Guild Wars 2

In GW1, Mesmers could actually prevent other professions (and other mesmers) from using signets. I am wondering if it would help with dealing with Warriors and other professions who rely heavily on signets.

In GW1, I actually had a build I used every once in awhile that was a total signet build, it was pretty odd but fun to play.

That’s a unique idea. I’d love to see some sort of implementation of it.

In thinking more about it, it would have to be an area of effect type of skill (like Null Field). In fact, it could be added to Null Field, like ‘No benefit from Passive Signets equipped’.

It would be a straight out buff, I doubt it will happen. Even though the uses would be quite limited.

Maybe add it to a mantra, Blocks Signet passive and active abilities for X seconds.

I think that a skill of this type would be useful for the Signet of Rage, Healing Signet, Dolyak Signet warriors, for example.

Mesmers aren’t allowed unique things anymore :p

Your options are either a trait, a utility, a condition, or possibly a weapon skill.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Mesmers aren’t allowed unique things anymore :p

Your options are either a trait, a utility, a condition, or possibly a weapon skill.

I disagree totally. I think the new traits they are putting in the game is meant to make things less like you point out.

I like your idea and I think implementing that can bring out a different build. Confusion/torment and interrupts is like punishing people when they act. It would be fun to punish people when they don’t act, like domination minor grandmaster (Wastrel’s Punishment), but in a different sense than just raw damage.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

I like your idea and I think implementing that can bring out a different build. Confusion/torment and interrupts is like punishing people when they act. It would be fun to punish people when they don’t act, like domination minor grandmaster (Wastrel’s Punishment), but in a different sense than just raw damage.

That was Wastrel’s Worry in GW1 – taking damage if you don’t use a skill.

Mesmer’s were all about control in GW1 – control of energy, skills, movement and attack. I would like that in GW2 also. I think it could really change the meta game and make it more interesting.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Mesmer’s were all about control in GW1 – control of energy, skills, movement and attack. I would like that in GW2 also. I think it could really change the meta game and make it more interesting.

yeah i would love to move away form the ai part of the mesmer and be more like a gw1 mesmer was. we are a light armor class for a reason. if we were meant to be a pet dueling 1v1 weaker version of thief then we should have been a medium armor class!
if anet would bring back some more aoe and control abilities from gw1, then mes could be viable in wvw and tpvp again.
right now i feel like we are lacking a role. giving us more what gw1 mesmer had and more aoe options that are non ai based, we would have a clear role again.

Skills such as that worked in GW1 because the skill equipping system was different. People had 8 slots to potentially place a Signet and often one of them was the resurrection one that everyone had access to.

In GW2 the slot economy for that is a lot smaller and the potential for having a skill which you could go several fights without it being useful is high.

Also, you can just lock an enemy’s signets away for 10s with Moa

Dastion.3106:

Skills such as that worked in GW1 because the skill equipping system was different. People had 8 slots to potentially place a Signet and often one of them was the resurrection one that everyone had access to.

In GW2 the slot economy for that is a lot smaller and the potential for having a skill which you could go several fights without it being useful is high.

Also, you can just lock an enemy’s signets away for 10s with Moa

There are skills that do AoE affects – look at Well of Suffering as an example. It could be added to Null Field – which removes boons and could add nullify passive signets.

There are many builds on Warriors, Rangers, Guardians, and Necromancers that use signets. That would make the Mesmer more of a control profession.

“Interrupting an enemy gives all enemy signets a 10 sec cd”? or what? :o

GW1 Mesmers were such a unique class, and I really enjoyed playing it. If I could play WvW for just one day as a GW1 style Mes, that would be glorious! Vaporise an entire zerg in ten seconds, solo!
Whilst it sounds totally OP, it would force a much more open style of play, with no blobbing or AoE bombs. Everything in the game would require much more strategy. Bring back the punishers!

Biggusbiggus.5789:

GW1 Mesmers were such a unique class, and I really enjoyed playing it. If I could play WvW for just one day as a GW1 style Mes, that would be glorious! Vaporise an entire zerg in ten seconds, solo!
Whilst it sounds totally OP, it would force a much more open style of play, with no blobbing or AoE bombs. Everything in the game would require much more strategy. Bring back the punishers!

Then you didn’t play a GW1 Mesmer. GW1 Mesmers were about control – energy control (Energy Burn), control foes skills (Diversion), make foes not use skills (like with Backfire and Blackout), speed control, preventing melee (Clumsiness, Signet of Midnight), etc. They could put out damage but a good Mesmer was in the background, if you did your job well, everything dies that much quicker.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Biggusbiggus.5789:

GW1 Mesmers were such a unique class, and I really enjoyed playing it. If I could play WvW for just one day as a GW1 style Mes, that would be glorious! Vaporise an entire zerg in ten seconds, solo!
Whilst it sounds totally OP, it would force a much more open style of play, with no blobbing or AoE bombs. Everything in the game would require much more strategy. Bring back the punishers!

