Guild Wars 2

savacli.8172:

Inspiration adds a great deal of utility

The traits that really stood out to me as golden are:

• Mender’s Purity + Mantra of Recovery/Power Return = Group goodbye conditions (double stack when traited for Harmonious Mantras)
• Inspiring Distortion: Group distortion. Throw in Blurred Inscriptions from Domination to further the shenanigans.
• Illusory Inspiration: Haven’t implemented this GM in my builds, but I can only imagine the havoc.

Add in Restorative Mantras for PvE sustain, traited Focus against anything with projectiles and low mobility (like all of Caudecus’ Manor…), or Temporal Enchanter for longer TW pain and pseudo-cleanse on immobilise/weakness.

Inspiration always was good in terms of traits, but wasting 300-600 stat points hurt a lot.

At least shave the cd by ~10s so it’s ready for every Tequatl burn phase even if you stomp him flat

glenndevis.8327:

Elite skills should be those types of skills u keep in mind & use them when they’re most useful to turn the tide of a fight. And not spam them in every single fight.

That’s a bit of a design inconsistency though. Mesmer elites are certainly designed to be “ultimate” spells, but then there’s things like Signet of Rage, summons and Mortar Kit. On the flipside certain utilities can be more “important” to save due to having unique functions, like Portal.

For open world, use a Sigil of Fire in your GS and slot MoP if you know there’s a lot of loot-dropping mobs around. It’s not about the dps, it’s about the 1200 range instant-cast AoE tag blast. 3 casts is enough to cover most Orr/Harathi events, recharge between waves.
You can just get an exotic zerker GS from CoF tokens for this purpose, no need to waste an ascended weapon.
GS also has a lot of AoE/burst, making it a good option if you just want something dead now (at the cost of lower dps for the next few seconds). None of the GS skills can be reflected back at you, which makes it very convenient for certain bosses (Dredge Commissar comes to mind, ugh)

In terms of not being able to melee bosses, use Blurred Frenzy as an extended evade, not a damage burst. The only SW creatures that are really hard to melee are those with extended charge attacks (Vile Thrashers, VW Darkwing etc.), and that’s more due to a lack of movement speed than danger to yourself.
Keep a ranged option at hand, some bosses have anti-melee windows by design.

I count 3 hits in the log, that’s 2 ally bounces in between for 5 total hits, 4 bounces. The initial launch isn’t counted as a “bounce”

In the sense of traiting for Mind Wrack damage and letting your phantasms attack once before you blow them up, that’s probably even optimal for trash mobs if your group kills them quickly enough.

For bosses, maybe if you’re with a super-organised group that kills faster than you can summon phantasms. If a phantasm attacks 2-3 times that’s more damage than you could ever hope to get from shattering it.

Traiting for a PvP-style shatter “build” probably also means you lose Harmonius Mantras and/or Fencer’s Finesse, which is a massive damage loss. Shattering during combat also costs you the Compounding Power bonus if you trait it.

Also, what kind of “support” do you expect to give with such a build? The shatter effects themselves are selfish and F3/F4 you can pop when the situation calls for it even in a phantasm build. AoE blind can help in a pinch, but other classes do that better. Bountiful Disillusionment would require you to invest in the rather selfish and lackluster Chaos line, and the boon uptimes are nothing to write home about.

Please refer to this thread, though a mod will probably merge it over anyway.

I like the on-cast version because it gives control of the skill to the mesmer. It’s your responsibility to aim properly and your reward when it works out, not another “hey, why won’t you guys stand in my purple bubbles?”

Portal is nice as an instant-cast self buff, assuming “pass through” means either using the portal or walking into range it wouldn’t work as quickly anymore. Also probably bad in wvw, because it seems they can’t implement a target cap for “pass through” procs.

Veil I feel has simply become a troublesome skill overall, and could probably do with a full rework at some point. Its stealth is garbage for small groups, the combo field is a bad type and hard to hit, it’s not round like the other glamours and now this trait goes against its “intended” functionality of “run through wall”.

Of course most “solutions” would either require a dumb lockout like curtain swiftness, or would allow ridiculous stacking of Resistance via Veil/Portal. Like jumping through either one 10×...

Mak.2657:

Idk. I have problems with thieves and shatter mesmers, but can handle them most of the time. I usually still can react to such burst even from invis. + it is still very predictive. MB not ‘raw mechanics practice to execute’.

How do you “react”? You can stealth before entering the line of sight of your opponent!

