Guild Wars 2

I want to sympathize but…

…I’m a Mesmer going for Bifrost. Rainbows and butterflies for everyone!

Thorn.7963:

There is nothing fun about a zerg.

Then stop running in one. The event requires groups to be active across the map. If champs are spawning because of a zerg, then something is being neglected elsewhere. ANet structured this one well.

Moteris.5913:

Well because some of us are choosing to enjoy the game instead of crying about the lack of things. OR what the devs did wrong…blah blah blah…

+1

Mesmers, it’s time we had a talk.

As you grow up, you’re going to notice your character is going through some changes. You’ll develop traits you never knew you had, and there will be skills you never thought to try. And once you start getting more comfortable with your newly found talents, you’re going to experience the urge to party. Don’t worry. This is perfectly normal.

I’m not here to tell you to abstain from partying. Quite the contrary; partying can be a very enjoyable experience between consenting players. It’s important to go in prepared, though. You need to have a conversation with your team to make sure everyone is comfortable. After all, there’s nothing more awkward than having one player blast your fire field while another is trying to give you a cleansing burst.

Developing synergy in your party is going to ensure you can slide into home base effortlessly. You want to make sure there is adequate access to condition removal (burning is not a desirable party outcome), and protect yourself by reflecting missiles that are trying to impregnate you. Talk with your party members about what your goals are, what you need to get the job done, and make sure everyone knows their role in that.

An example of this came up earlier when I posted my Mighty Jackpot Build that almost perfectly mirrored skcamow’s Chillruption variation. The difference is that skcamow’s build focuses on locking down enemies by chilling them where my build stacks might to share with the party. If I’m partying with two guardians who are each packing a staff though, I might find myself sitting in the corner instead of contributing to the fight. At that point, I’d be better off using skcamow’s build since might is covered.

As a Mesmer, we have a plethora of builds that can perform all kinds of tricks on the field. Fortunately, Fay has compiled a list of Mesmer builds and guides. Using this, you can increase your repertoire in the dungeon and be effective in any situation.

Just remember, communication is key to any party, and having a conversation before things get going hot and heavy will make for a rewarding experience.

Happy partying.

Yaks are a significant percentage of the score; each Yak is worth three points. They also reward points for finishing their routes.

Yaks are on timers. There’s only so many of them to go around. Player populations, on the other hand, vary greatly. There’d be a lot of bizarre score activity if we started awarding points for player kills.

WvW is structured around securing and holding objectives. Those objectives require supplies from the Yaks, so it makes sense that the they give points. Players aren’t your objectives, though. They’re your obstacles.

EDIT: Fixed the yak points to match what Devon said below. Didn’t want to disseminate false information!

Until recently, I have only known you from the Dev Tracker subforum. I saw you as a warrior of justice and a guardian against bots. There are those who would thieve from the life force of Tyria, but you engineer methods against them. Your service is anything but elementary.

Then, I read your GW1 wiki page. Tales of your heroism—and perhaps some of this wine—went straight to my head. It was in that moment I became truly mesmerized.

When I think of you, I no longer need agony resistance. You are the howler of my warhorn, the bolt in my heart. As sunrise becomes twilight, I want to share all of eternity with you. You are truly legendary, Ms. Gray. //kneels and produces an ascended ring// Will you marry me?

Before you protest insisting I can’t give you this ring because it’s bound to my account, please know there is no one I would trust that with more than you.

Absolutely not. I’m happy with my engineer, and generally knock the fluff out of kittens with him. We’ve got a steep learning curve, but we’re hardly a broken class. And the traits! They’re my favorite part. Who else has such easy access to perma-swiftness? And at 25% health, we can trait for a 3-sec invuln + all healing skills recharge. That’s a safety switch that has saved me countless times. The Tool Kit in WvW is a god-send, and Bomb Kit in PvE is my bread and butter. I’m having a lot of fun as we are now.

Besides, even if we do get an overhaul, who says that the new Engi will be any better? It’d be starting from scratch all over again, which brings about a whole host of balance and bug issues.

Is it bizarre that I’m totally loving the match-up I have now? Crystal Desert is paired with Kaineng and Yak’s Bend. It’s a challenging matchup for us, and we’re finding a lot of reasons to keep pushing ourselves.

Of course, there has been a learning curve for a number of reasons. One of them is hearing things like “Yak is almost into Hills!” over TeamSpeak. At first I panicked thinking, “Kitten! There aren’t even swords up. Must be a YB golem rush.” In reality, someone was referencing a dolyak bringing in supplies.

