Guild Wars 2

So, just interested to see what people would chose to buff.

This would be my change.

I would change
Temporal Curtain > players attacked by ranged weapons while behind the wall will have the attacks transformed into boons. detonating the wall gives you 5 sec of swiftness.

Phantasmal Warden > no longer aborbs ranged attacks.
Phantasmal Warden > deals 10% more damage, will pull targets towards the warden 2 second pulse 5 sec internal cooldown.

Transforming attacks into boons is somewhat the chaos armor does. Except it doesn’t negate the attack itsself. I still prefer my reflecting Curtain

Cutting iWarden reflecting would surely harm it. Its damage is nice to have, but its anti-projectile features make it more worthy. You still have iZerker for damage and cripple, and TC for pulling together. I’d prefer having it ground targeted.

1. Replace Vuln on Staff. At this point, probably with Chill or low % procced Torment.

2. Give IMage a Level of Kickarse. Hell, a few levels. Probably up his attack speed significantly/change Retal for Prot or Aegis.

YMMV

The two most important i’d say (don’t care what happens to scepter/torch so i won’t bother with these two) is Winds of Chaos and Mind Stab.

Winds of Chaos: Vulnerability replaced by 5sec torment or 2sec of poison but since poison is a little bit too powerful for pvp i think crappy torment would do the job nicely. If it has to be a none dealing damage condi it can only be a 1sec chill, if its anything else (fear/immobilize/stun/dazed excluded of course) its automatic fail.

Mind Stab: What i want the most from this skill is for it to become a 30-35sec CD aoe high damage+bleeding (2stacks of bleeds per hit, 5sec bleed lasting time) that lasts like Chaos Storm (5sec). Mes needs more aoe for tagging and that would be it.

I would change
Temporal Curtain > players attacked by ranged weapons while behind the wall will have the attacks transformed into boons. detonating the wall gives you 5 sec of swiftness.

So, basically, you want to nerf our only reliable way to gain swiftness? That’s more or less the sole reason why i’m using focus and i won’t be that amused to see it changed in this way.

Signet gives swiftness when out of combat. Suddenly we go from being the slowest class to one of the most powerful. Our in combat speed is second only to thief, so we would really be a mobile class.

Staff doesnt give vul. Gives the new torment for a few seconds.

If this changes ever happen, i swear i would just donate a lot of money just hoping some of it reaches the guy that makes the change and he treats himself and family to a pint and dinner.

Grounded targeted warden. Hands down. I know illusions need to be target focussed so it will only cast of you have a target (or autotarget is able to select one for you) and will run towards that target for it’s second d burst but its initial position is chosen by you. Finally it could be effectively employed defensively or combo’d with curtain for condition cleanse, making it and interesting and unique phantasm.

After that probably take vuln off staff like everyone has said. I’d like poison but I’d settle for chill or torment.

I know illusions need to be target focussed so it will only cast of you have a target

Just make it like Deceptive Evasion: Can only be used while in combat and targets the nearest available enemy.

That will most likely mess with my opening though :/

Iavra.8510:

I know illusions need to be target focussed so it will only cast of you have a target

Just make it like Deceptive Evasion: Can only be used while in combat and targets the nearest available enemy.

That will most likely mess with my opening though :/

Read the next bit. It would still be cast if there is a nearby available target if you have auto attack turned on but no target selected.

• Make warden ground targeted, or able to re-position itself between attack cycles.

How many times have you set warden it does one attack successfully… but now it’s worthless but you don’t want to shatter as it’ll kill the other two good phantasms you have running? – If the warden could reposition itself between attacks it’d still be easily avoided, but would be good for more than one attack

• Buff DPS across the board in PvE (This is a wish should be applied to every class except warrior, not exclusively to mesmers)

The disparity between Warrior DPS and every other class as it presently stands is ridiculous. Mesmer’s cannot spec for DPS because even full specced DPS they are barely a shadow of Warrior DPS – as long as warriors are so much more powerful, classes like ranger stand little hope of finding parties. When a class specs pure DPS, IMO it should have parity with other classes running pure DPS, and the reason classes spec anything BUT DPS would be in order to provide support, not because they literally can’t run any other useful build

Direwind.8409:

So, just interested to see what people would chose to buff.

