Returning Shatter Mesmer requesting bringing back two missing traits to power, dueling, illusions.

Hi, I've been away from this game for roughly over a year. Due to college and irl events.A little bit about myself, I've been playing this game since the beta. Over my time playing this game, i mained shatter mesmer, whom secured a spot on the top 100 pvp leaderboards on various occasions, including the top 20 during my time playing PvP. I ventured off into the depths of WvW on my spare time and became apart of the infamous WvW/PvP guild ApeX including a spot as their sole mesmer in their GvG guild. I played glass power shatter in a WvW and GvG setting, setting up portals for huge plays for not only my guild and but also for our world, shattering my way to victory through sheer strength and skill. When PvP was slow and WvW was quiet i would roam the outskirts of WvW maps, annoying enemy Guilds, Fighting other roamers or hiding within huge keeps and waiting for my guild or a world leader to come to my location for an epic flip. While being a roamer i was accepted into the nefarious WvW roam group RIOT.After some time away from the game, i return to find what was my old build that was used for all that, is gone! I'm messing around with traits, asking people for help, only to find things were point blank removed. Core things within the build are missing! For example, there is no longer a trait to reduce the cooldown of decoy. Additionally there is no longer a trait that gives mesmers might on shatter, all shatters. Phantasms no longer are apart of shatters.Shatter mesmer, with decoy blink portal and elite stealth. That build is far from viable. I was able to pull off some amazing fights in PvP, do incredible things in WvW and make magic happen in GvG. These little things have offset a classic build and i find myself not capable of the same feats, if at all...Shatter mesmer has always been the epitome of a trickster who plays mind games with enemies, toying with them until they end it or the enemy winds up killing themselves in the mesmers endless confusion and chaos.Mesmer needs clone skills to have a cooldown again(decoy) and might on shatter!!Mesmer isn't a healer, ele does this better. Phantasms specs, engi does this better. Conditions? Necro does this very well. Mesmer, relied on raw power, skill and slippery/clutch plays of deceiving enemies, bursting foes and leading their allies to mind blowing wins that only a shatter mesmer could bring to the table.It isn't the same. In PvP, WvW etc...As a veteran of the game, who mainly played power shatter mesmer, is it possible to please bring back these two core traits to mesmer? Thank you

Check out shorts gaming, jazzxman, faith navii, hiru yasha the Mesmer, osicat, etc on YouTube, they are doing wonderful things with mesmer ATM. You will get a feeling for where the traits etc have gone and been replaced with and see what current builds trends are like.

Dbl post is here

Or you could try adapting.

Bountiful Disillusionment gives 5 stacks of might (AoE even) for using F1 and you can even combine it with Shatter Storm to use F1 twice. Shatter burst mesmers also go for GS, and GS 2 is another source of might. As for stealth, grab a torch to combine with your Decoy.

In any case, this is an evolving game, professions change, new elite specs are released and the general balance changes. You can't always expect to have the same build remain equally viable years later, without doing the smallest bit of effort to adapt to a changing meta.

No. Those builds are incredibly awful. One build i just saw isn't viable in a PvP setting, there isn't any kite potential in that spec. He can't stealth on call and has one stun break. He can't return to points or side cap, because he isn't using portal and he can't portal allies into towers for WvW etc... As far as the other mesmers and their builds, haven't heard of them, alot of people don't play this game anymore and i see why. After reviewing some of these strange builds they lack many things and many other classes do the exact same thing they are attempting todo, only better.Which is why i said power mesmer was best. Bring back decoy cooldown and might on shatter.If these other players want to play these different washed down "evolved" builds, that is them more power to them, i will not stop you. But let the ones who enjoyed the classics be able to play the classics. Especially when they have been proven to be effective time and time again not only in both the professional scene, the pvp scene the WvW scene and but also the GvG scene!

Hello and welcome back.I understand how you feel but to be realistic that's the games state now. I do not think that they will bring back any of the two.The trent for cooldown traits on mesmer is to remove them from the game.

• Glamour 20% became baseline
• Illusions 20% was removed with the phantasm rework (iirc)
• Signet 20% was removed with the latest balance patch
• Mantra 20% trait... ehm i don't even remember...

Regarding Shattered Strength: They experimented with this one a while (might stacks went 1>3>1) but they never really felt like it was balanced correctly. I believe that the replacement (Escape Artist) is a great trait in this slot.

If you run illusions anyways just take Escape Artist with Signet of Midnight + Torch and enjoy your better decoy.

Finally I can only tell you that you should try to adapt like any other mesmer did. There are viable builds around and you can totally come up with your own builds if you don't like the currently played ones.

"Conditions? Necro does this very well."

Beware the illu/duelling Mirage !

