Guild Wars 2

dutchiez.7502:

Fractured patch was 2 years ago. Rings obtained before then cannot be Attuned.

Just confirming this. Both my Red Ring of Death and Crystalline Band were obtained pre-Fractured (so before Nov 2013) and cannot be used in the mystic forge.

Hopefully this gets fixed in the December Fractals patch, as I, and I assume many others, have posted this in the bug reports forum.

Any infused fractal ring that was obtained pre-fractured, so it had the +5 agony resist built in, cannot be infused in the mystic forge. I have both a Red Ring of Death and a Crystalline Band equipped to my character that I cannot use in the mystic forge with the other materials required (the philosopher’s stone, the +1 agony infusion, and the agonized essence). This means that I am without the extra agony infusion slots to help me tackle higher level fractals until this is fixed.

Pyroathiest.4168:

I can see using Triumphant Distortion at grawl ele and maybe dredge clown car. That’s about it.

Hrmm, yeah, I forgot about the dredge clown car. Potential uses are up to 2! ^_- I’ll have to try it out once it is released.

While I am disappointed in the new traits (since I do not either PvP or WvW), fixing phantasmal haste and iWarden, in addition to the various other bugs, is much more than I could have hoped for.

In trying to think of ways to make these viable for PvE, the only useful one seems to be:

Dueling: Triumphant Distortion – Gain 3s of distortion upon killing an enemy. No cooldown.

It will make us very tanky in dungeon trash, and not to mention we will likely get tons of distortion uptime on the Grawl Fire Elemental Shaman. Since trash dies so easily when hidden behind blinds/reflects/aegis, the only real time I can see myself swapping to this is the fire elemental. Will you guys be swapping back and forth from Empowering Mantras and Triumphant Distortion much?

Paul Kay.4891:

I’m sorry if I sound stubborn or misidirected, I’m just not fond of doing what everyone else does just because it’s “considered” best.

After reading this thread, and rolling my eyes every few seconds, I only want to comment on this.

You can’t come into this game as a new player and make a comment on “‘considered’ best” when you have barely touched a dungeon. The meta builds are discussed to death and agreed upon by the players who have spent infinitely more time than you ever will in dungeons. Many builds were tested in the process of defining the best ‘meta’ builds. These players know how to play their classes and in the best possible way. They know how the AI works and the most skillful way to play around it. These builds aren’t just ‘considered’ best; simply put, they are the best.

In the end, you are going to play how you want, and that is okay given you know that your build is not the best but you do it because it is more fun. You should make sure to find groups of like minded individuals and join (as others have said) ‘everyone welcome’ runs; otherwise, you might find a tough time finding players who will not kick you.

Such skill, much OP.

Excellent job!

potasium.2946:

lol the lvl 30 dungeon actually im going to start calling the lvl 30 dungeon a lvl 80 dungeon cause that’s how hard it is, I don’t enjoy having to waste all my money to repair my gear cause im dieing all the time and don’t enjoy wasting all that time to get there to find out we aren’t going to beat it. Like lets be honest here the dungeon is to hard. like really the dungeon should be modified by the level the dungeon is listed for so the lvl 30 dungeon should be hard for a level 30 but also be able to beat it with a party of lvl 30’s, and even high level players have troubles beating the lvl 30 dungeon like really. Like they need to set the difficulty down so lvl 30 can beat the lvl 30 dungeon cause in my opinion its really not a lvl 30 dungeon.

Like, let’s be, like, honest. This is so, like, difficult, for my, like, lvl30 character, like, it’s just way too, like, hard. This should, like, totes be re-like-labeled. In fact, like, I think, like, I should get an instant 30, like, tokens, for just, like, killing one, like, monster.

On a serious note, all dungeons are difficult for some peeople until you learn them.

Bump.

#savethewarden

Bump.

#savethewarden

I have experienced pretty good success by opening the description with: “Read first: insert requirement list”.

Also, I agree with using the phrase “know the path,” it is much better and there is no experience/explorable confusion.

