Guild Wars 2

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Fay.2357:

Sebrent.3625:

I’d also like to point out the additional reflect we get. Now we have Focus and Shield giving reflection.

Additionally, that’s another potential reflect in PvP/WvW that Greatsword Mesmers can just smile at while they use their lasers :-p

Absorb, not reflect. However…it does sound like a potentially high-target stun. That has obvious implications.

Not sure if you meant what I was thinking but if this works the way I think it will, mobile static field/line of warding has no target limit. Double halting strike on an entire zerg

You guys are playing in heaven or something?
Because zergs have tons of stability where I play :°)

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Four shots of MoPain?

even 6 if you go dueling…

Me Games Ma.8426:

Isn’t 66% a bit too powerful? o.O

really depends on how much access we have to it and for how long it lasts…

I need to find a new keybind
(mesmers always complain)

What, 5 mesmers in wvw? In the same map? In the same party?!
In EU Silver and Bronze it would be quite a rare sight (not sure about gold nowadays)

tobascodagama.2961:

Actually, you can summon a GS clone and still get the cooldown reduction after switching to another weapon set. Which is not hugely useful, but it’s something.

Good catch, didn’t think of that! It’ll be hard to keep track of cooldowns.

One interesting note about GS trait is that the cooldown reduction now only works when you’re actively using the weapon and won’t apply when you switch to your other set. This applies in part to Staff as well (altough we have some ways to get chaos armor when not wielding a Staff)

alanis.6094:

Menaka.5092:

• Bountiful Disillusionment. It’s bad. My take on this: every time a clone dies or is shattered, you and your party gain a random boon. This would provide ample access to a variety of boons and would be in line with the randomness of the other traits in the same tier.

They also added 5s of Stability to each shatter. This trait is very strong if that holds.

For group WvW, I can only think of some rare cases when trading my Mind Wrack for 1 stack of Stability (that isn’t even shared with the party) would help. And you’re giving up CI for it…

What about dropping 5 timewarps? Would that stack 5s quickness per pulse?

I don’t really like the new way to unlock skills/traits, but that’s not very important.

I do really like the new build system. Choices are meaningful: it really feels that when you’re picking a trait, you’re giving up something else (the other traits in the same tier).

That said, of course what we’ve seen is only an iteration and there’s still a lot of work to do. I hope our feedback (wink wink) will help them fix the traitlines even more.

If everything comes along as ANet hopes, we gonna have a new PvP game mode, Stronghold, where lockdown builds are insanely strong and support/tanky/condi builds are viable and at the same time they are going to increase the importance of hard CC, burst and conditions in PVE.

I’m optimistic and really looking forward to discover what the Chronomancer (or whatever it’ll be) will bring to the game

it’s not that easy… your chaos storm and the other CC going down needs to eat away stability charges before it can interrupt anything, in my daily WvW experience, I usually see one or two interrupts from a chaos storm when I’m lucky

it works better against guild groups, when stability is harder to come by (groups running 2 guardians per party)

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

No matter what anyone else says, no matter what positive spin people try to put on it, Thieves are getting even stronger and we will still have no way to deal with them. Short of receiving active stealth-canceling abilities, Mesmer is and will remain a “PvP-centric” profession that can’t PvP because we are effectively deleted from the game by another profession.

I only play WvW, so I don’t know much about how strong thieves are in tPVP, but blind on shatter, weakness on interrupt, Chaos Armor giving protection and IP baseline are huge changes to our gameplay against thieves.

Condi builds got even stronger and in my limited experience (I usually play power builds) you can beat most thieves with those.

Xaylin.1860:

Menaka.5092:

Temporal Enchanter: what’s the point in making Portal last one second more? Or Veil? In my redesign I had 3 suggestions for glamour traits: Powerful Enchantments – Null Field strips 2 boons and cleanses 2 conditions per pulse. Veil Stealth duration increased to 4 seconds. Portal charges increased to 30. Feedback lasts 30% more. Reliable Glamours – Veil grants 3 stacks of Stability for 3s. Null Field and Feedback pulse 1 stack of Stability each second. Going through an active Portal grants 5 stacks of Stability for 5s (10s ICD). Restorative Glamours – Veil grants Regen for 8s. Null Field and Feedback pulse healing X per second. Going through an active Portal restores 30% of max health (10s ICD).

I like your suggestions for Glamours. But how could you dare not thinking about TW?

When I originally wrote the trait, I didn’t know TW was going to be a glamour :P
I would scale it to affect 10 people with Powerful Enchantments, in Reliable Glamours and Restorative Glamours it could probably have the same effect as Null Field (Stability or some healing per pulse).

They are starting with us?! The hype is real.

(please ANet don’t screw this up!)

