Guild Wars 2

Its definitely not our end issues, anet have already said how the system works and why it happens and have admitted its not working as intended, so they are fixing it, but IMO its killed WvW for me for a while at least.
Plenty of other stuff to do, just a shame really.

He is right chris, WvW will NEVER EVER be seen as a truly PvP experience, when you can be running along seeing a few people fighting, then you die, only to wait a minute to see infact there were upwards of 50 people there.
Or you are defending a gate, and see a handful of people, so you jump down to get in their face, only to die, and see, again, 30+ people were actually there, just not loaded.

I havent touched WvW since i was brutally done in many a time because of the loading issue. Its no fun thinking you are making good, tactical choices with your world, only to drop because they didnt load, and then having to make that trek all the way back because the game forced you into dieing because the advancement of your team was destroyed by an invisible force.

And there has been threads about people all standing on top of each other, so it looks like 1 person, only to have them all run out to attack an advancing force, they had a shocking advantage because no one could see them until the enemy was dead!

+1

I reckon this is what is killing it for most people, and they dont realise it so go looking for other issues.

Fanboy? Hardly. What design flaws? Lies? Well yeah one of my posts back along spoke about what we were going to be playing, and its different yes but you cannot deny what the game has achieved.

When you are able to get out of the mmo mentality when playing, the game becomes HUGE.
Its taken me since headstart, multiple re rolls of characters, and on and off playing to see what the game has available, and it only hit me a day or two ago.
No longer am i FORCED into playing in a certain starter area, no longer am i FORCED into progressing along higher level areas and monsters, no longer am i FORCED into getting to level cap to actually play the game with people.

Sure, it has its faults, lack of content at the level cap (i dont know thats just the general jist of the forums), dynamic events being far too easy, and the price of gear from vendors, But when you can throw away the need to get to the level cap, throw away the “i MUST use x weapon otherwise i cant dps or play efficiently” you truly see what the game is.

A couple of weeks ago i was really meh about warriors in wvw and how melee are useless, then i thought i MUST use rifle or bow. But then it hit me. In a situation where ranged is far better i CAN play ranged, in a situation where melee is better, i CAN play melee, and still be efficient and good enough to contribute to players around me.

When i saw ranger with melee weapons i was like WTF its a RANGEer. Then i realised the game allows me to play ranged or melee, be efficient and still contribute either way to people and team mates.

As i said, the game has issues, but its a month old, and i for one am a person who thinks WoW should go back to vanilla, but then when i truly look at it, putting the nostalgia aside, it was utter wank and worked completely against you and it was the most frustrating time of the game.
I see GW2 achieving MASSIVE feats in the mmo world, and it has a fantastic foundation to build upon. I think we all need to realise, its a baby in terms of an mmos life.

As far as the camera goes im not fully sure what the issue is, i personally havent felt any issues apart from:
Missing huge landscapes and buildings due to camera placement, and not being able to take amazing screenies free from my character.

Ah well, hope whatever the issue is gets fixed

Will try the /sleep from now on thanks Eskali!

Ahh ok, i did have a google for it but couldnt find anything, that solves the mystery, thanks.

Anyone any idea what this is? I randomly saw it in heart of the mists, then saw him running around wayferer foothills only to find its a player with the blue thing over his head, when i left click it on the map i get a “Join squad” button but it does nothing.
The guy must have freaked out when he realised i was following right behind him for a few minutes haha

Really, i actually love it, the range on it and slowness of the orbs, means you can fire like 5 before you even aggroed the enemy, follow by immobilizing it then getting the aoe on the target makes it one of my favourite and most damaging ranged weapons.
Its not so good in group events, when everything gets rushed down, but for solo play i think its fantastic.

And yes, a mesmer with a clone build to confuse people takes more skill than what people give it credit for, we have to really micro manage all our skills to prevent them being on cooldown, without clones were nothing, and if we mess up and have everything on cooldown due to playing bad, were sitting ducks.

