Guild Wars 2

Sigil of Cleansing would be nice.

I really hope it’s hybrid damage so there is the choice of what type of gear to use.

In the past builds used to “major” in a few different things – either Shatters (power and or condi once things like mtd became a thing), interrupt, phantasm, clone death, etc…

Now everything shatters (pvp).

All you have to clarify now when describing a build is what type of damage are you focusing on – power, condi or hybrid. Aside from that you will be spamming shatters on pretty much every build.

So most damage (power and condition), healing, condi clear, boon strip, blind, boons, alacrity, etc… (depending on traitlines) will be on shatters. Weapons are used to supplement damage and survival, support and control between appropriately timed use of shatters.

Note, this doesn’t include pve where it’s a case of repetitive application of supportive boons/effects through other skills.

tobascodagama.2961:

I guess the real question is: Does this change anybody’s builds, or does it just make the existing ones (that don’t rely on permastealth) a little nicer to play?

Well the phantasm change is likely to change how I would play when casting from stealth.

For example previously I may decoy or prestige and kite while casting iMage or iWarlock. Now that’s going to be a bad idea for iMage because not only will it break stealth but also the aoe burn will not do anything unless you’re near to your target.

Other than that I’m not changing anything, so tbh back to other games and waiting for Mirage.

Carighan.6758:

Fay.2357:

The only things consistent about the balance team is that they have no vision for balance and that they will always break any promise they make. Anyone who thought it would actually be chrono-specific was simply naiive.

Remember, Torment is “The Necromancer Unique Condition”.

Haha, yep.

One other problem with the iMage AoE burn on cast -> in use you usually cast iMage at range either in preparation of another play or while kiting and waiting for other cooldowns to come back.

I don’t usually cast iMage while standing right next to an enemy.

Perhaps if the effect was instead to inflict AoE burning centered around the targeted enemy (instant hit effect after the cast animation for iMage has played) there would be less restriction with having to be in close range to cast iMage for the additional effect.

Focus could have really used it.

Even something like Reflect projectiles while summoning the iWarden.

Morfedel.4165:

What I found interesting is the auto attacks now built in phantasms. Which means that now, if you are casting phantasms while cloaked like in pvp or wvw, which I do, you are now going to break your cloak by casting them.

EDIT: Unless of course the attack comes from the phantasm instead of you? Working, can’t test it yet.

Oh… I hope not otherwise it’s going to be a pain to play around.

phokus.8934:

This doesn’t mean much but a leak had Guardian and Mesmer being assigned the axe for the new elite spec.

I did find that weird given there are other weapons available to fewer classes than axe. Hope Guardian gets something else and we get the Axe.

Tbh I don’t give a kitten about alacrity remaining our “unique feature” – it’s not like they changed alacrity to a boon and gave it to every class.

Have no idea whether it will even give Ventari what it needs to be useful, but the act of giving alacrity away is not an issue.

Oh yeah those are some sexy buffs.

Especially loving iWarlock, iMage, Chaos Armour and iCounter/iRiposte.

Quite pleased with that for my favourite weapon set of Sw/T + Staff.

I absolutely love the idea of mainhand Axe.

And also if it is a melee condi/hybrid weapon – finally a good alternative to Sword. Kind of getting bored with Sword as our only melee weapon.

Finally it gives me a reason to finish crafting Astralaria which is the sexiest legendary weapon in the game aside from HOPE (I already have the generic HoT legendary gifts but waiting on Axe confirmation before finishing the precursor).

So altogether I say bring it on – both Mirage and Axe!

If you’re planning to roam wvw then Viper with Cele trinkets works nicely and is very flexible with choice of weapons.

I barely play right now (might be more active if there’s a big balance patch), but in the past year I have enjoyed the following in wvw, open world pve, and even fractals (with some adjustments).

