Guild Wars 2

We could always do a few unnerfs:

• Blinding Befuddlement ICD.
• Chaos Storm C/D
• Chaos Armor C/D (and revert it to proccing Prot on #4 Staff usage.)

Other tweaks:

• I’m still waiting to see the ICD yanked off of Triumphant Distortion. Funny, considering that the original talk, RE: TD was that it’d have no ICD.
• Disruptor’s Sustainment needs some form of rework. As it is, Healing Power is probably Mesmer’s worst stat. Therefore, why on Tyria do we pack this Trait?
  As a freakin GM, no less.
• Consolidation of Glamour Traits.
• Buff the darn IMage, already. Even if his current attack were given a reasonable AoE radius, it would at least balance the C/D on ’im.

An addition:

• Seriously. As much as ANet’s worked on Interrupts … why do Mesmers still lack Confusion-on-Interrupt as a Trait option? And I’m not even saying it needs to be for a wild amount of stacks. But c’mon.

Eh. There’s always Sir Vincent’s idea … namely modding the two “same-type” dual sets (P/P, D/D) so that they have a separate skillset of their own. Then you don’t need to worry about what happens to ?/D or ?/P specs.

Unfortunately, this is probably asking too much. I personally would have been fine with some form of mobility on P/P. Well, that … and ANet not hosing the hell out of Black Powder. Guess they expect a Gunslinger to use harsh language for survival? :P

As for sets I use: I’m generally running with either P/P + SB or P/P + S/P. Need my evades, ya know.

Zero Day.2594:

Arikyali.5804:

-Folds arms and shakes head- Fellow thieves, be nice. And Zero, stop making that face. Put your hood or mask back on. Sheesh.

…I’m still welcomed here, right? I kinda snuck over to mesmer…

Traitor!

Lies. Mesmer and Thief can (and indeed should) coexist. Just imagine the combined trolling. :P

And here I was hyped for a good WvW scrap. Meh.

twisted fate.7251:

Wow guys, really old bump but I’m glad I left my mark and thank you for your kind words! The return is nigh! , and yes andromada taught me a lot, and defiantly showed me the benefits to phantasm builds!

-seven (incognito friends account)

Couldn’t escape, could you? Now, I just need to find out which server … and things get interesting again.

I hate to say it, but most likely the one what gets the job will be one of the newer Mes players (and/or an Anet plant). Let’s be realistic, shall we? Most of the older crowd has had minimal restraint in regards to calling out the Devs on horrid balance decisions.

Of course, I can always be wrong.

robertul.3679:

Gronfir.6170:

ninja sloth.2658:

If the hobo sack is ever banished, a tiny part of me will actually be sad. This thread has been a part of my life now for a few years now, I think I might actually miss it.

Don’t worry. It’s been two years and they haven’t even started yet let alone an eta. I think we will all be able to enjoy this thread for a long time.

Future news headlines:
“First man on mars and anet fixed hobo sacks”

First man to travel back in time. Gets a job at anet and prevents the addition of hobosacks. Also he adds precursor hunt, more dungeons, cancels the living story for expansion worth content cuz he is a pretty cool guy and doesn’t afraid of anything.

Interesting idea, although I can’t say I hate the LS. So, who has a TARDIS?

All I ask is that the Mesmer Forum Specialist actually plays the class. At least then, most of the ideas our side would suggest have already been thought of.
Although, I can say that for any profession, tbh.

@Zeluose
That will never happen. We are talking about the same authorities who got rid of the WvW Matchup sub-section, citing disruptive behaviors. Although, thinking that a forum sector based around a competitive section of a MMO would ever qualify as “nice” is beyond me …
(Arguably, the removal of the Profession Balance sub-forum might have been done as a similar move.)
With this in mind, “poll” threads are never going to be given an “OK.”

Wildly overpowered might be one thing. However, I always said if 3/illusion was “too strong,” they could have at least tried a period of time at 2/illusion. This, as we all know, never happened.