This thread has some solid information on mesmer builds and the DPS they can bring:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Any-tips-for-doing-dungeons-as-a-Mes

As for learning the tells, you are right, it does not say. As you do the dungeons, you will learn the “big” moves more and know when to use your access to reflects at the right time. Bloomy raises his left hand in the hair really high and then punches the ground. The first archdiviner fight requires more precision, as he starts a windup before his AoE attack, but you have less time to react. Malrona alternates attacks (get poison debuff, wait a few seconds, then throw up feedback). Mossman will often throw the axe at the person he is not attacking and looks to face that other player, but again, very short reaction window. It takes time, but you will learn them (it took me a while to get down the archdiviner).

Also, at the OP: If you must use a staff, then the above builds will work fine, and you would just use staff on the swap from sword/x.

You should note though: some groups kick mesmers who pull out a staff in fractals/dungeons.

Saturn.6591:

Yeah well, I personally find reflects to be highly situational. Wherever you can not reflect, phantasm dps will be where the damage is at. And I personally don’t really find that many opportunities to reflect anyway.

I’ll agree that 10/20/0/25/15 is fine but…..not that many opportunities to reflect? You say you read the guide on it, and it may be you just need to learn the fights. There are an excessive amount of places to reflect.

At some point in every fractal is reflecting useful. Let’s take swamp: Bloomhunger has a HUGE tell (raises left arm in the air), so you can save feedback when he does it (and yes, feedback will be on CD when he does this move sometimes, but it is 120k damage when it is not, as well as preventing a missed-dodge insta-down). Mossman is harder, but he cycles through moves so as you learn the fight, it can become semi-predictable to reflect his axe. Essentially, every single fractal has a portion where reflects are needed.

As for dungeons, whether it is trash or a boss, most dungeons have times where you can reflect: TA UP (Malrona) and FW, SE p1, CoF p1, HotW p1, all of Arah, CoE.

There are tons of opportunities you can reflect to help out your team, making them hardly situational. I can see the arguments for 10/20/0/25/15 versus 0/30/0/25/15, but reflects being situational is not one of them. And frifox did dps tests between 10/20/0/25/15 and 0/30/0/25/15. In situations where you cannot reflect, they do equivalent damage, so the main thing you should use as the deciding factor is whether or not mantras are for you.

Given how the entire “Fractured” update was swept under the rug, so to speak, lulz at any of this actually happening. They do not care.

To those saying that fractal weapon boxes are in 51+ are potentially incorrect. As Lilith pointed out, a dev told us that they were not available at the current level of fractal levels. They could release 20 more levels (so we can get to 70) and still not be in the game because they were destined to be in 71+, or only as a possibility of being a reward at fractal level 80, once (or if ever) they release that high.

We should never have been told about them in the first place if they were not intended to be included at least for a level 50 to begin with. I do not trust them to institute these weapon boxes at level 51. And either way, it will be a chance at a weapon box or a skin, which means after the roll to see if you get a weapon, you then have to roll to see whether you get the weapon box or a select weapon. RNG at its finest, so do not hold your breath for these things.

Edit: I am apparently still very bitter about this, lulz.

Let’s be real: in a few weeks enough pugs will have done dredge enough and know how to do that first part correctly that the only thing you will need to do at the start is signify who will get the first and second switches prior to the cage room. As Ayrilana has pointed out, it takes a similar amount of time to do the skips as it does regularly.

The only problem with dredge is it’s length in general. When I can run the other three fractals in the time it takes me to run the one dredge fractal, it becomes a little depressing. In my opinion, the best thing they can do to the fractal is remove the dredge car by having it run off the moment rabsovich is killed. That easily shaves 10minutes off of the fractal.

Tree.3916:

TL;DR; Don’t kill the mobs on the right side of the cage.

So I ran this the other day and we did the right side and it was fine. Essentially, pick a side of the cage to clear and everyone fight there until they are dead. You then have one person stay on the switch. If you have two people kite, a third stand on the switch, and the 4th get the console, then you will only suffer the spawn of 3-5 dredge that occurs when the console can be interacted with, the important one being a veteran that pops near the console. If at any point you kill all of the dredge on the other side of the cage, then you get a full re-spawn of dredge.

