Guild Wars 2

Ryouzanpaku.1273:

- Mirage dodge – something I have dream about from day one of GW2 – this is pretty much exactly how I have imagined it (I only thought about short range blink attached to it too – would be nice to have this as passive tree option)

If anyone played mass effect 3 multiplayer there was a character, the Turian Cabal who had a blink dodge like this (was like the asari dodge but offered a short range teleport based on the direction you dodged). And now in MEA multiplayer they’ve given a similar blink dodge to things like the asari duelist (like the Explorer profile dodge in single player).

It would have been cool to see Mirage’s dodge be a blur followed by short range (ie 200 unit) blink in the direction of which movement key you press while dodging. Yes I realise pressing the dodge key without movement normally just dodges you backwards, but I wonder if it would have been possible to decouple this so hitting the dodge key without movement key would simply blur you in place as we have currently with Mirage, but using any directional key (forward, backward, left, right) while dodging would blur and simultaneously blink you in that direction.

That would have been really cool, flexible and functional – kind of like building Jaunt into the dodge itself unlike now where we have to blur and use a separate movement skill to move.

I suppose it’s understandable given the legendary weapons were advertised with HoT so they should all require HoT.

Thanks for the replies, has helped clear some things up for me.

Takashiro.8701:

The main disappointment for me was that it seems the mirage mirrors will only last for about 5 seconds.

What’s the point of having them if you can’t really plan around when you want to use them? You’re pretty much forced to instantly pick them up which will in return make you pretty predictable. That coupled with the fact that the ambush attacks themselves are predictable as is, i dont know. Guess we’ll have to see how it turns out.

1:00:06 on the youtube video for reference.

This is a fair point – going to all the trouble of removing dodge movement in order to blend in with illusions, but ambush and necessity of running towards mirage mirrors within a few seconds of creating them kind of contradicts that a bit.

But yeah lets see how it plays.

Edit – sorry I saw you deleted your post so thought it best if I delete the quote.

The sad thing is that after this weekend I might not want to play the game at all until release! Other than maybe completing Astralaria.

Thanks, I hope that doesn’t mean they’ll all require gift of maguuma only.

It’s the map exploration of VB/AB/TD/DS that I’m curious about, because essentially it means all remaining 2nd gen legendaries would still be tied to owning HoT with the requirement of making an alt to map complete for each. Would be nice for the sake of variety to have future ones have a different set of map completion/content requirement.

Tseison.4659:

Curunen.8729:

One thing that struck me during the stream was the intensity of the visual effects – especially for something like Jaunt (it’s far to large and bright). I don’t want to go blind with all the crazy visual effects of using some of these skills! xD

I loved Jaunts effects! But I understand how you feel. The effects did seem a bit big so I’m sure they’ll reduce it a bit but here’s hoping they don’t go overkill like they did to auras. I miss my circiular chaos armour

Oh yeah I agree the purple egg isn’t my cup of tea either!

The flash of Jaunt looked a bit too much for me to feel comfortable with – especially as a spammable skill with low cooldown. The other one was axe 3 and illusionary ambush – very cool but a bit… large?

Maybe I’m just so used to asura it’s weird to see what the visual effects look like on a human character. I’ll look forward to release and seeing how it applies to my asura.

Regarding the remaining legendary weapons I’m assuming will drop in living world season 4, will it be likely that they require HoT map completion (ie, gift of maguuma) or PoF map completion (gift of… Elona?), or both, or maybe either (if they make previous 2nd gen legendaries have interchangable map exploration gifts – although that could lead to preference in map completion with either HoT being easier or more difficult that PoF?)

I’m just curious whether it will still be the case that alts are required to make more than one 2nd gen legendary, or whether for some, more than one might be attainable through a single character.

One thing that struck me during the stream was the intensity of the visual effects – especially for something like Jaunt (it’s far to large and bright). I don’t want to go blind with all the crazy visual effects of using some of these skills! xD

glenndevis.8327:

Honestly I don’t think they really tried to “dps” during that stream. It looked more like showing off skills & things they could do.
The weapons they used weren’t the best, didn’t have 3 clones up most of the time, the traits they used didn’t seem great either…

That being said, I do think that other classes look a bit crazy so far. Deadeye doing a 11k hit with rifle #4, Firebrand doing insane burning, Scourge having very wide spread damage.

Either way I don’t think Mirage will be a good DPS spec other than “maybe” single target encounters. And now maybe encounters that require target swapping.

Got a question though, does Elusive Mind trigger from getting Mirage Cloak from utility skills?
Edit: I’m assuming it doesn’t. Would make Deceptive Evasion even more op on Mirage. Also it specifies “dodging.”

As it says dodge, I’m imagining Elusive Mind is dodge only, not other evades or mirage cloaks.

