Guild Wars 2

Esplen.3940:

This is because the best case scenario for IH on sustained dps is:

• Untraited Axe
• Axe Ambush
• 3 clones (lol?)
• +300% condition duration on Ambush ability

Why do people keep saying Axe is best case for Mirage Ambush? its Ambush the weakest Condi Ambush out of Axe, Scepter or Staff. Axe does 5 stacks for you and 1 stack for clones (total 9), Staff get 2 confusion and 2 Torment for you and each of your clones at full duration too (16 stacks 100% duration) and Scepter gets 5 random stacks of Confusion and Torment, with half duration on Clones (5 full stacks, 15 half duration stacks)

Staff is the CLEAR winner on Ambush. However, With Sharper Images and 100% Crit, Scepter can also get 15 stacks of Bleeds (Total 35 Stacks of Conditions with 15 of those half duration. Staff would reach 19 stacks, full duration on all and Axe would reach 12 (as strong as a Condi Shatter)

In a Raid setting you will be getting over 100 stacks of conditions with both Staff and Scepter. Axe cannot come close to the Condition damage of those two.

After testing most of the Elite Specs with most of my time spent on Mirage i can say, i hate it. It has no synergy with any of our other trait lines except Duelist slightly. If they wanted to make it a clone build there are several things they should have done.

1. Phantasm Attacks should have been modified to be one shot attacks that summon clones.

2. Improve Clone health

3. The Ambush Attacks should have become our F skills.
F1: Your Clones change targets to attack your Target and perform an Ambush attack. (To mimic the standard Shatter, should be low CD, like 5 seconds)
F2: You and your Clones Shadow step around your Target and perform an Ambush Attack, this causes the target to drop targeting on you. (To mimic the Confusion on F2, Same CD as normal F2)

Doing this, our Shatter Traits could have affected our Ambush Attacks, much like the Scourge and how there F skills get affected by the Shroud Skills . we don’t have to worry about using dodges for damage either, allowing us to use them defensively. then they just need to make a new GM as i baked Infinite Horizon into the new F skills. Additionally, The Mirage Mirrors will just be extra defenses, not something you HAVE to get for your damage.

Obtena.7952:

Someone is always at the bottom. That’s rather glib, but it’s basically saying that complaining about being the bottom DPS is not compelling reason to change it.

I don’t think it’s actually a problem to be the bottom DPS, but I do think it’s a problem to be the bottom and have relatively more difficulty accessing your damage. There should be some trade off there. I mean, Ele scores high damage … but the rotations are not for the unfocused.

I do think the solution here is to shift some fraction of the damage from illusions back to the direct damage from weapon skills. Damage doesn’t change, but accessibility does.

There should be balance though, I don’t mind being the bottom DPS as long as it was closer. There shouldn’t be huge variances like there currently is.

For instance, if there was a 10% gap in DPS for selfish builds (top build does 36k, bottom does 33k) and support builds were around 30% lower (24k, which is about where PS war sits)

This way you could bring any profession to DPS, after that they just have to create some more supports to balance them further.

Carighan.6758:

Lightsbane.9012:

i think a way to solve this might be to give mesmer some more active damage instead of phantasms.

I hate it when such miniscule changes get brought up. Our class has issues at the following levels:

• Basic class idea.
• Basic class design-goal.
• Class mechanic (the F-bar and the illusions).

I mean until we solved those there’s no real need to tweak numbers by moving damage off of Phantasms, we need much bigger fixes.

Make Phantasm skills one shots that spawn a clone, rebalance the skills from there.

Moves the damage from a passive to an active skill and allows us to shatter without worrying about losing all of our damage.

The quickest way is Tomes.

If I have no tomes I’ll just craft my way up, I have enough characters that I get plenty of 20/30 scrolls and just use the cheapest way to craft to 400 for each of them. Takes a couple hours to get to 80 like that.

Fay.2357:

Ananeos.4587:

Sadrien.3470:

Ananeos.4587:

LS1, LS2, Dry Top, Silverwastes, HoT, every single one of these was hell on earth for a mesmer. When will we ever get a damage buff to cope with LS3? Especially since people keep asking for harder and more challenging content?

Ever played condi mesmer? Pistol 5 oneshots 5 mordrem…. just make sure the menders and together, use it, and watch everything vaguely close die instantly…

Got video proof of that?

Menders when using mistrust. Getting hit by the confusion interrupts them, causing more aoe confusion ad infinitum. They’re technically correct, but embarrassingly irrelevant.

This is a very small location this can happen, and only because of a bug with interrupts on those enemies. I have done this with the daze mantra one shotting vets who get close to a pack of menders. Again, it only works against menders, which you don’t see many of except in silverwastes. Kinda pointless to claim Mesmer has good dps due to a bug against one enemy type.

