(edited by Embolism.8106)
Regarding Carrion and Rabid. It is true that with Glamour builds it doesn’t make too much of a difference which one you go for, but bear in mind that Rabid is much better than Carrion in conventional Condition builds; so going for Rabid will allow you to switch between a Glamour build and a conventional Condition build with ease.
As for Runes of the Undead versus Runes of the Nightmare, I’d personally stick with Undead. It gives you significantly more condition damage in exchange for 10% condition duration: for Confusion this means 0.3 to 0.5s less duration, I don’t really feel that makes much of a difference.
I believe it is two each.
Only sad thing is autoattack that is quite bad :|
It is a spammable boon-stripper that is also performed by all your Clones. In PvP that is invaluable, no one can keep a boon up for long while you’re stabbing them in their face.
Rabid is the best set for any Mesmer condition build. The alternative is Carrion, which is at most on par with Rabid in builds that are unable to put points in Dueling (a.k.a. Glamour). Condition builds that take advantage of Rabid gear however have the highest DPS and arguably the best survivability.
Half the buffs you get from Winds of Chaos are wasted on condition builds (Fury). Unless you’re running bleed-on-crit sigils or something, I guess.
Your CritChance transfers over to your Illusions. Getting Fury on yourself means giving all your Clones +20% CritChance, allowing them to proc Sharper Images more often.
Maintaining permanent Fury and multiple stacks of Might on yourself is a major part of Staff DPS.
Go try Necromancer staff auto, get some real perspective. Mesmer staff auto is way faster, homing and it bounces.
Comparing Mesmer Staff #1 and Necromancer Staff #1 is meaningless because Necromancer Staff #1 is very underpowered, so anything compared to it would seem “powerful” and in no need of a buff.
Casting speed no, projectile speed maybe. Most of all though I just want the Clone bugs fixed (5s instead of 7s Bleeding, no effect from +Duration) so Staff DPS can reach its full potential.
They could make it so it gives you one second Reflection on cast and another second on finish.
Rolling out Clones during stealth, especially if you do it out of your opponent’s view, can confuse them. There’s already a lot of good tips here, stealth and teleport abilities are key for Clone deception.
Made a few more changes to the Inspiration line… Temporal Enchanter merged with Glamour Mastery as suggested, Persisting Images changed, and a new trait.
Regarding the thought about Diversion not having a trait without Imbued Diversion, Precise Wrack can always be dumped for a Diversion trait, seeing as Mind Wrack already has (a much more useful) one in Mental Torment.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
therefore you people saying if somehow ‘stacking’ stealth is affected is misinformed. no stealth skills ‘stack’ with each other except for shadow refuge.
In a future patch Thieves are going to get the reveal debuff when stealth ends, and they are debating whether it should apply to Mesmers as well. My thoughts is that it is pointless as it would only affect Veil double run-through: nerfing a already rather weak skill, as it were; and would only make sense if they plan to buff Mesmer stealth.
if what you say is true, then it will affect a whole lot more than just veil. it means you can’t chains stealths together at all. there will always be a full 3 seconds of someone unstealthed after they stealth.
this is not the case atm, if you time yourself right, you can chain stealth such that you’re only unstealthed between stealth skills for a split second.
I say it is pointless because for Mesmers, the primary power of stealth is target-dropping: we benefit from it more than Thieves do due to Illusions and we don’t have the Thief’s ability to chain stealth for any significant period of time.
Overall, if you chain stealth as a Mesmer you lose effectiveness, for us stealth is far better used sparingly. The only exception is if you’re running away from a zerg or something, but that’s pretty much an OOC situation.
Therefore practically, the only thing it affects is double run-through Veil.
therefore you people saying if somehow ‘stacking’ stealth is affected is misinformed. no stealth skills ‘stack’ with each other except for shadow refuge.
