Guild Wars 2

@Carighan
You need to add the casttime itsself to the CD for a constant H/S. Ether feast has 2s ?
Healing Mantra has a 10s CD + 4s Cast (3s underwater).

This makes Healing Mantra probably a bit weaker, but you negleted the traits. Heling Mantra can be boosted by “Heal when casting Mantra” and “Can use Mantras thrice”. Both traits together ~double Healing Mantras efficiency (and heals allies/ illusions).

And Healing Mantra also works better with “Remove condition on heal”.

I also thought of checking the checkbox in options menu “automatically resolve targeted aoes centered at current target”. Then I saw, it’s “auto resolve at cursors current position” and then … meh.
I think it’d fit better.

I use Healing Mantra with
HealingIV and HealingX
and have see no problem. I’d not trade it for a single heal with 30s CD.

Clones deal ~2% of your damage. If you deal 30 damage, 2% is 0. And even critted, 0 dmg * 1.5 is still 0.

Shaper Images is probably the most powerful trait of mesmers. With this, even GS clones are pretty useful since they don’t just distract, but also inflict Bleeding with 3 hits every ~2s. Three clones equal 9 hits every ~2s. With 50% crit, it’s 4 bleed stacks every 2s. without you doing anything.

1) x% damage affects the final damage (of all skills (?)).
It does not affect the x% critical damage. Critical damage is set to (damage * (+50% + x% critical dmg)).
So it should affect your damage from criticals, but not the substat “critical damage” itsself.

2) see above.

I also thought of this.
Pistol + Shatter3 + DazeMantra + ResetSignet + StunSignet
should be able to disable any opponet for a long time. But also a huge recharge.

Well, I see no problem with most Mantras. They all have their uses (not sure with stability mantra).
I have traited 20 points in healing, so I remove conditions when I heal and heal AoE when I cast Mantras. Suddenly my Healing Mantra turns into a thrice healer (only twice when charged) and also an instant condition remover. It heals a bit less than the default heal (if precharged), but more with triple heal and has only 10s CD instead of 30. Then I can resolve it instantly (if precharged) and also instantly remove a single condition.
The 4s cast is a pain, but still better than waiting 20 more seconds for a heal.

I think all illusions have your stats, including Atk (Power + Weapon), Vit and Critical chance. The basic stats, too. So everything you see in you in your Hero-Window.

But then they have different damage (skill * Atk), different CD (skill) and different maxHP (Vit * x * special).
The damage depends on the skill. Since they have their own skills, they have their own damage values, but it should be scaled with your Atk. The CD is also based on their skill usage (and [Phantasmal Haste]). Clones have the same CD as your basic skills.
The only difference are the attacks of clones. Instead of your default attack, they deal your default attack * ~2%.
The MaxHP is yet unknown. I think clones have your maxHP * ~25%. Phantasms probably more.

Phantsmal Haste decreases the Phantasms’ recharge rate. It decreases their skills CDs, not your Phantasm summoning skills CD. Basically, it increases their attack speed.

That’s the difference between:
“Phantasms recharge 20% faster”
and
“Phantasm-summonig skills recharge 20% faster”

Greatsword:

• Phantasmal Berserker: [Cripple] ailment ignores [Cripple immunity] (seen multiple times on Earth Elementals)

Porkchops.3986:

What is up with Phantasmal Regeneration? Sometimes it takes ages to go off, sometimes it never does, and I usually have to be practically standing INSIDE the phantasm. It seems incredibly inconsistent and I’m worried it’s bugging up with all the other Phantasm boons (retaliation, fury, Signet of Illusions, etc).

Phantasmal Regeneration has a small AoE (3m radius ?). But the main point is, that it takes like 5~6s after spawn until the Phantasm triggers it.

^
Well, as said before, if you don’t have a target and only want to flee from aggro mobs, you still want to spawn a scape goat at your dodge spot. And since illusions need a target to live, they simply target the closest enemy.
The mechanics need to differ between “targeted” and “fleeing”, which most likely isn’t a case.

Carighan.6758:

5s would be ludicrous. It’d equate somewhere between 100%-150% extra character movement speed. Heh. I want that!

well, the distance I can blink (assuming it’s a completely plain way) I can walk (w/o boons) in ~2.5s. with 5s CD, you could move 3 distance units in 5s (2x walking, 1x blinking) instead of 2 units. That’s be +50% speed. And that assuming your reaction and timing is 0ms.

Dashwood.3215:

Nretep.2564:

ANet needs to implement a system which distuguishs between skills in pvp and pve, like DragonNest has. Every skill can have different CD, duration and damage modifier values in pvp (maps) and pve (maps).
If they’d implement this, they’d have to rebalance almost every utility and elite skill of mesmers.

