Guild Wars 2

Ayanavi.1904:

… Is it bad that when I saw this thread, I almost expected to open it and see a Mesmer saying Mesmers are OP and need to be nerfed?

No, it’s merely a sad -yet truthful- observation about the state of things in game

Scleameth.6809:

just returned from WvW and I’m done. No more. I’ll take the last position and get map completion in the red zone. Then see if my guild will move with me to another server.
there was about 20 SF and about 10 FC. now we’re just trying to get 1v1 duels…. when one of us gets the upper hand then a few of them steps in and mops the floor with us. Just the last straw for me. I’m not spending another dime on upgrades or siege. FC feels dead to me tbh. no more fighting spirit left at all – nada.

*Kudos to the SF mesmer, though — you are one tough sob and I hope my mesmer can one day cause the same kind of frustration to opposite numbers than you have.

^I hope the same thing. I also wonder how him vs. Andromeda would go. Or him vs Osicat.

As far as frustration, I hear you. It’s getting harder to be gung-ho in a situation where we’re rather completely Catch-22’d. I’d have to say the only thing that keeps me involved is that I’m a stubborn S.O.B.

Honestly, I could see thrown daggers before firearms. After all, we can look to how Rangers use Axes for an obvious example. For that matter, how does a “Nature/Hunter” class lack MH Dagger, anyway? Hell, that kind of setup, yer packing the Tyrian equivalent of Ka-bars, for crying out loud. (Too bad Spear’s only underwater, it’d fit in well as a mixed melee/range for Rangers on land.)

As for Rifles in general, I’m extremely shocked (especially considering the concept of Kill Shot) that they aren’t on Thieves. “Sniper” attack, not on the “Stealth” class? Odd, to say the least.

I’m a mix between the two extremes. Half my gear’s GC as heck (Rampager) and the other half’s Condition (Carrion). I won’t lie to you, I’m still not that buff and die a lot.
But hey, it’s a fun setup, especially with SB and P/P for the GW2 equivalent of being a “bullet-hell” character. (I do, however, wonder why sniper rifles are not on the “stealth-master” class …)

Worst part is, I can’t stop from thinking, “What if this FC/ET exodus had’ve happened in reverse?” Instead of losing mainstay Wv3 Guilds, what if we’d gained a few?

I replaced my blood with alchemical quasicells a long time ago. Asura Thief, my friend – stealth-murdering for SCIENCE!

Safer Saviour.9685:

Because giving Elementalists swords steps on the Mesmer’s toes a little. The Mesmer’s the ‘magical duellist’.

Definately what I’d think. Although, I’m surprised Mesmers step on Ele/Necro toes with Scepters. I would’ve expected ‘magical duelists’ to be the sword/dual-pistol Casters.
/shrug

You do realize, folks give the same sort of flack to Torch? And Torch is reasonably solid, the Mage just needs to be a bit faster.

Right, folks.
1.) We have ‘daze’ on OH Pistol, correct? Why make an attack for MH that also has it?
2.) Sword takes care of Vulnerability. And some boon-crush
3.) Why not:

Pistol (Main)
1.) Phantom Gunslinger:
The Mesmer shoots a 3-round burst (purple tracers, of course):
a.) Straight Shot – Damage.
b.) Hip Shot – Damage.
c.) Trick Shot. Fired from behind the back – explodes in classic Butterfly-Mode.
Inflicts 1 sec. Burning.

2.) Trap Shot
.The animation would look like the Pistol has jammed. Meanwhile (sneaky buggers
that Mesmers are …) the Mesmer’s actually flipped a small energy hex at their
opponent’s feet. A second later, it explodes in a flash of light, and Blinds the foe.

3.) Sidewinder
A counter-move. When activated, the first attack to hit the Mesmer results in the
following: Sideways teleport (ala Phase Retreat) and the creation of a Clone that
uses Straight Shot in combat. (since our Clones love to spam #1 autoattacks)

Kazhiel.8194:

lmao he looks rather like some drugged up degenerate. I’m thinking it’s mainly the necro eyes haha

He’s a Goth Mesmer. That’s all. Although the man looks liks he needs some laxative, in the first close-up. Cool outfit, T2 Light Cultural?

I just know one thing. We’ve lost a crapton of good Guilds and players from Ferg. (And from ET as well, tbh.). And it’s just frigging SAD. I haven’t been in FC as long as Darek, but between him/TTA and ENVY like a month ago, there went a good chunk of our server’s MOST dedicated WvWers. Worst part is, I can’t really blame any of ‘em.
There’s only so long anyone can keep getting crap shovelled down their throat before something has to give. Good luck in Borlis, man. Give ’em Hell.