This would be my change.

I would change
Temporal Curtain > players attacked by ranged weapons while behind the wall will have the attacks transformed into boons. detonating the wall gives you 5 sec of swiftness.

Phantasmal Warden > no longer aborbs ranged attacks.
Phantasmal Warden > deals 10% more damage, will pull targets towards the warden 2 second pulse 5 sec internal cooldown.

You say buffs, but you’re proposing to kill Temporal Curtain and make iWarden a super-OP phantasm…

I’d change iMage: putting burning instead of confusion and giving aoe retaliation with a pulse instead of the actual bounce.

And then upgrade a lot of useless traits, like Confounding Suggestions, Wastrel Punishment, Blurred Inscriptions, Furious Interruption, Confusing Combatant, Chaotic revival, Retaliatory Remise, Cleanising Inscriptions, Chaotic Interruption, Restorative Illusions, Shattered Conditions, Precise Wrack, Blinding Beffudlement, and fix Phantasmal Haste

Add something to Mind Stab (Greatsword #3). I’d be happy with a tiny bit of life steal or maybe a random chance of a short condition like cripple, vulnerability or weakness (there’s not much “chaos” in the greatsword).

Make the auto-attack projectile on scepter travel 50% faster

I would like to see scepter clones being actually useful. They shouldn’t do the whole scepter chain since the results might be…strange and possibly quite OP but add something to the first and maybe even 2nd auto-attack like a 2s confusion (shouldn’t be too powerful) or a bit of torment. Make scepter the punishing weapon it’s seemingly intended to be with torment and confusion already on it.

Also change Signet of Inspiration’s passive to +25% movement speed.

There a more changes i’d like to see but those 2 are among those i like to see the most.

I would like to see Illusionary Elasticity affecting clones and combined with Chaotic Dampening trait.Also wouldnt mind seeing dodge clones always attacking my target.

would be on the op side but im selfish

1. -10% cooldown on all illusion skills. IC adds a further 10% cooldown, and is a MAJOR Illusion trait choice (adept or master).

2. Fix/replace iMage. More stacks of confusion and burning, and longer retaliation, and lower cooldown would be a start.

1. Fix scepter autoattack
2. Fix iMage

I want nothing more than to be able to honestly give advice saying that both scepter and torch are strong viable weapons.

I would go with Make Image give stacks of Torment, i find Confusion to be meh, Decrease the cool down a bit as well its not exactly the hardest hitting Phantom. Make it so that Retal is given to the mesmer rather then the person closest.

Then Fix Scepter – Auto attack needs to be auto and the #3 part needs to be at least 50% quicker. Increase the range of Illusionary Counter to MAX range (i think thats 1,200) Change Confusing Images, now it gives stacks of either Cripple or Torment.

Change Confusing Images, now it gives stacks of either Cripple or Torment.

I would rather like to see it apply 1s of cripple per pulse in addition to the confusion it already applies. Torment on both condition applying skills would make cleansing too easy imo.

Also our “+33% confusion duration” trait is already weak enough. Don’t limit it further by removing more confusion from us but rather add some ^^

Iavra.8510:

Change Confusing Images, now it gives stacks of either Cripple or Torment.

I would rather like to see it apply 1s of cripple per pulse in addition to the confusion it already applies. Torment on both condition applying skills would make cleansing too easy imo.

Also our “+33% confusion duration” trait is already weak enough. Don’t limit it further by removing more confusion from us but rather add some ^^

I would rather have Torment and Cripple or Torment and Poison over Confusion, as you say its a very meh condition. Also why take that trait anyway? Unless you are a specific Confusion build its pointless, Find Confusion builds meh already

confusion dmg buff in wvw and new ways to apply torment.

All skills/traits have confusion replaced with torment. Remove confusion from the game. Balance application accordingly.

If they could I’d say make clones/phantasms only damaged by targeted abilities with them as the target. Sadly they can’t so my 2nd one would be the complete removal of portal from the game. You might say “well that’s a nerf”, but we’re getting chain nerfed for something and it kitten sure isn’t our mad dps or decent utility.

If not the portal thing than just buff our condi removal.

- Signet of Midnight (or inspiration) passive gives a 25% movement speed bonus.
- Remove IC, reduce the CD on all utility clone skills to compensate (iLeap, Decoy etc).

