Guild Wars 2

I was playing on my Mesmer in a ranked stronghold map. I tried to port to the entrance of our team’s north outer gate to avoid getting killed by the other team’s players while defending the door from breakers (I was on the red team and the outer north gate was closed and intact at the time the glitch occurred). I apparently missed/overshot the area I had intended to blink to (in front of the player door) and got stuck slightly behind and in between the gate wall and the southern part of the player entrance/exit. While I was stuck I was mostly immune to getting hit and could only get unstuck by waiting for blink to recharge and escape. This should probably be fixed.

Mcrocha.3891:

I’ll try to explain some general things for you and maybe you can figure out what they were doing.

Staff. I’ll list the 5 skills and what they do and some possible plays on them. Do note also that the staff doesn’t really have any damaging skills on it. If the Ranger is going for damage with staff they will most likely try to just auto attack spam(effective at stacking might) and maybe lock you down with skill 4, which I will cover.

1) Auto. Of noteworthiness is the fact that it gives very small heals to allies through which the beam passes ~100hp or so. It also works similar to Mesmer GS in that the beam pierces through enemies to reach its target(actually very useful in cleaving down clones ironically). Also note that it is not a projectile so reflect won’t work on it. However, mainly the auto is very good at proccing one of the new GM traits we have: https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Lingering_Light. This trait gives the Ranger a lot of sustain with blind spam and heals. If you notice a lot of blinds coming from the Ranger, this is probably the cause. Honestly, I expect this trait to be brought down because it is quite good and quite random atm.

2) Astral Wisp- Not much going on here. It fires a wisp at the target that circles around the target and heals allies that are around the target.

3) Ancestral Grace- Now this is the big one. This is where some of the evade you were talking about comes in to play. What it does is it basically is like a Blink that instead travels to a ground-target up to 1200 range instead of teleporting(doesn’t stun break). But while the skill is being used the Ranger turns into a wisp and evades throughout the movement frames. You will see a big wisp(larger than skill 2) with a streak coming out of it. The skill heals the Ranger and also counts as a blast finisher.

4) Vine Surge- This is a skill shot that immobilizes enemies(1s) it hits, not very much damage. You will see a big line of vines coming out of the ground at you. It is difficult to hit with and has a long cast time. It also cleanses chill, cripple, and immob on allies it passes through(of note though, it does not cleanse those conditions on the Ranger himself). Might want to dodge this skill if you don’t want to be rooted.

5) Sublime Conversion- This is a line skill that absorbs projectiles that pass through it and turns them into little balls of water that heal the Ranger. If you see this then you might want to hold off on say auto attacking with scepter bc it could heal the Ranger if they are behind the line or standing inside of it. If you see this skill and the Ranger is staying close to it you might want to consider aoe to move him off of it especially if you want to move him somewhere a DH for instance could hit him with LB. Note that the line acts as a water field so it can be blasted by Skill 3 or allies as well.

If you come up to a bunker Druid then I recommend ignoring it as you most likely won’t be able to kill it 1v1. if you can decap, then do so, but move on unless you have numbers.

Appreciate the in-depth look. It is starting to look more and more like it was quite a bad match up for my reaper build (not enough hard cc and slow attacks; looks like my mes will have an easier time with this build style though). Ty all for the help everyone, and grats on the new spec looking like it is pretty good; Rangers need some love too!

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Happicakes.2054:

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

did he have any spirits out like a sun spirit at all , traiting a sun spirit can give a ranger perma Vigour if he is within 240 yards of it, activating the sun spirit would also blind ( lookd like a large sun flare)

No, I don’t think so. Didn’t see anything like that. I was getting a lot of “evade” results when attacking them though.

did you see a Sword+dagger , Sword= rolling to the right animation and the dagger has a spin attack on it like a Parry which also evades? if he had those with Striders defence + off-hand training you can evade for a long amount of time quite Often too , one evade every 10seconds on average if linked in order.

striders reduces sword cooldowns by 20% which also has a 20% chance to Destory projectiles wll using a melee weapon , off hand training reduces dagger by 20% and adds 150 condi damage while using a dagger.

so if he was using a sword+dagger on a Condi/support druid that would = tanky / evasive with decent support.
while he has staff out is the counter to this Druid will likely on this set up have one Stunbreak and thats it or you/d have to keep check on his Survival skills if he has quickness or does a large leap backwards , which would mean his using wilderness knowledge which cures 2 conditions on Survival skill use = so that would mean it would have 2-3 stun breaks but less support.

AoE effects and CC while staff is out just watch out for the astral grace (wisp orb moving) try aiming for open areas away from team Aoes , most use this to avoid damage rather than landing into damage.

Could be it (or some variation thereof). Will check it out; ty!

LughLongArm.5460:

With HOT, A.net introduced some very very tanky builds for most professions, I hven seen 3 playes in PVP tring to kill tank Chronomancer with shield for like 5 min. With druid is kinda the same, they can eat alot of punishment but most of the time if you cant kill them, they cant also kill you.
The template of the build u were facing ( lots of variations) is probably:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQFAmiUqAXLUmFMYaoPBgumRkG-TZAZAAQZAA
The missing info is room for the variations.

