Guild Wars 2

The problem with 10v10 in a spvp server is that it lags like kitten cause the servers aren’t good enough to handle such numbers.

Depends what comp you run but as long as you have a warrior, gaurd and/or ele you should be fine with survivability on shatter. If you run with 3 thieves all SA/condition you might aswell roll PU and go full lameness.

19 – 37
Magic bullet & Phantasmal disenchanter

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaRl0npQtdoxSNMrNithcybxQdxjRLZgDA-TZBGwAAOEAx2fowJA4wTAIaZAA

Get that phantasm heal/ boon removal/ condi removal/ tank going.

Map isn’t that big so in an organised situation you’ll come down to many team fights and a few big pushes to break down the game. I highly doubt it will be effective to spawn 1 mob at a time to break down a gate.

This is very favored for the mesmer due portal plays. You can easily force out a 5v5 at the commune of a boss, leaving a portal at the supply depot. If you think you’re gonna lose the fight you just portal back to supply depot and still profit with 5-10 supplies being able to set up a big attack on their gate.

You also want to have the highest speed between supply and spawning the npcs. So asume you have a portal down at base and you run to supply depot. You win team fight, get supplies, take portal, spawn npc, take portal back and get supplies again.

Or if you have both enemy gates down but you can’t quite finish their lord you can just leave a portal on a spot behind a house let the enemy team push your side, take the portal and rush their lord. And even if they see the portal, they’re forced to keep an eye on it meaning forcing 4v5’s across the map objectives.

glorius.1235:

I highlighted the part where you strengthen my argument. Unless you wanna do your melee burst, you will be out of range of MH sword skills >> will be (should be) using your GS.
If not, that means, like I said, that:
a.) you wanna do your melee brust with MH Sword
b.) you are under melee pressure and need that BF~distortion

Yes, good you highlighted it. So how many times do you actually use your Iswordman currently seeing it fails to land it’s attack because you want to stay ranged so much? Does that 12-20 seconds ’’low’’ cooldown really matter once you realise the only way to cast it is from a position where mesmer shouldn’t be at?

It’s funny. You give so many examples yourself showing how bad off-hand sword is, yet you are against buffing it’s weaknesses. What’s the point you’re trying to make exactly? That off-hand sword is designed to not be good in sPvP? Because the situations you’re mentioning aren’t gonna change and with stronghold only will become more likely to happen.

kodesh.2851:

Wow, so much debate about nothing.

Of course iSwordsman will have it’s advantages and disadvantages to other phants depending on your build/playstyle/team etc etc. It’s a good and functional OH weapon, leave it the hell alone.

So fine it never has been meta for 2.5 years? Right dude.

glorius.1235:

Phantasm snip

And what exactly should the use of phantasm have to do with if they are or not spawned in melee range? The only factor to discuss about is if the melee phantasm is spawned next to the target to instantly peform it’s attack. In the majority of the cases, all phantasm are executing their attack instantly, unless the person leaps, blinks or luckily moves at the exact opposite direction of this phantasm. With this information I can guarantee that it’s purpose is to instantly peform the attack once spawned and not to run to it’s target first before attacking. The fact that Iswordman isn’t is just poor design and totally not in line with the other phantasm, which is also one of the reasons off hand sword never been as popular as any other off hand weapon in PvP.
So again, what a silly argument. (Also, Izerker is spawned close enough to instantly perform its attack. I’m not sure why you think it doesn’t)

glorius.1235:

You either ignored my argument about why you’d swap to OH or didn’t understand it.
Switching to OH (and to MH sword) against ranged pressure is ineffective.

I never said off hand sword was effective to use against ranged pressure? I only said you could use the block from any range, as long as it was within 900 unit, it would do the exact same effect. The fact that you can set up a better burst melee range still doesn’t take away that the effect of the skill is the exact same from melee range as from 900 units. So what’s your point? That you should always use skills the most effective way possible, not based on the situation?

