Guild Wars 2

In any case there it’ll be x/4/x/x/6, since shatter is most effective with DE in dueling master and IP in illusion grandmaster. If she strips your boon then its 4/4/0/0/6, if she interrupts you and gain 5x might then its 0/4/4/0/6. Although latter is less likely, considering the weapon set she’ll need mantra of distraction to consistently interrupt.

Levetty.1279:

Its the only viable build because its the only one that has a place where it can preform well (WvW roaming where the enemy is too lazy to run away if losing). All other builds are pretty much useless or outperformed by every other class in their intended role, except maybe throwing out reflects in dungeons.

Calling useless is too harsh imo, but I admit it does take some form of outplayed to defeat other roaming metas kittenter mesmer (you know I mean shatter mesmer here…). D/P thieves are ok but P/D thieves are everywhere these days. I still need to dual some S/D thieves after the patch to see the real effect of their nerf to shatter mesmers.

Who knows, maybe instant area daze from power lock can make mesmers valuable against zergs who can’t organize continuous stability. Combine that with CS or CI and perhaps you’ll see a long tail who can’t stack on commanders.

The new iLeap should be able to make shatter easier to land.

Longer duration torment hardly address the flaw in condition shatter due to not matching its “burst” nature. You spent a good amount of time to set up only to get your torment cleansed, as oppose to power shatter that instantly strip your opponent’s hp. So to address that is probably to double the confusion and/or torment stacks applied by condition shatter. Probably need a GM trait to restrict that, such as Miam. Increase confusion damage may not be a good idea since you’re basically buffing all other builds from other classes, so shatter still seems “sub par” compare to others.

Other than that I can think of switching vigorous revelation to illusion adept by swapping with compounding power, which is more suited to phantasm build in inspiration line. This specifically helps shatter mesmer to actively generate more shatter folders after the vigor nerf. I say active because you need to shatter to get this boon, as oppose to most mesmers who get half up-time vigor after crit with critical infusion. This should bring shatter mesmer more in line with other builds.

I’m not sure about shattered conditions and restorative illusions. When considered separately the effect of those two GM traits aren’t great due to heavily investment into a traitline that doesn’t really support shatter. Maybe combine them or drop one of them into master trait. Or introduce a decent master shatter trait at inspiration traitline, because that traitline is basically all about phantasms.

You know it is kind of awful that they have video presentation talking about IE change, but doesn’t show clone WoC’s second bounce, instead just go straight to the next point when clone WoC does the first bounce
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu-cKaSZbnQ#t=35

Or put that skill on 3s or 4s CD? Not too much, not too low, and the overall drainage to universal thief CD/initiative is the initiative they spent on that skill. Thieves can still survive/continue attack with other skills. I play both mesmer and thief and I don’t feel that a whole class ignores a GM trait regardless of builds is justified. It is clearly not a l2p issue when a GM trait, game system not skill level, almost completely doesn’t work on thieves.

You guys do realize most thief utilities are either instant cast, or have 0.25s (eg. shadow refuge as a gentleman kindly mentioned above) or 0.5s cast time right? Do you honestly think mesmers have good chance of interrupting those skills easily? The only two easy things to interrupt is hide in shadows and basilisk venom (plus a good thief will use distance or stealth to cover these skill). Most of the time its either too late or just simple cc that has no interrupt/power block proc.

I think confusing combatants should still go through, afterall it is a further investment into GM.

Many engineer builds has limited access to stun break/stability. Not saying there aren’t any, but their kits can take up a lot of stun breakers. So diversion or mantra of distraction can be very useful against them. I play S/S+staff shatter mesmer with halting strike and it does really well against engis, I imagine interrupt builds will benefit from that as well.

As for Skyhammer…I tend to stay out of that map lol.

