Guild Wars 2

Yea this build went from being pretty good pre-patch to incredible. Playing it is like being an…“elemesmer”. You have so much sustain by way of Protection, Aegis, Regen, Healing, Blinds, etc that it makes stealh a lot less necessary which I really like. And all of this while still being able to dish out really good damage. It’s pretty much by favorite build on mesmer right now. Kudos to you Chaos for coming up with the original build.

Vague Memory.2817:

It is definitely not just other classes calling for mes nerfs, but a few vocal mes mains. There are just some people who don’t like change even when it is beneficial. The changes actually make the class more accessible to new players, and I think some self-styled gurus feel threatened by that. I agree with the posters who are wondering why mes are getting so much attention when Guards, Engi and Necros have been given ridiculous dps skill burst and sustain.

I’ll add if you’ve become very good at fighting with a broom handle, god help everyone when you get hold of a sword. Mes are definitely not OP, we’ve learnt to use underpowered tools, and dodge/kite with a sliver of health for so long that any beneficial skill tweaking pays big dividends to the dedicated player.

I’ve never really understood the self sabotaging that happens here. It is very bizarre, and comes across as elitism among a few. However all mes pay the price. Well these people don’t speak for me and I’m pretty sure not for most of the mes community either.

I’m going to +1 this post as well.

lol this is just getting ridiculous now…

So mesmer damage is too strong because you can nearly kill people who are standing still and not reacting to you at all with a shatter burst in a 1v1 ? I don’t think so. Mesmer damage is not over the top at all. In fact, our damage is in line with what other burst classes/builds can do. And mind you, without having to do a piano concerto on their keyboard to pull it off. The only difference is, now mesmer is not operating at a disadvantage anymore. It is a strong class with a lot of good offensive and defensive mechanics.

There are just so many things this video does not take into account. First, it implies that balance should revolve around how something performs in a 1v1 scenario and the video only shows things from a 1v1 perspective. There is no group play in the video. Second, it doesn’t take into account the person actively reacting to what you’re doing. Third, it doesn’t take into account the offensive/defensive skills, traits and boons that can be used to mitigate your damage. And finally, it only shows the damage under the most ideal of circumstances. In group play I don’t feel mesmer damage is too strong at all. Is it stronger? Yes, absolutely. But so is everyone else’s damage. And not just that but most of the classes got really strong buffs to their defense as well. For example, engineers who spec into alchemy and inventions have excellent defense while having strong offensive pressure. And when you combine that with people actively reacting to your offense and things like protection, regen, stability, burst healing coming from the player AND their team everything pretty much evens out in the end. You can see this in action in the last ESL weekly cup: http://www.twitch.tv/jebrounity/v/6584207

I talked with supcutie who has been scrimming tops teams a ton and he feels the same way.

Now with all that said, I do agree with burning is absolutely ridiculous right now. Even in a group setting burning would be insane. There is no way you should be able to get 16k+ burning ticks. I mean yea, it is just one condition and it can be countered pretty well with good condi clear but I don’t think it should be as strong as it is currently.

Dammerung.6419:

I think it’s fine as is. The point is to focus down a single high priority target in group play. Who cares how it works in duels? Balance is group play.

This is my thinking as well. IMO giving the trait a target based CD in its current form would make it way too strong even if it was a 10sec target CD. The current ICD is 5secs but if it were a target based CD you would be able to use the trait mulitple times within that same amount of time while having a 100% stun success rate. If your opponents don’t have stab up, you could quickly go from target to target stunning them. There is no way they would keep the stun chance at 100% if they were to implement what you are suggesting. It would have to be lowered to account for the fact that you could use the trait so often. The 100% chance to stun is what I like most about the trait as it gives us a really good means for setting up bursts and locking down targets so i’m fine with it as it is.

Furthermore, does lockdown really need anymore buffs at this point? I don’t really think so. It can do everything the traditional shatter build can do and more. You already have good AoE CC/Interupt options coming from things like Chaos Storm, Mantra of Distraction, Illusionary wave on GS, and focus pull when using CI.

+1

Hopefully they reconsider this.

Fay.2357:

Stunbreaks remove any and all hard cc currently affecting your character.

Ah ok. Thanks for the quick reply Pyro.

