Guild Wars 2

Liewec.2896:

they’ve already said that they will pander to you folks by re-adding the pvp past rewards in the future…
because prestige means nothing to the devs apparently.

i’d hope its a long way away so our pvp prestige rewards can remain special for a little while longer, but i doubt it, it’s probably going to be vendor bought in HoT.

Oh, come on. Get over yourself. I have these skins and there is nothing prestige about having them. They are considered ugly by a whole lot of us players, which is why you don’t see them often. It was a slight bit RNGaben and/or something you crafted in the Mystic Toilet with a recipe while it were available. I’m all for them bringing them back. Prestige can come from harder to earn skins, not these. They were not hard to earn.

The new sPvP Legendary back piece, that will be prestige to own and showcase. A full set of Luminescent armor, that is prestige, it takes some effort to create it. The whole set of Glorious armor is also prestige enough in its own right, it takes effort and time to get the whole set, and it’s a good enough indicator that you do a decent amount of sPvP.

It’s 10 man raids. Chances are we will be more than capable of using LFG to do them. Sure, initially raids will be challenging, but I doubt we can’t PuG through them after a little while.

Not heard anything about any boycotts, no. It’s probably just your friends. I have gotten well over 5000 hours of excellent fun out of Guild Wars 2 so far, and foresee more fun coming with the release of HoT. I ain’t going to start complaining about not getting my money’s worth or complain about pricing. It’s not like I have to pay a subscription, nor is the Gem Store forcing me into it, whatever I spend there is purely because I want to spend it there, not out of any sort of necessity to stay competitive.

Haven’t received a single RMT whisper at all, not in Queensdale, Lion’s Arch, Divinity’s Reach. Remember we’ve had some RMT spam for a long time now. It’s still above and beyond better than how it were 3 years ago.

I think Free to Play users do need to have the ability to whisper someone. Not having access to map already limits their ability to ask for help. It’s not always that someone is right there next to you. But you may very well see someone talk in /map (I assume they can read it, just not talk in it—I might be wrong) or someone with a Commander tag, willing to help answer questions or assist in overcoming something.

I also hear some F2P players say they can’t Join each other when in different overflows. This is a huge oversight, even if it’s well intended by ArenaNet. A MMORPG is more fun with friends. Being separated through the Megaserver system, with no way of joining up with your friends seems like a lousy experience. That needs to be hotfixed, and fast, if that is the case. They said they were in party, that they had each other on their friends list. And were frustrated they couldn’t play together, something they had been excited about being able to do when trying out the game now that it’s free.

Yes, limit F2P accounts to some extent, but don’t make it a miserable experience. I felt bad for those F2P players who were seemingly struggling to group up.

Dragon Ruler X.8512:

I know this is a bit of a stretch considering how outfits seem to work, but can we have a “Helmet Toggle”?

Currently I don’t like the helmet involved with this outfit, but I love everything else about it. I like the face I put on this character, but I’d like a “battle-mode” version using my helm that I have selected for my normal skin.

Could this be a feature in the future?

Hide your armor’s head armor to hide an outfit’s head armor. This does not work for shoulders/gloves however. I really wish outfits would be made into separate pieces of armor by now, mixable together with our other equipment skins. At this point, we’d have so much variety in custom appearances, but are limited by this rather annoying limitation of the outfit system. I also believe this would financially be smarter by ArenaNet, as someone may not want a full outfit, but perhaps wants just the gloves, or the coat, the head piece, etc.—meaning people would buy a full outfit that they otherwise wouldn’t, to get a specific skin piece. Outfits, financially, are likely not as great a revenue potential as individual pieces would be.

Cynz.9437:

Fay.2357:

apharma.3741:

Yeah I’ve got my eye on this but we’ll see how it goes in the reveals and stuff. Just as mesmers wouldn’t/didn’t like people crying about chrono being OP before release and everything I don’t think we should cry either.

I don’t think it seems OP, but I’m a little miffed at them giving power block mechanics to another class, particularly the one that’s immune to it.

but it is totally OK for mes have mechanics from other classes lol

Who says those other professions haven’t taken their mechanics from Mesmers? We are the glorious master profession after all. Look, we got butterflies. Can you compete with that? Didn’t think so. They totally stole their mechanics from us. Totally.

Here’s an idea, create two new characters (or use the name change option through the Gem Store), name them with the same surname. Craft and/or buy each other rings. Wear the Wedding outfit. Roleplay that you are getting married. Exchange rings. /emote a kiss. Done.—Let’s not make it a necessity to get virtually married by granting special bonuses in doing so. What’d be next? Virtual divorce? Do we need a virtual prenup system too?

Them old skill descriptions though.. weird seeing the UI again too.
I kinda forgot about the Stamina bar and minimap designs.

Darn it, Big Boss, why do you have to (most likely) keep me distracted during that weekend? I guess I can take a break at some point.. play around a bit more with Chronomancer. But.. Big Boss..

Ross Biddle.2367:

Fay.2357:

apharma.3741:

Yeah I’ve got my eye on this but we’ll see how it goes in the reveals and stuff. Just as mesmers wouldn’t/didn’t like people crying about chrono being OP before release and everything I don’t think we should cry either.

I don’t think it seems OP, but I’m a little miffed at them giving power block mechanics to another class, particularly the one that’s immune to it.

What gets me is that they have the entire thing loaded into the utility, while we have to trait for it -_-u

Our trait is (to me) obviously a hundred times more powerful than their single skill. We can apply it to our numerous interrupts. They got one skill. I agree with Fay that it’s a bit ironic when they are for the most part immune to the mechanic however.

Guild Wars: Utopia

Clownmug.8357:

Don’t really need blast finishers anyways. The only person that actually wants chaos armor is the Mesmer himself when using that garbage staff trait.

That “garbage” Staff trait, especially because it’s combined with Chaos Armor, allows a Mesmer to stay alive quite easily without hiding in “garbage” stealth. Chaos Armor is vastly underrated, and your statement showcased that just fine.

On topic; While as stated, from a design perspective we shouldn’t necessarily be blasting our own fields, but rather be supplying them—well in stating that, then my impression is that you’ve basically messed up on nearly every other profession with access to some kind of field(s), besides taking into account that we also have two field types that are far less sought after. Guardians can easily blast their own- and others fields, as can the Elementalist, and the Engineer (the amount of healing with Shield, Healing- and Thumper Turret is borderline sickening (F1, F2 + double-tap #4, and/or a combination of Healing Turret, Cleansing Burst, F1 + F2 + double-tap #4)—throw in the Supply Crate elite for even more blasted healing potential), also the Warrior with their limited amount, can at least blast their own field just fine, numerous times, for Might at that, arguably the strongest Boon in the game. Thief can repeatedly blast their own fields.. so at that point, it feels more correct to state that some professions lack Blast Finisher potential, and that they are poorly designed on that front.