Sjach Darasv.3729:

That is a problem within itself though, usually a build to counter a specific something, can couter it on a few classes/builds. When you build to counter a mesmer, that is about all you will counter because there is no other class that has any mechanics that most mesmers play with. So yes, while in can be beneficial to take out a mesmer, doing so generally makes you either only semi-capable of being able to counter other classes, or just get countered by most of them because of the focus to counter a mesmer.

As i said, this is a thread against a mesmer, not how to built a team. If all players are clued up against a mesmer, they will not be a problem, which means you wont have to have someone on mesmer patrol, but for now, its better than not having that and losing anyway then crying on the forums about an op class. Theese are tips and tricks, not an iwin guide.
And if you have two mesmers opposing you, which is quite often, 1 person can shut down 2 people.
This is not a 1v1 game,

Steely Phil.3952:

Lol at the advice for warriors.

“Team up with another class that’s good at fighting Mesmer, then just 2 v1 him!”

That totally solves all my problems.

Your problems would be solved if you work together, rather than being single minded which you clearly are.
sPvP is not about 1v1, forget that notion now and you stand a better chance.

Pull out a bow, and aoe his stack of images, they drop sokittenfast its unreal, they literally do die in 1-2 hits max. Pull out a sword and spam the melee button, if you just took half health of the mesmer, it aint him, move on.
Get an axe offhand and use the crazy aoe spin and move, again, mesmers go bye bye. So many warriors are in the mindset of pulling out a great sword, and hoping hundred blades works, along with the rush and immobilize utility.

I did say it was rough, i will update my original post with the following tips i gave you, but please, it aint 1v1, stop thinking its 1v1.

And spending all that hard earned money on dyes, or farming to get one, then going in and BAM, you’re either red or blue

A lot of people have a big advantage over mesmers if they know how to fight them. A lot of mesmers (i know i do a lot) will play knowing full well people will get angry not knowing how to fight you. When i suddenly come against someone who is clued up, i am definitely a lot more prone to mistakes, and tunnel visioning on the player, which really does ease up an immense amount of pressure on the opposing team.

Sjach Darasv.3729:

Spider.3486:

Sjach Darasv.3729:

Spider.3486:

Have 1 person on mesmer patrol (yes i had people doing this last night) and get them to specifically focus on nothing but the mesmer. There primary job is to ctrl+t the mesmer, pressure the hell out of them, but not to kill them. That is a secondary objective. If you can keep the mesmer busy on you, that gives the rest of your team to breath.

Curious as to actually doing that on a structured team. I wouldn’t really recommend doing that unless your team in general has better point control than the other team. If your team is already lacking in point control having someone to just specifically focus on taking the mesmer out of the fight means you are hampering your teams already lacking ability in taking and holding points even more.

If you leave the mesmer in, and you are struggling with mesmers, a mesmer left alone can control half your team if given the chance, and the chance of you already lacking point control is probably down to everyone struggling with the mesmer.
I see your point, but a structured team who work together, and properly will already have won the game 95% of the time, unless you come up against a structured team (structured i mean as in actually having an objective than a zerg) then taking the mesmer out completely will give you an astounding chance.

Obviously this is a tips and tricks not an insta win, but so far everyone appears to be having trouble with the mesmer, not the actual point of loosing, which is what this thread is about.

You have a point and that will work for most competitive teams, most of which will either a) have a skilled mesmer themselves, or b) know how the mesmer works enough to counter it without being worried about making the game a 4v4 while a mesmer and (insert mesmer kiting/delaying player class here) 1v1 all over the map accomplishing nothing for their team except providing an extremely long 1v1 combat fight to put on youtube.

Another tip, if you see the mesmer spawning out the phantasms, the pale pink see through ones, kill them. They take 2-3 hits at most to kill and they will be doing 75%+ of the damage you receive, the mesmer himself in this case cannot spam them as fast as a clone mesmer and will usually have less abilities to create clones than a mesmer that uses clones to do damage or clones to pop the f1-4 various abilities for conditions or bursts.

Yep, the game is less than a month old, so i hope all the QQ people realise there is ways to counter classes, its just not readily given on a plate. I have added your contribution to my original post!

Geff.1930:

Thanks for the tips.

