Guild Wars 2

If Mantra of Pain was AoE by default I could see it actually having a use. Definitely support this idea.

You don’t just have one weapon set. You are severely limiting your character if you think of yourself as a “Staff Mesmer.”

That’s true in all game types, IMO.

Interesting topic and a good, quick analysis, Chaos.

Sadly, reading this just made me reconfirm to myself that so much of a mesmer build is predefined. As you said, 1/3 of your utility slots more or less must be Blink or Decoy. Another 1/3 must be a condi removal (unless you have Harmonious and Mender’s). That leaves us with 1 actually flexible utility slot.

As I have gotten more into a few other professions recently (mostly Guardian and Elementalist) I’ve realized that the build diversity is so tiny for mesmers. That’s the real shame of our profession, IMO.

Me Games Ma.8426:

With pyros idea we’d be able to weave a web of disruption again!

Aww I still love gw1 <3

All of these GW1 mesmer skill links really make me wish I played that game.

Off topic, but does anyone still play it? Would buying it be worth it?

Fay.2357:

Replacing furious interruption:

Disruptors Alacrity

On interrupt, decrease the cooldown of the interrupting skill by 10(15?) seconds. This has no internal cooldown and can proc multiple times for aoe skills.

Alternatively:

On interrupt, decrease all cooldowns by 5 seconds. No internal cooldown.

What either of these traits would do is allow a skilled interrupt Mesmer to actually capitalize on interrupts by either applying higher pressure through overall skill usage, or by gaining the ability to churn out more interrupts rapidly. Particularly, these would allow interrupt mesmers to have a real role in group fights of any scale, as the aoe potential of things such as iWave and Chaos Storm could produce instant recharges in big fights, allowing for significant boost in strength.

+1x1000. I would take this immediately. And probably move to using GS regularly.

(My previous post was sarcasm.)

We already have the most interrupts of any profession, I think. Every possible weapon set gives us access to some sort of interrupt and then for utilities we have Mantra of Distraction and Signet of Domination. So, really, I don’t know if “more” is the answer.

I don’t disagree though that mesmers need something to cement us as the real kings of interruption. Currently the gameplay in GW2 makes interrupting an overly difficult task.

My suggestion (and I know there is exactly a 0% chance this will happen) is to give mesmers some sort of guaranteed interrupt. Here’s my idea:

Illusion of Accuracy

Manipulation utility. 1/4th second cast. 40s cooldown. 600 unit range.
Places an effect on the target with a duration of 5s. During this time the next interruptable skill used by the target is immediately interrupted. Once one skill is interrupting the Illusion of Accuracy effect is removed (no more than one interrupt per Illusion of Accuracy cast).

Something like this opens up really smart counterplay. The opponent, if they have good awareness, will spot the skill and burn a non-essential skill, knowing they can spare the interrupt for now but risking setting up Chaotic Interruption, Bountiful Interruption, etc.

What do you guys thing? Too OP?

Darkheller.6437:

PU is for noobs

I give this argument a 10/10. Well said, good sir.

StickerHappy.8052:

@OP

At the confusion application part I agree with you.

Ill give you one example.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Distracting_Strikes

4 stacks every interrupt. 9 stacks with perplexity every ICD.

Shouldve been a mesmer trait IMO.

What the…? I’ve never played a warrior and had no idea this existed. This is such a mesmer trait, even down to the name, that I wonder if somewhere during development a spreadsheet got mixed up or something and they’ve just never caught it.

I mean, does a warrior even have another non-rune set way of applying confusion? This seems really, really out of place for a warrior but would make an interesting trait to build around for a condition interrupt mesmer build.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Veruah.5302:

Fay.2357:

My 2 cents on this:

CI is an interrupt trait. CS is a lockdown trait. Interrupt is about, well, interrupting enemy actions, where lockdown is grabbing them and preventing those actions from occurring in the first place, with a sprinkle of interrupts on top. CS really facilitates lockdown by lengthening dazes and stacking a lot of stuns if you do it right, while CI simply boosts the effectiveness of your interrupts. They’re different traits for different purposes.

And then there’s power block, which is an interrupt trait designed to create a lockdown, but I’m only mentioning this just for completeness.

I think that’s a really useful way of looking at this. The mesmer community here has latched onto the term “lockdown,” but in reality maybe there is “lockdown” and “interrupt” builds, which, while serving a similar purpose, aren’t necessarily the same playstyle. Lockdown may be seen as more proactive whereas interrupt is more reactive (with maybe greater rewards).

