Guild Wars 2

Mesmer or Engineer. Ele comes in a close second.

selan.8354:

Arale.4207:

Idisenchanter is a underlooked but very good condition removal tool, since the phantasm HP buffs. It has a better uptime of removal in the instances I’ve used it opposed to Null Field. No combo field though, sadly.

i disenchanter is a great tool that’s correct, but in wvw it dies very quickly. too much aoe, marks, wells, arrowcarts and all that. but yeah i would go with nullfield as it also rips boons from enemies and cures your teammates

It’s better for small engagements, while NullField is better for larger ones I find. :o

Actually, I’d like to see some kind of color scheme or design slot for our class mechanics to change their look or color. This could give people more customization on looking cool or different, aside from just armor.

Bri.8354:

Iruwen.3164:

Crap. I don’t feel less satisfied when I complete a jumping puzzle while others bypass it, because having completed the puzzle is the reward that makes me feel good, not some achievement or chest at the top. If they don’t want to do the jumps, I don’t force them to. If they ask me kindly, I’ll offer them the service of porting them up, and everybody’s happy. Except you, because others don’t do what you’d like them to do. And that’s unsocial.

Personal achievement only goes so far. Part of human nature is wanting what they achieve to be acknowledged and appreciated by others, and allowing people to piggyback on others and still get the full reward that claims they defeated the challenge, greatly devalues that element.

You’re playing the wrong game then. Like I said before, this isn’t the MMO where you reach the magical pinnacle of xyz and get to brag about it. That mindset usually breeds elitism and tiers players into can do’s and can’t do’s. It’s archaic in my opinion, and only lessens the amount of choice players have. We get it. You and a select few others want everyone to do something the same way, or not at all. Sorry to say but it’ll never happen. Portal has been nerfed probably more then any other skill, and this game is more about helping people & being social then gloating & being a kitten.

It boggles my mind why someone elses actions that:

A. Doesn’t involve you, at all.
B. Doesn’t affect your gameplay or end result at all.

Cause some hilariously bad campaign to get everyone to do something the same way, or not at all. How many times does it have to be explained that not everyone is as good as that one person who does the JP without using portal? There’s a myriad of reasons on why someone can’t do a JP. So they use a portal. Big deal. That’s not your achievements, or accomplishments, so it’s none of your business, and thus should be none of your concern. You honestly have no right to dictate how other people go about this, if it doesn’t affect your gameplay. If it dents some inner ego or something like that, you may want to consider a different game, because like I said, this game allows for very little gloating in that sense & I’m glad.

If ANet shared your viewpoint, they would have changed JP’s by now. Seeing as they don’t, it looks like player choice wins over old content barriers.

This is assuming that they count the daily achievement points to the overall tier/pool/whatever system they will use in order to gauge your appropriate rewards. It’s unknown how this will all work at the moment. Still, there are many, many non daily achievements as well. Explorer, Slayer, Hero, Living Story, Tradesman…

havoc.6814:

People are being ported to the end chest of the new jumping puzzle from the waypoint outside of the puzzle. They never even have to enter the puzzle. They need not make a single jump. They don’t even have to find the jumping puzzle entrance.

The devs spent alot of time developing that content. Portal, as it is, is just a slap in the face to their efforts. That’s just not right.

I’ve nothing against seeing people helping others, but this has gone way beyond just helping someone. Porting someone up a jump, or even a small series of jumps, that they can’t seem to make is great and desired. At least with that they are seeing the content and trying to do it. Bypassing all the content, the entire jumping puzzle is not.

Bypassing walls in WvW, and using the skill to skip content in dungeons is not justifiable either. I don’t think people should be rewarded for skipping content.

Those of you who can claim this is right are just dishonest.

Why do you care so much on how others deal with their achievements & accomplishments? It’s pointless. Taking choice away from people will hurt this game. I hope you can understand that someday.

Idisenchanter is a underlooked but very good condition removal tool, since the phantasm HP buffs. It has a better uptime of removal in the instances I’ve used it opposed to Null Field. No combo field though, sadly.

Decoy/blink and nullfield/idis and feedback were what I mainly used leveling up. CND removal really helped me vs tougher mobs.

