Guild Wars 2

In real life, the primary reason guns replaced bows was not power, in fact for a long time bows were better weapons than guns. The reason guns replaced bows is because using guns require minimal training, while a good bowman requires years and years of training.

I wish they did this as a hidden update and the boxes collapse the moment the boss starts AoEing.

Next update: Shatterer will now look to his right.

The following bugs must be fixed first.

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1. The +Condition Duration stat does not affect Illusions.

This is particularly devastating in WvW, where people frequently eat -40% Condition Duration food which severely cripples Staff Clone damage (the 1s Burning is negated entirely), and since Illusions do not benefit from +Condition Duration you cannot negate this by eating +40% Condition Duration food.

This bug is also partially responsible for why Phantasmal Mage and Confusing Combatants are worthless: Master of Misdirection, and any +Condition Duration for that matter, have no effect on the Confusion they inflict.

+Boon Duration has the same problem, but that’s not directly relevant to Condition Mesmers.

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2. Bleeding inflicted by Staff Clones’ Winds of Chaos lasts 5s, instead of 7s like the player’s Winds of Chaos.

Burning from Staff Clones deal more damage in one second than Bleeding deals in 5 seconds. That doesn’t make sense and given this inconsistency is highly unlikely to be a “balancing act”. Given how the tooltip on the player’s Winds of Chaos shows Bleeding to last for 5s when you take Chaotic Dampening, this is likely another case of Illusions being forgotten when the base skill was changed.

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3. Illusionary Elasticity affects Trident Clones and Phantasmal Mage, but not Staff Clones.

Given that Illusionary Elasticity would double the output of Staff Clones I wonder if this was intended, but it is an undocumented inconsistency so I will assume it is a bug. One way or another though, if there is going to be inconsistencies in what traits affect then it should be documented.

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4. Phantasmal Mage’s bounce logic is enemy-ally-ally-ally-…, instead of enemy-ally-enemy-ally-… like other bouncing attack-buffs.

Again I wonder if this is intended, though for what reason I cannot say… I think the Phantasmal Mage would actually be balanced if its bounce logic allows it to double-tap enemies. Again, more inconsistency than obvious bug.

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5. Phantasmal Duelist is a 100% projectile finisher when you take Duelist’s Discipline.

As with 2., this looks like a case of a skill being changed without changing other skills based on it, in this case the Duelist’s Discipline version of Phantasmal Duelist. Allows Mesmers to get 8x Confusion through Ethereal Fields. Probably the only bug fix for Condition Mesmers that’s a nerf.

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The most critical bug is of course 1. Before any balancing act is done to Condition Mesmers 1. absolutely must be fixed first because fixing it changes a lot. Please, fix this bug that has plagued Condition Mesmers since the beginning of Beta.

Phantasms are a mess, and they’re dragging the entire profession down with them.

Why? Because they’re designed as DPS pets. Without having 3 Phantasms up Mesmer DPS plummets, yet they’re 1. incredibly fragile, especially to AoE and 2. destroyed by our two other profession mechanics, Clones and Shatter skills. The result is a profession full of contradictions and, frankly, not very well-designed.

So here’s my suggestion. Instead of Phantasms being DPS pets, make them better Clones. By this I mean two things:

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• Make Phantasm conjuring be a by-product of another skill.
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• Make Phantasms produce better Shatter effects than Clones.

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The Chronomancer has taken a few steps in the right direction with Echo of Memory and Chronophantasma, but the Mesmer should not require an Elite specialisation (not to mention a GM trait) to not tear itself apart. The core functionality of Phantasms must be changed.

The Shatter effects I’m suggesting will only occur the first time a Phantasm is Shattered with Chronophantasma, to prevent obvious shenaningans.

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[BERSERKER]
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Crippling Anguish – 0.75s CT, 20s CD, 1200 RNG, Whirl.
Send an illusionary greatsword whirling towards your target, damaging and Crippling foes in a line. Conjure a Phantasmal Berserker against your target which uses a whirling attack to damage and Cripple foes.

