Guild Wars 2

With the massive changes brought with the feature patch, I figured I’d try playing a low level character, but as someone new to the game (and possibly mmo’s in general) might approach it. I didn’t use any game features until they were explicitly spelled out, such as dodging, vistas, and so on. I did deposit materials after my bags filled, which admittedly would be something a totally new player might not know about.

I chose a charr Mesmer, because my main and favorite character is a Mesmer, and because I leveled another Mesmer after the fiasco that was the April feature patch, with the locked traits and all.

After creating my character, I was immediately impressed by the level of detail in the first guide popups, specifically how to move my character and control the camera, and even to click on the popup itself to close it. I remember my first foray into MMORPGs (WoW), where I ended up looking at the ground and wondering why people thought the game was so great, until I accidentally moved the camera again.

Fighting started out ridiculously simple. I had two skills available, one which attacked, and the other which appeared to do nothing (heal skill) as I wasn’t taking any damage, and a bunch of locked number icons that never changed no matter how long I fought. I went to the crypt, which was already open and made it to the last fight against the Duke. At this point, as a Mesmer, I noticed I was popping out clones with the scepter #1 chain (might seem random to a new player), and after getting three of them, they would all automatically shatter using mind wrack (as noted in the combat log), which had yet to be unlocked. At this time I also noticed the lack of the mesmer’s illusion count UI element.

After the intro story bit, I followed the new guide arrow around Ashford, finishing what it pointed me toward before moving on. Fast forward a bit. I had originally planned on playing until level 15 as, according to other posts on the forum, it should have taken an hour or so. I made it to level 11 before stopping, after more than two hours.

I used only equipment obtained as loot or reward, as during my exploration I didn’t come across any weapon vendors. In many places, there weren’t enough enemies appearing to accommodate the number of players in the area, especially around the hearts (this is contrary to what I remember the first time through). The skill unlocks were painfully slow, and the level up popups actually did make it seem as though the features mentioned had been previously locked. The POI “unlock” especially confused me. Why was this even hidden? And why isn’t there in-game information about POIs beyond just their names? Also, one thing I noticed is a complete lack of explanation about waypoint use. I don’t know if it comes later as a “feature unlock”.

Some of the changes are okay (class-specific ones), many are neutral (wardrobe/UI), and more than a few are just plain bad (level gating, etc). All in all, this feature patch left me feeling more than a little disappointed. Removing functionality and hiding it behind a gating system is not adding features. I’m more than a little insulted that the developers think so little of their players that they felt the need to spoon-feed every little detail.

There really isn’t anything distinctive about GW2 anymore. If the game had been this way from the beginning, I would not have continued, and even worse, probably demanded a refund. As it is, I’ve played my money’s worth, but I can’t honestly recommend it to friends and family anymore. I don’t expect to play for the foreseeable future, but I will most likely occasionally pop in (because hey, I already bought the game) in hopes that things have improved. I’m not moving on to the next best game, I’d just rather not play what GW2 has become.

How about if the defiance stacking is kept as is -multiple control attempts needed to remove stacks- and bosses are given an ability that consumes a number of defiance stacks (or all?), and for the next attack (or subsequent attacks?), gain a buff based on the number of stacks removed. It would make control skills more valuable, both in interrupting big attacks, and in keeping defiance stacks low so as to prevent those big attacks from becoming too powerful.

I feel alienated by this fight, not because of the challenge, but because I’ve been screwed out of a reward. I’ve already beaten Liadri 5 times now, but still have yet to actually receive credit. Every time, she dies, her visions disappear, and I’m left in the arena alone. After about 10 seconds, the announcer starts counting down from 5, and the floor opens up dumping me to the floor far below.

Aside from the camera issues, the whip reflection bug, and the red-circle-camouflaging floor pattern, the fight is fine.

I attempted to emulate one of my favorite characters. See if you can guess who.

The first outfit consists of (I think) the Dry Bones karma chest, Starter skirt, Embroidered gloves, Cabalist shoulders, Student shoes (off camera), and no visible helm. I’m not sure you can get more mix-n-match than this.

The second one was taken after a makeover kit was used (obviously) because I couldn’t remember if I had a screenshot of the first one.

I posted a suggestion (link) touching on this subject not too long ago. As far as prefixes go, why not just have them blank like some items from the Fractals are until one is determined?

The Butcher in Honor of the Waves.

When he lays down his freezing circle, stand in it until it disappears, then use Arcane Thievery on him for up to 45s of chilled, and you gain whatever boons he might have (which should be none if you prepared for the fight!)

Kasama.8941:

…
Look at it this way; all this boon duration is going to be primarily for your own benefit, as Signet of Inspiration is the only way you can “transfer” that boon duration to your allies. The boons from the staff and from Rune of Altruism, are going strait to your allies, which means those boons aren’t affected by your boon duration at all.
…

I’m confused by this statement. Are you trying to say that boon duration applies only to boons you receive? Because that’s not the case. Boon duration applies to whatever boons you apply, to yourself or others. The only time it doesn’t apply is when you use Signet of Inspiration’s active effect to copy your boons. They get copied exactly as they are on you when you use it.