So, there is something i’m trying to confirm in regards to CS. The new CS will no longer overwrite the daze when it stuns so you will have the stun and daze operating independently of each other. But what I want to know is, if someone uses a stun break when this happens will they break both the stun & the daze or just one of them?

I know i’ll be able to test this tomorrow but just wondering if anyone knows currently.

Jongi.7612:

PandaBear.7510:

This is how I feel on the matter:

The HoT expansion is priced at $50. This is JUST the expansion. Not the expansion + the core game. HoT is an expansion of the core game, not “the new version of the core game”. ANET themselves clearly make this distinction. So for me personally, just looking at what I have been shown so far, I do not yet feel that HoT has $50 worth of new content when compared to what I received when I payed $50 for the core game. But this is besides the point. HoT costs $50 on it’s own BUT the core game comes with it for free for new players. Because you are getting two things for the price of one, this is a package deal. And it is an extremely good deal for anyone looking to get into GW2. This honestly makes a lot of business sense as it will make it much easier for new players to get into the game.

Now, here’s the thing though. It is a fact that the HoT expansion is a package deal because it comes bundled with the core game for free. The core game, in it’s original form, before any living story updates or any of the additions that ANET has made to it since it was initially released still holds a lot of value and is totally worth $50 imo. That is a lot of content: The original PVE tyria maps, all the dungeons, WvW, PvP, all the current classes, etc. Now whether or not a player has been enjoying this content for the past 3 years or starts when HoT is released is irrelevant because either way the same “base” (meaning, what shipped when the game initially came out) content will be accessible. The main difference is that I payed $50 for all that content. Which means that the total costs for me is then $100 while any new player only has to pay $50. This is why, from a value perspective, it is a very good package deal for any new player. But for me, as someone who already has the core game, i’m not getting that same value from the package for the SAME price. Now if ANET were offering an “upgrade” option for 10-15$ less or at least including a character slot with the standard version for existing players I wouldn’t have any issue. It’s not that I feel that I’m entitled to anything, I just don’t think that the current packages/pricing is fair to existing players.

I fixed it for you.

Thanks for that edit. Though in my second paragraph I talked about how the core game comes with HoT for new players. My point that the $50 package deal (HoT + core game) for new players is of much more value than what existing players will pay for HoT for the same exact price still stands.

This is how I feel on the matter:

The HoT expansion is priced at $50. This is JUST the expansion. Not the expansion + the core game. HoT is an expansion of the core game, not “the new version of the core game”. ANET themselves clearly make this distinction. So for me personally, just looking at what I have been shown so far, I do not yet feel that HoT has $50 worth of new content when compared to what I received when I payed $50 for the core game. But this is besides the point. HoT costs $50 on it’s own BUT the core game comes with it for free. Because you are getting two things for the price of one, this is a package deal. And it is an extremely good deal for anyone looking to get into GW2. This honestly makes a lot of business sense as it will make it much easier for new players to get into the game.

Now, here’s the thing though. It is a fact that the HoT expansion is a package deal because it comes bundled with the core game for free. The core game, in it’s original form, before any living story updates or any of the additions that ANET has made to it since it was initially released still holds a lot of value and is totally worth $50 imo. That is a lot of content: The original PVE tyria maps, all the dungeons, WvW, PvP, all the current classes, etc. Now whether or not a player has been enjoying this content for the past 3 years or starts when HoT is released is irrelevant because either way the same “base” (meaning, what shipped when the game initially came out) content will be accessible. The main difference is that I payed $50 for all that content. Which means that the total costs for me is then $100 while any new player only has to pay $50. This is why, from a value perspective, it is a very good package deal for any new player. But for me, as someone who already has the core game, i’m not getting that same value from the package for the SAME price. Now if ANET were offering an “upgrade” option for 10-15$ less or at least including a character slot with the standard version for existing players I wouldn’t have any issue. It’s not that I feel that I’m entitled to anything, I just don’t think that the current packages/pricing is fair to existing players.

StickerHappy.8052:

Pls Chaos Record It! Or anyone who can!

They will have the VoD up on their twitch channel when it’s over so you can just watch it later.

At this point, I’m just waiting for a BlackDevil video. That’ll turn this forum into a firestorm.

lol yea seriously BlackDevil it’s been what..a year since your last vid? Your vids were pretty entertaining to watch.