Would be ridiculously OP if it was any evade, and in any case I’m not looking forward to almost certain nerfs it will receive. I hope they go gently and just put an icd on the stunbreak or something if it gets out of hand…

Me Games Ma.8426:

I’d like to throw in some love for Chaos Vortex
Compared to Ether Barrage chaos vortex has the exact same base condition damage values.
One has 4 stacks with 5s each and one has 5 stacks with 4s each.
But keep in mind that Chaos Vortex from clones applies conditions with 100% duration while Ether Barrage only applies 50% of the duration if used by clones.

Ether Barrage is single target and can proc a lot of bleeds from sharper images on this single target while Chaos Vortex is a AoE skill that also buffs your allies.

I think both skills are good in specific situations.

Chaos vortex does look sexy and I’m going to enjoy using it.

Artaz.3819:

Curunen.8729:

1. Dodge spam – take Duelling, maximise vigour/endurance regen with food, abuse Elusive Mind to remove conditions, use Deceptive Evasion for extra shatter fodder. Bonus of Sharper Images and Evasive Mirror.

This is the probable winner. Add in stealth (Decoy, Signet of Midnight) or mobility (Blink, the new Mirage Advance utility, and Jaunt elite) for getting in/out of trouble. Both options have their benefits.

Boon corruption/strip will be much higher so the harder part will be not using a default speed +25% rune if you don’t have have multiple Swiftness options. Although Mirage does have Speed of Sand at 1s, it’s just too short in duration to be that useful (this needs to get buffed to 3s duration).

Yeah definitely seeing the advantages of Duelling more than any other tree.

More crit = more bleeding (sharper images) = more vigour = more dodge = more reflect (evasive mirror) = more condi damage = more regen (renewing oasis) = more clones (DE) = more condition removal (Elusive Mind) = more stunbreak… list probably goes on even longer.

The synergy is great.

Regarding movement speed: pvp = rune of the lynx, no contest. pve/wvw I’m going with traveler unless rune of the lynx is introduced there as well.

Well GS ambush visually looks impressive for sure.

I’m going to have to rewatch that because I wasn’t sure where all that vuln was coming from.

On a separate note – just watching the stream now and witnessing the insane amounts of damage so far on spellbreaker and scourge, I’m shaking my head – how the hell do people like WP think mirage is overtuned for damage when looking at the insane numbers being put out by these other classes so far?

I mean that sand shade on the group of golems in insane – makes staff ambush that WP previewed look tame in comparison.

I can’t wait to see how ridiculous the rest of the classes are in terms of damage output.

musu.9205:

Curunen.8729:

musu.9205:

Curunen.8729:

Yeah, Sceptre is the only one that stands out as being a serious and strong attack and not negligible fluff.

GS is just plain kitten.
Spear looks meh considering we already have feigned surge on a low cooldown for movement underwater.
Staff looks cool (sexy animation) but I’m not sure how strong the attack will be in practice.
Axe is… underwhelming, especially for the new weapon. Would be nice to see a unique melee animation or a bit more mobility.

Sword is… well it depends if the leap requires a target. If it doesn’t require a target meaning we can dodge leap freely anytime then it’s going to be an insane mobility skill and might make reverse phase retreat redundant. If it requires a target then it is weak. I like that it spawns a clone, I like the synergy with interrupt builds, but where is the damage?

I think they’re reluctant to give us any solid damage on weapons as long as we retain the ability to deal absurd amounts of instant damage with mind wrack. I really wish shatter skills had been replaced…

in other word : we need new shatter skills or entirely new f skills like necro elite next time for sustain power dmg

Yeah definitely.

I can only think they must be struggling with a way to make all our shatter traits work if changing our F1-F4 skills.

but after 2 expac mes got least new abilities among all classes , that does make me worried and sad. DD actually got 3 dodge to pick up, mirage is just one type lol given how awful gs ambush is , and sword ambush is not useful in pve .

new shatter could be something like souldbeast+ kit
instead of direct shatter , now all f skills must be active before summoning illusion ,once you active certain f skill , the illusion summoned will link to you , you use that f skill again, you consume those illusion to gain access to new weapon skills temporarily. the period is fixed but the power of those new weapon skills will be depending on how many illusion you consume .
f1 = power dps skills f2 condi f 3 cc + movement f4 defensive skills +self portal

I like the idea of the next spec being mesmer version of ranger (assuming Chrono is “necro” and Mirage is “thief” going by wells and deceptions as well as themes).

And yeah replacing shatters with direct control of illusions from F1 through F4 (or absorbing like soulbeast does). Difficulty is how would shatter traits proc, although I’m sure a solution can be created.

Hmm the Luminous Sword looks interesting, although the lack of trail is a shame (one of the main reasons I love the Gold Fractal sword is the gold trail – looks especially cool on Blurred Frenzy).

