As it turns out, Phantasmal Disenchanter already strips two boons/cleanse two conditions. I should’ve checked it more thoroughly, although in my defense it is difficult to assess it when dummies don’t hit back; and sparring NPCs are difficult to assess (you want to avoid death in the process) and are disappointingly stingy with boons/conditions.
I would like Glamours more if they actually lasted for as long as their tooltips say. Currently all Glamours last for a significantly shorter duration than what is shown on their tooltips. Also, Veil is crap.
The only good Manipulation skill we have is Blink, the other three are useless (IoL), stupid (Mimic) and buggy (Arcane Thievery).
Mantras in general take too long to charge, taking more than one without Empowered Mantras (which encourages you to not use your Mantras) and you’ll have your hands full juggling them. Plus they aren’t even good unless you trait them heavily.
Our Signets are mostly very niche: each works decently with a specific build, but rarely would you want use them together. SoD is the only generally useful Signet we have and only for its active effect.
Illusion utilities are generally quite good, although Phantasmal Disenchanter needs a buff.
Disenchanter is actually amazing.
It strips 2 boons/2 conditions per hit, and hits like 5 people with a 5 second base cooldown.
Didn’t know it already strips two boons/conditions. That was one of my suggestions for polishing the Mesmer. The cast time could use a little toning down though, when I need condition removal I need it now; a 1.5 second delay can make a lot of difference.
While I would love Winds of Chaos to not kitten 33% of the time (Vulnerability does nothing for condition builds), removing it would make the Staff far too powerful. 3 Staff Clones and yourself with Illusionary Elasticity would utterly saturate a target with Burning and Bleeding: they wouldn’t have a chance no matter how much condition removal they bring.
The only thing I want from Winds of Chaos is for its many bugs to be fixed. Firstly, Staff Clones only inflict 5s Bleeding instead of 7s (making the bursty Burning better than the DoT Bleeding), and the WoC they use (also the WoC from Illusionary Elasticity) is an old version that travels along the shape of the ground and is utterly useless if your opponent is on higher or even lower ground.
The reason Daze was removed from Mind Stab is because it made the GS essential for lockdown builds.
I don’t see the problem with that though: Staff is essential for condition builds and the Sceptre is designed to be essential for Shatter builds (even though it fails miserably at that and no Shatter build actually needs the Sceptre).
Instead of saying PvP Confusion damage is halved, you should say that PvE Confusion damage is doubled; since PvE Confusion used to be the same as PvP Confusion.
In other words, the split was a “buff”, not a “nerf”.
It certainly would make quite a difference: for one of my favourite builds it means I get to pick up two Grandmaster traits.
You want boon stripping, go with MH Sword; you and your Clones will ensure your opponent never keeps a boon for long.
This is WRONG. Clones only use the first attack in the chain, meaning all they are doing is applying vulnerability. Boon stripping is attack #3.
I agree GS 3 I pretty much garbage. I only ever use it on dense clusters of mobs in PvE, or in WvW against a really packed zerg.
Look carefully at how Sword Clones attack.
Really, people should test things for themselves before making random claims in CAPS.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
GS3 is a bad skill. Sword1 however is amazing.
You want boon stripping, go with MH Sword; you and your Clones will ensure your opponent never keeps a boon for long.
Which Mind Stab are you referring to?
Chaos Armour actually has a reasonable CD compared to many other skills that grant a significant duration of Protection. Compare it with Spectral Armour or Armour of Earth. It’s secondary effect, granting boons and inflicting conditions on hit, is also very potent.
In general you want to use Chaos Armour when you really need it, i.e. you’re under attack and don’t have an out ready. In these situations it can mitigate a lot of damage from Protection, Blind and Regeneration; and can even deal a nice bit of damage from Confusion (at least if you’re a condition Mesmer).
(edited by Embolism.8106)
It is not a targeting issue (although it certainly is more hassle to use than most other condition removals), it’s the fact that it frequently doesn’t steal all boons and transfer all conditions: in fact I don’t think I’ve ever seen it work properly unless I have just one condition.
Quite frequently AT will send off the Poison, 10x Vulnerability and Cripple, but not the 15 stacks of Bleed that’s about to kill me.
