Guild Wars 2

I would just like to preface this by saying ive been playing Mesmer since day 1, and through all the nerfs (like every patch) ive been resilient and found different builds that worked for me. My latest build utilized sword/torch scepter/pistol (traited for combo finisher x8 super awesome) with prismatic and all the stealth skills for solo/small team fighting. 0/30/30/0/10. After the patch 3 significant things occured for my build that has me questioning what to do next. I’m trying to stay positive and look for alternatives. The 3 major changes that burned me were the:

1- scepter block skill. I utilized this block for great burst on thieves or Rtl Ele or hell just about anything. With my set up it would crit 3.5k-6k direct burst from melee range, putting pressure immediately on thieves etc. Now im lucky for a 2k crit and some (relatively) low dmg condition that usually gets cleansed by anyone compitent.

2- 5 trait in illusion switched to 25. Cooldowns suddenly on decoy 32->40. Doesnt seem like alot but when you fight 1v3 or 2v5 those 8 seconds matter alot.

3- Blurred frenzy timer upped a few seconds but WORST of all is the change to evade. I’ve hit myself now for nearly 9k on a few occassions from retaliation. My typical combat scenario is to get enemies grouped up (gaurd skill pulls) another guard traps with hammer 5, and then i blink in, prestige, blurred frenzy, prestige fires blast finisher. Before, i would be invuln but now it seems everyone and their best friend has ret up and it really, really sucks. Not to mention the 500 new necros with “unblockable” marks, that i can suddenly be feared now.

I dont mean to complain but i love my build, but for my group its a pain and im trying to find something that fits that i also enjoy to play.

TLDR: Retaliation now really sucks bc of MH sword change. Looking for alternative builds to fit my group or solo roam.

Too much drama?

I play an engineer too and whenever I got kittened because of retaliation, I’d always go on my mesmer. Now that isn’t really possible anymore. BF hits 8 times and I hit myself with 4k on one just one target… Imagine 3 together and I almost instantly down myself. Retal needs to get nerfed a bit, less ticks.

Whats funny is Mesmer retal was nerfed hard this patch with the nerf to vengeful images.

Sorry but we all have to deal with the bs that is retaliation.

I would argue that if you do 1v3 or 2v5, any outcome where you don’t escape by running as soon as they’re in viewing distance or where you end up dead on the ground is unbalanced and needs patching (looking at you, thieves!).

Well, when i run Pyro’s build i destroy things with retaliation when people don’t notice, its only fair, and to be honest i like the added thought process of ‘’do i use BF now, or wait just a tad….there!’’
, alternatly you can stop BF if you don’t notice retaliation at the moment you use the attack you dont have to channel the 8 attacks and effectively hurt yourself more than needed.

its more fun this way but dont get me wrong i loved the previous version and would love to have it back however i understand the change.

if you play in groups join the gs bandwagon.
no need to go into close and personal with mh sword if you could just hammer your aoe skills from 1200 range doing similar or more damage.
everyone should enjoy the gs pewpew until it gets nerfed.. ehm broken again!

I’m bummed out Sword MH nerf.

Auto chain dmg nerfed – and seems to scale in the complete opposite way of what patch notes declared.
BF….yeah.
iLeap ha been inderectly nerfed through the IC movement, but aside that, it feels much less responsive than usual.

And it hurts, considering tha scepter (still) sucks compared to sword.

Making a drama? No, just disappointed… and dropped out Zap to swap on another legendary.

GS is great don’t get me wrong but have you never witnessed or enjoyed hitting those huge shatter + BF combo’s then blinking out?

i guess enjoy is the key word there, i still play that way myself as its the most fun (normally have a GS equipped too mind in a zerg) what i have found though is if i make sure i have retaliation before trying a BF + Shatter in a zerg i don’t take much damage, now either i have been lucky and just hit at opportune times or retaliation hitting retaliation cancels out the effect, never tested, pure speculation and i am sure i am mostly luck but now i will have to check.

sure blurred shatter was/is fun but things change :>
imo bf is still very very potent and the patch got the mh sword more in line with other weapons.
I run gs – sword/torch and it is still (or even more) a blast. you can still bf shatter like before, it is a little bit more dangerous for the mesmer but imo thats good.

BF is still a really strong skill. Just learn how to deal with Retaliation (like every other profession and a lot of Mesmer players) and you are ready to win again.

It’s really not that big of a deal.

Blackhat.4016:

BF is still a really strong skill. Just learn how to deal with Retaliation (like every other profession and a lot of Mesmer players) and you are ready to win again.

It’s really not that big of a deal.

This. I can’t really figure out why everyone is so depressed about Blurred Frenzy. Instead of having complete invulnerability, now it’s just near complete invulnerability. Really, retaliation? Just means you have to pay more attention now. Necros using Fear? Again, just have to pay more attention.

Basically, it seems like Blurred Frenzy is still really powerful but you can’t just mindless pop it in every situation and expect things to insta-die.

joshisanonymous.5270:

you can’t just mindless pop it in every situation and expect things to insta-die.

sure I can; when I pop my iBerserker :P

joshisanonymous.5270:

Blackhat.4016:

BF is still a really strong skill. Just learn how to deal with Retaliation (like every other profession and a lot of Mesmer players) and you are ready to win again.

It’s really not that big of a deal.

This. I can’t really figure out why everyone is so depressed about Blurred Frenzy. Instead of having complete invulnerability, now it’s just near complete invulnerability. Really, retaliation? Just means you have to pay more attention now. Necros using Fear? Again, just have to pay more attention.

Basically, it seems like Blurred Frenzy is still really powerful but you can’t just mindless pop it in every situation and expect things to insta-die.

It’s not about being mindless, any good guardian or class for that matter that has AoE ret will turn it on while you are doing it.

As much as I loved the old version of Blurred Frenzy, the evasion nerf was justified. It’s not fair to be invulnerable while attacking, even for a few seconds. The archers in Caduceus Manor explorable do it and it’s ridiculously annoying to be on the other side of that situation. As for getting hit with retaliation, I have the same feelings as I do with confusion. If you’re not paying attention to boons and conditions, you deserve to die from them. That’s why I feel both should be boosted back to their previous damage levels.

On the other hand, increasing the cooldown on Blurred Frenzy was heavy-handed and unnecessary. It would have been better to see how the evasion change worked and then see if the meta required additional tinkering.