Guild Wars 2

These achieves were so weak i was still unsure if they were real when i completed the first one. I literally dropped into enemy borderlands ran to the bloodlust checkpoints (since no one does them) and spent 5 mins capturing them all and left.

I truly feel bad for the wvw regulars on low tier servers who need these extra pve players to get a decent zerg going.

I finished the meta on Season 1 in the first week of the season.
I finished the meta on season 2 in the first weekend of the season.
Looks like I’ll finish Season 3 achievment in the first 5 minutes?

Jessica Boettiger.2563:

Basically removing the achievement requirement during a tournament is an experimental step we took to reduce the incentive for achievement grinding. We want people to play WvW, and not focus too heavily on satisfying achievement requirements.

If we find that players prefer having numerous things to check off a list, then we would certainly take that feedback into account and consider it for future tournaments.

Meanwhile PvE gets tons of new achievements and WvW gets 5 achievement points for a tournament.

The idea of an alliance system would work, however it needs to be larger scale than 3 guilds. The system they had in place for Guild Wars 1 worked quite well. A guild allies with one “side” and those sides fight.

There’s a bunch ways to transfer this system to Guild Wars 2, with all having problems of their own. I think choice, however, is important. One of the reasons why EotM doesn’t work is that along with the short match-ups and overflow system, there is no choice or sense of “loyalty”. You’re not fighting for Overgrowth, you’re just green. A change to the system needs to account for server/alliance/faction loyalty, as well as the flexibility that WvW currently lacks.

Here’s an example

We can use the AB names with addition of Imperials, just for simplicity.

A guild or individual could pick between Luxons, Kurzicks and Imperials. Each month you’d get an RNG set of guilds and players based on your choice, with a mini “tournament”. Every week, each Luxon, Kurzick and Imperial sub-alliance changes match-ups, with the Alliance that has the most total wins winning the match

That’s just one example. There’s so, so many ways to fix the current system. Hell even just combining servers would work. The population is currently spread a little too thin beyond T4 and match-ups are completely unbalanced, with some servers in the same tier able to queue all maps, and others that can’t even queue one.

WvW is basically broken at the moment and no amount of tournaments, trailers, siege masteries or photoshopped doritos will help it. It needs a proper rework. The game mode has incredible potential. It’s just being wasted.

Mimic is god awful.

We’re talking about Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Distraction… right?

If so… I am SO excited about equipping these while WvWing tonight with my guildies!!!

Oh. Man! Gonna be testing/tweaking all these builds soon!

@Warlord of Chaos: I’ll be posting results/vids from our tests here, so any notes please throw into this thread.

Just accept GW2 isn’t what many people wanted it to be, and the developers have no interest in turning it into something else than what it is.

They are clearly focusing all attention on the casual-story element, and the WvW/PvP modes were just put in to generate game-sales. They are not part of the core game.

Hardcore / semi-hardcore wvw/pvp player? Arenanet would like it if you stuck around, but they’re not actually bothered enough to make an effort to keep you. You are not their target market.

You might as well ask for serious PvP-content in Farmville. That’s not what the game is for, so why would the developers put time into it?

And yes, numbers are very rapidly declining in WvW, as people are finally realising that there is no “future” for WvW, just more of the same.

Please yes, so I can lock my squad into jumping off cliffs with me.

But honestly, letting one person control dozens of others is just asking for trolling. Also, reducing player activity and involvement always is a bad idea. Also allows for more complex, free-form movement.

How about double the initiative cost for the next use of the interrupted skill?

keenlam.4753:

How about double the initiative cost for the next use of the interrupted skill?

Id prefer the thief just die of a stroke. Call it interrupt heartbeat.

Sagat.3285:

skills are weaker because you can activate them multiple times

Haha wat.

Yes, heartseeker is very weak. Yes, pistol whip, much weak. Yes, flanking strike/larcenous strike, incredibly weak. Oh yes, a teleport immobilize condition removal, very weak. Hm, a blinding field, oh yes quite weak. Yeah, you’re so wrong it hurts.

Sagat.3285:

swap weapon still got the same initiative, initiative is too fragile but fits the role of thief.

And so according to you, the role of thief is….to be completely immune to anything that might impact their unrestricted skill spamming?

Sagat.3285:

They weren’t meant to be is why. Every weapons carries specific downsides and especially post patch, don’t mention p/d it lacks mobility and just like d/d heavily reliant on CnD,missing it hurts.

Yes, every weapon has specific downsides. Guess who else that applies to…..no, you guessed wrong. The proper answer is…. EVERYONE ELSE. See, every class has downsides associated with their weapons. The difference is that when a mesmer with power block interrupts them, they get punished for it. Thieves don’t. Remind me why you’re so special again?

