snip
So if I appropriately time a dodge against a Thief I can’t see and Evade the Backstab, then get Backstabbed at the end of my dodge roll, that’s perfectly fine and well-designed? Just curious if you see a problem with that scenario.
Am I the only one who finds this terribly amusing in light of what this poster has said many, many times about condition application?
As much as I do want sPvPers to be rewarded, I’d be against this. Fractals are supposed to be prestige PvE content and it’s already hard enough to find the incentive to do it.
No to any more AoE please.
I’m not terribly fond of ICDs and I don’t think the trait needs changing as is.
I know you mean well love, but it could be best to hold off on calls to change the trait for a while since it isn’t clear the public opinion is against it to begin with. It’s only been a few days since the patch dropped after all.
Nm, forget I said anything, it’s getting hotfixed.
I’ll refrain from commentary here, because I’d get permabanned from these forums.
Can I ask what it is they intend to change, love?
ANet doesn’t care about the best part of WvW and they never have.
I really quite like some of these suggestions, especially allowing Blade Training to stack when using two swords. Also, making interrupt effects dependent on player activity would certainly make things more interesting.
However, I don’t think it would be fair to revert the nerfs to Blurred Frenzy and Temporal Curtain, seeing as these were introduced to provide more counter-play options against these quite powerful skills.
The thing with Temporal Curtain is that the nerf didn’t really affect counterplay at all. If I want to pull you with Curtain, it’ll happen — the only difference is that now I’ll wait til the end of the skill before detonating it. You still won’t have any idea when to dodge, because you don’t know when it’ll be coming.
The only way the nerf hurt Curtain was as a common counter to Shadow Refuge. Because preventing a full Shadow Refuge in a team scenario can mean the difference between a win and a loss, this change dramatically hurt the focus and reduced its appeal to the point where it’s fairly uncommon and has been displaced in favor of more self-centered offhands.
Just some thoughts…
- Revert Blurred Frenzy to 10 second base cooldown, full evasion
- Revert Focus #4 back to instant cast
- Swap Dazzling Glamours with Illusionary Elasticity, OR move Illusions VIII back to Adept tier
- Change Cry of Frustration to add one additional stack of confusion per clone shattered on a target using or channeling a skill
- Change Staff #4 to convert incoming blind, cripple or confusion into swiftness, regeneration and protection for 5s
- Revert Dueling XII back to: grants Fury on interrupt
- Change Halting Strike to: “Deals damage when interrupting a movement skill”
- Change Bountiful Interruption to: "Grants Might on interrupt and another boon based on the skill interrupted:
- Weapon ability (incl. prof mechanics): 5 sec Fury
- Movement ability: 5 sec Swift
- Healing skill: 10 sec Regeneration
- Utility: 5 sec Vigor
- Allow Blade Training’s precision bonus to stack with multiple swords
I agree with the OP that this is a poor change. It won’t affect hambow in any way whatsoever.
Why do I always read that conditions are amazing / borderline OP in PvP? Are these just scrubs spouting this?
My experience with condition specs has been god awful in PvP, let me explain.
Mesmer: Literally HELL mode for me, They have a mantra that can instantly remove 3 conditions instantly 3 times with no cd (this effects all allies around them too), Null field basically makes anyone standing in it immune to conditions for the time its up, a phantasm that removes conditions. and any projetile that goes through the fields they pop up removes conditions. Then they have a skill that trades 3 of your boons for 3 of the conditions they have onto you.
I want to point out that the cleanse Mantra clears two conditions, not three, and that a Mesmer needs 30 points in Dom and a GM trait to use it three times (it gets two charges by default). Mantras also require a long channel and are vulnerable to being interrupted.
Mesmers can cleanse well but it’s all active and comes at a heavy cost.
Hi Roy, the problems with your approach are many and I am sure I will not be the first nor the last to try and explain why.