The nerf for phantasm builds ended up affecting far too many other builds, this needs
to be reconsidered.

Pyroatheist.9031:

1. Fix scepter autoattack
2. Fix iMage

I want nothing more than to be able to honestly give advice saying that both scepter and torch are strong viable weapons.

They are viable for some builds, though I’m sure you know that already.

1. Change vuln on scepter to poison or chill.
2. Nerf IC by 10%, reduce all phantasm cooldowns by 10% to compensate.

1. Fix Confusion so it is a viable alternative again, &
2. Make Signet of Inspiration’s passive be 25% increased movement speed.

1. Let us tag as many enemies in wvw as other classes do (without resorting to glamour fields+confusing enchantments)
2. Make mind stab a blast finisher.

There is way more than 2 though! A lot of people ask for an iMage buff, I think torch 5 just needs a complete rework. If torch had a way to apply swiftness I would be so happy.

1) blurred frenzy back to 10 in PvE
2) GS 3 remove 3 boons in pve

1) increase confusion’s damage, no need to destroy or restrict confu builds.
OR
1.a) make chaos armor apply protection, because it is called armor, duh.
and
2) remove vulnerability from staff 1 and put something else or maybe nothing at all.

I would like for Phantasmal Swordman to give the party fury.

I would like for Debilitating Dissipation to have a chance to apply poison on clone death.

EASY

Signet of Inspiration
Passive: Grants Swiftness and a random boon every ten seconds.
Active: Copy all of your boons to nearby allies.
 Aegis: 10 s
 Fury: 5 s
 Might: 20 s
 Protection: 3 s
 Regeneration: 5 s (650 health)
 Retaliation: 5 s
 Swiftness: 6 s (((down from 10s)))
 Vigor: 5 s
 Range: 600

Winds of Chaos
Bounce an orb of energy between foes and allies that applies random boons to allies and random conditions to foes.
 Damage: 111
 Burning: 1 s (328 damage)
 Bleeding: 7 s (298 damage)
 Torment: 5s (224 damage) or Weakness: 1s
 Might: 5 s
 Fury: 2 s
 Number of bounces: 1
 Range: 1,200

1.
GS#3
Double the dmg
Double the Radius
Double the CD.

2.
Nullfield
Add a dmg component so everytime you remove a boon from a player you do xxx amount of dmg.

Tired of just being utility bots in mass wvw, wanna have some viable aoe dmg that isnt based on having weak clones running into a mass zerg and doing dmg.
Or an over nerfed confusion con dmg proccing from a rather overnerffed trait and Ethereal fields

1. move the signets + mantra lines into one that fits so we can have builds without wasting all our points, somehow increasing confusion / torment to bring back the confusion mesmer.

2. change our torch phantasm completley;

Chaos Fire:
This phantasm surrounds you, while surrounded you gain protection (cannot stack) and regeneration, enduring this phantasms 10 second (10 too long?) time frame you inflict burning on all of your attacks and shatters will now have reduced damage by -10% but acts as a blast finisher – this does not require a combo field while you have the phantasm suit on, as this is the fire field.

- people who shoot through you and/or clones also gain burning.

maybe that way OP but i’d still love to see it in some shape or form.

DrixTrix.7168:

Chaos Fire:
This phantasm surrounds you, while surrounded you gain protection (cannot stack) and regeneration, enduring this phantasms 10 second (10 too long?) time frame you inflict burning on all of your attacks and shatters will now have reduced damage by -10% but acts as a blast finisher – this does not require a combo field while you have the phantasm suit on, as this is the fire field.

- people who shoot through you and/or clones also gain burning.

maybe that way OP but i’d still love to see it in some shape or form.

Nuh, that is not good enough.

People who shoot at you and/or your clones die instantly without even being downed first. This lasts for 5 seconds and you can do it only once a day in WvW, after that skill works as only protection + burning. In PvE and PvP this skill has 3 second duration and does not insta-kill, but rather inflicts 25 stacks of bleeding.

That will do it.

It would be so much fun to troll zergs with that one although only once a day.