Just made a hybrid shatter build that maybe suited to your taste, but heavily depended on stats combination in WvW though.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW8flknpRtdqxINcrNCrBh6rslfSyBEgSmhrB-TVyDABwo+jpKBNe/BivAAAY+TIlfeobIgDCAEPBASBAxuK-w
So with bloodlust stacks and mental torment, you can deliver decent power damage in your mind wrack combo. I like carrion gear + exuberance (PvE/WvW only) because of extra vitality while covering power and precision, but you can also change that with Chrysocola orb for more condition/less vitality. The lingering torment and confusion can probably fix that power deficiency.

I’m also torn between scepter and sword but I realized its incredibly hard to land shatter without immobilize. But staff burn will benefit a lot after the patch.

I’m really bad at math so I’ll do some rough work on condition, assuming your opponent though you’re power shatter and snare at condition removal:

Torment
6s x 1.8 = 10.8s
10.8s x 135 damage/s = 1458 total damage per clone over 10.8s

Confusion is calculated by 136 damage/skill use
so assuming fast attackers use skill per 1/2s and slow ones use skill per 1s
Fast: (7.25 / 0.5) * 136 = 1972 total damage per clone over 7.25s
Slow: 7.25 * 136 = 986 total damage per clone over 7.25s

x3 if all illusion hit. And also consider the possibilities of Cry of frustration and diversion.

Now I have no idea how to calculate mind wrack + blurred frenzy damage, if anyone want to compare the damage in this build with standard zerker shatter that would be great. No conclusion can be drawn, but I think if your opponent left out the conditions then maybe, just maybe, this build can deliver slightly more damage than standard shatter over time.

When we look at IE we should also look at illusionary invigoration though, they share the same slot and will almost always fiercely compete with each other.

60s CD is a bit intimidating but if you balance around diversion, distortion and various forms of active defenses, a shatter mesmer can actually have a really really long fight (longest dual I reached is 15-20 min). The extra mind wrack can also help shatter mesmers finish the fight or turn the tide if he decides to go offensive. I don’t remember how many times II help me turn the table when I’m going to lose. Indeed IE change will give significantly more sustain pressure, and can definitely helps you ensure your victory, but if you’re already losing then IE change will be less likely to change the tide of battle.

So my take on this? IE change promote sub-diversity among shatter mesmers, as both II and IE has their advantage and disadvantage. Even without the IE change, II can still give opponents a huge headache.

I think people, particularly opponent, simply hate PU because of its play style. Stealth, boons and heavier AI dependency of PU gameplay are usually the reasons why people think they lose to lower skill leveled opponents. But I won’t really get into PU skill floor/ceiling discussion.

Condition or not, shatter builds are dependent on bursts. This gives your opponent greater chance to dodge/evade your primary source of damage and your burst comes in waves with less punishing gaps in between. Charging AI in shatter suffers the same large choreography as old iLeap; close range shatter means mesmer positioned himself in a more dangerous way (and some opponents respect this high risk gameplay); fast shatter that your opponent can’t react to also mean, in a way, you outplayed him. So shatter build usually isn’t being flamed on. Of course you don’t have to shatter that much, but imo it makes this GM trait more optional though.

I’ll definitely try out different forms of Miam build after the patch, but I’ve sold my torment rune because its condition duration bonus is too narrow and heal proc isn’t too useful.

I used it in PvE before and occasionally in dungeon pug as well. It can mess up your rotations but pretty fun regardless.

Just curious about the order of conditions, It is kind of important since the condition that comes last will be cleansed first. But I don’t have much time to test out atm, so which one comes first? Or is it a random generator that sometimes a condition comes first and other time comes second/last?

So if I have rending shatter (vulnerability on shatter), illusionary retribution (confusion on shatter) and Miam the disillusioned (torment on shatter), which one comes first?

Another combination is crippling dissipation (cripple on clone death), confusing combatant (confusion on clone death) and debilitating dissipation (random conditions on clone death), which one comes first?

Thanks for reading, any help is appreciated

I believe the devs are pulling a mesmer trick on everyone. Letting us focus on AA torment when the real buff is staff

I’d say condition PU is sort of countered by GS/staff range shatter, but it’s more of a complex relationship. Well timed shatters can remove the boons that’s keeping PU mes alive, while GS/staff encourages shatter mesmer to stay out of clone death range. It’s more about bursting at the right time that makes shatter mesmer difficult in fighting PU, but if you’re not so determined at that capture point then clone death will have significantly less pressure on you.

