Guild Wars 2

Yep, I’ve had major problems with Mace #2 and Hammer #2 if there’s any sort of elevation change in terrain, even a slight one. It’s really frustrating, since those 2 weapons were my favorite to begin with, and #2 is critical to both of them.

Not to repeat a cliche, but I’m surprised the abilities made it out of beta in this poor of shape. It’s not hard to reproduce, I was noticing consistency problems by the time I was L8 or so (and I’ve been gone for the game for 2.5 years).

Please add the following third option for ground targeting: Trigger ability on key release.

How it would work: Press and hold the key down to get the AE target. Release key to fire spell. This has two advantages:

- It is still just as fast to spam ground target AEs (engineer grenade kit, for example) as the “Fast Targeting” option.
-It gives you the same precise control as the default targeting scheme, just with one less key press.

This may have already been suggested before but if so it bears repeating. It’d really make my gameplay experience a lot more enjoyable, as I’m not happy with either ground target functionality at the moment and this would allow me to enjoy the benefits of both schemes without having to go into the menu and change it back and forth.

I’d like to see the Orbs changed to something like siege weapons do more damage to structures instead of big bonuses to all the player stats. I happen to play on a server that is low for it’s bracket and shortly after the reset the opposing teams has 3 orbs. It’s amazing how well-paced the PVP is without the orb bonuses, but as soon as a team gets three the pacing goes to hell and it’s basically another 6 days of getting owned hard.

The scepter has more significant issues than fluff like animation (the chain taking longer to complete based on distance, etc). Honestly, animation and art is very subjective and it’d be silly of them to work on redoing it. I think the animation looks just fine, for example.

And the scepter animation is the sole reason you’re taking a break from the Mesmer? Really? You do realize there’s plenty of other (and generally considered to be more effective) weapons, right?

Why is no one talking about the Torch as a replacement for the Focus??

:D

This was clearly a bug and needed to be fixed. I do admit, however, that it irks me that they fixed the Phantasm that works in our favor (Warden) while leaving several Phantasms still not working with haste. IMO they should have fixed it all at once, if it’s not ready this week then do it next week. It’s not as if Warden was game breaking and needed to be fixed immediately.

Overall it’s not a huge deal in practice but the principle of it irritates me a bit.

as iCryptik says, Mesmer really gets trashed badly by AOE. Other than that, it’s a matter of practice fighting against them. It gets pretty easy to see which are the clones and you need to learn that phantasms you need to kill (again, AOE is your friend) and clones can be ignored.

Moa is a pretty good dueling Elite, but is complete trash otherwise. Learn the animation and evade, LOS, etc.

So yea, pretty much repeating with iCryptik said. Mesmers are tricky, that’s their thing, but just as there’s skill required to play one effectively, you can develop personal skills to play against one effectively.

The problem I have with the iSwordsman is he doesn’t get much out of Sharper Images (and sword is in the Precision line where you get the most out of it). Warden, Berserker, and Duelist all hit pretty hard as well but get nice bleed stacks on top of it.

Sabbathius.1465:

Guys,
Seriously, if any of you think Mesmer is fine, go try an Engineer and just compare and contrast. Mesmer is absolutely borked. Engineer is not optimal but functions sooooo much better in DEs and there’s literally fields of sparkling corpses at the end of every DE event.

The Mesmer is fine. I play an engineer as well, and I prefer my Mesmer. It’s okay if a particular class doesn’t click with you, it doesn’t mean it’s “broken” or in need of changes. It means you should play another class… like your engineer.

The channel is fine but there should be a way of triggering the flame early by hitting the ability again.

I generally like the idea of Orbs, but as it stands right now I think they’re a bit overwhelming to the underdogs. I’d like to suggest just a couple small tweaks to the existing system:

-Add an Orb Proximity aura bonus. That is, the closer you are to your orb, the more bonus you get. Defenders (PC and NPC both) defending their orb receive significant stat bonuses as the power of the Orb is far more concentrated at that location.

-The Aura remains in effect even when your orb is stolen. That is, players from a Server fighting to retake their orb receive significant stat boosts. Enemy entities fighting near a captured orb are also under the aura effect, reducing their effectiveness.

The reason I would like to see a change like this is that it still provides a strategic reason to hold the orbs (Global bonus of stats and health) while making them more difficult and challenging to hold on to.

