Guild Wars 2

I’ve had a female norn mesmer as my main since shortly after the game started, and aside from some pose-clipping here and there, I haven’t had any gripes. My character is the absolute minimum height for a female norn mesmer, so often I don’t stand out, unlike the full size norns.

See this here, too.

Like others posting, I can join practice alone, but unranked and ranked is not working for me (the animation doesnt play and this has persisted since the patch hit, and then the second patch aswell), and i get a “the game client is unable to gain access to the login server at this time” about half a minute later, which doesn’t pop up from anything else I’ve done today in terms of wvw/story/pve/etc..

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2byvzs/all_the_builds_from_na_tol_qualifier_2/

1 mesmer NA ToL

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/2bw0uz/all_the_builds_from_eu_tol_qualifier_2/

Several (4) Mesmers in EU ToL

Assorted fun facts
EU: Every team has a Guardian; Every team has a Warrior; Every team has a Thief
NA: Warrior is used 8 times out of 6 teams (Found in all but one team)
EU: 30 people → 1 Ranger, 1 Necro =o
NA: Engie used in 3/6 teams; Necro used in 3/6 teams
EU: Every team has an Ele or Engi

Lots of other interesting things, just pulled a few

maha.7902:

Do you even play Mesmer?

Their sig helpfully points to mains of Ranger(pve) and Thief(wvw)

RyuDragnier.9476:

maha.7902:

Do you even play Mesmer? They are not wanted in pve. They are absolute garbage in pve. They’re literally the joke of my guild. They’re wanted in wvw for veil then you might as well get lost. In PvP, well I’d say the lack of mesmers at high level, and high level mesmers playing other classes says enough about how good it is there.

Funny, every party I’ve been in for dungeons and fractals wants Mesmers due to how much damage they can dish out, their ability to reflect every projectile back at the enemy regardless of direction it’s fired in (completely trivializes several bosses), their AoE condition/boon controlling (makes the golem boss in CoE a joke), the ability to half the damage everybody takes with the Phantasmal Defender, a line of stealth, etc. If your guild thinks they’re useless, then I’m sorry, but the people in your guild know not of what they speak of, and are probably (I’m saying this in the kindest terms) ignorant.

Useless, nah. Niche, yeah. Untraited warden usage comes to mind, particularly in fractals, though various tweaks/unannounced changes have altered what can/cannot be absorbed/reflected etc.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

Xillllix.3485:

This “season 2” lacks WvW content to go with it.

Doesn’t the WvW community get upset when it gets tinkered with and expanded on? I recall hearing from some people how Edge of the Mists was an attempt to “kill” traditional WvW.

I wouldn’t think of it as attempt to kill traditional wvw or anything like that, but it certainly came across as trying to force a vision of what certain groups wanted in the game with the solution to the queue/wait-time issues at the time. The playerbase more or less rejected the vision (and felt that many more important concerns had been set aside during the push for the new map) and now EotM is a farm train zone.

How exactly are people pulling these off? In custom arena against stationary zerk geared friends my phantasms have never hit for more than 6k (and that was just once), even with full phantasm builds or full condi + warlock use with might stacks.

All hail condi meta.
That aside, Anet has got to make money somehow unless box sales remain like they were at launch…

Presumably since they lost potential gem sales on transmutes (the stones became useful, spvp hands out the occasional charge, etc) they need to make it up elsewhere, such as the extractors. =/

This is pretty interesting, thanks for collecting the data!

pigdog.9215:

Finale.5281:

pigdog.9215:

Finale.5281:

GW2 is no more a F2P game than Diablo 3 is F2P.

Hey kid, go back to school before speaking garbage. Diabo 3 has expansions, gw2 doesnt because it releases its content through Living Story/updates. Schooled fool

You pay up front for both games. Not F2p
(As in you have to buy the game with cash before you can play)

Frankly I’d prefer an actual expansion to living story. Vanilla D3 also had content updates that weren’t expansions.

Good for you but it doesn’t change the fact that you’re wrong about it being the same.

That they’re both buy-to-play? I think not.

GW2 is no more a F2P game than Diablo 3 is F2P.

Each reset I’ve tried some of the player-found “fixes” with no luck
Being online in gendarren when reset hits
Having all characters logged off in a non-mega zone when reset hits
Hopping between non-mega zones when reset hits

Nada.

