Guild Wars 2

Thank you for all the input so far. It has certainly been insightful.

In terms of condition removal for mesmers, we tend to run with either null field or arcane thievery which is on a 45sec cd untraited. It might be better to save those to get out of a bad spot and maybe try to use daze more in attempt to CC. We do also have a Signet that allows us to stun a target for 2 secs but otherwise in longer fights, the condition removal at our disposal may not sustainable.

We do also have a trait, Shattered Conditions, which allows us to remove a condition when we shatter. This could be something interesting to test out

Whats more interesting to me is that C+D feeds off a mesmers strength. That which gives the mesmer his/her efficacy is also the source of a p/d or d/d thiefs stealth.

could anyone be so kind to link vids or the build? In my own quest to build an all rounded understanding of each profession, I’m keen to learn. thanks!

Hi there,

I play a mesmer and encountered a thief that left me very impressed.

There were 3 of us minding the docks and he pretty much took us out, systematically one after the other. Not with the kind of burst that leaves you 100 to 0 in a blink of an eye or the dagger storm punishment for being too close but rather, the kind of finesse that really made me marvel.

His damage primarily came from bleeds and he spent a lot of time in stealth. When he did come out, it was to deliver his payload and disappear again. In those small windows, he’d blow your condition removers and reapply the bleeds all over again.

He could also take quite a beating and when he came out of stealth, he healed up a considerable amount. At one point I thought I had him where I wanted and stacked with enough conditions on him before he vanished again but when he popped back in my face his health had gone back up to 3/4 his bar and the conditions were gone.

Sometimes he came at the target with dual pistol unload but otherwise death blossom.

One by one we fell. I was the last to fall but thoroughly enjoyed the fight. It was well played

any idea what kind of build this particular thief was using?

plasmacutter.2709:

Ryuujin.8236:

Osicat.4139:

@Blundby, I think mesmers are so unused to get buffs they just cant handle it. Like ppl win the lottery and cry tears while they have hard handle the situation.
/Osicat

I concur – I was pondering about this earlier and realised it opens whole new playstyles. My Guardian doesn’t need to wear glass cannon gear because I get so many boons to help with damage.

Now mesmer have good access to boons, I can mix more condition damage into my shatter build since it gets buffed by might, that in turn led me to realise that if I went all-out boon duration buffs on my runes and took some ranks in chaos I can become a buff-bot for my team, and still do decent damage all round with shatters, staff and sword.

Such a small change opened up so many possibilities, there’s now multiple ways to spec shatter

BINGO.

combine with signet of inspiration, shatter up as high a stack of might as you can, use signet, pop time warp, MELT WORLD BOSS

very interesting idea, will definably be giving that a shot. max out boon duration, chalk up a ton of buffs along with the might super stack and SPREAD TEH LOVE every 36 seconds

PU did receive a nice change and makes stealth more rewarding

Actually, ppl that kill my clones and phantasms has make me a sad kitten that hits about as awesome as a wet noodle. The more experienced and higher bracket players/players who also play the mesmer profession are the ones who leave me illusion starved and have no trouble at all identifying me despite decoy or any other trick.

you know what? while i’m personally don’t gravitate towards shatter specs, its there and, we’re going to abuse the kitten out of this shatter buff cos its all we have. We’re like the great wall of china on tank tracks. We might not catch you but we’re gonna hit like a mighty kitten hooooo!

D/D Ele. Bunker stats for increased survivability. Pbaoe destroys clones, mitigating mesmer effectiveness while also hitting you. High mobility that allows the profession to swoop in and escape. Control and condition removal.

try one. even as a beginner and you can faceroll 1 to 5 with attunement spam and still do fairly ok. Not great of course but you’ll be surprised. The great d/d eles take it to a complete shock and awe level

Yup. in spvp it appears you’re pigeon holed into a one trick pony shatter build just to keep up, especially with the Shattered Strength trait.

The more I think about it, the more amusing it is. All the so called improvements to the phantasms are really just reverting them back to where they were before they got broke. Movement speed wise we’re just beat. Can’t run away, cant chase down. It boggles the mind how anyone can look at the professions across the board and think, yeah, that’s ok.

Yes, all the festive themes are nice to haves but you know what? I’d trade all of it for Anet to spend all that effort on getting the profession balance and bugs sorted out properly.

Frankly they seem a little underwhelming when you look at some of the other classes. the passive speed buffs for the other classes ARE really nice where as ours is random or forces us to use the focus which we have to switch into.