I have a flashy top or two in Norn light armor, but I could really use a pair of pants that show off my assets.

After spending a week with TC and then Mag, this forum is so refreshing. I don’t even mind dropping loot bags for you guys anymore! Sure I’m annoyed that I have to fight every second for CD garrison, but hey, that’s war. (Though while we were recapping it tonight, I threw ACs instead of rams. Oops.)

Love,
The Snow Leopard that charged your treb, and ran straight off a cliff

Not sure who the HoD group was running havoc on CDBL tonight, but you guys are well rehearsed. We couldn’t take you down on even terms, and our best bet was to try to stay one step ahead of your movements.

I was the Norn Mesmer who was pinned up for a bit. Told the map to respect your work which resulted in a number of /salutes thrown your way. Thanks for the fights, and apologies for running like a little kitten a few times

Hey now, this fruit is anything but low-hanging. You’re gonna have to climb the tree first.

There was a new build that came out today to fix a few things. I just wanted to comment that the new build was perfectly timed so that active LA raids were not interrupted, but we could all get back in for the next raid as well. I don’t doubt that this was by design.

Yesterday had to have been a long day at ANet HQ. The patch was delayed to ensure that things ran smoothly, and they mostly did. A few fixes are totally understandable, and I loved that ANet had the foresight to time it properly.

Thank you for all the hard work, ANet!

hannah mee.7925:

TL;DR – Yes to a mini, no to the free one for Christina.

Can’t stop us all from gifting Christina minis! I imagine she’d be flooded with or without a contribution from ANet.

Johje Holan.4607:

There’s no way they can consult with us. We don’t agreee on anything.

For every suggestion, there’s someone who hates it. For every complaint, there’s someone who disagrees. For every change, there’s people who asked for it and people who threaten to quit over it.

+1

We all remember how the WvW score reset went. Lots of people wanted it. Then ANet announce it and lots of people freaked out.

ArkAngel.7940:

Sorry DH and CD. We already took the lead. It’s game over for you guys.

Can we give HoD the win this week for this post alone?

Sword/Focus is my go-to setup. Very useful in WvW. Pull everyone in with Temporal Curtain, pop a Feedback Bubble and iLeap (which only works half the time), Swap and Blurred Frenzy. (While in Blurred Frenzy, you can use insta-casts, so pop off a Mirrored Images + shatters and people go crazy.) Blink away from the hornets nest you just stirred up. Everything’s on cooldowns at this point, but it’s great for pushing a line.

The focus makes this so much better. It gets a group of enemies together so all the other skills will splash them (assuming they don’t just dodge away), and it interrupts so they won’t be swinging as you’re charging.

Let’s not diminish Keenlam’s awesome competition here with the back and forth.

Let the builds speak for themselves. If you have a dispute, take it to the arena and duke it out. Last person standing wins

Oh heavens. We all have dreams, mine just happens to be of the dead bodies of my opponents.

At least I know my dream will come true.

I’m all for this, mostly from an aesthetic point of view (though that comment about Matrix style fighting sounds awesome.) I run with a focus, and I picked up Courage (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Courage) which looks a lot like a bottle of alcohol.

If I could run with a pistol in one hand and booze in the other, I’d be a very happy Mesmer.

kurtosis.9526:

Thanks, but, um… really or are you just kidding?

/confused

No joke, it really triggers at 50%. Learn to burn a few shatters as your health is dropping and it won’t be wasted.

Hi arem!

I’m an administrator for the Crystal Desert forums (http://crystal-desert.com/). I spend a bit of time trying to keep up with the guilds on the server for a few reasons, one of which is to chime in with recommendations. Here are a few guilds that might fit what you’re looking for.

Veteran’s of the Mists [redt]
Guild Leaders: blueblog.1726 and Herd.2764
Website: http://www.reddit.com/r/redditgw2/
Everytime I come across a [redt] player in game, it is always a positive experience. They’ve got hustle and heart, and are PvX with a PvE focus.
EDIT: Looks like [redt] is alliancing/merging with [KA] to keep an active roster. Either way, the guild leaders listed here should be able to explain all that if you chat with them.

We Came To Dance [WCTD]
Guild Leaders: Air.6452 and Mattrimcauth
Very active in game and very upbeat crew. After all, it’s a group of Dancers! Also PvX, focused in WvW.