In a future patch Thieves are going to get the reveal debuff when stealth ends, and they are debating whether it should apply to Mesmers as well. My thoughts is that it is pointless as it would only affect Veil double run-through: nerfing a already rather weak skill, as it were; and would only make sense if they plan to buff Mesmer stealth.
I’d totally trade not having the second part of the spell if it could negate not being hit by the first projectile.
I wouldn’t. You could use Mimic to absorb your own bouncing projectiles to trigger the effect.
I hope they don’t make the “reveal on all stealth drops” thing apply to Mesmers, as it would make it impossible to run through Veil twice: not that Veil is worth using solo, but still.
The Mesmer doesn’t have the ability to maintain near-permanent stealth anyway, so why apply that to the Mesmer? Unless they plan to reduce the CD on Veil and MI… I which case I can get behind that.
The problem is it is two traits (that must take up the Master and the Grandmaster slot) for a really quite mediocre effect. If you also take Confusing Enchantments then Glamours would be quite potent in WvW, but that’s another 20 points in Domination.
IMO, Confusing Enchantments and Dazzling Glamours need to be merged into a single trait in Illusions: inflict Blind at target location and when foes enter or exit their areas.
Rune of Water can activate on cast or on finishing channel, IIRC. With a full healing build in sPvP it heals around 1.8k HP every 10 seconds or something. Definitely worth considering… although I generally prefer to go for a more offensive rune set as a healing build already has loads of healing from MoRec (12k+ HP every 15 seconds) and Regeneration.
@ EasymodeX:
DE is not just used for IP, it is essential for Condition Mesmers too and would boost any build that Shatters often, IP or no. You seem to have the idea that I am “fixated” with IP Shatter builds, yet most of my posts on this forum make it rather clear that I almost exclusively run condition builds when I’m not experimenting.
Anyways, you cannot deny that most Mesmers play either Shatter (overwhelmingly) or condition, and both of these builds rely heavily on DE, and therefore most Mesmers do consider DE essential. If DE was made less potent as well as more accessible, perhaps we would see a breakup of this trend and encourage people to experiment with more traits. That is the idea behind the suggestion.
(SI was popular because iDuelist was OP back in Beta and everyone loved the GS, Warden’s Feedback is a niche and situational trait: powerful, but hardly the staple of most builds. I’d definitely say IP is too powerful, but it’s hard to “nerf” it without changing it completely.)
@ ChaosStar:
Well, what about this GM trait then? Stole the name “Imbued Shattering” as I couldn’t think of anything else to describe it, heh.
(Updated the OP.)
(Also updated Protected Mantras, giving it a 10s CD and making it possible to cancel-abuse the effect if you desire… since it’s now on a CD anyway.)
(edited by Embolism.8106)
1. You don’t go 30 Insp for the GM traits, you go there to get multiple Adept/Master traits.
Except you said “for GM traits”… you already have Glamour Mastery of course, what other Inspiration trait are you looking to take that is more useful? Warden’s Feedback? It’s good but somewhat situational, and not very useful in siege situations.
I might add however that I already use 20 Inspiration and Warden’s Feedback in my Glamour builds.
2. I generally disagree with Glamours being a ‘subset’ of condition builds. You may as well call IP shatter builds a subset of “power builds” — right along with phantasm army, Mantra 30/30, and every other build under the sun. But, it’s not something worth debating to any significant extent.
I consider them a subset because outside of throwing down Glamours in group situations, they play similarly to condition builds; using, well, conditions to deal damage. Except they don’t have the crucial tools conventional condition Mesmers have to do well in small fights.
3. 20/0/0/30/20 is a valid alternative glamour-centric build. Hence finishing “Insp OR Illu”, e.g. whichever the player doesn’t have.
Without 30 Illusions you cannot get Blinding Befuddlement and Dazzling Glamours. If I had to choose I’d rather sacrifice Confusing Enchantments than Dazzling Glamours given CE is more reliant on people being stupid (which, granted, is probably quite reliable in WvW…), plus I can drop 20 points there.
