Guild Wars 2

Archon.6481:

So your solution to counter stealth is blind luck?

Got it.

Hi. You’re complaining that it’s “blind luck” when a player dodges an attack they literally can’t see.

What kind of reply do you expect, besides “Duh?” and “Deal with it?”

If you take away your opponent’s ability to actually SEE you do anything, then, yeah, they’re going to have to “guess” and use a bit of “blind luck” to avoid your attacks. How else do you expect this to work, really?

This exact situation is what you signed up for when you picked thief.

Aerathnor.8305:

We’ll trade, when I block/evade your attack from stealth you get revealed and I lose my ability to RF you to death in stealth.

Both are cheesy mechanics that basically ruin counterplay.

::mashes +1 button::
::is a mesmer, so probably has ulterior motives::

Just to confirm (not trying to be condescending, just want to avoid a lot of headache):

Testing in Heart of the Mists, you are setting these in your PvP build, not your normal equipment screen, right?

Are you in combat? Weapon-swap sigils on proc when you’re actually in combat. Try it with, like, Doom or Intelligence against some dummies, so you can see the little activation icon pop up in your status.

Don’t double-up on Force like that, the second one will do nothing.

Ark Bladesteele.2943:

If we’re going to have a tournament sometime in the future, the same thing is likely going to happen. With the way JQ/BG/TC do their so-called “push weeks” (which, please, call it what you will, but this is the method of win-trading they use to ensure the league stays locked), it’s going to be incredibly difficult for any server to break in.

Err, here’s what you need to understand (among many, many, many things).

At the moment, JQ is leading in points for this week. Their predicted rating change for the week? -9.602. NEGATIVE. Why? Because their current rating says JQ “should” have a wider lead.

You don’t need to “trade wins” to maintain relative stasis. If Glicko says you should beat me every week by, say, 15k, and we continually end up at about that level, my score isn’t going to plummet much at all. I’m at my level, you’re at your level, and even if the match isn’t equal it’s the closest thing available, so that’s what we get.

The score gap between T1 and T2 means the system that has “decided” that only a server that could absolutely destroy YB and SoS can make it in T1. And, despite FA’s cushy leads week-to-week, that’s just not what’s happening in T2 right now.

Here’s your TL;DR answer:

Currently if they cast their rapid fire on you and you stealth, every shot of it will still hit you. WHY?!

Why? So you’ll l2p instead of just treating your highly-spammable stealth like it’s Invulnerability.

Quadox.7834:

Mainly the GM, “every 3rd critical hit slows your target”. Now, i won’t comment on the numbers since i know they will change for many skills. However, this trait is not very fun or active and should in my opinion be changed to something else. To what, i am not 100% sure, but perhaps:
“When you hit cry of frustration, inflict slow”
or something. Simply procing on crit isn’t very fun since slow will mostly be used to delay animations for easier interruptions. For example, vs engineer healing turret, you can slow before you think he will use it so that you can interrupt easier!

As written, it’s a trait that lets you focus a target to get high Slow uptime on them (at least if you’re able to freecast on them).

That is a serious “playstyle change” for interrupts: it adds an extra facet of soft control, allowing you to slow down an enemy’s overall damage output in addition to interrupting key skills.

Ross Biddle.2367:

So yeah, the real problem is that there arent great movement options outside of chrono now

::whispers:: They should make the speed buff in Inspiration not suck.

When I clicked on this thread, I was kinda expecting something like:
“Why play thief on pick team when you can pick people off at range with a ranger?”
“As a thief, I’m getting constantly screwed by Sic ’Em.”
“I play condi troll thief but, man, condi rangers are immortal.”
Some complaint that, while maybe not well-founded, one could actually discuss back-and-forth, you know?

Instead, I see…
“I’m playing the glassiest one-shot build in the world and I don’t know what to do when I can’t quite kill my target and they one-shot me right back.”

