Guild Wars 2

I previously couldn’t find a main, and I’ve been playing regulary since launch. My mesmer is now my 4th toon to level 80, and I think I finally found my main. I love absolutely everything about the mesmer aside from one issue, the speed. I have a ranger, 25% speed inc, elementalist, perma-swiftness, and a thief, 25%speed + HS spam or IA.

I feel so, god awful slow on my mesmer. I do run with with off-hand focus for 50%-ish swiftness, but it just doesn’t feel enough. Especially since it doesn’t proc swiftness when you already have swiftness (what other skill is like that?). When I’m running with my guild in WvW, if I’m not up front I quickly fall behind just by missing one swift boost. On top of that, I really want to do world completion with this toon, but it’s going to take a lot longer than if I did it on my thief.

Complaining aside, do you guys have any tips or tricks to help with this? I’m thinking about going with runes of the centaur, using +boon duration food, and running with the illusion signet (Edit: I meant insipration, ty Kaiyanwan). But that seems to be gimping my playstyle and stats just so I don’t feel slow.

Rune of the Centaur + focus will give you a 100% speed buff uptime.
If you want you can throw in Signet of Inspiration, it can procc the speed buff too.

While the focus speed buff will not stack, every other speed buff stacks on the focus one. So a bit of timing might help.

I really wish they’d take Swiftness off of Signet of Inspiration’s proc table, and simply make it a 25% speed boost passive along with the extra boon every 10 seconds.

Kaleban.9834:

I really wish they’d take Swiftness off of Signet of Inspiration’s proc table, and simply make it a 25% speed boost passive along with the extra boon every 10 seconds.

That would be ridiculous, I don’t mind it being 10% with the boon, but I derno.

Rune of Centaur is nice, you can stack the focus swiftness if you do focus→ heal but not vice versa. With focus + centaur + blink i actually feel like one of the more mobile classes.

Just use Centaur runes and Mirror as your heal. If you can put a few points in the chaos line it even makes it nicer. I never have trouble keeping up with anyone. And i am faster then most signet classes. Without having to give up a utility spot, which i need.

Jester.1236:

Just use Centaur runes and Mirror as your heal. If you can put a few points in the chaos line it even makes it nicer. I never have trouble keeping up with anyone. And i am faster then most signet classes. Without having to give up a utility spot, which i need.

Do you suggest mirror over ether fest just for the 5 seconds reduced cooldown? I’ve just gone with default ether fest because nothing really stood out to me.

If you go with the mantra, would you proc swiftness on the initial meditation, and the 2 charge use afterwards?

I don’t mind; I don’t even use the focus. You can equip the Signet of Inspiration for random quickness. I would never don Runes of the Centaur either, because they kind of wreck my build otherwise (6 Runes of the Undead). Very much prefer being “slow” than devoting too much of my build/skills towards mobility (to not think about it, I’ve found to be the best cure for the speed problem.)

Ethics.4519:

Jester.1236:

Just use Centaur runes and Mirror as your heal. If you can put a few points in the chaos line it even makes it nicer. I never have trouble keeping up with anyone. And i am faster then most signet classes. Without having to give up a utility spot, which i need.

Do you suggest mirror over ether fest just for the 5 seconds reduced cooldown? I’ve just gone with default ether fest because nothing really stood out to me.

If you go with the mantra, would you proc swiftness on the initial meditation, and the 2 charge use afterwards?

Faya has a guide on here, that inculdes Mantra specs, and how to use mirror and the centaur runes to max capability.

Star Ace.5207:

I don’t mind; I don’t even use the focus. You can equip the Signet of Inspiration for random quickness. I would never don Runes of the Centaur either, because they kind of wreck my build otherwise (6 Runes of the Undead). Very much prefer being “slow” than devoting too much of my build/skills towards mobility (to not think about it, I’ve found to be the best cure for the speed problem.)

Except for I need to make sure I’m at the front of the zerg with the guild leader to make sure I get veil down in the right space/time or else he’ll sacrifice me.

PIE DEMANDS SACRIFICE!

Ethics.4519:

Do you suggest mirror over ether fest just for the 5 seconds reduced cooldown? I’ve just gone with default ether fest because nothing really stood out to me.

If you go with the mantra, would you proc swiftness on the initial meditation, and the 2 charge use afterwards?

Yes, it does. This makes Air runes better than Centaur imho, just use temporal curtain, run through and charge the spell. Wait 10 seconds (cooldown on the rune) and use the second charge, temporal curtain etc.