On Shatter: 240 AoE.
The Berserker Shatters into a storm of illusionary blades that constantly damages and inflicts Vulnerability to foes in the area.

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[WARLOCK]
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Accumulated Pain – 30s CD, 1200 RNG.
Strike your target with a blast of chaotic energy, Tormenting and extending the duration of all conditions on them. Conjure a Phantasmal Warlock that deals extra damage for each unique condition.

On Shatter: 240 AoE, Ethereal.
The Warlock Shatters into a Chaos Storm that grants random boons to allies and inflicts random conditions to enemies.

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[SWORDSMAN]
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Wastrel’s Worry – 0.5s CT, 25s CD, 600 RNG, Leap.
Leap at your target and stab them, dealing significant damage. Conjure a Phantasmal Swordsman that leaps at and stabs your foe. If target is not activating a skill, Wastrel’s Demise becomes temporarily available.

On Shatter:
You gain a stackable buff that makes your next attack Unblockable.

Wastrel’s Demise – 0.5s CT, 130 RNG, Leap.
Stab your foe and leap backwards, dealing significant damage. Conjure a Phantasmal Swordsman that leaps at and stabs your foe. If target is not activating a skill, Wastrel’s Worry’s CD is reduced.

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[WARDEN]
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Mirror of Disenchantment – 3s CT, 25s CD, 120 AoE, Whirl.
Create a shield around you that converts and reflects incoming projectiles into boon stripping bolts. You cannot move while channelling the shield. When the shield ends, conjure a Phantasmal Warden against your target that whirls and absorbs projectiles. Activate this skill again to end the shield early and conjure the Warden. (Warden’s Feedback allows reflected projectiles to retain their original effect as well as stripping boons.)

On Shatter: 240 AoE, Light.
The Warden Shatters into a dome of energy that absorbs projectiles.

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[DUELIST]
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Migraine – 1.5s CT, 20s CD, 1200 RNG, Projectile.
Fire a bullet that deals significant damage and inflicts Bleeding and Slow to the target. Conjure a Phantasmal Duelist that unloads its pistols into your foe.

On Shatter: 600 RNG, 1 BNC, Projectile.
Up to 5 ethereal bullets shoot out of the Shattered Duelist, bouncing between foes and inflicting Confusion. Each foe can initially only be targeted by one bullet.

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[MAGE]
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Backfire – 0.75s CT, 20s CD, 1200 RNG, 4 BNC.
Throw an illusionary torch that bounces between foes, Confusing them. Conjure a Phantasmal Mage against your target that casts an ethereal burst to Confuse enemies in an area.

On Shatter: 240 AoE, Blast.
The Mage Shatters into a blasting fireball, Burning nearby enemies.

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[AVENGER]
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Echo of Memory – 2.25s CT, 30s CD, 900 RNG.
Block incoming attacks. Conjure a Phantasmal Avenger against your target when this skill ends, which throws an illusionary shield to Slow enemies and grant Alacrity to allies in an area. If an attack is Blocked, Déjà Vu becomes temporarily available.

On Shatter:
The Avenger Shatters into 2 ethereal shield fragments that grant Quickness to Allies.

Déjà Vu – 2.25s CT, 900 RNG.
Block incoming attacks. Conjure a Phantasmal Avenger against your target when this skill ends, which throws an illusionary shield to Slow enemies and grant Alacrity to allies in an area.

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[DEFENDER]
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Empathy – 1s CT, 30s CD, 900 RNG, 4 BNC, 240 AoE.
Cast an incapacitating bolt that bounces between enemies, inflicting Weakness. You and nearby allies gain Retaliation. Conjure a Phantasmal Defender that redirects half of incoming damage to nearby allies to itself.

On Shatter:
The Defender Shatters into 5 ethereal shield fragments that grant Protection to allies.