My guess would be that ANet considers Dagger Storm to be Thief’s “acrobatic” Elite.
That, and NPC’s cheat sooo freaking bad. Kasmeer’s use of Time Warp, anyone?

As for skills I’d totally swipe from Caithe’s kit, gimme Second Shadow as an Elite. Oh, man … that would be epic. Or Dash, for my Evasion builds.

We have a Mimic skill?
Seriously, ANet really screwed the pooch on this one. I frigging wish the coder in question had have went with: “Duplicate the last ‘ability’ used by (target).”
Would’ve been “different,” and at least functional.

That’s because a DnD Arcane caster (Wizard, Sorc, and/or Warlock) is, by Tyrian standards, a veritable God. They’ve all got too many tricks up their sleeves to compare to any (at least PC) GW caster. Worst part, is that (arguably) Psionicists are even more broken.

Although, for “nuke” caster, I’d have to vote staff Ele in a heartbeat. Mesmer’s closer to Illusionist or Psionicist, with a side order of time-manipulation.

erevos.1629:

Its not fair the pve players to suffer the cries of the pvp players… they must stop play pvp, beside i dont see anyone complain about engineers who they cause 25 stack of confusion with a single hit… these are the mesmers of gw1… xD

Yes. There darned well needs to be a skill split for pvp. Silly how the game’s smallest population can whinge balance changes that nail PvE and WvW in the pills …

We don’t discuss Confusion in the hands of Engineers. Especially (old) Perplex-ineers.
And yes, it is kinda ridiculous that the “Confusion Class,” with a small army of Traits related to said condition/Glamour, got rather … hosed on application thereof.

(Hell, that’s why my “issues” with the Scepter rework were based around speeding up the AA/Confusing Images, and -if any Condition were added- Confusion instead of Torment to said AA.)

Unfortunately, comparing any Mesmer skill we use (as players) to Kasmeer is going to be … rather lacking. After all, since she’s one of ANet’s ’lil NPC-folk, she cheats. No, seriously. I wish I popped Time Warp off even half as fast as that cheap garden-tool.

As for Chaos Storm. Here’re the problems I can see happening.

• As it is, CS syncs with our Interrupt capabilities by way of Daze procs. This plus more damage … guaranteed higher QQ from Mes-haters.
• We also have to keep in mind that CS applies both (random) Boons and conditions.
  Which, honestly, is another thing keeping it from going higher on the damage ranking.
• The animation being modified, however … I could get behind that.
• Also, we’re pretty stocked on Torment. Scepter and its Clones. /shrug

Now, what we could alter, and probably should?

• Unnerf the bloody cooldown, already. That and Chaos Armor.
• Mesmer should’ve had a Confusion-on-Interrupt Trait from “Word Go.” Make it happen.
• Unnerf Blinding Befuddlement. It used to be, we could proc some spare Confusion from Blinds on Chaos Armor. Should’ve never been nerfed-by-proxy, during the overall hammering of Confusion/Glamour.

I mainline a BM condi setup, and occasionally go trap-style. I personally went for a combo of Rabid and Dire. Although, my own build’s generally S/D/dual Axe. You could also offhand WH, for blasting trap combo fields.

This is meowing epic. Almost brought manly tears to my eyes.

Eh, my choice might not be “current meta,” but I’ve had good fun with Air.

My issue here is simple:
I hope you realize, Aylpse, that asking for a Thief’s Caltrops to break stealth … is nothing more than reversing the complaint folk have with a Mesmer being able to pop Phants (or clone-death traited dodge clones) from in stealth.

Fact is, both classes have the occasional trick that doesn’t break stealth (alas, my Thief’s SB /sob). In the Thief’s case, Caltrops are one of said tricks. And, any profession should pack some condition cleanse, period.