Wasbunny.6531:

Bumbler.7581:

Snip.

When I get home, I will fight one of the jaguars or skelk in Maguuma to see if their stealth destroys illusions.

Just tested this out with some Jaguars and this is happening consistently in PvE as well, so it’s an across the board game breaking bug.

Have to admit it is ironic though that just after threatening a major nerf to ‘clone-death’ builds they somehow introduced a bug that effectively eliminates all builds except ‘clone-death’.

It’s funny but I’m not laughing.

Thank you for double checking this! I edited my comment above.

I guess when an enemy player or npc goes into stealth, the enemy still exists. Once the enemy reappears, it is as if the original enemy is dying and a new one has appeared, causing them to explode.

Edit, see @Wasbunny below for the PvE effects of this bug.

Hey, so I discovered something interesting in the Dredge fractal recently that might be useful for your reflect section.

On the turret path, the iWarden can reflect the attacks of the turrets (if they attack onto the floor area where you fight all the dredge) and they will effectively one-shot themselves. It’s hard to do because of feedback positioning and getting iWarden’s out while dredge are around, but I was pleasantly surprised to see this happen nonetheless.

A guardian wall of reflection might be much easier to pull off…though I have yet to check.

Traveler runes are not so bad, but are definitely not optimal. For QoL outside of dungeons, they are unparalleled on the mesmer. Make sure to grab another gear set instead of removing the runes as I would hate for you to lose them.

One of the best things you can do for your team is learn to use feedback, so make sure to learn when to use it. There is a reflect section in the guide here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Lyssa-s-Grimoire-The-Mesmer-Handbook/first

I always get depressed when I am on another character, melee-ing away, and die because I was expecting someone to either WoR or Feedback something.

This makes me sad. I pushed that “No” button at least 50 times.

#wallsfixdungeons

Dee Jay.2460:

• Illusions spawning and attacking on their own. – Often I’ll be fighting a mob in the world and after killing it, will still be stuck in combat for a few seconds. This is normal. However should I dodge during this second, Deceptive Evasion will spawn an illusion which will then attack the nearest enemy, for no reason, thus keeping me in combat for longer.

• Temporal Curtain has a similar problem in that while it’s supposed to speed you up with Swiftness it will often get you stuck in combat too because some mob decides to walk through it, thus triggering combat and nullifying the benefit of Swiftness.

• Can we please have a trait that resets our Phantasm cooldown if the Phantasm lives less than 4 seconds?

• Why are Phantasms tied to a particular target, rather than being temporary minions? It’s such an non-intuitive mechanic to have Phantasms die once their target dies and really gimps Mesmers in certain situations where targets die quickly.

• Why can’t Phantasms be summoned against invulnerable targets? I noticed this during the Marionette fight with the Mine-layer champion. I was stuck on the platform with another Mesmer and together we couldn’t put out enough DPS because we couldn’t summon Phantasms before the actual target became vulnerable (which only lasts 6 seconds).

Anyway, I like the class but feel the whole Phantasm/Illusion mechanic follows some sort of weird and non-intuitive mechanism that doesn’t make sense and gimps the class unnecessarily.

(1) I don’t think anything can be done about this.

(2) Agreed, it is annoying. Sadly, they would have to remove the cripple effect to change this.

(3) This trait would be very overpowered. Summon sword phantasm, let it attack. Shatter it. Summon sword phantasm. Shatter it. Repeat.

(4) I believe a change like this could be overpowered in PvP, but on PvE trash fights this would be nice. Just summon iWarden’s to make things better or just rely on your sword auto for trash.

(5) It’s the same reason we do not summon a phantasm if the enemy is blocking or evading. The invuln is just blocking the attack from happening. This will not be changed because it would be overpowered in PvP where you would no longer be allowed to dodge/block phantasms.

While some of these changes would be nice, they would impact PvP in too serious a way and make mesmers very powerful. Note I ignored your phantasmal warden not attacking comment because it definitely needs to be fixed.

