Guild Wars 2

Hello! I’m a crazy masochist who thought it would be funny climbing to legend as a free to play mesmer! I know this is late to the party but for your amusement I put together this totally pro, esports, mlg, montage documenting my journey. Watch it and be amazed! :p

You can find the video here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-IACGTF3gw

API key tracking my conquests:
09F4E6C4-7279-6144-B89B-B023A154B15A5FDD565F-6D4C-47EC-9F8D-E55AB4F652BD

So what would lead someone to do something so insane? Well I’ll tell you. So I played season 2 like everyone else. I got to legend fairly easy, but I got bored. Condi chrono just doesn’t do it for me, so I decided to do it again, but as a shatter mesmer (which is like 50x more manly). Part of the way through I thought it would be fun to record my matches and edit them together, so I started recording when I was in sapphire.. (Although I wish I had started sooner because some of the stuff that happened in amber and emerald was hilarious).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8fl0nhy0YJawGNwtGLnG05Tiy1LHRzTAZAWwyB-TJBFABAcRAQa/hqKDc7TAAA
This is the build I used. It’s an old build I came up with pre-HoT when mantra mesmers were more popular. Watching the video though you will see that I swap things around depending on the enemy comp. I’m going to avoid explaining the build in detail for sake of keeping this post short. (Unless someone specifically asks me)

Overall these are some of the things that I learned while climbing:
1) There is an obvious skill difference between divisions.
I didn’t notice it so much climbing on my main account because I was moving up at the same as other decent players. However the second time around the skill gap between divisions was painfully obvious to me. This include my teammates and the enemy. I spent most of my way from amber through ruby farming the enemy team at far. I ran into outnumber fights without consequences and was able to carry pretty reliably if it started going south. I am aware that making the divisions more representative of skill was one of Anet’s goals, so even though I do not feel this season was perfect I do feel they at least partially succeeded in this aspect.

2) Climbing late in the season is wayyyy easier.
This is because of the first observation. Since most the decent players were in legend at that point getting through the other divisions was easy peasy. I took me 201 ranked games to hit legend as apposed to 270 games on my main account. The climb would have been faster if my internet didn’t start going to crap making some days completely unplayable and resulting in multiple losing streaks (shout out to Time Warner Cable!)

3) HoT builds are overtuned
This bit has been talked about alot so I’m not going to expound upon it. I did find it pretty dumb that I had to go zerker amulet just to have similar impact on a fight that a pally Revenant has.

4) “MMR Hell”
I did get the impression that the people who were “stuck” in emerald and ruby deserved to be there, especially if they had been queuing for the whole season. I am aware of the simulated experiments stating that a small percentage of the playerbase could possibly be stuck due to queuing with certain mmr at certain time periods, but I highly doubt that every scrub complaining in map chat and on the forums is actually in MMR hell. I hope Anet doesn’t overreact to the outcry concerning this topic. Matchmaking isn’t perfect but I think I would be multiple steps backwards if Anet were to revert to the season 1 league system.

Anywho discuss! Debate! And feel free to give me feedback on the video!

But wait, Meta Chrono OP. Can’t be beat. To many f4’s, blocks, etc. I’ve read it ONE THOUSAND TIMES

XD

Oh, and the vid was exquisite. It was exactly the same concept I’d wanted to make myself, only I didn’t have the time or circumstance to do it. So thanks for fulfilling my dream XD

I’m glad you liked it! xD
Yea I would have liked to get it out before the end of the pvp season, but real life stuff tends to slow down the video editing process. Pesky job and commitments.

Lol most people who complain about mesmer don’t understand the class or mechanics.

I do feel condi chrono is really strong right now which is why it’s so boring to me. Leading up to HoT, mesmer was always fighting for a spot (only to get ganked by thieves) now with condi chrono I can just kill people without even trying.

Pretty boring if you ask me, but then again I’ve never liked playing condi so…
(remember PU condi? yea screw that crap)

Oh well at least it isn’t “Bunk-Mes” boring that crap made me wanna gouge my eyes out.

Can’t wait for the inevitable Fivedawgs post

the way you wrote that out was very funny but your video is to blurry to watch for me. Makes me sad since the writing and music seemed on point

I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack xD

I’m sure there were tougher nuts to crack but jeebus….

Also regarding your MMR hell rant there’s a popular belief here in the forum that making a new (F2P or otherwise) account, farming rank 20 in hotjoin and starting ranking puts you in better teams so it’s possible this is one of the reason you did 70 matches less. I highly doubt you alone carried every game. Looking at the scores there were blowouts for your team in ruby and in diamond.

10/10 entertaining vid though

This says more about mes than anything. Thieves can’t stealth one shot kill at range.

jessiestiles.9437:

This says more about mes than anything. Thieves can’t stealth one shot kill at range.

