Guild Wars 2

As of the beta from 6th September Signet of Ether recharged Shield4:

- had Shield4 on 14s cooldown
- used Signet of Ether
- Shield4 recharged (and was promptly put to good use).
- This worked in WvW; I am fairly sure it worked in sPvP too (I remember using this combo).

Proof if needed (part of a larger video; can’t upload only the relevant part as I deleted the source):
https://youtu.be/xJzWeJhxVt0?t=1m20s

Only next 5 seconds are relevant.

Even assuming “nobody really cares for WvW balance” as some have said, there is one thing which differs high stealth mesmer from a high stealth thief. Namely, Portal.

It is very possible for a mesmer to go really deeply into stealth with Prismatic Understanding now to the point you can easily hide in Hills inner or Bay inner (there are spots to portal from outside to inner) – and because of vast space of WvW and the nature of the PUG zerg which took the keep you will never be found. Thus, zerg leaves and you can easily reflip the keep porting first group of 3-5 people from outside. Earlier on, it was immensely rewarding if you could pull it off (and very random; enemies had a chance to find you). Now it might be slightly too easy.

Not to mention that if you prefer to hide in outer you will never be found again, especially if you jump through portals while evading enemies (of course, then you need a slightly stronger group or a diversion to take that keep).

Add to this what was written before – MassInvis having such a long duration means you cannot predict when the burst comes. Usually in group roaming if enemy group use MI, the proper response was to cast our own MI, so they leave the stealth first and we have an advantage. Not anymore.

This is not Shadow Refuge where you have to group in one spot and enemies can AoE / use pulls and pushes. MI can come at any moment and with the use of a teamspeak it is INCREDIBLY easy to regroup and coordinate a spike. 10 seconds of stealth is eternity, and with 2 PU mesmers with MI you can stack it to 15-20 seconds without Revealed easily (properly timing MI).

I mean, look at this case: 3 PU mesmers (traited in manipulations), 2 eles, 4 ice bows, all berserker == gg. If you want to go to extreme, 5 PU mesmers (MI hits 10 people), 5 eles with ice bows ;p. Or take a single banner warrior to res everyone who fall to Retaliation ;-).

I do not see a counter to what I wrote above from a PUG zerg or a PUG commander.

Honorable mention: portals to displace invisible people out of harms way.
Honorable mention 2: Aegis from PU which makes pulling, pushing and CCing invisible people a tad difficult.

From my point of view, 2% is definitely not enough to use this trait over others.

And my problem is that it is impossible to evaluate a trait change in isolation; we have to evaluate whole traitlines. This change to Chaotic Dampening made me swap from Chaos line to Domination line, effectively changing a 06660 build into 66060 one, even if I still use a staff. To reiterate, for this staff user (me), Domination line became stronger than Chaos line in support/control build.

Why:

My playstyle is a fun, low-stealth control~support > damage. I play glassy (Berserker or Sinister or mix of those; Berserker or Rampager in sPvP).

When Staff had 5% recharge, I could share quite nice Protection, I could do the “boonstorm” and create area denials. It also forced an interesting decision: “do you use Chaos Armour when off cooldown and ‘waste it’ or do you use it when you should for defense”? Sure, I have lots of Protection, but Chaos Armour is more than this and it was sometimes worth more to NOT use Chaos Armour to maximize uptime but to wait. It actively changed the way I played.

Now with Staff on 2% recharge it is simply pointless to focus on Chaos Armours. Protection is still there and the trait DOES help, but Chaos line – which had 2 strong choices (Chaotic Dampening and Chaotic Interruption) has now one strong choice – grandmaster. And if you compare this to Domination line, you get the following traits working with my build:

- Blurred Inscriptions; this ones allows me to load Signet of Ether to recover the high iWarlock uptime, so I am able to do an iWarlock burst if needed; on top of that by using Signet of Ether I can drop 3 conditions (+ Mender’s Purity) and give Distortion to whole party. Combined with Inspiration GM trait it means that although I generate less boons, I share boons more often (and auto-Distort from time to time cleansing 1 condition). So it is a Chaotic Interruption class of a trait in this build; very strong choice.

- Power Block; here, weakness is the winner. Confusion + Weakness from interrupts is weaker than Confusion + Immobilize + something, but still works. Combined with a vigor nerf it means I have one more tool to deplete enemies’ endurance which is awesome in party play. And of course Halting Strike + recharge denial, which is also a very strong choice.

- Confounding Suggestion or in rare cases Empowered Illusions if I decide to go “turret iWarlock Berserker mesmer style”.

If you gave me Chaos line before the first patch hit (before everything became fun again, that is, before damage > sustain) I would go like: “WOW! Bountiful and Chaotic merged? I can get traited staff too? And wow, Manipulations have now Mirror and I can trait MassInvis?!”. But in the new world there are simply options STRONGER than the current Chaos line and – although I tried – for now I cannot see a build I would like to use which is able to capitalize on current Chaos better than, say, Domination or Illusions. Not even with a staff.

From MY POINT OF VIEW you may not agree with:

The problem is the amount of stealth we have, not the staff cooldowns. Mesmer was always about “quick, short stealths” to disengage or reposition not “lalala you will never see me while I burst you to death”. In practice, you can counter staff with range (example: LB ranger – which is why they fill a very important role – to counter glassy mobility classes) or boon corruption.

Staff becomes a problem in heavy stealth builds giving them too much sustain; I do see a condi build able to passively spam clones and phantasms staying in invis with PU (Sw/T + St, 06606 for example) with very low time of being visible, and then usually with Protection and Aegis (note St2 does not break stealth, neither does phantasm casting). But when I encounter something like that (basing on my experiences and different tests) I should be able to either outrun it or use Temporal Curtain to simply reflect/group those clones. I may not kill this mesmer, but I won’t die either.

Stealth is a problem, not Chaotic Dampening.

You have several amazing combos here:

Domination/Inspiration Signets:
1) Every signet will grant you (and thus, your partymates) the Distortion
2) Every signet will drop one condition from you
3) You have one hidden Signet – Inspiration GM. This means every 24s when you cast a phantasm you have one extra condi dropped and one condi cleansed (I hope so; it is possible it only has the recharge reduced; I will have to try it when traitchange comes). And ofc you will apply Distortion to allies (question to ask: if there are less than 5 allies, does this get passed to phantasms as well)

Chaos/Domination (Chaos Storm as a deathtrap)
1) Every Daze gives 5 vulnerabilities
2) Every interrupt gives 3 vulnerabilities, 5 mights, boon, 2 sec Immobilize, Halting Strike, +weakness
3) Chaos Storm becomes a monster from hell.

