Guild Wars 2

Errant Venture.9371:

Right but I’ve got 5 characters I want to gear. I’m going to have to spend 5 MONTHS at a competitive disadvantage to people in WvW because I can only get 1 laurel today. If you’ve only got one character, the new gear is fine. But it’s not fair to anyone who plays more than one level 80 b/c clendar-time and not game-time is the limiting feature.

I WANT to put in the extra work to get my amulets, but the existing game structure won’t LET me so I’m FORCED to play at a disadvantage on my alts.

Nobody forces you to use different characters in WvW. And seriously a single ascended vs exotic item puts you in such a disadvantage? WvW is the most unbalanced PvP mode I have ever seen.

Not to mention the patch is live for only 6 hours. Other ways to obtain laurels and/or ascended amulet will or won’t be added over the next weeks.

Daxx.5076:

honestly the major focus of this patch was nerfing rich ori farming. They made it only 3 hits and they also changed mining picks to be lvl 45. Which alot of us had stocked up on so we could farm on our lvl 7 guardian or whatever alt you had parked there.

/facepalm ?

Am I the only one actually playing the game instead of finding new ways to farm/cheat?

at 0:00 GTM all dailies reset. Because there are “dailies”

? ? ?

You know that you drop mat on mobs and collect them with tools, right? So … you get them for free

I took me exactly 3 sec to get this achievement done.

oh I never noticed that Hearts didn’t give karma … I thought it was so since the Beta…

well already done 85% of the world… whatever.

the devs said it won’t be a fast fix. Probably over the next months.

Sidekick.2509:

And the rest of the world showing their typical inability or unwillingness to perform logic surrounding something like timezones and the physical location of anet’s offices. (It’s why the USA is still #1)

let’s talk about the logic of imperial vs metric system :-)

As long as the update comes before 29th I’m happy. Still 6 hours left to see it happening! ^^

- is it possible to shatter illusions right after they get lethal damage?
No and if the illusion dies before reaching the enemy the shatter will also fail.

- after being given the shatter command, illusions stop completely to attack right? (iyt would be nice if phantams did one last shot)
Yes they do so.

- staff clones apply conditions? (putting conditions doesn’t seem related to actually doing damage)
Yep! Making them the only damage dealing clones when not traited. But if they die damage from the conditions they applied drop to zero.

- phantasmal warlock gets closer than the actual range to the enemy, bug?
Yes every ranged phantasm goes too close. Maybe it will be fixed one day …

- has anyone found a way to quickly use area skills? i use no mouse at all, and losing time to targt area with the trackpad is annoyng, apart from “chaos storm” it’s better to use the area skill on your same spot.
Mhmm mouse is pretty mandatory for placing your AoE. But you’re right : putting them on your position (even Chaos Storm since it’s better as defense skill rather than an attack) will do fine (in PVE only of course). For that let your cursor rest out of the environment (over your skill bar for example) and press the key of the skill. The game will launch the spell at your feet (you have to activate the “fast casting” for AoE option in the menu (F11).

drongas.4189:

scepter 1 skill must be sumoned clone near mesmer, no near foe

So it was during the beta. The devs changed it with the release.

Relic.7148:

Guild Wars 1 allowed players to move freely between different servers, leading me to believe there is quite a good reason why such a limitation exists.

Not at the very beginning. We could only move 5x times between US and EU (and some made financial profits with such travels because the trade markets were seperated -> price differences). Then it was free.

Do you mean http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Epidemic ? ^^ I don’t think the necros want to share that skill with us.

Scepter is not that bad. A slight buff /change to either #1 #2 or #3 should make it more appealing.

- rune of Centaur
- small CD
- reflects projectiles

Ether Feast is simply far more amazing What does it do? It just heals … woah amazing for a healing skill.

From heavy affected to perfect healthy :
1) Engineer
2) Necro
3) Ele
4) Ranger
5) Mesmer
6) Guardian
7) Thief
8) Warrior

LordByron.8369:

NO

AoE is a different thing from Cone…..
Expecially melee skills.

Any sword attack, hits a cone and isn t considered AoE.