But really, one of the main selling points of Glamour builds is AoE Confusion, you’d be taking both traits… so 20/0/0/0/30 is basically the base if you want to maximise your group effectiveness.
Note that a 2x shatters is plenty good for a 30/30 Mantra build, since it will crit for >10k with glass gear.
Well, if you want to suboptimise the burst of a build that already sacrifices a lot for more burst, by settling for just “plenty good”… I dunno, unless you really like Utility Mantras you’d probably get more burst (and more reliably, and often) with a conventional Shatter.
It is equally useful to DE in general, and moreso for various situations where fast Diversions / Distortions are not in high demand.
You’d have to explain this to me. The ratio of MoRec and MoD’s CD to channel time means Mantra Mastery actually reduces their CDs by ~13/14%, MoP is unaffected, and MoC is really a rather weak Mantra. MoRes is great but, you know, it’s a condition cleanser. How is this better than rapid Clone generation and not caring (relatively) if your opponent AoE down Illusions?
After all this discussion though, don’t you think Deceptive Evasion is indeed too powerful a trait? Even if you don’t consider it “essential”, you cannot deny it almost always warrants very serious consideration. That’s why I’m suggesting it to be toned down and made more accessible, to reduce reliance (preferably with another option in Inspiration) and to reduce the locking of trait points.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Glamour builds are a subset of condition builds, which are themselves already relatively uncommon compared to Shatter builds. Glamour Confusion itself is really quite lacking if it weren’t for it being AoE (and enemies being stupid): in a duel Glamour Mesmers are much weaker than conventional condition Mesmers.
20 points in Dueling (and using Rabid gear) is the best way to maximise your fighting strength. Chaotic Dampening is good, but when it comes down to it it simply shaves a few seconds off defensive CDs; compared to greatly enhanced Clone generation and DPS and permanent Vigour? I don’t really think it’s competition.
As for Inspiration and Illusion GM traits… the two Inspiration GM are, again, nice, but I don’t think they compare to the benefits of 20 Dueling. Illusions… eh, Glamour builds already put 30 in Illusions, what are you on about…?
Regarding Mantra builds, seriously; if you’re going for DPS Mantra you primary goal is burst. If you don’t take DE what else are you going to take? And it’s not just about getting enough Clones out, it’s about getting those Clones out fast. You should know how important that is, especially if someone is AoEing down Clones.
A Mantra DPS build with Deceptive Evasion is more effective than one without. What other trait would you take that would make you just as effective? Mantra Mastery? Given the low CD of Mantras and the fact that it doesn’t take into account the channel time, I don’t think it’s very important.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
It’s only optimal for IP shatter and clone spam/on-death builds.
It’s not optimal for Ret Tank, Mantra support, Mantra dps 30/30, glamour spam builds, other random hybrid Inspiration heavy builds, etc.
Your perception of “most” is skewed towards fotm IP shatter builds.
I’m thinking of the two primary builds: Shatter and Condition. All other builds are, let’s face it, comparatively rare and generally aren’t as well-rounded.
Mantra builds are very niche and rare, although I’d like to point out that every Mantra build I’ve seen and used (that isn’t a healer) use Deceptive Evasion instead of Mantra Mastery. Mantras already have short CDs and being able to churn out Clones for a superpowered Mind Wrack is far more useful.
The only reason Glamour builds don’t take DE is because they’re forced to sink 20 points into Domination for Confusing Enchantments (which I’d like to address by combining it into Dazzling Glamours), which really hurts their 1vs1 effectiveness (already reduced by the lack of IE and possibly Chaotic Dampening).
Retaliation Tank is probably the only valid build that won’t benefit greatly from DE, although that’s not to say it won’t benefit at all: it still, after all, relies on Mind Wrack for what burst damage it can get out, not to mention CoF for Retaliation.
