Decoy

Clone. Gain stealth and summon an illusion to attack your foe. Virtuoso: Stock a blade. — In-game description

Decoy

Profession

Mesmer (skill list)

Slot

Utility

Type

Clone

Training cost

4 Hero points

Game link

API

10201

“

20

40

 

Decoy

Clone. Gain stealth and summon an illusion to attack your foe.

Virtuoso: Stock a blade.

 Stealth (3s): Invisible to foes.

 Breaks Stun

 Range: 1,200

— In-game description

Mechanics

• Only creates a clone when targeting a foe within range. If no foe is targeted, using the skill will still apply the other effects.
• Although Decoy does not have a casting time, using this skill will cancel any other skill currently being used.
• As with all other mesmer skills that say they apply stealth, this skill does not actually provide Stealth. It provides Hide in Shadows, an effect with the same functionality as stealth. Hide in Shadows does not stack with stealth.

Related traits

Chaos

• Prismatic Understanding — Increased stealth duration from mesmer skills. Gain random boons while you are in stealth.

Inspiration

• Illusionary Inspiration — Increase healing to other allies. Summoning an illusion heals all allies around you. Virtuoso: Triggers when stocking a blade.

Illusions

• Compounding Power — Creating an illusion increases your outgoing damage and condition damage for a short duration. Virtuoso: Triggers when stocking a blade.

Chronomancer

• Time Catches Up — Activating a Shatter gives your illusions superspeed. Shatters deal increased damage to movement-impaired foes.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
June 25, 2024	Reduced the cooldown from 40 seconds to 20 seconds in PvE only.
February 14, 2023	Reduced cooldown from 45 seconds to 40 seconds in PvP and WvW.
November 30, 2021	Will now stock a blade if used out of combat. Previously this skill only stocked a blade if a target was in range.
February 25, 2020	Competitive content update: (Competitive split) Increased cooldown from 40 seconds to 45 seconds.
September 09, 2014	Fixed a bug that allowed this skill to stealth the player when they were revealed.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Decoy has been added to the game.

Trivia

• Prior to the September 9th Feature Patch of 2014, this skill used to apply a distinct Decoy effect that was different from normal stealth in the following ways:
  • The Decoy effect could be achieved while revealed.
  • Decoy did not stack in duration with other stealth effects.