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[DISENCHANTER]
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Enchanter’s Conundrum – 1s CT, 30s CD, 900 RNG, 240 AOE.
Cast a hex around your target, inflicting Slow for each unique boon on affected foes. Conjure a Phantasmal Disenchanter against your target that casts a nullifying burst to strip boons and cleanse conditions in an area.

On Shatter: 240 AoE, Ethereal.
The Disenchanter Shatters into a Null Field that strips boons from foes and cleanse conditions from allies.

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[ROGUE]
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Blackout – 1s CT, 20s CD, 900 RNG.
Daze your foe. Conjure a Phantasmal Rogue that deals extra damage from behind.

On Shatter: 240 AoE.
Enemies near the Shattered Rogue are Blinded.

Why are you in such a big rush?

Unless something is time limited you’re not forced to rush through anything. If you do so you really have no one to blame but yourself when your experience is “ruined”.

Precursor prices continue rising and players implore Anet to do something about it. When Anet does something about it players complain Anet is cheapening Precursors.

I realise it’s not necessarily the same group of people making those complaints, but I hope you see my point: Anet cannot please everybody.

The fact of the matter is, Precursor prices had to be brought down: if they continue to rise they will only become more and more unreachable by new players, a group that will continue to increase throughout the game’s life. It is much wiser to do something now instead of say a year later, when much more players have been frustrated by the ever-increasing price of Precursors.

While I can understand why you’re upset, it is for the greater good.

The Herald is an Elite spec that specialises in boon sharing. Why would you expect the base Mesmer to be comparable to that?

The only issue with SoI is Temporal Curtain’s Swiftness not stacking with existing Swiftness, making juggling it and SoI needlessly frustrating. Fix Temporal Curtain and non-Chrono Mesmer travelling would be fine.

Near the end of Beta, we were promised that the Mesmer’s traits will undergo polish and overhaul. By the time Beta ended, only one change: the addition of Mirror of Anguish: was implemented.

Since then we have had a few changes to Mesmer traits, but nothing that can be called an “overhaul”. In general, our traits are still quite unpolished, and many are simply not worth using.

Below are my suggestions on how the Mesmer’s traits could be polished. It may appear almost all of my suggestions are “buffs”: note however that I generally do not suggest changes for popular traits, as my goal is to increase build diversity, not to empower the established builds.

I really wouldn’t be surprised if the next thread OP makes is about the lack of sexual assault in GW2.

beren.6048:

then they ll have to include flying in the game the polar bear people are also nice.

No, they don’t. Largos use their “wings” to swim, not to fly.

Dealing any damage from stealth reveals you, it’s not Prestige-specific.

So yes, I’m pretty sure this has always been the case.

Vanthian.9267:

How was he infracted for that post?

Presumably because Anet assumed he must be trolling, as you’d have to be pretty bad to lose to a condition Mesmer as a Necromancer.

HoT brought too much power creep. More nerfs than buffs are needed IMO.

Asura do have marriages. Vekk mentioned that no one is allowed to leave an Asuran wedding until the amount of love in the air is calculated.

My feeling playing as a Condi Chrono is yes, Chronomancer is OP because of two things…
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1. Slow. Far too much access to Slow. If you build for it (GS with Danger Time and Lost Time) you can maintain 100% up-time of uncleansable Slow as well as 100% crit chance against your victims. I suggest that Lost Time should have an ICD instead of a counter system.
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2. Alacrity may be making Shatter cadence a bit too fast. With my build, which doesn’t use Improved Alacrity, I pretty much always have Mind Wrack, Cry of Frustration or Diversion ready to go, allowing me to inflict continuous packets of Torment and Confusion.

To be honest though I’m not sure if this is an issue as pretty much only condition builds can take full advantage of this, and condition Mesmers are hardly considered “meta”. So I would wait and see for this one.

Below is a list of all the changes I’d like to see (in a universe that revolves around me) for the Mesmer. Most of the changes are directed at mechanics rather than numbers: I won’t be suggesting “this and that should have its damage reduced” or “this healing skill needs to heal more”, for example.

