Guild Wars 2

Mike O Brien.4613:

I strongly believe that we will in fact entertain you. We’re a team of people who love the game that you love, and are working on things we’re confident you’ll love. But I’m not here to convince you of that, and I wouldn’t expect you to take my word for it. You can make that judgment in April, and each subsequent time we ship. I will work to make you happy, and I’ll do it by making you happy with what we ship, not with what we promise to ship.

Mo

Mike, I’ve seen what your actions when you shipped in HoT and I have to say I am disappointed.

- We’re missing 10+ legendary weapons that were advertised to be released with the expansion.
- We have an incomplete precursor crafting experience with bugs still preventing the precursor crafting advertised for HoT.
- We have an incomplete legendary back piece collection for fractals.
- We have an incomplete Raid wing.
- We have an incomplete PvP ranking system that needs to be updated to keep the PvP population healthy.
- We have an incomplete WvW map that is being slated for removal instead of reworked.
- We have an incomplete balance pass in which classes have been gutted to deal with the (now-removed) bunker meta.

Now 6 months have passed and the incomplete projects you use to show your “love” to the game are being removed? For an upcoming expansion/LS update that we’re supposed to believe will be beneficial to the game because you say so?

Mike, I’ve been playing Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 since 2005, I’ve loved the franchise and I’ve recommended it to many people. I’ve been through all the highs and lows that the game has, and I’ve been a loyal customer through all of it. But to hear you (the president of this series) say you’re simply giving up on an advertised feature because it takes too much work is shocking.

Your decision is hasty, and goes against the beliefs that you, your team, and the GW1/2 communities have cherished over the years. Even if it takes years to finish the legendary weapons, you owe it to your community that has financially supported the original idea.

I hope you will take some time and reconsider this decision, because I can no longer support you or your team if you decide to take this route. Remember, actions speak louder than words.

Nevermore still cannot be obtained as of the Dec 1 patch due to a bugged event for the Gift of the Raven Spirit collection (Nevermore IV).

While friend of the pups was fixed, friend of the rabbits depends on an event called “Shoo the rabbits of Shaemoor back into their pen,” which has not popped since the patch, and has not been reported to ever start in over a year.

I am posting here for visibility; none of the devs in game seem to want to discuss this issue, and until this event is patched Nevermore cannot be completed.

This is what I run for fracs and dungeons as a support build, it’s primarily focused on keeping up a large amount of quickness. Paired with a herald, you have 90% uptime on quickness assuming you keep your shatters on recharge.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAsc8ancfClfi9fCGoBUrhFVjy8EqmfiMAGhirOZn2sF-TBSBABFqfQU1fe4BAYmSwrUeswBBgMlYAcGAIFQgzsA-e

AlphatheWhite.9351:

cDKI.8352:

Alacrity is capped at 30 seconds, which is fair considering how hard it is to stack.

Is there a source on this?

Did a fractal with 3 chronos against mai.

Don’t do a fractal with 3 chronos against mai.

Alacrity is capped at 30 seconds, which is fair considering how hard it is to stack.

PvP/Wvw wise- if you allow a mesmer to sit around for 10 seconds (as was shown in the video) and stack alacrity, you kinda deserve to be punished.

PvE wise alacrity keeps mesmers useful in the new content, especially with how little projectile reflection is valued against the new mobs, as well as the fact that mesmers can’t contribute a lot outside of quickness and alacrity atm.

Also, why does the nerf to WHAO warrant a nerf to mesmers? That seems like a pretty large leap in logic there.

I think it’s fine the way it is.

Hi, I hope you are all doing well and enjoying HoT!

I finished the prec collection for Dawn yesterday and wanted to give my impressions on the collection achievements. I know it takes a while for you guys (Anet) to make these, but I think with a little more work for each weapon, there would be more of a personal attachment to each legendary (like a wield-able Tybalt), aside from its looks.

Oh, and THANK YOU for adding the collections to the game, they are so much more interesting than forging rares. :P

Decentralize the crafting and acquisition aspect of precursors from generic NPCs in Lions Arch.
- One thing that I was quite disappointed with is how much time I spend in Lions Arch while working on the precursor. I bought the collection start from the legendary NPC, did some material acquisition through the other legendary NPC, and then sat in front of the crafting station with a generic master weaponsmith.

I think it would be cool to have specific weaponsmith/npcs (not just in other cities) that you have to go out of your way find in order to learn about things, which would give some personality to the crafting aside from “find generic NPC.” Even a few extra lines of dialog to give more lore to the weapon would be really cool. Tybalt is a memorable character in the game to many people in the game because of his attitude, it would be cool for more of that with the legendary crafting.

- I would really like to see the LA NPC give a treasure map to find a lore item directly relating to the legendary. Having an NPC say “oh, I know how to make that!” makes the precursory not feel very legendary.