Edit: I remembered one other type of enemy this works on. The charge attack things that constantly hit with the charge, again, in silverwastes, interrupting the charge with mistrust will do this as well, I used the the “interrupt the interrupt” trait to protect myself against that attack to play lazy style.

• New players who buy HoT also get the core game for free.
• There are no loyalty rewards or discounted upgrades for existing players who already paid for the core game and just need the expansion.
• We pay the same $50, but in return get the expansion only.
  offer the upgrade only to people who already have the game. At least, I don’t see a way to buy just the expansion.

Yes, you are missing one thing.
Veteran accounts get an extra character slot for pre-purchasing.
Besides, The EXPANSION ITSELF is $50. So even if you only wanted the Expansion it would cost $50.

They just chuck in the core game for free seeing as it is practically free right now.

Mesmer condi damage will be mostly fixed and brought up to par when they fix IE.
that should increase Mesmer Condi damage about 30%

with 3 clones (staff) and IE, you should be able to keep 100% burn uptime and about 15-20 stacks of bleeds. But because of bugged IE you get about 60-70% burn uptime and 10-11 stacks of bleeds.

I am only mentioning these 2 Condi’s because this is where most Condi DPS comes from. To put the Uptime % and Stack Number into perspective, As an Ele i can maintain 22-25 stacks of bleeds and 100% uptime on burn.

(Not a good example of a Condi Class i know, but the only reason Ele fails at that is poor cover conditions)

Crossplay.2067:

Actually, I can get perma-swiftness on my guardian with Retreat, Symbol of Swiftness and about 35% boon duration. It helps that I can also use shouts to turn conditions into boons.

I can get Perma Swiftness on my Engi with 10 trait points. Speedy Kits. i also have a trait that gives me 25% movements speed increase. So i can get Either depending on my build.

As an Ele, I get a 25% movement speed signet. However, i can also get Perma Swiftness with 1 trait, Inscription (Air VIII)

And these are just 2 really fast examples i can think of. In regards to Perma Swiftness and 25% movement increase. The classes that get 25% increase are able to Swiftness even EASIER than others.

Dondagora.9645:

It’s their class mechanic.

And People also Claim Stealth is their Class Mechanic.
And Initiative
And Steal
And ShadowSteps
And And No CDs on Weapon Skills.

Pick 1 like everyone else…

I don’t mind Trait Unlocks that are like “Kill XX boss” when they are hidden away, it makes finding some traits fun.

As long as you can unlock those traits BEFORE 36.

A couple examples of good places for trait unlocks.

Queensdale, Beggars Burrow Mini Dungeon (Bad Neighboorhood)
Plains Of Ashford, Human’s Lament Mini Dungeon
Metrica Province, Old Oola Lab Mini Dungeon

These are great spots for Trait unlocks.
1. They are mini dungeons thus can still be solo’d
2. They are low level meaning you can EASILY go back if you feel like getting the trait
3. They are are hidden enough that it brings back Trait Hunting.

IMO, All traits should be tied to Mini Dungeons, Jumping Puzzles, and World Bosses. As long as everything can be unlocked before 36, which is when we really start designing our future build.

Oakwind.6187:

If there is no option to outplay bursters – like Thieves and Elementalists – with Chill, then you’ll be back tomorrow complaining that there are condibunkers everywhere. Every time I see a Thief or an Elementalist dodge the freezing nades, I know I need to get away and fast, because there’s little recourse left, and less still if I duke it out.

Short of CC (which is counterable by the popular Elementalist builds), there’s little option for Chill-users than to mess up with the rotations.

Funny thing is, you could just as easily Cripple a thief, considering they don’t feel anything from the cooldown increase. This is two ends of a spectrum.

A thief pretty much ignores Half of this condition.
An Ele Gets it worse than any other profession.
Eles feel Chill more than Mesmer’s, who also get really hurt because of clone generation. but that is fine, as they are abilities and not “weapon swaps”

BrunoBRS.5178:

Velektrian.5491:

Solori.6025:

Velektrian.5491:

Either way, It is either the Warrior who is too OP V Chill (but with dogged march, Cleansing Ire, Melandru and Lemongrass LOL) or an Elementalist who gets royally screwed and completely HARD COUNTERED by one condition. There should be no Hard counters in this game. Hard counters take the fun away, soft counters are fine.

But an ele doesnt get hard countered by this..

An Ele has too many ways to deal with conditions, OR be totally immune to them.

Also I love how you list things like lemon grass and melandru like they are warrior exclusive.

Outside of cleansing Ire, and ele can be just as difficult to hold down with conditions as a warrior if they want to build for it.

like
cleansing wave (x3 if traited)
cleansing water
diamond skin
evasive arcana
magnetic shield
cleansing fire
burning fire
ether renewal

and hell now that water trident gives regen, if you go 30 in water that removes conditions too.