The builds that will be substantially boosted by Perp runes are already very popular: pistol and shield Engineer, condition/fear Necromancer. In the Engineer’s case it is rare to see double pistols and yet this is the set that would benefit the least.
Perp runes are so powerful and setup-ambiguous that they can conceivably fit on anything in the game. The runes are still top-tier for a power setup with little to no investment in conditions or interrupts and you will see them on all kinds of classes and specs, because their bonuses are phenomenally strong for just a simple rune. The (4) alone is still a totally random source of pressure that would warrant a (6) on any other set and would still likely meet outcry. The tooltip doesn’t reveal this, but the (4) applies three stacks lasting five seconds, already surpassing in both intensity and duration a traited Cry of Frustration.
I would like to add that confusion is the only damaging condition in the game which suffers a -50% damage penalty in sPvP, and Mesmers have seen many traits rendered useless because of confusion’s potency in the eyes of the development team. Why then they are so bent on dishing it out like candy to everything under the sun is completely beyond me. Surely if it is so strong a rune like this has no reason to exist?
I urge you to reconsider this change, we have tried to give feedback in WvW and I can assure you it will only be reiterated by many other players here.
Trahearne: “This won’t end well.”
/10char
Don’t get hit!
Otherwise MoR is your last safe bet.
Ele got some rather meh traits as well. Blind every 5 seconds as a master trait is rather poor. immune to crit inside a rather poor attunement, bonus healing to everyone bar the ele and a average arcana one that wouldnt be used in place of Evasive Arcana.
50% damage reduction in stealth – on a class that spends most of a fight in stealth was a terrible idea. Warrior got some very stupid traits as well.
You are absolutely crazy if you think blind on burning isn’t an amazing trait.
Why are people saying earth is that bad? I mean every D/D ele goes into earth and every s/d ele likes to start in earth and swap to air for 15 air procs.
Earth also has very good damage traits. It just sounds like alot of people are trying to imagine moving a whole 30 points from their previous build to pick up one of these and just don’t see it working. When these are traits to build around.
D/D’s build around 20+water and 30 arcana
S/D’s and s/f build around 30 airWhy can’t there be a build based around 30 earth?
I don’t understand the logic here. Do 30 Air eles stay in Air? Do 30 water eles stay in water? NO so why are we saying 30 earth is trash because nobody stays in earth? Cleansing water is trash because no ele stays in water and water certainly doesn’t have good damage at all. I don’t even understand how this is a thing because nobody stays in a attunement for long except maybe a staff Ele.
If you D/D the attunement you stay in the longest is Air if a burst is coming in you swap to earth! I would rather reduce a burst by 150% + whatever crit damage they have then have protection up. That is what stone heart will do reduce any incoming damage by a guaranteed 150%+ if that hit was going to crit.
I agree completely that there’s a difference between strengthening one attunement with a goal or an overarching strategy in mind and simply camping it, which I don’t think is viable or even really intended. Just as you’ve said, a typical burst Ele for example will mostly rely on Air, but Earth plays a strong part in setting up burst (and anticipating it if you’re playing Focus), Fire has its Phoenix, area denial and might potential and even Water is another means of control and sustain.
The really beautiful thing and what I truly admire about Ele’s design is that your attunements and the abilities associated with them are so useful if you think about the ways to use them that you’re never “defeated” at the trait window, so to speak. If you don’t have a purpose in mind for the traits you’re choosing when investing in Earth, then you’ll likely be dissatisfied, but it has nothing to do with the merit of Earth Magic or Earth Attunement itself: if I want some protection for channelling Ether Renewal, then Earth VIII and Arcane Shield works very well for me. Even if I then leave Earth Attunement, I can consider the points well spent because they kept me safe from possibly lethal circumstances. So in the broader picture the points into Earth bolstered my performance in all attunements.
