Guild Wars 2

Does anyone know if the devs have made any statements about the lack of movement speed increase options for the Mesmer, and specifically regarding the lack of a passive buff?

I admittedly have only played a few classes with any regularity but it seems as though many if not most others have more options for movement speed buffs. Elementalists in particular seem to have an over abundance of ways to speed up. Please don’t take this as a discontent whine post because I love the Mesmer. I also understand that each class can’t have all the same benefits or else the diversity of playstyles would vanish and so would the sense of importance associated with class choice.

That said, there are certain fundamental abilities that I think all classes should enjoy more or less equally. Due to the immense amount of time spent moving and for the sake of exploration (and selfishly because moving fast is a trait I always pick in games) I would think movement speed buffs should be, at least for the most part, given equally to all professions. When compared to some others, the movement speed bonuses from the focus and the trait that gives speed for each illusion, just don’t seem to be on par. I would love to see a passive bonus attached to a signet or a s a trait and am curious if any such discussion has been had with arena net and if hopefully it is being considered.

Not an issue for me.. keep focus in off hand and you are fine.

With short recast.. No clue what your issue is.

Siobhan.3582:

Not an issue for me.. keep focus in off hand and you are fine.

With short recast.. No clue what your issue is.

Even traited, focus doesn’t provide enough swiftness uptime.
Any other source of swiftness will conflict with foci swiftness.
Some people like 2handers or other off-handers. Switching focus to off-hand sword is pain!
That leaves us with either playing Illusionary Snail, either rune up with something like centaur or air.

“fine” is really a subjective term here. If by “fine” you mean tolerable, then yes, absolutely. But if by fine you mean equal to the accessibility and convenience some other classes enjoy when it co Ed to speed buffs, then no, it’s not fine for me. If you havent plate a class with lots of speed buffs’ such as the elementalist, you might wanna give it a try and you will probably see that they keep constant high movement speed Without having to equip just one weapon or be in combat with active illusions. It’s really pretty awesome for general running around and for most aspects of the game (for me).

You may not have meant it this way, but the way you ask what my “issue” is makes me think you are taking my original post exactly as I did not intend it. I am not “mad bro” or anything but simply wanted to express a longing for a speedier Mesmer.

Between focus’s swiftness, blink and Portal I think we’re one of the most versatile at moving classes…

I use a full set of Centaur runes myself because I don’t like the focus. Now every time I pop my heal, I get swiftness for 12 seconds. Be advised that the cooldown may state it is only 10s, but in reality it is closer to 15. So being a WvW Mesmer, I tend to use Mirror more than the Mantra

And I can tell you, 12s of swiftness every 15s simply by pressing ‘6’ is pretty nice

I agree, passive move speed is super slow compared to other classes, this is something I know because people are always running from me in WvWvW.

I am not comlaining I think we are super versatile, but I am rpetty sure our base movespeed is super slow compared to other cvlasses, I cant keep upw ith my frineds when running around even with focus and blink.

Would be great if the traited skill that gives move speed for each active illusion also jsut gave a base increase in move speed.

Artemeas.8763:

I agree, passive move speed is super slow compared to other classes, this is something I know because people are always running from me in WvWvW.

I am not comlaining I think we are super versatile, but I am rpetty sure our base movespeed is super slow compared to other cvlasses, I cant keep upw ith my frineds when running around even with focus and blink.

Would be great if the traited skill that gives move speed for each active illusion also jsut gave a base increase in move speed.

Yep, you are clearly pickin up what I’m puttin down. In terms of general versatility, I think we’re fantastic. But would love to see the passive increase through a trait or a skill as you describe. Can anyone confirm or deny whether A-net has acknowledged this in anyway?

If it’s a combat or pvp balance issue due to all the teleports and escapes, adding an “out of combat” passive movement increase to mantra of pain (or another mantra) while charges were up would probably be the best way to go about the “quality of life” issue without upsetting balance.

I chose pain in particular because it would require you give up an escape skill to slot it.

6x Runes of the Centaur + 20pts Chaos + Mirror healing skill = 14.3s AoE Swiftness on 15s cd + 1s recast time.

That AoE part is kitten clutch in WvW – you can singlehandedly power the entire zerg around the map. I usually find a Commander without perma-swiftness, stick with him wherever he goes, and pretty soon we have a speeding death train.