:/

Rangers don’t have as much burst power. They really don’t. I know because both rangers and thieves constantly try to gank me, and the thieves demand much, much better reaction time on my part. (The frustration with rangers is more that their stupid rotation is really good at draining all your endurance quickly.)

So, I dunno, dodge a bit more? Pack a stun break? Do some silly Whirlwind Attack thing and laugh? If you’ve got your target at 20% hp after the first burst, basically the only thing that’s saving him is that you’re getting knocked down (and maybe Signet of Stone; you should have plenty of tools to wait it out, though).

You may be thinking, “Isn’t this redundant with other stuff?” (Especially if Signet of Inspiration offers a Swiftness buff.)

I dunno. Maybe.

I think it’s pretty easy to come up with useful traits that buff move speed in different ways. Look at the extra rider on Time Marches On, for instance.

I also don’t think it’s a problem to give folks different ways to access an important aspect of the game. It’s not like there’s just one “damage” trait line, after all.

Mesmers are suuuch a kite-y/in-and-out class that this really isn’t something you should be stingy with, anyway. (Anyone who needs to reliable hit a mesmer in the face with something at point-blank range has their own gap speed buffs and gap closers anyway.)

TL;DR: Please make Compounding Celerity more like Time Marches On because:

• Compounding Celerity as written is not a very desirable trait for anyone (due to structure, not just numbers).
• The Inspiration line as a whole could use more “Wow!” factor in HoT.
• If there’s any kind of mesmer it’s safe to free from the tyranny of Traveler runes, it’s one running Inspiration.
• The flavor of a speed boost like TMO fits Inspiration, obviously (that’s why Compounding Celerity is already there).

As written right now, Compounding Celerity is a relic of old mesmer design (the profession’s unique mechanics acting as weaknesses) rather than new mesmer design (using our resources and unique mechanics as our strengths).

That’s it. Pretty simple!

~

Super-long version for bored people:

So, the Chronomancer trait thread is abuzz with input and theories from the community. A lot of it is giddy and rapturous because, well, Chrono looks like a great trait line overall, with several traits that reflect an understanding of mesmer issues the developers want to resolve.

However, one poster said they were concerned about Time Marches On being in Chrono, because it makes the +25% passive speed boost only available for folks who take the elite spec. (Also that it was pretty powerful so it should maybe be a major trait. I think that’s a fair observation as well.)

And I thought about it a bit and noticed…

Compounding Celerity.

Even with its planned buff, Compounding Celerity is a pretty sad trait. Why? Conceptually, the trait seems pretty similar to Warrior’s Sprint or Speedy Kits, which are both highly-valued traits. It’s pretty simple:

• Compounding Celerity does nothing for you out of combat.
• Compounding Celerity is also rather unreliable in combat, especially when things aren’t going well for you and you’re desperate for a bit of speed to kite or run away.
  That’s a problem with the way the trait functions, not just the numbers. Even if it gave you, like, 10 seconds of swiftness per shattered illusion, it just wouldn’t be a very interesting or reliable thing.

And the reason folks without access to stuff like Warhorn and Speedy Kits feel forced into Traveler runes? They need reliable speed, especially in WvW. I think whoever wrote this trait for Chronomancer was amply aware of this.

So, why Inspiration?

Obviously the flavor fits since there’s already a (sadly useless) speed-buff trait right there.

But, moreover, it’s a safe place to stash it.

See, Inspiration is the profession’s most supportive trait line. It offers less offense and control than any other line, and arguably it’s no better than Chaos or Dueling for personal defense. But Inspiration gives you quite a few group-oriented healing abilities (as well as the highly-valued focus reflection for PvE). So

“Freeing up” the rune slot (by taking away the reliance on Trav runes) would make it easier for Inspiration mesmers to do one of these:
1. Take an offensive rune to compensate for the line’s not-very-aggressive traits. (Remember how Inspiration used to have a +15% phantasm damage minor, which has now been made baseline? I think that was because the devs have always felt it needs a little something to compensate you for going so deep into generally-not-very-aggressive traits.)
2. Take a defensive rune to give their build with some legit staying power.
3. Take a rune that sets up some kind of group-support synergy. Why not, right? You’re taking a whole line that’s very heavily leaning in that direction already.