If you’re expecting them to work like Signets, where the passive effect is lost when the Shatter is used, then no. We don’t need yet another reason to avoid using Shatters. If the passive effect is not lost upon Shattering then what’s the point of tying them to Shatters at all?
I agree with making Clones completely visually identical to the Mesmer (they aren’t really Clones otherwise), and I would be partial to increasing their attack rate to normal (although that could cause balance issues with Staff Clones, Sword Clones and Sharper Images); but I really don’t think we need all the other stuff. IMO Clone deception should be partly active (you should try to break LoS, act like a Clone, etc.), you shouldn’t expect game mechanics to do all the work for you.
I would like Glamours more if they actually lasted for as long as their tooltips say. Currently all Glamours last for a significantly shorter duration than what is shown on their tooltips. Also, Veil is crap.
The only good Manipulation skill we have is Blink, the other three are useless (IoL), stupid (Mimic) and buggy (Arcane Thievery).
Mantras in general take too long to charge, taking more than one without Empowered Mantras (which encourages you to not use your Mantras) and you’ll have your hands full juggling them. Plus they aren’t even good unless you trait them heavily.
Our Signets are mostly very niche: each works decently with a specific build, but rarely would you want use them together. SoD is the only generally useful Signet we have and only for its active effect.
Illusion utilities are generally quite good, although Phantasmal Disenchanter needs a buff.
Yes. 15 characters.
While I do think our traits could benefit from a drastic rehaul, Anet is unlikely to want to consider this; so I tried to suggest minor tweaks to our traits that would make them less of a mess instead of major changes.
There are level 80 Rabid rings and accessories for sale in Orr, but they are only blues and greens and you can’t get a Rabid amulet or gems to slot in to them.
Need some love for Rabid equipment, it is after all the only condition damage distribution that doesn’t waste stats.
I’ve made this suggestion in this suggestion forums here:
Please make the Order-specific equipment (Vigil, Order of Whispers, Durmand Priory equipment) be available to everyone regardless of their chosen Order after the Pact is formed.
Please?
I do hope Anet will make Order equipment available to all. Even though I like another Order’s equipment I still wouldn’t choose that Order as story (or what little there is of it) and role playing are more important to me, but it would be even better if I don’t have to choose. XD
I wish they would make all Order equipment available once the Pact is formed. It makes sense.
If you rely on Confusion as your main source of damage, you will fail. The Mesmer cannot spam Confusion and the condition itself is unreliable and situational.
If you plan to use Confusion it should always be a secondary damage source. Your primary damage source is Bleeding, from Winds of Chaos and Sharper Images.
Given that a Confusion build would be focused on condition damage, which does not benefit from % damage boosts; it’s not as good as it seems: either your Confusion damage is too weak to bother people or you won’t do enough direct damage to make WP significant.
Most of the Mesmer’s utilities are for group play or PvP, and are indeed rather lackluster when used for soloing. For this reason, I usually use racial utilities or all Mantras for an Empowered Mantras build (i.e. I charge Mantras for the 4% damage boost and never touch them unless I absolutely have to).
The reason I want Empowered Illusions removed is because it is basically the same thing as Phantasmal Strength, and two traits that do exactly the same thing (in the same profession) is a sign of lack of polish. My grounds for its removal has nothing to do with balance (so the comment of what game mode I play is irrelevant).
In case you don’t see what the problem is, say we have 10 traits that all boost Phantasm damage by 10%. Sure you can take all 10 traits and get a 100% Phantasm damage boost (balance issues aside), but it’s obvious that the trait system of this profession has some serious issues.
If you didn’t play the Beta you would not know the history behind Empowered Illusions: Clones used to do far more damage than they do now, so Empowered Illusions was different to Phantasmal Strength then as it also boosted Clone damage. Then they reduced Clone damage to nothing, so EI essentially became a Phantasm damage booster just like PS.
(Of course, Phantasm builds still took both traits back then: in fact they’d probably take EI over PS if they had to choose, as EI used to boost Illusion damage by 30% while PS boosted Phantasm damage by 25%; but the point is you didn’t always want both traits: EI is sought by Clone damage builds, which had no use for PS.)