I too enjoy varied, constant content. It may not be all permanent, but I enjoy talking to newbies and saying ‘’when the Molten Alliance Invaded" and they go, wait whats that? You then tell them about the past, that has already happened. It gives so much meaning to these events & experiences, as opposed to having a permanent dungeon or whatever get run 50 times, then it’s boring.

+1 Anet.

havoc.6814:

So, jumping puzzles are optional content but dungeons are required content? Really?

No. They’re both optional, but one of those two activities is done far more then the other. Can you guess which one? Also, one requires you to enlist the aid of others, so that you may progress through it. JP’s by comparison do not, so they can be completed solo. Sometimes though, for reasons I already mentioned, they can’t complete them (low system, laggy internet, race choices, etc) so helping them achieve that accomplishment is fine. If they want to skip to the end? That’s fine. That is no reason to exclude people who can’t do them simply because you want more personal gratification. Who are you to dictate how other people handle their achievements & accomplishments?

Seriously.

Navi.7142:

1. It is a portal. It does what it is supposed to do.
2. Why does anyone care?

People want everything to be equal apparently, so that they can stand above others on their accomplishments for no other reason then to brag. It would be easier if people cared less about what their fellow gamer does with their time, their achievements and their accomplishments and focused solely on their own. This isn’t the game where you get magical mguffin #999 to brag about it. This game encourages people to help other people. It doesn’t get any simpler then that.

Xavi.6591:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Yeah, while I like the skill, it’s utterly useless in anything other than a 1v1 dueling scenario.

This. Also it being on a block is really weak.

Encourages counterplay, in my experience. Obvious attack inc? Block it, then send them to condition damage hell. Most people will remove it immediately or pop their heal, as our application of Torment does the most damage I believe (full stacks and food, mine does around 12k if they are moving).

I’m not a propro on mesmer, but I know quite a bit about the profession. I’ll join.

This will likely be more effective when better looking weapons come out. If this system had happened in F&F, for example…as it stands, I don’t think too many people like the Jade Skins. Green is a nice color, but a rare one to see on armor in my experience. If you strap a cool black/silver/blue or red type of weapon into this system, expect to get tons of money from the match players who want their whole toon in Scarlet or Midnight Fire/ice/Abyss Dyes.

I disagree with most of your posts. I, and many others, love the direction this game is going. It’s not perfect, but it kicks the snot out of the upcoming MMO’s in my opinion. I wouldn’t dare touch NWO or TESO, or even FFXIV ARR. That being said, I would like tougher content, akin to Aetherblade Retreat, but for it to be permanent. Or hard modes of existing dungeons brought to that level for awesome skins. For what this game lacks though, it gives me more then enough to stick through it for the long haul.

Kyllaa.1385:

These kinds of issues happen during high populations sometimes. And since new content came out today, it may be related.

I’m not saying this is acceptable, but a possible correlation.

I will try again later today to see if things are better, but hmm…weird. It may be my ISP but my ping is normal.

Ever since the patch today, I’ve had very bad delay on battles/skills/movements in the game world. I will be fine for a second, but then all my skills will stop activating, and mobs 15 feet ahead of me will be attacking thin air, suddenly I take damage whilst not being able to use any of my skills.

This is extremely game breaking. Is this being looked into?

Bri.8354:

CryxTryx.9208:

havoc.6814:

@ Deimos Tel ARin and Cryx Tryx:

Okay, I get it, you play mesmers. That explains the vabid defense of the portals on your part. Do note that it is not my stated desire to have portals removed from the game, but rather altered to still be viable and desirable skills, without allowing others access to rewards they did not earn. I even made a suggestion to that effect in my OP.

Mesmer is just one of my characters, I have a character of every class on the go right now except engineer.

The fact that I play one has nothing to do with my opinion on the portal. I disagree with you on the base principal that you are against people using them to access content they did not earn.

I personally see nothing wrong with helping someone complete a jumping puzzle, dungeon, or vista.

It doesn’t bother me that I have to work to complete a jumping puzzle yet someone else can just take a portal to complete it. Hense why when I am on my Mesmer I am only too happy to help out.

So I suppose you would support the creation of a mechanic that allowed anyone outside of a dungeon to enter a completed one and claim the full reward, achievements included?