Because a lot of my changes are designed to make less-viable skills and traits viable, it may seem like almost all of my suggestions are buffs. In general, my suggestions will hopefully give the Mesmer more build diversity rather than a direct power-up.

I have also left out the underwater weapon skills as underwater combat in general is a mess at the moment: it’s not just the Mesmer that needs polish in that area.

The Pledge is bugged, it’s currently giving 3x the CD reduction per tick than it should.

We’ve been asking for fixes for a while but they’re slow to come.

… You sound like one of those SJW types who require boxes to be ticked on a list of social angst before any fictional work/world/character can be considered “good”.

Condi Mes isn’t even that great in duels for the purposes of sPvP. As an attrition build it lacks the burst to bring down targets quickly (unless they’re really, really stupid), so while a Condi Mes may eventually win most duels it won’t do so in a timely manner. Worse even a stealthless Mesmer isn’t suited for standing on points, so the most likely result of duels is you lose the point and then +1 arrives for one side or another before you can kill your opponent.

And even the “good in duels” thing is questionable. As pointed out a lot of solo players run Zerker builds with no cleansing, which are handily countered by Condi Mesmers for obvious reasons. Against builds such as Shoutbow War, Cele Signet Necro and DS Staff Ele, Condi Mesmers are almost ineffectual.

Fay.2357:

mistsim.2748:

nah trust me. not supcutie + friend issue. I play at the top mmr, so I face people of similar caliber every day. this build is nuts. I’m sure he’d be happy to tell u that.

anyway, thanks for the bumps. make sure to keep this thread going for the devs.

I’m afraid I can’t trust you on this one. Someone that would make a thread like this is very questionably skilled, which would place you low on mmr.

Truth. This thread reeks of the Dunning–Kruger effect.

Mind Wrack is a significant source of burst damage if you build around it, otherwise it is not worth using unless 1. you only have crappy Clones out or 2. you’re sure the Mind Wrack will kill the target.

Cry of Frustration deals a significant amount of Confusion damage for condition damage builds and can be very effective in PvP. For non-condition damage builds however it is relatively useless.

Diversion is an unreliable interrupt (Illusions need a variable amount of time to run up to the target) that wastes Illusions (Daze doesn’t stack) and has a relatively long CD. You need either IP or ID for this Shatter to work well, the former makes it a reliable interrupt/CC that doesn’t require Illusions (though you need to be in close range) and the latter makes it AoE.

Distortion is a life saver when used at the right time, and is also excellent for securing a stomp in PvP. This is the only Shatter that is always useful regardless of your build.

Bumy.8057:

choovanski.5462:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Bumy.8057:

choovanski.5462:

evades, blocks, and most invuns work against condi damage, and you have resistance

I don’t know how delusional you are but, evades and blocks do nothing against condition damage. You can’t evade conditions nor block them once they are applied to you the only way to get rid of them is through cleanse.

You could try avoiding the application. It’s no harder than avoiding a Power based attack.

For example, Grasping Dead is no harder to avoid than Maul, but I bet I know which one you dodge and which you ignore at the time.

no wonder these players think condi is OP. they aren’t smart enough to think of blocking or evading the attacks that apply the condis

You do know why condi builds are so prevalent? Because its a foolproof and mindless gameplay, something the carebears / casuals adore. It doesn’t matter if you attempt to ’ evade or block the attacks that apply the condis ’ because the relevant condi builds APPLY CONDITIONS ON AUTO ATTACK ontop of the ’ condi burst skills ‘. So even if you use your defensive abilities dealing with just the condi burst, then you’re kitten out of luck because in 3 seconds your gonna have another 10+ confusion stacks and 10+ torment stacks killing you regardless of if your moving / not attacking.

That sounds like you’re talking about Condi Mesmers. Let’s look at Mesmer autoattack condi application…

Ether Bolt: 2s Torment (it tickles). Ether Blast: 3s Torment (stop that!). Ether Clone: nothing.

Winds of Chaos: 33% chance 7s Bleed (yawn). 33% chance 1s Burning (wow so OP). 33% 5s Vulnerability (I am undone!).