Edit: Honestly, you may as well just not continue this. Nobody here thinks you’re right, and with good reason. @OP: Until Anet decides that thieves should be punished for skill spamming, nothing will really change, but I suppose we can hope.

Sagat.3285:

Thief losing initiative and skills usage CD is not enough?

Well, you’re actually wrong on both accounts.

First, most thief skills will not actually cost initiative if you interrupt them too early. This means that the thief will often just get off scot-free if you don’t actually interrupt them at the right part of the skill.

You also seem to think that power block puts thief skills on CD. This is incorrect. Power block has absolutely no effect on thief skills whatsoever. It used to, but it was patched out as apparently requiring thieves to put thought into their skill spam was not intended by Anet.

Some time ago I started with some ’’discussion’’ threads to discuss which skills and traits should be changed and so I also made one for signets:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Discussion-Utility-s-Signets-Rework/first#post4002210

Signets are like below mantra’s and never really been in or even close to the meta besides signet of domination.

Id drop all that wasted soldiers for zerk. Positioning is the only thing that’s going to keep you alive if something goes wrong.

Celestial is not even remotely viable on Mesmer because Mesmer has no reasonable way to stack might.

Celestial on its own is lowish condition damage and power, producing a build with no offensive teeth at all. Celestial when running with 20-25 stacks of might, however, suddenly has highish condition damage and power, producing a build with good offense of all types, along with reasonable defense, a very strong build.

Mesmer can’t stack might, therefor Mesmer can’t use celestial.

Title should have been…

Dr. Champlove or: How I Learned to Stop WvW’ing and Love the Karma Train.

StickerHappy.8052:

Fay.2357:

Lily.1935:

So I ended up doing the calculations and the Scepter AA is out classed most of the time by the Staff’s auto.

Assuming that you have 3 of either clone using the scepter or staff, the staff’s damage output, although less consistent then the scepter does more damage on average. Scepter being 996 while the foe is moving with the trait Malicious sorcery. The Staff averaged 1381. Now this is taking into consideration only the duration of the conditions applied for 1 single attack from each of the clones. The staff does have a 26%(rounded up) chance to be lower then the scepter AA.

My calculations do not account for all factors but I would hope it at least gives you an idea.

We can throw a couple more factors in too. Hard to slap numbers to them, but it can show which way the results skew.

Scepter clones use a slow-moving, non-homing bolt. This means that they’re very prone to missing if used on a moving target. Winds of Chaos from staff clones home, giving them a very high success rate for actually landing the attacks.

Torment only ticks at maximum strength on a moving target. Targets won’t be moving continually, and so that will lower the total damage by some amount.

Lastly, malicious sorcery will be taken incredibly rarely, simply due to trait constraints, so that lowers the numbers even more.

I know its a no from you pyro, but any suggestion to make it a better condition weapon? I hate # 3 honestly and the AA so any change would be a yes for me. Heck even vuln or weakness is good too.

Even just increasing the Speed is good too. For#3, i dont like the fact that its channeled, maybe change it to be something like the wrench to give instant stacks og confusion.

PS: I said condition weapon just for the sake of the patch, because Anet wants it to be one.

Well, here’s my suggestion, variations of which I’ve offered multiple times:

1. Scepter clones now behave as melee. This causes them to cluster onto their target, making scepter uniquely suited for clone-death builds, as it would be the only condition damage mainhand that has clones attempting to stay close.
2. Scepter autoattack is now completely reworked
   1. First attack is a slow projectile, basically the same as we have now. If this lands, it activates the next chain.
   2. Second attack is a hit-scan attack that summons a clone on the target
   3. Third attack is the interesting one. This is a hit-scan attack that checks within X radius of the target for illusions, then applies a 2s cripple for each illusion in that radius

Basically, these changes make the scepter clones useful without adding damaging condition spam to the game. Additionally, it adds a highly conditional, but potentially very strong cripple attack to the autoattack. The key here is that with skilled play, i.e. clustering clones on the target properly, you can effectively land that cripple boosted with 3 illusions, and that land combos nicely into landing it again. However, the target can watch the animations and either dodge away from the clones or otherwise avoid them to counter that hit of cripple, thereby having skilled counterplay available.

But nobody listens to me, so w/e.

Archage has bad combat mechanics,etc. You cant compare AA to GW2.

GW2 only real competition is Camelot unchained(AKA DAOC2). However
that is far far away. 2017.

Dei Veien.2456:

Even though they didn’t physically show us that Iwarden is fixed. I believe them whole heartedly and look forward to giving up my days as a interrupt mesmer to becoming the best condi pu clone spamming beast that I can possibly be.
Now, can anyone point out a pretty scepter skin for me?