No, because dungeons aren’t jump puzzles. Comparing the two in relation to portal usage is pretty pointless. One is an instanced, 5 man difficulty setup while the other is a open world optional activity.

Creeper.9360:

people do the jumping puzzles for loot?

Jajajaja. +1

I lol’d.

havoc.6814:

CryxTryx.9208:

-snip-

So I guess my question is, why does it anger you to see other people trivialize their own game playing expirience?

Let me just turn that around. Why can’t I have a skill that allows me to enter a dungeon, kindly ask the bosses to step aside, and help myself to their chests? Why can’t I have a skill that fills up my bags with Ori ores so I don’t have to go hunt them down and mine them?

Why are you so willing to accept that people are allowed to simply skip content and take what they want, while others earn it?

Choice.

That’s all that really needs to be said. Some people simply aren’t good at jump puzzles. They play big charrs/norns, or maybe it’s a medical/visual reason. Either way, I don’t have any bias towards porters. I’m a mesmer myself and I don’t do this but I find it pretty funny that people would remove more choice from the game just to make themselves feel better. Don’t like portals? Don’t use them. If they cause so much friction within someone, then that’s a much deeper serious problem then other people skipping optional content in a video game.

Time to let it go.

GiggleFairy.3807:

i am gona try that shatter build you posted. i have been reading that phantasm builds are not strong like they use to be.

They simply require more defined phantasm uptime/management. You can’t churn them out anymore, and certain abilities will be a bit longer as well,. but it’s certainly workable.

Ryuujin.8236:

Arale.4207:

When you say DPS, do you mean damage per second or overall damage? I’ve never seen a guardian or engineer peel aggro off my shatter mesmer in dungeons via damage. Warriors can, yes, but if I play smart enough, I can pull aggro off of them as well sometimes. Phantasm Mesmers do fairly consistent damage per second, but low burst. Shatter Mesmers aren’t too grand in damage per second, even accounting proper pZerker spawning, but we have godlike burst in dungeons. 14-18k mindwrack crits every 10 seconds? Yes please.

Sustained DPS I’m referring to. Mesmer’s have great burst capabilities, but my analysis is based on PvE team and solo play (There’s no doubting mesmer’s PvP credentials) – and in that respect mesmer’s sustained DPS when specced for the role is pretty close to the bottom (The reddit number crunchers say it’s second worst, coming after ranger)

Aggro isn’t a good indicator of DPS as there are many other factors besides DPS that affect aggro (Toughness is the single biggest influence. A mesmer in full knight’s gear doing pathetic DPS yet easily pull aggro off an entire team of zerker warriors).

As for the 14-15 burst every 10 seconds as a selling point; a zerker DPS specced GS warrior I’m told can pull off closer to 50k burst every 10 seconds (This same burst is of course almost useless in PvP as people will just get out the way, but again, in PvE, where sustained DPS counts, mobs tend to stand in melee and rub their face all over your sword, so mobility of said DPS matters less)

I wasn’t aware that our sustained was that bad. My PSwordsman were doing 6-8k per attack every 4 seconds last time I was a phantasm build, and my Warlock was throwing 10ks around every 7 seconds. I truly believe most people who say our sustained is bad simply summon phantasms at the wrong time. How you manage your summons, positioning, and proper chaos storms to keep them alive is where it will make or break the sustained dps. Those are just phantasms too, doesn’t count blurred frenzy or sword auto/shatter if they are about to die via aoe to summon more. Again though, I will look into that.

As for the warrior comment, that is true. Warriors do the top damage in dungeons, but my post was more along the lines of guardians/engi’s being better then us at damage, which simply isn’t true. They can be competitive, but I doubt they can pull out that level or raw damage. My point was that our damage is in fact very high on the list. Not warrior tier, but if played right, top tier. We can also provide all of our utility without nerfing our damage, so there’s that as well.

Conncept.7638:

Arale.4207:

Lol @ mesmers being worst open world PvE class. xD

Interesting results, though. I guessed a couple of them!

Well most people that play mesmer want to do attrition clone builds rather than shatter or phantasm builds. And unfortunately due to ANet having the worst AI programmers in the history of gaming, clones are utterly useless as anything but shatter fodder against most of the games AI.

