Guild Wars 2

I can’t tell if I’m trolling or not. I do know that reading the forums for the other professions would lead someone to believe all classes are undertuned.

If you play the game for PvP, you’re interested in beating other humans on a level playing field.

If you play the game for WvW, you’ve already had to accept that the field isn’t level due to server populations.

If you play the game for PvE, you’re someone who enjoys chasing the carrot.

Personally, I play PvE and WvW. I love “earning” rewards from the grind/fight/crafting in PvE.
And fighting for Kaineng, I love being the over-achieving underdogs that usually are completely outnumbered, but expect to win every fight we’re in!

Regards

Uncle Dalty is correct.

Hello All,
Newish ele working up a WvW build.
Been testing heavily in PvP land (see test notes at end)

Fire/Water/Tempest Staff (and WvW celestial stuff- able to swap into dagger/focus)

I now understand the no Celestial qq, my testing showed it to be strongest amulet for power/burn hybrid tempest.

Found Flame Legion Runes to give me best results DPS wise.

Found Persisting Flames didn’t extend fire field of Fire Overload (at least visually), and that made me sad.

That’s all!

(PvP testing ground protocol: staff aa, lava font, and flame blast only attacks for 20 sec, watch DPS meter for numbers in the last few seconds. 2300-2400 DPS with Cele Amulet/Flame Legion Runes/Smoldering sigil/Air Sigil)

Do not submit to metabattle. Will result in immediate nerfs after inevitably becoming meta for WvW.

First mesmer build I’m comfortable clearing fully upgraded camps with. Thank you for this.

You’ve stepped outside the box with this build- kudos!

Best regards-

PS: This build is so adaptable! Like all the previous posters, I’ve changed it a bit to fit what i need/prefer. It still works great! I don’t use the Defender runes, but make up with blood sigil and omnomberry pies for constant health gains. In exchange, I’m higher power (pack runes, may change to ogre) for quicker downs.

Never mind – Apparently Itzel vendor in Verdant Brink

I cannot find the method to obtain the Superior Rune of Thorns.

Please enlighten me- it sounds wonderful.

Thanks

Warrior Sword/Shield / Longbow
Not Berserker.
Trait immob on cripple in tactics line, even throw a sigil of incap. on the long bow. As mentioned before, headbutt/bulls rush/bolas all utilities possible to snag someone.

Tactics/Defense/Discipline. I’ve been a monster with that lineup for picking off tails. The longbow wears ‘em down, then when you catch up with the sword leap it’s just a final thrust from all being over.

I also had success with GreatSword/Longbow. Tactics/Strength/Discipline. Glassier, but if you land 100 Blades it’s game over.

In the HoT world, though, I’ve found warrior to be very niche in only this role- and behind the curve elsewhere. I’ve taken to running a Deathblossom/Lotus dodge spam thief. Catches stuff pretty darn well if you go d/d and d/p for teleport/shadowstep/daze steal

Hiyo,
So i’m having success with my Death Blossom/Lotus Dodge condi thief.

My final pieces to fit are the runes and sigils.

I made Berserker Runes, only to find that the wiki is right: the 6th rune DOESN’T give your a 5% increase in power and condition damage.

So now I don’t know what to run for runes.

Any suggestions for a dodge/DB condi build?

Adventurer, Undead, Scavenger, Krait look good, but I’d like some opinions.

Thanks!

Craziest thing-
I just finished running
DA, Trickery, DD
D/D – Bow
Withdraw (14 1/2 sec heal recharge, removes condition)
Shadow Step (Works when dazed), Caltrops (should probably change), Signet Shadows (Speed and Blind in a pinch)
Basilik Venom (To proc Krait Runes often)

Spammed DB and Lotus Dodges. Carrion Armor / Rabid Trinkets.
Tremendous success for camps AAAAND small group encounters.

Very excited by the possibilities.