I bought a LG g600 and it changed my life lol. I only use my keyboard for movement and my “F1-F4” skills which are conveniently bound to keys around my movement keys I use (E,D,S,F) for movement and as for my “F1-F4” I have them bound like this: (A – Mind Wrack, W – CoF, C – Diversion, G – Distortion). I use the mouse for all other skills.

Guardian: First thought – “He’s probably Medi, and i’m more than likely screwed lol”. The amount of blocks and healing Medi guard has while being able to output so much damage is insane (which, admittedly, is why i love playing it so much). And then there is the BURNING. Even a power shout guardian can be hard to deal with. I feel like my odds of winning are pretty low.

Mesmer: First thought – “Sigh….”. If it’s any kind of phantasm build (CI/CS lockdown, Power PU, etc) the chances of losing are pretty high unless I can manage to get the jump on them and burst them down really quickly. Shatter and Condi PU are more or less a toss up. Can go either way.

Ranger: First thought – “I hate how good this class is now”. They are difficult to fight on both end of the spectrum. Zerk LB can take over half your health before you are anywhere near them and condi ranger is terrible to deal with for obvious reasons. I lose more than I win against them when playing shatter.

Thief: First thought – “I hate everything right now”. I’m not saying I always lose but any good thief is going to beat me far more than I beat them. I’m more or less an easy kill. But it’s pretty much a known fact at this point that shatter mesmer is very weak against thieves.

Warrior: First thought – “If he’s not condi, this will be a good fight”. This one of the few matches where the class doesn’t really exploit shatters weaknesses. It’s a mostly even mathup and mostly comes down to how well I kite and dodge the burst attacks. I think this matchup can go either way for a shatter mesmer.

Necro: First thought – “If I can keep my distance, I can win”. For me, it basically comes down staying out of range of the necro’s attacks as much as possible. If I have to go in close to burst then I need to get back out immediately and start doing damage from range again. If I can do this, I stand a good chance of winning. But this is a lot easier said than done against good necros. And conid necros only need to get close to you one time to end the fight.

•How do you feel about…

Note: My approach to fighting other classes with phantasm oriented builds is mostly the same; Get phants out and use blocks, CC, Stealth, etc to survive (or do additional damage) while the phants go to work. I feel like I stand a good chance of beating anyone with these builds if I play well. Though it can still be up-hill battle with condi heavy classes/builds (ie Engineer/Necro). So i’ll answer from my experience playing shatter (And I am definitely not the best shatter mesmer).

Opinions are from a WvW/dueling perspective. I also assume that you’re not fighting the usual “casual” players but rather those who are skilled, really knows their class, your class and how to fight you.

Elementalist: This can be a difficult fight if they are a good D/D ele. So my first thought is, “Ok if it’s S/X fresh air I should be good. If it’s D/D, I better get ready”. I have to effectively kit and dodge their key skills in order to win. But even then, they have good gap closers and can neuter a lot of my damage by killing off clones with AoE attacks. It can go either way really.

Engineer: First thought – “Welp, this is probably not going to end well for me”. This mainly just comes down to condi pressure. Even with mantra of resolve it’s still rough. Now, don’t get me wrong, i’ve killed my fair share of engineers but not very many good ones while playing shatter. The good ones will dodge, invuln and use their frequent blocks (especially if traited) to avoid your shatters and wear you down with conditions. I feel like any engi that knows what they are doing should not lose a 1v1 against a shatter mesmer unless they make some pretty serious mistakes.

•Name

- Nymeria | Lady Nymeria | Nymeria Sand

•Played Mesmer Since

- I honestly don’t remember exactly when I started playing mesmer but it’s been a while. I played Warrior and Elementalist before I discovered how fun mesmer can be.

•Favorite Alt? Why?

My favorite Alt is Elementalist. The constant attunement swapping and skill comboing is so intense and fun to me. Especially when i’m going up against someone good. It’s the only class that makes my hand tingle because of how much effort it takes to play the class. I’ve come to realize that mesmer is my main because I currently perform best while playing it but I have the most fun playing Elementalist. I think if I invested the time to get better it would be my main for sure.

•Least Favorite Class to Play?

