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The Psychomancer: Mesmer Elite Specialization Suggestion


mortrialus.3062

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The Psychomancer uses it's magic to directly assault the minds of it's opponents. These mesmers use precise daggers to surgically slash at their victim's grip on reality. Their Subjugation spells take control of their enemies and sabotage their ability to fight.

New Class Mechanic: Hexes

New Condition: Anxiety

Psychomancers abandon the mind games of Clones and shatters to directly assault their opponent's minds. Their shatter skills are replaced with hexes, which have two effects. First there is the initial immediate effect of the hex. The second effect marks the target for further hexing (Similar to Deadeye's Mark). Abilities that summon clones instead reapply the initial Hex effect automatically to the victim while the duration effect is active, grinding down the victim until they can no longer fight. Marking a target with a different hex overwrites the previous hex.

F1: Mental ThrottleDuration 8 Seconds. Cooldown 8 Seconds.Directly Throttle the target's mind for X damage. Do X damage to the target when you would otherwise summon a clone. (The idea behind this is to alter Mind Wrack from this bomb where you want to shatter three at once and clones beyond the third ones aren't of much value for this spike, into an overall higher DPS but consistent grinder and any skill that would create a clone is a benefit to your damage)

F2: Phantom PainDuration 20 seconds. Cooldown 20 seconds.Apply X stacks of Anxiety for Y seconds. Reapply Anxiety to the target when you would otherwise summon a clone. (Similar idea to Mental Throttle but condition based)

Anxiety is a new condition that can be thought of as the opposite of Torment. It does moderately high damage unless the target is actively moving at at least top nonswiftness combat speed at which point it will do considerably less, perhaps no damage. Anxiety combos well with movement impairing conditions like cripple, chilled and immobilize as well as stuns ensuring your target suffers as much as possible from Anxiety.

F3: Altered MemoriesEffect duration 1 second. Hex duration 5s. 50 second cooldown.
Abilities used by the target while under the effect have their cooldowns increased by 30%. Reapply the effect the target when you would otherwise summon a clone while the hex duration is active.

F4: BackfireEffect duration ½ second. Hex duration 4 second. 60 Second Cooldown. Erode your target's grip on reality. For ½ Seconds their offensive skills impact themselves. Reapply the effect to the target when you would otherwise summon a clone while the hex duration is active.

New Weapon: Mainhand DaggerAutoAttack Chain: Fast and High damage. Final Strike applies applies a hex effect (Similar to how the scepter Scepter auto attack summons clones)Skill 2: Flurry of high damage attacks. If all strikes hit it applies a hex effect.Skill 3: Flip over skill. Skill 1 is an upward slash that applies a 1 second float if it connects. Skill 2 is a one second knockdown that can only be used if the target is still floating and does a high amount of damage.

New Skill Type: Subjugations

Subjugation skills are a new skill type that focus on disabling the opponent or sabotaging them in some way.

Heal Skill:

Mind over Matter:½ Second cast time. 3 second duration. 35 Second cooldown.Healing: 1,853.Healing received by the target is applied to the Psychomancer instead.

Utility Slot Skills:

Friendliest of Fire:1 second cast time. 2.5 Second Duration. Range 1200 Range. 60 Second Cooldown.Subjugate the enemy target, making all their attacks capable of striking allied targets for 3 seconds.

Alliance of Convenience:1 second cast time. 5 second duration. 1200 Range. 60 Second Cooldown.Subjugate the enemy target. The Enemy target treats the Psychomancer (And other aligned targets) as a friendly target for 3 seconds. The Psychomancer can still attack the target.

Compelling Whispers:½ Second Cast time. 1200 Range. 30 Second CooldownApply 2 seconds of fear and two seconds of immobilization. If the target is under the effects of Friendliest of Fire they are instead taunted towards their nearest enemy.

Spirit Shackles:6 Second Duration. 600 Radius. 1200 Range. 24 Second Cooldown.Foes in the area have the maximum range of all skills halved. This includes melee skills.

Mass Hysteria (Elite):2 Second Cast time. 1200 yard Radius. 180 Second CooldownSend out a wave of deceptive energy making up to 10 enemies see all units as the Psychomacer for 10 seconds. (This includes name plates. Does not actively alter alignments.)

Update: Traits Added.

Minor Proficiency: You can wield dagger in your main hand.