Took me a few days to digest all the changes and get a picture of the whole thing.
These are the changes I would make:

• Illusion of Vulnerability: buff to 6 stacks of Vulnerability on interrupt
• Rending Shatter: buff to 3 stacks per clone
• Dazzling: nerf to 4 stacks of Vulnerability per daze
• Desperate Decoy: scrap it, if we really need a survival trait there, I’d rather have access to more Distortion
• Do something interesting with the Sword trait, for example reduced cooldown by 5% when landing Mind Spike and 2% each time a Phantasmal Swordsman hits. Should be a decent buff to PVE DPS while not being overly OP in PVP/WvW. Increased stats would be nice as well. Or even something like they did for Warriors, +50 precision for each sword you wield.
• Rework and merge Metaphysical Rejuvenation and Illusionary Membrane so that they give Chaos Armor at 75% health instead
• In the vacant Minor trait you can put something like: Protective Illusions – Grants protection for 3s every time you summon a phantasm. 5s ICD.
• Mirror of Anguish: really feels underpowered for a Master trait. Make it stronger and more “chaotic” by removing the ICD and making it a chance (say, 30%) on every control effect received.
• Chaotic Transference is not fun. Since we’re talking Chaos here, let’s have a trait so that every time we apply a damaging condition we have a chance to also apply blind, cripple, chill, weakness or slow and every time we apply a non-damaging condition we have a chance to also apply bleeding, poison, burning or torment. With a small ICD, like 3 or 5 seconds. That would help us get access to a variety of conditions so it would be harder to cleanse all our damage instead of relying on sigils or random procs from Chaos Storm.
• Bountiful Disillusionment. It’s bad. My take on this: every time a clone dies or is shattered, you and your party gain a random boon. This would provide ample access to a variety of boons and would be in line with the randomness of the other traits in the same tier.
• Medic’s Feedback: I always tought this was one of the most useless traits we had, but if you guys are trying to salvage it, it might have some uses that I never envisioned. The 10% buff on revive speed is nice, but the cooldown is huge…
• Vigorous Revelation and Restorative Illusions: I’d merge these two and make the healing part AoE as well.
• Phantasmal Healing: I’d make the healing bonus a % for outgoing heals (say 4% per Illusion), so it works better with mantras (unless you changed how healing scales with Mender’s Purity/Restorative mantras)
• Compounding Celerity: doesn’t really feel like a Master trait, I would say merge it with Illusionary Defence in Chaos and make space for something more supportive/phantasm oriented. Empowering Phantasms: each phantasm grants N stacks of Might for 10s every 10s to nearby allies. (I’d say N=3 feels like a good contribution but not OP for a Master trait)
• Temporal Enchanter: what’s the point in making Portal last one second more? Or Veil? In my redesign I had 3 suggestions for glamour traits: Powerful Enchantments – Null Field strips 2 boons and cleanses 2 conditions per pulse. Veil Stealth duration increased to 4 seconds. Portal charges increased to 30. Feedback lasts 30% more. Reliable Glamours – Veil grants 3 stacks of Stability for 3s. Null Field and Feedback pulse 1 stack of Stability each second. Going through an active Portal grants 5 stacks of Stability for 5s (10s ICD). Restorative Glamours – Veil grants Regen for 8s. Null Field and Feedback pulse healing X per second. Going through an active Portal restores 30% of max health (10s ICD).
• Sum of All Fears: feels really underwhelming for a master trait, although we have some new sources of confusion and only playing would give an idea of how strong it can be.
• Blinding Befuddlement: merge the old Confusing Enchantments in it and get rid of that ICD and you can call it a proper Grand Master.

Made another spreadsheet based on the one posted on Reddit, with added cooldowns and a breakdown of traits.

Includes a very basic build editor, but you need to make a copy to be able to use the editor (if anyone knows how to fix that, let me know).

messiah.1908:

ppl thunk that chornomnacer gonna be great
but does it only bring 2 skills with shiled and probably 1-2 trait attached to it

i dont think we could spam frequenly slow movement and skills

the chronomancer (or whatever it’ll be) has a whole new traitline…

forum bug /15chars

MailMail.6534:

Velimere.7685:

Levetty.1279:

I am perfectly willing to say now with 100% confidence of being right that Temporal Enchanter is useless and nobody will bring Blinding befuddlement over the other two GMs in illusion.

Quoted for truth.

