Guild Wars 2

Yeah I noticed this myself that it is not proccin’g shrapnel. Please fix soon Anet. Otherwise LOVED THE PATCH

This is true. I have this amazing heal guard with heal on dodge, heal on weapon swap. Stack heal points on kill. Runes of the trooper. Heal burst with might stack. I can heal bot and condi clear my party all day. So amazing….. Or it would be….

Except none of that matters because my whole party will wipe in 1 hit anyway. Or 2 hits if tank. Can’t heal through death. Also I notice i actually make my team wipe even more when I run this character because we can’t kill the boss fast enough due to my lack of DPS. So then they instagib and ofc I can’t heal through instagib.

The main problem is the party share venoms don’t stack very well. Still no stun break, or condi clear. That’s why I won’t run them. Would be nice if you could clear a condi for every 2 unique venoms applied…. or something….

I really like where this story is going. Slowly the bright eyed rookie is turning into the hardened veteran she needs to be. Meanwhile the Thief has his own set of demons to figure out. Well worth my reading time! Each chapter is getting better and better.

I have to say that this is exceptional. I will be checking it regularly to see how it finishes.

Strong Work!

Gotta say, dancingmonkey totally correct in this thread.

Honestly this sounds like working as intended. The best counter against zerker team spam is a thief. That’s the way it should be. Say you get what you want and even more nerf thief. Whats going to counter your zerker spam now? Bunkers? lol. Or did you just want a build without any counter?

The thief countering the zerker build has his own set of counters that can easily screw him up. Just ask a teammate using one of these builds for help.

1. You pick the most beautiful zones and ruin them with random crap left behind at the end of that living story zone.
a. Examples include the left over krait/spore crap ruining Queensdale (and are also way to hard for a low level to complete when they randomly come across it) or the shrapnel littering kryta.
b. I DON’T MIND AT ALL that you change the zone for the initial event. But build it backup at the end. Shouldn’t the farmers of kryta use all that metal/wood scrap to rebuild forts/hamlets even better from before. Shouldn’t those new forts and hamlets have a visual theme that fuses the krytan region but also the toxic alliance architecture since they are using the same building materials? I like that you added even more banks, merchants, and etc. back in lions arch as part of the rebuild. Now rebuild the structures even better than before!
c. If you leave anything behind make sure it fits THEMATICALLY with the rest of the zone so it doesn’t stick out like an eyesore. See letter a. above.
d. If you leave anything behind in a zone put a “memorial plaque” explaining how it ended up there in that state for new players.
e. If you are going to destroy a bunch of crap and leave it looking ugly do it in a zone that is already ugly, confusing, and asymmetric as kitten to begin with — Orr.
f. If you take the time to design amazing little areas like nolan’s hatchery then make it useful post ls. Special karma merchants, special weapons merchants, etc.
g. stop destroying the places we care about most for dramatic effect if you are going to leave them ruined. (Totally fine if you build them back up within a REASONABLE time, see letter b.).

2. Specific examples of LS content I thought were amazing:
a. The Frost and Flame Dungeon, The Aether Dungeons, The Aether JP
b. The Tower of Nightmares MegaDungeon.
c. Anything that gives a new zone to explore (Tower of Nightmares, Dry Top, Edge of the Mists, Labyrinthine Cliffs/Zypher Sanctum).
d. Things that bring in mini-events/games (Sanctum Sprint, CrabToss, Sanctum PvP).
e. Things that required teamwork but not significant amount (Tower of Nightmares and zone content, Defense of LionsArch). (IMO things that require significant coordination of 50+ people is just impossibly stupid i.e. puppet, jungle worms, etc. Don’t get me wrong there is a place for the content but should NOT be in the LS).
d. Things that felt like a battle and gave good loot— Defense of Lions Arch, Puppet Master Fight.
f. The boss battles for LS 2 which were not a boss that was instagib/insane health but instead fights of moderate health bosses that required timing and understanding of mechanics.
g. Any holiday content. Best ever. Period.
h. Divergent story lines refreshing. IE. SuperFunBox.
i. Any event that gives amazing loot. The Dungeon events, The Puppet, Defense of LA etc. I think for LS2 you made a pretty good move the rewards for each little story segment seem pretty good overall.

I won’t make a list of negative LS content… but you can probably infer that the what I have not included were things which I thought were either unimpressive and/or poorly done.

dancingmonkey.4902:

Miffinator.3046:

Players will religiously defend this class and pat themselves on the back for being “better” than Warriors, or Guardians. Just look at the responses. But in the end the sad truth is there’s no thought behind this class outside “Lets give them a ton of skills”. At the end of the day Versatility doesn’t build a sound class in MMOs but sound class mechanics build a good class. That’s something this class lacks, and this class deserves a rework.

You must not be familiar with MMOs because versatility makes the engineer and ele great in this one. It made the Bards great in all the EQ series. Makes the Soulsong, Honor guard and other songcraft derivatives great in archage. (see what I did there. I stated my opinion as a definitive fact, same as you, only I reinforced with reasonably accurate information)

The only thing the profession is a bit lacking on is condition cleanses.

