Guild Wars 2

Sarelm.8317:

Assuming there are any targets nearby, yes, it does that. If not, it’s also a wasted CD.

Sorry, I would’ve numbered them, but I figured the spaces were reference enough to what ability I meant. Dragon’s Tooth used to be a blast finisher, but that also seemed to get “fixed” in the last patch.

If there’s a CD then it’s sounds like a bug. I’ll try to get a screenie but my Defender and Disenchanter were just triggering the “Cannot summon this without a target” red text when I was blinded or interrupted in WvW…. kitten why can’t they have dummies cast debuffs…

Just find a mesmer friend that’s good at them and mooch off of portals if you’re so desperate to get around them.

Meteor storm is not a fire field. It’s useless if dodged.

Assuming there are any targets nearby, yes. If not, it’s also a wasted CD.

Thieves can indeed use the non-damaging, useless-bundle-giving move with only one use no matter what their opponent does. Whoo-hoo.

Engineer’s Turrets get put on CD. Ranger’s GS sword leap isn’t an evade. Just a leap. Sure it’ll still throw you forward no matter what, but it doesn’t mitigate any damage, and if your opponent is too far away.. You’ll just get thrown forward. Like any sort of moving… But without actually getting you there.

Mesmers, at the very least, don’t get their full CD like a Engineer does. And therefore get the chance to still summon it quickly afterwards. Rather than placing a useless warden down since they don’t move, and target no longer in range won’t get hit with whirl finishers either since it hardly hits unless the target is right next to them.

Is line of sight buggy? Yes. Is that a problem? Absolutely. Is it the problem you’re describing? No. Not summoning phantasms on a spot they’re no longer useful was intended to be a buff to mesmers as it gives them the chance to re-summon them without waiting when they do have a viable target.

They’d have to take away my troll jukes. All of them. Decoy, Phase Retreat, Blink, Prestige, illusionary leap. Everything that puts me in another spot, by invisibility or otherwise, and adds something else that looks just like me on the field. Because kitten is it hilarious every time I manage to get a player to after a clone instead of me. Even if it’s not entirely useful. The glass-crashing sound, the inevitable split second pause as the player tries to re-assess the situation and probably swear at their screen about how mesmers are effing trolls again. Always funny. Always. Funny.

I’m sorry, have a 3 second cast for your hammer every time you use it, that only lasts 25 charges and 60s if you don’t use those charges, and then need to recast it everytime that runs out. Then run around in cloth armor without the ability to switch out of that weapon unless you also want to recast it.
Are the conjure weapons powerful? Yes. On purpose. Because it’s a PAIN IN THE kitten to use them. But if you’re so miffed that their hammer’s strong, go run around with an ele and just pick up their spare when they summon it. See how that goes, if you can find a single ele that actually uses them. There’s a reason they don’t.

plasmacutter.2709:

EsLafiel.4517:

Nuka Cola.8520:

hahah its such a joke when your ONLY option to be half useful for pve/dungeons is to run a shatter build. in wvw you throw your mes to garbage because its by far the worst class in the game now, gg anet! across the years i’ve learned they’re one of the worst when it comes to nerfing/fixing (going by gw1).

Mez also have a tank/cc build which is extremely helpful in dgns.

So why not think before you speak.

the mez tank/cc build that any necro regardless of build can out-do with a staff and their utility bar (6-0)?

You mean necromancers that apply absolutely no boons to their allies unless they already have conditions, have no dazes, or the unparallelled Time Warp? Yep. Totally out-do mesmers.

Yeah, I’m sorry guys. I run a condition/beefy build in all parts of the game and have never even used the iBeserker. Does the nerf sound like a bit much? Yes, I’d hate to see a viable build go down the drain like this. A 50% tank in damage is just ridiculous for a class most assume can’t dps as it is. But stop making it sound like the end of the game.

ChaosStar.3162:

Sarelm.8317:

And don’t BS me with “GS and Sword” use it. Go make a sword “support” build. Tell me how much help that is too your group.