But yeah the Lightsaber is awesome and does away with any floor clipping issues.

musu.9205:

Curunen.8729:

glenndevis.8327:

Kadj.6725:

glenndevis.8327:

I just don’t like that with Infinite Horizon you don’t get much more since daze doesn’t stack.

Would have been nice to have a good power build with Mirage but looks like that’s not what Anet wants.

If you run Domination, 5 stacks of vulnerability (innate) for the Daze, and traited, daze is 1s Stun every 5s(7.5 with 0 endurance under vigor though, which you’ll probably always have).
You can go full interrupt within the same traitline:
-3 more vulnerability stacks on interrupt (innate)
-3 seconds of quickness
-Power Block for 1k damage+Weakness(+15s cooldown)

If you get all 8 stacks of vulnerability(even more if clones can also daze, should you take that trait) you’ll get 4% extra damage(total of 12%) thanks to the third minor trait that provides bonus damage for vulnerability.

Basically, this may be one of the best-synergizing skills I’ve ever seen but no surely there’s no hope for power mesmer, power mesmer is dead, rip.

Sorry I didn’t clarify myself properly. Without Infinite Horizon yeah, the daze is very useful. A clone generating, dazing gapcloser sounds fairly good & Domi line has great synergy with it.

The point I was trying to make is how the Infinite Horizon trait barely does anything for this ambush.

What’s the point of having sword clones do the same thing you do at the same time. Daze doesn’t stack and since Infinite Horizon makes your clones ambush at the same time it won’t trigger the traits multiple times. And I doubt it will be easy to set your clones up at a large distance from eachother to make them not hit the target at the same time.

Would be cool if the sword ambush did more damage, but the daze effect is only applied to you, or something like that.

One thing I can think of is maybe you can spawn 3 other clones (staff, scepter, axe or maybe even gs) and then swap to sword and dodge into ambush.
Since the sword ambush has the shortest cast time you can daze (or stun when traited) with sword ambush to combo your other clones ambush attacks. (for less damage since you won’t do any strong ambush yourself.)

You could sword ambush directly into F1, especially as illusions won’t have superspeed on shatter so this will help bring them directly on the target – kind of like an alternative version of axe 3 just without the teleport.

the clone sword ambush summons will be at your original location ,unless you meant anyhing else?

Ah true – although I meant other sword clones already active would also leap to your target.

Yeah that means one would be left behind so you’d only get a 3 illusion point blank shatter rather than 4 illusion shatter (counting self) – well the third clone would have to run to the target but the other two would leap with you.

Also assuming no phantasms out.

Water field for False Oasis would be pretty cool actually.

Well coming from DH I guess anything else must be a shock with having to face thieves.

You’ve got to anticipate the steal – know the range and be ready to counter, either with Blurred Frenzy, Scepter 2, dodge etc. If you see they have BV active, don’t use shield 4 or scepter 2 (one of the reasons I prefer Sword/Torch). If you don’t anticipate the steal you’re going to have an uphill battle.

Edit: If I fail to anticipate steal (or say Infiltrator’s Strike), immediate reaction is either F4 or Decoy straight into dodge, or hit phase retreat while in staff, or blink away. Got to react instantly or facetank some damage.

Aside from that in a nutshell it’s a case of timing your shatters around their evade frames, trying to bait out and make them waste initiative and condi clear from evades and things like SS.

I find Mirror Images very useful for instant burst. I know the meta pvp build tends to save F5 for Moa, but personally I like to use F5 to double up on shatter. A simple F5, Blink into Mirror Images F3 say when they’re about to HS into BP can be useful and you’ve saved all those skills as soon as you exit F5 whereas they have lost initiative. You can also use F3 into Mirror Images F1 if you’re quick – kind of like the condi equivalent of Blink into GS2 F1 power burst.

Condi thieves are actually really easy to ignore if you trait all the cleanse we have (RI, Menders, Mantra Heal, Cleansing Sigils, Pledge), although the meta build uses Well heal which also has cleanse, but doesn’t use Torch so loses one cleanse on prestige. They’re annoying sure, but don’t waste your burst on them as you’ll likely miss – better to focus someone else while they’re dodging around being useless.

I like torch currently because the burn is beautiful and the stealth is useful. Shield is ok but I don’t enjoy it.

In wvw yeah it sucks when a thief jumps you and you’re in a fight with someone else. Generally in 1v1 with thieves as a condi or hybrid build you shouldn’t lose most of the time – sure they will run but equally they shouldn’t be able to kill you easily. As glass power or hybrid (ie zerker, viper, assassin, sinister…) though, good luck because you’ll likely be one shot from stealth. Even on my hybrid build I take ridiculous amounts of damage from d/p thieves in wvw and can struggle to deal with them if caught with my pants down – which is when most thieves like to attack…

Edit 2: Anyway if you think it’s hard now, it was way harder when power mesmer was meta (pvp) and thieves had a significant advantage unless you succeeded in baiting them into eating your full burst. Currently while thieves have a ridiculous amount of evade, at least we have an easier time surviving, most of the time.

