Guild Wars 2

cafard.8953:

Mantra of Concentration is a nice little skill in wvwvw , to ensure uninterrupted stomps on warriors/guardians. Being a stunbreaker also means that it’s not a complete waste of a utility slot if no stomping opportunity occurs.

Press F4 :-p

Mimic is my least used here, imo it needs to be on a much shorter cooldown if it’s going to be viable for my tanky builds, not to mention how niche it tends to be.

Second up would be Arcane Thievery, but that’s more because I need other skills on my slots.

Played a bit with Arcane Thievery this weekend — I have to say I like it. I’m not sure it’ll win out over other utilities, but I can see its usefulness against a condition heavy or boon heavy opponent in WvW.

I’ll goof with Mimic a bit now and see if that can be removed from my personal “underutilized” list.

well a lot of utilities i dont use, but that not becasue they are bad, but rather there are better for my playstyle.

One i LOVE that a lot of ppl seem to disregard i signet of inspiration, combine it with a 6th set rune of lyssa to gain all boons on elite (usually time warp) and then hit the signet of ins, and you whole group got all boons and swiftness, such a lovely combination

Mimic’s secondary effect is good, the problem is its primary effect is much, much weaker and situational than the secondary effect. To make matters worse, the situational primary effect must be triggered to get the secondary effect: i.e. even though the secondary effect is excellent against melee, it won’t trigger unless you are hit by a projectile first; so a melee-centric enemy might not ever trigger the effect.

Arcane Thievery and Disenchanter are both quite good: in theory. In practice you want condition removal to be snappy and reliable, which neither AT or Disenchanter are. To ensure you don’t get screwed over by conditions then you must bring another, reliable condition removal, which makes you too specialised against conditions and weakens you against enemies that do not use dangerous conditions.

For this reason I actually much prefer Resolve ovely useful for condition removal while Null Field also affects allies, strips boons and pror Null Field for condition removal, as it is instant, reliable and has a short cooldown. Of course, Resolve is onvides a combo field, so it’s down to preference really.

Illusion of Life can be useful. The problem is… my allies never seem to understand the “you’ll be downed in 15 seconds, so run somewhere safe where you can be revived” part, even when I announce it beforehand. With competent allies this can be a lifesaver in both PvE and PvP. It isn’t the best revival skill, but it’s not too shabby either when it works.

Veil is not too bad for WvW, and it also works reasonably well as a long-duration defensive stealth (you can run across the Veil again after coming out of stealth). In general though I don’t feel it is good enough to warrant using over other, more potent, utilities.

As for Signets and Mantras, Pain and Concentration are pretty crappy; although I do use Concentration sometimes when even a short Stability can be really helpful (e.g. EB JP). Distraction is theoretically powerful in PvP (instantly interrupting a heal can win duels), but I’ve never seen it used effectively. Signet of Illusions would be better if the HP boost kicked in immediately, and Signet of Midnight needs a rework. Domination and Inspiration are probably fine as-is.

I think using mantra of pain while you are doing a BF/MW combo with ipersona traited will give you some REALLY REALLY good burst. Only downside is the cast time but the upside is it is prolly the only skill in the game that is on a 1second cooldown aside from engineeer kits.

cafard.8953:

juno.1840:

Veil — never use because if I want it I take mass invis instead.

Veil has a massive advantage over MassInv: it isn’t limited to 5 targets. In WvWvW, it’s a big big difference. Cast in front of a tight melee train about to charge, it makes an entire raid disappear, and only reappear after half the opposition is dead. With the culling problems, the stealth is even longer than what the tooltip says.

So yes, in WvWvW at least, Veil is a major game changer.

Veil only has an advantage in WvW. The stealth doesn’t actually last as long as Mass Invis (although the tooltip states it should). You won’t need to stealth more than 5 targets in pve (party limit) and spvp (almost at room limit/at tourn limit).

It’s a bit sad that people do not realize that you can switch skills on the fly as long as you aren’t in battle. It basically allows you to switch your utilities depending on what you’re doing, which I do ALL THE TIME.

Ofc when I’m just roaming in open-world PvE, I probably use the same skills over and over again (mirror images, decoy, blink, etc). You can add portals and feedback in WvW.