Being able to blast fields, makes you all the more viable as a “support” oriented profession. You don’t just blast your own fields after all, that’s not teamwork now, is it? We can’t feasibly do this task, as our single Blast Finisher is not only on a rather long recharge period, but also delayed. We can’t blast that field we spotted someone throw down in the middle of combat, it’ll dissipate before we come out of stealth, shouting “Ta-da!” at the top of our lungs. As a Blast Finisher to help the team out, it’s quite simply horrible. I still wish Mind Stab would have been allowed to become an “alternative” source for a instant Blast Finisher. And/or if Mind Wrack could be one (only the now inherent Illusionary Persona source, not each clone, for obvious reasons).

For a multipurpose approach to Mesmer, I run the following:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW8ansIC1ohlqBmpBUrhlTDycHD5GkBYBBtsErIcA-TVyHABBcBAOb/BxeAAzpEMR1fG4IFskyP309AwBVIAwBwv/mv9tv/+7vf+5nf+5nb4hHe4hHuQAmXAA-w

You let your illusions create some pressure while you interrupt to deal damage and boost your Might, and you stay up close and personal for the most part, since you can deal with some damage coming your way. You also want the Staff projectiles to bounce to you for the boons. Do not shy away from shattering however, it’s a integral part to the Mesmer ars+e+nal toolkit, so if it seems tactically advantageous to do so, then do so. I recommend you build a bit of Might and gain some Fencer’s Finesse as well as Fury before you pop a shatter however. It’s additionally extremely important that you maintain Chaos Armor as much as possible (without wasting skills just to maintain it, unless it’s clutch and you’re about to die), so you don’t throw down Chaos Storm without using Phase Retreat/Illusionary Leap on it shortly afterwards, as that’s a waste—Null Field and Time Warp are additional sources that you can either Phase Retreat/Illusionary Leap on as well, giving you 4 options for Chaos Armor in total (besides their respective perks to the battle). It’s also typically better to use such things as Chaos Storm after you interrupt your target(s), so that they are rooted in it initially, and potentially interrupt themselves while in it, trying to get out, only to be rooted for the full duration—should RNGaben allow it of course. If you do get a bit low on health, keep illusions alive (don’t shatter) and semi-kite for a moment (but you want to get hit a bit if Chaos Armor is up to gain Regen). Again, I stress the importance of Chaos Armor. The combined effect of the Signet of Ether and Regen is actually quite decent for regenerating health fairly quickly, and the guaranteed Protection is a Gabensent throughout engagements. Remember that you can use the 100% Stun to lock down players trying to run away after they have engaged on you, for only to realize it was a terrible idea as you melt away their health. It makes it a bit easier to deal with runners (and if you do miss your interrupts, at least you stun them briefly). Depending on the fight, you may need to re-channel Mantra of Distraction during combat, kite while doing so, but be careful so you don’t get interrupted yourself. Etc.

In short, you’ll do everything a Mesmer can do. But it’s worth noting that it may take some practice to use the build. Many Mesmer’s can’t live without their precious stealth, Decoy/Mass Invisibility, but I promise it is not necessary. And not every Mesmer takes the time to learn how to interrupt properly. But doing so is well worth it. I can’t say I’ve had any issues against any profession with this build. Nor does it take long to kill someone that decides to jump you. I use the same build in sPvP and for the most part in open-world PvE.

PS: Don’t dodge just to create clones, even if Deceptive Evasion is used. Dodge to avoid damage, and create clones. There is a difference.
PPS: I HATE the freaking word filter on this forum software.. it can’t distinguish kitten nal from the plain word for someones behind..

I want to see everything obtainable by everyone, but honestly, those skins are quite frankly terrible. I mean, they are seriously ugly with horrible texturing. If anyone actually uses them because they think they are special snowflake skins, I pity them slightly, as there are so many better looking armors in the game. Luckily I have most of these “unobtainable” skins myself, but I will never use them. I’d rather see that people could obtain the Selfless Potion and Thoughtless Potion again, as I keep getting asked about how I have a halo/horns floating above my head and have to tell them it’s not available anymore, often to their disappointed replies.

Don’t worry, every profession has its place in every type of content. And 99% of the people who are “elitist”, stating such things as Necromancer being sub-optimal, have no basis for which to state it on. They are simply parroting what they’ve heard elsewhere, from a niche group of people who has overall very little insight into the game and its mechanics. All they tend to really know, is how to copy a build that has become popular, or.. meta if you like. They don’t know for the life of them, how to make their own builds, or how to efficiently optimize a specific profession and playing to its strengths.

Are there professions and builds that are easier to play than others? Yes. Does that make them better? No. It just means people with little skill has something to carry them, which is good. That’s good game design.

You can often find more relaxed groups if you just take the initiative to advertise a party with the description set to “casual run, for fun, no cheese tactics” and similar phrases. Not everyone that plays the game is interested in doing everything as fast as possible. Some of us dislike the whole zerk-only mentality that some others have. But they are fully entitled to do their runs the way they want to do them, as long as they are not exploiting the game. I can create my own groups.

So, take the initiative yourself. Advertise that party. It’s not like doing so automatically means that you have to call the shots or “lead” the groups you are putting together. I’ll be surprised if your groups don’t fill up relatively fast, during active hours at the very least (e.g., advertising a party at 4:55 am is not necessarily going to work out that well—though sometimes you’d be surprised).

I’ll just leave three little words here;
Super — Adventure — Box

Ross Biddle.2367:

• Yes you play Sw/Sw, even Sc/Sw etc at mid (to close) range since they’re mid range weapons, and the devs have stated that mes is a mid range duelist.

How in the world do you play to Sword/‘s strengths at mid range though? You have one single attack that will connect from that distance, and that is to get close. Mesmer is in most cases far more effective, the closer it is to the target (not counting the Greatsword auto-attacks damage scaling). Our shatters are faster and far more difficult to avoid if the target is close to the illusions, they travel less distance and blow up faster (at the risk of being blown up before you’ve created three of them granted). Projectile speeds as well, while they can be annoying at a distance, is less of a factor if you play up close and personal, as projectiles that are sent out at barely a few Asura feet’s distance from a target, has pretty much no travel time. They will bounce more predictably too, hitting you back for their buffs. Most of us know how effective Mirror Blade on Greatsword is, when thrown at point blank (unless we want it to bounce to more targets). That’s not to say you always want things to be up close, or that you will always be up close (Phase Retreat sort of forces you out at range for a moment, and/or sometimes you want to Blink to that ledge to get away from damage and recuperate), but you are typically more effective up close nonetheless.

