Guild Wars 2

CandyHearts.6025:

Morfedel.4165:

Mystic.5934:

If I was in a zombie apocalypse… equipped with a infinite-bullet pistol and a sword… I would hold the sword in my right (dominant) hand and pistol in left. I feel like I could aim well enough with left hand, but when things got really serious I could use my right for the important things.

Untrue. Zombies in the zombie apocalypse only die with head shots, and your offhand just wont have the same accuracy as your main hand.

You’ll just have to master juggling so you can toss weapons back and forth between your main and off hands as needed.

OMG then what are we going to do until we get mainhand?

Help me Rick!

Distract them with Sky Flowers

Roll Ranger.

They are, imho, the best Roaming/Havoc class int he game. Whether flipping camps, handling other roamers, scouting, they hold their own very well. Necros and Thieves are cake for a trapper Ranger (barring the exceedingly good ones) and PU Mesmers I can usually hold my own against; 50/50 on the wins there.

Just bear a few things in mind:

• You bring very little to a zerg/blob battle.
• With practice and some investment, you can solo most anything except enemy groups.
• If the only thing you’re doing is looking for players to kill, you aren’t roaming. You’re playing sPvP with food.
• The pet maketh the Ranger. They take time to learn which does what and how they work, but are worth the investment.
• Most commanders/guilds do not know how to utilize Roamers. As a result, they’ll usually look at you with disdain. Try to find the ones that know what you bring to the table, and listen to them when they call for your aide. You’ll be SHOCKED at how much a good Havoc player can do in an enemy BL when the ZvZs get started.
• You are NOT PLAYING SOLO. You might not be a part of a party, and you might not see a friendly player for some time while deep in the enemy territories, but you’re not alone. Commanders need information, and you usually have it on hand. If you see the enemy forces while out and about, call it in. More than camps, more than Havoc, more than 1vX, this is the most impacting thing you can do when roaming. Knowing where the enemy blob is allows the commander to set priorities, pick targets, and guide your server to victory.

tl;dr:
Roaming isn’t dead, it’s just changed. Adapt, or Zerg.

Silverkey.2078:

Could chrono save you by going back before the apocalypse and prevent it from happening?

Only if the zombies don’t step on your orb!

While I get that adding a new weapon type to the kitten nal does little without first correcting the issues with current warrior weapon selection, I have to say:
I LOVE THIS IDEA
Having some punching animations with the Foci available can create some absolutely amazing flavor in combat. If they then link the Burst skill for a mainhand focus into a transfomation (Like Rampage but adrenal based) it could provide something to alleviate the weapons issue (at least for the focus). By having something in the Elite Trait that gives additional stats while transformed, boosting stats while wielding Foci, and a few other toys from existing traits you could create the same kind of stacking synergy that makes Ranger’s Maul and Thief Backstab hit as hard as they do.

As for having to sacrifice defense to achieve this damage… that makes perfect sense for a Berserker.

While I understand that the build is incredibly similar to the metabattle build, I am INCREDIBLY grateful for Nhymz for posting this.

Firstly, the vid is from a WvW perspective/setup, whereas the Metabattle is sPvP. While both deal with player on player action, both also have very distinctive needs and penalties. He also does an excellent job of explaining gear/skill/trait choices. Even if you don’t agree or want some of those choices in your build, you’re in a better place to make that decision after watching this.

Secondly, not every warrior has been playing since forever. HoT is drawing back in a lot of lost players, as well as bringing in some new blood. Even if this was the only build on metabattle (which is isn’t), they might now know the skill synergies or that the site even exists yet! For anyone coming to the class and needing a quick look at what to run, this is an EXCELLENT addition.

As for it not being “Legendary”, there’s several other “Legendary” builds in his video history; this is simply an update on those builds that coincides with the sPvP build on metabattle. This is a solid build, with great information, and presented very well for anyone looking to pickup Warrior.

~2.

I started with a human mesmer and got to 60 when u realised I hate the voice of and look. So, I rolled a char and started over. Haven’t needed the slot just yet, so the first is just relaxing.

Descended from an ancient hero of Ascalon, Champion of the Vigil, and Warrior of the Great Spirits. After two years in deep storage, Skif F Galco has returned!
To celebrate, I got him a complete makeover kit, some useful new skills, and some fancy threads.

