Guild Wars 2

Illusions:
This line is focused ofcourse on illusions, and seems to be essential to any build focused around them, including phantasm builds. Additionally this seems to be the go to line for condition damage builds. However, this line is so incohesive it needs to see a lot of changes to make it viable.

Minor: The minors already have issues. We have two minors which help shatter builds, but another that is essential for phantasm builds in the form of Illusionist’s Celerity. I’d almost suggest moving Illusionist’s celerity somewhere in the Domination or Dueling lines, and replacing it with one of the various shatter traits.

Adept:
- Compounding Power: This trait really is focused on phantasms, which immediately shows the lack of cohesion when you look at the the minor traits. Ofcourse this also helps shatter builds, but not nearly as much.
- Persistence of Memory: This trait is probably gonna see some number tweaks. In fact the only way I can see this working it upping the numbers to at least 10%, probably 15%. If it does become viable though, the possibility of shatter-phantasm hybrid builds opens up.
- The Pledge: A weapon specific skill, this one is best used in PvP where stealth is most useful. Strangely though they’ve put it in the line with the minors that areall about shatters (or phantasms I guess) while torch is mostly about condition damage. Again the numbers on the recharge have to go up I think, considering it used to be 20% and now its even lower conditionally.

You can probably see why I take issue with this line here. We have one trait which doesn’t synergize with the shatter based minor traits. We have another trait that would make the first one synergize with it, but they’ve put it in the same slot. And then we have a third that is out of place in regards to the minor traits.

Master:
- Sum of All Fears: This trait seems decent but they’ve put it in the same slot as Malicious Sorcery, which just seems straight up better. As it stands it works well for condition based builds, but will probably never be used in PvE, unless confusion becomes a lot stronger.
- Phantasmal Haste: Here we have another trait that is fantastic for PvE builds, but it is in the line that focuses on condition damage or shatters, which makes me wonder if it is even worth taking.
- Malicious Sorcery: As I said this seems to be flat out better than the Sum of All Fears if you want to do a condition damage build. The numbers on the recharge reduction need to go up most likely though.

Here we see another Phantasm based trait but you have to wonder if it is good enough when you realize that the Grandmaster slot has no options for phantasm builds. This makes the line seem only viable with condition damage builds, which has two options here.

Grandmaster:
- Blinding Befuddlement: This trait only seems useful in PvP, and mostly on condition damage builds at that. Might be good enough on that basis, but it might also be overshadowed by the third option in this slot.
- Master of Fragmentation: This trait seems to be a must have for shatter builds, but then we look at the adept and master slot and see literally no options for that type of build that is worthwhile. This is a massive oversight in my opinion and makes me feel like this should be moved somewhere else and replace by a Phantasm based trait, which this slot has none of.
- Maim the Disillusioned: Another condition damage trait, which really frustrates me considering the potential of this line. No shatter builds are gonna take this over Master of Fragmentation either.

In conclusion, this line seems completely off. It’s probably great for condition damage builds, but then you also get essential traits for phantasm and shatter builds which get shafted due to the lack of cohesion. This line needs to biggest rework in my opinion.

TL;DR: Read the first paragraph at the top.

Inspiration:
This line is all about boons and healing, and it has great effectiveness in PvE due to reflect based traits.

Minor: The minor traits in this line are all about making phantasm’s pseudo healing turrets, as well as make them more durable. These all seem pretty good in PvE.

Adept:
- Medic’s Feedback: A revive trait. Not much to discuss here. Hasn’t seen changes either.
- Mender’s Purity: Has gotten a good buff by making it a mantra, which means it benefits from Harmonious Mantra’s, giving it at least one stack for normal healing skills and two stacks when using the healing mantra. I can see this being the go to trait if Harmonious Mantras ends up being viable. The heal on using mantra is mostly a bonus, but it’s nice regardless.
- Vigorous Revelation: A good utility trait that benefits most from shatter builds, but due to its nature it can also be used in a pinch in phantasm builds. Can’t see it ever being chosen over Mender’s Purity in PvE however.

So far we have pure supportive traits, which work well in almost all builds. Shatter builds will benefit from this greatly with vigorous revelation, and all other builds can be happy with mender’s purity.

Master:
- Warden’s Feedback: No changes here, still as great as ever. Works extremely well in PvE, which will probably make this line a must have in a lot of builds.
- Restorative Illusions: Can’t really say this seems great. This obviously only works well in shatter builds (kittentering more than one phantasm seems bonkers), but even then it seems lackluster.
- Compounding Celerity: This got a little buff to boost our movement speed after shatters, but it seems to weak in its current state. I’d suggest buffing the swiftness to at least 2 seconds, possibly 3.