Oh, staff thieves – don’t eat their vault and again time shatters around the evade frames. Yes it’s much easier to type this than to do it in practice, but it is possible – again making them use up evades and initiative.

Axe does have cleave whereas Scepter is single target apart from Confusing Images.

Also with scepter bolts all being projectiles, I’m wondering if Evasive Mirror and a simple dodge will counter scepter ambush really hard.

glenndevis.8327:

Kadj.6725:

glenndevis.8327:

I just don’t like that with Infinite Horizon you don’t get much more since daze doesn’t stack.

Would have been nice to have a good power build with Mirage but looks like that’s not what Anet wants.

If you run Domination, 5 stacks of vulnerability (innate) for the Daze, and traited, daze is 1s Stun every 5s(7.5 with 0 endurance under vigor though, which you’ll probably always have).
You can go full interrupt within the same traitline:
-3 more vulnerability stacks on interrupt (innate)
-3 seconds of quickness
-Power Block for 1k damage+Weakness(+15s cooldown)

If you get all 8 stacks of vulnerability(even more if clones can also daze, should you take that trait) you’ll get 4% extra damage(total of 12%) thanks to the third minor trait that provides bonus damage for vulnerability.

Basically, this may be one of the best-synergizing skills I’ve ever seen but no surely there’s no hope for power mesmer, power mesmer is dead, rip.

Sorry I didn’t clarify myself properly. Without Infinite Horizon yeah, the daze is very useful. A clone generating, dazing gapcloser sounds fairly good & Domi line has great synergy with it.

The point I was trying to make is how the Infinite Horizon trait barely does anything for this ambush.

What’s the point of having sword clones do the same thing you do at the same time. Daze doesn’t stack and since Infinite Horizon makes your clones ambush at the same time it won’t trigger the traits multiple times. And I doubt it will be easy to set your clones up at a large distance from eachother to make them not hit the target at the same time.

Would be cool if the sword ambush did more damage, but the daze effect is only applied to you, or something like that.

One thing I can think of is maybe you can spawn 3 other clones (staff, scepter, axe or maybe even gs) and then swap to sword and dodge into ambush.
Since the sword ambush has the shortest cast time you can daze (or stun when traited) with sword ambush to combo your other clones ambush attacks. (for less damage since you won’t do any strong ambush yourself.)

You could sword ambush directly into F1, especially as illusions won’t have superspeed on shatter so this will help bring them directly on the target – kind of like an alternative version of axe 3 just without the teleport.

musu.9205:

Curunen.8729:

Yeah, Sceptre is the only one that stands out as being a serious and strong attack and not negligible fluff.

GS is just plain kitten.
Spear looks meh considering we already have feigned surge on a low cooldown for movement underwater.
Staff looks cool (sexy animation) but I’m not sure how strong the attack will be in practice.
Axe is… underwhelming, especially for the new weapon. Would be nice to see a unique melee animation or a bit more mobility.

Sword is… well it depends if the leap requires a target. If it doesn’t require a target meaning we can dodge leap freely anytime then it’s going to be an insane mobility skill and might make reverse phase retreat redundant. If it requires a target then it is weak. I like that it spawns a clone, I like the synergy with interrupt builds, but where is the damage?

I think they’re reluctant to give us any solid damage on weapons as long as we retain the ability to deal absurd amounts of instant damage with mind wrack. I really wish shatter skills had been replaced…

in other word : we need new shatter skills or entirely new f skills like necro elite next time for sustain power dmg

Yeah definitely.

I can only think they must be struggling with a way to make all our shatter traits work if changing our F1-F4 skills.

Yeah, Sceptre is the only one that stands out as being a serious and strong attack and not negligible fluff.

GS is just plain kitten.
Spear looks meh considering we already have feigned surge on a low cooldown for movement underwater.
Staff looks cool (sexy animation) but I’m not sure how strong the attack will be in practice.
Axe is… underwhelming, especially for the new weapon. Would be nice to see a unique melee animation or a bit more mobility.

Sword is… well it depends if the leap requires a target. If it doesn’t require a target meaning we can dodge leap freely anytime then it’s going to be an insane mobility skill and might make reverse phase retreat redundant. If it requires a target then it is weak. I like that it spawns a clone, I like the synergy with interrupt builds, but where is the damage?

I think they’re reluctant to give us any solid damage on weapons as long as we retain the ability to deal absurd amounts of instant damage with mind wrack. I really wish shatter skills had been replaced…

Eponet.4829:

Daishi.6027:

glenndevis.8327:

I had Infinite Light for ages. Love it.
Considering getting Shining Blade though but that’s not gnna be anytime soon.
Never been much of a fan of Bolt.