Lysico.4906:

Only good Asura is the dead one you punt thru the uprights.

God they are the worse race in any MMO I ever played.

Why someone plays them, I have no clue..

oh yeah, the will be a d/d elementalist OR a d/d thief.. FOTM race/class combo those guys

Because nobody ever runs an Asura Thief as SB + P/P? C’mon, man … that’s a bit nuts. Gods know I can make a Human or Sylvari who’s close to Asura height.

I can’t give the OP too much crap. I spent a good chunk of time in Focus-Denial. But …
I eventually realized that the only crap thing about that weapon is that its Swiftness doesn’t stack. Past that annoyance – please fix that, Devs – it’s 100% Bad Mofo.

Crossplay.2067:

wads.5730:

if you want to deal damage, the only 2 armor stat combo’s you should be looking at is berserkers for GS or rabid for staff. rampagers if you’re really adventurous, but not recommended for someone new.

I can’t agree with this. I switched from Rabid to Rampager when I was almost always the last one standing in boss fights but did pitiful damage if my clones were killed repeatedly. Now, with runes and other addons to buff my toughness and vitality, I’m personally doing most of my damage. Anything the illusions add is icing on the cake.

Eh – I’m mostly Rabid and do ok. Although, I have retweaked my trinkets to include Exquisite Coral Jewels. This way, one gets the durability of Rabid, pretty nice Precision/Condi, and some Power for straight damage. Seems to be working well, thus far.

Teleportation, folks. That is all.

The Pale Tree created Sylvari in imitation of humans. Thus, the spare “parts.” Consider Sylvari a sapient plant’s impression of what “people” should look like. Hope that clears things up.

Here’s what I don’t get about confusion-hate. Even without condi-removal, it’s arguably simple as all heck to get rid of: Step away from the Mesmer for a bit, folks. Confusion only stacks damage, not duration. Ergo, in 3-5 seconds, you can go back to tossing out DPS. The only thing wrong with it, honestly, is that it triggers on non-offensive actions like traited dodge rolls. Now, that part, I’ll say needs a fix.

Regarding aaron’s comments about ZvZ: we can agree that it’s not terribly fun. Realize, however, most of that issue is in fact caused by two things: Zerg rendering
(a.k.a. the “Culling Beast”), and – wonder of wonders – AoE limits on players. After all,
most folk’ll quickly Zerg up, once they realize that only siege bypasses the 5-person AoE attack limitation. Which shreds the idea stated of “AOE spam.”

frans.8092:

Then I’d focus on Power + crit or Power + condition rather then condition + crit since without power the crits don’t do a whole lot.

Thus the combo of Carrion/Rampager. I gain Power + Condition from both, and extra Precision on the Rampager side. The extra Vit helps with Thief’s low base Health.
Dip into Shadow Arts a bit for extra Toughness. PopeUrban’s earlier suggestion, RE: Carrion/Apothecary sounds worth a try, however. Especially when Shadow Arts is the Toughness/Healing Traitline.

Eviator.9746:

The tier 8 case is a very special case. No matter who FC and ET play, it’s unlikely their WvW population will ever recover to a point where they can win. It’s actually SF who is getting screwed in that matchup, because as you say it will be weeks maybe months before they can move into tier 7. Volatility, that’s what this ranking system needs.

We can agree on volatility. As for population issues, a big issue for us in FC (and to a large degree, ET’s guys as well) is that SF’s only the latest in a series of servers steamrolling through. Months of eating dirt, no matter how hard you scrap, will demoralize anyone. This then shrinks the Wv3 population, which just continues
the downward spiral. And, I’d be willing to bet this can happen to any server.
It just takes a longer time for larger population servers to be noticeably effected.

There’s obviously an issue with the ranking system’s math. Look no further than the numerous threads regarding the subject: many from T8, which I am a part of. One problem is how many ranking points are between T7 and T8 (I would assume that EU servers have a similar problem, but with T8 and T9…). This kind of thing sticks servers like SF with FC and ET, both of whom combined may equal SF’s current Wv3 population. This is also why folk in T8 (and many of those in SF as well, which should say something) have the complaints we collectively do with the current ranking setup.

As it is now, the system needs to account for population growth and shrinkage more fluidly than it does now. Indeed, it should also account strictly based on Wv3
populations between each server. There is 0% worth of a logical reason why a server should have to blowout both opponents for multiple months straight to even attempt a rank-jump.