Can’t exactly recall which video but one of Im Bamf Joe’s video has him and his friend facing 3+ PU mesmers. Very interesting to watch.

Yes, we should give it a try before making judgement on it. I still think putting torment on scepter AA into Miam trait will solve this “PU torment OP!” but I can also see it forces scepter user into illusion grandmaster.

See 2:28-2:35 in Dulfy recorded video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lu-cKaSZbnQ

As the title suggests, this means scepter torment is only applicable when you trait for Miam the disillusioned. Just want to get some thoughts about this one, see if going down illusion traitline really counters PU + scepter.

x/x/6/x/6 means you really have 2 traits left. Without DE the only way for you to generate scepter clones is through the long AA chain or utility. Less clone generations so less clone death pressure. Also no bleed on illusion crit so you basically trade bleed with torment, instead of having all.

All the while granting torment AA to condi-shatter. This provide a decent condition damage for scepter shatter mesmer to sustain between shatters. Just adds a little more offense in shatter build and see if it is worth the while to take over PU survivability.

Plus its a way for the devs to avoid massive nerf demands without reverting/take back what they said, and a way for us to avoid the nerf storm.

So what are your guys thoughts?

MysticHLE.7160:

If you can kill/down one person fast and continuously in a 2 vs. 2 or 3 vs. 3 setting, then it puts your team at an advantage. PU Mesmers as is can quickly inflict up to 14 stacks of confusion (stacks for 3+ seconds, can deal 2.4k damage per enemy skill use – using a 0/4/6/0/4 build) – it’s a pretty good shutdown for anyone trying to escape and/or heal imho.

This is on top of bleed, burning, and torment.

I think we had similar discussion couple of weeks ago, but I’m really curious as to how you can stack 14 confusions quickly and allows it to last long. As I recall mesmers require a lot of set up to achieve that. Excluding perplexity and you should be left with an easily dodgeable confusing image and an iMage who can’t aim (low duration and does NOT bounce to the same target twice). Once cleansed and you’ll have to wait 15s to reapply your only reliable source of confusion – perplexity interrupt.

Sure we can consider constant application, but lack of high condition stacks or condibomb by mesmers means your opponent has more time to cooldown their heals as well. Our condition offense is still no where near condi-thieves in roaming and everyone screams OP because of PU survivability.

cyyrix.6105:

Ross Biddle.2367:

• If iLeap spawns on target, does that mean its effect by LoS now? Also, do we still get the leap on swap?

The leap finisher, yes. The skill bar video had a clip of Karl swapping over a Chaos Storm and it proc’d Chaos Armor.

The more interesting question is, will we be able to swap to people on a different z-axis? I’m hoping it works like blinks, where if the person is in a “blinkable” spot, you’ll be able to swap.

More testing is needed, but he did used it on an npc standing at a platform above him. If I remember correctly, the old iLeap clone will trip if it tries to go upstairs.

I’d love to copy fury from signet of rage/call of the wild, but arcane thievery kinds of cover that. The old block’n’burn is pretty fun too.

Ross Biddle.2367:

• If iLeap spawns on target, does that mean its effect by LoS now? Also, do we still get the leap on swap?

• I now foresee the Mantra Zerg Meta for Mesmer tagging in large scale fights. GG.

• Some other good changes. But also sparse considering the (obviously) huge amount of thought that went into redesigning warriors.

I posted one just earlier, is pretty much a variant of CS build.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJAWRl0npYtloxGNcrNiphcqqkOQjBleUpFA-TVyAwAAeCA6UXAtSwsKDCcJA+q0LnKNP3fYvuASBExwI-w
whoops something wrong with the sigils lol.

skcamow’s Chillruption will also be a good option.

Not to be nitpicking, but condition removals relying on only 2 power returns are countered by poison+covering conditions (you may end up having less heal all the time). You could try to add another condition removal or trait for harmonious mantra.

