Guild Wars 2

Lost coin is stuck on the wall instead of on the ground, tried using the crystals to jump to it and ended up dying everytime.

http://i.imgur.com/XofKJyW.jpg

Doni.6095:

Joe.4178:

That isn’t bad, some good key points there, but too bad anet doesn’t really care what we have to say. If so, then it’d take them another 2 years to fix something like ileap.

Thank you.

Persistent bugs that don’t get fixed for years are Very frustrating. It means that the developer either; Doesn’t care, or can’t fix it. Either way is bad really.

It felt really terrible when other classes exploit/abuse our bugs by trying to force us to fight on uneven/hilly terrain to get a clear advantage over us. i-leap is a little better thanks to this patch, but still has ways to go until it really is perfect.

I-leap maybe needs a .25 second invuln or maybe higher health pool so it doesn’t blow up instantly when you cast it, and causing you to be on cooldown.

Moving targets make the i-leap pretty much delayed and port’s you a bit farther away from the target to blur frenzy.

Even though you’re out of range and accidently fat fingered/pressed i-leap, it’ll make you go out of range and put you on cd also. It shouldn’t be able to cast it if you’re out of range.

Vash.1920:

Y possible – sadly some of the Viewers did not get the message – one of the first commentares is about NOOB HOT JOIN ^^- I knew it – people are incredible stupid i just dunnno what to do with such people – the others just have fun – still seems like there are people who really think soloq makes them better players than others. I guess there are maybe 20 players in the world I would say they are really fantastic and about 300000 who think they are.

Hey man, I know I don’t post much on other’s topics, but just ignore all the hate. Even if you found the cure for kitten there will be people that disprove of it.

Anyways, that devor2006 guy always posts negatively on a good majority of gw2 player’s youtube vids. Other than that keep up the hard work for the mesmer community, much is appreciated thanks.

EnderzShadow.2506:

Joe.4178:

Bertrand.3057:

Love the guide, you hit a good balance here.

Thank you ^^

Sandrox.9524:

Joe,what is your take about the zerkbow rangers these days?

I don’t mind them, much better than fighting thieves and warriors. Now I have to be more alert and have more map awareness, which is really thrilling to me. It pretty much makes me paranoid and on my toes for unexpected situations. Also, they’re just as glassy as me so whoever makes the first mistake and can’t recover from it wins, pretty much a dps race.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Sandrox.9524:

Joe,what is your take about the zerkbow rangers these days?

Idk how Joe is dealing with them, but for me I do not solo roam anymore. I only group roam or zerg now because of the ranger deathsquads that are impossible to beat alone.

Rangers with a duo or more becomes a pain, I die in less than 1/2 a second from their volley shot/knockback. Nonetheless, I still think its better than the old meta where I get effortlessly destroyed by s/d perma evade thieves or any other glass thieves/warriors.

With this new meta I enjoy licking all of thieve’s/warrior’s salty tears because I’m a sadist. (LOL)
Warriors complaints:
1. No adrenaline when a player dodges their burst skill. (O rly? We have no illusions/burst when they dodge our skills)
2. No adrenaline when they’re out of combat (O rly? We lose illusions/burst when we’re out of combat)
3. They think that just cuz of this nerf for only a couple of days that their class is useless.. (O rly??? We’ve been dealing with all this since beta ESPECIALLY broken ileap/warden)
4. Warriors.. they still have their passive regen signet that heals for a TON, and they can go into defense trait lines while still dishing out a TON of damage, their auto attacks exceeds any other classes auto attacks with ax.

Thief complaint:
Heartseeker + mug combo bug out (O rly??? We had ileap broken since beta and still not as good as it should be 2 years later)
Sword dagger isn’t as strong anymore (The weapon set itself shouldn’t have been nerfed, acrobatics should’ve been nerfed)

Idk both of them seriously are overlydramatic talk about uninstalling the game, maybe if they played shatter mesmer for a bit then they’d maybe understand our pain a little.

With the new meta also I’m seeing a lot more condi thieves/condi mesmers instead of rangers which is really lame. Guess anet loves passive/ai plays with condi.

Reality check, the mesmer community isn’t above reacting the like the thief community.

If the mesmer had played relatively smoothly since release and suddenly been nerfed and introduced a multitude of bugs—we would be upset too.

It’s not the players fault.

I understand what you’re trying to say, I’d be upset too.

But lets face it, the heartseeker steal combo isn’t that gamebreaking if its bugged, they still can apply TONS of damage w/o that combo. AA, heartseeker, backstab, etc, not including the ability to reset a fight with shadow refuge; being able to port back and forth with shadow step and still cleanse condi’s vs our portal which is on a higher cd and don’t cleanse condi’s.

Compare the thieve’s damage vs our shatter damage, it takes a lot more effort to set up a good shatter and only maybe do about 10-12k damage compared to a thief that can do the same amount of damage with 1-2 buttons. Also, I wasn’t saying that the mesmer community was qqing, was just saying that it was good for once where we didn’t get the short end of the stick for this patch.

Warrior got a good nerf that was necessary, now they have to time their f1 just like us whenever the conditions are favorable. It isn’t gamebreaking for them, they still have AA with ax that is top notch dps, gs whirlwind attack, gs throw, rush, etc that is strong. They also are one of the few classes that can spec full zerker and still have +2800 armor w/ passive regens and immune to root/chill/cripple with the ability to reset fights with rush/bullcharge/whirlwind attack.

I don’t mind people wanting to play high risk high power specs w/ low survival ability full zerker. But when a class is able to be on par with another class that is in full zerk, but instead have all that sustain like the warrior then its just completely absurd. Where’s the risk that involved? Seriously..

Doni.6095:

I’d like conditions to be applied more actively, be more punishing and have a more active removal process.

For example.

Application:

In order to apply a bleed, you have to land a successful crit with a melee weapon which then applies the bleed. The bleed would be more punishing, so it would have a high duration ~20 seconds and include a movement debuff (-25% movement speed owing to bleeding all over tyria).

Additionally, the UI would reflect the DoT applied visually in a manner similar to receiving a Blind debuff currently)

Removal

Conidition removal would be a seperate skill in a manner like crafting. So you learn First Aid. This grants an ability ‘Clot’ (F5?) which has a 2 second cast time which has a 50% chance to halt the bleeding.

Alternative mechanics:

Different classes are more susceptible to different DoTs. Maybe Mesmer’s who are affected by Confusion experience a skill slow down effect similar to Chill owing to the fact that mesmerising takes mental effort, but a warrior would just receive the standard damage on skill use. Warriors are susceptible to vulnerability, rangers to poison, theifs to burning etc.

You could then have a mechanic which means that you can swap In-Combat between similar type weapons. Ie, 1h Sword A is runed to apply Poison, 1h Sword B is runed to apply burning. Player A realises she is up against a ranger, so she swaps to 1h Sword A before switching back to Sword B to take care of that thief that was stealthed.

Sure you could run around with your favourite weapon and still apply bleeds to everybody, but a true condition specced character will swap weapons to apply the most applicable DoTs.

This would just make the whole Condition mechanic more active in both application and removal.