Mak.2657:

Emm?..
Ranged skills just as an example of worst case, but… Do you remember that Helseth gs2 thief oneshot without any ‘blurred stealth’. Right use of positioning and camera makes it much easier. Melee attacks (e.g. axe warr, etc), aoe spammers (e.g staff ele, grenade eng,) just would wreck such type of stealth. I had many easy kills when there was a time with only visible damage numbers from invisible opponents.
Such type of stealth loose most of offensive and devensive capabilities.
Good luck with escapes from zergs.

I l

Melee you can walk away from, assuming everything was balanced before the stealth change disengage abilities on thief/mesmer would need to get buffed obviously. AoE spam still has a chance to miss (depending on the chosen silhouette effect ofc) and only engi autos don’t suffer cooldown from failed attempts.
Escaping an entire zerg when you’re already in combat (if not just wp out) doesn’t have to be a thing.
If you’re concerned with stealth viability in the thick of an ongoing battle, the distortion effect should be subtle enough to get drowned out, or uninformative enough that you can’t pinpoint the stealthed character while following the rest of the fight.
It’s meant to be a warning that something is up. That somewhere around you, an enemy is using stealth. Not a free “point your staff here” marker.

Mak.2657:

This destroys stealth pretty much. There are no need to target enemy to inflict damage. Even ranged auto attack still culd be used to hits non-target enemies, with some exceptions like mesmer spartial surge.

Yes, mesmer can do big burst from stealth, but they blows multiple CD’s for it. Stealth, blink, dodge, gs2, shatters, MoD. More damage then thief, but less rate of applcations.
If you have problems with such burst – treat it like thief burst, be predictive.
If you don’t play with ‘cheap’ class – just don’t play such way.

The problem with “predicting” it is that even without traits you can initiate this from 1200 range with no advance warning. And you can still have BF+block/curtain, meaning you’re not “guaranteed” to die yourself.

I’m not claiming it’s unbeatable, but it’s a very gimmicky, very safe “1+ for 1” tactic that only takes raw mechanics practice to execute.

Also care to elaborate how stealth would be “destroyed”? Good luck manually aiming autoattacks, as you can’t do it in top-down view. AoE isn’t always available, and many gapclosers require a target to cast, so melee cleave will also be severely limited. And as I said the exact animation could be adjusted, for example random “distortion” pulses within 180+ radius, enjoy figuring out the center-of-mass on that before the stealth ends anway.

Fay.2357:

Truly point blank mirror blade from stealth has no travel time, and is effectively instant. Combining that with a dodge and shatter and MoD to proc CS at the same time will often 1shot a zerker build.

That combo can absolutely be executed in under half a second.

But how would you prevent that? It doesn’t rely on PU and the individual skills are pretty balanced (except maybe CS, but a high ICD would do nothing here)

In sPvP you can obviously fiddle with the amulet stats until it’s unable to oneshot anything, but that affects all other builds and playstyles as well.

Actually, what if stealth worked like in Starcraft, so you can still see the silhouette of the enemy? Ofc you still can’t target them directly, but at least you see their rough position. Could obviously be tweaked to show only a blurred cloud (where you can’t even make out the number of stealthed players standing next to each other), a blurred silhouette (where you can’t make out specific skill animations, but see they’re doing something), or the full model like we already get for allies.

If the mesmer isn’t stealthed you can at least see the mirror blade animation before they blink to you.

There are several bugs with knockback. Enemies can get stuck on miniscule bumps or slopes of the terrain. Sometimes mobs just rubber-band back to their position before the skill hit (probably only in lag-heavy environments like world bosses). Sometimes Bloated Creepers at Tequatl just fall over, and those things don’t even have any attacks for you to interrupt. I doubt any of those are mesmer-specific though.

The curtain is also notoriously picky, it tries to apply a set-distance “forced move”, meaning mobs can overshoot or fly at weird angles based on how the move direction is calculated.

The divide between the the best and worst runs is massive. With a bunch of first-timers in a mix of rare and exotic gear (hopefully…), running semi-viable builds either from their open world experience or copy-pasted off metabattle, expect to die around every corner. Trash groups can kill glasscannon characters if they don’t dodge, or the ally they’re relying on for protection messes up. Some bosses really don’t explain their mechanics very well, and the cheap one-shots will make short work of you before you have a decent chance of figuring them out (though usually those cheapshots are their only “mechanic”)

With well-equipped veterans, the kind you expect to get when you post “zerker fullrun” on lfg, you’ll go down once or twice, maybe die once if you like playing a melee ele. Trash groups will be stacked into corners and melt, bosses get danced around and everyone can look after themselves for the most part.

