Guild Wars 2

Hi, I use a PU and clone death build in spvp (yeah yeah it’s kind of cheesey but I have fun with it while still being able to do stuff). It focuses mostly on stealth and clone spam to wear people down with condition damage. I can’t find anything in the new traits or patch previews about the crippling/debilitating dissipation traits, so I’m fearing the worst for them. Anyone know one way or another if this playstyle will still work after the patch?

They are gone!
Gone gone. Gone!

I think ANet said they hoped to encourage people to use the profession mechanic rather than supporting powerful builds that ignore it.

It’s a little bit of a shame; I liked the concept behind punishing enemies for guessing wrong. But I think the whole “stealth around and let your clones do all the damage while you hide in relative safety” felt a bit… cheaty… to some folks.

Condition damage is still very strong and stealth builds are still quite powerful. You just may have to take a more active role in combat and get your big damage from purposeful shatters instead of passive clone deaths.

Kelthien.8593:

Condition damage is still very strong

Maybe on other classes. If they go through with the changes they announced on the stream, then condition mesmer in PvP will once again be relegated only to dreams.

yeah in spvp, the only class that will really be viable for pvp as a pure condi spec would be engi. five guage got 8k burn ticks on his stream today, with the rabid pistol/pistol build. Still cele engi outclasses it but still. Condition necro would see a comeback if it didn’t have to worry about plague killing itself with bleed and poison damage with master of corruption, and their new lack of a viable heal skill.

Meanwhile condi mesmer will be a lot better than before, but the meta honestly only favors sustain tanks that are generally celestial, or zerker dps, and I don’t think the changes will rreally disrupt that status quo.

Fay.2357:

Kelthien.8593:

Condition damage is still very strong

Maybe on other classes. If they go through with the changes they announced on the stream, then condition mesmer in PvP will once again be relegated only to dreams.

You could be very right. :-/ I’m still waiting for patch notes and a healthy round of testing against actual-players and not training dummies.

Announcing changes like that so close to release is a little concerning. To me, it indicates a snap decision rather than a thoughtful analysis of the drawbacks/benefits of an adjustment. We’ll see how it plays out and I hope a fast-following correction patch is issued if things got over-nerfed.

haha i dono if you watched the steamers and the mesmers condi dmg its was just insane. it was soo powerful that the devs said we have to fix that because the numbers on the torment aplyed from one mesmer was 3.1k on a nonmoving target per tick.

after 23. vornability increases the dmg of condis aswell. so if you traid right you will have 15stacks of vornability all the time about 12 stacks of torment 10 or more confusion, some bleeds and burning. you can spike your target down with your conditions if you want.

so there is no on deth clone needed after this patch hehe

Flow.2947:

haha i dono if you watched the steamers and the mesmers condi dmg its was just insane. it was soo powerful that the devs said we have to fix that because the numbers on the torment aplyed from one mesmer was 3.1k on a nonmoving target per tick.

after 23. vornability increases the dmg of condis aswell. so if you traid right you will have 15stacks of vornability all the time about 12 stacks of torment 10 or more confusion, some bleeds and burning. you can spike your target down with your conditions if you want.

so there is no on deth clone needed after this patch hehe

Well, you’d be right…except that you, like the devs, have a drastic lack of basic knowledge about how this game functions. Allow me to enlighten you so that you might be less prone to embarrassment in the future.

Target golems display the moving value of torment.

I know, crazy isn’kitten Let’s see what else I can come up with.

Target golems don’t dodge.

It’s a hard concept, but very true. Target golems merely stand there and let you beat on them.

Target golems don’t use condition removal.

Another tough one to wrap your head around, but I’m sure it can be done. Target golems don’t respond to you applying conditions in any way.

Now, it’s possible that you looked at the streamer applying conditions to a target golem and thought ‘oh, that golem is a realistic representation of how I play PvP!’ In general though, people are harder to fight than a target golem, and so balancing decisions based on hitting a target golem are nothing more than gross incompetence.

Fay.2357:

Well, you’d be right…except that you, like the devs, have a drastic lack of basic knowledge about how this game functions. Allow me to enlighten you so that you might be less prone to embarrassment in the future.

Pyroathiest.. Always making friends. xD

Fay.2357:

Flow.2947:

haha i dono if you watched the steamers and the mesmers condi dmg its was just insane. it was soo powerful that the devs said we have to fix that because the numbers on the torment aplyed from one mesmer was 3.1k on a nonmoving target per tick.

after 23. vornability increases the dmg of condis aswell. so if you traid right you will have 15stacks of vornability all the time about 12 stacks of torment 10 or more confusion, some bleeds and burning. you can spike your target down with your conditions if you want.

so there is no on deth clone needed after this patch hehe

Well, you’d be right…except that you, like the devs, have a drastic lack of basic knowledge about how this game functions. Allow me to enlighten you so that you might be less prone to embarrassment in the future.

Target golems display the moving value of torment.

I know, crazy isn’kitten Let’s see what else I can come up with.

Target golems don’t dodge.

It’s a hard concept, but very true. Target golems merely stand there and let you beat on them.

Target golems don’t use condition removal.

Another tough one to wrap your head around, but I’m sure it can be done. Target golems don’t respond to you applying conditions in any way.

Now, it’s possible that you looked at the streamer applying conditions to a target golem and thought ‘oh, that golem is a realistic representation of how I play PvP!’ In general though, people are harder to fight than a target golem, and so balancing decisions based on hitting a target golem are nothing more than gross incompetence.

You should play against SFR in WvW once in a while. I swear some of these people dont react untill they lay on the ground in downstate.

Going to miss Clone Death however I consider this a nerf to our clkitten

tering in PvP is fine but shattering in a World Boss or WvW situation usually gets you no where since there is constant AoE up all the time. In those situations the clone death skills make up the difference in lost damage.

That’s completely lost now as unlike every other class clones are a resource that can be dodged, blocked, or in most cases destroyed. Seeing how in HoT PVE content is supposed to be harder I’d rather not take the time to set up clones then have them run to a target that’s harder than the mobs we have currently and I hope AoE doesn’t wipe the lot of them because if your traited for those shatters to connect that’s giving up other traits and you’d be open for attack.

In PvP I guess I’ll be ignoring Ele’s now because if they nuke the clones there not going to get punished by anything and I’ve lsot a resource.

I suppose Phantasmal shattering can work since they have more defense to connect in AoE but there so slow to build up.