Just summing the dungeon daily chest values and ascended crafting gold equivalents that people aren’t getting starts to be a not-insignificant amount over 5-6 days….

At least this simplifies my schedule for the weekend. PvP and WvW only! =/

Recursivision.2367:

Shatter builds were previously one of the best burst damage specs in the game. They are still one of the best burst damage specs in the game. Adjust sigils and runes as necessary.

Excellent at bursting down crowd controlled or ambushed squishies.
Rather terrible at dealing with most other things, being too low of damage to seriously threaten bunkers or balanced specs, reliance on pathing/ai mechanics, and fairly predictable timing windows.

The strength of shatter was/continues to be small group aoe damage with boon removal. Is one decent to have in a small groups in wvw? Yeah. Is it handy for mid fights? Generally. Is it going to force people off a point by itself? Less often.

Nikku.3562:

Aside from the lacklustre GM traits, I am just really disappointed that the exciting stuff I was explicitly told to expect by Anet has not come to pass. iElasticity for staff clones hasn’t appeared. iWarden is still bugged. Triumphant Distortion has a CD. Portal has no range indicator.

Rather than being all about the new game mechanics, I think the general grumpiness of Mesmer players is down to the miscommunication or lack of communication surrounding them. I can deal with lacklustre mechanics (and hey, maybe someone will find a use for them and we’ll all realise that Disruptor’s Sustainment is incredible), and I can deal with being told there are still some bugs to iron out later, but it’s really disheartening to be told you’ll be given something cool then be let down.

Please, Anet. Better communication in future.

Have to give them points for trying at least (all the ready ups, lead ins to the patch, etc). However, I second your sentiment.

We’ll probably have at 3 months to get used to the lacklustre mechanics and bugs (with some irrelevant temporary content thrown in from time to time) before the next balance patch, so we might as well start figuring out how to work with the scraps we were given.

Spiuk.8421:

More like RIP every single build but zerker.

This. Unless it’s pvp. Condiiiiiii

Zepidel.5349:

Zerker is still the meta, zerker is still king, zerker is still the most dps.

Good players still dont need more vit, more toughness, any kind of healing power to survive in PvE.

Conditions will always be crap as long as there is a 25 cap.

A full zerker group will still clear any dungeon 2-3x as fast as a PvT group. However now that zerker are doing less damage, that means PvT pugs will be getting carried less… longer dungeon runs for the unwashed masses, leading into the exact opposite of what the OP stated.

Elitism will rise thanks to the zerker nerf, not diminish.

Pretty much my thoughts. Builds might change up a bit, but gear not as much.

Dengar.1785:

Ahahaha, amazing.

“I want to have my awesome reward that you get for mastering all aspects of the game without mastering all aspects of the game.”

If you only like part of the game, Legendaries aren’t for you. Or just grind the gold and buy one.

I totally forgot about the whole gold/Trading Post thing!
So yeah, there’s definitely an avenue in place to get legendary weps without even a single badge of honor or setting foot into wvw. Talking about being forced into something is rather disingenuous.

Personally I think it’s cool legendaries incorporate multiple aspects of the game.

Astralporing.1957:

Some people are there not to have challenge, but to just grief others. Giving them an opportunity to do so is never good.

His opinion is as valid as yours, though.

It seems anet has decided that wages (in the form of achievement points/storyline) in this particular case are to be earned via a job involving exploring a player combat zone. Nobody is forcing anyone to take said job, though anet can entice people. In the end people have to decide for themselves whether the potential remuneration is worth it. Certainly not a food-on-the-table situation.

Axialbloom.8109:

So ‘forcing’ people to do dungeons is fine, but WvW is from the devil?

Of course!
Dungeons just give faster income, a bevy of achievements not available elsewhere, unique skins, and predictable scripted content! People should love being forced to do it!
;)

Isn’t the main con for both fractals is that they’re not swamp? Woohoo longer fractal runs…

So glad I got the fractal skin I wanted already and enough rings/relics to last a lifetime and won’t have to do that timesink again. People already groan when it’s not swamp/water/charr…
Jetpack/monocle might be cool if they dropped from the fractal versions though.

Killing Yaks outside of supply camps does give ppt points, yes.