I’m in this camp. Bolt is a wallhanger with a rat tail tang! Shining blade and Infinite light are real swords.

The Shining Blade is about as ridiculous as Bolt. Infinite Light is nice though.

Agreed, the Shining Blade is a hideous model.

The only things I like about it are the compacting on stow (feels like Mass Effect style weapons and also means it doesn’t clip through the ground which is kind of important on asura) and the purple/yellow visual effects.

The footsteps look like disco floor lightning and the excessive structures around the hilt area turn me off.

I can fully appreciate why it is designed like that – representing the symbol of the Shining Blade, but skins like Infinite Light or Gold Fractal Sword are far more appealing as “normal” fancy weapons.

Kadj.6725:

glenndevis.8327:

I just don’t like that with Infinite Horizon you don’t get much more since daze doesn’t stack.

Would have been nice to have a good power build with Mirage but looks like that’s not what Anet wants.

If you run Domination, 5 stacks of vulnerability (innate) for the Daze, and traited, daze is 1s Stun every 5s(7.5 with 0 endurance under vigor though, which you’ll probably always have).
You can go full interrupt within the same traitline:
-3 more vulnerability stacks on interrupt (innate)
-3 seconds of quickness
-Power Block for 1k damage+Weakness(+15s cooldown)

If you get all 8 stacks of vulnerability(even more if clones can also daze, should you take that trait) you’ll get 4% extra damage(total of 12%) thanks to the third minor trait that provides bonus damage for vulnerability.

Basically, this may be one of the best-synergizing skills I’ve ever seen but no surely there’s no hope for power mesmer, power mesmer is dead, rip.

Yeah I’m interested to see what kind of interrupt builds can be made.

You could even go Dom/Chaos/Mirage, take CS, PB and CI, run Sw/P + Traited staff (or take another weapon if not wanting to use chaos storm for interrupt procs) and take Mantra of Distraction.

Although I imagine Dom/Duel/Mirage with Sw/P + Sc/Sw or something, both Sw and P traited and taking Supriority Complex, Power Block and Confounding Suggestions might be better as you won’t be susceptible to boom removal as with using CI – kind of important if Spellbreakers are going to be neutering all those boons.

msalakka.4653:

Dodge dodge dodge dodge while spreading conditions.

Sounds…fun?

More fun than no brain one shotting people from stealth with GS + F1. At least they have a chance to fight back. :p

(just messing with you. )

Yeah I hear you, definitely not going to be shatterspam like Chrono which is great.

However certain combos like Axe 3 into mind wrack potentially proccing both vigour on shatter and critical infusion vigour thereby also increasing condi damage by 150 makes me want to use F1 and F2 as often as possible, though not spamming but more carefully timed.

I’d like to try and maintain perma vigour, both for the condi damage increase and endurance regen, so having two sources of proccing it is nice, especially if things like Spellbreakers might easily remove it.

And yeah a lot is hinging on whether phantasms get some kind of ambush or even just a simple cast reset. I’m not keen on the Defender but I would like to try the Disenchanter more, though I’ve never got on with it in the past due to it only being good in fairly stationary fights and I prefer a more mobile playstyle.

Regarding utilities I’m really torn between Sand through Glass and Illusionary Ambush. More evade is great but the latter is an insane gap closer to complement axe 3, especially if it also detargets – and I would be happy to have two detarget skills plus two stealths (prestige and decoy) to mix things up and force enemies to play the retargeting minigame.

Personally, Gold Fractal Sword is the best looking sword skin in the game and the trail is cool.

Feel like adding to this because currently theorycrafting Mirage is more fun than playing Chrono! :p

On looking at all the skills further, I am thinking that while Sword has been my go to weapon for pretty much every Chrono build, I don’t think I will be using it with Mirage.

The main reason for using it is Blurred Frenzy – but given we’ll have plenty of access to evade, I don’t think BF is going to be as crucial a survival skill as it currently is. Sure it’s great to have more evades, especially when outnumbered, but looking at other weapons (Scepter and Axe) the damage output far outweighs the benefit of an extra 2s evade.

So overall I’m most likely to settle on Axe/Torch + Staff.

I would love to use Focus, I really would, but I’m not going to trait Inspiration and then ignore Restorative Illusions in order to trait it. The day Anet move Warden’s Feedback from that nonsensical position in Inspiration to somewhere more accessible will be a day of celebration as I really really miss using traited focus in wvw especially.

Anyway I do want to use staff because I think the ambush animation looks cool, although I’m not looking forward to long cooldowns on Chaos Storm especially if untraited.

Most likely utility setup:
Mirror, Blink, Sand Through Glass, Decoy, Jaunt

I might use False Oasis if it provides more evade through the mirage mirror and vigour, but given we can dodge while casting Mirror heal it’s going to be a reflect and evade if necessary anyway. I may use Ether Feast if Evasive Mirror provides sufficient reflects and shattering will be less frequent such that there should always be 3 illusions up to get maximum healing. Will have to wait and see.