The truly organised speedrun groups, meanwhile, just laugh at the rest. These are the people who truly should care about the “max dps” calculations often discussed in the forums. They optimise around the specific dungeon they’re running, use consumables, know all the borderline-exploit tricks. Expect most bosses to die before they finish their first attack animation if you’re being a viable player in such a group.

Fractals highly depend on the internal level you choose to do, lvl1 is easier than some dungeons once you know the “gimmick” of each fractal, at lvl10 they get a bit harder, then above 30 you’ll probably want trustworthy allies, ideally with voicechat, at least for your first few runs. Higher levels are also gated by your ability to slot Agony Resist, which means a massive gold/material investment into ascended gear.

As for how to improve PvE content, let’s not bother talking about that in the mesmer forum, we have more pressing concerns for Anet to ignore (like those non-functional traits, or the kneejerk nerfs, or the inability to /dance with our clones)

For a “meta speedrun” setting this is probably useless, as you’ll want to merely strip Defiant and then cast Deep Freeze as CC. Traiting CI is next to useless as you’ll have ele/phalanx for 25might anyway and the conditions don’t help much (iLeap for immob if you need it)
Power Block, if it even works on bosses, probably also won’t help against their skills as their rotations are slow anyway. Maybe there are a few oversights you can exploit…

For PuG runs, if you’re good at interrupting, it might be better. IF you’re lacking a might stacker CI+boonshare can help against trash, interrupting saves people who can’t dodge, and in zerker gear iDuelist will still hurt. Note the "if"s.

Also, some nasty bosses are completely immune to CC, so playing interrupt is a complete waste.

Now, if you’re skilled at interrupt, keep in mind you’ll have 3+ skills (F3, 2 offhands) to do so in a “meta dps” build too, so make the most of them. You can add daze mantra or the signet if you notice your team keeps getting killed by a specific interruptable attack.

Esplen.3940:

Alpha, The Pledge reduces CDR by half of what you’re listing (0.015 not 0.03).

You did not read this thread, did you?

The traits inside the system are part of it, in the previous system you had better chances of finding something that wasn’t completely useless, even if it meant taking 2 Adept and one Master trait.

Ideally I would like Anet to simply give actual, viable choices for each trait slot, but having a larger pile of junk to pick from was a workable band-aid.

The system framework, picking 3 lines each matching a specific “theme” or two regardless of stats, actually is pretty good. The tier-lock would be good if all 3 options were viable under the same circumstances (providing style/flavour rather than having a clear best-in-slot for everything); or to gate certain OP combos without kicking everything up to GM.

Sadly 3 options simply isn’t enough to cover the many facets of this game. In its current state we’d be better off with a full split between game modes: dps+active defense for PvE, group/synergy effects for WvW (plus a PU/Thief rework to stop the whining), burst damage+control+personal sustain for sPvP. There is simply no place for healing “bunkers” outside capture point matches, or stealth-camping within them.

The new system is alright, I just feel like the trait distribution (and lack of take-lower-tier-instead) makes a few slots feel “wasted”.
For example if you play mesmer in PvE, you’ll want to go into Domination for +%dmg and vuln stacking. Yet there are no Master or GM majors genuinely “worth” taking, interrupt straight-up doesn’t work on bosses (or messes with ice bow 5 timing), shatter neuters your dps and running signets or GS will probably get you kicked. Except ether signet, but you won’t benefit much from the trait since you cast that as an opener.
Similarly Illusions has no GM worth taking in a power PvE build, not even +shatter damage (only crit chance, which you should have enough of anyway)
And if you try to go condi there’s no decent Chaos GM (shatter, interrupt or PU, aka useless, even more useless, trololol skip)

Engineer has no decent Explosives Adept for bombs (try and stay above 90% health in melee range for a paltry damage boost, yay!), the “burn” trait conflicts with traiting the freakin’ flamethrower!!!

The Guardian trait for Scepter, one of only 2 MH weapons without a symbol, is in the “symbol” trait line!, also no decent GM for symbol-less weapons. Radiance has 2 condi GMs, but none worth taking for PvE group play (or personal damage for that matter)

Basically, they took away our ability to compensate for sub-optimal design decisions on their part, without improving upon said decisions first.

GS can be a nice AoE opener even in dungeons, and you can replace the subpar autoattack with MoP. You can use greatsword and lose virtually no effectiveness outside of world-record speedruns in some cases, but you can’t build around it.