No they really don’t need to do this. They brought it in in GW1 and it was a complete mess. Skills need to be balanced equally for all purposes, not least because WvW is a hybrid PvP/PvE model. Having two versions of every skill is horribly confusing to the average player, and psychologically spoils immersion.

Having said that, I do think Blink needs to get some love in general, it’s not exactly most people’s first choice skill, and this kind of fast confusing movement is a perfect example of the Mesmer’s art.

If that’s the case, I hope Meserms as as much better in PvP than they suck in PvE. I have the feeling that 60% of the utility spells are PvP only (like most aoe fields).

And for blink, I barely see a reason for it, since Decoy does the same trick + summons a clone. It also breaks stun (blink doesn’t, does it?)

Uhaen.9876:

For being effective, 5s (traited) would make it okay and probably even on some skill bars.

I think 5s is way too fast. As it is, 30s is pretty good — I have this ability perma-slotted. Positioning is so important in PvP, that I wouldn’t trade it for a phantasm. Escape, chase, dodging spells and attacks, getting out of binding roots, getting out of any immobilization; stack on the dodges, and I’m frequently invincible. I’ll grant you that in PvE, the rules could be bent a little more, as it certainly cuts down on how badly it sucks to be without any runspeed, but 5s is still too much. I wouldn’t scoff at a 20, though. A shorter cooldown when the blink doesn’t take us anywhere would be cool, though.

if you say it like this, ANet needs to implement a system which distuguishs between skills in pvp and pve, like DragonNest has. Every skill can have different CD, duration and damage modifier values in pvp (maps) and pve (maps).
If they’d implement this, they’d have to rebalance almost every utility and elite skill of mesmers.

Well, all developers (not just GW) should know that forums post all complain about anything. Ppl don’t bother posting “it’s okay”, but rahter “I want it changed”.

I’m also somewhat fine with mesmer. I’m not a pvp players, but I’ve heard the lack in PvE power is the boost in PvP. Personally it’d prefer to this be evened out a bit. If I see others killing the same mob in 50% or even 33% of my time.

I also have the feel that Grandmaster traits are too weak (for their cost) and Elite skills are not worthy either. Same with my utility spells. I barely use them since I spawn clones on dodge or with weapon speels. The double clone is rather an emergency spell for me. To be short, we either need more utility spells or boost some of them.

But generally I don’t see a big problem in this. Mesmers are PvP/ WvW classes and weak in PvE.

You want the “heal on shatter” trait to be moved from “healing line” to “illusion line” ?
and then “phantasm atkspd” trait moved from “illusion line” to “healing line” ?

personally, I’m not 100% fine with the trait lines either (or maybe just confused), but most of them are just right where they they are.

Still, in my eyes 30s CD is too high.
For being effective, 5s (traited) would make it okay and probably even on some skill bars. Especially since Mesers have no reliable swiftness buff.
And to be more fair, make a 2s (33% ?) CD when the skill fails. It just fails too often … and then 30s CD …

So you wanna spawn unlimited Phantasms on boss fights ?

The idea is generally nice, to give them an own counter (not unlimited) and not make them shatter. But the problem with this are the traits. Alot traits give phantams extra effects (reflect, regen, …), which is designed to be temporary (shatter).

^
alot clone abilities only trigger if you deal damage. Evading equals no damage dealt, so no clones appear. Phantasms usually have a different mechanic.

I guess it has something to do with targetting. Since illusions can’t exist without target, you won’t spawn one without damaging (marking) the target. Like the scepter, you can use the first two hits even without target making the first enemy hit the third one.

- You want a shatter build, not an illusion/ clone build.
- First to need to spend the traits correctly (see cromx’ post). The “create a clone on dodge” is really powerful, I also love it. But I don’t think it’s necessary if you focus on Scepters.
- “on death” triggers on “killed” and “replaced”, not on “shattered” or “removed” (then target dies)
- The Scepters clone-spawn rate exceeds the MindWrack CD. Not sure about the Shatter CD reduction from traits. But I don’t that you need to spawn more illusions than the initial one (combat initiation) and the scepter ones.
- I wonder if you tried different weapons or different builds. I found it necessary for me to test them once in a while to find my preferred one. I also started with scepter spawning + shattering (always shatter while you cast the third scepter hit) and landed on bleeding build now. I also started with the [Focus], but I didn’t like either of its skills. If you trated [Phantsmal Haste] the warden is the most powerful, but that’ probably a bug. Most Mesmers use off-hand pistol for burst damage, total damage and bleeding triggering.
- Signet of illusions is not needed. If you use it for the shatter reset, yes. But the +50% health are not needed or just useless.
- You sure you don’t want to get 5 points in chaos ? the auto regeneration is really convient

from the “bugged abilities” stickied thread:

Minibiskit.6158:

Did some testing with the effect of Phantasmal Haste (trait X in Illusions line) on our phantasm’s attacks today.