Full Norn Cultural T3, w/ Fiery Dragon Sword and Vigil Warhorn.
White, Midnight Ice, and Nightshade Dyes (except horns, which are Mocha)

This message really hit home for me.

When I first joined Teef I was so full of light and hope (Shadows and Trickery?), ready to not just play a thief, but to BE a Teef. But the changes in the June patch just killed something in my enjoyment of the class, so I tried other classes to get better. First Mesmer, then Ranger. Then I decided I wanted to get back into WvW heavily, so I rerolled Mesmer for the utility of Portal, Focus pulls, and Group Stealth all in one. Working on all of this got me into a WvW dedicated guild, and my time in game usually just coincides with their primary playtime.

It’s not that I ‘left’ the guild, or decided to stop being a part of it. I just kind of gravitated away from the thief. Which has sadly left me at a bit of a crossroads on what my next steps should be.

Ironbars.9123:

Also I am using the PU roaming build and gear recommended on MetaBattle.

Before using the metabattle build, please READ THIS POST

It’s filled with great advice.

As for food, you want Rare Veggie Pizza and Krait Tuning Crystal.
Those, however, are expensive. So, I use Super Veggie Pizza and Quality Tuning crystals. Much cheaper, still potent!

Tips that instantly made me a better condi Mes:

1. Shatter with two clones. It’s ok. Really. Don’t need to wait for three clones, go ahead and shatter. Instead of waiting for a third, shatter the pair then get a fresh pair up.
2. Be careful with Desperate Decoy (trait from dueling). It can break attacks chains and trigger revealed with poor timing.
3. Get sigils that work on weapon swap. Swap weapons. Don’t wait for CDs, swap into a fresh rotation. Both Scepter and Staff are friends.
4. You don’t creates clones if you don’t have a target. So, if you want decoy’s stealth but don’t want to draw attention release target.
5. Energy bolts break stealth. I know this seems common sense, but if you sling a Staff/Scepter Auto-Attack, there’s a time gap between it and when the hit occurs. Stealth too soon, the attack will hit and reveal you.

Hope these help you as much as they did me!

AlphatheWhite.9351:

tl;dr: I’m persisting not for his sake, but for the other people who will read this.

It’s much appreciated.

To be clear, you couldn’t give SMC Distortion; it’d only hit walls/siege you were standing very close to.

Either way, good thing to fix quickly.

Side note, what if Pledge isn’t bugged, but the tooltip is just wrong?

DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUN

I just have this mental image of someone running into SMC and making the whole thing distorted while the zerg stands outside scratching their heads about what to do next!

On the other hand… no Pledge Fix means another week of whining :-(

Firstly, thanks for gathering this Data. Might have to give stand around one day and take a tally to add to the numbers as well!

I also agree that dropping Might and Fury from the SoI is an excellent idea. It gives it a more definitive feel, and makes the Boonshare builds more fun to use!

Also, as much as I hate to see any source of Swiftness get removed from Mesmer, it does seem out of place on Chaos Armor. So, that’s getting +1 from me as well!

I think it’s an excellent idea, and will allow the kinds of guilds that actually help one another to boost their players much easier. Sadly, there will be some stupidity with the ‘yunoZerk mesmer, lul newb’ garbage, but there’s always going to be that crowd!

Hello Warriors!

The Plea:
In less than 10 hours from the time of this posting, I’m going to be attending a ‘Warriors Themed Event’, and I seem to be lacking a decent build!
I’ve looked at Sword Master, and it’s currently what I’m considering since it just looks fun, but Phalanx Strength and Shouts Frontliner (Seriously need a better name!) caught my eye as well.

Help me put a build together?

Stipulations:

• I’m fine with a complete regearing, and have 700 Badges of Honor to start me off, but Karma is spent out (Peacemaker Skins for my Mesmer) and I’d like to stay under 100g for everything combined.
• I’ve been playing a LOT of condi recently on other classes. It’d be nice to have a power build. for this one.
• I spend the overwhelming majority of my play time in WvW these days, and I like to Roam. By roam, I do not mean looking for duels; by Roam I mean flipping camps, tagging keeps, and putting eyes on enemy forces when the commanders need it. A build that can still do these things is EXACTLY what I’m looking for; even if it’s not as great at them as my Mes or Ranger, flipping camps is how I relax.
• OOC Movement is extremely important to me. As mentioned above, getting around a map is a big deal in my playstyle, so something that can get from place to place without feeling like I’m listening to “I Would Walk 500 Miles” on repeat for all eternity.