(Disclaimer this was all just made up on the spot off the top of my head, no further thought went into this and would require an entire rework of combat mechanics that wont actually ever happen)

That isn’t bad, some good key points there, but too bad anet doesn’t really care what we have to say. If so, then it’d take them another 2 years to fix something like ileap.

Bertrand.3057:

Love the guide, you hit a good balance here.

Thank you ^^

Sandrox.9524:

Joe,what is your take about the zerkbow rangers these days?

I don’t mind them, much better than fighting thieves and warriors. Now I have to be more alert and have more map awareness, which is really thrilling to me. It pretty much makes me paranoid and on my toes for unexpected situations. Also, they’re just as glassy as me so whoever makes the first mistake and can’t recover from it wins, pretty much a dps race.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Sandrox.9524:

Joe,what is your take about the zerkbow rangers these days?

Idk how Joe is dealing with them, but for me I do not solo roam anymore. I only group roam or zerg now because of the ranger deathsquads that are impossible to beat alone.

Rangers with a duo or more becomes a pain, I die in less than 1/2 a second from their volley shot/knockback. Nonetheless, I still think its better than the old meta where I get effortlessly destroyed by s/d perma evade thieves or any other glass thieves/warriors.

With this new meta I enjoy licking all of thieve’s/warrior’s salty tears because I’m a sadist. (LOL)
Warriors complaints:
1. No adrenaline when a player dodges their burst skill. (O rly? We have no illusions/burst when they dodge our skills)
2. No adrenaline when they’re out of combat (O rly? We lose illusions/burst when we’re out of combat)
3. They think that just cuz of this nerf for only a couple of days that their class is useless.. (O rly??? We’ve been dealing with all this since beta ESPECIALLY broken ileap/warden)
4. Warriors.. they still have their passive regen signet that heals for a TON, and they can go into defense trait lines while still dishing out a TON of damage, their auto attacks exceeds any other classes auto attacks with ax.

Thief complaint:
Heartseeker + mug combo bug out (O rly??? We had ileap broken since beta and still not as good as it should be 2 years later)
Sword dagger isn’t as strong anymore (The weapon set itself shouldn’t have been nerfed, acrobatics should’ve been nerfed)

Idk both of them seriously are overlydramatic talk about uninstalling the game, maybe if they played shatter mesmer for a bit then they’d maybe understand our pain a little.

With the new meta also I’m seeing a lot more condi thieves/condi mesmers instead of rangers which is really lame. Guess anet loves passive/ai plays with condi.

imdapro.3256:

Since my warrior has been nerfed, I wanted to test a new class that required more skill. How did you get better? By duels or roaming or SPvP? Any tips would help! Thanks!

I did mostly wvw duo roam, you don’t die as often and you can learn to synergize with your partner.

Spvp is good to learn to play mesmer since you will always find fights, except for the long queue’s. But you do get to fight a lot more skilled players in spvp than wvw. But conquest is a little boring to me.

JHN.8749:

Welcome back Joe! At first I was happy that you made a new vid but its a hilarious commentary it made my day.

Also, how do you feel about the new iLeap? Are you changing anything different with this new post patch?

Pro’s:
1. Responsive
2. Spawns on target
3. Can finally i-leap on hills now

Con’s:
1. Clone dies way too fast, so puts it on cooldown a lot
2. Moving targets sometime’s messes up the ileap
3. i-leap will go on cd when you’re out of range or it’ll still cast when its out of range

My thoughts on i-leap overall?
-It improved but it still needs work, its been 2 years now and now see we the result of anet. We’ll have to wait another 2 more years for old bugs to be fixed not including the new bugs every new patch.

Absconditus.6804:

Why not try a 2/4/0/2/6 shatter-condi build after the patch, Joe? Switch it up a little. Pop on Tormenting runes in a condi set and go ham. Swap out the Sword for Scepter too I guess. Luckily it’s a condition that’s not frequently used, so you can get your own 18-20 stacks of Torment on people. Also, have you tried lowering your crit chance to 50% instead of 66%. Do you notice any difference at all? I have never been able to notice a difference unless I hit 100% once I get it to 50%. 50-99% all feels the same to me.

Do something goofy, play around a bit with the changes, something like http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7alknpRtdqxMNcrRSpBdqrg6ykmmSqAUyTUOA-TFyHABzeRAISJFu7Poo6PFpcBgnAgZ6GeSJYAAEgZOzkZZGM0hO0hO0h21l5Mn5MnZpAgZNA-w perhaps?

Not really into condi’s that much, if I wanted to play condi, I’d play necro or engi. xD

Calypso.2578:

Sandrox.9524:

Calypso.2578:

What do you do 1v1 against S/D thief?

What do you do 1v1 against power/phantasm mesmer?

Do you have to change runes/sigils/weapons if you know you are going to face the above classes/builds in a 1v1?

(PS: I really liked the guy screaming “PULL OUT THE GOD CARD” @ 3:57 in the video.)

S/D thief is always about timing your hits,using diverson.and time your chaos strom+ileap.
phantasm mesmer is tricky but best thing is to out-stealth him,and excute your shatter burst perfectly,and never let him get more than 1 phantasm up(try to kill the phantasms).But they are both hard matchups indeed.

It is so stupid that necro have staff #4 skill that it is better than any condi removal we have….and the cd is lower than all our condi cleanses(not including the mantra)..

Okay, so you’re saying outstealth – do you mean to take decoy, veil, mass invis and torch?

The mesmer I couldn’t beat had half knight’s gear and used greatsword, sword/pistol. I started with same weapons, I’m zerk. I switched to staff vs using greatsword. It seemed like he could generate phantasms faster than I could kill them. Should I switch weaps/sigs/runes? Change some gear out to get some more survivability? I thought a bit and came up with two main ways to try to beat the build:

1.) Tank the phantasms and focus my phants/shatters on the player. Try to take out phantasms if they’re close by him. I can’t tank his phants for very long without changing to tankier gear.

2.) Outstealth him – except the duelist can track me in stealth and it eats away at my health. He can constantly summon his phantasms. I have problems focusing damage on one phantasm to kill it while another phantasm is downing me. It’s definitely tough to beat a build where the AI is constantly after me and he is is stealth/feels tanky.

^ yeah the amount of effort/plays you have to do VS. them being worry free during duels is such a huge gap. But yes you can win but it won’t be as much as the amount of wins they’ll get in a 1v1. But you’ll be more viable/useful in teamfights.

mango.9267:

Good vid. I’d be afraid to come across you after the iLeap fix.

Also, I see you chose to stick with the Butternut Squash over Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew.

Thank you! The reason I chose butternut squash because it puts me at my old crit chance 66% from my oldest video. Back then I had 66% with 3 piece celestial armor and celestial weap with 1376 toughness instead of 916 but 80% crit chance with stacks then 100% with fury. It was a very nice sweet spot of balance where I get lots of crits and maybe 1/8 hits I don’t crit. So I had to replace my old celestial helm/legs/chest with assassin.

trooper.2650:

Great video Joe. I don’t particularly like the giant head, but technically it’s a very good video.

