Guild Wars 2

This would work mainly for shatter or condition builds, as power damage builds don’t really need clones or shatter skills (except for F3-4).

Clones
All clones have the same mesmer’s stats, like Nourishments, charged Mantras, Bloodlust/Corruption/Perception, Applied Strength and Guild Banners. They wouldn’t share boons, conditions or special effects like Quickness or Daze.

They move according with their “role”. If they are scpeter/staff clones, they will move away from the target, if they are sword clones will chase the target…
Could keep the same auto-attack cast time.

Shatter
When you use F1-3 all illusion will instantly blink to the target with the same Blink visual effects and then explode in 1/2 (maybe 3/4) second animation.

This would fix the issue with illusions wandering around because of the terrain.

Enemy targeting (not sure if would be OP)
Everytime that a mesmer create a clone, with weapon skills, traits or utilities, the enemy target (wvw and pvp only) will switch to them.

This would be a good option for non-stealth builds, but i think it would be too OP for the already hard-countered stealth builds.

What do you guys think about the proposed changes?

bljink to enemy shatters, op

giving them the effects will make it harder for alrdy raging ppl and result to a nerf in either our dmg or def or stealth cd

last suggestion op again

i do play mesmer btw, not like i am a random raging war not beeing able to identify a mesmer :p

just talking from perspective of all other classes

Clones reaching their targets is a biggy for me. While I agree that making all our shatters instant, I’d be ok with some tweaking to give us a better chance that they’ll reach their targets.

Any of the following would be helpful:
- A trait that gives your clones aegis, protection, and stability when commanded to shatter. Or a hefty speed boost
- Mind Wrack being altered to no longer require clones to reach their enemy
- Give clones immunity/reduced damage from area-of-effect abilities after commanded to shatter

To me, it feels like enemies have a TON of options for avoiding our shatters already, but it should take more than some passive AoE fields to avoid our class mechanic.

shatters beeing unblockable or they not affected by cripple, chill and immobalize after commanded to shatter r nice boosts

maybe if once the shatter is activated, the clones get healed and a hp boost, similar to phantasm hp, but they become super obvious like instead of being identical to the mesmer in appearance they turn into swarm of butterflies or something.

I think they should blink to surround the target when commanded to shatter but, once they get there, they have a one second charge up animation before they go boom simultaneously. This gives the person being attacked a chance to block or dodge while also giving mesmers a more reliable aoe.

I would also like the added function to press the same shatter again to have it cancel so the illusions can resume attacking. This would allow mesmers to focus misbehaving illusions. Of course, it would have to come with a penalty to keep it from being abused. I think putting all shatters on a 15 second cooldown afterwards would be enough.

Crossplay.2067:

I think they should blink to surround the target when commanded to shatter but, once they get there, they have a one second charge up animation before they go boom simultaneously. This gives the person being attacked a chance to block or dodge while also giving mesmers a more reliable aoe.

While this seems like a really good idea on paper, it would also make it way too easy to dodge/block a shatter IMO. Part of the charm of shatters to me is that with careful positioning, you can surround the target with clones and get them into a position where the shatter is almost instant, not giving them time to react. It’s my understanding this is what “pro” shatterers do (I’m obviously not one of them :p)

The fact that clones attack at different ranges means that they will also reach their target at different times, again making it harder to dodge all of the hits.

With that said, I don’t shatter offensively much unless I have a clear advantage, because of the obvious problem of the clone reaching the target before it dies. I agree that something needs to happen with shatters, but I also kind of like the general way of how they work right now. The squishiness of the clones is the main problem IMO.

I’ve already thought that scenario out. The fact that they could be dodged easily is why I insist on having a “fake out” ability. It can scare an opponent into dodging needlessly and it can also be used to reposition melee phantasms to where they can do the most damage. Those whom still want to shatter after the fake out can use Signet of Illusions to recharge all of their shatter skills and try again almost instantly.

The use of a signet means the full fakeout strategy can’t be used twice in a row. A good opponent will have a backup plan and another point-blank “blink” will alert them that another shatter is coming with a full second to respond to it. It’s still a balanced scenario but it allows mesmers to use mindgames like we are suppose to.

Clones are already useful.

There is no need to buff them.

well the problem i have with clones in wvw is mainly that i cannot shatter them properly. with ip, no problem, but needing ip will limit my build options down to almost nothing. clones barely reach my targets and they also bug out quiet often, attack random targets, shatter on random targets and are not displaying the same boons i have.
clones and phantasms are pretty much our only access to aoe and its terrible we dont have any other options(well we used to but all these got nerfed to the ground)
our aoe can get cc’ed, killed by other aoe and is vulnerable which other light armor classes dont have to worrie about. they put a mark,well or elemental aoe down and the aoe happens. a mesmer cant do that. we gotta kite,blink, dodge around the zerg first and then MAYBE we can shatter and it hits a few enemies, but only if we are lucky and no aoe kills the clones or ccs them.
a light armor should not be all about ai and def. not be a duelist only. medium is duelist light is aoe. thats why we have light armor, so we can stay ranged…
im fine with some ai, but id like to have an option to play non ai, non duelist. maybe a trait or some new skills, or rework mantras and turn them into ground targeting aoe…
ai is way to buggy, so like the necro has an option to play mm but also go without it, id like the mesmer having this option.