Traits most likely:
Duelling – Desperate Decoy*, Evasive Mirror, Deceptive Evasion
Illusions – The Pledge, MtD, MoF
Mirage – Renewing Oasis, Mirrored Axes, Elusive Mind

*I hate this trait but the other two options are kitten for the choice of weapons… it’s a choice between bad or worse. :/

I want to take Elusive Mind so I don’t have to waste a utility slot on condi cleanse, especially because Blink is still unchallenged as the best utility in the context of this thread, Sand through Glass looks awesome (I managed to see the snippet of it being used in AuroraPeachy’s video, and the reverse dodge followed by walking into the mirage mirror will give even more evade plus reactivating ambush), and Decoy because I like having two stealths (the only other option is Signet of Midnight). There just isn’t space to take any of the other Deception utilities tbh. But the other option is to take Mantra of Resolve instead of Sand through Glass and then take Infinite Horizon instead of Elusive Mind. Will try both options and see where the condi clear feels most comfortable.

Gear – I will stick with Viper/Cele for this weekend’s test, although time will tell whether Griever or Viper is better, depending on playstyle. Will replace my antitoxin runes with traveler runes, although this means I won’t be able to play chrono afterwards in wvw (doesn’t matter as I doubt I’ll play mcuh between this weekend and release if I end up preferring Mirage to Chrono). At least runes of the Lynx are available in pvp. Not sure which amulet to use there though. Sage is kitten as I’d rather have precision for Sharper Images and vigour, so may try going glassy with Viper there too.

On a separate note, I really hope a 20% cooldown reduction to Deception skills is added to Self Deception.

I mean it’s not like Chrono where you’ve got alacrity coming out of every orifice such that Wells don’t need a cooldown reduction.

Edit: I suppose it’s only really the heal that looks a bit long. The utilities look fine on second glance and I guess the cooldowns are low enough that it isn’t necessary. I just hope False Oasis is a seriously good heal for being on a 30s cooldown.

glenndevis.8327:

I don’t get what Anet is thinking with some of these.

Kind of like the phantasm cast skills, of which only torch and focus stand out (one for burn burst, the other for innovative thinking – immobilise into iwarden, even if it isn’t as good in practice).

The rest are all meh, especially iWarlock (which it seems now GS ambush is a similar concept to that) and iDuelist. :/

Ah well, at least the Chaos Vortex animation looks cool – I always wanted to have the Revenant’s staff spin animation on mesmer.

Trident ambush sounds cool:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Wave_of_Panic
I’m assuming it’s going to be like an underwater Chaos Vortex that does 1/2s stun.

Edit: ah I see someone found spear as well – https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ambush_Assault Spear looks kitten though, even worse than GS.

Fay.2357:

Curunen.8729:

OriOri.8724:

Yea, those sword and GS ambush skills are extremely underwhelming. I get that they want to push us towards a condition build (though I don’t know why), but those skills are not nearly strong enough to be a DPS power spec. And sword’s ambush doesn’t make sense, is each clone going to summon yet another clone when it uses this skill? Will they replace themselves with the new clone? How is that going to work?

That’s a good question – will Sword clones essentially duplicate themselves if Infinite Horizon is traited? At least we’ll know in a couple of days.

Scepter clones don’t pop out new clones. Obviously the sword clones will just leap and daze, they don’t self-multiply unless it’s bugged.

Makes sense.

OriOri.8724:

Yea, those sword and GS ambush skills are extremely underwhelming. I get that they want to push us towards a condition build (though I don’t know why), but those skills are not nearly strong enough to be a DPS power spec. And sword’s ambush doesn’t make sense, is each clone going to summon yet another clone when it uses this skill? Will they replace themselves with the new clone? How is that going to work?

That’s a good question – will Sword clones essentially duplicate themselves if Infinite Horizon is traited? At least we’ll know in a couple of days.

musu.9205:

Curunen.8729:

That sounds a bit… lame? Kind of like the GS equivalent of the cast effect of iWarlock shooting out secondary winds of chaos. Was hoping for an overcharged laser beam of death.

I wonder if MH sword might have a ranged ambush? Thinking about practicalities of clones needing to run to their target for melee, and also given Axe has a ranged ambush with those phantasmal axes it would make sense for Sword’s ambush to be ranged. I just hope it’s good.

you guys might have skipped that 1.5 cast time . It is worse than gs aa at max range lol
that is really a joke

at this point , i wont expect anything better than scepter ambush . and tbh , i think if there is anything better , WP would show us in his stream already , given how lame his “mirage over tuned ” is

Well in that case it is truly kitten and boring.

Imagine if it was something that looked like the Holosmith’s elite: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Prime_Light_Beam

That would be awesome in magenta fired from a greatsword.