I find it more productive to use the full set of Altruism runes over a mixed set increasing boon duration primarily because the base duration of most Mesmer boons is short enough that only a monumental increase in boon duration will be noticeable. The shared Might and Fury more than make up for a 0.25s increase on the majority of our boons.

Also, another interesting little bit I noticed is that while Signet of Midnight does increase boon duration from normal means, it doesn’t apply to the copied boons from Signet of Inspiration’s active effect.

Chaos Archangel.5071

Thank you! I’m glad I’m not the only one who can attest to such a build’s usefulness.
Unfortunately.. Givers/Snowflake gear is bugged and doesn’t apply the boon duration.

Well, that’s disappointing, though I suppose not surprising. Armor/Jewellery aside, the build works pretty well if you’re not seeking huge numbers.

On the upside to the Giver’s situation, if they ever fix it, that means it’ll be possible to have over 100% uptime on Temporal Curtain’s swiftness boon (in theory).

I’ve been working on a boon-heavy support build that’s been quite successful. I’m not logged into the game at the moment, but I’ll try to describe it from memory.

The build goes 0/0/25/15/30

Chaos: III, IV or V (doesn’t really matter); IX (Cleansing Inscriptions) or X (Chaotic Dampening)
Inspiration: III (Vigorous Revelation)
Illusion: II (Confusing Cry); VII (Illusionary Elasticity); XI (Illusionary Persona)

Weapons: Staff, and a sword and focus.
Armor: Giver’s Armor of Altruism (6), with Snowflake Jewellery of Winter.

Healing Skill: Mirror (Times perfectly with the Altruism rune bonuses)
Utility skills: Signet of Inspiration, Signet of Midnight, and usually Null Field/Feedback

I’ll usually start off a fight by casting Temporal Curtain where I’m standing, then using Illusionary Leap/Swap for a huge retaliation bonus, followed quickly by a weapon swap, Phase retreat (if still on the strip), and iWarlock (for short term regeneration and full shatter fodder), then Chaos Storm and Chaos Armor as I run back into the fray, Mirror and Cry of Frustration (F2 Shatter), followed up by Signet of Inspiration. This gives all my allies at least 9 stacks of might, fury, retaliation, protection, vigor and swiftness, with a significant chance at aegis and regeneration, at which point I cast Time Warp and we melt whatever it is we’re attacking. I also make sure to cast Mirror whenever it’s ready to keep the might and fury stacks coming.

With a Guardian, Warrior or Elementalist in the mix, it’s very easy to hit 25 stacks of might and all these other boons for a significant duration.

I don’t do alot of damage with this build, even the condition damage is low despite the traits, but the support provided to allies is tremendous.

Edit: Forgot to mention in the case of condition removal, the focus’ Illusionary Warden on a Temporal Curtain makes for some nice condition removal whirling bolts.

Now that I think about it, I could probably drop 5 points each from Chaos and Inspiration to put into Domination for VI (Signet Mastery) for even more Signet uses.

If we assume things like Condition Duration and Boon Duration are left to special event items (candy corn, snowflakes, etc.) and agony resistance only to FotM items, that leaves:

Power, Precision, Toughness, Vitality, Critical Damage, Condition Damage, Healing Power and Magic Find.

There are eight types of tiered fine crafting materials, and eight types of tiered rare (think lodestones) crafting materials.

True, jewellery crafting would need some tweaking, another gem type would have to be introduced, or some untiered crafting materials could be used (karka shells, passion flowers) to fill in the gaps.

To make an exotic item, just move the ectoplasm requirement to the final stage. Most, if not all, craftable items require three parts at the end stage (eg. sword: blade, hilt, inscription), so it wouldn’t be any trouble to simply add 5 ectoplasms for the finishing touch.

I looked around in the various forums and found no mention of anything like this.

I’ve had this idea for the crafting system for quite awhile now, but never attempted to put it into words until now, so bear with me as my thoughts might be a little jumbled.

I do like the ‘prefix’ identification system, where the name of an item is indicative of its properties (Berserker, Soldier, Cleric, etc.) but the recipes to make these items are rigid, with no way to make something differ from the mold.

With all the fine crafting materials out there why not assign a single stat to each type (blood-power, fang-precision, and so on) and allow the crafter to mix and match up to three types to create a unique mix of stats? Theoretically, it could also be possible to make a single stat item using three different tiers of the same material. Of course, this would make for some potentially devastating glass cannon builds, but at the cost of defense or vitality.

The template is already in place with the current crafting interface: Four slots for ingredients, up to three fine materials with the inscription item (dowel, insignia, etc.) Just keep the system in line with the current number of bonuses available by level/tier.

