Guild Wars 2

Mounts aren’t going to happen. Do I sometimes wish I could just hop my Norn on top of some beast (a Dolyak? I guess?) and just hoof it around the gorgeous locations of the Shiverpeaks and so on? Sure I do.

But then, I could just do that on my own two feet. Not fast enough? Use waypoints to cover the spans you don’t want to slow walk. So yeah, there’s no need at all for mounts.

Maybe if they just made a “skin” that made it look like my Norn was riding on a (Dolyak?) but in terms of real gameplay I’m still just walking…I’d have the feeling of being on a (very slow) mount I guess…seems like a waste.

Yeah, this game isn’t the one for mounts in the real world.

However, I would love to see mini-games or some kind of instanced event system that involves mounts (like Moa racing, for example, cough cough chocobo).

Rahne.7521:

And here, FINALLY, we hear a legit concern about the new schedule change, though I am willing to let it play out a bit before getting antsy about it.

As per usual, the majority of the comments have been silly complaints about “you’re overloading us with content!” Further evidence that some people will gripe about anything.

My thoughts are thus: let’s see how it goes. If it doesn’t work as promised, then say “hey, you might want to slow down so you can polish these things more!” Until then, my socks are knocked off that they’re even ATTEMPTING something this ambitious.

Thanks for describing my post as “legit”. I just hope it’s not too legit, too legit to quit (hey heeeyyy).

slap

You’re right, of course. I think it’s only fair to wait and see how ArenaNet does their 2 week scheduling for a while, and see how they feel about it, how we feel about it, etc. I didn’t mean to come across as antsy or anything, sorry if I did. I think that the only honest thing anyone can say about ArenaNet’s 2-week announcement is that the effort and commitment is astonishing—especially when you consider this already fantastic game that nobody has had to pay a dime for beyond the box purchase.

I just wonder if that effort and commitment won’t have diminishing returns with such rapid deployment of content which may, unfortunately, devolve to being different dressings on the same attractions. I am confident that ArenaNet have great teams with good leaders though that have to make those decisions, and I’m hopeful that they’ll evaluate in due course and decide where and how and when to reallocate resources if need be.

But yes, we should definitely give them the chance to try this for a time. I mean, it’s not like any of us players will feel like our subscription fee is wasted during that time….

First I want to say to the devs and everyone, like so many others have, just how impressed we are with the living story content you guys have brought out on a monthly (and soon to be 2-weekly) schedule. Any other MMO with a subscription model would be in fantastic shape having new content releases like that; and the fact that ArenaNet isn’t making us pay monthly (unless we want to via GemStore, and I for one certainly do) is just huge.

However, I have to say that I hope this isn’t all ArenaNet is wanting to get out of this game.

GW2 is a fantastic theme park game that just has huge amounts of activities for us to do.

1. We’ve got the “basic” (I say “basic” but it’s in truth head and shoulders above other MMOs) PvE of dynamic events, karma hearts, etc.
2. We’ve got the personal story missions which are really great especially from levels 1-30.
3. We’ve got world exploration including waypoints, vistas, POI’s, etc, as well as more hidden exploration areas.
4. We’ve got two forms of solid PvP: sPvP and WvW.
5. We’ve got two forms of group PvE: Dungeons (with Explorables) and Fractals.
6. We’ve got jumping puzzles.
7. A crafting system that is easy and accessible, if not really worthwhile aside from XP.

With each of these new living story events, you bring in new things to plug into one or more of these existing channels, like a Living Story story mission, or a living story dungeon, or a living story or holiday jumping puzzle, and a good amount of mini-games associated with these events. I can understand why you would plug new content into the existing systems above, it certainly makes sense.

But if you’re going to be cranking new things out every 2 weeks…or even every month…I just wonder about the amount of resources and effort going into feeding new content down the same pipes.

What about a little less content in the same channels, and some expansion into new types of channels?

Let me give two examples of what I’m getting at.

In the Dragon Bash event, there was a sort of mini-event in Lion’s Arch where we could bet on a moa race. It made me wish that instead of just betting on an RNG (and losing 2 gold, I have horrible luck, lol), that there was actually a mini-game of moa racing a la FFVII Chocobo Racing. And that made me want to actually have a system of breeding and raising Moas to continually compete in moa racing against other GW2 players. Related to the game or story of the Elder Dragons? Probably not, but it would still be fun (you should see how many hours of my life I lost to chocobo racing in FFVII) and you put moa-racing stuff in the gem store and here is my credit card.

And the new Sky Pirates event has only gotten one reaction from me, which is “Wait, there are Sky Pirates in this game? With their own airships? And I can’t have one???”

New content for the same things is of course a lot of work and A-Net is doing a great job, but I’m worried that we might feel one day that we’re just doing the same types of activities with a different backdrop or color theme, instead of doing new types of activities.

Thanks for updating the build, Archangel. Have been interested in trying this and glad to see you’ve revised after 6/25 patch.