‘Experience’:
By technical definition I’m not a noob warrior; I played one at release until the Karka event as my main/only char. It was my first 80, and I worked to get it fully geared in Exotics when that was actually a meaningful task! That said, in reality I’m totes noob. I’ve taken a few breaks from the game over the years, and for long periods of time. Each time I came back I rolled something new to relearn the mechanics and just ended up never picking Warrior back up. As a result, it’s been over 2 years since I last played the class, so please feel free to ‘Explain it like I’m three’. I won’t take offense.

Resources:
The advantage to the technically not-a-noob part is that I’m not starting from complete scratch. I’ve acquired a few pieces of gear to start with. I’m fine with replacing everything, but I figured a list of what I currently have might help slide in under the 100g stipulation!
(Only exotics listed)
Armor:

• Full set of Cavalier
• Rabid gloves and pants
• Soldier’s Chest

Trinkets:

• Full set of Valkyrie
• Rabid Amulet and Rings (Ascended)
• Zerker Rings (Ascended)

Weapons:

• Two Zerker Axes (Both with Fire Sigils)[Don’t laugh, it was a long time ago!]
• Zerk GS (With one Fire sigil; second sigil slot is open)
• Soldier’s Hammer (No sigils yet)

Runes:
I’ve got a few misc runes tossed about, but I do have a full set of Trooper currently equipped to the Cavalier armor (and am alright with salvaging that armor down to get as many of them back as I can).

Crafting:
Every craft is at 400 or above, and I do have some Karma, should I need a specific recipe. Obviously the farmed recipes are out, but that’s what the AH is for!

Closing:
Even if you don’t have a build to throw up, thanks for taking time to read this.
If you do have a build, or suggestions and tips, they’re very much appreciated.

I’m looking forward to the thoughts and posts that follow!

Embolism.8106:

Nachyochez.9758:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Does alacrity affect Rune/Sigil ICDs?

No. All testing I’ve done and seen from the forums is that it only affects the CDs of the skills on your bar and shatters. Trait/Rune/Sigil/Signet ICDs remain unaffected.

It does affect the CD of traits that use skills, such as Mental Defence and Illusionary Inspiration.

Curious if this is a bug or WAI, since it doesn’t impact ICD (like Ineptitude) but is working with Mental Defense (taking you word as I’ve not tested that one)

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Does alacrity affect Rune/Sigil ICDs?

No. All testing I’ve done and seen from the forums is that it only affects the CDs of the skills on your bar and shatters. Trait/Rune/Sigil/Signet ICDs remain unaffected.

So, having had the chance to play Chrono a little more, my feedback:

Note
#I’m not a pro Mesmer, so I’m likely missing some possibilities.
#I’m running PU.
#This is a WvW perspective as I don’ sPvP and am trying to save PvE for release
#I’ve not played as much thus far as I’d have liked

Feedback:
I dropped Duelist for Chrono from my build, since the primary point of Duelist is cover conditions, extra Confusion, and more clones. Chrono provides much of those same abilities by boosting my number of shatters and providing more clones, with a LOT more utility. As a result I was able to drop Precision for Vitality (Dire instead of Rabid) and my Conditions per tick were actually higher as a result (Krait utility) and I was able to apply FAR more AoE pressure thanks to the single well I tossed on Utility #3 (Calamity), the increased number of Shatters, and the Alacrity reducing Staff #5 so much. I was even able to keep Chaos Armor up far far easier than I had been previously!

Was it OP? Yes, and No.