It would be possible to create some essentially useless stat combinations with this system (eg. Magic Find, Critical Damage, Healing Power), but at the same time it would open the way for more creative character builds and make crafting a bit more worthwhile.

Anyone have thoughts about this or more to add?

I have nearly 1600 hours played since the headstart -almost all on one character- and a total of three level 80 characters, with several more waiting in the wings. On my main character, I have multiple sets of exotic weapons and armor, some crafted, but mostly from dungeon token vendors. I recently scraped together enough money to purchase a cheap legendary precursor from the trading post, and am now very slowly working toward my legendary weapon.

All that being said, I have never seen a lodestone drop, or even a named exotic item. Since November, at least, I’ve been seeing even less of what was once a meager, but acceptable level of reward for killing enemies, participating in dynamic events, and opening reward chests. Not a single equipment item better than blue quality or upgrade component better than green quality has been bestowed upon me by this RNG system. I can recall with perfect clarity the last time I saw an exotic item from any loot source: It was the last day of the halloween event dungeon, and I received the Mad Moon on what was literally the last possible run to be made.

It has been my experience that the RNG loot system has been consistently heavily weighted against me, even moreso recently without any reason, while simultaneously favoring a significant number of people with whom I’m acquainted.

TL;DR: The loot system works heavily in favor of some and the detriment of others for no reason, and once it decides whether to bless or curse you, you’re stuck with it.

For skills like blurred frenzy and the illusionary warden, the numbers shown are the cumulative total of the attack, not each individual hit’s value. In the case of the warden, reflected attacks are shown individually, and in certain situations it’s possible to reach such high numbers, but they’re very specific circumstances.

I run a build very similar in concept, 0/0/30/20/20 (or …/30/15/25 for shattered strength). With six pieces of giver’s armor of altruism and five snowflake jewellery (plus back item insert) and signet of midnight, that’s +72% boon duration before food buffs.

Other utilities are Decoy (for stealth boons) and Signet of Inspiration for sharing with allies. Alternatively, use Feedback or Null Field for combo fields, or one of the other two signets as the situation warrants. Mass Invisibility adds extra boons, but might not be terribly useful otherwise, so elite skills are swapped as necessary.

Six runes of Altruism give fury and 3 stacks of might to yourself and nearby allies whenever you use a heal skill -including charging or spending Mantra of Recovery- every 10 seconds. Shattered Strength, Confusing Cry (Illusion II), and Vigorous Revelation (Inspiration III), make Cry of Frustration generate significant boons, ready to be shared with Signet of Inspiration. Six stacks of Might, Fury, Vigor, and Retaliation all at once, with Regeneration easily obtained from phantasms makes for quite the show. Damage output takes a small hit, since power isn’t invested, but the easily stacked might makes up for it by adding a little oomph.

Weapon choices are up to the user, depending on the role. Greatsword is more offensively focused, with might from mirror blade. It’s not quite as reliable because you can’t always tell where the blade is going to bounce. Staff is very defensive, with Chaos Storm applying all manner of defensive boons, to yourself and allies in it. I generally favor the sword mainhand, and focus offhand for an easy retaliation combo. Lay down Temporal Curtain, stand on it, and use Illusionary Leap/Swap for instant retaliation. Torch is also a good choice, for the stealth boons and blast finishers, as well as the Illusionary Mage’s retaliation boon to allies. If using the torch, the scepter is also a viable option as it allows for a more offensive confusion based approach.

The only problem I have with the “more reliable swiftness” statement is that it’s entirely untrue. Sure, Temporal Curtain swiftness lasts longer, but it still doesn’t stack with preexisting swiftness boons. Lay down the curtain, but before you cross it, Signet of Inspiration gives you swiftness, making Temporal Curtain useless and wasting a recharge, instead of giving you a significant duration.

Traited 20 into inspiration, with the focus trait, (edit: and Signet of Midnight) I can get 15.5 seconds of swiftness from Temporal Curtain every 20 seconds, but if I have even a fraction of a second of swiftness remaining when I cross it, I miss out on it. Other classes’ ground-targeted swiftness boons don’t have this issue.

Even with 100% uptime calculations on Temporal Curtain (Duration >= recharge) it’s still not more reliable, as we have to wait for the boon to expire before attempting to reapply.

I’ve made it to the end of the jumping puzzle six times now. Every time, I get the loading screen, followed by a split-second view of the end room with the NPCs and treasure chest, only to be greeted by another loading screen and returned to the start before I can even move. I’m not getting the achievement or any chance to loot the chest, although all I really care about is the achievement at this point.

The same issue seems to happen when I die in the puzzle: Loading screen, followed by an instant in the puzzle where I died, then another loading screen and I’m back at the start.

This happened to me in the Mad King’s Clock Tower puzzle too, it was unacceptable then, and it’s unacceptable now.

I feel I should point out that every time it happens, I’ve left and come back later to a (possibly) different overflow, or to my home server’s instance.

