How is there a 32% chance at getting no aegis? Unless the distribution of odds isn’t even among the boons, I do wonder how you’re arriving at that conclusion.
A special form of wizardry that Iike to call ‘simple math’, though I actually did math slightly wrong. The real chance is 26.2%.
PU can choose from aegis, might, swiftness, protection, or regeneration. That means that every time a boon is granted, there is a 4/5 chance (or .8) that it will not be aegis. 6 second stealth means 6 boons are given. .8^6 = .262, or 26.2% chance.
A player can plan his moves perfectly and know exactly where an opposing mesmer is, time his attacks based on cooldown cycles, etc., and have his plans to counter the mesmer’s stealth and possibly the rest of his future-planned moves, get shut down by RNG.
This is so completely false, I’m not even sure where to start. Countering a bursty build has nothing to do with killing them in stealth. It has everything to do with predicting the burst and avoiding it. If you know where they are and what they’re doing, then it’s child’s play to avoid the burst.
As you said, since the trait is still good because of the stealth, and my complaints are about the boons, and not about the stealth at all, why are you defending the boons?
I discussed the boons because you made laughably incorrect claims about them. I wanted to make a point.
Single-target skills hit the first target connecting with the weapon’kittenbox. Even if the real mesmer is targeted, a clone-on-dodge or any clone on the side swung by will absorb the hit in full.
No, that’s only true for a projectile attack. A true single target attack, say corrupt boon, backstab, or many others don’t actually have a real hitbox at all, they simply apply the effect on the target.
The teleport is blink? As a utility, it’s the lowest-cooldown ground-target teleport in the game.
Uh.
Yes, Infil Arrow has no cooldown
Lol.
but realistically speaking, outside of back-capping or just running away from combat, this ability isn’t used in combat situations as a reposition for subsequent attacks or damage.
No, this is absolutely false. SB5 is used for repositioning in combat, and general mobility whenever necessary. You can’t just say ‘oh, this ability isn’t actually used’. That’s ridiculous, of course it’s used, and used well.
Dire isn’t mathematically the best PvP set ever designed? Sub-optimal? Are you kidding me?
No, it’s not. And no, I’m not kidding you. Dire is suboptimal on any condition class that relies heavily on critical strikes, and that includes mesmer.
They removed this set from sPvP because it was so overpowered on every single class.
This is a lie. The set never was added to PvP, it was never removed.
They did the same for perplexity.
This too is a lie. Perplexity runes were never added to PvP, not removed.
Are you new or something and have no idea what the history of the game is or how to optimize for PvP? —snips random ad hominems and incoherent grousing--
I’m quite aware of how stats work in PvP, and how to optimize builds. I do have what might be considered a fairly extensive amount of experience and credibility on that topic.
T1 might have enough keep-campers to sweep out a few mesmers. Otherwise, though, it’s widely considered as breaking WvW defense at the moment.
Really, widely considered as breaking WvW defense? That’s amusing. There’s a lot of things people consider as widely breaking WvW defense (arrow carts, facerubbing doors, various other mechanics), but mesmers are not one of them. If they were really that bad, you’d see threads about it. There’s only one thread, and it’s on the third page.
Except mesmers in organized play are a thing. Not in sPvP (okay, it is being abused in HJ by a few (I’m looking at you, and you know who you are :P)), but obviously cele ele facerolling is much better there when the format prevents so many builds from being viable due to innate stat problems. I know of many guilds who run three to five mesmers partied to maintain permanent stealth within a keep or SMC, chain-portaling inside, etc. Some go as far as suggesting a boon duration build for maximizing aegis uptime as to allow for them to be unhittable from a single attack from a sweep from PU. Unless you get a lot of guards sweeping a large area, you’re not going to find remotely good mesmers. Any mesmer getting swept is just sub-par. A guildmate of mine is renowned on our server for always being inside SMC and never being swept out despite our enemy’s best efforts.
Competent enemies will always find a mesmer. You can use engies with lock on, stealth disruptor traps, or simply just watch for the prestige explosions which, as I mentioned earlier, are seen regardless of stealth. I’ve never had issues finding mesmers stealthing in my keeps, but that might just be because I’m good at this game shrugs.
In conclusion
You’re wrong again.
Indeed, 32% is quite different from 26.2%. Apparently the "special form of wizardry called “simple math”" was too difficult for you the first time around. I understand you think you’re good at this game and thus think you are more knowledgeable than I, but please, do consider not being so condescending when you are blatantly wrong on things like mathematics which aren’t even up for debate.