Slightly off topic here, but GS support is actually quite good. Staff 1 and 5 are your only real support skills, 4 at a stretch, whilst the GS supports with 2, 3, 4 and 5 and an appropriate sigil choice will give you a clean sweep of support skills. Anyway, this isn’t the thread for that discussion

I think you’re mistaking “Support” with “Control”. 5 isn’t a support skill in any way, but it is excellent control. 2 indeed gives a buff, and 3 gives vulnerability, yes. But I can’t see how it compares with Staff 1 & 5’s buffing/debuffing capabilities. GS applies absolutely no fields either, and while Staff 5 is a short field, it’s a great way to apply chaos armor to allies, which is one of the better auras in the game… And I don’t see 4. It isn’t even a whirl finisher anymore so.. It’s just aoe damage from what I can tell. If I didn’t love the blast finisher on torch so much I might take GS as a second set but when it comes to surviving, buffing and debuffing, I can’t find anything that compares to mesmer staff. Not even my elementalist or guardian seems to apply buffs and debuffs at constant rate my mesmer can, at least yet. I’ve only played either to about lvl 50 now, given.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Voodoo Tina.4180:

It’s damage isn’t cut by 80%. It’s damage is 100% of what it is designed to be. You don’t like that design, but changing it would raise the damage past what is intended, and that would lead to unforeseen consequences.

Also, why on earth are you chasing down an opponent with 3% health with a staff? To quote my Mesmer, “You’re already dead, you just don’t know it.” If you burned them down with a staff they are so covered with conditions let them run. It won’t help.

You cannot compare shortbows Skill 1 to Staff skill 1. Shortbow auto’s are like 200% faster spam AND travel time… Winds of Chaos need a change, fact. Its far from being the only skill that needs to be rebalanced tho, but, Vulnerability has no place on this weapon auto’s, none. I would take 2sec or even 1sec of poison over support crap vulnerability is. I have chaos armor/chaos storm/phase retreat combo field for chaos armor as support, no need useless vulnerability when its on GS and sword anyways. If vulnerability was increasing condition damage i would’ve never made this thread but it doesn’t (poor choice to make condition builds weaker than they should)

I’m sorry, I’m pretty sure mesmer’s can’t use shortbows….
Oh wait. you’re comparing a RANGER weapon set to a MESMER weapon set. Not thinking at all that class traits, functioning and other skills could at ALL be other balancing factors in the game. Like the fact that Ranger’s shortbow has an even weaker base damage, absolutely no buffing ability on it and Rangers completely lack the utility mesmers have when it comes to slot skills.
If you’re so concerned about condition damage, go precision with a GS mainhand and get a sigil of earth. You’ll stack bleeds far beyond that of a staff, which actually /stack/ unlike burning and do more damage that way.
Please leave Vulnerability on my support-staff build. I don’t stack any of the damage stats, just there to buff, daze, and survive fights, and it’s done wonders for my dungeon groups, but the vulnerability debuff is the only really useful one I have on that auto attack without any condition damage in my build. And don’t BS me with “GS and Sword” use it. Go make a sword “support” build. Tell me how much help that is too your group.

Is DPS more useful in this game than healing? Probably. Is DPS more useful than support in this game? Absolutely not.
Please, stop trying to be a healer, and start trying to be a “support” and you’ll find that DPS is not the end-all be-all of this game. Spreading buffs like might and protection, clearing off conditions, and tossing around the occasional heal is HUGELY helpful in all types of group PvE. While outright healing, as everyone has mentioned, is.. Not. You’re just not going to keep people “Topped off” in this game. You’re not supposed too, they have their own heals that they’re supposed to know how to use appropriately or die for it. You, on the other hand, can mitigate damage with chill and protection, along with other CC, increase damage with vulnerability and might, both increase damage and mitigate it with condition removal. And most of all, keep up with the fields in combat. Whether you’re dagger or scepter and have a myriad of finishers for every time you see a white circle on the ground, or you’re staff and laying them down (While praying your party does something with them.) Elementalist has probably the most varied group of fields and finishers in the game. I say this from my mesmer main who places ethereal and ONLY etherial fields and having an elementalist in my group to combo off of instead is a HUGE relief besides doing ANYTHING and getting.. chaos armor for it. Which is good but…. Chaos armor. All the time, every time.