This slot is all about warden’s feedback, and I cannot see any PvE builds not taking it. For PvP you get two traits that are rather bad, so I think these need some buffs.

Grandmaster:
- Shattered Conditions: Another shatter trait with defensive properties which makes it slightly useful in PvE. This is probably the go to trait for shatter builds that take this line.
- Illusionary Inspiration: This trait is really interesting and might open up boon sharing as a build option. However, even if we go into chaos as well for protection, we will still not have enough boons to make it worthwhile without sacrificing a ton of damage. However if staff or GS become more viable in PvE i can see this trait being amazing. As it stands it is still good in phantasm builds, but not good enough to be the focus of a build.
- Temporal Enchanter: A solid utility trait. The duration increase is good enough on its own to make it worthwhile, but the super speed is a nice bonus. This has the same purpose as Warden’s Feedback which means its a solid option for all PvE builds (as well as WvW of course).

In conclusion this line seems to be the only one that is truly exceptional for PvE, and will probably be a must have. As far as PvP goes it seems lackluster, but ofcourse not all lines have to be PvP focused.
Suggested changes here are buffing Restorative Illusions with an additonal effect and Compounding Celerity with some higher numbers.
As far as Illusionary Inspiration goes I really hope we see some more options for boons in the future, which would make this trait build defining.

Continued further on

Chaos:
This line is obviously the most defensive, and almost all traits represent that. For PvE purposes I doubt it’s going to see much use, but for PvP this line seems solid.

Minor: The first two minors haven’t changed, but the last one is interesting as it opens up some more viability for boon sharing builds, especially in combination with Illusionary Inspiration, which we’ll get to later.

Adept:
- Descent into Madness: Falling damage trait, not really interesting for this discussion.
- Illusionary Defense: Simple defense trait, works best with phantasms but I doubt it is gonna see use in PvE.
- Master of Manipulation: This has received an interesting addition in the form of mirror on cast. This trait seems very solid in PvP, and might see some use in PvE if we need yet another means of reflecting.

So far no issues here, it retains its identity as the go to defensive PvP line well.

Master:
- Mirror of Anguish: This trait really only works in PvP as well, but given the nature of this line I take no issue with that.
- Chaotic Transference: While I’m happy this is not a minor trait that means it is forced upon you, it is a really boring trait now. Might be viable enough in PvP though, but I really can’t judge PvP viability.
- Chaotic Dampening: Now this one is very interesting as it opens up another option for boon sharing builds. Again, I will get into this later. I would like to see this trait also get increased chaos armor duration, but this might be overkill. Overall, this trait seems solid in PvP and might see some use in PvE, but probably not in dungeons.

Again, this line is all about PvP and defense and it does its job well, so can’t really complain about it.

Grandmaster:
- Chaotic Interruption: I can see this trait be very strong in PvP where interruption builds really shine. Ofcourse, like all interruption traits, this one is not very viable in PvE situations either unfortunatly.
- Prismatic Understanding: Has received a buff in stealth duration, so this will probably be even better in PvP. In PvE however I can’t see this ever being used in group content.
- Bountiful Disillusionment: This shatter trait is interesting because it has a defensive property, so it might actually be useful for PvE as well. Aside from that it is in the same line as PU so I can’t see it being used often.

In conclusion, this line does what it needs to do and does it fairly well. No real complaints here.

Continued further on

Dueling:
This line focusses specifically on critical hits. Again we’ll find interruption and shatter based traits, as well as Harmonious Mantras, which used to be critical to PvE builds.

Minor:
In the minor slots we simply find effects on hit. Most of these are add condition damage which is fine for all builds as well as the vigor on crit, which is fantastic. No problems here.

Adept:
- Phantasmal Fury: A purely phantasm based trait. This would indicate we would want to go into this line for Phantasm builds right?
- Desperate Decoy: Honestly still seems kind of bad, but I suppose it has its uses in PvP. Not really great for any specific build either.
- Dualist’s Discipline: A trait that benefits from conditions as well as interruptions. This trait does not seem great for PvE if you want the recharge rate when interrupting is as rare as it is.

So far we have one phantasm option, one general option and one that gives the most benefit to interrupt builds. Now this is strange because we’ll see Deceptive Evasion later on, but we have no real shatter based option in this slot. Ofcourse shatter based builds would probably take duelist’s discipline, but it still seems strange to me that a line that shatter builds rely on so heavily get fairly little options here.

