Guild Wars 2

I’m wanting to know the use for these things as they do absolutely no damage (besides the phantasams) i think thats what they are called anyway, even if you were to use the 1st mesmer skill to explode them it only does minimal damage and doing the daze or whatever the 3rd skill doesn’t seem to last long enough to make a big difference. The only positive side i see are that they are a distraction so you can get some distance from said mob. Also they vanish from the original target that you were attacking when they were created once said target is killed thus must require to make more of these things once you fight the next monster in the mob and some of these skills have a 30s CD. So could anyone shed some light on this class for me and show me the ropes i’m at a loss here _

At level 1 they seem pretty useless, yeah. Once you get to 40+ and unlock some traits you’ll start seeing how awesome they are!

Alternatively – watch some youtube videos. Or hop in to PvP / WvW and try fighting a mesmer. You’ll learn.

I had the exact same reaction to clones when I first started playing Mesmer. They have a learning curve.

A little nomenclature:
Clones are the exact copies of yourself. They do insignificant damage and die pretty fast.
Phantasms are the ghostly copies of yourself. They do remarkable damage but have cooldowns for their attacks.
Illusion is the term used for both clones and phantasms.
(Once you start exploring the traits, this terminology helps as some traits affect clones, some traits affect phantasms, and some traits affect both.)

For the sake of simplicity, clones are mostly shatter fodder. (They have other purposes, but it requires a few traits and advance tactics.) Sometimes they will grab a mobs attention and sacrifice themselves for you, but you really want to blow them up. Mind Wrack (#1 shatter) is your damage shatter, and Distortion (#4) is your “Get me out of here!” shatter. Diversion (#3) is best used when you see a mob telegraphing a skill that you want to interrupt.

If you have multiple Phantasms up, you don’t want to shatter them. Their cooldowns can be long, but they’re worthwhile and will add a good amount of DPS for you.

At any rate, leveling a Mesmer can be difficult as the learning curve is rather steep and we are very much trait dependent. The mesmer you thought you knew at level 1 is a completely different character at level 80.

Clones can cripple , bleed , cause weakness to foes on death, or cause bleeding…etc through attacks when traited.

Other than that, if someone uses a 10k damage spell on a clone, that’s 10k damage you didn’t have to take or a dodge saved.

Shatter damage will be more significant when you gear up.

Hehe, this topic brings me 15 months back in time

Certain clones (such as from staff) deal next to no power based damage but have the ability to cause/inherit your condition damage and precision, and thus with the right traits and gear can actually deal semi decent dps.

Here, look- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8td7XyA1JU&feature=player_detailpage#t=301

I do a rare early shatter on this guy, but after that while he’s standing there and face tanking, I just spam clone/death and watch his condi bar stack up.

Clones are simply the mechanic by which most all our effects are applied (including misdirecting our foes).

The use of clones is
1)conditions
2)confusion(not the condition, actual confusion in the mind of the opponent on the other side of the screen
3) shatter fodder.

Simple.

Have fun on the mesmer

other than the offensive purposes, it is defensive both in PvE (keeps mobs distracted most of the time) and WvW/PvP (denies easy targeting esp when you stealth and creates stress/pressure). When you get your dodge clones – this includes having all ur clones applying bleeds (which is pretty nice damage) and other traits, they become quite fun and helpful, gives you breathers when you need it, while also doing all the offensive things.

It’s not for straight damage, but straight off the bat, at low level:
- Staff Clones will stack conditions and buff and ramp up massive damage after a few seconds actually
- Sword clones remove boons and stack vulnerability (which increases ur direct damage). cuz they stack on enemies they apply alot of melee pressure/stress for players and also holds aggro pretty well on pve

^ those are pretty good already without traits. with traits, they do bleeds, confusion, cripple, etc etc