Also, Centaur Runes other buffs aren’t bad for mesmers. +Power, +Bleed Duration, + +Swiftness Duration all useful to mesmers, making Centaur runes among the best general rune choices.

If you really hate Centaur or strongly prefer some other rune set, then run with a Focus, traited or not. This is generally what powers the zerg anyway – multiple mesmers alternating Curtain cd’s so that the group has perma swiftness from pt A to B.

TLDR: yeah, pre-80 pre-6x Exotic set mesmers are probably the weakest with travel speed. But if you can bear it till then, you have good options for plugging that one hole in the class’s mechanics.

Centaur runes sacrifice a crap ton of crit to get you that swiftness. that hurts when your dodges depend on crits.

kurtosis.9526:

6x Runes of the Centaur + 20pts Chaos + Mirror healing skill = 14.3s AoE Swiftness on 15s cd + 1s recast time.

That AoE part is kitten clutch in WvW – you can singlehandedly power the entire zerg around the map. I usually find a Commander without perma-swiftness, stick with him wherever he goes, and pretty soon we have a speeding death train.

Also, Centaur Runes other buffs aren’t bad for mesmers. +Power, +Bleed Duration, + +Swiftness Duration all useful to mesmers, making Centaur runes among the best general rune choices.

If you really hate Centaur or strongly prefer some other rune set, then run with a Focus, traited or not. This is generally what powers the zerg anyway – multiple mesmers alternating Curtain cd’s so that the group has perma swiftness from pt A to B.

TLDR: yeah, pre-80 pre-6x Exotic set mesmers are probably the weakest with travel speed. But if you can bear it till then, you have good options for plugging that one hole in the class’s mechanics.

This was ridiculously informative and useful. I appreciate the knowledge

Still hopin the devs throw us a passive buff though, possibly like the mantra idea posted by another above. But if not, it’s nice to know there are other ways to skin this cat.

Rune of Air is valid choice too, with mirror heal and traited foci. And it leaves 2 armor slots free.
But that really doesn’t justify single fact: while others maintain decent swiftness uptime without giving up on damage or survivability those 6slot and 4slot runesets offer, we need those runes.

plasmacutter.2709:

Centaur runes sacrifice a crap ton of crit to get you that swiftness. that hurts when your dodges depend on crits.

It does not appear to hurt me and I’m still sitting at around 50% crit chance even with the Centaur runes. When I’m fighting, the Vigor boon refreshes itself constantly.

plasmacutter.2709:

Centaur runes sacrifice a crap ton of crit to get you that swiftness. that hurts when your dodges depend on crits.

Which crit runes do you use instead? If you have full zerker gear, I haven’t seen it to be that much crit sacrifice.

How come everyone but me can find this supposed 20 point Chaos Trait that gives you swiftness when you heal? I’ve gone through all trait trees over and over again and there is no such thing, yet someone says there is only 4 hours ago. I really don’t get it, also why is it better to have 6x Centaur then 2 centaur 2 air and 2 of the other swiftness one, that’d be 60% wouldn’t it? or 45% if the cheaper version.

But I’m mostly interested where someone can find this trait that gives swiftness on heal as I can’t find it.

He wasn’t talking of a trait but if you put 20 points in chaos, you get +20% boon duration. That’s why he stated 20 points in chaos, it has nothing to do with a trait.
Even with that, you have to use runes of centaur or air to get the swiftness on heal.

Which is still a LOT of requirements in order to get all the bonuses required, and forces one into specific runes, and is only available at higher levels.

You sound greedy.. We don’t need the run buff when he have so many other things to bring to the table.

And are you really going to waste a slot for 10% passive run speed sigil?

I don’t think anyone is being greedy I just think that their are a few other classes that have as much mobility as Mesmer’s do like Elementalist who get a passive run buff while in air the longer they stay attuned which is only 10 points in air that increases movement speed by 5% for every 10s attuned Air max of 25% plus they have a signet that gives them plus 10% and it stacks with the other and the Thief has a signet that also increases movement speed by 25% Signet of shadows. These two classes have the same escape and evasion type ability’s as the Mesmer’s do, I don’t think anyone is suggesting Anet gives the Mesmer’s wings and let them fly just something else. What about a passive movement speed buff while using a mantra maybe even make it an AOE if you go high enough into a certain trait tree maybe even 30 points in. That might be something cool.