Minor Adept: Psychomancer's Sadism: Shatter skills become hexes. Gain access to subjugation utility types.Major Adept : Detect Presence: Inflict 2 seconds of Revealed on stealthed targets you do damage to.Major Adept : Brain Defeats Brawn: Critical hits inflict weakness and vulnerability.Major Adept : Subordination: Subjugation skills gain 20% reduced recharge. Victims are dazed when subjugation effects wear off.

Minor Master: Swift Mind: Critical strikes grant swiftness. Deal 7% more damage while under the effects of swiftness.Major Master: Mind Reader: Disabling a target copies their boons on to you at 50% their remaining duration.Major Master: Look, No Hands: Dagger skills gain reduced recharge and activate an additional hex. The Psychomancer wields them telepathically and they now have 300 range.Major Master: Immediate Failure: Confusion no longer does damage over time on on target skill use, but does a flat burst of damage that scales with power when applied to a target.

Minor Grandmaster: Cruel Mind: Mental Throttle and Phantom Pain grant a stacking buff that increases damage and condition damage the more times they've been reactivated stacking up to 10 times.Major Grandmaster: The Superior Mind: Transfer a condition to a victim marked by one of your hexes whenever you receive a boon.
Major Grandmaster: Dream Eater: 10% of damage dealt by hexes is now received as healing.Major Grandmaster: Bad End: Activating a Hex has increased effectiveness the longer they have lingered on the target up to 30%.

Notes:

The Psychomancer is designed around high sustained direct damage and sabotage. I wanted an elite specialization that rather than confusing enemies with clones and pressuring them with confusion, I wanted them to be second guessing absolutely every action they take while a Psychomancer is on the field. I also wanted an elite spec with better team fighting capabilities both in WvW and SPvP not by providing boons or big AoE damage but by causing entire teams to fall all over themselves, chasing the wrong targets, helping enemies and hurting allies, and reflecting damage even beyond what the game is already capable of. I also find the idea of using alignment swapping to cheese certain boss effects appealing for high skill raiders.

I also wanted a specialization that was both unique from what mesmers already have thematically while having a very broad appeal. Core mesmer focuses on the flashy duelist magician aspect of mesmers with their purple energy effects, butterflies, and duelist capabilites. Chronomancer taps into the idea of controlling time. They can reset their cooldowns with Continuum Split and Alacrity. They can also speed up their allies and slow down enemies. It's also extremely supportive. Mirage is extremely evasive and intangible with a heavy bend towards condition damage through power Mirage has it's place in SPvP and WvW. But when you think about it, mesmers with their mind altering magic, causing hallucinations and tricking enemies, has the potential to be extremely sadistic and would fill a great niche for people who were always a bit put off from GW2 mesmers which moved away from their hexes and sabotage capabilities in favor of purple butterflies. It also fills in a niche of a mesmer specialization that doesn't summon clones.

I think there's a loss less trait incompatibility that you would initially think. For starters, just look at how Necromancer traits interact with their shroud skills. Specific traits like Inspiring Distortion and the Projectile Reflection bonus on Master of Fragmentation would simply activate on Backdraft the way Transfuse works on Life Transfer, Soul Spiral, and Garish Pillar. And there's still Blurred Signets giving you distortion.

Rending Shatter - Shatter skills inflict vulnerability on hit. > Fully CompatibleShattered Concentration - Shatter skills also remove a boon on hit. > Fully CompatibleMental Anguish - Shatter skills deal more damage. This damage increase is doubled against foes that are not activating skills. > Fully CompatibleBlinding Dissipation - Blind foes around you whenever you use a shatter skill. > Fully CompatibleBountiful Disillusionment - Gain stability when you use a Shatter skill. You and nearby allies gain boons based on which Shatter was used. > Fully CompatibleRestorative Illusions - Heal yourself and lose conditions when you use a shatter skill. > Fully CompatibleCry of Pain - Cry of Frustration inflicts more stacks of confusion for an increased duration. > Fully Compatible. It'll just activate on Phantom Pain instead.Shatter Storm - Mind Wrack becomes an ammo skill. > Fully Compatible.Maim the Disillusioned - Shatter skills inflict torment on hit. > Fully Compatible.Master of Misdirection - Shatter skills gain recharge reduction. > Fully Compatible.Master of Fragmentation - Your shatter skills are improved. > Fully compatible

All of the traits that are "Do X based on the number of clones shattered" are all loaded onto chronomancer and Mirage has one of them so we don't have to worry about them.

