Guild Wars 2

Chadramar.8156:

The “immediately go anywhere you want in the world, without any cooldown” portals. It’s one reason why I dislike seeing NPC mesmers in stories, they’re definitely the writers’ pet class as far as being absolutely grotesquely overpowered (especially compared to PC mesmers) goes.

i feel like they think PC mesmers are that OP

Ohoni.6057:

That is exactly what Jaunt is. Why would they make two Jaunts?

They wouldn’t and I don’t expect them to haha, but one can dream!

Isnt Jaunt a leap btw? I can’t remember

Durzlla.6295:

The Honorless Gladium storyline has your father as a mesmer and he has some super cool abilities, one of which he enters a stealth that he can attack from without giving him reveal and doesn’t come out until you kill a bunch of little spider illusions.

Imagine that on a PU build!

This build I cooked up is here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/A-build-Solo-PvE-WvW-PvP-Hybrid-CQB/first#post6739056

are there any mesmer Charr NPCs?

OMG I remember Lyssa in Orr, I’d like the ability where you can’t face her haha

I’d like it to be improved too. I’ve seen complaints about thief shadowstep not working across gaps and so on. yet to reiterate, warriors have leaps, elementalists can across w ride the lightning for example, engi rocket boots, guardian can sword teleport to target, alot of classes have skills that just overcomes terrain. but maybe bc the teleport are constructed differently there are some glitches such as blinking and clipping through maps and objects. also read someone say once that blinks are set as like run from one spot to another super fast. imagine theoretically we are also not actually leaping up and over to the destination. but technically they could just make it the same skill basis but not show or time a leap animation. it’s just stupid the way it is right now when alot of other classes have leap skills and it is allowed. that said, blink does allow ground targeting whereas u can’t control the distance for leap skills during travel. what I’d like to see also is an ammo system so we can have like two blinks before it recharges or something, like Jaunt or engineer rocket boots etc.

Wow what a great idea and community spirit.

I’m not one to ask for things usually but lately my savings have been running out both irl and in game lol! I’m not going to ask for anything crazy, it just doesn’t feel right but most realistically, I keep running out of bag space on my main and have focused all my gold and so on to working on gear/builds… bag and bank space I realized is so necessary even for putting that work in for goals

- any 20 slot (what’s the max?) bags or 1 or 2 20 slot invisible bags would help!

- or a bank tab expander

Thanks so much in advance!! will update my post asap if any kind soul helps!

Zoltar MacRoth.7146:

It’s not something I’ve seen in the game, but when I think mesmer I envision skills that can:

1. Generate a dozen clones. They don’t have to do any damage, just run around and dodge in a more naturalistic way.

2. OR, keep the three clones but have them perfectly imitate everything I do, albeit facing towards the target.

yes this is an idea I’ve wanted for so long – they said Mirage is meant to confuse the enemy with clones (one of the multiple distracted things it’s trying to do). if that is the purpose then I want that clone mirroring thing in random positions around us.

maybe an elite skill that temporarily doubles our slots for a duration would also be cool like anise with alot of illusions up. that would be so good if we want a burst dps build

also caudecus has all these portals around the entrances of the room that does knock back or teleports us around, could portals be offensive aoe pls

bobsort.4097:

Vayne.8563:

I simply don’t find HoT maps that challenging.

….

I don’t see value in running around zones that I can beat with any build, predominantly using my 1 skill. It doesn’t make me feel heroic. I don’t feel like I’m in a war zone.

I complete VB and AB to relax before bed.

I suggest you join marines and have tour to Iraq for a real feeling of war, challenging and heroic. Games are for entertainment and leisure time to have fun and get away from daily stress at work, school, life pressures and not add to them

I play pretty casually these days, most of the time I stand around in a city chatting, use some tonics, but then I have my thrill seeking moments and fidgety moments and moments where I want to feel pretty satisfied by overcoming some really tough challenges in game, there are so many reasons and moods to play a game. usually it’s like at most 30 min when I go solo some stuff that isn’t meant to be solo’d. sometimes I just want some good gear or build craft. some ridiculous moments I just strip naked and run at the boss. all of it is fun to me. if it’s just for relaxation, play candy crush or something right? there are many options and styles of playing. and for some reason I feel like most complaining comes from folks who are so serious and impatient and not relaxing about the rewards and wanting to just get stuff over with they get frustrated when it’s not being handed over so easily. if anyone wants to play easy content and relax run around in low level zones in Tyria and take screenshots? I think frustration simply comes from the player and their own state of mind and control of their own emotions tbh

