Guild Wars 2

2. Ethereal Burden (10sec CD) – Create a magical link between you and your target for 3 seconds. Link applies 5sec of Confusion to your target each second and If the link is allowed to expire, it immobilizes your target for 2sec.
->Sequence: Web of Disruption – Sever your link preemptively and daze(1sec) your target.
This is basically a variant of necromancer’s Tainted Shackles, adapted to mesmer’s kit and changed for single-target use. I imagine this skills like this: Mesmer waves his scepter and a link is created between mesmer and his foe, that can stretch up to 900 units (imagine purple single-targeted Tainted Shackles). This link exists for 3 seconds and each second 1 stack of confusion is placed on a foe. There could be three outcomes of this effect:

1. Link is allowed to expire (foe stays in range for 3 seconds) – target is immobilized for 2sec.
2. Link is broken (foe leaves the range of 900 units) – effect ends with no additional consequences for the target.
3. Mesmer uses sequence skill – Web of Disruption – link instantly ends with shatter-like effect and the target is dazed for 1 second (no immobilization or further confusion is applied).

This skill tags your foe and immobilizes it after 3 seconds. This immobilization can set a nice combinations for shatters or other powerful skills like Polymorph Moa and phantasm attacks. Moreover, It has a sequence skill that instantly dazes your target and can interrupt key-abilities by sacrificing immobilization. Synergy with Chaotic Interruption, Bountiful Interruption, Power Block and other traits.

3. Chaotic Leap (12sec CD) – Teleport (600 range) to your target and touch it with your malicious scepter, applying 3x Confusion (5sec). Leaves a clone that casts ether bolt at your initial position.
->Sequence: Chaotic Swap – Swap positions with your clone, applying 3x Torment (5sec) to all foes around (180).
MH Sword has a great skill – Illusionary Leap. During early stages of the game mesmers didn’t have Blurred Frenzy. Instead, they had a skill that I think was called simply – Leap. This skill caused mesmer to leap towards the target leaving a clone behind. Since then, MH Sword has been changed to include blurred frenzy and then Swap was added to Illusionary Leap. I want to resurrect the idea of Leap and twist it with scepter. Chaotic Leap is a less offensive version of iLeap with some condition damage on top. You teleport to your target, you strike it (like guard’s Flashing Blade) and when the enemy decides to strike back, you instantly swap with clone, applying torment – and torment makes chasing you painful.

So the basic combination of scepter will look like this:
Ethereal Burden->immobilize->Chaotic Leap->Swap->(shatter).
This clever combo can apply a lot of pressure to your enemy, and it’s a lot more fun than just to wait and try to catch someone’s attack.

Hello everyone, I want to talk about scepter. (and sorry for my english)
Why scepter is not that impressive? Honestly, mesmer is my favorite class, but I find some of mesmer’s weapon sets to be the most boring things in the whole game. Have you ever played Scepter/Torch? I call this weapon set “don’t touch me, I’m just an observer”. You can’t really contribute to a fight unless someone directly attacks you. You are like “hey, pls, I’m here, pls, hit me and eat my torment”. Weak auto-attack and even weaker Confusing Images are the only scepter skills that allow you to actively contribute to a fight. But their effects are very unimpressive.

• Let’s start with auto-attack. It’s bad, because it has: long casting time and low projectile velocity.
• Illusionary Counter – while 5 stacks of torment deal a lot of damage, the block itself is a very passive skill. You have to wait until someone attacks you to do something useful. Block skills are not always useless and “passive” – they are fun, when you need to actively protect yourself against attacks in between your offensive rotations, but they are not fun when there is nothing to do besides them.
• Confusing Images – long pre-cast animation, long casting time, weak effect. It takes one dodge from your target to almost completely nullify all the efforts that are needed to land this skill.

Scepter’s numbers can be buffed until they are beyond balanced, but the main thing won’t change – this weapon is very passive and awkward.

I propose a model of new skill set for this weapon, that in my opinion will greatly increase the experience of all condition mesmers.