Having played both, here are some things you can look out for when facing a mesmer

• When in doubt, kill it. In general, the primary source of dps comes from clones/phantasms. Eliminating them defangs the mesmer’s effectiveness. In this regard, AoE is a mesmer’s bane.
• If you want to target the player, take the time to observe. You can easily spot the player from the clones by the way they move. Clones never strafe or dodge. Some good mesmers are the ones which take great efforts in mimicing their clones to keep people guessing.
• If you see the clones rushing towards you, dodge or press your oh-kitten! immune button.
• When a mesmer is in a down state and vanishes, target the 2nd one to reappear and seal the deal.

More commonly are shatter spec mesmers. While there are a few ways to open a fight, a common one is to;

• Range stun
• Pop the duelist (pistols phantasm)
• Dodge roll towards you (which spawns a clone)
• Sword #3 twice (which spawns a clone that leaps to you and then puts the mesmer in your face + root you)
• Sword #2 (which is the 2sec invul multiple slash)
• Shatter with Mind Wrack

You can screw up the root by opening up the distance and at the very least, avoid the last 2 which tend to happen at the same time.

Remember not to get lost in the confusion of the clones! Once you learn the points above, it almost becomes predictable.

peace

Hi guys,

is such a thing possible? Recently I started playing a D/D bunker ele to get a better perspective on how to counter them and was impressed with their versatility, survival and speed of play.

Is there something equivalent on the mesmer side?

The CD on it means you can almost use it every fight and I’ve used it a number of times to save my kitten, revive downed players, finish downed enemies, buy team mates time to open fights with better positioning or mess up enemy targets (drop target/clear marks) which translates into damage mitigation for team mates.

^ good point, edited my post for clarification

I can accept and agree that Phantasms attacks are subject to blind/dodge/invulnerability/block as well as terrain conditions. However it would be more acceptable and make for a more responsive mesmer experience if;

• Phantasm summons took ½ or, no longer than ¾ sec.
• Summoning of phantasms are not subject to blind/dodge/block/Invulnerable but require line of sight.
• Phantasms initiate their attack upon summoning them. i.e, no delay.
• Phantasmal Berserker damage restored to former levels and its travel path sticks to its target.
• Phantasms take advantage of weapon sigils such as 5% damage or crit.

There are many examples of abilities in other professions where their attacks, be it whirling, AoE and utilities that are either instant, ¼, ½ or ¾ sec unless they are channeled spells

Post patch I’ve found that it’s pretty touch and go. Visually sometimes the stealth effect occurs, other times it occurs for a second and I appear to be back in full view.

When I use it, I still am targeted and take range damage as it trains me. Melee seem to never lose sight of me even if I try to fakey and double back in “stealth”.

Does anyone else experience this?

It was suggested by someone else in a different thread but it would be great if attacks the target you select, doesn’t lock you down and performs a launch. thats right, a launch. (even if it means doing next to nothing damage with a fair CD to go along with it)

Hi guys,

been encountering a few necros in pvp on both my engy and mes and i’m keen to learn more about what I should expect and what I should look out for.

the ones that I find the most challenging are the ones that appear to be non staff specs, where once in range, lay on a great number of different conditions. I can clear the initial but it gets applied again and for some reason I am unable to dodge or perform skills but am still able to move around crippled.

needless to say that within seconds I’m down

can anyone share pointer or two? much appreciated

spot on points
+gabillion for Mindstab reverting to Beta targeted version + Launch.

clipnotdone.9634:

Heres my observations so far.

Illusion pathfinding is borked.
They still regularly get stuck on hills, minor obstructions and occasionally just run in the opposite direction of their target.

Illusions attacking out of range and not connecting with anything.
Sword clones are particularly prone to this, as are iSwordsmen. Illusions often shatter out of range and don’t damage their target.

Clones still use Beta versions of skills.
Trident clones still stack confusion for example.

Illusion summoning is still buggy and unreliable.
They still flat out fail in conditions where they should normally work, Illusionary leap still fails on stationary targets at point blank range.

Phantasm specific summoning issues.
With the new behaviour introduced in the patch, Phantasm skills often miss, or otherwise fail in conditions in which they should work. The iWarden has had this behaviour for some time and was often overlooked because of how unreliable summoning it was, now ALL Phantasms act like this. In addition to the regular illusionary summoning bugs, they also enjoy projectile based bugs as well.

iZerker damage and ability to hit target has been kittened.
iZerkers appear to do roughly a third of their original damage per hit, in addition they are connecting with their attacks considerably more unreliably, often outright missing and doing nothing.

