Guild Wars 2

EDIT (thanks to Kubetz):
Maybe I should make a concrete suggestion. These two changes to Signet of Inspiration would make me happy (and possibly other Mesmer players):

1) I’d readily give up the swiftness buff in the “random” list of buffs in combat if
2) a passive (always active) movement bonus of at least 10% was added.
Anyone opposed?

I used to equip the signet of inspiration, giving me a speedbuff from time to time, but now it’s effect will only trigger in combat so…
Need a utility skill, please =)

I leveled with a ranger friend, and let me tell you, I was often cursing the lack of a movement speed out of combat. It would end up with him completing the zone with me still having a quest or two to finish. Or, he would end up having to wait around for me getting annoyed. Or, he would go do some farming while waiting for me to catch up (which has resulted in him able to craft far more than me to level up quicker).

This, whenever I group with other people I have to use a focus to try and keep up and use blink to try and get some extra movement. Every other class seems to have multiple movement enhancing boons/utility skills apart from the Mesmer.

And I am forced to use a focus in WvW, without it there is literally no way of keeping up.

Illusionary Leap should leap you forward instead of your clone, mesmers are one of the fewer classes that have no leaps hence less mobility and trickery in jumping puzzles f.e.

I generally keep a focus around to use skill 4 and also use Blink. Doesn’t seem to be that bad for travelling.

We can be swiftness’d for about 50% of the time, with a blink. I honestly don’t think that’s too bad. The blink’s cooldown can be reduced, its range can be increased, and same with the focus skill. If you want to prioritize swiftness, get the rune of the centaur. When you heal you’ll get 10 seconds of swiftness, on a 10 second CD. Combine that with temporal curtain and blink and one of the low CD heals and we’re zooming.

Also, Mesmer is meant to be a more complex mind-bending class, so it makes sense that you have to put a bit more effort into it. Working as intended!

It’s true that it’s annoying not having a viable option to boost our speed out of combat, but what I like about the mesmer is that it’s easier to run past enemies without engaging them compared to other classes if you play with the trait that summons an illusion every time you dodge. Combined with Glamour it lets you run pretty much everywhere without fighting mobs.

Yeah, the only way to boost our speed is by equipping a focus, but we’re one of only two classes in the game that can stealth ourselves. And with the amount of utilities, even an elite we get to do that, I’ve found I cross maps much faster than my air-specced (speed boost for air atuement, signet for speed boost and staff skill speed boost.) elementalist friend who seems to attract every mob from miles around… Or she does get there faster than me and then dies as the 12 mobs chasing her finally catch up.

We are the only profession that can teleport past an entire group of mobs – drop aggro and teleport our group with us to said location. Believe me I would love a 25% movement speed signet or a Swiftness buff that lasts an eternity (Ranger) or a fancy banner but I am actually rather happy with the Mesmer’s mobility and ability to bypass enemies.

Like someone mentioned before, we are one of the few classes that can bypass enemies without ever fighting them or worrying about dying to them. My exploration of Orr is prove :P

Focus + Superior Runes of the Centaur x6

Alternate between the Ether Feast and Temporal Curtain for basically always on Haste.
If you don’t want to equip a Focus, slot Mantra of Recovery, and keep using that to get Haste repeatedly.

Otherwise for Map Exploration? Decoy, Veil, Portal, and Mass Invisibility along with Clones that Cripple on Death and Dodge Clones. 3x Invisibilities, Dodging Forward to spawn a clone behind you that enemies target, kill, and end up crippled, and a nice insurance for difficult jumps. I.Warden any ranged creatures you are coming up on. Equip Mantra of Resolve if monsters have a cripple skill instead of Portal.

Exploration is easy, especially if you are just running by.

To all those who gave suggestions on how to circumvent this issue: Thank you, but I was trying to make the point here that we shouldn’t HAVE to rely on runes or specific weapons in order to boost our ground covered – because no other profession has to. And no, I don’t buy into “we’re supposed to be harder to play”. Not if it results in having to struggle in order to get BARELY equal to other professions who get handed these basic things to them on a silver platter.

And: Being able to bypass enemies is beside the point altogether. Large parts of the maps and cities (waypoint, PoI exploration) don’t have any encounters.

To make things clear: I don’t mind playing a more ‘complicated’ class which isn’t too obvious in many regards. But if I have to rune for movement, I’m wasting runes that other professions can invest into more useful things. Or I’d have to carry extra equipment / block inventory slots just for movement and still be at a disadvantage compared to a profession who does the same.

