i want more OPTIONS, rather then it being stuck on a useless weapon, move it to a weapon that is actually useful!
Or they could make the stealth on weapons share a cool down. Without the stealth the Torch would be dead, either fix iCrap – i mean iMage or change Torch #4 and move Stealth somewhere else where it would be more beneficial.
You’re a mesmer, not a thief. You don’t get to have stealth by clapping your hands. If you want stealth as a mesmer, you need to specifically build for it. Stealth is an extremely important and highly limited resource for a mesmer. Learn to deal with it or go play a thief.
If you rely on stealth to confuse your opponents, you will get consistently destroyed by any competent player.
Stealth is a quick disengage. It’s not a permanent disengage, it’s a short and quick one. It’s gives you enough time to regain control of the fight.
A better change would be to make the iMage not horrible.
More stealth is unnecessary. You don’t use stealth to confuse your opponents, you use it as a target drop and for a quick breather for positioning.
A good Mesmer does not play to confuse the opponent with clones. A good player will never be confused by clones. A good Mesmer assumes that their opponent will always know who the real one is and plays accordingly.
Stealth is the thief mechanic, not the Mesmer. Our class uses stealth in a different way, in high pressure situations for a quick disengage. Thieves can use stealth as their main form of defense. We don’t need that. More stealth would be completely unnecessary.
Adding more stealth to Mesmer would be unnecessary, and would likely make some builds extremely overpowered, not to mention we would receive some serious nerfs with that. This is an abysmal idea.
thank you for these nice advice a little complex at the beginning i suppose but i could get use to it… although a red bar under the skill would be nice
A red bar would be nice.
The minimap trick works, but fails unless you are going strictly left-right on the map. I designed my method for use in any situation out of combat.
Oh that’s true, well, isn’t the “height” of the map shorter than the length (left/right) from what i remember, im not currently in game lol but if that were the case at least you wouldn’t be out of range maybe haha
But for your method you would require a focus and traited as well. some people, like me don’t run focus or trait for focus, are there any other skills? You said a 8 second on swiftness? maybe we can also calculate without swiftness running in the straight line
Both the height and the width can be adjusted manually.
My method does require a focus. It does not require it to be traited, that’s just the metric I use. The swiftness is necessary though.
thank you for these nice advice a little complex at the beginning i suppose but i could get use to it… although a red bar under the skill would be nice
A red bar would be nice.
The minimap trick works, but fails unless you are going strictly left-right on the map. I designed my method for use in any situation out of combat.
Did the Change to Chaos Armor effect this build at all?
Not a huge change honestly. It does actually increase the protection uptime it has, so it does increase the survivability by a small amount though.
Drop a portal. Be out of combat. Put temporal curtain on top of the portal and run through it immediately. Run in a straight line. With a traited focus, when the recharge reaches 8 seconds, you are at the absolute maximum portal distance.
This was a recent bug-fix, and it appears the wiki was never updated.
Ok, so what we have is a failure to math. The trait line says increases the recharge rate.
15 seconds/1 Mind Wrack = speed.
1 Mind wrack/15 Seconds = rate = .066667 Mind wracks/sec
30 points = 30% increased rate = .066667*1.3= .0866667 Mind Wracks/sec
1 second/.086667 Mind Wracks/sec = 11.5 seconds/Mind Wrack
Yeah, I actually went in and looked at some of my old videos. They all had the 11.5 second cooldown for mind wrack, but this is absolutely a bug. Definitely needs to be fixed.
Yeah, it would quite honestly be really op if it were on a normal weapon. I consistently get it to hit for over 9k in spvp.
Note that the iDisenchanter has a slightly higher base hp than the other phantasms as well.
Increase by 270% is a multiplier of *3.7
Increase by 55% is a multiplier of *1.55
Increase/decrease by 28% is a multiplier of *1.28 or *.72Wait, wouldn’t the increase of 270% need to be a multiplier of *2.7? (Typo?)
No. An increase of 100% doubles the hp, corresponding to a multiplier of *2. An increase of 200% triples it, and an increase of 270% is a modifier of *3.7.
It was in spvp, in wvw it goes about 3k
I’m gonna call bs right here. Numbers are higher in WvW. That’s just how the game and gear works.
