Guild Wars 2

Edward.8594:

IGN: Edward Griffin
Role: Scholar / Tester / Instructor
Server: Fissure of Woe
Playstle: PVE and WvW
Time: GMT+1, weekends and evenings

You have full guilds and will need to drop one in order to receive an invite.

Curunen.8729:

But in any case, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the survivability and escape potential.

Definitely – with all the swiftness at your disposal + ph retreat + long range blink, you should have all you need. I’ve never had a problem escaping or chasing.

Curunen.8729:

LOL, just had an engineer calling this build cheese (or rather “gay”) in hotjoin… xD

Right, and I guess I’d say, “mission accomplished”. Engineers are going to have a rough time with this build due to 1) the large reflect potential and 2) your good condition clears.

As far as cheese is concerned – it’s not nearly as easy to play as a PU build. Adding focus to a condition build is something you don’t see often and has a higher skill floor to pick up and utilize effectively. Also, scepter AA torment perfectly complements this build and gave it a decent buff (most consider that cheese and it is what it is).

denis.9487:

First off this is a fun build. IMO I have tried to use both torment and traveler runes for wvw. The lack of swiftness was really felt. Also with traveler runes the boon duration increase lets the swiftness from curtain last 17 seconds, creating near perma swiftness. The stat loss is really minor for condition damage in my build 120 loss using traveler. The swiftness boon and condition duration make traveler a better option for wvw use. Again a very refreshing play style other than shatter for wvw.

Glad you’re having fun with it! On the notion of travelers, help me understand. Without traveler’s you have about 16s of swiftness from the curtain, 4s shy of the 20s recharge. Does the 4s make it feel slow? I mean, with the 16s swiftness, long range blink and phase retreat forward, I can’t imagine giving up near 100% torment duration for all the various sources. Sure, what you get in return are decent stat buffs and boon/condition duration (60/45). But I think the issue I’m seeing is the lack of perma swiftness. To me, the 25% speed boost seems wasted when you have 33% the vast majority of the time.

Curunen.8729:

One thing I am having great difficulty with while testing in hotjoin is fighting shatter mesmers – even though I know what they’re going to do, I just cannot seem to best them if it comes down to a 1v1.

Yeah they can be difficult, especially those with GS since mirror blade is unblockable. Just dodge the shatters as much as you can and use the focus pull to mess with them. You’re quite tanky, so you should be able to eat a bit of damage. GS is easy to get illusionary counter off on them so ensure you do that early.

Other than that, the build works pretty well against most classes 1v1 and you’ll always have a counter build here or there that’s a bit tougher to handle. I’ve personally found good lockdown mesmers and good dps guards to be troublesome. The average ones are typically no problem.

Curunen.8729:

Another thing – any thoughts on using Antitoxin runes with -condition duration food for more defensive play, then taking signet of dominaiton instead of a mantra?

Certainly could, again accepting the trade off of shorter torment duration and having only one source of condition removal in MP. The #6 rune bonus is decent, because poison is quite prevalent in most encounters (even versus power builds who run doom sigils in case they run into warriors or regen rangers). I know your idea is to ditch the mantra, but in this case mantra of distraction would be a much better choice than the signet and would let CI work for you even more.

keenlam.4753:

I switch Chaotic Dampening out for Bountiful Interruption. With BI, the dmg output from this build is much stronger than PUC build and the build becomes much more dangerous in group fights (where u can get 25 mights easily).

This is definitely an option. When I first created the build, I was less skilled that I am now and have since played a few other builds with BI instead of CD. I would honestly probably play the build this way now. It’s never a sure thing, but if you can land interrupts, BI can increase the notion of burst quite a bit.

I’ll also echo the group fight utility. In WvW it’s decent but the group play really shines playing on or just to the edges of points in PvP where you can focus pull players off the point and watch them immobilized with the iWarden on them. Grenth runes play a huge role as well using mirror heal. An AoE chill on point can really turn the tide.

About traiting long range manipulations vs phantasmal fury – it’s a viable option and up to the player at that point. Granted the argument for phantasmal fury would be stronger if talking about iDuelist. In our case you lose a bit of dps from iWarden bleeds, but if blinking 1200 range is more important, by all means. Mobility is very good with this build already with focus + phase retreat + blink, but more is always good in WvW.

