Without Some kind of Manual Adjustment/reset has a Server Ever Made such a jump before while using Glicko? I know it has been Reset/Turned off before ,but this jump using the Glicko System seems unprecedented and possibly a clear sign of an error in Match making. Looking at the other NA Match ups this week would also suggest some sort of adjustment was made. Many are hugely 1 sided.
Is it all Possible the flood of player since the update has caused the rating system to error in someway? Many times while changing one thing in game it has effected another seemingly unrelated thing. Is that what has happened here? Has the changes to WvW and the current flood of players possibly negatively effected the matching code?
P.S. I have done my best to avoid violating the forum rules on these “style” of post, and hope this Topic can be discussed.
They could in theory make a boss that hits hard with attacks which are unblockable, undodgeable and undistortable. They could even take it a step further and place a debuff on the tank preventing them from being healed from outside sources.
That said, why encourage passive defences such as toughness, vitality or healing power when active defences such as well timed evasions, blocks or distorts are far more interesting, involved and challenging by comparison?
Realistically I’d like to see a boss which has enough pressure to encourage the use of the defensive stats in addition to the active damage mitigation abilities.
Yes you could also make “punish” style mechanics where you could use distort but not being hit by what you distorted means you dont get some effect that protects you from something else. Or perhaps an aggro mechanic where the mob is fixated on who ever takes the most “unmitigated”(before toughness) damage.
If your seeking to defeat the current Meta-tank(chrono) you need to make the damage unavoidable (no blockin ,distorting,evading) but , mitigatable through toughness. Either ways that directly penetrate these defenses or that punish you for using them.
As i see it its Water or Transference. While the math leads you to transference, water has the advantage of being effective while not using your heal skills. The real issues with running minstrel chrono comes from the fact even with pulsing damage auras, you dont need that much healing if your not failing mechanic checks. Now, in order for druids to be effective they must Heal players. So by taking the healing role you hurt your raid in medium and low pressure situations. In a high pressure encounter or in a situation where healing is needed to make up for failed mechanics, i like water over transference. Mantra and trait heal usually cap players off and the bump from water can be nice in between the recast.
Well, I was just wondering if the Assassin’s build makes more sense since I don’t have the means to get 15 Precision Infusions?
I don’t think an Assassin build makes sense at all. Most classes go for 100% crit, but Mesmer’s usually take two + pieces with boon duration instead of ferocity as third stat.
So, you would use Power infusions if/when you get them.
Also
The answer is there on Qt’s site.Variations tab + stat infusions – Mesmer is the only power class in the current meta that loses DPS by going for 100% crit chance. This is due to having to use both commander’s leggings and an exotic back piece. The loss of ferocity is great enough to make power more effective than precision.
Mesmer lacks a true Damage dealer build atm. Condi Mesmer has a niche role in 2 or 3 encounters that have overburdening mechanics (phantasms keep doing work while you manage the mechanics.) It is subpar in most situations.
Chronomancer is the top support class. Quickness and boonspam , Alacrity, Distortion, and splash healing make them a first choice for any raid. They also have plenty of personal damage avoidance that allow them to tank when a tank is needed.
Support(non-tank) is a good place to start/learn. Quickness and Alacrity uptime can be easily maintained with the Dom/Inspirations rotation while still learning mechanics. The build isn’t very expensive but requires a “difficult” to acquire rune set and an expensive sigil. The utility for it can be expensive and there is no cheap alternative atm. It uses Zerker stats other then commanders legs. 3 knights jeweler slots convert it into a medium duty tank.
There is also a minstrel build that is a heavy tank and provides more heals/boons. I recommend becoming comfortable with support mesmer and raids in general before making this build.
Base Mesmer doesn’t require Travelers. Out of combat just temporal curtain, swap back weapon, and spam your stealths or swap in soi for a long haul. Its no lazy 25% passive but Perma swiftness is obtainable.
Yeah I’ve tried it, and it’s not for me. I’m not going to waste a slot on SoI, and there were too many times when I was caught in combat with /focus. Which do I want to be caught fighting a Thief without, my main source of stealth (torch) or my main source of damage & interrupt (pistol)?
It’s not required, but I don’t need the headache.
That headache is all about min/maxing your character, Changing weapons and traits effectively out of combat is the sign of a good player. You swap back to torch as soon as you cast Curtain so you are never stuck w/o torch. Rune 6 sets are to good give up for run speed. SoI isn’t really necessary as long as you spam stealths I would use it only for long runs.
What’s functionally bad about conditions, if you don’t mind me asking?
When I play a power build, I “feel” the damage when it hits the target. There’s an immediate connect with cause and effect when a burst lands.
