Guild Wars 2

Trait: Last Refuge
Class: Thief
Why it’s “Worthless”:
Simply put, it’s designed to trigger at a certain % of Health. The issue is that Last Refuge is -and has been known for months to be- quite capable of planting an unwanted “Revealed” debuff on a Thief. Rather ridiculous for an ability that should, by rights, be your trump card against impending destruction.
The funniest part, is that it could be MADE to ignore Revealed status. Simply allow its triggered effect to function like Mesmer’s Decoy Utility. Why hasn’t this been done, yet?

Weapon Skill: Vital Shot
Class: Thief
Why it’s “Worthless”: As Einlanzer and many others in the Thief forums have said for what feels like ages, Vital Shot’s rate of fire and overall damage are so low, that it forces
a MH Pistol thief to spam their dual skill for any appreciable combat effect. This is especially noticeable in the case of P/P, where one HAS to spam Unload to keep up any kind of manageable DPS.

It’s silly they even worry about DD, or clone-death in general. The amount of condition from all clone-death Traits combined is a small fraction of what’s getting slapped on you between them/staff clones/scepter #2 & 3.

But what do I expect from a company that originally touted having an “active” combat system, who now seek to remove Vigor (because, y’know, folk dodge too much in fights.)

Rabid Phoenix set
Apothecary/Shaman’s
Knight/Soldier’s
Rabid Ascended trinkets
Celestial Ascended trinkets

Needless to say, the Rabid stuff (Thanks for the horrid condition-stacking system, guys!) doesn’t get used for jack in PvE.

I said this one months ago: would it be imbalanced to alter “Pet gains Protection on Dodge” into “Pet gains Aegis on Dodge?” This could at least allow for a Ranger’s “other half” to actually survive the occasional AoE which would normally kill ‘em off.
The rest of Frostfang’s ideas are darned cool, and should have honestly been defaults for the class, entire.

We may as well leave Rune/Sigil effects out of this conversation, considering we do not know exactly how ANet’s impending changes to both will effect the overall balance of
either.
As for the food business, that’s only an issue in WvW, specifically. PvP never allowed consumables, at all. And a goodly number of the Rune/Sigil sets that further crank
duration aren’t present. (A good example being Perplexity.)

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Advent.6193:

Before we even consider some sort of Condition-weakening Boon and/or Condition, we first need to finally get to a point where Condition builds are equally valid in all game modes. As is, they’re only “problematic” in WvW or PvP. In PvE, they’re not even usable. Fix that issue, and then we can actually have a fair discussion on such things.

They are more than “Problematic” in both WvW and S/TPvP they are simply put killers with very little you can do to counter it. Take -40% food? they take +40% food.

Which, doing so, at least levels the playing field back to 0% duration increase.
This, before we even begin to discuss the differences between condition removal options.

• High Vitality and Melandru/Hoelbrak Runes further cut into condition duration.
  Traits such as Dogged March slice it down further.
• Other Traits, depending on class, remove certain conditions entire when triggered (Pain Response on Thief comes to mind).
• Stability interrupts the application of certain CC and conditions when used, and many classes have access to said Boon (Sorry, Necros, but there went your Fear/Terror procs. Especially if we’re discussing WvW at all; how many Guardians are in even a “small” Zerg, again?)

Now, what do I -as a Condition user- get in return?

• I can’t damage objects for bupkiss, unless I’m actually a Condi/Power hybrid.
• I’m frigging Epic Fail in any “group” PvE content, due to how ANet’s condition stack system works.
• I need to wait longer to see the full effects of my work, compared to a straight Power-DPS player. (This part is fine, and segues into the whole “DoT” concept.)

As I said: the big issue is getting the downsides of (PvE) Condition specs fixed. This absolutely needs handled, ASAP. If not, then “fixing” PvP/WvW Condition specs can, and assuredly will further screw over a build type that is -at best- marginal
in PvE content. Considering that PvE is the largest population of players in game, this is a major concern.

Before we even consider some sort of Condition-weakening Boon and/or Condition, we first need to finally get to a point where Condition builds are equally valid in all game modes. As is, they’re only “problematic” in WvW or PvP. In PvE, they’re not even usable. Fix that issue, and then we can actually have a fair discussion on such things.

That explains it, then. Been looking for the wrong name

It’s not the damage, Carighan, it’s the durability. A Plague or Lich Necro has some nice Health to soak hits with. Also, IIRC, they do gain additional Toughness to work with.
The same does not seem to hold true with Tornado. Hell, if anything, it seems you lose durability while transformed.