Is this even a real question? No matter what case there’s only 1 viable scepter skin Princess wand

I was just flamed by a pu mesmer for using ci o.O lmao
He just told me that my traits are OP…

Absorb their tears and convert them into butterfly energy.

Much as I’d LOVE a MH Pistol.. I feel a 2H melee weapon could be even more fun. It’s Hammer Time!

Noah.9654:

Maybe I’m missing something

You sort of are, let me try to explain.

Noah.9654:

but iWarden was fixed

iWarden has been “fixed” before. The devs no longer deserve the benefit of the doubt, and so until I see it in front of me working correctly, I will assume that not only will it not be fixed, it will actually be broken even worse.

Noah.9654:

iElasticity was fixed

Same as iWarden. iElasticity has supposedly been “fixed” before. Until I see it working, I’ll assume that it won’t work.

Noah.9654:

iLeap was fixed and immensely buffed

Not exactly. I’m not entirely sure what you’re referring to with immensely buffed at all actually. Having the clone summon on target basically gives us the functionality that it is supposed to have, just without the pathing issues that they were unable to resolve. However, it leaves us with quite a few downsides.

1. It no longer is a double leap finisher, as the first leap finish was removed.
2. Whether it can still be used without LoS is in question. If the no-LoS functionality was removed, then it was an enormous nerf.
3. The skill will still be 100% entirely useless in large groups. Pathing wasn’t the main problem in zergs, it’s the fact that the clone dies instantly upon being summoned. With the lag in group fights, it’s fair to assume the clone will be dead before you can swap.
4. The skill still has significantly less room for skillful usage without the clone dying functionality. It means that the ONLY way to use this skill is to put the clone out and then swap immediately, because any other way doesn’t work due to the clone dying. It’s no longer something that you can use to play mind games or in interesting ways. It’s purely a skill that you double click to gap close with. This means not only is it less interesting, it’s also enormously less functional than every other leap skill in the game, which allow for gap closing/opening, don’t require targets, and don’t waste the cooldown if used outside of range.

Basically, this change makes iLeap just barely usable, but still crap.

Noah.9654:

we were finally given some form of AoE and usefulness in dungeons

We’ve never had a problem with aoe in dungeons. Mainhand sword cleaves just as well as anything else. The issue is that our damage is still on the low side due to phantasms squishing, and it remains to be seen if the iWarden actually works. If it does, then we’re going to be pretty ok in dungeons.

Noah.9654:

and now we’re a part of the condi PvP meta

If by this you’re referring to the torment on scepter auto, then let me explain why this is ultimately a bad thing.

Firstly, conditions on autoattacks is simply bad/lazy design. It was apparently too difficult to come up with a creative way to make scepter autoattacks interesting (despite no lack of suggestions), and so torment was added. This is overall bad for the class and bad for the game.

Next, this is going to be incredibly strong. Incredibly strong things leads to incredibly loud complaining, and incredibly loud complaining leads to heavy-handed unnecessary nerfs (see confusion, glamour builds, blurred frenzy). So ultimately this change gets us a month or two of fun, followed by some enormous unspecified nerf that’ll probably kill a good subset of mesmer condition builds, and pidgeonhole us even more into PU.

We don’t have to search hard to find things to complain about. They’re handed to us on a silver platter. Yes, there were some very significant good changes…but there’s also a lot of not so great. I’m far too jaded to applaud the devs for the proverbial ‘a broken clock is right twice a day’, and so I’m all too happy to point out and pick on the stuff that is still horrid and needs work.

Yeah, I’ll hold my thanks until I see these supposed changes realize in actuality.

A 30s base cooldown on the new mimic is too long for sure. It’ll need to be at 25 or 20 for me to ever put it on my bar again.

Torment on scepter autoattack is bad. This will make several condition builds crazy strong, and this means we’ll get hit with heavy nerfs in the future.

The change to mantra of pain, however, means that mesmers now have a potentially effective way to contribute to aoe damage in a large group fight. Aoe daze mantra could potentially contribute to this as well. I look forward to seeing how they play out.

skcamow.3527:

If they promise bug fixes in a feature pack release again … Bad Day

Yep, two of the updates were about bug fixes (IE for clones and iWarden). Though for both, I’ll still believe it when I see it. Both have been promised before.

Esplen.3940:

Prepare to be disappointed and dis… excited?

New GM trait – Bountiful Disappointment.

So… how exactly we will be screwed this time?
My bet is on bugs in everything they “improved”, new bugs in old skills, some nerfs called “improvements”, and if some “cool stuff” slips past them they will call it a bug and fix it to total uselessness the very next day.
Call me whatever you want.

So now it takes only one person to completely kitten up your small 5 man havoc squad trying to ninja something when theres just one person inside..This is just,dumb..like really dumb.. now multiply that by 10,and thats how dumb this really is.