Ty for the build to check out! I have to agree about the Chrono; I had to switch to shield on mine to give me some breathing room and you can stay bunkered up for quite a bit of time. I think that the mes block should maybe have the block channel time shaved by a little (unpopular idea on my native forum), but I guess we will see what happens with that.

Eurantien.4632:

It was probably s/t staff minstrel. Decap it and ignore it. When 2 of or more of you are there, CC and burst it. Expect nerfs for it soon though.

I will have to look into the nuts and bolts of that build a bit deeper then; ty for giving me an idea of what to look into. Cheers!

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

did he have any spirits out like a sun spirit at all , traiting a sun spirit can give a ranger perma Vigour if he is within 240 yards of it, activating the sun spirit would also blind ( lookd like a large sun flare)

No, I don’t think so. Didn’t see anything like that. I was getting a lot of “evade” results when attacking them though.

Mcrocha.3891:

Yeah no problem, welcome to the Ranger forum. Could you tell what weapons they were using? If you know that it would be helpful. Also were they using traps, survival skills, or glyphs even?

Ty for the welcome! Sad part is that it is hard to say (I am really unfamiliar with Ranger in general beyond GS/LB). I know they were using staff. It was hard to get further details during the match since the Druid was often followed by the rest of their team (safe to say that it was specc’d with support in mind). Other than that, I don’t know unfortunately; I am fairly certain that they popped celestial for a few of the encounters and just heal tanked me, but that is the extent of what I know (and doesn’t explain the evades… maybe from a teammate rather than from druid?).

Hey all! Stopping over from the Mes forum with some questions. First, no I am not an uber-leet player (I rate slightly above average in Unranked with around a fifty-five percent win rate atm; don’t play ranked since i have to solo queue quite a bit). I was on my Reaper alt and I ended up fighting against a really skilled druid player. It seemed like no matter what I was doing, they would either evade for days, or just out-heal the incoming damage. I am not calling for nerfs here; I have always advocated that the best way to deal with a problem is knowledge. So in the spirit of understanding, how do you think they pulled off what they did? What amulet/skills/etc…? Any tells I should be looking for? Anything would be appreciated (not only for me, but I also have a buddy returning to the game who wanted to know more about Druid and I have no idea how to start with good build-crafting for this spec)! Ty for taking a look and have a good one!

The stats cannot be changed on the ascended aquabreathers via the mystic forge (like you would be able to with any other piece of armor). Is this intended?

Staff Phantasm is fine and has good synergy with power builds (especially those that utilize non-damaging conditions, such as slow, vulnerability, and so on). The Phantasm hits like a truck with a proper setup, and the utility of the other skills is superb for power/hybrid builds (well except for untraited Chaos Armor; that could use protection on use as a baseline again IMO). I think that turning it into a devoted condition only weapon would be a big nerf to an otherwise solid power/hybrid/utility based weapon (again, my opinion: I am biased though in that I play a Double Range Shatter/Power Block Build).

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

Happicakes.2054:

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

And seriously, what scrub doesn’t play multiple races these days?

Hey now, be nice; I happen to be one of those “scubs” ; )

Sorry my bad, changed my initial comment

No prob. I assumed you meant it to be tongue in cheek, so no hurt feels.

Windu The Forbidden One.6045:

And seriously, what scrub doesn’t play multiple races these days?

Hey now, be nice; I happen to be one of those “scubs” ; ) I do have a reason for it though as all of my toons are (conceptually) descendants of my original GW1 characters who made the trek over the Shiverpeaks to Kryta.

That being said, while I am sad that I will miss out on the extra dialogue due to my self-imposed restrictions, I totally support the why of it. It is great for better immersion in the story, feels fluffy with the lore, and I hope that they keep adding in little odds and ends like this in the future. It is good design!

For PvP I run GS/Staff with Marauder Amulet and trait for Dom./Insp./Duel.:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWlknhG1YZawGNwtGLnG05Tiy1JDwCCa5Iae4A-TpBFABCcBAEvMQbHCgFOCA6s/AAPAAA

For WvW I currently run havok/zerg veil support (boring but necessary). GS/Staff with Dom./Chaos/Insp. for traits:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWl0nhG1YZawYNwtGLnG05Tiy1N3xQmBZAWQQB-TlCFABNcECmU9Hd2fAgHEgAXQgkU+lhmE+UCmmOiFOECBAQAu5NDs5NzRP6RP6RPa38o38o38oFCY0CA-w

Looking forward to Chronomancer for some new playstyles.

Honestly IR seems to be working just fine to me and I think the fix was sufficient on its own. I think the ICD version would be worse in function. Currently, it has been more than sufficient for my uses in replacing DE in my builds.

Gravity well is amazing at the moment. Other wells are useful in their niche at best and borderline useless at the worst.