With conditions, it’s basically just loading them up and then watching to see what happens next.
Essentially, with power I feel like they died because I did something right. With condi, they die because they didn’t.
I agree though that I should not refer to functional builds as cheese. The word gets overused and I use it out of frustration. My main when I started the game was a Guardian, and I find it disgraceful what DH did to it. But when I see a core Guardian now I know it’s an easy kill, so the class is probably as locked into DH as we are to condi.
I for one am pretty much in similar position as you are. Don’t like to play condition builds but it works so i use it. However unlike you i do have a few changes. For instance my setups is a mix of Dire/Trailblazer. This mostly because Dire is super easy to get as where Trailblazer is expansive to make. (I do plan/work my way up to full Trailblazer btw). Also i run Chronomancer instead of core Mesmer, because i love chrono and core is kinda meh to me. Again not the most fun build to use. But it works.. hell.. its very strong even. My current setup: http://tinyurl.com/chrono-wvw-condi (Yes its absolute cancer)
As for powerbuilds. I find them mostly weaker, but likewise i also have seen people that can play it really well. Even in outnumbered situations. few examples are these:
Your build is similar to my current one. The reason I take some rabid trinkets is I absolutely love the pistol, and I need at least 40% crit rate for it to really get those bleeds going. I run Chaos/Inspiration/Dueling with Mistrust and traited pistol. I thought I’d miss MtD and Confusion-on-shatter but it turns out I don’t at all, nor do I need DE.
Of course a build that uses the UBER EXPENSIVE perplexity runes. They just need a nerf and other runes would be just as useful.
They are less than 5g per piece, so hardly expensive. Personally, though, since I don’t use Chrono I am relegated to Travelers.
Base Mesmer doesn’t require Travelers. Out of combat just temporal curtain, swap back weapon, and spam your stealths or swap in soi for a long haul. Its no lazy 25% passive but Perma swiftness is obtainable.
Perplexity Runes used to be stupid OP, since the nerf they remain BiS but more in line with other sets.
Will balance between the classes in WvW both zerg/roaming be considered even once or is this a pure PvE/sPvP rebalance as usual?
Uhm wasn’t that last balance patch when a WvW fix Ruined the PVE meta? They nerfed Signet of Inspiration and then PVE Revs into the ground to fix WvW zergs with perma-quickness?
PU-condi Mesmer is maybe the strongest roamer in WvW. You will want a mix of trailblazer’s and Dire. Metabattle has a nice example of what you need to be working towards. This is not a cheap build to make and will take you a lot of time and/or gold to finish( dam Maguma Lillies.) http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Chronomancer_-_Condi_Roamer
People hate fighting this build and will call it cheese and cheap. Those people I like to toss a flame ram build site on their corpse before i move on to stomp their friends.
Can you – Yes.
Is it optimal – No.
Will it be excepted – Fractals – most likely. Quickness is only part of a Mesmer’s role in FotM. Learn your Portal placements, Reflects, Focus pulls, and blink skips. There are more then a couple runes that give boon duration, and you get 15% from mist potion. Someone did the math on the builds/rotations and min boon duration for each if you like #s.
In Raids you’ll find no mist potion, builds synergies are more demanding, and Non-Meta builds are frowned on. Truth is in Raids you will be running the build your Raid Leader wants. Maybe you Guild raid leader is ok with you not farming the Leadership runes, but LFR is going to be a harder sell as a zerk Chrono with out them.
Thanks for the feedback everyone. The response to 2,1,1 is mixed, so I thought I would inform everyone that we will be changing it to 5,4,3. This is intended to go out around the same time as Episode 4.
Will 5,4,3 be shortly followed by “reducing night capping” by making off hours 4,3,2 and 1,2,3 depending on population?
Only reason i can see why 5,4,3 would be an option.
Define “off hours.” Night capping solutions will never work as they punish players with no choices. NA servers are SEA/OCX servers lets stop calling those fights night capping.
I agree with adelaide, tormenting with the 33% minor to confusion in illusions means you sit on 53% for confusion and 65% for torment assuming just runes and food.
Taking perplexity instead puts you on 83% confusion duration but only 20% torment duration so essentially people can stand still and then cleanse all your confusion easily once the torment wears off after a few seconds.
Confusion is the one that needs the most help with 3 seconds base on shatter vrs 6 for tormenting.
Balance is an issue period and needs to be considered across the board. Dire on a condi mesmer is not an issue unless a player hasn’t learned to target the main instead of a clone.
Lolwat.
This build has literally been widely-considered as by-far-and-large the single most overpowered small-scale build in the entire game even before HoT where it got even more boosted. At one point there was a video posted of a guy literally facerolling his keyboard and winning fights with it.
