Showing Posts For Ribos.8350:
I dunno if you guys noticed, but the Charr work on a slightly different system of values and morals from humans. It’s part of why historically there’s been war between the two races. Heck, GW:EN featured this inter-racial understanding and tension as a major plot point. Whipping prisoners is tasteless to humans, but to the charr? If you don’t whip them into submission, they can be expected to kill you. It’s a strong predator-prey dynamic.
Henge of Denravi (my server) is pretty good for PvE, I’ve found. The big event chains are usually very well populated, and you’ll find plenty of people in those zones running around when said chains aren’t occurring. Activity in the mid-level zones without such a draw can be a little low, but you’d expect that. And, of course, you’ll never be hurting for people doing FotM, dungeons, or living story.
I’ve got a warrior at level 46…
…and one of every other class at 80. If you care about the order that was achieved (a.k.a. preference):
1. Mesmer
2. Engineer
3. Thief
4. Necromancer
5. Elementalist
6. Guardian
7. Ranger
Though the last two hit 80 literally a day apart from each other, so they’re pretty interchangeable. I know you’re not doing a time series plot here, but it’s worth noting on account of if you had asked this at an earlier point, my answer would have been quite different.
I thought he was a very fun and unique (if a little easy) boss, and I commend the team who designed the encounter.
That said, as a mesmer, he was pretty easy. I made a lot of mistakes (dodge rolled into an explosive mine whoops) but I was able to rally twice and beat him in my first attempt. Part of this was expected: clones distracted him fairly well, for instance. But what was unexpected was that said clones still inflicted conditions on him. All those extra bleeds drastically reduced the challenge.
You’re forgetting conditions are not purely about damage; indeed the only conditions that are pure damage sources are burning and bleeding.
Poison serves as both damage, and is a counter to healing and all other conditions don’t even deal direct damage themselves. If condition damage was equal to direct damage, then it’d be a no brainer whether to roll direct or condition – condition, obviously, because then not only do you get decent damage, you’d also get to slap your opponent silly with debuffs for the same gear set
Thus, the average DPS of conditions needs to be lower than the average DPS of direct damage sets.
It’s also worth remembering that conditions cannot “crit” mitigating the need for precision in many condition builds – so, again, conditions give you all the bang for only 1 stat (condition damage), Vs direct damage which usually needs to be tempered with precision AND power
Condition builds may not NEED precision, but they can get slightly whacked into forcing the issue. Engis and Necros both share c.damage and precision in the same trait lines, and everyone has to go into their power lines if they want condition duration.
And, of course, all this assumes the traits that benefit your condition build are even in those lines in the first place… with all this, there’s a lot of pressure to NOT focus on condition builds and opt for power/precision. Which I think is a bit lame. Why not put condition duration and damage in the same line, at least for necros?
I always try to be obliging when other people tell me they’re trying to go for their dailies… but I may have inadvertently been such a “jerk” last night. The harpy attack on the Priory camp next to the AC entrance had started up, and I decided to go for it. Some other guy came along, just said the word “daily,” and carried on. Didn’t respond to me or anything.
Now, what am I supposed to make of that? We had daily tasks for dodging, healing, and events in general, all of which could be fulfilled here. I -think- he was going for healing, which would justify my dispatching of the harpies in short order while the NPCs were down, but if he was going for dodges, he’d want the exact opposite behavior from me.
My point is, when you want dailies and other folks are around, be clear in your communication. I’d say in over 90% of cases, players don’t want to be jerks, so good communication will help them not be jerks. As for the other 10%… well, are such incidents reportable? I know ANet are not fans of griefing, but I don’t know if they actively punish it.
Lightning Whip and Fire Grab follow the same “cone of attack” rules as the engineer’s flamethrower. Regardless of your target and the animation (the latter needs a change), the attack will hit in the direction your camera faces. This can be both good and bad: bad for the reasons listed in the OP, but good in gathering multiple targets, if one is slightly off to the side.