AoE = area of effet. Cone = area. Geometrical logic?

Some melee skills are Aoe (Mesmer sword #1 first and second strikes) some aren’t (third strike)

Coffeebot.3921:

Great, you talked to us… but you didn’t deliver much by way of meaningful information and it was done in a pointless format with under-trained hosts, it seems like you don’t really care about your audience if this is the best you could produce with your resources.

OMG you’re right : they should have invited Oprah to do a better show.

They are game developers – they are not TV. The livestream was good, they offered the players the opportunity to ask questions during lunch pause and chose relevant ones they could answer.

Coulnd’t the people on this forum for once be happy instead of raging about everything ?

you’d better go for 0/20/20/0/30 and leave the “on clones death” off. Either you shatter or you let your clones die but doing both at the same time is not efficient.

And don’t use desperate decoy, really. It’s a waste.

Once you will try Illusionary Persona you will become addicted ^^

Sinifair.1026:

- Now, about Guild Wars 1.

You had a primary profession. Lets say: Warrior.
Then you had a secondary profession

Well not the best example: the Warrior had so little energy he could only use 1x skill of his secondary (a condition/hexes clearing one most of the time). And frankly secondaries were underused because it cost DPS (limited attribute points)

There were tons of builds in one profession alone, and since you had two professions, with the restriction being that you couldn’t get the Elite Skills of the secondary profession

It’s actually the runes and the main Characteristic you couldn’t access

This meant that there were many builds that worked for many different situations. I never found one to be particularly better than the other.

I have spent hours in Arenas (as a mesmer mainly) and there were builds totally OP it was nearly impossible to counter. Illusion Mesmer vs Warrior -> Warrior loses every time. Cause the Mesmer could block and blind every attack while dealing HUGE damage.

I find that weapon fixed skills is what make GW2 unique. It forces you to make compromises since it’s impossible to have a perfect build. And that’s fine. Because perfect builds tend to be imbalanced.

Snoxx.7943:

It seeems the confusion from trident clones does not have the doubled confusion damage in PvE and WvW. 10 stacks under water deal about the same confusion damage than 5 stacks on land. Anyone else noticed this?

Yeah I noticed that though they stack a lot of confusion damage aren’t as high as usual.

Well another bug that won’t be fixed … I reckon how would the game be if everything would work correctly (as the tooltips say).

these videos were released a long long time ago (last spring?) and were the first skills the players knew about (in their early beta version). Just look at the Mesmer ones. They’re just hilarious because most of the things shown are impossible to accomplish.

But it’s true they could be removed and replaced by real gameplay videos.

I find it not very effective. Damage is affected by power. Healing (=Lifesteal) is affected by healing power.

it’s a bug. Hopefully it won’t be fixed (they could update the tooltip though).

Thank to that the Mesmer is incredibly dangerous underwater.

3 clones + time warp >>> everyone dead

Arcane Thievery – unreliable and range is too short
Illusion of Life – don’t do donjons
Phantasmal Disenchanter – killed easily and sometimes I need conditions clearance without having a target at range
Signet of Midnight – passive pretty useless
Veil – CD too long. Mass invisibility do it better

I think Mantras are better than most people think. I’ll try using them more often. And Mimic is actually a good escape skill since it blocks everything for 4sec.

Sinifair.1026:

If some of you guys ever tried WoW, you felt like you got stronger as you progressed.
As in: The skills you have in the first few levels (or even lvl 30 where we get the Elite Skills in GW2) were not strong enough to beat the foes we had yet to encounter.

The skills I’m using to beat centaurs are the exact same abilities I later use to beat dragons, and that is one of the reasons I want more skills.
- To feel like my characters strength also progresses.

Let me troll about this: I played a Priest in WoW. The “new” stronger skills you get as you level up are the same one you have at level 10 (more or less) > example : mind blast rank 1 → mind blast rank 2 → mind blast rank 3 → mind blast rank 4 → …
OMG so much diversity. That was so dumb they removed that recently.

In GW2 you feel that your character progress by getting new traits and better gear quality (blue level 10 > green level 20 > yellow level 50> orange level 70).