I think you’re very confused. 10 stacks of Confusion and Torment simply isn’t going to come from a Mesmer’s autoattack, Mesmers don’t even have Confusion on autoattack. What happened is you ate a few full Shatters, one of the most obviously telegraphed and easily avoidable bursts.

Yeah, the more I read this thread the more I’m convinced (not that I wasn’t already) that this is mostly a L2P issue. The people complaining about condi builds don’t even know what’s going on.

The humans and the charr have been at peace for a while now.

The premise of GW2 is the five major races uniting together against the Elder Dragons. Racial wars would make no sense in this context. Plus the idea of GW2 is that you race does not restrict your options.

So there’s been some discussion about giving every trait line an Illusion generation trait a la DE, IR and CP. I think the idea deserves its own thread, especially since one of the threads the discussion was on was deleted.

So here’s my ideas…

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DOMINATION

Replace Furious Interruption with Hallucination: interrupting a foe conjures two clones against them, 5s CD. Furious Interruption never saw much play, partially because Quickness doesn’t affect Mesmer DPS as much as other professions; so I think it’s safe to axe it for something new.

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CHAOS

Extra effect for Descent into Madness: Also create a Chaos Storm when you’re disabled. Chaos Storm conjures a clone against random enemies within 900 range every second. As this is a significant power-up, I think it should become a GM trait; bumping down Bountiful Disillusionment to Master and Mirror of Anguish to Adept.

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INSPIRATION

Merge Protected Phantasms with Persisting Images, add a new Master Discharge Enchantment: conjure a Phantasmal Disenchanter when you hit a target with 2 or more unique boons. Inspiration already has Mental Defence but it isn’t reliable illusion generation, adding Disenchanter helps to remedy that and completes the set.

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ILLUSIONS

Extra effect for Master of Fragmentation: Shatter effects from yourself are doubled in strength, 5s CD. Thought it would be fitting to give Master of Fragmentation, considered a weak GM, something that emphasises mastery over Shatters instead of just more illusions. Might be too strong but Illusions isn’t really used in Power Shatter currently so might as well change things up.

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Keep the ideas coming folks.

Sinister, but I wouldn’t go Condi Mesmer in PvE in the first place. It’s crap, and trying it in Verdant Brink and the raid that hasn’t changed.

Introducing the ChronoWard, A very versatile Mesmer (Chronomancer) build.

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The Base ChronoWard

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Wait, that’s it?
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Yup! As I said, the ChronoWard is extremely versatile. Outside of the core build (which as you can see is a condition build), you can add almost anything you want and produce a viable build out of it.
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But… what do you do with it?
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Good question. That’s what this guide is for.

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CONTENTS

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• Why a Condition Build?

• Sample Builds

• Amulets

• Weapons

• Healing Skills

• Utilities: Manipulations

• Utilities: Illusions

• Utilities: Wells

• Utilities: Glamours

• Utilities: Mantras

• Utilities: Signets

• Elite Skills

• Specialisation: Chronomancer

• Specialisation: Illusions

• Specialisation: Inspiration

• Specialisation: Chaos

• Specialisation: Dueling

• Specialisation: Domination

• Runes

• Sigils

Illusions exist in your mind: they are your fears, your insecurities, your paranoia. You can try to hide your feelings, but you cannot escape them.

IMO, the primary reason people have problem with condis is because they’re still stuck in the mindset of overfilling their build with offensive stuff and leaving themselves with almost no defense. In that sense I think condi builds are a good thing: it shakes up the meta and may reverse the trend of “go completely glass or bust”.

I’d love to see balanced builds being the norm in PvP, instead of pure glass and the occassional bunker (let’s forget d/d Cele Ele exists for a moment).

For the record, as Mesmer who runs Inspiration, I have no more issues with condi builds than I do with power builds; as I actually devote some of my build to defence.

Really, what exactly is Ether Clone achieving currently (or ever)?

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• It conjures Clones in cleave range.