But where it really shines is when you’re entering dungeons, where the mechanics are more subtle than “roll over 10k ennemies”. Mesmers have an insane amount of tools to help you or your team depending on the situation. And the skills who ARE situation-specific shine in some circumstances.

Ofc Mantra of Pain isn’t very useful when farming Orr, but when you do CoE part 3 it helps a lot during the Mega Destroyer Battle where you have 5 seconds to spike a boss.
Ofc Mantra of Resolve isn’t so useful but if you need someone to run for crystals against the Jade Maw, it’s very useful.
Ofc Arcane Thievery has a huge cooldown but in the Water Fractal who doesn’t want to steal the 25 stacks of might of the last boss ?
Ofc the Disenchanter is unreliable, but when fighting the dredge champ in the dredge fractal it’s great as dredges basically rely on stacking boons to be effective.
Ofc Mimic sux, but … no ok it sux.

I’m using at least 15 different utility skills regularly, and all of them suit my needs under some circumstances. It’s great to be able to switch between them on the fly depending on my or my group’s needs.

Mimic is great it just depends on timing. In the harpy fractal I use it combined with feed back to just let the harpies kill themselves.

Ouroboros.5076:

Ofc the Disenchanter is unreliable, but when fighting the dredge champ in the dredge fractal it’s great as dredges basically rely on stacking boons to be effective.

Does disenchanter stay up long enough though to be any better than a good ol null field though?

@jportell: Hmm intresting idea never though of trying to combine feedback with mimic there, only ever used feedback

Portal in PvE – its absolutely amazing when helping guild / team mates get to where you are in a JP / location especially in a Dungeon (cough FotM) or Rough PvE area. These days I’m tempted to main bar it due to its general usefulness.

The only reason I don’t main bar it is because of 3 consecutive stun breakers.

This is my rating based on my dungeon running/PvE experience.

Arcane Thievery : (4/10)I use sword a lot and dispell most boons before I can steal them.
Blink : (6/10) A good life-saver in certain fights.
Decoy : (4/10) I do not PVP a lot.
Feedback : (8/10) iWarden + iDuelist=Lots of combo.
Illusion of Life: (0/10) I just never bothered. The signet of undeath(necro) seems way better.
Mantra of Concentration: (2/10) My mesmer do not care for your petty winds in jumping puzzles.
Mantra of Distraction:(1/10) The lovers weakness.
Mantra of Pain: (1/10) It’s just a slap in the face, more pride damage than any actual chance of lethality.
Mantra of Resolve : (1/10) Focus=Light combo field.
Mimic : (3/10) Prefers feedback but some fights encourages the abuse of reflect.
Mirror Images: (2/10) Decoy tends to serve this purpose better for stunbreak, but some fights tends to favour the abuse.
Null Field: (8/10) Mass adversative dispel + ethereal combo field. Lovely.
Phantasmal Defender: (7/10) It dies fast, but soakes quite a bit of damage including other damage-dealing phantasms.
Phantasmal Disenchanter: (6/10) Dies fast, limited use with the use of sword but low cooldown and decent shatter-fodder.
Portal: (3/10) Second chance for jumping puzzles.
Signet of Domination:(9/10) Extra condition damage/stun.
Signet of Illusions:(10/10) Better lasting illusions, essential for phantasm builds and increases the efficiency of the phantasmal defender bloodsponging.
Signet of Inspiration:(7/10) A bit of fun with 6/6 Superior rune of lyssa.
Signet of Midnight: (0/10) Just not worth it, then again, I hang out with a thief who blinds all the time.
Veil:(0/10) The cooldown annoys the sin out of me and it seems not to work if you cast it on yourself + you cant stack the invisibility duration like Shadow Refuge can, which has a 33% lower cooldown and heals and provides a dark combo field on a greater zone. It’s flat out disgraceful…

That’s my grain of salt.

Arcane Thievery – Range is too short.
Illusion of Life – Most people don’t realize it’s on them and think they’ve been revived, then die and freak out.
Mantras – Mantras in general are great on paper but not so great in usefulness. Also, I believe the Mantra damage boost is capped at 10% artificially though it does not say it in tool tip.
Mimic – Most useless skill ever?
Phantasmal Defender – I should really use this more but there are more useful things on my bar.
Phantasmal Disenchanter – Useful in PVE that’s about it.
Signets – Only Illusions actually provides something I like/need.

