Showing Highly Rated Posts By Chaos Archangel.5071:

iCapAmerica and a New Type of Phantasm Skill

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I love these ideas. I hope a dev sees this for our next elite spec.

Sigh.. That swordsman phantasm idea is too good to even look at without salivating.

Mantra of Pain

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Mantra of Pain does not hit for 2300, you should be glad the mesmer is using that skill instead of something actually usefull.

Uh.. It definitely can hit for 2300.

Mesmer Patch Notes 6/23/15

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos:

Minor:

Metaphysical Rejuvenation: Gain regeneration for 10 seconds when you are struck while below 75% health. This trait has a 15-second internal cooldown.

Illusionary Membrane: Gain protection for 3 seconds whenever you gain regeneration. This trait has a 15-second internal cooldown.

Chaotic Persistence: Each unique boon on you increases the duration of your outgoing condition and boon duration by 3%.

Adept:

Descent into Madness: Take 50% less falling damage. Cast Chaos Storm when you take
falling damage. This trait benefits from the recharge bonus provided by Chaotic Dampening.

Illusionary Defense: Each active illusion you control reduces incoming damage to you by 3%.

Master of Manipulation: Reduces recharge of manipulation skills by 20%. Gain Mirror for 2 seconds whenever you activate a manipulation skill.

Master:

Mirror of Anguish: If you are inflicted by a crowd-control effect, you inflict the same effect on your opponent, with a 60-second internal cooldown. Added taunt to the list of crowd-control effects that trigger this trait.

Chaotic Transference: Gain condition damage equal to 10% of your toughness.

Chaotic Dampening: When you gain Chaos Armor, you also gain protection for 5 seconds. While you have Chaos Armor, your staff and trident skills recharge by 5% of their full recharge every second.

Grandmaster:

Chaotic Interruption: Whenever you interrupt a foe, you inflict immobilized on them for 2 seconds and gain 5 stacks of might for 10 seconds. Additionally, you inflict a second random condition on your foe and apply a second random boon to yourself. Removed might as an option for the second random boon.

Prismatic Understanding: Stealth applied by your mesmer skills lasts 100% longer. Additionally, every second you are in stealth, you randomly gain aegis, might, protection, regeneration, or swiftness.

Bountiful Disillusionment: Whenever you use a shatter skill, you gain 1 stack of stability for 5 seconds. Based on the shatter used, allies around you can gain might, vigor, fury, or regeneration.

Inspiration:

Minor:

Mender’s Purity: Whenever you use a healing skill, you cast Power Cleanse. This trait benefits from Harmonious Mantras.

Inspiring Distortion: Whenever you grant distortion to yourself, you also grant it to nearby allies for 1 second. This trait has a 5-second internal cooldown.

Healing Prism: Each illusion you control grants you 100 healing power. Whenever you heal yourself, you heal nearby allies for a small amount.

Adept:

Medic’s Feedback: Revive allies 10% faster. When you start reviving an ally, cast
Feedback. This trait benefits from the recharge bonus provided by Temporal Enchanter.

Restorative Mantras: When you finish preparing a mantra, you heal allies around you.

Persisting Images: Phantasms you summon spawn with retaliation for 6 seconds and have 20% more health.

Master:

Warden’s Feedback: Focus weapon skills reflect projectiles and have their recharge reduced by 20%.

Restorative Illusions: Using a shatter skill removes 1 condition from you and heals you based on the number of illusions shattered.

Protected Phantasms: Newly summoned phantasms gain distortion for 1 second. When you use a shatter skill, all illusions gain protection for 2 seconds.

Grandmaster:

Mental Defense: Whenever you successfully block or evade an attack, cast Phantasmal Defender on your attacker. This trait benefits from the recharge bonus provided by Illusionist’s Celerity and Persistence of Memory.

Illusionary Inspiration: Phantasms grant 3 seconds regeneration to allies near them every 3 seconds. If you have any boons when you summon a phantasm, you cast Signet of Inspiration. This trait benefits from the recharge bonus provided by Blurred Inscriptions.

Temporal Enchanter: Glamour skills last an additional 2 seconds. When you first create any glamour, nearby allies within the glamour radius gain 2 seconds of super speed and 3 seconds of resistance.

Mesmer - A Matter of Perspective

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

(…That was genuinely funny, but I can’t believe I just got called a Carebear. )

The problem with the whole “I’ll play how I want, it won’t hurt anyone in the long run” attitude is that the vast majority of players think this way too, or just don’t know any better.

Say the random pug you just joined is:

1) Longbow healshout warrior
2) Bearbow ranger
3) Cleric staff guardian
4) Flamethrower engie

That means that if you go DPS mesmer, you could be contributing as much as 70-80% of the entire party’s DPS, if not more. That also means that if you too decide to take it easy and run GS mesmer, that DPS disappears and your party is down to 20-30% of what you were doing originally. That means it could take, at minimum, 5x longer to complete a dungeon. COF1, which is the “speed run for easy gold and tokens” dungeon, normally takes about 8-12 minutes in a pug. Multiply that by 5 and it takes FORTY MINUTES TO AN HOUR. For COF1. Say you run Arah P2, which takes about an hour with an inexperienced pug (assuming you don’t just run ahead and solo everything). Five hours on Arah P2? Really?

The difference between you and the guy running AH hammer guardian who at least thinks in good faith that he’s doing a lot of damage is that you KNOW you’re not doing jack. And you’re still allowing everyone else in your party to suffer through a 5-hour Arah run just because you’re being lazy.