Compounding Celerity’s right there, and it’s pretty straight-up useless right now, even with the planned HoT changes. Make it a reliable +25% passive speed boost (with whatever else you want to throw on there extra) and it’ll be a useful and relevant trait again, and do a lot for Inspiration in game modes where we seldom use Warden’s Feedback.

(What should you do with Time Marches On if you bring its mechanics into Compounding Celerity? I dunno. I think you could leave it where it is, even. It’s not like anyone was going to take both TMO and Compounding Celerity before, anyway.)

DDCarvalho.2071:

JonPeters.5630:

Minor

• Time Marches On – You move 25% faster. The duration of incoming movement-impairing conditions is reduced by 25%. (Cripple. Chilled, Immobilize)

I have 2 opinions about this trait:

1) It is a trait that gives an immense mobility advantage, so I would put it on a major (selectable) trait, not in a minor one. It should be a choice.

2) It is a fix for one of the main disvantages of mesmer: lack of mobility (mesmers have 1 unreliable swiftness skill) so I would not put it on the elite specialization, it should be on the place of whatever is the weakest/lamest core trait currently (so it can be combined with any elite spec introduced in the future). Putting it on this elite spec will make it required for any activity where mobility is very important (WvW?), in detriment to any new elite specs introduced in the future.

If you were gonna put a +25% passive speed boost anywhere, I’d put it in Inspiration. Why Inspiration?

• Flavor. Inspiration quickens your steps just as much as time-mastery can.
• You’re rewarding builds that take the most supportive of all the trait lines with the potential to take a serious-business non-Trav rune to set up some kind of cool support synergy, or to compensate with some added offense or defense. (Without runes factored in, Chaos is the stronger personal defense line anyway.)

You could also put it in Dueling, where nearly every mesmer build could grab it easily, but Dueling is already a powerful and overloaded trait line.

That said, I don’t necessarily think it’s a terrible idea to put it in Chrono. Though I do find it annoying and redundant that Chrono gets both this trait and Shatter Superspeed. Also, despite the theme, it’s important not to stack all the “Be faster!” stuff in one trait line because being faster in this game is really, really good.

…

Actually! Wait! Hold up!

Actually a +25% constant speed boost would be so great for fixing Compounding Celerity!

EDIT: I made a thread about this because I think it’s worth pressing the issue a bit. Inspiration is a bit behind the other trait lines right now, even with the Mender’s Purity buff, and I think fixing its worse trait will do a lot of make it nicer without hurting build diversity.

Juba.8406:

btw did you see what traits Mesmer is getting as Baseline ?

“Baseline” just means “we realized certain abilities were pretty awful unless you took this trait, but we couldn’t buff them without making the trait effects themselves OP, so we removed the annoying trait requirement.”

Basically, here’s your problem:
Warriors are fine right now.
Warriors are good.
Warriors have definite strengths and weaknesses as a profession, but, in general, they’re powerful and valuable in every game mode. (Kinda like guardians.)
You’re looking at “Hmm, we fixed some busted broken stuff” and crying “Where’s my giant bag of candy, too!?” But you’re already holding the bag of candy right now.

Juba.8406:

Warrior warrior warrior warrior

Warriors also get a minor trait that makes weapon swapping faster.
In HoT, warriors are getting Unsuspecting Foe as a minor.
Conclusion: Sometimes, minor traits are actually good.

This is one of those times. Move along.