My general idea is that Hexes would all work and animate like the sniper scope. As for tells, all of them would have a unique nightmare face floating above the victim like how Deadeye's sniper scope appears above the victim, it'd look like a purple mesmery version of a Sand Shade. Think something like this:

JJiSlFi.jpg

And when these pulse their effects the nightmare face would emote and get bigger like it would look like it's shouting and it's mouth would get real big and it would look real menacing so victims would know both what hex they've been marked with and when that hex is actively impacting them without looking at the UI. Regarding scoping, last expansion gave us Firebrand, Weaver, and Soulbeast. Firebrand and Weaver in particular had toooons of extremely flashy spell effects so I don't think there is too much of an issue on that front.

A Psychomancer can only have one active hex at a time based on my design. If you put Mental Throttle on an enemy, and two seconds later you use Backdraft, Backdraft overwrites Mental Throttle and you'd need to wait 6 seconds to use Mental Throttle against the enemy. Unless you had Shatter Storm where you can overwrite Backdraft with your other ammo of Mental Throttle.

Regarding the technology and scoping aspect, a lot of the crazier alignment swapping capabilities are already in the game in some form, particularly in raids. I think it'd be cool to have an elite specialization take advantage of them. Thinking about a scourge spamming his AoE abilities and then swapping his alignment so he attacks his allies instead is just too hilarious to me.And friendly fire that can screw you over is already a fun mechanic in raids. I know I've been killed while a slubbling and even during Matthias's CC phase.

I think if Soulbeast had the developers code ways to remove pets and apply pet effects to the Ranger, the technology to remove clones and have clone skills do something completely different should be possible and within scope for the game as well.

We also know that the ability to phase what players see, so that certain character models look like other character models, also exists.

I think the biggest thing holding it back is isn't technical issues, as most of the stuff I wrote about is directly inspired by stuff that exists in game already or is at least within scope after what we saw with Soulbeast and Weaver, but balance issues and how potentially unfun it could be to play against. While alignment swapping a Scourge and causing him to AoE his team, or zapping a Firebrand and suddenly he's supporting your team and not his, sounds really fun I can see it creating hostility when the Psychomancer successfully executes on it's game plan. On the other hand, a lot of the counter play towards psychomancer is "Stop what you're doing for a bit". Stuff like Backfire is supposed to be extremely powerful and difficult to pull off, requiring split second reaction times.

Anyway, this is just what I'd start with and scale back from here if I was developing the next Mesmer elite specialization. Tell me what you think?

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i really like the concept how u got rid of clones - not read everything, but cool ideas so far.I'd miss old F4 and other things related to ur rework , so I'd probabbly change somethings by myself , but the "get rid of illusions"- Part is well done. Im gonna work with it for my own fantasy specs !

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@derd.6413 said:with balance, being unfun to play against and trait interactions in mind i'm gonna go with hell no

Really the main questionable aspect of the concept is the utility that enables Friendly Fire on an enemy. And that's only one hypothetical utility that could get cut. Other stuff like Alignment swap someone so their offensive skills can't work on the Psychomancer and his allies is a glorified daze. All alignment swapping stuff would be preventable through stability and stunbreakable, as well as all the other ways of avoiding damage such as Line of Sight, Blind, Dodge, Block, Invulnerability.

The hexes would be similar to deadeye mark where the player hexed has a clear tell what the Psychomancer is actively throwing on them, allowing for counter play. So if you see you're effected by for example, Backfire, you'd know to hold back on your attacks for a few seconds because the mesmer can throw them right back at you but after that window you'll be safe for a while. Backfire is a more 1:1 Full Counter that's dedicated towards a single target, has a longer window, and you're sacrificing Distortion for it. Projectile reflections are already a thing in the game, so projectile and physical reflection on a skill isn't that out there.

I think trait interactions like how Deceptive Evasion and Escape Artist would impact Hexes is the most fun thing to speculate about.

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Oh wow, this is so similar to one of the 2 spec concepts I've been working on, I'll have to post it one of these days. Like the general concept of psychic domination, returning to gw1 mesmer roots and hexes, and my heal skill is named "Mind over Matter", too.