The only time I’ve been in a 40 minute CoF run was when people didn’t know what they were doing (and well, yeah.. they were pretty bad.) And I’m pretty sure 5 hours in Arah is more a matter of wipes than that much of an extreme lack of damage. But that’s besides the point.

A setup like the one you described wouldn’t need any kind of additional support, and it’d be careless to do so (Unless you don’t have any gear you can swap to, in which case yer kinda screwed, but generally people who run builds like that aren’t planning for a swift speedrun anyways.) It depends on the group I’m with whether or not I’m running zerkers or not… but it really comes down to a flaw in Anet’s party design that needs to be addressed quickly; they need to implement a customizable LFG system. Maybe something that allows you to toggle the class/armor-type of the people you want to group with. That way zerkers can play with only other zerks if they want, people can put together whatever kind of class composition they want their team to be, and those that don’t give a hell can still group up.


@colesy.8490
But when you tell a person they’re bad, they’re not gonna think you mean “you’re using less effective setup for clearing bosses.” It implies something more like “You’re bad at Mesmer.”
Your TA scenario is a perfect example: You got washed up because you lacked the information/experience, but that has no reflection on your skill with the class.

Being forceful is different from being overbearing. Calling someone “bad” sounds unnecessarily judgemental and insulting… kind of counterproductive if you’re trying to educate them. It frustrates me because I know (or atleast, I’m fairly certain) that spreading information is exactly what you’re trying to do.

Among other things you’ve joined the guild, written a dungeon guide, and are willing to explain your findings to anyone who PMs you. You run tests and make sure of your information, you’ve got some good stuff to share, and I feel a lot of people really could learn from you… But when you when you come off so abrasively with “Anyone who does x is baaaad.” Without much clarification, how do you expect people to react?

Saying something like: “When it comes to dungeons, you only really need to go Melee. Sword auto gives more DPS than GS and sword and pistol phantasms will give greater DPS. Running sword in both sets is perfectly viable, infact optimal, for DPS. Greatsword is better for PvP/WvW.”

…will gather a lot more positive attention than

“Greatsword is a terrible weapon. Anyone who runs GS is bad and afraid to go to melee. Anyone who doesn’t go zerker is a badkid who thinks they’re contributing. I’m so tired of you baddies taking over the world.”

Like I said, with your experience I really do think you could enlighten a lot of people, and it’d be a shame to see that go to waste.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

New Mesmer Meta for Upcoming changes

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

@Fay: That sounds like a less-than-subtle “shut up with your knee-jerk proclamations Chaos! You know nothing!”

…. /lockdown2015

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Chronomancer

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I’m thinking the shield may be rather useful in all gamemodes assuming Echo of Memory allows you to grant Alacrity to allies. I’ve had some ideas to what Echo of Memory may do.

  • Block all incoming attacks for ~3s, reduce cooldowns by a % per hit. (Either personal or AoE)
  • Block the next attack, create a Phantasm that mimics the blocked attack.
  • Gain 2s Quickness and/or inflict 2s Slow on block

Is (or will) mesmer bunker (be) a thing?

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

One thing worth mentioning.. With alacrity, healing well, and mantra of pain (not even considering quickness) heal spams.. We far outshine nearly every other class in burst heals. F5+ Healing well+ precog+ mantra + F5&repeat is a beefy 10k burst heal every 30 or so seconds, compounded with more mantra heals and well heals inbetween bursts.

Each healing well + mantra heal is 5k, and the healing well recharges every 20s or so while the mantra is constant.

I wouldn’t count restorative mantras out just yet, it adds insane survivability for yourself and a team that doesn’t believe in personal space.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

Fix the "skirt effect" on males

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I swear people slap my Sylvari’s butt as he runs by. =[ Please reduce skirt effect or add a “butt-slider”

Phantasm HP

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Used to be, but its getting more and more of an sPvP-type treatment with each patch. The June 25th patch split illusion HP between PvE & PvP/WvW.

The Lockdown Mesmer Thread

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Shoutouts to Warlord of Chaos: The First Rank 1 Solo’Q lockdown Mesmer! (If I’m not mistaken)

MirrorBlink: A Secret Recipe for Mesmer Burst

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Jurica. If confounding is removed and replaced with a shatter trait I’m coming for you…

IMO shatter mesmers need a nerf

in PvP

Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

OP.. What does it tell you that not a single person in this thread agreed with you?

Are we all just crazy? It’s us, right? Not you…

Well of Precognition, a must? ( PvP )

in Mesmer

Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Not to derail the derail, but do we know if the Blur from this skill applies to Phantasms?

Because, if it does, that’s potentially as huge as Chronophantasma for improving the usefulness of Phantasms in PvE…

Blur (as well as the other well effects) and Alacrity both affect Phantasms as long as there aren’t other player characters. The 5-target cap will always prioritize players, but otherwise they will affect phants.

Tomorrow guys... tomorrow!!!!!!!

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Somebody get these Mesmers a mop.

(And check Levettys blood pressure. All that salt is bad for the heart)

The greatest Mesme Expert

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I am truly honored, though I’m just some dumb guy who likes big words. =P I actually am pretty adamant that I’m not the “greatest of” or “best of” anything. There are plenty of people who do just as much as I do if not more, I just happen to have a pretty snazzy way of writing and enjoy really helping educate others.

Sorry my posts recently have been rushed/distracted – irl has been hectic. Working on updating all the old articles for the new system but it’s been taking much longer than I expected.