Party merging definitely needs some work. I posted a fotm49 group with 3 people (had not yet started even rolling), we were merged by another party which auto-kicked one of our members. I was then kicked and before the other person in my original party dropped that group so we could reform, they said “just need a guardian now”. I will never no if it was a mistake or they tried to grab the war/guard in my other group; either way, there are problems that need fixing.

Fext.3614:

This is rangers trademark weapon so I do not really care if you can make yourself almost as good as a warrior in dps (leaving survivability and support aside because wars will be always better at that) when using 1h sword and nothing else.

Aragorn says “Hi”.

All rangers put your bows in the air like you just don’t care!

Just having phantasms/clones up will be as much as you can do.

Here is a great video where the clones take a lot of aggro allowing Sandy to simply be amazing. It shows just how well having them out and getting them out constantly can work.

Valarauka.2719:

Bloodgruve.6038:

I won’t argue the the damage output or utility of reflects, they’re great but you need someone shooting at you to utilize them for DPS.

They’re amazing when someone is though; I hit the Legendary Archdiviner for about 80k every time I put a feedback on his ring attack in my last fractal 50, and that was without even being particularly buffed.

And 120k every time it’s used on bloomy. <3 feedback.

nagr.1593:

2. when they do not meet reqs of LFG post

If a "dishonour"system existed, this would be enough to both lock players who want to play a certain way out of dungeons and it would make them quit the game.

Fror.2163:

A fourth guy join. “Hey, I’m a necro” – kicked.

Lulz! Even if you hadn’t specified class in the LFG, I can imagine this as a common response to said statement.

@OP: It could just be bad RNG. Before fractured, at least one member of the party would get a weapon on every 49 run that I did. Now, I have gone 3 full runs with no weapons for anyone. However, I’ve talked to someone who has gotten 2 in the last week. There are just good spells and bad spells. As for overall rewards, I usually walk out of a 49 (since Fractured) with at least 4-5 rares which is much better than before Fractured (maybe 1 rare if I was lucky).

@Fenrir: With that RNG, you really need to go through stuff in the mystic forge.

Skoteinos.4213:

Ryn.6459:

So in exhange, you gain IC and compounding power. That is more phantasm uptime and more damage for you and your reflects.
.

Compounding Power is not affecting Phantasms damage, but it’s +3% more damage to Mesmer for each clone/phantasm exists.

You should note, and as Ryn said, that it does affect reflect damage. So on a boss such as bloomhunger, 9% more damage is roughly 10k more damage when you feedback his AoE. With compounding power and empowered mantras, I usually see 120k spikes on bloomhunger in FotM49, it’s pretty nice.

Dalanor.5387:

Bumbler.7581:

digiowl.9620:

reikken.4961:

if you want a balanced PvE game, the only way to fix it is to start with enemy behavior. As long as they behave like they do, full damage will always be far and away better than any other setup.

while i agree in general, i would not mind if ANet took a good hard look at reflect.

Absolutely no. Reflects are fine and a great form of damage mitigation to any party. If reflects see revisions, then the mesmer class is effectively worthless.

If reflects will be turned into simple deflects, mesmer would have 100% uptime on that still. As you said, its a great form of damage mitigation, but allowing the boss to basiclly killing itself is … ehm .. weird at least. See, Lupi p2. This is still a AI issue (too), but i dont want to derail the thread.

There are only a handful of enemies that can kill themselves through reflect; and for Malrona at least, this was most likely very intended. Removing them removes a big damage source for the Mesmer to keep the class relevant. But I agree, this is a discussion for another time.

digiowl.9620:

reikken.4961:

if you want a balanced PvE game, the only way to fix it is to start with enemy behavior. As long as they behave like they do, full damage will always be far and away better than any other setup.

while i agree in general, i would not mind if ANet took a good hard look at reflect.

Absolutely no. Reflects are fine and a great form of damage mitigation to any party. If reflects see revisions, then the mesmer class is effectively worthless.