Although I will say this, these tips may work against bad~average mesmers but good high rank mesmers will use decoy or some swap or stealth or do some other BS whenever you actually finally get on on them as melee and when you get back on them they will do it again. Furthermore they are practically unCC-able with the amount of stunbreaks they have.

As a (not-GS) Warrior I’ve never defeated a good mesmer 1v1 unless they are already low on health or there is a teammate who comes in atleast halfway through the fight.

The decoy is obviously the clones, which die of aoe spam. The stealth and clone combo again, only produces clones, which do no damage and die in 1-2 hits. So even if the mesmer has vanished and 3 clones appear, a spam of aoe will kill them, leaving the mesmer vulnerable because their vanish is on cooldown.

EDIT
Switch to a 1 handed weapon, and spam the regular melee skill, its very fast and easy to see when you have hit a clone, and when you have not. There is ZERO use of any skills and utilities against clones, they are noticeable the instant you hit them. So many times i see people blowing all their cooldowns on a clone, when it can be avoided with just swapping to a fast weapon and spamming the 1 key.

Sjach Darasv.3729:

Spider.3486:

Have 1 person on mesmer patrol (yes i had people doing this last night) and get them to specifically focus on nothing but the mesmer. There primary job is to ctrl+t the mesmer, pressure the hell out of them, but not to kill them. That is a secondary objective. If you can keep the mesmer busy on you, that gives the rest of your team to breath.

Curious as to actually doing that on a structured team. I wouldn’t really recommend doing that unless your team in general has better point control than the other team. If your team is already lacking in point control having someone to just specifically focus on taking the mesmer out of the fight means you are hampering your teams already lacking ability in taking and holding points even more.

If you leave the mesmer in, and you are struggling with mesmers, a mesmer left alone can control half your team if given the chance, and the chance of you already lacking point control is probably down to everyone struggling with the mesmer.
I see your point, but a structured team who work together, and properly will already have won the game 95% of the time, unless you come up against a structured team (structured i mean as in actually having an objective than a zerg) then taking the mesmer out completely will give you an astounding chance.

Obviously this is a tips and tricks not an insta win, but so far everyone appears to be having trouble with the mesmer, not the actual point of loosing, which is what this thread is about.

I primarily play mesmer, and they really are not as op as everyone is saying, and all theese threads about mesmers are getting annoying so heres some tips and tricks of the top of my head.

Classes with pets:
Allow the mesmer to attack you first, your pet will insta attack and agro on the original mesmer, watch for it, hit ctrl+t, that is your target.

Engineers:
Grenades. Grenade spam will wipe out all clones near instantly, probably one of the best counters against mesmers, and also flamethrower, all the clones will be nicely grouped for you.

Everyone:
Get out of LoS (line of sight) all the clones will run after you, leaving the mesmer singled out. And there is lots of ways to do that.

Ele:
AoE spam, same as engis. then ctrl+T the mesmer. (good for mesmer patrol)

Warrior and melee
Work with an aoe class, as soon as you see them wipe out all the clones, a good fast aoe class will know when they have done this, get ready to stun,knockdown,immobilize the target, by this point they are usually nearly dead, or at least panicking making them easier targets.#
Pull out a bow, and aoe his stack of images, they drop sokittenfast its unreal, they literally do die in 1-2 hits max. Pull out a sword and spam the melee button, if you just took half health of the mesmer, it aint him, move on.
Get an axe offhand and use the crazy aoe spin and move

Actual structured team:
Have 1 person on mesmer patrol (yes i had people doing this last night) and get them to specifically focus on nothing but the mesmer. There primary job is to ctrl+t the mesmer, pressure the hell out of them, but not to kill them. That is a secondary objective. If you can keep the mesmer busy on you, that gives the rest of your team to breath.

Depending on mesmer weapons:
This may differ slightly, but if im carrying a staff, im running a clone build and defensive so expect lots of clones NOT phantasms, get AOE on to the mesmer lookout.

Sword and pistol. Watch for that sudden melee mesmer on you, if you see it, ignore it, the other phantasm out is a ranged dps phant, that leaves only 2 (if mesmer has a clone out) targets.