Focus with Warden’s Feedback + Signet of Inspiration + Blink + Staff. It’s a bit of a gamble, but it has you boosted about 70-80% of the time. That’s as good as it gets, though.

My ranger friend had a permanent boost while also having a cooldown speed burst. Even using the weapon and utility specific skills I would not have been able to match his speed, although it would have helped. Means changing utility skills and weapon each time you get to where you want to be though which is a quality of life issue I don’t want to even think about – that is if they are even off cooldown yet.

A passive trinket with speed increase would help a lot to be honest.

I’m sure someone mentioned this, but I’ll repeat it. Staff 5: Chaos Storm will frequently give speed boosts. Place it slightly ahead as you’re running to ensure you cross the entire field of Chaos Storm. This will give you the best odds of gaining speed.

Take the Torch, Decoy and Mass Invis as well for travel. Invis helps keep you out of combat which means you run full speed.

Vexor.3640:

I’m sure someone mentioned this, but I’ll repeat it. Staff 5: Chaos Storm will frequently give speed boosts. Place it slightly ahead as you’re running to ensure you cross the entire field of Chaos Storm. This will give you the best odds of gaining speed.

Take the Torch, Decoy and Mass Invis as well for travel. Invis helps keep you out of combat which means you run full speed.

Thanks Vexor, but as I already said: I don’t think workarounds like these are enough to keep up with other professions. Fact is that we’re at a serious disadvantage here in comparison, and nothing but the addition of dedicated out-of-combat-movement skills or traits for Mesmer will remedy that, I believe.

All we need is the Signet to work outside of combat again. That was ok then, we had Blink + random Swiftness.

I have:

- Focus 4
- Blink
- Illusory Persona + Vigor on Shatter

As a result, I have nearly permanent Vigor for high frequency dodge rolls, blink, and swiftness up half the time.

Good enough.

Kind of meh, but good enough.

This may be slightly off topic, but I’m a bit ashamed that you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Yes, we are somewhat lacking in the map mobility department the way you describe it, but we have a lot of other strengths, and the point that a lot of us were making is that if not being mobile in a city is what really kills you, you CAN work around it. It just seems like you don’t want to put in the effort and you want Anet to fix it for you and make it easy.

As far as maps with mobs or events, we may not be as fast, but we’re just as successful when it comes to getting around and surviving.

I don’t think we need any sort of speed buffs.

I’d like to randomly point out that, for the purposes of DEs, Mesmers are the #1 best class at tagging distant mobs since GS1 has an instant 1200 range attack. No projectiles, pure win. Not sure if Necros might have a 1200 range instant one though. I think Eles are shorter range … but I’m pretty ignorant, so maybe not.

The only speed boosts I’m aware of on our weapons other than the focus one are Spear 2 and Spear 4.

And of course, the downside is that they’re underwater.

On the bright side, Straits of Desolation was pretty easy to explore.

Temariah.9372:

This may be slightly off topic, but I’m a bit ashamed that you’re making a mountain out of a molehill. Yes, we are somewhat lacking in the map mobility department the way you describe it, but we have a lot of other strengths, and the point that a lot of us were making is that if not being mobile in a city is what really kills you, you CAN work around it. It just seems like you don’t want to put in the effort and you want Anet to fix it for you and make it easy.

As far as maps with mobs or events, we may not be as fast, but we’re just as successful when it comes to getting around and surviving.

I don’t think we need any sort of speed buffs.

You’re absolutely right: I just don’t WANT to work around it with heavy specialization in traits, equipment and weapon choice it when NO OTHER profession has to.

And as I said before, faster movement out of combat is something else entirely than dodging or surviving encounters in my view. The first one is a general utility skill which all professions but us have in some way – the second one is related to combat.

And to digress a little as well, if only to illustrate why the movement issue is only the tip of the iceberg to me, but still the most visible part of it: I just don’t see these strengths of ours, anyway. All I see is having to put in a lot more work and specialization in order to be just barely as effective in specific PvE areas (survivability? movement? damage?) as other professions are all around, all the time – while still taking a lot longer to take down mobs in PvE, no matter how optimal skill and trait combinations get.
Yes, we’re for some reason called a “support profession” (unofficially, by the way – according to ANet, every profession can fill any role). But even if we were mainly there for support, that shouldn’t mean that we are at a huge disadvantage when soloing PvE or – just like Aimeryan described it above – slowing down and annoying those who play with us.