- I like and play all classes but if I had to pick a least favorite it would probably be Ranger.

•What is your favorite class to fight? Why?

- Warrior. Mainly because they are somewhat predictable and their burst skills are fairly easy to see coming.

•What is your least favorite class to fight?

- If i’m playing as a shatter mesmer: Theif (for obvious reasons). Otherwise, i’d have to say other mesmers. I find the entire experience to be so annoying and it always makes me realize what other people must feel like fighting me. I just don’t do well against other mesmers most of the time. It really is a humbling experience lol.

•What is your favorite Mesmer spec? What is your role with this spec?

- Shatter is my fav because of the high AoE damage and utility is provides. But it can be quite weak against certain classes/builds in certain situations

•What other class is your favorite duo partner?

- Elementalist would be at the very top of the list. Does good damage while providing good support/sustain.

denis.9487:

The boons from pu is what allows Mesmer to survive along with the other options of being slippery. Running without it is possible but felt when facing multiple bad guys. Pu lets Mesmer generate those boons that we have no access to. Unless taking skills (aegis protection from signet) that kitten us far more than taking pu.

Agreed. Even with the “nerf” the trait got a while back, PU still provides very good sustain. The kind of sustain that imo is most ideal considering the kinds of things that one encounters in WvW as a solo roamer. At least, in my tier anyways. I’d say over 90% of my encounters are 1vX and builds that take advantage of PU allow me to deal with these situations much better. And it’s not just the fact that I have to deal with multiple opponents, but it’s the kinds of builds that these people are running. Some of the condition builds are really tough to deal with (ie condition thieves) and then you have 473983847929373929739 pew pew rangers running around. So for me, having the protection, aegis and extra stealth uptime is key. I run other builds (shatter, lockdown, etc) when i just want to switch it up but when I want to actually win more than I lose (or simply manage to survive/get away) I run PU. I’ve still been running BlackDevil’s Hybrid Phantasm build when I solo roam. I still feel like it is one of the best power based mesmer builds. Especially for solo roaming.

This my third and most recent mesmer, Nymeria Sand.

Yea, these kinds of discussions always go round and round. When you post a vid of you just 100 – 0 people you’re pretty much always going to receive one of two kinds of reactions: 1)People that are just watching to be entertained will like it because, for the most part, watching people get ‘rekt’ is fun. And that is the whole point of posting a video in the first place; not to show that you’re the best player ever, but just to entertain. 2) People will not like it because they are looking for skilled play and feel that only a bad player would get killed like that.

Now, admittedly, there is some truth to #2. I’ve watched all of your vids and it’s definitely obvious in some of the fights that the players just aren’t that good. However, I can also say that in some of the fights I really don’t know if there is much they could have done. As someone who plays lockdown mesmer a lot i’m fairly familiar with chaining CC’s/Interrupts to lock people down while doing lots of damage. In my opinion, the Knowdown/Immob/area control combos that do can be quite difficult to get out of without quite a few stun breaks/condi clears/stab. (Assuming you land all the skills) So the person could actually be pretty decent but if they aren’t running a setup that can deal with that, then they are going to lose.

But if the person is running a good build and is at least decent, they will fair much better. This is demonstrated in many of the other fights in your other videos. Some of these fights you actually lose and i’m really happy that you include you losses in your vids.

But anyways, people who are pretty good at their class and run good builds (or at least think they are) will often think “You only won because you were fighting bads, I would have done x,y,z to counter/beat you”. And honestly, they may be right. But I wouldn’t make the claim if I weren’t willing to back it up. So I wouldn’t waste time going back and forth on a forum. Just set something up and duel it out, best of 5. It’s the best way to settle it.

I’d say about 85% of all my characters (I have 13) have names that came from Game of Thrones lol. I have 3 female mesmers. The first one (and my most beloved) is an asura named Nymeria. The second is a human named Lady Nymeria. The third is a glorious norn named Nymeria Sand.

Selya.5039:

I play 4/4/0/0/6 shatter, swapping between GS/Staff and GS/(Sword +Torch). However, I run a solo-queue build with Mantra of Distraction/Blink/Decoy (swapping out one of these for the cleansing mantra if I’m against a condition heavy team).

