Guild Wars 2

So the “Initial attacks” that were added to the phantasms a while back were less than stellar, and in most cases, a rotation of these attacks does not equal the sheer utility that would be offered if Phantasams persisted in any way. So I’m suggesting a simple more clear cut series of initial attacks that in my opinion not only streamlines the process, but also adds some much needed damage to many of the opening attacks.

In a nutshell, the concept is that the Mesmers themselves perform the initial attack, then follow up with an illusion that performs the same action on repeat.

Some examples:

Sword Off-hand: Leap and your target and damage them, then summon an illusion that attacks with a leaping strike.

Staff: Fire a bolt that deals extra damage for each unique condition on a target, then summon an Illusion whose attacks do the same.

Pistol Off-Hand: Unload 4 shots from your pistol onto a target than summon an illusion that unloads 2 pistols. (4 shots per pistol to make 8 shots)

Trident: Confuse your foe with illusionary harpoons than summon an Illusion with a harpoon gun to do the same.

These changes to phantasams give the class a powerspike (pun intended) to its weaker offensive options. The class would also become inherently more active, and it will also help solidify the “Deja vu” esk fighting style that the class is suppose to have.

I personally see far more shields than swords.
However if I had to guess it’s because Phantasmal Swordsman attacks so frequently. Throw in Phantasam Haste and he’s jumping every few seconds. Add in wells or Glamours and he’s one of the few phantasms that you can combo with, and the only one that can protect himself with auras.

I disagree without outside of combat.
But Phantasams do need to persist past their initial targets. I personally have suggested they last until you exit combat and rather than shattering between targets they simply find new ones.

Phantasam upkeep is frustrating for mesmers who run builds centered around their use. While I understand clones fading as soon as their target dies (as they’re distractions at best and useless at worst) I really feel like Phantasams should have a separate more persistent mechanic.

Put simply I would like to see our phantasms function the same way that Kasmeers do. They persist until destroyed or until you exit combat. A lot of phantasms bring utility that affects multiple targets including allies, and tying a multi target mechanic to a single target rule has never made much sense to me. This forced upkeep is one of the main reasons I’ve transitioned from Mesmer to Necro/Guardian, and again we have several NPCs that frequently employ persisting illusions so it doesn’t make much sense why players cant.

This doesn’t even need to be a mechanic overhaul, we can make persisting illusions tied to a mesmer trait, or a signet passive, or heck even a rune set. I wouldn’t mind running a specific set of Superior Runes if it meant my illusions stuck around.

I’m probably at a point of no return with my characters, but I feel like this would help a lot of players whose characters are just now hitting max level. Now that Elite Specializations are a thing, I think players should have the option of redistributing trait points 1 time only when they hit level 80. (Maybe have them go through a trainer NPC to do it or something…)

So for some context I’m about halfway done with training Reaper Specialization on my necro, and farming skill points is becoming very tedious. I have a bunch of hero points invested into Signet and Corruption skills, as well as full specialization into Spite, Death Magic, and Curses. Specializations and skills that I NEVER touch. My necro was created prior to the introduction of Elite Specializations and as far as I was aware at the time such things were never going to be added to the game. As such I spent my hero points unlocking everything else which put me in the situation I am currently in.

Suffice to say all of the hero points I put into signet, corruption, and the 3 specializations were all hero points I could have put into Reaper and that fact is really irritating. Again it’s probably too late for my necro, but having the ability to respec hero traits upon hitting level 80 is something I feel like would save a lot of younger accounts a lot of time and frustration…

I’m sad about the changes to Light Aura.
One of my favorite things to do on necro was drop well of blood under my minions then trigger a blast with putrid mark which gave everyone of them retaliation. It was fun to watch npcs all agro onto my minions and effectively kill themselves.

So on the Lake Doric map I noticed several Seraph NPCs that were fighting with pole-arm style weapons. (Spears, halberds, ect.) Thus I can’t help but ask, will there be a patch in the future where we will be able to use spears, pole-axes and various other long range weapons above water?

Is this a preview of things to come in GW2’s next expansion?

It’s probably too late to change this now, but I hope and pray that Anet never does anything this asinine ever again.

10,000 drinks is doable, crafting 3 extremely expensive items is doable, but BOTH is borderline impossible. I’ve been at this since the events started minus maybe the first 3 days, and in that time I have lost ALL of my money, and I’ve only just now hit the 1,000 drink mark.

