Guild Wars 2

A simple thread for players to post when and how they have used the portal skill to good effect.

Motivation: Teach the community some good uses of Portal.

My experience: I don’t use the skill much. I’ve tried a couple times in dungeons to get my party around some tough spots. I haven’t used it at all when soloing in PvE. In WvW I’ve read about some tactics when defending a keep, however I slot other glamours because they feel more useful to me.

So let’s hear your stories (and maybe I’ll learn a thing or two…) Thanks!

I don’t use portal for just leveling in PvE, but for dungeons it can be quite nice. Did a dungeon with some friends, and one of them fell off of a platform and survived. So I dropped portal entre, jumped off after him, and placed portal exit. Saved the party time. Also useful for getting across trap rooms, place enter, blink, place exit, save your team some of the trouble.

Personally, even solo, I always use portal for vistas. Climb half way up (or until you think its getting risky) place the portal entre, and then if/when you fall, place portal exeunt so you can get straight back up, its like a second try

Favorite mesmer skill for “coolness” factor by far

Pretty useful in sPvP, not only for quickly traveling/point holding/treb defending but also as a fighting tool against melee classes and a stunbreak and a retreat mechanism, really powerful skill, as mesmers become more experienced you’re going to start seeing all mesmers with this skill on sPvP/tPvP.

WvW:

If we are defending a structure in WvW and we notice some smaller groups split up from the zerg trying to destroy our siege weapons from the sides, we can jump down, kill attackers and quickly portal back up before the main zerg bashing at our gate can focus us.

I’ve seen smaller group capping supply camp, killing dolyaks and porting out before our bigger group arrived to wipe the floor with them.

When a structure is going to fall because of the zerg, other players can leave, but mesmers will try to hide and after zerg leaves they can port the group waiting on the designated spot back to the keep bypassing the gate.

Portal is pretty situational and need a preparation and communication, but it can be very effective and it is soo easy to swap your utility skill for it when required. It is not that useful in scenarios like following a big random zerg, of course.

Jumping puzzles:

When you are facing a difficult part of the jumping puzzle you can use portal to make sure you are able to return back if you fail. When doing EB/borderlands puzzles with guildies you can make them love you by providing them portal right to the chest if they fail or join the fun later.

As a side note on using portal for jumping puzzles/vistas/whatever something some people don’t seem to realize is that your teammates can always use the exit instead of the entrance first. So if you’re already up somewhere, you can portal entre, jump down, then portal exeunt and everyone can get straight up. It can be used kind of like a bungee cord. I know that seems obvious, but if you don’t think of it, it makes a large difference.

I’m currently using it as a “kite” tool. I’m usually able to use it 2 or 3 times before it disappear(wish it actually lasted 20s..). In addition to Blink, makes me pretty movable. I haven’t PvP’d yet, but these 2 together are pretty sweet.

I didn’t think of the kite application for PvE mobs… I’m going to try that today and see how it plays.

So, we were about to lose our tower in a borderlands, because we were fighting 1v2 and had to execute a large defense at the keep.

The enemy had ~20 people in our tower moving up to the lord room.

Naturally, I’m already near the tower because I’m fast like that.

We had about 30 people incoming from the keep defense, but naturally 20 people versus lord >> 30 people at 2000 range away.

So I drop a portal on the wall under the lord room, and jump off the back of the tower to drop another portal in front of our incoming 30 people and spam “USE PORTAL” in /say (so they see the bubble over my head).

Some people got smashed in the lord room. I think they were mad.

I only ever use it to get party members out of places they get stuck in or to help someone get somewhere else (Like jumping puzzles). I never really find any use for it in PvE. I used it to trick a boss mob once because it was all I had equipped as I forgot to swap it but there’s other skills far more useful than the portal one.

In sPvP I’d favour various other abilities over the portal any day. I can see some uses for it for strategic advantages in sPvP tournaments and in WvW with a well coordinated team but even then…

It’s so incredibly situational that when you do find a moment it could be useful you probably have different more useful abilities already equipped. That’s just me though, I feel the ability is too gimmicky and could do with some reviewing.