You can even trait it as the other Domination GMs aren’t vital to your overall dps, but don’t play like a GS-camp build normally would, i.e. don’t stand at max range and autoattack thinking those paltry might stacks make any contribution to your team.

Also note the might stacks are applied upon completing the skill, that means no stow-cancel to increase dps, and you lose out whenever you have to dodge or one of your better skills comes off cooldown.

For open world always be ready to deploy GS+Sw/F+MoP, 1200 range instant-cast AoE and decent swiftness. GS auto+Sigil of Fire tags a lot too and the entire set is unreflectable, so no need to pay attention to mobs XD

Wait, if you stack The Prestige while under the effects of blast stealth, aren’t you wasting stealth uptime to regain some of it through this “exploit”?

That said the trait does hinge on PU a lot, which is a massive nerf to any build that only wanted a bit of tactical stealth (or condi clear on weapon skills).

Telekinesis.8312:

chaos storm is really powerful in a condition build.. poison, confusion, dazes which inflict confusion if the target/targets are interrupted and chaos armor when you phase retreat out of chaos storm which inflicts confusion again :P

mantra of pain to tag is a good idea, also, go close to the mob and shatter without illusions, applies torment to everyone around.

for condition builds with only staff, you’ll deal a lot of bleeding, poison through chaos storm and small amount of burning from auto attack. trait lines to choose are dueling, illusions and chaos.

The title states “leveling” though, so MtD will take a while to get and Mistrust even longer (plus it conflicts with DE). The poison from Chaos Storm is pitiful, even more so once you consider the cooldown, and Chaos Armor doesn’t help much because you should rarely get hit by mobs.

Just spam Phase Retreat on cooldown until you have 3 clones up for the most part. It works like a phantasm build with much lower damage: run in circles until stuff dies.

Chaos Storm isn’t as impactful especially if you play condi as you really only get aegis and dazes out of it. It’s also your only ranged AoE attack, so keep a greatsword or Mantra of Pain handy for zerg tagging events.

That said if you pay a little attention you’re almost impossible to kill, and clones are easier to replace than phantasms.

In terms of traitline unlocks, Domination gives you signet CDR and vulnerability stacking (but not much else); Dueling gives vigor, bleed-on-crit, dodge clones and boosts to your second weapon set; Chaos is the “obvious” staff line but is kinda bad for PvE, at least the Adept Major is good for solo play; Inspiration gives sustain+support but nothing directly related to staff (mantra heals, traited focus and boonshare/glamour buff are nice to have though); Illusions gives you a proper CDR on your most important skill (Phase Retreat, that is) and various damage boost/condi options.

As for what to unlock first, Dueling (clone/personal) and Illusions (shatter) are your best bet for condition offense, Inspiration gives additional swiftness uptime and general utility. Chaos gives personal survivability. Domination isn’t really worth it imo, you’ll lack the daze utilities and direct damage to make proper use of the line.

Trident doesn’t have a spammable leap finisher, and dropping glamours at your feet for more combo fields is harder too.

Xyonon.3987:

Curtain has the same issue as veil has. If you already have mesmer stealth you cannot get any more from it.

I think it’s not yet possible (or they just didnt find a way yet) to let skills only not stack with their own buffs but with others. I’m not sure if it would be possible to have an ICD on those boons for the duration of these boons on mentioned skills.

But yea – it’s annoying. Since release … ye … T_T

Nonsense, this mechanic does exist! It’s called “dummy buffs” for those unable to implement a standalone per-target ICD.

Here are the mesmer-specific patchnotes from today’s (7.7.) patch:

Dastion.3106:

Now, with the Mesmer triggering Shatter effects on himself as well, Shatter has become an inherent part of the Mesmer that everyone should learn to utilize. This has the effect of making people think we’re all “shatter builds” now because they see us shatter and it actually being effective. But that’s like assuming a Necro is a Shroud Necro because he tactically goes into Shroud form to Fear interrupt a stomp or to gain some extra effective health.

Care to elaborate? Any skilled player already used F3/F4 when the situation called for it, but F1 still sucks for anything other than finishing off a normal mob, and F2 is borderline useless even in a condi build.
In PvP things might be different, but it’s still an innate trade of dps for burst, and if that burst fails to kill…

TRAITS

Adept Minor: dummy “gain access” trait
Adept Major:

• Warped Perception: Inflicting confusion on an enemy transfers a condition to them. 5-10s ICD per target.
• Sanity Check: If you strike a foe with 5 or more stacks of confusion, cast Mind Stab on them (ICD per target)
• Fractured Logic: Gain quickness when shattering a Spectral skill.