I’d give it to skcamow, Pyroathiest, guanglai kangyi, but most definitely frifox! I never need to math as long as I have a frifox.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

Since We're Stuck In Mists.. Can We Duel?

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I mean really, tho. A dueling system would reaallllyy help with the whole “lack of anything to do while waiting on queue” thing.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The Chronomancer

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

You know, the more I see the more I’m wondering if DE -or rather, clone production for shatters- will be as mandatory as it used to be.

So many new tactics come with the F5 shatter alone that it’s a bit scarey.

Signet of Inspiration twice?
TimeWarp twice?
Mantra of Distraction twice?
Four shots of MoPain?

Siiick.

Hell, F5 → Phantasm Summon (signet activates) → Signet of Inspiration → F5 → Summon (Signet Activates) → Signet of Inspiration

Chaos Maestro is gonna return with a fury! /cackle

[Video] Xun d/d new roaming duo

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Wow, I’m at work so I only got to watch the beginning but that is such a hype video. Good stuff man! Hella inspiring.

Dat video editing! Glorious.

Upcoming beta weekend

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I absolutely love how the wells are designed and animate with the clocks ticking down. I cant wait to see how far we can push them. Chaotic Interruption seems a must, so the first build I’m considering is

Dueling/Chaos/Chronomancy

I assume Dom/Dueling/Chrono shatter will be fairly easy to find, so I’ll be mostly looking for new ways to push lockdown and support. I’ve also been hoping that the Chronomancer tree could help with the resurgence of Phantasm mesmer, I had something in mind such as

Dueling/Illusions/Chrono

to try to super recharge my phantasms using persistence of memory + alacrity on shatter. Dueling is mostly for duelist’s discipline, I’m betting el pistolero phantasmo can be the most rapidly summoned phantasm. Dunno how it’ll go, but will be fun to try out.

Why I Refuse to Shatter

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Chaos Archangel.5071

I’d like to input my thoughts but would you mind linking your build bhagwad?

I’m curious to see what exactly you’re running that wouldn’t benefit from shattering.

What Separates A Good Mesmer From A Bad?

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

(my response is from a pvp perspective)

GOOD MESMER

  • Have different ways to engage a fight.
  • Can run multiple builds, but have one mastered.
  • Knows PU isn’t as cheesy as everyone proclaims.
  • Can fight other Mesmer confidently.

NOT SO GOOD MESMER

  • Will spam their rotation immediately, usually starting with greatsword.
  • Cannot land a shatter burst without sword (I’m somewhat guilty of this. xD)
  • Random dodges all day. (again, me)
  • Has trouble vs other Mesmer.
  • Uses greatsword at close range.
  • Always engages from stealth.. Literally. Always.
  • Does not shatter! (Worse thing to do as a Mesmer on any build!)

What say you?

[PvP] Will you use Shield?

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I’m hoping I can just use the Chronomancer trait line, without having to use the shield.

Nope, sorry, the shield gets welded to your arm the second you slot Chronomancer. You also get locked out from ever changing away from Chronomancer. Because apparently ANet totally threw everything about their game’s design out of the window just for this one elite spec, right?

That was the most obnoxious “Its cool, you don’t need to wield shield to use chronomancer” ever. =P

Nerf Confounding Suggestions

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Chaos Archangel.5071

This is why we can’t ever have nice things. Patch has been out for a freaking day and already people are slacking at the jaws. Jesus Christ…..

I see it like this: People are going to complain about it eventually, if cries get loud enough anet comes in to nerf it. In this way, we can get in front of the problem and actively discuss ways to tone it down before it is carelessly given a 15s ICD or something that’ll make it lousy (like poor MtD).

At least then devs have a chance to consider the input of the players actually testing the trait rather than Bobby Everyranger who just got smacked by a legitimately good lockdown Mesmer.

[OMFG-US/EU] Mesmer Fashion Show

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

((As always, anyone and everyone is welcome to join in on OMFG events! No membership required.))

TIME: SUNDAY March 1st 2015
PLACE: Lyssa Statue @ Divinitys Reach

EVENT: Fashion Show

DETAILS: It is time! It is finally time! Check back for more details soon, but this sunday we are going to host the first OMFG Mesmer Fashion Show! We will have a panel of judges watch as contestants walk up and down a runway and show off their Mesmer!

Categories include:

  • Most Fashionable: Mens
  • Most Fashionable: Womens
  • Best Use of Effects
  • Best Mesmer Name

And maybe more! Prizes will go to the first place winners in each category, and will be open to any and all Mesmer who wants to participate, so even if your friends aren’t in OMFG, come invite them to join the fun!

@Daniel Handler I’d love to be able to do this at the same time for both US and EU, let me know if you’re available to help coordinate and if anyone else wants to volunteer to be on the coordination crew, please help out!


Click here for pictures of the winners!

Click here for Part 1 (Video) of the show!

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

'Twas Awesome

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

A lot of really touching responses guys, really swells the heart. Thanks so much! =) I’ll still be posting here and there. I’ve one last fiction to write up, I will get a video out once in my life >_< and will update the Grimoire at least one more time.

[OMFG Suggestion] Porting Business

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Thats true, but Im looking at it from a different perspective.

If Im not mistaken, this is more of a subscription-sort of thing where the non-mes isnt just paying for one portal; they’re paying 10s (or whatever) to have a Meamer on-call to port them for whatever they need. jumpinng puzzles, map completion, dungeon runs, maybe even some wvw help? In any event they’re pulling the mesmer away for what could be quite some time depending on their needs.

