Guild Wars 2

Definitely go Traveler over Divinity. Div. may have higher stat boosts, but does frackall for your chasing ability. And let me tell you, folks hate a Mesmer that can keep up with ’em.

Right. We’re serving GoMnomberry Pie again … and no talk from their Gunslinger? I am disappoint.

ANet feared the sheer Awesome, perhaps. Hell, why don’t we even get 2 of the Bros./HoD, for kitten’s sake?

Honestly, as another person what runs a P/P Thief, I personally was hoping for some form of actual mobility added to that weapon-spread. Seriously, how stylish would it look to pull off some Gun-kata ingame?
As for Divinity, do you honestly think a Thief’s stupid for picking Pistol? That’s just funny. If anything, I have pure respect for a succesful Gun-thief. Hell, I know what they’ve got to pull off to secure wins.
Now, from the Mesmer perspective. Pistol Thieves, Bow Rangers, hell … any projectile freak’s why I tend to roll heavy on Reflects. Go on, shoot me.

Too bad I’m terrabad at JPs. The idea itself sounds funnier than all hell, though.

Bloody hells. I leave this thread for a bit and return to the classic crap. Our guys think Kain’s avoiding HoD to hit us, I’m sure Kain thinks both us and HoD are after them, and I’d daresay venture there’re some in HoD what believe we and Kain are jumping ’em.

Here’s the problem, folks. We’re in a game whose concept of simulated “warfare” involves three sides. Unfortunately, unlike the “real” world, the two smaller sides
don’t necessarily screw with the largest side. That’s all that needs said, really.

And folk wondered why I was a big proponent of 4 leagues of 6 servers apiece.
We’d have a lot less potential differences in population/coverage that way. But what do I know, when I’ve only done the WvW thing since ~last September or early October?

1.) I use Retaliation as part of a package. Typical Mesmer’s hp isn’t good enough to solely rely on Ret, but it can be fun combined with Reflects/Confusion.

2.) I personally mainline Mirror for heal. Faster to use than MoRec, and another projectile bounce, when timed right.

3.) That’s more of a build vs. build issue, tbh. I’ve have good -and bad- runs with both
Stealth-heavy, and Stealth-less builds.

4.) I personally tend to run around 40-50% Crit, but my go-to build incorporates Celestial trinkets, and thus packs a reasonable Crit Dmg even if I slant heavier towards Conditions. For my “combat” armor, that’s plenty of Crit% … although, I’ve been tempted to make another suit that’s Cavalier/Valk/Assassin or Zerk mixture. Knight/Soldier’s tough to crack, but the damage could use work.

Touhou Project flashback, much? I’ve said for months an entire Zerg of GS Mesmers could recreate the frigging Master Spark.

This kind of business is why I:
1.) Carry all weapon types for any class I dungeon-hop with.
and
2.) Tend to only run with guildies.

That way, I can run a workable (Mesmer’s usually 0/20/0/25/25 in pve) build, and tailor my utilities/weapons to the situation. Don’t get me wrong, we still can (and do) get wiped on occasion, but it’s at least less stressful for all parties involved.

Honestly – and I’ve done Carrion and Rampager weapons on my builds – I’d go Rampager first, if I want a weapon that can work for both damage and condition. Mainly because of the Dueling traitline. Anything past 15, you’re gaining more from spare Precision and Bleeds, than from Vitality. (Assuming the rest of your EQ is pretty equalized).
If you’re a straight power build, then Zerker or Assassin.. Both have healthy amounts of Precision, some Power/Crit Dmg.

Theftwind.8976:

Fishbones.6914:

Noobie.1073:

Fun fights so far. But seriously, every LV. 80 Mesmer/Engi I’ve came across runs a perplexity rune condition build. It’s hard enough to fight you guys as it is, but adding the runes just makes it that much more difficult.

im with yah man!!!! that kitten is brutal

Nope, not every lvl 80 mesmer. If you were in HoD BL you may have been downed a few times by my Mesmer and he is not running perlexity runes nor is he running a condition build.