Let me first explain my understanding of “20% less recharge rate”. The phantasms initiates their attack, the attack has a duration period, and then it ends. After the attack ends, the phantasm enters a “recharge period”. This recharge period is the time that gets shortened by Phantasmal Haste.

Here is what I gathered from testing, sorted into groups of “working better than intended”, “working as intended”, and “not working at all”.

WORKING BETTER THAN INTENDED:

Phantasmal Warden:
Attack channel: 6.0s
Recharge (no trait): 7.0s
Recharge (traited): ~1.5s

WORKING AS INTENDED:

Phantasmal Berserker:
Attack duration: ~0.5s
Recharge (no trait): 7.0s
Recharge (traited): ~5.5s

Phantasmal Warlock:
Attack duration: instant
Recharge (no trait): 7.0s
Recharge (traited): ~5.5s

Phantasmal Duelist:
Attack duration: 1.5s
Recharge (no trait): 7.0s
Recharge (traited): ~5.5s

Phantasmal Defender:
Attack Duration: melee
Recharge (no trait): ~5.0s
Recharge (traited): ~4.2s

NOT WORKING AT ALL:

Phantasmal Mage:
Attack duration: instant
Recharge (no trait): 7.0s
Recharge (traited): 7.0s

Phantasmal Swordsman:
Attack Duration: 0.5s
Recharge (no trait): 5.0s
Recharge (traited): 5.0s

Phantasmal Disenchanter:
Attack duration: instant
Recharge (no trait): 5.0s
Recharge (traited): 5.0s

In my eyes, it looks like the warden is bugged.

I think Clones deal ~2% of your basic attack damage. In low level you deal <50, which causes 0 dmg hits.

Narmix.4862:

Unless that mesmer turns invisible which clears it.

Currently with torch alone, you can turn invisible for 3 seconds on a 4 second cool down (by interrupting your own “The Prestige” when it’s almost reached its end).

Activate the prestige
You turn invisible and start “casting” for 3 seconds
When the cast bar is 99% complete, use ability 1 to interrupt it
Prestige goes on it’s short “I was interrupted” 4 second cool down instead of 30 seconds. If you interrupt late enough, you even get the explosion + only a 4 second CD.

Bug, yes I assume, but I don’t think you should be able to target lock a mesmer with such an easy button click either.

nice how you explained it 3h ago, while the new patch notes are up for quite a while. Prestige is fixed now.

@Topic
Clones are not meant for PVP deceiving. Unless they get a complete rework.
They’re meant to deceive PvE or cause conditions.

^
Well, you don’t have to stand there. If you have 3 illusions out, it’s not problem and if not you can just run while casting.
It’s not just “better” with heal/time (esp with mantra heal trait), but also with condition removal, if you traited it.

Delirian.9853:

Sometimes mobs attack my clones, sometimes they dont.
You cant be sure that clones will tank for you all the time, but also I am not getting full aggro 24/7.

^ this

actually, it feels like some mobs are rather to be able to figure out the real me, and others try to kill every clone before me.

I think the “clone on dodge” does the target aggro pretty well.

I suppose the main point of mass invisibility is the movage of invisible armies through the portal …
but yeah .. veil would do the trick, too.

Personally I use 2 of the 3 sylvari skills rather than one of the mesmer ones.

Fay.2735:

I use Mantra of Pain as my healing skill (PvE). I have 20 points in Inspiration with the ‘Heal allies when casting mantra’ trait. Basically every time I finish casting a Mantra it heals myself and allies nearby.

I tried doing so, too, but the casttime is too big. In that time I rather attack/ dodge/ stealth or clone.

Fay.2735:

It’s especially awesome underwater because the cast time goes down to 3 seconds from 5 meaning you are virtually invincible just by spamming that ability while kiting mobs around.

this is a different case. I also use MoP underwater. So far, that I changed my default attack to it. And while resolving you can use other short spells.

Vyniea.2054:

Mantras should really have the 3 casts by default. The grandmaster trait should reduce their cast time in half or something.