Ferik.3127:

So at the same time, newbs claim mesmers to be OP, unkillable, game-breaking yadayadayada

Newbies by definition have no clue what they’re talking about. They also say everything is OP, unkillable, game-breaking, &c. Pretty sure you could find a thoughtless or inexperienced player who’ll tell you that guardian mace, engie medkits, and necro mobility are all OP.

So, I think really the right move is to mostly ignore them.

That said, updating the Mists NPCs to be more like their supposed classes would help a lot, though. Give the necro NPC death shroud. Make the mesmer spawn clones and shatter. Make the ele switch attunements quickly (using a pretty bad precoded rotation, perhaps, but that’ll still give more of a feel for “okay, here’s what happens when they pop into earth/water”). Give the engie a bit more turret/kit stuff. Make the thief a melee fighter that uses a lot of stealth. Et cetera. Predictable NPCs don’t teach you that much about opponents, but at least they’re a way to try a simple fight over and over and over again until you learn some basics.

Chrono does more for the mesmer than dragon hunter does for guardians.

But mesmers need it more. Guardians are already lynchpins of their team in all game modes. Even if DH ends up being only suitable for a small niche role or a trait line for just-for-funsies builds, the profession as a whole would be doing fine.

Does Illusionary Reversion give you a clone even with a 0-clone (just IP) shatter?

I disagree a bit about the Wells trait.

Your teammates already have a lot of reasons to hang out in wells for their full duration (even your offensive ones, since they punish enemies; not to mention putting it down on point in SPvP).

I think the reason people are going “meh” is that “remove one condition” attached to a bunch of skills with medium-to-long cooldowns does fairly little in a game where conditions get applied sooooo fast. If you upped it to two conditions with the same overall cleanse-on-end mechanic, though, it’d be rather desirable.

jcbroe.4329:

Maybe there are ways of dealing with them better and I’m just not seeing them?

Most of your condition clearing is going to be in the Inspiration line.

Inspiration is now more viable because it’s easier to take it as a third full trait line (whereas before you only got 2 1/3 trait lines worth of traits), and because mesmers feel a bit less pressure now that they get Illusionary Persona “for free.”

In Inspiration:

• Mender’s Purity is very, very good. Tons and tons of condition removal.
• Shattered Conditions can give you party-wide removal, and is pretty solid now that IP is a built-in.

In Chrono itself your options are not quite as powerful, but you’ve got some that are a small help:

• The phantasm shatter trait certainly helps Phantasmal Disenchanter a bit.
• The well trait adds some condition removal to wells.

Also, note that the Torch trait still removes conditions, and has been moved to Illusions. This is a net benefit for condi builds since they’re likely to go into Illusions anyway for Maim the Disillusioned.

Menaka.5092:

JonPeters.5630:

• Illusionary Reversion – Gain a clone after you activate a shatter skill.

This helps making Chronomancy viable for shatters by itself and really strong with Dueling and Illusions. Power shatter can even drop Dueling for Domi…

Drop Illusions. It doesn’t do much for you now that IP is standard. Domination, Dueling, Chrono. Tons of clones, powerful shatters, easy comboing.

Ithamir.5928:

What are you guys talking about? Seize The Moment is my first choice! Diversion, gain quickness and then Mind Wrack them!

That was my first impulse as well, but then I thought about what would happen if I threw an iZerker, shattered it for Diversion, and then shattered it again for the Mind Wrack on a stunned foe. (Would it spin again after the first one?)

So now I can see either being quite brutal.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

When the patch drops, there will be no reason to ever trait the sword besides a reduced cool down.

For both PvP and PvE, I’d be tempted to suck up the slower cooldowns and take Evasive Mirror instead of Blade Training, to be honest. Especially if it works how I think it does with Blurred Frenzy.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• Lost Time and Chronophantasma are very strong, Quickness on Shatter doesn’t seem able to compete unless traited with Furious Interruption

It’s not much, but it helps you throw weapon attacks into the burst, which is exactly when you want them most. Consider the potential synergy with F5 “POP ALL YOUR COOLDOWNS ASAP!” Shatter as well.