• It conjures the weakest Clone.

• DE completely outclasses it to the point where it’s effectively meaningless.

• It gives Ether Bolt the bug where its rate of fire plummets with range (speculation but I’m pretty sure this is the cause).

• It replaces Phantasms.

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Ether Clone is toxic for the Sceptre. Unless the Devs actually have plans for Ether Clone specifically, I say axe it. It does far more harm than good (if any).

If you ever feel like using the Sceptre, slap yourself and use the Sword instead.

The main reason people hate condis is because they don’t like having to bring condi cleanse which isn’t as useful when not fighting condi builds. And when they take a risk by not bring condi cleanse and get matched against condi builds, they rage.

Just so you’re aware, I was giving you an out. You could’ve admitted you were trolling and we’d all have a good laugh about it. Instead you decide to dig yourself deeper by showing you’re completely serious.

Wait, is this trolling too? Oh ho ho, very well played. 11/10.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

• Leave alacrity and AWtEW as it is. The current group alacrity-share potential is carrying mesmers into PvE, and nerfing that kitten many have suggested will relegate us back to PvE obscurity.

For me personally I’m not suggesting nerfing group Alacrity, just delegating it away from Wells. I realise you probably aren’t aiming this at me at all but anyways.

Where did you hear that from?

And seriously, I think you’re looking for an Elementalist. Mesmers have some fire skills in Torch and Staff but it’s not enough to make a build out of.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

4. It’s not gonna happen any time soon. Chronomancer has been balanced around the current paradigm, and Robert et al are working hard to make sure everything is ready for HoT. Rebalancing phantasms means reevaluating everything about mesmers, and that is a LOT of work. It makes the June 23rd rework pale in comparison.

Fay.2357:

Tbh I really like these.

NB: This type of massive rework has roughly a 0% chance of ever happening.

I do like it though.

I know. I’m just hoping the Devs will see this, think it’s a good idea and take some small steps to making it happen, things like transferring Phant dmg to the Mesmer or making Phantasms Shatter extra stacks of useless Confusion.

It sounds to me your opponent was a condition Mesmer, given how you speak of boons and three Clones casting.

As a Necromancer, you should be well-equipped to deal with condition Mesmers: you have the ability to not only cleanse, but turn enemy conditions and boons against them; plus you yourself are able to dish out conditions far better than the Mesmer could.

As a condition Mesmer, a competent Necromancer is one of the toughest professions for me to face: they are highly resistant to my conditions and are able to inflict lots of conditions themselves, which ironically are very difficult for me to deal with due to my low HP (Toughness does nothing against conditions) and scant condition removal.

In other words, if you are unable to deal with a condition Mesmer as a Necromancer, you may want to evaluate your own play rather than accuse others of being overpowered.

Depends on the profession. For Warrior no. For Mesmer yes, because all the fixes that should’ve went into the Mesmer went into the Chronomancer instead.

But seriously, play it yourself and see how you feel.

I think Glamours are different from Wells in the sense that Glamours are less “conventional”, if you get my meaning. Wells are nicely beefed out with damage, conditions and other “meaty” effects, while Glamours are a lot more utility-esque. Temporal Enchanter further reinforces this, although it’s rather too weak to be meaningful.

With that in mind a healing Glamour doesn’t really fit that idea, and as Silver said overlaps too much with Well of Eternity.

A way to rework Glamours while keeping them distinct from Wells could be to make them last longer in general. Null Field for example could last 10 seconds base and strip 1 condition/boon on cast and every 2 seconds after. Veil could last 12 seconds, allowing you and allies to constantly flit in and out of stealth. Temporal Enchanter would increase Glamour duration by 50% and pulse 5s Super Speed and 1s Resistance every 5s.

While Wells provide strong but fleeting effects, Glamours would be slow and steady.

Just make it grant Blur to allies instead of Distortion.

I think it is about time Illusionist’s Celerity got nerfed. It was ridiculous that such a powerful trait costs only five points to take. As long as it is untouched no Mesmer build will ever not include it.