GummiBear.2756:

Does disenchanter stay up long enough though to be any better than a good ol null field though?

Disenchanter shines in parties against tough mobs / bosses. His attacks track ennemies/allies to remove boons & conditions. Your allies & the mobs have to go into the null field for it to work, which isn’t always practial.

Disenchanter has a 20s cooldown (16s with 5 in Illusions, 12s with Phantsmal haste and I often run both), attacks every 4-5 seconds & is ranged (so it avoids most PBAoE from mobs). He rarely takes the aggron so he won’t die so quickly, and even if he does you can often cast another one. Against bosses that uses massive boons or conditions, I often try to have 2 disenchanters active, it makes the life so easy for my team mates.

In those specific situations it is the best AoE boon-stripping & condition removal skill we have and is of great use for a party against bosses / tough mobs in dungeons. Null Field is better when partying in other situations (example : when you attack the chest sigil in the colossus fractal), and the Mantra is better when solo you go solo.

That’s my point : we have a lot of skills that are generally useful (blink, null field) and others that are very situational (like Disenchanter or Mantra of Stability). The thing is, those situations DO happen, and as you can swap skills easily without drawbacks, you should try to learn them.

I never slot anything that is not Null Field, Feedback, Decoy, Mirror Images, and Veil.

In WvW sPvP you can add portal to the list. For PvE, not so much and remove veil since 4 sec stealth is useless in an environment where bosses spam lethal aoe on downed players you’re trying to stealth rez anyways.

Mimick, Phantasm utilities, mantras, and signets are complete garbage.

Ouroboros.5076:

Disenchanter has a 20s cooldown (16s with 5 in Illusions, 12s with Phantsmal haste and I often run both)…

Phantasmal Haste does not lower the skill’s cooldown. It lowers the Phantasm’s attack cooldown.

Signet of Illusions is under rated. Lay Chaos Field at your feet, swap weapons (for +3 might), combo finish with The Prestige, then give all boons to allies. You given them 1: Chaos Armor with the combo 2: might and what ever boons you had from the signet and your own Chaos Armor.

I almost never replace Phantasmal Defender with Signet of Illusion (for when I really need to use distortion) for my Hybrid Phantasm build. It’s really helpful especially when partied with a guardian or elem who can heal it constantly.

The only skills I do not use though are mimic and veil. The rest comes in handy depending on the situation.

Least/Never Used Skills:
Mimic: Potentially powerful, but often too much of a hassle to try to use. As it will only start blocking/reflecting attacks AFTER it absorbs one projectile, which you take full effect of. Further it WILL NOT ABSORB any attack that interrupts/stuns/knockdown/etc without stability, it makes it quite unpredictable in effect. This is especially true when factoring in the Mesmer’s habits of leaving Illusions to take a few attacks.
++ Fun when slotting Mantra of Concentration to purposely taunt a projectile-type attack from an enemy to use later. Wurm’s Knockdown boulder shot, Orrian Drake’s breath spit with AoE zone (doesn’t need stability), etc. Still usually too much trouble and time taken to actually be useful.
— Feedback basically wins over this skill in almost all cases.

Mantra of Distraction: My least used Mantra. As an interrupt? Not useful. 1s of Daze for two shots that has a 5 second cd between uses, a 30 second CD between last use and charging, and a 3.25s charge time? Bleh. Dungeon Bosses get CC Immunity, meaning this is almost pointless against them. Regular mobs you don’t worry about CCing. PvP opponents, 1s Daze is simply not much and must wait 4 more seconds for another 1s Daze meaning they will get their heal skill off anyways.
+ Works decently with 15 Domination, as it would then give 8 or 9 stacks of Vulnerability depending on traits and if you interrupted or not. With Condition Duration, this would double for a decent amount of time to lead to a spike (though waiting 5 seconds to do so is rough).
— Signet of Domination is almost always better. As its a STUN, it means the opponent will not move. Combined with being a 2s Stun at that, vs. MoD’s 2x 1s Daze separated by 5s.

Specific Situation Skills – Skills that I only slot for a specific Dungeon Fight or Event.