Well. I suggest :
level 15 > 5 pts in Illusion
level 15- 40 >10 pts Domination 10 pts Dueling 10 pts Illusion
level 40 > 20 pts Dueling 10 pts Illusion
later : it’s up to you (shatter/phantasms/confusion/bomb clones).
Gear : power/precision (precision especially important with dueling traits)

Shatter build is more burst oriented while Phantasm build is continuous damage and tanky.

Jazzllanna: What is for an armor (it’s the same as a GW1 necro one :-) ? Where did you get it?

Scythe.4153:

Also any tips for a build for lvling up as in doing most dmg and which weapons r best for high dmg i know im going with a greatsword no matter what lol

Well you know there not many people who want to level up with a support based build ^^.

You could use Greatsword/Sword/Pistol since it’s pretty direct damage oriented. If you need more defense, pick your staff. Scepter/Torch/Focus are harder to manage for a beginner IMO.

You should know that leveling a mesmer isn’t as easy as with a Warrior (signet build is so OP for low levels). Until level 40 you could have some struggle. So be patient :-)

Have fun with your mesmer!

(and I suggest definitely female human ^^ – purple fit them well)

Sifu.6527:

No. It is fine. Leave it as is since changing it will cause imbalances in WvW.

Solution to your problem is to not use it at all or only in certain situations.

I highly doubt Anet will change the countless mobs in PvE to accomodate this.

This argument – it will cause imbalances in WvW – is not valid in my opinion.
WvW is already imbalanced > you can use PVE skills and food/item buffs. WvW is no competitive PvP since the richer you are the stronger (in stats) you’ll be.

So WvW is no excuse to ignore the problematic of Confusion in PVE.

It’s a RPG not a Hack’n Slash. There is no fun when everything die when you sneeze.

As a level 80 in a low level zone you have your exotic gear, your full damage weapon, your elite skills, your runes, your sigils, your master traits, … so you’re still way more powerful than a newbie.

Not to mention that many recent RPGs have such a somehow similar system (mobs get stronger as you level up. Skyrim I think is one of them)

I hope new weapons will come (probably with the 1st expansion) only after current weapons are “fixed”.

If you don’t like the game quit it but stop coming here to whine.
It’s pitiful to read inanities like “Mesmer has no mobility” “Auto attack wins”

But the worst is " but still most of the combats are standing from trying to survive and deal dmg meantime.". Seriously? What is a MMO all about?

You don’t like GW2: fine. You prefer GW1: also fine. But what’s your point by posting such non sense? That a dev comes by and says “Oh we are so sorry. We’re gonna change all the game just for you!”

What are using as utility skills (signets? meditations? shouts? spirit weapons?) ? Which level are you currently?

With one handed weapons I would go for the Radiance tree first and aim for something like that.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQBgCJTRBegWPAoDyfqKEPXFoIA

If you play solo you should give the focus a try. I find it better overall than the shield :-)

Does Confusion need a buff in PvE? YES. Double duration and half damage please.

Simply making it so mobs auto-attack faster and lowering their damage per strike would be a good solution. Their current attack speed makes no sense.
Oh please everything but that. That’s the best way to destroy aegis and blocking mechanic. Don’t make my mesmer happy by making my guardian sad.

GalloGSM.8139:

…I was hoping the GW2 mesmer would have a bigger theme of spell thievery and magic manipluation like in GW1 through copying other classes/enemies abilities and using them for themselves …

Every Phantasm is a copy of a non mesmer gameplay :
*iDuelist > double pistols thief
*iBerserker > Greatsword warrior
Etc.

And there are so many magic tricks in our utilities skills that most Ele are jealous :-)

You shouldn’t feel forced to play a shattering build. Just don’t invest any points in the Illusions tree.