even for pocket raptors, I run past most mobs, ofc easiest on mesmer or thief with stealth, and blink, but alot of classes have swiftness or travel speed or some sort of leap or blink sometimes, this is where people should learn to play without auto targeting and have easy keybinds for targeting or learn action cam, and use leap skills or anything really to get the hell away from them really fast. I have an engineer with 25% speed modifier and slotted rocket boots and I was running past everything. I’d wait for a bit like literally maybe 30 seconds in a safe spot to get the recharge back and then rocket boot past them. I do gs leap on ranger etc. warriors should have no prob. also don’t forget ur dodge loll. also stealth glides are helpful. or blocks and aegis. but the list goes on, on how to play well or in this case run and skip well

while gliding for HP trains for example, I literally lag so I can’t even glide or cancel my glide by accident bc I spammed space bar a little too much and the game didn’t recognize what I was doing. I’ve since learned to stay away from hp trains and play solo or small groups most times or at least expect to get separated and miss a few things

what I do hate most is the realism and immersion with the universe we are in… it just looks like another p2w mmo now when we had some serious lore, style and world building around us. asuran tech is as glowy as anything can get tbh. Nobody should be making anything crazier than the asura do. Or the glow of tarir and bloodstones, that’s realistic.

how did it get to PvP though? dodges, cc, active blocks, evasion, detargeting, stealth, aegis and more is what makes PvP based on actual play build, skill, strategy, reflexes and more…. every class has some defensive strategies. that’s why it’s fun. admittedly balance can work better so you have build options

I really enjoyed the HOT and LS3 content and how hard it is… I didn’t have problems soloing most of it except for Caudecus and some things where I didn’t have the magic mastery some people told me would help, but all of it was super fun because it really needed a good optimized balanced build like something for 1vX wvw roaming you know? and play really on your toes with lots of movements and everything you can do to survive, blocks, evades, blindness, CC, whatever. I think this is very good that PvE can push us to play well and smart. I’d say instead of trying to rush through content and just get all the rewards and things over with, look at your skills and builds and really optimize and learn your class well and take it as a test for yourself. I didn’t find it annoying, it was fun. there were diff mechanics coming from NPC enemies, they had condi, cc, stealth, like playing actual PvP. this is very good and fun imo. I even found Caudecus fun/funny bc anise kept trying to revive me and they were essentially invincible and I just stripped naked and ran back at him over and over. A ridiculously impossible situation can be fun if you look at it as a personal challenge or just simply, a game

then there will be some mesmer players who are just good and somehow make Mirage work as we always do with whatever scraps we are given and Anet will be like oh looks like it’s good (or OP) etc

Just want to share what I do in case there are any weirdos like me who don’t quite fit in with the meta

Preface

I’m certainly not the best mesmer and this build isn’t exactly complete yet, there are loose ends. I’m sure someone out there might be able to optimize it (especially numbers) and play it well, in fact the runes are dumb but I like using them for constant swiftness while traveling) and sigils are all subject to change, there’s one or two trait selections that could be changed such as possibly opting for Mirror of Anguish in WvW or PvP, or boosting Scepter speed for extra clone production with Malicious Sorcery, but this is something close to what I’ve been running and has served me well in solo play in PvE, solo WvW roaming and the occasional PvP, and really fits my play style perfectly. I honestly haven’t been enjoying chrono even though it performs well and prefer core mesmer trait lines. Well I’m not experienced at PvP but this build concept has let me kicksomebut when I go. I have one or two pieces of armor with toughness in game, but even without toughness or vitality, it’s been a build where I found it near impossible to down or die in, no matter the situation, soloing lots of champs, big group events, etc, and I love playing solo and challenging myself with what seems impossible.

Yes it uses PU (I’ll probably get some eye rolls) but has several great layers from my experience playing with it!

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Key Components (Abundance of:)

Blocks and Evades
- Low cd scepter 2 and oh sword 4 blocks
- Mh sword 2 evade
- Torch 4 or Decoy aegis/protection boons
- Distortion Shatter
- Successful dodges
- All of which triggers iDefender (24 s cd, Mental Defense Trait)
- Successful weapon block skills generates clone + iDefender at the same time

Constant Damage
- I’ve found the build to perform smoothly and consistently with “constant” illusion generation and shatter rotations (even more if you swap AT or Blink for Mirror Images)
- Power and Condition bursts are nice, though more for keeping the pressure on over time

Reflects
- 12 s cd Mirror Heal
- Arcane Thievery
- Blink
- Mass Invisibility
- Distortion Shatter

