Guild Wars 2

This thread contains all content relating to the Mesmerized podcast. The most recent podcast can be found in the answer. Feel free to ask questions or discuss anything you want about the podcasts here.

4/20 – Shan, Pyro and Chaos discuss and demonstrate at great length the changes in the April feature pack from both a Mesmer’s and non Mesmer perspective. This is a big one, covering nearly every feature of the feature pack, and going over every change affecting mesmer.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-episode-23/

Past episodes can be found here: http://sittingonacouch.com/podcast/guildwars2/mesmer-gw2/

The podcast stream can be found here: twitch.tv/soacgaming

The next podcast will go live on Sunday, May 4th, at 6:30 pm EST.

This week Shan and Chaos talked with Kaiyanwan about the new ascended armor, Mesmers in PvE, and the new content from the recent patch.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-advanced-mesmerics-episode/

Past episodes can be found here:
http://sittingonacouch.com/podcast/guildwars2/mesmer-gw2/

The podcast stream can be found here: twitch.tv/soacgaming

The next podcast will go live on Sunday, December 29th, at 6:30 pm EST.

At long last, our podcast is up. Shan and myself handed out some year-end awards for both stinking and shining.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-episode-16-mesmer-awards-2013/

Past episodes can be found here: http://sittingonacouch.com/podcast/guildwars2/mesmer-gw2/

The podcast stream can be found here: twitc.tv/soacgaming

The next podcast will go live on Sunday, January 12th, at 6:30 pm EST. Our guest will be Sensotix.

Very entertaining. Though the comment on confusion being such a terrible nerf in pvp/wvw I can’t agree with.

Quick Ver:
Confusion is easily viable/effective in pvp/wvw still, even after the nerf. It would be entirely overpowered in pvp/wvw if it did the same damage listed on the skill while in pve.

Slight Rant:
I can constantly keep 10+(150dmg/s per) stacks on an individual and 2-5 stacks aoe, even more if others are firing through ethereal fields or if you/group have chaos armor. Add that on top of several bleeds and 5 stacks of torment 1v1 in most cases ends up relatively easy. Even in a team situation it tends to slow opponents effected by the fields down from using skills which gives your team/group time to burst them down.

SnubFighter.7613:

Very entertaining. Though the comment on confusion being such a terrible nerf in pvp/wvw I can’t agree with.

Quick Ver:
Confusion is easily viable/effective in pvp/wvw still, even after the nerf. It would be entirely overpowered in pvp/wvw if it did the same damage listed on the skill while in pve.

Slight Rant:
I can constantly keep 10+(150dmg/s per) stacks on an individual and 2-5 stacks aoe, even more if others are firing through ethereal fields or if you/group have chaos armor. Add that on top of several bleeds and 5 stacks of torment 1v1 in most cases ends up relatively easy. Even in a team situation it tends to slow opponents effected by the fields down from using skills which gives your team/group time to burst them down.

Well, confusion has always been nerfed in PvP. In WvW though, there were lots of interesting glamour builds/variants that were strong and effective in large scale fighting. The confusion nerf completely neutered those.

Keeping 10 stacks on 1 person isn’t actually possible unless they’re either afk or actively dodging back and forth over glamour fields as much as possible, especially since perplexity runes don’t actually add duration. Other than glamours/confusing images, all mesmer confusion is very low duration, so keeping any sort of reasonable stacks on someone is almost impossible.

Not trying to argue, just want to share that it can actually work. By all means correct me if I am missing something. In my last post I picked the wrong word “constantly” meant to use Consistently.

It takes effort, however it isn’t impossible to stack 10 on 1 person and restack 10 if the battle lasts that long.

Minimal Relevant PvP Traits/Runes:
Runes of Nightmare
20 Dom(20% condition duration)
10 Illu (Master of Misdirection)

Stack Options:

• iMage(3 stacks) 4.75s
• Chaos Armor(possibility for 1 stack) 3s
  • Not sure if this gains condition duration
• Glamour fields(1 stack per enter/exit) 6.5s
• iDuelist(Usually 2 stacks via ethereal field)
  • Can’t find info on base duration but I’ m betting no more than 4.75s like the other skills.
• Magic Bullet(1 stack via ethereal field)
  • Likely the same as above.
• Confusing Images(5 stacks) 8.25s
• Cry of Fustration(2 stacks per clone staggered) 4.75s
• Other Shatters(1 stack per clone staggered) 4.75s

Our latest podcast is finally up. All 3 of us discuss the potential changes to the Berserker meta, what that means for mesmer, and the best way to go about bringing more diversity to PvE.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-ep-17-berzerk-theories/

Past episodes can be found here: http://sittingonacouch.com/podcast/guildwars2/mesmer-gw2/

The podcast stream can be found here: twitc.tv/soacgaming

The next podcast will go live on Sunday, January 26th, at 6:30 pm EST.