Most people don’t use it because it doesn’t seem to sync well. Staff does ludicrous amounts of condition damage while GS has absolutely no damaging conditions on it whatsoever. GS does wonderfully with crit/damage builds because of it’s crit-soaked auto-attack and all over power. But staff’s mindbendingly slow auto attack and inability to stack on-crit traits or sigils with any of it’s abilities is downright painful. That’s not to say it’s not usable. As most people are demonstrating here, ignoring one or the other’s strengths and using the base utilities on the weapons still works. Personally, I’d just rather find 2 weapons that seems to fit the same build rather than fight the system like that.

Depends on what PvE. Are you good at tagging mobs in DE? Eh. It’s harder then other professions. Are you asked for in dungeon groups? All. The. Time. More than a necro or thief can say at least. I’d say that’s toting for mesmer’s took kit in dungeons at least.

Slight note, The trait itself says “Clones bleed on crit” in game terms, while illusions apply to all the pets we summon, clones are specific to the ones we summon that look just like us and attack with our weapon’s #1 ability, as opposed to phantasms which are the ghostly-pink ones like the iDuelist. This shouldn’t effect phantasms like the iDuelist then. I don’t know if it is broken or the tooltip is mistyped so that it is, but I just thought it was worth mentioning incase this is changed or fixed in the future.

I actually use a tank/condition damage/phantasm build that doesn’t seem to be on here. It’s 0/0/25/25/20 Going for Staff/Trident 20% cd bonus with +50 toughness, phantasm health, phantasm cds and whatever seems to be useful from there.
It doesn’t seem to work too well in pvp because the defender and disenchanter which I use for support aren’t quite fast enough or beefy enough to be helpful but in dungeon’s it’s been a HUGE success. The disenchanter continuously strips conditions off of EVERYONE and the defender’s tooltip is wrong. It takes half the damage of anyone within 600 range of this. You can tell by the little buff icon it passes around to those close enough.
I go Staff/ Sword-Torch mostly for all the support it can provide. Staff’s got the most conditions and boons as any mesmer weapon. Sword’s got an immobilize and an invuln for whenever you’re stuck getting so close to use the immobilize, and then Torch has the only blast finisher a mesmer has, which with any of “your” fields gives one of the most powerful auras in the game, chaos armor. With any other fields it can do a myriad of useful things from heals to might buffs. Not to mention the invis is really nice if you attracted a bit too much attention and the phantasm is so-so with your condition build. It gives retaliation to everyone which is a nice buff, a better one for classes that love stacking buffs, and confusion, which while with your “add confusion to all shatters” minor trait in illusions isn’t as good kittentering it would actually be, it’s still not bad, and lasts a lot longer than the shatter confusion does, especially if your defender and disenchanter are on cd and you don’t want to shatter them until you can resummon them.

This clearly means we just need to go back to getting 30 tokens a run.

TheBlueRaja.4293:

Sarelm.8317:

…
PS. As for your question, he’s got… 1, maybe 2. And they’re all on his longbow if I remember right. Maybe it’s not right to blame him for not knowing fields, but if he’s played with you long enough he should’ve at least realized how many finisher’s he’s got.

Guardians don’t have access to longbows, not sure where you got that from

I am so sorry, I honestly read that as warrior. Then yes, they have a field on every one of their weapons, there’s a problem there.

I’m sorry, you say you played WoW and yet have a problem with jumping puzzles, getting one shot, getting wiped on trash, and dying 50 times on the same boss? You’ve never, ever done WoW endgame content then. Try again.
I mean kitten, I only played BC and Wrath and I know I had to deal with Patchwork’s frogger (Trap/jumping puzzle) Freya’s room. (Trash easily tougher then some bosses) Every boss mechanic in the game that didn’t hit the tank was a one shot or kitten near close to it, and the reason why beating Arthas was IMPRESSIVE is because it was almost guaranteed to take a guild weeks to do. And this was /Wrath/ most of my friends who’ve played since vanilla say kitten was loads harder than that before then. Please, if you’re going to compare to other games, at least do it in a factual manner.

You might wanna mention your server.

Personally I go 0/0/25/25/20 with a “Condition” build that uses tons of confusion. Works quite nicely when I’m incredibly tanky and do damage to them everytime they hit me. I start off with a OH sword clone and the iMage, let the iMage get off an attack then cry of frustration with both of them, then switch to staff, summon iWarlock, Defender and Disenchanter, and just smack them with confusion again whenever all those come off CD. It’s not a lot of damage, but it’s a lot of support with a side of conditions. It’s done wonders in dungeons for me where I can tell people I’ll replace their need for a guardian.