Chillin Like a Villian [CLAV]
Guild Leaders: Juz Chillin and Tanya Aotearoa
Website: http://chillinlikeavillain.enjin.com/
Large guild that covers most all timezones. The leadership supports their guild members in a way that is rare to come by. A true PvX guild.

So far as meeting up with other CDers, 6 or 7 of us from [SoH] are headed for PAX East in April. It’s a bit of a trek from Portland, but if you have tickets already, that would be a great meetup spot.

Ravion Hawk.4736:

This would be even more hilarious if this was ANet’s answer to AFKing in LA.

Send enemies with “launch” and boot them out the door.

Can we kite them to the AFKers? That would be some trolling action I could get behind.

MrSilver.5269:

635 ppt.

http://img5.imageshack.us/img5/9821/rn7a.jpg

Hey, you missed four CD camps there! Please hurry up and cap them before I get home from work. I enjoy a challenge.

The original Glicko system was found to be a bit faulty because the tiers became “locked” and there was rarely any movement. So, ANet added a random variable, which is also behaving in a way that might not be intended. Currently, there is a 240 point gap between ranks 12 and 13. (Crystal Desert: 1662, Borlis Pass: 1422) 240 points above Crystal Desert includes 6 servers, and 240 points under Borlis Pass includes 5 servers.

When lower ranked servers face higher ranked servers, they often gain ranking even if they are stomped. And the reverse is true for the higher ranks; they aren’t stomping hard enough to gain rank points.

Statistically, we’re more likely to be matched up against servers that are closer to our ranking, so Borlis will probably fight opponents under them, and Crystal opponents above them. We’ve seen matchups that exceed this 240 point spread already, so it’s possible that we can bridge this chasm in points. If the RNG doesn’t make it happen soon, however, we’ll have a gap in points that can’t be bridged.

Ah, I came from WvW to sPvP, though I think it was under different premises than the verbally vile. I knew I sucked at 1v1/small group fights, so I headed to HotM to get better at it.

That said, I’ve had the same experience you’ve had. I’ve been flamed by my own teammates plenty of times even. And for kitten’s sake, I’m in hotjoin because I know I suck, not because I want someone else to tell me that :P

Aberrant.6749:

Hot Boy.7138:

I would also like a timer on it cause at the moment I just have to judge how long I think 60 seconds is if I’m trying to wait for the right moment to use the exit portal.

How I time the 60s portals… by playing this in my head twice.

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWuQVpBeqLs[/video]

Oof, I’ve got enough things going on in my head when timing a portal. Playing the Jeopardy theme wouldn’t fit in there

I watch my other skill cool downs. Distortion is usually my go-to. If it’s on cooldown, note how many seconds and pop it again. If it’s off cooldown, pop it and keep an eye on it.

I don’t play a thief, but generally thieves are my least favorite encounters. So much stealth, it’s hard to keep track of you guys! That said, I’m a blink-happy Mesmer popping all over the place. Between the stealth and the teleports on both sides, it usually ends up being a dizzying stalemate.

Came across a clever crew ganking the other night though. Two Mesmers pumping out clones, and one Thief hiding among all those extra bodies.

With great power comes great responsibility. If only it came with great loot, we’d be unstoppable.

With the new matchups, I’ve come across players who are very good at executing this. I seem to be locked down, or locked out of a tower, even after I’ve burnt all my “Get out of Jail Free” cards. (Mesmers come with quite a few.)

I am frustrated when this happens, but I would not support diminishing returns on CC. It takes a lot of skill for a group of people to be effective with this, and skilled gameplay should be rewarded.

Instead, I’m revisiting my build and utilities to see where I can get some extra wiggle room, and avoiding situations where I see it happen most often. My immediate response to locking people out of towers is that I start portalling reinforcements in through the back instead of having them charge the gate that is swarming with enemies.

Pfft. I’m the guy that loves bringing noobs along. I play to win, but I’ve got something of a carebear in me, and helping people get through their first few runs makes me happy. So the leaderboard does nothing for me, but hopefully I’ll see one of my mentees on it

I completely disagree with the OP.

I’m excited when a lowbie comes around. While commanding I had a guy that actually apologized for following me so closely; he said he didn’t know what else to do. We got him into our VoIP channel and found out that he had only been playing GW2 for a few weeks. So I explained everything as I went, which at one point included how to get supply and build an arrowcart. He had a lot of fun, and I was very happy to contribute to his gaming experience. He still runs with us and has developed a lot of skill in a two short months.