Arcane Thievery: Used specifically with Signet of Inspiration when targeting enemies that builds a 25 stack of Might and/or Long-term Protection/Stability/Regeneration. The Condition transfer part is largely ignored.
—PvP wants me to use this, but with just 3 boons taken its almost random which ones I’ll grab from a Boon-happy Enemy.

Illusion of Life: Currently, only grabbed for specific Downed-happy fights in Fractals/Dungeons. (Unless I feel like messing with someone in the Dragon fights). Charr Fractal sees the biggest use, followed by the Grawl Fractal boss. The 1/2s ability to quickly get someone on their feet is NOT to be ignored in comparison to all other skills that recover a Downed Ally take multiple seconds to cast.
++ GREAT when you know you are likely going to need to try to help an ally thats in a deadly AoE field, or being swarmed by numerous enemies.
— So UNUSED that you MUST explain it to allies what the Golden Glow around their character after they are revived means, and state TEMP REVIVE to remind them when you use the skill. Its made quite a number of fights easier by not having to fully revive a Dead ally, but its also given me a headache to a number of players that won’t listen to what the skill does.

Mantra of Concentration: 2s of Stability … Really, thats it? >.<;
++ The ONLY reliable source of Stability a Mesmer can get, hence why its in Specific Situation set, rather then Least/Never Used.

Blink: Might just be me, but when I really needed the skill to work, it never works because of terrain suddenly stopping it short. I seem to be drawn to that type of terrain, consistently.
++ The ONLY way that I have a chance to catch an enemy in WvWvW, should they decide to run, or if I need to run myself. Needs to be comboed with a CC or Invis for the respective situation.

Phantasmal Disenchanter: Great for Boon Removal with added Condition Removal from allies. The fact it has good number of bounces is divine.
— Spawns! In! Melee! Too often, I’ve had this Phantasm DIE before it can get its first attack off because of this. Why can’t it spawn by me, like the Phantasmal Warlock, Phantasmal Mage, or Phantasmal Duelist? (Even the Phantasmal Defender and Phantasmal Swordsman spawns by me, and they are melee!)
++ Great for Boon-happy Bosses, assuming they aren’t active with Melee-happy AoE … but then Sword Clones would do the trick. Hence, is a better option on a kited/constantly-moving Boss that likes his Boons (Troll in Untyped Fractal for one).

Mirror: Lowest of Healing for me, combined with the fact I tend to hit the Heal skill to RECOVER Health, rather then to start a personal Reflect for 1.25 seconds. Just not a skill for me most of the time, preferring Ether Feast or Mantra of Recovery.

Signet of Midnight (Use): When in comparison to other Utilities, I’ve sadly ignored this one unless I’m specifically building for Boon Duration. I’ve NEVER used the actual active effect on purpose.
—Even in Confusion builds for WvWvW, I’ve never used this to take advantage of the blind.

MLieBennett.9031:

Least/Never Used Skills:
Mantra of Distraction: My least used Mantra. As an interrupt? Not useful. 1s of Daze for two shots that has a 5 second cd between uses, a 30 second CD between last use and charging, and a 3.25s charge time? Bleh. Dungeon Bosses get CC Immunity, meaning this is almost pointless against them. Regular mobs you don’t worry about CCing. PvP opponents, 1s Daze is simply not much and must wait 4 more seconds for another 1s Daze meaning they will get their heal skill off anyways.
+ Works decently with 15 Domination, as it would then give 8 or 9 stacks of Vulnerability depending on traits and if you interrupted or not. With Condition Duration, this would double for a decent amount of time to lead to a spike (though waiting 5 seconds to do so is rough).
— Signet of Domination is almost always better. As its a STUN, it means the opponent will not move. Combined with being a 2s Stun at that, vs. MoD’s 2x 1s Daze separated by 5s.

The daze is incredibly useful for interrupts. You see that foe putting up his heal? Now it’s wasted, thanks to an instant daze. Often, players aren’t even aware that their skills have been interrupted. And if you trait a bit for interrupts, it can be even more useful. Just one daze can; deal 6 stacks of vulnerability, deal damage, gain you fury, apply a condition, give you a boon, and/or 50% chance to stun instead. Think about if you roll with both Mantra of Distracting and Signet of Domination, plus weapons interrupts and Diversion shatter. It can be very powerful, but it requires that you know your opponent.