@"Blood Lord.5687" said:No. Those builds are incredibly awful. One build i just saw isn't viable in a PvP setting, there isn't any kite potential in that spec. He can't stealth on call and has one stun break. He can't return to points or side cap, because he isn't using portal and he can't portal allies into towers for WvW etc... As far as the other mesmers and their builds, haven't heard of them, alot of people don't play this game anymore and i see why. After reviewing some of these strange builds they lack many things and many other classes do the exact same thing they are attempting todo, only better.Which is why i said power mesmer was best. Bring back decoy cooldown and might on shatter.If these other players want to play these different washed down "evolved" builds, that is them more power to them, i will not stop you. But let the ones who enjoyed the classics be able to play the classics. Especially when they have been proven to be effective time and time again not only in both the professional scene, the pvp scene the WvW scene and but also the GvG scene!

Again, learn to adapt. You come here listing your "achievements", and then presume to know what the game plays like now.

Want kiting potential? Mirage has it in spades. Stealth on demand? Torch 4. Stun break? Blink. Or you can F4 while stunned, and even dodge as a mirage.

And what "strange build" did you review exactly? A lot of pvp mesmers take portal. And in wvw, slot portal when you are out of combat, why do you need to carry it at all times.

If you are a veteran, you should already be aware that game changes affect builds and you need to adapt.

@Me Games Ma.8426 said:

• Illusions 20% was removed with the phantasm rework (iirc)

Regarding Shattered Strength: They experimented with this one a while (might stacks went 1>3>1) but they never really felt like it was balanced correctly. I believe that the replacement (Escape Artist) is a great trait in this slot.

If you run illusions anyways just take Escape Artist with Signet of Midnight + Torch and enjoy your better decoy.

That's interesting the midnight signit. In combination with escape artist it generates a clone. But

And that's a problem, they made shatter mesmer weaker and giving power to phantasm specs?! You don't even have to cast anything, phantasms sit there and fire off high damage abilities. You can just evade and be annoying while the phantasms literally kill you slowly. What is going on, that was never skilled. Shatter relied on clones, deception and intense skillful game play to succeed. In most cases with shatter mesmer, they didn't even rely on phantasms and usually shattered them immediately. People don't want to play to be skilled they want to be lazy and play something incredibly easy and the game balance team literally destroyed skill for something anyone can play? How does that make sense.

Shattered strength would be balanced if they made might only empower damage not conditions, condi phant specs could and did abuse that all day.

Glamour mesmer? I think not.Mantra mesmer is alright but not worth it in the long run. Shatter walked all over that build and any skillful thief with evades and stealth made short work of many mesmer builds, including the likes of guardians and ele's.

They even nerfed the duration of blurred frenzy probably because of phantasms specs. That evade was crucial in moments of self defense, especially since mesmer can't double distortion when in a pinch. Mesmer revolved around burst, clones, stealth being slippery and using epic distortions to stay alive. They weren't tanky, they were straight up bursty. The evades and distortion was much needed and complimented the playstyle in its entirety. Because if you chose to distort, you destroy all your clones that are no longer there for burst. And if you didn't have distortion because you needed to invuln say a theif's advances you could rely on that blurred frenzy for their next attack in between you trying to retaliate as for any 1v1 or team fight situation.

My now question is, why are they balancing around phantasm specs?

@RabbitUp.8294 said:

@"Blood Lord.5687" said:No. Those builds are incredibly awful. One build i just saw isn't viable in a PvP setting, there isn't any kite potential in that spec. He can't stealth on call and has one stun break. He can't return to points or side cap, because he isn't using portal and he can't portal allies into towers for WvW etc... As far as the other mesmers and their builds, haven't heard of them, alot of people don't play this game anymore and i see why. After reviewing some of these strange builds they lack many things and many other classes do the exact same thing they are attempting todo, only better.Which is why i said power mesmer was best. Bring back decoy cooldown and might on shatter.If these other players want to play these different washed down "evolved" builds, that is them more power to them, i will not stop you. But let the ones who enjoyed the classics be able to play the classics. Especially when they have been proven to be effective time and time again not only in both the professional scene, the pvp scene the WvW scene and but also the GvG scene!

I shouldn't have to be forced to use torch to have to stealth with a decent cooldown. Blink is universal. Our bindings are different. F4 could be anything, im assuming distortion? We only get one. I'd rather use it accordingly for stomps or escapes, i use the reflect trait so good vs rangers or projectiles. Another thing is portal stomping when you have to, is key. Another reason to permanently run portal. It also tricks enemies into thinking you have portal up. If everyone knows you run it in and out of pvp/wvw. People know you will just escape and will stay within portal limits, hence a reason to not touch me, wasting your cooldowns on me when i will just leave and come back when i'm ready.I listed my achievements to prove a point. There has been a build capable of doing all those things for me and other shatter mesmers. I have yet to see a build capable of all that. Current specs falter in many ways. Hence why i took to the boards to hopefully fix the problem. or get the balance team to see a returning shatter mesmer would like to play this game again with two traits being readded. Or at the least decoy having a 32 second cooldown. I refuse to play these easier builds i enjoy skillful gameplay and i will not settle for anything less. period

Picking on one point - I agree that Decoy (and Mirror Images) should have cooldown reductions since the removal of IC.