This has made me very nervous, honestly. I have a level 80 mesmer that’s done every story mode in the game and most of the explorable modes. (Missing a path in Arah, HoTW and CoF atm.) But she’s heavy-support specced. 0/0/25/25/20 I even advertise myself as a guardian replacement for groups thinking they need a ‘dian. I’ve NEVER had trouble with PUGs, and in all my runs I’ve only failed to complete the path, due to rage quits, wiping or otherwise, in less than 10% of the times I’ve gone. Probably more like 5%. Never have I worried about level, class or gear when joining or forming groups.
I’m now leveling an elementalist for the sake of making a high-dps specced character. I love making alts and I feel like this’d be more enjoyable than getting my mesmer a second spec/gear/weapon set up to switch too everytime we needed dps instead. But the areas are getting boring. I’ve map completed everything in PvE and I long desperately to go to a dungeon for the nice exp boost, and generally more exciting experience instead. I just don’t think I could convince anyone to take my now lvl 46 elementalist with them yet. It’s sad and frustrating that the game was made so that you don’t have to “Wait” for endgame and then I find myself… waiting.

Efaicia.3672:

I honestly will be shocked if the disparity between classes functionality and basic game mechanic awareness isn’t fixed.

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever that my husband who is a level 80 fully exotic geared gaurdian should have an HONEST answer of “What’s a field?” when I asked him how many he has.

It is complete and utter crap that the ONLY class in this game who is dependant or even cares about this games mechanics is the elementalist.

Sometimes I wonder if this means that buffing elementalist isn’t what needs to be done, but nerfing other classes. I actually main a mesmer, while leveling was incredibly difficult at first and I quickly had to learn that all my fields were ethereal and what each of the finishers did in an ethereal field, once I hit around 30-40, PvE became “Summon 3 phantasms. Auto attack til it’s dead. Dodge roll if it gets too close.” I don’t know where all the challenge went but playing elementalist and getting the excitement and challenge of having to strategize for every single mob you pull just does the game’s mechanics so much more justice in comparison. Yes, the phantasms got a bit of a nerf, and it’s a bit harder now, but not for Guardians and Warriors. If all the classes were more on-par with elementalists this would be a much different game.

PS. As for your question, he’s got… 1, maybe 2. And they’re all on his longbow if I remember right. Maybe it’s not right to blame him for not knowing fields, but if he’s played with you long enough he should’ve at least realized how many finisher’s he’s got.

I think there’s another inherent assumption here that all elementalists use staffs. Yes, staffs easily give the class the most combo fields in the game, and therefore a lot of support possibilities, but I really don’t like the idea of this replacement. While the attunement swapping definitely needs some love, changing the final trait line to support combos would not only make those extremely powerful, but it’d just kitten on any dagger or scepter users, since neither produce any fields at all, only finishers.

I did this a lot for my Charr friends back when the camera made it a nightmare for them to do most of the jumping puzzles. Someone else doing the jumping puzzle at the same time started yelling “CHEATERS!!” in map chat. It.. Hurt. I was just trying to help. I have depth perception issues, I’m TERRIBLE at jumping puzzles and it was hard enough for me to get there to make the portals on top of what a nightmare the puzzle was for them. I didn’t do anymore puzzles after that… This… Changed my mind. Maybe it’d be okay to do them again.

Shinigami.5932:

Sarelm.8317:

Scepter does an okay job. Better than that is to take a sword/GS and go with “Condition on crit” traits/sigils though. Those’ll usually get a lot of bleeds down quite quickly.

I’m confused, wouldn’t the scepter crit just as often as sword/gs to apply the conditions? It wouldn’t have as high direct damage, but you don’t have the power for that anyway and scepter provides the confusing images skill. iirc sword & gs have no skills that directly cause damaging conditions.

No, actually, the animation and attack rate of the scepter is just.. Slow. Like the staff, in all honesty. While “Crit damage” will be about the same because of the way crits scale depending on how fast you attack, the amount of bleed stacks you get from crits will be lower since the GS can get up to 3 stacks per attack while the scepter can only do one. (If you’ve never used GS, it attacks 3 times with ever auto attack animation, all with the chance to crit.) The sword’s “attack speed” is good for this too.