Arcane Thievery used to be cool until it got stealth nerf. For some reasons Anet thinks it’s ok for other professions to instantly get all boons (with 100% accuracy of knowing what boons will be given) while it’s not for mesmer.

Who the fk wants one of their utility slot on long CD for 3 stupid boons that last for a blink? Not to mention that most boons are tied to how you gear up yourself to be effective. The only potent boons worth stealing are probably protection and stability. Good luck trying to get them.

Mantras are ok if you’re not actually expecting to rely solely on what it says on the tool tip. They’re meant to be working with traits.

That Signet of Midnight never exists.

Other utilities are fine as they are (bugs aside).

MLieBennett.9031:

Least/Never Used Skills:
Mimic: Potentially powerful, but often too much of a hassle to try to use. As it will only start blocking/reflecting attacks AFTER it absorbs one projectile, which you take full effect of. Further it WILL NOT ABSORB any attack that interrupts/stuns/knockdown/etc without stability, it makes it quite unpredictable in effect. This is especially true when factoring in the Mesmer’s habits of leaving Illusions to take a few attacks.
++ Fun when slotting Mantra of Concentration to purposely taunt a projectile-type attack from an enemy to use later. Wurm’s Knockdown boulder shot, Orrian Drake’s breath spit with AoE zone (doesn’t need stability), etc. Still usually too much trouble and time taken to actually be useful.
— Feedback basically wins over this skill in almost all cases.

Mantra of Distraction: My least used Mantra. As an interrupt? Not useful. 1s of Daze for two shots that has a 5 second cd between uses, a 30 second CD between last use and charging, and a 3.25s charge time? Bleh. Dungeon Bosses get CC Immunity, meaning this is almost pointless against them. Regular mobs you don’t worry about CCing. PvP opponents, 1s Daze is simply not much and must wait 4 more seconds for another 1s Daze meaning they will get their heal skill off anyways.
+ Works decently with 15 Domination, as it would then give 8 or 9 stacks of Vulnerability depending on traits and if you interrupted or not. With Condition Duration, this would double for a decent amount of time to lead to a spike (though waiting 5 seconds to do so is rough).
— Signet of Domination is almost always better. As its a STUN, it means the opponent will not move. Combined with being a 2s Stun at that, vs. MoD’s 2x 1s Daze separated by 5s.

Specific Situation Skills – Skills that I only slot for a specific Dungeon Fight or Event.

Arcane Thievery: Used specifically with Signet of Inspiration when targeting enemies that builds a 25 stack of Might and/or Long-term Protection/Stability/Regeneration. The Condition transfer part is largely ignored.
—PvP wants me to use this, but with just 3 boons taken its almost random which ones I’ll grab from a Boon-happy Enemy.

Illusion of Life: Currently, only grabbed for specific Downed-happy fights in Fractals/Dungeons. (Unless I feel like messing with someone in the Dragon fights). Charr Fractal sees the biggest use, followed by the Grawl Fractal boss. The 1/2s ability to quickly get someone on their feet is NOT to be ignored in comparison to all other skills that recover a Downed Ally take multiple seconds to cast.
++ GREAT when you know you are likely going to need to try to help an ally thats in a deadly AoE field, or being swarmed by numerous enemies.
— So UNUSED that you MUST explain it to allies what the Golden Glow around their character after they are revived means, and state TEMP REVIVE to remind them when you use the skill. Its made quite a number of fights easier by not having to fully revive a Dead ally, but its also given me a headache to a number of players that won’t listen to what the skill does.

Funnier when they read the combat log to see what killed them if they don’t get their rally after using Illusion of Life.

Holy crap I had to shorten your message to fit mine in.

-Phantasmal Disenchanter has some niche uses over Null Field, specially against mobs that relies on boons and frequently refreshes boons every 5 seconds – like the Dredge boss in the Dredge Fractal, after you blow up the door.

-Aracane Thievery has a gimmick use against mobs like the Jellyfish boss or Ascalonian Monks, both in fractals, that puts on 25 stacks of might. Then on the Dredge Fractal, you can easily find mobs that get 1 minute of Swiftness and Protection.