Right, then. I agree with you, Atherakhia, RE: Pet AI. It’s been a sticking point of mine for months. The issue with AE is that: Mesmers used to possess it worth a darn, but it got shafted something fierce. From a Ranger perspective, it’d be like your damage Traps and Barrage eating a 50% damage decrease. This, of course, would be both:

1. Unnecessary, since any AE in game can be counterplayed.
2. Offensive as all get-out, and would persist in torqueing you off even months after
   the fact.

The screwball part, is that -and I’ve said this one for freaking months- if ANet wanted to “downscale” glamour builds in large-scale combat- all they honestly needed to
do would be to make Confusing Enchantments use the “standard” GW2 AE limit of 5 persons/player AE attack. But, what do Mesmer players know, anyway … they’re just the ones using the abilities that got nuked and screwed over. /shrug

(On an unrelated note, that name’s familiar as heck. EX-FCer, right? Where’d ya end up heading off to?)

Blind shags Mesmers hard as well. That causes a Mesmer to fail at summoning Phantasms, which count for a significant chunk of damage in most builds. Chill will slow down movement and skill cooldowns. Poison reams your heal abilities. Engineer -in certain specs- also has good access to Immobilize and Knockdowns, both of which will give a Mesmer issues. Remember, you’re fighting a class that needs to be able to control both the pacing of a fight, and the enemy’s movement. Mesmer access to Stability and Condition removal is low, abuse those factors.

As for “Which is the real Mesmer?” Clones and Phantasms alike spam one attack, infinitely. You see someone who varies their attack pattern or dodges, you’ve got the real Mesmer.

Wow, you know Mesmer’s eaten a few too many nerfs when folk begin to call Moa OP.
Take it from a guy that’s rocked Mesmer since Day -1: That skill is the least thing to worry about, RE: Mesmer Elites. Considering how many Mesmer abilities are focused
around “group” utility, most Mes players aren’t going to kitten themselves by using Moa. Hell, as previously stated, Mesmers on the local forum usually advise new players
to only use Moa as a quick troll attempt, and even then, only if you’re a heavy roamer.

Don’t get me wrong. The effect it has on Minionmancers is pretty freaking brutal, and that’s about the only aspect we could comfortably call overpowered. I have no idea how that snuck through into the finished skill, tbh.

Honestly, (and I’d think I’m not alone in this mindset), I’d rather that skill be removed
from the game entire. Not because it’s necessarily OP (except versus those poor Minionmancers), but because a physical transformation Elite Skill does NOT fit
the class. Mesmers deal with mental manipulation, and some time/space wackiness.
How does Polymorph sneak in there? It. Freaking. Doesn’t. >_<

While the idea of a new Elite, especially one that can serve somewhat to unchain Eles from Arcana dependance, is a good thing … Wouldn’t the class be better served with a proper looksee into its current Elite skills?

• Elemental Glyph: Sure, the resultant pet can be kinda useful, but … It’s. A. PET.
  Frankly, we all know how hobbled Pet AI is in this game. Hell, the only reason that
  Phantasms work worth a darn is because their entire attack sequence is locked to
  a single target.

• Tornado: Why is it, that an Ele’s “Transform Elite” is bewilderingly weak vs.enemy
  attacks? I mean seriously: Devs, you’re the same folk who made freaking Plague
  and Lich for Necros (both of which can be hella useful) , but you couldn’t manage
  to help Eles re: Transformations? Honestly, this hurts a guy’s feelings a bit.

The problem, as it currently stands, is that FGS is the “go to” Elite for Elementalists in general. Realistically, we want all class Elites to be equally desirable, just focused for different purposes and/or playstyles.

Brando.1374:

Deadcell.9052:

IMO they should just revert the Necro back to the day before Dhumbfire was added. Since Dhuumfire was added build diversity has been drastically reduced and so many things have been unnecessarily nerfed, traits, abilities, etc all things that would have never needed changing. It has done more harm to the class then good and I think it’s time the powers that be swallow their pride, admit fault to the bad design and get rid of it.