‘Over’ and ‘Under’ imply a middle somewhere. If we’re using the pre-HoT PU build as a nice middle-of-the-pack guide, then Chrono is certainly OP. I was able to do the same damage in the same style, with more utility AND survival, all without switching to a skill just for running. That said, if I were to compare this to my ‘Trapper’ ranger as the middle-bar, I suddenly feel as if the Chronomancer is perfectly balanced. It really feels the way the class SHOULD be by default. I was able to use PU to reset a few fights, flip some camps, and contribute to battle effectively. The biggest difference between today and Thursday being that when I reset a fight, it was a genuine reset, not fleeing in terror because I had no options at my disposal.

All in all, while I know some features will likely be changed, this was an awesome experience for me. To the extent I don’t know how I’m going to play Mes w/o those features now!

Firstly, we need to temper expectations:
Nightfall and Factions were not expansions. They were standalone Campaigns that could be played alongside the original GW (Later dubbed ’Prophecies) or completely by themselves. Eye of the North was an actual expansion, which opened up far less land but introduced some new mechanics and features tot he game. So, when comparing HoT, it needs to be to that release, no to the campaigns.

Secondly, we have only a few pure level 80 areas:
Cursed Shore, Southsun Cove, Dry Top, and Silver Wastes.
None of these areas have hearts, or behave very much like Bloodtide coast. Instead they chain several events together, focusing on player-invested control of the areas. This is how level 80 zones typically look and work.

That said, to be an effective ‘expansion’ it just needs to have enough content to give players a break from the current game offerings (new dungeons, story modes, and maps to WvW/PvP), add something to the old game modes to refresh them (break bar and Elite Specializations), and all in all be fun.

Chronomancer feedback from all the long-term Mesmer:
“It’s about time!”

Jumped on and fooled with Chronomancer for a few minutes, so a few requests/tips for those coming on later:

“Guild” button was disabled for my chrono. Didn’t check Rev, and didn’t check before I was in WvW, so might be limited scope. ‘G’ didn’t work, and the guild ‘tab’ at the top wasn’t even there.

There’re three boxes of gear and a box of consumables. Consumables also contains lots and lots of runes/sigils to work with, and all three gear boxes have 1 piece of all gear (even stuff you can’t use) with select-able stats.

Chronophantasma got nerfed; phantasms respawn with 1 second daze

F5 appears to be a little broken. When I used it, I proceeded to use every shatter I had on a Guard, only to get no recharge reset(but SO MUCH ALACRITY). After the fight, I noticed the continuum was on the ground, and the reset happened when I was nearly halfway to the nearest keep (about 30 seconds after usage, at least). It seems the clones I shattered AFTER using F5 counted for the duration. Can I get another tester for confirmation?

You can get pseudo-perma swiftness with Signet of Inspiration, The Prestige, Decoy, and Mass Invisibility. You’ll also need The Pledge and Prismatic Understanding traits. I say pseudo, because it’s completely RNG based. You’ll have a 20% chance to get Swiftness for 3 seconds every second, and 5 seconds of Swiftness every 10 seconds. You could also use Veil to give yourself additional Stealth uptime, or Blink to help on hills to boost speed a little bit.

This’ll last you just north of 40 seconds (w/o Veil), with spotty swiftness…

Thank goodness for Chronomancer.

I certainly won’t be giving up Torch/Blink/Decoy on my PU Condi, but I could see Recall taking utility slot #3 since it’ll DRASTICALLY improve Chaos Armor uptime!
Shield I see as more of a Boonshare offhand than anything else, and even then primarily for PvE encounters. A fun tool, but beating out Focus/Torch/Sword off hands is always going to be a tall order.

I could see the ‘support’ wells getting some use in holding a gate beside some eles. Just drop it to keep them Alacrity so they can nuke the siege operators. Otherwise, as Exciton said, the offensive ones just have more use in large-scale combat.

I can see Gravity getting some use. It’s a Dark Field, which we didn’t have before, and deals damage in addition to granting decent stability. Not as generally useful as Warp, but I could see a Boonshare packing this to explode stability in a high-cc environment.

Macha.9160:

Don’t know if its already mentioned (or already known) but f5 skill gives us now only 1,5s per illusion….

To be fair, even giving only 1s per illusion and not counting the Mesmer (max 3 seconds) is still going to make that shatter INCREDIBLY powerful.

Took a few minutes, but grabbed a few screens of the current wells from the stream.