The gear is flexible enough to be adapted for casual instanced pve, while also being optimised for wvw.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhQQNAsfWl0nhy0YnawRNwtGLvGV9wesLLaAkTP35PEEHHA-TFyHABJqGwcKBB4JFw7+Dzr6zSK/U+UKMu+mAAIAzn8Jf5j8lv8lvhO0hO0hO0uuQH6QH6QLFQfrBA-w

Infusions are all wvw resilient (not displayed in the calculator).

In pve I switch weapons to Scepter/Focus, sometimes traiting Focus if reflects are needed, and Sword/Shield, also traiting Scepter, Illusionary Inspiration, Persistence of Memory and switching Chrono traits for Alacrity on wells and Improved Alacrity, Swapping Mirror Images for Well of Recall and Mass Invis for either Gravity Well or Time Warp. Sometimes Taking Feedback if needed. Only need to swap out 5 trinkets and 5 pieces of armour for the required agony resistant pieces, allowing reuse of weapons – so doesn’t require an entire duplicate set of gear from wvw, saving inventory space and gold. Also don’t waste this food in pve – better to use pure damage food and save the Buns for wvw. Oh, I also swap some of the cele trinkets for more Viper and more damage.

In wvw the main draw of this build is the good hybrid damage for roaming -> enemies can’t just pop resistance and ignore you (though still do kite them out so as not to waste condi application). Also the very good passive -condi duration thanks to the food, runes and Time Marches On. Chill/Cripple and Immobilise barely stick, and I have not yet been beaten in a 1v1 vs a pure condi mesmer while playing this, even running into some good ones. Quite a lot of stalemates because of lack of big burst damage, but if they stay and fight you should win providing you manage the active condi removal carefully for the longer duration application (mantra heal, shatters, cleansing sigils, torch skills). In fact I fear good power mesmers much more than condi mesmers while playing this because they can burst through your lower defensive stats. Must play very well around them, and don’t take greatsword if you see a power mesmer coming because they use it better than you do – quick swap out for something else.

WvW stat bonuses and any amount of might make up for the slightly weaker damage.

Now you will need to stock up on a lot of Sweet Bean Buns before they go up in price. I stockpiled about 3750 of them during Lunar New Year -> enough to last till next year (probably for the next 2 or 3 years given how often I play right now…), because supply is constantly decreasing and you want to buy them under 20s, not 70s or worse. Without Sweet Bean Buns, the synergies of the build kind of fall apart. The passive -condi duration makes up for the weakness of having lower armour and vitality (though still over 2400 armour and 20k health) because your time to kill on enemies is longer (no big burst). Without it you are playing a slightly glassier build with not enough burst damage to kill fast enough for you to stay alive. It is essential that you can negate cc conditions, otherwise you may as well switch to full condi with more sustain or power shatter with faster kill time.

Biggest burst is F5 Mirror Images shatter spam combo – but prioritise F1/F2 due to power damage.

Also running with an ally who shares might is amazing (ie rev or ele).

Sometimes I have played with Greatsword and Sword/Torch which really confuses enemies because they expect power shatter. The might stacks from mirror blade create a non negligable F1 burst, and condis continue to tick for decent damage in any case. Though I think Staff is a better choice for the survivability of the build because I have been killed by enemy power mesmers while using Greatsword as your burst is much less than theirs and they can clear conditions almost as well as you. Staff enables you to out sustain them, though you have to accept some enemies being able to run away. You could take any weapon combo you want tbh.

Also thanks to the food/runes/TMO, you can feel free to experiment with other traitlines than Inspiration (Illusions is a must for Condi application) and Chrono if you want to take SoI or Focus for swiftness. You can take Domination for even more damage thanks to things like Rending Shatter (which is actually useful in a hybrid build – stacking vuln and might from any source really helps your damage) and maybe even Imagined Burden with Greatsword, though I’ve not tried this and it might suck. Duelling of course for Sharper Images and tons of shatter fodder from DE. All in all you can swap things around as you like, providing you always take Illusions and some form of movement speed bonus.