Is there any way to be able to see and listen to all of the episodes using Downcast? I use it for other podcasts that I love, to keep track of new episodes and listen to old ones. Unfortunately I can only see nine episodes of SOAC on it…

msalakka.4653:

Is there any way to be able to see and listen to all of the episodes using Downcast? I use it for other podcasts that I love, to keep track of new episodes and listen to old ones. Unfortunately I can only see nine episodes of SOAC on it…

Which 9 do you see?

Pyroatheist.9031:

msalakka.4653:

Is there any way to be able to see and listen to all of the episodes using Downcast? I use it for other podcasts that I love, to keep track of new episodes and listen to old ones. Unfortunately I can only see nine episodes of SOAC on it…

Which 9 do you see?

Hey, thanks for replying. I see the following:

Arrow to the knee – ep 11
Mesmer awards – ep 16
But of corpse – ep 39
Advanced mesmerics – ep 15
But of corpse – ep 38
But of corpse – ep 37
Phat loots – ep 14
But of corpse – ep 36
Mesmerized – ep 12

msalakka.4653:

Pyroatheist.9031:

msalakka.4653:

Is there any way to be able to see and listen to all of the episodes using Downcast? I use it for other podcasts that I love, to keep track of new episodes and listen to old ones. Unfortunately I can only see nine episodes of SOAC on it…

Which 9 do you see?

Hey, thanks for replying. I see the following:

Arrow to the knee – ep 11
Mesmer awards – ep 16
But of corpse – ep 39
Advanced mesmerics – ep 15
But of corpse – ep 38
But of corpse – ep 37
Phat loots – ep 14
But of corpse – ep 36
Mesmerized – ep 12

Alrighty, I’ll look into it for you. Thanks for letting me know.

Enjoyed the podcast. Although, those unaligned names on the pic make me itchy *cough.

Is this a thread where you’d like to see a discussion or would you prefer me sharing my thoughts somewhere else? Wanted to ask in advance since I tend to make long posts.

Feel free to share your thoughts here. (And trust me I know about how it sounds like my mic is down my throat sometimes X_x)

Yey!

I think everyone knows that zerker gear is most prominent because encounters usually work best when just bursting down monsters and most ciritcal damage can be dodged. The issues are the encounters themselves and the way conditions work in PvE. Also, right now most bosses do not require a real group effort. I thought about some things which might change this and result in zerker gear being less mandatory. However, they are not Mesmer-focussed.

Damage stacking condition in PvE

The cap on stacks limits the damage output of conditions in PvE and also means that having more than one condition class in the party is a waste. While do think that those caps should be kept, there should be a benefit when reaching the cap. So what about “overcharging” condition stacks?

• Each stack which exceeds the cap will cause direct damage
• The direct damage is determined by the stack which was “overcharged”
• The direct damage scales with the condition damage of the caster

This would apply to Bleed, Confusion and Torment. While not that interesting when fighting trash mobs this certainly would make conditions more attractive against stronger mobs or bosses. It also makes having more than one condition class per party more attractive. It would also hopefully not have a negative impact on PvP or WvW. Otherwise this feature could just be disabled there.

Of course, Confusion still needs a rework. I remain a fan of making it comparable to Torment. It could deal 25-50% of its damage per second like bleed and 100% when activating a skill. This small change could help it becoming less laughable against mobs.

Duration stacking conditions in PvE

The recent new worm encounter got me thinking. GW2 vastly underuses mechanics like resistances to certain damage types. So what if monsters would receive less direct damage as long it is not affected by a certain condition. For example:

• Brackish Skale
• Characteristic (Buff): Hydration.
• Damp skin reduces incomming direct damage by 10-20%.
• Hydration is active as long as the mob is not burned.

Those characteristics could be used for Burn, Poison and maybe Chill and could work on trash mobs as well as on boss mobs. While it does not improve condition damage it would promote group play and diverse builds per party in PvE.