As I’ve stated in previous threads like this one: Fine, I can deal with the ranking reset having been shelved, but it would be highly appreciated if ANet’s folk would take
a personal look into the situations of the current server matchups. Preferably from all sides in each bracket. When necessary, adjust the ranking algorithm to compensate.
Such a move seems to be the “best” way to please both sides of the “ranking math = problematic” divide.

PopeUrban.2578:

Advent.6193:

My Thief’s 65. But I’ve been mixing Carrion and Rampager specced eq. That, plus some Shadow Arts action keeps me a little less glassy. I’m pretty sure Orr has both of those specs floating around. As for Prec/Tough/Cond (i.e. Rabid) – I’ve been using those on my main to good effect. Although he’s a Mesmer, and they’ve got better base health to play with.

Its important to note that, unlike condition builds for most other classes, thief condition builds have no damaging condition-on-crit traits. Thus, unlike every other class, precision is not a very useful stat for thief condition builds as your only source of condition procs is a sigil, which alone doesn’t make up for the extra duration or condition damage you could add to your bleeds with something else.

Carrion is a very, very, solid pick for bleed thieves. If you’re the type of bleed thief that likes to run signet of malice, a mix of carrion/apothecary is a good way to fine tune survivability if the carrion alone doesn’t feel durable enough. Crit gear on thief condition builds is simply not worth the investment for the most part.

I have noticed that. The main reason to keep the crit aspect, tbh, is to keep the straight damage rolling. Especially since I’ve been running P/P and generally SB as
a secondary. 30 Critical Strikes (side/back increase, +pistol damage, executioner).
It’s still a work in progress, but as of yet, rather hybrid. I’d slot ankle shots, but it
seems a bit finicky. Truth told, I dropped Ricochet outta Trickery for the same
reason. Tooltipped at 20%, but seems to proc more like 10-15%

My Thief’s 65. But I’ve been mixing Carrion and Rampager specced eq. That, plus some Shadow Arts action keeps me a little less glassy. I’m pretty sure Orr has both of those specs floating around. As for Prec/Tough/Cond (i.e. Rabid) – I’ve been using those on my main to good effect. Although he’s a Mesmer, and they’ve got better base health to play with.

GS/Staff is – when done right – nothing but spacing/control/DPS. An ex-Warrior/DPS Guardian would prolly dig that combo, and heavy shatter. Then again, who knows?
You might try a Mesmer and end up going Condition spec.

Mesmer and Thief. The combined stealth options, teleportation/shadowstepping, and DPS are hard to defeat. Not to mention, Thieves’ Guild/Daggerstorm + Time Warp.

Daecollo.9578:

Advent.6193:

There is still one arguable advantage of current FS. If it’s not a boon, it can’t be ripped or inverted like one. Although, considering the 5 point minor in Acrobatics, Daecollo’s suggestion could work … it’s a tricky situation, and both concepts have ups and downs.

even if it was a boon, how could they rip it from us immediately if we are invisible?

A couple of ways come to mind. I main Mesmer, and a well-placed Null Field’d nuke that boon right fast. There’s also the Necro Well that inverts boons into conditions.
That one’s get a guy if he’s trying to cloak n’ run, or if targeted correctly with the trait that allows for ground-targeted wells.

Also, as for Sarrow’s comment: I definately agree. Although, it’d be interesting to see.

Daecollo.9578:

Karolis.4261:

Daecollo.9578:

Karolis.4261:

I dont see any reason why it should work with off hand skills and why would you want that.

Why wouldn’t it?

Why would it ? Im pretty sure that such traits are intended to work for mainhand skills + nr3 skills if mainhand is involved in action.

Blademaster – Increases your critical-hit chance with a sword by 10% should not work on Impale/Rip and Riposte then.

Or, for that matter: Blade Training on Mesmers. (although, it used to not proc for an OH Sword.) Needless to say, I’d like to think those type of skills should proc based on the weapon type, itself. Otherwise, it’s kinda just needlessly complicated.

Eh … imo, Asura look more like weasels, or mustelids in general. That’s the part that throws me, re: common ancestry. Also, the dental differences … although, both of these issues can be explained by evolutionary divergence. Especially when we don’t know if the Asura have used their magitech to manipulate their own genome.

There is still one arguable advantage of current FS. If it’s not a boon, it can’t be ripped or inverted like one. Although, considering the 5 point minor in Acrobatics, Daecollo’s suggestion could work … it’s a tricky situation, and both concepts have ups and downs.

Re: Attic.
Shatter has a tell, bro. That whole bit where every Clone or Phantasm stops attacking and momentarily stands like they’re stunned. Then the lot of ‘em run at their target. I could see the concern if they just -iunno- warped to the target’s position, and self-nuked.

