Showing Posts For Ghimel.9374:
I hope they don’t rework Mesmers. As it is right now, I think Mesmers are in a great place. I struggled with mine for a while and then it clicked and I’ve loved it ever since. While I may play them different then most (I don’t shatter unless they are almost dead, they are grouped up and susceptible, or I need the invul), the style I have adopted is extremely strong. Almost unbeatable 1v1 (hehehe, even against other Mesmers) and able to control large scale fights via a couple of key abilities – I seriously feel that they are secretly borderline OP.
I like the staff because it has one of the best abilities in the game – Chaos Storm. Aside from that, Sword is nice for the DPS and the invulnerability. Off-hand is a preference issue in my opinion. Pistol is nice for the stun and the Phantasm is nice for ranged DPS, Focus provides great utility and the Warden is great when enemies stack up (also, the other skill is good for clumping them up), the torch works well for the blind, burning, and stealth (all on one ability!) although the phantasm on the torch is mediocre. Sword off-hand is pretty decent too, the phantasm is also ranged which is nice and the block is not half bad – explode it early if you aren’t going to get hit.
The easy answer to your original post is this:
With only clones, you would reach the limit of 3 long before your shatter cooldown, thus making the ability to pump out excessive clones useless. With only Phantasms, your DPS would be too high without you even needing to be there.
By making your main hand weapon summon clones and your off hand weapon summon Phantasms (or 1 each for 2-handed weapons), you have a more balanced ability to specialize however you like – still can get 3 clones out and still get a phantasm or 2, but not at a rate which would be overwhelming to the user or enemy.