Now the question is, if one wanted to embrace this proactive lockdown (read: dazelock) style, is it worth it to go 6/6/4 for Harmonious Mantras while losing out on the Might/boon generation of Bountiful Interruption?

So many decisions.

Can I have your 6/6/4 build please? I would love to have 14 trait points <3.

Lol. Definitely meant 6/6/2. kitten .

Edit: Wow. The internet slang term that begins with a D and ends similarly to perp is censored? Weird.

EnderzShadow.2506:

Veruah.5302:

Sethren.8472:

Sublimatio.6981:

Anet should finally separate skill versions for pve, pvp and wvw…

Amen. A thousand times Amen. I’m tired of getting shafted due to PvP/WvW balance issues. I don’t like PvP, so I only PvE unless I have to engage in PvP (world completion). Why should I, and players like me, be punished for the PvP issues?

While I agree with your points, I have to say that this is an issue that appears in almost all MMOs and I doubt GW2 will break that.

Essentially this would double or triple the amount of balancing and skill design coming out of the dev team. Without a monthly subscription to fund all that extra staffing I just don’t see this happening, sadly.

There has always been a solution to this problem.

Make spells/effects etc behave differently. Have an extra tooltip. Problem solved.

Right, but designing that means 2-3x more work on the dev team. I doubt they will take us up on this fix.

I love the idea, but it won’t happen. At the very least it won’t happen without a monthly subscription to fund it.

Sethren.8472:

Sublimatio.6981:

Anet should finally separate skill versions for pve, pvp and wvw…

Amen. A thousand times Amen. I’m tired of getting shafted due to PvP/WvW balance issues. I don’t like PvP, so I only PvE unless I have to engage in PvP (world completion). Why should I, and players like me, be punished for the PvP issues?

While I agree with your points, I have to say that this is an issue that appears in almost all MMOs and I doubt GW2 will break that.

Essentially this would double or triple the amount of balancing and skill design coming out of the dev team. Without a monthly subscription to fund all that extra staffing I just don’t see this happening, sadly.

Fay.2357:

My 2 cents on this:

CI is an interrupt trait. CS is a lockdown trait. Interrupt is about, well, interrupting enemy actions, where lockdown is grabbing them and preventing those actions from occurring in the first place, with a sprinkle of interrupts on top. CS really facilitates lockdown by lengthening dazes and stacking a lot of stuns if you do it right, while CI simply boosts the effectiveness of your interrupts. They’re different traits for different purposes.

And then there’s power block, which is an interrupt trait designed to create a lockdown, but I’m only mentioning this just for completeness.

I think that’s a really useful way of looking at this. The mesmer community here has latched onto the term “lockdown,” but in reality maybe there is “lockdown” and “interrupt” builds, which, while serving a similar purpose, aren’t necessarily the same playstyle. Lockdown may be seen as more proactive whereas interrupt is more reactive (with maybe greater rewards).

Now the question is, if one wanted to embrace this proactive lockdown (read: dazelock) style, is it worth it to go 6/6/4 for Harmonious Mantras while losing out on the Might/boon generation of Bountiful Interruption?

So many decisions.

Neptune.2570:

Unsure if lazycalm is the forums worst player or best troll.

I don’t think those things are mutually exclusive.

Carighan.6758:

Jake.1430:

While I’m at it, why doesn’t it check for range at the end of the cast, like every other spell?

You mean, why does it check range at the beginning of the cast, like every other spell? :P

This one bothers me a lot. I think it comes down to something like “Well, the clone won’t have a place to go.”

Other gap closers will still travel their distance if the target moves out of range – you’ll just miss the damage and any other effects that come with your gap closer. So, it’s cool if an enemy moves out of range, but I would love to still generate a clone (an important resource) and have it move to the maximum range, letting me at least close some of the gap.

So much frustration with this skill. I have better luck doing an about-face Phase Retreat as my gap closer.

This happened before my time, but from my understanding Confusion used to do 50% more damage. That combined with the auto attack generation may have been pretty out of control.

Post nerf though I would love to see Scepter stack some confusion. There are quite a few weapons with bleed on autoattacks. It’s the same principle.

Noah.9654:

Veruah.5302:

I had no idea this rapier skin existed. Can you get that with gems in any way?
.