Master Minor: Evanescent: Teleporting grants you 1s of aegis.
Master Major:

• Paranoia: Interrupting a foe inflicts fear on others around them. 10s ICD per target or 1s global, depending on whether mass chaining is too OP.
• Unphazed: Gain stability when you enter or leave stealth, 10s+ ICD.
• Eldritch Mastery: Spectral skills recharge 20% faster. Shattering a Spectral skill creates a clone.

Grandmaster Minor: Ever Closer: Attempting to cast a skill while out of range teleports you up to 300 units towards the target. Only works when already in combat with a target selected, ~20s ICD.
Grandmaster Major:

• The Inevitable: Makes all Focus abilities harder to avoid:
  1. Rend: Hits up to 5 targets
  2. Primal Seed has increased projectile velocity, Sphere of Destruction pulses cripple.
  3. Relentless Steps: Cleanses movement-impairing conditions upon activation, No Escape breaks stun.
  4. Temporal Curtain: finally stacks swiftness Pushes foes back and grants 1s of Super Speed to allies, 10s ICD per target. Into The Void cast delay reduced 25-50%.
  5. Phantasmal Warden: Gains 1 stack of 3s stability every 3s.
• Exploding Rifts: F5 Riftwalk deals damage on each teleport and acts as a blast finisher.
• We Are Legion: Every shatter impact (IP, illusions, Spectrals, Riftwalk, but not Legion pulses) grants might to 5 nearby allies.

Yes, this is mostly an excuse to bring a “void mage” to GW2, but I like the mesmer-y twist in that “it’s all in your head” (or is it?)

Void Warden: Combines in-depth knowledge of chaotic energy with illusion magic to create things which can’t, shouldn’t exist.

New weapon: Focus mainhand: A mid-range power/aoe option.

1 skill: Warp: Instantly creates a small ripple on your enemy, dealing minimal damage and applying confusion. 900 range.
1 chain: Rend: Expands the ripple into a large rift, dealing heavy AoE damage. High cast time, and the ripple is stationary, meaning enemies can outrun it (Swiftness should be required to do so consistently). Max 3 targets, chain dps on par with Sword auto on a stationary target.

2 skill: Primal Seed: Create an unblockable projectile at the target location, which then moves towards you. Deals damage and removes a boon from foes. Pierces, 900 range, 100% projectile finisher, but relatively slow.

2 chain: Sphere of Destruction: Expands the seed into a raging mealstrom of darkness, dealing heavy AoE damage and pulsing whirl finishers.

3 skill: Relentless Steps: Phase out of existence leaving behind a clone, becoming immune to direct damage (secondary effects, including conditions, their damage, and CC still apply) and gain swiftness.

3 chain: No Escape: Reappear, chilling nearby foes and gain Resistance. Cooldown doubles if this skill is used.

New Utilities: Spectral (in name only): Each of these has 3 components: A pulsing effect, an “end” effect and one that procs if you use a shatter skill. Shattering ends all active Spectrals (i.e. the expire and shatter effects are mutually exclusive)

Heal: Eldritch Embrace: Heal and envelop yourself in dark energies.
Conditional Trigger: Absorb the first attack that would deal more than 10% of your max hp, and instead heal for all damage you would take in the next second.
Shatter: Inflict fear on enemies and grant allies vigor+regen. Heal nearby downed allies for ~25%.

Eye of the Void: Summons a destructible ethereal eye at your side, its gaze afflicts the designated target with pulses of revealed(1s), vulnerability(5s+) and torment(2-3s). 900 cast range, 1200+ tether range.
Expire: The final pulse is a devastating beam attack (high direct damage)
Shatter: Explodes into a Chaos Storm

Void of Yearning: Channel a large black orb above your head for up to 3s, granting might to allies and afflicting enemies with weakness. Each second you channel increases the potency of the chain effects, which can be triggered for up to 3s after channeling. The orb breaks without further effects if you are interrupted.
Manual chain trigger: Coalescence: Pull 1/3/7 targets from up to 300/600/900 range into the orb, destroying it in the process. Doubles the skill cooldown if used.
Shatter: The orb explodes violently, hitting up to 3/5/10 targets within the above range for massive damage. Doubles the skill cooldown if triggered.