High control
1) Fc4 and Fc5 are reflections; this allows you to create a safe spot vs necromancers and rangers (bonus for pulling in a proper moment)
2) Every interrupt immobilizes; unless enemies are really into anti-conditions you have insane cover condis from clones and Chaos Storm
3) You have high condi duration because of 3% per boon from Chaos.

Now, I have been using the combination of Chaos Storm, Chaotic Interruption and Halting Strike paired with Mantra of Distraction (in WvW for all it’s worth and in sPvP duels vs friends to see how it “feels”). And from those experiences I would strongly recommend Mantra of Distraction to you in the setup you designed simply because it is the “initial immobilize” which will allow you to force enemies to stay in your Chaos Storm and it allows you to capitalize on Chaotic Interruption and apply more pressure onto opponents.

So:
- Immobilize enemy somehow (bonus points if immobilize comes from Temporal Curtain pull followed by Sw3→Sw3).
- Cast Chaos Storm and iWarlock and watch enemy with Mantra of Distraction ready.
- Enemy is immobilized under Chaos Storm. Usually, unless very tanky, starts to panic at this point.
- Enemy tries to do anything, I will Mantra them to prolong immobilize even if it is autoattack (bonus: sweet Halting Strike damage)
- No matter what happens, enemy is at at least 5-15 vulnerabilities now
- iWarlock can deal up to 7k damage in crit in Berserker spvp amulet if enemies have 5-7 conditions. And if they are immobilized, it will hit (for once).

Mights you are going to generate will definitely help in the damage area and you will pass them to the partymates. So from my experiences your build as designed would be something like… area denial tool / support > control > damage unit with those utilities.

What I used was XXX / Blink / Mantra of Distraction, therefore I am more control > support ~ damage in Berserker amulet.

What does Mantra give you: 5 guaranteed vulnerabilities, 2 interrupt procs (with all the interrupt goodies).
And this is where I would swap Medic’s Feedback for Restorative Mantras: small heal for you and for partymates.

Unfortunately, I am speaking from WvW roaming perspective where I am used to lots of space and I am not too experienced in conquest; but if I was to play Chaos Maestro 2.0 I would go:
- Berserker amulet
- Mantra of Distraction in place of Mimic
- Ether Feast in place of Mirror
- Perhaps Blink in place of one Signet; need to check how it fares
- Restorative Mantras in place of Medic’s Feedback

and see how it goes and how does Blurred Inscriptions really work as a trait (in terms of synergies with Illusionary Inspiration).

From my point of view the build you designed has damage and REALLY lets your partymates deal even more of it ;-). I like it.

There are several very interesting synergies between traits in Chronomancy line and other lines.
Talking from a roamer’s perspective (1-5 people in the party).

Everything below assumes “no ICD” which is pretty unlikely. It also assumes everything goes well (yeah, right).

Seize The Moment + Illusionary Reversion

- Get to the downed opponent, start stomping; use any shatter (quickness and +1 clone from IR) and immediately F4 shatter. Quickness and 2s of Distortion. Guaranteed stomp.
- (can also be used for power-ressing allies; bonus for Mercy runes)

Maim the Disillusioned + DE + Illusionary Reversion + Flow Of Time :

- Sc2 block, dodge: 2 clones + IP: 6 torments (and 5 from Scepter)
- dodge and IR: 2 clones + IP: + 6 torments.
- IR clone: 1 clone + IP: +4 torments (total: 21 torments with 16 PBAoE ones; bonus for Malicious Sorcery with +50% torment damage)
- (Flow of Time reduces our cooldowns in the meantime)

Protected Phantasms (Inspiration minor) + Chronophantasma + Warden’s Feedback

- cast iWarden, hide inside iWarden from a pesky ranger. Immobilize the ranger.
- when iWarden stops spinning or Immobilize starts to expire, sha’tter. iWarden will probably start whirling again ;-).
- I wonder if it will be ‘Protected’ again after coming back.

Delayed Reaction + Chaotic Interruption + Chronophantasma + Flow of Time + Chaotic Dampening + Protected Phantasms + Illusionary Inspiration

- this is Chaos/Insp/Chrono line
- pull enemies with a focus while casting iWarden. Go Sw3->Sw3. You have immobilized (C.I. Fc4 + Sw3) AND slowed (D.R. Fc4) some enemies. Put Chaos Storm on them and yourself. They are Slowed, more chances for Daze to proc CI. Cast iWarlock in Chaos Storm and after it shoots, sha’tter it immediately (it will return anyway and iWarlock should hit in melee). By casting iWarlock you shared to your partymates: staff clone boons, Chaos Storm boons, CI boons (old BI), boons given to you by partymates engaging foes, Protection from Chaos Armour from staff trait
- bonus points: Chaos Armour (St2 + St4) and as sha’tters -> Alacrity, Chaos Storm and iWarlock can be reloaded faster.
- Chaotic Persistence. The more boons you have, the longer the boon/condi duration. And mights from CI feed both Power and Condition damage… and the party.
- if Chronophantasma is a selected trait, probably iWarlock and iWarden live and will return.
- if Seize the Moment is a selected trait, you get quickness to share with partymates.

The most interesting Chronomancy traits to me are:

- Minors. They are great.
I do have my reservations about having both +movespeed and duration of incoming control conditions reduced (pretty strong with Melandru and Lemongrass; “lol immune to control conditions like warriors”?), but I don’t know in isolation; this is a new game for me (Dragonhunters, after all, have insane close range knockback and OMG CRIPPLE combined with OMG DAMAGE and innate guardian evilness). So… yeah, not taking a stance on this yet.

- Delayed Reactions (because it comboes with itself making following interrupts easier and gives us breathing room in combat. ICD will make or break this one (imo, no ICD), especially in group situation (there is a reason why Chaotic Interruption is a strong trait – with ICD it would be pretty useless with mesmer’s rare-ish interrupts being multi-target like Focus, Staff, GS, Pistol (stun+daze), offhand Sword (line daze) or now Shield))

- Illusionary Reversion (lets me not worry about DE in non-“shatter” builds or lets me gorge on clones in shatter builds with DE; this + IP baseline lets me experiment with avoiding Dueling line in Berserker builds)

- Chronophantasma (lots of potential synergies and mind games; I can shatter a phantasm solely to avoid losing it, for example; as a fan of Inspiration line I can combo it with Protected Phantasms; I mean, this + GS phantasm which I shatter anyway?)