Herr der Friedhoefe.2490:

Deimos Tel Arin.7391:

some one thief complained about this skill’s instantaneous pulling ability and viola 1 second recharge time

Fixed that for you. Focus 4 already has a fairly long cool down time. This wasn’t necessary.

Some Anet dev on his favorite thief probably got pulled out of a shadow refuge a few times and wasn’t able to stealth spike his next victim. One dev hissyfit later and this gets “fixed”.

I…never thought about that. This makes a lot of sense especially since house is supposedly one of thieves few interruptible stealths . I wouldn’t be caught dead using a focus in most pvp situations (pistol fan), but this definitely seems/seemed like a good use for curtain.

Castervania.3560:

Levitas.1953:

Stealth.9324:

Lucky that u are still useful on small Scale, Eles is a joke when it comes to roam as well as a joke come to Zerg as well. The only thing I can see Eles being useful is being their farming Token bag.

You must be that kind of player that anet usually listen when they do balance changes.
Blurred frenzy has a counter in itself, you cant move while using it. Also, the target cant move away or the damage is null. I know different ways to avoid what you think is “the unavoidable combo” as a mesmer, other classes cant? I guess we should first nerf blurred frenzy, then start to nerf our various leaps, teleports, immunities and so on. This must be the solution, dont you think. A CD increase was probably needed (even if a lot of bursty skills are on a low cd), the double nerf is a bit too much.

THANK YOU! finally someone with common sense. unavoidable combos? noobs cants avoid those combos because they cant think for themself.

Plus one. Clearly stunbreaking, dodge-rolling, invincibility (mist form), or stability don’t exist as well.

Will second later comments regarding lack of build diversity as well. Just because a build can exist doesn’t make it viable, much less good.

Stealth.9324:

Mesmer Burst is the only combo that can not be evaded if played right.

Oh? Do tell.

Saw the title and instantly though of all the champs in league that started as viable contenders in various roles then got nerfed and relabeled support, while being inferior to dedicated supports.

Guard, because they’re pretty much always nice to have for anything, though they haven’t received the love some other classes did this patch.

Hrm. I guess this finally provides the impetus to switch away from my norn mesmer to my asura guard and thief. Minimal increase in utility, reduced damage…but at least we run slightly faster when we have 3 clones up.

DaShi.1368:

if these changes really hurt the profession, I’m sure that Anet will address them. The best way is to keep playing them and show the problems, if any, so that Anet has enough info. to correct them.

You have far far far more faith in Anet than I have…

Stark.1350:

The complaints thus far are absolutely mind boggling.
Congratulations, it’s not! You only have to do 10/14 achievements, of which you have AN ENTIRE MONTH to do.

This is assuming that there won’t be more achievements that simply don’t count towards the meta, like the dragon ball achievements that do not count at the present.

CoF light armor horns have had the same issue forever.

I always saw /inspect as just for gear. Sure it may not be as informative as bringing up the whole armory, but small steps. If it’s gear only I’d be against an opt out option. That being said I certainly wouldn’t oppose an armory-like system whether ingame or out of it. There’s always been ways to hide innovative builds from that site, it just takes a bit of effort.

As it stands I’ve found titles in this game to not really tell me much about player skill outside of pvp, but in pvp they often seem to correlate with some base level of competence.

Flissy.4093:

shimmerless.4560:

it’s just not really anyone’s business what I decide to run,

Of course it’s those in your groups business to know what you run. You could essentially be totally wasting their time in PVT with a bad build that you call “creative”. Why should they carry someone who is a dead weight and is providing no meaningful contribution.

amen

Broadicea.8294:

ITT: people wearing shameful gear and not wanting to be called out on it

Also, bonus fun fact: as awesome and Hold Your Owny you are with your carrion/rabid condi build, you’d be even better with a good build and gear setup. The only reason you think you do so well in dungeons is because there isn’t a DPS meter, so you don’t realize how much you’re being carried. Or because you typically play with other completely sub-optimal players and you have no idea what a damage-optimized group is capable of (hint: you don’t get sub-60 seconds on Lupicus in Cleric’s).

You already don’t want to run with people who would rather everyone run co-ordinated builds set up for maximum damage, and we would rather not run with you either, so why not have a tool that makes it easier for us to segregate from each other?