Kadj.6725:

“Lunge at your foe and strike them with your sword, briefly dazing them. Leave behind a clone at your original location. "

I mean, as things go? That’s a pretty nice addition.

And if we can use it without a target, we get more mobility. Notably – I don’t know how other leaps work, but if it’s affected by movement speed, we’ll also have super speed as an option during the skill’s activation.

So let’s say we go Dom/Duel. CS, DE, Self-Deception, Shards of Glass, Elusive Mind.
We dodge and the following things can happen:
1- Stun Break
2- Clone generation from DE.
3- Leap
4- Clone generation from Mirage Thrust
5- iLeap OR use a Deception with trait to get a third clone (Jaunt to add 400 range to leap?)
6- Shatter, illusions have a chance of becoming Mirage Mirrors
7- Touch Mirage Mirror, repeat starting from 2.

The question I have for the preview is whether the super speed trait applies to illusions. There might be an argument to be made for swapping Elusive Mind for Infinite Horizon if so.

I dunno dudes, between that and taking Jaunt’s ammo into account, we can do a lot of illusion generation and shattering on Power, and our basic generation rotation is also a potentially 1000-range gap closer(1800 with Blink, 2200 with Jaunt+Blink if possible – and even more if super speed affects leap) capable of stun. We can both bait out and interrupt a heal basically whenever we want from an extremely long range, and with good target selection, can bounce back before anyone even realizes what happened. (Guys. Power Block. Seriously!)

So… Not power viable, amirite?

Let’s test it first.

(If yall are mainly looking at PvE, most of that still applies as a pre-phantasm burst, or a last-target burst if axe 3 is on cooldown. Off-weapon will be axe for target management. Axe is still good to consider for pvp for that sweet 600 range shadowstep, but it’s hard to imagine it competing with staff if going sword main. Sword+Axe would have to be an extremely aggressive playstyle.)

Yeah the combo with dodge into sword ambush and Deceptive Evasion straight into F1 could be pretty nice.

On further thought regarding Elusive Mind vs Infinite Horizon, I’m not sure which is going to be more useful (pvp/small scale wvw). I mean we might already have enough condi cleanse through Jaunt+Mantra of Resolve and if we can dodge while stunned anyway (not breaking the stun but still evading) then maybe Elusive Mind isn’t so necessary?

I mean it still is amazing but depends if we are able to evade while cced without needing to break the stun.

Tseison.4659:

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Mirage_Thrust & https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Split_Surge

(I really wish the staff ambush was a bit better)

Woah, hold on – we get a free clone with Sword ambush? Nevermind daze and leap/600 range gap closer. :o That’s actually pretty nice.

I mean I was also hoping for guardian sword 3 ability, but kind of satisfied with what we’ve got. I’m not sure if I’ll use Axe now if Sword is still a solid mainhand for hybrid play.

That sounds a bit… lame? Kind of like the GS equivalent of the cast effect of iWarlock shooting out secondary winds of chaos. Was hoping for an overcharged laser beam of death.

I wonder if MH sword might have a ranged ambush? Thinking about practicalities of clones needing to run to their target for melee, and also given Axe has a ranged ambush with those phantasmal axes it would make sense for Sword’s ambush to be ranged. I just hope it’s good.

Would be fun to test actually.

Next years April fools?

Having taken a facefull of Unload as my most recent death, I cannot wait to be using Evasive Mirror with Mirage Cloak.

Yeah it might reveal me on the odd occasion, but kitten with max vigour uptime, endurance regen food, energy sigils and Evasive Mirror, I can’t wait to see how many projectile users kill themselves. xD

Might be especially fun if Deadeyes end up hunting people, but I’ll settle for returning a face full of Unload or Rapid Fire. The thought of the trolling potential gives me a great deal of satisfaction.

I’m no experienced pve player but I can say traited torch offers sick burn potential now, I love it.

My only problem with Focus is in order to trait the reflect you need Inspiration – and surely most Mirages will be running Illusions and Duelling regardless of game mode.

But on that note given that Pistol is pretty much a free trait in Duelling (given the other two adept traits are kitten poor), it could be another good option. Depends if/what ambush attack the Duelist gets (if phantasms get them).

Egg Shennn.6240:

Considering we have not played the new elite specs I find it difficult to complain about them, or praise them. The basic concept of them is all I can look at, and at least half seem cool enough to me. I kind of doubt every spec that comes out will make every single person say wow about each one, and expecting that is not very realistic.

This is a good point, especially on the subject of diversity and allowing players to find their niche and preference.

As more elite specs get added (assuming there will be at least 3-4 elite specs per class at some point, or maybe more, taking into account further expansions) it makes sense that not everyone is going to prefer newer specs to older ones and tbh I’d hope that they don’t.