Time will tell whether or not it’s better than Chronophant for shatter burst builds. (My first impulse is Chronophant, but I can see this going either way.)

“Time Catches Up – Activating a shatter gives your illusions Super Speed”

:_(

Every mesmer needs this.

(Don’t get me wrong: interesting stuff overall!)

PvP/WvW is where you go to actually use more than 10% of the traits in this game. >.>

I’m sure HM will see play in PvE. BY DEFAULT. Because you’re taking Dueling for Phantasmal Fury and Blade Training (or Evasive Mirror) and, hey, look, you get HM for free (the other two GM traits are useless to you). It’s probably even a decent damage buff if you’re in a situation where you’re popping Mantras to cleanse sometimes anyway (don’t go recasting mantras aimlessly just to get the buff, though — look at the DPS lost while you’re casting it).

If that’s HM’s fate, though, it’s gonna be a pretty sad future for it. PvE is where cool, fun, interesting traits go to die. (Exception: reflects. Reflects are never not fun.)

tobascodagama.2961:

There’s a difference between a build that shatters as needed and a Shatter Build. In the latter, you need a ton of clone generation to spam your shatters. PU, Fractal Phantasms, even Lockdown would fall into the former category. At the moment, Lockdown/PU takes DE for emergency shatters, but will they still need to when they get IP for free?

This is literally just “Phantasm builds don’t need to shatter much!”

So, yeah, sure, dungeon/Fractal builds don’t need to shatter. We all know this. That’s because PvE is largely about concentrated power, not flexibility. (If you want flexibility, change your traits / utilities between fights!)

When you say “PU” or “Lockdown,” what do you really mean? Phantasm builds with those traits. Which is… not really the majority of such builds. They tend to be very dueling-oriented builds, to boot; because phantasm builds are even worse against AoE pressure than clone-spamming builds.

And I’d much rather play a Lockdown build that isn’t worthless against Stability, thank you very much. That means shattering often, with multiple clones.

tobascodagama.2961:

I actually think Harmonious Mantras might be strong enough to contend with DE for non-shatter builds.

The thing is, nearly every non-PvE mesmer build is a “shatter” build. Even if you’re not going all-in on shatter burst, being able to set up frequent multi-clone shatters is how you get anything out of your profession abilities.

Traveler runes.

Traveler runes.

Pretty hard to use anything other than Traveler runes.

If you didn’t need Traveler runes, Defender is already AMAZEBALLS with Mantra healing and would probably make any specific Mantra-themed runes obsolete in comparison.

I like the idea of easy and accessible counterplay to phantasms, it just sucks that:
1. It happens all the time by accident.
2. Mesmer personal DPS is kinda trash without them.

Honestly, why not just fix #2? Up personal damage output SIGNIFICANTLY. Use phantasms as a bonus throw-in that punishes players who ignore easy-to-remove obvious threats. Seems to be a considerably easier redesign than finding endless gimmicks that try to prolong their lifespan just a tiny bit here and there. And if that means truly bad players just sorta melt against a mesmer? Who cares? Half the classes in the game can easily do massive damage to bad do-nothing players. (It wouldn’t even break PvE, since it looks like the pattern for content going forward is short “burn phases” and tons of AoE that clearly phants out constantly.)

Anything that makes it easier to point to a thing and say “Okay, do you all see how the enemy thief last-hit the bear you all wasted your time on?” is a good change.

Ashern.5328:

(do people even use Generosity?)

I tested it some and was pretty impressed.

I’m not quite sure whether it prioritizes Torment high or just rips off big stacks first, but it did a pretty good job purging big damaging conditions rather than just inconsequential throw-ins.

Clones = copies of you, usually cheap and disposable, spam a basic weapon attack but do no damage (they can spread conditions, though; and traits can add stuff)

Phantasms = ghostly copies of you, execute a specific move (like the Illusionary Berserker “Imagined Burden” whirling attack) on a timer

Illusions = both clones and phantasms

You have no condition removal. That must be rather unpleasant at times.