Condi Cleanse
- Shatters (can remove 4 condi w/ 1 shatter)
- 12 s cd Mirror Heal
- 20 s cd Arcane Thievery
- Torch 4
- All of which are “offensive” tools as well

Supplementary Components

Detargeting and Boon Stealth
- Torch 4
- Decoy
- MI
- Aegis, Protection, Regeneration, Might, Swiftness

Heals
- 12 s cd Mirror Heal
- Three Illusion Shatter Heals
- Regen boons from stealth, health below 75%,

Helpful Extras
- 8 might stacks from Sword 5
- Shatter Might stacks
- Might from Stealth
- Regen also gives Protection
- Defender reduces incoming damage
- Retailiation on all phantasms (Defender, Mage, Swordsman)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRArf8clsnh20YjawMNwtGLAH05I+QpRjxqbtZCCdAA-TFTFQBoRTQyOIAtTjgwUlpfqN0Qlf96BA4h9HCwRAYkKB9leAAcCAIFgfKjA-w

-

- there are almost always 3 illusions up
- don’t worry about shattering Phantasms after they hit!
- Of course some improv is necessary, heals, dazes, reflects, throwing back some condi, blink out, boons from stealth, etc…
- Overall, even without a sure rotation, it is all about responding to enemies and an abundance of defensive and offensive options all at the same time, pretty constantly…
- a lot of these things are layered so they automatically trigger while you’re doing something else…
- it’s been fun and active for me to play, and often you can tank a lot in melee range
- the illusion production has actually felt very continuous almost as if having dodge clones or mirror images by default already
- and the stealthing makes it feel half like a thief, I know it might be annoying for others to deal with

If anyone wants to improve this thing, feel free to let me know how it does for you or what you think!

Thanks for listening

haha what’s a story without some lame clichéd tragedy and drama!

also I just fought caudecus without any magic mastery that someone told me would’ve helped. I hated CM as a dungeon because of the close quarters, nowhere to move, and bad camera angles and couldn’t believe I had to do this again with 20 stacks of confusion and torment and whatever hitting me sometimes and the non stop aoe and cc. I’m used to never dying soloing things in pve or never dying in dungeons but this was like omg. but it was oddly fun and satisfying to find something actually challenging and impossible for once. I just stripped naked and ran back at him hahaha. but the npcs were actually invincible in the fight lol I watched anise try to revive me with like no health left over and over, fun times

If you observe NPC mesmers such as Anise, Jennah, White Mantle Mesmers etc and other bosses who seem to be hybrid classes you notice some pretty crazy skills or abilities that are starkly different from our own. Other than some NPC being NPC dumb but also essentially being invincible even while the player can die over and over again in some cases, as Commander, leader of Dragons Watch, top ranking member of Orders and the Pact, etc, these days we seem to be… very weak. Which is great lore wise I’m sure these NPCs should be able to carry their own.

What are the most memorable mesmer skills you remember? Which ones would you dream of having most?

Recently I was finishing the Lake Doric arc and Jennah puts up that giant dome shield around the city. She also seems to have casted a spear 5 Vortex skill on land. White Mantle Mesmers have that intimidating looking multiple GS3 purple stabby aoe, and reappear after death (or did we kill their clone). I recall a long time ago in a story instance Anise or Jennah having more clones than our max slots. Also for game mechanics there seemed to be a lot of portal bombing, whenever anyone needed to leave they’d have a portal somehow no matter the class, like the heart when you release seraph prisoners from the white mantle fort lol

I agree. I like more realistic looks,i don’t mind the feathered wings backpieces but I even turn it off for combat and running around with it so stiff and so on looks ridiculous and blocks the view sometimes. I sometimes only turn on chaos gloves glow for combat, I can’t take players with too much flash just chilling seriously neither play ability or eye for aesthetics lol! but I do understand gw2 has a big range of players

agree with this but now if only I could switch hair styles on the fly too bc my character tying her hair up makes a much better fit on certain outfits or armor. that’s what prevented me from using my selection of outfits bc it doesn’t look good with her hair lol and hair that fits those outfits don’t fit with my armor look… but free hair changes
isn’t going to happen unless there’s a permanent hair style kit lol

play what you want and are comfortable with! it’s a game! most have multiple characters! I’m sure some of them being opposite gender is fine. you are not necessarily being your character. it might be weirder if you are RPing with people or if you’ve misled your guildies. I’m female but have about half male characters I made to resemble kpop idols lol, I love playing them. but my main is female i admit because here’s the only place I can feel so kick but and I want to identify with it. and look pretty with outfits I’d never have irl, but to each their own!

