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Rethinking the Mesmer's Mechanic
User	Mcscamper
Categories	Mechanics

A Natural Mesmer

The current Mesmer class mechanic "Shatter" is a flight joy-stick installed in the wheel well of a car. With the right wiring and some practice, the car moves, but at its core the union and process remain unnatural.

To find something more appropriate for the Mesmer, we have to first define the class's aesthetic. With all of the pink butterflies and "You won't trust your own mind" statements, that aesthetic is already a bit of a mallet in the face, but for the sake of logical process, let's take a step back and analyze how any profession in Guild Wars 2 defines its persona.

Currently, one of the fastest ways to really feel out a profession's natural aesthetics in this game is to look at the utility and elite skills, because while the weapon attack skills focus on generating reliable damage, conditions and field effects that are somewhat universal, those extra slots to the right of your health bubble are where developers went crazy saying "Oh, yeah, that would be an AWESOME ability for Profession X!" (i.e. rocket boots for Engineer, tornado form for the Elementalist, ect). In the case of the Mesmer, its utility and elite slots are completely crammed with misdirection, evasion, teammate-support and shut-down--not a single true, direct damage buff in sight barring Mantra of Pain.

This is not a bad thing. However, it clashes with the current Shatter mechanic which is currently a janky amalgam of raw damage and utility with some pink overtones. Diversion and Distortion are perhaps the two most suited mechanics for the Mesmer's aesthetic while Cry of Frustration and Mind Wrack contribute to a "pet class" play-style that does not truly suit our fabulous illusionist and proves to be clunky in combat. At the moment, the Mesmer's "Shatter" meshes with the rest of its persona about as well as colored sand layered into a clear glass jar.

Suggestion

Despite everything I've said, I still firmly believe that with just a few changes, the Mesmer can really excel at achieving its target persona. Therefore, I propose the changes listed below:

NOTE: Due to insightful comments and a separate mechanics suggestion made by Guild Wars 3 Perhaps, I have made some adjustments to my original F1 suggestion.

Beguile

• Upon use, skills with this term in their description break all enemy target locks and remove any "called-target symbols" on one's person.

Going about implementing this in-game could be as simple as granting a character an infinitesimally short stealth boon, (1/10 of a

second or less; ideally no duration at all) as Stealth currently shares those same features. The blatantly short (or absence of a) duration also prevents a Mesmer from blinking in and out in combat like a flamboyant lighthouse yelling, "Target me! I'm the real Mesmer!"

F1 - Arcane Conundrum

• Beguile your foes by swapping locations with one of your clones, chosen at random.
• Range - 1200

--> F1 - Mind Wrack

Beguile your foes by once more swapping locations with one of your clones, chosen at random. After you swap, destroy all your clones :and phantasms, damaging nearby foes.

• Range - 1200
• Skill chain enters a 20 second recharge
• The final shatter would function as per the current Mind Wrack mechanic.

As an instant cast/effect (no animation), this style of misdirection screams "You won't trust your own mind."

By employing the "skill-chain" model and the hypothetical "Beguile" function, the F1 Mesmer skill would now include true misdirection, retain an eventual total loss of all illusions, have a fair recharge and could still even incorporate the current Mind Wrack damage mechanic to prevent a need for a partial trait overhaul. The damage caused by the shattering might have to be skewed a bit--or not as it's current use is mainly spike damage and not consistent DPS.

This should NOT be able to break stun.

F2 - Arcane Mimicry

• 40 second recharge
• Destroy all of your clones and phantasms, confusion nearby foes. Then beguile your foes by teleporting to a target location and summoning a clone at your original position.
• Confusion: 5 s
• Range 1200 (for shatter)
• Range 900 (for teleport)
• The initial shatter would function as per the current Cry of Frustration mechanic.

The shatter and teleportation should execute more or less concurrently, leaving no active illusions except for the clone created by the teleport. The main issue raised by Guild Wars 2 Perhaps on this skill (with which I'm in agreement) was that the Shatter mechanic was to make sure the Mesmer really thought about what he or she would lose or gain when using an F-key. For that reason, the Mesmer should really lose everything except that one clone by using this skill.

That action (shatter followed by teleport and clone creation) feels really clunky when I try to envision it being implemented in the game, and honestly the whole package would look much neater if it too were a skill-chain. However, I personally believe that skill-chains are a little unwieldy; really best paired with spamming or a single effect, and not two effects that are both interesting but difficult to execute simultaneously. In short, it's a programming problem to the best of my knowledge.

This too should NOT be able to break stun.

F3 - Diversion

• 45 second recharge
• All of your clones and phantasms blink to your target's location and shatter, dazing your target.
• Daze - 1 second (per illusion destroyed)
• Range - 1200

"I need to daze that guy right now. RIGHT NOW. No more skills. HE NEEDS TO STOP."

So you press F3 and what happens? The guy continues firing off skills at leisure until your illusions can run up next to your target and shatter. I think this ability would perform much better if it was more on-command that it is now. However, aside from that, it's a fine ability.

F4 - Distortion

• 60 second recharge
• Beguile your foes by destroying all your clones and phantasms, gaining distortion for each one shattered.
• Distortion - 1 second (per illusion destroyed)
• Range - 1200

I added the Beguile function to it, but other than that nothing wrong here. Carry on.

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