1. AA chain.
1)Ether Bolt – projectile velocity is increased.
2)Ether Blast – projectile velocity is increased.
3)Ether Clone - removed from the chain.
Current auto-attack chain of scepter is quite unique. It uses warrior’s and guardian’s mace animation to generate projectiles. This pattern is exclusive to mesmers and after careful thought I’ve decided that I don’t want to change it. The only thing that bothered me was the speed of execution. That’s why I’ve decided to remove Ether Clone and leave this chain with only two components. Ether Bolt applies 2sec of Torment, while Blast applies 3sec. It is important to have both skills to prevent clones from overwhelming your target with long-lasting torment (clones would only cast Ether Bolt). Clone-generating ability now belongs to a third skill in scepter’s set. In my opinion, projectile speed should be increased slightly to make AA more satisfying.

While MtD builds may be viable, I see absolutely no reason to pick them over standart zerk shatter.
Firstly, MtD build uses the same trait pattern (mandatory 4 in dueling, 6 in illusions) offering no extra utility over zerk shatter.
Secondly, condition-based weapon sets like scepter and staff lack “clone delivery” skills, like Mirror Blade (GS) or iLeap (Sw). This creates a situation when your clones should walk to your enemy through all aoe circles and cleaves, and it’s very hard to predict the outcome of your shatter.
And as a last note – zerk just kills stuff much faster.

I think dragon’s name will have something to do with a word “serpent”.

No. It was bad.
But it is bad in it’s current state too. There must be a 3rd solution.

With a condi-shatter build (using MtD) it takes like 3x time to deal the same amount of damage that you will apply using standart power shatter (x5-10 if your foe packs condi-cleansing). This is while your survivability is not that much better (additional thoughness from rabid amulet – thats all, and you get less hp than b-zerker, no additional second of distortion without IP).
So usually while I am trying to shatter my illusions and apply conditions, my enemy just melts me coz many existing builds of other proffesions are far superior in damage output than a condi-shatter mesmer.
So my final verdict is that these types of builds are very-very weak in current metagame. Inferior to PU in a duel (even after it’s nerfs), super inferior to terror-necros, condi engies/rangers.

+1.
Mesmer’s mechanic is the most self-conflicting one. I wish it could be reworked.

…but she uses a different body now – Mordremoth’s body.
“Tyria will bow before a new master” – what if she meant herself? We know that Snaff was able to get into Kralkatorrik’s head, what if Scarlet went further and transported her consciousness inside the sleeping Elder Dragon, waking it up beforehand, using ley-line and the Breachmaker right before we finished her?
And now she lives inside Mordremoth. She is Mordremoth, and she got vast powers at her disposal. Scarlet is able to literally shape the new Tyria and no one will restrict her. Wasn’t that her ultimate desire after all?
From “What Scarlet Saw”:

• “But I see the flaws in that design. My people don’t have to take what we’re given, or be what we were “born to be.” No people do. We can change the rules…well, I can. And I’m going to.”
• “I have a great deal of work ahead of me. I don’t know what the world will be when I’m through, but I will very much enjoy finding out. Empires will fall, continents will burn, and when the conflagration is over, I’ll be there to put my stamp on whatever new world this one becomes.”

RedCobra.7693:

WHAT THE ACTUAL KITTEN (meow) ive got a 4 sec block on a 16sec CD be quiet and stop spreading news about this awesome skill, if you use a GS by the way you can proc the block yourself, works awesome in 1v1

I will respond in this thread, as I don’t see the point for another one on the same subject.
I understand that Mimic has got some uses (were they intended by devs or not). You absolutely can store your own projectile and activate invulnerability. Yet, the need for precasting makes Mimic a much worse reactive defense than Distortion, Blurred Frenzy, Decoy, Blink, even Blurred Inscriptions+Signet of Midnight, because they all are instant. You can’t throw Mirror Blade and absorb it while the warrior is flying to you with an Earthshaker or a S/D thief dances around.
Another point – this sort of Mimic behaviour is not listed anywhere. Hidden things are never healthy for the game, and skills’ description states that the main point of the skill is to absorb and then echo. There is no description of invulnerability and this makes me think that it wasn’t intended.
My last point is about the general concept of manipulations. AT, Blink and IoL are all ranged skills that target something that is distant (foe or area), working good with Far-Reaching Manipulations. Mimic is not a ranged skill unless a condition is met (projectile), and even then untraited Echo has got a satisfying 1200 range, therefore, making Far-Reaching manipulations not so appealing trait to pair with Mimic.
That’s why I think this skill needs a change. I’m not arguing that it could not be used in it’s current state, I only want it to become more in line with game mechanics.