Now, I will agree with others in this thread on one thing. I main Mesmer myself, but would say that confusion on traited dodge/non-attack traited Attunement swap is – imho – frigging silly.

However – I wonder what folk who hate how confusion pans out would think if ANet had’ve merely moved over the Mesmer skills from GW1. Some of those allowed the ability to completely shut an opponent down. Seems to me Confusion was their attempt at kinda mixing abilities like that together.

I’d probably go split Rampager/Carrion. Both crank Power/Cond. Dmg., and the Precision from Rampager’d help out yer crits. You should be fine for business. And, yea: Rabid can take some time, considering for the Exotic options, a guy has to traipse all over Orr temples – which on a server with minimal Orr-love sucks. (Except for the trinkets, those are sittin in the Dwayna temple.) Now, for a final spec – if you don’t mind a bit of glass – perhaps Rabid weapons & armour/Rampager trinkets (or vice versa)? I can imagine the Precision being rather sicknasty.

Go figure, I went Rabid armour/trinkets. Weapons are Carrion or Apothecary … I do ok, but I’ll admit I’m more concerned with full Condition Damage. Now you’ve got me curious to what I’d pan out like with Rampager weapons/trinkets.

I dunno, Dyvim. Just ask yerself how secure a guy is in his manhood/ability to get women … if he can rock those colours with a straight face?

Although, it could be interesting if done right … replace shatter/blink effects with -iunno- levitating swords or somesuch.

Nah … I’d rather be Grand Sovereign. And get things done right

Nah. Leave the pistols to the ‘duelist’ sorcerers. You know who they are.

Now, Ele with -say- shortbows or mace … could be intriguing.

The problem is that Dhuum punishes even those (arguably few) cases of not-so-evil undeath. I could see a Necro going past a human lifespan, arguably to help protect Tyria from supernatural threats. Grenth, from what we see of him, would most likely let something like that go, unless said Necro abused the power.

As for Dhuum being justified, sure. But at the same time, we can argue Abbadon as also justified – since he got the ol’ Prometheus shafting.

That, novi, is merely tactics. Can’t consider something OP that either side can make use of. Hell, keep a supply of pearls from the underwater parts of yer BL – then pay off ALL the Quaggans. :P

“Bubbles” with a bullet. I mean, c’mon – this guy/gal’s the Tyrian equivalent of frigging Cthulhu! Sign me up for gills, man.

Thing is, OMNIBUS – DS may decrease with time, but one can trait for both slower decrease and more Life Force. Base full-out DS Life Force starts – iirc – at your Health
amount. Besides the timed decrease, it is effectively a second set of Health. I will agree with your comment on utilities/elites/weapon skills, however.

I also agree with you and burjis about learning how to kill a class by playing it. I have an alt of each Profession, for that reason … just need to get all of the silly buggers to 80, first. Or I could get more into PvP.

Rytlock: “That was so much fun, I wish it wasn’t over. Here, lemme hold him up and you can stab him again!” (assuming I quoted it right, mind.)

Seriously? Necro has sucky traits? No, man – Necro has problematic trait synergy.
The only Trait Necro has that absolutely bites is Reanimator. The rest, can be made to work. Now, I do agree that Lifesteal needs to scale better/Minion AI needs love, but past that – the only problem is the same a lot of Mesmer abilities have – namely, LoS bugs and whatlike. (Speaking of LoS, are you at all aware that Mesmer – by FAR – has the absolute WORST LoS in frigging game? Honestly, things any of the _other_7 professions easily hit, Mesmers eat Ye Olde Obstructed for.)

As for being “invincible”: The ONLY thing Necro needs for tanking like veritable GODS is more access to Stability. You are playing one of only two Profs with
THE highest base Health. Death Shroud – especially with high investment in Soul Reaping – is An. Entire. Second. Health. Bar. By comparison, Mesmer has medium
Health, and the invincibility/distortion/reflection/retaliation biz is the compensation for that. Just as Eles have massive scaling on Healing Power/massive stunbreak + condition removal.

As for movement: Mesmer is one of the two Profs with complete garbage for out-of-combat speed. Us and Guardian, if yer wondering. IIRC, most of this issue is ANet originally shafting us there to make up for things like Blink/Portal. Now, they’re looking into handing Portal-esque mechanics to certain other Profs – I’m pretty sure Necro was thread-mentioned as a heavy contender. The Wurm, while not great – IS a teleport option.