Certain specs of every class will be bad in open world pve. While mesmers don’t have the huge AoE, we can tag reliably with shatters and greatsword/staff. Just takes a bit longer. While we start off slow, by level 40 I was soloing everything I came across. My experience with mesmer leveling up was very different from what others seem to have encountered. I would say Mesmer is one of the better open world PVE classes. :o

Also, the attrition build can work. It’s just not as optimal. I leveled til 50 using staff mainhand and condition damage, so I wasn’t even doing the power shatter stuff until later. Clones can be stupid, but by that level you can pump them out fairly quickly if you need to shatter them or create non-kittened variants.

Levitas.1953:

Arale.4207:

XRay.1920:

too bad that the group is taking you for your utility and not for your burst. having 3 reflects instead of 1, all of them having cd reduction, is kinda a huge deal…

I’m usually taken for my burst, actually. Also only 2 of those reflects are reliable, in my experience.

Different stokes for different folks.

I can believe you if you mean a combination of burst and utilities/support.
If not, you may want to reroll.

edit: uhm seems a bit rude, let me explain better: i agree that our burst is good (but not the best one) as its our sustained damage but its the ability to mix damage with strong aoe support that makes mesmers useful. if you only aim for burst there are better options out there.

My focus is burst, but I provide Chaos Storm/Feedback/Null Field or iDis for my party, as well as damage amplification. That’s the build I like. There isn’t anything better for those purposes. I would also rate our burst as one of the best, though proper timing is needed for Compounding Power to get high mindwrack crits (3-4k). Doable though with proper positioning.

I don’t see many zerker people these days. Most don’t know how to dodge properly or lack the overall slippery to avoid damage outright. I’m usually the damage dealer in my groups because of this.

Azure Prower.8701:

Two words. Condition removal.

You sir or madam, win this thread.

Conditions got you down? Remove them. If torment is allowed to tick it’s full duration, it’s pretty much your fault. This is the lesson I have learned when first trying it out & having others try it out on me. (except now I troll and transfer it back to necros/thieves for the luls)

Lol @ mesmers being worst open world PvE class. xD

Interesting results, though. I guessed a couple of them!

Ryuujin.8236:

DPS
Even specced full glass cannon a mesmer’s DPS doesn’t come close to that of a DPS specced warrior, guardian or engineer; there’s no point even trying to go full on DPS.

When you say DPS, do you mean damage per second or overall damage? I’ve never seen a guardian or engineer peel aggro off my shatter mesmer in dungeons via damage. Warriors can, yes, but if I play smart enough, I can pull aggro off of them as well sometimes. Phantasm Mesmers do fairly consistent damage per second, but low burst. Shatter Mesmers aren’t too grand in damage per second, even accounting proper pZerker spawning, but we have godlike burst in dungeons. 14-18k mindwrack crits every 10 seconds? Yes please.

I’m sure Guardians or Engineers can go their respective damage specs, but I have to disagree with your post. Having done all the toughest content on both specs of mesmer, I can honestly say I feel as though I’m doing top tier damage when I do everything right.

Entropy.4732:

Godmoney.2048:

Hmm, with 1530 condi damage it’kittenting for about 4500, and a additional 4500 if they run.

I feel it hits pretty hard all things considered. I am really liking it I got to say, but I need a couple more days with it to really have a valid opinion.

It does seem to scale very well with condi damage almost so much so I think scepter now requires condi gear to be worth while

What mesmer runs 1530 condition damage these days? Completely impractical after the confusion nerf. And I hate to break it to you, but no one’s gonna buy all condition gear for one torment application off a block on scepter.

Cnd spec mesmers run that much…? ;P

At 2131 condition damage, Torment was doing about 6k if not moving, 12k if moving. It hits very hard, and if not removed in time, can melt people pretty fast. I really enjoy it, as I like timed blocks & counterplay. Now I’m rewarded for it even more.

Great skill, heavy hitter too.

XRay.1920:

too bad that the group is taking you for your utility and not for your burst. having 3 reflects instead of 1, all of them having cd reduction, is kinda a huge deal…

I’m usually taken for my burst, actually. Also only 2 of those reflects are reliable, in my experience.