I think we’re forgetting that Blinding Befuddlement also increases confusion duration. Here’s where I see Blinding Befuddlement being decently strong

What’s the point with the ICD, tho? It’s not like mesmer has been known as a class that can perma-blind… I think we only have scepter 2/2, torch, a chance on chaos armor and the blind on shatter to apply blind… 2 stacks of confusion – even if applied AoE with a shatter – isn’t really earth shaking for a grand master that has two very good alternatives. On a lucky multiple interrupt with Mistrust (for example, several people ressing someone) you can apply 2*N stacks AoE since Mistrust doesn’t appear to have an ICD, at least in the current iteration…

Me Games Ma.8426:

After this patch we’re going to have one really insane shatter burst combo that does not require skill at all:

3 illusions diversion, gs2/sw3+3 + dodge + mindwrack could hit preeeeetty hard

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Menaka.5092:

From this other interview

Ten Ton Hammer: Where Elite Specializations are concerned, it seems slightly unfair that some only get an off-hand when some get a two handed or main hand weapon (thus more skills). How are you making this appealing for professions who only get an off-hand?

Jon: Fair doesn’t always mean equal. It’s fair because we’re trying to make sure that they all get a lot of really cool things and they get a new way to define their profession. Like we did with the original professions, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one trying to make an equal number of skills one-to-one. To give an example with engineer, we made what felt like it would be like to be an engineer.

The other thing too is that the weapon is just one component of what makes a spec what it is. Weapon skills don’t define the spec. Just like the new healing skills, the new elite skills and the new traits, they complement it and altogether build the spec out. Because of that we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand, a main hand, or a two-handed weapon, it’s just part of what defines what that spec is.

I’m somewhat less hyped than before.

So if I’m understanding thus right, our new traits/utilities are soooo good that we only get an offhand?

See, now its things like this that make me unsure. Considering Anet hasn’t exactly shown that they know what to do with Mesmer (..Disruptors Sustainment) Its really hard to accept how certain they are that these new abilities will really be all that amazing. X.x

To be honest, it is true that a weapon doesn’t “define” a spec: you can play shatter with pretty much every weapon combo we have, altough the playstyle will be very different depending on the weapons you use.

But going from “you’ll get something just as good” to “we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand” slowed down the hype train a lot.

From this other interview

Ten Ton Hammer: Where Elite Specializations are concerned, it seems slightly unfair that some only get an off-hand when some get a two handed or main hand weapon (thus more skills). How are you making this appealing for professions who only get an off-hand?

Jon: Fair doesn’t always mean equal. It’s fair because we’re trying to make sure that they all get a lot of really cool things and they get a new way to define their profession. Like we did with the original professions, it doesn’t mean that one-to-one trying to make an equal number of skills one-to-one. To give an example with engineer, we made what felt like it would be like to be an engineer.

The other thing too is that the weapon is just one component of what makes a spec what it is. Weapon skills don’t define the spec. Just like the new healing skills, the new elite skills and the new traits, they complement it and altogether build the spec out. Because of that we feel it’s fine if it’s an offhand, a main hand, or a two-handed weapon, it’s just part of what defines what that spec is.

I’m somewhat less hyped than before.

Josh Davis announced for tomorrow a long AMA on Twitch with a first look at the current state of traits in ANet test servers.

All aboard the hype train!

Caelus.7139:

The blog post mentioned that the base stats will be spread out on the character and gear, does that mean gear choice will become even more dominant? (e.g. Zerker)

Gear choice will probably be the only influence on your stats, although they mentioned Arcane influencing attunement cooldowns for Elementalists, so we might have Shatter cooldown reduction on Illusions.

Seems like a good thing to me, you don’t “waste” your attributes on stats that are not contributing to your build (like for example condition damage on a power shatter build).

Caelus.7139:

Will they finally get rid of useless traits? e.g. Downed Traits

really hope so!

Caelus.7139:

What if we want to get only one or two traits in a line and balance it elsewhere? Here it seems we’re locked into only 3 major traitlines.

seems like that; if the trait reorganization makes sense we won’t be needing to spread in more than 3 traitlines to make a meaningful build

Caelus.7139:

A defiance bar?…So…slap to the face for CC builds? Or am I overreacting?

CC builds seems like the best way to counter that

Caelus.7139:

From the second blog post it feels like ANet is taking control on build making. Maybe that’s just me.

consider that, if the new mechanics really make the class play different, they have to balance what might feel like 18 classes; streamlining the builds makes sense from that point, especially if more specializations will be added in the future

MandJ.8965:

Sebrent.3625:

It looks like it reduces the number of possible permutations for a build since you:

• Can only pick 3 Specializations
• Can’t Use Major Adept traits in Major Master and Major Grandmaster slots
• Can’t Use Major Master traits in Major Grandmaster slots

While I could see this cutting into some build flexibility as there are several builds out there that currently put points into more than 3 traitlines, most invest in primarily 3 traitlines.

Additionally, as new specializations are added, we’ll eventually see more possible combinations.

A very nice bonus for this is that it reduces the number of possible permutations of trait points that can be paired together. This could help ArenaNet with handling class balance.

