Guild Wars 2

Skritt or Quaggan please.

Schakal.6091:

What would the point be? Why be a melee class in Heavy Armor, then nuke stuff from range? Are you kitten?

Well, Warriors can nuke stuff from range pretty well. I’ve seen Kill Shots crit for 10k+. And the Longbow can drop some pretty nice burst AoE.

So the idea of a heavy armor class having decent ranged abilities is hardly unprecedented.

Limulus.4380:

Which do you enjoy playing most, Warrior or Guardian?

Depends.

Guardians biggest weakness in WvW is their range. They have only one 1200 range weapon (the Scepter) and it suffers from certain issues. If you run with the zerg, you’ll frequently notice that you’re having issues tagging enemies and scoring loot bags. You’ll be doing amazing support but… supporting doesn’t give the rewards that damaging enemies does.

If, however, you run with a half-way decent guild, that might not matter too much.

Warriors are probably better if you plan to zerg around with a massive group of people, whereas Guardian is much more fun if you’re part of a well coordinate group and don’t care about loot bags all that much.

I’d like to see a couple of more stat combinations on amulets, but other than that I am extremely happy with the sPvP system in Guild Wars 2, and the lack of gear grind.

Once you master Death Shroud you’ll be an unstoppable juggernaut of death and destruction.

Shattering does not trigger “on death” effects for clones or phantasms. Overwriting them (by summoning a 4th clone or phantasm when you already have 3 out) however does trigger “on death” effects.

First, realize that you are pvping for gear skins to look cool, not for gear bonuses. sPvP was designed around the idea that everyone has equal stats. No grinding up points and then roflstomping noobs. You can do that in WvWvW.

Second, pvp gear is not actually character bound. Just click “deposit collectible” and it will go into your PvP wardrobe. You can then pull the item out on any of your other characters.

I tend to find Signets more fun because it feels like there’s more of a trade-off (Do I want to pop the signet now and lose the passive?) and they restore themselves automatically.

Mantas though…. they’re just plain not fun. They only give you a passive if you put 30 points into Dueling. Without it, the only trade-off tends to be, “If I pop my signet now I’m going to have to spend 3 or 4 seconds recasting it. Bleh.”

When I had a Mantra build, I had 30 in Dueling and pretty much just sat on my 4 Mantras without using them, because having to recast them after a battle was so annoying, especially in a long battle. Unlike with signets, in a long battle, the last thing I want to do is activate my Mantras, because then I’m going to be stuck standing around re-casting them in the middle of the fight.

I admit it, rolled this class for the purple/pink butterflies.

That said, I really do like the music notes you get underwater and wouldn’t mind seeing an option to replace the surface butterfly graphics with the musical notes if you prefer those.

Comparing Necromancers to anybody right now is a bit silly. Pretty much every class does almost everything better than a Necro. Burst damage, condition damage, survivability and support, Necro’s rank dead last or close to last in just about every category.

At the moment the only thing a Necromancer excels at is tagging mobs in certain DE’s, but even then a Turret Engineer often does that better.

Yes, Mesmers are better in a lot of ways than Necro’s. But this isn’t because Mesmers are particularly overpowered but because Necro’s are dreadfully broken, and so far ANet’s only response has been, “Master Death Shroud.”

I have an 80 Guardian and an 80 Mesmer. I tend to pull in 2 to 3 times as much loot at the end of a DE with my Guardian than I do with my Mesmer.

Mesmer is a very fun class, but trying to compete for tags in end-game DE’s is frequently rather frustrating when compared to other classes.

Either Anet needs to add a good ranged weapon option to Guardians, or they need to start rewarding money and drops to people playing a support role. The way things currently are is a problem.

I find trying to mix in with the clones is just a bad idea. I can beat bad players without needing to hide in my clones. And, if I run into any half-way decent player, the first thing they do is Ctrl+T me, which means mixing in with the clones is impossible – they pretty much know where I am, and if I stand still I’m just asking to get smashed.

Yeah, maybe they didn’t Ctrl+T me, but it’s pretty much never worth standing still, taking the risk and finding out.

I find it’s better to just assume any player you run into is good enough enough to use Crtl+T rather than assuming players are bad and then getting stomped.