LoL. Well said Dancingmonkey. QFT

Tested multiple times Automated Medical Response does not reset the cooldown for AED.

Thoughts anyone? Devs can you confirm or deny that this is working as Intended?

Is this working as intended? I sure hope not. Doesn’t seem fair that this would work for some heal skills and not others. Very unintuitive. Also, the new condition removal on AED made it slightly more viable… that said, those conditions are so easily reapplied if this trait actually affected AED it would make it much more competitive with other choices such as healing turret which, honestly, are still much better than AED.

(Even WITH speedy gadgets the cd on AED is 32 seconds lolwut? Compare to healing turret which can give you regen, self heal on placement, toolbelt heal, aoe heal w/ 1+ blast finishers, condi removal, all on a 20 sec CD?)

The combo as I imagine it should be:

(AED—>go down—> Rez w/ condi removal —> the hit causing AED to trigger is definately below 25% threshold=AED insta-recharge --> AED—>go down—> Rez w/ condi removal.)

This still might not be competitive with healing turret but 1. It’s a start and 2. Its a healing skill so it should work with Automated Medical Response regardless unless explicitly stated otherwise.

Miffinator.3046:

ejax.5170:

One more thing. Popularity does not equate to how good a profession actually is. Believing that engineers are bad simply because they’re not popular is faulty reasoning. There are quite a few other factors that could also influence why this is not a popular profession. To most, engineers are simply unattractive (them hobosacks). Engineers play very differently than every other profession making them feel awkward. Engineers have no reasonable access to melee weapon (toolkit whacking… yeah, no.). And, this uninformed conception that engineers are “bad” or “suck” also deters people from playing them.

This is just untrue. This is a game—players often play the class that’s easiest to play for the greatest reward. Arguing that a silly back pack is the reason players don’t play as an engi is dumb. It really is. Players don’t play as engis because the simple truth is you have to work hard at an engi just to be as good as decent Guard, Warrior, or Thief.

Look want to know what the Engis have to deal with in order to play (granted I only do WvW so I really can only speak from that):

Everyone has 5 basic wep skills, a heal, 3 utility, and a elite. Engis in WvW usually have to use kits in order to compete and be able to use Cond damage. So from the current meta you have to either use Nades or Bombs. They give you 5 skills.

So Engis have to use a minimum of 10 wep skills while sacrificing a utility spot. In any build. Not to mention with each utility spot you get a tool belt and you get 4 of those (Including the heal spot). Arguably engis on any given day have about 27 different skills. Which sounds nice. But it isn’t. The kits are a joke. They’re flimsy and they really do force Engis to really think about what they can do.

You’d think with the massive amounts of skills this class gets we’d be pretty decent well played class. But we’re not. Lets not forget this is an MMO. Players are limited to what the purpose of the game allows. Imagine this Engis can fit any role. I agree with that statement. However they can fit all roles but when compared to other classes who are limited to say performing 1-3 roles exceptionally well the Engineer falls out because ultimately you’re going to want to do a set function really well.

Why roll an Engi for roaming when Thieves are unquestioned in that role? Why roll an engi when for Zergs guardians and warriors perform much better? Why roll an engi when a d/d ele is essentially the same thing just with bigger numbers and more survivability.

This class is a joke. That’s my opinion. The question was are they any good? I am saying no. The Engi community has maybe 4-5 player vids we can cite to follow. Compare that to the dozens for every other class. And numbers do matter in MMOs because players always go the path of least resistance to the top. Engis don’t come anywhere near the top (at least in WvW). If you’re looking for a good solid class I’d recommend Guardian, Thief, or Warrior. They’re forgiving, solid, and much more desirable than engineers are.

There is no way d/d ele has bigger numbers AND more survivability than an engineer. I can see one or the other. Not both. That’s just exaggeration to make the class look bad.

Miffinator.3046:

I have to say I’ve been playing an engi since launch and I absolutely hate this class. Literally it’s like playing an orchestra on my keyboard having to juggle a minimum of 3 kits. It’s absolutely frustrating and just not fun. I took a break from this game for a bit. Almost a whole year—however I came back hoping that my lvl 80 engi got a rework. Making the class easier to play. NOPE.

I just don’t understand the purpose of this class. We’re kind-of-tanky. We’ve also have to jump between 4 toolbelt abilities, 1 reg wep set, 2 full kit sets, and an escape. I should point out I mainly do WvW. It’s mind-boggling when I play my Warrior how the comparison is—it’s outrageous. The class is just too hard to play. Honestly if this was a viable class there’d be more engis running around. There aren’t, and there’s a reason for that. The reason is L2P just so you can be almost pretty good

I think that in order to make this class work better some minor things can be done to enhance play specifically for WvW. I think honestly there should be some need for Flamethrower in WvW. Almost all builds are built around conditions, and they rotate between Nade/Bomb—Bomb/Engi/Boots. Flamethrower seems so great for WvW because of the Jugg trait, but it’s useless. I’d say add a bigger toughness bonus, or replace the flame wall for a jump.