This is funny to see. Especially when I main a Mes, but haven’t even touched my condition/perplexity set in weeks. It’s honestly too kittened easy, tbh. That, and it’s even harder to walk away from a Traveler runeset … maybe I need to transfer those boys to my condi-suit

Mooncow.6847:

Mercabre.7123:

Clearly you don’t know VLK

Oh I do. You’re the huge blob of Char hammer warriors with a few eles thrown in.

As for this business … hell, I’ve been partied with VLK guys before, and remember their squad being heavy on Mesmer/Thief. Good at it, too.

You’re probably right, Runamok. We’ve already seen that Glicko does not handle ratings gaps all that well. On the good side, at least this Ghetto has nine servers in it, versus you/us/SF getting stuck rooming together for months.
I, myself, am at least glad that the ANet folk decided to go for a three-League spread. Two Leagues of twelve servers per would have outright killed half the servers in play, WvW-wise.
Now, as for predictions: I’d like to see our boys win it, but we’re going to have to be seriously up on our biz to do so. SF/ET are definitely even matches at this point. We have yet to defeat either Kain/HoD or (assuming they end up in Bronze) NSP. And as we all know, the perception that Server “X” is unbeatable, has a large effect on both
“Y” and “Z”, as far as morale is concerned.
Reset night should be plenty entertaining this time around …

I’m sure it’ll happen, Belle. Hell, prolly the first “League” matchup. And, I still say we should be Big Bro now

Eh, I do well with 0/20/0/25/25. The lessened Phantasm damage and weakness to AoE are offset by the fact I can send ’em out more often.

What I don’t get is:
How long have Thief players told ANet’s guys that the major weaknesses of P/P set are:

1. Unload’s damage being the highest on the set, thus causing a Gunslinger Thief to blow all their Init on #3 spam.
2. ZERO access to stealth or evasion, thus making P/P the only Thief weapon combo
   to lack any means of in-built damage mitigation.

So, what the kitten is with merely a 1 second Immobilize, then? The set’s major weaknesses still persist.

My kitten . They want Balance … then why do Warriors persistently get buffed? And not silly little buffs, either.

Meanwhile, Mesmers still have a goodly number of Confusion-related Traits/Skills … but those have yet to be properly fixed up. Not the Duelist, we all knew he was a buggy SOB.

K U T M.4539:

kingcragus.6810:

man they removed all my posts fs.

Some guy agreed that good players can deal with perplexity…so you must agree that the people who can’t are bad players. Thus l2p issue. But w/e nerf is likely inc, diversity gone, game dumbed down to cater for bads, familiar story tbh.

How are builds “Diverse” with everyone and their mother running the same runeset?

They’re not. Which is why one of my older posts basically TL;DR’s as:
Sure, knock Perplexity down a notch, but bring some of the crappier Runesets up.

As it is now, there are relatively few Runesets that are “popular,” and the rest lie by the wayside. This is not a good thing … in a “perfect” game world, any Rune or Sigil should be equally desirable, and the choice thereof is a “major” choice. Seems ANet’s guys might finally be looking to get things set along those lines, since -iirc- they have mentioned wanting to alter Rune/Sigil effects in general. Good on ’em, I say.

However, we -as players- should try to keep in mind that that process won’t happen overnight, or realistically over a month or two. I will say, however, that the decision to not work on major balance issues during Season 1 is troubling as all heck.

Noir.9218:

My analysis is from a small scale perspective where there usually aren’t enough targets around to get those multi interrupts and also no crowd to hide in to let the confusion stacks fade.

Hmmm. Fair from that perspective … although, we’re dealing with a game -let alone game mode- that has never been balanced around 1v1 or -say- 5v5

Noir.9218:

But, if the current means of AoE confusion application is found lacking that should be addressed rather than introducing a rune that is just plain overpowered in small scale fights.

.We agree there, Noir. I also thought that the original WvW Confusion “nerf” was entirely too far, and a 25-33% drop would have been sufficient. Hell, as is, they shafted Mesmer (and to a lesser extent) Engi … but created a Rune spread what applies nastier Confusion than either profession could do in-house? Of kittening course everyone and their mom are using the darn things!

Noir.9218:

There are some really laughable 6 rune bonuses with 90 sec ICD… 10 sec ICD on these is swing in the air with the nerfbat (if it even was intended to bring perplexity to the other runeset’s level). A higher ICD and/or a lower stack of confusion applied on interrupt is what is needed imo.

