Distortion

This article is about the Mesmer skill. For the effect, see Distortion (effect).

Shatter. Gain distortion and destroy all your clones, gaining additional distortion for each one shattered. — In-game description

Distortion

50  

Profession

Mesmer (skill list)

Slot

Profession mechanic

Type

Shatter

Game link

API

API

“

Shatter. Gain distortion and destroy all your clones, gaining additional distortion for each one shattered.

  Distortion (1s): Immune to conditions and damage.

  Number of Targets: 1

  Radius: 240

  Prevents Capture-Point Contribution

  Range: 1,200

— In-game description

Related skills

•   Signet of Illusions — Signet Passive: Creates a clone every few seconds. Signet Active: Recharges shatter skills.

Related traits

Domination

• Rending Shatter — Shatter skills inflict vulnerability on hit.
• Shattered Concentration — Shatter skills also remove a boon on hit.

Chaos

• Auspicious Anguish — Convert damaging conditions to boons whenever you gain Distortion or become disabled. Disables include stun, daze, knockback, pull, knockdown, sink, float, launch, taunt, and fear.
• Bountiful Disillusionment — Gain stability when you use a Shatter skill. Gain an additional boon based on which Shatter is used.

Inspiration

• Inspiring Distortion — Grant aegis to other nearby allies whenever you give yourself distortion or use Shatter skill 4.
• Restorative Illusions — Heal yourself and lose conditions when you use a Shatter skill.

Illusions

• Maim the Disillusioned — Shatter skills inflict torment on hit.
• Master of Misdirection — Shatter skills gain recharge reduction.
• Master of Fragmentation — Your Shatter skills are improved.

Chronomancer

• Time Catches Up — Activating a Shatter gives your illusions superspeed. Shatters deal increased damage to movement-impaired foes.
• Flow of Time — Gain alacrity for each clone you shatter.
• Illusionary Reversion — Shatter skills generate a clone if you have enough clones present.
• Seize the Moment — You and nearby allies gain quickness for each clone you shatter. Tides of Time now also applies quickness in an area when cast.

Mirage

• Riddle of Sand — When entering combat, your first Ambush attack applies confusion. This ability refreshes when you use a Shatter skill.
• Nomad's Endurance — Shatter skills give vigor, and vigor grants condition damage.
• Desert Distortion — Illusions shattered by Distortion become Mirage Mirrors. Ambush skills become available for a short time whenever you grant distortion to yourself.

Notes

Anomaly:

Although the description says "Immune to conditions and damage" it actually makes the player invulnerable, also making them immune to Control effects

• This skill is locked until level 19.
• Unlike Blur, the Distortion effect actually grants Invulnerability.
• Although Distortion doesn't affect foes on its own, on-shatter effects like Maim the Disillusioned will affect foes near caster and destroyed illusions.
• Appears in the fourth profession mechanic slot for mesmer and its chronomancer and mirage elite specializations. Virtuoso uses Bladesong Distortion instead.

Version history

For a detailed skill history, see here.

Patch	Changes
March 27, 2018	Updated the tooltip description of this effect to better reflect its functionality.
February 06, 2018	Shatter skills now only shatter clones. Descriptions have been updated to reflect their new functionality.
September 29, 2015	Updated the description of these skills to include the effects added when Illusionary Persona functionality was made baseline.
June 23, 2015	Specialization update: Using any shatter skill now creates the shatter effect on you as well by default. Reduced the recharge to 50 seconds. When affected by traits such as Maim the Disillusioned and Illusionary Retribution, this skill now strikes 1 target.
May 21, 2014	Fixed a bug that caused this buff to grant evasion instead of invulnerability. Updated the description of this buff to indicate invulnerability.
April 30, 2013	This skill no longer allows capture of control points in all formats or communing in PvP.
January 03, 2013	Shatter skills now share a global 0.25 second recharge, to prevent multiple shatter effects triggering on the same illusion.
August 28, 2012	Game release: Distortion has been added to the game.

Trivia

• A Guild Wars skill bears the same name as this skill.

See also

•   Bladesong Distortion — Virtuoso's Bladesong skill in this slot