I just think that accepting the status-quo on this class will only harm it further. I pray for a rework, and hopefully the normalization of this class. Until then I’ll be playing a Warrior/Thief in WvW because they excel in both Zerg and Roaming and are much more forgiving and effective at what they are designed to do.

I have to say I think you are totally wrong about this one. I think engi is relatively easy to understand and trait for. I think using all of the skills are intuitive. I am never frustrated when I play engi or feel like it is a chore and not fun.

I love that whenever I play that I am bouncing around kits, spraying fire everywhere, launching foes with bombs, flying around with rocket boots, dropping freight on peopls faces, smacking kneecaps with crowbars, pew-pew ing my way with pistols, etc, etc, etc, etc.

Because I am keeping track of so many different things I feel like i have tons of options for every situation and there are so many build combos. Whenever I switch to another class like guardian or thief or warrior I am bored to tears. So boring. They are good, but so 1-dimensional in design imo. They will never have the same level of fun that I experience with the engineer.

Is the skill cap higher than other classes? Yes, compared to some. Do you have to mash some more buttons? Yes. Is it way more fun ??! YES !!

You state that Engi doesn’t have utility in solo-roam or the zerg. As far as the zerg is concerned i definitely think you are wrong here. You can support your allies in so many ways as an engi in the zerg. You can also put out serious damage if you are protected by the zerg and thus afford a high damage build.

As for the solo-roam, your right engi isn’t as good as thief or warrior…. but alot of other classes aren’t either. If the solo roam is what you like to do, then it sounds to me that you are trying to force a round peg into a square hole—hence your frustration. So I agree, don’t play an engi.

Hello,

I am getting the same issue here as well. Only difference in addition to game freeze m sound gets choppy and stuck on “repeat” sounds very jagged. Can only fix with hard-reset. It also seems to happen more frequently when im on TS but it can also happen when I am not (just takes longer).

I am not alone. My brother and my friend are both having this issue as well. I will be back to post my specs but for now just wanted to post so people are aware. Anet you really need to fix this.

Edit:
Dell XPS L502X, Windows 7 64bit, 6GB RAM, Intel Core i5-2410M CPU 2.3 GHz, NVIDIA Geforce GT 525M

Please note this problem has been happening for me, my brother, my friend, various guild mates SINCE RELEASE. Occasionally with certain patches it might go away. Then it comes back. Now its getting even worse! You need to fix this! I am certain if its affecting so many players in my circle then it must be affecting many other players too.

Note I also can’t generate any type of bug report because of the nature of the hard reset the game doesn’t even know it crashed or that anything went wrong. (or at least I don’t know how to collect it if no bug report dialogue doesn’t pop up).

I know Gwen has a grave in ebonhawke… but honestly the all powerful mesmer is not Livia but Gwen. She faked her death, made a pact with the unseen ones to prolong her life, and hides her true age with illusion.

This explains her desire to help the queen and humanity, coupled with the fact that she knows things that a regular human her age simply could not.

Think about it. Makes sense.
o.O

Boneheart.3561:

Gibbilo.3270:

Boneheart.3561:

Gibbilo.3270:

Lol you guys are forgetting how easy it would be for a mesmer to just disguise, execute, and portal out.

They would never know the commander was there o.O.

Don’t need to kill him either….just teach him a lesson….

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Labwan_the_Deceiver

I took her head.

With everyone’s security compromised, if so much as a petal is askew everyone in the area will be questioned.
Trahearne: “Commander, where were you during this incident?”
As Kasmeer is looking dead at you.

Commander: Good thing my helmet and goggles are on so Kasmeer can’t tell I’m lying.

“I was at the zoo in divinities reach.” (Or at least an image of me was) …. “Why are you even here? You should be researching the dragon at the Priory….Get back to work before you disappoint both Marjory and myself!”

Kasmeer: …. okay boss… sniffle

The only person who knew it was an illusion is dead.

Now they will never know my secret.

Headgear comes off during cutscenes.

Guess we should make sure this conversation occurs during the mission and not the cutscene :p

I don’t think anyone here was complaining about having to go on a scavenger hunt or complete the living story missions. I do think they stated that they don’t want to do the same 4-5 events over and over to get enough geodes to buy 1 piece of clay (or the equivalent). Which, to me, sounds more like a grinding as opposed to less like a grinding.

So when people say: “these scrubs don’t want to work for it.” Then the only thing they could mean then is “these scrubs don’t want to farm 4-5 events for geodes (or the equivalent)” Again, because as I have read most everyone has already stated they are totally okay with unlocking content by scavenger hunts (This was a great idea!!), completing missions, etc.

Which implies that the people who don’t mind “working for it” (and get mad at the people who do) either like, or at least tolerate, things that seem close to grinding or are, in fact, grinding. This is fine. If that’s how you like to play the game that’s cool!

It doesn’t mean though that you should get better gear compared to someone who likes doing missions, exploring, leveling up characters, etc. instead of playing the same 4-5 events over and over to get geodes (or the equivalent thereof).

Boneheart.3561:

Gibbilo.3270:

Lol you guys are forgetting how easy it would be for a mesmer to just disguise, execute, and portal out.