Hello,
So with every camp seeming to be fully upgraded all the time, what build have you found fastest at flipping?
My old Warrior GS/S-SH stance build takes FOREVER to pull and kill repeatedly. My condi engi seems to be having more luck.

Looking to hear from Dragon Hunters, Reapers, and various elite specs along with old ones as well.

Thanks!

Hey all-
These fully upgraded camps in WvW are really hard/slow to solo with a power build (tried all the classes pretty much)
Have had some success with engi condi build.
Would rather play a condi thief.

Have you found a good condi camp flipping build using DD?

If so, please post a build link or spell it out.

Thanks!

WvW Scrapper Hammer
(Melee-specific functionality)

Setting:
Kaineng (overachieving server), Warrior/Guardian my mains, after 4 hours straight on reset night:

Camp Flips:
Hammer too weak to flip camps. Bomb kit still completely out damages it v. NPCs.
Bomb kit (Comparable melee range) not only has 37% higher base AA damage, but larger area of effect and hits 5 instead of 3 targets on the same 1/2sec attack interval.

1v1
-Hammer has acceptable damage mitigation with the projectile reflection and mobile block.
-Stun on Thunderclap good, field large enough to compensate for 3/4 sec cast
-Rocket Charge leap good for damage mitigation only. Does not hit a human player unless they are afk.
-Requires non-hammer toolbelt skills or utility skills to significantly damage opponents.

Small group encounters (5v5 or so):
-Rocket Charge here is a solid play, as you are evading and there are enough targets for the random location hits to land on something.
-Blocks and reflects work well, and the Thunderclap field/stun are nice area control.

Zerg Encounters:
-No inherent stability (GM Skill Perfectly Weighted stability feature for hammer completely unpredictable = useless)
-No passive block or condi reduction. You need a Guardian in your toolbelt.
-Hammer is useless for Zerg combat. You will be cc’d and wiped in melee instantly.

Overall thoughts:
The following changes would make the Hammer a viable WvW melee weapon:
1. Make the base AA damage slightly higher than Bomb Kit’s AA.
-With the Perfectly Weighted GM skill +10% damage, it becomes a higher damage/fewer target option to Bomb kit.

2. Change Rocket Charge to a single leap, with evade, similar to the various leaps that Warrior and Guardian weapons have.
-While the leaping around effects are interesting, WvW is about function, not aesthetics.

3. Change Perfectly Weighted GM Skill to one of the following combinations:
a. Grant Stability on hit, 1 stack for 3s, 1 sec ICD, 25 stack cap
b. 10% Damage increase, 20% cooldown (Guardian hammer can be a leap AND blast every 4 sec)
c. +10% Crit Chance, Change the AA Positive Strike from Might on first hit to Stability 2 stacks 3s.

Other thoughts:
-If gyros get locked to player (like banner effects) then they could be considered. As is, they are useless.
-I found no evidence that “Function Gyro” existed or worked.
-Gyro toolbelt skills are excellent
-Super speed is useless in WvW. Haste would be an excellent replacement.

Thank you for your time and efforts.

sil.4160:

I think giving points to kills in a step in the right direction

…Anet could tally up all the kills by guilds in real time and post the score of every guild. This score should be as accessible as pressing B

Big guilds will probably kill the most ppl, but smaller guilds could still compete based on efficiency.

One scoring board based on total kills by guild, another score board is based on kill ratio per guild member…

If this were to happen, I predict it would profoundly change WvW.
-Guilds might consider changing servers for various reasons: GvG oriented servers, lower pop servers to avoid huge blobs, high pop servers to grow their guild
-The social prestige of being in a “good” guild will soar: non-guildies would want to join a guild, and existing guildies would show higher commitment.
-WvW play would change. Either bigger blobs where guilds want kills and aim to unite for strength, or smaller, single-guild groups insuring good efficiency.