JonPeters.5630:

Fyi, the delay on first attack has been present since BWE2…

This simply isn’t true. I recall seeing phantasms immediately start their attacks even before they fully rendered during that particularly nasty “culling” fiasco awhile back. The conjure skill would activate, then white numbers would appear instantly, then a second or two later the phantasm would appear and go through its animation, sometimes extending the animation beyond the attack effects until it could sync up with the second attack.

A couple builds I particularly like:

• Domination 20: IX (Cleansing Conflagration) for iMage condition removal.

• Inspiration 20: V (Persisting Images) and VIII (Warden’s Feedback) for powerful anti-ranged support.

• Illusion 30: VII (Illusionary Elasticity) and X (Phantasmal Haste) to give iMage and iWarden a little extra power (ideally, not sure if these work properly yet)

Or, if you’d like to try the Glamour setup

• Domination 20: VIII (Confusing Enchantments)

• Inspiration 20: II (Glamour Mastery) and IX (Temporal Enchanter)

• Illusion 30: V (Master of Misdirection), VIII (Dazzling Glamours) and IX (Blinding Befuddlement)

Both of these are simple yet effective builds, and can be swapped on the fly even without needing to change weapons. The phantasms will give regeneration, but it won’t be nearly as reliable as what other classes can provide, but this is more like a small bonus on top of the intent of the builds.

The regeneration from phantasms is a very short radius -almost touching- while it takes 3-10 seconds to actually take effect, depending on the phantasm conjured. In addition it cancels any other illusion boon-effects, such as retaliation or fury and renders them essentially useless.

The iDuelist is our only reliable source of regeneration, as it gets applied every 3 seconds, for 3 seconds, and is especially potent if you can get more than one up against a relatively stationary target.

I haven’t experimented with the Mantra healing aoe, but I’ve heard it’s quite powerful when it works, but that it doesn’t work as often as it should.

If you’re really looking to support, I’d recommend looking into condition control, glamours and even the focus projectile reflection trait. Mesmers are generally very weak at providing direct or regeneration healing, but excel at other utility support trends.

I run a mixed build, since there’s no way to retrait inside and I like to be versatile.

I’m logged out now so I can’t look at my build, but I think it goes something like:

Domination 20: ?, IX (torch condition removal)

Chaos 15: II (half fall damage)

Inspiration 15: IV (heal condition removal)

Illusion 20: V (confusion duration), VII (extra bounce)

Utilities: Null field, Feedback/Portal, Signet of Domination/Illusion of Life

I’ll usually go with a staff, and scepter+torch, but in the frozen Svanir one, I’ll go with sword and pistol, and swap in Phantasmal Haste (Illusion X).

The illusionary mage still isn’t that great, but traited to remove conditions it’s a poor-mesmer’s disenchanter without taking up a utility slot. Plus, it doesn’t move much unless the target’s all over the place, so it’s a decent source of regeneration.

In the frozen Svanir fractal, I run with a sword and pistol, at least until the ice elemental is defeated. Traited thusly, the duelists not only put out a ton of damage on the elemental, but allow you and allies to temporarily cluster up on it for some serious melee-range damage while counteracting the frostbite with their constant regeneration. Time Warp just adds to the fun here. Another little perk of phantasms in the boss fight of this one is that when he teleports back up on the ledge, sometimes our phantasms become invulnerable to his ice-storm attack, yet maintain their regeneration boons.

With this build I bring significant condition control and utility, though bear in mind that a tall blade of grass, an errant snowflake, or a glittering mote of dust can obstruct your phantasms, rendering them useless until you can get around it somehow.

Tekla.2139:

Since unless state otherwise who made these class changes ( 11-15, 2012 ) is either;
Defacto clueless of the core mechanic of the mesmer ability
Or
He is actually playing a class which got it’s AoE blind reduced by 20 sec, while he can still invi-blind every 5-7 sec.
I’m assuming that it is in fact an intentional by-product. Phantasma are not missing, they simple doesn’t conjure. You won’t be able to loses those debuff, unless the summon hit. Alas, we are talking about a paradox here and now you must also deal with it.
Like me, you must learn to be a better mesmer, do not use the skill bar, instead, type /laugh.

Having a little trouble parsing this, but let me try to clarify my post. Against the thief npc in the heart of the mists (it uses blind, but doesn’t spam it), I would wait until I was blind, then intentionally cast a phantasm to test. At no time did the phantasm appear (as expected), but approximately half of the time, the blind condition was not removed upon attempting to conjure the phantasm. Blindness is supposed to be removed when it causes an attack to miss.

Add me to the list of those who got disconnected during the final moments of the event. Well before that though, enemies simply weren’t rendering or even targetable(culled?), but were still able to down/kill me and everyone around me.

Worse, as a mesmer, without being able to acquire a target, I was left to randomly use Chaos Storm and still couldn’t tell if I was doing anything. After dying often enough that I had completely broken all my worn equipment and repaired using a canister, I started lagging so badly that I couldn’t even use Chaos Storm anymore, and finally disconnected only to be unable to reconnect to the login servers.

