The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

We’ve got a lot of traits that don’t get much mentioning, and it’s not because they’re bad… They’re actually pretty kitten good! The problem is that sometimes, no matter how good a trait may seem on paper, another trait competing for the same spot may just offer more practical gains. Such is the case for …

  • FURIOUS INTERRUPTION (3s Quickness on Interrupt – 5s CD) Furious interruption works fantastically with scepters and greatsword, especially with Chronomancer soon to offer even more sources of quickness. The problem is .. This trait simply cannot compete with Shattered Concentration. In almost every situation, Shattered Concentration is the better choice between the two, as it is the single strongest boon ripping trait in the game!
  • EVASIVE MIRROR (1.5s Mirror on successful Evade – 1.5s CD) This turns Blurred Frenzy into an epic Dragon kitten projectile reflection ability. Seriously, that’ll be the first thing that comes to mind when you Blurred (and thus evade) through a ranger’s Barrage. Even simple dodges can proc this, and it offers a very strong version of ranged defense… So it’s a shame that Blinding Dissipation completely overshadows it, being more useful as a melee defense and a clutch savior against thieves.
  • BOUNTIFUL DISILLUSIONMENT (Stability + Boon on shatter) Stability! Stability in spades at that, especially when you merge Illusions into your build. All of the boons on this skill are decent (save for Regen on Distortion), granting us access to boons that are normally difficult for a Mesmer to obtain, such as Vigor on f2 or Fury on f3… But if you’re in the Chaos line, you’ve mostly likely come for Prismatic Understanding or Chaotic Interruption. Shame, sorry BD.

Edit: apparently I was wrong, and this trait is more popular than I thought!

  • TEMPORAL ENCHANTER ( 3s Resistance + 2s Superspeed on glamour cast) You’d think Resistance would be pretty highly desired in all gamemodes, being that it prevents you from taking any condition damage! But the problem comes in the fact that it’s tied to Glamours and it’s rare to ever take more than one glamour for … Anything.

That’s my list, what say you? I personally run Bountiful Disillusionment and have fallen in love with the trait but the others just.. Cannot get any love. Think any other good-but-overshadowed traits deserve some spotlight?

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Dondagora.9645

Dondagora.9645

MISTRUST (AoE 2x 6s Confusion on Interrupt)
It competes against DE, which just is not a fair fight. Needs some sort of buff to be GM viable.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Exciton.8942

Exciton.8942

Furious interruption is more like an adept level trait. Just like its counterpart interrupt to slow in chronomancy line. I would suggest swap it with confounding suggestions.

Evasive Mirror is good. But reflection is too situational. Same on any class. They are strong but rarely taken.

(edited by Exciton.8942)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Silverkey.2078

Silverkey.2078

  • FURIOUS INTERRUPTION (3s Quickness on Interrupt – 5s CD) … Shattered Concentration is the better choice between the two, as it is the single strongest boon ripping trait in the game!
  • EVASIVE MIRROR (1.5s Mirror on successful Evade – 1.5s CD) … Blinding Dissipation completely overshadows it

The problem is quite clear: shatters are too important on a mesmer. If you had a build where shatters are not so central, these traits would work fine. The problem is that an interrupt build is just a flavor of a shatter build. The mesmer is too dependent on it.
If you look at guardian or warrior for example, their class mechanics is an addition to them, but for us mesmers, our class mechanics is everything: our only reliable damage, some of our main defensive tools etc…
I don’t know if many would agree, but I think the class would be much better off in any game mode if the shatter damage was reduced and the weapon/phantasm/etc… damage was increased to compensate. The class would be way more balanced this way.

  • BOUNTIFUL DISILLUSIONMENT (Stability + Boon on shatter) Stability! Stability in spades at that, especially when you merge Illusions into your build. All of the boons on this skill are decent (save for Regen on Distortion), granting us access to boons that are normally difficult for a Mesmer to obtain, such as Vigor on f2 or Fury on f3… But if you’re in the Chaos line, you’ve mostly likely come for Prismatic Understanding or Chaotic Interruption. Shame, sorry BD.