Condi mesmer when in non-tank armor isn’t inherently OP at all. The problem is when it runs so much durability and has so much immunity uptime, it doesn’t allow players windows of opportunity to punish the mesmer back. This is especially apparent on Chrono.
If they got rid of dire/TB entirely we’d see relative balance in condition builds; a major problem is that almost all condition damage trait lines are defensive because originally condition damage as a stat didn’t exist and was meant as a source of small damage for tanks to deal on builds with heavier condition access (which is why it ignores all armor).
Just No, no and No. Stop making stuff up to support your theory.
As others stated there is nothing wrong with Dire/Trailblazer Stats. Are Mesmers, Rangers and Thiefs geared in it the best duelist in WvW? Yeah probably but someone needs to be. Versus groups or in groups larger than five your effectiveness tanks hard. That is the balance at the moment. In larger battles only necromancers apply enough condi to make it viable.
If i were to make an open world pve build, it would probably look something like this. Maybe change air sigil to fire for more mob tags. I use loot stick guard for my open world needs.
I’m sure this build can work in wvw playing as “pick.” The issue is vrs organised guild groups, pick isn’t very effective. The current “ball” style meta and the obscene amount of blocks, evades, and damage reductions HoT added make downing players with power burst builds difficult.
Id suggest if you are going to continue to WvW with this 25-45man raiding guild that you seriously consider trying a front line support build. Start working on a set of boon duration armor. Wanderer, Commander, or Minstrel and themed second stats(soldier,berserker, cleric) after you get to 100% boon duration fully buffed.
PU condi Mesmer is the build you are looking for, and as much as i love Chrono, The meta-Mesmer build is just better for wvw roaming. Trailblazers mixed with dire to achieve 100% duration on confusion.
I like the change. One of the worst things to me is when a Com will avoid enemy zergs focus on ppt objectives. This is even worse when your “playing for second” for the week. This change is one that encourages you to seek fights instead of door pushing. If you want to ppt the strongest play becomes 2v1 vrs the strongest server, not avoiding them and picking on the weakest.
@ HotBoy: Thats a good idea since I didnt really start with raids anyway… Currently my ascended armor has assasin stats and Im using Chronomancer’s runes. Is that fine?
Ditch the runes. They are hot garbage since the SoI and boon stacking changes. Runes of Leadership are that new new Hawtness, but they are difficult to get. Runes of Water are an easy to get alternative.
my guild runs 3 mesmers, 2 use a very similar build except its minstrel gear instead of commander’s and sometimes even using well heal (good group heal and cleanse) and replacing blink with Nullfield/MoC when needed
the build takes some skill and team coordination with your group to pull off
-Whats up with the second rate oil? Yeah, bountiful is expensive, but the stat gain op, suck it up.
Notice that I’m using sigil of concentration. That sigil bumps me up to 110% duration on swap. As long as I keep swapping weapons (which I do), I maintain overcapped duration. Bountiful oil is unneeded, so I use the normal oil instead.
-If this build is support not damage why Commanders/knights over Wanders/Soldiers. (Even then 56% at 50% Rate/damage Vrs 11k hp and 300power.)
Honestay, those would work absolutely fine too. In fact, it might be even more optimal than Commanders. The true reason I’m using Commanders is because it’s what I’ve got for PvE raids too, but those stats are completely acceptable alternatives.
Self-over capping boon-duration is just bad. Gear/food/stat optimization is what takes a build from “playable” to “meta.” Leftover PvE raid gear isn’t going to cut it, and wow you run a ton of toughness for pve. You have to get the gear right if your going to share/recommend it as a finished build. I’ve personally had very little success with commanders gear in WvW. Wanderer’s stats just fit the current meta and what you are trying to do with this build better.
Here is your build with optimzed Stats( not counting Facet) – http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAs+dnsIClphVoBGoBEgiFYjq+XP2m9sG+hjjMAugcD-T1xHQBVUJ4PU+Fu9Hon6PA4kAkvHAA50LQKgMnaB-w
Not running Chaos line, focus might be better then staff. Staff may have a kitten auto attack, but Phase Retreat is our best mobility skill after blink, and i think you undervalue the ability to generate a ranged phantasm/clone to shatter.
Arcane thievery is for vrs other organised open field or gvg/scrims and acts as another Corrupt boon, on paper the phat is way better, in play i have had better luck with AT. I wouldn’t run it w/o Chaos line tho.
I guess there we are. This is (well the Optimized Version i linked above) a good commander’s group build. For Any other group set up I would use Chaos>Dom and Staff>Focus.
This build is OK but i have a few issues with it.