-Phantasmal Defender needs 15 points in Inspiration so that it has Retaliation and Regeneration on itself. Do note that Retaliation damage is not based on damage received. So, it’s extra useful against enemies that do fast multiple weak hits instead of slow single hard hits. A perfect example would be the Poison Golem room in the Crazed Asura fractal where my Defender spams 300s on the golem when its spinning.

Just 2 cents about mimic : sure, catching a projectile sucks, but after that, it’s up to 4s of virtual invulnerability. Reflect all projectiles, block all melee. On a 20s CD (traited)
And to top that : you can catch bouncing projectiles. Like staff 1. So, staff user, you know what to do : auto attack, mimic, and get your free 4s of “can’t touch this”. THen you have your shield, storm, retreat… enjoy! Bonus point : when echoing the staff projectile, if you have illusionary elasticity you’ll get a boon. Just because.

While in group event, when you can’t garanty you’ll get shot at, it use is near zero. Where it shines is when soloing PvE or duelling in sPvP. Particularly in sPvP, you don’t show the purple dome of doom that everyone recognize instantly and get out of, so you often get more use out of it that feedback.

In WvW, run at the 47 enemy players and hit Mimic followed by Mirror followed by F4 followed by Blurred Frenzy then Feedback for kittenol. Decoy, let cooldowns reset and do it again just because. Then read WvW forum for @<insert Mesmer is cheating in WvW>.

I found uses for nearly all skills by now. There are exceptions:

• Signet of Midnight: Since Torch #4 provides a much superior PBAE blind, I really don’t get what this is supposed to do. On average, SoI even provides more boon duration via extra boons and spread boons.

• Signet of Illusions: Still too buggy to be really usable.

Then there’s also a handful of skills I consider too quirky or too niche:

• Mantra of Pain: Not used for the ability, but for the instant cooldown for PBAE heal spam with 30 Inspiration.

• Portal: Outside of WvW, the CD-nerf made this a giant pain to use. It used to be a nice “ok, fair enough” in return for not having proper access to Swiftness, but even on a 60s CD it was very annoying to use. If they split the skill I’m really hoping for 15-25s PvE CD here.

• Veil: Again, outside of WvW this has a far too long CD to be useful.

• Arcane Thievery: Since it caps at 3 boons/conditions moved, this is only useful for specific PvE enemies which stack 25 might or 60s of boons. And then only with SoI to spread it to the party.

Carighan.6758:

• Arcane Thievery: Since it caps at 3 boons/conditions moved, this is only useful for specific PvE enemies which stack 25 might or 60s of boons. And then only with SoI to spread it to the party.

You, Sir, are an amature :p

Yes it’s great in certain PvE situation (hell, it removes 3 conditions and steals 3 boons, that’s nothing to shake a stick at for a mesmer wanting some condition removal), however it SHINES in WvW.

Consider any encounter. You’ve got players in both 1v1 and ZvZ who’re stacking large quantities of might (D/D eles, guardians, warriors) which are beautiful to get your hands on for both condition/confusion and power mesmers. Stealing boons also denies enemies of their builds/combos (steal haste from an enemy running away = slow kitten mesmer without a focus can chase them down). Personally I love thieving a warriors haste/might/fury from invis at the very start of a fight. That’s just the half of arcane thievery in WvW.

The condition removal doesn’t just remove the conditions, it transfers them. So in the case of being a condition mesmer you get to transfer a whole lot of pain on to the enemy. Obviously it gets you out of the kitten if you’re rooted, or chilled, but there’s more to it than that.

Consider a D/D ele, P/P/D thief, or glamour mesmer who focus on high stacks/duration of bleeds, poison, and confusion. If you’re built to withstand their hits you can actually take an active roll in stacking conditions on yourself for the purpose of offloading them back on to the enemy. So stand in the earthquake, stand in the poison fields, let the pistol bleed shots hit (preferably with a chaos shield), and run in and out of glamour fields as much as you can, then with the push of a button they’re now conditions your enemy has to deal with.

It can also be traited for a shorter CD, which is well worth it if you’re a blink user too.