Make the item requirements for collection steps feel like they have an impact on the world.
- In the case of Dawn, I had to make 250 mithril greatswords, 250 greatsword blades, and 250 hilts. However, it was just “hand in the items and you were done.” I think it would be much more interesting if you have to deliver items to npcs throughout the world. For example, why not make players deliver bundles to npcs in the HoT areas to directly contribute to the war effort?

Spread the crafting requirements throughout the collection, not just at the end.
- I understand that crafting a prec is supposed to be time consuming. However, doing a scavenger hunt and then finding out you need 30 daily time-gated items (in dawn’s case it was Deldrimor ingots) is kinda frustrating. It would be nice to start the collection tracts with some idea of what materials I need to work on first, so then while I’m doing the scavenger hunt I can work on obtaining those items.

I think the transition between the first collection and the second collection needs a bit more work
- The way the collection was set up, I was originally going to create dawn, but instead created a failed experiment and had to go find a master weaponsmith to learn their ways. But from the original crafting recipe I KNEW I was making a failed experiment to start with, which kinda soured my mood. Maybe something along the lines of trying to test the item first before discovering it was a failed experiment would make a better transition?

Thank you for reading!

Roy Cronacher.1576:

Xyonon.3987:

Illusions included? _ plssayyes plssayyes plssayyes!!!

Yes. all player minions, all of them.

As a mesmer main who likes to pve: THANK YOU!!!!! <3

Ran Pyro’s build a few times, strong party support; insane in CoE and AC.

I don’t like the idea of not having reflects or defensive utilities in the build for certain dungeons (Arah, CoF, Fracs) that you usually bring a mesmer for.

I’ve been running a bit more defensive spec with inspiration:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dncfClfitfC2fCUrhFlj6MAGgIrORn0KFtDusMD-TRBXgAA7HK/UXQIU/Qv6PPKBJFQEDjA-e

You have noticeably less alacrity and slightly less quickness in favor of AoE distortion, damage reduction in iDefender, and reflection.

If you can get the initial aggro of a mob and block an attack, metal defense gives you a iDefender, which allows you to have a similar chain as you would a staff.

After the initial rotation I space out my shatters so I can maintain reflection with iWarden attacks, or refresh phantasms when they are about to die.

PS: Well of Precognition carries PuGs in CoE. I even killed the giant abom. with a PuG quite easily distorting his charges.

Ran a bunch of dungeons with PUGS today and I have to say chrono is in a really good place, PvE-wise. Alacrity uptime with the iVenger and Alls Well that Ends Well is almost permanent across the party.

Most of the dungeon parties that I ran with had comments like:
“Holy cow the damage!”
“Why am I on fire? Is it the purple fire bad?”
“Chrono is OP”

I think the phantasm AI is a bit wonky and has targeting issues similar to iWarden from last year. Otherwise I love the specialization, and I think it’s in a great spot.

Hey Karl, since mesmers are master time manipulators do you think they could be playable in the live build before HoT hits? Pretty please? :>

Mesmer will be in a very good place for both dungeons and raids in HoT.

With continuum shift mesmers will be able to use Ice bow as if the 50% nerf has not happened.

With Guardians FMW nerfed, mesmers are the prime candidates for quickness uptime. Paired with a Herald, Chronos will have ~60 seconds of uninterrupted AoE quickness.

Mesmers also get two damage buffs in the form of the 10% on sword AA and chronophantasma. In addition, Well of calamity does similar damage to a warriors hundred blades (although we don’t get all the +damage% modifiers warriors do)

Mesmers are also the prime candidates in dealing with breakbars, since they can use cry of frustration and chronophantasma to stack interrupts without sacrificing damage. In addition, since Slow acts as a DoT to break bars; time warp and well of action (which will be on the mesmers bar anyway) will allow for mesmers to deal with break bars very quickly. Mesmers also have interrupts baked into all their damaging offhands.

Need condi-removal or reflections? Mesmer has both. You can spec into inspiration for perma-reflection, or stick feedback on your bar. Null field has also been quietly buffed for some time, which gives mesmers a very strong condi-removal option.

In addition, mesmers got a nice buff to trash-skipping mechanics in the form of double-veil and double mass invisibility, with already having access to portal.
Finally, Mesmer is the safest melee classes in the game. With access to blur from sword mainhand/distortion, and a block on sword OH/ shield, Mesmer will be extremely “tanky” in melee combat even with dumb anti-evasion mechanics, something other DPS classes like ele or thief will struggle with.

It’s hard to say exactly what a mesmers role will be in raids since we haven’t seen them, but we have a lot of options that we can fit into.

Mesmers that are utilizing a ton of stealth rely on a Grandmaster trait called Prismatic Understanding, which gives +100% stealth duration and random boons every second while in stealth.

In addition, there is a bug with a torch trait that allows mesmers to have more access to stealth than they should (hopefully it will get fixed tomorrow.)

There are two major variants of the “PU Mesmer,” a power-based one and a condi-based one.

