Showing Posts For Carakangaran.3561:
My only question is if you need that much clone generation. I use just Deceptive Evasion and with Greatsword Training and Blade Training, find it impossible to run out of clones, even soloing champions.
To be honest, i’m kinda paranoid about my clones and feel like I never have enough of me… eeerr…them (egomaniac kind of mesmer :p). I’m so full of myself !
On a more serious note, after testing this build, I found Mirror Image and Decoy very useful to avoid some damage. Decoy allows you to gain stealth (and lose your aggro for a short duration) while displacing you. Mirror Image displace your mesmer too and allow for your clones to pop from nowhere and take a hit or two.
I found it nice, especially when there are some stack of confusion.
Concerning confusion, i’m wondering if Confusing combatants is better than Illusionary Persona. Even if Illusionary persona makes you count as a clone for the sake of shattering, Confusing Combatants may allow to add a few stacks when you use Cry of Frustration.
I’ll need to test it.
Hi guys,
I’m going back to my mesmer (just because i love it) and had a question or two to ask :
When I created my sweet illusionist, I was looking for a way to play him like some kind of duellist. A tricky one, of course. Rapier, illusions to distract the opponent…Vicious, but classy.
But, while looking at the traits, I felt lost. Should i go for a crit heavy build with power ? Or a preci/cond damage (sharper images) ? Furthermore, is sword a viable main weapon set ?
I don’t see how to mitigate damage if i’m mainly at melee range, but using a sword/pistol combo fits my concept.
That’s the build I was thinking about :
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcmmMz9cMLbrmMwLrmapa0pmVamoM
I know it’s kinda awkward, but i tried to pick some defensive traits (it seems that there’s no internal cooldown on Desperate decoy), and to have a way to rely on my clones -not phantasms- to pop fast and die as fast. The goal is not to rely on mind wrack to inflict damage, but to use the other shatter skills to :
1) help me live to fight another day
2) buffing my mesmer and debuffing mobs so that i can kill them.
Hey guys.
Seems that I have nothing else to do but annoy you to death.
I spent most of my time as a cond thief (P/D – DD), and had great fun while playing this way, but it’s time for a change !
I was looking at my spare pistols and thought : "well, let’s try something else ! "
I know that P/P is lackluster for the moment. But it’s pretty fun to unload some flintlock pistols (just because unloading FLINTLOCK is fun by itself).
Unload is heavy on initative, that’s for sure. So what about building something to alleviate this a little and rely less on it, but with the same fun.
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmkMMzzzMMbFrMMTLomaxx9MocabVaz
Using blinding powder -whose cooldown is low enough to be useful- and shadow refuge (as well as Hide in shadows), you could use use unload, go into stealth and gain initiative (even regenerate it faster), and use the first skill as a filler.
I’m not sure it’s not a crappy idea -hell, i’m almost sure it’s not viable- but whatever ! It seems fun.
Remember i’m talking about a PVE setting.
Hi,
first of all I have to say that even if I really have fun playing my thief (pve), there are some things that need to be looked at.
First of all, pistols feel weak. Indeed, Dual Pistols don’t seem to have a point, except for unload. The damage output is low, and there’s no real synergy between dual pistols and stealth for instance. Mobility -even though it should one of the strongest aspect for a thief- is limited too when you compare it to shortbow.
Pistol/Dagger is a great combo, but it could use some kind of rehaul : maybe adding shadow shot instead of dancing dagger would be great. Indeed, you need to be in melee range to stealth.
The same thing could be said for sword/dagger. Flanking strike is far from exciting and feels clunky. When i first read the tooltip i thought : “Great ! I’ll be able to create a real duelist!”
It’s not the case. Sword/pistol is more mobile and more powerful too. If the point is to make Sword/dagger some kind of mez/stun/whatever-the-hell-can-incapacited-something then you have to rely on stealth and the first attack.
That’s not as fun as it could be.
Finally, some traits are lackluster at best : Initial strike, for instance. It’s not as powerful as Opportunist, but is considered a major trait. Or ricochet. 5% is too low to even think about choosing it whatever the situation.
But TBH pistols are my main concern.
When will every MMO stop wanting to be WoW ? Oh sorry… WoW with poor implementation.