My criticism is about trait interaction. Escape Artist and stuff is one thing, but there are tons of shatter traits that don't seem compatible at all with the new profession mechanic. I guess for all the "do X based on how many clones you shattered" you could say all hexes default to 1 clone shattered, and apply these effects on the hexed target, but stuff like Cry of Pain or Master of Fragmentation. Or the fact that you remove Distortion means Inspiring Distortion will have no effect, unless you also take Blurred Signets.

The other fact I disagree with is that you double-down on hexes, as the new skill type might as well be hexes by another name, only difference is they are missing the duration extension from clone summons. That means you are introducing 10 new effects everyone facing a Psychomancer has to be aware of, and most of those are punishing enough that you have to take notice of them the second they are applied, or you just hit your ally for 6k for example. Yes, you could add some fancy symbols similar to Deadeye's scope, but that means you need 10 of them and people have to be able to tell them apart easily. And unless I'm mistaken, there's nothing stopping you from stacking them, so how would that work for visual tells?

These issues are not exclusive to your concept, they are similar questions I had to ask myself when going through gw1's hexes again. The thing is gw2 is a fast-paced game, and the condition system is already bad enough at forcing you to pay attention to the UI, I don't see how you could realistically add another layer of that on top of it. In my opinion, if hexes were to ever return, they would have to either work as part of the existing boon/condition system, or be special effects tied to very visible skills, like how Disenchantment was introduced as part of Winds of Disenchantment.

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@"RabbitUp.8294" said:Oh wow, this is so similar to one of the 2 spec concepts I've been working on, I'll have to post it one of these days. Like the general concept of psychic domination, returning to gw1 mesmer roots and hexes, and my heal skill is named "Mind over Matter", too.

My criticism is about trait interaction. Escape Artist and stuff is one thing, but there are tons of shatter traits that don't seem compatible at all with the new profession mechanic. I guess for all the "do X based on how many clones you shattered" you could say all hexes default to 1 clone shattered, and apply these effects on the hexed target, but stuff like Cry of Pain or Master of Fragmentation. Or the fact that you remove Distortion means Inspiring Distortion will have no effect, unless you also take Blurred Signets.

The other fact I disagree with is that you double-down on hexes, as the new skill type might as well be hexes by another name, only difference is they are missing the duration extension from clone summons. That means you are introducing 10 new effects everyone facing a Psychomancer has to be aware of, and most of those are punishing enough that you have to take notice of them the second they are applied, or you just hit your ally for 6k for example. Yes, you could add some fancy symbols similar to Deadeye's scope, but that means you need 10 of them and people have to be able to tell them apart easily. And unless I'm mistaken, there's nothing stopping you from stacking them, so how would that work for visual tells?

These issues are not exclusive to your concept, they are similar questions I had to ask myself when going through gw1's hexes again. The thing is gw2 is a fast-paced game, and the condition system is already bad enough at forcing you to pay attention to the UI, I don't see how you could realistically add another layer of that on top of it. In my opinion, if hexes were to ever return, they would have to either work as part of the existing boon/condition system, or be special effects tied to very visible skills, like how Disenchantment was introduced as part of Winds of Disenchantment.

I think there's a loss less trait incompatibility that you would initially think. For starters, just look at how Necromancer traits interact with their shroud skills. Specific traits like Inspiring Distortion and the Projectile Reflection bonus on Master of Fragmentation would simply activate on Backdraft the way Transfuse works on Life Transfer, Soul Spiral, and Garish Pillar. And there's still Blurred Signets giving you distortion.

Rending Shatter - Shatter skills inflict vulnerability on hit. > Fully CompatibleShattered Concentration - Shatter skills also remove a boon on hit. > Fully CompatibleMental Anguish - Shatter skills deal more damage. This damage increase is doubled against foes that are not activating skills. > Fully CompatibleBlinding Dissipation - Blind foes around you whenever you use a shatter skill. > Fully CompatibleBountiful Disillusionment - Gain stability when you use a Shatter skill. You and nearby allies gain boons based on which Shatter was used. > Fully CompatibleRestorative Illusions - Heal yourself and lose conditions when you use a shatter skill. > Fully CompatibleCry of Pain - Cry of Frustration inflicts more stacks of confusion for an increased duration. > Fully Compatible. It'll just activate on Phantom Pain instead.Shatter Storm - Mind Wrack becomes an ammo skill. > Fully Compatible.

