Mesmer teleport...
Gameplay programmer Joel Helmich recently wrote a really interesting forum post about path validation that might go some way to explaining why your teleports aren’t working how you might expect.
Basically, if you can’t walk there, most teleport/shadowstep abilities won’t be able to get you there. There’s no lore reasoning to it–It’s just part of the solution they came up with to enable path calculations at the speed needed for gameplay.
I can’t say whether thief abilities are more flexible or not, since I rarely use my thief, but, generally, I don’t think abilities are going to help you short-circuit jumping puzzles. They can be good for closing in on enemies, or putting distance between yourself and enemies, but not for jumping puzzles. (So, that’s why they bothered including teleports, for reasons other than jumping puzzles.)
It’s not (just) about jumping puzzles. Thieves (at least from what I recall from before, and maybe it’s still valid) were able to blink in certain PVP maps from the ground to the roof of a building, or basically shadowstep from lower ground to higher ground, which I believe shouldn’t be possible, especially with greatly elevated areas, whereas a Mesmer cannot do what Thieves can with their shortbow e.g. YouTube contains numerous proofs to the claims.
By definition, a teleport should do exactly the opposite of the mentioned – it should be able to take you where you cannot walk. That’s common sense.
You are not supposed to pass through a wall in WvW. There is why there are path finding in teleport.
Anywhere a theif can teleport with their shortbow, you can also teleport to with any other blink like ability. You just have to know where those spots are and it depends on where your standing
With such a logic teleporting from the beginning of the dungeon to the boss should be possible too.
If that thief used steal, the victim should lose something right?
Yet they carry an endless supply of that something somehow..
You shouldn’t apply logic too much, instead use design logic. Most things in the game can be explained that way.
Anywhere a theif can teleport with their shortbow, you can also teleport to with any other blink like ability. You just have to know where those spots are and it depends on where your standing
Doesn’t apply to every case. Additionally, the amount of blinks a thief has compared to a Mesmer is absurd. Who’s the (real) mage in this case?
At some point game designers started to implement teleportation, aka. shadowstepping for assassin professions and they became the new hit, the new mages, while a more acceptable approach would be just to give them access in various ways to stealth and just greatly improve their agility – which brings it also closer to reality.
Anyway, my point was, that path finding (AI navigation) shouldn’t be what Mesmer’s teleport is based on simply because it breaks it = unless there is a valid walking path to your destination you cannot teleport, which is absurd, because a teleport – even in most films – allows you to shift at least where you can see (in most cases even where you cannot, good examples are Xmen, Star Trek, you name it), so if you’re standing on the edge of a cliff and you can see another one within a reasonable distance you should be able to move there.
(edited by Inoki.6048)
Anyway, my point was, that path finding (AI navigation) shouldn’t be what Mesmer’s teleport is based on simply because it breaks it = unless there is a valid walking path to your destination you cannot teleport, which is absurd, because a teleport – even in most films – allows you to shift at least where you can see (in most cases even where you cannot, good examples are Xmen, Star Trek, you name it), so if you’re standing on the edge of a cliff and you can see another one within a reasonable distance you should be able to move there.
Ah but this isn’t a movie lol. The vampires aren’t hot and don’t sparkle, the heroes don’t always have happy endings, and there isn’t always going to be some convenient thing waiting on you lol. GW2 is a game and plays by the mechanics of one and personally, having played Mesmer since launch, the only problem I have at all with mesmers blink is the no valid path issue when the terrain isn’t even or I’m on a bridge in wvw, otherwise no complaints. And saying its unfair that thief has more than us is kinda crazy by the way considering first of all to get that ability they basically slot a weapon just for mobility and secondly think of all the things Mesmer has that thief doesn’t, can’t have the best of everything lol.