I mean, crying “elitism” usually implies that there’s some gated content that you won’t be able to get into because of the zerker build folks keeping everyone else out. But trust me, there would be absolutely no shortage of people still looking to form up Nothing Matters, Play Whatever You Like Cause It Doesn’t Make Any Difference groups. In fact, you’d still be the vast majority.

This. So much.

IndigoSundown.5419:

It might be useful to differentiate between rares from dungeon tokens and rares from other content. Pedro did not do so, and it might be relevant.

Are people still factoring this in before posting? As I understand it the 1 ecto issue primarily revolves around the dungeon token rares. Southsun rares have yielded the normal ecto range for me while cof token gear has only given me a single ecto at most since recently.

Thanks for all the advice!
I went from 20% to 60% after a bit more communication and a small bit of grouping.
Back down now to 25% though after having eight 4v5s in a row. One of which was one where person who invited me to a group and queued up was the one who never entered -_- No clue really what to do in the face of 4v5s.
On a side note, in all the games I’ve played these past few days on Temple, only once has the team not leading at the 3? minute mark ish not one the game. Certainly feels inevitable, even with the 8:30 Tranquility buff in place. Is this just perception? Additionally, should everyone go for tranquility or no?

Hello,

Started tpvp about two weeks ago, gradually learned the basics and was just a bit below 50/50 till yesterday. In the last 48 hours or so I’ve gone 4-27, with a streak of 23 losses being particularly discouraging. I think my % fell from 45% ish to 20%, and every match plays out the same. Only play solo as most of my friends prefer pve/wvw.

Lots of questions:
-How to catch up when behind? In every single loss I’ve been in, other team wins the opening engagement mid/other key location and proceed to just build on the point lead.
-Zero communication. In 31 games only in two did people say anything of tactical relevance. Far more likely to have people talk about how they’re contributing much more due to their score while 3 people cap the same point. If you call out incs, the response is either no help, or the entire team comes and zergs the point. Not really sure what to do.
-How to damage bunker specs? I’ve run both the shatter and the phantasm builds, and even with zerker my damage is extremely underwhelming. If I’m defending a node it feels like I can only delay a harassing ele/guard/etc trying to take my point and can very rarely outright kill them within any sort of reasonable time frame (ie before other fights elsewhere wrap up and they’re reinforced.
-I’m sure this is more a mental thing, but how does one beat the “defeatist” feeling at the beginning? Definitely have a fair share of matches where the pre-game starts, you look around, and nobody has any sort of pvp title, and you see the enemy team and they’re all full of avengers and mercs and champion paragons and such, and after the match you see your team was really outclassed rank wise etc. Is there matchmaking?
-Cramped node fighting: What’s the best way to go about this as a mesmer? I’m thinking more of fights at say henge rather than keep. While I can land my shatters and such more easily, I’m usually unable to pressure the enemy in without taking massive damage in return.
-Skill choices: I run Illusion of life/TW/blink/portal, but without coordination it feels much worse than if I just ran moa and null field and such.

I switched to tpvp from hotjoin because hotjoin always felt like either a mishmash of numerically uneven teams (though i’ve learned 4v5s aren’t uncommon in tpvp either it seems) or a proxy for dueling arenas, but definitely feel really discouraged.

The two skins I’ve gotten (longbow/trident) were from 20 and 34, respectively. Not exactly a fan of either, but I figure that the more fractals I do, the more opportunities I’ll have to get skins. I’d be really surprised if the rate was more complicated than a really low flat chance. Anecdotally I’ve seen 3 skins drop for a group at 24, but of course that’s just one random occurrence, and I know some people that never left the 30s with around a half dozen skins.

Smooth Penguin.5294:

From my experience, if you do lv 38+ daily, the Fractal weapons drop often. I’ve gotten around 5 different ones so far. I can understand why you’d be mad if you’re only doing low level FotM runs, as I don’t think Fractal weapons drop (or maybe more rarely drop) from such low levels.

Having quit for many months after hitting 80 when the game came out and just starting fractals recently, upon reaching fractal level 20 and doing the daily for that tier for the first time, I got a bow skin and an infused ring (which I thought shouldn’t be possible pre 26 based on the wiki…but I’m definitely wearing it now-personal fractal level still only 21)on my mesmer. The next day, for the lv 20 daily chest I saw someone get a pistol skin, so it’s definitely possible at lv 20, if that counts as low.