Pyro, like the idea behind the build and your explanation. Any changes since 6/25? (Sorry if you’ve already edited your OP to reflect any changes and I’ve missed it, or if 6/25 doesn’t affect this build).

Disregard, the two builds I was looking at were just updated yesterday, sorry for the trouble.

Thanks all for the helpful advice!

@keenlam, @Pyroatheist, I have actually already browsed through each of your builds and am impressed with your crafting of them. I was actually considering Pyroatheist’s just the other day but am not sure I can pull it off as well as you can, hehe. I’ll definitely give them both a try though.

Pyroatheist.9031:

It seems to be that balancing and changes with regards to the mesmer class are being made while completely out of touch with the reality of this game. This patch only exemplifies that more.

Good Changes

1. The Phantasmal Berserker was fixed. This is a good change. Unfortunately, it comes 6 months too late to deserve any applause or thanks.
2. Bounce logic was fixed. This is a good change. Unfortunately, similar to the phantasmal berserker, this is a bug fix, and deserves only minor applause and thanks.
3. Interrupt traits were significantly boosted. Unfortunately, due to the nature of interrupts, most of these traits still aren’t strong enough to base a build around.
4. Phantasm hp was significantly increased in PvE and slightly increased in PvP. A good change, but more on this later.
5. Signet of illusions was fixed so that it applies immediately. A good change but again, more on this later.
6. Shattered conditions is now aoe

That’s about it. Now for the bad changes.

1. Blurred frenzy is now an evade. It also has a its base cooldown increased by 20%
2. Signet of illusions passive effect reduced to 50% down from 200%
3. Vengeful images now only applies retaliation for 5 seconds after the summon of a phantasm
4. Illusionist’s celerity moved from 5 point minor to 25 point minor

These are abbreviated versions. There are obviously more changes that I didn’t touch upon, but these are the only changes that (in my opinion) actually make a difference.

Here is the main issue. The positive changes to our traits and skills are relatively minor or are complete bug fixes. On the other hand, the nerfs are massive. Anet is obviously spending developer and programmer time figuring out effective ways to nerf mesmers, while completely ignoring the parts of our class that are still completely broken. I will now list the largest offenders.

1. The iMage could be replaced with a placeholder saying “This skill does nothing” and nobody would care
2. The scepter (even after this addition of torment) is completely useless. There are 0 situations outside of a glamour build in wvw that the scepter is better than the sword, greatsword, or staff unless one ignores all functions of the scepter other than the block itself.
3. Phantasmal haste still does not apply to 2 of our phantasms: Swordsman and mariner
4. Illusionary elasticity still does not apply to staff clones
5. Wastrel’s punishment is still useless
6. Mantras are still extremely underwhelming with underwhelming and poorly designed traits
7. Due to the nature of interrupts, the interrupt traits are still of very limited use

These are a lot of massive problems. However, instead of fixing these problems, Anet decides to hand out significant nerfs. The nerf to signet of illusions, in my opinion, is reasonable, but that’s pretty much it. Blurred frenzy is nerfed twice, once in evade and once in cooldown. Vengeful images is, for all intents and purposes, no longer a trait. Lastly, Illusionist’s Celerity is moved from 5 point minor to 25 point minor, nerfing every single build that is not shatter.

And as if all that weren’t enough, these changes are made in the name of build diversity. Anet is telling us “These changes are actually good for your class. We are doing this to help you.”

Build diversity eh? These changes make a tank build very difficult to play effectively now. They vastly remove potential diversity from both PvE and PvP phantasm builds. They significantly nerf the already very weak condition builds that mesmers have. Across the board, all non-shatter builds that mesmers have are negatively impacted, most in very significant ways.

The small buffs that they gave us are insignificant. Shattered conditions is nice, but with the other changes, it’s now much more difficult to use it effectively. The interrupt traits are nice, but when you couple that with the other changes they just become another shatter variant. Bounce logic was fixed, but builds that rely on that (conditions) are even weaker now.

On top of all this, the phantasm builds that were stupidly overpowered in a 1v1 are still stupidly overpowered in a 1v1. A small cooldown nerf won’t change that. People are still going to get facerolled by any competent phantasm build player and they’ll just cry for more nerfs.

Summary
These changes accomplished nothing positive for the mesmer class. The fact that they were made in the name of build diversity is insulting to every intelligent mesmer player. These changes, far from providing build diversity and flexibility, have significantly lowered the diversity of the mesmer class and restricted the flexibility our builds have. This is far and away the most devastating and most ill-conceived patch since this game was first released.

Nice, thorough, rational assessment. +1

Many thanks for the feedback and builds!

Yeah I absolutely love the staff as well, find Greatsword to be effective but kind of not so interesting. I’ve been thinking about working out some kind of boon/condition tank build but I’m sure there are better theorycrafters than me who have or are already doing this.

Agreed on focus’ efficacy though I’ve found in some fights I would have done well to carry a pistol as well.