Thoughts?

I took Vengeful Images and avoided Signet of Illusions and Phantasmal Fury to test it. After the initial Retaliation boon expires, it never re-applies. Can someone else verify?

Can someone test to see if Phantasmal Haste (20% recharge) is working on trident/spear phantasms? I’m unable to test at the moment, but from my un-scientific observations yesterday, it didn’t seem to. They attacked awfully slow and I couldn’t tell a difference when having the trait slotted or not. If it’s not working, this part of the OP should be updated:

“Phantasmal Haste” does not effect some phantasms. Warlock and Disenchanter being at least two.

I’m having really weird inconsistencies with the “bounce” on GS #2. I’m traited for an extra bounce in the Illusion line and sometimes I get bounce, often I get no bounce, and about half the time I get the full bounce mechanics. I notice it never works at max range (why? The GS is a long range sniper weapon) but even closing the distance I find it to be very inconsistent. Also, GS #2 doesn’t bounce my phantasms while I swear my Staff #1 does. Is this intended?

What is up with Phantasmal Regeneration? Sometimes it takes ages to go off, sometimes it never does, and I usually have to be practically standing INSIDE the phantasm. It seems incredibly inconsistent and I’m worried it’s bugging up with all the other Phantasm boons (retaliation, fury, Signet of Illusions, etc).

EDIT: Note to self… drink coffee before posting. Sheesh! Completely misunderstood what you posted at first.

Third chain for #1 isn’t bugged, it was changed a long time ago. Are you looking off of build websites? It creates a Clone, not confusion… but the shatter from the clone will cause confusion if you’ve traited Illusion 15 (which you probably should be if you’re using Scepter).

Personally, I would like to see the Confusion back because it is a Condition weapon, but I’m sure it was removed for a reason.

EasymodeX.4062:

I apply 8 stacks with IP and the 15 minor trait followed by an immediate Diversion to get them panicky. Then I dodge, clone, and hit them with a 3x Mind Wrack, which applies 3 more stacks of Confusion. This adds up to 12 stacks along with 12 stacks of Might. I usually preface this with a GS MB, so that’s another 6 stacks of Might.

It rarely results in events quite as awesome as the Shortbow Ranger who hit quickness and rollfaced into my Feedback for 12k damage in 3 seconds, but it’s still funny.

Edit:

People need to realize that Shatters are not just the tooltip. A third of the Mesmer traits augment Shatters in one way or another.

Well said!

EasymodeX.4062:

Yeah honestly the Scepter is perfectly fine from a power standpoint. The part that pisses me off is that the block will teleport you to a random spot next to you. I find the jarring effect super annoying.

Perhaps the little teleport thing is a legacy effect. I wonder if at some point in the past it spawned the clone at your location instead of the enemy location, so the teleport was useful as a confusion (little ‘c’) mechanic or something.

Scepter is the most underrated weapon in the game, I use Scepter / OH and Staff. Why do I use Scepter?

Scepter #3 is mean, and even meaner if you trait for +33% Confusion duration. Even without the Confusion damage it still does pretty nice direct damage as well.

Scepter #2 is underrated and underutilized. It is a block that works on melee and ranged attacks, allows you to move while blocking, and better yet the riposte strike from it deals damage (significant damage) at range AND it drops a clone in their lap, which combined with the Scepter #1 spewing clones leaves you with a nice big bomb to shove down their throats. Combine the block damage + clone shatter that hits hard.

The other reason I use the Scepter? It has pretty good synergy with the Staff (condition build) whereas Staff/GS or Staff/Sword are at odds with each other.

The only thing I’d like to see on the Scepter is maybe a slight increase to the attack rate of the autoattack, or give it some sort of Condition effect on the 3rd strike (I know it used to do Confusion back in the day).

The Torch, on the other hand… I want to use it on my OH (again, Condition build) but dear lord that weapon is just… not up to par. The Mage is awful, just awful, and the Prestige would be much better if burn/blind were swapped like was suggested above.

Yep, wardens behind target will still reflect that target’s projectiles. If you need a personal reflection wall, used Traited Focus #4 or Feedback. Ground target wouldn’t hurt, but I really wish they could just… move.