My two cents’ worth is that I’d like to see the animation for such attack cone skills reflect where it’s actually going, and Fire Grab should probably not be such a skill with that cooldown time. But that’s just me.
RNG the RNG
okay…I wouldnt mind this at all now.
Inception level stuff of random
If we’re going to be RNG then I say we go all the way.
Everytime we use our auto attack, it will be a random effect of bleed, burn, poison, cripple, steal life, etc. etc.
The mesmer forum is over there, enjoy your staff. :P
I know you want kitless if possible, but doing P/S conditions very much begs for Elixir Gun. You add weakness and cripple to your available conditions, and Super Elixir is great healing/condition removal.
I know an elixir-based build is somewhat popular, what with all the buffs it grants. Acidic elixirs, though, is a terrible trait and should never be picked (the damage is only slightly more than you’d get by sneezing on the enemy).
My favorite non-kit-reliant build has got to be the static discharge build. It cheats slightly by effectively forcing you to use med kit, but you never use it for the 1-5. With 30 on your toolbelt, Bandage becomes the fastest-recharging self-heal engineers have, not to mention it throws a moderately-damaging bolt out. I’m sure you can find a build somewhere on these forums for inspiration. Granted, I always liked using tool kit for the throw wrench tool belt skill, but it is by no means necessary. I played this build for a couple months, and it’s a load of fun, if one that requires your constant attention to your endurance and tool belt recharges. I also recommend using rifle instead of P/S, but you might be able to make it work.
You have not known tedium until you’ve tried to destroy structures with a condition necro. But it makes flavorful sense. As a mage specializing in the forces of life and death, what kind of power can I wield over an inanimate trebuchet? At least golems and steam creatures have some kind of magical spark that can be approximated as “life.”
That being said, an elementalist (or guardian) should be able to burn those trebuchets down. Fire does not care if you are alive or dead. Fire only cares if there is sufficient oxygen and if there is a sufficient temperature (with some limitations on material composition, fine). And magical fire can drop the latter. So yeah, I’d like to see some burning vulnerability for structures. I guess chill holds to the same rules, but it isn’t DOT, so it’s a bit less important.
Actually, in a purely legal sense, you can’t sell a product (the game, in this case) and then have some kind of user agreement that is only viewable after purchase (during installation) or on a seperate website somewhere. Doesn’t really fly in court.
From a purely common sense point of view, I agree with you completely.
Well, considering that link in the OP goes right to the TOS and you don’t have to be logged in to view it, I’d say users are given the legal ability to read the TOS before purchasing. So yeah, it would hold up in court. Sorry.
I don’t like the wording either, but they need to give themselves a legal “out” in the event someone discovers some kind of loophole that threatens to wreck the game that doesn’t qualify under any of the foreseeable bannable offenses. Sort of like the restaurants’ line of “We reserve the right to not serve a customer for any reason.” You will also find most other game TOS’s have similar lines in them, and yet no one panics over them.
It’s dumb, but I’m somewhat proud of having claimed “Mister Cuddles” for my Charr warrior.
I also have a Sylvari necro named “Ege Bamyasi,” having won the coinflip between deciding on that or Tago Mago. He’s so green, sure, but I also gave him a mushroom head anyways. Because 70s psychedelic rock references.
I know I have seen some wonderful names on the server but it is late and I am tired and I have a terrible memory that is sadly not augmented with screenshots, but I will remember this thread for future encounters.
http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Miniature_Island_Guardian
The existence of this guy must be the bane of every “gotta catch ’em all” collector in this thread.
EDIT: I should elaborate, I guess. What I mean is that a promotional item you can’t buy but is given to people who happen to be in the right place at the right time is not a new thing for ANet and that’s fine. I have a baseball cap, someone else is going to have a wizard hat. Some Taiwanese guy who wasn’t one of the first fifty people to signup has an Island Guardian in GW1.