Trait-wise everything seems great!

THE LEAGUE OF TYRIAN ADVENTURERS [LoTA]

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Information
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If you wish to join, or have any questions about how things work, please contact either our guild leader (Thorin @ Norin Swift.6342), myself (Celeste @ Happicakes.2054), or any of our other leaders/officers via in-game mail and we will be happy to assist you however we can!

@Chaos: Ty for feedback! I agree that decoy has turned out to be much better than Mirror Images. As for traits in Inspiration, I have also had some luck using the Temporal Enchanter trait over Mental Defense for use with Time Warp. The extra time has helped me proc chaos armor more often which is nice for CD’s and it has the handy side effect of helping deal with situations like the fire field mentioned by Fay (clones with resistance gives a small window to get damage in when it is needed, though it is a unreliable as anything but an emergency band aid due to the long CD/short duration of resistance).

Edit: Regarding the jack of all trades style of the build, I have been doing a lot of unranked solo queue recently and given the random nature of my playing partners, it helps to fill niches where needed and leaves me with some options in almost every situation. That being said, I have also had some bad luck where a focused build would have been better off. I’ll have to give that some thought

@Fay: Good point and it is a valid criticism. I usually have to be very careful about how I go about using clones/phantasms with this setup (like you mentioned above; cleave can be rough).

@Both: You both seem pretty sure I could benefit from Dueling over Chaos. If I swap that in, how should I set up my skills (should I replace Mirror with another heal? Is Decoy/Blink/Mantra of Distraction fine, or should I swap out something?) and dueling traits (I am guessing DE and Blinding Dissipation are mandatory, but what should I take for the minor)? Thank you again for the help!

Fay.2357:

No de, no blinding dissipation, no stealth, and your only condition removal is on restorative illusions.

Basically, this build is food for any celery elery that glances your direction, as well as any thief that goes after you. You’d have a hard time dealing with a longbow warrior as well, or any sort of engie.

The build is relying on the hope that there won’t be any strong cleave pressure, otherwise you’ll rarely get good shatters off. You’re also relying on being able to avoid conditions by leveraging interrupts…but that’s simply not realistic in most environments without some way to disengage.

I appreciate the feedback! Any suggestions on where to go from here? I like the play style this build has, but is there a way to do something similar and get more out of it?

Edit: For utilities I have been running Decoy over Mirror Images and it seems to help by quite a bit having a 3 second stealth. What else could I change/do (change traitlines? sigils? runes? amulets?) in order to keep the play style (I like GS/Staff) but increase effectiveness?

Build Link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWlsnhO1YZawGNQtGLnG05Tiy1N3xQKKZAWQQB-TpBFABCcBAEvMQDHBgFOEA6s/AAPAAA

Build Specifics: GS (Air, Fire)/Staff (Leeching/Energy), Marauder Amulet, Vampire Runes. Traits are Domination (Up, Up, Down)/Chaos (Down, Down, Down)/Inspiration (Mid, Mid, Up). The build provides around 21k HP, ~2250 Power, ~55% Critical Chance, and ~188% Critical Damage.

I am looking for some feedback on whether or not this could work as is.

The basic idea (which was inspired by watching Chaos Archangel’s Chronomancer game play videos; TY for posting it to your channel!) is that you could use your abilities to control your opponent without needing stealth. This control will work in combination with the build’s many sources of healing (Leeching from Swap, from Proc, and on Heal every 10 seconds plus primary, mantra, and shatter heals), a fair amount of cleansing (on heal and shatters), and good access to boons (nearly all, including stability) with some ability to share to allow me to fight on-point more effectively.

It seems to be working ok so far at my current level of play but I am unsure if I should commit without an outside opinion or two. I know it isn’t exactly WTS bait (not enough mobility) but does this have potential for serious lower to mid level play? Should I make any changes (torn between decoy and mirror images)?

A.) 4, B.) 2, C.) 1, D.) 2, E.) 2
60% Domination, 20% Dueling, 20% Chaos

I think I may have some issues to work out…

Wasn’t too far off the mark (currently running GS/Staff Interrupt w. Domination/Chaos/Inspiration). I loved the quiz; TY for sharing/posting!

I have found that countering D/P thieves can be hit or miss for sure. I have had the best results by using chaos armor in anticipation of their attack. When they hit, I stun/daze them, then I follow up with a chaos storm centered at my feet (this assumes you are running domination/power block trait). This forces them to either press on in the middle of an AOE while you counter burst them, or they will retreat, giving you some breathing room to either push back or to retreat/disengage at your preference. It isn’t fool proof, but with good play you can turn the thief’s ambush into an opportunity to strike back.

Edit: I am currently running a Domination/Chaos/Inspiration GS/Staff PB/CI Power Interrupt Build.

Yep, this is still a thing. Using a heal (I am using Ether Feast when this happens) while traited into inspiration causes (uncharged) mantra of resolve to go on full CD.