Having said that, I would’ve preferred if they removed the trait entirely and reduced Illusion skill CDs by about 10% across the board. Illusions is already the Mesmer’s most “compulsory” trait line, it really doesn’t need another powerful GM trait to reinforce that.

The main thing I’m sad about is the PU change in the previous leak has disappeared. And I’m still hoping for further polish regarding Empowered Illusions, our Signet traits and more generally useful Manipulation traits. Oh and Glamour traits… beh. It seems like the only traits they improved are the Interrupt traits, and even those changes are questionable (I don’t see Furious Interruption seeing any use for instance).

Phantasmal Haste is a terrible trait and should die if Anet is serious about making Shatters a core part of every Mesmer. For Chronomancer there’s very little reason to take it since the best way to get more iAvenger hits is to reset their attack CD with CP and PoM.

Unless HoT includes a lot of mobs that run around for no reason and spam skills like machine guns, Condi Mesmers won’t be used over any other Condi spec.

I’m sure they’ll include Husk-like mobs that are weak to Condi dmg, but it won’t be up to Mesmers to fill that role.

Blast Finisher + Fire Field = AoE Fire Aura.

You don’t see many Condition Mesmers in PvP. They’re not as good as Phantasm Mesmers in duels, and they’re not comparable to Shatter Mesmers in tournaments. In fact most people don’t even know what a Condition Mesmer is, thinking it’s the same thing as the “Confusion Mesmer” that used to be popular in WvW. Not even the Devs seem to realise it exists, as no patch ever addressed the Condition Mesmer directly.

I guess the reason I am making this thread is to make the Devs aware that there is such a thing as a Condition Mesmer. The reason for this is because a few changes in the past few patches have nerfed Condition Mesmers indirectly: first was the change to Blinding Befuddlement, a change that seemed to be aimed at WvW Glamour Mesmers but also destroyed the trait for non-Glamour Mesmers. Then, there is the hidden change to bouncing attacks in the 28/05 patch, which has decimated Winds of Chaos and neutered Condition Mesmer DPS.

Previously, while the Condition Mesmer was not the best build, it was still viable for most encounters. Now? I am not so sure. So please Devs, if you’re truly trying to increase build diversity in all professions, please consider how the changes you make affect builds that aren’t in the spotlight.

Made a few changes to my ideas.

Hallucination now conjures two clones but has kitten ICD. Since interrupting depends on a lot on your opponent, just one clone seems really unreliable for illusion generation.

Overhauled my idea for Descent into Madness. I definitely understand not wanting to tie more things to Chaos Armour, in fact I originally wanted to tie it to Chaos Storm (which I’ve now gone back to). Reason I went with Chaos Armour was because we have a lot more access to it through Ethereal fields.

Reduced the number of boons required to trigger Discharge Enchantment to two. People primarily like Disenchanter for condition cleansing rather than boon stripping, so I figure it should be easier to conjure Disenchanter especially since it’s competing with Restorative Illusions.

The idea of boosting Shatter power with Master of Fragmentation is that you could get “full strength” Shatters with less illusions out. Obviously you can go beyond “full strength” by having three illusions, but a bit of versatility never hurts.

Soyboy.3548:

Regarding the iMage, I haven’t ever traited this, but have yall ever used Illusionary Elasticity with the iMage? If so, wouldn’t that put 6 stacks of confusion on someone relatively often? More if you have 2 out of course and assuming the extra bounce goes to the same person.

This phantasm is like any other: summon it, let it attack once, then shatter it. For confusion builds, it ups the sources of confusion that you can rotate on a target to keep a constant stack on someone.

Illusionary Elasticity doesn’t work with iMage. Besides, I believe iMage has two bounces by default, but it does enemy-enemy-ally instead of enemy-ally-enemy.

Confusion builds never count on iMage as part of their Confusion repertoire. It is too slow, too short and too unreliable.

If +CondDuration works on Illusions the iMage may be viable. But it still needs a CD reduction.