This update and event chain has been one long recurring source of disappointment, frustration and anger for me. It hasn’t been fun in the slightest.

Did you read the post you quoted before responding to it? I was testing how blindness and elevation affect phantasm conjuring, hence the need for blindness and terrain difference.

Blinding a thief shuts him down for exactly one attack. When it misses, he’s no longer blind and can immediately follow up with another attack, and barely lose a step in the process, or if it’s a multihit skill, like Death Blossom, Unload, or even Dagger Storm, the skill still goes off pretty much as intended, sans the first hit. The initiative lost from a miss doesn’t compare to the recharge time on every failed phantasm conjure.

Blinding a mesmer, on the other hand, can shut him down for the recharge on the failed phantasm anywhere from 12 to 24 seconds, which also results in missing out of a shatter for damage, utility or defense and any support the phantasm might bring in addition to its attacks, which is the real reason most are conjured at all.

For comparison: Let’s imagine that a thief attacks and misses, and say he now loses one-third of his initiative and if it was a multi-hit skill, that is now completely spent with no effect. That would suck, right? Take it a step further, it also disables Shadow Refuge, so no applying stealth or healing to anyone else. With that one miss, this imaginary thief is significantly weakened in the same way that a single instance of avoidance can completely shut down a phantasm conjure.

Even if the phantasm isn’t avoided, it’s not that hard to deal with one by killing it- ending up with the same result as above- or choosing to ignore it and focus on the mesmer instead. If one fails to avoid a thief’s attack, the consequences are often much more dire.

To those people who “don’t get” how bad things are now, do you even play mesmer? If so, do you actually think about what you’re doing or just roll your face across the keyboard?

Being vulnerable to status effects is one thing, but when one temporary status condition can completely shut down your core mechanic -robbing you of not only attacks, but defense and most importantly utilities- for upwards of 15 seconds at once, something is seriously wrong. No other class suffers such a core meltdown from a single status.

I recently tested my mesmer against the thief npc in the mists, and whenever I was blinded, I attempted to conjure a phantasm. Half the time, the blindness wasn’t even removed as it is when a normal attack misses, but the conjure still failed anyway. I tested against other classes as well, and if I was on a different level than my target, again, 50% of the time a phantasm conjure would start recharge but not produce anything.

Even more, I joined a group for a Fractal dungeon, and was essentially dead weight, except for the underwater portions. My phantasms weren’t appearing, most of the time obstructed by something not even there or because the enemy was on a different level or slight incline, which severely limited what I was able to do.

Not that any dev actually reads the mesmer forum anymore, but there’s yet another issue related to this update. It doesn’t happen all the time, closer to 50/50, but when conjuring a phantasm while blinded, the blindness isn’t removed as it should be when attacking normally, despite the phantasm conjure still registering as a miss.

Because my last post regarding this was deleted and resulted in an infraction, I’ve tweaked it and removed the “offensive” parts.

As per the title: What is a mesmer supposed to be?

If recent developments in the game are any indication, the developers don’t even know. Jack of all trades, perhaps? PvP dominator/whipping boy? Pretty dancer in the background that doesn’t actually contribute?

This most recent update (11/15) makes it impossible to be reliable in any role other than a clone generating shatter machine. Phantasms -which are much more than just attacks- are rendered completely useless by the simplest of things.

Mesmers are not a pet class. If this were the case, illusions would not be subject to the standard attack rules in that their conjuring could not be denied through mundane effects such as blocking (Aegis doesn’t get removed anyway) or evading or even blindness. Necromancer minions can’t be denied and immediately set to recharge if the target blocks or the caster is blind. Rangers are free to swap out pets and gain all the benefits regardless of status. Even a downed ranger can swap pets. If a Ranger is blind when swapping pets, are they without a pet until the swap recharges? Absolutely not, because that would be ridiculous.

Mesmers are not a ‘faceroll’ class. No class should be so simple that pressing a single button over and over results in a win, and Mesmers are clearly not this. The significant majority of players who create mesmers do not excel by spamming the same buttons over and over, but by thinking, paying careful attention, and reacting accordingly after much forethought, planning and building.

Mesmers are largely ignored. On these forums, there are two red (dev) posts in the mesmer subforum, and at least one of those was moved from another. Terrible, game-breaking bugs have existed since the first beta, and have yet to even be addressed or acknowledged by those in development. Every other profession has moderate to significant dev attention to their forum, and every other profession has seen actual benefits come from patches. Why has mesmer been reduced in every update?

I’ve been playing mesmer since the first beta events. I know their ins and outs, and have participated in PvE, PvP, and WvW extensively. I love the class and found it exciting and fun to play, but it is rapidly becoming less exciting and fun.

Edit: Well, it took a little more than an hour, but here we are, moved into the mesmer forum where red doesn’t show up.