Shatter and confusing images are dodgeable. I play similar build a lot when Miam first comes out and it is hard to keep higher stacks of torment or confusion. Sure you have constant application with the auto-attack changes, but without higher stacks your opponent will also have enough time to CD their heals. When considering other condition builds there and other classes’ condition meta, does this really outshine? If not then it really isn’t overpowered.

As it should be. A lot of immobilize from other classes are instant or projectile. Mesmer immobilize are rather predictable if didn’t trait for CI. The large choreograph in charging clone is just a huge give away. Even after the patch, you’d most likely dodge that iSwap after a clone pop right next to you.

Trouble with PU condition was never really player and clone’s auto-attacking, but clone death + stealth + boons. I do agree this will make PU condition more powerful though, I just think we’re pointing the gun at the wrong guy.

I run 4/4/0/0/6 full zerk shatter with halting strike and s/s+staff. OH sword is pretty decent due to its low cd. iRiposte is actually quite powerful with 2-3k crit damage. And counter blade can deliver halting strike damage if successfully interrupt. iSwordsman deliver quick and high damage (3-4k crit against people without toughness). Also keep in mind those damage goes up with 5xvulnerability in each daze, and I use diversion quite often.

Only issue is against multiple foes, but most OH has similar issues. Focus have less trouble against multiple foes if it doesn’t break so often.

With the AoE power lock I’m thinking about lockdown from a distance. Ofc your damage isn’t as pretty as warrior and RNG prevents you from being the next hambow, but at least you can stay at the back.

6/6/0/2/0 with more offensive support role in zerg.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJAWRl0npYtloxGNcrNiphcqqkOQjBleUpFA-TVyAwAAeCA6UXAtSwsKDCcJA+q0LnKNP3fYvuASBExwI-w

Master traits exchangeable. Veil is also exchangeable if you don’t like to be barked by commander. Preferably mantra of stability since this build lacks stun breakers.

Royale.5863:

I worry when they say Mesmers will get an adjustment. Warriors are having their adrenaline “adjusted” too. Not that i care for warriors. The wording is worrying however.

Just for your interest, and probably in your favor: warrior adrenaline is going to get change with Skill Bar. Any missed burst skill will now consume their adrenaline and cleansing iron does not work on missed burst. So as mesmers we don’t have to dodge eviscerate as crazy as before but we should expect to see more warriors with bow (bow burst has always been consuming adrenaline regardless of hitting target).

EDIT: oh I see your point :P. I hope we’re not going for the worst. But I also don’t see the point of butchering mesmer further in his current sorry state.

On one side our staff only really have 3 attacks, one with high cd (and more denial than damage) and other relies on high damage but fragile phantasm with 18s CD. You use those 2 weapon skills then got stuck at auto-attack for offense until you swap weapons (or use shatter or utility but you can use those with other weapon set as well). Having IE fix will at least add a little more offense to staff.

On the other hand this fix also kind of forces melee opponents to destroy your clones and suck up clone death conditions. But I don’t really see the problem in that, if they insisted on playing melee against clone death mesmers then it is really their own issue for generating tactical disadvantage.

MSFone.3026:

keenlam.4753:

Advent.6193:

• Disruptor’s is either: reworked to be worth a darn, or replaced
  .

Disruptor’s can be reworked to reset your heal on interrupt, would that make it worthwhile as grandmaster trait?

How about just heal you on interrupt? Anything less heal-y and id still never take.

Heal on interrupt is probably at best 2k per interrupts. Resetting heals on the other hand…imagine signet of the ether (resetting phantasms) or ether feast (5k+ heals). I’d say that outweigh your choice

EDIT: come to think about it, 2k per interrupt is a bit optimistic lol. Anyway if it is decent enough maybe mesmer can stay at the point a bit better? not saying they can bunker though lol.

Had a funny fight with a MM necro today, I destroyed most of his minions and he goes into death shroud. I was dying but I decided to run in circles around him at almost zero range, which caused him to miss like 3 life blasts and gave me just enough time to use ether feast. There is no guarantee that this will work, but it really made my day.