If anyone is bored, they also show the traits earlier on in the video.

messiah.1908:

yeap power will defently benefit from this elite trait line

condi bit less

I’m not sure this is necessarily true. By dropping Dueling and using x/1/3, a Shatter Condition Mesmer is going to be able to spam the ever loving gobstoppers out of anything near them; nearly 2 full rotations of shatters as an opening volley. That’s a LOT of confusion and torment stacking in a very short time. On top of that, Sc #3 is going to hit more times, and faster, and your recharge on Chaos Armor is going to be sooooo short thanks to that amount of Alacrity being stacked at the start of the fight.

As a condi mesmer, I’m looking VERY forward to Chrono.
Edit:
Watching the latest stream, it seems they moved some traits around on Chrono. by x/1/3, I mean “Illusionary Reversion” and “Seize the Moment” to give unlimited clones to shatter with.

Whelp, thank you all so much for helping me be less bad.

Made the suggested changes to traits and skills, adjusted my play style to the strengths of the class, and was able to take a camp all by my lonesome and with no trouble.

Much appreciated!

I felt the same way as a Ranger. Then I swapped to Mesmer and suddenly EVERYONE is playing a Mesmer. I think that once you get used to seeing certain abilities and then they happen when you’re NOT using them it sticks, making it look like EVERYONE is using those same abilities.

apharma.3741:

But, if he gets really good at PvP we can call him the serial killer =D

… now I’m torn

Kaiyanwan.8521:

From now on you shall be known as “C3PO”!

I second the motion.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Delayed Reactions: yay, another interrupt trait…honestly getting tired of depending on interrupts. Maybe if they readded interrupt effects on bosses/champs I’d be more enthused. That said, for pvp lockdown builds this is obviously a gem of a trait, and honestly gives a necessary incentive for lockdown builds to go chronomancer.

Like this one?

Tofu.1978:

Nachyochez.9758:

Can it also be used on a door to pull people off of siege and just be a pest?

I don’t actually know for sure. I would imagine so but I’ve never tried it from the inside. You aren’t pulling them any distance since the door is in the way so it wouldn’t delay them more then 1 second and there would most likely be others stacked on the door that the pull might target instead or would just hop on the ram immediately.

It works better in the offensive sense when a few defenders inside a tower are being annoying with well placed arrow carts because you know who it is going to pull and you can time it up with another mesmer to pull them all the way out, or with an ele or other aoe to try to down them. Then hopefully there isn’t someone else to take their place on the siege.

By itself, 1 second is nothing. But, if used to pull an enemy from building siege while Necros and Eles blast their work down it starts to matter. Add in 2 or 3 more mesmers each timing to do the same thing, and suddenly a small group of 10 can hold a wall long enough to turn the tide. In theory, anyway.

An option worth exploring!

This is all great information guys, thanks so much!

Didn’t have a chance to go camping last night, but I did try to help on porting some allies back into the tower which failed miserably. The reason it failed, I think is the reason I might be having some trouble with camps: When I went stealth from Prestige, by scepter locked onto a guard and took a swing. I have “target on attack” turned on (I use it to grab things the second they pop out of stealth on Ranger) – is this causing me to grab a target from the blind on Prestige, and then auto attacking?

@Tofu, glad to know I’m not wasting time with the positioning practice. Getting the rangers on the lip is the goal of the pull, so I’ll keep on it. Good idea about chaining interrupts though; have to keep it in mind next time. Can it also be used on a door to pull people off of siege and just be a pest?

I’m going to be honest. When I first wrote this thread, I was terrified it was going to be filled with people accusing all new Mesmers of being band wagoners, diatribes and insults, and general poor sportsmanship. However, having read through these replies, looked over my options, and seeing the overwhelmingly positive feedback I’m getting, I sincerely wish I’d asked sooner!

I’m now torn on Sigils.
On one hand, corruption sounds VERY sexy in the way it works, but I’m not sure if it’s worth giving up Bursting (+ ~110 perma Condition damage vs +250 w/setup)… maybe if I just drop it onto the scepter, I can see what it does. Dilemmas dilemmas!

