I’m wondering what people are using to determine that not using a rotation that shatters their phantasms is more DPS than shattering them. I see people throwing this around a lot, saying that it’s pointless to shatter (specifically mindwrack) if they have a bunch of phantasm’s up because the phantasm’s will output more DPS than shattering.
Is this conclusion perceived or is there hard data supporting this conclusion? While I can understand people saying “it’s obvious to anyone with a brain that this is the way it works”, unfortunately my brain works better when it has supporting evidence to look at before it reaches a conclusion.
It’s never pointless to shatter, and you want your share of clones up. Clones don’t get enough credit for what they can do. Mine cripple the foe on shatter, apply a random condition, and apply vigor to allies. They can interrupt, they can cause damage when the foe uses their skills, they can flat out do some additional damage or they can prevent me from taking damage for a few seconds. Nah, screw max dps. Trait them puppies to be highly versatile and you’ll create these lovely little bundles of chaos and havoc. It’s fun popping them like popcorn and really taking advantage of all they offer.
Your clones cripple on DEATH, not SHATTER. Yet another reason why the shatter mechanic is wonky and makes the class self-defeating.
Because 2 phantasm + 2 shatter > 2 phantasm + 0 shatter.
M4th is h4rd.
Two Phantasms ARE better than two shattered phantasms, because they’ll attack again in 6-8 seconds and deal two or three times the damage of the shatter.
Why is that?
You can re-summon the Phantasms instantly, and their attacks are on cooldown anyways.
Why am I arguing with bad players?
Why would you re-summon a phantasm when you could have two phantasms up at once?
But Mesmer is mainly a profession meant to control and support. It’s not supposed to be a tank, it’s not supposed to be a prime damage dealer. Instead of trying to force old habits unto these professions, try to have fun instead.
Not supposed to be a prime damage dealer? I guess that must be why Sword/Greatsword offer almost nothing but damage. Not supposed to tank? I guess that must be why we have traits and skills to boost the hp of our illusions.
Try doing some explorable mode dungeons and get back to us. Mesmers can perform any role.
(edited by Strill.2591)
e.g. all shatter damage/utility is on top of and concurrent with everything else you’re normally doing.
No it’s not. You give up valuable phantasm damage in order to shatter.
Yes clones can be remade quickly, but it’s still not worth shattering them because a SINGLE PHANTASM, say a Phantasmal Berseker, does more DPS on its own than constant 3-clone mind wracks every cooldown. That is simply WRONG, and leads to predictable and repetitive gameplay.
Yeah he does more damage. Especially once the AEs killed him.
Oh sorry, not what you wanted to hear, I know. :P
Try reading what people say sometime.
Strill25911. If you have no phantasms, Mind Wrack.
2. If your target or your last phantasm is about to die, Mind Wrack.
3. Never Mind Wrack in any other circumstance.
There actually is a follow up. She comes with you to Orr.
I finished the storyline and never saw her.
Shatter or not to shatter is often the question I ask myself in every situation and every situation is different. It depends on how you build y our trait and how you like to do in combat. In a more difficult sustainable fight, you’ll want your illusions to stay as a distraction and rely on its “when destroyed” effects and in easier fights you’ll want to timed your illusion shatter when the opponents are less than 50% health for that final burst in damage or when your illusion is ready on its cool down for a next new set of illusions.
Why do you shatter your illusions just because your cooldowns are up? If your phantasm gets even one more hit off you would’ve done more damage AND kept your illusions up AND had your cooldowns up, with the potential of getting two phantasms up simultaneously. What do you gain by shattering instead, and why is it so hard for you to decide?
Ah, my mistake :P
Even so, I still don’t see any problems with any of them. Even Diversion can be useful with Sword clones, though I understand the problems with ranged clones. This one is the only one I can see that needs fixing. Mind Wrack is a great AoE spike and Cry of Frustration is great in WvW against mobs of human players. I just think that they shouldn’t be thought of as skills that can be used to maximum effect ALL the time. They’re much more like utility skills.
How can you call it a “spike?” If you wait for your phantasm to attack again you get at least as much damage as the mind wrack, PLUS you keep your illusions, PLUS you get the chance for your phantasm to attack again. The only situation where it is good to use Mind Wrack for “spike” is if it will kill the target, which I explicitly mention in the OP in my rules for using Mind Wrack.
Please explain to me how Mind Wrack or Cry of Frustration could be “utility” skills, when they give you LESS overall damage in every situation except when the target’s about to die, or you have no phantasms? Where is the utility? You lose damage and what do you gain? The satisfaction of having pressed a button?
It’s not like any of the other professions have strong F skills I would say our overpowered compared to ours. In fact, with turrets Engineers can only blow up 1 thing at a time with their F skills and it doesn’t even run at your target and Rangers only have commands for their pets. I would say we have it better than them in most cases.