I’ll try to answer all the questions -

Curunen.8729:

How do you feel with no boon removal? I was slotting iDisenchanter in hotjoin to deal with eles/guards for example. I haven’t had time to test extensively but it seems ok without anything – did you ever run into any problems vs boon heavy classes and builds?

Not really an issue, even with an interrupt build. Sure you’ll run into random stability. At the very least, be mindful, try to wait it out, don’t blow a temporal curtain cool down, etc. If really concerned about it, go with null field or iDisenchanter as keenlam suggested.

Being able to interrupt means you immediately have a decided advantage in this build, but interrupt is only a spice. The damage output inherent to the build is still going to work for you, especially now that we have scepter AA torment (more on that below).

Curunen.8729:

Is CI really necessary in wvw if solo roaming (I haven’t yet sorted gear for this so zero experience other than in pvp), considering lack of burst damage to capitalise on the immobilise? Would -50% fall damage be relevant instead?

Well, CI is one of the fun parts of the build. You could switch a couple things around and go PU, but the fun would be gone (for me anyway). As for burst – the fight with the necro in the video illustrates the burst capabilities. This typically occurs if you interrupt. These should closely accompany an iWarden in their face and full confusing images attack. People simply can’t recover from the CC and damaging conditions in that state, especially if they’ve been blowing clears.

Curunen.8729:

Runes and sigils seem to have a lot of choice – I’m now liking doom for the poison, especially with switching weapons regularly and never camping in one set for too long. Hydromancy is fantastic in conquest, but I’m wondering if it is not great in wvw – maybe the torment sigil, earth sigil, bursting or battle instead?

Indeed, many valid options. For runes, I wouldn’t stray far from tormenting, especially since the scepter buff. A few times I’ve had thieves die in the distance trying to run (you know, like they do when they start losing a fight), only to appear out of stealth downed due to the huge duration torment on them. With 95% torment duration, illusionary counter is 15s, on heal almost 19s, sigil is 9s, ether blast near 4s and ether bolt 6s. It’s a lot to keep up with. Also keep in mind torment on heal does not break stealth!

For sigils, I always have doom on one set. The other is optional. I like bursting because of the condition damage boost but it’s not necessary. Geomancy for melee bleeds or even ice would be really decent. A 3s chill on hit (this used to be on crit) would be very nice in this build. Torment sigil is appropriate for the build, but maybe isn’t as necessary now post scepter AA buff.

Curunen.8729:

Edit: I forgot to add – I just love fighting longbow rangers with this – it totally kittens them up.

Honestly in my opinion, this build is one of the strongest we have for mesmer that can be run against them.

Curunen.8729:

Edit 2: I also forgot to add what the best part about this build is… you’re not hiding. Only decoy and MI when necessary so most of the time sitting in plain sight, toying with the opposition.

Yep, it’s fun from a play style perspective, but also a potential weakness. You have decoy and MI, but this build puts you out there with less room for error vs a PU build. I tried to make up for that by including as much defensive utility as possible, hence the traited focus (more focus pulls!), reflects, chaotic dampening, etc.

Curunen.8729:

I have a question regarding CI and things like warriors with dogged march, soup etc, resistant to the controlling conditions – is CI a complete waste of a trait in such a fight?

It would be good to know before dropping the gold for all this gear and before I start trying it in wvw.

Do you ever swap CI for something else in such a situation?

I wouldn’t be too concerned. Assuming food for you/them, they’re shaving 23% into the default. Sure this hurts a bit, but still enough for them to make a decision on cleansing. 1) again consider the interrupts as a spice and 2) we’re talking about special traits taken by classes specifically to counter other common builds, of which I’d say this isn’t one of them (at the moment xD) So, I’d say it’s not a complete waste.

I’ve played my chaotic perdition build in both pvp and wvw to good success, same 0/4/6/4/0 trait spread and weapons. It’s not the best 1v1 build I’ve found (in PvP moreso) but it’s good in team fights (similar to your experience). I use grenth runes for even more on point havoc and team support/CC, but I also use mirror which is pretty uncommon.

Ah, so this is more like a shantasm? You didn’t really indicate that in the OP – definitely sounded like more of a phantasm focused build. If you intend to shatter though, ofc you’d take DE and yeah I’d go in a different direction on the weapons – sw/t sounds nice with GS. The stealth and quicker torch CD’s would indeed be helpful for mantra charging.

I personally don’t quite get the melding of these two styles. In order to trait for phantasm you take away potential shatter damage, and vice versa. Can you elaborate more on the play style you’re thinking? So, no phants until your first shatter etc?