Screen?
15chars
Yep, I’d love to see this mythical 5k halting strike on a non-upleveled, fully clothed guardian.
Increase by 270% is a multiplier of *3.7
Increase by 55% is a multiplier of *1.55
Increase/decrease by 28% is a multiplier of *1.28 or *.72
I don’t believe it has been updated since the patch though. I know I haven’t updated it since the patch. If I have some time later today, I’ll go through and add in the updated numbers for PvE and then WvW/PvP.
The Phantasmal swordsman is indeed doing damage, it hits a mob then stands there taking a beating before hitting once more and then vanishing or dying. Is this normal for that ability?
Yes, phantasms have a specific attack cycle. They will attack ones every X seconds. You can make (most of) them attack faster with a specific 20 point trait, but that’s in general how they work. Each phantasm will do a different type of attack though.
So first, just a terminology issue.
Clones look like you (no offhand weapons -_-). They also do little to no damage. Their purpose is applying on-hit affects, proccing on-clone-death traits, or shatters.
Phantasms do not look like you. They glow purple and use specific weapons. They do damage.
Clones and phantasms are all illusions, and can be shattered along with activating illusion # based traits.
The phantasmal swordsman should not be doing 0 damage, take a closer look at it.
Just tested with duelists and wardens, trait still definitely works for those 2 at least.
Quick and dirty test of phantasmal haste with common phantasms.
Conditions: steady weapon, light golem, no amulet, 20 illusions, summoning in melee range, 4% crit chance, 10% crit damage.
Counting begins after phantasm summon and stops after golem death.berserker with PH: 1 minute 45 seconds
berserker without PH: 1 minute 55 seconds
swordsman with PH: 1 min 21 sec
swordsman without PH: 1 min 25 sec
duelist with PH: 1 min 45 sec
duelist without PH: 1 min 54 sec
warlock with PH: 2 min 1 sec
warlock without PH: 2 min 25 sec
warden with PH: 2 min 7 sec
warden without PH: 2 min 19 sec
Ok, that’s rather bad. I’ll go test this myself.
That isnt what i meant, sure you can attack but who is doing most of the damage – You or the Phantasm? THAT is what i meant. That is why i have moved away from the Phantasm build that i was using, It got kinda boring knowing that most of my damage wasnt coming from me but the Phantasm
In retrospect, I probably took that more literally than I should have. ^_-
Also, I have not tested this, but say you have 3 phantasms out (be it iWarden or iZerker or iSwordsman or iPistolguy). How much damage do you produce with the sword auto + blurred frenzy (or the GS auto), assuming you can just swing-away the encounter, in comparison to the damage of the phantasms? Is it a straight 3 to 1 ratio? Or more like 5 to 2? I don’t know.
This will depend greatly on your build.
That’s really silly. You got rid of an extra 20% mind wrack damage, which is an extra 20% damage on your mind wracks every 10 seconds, for a possible extra small amount of damage on your diversions, occurring once every 30 seconds or so? And you call that sustained damage? That’s ridiculous.
@ArmageddonAsh: Taking 20 points into inspiration unfortunately provides this build with nearly nothing. The 200 condition damage while in scepter pales in comparison to sharper images and deceptive evasion. By not taking these two traits you are cutting out both your clone generation AND a significant source of damage. Your only reliably rapid clone generation is now your scepter autoattack, which isn’t reliable at all. Therefor it also makes your clone-on-death traits pretty much useless.
@Keenlam and Palu: I’m forced to disagree entirely. Condition builds for mesmers are forced to take traits that power builds are not. This diminishes the potential for support. My PvE phantasm build (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Supporting-Phantasm-Build/first) offers more support options than any condition build can because of the flexibility it has with weaponsets, utilities, and trait options.
I have tried condition builds in PvE. They are ok. They work. Unfortunately, they just aren’t great. Much of your condition application is subject to RNG (debilitating dissipation), and so this leads to extremely unreliable damage. Sometimes you can achieve high stacks, sometimes you can’t, and you have no control over it. Additionally it has less support options than a normal power phantasm build, and mesmers are brought into dungeons significantly because of the support and utility they can provide. Overall, while it is possible to run one, it is simply and objectively worse.