On the note of Pistol’s Magic Bullet; it used to have an annoyingly narrow cone of attack, which is why I said it roots me, I didn’t actually notice they have patched that before now, so my bad—Magic Bullet is above and beyond better these days, when compared to how it used to be. It used to be that it felt like for in order to make sure I never interrupted it through my movement, or that the target moved out of the tiny little front-facing cone, I had to let go of my movement keys, taking control away from me for a brief moment, effectively rooting me. This is something I’ve never felt was the case with Counter Blade, which is also rather good for interrupting attempted resurrects I might add, typically hitting a cluster of enemies just fine. I have never been in a situation where I wasn’t able to throw that out to interrupt one or more enemies (target the one furthest away) from trying to get one of their own back up on their feet, after our team has put them on the ground. Additionally, Counter Blade will come out pretty fast by double tapping, where as the Magic Bullet is tap, wait briefly, shoot (though that is just placebo feelings from the animations). All in all, I guess they feel rather similar in terms of execution, and with Magic Bullet’s cone being a very generous 180°, that is actually better now. I have been rooting myself without the need to do so for a few months.. durp. Old habits.

Edit: Wow.. durp with an e is actually a censored word? Seriously, ArenaNet? . . .

Ross Biddle.2367:

Absconditus.6804:

Hm, I can’t say I agree with #4 being weak, I love that with /Sword. I adore the ability to queue up the Daze before throwing it relatively close to my target and I feel it’s better than say Pistol’s #5 for interrupting, which to me often feels clunky with that slight delay before firing (making it harder to do split second interrupts with it, on reaction, something I feel I can do with relative ease whilst using /Sword). The added option of using it as a offensive/defensive damage/block is rather nice too, and plays well into the duality that I love about a lot of our Mesmer tools. I dunno, I actually like #4.

Pistol 5 beats sword 4 in cast time, cast animation, range, projectile speed, AND effect (bounce > line effect). Projectile animation is also kind of misleading as it doesn’t appear to go the full 900, which leads the user to naturally cast it closer than he needs to.

I don’t play Mesmer at range with /Sword though, that feels counter-intuitive when I would normally pair it up with Sword/. For that matter with Scepter I tend to play fairly close as well, to have the projectiles travel shorter distances. The only Mesmer weapon I would honestly try to use at some range, is the Greatsword, and even then I will normally try to get relatively close at some point for the #5.

Thing is, I feel there’s far more of a delay to Pistol’s #5 over using /Sword’s #4 twice in quick succession (though that may be just because I find it clunky in its execution), or if you’ve queued it up (blocking), and then tap it again—to interrupt an anticipated move. Since I am pretty close (e.g., point blank) when I normally would be using it, I can’t say that I really notice the projectile speed effect between the two, though, yes, the Pistol’s shot is “instant” once it fires and is as such faster. There’s also the added benefit of it bouncing, though you can use positioning to hit multiple targets with /Sword as well, it just takes a bit of practice and depends on the situation. However, for Pistol, I really dislike getting rooted and how easy it can be to self-interrupt it through movement, when all your instincts wants to keep moving. That part of #5 feels clunky to me. The attack cone on it, is also rather small, at least imo.

To me, for interrupts, /Sword just feels more responsive. I can move around freely, there’s no need to stand still to fire it. And it also has the added benefit of not being as easy to predict on when the actual interrupt comes towards its target, especially when queued, unlike with the Pistol, for which it is very obvious with the arm being held straight out. But hey, I wouldn’t complain about buffs to /Sword. By all means, if ArenaNet want to take a look at it and alter it for the better, you won’t see me complaining about it. I already like using it, even though I currently run Pistol, because of the Bleeds and arguably better Phantasm. Soon enough I’ll likely be on Shield anyways.

Hm, I can’t say I agree with #4 being weak, I love that with /Sword. I adore the ability to queue up the Daze before throwing it relatively close to my target and I feel it’s better than say Pistol’s #5 for interrupting, which to me often feels clunky with that slight delay before firing (making it harder to do split second interrupts with it, on reaction, something I feel I can do with relative ease whilst using /Sword). The added option of using it as a offensive/defensive damage/block is rather nice too, and plays well into the duality that I love about a lot of our Mesmer tools. I dunno, I actually like #4.

One day, I hope to put my old Incinerator to use again. One day. I’m surprisingly happy with shield for now though. They did good on that weapon and its skills.

Fay.2357:

That thief is playing the three of you like a fiddle, they’re playing at a whole different level from your group.

The word fiddle can never be the same for me, ever again. Thanks, Kaz; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JuK1Yr35Io

Yes, interrupt builds are not only fun, but interrupting should be a integral part to any Mesmer build, in my opinion anyways. Interrupting does take practice though, and is one of the harder things to master in the game. We’re talking about interrupting some split second skills here after all. Over time that becomes a bit more of a second nature however, and you start interrupting preemptively, without really thinking about it.

Traits; CI and PL are staple choices for a interrupt build. Myself, I run Staff and Sword/Pistol with MoD on my Utility bar—these days anyways, but I’m also a fan of /Sword, or even /Focus—giving me 5 sources of interrupts, with one being more up to RNGaben (Chaos Storm). Personally, for now, I run Traveler Runes, as I hate being slow. Perplexity would be another choice of course and I might swap to that once HoT comes and I’m hopping more on to Chronomancer for that sweet 25% Movement Speed trait (and other things, such as the shield skills (love them!) and a few other interrupt-, as well as illusion related traits). Or you could use anything else you might fancy. Another trait to keep in mind is CS. That 100% stun can be great when people want to try run away, unless you do catch one of their escape skills of course, which is preferable for the Immobilize out of CI. I’m also a fan of CD for that 100% Protection on Chaos Armor (plus reducing Staff timers).

But yeah, you can run interrupts with your shatters. Why limit yourself? My playstyle is in ways like that. I won’t necessarily shatter my Phantasms and clones right away, but I will shatter and burst. I use Celestial to bring both condition and physical damage to the table, combined, as we do that in abundance with some of our weapons and traits. I play defensively, but also offensively (e.g., I try to upkeep Chaos Armor a whole lot and carry Null Field so that I have 3 sources). And I interrupt. Which applies one of the greatest conditions in the game, opponent rage and frustration. Nothing wins a fight faster than opponents that gets frustrated and start raging because you keep interrupting what they want to do, forcing them to do more and more mistakes. I guess I’ve trained myself to play in a “diverse” way though. It works for me.

PS: I run no stealth at all. There’s no real need for it when you’ve learned how to cope without it. Chaos Armor (Protection, Regen, Blind), Distortion, Immobilize, Cripple, Weakness, Confusion, (interrupts) and spacing is plenty of defense. Celestial helps on that front as well. I recommend trying it, I find it more rewarding.