Deceptive Evasion is not an essential trait. It’s just very good for shatter/clone spam builds, which is the most common current build.
Back when everyone and their brother ran phantasm army, Empowered Illusions and Sharper Images were critical picks (not to mention 15/15 Chaos/Insp).
Not a big deal.
When taking Deceptive Evasion is optimal in most cases, that is pretty much an essential trait. That’s why I want to suggest weakening it so it is not as abusable while moving it down a tier so builds that need extra Clone generation (most builds) have 10 extra points to play with, encouraging more diverse builds.
More Clone generation traits (properly balanced of course) might not go astray either. Maybe Temporal Enchanter could be combined into Glamour Mastery and a new trait for Clone generation be placed in Inspiration.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
The problem is the Mesmer does need Clone generation outside of weapon and utility skills, otherwise it simply isn’t enough between Shatters and Clones dying to other reasons. Moving it to GM would be exactly the wrong way to go about it, further restricting build diversity. The idea is so that we don’t have to invest as many points for improved Clone generation while at the same time bringing it down to a level that is less abusable for chain Shattering.
Watching your stream. Also, what did you think about Pain Inverter? Worth it… not worth it?
Regarding Protected Mantras:
If you use MoP as an autoattack your DPS would be quite low. I doubt you would out DPS your opponent even if you have 75% uptime on Protection. If you really believe it is OP then perhaps it could grant just Stability, or perhaps the entire effect could be on a10s CD? What do you think?
A one time Aegis just doesn’t seem worth it at all, your opponent doesn’t even need to watch out for it most of the time as chances are you’d be hit by an autoattack or something before they hit you with an interrupt.
Regarding Flash Revelation:
If people feel it is too OP despite having to sacrifice Illusionary Persona to get it, then perhaps instead of being instant it would cause your Illusions to Shatter into glass shards that fly quickly at the enemy. Would make it far more reliable without it being completely unforeseeable.
Nerfing Illusionary Persona could be done, but it would be difficult to do it without changing it altogether. Your suggestion basically just prevents IP from affecting Diversion and gives us another useless trait that no one would take.
Regarding other stuff:
I was thinking that Deceptive Evasion might be worth bringing down to Adept level and given say a 10s CD, the reasoning being that it is pretty much an essential trait for most Mesmers. I feel that the Mesmer has too many essential traits that really locks up our trait points and restricts diversity. What do people think?
(edited by Embolism.8106)
I know people would be opposed to Flash Revelation on principle, but consider how it compares to IP. The most devastating Mesmer burst combines Blurred Frenzy, Mirror Images and point-blank Shatters. Since it’s point-blank, your Shatters are pretty much instant anyway; so it’s not very useful. IP on the other hand would greatly increase your Shatter damage.
In other words, Flash Revelation doesn’t increase the maximum burst damage a Mesmer can do, in fact taking it would decrease your burst.
What I’m trying to say is that Flash Revelation, by itself, may seem powerful; but you must compare it to IP, as you can only have one or the other. Do you want more powerful Shatters, or do you want more reliable Shatters? By taking Flash Revelation, you are essentially sacrificing damage from Mind Wrack and CoF and losing on-demand Distortion and increased Distortion uptime.
Your suggested change to Imbued Diversion is nice, but would you take it instead of IP? I wouldn’t, even just looking at Diversion I think I’d prefer an on-demand PbAoE interrupt rather than an unreliable AoE Daze, not to mention all the other benefits IP brings.
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yes shattering give more dmg however i feel that build more condicion based and there is 30s base cd on CoF is kinda long this traits helps a lot in add dmg for cond. builds … bdw its aoe condicions :P
Mind Wrack inflicts 3x Confusion, and both Mind Wrack and CoF are AoE too…
Even using Mind Wrack is more efficient and far more reliable than replacing Clones for death effects.
It makes sense strategicly to have building safe from conditions, so that condition builds are good against players and power builds good against buildings for wvw
otherwise we might all end up in condition builds.