I think its worth exploring. Could be a complete flop, but we wouldnt know unless we tried. Either way we’ve nothing to lose and potential profit to gain.

Theorycrafting new mesmer traits/weapons

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I didn’t mean building around interrupts in PvE, but Guang specifically mentioned the pistol interrupt trait, which is making me wonder where /when interrupts are preferred in PvE.

[OMFG] BotM Contest - Dec'13 *final results*

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Chaos Archangel.5071

Awesome! Ty guys! Thanks to everyone for all the votes and support and it’s really cool to see the change in perspective lockdown builds have been getting recently. Half a year ago no one was really talking about them, and now it’s something most Mesmers are familiar with. I didn’t wanna comment before all the votes were counted, but I was DYING to just throw out 1000 ‘thank yous’ to each person who voted and gave their reasons for voting. Its always really exciting/encouraging to read someone else’s review of the build, even if its brief.

I honestly didn’t think Shatterlock would win, I thought it’d be too difficult to pick up to win such a contest but I was happily proven wrong (and apparently so was other-Chaos in thinking an easy build would win this contest. Shatterlock is definitely one of the hardest =P). It’s an amazing, unbelievably gratifying feeling to see someone else running a build I produced, but for it to win the BoTM contest is just.. Wow! Just yesterday I ran into someone running Shatterlock in duels. This guy had to be one of the best users of the build I’ve seen thus far, and was extremely talented at interrupting heals and key skills (like phantasm summons). Playing lockdown vs lockdown is always fun, sort of like a chess match of interrupts and counters and I had a great time versus this guy.

I’ve got to mention though that I feel like StickerHappy’s Phantasmic Interruptions is every bit as good as // Shatterlock, and easier to use to boot I recommended it to my friend who’s only used Mesmer for about two days (started him on a basic Phantasm build for a day then moved him to PhantInterrupt) and while I was taking another look at the build I said to myself “Wow, this build is really solid and looks hella fun.” Skcamow and StickerHappy did some really good work with this build, and I learned the importance of condition duration in a lockdown build by studying it. My friend LOVES the build and is still playing it, citing that he enjoys that it’s both demanding and forgiving: requiring precise timing to be really effective but still having a lot of tools to be useful incase that messes up. He now tests himself by trying to get flawless wins in duels with it.

Again, thanks guys and big thanks to keenlam for organizing this!

(Btw Warlord of Chaos has devised a more WvW-friendly variant of shatterlock, will be posted soon!)

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

Mesmer - A Matter of Perspective

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Thats the thing though. It wasnt that you were being blunt, it wasnt that you were being blunt, it was that the cryptic way you wrote implied that you knew more helpful information about the scepter but choose to withhold it.

And I could tell that you were just being lighthearted, the same way I can see that colesy isnt some trollish doosh, but youve got people here from all over the world.. You never know how someone will percieve what you write, which is why its better to write with a neutral tone

Suggestion: Pace arrow in the Mesmer portal.

in Mesmer

Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Dude can we PLEASE get a timer and some indicator when were out of range of the entry portal?

Running to go port your zerg only to drop a failing portal is so embarrassing…

Alacrity affects icd?

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I highly doubt it. It depends on if Chill affects ICDs.

Specializations & Lockdown Mesmer

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

And Confounding is now adept… You can grab all three traits and still nah shattered conditions.

Oh muh gawd.

"Mesmer is OP" - Facts vs Fiction

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

YOU! Yes, you who just scrolled down without reading. Don’t even think about posting before you’ve read the above.

I read it. And it’s well written. Hopefully this will help, But you have to realize players come from all different backgrounds in this game. There will still be posts about Mesmer being OP because someone played 5 hot joins and kept dying to the Mesmer. But thanks for writing this hopefully some people will inform themselves.

I didn’t write it. That’s all Chaos’ hard work.
I just tried to get some of the people who just scroll through the posts to actually read em before posting.

And I TOTALLY appreciate that! Smiled when I read it.

Malicious Sorcery ... A QoL Trait?

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Chaos Archangel.5071

(lets ignore the bug for now.. I’m just referring to the traits interaction with the scepter)

So I’ve been playing around with Malicious Sorcery in this new project I’m working on, and it feels… Good?

Not quite.

To be honest, it feels like how Scepter should be on average. The 15% increase helps make the weapon feel less clunky and awkward without adding all that much of a damage boost. In fact, it honestly doesn’t feel Grandmaster-worthy at all. It isn’t much better than Temporal Curtain or Duelists Discipline and Sword’s trait seems to offer a more significant damage boost.

So if this isn’t meant to improve all of our skills attack rate, then the trait doesn’t deserve a GM slot. Thoughts?