Loved the vids! Have subscribed!

Silv.9207:

Mesmer is a class that actually can counter more or less any build of the game and isn’t countered by any specific build.
Ele is powerfull and can kill easy any condition class, but a good direct damage (for example a necro) can kill him with not so much problem.
Engineer is powerfull against direct damage builds but is weak against condition builds.

Mesmer can kill dps builds, bunker builds and condi builds without problems why it’s incredible high direct damage, it’s absurd number and duration of stealth skills (kitten PU…), immunity skills (F4) and god movement and teleport skill. All with a lot of clones and phantasms that make sometime hard to find the real one, then you need to spend a lot of seconds during a fight only to find the enemy.

Actually a good mesmer have not a single real enemy in spvp.
That’s what make it “OP”.

Some mesmer builds are still hard countered by D/P thieves. Regarding what one has to give up access to to get chronomancer, I will wager that this is still true. Eles and Guards (especially burn oriented ones) are also rough customers. Eles in particular compound this with builds making good use of the earth traits (not advocating for nerfs btw; not the place for it). Further, you are mistaking the multitude of viable Mes builds atm for a single mythical 6/6/6/6/6 build that can do anything. Each playstyle has its own strengths and weaknesses, and learning the nuts and bolts of those goes a long way to helping you beat them (and yes, I will definitely say that some are extremely annoying).

Silv.9207:

And Chronomancer will not help us to kill him for shure, granting him double elite, double heal, a second chance to fight why you can burst him down but he had previously activated F5 and you have lost all your best skill hitting a enemy that come back like nothing is happened, reactiving all it’s powerfull skills

Remember, the F5 shatter reverts things to what they were at activation (it doesn’t cleanse applied condis as far as I have been able to tell, any heals are undone at the end of the duration, and it doesn’t seem to affect downed state). As for loosing your burst, how is this different from bursting into an engi or guard’s invul frames? Also, if you are looking for counters, the F5 shatter creates a portal. Pop it after saturating the area with damage and watch the mes squirm.

I don’t think there is enough info as to how the new bits work just yet from the little time everyone has had to try it out, and I would recommend giving the Chronomancer some more playtime before advocating for changes, either positive or negative.

Silv.9207:

I’ve try a think:
2 clones and a phantas, F5, then you have 1 clone and 1 phantasm. skill to obtain a new phantasm, shatter, reobtain a clone and the last phantasm you’ve done, active the skill to reactive your Fx skills, shatter again.
You can do it faster than 4.5 sec if your enemy is near you. Then your F5 skill activ eit’s effect and you reobtain all the skills and traits to make another combo of 2 shatters.
If you have problems you can help with Mirros Image (2 clones) and Decoy (1 clone and stealth).

Yeah, 4 full shatter in more or less 9-10 seconds!

This is not quite correct. Any skills generating clones/phantasms before the F5 shatter is used is still going to be on CD. Weapon swap restrictions make this even more unfeasible.

Silv.9207:

That’s not a big problem, right? A full shatter can more or less deal only 16-18k to a berserker. What can be if you can do 4 full shatter skills in 10 seconds?

You will be able to kill more or less anyone.

I’ve try it. It’s hard to do, that’s right, but it worked and I’m not a mesmer player, I’m barely mediocre to use it.

1 clone Every time you shatter? 1 Phantasm can come back when you shatter it?
Oh, boy, You will never ever see a shatter mesmer without clones to shatter!
The same for condition damage classes, that inflict torment when use any kind of F Shatter.

This assumes quite a bit of traiting to pull off. Not saying it couldn’t happen, but why would you cripple your build to over focus on only one facet of your class (survival means you need to do more than just produce clones to be cleaved down)?

Silv.9207:

And you obtaina Free 25% of movement, that add more mobility to a class that have already too much mobility and survavibility.

Warriors have a very similar setup to Chronomancers, and most other classes have access to movement boosting traits. Why is this an issue?

Silv.9207:

The problem of the Chrono is that isn’t focused on shield or wells like dragonhunter with it’s bow and tempest with it’s overcharged attunement and auras, or reaper and chill (reaper grant the chance to be used well also in other builds like dps and condition, that’s true, but lesser than chronomancer).

But Chronomancer don’t make you forced to follow a determinated way of the game, it follow only the chance to obtain quickness, that is the greatest boon of the game and inflict slow, that’s the greatest condition of the game (expecially in spvp).
It make you free to still play all your old build, adding power on what was already powerfull, without any problem.

This is a bit exaggerated. I can think of quite a few situations personally where the original weapons will be more useful for the revealed elite specs than their new toys.

[more in pt 2]

GS/Staff works just fine atm. I have been running with this power-based build in PvP (see below); it’s nice because it allows me a decent amount of sustain while fighting on point, and it offers some decent team support when needed. Feel free to give it a try!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWlknhG1YZawINQtGLnG05TiSTIDwCCa5Iae4A-TpBFABCcBAEvMgc7PswhAIhjAAAPAAA

Edit: As for Staff/Swo+Tor, it would be more defensive, but there is no reason you couldn’t get it to work.