Just 10 AR would reduce Agony damage down to 1% for level 10-19. A clear table is shown in the link below.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Agony
You don’t need to reduce it all the way to 1% though, tanking through 6% per tick isn’t too difficult, and 12% is still manageable, but it gets a relatively harder for mesmer to recover later on. Remember to avoid healing during agony unless you absolutely have to, as it reduces healing by 50%.

I did offer portal bombs in the past but rarely taken by pug commanders (duh). Although I probably deserved that since I like to drop portal at objective captured chest.

Yeah what Eliesume said. Landing shatter is not going to be easy unless you roam with someone who can apply immob more reliable than our iLeap (or more accessible stuns), say hambow warrior (or someone with leg specialist) or hammer guardian. Lockdown mesmer can be a good partner, but it is also harder for them to lock someone in the large WvW space.

I play both hammer/GS support guard or shatter mesmer in WvW, but never really have another player whom I can support/support me. /sad

Not exactly a meta but here’s a shatter build for roaming
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8flknpRtlpxINcrNCrxg6sS7MSOQAlsirB-TVSEABZqSTd7PAwFAYgDCgWKBXS53KqLwmuBHeCAkCYUhRA-w

General fast burst from distance are iZerker + mirror blade + mind wrack. Or you can start that combo with prestige to avoid being seen while doing those animations (plus the flame blast in the end can be a nice additional damage).

Here’s one I run, my shatter has less burst but more consistent damage
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW8clknpRtlpxINcrNipxg6yqbOSGQDlMkxB-TVSEABZqSTd7PAwFAYgDCgWKBXS53KqLwmuBHeCAkCYUhRA-w

Don’t let the staff fool you, this is actually a melee set up. I usually close in on opponent with iSwordsman + iRiposte (or counter blade), those 2 can hit really hard or waste their dodge. I use diversion when opponent aren’t immobilize but that’s not a set rule, or I can become too predictable.

Ofc you can go full zerk with it, I have a little toughness just in case I miss dodge eviscerate or backstab. Still you’ll be relying on a lot of active defenses in shatter build. A lot of kiting/stealth/distortion/diversion involved, but if you time it properly you’ll have some form of bail out skill most of the time.

I presume by global 2s CD you mean increase CD time, since 2s on skill usage are exactly what daze/stun does. However what you’re suggesting is a bit like chill (less RNG but somewhat less effective) in chaotic interruption.

StickerHappy.8052:

Me Games Ma.8426:

PvP
We Mesmers definetly are able to stack confusion quite high. The problem is that these stacks won’t last long enough to kill people (that’s because of -50% dmg nerf) it WAS possible for mesmers to oneshot people with confusion dealing almost 5k damage per hit.
If anet wants to make a confusion mesmer viable we should get a buff in damage OR duration. Both would be good good too but maybe over powered.

I agree somewhat that we are able to stack confusion quite high, but all the methods we have are unreliable

EX: Scept 3 = 5 stacks BUT all the channeling part has to hit,
iMage =no comment on this one, unreliable too slow to catch on moving targets
Shatter confusion = have to have 3 clones out for max stacks for f2 (with the trait again on illusions 5)
Glamour traits are meh now. 2 stacks on an enchantment

Total: Ideal situation 14 stacks with full 3 clone f2 shatter=3 skills

Now look at the Engineer (Just for comparison)

Pry bar is instant 5 stacks
With perplexity runes = interrupt pull plus prybar = 10 stacks instant.
Total of 2 skill + rune, effortless

I would totally agree with you if duelist has that 100% finisher + chaos storm, null field, feedback combo as before.

So in short the problem is that The application could be high if the process is RELIABLE. and I agree with your point the duration is too short for it even to matter.