My mind has been blown by this idea- ANET devs need to look at implementing this with the test.

ps-While being able to see Guild Kill Score/Efficiency Ratio across all servers would be great- even if you could only view your own guild stats, guilds would post screenshots for bragging rights.

Love it. Still enamored with the idea of the flamethrower, but I’ll keep my options open.
Thanks for the response-

Hello-
I main a mesmer, and sometimes crash around with a warrior. Didn’t enjoy guardian.

It’s been tickling my noodle that an Engineer could be as much fun as mes and war combined.

For running towards the front of a 20ish man zerg in T6-8, how would you build to accomplish:
1. Super resilient (backpack regen + high toughness?)
2. Easy AA to continually lay out some DPS (Flamethrower?)
3. High dodge/blink (Rocket boots/rifle jumpshot?)

Just looking for thoughts and opinions before dropping a couple hundred gold to level and equip an Engineer. (+ so sexy med armor options!)

Thanks Frands!
(After reading the engie forum, couldn’t resist an homage)

Wanze-
And I quote from you:

“The cheapest mf asc backpiece comes at 120g as well, 140g, if you want selectable stats.”

“quiver of a thousand arrows/yakkingtons tale, which are the only mystic forge back pieces that let you choose your stats.”

Can you select stats on the fly, like a Legendary weapon?
Or does this mean you can choose their stats only once, when you forge them?

I’ve been unable to find much out about back pieces on the interwebs.

Thanks-

I like to use my thumb and pinkie:

WASD=movement, but I’m trying out S as “dodge” only, and no more backpedalling

Tab, Q, E, R = first four weapon attacks
Left Ctrl button (pinkie) = 5th weapon attack

Left Shift (Pinkie)=Swap weapons
Left Alt (Thumb)=Heal

~ = Stow, right over the Tab for Auto Attack/#1

F=Interact/autoloot

1-4 = Shatters

Utilities on mouse buttons

For Jurica, I’d just use the F1-F4 for shatters and the 1-4 for utilities (Or vice-versa)

Regards

Thank you Jurica for this work!
It inspired me to try the build, and I’m flat out amazed. It’s revitalized my interest in GW2 and brought me back to my Mesmer.

From the guide, I’ve learned to #4 Distort for stomps! Your “main” combo for shattering has opened my eyes. I’d watched Osicat’s videos over time, but only this guide really explained it all. The aggressive game-play which always scared me (it looks so very in-your-face melee range) is awesome!

And in WvW, I’ve been soloing camps, looked up to find opponent players watching me, then they run off despite outnumbering me 4-1.

-Yeah, after Mesmer power phantasm main in WvW from launch, I’d given up and tried out the other classes. Leveled a warrior, thief, elementalist, guardian. Ele the most fun, but still- no sense of awesome.

I’ll be posting again soon, I think I’ve worked out a better gear setup.

THANKS-

I’ve recently hit 68.
When I found out about Lightning Hammer, a conjured weapon from the utility skills, everything got real easy. It applies blind on it’s 3rd auto attack, which means CPU opponents never hit you- every third AA you’ve blinded them again.

DD in air for the 3 target AA with 300 range, bloodlust on daggers, Signet of Air for travelling speed and Lightning Hammer to beat everything. Enjoy!

Wow. Thanks again!
Just played some WvW.
I did stuff my mesmer would never have a chance at living through.

@Ghostwolf:
The target numbers for HP and Armor really helped when I was putting the armor/runes/trinkets together. I was way wrong on my own (Too much vitality, didn’t use practiced tolerance, etc.)

@Stratos
I might have to look at D/D again for the DPS. The part of S/D I liked the most was the shadowstep on the sword, but going travelers I’ve put the Shadowstep utility on and voila- Heartseeker gets added to the mix.

And while SB is obv. the better ranged set, P/P can be devastating against a single target. Fits my style better.