To deal with a power-based one, go lb/gs with full zerker stats and rune of the trapper with panther pet. Use traps to cull phantasms and heal, and kite the Mesmer around with LB until they die. Heavy condi also works very well.

Condi varients are very difficult to kill; you’re better off ignoring them as the ranger doesn’t have enough tools to deal with them.

In the case where you need to defend a camp against a Mesmer with stealth, you need to cull the illusions and keep your health up, DO NOT TRY AND BURST THE MESMER. If you can limit the mesmer’s damage to its skills, they will never kill camps in time for the guards to respawn.

Alternatively, to hard-counter either of the variants, run with a buddy. Have one person focus on the illusions and the other on the Mesmer. As long as you stick together and res each other when you are downed, it is literally impossible for the Mesmer to score a kill.

Good luck.

tobascodagama.2961:

Silverkey.2078:

Do they mean the focus now stacks swiftness?

Not quite. I think they mean that it’ll always set your Swiftness to exactly 12s?

I think what they’ve done is made it so that even if mesmers have swiftness before running into the curtain, they always get the additional 12 seconds of swiftness (ergo, if you have 4s of swiftness and run into the curtain you have 16 instead of 4)

OT: Love the damage buff to sword in general- it REALLY needed it.

Still don’t understand why people think PU is “OP” (excluding bugs). The duration nerf won’t stop it from being popular.

I’d like to see Well of Recall reworked to suit a condi-clense roll (something like an AoE Arcane Mimicry where condis are transferred to people inside the well when it expires?)

Tbh I think we should wait until we can play all the classes before making drastic changes. Though the tempest and berserker have a lot of burning, but I don’t see them being meta-defining like D/D ele. The tempest feels really susceptible to burst, and the berserker looks quite weak in non-melee situations.

Very enjoyable specialization.

Wait before nerfing.

People will adapt.

I think that there are a lot of good male sets out there, you just need to be a bit creative with the dyes and weapons.

Human T1 imo is very underated as an “elegant” armor set for the mesmer, and it takes dyes very well.

I prefer the chaos and madness-theme of the mesmer, esp. with males. Below is an example of a Lovecraft-inspired set I attempted.

Best of luck!

Good to see cooler heads balancing the chrono instead of some of the forum-goers :P

I like the changes specifically to Gravity Well and IR.

Gravity well looks like a cool set-up for a team combo, rather than just a well that you hope people stay in long enough to end. The pull ability has been popular in MOBAS (Dota 2, for example); hopefully it will be just as popular in pvp.

IR was kinda cheesy in terms of you using ILeap and then spaming shatters until target was dead, I think it will still be considered as a good trait even after the nerf.

Is there any consideration towards reworking or buffing Well of Recall? The well just seems kinda bla considering mesmers already have AoE alacrity, and 5.5s chill on a 45 second cool-down feels really weak.

Silverkey.2078:

How well did the mantra rotation work? Is it easy to keep high “harmonious mantra” up-time? I guess for long boss fight it may be difficult…

If you use continuously cast MoP, you can keep up 4 stacks consistently (You can use the time when activating the charges to use Glamours, phantasms, etc.)

I almost never used my Auto-Attack unless I needed something to fill the gap when I was activating MoP.

To give you an idea on the damage, in CoF with Ascended Berserkers +25 Might (No scholars, force, banners, or food) I was doing 4.8k crits.

I generally used MoR to clean up dangerous stacks of condis (SE for instance) when I didn’t have resistance on the party.

I’ve been trying out power builds and I would like to hear your guys’ opinions.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-R;4ZUF41C73VV71;9;4TVS;0046048137;45sY0y;9;0kMy_Q7z

There’s been an undocumented change on mantras in which the recharge starts ticking down as soon as the mantra is channeled.

This is kinda big in Mantra of Pain’s case, as it removes the one second CD it had. With the Harmonious Mantra change (where you actively have to cast mantras to retain the % Damage bonus), Spamming Mantra of Pain instead of using your weapon skills nets you more DPS than sword auto.

In addition, after every cast of MoP, you heal your allies for ~2600, which scales up to ~3k over time.

With Temp Enchanter, Mimic, Feedback, and Time Warp, you have 10seconds of AoE resistance and ~12s of reflection/Quickness. (You can spec into reflections for warden if you need more sustained reflection).

Thoughts?

The new specialization seems quite interesting, though I really want to see its trait line. Unless I’m mistaken, it seems like shield doesn’t have a phantasm. With MH sword the way it is, you are sacrificing your damage for group utility (you could maybe supplement your damage with other shatters I guess).

The elite looks really cool though; it seems like a set-up for the rest of your team to AoE-spike things down.

