Guild Wars 2

The is a very expensive and time-consuming skill to level up.

Requiring Finishing Kits / Dye Kits to use the previous tier’s materials in addition to the materials for the new tier seems particularly punishing.

High difficulty, little fun.

The class felt fun to me, just kind of slow and clunky. I really wanted to try out Trapper Runes on the Guardian, but didn’t have a way to get a set to them in Beta.

Shield:

Echo of Memory / Deja Vu: Nice block, although I wish it was a sustained block for a time duration rather – or that Deja Vu at least was a sustained block (like Shelter or Gear Shield) (4/5 Stars)

Tides of Time: Really fun to use skill with a great visual. A little tricky to use if you’re near a wall or gate though as it can disappear sometimes. Synergizes well with interrupt traits. (5/5 Stars)

Wells:

Love Love Love the Wells!

Well of Eternity: Nice big heal, very group-support oriented, which I enjoyed as it gave the Mesmer something new; reliable group heals. (3/5 Stars)

Well of Action: Feels like a less-effective mini Timewarp. Not that exciting. (2/5 Stars)

Well of Calamity: Great damage, good recast. Adds much-needed AoE damage (that isn’t dependent on shatters) to the class. (5/5 Stars)

Well of Precognition: Cooldown felt kind of long so I didn’t use it much. Stability would need to provide more stacks to really be useful. Underwhelming. (2/5 Stars)

Well of Recall: The pulsing Alacrity is nice, and the Chill duration is nice and long. The final damage is almost negligible though. (3/5 Stars)

Gravity Well: Radius is too small to make it impactful. Difficult to catch enemies in this without some kind of CC incorporated into it.

Other:

Continuum Split: Fun, but disorienting and sometimes buggy. I think it would be cool if there was a visual indication for the user while it’s active, kind of like when a Necromancer is in Deathshroud. (2/5 Stars)

Traits:

Time Splitter – (Obvious enabler for the build)

All’s Well that End’s Well – Can be hard to land when folks are mobile, but I imagine it works well in dungeons.
Delayed Reactions – Works okay
Time Catches up – Helps land shatters effectively

Flow of Time – Love it

Danger Time – Hard to determine how useful it was
Illusionary Reversion – Nice alternative to Deceptive Evasion in some ways
Improved Alacrity – “eh” would prefer Revershion most of the time

Time Marches on – Love it

Chronophantasma – Great for Phantasms and Shatter builds alike
Lost Time – Odd buildup, tends to trigger when not needed
Seize The Moment – Preferred choice for this tier in my opinion

Whoa, backlash.

Don’t worry, boys – I’ll consider myself silenced and will return to lamenting the lack of historical female heroes to celebrate quietly.

A different suggestion then: Gem Store sound package variants for combat shouts, not necessarily just for revenants either. Maybe Asura want to sound like Charr when shouting “Save Yourselves!,” or maybe a human dude wants to sound like a Sylvari chick when using one of the new Elementalist shouts.

or perhaps just the option to turn off Legend sounds while keeping the other game sounds on, so that Revenants don’t have to listen to deep-voice grunting while using the Centaur stance.

Basically, I don’t like the current sounds – that’s my feedback, and I’m offering alternatives.

I guess my complaint is mostly about the fact that there’s no female Legends currently. I kind of feel like there should have been room for at least one in there, but instead we’ve got four legends that are all male.

It’s about representation – and the grunt dude noises are insult to injury. I focused on the noises because my previous feedback was deleted for not being constructive enough – and this time I’m offering an idea for a solution: Different noises, or different representations of Legends for female characters.

I was playing my Mesmer in a typical fashion (PvE) while grouped with a Revenant and alongside an un-partied Guardian. I used Continuum Split and continued to fight, (against the Smoke guys,) and the little Continuum Rift interactable spawned where I initially used the shatter.

… and stayed there.

My Continuum split expired and I teleported back to the Rift and got my cooldowns / health back, and went about my business.