Reduce the CD on Mass Invisibility and Veil. So I can be a perma-stealth thief if I wanted to. HAHAHAHA

I think maybe have the PU trait or some stealth trait that reduces cd on all skills that gives stealth, including decoy and the torch one etc XD

OP!

takatsu.9416:

Reduce the CD on Mass Invisibility and Veil. So I can be a perma-stealth thief if I wanted to. HAHAHAHA

I think maybe have the PU trait or some stealth trait that reduces cd on all skills that gives stealth, including decoy and the torch one etc XD

OP!

Yes that would be Overpowered. I like stealth as it is, i would like to see more stealth options on other weapons but not an overall increase in stealth duration.

iMage: buff its survivability/utility by giving it a small radius shield that knocks back opponents trying to run through it (sort of a counterpart to iWarden reflect/blocking projectiles). This would give torch added utility as a weaker form of cc than focus.

Blinding Beffudlement: remove the 5 second cooldown that nerfed it into uselessness. Instead, fix glamours so that they only affect 5 or 10 targets at once. The blinding/beffudlement in these glamours can then pulse every second, punishing small groups for continuing to attack while in glamours, while distributing a small amount of confusion/blindness on a large group. This is basically making mesmer glamours and glamour based builds consistent with other forms of aoe, and gets rid of the thing that made them overpowered (the ability to affect a whole zerg).

I personally believe that the issues the mesmer is still facing conceptually won’t be fixed by just 2 changes since they are mostly trait related. Generally, the mesmer is doing quite fine. But the trait lines lack focus on certain themes which limits the build diversity. And, of course, some traits are just way too undesirable (placement within in the lines or their effect).

The following thoughts are just my personal opinion. So need for raging or trolling *g. There also might be some “holes” in my thoughts because it’s quite complicated to move around all traits and find proper replacements.

Weapons

Greatsword

I get why people ask for a blast finisher for #3 but the timer is way too low for making it a blast finisher. When thinking of the amount of etheral fields a mesmer can generate, the GS would probably become a better support weapon than the staff due to application of Chaos Armor through blast combos. A whirl finisher for Illusionary Wave might be more appropriate. Or just a slightly larger radius for #3.

Staff

I love the staff and I think its fine. Still not sure if I like the recent Chaos Armor changes though. I think that Chaos Armor should at least have a small advantage over the Chaos Armor generated through combos. You might argue that Elementalists are in the same place but they can just rotate through their skills while a mesmer is stuck with the cooldown. A blast finisher on casting the Chaos Armor would be great because it could add to support focused mesmer builds (Chaos Storm or other fields + Chaos Armor). The blast would also be on a quite long timer not making it too powerful.

I also think that chill or weakness would fit Wind of Chaos better than vulnerability.

Sword

Even though I really hate the recent Blurred Frenzy changes, I think the sword is fine. Decreasing the CD (since Distortion is gone) would be nice but at least in PvP I still get along. Illusionary Leap needs some fixing though… Still missfires/bugs out way too often.

I guess the off-hand skills are fine, too. Always loved the low CDs and the block although I recently switched to torch for PvP.

Scepter

That auto-attack just doesn’t make any sense. It would be much better if it had 1s confusion on the second attack. That should not be too overpowered and encourages using the created clones for stacking confusion.

I don’t mind torment on Illusionary Counter. I see so many people complaining about it, telling it is too difficult to apply. It’s not. Just get hit. I never had any trouble with that. However, I think that Counterspell should daze, not blind. This would make the scepter much more interesting for interrupt builds and bring it on the same level as Illusionary Riposte on off-hand sword.

Focus

Temporal Curtain swiftness should finally stack with other speed buffs. The warden should follow the target inbetween casts. Besides that imho the skills are fine. The delay on the curtain is annoying but … oh well… that’s just how it is now.

Pistol

Awesome for applying bleed (iDuelist) and quite nice for interrupting in PvP (Bullet). I don’t see how this could be improved without making it too op.

Torch

Besides the annoyingly high cooldowns the iMage really sucks. I would like getting rid of the bounce, making the cast an orb which explodes on impact (no blast finisher), dealing dmg, applying confusion on hit (3 stacks for 3s, area effect) in the area and leaving a small area for 3s (r= 120 to 180, not sure, purple fire field, pulsing each second) which burns enemies for 1s and grants 2s of retaliation to allies. This would give the mesmer a new combo field and make the torch more appealing for condition builds.