There are some really interesting things that come from the revamp that I’m excited for, most notably:
- Quickness as a boon is a MASSIVE boost to mesmers in group content with the new Illusionary Inspiration trait. Using a sword OH, you can interrupt a mob for 5s quickness that you can summon a phantasm to copy quickness over to everyone. With Signet of Illusions, you can stack 15s quickness every 30 seconds IN ADDITION TO Time Warp. Wow.
- Shatter mesmers gain a 15% damage bonus to their spike with the gm minor trait and the new shatter trait, with up to an additional 50% against inactive foes. Holy cow.
- /P got a massive buff in terms of a condition-orientated style. With the pistol master trait and the mistrust gm trait you can maintain 2 stacks of AoE confusion on clumps of people.
- Signet builds have 4 new trait slots they can play around with thanks to the trait merger. (<3)
- The rest of the inspiration line seems a little bet meh to me.

I am defiantly interested in picking up my Mesmer again, thanks for the changes!

edit: IP is now inherent to the mesmer! WOOOOO!

I’ve been attempting to solo Arah story for about an hour now and I cannot get past the first door.

Every time I stand on the switch the progress bar goes up by about 5% and then goes back down; I’ve tried standing on the switch, emoting, and jumping and nothing seems to work.

Is there something I’m missing or is the instance 2+ people?

I’m not sure whether this is new or not, but untraited iWardens can no longer reflect Old Tom’s projectiles.

I wanted to thank all of the people who whispered me and let me try out their guilds.

I still have not found the match for me, so I want to bump up my post.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Ok, that was a quick run across the room and here’s the answer:

Yep.

With the Maize Balm recipe making ToT bags a year-around item for those who craft it, or with the use of Vial of Maize Balm drops, pups will continue to be available for the foreseeable future. Obviously there’s Halloween 2015 to be designed, but it would be nearly a year before that would roll out, so the short answer is…

Yes.
Si.
Oui.
Ya.

Is there any talk of making the mini non-account bound? (IE: You can sell on tp) It would provide a compromise for the mini collectors who don’t want to depend on their luck to get the mini.

Thanks for replying to the thread!

I have to say that this mini was a pain to get, it took me 86k bags for one to drop.

Keep trying, you’ll get it eventually!

Orangensaft.7139:

AWESOME effect
and it just works like the hylek colors does it?

Yup, they function exactly like the hylek colors (the orange is the exact same, I still don’t have the green yet :/)

The items also give a buff tool-tip (black is Cat’s Shadow, orange is Gourd Vibrations)

Additionally, the colors overwrite the others so you cannot stack them. (Even hylek potions will overwrite them)

Hello, I hope everyone is enjoying the Halloween Update!

One addition that has seemed to have been overlooked with the new update was that three upgrade components were added to the game: Poly-luminescent Undulating Refractors that come in green, orange, and black. They come from salvaging Oontz’s necklace of the ghoul, which you get from ToT bags (VERY RARELY)

If you add these upgrade components (which are celestial btw) to an Accessory (I’ve tested this with Backpieces, amulets, rings, and earrings) and equip the item, your character changes colors! I have obtained two of the upgrades (No one has green) In a picture shown below.

Do you think that Anet should add more of these options for future patches?

No love for portal?

I like your ideas for the signets aside from Midnight; I think it is an under-valued signet just because Decoy and Blink exist. The active for Midnight and it’s recharge are quite strong, but it’s main value is that it is a signet. I would like to see a passive rework for midnight (which is very weak) and an elite signet of some sort in addition to the changes that you mentioned, and with that I think a full sig. build (aside from bringing portal) would be a viable pvp build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaRlknpYtNqxMNcrRiqhY6TpadqmkKQJz8B-TpBFwACOEAOeAAy3fYxJAoaZAAHBAA

This is what I normally roam with with PU power.

Traveler’s runes work fine as there is synergy with both the boon and condi duration for the build.

I hate torch as an offhand for a power-orientated build- you have a “dead” skill which does nothing to supplement your damage. MoH with Mender’s Purity will allow you do deal with most condi specs aside from P/D thieves.

I utilize S/P as a primarily defensive weapon set, and GS as the primary weapon for applying pressure and spiking targets.

I’d wait before buying an expensive rune, the buff to scepter could make a very strong rampager spec.

Good Luck

Hello, I am a GW2 vet looking to diversify myself in either the more difficult dungeons or wvwvw after a hiatus.

Regarding my PvE credentials, I have all classes but necro at lvl 80, and all but necro and engie with meta gear for dungeons (I can purchase gear for the two classes if needed). I am most comfortable on Mesmer, but I can play competently as the other classes as well. I generally run AC, SE, HoTW, CoF, CoE, and TA on a regular basis. My experience with high-level fractals (30+ ) and Arah is limited, but I am willing to learn the paths.

I generally play at reset or a few hours after reset.

I have TS, Vent, Mumble, and Skype, with a working mic.

I have not done a lot of wvwvw outside of small-scale roaming, where I mostly play Mesmer (as PU Power or Shatter). I play on GoM, but I’m wiling to change servers if I find that your guild is a good fit for me.

I am looking for a guild that does dungeons and/or wvwvw on a regular basis. I am not interested in joining a “mega-guild” in which no one knows each other, nor am I looking for a guild in which newer members are left to fend for themselves.