Then about four minutes later in a different fight on another part of the same map, my Continuum Rift activated from the previous fight and teleported me back (again) and recharged everything (again)

I’m not sure what I did exactly to have triggered this, but my friend speculated that perhaps the duration was hyper-extended somehow. I’m not sure why it would do it multiple times though.

(My previous post regarding the absence of female legends was deleted and I got an infraction for being disrespectful / unproductive, so i’m trying this again in a more constructive manner.)

I’m deeply impressed by the animations and story lore tied into the legendary stances. I think it’s really cool how we’re able to re-experience characters from GW1 and I think the flavor chosen for the skills fits very well with the legends they represent.

What I’m a little disappointed with is how since all of the Legends are male-identified characters, my female character channels / says / shouts things in a very manly voice from time to time.

I’m assuming (perhaps hastily) that Glint will be the final Elite Specialization, so we’ll maybe get a more feminine legend voice while in that stance, but I wondering if this could also work in reverse and perhaps players who prefer male-voice characters will find it awkward when their burly Norn man starts shouting things in a dragon-lady voice.

My suggestion: Perhaps make the legendary stance shouts match the gender of the character using them, or have alternate gender legends that different players can represent? I realize that this is kind of a big ask, but it’s really disorienting when a cute little Asura in a Quaggan with Bow hat starts grunting like Ventari in the middle of a battle.

I’m glad it’s not just me. Will try out the jumping trick, but mostly it seems to be related to tiny bumps in terrain causing obstruction.

Flame Turret: Overloading the Flame Turret does not generate a blind or smoke field as indicated in the tool tip.

In fact, overloading this Turret currently does not seem to do anything. There’s no animation, no white ring to show the radius of the effect, or any field / condition generated.

Why are these chat modes enabled in sPvP? It seems to only result in trash talk and insults from what I’ve experienced, other than the extremely rare, (and usually seemingly sarcastic,) “gg” at the end of a match.

I’d love for these conversation modes to have an option to be disabled specifically in sPvP without turning off the tab option in other game modes.

I think that the Make a Road + Blast the Road combo is great and is all the swiftness this class needs!

Mace / Axe – Quick Condition-Applying Melee. Mace deals low-moderate physical damage and applies Torment, Poison and Bleeding. Axe applies Torment, Chill, and provides target-specific Shadow Step and AoE Pull utilities.

(1) Misery Swipe – Anguish Swipe – Manifest Toxin Chain: Typical Cleaving Auto Attack Chain. Applies Torment for first two strikes, then Chaining Poison on the last strike. I feel like this weapon fits its role appropriately, but the damage isn’t overwhelming. (4 of 5 Stars)

(2) Searing Fissure: Pulsing Wide-Line Fire Field. Low Physical Damage, applies Burning periodically. Looks cool, applies multiple stacks of burning, and combines well with Mace (3) for Area Might. Damage feels slightly lackluster. (4 of 5 Stars)

(3) Echoing Eruption: Leaping Attack that creates a line of Blast Finishers. Deals moderate-high physical damage three times. Feels slightly out of place in this weapon set as a Physical Attack on a Condition-based weapon. (4 of 5 Stars)

(4) Frigid Blitz: High Physical Damage Chilling Shadow Step attack that also pierces and deals low damage to enemies between Revenant and Target. Unblockable. Basically functions like a Thief’s Shadow Shot but with an added Chill instead of a Blind. Effective and Reliable. (5 of 5 Stars)

(5) Temporal Rift: Low-Moderate Physical Damage AoE Pull that Applies 3 Stacks of Torment. Functions sort of like a Mesmer’s activated Temporal Curtain / Into the Void. Could maybe benefit from adding a Field effect? (Dark? Light?) (4 of 5 Stars)

Mace Summary: I feel like this is THE damage set for the Revenant. Because of the split damage, it would work well for a Condition based or Hybrid (Sinister, Carrion, Rampager) build.