Earth Magic rewards and encourages conservation of endurance and close-quarters aggression on the Elementalist’s part. Water favors sustain, healing and building strength over time. Arcana is ambiguous and can be drawn for the most part in any way a player wishes. On the whole, if you go deep into Earth then you are likely going to favor a burstier, more aggressive strategy, since you are traited more into taking and reacting to hits and less into sustain. I think some of the complaints from players about Earth is that they perhaps expect Earth to pull Water’s horse in the sustain and cleansing department and become disappointed when it doesn’t. But if Earth doesn’t work for you then there’s no shame in going for Water instead. The trait points are always yours to spend.
The magic lines themselves aren’t really about singling out a single attunement, per se, but rather about tailoring the Elementalist in a direction that favors the goal, rotations and temperament of the player. This often means benefits to the magic line’s attunement, but it’s not an imperative to just sit in said attunement all day. That’s coming at the Elementalist from a fundamental misconception I feel.
These slugfest tests aren’t remotely meaningful. Players aren’t going to stand next to one another and use one skill until the other keels over. This isn’t the Mists. Without any kind of context or consideration it’s a completely pointless endeavour. In this type of test, a Berserker-geared player will die before a Soldier-geared player will. Should all roamer specs re-gear to Soldier’s? There isn’t even any context given to all the different classes and means of delivering damage and defense there are. Will a Mesmer or an Engineer get as much value out of Valkyrie gear as an Elementalist or a Thief? Who is harmed more by weakness, chill, immobilize, or by the foe’s protection uptime, a power or a condition player?
Conditions are often random (on-crit) and ramp up powerful control effects. Almost all are ranged and many are saturation AoE (bombs are not even ground-targeted). It forces players’ hands in a way that no other attack angle does (many popular bomb-
nade specs run without any stun-breaks to this day). Some reward good positioning (Ranger shortbow) but most do not.
I have had someone whose opinion I deeply value suggest the issue is with burning, which he believes ticks too hard for its prevalence in the game. I’m not completely convinced, as I think conditions fall into the miasma of nebulous risk-reward that’s a curse on the game right now.
Special props to Commander Attunejam for taking every tower and flanking two keeps on the borderlands with a single, very tired golem. I think a gift crate of premium vodka is in order!
I think you’ll find a 6% increase to be hardly noticeable. That’s like 2-3 points extra for each piece.
Crit damage is also an Ele’s best friend in securing kills. Without landing hard hits on key skills (which is where crit damage shines) she won’t have the pressure to push her foes into panic mode. Power is good for Air autos, but you need something that tips the edge completely in your favor.
As others have astutely put it, I would much rather keep the increased crit damage over a slight boost to a general spread of stats. Shame.
Well i hate to complain about any update, but why torment are they trying to phase out confusion?
You’re completely right, love. We’ve just come full circle to something that didn’t need changing to begin with, except now it’s in a much weaker spot and far more classes have access to our own confusion to boot. Nothing has been hit quite as hard as confusion over the course of the game (other than perhaps old Ele sustain) and yet the devs just can’t seem to stop handing it out like candy to everyone but Mesmers themselves.
ofc its QQ about condi becease this zerker nerf is a indirect buff to condi builds.
I lose 25% crit damage (on full trait its -30% crit damage) so yeah that’s HUGE!
Why even care about crit damage If you can do so much more with condi.. and you can even build defensive also.!
You’re missing the point. Everyone and their mother agrees that condi is the way to go.
The point I’m trying to make with this thread is that there are things that require more attention than class balancing. I.E the little bugs like mist form sometimes being able to be CC’d through, or Illusionary leap not working on hills, or blink/lightning flash/shadowstep rubberbanding you back to the spot you used it from. And so on…If anything in any class needs balancing then nerfing crit damage shouldn’t be at the top of the list.
I’m not QQing about condi’s. They are easy to deal with for experienced players. I’m just using it as an example for comparison.
And why even care about crit damage? It’s a lot of fun, it’s more fast paced and it’s how I enjoy playing this game. I’m sure I’m not the only one who agrees.