I love Null Field. It’s another source of Chaos Armor, which imo. is one of the most underestimated sources of protective boons in the game (it helps that the conditions helps protect you as well). You can use it together with CI to lock someone in it for a bit, to remove a couple boons, and/or you can stand in it yourself to cure some conditions, often you can create spacing with it, because people want to avoid standing in fields, forcing certain play in your favor. Combine it with a well timed Illusionary Duelist to potentially push out a few more sources of Confusion while you’re at it. I’m fine with it as-is, it’s serving me well enough.

Eremoo.2785:

Disclaimer: Recorded today for fun, I’m not in a berserker shatter build, nor do I have food buffs.

Nor did you even once attempt to use your GS to knock the Thief out of Shadow Refuge, when he/she reset, but simply ran around pressing 1, 1, 1. You forgot to mention that as well, heh.

Three, my main, a human female, a Lv.1 human male (for testing out how stuff looks, just in case I’d want to gender change my main to achieve a certain appearance) and the Beta character, though I guess that’s a “Chronomancer”. I don’t personally see a purpose in having more than one, as it’s not like it costs anything to switch between builds when you already have the gear for it.

Personally, I’d simply advice you to enjoy playing with cheaper alternatives for now. With Heart of Thorns around the corner, why invest in things that may be completely “worthless” to you as it releases. Beta Weekends don’t (tend to) last forever, so we’re practically on the doorstep of its release by this point.

Chances are, in HoT, we’ll all want to play as Chronomancers anyways. ALL of us. Unless they drastically nerf it with a spiked hammer (which may happen after all the (often clearly untested) complaints that popped up all over the forums), as-is, there’s too much goodness in that trait line to not jump at it. One of these things would be the automatic Movement Speed +25% and a reduction to the duration of Cripple, Immobilize and Chill applied to you, by the same amount! At that point, Traveler Runes are pointless, and we are finally freed from them. On a side-note; Traveler Runes are likely going to see more of a price drop with the release of HoT, so you could probably pick them up then for cheap(er), should you want to have a set for when you’re not on Chronomancer, for whatever reason.

I saw some mentions of Ascended, and I disagree slightly that they don’t make a difference. I feel they do, especially when you start investing in the +5/5 Infusions for even further stats boosting and tailoring. I would however not make a set currently. That said, there’s nothing wrong with preparing materials for making any stat combination you’d want by the release of Heart of Thorns though. Go forth and craft those base materials to your hearts content!

As for Runes, Sigils and such, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a few new sets coming with- or shortly after the release of Heart of Thorns. We got new status effects, begging for that to happen. New Fractals may provide upgrades to the current BiS +5/5 Infusions as well.

So yeah, I wouldn’t go spend money towards anything right now, with (potential) drastic changes coming with the expansion’s release or shortly thereafter. E.g., I won’t slot anything into my recently finished Flameseeker Prophecies (and yes, I know that is a big Gold investment per say—though I can swap stats at will, so it’s rather “safe”, and by Lyssa I loved Chronomancer), I’m waiting for HoT. I’d advice you to do the same as well. I’d play around with Exotics and cheaper Runes/Sigils for now.

I personally run Celestial lately, in a interrupt build (I’m going to assume it’s rather standard, using PB, CI and so on forth—Staff + Sword/Pistol|Sword|Focus). Thieves on their own don’t give me too much trouble, but I can partially credit that to having gotten it down to be somewhat of a second nature to interrupt at this point though, so I guess that helps. Right? (Tbh. I think I’m just really lucky with my “anticipated” interrupts, but I’ll take it and pretend I’ve gotten good at it. Don’t take that away from me, it’s all I got! No, don’t!)

Can I have my Chronomancer now, ArenaNet? Please? Pretty please?

Nvidia has that ShadowPlay thing, and doesn’t AMD have some sort of thing like that as well? Why not just use those options instead? Press a button and the last x amount of seconds gets saved to disk (plus whatever follows until you stop recording). For that matter, do the Xbox application even function like that? I thought that was more of a “Press the Windows key + G and hit the Record option to start recording” kind of thing.

Khristophoros.7194:

I just wanted to know if anyone else thinks anet would remove something like this even if it was vital to a profession.

You do realize how absolutely ridiculous what you just wrote is? You want to know if someone else thinks ArenaNet would remove something you will not reveal (rightfully so if it’s a exploitative bug), as if anyone would really know what you are talking about.

Again, report it to ArenaNet. Don’t write about it on the forums. You’re making it sound as if it is a tooltip with wrong numbers. Also, it’s highly unlikely that you are the single soul in GW2 that has come across a supposedly vital piece of tech to a specific profession. Out of hundreds of thousands of players, there’s a high likelihood that several players has encountered what you are supposedly talking about, and reported it. Still, you should do the right thing too, and report it privately so they can look into it.

I’ll take a guess it has to do with Necromancer.

If it’s a bug, and you are basically trying to exploit said bug, well…

That’s the way you’re making it sound right now, by attempting to not reveal this supposedly amazing tech that you have been sitting on for three years. Well, you probably haven’t, since you made this topic now—after three years—but you assume it’s been there for the past three years at least, which it very well may not have been, considering the relatively drastic changes we’ve been through across every profession during that time.

If you are so coy about revealing what you’re talking about, then it’s probably not intended, and something that should be patched. If they’ll remove it, well that’s a different story, but they’d likely balance it, if it is considered unbalanced/unfair, and you sure make it sound like it is.

In other words, you should report it to ArenaNet privately, either through the in-game bug report, or through web support. You basically agree that you will do so in the Rules of Conduct (of pretty much any online game) and not doing so is a reason for account suspension.

Guild Wars 2 Rules of Conduct

17. You will not exploit any bug in Guild Wars 2 and you will not communicate the existence of any such exploitable bug (bugs that grant the user unnatural or unintended benefits) either directly or through public posting, to any other user of Guild Wars 2.

As far as I understood from Xbox own video on Windows 10, that feature should work by pressing the Windows key + G, with any game. Might just be bad implementation from Microsoft’s side for now. As far as I understand, GW and GW2 renders a lot on the CPU, as opposed to the GPU, since I have a older PC with a halfway corrupted GPU (pretty much every game will have texture and polygon corruption) where GW and GW2 runs just fine. Maybe that is throwing the Xbox application off somehow?

Only thing that’s annoyed me about the Elementalist’s downed state is how stupid it is that they can go through “doors” in WvW. It’s one of the cheapest mechanics that has been allowed to stay that way since launch. Yes, you can try to Immobilize, but it’s rather ridiculous that you should be required to do so.

Been requested for three years now. Maybe once HoT is out they’ll finally add it. One can dream. Sometimes all you want to do in a virtual world is to stand around throwing a line into the water, while you wait for the fish to bite and contemplate the meaning of virtual life. I really don’t see why they haven’t done it yet. I’m sure they can come up with a way to make it into a relatively engaging mini-game in its own right.