Withdraw = get out of jail free
Shadowstep = Mesmer’s Blink but better. Mes Blink has to trait for 1200 range. Mes blink doesn’t cure conditions. Mes Blink doesn’t let you go back to the start as an escape!

Thank you for taking the time to respond.
Slow answers because it’s easy to criticize anyone’s specific response about gear choices.

I’ll try out the 2/6/0/0/6 with some Zerk stuff (I’ll replace in steps my full temple soldiers kit from the leveling some months ago)

Hello all,
I’ve mained a mesmer since launch, but leveled up a few alts in the meantime.

My lvl 80 thief has really caught my fancy and I’m playing it most of the time now.

A couple questions I’ve got:
1. Armor set for power-based play in WvW and Event PvE:
I’ve found knights armor to work on my mes and war as a good all-rounder set. How does it fit for a power thief?
If not knights, then what?

2. Shortbow v. P/P for Event PvE:
When the event train is hammering the Shatterer or the Shadow Behemoth, the P/P feels like a higher single target DPS. Right or Wrong?

Thanks for any input.

*And the recent S/D discussion? That weaponset is what brought me to the thief- so much fun. It feels less “one trick pony” than being a backstab or p/d condi thief. Maybe it’s less effective at one target focus, but man it’s cool to be bouncing around.

The 3sec distortion will be used by PvE players.
With the MegaServer System (use the monster truck announcer voice in your head, complete with echos as you read it), Anet is aiming to for everyone to have “fun” with well balanced social interactions and successful boss runs in the PvE world.
This means lots of killing poor little npcs in droves.
You kill things fast enough in PvE to make use of 3sec of distortion.

WvW you don’t. Downing happens, but killing is slower except in massive zergs, when 3 secs of distortion won’t save your skin in the thick of things. (How does distortion affect Crowd Control?)

Try counting the number of times Anet uses the word “fun” in their April 15th previews.

Here’s what to expect in the year after April 15th.
If you ask, I’d be happy to explain my predictions.
A couple things to be aware of when making prognostications about the future of Mesmers in GW2: China release in May and income demographics of current active players.

1. More PvE focus
2. Less WvWvW focus
3. More sPvP focus for the masses = more Mesmers.
4. Account bound stuff = more alts = more Mesmers.
5. More Mesmers = Fixing mechanics, strengthening 1v1, nerfing aoe stuff.
6. Less true build diversity, more variations of an archetype.
7. New weapon (fan?) that functionally is like a blend of two existing weapons.

Have a great April 15th!

Just a shout out for Oscuro from a fellow Kaineng player!
-I can attest to the effectiveness of this build, having run with Oscuro. The discussion of it being an unforgiving build? I’ve seen him get out of very messy situations. It also seems more effective in a 10-30 man group than most thief builds I’ve seen.

-Twinkle Bee

OP-
Having read through this thread, my thoughts are that you’d do well to spell out:
1. Where are you playing? WvW, Dungeons/Fractals, sPvP, open world?
Then-
2. Choose an appropriate play style for that environment. Shatter/Phantasm, Power/Condition/Lockdown, Roaming/Back or front line/Support/Pure DPS.
Finally-
3. Choose your weapons/traits/equipment that best fit #2. This should be as single-minded as possible, not “do everything.”

Osicat (see his stickied thread in this forum) discusses building for a purpose with great clarity.
Reading the Mesmer forum topic titles immediately reveals we have to focus on extremely specialized builds for success. “Chillruption, Blackwater, Shatter Cat,” etc. People have invested many playing hours to refine these specific-role builds- you’d profit by choosing and playing one. Then tweak to fit your button-pressing style.

Your original questions will be answered by having gone through the above process. Each build will address direct damage and condition damage as fits the environment and role you will be playing in.

Hope this helps.

I run GS/Staff in WvW. A phantasm/power build for running with groups larger than 3, and flexible for most situations. Shattering is awesome in some situations, but can be difficult for some people to use effectively in larger-scale fighting.