Wait what? So I can’t for example use the mind wrack trait and halting strike at the same time??

From the UI examples and from the description, looks like you can only have one trait in each tier. They might merge the +damage trait to the base mind wrack skill, or move halting strike somewhere else (or scrap it alltogether). We don’t really know.

skcamow.3527:

These are some bold design changes. On paper I like the ideas. While I have concern for existing builds, I’m excited for the new ones that will be created. I’m really hoping for some default profession mechanics to be included (such as DE or IP).

I completely agree, it’s a way bigger and deeper redesign that I tought they would undertake.

The only concern I have is that it doesn’t seem easy to add a single new trait; feels like it’s either a full specialization (or traitline if you want) or nothing. At some point it’ll be hard to think of new “roles” to for new specializations that will play nicely with what already exists.

ANet just released some initial details about specializations:

• Specializations, Part One: A Primer
• Specializations, Part Two: Reward Tracks and Elite Specializations
• Guild Wars 2 Interviews: Specializations Define Roles in Heart of Thorns

Just started reading but I wanted to open a thread because it looks like it’s gonna be a huge change from what we know right now.

Edit: adding some quick notes

• at level 80 you build by picking 3 traitlines of the 5 currently available (6 with the new spec I guess?)
• then you pick one major adept, one master and one grand master from 3 available in each tier (some traits have been removed and you can’t pick two traits of the same tier anymore)
• you have 9 major traits instead of 7, including 3 grand masters
• there’s still 3 fixed minor traits per trait line
• attributes are now unlinked from traitlines, will be partly refunded by increasing base stats across the board and partly by increasing stats on gear
• they are merging some functionalities from discarded traits to the base skills (for example necro wells are ground targeted by default)

Edit2: quoting from the part 2: “We’re also making some core changes to each profession that are dependent on the elite specialization equipped […] How about a new way to shatter illusions? These are some of the changes you can expect to see for your favorite profession.”

kitten , now I really want that unicorn finisher :\

Classic 44006 shatter build? Nah.
And the only reason you would ever want that is to be able to use Distortion without any clone, which is a very long cooldown for 1s of invuln.
Not really worth it.

I only managed to play 2 games during lunch break, but I dominated the supply depot with a 26600 interrupt build (then I managed to die to a treb shot), won both games.

StormHawk.9862:

Oh alright thanks. But how is the sword phantasm useless??

It’s a slow moving, weak, stupid AI that might or might not get one attack off on a single target before dying. It is completely useless in WvW group fights.

Tanky sw/sw+staff

a few notes:

• notice the food buff (the stone is probably expensive, I didn’t check)
• your sword phantasm is useless, use it before the regroup to put it on cooldown, it has the same cooldown of Guardian’s Empower, so you’ll know when your empowers are back from cooldown
• after using the sword phantasm, switch to staff, go on the regroup and recharge your mantras
• your untraited Chaos Storm has a similar CD to necro wells, so you know when your well spike is back off CD
• drop Chaos Storm on the spike, apply Chaos Armor and switch back to Sword
• 1111111 (autoattack) and BF if you get caught in aoe

Noss.4105:

@Menaka
Yeah, I think the stats for the weapon traits are too strong, considering you’d potentially get CD reductions for both weapon sets. Just compare to other weapon traits across the professions.

I would surely love a similar consolidation on other classes (for example, Warriors). I don’t think weapon traits provide so much diversity that they deserve a single trait for each weapon, it feels to me like a waste and a silly constraint to build diversity.

The amount of stats is the same you would get from any food buff. Doesn’t really feel like “too much” to me, but numbers can always be tweaked

Noss.4105:

I like the idea of Chaotic Generosity, but without ICD you could stack yourself full of boons with staff.

True. It really needs an ICD. kitten , I hate ICDs

Noss.4105:

Also I think you’re mistaking Crippling Dissipation with Debilitating Dissipation, Crippling Dissipation is always cripple.

Yep, but Mind Cripple only has a 33% chance to apply Slow, so – on average – 1 clone death every 3 will apply it (if it doesn’t get dodged/blocked/etc), doesn’t feel really OP to me, but again, numbers can be tweaked…

Curunen.8729:

The other part of me is concerned with wasting effort on an exercise that will 99% be ignored by the people who have the power to implement such changes…

probably… but the act of creation (especially if you set some “constraints” to it) is fun and keeps our brains alive!

… and one can always hope they get some hints from this

Noss.4105:

Some are pretty OP, like: Blade Mastery, Malicious Dampening, Chaotic Generosity, Empowered Generosity and Mind Crippling with Crippling Dissipation.

You think the amount of stats from the weapon traits is too much? I don’t know… it’s sort of a nerf for scepter (from 200 to 100 condi damage), but a slight buff for everything else.