Different stokes for different folks.

Nuka Cola.8520:

still much prefer shatter builds 20, 20, 0, 0, 30. Dom has way too many useful stuff for a shatter spec you shouldn’t miss on

This. Dazzling + iPersona + Burst is where it’s at. Now that GS is completely fixed, GS/Staff 20/20/0/0/30 is one of the better PvE mesmer specs, provided you can dodge.

Skoteinos.4213:

@ppaladin, @GiggleFairy and @Nuka Cola, you are 100% right that 20 points at Domination is a must for Shatter Builds when you go to WvW.. but when you enter Fractals / Dungeons the Focus Reflection and Faster Glamour Skills make you so much more Effective that you realy need them instead of Dazzling, Vulnerability and 20% Mindwrack damage…
PLUS the Vitality instead of Power make you live longer to kill more..

choises are hard for Mesmer from now on.. you have to give up on something to gain something more useful..

I do fractal 38/48 just fine without those things, though. If you need them, that’s fine, but honestly? I’d rather have burst over cooldowns anyday. We get all of our utility for free. A few seconds off won’t make a huge difference unless you’re spamming it. Careful usage is key there. Dazzling is a very powerful damage amplifier, especially if used in conjunction with mirror blade. I’ll take 25% more damage for my whole party & mindwrack damage for myself over anything inspiration anyday.

Just my 2c.

I’d love to have an official response in this thread regarding the log out method of obtaining this achievement.

UnrepentantProcrastinator.7420:

CHIPS.6018:

If this week’s match up was DB-Mag-SOS, you guys will face the EXACT same problem. DB will just roll over all of you. So what’s the difference? What’s your next plan? Disperse DB also?

Same thing with any of JQ, BG, SOR or FA facing Mag and SOS. The exact same thing will happen. So what are you going to do disperse them all?

Give me a break please.

As far as low population servers are concern, none of the top 6 servers is any different. They will roll over you, period.

I do feel sorry for you guys. But it is all Anet’s fault. Instead of disperse the bigger server to fit your needs, why don’t you transfer yourself to a lower tier server so you can enjoy yourself there?

First of all, I’m on BG. Secondly, no matter where the other two servers transfer TC will still be the Tier 1.5 server steamrolling T2. That’s the problem here.

It can’t be avoided by transferring lower. The only solution is to buff Tier 2 to be competitive (and therefore glue the top 6), or disperse TC. The latter is far easier.

Lolwut. Why are you trolling our matchup thread then? Go help your team win T1 or do something productive. No one is going to disperse TC. Want to know why? Because the most of the transfers that TC gets are PvErs. They aren’t here for WvW, but will eventually dabble in it to try it or for world completion. We have a fairly large WvW community on the surface, but a lot of the people you see in the BL’s are militia. Even if TC dispersed, the core would be here, and so would the militia. Your suggestion would change nothing. This tier would still be imbalanced.

Since you aren’t on our server, just thought I’d share that. At the end of the day, TC isn’t a focused server in anything. We cater to all players, so people will transfer to fulfill what they like. Our server is far too varied to collapse like that, & the guilds that have been here since the start won’t leave because of ANets bad matchup system. There’s a reason TC is on the top 3 for stable servers & population.

I’m looking to get unfriendly skies. Would you be interested in starting a party to do so Esplen? Maybe you can help people here grab it.

I wish we in TC were here. I’m ready to learn more.

Hope you all have a good match up!

People saying TC caused this problem are pretty delusional. We didn’t choose this match up. Most people don’t even want this match up. We belong with T1 servers now, even if we will get our butts kicked (and we need it, based on the stupidity in the last match up thread…) simply because more & more people are coming to TC. People who keep track of this sort of thing know that it’s pretty imbalanced now. There was a time where FA could be within 20-30k points of us. Last matchups thread painted a different picture. :/

So yeah, don’t blame TC because people are coming here. Asking them to transfer off is also pretty rude. Still, I feel very bad for SoS/Mag. This match making system is stupid. You both deserve a prope opponent of equal or similar coverage, and so do we.

All you had to do was give us DB or a few T1 servers ANet…

Finally I get to see what Magswag is!