This is a joke, right? Please say it is.

Ravenmoon.5318:

I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack xD

I’m sure there were tougher nuts to crack but jeebus….

Also regarding your MMR hell rant there’s a popular belief here in the forum that making a new (F2P or otherwise) account, farming rank 20 in hotjoin and starting ranking puts you in better teams so it’s possible this is one of the reason you did 70 matches less. I highly doubt you alone carried every game. Looking at the scores there were blowouts for your team in ruby and in diamond.

10/10 entertaining vid though

“I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack” – Comment of the year on this forum.

Quadox.7834:

Ravenmoon.5318:

I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack xD

I’m sure there were tougher nuts to crack but jeebus….

Also regarding your MMR hell rant there’s a popular belief here in the forum that making a new (F2P or otherwise) account, farming rank 20 in hotjoin and starting ranking puts you in better teams so it’s possible this is one of the reason you did 70 matches less. I highly doubt you alone carried every game. Looking at the scores there were blowouts for your team in ruby and in diamond.

10/10 entertaining vid though

“I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack” – Comment of the year on this forum.

well i firmly believe that there are core specs that still work in current meta

Ravenmoon.5318:

Quadox.7834:

Ravenmoon.5318:

I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack xD

I’m sure there were tougher nuts to crack but jeebus….

Also regarding your MMR hell rant there’s a popular belief here in the forum that making a new (F2P or otherwise) account, farming rank 20 in hotjoin and starting ranking puts you in better teams so it’s possible this is one of the reason you did 70 matches less. I highly doubt you alone carried every game. Looking at the scores there were blowouts for your team in ruby and in diamond.

10/10 entertaining vid though

“I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack” – Comment of the year on this forum.

well i firmly believe that there are core specs that still work in current meta

Work, but are still far less powerful.

No joke. For a thief to down someone in 1 second they have to be in melee range and attacking from behind. I’m sure anyone on any class would be assisted in their journey to legendary with the ability to stealth kill anyone in 1 second.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Ravenmoon.5318:

Quadox.7834:

Ravenmoon.5318:

I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack xD

I’m sure there were tougher nuts to crack but jeebus….

Also regarding your MMR hell rant there’s a popular belief here in the forum that making a new (F2P or otherwise) account, farming rank 20 in hotjoin and starting ranking puts you in better teams so it’s possible this is one of the reason you did 70 matches less. I highly doubt you alone carried every game. Looking at the scores there were blowouts for your team in ruby and in diamond.

10/10 entertaining vid though

“I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack” – Comment of the year on this forum.

well i firmly believe that there are core specs that still work in current meta

Work, but are still far less powerful.

I didn’t say they were meta

Best video ever! :’D I laughed hysterically especially to those comments: “You have something shady going on…”

Nice one!

jessiestiles.9437:

No joke. For a thief to down someone in 1 second they have to be in melee range and attacking from behind. I’m sure anyone on any class would be assisted in their journey to legendary with the ability to stealth kill anyone in 1 second.

Power shatter also has to be in melee range to 100-0 people, except core power mesmer has longer cooldowns in between burst attempts, less mobility, fewer evades, and less access to stealth. OP’s build is an inferior version of thief in this meta; I doubt you’d be able to make it work if you were unable to take legendary as thief.

Just watch some of Sindrennerr’s streams to see a d/p thief achieve similar results, but also managing to decap and project his presence everywhere on the map. You could come up with a comparable montage of 1-shots from like an hour of his stream.

Build link is fudged

He saved us the trouble. There’s not one down like are describing. Having to position directly behind someone for backstab slows him down, doesn’t take off full health and leaves him vulnerable. All of which the OP doesn’t need to worry about. If you can’t have good map presence with portal there’s something wrong. Mesmer better at thief than a thief.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3um8kg

jessiestiles.9437:

He saved us the trouble. There’s not one down like are describing. Having to position directly behind someone for backstab slows him down, doesn’t take off full health and leaves him vulnerable. All of which the OP doesn’t need to worry about. If you can’t have good map presence with portal there’s something wrong. Mesmer better at thief than a thief.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3um8kg

OP showed a fun troll vid of him playing a troll (bad) build and wiping newby players late season.

That is footage of sind playing on his main and the MMR that comes with it.

But ok, you go ahead and use logical fallacies to believe whatever you want.

jessiestiles.9437:

He saved us the trouble. There’s not one down like are describing. Having to position directly behind someone for backstab slows him down, doesn’t take off full health and leaves him vulnerable. All of which the OP doesn’t need to worry about. If you can’t have good map presence with portal there’s something wrong. Mesmer better at thief than a thief.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3um8kg

You linked to a pre-HOT video of the celestial meta days — power shatter mesmers weren’t even considered viable then by ESL players (I think the only two ESL players who ran mesmer back then were Helseth and Frostball), while every team still had at least one thief.