You are ever only hard countered when you get out played, or you dont build to counter in the first place.

P.S.
Thanks to the might meta, you could go the classic 10-30-30 and still do great damage because of fury and the stupid amounts of might an ele can get, while also being tanky.

Right…

Lets say someone Smacks you full of conditions so you switch to water, Cast a cantrip or two, dodge roll and heal/remove those conditions. You would then like to deal some damage, switch to air.

The Opponent then smacks you with chill out the Wazoo and now you can’t switch back to water for about 16 seconds because of chill to remove any other condition he is likely to apply. All somone has to do to beat an ele is cover Chill with other Conditions.

As an Ele V Chill scenario this is common against any serious Condi build (Especially Necro and Engi). If most of an Ele’s condi cleanse comes from water attunement, then against any proper Condi Bunker, you will have a hard time keeping up with chill if you switch out of water to attack. And don’t say attck in Water because LOL.

Chill Is a Hard counter to an Ele. Well… Any Ele who doesn’t build to remove 10 Conditions every ten seconds, but lets face it, with removing that many conditions you ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING IN THE FIGHT. Which is the same thing as, You Lose.

ps. LOL at Trident. Ele underwater hits about as hard as a rabbit in this game.

so what you want is the ability to ignore chill as a condition after cleansing from swapping into water, while not speccing into condi cleanse.

would you like anything more? maybe AoE knockdown on attunement swap? make diamond skin a default ele feature?

you described a scenario where someone was smarter than you. they baited your cleanse, then applied the chill. deal with it.

@PS – he meant water trident, scepter #3 skill. you can now apply regen with it, which means you have good cleansing even on freaking scepter, if you choose to.

if condis are too much for you to deal with, then spec into some condi defense instead of asking for a free pass. a “hard counter” implies there’s nothing you can do about it. that’s incorrect. there’s nothing you want to do about it. plenty of options to deal with chill have been offered.

All Any Ele wants is for Chill not to affect Attunement swapping. Like every other classes weapon swaps. That is it.

Solori.6025:

Velektrian.5491:

Either way, It is either the Warrior who is too OP V Chill (but with dogged march, Cleansing Ire, Melandru and Lemongrass LOL) or an Elementalist who gets royally screwed and completely HARD COUNTERED by one condition. There should be no Hard counters in this game. Hard counters take the fun away, soft counters are fine.

But an ele doesnt get hard countered by this..

An Ele has too many ways to deal with conditions, OR be totally immune to them.

Also I love how you list things like lemon grass and melandru like they are warrior exclusive.

Outside of cleansing Ire, and ele can be just as difficult to hold down with conditions as a warrior if they want to build for it.

like
cleansing wave (x3 if traited)
cleansing water
diamond skin
evasive arcana
magnetic shield
cleansing fire
burning fire
ether renewal

and hell now that water trident gives regen, if you go 30 in water that removes conditions too.

You are ever only hard countered when you get out played, or you dont build to counter in the first place.

P.S.
Thanks to the might meta, you could go the classic 10-30-30 and still do great damage because of fury and the stupid amounts of might an ele can get, while also being tanky.

Right…

Lets say someone Smacks you full of conditions so you switch to water, Cast a cantrip or two, dodge roll and heal/remove those conditions. You would then like to deal some damage, switch to air.

The Opponent then smacks you with chill out the Wazoo and now you can’t switch back to water for about 16 seconds because of chill to remove any other condition he is likely to apply. All somone has to do to beat an ele is cover Chill with other Conditions.

As an Ele V Chill scenario this is common against any serious Condi build (Especially Necro and Engi). If most of an Ele’s condi cleanse comes from water attunement, then against any proper Condi Bunker, you will have a hard time keeping up with chill if you switch out of water to attack. And don’t say attck in Water because LOL.

Chill Is a Hard counter to an Ele. Well… Any Ele who doesn’t build to remove 10 Conditions every ten seconds, but lets face it, with removing that many conditions you ARE NOT DOING ANYTHING IN THE FIGHT. Which is the same thing as, You Lose.

ps. LOL at Trident. Ele underwater hits about as hard as a rabbit in this game.

BrunoBRS.5178:

Velektrian.5491:

BrunoBRS.5178:

1- attunement swaps are not weapon swaps. there are tons of traits that trigger secondary effects on them, from damage to cleansing to buffing.