The moment they realize WoW does the same thing but better? Apparently a very hard concept to grasp.
It’s not as if some had tried it before…
People need to settle down. Wow someone is better geared then you I didn’t know that was the end all be all to this game . This community really went downhill
It’s not about being “better” than another player (in PvE at least). It’s about being able to play with players.
For instance, I don’t have much time to play but i do enjoy running a dungeon when i can.
But how will i be able to do so if there’s no one running anything except what brings you the next tier of gear ?
That’s where the problem lies. Who will be running something that’s not a direct upgrade to the kitten ?
When will every MMO stop wanting to be WoW ? Oh sorry… WoW with poor implementation.
Even while playing WoW (or Rift, or SWTOR, or whatever MMO you might think of) i was never fond of vertical progression.
It negates the whole leveling experience, the whole world even, only to focus on what they call the endgame : sitting in town and spamming chat channels (or using a LFG tool) only to find a group of greedy berserker to clear the next dungeon as fast as we could.
That’s where the problem lies. GW2 is supposed to be a vibrant, living game. To some extent, what you do matters (to some extent). And you’re a kitten from the start. That’s what it means to be able to use most of your skills as soon as you’re able to grab a weapon. You’re toon is no rookie, nor is he some kind of apprentice.
But with vertical gear progression… we’re back to square one.
It doesn’t matter what happens in the world. Nor does the world itself count for anything. By the way, even if you care about those puny things, how will you be able to run a story mode dungeon when everyone and his mother will be obsessed with hitting the next tier of content and nothing else ?
Hit 80 as fast as you can ! Go get your gear even faster, whatever the cost !
That’s what vertical progression brings to the table : nothing except emptiness.
Thanks for your inputs, guys.
What bother me with caltrops is that they’re good. TOO good. It’s kinda paradoxical, but i like to scratch my head and think about some new ways to do things, even when an ability provides me everything i need.
For the record, i gave shadowstep up (it was a heartbreaking decision) and decided to come back to hide in shadow as my heal and main cond remover, while grabbing shadow refuge and blinding powder. I’ve just realized that Shadow Refuge allow for some Dark combo, which is pretty good when used with the #1 attack.
Considering there’s a need to stay at melee range as P/D, smoke screen might be a good replacement skill. Low cooldown, considered a deception skill (considering i’m gonna invest in the shadow art tree, the cooldown could be shortened)…It might offer the one sec protection you need when you’re out of endurance.
Thanks guys.
Right now, i’m using blinding powder (the reduced cooldown since the patch is awesome) and shadowstep (something i was never able to get rid of). And signet of malice is indeed my healing skill.
I think there’s a great synergy between this signet and the #1 pistol attack while stealthed. I’m planning to invest on trickery, acrobatics and shadow arts (Infusion of shadow is great when you have to make heavy use of CnD).
Hey guys,
I’m playing a thief (well i’m rerolling one -my first one was a charr, and i was not fond of his appearance) as a condition damage one, and i was wondering something : are caltrops mandatory for a cond damage thief ?
Sure, I know caltrops are a good utility skill (and i’m not talking about the one you leave behing while dodging) , but as i play a P/D thief, I think there might be something more useful.
Scorpion wire, for instance, feels like a pretty powerful ability for someone needing to stealth (#1 skill for pistol).
Do some of you skip the caltrops entirely to use something else ? Or are they really mandatory ?
Thanks guys.
My main problem is with cloak and dagger. Entering combat from a distance (steal is not always up) prevents me from entering stealth soon enough and apply bleeds as fast as i want to.
As you can guess, i’m not the most skillful player out there, and maybe S/D requires to put more skills than i’m able to.
But i’m really fond of the concept, so…
Hi guys,
Sorry to bother you, but I have a question : why are rogues OP ? Ok, just kidding.
On a more serious note, how to use P/D ? There’s a cr*pload of fun in it, but i can’t manage to understand how to make it work smoothly.
Is stealth and cond damage the answer ? If so, how to be stealthy enough to use the first attack and stack bleeds ? And is this set of weapons relying on cloak and dagger -if so, on being at melee range most of the time (and maybe using caltrops to add more bleeds ) ?
Hey guys, sorry to ‘hijack’ this post, but I was wondering something about P/D.
