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Rethinking the Mesmer Mechanic V 2.0
User	Guild Wars 3 perhaps
Categories	Mechanics

Go here to see a list of my other GW2 suggestions and discussion contributions.

Mcscamper made an excellent observation in their feedback post titled Rethinking the Mesmer's Mechanic that the current Mesmer mechanic is less mesmer-y and more like a Necromancer Minion Bomber. Mcscamper then went on to make some suggested changes to the mechanic to bring it more in line with the profession's aesthetic as a master of illusion, sowing confusion and discord among their foes. It is from that feedback entry that I draw inspiration for adding my own suggestion for improving the Mesmer mechanic (might want to read the original post first for some background).

The changes I'm suggesting only apply to the first two profession-specific mechanic skills; "Mind Wrack" and "Cry of Frustration". Here, they've been renamed "Shatter Storm" (my idea) and "Arcane Mimicry" (the name Mcscamper chose to retitle it, but with my own unique twist on the actual effects of the skill). The other two profession-specific skills, "Diversion" and "Distortion", remain largely intact in their current form with only some minor additions per Mcscamper's original post (and which I'm in agreement with).

Note: The "Beguile" used in the skill descriptions below is not there for filler; it has a very specific effect per Mcscamper's original post.

F1 - Shatter Storm

• 10 second recharge

• Release a Shatter Storm. Every 3 seconds, swap locations with one of your clones - chosen at random - and beguile your foes. The swapped clone is then destroyed. For each clone destroyed, Shatter Storm takes 5 seconds longer to recharge. Shatter Storm ends when all clones have been destroyed. No new clones may be summoned while in the midst of a Shatter Storm.

• Range - 1200

This should NOT be able to break stun.

Note: It's open to debate whether or not a destroyed clone should damage nearby foes, á la it's original incarnation "Mind Wrack".

It's also open to debate whether or not Shatter Storm should run its full course, destroying all of the Mesmer's clones, or if the Mesmer should be given the option to cancel the Shatter Storm by pressing the F1 key a second time (Shatter Storm will be in recharge mode at this point; pressing the key would only cancel the current chain reaction rather than initiate a new one).

Alternately, the Shatter Storm ends if there are no clones within the skill's range of "1200".

The Mesmer may not summon any new clones while in the midst of a Shatter Storm. If this were permitted, the Mesmer could potentially set up an infinite chain reaction of summoning new clones and destroying them shortly after creation.

F2 - Arcane Mimicry or Doppleganger

• 45 second recharge

• Beguile your foes, disguise yourself as your target, and swap locations with that target (50% chance). This disguise ends after 20 seconds or if the Mesmer presses the F2 button a second time. When this skill ends, all clones and phantasms are destroyed, confusing nearby foes.

• Range 900

This too should NOT be able to break stun.

Note: The reason the enemy swap is not automatic is because, fighting against real players, they would eventually learn that this skill always swaps the Mesmer with their ally. They would then know to attack the ally that is standing next to them rather than the one they just saw pop into existence at some distance away from them. If players immediately know where the Mesmer is, despite looking like one of their allies, then this defeats the whole purpose of a disguise and the aesthetic of the Mesmer as a master of illusion and misdirection.

The reason all clones and phantasms are not destroyed by this skill on activation is because this skill is all about confusion, misdirection, and the enemy doubting their own senses. They help add to the confusion as the Mesmer disguises themselves as the enemy. Now opponents are faced with a doppleganger of their ally as well as some clones of the Mesmer. Who's who, where's the Mesmer, which one is the real ally?

The confusion effect is maintained from the original skill "Cry of Frustration" because it still fits this skill's intent; confusing the enemy. This in-game effect is the closest approximation of what would be a possible real-world response to a situation like this. Surrounded by clones, faced with dopplegangers, overcome with confusion and paranoia, people wouldn't know who to trust; they may start lashing out at friend as well as foe. When the Mesmer's disguise is removed and all the clones and phantasms are destroyed, the damage is already done; the Mesmer's foes are now so confused they are doing damage to themselves rather than to the Mesmer.

The Mesmer, in disguising themself, is an exact visual duplicate of their targeted foe; including their name, title(s) displayed (if any), and guild affiliation (if any). In a PvE setting, this means the Mesmer may even appear as a Drake, a Centaur, or any other monster they may encounter. So long as the Mesmer does not attack any of the allies of the PvE monster they're impersonating, they will pass as one of their own and will not come under attack. On the other hand, the monster they're impersonating may attack (maybe based on intelligence, with smarter monsters realizing they're being impersonated); but no others in the group will do so. We then have to decide whether the Mesmer is free to counter-attack the monster they're impersonating without fear of aggroing that monster's allies or whether any aggressive action on the part of the diguised Mesmer will draw the aggro of those allies; the Mesmer's disguise notwithstanding.