Gwalchgwn.1659:

Scepter autoattack could’ve been reflected but wouldn’t explain two clones at once.

There are reports of scepter 1 spawning 2 clones actually.

lLobo.7960:

Jimmy should L2P.

Lmfao.

Good game.

Hurr you go.

x per fection x.2096:

If you love difficult achievements this isn’t for you. I got this first try with a random L.A. Pug group. Stack Mai and don’t dodge out when you see the slow moving cannon shot and GG.

That sample size. :O

I’m looking to gather 4 seasoned adventurers to try and get this achievement with me. Since Personal Space seems bugged, I will shoot for this achievement instead. Who else is down for this? I love difficult achievements but I don’t know anyone who shares my enthusiasm.

/w Arale Gray in game if you would like to try for this. Beings this is a tough achievement to get, please read up on the achievement itself to understand how we have to approach the last fight in order to get it.

I’m a human mesmer, but I did see this cute asura in my CM group the other day:

Carighan.6758:

It seems interesting now because while it can hit Illusions, it won’t if a player is nearby. Exactly what I wanted! :O

Doesn’t might give them more damage? It’d be the same as if you got the might instead, only they benefit from it solely in that case. I could be wrong though.

Devolin.9432:

thanks so much for replyi
Would a staff still work in a non condi build ?

I will check out the sticky, I wasn’t sure though since the patch how accurate those builds would be.

In a power build, staff does respectable damage while giving you a hard hitting phantasm (Warlock) but in PvE, I run staff on secondary for it’s utility and group benefit. A well placed Chaos Storm can really help front line classes like Guardian or Warrior stay in the thick of things. Personal Chaos Armor will give you protection, which can save you from otherwise fatal damage. Phase Retreat can give you a timed dodge as well.

Also 20/20/0/0/30 can be a vulnerability stacking shatter build as well.

It’s always been viable due to vulnerability stacking via F3 Shatter in my opinion, but the bug fixes to bouncing mechanics as well as Berserker really help bring it back to where it was before. I’ve been running this build since I modified it from Lazy Kai’s Leveling guide. 20/20/0/0/30.

Mirror Blade, Dodge clone, Diversion, Time Warp. Watch the enemy bar melt.

erebuss.5294:

So I’m just coming back to the game after a break for a few months and I thought it might be fun to go back and try out my mesmer. He’s only level 45 and I’ll admit right now, I am a complete noob when it comes to mesmer. I started my mesmer near launch and haven’t touched him since.

I came on the forums to look for a decent guide to leveling and from what I’m seeing, people think mesmer got nerfed into the ground. Now is this true, or is this just the product of negative opinions getting the most output?

Is there still a viable leveling guide out there? I’d really love to find a build that is good for leveling, but also FUN. I PVE almost exclusively, so I just need something for doing world completion, and perhaps a dungeon every now and then.

Thanks ahead of time.

Mesmer is still really great, some builds just cant do things as efficient as they used to. Ignore the QQ on the forums, it’s rarely ever worth it. In response to your build question, this is the leveling guide I used 6 months ago.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-Guide-to-PvE-Leveling-Guide

I used this to get to 80, and still use it at 80 except I’ve always used greatsword and staff for group/personal support.

I like 80% of the patch. Most of the nerfs were justified, if a little heavy. IC hurts, BF was going to get nerfed eventually anyways. I don’t like the Vengeful Images nerf though. On the upside, GS is beastly now.

Relshdan.6854:

i just watched my staff 1 bounce from the enemy mob to a non-activated dragon hologram object…..i was about the same distance away from the mob as the object.

is this actually fixed?

In my experience, non living things have always been wonky with bouncing. I did test out mirror blade earlier though, and when I was in range, I did get the 6 stacks of might.

It looks like the new animation cooldown on Mind Stab causes it to wig out sometimes. Often when I use it, after my mesmer stabs the ground, she immediately appears in the standing position and can’t do anything for a split second, avoiding the animation where she would otherwise pull the sword out. Sometimes the correct animation works, but other times, no dice.

It really breaks the immersion of the skill, since the animation is one of the best parts of it. Hope ANet can look into this!

At least SOI activates immediately now. I’ll take that over the old version anyday.

No. 3 abilities/traits a class does not make.