Nameless Depths: Open an abyss at your feet which pulses chill on enemies and protection on allies. Ice combo field.
Expire: The abyss collapses, inflicting a long-lasting slow and healing allies.
Shatter: Black ice erupts from the ground, immobilising enemies and granting aegis.

New F5 shatter: I Am Legion: Illusions turn black and stand motionless, pulsing damage and confusion around them for ~5s independent of how many illusions you shattered. They can still be destroyed.
F5 chain skill: Riftwalk: 2000 range ground target, teleports you to the “dark illusion” closest to the target point. Said illusion is destroyed, granting you 1s reduction on all active cooldowns. Riftwalk itself has 0 cooldown, can be cast multiple times, but fails if no “dark illusions” are available.

Carighan.6758:

Pistol is a good example. 25% reduction, but you need to interrupt for it.

When “free” 20% is standard that’s actually a bit on the weak side. The extra bleeds (would) make up for it in the scope of the single trait though.

I prefer conditional recharges IF they’re set up properly. Flat cdr always falls into the “boring, but necessary” category.

Specifically, The Pledge is everything that can go wrong with conditional recharge: The maximum benefit is small, there is no real tradeoff to achieving it in the field (you’re forced into PU though) and weapon itself doesn’t have enough of a mechanic to build around.

The original Chaotic Dampening was an entirely different story: It provided a clear tradeoff/counterplay in PvP due to blowing your primary defensive skill on cooldown, while the lack of risk in PvE let you easily reap the (very large) maximum benefit, adding a substantial boost to an otherwise inefficient and passive weapon.
But NO, they nerfed it to pieces because “reasons”, meanwhile the PU trolls are left free reign to cause ever more whine (regardless of how balanced the trait may or may not be, stealth=whine)

Or make the curtain apply a dummy buff lasting 5-12s, and check for that instead of the swiftness boon. Would prevent a group of mesmers from supporting each other, but that is offset by the ability to buff an infinite number of allies.

Don’t play that in PvE, they nerfed it to pieces. At lvl80 you’ll have everything unlocked anyway, and there are several leveling guides in this forum.

Staff deals pitiful direct damage unless the target is loaded up on all different conditions, so use condi gear and try to always maintain 3 staff clones for condi dps. Dueling is good for additional bleeds and rapid clone production, Illusions provides a proper cooldown trait for Phase Retreat and various condi/shatter options. Domination gives raw damage, Greatsword cooldown reduction and nothing else. Inspiration has tons of healing and support options.

So why not remove the +duration, restore the old boons, buff Veil duration specifically and change the Torch trait to 20% flat reduction?

I find the new “system” is alright, but ultimately wasn’t needed. They could’ve made stuff baseline and introduced new (near-worthless) traits instead.
Decoupling of the stats is nice in principle, but loss of boon/condi duration without equip to compensate heavily reduces “support” options.
The main problem is the traits filling the new slots. Basically they eliminated the option of slotting “lesser” traits instead of GMs, without fixing the reason said GMs weren’t taken in the first place.
Domination only provides +%dmg in PvE, and doesn’t have a “meta” GM option because shatters still do horrible dps.
Dueling has no condi GM for PvE, instead 2 Adept traits conflict for the same role (PF vs. DD)
Chaos is utter trash for PvE, and PU will bring further nerfs upon us due to whiners.
Inspiration really profited in every way, no complaints here (well, the Healing Prism nerf was stupid, just switch to % of healing received)
Illusions again lacks a dps/phantasm/power/group play option among its GMs.

Okay, a bulk of the complaints stem from the fact that shatter builds and interrupt/lockdown simply don’t work in PvE. Forcing upon us 2-3 junk traits which marginally improve shatters won’t make a difference there.

Okay, what is this and why is everything listed twice?

Also this line:
“Mantra of Recovery gives 2 stacks of Mantra Strength per use (except on the last use) instead of one.”
is false. That only occurs if you trait Inspiration, as Mender’s Purity counts as a mantra cast now.

And why nerf mantra heal? Is this actually a problem in PvP once PU is toned down?

Mind Wrack definitely isn’t too strong in PvE. Untraited it can’t even take 25% out of an open world Veteran (i.e. no event scaling or dungeon mechanics, just one of those random vets in a corner of the map)
The 2-3 phantasms you’re likely to shatter will do the same damage in one attack cycle.

The problem probably stems from fiddling with the base stats, less “wasted” potential investing into defensive traitlines and a general shift in the damage vs hp scale (hp doesn’t really matter in PvE)

So I would suggest adjusting base hp/armor in WvW/sPvP instead of going on a whack-a-mole nerfing spree against all burst combos and damaging conditions.