- Seize the Moment (potentially very powerful with Mantras, stomping, ressing, boonsharing, phantasm casting… I mean, on-demand quickness? Enemies CANNOT prepare for that even if they know.)

The traits which may be great, but I am not fond of them:

- All’s Well that Ends Well (condition removal is simply not that interesting (I mean, we have Null Field, right?), even if Condi Removal is useful)

- Lost Time (potentially either too high ICD to be useful or will be so strong that all Slow-related chronomancer stuff may get nerfed (or it will be so strong that it will be mandatory even if it is the least interesting and engaging of Chronomancy GM traits we got.))

In short, Chronomancer seems to be a very interesting special ops class with fun and WELL-imagined traits which create interesting synergies with other lines.

I love the new daily system.

For example, now it is [Insert Random Holiday Name Of Your Choice] time. I am not home. I am on a bad wi-fi connection. So what I can do is log on, claim the goodies, log out.

But the reason why I love the new dailies is different.

Earlier, when I logged on I was like “ok… condition remover; 1 WvW camp, 5 feasts… need TP, reviver WHY!!! stupid asuras to res…” and it was something like that. A set of boring, unimaginative tasks to do because I need my laurels. I mean, there was NO interesting daily there.

Why did it suck? It was a mere, boring checklist. As I am playing GW2 since the day 3 after the beta ended, I know how to do it fast. But this is EXACTLY going out of my way for a laurel and some other thingies. No choice here. I am disempowered, shackled, even!

Now?

I get the reward for logging in. Furthermore, I can CHOOSE to do something which will give me bonuses. If I WvW (most of the time I am roaming in WvW) I will get extra WExp -> more WvW chests and ranks. If I decide to go out of my way and do a vista, I get some experience points. A reward for doing something I wouldn’t, usually.

Point being, new dailies give us additional rewards for doing something ELSE. And as daily achievements are capped anyway, you don’t lose out forever if you don’t do it one day or two. Besides, note:

- earlier: you had to do 2 ‘general’, 3 ‘pve’, 3 ‘spvp’, 2 ‘wvw’ achievements for 10 APs (no idea about those numbers here). So for 10 APs you had to go seriously out of your way.
- now: you have to do 3 out of 4, 4, 4. And no matter how many you choose, you get 10 APs. Less going out of my way . More choice :-).

In the old system if you did not go out of your way, you had like 5-7 APs / day. So even with the odd “I can’t do the dailies now”, in 10 days of old system you would have 50-70 APs. In new system, to get 70 APs you need to do daily only 7 days out of 10. AND on top of that you get some tomes of knowledge, experience, WExp… what’s not to like? More choice and more rewards (APs, loot).

In my opinion 3/4 is a good system. Sure, things like “fractal and fractal” are in my opinion a mistake (I would vastly prefer them to be be randomized from the buckets like Open World (gathering, vista, events), Grouped (Dungeon Story, Dungeon Explorable, Fractal, current Living Story), Boss, Other)

I also don’t like “win as class X” in sPvP dailies, but the mere fact you have to do any 3 out of 12 means the new dailies are not prohibitive.

If they changed the number to 5-5-5, let’s see:

PvE: 5 buckets with 2-3 picks from Open World
sPvP: capture point, defend point, win as class X * 3?
WvW: players, sentry, dolyak, camp, tower, keep, defense.

Note how you pick 5 out of [many] in PvE, 5 out of distinct 3 in sPvP (probably more?) and 5 out of 7 (or any other low number) in WvW. To make that possible, there would have to be more categories in sPvP and WvW. Before it happens, you would have like Season3 of WvW every day in dailies. What would Season4 do then? ;-).

Additionally, note the dailies’ rewards are not equal. Taking a keep gives better stuff than taking a sentry. This fifth pick would have to be from the “low reward” category, right? Otherwise it will be the “hard” one. So it is about APs, not rewards, correct?

On top -they might reduce the rewards from dailies, as you would be able to do 15 now, not 12. And PvE rewards are – for me – once again better than WvW ones :P (sorry, I want experience and skill scrolls slightly more than 150 – 300 WExp). So to get the best stuff I have to go out of my way again! OMG Anet! Why do you do this to me! (answer: because I can still do it, nobody throws cats at me whenever I approach the vista on my poor mesmer).

If they added “dodger, condition remover” they would have to assign almost no reward to it. Because it is completely automatic. You WILL do it, no matter what you do. So when I read people want ones like these, a genuine question: how does this differ from wanting 10 APs for logging on? How does it promote anything? What purpose does something like that serve?

In conclusion – new dailies are far superior from old ones, in my eyes. Both in CHOICE department (I can do something for rewards and I can elect NOT to do something and skip rewards while I got my laurel progression), in FAIRNESS department (the same amount of picks for all game modes) and in REWARDS department (more stuff -> better, right?). There are some small things which would gain a lot from refining (fractals, fractals? :P), but they are just small things.

Besides, it reminds me of Zaishen Missions.

So, here’s my Feedback. And I do have Glamour Mastery trait.

Have fun and Happy [Random Holiday Of Choice]. Say, Happy Day Of Purring Catmancers.

Can’t really help you with the specifics, but the description of the mesmer imples your enemy might have stacked a lot of might.

As mights work both with power damage and condition damage (and GS is one of the best might stacking weapon), the power mesmer might give an impression of being a condition one, especially if one uses +40% condi food (in case of WvW).

If that is so, PU generates the “boon shield” for mights so it is hard to strip them. I myself play a power mesmer with +40% condi duration food (for control condis and bleeds on clone crits trait) and with 12 mights my conditions require some attention.

Solution to fight this would be very aggressive boonstripping – those mights have to go – and dodging the GS2 skill whenever possible. Of course, if we have a staff in play too, staff clones give nice, short time buffs. But then, the mobility of a mesmer like that should be very low (unless uses runes of Traveler or Speed in which case might stacks will not be as… imposing).

If enemy uses Bountiful Interruption as a second might generation source, he will try to interrupt you whenever he can for 5 mights and a boon. And it is possible if enemy uses Chaos line.

DISCLAIMER:

I am playing without PU, or stealth in my utilities (only MI as a stealth) since October 2013. I am not doing it because “PU OP, OMG NO HONOR”, but because I wanted to see something different and I believed mesmers need all three utility skills for something else than personal stealth. I am not doing it for honor, I do not look down at people using stealth and PU, not doing it to show “OMG I PRO U NUB”. I simply do it as I have fun with it and my partymates like it more than when I had Decoy. I am mostly a WvW roamer, with PvE mixins and zerg mixins when my wife commands in WvW :-).