At a quick glance, I’d think about ditching signet of illusions for the defender. That way you have more protection for yourself and your illusions. It probably won’t last very long once it’s out, but would be something to experiment with (it would also keep you out of many dueling servers unfortunately).

Also, why DE in a phantasm build? It’s not needed and might even work against you. As a replacement, I don’t particularly like protected mantras but if you stick with 2 mantras, that might be something to consider in this build.

Mesmers can indeed do everything mentioned by the QQ’ers here against a target dummy.

Every single class has it’s share of stun breaks, condition removal and invulns that can be used in a fight. You can blow any one or heck, all of your cooldowns and survive the most vicious of chain lock/bursts.

This is a serious l2p issue. I guarantee you if you duel one of these mesmers for even 30 minutes, you’ll be twice as good, and more as you keep dueling. There are plenty of mesmers here that would be more than happy to help teach you how to beat us if you’re remotely serious about getting better.

More practice, less qq please.

These threads should be merged

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/God-bless-Diversion

StickerHappy.8052:

Wow thank you Fay! so feedback isnt just for reflecting kitten normally. So for example, if an enemy triggers confusion through feedback when using a physical projectile finisher, does that confusion scale with my condi dmg or the shooters?

Should be the opponent’s condition damage. Also keep in mind the projectile finisher through an ethereal field is only a 20% chance to proc for the iDuelist attacks. It used to be bugged to work 100% of the time and you’d see cheese builds here and there trying to exploit it, but even bugged it ultimately never really made an impact.

Another thing – all charged mantras show up under the mesmer’s target display, so you have an indication they could be used at any time. You can use that to help determine when to stealth, use blinds, etc.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Fay.2357:

Mystic Angelique.4021:

It more about Play vs Counter Play, Player targeting doesn’t allow that since the other rival player decide where feedback lands.

I fail to see why this is a problem. You still choose when and how to use it, the enemy player only ‘controls’ the range of options you have.

And don’t forget the pets/ambients/boxes/downed opponents/ect that you can cast it on. =P

Aaaand allies with Medic’s Feedback! There’s your ground target. Did we solve it?

WitchKing.5317:

skcamow.3527:

WitchKing.5317:

Well there you go you learn something new everyday, I had no idea a condition interrupt even existed (well that’s a lie, I just didn’t know the trait set-up).
You have sparked my interest chaos, time for me to learn the ways of a condition interrupt mesmer!
Great guide!

I ran one for quite awhile and I know Stickerhappy currently runs one that’s good in my opinion. Both aren’t 0/4/6/0/4 though.

What do you guys run?

I ran a 0/4/6/4/0 build called Chaotic Perdition. I shelved it at the time due to the iWarden issues. Now that it’s behaving better and the buff to scepter AA, I’ll probably dust it off to play around with it again. Due to traited focus, the build would likely fare well in the current ranger pew-pew honeymoon.

I’ll let stickerhappy reply on his build if he wants.

One thing’s for sure – every condition interrupt build I’ve seen uses CI.

WitchKing.5317:

Well there you go you learn something new everyday, I had no idea a condition interrupt even existed (well that’s a lie, I just didn’t know the trait set-up).
You have sparked my interest chaos, time for me to learn the ways of a condition interrupt mesmer!
Great guide!

I ran one for quite awhile and I know Stickerhappy currently runs one that’s good in my opinion. Both aren’t 0/4/6/0/4 though.

I didn’t make the duels but was great hanging with you all for a bit and especially chatting in TS. Great event, thanks Vinesta (calliope) for organizing!

I’ve just fully read through this for the first time. I’ve been playing mesmer since betas and found some things I didn’t know:

• Illusionary Invigoration only procs if you’re below 50% health and then take any non-condition damage hit
• Phantasmal Mage bounce cleanses conditions untraited?!
• The stealth/blind/AA/stow weapon trick
• Never realized or paid attention to the fact that temporal curtain can give illusions swiftness
• Didn’t know about the 1100 range on scepter AA

Just a couple notes:

• I don’t believe Decoy will stealth you if you have revealed anymore.
• Should be evade frames (not invuln), unless it really is invuln?? “Use Blurred Frenzy to go through Portal and cancel early – the ability doesn’t go on cooldown and you still get a few really short invuln frames in order to break marks”

Also I found a few random grammar mistakes I’ll PM you separately. xD

AMAZING guide, thanks for sharing! +1+1+1+1

I just tested #22 and it’s fixed. I used IP and both traits apply their effect when shattering with no illusions out.