Just to be sure (haven’t tested myself), you are factoring in the way condition timers are displayed, in that the last second is “0”, not “1”? Meaning if the timer shows “14” that’s actually anything from 14.0 to 14.99999… seconds.

apharma.3741:

He’s right, i just tried it and my Mesmer can stack stealth upon itself and it increases the duration of the initial Mesmer stealth. I’m sure it didn’t at one point but I can admit when I’m wrong and will alter my post accordingly.

Back before the “feature patches” mesmer stealth wasn’t standardised. Decoy in particular had its own unique buff which iirc didn’t even interact with Revealed.

From a PvE perspective it’s “nice to have” since you can do quite a few skips without a Thief, but quite honestly I would like to turn back the clock to before this trait ever existed.
Not because it’s bad, useless or OP, but because the PU-specific balance whine always seems to get everything but PU nerfed instead.

With these arguments, as well as ArenaNet’s statements, there needs to be a clearer distinction between “using Shatter abilities” and the PvP full-shatter burst builds. Any decent mesmer will use F4 if the alternative is certain death, F1/2 on PvE mobs that are about to die anyway or their favourite way of securing stomps in 1v1 PvP. Emphasising shatters beyond “well, my illusions are gonna vanish anyway” simply doesn’t work if the target might survive the shatter, such as against tanky wvw specs or literally any PvE mob that takes any damage from illusions.

Aenesthesia.1697:

Op, if you dont like your class’s best mechanic, you obviously dont like your class. I suggest turret engineer for you, it will suit your playstyle better.

With the game in its current state that is a completely stupid suggestion. Thing is, with the way GW2 plays as a whole, mesmer illusions are the best AI/“pet”. Because they’re designed to be expendable from the bottom up.

bhagwad.4281:

However, the disappearance of a mesmer’s illusions is always a bad thing. There is literally no situation in which a mesmer will say “I wish my illusions were dead for no other benefit”.

It’s only nitpicking but technically, there are a few bouncing attacks which would fizzle and deal less damage if you weren’t close enough to any illusions, like Mirror Blade.

Carighan.6758:

• Time Warp indirect nerf: No action needed, just do something about Feel My Wrath.

Time Warp nerf? Are they going to butcher Quickness AGAIN??? Please no, just slap the old tome cd onto FmW instead of the skill cd, then start buffing bit by bit.

And re: Chaotic Dampening: Is there any aspect the sPvP mesmers would admit to being OP about the original 5% version? I assumed it would be something about spamming Chaos Storm on a capture point running a tanky interrupt build, but if even that isn’t a problem just restore the trait now and shave exploit combos once they’re discovered.

Khisanth.2948:

So either stand on the box(or similar range) or melee? What is the point of eliminating the midrange option? Those are the only people that would get hit by the barrage.

The barrage hits on the box. Stay within 900 range and dance through the electric fields, stand on the box and dodge/block/invul the barrage, or play ranger/engi and mash 1.

I don’t mind the class imbalance that much considering what guardians/mesmers can do to some other bosses, or ice bows for that matter.

The problem, especially with the electric fields, is that with the current lags on top of constant effect spam, you simply can’t get out of all attacks in time. Yes, there is a slight warm-up animation, but half of it is obscured by the golem and the other half by other people’s attacks hitting said golem. The Caledon jungle wurm currently desyncs by several seconds for its knockback-spin attack.

For the golem specifically I would suggest reducing the electric fields to less than half their current dps, but upping the barrage attack to deal 5-10k per shot with no target limit (50+ targets). At least that’s a reasonable numerical “fix” until they can come up with proper boss mechanics.

“Clone factory” doesn’t really work, staff cdr got nerfed and the scepter trait is bugged. The most defensive you can get is probably staff+sword/sword if enemy attacks can’t be reflected, Dueling+Chaos+Illusions to trait for cdr and more defense.
An alternative would be relying on Inspiration for healing, which works whenever you aren’t in danger of getting interrupted. Mantras of Recovery and Pain, traited with Restorative Mantras, have an absurd healing throughput when combined with active defenses from e.g. traited sword.

For the mordrem in particular focusing on interrupts and bursting them down works pretty well, against elites/champs just sic 3 phantasms on them and let the other players tank the damage.

For your playstyle you might enjoy the Mental Defense trait (Inspiration GM), sadly neither Chaos nor Inspiration have anything to help in actually killing your enemies. Definitely an option in the mantra heal setup though.