As for removing Phantasmal Strength instead, that is a valid option: the reason I choose to remove Empowered Illusions is because the Inspiration line seems more geared for Phantasms/Support, but you could make a case of Domination fitting better as it is about Damage/Control.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
The most I have got out of Mind Wrack is 10k damage, using an Empowered Mantras build.
Really, Swordsman and Duelist are the two most damaging Phantasms that also have the lowest CDs. The CD increase was long overdue IMO. As for Warlock, the CD increase is relatively minor; and is also somewhat justified given its high potential damage.
While I don’t think these changes actually do anything for Mesmer PvP balance, I don’t feel they are totally unjustified either.
Mind Wrack is a significant source of burst damage if you build around it, otherwise it is not worth using unless 1. you only have crappy Clones out or 2. you’re sure the Mind Wrack will kill the target.
Cry of Frustration deals a significant amount of Confusion damage for condition damage builds and can be very effective in PvP. For non-condition damage builds however it is relatively useless.
Diversion is an unreliable interrupt (Illusions need a variable amount of time to run up to the target) that wastes Illusions (Daze doesn’t stack) and has a relatively long CD. You need either IP or ID for this Shatter to work well, the former makes it a reliable interrupt/CC that doesn’t require Illusions (though you need to be in close range) and the latter makes it AoE.
Distortion is a life saver when used at the right time, and is also excellent for securing a stomp in PvP. This is the only Shatter that is always useful regardless of your build.
This is neither necessary nor desirable. PvE/PvP splits should only be done if no other way of balancing is possible, and even then the differences should be minimised. In this case there is no balance issue to begin with (at least where the Staff is concerned, which is primarily condition damage/boon support and NOT direct damage), and even if there were it could likely be balanced without any form of splitting at all given it is mostly a number issue.
The Scepter needs to be more of a condition weapon, like its weapons trait suggests. They removed Confusion from its autoattack very early on and it has been undecided whether it wants to be Power-based or Malice-based ever since.
The cooldown of Swordsman and Duelist have always been 15. Never have they been 9 or 12. Those kinds of CD are only achievable by traits, which themselves have been changed a lot since Beta.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Mesmers upset by these nerfs are overreacting IMO. I play a Mesmer build that’s almost completely unaffected by these nerfs, and the current CD for the three nerfed Phantasms is no worse than the CD for all Phantasms back in Beta: yet Phantasm builds did perfectly fine back then too.
I’d also like to point out that during Beta, the Mesmer Illusionist’s Celerity only reduced CD by 10% (it was 20% to begin with, then they nerfed it, and now they reverted the nerf) and weapon traits didn’t reduce CD at all; which would put the CD of the nerfed Phantasms then about similar to it is now post-nerf. Phantasm build were very viable then. Why should the Mesmer be “completely ruined” now?
I don’t understand what the big fuss is about. Then again I primarily use a Clone-based Staff build, so the Phantasm CD nerfs don’t trouble me.
The CD changes to Chaos Armour and Storm are, I think, primarily so the CD order of the Staff is preserved. Anet likes to order weapon skills from lowest CD on the left to highest CD on the right: when Chaos Storm’s CD was reduced from 40s to 30s, this broke the ordering as Chaos Armour then had a higher CD than Storm.
To be honest, the nerfs barely affected me at all; as my favourite build is a Clone-based Staff build. I usually only conjure Phantasms for Shattering.
I think the main reason for upping Chaos Storm’s CD and reducing Chaos Armour’s is so that the CD order is correct: Anet likes to order weapon skills from lowest CD on the left to highest CD on the right, and when Chaos Storm’s CD was reduced from 40s to 30s this upset the order as Chaos Armour now has a longer CD.
If it didn’t bounce to allies you won’t be able to tag enemies twice with it in 1 vs 1. Same goes for Winds of Chaos with Illusionary Elasticity.
Yes. 15 characters.
Most stats do apply to Illusions. +Condition/Boon Duration however does not, and the contribution of defensive stats is questionable.
Mender’s Purity
Increase conditions cleansed from 1 to 2. Add a cool down of 10s.
- Compared to other condition removal traits, this one just doesn’t cut it as it only affects one skill. Also added a cool down to prevent it being abused by MoRec.