The question becomes what to do about the Mesmer's skills.

The utility skills are easy; those remain unchanged. This would even be a way for both PvE monsters and PvP players to distinguish the disguised Mesmer from their ally. If the Mesmer uses a utility skill, it will have Mesmer animations and effects. If the enemy they are impersonating isn't a Mesmer, this will be a dead give-away as to which doppleganger is the Mesmer. PvE monsters will then be free to attack the disguised Mesmer despite still wearing the disguise.

It's the weapon skills that become the issue. If a disguised Mesmer is forced to continue using their original Mesmer-specific weapon skills, this, again, will be a dead give-away if they are impersonating something other than a Mesmer and attempt to use any of their skills; weapon or utility.

My suggestion is the Mesmer's weapon skills will be replaced with the target's weapon skills. Their weapon becomes the weapon their target was wielding when the Mesmer activated this skill. This is not an actual weapon in their inventory; it's an illusionary weapon (like the tie-in with GW1?). This way the Mesmer can still deal damage without revealing their true identity. The Mesmer will not have access to the target's profession-specific mechanic nor benefit from traits specific to the mimicked profession, however. Of course, a clever player impersonated by the Mesmer may perform a weapon swap to distinguish themselves from their doppleganger. An equally clever Mesmer then may attempt to swap their weapon set, as well. If the Mesmer is quick-thinking and lucky enough to have a secondary weapon set that matches their target's weapon set, they may still pull off the illusion. If not, then the jig may just be up for the Mesmer!

I understand that, in both of my revamped skill suggestions, all of the clones and phantasms are still being destroyed. This would appear to run counter to what I stated at the beginning; that the Mesmer's profession-specific mechanic is playing too much like a Necomancer Minion Bomber.

However, I concede that the original Shatter mechanic, which destroys all of a Mesmer's clones and phantasms, was probably put in place for a very good reason. It was likely revealed during ArenaNet's play-testing that allowing a Mesmer to continue to maintain an army of illusions was just too overpowered. The Shatter mechanic became the method by which the illusions were removed from the battlefield in exchange for some advantage to the Mesmer. Destroying them so directly and without complementing the Mesmer aesthetic of being a master of illusion is just too crude, though; that's Necromancer territory.

Also, every profession-specific mechanic is a cost:benefit trade-off. For example, a Necromancer enters death shroud (benefit) but loses access to all their weapon and utility skills (cost), an Elementalist swaps attunements and gains access to a new set of skills (benefit) at the cost of losing access to their previous attunement's skills (cost), etc. Destroying all clones and phantasms is the Mesmer profession-specific mechanic's cost:benefit trade-off; and I can accept that.

In this suggestion, though, I've attempted to make that mechanic better fit the Mesmer aesthetic. By making the destruction of the clones and phantasms add to the confusion and misdirection that is the hallmark of this class - rather than just a means to inflict some conditions or damage with all the subtlety of pushing a button on detonator - I hope I've accomplished this goal.

Thank you for reading.

Guild Wars 3 perhaps 23:34, 4 July 2012 (UTC)

Update

Mcscamper offered an insightful critique of my suggestion for "Arcane Mimicry (alt. Doppleganger)" on the Discussion tab. I have to agree; even while I was typing the original feedback entry, I felt I was really reaching with some of the mechanics I was suggesting for that skill. In this update, I'm restructuring my original suggestion for that skill as well as offering a whole new skill as an alternative:

F2 - Arcane Mimicry

• 45 second recharge

• Beguile your foes, disguise yourself and all of your clones as your target, and swap locations with one of your clones chosen at random (50% chance). This disguise ends after 20 seconds or if the Mesmer presses the F2 button a second time. When this skill ends, all clones and phantasms are destroyed, confusing nearby foes.

• Range 900

This too should NOT be able to break stun.

Note: On further reflection, I agree with Mcscamper that forcefully swapping with an opponent is probably not a good idea; there's too many ways it could be abused. In this iteration of the skill, the Mesmer now swaps locations with one of their clones, instead. The swap is still given a 50/50 chance to keep the enemy guessing as to the real Mesmer's location.