TL;DR
What is the Mesmer supposed to be, when still broken since beta, and nerfed closer to unplayable in every patch update?

purpleskies.3274:

The post you are referring to was actually moved to the mesmer forum. The original post was in a different section so in a way the dev didn’t really post here.

With that in mind, I checked again, and the only other dev post dates back “2 months ago” and on page 37. Just for comparison, I checked the other profession forums, and while dev attention seems lacking in most, ALL of them have significantly more input from ANet than the mesmer.

I think the biggest problem of all is that the last dev post on the mesmer forum (as of today, 11/16, anyway) is on page 15, referring to the very old news of exploration stars not appearing on clones.

Is there even a dev that plays a mesmer or someone who actually works on behalf of the profession? I find it very hard to believe that anyone familiar with the workings and core mechanics of the class would sign off on this travesty.

I simply don’t understand most of these changes. Moa Morph being changed to work underwater isn’t even an improvement, except in PvP, as nearly every mesmer in PvE will use Time Warp or Mass Invis anyway. And what does “less frustrating” even mean for a skill that’s by design meant to be frustrating?

The line of sight issue raises even more questions: If we’re specialized at mental and physical manipulation, making people see and feel things that aren’t really there, and so on, why do we need to be able to see our target in the first place? Shouldn’t just being aware of the target’s presence (actually having a target) be enough for us to lock on and create an illusion? For that matter, why are illusions unable to walk through walls? They’re not really there, little more than a figment of someone’s imagination.

The Portal recharge is just…odd. I really can’t think of any reason for this one. The only things an additional 30 seconds does is make it less frequent (not that it gets used THAT often), or make it more inconvenient to swap out the skill for something actually useful. Even more odd is that the skill itself wasn’t fixed to fit with the tooltip, or vice versa. It still lasts at most 12 seconds, but says 20 on the tooltip.

Illusion conjuring has been reduced to basic attack status (Dodge, Block, Evade, Blind, Obstructed, or Invulnerability counter them) with a full recharge if the skill fails, and no indicator if the target is obstructed 90% of the time. Area attacks are virtually non-existent for the class as a whole. Berserkers, Wardens, Chaos Storm, Blurred Frenzy and shatters are all we get, and out of those, only Chaos Storm is even remotely reliable, but absurdly weak as an offensive area attack.

I have to question what ANet’s vision of the mesmer profession really is, because at this point it seems they don’t really know. We’re clearly not the best at any particular role, but getting progressively weaker with each “balance fix.” What are mesmers supposed to do?

I just finished this story mission as a ranger.

Per instructions I went for the bridge expecting the artillery to stop, but they didn’t stop until the dredge leader was down. The first attempt I died repeatedly before even getting halfway across, but for the second (after reading this thread), I modified my strategy and went with “Protect Me” and Signet of Stone for my pet. That gave me just barely enough time to fight my way to what’s-his-name-slav, and kill him while downed as my pet healed me, all the while praying the artillery wouldn’t finish me off again.

Edit: Also, during my first attempt, after seeing the artillery bombard the bridge, I thought it might be possible to follow the path down into the ravine and back up, but this just kicked me from the instance with no warning.

I just encountered an issue in PvP where my opponents were instantly rallying off my illusion shatters, and managed to recreate it.

It takes some doing, but it seems if you manage to down an opponent with one or two illusions shattering, but have another still on its way to the shatter position, when the last one breaks it rallies the target instead. The first time I noticed was against another mesmer in prolonged combat. He was downed and immediately rallied after I used Mind Wrack. I know there was nobody else to rally off of because my teammate had left the game, leaving me alone against two opponents.

The second time was actually two in one: I’d downed a thief, and then an elementalist attempting to revive the thief. As soon as the elementalist went down, they both instantly rallied after my last illusion shattered. In this case there were other teammates across the map, but none were close enough to have engaged either to provide a rally. I know the elementalist has the glyph that if used in fire attunement will revive them instantly on being downed, but I don’t believe this was the case.

SFtheWolf.5179

I’m confused by this as well.

Status symbols are desirable. People will price them high.

Honestly I don’t even think that the top level gear in this game is that expensive/rare compared to other MMOs. Remember how absurdly scarce some of those Diablo 2 runes were?

I’m not saying that legendaries and their ‘precursors’ aren’t desirable, nor am I arguing about the price or what determines it. I’m not even discussing the rarity of these items.

The text on the item stating that it’s used as a component in crafting a legendary item serves no function (refer to my earlier post regarding item names and gift descriptions). The label itself isn’t the status symbol, but the weapon it can become is. There are plenty of other named exotics out there that have no such label, and as a result, everyone instantly knows they cannot become anything better and couldn’t care less about them. If there were no such labels to begin with, any named exotic weapon might be regarded as something special until it’s proven not to be, which given the way to discover recipes for everything (except legendary weapons, of course) it would take at least a few weeks, if not months.

