Guild Wars 2

I just want to get some thoughts from the community on this. It might just be me being unskilled etc., but it seems to me that in order to roam effectively in wvw we need stealth. I’ve experimented a lot and this seems true independent of build. And not even talking PU. For example, I’ve found that to roam as shaatter effectively you have to take torch, decoy and mass invis. Anyone find this not true?

I’ve also found that with just about any other build if I don’t load up on stealth skills, like 2 stealth abilities plus mass invis, it is very hard to stay alive compared to when I have them, to the point where I feel like I’m severely nerfing myself by not taking them.

Why am I posting about this? The reason I got tired of shatter was that I felt like I might as well play a thief. I mean why not? Relying on stealth to burst people down, hmm who’s really good at that? Trying out other builds for roaming, like say any kind of lockdown or phantasm build, I’m still finding that playing without serious stealth is gimping me. And please tell me if it’s just me along with what builds you roam without stealth in. I’m totally open to that.

But if it’s not just me, then I think this is a pretty lame situation. I get why everyone runs PU, but the stealth play style to me isn’t fun. I don’t enjoy playing a gimpy ranged thief wannabe.

This is not really an issue in spvp for obvious reasons. Thanks for reading and giving some feedback on this issue.

TL;DR: Mesmers are way too stealth dependent for roaming in wvw.

Eh, I get by with MI and decoy all the time. I was using a standard shatter with some custom trait choices and Staff/GS for a long time. Now I’ve swapped to a hybrid build that seems quite powerful. Mesmer plays a lot differently than thief in either form. Plus you could always go full condi or phant if you really want something different. Either way, I don’t feel I need more stealth than decoy and MI.

You are 1/2 right and 1/2 wrong.
Yes you simply need stealth to roam. Stealth is just way too powerful. Without mobility like warriors and Eles have we have no choice but to use stealth.
You are dead wrong about mesmers are like poor thieves. We are simply better than thieves in a lot of areas. The least of which is range. Range gives you options a thief does not have. You can take on a large group , pick out and stay on a weak target . You don’t have to worry about CC nearly as much or fear AE condi. Mesmers imo is better than thief at roaming because of range. I play both btw.

I agree with the need for stealth. I find that if I’m not playing a max stealth PU cheese build, as soon as I’m targeted I’m downed quite easily more often than not. Simply put if you want to increase your skill level you play lockdown or shatter (more fun too!), if not then you play PU and stay alive longer.

It’s not a really a L2P issue either, most shatter spec require a lot of berserker spots because if your shatters aren’t hitting hard enough the enemy will just heal through your cycles. Also I’m referring to the more experienced enemies that I come across, not the random group of up leveled rangers that are just trying WvW for the first time.

It’s very hard to set up shatters without stealth so yeah, for shatter builds I think stealth is a must.
For most other builds, I find that decoy is usually enough. Mass invis is just what you take because everything else kinda sucks for roaming.
Moa is just a free reset against anything but beginners.
Time warp is 3 seconds of area denial and that’s about it. If you want to continue the fight you have to leave the field.