I don’t think he “Needs” one either. It’s usually a decently clear animation as long as you’re actually look at him. But a shout like “COME HERE!” or something wouldn’t be out of place either.

lcpdragonslayer.7895:

I’ve done Paths 1 and 3 with a group entirely comprised of under 80s. If the dungeon was designed for a group of level 80s the level requirement would be 80. It is possible but not if all party members are scholar types. You would also want party members to have full greens or better gear. They’re cheap off the TP, often a couple copper above the sellback price.

You shouldn’t pay any attention to the breeders and stalkers and just kite them around to the next mound. Put some AoEs up and just focus solely on the mounds. Keep running circles around the mounds to take less damage from the Gravellings. Knowing where the next mound will pop up also helps so that you don’t waste time running around looking for it.

I just have to argue with that scholar remark. I’m a mesmer, the guildies I go with are an elementalist and a necromancer. The pugs we picked up were occasionally a ranger/engi but more often than not, more clothies. They just seem to be popular. Myself and the necromancer would just keep mobs occupied with clones/pets/DS form or in my case, sitting next to my iDefender and using Distortion (Sword #2, shatter F4, or Sword OH block) whenever possible to block the really hard hitting moves. It’s just a matter of how the group is specced, not what they play.

Yeah, a lot of people seem to think that portal/blink have no PvE uses. Or that they are “Cheating” in PvE. I don’t think that’s the case. Sure you can get some friends to skip a large part of a jumping puzzle with a portal or two but that means /you/ still had to do it. And it’s really helpful on certain bosses. Like the one in CoF that makes you run up to him with burning rocks in order to get rid of his invulnerability. Portal inside Logan’s bubble, lay the other portal in front of him… So nice. Sooooo nice.

Staff’s a really good one. Your shatters do a pretty kitten good job with confusion too. Scepter does an okay job. Better than that is to take a sword/GS and go with “Condition on crit” traits/sigils though. Those’ll usually get a lot of bleeds down quite quickly. There’s a good deal of them for phantasms/clones too, so that they apply bleeds/confusion on crit or combo field too.

Easily. High levels get EVERYTHING scaled down in dungeons. The mechanic effects everything from the stats you get from armor to the stats you get from traits. A lvl 30 in green gear will have almost exactly the same stats as a lvl 80 in greens. So the ONLY thing high levels have over low levels are their extra minor/major traits. If you really can’t complete the dungeon without those then maybe you need to take another look at how you’re playing.
Myself and 2 or 3 of my guildies (Depending at the time) have completed almost every dungeon as we got to around that level. Never more than 10 or more levels above it when one of our friends fell really behind. AC at 30, CM at 40-43, TA at 50-56, etc.

Nothing scares me more than seeing map chat for “LF Guardian/Warrior whatever dungeon they’re doing exp.” It screams "I’m a glass cannon build that relies on someone who thinks they can “tank” in order to live at all and will die anyways since there’s no aggro table in this game and things just have to look at me the wrong way." I’ve gone into dungeons like SE with almost full “support” groups when I bring guildies and it makes the run a snooze fest in comparison to pugs who’re all too clearly DPS focused. I don’t know if they’re playing worse, if they have ways to survive and just aren’t, or if they think that constantly reviving them is just part of the run, but it’s frustrating. Is condition damage “weak” in some parts of dungeons? Absolutely. But even my “DPS focused” elementalist friend has points down the water tree. As me and her used to say in WoW. “Dead DPS is 0 DPS.” And in dungeons where EVERYONE is at risk for taking damage no matter what you are or what you’re doing, some sort of survivability is key.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Looking-for-a-Dungeon-Mesmer-Support-Build/first#post226909

AsteriskCGY.5931:

Melee I feel like has a harder time staying in melee for many fights, whether its because of pbaoes or reacting to really fast boss actions, you end up having to run out anyway to recover.

That’s for any class though. Like people will tell you alot, unless you have some REALLY dedicated support or very good switching between other melee’s, no class can just sit there and eat it in melee range. The trade off for the higher damage is the inability to keep it up constantly.

