Guild Wars 2

Legit Prodigy.8459:

And does greatsword and staff goes well in pve ?

Not for high dmg dungeon builds, but in general, yes

Worth every scroll.

Can be used offensively or defensively in all game modes. It’s a must have if you’re roaming in wvw.

It keeps people on their toes, especially high-mobility classes that can’t afford to sit still, but don’t have condi removal.

Definitely not grandmaster worthy though, methinks

Would much rather be running illusionary persona or imbued diversion for team fights

Trolling: …of course I guess that depends on what your idea of fun is. PvE is definitely not it for me.

Not trolling (ish): Blink + portal + veil + mass invis + runes of the traveler + pretty much any build you want. Why portal you ask? Because portal is fun, and people will haphazardly tele into them, leaving them at your mercy.

If you must have a build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhEQJAWRlknpMtNqxYNcrNiqxg6uabNSGQBlMjtB-TVCEwARVesVJITlYGeEAsU/pjuAAXAgHHBgY7PQKgRFGB-w

SuburbanLion.8095:

The reason you don’t see glamour anymore has more to do with the nerfs to the traits.

From the wiki:

• Blinding Befuddlement: This trait can trigger only once every 5 seconds on any target that is blinded by the Mesmer.
• Dazzling Glamours: If Confusing Enchantments, which also makes glamours confuse foes, is active, only one stack of confusion will apply.

The blind on glamour is still a pretty powerful trait on its own, but you don’t get as nearly many stacks of confusion as you used to.

This was more what I was looking for, in zerg situations.

I forgot to include in initial post, but I’m more referring to how it’s not quite as viable due to the melee trains that have condi removal (guardians/cleanse warriors/etc.), especially if that’s where the initial bomb is going to be.

Most builds you can easily swap in greatsword for one of the weapons, especially shatter/phantasm/PU. I generally use staff OR greatsword in my builds, but there’s no reason you can’t just drop your sword/pistol and pick up a greatsword. Keep in mind that builds are guidelines, not something that you absolutely 100% HAVE to do. Just do something like: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhEQJAWRlknpMtNqxYNcrNiqxg6uabNSGQBlMjtB-TVCEwARVesVJITlYGeEAsU/pjuAAXAgHHBgY7PQKgRFGB-w

Not a fan of weapon traits, but you can always put X instead of VII

I’ve found that in a 1v1, there’s not generally much you can do. Running PU helps take some of the pressure off and give you a chance to recover, but it doesn’t give the damage you need. The best thing is to a learn to play thief yourself. It makes it easier to understand their rotation and predict their moves, and to counter accordingly.

Shatter is generally your best bet. Crowd control and conditions are a bit difficult to shake on thief, since they rely so heavily on staying mobile. Any way you can pull, knock down, cripple, immobilize, etc. will help a lot. Your 3 on sword, 4 on focus, 5 on greatsword, 2 on scepter (for the block/torment), anything that plays off their mobility.

Some traits such as crippling dissipation help as well. That way if you can’t shatter before they cloak and dagger off one of your clones, it’ll generally die and provide a short cripple. Combine this with multiple clones/phantasms—it gets a little tricky and forces them to use stealth and gap closers that they normally wouldn’t have to. You want them to burn through skills for mobility and get your burst damage off before they have a chance to recover.

But there’s no real “hard counter” for thief. Mastering your class to where you’re comfortable in any situation is important in cases like this.

One last thing to keep in mind if you’re playing PU or using a lot of stealth—always try and delay your stealth until 1. you absolutely need it or 2. 1-2 seconds AFTER they stealth. It’s better to let them get in the openers and be more reactive than aggressive starting off, since you’ll be fighting an uphill battle. Only after you’ve drawn it out long enough that they’ve used up some cooldowns do you want to start playing aggressively.

I’m curious as to what everyone’s experience on the current WvW “meta” is. A debate came up with a group that I used to WvW with when we were picking builds apart. Their argument was that the groups that they normally play against almost never run condi removal, so glamour/condi builds are still a viable option. I can only think of a few groups on the opposing server that this would actually work against though.