If you feel that I may be a good match, I’d love to talk with you over PM or on the forum.

Thank you for taking the time to read my application.
Kind Regards,
Crow

We are currently in a meta where people build tanky and stack might, which means that this skill could be extremely useful, since mesmers have issues stacking might outside of sigil/runes and can utilize the might in a shatter build. I think its viability will come from two things: whether or not it is a stunbreaker and how long the recharge for the skill is.

In PvP it’s hard to imagine a build without portal or blink because of how strong the skills are, which means that Mimic will be fighting for a place in the third utility slot, against skills like Decoy or Arcane Thievery.

I do think that this skill is much better in design compared to the current version of mimic. Hopefully it will be implemented well.

I will just list my thoughts on the Mesmer

Strengths that mesmers SHOULD have:

1) Offensive support:
Currently mesmers have very strong offensive support with things like boon removal (Null field and Shattered Concentration), and amazing positioning skills such as portal, and veil. I think that mesmers are in a great spot in this regard, and this was evident in the recent ToL. I would like to see mesmers offer more offensive boons like fury or might to their party, but I think that this should be a low priority.

2) Interrupts:

It is so frustrating to see the state of interrupts in GW2 compared to GW1. In GW1 interrupting a key skill could stop a coordinated spike from happening, or shut down a key player so that the rest of your team could follow through and win a team fight. In GW2? You stop a skill and a player continues with the rest of their skill rotation like nothing’s happened. Five seconds later they can click their skill. (Or in a thief’s case, they keep spamming their skill)

If your team wants to clear the stigma of a “spammy meta”, then you are going to need to make skills that punish people from clicking their skills on cool-down. The Mesmer is the best class to do this.

-Interrupting a skill needs to have a negative effect. Setting a skill on cooldown for 5 seconds is not punishing for interrupt builds to be viable in PvP. You could implement mechanics such as removing a small amount of endurance by interrupting a skill, or by putting a long cooldown on an interrupted skill (start with 10 seconds and tweak accordingly). All classes have access to at least 14 skills, it is OK if skills are put on a cooldown.

-You need to revisit power block. There were threads and threads where people discussed power block and the potential build diversity of a Mesmer, and they all seemed to be ignored. In its initial state Power Block was not overpowered (notwithstanding the PvE),and you should at least introduce it back into the game for a month or so.

-Mesmers need more AoE CC that is SKILL-BASED. I would love to see cry of frustration or Panic (as an elite skill) come over to GW2, as both would be perfect for this game.

3) In-combat mobility:
-Bugs aside, I think that mesmers have strong in-combat mobility that makes them a fragile, but hard-to-hit class through skills like leap, phase retreat, and blink.

Weaknesses:
1) Damage
- Mesmers have always had shaky damage due to the illusion mechanic. Shatters provide high burst and phantasms provide high sustained DPS, but they rely on frail illusions surviving throughout the fight.* I would like to see more damage on weapon skills (The mind stab chain has the lowest DPS in the game melee-wise), with the phantasm traits re-designed to increase party wide DPS instead of personal DPS*. For example, a trait that increases the power of nearby allies by 50 for each active phantasm. I don’t mind that mesmers have low damage, but it needs to be compensated in other places.

2) Conditions
- Mesmers are weak to conditions. With necros getting trimmed in the last patch, I think that this is an acceptable weakness.

3) Out of combat mobility
- Mesmers have terrible out-of-combat mobility, with swiftness coming only from TC or chaos armor. I would like to see a +25% movement speed on signet of midnight, in which mesmers trade in-combat mobility for out-of-combat mobility.

Kryptonite:
-Thieves. Thieves hard-counter this class way too much. Thieves have more in-combat mobility than mesmers (negating their defensive mechanic), they have skills that hard-counters a Mesmer’s primary mechanic (they can cloak and dagger off illusions and with the current initiative and skill design spam this skill until the Mesmer is dead, OR spam flaking strike and evades so that phantasms and shatters cannot land), and interrupts are USELESS against thieves (most of their skills have no cooldowns or ¼ cast time). A team with a mesmer has to build around others defending the Mesmer (watch the ToL games with a mesmer vs. a thief), because the Mesmer cannot defend themselves against a thief, and this is unacceptable. Mesmers need to have a defensive mechanic against thieves for them to be viable outside their current shatter role in PvP.

It’s useless PvE and it is mediocre in PvP/WvW, where its only use is punishing bad players for being bad.

It is not a strong enough skill by design; it should be changed completely to be something that isn’t so situational (at-best).

This build is what I have suggested to friends who have trouble playing as a mesmer;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJArMl0npItloxMtR4NmTmSJoMniKZA3C-e

There’s no need to be cute with specific armor or runes, you just run around spamming phantasms and using the block skills. Your dodge should be reserved for panic situations, and not clone generation.

