Guild Wars 2

I have been gone for a very, very, veeeery long time. But I’m back now! Yay!

I haven’t gotten the expac yet, but I plan to get it soon. But for now, I need some information:

1. I ‘lost’ a few of the builds and traits I used to use, with the new setup. And I cannot for the life of me, recreate those builds. Are there any old build editor sites that still uses the 5 trait lines? If I can just get a look at the old system, I can recall the traits I used.

2. What’s the non-chronomancer meta build for mesmer, nowadays?
2a. Do people still use double ranged shatter mesmer in PvP?
2b. Is a soldier mesmer with speed runes still a good investment? It was basically my zerker build for WvW, but with soldier armor to be more tanky.

3. Can I do anything with that storage box full of ascended rings from fractals?

4. I heard that a lot of the new crafting recipes ‘breathed life’ into as lot of the unused crafting materials. Should I stop feeding my Mawdrey and shiny star, all my excess bloodstone dust and empereal fragments?

5. Aside from the bat and snowflake shoulder pieces, did I miss any skins in the past 6-8 months from when I left? Anything that was limited time and now unobtainable?

6. What about the lore? Did I miss anything major from Silverwaste and Dry Top? The last bit I played in was the giant plant boss divided up in three lanes, and the ley line stream. I completed the S2 living story. Aside from the expac, which I haven’t obtained yet, did I miss anything?

7. What happened to the soldier pendant in PvP? Is it gone, or am I mistaken and there was there never one to begin with?

8. Since I am an absolute newbie now, I know I will be flailing everywhere until I get the hang of things. So with that said, will I drag my team down in PvP being matched with people at my old skill level, or will I have the opportunity to start fresh in matchups, and not make such a fool of myself?

9. One of my favorite pastimes was void jumping. (Getting into places you weren’t supposed to be in) I checked one of my old favorite hangouts, to find it blocked off now. Q.Q Are there still void jumps out there, or has Anet swept through it all and locked them all up? >.<

Any info will be appreciated. Please and thanks!

1) There’s a good chance the traits you used to use have been reworked at least once. The functionality might still exist but probably not under the same name, or in the same place in the tree.

You’d be better off starting from the intended purpose or theme of the build and recreating it using the new system.

2) I don’t play PvP and my Mesmer is level 10 so I’ll leave this one for someone else.

3) You can salvage them and get materials used to make new legendaries. Or which can be sold on the TP.

4) That’s mainly referring to T5 wood & metal and other common crafting materials where supply exceeded demand. But there are some new recipes which need bloodstone dust and emperyal fragments. You can find a full list on the wiki. It’s pretty much impossible for me to say whether any of them are things you’d want to make, but you can probably find out quite quickly.

5) I don’t think so. Other than the two holidays everything released has been permanent content. You will need HoT to get most of the new in-game skins however. Oh and there’s been new black lion skins of course, I’m not sure if you count those.

6) The expansion carries on immediately from the end of Season 2. There is a lot of new lore, but you haven’t missed any of it.

7 & No idea, as I mentioned I don’t play PvP.

9) No they definitely haven’t got them all, and if you get HoT (and train the mastery) you’ll be able to glide in central Tyria, which opens up a lot of new options.

The thing is, I crafted a very, very, OP condi mesmer build. It’s so awful my friend whom I dueled to show it off to, nicknamed it the ‘disgusting mesmer’ build. And disgusting in that it was ridiculously easy and destructive. And to my dismay, I lost the file for the build’s setup.

With the new changes, I’m not sure if it’s even still viable or anything, but I’d at least like to remodify it again. I can’t seem to peg down the remaining aspects of the build.

i’ll start off with welcome back and go in the same order you asked in

1. remake your build. as it was mentioned they did a serious amount of reworking since release from that 5 tier system to the current system along with the new specializations, armor, and sigils, it’ll be easier to remake it or consult the Mesmer forums… sorry

2. there is one, but I don’t pvp with Mesmer much. again, look on forums since that should help out again.
2a. maybe, go looking, I know I hate pvp mesmers
2b. think people are changing that up since the intro of chronomancer trait.

3. go to the mists, and have a happy time salvaging them for mats and agony such a great update.

4. yeah, mostly for ascended crafting and legendary crafting. If your in a guild with a guild hall, than expect to be broke as kittens
5. Black lion crap for cheap.
6. xpac right after ls s2 so nothing missed
7. it’s gone. part of the balancing
8. relearn and have fun if your with a good bunch of people they will accept it. if not, you’ll hear about it.
9. must be, gliding has opened up some areas in central tyria but I’m not a void jumper so no idea. go explore and have fun?

1. We all lost some builds in the rework. I suggest poking around on metabattle.

2. Power/shatter is a thing, so is condi mesmer. Again, have a look at metabattle.
2b. I would say soldier mesmer with speed runes is NOT a good investment. First, you don’t really need speed runes anymore— the 1-finger signet has guaranteed speed now and chronomancer elite gives passive 25% mesmers always begged for. (I know you don’t have the expansion yet, but chronomancer is worth getting the upgrade, IMO.)

3. You can now salvage ascended rings. Buy the tools from the fractal vendor.

4. A lot of the excess craft mats are now in much higher demand, mostly thanks to the massive gold sinks that are guild halls. If you’re not in a guild, or not interested in doing guild halls, keep feeding your pets the stuff you can’t sell.

5. Nope, nothing else missed forever— and the bats/snowflake shoulders will probably return with their respective holidays.

6. Again, nothing missed forever. Once you get the expac, you can catch up on the new zones’ story.

7. Regarding the soldier pendant in PvP: http://dulfy.net/2016/01/15/gw2-upcoming-changes-to-pvp-runessigils-and-amulets/

8. Regarding PvP match-ups: There’s quite a bit of debate between whether HoT elite specs are “OP” or whether players just need to “L2P” and find new ways of defeating them. In essence, I think you’ll suffer a re-learning period. Having a look at the PvP forums may help you.

9. Void jumping is still alive and well. There are even new things to find now that we can glide everywhere. (You know… once you have the expac and at least step one of gliding mastery.)

Welcome back!