I see you run with Illusionary invigoration. Will you swap it for Illusionary Elasticity after 09/09 patch? I am sure you are happy about the sword change, but is there anything else you will take from the update? (i.e. one of the updated mantras or mimic)

Ty

Thank you very much, when I first came back to the game I had too much fun with it. Now I’m tired of the bobble head so in the future vids I won’t be using it as much anymore haha.

Aside to the new buffs, I won’t use the new trait Illusionary Elasticity.
It’s only gonna benefit my staff, which is meant for defensive purposes only. I mean my clones will only add extra bleeds which is only 66 damage per tick and the ticks don’t last forever, since I’m built all power/crit.

Also I don’t like staying in staff for a long time for damage and its damage over time instead of VS. illusionary invigoration where I’ll have 4 shatter’s recharged at half hp. I get to half hp almost really early in a fight so I have that on-demand burst whenever I need it compared to unreliable damage over time bleed ticks with staff.

Calypso.2578:

What do you do 1v1 against S/D thief?

What do you do 1v1 against power/phantasm mesmer?

Do you have to change runes/sigils/weapons if you know you are going to face the above classes/builds in a 1v1?

(PS: I really liked the guy screaming “PULL OUT THE GOD CARD” @ 3:57 in the video.)

This build isn’t really meant for 1v1, and this game wasn’t really designed to be balanced for 1v1. So most of the time, actually all the time I lose if its a average thief..
It doesn’t matter how many outplays you do like interrupt/timing bursts at right time, in the end they should be winning majority of the fights. Yeah once in a while you’ll win like 1/10 fights from them messing up and you catching their mistakes. But overall they’ll win all of it.

For phantasm mesmers I lose all of it also, I mean I’ll win 1/10ish fights from catching their mistakes but the build itself they should be winning all of them also.

As for changing gear/runes/traits/weaps, I don’t do any of that because 1v1’s don’t amount to anything to me. I like to think of it this way, condi thieves/thieves/phant mesmer ai builds literally do nothing in team fights. So they’ll be losing all of the 2v2-5v5 scrims, and thats why you don’t see those specs being played in spvp or high level spvp also.

Sorry if this build wasn’t 1v1.

eldenbri.1059:

I’ve been playing with using Arcane Thievery and Generosity Sigils as a strategy for dealing with condi builds. Against other power builds, it’s giving up some offense/defense for pretty much just a boon steal. Against condi builds, it adds a lot of offense.

Condi thieves are still a pain because you always get the blind along with the pile of condis. And Arcane Thievery is so tricky to land.

But I die often enough that I don’t want a whole set of fights where I know I’m just dead – especially since the next update will increase the amount of condis (it seems)

yeah it helps for sure, but the speed of auto attack on pistol for thieves is pretty fast and applies lots of bleeds alone not including the steal does poison/confusion which hurts big time.

Sandrox.9524:

Hahha amazing video Joe,though I have a question:
What do you do when facing a condi heavy spammer?

Also I’d like to add:
This is how I’ve always felt about conditions:
How is the condition stat going to be addressed?
Condition damage is already more powerful than power builds.
How to get condition damage?
- Condition Damage stat
How to get power damage? You need to combine:
- Power stat
- Precision stat
- Critical Damage % stat
That’s 1 stat verses 3. Condition damage can be coupled with defensive stats aka condition bunkers, working at maximum damage output and maximum defence 24/7.
Power builds cannot have maximum damage output coupled with maximum survival.
How is power damage applied?
- Through direct hits, either ranged or melee, you need to actively play to hurt the enemy, no hits = no damage = no kill. Much “harder” (I use that term loosely) to play than condition builds, due to 100% active game play.
How is condition damage applied?
- Through 20% active game play, and this is a big problem.
- Every condition ability is applied through range, or ranged AoE, melee condition almost does not exist in the game, range is much easier to hit than melee for obvious reasons.
- Once the debuff is applied you no longer need to actively fight the enemy, just run away and play defensive.
- Enemy dies through these passive play debuff spams, condition builds are not actively playing the game
- Ridiculously easy to reapply compared to remove
How to avoid taking direct damage (power builds)?
- Kite
- Stay out of their range
- Use CC’s
- Dodge roll through melee so they have to 180 and get back into melee range again
- Build distance through leaps/shadowsteps/charges
- Evasion/blind/block/0 damage abilities
How to avoid taking condition damage?
- Only through condition removal skills (of which there is not enough to combat the condition spam).
So how is the condition stat going to be addressed?
As you can see, avoiding direct damage is much easier than condition damage, once the condition is applied you constantly take damage, no matter of defensive play will stop condition damage, only removing the condition. Yet condition removal is almost non existent compared to condition spam.
You are already reducing the effectiveness of power builds when it is much harder to not only build for, but to play. Condition application should NOT exist on auto attacks.

eldenbri.1059:

Thx Joe. Always fun to watch your videos – amazing skill

It’s one of the cool benefits of playing on NSP to see you roaming around. Thx for the res tonight (Elbrin)

Thank you for the feedback, its np why would I just leave anyone on the ground to die? That’d be mean lol xD

Simonoly.4352:

Well the whole triangle thing is just a positional technique to aid a full shatter without a root. Can also be useful in 1v1s against opponents that will easily react to predictable iLeap shatter combos.

Fortunately, 90% of players in WvW do not react to predictable iLeap shatter combos

Yeah I guess, but even with all that, when you get blinded it still screws over the shatter.

Zord.6130:

Simonoly.4352:

Well the whole triangle thing is just a positional technique to aid a full shatter without a root. Can also be useful in 1v1s against opponents that will easily react to predictable iLeap shatter combos.

Fortunately, 90% of players in WvW do not react to predictable iLeap shatter combos

You know that by connecting 3 dots you will always get a triangle, right?

Absconditus.6804:

Zord.6130:

You know that by connecting 3 dots you will always get a triangle, right?

Totally! :P

Now now guys, lets stop fighting over how awesome my charr is xD

BlackDevil.9268:

Absconditus.6804:

Zord.6130:

You know that by connecting 3 dots you will always get a triangle, right?

Totally! :P

That’s moreless impossible to do in gw2 seeing you and your clones barely stand still so in practice, in gw2, 3 dots as in clones will always become a triangle. It does not increase your chance of landing a burst. Hell it’s probably even better for the clones to hit 1 by 1 instead of all together so your damage is more reliable than a person dodging it all at once. Or well, that would be against those who know how2dodge or who don’t fall for your baits to let them waste dodges

Good point, also blink mirror images and shatter is always good too.

Sandrox.9524:

Hahha amazing video Joe,though I have a question:
What do you do when facing a condi heavy spammer?

I literally just flop over and die. If I see condi speced classes I don’t even bother touching for 1v1s. As in group play they won’t do as much.

rabidsmiles.5926:

That was great! And wow, Charr Butterflies are huge (unless its the bobblehead making them that big). I have an Asura mesmer and all we get are these tiny, little ones.

Thanks it was prob due to the fact that I had a bobble head so everything was huge lol

Renny.6571:

Mesmer = illuminati. IT IS KNOWN.

:O

Pwent.2639:

welcome back, Im going to be leaving nsp for a while once i get back in game hoping to run into you guys in some of the matchups. Nice guide, though when running sw,x/st shatter i have always found greatsword mesmers food. Btw did you ever end up liking gs/st shatter.