They would never know the commander was there o.O.

Don’t need to kill him either….just teach him a lesson….

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Labwan_the_Deceiver

I took her head.

With everyone’s security compromised, if so much as a petal is askew everyone in the area will be questioned.
Trahearne: “Commander, where were you during this incident?”
As Kasmeer is looking dead at you.

Commander: Good thing my helmet and goggles are on so Kasmeer can’t tell I’m lying.

“I was at the zoo in divinities reach.” (Or at least an image of me was) …. “Why are you even here? You should be researching the dragon at the Priory….Get back to work before you disappoint both Marjory and myself!”

Kasmeer: …. okay boss… sniffle

The only person who knew it was an illusion is dead.

Now they will never know my secret.

Boneheart.3561:

Gibbilo.3270:

… grindfest…

I feel like you’ve discredited your entire argument with that one word.

Not sure why. Isn’t that what people who want to “work for it” like best?

The more pain there is to distinguish yourself from the masses, the better the prize right?

I thought they did a great job on this living story in terms of dialogue and development. Characters feel a bit deeper. More importantly, you feel more important. People remember who you are, you have a reputation, mulltiple parties need you etc.

What this did really well: Unique boss fight, new zone to explore, story and characters way more developed. I feel like the rewards for the story were much better, especially in terms of dragonite ore/dust/fragments.

What could do better: Could make a few instances like there was for defense of lionsarch. I liked the feeling of being under siege, it was epic to work with everyone to help the city evacuate. The multievent model here doesn’t quite feel like the same amount of teamwork… Also, Could make the content specific rewards better and acquisition more fun. Spinal blades was so much more fun to obtain then whatever this plant thing is.

Lol you guys are forgetting how easy it would be for a mesmer to just disguise, execute, and portal out.

They would never know the commander was there o.O.

Don’t need to kill him either….just teach him a lesson….

Changer the Elder.2948:

Yes! Ascended items are way too much boring grind! Give them away instead for free just for loging in every month! Or just for loging in every time! And the coin collecting! Or collecting in general! Why do we need 50 parts for the Shatterer event, let it slide with 30+, that’s more than enough! Why do we need to find ALL the coins for ALL the achievements? Give us all the achivements just for 3/4 of the coins! Why do we have to dodge ALL the blasts to get achievement? So what if I blow up a few times, everyone does!

… know what? Hell no. You want your shiny loot and gear? Work for it. You want your achievement for coin collecting? Work for it. You don’t think it’s worth it? Well, what’s the problem?

The game’s giving you tools. You can use them, you don’t have to. Some people enjoy the scavenger hunt and it’s designed with them in mind. You don’t want to hunt for items? Don’t. Just scrap the dust or keep it for possible future use. But for crying out loud, could you people stop counting on others to give you free stuff and nerf everything that you trip over? How about you just learn to step over it instead?

Holy—hyperbole— batman! O.o

I think if you actually ask and listen you will find the vast majority of people aren’t opposed to putting in some effort to get a cool item or cool ascended gear. What they are saying is that the required effort is out-of-touch to what the majority of players want/are physically capable of committing too timewise. Its as simple as that.

And honestly, that is a problem. There is no reason one player should be able to should be able to roll full ascended, with infusions (which directly effects your ability to participate in and enjoy content [ie WvW, Fractals, Dungeons,]) just because they can dedicate 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, more hours of week to the game than someone else can.
Again, this point is based on the notion that gear—> effectiveness at participating in content of the game. Don’t have have full ascended? To bad you can’t run the lvl35 fractal with our group. So what it comes down too then, is that “working for it” == ability for one player to play the game over another. This isn’t fair, especially if both players are equally paying customers.

On the other hand, people intrinsically understand the difference of “working for it== my ability to play the game content” vs. “working for it==I look cooler doing it.” Take notice how you don’t see these complaints even nearly as frequently when it comes to PvP where gear is fair. The vast majority of people understand the difference between fairness vs. appearance luxery and that’s really all they are asking for here as well.

In summary, 1. People don’t mind “working for it” 2. The “working for it” required here is totally out of touch with what the people here want (or can do). 3. This is likely the case for the majority of players. 4. When “working for it” seriously prevents access to items, by the majority of players, and these items have a direct effect on your game performance and/or your ability to effectively participate in other content aspects of the game, this is a problem. 5. People intrinsically understand this fairness compared to “working for it” to look cool or get perks in other ways and are okay with this.

6. Best solution: Tone down work required to get the item with meaningful exotic/ascended stats. Make it a tier system similar to the spinal blades back item. Make the acquisition of special materials required for the back item much easier from the story content (again similar to spinal blades). For the people who really really really want to “work for it,” Give them extra grindfest tasks so they can get a title, a special skin for that particular back item, special dyes, etc.

This. Quoted for TRUTH — “When I started receiving the items for the backpiece, and saw that I had to explore the world to power them up, I thought to myself: “cool, I’ll do that”. But then I checked the wiki, and saw the horrors. More massive gold sinking. More masive grinding and farming. More crafting. The exploration was just a small trick, an illusion, a lure to make the whole thing seem more interesting than what it was.” --

I understand they want you to put a some effort into getting the back item. I think that’s cool. Makes it seem a little extra special.

