Guild Wars 2

Well the title pretty much says it all. I never use them, and i have never seen anyone use them. The way they work is just so clumsy. First u need to charge them, and in return u pretty much don’t get allot. In the time that u wasted charging your mantra, auto atk would have been more useful. Anyway i was wondering if anet had any plans on a rework or something.

I’m on the fence about this. I don’t PvP, but if I did, I think it would be nice to not have different skills than in PvE. And keeping the skills the same probably makes it more appealing for new PvP’ers to just jump right in.
However, it seems obvious to me that powerful in PvP =/= powerful in PvE. I think Mesmers are a great example of this. I hear they are one of the best PvP classes, but compared to my other characters (except my Ele) my Mesmer seems kind of lackluster in PvE. Not horrid, but certainly not “nerf worthy” IMHO. From the PvE perspective it is mystifying to think that my Mesmer would get a nerf before, say, my Warrior or Necromancer. Yet in PvP, it probably makes sense.

When i say split PVP and PVE, skills will stay the same. Just some number tweaks like cool down and dmg. Plus it aint that hard to remember that u are in PVP and your skills have changed. Not to mention that there will be an annotation ofc telling u that this is the PVP version of the skill( same as in GW1).

Nurvus.2891:

Splitting of skills does its job fairly well, indeed.
However, it also ruins it for some players – myself included.
I like the game to feel like a whole, not two different games.
What’s the next step, Resilience and PvP Power?

I have provided a viable alternative to splitting skills in this thread:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Balancing-PvP-vs-PvE-vs-Fun/first#post418755

Anet did it in GW1, It did is with all 10 professions with a total of 1300 skills. And they did an excellent job of splitting PVP and PVE. Making PVP very competitive and PVE quiet fun to play. And now they cant do it with a limited amount of skills and classes? And no u cant balance PVP and PVE, not when Anet is aiming to get GW2 in e-sport. What is going to hapkitten balance PVP and then leave PVE with the consequences

Well Kanto since u are oh soo wise. I challenge u to do the mission i mentioned in my first post with your Mesmer. Then do the same thing with an Ele, Necro, Eng… and then compare those two runs.

evocati.8712:

Sorry about the double post, but I’d like to address these points individually:

Miyakuzi.2964:

…

1)Staff: Staff has one AOE and that is Chaos storm ( 1st skill doesn’t bounce, is unreliable)
2)GW: has one AOE, and that is “beserker”, again unreliable. 2nd skill also not that good ( bounces are limited) , 3rd skill really low radius.

Staff: Your basic attack hits several targets. Chaos storm hits several targets. Chaos armor hits as many targets as are hitting you and gives very good defensive buffs. The only single-target attack is warlock.

All of greatsword attacks are AoE, except for the autoattack.

- Berserker always snares your target and anything else in its path. It’s hardly unreliable.
– Mirror blade is great – it puts a clone ON your target and it always bounces several times on targets within range. You can bounce it off yourself if you’re close enough.
– Yes, the aoe on mind stab (?) / gs 3 is small; that means YOU have to learn to aim it better.
– GS 5 is an aoe knockback.

Miyakuzi.2964:

Now U suggested to cast phantasms and then shatter them. What is the use of phantasms then?? Why not make all illusion clones and lower the cool downs. I would rather have that, since I benefit more from shattered illusions( traits) .
Didn’t U read my post where I was saying that Illusions sometime tend to get one shotted ?

If your illusions die a lot, perhaps you should consider the on-illusion death traits. Illusions aren’t tanks, they’re distractions / “living hexes”. The mesmer is NOT a pet class.

Miyakuzi.2964:

Now lets talk about Utilities. We have mantras which no uses ( that like 5 utilities gone), we signets that are useless(3-4 Utilities gone). What is left is a limited pool of utility skills left making variation limited.

To conclude, Mesmers don’t have a RELIABLE way of dealing AOE dmg.

Mesmers have plenty of AoE – your problem is that you need to learn to utilize it better.

NO is disagree

Staff:
Basic atk don’t hit several targets, you can hit 2-3 if u are lucky. Most of the time it will ony hit one target.
GS:
Beserker= Unreliable AOE
Mirror blade =small bounce range
Mind stab= cant be cast while moving
And GS5= good knock back, but its just a SITUATIONAL cc skill

I don’t think u understood anything i was saying. Mesmer has some AOE, but it is UNRELIABLE!!! Meaning Cheaos storm is the only reliable form of AOE dmg.

Can someone explain to me why Anet has decided to not split PVE/PVP from each other like they did in GW1. Every sane person will tell u that u cant balance both modes with the same nerfs/buffs. Since every nerf in PVP might have grave consequences in PVE and basically completely break the skill.
Now we have WvWvW, but Anet said explicitly that WvWvW was meant to be a fun mode, u just cant balance it.

PS: Anet did it in GW1, It did is with all 10 professions with a total of 1300 skills. And they did an excellent job of splitting PVP and PVE. Making PVP very competitive and PVE quiet fun to play.

Kanto.1659:

As others pointed, keeping your gear up to date is important. Personally every 10 levels or so I’d hit the TP and buy a full body new set of gear (don’t forget rings and amulets), oft times for less than 20 silver total.