These examples have so little to do with my proposal, I don’t even see why you thought it was worth mentioning. Ok, you found out off hand sword is bad against ranged pressure. I could’ve told you that years ago when it was already clear the class is pretty weak against ranged pressure due its mobility. Is this an argument against the iSwordman change I proposed? Highly doubt it. It would actually rather be an argument to allow the change to buff the profession to be more effective against ranged classes.

glorius.1235:

See my reasoning above. Blocking a ranged projectile is a prime example of using OH sword ineffectively (except maybe soft CC projectiles) . Again, to back up with specific examples, I am pretty sure OH sword block is intended to block backstabs, mighty blows, eviscerates and hammerstuns.
The clone from the block will spawn instantly, do dmg and can be instantly shattered. All that together – for maximum damage output – is only possible in melee range.
Furthermore, blocks have no range. I’m not even sure why it states a range for the block itself as it doesn’t even require a target to be performed. Probably it means the clone summoning – that it summons a clone only within 900 range.

Saving it for such attacks is nice, but not required to. If this block had a super long cooldown and would reflect stun or backstab to the person I would say yes, it would be. But looking at the incredible low cooldown of the skill, I don’t see why you wouldn’t use it for any other purposes than you mentioned. It’s not like you’re gonna safe your mirror blade only if you wanna use your mind wrack or the other way around. Not to mention it has a totally different attack by using the active effect of it. You can easily use that from 800-900 units to interrupt certain skills such as healings. Using it while walking upon your enemy to block a lifeblast can easily be a setup for a burst. After all, this necro can’t life blast you while running away so you’ll be in no time at this person, especially with the 600 leap from I leap. This way you can easily use your block as effectively as you would from melee range.

This goes also for your 1000-1200 units argument:
There are enough times, especially in team fights, where you can setup from 1200 units with iswordman (especially in combination with a blind field) run onto your target and exactly time your burst the moment you get out of stealth with mirror blade and mind wrack. Starting off with S mainhand on ranged isn’t that wierd at all and allows you to setup for great close ranged bursts. This can be done with torch easily, but currently you are forced to have a thief to do the same, but with less burst because your Iswordman most likely gonna do or not gonna hit. This is a huge disadvantage compared to torch. Another reason Off hand sword has never been meta.

Ross Biddle.2367:

BlackDevil.9268:

@ ross

Let’s not talk about inexperience shall we? My eyes are still hurting from seeing the skill klicking.

Now you’re just being weird. I run a razer naga epic. I haven’t had to click a skill in over two years. Not sure where you wanted to go with that one but GG. Unlike you I wasn’t trying to be offensive for the sake of it. Have it your way I guess. shrug

And calling someone ignorant or inexperienced twice is totally fine right? Especially if this person who calls someone inexperienced can barely play his own class. It took me just over a minute to see you struggling to dodge hammerstun against a warrior that has no idea what he’s doing and a random necro that pops in. Then it took you 1.5 second to cast your blink on a horrible position and klicking your mass invis afterwards cause the only way to see your skill description is by hovering over it with your mouse, which is clear to see in the ‘’Phantrupt Asskicker Match (CS Lockdown)’’. All that with a dueling build.

And you’re assuming me to take you serious after calling me inexperienced or ignorant? Again, there’s a reason off hand sword has been a lackluster for the past 2 years in PvP. The fact that you can’t see why is not my problem.

@ glorious
Pistol is a power based off hand weapon too that almost always goes along with main hand sword. So this is a melee weapon too? What a silly argument.

You can easily use the block from 900 units to do the exact same as in melee range. Not to mention that the velocity of the bolt of the active effect is so fast and has such low display that it’s not even worth mentioning to not use it from range but for melee purposes only.

Not only that but you can easily use iswordman on the run to your target from 1000-1200 units. The moment you have ended your cast you should be somewhere near the 600 range cap that’s required to leap to your enemy with illusionary leap. Your example is assuming to be standing still constantly or to at least stay on more than 600 units while casting the skill.