I love players who try to justify the status quo with statements like “you sound greedy”, “don’t know what your issue is…”, etc… (not)

If you’ve played your mesmer past level 20 then you know for non-combat movement we are slow. We have ZERO traits for non-combat movement buffs. We have ONE skill (focus 4) that provides reliable swiftness but it’s on a 50% duty cycle at best.

In combat we rock but in certain non-combat scenarior we suck. The biggest wart on our nose in this case is WvW which is nothing but combat and moving from A to B. It’s the A-to-B part that sucks.

I’d love to dump the focus as my off-hand in PvE, but I need the run-speed buff. It’s necessary to get to an event before other players beat it down, or even to keep up with my own team where the warriors, thieves, and eles are flying ahead.

This being said, I’m not sure what could be done to give mesmers non-combat movement buffs without making us even more dominant in combat. I can already kite like a sonofa in combat…

+1 mesmer run speed its simply annoying and must be fixed

Psaakyrn.5794:

Which is still a LOT of requirements in order to get all the bonuses required, and forces one into specific runes, and is only available at higher levels.

6x runes of the Centaur does not seem like a lot of requirements to have nigh perma speed buff.

20pts in Chaos isn’t really a pre-requisite, it just helps a bit more.

as written earlier, the other stats (Power/bleed duration) of the Centaur runes are still useful to most mesmers.

considering that mobility is key in www, I would think that this is an excellent set of runes.

coupled with blink (I traited it to 1200), mesmer can easily be one of the fastest classe to go from A to B.

juno.1840:

The biggest wart on our nose in this case is WvW which is nothing but combat and moving from A to B. It’s the A-to-B part that sucks.

I know I posted a lot more above, but I want to put it in perspective. This is the ONLY complaint I have about mesmers. Overall our class is incredible to play with fun mechanics.

On the flip side, my Guardian can move around with perma-swiftness (Staff 3 with points in class trait line). However Guardian is a pill to play in WvW (no joke).

So we don’t have it all that bad

Welcome to the the world of Rangers and guardians , rangers use off hand to get around the map ( and yes we do have one signit that gives 10 % ) , but takes up a slot for not much movement.

Guards have one power that takes a slot , with more down time then up time. The only two classes that rock speed are rogues , and warriors .

Ceelaniri.8410:

Psaakyrn.5794:

Which is still a LOT of requirements in order to get all the bonuses required, and forces one into specific runes, and is only available at higher levels.

6x runes of the Centaur does not seem like a lot of requirements to have nigh perma speed buff.

20pts in Chaos isn’t really a pre-requisite, it just helps a bit more.

as written earlier, the other stats (Power/bleed duration) of the Centaur runes are still useful to most mesmers.

considering that mobility is key in www, I would think that this is an excellent set of runes.

coupled with blink (I traited it to 1200), mesmer can easily be one of the fastest classe to go from A to B.

byebye my crit, byebye a part of my damage, byebye my build, ONLY for the movement speed i should have like other classes

cmon …

What slot would you give up for it?

That is the point.. Plus if you are just using it to get around, focus is more then fine.

You guys are want it all. My mesmer gets around fine with focus in the off hand and 20 in chaos. I have about 7 sec of downtime on speed..

That, along with all the other stuff we have it freaking amazing.

if you think a silly 10% passive (again that you will have to slot) is going to make you happy, you will be disappointed.

Kephos.9675:

Ceelaniri.8410:

Psaakyrn.5794:

Which is still a LOT of requirements in order to get all the bonuses required, and forces one into specific runes, and is only available at higher levels.

6x runes of the Centaur does not seem like a lot of requirements to have nigh perma speed buff.

20pts in Chaos isn’t really a pre-requisite, it just helps a bit more.

as written earlier, the other stats (Power/bleed duration) of the Centaur runes are still useful to most mesmers.

considering that mobility is key in www, I would think that this is an excellent set of runes.

coupled with blink (I traited it to 1200), mesmer can easily be one of the fastest classe to go from A to B.

byebye my crit, byebye a part of my damage, byebye my build, ONLY for the movement speed i should have like other classes

cmon …

my build is 0/30/20/0/20.

I have 3093 in power and 50% crit chance and 88% in crit dmg, I am not yet full exotic 80. My armor is mainly exotic 78 berserker.