Implying power builds are not good against players?
But really, this is not a Mesmer-specific issue and Anet has acknowledged this is a problem… a few months ago. So far no fix in sight.
Using the Sceptre with Clone death traits only works if your opponents are stupid and stand in one place. A good opponent would not target your Clones or would kill them from a distance, and they’d be constantly moving so unless you’re using Sword Clones the death effect is unlikely to hit them when you replace a Clone.
I really don’t feel 3 seconds of Confusion on Clone death is worth losing 33% of your Staff DPS. Any decent opponent would go right for you, the only way Clones would die then is to stray fire or if you replace them; and even if they do die your opponent has to be near them for them to suffer the effect.
Plus you can Shatter your Clones for 3x to 6x Confusion that is affected by +CondDuration, which is likely a more efficient and reliable use of your Clones than replacing them to trigger the death effect.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
@Embolism, Debilitating Dissipation causes Poison as well, sometimes.
I’m pretty sure it only inflicts Vulnerability, 3xBleeding or 3xWeakness: those are the only conditions that come up in my tests, unless there was a stealth change I was not aware of.
That’s easily done. Also added the suggestion of making Blurred Inscription GM, if buffed; and Furious Interruption Master instead. Interrupt traits in general still have a long way to go before anyone would take them though.
Clone replacement count as death, yes. I should point out however that the Sceptre’s Clone generation is actually quite slow compared to Deceptive Evasion, and Sword Clones would be better if you’re hoping to abuse Clone death traits as they’d try to stay in melee range.
I wouldn’t base your build around replacing Clones to trigger death effects though, they aren’t actually that good… Crippling Dissipation is great but won’t help with DPS, Debilitating Dissipation only has a chance of inflicting Bleeding with the rest of time inflicting a short Weakness/Vulnerability, and Confusing Combatants lasts only 3 seconds and cannot be lengthened in any way.
Ah yes, regarding Protected Mantras: I personally don’t see why it would be overpowered, since you can barely do anything else while channelling a Mantra; and the way I suggested it you cannot really cancel-cast to abuse its effects.
Yes it could be helpful in situations where you might not want/need to do anything else, like when doing jumping puzzles or running away from enemies, but seriously: does the former really matter? And for the latter, well, I wouldn’t mind getting a little help running away from zergs… given our non-combat mobility it would be nice.
In any case it’s a niche trait in a niche build, I do think it needs to do something pretty good for it to be worth taking up. Aegis only blocks a single hit, and while that could make a difference I personally wouldn’t waste a trait slot for it… given that when channelling, I’d either be untouchable (cloaked, Distorted, out of LoS) or likely to take multiple hits.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
The idea behind Flash Revelation is that it is an alternative to Illusionary Persona: you must choose between greatly increasing the potency of your Shatters or having your Shatters be reliable. For many builds that do melee burst Shatters Flash Revelation probably adds nothing and they’re far better off with Illusionary Persona.
It’s essentially ranged vs melee, if you will.
Certain Signets certainly need buffs (e.g. Signet of Midnight), but this isn’t about skills. I’m counting on Signets mostly staying as they are for this buff to Blurred Inscriptions: SoD stuns the target for 2s so Blurred Inscriptions adds little in a duel, the two SoIs have very specific effects that must be used at the right time or are useless, and SoM… is actually probably the best Signet to use with this trait, which is just as well because it’s the worst Signet.
All in all though, if it is a problem maybe Blurred Inscriptions could become Grandmaster and Furious Interruption (lol trait) dropped down to Master.
I had thought about integrating Temporal Enchanter and Glamour Mastery, and I can see Anet doing that once they get around to polishing the Mesmer’s traits (if they ever get around to it).
Restorative Illusions is actually not too bad, it can amount to quite a bit of healing for frequent Shatterers. Shattered Conditions is likewise a great trait. The problem with Inspiration is that almost all Mesmer builds sink points into Illusions and Dueling, leaving little for other lines.