Compared to the build that I run, lockdown mesmers have two main advantages: Increased access to boons and the great setting-up potential of a CI immobilize. CI’s immobilize makes setting up for an illusionary leap + blade frenzy + wind wrack far easier, especially against thieves. However, the issue I have with it (from my limited experience playing some lockdown) is that it is quite unreliable: you not only have to interrupt, you also need to happen to have the sword equipped and be in range to actually hit the blurred frenzy. Sometimes, it works beautifully. Frequently, however, one of the elements just doesn’t line up. For instance, you get the interrupt, but you are out of range of the frenzy, or you get the interrupt, but you just don’t have 2+ clones in range for the mind wrack. In these instances, the immobilize + condition from CI is nice but isn’t game breaking.

Playing with persona, it is much more difficult to get your opponent to hold still for a perfect shatter (+ blurred frenzy if you play with sword). On the other hand, I think that a shatter mesmer’s damage potential is not so dependent on a “chain of events”. For a shatter mesmer, interrupts are just a way of disrupting the enemy and doing damage, not the first step in a burst chain. Illusionary Elasticity, gives a mesmer tremendous burst potential and makes staff clones a threat. Access to illusionist’s celerity also means more mirror blades/phantasms/decoys/phase retreats. The damage from compounding power adds up over time. Might on shatter closes the “boon gap” between the two specs a little. And IP, of course, is amazing, and actually makes interrupting with diversion far easier. A shatter mesmer has more opportunities to “dictate” when to deal damage and deals damage more consistently, whereas a CI mesmer, imo, has to wait for a good opportunity to interrupt and follow up.

So, in short, I think that CI mesmers have the opportunity for some epic plays (i.e. pulling someone off the point with an interrupt+immobilize which then allows for a decap) and have more opportunity to set up for a perfect burst. Shatter mesmers on the other hand are not so dependent on an interrupt for their damage and thus perform more reliably and consistently. That’s my analysis anyway.

One more thing: I am puzzled as to how lockdown mesmers can plausibly survive on point against good players. With my build, I have about the same amount of interrupts as a lockdown mesmer (IP Diversion, lllusionary wave, mantra, chaos storm vs Diversion, focus pull, mantra, chaos storm), so that can’t be the answer. Even with increased boon duration, spam from d/d eles and engis on point would still obliterate the zerker-amulet mesmer, and close range fights against necros ain’t pretty either. How is it possible that you survive in the thick of the melee, unless you’re doing the whole “go in, burst, run out” thing?(in which case the lack of damage in between bursts due to the lack of a GS quickly shows).

This is pretty much how I feel on this matter. I’m certainly not the best mesmer out there but from my experience, the potential effectiveness of CI is far greater than shatter. If you are landing/chaining interrupts you can be absolutely devastating and the potential amount of AoE CC you can have in a team fight is ridiculous. But the key words there are ‘If’ and ‘Potential’. Your effectiveness is very much dependent on landing/chaining interrupts. And, to me at least, it is that dependancy that makes Shatter a better option in the majority of situations. Shatter’s damage is higher, faster, more frequent and considerably more consistant and reliable.

But man oh man. When things do go right when you are playing lockdown, it is truly glorious.

Locking down everyone on a point and watching as you and your team obliterate them…priceless.

Running 6/2/6 taking both CS and CI and chain stunning/dazing/interrupting/immob’ing a warrior while you just nonchalantly 100-0 him. And afterwards having him say, “Well aren’t you a little <insert four letter word beginning with a ‘C’ here>”…priceless

There is nothing that I have done while playing shatter that has given me more satisfaction than my best moments while playing lockdown. I really do hope that the expansion brings us something to make lockdown builds even better.

Go into EOTM, pop your XP booster(s) and just follow the commander/group. It is very boring (at least, it is to me) but you get tons of experience really fast. Also make sure you group up in a party to ensure you get enough damage credit.

I’ve been YOLO’ing all day in PvP running 6/2/6 taking both CS and CI with some pretty hilarious results.

I would be ok with the whole “It was a bugfix because the tooltip stated you have to swap places with your clone” arguement if..

A) Tooltips have not been shown to be very unreliable and inaccurate since the release of the game

and

B)iLeap had not been functioning in it’s previous state since the release of the game.