I think my biggest overall issue was over-reliance on Scepter. Due to the amount of focus on the Torch (PU/Pledge/Prestige are constantly mentioned as major part of the build) and the fact it’s always placed as weapon set #1 on the build calculators, I assumed it was the primary setup for the build. What I’m seeing in discussion, though, is it looks more to be the set I use when Staff is on full CD and I want an Energy proc to setup for Shattering.

My guess would be: Start in Sc/T to stealth in, open with a little torment and a lot of confusion to kite to LoS and clump. Dodge clone, swap, dodge-shatter, #5, #2, dodge-shatter, #4. Blink/Decoy as needed to stun break/gain mobility/reset, and toss in a few more dodge-&-#2-shatters. Swap back to Sc/T for reset, when on full CD or need more energy for clones?

Am I on the right track?

(part 2 due to char count)

The sigils in the build are horrid. You should have an energy sigil on both sets, at least they got that right. You also need doom on at least one set. I like to put it on my staff. I used to run double doom, but now I take a corruption sigil because the +250 condition damage it provides is so strong.

I actually replaced cleansing with Bursting right off the bat (guess I changed more then I realized in OP!).

The changes your suggesting leave me with 2 questions:
1) What is Doom giving me? Am I misunderstanding that it only gives 1 stack of poison to the first target hit?
2) For some reason, I thought sigils like corruption ended on weapon swap unless you have it on the second weapon. From your suggestion, it seems I can swap freely w/o giving up my condition damage. Is this correct? If so, could I even replace the weapon (putting the sigil on something like a Focus then replace it with torch) once I’m stacked?

Fay.2357:

The last thing to note is that I always avoid taking desperate decoy. It can and will get you killed, by proccing as you use an attack and causing you to get revealed at a really awkward moment. I always take phantasmal fury instead, purely because desperate decoy will kill you.

I have a feeling this explains a LOT of the shenanigans I’ve had going on. 16k HP hits 50% often enough that it breaking my casts and knocking be back a step probably is one of my biggest issues. Thank you!

Fay.2357:

Ok, so now you’ve got an actually usable build. Let’s look at actually playing it.

Firstly, don’t bother trying to use this in a Zerg. It’s not worth the time and effort. If you want to Zerg, go for a power based setup, as glassy as you feel comfortable with, and use that instead. Better yet, hop onto a staff ele and be actually useful, it’s a nice feeling.

I played ele once for a few days, back when you had to unlock each weapon skill on each attunement for each weapon by gaining XP in that attunement/weapon. It was one of the worst experiences in my GW career. That said, I do have a power build, but I’m terrible at it. I suppose I’ll just keep at it when zerging and hope I can get better over time; running Valk Armor with Assassin weapons and Zerk trinks. (another situation where I’d rather run Assassin trinks, but already have Zerk ascended)

Fay.2357:

This build works great for roaming, both solo and in a party, so use it for that only.
Regarding camps, you really shouldn’t be having trouble with them. You’ve got enough toughness and healing that they won’t do a whole lot of damage to you as long as you don’t eat hits from a supervisor with flames. Flipping them quickly requires a bit of technique though.

Badically, you’ll want to LoS them all into a tight pack, then hit them with torch 4, a full shatter or two, and chaos storm. That’ll mostly kill the 4 minor guards, then you can kill the supervisor. Keep in mind that once you engage the scouts, they’ll cast a pulsing pbaoe blind that will make you completely useless if you stand in it, so don’t stand in it and focus on killing them first. Clones for shatters should not be put out slowly. You don’t have to worry about getting all your shatters to 3 clones. Instead, aim to make one clone from a skill, then a dodge clone, then shatter immediately. Doing that allows you to do shatters without any setup time.

I mentioned LoSing the guards. Every camp has a best spot to do this in, except NW camp which is just annoying. For SE, pull the guards behind the supply hut, and pull them around the corners of the hut for a tight pack. In SW, use the little house that’s in front of the camp and to the left of the path as you’re coming in, and do the same thing. In NE, you can pull all the guards except the supervisor around the left corner of the big rock as you’re entering the camp, then do the supervisor alone. North camp can be pulled easily when you enter it from the east, and LoS the guards to the left corner of the house just behind the supply hut. For NW camp, just sorta try to LoS alongside the walls a bit, but you’ll have to spread out a little more for that camp.