Dang man hope to see you soon. I still haven’t been able to mess with gs/staff in wvw yet. But I’ll try as soon as I can find the time to play.

Pwent.2639:

Oh i know you are all about damage maxing, but i have been having a blast using masterful reflection with gs/st shatter build. Reflecting all those condi builds key skills is a blast and longbow rangers are soon going to be eating 2 second rapid fires like chumps. It has allowed me to wreck a few condi warriors which normally are terrible for me.

Oh sweet, thanks for the tip/info man. It’s gonna be funny stuff after the update.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

I think you should have a shout alert before the video Joe. lol

Sorry about that, but trick2g did kinda apologize for ripping your ears haha

Absconditus.6804:

Hahaha, the commentary made my day, Joe. Great video, will watch again.
— “Stop, stop, stop! I’m not into that..”

Thank you! Glad I made you laugh, others thought this was offensive and called me a doosh ._. … I’m just being kittened and trying to make others laugh and educate them at the same time.

Zord.6130:

I agree with the triangles thing being kittened lol

Haha I always sucked at geometry so shapes scare me xD

Back from quitting for 4 months hope you enjoy!

Build link can be found in the video and here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaWlknpMtNqxTNcrNCrxg6sS7MSOQAlMkrB-TFyHABas/wa6DQUtC9UVhJlg9o8bgnAAAnCgAAIA3sNbzbGYoDdoDdoDtbezhO0bezSBMqwI-w

Despite many nerfs, mesmer is still my favorite class to play and I’ll just adapt to the new meta’s to make the build/spec I play viable. Hopefully after this video, playing a shatter mesmer will be easy like 123 abc. Too many people make the class/build itself harder than it already is, by adding triangles into it which is nonsense. There are many small things I didn’t specify in the video because of the length of it. If I was to cover every little detail it would be at least 2-3 hours worth of footage to cram into a 15 minute video. If there are any questions concerning the gameplay in the video, feel free to ask, I’ll answer as soon as possible!

Great video once again, lots of effort into the opening and editing itself with the good game plays, keep them coming.

Pwent.2639:

Joe, I find that shatter is really strong underwater. I am able to kill lots of builds i would normally have issues with. If you ever shatter underwater what rotations do you like to use.

Oh and how does it feel to be a Bamf.

I only know the harpoon skills, none of the trident. I wish I was good to even know any of the water skill rotations haha. All I know is mesmers pretty good mobility underwater.

killahmayne.9518:

Nice to see a shatter build having success in WvW, I’ve always been a fan of your vids.

To me I agree on some of your sentiments, shatter builds like yours have a lot of risk/reward to it and a lot of active play. Alot more exciting to watch then condi builds kiting each other in an attrition battle to see who succumbs to bleeds first.

I think Mesmers are the main culprits of how condition builds can be so passive. Nowadays 80% of mesmers you see are condition builds and I think there is a reason why this is so.

All these conditions on clone death traits, torment on blocking, auto attack inflicting conditions from range, clones themselves proccing conditions, sigils/runes, etc. These builds tend to play themselves basically. Worst part of it is the conditions are so constant and spammy and it is hard to dictate what you should dodge. Which is why I tend to play mostly a shatter mesmer myself because although it will struggle in some situations, it is still well worth the reward in others and is very satisfying to get a successful shatter off and watch people explode..

Thank you so much for your feedback. I know it seems kinda like I make fun of other people that play pu or condi, but I don’t mind them. What I love about playing the shatter spec is that you’re not immortal and any mistake you do will be really unforgiving, making it more exciting/rewarding when you win those outnumbered fights. The feeling is idk hard to describe, but it feels amazing shattering. I’m currently playing helseths build atm for solo roaming, gonna try to make some solo roaming vids but its difficult due to school & me getting interested in spvp.

JHN.8749:

Joe.4178:

JHN.8749:

Is there any examples of you playing this spec in a group outnumbered so others can learn? Been having trouble trying to pull of the shatters that you do.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVgGyZMLK_Y

This is an example of my group play kittenter spec, hope you enjoy.

messiah.1908:

how you handle in wvw and pvp against the condition meta?

I don’t, @ 3:35 in the video I have no condi removals whatsoever. I’m usually roaming with a duo partner. Solo roaming doesn’t really interest me at all, mainly 1v1 builds doesn’t justify anything. Duo roaming you have to synergize w/ your ally and communication is key, you can do the same with a 2v6 in duo, when you 1v3 solo roaming.

Pwent.2639:

Awesome, thank you so much for your shatter rotations. You are probably the only reason i still go 100% zerker.

You’re welcome, glad to see people out there still playing high risk.

jefferson.8317:

A lot of you need to realize that he roams with at least 1 guardian supporting him. You really can’t run this build without support.

Edit: this comment was in response to all the questions about condis.

You can, I did at 3:35 and still managed to do work on that group of guys. Its just more difficult to run solo, thats why I roam duo with a guard for group play.

Tyvm for the fast responses and for the vid, was really amazing how you survive a guild group like that with only 916 toughness. On your guide I’m still curious when the other mesmer went in to blurr frenzy you @ 12:35, you used chaos armor but how come you don’t ever use your blur frenzy for defense?

The mesmer in the clip was a clone death condi build, if I were to blur frenzy, I would cleave his clones and still get hit by more condi’s than I’ve already had on me currently.

imdapro.3256:

Outstanding guide! You’re the reason I want to pick up my mesmer again. How many pu mesmers does it take to kill an old school shatter mesmer haha.

Couple things I’m still curious about.
1. How do you feel about using blur frenzy defensively instead of offensively at @ 12:35
2. How come you phase retreat stomp in that clip with just mesmers?
3. I know you want to maximize damage, and I saw Helseths build. Are air sigils better for damage or battle sigils?

imdapro.3256:

Outstanding guide! You’re the reason I want to pick up my mesmer again. How many pu mesmers does it take to kill an old school shatter mesmer haha.

Couple things I’m still curious about.
1. How do you feel about using blur frenzy defensively instead of offensively at @ 12:35
2. How come you phase retreat stomp in that clip with just mesmers?
3. I know you want to maximize damage, and I saw Helseths build. Are air sigils better for damage or battle sigils?

1. The mesmer in the clip was a clone death condi build, if I were to blur frenzy, I would cleave his clones and still get hit by more condi’s than I’ve already had on me currently.
2. To avoid taking any cleave damage from their allies, Idk how to explain how many times I’ve taken massive damage or died from being a sitting duck while stomping their bodies.
3. Sigils of air are really good for spvp, but wvw in outnumbered situation its unreliable since you won’t know which air sigil will proc on which person/ambient mob.

Over.2137:

Joe.4178:

How to get condition damage?
- Condition Damage stat

I think you should add Condition Duration and Precision here, making this…

Joe.4178:

How to get power damage? You need to combine:
- Power stat
- Precision stat
- Critical Damage % stat
That’s 1 stat verses 3. Condition damage can be coupled with defensive stats aka condition bunkers, working at maximum damage output and maximum defence 24/7.
Power builds cannot have maximum damage output coupled with maximum survival.

…Not true.