I am a bit surprised that you include this one. Probably because I take BD so often. I just feel like any condi build without PU would take it, most support build would take it etc…

  • TEMPORAL ENCHANTER ( 3s Resistance + 2s Superspeed on glamour cast) You’d think Resistance would be pretty highly desired in all gamemodes, being that it prevents you from taking any condition damage! But the problem comes in the fact that it’s tied to Glamours and it’s rare to ever take more than one glamour for … Anything.

The main problem of this trait is that it does not work well on most glamours. Null field and time warp are the only glamour for which it works. Superspeed and resistance if you cross veil or if you take the portal would be amazing in WvW, but you need to be ON the veil/portal when cast for it to work, which is not the way you usually use those skills. Feedback is not ground targeted, it is put on the enemy. So the chances of getting the effect are slim.
The trait just needs QoL change and I think it would see more use. I already use it sometimes for support. Resistance when reviving with Medic’s Feedback: awesome. Resistance on null field before the cleansing pulse remove the condis: awesome.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Xaylin.1860

Xaylin.1860

  • FURIOUS INTERRUPTION (3s Quickness on Interrupt – 5s CD)

Meh. The theoretical uptime is amazing. However, it is very difficult to utilize Quickness after a successful interrupt. It’s not like it doesn’t benefit you but in most situations you won’t actually be able to perform most skills in a way where they’d benefit from Quickness (positioning, range, yadda yadda).

I know you really like that trait. But like a wise woman once said: ‘Stop trying to make fetch happen.’

  • EVASIVE MIRROR (1.5s Mirror on successful Evade – 1.5s CD)

I agree on this one. It’s situational but super awesome.

  • BOUNTIFUL DISILLUSIONMENT (Stability + Boon on shatter).

Also agree on this one. Just happens to be in a traitline which I’d rather not take in situations where I’d also like to take Bountiful Disillusionment.

  • TEMPORAL ENCHANTER ( 3s Resistance + 2s Superspeed on glamour cast)

Meeep. Declined.

Resistance is great but the overall uptime ends up being rather low. The trait also doesn’t work too well with some Glamours. Plus… let’s not talk about Superspeed not making any sense at all.

Other people mentioned Mistrust. I like it. Theoretically. But it’s sooo situational that I feel it needs a quite significant buff to be picked at all.

Honorable mention: Blurred Inscriptions when also running Inspiration.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Curunen.8729

Curunen.8729

FI should just be swapped down to adept tier with CS brought up to master tier. Would solve several problems in one go.

The problem with EM is it is an offensive trait – it doesn’t help much in defence seeing as you would have evaded the attack anyway, the reflect is just a nice little bonus – and also it competes with Blinding Dissipation which is a superior string on the defensive bow for any build.

Bountiful Disillusionment is a fantastic trait – I vastly prefer it to both PU and CI.

TE is situational – good with Medic’s Feedback, Null Field and Time Warp if playing support.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Noss.4105

Noss.4105

IMAGINED BURDEN Probably pretty bad in sPvP, but a fine trait for solo/smallscale WvW. The constant cripple is golden, high might stacks and coupled with Illusionist’s Celerity makes you a mirror blade machine gun.

I don’t get Bountiful Disillusionment. But if interrupt/lockdown Daredevil will be a thing in HoT, BD might become my favourite trait.

N*** Dew Gunnar’s Hold
WvW Roaming with Mesmer

(edited by Noss.4105)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Mikkel.8427

Mikkel.8427

I love BD. Its become a staple for all of my PvP builds ever since the mantra “bug fix”. I haven’t touched the inspiration trait line at all for any build in any game mode since then actually…

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: tobascodagama.2961

tobascodagama.2961

BD is overshadowed only in popularity, not in power.

I’ve found that BD is especially useful for dynamic events, where players don’t always coordinate Might-stacking. Spreading around some boon love helps make up for our (many) shortcomings in dynamic events, since individual targets die too quickly for Phantasm DPS to ramp up.