Darnis.4056:

I think the idea is to allow them to live long enough to allow you to shatter them…

Yeah that’s probably the idea of its design. In a shatter build a killed illusion is a pure loss.
I find this signet quite good and versatile in its usage: shatter build, phantasm build, “tanky” build.
Of course fixing it would make it actually useful.

necro: one of the best weapons 5/5 (good main weapon)

guardian: good kitting & AoE but of course you aren’t supposed to spam #1 if you can do something other instead (like weapon switch). 4/5 (good as a second weapon)

mesmer: works only in certains settings. Deceptive evasion makes it useless. Confusion is hard to play. The blocking mechanism isn’t satisfactory (too short in PVE, fails to protect you in PVP) 2/5 (need a buff plz)

ele: eh … it’s fine for people who like playing ranged alone? can’t tell must level-up my ele first ^^

necro: one of the best weapons 5/5 (good main weapon)

guardian: good kitting & AoE but of course you aren’t supposed to spam #1 if you can do something other instead (like weapon switch). 4/5 (good as a second weapon)

mesmer: works only in certains settings. Deceptive evasion makes it useless. Confusion is hard to play. The blocking mechanism isn’t satisfactory (too short in PVE, fails to protect you in PVP) 2/5 (need a buff plz)

ele: eh … it’s fine for people who like playing ranged alone? can’t tell must level-up my ele first ^^

The problem is that Dueling branch is simply too good to be ignored.
All traits work together! And since you need Precision in condition and power based builds …

I suppose an heavy phantasm build or a support mesmer can do well without DE.

I think the biggest gain from GW1 to GW2 is the end of the classic heal-tank-nuke.
The GW1 mesmer was very good even in PVE but since most parties were looking for monks nobody really cared about him.

The change I appreciate the most is that now Mesmer effects are impossible to miss. Purple explosions and rays and illusions everywhere :-) Now everyone knows we’re the real magicians in the game ^^

But I would really love having back “Empathy” and “Backfire” instead of confusion …

Taldren.7523:

1. Our current scepter #1 is 3 attacks that summons a clone on the 3rd attack (33%) and is supposed to apply a stack of confusion (33%), but is currently bugged. It isn’t mathematically any different to do a single attack with a 1/3 chance of each possibility.

2. Are you saying that Staff #2 is overpowered? Because that creates a clone and teleports you away from the attacker in addition to breaking stun.

3. Currently this applies 5 stacks of confusion over 5 seconds to a single target. How is applying 3 – 6 stacks to a target OP with a non-channel attack??

I really don’t know why people jump on the “OP” label without actually thinking things through before they speak.

1. The tooltip wasn’t changed since they removed the confusion from the clones. Nearly 30% of the tooltips are bugged in this game. Never heard the devs actually want the auto-attack to cause confusion (directly or through the clones).
2. There is a little difference between TP+clone generation and TP+clone+block+damage. And #2 is the only clone generator of the staff.
3. Channeling is a big downside. Removing it allows you to block the next attack meaning you can benefit from the confusion without getting hit.

I did not say your ideas were bad. I like them and wish they would be implemented. I only think that if every skills of the scepter get a buff, then the weapon would be OP. (Perma confusion in PVP). I’d love it since I play mesmer but I’m just being realist: it’d be good to get any buff (and it’d be only one skill, I don’t believe the devs would do more).

Taldren.7523:

How to fix Scepter:
1) Change the #1 attack to be a single attack that has a 33% chance to apply a stack of confusion, 33% chance to generate a clone at the target, and a 33% chance to only do damage.
2) Change the #2 ability to not only produce a clone, but also teleport you away from the attacker.
3) Change the #3 ability to be a (3x) bouncing attack that applies 3 stacks of confusion to a target per bounce.

How to fix Staff:
1) Replace #1 Vulnerability with Poison.

Sorry to say it so brutally but these are no fixes but how to make our weapons OP. (Seriously the staff is one of the best weapons of the game)

The scepter need a single change on either #1 #2 or #3 to do okay. Stop daydreaming guys. The devs need to keep the game balanced.

People don’t like staff at low level because it’s conditions damage based. Which means it’ll always be slower to kill a weak target (like a level 5 bandit in Queensdale). But the staff really shines against end game mobs because :
1) conditions ignore armor and thus are always effective
2) conditions allow you to move around and do some dodging without loosing DPS.
3) conditions are awesome: they do damage AND weaken your target

But the staff also benefits from power gear (and that’s good because we can combine the staff with any weapon/build – even power mesmer-). The sorcerer is a really powerful phantasm (maybe only the warden is stronger) : ranged (means he doesn’t die immediately) attacks who get better the longer the battle last.