Back when PB was a thing (before the “fix”), most were running a good 6/4/4 build. Problem is that the effects are very situational and further, Confounding Suggestions trounces PB in every way. I’d honestly never run it in it’s current form, especially with CS competing for the spot.

I like the way the balance devs are thinking but they need to work on it a bit more to make interrupts have more of an impact with a trait like this.

@calypso – yes shattered concentration is one of the best traits you could run vs a d/d ele. The other tips here are good, all similar advice. One additional would be to try not to burst when they’re in water. Hit them hard as they come out of it and they’ll start playing more defensively, much to your advantage playing shatter.

Most are playing celestial (or hybrid) and as such have a lot of sustain, condition management and hit really hard if all their might is allowed to stick. And that’s the kicker – you can pretty much hamstring a d/d ele if you can consistently strip boons. This means your typical options for that, which would vary depending on the build you’re running. If their consistent 20-25 might is allowed to stay, it’s going to be a hard time trying to burst them down while backpedaling/biding time for your next cooldown.

Invites sent. Snakebyte, you have full guilds and will have to leave one in order for us to add you.

Mesmer is great in PvE. We have a lot of utility which makes us valuable in many encounters. Our weak spot had been tagging mobs in bigger events but as of the last patch, we have much better means to do that with the buffed Mantra of Pain and GS Mind Stab radius expansion. For dungeons, we are more than capable with some good builds. These are a just couple minor examples.

Keep playing mesmer. Join the OMFG guild if you’d like to get around more like minded people who play the best class in the game.

Wyrden.4713:

Fay.2357:

Video Up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdZYi9k6Nls&list=UUxbSKcFKNHuxPy39xJXNMfA

Bug thread here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Mesmer-Phase-Retreat-Horridly-Broken/first#post4436924

this is one of the most trolly bugs we could ever get, w the reflects i mean, see a reflect wall of a guardian in wvw? lets make him blink to us! and shatter! its nearly like position swap several of us wanted months ago instead of mimic!

Yep, in spite of the bugs, it could lead to some interesting exploits and should be fixed ASAP.

Just a bit more clarification (and pyro will be posting in the bug forum w/video):

If you phase retreat while an opponent is target, through or outside projectile hate skills (swirling winds, untraited warden, smoke screen) OR block skills (illusionary counter, shelter, aegis etc), the port is nullified, but the clone is created.

If you phase retreat on a target behind or inside a reflect, it works as warlord says (this is really weird).

If you phase retreat on an opponent using an invulnerable skill, phase retreat fails altogether (no movement, no clone).

Pretty sure that’s what I observed. Anyone please clarify.

Shadowkiller.6725:

i miss old decoy

Had to throw that in there didn’t you

Check out this thread from a few days ago:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Sin-amu-Str-rune-new-meta-for-tPvP-Shatter/first#post4403076

I do think Assassin’s amulet could be a thing for power builds, especially if you’re able to stack (or receive) a steady stream of might to make up for the lost power of zerker amulet.

MSFone.3026:

Steinpilz.5078:

MSFone.3026:

the only reason to take MtD is if you can reliably nail 3 people with your shatters in a group fight. Other than that I’d say ya this trait is just turning out to be pretty lame.

I don’t understand why this should be so.
Imagine a warrior with some stacks of torment and confusion, he should die fast.
Torment is a very powerful condition.

What’s worse is that if you are fighting some warrior and you are in MtD, then you also have IE, and it is a flat out loss in damage to shatter your clones rather than let the staff clones AA him down with IE.

Which is why taking IE is really counter intuitive in a MtD build, although it would seem blasphemous not to take it. Because shatters are so important to this build, I think I’d actually entertain the idea of using Illusionary Invigoration. I don’t really care for the trait, but having that F2 pop back up at 1/2 health just off CD would be really nice and borderline essential due to that longer 23s CD. Also – although weak, signet of illusions might be worth a look and you’d almost certainly need signet mastery to make it remotely worthwhile (which would work in a 4/4/0/0/6 build).

Ultimately notice what’s happening though, trying to take weak traits and utilities to make a condition shatter build viable.