I like my The Sunbringer title alot. Personally, I think the titles are there to suit different tastes and styles. Some of them are for good fun and jokes, and some players have player names that are funny, they might play casually or on the other hand play for the game mechanics not lore, and humorous titles fit. Some may take on more serious or cool looking titles and there are some of those to choose from. Not every title needs to be convincing and immersed in lore, because there are different player bases, and it’s good to have a selection. That said, some of them don’t make sense and don’t seem to be fair rewards in terms of effort needed

Make a new character, use a lvl 80 boost, you still have your transmute charges, gold, other currencies, achievement titles, guilds, account bound ascended stuff, outfits, gear up, skin up, it’s not actually that far off aside from having to get some map completion or whatnot! They made it easy already!

Bad graphics, but updated look for new build

I love the maps even though they’re confusing as heck, claustrophobic and takes a long time. I love the challenge and felt it was different from core, and it was a lot of fun getting to high spots looking at some incredible complex sights or trying to be creative on how to get places. masteries are also pretty neat. soloing Champs for me haven’t been difficult. it’s important to be skilled enough and have a strong build. this is post end game content and should be more difficult. I actually wanted to solo Champs to test myself but often people would show up. the maps always have people doing stuff. Mobs are abundant and I can imagine it’s annoying for most people, but on a mesmer, ele and engineer, just darting by whether in stealth or using leaps and other traveling techniques have been no problem. I can imagine it’s pretty easy for warrior too. you don’t need to fight everything. but make a good appropriate build, play skillfully, and take your time, take screenshots. not everything needs to be a rush and race to get things over with. why play a game if it’s not for enjoyment and killing time? if taking it too seriously, like a job, of course it can get annoying and stressful.

I love Arcane Thievery; be careful with asking for buffs or changes, knowing Anet, they might nerf it instead hahahahaha I love popping it on condi builds, getting their boons and throwing back what they gave me, it’s so satisfying

completely agree. these are my thoughts as well. I wanted dagger for sure, that made a whole lot of sense. Both Shield and Axe is like what. They really do seem to like to do the opposite from what is needed or desired sometimes or a lot of the times, including mechanics and numbers and so on. I had a dream last night actually that they nerfed the torch condi removal so it removes only 5/8th of a condi. What. LOL

EnRohbi.2187:

999 times out of 1000 devs don’t care about the opinion of one person.

Many people with the same complaints get more notice. If the goal is to get the class balanced then anyone with an opinion should voice that. If someone reads through the forum and goes “Oh, well someone already said what I think so I just won’t post anything at all” then that’s one more person not trying to convince the devs; not contributing.

I’m all for keeping the opinions in a set of organized threads instead of spamming the forum (I also noticed Fay did this; good job), but /absolutely/ voice repeat opinions within those threads.

I agree, but I was talking about this at our current state, not in the beginning, when there have already been so many repeat opinions and threads, not just in mesmer forums, I think the point is clear that a lot of people share the same thoughts. If repetition is necessary, then the repetition of threads is also “good” and will flood the forum and get attention. Anyone coming to the mesmer forums will see countless threads all saying the same thing, and have to scroll through pages before getting to anything else, and that might be a “good” thing? Are there also quality threads and feedback, which not everyone is providing? But yes, if we should continue to repeat, then now, after there have been so many, at least we can stick to organized threads, that I absolutely agree with

Why are people always starting new threads with their “own” opinions without reading?

we’ve been saying the same things over and over again, at this point, pretty much everything has been covered and reiterated. A lot of us are frustrated or disappointed, but time to focus on how to improve this

with the exception of people who are trying to say it’s good or appreciate the positive side of it, or more unique and differing ideas of solutions, we really don’t need more threads with feedback.

Thank you to Fay for trying to get it more organized, let’s stick with those threads and not bump everything else. but even within those threads, read what has been covered because someone else has probably given the same feedback or even suggestions already.

I think we need to be TL;DR clearer and more organized if we want to present a good case to the devs

A lot of points have been addressed already above and in all threads.

Another question though what exactly is the elite skill for, aside than the ridiculously short range issue? how exactly does that even synergize with the whole mirage core system? Chrono’s elite skill was a well, a darn nice one.

But tbh, the Mirage could have been centered around mirrors as a whole new concept and way to play, and it might have been interesting and a totally different option.