In the other 73.8%, you’re getting one or more aegis procs lasting half or more of the stealth’s duration. Against a single-target hit for counter-play or burst, forced de-stealth via CC, etc., the odds of acquiring aegis increase tremendously as the fight progresses. It effectively nullifies counter-stealth tactics, which, if you have ever played a thief, are declared as being CC and burst, be it single target or AoE. With clones, obviously the AoE is more preferential. We can then of course look over the variable duration of stealth and its effects, as well as possible outcomes for individual cases of aegis or other burst-counter boons such as protection, their durations, chances of occurring, uptime, etc., but I feel like that’s too much math for this thread.
Your statements regarding countering a bursty build are not responses to what I mentioned; from the text, I read this as though you are talking about avoiding damage from a stealthed power mesmer. I am not talking about avoiding damage from a power shatter PU build.
I am talking about actually shutting one down by killing it, and as any stealth build is countered, that comes from learning how to kill it in stealth, which is genuinely the only thing that matters in both PvP and WvW; if a guard build was discovered with 100% damage immunity uptime incapable of dealing damage, we would see PvP comps be five guards; similarly, if stealthed targets could flip points in sPvP, we’d only see teams of thieves and mesmers running stealth uptime-builds. We’d also see roaming squads of five of said guards because the entire tactical purpose of roaming is flipping small camps and diverting attention away from objectives, fights, etc. It’d also probably be the most potent dueling build in the game, as it would exhaust resources and allow for strikes eventually or just simply never lose. PU’s boons’ unpredictability makes the mesmer difficult to shut down through intelligent counterplay or simply out-smarting them on principle that the mitigation is effectively completely random with no real indicator as to what can be performed. Even if the mesmer reveals himself for a very brief period of time, and the boons on him are recorded, within the timefame of a second, any plans of mitigation may or may not be futile in various ways with no ways of knowing which ones are. Beyond one second, the possibilities are further limited.
In regards to my comment on IArrow, you didn’t read the rest of the sentence. It is not a good enabler, and has the obvious setbacks compared to blink of not being a stunbreak, 900 range, subsequent worse limitations on climbing terrain, consumes global cooldown resources, etc. I know you probably think it’s a really good skill, because shortbow used to counter the mesmer as a whole through CBomb and the AoE auto, but any thief worth his salt playing D/P will not use IArrow as a reposition tool during combat to enable a damage sequence (AKA, switching from shortbow) because he will not have the initiative to reliably commit to a fight again unless the intention is an outright execution, in which case CBomb could have been used initially, or shortbow not at all and just spammed 2 or 3. It is used and it is useful for repositions, but only on the defensive, which is what I said above.
As far as dire goes, yes, it is sub-optimal on classes that rely on crits for conditions… when playing for condition damage. Fortunately for PU condi mesmer, it isn’t really reliant on crits. It uses one trait, which nets the worst DoT condition in the game at the moment for a very short duration. Not exactly build-defining, here. Actually, pretty much every single highly-rated condi roam build suggested for the mesmer uses dire gear. Mathematically, Soldier’s and Dire gear have been proven as the most optimal sets in the game in terms of damage dealt vs damage taken on all builds except the D/D elementalist due to boon acquisition offsetting these gains. It does less damage, yes, and I said that in my initial post, but the PvP-effectiveness has proven to be bar-none, especially in a build focused entirely on sustaining presence in a long fight.
Dire and Perplexity made it into the test server for PvP and internally. Dire was shut down almost immediately and its plans to be released in sPvP canned due to its blatantly overpowered stat distribution with no real way to make it fair aside from just reducing numbers, which then just made it sub-optimal no matter what, and PU went through several iterations with a planned release in the initial game on 4/15/14. Results from the test server and community theorycrafting from those on not on the test server created a huge outrage that proved mathematically that the runes, even in post-nerf state, were too powerful for the live game and would destruct the format as a whole.
As far as WvW goes, it’s a frequent complaint in-game. Much less pressing than bad/stale matchups, server population issues, siege bugs, etc., but one nonetheless. You also have some people happy because of it since they get to ktrain offensively and not need to worry about defensive measures since it’s likely going to be mesmer portaled, anyways. I know I’ve personally stealth-recapped a tower with another mesmer on my own against a group of about sixty or so trying to bunker in and fortify for a keep treb attempt, and with all of the people there, you’d expect one would notice or hit us from the mobility skills and sweep attempts provided.
But whatever. Like you said, PU doesn’t need the boons, and that’s what my claim is which is making it so ridiculous. I could care less about the stealth, but apparently any disagreement with you makes me deficient at math and an unskilled player.