Power Block also works great against thieves attacking within a chaos storm. While the CD increase doesn’t matter, the damage on proc and weakness can really do a number on them if they aren’t careful.

ASP.8093:

It goes back to why people took Halting Strike (the damage part of PB) over Mental Torment (+20% Mind Wrack damage) pre-patch: it’s a way to diversify your damage a bit.

Power Block makes Diversion a damaging ability. It also makes both of double-ranged shatter’s #5 skills do big damage.

Hitting an interrupt can be tricky, but quite often the best time to shatter is in response to an enemy’s attempted burst. At which point they’re rapidly spamming skills trying to hit you as hard and fast as possible. I’ve had a ton of luck with Power Block in that situation.

^ This is absolutely true ^ I totally agree with this assessment.

Have to say that it doesn’t seem to be as much of an issue post patch. The mantra nerf/fix (depending on how one looks at it) seems to have made encountering mantra of distraction much rarer, so there is that. Also, the toning down of MB seems to have brought the damage back in line (roughly) with what it was Pre-07-23-15 (dangerous to lightly armored targets but is otherwise manageable). I think it is safe to say that it has been watered down sufficiently to avoid further nerfs (again, just my opinion).

As far as fixing mantras goes, why not just allow a partially charged mantra to recharge/reset to max charges when out of combat for a certain period of time (5-10 seconds maybe? If this is too “OP” on its own, why not make the ability a part of the Harmonious Mantras GM in Dueling)? That way there is no “spam” while in combat and waiting on recharge outside of combat is no longer so tedious.

Skullface.7293:

Wasn’t expecting to see a thread about me winning the Academy Gaming this week, thanks guys!

It’s an awesome feeling to be on a team of good players that let’s me play ranger. Can’t wait to do the ESLs with them and improve each week.

Congrats on a job well done! GL on your future games!

Tealots.6095:

@ Happicakes, what time did you head into the arena? We ended up moving to EU after a while.

I think Mr. Archangel took some videos of complete Mesmer 4v4 in there. As well as some of PU Icy handling 1v3s. Not fun, not fun…

@Tealots, was about thirty minutes to an hour (possibly more?) after I responded to Chaos’ whisper in game (had some stuff in my native guild to wrap up as an officer). Must have just missed everyone . Like I said, no big deal! Everyone in [OMFG] has been super nice so far and very helpful. Will catch the next one if able, and I’ll try to not make too big a fool of my casual try-hard self!

BurrTheKing.8571:

Happicakes.2054:

Cynz.9437:

Mogar.9216:

Cynz.9437:

Ok, amuse me: most common mesmer build atm runs confounding suggestion with mantra of distraction. How do you counter that on a class that has no stability while mes is in stealth. I am all ear.

Stun breaker + withdraw pretty much negates any mesmer who burst you from stealth. If you are using shadow step or Roll for init 1 skill does it.

that is the thing it doesn’t

i broke 1st stun countless times and still couldn’t activate withdraw because even though it doesn’t state it, it does have miniscule cast time (hence why you can’t use it while stunned)… with the stun spam, gl getting it off

besides why would i use withdraw if i am still at full HP?

Happicakes.2054:

Cynz.9437:

Ok, amuse me: most common mesmer build atm runs confounding suggestion with mantra of distraction. How do you counter that on a class that has no stability while mes is in stealth. I am all ear.

The stun is a big tell in stealth. When stunned, use a stun break and dodge/channeled invulnerability/channeled block.

Edit: I see Morgar got there first.

stun has big tell in stealth? what?

i don’t have invul nor block~

dodge doesn’t save me from getting blinded and reducing my chances to counter mes

If you are getting stunned when a mes is in stealth, that means the burst is coming hot on its heels. Use a stunbreak, and evade/dodge. If quick, you will avoid the whole burst. As for blind, use AA to clear and then press on. I would also recommend trying to match stealth for stealth as well. You can always wait the Mesmer out (assuming D/P, not viable in other instances).

If the Mes is smart, the stun will come just as the Mirror Blade connects, leaving the target no time to react. You could always burst from stealth, but an easy stun that also synergizes with another trait for more damage has pushed the ease of landing it over the top. Let’s not forget PU, which allows you to easily ambush your target.

Good points there. My personal preference is why waste the stun when the damage is going to happen without warning (a proper burst is very fast – about .5 seconds when performed/timed right). But PU being what it is makes anticipation much harder (Best way to tell if you Mes opponent is running it is to get a look at their boons coming out of stealth/if they have boons like protection/regen/swiftness, chances are they are running PU. Plan accordingly thereafter).

The only time I use the Stun/Shatter combo is when I am not in stealth (or feeling very salty) and need to ensure the burst. Stealth is already enough of an advantage to not need the stun in most cases (good way to tell your FotM Mes apart from a more experienced one though).