Restorative Mantras
Make the healing occur when a Mantra is cast rather than channelled.
- It just makes more sense and doesn’t clash with Harmonious Mantras. The amount healed should be reduced appropriately of course.
Restorative Illusions
Make the healing scale to the number of Illusions Shattered.
- This way, people who use this trait would want to build up Illusions before Shattering them for a decent heal, instead of just spamming the four Shatter skills for quick HP. The amount healed should be reduced appropriately of course.
Precise Wrack
Increase critical chance boost from 10% to 20%.
- 10% increase in critical chance is hardly worthy of a trait, really. 20% is far more like it.
Dazzling Glamours
Make it also inflict Blind when enemies enter or leave a Glamour’s area.
- Basically adding in Confusing Enchantment’s effect into this trait, at least if you also take Blinding Befuddlement. This condensation should make Glamour Confusion builds far more viable.
Illusion of Vulnerability
Increase number of Vulnerability stacks from 3 to 5.
- Given that you have to interrupt a skill for this to kick in, the benefit is paltry. It should give more.
Dazzling
Increase duration of Vulnerability from 3s to 5s.
- Five stacks of Vulnerability is nice, but 3s is barely enough time to take advantage of it. 5s would be more workable.
Empowered Illusions
REMOVE.
- Now that Clones don’t do damage, this trait only really affects Phantasms; which makes it more or less the same thing as Phantasmal Strength. Better remove it.
Confusing Enchantments
REMOVE.
- The reason I think this should be removed is because I believe its effect should be combined with Dazzling Glamours. It isn’t worth sinking 40 points in two different trees to get both.
Confounding Suggestions
Increase chance to Stun from 50% to 100%.
- The Mesmer really doesn’t have that much Daze, and this trait basically lets your Daze inflict 1s of Immobilise half the time. IMO it would be fine if it always adds an Immobilise to Daze, it is a Grandmaster trait after all.
Confusing Combatants
Make Confusion be affected by +condition/Confusion duration.
- Conditions from Illusions are unaffected by duration boosts, IMO this needs to be rectified.
Retaliatory Shield
Increase Retaliation duration from 3s to 5s.
- The Mesmer only has three sources of Block: Illusionary Counter and Riposte and Aegis from Chaos Storm. You could also get Aegis from Signet of Inspiration but that’s hardly reliable. Given the scarcity of Blocks I think this trait needs to provide longer Retaliation.
Protected Mantras
REWORK: You gain Protection for 1s every second when channelling a Mantra. Gain Protection for 2s when a Mantra finishes channelling.
- The idea is to provide 5s Protection when channelling a Mantra, in a roundabout way to prevent channel cancelling abuse. The original just increased Toughness by 200 or something which barely makes a difference.
Blurred Inscriptions
Increase duration of Distortion from 1s to 2s.
- 2s of Distortion is far more workable than 1s. Some people may claim this is too much as you could chain Distortions, but to do that you need to sacrifice your Utility slots for three Signets; and the Mesmer’s Signets are mostly quite niche. I don’t see it as a problem.
Furious Interruption
Increase duration of Fury from 4s to 10s.
- This is a Grandmaster trait? Even with 10s Fury I have my doubts whether it is worthy of the title; seeing as you actually have to interrupt a skill to get the effect.
Chaotic Revival
Increase Chaos Armour duration from 5s to 10s.
- I still wouldn’t use this trait, but if Anet insists on traits like these then might as well make them somewhat more significant.
Debilitating Dissipation
Make conditions be affected by +condition duration.
- Same deal as with Confusing Combatants.
Retaliatory Demise
Increase Retaliation duration from 5s to 10s.
- Same deal as with Chaotic Revival.
Mirror of Anguish
Reduce cool down from 90s to 60s.
- A nice effect, but the CD is too long. If it reflected the CC back at your opponent leaving yourself unaffected I’d agree with 90s, but as you still get hit by the CC it’s not that helpful; especially if you’re being chased by multiple enemies.
Chaotic Interruption
Increase duration of Chilled, Cripple and Blind from 3s to 5s. Make it apply boons to yourself on interrupt as per Bountiful Interruption’s repertoire (Vigour, Swiftness or Retaliation for 5s, Protection for 3s, Might for 8s).