Both the Mesmer and all of their clones are now diquised as the Mesmer's target. After reconsidering my first iteration, I felt that simply disguising the Mesmer alone while their clones remained unchanged wasn't really accomplishing much. In that situation, there would have only been two versions of the enemy; the enemy itself and the Mesmer disguised as the enemy. Even with a potential location swap, it wouldn't take an opponent long to figure out which of the two is the real Mesmer; this would defeat the purpose of the skill as a means of sowing confusion among the Mesmer's foes. Disguising all of the clones as the targeted enemy accomplishes this goal much more effectively.

The clones' attack animation will use the animation associated with the slot #1 skill of the weapon the target was holding when Arcane Mimicry is activated. However, the damage will be whatever damage the clone would inflict using its non-disguised skill.

Unlike my first suggestion in which the Mesmer mimics the weapons skills of their target, I'm now dropping that mechanic. The Mesmer will simply continue to use their current weapon and utility skills. Doing so won't remove their disguise (though I make an exception below) but may still give the Mesmer away since the skill animations will be Mesmer-specific. It will be up to the Mesmer to decide whether or not it is worth the risk of exposing themselves by using one of their skills or refrain from doing so to maintain their deception.

If a clone receives sufficient damage to destroy it while disguised, it will shatter and inflict confusion on nearby enemies. Even if the clone(s) manage to survive for the full 20 second duration of Arcane Mimicry, all clones will be destroyed when the skill ends; this will also inflict confusion on nearby enemies. This introduces the possibility of causing confusion while the Mesmer and the clones are still disguised; which makes much more sense than waiting until the skill has ended. This could even be a manually activated chain skill.

Each press of the F2 key after the press which initiates this skill will shatter a disguised clone, causing confusion as per above. If the Mesmer manually destroys all of their clones in this manner and presses the F2 key again, this will manually end their disguise; even if the skill hasn't run its full 20 second duration. This mechanic grants the Mesmer some control over where and when to shatter a clone in exchange for inflicting confusion on their opponents. This contrasts with the simultaneous and instantaneous shatter as in the original "Cry of Frustration" version of this skill or waiting until the skill expires per my initial suggestion.

Pressing the F2 key will not trigger a Mesmer-specific skill animation centered on the Mesmer. It may create an animation or particle effect at the location of a shattered clone, but not at the Mesmer's location. This gives the Mesmer the opportunity to use this profession-specific skill without revealing themselves to their enemy as their weapon or utility skills might. This maintains the spirit of the skill and the Mesmer as a master of illusion, misdirection, and deception.

As in my first iteration, a Mesmer disguised as a PvE monster will be spared from drawing aggro from that monster and its allies; so long as they do not attack or use a skill (other than the F2 "Arcane Mimicry" shatter chain, if implemented). Whether this means "...use a skill on a specific monster, drawing only that one monster's aggro" or "...using a skill - any skill, for any reason - will reveal the Mesmer to all monsters in the vicinty" would have to be determined by testing. Probably the latter would be best; if the Mesmer uses a skill (other than F2), all monsters in the vicinity will know the Mesmer's true location despite the disguise. The Mesmer's clones, on the other hand, will attack PvE monsters even while disguised and will draw aggro despite their disguise. Of course, this is exactly what the Mesmer will want; the clones pulling aggro away from the Mesmer while dealing damage and inflicting confusion when destroyed or manually shattered.

If it's felt that these mechanics, taken as a whole, result in an overpowered skill, I suggest the following balance. The Mesmer will remain disguised as long as they do not activate any skills. Otherwise, using any skill will immediately end the Mesmer's disguise and shatter all remaining clones (if any). The one exception will be the F2 key; the Mesmer can press this key to manually shatter their clones without revealing themselves or losing the ability to cause confusion via a shattered clone.

An even further penalty - if it's felt one is needed - is this premature shattering of the remaining clones will not cause confusion to nearby enemies. Lastly, the Mesmer could be prevented from summoning any new clones or phantasms during this skill's duration or, alternately, doing so will end this skill prematurely as per the previous paragraph (since this would be considered a non-F2 skill activation).

F2 - Mind Storm (alt. "Mind Cloud", "Mind Wrack" which had been the orginal F1 skill name, or back to the original F2 skill name "Cry of Frustration")

• 45 second recharge

• Beguile your foes and swap locations with one of your clones chosen at random (50% chance). For the next 15 seconds whenever you or a clone take damage, you and all your clones beguile your foes, Blink to random locations, and cause confusion to nearby foes at each location. When this skill ends, all clones and phantasms are destroyed, confusing nearby foes.