My reasoning behind it is: right now, you take the trait mostly for the cooldown, the stats are a small addiction, but nothing you can really “feel”. With strong alternatives in the Master tier, you would want more of an incentive to take the trait (the cooldown is good, but is it good enough?).

The “Generosity” traits feel a bit OP to me as well, but I liked the idea. Maybe some number tweaking (or an ICD for Chaotic Generosity) will fix it…

I don’t think Mind Crippling with Crippling Dissipation would really be OP, it’s still one chance in 3 dead clones to apply Slow for 1s (and it can be dodged/blocked, etc).

Noss.4105:

Also triple cooldown reduction to offhand sword? Yes please.

that wasn’t intended to happen :P
as I said, it’s only a first iteration

Noss.4105:

edit: and “Ethereal Dazzle, Domination Adept Major: Ethereal fields pulse Blind for 1s each second. (maybe too strong for Adept?)” would be way too strong even for GM trait. This would make all our fields throw in a free Well of Darkness.

Well of Darkness is a bit different (unblockable, blinds for 3s instead of 1) and I would argue that that skills feels underpowered.

I agree that Ethereal Dazzle in the current iteration feels too OP for Adept, although I disagree with it being too strong for GM or even Master. It would apply to Null Field, Feedback, Chaos Storm and TimeWarp, all of them are long or very long cooldowns…

I checked the wiki and thieves Black Powder is 2s blind every 2s… maybe that would be a good value for this trait too.

Swish.2463:

My only suggestion would be that in making and drafting such things out, make sure to look over things as a whole.

absolutely

Swish.2463:

Provided Persuasive illusions causes to gain the ability to use attacks such as Chaos Storm (Chances to proc chill) Or various other attacks that can inflict cripple (we have a handful on our weapons) This is very strong all on its own. Combine it with Slow and the Ethereal field from staffs Chaos storm and you have a huge CC bomb that also spams blind and stacks confusion through the roof.

I think my wording or Persuasive Illusions is a bit off, I only mean for the clones to drop “cosmetic” skills, without any effect on the enemy except the (very low) clone damage.
It’s only meant as a trait to increase our “visual clutter” for some defensive play.

Yeah it’s a huge wall of text :P I added a screenshot of the spreadsheet, it’s a lot easier to follow

TL;DR:

• Consolidation of weapon traits in only 3 Master traits in Domination, Dueling and Chaos;
• Rework of Glamour traits and the old “Glamour meta”, now focused on Ethereal Fields instead
• Many new options for support
• Traitlines that make sense, should be easier to get all you want for one build, so you can have better build variety

I left out many traits that weren’t so bad only because I wanted to keep the number of traits the same as the current ones, but as far as we know there is no limit to the number of Major traits in each tier, so the new traits could possibly be added instead of replacing something that already exists.