Maim the Disillusioned - Shatter skills inflict torment on hit. > Fully Compatible.Master of Misdirection - Shatter skills gain recharge reduction. > Fully Compatible.Master of Fragmentation - Your shatter skills are improved. > Fully compatible

All of the traits that are "Do X based on the number of clones shattered" are all loaded onto chronomancer and Mirage has one of them so we don't have to worry about them.

My general idea is that Hexes would all work and animate like the sniper scope. As for tells, all of them would have a unique nightmare face floating above the victim like how Deadeye's sniper scope appears above the victim, it'd look like a purple mesmery version of a Sand Shade. Think something like this:

JJiSlFi.jpg

And when these pulse their effects the nightmare face would emote and get bigger like it would look like it's shouting and it's mouth would get real big and it would look real menacing so victims would know both what hex they've been marked with and when that hex is actively impacting them without looking at the UI. Regarding scoping, last expansion gave us Firebrand, Weaver, and Soulbeast. Firebrand and Weaver in particular had toooons of extremely flashy spell effects so I don't think there is too much of an issue on that front.

A Psychomancer can only have one active hex at a time based on my design. If you put Mental Throttle on an enemy, and two seconds later you use Backdraft, Backdraft overwrites Mental Throttle and you'd need to wait 6 seconds to use Mental Throttle against the enemy. Unless you had Shatter Storm where you can overwrite Backdraft with your other ammo of Mental Throttle.

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This is a very cool spec. Not sure it is my cup of tea, nevertheless it is an excellent well thought out concept for changing gw2 mesmer from clones and shatters while still functioning with core traits.

Edit - also having recently binged heavily on Warframe with Nyx I really love this (also reminds me of skyrim illusion spells)

Mass Hysteria (Elite):2 Second Cast time. 1200 yard Radius. 180 Second CooldownSend out a wave of deceptive energy making up to 10 enemies see all units as the Psychomacer for 10 seconds. (This includes name plates. Does not actively alter alignments.)

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@Me Games Ma.8426 said:I really like the idea how you replaced the shatters and still made clones valuable.If you allow I would like to copy the behaviour into a concept I am working on currently.Still keep in mind that clones i skills like Sword 3 are an essential part of the skill and can not be removed entirely.Cool concept imo

Go right ahead.

@Curunen.8729 said:This is a very cool spec. Not sure it is my cup of tea, nevertheless it is an excellent well thought out concept for changing gw2 mesmer from clones and shatters while still functioning with core traits.

Edit - also having recently binged heavily on Warframe with Nyx I really love this (also reminds me of skyrim illusion spells)

Mass Hysteria (Elite):2 Second Cast time. 1200 yard Radius. 180 Second CooldownSend out a wave of deceptive energy making up to 10 enemies see all units as the Psychomacer for 10 seconds. (This includes name plates. Does not actively alter alignments.)

I need to get back into warframe. A couple years ago I got super, super into it and burned myself out. Which is saying a lot because I don't burn out easily.

But I like that hypothetical skill. And we know the technology is in the game because the developers were really proud of how during A Star to Guide Us Blish follows you in the open world for a while, but only you see him as Blish and everyone playing sees a prairie dog.

Imagine an opening mid fight in a conquest map where right before the teams engage the psychomancer pops this and suddenly the enemy's ability to target and fight enemies is completely disrupted. Or WvW zergs crashing into each other and this gets popped.

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  • 1 month later...

Finally got around to doing the traits:

Minor Proficiency: You can wield dagger in your main hand.

Minor Adept: Psychomancer's Sadism: Shatter skills become hexes. Gain access to subjugation utility types.Major Adept : Detect Presence: Inflict 2 seconds of Revealed on stealthed targets you do damage to.Major Adept : Brain Defeats Brawn: Critical hits inflict weakness and vulnerability.Major Adept : Subordination: Subjugation skills gain 20% reduced recharge. Victims are dazed when subjugation effects wear off.

Minor Master: Swift Mind: Critical strikes grant swiftness. Deal 7% more damage while under the effects of swiftness.Major Master: Mind Reader: Disabling a target copies their boons on to you at 50% their remaining duration.Major Master: Look, No Hands: Dagger skills gain reduced recharge and activate an additional hex. The Psychomancer wields them telepathically and they now have 300 range.Major Master: Immediate Failure: Confusion no longer does damage over time on on target skill use, but does a flat burst of damage that scales with power when applied to a target.