Honestly, if you consider only what was stated in the tooltip then yes, technically it was a bugfix. The tooltip said one thing, the skill did a different thing, so they changed the skill to match the tooltip. But that is where I take issue with thier course of action. This was seeemingly done without any consideration for how this would affect mesmer gameplay. iLeap, in it’s previous state was a core component of how mesmers handled themselves and maximized their effectiveness. This is especially true in shatter builds outside of sPvP. And I get it, the tooltip said you swap places with a clone. But here is a list of various times when tooltips where updated to reflect what skills were actually doing:

•Signet of Air: The tooltip now displays the proper movement-speed increase of the boon when this skill has been activated while traited with Written in Stone.

•Spike Trap: This skill’s tooltip now appropriately displays when Trapper’s Expertise is equipped. Updated the skill tooltips to include the immobilize condition that occurs.

•Rending Pounce: This skill’s tooltip now displays the correct amount of bleeding applied.

•Tainted Shackles: This skill’s damage tooltip now displays the appropriate damage.

•Blurred Frenzy: •Updated the duration tooltip to indicate the actual duration of the evasion.

•Grasping Dead skill: Now lists the correct number of bleed stacks (3) in its tooltip.

•Feast skill: Now lists the correct radius (600) in its tooltip.

•Wicked Spiral skill: Now displays the correct range in the tooltip.

•Burst Skills: Damage tooltips now properly reflect equipped weapon damage.

•Elixir X: Fixed a bug where this skill’s tooltip did not reflect the cooldown reduction from Fast-Acting Elixirs.

•The Fireball tooltip has been updated to display the correct radius.

•Phantasmal Warlock: Damage now matches the tooltip.

•Phantasmal Duelist: Damage now matches the tooltip.

•Phantasmal Berserker: Damage now matches the tooltip.

•Phantasmal Mage: Damage now matches the tooltip.

•Icy Screech: The White Moa activated ability now applies three seconds of chill, which the tooltip now correctly reflects.

•Fear Me: Updated the tooltip to correctly state the range of the skill.

•Healing Rain: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.

•Armor of Earth: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 6 seconds.

•Phoenix: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct duration of 5 seconds of vigor that this skill applies.

•Ice Spike: This skill’s tooltip now states the correct amount of vulnerability when traited.

•Corrosive Poison Cloud: This skill’s duration tooltip has been corrected.

•Sun Spirit: The tooltip for this skill now displays the proper burning time of 3 seconds.

•Piercing Shot: Fixed an error in this skill’s damage tooltip.

•Cry of Frustration: This skill’s tooltip now accurately shows that confusion it applies lasts for 3 seconds.

IMO, this is one of those times where the tooltip should have been changed to match what the skill was actually doing. It’s not like iLeap has been this way for a week or something. It’s been like this since release. There is more of an arguement that they should have just changed the tooltip. And this is aside from the whole stunbreak issue. If they had to change the skill, i’d be fine with them removing the stun break. But by mandating that the clone stay alive, that amounts to a significant decrease in usability due to how easily the clone dies. And this isnt’ even considering the fact that the skill was, and still is, incredibly bugged and doesn’t even work the way that it should a good percentage of the time. So all in all, while it was technically a bugfix, it also amounted to a big nerf to skill/weapon.

Nabarue.3290:

Great video! I mained engi for a year before I found out how awesome my mesmer was, and I still play it on occasion. It was my first love in GW2, and always will be.

I have one thing to critique, and one thing to praise. You can choose which one you get first.

Just kidding, I’m gonna pick :p

1- The Critique: More elixir auto. Pistol auto is just bad.

2- The Praise: Your timing of your shield skills is downright great. The use of the KB against the thief coming out of stealth in your video was some good timing. The shield is a tough weapon to master, and you have a very very good grasp on it.

Keep it coming! You are doing us Engineers proud!

Thanks so much for the feedback!

Yes, I’ve had a few people tell me to use the Elixir gun AA more. I’m definitely going to keep that in mind!

Congrats man! You totally deserve it! I’ve been a Mesmer main for a long time but recently switched over to engi. You and Sir Koroshi were my main inspiration for doing so. I find your videos to be extremely helpful and exciting to watch. Keep it up!

Hello fellow Engineers!