Has anyone gave a good run at a hybrid MtD build (thinking more WvW, much harder in PvP)? I’ve thought (and posted) about this for awhile now but it’s only theory and I’ve never tried it. I think it’d be the only way to consistently keep up pressure with MW/CoF torment while also doing decent MW damage and providing a semblance of burst. A build like this would need BI I think to really max out the damage potential, 0/4/4/0/6.

I main mesmer and don’t know that much about thief (still playing/learning), but in reading through this, I totally get LS shouldn’t be available if FS fails via blind/evade/invuln, but I do think a block should open up LS. You at least made contact with something but didn’t do damage to the opponent.

Neptune.2570:

Str runes or Scholar, this decision just got so much tougher

Hoelbrak xD
You still get might duration, might proc on hit, power bonuses, plus some passive help with conditions. This is probably well known information, but the only difference between hoelbrak and strength is:

• An extra 5s might duration with hoelbrak on the 25% hit proc (didn’t realize this until recently).
• The 5% damage boost with strength when you have might.
• An extra 15% might duration with strength.

So really you’re only giving up the extra damage modifier and 15% might duration, and even then might probably won’t last that long in PvP. I just prefer the passive condition help.

Scholar – all ham, go kill stuff! Don’t see many people running this though.

masskillerxploit.2165:

Jhughes.8341:

Where is mime? and stunningstyles? wut. Anyway I don’t consider myself among the top 10 but if no one else is going to put there name on it, I might as well get my 15 minutes before someone knocks me off :> throw me on there!

Stunning styles LOL. He doesn’t even main a class it seems…. maybe guardian idk. Mime and me should be tied for first

I would be happy to switch places with you on the list.

I’m nowhere near as good as where Chaos put me, though it’s not really about ranking. I think it’s just supposed to be a starting point where things are very much expected to shift/shake up quickly.

I’ve been playing with it as well and have noticed a positive difference in damage output. You’ll see it in standard shatter where you can maintain around 6-10 stacks. I run an alternate more tanky 0/4/4/0/6 shatter with BI and the new MoD for more lockdown shatter. Fully decked 25 might is insane with sin amulet. The biggest thing about it to me is the mind wrack crit rate, but to your point I’ve definitely noticed a large increase in bleeds because of it, in addition to the IE fix (I use GS/Staff).

I’m pretty sure many higher tier mesmers already use strength runes (or traveler it seems). I personally use hoelbrak.

I’ll definitely be playing around a bit more with them, but ultimately may end up reverting back to zerker due to the vitality issue.

It certainly will add to builds that stack vulnerability via the domination line, and maybe you can look at it as a buff in one sense for builds spec’d there. On the other hand, the collateral retaliation nerf hurts for sure.

I never had issues proc’ing the finisher pre-patch and seems easy enough now as well.

It’s here now, it’s certainly better than nothing and of course we’ll take what we can get. I’m just not very wowed by it.

My initial thoughts find the new aura quite underwhelming. The collateral damage retaliation nerf from being able to originally gain retal off both the leap and swap is huge, and the 1s internal CD makes it worse. Sure, the vulnerability is nice if you’re tanking a bunch of damage but in the end I think this is inferior to what we had before.

The one thing I do like about it is the animation!

Rubedo.8769:

So, just cause atm I’m not 100 percent sure. With the Mantra’s now being AoE, if you are specced into CS and you cast MoD do you have a chance to stun anyone hit by it or just your initial target?

Any daze originating from you and applied to any opponent will have the chance to proc a stun (single target or AoE).

Very cool, nice job

I’ve heard a few differing reports that it’s been fixed and others where the behavior is still erratic like in pre-patch. This is apparently what Anet fixed, per the patch notes:

• Illusionary Warden:
  Fixed a bug that caused this phantasm to follow one target while trying to attack another target at the same time.

I’m not sure if this description would apply to all various symptoms I’ve seen reported in the past months.

Anyone tested the warden? Please share your findings.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

My only question… Does iwarden work!? Mantra of distraction!? Is it true!?!?!?

Yes, MoD and MoP are amazing. IE is fixed. iLeap is fast. Mind Stab AoE field huge and I’d swear the animation got bigger. Malicious Sorcery fixed (FINALLY). Dat 6s scepter block traited with illusionist’s celerity.

Many more bug fixes being validated. Really good day for Mesmers, so far.