[Guide] Lockdown Mesmer Tactics & Techniques

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

LOCKDOWN TRAITS

  • Bountiful Interruption Works great in any lockdown build by rewarding you with an extra 175 power (5x might) per interrupt AND a random boon. People often forget about the extra boon it provides, which can be anything from Protection/Vigor to Might/Regeneration. In fact, Bountiful is so good it works well even outside of lockdown builds as long as you have the right weapons.
  • Furious Interruption Like bountiful, it’s not so great that you could focus a build around it, but it works well in a 6 Dom 6 Dueling lockdown build. It takes a while to get used to but can be really worthwhile with Sword and Greatsword, especially with the new Sigils of Rage
  • Chaotic Interruption One of, if not the best lockdown trait. Chaotic hits with an immobilize AND cripple/chill/blind on itnerrupt. There isn’t much to say on this trait that hasn’t already been said. It rocks, even outside of lockdown builds depending on your weaponset.
  • Power Block Power Block isn’t a bad trait, it’s simply one that suffers from the “why take this trait when I could have.. THIS TRAIT!!”-complex. It simply can’t compete with Confounding Suggestions and Chaotic Interruption. While it can really hurt an opponent’s play, it’s hard to tell in a group fight and hard to rely on since you really can’t see enemy cast bars. Still, it works well with chill to really slow up enemy cooldowns when it works.
  • Confounding Suggestions Some people dislike how this skill seems to contradict itself with either a daze OR a stun. I find that it’s more a matter of perspective: both effects are a win/win, it’s just that you can’t predict what you’re going to get. A longer daze duration, combined with runes of the Mesmer, make for excellent chain dazing but the stun still ends up being superior because of how it cuts enemy movement. Since most of our dazes are single-target, I’ve found Confounding better for smaller groups and 1v1 situations.

TYPES OF LOCKDOWN MESMER

Lockdown traits are pretty flexible, and can produce a number of different builds. Here are a few reliable templates to get you started. In general, you can make almost any weaponset with an interrupt of some sort work… and torch, too. That’s a thing apparently.

Chaotic Interruption (4/4/6/0/0) : My personal favorite and, in my opinion, the best all-around lockdown spec. Chaotic Interruption relies on timing interrupts to be effective, but in this build every single interrupt will net decent damage (and perhaps proc fire/air sigils), 5x Might, a random boon, immobilize, and a random condition. Chaotic Interruption works with almost all weaponsets and there is a lot of flexibility in build choice.

Confounding Suggestion (6/6/0/2/0) : Shares the same role as CI, but instead of focusing on interrupts, Confounding Suggestions encourages chaining dazes/stuns one after another to keep the opponent shut down.

Condition Interrupt (0/4/6/0/4) : I can’t personally speak much for this build as I’ve rarely played it, but condition interrupt is a fun spec that can definitely be made to work effectively, especially in single-target fights.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

My mesmer idols:

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

I am honored! =] Thanks Me Games Ma.

Well, I look up to Supcutie (He took 3 hours of his time out to train me. The freakin’ man!) /Helseth (This Video inspired me to step my game up so hard) /Guanglai Kangyi (Guang is the man, taught me how to look at stats in a whole new way and plays BlazBlue.)

Oh and…

Fay – One of the first to defy the meta and the first female to utterly destroy me in a videogame =[

Pyro – Taught me to be confident in myself as long as I have the facts to back it up, and one of the coolest people you’ll ever meet once you step around all the jadedness and potential dooshbaggery (dat april fools)=P

Osicat – Pfft. Its Osi! ’Nuff said.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

What If Utility Phantasms Could Target Allies

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

If iDefender, iAvenger, iWarden, iDisenchanter and iMage could target allies, would you be more willing to take them?

I mean we must have the tech for that, right?

What if these phantasms could be cast with no target, so that they follow you around and activate their skills with you as the primary target? iMage would grant you fury, iAvenger alacrity, and most importantly iDisenchanter would become a reliable form of condition removal.

Why isn’t this a thing?

Other class mains ruining *our* ranger forum

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Yeah man, as a long time ranger main I’m sick of all these posers and pretenders offering balance advice to a class they have no idea how it works! And then to pretend to be a ranger.. Ugh. It’s so frustrating sometimes.. You just don’t know who you can trust.

.. Except me. You can trust me.

The new TraiTs for Mesmers coming 25/6/13

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Well I’m not necessarily blaming anyone but a lousy design philosophy, but the pattern has been consistent throughout the months…

People whine = appeasing nerf incoming.

My main problem is that these changes almost always stem from a PvP/WvW perspective… and wasn’t it last month Anet said that they’re going to be splitting the balance more often?

[Guide] Lockdown Mesmer Tactics & Techniques

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

PREDICTING & TIMING YOUR INTERRUPTS
While interrupting can seem random and lucky at times (though you’ll still play it off as epic skill!), there are a few strategies you can employ to help raise the probability that your interrupts will land. As a general rule, it’s never good to throw out MoD randomly in hopes of an interrupt Our interrupt priority generally goes:

1) Weapon Interrupt (spam these! Well.. spam them ‘strategically.’ In fact..the less you spam altogether probably the better. But weapon interrupts/dazes/stuns are good to start off your lockdown with, usually being followed up by…)

2) [F3] Diversion Interrupt I usually save Diversion for a sneaky chain-daze. I’ll use a weapon interrupt, space out some clones (2 or 3) with Deceptive Evasion and then send them out to daze one after another. This usually guarantees either an interrupt or a locked down opponent.

3) Mantra Interrupt These are the most specific and reliable interrupts we have, and thus our most valuable. Try to save mantra interrupts for: protecting yourself in bad situations, securing stomps/rezzes, interrupting heals.


BLIND INTERRUPTING
Reflexes aren’t quite up there to interrupt on-reaction? Not sure what the opponent is gonna do next? You reaallyyy wanna proc some damage/boons/immobilize!? Not a problem! You don’t always have to know what’s coming out in order to stuff it.