Whether built in 20% to 32 and 24s respectively, or "nicer" numbers of 30s for Decoy (on par with SoM which still has benefits over Decoy on the same cooldown, especially if traited with the new Blurred Inscriptions) and maybe 25s for Mirror Images.

@"Curunen.8729" said:Picking on one point - I agree that Decoy (and Mirror Images) should have cooldown reductions since the removal of IC.

Whether built in 20% to 32 and 24s respectively, or "nicer" numbers of 30s for Decoy (on par with SoM which still has benefits over Decoy on the same cooldown, especially if traited with the new Blurred Inscriptions) and maybe 25s for Mirror Images.

Now someone is speaking my language. i like you bud. Decoy could use a CD buff.

Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

You all heard him lads! Condi doesnt carry players and we all must play it ,thats where true skill lies !

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

I didn't say it doesn't carry.it totally does. That's why u shld play it.then play the next carry spec. That's what I ve learnt from gw2 pvp. The u can play the any class you want and any stye u want is a lie.

The truth is.if u don't want to get face rolled. Play the carry class that can destroy most of the other classes can decap, duel and team fight.

@Blood Lord.5687 said:

@Me Games Ma.8426 said:

• Illusions 20% was removed with the phantasm rework (iirc)

Regarding Shattered Strength: They experimented with this one a while (might stacks went 1>3>1) but they never really felt like it was balanced correctly. I believe that the replacement (Escape Artist) is a great trait in this slot.

If you run illusions anyways just take Escape Artist with Signet of Midnight + Torch and enjoy your better decoy.

Phantasms atacks only once now

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

You dont even worth listening tbh. When people like you say mesmer greatsword does 3-5-7k autoattack...thats just...ugh... from where you get this numers i dont even know... What you are doing on mesmer forum ? Just complaint how OP it is ? :D

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

From using full zerk and the meta battle builds. If you watch short's vids he does that, actually I don't think power is op. If u r caught u die. Cindi mirage is op.

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

I'm sorry for barging in,OP compared to what? Because last I checked, there are more condi cleanses in the game, than ever before. Condi durations got nerfed, Phant damage got killed, the trait (EM) that shouldn't have existed in the first place got killed. IH gives halved durations and damage (or less), for all illusion inflicted condi.So again to reiterate, OP compared to what?

Any further nerfs to the class, beyond what they've already nerfed would result in Renegade level of performance, aka NO-Performance-At-All. :lol:

@Arlette.9684 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

Lol watch all twitch and youtubers at play top 50 plat. They willingly admit it's op. Watch short's videos. U have massive Cindi dmg as well as actually direct damage burst with carion at 25k hp. U also have signet of midnight invis. Blink. Sword movement.

U can spam, use mass clones sit back ur clones will do the dmg. U don't even have to move. And at any point you can disengage. Using skills said above as well as chaos armor.

No other class can burst down aoe burst in such an amount of time with 25k hp and have the ability to stealth teleport and clone and portal all.

Correction. U have 1 class that can massively remove Condi consistently. Firebrand.

Condi mes can take any other class 1v1. Massive aoe, Condi cleanse isn't so good when the moment u cleanse it's reapplied. It's even better than sourge since it's ranged. N u don't even need to be there ur clones will do it.

But I guess u love ur carry build and can't see the problems with it.

I was gonna type alot of stuff but just go watch short's video on YouTube, Even he admits it's over powered. The most recently 3 vids actually. Can't get a better explanation than a top ten player.

@TorQ.7041 said:

@Arlette.9684 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

I'm so glad you decided to try and talk down to me. I took the liberty of hi-jacking one of your comments from another thread, hope that's ok with you:

@TorQ.7041 said:Not really. He live streams. So it's not really picking the best bits since u see everything.

I also have zero problems with deadeye. I win 50% of the time. I play guard, rev, Holo, core thief and don't find it impossible to win. If you keep dying to the same thing over and over and other people don't... Then the problem isn't really with balance... Esp after the October nerd. When they can no longer spam skill 3, 3 round burst.

As per your own words, you play Guard and Holo. Both are MORE than capable of dealing with Most Mirages. Up to a point where losing to a Mirage as a Guard/Holo is entirely the player's inferiority and inability to adequately rotate the many tools available to them. You don't know me, and I surely as heck don't know you. But one look at your comment history, shows a new player going through the hoops and learning how to play, while thinking they're doing a far better job, than they really are.

I am going to stop responding to you, as things can only get ugly from here on now, if I keep responding to what's undoubtedly going to be a triggered response. I wish you luck on your endeavors.

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

I have no idea what or who 'shorts' supposed to mean ,never heard anything about it. Any half brain cell creature know greatsword doesnt do as much damage and will never do . Or power mesmers would be everywhere spamming autos to kill everything in range of 1200

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:

@tinyreborn.1938 said:

@TorQ.7041 said:Nope. Was over powered and carried players. So happy it was nerfed. Condi is all the rage now. Go play Condi.

He's probably one of the people that sees the damage counter tick up when you hold down gs1 continually and thinks it's actually doing that much per hit.