I first want to say that the purpose of this video is not to show how skilled of an engi I am because honestly, i’m pretty bad. I’ve been a mesmer main for a long time and recently decided to give Engineer a try. I’ve always been a fan of the class and thought it was challenging to play. So about a week ago I got my engi to 80 and took her into WvW to see what I could do.

I’m hoping that the more experienced/veteran engineers can critique my gameplay. While these are fights that I won, I still feel like I don’t really know what i’m doing and that I made a ton of mistakes. So any advice you can share to help me become better at playing the class would be very much appreciated.

This video doesn’t contain the most impressive gameplay but I hope it is still entertaining for you all nonetheless.

Thanks for reading/watching!

-Ms. Furie

WvW Roaming/Duels 1

Nice vid. Well played. Curious though, why is this going to be your last shatter video?

I think you may have posted this in the wrong forum.

Wow..that was really good. It’s very clear that you know your class. Liked, subscribed and looking forward to seeing more!

Osicat.4139:

@ Pandabear, its condi removal is stronger than ever, 2condis / heal and 3x used of heal mantra / 10 sec give superb condition managment.

/Osicat

Guess i’m a bit confused. In the build link you posted, I see that you have Harmonious Mantras selected for 3x uses of mantras but you don’t have mender’s purity selected to remove conditions on heal. This is why I asked if you meant to select Mantra of Resolve instead of Mantra of Concentration.

Osicat.4139:

@Bryson

Yes.

@All. Hidden Cat updated to 5.0

I’m guessing you meant to select mantra of resolve instead of the mantra of concentration? Otherwise, looks like the build doesn’t have any condi removal.

I’ve been running a condi-shatter version of the build (just put 6 in illusions instead) and it is very effective. The burn dmg is ridiculous.

So I ran condi shatter for about an hour last night so I don’t have enough play to give an in depth opinion but my initial impressions were good. I had a couple funny fights with two warriors (one of which was hambow). They did not see what was coming at all. If you land the rotations right you can get some pretty high torment stacks. And I love that all of the shatters apply torment. So even the more defensive ones can be used offensively as well. The build certainly looks to be good in it’s current state. And if they ever truly fix the IE trait it will be amazing.

Great gameplay as usual! I really enjoyed the fight with serane.

Wow, that was awesome! Well done!

I am SO excited! I’ve never played a condi shatter build before so i’m really looking forward to it. Been theory crafting a ton

Curunen.8729:

I love the look of your little asura – tempted to use that hairstyle myself now. Better than the bald asura I have at the moment!

Anyway, I’m not one to criticise the play – suffice to say the videos are fun to watch.

Thanks! I’m very fond of her myself

Lol oh no worries, i’m well aware that i’m not that good. I make soooo many mistakes. But i’m slowly learning and having lots of fun. I’m glad you enjoyed the video(s).

So, I decided to put all my videos into one thread instead of making a bunch of separate ones.

Previous Videos:

WvW duels #1
WvW duels #2

Latest Video:

WvW Roaming [Shatter]

It had been ages since I really played shatter so I decided to dedicate some time to it. I remember being so bad at it…looks like not much has changed. I hope the video(s) provide some entertainment for you all!

As far as WvW goes, my first favorite would have to be Osicat. I was an ele main until I stumbled upon one of Osi’s original Shatter Cat vids. What I love about our class is that there are many ways to play it and many builds that you can run to be effective. And this is why Osi is my favorite. You can watch his vids and see a variety of ways to play mesmer effectively. This is includes various builds, how to make use of less commonly used (but very useful) ultilities, and various situations (solo, small group, etc). I think this not only goes a long way in showing how skilled of a mesmer he is but also in helping out the mesmer community to diversify our skills.

Another more recent WvW favorite of mine is Wing. Like Osi, you can watch his vids and see how to be effective running Shatter, Condi, Phantasm, etc.

In regards to Shatter specifically though, Vash is certainly at the top of the list

I was a big fan of Seven Mirror when he played. To this day I still watch his videos. It’s just so entertaining to watch him make 1vX look so easy. I was a sad panda when he quit the game

In terms of PvP, there are just too many skilled mesmers in that arena for me to designate just one as the most skilled. Supcutie, Lord Helseth, Sensotix, etc are all exceptionally skilled mesmers.