Minor Grandmaster: Cruel Mind: Mental Throttle and Phantom Pain grant a stacking buff that increases damage and condition damage the more times they've been reactivated stacking up to 10 times.Major Grandmaster: The Superior Mind: Transfer a condition to a victim marked by one of your hexes whenever you receive a boon.Major Grandmaster: Dream Eater: 10% of damage dealt by hexes is now received as healing.Major Grandmaster: Bad End: Activating a Hex has increased effectiveness the longer they have lingered on the target up to 30%.

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@"mortrialus.3062" said:MX8qYOH.jpg

F3: Altered MemoriesEffect duration 1 second. Hex duration 5s. 50 second cooldown.

Abilities used by the target while under the effect have their cooldowns doubbled. Reapply the effect the target when you would otherwise summon a clone while the hex duration is active.

F4: BackfireEffect duration ½ second. Hex duration 4 second. 60 Second Cooldown. Erode your target's grip on reality. For ½ Seconds their offensive skills impact themselves. Reapply the effect to the target when you would otherwise summon a clone while the hex duration is active.

I think a more feasible implementation of "F3: Altered Memories" would be to inflict Chill & Slow (Preferably AOE) each time a clone would be summoned, but if this were the case I would hope that the Spec would have some passive trait that improves the effectiveness of Chill/Slow: like how Thief improves poison. Improved Chill/Slow would promote synergy with the Domination line that was already supposed to be the lockdown line.

Within the current mechanics of the game, I think "F4: Backfire"'s effect would apply blindness and confusion on the target (Once again preferably AOE), and retaliation when you would have summoned a clone. Once again, I would hope that the Spec has some passive trait that improves the effectiveness of retaliation like how tempest improves protection, thief improves vigor, or herald improves regeneration. Adding the blind & confusion with this mechanic would have great synergy with the Dueling trait which brought the Ineptitude build.

Major Master: Immediate Failure: Confusion no longer does damage over time on on target skill use, but does a flat burst of damage that scales with power when applied >to a target.

I think this trait would flow better with your goal if, instead of converting it to flat burst damage, you changed the name to "Mistrust" and turned confusion that you apply into an AOE effect; This would probably be strong enough to be a grandmaster trait though. But I really like the idea of letting it scale with Power, similar to how the guardian has a trait that allows retaliation to scale with condition damage.

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@Crey.5263 said:

@"mortrialus.3062" said:
MX8qYOH.jpg

F3: Altered Memories
Effect duration 1 second. Hex duration 5s. 50 second cooldown.

Abilities used by the target while under the effect have their cooldowns doubbled. Reapply the effect the target when you would otherwise summon a clone while the hex duration is active.

F4: Backfire
Effect duration ½ second. Hex duration 4 second. 60 Second Cooldown. Erode your target's grip on reality. For ½ Seconds their offensive skills impact themselves. Reapply the effect to the target when you would otherwise summon a clone while the hex duration is active.

I think a more feasible implementation of "F3: Altered Memories" would be to inflict Chill & Slow (Preferably AOE) each time a clone would be summoned, but if this were the case I would hope that the Spec would have some passive trait that improves the effectiveness of Chill/Slow: like how Thief improves poison. Improved Chill/Slow would promote synergy with the Domination line that was already supposed to be the lockdown line.

Stuff like Power Block already exists, which if you interrupt a skill the skill has a flat 15 seconds added to the cooldown to it. Doubling cooldowns is obviously insanely strong but this mechanic already exists in the game.

Within the current mechanics of the game, I think "F4: Backfire"'s effect would apply blindness and confusion on the target (Once again preferably AOE), and retaliation when you would have summoned a clone. Once again, I would hope that the Spec has some passive trait that improves the effectiveness of retaliation like how tempest improves protection, thief improves vigor, or herald improves regeneration. Adding the blind & confusion with this mechanic would have great synergy with the Dueling trait which brought the Ineptitude build.

I guess my thought process was if projectile reflection exists, why not add melee and projectile reflection against a single target? Especially since you're giving up distortion to do it, it better pack a wallop.

Major Master: Immediate Failure: Confusion no longer does damage over time on on target skill use, but does a flat burst of damage that scales with power when applied >to a target.