Besides, if it would spawn near the target you could start off from s-s when standing on difficult terrain where the phantasm bugs or will be forced to run around and then swap to GS. If your target is within 600 units from this terrain (for example at keep where you have the platforms where you can stand on) you can even use your ileap to immobilize without you porting into it. The fact that you are forced to stand within melee range of the target to let the phantasm be able to hit is a massive loss for yourself, as you wanna be as much as possible on range from your enemy unless you want to burst and there will be many situations where you wont be able to spawn the phantasm because of it’s horrible spawn location so the low cooldown is after all not that useful as it seems.

glorius.1235:

The only phantasm that spawns right next to the target is the iWarden

What… Are you being serious? I even stated before all the phantasm that spawn next to the target and all melee phantasm besides iswordman spawn next to the target:
Izerker does
Iwarden does
Imariner does
Irogue does
Iswordman doesn’t

If you ask me, this is rather a ‘’designers slack’’. Because if this skill was less than 1200 range it would even become worse than it already is and never to be viable in PvP as a good off hand weapon.

@glorious
Please explain me why it’s not designed for range if any other melee focussed phantasm is being spawned next to the target, both skills on the off hand are ranged (i.e. >900 units) and even the phantasm itself leaps from a reasonable range bigger than melee as attack. Just because it’s a sword it shouldn’t be instantly something that’s close range. Torch is even a more melee focussed weapon than off hand sword, yet that has a phantasm that has a ranged attack.

Off hand sword can be a really good alternative instead of torch just because of the leap combo on the phantasm when used in combination with a thief. You’re not gonna use phase retreat for something like that if you wanna burst because you wanna stay double ranged with that. You also don’t have immobilize on staff and no on demand 2.5 second evade. The thing is, 20/16 seconds for a leap finisher only is rather pointless if you can aswell just get your torch out and have on demand stealth, bigger burst and survival, unless the phantasm actually hits. Now this is the problem, because in team fights it’s not gonna hit, especially if you stealth on the side with a thief before jumping in on a target.

If this weapon get’s no buff it will always be the 2nd choice… or 3rd… or 4th… especially with this new off hand shield comming up that will bring some fun ‘’dps guardian’’ likely play with it. Sword off hand will be close to useless next to that, torch and pistol.

@ ross

Let’s not talk about inexperience shall we? My eyes are still hurting from seeing the skill klicking.

Still it forces a target to move out the way and stay at least 900-1200 units away from the iduelist to avoid it ‘’that easily’’, whereas Iswordman can just easily die before it even started casting its attack.

I seriously have no idea why anyone would be against my proposal to change Iswordman to spawn next to the target instead of next to the caster. Especially with the offhand weapon never being meta in pvp.

…
My comment on the damage is because of people using the argument that Iswordman ‘’hits like a truck’’, which is not true unless you mention that for any phantasm due that nearly all power based phantasm hit equally hard.

My argument about that it is easy to bait into aoe refers to the very first post, where I mention Iswordman is being spawned next to the caster instead of the target. This meaning it is much easier to bait into aoe than any other phantasm.

Iduelist is far from useless when the enemy runs away due range. Neither is Izerker due it’s being spawned next to the target so it will always launch it attack. Iswordman, however, will most likely not hit once casted on a target running away due it’s horrible location of spawning.

Iswordman has 1 attack. Therefor it can be blocked with a normal block or aegis much easier so also be avoided much easier. As for Izerker and iduelist it will hit no matter the aegis or weapon block. Damage spread across more hits > singular hit in most of the AI cases. As you said, you don’t use it for damage only, but many other purposes. This is in my opinion a major one of them if you would want to bait defensive skills so you can land your burst/immobilize.

Iduelist and Izerker both have a much higher chance of applying bleedings and will most likely also apply more bleeding stacks therefor deal more damage and be more useful in builds other than full power based.

Like mentioned in a previous post and I’ll mention it again because this is one of the most crucial ones: It does not, I repeat not fit in the way mesmer has to position himself. If you gonna go balls deep as mesmer in spvp you most likely gonna find yourself dieing very quickly or being forced to bail out the fight unless you win the fight right after.

Tell me 1 situation where the leap combo can be useful when casting iswordman without it being totally useless. Cause the only thing I can think of is casting it just for the leap combo to stealth in a blinding field and having your iswordman not even being spawned or having to run all the way to your enemy and most likely will die or gets stuck before hitting the enemy.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Meh, iSwordsman on the OH loadout, with a MH sword is fine. I’d say Blackdevil, your view is to narrow. Comparisons phant to phant might look smart but unfortunately you have to take entire weapon sets into account with adjoining trait setups and play styles. So saying “iZerker is better in a team situation” doesn’t help much.