TOPIC:

I am playing mostly interrupt or lockdown builds, party builds (as in: focusing on 1-5 vs 1-10 group play), which use as their main defense mobility, control or mix of both. Ah, and pressure – if you pound at them hard, they are trying to escape more than to hit you back. So I use DPS equipment.


Builds which worked for me in this playstyle so far (note, there is a lot I haven’t tested yet; for now I always take Bountiful Interruption and traited Focus)(note2: they are not perfectly optimized)(note3: I did not make them 100% myself, might have inspired by this forums, tweaked in our parties…).

0-30-20-20-0, Sw/F + Sc/P – build focus: 5 seconds of lockdown (Signet of Domination into Pistol 5, and you can detonate a Curtain).
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgIQRAsd7alwzKoHTToGb9IiJFEnvdSB0tcleYb52FC-jkCBYjDimiI00HBKzkRjNRFoMsIasqkYKXER1WzDr2iORyAUNGA-w
If you want to see how it plays, it is on my YT channel codenamed “Dancing Delusion”.

0-30-20-20-0, Sw/F + GS – built around Furious Interruption, has some neat burst options.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgIQNAsdRlwzKoHTToGb9IiJFEnvdSB0tcleYbXItB-jkCBYjCiUEg0HAZmMasJqAlhFRjVlET5iIq2aeY1W0JSGgqxA-w
If you want to see how it plays, it is on my YT channel codenamed “Prancing Papillon”.

0-20-30-20-0, Sw/F + St – built around Hydromancy and +conDuration food for control conditions in Berserker build. A successful experiment, though it is strange. I mean, the damage is there, but I don’t fully understand why it works so well. Yet.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgIQNAsdWlwzKoHTTqGb9IipHBnvJcnUAdLXJF22FC-jkCBYjCiUEgEIBKzkRjNRFoMsIasqkYKXER1WzDr2iORSBAzYA-w
If you want to see how it plays, it is on my YT channel codenamed “Entangling Elegance”.

I strongly suggest Elegance > Papillon >>> Delusion, btw, if you want to run them. All work for me, but Elegance has less weak spots and Papillon has much more damage. Delusion is the easiest to counter (Scepter damage in power build is simply a bit weak-ish and Sc3 makes you “not dodge” and “not turn around” too much).


If you want to be able to reliably win 1 vs N, don’t go this way. I can win 1 vs 2 or 1 vs 3 (or 2 vs 5), but it requires enemies who I can simply strongly outplay and I cannot make too many mistakes. You won’t be able to drop target, though if they are slow and do not have ranged weapons, well, it will be hilarious ;-). On the other hand, there will be 1 vs 1s you will lose with no reliable way to escape (not necessarily against thieves; properly timed Signet of Domination does wonders, especially in Prancing Papillon. Mobility warriors are more of a problem, as you can’t drop target easily). What I mean is, there are more efficient ways to play a mesmer and better builds out there.

If you are interested in seeing other viable (not BEST, viable) builds which are really fun to play if you do not want to win every battle, this can be fun :-).

Now, I am everything BUT the best mesmer out there. And yet I can efficiently be a solo/party roamer without using stealth. I might have been more efficient if I used it, but neither me nor my partymates care :-).


In case anyone answers my post, sorry; I am unlikely to answer quickly (I am a constant lurker, but I am forum shy).

EDIT:
Corrected Elegance link; it uses Null Field, not iDisenchanter (for more Chaos Armour uptime).

It depends on what you do in WvW.

I am a roamer, and for me ascended equipment is very useful, especially when I roam solo.

I am working on my ascended armour, simply because I slot all my ascended stuff with anti-guard infusions.
So there is a guard WExp lines (+10% damage, -10% damage). On top of that you have, say, 2 offensive slots from weapons. From trinkets: 2 defensive, 4 offensive (assuming power build; you might go full defensive for condi build) and armour gives you as much as 6 defensive slots.

This gives you total +16% damage vs guards and -18% damage from guards, effectively making guards and lords much less dangerous.

This is something which speeds up solo camp or tower capping (with ascended trinkets, weapons and 3 pieces of ascended armour I can take a tower solo in about 2:30 minutes). So for me it is definitely worth it, as, in the end, roamers fight guards as much as players and we fight in camps quite often (less damage from NPCs and more damage to have a chance to rally / take camp faster).

It is also a boost fighting other players, of course (in terms of light armour, +47 armour (equals toughness), +30 vit (or toughness or healing power) from infusions, +36 selectable stats (14/11/11)), but in my personal opinion ascended equipment becomes interesting mostly with WvW infusions.

As a downside, it kind of locks you into a family of builds (Defensive or Power or Condition armour) and makes rune switching needlessly expensive, so… this is a real issue, for me.

On the other hand, I am gradually replacing exotics with ascended and I don’t “feel” a major boost of awesomeness. I could play on exotics and I don’t think I would see much of a difference fighting players. Against guards though, yeah, there is a difference.

As I don’t have alts, only one character, for me it is worth it. Every minor advantage I can get over an enemy is worth it for me.
But this won’t give me a victory over a better enemy, over a build countering mine, or over more enemies.

Hope it helps at least a bit :-).

In WvW, when you cast an iWarden attacking a camp, sometimes it has a delay before it starts spinning (might be related into spawning it in the blinding powder of a Scout). Sometimes it loses a whole cycle and doesn’t attack at all. I triple-checked it, it wasn’t “Soldier stunned it with charge”, it simply didn’t fire.

But on the other hand, when idle (that is, when they are not firing) they correctly trail a dolyak or a tower champ, so multiple wardens became more useful vs ranged NPCs.

…on the other hand, a cleave from a warrior made me really sad…

I really like fighting against both Fort Ranik and Desolation. Glad that I was able to meet you again :-).

@All, but especially one [EXG] thief (you know who you are), thanks for very enjoyable and fun fights and duels (most of which in completely random and inappropriate places) :-).
No matter if I won or lost, no matter if it was 1 vs 3 or 3 vs 1, I had fun this weekend :-).

To [SEEK] condition engi who got me yesterday: <3, you deserved that win (as much as it was humiliating for me, I got what I deserved for being so reckless). Hope to meet you again :D.

~Person who tries to chat with at least one player from every server, especially after a good fight.

@Xaylin.1860

I might have went too far about Decoy. I retract [drop stunbreaker] part. I still want to move Decoy from 40 to 45 (stupid chat filter indeed).

