Domination needs a new Grandmaster trait in place of Imagined Burden

As we all know almost nobody brings Imagined Burden due to the fact that 20% CD reduction on GS skills with added Cripple and Might isn't really worth it when you want to burst with GS in PvP and while it is a bit more useful in open world PvE, it's better to just use sword for your DPS rather than stack might with it. Hence this trait is almost never used due to the fact Mental Anguish adds a lot more burst and Power Block is amazing in interrupt builds. It serves no purpose currently. Move the 20% CD reduction to the master line and add it to Furious Interruption or Shattered Concentration. Afterwards we have a free slot to put into Grandmaster for Domi. Currently the other two serves good purposes in PvP, so I would like the new trait to be focused in PvE. I don't have any idea to put in there that would serve a good purpose and be interesting to play around with. It should have to do with Direct Damage and Interruptions seeming that Domination focuses on that.

Edit: Putting in some of the good ideas I've seen so far in the thread.

• Weakness based trait. Domination does thematically fit with Weakness, and maybe a trait that helps us apply more Weakness and additional benefits against Weakened foes would be good for both PvE and PvP. To point out both Mirage and Chrono can pump out additional Weakness, one through Mirage Mirrors and the other with Well of Calamity.
• Boon Stripping trait. There's some boonstrip in Mesmer's kit, mostly in line with Power weapons we can wield. Sword autos and GS's Mind Stab does boonstrip decently and we have other options through our utilities namely, Null Field, Arcane Thievery and Phantasmal Disenchanter. It works and it fits the domination line.-- Someone suggests that our boonstrips become boon corrupts which could be good but I'd like boon corrupt to be a Necro only thing.-- There's another suggestion on boon stripping = flat damage and additional effects on hitting foes without boons. Pretty good suggestion.-- Lowering skill cooldowns on boon strip is a good idea as well, maybe making it a better version of our 20% GS CD reduction, however the there's no to little use of it in PvE since GS is pretty bad as a PvE weapon.-- My idea to make Phantasms deal a debuff that applies when it attacks. The debuff is consumed when the Mesmer attacks the target which deals damage and boon strips. This deals additional damage when you hit an enemy with no boons.
• Another great idea is reworking Imagined Burden to be actually useful. 10% damage boost and additional range on the skills would be good. With additional 20% CDR as before I think it's okay for a GM trait now.

Well, grandmaster traits are supposed to be "build defining", changing the way that you actually play your class (see holosmith GM traits for absolutely perfect examples). And Imagined Burden doesn't come close to that at all, so I can get behind your idea.

Looking at the domination line right now, the other 2 GM traits focus on buffing shatter damage, and buffing interrupts, but what about a new Gm trait that focuses on heavy application of weakness, and buffing weakness considerably? There would be a tiny amount of overlap with Power Block, but PB is mostly about buffing our interrupts even further, the weakness is just 1 aspect of that.

I'm thinking a trait along the lines of:

• Illusions inflict weakness on their targets when they land attacks (clones are single target weakness, phantasms could apply weakness in an AoE when attacking)
• Applying weakness to an enemy immediately removes 15 endurance from that enemy, 1sec ICD

If this was implemented along with a few other trait changes to buff our application of weakness (more ways to give it out, along with some stuff like "gain X endurance when applying weakness", "deal damage when applying weakness", or even "apply X torment/confusion stacks when applying weakness to an enemy"), mesmer could have a pretty fun to use weakness build. While its not really PvE centric, I think that would be ok, because AFAIK there isn't currently any build in GW2 that focuses around buffing and applying weakness to lock opponents out of being able to dodge. So this would give us a completely unique build.

Don't want any condi for Domi line because it is a direct damage centric line, so anything that adds confusion/torment on Domi I wouldn't really like it. But weakness sounds like a good direction to go with as with weakness does fit with the theme of Domination. A bit of adjustments that would make it favorable for PvE is just giving a % damage boost whenever you apply weakness/gain damage boost against weakened enemies. Boring for PvE for sure (well most traits favored in PvE are boring anyways) but does add a lot of viability and interesting interactions in PvP.

Sidenote: Well of Calamity also provides weakness. :open_mouth:

Ironically that would make it the best option for raids. As it stands, there are no good options for Dom GM since you don't shatter and you can't interrupt.

The torment/confusion when applying weakness would ideally come from another traitline, not from this GM. I like the flavor of this GM, but by itself its kind of weak since mesmer has such little access to weakness outside of this trait (meaning little to no synergy, and most of that synergy is indeed tied up in taking chrono and WoC).