IMO the perfect amount of effort was similar to the spinal blades back item. Multiple tiers, could upgrade as far as you wanted. Could get exotic easy. Hell they even made it so you could get ascended not to bad either.

But this…. This started out as a great idea! Scavenger hunt?!?! YEAH!!!

Too bad for the person like me (who can only plays 1hr or so a day, MAXIMUM). This is an impossible achievement unless you happen to be sitting on a mountain of gold. (Also, the vast majority of people who only can find 1hr or so a day to play aren’t sitting on a mountain of gold.)

I think if they had made it so you finish the story, have the story provide you ample amounts of the “special resource,” maybe get a couple of achievements, maybe pay a bit of gold, and then you could get the back it would be perfect!. This is all totally doable at ~1hr a day x 2weeks. Just like spinal blades.

This however is completely excessive, and quite frankly a huge disappointment. I really hope they do not take this approach in the future.

Yes. Totally for this change. Makes scepter so much more viable in all kinds of aspects of the game related to PvE.

This change isn’t just about PvP you know.

“PU might become OP” imo is a stupid reason not to do it. Why should worrying about 1 build becoming OP stop a change that could create 4-6 other types of builds/combos much more viable?

Add this change. I’m not so sure PU will become insta OP. BUT If PU become OP then nerf/change it (then honestly it would probably be a change that has been coming for a long time anyway.

tl;dr: Adding this change is worth it in terms of all the other build types it helps even if it means sacrificing some PU gameplay on the chance it becomes OP.

I’m with Neko on this one. I couldn’t understand Kira initially until the clarification post. I still cannot understand scorpion.

Anyway, thus far I agree with Neko and Sauzo.

Everyone Keep us up to date with the newest innovations to sigmez!

Excellent work everyone. I plan to update some suggestions into the build and respond to a few debating points in the near future.

Azo.5860:

having fun with in death match mode as 8v8 pvp or trolling for competitive guilds for distrupting them.. scrubing however still cool.. maybe something as this build http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW8fnsISFa2pGeoB3aGx1YQ9XlNGpCo0dM9GA-TpREwAFeAA13fIbZAHHEAAHBgBXAAA example first fight until 1.04 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U2E6mTsL7E or from 4:55 to 5:16 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNFSfhjZ2bY or as in last scene from 19:20 as well can be modified with more signes as midnight..

I really like this. ! Thought about this variant as well. Strong work !

Monns,

Thanks for your feedback. A few comments:

I am not even gunna argue with you about your main point —> That overall PU does it better. I agree with you 100%. You could probably add: )verall ____ does it better. --- Where _ is Shatter or Phantasms as well.

My response: That is a valid point, but it also isn’t, given the context.

Every mesmer worth their salt in PVP (and also their mothers and maybe grandparents) know the tPvP optimal builds. If I really really want to win my tPvP build am I going to take this signet build? No.

But, we also know that these top builds are not going to change until 10 months from now when Anet decides to make some serious changes to skills or traits again.

The new frontier isn’t making some PU variant by changing 1 or 2 skills or a rune somewhere, nor is it trying to make the next best top build. There are limited optimal combos and I think the community is smart enough to know what they are and coalesce them into our current top builds.

So where does that leave us?

For people who are bored seeing/doing the same “optimal” build over and over and over and over. For those of us who care more about build diversity than other players might. The new frontier is endeavoring to create a build 1. different enough in playstyle but also 2. as close as possible in terms of effectiveness to those optimal builds the community has vetted as the current best.

I would argue that this build is not some blackwater/PU slant. Just because any build has a staff and uses clones doesn’t automatically make it blackwater. As you very nicely pointed out I don’t use any of the same utilities and use signets instead. Also, as you have nicely pointed out — I don’t have PU. So that is criteria 1.

Does different = better ? NO. That brings us to criteria 2.

I would argue that if you gave this build a try and some strong practice you would find that it is, in fact, pretty good. (As opposed to your “this build isn’t good” statement) By virtue of what I stated above and not trying to create some PU/Shatter/Phantasm slant build —it won’t ever be quite as good as a mesmer could be; I think it still comes pretty close.

To answer some of your specific points:

“Give me one thing this build does that a PU condi build doesn’t do better.
Survive? -> PU condi
Mobility? -> PU condi
Damage? -> PU condi
Condi Removal? -> PU condi”

I can give you a few:

1. You have more blocks available to counter class specific specific openers. 2. You also have distortion on hand with much more flexibility granting you complete damage immunity with careful and cognent use. (Compared to stealth where you can still be struck — especially if caught in an AoE inferno). 3. I also think you are wrong about PU damage being superior. You actually have more condition damage than a PUcondi thanks to the signet bonuses and Iswordsman. (i.e Blink doesn’t give you a condition bonus, you also need to bring torch instead of sword for optimal PU in addition to your staff) 4. You can support your party way better with clutch use of boon share and AoE blindness.

imo very valid points you are correct about: less mobility, retaliation scaling, no stealth, condi cleansing is subpar if you aren’t good a predicting condition openers, cripple (not sure if i agree with you about this being a big deal)

Also, I have traited staff toughness/CD even though you said I didn’t.

