Guild Wars 2

So I am to assume that all that time I spent in outposts in GW1, there was no hint at some form of persistence and that trade and other activities would just come to a grinding halt when I left. Furthermore, GW1 had a huge player base.

Poplolita.2638:

@Jax.5261

Except, I did provide facts. Did you? ArenaNet’s quote and http://guildwars.incgamers.com/forums/showthread.php?462663-Is-Guild-Wars-an-MMO.

The fact you came up here with nothing but opinion bashing is quite unconstrutive.

Let’s end it here, and focus on this thread.

Clearly you’re missing the fairly obvious definition of a MMORPG. All of which GW1 fulfils the criteria for. You spout an opinion from ArenaNet as though it were fact. Not to be too callous, but do you consider everything you hear or read to be true before evaluating it yourself through criteria? Furthermore this whole argument on instancing baffles me somewhat. This was a thread on PvP and thus arguments should be made relevant to it. GW1 instancing worked just like GW2 instancing; however instead of worlds, you had servers (which actually made it easier to meet others; like millions of others).

In fact I find it highly disrespectful that GW2 hasn’t even referenced the scourge when GW1 had this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEoEI0upDZ4

On further thoughts, I believe this topic is misleading as it does not address the true scourge of the pvp forums.

This little guy.

Not sure if I should’ve have of clicked this topic.

Boon Share Confusion Mesmer
Updated as of 26/6/13

Aim
There really was none; I came up with the build after I noticed Prismatic Understanding had been buffed a while ago and since then, other traits and weapons involved were also buffed. I generally used this as a troll build in PvP hotjoins due to the sheer amount of stealth involved.
Prismatic understanding was also buffed in the 26/6/13 patch, much to my surprise.

Link
http://tinyurl.com/o6xkftz

Traits
20 Domination: Signet Mastery (VI) and Cleansing Conflagration (IX).
30 Chaos: Debilitating Dissipation (V) (optionally; Illusionary Defense (IV)), Chaotic Dampening (X) (optionally; Mirror of Anguish (VII), Cleansing Inscriptions or Bountiful Interruption (VIII)) and Prismatic Understanding (XII).
20 Illusions: Master of Misdirection (V) and Blinding Befuddlement (IX) (optionally; Phantasmal Haste (X)).

Gear
Armour: 6 x Rune of Lyssa, Carrion Amulet with Carrion Jewel (or optionally Rabid Amulet with Rabid Jewel).
Weapons: Scepter/Torch with Sigil of Battle and Sigil of Corruption and Staff with Sigil of Battle

Skills
Shatters cause confusion and might stacks with a 20% reduced recharge

Scepter auto-attack chain
Illusionary Counter: Hits for decent damage if it actually lands (which is rarely ever in my case), but is more useful for the 2s block and now counter spell can apply a stack of confusion (Blinding Befuddlement). Adds torment now too at the cost of reduced damage.
Confusing Images: The bread and butter of damage output. Generally a hard to land beam due to the wind up, chance of obstruction or just general block or dodge roll from other players, however with a complete connection you only have to worry about condition cleanse.
The Prestige: Definitely one of my favourite skills after the removal of channelling buff. Last 4s and will applies boon through improved Prismatic Understanding. Also removes a condition (Cleansing Conflagration). Reduced recharge to 24s.
Phantasmal Mage: Remove a condition on summon (Cleansing Conflagration). Reduced recharge to 24s.

Staff Skills: I lumped this altogether as staves are common enough in Mesmer usage and aren’t hugely affected by the traits in this build. Phase Retreat recharges reduced to 8s. Phantasmal Warlock recharge reduced to roughly 15s, Chaos Armor recharge reduced to 28s with blind causing a 4s confusion (Blinding Befuddlement). Chaos Storm recharge reduced to 28s. If traited into bountiful interruption instead, chaos storm has good synergy with interruptions, albeit at the cost of the recharges.