BD is also, in my opinion, a core part of any Chronomancer bunker. If you’re dedicating your build to holding points, getting Stability on demand is absolutely invaluable.

As for Temporal Enchanter… yeah, its functionality is a bit of a mess with the Glamours we have. Like Silverkey said, most Glamours other than Time Warp and Null Field aren’t being cast directly on top of allies, but casting Glamours onto allies is the only way to obtain any benefit from the trait. I don’t think there’s any way to fix the issue, frankly, though having Glamours pulse something once per second would be a good start.

Amberley Avalen – Charr Mesmer
Tanya Larina – Human Thief
Finchy Whyte – Sylvari Ranger

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Leodon.1564

Leodon.1564

Yeah, BD is the only one that really doesn’t belong on this list as it competes with niche grandmasters (PU/Lockdown playstyles) so is often taken by people not running those particular builds.

I never would use Temporal Enchanter for the reason you stated but if the trait was tied to wells instead of glamours…. drools.

Faye Oren – Mesmer
Lee Oren – Ranger
Eve Oren – Revenant

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Phloww.1048

Phloww.1048

Are we talking about for PvP, WvW, or PvE? Some of these traits are more/less useful depending on the playstyle.

With Chronomancer, I’m in favor for BD when taking Chaos trait in PvE, especially since we don’t have a lot of skills that can grant us lots of stability stacks (coughDolyakSignet/ArmorofEarthcough) and the boons are always nice to have.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Embolism.8106

Embolism.8106

Quickness in general isn’t that useful on Mesmers unless it’s on-demand, which FI isn’t. Like people have said it should really swap places with Confounding Suggestions (or be axed altogether).

Blurred Inscriptions is another trait I’d add to the list, although I guess technically it’s not that “great”… but its main problem is it should also be an Adept trait. I would swap it with Empowered Illusions.

Evasive Mirror, IMO, should be Adept tier again. Personally I would make Sharper Images a Master major, Phantasmal Fury the Master minor and move Evasive Mirror to Adept.

Temporal Enchanter needs to be much stronger than it is. I’d suggest increasing its Glamour duration boost from 2s to 50%. Super Speed and Resistance should be pulsed (3s SS, 1s Resistance every 3s) or granted on crossing/use with Portal and Veil (5s SS, 3s Resistance, one time only).

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: keenlam.4753

keenlam.4753

Here are some of my thoughts:

Furious Interruption should be at adept tier, then it would see use a whole lot more.
You either pick CS for more preemptive offensive playstyle, or FI that favors more reactive counterplay.

Rending Shatter should be just downgraded to adept minor given its weak effect, make sense to just merge it with Illusion of Vulnerability.

I’m surprised no one mentioned Blurred Inscriptions yet. This trait on its own, is quite powerful, but the problem I see here is the total lack of synergy. Sig of Dom and Midnight have great synergy in a condi build, yet the Dom line offers nothing for condi, so it would make sense to move this into Illusions line, perhaps switch with Shattered Strength?

Shattered Strength and Imagined Burden would then have good synergy in a build u want to stack might easily and just “dominate” enemies???

Blurred Inscriptions in Illusions would offer more active defense/condi cleanse for condi build without the need to run with traited Torch offhand.

(edited by keenlam.4753)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Ross Biddle.2367

Ross Biddle.2367

I run BD in my Mental Lockdown build. In PvP the Chaos line makes me near impossible to lock down, and the synergy of a stack of stability post burst into stomp is just to gud. Oh, also, bonus might on burst.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Electro.4173

Electro.4173

FI works great on… Scepters? What am I missing, because last I checked Scepter had no interrupts… or are you just saying the Quickness benefits Scepter in general?

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

@keenlam: ooh yeah, Blurred Inscriptions is a good one worth mentioning.

@xaylin: arghh I’m gonna prove the greatness of this trait when chronomancer drops. Now you’ve got me determined!

FI works great on… Scepters? What am I missing, because last I checked Scepter had no interrupts… or are you just saying the Quickness benefits Scepter in general?