If the unique name on an item isn’t enough of a reason to keep it for a little while, and someone sells only to find out later it’s worth more, that’s their own fault, isn’t it? If 5% of players are meant to obtain legendary weapons, what is gained by telling 100% “This weapon makes <legendary weapon>”? Let those 5% figure it out for themselves.

Jrunyon.3012:

And then everyone gets mad and complains that a select few people were able to get their precursor for 10g rather then 400g.. Oh wait, the forums are already filled with that.

And btw, desire =/= greed. The precursor market is all about supply and demand. Why dont you take your tinfoil hat off for a minute and stop blaming theoretical
market manipulators for why the price is so high.

There’s no reason to be sarcastic or hostile. If you read my posts carefully, you might realize I never blamed “theoretical market manipulators” for anything, and that you’ve completely missed my point again. I simply asked a question, and gave my reasoning behind it. If there is a good reason why these items must be labeled as “almost legendary” then I’d really like to hear it.

If any future legendary ‘precursors’ are introduced with the label, they’re going to instantly be coveted by all, and ridiculously priced simply out of greed. Instead, if there is no label, until it’s discovered to be a ‘precursor’ it’s regarded simply as a named exotic, and once people begin to realize that it is in fact more than it appears, the value (and the complaints about it) will increase to reflect that.

The naming of these exotics is already a clue (for most at least) to what it might become, especially if you take into consideration the description involved in the gift recipes.

For example, the gift of metal, sold by Miyani says it’s used in crafting, among other things, Twilight and Sunrise. Now, seeing this, a smart player would recognize the connection between Dusk and Twilight, or Dawn and Sunrise, simply from the name, and go from there. Adding in the label serves no purpose at this point, other than to metaphorically taunt unfortunate players who will otherwise never hold their own legendary weapon: “Look at me, I’m used to craft a legendary weapon that you’ll never own!”

Eventually, the recipes will become widespread knowledge, at which point even having the label becomes moot. If we’re supposed to play this game using thought, reasoning and skill, why are we spoonfed this bit of information?

TheRabbit.9478:

Naegling has the exact same model as Dusk and you can get one (or craft your own) for well under 20g.

That is so not the point I was trying to make. Naegling is a nice weapon, but my point was that if it wasn’t all over the individual weapons that Dusk, Dawn, etc are used to make these even more awesome weapons, people might actually appreciate them for what they are, or not care as much if they don’t get one. The damage is already done for the current ‘precursors’ but can possibly be avoided if new ones aren’t immediately labeled with “Use this to make <even better looking weapon>.”

If and when new legendary items are introduced, would it be too much to ask that their ‘precursors’ not have stamped on them “Used in creating <legendary weapon>”?

I think that’s part of the reason these items are so highly sought after – not for what they are, but what they can become. The first time I ever saw a preview of Dusk, I thought I could see my mesmer using a weapon like that. Then I heard the word precursor and saw “This weapon is used to craft the legendary greatsword Twilight” practically engraved on it, and realized I’d probably never get one.

Really, all we need to know is that Legendary items are made from specific recipes in the mystic forge. At this point, it’s moot, but if there wasn’t an identifier stamped on every ‘precursor’ would these things be so hotly debated and out of control? Wouldn’t people use these weapons because they liked them as they are, instead of what they could be after 1000+ hours of work? Every other crafted or specific mystic-forged item has been found through discovery, trial and error, with no label as to what an item could become.

Something I’ve noticed recently is that the phantasmal disenchanter always appears in melee, or just outside of melee range, and it’s often immediately destroyed, usually before it even renders. I only mention this because when they do manage to survive long enough to attack, the range is closer to 900-1200. Is there a reason they’re appearing so close to the target? To the best of my knowledge, no other ranged phantasms appear on top of the target like this.

I haven’t been keeping completely up to date on this list, but I’ve encountered something that I don’t recall seeing mentioned that needs to be addressed.

Using Blink after turning invisible seems to break the invisibility by rendering the character, but doesn’t remove the icon or add the revealed status. I haven’t done extensive testing, but it seems others can see me too, after using mass invisibility or standing in a shadow refuge and blinking. As long as the stealth icon remains, the character doesn’t become truly invisible again.

Edit: Somewhat related, if a mesmer uses an invisibility skill before or during another source of invisibility, when the mesmer’s skill wears off the characters affected become visible despite having the other skill still in effect, and only another source of invisibility (different stealth buff) can render anyone affected invisible again.

Is it really so hard to ask someone what they’re wearing or bringing to the party? Inspecting others is akin to grabbing someone by the jacket and looking for designer tags. It’s elitist, insulting, and an invasion of privacy, and serves no purpose other than to give the person inspecting fuel to belittle anyone in sub-exotic gear.

Given the stat combinations, and relative availability of the various fine crafting components, someone might still be working on their equipment, and have to settle for “good enough” until they can find or make what they consider ideal. Also, who’s to say that your ideal of what stats for which profession in a role is the same as everyone else’s, or even the best? As a mesmer, I’ve found some odd setups that work wonders where a traditional setup would be rather lackluster.