(edited by Ribos.8350)
Never, ever, underestimate how gut-wrenchingly convoluted and frustrating every facet of programming can be… (spoken as I finish my C++ final ahem)
Man, C++ isn’t even the worst language when it comes to bugs, haha! Just wait until you get to the wonderful world of professional software development. There’s a reason game developers are so often falling back on “it’ll be released when it’s done.”
So I’m totally cool with being patient for fixes and everything. The only thing that bugs (heh) me slightly is the fact that there was a time when phantasms worked fine. Or, you know, at least they worked better than they do now. GW1 didn’t seem to have too much trouble when it came to hotfixing bugs, even if they just did a rollback. Thus, I just have to ask: what happened?
I predicted this would happen the very moment I heard how the game would manage gems, and guessed how exactly the system would work.
So after the game was released, I bought 20€ in gems and quickly got the rest with coins (about 25..40silver per 100gems by that time), and unlocked 15 characters slots, all bank slots and all bag slots in my main character and I told my guildies to do the same.
Now all of them who didn’t heed my words are regretting it, like everyone else who has ever ignored my warnings.
As people at higher levels keep doing grindier things get more gold than those at lower levels doing fun things, they buy gems every now and them, either to get stuff or to save them for festivals.
Some people sold their remaining gems after they got what they wanted after release, but now they have realized that saving them is better, because you never know what the market may have in the future.
And so, as less and less people sell gems, and a few people grinds more and more gold, prices will keep going up.Exactly as I predicted.
/boo
Oh, I saw it right from the start. When there wasn’t much money in the whole game economy, all my spare change went into buying gems. I’ve got 1,200 gems sitting around that I purchased for maybe 2.5g. I did this knowing I wouldn’t be able to keep up with the folks who power-leveled to 80 in two days who would farm the high-level areas and would thus inflate the economy, driving up the price of gems. And no, 1,200 gems aren’t a lot, but you’ve gotta admit… it was a heck of an investment.
I’m a simple gamer. If I need more character slots, I’ll pay the $7.50 or whatever it is for another slot. If I need more bank space, I’ll throw in a couple bucks for that. I have a real-life job that pays me decent (not great) money, so it’s not like I’m going to go hungry over it.
But just a cheapo’s word of advice: form a vanity guild. Earn some influence points by logging in and, I dunno, do some junk. Get yourself a guild bank. BOOM. Extra storage for the price of forming a guild and having patience.
they’re ugly. Hard to get past that.
Some of them look like they are wrapped in bacon strips, not plant leaves.
I’m sorry… I’m not seeing the problem here.
Well, you got part of your wish on 5: It’s got a range of 1200 now, and I sincerely hope you aren’t asking for more than that. The range on 1 is fine, it’s pretty standard melee range, but I could see that third attack happening a little faster. Or maybe give it a stack of vulnerability.
The box of nails is pretty fine, though; it does exactly what it should do, which is provide a field of caltrops. If there’s one change I’d make, it’d be to make it activate a little faster. You’re throwing a box of nails into the air, not meticulously spreading them around you! At any rate, it provides a crippling field that stacks bleeds. It’s already pretty groovy. #4 also recently got a buff in that it now blocks for three seconds.
That leaves my favorite attack, the pry bar. It hits pretty hard, and stacks confusion! What’s not to love about that? But even as great as the pry bar is, you forgot to mention the number one reason to take the tool kit: THROW WRENCH. Simply put, it’s arguably the best tool belt skill available. Hits hard, hits twice, and hits every enemy along its path. A base cooldown of 20 seconds isn’t terrible, either, and it only gets better with the proper traiting (if you’re so inclined).
Oh yeah, and while it shouldn’t be a thing, it’s also a fairly bug-free kit. Unlike the flamethrower.
Yeah… “Smart Cast” …i got this ON allready… but its still to much Pressing #1
Map your #1 key to a middle mouse click if possible. It’s what I did and works great for throwing grenades while moving against moving targets.
man that’s very good idea.