You can get it at the Trading Post for what I would consider a cheaper price than gems. Its about 30G iirc. Mesmers are the only class that look cool using it as we’re the only light armor class that can use swords.

I’m doing this as soon as I get home tonight.

You, sir, have refined my mesmer style.

Now I just need to find a sweet pistol.

I had no idea this rapier skin existed. Can you get that with gems in any way?

On topic: I am fairly new to GW2 and never actually played GW (I was strictly a console gamer during that time). That said, I have always loved playing the controller classes in pretty much any game. I play control-focused Wizards in tabletop D&D games, lived a long life as an Enchanter in EQ, and try to find the best controllers in any single player RPG I play.

Mesmer seemed like the obvious choice. I knew Thief would probably have some good control too, but I wanted something that wasn’t so stale to the gaming world. A quickly replenishing resource system used to fuel a fast paced attack style? I haven’t seen this before! …wait, nevermind.

Illusions seemed fun, if maybe a little gimmicky, and the class (appeared) to offer unprecedented control. That and sword/pistol looks gangsta.

Gurl, protect yo weave!

I guess in the grand scheme we are still talking in quarters of a second here, so the actual gameplay impact (other than on Diversion, IMO) isn’t earth shattering.

Still, can we get any more bugs at this point? I don’t think there are really any Torch bugs (excluding the iMage blows – but that isn’t a bug). Let’s think up some Prestige bugs, guize.

In response to the “Mesmers quit QQing” talk here:

We aren’t really asking for iLeap to become some beast of a skill. We are asking that it does what it is intended to do: let us quickly travel to an opponent in order to engage in melee range while also generating a clone, our profession’s expendable resource.

Since it is apparent that Anet is unable to make the current design work due to their pathing/AI technology, that may mean a change to the skill in order to fit its design.

No one here that is halfway credible is asking that it deal a billion damage and be both a leap and blast finisher or something. We just want a gap closer, like pretty much every other melee set has.

skcamow.3527:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

-snip-

Embrace debate!

On daze duration – as I originally reported in a thread and frifox further validated, currently the daze duration extension by CS is bugged in a few skills:

• Does not increase duration of Mantra of Distraction, Diversion, and Chaos Storm dazes yet does increase daze duration of Counter Blade, which has same base duration as the other 3.
• Increases daze duration of both Magic Bullet and Counter Blade by 58%, not 25% as tooltip suggests.

Wow, really? I had no idea the trait was bugged so badly. I did feel that my 3 illusion Diversion shatters felt a little weak sometimes, but I just figured the opponents had condition duration decreasing runes/traits on them or something.

You could look at a boon share build (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/PvP-The-Chaos-Maestro-Boon-Support/). I’ve messed around with it a bit in PvP but it isn’t exactly my playstyle.

It works at what it is meant to do though, and I do think it is the most unique boon support of any profession. Way more active than “LOL I GIVE SHOUTS AND SMASH!!!”

“Underpowered” may not be as accurate as “underused.” We are certainly less useful that other classes (Guardian, Warrior, and Elementalist primarily), but I do think we are good enough to progress through the end-game PvE content.

That’s all well and good, but the fact of the matter is that, more often than not, you will not be allowed into anything but “casual” (read: slow, dies a lot) PvE groups, mostly made up of other crapped on classes.

In summary, it is my opinion that mesmers are capable of progressing through PvE content with a few select builds. Do people normally want to fill up a party space with you? No.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Er.. I actually posted a 6/6/0/2/0 when I entered in 6/4/2/2/0.

A 6/4/2/2/0 (added Sword/Sword – Scepter/Pistol as you mentioned earlier. Greatsword works wonderfully aswell.. as Warlord of Chaos has painfully demonstrated to me before x.x) variant of the build would look/play sliightly different, and I dunno if Mender’s would be enough condi removal so you may wanna play around with some sigils, maybe Generosity.

That’s an interesting trait setup but I think I am totally missing the reasoning behind Scepter. This is a Power based lockdown build at it’s core and Scepter is pretty terrible at Power damage and doesn’t have a daze skill to proc CS.

Thanks for all the responses guys!

@Chaos: I really like that 6/4/2/0/2/0 build you posted. I think I may try that trait spread but maybe swap out Sw/P for Staff. The on-demand stun/daze on multiple targets has won me over recently compared to playing the RNG slot machine with Chaos Storm.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Actually.. theres a bit of a pattern to mesmer RNG mechanics. It’s sort of like a slot machine in that there’s a “good” / “meh” / “bad” outcome for almost all of our RNG skills.