My problem is not with Decoy in isolation; it is Decoy + Blink combined. Two very powerful defensive utilities, both stunbreakers, both give us high utility. They are that good combined, that they mask some problems mesmer has (simply because you have one utility slot if you use both; also, I didn’t realize why Sc/Sw has no defenses until I dropped Decoy). So, one wants both for full defensive efficiency, which hits build diversity. And then one applies F4 shatter and other defenses from weapons I wrote in the previous post.

Blink has a counter – enemy mobility. Even fully traited Blink is a 32s 1200 range teleport (which is nothing compared to warriors or thieves). Except staff, we don’t have mobility tools to take advantage of that. So, Blink can be countered (by more mobility). As for now, there is no “hard counter” for stealth, as it stands.

It is not that I consider 1.5s more of stealth per minute to be OP. I consider more availability of stealth and stunbreaker on-demand to be OP. For example, if Decoy was 6s of stealth with recharge 60s, it would be weaker from my point of view (even if it had much more stealth in minute). In the same time, 2s of stealth on 27s cooldown would be stronger.

In team fights (3-4 vs 3-4, for example) I didn’t use Decoy to stealth for 3-4s. I used it to drop target off me and reposition, to “shed aggro”, to speak. The more stealth I have, the less tanky I can be and the more I can focus on killing enemies.


Experimental build example for teamplay (to show what I mean):
Sc/Sw + Sw/T, 10-20-0-25-15, Berserker > Soldier, Traveller runes, [Blink Decoy ? MassInvis], 2* Sigils of Energy, 2* Sigils of Force.

- traited phantasms (+30% damage, Fury, regeneration if close), iSwordsman 1/12 seconds, because of x/Sc Sw/x I have stat bonus from traited sword in both sets.
- Decoy 32s, Blink 40s, Torch4 30s
- Inspiration10 as main condition removal; combine with mantra heal to get more condi removals (stealth lets us recharge mantras safely and phantasms will fight for us)
- baiting blocks (when I see AoE circle, am not focused and am in Sc/Sw, I go inside and use blocks for damage. This will kill phantasms, but probably enemies killed them with AoE anyway)
- whenever I get focused, go stealth. MassInvis if it gets really bad / ally is downed.

This is what I mean: it may not be the best build, but it is easy to play, has lots of defenses and lets me shed aggro. Gives me 2 stunbreakers, high availability of stealth, high damage. The harder it gets, the more Soldier > Berserker I would use. Note: this won’t work in 10 vs 10, but will in 3-4 vs 5-6. Bonus points if I get stun or boonstrip at ? utility slot. This allows a very passive play (avoid combat, cast phantasms) and if I go Soldier, it is very hard to destroy.


The buff to Chaos25 doesn’t matter, true. Yet the buff will improve something which does not need improving, while there are other things for which improving would be better. I mean, ANet designed the game in a way that bunker doesn’t really lose condition damage (3 offensive stats for power, 2 for condi and only one is available in equipment in sane amounts). Why buff it?


Mender Purity buff is very powerful and I consider it to be a good buff. Might be too strong, but this one I like. We will know when it hits :-). Condition removal is an area we are very weak in right now, after all.


About utility slot to interrupt… I don’t want another Mantra of Distraction. I want a skill which interrupts and if it interrupts, does something. I want it in Manipulations, as most Manipulations seem focused on a single target. I love Signet of Domination and if I get it, I trait it – 3s stun in 4 vs 4-5 lets my team cut an enemy to pieces. But it is not often worth it to use it as an interrupt. Mantra, on the other hand, is a perfect interrupt skill, but it does nothing more than apply daze (and is a mantra, which I dislike). Maybe you are right and if mantras were made nicer to use it would be enough.


Chaotic Interruption. As it stands, it competes with too good skills to stand on its own. Bountiful Interruption is far superior – it applies to a caster (so I can use food / equipment / runes to manipulate the uptime of might and other boons). In WvW, enemies tend to use Melandru+Lemongrass or other condition reducing tools. This means that effect applied to enemies will always be weaker than one to allies, as we can’t really control what happens to them. Something like “after interrupt, 2s of stun” on the other hand would be extremely overpowered. Maybe something with boon removal? Maybe guaranteed immobilize and chill? No idea, really. Especially as sPvP doesn’t have food and changes to this trait influences both sPvP and WvW.

I don’t like the area of those buffs :-).
I main a mesmer and I play only a mesmer (over 2k hours on her), and I am a bit scared with those changes (WvW roaming perspective, group play, 1-5 people).


The current WvW meta is a condition mesmer build with clone dissipation and high invisibility uptime. The buff to Chaos 25 only makes it slightly stronger. So, here we have one meta build buffed.


On other builds:

I personally have a problem with amount of stealth a mesmer can have with other defenses. Torch at 30s, Decoy at 40s (and a stunbreaker), especially if in tanky condition build means you cannot pin a mesmer. Now, with Illusionist Celerity at 15 you will make it far easier to get Decoy to 32s. Add PU and other mesmer defenses. As the recharge on a skill giving clone, stealth and stunbreaker at 32s is imo too small, I suggest adding 5s to recharge time at Decoy and removing stunbreaker. That way we have more utility slots options. I mean, really, too much stealth is not good – look at recent thief changes. I don’t want mesmers to be nerfed later because of Decoy, and it is almost a mandatory utility slot. I would prefer to have other mesmer areas buffed, not ones which work well.

Phantasm builds use Decoy to stunbreak / drop target and reposition, mostly. Do we want to encourage that by giving them more stealth (40s -> 32s)? Enemies are under heavy pressure anyway. Especially as new condition removal in inspiration suits them perfectly.


What I would like to see, for example, a Manipulation looking more or less like “Daze for 1s, instant cast, 30 seconds recharge, if you get an interrupt, apply 5 stacks of vulnerability for 8 seconds”. This could be traited (24s), this would give me something LESS clunky than Mantra of Distraction and this would augment Domination 15 and Power builds. With no casting time I could cast it while using long recharge skill. In short, a utility designed to interrupt. Mantra, with me moving between land and water in WvW ruins area makes the worst experience ever, sadly.


There is also a problem of Scepter and offhand Sword.
Sword 2 is a great defensive tool, Sword 3 immobilizes OR gives you a stunbreaker / displacement (mobility).
Focus gives you defenses (speed -> mobility and enemy cripple) plus iWarden consumes projectiles. And traited it is amazing.
Torch gives you a defensive stealth.
Staff has Chaos Storm and Phase Retreat (mobility).