I started doing this a couple weeks back, and it was one of the smartest remapping decisions I’ve ever made. Maybe one of these days I’ll get one of those fancy game controllers so I don’t have to WASD all over the place, but for now this (and mapping the self-heal to mouse button 4) are carrying me just fine.
Sure, dueling is a part of it, but the big part everyone overlooks is the simplest: it looks cool. Mesmers are all about style leading to substance (we bring the razzle-dazzle!), and little looks more awesome than wielding a giant sword, even if it’s not exactly practical. But hey, it’s not like we actually USE the zweihanders for slicey purposes. But giant lasers are also cool, so shooting lasers from impractically-large swords is just about the coolest thing ever.
If WvW is your thing, I’m not sure how applicable this is, but for PvE I’m a huge fan of Bloodlust and Energy. Bloodlust of course gets your DPS up there over time, but Energy is a tremendous help for Deceptive Evasion (which you probably should be traiting regardless of build). Spawning clones – which will then cause bleeds on crits, raising your DPS – has never been easier.
Enemies in PvE that have the “throws daggers” line (bandits, mostly) use a variation of dagger storm that is effectively a suicide vs. feedback. On the other hand, their variation does not reflect projectiles at all, so this should not be taken to imply ANYTHING about the player’s dagger storm. Disregard anyone who tries to claim anything about this based on PvE enemies.
Deceptive Evasion isn’t just a good idea, it’s dang near essential. The two minor traits you get along the way in dueling just make it even better: you dodge, you get a clone. Clone crits, inflict a bleed. You crit, you get to dodge more. All in the trait line that gives you a better chance to crit.
Up to level 15, though, I agree with the consensus of putting your trait points into illusions for the skill recharge minor trait. 20% is a big deal. Not to mention +50 to condition damage is a good thing…
Beyond those 25 trait points, though, it’s pretty much up to you. Me, I went 10/25/25/0/10 because I like the chaos benefits (and toughness lets you take a hit without falling down every time), but I also have a major focus on inflicting conditions and clone spam. If that’s not your style, I encourage you to try something else.
Perma-cripple keeps enemies out of range from your mesmer, even while you’re attacking. Sure, you’re going to keep moving, but unless they’re crippled, you’re either not facing them (preventing you from attacking), or you’re moving slow enough that they can close the distance.
Crippling in PvE also seems to carry the side-effect of lessening agro. Enemies seem to be more likely to focus on illusions closer to them than you if they’re moving slower than normal… which makes it more likely they’ll kill your clones, thus keeping them crippled and you much safer.
Scepter roots me while I wait for the other guy to hit me…It roots a Mesmer..Think about that for a second :/
Scepter doesn’t root a mesmer at all. You can move during all three of the skills. You can’t dodge while channeling confusing images (without prematurely ending the skill), but that’s about it.
Personally, I love the scepter, but I recognize it could use a buff. Not necessarily something as over-the-top as adding confusion to ether bolt (unless it’s only a 1s stack), but maybe a bit more damage.
Half the time I use the skill, I do so expecting it to inflict vulnerability. I’m always disappointed when it doesn’t. Did it do that during beta? Maybe that would help it out a bit more.
For me, it’s the 1v1 survivability. Heck, even against PvE mobs, you can kite like no one else. Vigor on crits leads to rolling like I’m playing Katamari Damacy, and clones on rolls? Just groovy. Sure, those clones don’t take much damage and they can’t deal much either, but they can throw conditions all over the place, both in attacks and in death. Of any mage class, mesmers provide the most support and require the least.
I also love the amount of strategy that goes into the builds. Other classes seem to almost require a full 30 trait points in the +power line, but I’ve gotten way more mileage out of precision and toughness on the mesmer. The precision gets you crit bonuses, not just more damage. Truth: mesmers can’t DPS like elementalists. Who cares? Elementalists can’t use conditions like mesmers.