Last I checked mainland sword didn’t have interrupts either. =P all depends on your choice of offhand.. Like pistol, for the bleeds and it’s sweet interrupt trait (25% cooldown reduction on interrupt)

But yeah, scepter auto and confuse ray benefit highly from quickness.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: tobascodagama.2961

tobascodagama.2961

I’m surprised no one mentioned Blurred Inscriptions yet. This trait on its own, is quite powerful, but the problem I see here is the total lack of synergy. Sig of Dom and Midnight have great synergy in a condi build, yet the Dom line offers nothing for condi, so it would make sense to move this into Illusions line, perhaps switch with Shattered Strength?

Moving BI to Illusions is interesting. It’s slightly weird to have two skill-based condition cleanses in the same trait line, though, isn’kitten Especially in a trait line that is otherwise offensively-oriented. But I guess you have a point about the Signet skills themselves having better synergy with condition builds than power builds.

This is probably as good a place as any to wonder aloud if BI actually procs Inspiring Distortion. Based on tooltips, it should, because it’s Distortion rather than Blur, but I’ve never tested it.

Amberley Avalen – Charr Mesmer
Tanya Larina – Human Thief
Finchy Whyte – Sylvari Ranger

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Arshay Duskbrow.1306

Arshay Duskbrow.1306

Wait, people don’t use Blurred Inscriptions? I consider that one of the best Mesmer traits in the game right now, and the keystone of the Inspiration signet build that I use in fractal 50s.

This is probably as good a place as any to wonder aloud if BI actually procs Inspiring Distortion.

It does. Blurred Inscriptions+Inspiring Distortion+Illusionary Inspiration+Master of Fragmentation with Signet of the Ether, Midnight, and Inspiration means huge amounts of personal survivability without sacrificing damage plus the ability to distort+reflect the whole party every five seconds, along with loads of boon copy from the two SoIs. Incredibly useful. Signet of Midnight with it is just godlike. It’s a stunbreak AND a condition cleanse AND instant invulnerability to cover healing use AND on-demand party distortion if your timing is right.

It’s also an incredibly fun, active build because you’re always having to keep track of your ICD and attempting to time your distorts to telegraphed boss attacks, etc.

(edited by Arshay Duskbrow.1306)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: StickerHappy.8052

StickerHappy.8052

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Champion Illusionist Champion Hunter Champion Phantom Champion Magus

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Fay.2357

Fay.2357

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Oh great one, explain to us plebs how FI is better than SC…

Alternatively, explain how temporal enchanter isn’t worthless.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: StickerHappy.8052

StickerHappy.8052

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Oh great one, explain to us plebs how FI is better than SC…

Alternatively, explain how temporal enchanter isn’t worthless.

It depends on how you play and what you wanna play really. for normal solo que I think you can play anything you want right?

So what if you are successful with it? so is it not viable for yourself?

Just for example, In solo que, do you think boon ripping will be a key factor in winning the game?

You can use FI there too just to have fun. Maybe make an phantasm interrupt build or whatever.

Champion Illusionist Champion Hunter Champion Phantom Champion Magus

(edited by StickerHappy.8052)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Fay.2357

Fay.2357

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Oh great one, explain to us plebs how FI is better than SC…

Alternatively, explain how temporal enchanter isn’t worthless.

It depends on how you play and what you wanna play really. for normal solo que I think you can play anything you want right?

So what if you are successful with it? so is it not viable for yourself?

This is a worthless argument. Successful doesn’t mean it’s good or better than the alternatives. I could probably still pull out a pretty high win rate only equipping 2 traitlines instead of 3. Does that mean doing so is good? Obviously not.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: StickerHappy.8052

StickerHappy.8052

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Oh great one, explain to us plebs how FI is better than SC…

Alternatively, explain how temporal enchanter isn’t worthless.

It depends on how you play and what you wanna play really. for normal solo que I think you can play anything you want right?

So what if you are successful with it? so is it not viable for yourself?

This is a worthless argument. Successful doesn’t mean it’s good or better than the alternatives. I could probably still pull out a pretty high win rate only equipping 2 traitlines instead of 3. Does that mean doing so is good? Obviously not.