Maybe make it invisible to enemies or barely visible. Make it last longer and increase distance a bit or make it so you can target the second portal (Like you would with blink but usable by multiple people) rather than moving yourself in order to place it. I don’t know… It just needs something.

Siege Golem can also use the portal.
So with some swiftness buffs on the mesmer you can move the Golem much faster from gate to gate.

I think the most fun I have had with portal was using it to move around the cluster bots that sit in one place and kill mobs (seems they must have interact going at all times). Drop the portal on them and pick a hilarious exit and watch as they get split apart and killed. Amazingly satisfying!

Wait – Some NPCs can use them?

Time to start sewing mischief and confusion xD

No the botters, certain ones use multiple bots and just stand in a zerg ball like 5 of them at a time but they are also constantly using interact as well to pick up the loot. Though I have not seen that type recently since they changed the anti-farming stuff.

Mwaha, I’ve seen those kinds of botters – time to have some fun (On piken square there’s a cluster of them in the harathi hinterlands that’ve been there for days, despite numerous reports filed)

Time to troll some botters.

The anti-botter usage may get the prize!

The other day, I went after a vista in one of the Charr zones along the wall. It was a bunch of jumping and fighting to eventually get to it. While I was sitting there figuring out where I wanted to go to next, I watched a player miss the final jump and knew he was going to have to redo the whole thing. So I broke out my portal, hopped down, and ported him up. I then hung out at the vista for the next 15 minutes or so while chatting with guild mates and helped out anyone who missed the last jump. Probably helped a dozen or so players. Felt good being the nice guy.

Exploration/Jumping Puzzles – I like to use portal when exploring or doing jumping puzzles before a difficult jump. I also enjoy using portal to assist other players who miss a jump far into a jumping puzzle. Set up the portal, drop down, set the second portal and save them some time and frustration. People are very appreciative.

how long does the portal entrance last if you haven’t placed the exit part yet?

Portal is actually an amazing escape skill for WvW.

If you are being chased by a player or group of players, but you are running…you drop one portal, wait until you run a good distance away, and drop the other portal. Hop through it, and you will be significantly behind your enemy. Walk away.

It is also a great evacuation skill for brief “raids” when you are on top of something and fighting an enemy at the bottom (like a keep wall). Pop portal at the top of the wall, you and your buddies hop down to take out some important target, like a player or a siege weapon. Then once the objective is accomplished, pop down the other portal and everyone runs through to safety before the zerg can take you down.

bwuki.2175:

how long does the portal entrance last if you haven’t placed the exit part yet?

60 seconds.

Drop a portal at the entrance to a supply depot, go in, grab supply, drop the other end, port right back to the entrance to save you the walk. You can do this when you’re busy building stuff on keep walls, too, to help speed it up a bit.

When in a besieged keep/tower and you have friends that just can’t make it through the front gate, have them come around to the side or back of the fortification and portal them up.

Get through the Eternal Battlegrounds puzzle and charge to portal people to the end. Or just do it for the good karma. Use the portal in general to cover your steps during hard parts of jumping puzzles.

Drop a portal on your group that’s hiding in a tower. Jump out, blink into the enemy zerg, drop the exit. Laugh as they all die because your allies are invisible to them.

Drop a portal on a besieged tower wall and keep it there; drop the exit when you or an ally gets pulled off.

I have one question about the portal though – what exactly is its range? I’ve noticed I can drop the portal’s second and and it just won’t connect to the first one. I figure it’s a range issue.

Im using it in tournaments 24/7… if u are as mesmer on the middle cappoint and youre solo capper gets attacked by 2 or more enemies, i put the portal down, rush to my mate (blink) and then put the second portal down.. then the solo capper jumps trough it to regenerate and my mates from the middle point jump trough it to bash the attackers..

In casuql pve ive never used it.. but in dungeons to skipp my teammates. With mass invi its just so easy…^^

Furienify.5738:

I have one question about the portal though – what exactly is its range? I’ve noticed I can drop the portal’s second and and it just won’t connect to the first one. I figure it’s a range issue.