I have an Asura. I noticed that the NPC from the Order quest, where you have to pick a race to help out, ends up living in my in home instance. Very cool! Except you can’t talk to her or anything. And one of the story NPCs from my low-level storyline is staying there too.

So there are some hints of neat things to come. I’m just hoping that it gets expanded. Player housing can be awesome, and it’s something many of the larger MMO’s never touch on.

kagenin.5231:

This has affected me in WvW small-scale skirmishes, where my clones start attacking a near-by normally-passive mob instead of the enemy players trying to tear my lungs out for scouting their holdings.

Nothing like having your clones start attacking random mobs and pulling them into combat with you when you already have your hands full. Or dodging and having your clone go crazy attacking a nearby box. That’s terrible aggravating.

I have an Asura guardian. I love it – the #4 skill on the staff has to be the coolest animation in the game.

Did you know you actually gain experience for rezzing a downed clone, and in PvP it counts towards your “rezzed players” score if you can rez it before it vanishes? There have been a few times where I’ve dropped, created my clone then rallied and run over and rezzed my clone and gotten exp and points from doing so. It always cracks me up.

The sword has nice AoE. Each swing can hit multiple opponents, and Blurred Frenzy is one of the hardest hitting, multi-target attacks that Mesmers have. Yes, it’s a bit trickier to use melee than range, but that’s usually how it is for any class.

I prefer the GS to the staff. Mirrored Blade has a shorter cooldown than Phase Retreat. It also creates a clone in melee, so on DE’s where you have to tag things instantly, you can immediately hit Shatter and tag nearby mobs. If you get in close enough to the mob, the bounce will grant you a six-stack of Might, and if you use it on cooldown you can generally sit at 12 Might stacks. Handy for carving through mobs. Most importantly though, there is a 0% chance that Mirrored Blade will get you stuck in the terrain. The Berzerker also has good multi-target damage.

As for the focus, the Warden is the hardest hitting phantasm. He also does the most attacks of any phantasm, so if you have Sharper Images you can get more stacks of bleed than from the duelist (barring the Duelist’s Discipline/Ethereal Field bug). His attacks are also AoE so it’s possible to catch multiple mobs in it. Yes, he only works in melee, but mobs generally are less mobile than players, and it’s not hard to drop him in the right spot.

You also get Temporal Curtain which is great for traveling around the map and with practice, can be used to drag mobs into your Warden.

I’m not saying that other weapon combinations are worse. You can easily level with any weapon setup. This is just why I liked leveling with Greatsword and Sword/Focus.

Yeah, it was kind of funny. I had leveled almost entirely with the Greatsword and Sword/Focus.

So a few days ago, I decided to try out the staff in sPvP just to see what was so good about it. I jump into an sPvP match and start it up. I engage a rogue, summon my phantasms and then Phase Retreat…

… under the ground. I can swim around a little, but I’m basically stuck. Awesome. So I try to escape for a few minutes and then just go back to the lobby. I try another match.

Match starts. I start fighting another Mesmer. I summon my phantasms, then I hit Phase Retreat and… yup. Stuck beneath the terrain again. Two uses of Phase Retreat, and both times send me underground.

Screw it. I went back to the lobby and put my Greatsword back on.

Here’s a picture of my Asura. I think she’s pretty cute.

At level 40 I started running with a Hammer build. Thanks to (essentially) perma Protection, I was able to focus my stats entirely on Precision/Power and still be plenty tanky to handle any mob I ran into in PvE. Once I hit 60, I swapped out my rings, amulet and trinkets for Toughness/Vitality ones but still kept my armor as Precision/Power. I had no issues while leveling.

Mantras are basically like Signets, but a bit worse. Unlike Signets, you have to charge your mantra (3 seconds) before you can use it, and mantras don’t give cool passive bonuses unless you specifically spec for that.

EasymodeX.4062:

What if Mesmers are already amazing?

The class still needs some work. Every class in the game has issues, some more so than others. Trying to suggest that it’s perfect is just silly.