New and reworked traits

• Blade Mastery, Domination Master Major: Sword, Greatsword and Spear skills recharge 20% faster. Grants 100 power and 100 precision while wielding a Sword, Greatsword or Spear.
• Blinding Befuddlement (reworked), Chaos Master Major: Applies one stack of Confusion when you Blind a foe. No ICD.
• Bountiful Dissipation, Illusions Master Major: Your illusions grant a random boon to 5 allies in a 240 unit radius when killed.
• Chaotic Generosity, Chaos Grand Master Major: Each time you apply a boon, you also apply another random boon (will not proc on itself or similar effects like Bountiful Dissipation and Bountiful Interruption)
• Confusing Strikes, Dueling Adept Major: Critical hits have a chance (30%) to inflict confusion (3s).
• Domination of the Powerless, Domination Minor Grand Master: Increase damage by 10% on targets afflicted by Immobilize, Chill, Cripple, Slow or any Control effect. (still not very happy with this)
• Empowered Generosity, Inspiration Grand Master Major: Each boon application is doubled (Intensity over Duration). For example, Mirror Blade will apply 6 stacks of Might per bounce (same duration) and Temporal Curtain 24s of Swiftness. (this is probably OP, 50% would be a better number, maybe rounding upwards for the stacks, so 1 stack becomes 2 and 5 stacks becomes 8 )
• Empowering Phantasms, Illusions Master Major: Phantasms grant Might to nearby allies (10s every 10s).
• Ethereal Dazzle, Domination Adept Major: Ethereal fields pulse Blind for 1s each second. (maybe too strong for Adept?)
• Explosive Illusions, Illusions Master Major: Illusions damage surrounding targets when killed. (the damage would be similar to the direct damage on Cry of Frustration)
• Illusionary Thaumaturgy, Inspiration Master Major: Increase healing done by 5% for each active illusion. (not healing power, but the actual healing effect)
• Malicious Dampening, Chaos Master Major: Staff, Scepter and Trident skills recharge 20% faster. Grants 100 toughness and 100 condition damage while wielding a Staff, Scepter or Trident.
• Mind Crippling, Domination Minor Adept: When you or your Illusions apply Cripple or Chill to an enemy, you have a chance (33%) to also apply Slow for 1s. (Slow will be strong, but we don’t have many sources of Chill and Cripple, so the chance seems fair even for a minor adept)
• Mirror of Anguish (reworked), Chaos Master Major: You have a 33% chance to mirror the disabling effect back to its source. No ICD. (strong, as a Master trait should be, but RNG based because… Chaos)
• Off-hand Mastery, Dueling Master Major: Off-Hand weapon skills recharge 20% faster. Torch skills remove conditions. Focus skills reflect projectiles. Pistol range is increased to 1200.
• Persuasive Illusions, Illusions Grand Master Major: Your clones mirror your behaviour, dodging, switching weapons and using the same skills you do. They still do the usual clone damage.
• Phantasmal Compensation, Dueling Grand Master Major: Increases your damage by X%, and by another X% for every Clone or Inactive Illusion. (basic idea behind this is: you get a sizable direct-damage bonus when/if you are not using your Phantasms, the numbers should be adjusted so it feels like a decent tradeoff in PVE or WvW zergs, but not overpowered)
• Powerful Enchantments, Domination Master Major: Null Field strips 2 boons and cleanses 2 conditions per pulse. Veil Stealth duration increased to 4 seconds. Portal charges increased to 30. Feedback lasts 30% more. (or maybe make Feedback 20% bigger?)
• Protective Illusions, Inspiration Adept Major: Creating a clone grants 1 second of Protection (2s ICD). (maybe OP, tweak the ICD for non-OPness)
• Reliable Glamours, Inspiration Master Major: Veil grants 3 stacks of Stability for 3s. Null Field and Feedback pulse 1 stack of Stability each second. Going through an active Portal grants 5 stacks of Stability for 5s (10s ICD for portal).
• Restorative Glamours, Illusions Adept Major: Veil grants Regen for 8s. Null Field and Feedback heal X per second. Going through an active Portal restores 30% of max health (10s ICD for portal). (again, tweak the numbers for non-OPness, considering it’s an Adept…)
• Restorative Illusions (reworked), Inspiration Grand Master Major: When you shatter your illusions, you heal yourself and your allies for a small amount.
• Strength of the Lambs, Inspiration Minor Grand Master: Gain Power based on your Healing Power (10%).

Trait allocation

I moved some traits around, promoted, demoted, deleted or reworked some others and created a lot of new traits.

Domination

• Minor: Mind Crippling (new: see below), Dazzling, Domination of the Powerless (new)
• Adept Major: Halting Strike, Mental Torment, Ethereal Dazzle (new), Empowered Illusions, Crippling Dissipation, Retaliatory Shield (moved from Dueling)
• Master Major: Shattered Concentration, Powerful Enchantments (new), Blade mastery (new/reworked: see below), Illusionary Elasticity (moved from Illusions)
• Grand Master Major: Confounding Suggestions, Power Block, Empowering Mantras

Dueling

• Minor: Critical Infusion, Sharper Images, Phantasmal Strength (moved from Inspiration)
• Adept Major: Far-Reaching Manipulations, Phantasmal Fury, Masterful Reflection (moved from Chaos), Confusing Strikes (new), Precise Wrack (moved from Illusions), Persisting Images (moved from Inspiration)
• Master Major: Protected Mantras, Cleansing Inscriptions (moved from Chaos), Off-hand mastery (new/reworked), Phantasmal Haste (moved from Illusions)
• Grand Master Major: Phantasmal Compensation (new), Triumphant Distortion, Harmonious Mantras

Chaos

• Minor: Confusing Combatants (demoted and moved from Dueling), Illusionary Membrane, Chaotic Transference
• Adept Major: Desperate Decoy (moved from Dueling), Descent into Madness, Master of Manipulation, Illusionary Defense, Debilitating Dissipation, Master of Misdirection (moved from Illusions)
• Master Major: Bountiful Interruption, Blinding Befuddlement (reworked: see below), Mirror of Anguish (reworked), Malicious Dampening (new/reworked)
• Grand Master Major: Chaotic Interruption, Prismatic Understanding, Chaotic Generosity (new)

Inspiration

• Minor: Metaphysical Rejuvenation (moved from Chaos), Phantasmal Healing, Strength of the Lambs (new)
• Adept Major: Medic’s Feedback, Glamour Mastery, Protective Illusions (new), Mender’s Purity, Mantra Mastery (moved from Dueling), Compounding Celerity, Reliable Glamours (new)
• Master Major: Illusionary Thaumaturgy (new), Blurred Inscriptions (moved from Dueling), Restorative Mantras
• Grand Master Major: Empowered Generosity (new), Shattered Conditions, Restorative Illusions (reworked)