Well they haven’t picked up the pace on their weekly in-game updates. No Black Lion updates for the last two weeks feels weird, when they’ve had new stuff in it for practically every week, the last (near) three years. And seriously.. a Golem WvW event? Golems being stronger? That’s.. it? Yay? If this is how it’ll be for a month or two, dear Gaben almighty, save us.

A more convenient way of storing Sigils on our Legendary weapons would be very welcome, yes. Sigils and stats combinations often go hand in hand. E.g., you don’t want Condition Duration/Damage on a Power build.

Let us apply Sigils, and in doing so consume it, but make it available (as-in unlock it) to swap to for that specific weapon at will, outside of combat. That means, if you have, e.g., two Bolts, you need to unlock the same Sigils you want access to, twice. Every individual Legendary would need Sigils unlocked, as wanted by the owner. I feel really limited in my Sigil choices for my Legendary waepons, since I swap builds and stats every so often to keep things from getting stale. I consider it an oversight that we can’t unlock the Sigils for swapping.

Regina Buenaobra.6193:

To clarify: $50 is the price of the expansion. We included the core game as a free bonus to make it easier for new players to get into it.

Marketing hogwash. Absolute nonsense. You say that you included the core game as a “free” bonus.. or how about we flip it around and say the expansion is “free” with the purchase of the core game?—Spin it any way you like, it’s still going to be nonsense.. a load of “cow pie” marketing. What about those of us that has been with you for about three years now. Those of us who has as consistently as you were releasing content updates, been purchasing Gems to support your arguably fine work. You don’t care about the people that has been helping you get your salaries, at all? It never occurred to ArenaNet to provide means of purchasing the expansion alone, at a lower price than the forced bundle, as a gesture of thanks to all of those who has been supporting you through these past years—some since Guild Wars’ days?

It’s only natural that people get upset about the price tag, and the fact that you are basically giving the veteran players the middle finger, indirectly saying you don’t care about them, and that it’s all about these new players that gets the core game for “free”. As a marketing lead, that should be blatantly obvious to you. Myself, I’m now upset because you (as-in ArenaNet) are trying to spin it into some hogwash “the core game is free”. How is that helpful to those of us who’s owned it for about three years already? We don’t even get a extra account out of the deal. But sure, those who hasn’t supported you, the new players, they of course get something. Wait.. what? The people who has not helped fund the further development and survival of the game, are getting something extra, but not your veterans? You have to see how absolutely ridiculous that is.

Don’t worry though, as upset as I am now with how ArenaNet responds to the subject brought up, I already went and bought the Ultimate option immediately as I heard Colin say it was available during the PC Gaming Show at E3, because I wanted to support you. Even if there were a slightly cheaper expansion-only option, I very well may have done the same. After all, it’s because I like the game and wanted to support it that I’ve spent thousands of US Dollars on Gem Store purchases throughout these years, for my characters, on Gifts, etc. But you guys are making me oh-so irritated and annoyed with your marketing and responses right now.

People have a right to be upset. You are not acknowledging that we have all contributed in one way or another to making Guild Wars 2 a marketable game. Without the players, you would have nothing, Gem Store purchases aside, as nobody wants to play a MMO with no players. The least you could have done was provide a expansion only option for the veterans of your game.
____

Note: I am not mad at Regina, I use words such as “you” in my response. I am frustrated with ArenaNet. Regina is simply doing a job, and are likely told what to respond by some suits even higher up.

An Illusion is just a dynamic hex to me, it’s just something in the mind of my target, a condition, so I do not exactly see a “clone” of myself when I see them in the world, I see a hex (that is visually represented by my image). People say they miss hexes from Guild Wars, but we already have them as I see it, they are just far more flexible.
____

Mind Wrack, is.. well without the Energy part, Mind Wrack. It’s not the same, but still similar. You place a hex (the Illusion) on your target, and turn it into Mind Wrack (F1). Instead of it relying on energy dropping to 0 and to deal added damage, you have the option to forcefully do so yourself. Otherwise, without it relying on us casting more non-hex skills to deal damage, the hex (Illusion) will continue to deal damage to the target at set intervals. A stronger hex (Phantasms) will deal more damage. You could also see it as the Shatter Hex and/or Shatter Delusions skills.

Discharge Enchantment can be seen as a shatter using the Shattered Concentration trait. We use our hex (Illusion) and alter it so that it removes Boons.

The old Diversion is sort of like Diversion now, more so with the Power Block trait, with the added utility of it preventing skill usage for a second and interrupting. On the other hand, Diversion in Guild Wars created some serious recharge delay. Nonetheless, they are similar in their functionality, both with their own perks.

Backfire is basically Cry of Frustration (read: Confusion). It’s not only for spells anymore though, but rather for everything.

Unnatural Signet, not taking the enchantment part into account, is basically both F1 and F2. Those are AoE damaging effects, and if a target is under the effect of a hex (Illusion), it and foes adjacent to the target will take damage.

Recurring Insecurity could be seen as Bleeds from Sharper Images (sort of), a health degeneration.

Signet of Disruption is basically any interrupt we can do with the Halting Strike trait. But without it being limited to non-spells, it triggers for any spells we can manage to interrupt. A hex (Illusion) can be placed on a target, and we can Diversion it to interrupt.
_

And so on forth.. to me, Illusions are just hexes, I treat them as such. On the note of Guild Wars vs. Guild Wars 2 Mesmer, there are still several awesome mechanics I miss from our earlier counterpart. I miss copying actual skills for one. E.g., Mimic should have done just that, copied skills (with an exception towards Elites I guess).

Schattenlied.4873:

What do you think about solo roaming with mantra lockdown + Defender runes?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8dl0npMtNqxGNcrNyqxY6WO5lTtUpHJ7AA-TlCEABE8AASU9ntUCykyLDuAASpEh89HaT3AAHBgHOIABAQAu5NzmtZwQH6QH6QHa38m38m38mlCIitWA-w

I only got one set yet for my ranger, but it looks interesting for mesmer as well.

I would probably switch up the build a bit, as I think you’d benefit from having at least one on-demand Block, such as the Illusionary Riposte with /Sword. I find the Sword to be a obvious choice when running Blade Training. You can also benefit from at least a tiny bit of Boon stripping, so I put that into the weapon, and when considering it’s a lockdown build, Null Field can do the job to a degree as well, if used right. That also grants the build a source of Chaos Armor when combined with Illusionary Leap/Phantasmal Swordsman, besides it acting as a source of additional Condition cleansing, on top of what is found on the weapons.

Personally, I can’t stand recharging more than one Mantra at a time, and since it’s only to be expected that it uses Mantra of Distraction when focused on lockdown, I swapped the healing skill over to our staple Ether Feast one. The Dazzling minor trait under Domination is too good not to take, with every interrupt not only granting you 5 stacks of Might + random Boon, and Immobilize + random control condition from the CI and BI traits, but also 5 stacks of Vulnerability (with the added side bonus being that it does that even if you fail to interrupt, meaning you (and other sources) will do 5% more damage to the target). I’m also a huge fan of Halting Strike, which when triggered with high Might and Vulnerability involved, can reward you with numbers that’s in the 5000 – 6000 damage range—quite respectable when you are denying skill usage and causing other havoc at the same time.