You’re absolutely not the only one friend. I’m likewise baffled at changes like iLeap, suddenly rubberbanding teleports etc. still not being fixed (iLeap’s been bugged since beta).
Sadly, the reason they’re hitting crits and encouraging more condition specs is simply because they don’t balance for WvW at all. Unless it has something to do with map objectives or siege weapons, they don’t care.
Condi shatter is really old, a long time ago back before the confusion nerf/“normalization” in WvW it was more popular than power since it hit tremendously hard and scaled well with traits. You can see it in action here
This Illusions trait just fills the gap where confusion shatter once was many moons past. Unfortunately it’s a weaker pastiche, torment is not nearly as potent and you lose IP to boot (old confusion specs ran pretty much the same spread as power shatter).
If I could wave a magic wand I would just give confusion back to Mesmers and leave everything as is, but alas.
Wha? You’re just a noob! Just dodge the insta-cast, 1200 range, Power Lock .
Why did you let the Mesmer channel the skill in the first place?
MoR (cleanse Mantra) has a number of advantages: it doesn’t take up a trait slot, it’s weapon-ambiguous, it has really high output as has already been said, and perhaps most importantly it’s instant cast. Particularly now with Immobilize being what it is, that split-second difference between an instantaneous break and one from say, a ground cast like Null Field, the difference can save your life. There are many lulls and evades where you can safely channel the skill.
The only time I would consider leaving out Illusionary Persona would be on something like Staff/Greatsword. If you have a MH sword it’s nigh obligatory I feel.
And no, swarm aint going to stick you to anyone with a teleport who also has access to swiftness, which is most teleport or leap users like warriors, thieves, and mesmers.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Summon_Flesh_Wurm
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_WalkPoor comparisons at best to leaps/blinks, since both can only take you to a per-determined point. They both work more like personal, single-use Portals.
I still find it funny that he used Mesmers in that list, since their access to Swiftness is very poor, though they are typically packing Blink.
Those are the two strongest teleports in the game, given the way Necromancer is at the moment. When used properly you can completely guarantee a win at mid-fight since you’re impossible to peel.
And no, swarm aint going to stick you to anyone with a teleport who also has access to swiftness, which is most teleport or leap users like warriors, thieves, and mesmers.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Summon_Flesh_Wurm
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Spectral_Walk
Are you really comparing a long CD burst skill with multiple autos to say conditions are stronger and that this single attack can be dodged? Now I have seen everything.
People do meaningless comparisons like “Soldier’s vs Berserker’s” or “Soldier’s vs Rabid” without any sense of context all the time, so I don’t see why not.
In other words, you are saying that you want to continue building glass cannon, but you also want the survivability of a bunker..
The solution is to just use Dire gear. As much damage as a glass cannon and survivability out the nose! ^^
Can I get wrong answers for $500, Alex?
Dire gear is quite durable, yes, but it is lower damage than Soldier’s, which is the power equivalent. Condition builds need Precision badly to proc sigils and on-crit traits.
Even without Precision or Crit damage, Power has a multiplicative effect on damage due to the damage calculations ((weapon damage*power)+(power* skill coefficient)) Condition damage…doesn’t.
Soldier’s only does higher damage on paper, and even then it is under highly artificial constraints where two mirror classes are punching each other without using any skills or moving. The comparison is meaningless because there is no context.
In theory Killshot should inflict up to four or five times the damage that a Blood Curse chain would in the same time, but which is really more likely to land its damage complement? On paper Soldier’s will also prove superior in a slug fest to a glassy amulet due to superior sustain, but would a Soldier’s longbow Ranger really overcome a glassy dueling class? Reality completely throws these tidbits out the window.
This recent meme that Soldier’s outdamages even glassy condition specs is just pure sophistry! It’s based on fluff and rhetorical distortion. It doesn’t reflect the reality of how the game is actually played, doesn’t take into consideration any of the hundreds of varying aspects that go into how effective skills and stats are in the end.