I can’t even begin to understand how to use this set of weapon effectively. Going stealth seems to be the way to go (cond damage is my thing too), but the over-reliance on the first attack to stack bleeds is bothering me.
How do you manage to effectively use cloak and dagger to stealth often enough to stack bleeds from the first attack ?
Yeah there was an enormous amount of of people rallying for a mainhand pistol for mesmer – I think it’s justified. But Anet had said at the time they are not really working on making new weapons for classes just yet.
Well, the reason I’m personally against the pistol is because I think it lacks imagination and the fun they could have with mesmers. Like, why not give us a main hand torch that shoots purple fireballs? Or a main hand dagger that we use as a “pistol” version of the Greatsword?
I’d be more okay with the main hand pistol idea if it wasn’t a typical “pew pew” main hand gun. I think A-net doesn’t want to give glass-cannon Mesmers an excuse to always sit at max range, so giving it only a medium range attack or the inverse mechanic to the Greatsword’s range damage thing would be ideal. If they do give us something, I just hope they put it on duelist discipline (range + cooldown for pistol) as well and make that a REALLY good trait.
When i’m looking at my mesmer, I feel like it’s more of a fencer than anything else. A rapier seems more in line with the design than a torch -just my 2 cents.
I’m fine with the fact that Explorable Dungeons are meant to be played by la crème de la crème. Better reward for highly skilled players is logical too (i’m not a highly skilled player).
My only concern is the durability of trash mobs even in story mode. They’re tougher than the lost son of John Mc Lane and Ripley. Furthermore, i’d like to see some more specific loot in dungeons.
There’s no need to give marvellous things in story mode, but at least some good looking items would be nice.
I’d like to see another weapon that will emphasize the duellist feeling of the class. Pistol in main hand would be nice -i’d love the look of my mesmer with dual pistols.
I’m not really fond of the scepter (i’m the kind of guy who plays with a character concept in mind -I guess 8 years on CoX had some consequences). I find the #2 sword attack pretty powerful as it is, even though the 8 sec cooldown seems to prevent me from using it as much as i’d like to.
I guess i’ll stick to greatsword as a secondary weapon.
Hey guys,
I’m having the time of my life with my mesmer (why did I even roll a thief in the first place ?) but there’s something that bothers me a little.
I like the duellist feeling the mesmer got and I was wondering if using a sword/pistol + sword/sword combo could be useful ?
Using the Empowered Illusion, it gives access to the duellist, the swordsman and 2 stuns (counter blade and magic bullet).
Any thoughts on the matter ?
At first, I thought the mesmer was indeed a bad profession.
I was not able to survive, and don’t even ask about dealing damage !
But instead of giving the profession up, I decided to keep on playing it -just because there was a cr*pload of fun concepts, and it matched one of my toon background.
Things changed when I had the opportunity to take a look at some tutorial made by a guy name Prometheus (or something like that).
And now, playing a mesmer is just a pleasure. Nothing is a breeze, but if you manage your powers you’re suddenly good enough to deal decent damage AND survive.
Plus, you’re classy.
I’m might be doing something wrong with my lil mesmer.
It’s just a baby mesmer (level 6 or so), but i can’t manage to kill things even one level above mine right now.
Tried dual sword -just for the heck of it- and it was all but a blast. Being “forced” to melee as a glass-something-but-non-canon class feels wrong, and i’ve spent my time down, my guts eaten by wolves.
Tried the greastsword. It was plenty of fun. Gosh, there’s a whole new concept behing a spellcaster using a two-handed sword to channel his spells. But for a weapon not built around conditions, there’s no real burst of damage here and -aside from the fun factor- the first attack is a pain to use.
I won’t be talking about pistols. I’ve just seen my poor gunslinging illusion ripped in half by a wolf in one bite. It did not even have time to unload its spectral guns. One moment later, i was on the floor, wondering what the hell just happened.
I’m level 6. The wolf was level 7.
So, basically, i should use a staff, or a scepter. But i don’t want to do so. There are some original and fun concepts available, and i want to be able to fully use it, without being kittened.
Damaging things may not be the point. Survavibility seems to be a massive problem.
TBH, i’m a bit too low level to be an expert, so that’s just my 2 cents.