Then you didn’t play a GW1 Mesmer. GW1 Mesmers were about control – energy control (Energy Burn), control foes skills (Diversion), make foes not use skills (like with Backfire and Blackout), speed control, preventing melee (Clumsiness, Signet of Midnight), etc. They could put out damage but a good Mesmer was in the background, if you did your job well, everything dies that much quicker.

Personally, my favorite Mesmer build was to burn away all of their energy and then use Aneurysm on them. It filled their energy bar but inflicted damage based on how much they recovered. Cover your hexes with Backfire and watch people pop.

Dastion.3106:

Personally, my favorite Mesmer build was to burn away all of their energy and then use Aneurysm on them. It filled their energy bar but inflicted damage based on how much they recovered. Cover your hexes with Backfire and watch people pop.

GW1 Mesmer was all about the lose/lose situation. Create a situation where there is no good choice for the enemy, just one that might not make them kill themselves.

I miss the elite Psychic Instability – it was quite fun in AB.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Then you didn’t play a GW1 Mesmer. GW1 Mesmers were about control – energy control (Energy Burn), control foes skills (Diversion), make foes not use skills (like with Backfire and Blackout), speed control, preventing melee (Clumsiness, Signet of Midnight), etc. They could put out damage but a good Mesmer was in the background, if you did your job well, everything dies that much quicker.

Have you tryed GW1 Mesmer in PvE? You were able to take whole groups below 50% health with just some spells. Making them all unable to cast.

I miss the elite Psychic Instability – it was quite fun in AB.

With exactly that one you were able to get them a 8s (arcane echo blabla) knock down. While they were knocked you just tab-casted Wastrel’s Worry/Wastrel’s Demise out of them

Me Games Ma.8426:

Dusty Moon.4382:

Then you didn’t play a GW1 Mesmer. GW1 Mesmers were about control – energy control (Energy Burn), control foes skills (Diversion), make foes not use skills (like with Backfire and Blackout), speed control, preventing melee (Clumsiness, Signet of Midnight), etc. They could put out damage but a good Mesmer was in the background, if you did your job well, everything dies that much quicker.

Have you tryed GW1 Mesmer in PvE? You were able to take whole groups below 50% health with just some spells. Making them all unable to cast.

I miss the elite Psychic Instability – it was quite fun in AB.

With exactly that one you were able to get them a 8s (arcane echo blabla) knock down. While they were knocked you just tab-casted Wastrel’s Worry/Wastrel’s Demise out of them

Never used WW or WD. I was a ‘more traditional’ Mesmer. I was the Mesmer that instigated the ‘all Mesmer runs’ when Sorrow’s Furnace was introduced into GW1 and mesmers were the ‘odd profession’ out.

These were the most powerful skills we had. In combination with mistrust we were able to deal more dmg as elementalists (well because we ignored armor)

I certainly miss my Mesmer in GW1, not the damage aspect though, but the knowledge that you put extreme pressure on your foe (Mentally, not game-wise mechanically)

Monk: Do I use Word of Healing on the warrior near death or eat a Diversion/Backfire/Interrupt?

Mesmers (in PvP, at least) definitely ran in the background. A normal player would be unable to tell whether the Mesmer party member was doing their job right because the way they offer support is through punishing the other team. (I’m talking mostly about GvG and some HA)

Fort Aspenwood, JQ and Alliance Battle/PvE Mesmers were a different story.

But on topic!

I agree they should implement some more types of punishment. Ignorance was a GW1 Mesmer skill that automatically disabled all signets for (x) seconds. Would be nice, probably not worth an Elite slot and would mostly be used for dueling.

LumAnth.5124:

I certainly miss my Mesmer in GW1, not the damage aspect though, but the knowledge that you put extreme pressure on your foe (Mentally, not game-wise mechanically)

Monk: Do I use Word of Healing on the warrior near death or eat a Diversion/Backfire/Interrupt?

Mesmers (in PvP, at least) definitely ran in the background. A normal player would be unable to tell whether the Mesmer party member was doing their job right because the way they offer support is through punishing the other team. (I’m talking mostly about GvG and some HA)

Fort Aspenwood, JQ and Alliance Battle/PvE Mesmers were a different story.

But on topic!

I agree they should implement some more types of punishment. Ignorance was a GW1 Mesmer skill that automatically disabled all signets for (x) seconds. Would be nice, probably not worth an Elite slot and would mostly be used for dueling.

In WvW, there are so many warriors running signets as well as necromancers that it would be a worthwhile skill to have.

Yes I agree (signet of spite, healing signet and signet of Rage being the three most prominent)

But I would suspect this skill would need a high cool down. Unless you suggest that the skill would act like a Null Field. I wouldn’t mind a kitten cd on a Null Field type Ignorance

Edit :To elaborate, I initially thought you suggested an almost Carbon copy of the gw1 ignorance. Single target only.

Dusty Moon.4382:

Then you didn’t play a GW1 Mesmer. GW1 Mesmers were about control – energy control (Energy Burn), control foes skills (Diversion), make foes not use skills (like with Backfire and Blackout), speed control, preventing melee (Clumsiness, Signet of Midnight), etc. They could put out damage but a good Mesmer was in the background, if you did your job well, everything dies that much quicker.