DeceiverX.8361:

The real problem resolution pretty much lies in removing the “hybrid” effects of the under-used skills or simply just making them slightly stronger or garner additional effects to make them more useful than the same, repeated combos. This will not only make playing a thief more interesting, but would also possibly open up more trait build options and synergies elsewhere. If all of the skill options are viable, then the whole class feels less spammy, and overpowered abilities like Shadow Strike can be nerfed while underpowered ones can be tweaked or reworked to accommodate for more options.

This is a concept I can get behind. Especially since I tend to be a heavy P/P fan.
Unfortunately, P/P is pretty much the "red-headed stepchild’ of the Thief kit.
Of course, there’s also Sir Vincent’s idea (assuming I’m remembering rightly) of making P/P and D/D their own 5-skill loadout, since -as things lie currently- any buff or nerf to D/D and/or P/P affects multiple other weapon specs.

Another thing Thief needs, is a proper balance pass on Traps, Traits and underwater skill use. It’s rather ridiculous when you can’t rely on ~half of your utility kit underwater; and it’s also silly that we still have an enforced divide between the usefulness of SA and Acrobatics, in regards to condition clear and self-sustain options.

For males, I’d say Asura.

Now, for “best,” IMO? Female Sylvari. You get the “floaty” Meteors, and a darned good VA.

One Charrdian. (The fun part’s that he’s Iron Legion.)
If I snagged a spare slot at some point, I wouldn’t mind an Asura.

Eh. I’ve always been a fan of making a “light-based” form of condition attack. It’d fit the flame and spiritual wrath angle Guardians have, and shouldn’t verge too far into the turf called “OP.” Another option could apply damage for Blinds placed on the target, or what have you. In relation to the idea of Torment, maybe something that triggers upon Burns? (Could be a concept of “burning away” at the target’s spirit/will?)

As for Supreme Justice and Permeating Wrath, I use -and like- both on my Guard alt. However, it’s not easy to cover all the Burns, as things lie.

A 1200 range power weapon on Necro could work pretty well, tbh. As far as a hybrid pow/condi close-range … Torch, maybe? Occultist Flame’s even got that nice shade of green.

I wouldn’t use the combo on my Mes or Thief. However, I’m pretty interested in how it could work out on my Necro. I was thinking -maybe- a mark/well spec, using Sinister.

Along those lines, I’d really want that bone wall of Marjory’s for my Necro. As for GS on Necros in general, let’s be honest … that’s been asked for since Trahearne pulled out Caladbolg.

Could be interesting, sure. But, I’d personally want to see “actual” Scythe or (land)Spear. /shrug

As much as the idea of Sinister sounds pretty darned cool, you’re still glass. Glass on a condi build isn’t the greatest choice, due to the nature of Damage-over-Time attacks.
Although, I could see it working extremely well on classes with higher overall Condition
setups. For example, Engineer or Necro, since they pack a buttload of tossable Condis.

Of course, I could be wrong, and one of you guys pulls a mean Sinister Maim build.
/shrug

Just call me paranoid, then. But I’m a firm believer in only releasing what info I want put out there. But, free country and all that jazz. As for Chrome/Chromium, I’ll admit that Google made one mofo of a browser. Thing’s fast as heck, and I mainly keep the ‘fox around because I’ve been tweaking installs of it for years.

As for GParted, I’ve nothing bad to say about that project. And, you do have a point RE: dualboots. At least running straight Linux, my only “problems” have been getting games to run right through WINE.

Fay.2357:

I know it’s really easy to put together an ubuntu boot disk, I used to use one for partitioning.

I used to swear by Parted Magic. Unfortunately, they went commercial sometime this year. Been looking into replacements, considering I usually build a multiboot USB (one installable distro, then at least one dedicated repair/partition setup.)

Fay.2357:

Yeah, it’s pretty disgusting. Purging my PC of whatever AV came with it is usually one of the first things I do, right after purging it of IE.