Why do you have to locked up in the confines of which trait is better or not? It’s Solo q!
No Matter how good you play, or How great your build is, you will still lose some games. Because you can’t control the other 4 players. I say might as well enjoy it and have a breath of fresh air when it comes to builds

But in the aspect of competitive team q, yes there are obviously better choices.

Champion Illusionist Champion Hunter Champion Phantom Champion Magus

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Fay.2357

Fay.2357

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Oh great one, explain to us plebs how FI is better than SC…

Alternatively, explain how temporal enchanter isn’t worthless.

It depends on how you play and what you wanna play really. for normal solo que I think you can play anything you want right?

So what if you are successful with it? so is it not viable for yourself?

This is a worthless argument. Successful doesn’t mean it’s good or better than the alternatives. I could probably still pull out a pretty high win rate only equipping 2 traitlines instead of 3. Does that mean doing so is good? Obviously not.

Why do you have to locked up in the confines of which trait is better or not? It’s Solo q!
No Matter how good you play, or How great your build is, you will still lose some games. Because you can’t control the other 4 players. I say might as well enjoy it and have a breath of fresh air when it comes to builds

But in the aspect of competitive team q, yes there are obviously better choices.

You’re missing the point entirely. The question is not ‘can I win games with this trait’. The question is ‘is this trait objectively worse than the other options available’.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: StickerHappy.8052

StickerHappy.8052

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Oh great one, explain to us plebs how FI is better than SC…

Alternatively, explain how temporal enchanter isn’t worthless.

It depends on how you play and what you wanna play really. for normal solo que I think you can play anything you want right?

So what if you are successful with it? so is it not viable for yourself?

This is a worthless argument. Successful doesn’t mean it’s good or better than the alternatives. I could probably still pull out a pretty high win rate only equipping 2 traitlines instead of 3. Does that mean doing so is good? Obviously not.

Why do you have to locked up in the confines of which trait is better or not? It’s Solo q!
No Matter how good you play, or How great your build is, you will still lose some games. Because you can’t control the other 4 players. I say might as well enjoy it and have a breath of fresh air when it comes to builds

But in the aspect of competitive team q, yes there are obviously better choices.

You’re missing the point entirely. The question is not ‘can I win games with this trait’. The question is ‘is this trait objectively worse than the other options available’.

Worse? Because the majority says so? Like how everyone was saying scepter is not good and it needs rework?

I would say FI would have a place in an interrupt build, really. I would even say I would take it over SC just for the fun of it. Again my point is a lot of the traits here can be taken if you wanted to. and build around it, who knows it might work for you, and we all know that you can’t expect it to work for someone else.

Champion Illusionist Champion Hunter Champion Phantom Champion Magus

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Fay.2357

Fay.2357

I believe that its not even about the traits are supbar, another most people just wanna play the meta, and do not want to experiment and test.

In before being criticized, testing requires extensive work and time put into it, not like “Oh did not work for 10 matches, so its not viable”

Oh great one, explain to us plebs how FI is better than SC…

Alternatively, explain how temporal enchanter isn’t worthless.

It depends on how you play and what you wanna play really. for normal solo que I think you can play anything you want right?

So what if you are successful with it? so is it not viable for yourself?

This is a worthless argument. Successful doesn’t mean it’s good or better than the alternatives. I could probably still pull out a pretty high win rate only equipping 2 traitlines instead of 3. Does that mean doing so is good? Obviously not.

Why do you have to locked up in the confines of which trait is better or not? It’s Solo q!
No Matter how good you play, or How great your build is, you will still lose some games. Because you can’t control the other 4 players. I say might as well enjoy it and have a breath of fresh air when it comes to builds

But in the aspect of competitive team q, yes there are obviously better choices.

You’re missing the point entirely. The question is not ‘can I win games with this trait’. The question is ‘is this trait objectively worse than the other options available’.

Worse? Because the majority says so? Like how everyone was saying scepter is not good and it needs rework?