Carighan.6758:

If the skill fails to find a valid skill to copy, it copies a weapon skill instead.

It will be funny to shoot arrows from your greatsword, or bullets from your staff, or to swing your scepter-focus in a Hundred Blades manner ^^ And what about mobs in PvE? How should this skill behave in PvE? It’s an interesting idea anyway, with a GW1 mesmer twist.
I would like to suggest something, but English is not my first language, so forgive me for any mistakes.
I too think that Mimic should be reworked. As all manipulation skills, new version of Mimic should be able to work with Far-Reaching Manipulations. Which means that it should be a ranged spell, like current Arcane Thievery, Illusion of Life and Blink. Currently, only Echo-part benefits from Far-Reaching Manipulation’s effect, that’s why whole concept of Mimic is somehow very different from all other manipolation skills. Moreover, current Mimic serves no clear purpose. It has got three components Projectile Storage, Projectile Reflection and Attack Block.
1) While Projectile Storage is an interesting mechanic, it’s proven itself to be very unreliable and unimpactful. There are many reasons for that. Firstly, it’s VERY hard to time and “catch” something useful with all those projectiles flying around in all formats of the game. Secondly, the only difference from Reflection is that a player can store a projectile and use it later in battle. After comparing how easy it is to reflect things and how hard it is to catch a projectile, the benifit of storing a projectile becomes not so “beneficial”. Not to mention that a projectile that you are going to catch still hits you (this is not that important, because it could be fixed and be a part of a skill’s concept no more).
After a player catches a projectile, Mimic will reflect and block for remaining channel duration:
2) Reflection could be achieved with more reliable ways (Masterful Reflection, Warden’s Feedback, Feedback, Mirror). Again, Mimic will never be in line with those skills/traits as it provides much less utility.
3) Attack Block doesn’t make this skills viable because there are better ways to avoid damage: Stealth, Distortion, Teleportation and others.
Even combined, all these aspects don’t make Mimic a good choice in a build. That’s because each of Mesmer’s utility slots is precious and should serve a clear purpose. When I pick skills, I know exatcly what I will do with them and when should I use them. In Mimic’s case – I don’t know this.
My suggestion is quite simple – to make it a Mesmer’s variant of Corrupt Boon. Like:

• Mimic – renamed – Overload (40s CD|Instant cast|1200 range): Remove up to five boons from your foe. Stun(2s) and damage your foe if three or more boons are removed. Unblockable.
  • This change, aimed primarily at PvP, will allow mesmers to expand their build diversity by freeing themselves from mandatory Shattered Concentration trait, while still possessing a powerful tool to remove boons. Stun and instant cast will pair nicely with interrupt-traits
  • Maybe it will be necessary to reduce CD of Arcane Thievery so it stays valiable. While this two skills will partly share their functionality, I see AT as a skill with a more utility purpose, while Overload will be a strictly offensive skill.

It’s Livia.
:)

I still don’t understand why ppl love Confounding Suggestions. To me it’s a very ineffective and contradictory trait.
It increases daze duration, but in 50% of cases it would replace your prolonged daze with a short stun, nullifying it’s own bonus and that of runes of the mesmer (if you pick them). I can’t find the purpose for this trait – if I wanted to lock my enemy in place for some time – I would find better options like Chaotic Interruption, Signet of Domination, Magic Bullet.
And If I wanted to maximize the daze time – I would rather simply take runes of the mesmer alone. Because these random stun procs make little impact on a battle, IMO.

Pyroathiest.4168:

The way torment works is it does x damage on a static target, and 2x damage on a moving target. This used to be reflected exactly in the tooltip, but I guess they thought it was more clear this way. So now the tooltip shows x damage on a static target, and should say deals an additional x damage on a moving target.

Torment tooltips usually say “X damage each second, 2X if moving”. Check it on scepter for example.
So this case falls out of concept. I doubt that it is the torment that is bugged tho, my bet it’s just a tooltip mistake, but who knows, should test.