Here’s his current gameplay: <http://twitch.tv/sindrenerr/>. He 1-shots the same classes that the OP’s build would one-shot, namely other squishies.

It’s pretty crazy that you think a core F2P power-mantra-shatter zerker-amulet YOLO build is what carried the OP to legend. The more plausible explanation is some combination of OP playing well, and his opponents being poor because it was late-season so almost all the good players had already made legend.

Ravenmoon.5318:

I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack xD

TBH, the enemy players he showed us were trash, and he knows his bursts.

Great video btw. I commented, liked and subbed.

Ravenmoon.5318:

I don’t get the complaint about HoT builds being overtuned, on the video you basically implode anyone with a mind wack xD

My main complaint is the lack of trade off. Sure my burst dmg is really high but I also explode if someone so much as sneezes on me. I’m also sacrificing Moa for stealth and sometimes portal for burst dmg. I feel like many HoT builds do not have this tradeoff. I.E. Revs having evades for dayz, stab on dodge, that stupid taunt trait, mobility, and some of the best teamfight dmg. Scrappers doing really good dmg despite being super tanky (they nerfed them recently so idk exactly how they stand now)

jessiestiles.9437:

This says more about mes than anything. Thieves can’t stealth one shot kill at range.

This makes me feel like you don’t understand how mesmer bursts work

Furajir.3815:

Build link is fudged

Sorry it seems like the GW2 build editor website is down. Hopefully it’ll be up later today.

For those curious tho I’m running:

GS+Sw/Torch (Sigil of impact and sigil of air in both)
Zerker amulet (swapped to maurader sometimes depending on enemy comp)
Scholar Runes
Trailines – Dom (1, 1, 2) Duel (1, 1, 1) Insp (2, 2, 1)

Mightybird.6034:

OP showed a fun troll vid of him playing a troll (bad) build and wiping newby players late season.

^ this. As I said in my original post the quality of players I fought late season was vastly inferior to the ones I fought climbing at the start of the season. Had I been fighting equally skilled opponents it would have been more difficult.

Sirendor.1394:

TBH, the enemy players he showed us were trash, and he knows his bursts.

Great video btw. I commented, liked and subbed.

Thank you! I appreciate the support

ResJudicator.7916:

jessiestiles.9437:

He saved us the trouble. There’s not one down like are describing. Having to position directly behind someone for backstab slows him down, doesn’t take off full health and leaves him vulnerable. All of which the OP doesn’t need to worry about. If you can’t have good map presence with portal there’s something wrong. Mesmer better at thief than a thief.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3um8kg

You linked to a pre-HOT video of the celestial meta days — power shatter mesmers weren’t even considered viable then by ESL players (I think the only two ESL players who ran mesmer back then were Helseth and Frostball), while every team still had at least one thief.

Here’s his current gameplay: <http://twitch.tv/sindrenerr/>;. He 1-shots the same classes that the OP’s build would one-shot, namely other squishies.

It’s pretty crazy that you think a core F2P power-mantra-shatter zerker-amulet YOLO build is what carried the OP to legend. The more plausible explanation is some combination of OP playing well, and his opponents being poor because it was late-season so almost all the good players had already made legend.

I didn’t watch 3 hours of it but I still didn’t see him one shotting people in 1 second. He even had difficulty 2v1. The reason I’m saying this because I played against thieves all last season, even core thieves who tried to do what the OP did going pure zerker. They simply can’t do it.

jessiestiles.9437:

I didn’t watch 3 hours of it but I still didn’t see him one shotting people in 1 second. He even had difficulty 2v1. The reason I’m saying this because I played against thieves all last season, even core thieves who tried to do what the OP did going pure zerker. They simply can’t do it.

Is a zerk mesmer’s burst better than thief? Yes. But keep in mind that they have better mobility, more access to stealth, and better cleave. I’m giving up moa for stealth and oftentimes giving up portal for burst dmg.

I have a couple burst combos that are gimmicky and can be fairly predictable. “Hey that mesmer was running at me and went stealth! Gee! I wonder what’s going to happen???”

Also please keep in mind that my burst patterns are a minimum of 4 skills chained to go off simultaneously. (usually it will be like 5 or 6 sometimes even 8 ) Do i feel a thief should be able to achieve the same results with a steal to backstab combo? No.