I threw in a few random traits too (and to be honest, I only popped in the Greatsword Training because it made the stats between the sets to balanced.. so I would probably switch that to be potentially more useful, with say.. a more reliable source of Boon stripping through Shattered Concentration), and swapped in a tiny bit more Healing Power (Regen) + Condition Damage (Bleeds) by switching over to Celestial armor. It has no stealth, but that’s because I don’t like playing with it. Swap Moa to Mass Invisibility if you feel like you need the stealth I guess. You don’t, but some players think they need it for a while before they realize this. I prefer Moa to have a counter against a Necromancer’s Elite skills, Warrior and/or Elementalist healing sustain, as well as for a few other uses (e.g., extremely easy interrupts). A Sigil of Doom may be of interest too. And yes, the Superior Sigil of Generosity is expensive, so obviously, if you don’t have a few of those stored up from our first Wintersday event, you may want to use something else. A relatively similar one would be Superior Sigil of Purity which is also On Hit, not On Critical Hit. There’s a myriad of choices to be had in Sigils.

Altered build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8clknpGtlqxMNMrNipxY6biJHSGwBlslxB-T1yHABKfQAK4CAsmOExeAAJq+DTKB7R5X17PMwBUwLNHAckCCAgAczbmNbz28m38mH6QH6QH6Q7628m38m3sUAmr1C-w

General idea together with the Runes will be to use Illusionary Riposte for its high damage (or dodge baiting should your opponent dodge on seeing the Blocked message, both being win-win situations), while at the same time using it as a source of healing to top yourself back up. Other times, when really low on health, you can probably use Ether Feast to gain the Aegis and have it blocked, meaning it’s a very potent heal. If you can’t use Illusionary Riposte to top yourself off because of ICD on the Rune, then there’s always the optional use of throwing the Counter Blade bolt, to interrupt one or more targets.

The use of this Rune set is a interesting one, but I think I’ll just stick with Traveler’s myself, considering I pretty much always play as a mobile roamer in all game modes, and movement speed is somewhat king in that case (plus the added Boon- and Condition Duration isn’t necessarily a bad thing either). Swapping to /Focus without even getting permanent Swiftness is just a no-go for me, unless I already plan on running a build with it. It’s just too much of a hassle in my book, which also takes away from my focus on what is going on around me, having to constantly switch back and forth between weapons, ultimately increasing the risk of getting caught off guard with the “wrong” weapon on at that. I can’t exactly do that in Structured either, as I rarely play Practice, so there’s that too. Anyways, interesting Rune to play around with, but I think I’ll pass for now.

In case it flew straight past your head, this stress test had one substantial difference from the game as it’s like right now if you are to log in and play today. The Wyvern had no cap on the stacks of conditions it was pressured under. Now that, is what I call a stress test. Up to a hundred plus Bleed stacks on a single enemy, in order to see how it affects the performance of the servers and clients. It still doesn’t get close to how it will be stressed when a hundred player strong army are all contributing with condition damage to a single target, but it was a first step. Other than that, it serves as a free promotion. We take and share our screenshots, we talk about the Revenant, the scenery, the area, the event(s) we did, the Wyvern fight, the Mastery system in its infancy, gliding, mushroom bouncing, the activity available, even firing a sniper rifle that kills enemies in a single shot below.. and so on forth. It’s a win-win for them.

They get data on how conditions with no caps bears an effect on the servers after whatever magic they’ve done to the system, prior to releasing it into the wild harsh lands of our beta map. They get some data and feedback on the Revenant as-is, such as how many of us changed the default build, what traits did players mainly go for, what weapons and skills were used the most? Did we change our Legends often, did we camp in a Legend, did we seem to play the profession as they have envisioned it? Heat maps perhaps for where players congregated, and whatever other feedback we provide on the forums. We also promote the expansion by discussing it. Mostly positively at that, albeit with a bit of caution and worries in terms of how the Revenant may become a power creep profession. They’ve done an alright job with what was presented. But it needs work, obviously it needs more work, it is a tiny beta location for specific testing.

Short version: They stress tested how conditions would have a bearing on the server-/client performance when there are no cap to them. If you missed that, alright, it wasn’t explicitly mentioned anywhere, but players noticed it, and they have stated it was a first step towards lifting the cap and making conditions more viable in PvE(/WvW).

Nothing that unlocked in the Beta test seemed to unlock elsewhere for me. I played the Revenant as well. I even got an Exotic Axe (skin) that I had not obtained before, that said it unlocked in the Wardrobe for me (and I’m not talking about the Mist- weapon that the Revenant started with). But when I later checked if it were unlocked with my Warrior, it wasn’t (as I fully expected).

Perhaps there was a bug where if you deleted the armor piece(s), it would unlock it on the Account, but I fail to see how that would work for the armor, and not also for the Axe I received as an reward whilst playing. If it unlocked by some fluke for some people, I ain’t exactly bothered by it. At some point it will be even more common to see than Legendary weapons are these days. If a few people has it right now, it’s only a temporary exclusivity.. I won’t get my panties in a twist over it.

Nova Stiker.8396:

Toxsa.2701:

Nova Stiker.8396:

Andred.1087:

Nova Stiker.8396:

There is a lot of promise with this class! At it’s current state, it’s not ready.

Really? In the first beta test? It’s not ready? Shocking.

Not the first beta test :P

The reason why I am bringing it up now is I am hoping it’s not the direction the class is going.

• Ironically, it had some of the most interesting traits I’ve seen so far. Puts every other class to shame, granted, there wasn’t nearly as much traits as other classes but it’s clear they put the fun ones in.

_

• In contrast, it had some of the most boring utilities so far and when your class is utility swapping focused, that’s not good. The issue was the utilities was that they behaved like utilities, the demon stance swap is the biggest culprit.

I want to feel like a powerful demon while inflicting denial, instead it was, “oh? You got boons? Swap stances, remove, swap back.” Dwarf stance, the first two utilities felt right, the swirling hammers felt out of place. You got ally support, ally support and… tickle AoE damage?

I get it, swirling hammers and dwarfs but where is the ally supporting focus?
Demon stance is purely situational, making it a rarely used and very boring stance.

-

@Absconditus.6804
I tried using the mace and mallyx stance, I still found the utilities too situational. I could use Unyielding Anguish, or I could move and fight like I always do :\
Not that Unyielding Anguish is bad mechanically wise, but it doesn’t add to how I play, it just adds damage.

lol, maybe it’s a L2P issue.
Demon stance is very strong and has lots of uses. Cleanse, free boom removal + confusion, and the 9th skill can easily CONTROL a whole group of enemies and cause mess CC bar depletion during burn phase on boss fight.