Defiance

Tricky topic. I do believe that they should not remove it because too many encounters would have to reworked if enemies suddenly became susceptable to stuns and knockbacks. However, there should be a benefit when using those skills. At least when successfully interrupting although Defiance is still active. This could also be achieved through monster characteristics (defiance mobs only). For example:

Clumsy
Receives extra damage when interrupted.

Insecure
Affected by Weakness for 3s when interrupted.

Hot tempered
Gains Fury and 10 stacks of Vulnerability for 3s when interrupted.

Boss encounters in general

Most boss fights rely on burst and one-hit-kill mechanics which make zerker gear even more prominent. I believe that there are several things which could be done to make condition builds and supportive more important. You already mentioned phases of direct damage immunities. This would promote conditions builds a lot. It doesn’t even have to be a whole phase. Stance like skills used by bosses might be sufficient. Also, bosses should use more consistent lower but undodgeable area damage instead of dodgeable damage spikes. As a result, zerkers will die because of lacking vitality. Or you will have to bring an actual healer. Of course, pets/minions got to be excluded from this sort of damage to remain viable.

Interesting ideas Xaylin.

@Condition Overstacking: That would definitely go a long way towards making condition builds more viable, but I’m not convinced it would make them optimal damage-wise. Even assuming 25 stacks of bleed + burning, you’d still do less than a zerker warrior, so I think other tweaks need to be made. That would be a good baseline though.

@Duration stacking conditions: As you mentioned, these really wouldn’t change how condition builds play at all. That being said, it’s a very interesting mechanic, and any interesting PvE mechanic is sorely needed in this game.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Interesting ideas Xaylin.

@Condition Overstacking: That would definitely go a long way towards making condition builds more viable, but I’m not convinced it would make them optimal damage-wise. Even assuming 25 stacks of bleed + burning, you’d still do less than a zerker warrior, so I think other tweaks need to be made. That would be a good baseline though.

Yeah, it is more of a baseline change to make conditions viable in PvE. I believe that there is no point in increasing the damage of conditions in PvE when there are basic mechanics which hinder the damage and build diversity in general (e.g. stack caps). This change won’t make conditions as powerful as zerker Warriors. But in combination with the other changes (e.g. “Hydration” and a stronger focus on sustained damage in boss fights) pure zerker parties will become less attractive despite zerker Warriors having the highest damage. Because they will have to rely on condition or support classes to actually deal their damage.

Besides that, it would really come down to how powerful this overcharge effect would be. It could be up to par with zerker damage if it was just strong enough. While one condition class alone might not overcharge frequently enough, two players probably could.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@Duration stacking conditions: As you mentioned, these really wouldn’t change how condition builds play at all. That being said, it’s a very interesting mechanic, and any interesting PvE mechanic is sorely needed in this game.

Yup. Again, it won’t change the condition builds a lot. But the environment. Direct damage will be less appealing. Those mob characteristics could be implemented with different levels. E.g. Hydration 1 = 10% damage reduction (trash mobs) or Hydration 5 = 50% damage reduction (boss mobs). While you do not have to play a condition build to keep those conditions up it will certainly make people reconsider their weapon and gear choice and hopefully also change group settings.

Just imagine a 1 Mesmer and 4 Warrior set up. They will face enemies with Hydration. It might not matter against trash mobs but you will need it against Hydration 5 on the boss mob. Of course, Warriors could pick up a bow. But if they want to keep up the burning at least one Warriors would be stuck with the longbow. He won’t deal a lot of damage if he was wearing zerker gear. Even if running a condition gear his damage might not be that impressive. Alternatively, they might actually replace at least one Warrior with a Guardian, Elementalist or Engineer. Or maybe a Trap Ranger. The Mesmer might use a Staff in PvE instead of a GS. Or even the Torch. Hydration already mixes up the group constellation quite a bit. Now imagine a dungeon which requires Burn and Poison.

Each mob characteristic will favour other classes than the boring all-zerker-warriors-sprinkled-with-occasional-mesmer-or-guardian meta. Rangers and Engineers will certainly become more attractive since they can provide all the respective conditions (Burn, Poison and Chill). You might also see more Elementalists. Thieves would finally be used for more than just skipping passages.

While I do not mind Warriors receiving the short end of the stick here, I got to admit that I’m sad that this also is the case for the Mesmer. I couldn’t come up with a solution so far. Although a buff to the Torch and removing Vulnerability from Staff#1 would certainly help.