If you are running 4/4/0/0/6 – you don’t need to sacrifice anything for vulnerability. It comes from minor traits in our first line – Domination: 1 point – Illusion of Vulnerability (3 stacks upon interrupting), 3 points – Dazzling (5 stacks upon dazing). These are minor traits and they are irreplaceable.
So you already have that vulnerability in your build. Just use Diversion with clones (F3 by default) to apply it. This way Diversion could be used to interrupt some important action, or to empower your next burst by applying vulnerability. Or both. Watch some shatter mesmers on youtube, they do it quite often

To stack vulnerability – just invest at least 3 points into Domination for Dazzling. This way a succesfull Diversion will inflict 5 stacks of vulnerability (8 if it interrupts your foe) for each shattered illusion. And you don’t have to sacrifice important traits this way.
Don’t even look at Rending Shatter, IMO, it’s a filler trait.

I noticed this in sPvP. After being hit by skills like Warrior’s Bull’s Charge or Necro’s golem charge, sometimes you lose the ability to move after you recover from knock down. You still can use skills and if you use some kind of teleportation skill you will regain the ability to move. But if you don’t have something like that – only death fixes this permanent immobilize.

I hate ‘on interrupt traits’… but not because of traits themselves, but because IMO we have not enough reliable interrupt skills. Only Mantra of Distraction, Diversion (in some cases) and Into the Void could be trusted. Everything else is ‘press and pray’.

Me Games Ma.8426:

@ Mendax do you remember how lond fury lasts?

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/210opr/ready_up_ep8_developer_livestream_notes/

Dulfy says it’s 5 seconds.

Pyroathiest.4168:

Me Games Ma.8426:

• Chaos: Grant boons on shatter activation (F1: 3s Retaliation, F2: 15s Might(x3), F3: (forgot it but i think it was vigor), F4: 8s regeneration)

My initial reaction is that it’s total crap. Retaliation is easily obtained through many means for mesmer, we don’t need a grandmaster for that. 3 Might for 15s is nice…but not particularly impressive. Vigor? We’ve already got vigor, and I’m not gonna waste an interrupt for vigor, nor save it for when vigor might be useful. We fart regeneration more than any other class besides maybe guardians, we don’t need that.

It’s actually Fury on Diversion, so it can be used in combination with vulnerability from dom line for some shatter spike. Add some might from mind wrack and bountiful interruption…
As for me, I think ele’s and guardian’s traits are more creative. Mesmer ones are just… plain.

Head (starter mesmer mask) – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fanged_Dread_Mask

Shoulders (part of Hall of Monuments armor) – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Heritage_Mantle

Chest (light ascended coat) – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zojja%27s_Doublet

Gloves & Boots (gemshop trickster set) -http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Trickster%27s_Light-Armor_Skin

Leggings (light ascended leggings) – http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Zojja%27s_Breeches

My mesmer, once again :P

Oh, I see.
That’s right.

Auras are quite strong by themselves. Especially Shock and Magnetic auras. And a stunbreaker never hurts.
Traits will only make this skill better – not only aura traits, but all the glyph traits in Air as well. But anyway, it’s just a suggestion.

What do you think about this skill?
As for me, I find it very confusing to use – it’s a skill with a long and not impactful enough effect that also breaks stun for some reason. I tried to test it in some condition build but never really felt it’s presence.
If I was in charge of skill changes, I would make this this skill look like this:
Glyph of Elemental Power (40s CD) – Gain an aura based on your Attunement. Breaks stun.
This change can expand the use of aura traits beyond dagger/dagger and signet builds. What do you think?

Some elementalist changes feedback:
The reduced CD on Attunement swap is good, but moving Elemental Attunement to Master tier will make the Arcana the most desirable line again, because EA is one of the best elementalist traits and 90% of eles want to have this trait in any build. Why so? Becacuse it’s the most reliable source of boons for elementalist. Moreover this trait also buffs surrounding allies – it’s really strong and as I said earlier no ele will let it go. This trait got similarities with Mesmer’s trait Deceptive Evasion – they both enchance core mechanics of their classes, making them very strong in EVERY build.
I would suggest reworking this trait completely, and changing #5 or #10 traits in Fire/Air/Earth/Water lines to give respective boons on Attunement swap.

I’m okay with other changes.