If a mesmers clones and phantasms run at you, be very cautious of the debuff on you. Especially confusion, this can screw many fast paced classes up because you are damaging yourself every skill you use.

Downed state:
A mesmer has a RED ARROW, above there head, a cloned down does NOT. Just look for the red arrow over the mesmer when they are downed, that is your target.

If you are 1v1 against a mesmer, and not fully sure you will win, or getting annoyed RUN. Just run away, its FAR better than waiting to respawn, and your time on the field will increase dramtaically.

Contribution from Sjach Darasv:
Another tip, if you see the mesmer spawning out the phantasms, the pale pink see through ones, kill them. They take 2-3 hits at most to kill and they will be doing 75%+ of the damage you receive, the mesmer himself in this case cannot spam them as fast as a clone mesmer and will usually have less abilities to create clones than a mesmer that uses clones to do damage or clones to pop the f1-4 various abilities for conditions or bursts.

If i think of any others i will add them, or if you have any questions on a certain event or time when you have troubled, ask me and i will answer.

No way to counter it? An engineer with grenades would destroy all clones within a flash, thus leaving a flimsy mesmer.
A rangers fast attacks will drop all mesmer clones within a matter of seconds, again, leaving flimsy mesmer.
A mesmer DPS is amazingly low, if they have high dps, there is not so many clones, again leaving flimsy mesmer.

Thief. Is this OMG HEARTSEEKER? Dodge, thats twice to get away from it.
Ask one of your team mates to watch for them, a warrior can knock them down, and immobilize them, a hammer guardian can stop them from leaving a certain area for a few seconds.

I could continue if you like, it sounds like you aren’t event talking to your team mates and hoping a general zerg will do it.

This is exactly what i miss. In raids etc, part of the fun for me was getting my dps priority right, and it was exciting seeing the numbers, at the same time as trying to get the tactics right.
In GW2, as you say, general gameplay as in doing the quest hearts and running around literally only takes auto attack and the target is dead, very rarely do you even need to use any other skills.

My personal opinion, is have more weapon skills, not lots, maybe another set, and allow us to switch out each individual skill, so i can at least have 4 of the 5 skills as required dps rather than auto attack. At the minute 2 maybe 3 of most of the skills are CC which is utterly pointless and useless outside of dungeons.

Hey, i just got there, this is crazy, im in orr, its no daisy!

Seriously though, i noticed exactly the same!

WvWvW. Possibly seen as its in the early stages, but it appears to be nothing more than a zerg, and what time zone each world is playing in. I really like the idea of WvWvW, but i think the way it is now, it is basically a zerg to stonemist and then after that timezone dependant. What i possibly feel could happen, is have it where you are semi forced to attack certain keeps, towers etc in a not so specific but uniform way, to prevent a zerg and introduce tactics.
Even maybe introducing upgraded ai to defend maybe? It would certanily break the zerg a bit, and even having upgraded towers etc will give the ability to spawn attacking ai for yourself.

The heart quest zones. I am mixed about this. Yes, it removes the “quest hubs” but at the same time, they are finished extremely quickly, with very little in the way of a story, and not even worthy of a singly npc background story, they all seem to just be “hey we need help” “kill this, search that, loot this” Again, i feel more could be done with them, maybe having consequences or something, im not really sure, but at the minute they are basic.

I am fully aware it is a month old, and i am open minded about future updates and releases, this is almost a review i guess but on a more personal level. I for one will be playing and checking in on GW2, and look forward to its progression

Everything here is an opinion, Every thread has turned into a OMG GO BACK XXX Game, or OMG you’re not playing it right. I have taken time to attempt to give feedback in a structured way and would like to hear structured OPINIONS, again, opinions, not a mindset you are trying to force onto someone else, or implying someone is wrong. And it is not short, i will not be adding a TL;DR due to the points i make being quite lengthy and (at least an attempt) on making them in depth and thought out.

Every game we play there is always one thing that smacks you in the face and makes you fall in love with it, and the secondary parts make up an even bigger picture.