  • Interrupting auto-attacks (Any) Interrupting auto-attacks is mostly useful if you want to secure an immobilize, nail a Halting Strike proc, or gain boons. It’s best to not waste a Mantra charge on interrupting auto-attacks; I’d recommend using whatever interrupt will recharge the quickest (usually weapon interrupts). Almost every auto can be interrupted, and it is simply a matter of watching the pattern of the animation to know when to time your interrupt.
  • Interrupting after a dodge (Mantra) While it’s generally best to save your mantra interrupt for very specific moments, sometimes the most reliable way to predict an interrupt is to wait for the opponent to throw out a dodge and interrupt a split-second after. It’s a reflexive reaction to use a skill right after dodging, and in my experience you’re highly likely to interrupt whatever is about to come out.
  • Interrupting a heal Keep an eye on when the enemy is near 50% HP, that is the usual time they’ll try to go on the defensive and heal up. Mantra zap dat fool!
  • Interrupting behind a CC After you stun or daze an enemy, you can keep an eye on the stun/daze status icon on the opponent. When that icon disappears, there’s a 0.5-1 second period when the opponent is likely to perform a skill, usually a high-damage or tide-turner or heal[I observe][This also works for knockdown/pull, harder to tell, though]. There’s also the chance that they might just try to dodge away or, if thief, stealth/shadowstep. I tend to use an interrupt at this time and I tend to be able to chain my interrupts from then after so long as I continually hit in this interval. Always some exceptions, but this is a pattern I find works a lot. (From Dondagora.9645)

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

[Stealth Tactics] Pretending To Be A Clone

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Wait, hold on! Before you stick your nose up into the air and say “Hmph, any good player always knows where the Mesmer is.” (Looking at you, Pyro) read on, as I feel this statement may not be as absolute as many believe.

PRETENDING TO BE A CLONE
At one point or another, every Mesmer gets to experience satisfaction of watching an opponent -say some eager Guardian leaping in with his greatsword and spinning to win- on a clone that they were so sure was the actual Mesmer. You can tell their frustration, you can tell somewhere inside they’re saying to themselves “$@#$! Mesmers!” and you want to do it to them again and again. Taking a moment to pretend to be a clone isn’t just for fun though. There can be a number of useful reasons to do this, such as health regeneration (Ether Signet), letting your cooldowns recharge, tricking your opponent into leaving themselves open or taking a moment to plan your next move. People won’t be fooled for more than a couple seconds, but in a fight even half-seconds count!
It turns out that part of being a talented Mesmer is forcing your opponent to have a hard time catching you, and learning to understand how you appear from their point of view is a big factor in that. Here are the tools you’ll need:

  • A form of stealth: (Desperate Decoy; Dueling V, Veil, Mass Invisibility, or Decoy)
  • A staff, scepter, or sword.
  • Patience and precision.

PLAYING HIDE-&-SEEK WITH STEALTH
Stealth breaks targetting, meaning that the moment you dissapear your opponent has to scramble to find you again. Since the opponent does not have a 360 field of vision, there will always be blind spots that they will not see. The trick is to utilize these blind spots to allow yourself to reappear out of their sight. It is common for a Mesmer to scramble around behind the opponent, since it forces them to wheel their camera around, but the problem here is that such a technique is too simple. Adding an illusion into the mix forces the opponent to divide their attention, but there are a number of other techniques you can do to add to the confusion. -Remember that any skill that does not do damage does not break stealth, including:-

  • Illusionary Leap/Swap (Sword 3: You can even AoE immobilize opponents and remain stealthed)
  • Phase Retreat
  • All Utilities (Except Mantra of Pain’s attack)
  • All Phantasm Summons
    This means you could DodgeClone > Phase Retreat > Illusionary Leap + Swap and even summon a phantasm all while stealthed, leaving the opponent with all sorts of things to deal with other than you.

THE CLONE LIFE
This would be all for nothing if you still end up sidestepping and jumping around like a spazz the moment you come out of stealth. Sometimes it is better to just chill, expecially when using ranged weapons such as Scepter, Staff, or Greatsword. Remember that clones:

  • Attack at a specific pace
  • Do not sidestep
  • Only move to keep in range of the opponent
  • Are again bugged not to wield offhand weapons. Wtf anet!?

This isn’t some gamebreaking technique and isn’t something you should expect to utilize often, but it is one of those small things that separate good Mesmer from bad Mesmer. Despite playing Mesmer for years, I sometimes find myself having to take a split second to reorient myself when an opponent catches me offguard with smart positioning and a screen-full of particle effects (Warlord of Chaos.. /sideglance) . Remember that as a Mesmer, we are required to be more creative than most other classes in order to succeed, and little quirks like this are skills that take just a bit of practice to edge you over the competition.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

Some conflicts in the new trait system

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

My only question.. Will the new Inspiration GM (cast signet of inspiration on phant summon) activate the signet trait. O.o

Distortion/cleans on phant summon ftw … Every 36 seconds.

Is (or will) mesmer bunker (be) a thing?

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Zeromis had made a bunker build in the past with pretty good results. But that wasn’t even with all the upcoming changes. So yeah, Bunker Mesmer is a thing, and it can work but it’s overshadowed by other bunkers.

However..

With Well of Precog (x2 with Continuum Shift / x4 with Mimic & Continuum) and Mantra of Pain/Recovery and Mental Defense in a Chaos/Inspiration/Chrono build we’re on to something.

Especially if you go Bountiful Disillusionment and Chaotic Dampening with staff, now you’ve got an ~75% uptime of Protection along with Blur on precog along with Alacrity shrivelling our cooldowns.. AND considering the changes made to the shield?