This was a great read, and I’m looking forward to putting it to practice. I think you spotted and corrected a lot of the issues I was having, and combined with Silver and Hel’s tips this will go a long way to making my learning curve less frustrating. I’ll craft up some Fine Nourishment and give the changes a go over the next few days and see how it feels.

Thank you all so much!

Thanks Fay, for two things. The first, the excellent advise (which I’m going to discuss below) and the second for giving me the chance to do a breakdown of this level!

Fay.2357:

Ok, so a couple things.

Firstly, the build. The metabattle build as given is pretty bad. It’s generally right, but missing a lot of the key elements that make the build work well. In general, take metabattle builds with several grains of salt.

I’m always seasoned the meta’s to taste, but since I am so unfamiliar with Mes I didn’t want to stray too far from the original. Thanks to your suggestions, I at least have an idea on some of what was going so horribly wrong.

Fay.2357:

Ether signet is the worst possible heal you could ever use. Every single other heal outperforms it spectacularly. Personally, I prefer mirror for the high uptime on reflects, but ether feast is burstier and will outperform mirror if you always use it with 2+ illusions.

I’ll toy with the other heals to see what ends up working for me. I’d enjoyed Mantra while leveling my human, but with the CD ‘fix’ I’m not sure I’ll enjoy it as much, so I’ll probably end up with Mirror as well since it’s traited. From my understanding I’ll get the reflect the entire cast time, then proc from trait for 2 seconds after use?

Fay.2357:

Arcane thievery is a really poor choice. It’s on an very long cooldown and really doesn’t do very much. A much better choice is the condition removal mantra.

Haha, you know I’ve never actually used thievery. I use the third utility as a swap-out. Portal/Inspiration/Domination have all held the spot for their fair share the past week. I’ll have to give Resolve a go!

Fay.2357:

You’re already doing this, but dire armor is an awful choice. You should run full rabid armor/weapons, though I prefer to use the dire/rabid mix trinket type. That rounds your hp out around 20k, but keeps your good crit chance.

As much as I want to try this, laurels take too long to gather and I very very rarely have time to do Fractals. Maybe with the big changes coming I could farm a set of the hybrid jewels; otherwise it’ll be a loooooong time before I can afford a third set of trinks to pickup Dire.

Fay.2357:

Perplexity are great runes, but undead are also great and like 50g cheaper, no problem there.

This is one of the changes I made to the Meta build I was most concerned was killing me. I’m glad to hear it wasn’t.

(continues below)

How important is the food/utility?

When just futzing around I tend to leave them off since I’m starting to run low on gold (saving up mats for Ascended back piece), but I’m starting to think that might be a large part of my problem if things are taking too long to die.

Whew!

Thank you both; that makes perfect sense and is solid advice I’ll start putting to use next time I’m on.

Do you think a gear swap would be advised/necessary, or am I just needing to practice the unique style of this class before investing more gold?

To be honest, in WvW the Ranger isn’t so much bad as there are many classes that are outright better. It’s because of this comparison that Rangers are ‘bad’ by comparison. In reality, (so long as we’re talking about WvW) I agree we’re in a pretty solid place.

Edit: Expansion!
In PvE and PvP the ranger IS in a pretty bad spot. Both have different problems and need slightly different solution, but in reality the class leaves a lot to be desired in the upper tiers of both game modes!

Silverkey.2078:

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This raises a question I need to ask, but before I do I have to explain.
As I mentioned earlier I also have a Condi Ranger that I used before swapping to Mes for the utilities. With it, I can flip any camp any time. I’ve flipped Dredge-enforced, upgraded, with guarded supply dolyaks ready to head out solo and did it with no issues.

From what I’m understanding, this isn’t going to be doable on Mes with disengage/reengage tactics? So I’d need to pick off the ranged targets, reset, then come back in for the lords and such?

Or is this just to get the hang of flipping, and the greater potential is there once I’m no longer a bad?

Helicity.3416:

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Thanks for the feedback! I have a full set of power gear and build, but considering how bad I’m doing at Condi roaming, you can probably imagine how poorly power goes for me. I don’t think I’ve actually managed a kill on it yet, but I’ve seen PLENTY of my mistform (vampiric runes).