Joe.4178:

How to avoid taking direct damage (power builds)?
- Kite
- Stay out of their range
- Use CC’s
- Dodge roll through melee so they have to 180 and get back into melee range again
- Build distance through leaps/shadowsteps/charges
- Evasion/blind/block/0 damage abilities

I think this is wrong, u can AVOID Power AND Condition with all this things you listed.

Joe.4178:

How to avoid taking condition damage?
- Only through condition removal skills (of which there is not enough to combat the condition spam).

Wrong, once again.
Condition removal is what you need to “be safe”, “cleanse” (i dont know how to explain it, my english is a bit poor, but i think you can understand) from Condition Damage.
Exactly the same way you need Heals to “be safe”, “counter” Power Damage
BUT
Heals still counters Condition Damage!
AND
You can use Condi cleanse as soon as you get hitt by a condition -> you take 0 damage from it, and obviously the Power counterpart doesnt work the same way (ofc Power dmg is istant dmg).

Joe.4178:

So how is the condition stat going to be addressed?
As you can see, avoiding direct damage is much easier than condition damage, once the condition is applied you constantly take damage, no matter of defensive play will stop condition damage, only removing the condition. Yet condition removal is almost non existent compared to condition spam.
You are already reducing the effectiveness of power builds when it is much harder to not only build for, but to play. Condition application should NOT exist on auto attacks.

Well, i think I explained the thing about “Avoiding dmg”.
I agree about the fact that Condi spam > Condi cleanse.

---

This is not supposed to be a flame text, just some criticism, I hope people wont get mad.
I like the video, I played the same build for a long time but with a different Gear (more Toughness and a bit of Vitality, not fully Zerker), Traveler Runes and Sword in offhand instead of Pistol.
I really like the playstyle but, no offense, your Charr is ugly! x)

EDIT: Grammar >.<

It’s no problem, I was just trying to get to the point that this game is starting to lean towards more passive play.

Examples are that anet trying to implement
passive regen/healing on classes like the wa
signet of vampirism
healing signet for mesmers etc.

Whats the point of all the passive play? Theres no incentive for high level plays or to even press your heal button. Not even allowing people to interrupt or make nice plays to cancelling heals etc.

Example also is in the tpvp legends tournament with team apex. 2 Warriors, 1 guardian, 1 ele, 1 ranger, they’re exceptional players but when it comes to watching that, nothing is really exciting in that match. No risks are involved, high passive regening on top of 2 healers, not many people get too excited watching a boring match like that imo. A lot of people are interested in games where its neck and neck where 1 person makes a mistake/dies and makes comebacks/rotations etc.

Oh My God.8423:

Aaaah, I understand now. Thanks for the analysis!

No problem! I’ll answer anymore questions if you need me

Oh My God.8423:

I see. But I thought condition is harder to play… since you have to monitor the stacks, reapply if needed, and survive long enough for the condition to be effective.

This is how I’ve always felt about conditions:
How is the condition stat going to be addressed?
Condition damage is already more powerful than power builds.

How to get condition damage?
- Condition Damage stat

How to get power damage? You need to combine:
- Power stat
- Precision stat
- Critical Damage % stat
That’s 1 stat verses 3. Condition damage can be coupled with defensive stats aka condition bunkers, working at maximum damage output and maximum defence 24/7.
Power builds cannot have maximum damage output coupled with maximum survival.

How is power damage applied?
- Through direct hits, either ranged or melee, you need to actively play to hurt the enemy, no hits = no damage = no kill. Much “harder” (I use that term loosely) to play than condition builds, due to 100% active game play.

How is condition damage applied?
- Through 20% active game play, and this is a big problem.
- Every condition ability is applied through range, or ranged AoE, melee condition almost does not exist in the game, range is much easier to hit than melee for obvious reasons.
- Once the debuff is applied you no longer need to actively fight the enemy, just run away and play defensive.
- Enemy dies through these passive play debuff spams, condition builds are not actively playing the game
- Ridiculously easy to reapply compared to remove

How to avoid taking direct damage (power builds)?
- Kite
- Stay out of their range
- Use CC’s
- Dodge roll through melee so they have to 180 and get back into melee range again
- Build distance through leaps/shadowsteps/charges
- Evasion/blind/block/0 damage abilities

How to avoid taking condition damage?
- Only through condition removal skills (of which there is not enough to combat the condition spam).

So how is the condition stat going to be addressed?
As you can see, avoiding direct damage is much easier than condition damage, once the condition is applied you constantly take damage, no matter of defensive play will stop condition damage, only removing the condition. Yet condition removal is almost non existent compared to condition spam.
You are already reducing the effectiveness of power builds when it is much harder to not only build for, but to play. Condition application should NOT exist on auto attacks.

Oh My God.8423:

Mostly group – big zerg or guild group. I am not very good at 1v1 but do solo roam a bit when it is quiet.

I understand you want to be hybrid but most of the time it’s really not as effective, here’s a perfect example.

The New Meta Engineer for Spvp Tournaments, Celestial amulet, balthazar runes, air sigil, battle sigil, 6 0 0 4 4 build.

Pro’s:
1. Strong for 1v1 situations
2. Flexible for condi damage/power damage

Con’s:
1. Isn’t as strong for team fights
2. Your damage is dispersed in both directions condi/power
3. The enemies will have a support guardian that will either cleanse most of the condi’s or heal through your damage
4. Your condition damage won’t be as high since some stats were sacrificed into power
5. You won’t have the power to really cleave with your nades since condi is not as high as it should be or power is as high as it should be.

In big fights for wvw most of the time, theres light fields everywhere with combo projectiles/random condi cleanse. Condition mesmer isn’t that strong in big fights either for big groups vs big groups since its not as reliable for the clones to proc condition on random targets vs the one you wanted to target.

I’d go for power since I fully support power builds and they are much harder to play vs condi’s.

Logi.5612:

Awesome video Joe! I recently started a Mesmer myself and am a completely noob on it so I was wondering:

How much would it cost for people like us to take mentoring classes from you?

Keep em up!

I would if I had more time due to work,school/finals, summer school. Sorry xD

Oh My God.8423:

I am using gs/staff on a 4/4/0/0/6 shatter build as well. But I am using rampager gear instead, trying to make some sort of power/condition hybrid. I always have enough clones for shattering and it is both offensive during bursting phase and defensive during shatter cool down. But I do not have enough ferocity which makes it a bit of a problem. I think I have 60%+ critical chance and only 166% critical damage. That is slightly imbalanced that I am going to change later. (I cannot remember how much power I have now).

Is it going to work?

I am thinking to take Miam the Disillusioned instead of the more common iPersona. I like iPersona very much indeed: F1 and 2 can be use for offensive purpose; F3 and 4 defensive – particularly F4 when I need that brief moment of distortion to stay alive. I am hoping to give MtD a try nonetheless. Then that would make all shatter skills do more condition damage on top of confusion and F3 and 4 can double up as offensive skills as well while F1 and 2 still on cool down.

Any suggestion on that set up?

I normally run with Disenchanter as a condition cleasner for it being on a relatively short cool down; and can also be double up as a shatter folder. The annoying thing is that it needs a target but that is fine most of the time.

So, any advice or suggestion will be most welcomed.

Many thanks!