01/26/14 – Shan, Chaos and Pyro discuss hints and tips for the wurm and marionette content as well as review the potential impact of the sigil, rune and trait changes from the Anet live stream of 17th Jan 2014.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-episode-18-mesmer-puppets/

Past episodes can be found here: http://sittingonacouch.com/podcast/guildwars2/mesmer-gw2/

The podcast stream can be found here: twitc.tv/soacgaming

The next podcast will go live on Sunday, February 9th, at 6:30 pm EST.

msalakka.4653:

Pyroatheist.9031:

msalakka.4653:

Is there any way to be able to see and listen to all of the episodes using Downcast? I use it for other podcasts that I love, to keep track of new episodes and listen to old ones. Unfortunately I can only see nine episodes of SOAC on it…

Which 9 do you see?

Hey, thanks for replying. I see the following:

Arrow to the knee – ep 11
Mesmer awards – ep 16
But of corpse – ep 39
Advanced mesmerics – ep 15
But of corpse – ep 38
But of corpse – ep 37
Phat loots – ep 14
But of corpse – ep 36
Mesmerized – ep 12

Ok, so apparently the podcasts before that were on a separate RSS feed that you would have to find. I’m not entirely sure how to find it, but I think it still exists.

I enjoy watching all of these. Thanks Pyrooo, Chaos, and Shan for making these podcast! You guys are such knowledgeable players for Mesmer. Please keep making these!

Ty! That is extremely encouraging. =D

Good these are still going – nice to chill out, listen and pick up any tips.

03/30/14 – In this episode of Mesmerized, Pyro and Shan discuss their honest evaluations of the new traits and balance changes coming out with the feature patch.

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-podcast-mesmerized-episode-21/

Past episodes can be found here: http://sittingonacouch.com/podcast/guildwars2/mesmer-gw2/

The podcast stream can be found here: twitc.tv/soacgaming

I really enjoyed this podcast from some really good Mesmer players and theorycrafters, especially the Mesmer traits hehe. Also, Pyro is the biggest troll Mesmer NA “Anet blew me away with these traits, but they blew me in the wrong direction” (and I thought pyro would have been happy once </3) LOL. Also Chaos, I use CI now instead of BD because its such a better trait haha (maybe if, like pyros suggestion, the trait worked per clone instead of a static boon BD would be better)

The trick to unlocking all the skins in PvP is to leave the zone and re-zone. I’ve heard that when you re-zone all the skins are there for you. Neither here nor there at this point I guess.

Also another comment, Pyro perpetually seems much lower in volume than Shan and Chaos.

Great podcast

skcamow.3527:

Also another comment, Pyro perpetually seems much lower in volume than Shan and Chaos.

Yeah, I was fighting with this the whole time.

Pyroathiest.4168:

skcamow.3527:

Also another comment, Pyro perpetually seems much lower in volume than Shan and Chaos.

Yeah, I was fighting with this the whole time.

Honestly it got better around 1:10:00 ish and you sounded like yourself again (yay).

Also about bountiful disillusionment, you actually get 3 stacks of might on cry of frustration (not one).

Obviously it doesn’t work per illusion, but if you are at least 5 into illusions for shattered strength you get an immediate 6 long lasting might stacks. I run runes of strength in addition and almost always proc an extra stack from them. It’s quite decent, but still in my testing so far not GM trait worthy.

Normalized volume for ep 23:

• http://www.mediafire.com/listen/za1m54pdb1uv8g7/

~ podcast talking about pve mesmers
~ three pvp’ers discussing the topic
~ bold claim about dungeon meta not being changed

lol

hendo.1940:

~ podcast talking about pve mesmers
~ three pvp’ers discussing the topic
~ bold claim about dungeon meta not being changed

lol

Tis a lie. I covered the crap with the mantras.

hendo.1940:

~ podcast talking about pve mesmers
~ three pvp’ers discussing the topic
~ bold claim about dungeon meta not being changed

lol

I wouldn’t class myself as a PvP Mesmer, esp as my new years podcast resolution was to play 3 SPvP matches this year

In terms of the dungeon meta, I think it’s probably more accurate to say it’s not changed yet and tbh unless we see more focus on support/denial it will still be whatever does the most damage the easiest and fastest

In terms of the dungeon meta, I think it’s probably more accurate to say it’s not changed yet

Except it has.

unless we see more focus on support/denial it will still be whatever does the most damage the easiest and fastest

Except it isn’t.

