Guild Wars 2

In WvW or even in PvE, when an enemy has somehow picked you out among your clones and is dishing out the damage, forcing him to drop target and hiding again in plain sight among the clones is my primary concern. However, it seems that our ability to do this is severely limited.

Other than decoy and group invis, what skills will force an enemy to drop target on you? Some possibilities:

Blink: Not sure if teleport works. I’m thinking not.

Swap: Sword secondary skill after using Illusionary Leap which swaps your location with your clone. Drops target or not?

Portal: Same as a teleport? Doubt this drops target.

Decoy is on a 32s cooldown and Group invis is 90s. Is this all that we have?

As well as which skills drop a player’s target, I would also like to know which remove the targeting reticule he may have marked me with by using CTRL+T.

For now, I know that target drops if I use:
Decoy
Mass Invisibility
The Prestige (Torch #4 skill)
Desperate Decoy (Trait 10 pts in Dueling)

The abilities I am curious about are:
Phase Retreat (Staff #2 skill)
Mirror Images
Swap (Sword #3 chain skill)
Blink

Again, making my enemy drop my target is step one, but just as importantly is making the targeting reticle fall off.

Anyone test these out?

If we don’t get any responses, I will go into an empty sPvP match with a friend and test these out.

I forgot about desperate decoy and I’ve been using that trait.

Also regarding portal, can an enemy see an opposing portal or does it just look like we vanish from their perspective?

I have used Mirror Images before and it has seemed like when I do, most of the time it is a clone that gets attacked and not me. It doesn’t seem like it should drop target, but the results I have seen have made it seem like it does.

As far as I can tell only stealth causes target drop. Add Veil to that list too (though I don’t recommend using it).

I’m pretty sure Mirror Images doesn’t cause target drop, it may simply seem that way because they’re conjured nearby and just happen to facetank something that’s flying towards you.

Only stealthing drops targeting.

Alright, I tested it out this morning with a buddy in sPvP. We joined an empty room, he targetted and marked me, and gave me the results as I tested out a bunch of different stuff.

RinKyu is mostly correct. All of the stealthing abilities caused him to lose my target AND for the targetting reticle (CTRL+T) to fall off. Almost all of the rest of the abilities I tried did not work except Blink. Blink caused him to lose my target, however the targetting reticle stayed on. So, as long as I was marked, he could pick me out of a crowd thanks to the giant crosshairs over my head, but it does indeed drop target.

Thanks for testing and sharing!

ski.4927:

Blink caused him to lose my target, however the targetting reticle stayed on.

Does the positioning of Blink matter? I could see that if you Blink outside of his character’s field of view it could drop, but if you remain in their field of view does it still drop target?

Losing LoS causes you to lose target. I’m inclined to think the Blink effect is simply loss of LoS.

Embolism.8106:

Losing LoS causes you to lose target. I’m inclined to think the Blink effect is simply loss of LoS.

You don’t lose targeting because of LoS.

RinKyu.4317:

Embolism.8106:

Losing LoS causes you to lose target. I’m inclined to think the Blink effect is simply loss of LoS.

You don’t lose targeting because of LoS.

You’re right, since now I think about it you retain targeting even if the opponent runs away and out of sight. Losing LoS can cause you to switch targets, I should say; which may simply be a targeting options thing? I am unsure now.

When I first picked up this class I was really hoping to see skills meant to confuse other players (like swap, phase retreat, etc), where a clone takes the place of where the mesmer was, to actually switch the targeting or mark to the clone. I understand this would be a bit OP, but as of now clones are just slightly extra fodder and mostly a mechanic that at many times just feels broken.

Wasn’t there a time when the developers talked about all clone abilities making targeting drop?

Or was that just my fantasy?

It would make a lot of sense, since that’s what clones are supposed to do. Sure, there are plenty of ways to figure out who the real Mesmer is, but at least that would require a split second’s effort if clones at least dropped target for us.

The target reticule needs to be removed from all pvp. It is such a bull kitten design flaw that Anet overlooked. The ENTIRE point of being a mesmer is to use your illusions to confuse your opponent having a magical giant target above your head completely defeats the purpose of clones.

The clones them selves already suck, anyone whos been playing long enough will realize that the clones are not holding secondary weapons and don’t attack at the same speed.

it would take all of 2 auto attacks to find the real mesmer. That aside in the fast paced action of spvp im willing to accept the crappy clone design but the target is just the last nail in the coffin. I have used it so many times on my thief to nail mesmers and I am sure its the source of a lot of people who have killed me that I just couldn’t shake off.

Its the entire reason for why I run with decoy and mass invis at all times