Guild Wars 2

So much talk about the might of feedback. I have WvWed now myself from level 10 into 80 exotics, and I have gotten to know feedback well.

The thing about it is, the damage it does is make believe. Yes the numbers fly by when you put it on a gate, but nobody ever dies from it. I never seen a guy die after I put feedback on a zerg, white damage numbers flying by or not.

And used in open field, I have again and again put it on a ranged while fighting someone else. Cool move, he moves out of it, not because he takes damage, but in order to keep damaging. That is fine, you can skill it to confuse when he leaves so he keeps taking damage. That is also fine, he might say: Oh I am confused, I should be carefull or I will take damage.

But if he doesn’t do that, he will take abit of damage but never be in danger. And he will just continue as nothing happened, your interaction was basically only visual.

Because the guy in the feedback bubble is never a target, and so the feedback damage never ever fullfills a role on the battlefield, except if it works as make believe, the guy act because he thinks he needs to act.

I have speculated a few times by now, why not just drop feedback, it is nothing but a showoff skill, a visual luxury to your presence. And instead find room for a skill that will actually make you win a fight, kill a guy that’s trying to kill you. Like Pain Inverter for example. Something real.

PVP is not the only application for feedback.

The nature of the zerg member is to take some damage, then fall back and lick wounds. Rince and repeat.

The trick is to be able to burst wounded members that are trying to fall back. The mesmer is pretty good at that.

Now, if you do want to see people suiciding to your reflect, Feedback is no good because it is too obvious. The sly way to do it is the Focus trait in the Inspiration tree. Mesmers are the least played class, the focus is only moderately used, and even less people pick the trait. It also has no other visual cue besides the projectiles themselves and the damage numbers.

Are you can be smart about it, and when you use the burble in 1v1. Always keep the burble between you, even if you gotta go inside it.

Which I do a lot, that gives ya 6 secs to not be hurt, while you can be hitting him with long range and he may hut himself a bit.

Are you can watch people skills like the guardian spin move.
Then use it righ as he began. that usually do more then 10k damage to himself, then turn him into a moa, so he cant heal and take him down.

There a lot of great ways to use it.

Zerg- Observe for a bit to find the biggest cluster of ranged shooters (they like to herd). Run up, drop Feedback, Mirror Blade, Berserker all in an instant… Zerg scatters like flies. Pick a target that you noticed take exceptional damage from the combo(there is always a few, and remember usually they are crippled from the zerk), Magic Bullet, Duelist, Illusionary Leap, Blurred Frenzy. F-4 While stomping, blink back to friendlies, rinse, repeat.

Single target- This is by class, but you just wait till they start a big attack and drop it on them then and ALWAYS follow up with Mirror Blade and Berserker, this is a huge burst and you can do it almost instantly. A few examples is you see a Longbow Ranger start a Rapid Fire, you see a Warrior charging up a KillShot(especially funny one), you see a Shortbow Ranger pop Quickening Zephyr.. Plenty more examples could be made but those are the most extreme.

Feedback is definitely in my Top 3 for favorite Mesmer skills and one of the very most useful IMO.

Oh I forgot to mention, if you use a staff drop a Chaos Storm right when you drop the feedback OR wait till they flee from it and drop it on them then.

I’ve killed quite a few people with feedback. Since they “nerfed” it to no longer work on siege weapons, that number has lessened, but in WvW especially, Feedback can easily alleviate pressure on a gate (people are dumb) or be used to drive back every Ranger for a few seconds or more.

Spell Reflects by virtue of their functionality rarely kill people because of how people play. Once you drop to about 30%, you retreat. That’s usually about the range a Ranger needs to be in to die to their own arrows unless they’re using longbow 2. Other classes are more timid about their health, so it’s hard to kill them with reflects. BUt that’s not its purpose. Drop it on a crowd to disperse or drive them back.

You’re think too much about feedback as a weapon.

Every shot that is reflect back, is a shot that didn’t hit your own side; your enemy is losing net health, while your side remains steady.

Furthermore, allied attacks passing through the feedback bubble are dropping confusion onto enemies. Confusion turns enemy actions into a hitpoint loss, or acts as a psuedo-shutdown by discouraging them from attacking.

While nobody may be DYING from the confusion or feedback bubble, it’s greatly tipping the odds against the enemy by softing them up, protecting your allies, and reducing their attack rate. At the end of the day victory isn’t about killing but about defeatting and an enemy held back or limping away to lick it’s wounds is an enemy that hasn’t captured your keep or control point.

In zerg versus zerg fights feedback is very usefull even if not a single enemy player gets damaged. Think about it this way: every second the enemy zerg does not shot because of feedback your zerg does and applies damage. Its a subtle skill but very powerfull.

Felix.2613:

The thing about it is, the damage it does is make believe. Yes the numbers fly by when you put it on a gate, but nobody ever dies from it. I never seen a guy die after I put feedback on a zerg, white damage numbers flying by or not.

But it’s not killing people why Feedback is so strong.

Who would ever think that was the point?!

Watch what happens if there’s a stalemate on a bridge between 2 large forces and you drop feedback.

The other team darts off that bridge as if it were on fire.

Actually what usually happens is that someone immediately cancels it with another Curtain / Wall / Bubble, and then a strategic exchange happens until one side runs out of nuclear ordnanereflection moves.

if theres a stalmate on a bridge, i will first drop a portal go into invisibility mode and knock as many down with illusiary wave as possible, blink behind them drop my exit portal and some (not usually all, after ive typed the plan) will flank them, then and only then i drop feedback.

to make sure i dont get insta gibbed i make sure i have my invisibility/condition build active and it manages to de-target me enough to allow me to survive until i portal out, obviously sometimes i die but its hella fun when it goes smoothly.

as for more on feedback it is a strategically incredible powerfull tool and as started above, its not about the killing all the time.

I typically only use feedback in dungeons (it helps immensely during big groups of ranged foes), however last night, someone used it on me – while I was manning a cannon on SM Castle. Now that HURT BAD. Took me down the first time, but I got helped back up on my feet. The second time I saw it I realized I needed to stop firing, and was a little more patient, but all it takes is once…

I once did 16,000 damage to a Ranger using Feedback after he popped Quickness.

I laughed mykitten off.