I’m deeply enjoying the opportunity to try this class out in each of the different game modes. Great work on building this class so far!

Staff – Melee Direct Damage, Healing and Defensive Conditions, Utility / Crowd Control

(1) Rapid Swipe – Forceful Bash – Rejuvenating Assault Chain: Typical Cleaving Auto Attack Chain with a minor heal component and Whirl Finisher. The Whirl is a nice bonus, but the healing component is sort of underwhelming. The globes aren’t that reliable as a source of healing, and even though you can trait them to grant swiftness and regeneration, their random placement and difficult-to-see size means that they aren’t always going to provide the intended benefit. (2 of 5 Stars)

(2) Debilitating Slam – Punishing Sweep: Moderate Damage cleave attack that can apply Weakness. While I understand why this attack has a condition opponent, (Weakness Spamming can crush an opposing team,) its direct damage feels sort of low. (3 of 5 Stars)

(3) Warding Rift – Projectile Blocking move with an appropriately definitive animation. Blindness application feels sort of unpredictable and damage dealt is negligible. This might work better if it were a Reflect instead of converting attacks into weak little blinding bolts? (3 of 5 Stars)

(4) Renewing Wave – AoE Heal and Condition Clear. Personally, I think the 0.5 Heal Coefficient is too low, even with Salvation Traits. Clearing two Conditions is okay, but three would be even better. Radius of 300 feels too small. I would adjust at least two of the following – Healing Coefficient, Number of Conditions Cleared, Radius, or add Blast Finisher component. (2 of 5 Stars)

(5) Surge of the Mists – Multi-Hit Rush mobile with a Knockback. Damage Coefficient feels low. Knockback component is nice, but not great. Add Leap Finisher, maybe? (2 of 5 Stars)

Staff Summary: I really wanted to like the staff, especially since I felt like the Revenant could be a pretty cool Support class, but it’s overwhelming in so many ways that it’s difficult to justify using it over the hammer. The Blind and Weakness Application are too conditional to be relied upon, the heals don’t heal enough even in full Cleric gear with applicable outgoing healing traits, the damage is low, and it doesn’t provide enough other utility. The best thing about the Staff is that it has cool animations, but that isn’t enough to make it useful.

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Breakdown of Weapon Skills:

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Hammer – Ranged Direct Damage, Utility / Crowd Control

(1) Hammer Bolt: Slow, Powerful 1,200 Range Piercing Auto Attack that counts as a Physical Projectile Finisher. Effective and reliable. (5 of 5 Stars)

(2) Coalescene of Ruin: Powerful triple-impact 1,200 Range attack that hits hardest at maximum range. Can be a little tricky to get the timing right, and the animation, (while gorgeous,) makes it easy for other players to dodge, which feels appropriate for a slow, powerful hammer attack. (5 of 5 Stars)

(3) Phase Smash: Ranged Chill Radial attack, with a Blast Finisher component. While the pseudo-teleport function of this attack provides a neat animation, it’s a little disconcerting since your character is effectively stationary for the 1.25 second duration of the attack. I’m uncertain as to whether the attack also serves as an evade of any sort while phasing. (3 of 5 Stars)

(4) Field of the Mists: Projectile-Blocking Utility. Functions as promised. Has the added benefit of providing Area Blinds or Leeching attacks as a Dark Field. Useful in the current Ranged Meta. (4 of 5 Stars)

(5) Drop the Hammer: Slow, Powerful AoE Knockdown 1,200 Range Blast Finisher. Dramatic animation makes it extremely telegraphed, which feels appropriate for its function and requires careful timing to be used effectively. (5 of 5 Stars)

Hammer Summary: I feel like the Hammer will likely be the general go-to weapon for many Revenants, since it provides the most versatility (in my opinion) of the three weapon sets. It has great range, two blast finishers, deals solid damage and provides some great defense and crowd control options. It fits the bill for the role that the Hammer typically fills, with the added benefit of being used at Range.