I would say FI would have a place in an interrupt build, really. I would even say I would take it over SC just for the fun of it. Again my point is a lot of the traits here can be taken if you wanted to. and build around it, who knows it might work for you, and we all know that you can’t expect it to work for someone else.

Worse because…it’s worse. FI gives you quickness at uncontrollable points in time that are extremely difficult to capitalize on. Once in a while the stars will align and it’ll haste your burst perfectly, but that will rarely happen. On top of that, SC is incredibly important for boon stripping, particularly getting rid of stability when you’re in an interrupt build, but constant boon strip pressure also helps enormously with eles and guardians.

It’s just worse. Again, can you run FI and win games? Sure. Is it better than SC? No, it’s not.

Edit: Scepter still has a mindblowingly awful autoattack that everyone hates, and the other 2 skills on it have seen drastic changes since what they first were. Was that supposed to be an example of people being wrong?

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Silverkey.2078

Silverkey.2078

Despite spending my time trying new builds and having fun, I’m with Fay here. Ideally, all traits should have a niche where they are better than the competing traits. Taking FI for example, I feel this is not really the case because even on an interrupt build, removing boons (like stability) is too important.

The concept of FI is nice: interrupt someone, and while they are vulnerable, burst them down quickly. The problem: mesmer burst does not benefit very much from quickness. Should we AA them to death? If we had a hundred blades to cast, this trait would be beasty. But we don’t… Maybe we just haven’t found the right way to use it. Maybe it is a good time for scepter 3… As Chaos said, the trait is not necessarily bad, but the concurrence is just too good…

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Arshay Duskbrow.1306

Arshay Duskbrow.1306

Worse? Because the majority says so? Like how everyone was saying scepter is not good and it needs rework?

I have no part to play in the trait disagreement between you two, but Scepter is inarguably garbage and no amount of “it’s all relative” can make adequate excuses for it.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Silverkey.2078

Silverkey.2078

I have no part to play in the trait disagreement between you two, but Scepter is inarguably garbage and no amount of “it’s all relative” can make adequate excuses for it.

Can’t I argue then? Because calling scepter garbage is clearly exaggerated. It is a good weapon, just not the best one mesmer has. I has a burst, something mesmer weapons don’t really have out of phantasms and shatters. It is not that hard to land a decent amount of the hits, and the damage really hurts in both power and condi. The skill n°2 is also very decent, mixing weak defense with very decent offense. Scepter only suffers from its AA.
So: improvable: surely. Garbage: definitely not.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Carighan.6758

Carighan.6758

MISTRUST (AoE 2x 6s Confusion on Interrupt)
It competes against DE, which just is not a fair fight. Needs some sort of buff to be GM viable.

Honestly I see that problem more with DE.

Or even further, with clone production, in general.

There’s a reason I keep asking for the clone/phantasm generation be our class bar, not the shatter skills. Shatter isn’t even context-free, or well, is nowadays since we can use it with 0 clones, granted. Still, that one was kind of a stupid fix, instead of tackling the core problem of our clone/phantasm production and how they both work against the class and against each other.

Would be easier if we just had, I dunno, F1 as single-clone, F2 as clone-swarm, F3 for offensive phantasms, F4 for defensive phantasm. And then put shatter skills on weapons, consuming a single clone or phantasm for effect X, add a few utility skills, and add an elite which consumes them all for effect XYZ.

That way there’s more room to built traits against a dependable setup of clone/phantasm production. Right now we’re going from zero to hero as far as our core mechanic goes, just with a few traits, the right weapon and a few skills.

The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Daniel Handler.4816

Daniel Handler.4816

Pyro don’t you insult my baby temporal enchanter. Adding resistance to any boonstorm is a fragile beauty. No one want that scallywag alacrity when you can devote your life to boons. Perma resistance right. Right?