You want to talk about offense? Every other class is all about the pew pew. Yeah, even necromancers love to use skills as soon as they recharge to put out the most numbers. But mesmers? Nope, we gotta think hard about when we use them. We have to know what our enemy is planning to do AND what we plan to do about it, and all at the speed the enemy sets. Scepter 2, sword 4, and Mirror all have rather short timing windows for counterattacking, but when you can land them, you get to deal a chunk of damage, prevent some to yourself, and usually pull some other effect. Have you ever used Feedback on an enemy using Dagger Storm? Hilarity. Plain and simple. But you can’t use Feedback on a thief at any random moment to get that effect, you have to anticipate the dagger storm or have a real quick reflex to it. Mesmers absolutely EMBODY the phrase “learn2play.” Gear, stats, it matters way less to a mesmer when you can simply outplay your opponent. They are the monkey wrench of DPS calculations. They are the gum that sticks to your shoe. THEY ARE DARKWING DUCK, AND DON’T YOU FORGET IT.
We totally need a giant enemy crab. With a weak point. That we can strike for massive damage. Because that joke never gets old.
More important than the question of how to tell clones from players is the question of why it’s even an option to revive clones in the first place.
Furthermore, if you’re quick on the revive after rallying, you can revive your own downed clone AND GAIN EXPERIENCE FROM IT. That just ain’t right. Granted, it doesn’t do anything to the clone, but perhaps that’s just an even bigger indicator that it’s a bug that needs to be cleaned up.
Played with the GS post-buff now, and I have to say it definitely measured up to my expectations! I don’t know how much the overall attack speed increased for SSurge, but it definitely chains the three hits together much quicker, and it appears each attack cycle does happen faster than it did previously. I also decided to try a build less focused on the Illusions trait line and more on Dueling, and I am very pleased with the result. GS + trait that makes illusions bleed on crit + dodge roll to clone = so much bleeding! Not to mention the fairly happy DPS coming out of the sword itself, of course.
So yeah, long story short, mesmers rock and people who say otherwise are wrong and dumb.
Basically, it got made good. As taken from the developer notes:
“Spatial Surge: Improved responsiveness.
Mind Stab: Improved responsiveness.”
By which they seem to mean that both skills have been sped up. I’ve heard that Mind Stab now goes off faster, so there’s less time spent stabbing the ground and more time running around. I am assuming that, similarly, Spatial Surge deals damage more rapidly (did I hear twice as fast/often?), which would significantly improve its DPS. So, you know, maybe it’s awesome right now. I still need to try it.
Very impressive. I just watched the first video, but I’ll be getting to the others tomorrow. I hadn’t bothered to give the focus the time of day due to the defensive nature of its abilities, but I hadn’t really considered the combo potential it provides nor the sheer damage that warden puts out!
I was also a bit surprised by how well you viewed the greatsword. I had always found the damage output severely lacking (note: pre-buff), and while mirror blade is wonderful, it didn’t make up for the otherwise lackluster performance. The point about the berserker effectively taking the melee hits for you is an interesting point of synergy, though, so I’ll definitely be giving it another shot, particularly with that buff.
I fully agree on the staff, though, and I always keep one on hand for the reasons you listed. Honestly, the quality of support chaos storm grants in the big boss fights is completely unrivaled, often outclassing elite skills. All it needs is someone to provide the Blast to give everyone chaos armor, and the situation quickly turns in the players’ favor. Add in everything else the staff does (particularly those condition-inflicting clones!), and you’ve got an obvious home-run weapon.
I still enjoy the scepter, though, as a shatter-heavy build can very easily spam out Mind Wrack or, even better, Cry of Frustration with alarming frequency. PvE mobs will often kill off a clone or two while you’re auto-attacking, which slows down clone production from that enough to allow for the shatter skills to recharge. CoF combos very nicely with Confusing Images, and I will have to respectfully disagree with your analysis of PvE mobs not being reliable enough on triggering confusion. With CI, you will almost always get a trigger in, and oftentimes two. Five stacks of confusion usually results in more damage than the five hits of the beam itself from a single attack, so two attacks can mean death for trash mobs.