Surprisingly enough, Microsoft Security Essentials works pretty well. Bonus point is that it doesn’t tie up a lot of cpu cycles or disk space. Hell, only reason my last drive died was down to mechanical failure.

As for browsers? Firefox and Chromium (Chrome minus a lot of Google’s inbuilt tracking crap, for those in the thread who might not have used it.). I can keep both running snappy enough, and they’re usable cross-platform.

My own setup’s usually 0/6/0/2/6, and I must say: I get in plenty of LR strikes. It’s even funnier when that happens and the Air/Fire Sigils kick off.

Hmmm. Let’s plop in an Engi-logical way this could work out.

• Built-in rockets? Hell, the ’nades do have a trail behind ’em.
• Lighter-than-air gasses used in the construction of the grenade casing?
• Powered assist options in Engineer armor?
• Engineer. Combat. Drugs.

You know it’s bad when a Mesmer/Thief main has to weigh in, here.

Guard has everything? Not even close.

• Only “ranged” weapon is Scepter, which is arguably the slowest-firing Scepter in game. (Not to mention that Smite should seriously be a Symbol, already.).
• Second-crappiest OOC movespeed in game, only surpassed by Mesmers.
• As previously mentioned, soft CC is a thing that Guards don’t pack much of.
• I’ll admit I’ve had unkind things to say about Empower … especially after the buffing and uber-quick nerfing of Shattered Strength. However, its duration isn’t horribly long.
• Basically, it’s not that Guard is overpowered. It’s that they’re good at buffing themselves and others. And honestly, with no Stealth option (ala Thief or Mesmer), they need something besides the “Heavy Armor” classification to keep ’em alive.

As for other things mentioned in the OP:
Neither Mesmer or Ranger are one-dimensional. Truth is, if the buggiest parts of both classes (Pet AI, certain Traits being hardcore underwhelming, et cetera.) were fixed, you’d have two extremely versatile Professions. As is, even buggy, both can be built pretty darned effective.

Meh. This thread brings me back … Back when WvW Confusion was the big “to-do” for mass QQ, I had stated that anything that didn’t trigger an “attack” effect should’ve been considered unpunishable. This would save trouble in cases of (certain) Attunement swaps/defensively-traited dodging/most Kit manipulation. It’s also a “logical” ground rule, considering how ANet coded Confusion as an “attack punisher.”

With that in mind, I could see weapon swapping being generally “OK,” unless yer using a Sigil that generates an attack-oriented effect. (i.e. Hydro or Geomancy.)

Not to mention, if it were tightened up in the “how” of its effects, the overall effect might be able to get pulled up a notch. But, that’s a different argument entire. (Said argument being that ANet’s design of Confusion, overall … seems to have been a case of trying to put too many eggs in one basket.)

I would assume that build’s probably part mantra and part ‘rupt. I’d most likely build it as: 0/4/6/4/0. IIRC, that’d allow for CI/RM/Mender’s. I’d also take BI for boons, MoRec/MoD/MoP/Debilitating Dissipation. Staff/Scepter/Focus for weapons loadout. Half Dire/Half Rabid for armor/trinkets, maybe 1/3 Dire to 2/3 Rabid.

Problem like that, I’d probably not even try to fix from Windows itself. Now, booting up a live disk with some AV on it … you could find and destroy the afflicted files quickly enough, assuming your AV has the needed signatures. (Needless to say, there’s a reason my old drive was dualbooted. Back then, Windows got questionable, I’d swap to Linux and see what I could slap back into order.)
Maybe System Rescue Disk or Hiren’s Boot CD?

As for Swish’s Norton comment: Been there, got the scars. Amazing that those chaps are even still allowed in the biz, considering that their AV product locks into your system’s innards, as if it were PC Gonorrhea or something.

Dear Gods, Sizer. That’s pretty rigged.