Mirrors right now only give mirage cloak, which is a blur/evasion, casting opportunity and superspeed to make up for lack of dodge movement…. they’re hard to get to in the first place, it doesn’t give survivability and make it easier, but even if say we had these all accessible, its equal to simply just giving us more endurance for dodges or letting us trigger extra charged mirage cloaks whenever we want. It’s also basically loosely something like a traditional sword 3, sword 2 blur, shatter burst… without the immob. It conceptually doesn’t add anything. Even the whole idea of forcing a damage burst is redundant because that’s what we already do… Why are there even mirrors if it doesn’t actually do anything new.

Now I keep thinking about what if the mirrors meant a lot more, each one would not expire or at least not expire until much later and they’d give mirage cloak in addition to different effects, such as clone attacks out of “ambush” if the enemy bumps into one, aoe condi trap if enemy touches one, aoe boons, (my ideas are limited im sure there are more fleshed out genius ways these could be used) and you can literally place these all over the field as you’re playing, maybe they can be stealthed to be unseen by the enemy, therefore providing a different way of mesmer strategy in positioning and outsmarting the enemy over time. I’m not sure how practical for each game mode but at least it would offer something completely different. It’d almost be like a trap build for mesmer and would fit into the whole core concept of the mesmer, creating illusions/mirages and modifications of the world around in order to confuse or manipulate enemies. It’d still synergize with core mesmer abilities such as respositioning with blinks and decoy and so on.

This is of course not going to happen. But what I’m trying to say is they half heartedly half cooked things together into all these gimmicks that weren’t brought out to their full potential. Dependency on clones or clone deception with sync’d attack is entirely a different story. We could’ve gotten like a bodyguard system and have clones literally mirror all our movements even if it doesn’t deal the same damage for true clone deception. And then we’re also talking about burst dps with ambush and so on. Trying to do all this all at once, just doesn’t make sense and has created a mess.

Go full out with the mirrors, or they’re kind of pointless and impractical. At the very least create an elite spec with a strong sense of identity and strategy or else its worthless. We are also all needing a dps boost but i don’t feel that could really come from an elite spec, we’re already playing for burst damage, that’s more of our base numbers. This is a conceptual issue here

TheRandomGuy.7246:

takatsu.9416:

Elite specs needed to be done in PvP and WvW bc this is how to tell class balance. everything would be too easy in pve. there are some simpler pve npcs in HotM.

Then they should have called that a beta. Demo is not for feedback. Demo supposed to show off the game and create good a impression.

in the next expansion, except you’ll be forced to protect them from said dragon hahahaha

I love this thread

Elite specs needed to be done in PvP and WvW bc this is how to tell class balance. everything would be too easy in pve. there are some simpler pve npcs in HotM.

some elite specs were cool. Others were a complete miss, some biased and imbalanced. I think all in all being only a month away, the specs are a mess as a whole and there shouldnt have been any reason why it is so unpolished, unbalanced and some of them with core conceptual flaws. Anet gave us hype and theoretical concepts and some of them did not deliver. checking class forums alot of them are tweaks and numbers but mirage for example is a core concept issue from ground up.

love the mounts and exploring new maps, super fun and has a sense of realism, looking forward to mounts in all maps, but everything did feel gimmicky. do we have any new game modes like when we got fractals or raids? or maybe some really incredible and different open world meta events or bosses? Didnt really feel the worth of a whole expansion but we won’t know until we get to experience the whole thing

still I pre ordered and would buy it bc I don’t like missing out on things

I wouldnt mind a whole Mirage mirror build and have mirrors scattered all over the field therefore sort of like creating an illusionary world around us that the enemy is caught in. the mirrors can be placed and would have different effects. clones maybe could come from some types of these mirrors if the enemy runs into them. other mirrors could be boons or condi damaging. some can give Mirage cloak evasion and some provide immediate ambush attack. some of these or all might be usable by allies in support build. having multiple up can have different effects as well. having too many might have disadvantages too. we could maybe have traits or skills to stealth the mirrors for a time so the enemy would accidentally run into them. like a trap build. it would be quite interesting game play by letting things be less purely reactionary and require outsmarting and strategic positioning and planning in advance.

right now as it stands anet tried to put in the Mirage cloak and mirrors half heartedly as a gimmick and then the clones and ambush attacks as another half hearted gimmick. if clone deception is core then we need more convincing clones too like if we could have three or four clones surround us and change positions and replicate every motion we do even if not all of them hit for same damage, that would be much more deceptive. but which one is it? I don’t see it being able to do both well.

and to the precious reply, I feel just giving us more dodges for Mirage cloak plus some axe and ambushes is not worth an entire spec and does not offer anything new. we already have evasion, distortion, blinks, stealth and a whole lot of other traditional mesmer things. ambush bursts are not so spectacular either.

the lore is that magic, technology and skills have drastically evolved, studied and developed over the many hundreds of years, we won’t be getting old classes and it wouldn’t make sense for the universe either

I for one never thought regular thieves are OP, not daredevil either. but without building for max damage, the numbers are insane and I have not seen deadeyes have serious problems with mobility or survivability on the field yet (not based just on my experience but I spent a great deal of time observing fights)

1v1 with deadeye might be okay, but if you are trying to deal with another player and the deadeye easily snipes you for 25k, that’s not fun at all. I can understand if a thief traits and builds for full zerk and crank those numbers, that’s fine. but testing the spec with non zerk non optimized gear starts you off with that much damage straight up already. that’s a problem. also seeing deadeye in play they don’t seem to have a problem with mobility. they stay at max range and move and stay at max range. for most classes it’s not exactly the easiest to reach already even if you simply just run away.

all I’d like to see is for the mirrors to be permanent and therefore you can somewhat strategically place them over time, lay them all out, plan in advance and reposition yourself throughout a fight, which goes along with the whole mesmer outsmarting others and could be very psychological as they would pose a threat or obstacle to enemies. it would synergize with say, decoy or blink so you can get into right position and trigger a Mirage cloak and ambush bursts that you loaded on the field. I think while mesmer has been very reactionary and fast paced, Mirage is meant to be deception and this kind of thing might give us a different play style and concept

I’ve tried to be objective and enjoy my experience but after observation, it’s really not practical, and I just can’t deny that. Like Mirage, scavenging for mirrors that are scarce and in the line of fire in the middle of a fight, while trying to melee. I think the melee dueling would be cool if there were actually enough controlled, timed mirage triggers, such that each time a Mirage is actually attacked, they get to respond, and counter attack with ambush, and then the whole deception with clones, that could’ve been the theory but it doesn’t work that way, we can’t even pursue some classes using this spec as it stands without going with more traditional builds, but then again, we already have sword 2, blocks, distortion, dodges, chrono – the current spec, doesn’t give us a better chance at anything. And like okay, some of us like the new elite skill Jaunt, but it has a range of 400, yes you can balance it with an increase, but what does the core concept do? It’s a leap with confusion and condi cleanse, what does this have to do with the whole mirage/mirror concept? It’s a waste of an elite skill and doesn’t synergize with the whole thing. The clones also don’t do that much work, even with ambush attacks in a real fight where a real player actually will get out of the way. And shouldn’t deception make use of our current stealth abilities? The whole spec and its entire concept just isn’t effective or wrapped up as a whole practically. The whole thing is: Mirage evasions, counter attack with ambush, and hoping clones look more confusing bc they also do the ambush? Does that really give anything to the class from what we can already do with other builds? Heck people get enough confused as is with my constant stealthing and clones and the way i run at them lol, for me Mirage hasn’t added anything different and certainly isn’t fleshed out enough.

If clone deception is the focus, then we should have clones in random positions around us that run with us mirroring our movements, so they can’t really pick the right target maybe? If mirage evasion is the focus during a fight, then we need enough dodges, and easy way to access the mirrors and trigger when needed. Otherwise these two things are both gimmicks right now

I can only say from Mirage, but, some need a major rework, not balancing. I’ve tried to be objective and enjoy my experience but after observation, it’s really not practical, and I just can’t deny that. Like Mirage, scavenging for mirrors that are scarce and in the line of fire in the middle of a fight, while trying to melee. I think the melee dueling would be cool if there were actually enough controlled, timed mirage triggers, such that each time a Mirage is actually attacked, they get to respond, and counter attack with ambush, and then the whole deception with clones, that could’ve been the theory but it doesn’t work that way, we can’t even pursue some classes using this spec as it stands without going with more traditional builds, but then again, we already have sword 2, blocks, distortion, dodges, chrono – the current spec, doesn’t give us a better chance at anything. And like okay, some people like the new elite skill Jaunt, but it has a range of 400, yes you can balance it with an increase, but what does the core concept do? It’s a leap with confusion and condi cleanse, what does this have to do with the whole mirage/mirror concept? It’s a waste of an elite skill and doesn’t synergize with the whole thing. The clones also don’t do that much work, even with ambush attacks in a real fight. And wouldn’t deception make use of our current stealth abilities? The whole spec and its entire concept just isn’t effective or wrapped up as a whole practically. The whole thing is: Mirage evasions, counter attack with ambush, and hoping clones look more confusing bc they also do the ambush? Does that really give anything to the class from what we can already do with other builds? Mesmers actually were looking forward to Mirage but it didn’t hold up to all the hype…. I think if you read what I’m saying here, I’m not trying to hate on it, it’s about the whole concept in practical terms, it doesn’t really work.