Sigh.

This post is exactly why it’s hard to take a podcast seriously when people are talking about things out of their depth. There was another mesmerized podcast discussing the berserker meta and “how to make support more relevant” and it had equally as clueless comments in it.

I’m not going to bother discussing this anymore and risk infraction, if you want clarification on what I’m talking about then just message me in-game.

hendo.1940:

~ podcast talking about pve mesmers
~ three pvp’ers discussing the topic
~ bold claim about dungeon meta not being changed

lol

Hey, no fair, all I did was ask questions and cry about Power Block!

hendo.1940:

In terms of the dungeon meta, I think it’s probably more accurate to say it’s not changed yet

Except it has.

unless we see more focus on support/denial it will still be whatever does the most damage the easiest and fastest

Except it isn’t.

Sigh.

This post is exactly why it’s hard to take a podcast seriously when people are talking about things out of their depth. There was another mesmerized podcast discussing the berserker meta and “how to make support more relevant” and it had equally as clueless comments in it.

I’m not going to bother discussing this anymore and risk infraction, if you want clarification on what I’m talking about then just message me in-game.

We can have a conversation about this in a thread without risking infractions. These kind of discussions are kinda … what the forums are supposed to be for.

What has the patched changed for Mesmers regarding the dungeon meta? Are there any Mesmer-specific threads currently? I’m gonna need to edit the Mes guide real soon anyways, so it’s good to know.

The main pre patch builds were 10/30/0/20/10 and 0/30/0/25/15 but now the new meta is 30/20/0/20/0 or 30/20/0/0/20 dependent on whether focus reflects are required or not. 30 in dueling does still have it’s niche, but is not really as much of a thing anymore. If you run a lazy 10/20/0/20/20 build (note – this is just a catch all build, dungeon guilds expect you to retrait on the fly if necessary) then the lack of empowering mantras opens up ether signet as heal so you can open the fight with triple phantasms. 30/x builds can take signet mastery too so they as well can use the ether sig heal if they choose to. Then there is how ferocity hits mesmers the hardest since reflects are so reliant on crits, and their reflect builds can’t even take the full 30 in dueling so they lose precision and critical damage. So basically, Mesmer went from bad tier to flat out trash tier and we hardly ever even bother running with a Mesmer unless they have unique utility for the instance. If you want to carry a pug which is the one thing Mesmer is decent at – just use a guard and do it better. Mesmers are at the verge of becoming the second necromancer of the dungeon meta.

hendo.1940:

The main pre patch builds were 10/30/0/20/10 and 0/30/0/25/15 but now the new meta is 30/20/0/20/0 or 30/20/0/0/20 dependent on whether focus reflects are required or not. 30 in dueling does still have it’s niche, but is not really as much of a thing anymore. If you run a lazy 10/20/0/20/20 build (note – this is just a catch all build, dungeon guilds expect you to retrait on the fly if necessary) then the lack of empowering mantras opens up ether signet as heal so you can open the fight with triple phantasms. 30/x builds can take signet mastery too so they as well can use the ether sig heal if they choose to. Then there is how ferocity hits mesmers the hardest since reflects are so reliant on crits, and their reflect builds can’t even take the full 30 in dueling so they lose precision and critical damage. So basically, Mesmer went from bad tier to flat out trash tier and we hardly ever even bother running with a Mesmer unless they have unique utility for the instance. If you want to carry a pug which is the one thing Mesmer is decent at – just use a guard and do it better. Mesmers are at the verge of becoming the second necromancer of the dungeon meta.

How is any of this relevant to changing the zerker meta and/or making support more relevant in dungeons?

This may just be me, but I am completely unable to locate the 5/4/2014 podcast(Episode 24). Could someone please link to it?

Kael.4538:

This may just be me, but I am completely unable to locate the 5/4/2014 podcast(Episode 24). Could someone please link to it?

Heya. That episode actually hasn’t been posted up yet. Our website moderator was out of town for a bit, so it’ll get up pretty soon. I’ll update this thread when it does.

While Pyro gets his account sorted out, here is the link to last weeks podcast in which pyro and I discuss and stream the festival of the four winds content and also how easy or difficult it is to level a Mesmer now…

http://sittingonacouch.com/guild-wars-2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-episode-24/

Since there’s no real content due until july and people are on vacation we’re taking a short hiatus until Sun 6th of July