There is an old saying, “Fool me once, shame on — shame on you. Fool me — you can’t get fooled again.”
or something.
Anyway, we had two over-hyped disappointing releases that we were then told were “just teasers” after people started asking “What is this crap?” So, no, I’m not psyched one bit.
I understand that after several months of holidays that perhaps there needed to be some time for things other than monthly content. That makes sense. However, the over hyping has killed any enthusiasm I had.
That’s a somewhat silly theory since I can summon Clones while attacking inanimate objects.
My answer as to why is simple game mechanics. The existence of your clones are tied to the life time of the target because they need to know what to kamikaze attack, and when that target no longer exists then something needs to be done with them. Not re-targeting something is a control to the amount of damage a Mesmer can do, it is a limitation that if removed could unbalance the class related to other classes. Even just letting them sit there could increase the Mesmer’s damage since they could just explode in place. And while “Mesmer Mines” sounds like a cool idea, that is kind of a thing for some of the other classes.
I went with the The Lazy Kai Build build but I often go with Mirror Image rather than Blink.
Edit: But like swapping around my weapons, I love to change up my utilities. Swapping in Null Field for fighting the Dredge and other things with lots of buffs or Arcane Thievery and Signet of Inspiration when they will buff themselves so well that I want to take those and share it with the group), portal is helpful for some dungeons. . .but decoy is something I always like to have in my utility bar.
I almost always run with greatsword because I run a shatter build and like the fast recharge time I get from “Greatsword Training.” However my alternate weapon is where I do most of my change up. Sword/Focus for moving around and AoE damage situations. Sword/Pistol for when it will be mostly single target. Staff when I will need to play more defensively. Sword/Sword when I will need to go melee and also need to take a few hits (also Swapping Phantasmal Fury for Blade Training, you’ll likely have that trait slot anyway from getting Deceptive Evasion)
However, unless you really like the projectile refection on the Focus, the off-hand weapon training skills just don’t really seem worth the trade-offs to me. The pistol one really seem kind of meh to me, as if you are running pistol with sword, you don’t need the extra range as you will be up close so you can hit them with your melee and your leap is fairly short range as is.
Either a standard Shatter Build or a condition build are workable with a GS/S+P. The Condition builds for Mesmer often relay on the Sharper Images minor trait from the Dueling line, and due to the number of shots the Pistol Phantasm takes, it is a great for single targets.
There is a sticky at the top of this sub-forum and it has at least two GS/S+P which you could start from.
However, you should be aware that restricting yourself to only ever using one weapon pairing/setup is going to hurt you as a Mesmer. You will want to keep some of the other weapons to swap out between fights where you know their individual powers will be more useful. The Mesmer has a lot of great powers, but many of them are situational.
In case you haven’t noticed, both are good choices.
Mesmer does take a little bit more time and effort. Leveling is a bit of a pain until 30 or 40. Also, their powers are awesome but situational and so you will be swapping out weapons and utilities based (and sometimes even traits) on what is coming up (there are some good “default” settings, but as you learn various paths you’ll want to use some of the better setups for each situation). However, it is worth the effort. . .and they have style
You’ll come to have a love/hate relationship with Portal. Cause it’s awesome when you can help your team legitimately bypass a hard part . . .but that often means you have to be good at getting past that hard part without portal, like the Lasers in CoE, and your team may come to expect you to be able to do this kind of thing for them.
Also, this reminded me of something from The Boondocks
=====
Granddad: Hold on there, Slickback.
A Pimp Named Slickback: No, it’s A Pimp Named Slickback.
Granddad: That’s what I said. Slickback.
A Pimp Named Slickback: No, it’s “A Pimp Named Slickback.” Like A Tribe Called Quest; you say the whole thing: “A Pimp Named Slickback”!
Granddad: Can’t I just call you “Slickback” for short?
A Pimp Named Slickback: No, kitten! It’s “A Pimp Named Slickback!”
A few other games allow for CharacterName@AccountName, and it seems to work well. However, it maybe too late at this point in GW2’s design to allow for that kind of feature.
Sylvari can be rough if you are sticking to the lore rules for names, but one way is to go with adjectives before the name. For example, I made my Sylvari Warror with a dark skin color. Dark Wood is known as Ebony. So, I combined it with a Celtic name to get, Ebon Durst . . .or Dark Riot. . .I doubt it works out that cleanly to someone who is really a student of language or Onomastics, but it’s good enough for a video game.
Having two words as a name is not always the same as having a last name. You could also go with the age old: Name the Descriptor.
For me, the issue isn’t so much “is it too weak.” My view is there is no good reason for it to be ground targeted. Most of the time we get ground targeted abilities because there are reasons we might want to play with where the AoE lands. However, GS3’s aoe isn’t really big enough to warrant that mechanic, and it feels like it is only there to make the power more difficult to use. It doesn’t even have the “good for me, bad for you” that many of the other Mesmer AoE powers have.