In my experience, pistol is broadly strong in small-scale engagements down to one on one encounters. The method of damage application is split in a useful way and there is likewise never really a situation where a hard stun is not a good thing to have.
Offsword shines as a dueling weapon, particularly if you are bent towards interrupts, burst damage and illusions. Defensively it scales quite well too. Torch takes a similar balance between defensive and offensive skills.
Focus fills a partly similar role to pistol, it also has some very strong and favorable match-ups against enemies that can really put the pressure on a Mesmer but it is more difficult to use well and has something of an infinite ceiling. If you can meet that ceiling then I personally think focus is almost a must-have.
Tempest Defense is already strong (it’s a massive steroid with a player-ambiguous condition). I think the way it encourages players to work with each other is a positive design element.
That forces us to run with warriors, no other class is forces you to damage while waiting for another class to set you up.
I’m not asking for the trait to be changed, im asking for ranged stuns so we can proc the damge.
You’re not really forced to… I’m just saying it’s nice to have. You can use Earth #4 with off-dagger or Air #5 with focus if you want to.
Tempest Defense is already strong (it’s a massive steroid with a player-ambiguous condition). I think the way it encourages players to work with each other is a positive design element.
I wonder if it wouldn’t be better to make HS scale on adrenaline instead of Healing Power, similar to the Adrenal Health minor? So perhaps it starts at ~60% effectiveness, then scales up to 100% based on adrenaline ticks. It’d make Cleansing Ire a bit more thoughtful too.
Off-dagger would fit!
Moa delivers swift karmic justice in poultry form, working as intended OP.
Just wanna say I counted about 16-17 evades (there were so many) in the 15 seconds that countless was in the video….
Yeah mesmer vigor is so broken.Professional counting right there. Video was 10 seconds long with 11 evades total and he needed 4 seconds before he could use one more evade.
A thief can technically build to gain initiative on swap, endurance on heal via runes, 2x energy sigils on 2x shortbow etc lol. I mean sure… It’s not the best killer but c’mon.. That kitten doesn’t belong in a 3A mmorpg… That’s to be embarassed about.
I was in a Thief-only tournament a few months ago and one of the players (whose name is sadly lost to time) took an Sb/Sb Thief. He was so successful that others who were spectating were begging for him to get knocked out or barred so they wouldn’t have to face him. I don’t know that it means anything but it’s one of my most amusing memories.
Or of course, they could just get rid of immobilize stacking and refrain from fiddling with skills that were perfectly fine before the unasked-for change.
Well I’m not going to argue in favor of the warrior, but in this build that you linked it does in fact take 2 traits (neither in a power line) and a specific heal to maintain the level of vigor as the current 5 point minor trait which lies in a precision/crit line.
Edit: As for viable? sort of? Power based thieves are highly dependent on high crit damage and usually hidden killer with dagger or executioner. With this set up you can use neither.
I’m not really sure what you meant by the edit, Executioner is preferred in all cases to Hidden Killer and sword is perfectly viable sans dagger main. Perhaps you’re speaking about low or entry-level play.
I was addressing the fact that your build does not use 30 in CS. In fact 5 points are left out, so maybe you linked the incorrect build? I tend to play D/D in every game mode so HK was worth mentioning (i.e: not sans dagger).
I also added the “Edit:” because I finished then had another thought and it’s polite to use it if you’re changing/adding something unless it’s just a misspelled word or 2.
You could put 10 more in to get Executioner, between Fluid Strikes and Lead Attacks I doubt there’d be much difference. I like splitting it between the two because the minors are more consistent if you can make them work (which you can with sword specs).
In tournaments people generally won’t take Blinding Powder (selfish utility) or Sin Signet, especially on S/P where more initiative and more teleports are always useful. Side Strike is not ideal since S/P is not S/D or dagger.
