Guild Wars 2

For those who do not yet know, stronghold is the new PvP map set to hit when the expansion Heart of Thorns drops. BLU and a few others were invited to preview the game, but unfortunately did not get to learn much of anything on the new specializations. Nonetheless he did record himself playing Stronghold on a Mesmer.

The goal of Stronghold is to kill the enemy lord, first by breaking down the gates to their castle. This can be achieved by summoning NPCs known as “door breakers” (little jerks carrying bombs) by using a resource known as ‘supply.’ You can only carry one supply on your own, but you can kill other players and take their supply to add an additional second supply.
Other NPCs, such as archers can be summoned to defend your door and there is even access to Trebuchets (which can’t reach the doors) for further defense. Eventually you are able to summon an NPC “hero” to help you, which if you can get into the enemy gate, can cast an ability that does MASSIVE AoE damage to mobs and buffs allies.

Here’s some things to consider, both for general play and Mesmer-specific.

• In the video BLU is in a party of 5, yet still receives a request for a 6th party member. Wat!?

• The mobs do NOT have much HP, so it is important to protect them.

• Players can NOT damage the castle gates.

• Mesmer abilities that will be important: Mass Invisibility, Veil, Feedback, Null Field, Portal, (Glamour Mesmer rejoice!) Mantra Heals (MoPain with Restorative Mantras; Inspiration X), Time Warp, Illusionary Defender, Illusion of Life

• When you get into the castle gate, you can rally off the NPCs in the battle, this makes Illusion of Life a potential viable option.

• Stealthing the champion can help them channel their massive AoE ability which would otherwise get interrupted.

Please Note: Most of the people who previewed the game were not PvPers, so don’t expect to see some amazing high-level play, but this is a great opportunity to familiarize yourself with the map.

I believe that we as a community should start figuring out ways Mesmers can stand out. Portal plays with supply are obvious, but beyond that we need a role that cannot be overshadowed by the other classes. Time to theorycraft folks!

Everybody knows that the only thing I like more than signets is the glamorous use of our glamours. ha! I see a comeback.

It’s too early to really settle on one style, but I understand the excitement has everyone speculating!

If you pause the video at 3:47 you can see an option to make a keybind for a f5 profession ability, maybe some hint for a new Mesmer class mechanic ( or for some other class) I don’t know

edit: this isn’t the video I thought it was there is one where BLU is talking there you can see what I wrote. It’s this one http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TzzKbrj4EZ8

Oh and didn’t somebody say that only cc skills would interrupt the people that channel the supply piles or whatever they are called. This could make mantra of distraction really useful for interrupting them. It’s insta cast ranged has multiple charges and is aoe. just think of all the might you would get

One potential thing I’m thinking we might see is mesmer control-tanking the supply with lockdown and more survival amulets while thieves start stealing supply with their assassin-like killing[actually living up to their name]. Mesmers might have a good time sneaking gate-breakers in too, so if everyone at the beginning chose to summon those skritt, it could become our role to smuggle them through the pass. I also feel like a combination of focus’s swiftness and blink with portal will make us extremely efficient in supply runs at the beginning.

No matter what these NPC’s are continually walking. A steady application of torment will be a bad day for them getting through. Even the most hardy condi clear escort would have a hard time keeping up with a condi support Maim Shatter mes with a staff, sword/X (focus probably).

Lord needs to be stomped. If Bluu were running MoD instead of crappy cleanse he could have rupted that!

Ross Biddle.2367:

No matter what these NPC’s are continually walking. A steady application of torment will be a bad day for them getting through. Even the most hardy condi clear escort would have a hard time keeping up with a condi support Maim Shatter mes with a staff, sword/X (focus probably).

Chill and cripple would be good as well to delay the mobs. A heavy cc build with as much cleave/aoe abilities as you could jam into one build.

On another note some of the revenant’s abilities in this vid look pretty effective. The mesmer was locked down/immob’ed for a good while, stab mantra might be handy for tight spots like those.

I can sort of see the potential for power shatter mesmer to instantly nuke the skritt if his hp isn’t too high. Kind of hard to tell how tanky the skritts are tbh, the mesmer in the video doesn’t seem to wear zerker amulet.

Finally an excuse to make a pure glamour build!

Rev skills also seem to have some nice inherent synergy with this style of play.

Gs + Sc/F , push them, pull them, torment them …

Now they just need to code the mobs to be able to use Portals and mesmers will become the true Minion Master.

Korusef.3714:

Gs + Sc/F , push them, pull them, torment them …

Or use Staff and Pistol and MoD for 1200 ranged rupts and kills.

Let’s talk about some possible roles and playstyles that can crop up in this format:

Assaulter/Defender - helping your NPCs to take down the gates and enemy guards. High mobility. Taking out treb if it becomes a nuisances. Alternatively, defending your gates against intruders.

• Zerker PU or Shatter?
• Any high dps build that can take advantage of focus, rune of the pack and traited blink.
• Good 1v1 builds like signets or PU.
• Maim builds for moving NPCs.

Smuggler - Getting supplies and getting out of the fray. Being able to actually make the channel is important. Also being able to take a few hits is helpful.

• Signet builds that take advantage of distortion.
• Mantra of Concentration with water runes.
• PU tank

Shepard - Escorting allied NPCs to break gates.

• Mantra healing immediately comes to mind.
• Glamour support. It’d be nice if we had a reliable blaster for chaos armor…
• Traited focus for reflect and speed boost.

Supply Denier - The antithesis of a “Smuggler”, this role for the Mesmer should focus on AOE CC.

• Run wild with this one guys. We have a lot of options with CI, MoD, Focus, Staff etc.
• Glkittenter

Overall, I see A LOT of play builds benefiting from increased range on blink and pack runes. It looks like it helps to be able to mobilize effectively. This could include a lot of portal plays. I also see a resurgence of PU actually being good in a competitive setting. Lastly, maybe I picked the right time to start theorizing tank builds, because I see some potential viability here as well! This is fun speculation, but I guess that Stronghold will be good to Mesmer. /optimism

I’m just gonna throw it out there,

I think Mesmer might be able to bring a good generalist build to this game.

Gotta ask, anyone know what armor skin blu is wearing? Tell meeee… Pls….

StickerHappy.8052:

Gotta ask, anyone know what armor skin blu is wearing? Tell meeee… Pls….

Priory Armor
http://www.gw2armor.com/human/female/priory/light/display_looks.php

jenzie.4083:

StickerHappy.8052:

Gotta ask, anyone know what armor skin blu is wearing? Tell meeee… Pls….

Priory Armor
http://www.gw2armor.com/human/female/priory/light/display_looks.php

kitten ,, the way i looked at it, it looked like a complete diffrent armor to me,, must be the dyes lol haha thanks tho..

StickerHappy.8052:

jenzie.4083:

StickerHappy.8052:

Gotta ask, anyone know what armor skin blu is wearing? Tell meeee… Pls….

Priory Armor
http://www.gw2armor.com/human/female/priory/light/display_looks.php

kitten ,, the way i looked at it, it looked like a complete diffrent armor to me,, must be the dyes lol haha thanks tho..

Yeah I was a bit uncertain too, had too look twice. I think two fields are colored the same so it looks a bit different.

CI is not going to help much against Smuggler, running is not an action.