Pazu.8320:

I’ve heard that it tries to charge the mantra when you heal or something, so it take like 3 sec to actually cleanse. That’s just hearsay though. It’s kinda silly if that’s the case.

Probably skill lag. If the cooldown is up again (always the case with MoP) you can start charging instantly. If you double-tap to expend the last charge that’ll be registered as “spend->charge” rather than “heal, heal heal heal HEAL ME NOW!!!”

The last cast of Mantra of Recovery doesn’t proc it. If you’re using any other heal please give more details.

The fact that transforms are, by and large, utterly garbage in a PvE setting, and most things you would want to Moa are immune to it.
In PvP the massive, hulking shape draws unwanted attention to you, you still lose all your regular skills, and due to the RNG nature you and your opponent(s) are on somewhat equal footing to capitalise on the change (Tornado has no gapclosers for instance)

Then there’s the opportunity cost of giving up Crate, which provides a stun, blast finisher, heal and chip damage without locking you out of any other skills.

That is not saying the skill is perfectly balanced, Moa in particular is a recent addition in a patch that notoriously broke a lot of things.

Just had a neat idea for a PvE Chaos trait:
Intention: To provide a pve-oriented support option aimed primarily at Staff and “slightly sub-optimal” group play.

Chaotic Inversion: Your first-slot weapon skills apply Might around struck foes (1-2 stacks, 5-10s ?), and a damaging condition around struck allies (thematically Confusion/Torment, best for PvE Bleeding/Burning, potency similar to WoC or slightly less). Does not affect clones’ or phantasms’ attacks. Works with all weapons, but is obviously geared towards Staff and cleaving Sword hits.

In terms of placement, anywhere that doesn’t clash with Chaotic Dampening or Chaotic Persistence should be fine. Minors could be merged, Descent Into Madness/Illusionary Defense/Mirror Of Anguish could be merged (3->2 I mean), or maybe the GM traits could be shuffled a bit.

To the PvP naysayers: keep in mind you need an ally within ~melee range of an enemy for this trait to have any benefit at all. Stealth-campers, run-in-circles-while-phantasms-kill-stuff and shatter burst builds should get little to no benefit out of it due to Revealed, limited AoE and ramp-up respectively. Again, only your own autoattacks would buff people, not clones!

To any Anet devs potentially reading this: Note most of the standard Staff cadence is instant-cast, leaving you with ample room for autoattacks in between, rather than being forced to “1-afk”. Since clones don’t benefit in any way you’re also encouraged to shatter frequently, rather than letting said clones pile up conditions or /dancing while phantasms do the work for you.

Any concerns beyond numerical effectiveness? @Rexx: this is not meant to out-dps the Dom-Duel-Insp/Ill “max damage” builds, nor to render Phalanx warriors obsolete.

Mainly, wait. Zerker still deals good damage, and conditions are on the chopping block.

Unless you run enough dungeons to consider restatting and losing your runes twice within a month a decent trade for the slightly faster runs you enjoy in the meantime.

Faction.4013:

What would be a good weapon combo if you’re just killing stuff, clearing maps, etc? I assume Sword / Focus based on what I was reading.

Sw/F fully traited, GS with Sigil of Fire for tagging (+Mantra of Pain for zerg events), Signet of Inspiration for the passive, Blink for tight spots. Zerker or assassin stats.

Slot mortar elite (now a kit with 1500 range autoattack) for long-range tagging since they nerfed grenade range, otherwise run any AoE option you fancy.

Grenades are still best (and currently bugged to hit twice), FT/bombs have problems getting into range if mobs approach from multiple directions, can be instagibbed at their spawn or at certain world bosses (golem, behemoth, fire ele)

Trait selection should be pretty straightforward, AoE damage procs and +%dmg wherever possible. Make sure you have either Mecha Legs (Inventions) or Streamlined Kits (Tools) for open world movespeed.

You might consider Sinister stats instead of zerker, especially for nades/FT, but getting those requires a lot of Silverwastes farming. Condi still sucks if mobs die too quickly, such as Ulgoth pre or Orr mobfarms.

Laserbolt.6731:

“leaving Pistol(OH Sword?)+Ether Signet for 2 quick duelists”

I am afraid I am ignorant on this. How can the Ether Signet gives a faster duelist?

Cooldown reset to get the second one up immediately. Cast times and wasting your heal don’t matter much since you still have >30s of stealth :P