Get off your elitist horse and learn how to train the people that want to help you. Even if they have other level 80s, it’s not about exp leeching. It’s about the experience.

Nope. It’s unfortunate. I had hoped that there would be a rank cap so we could have individual builds (similar to level cap for character builds). Instead, we can get all the points and open all the abilities. So, that theoretically removes the need for a skill point reset.

Interrupts were certainly buffed, but we have few options for precise interruption. It’s mostly luck. Chaos Storm is random. Into the Void has a large telegraph now. Counter Blade requires casting Illusionary Riposte and then another .75 sec cast (assuming the block isn’t activated first.) Vortex has a 1.25 cast time, but at least it’s AoE.

By my count, our only precise interruption skills are Magic Bullet, Signet of Dom., and Mantra of Distraction. Long cast times are a problem on the other skills, because the opponent is likely able to complete their cast time before our interrupt procs.

That all said, I do love it when I can interrupt a Kill Shot or Churning Earth. Those are easy.

EDIT: Illusionary Wave is also decent, but doesn’t really fit the theme of interruptions. GS is a ranged weapon, and Illusionary Wave seems best used as a “Get away from me!” skill.

Happened on CD last night when we were building trebs to get a tower back on our borderlands. Eventually we got them built and took the walls down, but SBI stacked up in there to the point we couldn’t take it. Should’ve taken the despawning trebs as a sign :P

Back to it, the action this weekend has been great! Tons of action across the BLs, and the SoS NA presence seems to have gone up. At one point I was responsible for getting a bunch of our golems killed, and I woke up this morning to find naked pictures of my character on the internet.

In other news: I’m completely out of whiskey.

ANet said that name recognition should be meaningful. After all, commanders need to have some kind of reputation. The Name Change Contract contradicts this though. If I can get together 100 gold for a pin, I can scrape together ~28 gold to change my name anyway.

Having to buy gems to change a name does bar some circumstances that an account-wide pin would create. For example, creating new characters to pin up in WvW. No matter how experienced a person is, I would not want to follow a commander that is under lvl 10. Perhaps providing second/third pins at a discounted rate would be a better idea.

Mesmer has a steep learning curve; it requires a lot of finesse to be devastating with this class. As such, learning to fight a Mesmer also has a steep learning curve.

EDIT: Wanted to include a quote.

Crossplay.2067:

The versatility of our powers seems limitless as long as we are constantly thinking, “I wonder what would happen if I did this?”

Hi. My name is Jack, and I play a Mesmer with Runes of the Centaur.

Wait, this isn’t group therapy for Slow Mesmers? Oh. Sorry. Wrong thread.

DevonCarver.5370:

Has anyone noticed if the person that causes the siege to disappear has the siege deployment blocked icon on them?

Thanks for the response, Devon and Moderator!

I was definitely away from the starting zone, though I wasn’t actively looking at my boon bar to see if the siege deployment block was on. Unless someone can report sooner, I’ll keep an eye on that tonight.

Aside: There was speculation that if a commander puts supply into a build site, it speeds up the timer by a crazy amount. I tried deploying and building with my pin on and off and received the same effect. Friends who don’t own a pin also had their siege despawn, so i think we can dispel that one.

Thanks for the post! I would’ve completely missed this otherwise.

BP and IoJ, we missed you!

Finally the WvW maps are back up. Let’s get back to raising some hell.

This is an idea mostly for lower pop servers (there are a few outside of T8), though it could be tailored for anyone.

The WvW Olympics would be a series of events that teams register to compete in. The events should be focused on tactics that would be useful in the general course of WvWing, but should also be challenging enough that teams need to be clever. Anything that is allowed in WvW would be allowed in the Olympics, including guild buffs, superior siege, food, etc. (The only exception to this is commander tags.)

Below are some of my ideas for events. What are some events you would incorporate into the WvW Olympics? What rewards would you want to see from competing/winning? Is it even possible to organize something like this or am I optimistically delusional?

The 6-Camp Dash (For a team of 10)
How fast can your team cap all 6 supply camps in the green borderlands?
All 6 must be held by your server for time to be called, and be careful not to abandon one you’ve claimed. If it flips, that’s 5 min before RI wears off.

Bunker Tower Defense (For a team of 5)
How long can you hold a tower in enemy territory in EBG?
A zergball is coming at you in any second. How do you place your siege/use your abilities to keep them preoccupied? Time starts when the tower is capped by your server, and ends when you lose it.