@bobross: I avoid going 15 points into dueling in all my pve builds except for a few specific instances for precisely that reason.
Zerker mesmer with 2 phantasms (p.duelist, p.zerker, p.warden) can easily stack 8-10 bleeds. More with a clone/3rd phant.
This is actually the specific reason I almost never go 15 points into dueling in my PvE builds. By doing that, I am decreasing the potential damage of any condition build party members that I have, so I stay away from sharper images.
- Fix scepter autoattack
- Fix iMage
I want nothing more than to be able to honestly give advice saying that both scepter and torch are strong viable weapons.
now my focus pulls the enemy and me or pulls the enemy and pushes me. Oh and so does the 5 skill on the GS.
Never saw that happen. Is it new ? In which game mode did you observe that ?
I’m about 99% sure he just pulled a mesmer with mirror of anguish.
I am a Condition spec, The Scepter and Torch combo rocks. I feel Scepter #1 attack 3 (the clone spawn) could be a little faster but works they work well together imo
The Phantom i think is great if you are a Confusion spammer, though feel it still isnt quite perfect, that said a few of them plus Scepter #3 is SICK Confusion stacks, i have gotten it up to 11 stacks so far. 5stacks does 1,700 damage on skill use, would be interesting to see just how much 11+ stacks would do.
If anyone lets you get more than 1 mage out during a fight, they are very very bad.
i can’t see PU being changed again it’s a heavy trait investment and if you don’t have a friendly shadow refuge or shortbow it needs some utils to work as well. the trait’s in a really good place at the minute.
The problem here is that you appear to be using logic and common sense, both being commodities in somewhat short supply over at Anet central.
Torch is not a power weapon. The placement of its trait means nothing in this regard. Unfortunately, it’s also not a ConD weapon. It is a utility weapon with only 1 skill. The Mage needs to be completely reworked.
Scepter used to be a very bad power weapon and a very bad ConD weapon. Now it’s a very very bad power weapon and an ok ConD weapon, but that’s ONLY due to the block. The auto attack is still worthless and CI is still very bad.
- When using the trait Duelist’s Discipline, the iDuelist acquires 100% combo finisher for each of its 8 shots
Is this a bug or does the trait need an updated description?
Good question.
Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?
I tested Illusionary Elasticity on the iMage and iDisenchanter today in PvE. iMage works as expected. Untraited, it bounces twice (hitting 3 targets). Traited, it bounces 3 times (hitting 4 targets).
The iDisenchanter attacks bounce three times traited and untraited.
The disenchanter attacks actually hit a maximum of 5 targets, both traited and untraited. I’ve tested that extremely extensively.
Yeah tbh I noticed a lot of inconsistency with iDisenchanter, even with 2 clones out and 2 opponents, it seemed to 99% of the time bounce 3 times (hitting four targets). I think one time in my 30 minutes of testing did I see it bounce 4 times, hitting 5 targets. Also I’m not sure what’s up with his logic as he appears to favor tagging opponents in one sequence, then seems to randomly shift to allies. Have you experienced better consistency?
The logic is odd. It definitely likes to bounce to me, but it also will tend to bounce along allies or along enemies. It seems to like to stick to one type of targets, taking a detour to tag me when it gets close.
How about the 5 target scenario – have you noticed more consistency than I described or is it pretty random in your experience?
In my testing, if there were 5 valid targets in range, it hit them all every time.
1) You can’t change your trait allocation inside WvW. You have leave and requeue afterwards.
This is false.
2) Even without reallocation of points, there is no way to save your trait and gear setup short of taking screen shots.
Or you could, you know, remember your builds…
Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?
I tested Illusionary Elasticity on the iMage and iDisenchanter today in PvE. iMage works as expected. Untraited, it bounces twice (hitting 3 targets). Traited, it bounces 3 times (hitting 4 targets).
The iDisenchanter attacks bounce three times traited and untraited.
The disenchanter attacks actually hit a maximum of 5 targets, both traited and untraited. I’ve tested that extremely extensively.
Yeah tbh I noticed a lot of inconsistency with iDisenchanter, even with 2 clones out and 2 opponents, it seemed to 99% of the time bounce 3 times (hitting four targets). I think one time in my 30 minutes of testing did I see it bounce 4 times, hitting 5 targets. Also I’m not sure what’s up with his logic as he appears to favor tagging opponents in one sequence, then seems to randomly shift to allies. Have you experienced better consistency?