Scepter has no defenses – Sc2 roots you and applies damage assuming enemy doesn’t dodge (but you still GET damage). If it unconditionally blocked for 1s after a hit, it would have a defensive tool. As it stands, block, when you are attacked by 2-3 players will cause you more harm than good. Same applies to offhand sword.

Please, apply damage instantaneously after Block in case of Scepter2 and Sword4 to prevent enemy dodge the damage and give us some defenses on those blocks; they are powerful offensive skills, but lack anything defensive (and root, to make it worse). This is my main issue with Scepter, not autoattack, not Confusing Images.


Consider also shaving 10 seconds off Arcane Thievery recharge (yes, that much – it is 45 untraited). As it stands, iDisenchanter (20s) is far better than traited Arcane Thievery in smallscale, Null Field (40s untraited) in larger scale. This skill needs some love – it is very unreliable and has longer recharge than Null Field, as it stands. I like it a lot, but – again – it is subpar right now. If it gets OP (which I really doubt) it can always get nerfed later.


What could help with mantras (brainstorm, not apply all in the same time):
- different mantras, different charge count (Pain: 3 shots by default, Distraction: 2, Recovery: 3… – this is an example, numbers are random)
- mantra recharge time starts when a mantra is cast, not when last mantra is fired
- do something with underwater / land…
- automatic recharge of charges when out of combat (to avoid “firing the last shot in the air”)


To sum up; in my opinion mesmer needs widening of option by buffing utility skills and unused traits and little nerfing (fine-tuning), especially in high stealth uptime builds. To achieve that, Decoy nerf (tuning) could be enough. But in the same time mesmer needs a utility option to interrupt other than Signet of Domination (which is a lockdown, NOT interrupt tool). Mantras, as long as they are that clunky, are very… unpleasant to use, for me.

You don’t have a Manipulation mesmer or a Mantra mesmer – those are tools to achieve something. Playstyles. You have a damaging role (Shatter, Phantasm), support role (Condi removal with Shatter or Mantras), boon hate role (Shatter, Null Field…), lockdown role… and most mesmers have more than one role. Everyone builds some defenses (stealth, mobility, stats, distortion signets), offenses (shatter, phantasm, clone dissipation, Halting Strike) and other roles they have.

Gracious thanks to Abaddon and Underworld for a great evening fight at a Hero camp on AM Borderland. It is not often to have a relatively even numbers three way fight where each side is below 10 people (seemed to be 4 vs 8 vs 5, but I am famous from my lack of ability to count; there were mesmers and necros involved).

I remember [GuM], [CC], [RUM] from Underworld and [nOrD], [Cats], [CL], [DSG] tags from Abaddon.

Thank you very much for the most interesting fight in 5 weeks :-). I respawned 3 times before the fate of a Hero camp was sealed.

@svartadaudir.8710

First of all, I agree – we play different games. And that is the problem, Abaddon plays yet another different game. And I don’t see the reason why should they play differently to make OUR games more fun, because, why should they (I know I am doing a HORRIBLE generalization)? What they play is fun for THEM. I see no reason to try to “shame” them into playing like me or you want them to, because what for?

I can write “everyone who does not roam in small groups is a bad person who tortures little puppies and they sing Justin Bieber too! Ah, and they have no honor!” to try to convince every PUG and raider to play like I would like them to, but this would be pointless – different people, different things are fun for them. And if you ask how someone can find following a commander in large PvD group fun, I don’t know. But I don’t know how can someone find fun in coordinated 20-30 people raid vs 30-40 people PUG with no voicecomms either.

So here we have to live in three different worlds and we have to deal with it :-). I consider all playstyles viable, simply only one of those appeals to me.

I am not here to make YOUR (plural you) game more fun, it is YOUR responsibility, as much as it is MY responsibility to find fun in a game, not YOURS.

DISCLAIMER:
I am not saying “raiding guilds are evil” or “PUGs following commander are evil”. Those playstyle are simply alien to me.


What do I do when roaming?

It is not only camps. Group of 3 of us managed to take Bay from a server in silver league, defended by 1 enemy player (when enemies were busy in large fights). We have taken Hills from another silver server in 5 of us, using “secret cata spot”. Nobody came, but they could any minute (it was primetime btw). So in terms of PvD we have many options :-). You don’t need more than 3 to take a keep PvD, 5 are ideal (superior ram and one run for resupply or sneaky cata at hills).

It is usual for 4 people to attack a tower (2 people, if it is Briar/Lake and Vale/Water camp is ours). Even if protected, if we get the ram up, we can often destroy that gate. Even if we don’t, we force enemy to keep scouts and to be on alert in northern positions. When we coordinated with other roaming group earlier, we attacked simultaneously two towers, NW and NE, taking one (because larger group went to defend NW tower, as their zerg defended a keep from other zerg). If we have 4 people, it is very often that we split, 2 players go Arah, 2 Astralholme, to get camps before a tick, then meet together in Godsword killing dolyaks on a way.

For me this is “strategic enough” to look at the map and judging from the swords decide if we can attack a tower, try a keep or tap something to give an illusion of a ninja strike. The fact enemies operate in teams which can be weaker or stronger than us makes the game MUCH more fun – 4 of us managed to wipe a larger group, ~10, defending Vale with 4 ballistae (2 Spread Shot operators).

We strike at ruins a lot, trying to have them as much as possible. When enemy operate in larger groups in ruins, we surgically strike at one site when they are trying to take them from us. Even group of 10 has to split to at least 2 groups to take the ruins, and 3 vs 5 is a difficult, but possible fight.

I want to be steamrolled sometimes, I want to gank a poor upleveled guardian sometimes, I want to have fair duels I win or lose, I want to win 3 vs 4 and I want to lose 4 vs 3. The unpredictability of WvW is what makes it so fun for me. But it is me, my playstyle, my way of thinking and my own opinion. I have no honor at all (but I respect the dueling spot).

Small groups have MUCH more options than large groups and many more interesting character builds open, especially if you play with people who know you. Bonus: you don’t need voicechat. Game is far more unpredictable, chaotic and messy. Siege becomes an interesting option, you can run to attack or defend and most people don’t report groups of 2-3. The high risk – high reward is what I actually find very appealing.

I kill much less players than you do, I think, but my fights are more “personal”. I see differences between builds, between playstyles. I meet – and remember – many good opponents from all the servers I fight (shoutout to the Abaddon mesmer I met today in 1 vs 1 near GH Arah, we both got each other to downstate. GG.). My fun doesn’t rely on enemy server that much, because in every matchup I will find something for me.