Then there are the mesmers who we all know are very skilled but don’t put out many/any videos. Pyro and Chaos A. immediately come to mind. I’d loved to see you guys in action!

Advent.6193:

As much as all names mentioned are hella skilled, I’d have to toss out two more:

1. Flimpy – Considering I started as a pure Condi-mes, that man’s vids were a source of much inspiration
2. Andromeda (forum name: Themanbat) – Formerly from our server, and one of the downright sickest 1vMany Phant-mesmers I’ve ever encountered.

Who knows, maybe (one of these days) someone’ll eventually mention me

Did Andro stream or record any videos? I heard Seven talk about him before.

Wow…just…wow. Your damage is insane. Great video!

Wing that was excellent. I really enjoyed that. My favorite of all the ones you’ve uploaded. Great gameplay as usual. Keep it up; looking forward to the next one!

I do understand your pain. I’ve had many past encounters where I’ve been roaming around, thinking everything is all fine and dandy, when suddenly a backstab thief with 3200k+ attack, 100%+ crit damage and 25 bloodlust stacks comes along and hits me with a backstab that I just cannot recover from (This was especially true if they were running mug and daze on steal). Or, I will recover using methods outlined above, but I find out that thief is good and knows how to be patient and force me to use my cds.

My solution to this was simple: get more armor. My armor with the builds I run ranges from 2500-2600 when playing shatter or zerker power PU and 2800-3100k when playing various phantasm builds (10/30/0/30/0, 10/20/0/25/15, 10/30/20/10). Now I just don’t even worry about it at all. And if i’m running staff, then i really don’t worry about it. A good amount of armor combined with knowing exactly what to do when a thief opens on you (other people outlined this above) is all the defense you need. At this point, a thief is going to have to outplay me to beat me. The downing me with one backstab and jumping on my body for 2mins while spamming /laugh days are over lol!

Alissah.9281:

BlackDevil.9268:

Actually it’s usually sony vegas who kittens up rendering when you put clips over eachother ’’incorrectly’’ which leads to black screens :<

Turns out I thought there was a mistake in my custom render template… It rendered 1480:720 (high definition)… But I figured it’s supposed to be 1920:1080. That made it unescesary difficult to process, which lead to it rendering blackness o.o I also minimized it to tray several times, that could’ve had a negative impact aswell.

Oh, and then there’s the fact that it takes 100% of my processor to render. And that I have 40 tracks… And that I still watch youtube videos and do other things while it renders.

Oh well, now it’s fixed. But my internet died at 98% uploading… And it’s stuck in “processing” x.x

:O 40 tracks?? Ok now i’m really anxious to see this video. I actually just started using Corel Video Studio Pro X7 at Seven Mirror’s recommendation and I’ve been liking it a lot. Doesn’t have all the ‘bells and whistles’ that my copy of Vegas has but it’s much easier to use (imo), has cool features and renders faster while using less resources (at least on my PC).

Suuure why not

My in game name is “Nymeria” and I play on Sanctum of Rall. I mostly roam in WvW solo or with my guildies from [STAR]. We also do tPvP fairly often. As far builds go, I like to play them all to keep things fresh (Shatter, Condi-Shatter, “Blackwater”, Hybrid…). Though, my personal favorite are tanky Phantasm builds that can take a lot of damage while doing a lot of damage as well since I often end up in 1vX situations.

Actually, Lthilwen, I would say that Pyro is right. I think mesmer is very effective in 1v1 situations when you are running a good build. Not saying that i’m a pro or anything (Because i’m definitely not) but I sucked for a long time. Mesmer just takes a lot of patience and practice. I actually put out a couple vids recently of nothing but 1v1 fights against various classes. I’ll link them below, feel free to check them out and hit me up if you have questions.

Nymeria duel Montage #1
Nymeria duel Montage #2

Check out Sensotix’s channel. He has multiple videos showing how to phase retreat to various locations on multiple PvP maps.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChKcXTocz7_QAnpbCCeOtfw

Round 2 of me and my little battle Mesmer having some fun in WvW! Special shout out to my guildies for being so awesome! Hope you all enjoy

Pyro, can you please check your PM’s when you get a chance. Thanks much.