Illusions

• Minor: Illusionary Retribution, Illusionists Celerity, Shattered Strength
• Adept Major: Vigorous Revelation (moved from Inspiration), Confusing Cry, Compounding Power, Restorative Glamours (new), Illusionary Invigoration (demoted), Signet Mastery (moved from Domination)
• Master Major: Empowering Phantasms (new), Explosive Illusions (new), Bountiful Dissipation (new), Deceptive Evasion (moved from Dueling)
• Grand Master Major: Illusionary Persona, Persuasive Illusions (new), Maim the Disillusioned

Hi everyone! This is my first attempt at redesigning the traits for our beloved class. It is by no means a “finished” work. There’s a lot of stuff I’m not happy with, but I wanted some feedback on the ideas and the general direction I’m pointing at.

Some premises: I started doing this only because I wanted to familiarize better with our traitlines and the basic design behind our class. I don’t pretend to have the ultimate solution to all mesmer problems, I made all of this just for fun. Also: the names of the new traits are terrible, any suggestions are welcome

Trying to “drill down” and categorize our traits was enlightening to say the least: we’ve been called an “utility” class for a long time, yet we have very poor support options (only 5 traits), while a huge amount of traits are dedicated to our own survival (16 in my categorization). We have lots of major traits related to our class mechanic (14 traits somewhat related to shatters), yet only 5 for phantasms. And we have lots of traits unrelated to anything else (cooldown and range for manipulations, glamours, signets, etc).

Another thing I noticed is how many traits felt “misplaced”: for example we get confusion on clone death on a Precision/Ferocity traitline and yet Phantasm damage in a Vitality/Healing traitline. Our traits are spread all over the place and that doesn’t help while making our builds.

Finally, another point that I never liked was that I felt like some of our traitlines lack a proper focus: while Domination and Dueling are quite on point (nice synergy with the stats and traits), some others felt weird, like our Illusion traitline, tied with Condition Damage, while for a long time we didn’t have any real option for condi shatter.

I started by reworking the focus of each traitline and switching some stats around.

Domination
Focus: Control/Damage – Direct damage
Stats: Power, Condition Duration

Dueling
Focus: Damage/Survival – Phantasms
Stats: Precision, Ferocity

Chaos
Focus: Survival/Control – Conditions
Stats: Toughness, Condition Damage

Inspiration
Focus: Support/Survival – Boons & Healing
Stats: Healing Power, Boon Duration

Illusions
Focus: Damage/Support – Shatters
Stats: Vitality, Shatter cooldown

The basic idea is to make Domination and Chaos the preferred traitlines for Interrupt builds, Dueling for Phantasms, Chaos a good choice for tanky and Condi builds, Inspiration for anything support-oriented and Illusions for Shatter builds.

Edit: added a screenshot of the current iteration

Kazhiel.8194:

Really enjoyed the videos, some good fights there!

thanks! more to come

ASP.8093:

It’s hard to tell without stepping through in slow motion, but Triumphant Distortion does seem to be helping quite a bit — pretty sure I saw one phantasm actually last long enough to attack twice?

I’ve seen it happen, but it’s very rare and only happens on guild groups that focus their AoE fields on a single place. Against zergs you’ll find AoE scattered everywhere and the phantasm will die after the first attack.

Still, TD is really helpful: each time it pops you can go through CC fields and/or recharge your mantras “for free”

ASP.8093:

I’m still not really sold on Restorative Mantras + Mantra of Pain, to be honest. In the videos, you spend a lot of time more than 360 away from any allies. How often were you actually getting group heals out of it?

When the fights are tighter (severely outnumbered) I’ll go back on every regroup (or even more) to fill my heal in, in these fights I was focusing more on the portals and picking off targets.

ASP.8093:

There’s something else I noticed about your group’s tactics. Might be worth thinking about, might be superfluous… You all obviously focus fire on tag effectively, but when an enemy player is out of position and vulnerable, it often seems to turn into a 1-on-1 chase. Whereas I think ideally you’d see several people focus them down quickly so you don’t have to break off from the engagement so much yourself to pursue.

We rarely have the luxury of a focus party
Yeah, it’s way more efficient when you can finish a bad positioned target quickly.

Didn’t raid much in the last few week, but I tested Mantra of Restoration a bit and it worked nicely in most fights, but I felt really under pressure when we were heavily outnumbered (thinking back to it, it would probably have been the same with Ether Feast).