I thought so, too, for several mantras, but it’d make “Remove condition on heal” + healing mantra too powerfull. Three charges of free condition removal …

Maybe adjust the number for each mantra.
- 3 for damage
- 2 for heal
- 4 for condition removal (and only remove 1 condition each charge)
- 4 for stun breaker
- 2 for daze

I use a bleed build with Greatsword. I consider the GSword as fastest hitter, which is essential for [Sharper Images] builds.
I also came to the conclusion, that [precision] has a higher priority than [condi dmg]. I don’t know if it’s for now (46% crit), but when I equipped [Signet of Domination] the [condi dmg] was increased significantly, but the bleed damage barely. The bleed tick increased from 48 to 51. This equals +6.25%. I’ll test it once in a while, but for now I’ll try to get more [precision].

For me:
Precision > Condition Damage > Toughness > Healing ~ Power > Vitality

Well, in GW2 you have to learn your weapon skills one-by-one. This means the developers didn’t allocate the skills by their type, but by the order of learning. This sure is pointless once you reach lvl6 (?) but that’s most likely the reason.

Instead of swapping those keys on certain weapons, I’d prefer to rearrange the weaponary skills myself (once all are unlocked). I even see barely a reason to set auto-attack to an “easy-to-reach” key while you only have to press is once (and not even that) and set the first first skill you usually use to the “somewhat-reachable” key ⁵.

Underwater Mantras charge faster. (Healing Mantras sound is bugged, but meh)
And so much faster that I’m replaced my default attack (Ctrl + Left mouse) to mantra of pain. The DPS is about comparable to default attack of trident.
But the tricks are:
- faster burst (precharge)
- can do quick spells which resolving (resolving mantras can be done anytime)
- auto-ally-heal with the trait

My build is somewhat focussed on [Sharper Images] (Illusions inflict bleeding on critical hits.). Condition damage sure works in increasing the ticks ([Sigil of Domnation] increases 48 ticks to 51 ticks).
But neither Condition duration nor Bleed duration work on this effect ?

Your build is a pretty common one. It’s pretty effective for mesmers, unless you hit some immune enemies. (I’ve only encountered a single mob which was immune to crits).

But the scepter is not the best choice. Either use Sword/ Pistol or GSword. The point behind those is the attack speed. iDuelist is great for burst bleed. High crit + fury works well for phantasms (I miss it for my clones). But if you also want clones to cause bleeding, the attack speed of your weapon is necessary.

It’s technically not a bug, but an unintentional exploit.
It’s been posted before.
Devs know about this one. Just a matter of time.

Well, that’s what the red bars below the skills are. If you see a red bar below Illusionary Leap, don’t use the skill. Move towards the target and activate the skill as soon as the red disappears.

Yet, they could make it 900 … since it IS a gap closer … melee needs this.

Carighan.6758:

I wouldn’t rate them like that.

I rate them like that, when I only compare the auto-attack. Sure, all of them have different gameplay, but I only want to know the basic values.

To be exact, I mainly care of the attack speed with my build. And if the GSword actually exceeds the sword speed (even if the damage is lower), it’d be an great option for me. But it it’d be more like a staff version (slow and powerful), it’d pretty much the opposite.

Can anyone rate the 4 mainhand weapons now?

Weapon: range; speed; damage; effect
- Sword: melee; fast; high
- Scepter: 900; medium slow; low; auto-clones
- Staff: 1200; slow; medium
- GSword: 1200; ?; ?

Shena Fu.5792:

I have tested this: Blade Training doesn’t reduce the cooldown for Illusionary Leap.

I’ve heard CD reductions don’t stack. So if you trated Illusion 5 (-20% CD with illusion skills) alot weapon CD reduction may be pointless.
Haven’T tested this myself, though.

MLieBennett.9031:

How about a compromise?

Clones are persistent and can last X amount of time out of combat, and can switch targets after their first dies. (They are more for confusion, then dmg in their current incarnation anyways.)
Phantasms are as is, dying as their target dies.

I also thought of this. Instead of an additional shatter, I’d like to re-target them with a ~2s delay.

As for the trivia:
- Cannot re-target if illusion already has a target
- If an illusion has no target for 2s, it’ll disappear
- Re-targetting can only be done within a range of 900 ?

I don’t like the system which makes you a forced ramp type damager and then zerg you with 10 mobs. Others do the same damage as you with 3 illusions without ramp and even more survivability. Especially when you’re in a group, summon your illusions and the mob is dead before they can attack once.
But I don’t see any problem with bigger mobs (veteran and bigger).

Somna.5168:

Every time you get a book, it automatically resets your traits as well.

but the actual reset is far cheaper than those books

@OP
Important traits in my opinion:
Duelling 15
Chaos 5
Illusions 5
Duelling 20:X

Makes 30 TP – lvl40.