^^
We’re all in guild chat fanboy’ing over the changes/fixes

Add MOD to that list

So many bug fixes. I’ve already confirmed a few. Feeling the Anet love atm. We’ll see how long it lasts.

Oh, and scepter torment is broken

Fay.2357:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

it will remove blinds

Not a big buff for clone-death builds, but a significant buff for non-clone-death builds that happen to take a clone death trait.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

and blocks now

This is pretty significant for clone death builds. More consistent application of scepter torment blocks in particular is very strong.

And people might start blowing dodges to evade clone deaths (go figure). That could actually turn out to be a very good thing depending on the build/situation. If we can get them to waste dodges to avoid a couple bleed stacks, we can anticipate, set up and have a greater chance of landing our next attack/burst.

@kaamau: I never really warmed up to furious interruption, but that looks like a really fun shatter variant.

@hamster: Interesting trait choices. I run the same 0/4/4/0/6 build idea, shatter bursts with might, but generally different other choices. Why DD (esp post patch)? Seems you might get more out of manipulation CD’s.

The rest look like condi-shatter, which I’m sure we’ll see a lot of post patch. With our coming changes, the 4/4/0/0/6 build (or other variants) certainly have some potential.

Any other shatter builds out there?

I’ve updated the OP with the unique builds seen so far in the thread. Would love to hear of more.

With the change tomorrow, I believe PU will come into better balance overall and thus QQ will be minimal. Build diversity will skyrocket as people explore new builds with the new PU. In addition, we’ll see fresh build exploration around not only the new PU, but also from the buffs and bug fixes.

That I am much looking forward to, and where I’ll be sowing my energies.

You didn’t mention mantra of resolve, but I would personally use that skill over both null field and arcane thievery for basic condition removal.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Yes bring back power block please. Thieves should not be able to break any more game mechanics and should fully apply to power block. They should be punished for spamming mindless like every else should. Oh, and make it so it also works on auto attacks as well except for only 5 seconds, just to encourage no facerolling.

It’s either this, or the trait should be removed or re-worked entirely. There should not exist any trait that only works against some classes and not others. It’s asinine.

Mesmers! Here’s this amazing GM trait! (but we don’t intend for it to work versus thieves, your mortal enemy and worst counter).

Most of the illusion mechanics are separate from the mesmer and thus I think the effects will remain that way.

Look at it this way. Phantasms hit. Phantasms can be dodged and blinded. They get killed and nothing happens to you. If you are in stealth and a phantasm hits your opponent, you aren’t revealed. I think the same will happen with illusions and the on death trait procs.

The notion of unblockable skills in this game has always struck me as interesting, but I always thought the clone on death trait procs should provide the ability to prevent through all the various means. I think the announced change is good for the game and introduces counterplay, something we all like to complain that there isn’t enough of.

On the other hand, in light of the PU change and clone on death change, the debilitating dissipation change was completely unjustified. It should have received a buff IMO to compensate, like keep the 3 bleeds but just make it weakness and bleeding RnG, removing vuln.

So now, something I said all along was that I’d be in favor of the torment on scepter AA change if PU was addressed somehow. Well, now they’ve done it and torment on scepter AA is absolutely necessary to keep mesmer condition builds even remotely viable. Funny, it shows how married Anet was to that change – prompting all these other nerfs.

frifox.5283:

No need to create another thread, I’ll keep this one updated. Post patch we’ll have to double-check all the bugs to see if they were fixed, and if some did get fixed I’ll just remove them from the list.

If you need help validating anything, l let me know. I know I’ll personally be checking a few I’ve long been waiting for.

Fay.2357:

StickerHappy.8052:

Fay.2357:

StickerHappy.8052:

For other classes yeah, but with someone using interrupts no. 3 is an easy bait. On your original idea, are you referring to same projectile speed? And the melee clones, what do they do on their attacks?

It’s actually great to use it as bait for interrupts in a lot of cases. You can pretty much guarantee someone trying to interrupt it, and so that allows you to either quickly catch it with a block, or put the interrupt on cooldown for a cast that actually matters.

Whadya mean? So cancel 3 while channeling and quickly press 2?

Yep.

Another way to do that would be like players do with mirror blade to bait out a dodge (or interrupt). Cast, then stow weapon during animation (that way you can try to avoid the interrupt entirely).

Another thing I like to do with confusing images is begin the channel well out of range and blink into range just when the attack goes off. This works well in openers or disengage/re-engage scenarios and can really surprise people.