This also works with menders purity, giving you 2 cleanses (they only seem to work on the actual heal, not the charge)

Weapon swap to focus when out of combat. Trait for long range blink.

pair up with guildies who can cast high amounts of swiftness?

works for me anyways.

Speed with memser is a problem. Unless u run rune of centaur, or spec in boon duration and focus cooldown reduction you will have a problem getting some speed done.

I run but with rune of centaur, and I run with two other mesmers in WvW using the same rune. We are basically stacking up speed, and when we arrive at our target, we can fight with swiftness boon on us, that makes it super awesome. Sometimes I feel like a D/D bunker ele runing thorugh the enym zerg and shattering everything^^

But rune of centaur limits ur posibilities buildwise. So unless u are fine with that rune (which complemets my build quite nicely) you will have a problem getting some speed done by urself

the effect on the focus speed buf has its point. Otherwise ppl culd go again and again through the speed wall and stack up speed… I gues this is, why they prevented you from getting swiftness from the focus, if u already have swiftness.

Esplen.3940:

Kaleban.9834:

I really wish they’d take Swiftness off of Signet of Inspiration’s proc table, and simply make it a 25% speed boost passive along with the extra boon every 10 seconds.

That would be ridiculous, I don’t mind it being 10% with the boon, but I derno.

How would being equivalent with the same thing every other cloth class gets be ridiculous?

Star Ace.5207:

I don’t mind; I don’t even use the focus. You can equip the Signet of Inspiration for random quickness. I would never don Runes of the Centaur either, because they kind of wreck my build otherwise (6 Runes of the Undead). Very much prefer being “slow” than devoting too much of my build/skills towards mobility (to not think about it, I’ve found to be the best cure for the speed problem.)

bury head in sand…problem goes away :p

ODB.6891:

Esplen.3940:

Kaleban.9834:

I really wish they’d take Swiftness off of Signet of Inspiration’s proc table, and simply make it a 25% speed boost passive along with the extra boon every 10 seconds.

That would be ridiculous, I don’t mind it being 10% with the boon, but I derno.

How would being equivalent with the same thing every other cloth class gets be ridiculous?

Not every other class has 25% movespeed boosts. Ranger has 10%, Guardian and Warrior have none without traits.

If you want to travel quickly, don’t rely on focus swiftness alone. Use Blink and Phase Retreat (from staff) as well. To use Phase Retreat, do a quick 180 turn and cast the ability while you’re not targeting any enemies, then turn around again and continue running.

And of course, as others said, there’s always runes of centaur.

@ Esplen: Ranger used to be 10%, but that signet was buffed to 25% a while back. The tooltip still says 10% though I believe.

Esplen.3940:

Not every other class has 25% movespeed boosts. Ranger has 10%, Guardian and Warrior have none without traits.

All the +movement speed Signets were boosted to 25%, including the Ranger’s.

ODB.6891:

Star Ace.5207:

I don’t mind; I don’t even use the focus. You can equip the Signet of Inspiration for random quickness. I would never don Runes of the Centaur either, because they kind of wreck my build otherwise (6 Runes of the Undead). Very much prefer being “slow” than devoting too much of my build/skills towards mobility (to not think about it, I’ve found to be the best cure for the speed problem.)

bury head in sand…problem goes away :p

To be honest, not all Professions should do things the same way. It’s IMHO too much that Ranger, Necromancer, Thief etc. get to share essentially the “same” signet in passive form. Everybody likes speed, as I do, but Mesmer is Mesmer, and I have embraced the fact that it will never be as speedy as my ranger or necromancer with their respective signets.

In short, when you don’t think of something as a problem, it stops becoming one. It isn’t the same as denying there is a hole in your roof, but more akin to accepting than an umbrella can only cover so much area in which you aren’t going to get wet (I.E. I have accepted that I may get my feet wet a little on ocassion, but that’s the nature of the umbrella-it doesn’t mean it’s defective.)

The developers gave a few speed boosts to the Mesmer, but that’s OK, because they still get to do wonderful things that nobody else does. There are bigger, real problems with some bugs and things that aren’t working, AFAIK, as intended. If they had wished, one of our signets would be yet another clone of that of other Professions.

Note that I do respect your desire of having better speed, and who wouldn’t like that? But it seems it’s not the Mesmer’s area of expertise besides those few boosts. Either find a way about it as some do with other Runes/using focus/etc., or just don’t mind it at all as I do (it’s OK to disagree with me-no argument intended.)

I agree with Star Ace, I have gotten used to not having superb movespeed, and then I use a Focus when I can’t handle it. It’s quite simple once you accept it.