Detailed (Opinionated) Anaylsis of the Revenant Class

Thematically, I’m really enjoying playing the Revenant, and I think it’s neat how it incorporates interesting combo field options, (Lightning, Dark, Fire, Light) new mechanics, (Resistance, Slow, Taunt,) and a wide variety of other Conditions to apply, (Torment, Chill, Weakness, Burning, Blind, Confusion,) with the potential to also copy conditions on the Revenant to enemies.

I’m struggling a little bit get the hang of swapping Legendary Stances, (I imagine this would be easier for folks who have logged a lot of time on an Elementalist or Engineer,) and because of this have found the class to be a little limiting in some ways. The three weapon sets that it has access to, (Hammer, Staff, and Mace/Axe,) all feel pretty specialized, and only having access to one of the sets at a time kind of pigeonholes the player into a specific role. Having the Legendary Stance swap to two of the three options helps provide more versatility, of course, but given that each stance provides a specific set of five (Unchangeable) utility skills, and each weapon only gives five weapon skills, it feels a little like we’re going to see a lot of similar revenants out there.

(Of course, that wouldn’t be too far off from the Metagame we currently have for the other classes anyway)

General Stuff / Bugs:

I find the Energy system a little confusing, and feel that the class would benefit from a more detailed tooltip tutorial description of exactly how it works.
“Core Specialization” icons in Selection Menu to not match Specialization Tree Icons.
“Protective Solace” Skill in Legendary Centaur Stance is missing Light Field Tooltip Fact.
Protective Solace Light Field lingers if Tablet vanishes due to being destroyed by using Energy Expulsion or by changing Legendary Stance.

Signet of Courage’s radius (300ft) makes it difficult to get a full benefit from unless your party is stacked pretty tightly. This makes it easier to use in a dungeon / fractal or other PvE setting where the group would be stacked up anyway, and has potential to be pretty good in sPvP when trying to defend a point too.

It’s trickier to use in WvW though, where groups tend to squirrel or get knocked around more…

The 4+ seconds of cast time is just begging to be interrupted. It’s hard to use in its current state.

Any chance to change Overload in a way to make it more useful now that Ricochet is gone?

I was thinking something along the lines of Fragmentation Shot or maybe a piercing type of bullet…

Just wishful thinking, but open to any other ideas and discussion too!

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Fragmentation_Shot

I’m very disappointed that ricochet is gone.

I just want to say that I think it looks gorgeous now, and I love all of the new ambient conversations there are to find. (The girl and boy playing “Investigators,” was a particularly fantastic treat!)

I’d like to know the answer to this question too.

I’m a little confused about how pre-ordering the expansion online works when applied to a pre-existing account vs. pre-ordering the expansion at a retail location.

From what I understand, if I pre-order in game right now online, a pre-order serial will be applied to my account and I’ll be able to download the content once it becomes available.

However, if I wait until the 23rd to pre-order at a retail store, when the game comes out I’ll receive… (from what I understand,) a serial for the base copy of the game, and a serial for the expansion?

If what I understand is correct, I’ll be getting more value by waiting for a retail version because I could (potentially,) give away my extra base copy serial that comes with the expansion, (Currently a $40 value,) and keep the code for the expansion for myself?

If this is the case, I feel like pre-ordering right now online might not be the best choice for folks with pre-existing accounts that they hope to upgrade, unless there’s some extra incentive for doing so other than receiving potential Deluxe / Ultimate perks a week or so early.

This bug is mostly just funny, but it’s also sort of irritating because hostile guards are spawning in friendly towers and keeps and immediately start attacking the other guards, deployed siege, and gates inside.

This causes swords to pop and prevents players from being able to use the waypoints inside. It also provides a false positive for signalling an attack, in a way.

Will try to get a screen shot.