I’m sort of fresh to 80 on my Mesmer and bouncing around from build to build. I’m with a group that runs dungeons and fractals but everyone has at least 2 alts so the makeup changes from night to night (mine is a warrior). I’m coming up short on ideas here perusing threads since recent patch changes seems to have made most of them obsolete or at least a bit underwhelming.

Here is my goal:

I am thinking I’d like to use Sword/* for one set mainly for character concept reason. For my other weapon, I’m torn. I really LOVE staff but I know GS is popular for many boss fights that require single target ranged DPS, so I’d probably carry a GS in my bag in any case.

The group has plenty of glass cannons so I don’t think that’s where I want to go.

So my question to anyone willing to point me in the right direction is what are the more appealing options for someone using Sword/* and Staff, with GS as a backup weapon for ranged fights? (I’m happy to play damage roles, condition roles, boon/support, or tank/immortal).

Thanks!

Which of these builds are no longer really applicable due to recent patches? I hesitate to pull a build that is from a 5 month old thread…

Thanks OP for posting this, I’m looking for same thing. Have so far been running 0/25/0/25/20 with STaff and Sword/Focus in a condi/support setup, but find that I’m really wanting some more long range single target DPS for certain boss fights in dungeons, fractals, etc. Think I’ll try out one of the suggested builds for GS/Staff (and of course keep Sword/Focus in my bag for certain fights and of course the temporal curtain).

Very informative discussion, thanks all. I’m newly 80 on my Mesmer and love staff/sword/focus, and would love to try this build for my dungeon/fractals group…but not sure what the “current” traits/skills/gear would need to be since discussion seems to be presently evolving…can anyone point me to a quick build setup with recommended stats/runes/sigils just so I can get a start and then tweak later? Thanks!

I agree, DreamOfACure, that this clock should also come with a “Track” check box as well, which could be added to the other elements of the H tracking (includes monthlies, diving achievements, exploration, jumping puzzles…what have you). That way those who want things up are able to, but those who would rather not be bothered can go ahead and keep it off their screen.

My situation was that the evening of February 28th (in the US) was actually already March 1st based on however ANet counts as their home time zone (I assume GMT). So even though I planned to get on and do the last 10 or so events to finish out my monthly on February 28th, I logged on last night and realized that the game considered it to already be March.

I don’t have a problem with how they base their time zones and such, but even something as simple as installing a “Here’s how much time you have left” or “This Daily/Monthly ends on <date> at <your local time>” seems like they would be in the realm of technological feasibility.

My suggestion thread: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/suggestions/Time-Countdown-for-Dailies-Monthlies/first#post1546502

I just want to start out by saying the new Daily/Monthly system is fantastic. A+ job on the whole system, and thanks for all the work you guys do.

February’s Monthly included some new different elements which were interesting—particularly the “Use a Salvage Kit 500 times” (I see what you did there, help to fix the bottomed-out trading post prices on items by incentivizing players to salvage more and sell less, thus reducing supply, thus raising market prices, very clever! ) one.

Well, here’s the issue. I play on a server that says it is a “US East Coast” server. I live in US Central time.

Now, I have realized that the Daily resets at around 7:00 PM US Eastern Time, which I assume is something to do with GMT. That’s all fine and good. My typical play times are in the evenings starting at around 9:00 PM US Eastern, so I typically do the “new” daily that night and enjoy it just fine.

What I failed to do (and I am admitting that this is completely on me) was realize that the “month” of February would actually end at 7:00 PM US Eastern Time on what was still February 28th for me. I was only 10 or so Events from completing the monthly (had done dungeons, daily completions, and salvaged 500 times), and was planning to get them done that evening on Feb 28th, only to realize that the monthly had already reset into March.

I’m not going to lie, I was not happy about this at the time, but again, in hindsight I should have anticipated this given that the Daily changes around that time each day.

What would help though is if you had some kind of ticking countdown clock on the Hero screen, or even just a time stamp that is converted to our “home” time zone that would have said (in my case) “Monthly Ends: February 28th at 6:00 PM US Central Time”.

Just a thought.

Thanks for all the great work!

Question for OP: If using GS as primary weapon, would axe/mace be a viable secondary (as opposed to axe/shield), all other things the same?

Quick question on sigils:

If using Axe/Shield (only dual-wield config of the build), do you put Sigil of Perception on both Axe and Shield? Or what would you stick on shield instead?

(This is assuming that having 2 x Sigil of Perception equipped in Axe/Shield wouldn’t build stacks of Precision twice as fast).

Thank you so much for the guide and description, Deathspike. I recently got my warrior to 80 (was using Dontain’s GS; Axe/Horn “Rising Might” build for leveling: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iJFVqFWm4Q ), and after dying a ton in Fractals with my team last night, I am going to try your rifle/banner setup here (with Knight’s gear since I am new to dungeons) and see how it works. Thanks again!