Good discussion all. Good stuff.

tl:dr — Its still a good build, but you are right it cannot be optimal unless it becomes a PU/Shatter/Phantasm clone which is not the point of the build. It will take some practice but there are some unique things this build may bring to the team which the current meta’s might not.

Talking Points

3. Signets – The fun part of the build! The passives on all of these signets really synergize well with your condition focus and will increase your damage by serious amounts. Spreading mass boons to your team at the right time can also really change a fight. You will also notice that you get a stun break and can also stun an opponent at a key time.
*You can cleanse 4 conditions here which isn’t very much against certain match ups. This is why I suggested Purity on your staff because you will have lots of on-hits and this will help you keep conditions off. Additionally, I would recommend that you pay careful attention to opponents builds when using signets. Idiot, you should pay careful attention to an opponent’s build no matter what build you are playing.
*If you time it correctly you can give yourself distortion right when they will apply most of there conditions and you can avoid way more conditions than you can signet-cleanse. FUN!!! (Necros, Thiefs, Eles)
*Also, careful use of your signets to cleanse specific conditions, if possible, such as poison will usually allow your regen from boons/signet of ether to carry you through other conditions such as bleed. Bonus points if you cleanse a specific condition during a serious AoE blast or spike damage !!! That’s what I call double duty !! Basically be smart when using your signets. Don’t spam them.
*Careful timing of Distortion-Shatter with Signet use can grant you 7 seconds of immunity if you desire. Follow that 7 seconds of immunity up with a dodge then a weapon swap to double blocks followed by another 2 dodges if you want too.

4. You may notice when you look at the traits that I didn’t use any grandmaster traits… :O . Not trying to be a rebel here. For instance, I’ll admit it right now Prismatic understanding is really really good…. but that’s not what we are doing here.

We are doing a pseudo-viable signet build which relies on clutch play !! Amazing reflexes !! Original thought !! Reading your opponent !! Condi Spamming your opponents and buffing your teammates !! So use my suggested traits instead gorramit !!!

In the end, deceptive evasion, and chaotic dampening are way more useful here and, imo, worth the loss of other grandmaster traits.

Lastly, (probably doesn’t need to be said but I’ll say it anyway) the sub-traits in dueling and chaos really help BOTH your survival (critical infusion, metaphysical rejuvenation, illusionary membrane, chaotic transference) AND condition damage (sharper images, confusing combatants) at the same time.
_____________________________________________________

Wut about PvE?!?!

YES PLZ !!!

Rabid Armor, Sigil of Malice, Sigil of Corruption, Toxic Maintenance Oil — Everything else pretty much the same.
_____________________________________________________

Wut about WvW ?!?!!?!?!

… I guess you could try roaming with this… o.O …. Goodluck without any stealth or teleports
_______________________________________________________

Thank you for you careful attention,

Cpt Gibbilo Medicus

**Are you tired of the same ol’ shatter/phantasm/lockdown builds?

**Are Mantras too Gimmicky for you?

**Then lets do SIGNETS !!!

(Actually this is a little gimmicky too and I will admit now is not as good as meta shatter/phantasm builds… BUT ITS FUN!!!… AND I think you might find it surprisingly viable.)

(Also, this build is probably not very innovative in the sense that every build in GW2 has probably been done by now…somewhere in the world… But I never ever see signet mesmer threads on this forum so I thought I would bring signet mesmer into the light!!! YEAH !!)
______________________________________________

Build Name: Medicus Mesmer

Build Link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7MnsISBaWhGOoZEXjx0nMTNkKgSnxGTD-TpxCwAAuAA73fQzDAgyBBQyRAAcZAA

(You will notice elite skill is empty I left that for personal preference. Also, You may consider Rabid vs. Dire Amulet. You may also consider removing sigil of purity/doom in favor of sigils which better suit your style.)

Build Goals in Brief:
1. Condition Damage via Staff/Sceptor/Clone Spam/iswordsman
2. Multifaceted Damage mitigation via clone sustain, massive boon uptime, signet distortion and cleanse, weapon blocks with retaliation.
3. HAVE FUN because you actually need to think in order to be most effective. HAVE FUN because this play style may be different than what you are used too doing over and over and over and over and therefore not boring. HAVE FUN because this is pseudoviable !! YEAH!!

Talking Points:

1. Staff – Veteran players will know what to do here (probably don’t even need to read this ). Use of this weapon is also very similar to Blackwater. This is your main “damage” weapon. Dodge clone spam lets you stack conditions nicely and provide buffs to your allies.
*This synergies with signet of ether because you will have clones out applying conditions and you also get max sustain healing in addition to your buffs.
* Don’t be afraid to use your shatter skills as you can easily replace your clones. Do not mindlessly shatter your clones this is not a shatter build.
* Diversion or Cry of Frustration for when opponent is healing or if you need to interrupt a key skill and avoid serious DAMAGE
*Clone Death applies even more conditions.
*Be sure to combo with yourself for dat 8-10 second chaos armor uptime !! REALLY NICE !!!