Lemme ask this, is this gonna be in 1v1 situation or group situation? Lots of things can come into play and I’ll be able to help you a lot further with your question ^^

JHN.8749:

Is there any examples of you playing this spec in a group outnumbered so others can learn? Been having trouble trying to pull of the shatters that you do.

This is an example of my group play kittenter spec, hope you enjoy.

messiah.1908:

how you handle in wvw and pvp against the condition meta?

I don’t, @ 3:35 in the video I have no condi removals whatsoever. I’m usually roaming with a duo partner. Solo roaming doesn’t really interest me at all, mainly 1v1 builds doesn’t justify anything. Duo roaming you have to synergize w/ your ally and communication is key, you can do the same with a 2v6 in duo, when you 1v3 solo roaming.

Pwent.2639:

Awesome, thank you so much for your shatter rotations. You are probably the only reason i still go 100% zerker.

You’re welcome, glad to see people out there still playing high risk.

jefferson.8317:

A lot of you need to realize that he roams with at least 1 guardian supporting him. You really can’t run this build without support.

Edit: this comment was in response to all the questions about condis.

You can, I did at 3:35 and still managed to do work on that group of guys. Its just more difficult to run solo, thats why I roam duo with a guard for group play.

Xavi.6591:

I tried it. it’s a lot of fun but if you’re fighting a condie class that is halfway decent, you’re often going to die due to no condie cleanse.

Of course you’ll always die, sorry forgot to mention this, but I usually always duo roam with a guardian that cleanses my condi’s/heals/give my buffs. It’s more leaning towards group play. To get the most out of it, is roaming with a partner. Solo roaming is a lot more risky, and can be frustrating dying to all the smallest little things.

Afterlyfe.1096:

Is this still effective with exotic set?

Yep! You can go full zerk exotics or 3 piece assassin with assassin weapons exotic. Ascended is just convenience for extra power and toughness and +8% damage to guards and -8% damage from guards.

Neurophen.9738:

Hey Joe, I’ve tried staff/GS in sPvP a few times and while it seems the shatter combos are less telegraphed (people tend to blow CDs when I try to iDualist / Magic Bullet / iLeap etc…) I find it harder to deal with thieves without s/p. are there any tricks for dealing with them as GS/Staff?

Yeah I agree, its a lot harder to deal with thieves staff/gs. Umm heres an example of helseth using staff/gs against sword dagger evade thief before patch when it was really strong. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYz9RbHHE4w
I’m still brand new to using gs/staff, but when I’m more experienced I’ll try to make a guide. Helseth uses a lot of positioning/los in this vid, he never roams in open and plays really safe, which you should be doing. But in wvw in open fields it’ll be a bit more challenging to position/los people.

Jurica.1742:

Could I get a link to that build please? Isn’t it bad that you have no way to ensure your shatters hit? Since you don’t have iLeap? Is it even a shatter build?
Any tips you could give me on how to play shatter? I’m in OMFG on Gandarra. I’d love it if we could meet in sPvP or WvW sometime and duel.
Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy gaming,
Respect!

~Monns

Actually shattering from range isn’t that bad either if you’re playing like helseth. I’m from NA sorry lol, was glad that you enjoyed my vid.
Here’s helseth’s build for mesmer in spvp: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJAWRlknpWtlpxUNcrNipxg6yObOSGQDlMkxB-TJBFwAl2fYxlAoaZAAPBAA

WhiteRose.6934:

Hey Joe, nice to see you still running shatter! Your videos are always awesome.

Keep it up ~

Tyvm for the feedback glad you enjoyed! Shatter is the only spec I know how to play on mesmer, I’ll always find a way to make it viable despite nerf after nerf.

OJ For Prez.8254:

Wow! That was insane! Thank you so much for slowing down parts of the video and explaining your combos, that was extremely helpful. That was one of the best videos I have seen, probably the best b/c Vash has some really good ones. Please keep the videos like that coming, it was just awesome!

Thank you, I’ve learned from my past videos to slow mo the shatter parts and adding step-by-step process, makes it a lot easier to read/see what I’m doing. I’ll keep making vids for sure, but currently learning spvp so I’ll start maybe posting those also.

Jurica.1742:

That is some seriously nice gameplay!

I’m a PU condi player and I’d love to try a shatter build out. My concern was that it won’t be powerful enough anymore to burst people down due to ferocity nerf. I’ve found this build and it’s epic IMO, the only issue is I’m poor kitten I can not afford the runes and sigils. Any way around using them? I have like 45g on me, a zerker set + knights trinkets. Anything I can do with those funds to get a shatter build that will go shoulder to shoulder with this one? Thank you a lot in advance!
Have a wonderful day, happy gaming!

~Monns

Hey monns, thanks for the feedback. An alternative route you can use that I think is good is Hoelbrak runes + air sigils instead of battle for alternative. Hoelbrak you still have that might duration + -20% condition duration, and air works really well.

Currently I’ve been swapping to my build and swapping to helseth’s build for solo roaming/spvp. Helseth’s build works really well with air sigils + energy staff/gs.

JHN.8749:

WTF is up with your damage, even after post patch you still 1 shot people.. Pretty amazed by how well you adapted and one of the few shatter mesmers that is still playing full zerk. Don’t understand why everyone says Vash has highest burst when you clearly have been playing full zerk since the beginning.

Anyways my favorite highlights
1. Amazing phase retreat stomps, punt stomps, loved how you barely got your phase retreat blink stomp by .5 seconds
2. Maintained your chaos armor at the right times except when you missed iLeap through one part
3. Dat ele mistform stomp and how you’re able to play calm under pressure and low hp
4. Amazing editting, you put a lot of effort into this one
5. Your shatter moments are insane when you synergized with guardian ring and got double kill
6. Fast reactions when you instantly swapped to your staff to get out of blur frenzy, and decoyed when that engi tried to pull you after you got crated

Also I’ve noticed when you heal, you always use chaos armor or go in chaos storm, phase retreat heal at same time, or invuln + heal, or decoy and heal. Is there any particular reason for this?

Thank you, I’ve yet to see any other mesmers running full zerk in wvw vs spvp with shatter. Mostly mix it up but yeah, you can’t say you’re burst unless you go max damage fully aware of losing your survival ability. I like the risk and rewards when it comes to this build

As for the healing, I always do one of the following:
1. Heal and use distortion
2. Throw chaos storm, walk into it and heal in that process
3. Mass invis and heal
4. Decoy and heal
5. Chaos armor and heal
6. Phase retreat and heal @ same time
7. Magic bullet someone then heal
8. iLeap backwards, swap, as they’re immobilized I walk the opposite direction & heal

I do most of these to make sure I get my heal off most of the time. It may be waste of these cd’s but it will save you a lot of times.

My Sweet Lily.1952:

JHN.8749:

Also I’ve noticed when you heal, you always use chaos armor or go in chaos storm, phase retreat heal at same time, or invuln + heal, or decoy and heal. Is there any particular reason for this?

Might be to ensure the heal.

@OP
Great vid, loved it and liked how you always showed how you will shatter burst before doing so.