Me Games Ma.8426:

For Chaos and Chronomancy we’d need 3 thouth :<
Cha
Chr

Time to bust out Unicode/Emoji, clearly. Chaos is an eight-point star, Chrono is a clock face.
(Only problem is this site doesn’t support them. 10,000 sadfaces.)

Derenek.8931:

The Mesmer is supposed to be a dueling swordsman. Classically Renaissance due lists ran a rapier and Maine gauche (Sword/Dagger)
Shields are a heavy fighter’s equipment. Speed based fighters would use a lighter parrying weapon rather than a huge cumbersome shield

What.
Same fencing stuff involved bucklers, man. Shields aren’t all that cumbersome, they’re just not street weapons.

Also, note that “take a weapon and use it in an unorthodox way” is, like, the GW2 mesmer’s core shtick. Greatsword lasers &c.

phys.7689:

it doesnt fit in inspiration really. Its about more power. if i had to move it, i would move it to illusion or domination.

truth is, it doesnt fit perfectly anywhere theme wise.

Mantras are literally little phrases you chant to yourself to focus spiritually. Thematically, that’s dead-on for Inspiration.

Hmm… What happens if you just move HM to Inspiration? (Where it kinda fits in thematically, and gets to live with its best friend Mender’s Purity.)

Evasive Mirror might do something for PvE. It’s tricky, though.

I think the best way to improve mesmer in PvE, besides solving the cases where phantasms die too fast to be useful, is to up the DPS on autos. Honestly, I think it wouldn’t hurt PvP that much because, you know, autos aren’t a big part of bursting.

If the Chronomancer fields are traps that’s basically just a big “screw you!” to glamours.

I don’t think they’d do that.

(More than they have in the past, I mean.)

Neijala Ceya.1785:

I think of Harmonious Mantras as an really terrible trait in the way you have to play in order to utilize it. To waste your utility skills and deeply restrict your playstyle just for some <12% per cent dmg if you try to optimize it? Doesn’t sound like a good deal to me.

You’re thinking of Empowered Mantras.

Harmonious Mantras is “each mantra gets an extra charge when charged.” I.e. 3 instead of 2. That means more healing, more interrupts, more condition removal, &c. Builds that run it right now tend to use about 2.5 mantras.

In the preview, a weird new alternative of Empowered Mantras (basically working the opposite way) has been merged into HM. Honestly, I’m hardly even thinking about that trait here.

…

Hmm. What if HM were “baseline?” Would it be particularly busted to give folks three charges of mantra heal, MoR, MoD, &c. by default?

In the current trait setup, the whole reason for taking HM if you can manage is that charging a mantra just go get 2 charges kinda sucks, but most of them end up pretty efficient at 3.

Stormbolt.7293:

I would agree with the game as it is now, but shatter doesn’t look like the default anymore. Condition, phantasm, support, and especially interrupt are much more viable than they used to be

Most of the specs you listed will want to shatter clones quite often.

~

It’s very hard not to come up with a spec that doesn’t want to shatter clones quite often, because having clones to shatter enables four different abilities, at least three of which are pretty good on any particular mesmer.

Phantasm builds mainly exist in the weird world where you basically don’t want anything that’s not pure sustained damage or some kind of evade/invulnerability (reflection, conveniently, manages to act as a bit of both), so they forgo shatter. But this is also the world where, right now, literally trading away all your utilities for +12% damage on auto attacks is considered one of the best builds you could possible play. PvE is just straight-up pigeonholed and busted like that.

(This isn’t an argument for free DE. But it is an argument for “There’s no way to ‘balance’ the game that wouldn’t make a trait that turns on four whole skills slots anything short of highly desirable.”)

Saying “It’s so powerful it should be a GM trait” doesn’t quite make as much sense in the new environment.