If they had to sacrifice the same number of CDs that I do then sure. (they do get pretty similar results though)

Also did you watch the whole thing? A thief totally stealth bursted me at the end of the video.

jessiestiles.9437:

ResJudicator.7916:

jessiestiles.9437:

He saved us the trouble. There’s not one down like are describing. Having to position directly behind someone for backstab slows him down, doesn’t take off full health and leaves him vulnerable. All of which the OP doesn’t need to worry about. If you can’t have good map presence with portal there’s something wrong. Mesmer better at thief than a thief.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3um8kg

You linked to a pre-HOT video of the celestial meta days — power shatter mesmers weren’t even considered viable then by ESL players (I think the only two ESL players who ran mesmer back then were Helseth and Frostball), while every team still had at least one thief.

Here’s his current gameplay: <http://twitch.tv/sindrenerr/>;. He 1-shots the same classes that the OP’s build would one-shot, namely other squishies.

It’s pretty crazy that you think a core F2P power-mantra-shatter zerker-amulet YOLO build is what carried the OP to legend. The more plausible explanation is some combination of OP playing well, and his opponents being poor because it was late-season so almost all the good players had already made legend.

I didn’t watch 3 hours of it but I still didn’t see him one shotting people in 1 second. He even had difficulty 2v1. The reason I’m saying this because I played against thieves all last season, even core thieves who tried to do what the OP did going pure zerker. They simply can’t do it.

Almost all of the OP’s 100-0 bursts were on enemy thieves. You’re claiming that you went through an entire season and never saw a thief 100-0 another thief? That seems highly unlikey to me. I’ve done it, had it done to me, and seen it done to others in numerous games.

The usual reason for a thief burst failing is because your opponent mitigated it somehow — either by dodging, or popping a defensive CD. But all the things that mess up a thief’s burst — invulns, dodges, evade skills, blocks, interrupts — would also neuter the mesmer’s burst. Blocks are a little iffy: the mesmer’s mirror blade goes through the block but the rest of the burst doesn’t (so you end up doing ~3k-4k damage), while thief’s basi venom interrupts the block which let’s the rest of your burst through, but it only works if your opponent blocks while basi is up.

If you think the power-shatter build carries the player, I’d strongly encourage you to try the build out. I’ll even get on my thief if you want to test out your burst attempts on a a live player.

The first person they took down is a druid in 1 second from stealth. Interrupt without leaving stealth and down before the interrupt is over. You can’t dodge something you can’t see coming. A thief couldn’t do that and even though they countered druids well it’s easy for a druid to kill a thief. Example with Sindrenner taking so long to 2v1 a druid. The OP downed a rev in 1 second then 30 seconds later spawn trapped them and down again in 1 second. Downed an ele in 1 second. Downed a mes in 1 second. I reiterate better than a thief.

As much as i despise mesmers this vid was actually hilarious. Thanks for posting

Still prefer season 1 pip system and prefer similar pips instead of MMR (aid in randomization as well)

As for the video, it must be either the timing I have played or the system literally put people in different group or I have terrible luck for me to keep seeing some common faces, worst part is i never see any familiar name in your video.

What combo/abilities are being used to blow people up in this video?

I’m more familiar with the “can’t be killed” chronos of last season.

Sirendor.1394:

TBH, the enemy players he showed us were trash, and he knows his bursts.

Great video btw. I commented, liked and subbed.

99% of the players up till diamond are trash.

I whent to legend on a F2P account playing zerker amulet wells necro. Super succesfull since most just dwindle around on top of wells + dont focus me despite that i am super squishy and have almost no outs.

SkyShroud.2865:

As for the video, it must be either the timing I have played or the system literally put people in different group or I have terrible luck for me to keep seeing some common faces, worst part is i never see any familiar name in your video.

What division were you in? And what time of day did you play?

I usually played late at night (central time)

Luvok.5697:

What combo/abilities are being used to blow people up in this video?

I’m more familiar with the “can’t be killed” chronos of last season.

Then you haven’t been around very long my friend xD
The tanky mesmer is a phenomena that came about with HoT

The standard shatter mesmer combo is [Mirror Blade] > [Mind Wrack] > [Mind Stab]. However I supplemented it was mantras so it was usually [Mirror Blade] > then mid cast [Mantra of Distraction]+[Mantra of Pain] > [Mind Wrack] > [Mind Stab]. Of course that’s just it broken down to it’s most basic form. There’s alot of other fun things you can mix into the combos to make it even crazier ;D

joshmossas.6542:

SkyShroud.2865:

As for the video, it must be either the timing I have played or the system literally put people in different group or I have terrible luck for me to keep seeing some common faces, worst part is i never see any familiar name in your video.

What division were you in? And what time of day did you play?

I usually played late at night (central time)

diamond, keep bouncing between 4 and 6 tiers
i play from late sea to late eu, sometimes to late NA
for the diamond, i usually play to prime NA since I found myself winning more during that time.

my blocklist in this season has a lot of new additional compare to previous
had a lot of ppl who the moment lose the mid fight, decided is a great idea to afk