Your complaints are valid, but you spoil it by mentioning you dislike Shattering. I dislike Shattering too, but there is a time and place for everything. Saying you dislike Shattering is like saying you like Rangers but dislike having a pet, so you never use one. You can play like that but it is a cornerstone of the class and if such distaste is so well ingrained then maybe the class is not for you.

That said you have a few utilities which will really help. Decoy sheds agro and gets you another clone, Mirror Images rocks until we get the clone-on-dodge. The class’ idea is that they do have AoE. On demand even, but if you refuse to it then you cannot complain about its lack.

As a non Shatter believer myself I hear you though. But lets say you agro three mobs. Staff (or greatsword) clone, Mirror Image, Shatter. Staff (or greatsword) phantasm followed by its clone and Decoy. Shatter again. Now both damage Shatters are down. Chaos Storm if you have it up and mop up. This was my standard procedure against three or more mobs.

I leveled with the Staff and with a distaste for the Greastsword, and only at 80, with all traits in place and all. did I made it my main weapon. Now that I know what to aim for I would have used it since much earlier.

10 points in Domination, for example, nets you a cripple-on-death trait. Since all GS clones spawn in melee that means you are sure to be keeping mobs slowed as the combat starts. Add another 10 points and you can have a Greatsword cooldown reduction.

20 in Dueling and you have the fabled clone-on-dodge. You can remove Mirror Images at this point in life.

With five points in Illusion and you have a 20% CD reduction on all illusions, traits and weapon skills. With this base core I mentioned you’re a mass producer of illusions with things dragging their leg as they try to catch up.

As for gear try to aim for power + crit. Nothing else is really needed.

Yes i have up to date Gear. I have the best gear u could get at my lvl. I have a lvl 80 eng so money isn’t a prob for my mesm at that lvl. Did that same mission with grenade kit eng, I was wreaking faces.That said, I didn’t say mesm doesn’t have enough dmg. The mesmer just lacks AOE. Also during the whole mission, I didn’t die once. Mesmer has good kiting. . I run GW/Staff ( as far as I am concerned other weapons are bad in pve) .

1)Staff: Staff has one AOE and that is Chaos storm ( 1st skill doesn’t bounce, is unreliable)
2)GW: has one AOE, and that is “beserker”, again unreliable. 2nd skill also not that good ( bounces are limited) , 3rd skill really low radius.

Now U suggested to cast phantasms and then shatter them. What is the use of phantasms then?? Why not make all illusion clones and lower the cool downs. I would rather have that, since I benefit more from shattered illusions( traits) .
Didn’t U read my post where I was saying that Illusions sometime tend to get one shotted ?

Now lets talk about Utilities. We have mantras which no uses ( that like 5 utilities gone), we signets that are useless(3-4 Utilities gone). What is left is a limited pool of utility skills left making variation limited.

To conclude, Mesmers don’t have a RELIABLE way of dealing AOE dmg.

This topic will only deal with Mesmer in PVE. Unfortunately Anet somehow lost there sanity and didn’t split pvp and pve(same principle as GW1). That is why every nerf/buff for Mesmer in PVP has grave consequences in PVE. Anet should go back to the GW1 model because every sane person knows that u cant balance booth modes with the same skill set simply because they are so vastly different from one another.
Now back on topic. I was playing the PVE story line with my Mesmer, and i like the Mesmer even though he seemed really weak throughout the game. However it wasn’t until the mission “The battle of claw island” ( Massive hordes of undead atk lion arch) that I realized just how bad ( i mean really bad) Mesmer deals with large groups of enemies. The whole time I was just auto atk and running away from mobs, casting “Chaos storm” then again running around away from mobs and waiting till “Chaos storm” was back up. Ofc i used my GS as well, mainly to cast beserker, but once you are getting chased by so many mob most of the GS skills are not usable while the enemies are chasing u. Yeah i know what u are thinking but we have “shatters”, well they were useless every time i tried to stack my illusion they
1) would get one shoted
2) they would not deal AOE dmg ( i mean the radius on those thing is really small )
3) their dmg was low to basically even bother to macro it all properly

I really like the Mesmer, but the whole illusion thing doesn’t seems to have been though out properly ( I would rather have hexes back from gw1) . For instance, it is really hard to predict how mobs tend to react to your illusion. Sometimes they ignore them completely and rush strait for u. Other times they just stop atk u all of a sudden and start atk the illusions . Also the AOE from Phantasms is unpredictable ( mainly berserk). Sometimes as soon as u cast your spell, " Berserker" will spin around. Sometimes when u cast the spell he will wait, then atk when the mobs have spread out making him only hit 1 mob.

Here is a quote from someone later down the topic that explain well why the mission was so annoying

On Claw Island, enemies spawn out of thin air. You’re in a fort with a line of cannons but.. it’s all useless. Enemies spawn right behind you, on top of you, no matter where you are. Why don’t they just spawn behind the Queen and end the war?
With Mesmer, this is even worse because on Claw Island enemies completely ignore your illusions. Every time they go after you and you alone.
Ianervan