Guild Wars 2

The Phantasmal Mage is crap
And aren’t there plenty of other places a mesmer can get stealth from then The Prestige?

1. No. There are exactly 2 sources of instant stealth, and they are The Prestige and Decoy. That leaves Mass Invisibility as the only other viable source of stealth, and it’s got a 1.75s channel and happens to be an elite. This idea what we have “plenty of other sources” is a strange one that has cropped up because of people who don’t bother to understand mesmer stealth.

2. The Pledge is bugged, adding wayy more cdr than it should, meaning you have The Prestige up way more than you should, which means with PU and The Pledge, torch is the goto stealth option, as you can get it on as low as a 13s cooldown versus the 32s cooldown of of decoy.

Even without a bugged The Pledge, the torch made its way into even power specs in spvp simply because stealth is one of the most powerful defensive utilities a class can have, and with the existence of thieves mesmers have been in need of a peel.

Nothing peels better than stealth, since it’s a mechanic with little counterplay as much as thieves would have you believe that every class has access to powerful non-targeted stealth that can cleave stealthed people to death. The truth is most classes rely on having someone targeted to use the vast majority of their skills and so stealth functions as practical immunity, with the added perk of allowing you to reposition or disengage safely.

It’s no coincidence that the two premier berserker classes are the classes with access to stealth. The other classes without it that are not a warrior with long immunity stances and high health get blown up by focus trains.

Stealth also guarantees stomps for the most part and is on a lower cooldown than distortion.

There are virtually no downsides to stealth. No reduced movement speed, no reduced damage, nothing to really balance the offensive and defensive gains it provides, so classes with access to stealth will get it wherever they can.

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

It’s always been good for a stealth build, but as the op notes the torch phant is abysmal, even after the changes to it. Possibly the worst phant of all.

because mesmer are doomed to be played glass cannons to be viable in competitive and thus stealth is a must.

Basically, stealth and shatters overrides phantasm viability by a long shot. To a PvP Mesmer, phantasms aren’t going to live long—they’re there to do an attack or two, them be shatter fodder. That the torch phantasm sucks isn’t nearly as big of a negative as it might seem, because it shatters just as well as anything else.

The Prestige, meanwhile, is one of only two sources of on-demand, instant stealth that the Mesmer has, and stealth is really, really good. That alone rockets the torch to the top of our available off-hands for PvP. I think if other defensive options for the Mesmer were more viable compared to stealth, you’d see a lot more variety—personally, I adore the off-hand pistol in PvP—but stealth is just so good that you’re giving up a ton by not having access to The Prestige. It’s usually not worth the trade.

Because Rodgort is sexy.

Norn mesmer with the Howler and Frostfang would be so sexy if mesmers could use warhorn and axe…

Zenith.7301:

Norn mesmer with the Howler and Frostfang would be so sexy if mesmers could use warhorn and axe…

Next elite spec is definitely going to be warhorn… you know, because we dont have enough offhand options yet.

Mikkel.8427:

Zenith.7301:

Norn mesmer with the Howler and Frostfang would be so sexy if mesmers could use warhorn and axe…

Next elite spec is definitely going to be warhorn… you know, because we dont have enough offhand options yet.

The two warhorn skills will be “Buff me!” and “Don’t nerf me bro!”

Besides stealth you apply blind and burning.
Phantasm gives you furry.
The dmg from 4 is okish and adds to shatters.
Traided it gives you condition cleanse (has saved me from burns many times in 1 vs 1 situations)
you can use it in both condition and power based builds

The short stealth duration (untraited) is not only an effective escape mechanism, yes it is broken, but also good for opening up on a target. That being said the current spvp mesmer build is very reminiscent of WvW roaming/gvg build within this and the previous patch and has a high-short bursts but lacks the sustain.

Levetty.1279:

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

Yup, also, it has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game going for it.

Quadox.7834:

Levetty.1279:

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

Yup, also, it has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game going for it.

Not really. Most builds seen in PvP are power PU, which doesn’t take illusions. Only condie builds will be taking illusions, and those are far worse and far rarer in PvP.

Fay.2357:

Quadox.7834:

Levetty.1279:

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

Yup, also, it has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game going for it.

Not really. Most builds seen in PvP are power PU, which doesn’t take illusions. Only condie builds will be taking illusions, and those are far worse and far rarer in PvP.

It still has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game.

Quadox.7834:

Fay.2357:

Quadox.7834:

Levetty.1279:

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

Yup, also, it has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game going for it.

Not really. Most builds seen in PvP are power PU, which doesn’t take illusions. Only condie builds will be taking illusions, and those are far worse and far rarer in PvP.

It still has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game.

And yet can’t compete with MA, PB, CI, PU, BD, or DE, to name a few :)

Quadox.7834:

Fay.2357:

Quadox.7834:

Levetty.1279:

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

Yup, also, it has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game going for it.

Not really. Most builds seen in PvP are power PU, which doesn’t take illusions. Only condie builds will be taking illusions, and those are far worse and far rarer in PvP.

It still has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game.

Only if you’re planning on running it with PU and camping stealth. Otherwise, it’s pretty bad. The pistol trait providing massive cdr through interrupts is very strong, bug notwithstanding. Additionally, the focus trait providing high uptime on reflects is incredibly strong.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Quadox.7834:

Fay.2357:

Quadox.7834:

Levetty.1279:

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

Yup, also, it has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game going for it.

Not really. Most builds seen in PvP are power PU, which doesn’t take illusions. Only condie builds will be taking illusions, and those are far worse and far rarer in PvP.

It still has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game.

And yet can’t compete with MA, PB, CI, PU, BD, or DE, to name a few

Yep true, im not saying it’s too good, only that it’s the best offhand trait on mesmer :p I have actually said that i am against nerfing illusions traitline at the moment.

Fay.2357:

Quadox.7834:

Fay.2357:

Quadox.7834:

Levetty.1279:

Short Answer: Stealth

Long Answer: Stealth is broken in this game

Yup, also, it has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game going for it.

Not really. Most builds seen in PvP are power PU, which doesn’t take illusions. Only condie builds will be taking illusions, and those are far worse and far rarer in PvP.

It still has the best mesmer offhand trait in the game.

Only if you’re planning on running it with PU and camping stealth. Otherwise, it’s pretty bad. The pistol trait providing massive cdr through interrupts is very strong, bug notwithstanding. Additionally, the focus trait providing high uptime on reflects is incredibly strong.

Ye pistol trait could be interesting if they fixed the bug.
Idk anything about PVE, but for pvp, the focus trait is not very good, esp. not in comparision to torch. woop.

stealth rocks, I don`t run pu and I still use torch. mesmers have plenty of dps with GS. The second set is for defense sword and torch both offer great defense with short cool down on distortion and stealth.

other than stealth… I use my torch for helping to clear conditions. Personally, I find the biggest bugs are not ones that cloak me for a long time but failure to cloak, having ambient life (rabbits etc.) trigger stealth cool down, having reflection traits bring me out of stealth and then trigger stealth cool down, simple fail for no apparent reason, and coming out of stealth far too soon.
This idea of perma stealth is just nonsense. It might be possible in theory but in practice mesmers are notorious for skill failure.