Glamour/blinding: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhEQNAsdWlknpMtlqxVNUrNCqxg6u26NSGRAlsjvB-TFCEwA22fol6PbVCyU5nhHpQH9NAOSAPOBBkCgJlRA-w

In my experience, it’s easier to stay alive by dishing out as much damage as possible (before you go down) and rallying off a single target than to play defensively on mesmer. I despise playing defensively on a mesmer. Personal preference aside, it seems like the current zerker shatter builds are a lot more viable. Blinding on mesmers relies too much on other builds that your guild is running. I can see it working if your guardians and necros and thieves were ALL pitching in and dropping what essentially a “blinding bomb” on the enemy zerg. (And I can guarantee that necros/guardians/etc. in his guild aren’t providing this synergy, because I’ve seen their builds.)

So something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhEQNAsdWlknpMtNqxYNUrNiqxg6uabNSGQBlsktB-TFCEwA23fYrSQmK/M8IFYp+TH9NAOSAPOBBkCYUlRA-w

…is more of what I run. It’s meant for a combination of zerg utility (veil/portal/null field), backline/gank (blink/mirror images/decoy) and occasional portal bombing, which generally means put on all your stealth skills + blink and hope the enemy isn’t dropping heavy damage before you get a chance to drop your port. It doesn’t really rely on your guild’s “meta”. It just kind of does it’s own thing and adapts to the meta with utility.

TL;DR: Are glamour/blinding builds still viable, even without the guild “synergy”? Even if the rest of the guild ran builds to complement your own, would just mes/guard/necros running blinding traits and skills be enough to get around the heavy condition removal that most groups tend to run?

Again? It was working better before. >.>; Why does this keep breaking?

Also, the fact that it’s so quick to search FOR you (as opposed to hitting enter or search), is really annoying.

Also seems to be searching for “exact” phrases instead of with the “contains” function. Might consider searching related terms as well. Really not that difficult to implement, depending on the engine you’re using.

Serophous.9085:

Good news! Anet thought about this and already there is a discussion!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/CDI-Guilds-Guild-Halls/first

Yes, and I even talked about it! :o

First and foremost, I appreciate ArenaNet’s involvement and communication with the community. I don’t agree with any bashing on them, as they do a lot for the players compared to other MMOs. I see a lot of positive feedback and an attempt to collaborate with us, which is a big deal. It’s awesome. You don’t find a lot of good public relation like this in other communities.

However, I strongly disagree with how a lot has been handled in the past, and would like to see continued open communication. I don’t feel that, as a whole, players have unreasonable ideas on what should have been implemented a lot sooner. The following post are simply my thoughts and feelings that match those of many other players I’ve communicated with. I’d like to see even more opinions on the subject, whether you agree or disagree with my view. Just looking for an open discussion, not an argument on this topic.

TL;DR: Read and tell me what you think about all of this.

Edit: I’m aware of the CDI thread. I talked about it in the post below, for those of you not feeling like reading what I linked. My main point: I’m curious as to how much of the guild halls/GvG is being put on the back burner due to Living Story and other temporary content.

http://www.junkiesnation.com/2014/10/08/putting-guild-back-guild-wars-2/

Dana Hawkeye.9724:

This should have been implemented at the very start of Guild Wars 2. To me, this is merely ‘catch-up’.

Atlas.9704:

As for impact I see it as positive, but with massive growing pains.
For the reasons of RP guilds, WvWvW, and what ever other ‘server pride’ guilds out there this will be a difficult thing to accept.

Agreed with both of these. It’s a little late in the game, especially with bonded server communities.

So I’ve been in and out of gw2 to kind of keep an eye on what direction things are going. I recently came back to catch up on some of the content, check out WvW/PvP changes, and look at the rankings.

The global guild thing kind of threw me off. I don’t really have any complaints, but I’m surprised they’re not expanding things like merits, storage, etc. to fit the capacity.

I’m also not going so far as to say that arenanet didn’t do their research to see exactly how big the guilds were going to be, as I assume that they DID do this and the numbers averaged out to the max capacity of a guild, if not less. Because let’s be honest; how many guilds do we see that are having to split in to groups because they are topped off with fully active members? There may be a few, but there are so many smaller guilds that tip the scales in that direction.

Personally, I like the idea of global guilds, and I think a lot of players in general do. Correct me if I’m wrong. The implementation might have some drawbacks, but that’s with anything.

So what are your opinions on how this is going to affect the game overall? Some questions to consider:

Positive/negative impact? Would this take away from established server communities, or do you think it would create more stability? Do you think they’re moving in a good direction, and shifting the focus so that massive server transfers will have less of an impact on communities as a whole? What immediate affects might this have on PvP (WvW included) groups? What about later down the line?

This seemed like the most appropriate forum…hopefully I’m in the right place.

I’ve got a few screenshots that I’d like some SMOOTH cutouts of. They’re relatively simple, should be fairly easy to do cutouts of. I have several screenshots with characters for a site I’m updating with some guides and such. If I could just get cutouts of the characters in screenshots with a transparent background (saved as PNG or JPEG, PNG preferred)

PM me, and I’ll provide contact info (or my twitter below, which may be easier to reach me), and we can work out the details. Gold as compensation, so we’ll decide on an amount.

There’s plenty of ways to counter conditions. I was originally running classes on a support build with mid-low vitality and lots of healing/toughness, got completely wrecked when it came to conditions.

Easy fix. Work on either shortening the duration of conditions on you or get more vitality. Or just work on a build that ties in lots of condition removal, depending on your class. But for me just upping my vitality a bit and creating a better balance of toughness and vitality worked nicely.

All-out condition damage builds are trading off for other useful stats too. There’s always a trade off. And if you’re in a party with support (guardians for instance), they have insane amounts of self and party condition removal. There’s just about always a viable counter.

Yes, zergs are annoying. No, people shouldn’t be punished for running around in a giant ball.

Find something that would encourage players to run in smaller groups rather than rather than punish them for running around in a big one. Giving debuffs like that is just going to kitten everyone off. If you don’t like zergs, you can always break off and support the main group running around. You get quite a bit of rewards for going around and sniping yak’s, flipping supply camps, ninja’ing towers being trebbed etc etc

Castaliea.3156:

ltck.3659:

Waaait a minute. Someone please tell me this guy is trolling. LOL

I can’t really take this post seriously, but…since when the hell is everything OTHER than kittening facetanking considered childish? lmao And since when are tactics considered cheating? These abilities are in the game for a reason.

You’re talking about standing up to the other side and getting owned. Standing there and getting killed isn’t tactical, fyi. The attacks that you don’t see coming are certainly the best ones. It doesn’t matter if they’re hiding or stealthing or whatever else, cause at the end of the day they still kicked your kitten .

And +1 that post up there. Someone really does need to read The Art of War. I’ll even link you a pdf.

http://suntzusaid.com/artofwar.pdf

BUT THAT’S NOT HOW GENTLEMEN FIGHT!!
Real MEN stand in open fields with fancy red coats on and shoot rifles at each other while the commanders sip tea on a far off hill… DUH. Anything else is simply childish. Disgusting.

Pfah. What gentlemen?

And I’m a lady, but I’ll take the fancy red coats.

Waaait a minute. Someone please tell me this guy is trolling. LOL

I can’t really take this post seriously, but…since when the hell is everything OTHER than kittening facetanking considered childish? lmao And since when are tactics considered cheating? These abilities are in the game for a reason.

You’re talking about standing up to the other side and getting owned. Standing there and getting killed isn’t tactical, fyi. The attacks that you don’t see coming are certainly the best ones. It doesn’t matter if they’re hiding or stealthing or whatever else, cause at the end of the day they still kicked your kitten .

And +1 that post up there. Someone really does need to read The Art of War. I’ll even link you a pdf.

(and yes, if you’re not playing to win and have fun, you’re doing it wrong.)

http://suntzusaid.com/artofwar.pdf

I haven’t been in since the update. Screenshot anyone? o-o

Just a suggestion on some changes: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsdWlwziqXVzoGa9IhJFBH5oecdrzdSKaNqB-w

Glamour skills are the way to go if you’re with a party. SoD’s stun isn’t a bad idea, but you’re thinking single target (which is fine if you’re only against a few people). But if you’re going against a larger group, you want to also focus on supporting your party as well as doing more AoE damage/attacks/conditions.