I’m very happy with the Mesmer as designed, I’d mostly just like to see bug fixes (there are so many bugs I don’t even think we can start talking balance until a good chunk of them are addressed) and a few tweaks to shore up weak/underutilized trait lines and perhaps some love for the Torch.

I’m completely baffled at how something that can provide damage, confusion, daze, and invulnerability (through shatters) or bleeds, cripples, weakness, and confusion when killed (via traits) can be called “useless”, especially when mobs do attack clones at times, making them a distraction tool as well.

Embolism.8106:

Mantra of Recovery was my favourite heal throughout Beta, I only stopped using it when they nerfed its healing from 3260 per charge to 2620 per charge for no reason.

Your post would be stronger without the hyperbole. I agree with you that Mantras need work, but saying things like “they did it for no reason” weakens your argument. Instead of being analytical it comes across as class whining (at least to me). I also wasn’t a big fan of how Mantras were changed at the end of beta, but they surely changed numbers for a reason – obviously they thought it would be too powerful.

I like the concept of a Mantra, but they’re definitely… off. Take Mantra of Pain, I really don’t see why I’d slot it in a utility slot when A] The damage is low and provides no utility and B] Can only be used 2(3) times before it’s unavailable without a long channel.

With Mantras having diverse effects such as damage, heal, daze, etc I’m thinking they need to move away from the idea of all mantras having an equal number of charges. Something like a Daze with multiple charges is far more powerful than Mantra of Pain with multiple charges. Perhaps Harmonious Mantras should be reworked to increase the power or add new effects to mantras rather than giving additional charges because, again, I think getting one more use from Mantra of Pain is less useful than another on-demand Daze or Heal. Just to pull things out of the air, I’m thinking something along the lines of adding a condition or two to Mantra of Distraction, or distortion to Mantra of Recovery, etc (those are just hypotheticals to provide examples, I’m not necessarily advocating for those specific benefits). I think something like that would be easier to balance than trying to make mantras have the same charges globally and receive the same universal increase from Harmonious Mantras.

Again, I think the concept of Mantras is potentially cool but the current implementation is quite boring. If I have an ability that only has limited uses during a fight (especially a Heal) then it better have some kick to it. Right now Distraction is the only one I really consider, for the interrupt.

Fruitbat, your illusions aren’t really meant to take aggro. Phantasms are there to apply damage and clones can either be set up as reactive (trait to give clones conditions/confusion/cripples on death) or proactive (shatter) bombs.

The torch phantasm (and the weapon in general) really is awful. I like the concept of the phantasm mage but he needs to apply multiple stacks of confusion, given how slow he fires. I’ve tried and tried to fit the torch into my builds but I always find I’m better off with the pistol or focus.

Mesmer has some annoying bugs atm. Phantasm fury/retaliation traits don’t stack, so if you have both only Fury applies (you lose retaliation). Signet of Illusions and Phantasmal Regeneration also don’t apply for several seconds after summoning them, which is bad. Those are my main Mesmer concerns at the moment.

yvesbeaumont.3291:

if the scepter wasn’t so weak, i’d try that out. especially since your clones don’t overwrite the phantasms now.

Scepter isn’t weak, far from it. Scepter/pistol is my favorite combo by far.

“Illusions” is a term that encompasses everything, clones and phantasms. Phantasms are a subset of illusions and the only ones that do any sort of real damage themselves.

Clones = decoys / shatter ammo, show up as your name.
Phantasms = actual damage, show up as “Phantasmal Warden/Duelist/Etc”
Illusions = term to describe both clones and phantasms.

Signet of Illusion is bugged, I’m not sure if the Regeneration on phantasms is as well (it has the same problem in that it won’t appear for several seconds). Other than that, Phantasmal Fury and Retaliation is bugged (if you have both, you lose retaliation and only get Fury on your phantasms).

Bug reports have been made on the support forum, but a bump or two couldn’t hurt. I’m a little annoyed it’s not been fixed yet as there’s quite a few annoying bugs/issues with our primary class mechanic currently.

Karast.1927:

Also all self roots on melee abilities need to be removed. They make the abilities that have them next to useless since any moving opponent and can completely avoid them with little effort.