Windwalker.7421:

I voted YES, but I also agree that hiding enemy team comp would probably better solve the problem they’re attempting to solve. (KISS principle!)

I do think you should make up your mind about what profession to play ahead of time, but I agree that the matchmaking system, as we know it at least, has a quite terrible track record of creating decently competitive comp match-ups.

Going with class locking basically requires a no stacking rule, or you’re only left off worse then it is now. So yes, hiding enemy comp is the much simpler and more effective solution.

This is a great alternative.

I voted yes, but this solution of hiding enemy team composition is better.

Oh… a patch?

Doubt it’s going to be anything major to address pigeonholed gameplay, but there’s always hope.

Right now?

Stale.

A nice big deep skills balance patch would reinvigorate the game for me. Otherwise combat has become a little boring. I am tired of Chrono shatterspam, and the overwhelming superiority of certain traitlines. Ideally a big rejig of traits and skills providing equality between traitlines as well as core/elite specs would encourage me to play the game more.

Not bad, I almost fell for it.

Ah, good – let the price of sweet bean bun’s continue to fall.

Three things keep me stuck to Chrono – run speed, alacrity and illusion generation. Otherwise I’d happily choose another trait line.

I’m hazarding a guess that the next elite spec may have a different way of improving movement speed – perhaps giving swiftness on blur (if the Mirage leak turns out to be true) and perhaps removing movement impairing conditions, similar to how DD’s dash trait works.

In any case I’m sure they’ll make the next elite spec more appealing than Chrono to sell the next expansion and part of this is including some movement speed buff as part of the traitline.

The chrono shatter spam has become so boring I can’t bring myself to play other than living story… can’t wait for the next expansion.

MadVisions.4529:

all i see is a Henry-bait

This.

Well played OP, well played.

If pve had enemies like the Heart of the Mists class npcs with hitpoints similar to that of enemy players in wvw, and which have a downstate you can stomp, I would find pve combat fun to play.

I think those nightmare enemies during the Scarlet story which had a downstate were fun to fight against.

Otherwise I find repetitive rotations against bullet sponges with millions of hp ridiculously boring and painful for the mind. NPC AI is not intelligent or creative – it just repeats the same thing over and over again till you memorise the pattern. For a game that is almost an action rpg or even fighting game I feel that kind of enemy does not provide the type of challenge that brings the most satisfaction.

Tbh I’d rather not fight other players, I’d rather play pve but the combat is too boring so I am encouraged to play pvp/wvw for the kind of satisfaction I crave. Note, this is NOT the satisfaction of beating other players – instead it is the satisfaction in the flow of combat, where enemies are unpredictable, hitpoints are low and can be burst, there is the fun of the stomping animation and so on…

Pvp or wvw?

In pvp the mobility of phase retreat is too useful to pass up. In wvw sure scepter/torch with sword/shield is very strong defensively.

I would say don’t expect to tank with it, but depending on your build/playstyle some toughness can allow you to take a few punches and for example save you from being one shot.

But if a full glass with 25 bloodlust etc backstabs you or similar then you’re still going to take a lot of damage.

I’ve experimented with varying levels of toughness on mesmer and found it depends on your TTK other enemies as to how many small hits you might want to shrug off. If you like playing yolo power shatter then sure just go for as much damage for the burst.

For me because of stat restrictions I’ve built for 2400 armour in a hybrid power/condi build (moderate time to kill, no big burst) which allows me a mistake or two and gives me a moment to react if ganked. I still have the mindset to play as if glass but I don’t have to be paranoid with every step I take around the map…

That is kind of funny

Ben K.6238:

If we’re going to get a Mirage, I’d like to see something based around subversion. Remove the damage from shatters in exchange for corruptions, boon steal, soft CC (chill, slow), use F5 for swapping with a random clone.

Then rather than new utility type, let’s see better use of an old utility type: phantasms. They were meant to be the replacements for hexes, and with the amount of boon stacking going on, it’s about time they became those replacements.