Traited, diversion hits up to 5 people. This is a very underused shatter, but is really useful.

Good build, not the greatest choice of gear. Power and precision? Absolutely. Condition damage? Nooot so much. Rabid gear is a beautiful thing if you’re going for a condition damage build (usually 20 points in dueling and chaos, 30 in illusions), but not if you want to maximize your damage from phantasms.

I have a build/gear here: http://rumehouri.wordpress.com/2013/07/01/new-build-hybrid-phantasm-build-video-guide/ – ignore the build, skip to the gear.

The gear in that post is adapted to give you a little more survivablity, but can be run with zerker gear. I actually prefer zerker armor/accessories with ruby orbs for running dungeons.

Stuns/dazes/interrupts are actually pretty useful in both PvE and PvP. Whether or not they work in PvE sort of depends on the boss/mobs your going against, but doing things like staggering diversion are incredibly useful. There’s also a trait that allows diversion to hit up to 5 targets, Imbued Diversions (grandmaster trait in Illusions).

Mirror of Anguish mirrors your disable back to whoever used the skill. Master trait in Chaos.

Pistol is useful for targets you need to focus-fire, and focus is great for aoe pull/interrupt.

Depending on your build, it could be very efficient, especially with the update on Signet of Domination (increased to 3 seconds). I’m planning on doing a bit more with stuns in PvP.

This is about as bad as basing traits around your downed state. There are many runes that are a lot more useful, seeing as you’re generally (depending on what you’re doing I guess) going to be missing more than 10% of your health in WvW.

Ruby orbs went up a bit, but set stats that don’t rely on a certain situation are the way to go. Mesmers in all-out zerker armor with ruby orbs in pve are fine, but usually you’ll want a combo of knights/zerker stats in WvW.

kurtosis.9526:

Good video, nicely explained, especially the “how it plays” part at the end.

A few questions/observations:

1. I thought it was a PvP/WvW build at first due to the Confusion traits. Unless something changed with Confusion in the recent patch it’s not very strong against mobs, just players. Mob attack speed is to slow to get many procs before it expires, but autoattacking players on the other hand can kill themselves with it.

2. Temporal Enchanter increases the duration of all Glamour Skills by 2s. I tried it for a while, but decided against it b/c there was never a huge need for the extra 2s. I found reducing the cd of Focus skills and making them reflect to be much more valuable. There are a lot of fun things you can do with multiple reflections – Feedback, Temporal Curtain, iWarden, and Mirror healing skill are a good set. Especially vs the Tazza pre-fight golems in SE or fireball-tossing Effigies in CoF.

3. If you’re willing to try it without Confusion traits and Temporal Enchanter, try 20/20/0/30/0 (or this variant)

I’ll definitely give it a go. For the most part, I’m trying to make a build that can be utilized in both WvW/PvE since I do a bit of both. Confusion isn’t great in PvE, but it does do a little extra damage. I’ve had someone else recommend the 20/20/0/30/0, so I’ll be looking into that.

Thank you!

Starburst.1826:

If you are trying to move away from condition damage, I’d take X in domination for more frequent iZerkers, mirror blades etc and maybe move the 5 from Illusions into Inspiration for the traited focus skills.

I’d also say swap the scepter for sword aswell for most encounters where you can get away with meleeing seeing as you’re moving towards power and not condition damage but that’s down to personal preference aswell.

Good job on the video btw

Thanks! I’ve been thinking a bit more about using sword…plenty of clones without scepter. I tend to stay ranged more in dungeons, but there are quite a few places where the melee would come in handy.

Trying out a new build after moving away from confusion/condition damage.

http://youtu.be/tYoF25tNcQA

Skill calc: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArdBIROzg5aO0CIpQ1QtSKwtLE-TcAA2CnM+Y9x5jpGvPA

This one’s a video guide sort of better explaining things. It’s written mostly for a few new members I’ve run into that want to run the same build, so it does cover a lot more than I would generally bother or care to explain.

Let me know what you think!