You also possess one of those nifty +25% runspeed Signets, and/or Spectral Walk. MESMERS have Focus 4 (not great uptime, does NOT stack with other sources of Swiftness!) Signet of Inspiration (sure – roughly a 1/8 shot of perhaps Swiftness) OR 6 Superior Runes of the Centaur/Air (both of which involve a complete Rune-spec, AND screw you out of things like … I dunno … Runes that would actually allow my Condition-Mesmer behind to: that’s right, broham, STACK more Condition Damage via Rune-spec!).

Frankly, for Time Warp – I’d personally rather the ENTIRE Quickness mechanic be bloody well SCRAPPED – since TW/Portal are what all the Mesmer-haters decry as their main “reason” this Profession’s NUMEROUS bugs should be allowed to lie fallow.

Now, if you’re still with me.
1.) Necro (of which I run one) is a VERY hardcore Profession
2.) Necro is a conditions-manipulating GOD
3.) Necro – for a frigging Scholar-type Clothie – is a bleeding TANK

Enough Mesmer-hate, man. ANY Profession/build-spec CAN and indeed WILL be killed. If you think Mesmers suck to fight, try a bunker-mode Guard or D/D Ele. If you think Mes movement is too tricky, go fight a shadowstepping/ultra-stealth Thief.
(FYI, Thieves have “clones” too – try Ambush or Thieves’ Guild.).
You think the DPS is too high? Realise that high-damage specs come with a commensurate decrease in defense. Hell, also realise that Mes DPS depends on clone/phant action, and can be mitigated in many ways. You want PURE DPS, go fight a GC Thief (mug/CnD/BS/HS) or a tricked-out Killshot Warrior.

Have a nice day.

Hmmm … ever think of trying Carrion/Rampager, instead? Still getting decent hp, but more pre/pow.

Considering I run a P/P + SB Thief … this (or Touhou Project themes) is about perfect:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrEHyYlJjVA&list=PL28C66EA184139C22

I was wondering what happened to Andro. That sucks, man

Iunno – crazy as it sounds: I’d like to try this gent myself. Prolly get frigging gibbed, but it’d be worth the extra class-knowhow. (I main a Mesmer, myself.)

I’ve got both at 80. Thus …

Basically, once the gents at ANet give Ele’s other weapons a looksee, Ele’d come out strong on defense (focus, some from D/D or Staff … let alone those traited Cantrips).
They’re also hardcore on healing. IIRC, their healing power stat scales MASSIVELY well.

Even then, Mesmer wins on two factors: Style (Hello, purple butterflies? Death-Rays from Greatswords? Absolute Mindkitten?). And Weapons. What other caster spec rocks dual-sword mojo, pistols, and Greatswords. Let alone that while Ele is Master of AoE Staff-hits, our Staff is pure RNG wackiness.

Note: some of the weapon biz is arguable. D/D Ele feels like a frigging fighting game character. The problem is that it’s Ele’s only weaponset that flows that well. Especially for PvP/WvW. Staff for them can work, but it’s not great for multiple in-close attackers.
Mes Staff is functionally the opposite, in that it works better in close combat, so as to proc more boons from WoC/slap more conditions on enemies.

Yea, had to drop a set of Undead for ’em. Got sick of being left behind the fights.

I stuck around last night till about 2:00 AM. Saw a few of your Guild around. Let me be one of the many Ferg players to thank the lot of you. Gods know we could use a night squad.

Frankly, Ruufio – it could be far worse. I run condition Mesmer myself, although I usually slot phantasmal defender for more defense. Imagine eating all of those conditions, and then half of the damage you throw goes to the defender, instead of the Mesmer. Short c/d, too – go ‘head, kill him, I’ll just remake him.

Honestly, however – realise one thing. Depending on the Mesmer, their condition removal might just suck all sorts of eggs. I run Necro on occasion, your heal/1 well (2 if you consider the well that inverts your conditions > boons) work wonders on a conditions user. Let alone, that Bad Mofo, Corrupt Boon.

Male Sylvari: Malegryne

EasymodeX.4062:

Stiv.1820:

I really don’t see them nerfing mug. Thief burst is the bread and butter for them in tPvP. Without it they are useless.

ANet mistake #1: WvW uses the PvE ruleset/gear.

qqqqqqqqqq

My face hit my desk when I read about their decision in beta.

I honestly feel it works, for one reason. Fact is, WvW is one big free-for-all. The only issue is when some poor uplevelled noob in blues runs into a “proper” 80. Exotics out the anus, and all that. If anything, it’s arguably the pvp separation (while understandable) that throws the whole biz out the bloody windows.

Heh – my Thief was holding Langor from SF’s clutches a coupla nights ago. Of course, then they multiplied from ~5 to 15, and I ran her lil Asura self outta there. Stealth is yer friend, when yer packing 11.4k hp and about to get smashed into the walls.