Also I would like Prestige to be a skill chain with the second skill triggering the blast which drops you out of stealth, of course. Successfully creating a combo effect is way too difficult at the moment, considering it is the only blast finisher the mesmer has.

Skills

Not going into detail here since I think most skills serve their (sometimes: niche) purpose. In general, I hate how many active skills do not work underwater (hello nullfield!). But one skill has to be mentioned:

Signet of Inspiration

Just give us the passive swiftness already. I liked Evo Sapiens suggestion. Or just make it swiftness while out of combat and random boon in combat. Should not be that diffcult *roll eyes.

Traits

I think each line should focus on specific themes. Of course, not all skills relating to those themes should be found in only one line, but the way traits are distributed in case of the mesmer just seem too scattered most of the time. I tried to move some skills around so it makes more sense (at least to me *g) and to encourage different builds (besides Shatter, Phantasm and maybe PU).

Domination

Malicious Sorcery (currently in inspiration)
Master Trait (remove Cleasing Conflagration from this line)
I’d love to see the scepter trait reworked and make it spawn 2 clones on the third hit (like it was the case after the patch before the bugfix). This would benefit shatter specs but also builds which focus on “effect on killed clone”. Also, the scepter fits into the line because of +power +condition duration. Remove the -20% CD since it is not working anyway.

Empowered Illusions
Adept Trait
I don’t want us to get nerfed but this trait should not be available that easily since it basically is a cheap version of the minor grandmaster trait in inspiration. Not sure what to do with it but it just feels wrong. Sorry, phantasm mesmers.

Dazzling Glamours (currently in Illusions)
Adept Trait (switch for Rending Shatter… there is enough vulnerability left)
Should work like Confusing Enchantments. I know glamour builds have been nerfed before but this should not be a big issue because confusion has been nerfed. Make the blind 1s or 2s to compensate for the change.

Confusing Enchantments
Master Trait
Since it is all about moving (exiting or entering the glamour) it should be changed to causing torment for 5 seconds instead of confusion. The trait should then be renamed. This change would make it easier for mesmers to apply different conditions since there are quite a few skills which apply confusion. Also, it would help chasing enemies. They might not use skills when running away out of the glamour, rendering the applied confusion useless.

Signet Mastery
Adept Trait
Switch to Chaos for Illusionary Defense (Chaos) or Compounding Celerity (Illusion) or Compounding Power (Inspiration). Those skills would benefit a build with a scepter but could also be a good addition for GS (additional damage or more mobility for keeping the distance). Signet Mastery just doesn’t seem to fit into Domination.

Dazzling Force
Grandmaster Trait (new)
I guess most people wonder why Harmonious Mantras is placed in Domination. I would move it to Dueling. It could be replaced by a new trait which causes conditions when knocking down/back enemies (GS = push, F = pull). This also helps (some) interrupt builds to be a bit more reliable. It could also be replaced by Chaotic Interruption but should apply different conditions. Cripple during Immobilize just doesn’t make any sense at all. I still favor the “on knock” effect.

Dueling

Harmonious Mantras
Grandmaster Trait (currently in Domination)
Fits perfectly imho.

Empowering Mantras
Master Trait (currently Grandmaster)
Maybe reduce the bonus to +3% per Mantra

Protected Mantra
Adept Trait
Due to Harmonious Mantras being in the Dueling line now, most people might want to focus on keeping the Mantras up, not recasting them. Therefore, I would move it to Inspiration.

Mantra Mastery
Adept Trait (currently Master Trait)
Make it Adept so it can synergize with Harmonious and Empowering Mantras.

Blurred Inscriptions
Master Trait
I would rework it and move it to Chaos.

Chaos

Signet Mastery
Adept Trait (currently in Domination)
See above. This would encourage boon sharing through the Signet of Inspiration but also benefits condition mesmers when using the Signet of Domination.