I hate to say this, but culturally, the charr despise magic. So…. Light armor on Charr might actually be reflecting that.

Yes, it’s really sad that shattering the iMage gives you more damage AND more confusion than keeping it up does. The swap on prestige would be greatly appreciated but everyone seems to be ignoring the part of the skill that I use it for more than anything in team fights. It’s our ONE and ONLY blast finisher.

Aegis Fang.5394:

Passive Aggressive.3154:

I am amazed at how many truly bad players there are. Mesmer is obviously not for you. You should probably roll a different class. May I suggest warrior or ranger with a bear pet?

Yay another elitist knob crowing about how awesome they are. Do you troll the boards waiting for players to vent frustrations simply because they havent grasped the class yet just so you can post that kitten stroking garbage?

At least post something constructive or dont click reply dude. You really dont have to click it if frustration venting posts like this bother you so much.

Did he put it very rudely? Yes. But I actually have to agree with him. Arena Net released information on classes in respect to their difficulty. They released the “Easiest to play” first and the “Hardest to play” last. Mesmer was released last. They’re not speaking on elitism. They’re speaking on how the very designers intended the class. It might be too hard, you might want to try another one.

Jungle Quack.1368:

I would say that the overall that the Mesmer has considerably less DPS than other classes. Its relatively easy to test in the heart of the mists. Anybody who think’s that the Mesmer has close to the DPS of other classes is fooling themselves.

On the other hand, a Mesmer is MUCH harder to kill than other classes, which allows us to solo champion level monsters.

So fighting against a mob with no projectiles to reflect, absolutely no chance to trigger confusion and no toughness anyways so you can’t see the way conditions tick for the same amount of damage no matter how much toughness the target has is an accurate comparison for damage? I suppose we would seem weak then.

It’s a damage loss if you’re doing a power build yes. But if you’re using staff in the other hand, I kinda doubt you’re going power. Confusion while it’s not activated often in PvE situations, does a lot more damage in them. Dunno why it gets scaled so far up in PvE but when bosses hit themselves, they hit hard. Retaliation on everyone is also a nice buff. Sure you won’t be seeing the big numbers with the buff spread around like that but if there’s a damage loss, I doubt it’s a significant one.

Embolism.8106:

Sarelm.8317:

Chaotic Dampening – 20% CD on staff abilities is not defensive. And considering the CD on #5 just got increased because it’s SUCH a powerful skill, 20% off that CD is something I will not go without. It reduces the CD on your clone skill as well, increasing the amount of those you can spam, and iWarlock which also got a CD increase in the last patch. I take it instead of the clone on dodge skill, personally, since anytime I need to dodge I usually find Phase retreat more useful, and that doesn’t increase the amount of times you can dodge, just makes another clone, which I find very often that I’m full on if I spread them out correctly. I can see where you get your build from, and It’s probably more effective in PvP. I’m a PvE condi mesmer so that might be why I’m so insistant on this skill too. I go 0/0/25/25/20 for traits to beef up my phantasms. iMage + iWarlock + staff clone usually optimizes my damage when I’m alone. Or iWarlock x2 + iMage when in a group with a necromancer or condi-thief that’ll be applying more conditions than my staff clones will.

As a condition Mesmer your DPS is almost entirely from WoC and Staff Clones, neither of which are affected by Chaotic Dampening. The skills that the trait does affect: Phase Retreat, Chaos Armour and Chaos Storm: are all powerful defensive skills. Therefore, Chaotic Dampening is predominantly a defensive trait.

If you are a real condition Mesmer (i.e. minimal Power investment), iWarlock does pitiful damage compared to Staff Clones; so it is irrelevant except when used kittenter fodder or if the target has full stacks of Bleeding already (which only occurs in PvE boss fights).