For example, when you summon a dodge clone, sometimes instead of attacking the target you’re already in combat with, instead it gets linked to a different target or a nearby inanimate object. Having a clone pull a second or third enemy while you’re already fighting two is rather annoying. As is having your clone run off to explode on a box when you order them to shatter your target.

There are other issues, like clones getting stuck in the terrain when you order them to shatter, or dying in an enemies AoE when they walk over to explode.

Is the Mesmer innovate, interesting and potentially amazing? Absolutely. It just needs a bit more polish to get there.

Caster class with a greatsword. That sold me. Plus clones are kinda neat.

As I said in another thread, the Mesmer is a diamond but it still requires a bit more polishing. The class has some undeniable issues, and Anet needs to get those fixed up. Once they do Mesmer will be amazing instead of just “neat” like it is now. For now, at certain points it feels like I’m struggling with the class mechanics, and that’s definitely an issue.

Ideally those problems will get ironed out in the next couple of months and I’ll be singing the classes praises.

Once you hit 80, the tag damage from Chaos Storm often isn’t enough to tag mobs before they get slaughtered by the 40+ other players who all unload. At the moment, GS/Sword with Illusionary Persona is about the most effective way to go, and it’s… still not all that great.

Open with Greatsword. Use #1. Dodge to create a clone. Hit #4 to summon the iZerker. Rush in to about 600 or so and hit #2 to get the might buff. Use #3. Then shoot for a bit. The mob is usually dead. I’ll shatter if there’s any other mobs nearby.

If it’s a strong mob I’ll then swap weapons and summon up the iWarden, and get some hits with Sword #2.

It’s pretty straight forward.

I’m pretty happy with the Mesmer. I think it’s a real diamond, though still in need of some polishing.

I’d like to see Shatters be much, much more responsive than they are now; having your illusions get stuck in the terrain, stand there for five seconds and then explode without dealing damage is terrible.

I’d also add in two new weapons, a main-hand ranged weapon that deals direct damage (I hate using the Scepter but on some encounters I feel like there’s no other choice), and I’d add in a weapon that allows for some AoE burst damage to make farming end-game DE’s less of a chore.

But, by and large, I’m not overly upset with the Mesmer and like it well enough.

This is definitely an issue for Mesmers. My friend plays a Guardian and regularly pulls in three or four times as much loot as I do from DE’s just from spamming his greatsword attacks.

I’m leveling up a different class for DE farming. Over time, it’ll probably end up being more efficient to do that than to constantly fight twice as hard as other classes for a fraction of the reward.

Mesmers can farm low level DE’s just fine with Shatter and Chaos Storm. But once you hit 80 and start farming Orr, it’s really hard to deal damage quickly enough to tag mobs before they die.

Mesmer isn’t the only class that has this problem, but it’s pretty noticeable. As a comparison, my friend plays a Guardian and usually walks off with 3 times as much loot at the end of those DE’s than I do on my Mesmer.

While the Mesmer is a lot of fun to play, and I wouldn’t trade my Mesmer for anything, at the moment farming DE’s is definitely one of the biggest weaknesses of the class, so take that into consideration.

I would Shatter but…

Between the lag time when I push the button and the time it takes for my illusions to walk over to the target and explode (sometimes as long as 3 seconds, and frequently even longer on a mobile target) coupled with the fact that it isn’t uncommon for me to hit Shatter, only to see my illusions die en-route to the target as they walk through an AoE (and my Shatter still goes on cooldown even though nothing happened)…

And on top of all that, the damage is fairly sub-par and is actually a DPS loss in many cases…

So yeah, I tend just not to bother with Shattering too often. It’s a cool idea, but right now the implementation just doesn’t impress me at all.

If Mesmers are supposed to be a support class, then clearly ArenaNet needs to change the way drops work in dynamic events so that Mesmers don’t get fewer drops than other classes because they’re supporting instead of contributing damage.

Because right now, since the only thing that matters in DE’s is damage done, this leaves Mesmers in a much worse place than any of the other classes which have easier access to quick burst and better AoE.

I wouldn’t mind if clones and phantasms lasted an extra second or two after the target died, just long enough to get a shatter off against a second target. I wouldn’t really like it if the clones/phantasms were persistent though.