You are right that %dmg boosts are quite boring, and I'd prefer we get something other than that with this trait if this trait ever came to the game

@Refia Montes.3205 said:As we all know almost nobody brings Imagined Burden due to the fact that 20% CD reduction on GS skills with added Cripple and Might isn't really worth it when you want to burst with GS in PvP and while it is a bit more useful in open world PvE, it's better to just use sword for your DPS rather than stack might with it. Hence this trait is almost never used due to the fact Mental Anguish adds a lot more burst and Power Block is amazing in interrupt builds. It serves no purpose currently. Move the 20% CD reduction to the master line and add it to Furious Interruption or Shattered Concentration. Afterwards we have a free slot to put into Grandmaster for Domi. Currently the other two serves good purposes in PvP, so I would like the new trait to be focused in PvE. I don't have any idea to put in there that would serve a good purpose and be interesting to play around with. It should have to do with Direct Damage and Interruptions seeming that Domination focuses on that.

More useful would be to just merge the trait with the mainhand sword one in dueling.

And imagined burden is used in PvE because the other ones are useless even if Imagined Burden is still bad.

You can't shatter in PvE, and defiance bars made power block obsolete.

@Zenith.7301 said:And imagined burden is used in PvE because the other ones are useless even if Imagined Burden is still bad.

You can't shatter in PvE, and defiance bars made power block obsolete.False. They're all equally bad in PvE. You don't typically use GS in content where there are breakbars.

open world = pve too

What about a Boon-ripping trait? We have a ton of it, and we have boon-rip on shatters in Domination, so it'd make sense.

For instance, it could be "Corrupt Boons instead of Remove them", though that might move more towards Condi for a direct damage trait line.

"Deal damage when removing a Boon"?

"0.25s Daze when removing Boon"?

I dunno, but I've always wanted a Boon-Ripping Trait.

@Zenith.7301 said:More useful would be to just merge the trait with the mainhand sword one in dueling.

Sure but I want to keep the GS trait in Domi since it's more thematic and I think no other trait has two cooldown reductions in one. (not counting underwater weapons)

@Dondagora.9645 said:What about a Boon-ripping trait? We have a ton of it, and we have boon-rip on shatters in Domination, so it'd make sense.

For instance, it could be "Corrupt Boons instead of Remove them", though that might move more towards Condi for a direct damage trait line.

"Deal damage when removing a Boon"?

"0.25s Daze when removing Boon"?

I dunno, but I've always wanted a Boon-Ripping Trait.

Maybe not a generic boon ripping trait, but a boon stealing trait would also be really nice. however that would make it useless in PvE, same with power block.

I would be up for a boon ripping trait on GS. It is a pitty they nerfed SoI... not that Imagined Burden was great before that... but at least you could have shared that Might. Right now, it's kinda pointless.

What if Imagined Burden altered #3 (Mind Blast)? E.g. larger radius and more targets like certain NPCs have. And then, instead of a flat cooldown reduction make it refresh when you remove a boon. Think Gravedigger on Reapers.

:open_mouth: having a trait that refreshed GS skills when ripping boons, that would be pretty neat. Maybe not completely refresh them (boon strip on shatter OP maybe?), but a 3-4sec CD reduction every time you rip a boon?

Or, even more generally, just a 1-2 sec CD reduction, but on all skills, not just GS skills, whenever you rip a boon.

That has more synergy with sword than GS.

And that's fine. Its not like Domination isn't allowed to have synergy with sword. And its infinitely more exciting than yet another generic 20% CD reduction trait. And it would fill the role of redefining how you play, encouraging you to bring lots of boon rips in order to get those CDs up faster.

I'd love if Sword was pushed more towards boon removal (e.g. 1 boon remove on every AA hit) instead of Ferocity but the traits in Duelling tell a different story.

Having traits à la Spellbreaker (e.g. Damage on boon removal etc.) have been discussed on the old forums quite extensively. I personally think that this specific example (damage on boon removal) would be too difficult to properly balance on baseline Mesmer considering our boon removal isn't tied to one specialization and rather diverse. However, improving our boon removal in other ways should be fine. For example, I'd love a trait which applies a unique condition after removing a boon which prevents the target from gaining new boons for x seconds. I feel that ANet left Mesmers in the dust when it comes to this form of gameplay and offensive support while Necromancers got quite a few corrupt reworks and improvements.

So, if we are talking exclusively GS: I think even a 100% refresh on #3 like Gravedigger should be fine. If we are talking 'on all boon removal' effects, then we got to be rather careful when it comes to balance. At least that's how I see it.