For some players maybe even after 3 or more expansions, say Dragonhunter will remain their favourite guardian spec. That’s great as it means those specs will continue to be played, given usually playstyle and theme is as big a motivator, if not more, than pure efficiency in gameplay.

PoF specs could end up overtuned to encourage people to play them, although given that each expansion is being sold separately rather than all being bundled together, maybe PoF elites will be on par with HoT elites because one way or another you’ll need to pay for at least one of the expansions to get access to the elite(s) you want.

mXz.4512:

I’ll decide if I like any of ‘em once I get to try them out. Till then, I reserve my critiques on any of ’em. Tryin to stay optimistic that the classes I’m interested in going for are well made though.

It does leave a sour taste that pvp and wvw are the only two ways to test them out though. >_> Like many people I detest pvp, I don’t mind wvw, but roaming solo is usually a death sentence.

Unless you have the right gear to roam with the right build, it’s likely better to stick to the pvp npc training area.

Will probably learn more that way by experimenting against the various class npcs, svanir/chieftain and lord, and then dipping into some hotjoin games to try things out once feeling more comfortable with a spec.

Wvw you’ll just be free bags for gankers who just want to ruin your day, and on the flipside in medium/large scale zergs you won’t be able to test the elite specs properly anyway.

I will likely try roaming a bit with Mirage having planned out and already got gear/food/utility ready, but will not be until having done heavy experimentation in the pvp training area.

Tbh on that note given skills like Axe 3 and Illusionary Ambush exist, won’t people start moaning about (almost) instant burst from range with no tell?

I mean they kept things like iLeap in a kitten poor state to give opponents a chance to react to the gap closer. Now they’re giving them out to us like sweets.

I’m not complaining, on the contrary I’m really excited about these skills and the new gameplay. I’m just confused at the design decisions.

I’m super excited, for more than mesmer for once.

I mean of course, Mirage is going to be the coolest and most awesome by far but I’m excited to play Spellbreaker, Weaver (never thought I’d be interested in an ele elite spec but this looks too cool), Soulbeast and Holosmith, and even Renegade looks pretty cool! For the first time I actually want to make serious alts for some of these elite specs.

The only three I don’t really give a kitten about are Scourge (because I dislike all necro thematically), Deadeye (because I’d rather play an fps/tps) and Firebrand (because Guardian bores me).

Exciton.8942:

Curunen.8729:

I guess they really want us to use Elusive Mind, given that neither of those are stunbreaks when they ought to be.

But then Elusive Mind will be nerfed and we’ll be back to running Blink/Decoy and whatever to have stunbreaks. :/

Our meta build runs portal+signet of illusion+blink. So we only have 1 stun break anyway.

Movement skills like phase retreat and illusionary leap actually help when you are CC’ed even though they don’t stun break.

These 2 deception skills seem similar. You will probably be able to cast them when CC’ed.

If they can be cast while cc then that’s acceptable, although I would still like to see Mirage Advance be a stunbreak so there might be some variety choosing between it and blink, if not able to take both.

Edit – see above post, just realised Mirage Advance isn’t ground targeted like Shadowstep and so is not going to be a possible blink alternative. Oh well… :/

Fay.2357:

The general policy for stunbreaks is that there should be 1 per class of utility skills. This isn’t 100%, as seen in mirror images and decoy, but it’s pretty close. It holds true for the mirage skills as well, so 1 is a stunbreak.

I was hoping for a reason to be able to use new utilities rather than sticking with blink, likely decoy and maybe condi cleanse. I like that Sand through Glass (IIRC) is a cool Deception utility. Ok I can accept Illusionary Ambush is fine as it looks on paper, however Mirage Advance has got stunbreak written all over it and could be a skill that offers an alternative to Blink, if there isn’t enough slots to run both at the same time.

Edit – aaaah, I see, they are both targeted abilities. I thought Mirage Advance was ground targeted like Shadowstep. Well in that case I can accept it being as it is, given it isn’t an alternative to blink anyway.

I guess they really want us to use Elusive Mind, given that neither of those are stunbreaks when they ought to be.

But then Elusive Mind will be nerfed and we’ll be back to running Blink/Decoy and whatever to have stunbreaks. :/

pico.6402:

Curunen.8729:

LeCardCaptor.6730:

Last utility, from the same thread on reddit.

Tbh that’s a bit… boring? I mean it’s kind of copy paste of axe 3.

Edit: Ok I can see it being useful for other weapons, although the cooldown looks a bit high.

Yep but range is twice of the axe skill

Good point – precasting mirror blade, hitting this utility straight into mind wrack could be pretty good for power mesmer. I can see the complaints already. :p

I’m just struggling to think how it could take the place of any of the other amazing utility skills we have.

Lag maybe?

I mean I had a situation recently where a lich form necro was tossing out those projectiles of death and I could have sworn on two occasions they hit me with the cast animation not beginning until just after I had stealthed. So I attributed it either to lag or to no-scoping luck.