T. T oh God why. Please Anet fix the application of the trait to reflect the behavior of temporal curtain.

“Kentigem”-chief. Born cycle of Dusk. Wyld Hunt:
Learn as much mending and medical info as possible so that it can be added to the Dream.
Become the first Chief of Mending and guide the newly awaken as well as those who want to learn.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Xaylin.1860

Xaylin.1860

@xaylin: arghh I’m gonna prove the greatness of this trait when chronomancer drops. Now you’ve got me determined!

I won’t accept any demonstration which includes abusing Mordrem Healers.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Krispera.5087

Krispera.5087

Mistrust is pretty bad, you need to interrupt (which is already harder than simple damage) and get… 2 confusion ? Not worth the GM at all. Nobody will take it over DE or Harmonious Mantras.

Beside that, I wish Persisting Images and Protected Phantasm were together and not competing with Warden’s Feedback. Not only iWarden is the most fragile Phantasm, if you trait it, it doesn’t have Distortion. At least make the Distortion works till the phantasm finish its first attack.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Silverkey.2078

Silverkey.2078

Mistrust is pretty bad, you need to interrupt (which is already harder than simple damage) and get… 2 confusion ? Not worth the GM at all. Nobody will take it over DE or Harmonious Mantras.

This is basically a bad rune of perplexity. Sure, this is AOE confusion, but in general, when in a team fight, conditions are not that great anyway…

Beside that, I wish Persisting Images and Protected Phantasm were together and not competing with Warden’s Feedback. Not only iWarden is the most fragile Phantasm, if you trait it, it doesn’t have Distortion. At least make the Distortion works till the phantasm finish its first attack.

Let’s see how they decided to change the mechanics of minions to increase their survivability since it seems a change is coming.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Ithilwen.1529

Ithilwen.1529

I’ve used Temporal Enchanter successfully in pve and pvp. Most consider it a weird build. I’ll use [feedback] and [null field]. It works well in the team fight at mid but I get asked wth I’m casting a “useless” glamour for. eg Feedback over a melee fight.

It works well in dungeon stacks especially in combination with Warden’s Feedback and Temporal Curtain.

Mesmerising Girl

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Silverkey.2078

Silverkey.2078

I’ve used Temporal Enchanter successfully in pve and pvp. Most consider it a weird build. I’ll use [feedback] and [null field]. It works well in the team fight at mid but I get asked wth I’m casting a “useless” glamour for. eg Feedback over a melee fight.

It works well in dungeon stacks especially in combination with Warden’s Feedback and Temporal Curtain.

I kinda agree with Exciton on that. Reflects are strong but… situational in PvP. I’m happy if I have it (for example I use master of manipulation with mirror + blink, simply because it’s the only interesting trait for my build in this spot) but I would not take a utility slot or a trait if there is another choice.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Mikkel.8427

Mikkel.8427

If Deceptive Evasion and Blinding dissipation were swapped, mistrust would actually become an option (and harmonious mantras would see more action). All three of those traits (BD, mistrust, and HM) can compete with each other on equal footing, and would all be viable.

Having mistrust compete with DE… there is just no contest there. Condi mesmers are heavily reliant on high clone up-time to be successful.

Edit: I’m starting to think maybe Robert isnt a big fan of condition builds….

(edited by Mikkel.8427)

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: Carighan.6758

Carighan.6758

Meh, I would rather just remove DE.

Our clone production is problematic, and it does need help, but the help shouldn’t come in the form of talents. That still leaves our baseline clone production as rubbish. If we are intended as pet-bombers ala Animists in DAoC, then it needs to be way higher baseline.
If we’re not, then something has to change on a more integral level.

The strength of heart to face oneself has been made manifest. The persona Carighan has appeared.

The Great Traits Stuck in the Shadows

in Mesmer

Posted by: AlphatheWhite.9351

AlphatheWhite.9351

Meh, I would rather just remove DE.

I would request that we replace language like this with a more upfront:
“Meh, I would rather just replace DE’s function with something baseline for mesmer”.
While it became clear in your explanation that’s what you meant, the tagline is what you might call “dangerous discourse”, and risks giving the wrong impression, which we know risks putting weight on a change we don’t actually want (removing DE without giving more clone generation in return to baseline mesmer).