Guild Wars 2

It may cause more complaining, but since when is that a problem? There’s a lot of stuff that I could not obtain in Guild Wars; that’s the whole point behind the “Prestige over Power” model. If everyone could obtain everything it invalidates the entire justification for prestige gear.

There is no way to show off that you completed it at the moment; all I’d like to see is some kind of unique, purely cosmetic indicator that you can show off. I’m proud that I spent the time to do it and in a game that’s about cosmetics and bragging rights, I darn well want to show off things that I’m proud of!

I apologize if this has been mentioned before, but I felt it was worth discussing— if there’s a thread I missed in my search, please ignore this.

I, like many, spent quite a bit of time on the Clock Tower under the impression that it was required to achieve the “Emissary of the Mad King” title. I’m totally cool with it not being required for that title, but I am somewhat dismayed that there are no prestige rewards at all for this very difficult content, but instead the only value is a pair of very mediocre exotic shoes.

Why is it that there’s a title for Pumpkin Carving, which is just a grind, but not for the hardest part of the event? I love the event and I loved the tower (despite some glitchiness), but it’s very strange that something that people are very proud to complete yields no bragging rights. GW and GW2 are games of prestige-over-power.

To that end, would it be possible for a title or skin to be rewarded to those that complete the tower? My friends are skipping it entirely because it’s simply not worth doing, for power or prestige. I understand if it’s not possible, but the current reward scheme for a test of that difficulty is pretty miserable.

Enemies who currently possess the “Defiant” buff will display the “Interrupt!” float-text if they are hit with an appropriate CC ability while activating an ability, but will not be interrupted.

If “Defiant” enemies are intended to be completely uninterruptable, this is a display bug that misleads players into trying to interrupt them when timing is in fact utterly meaningless.

If “Defiant” enemies are intended to be interruptable but not CC-able, then the bug is that the ability casts are not interrupted.

Untraited, Mantra of Distraction is the only Mantra I find to be playable. Interrupting mobs in PvE is much better than I expected it to be, and obviously I don’t have to espouse the virtues of interrupts in PvP.

Pain doesn’t do enough damage to take a spot on my bar. Resolve is worse than Disenchanter, Null Field, or even Arcane Thievery. Concentration is useless in PvE and underpowered in PvP. Healing does less than Ether Feast.

Best Skills

1. Time Warp. I know it’s an elite, but it’s surprising this hasn’t been mentioned yet. Time Warp is a massive source of damage and utility. It massively increases your presence in all game modes and counts as an ethereal field. Not just a great Mesmer skill; one of the greatest skills in the game.
2. Blurred Frenzy. Singlehandedly making the melee Mesmer possible. Significant damage output combined with complete immunity to incoming effects makes this one of the most powerful skills in our arsenal. The downside of immobility is neatly addressed by the sword’s 3 skill.
3. Illusionary Duelist. With a short cooldown, higher long-run DPS than the Warden, 8 attacks to apply Sharper Image bleeds, mobility, and a combo-finisher projectile, the Duelist is, in most situations, our strongest illusion. Combining hit-and-run sword play and dropping duelists makes for a very fun, dynamic style.
Honorable Mentions: Null Field, Magic Bullet, Signet of Domination.

Worst Skills

1. Mimic. I tried, desperately, to make this skill work. It just plain sucks. It is picky about what it absorbs, locks you down for a long time, and doesn’t help against melee at all. With better anti-ranged options in our toolkit (Feedback, Blink), this is a skill that serves no purpose. Add in the fact that it is impossible to determine if it’s even working correctly, and we have a bad skill. Suggested remake: “Blocks the next ability targeted on you. For 10 seconds, that ability replaces Mimic on your skill bar.”
2. Diversion. For the love of all that is holy, please, ArenaNet, bite the bullet and fix our timing-based shatter. Diversion currently does one thing well: stripping Defiant stacks off Champions. Since Defiant is the worst boss CC immunity buff I’ve seen, that’s not a ringing endorsement. Diversion is useless in PvP and standard PvE: it’s easy to dodge, doesn’t stack, and takes too much time and effort to generate the illusions to feed to it. If you use it with one illusion, it’s mathematically the worst Daze in the game. With three it has the potential to be the best, but the slow approach and non-stacking Daze makes it nearly impossible to hit that point. This needs to be improved.
3. Mirror. Just underpowered. Either increase the healing amount or make it reflect the next damage source, not just projectiles.

Bonus: Decent skills that could be tweaked:

1. Arcane Thievery. AT is a superb effect strapped to a miserable cooldown. Even with Master of Manipulations, 36 seconds means that this is going to get used infrequently. Either reduce the cooldown or give it a small AoE.
2. Mind Stab. The AoE is small, the damage is low, and it only strips a single boon. It’s useful, but not as useful as it should be given the difficulty of placing it. Either increase the AoE, increase the damage, or have it switch the boon to a condition.
3. Mantra of Resolve. Doesn’t break anything but true stun, and you can’t immediately reuse the Stability buff. 1s isn’t enough stability to merit taking this. 2s probably is. Quick fix: Increase the effects that Mantra of Resolve frees you from and remove the cooldown between activations of the instant-cast piece.