Thank you for the replies and instructions on how to communicate with opponents in WvW.

Every once in a while, an upset opponent will invite me to their party or attempt to join the party I’m already in for the sole purpose of berating me or engaging in verbal abuse.

I’m honestly uncertain as to how they even find my account / character name in order to whisper at me when our names all become generic in WvW.

I typically try to ignore them or block them once they get a message through, but I’d like to prevent this from happening if it’s possible.

I reported the individual accordingly.

[Disguise] I think that an Invisibility alternative that would make a Mesmer appear as an Ally character for a few seconds would be kind of interesting. (i.e., green name instead of red name) It would / could also function as a de-target or make it so that the Mesmer couldn’t be tab-targeted the same way other ally creatures work.

This would be more useful in PvP and WvW than it would be PvE environments, although it could still function as a de-target in PvE to allow the Mesmer to lose some heat.

I’m not sure if it would or should apply to all of the Mesmer’s Illusions as well, but the general idea is that it would make the player appear “friendly,” which I think would be in line with how some of the Orrian Mesmers operate in the story line.

I imagine it would probably be a Manipulation-based utility skill, possibly with the elite version working for the whole group.

What’s also tricky about this karma armor is that the stat combinations at each particular vendor are kind of mixed and in some ways undesirable. It’s hard to run a complete set from one of the Temples in order to get the rune bonus while still having a complete set of same-stat armor. :/

If they made them all soulbound like the dungeon versions they would be useless on the TP as well. The majority of them sell for just a few silver anyway.

Before the change to Transmutation charges, it was possible to acquire Temple Runes (i.e., Superior Rune of Melandru) by purchasing Karma armor and then transmuting the Runes onto armor with different stats.

However, since Transmutation Stones are no longer used to alter the stats or runes on equipment, it is not possible to move Runes purchased at Orrian Temples to other armor pieces since armor purchased with Karma points cannot be salvaged.

To make those runes easier to acquire, I suggest that they be made available at Karma vendors in Orr separate from armor similar to how Dungeon Vendors sell Superior Runes for Dungeon Tokens.

To help address the market value change of these runes, I think it would be fair to make ones purchased at Karma Vendors Account Bound so as not to flood the market. I understand that making them available for karma would still affect their market value as they would become less scarce, but making the runes account bound would mitigate it at least a little.

Two more quick things:

For the original build you posted, I would suggest trying out Doom or Geomancy Sigils. Both are pretty nice condition damage options, especially if you haven’t already bought Malice, (which is overpriced in my opinion).

Regarding the Reflection suggestions I made before, there’s probably other options available for Runes that might further improve your Precision / Ferocity, (or durability for the matter,) but I went with Traveler because I understand wanting to maintain mobility.

I think what’s tricky here is that the build described might be trying to do too many things at once. Emphasizing Retaliation, Reflection, and Condition Damage all at once is pretty MAD, (Multiple Ability Dependent,) and would leave your stats spread pretty thin.

Retaliation worked a lot better for Mesmers when our Phantasms would pulse it indefinitely and you could essentially double its damage output by having a Phantasmal Defender out, but now it’s just sort of an add-on rather than a primary damage source. (Pyroathiest had a pretty good build that relied on Retalion back on the day, but it’s an out-of-date concept now post nerf.) Retaliation damage is based on your Power, so if wanted to focus on that you’d also probably want to change out of Condition Damage gear.

The build would have to change pretty drastically to improve your Reflection damage since Reflection is based on your personal Precision / Ferocity (and your opponent’s power – more on this in maxinion’s guide here)

If you still really want to swing that way though, this is my rough idea for how to build a supportive reflection setup:

Quickie Reflection Experiment

Unfortunately, needing Power, Precision and Ferocity to be effective leaves a Mesmer pretty vulnerable, so if you’re used to playing with a tankier setup I wouldn’t really recommend a PvP build with full Assassin’s gear, which would probably be optimal for this kind of build. I’ve neglected Condition Damage for this particular build since it doesn’t mix too well with a Retaliation / Reflection damage focus.