For example, a phantasm that causes a target to apply knockdown instead whenever they try to cast stability. A phantasm that causes endurance, initiative, energy, adrenaline to degenerate. Another one that causes single-target damage to the target to be AoE instead, or mirrors damage dealt to the casting mesmer until it runs out of HP.

The whole point of this would be to limit the amount of direct damage a Mirage can do, in exchange for the ability to disrupt enemy defence and offense by reversing the effects of abilities.

All of that sounds good.

BF should not be touched at all. If anything it could still do with a damage buff or reduction in number of hits (with more damage per hit) to help with retal.

Everything is in excess post HoT, but Chrono is on par with all the other overperforming elite specs of nearly every class.

So many clamours for nerfing in here which are either way off the mark, shortsighted or unnecessary/irrelevant. Fortunately Ross has it covered; I don’t have to add more than that.

As hybrid condi/power using viper/cele I do use precision for non-negligable crit damage.

But if I was playing pure condi I’d only bother with precision if using Sharper Images. If you’re not using Duelling then there’s no point.

Windwalker.7421:

Splitting hairs IMO, but in the end I think you both actually agree that the simple fact of this game having multiple trait lines implies that various reasonable combinations should lead to a fairly even result. Now that last part is certainly highly subjective, but if you’re not trying to split hairs you know full and well what it means.

Build diversity was supposed to be the key reason behind the traitline overhaul, and all we’ve seen since especially HoT has been the exact opposite of build diversity.

Agreed.

Open world pve, hotjoin pvp, low level fractals and certain dungeons and even pug zerg vs zerg wvw could all be seen as “play whatever you like”.

But higher level instanced and competitive content naturally forces min/maxing in order to be successful – this includes spvp, GvG or solo/small group roaming (yes it does), high tier fractals, certain dungeons and raids.

However even in that high end content it would be nice to see a reasonable amount of build diversity for each class that allows players to modify each class into any of the three Pillar’s of this game’s combat – Damage, Control and Support – or combination of these with each class offering it’s own “flavour” associated with that aspect.

Yes these are not strict “roles” as such because roles differ according to content. Decap is not valid in raids as there are no cap points and enhancing dps through quickness sharing is not applicable to pvp.

But even so, each of these high end game modes, be it instanced pve (raids/fractals) or spvp should offer at least a few builds per class focusing on different aspects of the game’s combat (or mixtures of those). Nevermind the different ways of dealing damage – condition and direct. For example ideally for mesmer in pvp we could have a burst damage builds, a sustained damage bruiser, a support build, a pure control build (for teamfights) and so on…
Otherwise it gets pretty boring with repetitive shatter spam or GS2/F1 burst which is equally as brainless.

So to summarise it’s not necessary to have infinite build options all evenly balanced for high end content, however the current situation of one, maybe two builds per class for high end content is not doing justice to the potential and advertised depth of the combat mechanics available in this game.

Tbh Mind Wrack and Cry of Frustration could be merged into a single shatter which deals the relevant damage according to your gear/stat setup.

So say it has:
- base direct damage of mind wrack
- base one stack of confusion and one stack of torment

If you gear full zerker the condi damage will be negligable.
If you gear full condi you won’t hit big direct bursts.
If you gear hybrid you it would still be a functional shatter.

It would also help reduce the shatter spam syndrome we are currently in.

Traits and damage could be tweaked accordingly to support more timed burst and less spam.

katniss.6735:

There’s no carrying in gold league.

lol, nice I got a laugh out of that.

It still takes time to level, unlock masteries, unlock gated sigils/runes/insignias/inscriptions/recipes/items, gear up to full ascended (even multiple sets for different content. Nevermind changing your mind on stats half a dozen times and having to re-gear (again costing more time and gold).

Having said that once you are fully geared, there are several end game choices – wvw, fractals, dungeons, raids, open world pve, or even spvp where you don’t even need gear just spend time learning the game.