Lets say I just grant your your assertion that iSwordsman is only going to get one attack off. I’m not sure why that matters if you only need the one attack inside of a wider burst to down an opponent. Add to that the low CD mentioned above, you have a new iSwordsman every weapon rotation making the up time unmanageable for an opponent for any length of time. The Phantlock Asskicker build I’ve presented in detail with a ton of footage in a variety of situations vs many different enemies/builds has shown just how good the iSwordsman is within the larger framework of a build. To say its not good, or “weaker/worse than other phantasms” with the case you’ve presented is either inexperience, or plain ignorance.

Buff it though if you like. I won’t complain.

The way you shown it is against terribad players in a tight area, mostly 1v1’s and even then most of the time you don’t even use it or it barely is useful, whereas your iduelist does almost 1/2 of the damage of your total output in the entire video.
Like that you can basically let anything look like it’s working.

All fun and all, but in practice Iswordman (and basically off-hand sword) just doesn’t work in PvP. It’s damage is easy to avoid, it’s easily being baited into aoe and killed before it has done it’s attack, it does nothing but damage and it’s damage is not higher than any other power based phantasm. It’s extremely useless when someone is running away and therefor it’s only useful in 1v1’s with people actually wanting to fight you.
Not only this, but it totally doesn’t fit at all in the way a mesmer has to position himself. You’re forced to be close to your target, will it be able to hit. I can think of countless positions for a mesmer to stand, whereas the cast of an I-swordman is completely useless in a team fight.

You would need to run some kittened dueling build to make this weapon work on offhand, which most likely is gonna be extremely useless in team fights. Might aswell run turret engi if you gonna go for such things.

PvE seems rather irrelevant since this game isn’t balanced around PvE, neither is it important what to run in PvE since (besides lvl 50 fractals maybe??) it’s not challenging at all.

Guess that’s also the reason we see off hand sword being used so much then lol.

You’re insane if you think the swordsman is weak.

I never said it’s weak. I said it was weaker/worse than other phantasm. That’s a big difference.

What? You’re asuming to be 24/7 close to your target or what? Why would you give a melee skill 1200 yards range, when all it does is dieing when used at 1200 yards? Might as well just reduce that to 600 if it’s only for close range purpose. Cause The block is close ranged too right? Oh wait, 900 yards. That’s equal range to scepter, a medium ranged weapon.
I also have no idea what a dueling build with 0 team support and a 100% win for any somewhat skilled ele, engi, thief, hell probably even power ranger should have to do with the skill im trying to discuss about. You can’t say ‘’oh it’s working in 1v1 on close range spots so it’s fine’’. Of course it’s gonna work on 1v1’s in close range cause you wouldn’t even notice the difference between having it spawned next to the target or next to yourself.
But hey, if you want arguments:
1. It’s 100% useless with triumphant distortion. The 1 second distortion is already worn out the moment it wants to land its hit once used >900 yards due slow moving speed of the phantasm.
2. In team fights, it dies most of the time before reaching the enemy, while any other melee phantasm will easily hit it at least once before dieing.

3. And maybe if you would have read, you could easily see why izerker, iduelist or even arguably (though maybe not for pvp purposes) is better than Iswordman. If it would only be already for the damage. Like said, the only way iswordman will come out stronger is when being tested in a dps test. There’s almost no way an enemy player will take more than 2 hits from an iswordsman max unless he’s being totally lockdowned by CC or is utterly kitten.
4. The leap foward with evade is nice, untill you realise it only leaps backwards 100-120 units. So either the aoe field he leaps in and out is smaller than 240 radius (err… yeah… that’s pretty much none), the player is using 0 aoe skills within 5 seconds (which almost never happens) or the player is just bad and uses his aoe skills on the wrong side of the player.

5. Not only this but again, like mentioned earlier, does nothing besides damage. At least with Izerker you get a nice cripple.
Not only that but Izerker is also aoe. So once in a team fight, the Izerker will outdamage Iswordman with ease.

So I guess you could say iswordman = izerker…. in 1v1 situation…. in a tight area…. against bad players…

Well… any phantasm hits like a truck on squishy targets… Compare it to other phantasm it actually is weaker and only ