Guild Wars 2

Because I WvW a lot and I learned in FPS games there’s nothing more annoying than being killed by an annoying toon. So I’m Stinky Stink the Asura with pink hair and a top pony tail and pink clothes and I laugh like a hyena when I kill someone.

I came here to whine about WXP and read around to see if anything was posted yet.

I’m long since 80 with all elite and all whatever. The difference between me and another 80 is +-10% and then down to skill and luck. But if someone is packing another 250 Vitality and 100 Power and Condition from WXP skills that’s an awful lot. If someone has legendary gear and I just have elite or even rare, the difference is minor. But WXP, and even worse, Bloodlust are gigantic changes.

I’m down for having more things to get. More hamster wheels to run. But make them cool or small. Like legendary/ascendant. Some of the skills are totally worthless and some are insanely powerful and it really unbalances WvW.

I usually have bloodlust on my server when I play.

That said, I don’t like it. It’s way too much. I cap ruins and you get nothing for capping/holding them and it’s so dull.

The idea that teams should have to expend people to not get xp/loot/fun is sadistic. It’s like having a dozen people stand on some mechanism so others can go inside and enjoy playing a dungeon.

It’s not 10% it’s 4%. It will never be a second unless it’s something like poison and that will be maxed anyway because of my mega fury phantasms. And frankly, I spend a lot of time walking around and standing around in WvW and I’m a casual gamer. It’s not worth it.

As for your build, while I like defense and +1 cloak, I think boon duration is a waste. I don’t have boons and don’t like arcane thievery. If you fought me it would give you nothing, for instance. If I die it’s not because I don’t have defense, it’s because I’m overwhelmed and stunlocked and that will happen regardless of defense.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAra7flwzipXQzoGb9IxpHQP6SnkCV/6SKwduB-w

I’ve been playing my Mesmer for a long time, and while I switch up now and then, I usually come back to pretty much the same thing.

The above is my high crit, high condition build with solid health and healing. It annoys the hell out of enemies and can hold it’s own against pretty much any SINGLE player. I’m not going to lie and say it’s great against an army, it’s lousy at AE.

I absolutely love scepter, so getting the timer reduce on that is very helpful, esp with Torment. You get 3 weapon cooldown reductions which is a lot of bang for the buck.

The build has 2 stuns. Pistol is a 2 second with a 20 second cooldown. Signet of Domination is a 3 second with 45 second cooldown. Any squishy that is hit with 5 seconds of stun while you got pets out is pretty much doomed.

You got 3 stealths. Torch on 24 second. Decoy 45 second. Mass Invis at 90.

Blink helps a lot. It is not only a stun/root/whatever break. But it keeps you away from melees. Especially in the hammer stun age.

Damage is from conditions and phantasms. Phantasms have +20% health, fury, cause bleed on crit, +30% dmg, have retaliation, and provide regen when you stand around them. They are killing machines.

You have 3 single condition removers. Your heal. And both torch skills.

You have enough health to take a hit and enough healing to heal quite a bit of your health, esp with Ether Feast. You can use Mirror for faster condition remover, but I personally like Ether Feast.

I use all Rabid gear. Precision Toughness Condition.

This build, I consider it almost necessary to have full Traveller runes for the +25% movement speed. That alone with the stealth and blink, and stuns and block makes you really hard to catch if you want to run. But without it, you’re simply not going to get away from groups. Be warned.

I use Super Veggie Pizza (cuz 4% isn’t worth that much money) and Master Tuning Crystals (because I want them on the same timer).

I’ve run the build in dungeons and done well. And WvW and done well. More importantly, it’s fun. I think Mesmers should be using pets. I’ve never liked shatter skills so I don’t shatter them unless I’m really in trouble.

I’ve experimented with 2h sword and focus (mostly just for swiftness). Once you get traveller, you will/should never use focus again. 2h sword is great for cripple and AE, but in big fights, your pet is going to die quick because he’s melee. I also really like the 2 condition heals on torch. And you +Mage is 8 stacks of Confusion on a target.

But it goes through reflects which is what I’m saying. If someone puts up a reflect and you pop signet of might and shoot them with rifle, it will hit them.

I would like to use it. I had tried to make my engineer use it and he can get it down to like 84 second recast with 25 second duration. That said, it’s more of a gimmick.

Signet of Rage is, in my opinion, one of the best abilities in the entire game. It’s extremely hard to give that up.

Don’t have to be a kitten.

There are 3 main things that wholesale stop an attack. Block, Reflect, Evade. Each one of those is a “condition” available through abilities, like Block = Aegis and Evade = Flanking Strike and Reflect = Feedback. Unblockable bypasses Block and Reflect. Just because it has the word block in it doesn’t mean it’s limited to that, obviously, since it works on Reflect as well.

It would be a lot more valuable to punch it if it worked on evade. As it is, you’d be hard pressed to ever give up the buff.

Activated does it still hit people evading?