Thank you! I try to slowmo and show the list of things I do before I make a good shatter, it may not always be perfect, but it’ll still definitely have killing power.
Also it shows other people the amount of effort it takes, to burst someone down vs. another class where they can burst someone down with 1 skill itself only.

Shu.6981:

Hmm, pretty good video. I like how you tell us step by step on how you shatter in different situations.

Thanks, theres many way to shatter, but its how you setup your shatters in different situations and being able to adapt/change in each situation, that differentiates you from other mesmers.

Burnfall.9573:

Op,

Quite impressing!

Good Job!

Thanks for the feedback!

lazycalm.5186:

Hey Joe,

Why do you go Assassin’s instead of full Zerk? Is it because of the Ferocity nerf?

Would you still use Assassin’s in a Phantasm build for roaming?

Back in my old build when I ran 3 piece celestial (helm/chest/legs) w/ celestial staff, I was at 66% crit chance. This post patch if I were to go full zerk I’d be down to 61% crit chance, its not that big of a deal but personal preference. Before the patch I would have stacks and jump from 66% to 80% then if I were to proc fury on staff auto attack, puts me up to 100% crit chance.

My goal for this post patch was to maintain my old burst damage before the post patch with the same amount of crit chance. Idk but its just my sweetspot for my crit chance. You could do that underwater trick to get up to 80% crit chance also with this build if you were to build stacks, but its more of a chore to do.

Most likely arena net will fix the underwater stacking method in like a year, so I thought I’d start early and get used to no stacks except for fortitude and leech.

But yeah, this build has been solid for me and I haven’t noticed my damage being worse or better. It’s just the same as before patch except I have might stacks instead and less survival ability from the celestial stats loss. Anyways, I always speced for maxed damage, could care less if I lost toughness, condition damage, healing power, etc, as long as I can keep the same damage.

Curunen.8729:

Joe.4178:

Glad you enjoyed, its just personal preference. My game-play is offensive/aggressive so pistol is my natural calling.

Makes sense. Magic bullet is great, it’s just the duelist I don’t get on with.

Maybe when MH pistol ever gets released, I’d rock dual pistols and trait for them too (or pistol/focus if that ever gets fixed).

Really? I always thought the phantasmal duelist was the best since it was really reliable for damage compared to the other melee off hand phantasms. Most of the other ones like swordsman have to run up to their target, but get blown up by random aoe cleaves or warden gets blown up instantly when spawned on multiple targets. Torch phantasm is meh.

matthen.5024:

Brilliant.

Love the text, too. Very informative.

Thank you! I try to keep it the mesmer theme colors, title dark with the steps for combo’s bright so it’d be easier to see.

eldenbri.1059:

Great stuff – fun and informative to watch

And thx again for the rescue at sentry a couple days ago (Elbrin)

Thanks glad you enjoyed! I did rescue at sentry? I can’t remember o.o

Mydnyght.5026:

Nice video joe though I have a question, how come your build show 15k HP and you have around 19-20k hp in game ?

Where does the extra 5k hp comes from ?

Thanks

Applied fortitude stacks, wvw bonuses, and bloodlust stacks from the ruins when we had primetime with people getting triple ruin bonuses for us.

Also some clips I still had a celestial staff w/ celestial 3 piece (helm/chest/legs) at the time, because I didn’t have enough money to get ascended assassin (helm/chest/leg/staff/sword/pistol). Which resulted giving me 20k hp in other clips also.

Neurophen.9738:

Great stuff!

/15 chars

Thank you!

Curunen.8729:

Always love watching your psychedelic charr!

Fantastic play. I will say that the single weapon I have never felt the urge to pick up for any length of time is the pistol – for some reason I just never liked using it. Now I’m tempted to give it another go.

Glad you enjoyed, its just personal preference. My game-play is offensive/aggressive so pistol is my natural calling.

lmperdigao.2567:

It’s aways a pleasure to see a good shatter mesmer.
Great video, very elucidative.

Thanks man glad you enjoyed.

DoomKnightMax.6592:

This build works so well! I’ve been able to tackle almost all 2v1’s. Against warriors and guardians, I do require a bit more survivability so would you recommend switching any gear to soldiers or knights?

Thanks! Glad to hear it.

Soldiers vs Knights

Soldiers: The power and toughness is fine, but idk I never liked vitality as a stat. It seems as you don’t get the full benefit of your 3 main stats if you use vitality. You only get a higher health pool for the initial start of the fight and that’s about it. Unless you can manage to heal 3 clones all the time to full hp.

Knights: Power, precision, toughness you get the benefits of all 3 stats. Toughness benefits you more because overtime in a fight, you’re reducing damage and it’ll be a lot more beneficial to have damage reduction instead of higher health pool.

But in all honesty my play-style was always maxed damage so soldiers or knights doesn’t really suit me. It’s just all personal preference/play-style.

What up guys, been 2 months since I last updated a video and here is my latest guide:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9DE2VOVJVQ

Build link can be found in the video and here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhIQNAW8alknpMtNqxTNcrNCrxg6sS7MSOQAlMkrB-TByHABas/wa6GQUtC9UVhJlg9o8bgnAAAXEgAAIA38mZz2MYoDdoDdoDtbezhezhezCBMaBA-e

Despite many nerfs, mesmer is still my favorite class to play and I’ll just adapt to the new meta’s to make the build/spec I play viable. Hopefully after this video, playing a shatter mesmer will be easy like 123 abc.

Too many people make the class/build itself harder than it already is, by adding triangles into it which is nonsense. Feel free to ask questions, I’ll answer as soon as possible!

Making one also for staff + sword/pistol so stay tuned for it. Been spending my spring break on making it simple/easy to understand and covering all the topics.

Awesome video as always Raiden, keep them coming with those outnumbered fights. Shatter mesmer/necro/guard is a scary comp, especially that fight in the camp, was thrilling. The interrupt heals was really good on that necro also gg.

Hi we still playing

imdapro.3256:

Joe.4178:

JHN.8749:

Wow this vid was beast just like your vid 3. Can’t wait to see your shatter guide w/ staff + sword pistol. Are you gonna change your gear when they nerf the cd by 10%? What about your 3 piece celestial + celestial staff, and what sigils will you use when you can double stack the cooldowns?

Thanks! I’ll have to see the changes to the celestial if its really significant or not. If so, I’ll prob have to go back to being full zerker to keep my damage up w/ prob double battle sigil/energy sigils to make up for the -10% cd lost. What you think about that?

I just hope they compensate for the waste of crafting celestial armor + 5 laurels for each celestial piece with the wvw infusions.

What about force sigil for 5% damage? Instead of sigil of battle for might stacks? Since sometimes I noticed you stay in staff when you get trained or stay in sword/pistol when you’re on the offense and able to free cast. That way it’d make up for the -10% crit damage lost.

Sound’s good but force will only apply to direct damage only, I’ll prob most like use the sigil of battle on double swap. Only because it applies to the condi’s & direct damage which will prob be higher damage overall. My build atm is just built for raw base damage/crit damage/high crit chance, so if I have 25 stacks of might on top of all that, then it’d make up for the -10% crit damage reduction nerf.