And I play WvW for a year already. Still is fun for me. Roamer from the beginning. And yes, I still suck compared to good players out there :-).

We can continue this topic, but I think PMs will be better; most people won’t be interested in this one, I think.

Wow! I disagree with almost everyone in this thread, and that is really rare. I must post, someone is WRONG on the internet!

From my perspective (roamer operating in 1-5 groups) Abaddon is a server like any other – has small groups (1-5), has zergs… I see no difference fighting Abaddon, Vizunah, Piken or Aurora. Be it a raiding guild or a zerg, for me it is like a volcano; an environmental disaster to avoid. And all servers have some people operating in small groups; haven’t met any without, yet.

In my opinion, AM should be in silver league, not gold. The reason we have the points we have is the playstyle differences, but it is OUR issue, not Abaddon’s. To put it bluntly, if a large group of active WvWers on GH doesn’t care for points, we won’t have them :-). And if we are not on the first place, the better – I can play without waiting in those stupid queues (the moment I have to wait at least 5 minutes in a queue is the moment I go PvE/sPvP or play another game).

@AM:

You have nothing to apologize for, at least to me. You play a game in a particular way; some like it, some not. “If enemies complain about you on the forums, you must be doing something right”, and all that.

@UW:

You are fighting, and I am very happy to see it. Saturday, 4 of us went to get your NE tower, only to be greeted by Rapid GuM Response Squad (we got kind of slaughtered mercilessly). Good old times, put a smile on my face. Please keep it up :-).

Sadly, as I tend to focus a stronger opponent, I won’t see you a lot. Shame, I like Underworld. Especially your scary rapid response squads – I still remember when you forced our group of 3 to assault unupgraded camps with ballistae to make it in time before you come :-).

From my point of view the spawning window is the single worst problem with Teq.

I mean, Teq does most things I want:
- rewards for partial completions
- requires coordination
- instills server cooperation
- not a guaranteed win

Sure, I’d love to reduce 10% of hitpoints from the reptile to give some margin of errors especially for players not on TS (or simply for ‘non-elite players’ – as it stands now, people not using Teamspeak or proper equipment are not being invited), but this is much, MUCH less important than the spawn window.

I have limited time in game. When I log on I want to do something, not stand and wait. I don’t mind something like 2h respawn, but spawn window above 15 minutes is something horrible – what am I to do during the current 60 minutes or so?

I am not talking about ‘farming’ or ‘rewards’. I am talking about simple quality of life. In other events I could hop to WvW, but Teq requires full coordination and you simply cannot come 2 minutes after event starts.

Teq is a very different event from all other World Bosses. Therefore, please, treat the spawn window differently. Because as it stands the waiting is simply soul-crushing if you want to DO stuff, not chit-chat…

I have participated in Teq event only 5 times, without success. I simply can’t often commit 1h of my time to WAIT, especially if I may have to go afk for ~10 minutes which could hurt the chances of everyone there.

This matchup is very fun, at least for me :-).

I am very glad that I could face Viz and Kodash before the leagues started.
Since the first time we met, Kodash is one of my favourite servers to face. And Viz indeed has skilled smallscale players; I met them.
Imagine this, our force of 3-5 even managed to outman some of those we met!

Flavour of this matchup: thieves working together, calling target and executing a poor, poor mesmer in the most inappropriate moments. This is something I have never encountered before, will definitely train my reactions and timing /salute.

Kodash, skill of your roamers is astonishingly high. Those fights in the ruins, simply delicious.

Viz, I have never seen such well coordinated server. I don’t know why, but playing against you gives me that nice feeling “that’s how the game should be played”. We simply COULDN’T pry those ruins from you in our small squad. Response times and coordination – even with no waypoints – wow :-). I am simply amazed.
And it is ‘normal players’, not guild groups, for once! :D.

From my side, I vow to protect Water and Hero camps (from time to time) in Viz borderland, using 2-3 players and 5 ballistae! Because, as a wise (yet criminally insane) man said, “if you have a problem, throw MOAR ballistae on it”.

Good luck, have fun and slay me as mercilessly as I would slay you if I could :-).

As a Gunnar’s Hold roamer (operating in 2-5 team), I liked this matchup.

Sure, we were steamrolled by larger forces many times (and, sadly, by smaller too, to my slight discomfort). Sure, we had to sneak to northern parts of the Piken BL many times, and we had to PvDoor a bit more than we’d prefer, avoiding superior forces, but we had fun overall. We could influence our PPT, we could kill some enemies, we could die. In short, fun WvW, for me.
I played far more than usual.
I felt useful again :-).

So I would like to thank both Piken and Abaddon players I have had the pleasure to fight against, especially those of you with whom I could spar, duel or chat. Now I know that even in tier1, if we ever had the bad luck to get there, roamers are helpful and can have fun. This matchup was a bit harder than I am used to, but I like challenges :-).

Piken, Abaddon, you have some very good players out there <3.

If GH ever meets you again, I won’t be sad ;-).

Special thanks to Jayne, [XT] elementalist, [OniK] thief and [Rock] mesmer :-). You should know who you are ;-).

Much respect to my opponents,
~Irx.

I may be destined to become a lootbag for an underlevel Piken player who will farm me, but I promise to give you as much hell as I can in this process ;-).

This matchup might be harder than usual, but I definitely prefer this one to a matchup where we have > 400 tick and I have to wait even 5 minutes in a queue.

/salute to Piken and Abaddon. See you on the battlefield, good luck and have fun! May our corpses drop you lots of exotics ;-).


~Gunnar’s Hold roaming mesmer.



@Jayne: thanks again for the fights, it was really a pleasure to fight against you.

@All smallscalers whom I killed and who killed me: thanks for those fights, no matter the outcome.

This post is written from the roamer’s perspective (1-5 size party):

To both UW and FR:

Yesterday evening and today morning give me hope this is going to be one of the great matchups for roamers :D. I mean, we killed, we died, we met many roaming parties (of size below 10, most often about 4-7), we got enemy northern camp, we died trying to get that camp… in short, lots of difficult battles with close outcomes and casualties on both sides.

To Underworld:

[GuM], I wish all servers I fight against had a guild like you. High skill level, you are in every camp we tried to take and you perfectly cooperate (Shadow Refuge res, tactical Supervisor res)…
I hope we meet again in this matchup, you are very hard opponents for our team of 2-5 (and you seem to never operate in too large numbers, so even when we die we can smile and say ‘good fight’)

To Fort Ranik:

[RDT], I rarely see such determination and tenacity as when I did fighting you. Fighting you – no matter the outcome – was always a pleasure. You charge and fight, no matter if you can win or lose, to delay that capping for a tick (with success) or to have a chance to kill your opponents (and you fight like devils)…
Lots of respect to you.