So far, GW2 hasnt smacked me in the face, but it has given me lots of small (not necessarily size) differences from other mmos.

Exploring. When i think of my favourite game to explore, that was Skyrim. Yes, not an mmo, but a fantasy world none the less. GW2 has vast places to explore, but the limitations of an mmo over a game like skyrim has prevented it from being big enough to be a primary part of the game that makes you fall in love with it, which was always one of GW2 selling points before release. But imo falls short of what it was expecting you to think it was.

Skills. The weapon skills have given players something that works, where they cannot make a bad choice which is the general idea i get from the weapon skills, but at the same time i personally feel it is extremely lack luster. Having 2-3 cc skills out of 5 on every weapon totally takes me out of using them in pve, and in turn it ends up using 1-2 buttons, but usually just hitting 1 does the job. Again, something different from any other mmo, but imo, too small to have an impact, and the end result is “meh”

Story. I feel the story is very predictable, however this appears to be one of the “levelling endgame” features. A story i personally enjoyed was from GTA4, again yeah, not another mmo, however it had some awesome twists that kept me entertained and wondering “wtf is going to happen next”. I understand limitations within an mmo, however having something as big as a story being a primary objective of the game, but failing to really give a good story again, end result is “meh”

Removing limitations of playing with other players. Now this part i find AWESOME. The times i have managed to play with friends has been a blast, but with life stuff and friends having more time to play, they are now further ahead, and yes they CAN come back and play with me by being de leveled, but from the people i talk to, there is a very very small player base who is happy to go back and redo content for fun with other players.
The way buffs share with anyone and everyone, and having a sense of playing with other players with the shared exp is fantastic, but its just not the same.

Dynamic events. This has been brought up many times. I so far haven’t failed or heard of an event failing, this in turn again has taken a core mechanic of the game away with the world being decided by my own hands. I read somewhere about a kind of spider diagram, whereas if a bunch of enemies attacked a village and lost, they would return with even more numbers and firepower, this i have not yet seen, possibly in the 80 zones, but i aint there yet. And honestly, zero difficulty. Everyone could stand still, hit the number 1 key and win. (i did read theese are being looked at which is good news!)

sPvP. I have a lengthy thread about this, and it is my favourite part of the game, but i feel it is literally the core, foundations of what we can expect, and really am looking forward to it. I feel it is a very even playing field, as i explained in my other post and the introduction of new maps and game modes will be awesome.

Mayama.1854:

Spider.3486:

Having multiple phantasms out takes longer than clones. Clones do little to no damage and die with a hit or two. If a mesmer is having lots of phantasms out (which should confuse nobody seen as theyre a white ghost colour) then the mesmer kill is relatively easy.
If a mesmer is spamming clones, you will be able to fight against them for ages due to the lack of dps.
The problem everyone is having is with the clones, but what people realise is they die instantly, and instead of mesmers feeling like god mode, infact people are just getting annoyed that they have to kill so many clones before getting to the real player.

The clone-shatter on my hybrid condition/shatter build hurt as much as the phantasms

Yes, yes it definitely does, and catching people out with confusions, especially rangers is awesome. But the feel i get from most people is the confusion from clones, after you shatter your clones there is a period where you are vulnerable, people are missing the opportunity by being in rage mode from attacking clones.

Playing pvp against people who have similar stats and all their traits and stuff available makes it a hell of a lot more balanced than any other game i have played. Sure everyone has a class they think is OP, but that is either because it is harder for them due to there class mechanic to kill, or lack of experience.

When i play my mesmer i think necors are op, due to the fact they don’t even have to target me, their pets usually do an amazing job at that. And thieves are a cake walk.

When i play my ranger though, i find necros a lot easier due to being able to keep range and burst them down, whereas a thief pressures me too much to the point of where i make mistakes.

If i look at it at a whole, the game is very well balanced. Yeah seeing a heartseeker spam on your death sheet is annoying, but then again you learn how to avoid it using all your classes skill and traits. And the warrior greatsword flurry, if i get dropped by this due to an immobilise + flurry, i simply am able to switch out a least used utility purely for a cc breaker (followed by a roll), which then renders the warrior useless with 2H greatsword.