3-Legged Golem Race (For a team of 5)
Can you get a Golem through a mapped out route before it dies?
Golems slow everyone down, and moving them quickly and discreetly is key. Using your WPs is disallowed, and winner is determined by the most health remaining. (Screenshot required.)

Dolyak Trebbing (For a team of 2)
Can you kill a dolyak using only a trebuchet?
You’ll never be worthy of the title Yakslapper unless you can pull this off. Winner is the team who uses the fewest number of shots. (I realize how ridiculous this one sounds, but it would be useful for counter-trebbing/eliminating enemy siege placement.)

Race for Attrition (For a team of 20)
How fast can you deplete SMC supply?
We all love SMC. It’s shiny and big and has a lot of great trebbing spots. Low pop servers rarely get their hands on it though. This is a race to run it dry. They can’t repair walls if they don’t have supply, amirite?

Is pontificating the new trolling? It seems we can’t dance across tornadoes without getting sucked in every so often.

I support rugged or intimidating legendaries. Everyone needs something that suits their preferences even if it isn’t my preference.

This is my request for fashion.

I really like the feathered option for light armor (or Flamekissed) except for the sleeves. The male version of this armor has sleeves that do no match the torso (though it matches the pants). The female version of this armor, IMO, completes the chest piece much better. I can see why this is as the female version of the pants have an opening in the front that matches the sleeves, where the male version doesn’t.

I enjoy some flamboyance in my armor selection, but I have a difficult time finding light armor male skins that suit this preference. Cutting the sleeves off the male feathered skins would go a long way for me; they are rather weighty for a torso that is sparsely ornamented. If it requires making the pants a little more showy, then I’m even more excited.

Thanks!

No Snip. Ok, maybe a little.

Chris.3290:

I respect the heck out of the people who we’ve been facing in NA prime and even your after hours crews (I was up late one night).

Both servers have improved greatly and I’m very happy with the level of fighting we’re seeing.

It feels so good, after all the BS in T3, to have enemy groups not afraid to take you on directly. You don’t hide in towers or run away from fights like YB and DB.
You respect us and yourselves enough to bring a good fight, and I salute you guys for it.

I’m enjoying the fights too. Open field is far more fun than other combat. At this point, anyone can grab an arrowcart and go bag-grabbing. When we face off in the open field, I know I’ve earned those bags (and you’ve earned the ones I’ve dropped for you.)

We’ve seen some comments about people being tired of this matchup. Looking at the scores, things aren’t going to change for a bit. Still, I’m engaged and striving to learn all I can before this matchup changes. Clearly there are many who share this sentiment given the battles we’re having.

Push hard, stand tall!

So glad someone else got this up. I was about to do the same

See you all on the other side of LA!

Thanks for the community effort here! I kept an eye out tonight, but ran without any issues. Happy followers all around.

I assume the bug is still lurking. As the conversation is starting to derail, please let us know if there’s anything else to keep an eye on. Otherwise we leave it to the pros.

I like the initiative for increased communication. The communication system in place is problematic.

While commanding, situations can turn on a moment’s notice and your original plan is suddenly useless. Sure, I may have planned a karma train, but the enemy responded and we’re pushed to defense. I also can’t leave the map because others on my server are pushing elsewhere and I’m keeping the enemy busy. (This is just one example.)

Sometimes I have a hard time coordinating the TS channel and typing into map chat while still fighting/strategizing. Updating the herald would become one more thing to add to the mix.

Perhaps to make it easier, have check boxes with preset categories such as group composition (Pick-ups, Guilded, Both) and activity (Offense, Defense, Havoc). I can click lots, but typing takes a bit more effort.

Glass cannon in a dungeon works for speed runs and rehearsed groups. It’s not a playstyle for everyone, however, as you need to know the dungeon mechanics very well and have a script of events to follow. One misstep and the whole house of cards comes crumbling down.

I love me some speed runs and I use glass cannon builds for them, but I also like to take a more casual pace too. I’m a WvWer at heart, but one day five of us WvWers decided we would go “exploring” in Arah P2. We were in there for four hours, and we had to request adult supervision at one point. But we we cleared it. I brought in a support build that day. To some, this approach to Arah sounds painful and a waste of time. But we had a great time, cheered each other on, took little breaks to grab more coffee and get back at it.

On the battlefield, I’m heartless and strive for surgical precision when I’ve got my commander pin up. But I’ve also got a carebear in me. Fortunately, Mesmer has builds viable for all walks of life.