Staff Auto- Burning / Bleed/ Vuln
Chaos Armor- Protection / Swiftness / Regen – Blind / Cripple / Confusion
Chaos Storm – Aegis / Retaliation / Swiftness – Daze/ Weakness / Chill / Poison
Chaotic Interruption – Blind / Chill / Cripple

I really think all CI needs is just removal of the cripple. Chill still has use behind Immobilize as it slows down skill recharges.

I agree on how you broke down the three value categories of the skills – really nice way to look at it, Chaos.

While I am find with weapon skills/boon mechanics have a “bad” category, I am bothered by a GM trait having that. If you have invested that deeply in the line I would like to see it more like great/good/serviceable. If we swapped Cripple for Weakness I would see the breakdown being: Blind/Weakness/Chill.

Step 1) Select some traits. It doesn’t matter.

Step 2) Equip Scepter/Whatever and a Staff.

Step 3) ???

Step 4) Don’t profit.

In all seriousness though, Fay and Dawdler aren’t being mean or whatever – they’re right. Conditions in general aren’t great for PvP and Mesmers in particular are terrible at them. All of that equals out to mean we are really bad at doing something that is pretty bad to start with.

The value of Chaotic Interruption (CI) was questioned in another thread by StickerHappy. He brought up some great points about how the three randomly applied conditions (Cripple, Chill, or Blind) lose some of their value due to the always applied Immobilize. Cripple, for example, is basically totally useless when stacked on top of Immobilize.

So, this had me thinking about switching my standard 4/4/6 lockdown spread to 6/4/4 and taking either Power Block or Confounding Suggestions. Power Block would seem to offer almost a guaranteed win if used on a heal against a profession that doesn’t have another healing or invulnerability (here’s looking at you, hambows) skill. Multiple interrupts back-to-back could also really shut someone down, putting several of their skills on long cooldowns.

Confounding Suggestions is nice as it doesn’t work off of interrupts and offers a chance at immobilize (via Stun) that you lose by ditching CI. CS seems to be really good for a daze-spam build using something like pistol or sword offhand with Mantra of Distraction.

Wastrel’s Punishment also seems to fit a Power based lockdown build more than the Chaos line equivalent, which offers a useless bonus condition damage based on toughness.

I would love to hear opinions from anyone who has used these GM traits for a while. The more I really watch fights I am in the more I realize that CI really doesn’t offer me that much.

Xyonon.3987:

Just spawn the clone at the enemy in first place? Maybe op.
Btw even a projectile can be homing and get a “unblockable” tag, like GS#2. Sword#3 is blocked too by anything if there is no line of sight, so there is no difference between now and a projectile.

I don’t see how spawning the clone at the target is OP. It also seems to be the easiest fix to the terrible pathing issues that cripple this skill.

If somehow this is considered terribly OP then add a 1s delay between casting iLeap and being able to use Swap, like Temporal Curtain —> Into the Void. This would offer counterplay for the opponent to burst the clone down or use some sort of retreat skill to get out of incoming mesmer’s way.

Still, there is precedent set for this type of skill with Infiltrator’s Strike (Thief Sword #2), so I really don’t see how this is OP.

Ansau.7326:

Curunen.8729:

Veruah.5302:

Oh oh oh!

But if it hits the Mesmer is increases chances of iLeap and Blink actually working!

All hail the new Sw/T meta!

That’s it! RNG buff on allies that makes broken skills work and a debuff on enemies that makes working skills break! xD

NO NO NOOOO!!!

With the reputation of anet with bugs, that change would make buff enemies and make their broken things work, and ruin our fine things, like DE not creating clones, or PU making us revealed…

That would be a great theme for Chaos! We are the masters of RNG but our RNG mastery is tied to RNG!

Perfect!

Someone make me a dev.

This has been discussed to death, but yeah, I agree. All but the most clueless of non-mesmers should see that this skill is the worst gap closer in the game with its myriad of bugs and stipulations that have to be in place to make it even work without the bugs.

I would be happy with just a direct copy of Infiltrator’s Strike (Thief sword skill) that generates a clone on the teleport. Is that a lazy fix that really doesn’t fit any of the mind game/confusion aspect of mesmer? Yes. But at least it is a proven gap closer mechanic that we know will work.