Something I really loved was to be able to cast Power Return while recharging Mantra of Pain (with Restorative Mantras).

Since the new meta is really punishing for the melee group and they can’t stay much in the enemy and make use of Timewarp, I started playing with Mass Invisibility, using it mid-fight, and switched to Portal. I also tried switching Protected Mantras to Far-Reaching Manipulations so I could blink behind the enemy to drop the portal – iteration 6

Now I’m testing how it feels like having Deceptive Evasion – iteration 7 (it’s always nice to be able to Phase Retreat/Dodge + Distortion…)

I posted 2 videos in which I’m playing these last 3 iterations:

• Babysitting
• Thinking with portals in the new meta

BlackDevil.9268:

Dondagora.9645:

BlackDevil.9268:

Menaka.5092:

BlackDevil.9268:

What could also be an option is keeping the current event, add a generator in the middle of the oasis. Make it so you gain a maximum of 2 charges just like in sPvP with the supplies on stronghold and with those 2 charges you can charge the mega laser by channeling it for +/- 2 seconds on the generator. Once you die with the charges, you lose the ‘’orbs of energy’’ you just gained from the mob which are available for enemies to pick up. Like that you don’t entirely gotta delete the event but rather spice it a bit up.

As they explained in the first presentation about this (I think it was the one at PAX), killing the dinosaur to get the core is only the easiest part of the job, then you need to bring the core back to one of 3 collection points, and you can be killed on the way, and you’ll lose the core for your enemy to collect.

If it works like that, sounds like a good excuse for PvP to me. And having 3 collection points makes it harder to blob the event with one single zerg camping the collection point.

I must have missed that then. Well if that’s the case I just hope these orbs don’t deny you from using your skills. Or don’t disappear the moment you drop them and also that they will still make it so you have to channel the orb to the generator and that damage or CC will interrupt you from doing so. If not you can just get the orb, run straight past the enemies or just blink past, deliver quickly and get off to do more pve.

My biggest complaint would still be the amount of mobs across the open area’s though.

Zetsumei.4975:

Lets hope they have the foresight to change the fact that you can currently stealth and blink while holding the orb.

Blinking is fine if they add a channel effect to the delivery of the orb. I don’t mind someone suiciding to try to channel his orb. I do, however, mind people stealthing and you getting forced to bomb the altar because of that.

If you have to channel the orb into the drop-off, it might work well if it works like Silent Storm in that you can’t channel in stealth. Also, I’d prefer CC only interrupt on the channel, or else it’ll become too easy for, say, a ranger to camp the drop-off from 1500 range and continuously deny the channel.

Yeah I agree. Just make it the same mechanics as used on stronghold and maybe add 0,5 sec channel time to that.

I agree, a small (2-3s?) channel on delivery would be really nice.
Also, I hope the orb won’t disable your skills, because that would basically force each faction to form “escort groups” for the people carrying the orb.

“WvW” means different things to different people.

I’ve been playing gs+sw/torch power shatter in solo and small scale roaming. But also staff+sc/torch hybrid shatter for solo, or gs+staff power shatter for small scale roaming.

For group/organized fights, I played power phantasm+mantra with gs+sw/focus and gs+staff.

It really depends on your role in your group and your playstyle

Twiggy Stick.9367:

Reason why mesmers are getting an offhand weapon, is because every phantasm is on the offhand weps, other then the two handlers.

By that line of thinking, ANet could have given us Hammer, Long/Short bow or Rifle, since 2handers have phantasms.

Anyway, they said who gets 1hander will get “something just as good” to make up for the lack of new weapon skills. The only thing we can do is wait and see if this “something” is indeed “just as good”. I don’t believe it will, but I’ll give them the benefit of the doubt (again).

BlackDevil.9268:

What could also be an option is keeping the current event, add a generator in the middle of the oasis. Make it so you gain a maximum of 2 charges just like in sPvP with the supplies on stronghold and with those 2 charges you can charge the mega laser by channeling it for +/- 2 seconds on the generator. Once you die with the charges, you lose the ‘’orbs of energy’’ you just gained from the mob which are available for enemies to pick up. Like that you don’t entirely gotta delete the event but rather spice it a bit up.

As they explained in the first presentation about this (I think it was the one at PAX), killing the dinosaur to get the core is only the easiest part of the job, then you need to bring the core back to one of 3 collection points, and you can be killed on the way, and you’ll lose the core for your enemy to collect.

If it works like that, sounds like a good excuse for PvP to me. And having 3 collection points makes it harder to blob the event with one single zerg camping the collection point.

Bumping because we transfered to Gunnar’s Hold and recruitment is open again!

Skill lag has been really horrible in the last few days, and it’s not network lag like I had in the past, since it affects everyone at the same time (and my guild has players from all Europe).