2. Sceptor/Sword – Again, veteran players will know what to do here. You will notice that you have a double block which is super useful for avoiding key skill attacks. A successful block will grant you retaliation from retaliatory shield. Good timing of blocks will give you really nice retaliation uptime.
*Confusing Images followed by a cycle of blocks is really nice to use just before a thief-like player is coming in to spike you. Or you can use Confusing Images while someone is attempting to heal. Or you can just use confusing images whenever because it is awesome.
* With my suggested sigil of doom/energy this weapon set will help you increase poison uptime, will also help increase survival with dodge uptime.
*You also get iSwordsman which will help your damage nicely especially in 1v1 or smaller skirmishes

Quoting this post for truth:

abomally.2694:

OK. Evidently some DNS servers seem to be having trouble these days. Let’s try changing your DNS server settings on your PC (scroll down to where the page says “Here’s How” in large green letters):

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/15037-dns-addressing-how-change-windows-7-a.html

Edited to add: I use OpenDNS just like in the above article though I have it set in my router instead of my PC.

Here’s a picture:

I took another look at this fix, did it and got everything working again. Opening all my ports as the dev suggested didn’t work for me, though it may work for others.

This fix worked for me.

Hello,

I’m having the same problem. I update patch. Everything played fine. No other changes to my rig or wireless. Attempted to log in next day and now getting this “connection error retrying” hubaloo. Been 3 days and still can’t connect. So far none of the fixes have worked ;( .

Still my problem? Or Anet server/patch bug problem ?

yes i can’t find the diver achievement either. Found the tower highdiver achievement. But i have wasted so much time trying to find the tower diver….. any help?

Sorry, but this is a terrible idea.

1. If you can’t “react to the situation” with 4 different weapon skill sets at a time; I honestly don’t see 8 possible skill sets making a difference for you…

2. Even if there is a niche situation where 4 different skill sets don’t “let you react to the situation”; there are summon weapons to compensate

3. Even if there is a niche situation where 4 different skill sets and summon weapons won’t “let you react to the situation”… I would argue that this is probably intentional. It’s called Pro’s and Con’s of running a particular weapon set—something that every class has to deal with.

4. Honestly, you could apply this fix to every class. I’m sure EVERY class would like to run more weapon sets than they already have so they can “react to more situations.” Hell, why don’t we add full weapon set rotations to every class ?

This complaint/suggestion isn’t exactly Ele specific, and has repercussions to overall game design.

tl;dr —- No.

Hi,

1. Have any of you theorycrafters (and/or non-theorycrafters-but-smart-people) completed any testing/number crunching to figure out what combination of crit chance and crit damage is needed to maximize your dps? (To make things simpler—lets just say we are talking about maximizing a #1 pistol autoattack over and over with no other skills).

2. If it’s actually possible to get 100% crit chance and 100% crit damage (I don’t know if it is or not). Then lets take it a step further and add in condition duration for stacking the bleed on the #1 pistol autoattack. That is, what is the magic combination of crit chance, crit damage, and condition duration needed to achieve max damage/bleed stacking for an engineer doing #1 over and over and over on a single target. (This is assuming that bleed stacks are more valuable then condition damage/bleed scaling—which might not be true?)

I know there are lots of other things to think about so I tried to isolate the situation a bit to make it easier.

I’m too nub to know how to figure this out . Thanks !

p.s. if you have any other input you wanna share plz do !

In terms of content release this has been some of the best I have seen yet ! I thought Halloween was spectacular Then they let me down with Lost Shores. Then they came back with Christmas which rocked my socks !!! And then they started living story which has only been getting better and better an better!!! And then they released a great living story segment AND one of the best retro minigame experiences ever at the same time? YES!!!!!!! I am so happy !!!! Great work !!!!!!!!

Now if only their class balance team could be as amazing as their content development team :/

Very quickly I’m thinking something like:

30 in explosions — bomb cd, explosive damage, increased aoe
30 in inventions — bomb explosions heal allies, increased speed in combat, and whatever else.
10 elsewhere (i was thinking tools) — maybe lighting bolt on tk skills or speedy kits.

Stats prioritize Toughness and/or Vitality. Then mix in healing power, crit, conditions however you want.

p/p, toolkit, bombkit, — anything else you want to bring for your 3rd utility slot

Basically what I see here is a beefy/tank character that can apply self heal self and allies super easily, easy confusion 3 different ways (spread it out or stack it), multiple snares, lots of AoE and conditions, and perma speed both in and out of combat. If they run pull them back in with magnetic shield and snare again/confuse again/bomb them to hell. Rinse and Repeat. Too many people on you?— create space with a big bomb. If ur still taking too much heat you always have gear shield and whatever 3rd utility skill you brought.

If you decide to bring goggles as a 3rd utility that’s easy vulnerability that stacks with toolkit plus a stun breaker and if you combine with medikit then you have perma vigor. I’m sure there’s lots of other good fits for the 3rd slot.