- Basically, combine Bountiful Interruption into this trait and make the conditions it inflict last longer. Once again you actually have to interrupt a skill to trigger the effects, so these traits deserve to be much better than they are now.
Bountiful Interruption
REMOVE.
- Merged into Chaotic Interruption. Why was this a Grandmaster trait…?
Prismatic Understanding
Increase stealth duration boost from 1s to 2s.
- A Major Grandmaster trait that does the same thing as a Thief Minor Master trait, except the Thief gets more out of it as it has greater access to stealth. Double the stealth duration boost and this will be worthy of being Grandmaster.
- Seriously, a lot of our Grandmaster traits really aren’t worthy of their titles.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Arcane Thievery
Make it actually steal all boons and transfer all conditions.
- For me, this skill rarely transfers all my conditions to my target or steal all their boons; often it either does nothing (which could be a targeting issue) or only transfers/steals some conditions/boons. While it may just be a bug, I think this is significant enough to mention here.
Illusion of Life
Reduce cool down from 130s to 90s.
- Given it’s not a real revive and has no fancy secondary effects, it really need a buff. Even then I’d still let other professions take true revival skills when dungeon running, a fake revive simply isn’t worth much most of the time.
Mimic
REWORK: fires a fast-moving projectile that interrupts the target. If a skill is interrupted, Echo becomes that skill.
- Mimic is a mess of a skill. IMO the only thing to do with it is to rework it. There might be problems with Echo becoming melee attacks (how do you use Hundred Blades with a Staff?) and such, but I’m sure it could be managed. As it fires a projectile it would also benefit more from Far-Reaching Manipulations.
Mantra of Concentration
Reduce channel time from 4s to 3s. Increase Stability duration from 2s to 3s.
- 2s of Stability? Really? Given you cannot use Stability reactively against the really dangerous CCs like knockdown, 2s duration makes it basically useless against the main reason to use it; and using them together for 4s Stability is not much better either.
Mantra of Distraction
Reduce channel time from 4s to 3s.
- Nothing more to say about this one.
Mantra of Pain
REWORK: Inflict 3xConfusion for 4s on your target. 3s channel time, 15s CD. Rename to Mantra of Confusion.
- A skill whose only purpose is instant unavoidable burst is never going to balanced: it’s either useless in most builds or OP in burst builds. This is why I propose MoP be reworked to inflict Confusion instead. Besides, the Mesmer needs more ways to inflict Confusion IMO, and it also fits with MoD’s misplaced chant (Obfuscate, Disorient, Confusion!) while MoD can get a proper chant that ends in “Distraction”.
- And MoP never needed a 1s CD: burst builds won’t be channelling it right after they use it (since they have to wait for other skills in their burst chain to be off CD anyway), and non-burst builds only use MoP for Restorative Mantras abuse.
Mantra of Resolve
Reduce channel time from 4s to 3s. Increase conditions cleansed from 2 to 3.
- Cleansing two conditions frequently results in the most pressing condition, such as 20 stacks of Bleeding, to be missed. Three conditions would be more reliable.
Signet of Midnight
Increase Blind duration from 3s to 5s. Reduce cool down from 35s to 25s.
- Compare this signet with the Elementalist’s Signet of Air. It has a shorter CD, longer Blind duration, is ranged and deals damage. A bit more parity would be nice.
Mass Invisibility
Reduce cool down from 90s to 45s.
- How is Mass Invisibility deserving of being an Elite? It’s very similar to Veil, a Utility skill; and is inferior to Shadow Refuge, a Utility skill from another profession. I think it deserves some serious love here, and halving its CD should make it far more appealing.
Moa Morph
Reduce duration from 10s to 5s. Reduce cool down from 180s to 90s.
- Moa Morph’s problem is that it keeps an enemy out of the fight for too long. Halving its duration should make it less QQ worthy, and reducing its CD would make it more accessible in return; especially in PvE.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
Ether Clone
Make its Clones be conjured near you instead of the target. Make it inflict Confusion for 3s.