I disagree, I found the stance incredibly weak and little reason to stay in it.

Also, demon stance doesn’t have any condition cleansing. Did you not play the beta?

In ways, he/she is not wrong. You, can cleanse your allies and grant yourself immunity through Resistance, often enough to have the conditions do nearly nothing to you while they time out. It’s an active cleanse of sorts.

Iavra.8510:

If i’m not mistaken, someone did the math and warrior’s Healing Signet still outheals both heals a Revenant has access to.

There’s a good variety of traits that will grant healing as well, not just the two skills from swapping between Legends (even that can be traited to heal (or deal damage) if you want it to do that). They also have rather easy generation to Combo Field: Dark, which allows them access to Life stealing pretty reliably. Revenant does have some serious healing output, that’s for sure.

Soaring through the air looked so majestic, and I enjoyed the glider mechanics a lot overall. I only wish I could have gotten enough Mastery Points to continue upgrading it and see how much better it got at deployment. Deploying it was a wee bit annoying at times, with how you must fall a certain distance first at these early levels of Mastery.

I am more bothered by how I could just swap between Legends and use a new Healing skill. Using one, did not affect the recharge of the other. That is a problem to me, even if there are traits such as the one that grants Fury upon healing.

I had a good amount of fun with the Revenant, especially after getting into how the two weapon sets we had access to functioned, what the Utility skills did between the two Legends, and also after I had a more in-depth look at the Traits available. I even changed it from the default, more tank-oriented build, to it being a bit more of a burst-oriented setup, which relied on switching between the Legends as often as possible. I liked how a bunch of these traits had a duality to them as well, either being damage oriented, or support oriented based on Energy levels. I often found myself in Mallyx’s stance when fighting groups of enemies. That displacement field with Torment is awesome, as it shifts them ever so slightly out of you reach, forcing movement and triggering the stronger Torment damage.

What does worry me however, is if they do not tone down how fast you regain Energy, and with how little recharge periods the profession has, it will be.. well.. overpowered. I hardly ever had issues managing my Energy. And I used skills, constantly. It didn’t help that switching between Legends would let you use two Healing skills, and using one did not affect the recharge of the other. That you also instantly get 50% Energy back and that it actually Stun Break when you swap a Legend felt a bit.. too powerful. It had an overabundance of Stability and I never once felt challenged as if I had even remotely the chance of dying, although that may just be the beta environment and enemies being scaled down to not really present too much of a challenge. Even when I fought the Wyvern alone at some point, I didn’t feel pressured.

There were also a few minor bugs I noticed. Mace #2 didn’t state it was a Combo Field: Fire, even though it was, which is a very minor bug, but I made a report on it regardless. The same field also had some issues with slopes, getting cut in half when traveling on such terrain, another issue I reported on. Otherwise it seemed to function fine.

My favorite weapon set in this test was the Mace/Axe by far. I absolutely loved the mobility it granted. The #4 teleport from the Axe is one thing, but combined with the Mallyx Utility #4 which teleports you to a spot with that shifting displacement mechanic, you can cover some serious distance, comparable to that of thieves currently. It was also extremely easy to maintain mobile Swiftness application with the Dwarf Utility #2 and Mace #3 Blast Finisher, which additionally leaps you forward as you do it, with little to no “pause” at the end of the animation. It was definitely, to me, a fun profession. But I worry about how universally useful it felt, with little to no caveats in its mechanics. Why should anyone play anything but Revenant, when they can near-practically do everything. Currently, this profession felt rather overpowered, at least in PvE. I’d love to get a try at it in Structured at some point, to see how it fares in PvP.
_

Revenant aside, I am very glad to see that even conditions stacks way above 50 did not seem to severely affect game performance. It seemed to run just fine. This is a good thing, because I have loathed the condition caps since launch. At last they may have resolved the issue with people running conditions oriented builds in PvE. That’s a great thing. Finally that will bring these builds up to par with the physical damage dealers, who suffers no such cap. Imagine if your every attack would whiff when more than 25 players were attacking the same target, because there were a physical damage cap. I can’t wait to see what they do with this forwards. While I mainly run physically oriented builds, it’d be nice to see some variety in our PvE Community.

1.) You don’t necessarily need to focus your efforts on using shatters, but I’d encourage attempting to learn using them.

Distortion is an amazing shatter that can allow you to be immune for incoming damage, crowd control and new Conditions for up to 3 seconds (4 with the Grand Master trait, XI – Illusionary Persona, in the Illusions trait line once you’ve reached Lv.80).

Diversion can be a good shatter to practice with in PvE, especially if you wish to practice interrupts. I would suggest the investment of a trait point into II – Halting Strikes within the Domination line, from Lv.30 onward. This will cause interrupts to deal some damage. Note that an interrupt is when you stop a skill from being executed, not when placing Daze on a target not currently using a skill. Keep in mind that you can interrupt with Pistol (Magic Bullet), offhand Sword (Illusionary Riposte > Counter Blade), Greatsword (Illusionary Wave), Focus (Temporal Curtain > Into the Void), Mantra of Distraction (Utility skill with 2 interrupts, or 3 with the Grand Master trait, XI – Harmonious Mantras, from the Dueling trait line) or the Signet of Domination. You can also get a few interrupts with Staff (Chaos Storm), but those are more randomized. Under water, you can use both Spear (Slipstream or Vortex) and Trident (Illusion of Drowning), to interrupt as well.

You can see Cry of Frustration as a weaker Mind Wrack, although it does put a number of Confusion stacks on to your target, a Condition that currently is more effective in PvP, more so than PvE due to slower enemy attack speeds. You can use it to some effect together with the Elite skill, Polymorph Moa, which will make most enemies attack a lot faster, but that’s a tactic very limited in its use.

And Mind Wrack, the damaging one of the shatters. This will be your friend in a lot of cases for damage spikes. If you wish to maintain some Phantasms, I recommend using it with clones you create before summoning a Phantasm, or after the recharge period is about done, so that you can summon a new Phantasm right after the shatter. Don’t get too fixated on the idea that you must have 3 illusions up before you shatter either. You can blow up just one too, and do a little more damage with it.

2.) Don’t see the Mesmer profession as a ranged one. Play with it up close and personal. Most our weapons benefits from this and includes means of avoiding damage, even Greatsword—besides its auto-attack doing more damage with more distance—benefits from being up close and personal, since Mirror Blade will bounce nearly instantly between you and your target (granting you 6 stacks of Might in the process) for a quick and far less likely to be avoided burst of damage. We may use Light armor, but we are more than capable of going toe to toe with every foe and profession in this game. If you shatter up close and personal, your clones do not need to run anywhere, they are already there.