My overall point is that the developers’ approach to this is both short-sighted and incoherent. You can take Mesmer Vigor one of two ways: either it’s the fact that it’s too easy to access, or it’s that the Vigor itself is too strong.
If it’s the former, the solution is to move Mesmer Vigor to a higher minor trait. The latter is nonsensical, though, because, as I’ve demonstrated, high Vigor uptime is very common across all kinds of competitive specs. To single out the Mesmer and the Guardian is batting at low-hanging fruit in lieu of a far more holistic and comprehensive approach that’d achieve what the game truly needs.
Well I’m not going to argue in favor of the warrior, but in this build that you linked it does in fact take 2 traits (neither in a power line) and a specific heal to maintain the level of vigor as the current 5 point minor trait which lies in a precision/crit line.
Edit: As for viable? sort of? Power based thieves are highly dependent on high crit damage and usually hidden killer with dagger or executioner. With this set up you can use neither.
I’m not really sure what you meant by the edit, Executioner is preferred in all cases to Hidden Killer and sword is perfectly viable sans dagger main. Perhaps you’re speaking about low or entry-level play.
My impression at this point in the game is that the developers are somewhat naive and don’t really play that much; at the very least, they’re unaware of just what is capable with the current mechanics. They know vaguely what it is they want to do, but they don’t seem to know how to properly do it.
Hurting Mesmer Vigor when it’s possible for a Warrior with an adept trait and Lyssa runes to keep close to permanent uptime or an Acro Thief to have total permanent uptime just intimates that the devs are out of touch. Even more so when you consider that a Mesmer needs to crit and the latter two can keep Vigor up at range or even out of combat entirely.
The thief version (if you mean feline grace) is slightly worse than the current mesmer version. Thief access to actual vigor was nerfed by over 33% last patch. There are a few key differences though as to why the mesmer one is going to be nerfed now.
Mesmers have access to more defensive boons (regen, protection, aegis) which thieves don’t have
The trait is a 5 point minor in an offensive line while it’s a 15 point minor for thieves in a defensive line.
The same is happening to guards because of their access to defensive boons.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmaPHdS5E/5ExmCfKUPFkds9M4qVB-TsAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFN+Y9xsAA
And?
That is a perfectly viable setup which will give you permanent (as in constant uptime) Vigor as well as the benefits of Feline Grace, so long as you’re on a target. You could also play full Trickery and simply trait for Acro III instead of Mug, to more or less the same ends. That is a mere five points more than the Dueling minor.
Similarly for ten points into Discipline Warriors can have very high Vigor uptime, independent of precision. With a warhorn on swap it’s more or less permanent, and doesn’t require one to be in active combat.
Mesmer does not have access to the evades of any Thief spec. Shatter has little to no Regen (or any sustain whatsoever for that matter), and since the change to staff #4 there is no reliable form of Protection. Thief also isn’t dependent on the endurance bar the way Mesmer is, due to Dueling X. Shatter’s defense comes exclusively from positioning and skill use. I personally know players who will sit at certain vantage points in Foefire etc. because not getting hit at all and minimizing the amount of incoming damage between 20s intervals is the first line of defense for shatter.
It’s duplicitous to cross-compare two classes when it suits you and then claim that they’re different when it doesn’t. In this case I feel it is fair to compare other options, since I feel shatter is somewhat low on the list of current offenders when it comes to game balance.
For the record though, I do believe that five points for Vigor on crit is rather generous, but the problem is with Vigor, not with the Mesmer or the Guardian. And it is unrealistic and completely out-of-touch to hurt Vigor alone when total damage in the game has reached the levels that it has.
My impression at this point in the game is that the developers are somewhat naive and don’t really play that much; at the very least, they’re unaware of just what is capable with the current mechanics. They know vaguely what it is they want to do, but they don’t seem to know how to properly do it.