^ this x1000

Agreed. Remove that foolishness, post-haste. Necro did just fine on condibombing without it, and that hasn’t changed. Drop the ‘fire, put Terror back up to spec, and go to town. Was running my Necro a few nights ago, and besides the usual “Necro Gets Bounced Like A Pinball” crap, he’s still a facewrecker. And, I’ve never traited Dhuumfire. I don’t feel it fits an “Underworld Mage” at all. Especially when Necros have Traits effecting Cold and Darkness. Fire? You’ve got to be joking.

Purity/Generosity, we need condition cleaning.
Hydro/Geo

Runewise, I’ve got my main 3 sets (Perplexity/Traveler/Melandru), we’ll see if the patch makes other Runes more viable … but the Traveler set’s set my gold back far enough that it’s going nowhere.

jportell.2197:

Man this sucks… Mes has been my main forever… Good thing I leveled that guard/ele… Maybe if everyone stops playing mesmer…. It will get buffed?

Not really. The only Mesmer ‘buffs’ have been in Mantras (which we all know aren’t terribly well-liked, in the first place). Also, that class/race ratio breakdown some months ago had Mesmer as one of the game’s least played classes. If they’ll cop a squat on Mesmers’ collective faces now, one wonders if the class fading into obscurity is a plan on their part. After all, they’d no longer need to worry about balancing a class they’ve had issues doing so for, then. Would they?

Pirate. We’ve got the sword, and the guns.

1514 toughness, 2434 armor. I cover the gaps in my defense with consumables, generally.
I used to run with 2700 armor, but it honestly seemed to keep me alive the same amount of time, but with less ability to actively nuke the other guy(s).

Eh, I don’t consider that spec cheese at all. Mainly due to the fact that, even with Vigor/Deceptive Evasion helping out:

• The stacks applied via clone-death are small numbers, compared to the more
  “focused” condi application from sources such as Scepter and Staff autoattacks.
• One of the three condis applied via Debilitating Dissipation is always random
  and many times will proc Vulnerability, which doesn’t crank Condition DPS for
  squat. (Although, yes, you can use it to cover your damage condis)
• Hell, isn’t the entire point of the Mesmer profession to screw with their
  opponent’s head? There’s a Trait line called “Chaos” for a reason, one would
  logically assume that psychological warfare is part. of. the. JOB.

If they [the Devs] honestly felt there was a problem, would not modifying the proc
logic of the clone-death Traits be a more logical step than a blanket-slashdown of
Deceptive Evasion? It seems to myself, and others, that they truly attacked the wrong
part of the “problem” that they perceived.

You may as well add Deceptive Evasion to the list. But, yes: I absolutely agree with your overall point. And, I also honestly wonder when/why the Devs went from using a scalpel to modify class aspects, to going rather buck-wild with a chainsaw.

I made a similar point in one of my posts on the Mesmer forum, about how -at this rate- they’re going to eventually nerf all classes in game down to total homogenity, which would suck massively. Fact is, you want classes to excel in different ways, using different methods to secure their objectives; this promotes active counterplay between classes.

If the Devs are, daresay, having a hard time balancing certain aspects of the game, it’d be a lot better -for them- to simply be honest and admit such. Hell, a "We get that [Change “X”] really torques folks off, but we’re stumbling around just as much as you are" sort of response would gain a lot more patience from the players whose chosen class/build are being negatively impacted.

For that matter, we honestly need to just split pve/pvp, at this rate. Balance changes that work in pvp (due to its smaller map-scaling and number of participants) will generally not work in pve -or even WvW- due to larger amounts of space to roam in, and a vastly larger number of combatants. Why this isn’t being accounted for is
beyond me.

@kurtosis
That’s not a silver lining, bro … it’s the crackle of lightning. Frankly, I honestly wish they’d simply admit that they have minimal clue on how to balance certain aspects of the game. Harsh? Yes. But, you know what? I respect honesty far more than some foolish “party line” folk feel needs to be upheld.

And, at the rate they’re going, it’s quite possible that they’ll eventually nerf every class into nigh-homogenity. This would indeed suck, massively. Most of the fun of any game that so much as pretends to possess an “active” combat structure is counterplay. Part of that is the ability to create multiple possible character specifications, specifications that classes are losing to heavy-handed nerf-over-buff logic.

The worst part: This game has soooo much raw potential, man. And, as someone who’s played from -1 day of launch, it rather disgusts me to see some of the blatant
tomfoolery that goes on, RE: “balance.” Especially when so much of it is derived from
PvP logic, and goes on to make a mockery of the other, more populated aspects of the game entire. Meh.

