Guild Wars 2

One thought I had was that if Thieves get Rifles, all the weapon abilities could have infinite range (of course, only out to max targeting range). They’d have a high chance to miss unless you hold down the ability button to line up your shot. Maybe the bullets would be a bit heavier and travel a bit slower than normal, so that you can see them coming if you’re looking for them in order to dodge.

Alright, what if Anet “field tests” this idea out by implementing it on Spirit Weapons? Nobody complains about them being overpowered, and everyone would see if this shindig works or not.

Everyone knows that when facing area damage, all summons (that is, Elementals, Turrets, Spirit Weapons, Illusions, Necro Minions, Thieves, and Spirits) are vulnerable. Some would say too vulnerable. Of course, players are less vulnerable to AoE because they know how to avoid it. Minions, on the other hand, are too stupid to do so.

Blizzard faced the same problem in Diablo 3. To make summons viable, they changed it so that every summon has a huge innate AoE resistance. (Technically they adjusted the damage separately for each skill based on how much damage was expected to be taken by players before they had time to evade, but in GW2 it can simply be a flat AoE damage resistance).

In Heart of Thorns, all summons should tank more AoE damage than players but still take full damage from everything else. This would make them last longer in the situations where they are currently lacking or completely useless. If some minions become too survivable due to this, their total health can get reduced.

What do y’all think?

Saturn.6591:

GideonAI.5341:

All summons in this game should tank a ton more AoE damage, but still take full damage from everything else. This would make Elementals, Turrets, Spirit Weapons, Illusions, and Minions all last longer in the situations where they are currently useless.

Of course; and you would not only see teams with 3 turret engis in PvP, but teams with 5 of them. Terrible idea.

Alright then, considering Turrets are the only “minions” that players can actually choose the positioning of (besides Ranger pets), leave Turrets out of the AoE resistance. The point still stands for the other summons, which cannot be positioned by the player.

Zenith.7301:

No. Look at ranger pets. They biffed the health vastly, the pets still die to PvE aoe easily and wvw zergs, including drakes and bears.

Anet has designed it so AoE amd telegraphs have to BE AVOIDED, NOT TANKED THROUGH.

The bosses’ telegraphs do such egregious amounts of damage, you’d have to have pets with absurdly high health pools to be sustainable through eating the damage.

At this point, possibly the best option is to do what Blizzard did about 2 years ago in Diablo 3: Summoned minions and pets died insanely fast to AoE that was avoidable by players. Of course, summons in these games don’t automatically dodge AoE, so Blizzard just made it so that AoEs dealt much, MUCH less damage to all summons. (Technically they adjusted the damage separately for each skill based on how much damage was expected to be taken by players before they had time to evade, but in GW2 it can simply be a flat AoE damage resistance).

All summons in this game should tank a ton more AoE damage, but still take full damage from everything else. This would make Elementals, Turrets, Spirit Weapons, Illusions, and Minions all last longer in the situations where they are currently useless.

Well, I’ll admit I’m still pretty new to the game (2 months), but after playing around with some skills at level 80 in WvW I think there’s a downside to Signet of the Ether that should be addressed.

It’s pretty dang good with max phantasms, but I’m running a bunker build revolving around clones, so I’m always varying between 1-3 illusions at a time whether I’m doing PvE, sPvP, or WvW.

Let me just get straight to the point: I think that Signet of the Ether should count clones for double the passive heal than phantasms, simply because they get killed much faster due to everything compared to phantasms.

So if 1 phantasm causes the passive to heal you for 340, 1 clone would heal for 680, and so on so forth. This would make up somewhat for their constant downtime and make Signet of the Ether more attractive for some builds.

Obviously you misunderstand.

I just got this game not too long ago, practically wasted an entire gold getting an unbreakable choir bell only to find out I couldn’t use the dang thing in the lobby where I spend half my in-game time anyway!

I want to know why the devs have left this in here for a year.

This is really irritating, I want to make some music while waiting for sPvP matches but for some reason, you can’t equip consumable “weapons” in sPvP lobby, like the Choir Bell, or even the Unbreakable Choir Bell.

The reason I’m putting this in the General section is because this has existed for about a year, and appears intended.

I dislike seeing that people who paid Gems for their instruments get to use them in Heart of the Mists but those who just want to mess around with Bells can’t.

Something I’ve always wanted is to make our character perform the Shatter animation at the same time as the other illusions, and then go invisible.

Mind games are fun

Yes, these skills are effective in PvP and yet, could do with a few quality of life changes. However, I don’t want Mesmers to have any skills that are “just for PvP”. Even our new specialization is supposed to “shake up sPvP”, why can’t PvE Mesmers get a little bit of love?

Even if my suggestion in the OP isn’t the way to go, what is?

Thanks for the info, I’ve edited the OP to reflect that. However, I still think the weapons themselves shouldn’t be used as the “defensive go-to” when we’re now getting a shield. You’ve convinced me that the sub-abilities are useful in PvP, but I still think they’re worth next to nothing in PvE, a field in which Mesmers could do with more variety.

Mesmers have only 2 blocks, one with Scepter and one with off-hand Sword. I don’t see any Mesmers using either of those weapons.

Even after using the Scepter/Sword to great effect in sPvP, I realized it was next to useless in PvE and any situation in which you aren’t taking fire. However, the 2 blocks actually have an alternate-fire ability that lets you shoot beams at enemies instead of blocking.

Problem solved, right? Wrong.

While the alternate-fire abilities provide useful disables, the damage they do at level 80 is a mere 34. The only way this can be viable in PvE is if it’s damage is buffed to be at least 300, if not 600 or more. This holds especially true considering we’re getting a supposedly defensive shield slot, which could make our 2 blocking weapons obsolete.

Forgot about that! Perhaps it would just be Mind Wrack then.

Ooooor a randomized Shatter every time, similar to some other Mesmer skills.

Hey guys,

I think we should get a trait that does something like this:

Whenever an Illusion is replaced by another, it Shatters.

or the OP version:

Whenever an Illusion is replaced, killed, or loses it’s target, it Shatters.

I think this would expand our build options and give us some sustainable DPS. What do y’all think?