Staff is also a great support for your party.

and bla bla bla …

(5 min later – yeah staff rocks). Mr Prometheus did a really nice video about all mesmer weapons and also glorified the staff (with an A+ rating ^^)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=7eZ0NNd7b60#t=2432s

But -as I mentioned previously- when you fight a level 5 bandit in Queensdale (or any regular monster during leveling time), the staff is just slower to kill than GS or sword

Maybe you could try using your sword/focus set as your main. You could still use the staff at the beginning of every fight (and then switching) or whenever you have an uh-oh moment (pulling a full group, a veteran, …)

Do you mean in PVE Cesmode ?

Confusion is really hardcore to play. Especially at low levels when you don’t have access to major traits.

If you still want to, you’d better wear a lot of condition damage and use sceptertorch+staff. It’s fun but -once again- hardcore.

If staff is working for you, why would you change your play style?

Staff is probably our best best weapon by far. At level 80 I use it most of the time in PVE.

The only thing that bothers me is that the clone attacks neutral targets (like moas). Pretty annoying since it recruits more opponents in PVE.

But the “random” target selecting is useful for diversion shattering, multi mobs tagging trough shattering, … Hope it doesn’t get “fixed”.

I’m pretty sure if the generating mechanic would be change (i.e. player target based) there would be no generated against (for example) a stealthed thief.

Symbol of Swiftness used to stack as Temporal curtain did. And now it only refreshes it to 8 sec.

I think that now every speed signet got buffed, the devs could remove the stacking limitation. That someone should do forward and backwars movements during 10 sec in order to get 40sec shouldn’t be considered as an exploit. There are several ways to get perma swiftness.

1) Almost every class, including Necromancer, has a signet or something to allow increased movement speed. …

Well only 4 of 8 classes have such a signet. That’s not really “almost every”. I did all my leveling at normal running speed without feeling slow but it was my first character so …

I solved the problem with the Rune of Centaur + Mirror (healing skill). I’m now happily running through maps like a pony :-)

2) What are you guys using to tag the mobs?

Greatsword! Maybe you should invest more into Power and Precision. But let face it. Mesmers are awesome in 1vs1 but can’t deal with big groups of mobs like an Ele/Necro. Especially in crowded Orrh events during which mobs lifespan is about half a second.

3) Perhaps this will get better later, but I am struggling to take down enemies of any level.

First leave the scepter in your bag. Confusion is too much gambling for PVE (Will the monster attack now or in 5 sec?). Don’t use staff as main weapon on regular mobs because it takes ages to take them down (on the other hand staff is perfect against elites and for group play).
Greatsword OR sword+pistol is the way to go (or greatsword AND sword but I’m feeling too squishy without the staff). Trait your phantasms, buy berserker stuff and use clones generating utility skills to start every battle with some pets.

Mesmer leveling is a journey that keeps getting better as you progress. Hope you’ll get through this boring phase and eventually enjoy your character :-)

- Mace #3(Protector’s Strike) is a whirl finisher(at the end, if you don’t block any attacks).

Thanks! Never noticed it. One reason to love mace even more :-)

Mantras do not so bad when played in an appropriate build.

I’d rather see some of our numberless bugs fixed before the devs try to generate more of them.

Scepter affects 3 skills

Only 2 skills since #1 doesn’t have any cooldown

But I agree one hand weapons have crappy traits.

I think a good way to improve confusion viability in PVE would be that :

50% of the damage are dealt over time like burning or poisoning
50% of the damage are conditional (when using a skill and not at the end of the action)
stacking in duration instead of intensity

>>> for example with 0 condition damage :

150 damage per sec + 150 damage per sec when the enemy is attacking.

at least these 2 traits are worth taking. If you look in other lines (especially first tier) sometimes there is absolutely nothing useful.