on Mirage. you are writing about it almost theoretically. it isn’t at all practical. axe requires you to be up close pretty much melee without survivability and there’s not enough movement or long enough range gap closers to make it viable really except for maybe sacrificing a blink and axe 2. endurance for dodges is still the same so really not that spectacular. ambush has a tiny window anyone can tell when it wil happen (after a Mirage). Mirage mirrors are supposed to be the practical survivability but they disappear and there’s no way you’re rushing back to where u left them so soon and quickly, like wait a second, let me get my Mirage first, in the middle of a fight into the line of fire? they aren’t often and enough to be readily available when needed, if they are temporary then there should be many scattered, otherwise they should be permanent so u could use strategic placement and plan in advance. ambush for other weapons may be okay, but in reality it’s more of a slightly upgraded attack and doesn’t really change the tides, and the dodge I do like but Mirage as a whole just hasn’t been worth it. at the moment it can’t stand on its own, I still have to rely on traditional build skills like blinks, stealths, blocks, cond cleanse, to stay alive. our regular weapons offer us a lot more. what Mirage offers is impractical and gimmicky; good intentions and just not worth it yet at best

simple fix for gear could be to create a type of bag for inventory which is exactly alternate gear for build only. items must be placed there manually, empty slots will not be filled by other kinds of items. when you click switch build assuming you can only save two on the hero build tab, almost like weapon swap it automatically equips all in that bag sort of like a consume all, or the manual double clicking on every item. every item in this bag would be equipped and replaces existing equipped gear. if you share items for both builds just don’t put it in this bag and there is nothing that will replace it

not practical at all, unless said above it scatters all over and there are alot of them. that or they’re permanent so we can strategically place them and plan in advance. that might be very interesting as well for the concept of the mesmer class of deception, trickery, outsmarting enemies

i liked what it was trying to do, I liked some of the damage my clones were putting out. I like the spamminess of some of the new skills. but all in all, the axe felt like we are forced to play a face roll warrior without the survivability and gap closers. we have evades and maybe some Mirage evasion and mirrors you have to actually run to and dodge here and there… but all in all.. that’s not enough, it doesn’t help in pvp/wvw situations. also especially as classes like thieves already dance around long to close range in no time and from my experience every couple of players is a deadeye kiting from long range. Mirage can’t reach the target and when it does its not like we can survive close up anyway without building traditionally, blinks, PU in my case, using the standard staff or sword, pistol, whatnot. the Mirage axe feels gimmicky. I’ve played power and condi, ive used all the weapons before and the axe is completely underwhelming. I can see if it’s possible to get used to the Mirage dodge and ambush attack for all clones, and see how to apply that but I don’t see a reason to use our new weapon the axe nor alot of those Mirage slot skills. the older builds were a lot more useful and effective?

that would be amazing. I also have those violet pink glowy weapons and would love the full set. torches don’t have a lot of nice skins to choose from imo. I’d love for a torch to be almost like a flame in hand, maybe a violet flame

Idk I’ve fought thieves on a variety of situations before. but my build is like PU and when I’m wary I have my torch and decoy and MI, pretty much when they stealth, I stealth a little bit after them which grants me aegis too, when I don’t have stealth CD, which is honestly not that often, I have chaos storm aegis. I’ve found myself stealthing as often as the thief…. lol. but when I do manage to catch the thief, I’ve quickly burst them down with chaos storm, sword 3 to hold them there, sword 2, a shatter rotation. for survival other than that, sword 2, distortion or daze shatters, and blinks. I have condi cleanse on heal and shatters and null field. I stick a iDefender sometimes to mitigate some damage, but not necessary most of the time. I’m on mirror heal at 12 or 15 second CD and am constantly healing over and over and often remain at full health. I don’t rely on my boons or their boons, I just stay out of reach and when I am in reach it’s sneaking that aegis in at that moment, and swords. i find that our ranged Phantasm keep them distracted too. they’re still around while I’m running around stealth and then going up close for a burst. I didn’t have much issues with heavy hitting stealth thieves except when my fingers got clumsy or I got into 1vx. heavy hitting warriors were a little bit harder actually