I go for toughness/ healing then, but it’s a matter of personal build.

All illusions are affected by your “current” stats. Toughness, Vitality, Power, Precision and so on.

Level scaling is pretty unfair (too extreme). Even if you’re downscaled from 80 to 10, you’re meant to use lvl80 weapons. Using lvl10 weapons will drop your damage even in a lvl10 area.
So always try to get the strongest weapons for you.

nidwin.6731:

Don’t get that trait for the moment as it isn’t working. It’s bloody bugged.
Mantras don’t heal anyone on casting the mantra.

they do. “Casting” is the preparation of mantras, not the usage of the prepared skills.

So if you have no mantra prepared, you press the healing mantra and cast 5 long seconds. At the instant this casting is finished, you aoe-heal anything allied (you yourself are considered as “ally”, too)

I use Healing Mantra as main healing skill. It’s nice to heal twice, even in midcombat, casting or downed. With the default heal skill you need to cast. Recasting it in midcombat is somewhat of a pain, but it still as a lower CD than the default heal.

The usefullness increases with the trait “remove condition when you heal”. So instead of getting the remove mantra and I just heal myself twice, removing up to 2 conditions instantly.
Furthermore I will get the “heal (allies) when casting mantras” (both in healing trait line). I had it before and found it convient. Unfortunately the heal occurs when the cast is finished, but that’s not a problem. With this the healing Mantra has 3x heal (all about same amount). I remember when I had 10k HP, I healed (thrice) with 1k.
Then I played around with my third utility spell. I’m still not using it efficiently, but when I had “heal (allies) when casting mantras” I used MoPain. Not necessarily for the minor damage effect, but the healing ability + damage every 3s was nice.

tldr;
as the others said. If you trait them, they can be useful. You need to test a bit with your traits as Mesmer

Embolism.8106:

Clones and Phantasms use all your offensive stats, and possibly defensive stats as well. Also, boons and such that affect your base stats will improve your Illusions: getting Might and Fury on yourself will increase the (condition) damage and crit chance of your Illusions as well.

I’m pretty sure that this is exactly the opposite case. Illusions are copies of youself without boons. Damage/ HP and other stats are somewhat scaled (like clones have ~2% of your damage) but depend on your stats.
Increasing illusion stats has to be done be giving them boons (like Fury).

Malice = Condition damage

^
actually, it was buffed. Instead of a single 2h buff, it continuously refreshs. So a dispel or boon-steal won’t make it useless, but refresh.

@OP
they have your crit chance – as Rhyno said. So yes, if you make a build out of duelist 15 trait, be sure to stack precision and condition damage. Preferably use swords for faster attack speed …
as a note: phantasmal fury works in phantasms not clones.

I don’t understand your argumenting at all.
You say you want to be range, but use swords because of the damage. You don’t want the scepter because you don’t want to use shatter skills.

You better decide what you want. then we can give you tips.

Weapons:
- Sword: Melee, fast, strong
- Scepter: 900, medium, weak
- Staff: 1200, slow, medium, aoe
- GreatSword: 1200, ?, ?

if you want to be ranged, don’t use the sword … it’s the only melee one.

Maybe you like my style – Bleeding build/ secondary healer:
precision trait 15 “illusions cause bleeding on crit”
build up precision and condiction damage as possible, weapon barely matters. Scepter works well over time (durable enemies) because it continuously summons clones. As you like you can shatter them when you’re casting the teritary skill of your basic attack for additional damage. Sword for lower mobs. The attack speed is faster and therefore causes bleeding more often. Here you need to rely on utility clones or dodging clones (precision trait 20:X).
As secondary I go for healing. The trait “phantams grant regeneration”, “healing cures condition” and “heal when casting mantras” are the keys for it. I don’t think I have to explain it.

Well, after reading various guides, I also decided to try out the only melee weapon for Mesmers. Now I use Scepter/Torch and Sword/sword.

The blocking skill (sword offhand slot 4) it pretty much the same as scepters blocking skill (slot 2).

The main advantage of of swords is (imo) the attack speed. They are slot faster than the scepter or staff. The attack speed is important for my bleeding build. The trait “illusion crit causes bleeding” is awesome and the base of it.
Personally I don’t like phantasms much since you need to cast them and they usually burst + wait. During the waiting time, illusions would cause bleeding. So instead of “fury for phantasms I chose +50 precision with a sword”.

The only 2(~3) reasons for casting phantasms (for me) are:
1. Illusions grant regeneration (trait). Fits with the iSwordman because he’s in melee range of the target yet, 2m away to not die so soon.
2. 50% damage reduction from iDefender.