The main difference between GM and Adept is when you get it while leveling, not how many resources you have to plow into it (like it is now).

The thing with DE is that everything short of a pure phantasm builds wants and needs DE. Because even your hardcore interrupt build relies on:

• Diversion shatter
• shatter for interrupts
• shatter for boon rips so you can actually ever hit anyone with an interrupt
• shatter for a final burst to actually capitalize on the brief moment of immobilize/stun/can’t-use-your-heal-skill-for-4-seconds you’ve created with interrupts

And it’s pretty hard to get a nice three-clone shatter of any sort without DE. Because they die constantly to all kinds of stuff.

Honestly, it’s a trait line I’d take just for Mender’s Purity.

Like before.

Now I get some okay-but-not-great other stuff on top. /shrug

I might warm up to Shattered Conditions, though.

It looks like it’s being moved into “Master of Fragmentation.”

Note also the two new traits that give you Mirror (on evading an attack and on using Manipulations).

Jedge, I agree with you about DE. That’s why I’m pitching it as an Adept major rather than a minor.

Coldtart.4785:

If there are no superior arrow carts, what will the bad defenders sit on while they hide from their enemies? And if there are no omega golems, what will they blame when they inevitably lose?

Powerful arrow carts create the pressure that justifies half the other kinds of siege to begin with.

Also, you’re getting some kind of shield-generator siege eventually.

Like, okay, here are the trait combos that I think you’re likely to see most in Dueling right now:

Phantasmal Fury — Blade Training — (Harmonious Mantras?)
Your basic PvE phantasm build. HM might be good but it might be useless depending on the supporting skills you most want.
Underwhelming GM trait.

(Desperate Decoy?) — Blinding Dissipation — Deceptive Evasion
Your basic shatter stuff. The minor trait here is pretty much “Enh, why not?” I could see Phantasmal Fury in its place. Either one is basically a throw-in.
Underwhelming Adept choices.

Duelist’s Discipline — Blade Training — Harmonious Mantras
Duelist’s Discipline — Blade Training — Mistrust
Likely “phantrup” setups. Could use Evasive Mirror in place of Blade Training as well.
Reasonable overall.

What about a less phantasm-oriented interrupt build? Well, now you’re in trouble because of the DE/HM conflict. Maybe I’m overstating that, but, like, to be honest: I love playing builds like that, even if they’re not really meta.

~

In contrast, here are the trait combos that I see as most worth encouraging in Dueling:

Phantasmal Fury — Blade Training — Evasive Mirror
This feels like a pretty solid typical dungeon-damage setup. Being able to access reflects on Blurred Frenzy or dodging is pretty strong. (Harmonious Mantras might be the personal-DPS alternative, or the flow may not be worthwhile. Dunno. My guess is the former.)

Deceptive Evasion — Blinding Dissipation — Evasive Mirror
Deceptive Evasion — Blinding Dissipation — Mistrust
These are your most likely shatter specs. Option to choose Confusion or screw with ranged fighters. (If neither of those is to taste, you can get some extra value out of Mantra of Resolve. Not bad, either.)

Phantasmal Fury — Duelist’s Discipline — Harmonious Mantras
Phantasmal Fury — Duelist’s Discipline — Mistrust
Phantasmal Fury — Duelist’s Discipline — Evasive Mirror
Phantrupt with the option of taking more interrupts, extra condi damage, or screwing with the pistol-mesmer mirror-match by taking Evasive Mirror.

Deceptive Evasion — Blinding Dissipation — Harmonious Mantras
For somewhat more controlling/supporting build with shatters. (Taking Inspiration to get mantra healing, and either Chaos or Domination depending on whether you want to immobilize foes or rip their boons.)

No, “baseline” means “baked into skills already.” Like by default.

I’ll tell you how to make Compounding Celerity interesting.

Have it grand a little bit of Superspeed instead of Swiftness when you shatter.