I use ether feast as a heal which is on a 20 sec CD (highest CD for any mesmer heals)

Thus, I have 33% speed bonus most of the time regardless of whether I spec 20 pts in chaos or not.

if you use a mantra build, the movement buff is up more often.

runes of the centaur bring 165 power so it does contribute to your damage like any other set.

Moreover, this speed buff is AOE so it does not only benefit you but others.

if anything you have a choice and it s not going to impact your build since you dont need anything in particular to make these runes efficient.

they represent a valid and efficient way of gaining a speed boost without sacrificing a utility/weapon slot.

Sacraficing rune slots i may not do. But if i ever can farm enough money together i might buy two exotic armor sets (one with centaur).

The point is, we’re already fairly mobile:

• Blink
• Temporal Curtain (traitable to be near 100% coverage, and remember it hits more people than just you, full-zerg-Swiftness is pretty powerful since people are much better at running through the curtain than repeatedly staying in range of a single person)
• Portal (this again is seriously underestimated, since we can trivialize many jumping puzzles and such).

Yes I know, you were looking for “raw” swiftness. Like Engineers, although they still have to keep hammering that kit-button.

Point is though, our mobility is not swiftness-based. I also think that we’d be way too strong if we also had perma-Swiftness in a simple trait-based version, and honestly… between perma-Swiftness and an interesting character, I prefer the latter.
Portal rocks. Swiftness is boring – everyone else has it already and gives it to me. Simple choice.

I just can’t understand why Thief has a 25% Speed buff sigil as passive AND the shortbow teleportation. After play a thief for a while it makes all other classes feel like snails and cripplingly slow.

MeveM.7913:

I just can’t understand why Thief has a 25% Speed buff sigil as passive AND the shortbow teleportation. After play a thief for a while it makes all other classes feel like snails and cripplingly slow.

Thief, warrior, ele have it really good. Air ele with traits and signet of air is really fast. Ranger has a signet with +10% passive. Guardian is in a similar boat to mesmer but they have a shout along with staff 3. The nice thing about guardian staff 3 is that with traits it can be used immediately after c./d to maintain near 100% swiftness. No clue what engineer and necro do… although I’ve seen a necro turn into “green vapor” and move fast for a long time.

“Carry a focus!” is such a weak argument.

A passive speed buff should be available to all classes as a signet; it should be a choice, you lose a utility slot if you want the passive. People seem to forget that swiftness and a speed buff aren’t the same thing; that thief in your party is consistently running quicker than you. That thief you’re chasing, with swiftness, ditto.

It’s as simple as that.

Do we really need another thread about this? Just beating a dead horse at this point….

Yes the class is lacking a passive movement speed boost when out of combat, but we have alternative skills that can more than make up for it in the right situation (Portal). You can also largely make up for this weakness by strategically choosing your gear and traits. Overall it’s a fairly balanced system.

Some of us don’t want a focus. Some of us use GS/Staff. Some of us had to switch to their elem to do the Clock Tower. Some of us are sad.

Btw, we’re not the only class with a teleport. Thief has a 25% speed boost passive and several moves that are blinks. All blink does is make your character run really fast to a target. You have to be able to run to the destination. If you can’t then you can’t blink there. Thieves blink all the time.

6X centaur is the way to go.

Also run with Chocolate omnomberry creams food for an additional 20% buff time if you prefer for perma swiftness (depending on spec)

Mobility is so important.

I’d like one. But the fact is slots come at a very high premium on mesmer vs other classes. So unless it’s passive: 10%, active: blink, I don’t know if it’s worth the slot. The runes are probably giving up less.

Leveling my necro, the class is outrageous fast with 10% passive + warhorn + spectral walk. (and a lot of ranged chill / cripple)

when my guardian can throw down Symbol of Swiftness for speed buffs about 80% of the time, i guess it is a little unfair. that said i love crafting on my mesmer because i can set up a portal on the crafting station when i have to run back to TP because i forgot something. blink also alleviates a little.

i definitely agree that an out-of-combat trait would be the best way to do this without damaging current balance.

Runes of Air + Faster Focus Recharge trait = 100% swiftness while running.
Inherently we have fewer speed boosts, yes, but with minimal work you can build yourself a marathon running Mesmer.