Anet needs to have an epic armor reward for collections, AND an epic armor reward for crafting. If you try to combine the two the result is a grind and a money dump, neither of which are fun.

Please reconsider if you ever decide to try this again. It’s an absolutely horrible idea..

Hello everyone!
I’m a (somewhat) popular up and coming YouTuber who enjoys covering events happening in various video games. I preordered Heart of Thorns and thus got invited to a number of beta events.

These videos are my final thoughts on the new Elite Specializations for HoT. I hope you enjoy them! ^ ^

Reaper, Dragon Hunter, Chronomancer, and Tempest: https://youtu.be/5GtU7_6GceY

Revenant and Herald: https://youtu.be/ylk78mty2sk

Initially it was my understanding that skills that could “taunt” were not introduced into the game with the idea that a major point in the game was every class plays every roll, thus skills that taunted or did any significant amount of healing to other players were ‘taboo’ because we didn’t want the standard Tank/DPS/Healer triangle that bogged down every other MMO. Taunt I feel will introduce the concept of “dedicated tank” to GW2; as players will build themselves with large amounts of armor or blocking skills then taunt and soak up the damage while other players sit back and idly unleash their attacks and spells. Once this happens it’s a slippery slope before the other two roles are segregated out to specific classes, something I know anet was trying very hard to avoid.

Don’t get me wrong I see why taunt is being implemented, but it doesn’t change the fact that if this isn’t done correctly GW2 could easily wind up as another vanilla combat triangle mmo. Anyone who has played with me knows this makes me sound like a hypocrite (I built both my mesmer and necromancer to be dedicated healers), but I honestly cant say I support taunt. The risks it brings is just to…well risky.

1) Do you plan on keeping a block on the scepter?
It would really be disappointing to loose the block after you just finished adding torment to it. Mesmers would also loose the double block build, which will make the Retaliatory Shield trait a lot less useful.

2) Are you going to tweak Arcane Thievery along with Mimic?
If you only change Mimic it will become even less popular than it already is. Arcane Thievery already does what you want Mimic to do, with the added effect of transferring conditions as well.

3) Only “Offensive Mantras?”
The only offensive mantra that I know of is Mantra of Pain. Will you be looking at any of the other mantras? Personally I think Concentration and Resolve should be tweaked a bit. There’s not a lot of point in having 1 that cures conditions and 1 that breaks stuns, when the act of breaking a stun is curing a condition.

4) Lastly, will you be making any changes to “Maim the Disillusioned?”
For a grandmaster trait, the damage on it is pretty minimal. Even with a full condition build you’re only seeing about 300 damage. On top of that the damage ISN’T increased if your target is moving, which defeats the purpose of the trait using Torment. It might as well cause bleeding.

Mimic is easily the most underrated skill for the mesmer at the moment. Yes, the first shot you store is basically useless, but everything that hits you after you store that initial shot is also reflected immediately. This ability is invaluable to mesmers if you ask me.

That being said, this new change is completely (and I stress COMPLETELY) pointless.
This change to mimic will make it even less used than it already is. For starters Arcane Thievery already does this exact thing, but with the added bonus of purging the enchantments off of your target. Second, you can use Null Zone to remove enchantments as well, but it also doubles as a condition remover, and ethereal field for allies. This change will not make Mimic more popular it will flat out make it useless.

Daishi.6027:

Mimic.

Sounds good in theory but the idea of taking a shot seems kind of counter intuitive, and only working on range skills makes the niche seem even more bland.

As someone who actively uses mimic on my mesmer I feel I need to point out one quick thing that you missed.

Yes mimic only absorbs 1 projectile, but every projectile AFTER that one is reflected back to the source of the cast. If you use mimic for the reflecting shield, and not for the single absorb it’s a really useful skill. Especially if you’re running a reflect build.
(Mimic, feedback, and focus with the focus talent)

Also mimic works on ANY projectile. I’ve used it on elementalists, and engis dozens of times. It’s always fun to watch them react to their own fireballs.

jportell.2197:

Except people forget that necros have amazing direct damage? Well of suffering says hi!

Yes and no.

Yes WoS is an AMAZING source of damage (and is to date my favorite skill next to Well of Shadows), but the damage comes in the form of an easily avoidable “tick.” It’s not so much direct damage as it is damage over time. Also unless you’re running ground targeting for wells, you’re probably going to have second thoughts about run headlong into a champion or a legendary to put the well down right next to them. It’s more of a deterrent for warriors and guardians who cannot afford getting that much armor striped away from them.