A lot of my zerging is chilling in stealth, dropping clones to draw some fire from opposing players off my main group, and using Sig of Inspiration to flings copious amounts of boons to my commandeer and squad. I know I’m not turning tides, it’d just be nice not to be dead as much/more than I’m alive.

On flipping camps, I’ll have to try LoSing the ranged ones and clumping them together. I’d gotten too used to my ranger where I could axe-pull one in and ignore the other while my traps and pet dispatched the whole group. My biggest problem on Mes seems to be getting any of my clones to survive long enough to shatter. As soon as I summon them, one of the guards sneezes and I’m kiting the whole pack with no illusions up!

Ok, I’ve been trying for the last week to be a better Mesmer. I’ve read the guides (some multiple times, since they were being updated while I was reading through it!), watched tons of videos, and have been practicing nearly daily. I even went with what is known as an easier build with PU Condi! The only tweaks I’ve made are using Rabid instead of Dire (I had Rabid Ascended already, and liked the idea of cover conditions) and Undead instead of Perplexity (less costly, and they add a huge amount of condition damage to the build with additional survival).

Yet I can’t flip a single camp. Not one. Players I do alright against; certainly not pro but improving and putting up a fight in 1v2s, winning most 1v1s, and I feel alright in group battles, but the second I’m in a zerg or soloing a camp I feel like I’m running screaming with a club and my pants around my ankles. Not the embodiment of grace I should be.

Now, before the trolls set in: I don’t expect to be the best Butterfly Mage after a week on the class. I didn’t roll Mesmer to be the most powerful entity in existence. I did it to give my server access to Mesmer utilities like Portal, Veil, Mass Invis, and to wall-pull using Into the Void (Side note: I’ve not been able to get this to work, and all the info I’ve found on doing it is rather old. Does it no longer work?).

I’m looking to be better outside of being a tools-bot; flipping camps and standing my ground in fights. Please, help to to not only float like a butterfly but to also sting like a bee!

Having played the Condi Ranger in WvW for a few weeks now, and swapping a few sets of gear around, I’ve personally found that Rabid is the go-to set for trapping. Carrion is nice against other conditions, and if you haven’t got ascended trinkets yet then Chrysocolla is an excellent upgrade gem for a little extra HP.

The problems I’ve had with Carrion would likely translate to Celestial: Our non-survival and non-condition stats have terrible coefficients. Unless you’re stacking Power to the max, then it’s not going to do much to influence damage, and thus Fury also goes to waste since 180% of 0 is still only 0. Precision still helps out since it procs conditions from some of our traits, and Toughness is actually a great stat as long as you can pack some extra condition clears, since Krait Tuning will turn that into more Condition Damage at a higher rate than Vitality.

As for runes… Trapper’s are invaluable in ways you can’t appreciate until you’re using them. Against AI they’ll reset target from you to the pet. Against Bad players they do the same. Against good players they can be a crutch to buy you a second of thinking time. I honestly can’t see myself running a different run on a condition-based ranger ever again.

I’m currently running the PU Condition build; looking VERY Forward to chrono.

I’m likely going to be dropping Duelist for the Elite Spec. Currently Duelist provides extra clones on evade, another source of confusion (from the blinds on shatter), and a cover condition from bleeds.

Chronomancer is giving me another shatter with some REALLY cool effects, free clones on shatter (which can make for some absolutely NASTY initial setups, depending on where the new clone spawns), and Phantasms than can be shattered twice… that’s going to be some really fun condition shattering.

Really fun.

Looks like I’ll actually be doing fractals from time to time now. The current time investment was something I could only rarely manage. Now? Now I can get something done!

Battling them now and last week. They did REALLY well during the Golem Rush weekend and were able to put up just silly numbers. This week is a bit more balanced in what I’m seeing. From the map I’m seeing active in most parts of the day.

Holland.9351:

Wouldn’t this completely fall apart if the target is moving compared to zerker?

From my experience, moving battles usually work in favor of conditions. While you don’t get quite as many stacks up, you’re still applying damage in the process of transition. Power attacks that miss or are out of range drop much harder much quicker. You’d have to be fighting a moving target that you can maintain all attacks on for Power to not take a dip, and this dip can be far more drastic, depending on which attacks miss.