This. Also glamour will only stack one confusion because in reality your opponent will only exit your glamour, not enter it. Unless you dedicated 2 traits in illusions (adept and master) to glamour trait, then you get 2 confusions (one for initial blind upon cast and one for exit). However that initial blind on cast are kind of counter-intuitive to confusion upon entering glamour, so it is unlikely to stack 3 confusions on glamour.

Which kind of reminds me, this maybe fuzzy in everyone’s mind but do you guys remember fighting Diplomat Tarban, a bounty in Brisban Wildlands? If I remember correctly he’s glamour stacks 5 confusion on initial cast/entering/exiting and hitting his chaos armor stacks 3 confusion. Maybe we need to tone down on the glamour but would be cool and punishing to WvW zerg if our glamour can cause 4 confusions. And this can make confusion application more useful in chaos armor.

The wiki said iMage’s “skill bounces twice and cannot bounce to a target more than once”. Meaning maximum of 3 stacks on a target from each iMage attack. Could someone confirm that for me please :P?

How about major adept trait in Illusion? The adept trait in there is kind of average for shatter build and I swap between precise wrack and compounding power. Adept in dueling also comes into mind but adding defenses to clones don’t exactly suit the crit traitline. To me, 3s aegis/protection on clones aren’t exactly trade-able when compare to deceptive evasion or illusionary invigoration.

rincevent de ankh.6531:

Mesmers can stack a lot of confusion. there are many build which allow that for instance this one is working on PvE.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRArf7ansISraWqGOoB1aGB1QOZyqo8bbS34RAA-TByCABOoEEgnAAOq/owBBY59H0T/AynAgjU+JIgFB-e

Indeed your build will stack relatively high confusion in PvE, but when OP ask whether it is overpower I think he is referring to WvW/PvP situations. In which case confusing images don’t hit continuously because purple beam is simply a huge telegraph. Glamour won’t hit anyone twice unless he’s really desperate that he has to walk into red circle.

I took out the perplexity runes and duration food/sigil because other professions can use those as well, so I’ll only compare baseline duration + traited condition duration in the following talk. Keep in mind while Domination traitline buffed condition duration by 30%, other professions can do that as well. Master of Misdirection (confusion +33% duration) is the best trait we have, but even then our shatter and iMage’s confusion only last 5.25s. Just barely over most skills (without traitline that boost condition duration) I listed above. Confusing image seems really decent right now (8.75s), but again who would let you keep hitting him with purple beam for full 3s?

With your build you can actually spike a good 15+ stacks of confusion in an ideal situation, but you’ll be burning down most of your skills. It can work, but there’s so much dedication to confusion that you don’t have other reliable conditions, so people will be able to cleanse your confusion if the stacks are high. Or you can stack couple at a time, but other professions can also apply other conditions on top of the 4-5 confusion stacks they applied instantly. Hence I said they can apply confusion in a much faster and easier manner. As mesmers we actually need a huge set up to stack high confusion, while other professions can do that much faster and use remaining time to apply other conditions.

I think the funny thing is how other professions can stack confusion easier and faster than mesmer.

A single skill at melee range from toolkit (5s) or bomb kit (5s) can stack 5 confusions on an engi’s opponent, and static shot stacks 2 confusion (3s). These skills have <20s CD. A traited thief steal can stack 5 confusion instantly as well. An interruption from traited warrior stack 4 confusions (8s), not to mention how easy it is for them to interrupt people.

Mesmer scepter’s confusing images need full 3s hit to stack 5 confusions, with each stack last 5s so more like approximately 3-4 stacks over 6-7s (assuming full hit). iMage stack 3 confusion but doesn’t bounce to the same opponent twice. Our best confusion stacking skills, shatter, have high CD and lower confusion duration than most skills listed above. And your opponent must be really clueless to allow current glamour (high CD btw) to stack high confusions on him.

So I’m behind Curunen’s idea, mesmer can hardly stack confusion in current state and having slightly better confusion accessibility could probably bring our specialty back. Plus who would just let 3 scepter clone hanging around (both mesmer and opponent alike)?