If the power was easy to use but weak, we’d be using it. However, it’s somewhat inconvenient and lack luster, so it is often overlooked.
Most of the Mesmer weapon lineup is fine and functional and that leads to multiple methods of play which work well. . .and among gamers that tends to lead to conflicts between people with different builds arguing over “The One True Way.”
*I, too, would like to see some change to the #3 power.
People buy these for the skin. Nobody who buys these cares about what rarity they are or what level they are. They could be a 0 stat white item and people will still buy them at their current price.
I don’t see why this is so hard to understand and why some people just can’t grasp the concept…
I have come to the conclusion that some people refuse to get the idea that part of the game is “some items are more expensive because you are being charged for the look” not because they don’t understand but because they think they can build an argument which will lead to the gear they want being reduced in price.
This brings up an interesting topic. I’ve noticed there is a great resistance to unlocking contested areas, be it this or dungeons. I’ve been part of groups that took more time hunting down an uncontested server than it would have taken to meet up and unlock it ourselves.
It leads to the questions, “Why, even when unlocking it themselves would take less time, do people resist doing the missions to unlock content?”
Edit: Oh, and I think there is another thread that keeps track of this.
I really like the light named armor set except for the head piece. I would have loved the blindfold, but for some reason the male version also has a covering for the mouth which makes it look like something from a certain kind of catalog. . .which I guess is good for some folks, but not the look I was going for.
I had some fine transmutation stones, because I wanted Ambrosia (the beer mug focus) to have berserker stats. . .so I used one of the other stones to bring my starter mask forward, and with the named armor it looks real neat.
I do however dislike the butterflies. If someone was really trying to fight for their life and they casted a spell that made butterflies flutter around it would be pathetic and comical.
Only if the attempt fails, and then anything would look comical and pathetic, because it failed.
On the other hand, if it is successful it either results in 1) the user being viewed as one unencumbered with hangups that hinder victory or 2) the subject being viewed as pathetic and comical for being defeated by such a tactic or 3) both.
Since Mesmers make a strong showing in all fields of game play, people don’t tend to give anyone flack over the purple butterflies, and they are viewed as kind of awesome. . .however, if Mesmers ever became a second rate class, then that would become low hanging fruit for taunts.
It’s a wonderful area to explore. Since the Sylvari contribute experiences to the Dream and the Dream then uses those experiences to educate future Sylvari, it could be seen that all existing Sylvari are contributing to the next generation. . .although it could also be seen the same way as how a younger sibling can have an easier time in school due to the parents’ experience with educating the older sibling.
The entire weapon lineup for the Mesmer seems to be both awesome and situational. I’ve found GS/Staff to be my default pair for, “I don’t know what is about to happen.” I have been gathering up the stat/skins I want with the rest of the weapons as I learn when they are best applied.
I finished the story last night, and I have to say that at the least I agree with the assessment of the fight with Zhaitan. I accept that it is a being on a size scale that one person isn’t going to run at it with their sword, but everyone manning a cannon and pressing 2 over and over isn’t epic. If we are going to make people group up for the final mission, wouldn’t having them work together be more exciting? Maybe one person mans a cannon, with one person needing the defend them and the others need to get into the ship and keep things working as it is damaged while others keep attackers off them? It wouldn’t have to be that, but at least it shouldn’t be everyone man a cannon and press the same button over and over.
Several Items now have the name “…” for their listing in the trading post. For example: Ambrosia
edit: Just checked the trading post and now there is just one amulet named “…” is this just something that happens every update and the TP needs time to rebuild its name index or something?
Also, one of the big issues with raids in previous games was the way loot was handled. Because a boss would drop loot that everyone in the group had to fight over, “Dragon kill points (DKP)” systems were created to handle the distribution, which lead to in guild economics and all the drama that goes on between the “haves” and “have-nots” in the real world got played out in micro.
The fact that GW2 has a drop system focused on the individual, and that you don’t have to fight with your own team/guild over loot or argue over who really had the highest bit or bemoan the fact that you’ll never get a chance at it because you have a spouse, kids, and life (and so will never have enough points to bid on anything) or give up because one person has a cult personality that keeps everyone tied up in helping that one person improve their toon . . . anyway, I think it might be worth investigation to see if the GW2 system (of having both random drops to the individual and tokens to buy things) will be able to keep away the environment that created the hostility that people feel towards raiding in other games.
Min-Maxing, played perfectly, Warrior/Guardian/Mesmer mix is top dog. However, when pugging things going perfectly is rare, so I’m happy when people are playing their class well and following the basic directions/tactics required to win a fight (like going melee when the boss requires it and not clinging to their ranged weapons because that is all they have ever known, and the other way around too).
While I too love the concept of the pistol both in function and in theme, I also want a new main hand melee weapon option (or a second melee weapon period). Perhaps rather than another ranged weapon, it can work as the reverse of the greatsword. Greatsword is a traditional melee weapon used at range by the Mesmer, perhaps the pistol could offer the Mesmer a series of interesting close up attacks.