Master:
- Blinding Dissipation: Here we do have a shatter trait, but a mostly PvP based one. Regardless, if you want to go shatter this slot at least accomodates for that.
- Evasive Mirror: Another utility trait that all builds benefit from. This is a pretty good option for phantasm builds as well as one more option for reflects. But then we’ll likely rarely take this one in favor of the next trait which is …
- Blade Training: Simple blade enhancing trait, obviously works well for all sword users and thus great for PvE purposes.

So now we do have a shatter option as well as a trait that works well for all builds in the form of blade training.

Grandmaster:
- Harmonious Mantras: Now I personally have a lot of doubts about the new version of this trait. Now we do get the effect of the old harmonious mantras as well as the new effect, but I’m not sure the new effect is potent enough. First of all, this trait only really works well on mantras you want to be spamming which is Mantra of Pain. However, you don’t really want to be spamming that mantra either because we don’t want to be bogged down by the channel time. Therefor I seriously doubt this is going to be any better than the old Empowering Mantras, but we will have to see.
- Mistrust: Another interruption based trait. I’m honestly not sure this is even going to be good for interruption builds, but that largely depends on the potency of confusion after the patch. Again though, fairly useless for phantasm and shatter based builds.
- Deceptive Evasion: Now this trait is almost essential for shatter based builds, but I’m not convinced the rest of the line really complements it, as it kind of favors using sword-pistol, which you don’t necessarily want to be using.

In conclusion this line seems to lack clear identity. It’s not the best for interrupt builds, in comparison to chaos and domination. It does seem to be most suited for shatter builds, but as I said it has little build flexibility for it. Of course PvE is our primary focus and it seems this line is sort of alright for Phantasm builds, but it really depends on how well we can make Harmonious Mantras work. I feel this line specifically needs some work to make it more cohesive.

Continued further on

Warning! Huge wall of text. If you don’t feel like reading the entire thing read this: The Domination and Dueling lines lack options for PvE content which seems to make mesmer generally weaker in PvE. The illusion line needs massive changes as it lacks cohesion in anything other than condition damage builds.

What I mean by complement is that for some lines the the three options you have per line do not work with each other. I’ll go through all lines and explain it in detail. For your convenience you can see all traits in a nice format in this spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Fp5wnAi0pqu-aBCkVliwKyXoYTzBvOwGUPv1lh-cclw/edit#gid=95323670
Note: This post is specifically about PvE content. This means i’ll mostly be focussed on the builds that work well in PvE, which at the moment means a phantasm build kitten
ter and Interruption based builds do not work well in dungeons in the current state of the game.

Domination:
This line is best suited for shatter and interruption builds, but is almost required for phantasm builds as well.

Minor: All minor traits deal with vulnerability, and are specifically suited for interruption, but given the nature of them they will work for almost all builds anyway, so these are generally fine.

Adept:
- Confounding Suggestions: Specifically made for interruption builds, which is simply not viable in the current state of PvE
- Empowered Illusions: A trait that works best with Phantasms, but works well for all builds. This trait is almost a must have for all phantasm builds.
- Rending Shatter: A trait that is specifically for shatter builds, as all phantasm builds generally do not shatter at all.

So far so good.

Master:
- Shattered Concentration: Again a trait made for shatter builds, will not work for phantasm builds.
- Blurred Inscription: A general utility trait, works well for all builds, don’t have a problem with this one.
- Furious Interruption: Specifically for interruption builds. This could be great for boon sharing if interruption was more common in PvE, but as it stands this is not the case.

Now here comes the first problem with this line: There is no great option for phantasm builds, even though these builds are encouraged to specialize in this line for Empowered Illusions. Our best option is blurred inscriptions so its not so bad yet though.

Grandmaster:
- Greatsword training: A decent trait but specifically for GS users ofcourse. As it stands GS is rarely used in dungeons as it a ranged weapon which is generally unfavorable.
- Mental Torment: Pure shatter trait, and only the damage based shatters at that. Almost completely useless for phantasm builds, but obviously great for shatter builds.
- Power Block: Pure interruption trait, is only mildly useful for non-interruption based builds.

Here is the major problem with this line: If you wants to take this line specifically for basic damage increase (which is most desired in dungeons) through Empowered Illusions and Fragility you get no viable option for the grandmaster trait unless you use a shatter or interruption based build (see note). I really hope arenanet takes a look at this line specifically and possibly include some kind of phantasm based option in the grandmaster slot. Were also ofcourse missing the old Empowering Mantras (which i’ll get to shortly). This line is balanced for shatter and interrupt builds however.

