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Hi There!
I Love the mesmer class and was ecstatic to play a Mesmer in bwe1, bwe2 was a shock when my effectiveness in PvE was suddenly cut way down due to the drastic class changes. So this started me really looking at the class and what was going on with the changes. These are my observations from a PvE standpoint…I hear Mesmers are functioning mostly ok in PvP.
The Mesmer is the only class who has a core mechanic that works against the class itself and these are the F-keys, aka shatters as they work with clones and phantasms. A phantasm heavy build doesn’t want to shatter because they lose their damage and a shatter heavy build doesn’t want phantasms due to slower recharge for shatter fodder. These play-styles are at odds, the phantasms more so then the clones due to not wanting to use shatter at all with phantasms.
Clones, Phantasms and Shattering have some problems. First lets look at the clones, the phantasms then move on to the issues and possible solution suggestions.
Clones:
Sword Clone: Summons melee clone who usually appears next to target. 0 Damage, 0 Damaging conditons (does cripple)
Scepter Clone: Summons ranged clone who usually appears next to target, 0 Damage, 0 Damaging conditions (is not casting confuse)
Greatsword Clone: Summons ranged clone who usually appears next to target, 0 Damage, 0 Damaging conditions
Staff Clone: Summons ranged clone who usually appears next to target, 0 Damage, 2 Damaging conditions, 1 non damaging condition
Phantasms:
Focus: Summons warden at target location: does whirling defense (damage) and blocks projectiles.
Pistol: Summons duelist at range: does damage with rapid fire.
Greatsword: Summons berserker near target location: does damage and cripple in a line with whirling attack (misses at times).
Sword (offhand): summons swordsman: leaps at foes and does damage.
Torch: Summons mage at target location: applies confusion to foes and low damage blast
Staff: Summons warlock at range: does damage and +damage per condition on foe
The Problems:
Almost all clones do 0 damage and 0 damaging conditions, where as in bwe1 they did damage.
Clones are supposed to be deceptive. This doesn’t work well in PvE as they don’t decive at all and will be ignored if the mesmer is in melee ranged combat which they are with the sword and can be with the staff.
Mind Wrack (f1 key shatter) and Cry of Frustration (f2 key shatter) Miss over half the time. Doing 0 damage or not applying the confuse condition.
Almost all shatters are plagued with pathing issues as the clones/phantasms run up to the foe to shatter. They get stuck or can’t get to a foe and just shatter where they are or do nothing.
A foe who moves slightly will be missed by the shatters quite often.
A foe who is running will not be caught by clones/phantasms who are told to shatter.
Having a 0 damage summon on a weapon weakens the weapons ability to do damage and I’ve seen no damage increase on the weapons from bwe2 on, where we lost the clone damage.
Phantasm build vs Clone build are at odds.
Clones can only take 1 hit before dying and phantasms about 2 hits or so. This is bad when they’re summoned in melee range. I’ve summoned clones and had them die before I could even hit the shatter button.
Due to the delay and pathing issues the daze clones/phantasms can’t interrupt as well as any other interrupt skill. There is too much delay. Daze also doesn’t scale with more clones/phantasms as it’s only 1 second.
AOE damage wipes summons out instantly
Summons are extremly weak in group events due to foes dying to aoe damage very rapidly and the Mesmer doesn’t have much in the way of AoE damage to put out, besides chaos storm which has a long refresh and a very short duration.
The Scepters auto attack will overwrite phantasms making the scepter useless for anyone wanting to use a phantasm. What good is a weapon you can’t attack with? Gonna bore an enemy to death?
Ranged clones summoned in melee do their ranged attacks when a foe moves away a bit not keeping up in melee for higher chance of shatter to land.
Downed State. Our downed state skills still suck. The clone doesn’t fool PvE enemies and you don’t port far enough away and the rogue doesn’t do enough damage for you to rally with.
No other class has to fight against various mechanics in order to function. These are serious problems that plague the class and lower the enjoyment and fun of the class by a fair bit. I doubt that a class mechanic overhaul will be done so suggestions are within the realm of what we currently have. When combat is rendered down to its core component it is damage that wins the battle. 0 damage clones and shatters that miss don’t win battles, damage does.
Currently as it stands the best clones are staff clones due to the variety of conditions they stack and any summoned or utility clone emulates these clones adding to the condition damage, which is needed for the warlock to work properly. There is little to no reason to use any other clone unless you’re doing a pure shatter build and then the scepter is best for that due to how fast it generates clones. This leaves the greatsword clone, who does a ranged attack for 0 damage and the sword clone, who melees and dies very fast as almost useless.
There is also the whole “I summoned a clone and the foe died instantly, making me feel like a leech during events unless I use the staff and even then the aoe is slow to recharge". We have good aoe utility just not aoe damage.
Suggested Fixes:
Give all clones a damaging condition and a utility/non damagin condition that they apply to foes and keep the direct damage at 0. This will make clones more useful and keep the weapon skill from doing 0 damage, yet won’t make them more directly powerful then Phantasms.
Ranged Clones should stay at range and attack from range not be right in combat and When told to shatter All Summons should teleport/appear right next to the enemy to deliver their damage/effects, so they don’t miss and don’t have to deal with pathing issues.
Phantasms could be tweaked to do a larger portion of damage up front then they currently do then drop down to a weaker attack then their current attack. This would entice the Mesmer to shatter the phantasm after they get off their main attack but if they’re not shattered they still add fair damage.
Disassociate Clone/Phantasm life with enemies and just give them a duration that they stay around, like 60 seconds. This will let someone get out 3 clones/phantasms and after that time they just die. Clones seem to summon about 3x faster then phantasms.
Perhaps some sort of added benefit for the daze shatter effect (diversion) for extra summons beyond the first. Such as a short regen boost to the Mesmer for a second shattered summon and aoe blind for a third.
Downed State: Perhaps something similar to thieves for Mesmers in PvE or perhaps some sort of Phantasm form that lets us run away a bit and try to heal up or perhaps a shatter effect when we’re downed and 3 seconds of invis, then the normal downed skills?
Thank you for listening.
Imaginos
p.s. Dislike “magic bullet” name. “Trick Shot” was far cooler.