Endolex, that actually is a good point.

Other classes seem to have it easy to get movement speed boosts, while we do not. Elementalists alone can get a 5-point trait and a Signet to boost their speeds.

We just merely get a trait that boosts our speed dependent on the number of clones up. Something that doesn’t happen out of combat. Worse, are some boss fights were Kiting is the preferred strategy, but we lack a good way to do so.

So maybe a Signet with a passive ability to improve our Mesmer’s movement speed as well as the movement speed of the illusions? So we can slot that, if we keep running into people that out pace the Shatters constantly.

I was all set to complain about this, and then I tried out the other offhands. Don’t write off your whirly friend so soon! The focus goes a long way towards helping out on all three of your problems: survivability, movement, and damage.

Also, and this might go without saying, but: whenever I get into a slump where it feels like it’s taking me forever to kill enemies, it’s because the last time I upgraded my weapons was twenty levels ago.

I think that mesmer is fine for everything other than out of combat movement speed and only because you -need- to have a focus to keep up. It’s kind of limiting for things like WvW or sPvP where I don’t really want to be messing around with menus to not have to have a focus on swap for combat, since I only wanted it for out of combat movement speed boosters.

Still, I don’t really think it should be ‘fixed’ with another signet the way you want. Mesmer gets a ton of things other classes don’t have and if we start playing ‘but I want it for this class too’ mesmer would end up the worst in the long run. As people have said, mesmer gets the edge on stealth, -instant movement- for entire parties and confusion.

If anything, let the illusionary celerity trait or whatever give an out of combat movement speed buff.

I’ve been having the same problem, my ability to get around the map is frustratingly slow compared to many others who seem to have decently accessible means of being swift/covering a lot of ground.
I understand that some profs are just more or less agile/fast/mobile/w.e than others, but I think that should be more of a spec limitations instead of a limitation for an entire profession (less you use some contrived way of doing it, as suggested in this thread).
Really, just one extra utility skill or something we can throw in as an option for when we need to cover lots of ground would be enough. Let the ‘illusionary leap’ clone be usable without a target, then we could send it ahead and swap with it, or another swiftness granting utility skill.

I suppose it comes down to “you can’t have everything”, but when the thing we don’t have is causing us to be too slow to keep up with friends, it can be really frustrating.

I don’t know whats worse, the responses telling you to use all your rune slots and traits to get swiftness or the ones saying it doesn’t matter because Mesmers have lots of tools in combat.

Every single class except the Mesmer either has easy access to swiftness, permanent access to swiftness or a some passive to increase speed. Some classes have all 3. Are you really telling me that all the non Mesmer classes are paying for that by being useless in combat? No of course not because Mesmer is also one of the worst classes in general PvE as well.

Have people here actually played WvWvW? Getting around those maps can be painful , even when you have perma swiftness. Why should Mesmer have the worst movement just because when it finally gets there (presuming the fighting hasn’t ended) it can spam out some clones that will die before they even render or throw up an invisibility that won’t protect them from the amount of aoe flying everywhere?

Stop crying about nothing, Mesmer is a burst movment class with some of the most OP downed state in the game, you dont have perma swiftness because you have instant 900 range boost, guess whats going to save you in PVP, swiftness that gets cut in half in pvp or stealth + clone + 900 range teleport?

Id rather be more slippery in combat than just have more out of combat movment, if anything they should be complaining about us

I can understand where the OP is coming from, but since the game is called Guild Wars, I always run around the WvW lakes with my guild. With a guardian, my own focus(its actually pretty awesome in wvw) and an ele, I’m running at 33% + speed out of combat the whole time. synergy is the key. having played (@Levetty) in WvW (every night) its all about groups, and its all about your group working together. I would rather spec and have abilities setup so that when we get into combat I bring a world of mass confusion, and have the guild/group working together to make sure we all get there before the fight is over.

@Lawbringer: A range boost does exactly nothing to alleviate slower exploration. How often do I need to write that I’m NOT talking about combat? Apples and oranges! Besides, the thief is a ‘burst movement’ class as well – AND gets a lot of out-of-combat speed bonuses. As do all other professions but the Mesmer.

@Kylia: Sorry, but I don’t want Mesmer to be the only profession who has to rely on other players in order to get around the map quickly.