I also want to put in a word of support for the blocking skills, both scepter’s 2 and sword’s 4. They effectively give a blind, deal a good chunk of damage, AND create a clone! This means that pairing the scepter and sword allows you to 1) land five stacks of confusion, 2) block the next attack or two while still dealing confusion damage, 3) deal one or two counterattacks worth of damage, and 4) shatter your clones for the coup de grace. 1 on 1, it’s a good way to clean up.
I won’t say the scepter outclasses the mainhand sword, but your video ranks it as the worst mesmer weapon available (and hey, something needs to have that title), and pre-buff, I would have given that title to the greatsword. It’s still a build-dependent weapon (straight DPS the scepter is not), but perhaps a touch underrated.
Mesmer was the first class I played in GW1, and it’s still my first class in GW2. Personally, I like the fact that they managed to make them still function as indirect damage-dealers. Winds of Chaos doesn’t deal a whole lot of damage itself, but it’s guaranteed to apply a condition that yields more damage over time. Confusing Images lands a mighty five stacks of confusion which can easily yield more damage in one attack than the five hits of the beam did. With scepter/sword, you’ve got two counterattack skills in your first five, dealing damage while avoiding some yourself.
No, it is not a class that can pick off enemies as quickly as a warrior. But if you’re thinking strictly in terms of DPS, mesmer is not a class for you. It takes finesse and skill to pull off, but it definitely pays off. The reactive nature of the class requires you to, well, react to your foes rather than to just run in and smack them like you would any other enemy. Personally, I find that makes it the least boring play style possible.
At least it’s not a necro staff.
…but that’s really all I’ve got for the sound issue.
Another Sylvari mesmer here, and the only ones I’ve used with any success are Take Root and Grasping Vines. TR’s got quite a short cooldown time for an elite, and it always seems to grow five turrets (even if some of them spawn in the same location), which guarantees a good output. It’s great for mob management, which is something I tend to have trouble with elsewise. GV usually gets taken down in two hits, but that’s a two or three second immobilization at the least with a quick cast and a long range. It’s a good diversion, sneaks in a little damage, and draws away attacks that could have been aimed at you.
Healing Seed is terrible if you’re soloing, as it will immediately draw the mob’s attention, they kill it in a couple hits, and they’re back to smacking you before you recover any significant health. That being said, as with the engineer’s similar turret, it excels in group battles, in which the number of targets allow it a longer lifespan and it can provide a benefit for more people. This may sound all very obvious, but I want to emphasize how big of a difference the solo/group thing makes. Useless in one scenario, probably the best 6 skill you’ll have in the other.
Seed Turret is just weak and overall a bad idea in 99% of the cases I’ve seen. Take Root gets the pardon because it gives you five of the things. Much like zerglings: not a threat one at a time, but effective in groups. I’ve not gone after the other elites yet, but I can already say that the Druid Spirit skill looks like a waste of time and skill points. Big dumb punching bag that occasionally does a bit of damage and grants a bit of healing/support. I’d rather go with a summon that takes a more aggressive role, thanks. Fern Mastiff looks like it could be a decent one, though, so I’ll be giving that a shot soon as I get enough skill points.
Right now I’m staff + scepter/torch, but I’m also a fan of scepter/sword. Staff is beautiful for crowd control or boss fights (champions, whatever), so I’m always packing that. People sometimes forget that the clones it generates ALSO inflict conditions with their attacks, and that’s nothing to sneeze at.
Maybe it’s my GW1 heritage poking out, but I tend to prefer ranged weapons over melee as a caster. The autoattack makes me be a bit careful about phantasms, sure, but I love the blocking skill (enough to sometimes double with OH sword), and Confusing Images may be my favorite skill in the game. 5x confusion results in some fairly wicked damage. Using torch as the OH gives me access to even more confusion, and stealth on casters is just groovy.
Sword/Pistol is great if you want to go for the DPS, but I like condition damage just fine.