Swords already put on conditions and very flew classes can break an immobilize as fast as you can put it back on. I.e., if people are just removing conditions, there’s a decent chance it won’t get the immob. Stun break won’t do it because it’s not a stun. You could theoretically keep someone immobilized 50% of a fight. That’s assuming you have around max condition duration and all the bursty adrenaline builders.

Most people talk of warriors as being great in big groups and small groups (shouts and banners and hammer) but I think it has potential for duels. It’s just not very survivable and not sure it’s escape ability. I’m thinking almost nill…

People use hammer now partially because the big stun. But, and I don’t know if this has been brought up before, but sword has Flurry. Immobilize. Which is the only Burst that responds to condition duration other than Longbow fire.

It starts at base 3 seconds. Just using the character builder, at 30 pts it goes to 5 1/4 seconds! If you use some +40% condition duration food and items you can get it crazy high.

And unlike the thrown cripples, it’s generally going to hit if you’re in range. So you can use savage leap then Flurry and nail someone in place. Which is kitten useful for a warrior.

Not only that, if you go 30 Arms and get Blademaster (+10% chance to crit with swords) and Furious (critical hits grant triple adrenaline), you’re going to have something like a base ~75% crit chance, huge dmg from that, and constantly getting mass adrenaline.

It’s not in line with the more tanky warriors, but it’s really brutal 1v1 solo I think. I came up with this after I got my clock punched by a thief I couldn’t get near. Jump, Flurry, switch to hundred cuts or just lay into him.

I restarted my 80 warrior because of how good they seemed to be in WvW. I am indeed hard to kill with my healing signet and tons of Tougness and Vitality/heal. That said, I believe I have lost solo to every decent elementalist I’ve fought. I’m not a terrible player and every piece of my gear is orange 80. I don’t know PvP vs. WvW, but in WvW a solo warrior isn’t going to outheal and outburst you easily. Warrior burst dmg or any kind of significant dmg requires the enemy to be in roughly one spot. Every immobilize/cripple we have is dodgable (not even using dodge) and usually short range. If I have to take out a long bow or gun, I’m not longer a warrior, I’m a really terrible dps ranger.

Where warriors have been rolling people is in small groups. Not solo, which is the implied nature of this thread.

As for Endure Pain and “immunity to conditions for 8 seconds” that is 4/5 seconds out of 60 and 8 out of 60. That’s kinda lousy for a profession that doesn’t kill fast. If stances had cooldown reduction I’d be much more interested. But half of them don’t even use the 25% duration extension. My mesmer can be blocking 3 seconds out of every 9 1/2 and if you hit him you get tormented and while he’s blocking he’s doing dmg (and healing) from pets. And he can be stealthed about 1/3 of the time. My warrior is certainly more survivable in something’s face beating on it, but my Mesmer is nearly impossible to kill in open WvW. I had 2 warriors fight me for about 5 minutes, I couldn’t get away because I was in a giant field, but they couldn’t bring me down—well, until 5 mins later. If it was 1 warrior I would have easily gotten away or killed him. Again, this is not me saying I’m awesome, I think the warriors were better players than I.

But that whole hammer stuff is a one trick pony and didn’t do much to me. It was that fight that I realized Warriors aren’t OP. They need the sustain because they aren’t opening up with stealth backstabbing someone.

I use auto balanced stance and shake it off and wish I had more condition removal. Mending is awesome. And Healing Surge can burst heal you for >11K.

Mobile Strikes doesn’t break anything except Immob unless the wiki isn’t updated and the tooltip isn’t. It’s totally not worth it.

Lemongrass isn’t the only item in that category. For 10Vitality less and 4% less cooldown (-36%) you can get poultry and leek soup for about 3.5 silver each.

As stated, the warrior just doesn’t get around that well without a few weapons. Which is why people use hammer and greatsword. But I have dogged march and shrug it off + shrug it off every 30 secs + cooldown on shrug it off and if I get locked up in multi snares, I’m basically hosed.

If all you’re doing is resisting conditions, you’re not doing a whole lot, IMHO. You’re talking about giving up all your runes, your food, your tactics, to make it so you can get in peoples’ faces and not do much damage.

I’m a roaming warrior myself. Though I’m still fine-tuning.

I used Lyssa on my Mesmer with Group invis, but he relied on stealth to survive. I have stacked Toughness/Vitality which also gives Heal and Boon Duration. So I have signet of rage permanent.

Some notes: the +25% speed doesn’t stack with Swiftness and it cuts out in combat just like Swiftness. I think it’s a waste. Even if you don’t have 100% signet of rage, you’ll be pretty close with the signet cooldown. Which gives you 10pts to use elsewhere, 5 if you want to keep fast weapon swap.

Dogged March I consider pretty valuable, as you’re going to get mass snared. Even with 6 Lyssa, being able to remove them all every 48 seconds isn’t all that often.

For runes I use 4 Monk so +Healing +Boon and Heal on being hit (645 every 10 seconds max) and 2 Travellers so +20 all stats and +Boon. We basically have 3 boons up all the time, at least.