• Range 900

This too should NOT be able to break stun.

Note: I feel this skill lacks the true confusion of the previous iteration. By that, I mean the confusion of "Arcane Mimicry (alt. Doppleganger)" comes from the fact that - in a PvP setting at least - the confusion is real; other players see multiple copies of their ally and don't know which is which. The in-game effect, Confusion, pales by comparison to this literal on-screen confusion. However, I understand some may take exception to a skill that mimics the appearance of other players and monsters or otherwise feel it is overpowered. This iteration of the skill is an attempt at a compromise.

With this version of the skill, the Mesmer and their clones are randomly teleporting all over the battlefield, causing foes to lose target lock and inflicting Confusion in the process. This amounts to a "now-you-see-it-now-you-don't" or "stand-still-!!!-I-can't-hit-you-when-you-keep-jumping-all-over-the-place" scenario. I felt this compromise holds to the spirit of what I'm trying to achieve in causing real confusion for foes who will be unable to maintain a target lock or locate the real Mesmer. At the same time, the skill isn't overpowered and attempts to maintain continuity with the original version of this skill in inflicting the Confusion effect and destroying the Mesmer's illusions.

Frankly, I find the Confusion effect very misleading and problematic. It isn't really confusion at all; it's GW1's Empathy and Backfire combined into one and turned into a stackable condition. Where's the confusion? Perhaps the confusion is the name of the effect and the effect it causes bear no relation to one another. Making a player take damage while they use skills is not a definition of confusion. All it does is force players to weigh the pros and cons of using skills at the expense of taking damage versus not using skills to be spared said damage.

However, that is NOT confusion; when someone is confused, they're unable to make clear choices. With the Confusion effect, players are clearly making a choice as a result of clear-headed cost:benefit analysis; which is just the opposite of real confusion. In some cases, this effect will have no effect whatsoever. For example, a Necromancer with 26,000 health and plenty of life stealing skills and traits is just going to laugh off Confusion. Coming up with mechanics which do create real confusion in players while still tying them to this misnamed effect is creating a serious discontinuity.

Some methods of creating real confusion using in-game mechanics would be the following:

• A player uses a healing skill and it removes their health, instead.

• A player uses a healing skill and it heals their enemy.

• They attempt to use a skill and it doesn't activate or has a delayed activation.

• A damage-dealing skill inflicts its damage on the player or the player's nearest ally rather than the targeted enemy.

• A damage-dealing skill heals the targeted enemy.

• A skill has an opposite effect than stated in its description. A teleport which will teleport the played backwards now teleports them forward, for example.

• Pressing the "1" key activates the skill in slot #5, pressing the "5" key activates the skill in slot #2, etc. And that's only on the first press of the key. Pressing the "1" key a second time will activate the skill in a slot other than #5. It will keep changing randomly with each key press.

• Swapping weapon sets causes a swap but then swaps back to the previous set after 1 second.

• Attempting to use a forward movement key moves the player left, instead. All of the other movement keys would also be scrambled. Like the skill activation keys, these, too, would scramble between key presses. For example, on the second press of the forward key, now the player moves backwards instead of left, etc.

Then, constantly randomize the effects. For example, the player attempts to use a teleport skill which is supposed to teleport them backwards. On the first activation, it teleports them forward. On the second activation, it teleports them sideways.

See the common thread here? The effect or outcome is the opposite or otherwise different than what was expected and keeps changing such that there's no discernible pattern other than to expect the unexpected. Instead of having logical cause-and-effect relationships between their actions and what happens in the game, a player under such an effect will have no way of knowing what will happen with their next key press. THAT's confusion; or, at the very least, frustration and uncertainty. Dealing damage to one's self is not. I fully agree, though, that such a mechanic would be rejected by the player base; precisely because it would be...wait for it...confusing (and frustrating)!

So if we can't create an in-game mechanic to cause confusion directly to a player, what options are we left with? I've attempted to accomplish this using methods that do not violate a player's skill and movement mechanics, but instead rely on confusing the players visually while building on Mcscamper's "Beguile" mechanic to scramble their targeting. I agree it's not perfect; but neither is the whole Confusion effect we're currently stuck with. The changes I've suggested to the Mesmer's profession-specific skills are my attempt at a reconciliation and compromise.

Thank you for reading.

Guild Wars 3 perhaps 18:44, 5 July 2012 (UTC)

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