Yeah, I’m seeing some major potential here. Lets see…

PERSONAL

  • Shield blocks
  • Heavy Protection Uptime
  • Mantra Heals
  • Alacrity

TEAM

  • Alacrity
  • Slows
  • Mantra heals

I’m not seeing Signet of Inspiration being worthwhile here, so I’d likely go

- Well of Renewal / Blink /Well of Precog / Mantra of Pain

- Cleric Amulet

- Runes of Mercy / Altruism / Hoelbrak / Dwayna / Water (idk)

- Inspiration (Persisting Images, Restorative Mantras, Mental Defense) Chaos (Illusionary Defense, Chaotic Dampening, Bountiful Disillusionment) Chrono (Alls Well, Improved Alacrity, Chronophantasma)

;D I think we may have a thing here…

Offhand Sword 4 Needs Improvement

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

This may seem like a weird use. But sw/sw+St with chaotic dampening gives you Perma protection. It’s not all bad.

That’s only IF you take a second ethereal field, but yeah. Sw/sw looooves staff (which is also more melee-oriented)

What We Need? Better Clone Production!

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

After reading through “What if DE (Deceptive Evasion: Dueling X) was built in?” I was reminded of a theory I had a while ago but sorta forgotten..

I do think the biggest thing holding us back is our over-reliance on Deceptive Evasion, but why is that exactly? What does DE do for us that makes it so valuable that nearly every build is incomplete?

It creates clones reliably of course!

DE is our hands-down best clone production tool because of how it easily and instantly creates a clone at the Mesmer’s position. IMO the biggest thing hampering our build diversity right now is the fact that we have so few ways outside of DE to keep a constant stream of clone production. Clones are necessary for our damage, our class mechanic, for our healing, and for just about everything involving Mesmer, yet outside of DE and a few weapon skills we have a heavy lack of ability to create clones. In order to have a reliable form of clone production it needs to:

- Be instant and not heavily tied to a cooldown
- Be reliable and not sundered by RNG
- Be accessible, preferably through traits/weapons rather than Utility.

I think our traits should compensate for this. Especially with a new traitline being introduced. But what if we had a clone production trait in every traitline? Some ideas of mine:

  • Domination: Wastrel’s Punishment creates a clone when you interrupt a foe.
  • Chaos 50% chance to create a clone whenever a clone is destroyed
  • Inspiration Creates a clone whenever you remove a condition.
  • Illusions Creates 2 clones when you charge a mantra.
  • Chronomancy Create a clone at your position when you block an attack.

The traitlines may not exactly fit, but you get my drift. What do ya’ll think?

Why does condition mesmer exist?

in PvP

Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

you will be able to maintain 12 stacks of confusion and watch your enemy kill its self.

Which is a major l2p issue. Players with half a brain won’t do this. If this has been your experience, you definitely haven’t been fighting good players.

Yes because thats all that matters.

Remove it, get double dmg, leave it and let it tick? I think not.

Remove it and hopefully the larger stacks drop of because you knwo? RNG and esports makes sense.

Its stupid how SPAMMY it is.
Same goes for Engi conditions.

Your essentially clearing in the hopes of the worst one dropping of when you need it too, its just WORSE with confusion because each one hits harder the more you fail to cleanse confusion.

If they reintroduce a reliable clearing method(left to right for example), I would agree with you. But the way it is now is kittening RNG, which is downright kittened.

Uh.. Well the thing is that it could.. Be avoided.

Take a second and clear out thoughts of “spam” and “cancer” and analyze what the class is actually doing. Ima explain it assuming you’re actually open-minded about learning to beat the build rather than mindless ranting/complaining.

- Damage sources: Scepter block (6x torment) – Confusion (average of 3 persistent stacks. 6 with a full scepter channel)

- What can they do in stealth Hide and heal and.. That’s about it.

What does this mean?

You may not be able to kill the Condi mes, but with even the slightest thought to how you play and how the build does damage will keep them from killing you.

[PvP/WvW] Lockdown + Shatter: Shatterlock

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

PROS & CONS vs Shatter
Shatter builds, while powerful, can get unfortunately predictable. Many shatter Mesmer rely on the iLeap -> Swap immobilize to nail their shatters and many competent opponents can predict this and react accordingly. With Blurred Frenzy and MindWrack blown, the Shatter Mesmer has 10 seconds of vulnerability before being able to engage again. Shatterlock mitigates this problem in a number of ways. Rather than focusing on [F1] Mind Wrack, the [F3] Diversion shatter is the star of this build. Stacking vulnerability is important because it allows you two options for damage: Phantasms or Shatters.

That’s not to imply that this build is simply superior to shatter builds, but it does have a bit more versatility in damage options and allows for even more ways to improvise a victory. In WvW, this comes at a pretty significant cost: Damage or Survivability. Since Mantra of Distraction is a prime component of the build, and we need a defense either in Blink or Decoy, that leaves only one flexibile slot which usually goes to the iDisenchanter. The disenchanter is crucial for removing enemy boons and conditions on you, but in some situations can be replaced and you can trait Shattered Concentration (Domination VII) to still remove boons.

  • PROS: Multiple sources of damage/able to switch from shattering to maintaining phantasms || Stunlocks || Superior Vulnerability stacking || Similar shatter damage.
  • CONS: Less room for erroneous shatters || Less clone production || Lacks either Decoy or Blink.