Some really nice looks you have here. Especially huge male norns :P
Here is my mesmer

You can try Profane armor skin. It’s a bit more revealing than standart pants and inspired by some GW1 necro armor :P
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/File:Profane_Armor_Skin_human_female_front.jpg
can be purchased for gems

People see mesmers quite often and think that mesmers are popular.
In fact there are 4 times less mesmers than you actually see

Elbegast.6970:

So, I went to Wayfarer’s Foothills and there’s nothing going on…no ‘reverie’ or whatever. I’m sitting here pounding my head against my desk. HOW DO I GET THE ITEMS?!?!

The event is happening in Guild Wars 1.

Come on guys, you haven’t even seen new Meteorlogicus yet…

She is interesting, yes. But I think she is working for someone that is more… serious. And the fact that she is sylvari makes me think about Faolain.

They are nothing like GW1’ skins… cept shield, maybe. I don’t like them AT ALL.
Rofl, this horn.

This picture is a loading screen for a mission ‘The Rise of the White Mantle’ from GW1’s DLC Bonus Mission Pack. That’s all I know.

Did it as a mesmer.
0/20/10/10/30. Clones on dodge, conditions on clones death (chaos), illusionary persona (for free distortion), staff recharge trait, condition remove on healing and a couple of other traits. Used Mirror images, Blink and Mantra of Resolve (to remove conditions on P2).
Used staff + sword/pistol. Used 6 runes of adventurer (they are not very expensive) to refill dodge bar upon using healing skill. Had Mirror as a healing skill, coz of it’s short cooldown.
Blurred Frenzy allows you to survive anything, just need a bit of practise. You can ball her Visions of Mortality and use blurred frenzy in the middle of them – they will all die.
P1 should be done as fast as possible, coz you will be killing her with staff at P2 and that takes time. During P1, you can counter Shadowfall with blurred frenzy, Mirror helps you to reflect her annoying attack. You can also use Blurred Frenzy to kill Visions of Mortality if they disrupt you too much. Kill all Orbs as soon as possible, coz they can ruin everything. Don’t forget about our precious Distortion.
As soon as you throw 3rd sphere at her, stun her with Bullet and summon iDuelist, swap to staff. Run in circles – Shadowfall now falls in circles so you can outrun it and always stay in a safe spot. Use Chaos storm only to kill Orbs. Dodge, create clones, use mirror images, they will apply conditions with their AA and also when they die. When Liadri cripples you, use Mantra of Resolve. Recharge it if possible. Use Mirror to refill dodge-bar, swap to sword and use blurred frenzy to clear Visions of Mortality or to avoid Shadowfall. Use distortion in hard situations :P
Sorry for my english, hope that helps!

Crown Pavilion, go to the outer circle across event zones, you will see the way to the top. There you will see bubble-like arenas and the NPC you are looking for.

Just to clarify:
Nightfall is one of the three major GW1 campaigns (others are Prophecies and Factions).
Eye of the North is an expansion, wich requires at least one of these campaigns.

So you can buy Nightfall and add Eye on top of it, but you will not be ablo to play, if you buy only Eye.

GW1 is the same as GW2 in terms of paying for the game. You just buy Nightfall, Factions or Prophecies once and gain a permanent access to that campaing (you don’t need to buy more ‘time’).

Mirta.5029:

Mendax.9506:

What about Cantha? >:(

Cantha would be an expansion and not an update. Why would they talk about Cantha?

What about expansion then?

What about Cantha? >:(

Well, it may stack then. First foe gets 10 stacks of Disease, foes around get half of that (5), third wave gets only 2 or 3, last one gets only 1 and the infection stops.
The more stacks the target has, the more damage it suffers and it also becomes more contagious.

I think it might be something like Disease from GW1.
A DoT condition, that spreads from one foe to another when they are close to each other.
Maybe some dark flame because it is Death Shroud but who knows…

Yes, I want to see Cantha once more. Will pay any price :p

Talentless.5708:

le sigh…. some of the best guilds in this game use and rely on Necros to devastating effect whether in zerg or havoc (I solo on mine as well). I just dont understand the disconnect between in-game and in-forums.