Best vid out of the rest, skillplay improved tremendously the last time we’ve fought.
Couldn’t really find much mistakes except maybe the blink ce on a line of warden, but the rest was amazing.
Things that I liked:
1. Sexy fgs fiery rush
2. Beautiful blink stomps
3. Rotations were amazing
4. Great burning speed blink combo’s
5. In the middle of bursting/rotation your ally went down and you were quick to react and get him back up

Keep the videos coming, enjoying yours and the rest of [Ohai]’s videos! Btw you guys should post your vids on reddit, with this much skill you guys deserve recognition. :\

Vol.7601:

If you want to try and join MEDx overflows, which are usually organized to get to 1200 citizens (and complete miasmas a few times), enter LA at the 9 minute mark.

Which servers overflows and specific time they have a higher chance in succeeding? Jade quarry and blackgate isn’t cutting it.

Ameepa.6793:

Just as a hint for future releases, you should always try to get all non-soloable achievements done during the first two days as it gets a lot harder to get them done later.

Edit:
Oh and luckily there is no real harm even if you don’t get all the achievements because you can still get the meta achi done with the dailies.

Some people don’t have the luxury of being there at the event the time it releases or the first 2 days. Unfortunately for me due to work, I had to start this event 3 days late which is still pretty early, but haven’t had any luck yet. 3-5-days doing this achievement and still haven’t got it yet.

Things that made it hard to get now:
1. Scaling
2. Lots of afk
3. Too much overflows, can’t even get my party to join to help me with the achieve
4. Anet made the incentive of getting 1200 citizens will guaranteed a good drop. If people knew the RNG of getting rare drops was so minuscule, then they wouldn’t bother with it; which they were smart about taking advantage of people to doing their living story. So now everyone just focuses on saving citizens now instead of the other part of the living world. How many people you know have gotten the jetpack/gas mask/insane good drop/etc in this time frame of the living world?

imdapro.3256:

JHN.8749:

Joe.4178:

JHN.8749:

Wow this vid was beast just like your vid 3. Can’t wait to see your shatter guide w/ staff + sword pistol. Are you gonna change your gear when they nerf the cd by 10%? What about your 3 piece celestial + celestial staff, and what sigils will you use when you can double stack the cooldowns?

Thanks! I’ll have to see the changes to the celestial if its really significant or not. If so, I’ll prob have to go back to being full zerker to keep my damage up w/ prob double battle sigil/energy sigils to make up for the -10% cd lost. What you think about that?

I just hope they compensate for the waste of crafting celestial armor + 5 laurels for each celestial piece with the wvw infusions.

Yeah it sounds reasonable, sucks that you won’t be at 116% cd anymore and would have to make it up with the battle sigil. For the celestial, I doubt they’d compensate back 20 laurels (20 days worth of dailies)/matts/money/time that you invested in it. Well on that note, you’ll be able to go back to your roots in full zerk again but won’t have highest cd anymore

YESSS nerf joe pls, now I can duel him and win! Jk you’d guys wreck me in 5v5 group fights lol.

Nonetheless, amazing vids as always Joe. Loving those beautiful style stomps & phase retreats forward during the fights when you’re getting trained. I laughed when everyone in vent was telling you to go pu mesmer too haha.

Thanks guys appreciate the feedback, I don’t think I’m ever gonna change to a different spec. Been shatter for idk how long, and planning on sticking with it. Despite the past nerfs, I’ve still been able to make the class viable for group spec and been managing it barely with the silly bugged iLeaps. I wish anet would reconsider on the condition meta though, its completely pitiful they nerf direct damage but not nerf condi at the same time. As strong as condi meta is atm, its ridiculous that my full shatter combo barely leaves them with like 10% hp, so 10% crit damage nerf would really make it hard to kill the bunker condi specs.

JHN.8749:

Wow this vid was beast just like your vid 3. Can’t wait to see your shatter guide w/ staff + sword pistol. Are you gonna change your gear when they nerf the cd by 10%? What about your 3 piece celestial + celestial staff, and what sigils will you use when you can double stack the cooldowns?

Thanks! I’ll have to see the changes to the celestial if its really significant or not. If so, I’ll prob have to go back to being full zerker to keep my damage up w/ prob double battle sigil/energy sigils to make up for the -10% cd lost. What you think about that?

I just hope they compensate for the waste of crafting celestial armor + 5 laurels for each celestial piece with the wvw infusions.

Nausicca.6038:

Really great video again Joe !

Thank you for sharing Sarbear’s build.

Thanks for the feedback, you should thank sarsbear for the build. He’s pretty much gonna quit once ESO full release comes out

TakeCare.3182:

Very well done ^-^

Tyvm! Tell everyone from [Ohai] I said hi!

Pwent.2639:

:) you killed it again, and ty for sharing sarsbears build.

Thanks! Sarsbear deserves all the credit for giving away his build. Just too bad he’s leaving us soon for eso.. No more hammer/gs guards to roam with me boo.

AnswerSS.1845:

Good work as usual Joe, can’t wait for the next video

Thanks, its gonna take some time for me to compile so much stuff, to cover every aspect that I usually encounter in wvw.

Logi.5612:

Great vid Joe! Music was really nice too

Thanks scarlet, I’ll try to keep up the hype with the good music with nice plays.

tetrodoxin.2134:

Nice one!

Kinda curious what build your guard buddy is running. =)

Thanks!

Sarsbear’s [-tM-/SPCA] Build:
Radiance: IV
Honor: II , IX, XI
Virtues: II, IX, X

Trinkets: Full Clerics
Gear: Full Clerics
Weapons: Gs (Sentinel)/ Hammer (Sentinel)
Runes: Soldiers
Sigils: Energy on hamer + gs

Me in solo/group vs some big guild groups, as a dps shatter mesmer. This isn’t zerg busting. It’s guild group busting, and it’s a lot harder than busting random zergs. The guild we fought had an actual team comp that did more than just spam 1 which made it difficult for me to survive in. Build and info is in link; I’ll try my best to answer any other questions as soon as possible.

Stay tuned for next vid, gathering enough clips to make a shatter guide for group play in outnumbered situations.

Kayzi.9752:

You guys better wait until I get back on Friday to do this!

We’ll try not to, but atm its midterm week this week/next week so I’m swamped with a lot of studying/work/gym. And everyone comes on at random times so its hard to pick a time. Scarlet lives in europe so hes 9 hour time zone difference from us also.

Right now we’re trying to find an area in eotm thats appropiate for us to 5v5 with our real comp in wvw, instead of an spvp comp. An area where its kind of flat so I don’t get rubber banded by iLeap or Blink, no npc’s, no turrets, no bl buffs, decent sized area for 5v5. But so far haven’t had any luck yet from exploring around eotm.

Most definitely will follow through with the 5v5 but still not sure when yet.

Yep the shatter mesmers are still viable, I even have all the vids/evidence to back it up since 9 months ago.

It’s fine, don’t bother wasting your time on these guys anymore. If they want to put words in my mouth with the desire to say that they’re bad then so be it. They believe that they are bad, so I guess it does show it in the video.

Nonetheless, this guy is the fastest to reply on anyone’s post. We can obviously see he has nothing better to do in his life except make excuses for his boyfriend’s lack of performance on the field. White knighting his boyfriends then saying that to jhn.8749, how funny.