Well, the part we both seem to be ignoring is the most important part of this skill, and that’s that it effects all 5 skills. Which includes your #1 skill. Not your clone’s, admittedly, but yours. And a 20% reduction on that is nothing to scoff at, nor is it defensive. Next, why on EARTH would you use chaos storm defensively?
It’s the only way to apply confusion without using shatters, due to it being an ethereal field, and the ONLY way to apply poison at all for mesmers, that’s 2 more possible condition ticks/stacks absolutely wasted if you’re only using it to save people. I mean, yes, I try to hit as many allies as I can with it as well, but just hitting them is losing half of the potential of the spell without a second thought. That’s ridiculous.
Lastly, this may very well be because my reference is PvE boss fights, but I really have to disagree. My elementalist friend noted during TA that her highest single hit skill hit for 2k, being her meteor storm, at random. And was so impressed with herself that it hit that hard. The boss had 5 different conditions on them at the time, don’t remember the stacks, just that it was me and a thief keeping them up, and my iWarlock hit for 2.1k as well. So I don’t know what’s “Pitiful” to you but 5 different conditions is relatively easy to get with a mixed group and seeing as it’s matching up to the highest single-hit damage an ELEMENTALIST can do, on a skill that’s not random aoe like theirs… You’re either bursting far more than an elementalist, which shouldn’t be possible. Or you haven’t even used the skill long enough to see for yourself.

Most of the time I actually do re-trait in dungeons. Since the major traits are all changable but… I’m not sure if it’d be necessary to totally reset points. I mean, is it all /that/ necessary to go full dps or whatever you’re doing in the rest of the PvE content rather than spec how you would in dungeons?

Sword/torch.
I’m a lvl 80 mesmer that goes staff and sword/torch in dungeons, and sword torch does indeed do more damage, and I find it the easiest to use. Sword’s #2 skill makes it very easy to negate obvious one-shot attack animations that you’re out of endurance to dodge away from. The 3 skill works as a gap closer as well as a CC to help your team and if you find you’re out of both of those and still taking a bit too much damage, Torch #4 takes all the attention off you and lets you sit back to wait for your heal. On top of that, if you specced condition damage for staff, as it feels like you should since all of it’s abilities seem to focus on conditions, the torch has fire and the torch phantasm has confusion which both scale off conditions too. It’s worked wonders for me.

The correction’s very easy actually. “Mesmers do crap AOE dps” And there’s really no arguing with that. Shatters and staff skills are basically our only aoe (Yes the GS phantasm does aoe too but I find it rather unreliable considering where they come from, what they run through, and if they even live.) And the ONLY one of those 4 shatters and one staff skill that doesn’t rely on conditions for most of it’s damage is Mind Wrack. Those crystals and any other “object” in the game is immune to conditions so the result is our “aoe dps” is, admittedly, terrible. In anything without “objects” though we’re usually good or even better than other classes so… Eh. I deal with it.

Conditions cannot crit. But abilities like Sharper Images, and many “Bleed on crit” sigils make criticals as important to a condition build as other stats. You can avoid those traits and go for another stat instead if you don’t trust criticals or something, but there’s synergy for crit in a condition build with a lot of the traits and sigils out there atm.

TWMagimay.9057:

It’s quite normal. Take for eample the Greek name Helena. How do you pronounce it? Most likely the way you see it. The fact that the Greek letter H is actually prounced as i(independent) probably doesn’t bother you. I can give you more examples about names “butchered” by a different language/culture that nobody even notices(like, the character from Harry Potter – Viktor Krum…his name sounds wrong on so many levels to a person with slavic origin…and the author is actually known for extensive research…) and it just becomes custom. A lot of Germanic names suffer that same fate when they meet English(Schwimmer, DeWitt). It’s called “adapting”. Sylvari obviously speak English and thus adapt the names to fit with their own language.

New Krytan* Technically, all races on Tyria speak and write in New Krytan if I remember correctly.

Oh they did the same thing in Final Fantasy XII if I remember right. It’s to give the characters a theme but make their culture still distinct. They may have Gaelic names but they’re not Gaelic. Gaelic’s don’t exist in Tyria. The same way French doesn’t exist in whatever that world was called. So they pronounced Marquis “wrong” the entire game. Or well, right. Seeing as that was the right way to pronounce it on their world.

Embolism.8106:

The only trait I take from Chaos is Debilitating Dissipation. Mirror of Anguish’s CD is too long (reflect doesn’t properly describe what it does as you yourself are still affected by the CC). Chaotic Dampening and Illusionary Defence are nice but certainly not essential: they are both defensive traits, and a Staff Mesmer already has lots of defense.