Well, yes. In smaller engagements it’s a kitten useful ability, the same as it is in PvE. It’s just that it has to contest with Portal, Veil, Null Field, Feedback and Blink for any larger encounter. And those are just too useful to everyone to leave off, normally. :s

Especially versus Null Field, it’s just not useful enough to warrant the slot. Null Field already strips and cleanses, it just doesn’t transfer. But it hits 5 and is a decent source of area Chaos Armour.

Skills I never use are:

iDisenchanter – long cast time, better forms of condition removal available
iDefender – can see it’s usefulness, but not in my build
Mantra of Concentration – clunky, useless
Mantra of Distraction – same as above
Illusion of Life – prohibitively long cooldown
Signet of Domination – a whole utility slot for 90 condition damage… waste of space tbh.

juno.1840:

So there’s a bunch of utility skills I don’t use on my Mesmer. Rather than just write them off, I thought it would be good to share with other Mesmers. Maybe someone has an ubur use for a skill I think is useless. Worst case we end up with a “popular vote” of perceived worthless skills for the developers.
And from that list, skills I never slot are:

Arcane Thievery — this one might be pretty cool, I’ll have to try it in wvw/pvp.
Illusion of Life — looks cool but have never slotted it.
Mimic — reward doesn’t seem worth the effort on this skill.
Signet of Domination — condition dmg not significant, and I already have a daze kitten
Signet of Illusions — health boost just not worth it, and on a delay. I dont’ run legion.
Signet of Inspiration — don’t like RNG on my skills.
Signet of Midnight — don’t see much value in this (passive nor active).
Veil — never use because if I want it I take mass invis instead.

Share your list or counter mine. All constructive discussion is good

Ok, lets see, you made some good points, my turn now.

Choices:
Arcane Thievery
Blink
Decoy
Feedback
Illusion of Life
Mantra of Concentration
Mantra of Distraction
Mantra of Pain
Mantra of Resolve
Mimic
Mirror Images
Null Field
Phantasmal Defender
Phantasmal Disenchanter
Portal
Signet of Domination
Signet of Illusions
Signet of Inspiration
Signet of Midnight
Veil

Things that I use
Blink: superior escape and suprise attack skill.
Decoy: superior escape and good way for your enemy to lose focus.
Feedback: good wvw reflection for zerg fights and glamour build ability.
Mirror Images: good way to someone 2 clones up just before shattering, & a way to escape.
Phantasmal Defender: Excellent damage reduction and defensive ability.
Phantasmal Disenchanter: Excellent AoE conditon removal and removes boons
Signet of Domination: Additional option to stun your foe, and grants passive cond damage.
Signet of Midnight: The only was a mesmer can reach 100% boon duration without warrior banner buff.
Veil: Excellent kiting ability, which you can use twice , and can use combo finishers on, and allies can use it.

What needs to be buffed:
Mantras: Once they’re used, they’re gone. You cant charge them again in a fight, the time is too long to charge them. Ideas: Increase uses, or decrease cast time.
Mimic: Single use reflection, feedback is better.
Portal Entre: Needs to be a combo field.
Signet of Midnight: Although I use it, it should be better. On use, blind is the last thing I want. If its a boon duration signet, it should be something to do with boons on use. Gain 3 random boons on use? Also the passive time is too small, but is my only option to reach 100%. Should be +20% or +25%.
Signet of Illusions: The bonus health is not enough, needs a bit more. Maybe speed or damage bonus 10% as well/instead.

The rest I partually use, could be buffed but aren’t my biggest concerns.

I never use mantras or signets. I still don’t understand what people like about Signet of Inspiration. I hate that skill so much. If we had a +25% movement speed Signet, I’d love it, but we don’t and none of the other signets are very reliable because of their long cooldowns. I use Signet for my Glamour-Confusion build in sPVP, but that’s it.

Mantra builds in general are great in concept, terrible in execution. For the extreme level of skill you need to play a mantra build DECENTLY, you might as well play any other build, not try as hard and do much, MUCH better. The skills themselves are balanced, but too weak in power to make the amount of constantly channeling you have to do worth it (and mantras are extremely vulnerable to interrupts).

I stopped using Arcane Thievery after the nerf. It’s really no longer worth it, considering the cooldown. The old version was much better.