- The fact that Ether Clone conjures Clones in melee range of the makes them very easily destroyed (often entirely by accident) before you can line up three Illusions. While I understand the idea of minimising run distance (and admittedly it is nice for Clone death traits), I’d much rather my Clones not be destroyed before I am ready. Yes, I know Mind Wrack deals a good chunk of its maximum damage with just one Illusion, but it’s not the only Shatter and you’re still putting it on CD for less-than-maximal effect.
- Finally, while the Sceptre is evidently meant to be a more condition-based weapon, only one of its skills actually utilises condition damage; everything else scales off Power only. Adding Confusion to Ether Clone (like its tooltips says) would make the weapon more condition-based as well as boost its weak DPS.
Illusionary Counter
Reduce damage. Make it inflict 3xConfusion for 4s.
- Again, this change is to make the Sceptre more condition-based as well as to differentiate it more from Illusionary Riposte.
Illusionary Leap
Increase range from 600 to 900.
- Given that the skill simply goes into its full cool down if the target is out of range and the fact that it’s not the most reliable of gap closers (Clones sometimes gets caught in terrain, etc.), I don’t think it would be too much to ask for a range boost.
Phantasmal Warden
Make it be conjured between you and the target. Reduce down time between attacks.
- As with Berserker, with AoE Phantasms I’d really like to be certain where the AoE is going to hit. With Warden this is even more important as it’s supposed to protect you from projectiles, and it can’t do that if it’s conjured on the opposite side of the target.
- The Warden also has an excruciatingly long downtime between its attacks. This really needs to be toned down if anyone is to use the Warden for more than its first whirl.
The Prestige
Remove the channelling.
- The channelling of The Prestige greatly restricts its utility, as often you’d want to conjure Illusions, channel Mantras, heal or remove conditions, etc. while you’re in stealth. If the Burning doesn’t go off when stealth is ended prematurely then I see no point in making it a channelled skill.
Phantasmal Mage
Increase number of Confusion stacks from 1 to 2. Make Confusion be affected by +condition/Confusion duration.
- Funny that the Phantasm with the longest cool down is also the weakest. Doubling its Confusion application (it’s so weak it would still be balanced IMO, plus remember its CD) should do the trick. Also, the duration of its Confusion (and possibly it’s Retaliation as well) should be affected by things that increase condition duration, like Master of Misdirection. This is a problem common to all Illusions, but is worth mentioning here.
Mantra of Recovery
Reduce channel time from 4s to 3s.
- In general I think Mantra channel time is too long, and you can tell it used to be 3s as the chants are only 3s long with a 1s pause tacked onto the front. I’d like to see all Mantras have their channel time reduced to 3s, as it used to be.
Mirror
Increase Reflection duration from 1s to 3s.
- The only thing that can be said about Mirror’s Reflection is that you cannot be interrupted by projectile-based interrupts; it’s too short to be significant otherwise. IMO the Reflection should persist for another 2s after the heal, especially given how low the healing is.
Veil
Reduce cool down from 90s to 60s.
- No one bothers with Veil. The CD is far too long and it doesn’t work well with Glamour traits (being a line instead of a circle). A 33% CD reduction should make it more appealing.
Below is a list of all the changes I’d like to see (in a universe that revolves around me) for the Mesmer. Most of the changes are directed at mechanics rather than numbers: I won’t be suggesting “this and that should have its damage reduced” or “this healing skill needs to heal more”, for example.
Because a lot of my changes are designed to make less-viable skills and traits viable, it may seem like almost all of my suggestions are buffs. In general, my suggestions will hopefully give the Mesmer more build diversity rather than a direct power-up.
I have also left out the underwater weapon skills as underwater combat in general is a mess at the moment: it’s not just the Mesmer that needs polish in that area.
Mind Wrack
Increase area of effect.
- There have been many discussions about whether Mind Wrack’s damage is too weak, especially when it comes to Shattering Phantasms. I personally think the damage is too low to be worth using outside of glass cannon Power builds, but increasing its damage would make it too powerful a burst in these builds.
- On the other hand, the Mesmer is rather lacking in the AoE department; so why not increase the size of Mind Wrack’s AoE? As it is Mind Wrack’s AoE is so small it rarely hits more than the intended target unless the enemy are packed together. If it could be made a reliable AoE it would kill two birds with one stone, so to speak.