If I had a really awesome weapon that no one had ever seen before, I’d prefer not to have it broadcast by some random idiot that didn’t even have the courtesy of asking first. Maybe I’d like to keep it to myself what it is, and shouldn’t that be MY choice?

I honestly don’t mind skipping enemies in dungeons, but the arguments in favor of it really irritate me. “It’s usually not necessary” is the forefront, implying that everything beyond will go smoothly, and anyone who gets downed or defeated will be revived to avoid the hassle of running back to rejoin the group. More often than not though, in my experience, the skipped enemies either get pulled into the next fight, or the group ends up getting wiped out because there’s less room to maneuver, or a couple members opt to use a waypoint, meaning they most likely get defeated running back, or put the rest at risk by pulling the skipped enemies into the fight.

I understand the reasoning behind it. For one dungeon run, sure, it’s great, but most groups I see prefer to run multiple paths in a dungeon. For the majority of dungeons, blazing through and successfully skipping every non-vital fight only results in a greater potential of encountering the diminished returns, unless they take a break between paths. Doesn’t that defeat the purpose of skipping enemies to save time?

Crafting Eternity requires two legendary weapons, whereas crafting this Lyssa weapon theoretically only requires exotics. For that reason I suspect you’d need the two gifts required for most legendary weapons, thus making it on par with (if not more expensive than) other legendary weapon recipes.

Are badges really based on ‘tagging’ opponents? If so, then this is just another version of DE tagging in which certain classes (mesmer, for one) are significantly impaired. I used to WvW heavily as a mesmer, up until the big invisible army bug came up, and have quite a few kills but extremely few badges, despite being in the high-activity areas as often as possible. It’s a rare day if I get a loot bag to appear at my feet. Even in those few and far between one-on-one fights, I don’t get anything.

Strangely enough, I’ve looted rare items from a high percentage of the loot bags that do appear, significantly more often than the badges.

According to the wiki, combining the two in the mystic forge can create a legendary weapon named Lyssa. I would assume it’s another pistol, but there’s currently no page for the weapon itself. The mention of the weapon is on the Lyssa page.

samius.7560:

What if I’m a necromancer? I fiddle with dead things and yet I’m the charming hero of old. Come on now.

It didn’t stop Trahearne…nor did his bland, unconvincing reactions to everything, incompetence in battle, or utter lack of shame for taking credit for absolutely everything the player-character did.

I managed it four times, over a total of 30 hours attempting it. The first three times, I received no reward or achievement, and it didn’t get any easier. The fourth and final time, I received my rewards, but the tower itself bugged out on me.

The only guaranteed loot is the Mad King slippers from the Clock Tower jumping puzzle, but be warned, it’s an extremely difficult (and often glitched) challenge. Otherwise it’s just hoping you get lucky with the random number generator from Black Lion chests, Mad King chests, and the various chests for defeating champions.

Edit: Oh yes, and the books. They’re a nice little back item.

I don’t know how or why it happened, but the last time I attempted the clock tower, instead of being teleported with the rest of the group, I was teleported to a spot in the puzzle well above the start point, but in the midst of the green fog. Before I could even move, I was teleported to the entrance again, but it was devoid of players, npcs or even the doorway out. After another moment, I was teleported again near the top, but on solid footing in the puzzle, in the green fog again, but it didn’t have any effect on me whatsoever. I also had my weapon and utility skills available, and was able to move about the puzzle without hassle.

Strangely enough, this was the only time the clock face actually worked for me, instead of teleporting me back to the entrance.

I’ve made it to the top of the clock tower twice. The first time was after FOURTEEN straight hours of attempting it. I jumped through the broken clock face, only to be returned to the start with no achievement, and no opportunity to open a chest. The second time was considerably shorter than the first, though no less disappointing, as I was once again returned to the entrance with no achievement, and no opportunity to gain a reward.

This jumping puzzle is clearly broken. I keep bouncing off invisible objects, falling through solid flooring, randomly slowing down in mid-air and being kicked out of the challenge randomly despite otherwise optimal performances.

After nearly FOURTEEN (14) hours attempting to finish this puzzle, I finally get to the top, and waited for the clock face to break. After it had, and I was sure, I jumped into it, to be greeted with the expected loading screen (that I’d seen in the videos) only to be returned to the beginning with no achievement and no chance to open the chest.

This is completely unfair. I do not like the clock tower puzzle, nor do I want to spend another FOURTEEN hours attempting to do it because it was bugged, but I’ll most likely end up doing just that because I’m obsessive compulsive. It started out confusing, then went straight to frustrating, and now it’s just plain insulting. At no time was it ever “fun.” I wish I could just go on without the achievement, but I can’t, as it’s going to be eating at me until I do. (And before anyone says it for the millionth time, I know it’s not part of the overall mad king emissary achievement. That’s not the point.)