I use Phantasmal Disenchanter on shatter builds. It’s short cooldown is useful for additional fodder.

Mimic is now a pretty awesome ability in its little niche. I use it sometimes in WvW during sieges.

My favorite skills that I use most often on my hybrid build:
Decoy
Blink
Mirror Images
Feedback
Null Field

yup instead of listing what i don’t use here is what i use:

1feedback
2nullfield
3veil
4 portal
5tw

Henrik.7560:

Mimic: Single use reflection, feedback is better.

Except, as was stated before, it’s not that at all. Its description is totally misleading, and the real effect is very different from a short feedback. You can’t really compare the two.

CrazyAce.3842:

I still don’t understand what people like about Signet of Inspiration. I hate that skill so much.

The passive is meh, it’s the active that is useful. When you are with a guardian, or in area where ennemy stack boons (good synergy with Arcane Thievery there), you can provide party-wide buffing.
Not necessarily the best skill out there, but decently usable.

CrazyAce.3842:

I never use mantras or signets. I still don’t understand what people like about Signet of Inspiration.

Conceptual thing.
I <3 the random effects from the Chaos line (I just wish the on-interrupt stuff each gave 2 stacks of the condition/boon), I <3 the random effects on the staff and trident, I <3 the randomness of SoI.

It might actually be perma-Swiftness. Will it be? Probably not. Might it be Swiftness for the important moments? Potentially, yes. Or not. Or maybe I have Protection just as the Thief jumps me.

I know many players hate that, I oddly enough love it (in any game). That class in Final Fantasy Tactics Advance 2 which casts an effect on the entire team, you just don’t know whether that team will be yours or the others? Favourite character class.

The active effect is also seriously underrated. And not only in combination with AT.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Carighan.6758:

• Arcane Thievery: Since it caps at 3 boons/conditions moved, this is only useful for specific PvE enemies which stack 25 might or 60s of boons. And then only with SoI to spread it to the party.

You, Sir, are an amature :p

Yes it’s great in certain PvE situation (hell, it removes 3 conditions and steals 3 boons, that’s nothing to shake a stick at for a mesmer wanting some condition removal), however it SHINES in WvW.

Consider any encounter. You’ve got players in both 1v1 and ZvZ who’re stacking large quantities of might (D/D eles, guardians, warriors) which are beautiful to get your hands on for both condition/confusion and power mesmers. Stealing boons also denies enemies of their builds/combos (steal haste from an enemy running away = slow kitten mesmer without a focus can chase them down). Personally I love thieving a warriors haste/might/fury from invis at the very start of a fight. That’s just the half of arcane thievery in WvW.

The condition removal doesn’t just remove the conditions, it transfers them. So in the case of being a condition mesmer you get to transfer a whole lot of pain on to the enemy. Obviously it gets you out of the kitten if you’re rooted, or chilled, but there’s more to it than that.

Consider a D/D ele, P/P/D thief, or glamour mesmer who focus on high stacks/duration of bleeds, poison, and confusion. If you’re built to withstand their hits you can actually take an active roll in stacking conditions on yourself for the purpose of offloading them back on to the enemy. So stand in the earthquake, stand in the poison fields, let the pistol bleed shots hit (preferably with a chaos shield), and run in and out of glamour fields as much as you can, then with the push of a button they’re now conditions your enemy has to deal with.

It can also be traited for a shorter CD, which is well worth it if you’re a blink user too.

I would love to use Arcane Thievery more, because the skill effect is so cool. But Null Field is just better, simply because it removes all boons from your foe. An Elementalist or Guardian can quickly replace the boons they lose, but if you have an ally cast immobilize, and then cast Null Filed under them, they melt away in 2 seconds. Elementalists and Guardians are very weak without boons. Arcane Thievery just can’t do that, as it only removes 3 boons at a time. Further more, Null Field is also great to cast on foes when you’re defending a gate, thanks to the AoE. And unlike Arcane Thievery, you don’t need a target if you just want to remove conditions from yourself.

Well I love Arcane Thieve. It’s a ele and guardian killer. Halfway into a fight wait till they blown their big cool downs steal their boon and burst. 9/10 times they don’t know what happened.

Edit also it’s great for fighting confusion mesmers and screw over rangers