-It requires a group comp exactly like the one in the revs video. I love our place in the Meta but this leaves no room for Necros or Warriors…and maybe drewd?
-Whats up with the second rate oil? Yeah, bountiful is expensive, but the stat gain op, suck it up.
-If this build is support not damage why Commanders/knights over Wanders/Soldiers. (Even then 56% at 50% Rate/damage Vrs 11k hp and 300power.)
-Lastly, as great as Sword is the ranged harassment and clone generation of Staff’s cds out weigh Focus alone.
If your Looking for an “Immortal Mesmer” build stick with Chaos over Domination With Wanders/Soldiers. http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8encfClphFrBGoBEgiFij6sBugPzMASgFq+S/0SF-T1xHQBVUJIAuIA57JA8Dlf0T9nwt/A50NEAAB4m3Mb2mBH9oH9oH9od0je0je0jWKgMnaB-w
If your lucky enough not to have to run Veil i like Arcane Thievery or Phantasmal Disenchater. As far as elite skills go its hard to wrong for Mesmer. Well for open field, TW for tight spaces, MoA for GvG/scrims. Even MI can be goodish.
At least with swiftness and cripple/chill the effect on leaps was intuitive( Faster=farther, slower=shorter,) but with Quickness and Slow you put yourself in a position where you are buffing your enemies and nerfing your own leaps when you use it. Locking leap distances to animation times instead of movement speed was a poor idea.
Should Quickness have a negative side? Should a condition i apply to slow my enemies increase there ability to escape?
Counter intuitive interactions like this need fixed, not the interactions that work as you would assume they would.
Reflects are balanced around the obvious advantages that being outside of melee attacks gives. While there are NPC’s that bug out when glitched into a wall (yeah thats an exploit,) its just Anet’s failure to correct the bug that exaggerates the problem till everyone uses an exploit because there are no repercussions for doing so.
Speaking of Lupi, Come on Anet how hard is it to make him go immune and run out to the center of room if he is Manipulated into an outside wall.
Would it please be possible to not have the my character’s crotch not directly above the portraits? New camera angle is terribly unflattering. Please consider all races before making changes like this.
I see this as just another poor attempt by Anet to get more players into wvw. In order to do it they are Driving away their loyal WvW player base in the process. Siege improvement and Pve events are the wrong way to go about it IMO.
To me the way you encourage new players into wvw w/o alienating your current player base is to encourage the type of play that has become the “meta.” You need to encourage the FIGHTS.
Things like ppk and increased player dropped rewards fit this bill. Maybe players should scale like open world pve mobs ( longer they are alive the more bonus you receive.) I am sure there are other ways to encourage Player vrs Player fighting, and anythign that does is positive from my PoV. Things like “Super Siege” only detract from the amazing massive scale battle system in gw2.
I am assuming you are referring to Kripp and the ban for advertisement of how to exploit a bug. While before my time, I see the reason why it was carried out. The impact of was significant for the time and it required significant cleanup, though we probably could have handled it a bit more gracefully.
“Record Kill” is an entirely artificial and community created metric. You can choose to completely ignore kills that revolve around temporary lack of balances in skills.
As far as abusing bugs in dungeons, and advertisement of them, reporting it to exploits@arena.net is probably the best way to get us to look at something. Yes, we do action that.
A look at twitches GW2 page the last couple days will find you lots of people advertising this bug in dungeons and WvW.
When GW2 Launched Anet had an amazing no tolerance policy for exploiters. Going as far as to ban the top streamer on twitch because he used one of them. After years of game makers turning the other cheek and allowing exploiters to profit, i found a game that wasn’t going to mess around with players using obvious unintended mechanics and bugs.
What the hell happened? Now people are posting “Record Kill” threads using broken skills. Streamers advertise they are using the bug in their stream titles as they trivialize all content with it. Where is the ban hammer for them?
It would depend on what your doing in WvW, but for pvp,roaming, and GvG i would go Zerker/Assassin mix with Strength runes. For WvW Guild raids and Zergs I’d go Soldier/Zerker mix with Pack runes.
I soloed every single LW season 2 achievement. A few were difficult, but all do able. If you are struggling perhaps try looking up one of the guides to getting them. Lately i have seen LFG post asking for others working these, maybe try that.
a thief can drop black powered and yeah people blast it but that takes time, people have to stop moving and call downs. I have seen on my server 4-5 mesmers using mass inivis. the result is 60 seconds of zerg wide stealth
Personally i love the changes. Lots of different builds to try out and tons of bads running around trying to play like they did pre-patch. Meta? there is no meta atm.
Youre missing the point. the meta is simple. you have to play condi… there is nothing else at this point.