Aza.2105:

You only have yourselves to blame when this gets nerfed to oblivion. If I were you guys I’d keep this stuff under the table so they don’t nerf it. But since you insist on being seen by others/getting attention and recognition. Then do not be upset when they change it one of these days.

They won’t care. The number of people who need this skill as a crutch is probably close to 0. This was done purely for a record to see how fast it could be done.

All this post says to me is:

“To all of you very skilled players out there, I am not as skilled as you and it is unfair that you should practice and be better than me.”

Maybe FGS needs a bit of a fix, but to state that players using berserker gear is an abomination is ridiculous. These players plan out exactly what they need to do and I am sure it does not always go smoothly; we just see the final result of hard work. The risk/reward ratio is defined by both the power of everyone running berserker gear and the safety of everyone running cleric’s gear. A team full of skilled players playing their class in full damage gear should definitely be finishing dungeons/bosses faster than those groups who run full cleric’s and can easily face-tank every threat in the game.

And besides, these groups that go full melee on Lupicus and do it well most every time represent a small portion of the player-base (probably less than 1%). The thought that an entire play-style should be nerfed to the ground because the top PvE guilds are very skilled shows how out-of-touch many people are with the current player-base. When I look in the LFG, probably 90 percent (maybe more) of non-fractal groups I see advertise for anyone; I very rarely see these zerker gear-ping groups that many people claim plague the LFG.

guanlongwucaii.3162:

Anierna.6918:

guanlongwucaii.3162:

6s is pretty bad and I’m pretty sure a warrior can easily outdo that. frenzy rush-hb-whirl should finish it. of course none can compare to eles/thieves, though I’ve never seen eles instakill like thieves can

I Fiery Rush it. Insta-kill.

I’ve seen fiery rush + blink. Fast but not comparable to thieves that I’ve seen in some videos like the old DnT COF P1 record.

What is the rotation exactly for the gate? Pre-stack might, thieves guild, CnD, backstab, assassins signet, auto, HS, HS?

I would say that you are still better off with 0/30/0/25/15 as Phantasmal Haste is essentially a 20% damage bonus to pistol where Phantasmal Strength will benefit your warden (and other phantasms you might use) as well. And as Sanderinoa confirmed above, phantasmal strength will also boost its reflection damage as well. If you were only ever using pistol, then 0/30/0/20/20 would be better, but if you are likely to throw out at least 1 warden per fight, then 0/30/0/25/15 is better.

obal.3218:

I’ve already shown how OP the Gandolf build is with the below. Why is there another thread?

vet giant – http://youtu.be/3oPcqGeDoVE
lupi solo – http://youtu.be/4x9CkPuKWto

Gandolf OP. Gandolf how you want

LULZ! I almost died when you brought up the character window and Gandalf was there. I blame you for the prevalence of staff guardians!

MastaNeenja.1537:

Bumbler.7581:

On the same note as bloom clearing during TA skips, I do appreciate the guardian who has staff on the swap for the first Wurm boss in TA to clear the blooms before everyone moves on to the next wurm…this way I can safely DPS without having to worry about them. It also has some use for Line of Warding in the dredge fractal.

Everywhere else? /sigh

I use staff on cliffiside fractal at the two arm seals only. Line of warding is good for keeping the side you want to stay alive from following you down the tunnel and also the swiftness symbol is nice. Or was nice now you have to stand in it. I usually escort the hammer bearer and make them drop it on the way back before their corruption gets too high.

TBF, there are a few sets of trash in fractals where line of warding is nifty and helpful. But when I see some uber leet guardian staffing alpha or the searing effigy, I die a little inside.

I guess I mean the ones around the wurm you are killing at the moment. By the time you get to the great wurm (where your risk of dying becomes greater), the blooms closer to the outside should have respawned and you can safely rally off of those no problem. It’s just nice running to the next worm and not losing a bunch of health to those stupid blooms.

On the same note as bloom clearing during TA skips, I do appreciate the guardian who has staff on the swap for the first Wurm boss in TA to clear the blooms before everyone moves on to the next wurm…this way I can safely DPS without having to worry about them. It also has some use for Line of Warding in the dredge fractal.