Another idea. A GM trait in dueling domination that changes our boon rips into boon corrupts. So every time we rip a boon we end up corrupting it instead. That's not only a unique trait in the game, it also is suitably strong for a GM trait, and would be very competitive in PvP. However, that would leave domination without a great PvE GM trait.

PvE doesn't have a good Dom GM trait. That's the thing.

I quite literally run no Dom GM because they don't make a difference.

Power Block is nice, but it honestly adds very little when everything that survives longer than 5 seconds has a Breakbar.

I mean mental anguish is nice in open world PvE, but not so much in raids or fractals. What do you think of the proposed traits though?

Boon ripping -> lower CD of all your skills by 1-2 secBoon ripping -> turned into corrupting boonsWeakness trait

What if Imagined Burden also made Mirror Blade produce a clone for each enemy hit?

That would not affect when the skill is used against a single enemy, but it would make greatsword a much more desirable weapon against multiple enemies.

I really hope you dont wann touch really the trait wich gives 20% CD reduction, might AND cripple....

that is one of the only traits i love in the grandmaster line.....ok maybe they can move it so that it is not in the grandmaster line but dont touch or change it.....singet CD reduction is useless of me since i dont really often use it active...(i love the passive effects)...but maybe it is usefull for some other ppl....

My hope is: they bring out some new traitlines (no elite) for existing weapons that change the whole playstyle ( the new traitline can be equipped with the old Gs traitline as sample but the new one changes the skills of the weapon as sample...)...

.....i as mesmer have long time the feeling that we make half of the dmg that other classes can do (well maybe some more when an illusion gets a hit before it is destroyed....) and we just have half of the heal options that other classes have....(disbelieving look at the trait-lines from thief that have soo much heal option traits..)

also i wonder that we can not throw our sword....since i had seen first the artwork (it is the main reason i picked mesmer 3 years ago) that holds a little sword in the hand and is looking like: you see, i will throw this at you (ok maybe we get that as dagger elite...but please anet: not just 1 dagger...i want to wear it in both hands)...

or: they simply cut pve from pvp traits so that they can make a better balance....

i mean: how often is someone crying: this trait is too strong, nerv please (because of pvp, wvw) then they nerv it (whatever class is nerved) and the nerved class (now making not soo much dmg anymore and have a harder time with one enemie) is crying: this class (other class ) is too strong...what have you done anet, please nerv....and so on....and then,....after much, much crying maybe they are happy with the pvp, wvw....and deciding to play pve.....and guess what happens now: oh my god, anet what have you done the pve monsters are too strong, nerv them....yeah...and then in the far away future our maximum dmg will be (with critical hit) 5....

so: maybe we should not cry: nerv, nerv....but we should make some suggestions what they could buff on our own class....and maybe anet accepting this suggestions, maybe not and maybe they just take it as template to make some changes....

There's too much access to Vulnerability in Dom to put it as a GM, if anything it would be a Minor GM, but guess what, we already have that.

Boon ripping accessibility on Mesmer is actually pretty low. Null Field pulses too slow, auto attack chain on Sword takes too long (1-2s), GS3 is awkward and better as a burst tool than a rip tool. Even if you conwsider Shattered Concentration, it doesn't help much and lowering cooldowns by intervals hasn't worked out in the past. It's either too good (Staffv1, Torch) or makes very little difference (Staffv2, Pistol).

Honestly, I'd like to see GS damages normalized (auto attack does max damage), then convert Imagined Burden into a ranged scaling on all GS abilities (bar 4 and 5, due to technical and range limitations).Mental Anguish I'd like to see turned into a more current day damage boost, if not completely revamped: Deal more damage against foes not activating skills, Shatter skills provide a damage boost for each Illusion shattered. Clones and Phantasms provide separate stacking damage boosts.

It might be too strong, but I don't know what we (or Anet) are trying to balance against.

How about a trait that adds a debuff to your target whenever your Phantasm attacks. When you attack the opponent this debuff is consumed and you strip a boon from them, deal damage with it and it deals extra when your enemy has no boons should have an ICD of 10 secs and it would be an interesting choice to get for both PvE and PvP imo.

10s ICD makes it feel more like a Master than a GM, but anything less than that makes it wholly overwhelming.

I think that's probably more in line with Phantasmal Force but then things have to move. Maybe move PF to Major, Shattered Strength to Adept, and Persistence of Memory to GM. Change PoM to what it used to be.

I like the idea of boonripping.I think booncorruption should only be a necro thingAnd yeah weakness trait is fine for me too.