Heal Skill:
Mirror: A reliant, decent heal that reflects for 2s with relatively lower recharge which allows it to proc the Rune of Lyssa’s buff of providing a random boon on using a skill (active every 10s).
Optionally
Ether Feast: Comparably unreliable, large heal which doesn’t proc the rune set as much.

Utility Skills
Decoy: Always a useful stun breaker without investment. Benefits from Prismatic Understanding. Cloak lasts 4s.
Signet of Midnight: Passive increase in boon duration by 10%. Active provides a stun break that causes a 4s confusion to the AoE blind. Reduced recharge to 24s. Can remove a condition when traited with Cleansing Inscriptions at the cost of staff recharge.
Signet of Inspiration: Passive benefit applies a random boon every 10s. Active effect has great synergy with the Rune of Lyssa set as it can spread all the boons received on activating an elite skill to allies in a 600 radius. Reduced recharge to 36s. Can remove a condition when traited with Cleansing Inscriptions at the cost of staff recharge.

Elite Skill
Mass Invisibility: Has the lowest recharge of all Mesmer specific elite skills and benefits from Prismatic Understanding. This combined with the Rune of Lyssa set and activating Signet of Inspiration means you can effectively share all your boons to allies in 600 radius.

Possible Rotations
Chaos Storm → switch to Scepter/Torch → The Prestige
The Prestige → Phantasmal Mage → wait by enemy for blast and activate Confusing Images to exit stealth
Chaos Storm → Phase Retreat → wait till Chaos Armor is down → Chaos Armor
Mass Invisibility → Signet of Inspiration

Conclusion
Boon share is a template that allows for large amounts of party support in the form of boons. It also has viabilities in terms of solo play due to the sheer amount of stealths involved in the build and the passive buffs employed. Most of the skills outlined perform with great synergy. Obvious weaknesses towards the build are frequent stacking of conditions or removal of boons through actions of either stealing, removing or corrupting. The Carrion set-up also makes the Mesmer relatively squishy in relative terms to a Rabid set-up, however Carrion affects both the general damage output as well as the confusion and retaliation output.

My advice as always with pressing buttons is SPAM MORE BUTTONS. After that, conduct a small ceremony to Cthulhu and hope his evilness lends a tentacle to your troubles by checking whether the problem is resolved.

Boon Share Confusion Mesmer

Aim
There really was none; I came up with the build after I noticed Prismatic Understanding had been buffed a while ago and since then, other traits and weapons involved were also buffed. I generally use this as a troll build in PvP hotjoins due to the sheer amount of stealth involved.

Traits
20 Domination: Signet Mastery (VI) and Cleansing Conflagration (IX).
30 Chaos: Debilitating Dissipation (V) (or optionally, Illusionary Defense (IV)), Chaotic Dampening (X) and Prismatic Understanding (XII).
20 Illusions: Master of Misdirection (V) and Blinding Befuddlement (IX).

Gear
Armour: 6 x Rune of Lyssa, Carrion Amulet with Carrion Jewel (or optionally Rabid Amulet with Rabid Jewel).
Weapons: Scepter/Torch with Sigil of Battle and Sigil of Corruption and Staff with Sigil of Battle

Skills
Shatters remain unchanged albeit with a 20% reduced recharge

Scepter auto-attack chain: Probably no where near the best chain in the game and I doubt anyone would run scepter to spam clones viably.
Illusionary Counter: Hits for decent damage if it actually lands (which is rarely ever in my case), but is more useful for the 2s block and now counter spell can apply a stack of confusion (Blinding Befuddlement). Reduced recharge to roughly 10s.
Confusing Images: The bread and butter of damage output. Generally a hard to land beam due to the wind up, chance of obstruction or just general block or dodge roll from other players, however with a complete connection you only have to worry about condition cleanse .
The Prestige: Definitely one of my favourite skills after the removal of channelling buff. Last 4s and will apply two random boons of either regeneration, protection or aegis (Prismatic Understanding) (one at the start and end of using the skill), also removes a condition (Cleansing Conflagration. Reduced recharge to 24s.
Phantasmal Mage: Phantasm, what more you need to know. Does remove a condition on summon now though (Cleansing Conflagration). Reduced recharge to 18s.