I found all knights armor/weapons/trinkets to be the best for staying alive while dealing damage, but will often swap in some Berserker stuff.

Blink with longer range/shorter cooldown has been crucial for my survival.
Null field is a must in the current condi-happy meta of WvW.

Traveler’s Runes if you don’t have the focus for swiftness.

Firstly, it’s cool you’re willing to share your learning experiences.

Second, I’d completely agree with Preacher in that you shouldn’t single out a build or playstyle right now. 8mo of casual WvW play and I’ve just realized that I enjoy having separate complete gear sets to enjoy Power, or support, or condi play. (After stupidly outfitting a Thief and Warrior with Laurel trinkets that could have gone towards my Mez.)

Short version: Try out many different builds first.

-Oh, and vitality is useless in WvW. Stick with gobs of Toughness. Wish I’d figured that out earlier.

I hope I’m not too late.
You should consider buying temple armor (karma, not gold.) The Soldier’s stats are available (Power primary, Vitality and Toughness secondaries.) Grenth has the exotic soldiers back, the others are in various temples.

Advantages for WvW players:
1. Saves your gold for trinkets
2. To play WvW, you’ll need some base vitality to deal with conditions, and toughness to deal with bursts. Soldier’s karma armor sets up your base vitality and toughness, so you can pick your runes and trinkets based on your build needs.
3. Phantasm and Shatter mesmers need power.

Regards

Here’s my 2 cents.
Different servers have different WvW experiences.
My server, Kaineng, tends to follow your 2 categories.
I’ve tried condition, shatter, phantasm builds. Even healing medic builds.
In the end, I think it is all about mobility and hitting hard.
With a big enough zerg, rezzing becomes important, but really a mesmer helps more by dealing damage (although medic work with feedback bubble can be done and is way fun).
Chasing runners from a battle is a tossup between ileap/swap and BF or chasing with the GS AA and crippling them with the iBerserker.
IBerserkers pretty good aoe, even the bouncing blade attack too.
Chaos Storm for your leaping zerg-mates just looks awesome with all the little bubbles. (Although I question how helpful Chaos Armor actually is.)
Soldier armor to stay alive. I don’t usually die from conditions as long as I’m around other zerg-mates.

So a power build, with great mobility, allows the Mesmer to bounce around, hammering targets while staying alive. Does that answer your two objectives?

I run this:
GS/Staff (Berserkers), Soldier Armor, Sup. Runes Traveller, Berserker: Amulet, rings, Accessories.
Trait 30,20,20 (Trait GS, Staff, Trait both blink distance and recharge, +15% dmg, DE, Clone cripple.)
Utility Blink, decoy, veil/portal/revive, Time Warp or Mass invis.

It’s great that you specified a havoc wvwvw usage to help narrow things down.
I think Hihey’s build is basically right for that usage: 20/20/20/0/0 being the basic format, and then add the last 10 where it plays best for you.

I work with a always running, hit and run group (mainly because we’re always outnumbered)

30/20/20/0/0 works best for me, trying to maximize burst from the iZerker.
Specific Traits:
Dom: +15% Illusion Damage, Crippling Dissipation (Helps me escape), Greatsword training.
Duel: Long-reaching Manipulation (For Blink), Deceptive evasion
Chaos: Manipulation Recharge reduction (For Blink), Staff Training

Mobility is primary, so 2 traits for super-blink, and Sup. Travelers runes.

Power always the primary stat on everything, as both GS and Staff scale well with power, and power=burst=hit and run.

PTV karma armor to stay alive, Berserkers trinkets for hitting hard.

Staff sigil is superior blood for heal on crit. I’m sitting at 40+ crit chance, and with a chaos storm or iZerk, I’m getting close to regen boon numbers during fights.

Greatsword sigil I don’t really know, thinking maybe air, but currently bloodlust.