Illusionary Warden does not move between attacks.
Not entirely sure if this is intended or not, sometimes it half does sometimes it doesnt. There hasn’t been any official word either way so I have no idea. Personally I think it should though, its attack and summoning cooldown are huge and its attack is far from fast or hard to dodge.

Condition removal skills are still bugged
Arcane Thievery is still buggy and rarely works. Despite it being ‘fixed’ I’ve noticed it still being blocked by Aegis. Null Field still randomly doesn’t remove conditions and boons. Mender’s Purity still often doesn’t work. I don’t know about Shattered Conditions because the only Grandmaster trait that isn’t garbage is Illusionary Persona.

Phantasm buffs still broken.
Phantasmal Fury overwrites Phantasmal Healing, neither of which refresh properly on any Phantasm bar the Duellist.

Sharper Image bleeding still fails on Illusion death.
Bleeding caused by this trait causes zero damage when the illusion dies, given how quickly this happens in most situations, this is a rather prevalent problem.

The underwater version of Mimic lasts half as long as it does on land.
Pretty self explanatory, the window for absorption and reflection is half the time it is land with the same cooldown, very much hampering an already often ignored skill.

Absorbed attack still causes full effects with Mimic(?)
Not entirely sure if this is intended or not, but full damage and effects are taken on the first attack, preventing it from defending against pulls dazes and stuns which will interrupt the skill and cause the full cooldown to take effect.

Deception doesn’t break targeting.
Deception, the second downed skill does not break targeting and will almost never work as a result.

Illusion of Drowning has generally unlimited range.
Illusion of Drowning can be used out of range and most of the time will work at almost any distance so long as you have something targeted.

Temporal Curtain vertical range prevents it from reflecting projectiles.
Many Arching projectiles bypass it right now, slight elevation changes in terrain can also cause it to fail.

Temporal Curtain’s Swiftness buff does not stack with others.
Pretty self explanatory.

Distortion will sometimes fail to do anything.
Damage and various CC will often still occur during Distortion, from both the Shatter and Blurred Frenzy.

Blink and other porting skill still hilariously broken.
You can still port through walls, the floor and out of the map in general. Additionally, porting over the top of objects still has a habit of failing.

Blink occasionally doesn’t break stun.
Blink will often cause you to port, but not break stun. This happens more often than not with knockdowns.

Mirror Blade often fails.
Mirror Blade will often fail to activate at closer ranges and act as if it has been interrupted.

Illusionary Wave will fail at close range.
This skill will very rarely work at close range.

There are a few more, but there is already a tread for it.

I would like to ad one more thing though.

Mind Stab (Greatsword) is an awful skill.
Roots the Mesmer, does poor damge and has awful range. Id like to see it get an extra 10 seconds or so on the cooldown, revert to its old animation and becoming a launch.
Yes. a launch.
Because that would be pretty dang awesome to see in a WvW Zerg.

Clones produced by dodge rolling will often attack other targets instead of the one you have selected which is problematic when you want to focus fire, avoid over pulling mobs or shatter a specific target.

Deception is really hit and miss, often teleporting you just next to the target that you’re trying to get away from where you were or, into the heat of battle. More control in where we land would be better

The Prestige cast shouldn’t break on dodge roll or, have the blast go off instantly followed by stealth which doesn’t break on dodge. The stealth that comes with it often appears not to work allowing enemies to continue targeting you and deal damage

otherwise many of the glaring issues are already stated

Thank you!

/15char

Currently this breaks stealth as well as its cast if you dodge or blink which punishes you should you need to get out of a bad situation.

It would be great if it could work like Decoy or Mass Invisibility where it allows you to dodge in stealth while at the same time behaving like Mantras where it allows you to make instant casts like Power Spike while channeling Mantra of Recovery.

It would also be good if we could also use Blink while under the effects of its stealth which would make for some nice strategic placement options for the aoe burn

As mentioned in the subject title, is condition damage affected by Sigil of Force?

cheers!

Do you still suffer from the CC it reflects when it is applied to you? E.G. target applies stun to you, you are stunned but the target also suffers the same stun. Or, do you evade the stun and the target stuns himself?

In terms of defensive traits, is it worth taking over say illusionary defense?

Bump for reply
/15char

Does anyone know if empowered illusions makes the Debilitating Dissipation and Confusing Combatants traits deal more condition damage when the clones are killed?

The utility, Decoy, sometimes doesnt put your character into stealth