You can face-tank Liadri in phase 1 using berserker armor just by spamming mantra of pain and recovery on cooldown. MoP is also great at killing orbs.

In phase 2, just kite and keep blocks/phantasms on cooldown.

Good Luck.

First off, you’ve made the right choice in using S/S. This weapon set is probably the best out of all the classes in teaching people how to melee.

The most important thing that you should start learning is how to pay attention to the skill animations in this game. This class is very fragile in melee range if you do not use your evasion skills (Sword Skill #2, and #4) properly. Get into the habbit of using these skills ONLY when you see mobs attacking you. Both will evade/block attacks while doing damage in the process. If you get into this practice now, you will find Dungeons/WvW/PvP much easier as you will be able to mitigate damage without sacrificing your own damage. Staff is a good backup weapon when fighting against special champions or elite (they have a silver/gold outline around their character portrait). Use skill 2 on staff as a dodge under those circumstances. The phantasm skills are your best source of damage at low levels, so keep them off cooldown.

Generally you want to use clones for shatters at low levels. F1 and F4 are your bread and butter. Otherwise clones can hold mob AI if you need to back off, and that’s pretty much it (they’re bad). Keep in mind that if you shatter you will kill your phantasms, so it’s often better to use F1 to kill mobs off since your illusions will die off when the target dies.

Mesmers are probably the worst class to level, due to the low damage they output and the high dependency on traits to supplement their damage. When you start to get trait points unlocked, invest in Blade Training (Dueling Adapt trait), and then branch into traits that give you or your illusions more damage.

As far as healing skills go, Ether Sig or Ether Fest are the go-to healing skills. Ether sig allows you to have more phantasms out (you will need to use staff or another weapon more to take advantage of this) at the cost of healing, Ether fest is one of the best healing skills in the game.

Utility skills are pretty weak in general PvE, although Blink, Decoy, Nullfield, and Feedback are all good options. I’d suggest you look into your class-specific skills. For example, Prayer to Lyssa is actually not half bad with the recent patch.

When you have access to your elite skills, look into the racial elites. The Mesmer elites are poor in solo PvE content.

As far as wvwvw goes, you will not be able to touch roaming classes or anything that has an interest in killing you until you get into lvl 70+. It’s unfortunately a side effect of the Mesmer traits.

There are plenty of guides on the forums in which you can look at if you want a more in-depth look at the Mesmer.

Good luck.

Whelp, time to abuse the trait thoroughly in pvp until it gets nerfed to the ground fixed.

Pyroathiest.4168:

Power block confirmed, works on res/stomp.

Does that mean if you interrupt a stomp/res they can’t use it for 10 seconds?

Egon Vidar.9125:

Im Mudbone.1437:

Jabberwock.9014:

How do you get a headache from looking at a big head? lol, just wait a day if it bothers you that much. Kind of ruins the spirit of the holiday if people can just opt out of a prank.

but anyways, you could try setting your computer’s date forward to april 2nd. Or back to March whatever. It seems to be client side.

I THINK some people have a type of Coulrophobia(for the lack of a name for it).

Coulrophobia is a fear of clowns and mimes, and other individuals whose identity and intentions are obscured by things like makeup. What does that have to do with bobbleheads?

Everything.

Re-posting my suggestion from the other mesmer thread.

I would like to see more methods of clone generation that doesn’t depend on dodge.

Something like a new master domination trait:

Whenever you interrupt a foe, summon an illusion at your location.

It would allow mesmers a way out from having to spend 20 points in dueling in order to be shatter-viable without breaking the current shatter specs or making them useless.

I would like to see more methods of clone generation that doesn’t depend on dodge.

Something like a new master domination trait:

Whenever you interrupt a foe, summon an illusion at your location.

It would allow mesmers a way out from having to spend 20 points in dueling in order to be shatter-viable without breaking the current shatter specs or making them useless.

Nike.2631:

Your phantasms radiate regeneration, so perma-regen is not that difficult to achieve for your party. If you are a mantra healer at all you are already 20 points into the line. With your other GM choices being~

Perma regen is not good enough in any game mode to consider wasting a party slot on. Neither is a build that is only useful for its healing.

Nike.2631:

I’d suggest a Mesmer with restorative mantras is already better than said water-boy . This trait doesn’t make them dramatically better than that, but its not an appalling choice either.

Both engineers and elementalists can be “water-boys”, and provide things like might-stacking, damage, and support via elemental weapons or cc. I’m confused as to how you think mesmers offer the same options.

Nike.2631:

Its not for “building for defensive interrupts” – its that you already have interrupts in your load-out in the form of Mantra of Distraction, and this lets you turn something you’d be doing anyway into a healing power buff that you have controlled, deliberate tools fast enough to capitalize on.

It is exactly that. You are sacrificing damage and utility to be able to heal after interrupting. I can spec into domination or chaos and use my interrupts offensively to ensure a kill, or defensively to get off a heal. You cannot do that with inspiration.

I wanted to post a thread specifically discussing this trait and where the Mesmer dueling traitline is in the current meta (in all forums).

For those who don’t know, Anet is planning on implementing a new grandmaster trait, Triumphant Distortion, which reads: “Gain 3s of distortion on killing an enemy.”

[PvE]
This trait is not something that would be valuable in PvE.

- Mesmers already have a good amount of damage mitigation via blurred frenzy, counter blade, and distortion. Mesmers also have a plethora of reflects available to avoid projectiles.

- Adding this trait only benefits players who cannot properly utilize their skills while dealing damage.

- This trait does not contribute to the team.

[WvW]
This trait is situational in wvwvw.

- Roamers can use this trait to capture camps.
o Power builds can use PU to clear camps already; shatter builds and condi builds don’t need this trait to solo camps.

- Mesmers can wade into large zergs and face tank everything!
o Mesmers lack any strong AoE damage to utilize this trait, as in large zergs your main forms of damage (illusions/phantasms) are killed instantly.
o Mesmers depend on people dying, which is extremely situational. PU is a much safer option.

[PvP]
This trait is not something that would be valuable in PvP

- This trait does not make me more survivable group situations. This trait is only useful when people die (IE: disengaging people after the stomp), and yet mesmers already have a variety of disengages (Blink, decoy, phase retreat). Why spend 30 points here when I have to worry about condi-removal, dealing damage, being useful to my group?

- This trait is selfish and provides no benefit to my party.

- This trait does not contribute to my overall damage in team-fights. Mesmers already have AoE problems as their main forms of AoE (shatter and phantasms) can be dodged/killed off. With the upcoming crit. damage nerf hurting both power shatter and phantasm builds, I am more concerned about providing enough damage to even be considered useful.
o The vigor nerf on mesmers means that I have to be more dependant on energy/purity sigils in the current meta to survive long enough to go in to stomp (so I won’t be able to utilize fire+lightning which seems to be suggested in the live-stream).
o The crit damage nerf is less significant on classes that can stack +% damage bonus traits instead of “self-preservation” traits when wielding certain weapons. Since mesmers only have two of these traits (one which is mantra-dependant, which is nowhere near viable for competitive pvp), this means that I am less effective than other damage-dealing classes after the crit. nerf.

- This trait does not provide support to my party.

- Fighting on point with this trait is actually detrimental to my party. Since distortion was changed to prevent capping/decapping while active, I am actually hurting my team by taking this trait. This is exacerbated by the fact that as long as people stay in combat they remain “tagged,” So if my team kills someone I’ve tagged somewhere else on the map, I’ve just become useless in contending a node/ bunkering.

I don’t believe this trait should make it to the live version; it’s not strong enough to be viable aside from incredibly niche situations.

Let’s look at the two current traits.

1. Empowered Mantras
Empowered mantras are horrible in the current meta and design of mantras. Equiping all four mantras cripples your damage and burst potential due to the nature of the skills. ONLY ONE MANTRA ACTUALLY DOES DAMAGE. Since EM only boosts your own damage, and mind wrack/ cry of frustration, the only reason to take this skill to boost your shatter damage. The problem with this is that both domination and dueling offer much better investments points-wise (Ilusionary persona increases your shatter damage by 33%, Mental torment increases shatter damage by 20%)

2. Furious Interruption
Furious interruption is also a terrible trait. A lot of the damage that comes from mesmers are from low cast/instant cast skills (IE: phantasms/shatters). Mesmer skills in general have some of the lowest cast times in the game, so this trait benefits very few builds. The only reason to invest in this trait is to make mantra-casting faster, which doesn’t help when mantras are in their current state.

MESMERS NEED A VIABLE GRANDMASTER TRAIT IN THE DUELING LINE.

With the upcoming nerf to crit damage, mesmers need traits that supplement their damage or make the delivery of their damage easier to achieve in order to remain active in the meta.

Please discuss the current trait, how it may be useful in today’s meta, or how it might be changed to keep damage-dealing mesmers viable.

THIS THREAD IS TO DISCUSS TRIUMPHANT DISTORTION, NOT TO WHINE ABOUT PU.

Nike.2631:

Pyroathiest.4168:

Note that mesmers are extremely powerful healers with 0 investment into healing power, and healing power scales poorly with the extremely powerful healing. This makes the trait useless.

I would say it makes the trait over-costed… something that every profession is (rightly) complaining about with at least one and often several of the traits introduced in this patch. I’m with you it’s throwing around big numbers like they mean something when they don’t, but the trigger and effect are both fine. Its the cost/magnitude that are out of whack.

The trigger and effect are not good.

Mesmers have 3 choices in healing with this trait; their healing skill, passive regen, and restorative mantras.

As Pyro said, restorative mantras does not scale with healing, leaving regen and the self-heal.

Neither of which is worth sinking 30 points into a trait line to boost.

You cannot tell me with a straight face a mesmer specced with this trait is better than grabbing another class that can pop a water field.

If mesmers want to build for defensive interrupts, they go into chaos, where they have access to prot and regen. They don’t need to kitten themselves in inspiration

This trait is absolutely useless.

I’m glad that Anet is introducing more active traits that into the game instead of passive garbage like PU.

This is definitely a step in the right direction for bringing mesmers back into the meta. I don’t think this will make mesmers viable without a few small tweaks:

- This trait needs to put skills 2-5 for thieves on cooldown. Unless mesmers are given a way to fight against meta thieves, they will never be used.
- Mesmer needs a GW1 “Cry of frustration” skill to give it some AoE cc. (IE: rework mantra of distraction or dom. sig. to function like “Interupt/daze a target. If the target was interrupted, daze/stun nearby foes”)

I think with those tweaks something like a 30/20/0/0/20 S/S, Staff build will be the next thing.

In any case I hope that Anet brings back the GW1 mesmer; I missed people flaming me for locking them down with interrupts.

I think the real problem is that your husband lacks creativity. I am one of the few who has a male Mesmer, and I have never been told that my character is “girly”. Why, you may ask?

Chainsaws.

Look at my character, with the armor and weapons he’s wielding. Seems girly, right?

http://imgur.com/4AslkG5

Now look at my character; the difference is like night and day.

http://imgur.com/oleM1yX

Chainsaws will always make characters look manlier, and that’s a fact.

You want to know something else? As a Mesmer I can summon three more characters with chainsaws, so my character uses eight chainsaws. Can you think of something manlier that a guy with 8 chainsaws? No?

THAT’S BECAUSE THERE ISN’T ANYTHING.

No amount of glitter, butterflies, or pink can hold up to the manliness of 8 chainsaws.

When I wvwvw, there are a lot of players who will either run away me or jump off cliffs to their imminent demise because their mind cannot comprehend the manly manliness that is 8 chainsaws.

So you should tell your husband to ditch that character and make a manly Mesmer. With Chainsaws.

Tl;dr- Buy chainsaws.

I think so many people are unhappy with confusion because the condition and the skills/traits associated with it either does too little, or too much. In the case of PvE there are many complaints that confusion does low damage due to the attack speeds of mobs and bosses, even when stacking large amounts of confusion. However, in the case of PvP and WvWvW where players attack much faster, the damage offered by confusion is much higher, to the point where people with 10+ stacks can die within seconds if they’re not paying attention.

A personal complaint about confusion is how it collapses the available skills and traits it allows people to spec in. As a GW1 vet who played a Mesmer, I love how skills synergized so effectively. For instance, I could use psychic distraction to knock down a player, case Wastrel’s Worry, and as they’re getting up and trying to cast a skill I hit them with Power Spike to take a large chunk of their health. In GW2 you can’t synergize confusion or damage with interrupts, the complete opposite of what mesmers offered in GW1: punishment. If you daze/stun someone the confusion stacks are rendered useless and you’ve accomplished very little pressure and damage on an opponent. If you want to use confusion, you have to heavily invest into glamours/reflect/CoF shatter. Conversely, if I’m going straight-up damage (shatter/phantasm), confusion actually hurts my damage output because the methods that mesmers apply confusion clash with the ways they inflict damage rely on the same resources (clones/phantasms).

I think if confusion were to be changed to function differently we might be able to find a middle ground in which WvWvW, PvP, and PvE players are happy with confusion, while maintaining synergy with the rest of the mesmer’s abilities. I think confusion should be changed to something like this:

Confusion: Deals X damage per second. Deals 80% less damage when target is activating skills. Stacks in duration.

So let me give an example of what my change would do. Let’s say for argument’s sake that confusion on a certain build hits for 2k damage per second, and I apply this on a warrior. For each second that he is not casting a skill he would be taking 2k damage. However, if the warrior were to auto-attack or cast hundred blades, as long as he is attacking/channeling he would be taking 400 damage a second.

I think this would help solve the middle ground between both aspects of Guild Wars (PvE and PvP), and I’ll discuss each separately.

PvE: I think this my proposed changes would help make Mesmer condition builds viable. Why? Well, if the issue with the current state of confusion is that mobs do not trigger confusion fast enough, then if you change confusion to damage when mobs aren’t attacking you could make confusion a viable damage-dealing condition, which was the intention of the condition in the first place. If the condition was duration-based instead of intensity-based, then you do not have to worry about teams that could exploit stealth and stack confusion quickly.

PvP/WvWvW: I think that the change to confusion would fit perfectly. We’ve seen this type of hex in the form of Wastrel’s Worry/Demise in GW1, and I think it was a very powerful damage skill when mesmers utilized interrupts. If confusion is applied to a player, they would be pressured to use a skill or take hefty damage. Since every class has access to autoattacks, the only time in which confusion would do full damage that a player would be responsible for would be when a player is hit by daze, stun, kd, or blowout (dodge is currently set so it functions as casting as a skill).