In general: I’m largely talking about PvE here. I don’t care much for PvP, neither WvWvW nor sPvP. We’re seriously underpowered in PvE, in my experience (having tried every other profession with a much better results). Because being somewhat better at surviving or dodging encounters doesn’t help me to be effective at clearing PvE content. We’re the slowest by far in that field, and not only because of our movement handicap.

Lawbringer.1956:

Stop crying about nothing, Mesmer is a burst movment class with some of the most OP downed state in the game, you dont have perma swiftness because you have instant 900 range boost, guess whats going to save you in PVP, swiftness that gets cut in half in pvp or stealth + clone + 900 range teleport?

So you haven’t read the thread but still felt like making a reply?

Ok.

I would really there is only one fix needed:

1. Reactivate Signet of Inspiration outside combat. Nothing about it – or the way any other signet works – indicates this should not work outside combat for “balance reasons”.
2. Disable the voice quips for this Signet’s buffs only, outside combat only. This alleviates the beta problem with it. Although tbh, between the voiceover “spam” and it just not working, I prefer the extra quips.

@Carighan: Although think that would be a step in the right direction it wouldn’t really solve the problem, but be more like additional icing on the non-existent cake.
There’d still be no traits or dedicated Signets for ooc-movement, and I don’t really like to depend on random boons for something other professions can do reliably. :/

Personally I think the Signet that extends boon duration should be changed to increase speed by about 15% or so. Sure we can spam out boons but only one or two last long enough for that signet to actually do anything to it (infact I think all the signets can use a tweaking so that we can get a proper signet build instead of a just a bunch of filler skills). Then change sword number 3 so that the Mesmer actually jumps forward, because even when the skill does work its still clunky and ineffective.

Combined with focus those 2 should at least give us something to work with.

I also never understood disabling Signet of Inspiration outside of combat because of the voice spam when Mantras are much worse about it. But everything about Mantras is awful so whatever.

Levetty.1279:

But everything about Mantras is awful so whatever.

Getting off topic, but: Yes, agreed. :/

the ranger glyph is only 10%. you can hardly tell a difference with it on or off. on my ranger in orr i generally equip the condition removing glyph and two traps because our pets don’t actually tank anything – risen ignore attempts to tank them and run after the nearest player. so, lots of traps.

therefore i rely on warhorn to get me around, just like the focus line of death

thieves are the masters of exploring. stealth, teleports from shortbow limited only by initiative and a 25% speed signet, and no clones keeping them in combat after they stealth.

while still taking a lot longer to take down mobs in PvE, no matter how optimal skill and trait combinations get.

Uh, don’t be bad. Complaining about moving across the map is one thing — that’s an area Mesmers are actually a little underpar at, not that anyone really cares (hint: use a waypoint). Complaining that Mesmers take a long time to kill stuff is basically all on you.

EasymodeX.4062:

while still taking a lot longer to take down mobs in PvE, no matter how optimal skill and trait combinations get.

Uh, don’t be bad. Complaining about moving across the map is one thing — that’s an area Mesmers are actually a little underpar at, not that anyone really cares (hint: use a waypoint). Complaining that Mesmers take a long time to kill stuff is basically all on you.

1. Great idea, waypoints! Why didn’t I think of that? Probably because I was talking about getting to Waypoints faster in order to activate them in the first place! And please speak only for you in terms of what people care about. Several replies here tell me that several people do care about this issue.

2. Agreed – the inherently sub-par damage in PvE for Mesmers is worth another thread. Coming soon.

Oh no, it’s going to take you another 20 seconds to activate that waypoint! Not that it matters, because you are typically fighting mobs on your way there, so your other abilities like Blink will cool down anyways.

Nothing but bads commiserating with bads.

EasymodeX.4062:

Oh no, it’s going to take you another 20 seconds to activate that waypoint! Not that it matters, because you are typically fighting mobs on your way there, so your other abilities like Blink will cool down anyways.

Nothing but bads commiserating with bads.

‘Typically’, large parts of the map can can be covered without encountering any mobs. Otherwise there’d no reason for out of combat movement boosts to even exist for other professions, would there? So either they don’t really need them or Mesmers should get some, too. Some balancing is called for in each case.
And it’s not about 20 seconds (which I’d find horrible enough) – it’s about seeing and playing other professions who breeze around at their leasure while you feel like hauling dead weight. To compare this with certain other MMORPGs: This is the equivalent of playing the only class that can’t use a mount.