I’ve surprisingly started going to use off-hand 2 sets of axes. And have a longbow ready. The axes are for big fights. You’ll be amazed how quickly people clear out when you start spinning and I have the same balanced stance activation so they can’t knock me down before it completes.

Anyway, for me, surviving roaming has been a combination of toughness/vitality/healing and adrenaline healing and mobility from perma swiftness and GW skills. I don’t think I have incredible damage, especially if the target keeps moving, but most enemies will try and run.

One thing that annoys me above all else as a Mesmer is our shoddy lack of Swiftness. I’m 90% a WvW player and hoofing it across the world blows, and having a focus blows as I believe it is our worst item.

I have been using a full set of Lyssa runes since forever, so I can use my group invis on 90 second cooldown, get all buffs, lose all conditions, and basically run away. It has literally saved me 40 TRILLION times. Or so.

But I’m thinking of moving to full set of Traveller runes for the 25% movement buff. Does anyone have more info on it or tried it in WvW? I assume it cuts out like Swiftness in combat. But going cloak heavy and having 25% movement I think will more than make up for losing Lyssa. And I can have 2 sets of useful weapons.

Thanks.
Stinky “I farted” Stink
Beastgate

Portal needed change.

Only thing I worried about was the phantasms missing. I basically feel I can’t use Mage because of it’s long timer. You can’t sit there for LoL seconds with no pets other than clones when you’re a phantasm build. I was really hoping they buffed prestige, but they buffed the dmg. If they took off the dmg and added 1-2 seconds I’d be there. But the whole point is to cloak, not cloak and get out of range, not stand on top of them hoping to get hit some more.

My class is a 1v1 dueler and small skirmish fighter. I think I went about 5:0 on single fights and maybe 10:3 on group fights. I didn’t notice much of a change.

Stinky Stink’s WvW Build:

I’ve been a gamer for a long (long) time and the #1 most important thing in PvP in an open world is speed and avoidance. You’ll never see a Thief without the 25% speed buff in WvW. Unless he’s just trying to die. If you can stay out of the fight until it’s on your terms you’re much more likely to win. Therefore:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQRAra7dlwzip3QzoGbNJhJFDv3nZAdpjWQJF4O3A;TYAqiMFJKyWkrIZRA

Once I got comfortable with it, I don’t think I’ve ever lost a 1v1. Not even vs. thieves who get the jump on me. My duelists do the vast majority of the dmg. My precision is through the roof and phantasms have fury and cause bleeding. I use scepter block and alternately blink and cloak as I run in circles and summon more pets. I use signet of illusions because pets tend to get popped pretty quick with AE’s flying and they are my major source of dmg.

In my swap weapon I have focus for speed and to occasionally knock ppl down. If a target stands still, I can use warden. Mostly vs. doors or in dungeons or in big group fights.

I found I need the +range on pistol because it also includes how far you can summon your duelist. And having him out is important. They have the buff that if I stand near him I get regen. And if I get regen I get protection. This is also good in a dungeon. 2 duelists and you have permanent protection and regen. I can tank some big stuff. I don’t stand still much in WvW but you will pass by your pets and pick up those buffs. Protection is a kitten good one.

Remove a condition on heal has helped me countless times.

The Lyssa runes are a seemingly odd choice. But every time I heal I remove a condition and gain a boon. The big thing, however, is you often find yourself in bad bad situations in WvW. We have one of the fastest recasting elites in the game. When I cast group invis, I gain every single buff (and double up on protection because of my tactics) and I go invis and I remove every condition. Hard to beat that. And we can do it every 90 seconds. It’s really hard to stop me at that point. Because I can recloak after it wears off and blink. It’s my get out of jail free card. If a fight is going bad I’ll do that and watch my target get shot up while I reposition. Or I’ll just run away.

I’m not saying I can take on 3v1 or anything crazy, but I can go anywhere and not be very worried. Only thieves can seem to keep up reliably and if it’s just one I’ll turn around and either kill him or make him run.

Scepter is awesome. Clone creation. Block/Blind. Huge dmg/confusion.

Torch is suxy. The phantasm has too long a cooldown. Prestige is decent.

I have a mesmer that I mostly leveled up with staff, because I LOVE staff. I moved to pistol because I play WvW and I need higher DPS and even in dungeons you’re too slow.

I’ve been playing WvW mostly and when I get into solo fights, which is quite often, I don’t feel there is any class I don’t have a decent chance against. I use blink, +illusion health, +invis, +group invis. I have just about every +illusion dmg ability. So while people are trying to attack me, I’m invising and cloning and my duelists are shooting them to pieces. I can block an attack, such as when a great sword tries to zap me.

An interesting build I found that mostly helps for PvE is that you can have regen around your phantasms. And another tactic where you get protection when you get regen. So if you bring up a phantasm, you can have nearly permanent protection and regen. I’ve tanked pretty elite stuff. A forever 33% dmg reduction is huge.