Go figure: My Mesmer gets kicked in the sac, but my Elementalist looks like she’ll get a good deal more viable. Although I, like others, am concerned for the Celestial situation, since both classes I just mentioned can make bloody good use out of that stat combination.
I can see some interesting Sigil options for my Staff or D/? runs , although the Rune changes rather lock out certain tricks that were formerly more diverse (ie. Boon-buff Rune mixtures, or heavy Bleed-duration setups)

(Overall, I do wonder for the future of this game. Seems to be -in general- too focused on the nerf side of the equation, and one would like to see more buffing, across the class/build board. )

I forget who originally suggested this idea, but why not simply swap Venoms to the F2-F4 keys? At least then, you could utilize them without needing to effectively gut yourself for arguably minor efficiency. While we’re at it, the system of venom charges and sharing could honestly do with a looksee and rework, in general. It shouldn’t take nigh-all of one’s Traits to somewhat improve one area of one’s abilities.

tetrodoxin.2134:

The damage nerf to confusion was needed. The nerf to Blinding Befuddlement ON TOP of the confusion nerf was too much. One stack of confusion (4s) with an ICD of 5 seconds is just a horrible trait. A horrible, horrible trait. Combine that with the 50% damage nerf and better cleansing for almost all classes and there you go. One confusion stack isn’t worth anything.

+over9000
The BB nerf’s a thing I’ve despised since its very inception, and -tbh- really needs to be reverted, soonish. Hell, we’ve seen a lot of buffing to both mantras and lockdown/interrupt playstyle. Therefore, why not create/modify a Trait to apply an
“acceptable” number of Confusion stacks on Interrupt? (Thus bypassing the much-maligned 6/6 on Perplexity Runes, which -imho- are a cool concept, but the power level thereof became the issue)
A good candidate for such an addition already exists as a GM Trait, namely Chaotic Interruption. Why not 1 stack Confu, along with the pre-existing Immobilize, which
could both buff the Interrupt aspect, but not get ridiculously overpowered. But, as always, YMMV.

Go fig. I run my usual 0/30/0/20/20 spec in dungeons (P/P for single-target, S/P for other), and do alright. Alright being: if I wipe as Thief, I’d still have wiped on any other alt. Usually run Withdraw/SoS/S.Step/RoI, Elite switches for what I’m dealing with.
(Need to try out the Skelk Venom trick, might be interesting in dungeon runs.)

The problem I run into, especially with guildies or folk who know what alts I tend to run, is that most folk think the Thief’s gonna drag ’em down … so they ask for the Mesmer or Ele, most times.

TheGuy.3568:

1). If your current build were nerfed would you leave the class?

2). How much of a nerf would it have to be (scaling slightly reduce effectiveness to completely break the build)?

3).Would it matter if the nerf was Spvp only, or WvW only?

4). Would it matter if the nerf can with a buff?

5). What type of nerf would most likely get you to leave the class ie stealth, evasion, burst dps, sustained dps, condi damage, etc.?

In order, of course.
1.) I mainline P/P. Most people -even Thief players- would consider me rather “Nerfed by Default,” but the issues of that weapon-spread are their own conversation. If anything, I’ll stick with my current mindset (play less than I used to, haven’t even thought of buying Gems in months), as opposed to full-on quit.

2.) At this rate, further nerfs to evasion ability would be the sinker in my book. My main go-to build’s been stealthless for most of its existence, and relies on evasion/positioning.

3.) Hell, I’d PREFER that ANet started splitting skills between PvP and WvW/PvE.
MMO devs pull this crap a lot, it seems. The problem is that PvP modes in many games are running with a smaller number of players than “realm combat” or straight-up mob-killing. As such, it’s frigging inane to think that both sides can be balanced with the same technique.

4.) Depends on the nerf and the buff, tbh. Unfortunately, most of even the (arguably) needed nerfs in this game have been heavier than the buffs afterward. We should, by default, strive to keep stuff a bit more even.

5.) Like Mesmer (my other “main” class), you don’t “leave” Thief. It gets in your blood, man. And, those of us what know our class will still wreck some whinger in the end.

Here I thought it was gonna be another “Meh, PvE” week. Sounds like I need to Mesmer up on you boys. (cue villainous laughter).

Mesmer (Generally interrupt, or condition).
Ele (Staff, or /D builds).