Elementalist + Kits.
Mesmer with a side-order of Necro.
Ranger with working Pet AI and the ability to use 2 Pets at a time.
Thief with Warrior Health.

And the most “broken” combo ever:

Players with Dev ability to modify in-game stats

Who do I need to consume, for this ability to become part of the Mesmer toolkit?

Glamours should have never been nerfed as bad as they were. Let alone the additional shag-over of Blinding Befuddlement. And TW should have been made a Glamour as soon as they nerfed Quickness across the board and compensated every Quickness-using class besides Mesmers.

PvE:
On land I stick with Jaguar main (Love the dps/stealth setup on ‘im.)
Usually Raven or Drake secondary, depending on the situation.
Water’s Shark/Armor Fish.

WvW:
I’ll swap my secondary for more CC (Wolf, Snow Leopard), so it’s easier to land the Jaguar’s stealth attacks.

@Sagramor
Raptor might have feathers, but their head looks more dinosaur-ish than pure avian. Might qualify ’em for a pet type, tbh.

As for pet ideas in general? I like what I’m seeing in this thread.

• Skelk (Seriously, imagine a Skelk/Jaguar stealth squad.)
• Gryphon’s a cool idea.

Some other ideas

• Wasps, man. Got Devourer/Spider, but no Wasps … seems a bit odd.
• I’d love a Dolphin or Killer Whale.
• No murder-rabbits or ticked-off deer? Those could be fun to mess with.

I’d keep the Celestial, personally. Engi and Ele are honestly two of the best classes to use Celestial gear, simply because they can make use of all the stats equally. Both can also pull some nice Might stacking, which cranks up both Power and Condition Damage in a scrap. You’d lose some Toughness compared to Cavalier, but the other benefits will keep you running pretty well.

keenlam.4753:

Crossplay.2067:

I agree that Time Warp should be a glamor and it should chill enemies inside of it. That would make up for the 50% quickness nerf that it was never compensated for. Mass Invisibility, on the other hand, needs a lot of work as Thief’s Shadow Refuge does the same thing but better. What’s worse, not only is it a normal utility skill but it has a shorter cooldown.

We should have a grandmaster trait that buffs our glamour skills while we at it.
Look at mantras, they have been getting better and better with 2 gm traits dedicated to them. Meanwhile glamour skills see less and less play and are strictly utilities.

Maybe grandmaster trait: glamour skills inflict 2s of chill at target location. Get rid of that abomination Disrupter’s Sustainment for something like this would be nice.

How does the phrase go, keenlam?
All of my Yes.

Take it from a guy that mains Mesmer and Thief. Go Thief. Mesmer is heavily Trait-dependant. As such, levelling one is a royal pain in the tush. Now, on the other side … nothing stops you from going Thief in the beginning and making a Mesmer later on, once you’re more accustomed to the game.

Wagner or Symphonic Metal tend to work. I also don’t say no to anything by Emilie Autumn.

What about 2/4/6/2/0, Chaos? Then, you’d be able to squeeze in Mender’s, at least

Generally anything that causes an “attack” will destealth you. Mad King, Air’s lightning proc, et cetera.

^ I forget who originally said that, but it’d at least free some options up.

That’s an interesting idea, Jayden. Treating Venoms in a similar fashion as Mantras could -at least- allow for them to be rather “stored up.” Another idea I’ve run into on this forum is to convert ’em into F-Skills.

It’s less that Thief should “lack” team support, and more that their support options would work better as more of a “blanket” option. (S. Refuge comes to mind)
On some level, it does seem this may have been what the Devs intended for Venoms.
However, the key difference is as follows:

• At least Shadow Refuge remains useful, regardless of whether or not you’re using it for the group, or for yourself.
• Conversely, as evilapprentice has already stated, Venoms are balanced around VA.
  And this makes it nigh-impossible to make Venoms “good” for a soloer Thief.
  (With the exceptions of Basilisk, and -arguably- Devourer)