Blurred + Cleansing Inscriptions
Master Trait (new)
Blurred and Cleansing Inscriptions currently do not provide anything which different skills could not do better. A combination of both might be interesting. Also, the distortion can be nice when being hit while having a Chaos Armor

Prismatic Inscriptions
Grandmaster Trait (new, replacing Chaotic Interruption)
Yes, Chaotic Interruption somehow follows the theme of the line (there are several interruption traits in this line, the skill provides random and, therefore, chaotic conditions) but I personally feel that it should be scrapped or moved to Domination (see above). Prismatic Inscriptions would make the passive boni of signets become permanent even after activation (see Elementalist). This could help several builds, especially condition mesmers who are likely to use the staff and probably the Signet of Domination. It also provides certain advantages for signets when compared to mantras which sometimes serve a similar purporse, e.g. stunbreak, interrupt, but imho currently outshine the signets.

Inspiration

Protected Mantras
Adept Trait (currently in Dueling)
Could be switched with Compounding Celerity (see above).

Phantasmal Haste
Master Trait (currently in Illusions)
Inspirations is all about Phantasms, yet, it does not have any Master (nor Grandmaster) Trait which benefits them. Therefore, Phantasmal Haste should be moved here. Life could be so easy *g.

Illusions
Tricky, since I moved so many skills…

Illusionists Celerity
Grandmaster Trait (currently minor)
As many other people I feel that this skill is very powerful and negatively effects the performance of many builds if not taken. It also is by far the best minor grandmaster trait across all lines. I would like to see the 20% reduced to 10% (while adjusting the CD of all related skills… which are a lot…) or make it a major grandmaster trait instead of Imbued Diversion. As I said before… I don’t want mesmers to be nerfed but this trait is just too good to be “for free” for shatter builds.

Imbued Diversion
Master Trait (currently Grandmaster)
Making it a master trait makes it more accessible for interrupt builds, therefore, promoting build diversity. It can replace Dazzling Glamours which I moved to Domination. Maybe the number of targets has to be toned down though.

Cleansing Conflagration
Master Trait (currently in Domination)
See above. The changes I suggest help to apply more conditions and, thus, fit into Illusions (+condition). Since the iMage no longer has a bouncing attack Illusionary Elasticity can also remain in this trait line.

Blinding Befuddlement
Adept Trait (currently Master Trait)
Moved to adept traits so it can synergize with torch.

Prismatic Elements
Grandmaster Trait (new)
When burning an enemy, the foe is also chilled for 1s. When chilling an enemy, he also is burned for 1s. Since Illusions also is about conditions, I thought a new trait might be needed. This trait synergizes with torch but also with the staff, encouraging condition builds.

Compounding Power
Adept Trait
I would scrap it or move it to either Inspiration or Domination. It just does not belong here.

Devouring Conflagration
Adept Trait (new)
Most adept traits focus on shatter. There should at least be one which benefits conditions and the torch. When burning an enemy, he also gains weakness for 5s. This trait probably should have an internal cooldown to prevent it from becoming too powerful (torch+staff).

Phew. That was quite a lot of typing. I hope you enjoy my ideas.
I know, I totally failed the “name two…blah…” topic… But two changes just can’t make a difference *g.

pretty much agree with Xaylin about the weapons. Scepter #1 needs a buff i think it should inflict a condition (imo Torment would be better) an the attack speed needs to be adjusted on the clone creating part.

iMage just sucks, in every way it sucks. The others on Staff and Greatsword have a good reason to exist, Greatsworrd for the damage and Staff isnt over powered nor is it underpowered, its just about right Maybe have it afflict a condition on attack?

The Mage though, cool down is to long the damage is meh and the condition is meh. In my opinion Confusion is a below average condition and i could think of several i would rather have (cripple, Bleed, Torment, Chill,)

In my opinion the trait tree is a bit of a hit and miss, some good some bad but its like they closed their eyes and picked at random for the placment. I dont quite understand the tree for condition damage having so many traits for Phantoms/Clones just doesnt make sense to me

I would move Malicious Sorcery (Scepter buff) into Illusions for a start. I pretty much go into Inspiration for that trait alone. Ilusions in my opinion should be reworked and have some more Condition based traits added into it and move the Illusions one into the others based on the purpose of them

Change Illusionary Retribution, Make it give a better condition (mentioned some above)

Rework scepter #1
Rework Torch phantasm to make it useful

1. Buff iMage. Just do it.
2. Buff confusion damage. Not like it was before, a 20% damage buff is all I want.