The logic is odd. It definitely likes to bounce to me, but it also will tend to bounce along allies or along enemies. It seems to like to stick to one type of targets, taking a detour to tag me when it gets close.
Aside from how it would be removing a massive amount of utility from the current one, this would also be a really clunky mechanic, most likely extremely hard to code, most likely extremely subject to teleport glitches, and most likely extremely difficult to control.
Since clones and phantasms are often moving, it would be nearly impossible to control where you were going. Using the swap would basically be a teleport in a random direction with no control.
Additionally, this would remove the fantastic gap closing abilities than mainhand sword has.
TL;DR: No.
Sorry I forgot to mention that I do really enjoy supporting allies in dungeons. I have an 80 elementalist who usually roles staff support (air/water/arcane).
No one in particular told me shatter was out but that’s the vibe I was getting from these forums lately! :P
Thanks very much for the advice! I really like all of these suggestions.
Shatter is actually just as good as it always has been. That being said, shatter has never been good for high level PvE play. Phantasm builds are better because they tend to go into the inspiration tree, holding the strong support options that mesmers have.
My personal build for PvE can be found here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Supporting-Phantasm-Build/first
The burst warrior is effective on anyone afk or asleep. That’s about it.
Last I checked, Illusionary Elasticity worked on the iMage. Granted that was before the 6/25/2013 patch. Haven’t tested after that. Is it broke again?
I tested Illusionary Elasticity on the iMage and iDisenchanter today in PvE. iMage works as expected. Untraited, it bounces twice (hitting 3 targets). Traited, it bounces 3 times (hitting 4 targets).
The iDisenchanter attacks bounce three times traited and untraited.
The disenchanter attacks actually hit a maximum of 5 targets, both traited and untraited. I’ve tested that extremely extensively.
@Master of Timespace: I’ll test that out and add it, good to know.
Well, it was supposed to be leaping, but he ended up using ‘illusionary casual stroll’ instead.
@wolfield: The recharge times on the phantasms are not necessarily accurate. The recharge times on the phantasmal haste page are.
Personally i dont really like guides.
Fair enough, everyone is entitled to their own opinion.
I have seen some that have been great…
wat
(edited by Pyroatheist.9031)
Nice playing. The twitching is abysmal though. As a general rule of thumb, if you put in effects, make sure they are there for a reason, to bring attention to something or enhance the video, not just for the hell of it.
When using staff, make sure you don’t have any of your autoattacks bouncing around when you use a stealth skill. If you do, the next time they hit something, you’ll immediately get unstealthed. I saw that happen a couple times to you.
Signet of inspiration does nothing for you. Take something useful instead.
Thanks but why singet of inspiration does nothing for me? random swiftness or let’s say block is always awesome
Signet of inspiration has a random chance to give 1 of 8 boons every 10 seconds. The vast majority of the time it will be completely useless. You don’t take that signet for the random boons, you take it for the team utility that the boon share provides. 1 random boon every 10 seconds is incredibly weak.
Nice playing. The twitching is abysmal though. As a general rule of thumb, if you put in effects, make sure they are there for a reason, to bring attention to something or enhance the video, not just for the hell of it.
When using staff, make sure you don’t have any of your autoattacks bouncing around when you use a stealth skill. If you do, the next time they hit something, you’ll immediately get unstealthed. I saw that happen a couple times to you.
Signet of inspiration does nothing for you. Take something useful instead.
Interesting is that with bounce conditions/boons now viable I often find ppl confuse me with a shatter ordered clones as my behavour is run strait towards ppl while my clone and me pepper the player with staff bounce.
/Osicat
Talking about Bounces – did they nerf Staff #1? I swear it used to bounce 3 times (4 with Trait)? Now its just 2 and 1 for clones????
Staff 1 has not been changed.
I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions
Care to explain why you think you need that?
It increases Condition Damage. That is pretty much it.
Exactly. That’s all it does. You don’t make a mesmer traitset because of the stat boosts, you make the traitset because of the traits.
I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions
Care to explain why you think you need that?