Meh. I’ll most likely get flagged for this one, but it bears saying. There’s a certain tinge, nay, full-on taint of hypocrisy in this kind of situation. Doing all players dirty since a few act a total fool? Worst thing is; it’s not just this specific situation. Look at jobs, for instance – I couldn’t begin to count how many times I’ve witnessed an entire workforce
punished for the mistakes of a relative few. And you know what? It royally peeves
every other person on the job who’s not the “Bad Apple,” or is at least far less
troublesome.
Unfortunately, this is the (screwed-up) way modern society operates. Basically, "Oh,
Persons “X” and “Y” acted the wrong way? Sorry, “Z,” but you’re screwed too!"

Obviously Ferg kittened someone off. Big Bro, and the Hordes of Denravi? GTFO.

(Guess my comments were in the … wrong thread. Guess I’ll just clone my post. )

Why am I not surprised by this turn of events? Hmmm, it could be due to the fact that we’ve been rather pidgeonholed into the closest thing I’ve (MMO-wise, with my experience thereof … YMMV) encountered which represents a “G” rated forum.
Here’s the issue that the Mods aren’t noticing. Yes, there is a fair amount of griefing, trolls, and (virtual) tears here. However, you have a forum subsector that focuses, as it were, upon a virtualised WAR. With all due respect, gents and ladies:

1. A simulated war is going to run emotions high. Competition breeds extremes of emotion. We all know this.
2. Also realise that for every thing you guys have an issue with, there is also an equal thread/post that promotes “decent” behaviour.
3. And the most important aspect: Honestly, what competitive online game does NOT come with a degree of “smacktalk?” Heck, if you get your company’s wish of PvP being the next big “E-Sport,” do you honestly think you won’t see far worse forumwarrioring? And, no, I’m not just saying this to be rude, but merely as an honest observation.

Eh. I called this kind of thing months ago, when I mentioned that the current cultural obsession with being “PC” is weakening us on a fundamental level. It used to be, folk
in competitive endeavours expected a certain amount of personality friction. Now, we’re rather down to the point where we have to worry that someone might get their feelings hurt. Meh. What ever happened to the old concept that “Adversity Breeds Character?” Or does this concept only apply to the “Real” world?

I dunno, Solstice. We should do that crap again, tbh. Could be funny as hell.

Why am I not surprised by this turn of events? Hmmm, it could be due to the fact that we’ve been rather pidgeonholed into the closest thing I’ve (MMO-wise, with my experience thereof … YMMV) encountered which represents a “G” rated forum.
Here’s the issue that the Mods aren’t noticing. Yes, there is a fair amount of griefing, trolls, and (virtual) tears here. However, you have a forum subsector that focuses, as it were, upon a virtualised WAR. With all due respect, gents and ladies:

1. A simulated war is going to run emotions high. Competition breeds extremes of emotion. We all know this.
2. Also realise that for every thing you guys have an issue with, there is also an equal
   thread/post that promotes “decent” behaviour.
3. And the most important aspect: Honestly, what competitive online game does NOT come with a degree of “smacktalk?” Heck, if you get your company’s wish of PvP being the next big “E-Sport,” do you honestly think you won’t see far worse forumwarrioring? And, no, I’m not just saying this to be rude, but merely as an honest observation.

Eh. I called this kind of thing months ago, when I mentioned that the current cultural obsession with being “PC” is weakening us on a fundamental level. It used to be, folk
in competitive endeavours expected a certain amount of personality friction. Now, we’re rather down to the point where we have to worry that someone might get their feelings hurt. Meh. What ever happened to the old concept that “Adversity Breeds Character?” Or does this concept only apply to the “Real” world?

Heh. I use a Shaman/Apothecary set for glamour or mantraheal builds. Not much difference between Apothecary and Settler, besides which of the 3 stats is the “major” one.
As for other classes, that’d work well enough for my burn-specced Guardian. I could also see a heavy Earth/Water Ele working out. Although, it’d be a very odd build …

I’ve never had these kind of issues with PU Mesmers. The illusions and scepter block are most of the build’s condi pressure. You’re not killing that build with melee/close-ranged damage worth a kitten , and I’m convinced that’s the problem a lot of players are having. Use your long-ranged stuff, use it often.

As for Boons, PU -contrary to what I see a lot of folks claiming- does not grant all three defensive Boons at one time. Like most things in the Chaos trait line, that stuff’s random. Sure, you can end up with all three, but the odds aren’t terribly in your favor.