Food power first. Rotate skill bar skills as needed (veil, portal, TW, mass invis, the one for rezzing, etc)

Honestly, once your staff skill muscle memory on the keys gets up, it’s a super strong build. Definite 1v1 wins, can keep 2 busy for a long while, and can run at 1v3.

Prepare for a wall of text.

I’ve been running two versions of GS/Staff, depending.
1. Maximum iBeserker production and good shatter
20/20/0/0/30 – Great for traiting GS/Staff, +15% illus damage, far-reaching manip, deceptive evasion, +3% damage per, extra bounce, illusionary persona.

2. Super cool feedback bubbles giving more group support
0/20/0/25/25 – Far-reaching manip, decept. evasion, medics feedback, temp. enchant, +3% damage per, Extra bounce. You get phant regen and +15% phant damage

I used to run Staff/Sw/Focus. Great for staying alive, can be good for leap/swap immob on runners. But really best for roaming, not zerging. The GS range and cripple from iBeserker is also good at catching runners when combined with super blink.

Things I can’t imagine playing/zerging without:
1. Blink extended range
2. Superior runes of the Traveler
3. PTV (Soldier’s) Armor [Mostly]

Cool Stuff:
1. Use super blink to beat everyone to the champion of tower/etc, drop chaos storm on it, enjoy all the chaos armor bubbles as everyone arrives and leaps to attack.
2. Make a game of how many foes you can tag with your GS laser beam
3. Time warp siege equipment and your team in standoffs
4. Anything using a portal

Zerging comes down to:
1. Mobility
2. Damage, esp. AOE
3. Surviving.

@Vex:
Staff/Scepter/Focus. 0/20/30/20/0. Trait Staff, Focus, Deceptive Evasion, then whatever else seems fun. Maybe Prismatic Understanding and run stealth skills, or maybe Chaotic Interruption.
Gives you ranged, condition-focused damage. Stay backline and situation-aware to run.

I agree with you, “don’t die” is the critical design part of WvWvW.
Just a counter point to the build from above, I’ve never found the torch’s return worth it’s investment. 1 condition per use isn’t enough, phantasm not effective, even with Prismatic Understanding 4sec doesn’t always get you out of trouble.
On the other hand, blink with the extended range absolutely gets you out of trouble. And I don’t know how anyone isn’t running the Traveler Runes, worth every penny.

Your weapon set swap from GS, if it has sword mainhand, is an effective finisher tool.
Although there’s plenty of whining about the iLeap/swap not landing, it works for me to pin somebody, then a Blurred Frenzy and you’re usually done. Off hand focus is useful in so many ways.

But to stay alive, the staff can’t be touched.

I’ve been meaning to try GS/Staff, and according to the forum the winning team from the recent MLG tourny had a GS/Staff mesmer- so something must be usable there…

Regards

Somebody from YB commented earlier:
“YB queue was too long yesterday so spent most of my time on a crummy up-level, too scared to switch to a real character in case I couldn’t get back in…”

I haven’t seen a queue save friday nights for the past 3 months.

But I still love Kaineng, it’s pretty cool to recognize names every time I log on, and the sense of “us vs. an overwhelming them” is pretty strong community feel.

The SBI on our spawn zone is a little tacky, but what else should I expect, it’s the only place they know they’ll find a fight.

I’ll bite.
When I think Celestial, healing power stands out as unusual to mesmer builds I usually see.
So, playing to your strengths, put 20 into Inspiration, and make sure you’re playing a phantasm build. This way you’re getting strong phantasmal regeneration (along with the 15% more phantasm damage, and brief retal on them). Also, at the Master Trait, choose to either trait the focus if you like to use it, or Restorative Mantras if you’d like to spread your healing around your party/zerg.

Next, let’s take the staff. The iWarlock is a phantasm you can stand near to catch it’s regen, and it’s a weapon that scales well with either power or condition damage. It’ll also keep you safe and alive as you’re not able to be a one-hit-wonder with Celestial.