Cynz.9437:

Mogar.9216:

Cynz.9437:

Ok, amuse me: most common mesmer build atm runs confounding suggestion with mantra of distraction. How do you counter that on a class that has no stability while mes is in stealth. I am all ear.

Stun breaker + withdraw pretty much negates any mesmer who burst you from stealth. If you are using shadow step or Roll for init 1 skill does it.

that is the thing it doesn’t

i broke 1st stun countless times and still couldn’t activate withdraw because even though it doesn’t state it, it does have miniscule cast time (hence why you can’t use it while stunned)… with the stun spam, gl getting it off

besides why would i use withdraw if i am still at full HP?

Happicakes.2054:

Cynz.9437:

Ok, amuse me: most common mesmer build atm runs confounding suggestion with mantra of distraction. How do you counter that on a class that has no stability while mes is in stealth. I am all ear.

The stun is a big tell in stealth. When stunned, use a stun break and dodge/channeled invulnerability/channeled block.

Edit: I see Morgar got there first.

stun has big tell in stealth? what?

i don’t have invul nor block~

dodge doesn’t save me from getting blinded and reducing my chances to counter mes

Sorry, I could have been more clear on that (made an edit to try to clear it up a bit). If you are getting stunned when a mes is in stealth, that means the burst is coming hot on its heels. Assuming that stun is from mantra of distraction, there is a telltale sound and animation which is a dead giveaway. Use a stun break, and evade/dodge. If quick you will avoid the whole burst (good timing is absolutely crucial). As for blind, use AA to clear and then press on. I would also recommend trying to match stealth for stealth as well. You can always wait the Mesmer out (assuming D/P, not viable in other instances).

Cynz.9437:

Ok, amuse me: most common mesmer build atm runs confounding suggestion with mantra of distraction. How do you counter that on a class that has no stability while mes is in stealth. I am all ear.

The stun is a big tell in stealth. When stunned, use a stun break and dodge/channeled invulnerability/channeled block/evade. I would honestly worry more about Mesmers smart enough to not stun you out of stealth when bursting.

Edit: I see Morgar got there first.

Think I can try to help with some of the “vs Mesmer” issues. I main Mesmer and have about 1k hours in at this point. I consider myself an “average” player; I am not amazing by any means (have around a 53% win rate in PvP atm) but I know my class well enough to put on a good show every now and again. Here is what has been working well against me when I am using some variation of both of the current “meta” power builds (GS/Staff Mantra and GS/S+T Interrupt/Stealth):

1. Stability Heavy-Builds (Some Meditation Guardians, Rampage Warriors, Elementalists, and Juggernaut Engineers)

Hate mantra spam? Get the best stability up-time you can spec for. Makes those dazes and stuns worthless while active. Force that Mesmer to think carefully about using their mantras/diversion/weapon CCs up.

2. Sustain builds (D/D Elementalists, Bunker Guardians)

Mesmers can spike very hard. However, I have noticed that, when played well, you can sustain enough that you will be able to stay just ahead in terms of healing to incoming damage and slowly wear that mes out. Once the CD’s are blown for the Mes, they are easy prey and will either have to disengage or risk getting blown out. FYI, Mesmers (at least the power variety in my experience) excel in short engagements. The longer you draw the fight out, the more ineffective the Mesmer is in the big picture.

3. CC Heavy Builds

If a Mesmer is allowed to cast freely you are going to have a bad time. Focusing them with CC makes them burn through defenses at a unsustainable rate, wearing them out and forcing them to disengage or die. Look out for big tells to interrupt, such as channels, mantra charges, heals, and phantasm summons for best results. Builds that have access to stealth countermeasures (sic em, lock on) should also take advantage of them to ruin the Mesmer’s day.

4. “Unseen” Builds

If the Mesmer can’t see you, they will have a harder time defending against you. This includes Pew Pew rangers making good use of the map. If a Mesmer goes into stealth, wait them out in stealth as well if you can. If not, watch what stealth is use and anticipate accordingly). The more Mesmer CD’s you waste, the better for you.

Builds aside, I guess the best advice I can give for fighting Mesmer players around my level of skill (i.e. Average) is to be patient and play defensively until after the initial burst (Watch the animations to time your defense: If the Great Sword blade is starting high (overhead) and moving down, it’s Mirror Blade; if it starts low and is moving up, it is the GS Phantasm). Once countered, you have ~10 seconds to force the engagement on your terms.

As an added note, condition build can be effective, but must be constantly maintained to overwhelm the ability of the Mesmer to keep up on the cleansing (Mantra Shatter has very strong cleanse options, S + T not so much).

I hope this helps.