Stealths are on medium-to-long timers; make the poor bastid burn ‘em. There went the PU benefits, now you’re dealing with a visible Mesmer. Especially if you made ‘em waste Mass Invis or Veil … those aren’t coming back anytime soon.

Folk have to stop thinking of a PU spec as a “I can kill ’im if ’e just stands there” build.
Like heavy Retal Guards or Confusion Engies, the PU Mesmer is a “counterattacker”
type … its main potential is what you, the enemy, allow it to have. Control position, control timing, don’t overextend yourself. Hell, make ’em fight on your terms, and wreck ’em.

You could do on-death builds with 25 illusions, Alissah. 10/25/10/0/25, it’s got all the necessities. OTOH, with IC dropped by 10 points, there’s now an option to do
10/25/20/0/15 or 10/25/10/10(for mender’s)/15. Which, of course, leads to diverse methods of clone-bombing.

Also, I’d freaking LOVE it if Mesmer C/Ds were readjusted so as to make IC less “needed” for most builds. It’s a bit ridiculous that any Trait lynchpins a class’ efficiency so kittened much.

Heh. Have you tried this using PU and Chaos Storm for additional Aegis blocks/Burning? Could be interesting, with the Malice from an all-Dire build.
Otherwise, nasty build … wish I’d have thought of it.
How does your anti-Zerg survivability match up with that from the Immortal build?

AlexEBT.7240:

Excalibur.9748:

What: Sanduskel’s Thief
Why: Too stronk

Oh no, what have you done, you have summoned “he who should not be named”. He’ll be here in a few minutes telling you how decent thieves don’t use permastealth at least 50 times in the same thread now.

You cannot “summon” something that would -most likely- appear of its own volition.
Eh, I suppose I can’t give the guy too much crap, considering I run my own Thief stealthless. /shrug

In my case, I’d toss a vote behind Mirror. Originally, I looked at it as the “red-headed stepchild” of Mesmer heals, since it heals less than EF, and can’t be Traited, as with MoRec. Started using it during my field-testing of the Triforce build, and I must say:
it never left my skillbar afterwards. Short C/D, inbuilt Reflect-mode … hells, yes.

What: P/P weaponset.
Why: It kills people, without even using Stealth? That’s crazy-person talk, Thieves are supposed to be sneaky!

Mek.2947:

The problem is thief stealth is spammable..whereas Mesmers have these things called cooldowns. I can’t tell you how many times in WvW supply trains are completely negated by a single thief for hours, even with a group of people defending.

“Oh just immoblize”…GREAT IDEA!! oh wait…wut? shadowstep?

No other class can do that. Yes a Mesmer can stealth for a significant amount of a duel. Duels are fast…Mesmer cooldowns are not.

Shadowsteps, while darned efficient, are not infinite. Multiple of them are utilities, and subject to C/Ds. The ones that aren’t, are limited by Initiative. As for spammability, do realize that the dreaded “perma-stealth” build is about to get hosed something fierce, next week.

Xaylin.1860:

I don’t think that the recent increase in complains about PU Mesmers is a coincidence. It is most likely connected to Theives getting their perma stealth nerfed. They are annoyed and want someone else to pay for it.

You’re probably right, Xaylin. And it ticks me off; seeing as my main two “go-to” alts are Mesmer and Thief. And you don’t see me trying to get any class nerfed. I’d rather see all classes/Traits touched up to where wins come from skills, not forum-warrior-fuelled nerfbat.

phaeris.7604:

18-20k and that’s considered power build hps?

I consider my build power with some survivability and i hit 15k hps….

That’s the difference in Thief and Mesmer hp, phaeris. My Thief tends to run ~15k hp, and I’ve got her tricked out in a mix of Knight/Zerker/Valkyrie gear with a Celestial amulet. OTOH, even as a non-SA build, her Armor’s 2700. /shrug
By comparison, I usually run my Mesmer with Rampager weapons, Soldier/Knight (power build) or Rabid (condi) armor, and Celestial trinkets. He typically hits 18-19k health.

Now, as far as countering Thieves, Dammerung: As with Mesmers, a lot of the fight comes down to two things: timing and position. Both classes thrive on controlling these aspects, and throwing the enemy off of their game.
Your job, then, is simple: remove the Thief’s advantage. Especially as a 10/30/0/0/30, you cannot win that scrap on the Thief’s terms, his DPS from sneak attacks will shred you.
You see him vanish, assume a 3-4 sec delay before the attack. Retain your own mobility (never stay still fighting these guys!), then defend or interrupt. Also, set your illusions on said Thief as soon as they’re visible, since any AI “pet” isn’t fooled by stealth-trickery. Movement-imparing abilities are also good to use, since you do not want a Thief to be mobile. Although, you also want to be wary of Cloak and Dagger, if you’re fighting a ?/D build, they can -and will- CnD off of clones.