IMO this is also a problem that needs addressing, these “compulsory” traits, but that would require rather drastic changes.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Except that there’s still a good number of asura who use skritt as lab rats and see them as fodder to exterminate.
So no, not really.
It’s just that it’s not “the norm” to hate on skritt so much.
Using them as lab rats is one thing, asura in general are not that concerned about the safety of even other asura and it isn’t a stretch to imagine they’d feel even less concerned about “lesser” races.
I don’t remember seeing any asura wanting to kill skritt just because, the skritt are almost always the ones that start it: even if the retribution for whatever the skritt did may be rather extreme, but that seems to apply to all “kill thieves/annoying people” events in GW2.
In fact there are asura who are actively helping the skritt, such as in the Anthill.
Yes, if you use the Sceptre as a secondary weapon, i.e. you don’t plan to autoattack much with it, the Sceptre is perfectly acceptable. But it’s still a weapon that needs to decide whether it wants to be direct damage or condition damage… #1 and #2 say one thing and #3 and its trait say another.
At least they have acknowledged the problem, as opposed to the glaring problems (e.g. +duration having no effect on Illusions, underwater skills 2x speed) that were never even acknowledged.
Aye, I agree! The Asura are sooo peaceful that they once tried to genocide the Skritt.
Genocide
That part was redacted by the writers. They agreed it was too extreme.
IMO the Block effect (lots of damage plus Clone) is much better than the unreliable Daze.
When traited the iDuelist is a 100% projectile finisher (an unfixed bug? Yet it has been known for months and no word from Anet still). Combine with Sharper Images and Ethereal Fields and you got a mean condition damage Phantasm, far far better than the wimpy iMage. 4-6x Bleeding and 8x Confusion for ~5s? Yes please.
iWarden’s damage is very much PvE only, in PvP or WvW people won’t stand in its AoE. iSwordsman does more burst damage than iDuelist, and in PvP if your opponent is good their survivability won’t be much different. Riposte deals a lot of direct damage when triggered, while Magic Bullet and Temporal Curtain basically don’t do any damage.
The OH Sword is basically for burst damage, and it can deal quite a lot of it between iSwordsman and Riposte.
Inactive means not casting anything. So whenever you hit an enemy that isn’t casting a skill at that moment, they take 5% extra direct damage.
If you find Clones confusing (and the reason for your finding them “unfun” to play against), here’s a tip: go to options and untick “Show All NPC Names”.
Classic know-it-all guy thinking that the problem with mesmers is not knowing who the real one is.
Protip: It’s more complex than that.
Quoting the above poster:
“So the fun it brings the player using it does not out weigh the “anti-fun” it brings to everyone else having to fight it.”Exactly. I don’t see how it is rewarding for the mesmer player to mash the buttons, summoning an endless stream of clones and phantasms, while his opponent is overwhelmed trying to evade their attacks / killing the phantasms WHILE the mesmer is having the easiest time waiting for the imminent shatter / blurred frenzy faceroll.
Clones in general do not deal significant damage (unless you are facing a condition build), and Phantasms cannot be spammed: destroy a Phantasm promptly and it is on CD for a while. If Clones do not confuse you then you should not have trouble focusing your efforts on the real Mesmer, in which case they wouldn’t be having the easiest of times, they would be obliged to use their active defenses to avoid you. Keep the pressure up, make them use up their active defenses.
If you find Clones confusing (and the reason for your finding them “unfun” to play against), here’s a tip: go to options and untick “Show All NPC Names”.
The asura are not at all peaceful, although they aren’t warlike either. They don’t strive to “improve their lives”, they strive to improve their ego: everything they do is so that everyone else would bow down and acknowledge their superiority. And there is no indication that their technology and research are environmentally friendly, in fact the most environmentally devastating technologies are asuran.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Despite my bad-mouthing of the Sceptre on multiple occasions, I still use it with my condition builds. The main reason however is because I stick almost exclusively to the Staff, so what I use in the secondary set is not very important.
If you compare it directly with our other weapons, I’d consider it sub-par.
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Chaotic Revival
Gain 5 seconds of Chaos Armor when you rally.
Grant 5 seconds of Chaos Armour to yourself and nearby allies when you rally.
No one takes this trait. If it also rewarded your allies for reviving you however then maybe the more support-minded Mesmer would be inclined to take it.
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Retaliatory Demise
Gain 5 seconds of retaliation when you are downed.
Gain 8 seconds of Retaliation when you are Downed. Downed damage is increased by 25%.
Anet seems to love these traits, and they do have some use, especially in PvE… well, let’s make it slightly better. I still don’t think anyone would take these traits though.
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Mirror of Anguish
When disabled (by stun, daze, knockback, knockdown, sink, float, fear, or launch), you mirror the disable back to the source. This effect can only trigger once every 90 seconds.
When disabled, you mirror the disable back to the source. This effect can only trigger once every 60 seconds.
A nice trait, but a 90 second cooldown is too long given that you’re still affected by the disable yourself. A shorter cooldown would make it more useable.
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Chaotic Interruption
Apply a random condition when you interrupt a foe.
Inflict a random condition and apply a random boon to yourself when you interrupt a foe.
Essentially, combine the effects of Chaotic and Bountiful Interruption. As with all interrupt traits, they need to be significantly better than they are now for them to be worth considering.
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Bountiful Interruption
REMOVE. Apply a random boon to yourself when you interrupt a foe.
Integrate this trait with Chaotic Interruption, because seriously; interrupt traits are weak and why is this a Grandmaster trait?
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Bountiful Transmutation
NEW Gransmaster. Whenever you cleanse conditions, they are converted into boons instead.
A replacement Grandmaster trait that is hopefully both worth it and in keeping with the theme of the Chaos line.
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Glamour Mastery
Glamour skills recharge 20% faster.
Glamour skills recharge 20% faster and last 25% longer.
Temporal Enchanter merged into Glamour Mastery, like the Guardian’s Master of Consecrations. Temporal Enchanter really isn’t worth taking by itself.
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Persisting Images
Phantasms have 20% more health.
When you use a Shatter skill, your newest Phantasm is not destroyed when it Shatters. This effect can only trigger once every 30 seconds.
Instead of a boring health increase that often doesn’t make any difference due to the inherent fragility of Phantasms, why not something that will let Phantasms work better with the Shatter mechanic?
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Compounding Celerity
Move faster for each active illusion.
Move 10% faster for each active Illusion.
The original effect was 5% faster, which was quite lacklustre. Up to 30% increased speed would be more appreciable and might actually help in catching or running away from enemies.
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Temporal Enchanter
REMOVE. Glamour skills last longer.
Merged into Glamour Mastery, like the Guardian’s Master of Consecrations.
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Mender’s Protection
NEW MASTER. Conjure a Phantasmal Defender when you use a Healing skill. This effect can only trigger once every 30 seconds.
The main idea is to give the Mesmer another Illusion-conjuring trait. Conjuring an Illusion on Heal is not as spammable as Deceptive Evasion (unless using MoRec), so a stronger Illusion: in keeping with Inspiration’s theme of Phantasms and support: seems in order.
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Precise Wrack
10% higher critical-hit chance with Mind Wrack.
15% higher critical hit chance with Mind Wrack.
10% seemed a bit low to me, but people still use this trait so I don’t know. Still think it needs to be more appreciable.
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Dazzling Glamours
Glamour skills blind foes at target location.
Glamour skills Blind foes at target location and when foes enter or exit their areas.
Confusing Enchantments merged into Dazzling Glamours, assuming you take Blinding Befuddlement. I think Glamour builds could use some consolidation of their traits.
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Imbued Diversion
REMOVE. Diversion hits multiple targets.
This trait is a joke compared to Illusionary Persona. Remove it and replace it with something that might actually see use.
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Imbued Shattering
NEW Grandmaster. When you use a Shatter skill, your Illusions gain Swiftness and Distortion.
Makes ranged Shatters considerably more reliable. Synergy with Masterful Reflection? Maybe.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Near the end of Beta, we were promised that the Mesmer’s traits will undergo polish and overhaul. By the time Beta ended, only one change: the addition of Mirror of Anguish: was implemented.
Since then we have had a few changes to Mesmer traits, but nothing that can be called an “overhaul”. In general, our traits are still quite unpolished, and many are simply not worth using.
Below are my suggestions on how the Mesmer’s traits could be polished. It may appear almost all of my suggestions are “buffs”: note however that I generally do not suggest changes for popular traits, as my goal is to increase build diversity, not to empower the established builds.
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Halting Strike
Deal damage when interrupting a foe.
Inflict 1 stack of Confusion for 5 seconds when interrupting a foe.
The damage is negligible. You could increase the damage, but I think changing it to inflict Confusion instead would be more fitting for the Mesmer.
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Empowered Illusions
Illusions inflict 15% more damage.
Grant 5 stacks of Might to Illusions.
There is technically nothing wrong with this trait, except it’s relic from when Clones did damage; and now that they don’t it’s basically a copy of Phantasmal Strength. This change would differentiate it from Phantasmal Strength and also let it affect condition damage.
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Confusing Enchantments
REMOVE. Glamour skills cause confusion for 5 seconds to foes who enter or exit their areas.
Integrate this trait into Dazzling Glamours, so Glamour Mesmers don’t have to sink 20 points into Domination and forgo other important traits.
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Disorientation
NEW MASTER. Daze you inflict lasts 1 second longer.
This actually is what Dazzling used to be. I don’t really feel there was a good reason for its removal, Daze doesn’t stack anyway.
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Cleansing Conflagration
SWAP with Rending Shatter. Torch skills remove conditions. Reduces cooldowns of torch skills by 20%.
While not a bad trait, it is too far up the Domination line for most Torch users to take. Rending Shatter is chosen to swap with it as anyone who takes it would take Mental Torment as a priority, so it’s likely to occupy the Master slot anyway.
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Confounding Suggestions
50% chance to cause a 1-second stun whenever you daze a target.
Cause a 1 second Stun whenever you Daze a target.
For a Grandmaster trait, this deserves to work 100% of the time. I really don’t think it would be overpowered, it’s basically adding an Immobilise to Daze.
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Protected Mantras
Increases armor while casting mantras.
Gain 3 seconds of Protection and Stability when you channel a Mantra. This effect can only trigger once every 10 seconds.
The original effect was very minor, in other words useless. Stronger damage mitigation as well as preventing interrupts would make this trait far more appealing.
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Blurred Inscriptions
Activating a signet grants you 1 second of distortion.
SWAP with Furious Interruption. Activating a Signet grants you 2 seconds of Distortion.
Mesmer Signets generally have situational active effects that aren’t useful at all if not used at the right time, so I doubt a full Signet build with this trait would be particularly effective. With that in mind, this trait deserves to be better.
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Furious Interruption
Gain 4 seconds of fury when you interrupt a foe.
SWAP with Blurred Inscriptions. Gain Fury, Swiftness and 5 stacks of Might for 5 seconds when you interrupt a foe.
Why is this a Grandmaster trait? Seriously. Interrupt traits are already niche, then you give them a mediocre effect and call it Grandmaster? It really needs to be more meaningful.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
The Focus is a decent condition weapon in PvE, where mobs stand still and let your iWarden whirl (bleed) them to death. In PvP however iWarden is pretty much utility only as no one would be stupid enough to stand near it (for long).