There are numerous builds made public that give Necros in-forums all the tools they need to compete and thrive… yet the only response received is, I dont want to play that way, that is stupid, I need buffs. It is childish. Go play a thief if you only have the mental capacity to stealth and stab… it is boring… Necro has way more to offer.

I’ve got your point, but let me explain.
In my oppinion, it is possible to play a Necro and be successful at the same time.
The thing that bothers me is the design behind the class – it’s just filled with strange decisions.
Have a look at Death Magic traits – Reanimator and Protection of the Horde. These traits are not optional and they are useless for almost all non-minion builds. Why Eles for example don’t have Minor traits for Conjured Weapons? Why Thiefs have no Minor traits for Traps or Venoms? Because Minor traits should not depend on utility skills.
Let’s look at the Spite line (the one that is offensive and gives Power).
2 Minor traits there don’t even increase Necro’s damaging ability and the 3rd one gives 105 power and cond. dmg at the time you are almost dead.
I can talk about traits forever… Lack of interesting trait combinations like Guard, Ele or Ranger have, Maior traits are pretty random in every line… and so on. Feels like traits saw no attention since pre-alpha tests.
Look how many other strange ‘features’ do we have:
Many Spectral skills are removed when entering DS or using Lich/Plague. (Venoms are removed while in Stealth? Cantrips are set on cooldown when switching attunements?).
Minions are unsummoned when using Lich and Plague (just…why?).
You cannot be healed while in DS.
You can’t see your HP, boons/conditions, endurance, cooldowns while in DS.
You can’t interact with objects while in DS.
Add bugs here and you will get what I’m trying to say.
I don’t deny that someone can drive this broken car. But why can’t it be fixed so that everyone can use it?

Talentless.5708:

I’m sorry, but I will continue to tell people who whine about the Necro as being underpowered to learn how to kittening play. I will not have scrubs who spend more time posting on the forums than learning their class continue efforts to convince Anet to buff something that needs no such buff. If you try to ruin the Necro by getting it buffed, you kitten well better expect push-back from people who dont want that to happen.

We may play the same class, but these forums show we are definitely not in the same class. Arguing that a Necro needs buffs other than a few bug fixes is absolutely absurd.

You’re right. Necro needs no buffs.
It needs a rework.

CHIPS.6018:

It is very simple. Just do not disable the player’s skill bar when DS is on.

F1 turns on Death Shroud and enable the following 5 skills going from F1 to F5.

F1-Life Blast
F2-Dark Path
F3-Doom
F4-Life Transfer
F5-Return to normal

That way, the player can use DS skills, weapon skills, utilities and elites while they are on DS. That way DS is all positive and non negative.

Hmm… I really like that!
Just imagine all new possible traits! But Life Blast should be changed to something less spamy, because we’ll have our weapon’s autoattack.

Option c) ‘Nothing changes’
Who needs class balance when we have more pve grind on the way?

Reading GW’s huge patch notes was a pleasure. Skill balances have constantly been adding some fresh air to PvP (and PvE aswell).

Zero build variety. 5% bonus to power here, 5% bonus to healing there. That’s all we can choose from!…. just wtf is this?
Give me back Hexes, Enchantments and other cool skills from GW…
Oh. Another PvE grindkitten is on the way.
Just… ugh…gotta cry in the corner.

• Life Force no more depletes while in Death Shroud.
• Necromancers now lose 4% of their maximum health every second while not in a Death Shroud.
• Each Necromancer can now spend 400 gems to refill 10% of his Life Force pool (ONLY OUT OF COMBAT).

Hello…
GW 2 is fun and all, but something always calls me back to the original game.
Maybe this game is difficult for me or something. Many things exhaust me while i’m playing. I don’t know how damage is calculated, I’m always trying to find a better gear, crafting materials, gathering tools, levels, numbers, numbers, numbers….

Guild Wars was my first online game (started it about 6yrs ago). I was always wondering how simple yet smart and entertaining that game was. Skill system was something like online real-time MtG for me. Story missions were really fun and sometimes quite hard. PvP was a place where you could really test your skill (in HA, GvG) or just have some random fun in.. random arena! Well… I loved almost everything about that game. It was a real gem.
I can’t have the same amount of fun with GW 2 for some reason. It’s beautiful… but it feels empty.
Sorry, just my oppinion.