Dueling III and Chaos III combined with Mimic can potentially stack a lot of Retaliation for you, but requires a lot of people to hit you in succession, would generally wouldn’t be recommended for a glassy build. (These traits could easily be replaced for something else if Retaliation became less important to you.)

This is sort of a Power-based Support build, offering its support through Reflects, (Feedback, Traited Focus, Mirror Heal) AoE Blind via Feedback / Null Field, Interrupts via Into the Void / Chaos Storm, and a pinch of AoE Regeneration from your Phantasms. A Greatsword could replace the Staff if you’re feeling like you’d benefit from more Offense.

It damage output aside from Reflects is a bit sub-par, but different Food / Sigils can be used to adjust this. Bountiful Interruption has the potential to provide a lot of Might for you too combined with your AoE Interrupts.

To get a good amount of Critical Chance while still maintaining some toughness, I’ve selected some unconventional gear. You’ll see what I mean in the link. Individual pieces can be adjusted for more Power / Ferocity accordingly as desired. (The setup I linked has a whopping 84% Crit Chance with food, 73% without)

You might also consider trying out the Phantasmal Disenchanter in place of Null Field, or if a Support Role feels really good somehow, playing with some Mantras and Restorative Mantras could be interesting too.

You could always walk into the bubble yourself too if you want to be protected. Your projectiles will still function normally in the Feedback Field.

Medic’s Feedback (Inspiration Trait I) automatically puts the bubble on you and your allies when you’re reviving people, but ONLY when you’re actually reviving someone downed / dead.

Confusion is in general pretty disappointing as a source of damage unless you’re running Perplexity which allows you to apply it more consistently. Ever since they halved its damage, Confusion from shatters simply doesn’t do enough to warrant making a build around it.

You’d probably get more bang for your buck with Reflects if you were running more Precision and Ferocity.

While I like the idea of a Condition Shatter build, it’s going to be difficult to get the damage you’re probably hoping for with such limited clone generation. Having Illusionist’s Celerity from the Illusions line helps a little, but probably not enough to have consistent damage output.

If you really want to go tanky and want to hang onto your Dire gear, I would suggest trying 0/0/5/3/6. (Grab V and X from Chaos) You still won’t have Deceptive Evasion, (or Sharper Images for that matter) but at least the conditions you do apply will pack more of a punch with Chaotic Transference. Reduced cooldowns on your Staff skills will help out a little with making clones, (Bringing Phase Retreat to every six seconds) and Debilitating Dissipation will provide extra conditions even if your clones don’t make it to their targets when you shatter them.

Confusion from Glamours is nice for tagging, but not that useful in small group scenarios for actually killing anything. You’ll lose some of your extended duration by dropping the points from Domination, but you’ll become even harder to kill and your conditions will do more per tick rather than lasting longer. You’d also lose your traited Focus with my trait setup, but I would consider switching to another offhand anyway since your focus can’t apply conditions other than Cripple since your phantasm doesn’t have Sharper Images (or much Critical Chance, for the matter)

One last thing – Condition builds in zergs are in general not that useful since condition clearing is relatively common and widespread. This build looks like it could be effective for smaller-scale fights, but as others have said I wouldn’t say that it’s exactly optimal.

I’m interested to see how it plays for you though. Great to see some fresh ideas!

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Diamond_Skin

Seconded on First Aid Kit. Loved the music for this one!

I wish the tooltip for Null Field wasn’t so blatantly misleading.

I can definitely sympathize with being reluctant to run without condition removal.

If it starts to become too much of an issue, one option is to move 2 points from Domination to Inspiration and run the Mantra heal for 4 condition clears per charge.

I think a better option would be to use Mantra of Resolve instead of Null Field though.

There’s always Sigils of Purity too, and of course Condition Duration reduction food.