Those abilities tend to do a large amount of burst damage, which is why the self-root exists and why they hit so much harder than abilities that you can use on the move. That doesn’t make them next to useless, it means that you have to set up the attack. Hundred Blades isn’t meant to be spammed every 8 seconds while you’re in range, you need to set it up with a knockdown / stun / immobilize. Bull rush the target, then trigger it. Nail them with the Immobilize from the Longbow then swap and pummel them. Knock them down with the hammer and pummel them (with the hammer you have two options). I’ve been caught on the receiving end of those attacks (and have caught others with them) and if they were easy to pull off they would need to see some pretty significant rebalancing in terms of reducing the damage they can do, IMO.

That’s not all to say everything is perfectly in balance yet, the game just came out after all. That being said, I think (moreso than a lot of MMOs) there’s a lot of room for player skill to improve in how we utilize these abilities, and that’s something that I think we as a playerbase need to be looking at first, not asking for mechanics changes and rebalancing. We’re all still relative noobs in a MMO that has a significantly higher skill cap than most.

Sky.9347:

But on a skill for skill basis, I think raw damage is about equal. Warrior has the rifle skill (#3, forgot the name) that is about equal in damage to Hundred Blades. Ranged is easier to hit, HB has the potential of hitting multiple foes.

According to gw2db.com:

Volley (Rifle) 1660 damage / 10s
Hundred Blades (GS) 2434 + 608 final strike / 8s – Keep in mind Hundred Blades is also clobbering everyone else unfortunate to be caught in the area. It needs to be said, though, that it’s harder to pull off and is easier to avoid than Volley, but again that was my point that while melee is harder to land, it hits significantly higher (in this case nearly double damage and AE instead of single target with a 20% shorter cooldown).

The auto attack values are also quite different:

Rifle: 221 + bleed
GS: 387 (add vuln) / 387 (add vuln) / 498

Obviously I’m not claiming I’ve done extensive research, this is just anecdotal evidence from my own personal experiences (both with classes I’ve played, such as Mesmer and Warrior, as well as being on the… receiving end of some nasty melee attacks). The number provided above were just to kind of give a data point on where I was coming from in my statement, and that I didn’t just completely pull things out of mykitten

Thanks for your replies with your perspective and info, especially since I’ve yet to play a guardian. I’ve enjoyed the discussion!

Sky.9347:

I agree with you mostly, but is that bold statement actually true? In my experience it is not true at all.

I’d be happy to be proven wrong, but from my first-hand experience it certainly is with Mesmer, Warrior, and Elementalist (the latter I’m pretty new at, though). I have more killing power in melee range than I do with ranged combat. The Warrior rifle, for instance, is pretty effective at single-target but you give up any sort of multi-target capability and it’s nowhere close to the carnage of pulling off a well-timed Hundred Blades (or an axe build.. ouch!). The Longbow has the opposite issue, where it has some solid AE capabilities but… not so much trying to take down an individual. Great weapons both, but they don’t stand up to the melee weapons in terms of face-melting potential, in my experience!

A couple things:

1. There is no such thing as a “ranged character” or a “melee character”. Every class has ranged options. A class like the Guardian might have fewer ranged options than others, but they also tend to have more control to allow them to get in range.

2. I’m not saying this to flame or to disparage, so please understand that so it doesn’t come across the wrong way… but my advice is to “get better” rather than wait for the developers to add a feature for you. . Yes, ranged shots are easier to land than melee shots. Melee attacks also tend to do significantly more damage. The way you’ve phrased your post makes me wonder if you’re taking advantage of your character as much as you can (weapon swaps, skills to close the gap or to immobilize/cripple an opponent, etc). I’m referring to language like referring to yourself several times as “a melee player”. Even with a move-to-target function, people are still going to be able to knock you back, cripple you, evade your attacks, gain swiftness to sprint away, etc.

Anyway, this post was written with the intent of providing advice, not as a flame or disparagement.

There is currently a bug when two traits interact with each other, although they seem to work independently. It involves the Dueling trait Phantasmal Fury (grants Fury to phantasms) and the Inspiration trait Vengeful Images (grants Retaliation to phantasms).

When I take both traits, only Phantasmal Fury is applying. If I click on a Phantasm, they show as only having the Fury boon. I will also watch mobs hit the Phantasm, and they take no retaliation damage. This is quite annoying, as my build was based around durable phantasms that could punish either way (attacking or being attacked).

Is there any workaround or fix in the works for this?