Cry of Frustration
Increase area of effect. Increase duration of Confusion from 3s to 4s.
- Similar idea to increasing Mind Wrack’s AoE size. The duration of Confusion also needs to be a bit longer I think, as it is it would quite happily do nothing unless you use it at the most optimal moment; which is difficult to judge when you have to wait for your Illusions to run up to your target. To people who are confused here, CoF’s Confusion duration says it lasts 4s in the tooltip but in reality only lasts 3s.
Diversion
Make Daze stackable.
- I know someone’s going to object with how this paves the way for chain CCs and such, but there really isn’t another way to solve the problem of Diversion being quite often the same whether you Shatter one Illusion or three Illusions. Personally I don’t think it would be that bad 3 – 4s of Silence on a 45s CD is certainly more potent than most other CCs; but then again you’re sacrificing three Illusions (plus being in melee range) for it.
Spatial Surge
Reduce rate of fire. Increase damage.
- The reason I make this suggestion is because after the RoF buff to Spatial Surge, the comparatively long delay between GS Clone attacks sticks out like a sore thumb. As GS Clones are already very powerful with Sharper Images their RoF cannot be increased, so I’d rather Spatial Surge be given a damage increase instead of a RoF increase.
Mind Stab
Increase area of effect OR make it enemy targeted and remove its area of effect.
- Mind Stab’s AoE is too small for a ground targeted skill: it will only hit multiple targets if they’re practically hugging each other, giving it all the hassle of a ground targeted skill with little of its benefits.
- Mind Stab needs to decide what it wants to be: an AoE attack or a single target burst? Either increase its AoE so it can actually function as a ground targeted AoE attack, or change it to an enemy targeted non-AoE burst attack.
Phantasmal Berserker
Make it be conjured between you and the target. Make it require line of sight.
- As it is Berserker is conjured at a random location around the target (as with all Phantasms). This is fine with single target Phantasms, but for an AoE Phantasm I’d really like the AoE to be predictable: I want to know that if I conjure the Berserker on this target, it will cleave through all enemies in this line. Also, Berserker is the only Phantasm that does not require LoS to conjure successfully, I don’t see why it deserves this special treatment.
Chaos Storm
Remove Swiftness from its boon repertoire. Add Vigour.
- The only reason I suggest this is because Swiftness is already covered by Chaos Armour, and Vigour is the only boon the Staff cannot provide apart from Stability.
25 stacks of Confusion is about 4500 damage in sPvP and 9000 damage in WvW with a condition build. If you use it while your opponent is autoattack spamming it could easily kill them in an instant, especially with the Quickness… on the other hand, against anyone with a bit of caution this skill will almost always work against you as it’s easily countered by any form of condition removal or waiting it out; and given the buffs you’re giving your enemy you could easily be the one to die even if your opponent ignores the Confusion.
It is an interesting (and highly situational + noob stomping) skill, but overall I think it needs more calculation compared to risk: IMO it should also give the target Frenzy, increasing damage they take by 50%. It may seem like overkill but given that how Confusion performs is entirely up to your enemy, the skill does need a more reliable negative given the risk of backfire.
(edited by Embolism.8106)
The only difference between races is visual. Any other differences you think you see are illusionary.
While you may argue the Asura’s smaller visual size is an advantage in itself, bear in mind that Asura players also have to deal with an extremely fickle camera, which most Asura players agree is far more trouble than any benefit visual size might bring, if any.
I agree. I’d love to have access to equipment skins from other Orders once the Pact is formed.
You actually do hear about the flagship if you pay attention to NPC chatter, like I do. There were Pact members talking about it and how it wasn’t quite ready for combat a few missions prior.
Conditions inflicted by Illusions cannot be affected by any form of +condition duration, including Master of Misdirection and Expertise.
ah ok, i didn’t know because i had those other traits enabled. Thanks.
For my use I would prefer having access to poison, chill, and burn as well.
Also while you may feel that it would be a nerf, your phantasmal warlock certainly would not. perhaps that’s the true reason for the short list.
Given I only use my Warlock for Shatter Fodder (my Staff Clones deal far more damage than my Warlock does), I really don’t care if he thanks me: he’s going to be shredded for two stacks of Confusion or 1s of Invulnerability anyway.