I have to disagree with your assessment. One of the most vicious usages of Perplexity Runes is the potential for massive AoE confusion, in the hands of a class with AoE Interrupt capability. Any ICD, even 10 seconds, will short-circuit that ability, since it’s not as if ANet ICDs account for single-target vs. AoE effect.

Still annoyed at the very existence of this “holiday.” Hell, Columbus wasn’t even the first European to visit the Americas … why aren’t we celebrating Leif Erikson Day?

My prejudices aside, go Ferg! And, yes, I am fine with Solstice’s idea. I won’t say NSP as a whole = crap, but I’m quite offended that any group in a server’d deliberately tank their matchup. And of course, it’s merely … coincidence that a certain WvW Co-ord. is in NSP for the 1st League Season.

You haven’t ran a high-Chaos Interrupt Mesmer? Only issue with Chaotic Interruption is that the Chill effect is random. OTOH, you do get a free Immobilize, which helps a lot with locking an opponent down for a bit. Then, Bountiful Interruption buffs you while you Interrupt the other guy(s).

As for Imbued Diversion, I’ll agree that its placement does mangle our AoE Interrupts a bit. Hell, if it were even a Master Trait, I could slap it in my usual Condi/Interrupt build. (0/20/30/0/20)

But, that’s Trait trees for you … Anet really made most class’ Traits scattered all over the freaking place. A non-Mesmer example’s the Burn spec I’m playing around on my Guardian, but at least most of his applicable Traits are Minors.

No! You can’t leave us! EVER!!!

So, who’s ready for more murderous fun?

I just want to know one thing, SF. If we pull a win out this week, does this mean we get to be Big Bro?

I was wondering when I’d see this topic again. And as always … guy Mesmers are just that kitten manly, that they can kill you with purple and pink butterflies, and still look stylish.
I’m still personally convinced the ANet devs are huge Psylocke fans. Mindkitten? Check. Purple energy effects? Check. Butterfly imagery? Check. Obviously, Psylocke was the proto-Mesmer.

Glamour’s still workable … you just want to pair it with some other method of “punishing” your enemy. I ran with Kylia’s Triforce build for a while, and I’ll admit it’s a nasty customer in a zerg fight. Glamour/Confusion, Retal, and Reflects … all in one swank purple package. Although, as with the old Glamourbomber spec, you don’t want to get caught solo with it.
With that said, I’d not at all be adverse to some other method of trustworthy AoE,
considering that a lot of our current AoE relies on NPCs that simply melt in a larger-scale scrap. But, as Alissah stated, ANet’d have to go carefully on that one, else we’re quickly back to “OMG, Mesmer OP! Nerf plz!” territory.
Hell, that’s the good thing about our current state in the meta, less whingers in PvP crying about Mesmers. Let ’em whimper about Stun-Warriors and Dumbfire Necros for a bit …

I’ve got to chime in as a “nay” vote. This game already has a ridiculous amount of currencies. IMO, we should run with just:

*Karma
*Gold
*Badges
*Laurels – but only because they’re not going anywhere at this stage.
*Tokens – I’m kinda iffy on these, and half think we could fold them/Badges together, and set up EQ buys by Level. But YMMV.

@Josh Davis
Frankly, you could:

• Turn the 6/6 to +Confusion Dmg/Duration.
• Add/modify a Trait on Mesmers to apply a stack or two of Confusion on Interrupt, since you’ve (Devs in general) been pushing Mesmer-as-Interrupter for months.

My only concern -yes, as an admitted user of the Runes in question, and Mesmer main- is that you’ll go from “Necessary Tweaking” (which is fine, btw) to pure-out “Scorched Earth.”