I think Mantra of Resolve is probably your best bet though, and it even has the advantage of cleansing your nearby buddies too!

I’m curious as to how effective your clone spam works given that your condition damage is very low. While it looks like you can probably apply a fair amount of Bleed stacks with your illusions / clone death, do they actually do much damage?

The issue is mostly that the Greatsword typically doesn’t synergize well with Condition builds. It doesn’t apply any damaging conditions on its own without trait, sigil or rune support, and shines most brightly with power-oriented setups.

If the clone spam is more for applying Vulnerability / Weakness, then I can see it… but otherwise I think going power shatter / phantasm might suit your play style better.

The thing about a hybrid build is that trying to balance power stats (power, precision, ferocity) with condition damage stats (condition damage, condition duration, precision) AND throw in some defense on top like it appears you’re trying to do appears to leave your stat pool spread pretty thin.

Having just over 2000 Power while only running around 300 (or less) condition damage doesn’t seem that hybridy, so I think using the second build you posted might work a little better.

That said, it looks like there’s a fair amount of stat distribution leaning towards toughness (from the Knight and Cavalier pieces) but it’s almost not enough to offer that much protection. (400 or so toughness isn’t going to save you from a glassy backstab or meteor storm)

Personally I’d say to just go all out Berserker if you’re going to play 4/4/0/0/6. You’ll need to rely more on positioning and active defense to stay alive than if you use that little bit of toughness padding, but I think you’ll find that killing your opponent quickly will be a more useful strategy than trying to outlast them by absorbing hits with toughness.

So in short: Lose the defense armor, and emphasize learning how to use Blurred Frenzy, Illusionary Riposte, Distortion, Dodging and positioning to provide defense. Learning how to utilize Blink to get into hard-to-reach / follow spots will also prove fruitful when using a Greatsword!

Also, supporty / tanky friends will appreciate and improve your amazing damage output potential!

Restorative Mantras heals up to five allies a little over 2,600 when you charge a mantra. This can include Illusions, for better or worse.

The radius of the effect is 360, or roughly the size of a Time Warp bubble.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Restorative_Mantras

My favorite thing about the Greatsword is using Illusionary Wave to knock a thief out of Shadow Refuge.

That second where they stand there going, “Huh?” is priceless.

I think that Condition Damage really shines in solo roaming, or possibly even in small group roaming when condition cleanses aren’t as readily available.

Condition Damage can also be applied more easily to multiple targets than power damage, Mind Wrack and Illusionary Berserker being the main exceptions. Clone Death traits provide all of those mini aoes with relatively little effort, whereas most of our powerful phantasms (Warlock, Duelist, Swordsman,) are single target.

Moreso than anything though, I think that using a Condition Damage build allows for the most potential stacking for defense stats while still allowing damage output. When trying to gear for Power, having to manage three stats (Power, Precision, Ferocity) while still mixing in some Toughness / Vitality is harder than just trying to stack Condition Damage and Precision for Sharper Images, (and possibly Condition Duration, although that’s an easy fix with Consumables)

That all said, I typically don’t like to run condition damage builds because honestly, I like seeing big numbers on my screen. Maxing out Conditions requires a lot of investment from gear / runes, but my biggest issue with Conditions is the almost inherent lack of mobility, (unless you’re willing to spend the coin on Traveler Runes, which would result in a noticeable decrease in condition damage). Diamond Skin Elementalists also make me wary of running pure condition – I always seem to run into them when I decide to dabble with a pure Condition build. Hybrid seems to be the way to go, although it’s hard to really shine with stats distributed so far apart.

TL:DNR version: Condition builds allow slightly more AoE damage with minimal effort, and Condition Damage builds typically allow more defensive stat stacking, allowing for lazier play.