I just had time to try it for a sec in sPvP and got top place—but that probably doesn’t mean anything. I can see this being very good for WvW or PvE.

I’m SURE someone has already done something like this. Probably better. And Ideally, recently as well. So I would like to hear more about it if this could actually be something good and not just gimic.

Anyway, g2g look forward to ur responses in my morning.

I’m not expecting to run around with 15 drakehounds, but once i finally summon one shouldn’t it stick around until it dies from damage? I hear the parrot stays; is this true?

Currently my drakehound will stay for maybe 1 or 2 minutes then it will just flop over and die for no reason—ie the timer just ran out.

I find this really annoying because it makes the rune really really inconsistent and I am about ready to switch to something that isn’t a “5% on hit…” —unless of course the 5% on hit golems/parrots stay until they die; then I might switch to 1 of those.

Thnx

Don’t get me wrong, I love running around with pistols or rifles etc. It makes for great gameplay—so I’m not critiquing their addition to the game.

But from a gw2 universe/lore standpoint, I try to rationalize how this all fits together and it doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

For instance, in the game the rifles appear to deal great damage, are armor piercing, and have a great rate of fire. So if I were a warrior or a ranger I don’t see any reason why I would pick a bow over a rifle ever—unless I wanted to ambush a pack of risen in a dense forest without sound to give away my position.

So, unless there is some unspoken rule, perhaps that it is much easier to magically manipulate arrows in flight than bullets—or something—bows seem pointless.

And then there are the massive tanks, and bat-mobile guns, and machine guns, and APC siege engines that the Charr have built, or the Asura with magically infused battle golems. —then you still have humans that are still running catapults and burning-oil ? No wonder humanity is on the brink. The charr could take Divinities Reach anytime they wanted.

So naturally, I try and figure out the balance. I think, hey, maybe part of the reason is because the Charr had to give up the power of their gods and find a new source of power in technology. Humans on the other hand still have the power of their gods to defend their city….owait o.O

So…thanks for reading, if any of you guys have any ideas on how I can fit all of these ideas together within the gw universe/lore—or just want to contribute thanks for posting !!

Yeah, this happened to me too so I wrote Anet a letter that is hopefully constructive:

To Whom it May Concern,

I am hoping to write this message specifically at the holiday event design team and would appreciate if this message was forwarded to them; however, anyone who can understand and alleviate my concerns is appreciated.

I will start by saying that overall, guild wars two has been exceptional gameplay, and that the Halloween event specifically has been a lot of fun. I applaud the differing amounts of activities that I am able to do and how you guys tried to make it a good time this year.

There is one issue I am very upset about and that is the Ascent into Madness Dungeon. To make a long story short, I don’t think it is fair, and I think it is anti-fun that you closed this area before the event is over. Why am I allowed to do all the other games/puzzles for the remainder of the Halloween event and yet I can’t complete this one? It doesn’t make sense! I looked your major announcements regarding Halloween: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/events/halloween-2012 — and no where in there does it say that you have to do this event within 2-3 days or it will close early.

This matters to me, in part, because all I needed to complete my “Emissary of the Mad King” title was this dungeon… but I waited to do it on Halloween with my friends. Now look where I am? I will not be able to complete my title, or enjoy the full content of the Halloween event—all because I made the assumptions that the Halloween games will end, well, when the Halloween event actually ends….not before. And on top of all this I honestly find it somewhat unprofessional that this wasn’t an extremely clear, easy to find, announcement. (If you disagree read below to my opinions on this specific point).

So, to summarize:

1. I really enjoyed the Halloween content that I was able to play. Great job! I am looking forward to Christmas!!!!
2. Ending Halloween games/content before the Halloween event actually ends doesn’t make sense intuitively and creates problems:

3. Players waiting to complete event content until near the end because of life, work, friends, etc. will miss out on the full experience of the event—they don’t get to experience the event to the fullest like others.
4. As a follow-up, players who make plans to complete content on certain days throughout the event for achievements, titles, or fun will feel blindsided (ie myself)
5. Players will no longer be able to get all the achievements/titles even though the event is still ongoing(ie myself)—doesn’t make sense.
6. If you plan on doing something like this in the future, make it the announcement EXTREMELY visible on the main site so it doesn’t hurt the players—not a subsection of some part of the forums among 1000’s of threads.

I thank you for carefully reading what I had to say, and I hope it was constructive.

Gabriel

Also, a P.S. regarding one of my points above:

Some players say they gave “plenty of notice.” In my opinion, they didn’t really give “plenty of notice” as some people are saying above. The post was made on the 30th in a subsection of the forum. This is the first time I visited the forums. I don’t make a habit of logging in every day and scanning through hundreds of threads to find information, or logging in to forums multiple times a day to read up. In my opinion, I also shouldn’t be obligated to do this if I want to find out pertinent information. Rather, that information should be made available to me clearly on the main feed of the website. Thus, all I checked was this; https://www.guildwars2.com/en/events/halloween-2012 , and they did not mention this area was closing early.

Anyway, I tried to be reasonable, polite, and constructive here, but haters gunna hate and trolls gunna troll <— -_-