LIFE WITHOUT DECEPTIVE EVASION
Many people are of the belief that you have to take Deceptive Evasion (DE) for a shatter build, especially if you’re already grabbing Illusionary Persona. While yes, DE is an exceptionally good trait to have for a shatter heavy build, Shatterlock is NOT a pure shatter build, and Illusionary Persona is an excellent trait with or without Deceptive Evasion. Deceptive Evasion is a clone production tool but it isn’t the main reason shatter builds do so much damage; Mental Torment and Illusionary Persona are. Don’t worry about not having enough clones to shatter, as DE actually provides an overabundance of clones. Having Illusionist Celerity (Illusions 15) and Blade Training (Dueling IV) means that running Sword/Sword -Staff will usually provide just enough illusions for reliable shatter bursts.
There are two major things things that lacking DE does to this build:

- You have more dodges to spare. DE encourages dodging for the sake of clone production, usually for some shatter offense. Without it, you’ll find you will have more endurance for dodging enemy attacks.

- Every illusion counts. Not having DE means that you have to be smarter with your shatters. No sloppy shattering allowed here.


SO.. WHAT HAPPENS TO MIND CRUSH?
That’s what I’ve been asking myself. I had been working very kitten Mind Crush this week in preparation for the December buffs, but while I was studying, running all kinds of alternate traits and tweaking Mind Crush kind of morphed into this new build. It feels almost entirely superior to Mind Crush, taking the majority of what made the previous build worked and combining it with the monstrous spike damage of shatter builds. While Mind Crush is a more technical and sophisticated build that still has a higher level of control and better rewards for interrupts, this build is more tournament viable. Simply put, it seems that the damage this build puts out makes the extra control from Mind Crush unnecessary.

(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)

Many bug fix, still no duelist's discipline

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Praise Geesus!

Edit: oh yeah.. And people are rallying off our clones. Plz fix this yesterday.

They did fix it yesterday. /thread

Edit: Nothing gets past me!

xD I tried to delete that so fast that I missed the period.

[Guide] Lockdown Mesmer Tactics & Techniques

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Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

THE CHAIN-DAZE METHOD

Mesmer have some of the best chain-dazing potential in the game, capable of leaving a target unable to fight back for over 10 seconds without using Moa Morph. While it’s not hard to learn how to chain dazes one after another, knowing how to effectively daze while still dealing damage can take time and practice.

  • Chain dazing is mostly used for incapacitating a single target.
  • Never blow all your CC trying to lock down just one person.
  • It’s better to begin chain-dazing after you have a phantasm on a target.
  • [F3] Diversion can chain daze into itself with proper clone spacing, but should be done only if you have no Phantasms or can summon a Phantasms while the clones run to shatter.
  • Superior Runes of the Mesmer work quite well with Confounding Suggestions.

One of the more difficult aspects of chain-dazing is knowing how to do damage while we keep the opponent locked down. A brute warrior with a hammer can mash away on their skills and do considerable damage while keeping an opponent stunlocked, conversely most Mesmer stunlocks do little to no damage at all, which is why auto-attacks, phantasms, and proper shattering all come in to play. Take the following rotations for example (special thanks to Veruah for inspiring me to write these)


(Confounding Suggestions)
Summon Phant > WeaponDaze > Mantra Daze > (Swap/Dodge) > Daze Shatter > Summon Phant + Mantra Daze > Mind Wrack after lulz


This rotation, performed with CS (Domination XII), keeps the opponent incapacitated while you hit them with heavy damage.

Most Lockdown builds that go into CI builds have superior defense, but CS lockdown have better damage and somewhat more reliable control. The CS chain displayed will likely kill or put near death almost any opponent that isn’t a bunker when executed properly. Confounding Suggestions kind of trips over itself by turning stuns into dazes, but a 2s daze in my opinion isn’t as strong as a 1s stun so both effects are welcome. Confounding is considerably more forgiving than Chaotic since it doesn’t rely on interrupts but an opponent can still kite you if they’re lucky. What I like about confounding is how well it synergizes with weapons like Offhand Sword and Pistol. Too many times have I been able to iLeap(2s Immob) >Pistol Phant > MantraDaze(Stun) > Pistol 3s Stun > Sigil of Dom 5s Stun to keep someone locked down for 11 freakin seconds!

So you know, of course.. once in a while I’ll Moa Morph that same person afterwards.

[OMFG] BotM Contest (Sept) *FINAL RESULTS*

in Mesmer

Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071

Chaos Archangel.5071

Gah. Sorry I’ve been out of it recently guys, didn’t get around to a few posts I had wanted to make.

@keenlam: Do you mind if we extend the submissions by another week? I’m sure a few more people wanted to submit and meet up with testers.

Menace Ultimate Hidden Beast Epic Fail Mesmer Plague Salvation Build
- 5
Reason (x5):
- For randomly theorycrafting on the forum without any due diligence or testing
- For constantly bumping his own thread and renaming it a gazillion times
- For putting “salvation” into his build title, pretending it’s the one build that saves us all
- For claiming that his “build destroys all other classes completely around 90% of the time” whilst he doesn’t understand the basics of how traits, runes, sigils interact
– For constantly being defensive and argumentative with those who try to show the err of his ways

In general, he’s trolling and polluting the forum and generally devalues the Mesmer community by misinforming others with his ill-thought out “builds”.

While I do see your point of view for ALL of those, the ones I bolded give me a bit of concern. I don’t think it’s fair to downvote a build because of your opinion of the creator. Sure Menace is young, pretentious, and impetuous but he’s participating in this tournament and should have just as much of a fair chance based off the BUILD as anyone else.