If the Treb is destroyed while firing, it bugs out and cannot be repaired. It will also not appear as “broken” on the map.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Battle-of-Kyhlo-Broken-Trebuchet/first#post3945402

I was in a team pvp match this evening and a Thief destroyed our Trebuchet early in the match. However, a repair kit never appeared at any time, and the Trebuchet icon still appeared as intact on the map. The announcer guy never expressed that it had been destroyed either.

Is this working as intended, or some kind of bug or exploit?

Pyroathiest.4168:

Zach.3264:

Staff is good with carrion build

Fraid not. If you’re using carrion on mesmer in any build whatsoever, you’ve made a serious mistake.

I’m curious as to why.

I’ve seen Pyro state this on the Mesmer forums fairly frequently, but while I have a general idea of why it could be a poor choice compared to say, Rabid or something, I’d like to know the breakdown of how it compares.

My gut reaction is that it’s because Vitality doesn’t do much for a Mesmer since it doesn’t apply to Illusions in the same way that Toughness does. Vitality also doesn’t boost Condition Damage in the same way that Toughness does if you’re going down the Toughness Line or using Undead Runes or something similar, (Although Scavenger Runes grant a Condition Damage Boost from Vitality, which might be another option)

I can also see how Precision (Which Carrion lacks) is important for a Condition Mesmer mostly because of the Sharper Images trait in the Dueling line (for Illusion Bleeds).

That all said though, Carrion seems like a decent candidate for a WvW Hybrid build of some sort, since it’s the only main-stat condition damage gear that also offers power. (Rampager could be an alternative too maybe, for much more precision at the cost of health and condition damage)

Is it really that bad of an option?

Rainbow Sprint.3215:

ANd i’d like prec/pwr/tough but we can’t get everything we want.

Precision / Power / Toughness as a stat combination exists on Ascended Jewelry, (and Exquisite Emerald Gems) but almost seems like some kind of mistake as the stat combination doesn’t have a specific nomenclature associated with it.

It would be an interesting Armor combination though for sure.

Any way to be more selective about friend vs. foe emotes?

Is there a way to ignore enemies’ emotes, other than individually blocking each person who emote spams?

If not, could this option be implemented somehow?

Also frustrating is opponents who invite you to their group in order to harass you or learn your name so that they can send you antagonizing whispers, or who use the “block” function to learn your character and / or account name for the same purpose.

I realize that people will still find other ways to troll if they want to, but it would be nice to at least limit the ease of bothering people…

I don’t mean the blueprints that you can actually build on, (i.e., deployed siege) but rather the kind that other players can pick up and use or re-deploy.

Can there be a cool down put in place for dropping Blueprints, please? (Not deploy multiple prints – that’s fine.) There are some players who like to troll in World vs World by running around dropping dozens of Ballista Blueprints around.

This is frustrating because A ) It creates lag and B ) it makes it difficult to interact / resurrect / finish other plays because there’s blueprints all over the ground.

On the plus side, at least they decay fairly quickly, but the stream of blueprints following a troll can be pretty distracting / annoying.

As far as I know, the only equipment and / or buffs placed on the Mesmer that can also be applied to Phantasms are ones that directly effect your base primary stats.

Examples of things that will increase Phantasm stats:

Stacks from Superior Sigil of Bloodlust (Directly increases Power)
Stacks of Might (Directly increases Power)
Stacks from Superior Sigil of Perception (Directly increases Precision)
Power, Precision, and Toughness from Equipment or Traits.

Examples of things that will not increase Phantasm stats:

Fury (on Mesmer, not from Phantasmal Fury)
Superior Sigil of Force (or Accuracy)
Vitality from Equipment or Traits

Other traits that specify that they improve Illusions or Phantasms are exceptions, of course.

Game Update Notes – March 18, 2014

“World vs. World
The Commander buff is now only displayed to friendly players.”

So, this change went through a few patches ago… what was the reason for it? I think that being allowed to see enemy tags was a fair way to allow smaller groups engage larger groups with a definitive target. Was having a larger force not enough of an advantage?