3.) Look at illusions as a visual “hex”, a condition for your specific target at the time. You have tricked their mind into thinking there is something there, even though it’s not. If your enemy is defeated, you no longer have any power over their minds, and as such, the illusion breaks. Get used to (tab-)targeting to a new enemy as soon as the current one is about to die. It may be a good time to use a Mind Wrack as well, to finish it off before you focus on the next enemy, possibly hurting the new target with AoE damage in the process.

4.) They will perform and apply the conditions from your auto-attack skills (e.g., Sword ones will apply Vulnerability). They can be altered through traits to apply Bleeds from critical hits, a select few random conditions upon death, to make you move faster in combat, take less— or deal more damage the more that are active in the world. Their main purpose is to supplement the core mechanics of shattering the “hexes” however.

5.) Most Mesmers will state the same, we lack movement speed. A lot of Mesmer players will load up on Traveler (or cheaper alternative) Runes to circumvent the feeling of being slow.

6.) Blink is a Stun Break, it will allow you to re-position quickly in combat, or traverse a respectable distance in the blink of an eye (pun intended). You can use it tactically to teleport up on ledges that you can normally reach through running. If you would not be able to reach the location normally by running there, it will not work. Mirror Images is also a Stun Break, it’s a way to do a very quick burst with say Mind Wrack. Again, you need to see Mesmer as a melee class more so than a ranged class. The closer you are, the more effective you get, but you are also more exposed to the damage. It’s a trade off. Most our skills has good use if you really think about it. Mimic is perhaps the only one that I consider truly to be bad (and a terrible re-design).

I know this is a discussion regarding our clone generation and how we rely on this to function. But I think we have other more fundamentally flawed designs within ourselves, than that of our perceived reliance on a Master trait through Deceptive Evasion.

In order to fix our clone reliance, from being that which is an requirement in most builds, to becoming a supplement to our profession’s core mechanic, I would much rather propose that Illusionary Persona is to be changed into becoming an inherent mechanic to the profession as a whole, no longer a trait. Illusionary Persona, allows our shatters to function, without clones present. As such, clones are far less a necessity, but more of a way to improve our core mechanic, the shatters. Any and all builds within the Mesmer profession has some use for shatters. Be that if you are focusing on using them as a main mechanic, or if you wish to use Phantasms and/or the death of your clones to work in your favor. Every single build will and can benefit from shattering.

To me, more so than when I am playing around on builds without Deceptive Evasion, I feel completely naked without my Illusionary Persona after having played with it for such a long time. It alone, allows you to get so many more tactical plays out of the Mesmer, which no other mechanic (alteration) does. Be that the 1 second of Distortion when in a pinch and without any clones present, allowing you to avoid that one huge burst coming in, an opener, to reflect that one skill you predict when paired with the Masterful Reflection trait. Or how it allows you to get that tiny bit more damage output through to your target(s), and far more reliably than clones are on their own at that. You can for that matter interrupt reliably with Diversion. And all of these things, has their relatively long CD’s to take into consideration. It’s a tactical choice to use a shatter before you have generated clones, but it opens up for using the core mechanic as such.

I don’t find it overpowered if we were to have it as an inherent mechanic, and that the Grand Master trait as-is gets replaced with something else. But I do find the mechanics of it to be so inherently useful, that I absolutely hate not having it. I hate fighting anything when I am not on my shatter build(s) that pretty much all use Illusionary Persona. We as the Mesmer lovers that we are, want more clones because we rely so heavily on them in our shatters, right? But why not look at it differently? Why not let us be our own shatters by default, in all and any of our builds? As I already mentioned, using a personal shatter is a tactical choice to make, and it’s not without its caveats either, as you are in effect using a less effective shatter by choice, placing it on its extensive recharge period.

I would absolutely love to branch out and use far more and varied builds, but again, without my ability to use my shatters defensively and/or offensively, without clones being a major deciding factor if I am able to do so or not, I feel more naked than I do without Deceptive Evasion. Make Illusionary Persona inherent as a mechanic, and you reduce the dependency on clones ever so slightly. Clones are then adding to a core mechanic, our shatters, a mechanic that is useful to every and all builds in some way, shape or form.

If they separate out solo- from team queue, then sure, go ahead and add some “better” rewards to these events. If you are going at it on your own, and are being matched with others who aren’t a full team either, well.. it kinda sucks when you get matched against a premade team. Especially when you are at the luck of the draw on your team being competent enough to win in the first place, not even taking the opposition potentially being premade into consideration. You can be the greatest PvP player known to man, contribute like a champion and be a carry towards victory. On your own in a bad team, you will not win that match regardless. The system does not care for that. The win matters more than how good you are as a individual.

I’m honestly not even interested in trying to “win” these prizes that they are advertising in their latest post. Not because I don’t want them, but because I don’t feel like I’ll have even remotely a chance when I prefer to solo queue and are as such not capable in any way to ensure that my team wins. I can contribute towards victory, of course, but that’s all I can do. “Just make a team” some might say, no, I prefer to solo queue. “That’s your problem” they may say, and sure enough, it is. And as such, I don’t care to try win anything because I prefer playing a certain way. And due to that way of playing, feel like.. there’s not even remotely a chance for me to get anything out of it. So why should I waste my time for eight weeks? I’ll stick with Unranked instead and just play for the fun of it.

If they made a proper solo queue, with everyone having to be solo, alone, and not with someone else.. then I would be more interested to hop into Ranked. At least everyone would be at luck’s mercy with their team. Or maybe they could work on making a system that actually grades you better, based on various factors. Did you capture a point? Was someone from your team on that point already and not engaged, are you wasting time there when you could rotate elsewhere? Did the person on the point rotate elsewhere, meaning you both did something right and potentially equally useful? Did you come to their rescue by being a +1? Are you at Home or Far? Did you engage and win in a 1vX situation? Did you maintain control of a point under the pressure of x targets until backup arrived? Did you bail after y amount of time with many skills on cooldown, preventing a pointless death when nobody from your team came? There’s hundreds of little things that makes a good player. If a system could grade them properly, and give ratings based on that for a leaderboard, I’d be far more interested in participating to try climb it.

I don’t need something valuable to win though. A Mini Llama is fine. As are Glorious Hero armor, though I think that should be reserved for the World Tournament players. I just don’t like the system if I’m honest, and how if you are solo, you are at a massive disadvantage. One player, can not ensure a win if the team they get randomly is terrible. A carry can make a decent team win. But not a terrible one. Like when the Daily makes it so that there’s 3 Rangers, Engineers, Guardians, Warriors, etc. on your team for horrendous comps. Yay for a Daily that promotes players to play on their alts who they are far less likely to be good at. Pretty much no multi class player is typically good at all the professions they play, they are good at one, and maybe decent at others.