Staff Skills: I’m going to be lazy and lump this altogether as staves are common enough in Mesmer usage and aren’t hugely affected by the traits in this build. Phase Retreat recharges reduced to 6s. Phantasmal Warlock recharge reduced to roughly 13s, Chaos Armor recharge reduced to 28s with blinds now being able to cause a 4s confusion (Blinding Befuddlement). Chaos Storm recharge reduced to 28s.

Heal Skill:
Mirror: A reliant, decent heal with relatively lower recharge which allows it to proc. the Rune of Lyssa’s buff of providing a random boon on using a skill (active every 10s). Optionally, Ether Fest due to the unreliable, large heal which doesn’t proc. the rune set as much.

Utility Skills
Decoy: Always a useful stun breaker without investment. Benefits from Prismatic Understanding. Cloak lasts 4s. Reduced recharge to 32s.
Signet of Midnight: Passive increase in boon duration by 10%. Active provides a stun break than now can cause the 4s confusion to the AoE blind. Reduced recharge to 28s.
Signet of Inspiration: Passive benefit applies a random boon every 10s. Active effect has great synergy with the Rune of Lyssa set as it can spread all the boons received on activating an elite skill to allies in a 600 radius. Reduced recharge to 36s.

Elite Skill
Mass Invisibility: Big shocker at this point I know. Has the lowest recharge of all Mesmer specific elite skills and benefits from prismatic understanding. This combined with the Rune of Lyssa set and activating Signet of Inspiration means you can effectively share all your boons to allies in 600 radius.

Conclusion
Boon share is a template that allows for large amounts of party support in the form of boons. It also has viabilities in terms of solo play due to the sheer amount of stealths involved in the build and the passive buffs employed. Most of the skills outlined perform in a manner that has great synergy with one another and almost demand a very strict trait set up. Obvious weaknesses towards the build are frequent stacking of conditions or removal of boons through actions of either stealing, removing or corrupting. The Carrion set-up also makes the Mesmer relatively squishy in relative terms to a Rabid set-up, however Carrion affects both the general damage output as well as the confusion and retaliation output.

I’m all for increasing the diversity of pvp game modes in GW2 (even if they don’t take into account player templates) and encouraging team play. One method to attract more players to it (which I’m sure has been suggested) would be to place an npc in HOTM that transports people to the arena. Not sure if they’ve fixed some of the bugs associated with picking up objects on the run though and they would have to if they got serious about it.

As a disclaimer, this suggestion isn’t groundbreaking nor would I expect it to be implemented and I had trouble finding a relevant thread using the search option.

When I was going through the trading post, buying off all the common dyes, every so often I would skip over one and have to exhaustively search for it again. My proposal is the addition of a setting that allows a character’s dye panel to display all possible dyes.

The benefits are that a person can quickly figure out which dyes they want to get for their character (especially if it is all of them) and preview them without resorting to using the trading post or other mediums. The obvious problem which arises from my suggestion is the sheer amount of dyes in the game cluttering up the dye panel (despite them not being earnt yet), therefore I reason that making it a toggle feature to turn on/off would suffice.

Oh and before I forget; traits, sigils and runes that interact with the burning condition either affect the length of the burning condition (not the tick damage), or they affect how much weapon damage you do to a person under burning (not the tick damage). Therefore only condition damage itself affects tick damage.

According to the wiki, this is the calculation for burning damage:
(0.25 * Condition Damage) + (4 * Level) + 8
shortened to 0.25 * Condition Damage + 328 in PvP.
Therefore without exaggeration, to get 1,300 burning damage per tick you would require 3888 condition damage. Methinks that is unlikely. Unless the wiki is wrong of course.