Yes, that sounds a lot like a PvE Mesmer.
I enjoyed interrupting the most, and shutting people down, but just like Monks getting tired of healing all the time, sometimes you’ve just got to destroy something.
Did some PvP, but a lot of JQ, for more of a mixed bag, rather than ‘meta’ builds left, right and centre. Took plenty of 1v1 challenges, too. Another thing I loved about playing Mesmer was the versatility, and not having to be told what a Mesmer was supposed to be by some random figjam on a forum.
Cheers.

There are plenty of skills which are generally rubbish in PvE, but wouldn’t this be the first example of a skill with no possible PvE application? I can’t see Anet introducing something like that, unless the signet-disable was a secondary effect and the skill did something else too.

Nikku.3562:

There are plenty of skills which are generally rubbish in PvE, but wouldn’t this be the first example of a skill with no possible PvE application? I can’t see Anet introducing something like that, unless the signet-disable was a secondary effect and the skill did something else too.

They already have PvP/PvE differences with skills in GW2. It could be added for a PvP effect without interfering with the PvE utility.

While there may be differences in PvE and PvP skills, and some lend themselves better to one over the other, there is currently no skill that has absolutely no use in one or the other.

One thing you have to realize is that Signets in GW1 are completely different from those in GW2. In GW1 every class (except Elementalists) had their own Signets. However, non class specific signets (signet of resurrection) and multi-classing meant that every player had Signet options. Furthermore, NPCs all used (mostly) the same skills as players – so they too had Signets at times. Signets were even the basis for the original GW1 skill system, which involved equipping rings (4 on each hand = 8 slots). But they eventually evolved into a special skill type that had no resource cost other than a longer than normal CD – making them ideal for mixing into most builds to lower costs. So locking a player out of his Signets was a good way to not only deny access to those skills, but to force him to use skills that cost him energy (or fury).

Signets in GW2 are nothing like those in GW1, they are merely a nod to the old game but realistically just another special skill type like Shouts, Gadgets, Conjurations, etc. Hell, the Guardian special mechanic is basically 3 free ‘signet’ skills. The unique cost saving role of Signets no longer exists since CDs are now the primary limiting resource for most skills.

However, like those other special skill types it’s mainly just a way for defining skills by what they generally do and for trait purposes. Signets aren’t prevalent enough to merit a direct counter skill and such a skill would have too narrow a focus, being limited to only useful in PvP portions of the game and against a subset of a subset of the player base.

However, that isn’t to say they won’t eventually add PvP Only skills or traits – in fact I would say it is likely. If that ever happens then perhaps such a skill might occur. But, in the mean time, there is really nothing unique enough about Signets to merit a direct counter – especially when skills already exist to counter them. Poison for Signet of Healing for example, or even just Moa Form for a 10s Signet (and all heals, utility, elite) lockout.

I’d quite like to see an interrupt trait that deactivates signets for a set time (get rid of that useless healing power interrupt and add this instead). Or perhaps a glamour trait that does the same thing for the duration that an enemy is within the radius of the glamour.

Dastion.3106:

While there may be differences in PvE and PvP skills, and some lend themselves better to one over the other, there is currently no skill that has absolutely no use in one or the other.

One thing you have to realize is that Signets in GW1 are completely different from those in GW2. In GW1 every class (except Elementalists) had their own Signets. However, non class specific signets (signet of resurrection) and multi-classing meant that every player had Signet options. Furthermore, NPCs all used (mostly) the same skills as players – so they too had Signets at times. Signets were even the basis for the original GW1 skill system, which involved equipping rings (4 on each hand = 8 slots). But they eventually evolved into a special skill type that had no resource cost other than a longer than normal CD – making them ideal for mixing into most builds to lower costs. So locking a player out of his Signets was a good way to not only deny access to those skills, but to force him to use skills that cost him energy (or fury).

Signets in GW2 are nothing like those in GW1, they are merely a nod to the old game but realistically just another special skill type like Shouts, Gadgets, Conjurations, etc. Hell, the Guardian special mechanic is basically 3 free ‘signet’ skills. The unique cost saving role of Signets no longer exists since CDs are now the primary limiting resource for most skills.

However, like those other special skill types it’s mainly just a way for defining skills by what they generally do and for trait purposes. Signets aren’t prevalent enough to merit a direct counter skill and such a skill would have too narrow a focus, being limited to only useful in PvP portions of the game and against a subset of a subset of the player base.

However, that isn’t to say they won’t eventually add PvP Only skills or traits – in fact I would say it is likely. If that ever happens then perhaps such a skill might occur. But, in the mean time, there is really nothing unique enough about Signets to merit a direct counter – especially when skills already exist to counter them. Poison for Signet of Healing for example, or even just Moa Form for a 10s Signet (and all heals, utility, elite) lockout.

I know all about GW1 – I used to run an all signet Mesmer build.