Some of the builds I run atm:
GS/Staff Mantra Shatter (Meta Variant/Probably the best build I use regularly)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWl0nhG1YZawGNQtGLnG05TiSTIDwGCa5IaeCA-TpBFABC8AAEvMAJ7PswhAIhjAAAXAAA

No Frills Power Shatter (features none of the crap everyone is griping about lately):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8flknhG1YZawINwtGLqGE6Cue2JDQBKeZHO+AA-TpBFABC8AAEvMgc7PswBBIhjAAAXAAA

GS/S+T Stun Shatter (FotM approved and is basically what I ran pre-patch):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8flknhG1YZawGNwtGLnGEaE6+3JDwGWe5IaeCA-TpBFABCcBAEvMgc7PswBBIhjAAAPAAA

Re: Necros – Seen some amazing ones doing really well post patch. MM retaliation/condi transfer and signet builds seems great atm.

Tried to make it on for this on Sunday but nobody was in the NA PvP server when I entered (I believe it was bad timing on my end). Will make it a point to catch the next one at the correct time(s)! Also just wanted to say a big ty to everyone in [OMFG] for making a newb like me feel right at home!

Mikkel.8427:

All dmg needs to be toned down on all professions (looking at you PvP amulets!)… the only thing i think is out of control on mesmer is Confounding suggestions. I’d love to see it changed to-

Confounding Suggestions- Your Control effects (stun, daze, fear, taunt, sink, knockdown, etc) last 25% longer. Increases the amt of defiance your control effects remove.

Done. No more stun locking, and this makes the trait more appealing in a larger variety of builds.

IDK about the damage tone-down ( I like the risk of my opponents hitting harder) but I am totally on-board with your CS proposal.

As a mesmer main I am fine with the supply showing up on me rather than my clones. I feel it offers some counter-play to an otherwise strong class and rewards good player perception.

(This little gem also works with charged mantras, distortion, and other such tells. Hope this helps!)

This review is absolutely fantastic. I agree with every point here.

“Missed Opportunity”

I wanted to like the Rev (even figured out a halfway decent hammer build) but I cannot. The class is great in theory; I love the concept that the developers went with, but in its current state, it feels… very lackluster.

The direct damage seems weak even when traited for it. The condition damage seemed a bit lackluster as well when traited properly. Healing was decent, but at the expense of any real consistent utility. Energy feels like a very clumsy mechanic that may be best just being cut altogether for a different system.

The biggest issue that I can see with the class is that it is so tied to its inflexible legends. The legends have been so themed for what they do that there is no real synergy between them. The lack of customization is also utterly crippling to the Revenant and makes for a very bland experience overall (thus far anyhow).

Some solutions to some of the issues faced by the Revenant would be an overall damage increase to all weapon skills (condi and power). Another would be designing another 3(ish) utilities for each legend to allow for some customization. If the utilities are designed with some legend interplay in mind, then they would be worlds better than what we have now. Another option would be that legends provide a certain set of buffs when selected and to otherwise allow the player to freely equip any utilities from whichever legends that they have selected.

Also, elites on Rev never felt elite in nature. Maybe consider doing elite skills based off of a combination of whatever legends you have equipped? Make them powerful expressions of the combined legends and make them feel epic.

Closest I have come (and I am sure you could get closer) is zerk weapons, assassin armor, and zerk + valk accessories. Gives roughly the same (though still a bit light on vitality)

IGN: Celeste Dalenset
Playstyle: PvX
Server: Fort Aspenwood (NA)
Role: Scholar
Time Zone: US Eastern (Evenings)

It doesn’t seem to be confined to just big clashes. Also affecting PvP, PvW, and WvW in less populated instances as well. Results in skills not activating when pressed. Checked my internet and with my provider. Neither seems to be the problem. Have otherwise been getting around 40-60 ping (connection seems fine, just crazy skill lag)

Ty Robert (and other Devs) for the changes! Looking forward to HoT!

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Hello mesmers! Come out of stealth for a second and talk about specializations! Either answer my questions directly or simply post about what you think the devs should know about the specialization changes.

Questions:

1. One sentiment I’ve read is that mesmer has gotten a LOT easier to play. Are you enjoying this?
2. For me, the grandmaster mesmer traits have been an absolute candy store. Which GM traits have been your favorite?
3. Prismatic Understanding (PU) has proven to be a really strong trait for shatter builds (PU shatter). Do you think this needs adjustments?
4. Another build I’ve seen around is a power block/Chaotic Interruption build. Have you tried this out?
5. Normally, mesmers really only took Dom, Dueling, Illusions in PvP. Are you taking Chaos and Inspiration at all?
6. Mesmer got a lot of conditional recharge abilities (reduced recharge on staff when you have chaos shield for example). Are you liking these?
7. Mimic got a huge change. Are you using this at all?
8. Time Warp gained slow and now can be traited for resistance and super speed! Are you using this at all? Would you take this over the other elites?
9. How have your fights against other mesmers been? Do they feel skillful?