I don’t really understand the stigma that anything but shatter means you are an unskilled or useless mesmer. Shatter teaches you how to land shatters and hopefully avoid damage long enough to burn the opponent down. Those are some aspects of being a mesmer, but not all of them. Shatter teaches you Shatter, not All of Mesmer.

That said, the OP asked for a tanky build with survivability. Shatter is most certainly neither of those things.

Edit: I don’t mean to come off as antagonistic at all, Coulter. I just don’t want to give the OP the impression that a shatter based mesmer is a “bunker” build or has high “survivability.”

In a pure 1v1 discussion you are correct, Sticker. You can just move away from the target and shut down the need for Weakness.

I believe (and Anet, I think), however, that balancing around 1v1 is a bad course of action. Applying Immobilize and Weakness still helps out your friendly melee professions when engaging the immobilized opponent. Or if you just interrupted and are still engaging in melee range it will save you some damage taken.

The fairly standard baseline dungeon PvE build makes use of several mantras and Empowering Mantras.

Mantra of Domination is the foundation of most PvP lockdown builds and the condition cleanse mantra is a go-to choice for condition defense.

These are all points I have been thinking on recently as well (I get bored at work. I promise I have a life).

The Cripple is what makes the least amount of sense to me. Immobilize is just Cripple 2.0 – you get 0 value out of putting both Immobilize and Cripple on the same target. The only benefit I can see here is if the target is immune to Immobilize (is that even a thing a profession can do without also gaining Cripple immunity?) you can still apply some sort of movement hampering condition.

The same sort of thing can be said when comparing Cripple and Chilled. Chill is just straight up, no questions asked, better than Cripple (50% reduction vs. 66% AND cool down increase). If you land Cripple and Immobilize the skill has basically screwed you.

Now, I get it. It’s Chaos. It isn’t supposed to be a for sure bet on what happens – just that something good happens for us. Cool – I actually like that theme for our profession a lot. But as a Grandmaster level trait there should never be a moment where you are disappointed in the effect – all of the possible condis should be the best-in-class offering for their effect (for example, movement speed reduction).

I have been running 4/4/6 lockdown for some time but have recently considered going to 6/4/4 with Power Block.

If I am missing something here, someone please call me out.

Edit: I hate complaining without also offering a possible solution. If they wanted to take the least amount of work route I would say remove Cripple from the possible condis applied and add Weakness. This sticks with the non-damaging, control condition feel of the trait and would still offer value when paired with the immobilize.

UrMom.4205:

Next ready up: “next ready up we’ll be showing off Elementalist and Warrior!”
Two weeks later: “next ready up we’ll be showing off Necro and Guardian!”
Two more weeks: “next ready up we’ll be showing off Thief!”
September: Patch launches.

Patch Notes:

Mesmer
Fixed a bug causing the clone generated by Illusionary Leap to travel too quickly.

Coulter.2315:

Shatter Mesmer is what you should be using

If you want survivability, shatter is perhaps the worst possible build to achieve your goal. Shatter is the glassiest of glass builds across pretty much any profession, IMO.

Also Halting Strike on a shatter build is weird. Why would you not take the boost in Mind Wrack damage?

In general though, as a mesmer, your survival rate is going to depend more on actively avoiding combat through stealth (Decoy, Mass Invis, The Prestige) and mobility (Blink, Phase Retreat).

If you want to go for pure survivability you should look up a PU or boonshare build. Boonshare has obvious upsides if you have a partner.

I would love to see a focus rework in general. IMO it is the single worst weapon we have.

Oh oh oh!

But if it hits the Mesmer is increases chances of iLeap and Blink actually working!

All hail the new Sw/T meta!

StickerHappy.8052:

Oh i though it would be a buff to lockdown mesmers! haha.

I would seriously take a trait that let me see a symbol indicating a cast in progress.

It would be like your life-altering “Interrupt the blue glow!” training, Sticker. :P

Illusionary Wheelchair Rider:

Summon an illusion that rolls toward something, unless the most direct path between you and the target does not meet the ADA approved standards for slopes, crippling them. After the initial roll, the clone will execute the Mind Slash sword chain

Hamster.4861:

Fix Temporal Curtain Swiftness
Make Glamour skills viable.:
Null field: Corrupts boons, not just strip them. Even without adding damage this would level the playing field with the necromancer Well of Corruption. Doesn’t need to convert conditions to boons. let’s not get out of hand.