I would definitely like to see bigger maps and/or smaller teams as well as more game types. I like the good ole conquest, but i think the way the classes are, it requires a lot more tactical game types, where a zerg won’t work. So far in the game mode now, it just seems like its a giant circle of players running around, with fighting in the middle, when that is over it continues with the circle movement, and then theres is a straggler attempting to play tactically but getting dropped instantly.

And for the record, i did find thief heartseeker op, and the warrior 2h flurry op, but after playing the class, watching some videos and realising infact it was my own mistakes that made it feel op, i genuinely believe no class is game breaking op.

p.s, a quick tip for classes with a pet, when going against a mesmer, wait for the mesmer to attack you first, your pet will ALWAYS go for the real mesmer, before going to the clones.
For melee, instead of using your skills on the mesmer, just be patient, spam your 1 skill, if you just took half health of a mesmer, move on, it wasnt the real one, rather than wasting all your cooldowns on clones, we can only have 3 out at a time, they always stand next to each other, so 3 swings, after that, you have your target!

Having multiple phantasms out takes longer than clones. Clones do little to no damage and die with a hit or two. If a mesmer is having lots of phantasms out (which should confuse nobody seen as theyre a white ghost colour) then the mesmer kill is relatively easy.
If a mesmer is spamming clones, you will be able to fight against them for ages due to the lack of dps.
The problem everyone is having is with the clones, but what people realise is they die instantly, and instead of mesmers feeling like god mode, infact people are just getting annoyed that they have to kill so many clones before getting to the real player.

A mesmer is really squishy, and infact doesn’t really put out any real dps aside from sword and pistol.
As for illusions, when i play in a pure defensive form, i have all my traits and utility skills focussed purely on having illusions and phantasms out, and yes it confuses the hell out of people, but at the same time, the chances of me killing you alone before your team mates turn up is pretty low due to the lack of damage.

The best thing i guess you could do is go out of LoS, all the illusions will follow round the corner, look which one didnt, and thats your target, once a mesmer is caught on cooldowns, they stand zero chance.

It feels like GW2 life is quite short. Endgame is starts from level 1 i understand, but with the weapon skillsets being good but badly implemented, i cannot for the life of me see me playing with the same skills i could use from day 1. For an mmo, the ability to personalise yourself is what stands out for me, in GW2 that is below basic, sure no one can run a fail build but where is the fun in being the same as the next guy.

PvP is a zerg, nothing more, nothing less. WvW and sPvP is won by whoever has the most players in the area at the time. The holy trinity system of tank heal dps going has turned PvP into a zerg of dps.

Coming from a warrior point of view. To use 2H sword effectively in PvP i NEED some form of immobilisation otherwise auto attack just aint going to cut it, anyone can just walk away from the sword spam. Sword and board feels utterly pointless. So i can block everything for 3 seconds, i like, but that ranger firing that volley of missiles at me can easily kite me away, so without any form of immobilisation, im screwed. So in reality, we can pick and choose our utility skills, but we are forced to use some more than others and a lot of them are plain useless.

At first glance a warrior has lots of weapon choice, but really you are forced into using a certain setup just to be effective. I don’t think i have seen anyone using a mace in PvP or PvE, and i see that only being usable in WvW, but WvW is nothing more than a ranged advantage, so you are forced into using a rifle or bow as a warrior, because as melee, you are going to die, and without a pocket healer, running out of the line is suicide.

As a melee person, i see a warrior as someone who is in your personal space, ruining your day and not giving you half a chance to breathe, but the weapon choices and their skills totally remove that.

GW2 has fantastic ideas, i will admit getting lost in events and whatnot is amazing, but for me, the lack of abilities and the amount of cc on every weapon which is totally not needed in 99% of regular everyday play outside of PvP has ruined the experience.

It would be nice to be able to choose from a pool of skills, im not talking thousands, even if it were an extra 5 per weapon which you could arrange in the way you want, at least than i have some control..

And theese are clearly my opinions, as for the go back to WoW RIFT etc they don’t have that alive, living world which GW2 has.