But part of the beauty of this game is freedom to do what you like whenever you like – for example I sometimes like to aimlessly wonder through pve maps for mindless “zone out”, if I’ve had a particularly long day and want to not think about anything.

The main reason I’m for speeding up the attack chain is to make better use of boon strip on the third hit.

Even if it was just down to around 2 seconds.

Regarding damage, I’m not fussed about that aspect.

flog.3485:

Curunen.8729:

FJSAMA.2867:

Increase sword aa chain speed by ~30% like they did with thief sword in January 26th (increasing attack points / decreasing aftercast delays).
Thief, war, rev swords aa chain takes ~1.8s to complete. Mesmer sword aa takes 2.5s.
At least we could use boon strip more often/faster ending this chain.. Maybe it could payoff to be in melee range with a light armor class smashing 1…

For me this would be far more insteresting than increasing damage… Cause raw damage is there, but like someone said, we dont have moddifiers to support it (and mods dont affect all our skills like phantasms)

I like the idea of speeding up the AA chain – it would incentivise getting to that third hit for boon strip.

Would also be nice to see some short duration extra durability on cast for the ileap clone rather than it melting instantly in for example traps.

Just chiming in but I wanted to ask: why not spec for some quickness if you want to boost the AA chain ?

But that’s only for niche traits/skills. Sword AA shouldn’t be reliant on quickness as a quality of life fix – rather quickness should only enhance what already works well in the first place. And currently sword AA is a little slower than it ought to be in the first place given how it is intended to be used.

FJSAMA.2867:

Increase sword aa chain speed by ~30% like they did with thief sword in January 26th (increasing attack points / decreasing aftercast delays).
Thief, war, rev swords aa chain takes ~1.8s to complete. Mesmer sword aa takes 2.5s.
At least we could use boon strip more often/faster ending this chain.. Maybe it could payoff to be in melee range with a light armor class smashing 1…

For me this would be far more insteresting than increasing damage… Cause raw damage is there, but like someone said, we dont have moddifiers to support it (and mods dont affect all our skills like phantasms)

I like the idea of speeding up the AA chain – it would incentivise getting to that third hit for boon strip.

Would also be nice to see some short duration extra durability on cast for the ileap clone rather than it melting instantly in for example traps.

Oh? I didn’t even realise they had a unique visual effect.

I just deleted one in my inventory yesterday because it was wasting space…

azureai.9764:

Yeah, I agree with a lot of the posters here. The idea here has an elegant symmetry. And that’s nice in design.

But the problem is that the idea would add clutter into the system that ultimately would make the game worse. This is a LOT of information for your players to have to retain. A strong editing pen – that’s also needed for good design.

Nice thoughts, though, OP.

[edit, apparently a ball-point tool is not allowed to be paired with the word “is”]

Yeah I agree with this.

Nice intention for symmetry and there are some good ideas in there regarding conditions and boons. I can also appreciate the amount of thought and time you must have put into this, but overall it looks much too complicated and I think would not be beneficial for the game.

Black Iris Flowers.3418:

Curunen.8729:

Black Iris Flowers.3418:

OriOri.8724:

I hope the next one is either a focus or a mace. I happen to like the look of the Minstrel myself, but I can understand why many wouldn’t like the minstrel or the Moot. I think that ANet adding non silly legendaries for focus and mace would make a lot of people happy.

We got Eureka with the Ember Bay release. I do hope for a focus- rumor has it Elementalist next elite is a sword mainhand. No idea the play style of it but since I can’t have Tempest warhorn with it I prefer focus off hand to dagger off hand. The next sword legendary would also be welcome

I imagine they could save any legendaries relating to new elite spec weapons till nearer the next expansion, or even acquirable in the new maps of the next expansion?

So if the rumour is accurate then I’d imagine Sword or Greatsword, Torch, Dagger, Rifle could be towards the end of LWS3 or even drop with the next expansion and Focus, Warhorn, Hammer could be sooner in the next few episodes of Season 3. Scepter I’m not sure because I’m believing it could be a new elite spec weapon, perhaps Revenant (this is an unfoudned guess, they could get greatsword for all I know…).

