When in PvE to use non-Mind Wrack shatters?
I use distortion all the time for avoiding hits while rezzing party members. Diversion is a good second option (interrupt the attack). As a zerker Mesmer I rarely use Cry of Frustration, for obvious purposes, but when I’m in my condition damage gear I’ll use it for a confusion bomb. However confusion is generally an absolutely terrible condition for PvE, as the enemies attack so slow, you might not even get a single “hit” of confusion.. unless you are using it as a gimmick, like using it just before Subject Alpha does his big AoE attack for a truckload of damage.
Other uses of Diversion and Distortion in PvE would just be when you just want another interrupt or a little extra time of invuln. When soloing champions as a zerker Mesmer, I’ll use them a whole lot (because you need can really use every tool you have when challenging yourself like that). Diversion is also useful for knocking off charges of Defiant.
In short, unless you are picking up other people who got downed in nasty places, you won’t have to use these skills in normal play. However you should, if anything to just practice.
Note: Diversion and Distortion are orders of magnitude better when you have the Illusionary Persona trait (Grandmaster Illusions).
I am still a fairly new Mesmer player, but I have found uses for them all.
After picking up Deceptive Evasion at 40, you are able to shatter a lot more often, which makes the other options more appealing. Prior to this, I found they were almost never worth using, as Mind Wrack was the better option 90% of the time.
In tough battles, I will throw up the clone and phantasm from one weapon, dodge roll, then use Distortion. This gives me a few seconds of complete damage mitigation (important) while I switch to sword, stack some vulnerability, and throw up another clone and phantasm. When Distortion ends, I use Blurred Frenzy for more damage mitigation, make another clone, then Mind Wrack. This does a lot of damage to them, while I have taken little/none. Against enemies you cannot burst down quickly, damage mitigation is important. I also now use Masterful Reflection, which I can use to hilarious results while Feedback is on cooldown, or enemies are too spread to use it effectively.
Cry of Frustration is, honestly, not very good in PvE. Enemies use skills so infrequently that you may not even get one tick of damage out of this. Timed well, it can still be good. Mind Wrack has a cooldown, so once you are a clone factory you will be ready to shatter before you can use it again. Cry of Frustration gives a little extra damage at a time you would otherwise be unable to. I am currently experimenting with Confusing Cry, to see if that makes this shatter better, but at the moment I see it as the `better than nothing’ shatter.
Diversion. I originally thought this was utterly terrible. The benefit does not increase with multiple clones, and the delay makes it too difficult to time effectively. Then I picked up Illusionary Persona at lvl70. Now, I can use Diversion without clones, and it is instant. If I have no clones (eg just shattered) and see an enemy winding up an attack, I use Diversion as an extra Interrupt (saving others, such as Magic Bullet, for when I have clones up). Between Distortion, Diversion, Blurred Frenzy and Magic Bullet, I can maintain a fairly long window of `nah, nah, you cannot hit me’, which is always fun :P
The benefit does not increase with multiple clones, and the delay makes it too difficult to time effectively.
You can actually get extra dazes (at least for knocking off Defiant) if you stagger the distance of your illusions to their target. Alternatively have each of your illusions targeting a different enemy that are spread out, Diversion shatter and the clones will daze different targets. This example is generally much more effort than its worth though.
Just use it for causing dazes at your position (with Illusionary Persona), or for sending one clone in to daze your target. This also helps when you are running away from something/someone, summon a clone on them, then Diversion to have that clone run back and daze your pursuer (this works very well with Elusive Evasion, as you dodge an attack from your pursuer, then daze him with the clone you just made from your dodge).
Also, a lot of the time when you daze a PvE enemy, they will act as if they are stunned. They stop moving and everything, so just keep in mind that Diversion is basically a stun for PvE enemies.
(edited by Surbrus.6942)
As a zerker, I like to use Cry of Frustration for more damage while my Mind Wrack is down.
The benefit does not increase with multiple clones, and the delay makes it too difficult to time effectively.
You can actually get extra dazes (at least for knocking off Defiant) if you stagger the distance of your illusions to their target. Alternatively have each of your illusions targeting a different enemy that are spread out, Diversion shatter and the clones will daze different targets. This example is generally much more effort than its worth though.
Staggering your clones for F3 is mostly for pvp/not defiant enemies. For bosses with stacks of defiant, you can still “interrupt” them despite the defiant stacks. Specifically, if they have 3 stacks of defiant and you 3 clone IP F3 them, you will “interrupt” the boss 3 times and then actually interrupt the boss 1 time since you got rid of 3 stacks. This can help a lot for bosses like alpha when your group screws up and you need to pull him but he has 4-5 defiant stacks. Just make sure to have the correct number of clones/IP.
If you have 5 in domination, this also means that you stack 3/6/9/12 stacks of vulnerability on the boss for a 5 sec base. 15 in Domination means that just applying daze will give 5 vulnerability (8 sec base) per daze. These two combined mean 8/16/24/ (25 is the max) stacks for 25% more damage for your whole party for 5 or so seconds (bosses are resistant to vulnerability). If you don’t interrupt but have 15 Dom, it still can get up to 20 stacks.
As Esplen said, I use F2 when I’m out of mindwrack. F2 mid dodge with clones on dodge and IP can still hit for up to 2300-4600 if you are timing your dodges correctly. If you know your illusions are going to die from cleaves/aoe then you might as well shatter them with something.