To really enjoy the staff, go 20 into Chaos to trait the staff.

And now, for the truly oddball part of it all, go 30 into Domination. Pickup Adept Empowered Illusions (+15% phantasm damage), and Grandmaster Harmonious Mantras for the three mantra cast if you’re doing the Restorative Mantra thing from your Inspiration line. You could instead take Confusing Enchantments if you’re more of a glamour guy.

In the end, you can choose for the non-staff weapon set (and trait for it) the Greatsword (for a power build) or the torch (for a more stealthy/condition build with the scepter). You’ve got +30% phantasm damage to make up a little of the lost power with Celestial.

Depends on where/how you play: there are big differences between pve, pvp, and wvw.

Regards!

Apparently SF doesn’t learn- I led a 5+ min merry chase for 10+ of them last night, interrupting several camp flips.

I find this entire thread amusing:
1. Servers are different, a Tier 1 and a Tier 8 have very different “Zerg” experiences.

2. If you are seeing the same zerg experience for an hour of play, then you are either doing it wrong or have poor leadership on your server.
-Zerg train, then port a batch of golems, then go flip a camp, then havoc group to mislead their zerg, then rejoin your zerg, then chase a runner, then defend a tower, then jump into a zerg, etc…

3. Mesmers are different from every other class, due to clones/phantasms, teleports, invis, aoe, all in one class. You can’t even begin to discuss our functions compared to other classes, because we don’t just do 1-2 things very well. We can play so many roles, even when set up for a specific build.
-Honestly, do you worry when only one other player is trying to fight you? Do you worry when bombing in and out of fairly even zerg clashes? We can disengage at will, engage how we want (Ranged, melee, stealthed, teleports) and look like 4 players in no time flat.

Ask your commander some time if he’d rather have another well played mesmer or warrior on his map.

Regards
-

When Zergs are 30+, it just starts to be a train of auto-attacking. (Skill Lag issues).
Also, you sometimes run into Zombie Trains where the larger zerg can self-rez enough to never really shrink.
I’ve been running a PVT build with Sword-Torch/Staff to chase and finish players that stray out of the group, with occasional dives through the zerg with chaos storm. (Thankfully the new Superior Rune of the Traveler came along).
My opinion is that staying alive to help in your group is equally important to killing opponents. But then, my little server of Kaineng is usually outnumbered 3-1.
I really like Dhampyr’s idea with GS/Staff, I’ll be giving it a go soon. Crippling people can create opportunities to finish players off as well.

@nearlight
Agreed.

The greatsword does the MOST damage. You, however, will be dead too soon to enjoy it.
I really wanted it to be the better choice, but seriously, after the iZerk hits, it’s pretty much useless. In WvW, the other players are people, and they all know to close space. The greatsword doesn’t do much damage close up, doesn’t help you escape, and doesn’t help pin runners down.
The staff, on the other hand, has phase retreat to escape with, chaos armor (which helps a little bit), and chaos storm to help frustrate thieves. Do your damage with your other weaponset, because you’ll be alive long enough to actually play.

Hello-
Question:
What would be the best build for Zerging, aiming for max tags for loot? (Oh fine, maybe some group support/utility as well)

Background:
Started playing WWW a week or two ago. Stopped playing my Mes as I HATED working to keep up with the Zerg. Leveled up a warrior and thief, because they can keep up.

Superior Runes of the Traveler = 25% passive speed increase.

I’m going to get a set for my Mes.

So I’ve found I enjoy zerging around. Here on Kaineng, that means our 10-20 man zerg against at least two 50+ DragonBrand zergs on the EB all this week. So it’s all hit and run stuff.

Thanks-

Without question, you’ll have better control/results stats-wise with other runes. But for the casual player- not having to be either switching weapons in and out, or always chasing buffs in the zerg, or counting down seconds before your next line drop = priceless.

