw in general a serious headache. Combined with scepter in wvw/pvp it will give you some quick confusion stacks combined with a condition shatter build w/illusionary persona you hit 15 stacks really quick and for fast attacking melee builds or even d/d elems they will melt in seconds if they don’t catch it.

The same can apply in PvE to of course if you know it’s a fast attacking npc or if you pop a heavy confusion combo before the mob strikes, takes some good timing and knowing strike patterns of what you’re fighting though but it can do some fairly large dmg. It’s essentially a good tool/setup for a condition build to have a burst/spike damage combo.

Another small PvE advantage would be in dungeons where people run past 90% of the content it’s a quick way to drop agro to get past something if other abilities are on CD you can always swap it back to something else after you’re past whatever.

AoE Blind is of course nice and good for reducing damage when aoeing a group of mobs if you’re traited for AoE Blind on glamours too you can chain several back to back but that is a very niche scenario/strategy combining all of them which is best used in WvW at choke points and for portal bombing.

It can also have a trait applied to be used for complete condition removal on 4/5 with 20 points in domination so it can be useful to power builds as well if they don’t want to slot utility skills for condition removal.

Suggestions/Improvements:

I do think the damage on Phantasmal Mage should still be improved upon and increase the base duration of the retaliation & confusion. A good way perhaps to increase its damage is have its “direct damage” component actually scale off condition damage instead since it’s mostly used by confusion builds in the first place and they’re going to be stacking heavy amounts of condition dmg. Would be nice if the scepter “direct damage” damage component actually scaled on condition dmg too would probably make it useful.

Given that the Prestige puts you out of combat for 3 full seconds I think it would better if it applied more conditions when you exited instead of only burning. Perhaps with the addition of poison, bleed, and a cripple along with the burning it would seem a bit more prestigious.

The fire blast should proc regardless whether you break stealth or not after the timer runs out. In PVE I’ve noticed that mobs can still single target you (as in not aoe), especially the stuff in Orr.

The mage is mostly worthless except as you mentioned in a melee heavy situation but because of the phantasm summing delay and the slow attack speed it its usefulness is debatable.

The torch with a Mesmer like several other offhands should be revised to make them less situational.

The Prestige just needs a alternate use button once activated. Push again to cancel stealth and activate the blast. That way you don’t have to sit around for 3-4 seconds to get your blast finisher. Would be great for added utility without destroying the “balance” for the skill.

Similar to the way Temporal Curtain/Into the Void works with the Focus #4.

For what suggestions you guys said, Many of them seem good.
@Disastro- Definitely agree with the not changing base damage. It’s supposed to be weak power wise. As for the change with the damage, I feel like it’d be too similar to vulnerability.

For prestige, It’d be awesome if it crippled on exit, but i don’t know how it could be made plausible. But it’d be noteworthy
(PS. have you tried running a full stealth build? It’s really good for pve, and it’s ok in WvWvW)

@Cirroq- Completely agree. the fire proc needs to proc regardless, that’d make it interesting when you roll out of it, making it the opposite of the elementalist’s evasive arcana.

The mage definitely needs a buff, but i feel it isn’t as useless as people say. I normally use it right after using leap, but before swap, so that i get retaliation as i open the fight. Plus confusion hurts. especially fast hitting mobs.

I just wish I could dodge while stealthed with the prestige. I hate that if I dodge out of an AOE I lose my fire blast. But still I never hated the torch, I just can’t live without my focus for the speed.

@purple- It sucks that we’re forced to run focus for the speed boost. I feel so gimped whenever I run sword and I’m not using focus in Orr, simply because of the lack of speed.

But tomorrow’s patches might contain more reliable speed boosts for mesmers, and hopefully a buff to torch.

gymdawg.6347:

As for the change with the damage, I feel like it’d be too similar to vulnerability.

I don’t see how it would by making it’s damage scale on +condition instead. Vulnerability and any other % base damage increase buff or debuff only effects “direct damage” condition damage gets 0 benefit from any of those.

gymdawg.6347:

@purple- It sucks that we’re forced to run focus for the speed boost. I feel so gimped whenever I run sword and I’m not using focus in Orr, simply because of the lack of speed.

But tomorrow’s patches might contain more reliable speed boosts for mesmers, and hopefully a buff to torch.

If tomorrow’s patch doesn’t include that I’d really recommend Centaur runes even with a condition build I don’t have to use focus for run speed. There is definitely some stat loss if you’re full condition but always on demand swiftness is nice..

#4:
The Pledge: Blind nearby foes. Field: Smoke.
->
The Turn: Deal 300 damage to nearby foes. Finisher: Blast.
->
The Prestige: Cause burning (2s) to nearby foes.

#5: iMage: Summon a phantasm that applies 4 stacks of confusion for 5s. Each hit also applies retaliation (3s) to all nearby allies. Number of bounces: 3.

What iMage needs is for Anet to fix the bug that prevents Illusions from benefiting from +condition/boon duration, e.g. from Master of Misdirection. Do that and the iMage will scale much better in condition builds.

The Prestige needs its channel removed so you can do things like heal or channel Mantras while stealthed. Having the Burn be activated is a nice idea too, although not required IMO.

There are many reasons to use Torch. . .
No one else does, so it’s unique!
It provides you with a light source in dark caves!
Sometimes you can make people think you are a ranger!
It’s warm!
How else are you gonna light your spliff?

Now seriously though, while great thoughts on reasons. . . Torch isn’t really in a good place right now, and until they patch we won’t know if they know it. I would say the skills it has feel clunky and awkward to use while not providing a good amount of damage on either end. Now if they make Mesmers more tanky and you can utilize the retaliation better. . . More passive cleanses and defenses would make that possible or just adjusting burst so it’s less front loaded would roughly do the same thing. The major issues I don’t think stem from the skills themselves but from the current design which makes so many of the other styles of play just less viable.