It is kinda annoying to have to run at 0% bonus movement speed without being cornered into carrying a specific weapon combination. On all my other characters, I can trait a passive or signet a passive for at least 10% bonus movespeed permanently. This is especially terrible to watch with a Norn Mesmer, because even the movement animation makes it seem like you’re slowly tip toeing around the place rather than actually trying to get somewhere.

People here who come to this thread just to bash other players for complaining about it are completely disregarding the fact that may be we want to actually KEEP UP with our friends or allies we’re playing with, who all get to have movespeed passives EXCEPT us mesmer players. I’m getting tired of the blatant rudeness and bullying going around in this community, but whatever.

Mesmers need a movespeed passive like all other 7 professions. Why should your friends and allies HAVE to constantly wait on you because it’s impossible to keep up with a flat, permanent movespeed that you can’t get? Imagine a mesmer and thief trying to complete a map together. Thieves get a permanent 25% movespeed passive, Mesmers get zilch. That thief will just get tired of playing with the mesmer, the mesmer will probably end up giving up and changing professions at this point!

Out-of-combat Movespeed is a bigger advantage than people think. Time = money/exp. The faster you can get from point A to point B, especially on a map you haven’t unlocked all the waypoints on yet, the faster you can harvest resource nodes, the faster you can reach a dynamic event to actually get credit before it ends, the faster you can complete heart tasks which usually involve a lot of moving around.

Like someone else said in this thread, their friend was not only getting 100% completion faster, but was able to farm more and make more money or materials for crafting, easily able to outlevel and outprogress the mesmer in every way.

Thieves actually have to use up a utility slot for that 25%.

I get around WvW just fine; as fast or faster than other classes. And that’s somewhere that movespeed actually matters.

That said, are you also advocating to nerf Mesmer water movement? kitten

In addition, the initial unlock is generally the least amount of time you’ll spend in any zone that matters, with the exception of 100% exploration clears.

Boo hoo.

Where did I say anything about water movement? Don’t even think about starting to belittle me like you did the others in the thread already. If you have nothing truly constructive to say, then go away because your arrogant attitude is not wanted or helpful.

EasymodeX.4062:

Oh no, it’s going to take you another 20 seconds to activate that waypoint! Not that it matters, because you are typically fighting mobs on your way there, so your other abilities like Blink will cool down anyways.

Nothing but bads commiserating with bads.

Yeah Its quite obvious you don’t play this game wit the possible exception of sPvP so why are you even replying to this thread.

Please leave so fans of the game can have an actual conversation.

Hello? A large portion of maps are water?

Mesmers have the fastest movement underwater?

So let’s nerf Mesmer underwater movement since we’re buffing Mesmer over-land movement because all the classes have to move at the same speed, or else players will have their entire gameplay experience ruined?

If you don’t want to be belittled, then start acting like you can think without me having to do it for you.

Again, players such as EasymodeX is missing the argument at hand.

No one denies the fact that you can complete 100% map exploration, play with friends, etc… as a Mesmer. If your character only had one leg and had to walk at 50% of normal walking speed you could still be useful in WvW.

But the fact that every class is allowed a passive, singular slotted skill for increased movement speed out of combat EXCEPT us is what concerns many people. Whether it be 10% or 20%, the other classes are given one that requires no weapon commitment.

Mesmer get Blink and Portal.

Can Rangers get Blink? Just saying, since we’re complaining about things we don’t have.

Where is the Warrior passive runspeed utility ability?

Do Guardians get passive runspeed utility? Do they get a Blink?

Hurr hurr.

“Every class”.

Rofl. I like it.

Ok, I’m tired of the condescending remarks, the insults, the arrogance. Seriously, stop it EasymodeX. You’re not helping anyone at all.

I’m tired of incessant and unwarranted whining about Mesmers.

Also the misinformation to boot.

I don’t care if you think what we’re saying is invalid, unwarranted or wrong. It doesn’t justify your overall attitude, arrogance, and the way you’re treating people.

Clearly there is something amiss because there’s a lot more of us saying that there’s something wrong with one profession missing a movement passive that the others get in some shape or form (be it signet or trait..). You’re basically the only person disagreeing, but the problem is.. you’re being a huge JERK in the way you’re disagreeing. Every post you made so far insults others, aims to boost your own ego, and is throwing around pure sarcastic remarks as if you’re the best thing since sliced bread. Guess what buddy, you’re not. So cut it out.