1. I am enjoying playing my class as it now feels like I have more tools to deal with the “meta” classes. Well except for infinite-sustain Elementalists… they are still way too good at not dying.
2. Power Block, Prismatic Understanding, and Master of Fragmentation.
3. It is pretty strong, but to put things into perspective, D/P thieves have infinite stealth and have no penalty for missing a back stab (that being said it is one of the only forgiving things thieves get; it’s not as easy as it looks). Since I am sure the nerf is coming no matter what I think, I could live 50% over 100% increase.
4. I ran with Power Block before patch and still do now; haven’t tried out Chaotic Interruptions before.
5. I run Domination, Chaos, Illusions currently.
6. No. Having a conditional recharge on torch has forced me into PU to be sure that I can continue to cleanse conditions efficiently. A flat 20% would be preferred.
7. Nope. Still seems like a gimmick; that being said, i have yet to try it out fully.
8. I will definitely be using this for PvE and some WvW stuff.
9. They have been about the same as before.
10. As a special bonus feed back item, lets talk about Confounding Suggestions. This skill is very useful but I think that reducing the CD to 10 seconds would possibly make the skill to unreliable to seriously consider. One way to balance it would be to make the stuns on interrupt only and eliminate the duration increase to stun/daze. The other way would be to eliminate the stun completely and increase the daze buff to 50% (for a 1.5 sec daze).
11. Regarding Maim the Disilusioned: If the nerf is staying in place, consider increasing the duration of the torment applied to make up for the lost stacks. 1 to 2 seconds per stack should help balance it out.

EDIT/UPDATE: Ok, the more i think about it, the more it makes sense: Increasing the CD Confounding Suggestions to 10 makes a lot of sense. Could definitely work in making the skill more balanced. Also, did some minor editing to make sure I am communicating my feedback correctly.

UPDATE: As the meta is beginning to settle I have been noticing a marked decrease in the “OP” feeling of CS. It seems like it might not be so bad after all in its current state… it seems strong w/o feeling too strong. Maybe just remove duration increase and call it a day? I am still all for decreasing PU to 50% though.

Anyhow I hope this feedback helps.

Looking at this concept as a way to rebuild my guardian for WvW until I can make better sense of the changes. Any feedback is appreciated.

GS/Sc+Fo:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-B;4NFk30G3wF-90;9;4nPQ;0257148148;4INl3U;119cV19cVNoFW0-DY10;1wV1X6Y9ZH4Ma6Z-870HV5PcW5P;9;9;9;9;9;4V3k8e

GS/Staff Variant:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-B;4NFk30G3wF-90;9;4nPQ;0157138148;4INW4U;119cV19cVNoFW0-P7;3wV1X6Y9ZH4Ma6Z-870HV5PcW5P;9;9;9;9;9;4V3k8N

Curunen.8729:

Heh, funnily enough I just decided to go back and read through the thread – in hindsight the whole thing looks rather peaceful and polite! ^^

Anyway, can we make the most of enjoying the rest of this excellent patch. I don’t want this sour note to cause a rift in our forum when we’re all here to enjoy the same class.

Agreed. Lets enjoy the good times before the meta solidifies!

Sebrent.3625:

Which leads me to my next point … so many times in the past month I’ve been in the Mesmer subforum and felt like I was in the Thief subforum …

… it makes me sad.

… it makes me horribly disappointed in the current Mesmer community. It used to be better than this.

I highly doubt that they made a code change and then reverted it in that less than 24 hour span because of the torches and pitchforks here.

If you want to talk about high-and-mighty … the entitlement and angry outburst shown by the forum despite nothing truly concrete … and then showing no regret/remorse for that behavior after being shown that there was no reason for it.

But, that’s fine, if you think you never do any wrong, that’s your own issue to deal with … I only have to roll my eyes at the product of it on the occasional forum post.

In defense of myself:

Not getting a screenshot is my bad (I was at work at the time so screen-capping something was admittedly the furthest thing on my mind/just glad the boss lets me watch the streams quietly). However the devs I mentioned did state that they intended a nerf to MtD during the stream. I am happy that they did not carry through without allowing us to try it out first.

That being said, I think it is a bit harsh of you to start screaming liar, liar at the top of your lungs because “forum drama” (which I refuse to take part in intentionally). I admit that a screenshot would have been better and I will do so in the future if another incident such as this comes up. As your signature says:

“Try your best to not make mistakes, but, when you do make mistakes, learn from them. Better yourself.”

That being said I feel you could have made your point without hopping on your soap box.

Exciton.8942:

Happicakes.2054:

Well, it looks like nerfs to MTD are already confirmed by Jon Peters and Karl in chat : ( (8 torment stacks at 3.1K a tic when standing still was pretty awe inspiring)

3.1K?How did you get that number?
The standing still formula for torment is
1.5+(0.225*Level)+(0.055*Condition Damage)
using Rapid amulet and condie rune would be 1375 condie dmg
So level 80, the damage per second should be 95.125, 8 stacks gives 761

I might have missed something important. But 3.1K is still HUGE.

If it helps I think they were using the new rampager amulet (could be misremembering it though).

Well, it looks like nerfs to MTD are already confirmed by Jon Peters and Karl in chat : ( (8 torment stacks at 3.1K a tic when standing still was pretty awe inspiring)