Biggest news this year for WWW players. Prepare for incoming constant QQ about op mesmers now that we aren’t tied to the focus.
Also a nice income spike for Anet as players of several classes buy gems to convert into the approx 60g to buy the set off the TP.

OP is correct, mesmers need an ooc speed answer.

My brilliant idea is that Anet creates a Racial Ability for all races that provides a standard 25% passive speed increase. Basically a signet, with different active effects by race.
Leave everything else the same [Except change the existing passive speed skills/traits to something new]- so if you want to give up a utility slot for your racial speed ability, great, if not- carry on.

Head shaking in disbelief over sheer number of opponents defeated.
Thanks for posting.
Second request on the thief build.

I’ll have to check that out – it doesn’t seem like it’s healing 1176 every 3 seconds. Maybe it’s applying 1/3 of the 392 every second?

Per Anet’s 7/23/13 Patch Notes:
“Healing Signet (Passive): Reworked the formula that this passive heal uses. At level 80, this skill goes from 392 healing per 3 seconds to 467 healing per 3 seconds with 1500 healing power.”

Meaning:
1500 Healing Power = 75 more health points every 3 seconds than 0 Healing Power.
Every 60 Healing Power = 1 health point per second.

Vitality for condition damage:
Each 1 point of Vitality = 10 health points
Every 60 points into Vitality = 600 health points = 10 minute to regen if you’d taken 60 Healing Power instead

Toughness for normal damage:
Armor = Defense + Toughness
Exotic Temple Armor = 1211 Defense for a complete set
Base Toughness = 916
Base Armor = 2127 (1211 + 916)
Using 470 damage as our average auto-attack value with base armor (‘Cause a 1 million numerator is easy to type into the equation)
Every 60 points into Toughness = 12 points less of damage = 12 sec to regen if you’d taken 60 Healing Power instead
Additionally, Toughness scales up as more damage occurs.

My point: Don’t take Healing Power stats for your own Healing Signet regen. Either Vitality or Toughness is a much better stat. I can’t speak to group situations.

Please correct me if I’m off somewhere-

When Kaining server was tier 8 and nobody played open-world PvE (they still don’t), before I’d found this forum, no concept of a “build”, just running around having fun. Level 72, exploring PvE Cursed Shore, paused next to another player. Random trash mob shows up, we drop it and I start to move on. He chats “It gets hard up there” and I reply “I’m a mesmer” and proceed to carry him through gobs of lvl 80 trash to a camp/waypoint/safe place.
A level or two later, see a downed player icon on the map and go over to help, fight the champion gladiator he’d been dropped by for what felt like forever with the downed player watching. Lots of clone production/shattering.
After the fight, while rezzing him, he writes “Smart to bring an army with you”

@Pyroatheist- Thank you for your response. The vigor makes sense. I’ve been playing this build, but thanks to my time playing your Immortal build, I am having a really hard time giving up the sword/focus.
So this will all likely be moot as I head back to a power based build, just swapping GS/Staff depending on Ranged/Melee.

Vengeful Images : Grants Retaliation to Phantasms.
Does that mean when a boss/computer enemy attacks one of my phantasms, it takes retaliation damage? And is that the same damage I would give out:
198.45 + (0.075 * Power)? (From GW2 Wiki)
In PvE/Dungeons, my phantasms get attacked all the time, so I’m wondering if that would generate more damage than a straight +50 power.

Hello,
Non-shatterer (for shame!) here, with 20/0/25/0/20 GS/Staff, doing PvE and Dungeons.
(Dom=Emp. Illusions, GS Training; Chaos= -3% dmg, Staff Training; Illusions=+3% Dmg, Ill. elasticity)
I’ve got 5 more points-

Do I take Inspiration : Vengeful Images: Phantasms have retaliation, or pickup the extra 50 power in Domination (and Wastrels Punishment, which would be useless to me)

What are the Phantasm w/ Retal mechanics?

Thanks for any insight.