Osicat’s shatter is still a very good choice if you like high risk/high reward, and I still run it (4/4/0/0/6, S/S+staff and halting strike over mental torment). There are some videos with very skillful shatter mesmer roaming gameplays, for solo I recommend Vash and for duo Joe.

Unfortunately you may notice as a roamer that GW2 doesn’t always follow the pattern of higher risks give higher rewards. You should expect quite a bit of opponents running so called “cheese builds” (ie. condition thieves) and expect quite a bit of losses. Just need to learn condition management through hard lessons I suppose (or a support guardian buddy is always good).

Depending on your friend’s build, but I think you’re more likely to be the target when you duo roam with a thief as a shatter mesmer.

Oh and regarding your question, the current meta roaming is generally PU, whether it is condition (slower but safer) or power (faster but riskier).

Spamming auto-attack is horrible, but staff also lacks reliable damage outside of iWarlock and interruption traited Chaos storm. Granted that iElasticity would make condi PU more powerful, but I feel that the problematic synergy isn’t exactly comes from PU and WoC but more from PU with illusion death.

Staff itself doesn’t have much condition pressure outside of AA. So if you don’t trait for illusion death your staff doesn’t actually apply too much condition damage. Other classes’ condition builds can deliver more burst and reliable condition damage than you and your 3 fragile clones’s WoC.

PvE mesmers (they’re still around to some degree) will definitely go against this lol. We don’t exactly lack burst builds, and converting sustain builds to burst build goes against the idea of build diversity. I think we just need to accept that AI is part of mesmer and try to improve on that in zerg situations, or introduce some punishing skill that incorporate AoE and unique mechanisms in GW1.

Though you did give me an interesting idea, what if phantasms shows clone appearance after using their attack, and goes back to phantasm looks everytime they attack. Would that make mesmer a lot more….mesmerizing?

P.S. None of our suggestions will be taken into consideration due to how much “work” ANet have to put in. So I’m being pretty casual and random on my suggestions.

May not be as useful in zerg situations and potentially overpowered in dueling/roaming, but can we make Cry of Frustration corrupt boons like necros? Serves the purpose of punishing people. Just feel like ripping boons aren’t enough when many opponents can reapply it within 10s.

Other than that I’d love to see mesmers teleport to opponent as easily as thief’s sword 2. I don’t mind if we need a clone at vicinity to do that, kinda synergize well with mirror blade.

iSwordman isn’t neccesary easy to dodge though. People I face usually respond to pistol barrage after taking 2-4 hits, rendering iDuelist less useful than it is expected to be.

Unless they actually address that within these couple of months, channeling mantra doesn’t remove any condition. Still, 6 condition removals are pretty solid. You just need to time your heal properly in case poison is covered by 4+ other conditions.

I saw this build the other day, except the person is using mantra of pain over mantra of distraction. He’s channeling a lot to heal himself while keeping the phantasm’s hp high.

Just a little info in case anyone doesn’t know: illusionary elasticity doesn’t work on staff clones. Despite ANet said they’re aware of this and will address that PRE- and POST-15th April (serious!), they haven’t make any changes to it.

Thanks for the guide!

Poobadoo became the center of my attention when he walks in though lol.

Trait for halting strike instead of mental torment and you can deal additional shatter damage during the 11.5s MR interval. This can be useful when most players experienced in fighting shatter mesmer can anticipate mind wreck to some extend.

To me, Cry of Frustration isn’t doing much at the moment. The confusion duration is too short for condition shatter mesmer to deal significant damage (post-confusion nerf), particularly against opponent who’s careful about the conditions on them. And the trait…that’s be honest, mesmers aren’t exactly suitable for retaliation. I mainly use Cry of Frustration to rip people’s boon before going for MR or daze.

Back to topic, would love to see some movement skills involve in clone while avoiding pathing issue like iLeap. Perhaps this will increase mesmer’s chase ability too much (eg. mirror blade + swap) but thieves have much more superior chase anyway (eg. Infiltrator’s Strike, Shadow Shot)

Duel a hambow friend and you’ll have high chance of seeing it. It may not be guarantee but phase retreat while stun can cause that.