/salute

I might probably not be able to log on before reset, so I would like to thank both Piken and Riverside for fights, both those good and those less good ;-).

I support what I said earlier – both Piken and Riverside have roaming parties, sized 3-5. Maybe it was my luck, but we met much more roaming parties from Riverside than from Piken.

If I failed to get some guild names properly, apologies. During the fight I am focused on survival mostly :D.

From a roamer operating in 1-5 people party, special thanks to:

Riverside:

- Mithrandir guild, notably a ranger I met yesterday. Nice 1 vs 1, as a ranger you could have escaped any time if you wanted (besides, rangers have it hellishly hard vs mesmers). /bow

- Virtual Masters guild. We had some interesting fights, mostly in last ticks in Piken camps ;-). Great reaction time and timing to get points to tick :-). Hope we could give you as much hell as you gave us. /bow

- [ZdF] (Zinkel der Finsternis?). We met you many times and no matter if we won or lost, we had fun. Thank you for the game. /bow

- Druckwelle. What to say? Strong, competent, efficient, deadly. Nice meeting you. /bow.

- Legendary Nonames. In all our meetings we were dominating (3-4 vs 2). Still, even outmanned, you were dangerous and slippery. /bow.

Piken:

- War Inc guild. I never saw you in large groups and you are really good and skilled enemies to fight. I will remember you very fondly. Hope we meet again ;-). /bow

- Forsaken Gamers. Oh yes, we met you many times. You don’t seem to use more people than needed to do a job which led to quite memorable battles against our team. And you are very skilled, too. Special shout to FG guardian commander and The Moon Tree necromancer who killed us (2 vs 2) yesterday morning. We got a bit too reckless and needed that lesson :D. /bow

- Good Game (?) guild. We met you several times and had some good fights in the process. Many fights, too many to mention. /bow

To both Piken and Riverside:

I would like to thank a lot to the other guilds and mixed guild parties we met, killed and died to.
Smaller parties were fun to fight against.
Larger groups taught us how to be slippery and evade them ;-).

Nothing like a thrill of trying to get that Briar in 4 people (or Crag), knowing we can get annihilated anytime, or “3 min 30 seconds! Run to Astral, ignore all! We can make it before tick!”

To be honest, if you met a (mixed) team of [MM] and [Drgr], numbered 2-5 and you were between 1 and 8, no matter the result… I thank you very much. You made this matchup really enjoyable :-).

Good luck in your future matchups! In this one, I had fun.

Signing out,
~A mesmer often found ramming that Briar.

I have to say I love this matchup. As for now, it is actually very roaming-friendly, which was quite unexpected. Maybe it’s because main forces battle for wooden keeps and small group of 4-5 can take that stray tower (which was much harder in lower tiers)?

About Riverside:
Firstly, it is not true that Riverside has no roamers. Our roaming party of 3-5 (depends on time) met some Riverside groups which matched our size; sometimes we were the larger force.

Secondly, Riverside definitely has skilled and good players, even if some players I met were… not so good. I admit, it is the first time ever that 2 players hesitated to jump into the camp 2 of us were taking over (20 seconds till tick; even if they were naked they would stop us), but our roaming party met some groups from Riverside which matched us in skill (and might have been better).

As a roamer, I am not going to talk about ‘larger groups’, as I simply avoid those.

About Piken:
You have some very skilled players; nothing else to be expected. Some nice roaming groups, brave and bloodthirsty players and, sadly, you sweep Bay for mesmers ;-).
Many of my real-life friends are on Piken, as well as many players I admire and learned from. I hope to be able to meet you and try to slaughter you <3.

For now, I must settle for terrorizing you and casting fear in your hearts (read: trying to get that single camp 5 minutes before tick ;-) ).

About GH:
I am very glad that communication in mapchat improved. We stepped up, calling targets and splitting forces to get something 5 minutes before a tick. “We go Arah. We go Vale. Crag is wooden, let’s try it”. Honestly, even if this is the only thing we get out of this matchup, we have already learned a lot.

See you in a random camp on random Outer Borderland ;-)

This might not be the easiest matchup for us at GH, but I wouldn’t be overly pessimistic. Even if we won’t win on points, I won’t stop fighting.

Perma – [Outmanned] == good stuff.

Besides, steel is hardened in the blood of thine enemies… or something like that.

I will gladly WvW against superior opponents. And knowing the group of people I tend to WvW with, I won’t go alone :-).

I would like to thank Surmia and Dzagonur a lot, for very good fights. Both those I won, and those I died at. Mostly for those where you taught me something new.

Some notable moments from many:

RoS:

- RiOT:
I managed to have some 1 vs 1, 3 vs 3… basically, many small-scale fights I like a lot.
I spoke with some of you and I hope we will meet again on the battlefield – you guys are really, really good and nice :-). I am learning a lot from fighting you.
/bow

- GoA:
When I see GoA tag, I know the fight will be interesting :-).
That asura mesmer in the Godsword at Saturday…
S/F + Staff mesmer. Attacking a Sw/F + Sc/Sw mesmer and a thief. He could have ran away to Gods at any moment. He decided to stay and fight. AND the fight against him, 2 vs 1, was surprisingly long and hard.
/bow

- FRS:
The ranger, in Hero camp I have had the pleasure to duel. The fight took about 3 minutes and I only won because I got a bit luckier.
/bow

The Legend (by rank, can’t recall anything more – warrior? Guardian?). Firstly, you stopped us when we were trying to get Gods. Then, you stalled 4 of us from taking the tower for a REALLY long time. At 1 vs 4, until some reinforcements came. And many, many more situations. You are a force to reckon with.
/bow

Dzagonur:

- BNF:
I travel in the pack of 3-5. When I see 3-4 of you, I know we will lose the fight (as for now, we have never beaten BNF in equal fight or even at a bit superior numbers), but the fight will be something to look at later and learn. Eventually, I will devise a way to be able to stand against you and give you a good fight :-).
/bow

- Order of Old Tyria (?) and Orb (?) (not 100% sure here, might have mistaken, sorry):
You are very strong players and seems you communicate very well. Moving in small teams, guarding the southern camps, incredible reaction time. Deadly and efficient. Some memorable fights against you.
/bow.

Gracious thanks,
A roaming mesmer (mostly accompanied by a charr thief and / or a sylvari ranger)
from GH.