I’d also love cloaks. everything clips somewhat anyway, heck players clip into one another lol. has that ever been a serious problem? I think they may have to design them to always flow and float backwards and not forward and maybe a little hanging back while stationary but this is all doable. if anything make some gemstone backpiece skin and make it in slightly billowing animation behind the character to avoid some clipping, alot of back pieces are animated or have aura effects anyway. or at least create an outfit that hides your armor with the fully cloaked realism look. something to start with before we try to adapt cloaks as a standard option for all armor sets. there are ways to start and ways to get around it

in the sort of build I mentioned I’m basically never our of CD there’s always something to get me out of harms way bc there are just that many options and I feel I’m not the best mesmer bc sometimes I forget to use all of the options in a nice complex rotation. I tried to run chrono but was not my style and felt clunkier and slower than what I do currently. I plan on giving it more time but the alacrity and resets aren’t as continuous as I was used to in what I do. but from the time I was trying it there’s no doubt chrono is strong, might be a matter of getting used to it. but I’d say its not the only way at it and depending on the OPs capabilities and style like for me, something should work for them. for me what I run has never failed me. basically, mesmer is highly survivable somehow and you shouldn’t be dying so much

tbh I’ve never had any issues solo wvw or pve in any kind of situation, I’ve been soloing HoT Champs and group events with no one there – HoT is indeed challenging but mesmer offers some of the best survivability options possible… constant evades, invuln, blocks, blinks, stealth, illusions to distract, boons, condition removal. I’ve built for most of these and I’m not the best mesmer, and have tanked hard hits bc I can’t dodge and evade everything but among all these options there’s always a way. Here’s my thing…. I’ve been using my own weird modification of a PU build since it was a thing. my play style doesn’t like chrono and I haven’t caught up with all the changes to the class. so I’ve been using what I concocted ages ago with some updates. I build for max power for pve full zerk gear though I also can switch for Condi set on the spot and full set of all weapons. the sword / x option is just too good and will have something for all situations. sword has block, pistol has daze, focus can deal with projectiles. the pu aegis and boons is too effective tho, i have MI and Decoy and sometimes torch if I want to play it safe. I have blink and mirror heal on 12 s cds, and I’m literally healing all the time every time I take a little bit of damage I’m pretty much back to full and reflecting projectiles. when in danger I go for the staff, chaos storm aegis and boons, chaos armor, bouncing boons. it feels like I have aegis blocks for ages often. sometimes if it’s really tough, I go gs staff and just kite and not even get close until everything is dealt with. I’ve soloed alot of Champs I’ve seen most people die at this way, just sustain, survive, keep ur distance, keep it up til its done. Condi removal from heals, shatters, and null field if necessary to slot in. add a sigil or food for extra deal with conditions. run past any mobs you don’t want to deal with with tons of invisibility and blinks. some people say PU is boring too but it’s honestly not when you constantly take it solo straight jnto hellish situations bc you can really take a beating. certainly not the optimal build for damage but I’ve been literally impossible to kill if you’re worried about survivability. recently I solo’d three Champs and the adds in two separate events that spawned in HoT maps, really keeps you on your toes when you play with fire even with a forgiving build. but if anyone is worried about survivability or want to tackle the toughest situations, it IS possible and potentially quite easy even without going crazy with perfect rotations

So I tried to make him a kpop idol and a sci-fi exosuit trooper

realistically you need shoes to run around the world. and some pretty durable ones too. I don’t think it shouldve been hideable. it just wouldn’t make sense, except maybe for Charr. gem store skin maybe for a cosmetic extra thing like that. but it’d probably appear limited time like other things and be account bound so it wouldn’t affect the TP value of this tradeable version so much. and how bout more gem store skins like flip flops, running shoes and other cosmetic preferences

i just started engi and I’m loving the cond dmg and aoe, things are melting fast enough but am not used to or know how to stay alive well enough. I’m also used to mesmer and have no problem soloing group events and solo Champs and WvW roaming 1vX at times. the constant distractions, stealth, evades, blinks, cond removal, blocks and boons I’ve built for makes me quite tanky even without chrono. mesmer survivability comes not from toughness or vitality. but I’m finding myself on engi difficult to keep mobility and constant heal and cond removal. it’s strange because there are a lot of heal and cond removal skills. I’m sure I’m building wrong too but let’s say you go for max power or Cond dmg, what are the things aside from gear stats to build for and slot in and use in combat?