I am all for making glamours viable as something more than niche utilities, but I think giving us what would just be an ethereal field Well of Corruption doesn’t fit. I think the whole condition/boon conversion game fits perfectly with necromancers and should remain their schtick.

Just spitballing ideas here, but what if null field actually turned off say 3-4 boons/conditions on 5 targets in the area while they remained in the area? Durations would still tick down even when they are nulled out. It could create an interesting combo of null field —> immobilize to force some boons to tick down while the opponent doesn’t gain their benefits.

Fay.2357:

Because that’s hard, and not doing anything is easy.

+1

I would also be ok with a target limit for the buff or something.

Kelthien.8593:

Some of these may not be popular… but here goes!
3. Improve mantras… somehow. Having more than one on my bar makes the game feel so clunky and slow. I’d love to have the charging part actually do something. Make me pulse damage or healing while channeling, periodically cure conditions, hasten cooldowns on my other skills while I channel… something.

I think this could be great as a trait but not standard. Seems a little too powerful to me.

On topic:

1. We need a ranged AoE option. I would love to see a MH pistol that has a bouncing auto attack, a disengage, and a ground targeted AoE with some kind of condi application.
2. Add some damage to Into the Void. Focus really offers almost 0 damage potential with how broken (or easily avoidable even when it does work) iWarden is. It would be nice to have some damage potential on #4.
3. Rework staff #4 to do more than just apply 5s of a buff we can generate through combo fields. I would be ok if it was just changed to apply Chaos Armor to up to 5 allies in a medium radius, similar to the Guardian Might channel on their staff. I just find it really lame 1/4th of Staff’s abilities is something we can easily do with combos.

Yeah, I thought I would be all super cool mes and portal my team from spawn to mid when I first began doing PvP. I got tired of spamming “USE MY PORTAL!” and just slotted another skill.

Just curious, but why don’t you have a condi removal skill? I always thought Disenchanter/Null Field/Mantra had a place in shatter builds.

Curunen.8729:

A funny thing – blink did lead to me dying yesterday on temple – had a fairly long fight with an ele with both of us constantly escaping with tiny amounts of hp, and I was using blink to rotate up to the raised platform several times, to engage from range while cooldowns refreshed, before diving back into melee.

I think it was the fourth time – blink simply failed to port me up to the platform – instead straight into the wall (no, not in in the wall like the terrain glitch, just right up to the wall, where there’s nothing to LoS in easy reach…) :/ Of course this caused death directly. Pretty kitten annoying as th fight could have gone either way.

Anyway, regarding skill lag – I don’t know what part of the world you’re, in, but hot weather badly affected internet here for a week – I was experiencing skill delay of 2 to 4 seconds (unplayable, so I didn’t bother). Maybe this could be a reason?

I’m surprised it worked 4 times.

I have terrible luck with Blink teleporting me to higher elevations.

Sweeps.3059:

sirrealist.1360:

I don’t really know, but maybe staff will be viable in PvE if they make iElasticity work with staff clones.

I was away from the game for a few months so can someone tell memwhat exactly is the issue with iElasticity ?

Thanks

It does not effect staff clones that cast Winds of Chaos. Logic would say that it should follow the exact rules of that skill, which includes a bounce, therefore working with the trait.

Basically staff clones should be our ranged AoE clone and they aren’t.

I think the concept of a “staff Mesmer” is fundamentally flawed. You have a whole other weapon set. The question shouldn’t be “how good is staff?” It should be “how does staff work alongside my other chosen set/gear options?”

To that I think staff is our single most flexible weapon. It had a place in both power builds (iWarlock, AoE Halting Strike for lockdown, and quick clone generation for shatter) and condi builds (auto attack, clones, chaos storm, chaos armor). It also offers a great defense in phase retreat and chaos armor and sets an ethereal field for chaos armor on your allies.

Personally I think staff can be worked into almost any Mesmer build and not be a terrible choice.

Thinking is a high skillcap build that has very little counterplay. I think you understand why mind games are indeed OP and had to be nerfed.

On topic(ish): I generally play a lockdown build and will include BF in my shatter burst if I am fairly confident I have interrupted their heal skill. In other news, I would probably give a Grandmaster trait slot for a trait that allowed me to see which skill a target was using. I get that has exactly 0 chance of happening, but seriously. Lockdown mes dream come true.