Warrior Versatile Rage (gain 5 strikes of adrenaline)
Warrior Fast Hands (cooldown reduced by 5 seconds)
Warrior Versatile Power (gain might for 10 seconds)
Ranger Tail Wind (gain swiftness)
Ranger Furious Grip (gain fury)
Thief Quick Pockets (gain 3 initiative)

Just because someone has “weapon swap” traits, don’t try to discount others as not having them. No to mention, the 3 classes mentioned above also have 2 extra sigils for on swap, Warrior being the biggest culprit.

you also get 3 swaps, where everyone gets one. and your effects are less “gain fury” (which eles also have!), and more “drop a lightning strike for a bunch of damage, plus fury and swiftness” and “cleanse conditions, heal, apply regen and (again) fury” (to name two that you can find on popular builds). hell, you can trait to get freaking stability on attunement swap, which is a much bigger deal than 5 strikes of adrenaline ever will be. and sigil variety is a compromise you make for having twice as many weapon skills available to you. it’s easy to complain you don’t get 4 sigils like everyone else until you realize that not everyone can bring control, damage, AoE, and support all in one set *cough*D/D*cough*. it’s a price you pay.

as for the whole “thief is immune to chill”, as a thief main, i do think chill should have an effect on ini regen. maybe not slow it has hard as it slows skill recharges, but for the sake of parity, everyone’s weapon cooldowns should be affected. it’s not like thief is lacking in chill removal either. but that discussion is for another thread.

A warrior with the Fast Hands trait can proc 2 sigils every 5 seconds, 4 different ones on rotation every ten. He could in effect get 4 Might, 50% endurance, 3 attacks 100% crit and damage and chill a foe, every 10 seconds.

An Elementalist is Still limited to 2 sigils, on 10 seconds, And 2-3 effects. Roughly the same as a warrior, with a much larger trait investment (considering they have to do 20 in each line they want a bonus in with at least 20 in arcana for the boons)

Either way, It is either the Warrior who is too OP V Chill (but with dogged march, Cleansing Ire, Melandru and Lemongrass LOL) or an Elementalist who gets royally screwed and completely HARD COUNTERED by one condition. There should be no Hard counters in this game. Hard counters take the fun away, soft counters are fine.

BrunoBRS.5178:

1- attunement swaps are not weapon swaps. there are tons of traits that trigger secondary effects on them, from damage to cleansing to buffing.

Warrior Versatile Rage (gain 5 strikes of adrenaline)
Warrior Fast Hands (cooldown reduced by 5 seconds)
Warrior Versatile Power (gain might for 10 seconds)
Ranger Tail Wind (gain swiftness)
Ranger Furious Grip (gain fury)
Thief Quick Pockets (gain 3 initiative)

Just because someone has “weapon swap” traits, don’t try to discount others as not having them. No to mention, the 3 classes mentioned above also have 2 extra sigils for on swap, Warrior being the biggest culprit.

My idea for scaling Healing Power to abilities would be as simple as 0.1/second.

Healing signet: Passive (base+(0.1*HP) per second
Healing Signet: Heal (base+(2.0*HP) 20 Second Cooldown (same HPS, add another effect to make people want to use the heal.

If everything scaled with healing power, at least 0.1 per second it would be worth slotting HP. All you have to do is look at HP/CD (Base not traited, you should not have to trait something to bring it to par) and adjust it from there.

Swim.6830:

Let me get this straight, a class that has:
– multiple invulnerabilities and stealth
- deception skills that affect the player (as opposed to the character itself)
- easy access to stealing/removing boons and applying conditions and interrupts
- easy access to playstyles such as “sit back and watch the AI”

And it needs to be told what role you have? It’s the same role as Warrior mostly, i.e. frontal fighter.

What kind of trinity role would you want?

I would love to see this, A Mesmer Frontal Fighter. you go ahead and equip your sword and you blurred frenzy the Zerg, but after 3 seconds, you WILL die. FAST!

Mesmer’s want one thing, to be able to go into a Zerg without the need to be a “utility bot”

Thadrin.7586:

I just.. Wat? Tell me have you ever TESTED a condi guard? or at least a hybrid? The damage you can get, and the amount of burning you can put on targets is insane.. Especially in a group.

Compared to a Staff Condi Mesmer who can easily maintain perma burn + 15 stacks of bleeds, how is that condi guardian working out. Staff mesmer is also one of the toughest things to kill.

if you do not have enough to kill one knight in overflow, 1 person dealing with menders will not affect that failure, if you do have 50 people on blue, 1 person on menders will greatly increase the odds of blue not healing

if you hate it that much, you go on mender duty. thats what i do now, because of people that CAN"T kill something without crying about “how did blue regen???”. Keeps everyone happy.

Kill the mender’s, it takes 1 person to burst them all down in less than 5 seconds. just keep someone on mender duty.

Darosir.3619:

I heard that as a ranger if your pet gets hit my a scorch mark or any attacks on the hologram fight you dont get the achievements, even if it is set on passive…is that true?

This is true, same for any class that has pets, at least those classes can not summon them. Yet Anet decided to make it nigh impossible for rangers, and no, as a ranger you will never, ever never get a perma-stow option for likes this.