I’m personally hoping that Revenants get Short bow so they can have a mid range weapon. Short bow and Rifle only have two classes that can use, I would hope they would expand their usage. Of course we already have Chuka and Champawat out though so that’s moot point here. Who was possibly getting Torch, do you recall?

Necro apparently.

I mean I’m totally guessing at that weapon release order – we’ll just have to see.

Black Iris Flowers.3418:

OriOri.8724:

I hope the next one is either a focus or a mace. I happen to like the look of the Minstrel myself, but I can understand why many wouldn’t like the minstrel or the Moot. I think that ANet adding non silly legendaries for focus and mace would make a lot of people happy.

We got Eureka with the Ember Bay release. I do hope for a focus- rumor has it Elementalist next elite is a sword mainhand. No idea the play style of it but since I can’t have Tempest warhorn with it I prefer focus off hand to dagger off hand. The next sword legendary would also be welcome

I imagine they could save any legendaries relating to new elite spec weapons till nearer the next expansion, or even acquirable in the new maps of the next expansion?

So if the rumour is accurate then I’d imagine Sword or Greatsword, Torch, Dagger, Rifle could be towards the end of LWS3 or even drop with the next expansion and Focus, Warhorn, Hammer could be sooner in the next few episodes of Season 3. Scepter I’m not sure because I’m believing it could be a new elite spec weapon, perhaps Revenant (this is an unfoudned guess, they could get greatsword for all I know…).

Randulf.7614:

A focus with a smaller version of the Eye of Janthir inside

This is a good shout.

I wish Snowball Mayhem was available all year round.

Crowley.8761:

Curunen.8729:

Equally I could say a mesmer who is entirely dependent on CS to succeed is a bad mesmer.

How do you think we managed before CS existed?

I also would not care if both moa and portal were replaced/deleted. I would adapt.

I remember exactly how we managed before CS. Back then there were no other elite specs either Things change ya’know

Arguably I’d say the game was more fun back then. Elite specs really took the diversity out of the game and if you play against half-decent people you know exactly what they’ll be doing. Not to say some speccs weren’t better even then, of course they were. But the old system allowed for a lot more mixmatch with how the trees worked, adding condi, precision, power etc depending on number of points. Ah well…

Things have changed but that doesn’t mean if Anet randomly decide to one day replace CS with something else they won’t try to maintain parity between classes.

It is a difficult skill to balance and I would not object to changes if necessary. I use CS because it is there, but I won’t suddenly quit Mesmer if they deleted it. I believe no matter what they do players will still find something of Mesmer to moan about anyway…

Personally I believe Portal should be an elite skill and core Mesmer should get its own F5.

Crowley.8761:

Curunen.8729:

I personally would not give a kitten if CS was replaced.

But of course people will find something else to moan about.

A mesmer who doesn’t care about CS is a bad mesmer

Equally I could say a mesmer who is entirely dependent on CS to succeed is a bad mesmer.

How do you think we managed before CS existed?

I also would not care if both moa and portal were replaced/deleted. I would adapt.

I personally would not give a kitten if CS was replaced.

But of course people will find something else to moan about.

Tiefsee.3647:

Curunen.8729:

All I know is that thematically I’d like more Jedi mind trick and less simple illusion and skill spam.

We all do – the difficult part is coming up with a usefull skill that would work ingame.

The best solution, we suggest Anet some great skills, and they just pick what they want.

If just one concrete suggestin makes it into the game, all main mesmers would be happy

Many things have already been suggested in the past but I’ll just put a few which I am guessing may already be part of the new elite spec or could synergise well with it (assuming it is mainhand axe and Mirage).