The problem, as I see it, is simple. Any build that shows effectiveness (even under certain predetermined conditions), becomes the eventual target of backlash in this game.
Meanwhile, the question folk should ask themselves is less, “Is PU too strong?” and
more, “How do we get GM Traits -across the board- to be worth the 30 points plopped down for ’em?”
This same rampant wackiness is what led to the WvW Confusion Debacle, the Shagging of DD Ele, etc. And it never freaking stops. My issue is that: we’re dealing with a dev group who doesn’t go with half-measures, they’ll either over-nerf PU (making it crappy and underused … again), or overbuff something else.

Meh. It’s downright offensive that this is still an issue. If nothing else, at least (once they get to adding more weapons) toss Thieves a 1200 range option. Makes no sense to be the only frigging class without such a thing.

Cottontail.8526:

Advent.6193:

• FREEZE transfers, starting 1-2 weeks prior to a Season, and ending after the same amount of time post-season.

Punish players who just want to transfer servers? It’d be good enough to just not offer a transfer discount… 800 gems only just to pile up on blackgate? Redonculous.

I figured a 1-2 week dropoff would at least help to lessen stacking. Fact is, nothing will actually stop server bandwagoning, without either:

• Making the cost of transfers so astronomically high that most players’ll stick to their own servers. This is an undesired option, and would shaft folks something fierce.

or

• Scaling any and all points/awards proportional to a server’s WvW population relative to the population of their enemies. That would be more complex, and probably a mass annoyance for any coders involved, but at least could account for Small Server “X” getting farmed and spawncamped by Large Server “Y” for “Z” period of time, and still soldiering on regardless.

Note that I don’t claim to have all the answers, merely suggestions that might (or might not) help out.

EDIT: RyuDragnier’s idea could also work. Thing is, is it (with current code) possible to pull off? It’d at least manage to deal with the server-stacking biz, if you could lock WvW status, but not punish a person’s choices for pure PvE.

Out of the OP’s requested options, it honestly depends on how far back you plan to stay.

• 600 range, Staff (with Scepter/Pistol swapout); you’re in boon range for WoC bounces and SC/P does ok at that range.
• 900+ range, GS (S/F for clumping trash, or when you’re forced into melee.)

No, neither of these options are “dungeon optimal,” but that’s the curse of ranged attacks in this game. As GW2 is coded, melee > range for DPS, and Mesmers pack a good deal of tricks to stay alive in most melee fights.

I personally keep every possible weapon on my own Mesmer (and my other 80s), simply to retain options for whatever I’ve got to fight. But that’s just how I do business. /shrug

As a person from a “mid-ranked” Bronze server, I’d say the following (for NA servers):

The concept itself is workable, but needs some fine-tuning. For example, I had originally questioned the first-stated idea of 2 Leagues of 12 servers per (3 of 8 was shot down due to math errors on my end, but I had also suggested 4 of 6 servers per League).

At this rate, it could work a lot better if:

• 4 Leagues, 6 servers apiece. This would at least somewhat smooth over the population issues in most cases.
• FREEZE transfers, starting 1-2 weeks prior to a Season, and ending after the same amount of time post-season.
• Modify the Achievements to account for all aspects of WvW: offense/defense, solo/small group as opposed to full-scale zerg.
• If you’re going to add things like Toxic critters, why not work that in, as a warfare objective. Note, the points from such a thing don’t need to be obscene, just a bit of icing on the cake.
• You should also alter the Season length to account for possible matchups overall.
  I’m sure a lot of servers kept running into 1 or 2 opponents, and almost never running into others. An example from my League was the much-wanted SF/ET/FC grudge-rematch.

Overall, I (as someone who admittedly didn’t WvW as much) would give this first season a"C" average. There are issues, still, but I don’t believe that they are impossible to surmount.

Bloody HELL … I … I … missed … THAT??? (begins sobbing)
Tell me we’re pulling that craziness again, folks. Please.

Don’t jinx us, Zach. MF’s situationally useful, and would get hosed hardcore if the ICD were jumped past -say- 20 sec.