Continued in comments

keenlam.4753:

ODB.6891:

In fact, I would love a direct damage build option that does not involve phantasms or illusions at all.

This I fear would never happen as clearly the idea of the class is to rely on our illusions for dmg. And in PvE, phantasm builds have always been the go-to builds. Although we might see shatter builds become a bit more popular in PvE environments.

ODB.6891:

I have no problems at all with PvE moving away from “passive play”.

Then let me explain to you how you would rejoice as PvE mes got buffed with this change.

A phantasm build usually specs into Domination, Dueling and Inspiration. With the new system, one could still spec in same traitlines and get more out of it as I explain below.

1) Change to Empowering Mantras and Harmonious Mantras gm traits:
the new HM is a combination of both but the dmg bonus got reworked to now provide Ferocity bonus stacks, from what I know it would mean not only the mesmer gets the dmg boost but also our phantasms. (feel free to correct me if I’m wrong)
The trade-off ofc is this dmg boost uptime is reduced compared to the old EM where u slot and camp with your mantra charges and I believe you would agree with me this is not a healthy playstyle.

2) Change to Mender’s Purity:
This trait now activates Mantra Cleanse, which in turn will proc HM give u 1 additional ferocity stack. So basically whenever u use mantra heal, u get 2 stacks.
Great synergy here. And more healing to keep your teammates and/or phantasms alive.

3) More access to reflect:
No one can deny mesmers excel in reflect role in a group and we just get even better now. Reflect dmg is scaled with Ferocity so again this synergizes with HM trait.

4) More ways to share boons including the new Quickness boon without the need to sacrifice any dmg potential of your own.
So if a warrior can gain 25 stacks of might and share it to the group, a mesmer can gain Quickness and share it too. Both classes act as dmg amplifier without overlapping their roles (so they dont make each other redundant). 2 PS warriors would be less optimal then 1 PS warrior and 1 boonshare mesmer. How about that?

And lastly,

5) No more fear of stat loss when speccing into a traitline
Thanks Anet for this decoupling of traitline and stats.

Right now a mantra PvE build would spec 6/6/x because u can grab all the offensive stats. Meanwhile, the x/6/0/5/x phant PvE build while being more versatile clearly has less offensive stats.
With the new system, u can spec whatever traitline to optimize your dmg thru traits. I know its crazy right?

I can see one of the new PvE mantra/phantasm meta builds would be like Dom/Dueling/Inspiration (6/6/0/6/0 in our current notion).

Domination: Empowered Illusions, Furious Interruption (to gain Quickness so you can share), Power Block (more ways to deal dmg on your own).
Dueling: Phantasmal Fury, Blade Training or Evasive Mirror, Harmonious Mantras
Inspiration: Mender’s Purity, Warden’s Feedback, Illusionary Inspiration.

Mesmers would have new role in group (dmg amplifier thru quickness boonshare) while strengthing their old role (reflect).

TL,DR: For people think that your dmg get nerfed in PvE, may I suggest in the new trait system:
- Grab Harmonious Mantras, Mender’s Purity traits
- Equip Mantra of Recovery and Mantra of Pain
- Put Mantra of Pain on auto-attack
So now you can deal more dmg on your own, stacking ferocity for even more dmg while healing 2k every 5s. Meanwhile your phantasms do their own thing as they have always been doing.

I like the idea of this build but I feel there are issues here that you’re not really adressing:
- Furious Interruption and Power Block are good traits but they still rely on interruption. The way dungeons and fractals we just can’t get enough interruptions off to be able to make these traits worthwhile. This also kind of ruins the idea of sharing quickness because the uptime just won’t be worth it in optimal team builds. Now for the new HoT content this may work, but we can’t judge that yet.
- Harmonious Mantras just doesn’t seem to be strong enough in its current iteration. Not only do you have to specifically equip mantra of pain which doesn’t really help our sustained damage dealing potential and has no real utility, there is also the question on whether it actually is a damage increase in the long run. It’s hard to imagine that the temporary ferocity boosts beat a straight up 8 or 12% damage multiplier, over the course of an entire fight.
Additionally, if we are running Mantra of Pain we have to continually channel this during fights, during which you cannot DPS at all.

Besides all this I feel some of the traitlines are just not balanced in terms of build options but i’ll go into that in a seperate post.

When using Hunter’s Shot and going in Stealth, you regain opening strike. However, this does not always do critical damage, granted by the Precise Strike Traits.