- Dodge modification with associated traits (like DareDevil grandmaster traits). If the dodges are changed to blurs there could be 3 unique effects to choose from. The underlying mechanic would allow casting while dodging with the downside being no ability to use dodge as a positional tool (ie no jump dodging for position). One of the traits could allow for a short range dash while blurring, another could perform blur on all your active illusions (which one is the real mesmer) and so on… This would also help make the mesmer blend in more with their illusions with smart play as there would be no obvious dodging.

- traits that sustain illusion life rather than summoning new illusions. There are many ways to achieve this which other people here have mentioned so I’ll leave this one.

- modification of Shatters to remove huge burst damage from F1 in favour of more sustained damage from weapons and illusions. Shatters could provide utility or control effects such as Pulls, Knockdowns and so on and damage can be shifted on to weapon skills or even onto illusions.

- ability to swap position with active illusions.

I’ll add more as they come to mind.

So after bouncing back and forth between several builds and amulets I’ve found myself most comfortable on Sage plus Scavenging (and double Energy/Doom sigils) on standard Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono.

Unlike Viper you can take a punch, which is kind of necessary when you can’t 100-0 an enemy as you can with power builds.

It’s not the most exciting gameplay but anyway…

Solstace.2514:

Try raiding or high level fractals if you want to see elitist and condescending attitudes. It’s not the system, it’s the people.

This.

T4 fractals can be equally as toxic as anything bad I’ve ever seen in pvp. I hear raids are also as bad but I never want to set foot in a raid.

Sure there are condescending arrogant kittens in pvp who think they’re God’s gift to the game and yes it is mentally tiring to have to deal with that kind of behaviour. I block without a second thought.

Agreed.

I actually don’t like Shield and am only using Chrono as a band aid for core mesmer – movement speed, illusion generation and alacrity.

I am very much looking forward to our next elite spec.

Windwalker.7421:

I would agree that Clone/Illusion Death traits that cause damage, especially AE damage, would be an unwise idea to go back to.

However, I do think that we should have the option to trait for an effect that would discourage our enemy from blindly destroying our precious resource! This just seems logical to me. We depend on illusions, yet they are so easily destroyed, so at least we should gain something from having our enemy blindly destroy them.

- Gain a boon (maybe different boons for each Phantasm and one for Clones)
- Apply a single non-damaging Condition to attacker (For example Blind makes sense as you’re bashing an illusion, but Weakness or Slow would also work.)

So you wouldn’t bring back a passive Mesmer killing using Clone/Illusion on-death effects, but would allow the option to gain Boons/defense from them in a way that would encourage enemies to not mindlessly kill Mesmer illusions.

The way it currently is it is always beneficial for our enemies to kill a Mesmer’s Illusions. I don’t think this fits the “Mesmer as a trickster” philosophy. It’s too simple minded a counter. Illusion Death traits that provide boons or defense would go a long way in making people use their heads a little more when fighting Mesmers.

Yeah I agree with this.

There should be some benefit to us or punishment to enemies for killing illusions because it allows for more mind games and makes players think about senseless AoE spam.

However as you said it should be either non damaging debuffs on enemies or boons/positive effects on us/allies. Maybe even healing us when illusions are killed.

I hope Mirage brings some of this to the table and allows for more thoughtful play rather than senseless shatterspam on our part or senseless AoE spam by enemies.

What would be nice is to have a similar trait in Chaos that pops out an iDisenchanter like Mental Defence pops out an iDefender in Inspiration.

That would accomplish several things – reduce dependency on Inspiration for Condi cleanse, provide another means of illusion generation than having to rely on Duelling or Inspiration, provide an alternate source of boon strip other than Shattered Concentration, make Chaos worth taking as a trait line…

Ideally this trait should be grandmaster level – perhaps simply replacing PU? Or move either Bountiful Disillusionment or Chaotic Interruption down (rearrange and perhaps remove one of the lower tier traits) and put this iDisenchanter trait alongside PU so they are mutually exclusive.

I’m also going to guess at after the Lunar New Year festival.