Also have you looked at the active on those 25% speed boost signets. They all basically suck, so you can waste a utility slot on that or spend time after every fight putting it back on the bar, and hoping not to get caught in combat with it still up or you can do some of the measures that we have to do to keep up speed. Really only the d/d thief and ele and engi have easy methods of keeping their up on speed with out a crappy signet, and oh yeah Warriors all use Signet of Rage anyway, so they get a pretty consistent boost to their speed regularly. Necro is in a world of hurt without that speed boost signet, much worse than us, and I think it is the same for Ranger.

I just find it odd you are all willing to give up a utility slot for more speed. I personally wish they would remove all the speed buffs and simply just increase our out of combat speed movement for everyone.

Dahkeus.8243:

If you want to travel quickly, don’t rely on focus swiftness alone. Use Blink and Phase Retreat (from staff) as well. To use Phase Retreat, do a quick 180 turn and cast the ability while you’re not targeting any enemies, then turn around again and continue running.

And of course, as others said, there’s always runes of centaur.

@ Esplen: Ranger used to be 10%, but that signet was buffed to 25% a while back. The tooltip still says 10% though I believe.

I’m aware of these. I usually don’t run with blink on unless I’m portal bombing. Call it a blessing or a curse, but mesmers have so many amazing utilities I can’t pick 3 lol. I run decoy, mirror images/portal, and veil. If I portal bomb I change decoy to blink.

Also, I don’t think you have to face the target to use number 2. I’m rpetty sure you can just run past it and it will work, but then won’t that lower my speed by being in combat? I haven’t really tried it as I’ve been running GS + Sword/Focus. But with the recent nerf/bug to izerker I’ll probably change GS to staff, and go a little more tank when I get new gear

Focus, focus, focus.

I don’t see much of a problem because i base the passive speed boost while in combat. I as a mesmer would much prefer my ability to blink WAY farther than any speed boost will ever get me, to passively moving 10 or 25% faster. Out of combat sure additional speed is always nice but essentially while in combat, blink, and stealth > passive speed bonus.

Ethics.4519:

Dahkeus.8243:

If you want to travel quickly, don’t rely on focus swiftness alone. Use Blink and Phase Retreat (from staff) as well. To use Phase Retreat, do a quick 180 turn and cast the ability while you’re not targeting any enemies, then turn around again and continue running.

And of course, as others said, there’s always runes of centaur.

@ Esplen: Ranger used to be 10%, but that signet was buffed to 25% a while back. The tooltip still says 10% though I believe.

I’m aware of these. I usually don’t run with blink on unless I’m portal bombing. Call it a blessing or a curse, but mesmers have so many amazing utilities I can’t pick 3 lol. I run decoy, mirror images/portal, and veil. If I portal bomb I change decoy to blink.

Also, I don’t think you have to face the target to use number 2. I’m rpetty sure you can just run past it and it will work, but then won’t that lower my speed by being in combat? I haven’t really tried it as I’ve been running GS + Sword/Focus. But with the recent nerf/bug to izerker I’ll probably change GS to staff, and go a little more tank when I get new gear

I think you misread. Don’t target any enemies when you use the staff for running. Just point your character in the opposite direction, then cast the ability, then turn around again. It jumps you directly backwards when you cast it without a target, which is why you need to do two quick 180s.
Keybinding about face works well for this.

Dahkeus.8243:

Ethics.4519:

Dahkeus.8243:

If you want to travel quickly, don’t rely on focus swiftness alone. Use Blink and Phase Retreat (from staff) as well. To use Phase Retreat, do a quick 180 turn and cast the ability while you’re not targeting any enemies, then turn around again and continue running.

And of course, as others said, there’s always runes of centaur.

@ Esplen: Ranger used to be 10%, but that signet was buffed to 25% a while back. The tooltip still says 10% though I believe.

I’m aware of these. I usually don’t run with blink on unless I’m portal bombing. Call it a blessing or a curse, but mesmers have so many amazing utilities I can’t pick 3 lol. I run decoy, mirror images/portal, and veil. If I portal bomb I change decoy to blink.

Also, I don’t think you have to face the target to use number 2. I’m rpetty sure you can just run past it and it will work, but then won’t that lower my speed by being in combat? I haven’t really tried it as I’ve been running GS + Sword/Focus. But with the recent nerf/bug to izerker I’ll probably change GS to staff, and go a little more tank when I get new gear

I think you misread. Don’t target any enemies when you use the staff for running. Just point your character in the opposite direction, then cast the ability, then turn around again. It jumps you directly backwards when you cast it without a target, which is why you need to do two quick 180s.
Keybinding about face works well for this.

^ I do this