Overall I just have more important traits to take. The most essential traits for a condition Mesmer are Deceptive Evasion (to spam Staff Clones) and Illusionary Elasticity (for double-hit on WoC), that’s 40 points. I also take Crippling Dissipation, that’s 10 points; 10 points for Debilitating Dissipation, and another 5 points for Confusing Combatants: Clone death traits are great. That leaves me 5 points, which I sink into Illusions for Shattered Strength; which mind you gives me more than half the CondDmg I’d get from Chaotic Transference and even more CondDmg when I Shatter.

I’m not saying Chaotic Transference is bad, I’m just saying that it is not necessary; and neither is 20 points in Chaos.

Chaotic Dampening – 20% CD on staff abilities is not defensive. And considering the CD on #5 just got increased because it’s SUCH a powerful skill, 20% off that CD is something I will not go without. It reduces the CD on your clone skill as well, increasing the amount of those you can spam, and iWarlock which also got a CD increase in the last patch. I take it instead of the clone on dodge skill, personally, since anytime I need to dodge I usually find Phase retreat more useful, and that doesn’t increase the amount of times you can dodge, just makes another clone, which I find very often that I’m full on if I spread them out correctly. I can see where you get your build from, and It’s probably more effective in PvP. I’m a PvE condi mesmer so that might be why I’m so insistant on this skill too. I go 0/0/25/25/20 for traits to beef up my phantasms. iMage + iWarlock + staff clone usually optimizes my damage when I’m alone. Or iWarlock x2 + iMage when in a group with a necromancer or condi-thief that’ll be applying more conditions than my staff clones will.

Skills down the chaos tree – Applying random conditions whenever clones die, 3% reduced damage for every active clone, Reflecting CC back at the original target when used on you, and +50 toughness while using a staff or trident as well as a 20% cd on staff skills.
I’m sorry I wasn’t more clear. I consider 25 points in the chaos tree rather necessary for a condi-mesmer. Since staff will be your main weapon for conditions and a 20% cd reduction on those skills is unparalleled in other trees at the moment. The 5 more points after that just seemed to make sense. Though going to 30 seems sort of useless, admittedly.

Ahhh, I see. It must be that 5 point skill in illusions that’s doing the deduction instead. My bad.

Sir, I’m asking this because I’m not actually sure about the tool tip on the ability, but after using it quite a bit I haven’t noticed a big change in the phantasms. So have you actually timed your phantasm’s cd? Because I’m pretty sure the tool tip means that the cd to summon them is 20% shorter, not that the cd for them to use their ability again is 20% shorter. I do know that the CD on their summoning is a bit shorter thanks to this trait, which is a great help in dungeons where they die often and getting them back up quickly is important, thus is why I think this way, but I don’t know if it effects their abilities too. I sorta doubt it.

Yeah, that trait at the end of the chaos line, 5% of your toughness goes to condition damage, is a must have for condi-mesmers, so I’d go after anything that’s got Toughness + Condition on it and then just pray the last stat is also useful.

Ahhh, interesting. I did not know that, but it explains why putting a feedback bubble on that skill no longer makes thieves kill themselves. And I honestly forgot about the Warrior’s shield. Probably for the same reason you mentioned, I never seem to see it.
And sanity yes. I have a 6 second get-me-out-of-knocked-down button and then just die to the one that find where I popped too immediately after I hit it. I hate those things so much.

Carter.3865:

Thanks for the feed back guys.
I think I understand, so about 12 healing for every 100.
It doesnt seem that much to me but still…
I was planning on using my ele as a main healer in dungeons.
Also while I’m here, Is there only the 2 healing abilities, as from the water ones or am I missing some?

There is no “Main healer” in dungeons. If you want to play “support” you will be a much bigger help passing around buffs than you will trying to heal people. Even the healing chain mentioned above just barely meets what most players can do themselves. Pairing those with Protection/Aegis/other defensive buffs is the only really impactful way to keep the party up. Your buffing and other support abilities are many though. The “clear conditions of yourself and allies” on water attunement switch especially has saved my kitten quite a few times when my elementalist friend picked it up. Lightning’s got a nice projectile reflection along with a lightning field, one of 2 of them in the entire game. Earth cripples and snares, being a great aid to kiting mobs and water applies Vulnerability, which increases damage taken by that mob by 3% for every stack.