I think this trait would flow better with your goal if, instead of converting it to flat burst damage, you changed the name to "Mistrust" and turned confusion that you apply into an AOE effect; This would probably be strong enough to be a grandmaster trait though. But I really like the idea of letting it scale with Power, similar to how the guardian has a trait that allows retaliation to scale with condition damage.

I was thinking of turning confusion into an OG version of deathly chill for power variants. Like imagine Scepter 3, which actually hits really hard on a power build, hitting even harder when all of the confusion procs are now doing more and more chip damage.

I actually didn't think of retaliation when making this and I probably should have.

@InsaneQR.7412 said:The idea and theme seems fun, rest is hella op and would be horribly overtuned.Classnechanic is cool though.

The numbers are going to be complete nonsense, admittedly. But I think a lot of this has inherent counter play. For starters, you are giving up clones for this specialization so there's going to be almost 0 confusion as to the actual target, making Psychomancer in general more vulnerable than any other mesmer build. It's also giving up it's F3 interrupt and the F4 invulnerability. Doubling a cooldown with Altered Memories is far too strong. Something like add 30% would be more reasonable and inline with how difficult it would be to land and the prediction required. Same with the ability to reflect attacks with Backfire. Projectile reflection is already in the game, why not physical reflection? And you're giving up complete invulnerability to reflect one person's attack. You also have a much smaller window to reflect an attack back at an enemy than Distortion gives you in invulnerability.

Enabling friendly fire on an enemy is obviously very powerful, but the counterplay would be to stop attacking your allies when you see everyone's names change from green / blue to red. We already have to watch out for this in raids. I can't tell you how many times I've been epidemics by a scourge while being a Slub. Plus these effects could be preemptively avoided with stability, block, blind and LOS and broken with Stun Breaks. Spirit Shackles is kind of like a weird spin on feedback. Mass Hysteria doesn't actually do anything aside from swap character models.

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  • 1 month later...

@mortrialus.3062 said:

@Me Games Ma.8426 said:I really like the idea how you replaced the shatters and still made clones valuable.If you allow I would like to copy the behaviour into a concept I am working on currently.Still keep in mind that clones i skills like Sword 3 are an essential part of the skill and can not be removed entirely.Cool concept imo

Go right ahead.

@Curunen.8729 said:This is a very cool spec. Not sure it is my cup of tea, nevertheless it is an excellent well thought out concept for changing gw2 mesmer from clones and shatters while still functioning with core traits.

Edit - also having recently binged heavily on Warframe with Nyx I really love this (also reminds me of skyrim illusion spells)

Mass Hysteria (Elite):2 Second Cast time. 1200 yard Radius. 180 Second CooldownSend out a wave of deceptive energy making up to 10 enemies see all units as the Psychomacer for 10 seconds. (This includes name plates. Does not actively alter alignments.)

I need to get back into warframe. A couple years ago I got super, super into it and burned myself out. Which is saying a lot because I don't burn out easily.

But I like that hypothetical skill. And we know the technology is in the game because the developers were really proud of how during A Star to Guide Us Blish follows you in the open world for a while, but only you see him as Blish and everyone playing sees a prairie dog.

Imagine an opening mid fight in a conquest map where right before the teams engage the psychomancer pops this and suddenly the enemy's ability to target and fight enemies is completely disrupted. Or WvW zergs crashing into each other and this gets popped.

I've kind of enjoyed playing with the Astilla with purple energy colour, even went crazy enough to buy a cheap riven and roll it like 30 times or so, and with nyx - like mesmer throwing out full auto Shatters in opponent's faces - extremely satisfying. Probably closest that can get to that similar feeling as here - whereas loki is just boring with perma stealth and mirage is just a glorified weapons platform...

I think that concept of momentary disruption to ally/enemy status should definitely be a theme of some mesmer spec before gw2 is finished. Would also turn everything on its head when it comes to large group fights say in wvw - no more brainlessly throwing down aoe. Certainly more interesting than boonspam/rip and chucking out damage without thinking about it. Looking at this spec a second time I feel more the urge to want to play it, so hopefully Anet decide to make something similar.

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I was thinking something like that this would be cool with shouts as the new skill line. "You're burning!" working like Sun Spirit with extra vulnerability or "You feel no pain!" casting barrier or something.