Wiki says it’s radar range. I’m not sure how wide that is as I don’t have default size for my mini map, which I now regret(unless by radar range they mean the smallest size possible?).

I’ve used it to get get away from Champion ranked mobs that are lurking around skill point commune spots after using Decoy to buy enough time to fulfil the challenge.

Wait, Bots take portals?!

…

Combine that with the Teleport Underground bug and … Hmmm…

MLieBennett.9031:

Wait, Bots take portals?!

…

Combine that with the Teleport Underground bug and … Hmmm…

The bots must still use interact to retrieve their loot, though on the bots that teleport around the map it is much less effective. However on the bots that cluster in a zerg ball it works quite well

I don’t know about taking a prize but it definitely deserves one, the bots my mesmer spots next will definitely get the treatment

Edit: Wrong post

For jumping puzzles and to port groups behind traps/stuff in dungeons.

Portal is totally pro for going between the crafting station and the trading post.

The pvp and bot grief uses are of course great!

For pve: if you trait for glamours (confusion on entrance/exit especially) you can get insane confusion stacks from portal in pve.

edit

A bit of an explanation of above; if you don’t place the portal exit in 60 seconds, the skill doesn’t go on cooldown. This means you can have this thing up almost constantly and just kite mobs over it over and over. It lasts a minute, so it’s great in DEs for tagging if you know where the mobs are going to spawn.

According to a red post in the WvW forum, Portal is getting a nerf soon:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/WvsW-is-unplayable-because-of-mesmer-portal-abuse

Too bad. It’s kind of fun to back-door an army into a tower if the opposing team doesn’t bother clear the place out.

SuburbanLion.8095:

According to a red post in the WvW forum, Portal is getting a nerf soon:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/WvsW-is-unplayable-because-of-mesmer-portal-abuse

Too bad. It’s kind of fun to back-door an army into a tower if the opposing team doesn’t bother clear the place out.

Interesting. I personally would like more clarity on the red post though.

When they say “Basically we like that Portal has this power, but it shouldn’t be able to bypass walls, etc.” I wonder what they mean by bypass walls because that can be taken two different ways.

Some people report that Mesmers are able to exploit by dropping a portal in a location to gain access to somewhere they didn’t already have access. So for example I stand outside a call and drop a portal so that it ports me to the top of the wall even though i was never there in the first place to create an entrance. I have never found a way to do this but I haven’t really tried either so it maybe possible.

The other way of reading that is placing a port on one side of a wall. Running around to the other side and then porting people “through” the wall. Example would be taking a keep. Knocking down the door, mesmer gets in. Defenders put the door back up. Mesmer drops a portal on one side of wall. Jumps down off the other and ports everyone in even though the door is now back up.

The first one makes sense to fix if that is what they are talking about. The second is strategy IMO and I hope they don’t “fix” it. Maybe it’s just because I’m a Mesmer and use Portal tactically a lot but I love that aspect of WvW and the added tactics it brings to WvW and keep defense.

It can be easily defended by AoE’ing the heck out of the very obvious portal on the ground and I’ve seen it used to both marvelous advantage and epic disaster. It’s not an immediate iWin button for a sieging offense if they don’t use it effectively it can be a good way to get your whole force slaughtered.

We’ll have to see what kind of adjustments they have in store. Personally I love Portal. It’s as class-defining as Illusions. IMO.