Everywhere else? /sigh

Ryn.6459:

Yeah. wathever.

Back on topic. Does scholar runes increase the damage from warden reflects?

Edit: Thanks Sanderinoa!

frifox.5283:

What’s with this fascination with 30/30/0/0/10? Drop 5 from Domination and get 20% faster illusion summons with 25/30/0/0/15. The 25pt minor trait is the main reason to go that much into that line.

Guang (an Excelwars Pro) once showed that in a perfect world, and on paper, that 30/30/0/0/10 was highest DPS a mesmer can achieve, and it has sort of stuck. This was also before the second move of illusionist’s celerity from grandmaster to master. In practice, and especially since the IC move, you are right that 25/30/0/0/15 will be better. On paper, where phantasms never die (unrealistic), 30/30/0/0/10 will still be marginally better.

Ramiel.4931:

Bumbler.7581:

Most groups who understand the mesmer will expect this to be traited and used when necessary.

And I expect a harem of 200 virgins to fall out of the sky and land on my staff every day. Doesn’t mean it’s gonna happen anytime soon.

It’s beyond unreasonable to expect someone to play their class the way you want them to.

Expecting a mesmer to use a traited focus in dungeons where reflects are a major boon is equivalent to expecting a guardian to use blinds/aegis/WoR or for a warrior to use banners. It shouldn’t be unreasonable to expect someone to play in a non-selfish, group-benefiting way.

But I guess……#playhowiwant.

Well, since you have Twilight, I guess it would be a little bit of a waste to not use it.

And scepter auto, mid-range, does roughly the same damage as the GS auto as max-range I believe. The big draw is having a phantasm choice when ranging.

And 20/30/0/20/0 seems fine as a GS using build, but if you are only using it when you need to range, you will be definitely be better served going 0/30/0/25/15 for compounding power and illusionist’s celerity, as you won’t see the benefit for domination 20 much.

Sanderinoa.8065:

Well maybe if you INSIST on using a greatsword, but its not really something I’d see as optimal in any situation.

Agreed.

And FeniX, if you use a build where you plan to use GS, then you should note that more than half of those bosses that you are ranging in Fractals would be better served using scepter/X. You get access to a block, a better phantasm in the off-hand, and a decent (piercing) burst skill in Scepter 3.

Teefy, just note that a focus is very useful on fights where reflects are needed and can create a ton of damage with the Warden’s Feedback Inspiration trait. Most groups who understand the mesmer will expect this to be traited and used when necessary.

However, if you must only stick with sword/(sword + pistol), then a 10/30/0/10/20 build will suit you better and gives you the same feedback uptime. 30/30/0/0/10 is a mantra/power/phantasm build and is max dps without reflects I believe, but again, you lose the amazing utility that makes the mesmer class so good to have in dungeons.

MastaNeenja.1537:

Hmm you know i haven’t used my mesmer in a while is 0/30/0/25/15 the optimal setup at this time?

0/30/0/25/15 is indeed the optimal Mesmer build at this time. I would recommend 10/20/0/25/15, though, until the player is more comfortable with mantras.

And to the OP, go ascended zerk if you can. Learn to use blurred frenzy defensively and use scepter in the cases you need to range. You will see your ability to survive increase a lot. I think the current standard is sitting at 3 ascended assassin pieces (head/chest/legs) and 3 ascended zerker (boots/gloves/shoulders) with all zerk trinkets and weapons; however, with the ferocity change full zerk might be better than an assassins mix.

Lilith Ajit.6173:

J Eberle.9312:

kitten right Lilith, Play how you want!

;)

I play as fashionably as I want. Which is the meta of fashionable.

#BoomLookingCuteWhileDead

#DeadDPSisFashionableDPS

Trice.4598:

The thread was move to the void, where the light can;t reach it.

By moving it, they can focus on presenting Zerker gear as the problem since the masses want to keep their OP cleric’s gear by throwing Zerker under the elitist bus.