Minion Master (to use the politically correct term from the original guildwars) exists because of the sheer amount of support it gives, both in PvE and (too a lesser extint) PvP.

Minion Master not only offers more bodies for a zerg, but also contributes to some of the necromancer’s hardest CC in the form of the alternate minion abilities. (Shadow Fiends cause blind, Bone Fiends cause root, hell golems can knock people flat on their face and cause perma-cripple)

Minion Master is typically favored by players who enjoy micromanagement games and RTSs. (Kind of like playing ranger with 5 pets) Honestly if Minion Master comes off as “brainless” to anyone, they’re probably just not doing it right.

I think your issue is you went into necromancer expecting a damage class. Necromancers are tanky/caster hybrids that support allies with LOTs of conditions. You don’t play necromancers for raw damage, you play them to make everyone around you run away in fear, cause enemies to kill over from loss of blood, and essentially never die while slowly killing everything around you.

Alternatively, necromancers actually make pretty decent healers. I know healing isn’t really a focus on this game, but talents like Life Transfer combined with Mark of Blood and Well of Blood can actually keep people alive pretty darn well.

I think the issue Muchacho is you’re trying to introduce an offensive role to a strictly defensive skill.

I personally have no issues with how the wurm is right now simply because I don’t use it offensively at all. It strikes me as a completely defensive minion that was put in so that minion masters could get away from anyone who managed to bypass their meat shields. More often than not if I’m running with wurm I don’t even put it in attack range, I place it away from the fighting so I know for a fact I have a reliable escape.

It’s the same thing with the necro’s wells. Unless you’re running the ground targeting talent, you’re not going to go running up to someone’s face to use wells offensively. Their purpose is to give you a reprieve if someone’s trying to show you the “wrong end of a kurzick sword.”

Out of curiosity did you ever play the origional Guildwars?

I’m aware of how devistating stacked CC can be, but honestly having (quite literally) grown up on Guildwars it’s not that big an issue to me as I’m use to cripples that last for multitudes of seconds, and knockdowns that are 4 or 5 seconds long. Honestly I’m very greatful just to have skills that are flat out dedicated to getting you out of CC. (most of these skills even remove multiple instances of it)

Now as a suggestion as to avoid preaching to the choir, Anet could introduce talents that shorten the time of break stuns, and/or CC. (needless to say these would stack with other talents that shorten cooldowns; it would be pointless otherwise) The problem is, there’s a very, VERY fine line between CC being too powerful, and CC not doing it’s job.

Let’s face it, nobody (okay hardly anyone) uses the “descent” talents. These are the talents that are centered around taking fall damage, such as ‘Decent Into Madness’ for the mesmer. They’re a niesh pick at the best of times, at the worst of times, they’re completely useless.

What we could do is instead of the talents activating when we take fall damage, we could have them activate when we’re knocked down. (or sunk when underwater) This is not only a good counter to knockdown spam, but would allow respites, and windows of opportunity for anyone knocked flat on their face.

Examples:
Descent into Madness – Create a Chaos Storm around you when you are knocked down.

Descent of Shadows – Release a blinding powder around you when you are knocked down.

Death from Above – When you are knocked down you release a shock wave that launches all nearby enemies around you.

support this completely

This isn’t World of Warcraft.

It never made much since to me that the Mesmer can only have a pistol in his/her offhand, the thief and the engi can both have a pistol in their main hand and I don’t think the Mesmer should be left out.

After careful consideration I came up with 3 main hand skills that I think would be neat for a Mesmer to have if he had a pistol in his main hand, it puts emphasis on making the Making the Mesmer into a single target quick-draw killer with emphasis on bullet time illusions.

1) Illusion of Time – Fires out 3 illusionary bullets that hover in front of you for a brief moment then fly out, the middle bullet will hit your target while the other 2 will hit enemies on either side of him.

2) Illusion of Slight Hand – Fires one bullet and two illusionary bullets immediately behind the first one if both fake bullets hit the cool downs of all other Non-Phantasmal pistol skills will be recharged (needless to say this has a long cool down)

3)Illusion of Pain – Empty an entire clip of illusionary bullets on your target (roughly 6-8 shots) for a large amount of damage, if your target isn’t killed half the damage dealt is healed back (execution skill with relatively high skill cap)

What do you guys think?

Even if you don’t like my main hand skills I’d still like to know if you support the idea of Mesmers using main hand pistols.