"They all hate you!" having a Confuse mechanic would be cool, setting enemies against each other. I'd like to see some traditional RPG crowd control in game but spawns are so small that that may not be worthwhile.

I'd really like to see an alternative to the shatter mechanic... Something like clone shatters doing no damage but charging up something like Celestial Avatar but each skill is a phantasm so you could phantasm-nuke when you need to.

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@"Gulbasaur.1865" said:I was thinking something like that this would be cool with shouts as the new skill line. "You're burning!" working like Sun Spirit with extra vulnerability or "You feel no pain!" casting barrier or something.

"They all hate you!" having a Confuse mechanic would be cool, setting enemies against each other. I'd like to see some traditional RPG crowd control in game but spawns are so small that that may not be worthwhile.

I'd really like to see an alternative to the shatter mechanic... Something like clone shatters doing no damage but charging up something like Celestial Avatar but each skill is a phantasm so you could phantasm-nuke when you need to.

Holy crap this would be sooooo good with voice clips like this:

@Curunen.8729 said:

@Me Games Ma.8426 said:I really like the idea how you replaced the shatters and still made clones valuable.If you allow I would like to copy the behaviour into a concept I am working on currently.Still keep in mind that clones i skills like Sword 3 are an essential part of the skill and can not be removed entirely.Cool concept imo

Go right ahead.

@Curunen.8729 said:This is a very cool spec. Not sure it is my cup of tea, nevertheless it is an excellent well thought out concept for changing gw2 mesmer from clones and shatters while still functioning with core traits.

Edit - also having recently binged heavily on Warframe with Nyx I really love this (also reminds me of skyrim illusion spells)

Mass Hysteria (Elite):2 Second Cast time. 1200 yard Radius. 180 Second CooldownSend out a wave of deceptive energy making up to 10 enemies see all units as the Psychomacer for 10 seconds. (This includes name plates. Does not actively alter alignments.)

I need to get back into warframe. A couple years ago I got super, super into it and burned myself out. Which is saying a lot because I don't burn out easily.

But I like that hypothetical skill. And we know the technology is in the game because the developers were really proud of how during A Star to Guide Us Blish follows you in the open world for a while, but only you see him as Blish and everyone playing sees a prairie dog.

Imagine an opening mid fight in a conquest map where right before the teams engage the psychomancer pops this and suddenly the enemy's ability to target and fight enemies is completely disrupted. Or WvW zergs crashing into each other and this gets popped.

I've kind of enjoyed playing with the Astilla with purple energy colour, even went crazy enough to buy a cheap riven and roll it like 30 times or so, and with nyx - like mesmer throwing out full auto Shatters in opponent's faces - extremely satisfying. Probably closest that can get to that similar feeling as here - whereas loki is just boring with perma stealth and mirage is just a glorified weapons platform...

I think that concept of momentary disruption to ally/enemy status should definitely be a theme of some mesmer spec before gw2 is finished. Would also turn everything on its head when it comes to large group fights say in wvw - no more brainlessly throwing down aoe. Certainly more interesting than boonspam/rip and chucking out damage without thinking about it. Looking at this spec a second time I feel more the urge to want to play it, so hopefully Anet decide to make something similar.

I might have to try that out. One of my biggest problem since playing GW2 is that nothing gives you the feeling of playing a mesmer in other RPGs. Historically I always loved Protection Warriors, sword+board no magic heavy armor types, as my main and that character archetype is always in every RPG so it was never a problem. But I swapped to mesmer in Heart of Thorns and it's always a struggle to setting on a class I like in other games.

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  • 1 year later...

Bumping because we're all talking about elite specs and more than anything I'd still like to see a cloneless elite spec the way Soulbeast gave rangers a petless one. And Psychomancer while not explicitly Canthan can still work in Cantha the way Arenanet made Spellbreakers a unique product of Elona.

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Had forgot about this one.It resembles a bit GW1 so I like it more than the other spec suggestions.Still have some problems with some skills, like I told when you made the spec, healing needs to be 1/3 cast time or you won't catch foes healing.The skills that work when foes allies or your allies are in the area need a "otherwise x" or you'll have stuff that sometimes it's useless in your bar.

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Now this is awesome. Good concept, different yet feels familiar. Loved this idea. I am not a bard/minstrel fan (concept wise) and really want hexes to be a thing. But this concept would also do :) gratz for your great effort. It is good to see that people are creating great concepts around here.

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