Portal is fine. I don’t get why people say it is op. It is VERY situational and is usually not on my toolbar unless I know I might get in a situation that needs it.

some of the sues of portal in WvW that we have used:

Feigning a retreat with a portal drop, waiting for the charging force to get onto the portal, dropping a second one and portaling the group directly ontop of the previously entrenched group

Speeding up running supplies. Porting groups up Jumping puzzles, into the keep if we are getting attacked at the front door (ill drop my portal at the back guys so you can get in)

And the best one! Its a glamour field, its small, which mean’s enemies in combat can easily run over it multiple times. For those that love their confusion from Glam, this is what makes portal brilliant

Most of this are nice examples and I actually love that skill, tho it have to be reworked or nerfed or call it how ever you want, this skill together with stealth and client/server imperfection in rendering players in bigger numbers just make ppl think how to dissappear from enemies in WvW…pretty much sure portal is good in PvE and sPvP but being exploited too much in WvW.
I dont know but maybe at least until Anet is able to fix somehow the culling/rendering problem make it as any other skills only affecting 5 ppl maximum (a lot of skills are capped like this even elites and such why would 1 portal transfer over 9 thousand ppl anyway while some magic damages only 5)

This is horrible! Mesmer Portal ability is FINE. Just because there are idiots that look at a mesmer portal inside a keep and walk away doesn’t mean that you eliminate this viable strategy!
The portal ability is already BORDERLINE USELESS except for the fact that it has unlimited z access and can move big groups.
What is the point to portal if you can only move 5 members 5 feet in front of you?
The only reason I rolled mesmer was because of the Portal ability and it’s creative uses. If you are kittening the hell out of it, what’s the point?
OH? AN ENEMY PUT DOWN A MESMER PORTAL INSIDE THE KEEP? HMMM MAYBE WE SHOULD PUT UP A DEFENSE!!!!!

I had the most fun I have had in a long time this weekend using the portal to mess with the bots. A guildie and I spent over an hour moving them to areas where they would get killed.

How did you do this? I tried today, wasn’t working.

Thedenofsin.7340:

How did you do this? I tried today, wasn’t working.

Where we were, there were a lot of bots but not all of them were picking up loot, some were just casting/shooting. You have to find the ones that are “interacting” to pick up the loot. When they interact, they use your portal. Then you can move them wherever you want. We were laughing so hard!

Anela.3867:

Thedenofsin.7340:

How did you do this? I tried today, wasn’t working.

Where we were, there were a lot of bots but not all of them were picking up loot, some were just casting/shooting. You have to find the ones that are “interacting” to pick up the loot. When they interact, they use your portal. Then you can move them wherever you want. We were laughing so hard!

I was trying this, dropping my exit portal right over the mob they dropped. It seemed like they looted and simply moved on.

Perhaps different bot technology?

Too bad too, because there were 3 bots running around in Orr by the Pact Rally wapoint just outside that enormous mountain with the Vista. I was trying like heck to get them to click the portal and take a header off the top of the mountain.

Once you have reached the top of the Eternal Battleground jumping puzzle, portal allows your whole guild to complete it in less than 2mn.

Next time i get upset with people stealing all the kills in Orr I am so gonna drop a portal under the cluster and put the exit portal somewhere nasty…. everyone mashing their use keys…

Mwahahaha

SuburbanLion.8095:

According to a red post in the WvW forum, Portal is getting a nerf soon:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/WvsW-is-unplayable-because-of-mesmer-portal-abuse

Too bad. It’s kind of fun to back-door an army into a tower if the opposing team doesn’t bother clear the place out.

What do they mean by not being able to bypass walls?! WTF?

Portal – means its going from a different dimension or similar so it doesn’t matter if there are walls or not, it HAS to bypass them – doesn’t matter how you put it.

If they really get rid of this ability and nerf it it will be extremely disappointing.

The ability is perfect as is now, A-net needs to fix the client and rendering issues instead.

I’m hoping it’s a “fix” to some sort of bug where you can get to the top of a wall without actually placing the exit on the top of the wall.

I don’t know if that’s a real bug or not, but I could see that being fixed.

Simply using the portal strategically shouldn’t be nerfed… I hope…

EDIT: This would be a great spot in this thread for an official developer to provide clarification

I use it quite a bit in PvE exploration for either vistas of POI. Some POI are within some encampment full of enemies, so if I don’t feel like fighting them I stick a portal entrance at the start and rush in using Temporal Curtain and Blink to get past. Once I get the POI, I can drop my portal exit and get right out. As long as the POI isn’t too far away, I can make it and get out without needing to fight through a cave full of beasties.