Other classes don’t have their class mechanic built into their weapon skills. We lose at least as much as we gain from having shatters as our class mechanic.
And to edit that last part, the Berserker often hits 3 times per attack (which means 3 times every 7 seconds) and that’s assuming all 3 hit. And it does not increase in damage per attack. With Mind Wrack, damage is multiplied for each clone AND damage increases with each clone. So it’s like adding then multiplying to the damage rather than just multiplying the damage. Mind Wrack does LOADS more damage with 3 clones than a Berserker.
That’s not true. Mind Wrack does LESS damage per clone, but more damage overall with a 3-clone mind wrack. The overall damage is already calculated on the tooltip.
I don’t understand what people expected?
How else do we fight him? He’s massive.
GW2 is supposed to make sense, unlike say… WoW or hell, even GW1
For one, he’s supposed to be at least 100 times bigger than he was here. For two, they should go for the Shadow of the Colossus route and have us climb up on top of him to attack his weak point for massive damage.
The story was great…up until you find your sister, and then…nothing happens. In the end she was nothing more than a MacGuffin. It’s disappointing that nothing ever came of the story after that.
Legendaries. You need 525,000 karma.
http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/zpndt/bloodstone_shard_legendary_recipe_possibility/
I can remake clones like they’re nothing. I shatter occasionally to get a spike of damage and they’re VERY useful for AoE. In fact, I often lead with a Mind Wrack or a Cry of Frustration on enemies. I think they have their place, again, it’s all about timing and using your skills when they are needed. I don’t just cast Chaos Armor or Time Warp all willy-nilly.
Yes clones can be remade quickly, but it’s still not worth shattering them because a SINGLE PHANTASM, say a Phantasmal Berseker, does more DPS on its own than constant 3-clone mind wracks every cooldown. That is simply WRONG, and leads to predictable and repetitive gameplay.
Id rather blow the dungeons up with a char-zooka, then actually do them. No one i know willingly wants to do a dungeon. They are hard, annoying and not worth the effort or time doing them ever.
I don’t like wasting time and having to repair my attire cause i got one shot in a dumbed down level 30 instance by a guy who is across the map hitting me for 5k when im 4 k max health. Only to get rewarded by some unusable gear that isn’t class specific or way to low a level to use.
Yeah good times.
If you’re referring to Ascalon Catacombs, then you ignored the bright fancy chargeup animation that that guy does before he uses scorpion wire. You need to dodge or block his attack. It’s not too hard to kite him solo if you’re paying attention. I know I’ve done it myself while helping friends through.
Rewards and drops are scaled to your level.
No they aren’t. I have 100% world completion and I can say with absolute certainty that map completion rewards are based on the zone level, not your character’s level.
Actually I disagree. I admit that some of the dialogue isn’t that great but overall I think it’s pretty good. Tybalt Leftpaw (an Order of Whispers character) had some of the best dialogue I’ve seen in an MMO. If you came into this game expecting Mass Effect quality dialogue you’re going to be disappointed. But if you take it for what it is it’s good.
If by “Mass Effect quality dialogue,” you mean “dialogue that’s natural and believable,” then yeah, I did.
Nobody TALKS like this. That’s my point. It’s stilted and extremely campy and sounds like something you would expect from amateur hour at your local community theater.
For the record, it’s not the fault of the voice-actors, it’s the script that’s the problem.
In what content is the writing/VO problematic for you? The ambient world stuff? The personal story? The dungeons? They were all handled differently. The more specific examples you give, the better we can understand your feedback. I realize that this post is in the personal story section, but I want to know if your criticism is limited to that.
Thanks!
Personal story mission where you tell an asura that her husband was killed in action. She hardly sounds phased by the news. No grief in her voice whatsoever.
Cry of Frustration is junk. Its damage is far less than Mind Wrack and its cooldown greater. Diversion does 1 seconds of daze no matter how many clones you have out, is impossible to time correctly to interrupt anything important, and is likely to fail due to illusion death. Distortion is the only shatter that’s decent.
Mind Wrack is ok, but is right now the way to use Mind Wrack with 100% efficiency is as follows:
1. If you have no phantasms, Mind Wrack.
2. If your target or your last phantasm is about to die, Mind Wrack.
3. Never Mind Wrack in any other circumstance.
That’s literally all there is to it. The fact that a single Phantasm attack out-damages a 3-clone mind wrack makes mind wracking extremely low priority. Apart from Distortion, Shattering is just a boring mechanical task devoid of any strategy. This is not what we need for a class mechanic. Please give us shatters worth using and make Mind Wrack into something that’s not so predictable and one-dimensional.
It doesn’t make any sense. Those elementalists and rangers are way way harder than anything you find in AC Explorable. Why did you make Story mode the hard part and explorable the easy one?