@Ocelot
Perplexity with a Rampager/Sentinel spread? That’s one I haven’t tried yet. You’re also using different Traits than I would expect from a Condition/Interrupt build, not that that’s necessarily “bad.”
By comparison, I tend to run Rampager weapons/Rabid armor/Celestial trinkets/Perplexity Runes. 10/20/30/0/10 for Halting Strike/Master of Confusion/Bountiful and Chaotic Interruption. Without Halting Strike,
0/20/30/0/20’s also pretty solid, and amps your Condition Damage in general.
(Can’t say I’m a fan of Malicious Sorcery, since Scepter -while workable in a Condition build- is still one of our worst weapons.)
For more overall Reflection ability (if you’re sticking with Inspiration), I’d drop MS for Warden’s Feedback. Projectile Reflect from any Focus skill, and your Temporal Curtain’s an AoE pull/interrupt. Mirror as heal, it’s another Reflector.

As far as some of your other questions:

• (question 1)A lot of that decision depends on which game mode you’re in. Rabid for Toughness-heavy Condition builds, usually. Rampager’s good for more of a hybrid Power and Condition setup, but glassy. Both of those would work much better in WvW than PvE, since Condition builds are rather shafted there.
  Although, supposedlly the guys at ANet’re looking into Conditions in PvE. I’m guardedly optimistic.
• (questions 2 and 3) I’ll admit I’ve done minimal work with RS or Mimic. I would think that in that situation, Mimic might take priority. You’re tempting me to try that combo and find out
• (question 4) The issue there is most likely the ICD on Tormenting’s 6/6 ability. ANet plopped the ICD in, because multi-heal abilities used to proc Torment per each sub-heal. Between Mesmer and -worse- Med Kit Engineers, that was a harsh ability.

I’d also keep an eye out on the Perplexity Runes, as I recently saw a Dev post in an anti-Perplexity thread that they’re “looking into” those Runes. I simply hope they fine-tune, as opposed to obliterate them.

I’m a big fan of Staff/Mace/Shield. Good heals/buffs, acceptable attack strength. I may have to swap out in a bit here, since I’m working on a heal/burn hybrid spec.

Narsil.6579:

But but but but but but but but but but

Sf and Hod ET and FC are already the biggest servers, joining them would be like going to a playground and chosing the top 4 school athletes to compete agaisnt the other kids wo clearly aren’t at their prime yet to do much…

Ok look DHIOJ is clearly a weaker molecule compared to SFFCHODET which by far outweighs the others according to the Millenium Table of elements, and the ARDR molecule by far isn’t even being near a noble gas as compared to SFFCHODET, seriously , this would create and imbalance, making SFFCHODET oversaturated, unless if of course the NSP buffer was present…

Thing is, the only one I personally came up with was Devona’s Anvil of Madness.
Dark Isle of Janthaven’s been mentioned for months, and Sorrow’s Terrace of Denravi’s Crossing was coined by -iirc- an old SFer during the Glicko Ghetto days.
(Specifically so that the enemy’d see a “STD” tag during WvW…)
As for the molecular pattern, you forgot that the ARDR is actually an ARDRGOM.
Which, when there are enough GoMnomberry Particules, would produce a hefty amount of (over-?)saturation. You must be one of those … Synergetics people.

Yeah … it’s about time for a sticky. Else we’re just going to Blink it up to the top again

Narsil.6579:

Avatar of Belle.9623:

I’ve been reading your thread in hopes there would be something interesting than the ET thread matchup.

At least you guys are on page 2!

I think the matches are dead everywhere xD Maybe we should make a marriage between ET and FC and SF should go with DH or AR or DR, We should form mega servers so we can all make this more interesting, I go for the name Ferguson’s Terrace, or Eredon’s Crossing, and Haven of Sorrows, or Dark Furnace. Then we can storm NSP together and claim throne

Yer late, Narsil. The Super-Servers are as follows:

1. Sorrow’s Terrace of Denravi’s Crossing
2. Dark Isle of Janthaven
3. Devona’s Anvil of Madness

Now, as for the actual topic. Some of us happen to main Mesmer – and, frankly – after that, it’s kinda annoying to level a Guardian. Similar kind of slow OOC speed, more simple playstyle. It’s honestly as if nothing entertains me unless I’ve gotta run my behind off to smash enemy faces. /shrug

Although, I’m working on a burner build, Guard-wise … that might be enough to keep me entertained for a while.

Advent Leader.1083:

Vargamonth.2047:

Advent Leader.1083:

Also, is it just me, or is the war/guard/ele/thief/ranger setup being ‘best DPS’ mirrors what setup Destiny’s Edge have?