Hurting Mesmer Vigor when it’s possible for a Warrior with an adept trait and Lyssa runes to keep close to permanent uptime or an Acro Thief to have total permanent uptime just intimates that the devs are out of touch. Even more so when you consider that a Mesmer needs to crit and the latter two can keep Vigor up at range or even out of combat entirely.
The thief version (if you mean feline grace) is slightly worse than the current mesmer version. Thief access to actual vigor was nerfed by over 33% last patch. There are a few key differences though as to why the mesmer one is going to be nerfed now.
Mesmers have access to more defensive boons (regen, protection, aegis) which thieves don’t have
The trait is a 5 point minor in an offensive line while it’s a 15 point minor for thieves in a defensive line.
The same is happening to guards because of their access to defensive boons.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQNAsaVlYmaPHdS5E/5ExmCfKUPFkds9M4qVB-TsAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFN+Y9xsAA
My impression at this point in the game is that the developers are somewhat naive and don’t really play that much; at the very least, they’re unaware of just what is capable with the current mechanics. They know vaguely what it is they want to do, but they don’t seem to know how to properly do it.
Hurting Mesmer Vigor when it’s possible for a Warrior with an adept trait and Lyssa runes to keep close to permanent uptime or an Acro Thief to have total permanent uptime just intimates that the devs are out of touch. Even more so when you consider that a Mesmer needs to crit and the latter two can keep Vigor up at range or even out of combat entirely.
I rather like KarsaiB’s idea for the Lyssa active, I think that’s probably what they should’ve been from the start.
WvW is WvW, and the devs have made it clear that they’ll only seldom balance WvW based on changes that would impact their ‘vision’ of WvW as ‘large scale PvP’. Hence confusion was hit when glamours (and not confusion shatter) were popular, retaliation was hit because of Guardian stacking, etc. etc. This is the way you phrase problems with WvW if you want to be heard.
Ironically I’ve found that the +40% food is strong on condi classes but even stronger (or at least more bizarre to play against) on things it doesn’t appear to be intended for, such as the immobilize on Mesmer/Thief sword.
I can agree that consumables shouldn’t have more impact than a trait line.
I actually don’t find Lich the most dangerous part of power Necs (that would be Chill of Death + Dark Path into repeated Life Blasts).
It’s a strong elite for sure but at least it has drawbacks: as Symbolic once succinctly put it, “You’re a giant f’n Lich!!”
The second quote you gave is telling because it explains how one can shatter illusions after using them to disorient foes. This is part of the natural push and pull of the Mesmer class. Likewise a world that had no shatters would be one with less options than we currently have (it is quite possible to confuse opponents with the Illusions traitline).
— Bliss
And BTW, I think you’re conflating “profession mechanic” with “profession skill”. And there are other professions also where there are builds that use the profession skills only incidentally.
From the official site:
GW2 WikiShattering is the primary profession mechanic of the mesmer profession [….]
— Bliss
It seems to be related to the (very) long aftercast animation when the Warden comes to a stop (if you look carefully in the vid her target moves again twice before she’s finished coming to a standstill). Her spell finally triggers because the third time lucky she got the chance to finish the arduous animation cycle.
As Ross Biddle has suggested I would prefer if the Warden just worked as it once did (i.e. it doesn’t move and casts its spell on stationary summon).
Phants granting extra damage on shatter didn’t even need to be a trait, it should’ve been an inherent mechanic from the start. Sadly damage and power creep is too high in the game now for any such change to take place.
Great thoughts though OP
I made this to clearly explain issues with not being able to replace illusions:
Excellent slideshow friend, very clear even to non-initiates who may be puzzled by the uproar. Have an upvote from me, really hope the devs see this
+1
“DE clone replacement doesn’t trigger on-death effects.” would be a much more reasonable way to go, if the intention was to nerf clone-death builds.
I agree and as I’ve said, it’s a more elegant solution since the ability to recognize how a clone died is already in the game (shatters do not produce on-death effects).
I am in deep hope that this change does not go through as planned.