They actually lack a Guardian because Logan always runs away :P

Oooh, so that’s why Snaff died. He had no one blinding/stopping (using Line of Warding)minions and reflecting or absorbing enemy projectiles, as well as aegis’ing him. KITTEN YOU LOGAN!

Nah. Snaff was just busy putting the psionic beatdown on Kralky … and forgot about fun things like Blurred Frenzy and Distortion. That’s a Mesmer’s life for you, always getting done dirty by those darn party members … until someone wants a Portal.

One of us … One of us …

WB, DH folks … and Big Bro? This could hurt muchly.

Fine. Just keep yer kittened zerglings offa my tail. We still haven’t settled who’s the fastest gun.

Please. We all know it’s probably going to be us/ET/SF next. It’s been a while, and ANet/Glicko love to troll.

@kuora
Please. And it’s even funnier how the man decided on NSP … who’re currently favored to be the top dog of Bronze League.
Honestly, I’d have a lot more respect for the guy if he backed his own beliefs by going for a “lowball” server.

You know what I mean, Player Character. Mes/Thief have always had the same kind of accusations tossed out on them. And, frankly … it’s not hard for any class to carry all possible weapons and swap ’em around out of combat.

I find it funny how long folk said Mesmer or Thief were the “OP” class for WvW. Meanwhile, Guard’s utility/defense/healing has always been extremely BA. And Warrior … what do Warriors lack, pray tell? AoE/Cleave abilities – check. Interruption/hard CC – check. Speed /Maneuverability – check. Luscious Health – check. Good condi-clear/health regain – check. Still tagging and bagging in a Zerg – check.

Meanwhile … the two so-called “OP” classes of yore are best as solo or small-group
combatants, especially Thief. Although, SB Thief can bag n’ tag with the masters.
Gonna be mighty fun to see who the top dogs are after this next patch.

Heh. Funny thing about Dire EQ(C/V/T). It’s nowhere near as OP as folk seem to think on most classes. Mesmer’s main controllable conditions are Bleed/Confusion. Heavy Dire drops the amount of Bleed you toss around. And, Confusion’s only regained some of its potential due to Perplexity Runes. Necro has a similar issue, but fortunately can toss more Conditions, overall.
Basically, any class who uses Precision to apply Condition “X” on crit gives up a lot of that ability to use Dire gear. I’d have to say, the main class I can see wrecking face with it while tanking would -surprisingly enough- be Ranger. A good deal of their condi-options don’t tie in with Precision.

You wanna play, but not have the stress of T2, selan? Fine, get yourself and your crew down to one of the low 5 servers. (AR/DR/ET/FC/GOM). You’ll never run into T1, I guarantee that. And all 5 can use the bodies.

I could see that working out. Might keep some from bandwagoning. /shrug

Nah … you really wanna kitten off a permastealth Thief? Perplexity/Interrupt spec, with moderate-to-high condition damage. You can also combine it with Phant/Reflecting Focus work for more fun. (0/20/30/0/20 or 0/15/30/25/0)

I’m about 90% WvW/9%PvE, and tend to stick with condition or condition/interrupt setups. Main alts I tend to run around on include Malegryne (that plant-guy with all the butterflies), or Lannka (the Pocket-Gunslinger what steals your stuff). If you’ve fought FC at all, you’ve probably killed (or been killed by?) one of my toons.
I’ve got no issue answering – or attempting to answer – random questions, feel free to hit me up.

I saw Stealth in that fireworks vid … who’re you, and what happened to the real Taquito?

RE: The concept of server swapping, pre-Leagues
So, better idea … get yourselves over here. We can then dethrone the League’s “tough servers,” and tick off a messload of folks what think FC is some kinda crappy server.

Themanbat.3206:

Hello. Does anyone like playing phantasm mesmer as much as I do?

I warned Narsil. Oh, right – this probably counts as me plopping down the Summon.
As for your question – depends on the situation. I must say, a Soldier/Knight-specced
0/20/0/25/25 does wreck face. Been running that one in dungeons lately.
Otherwise, I’m more of a Condition-junkie.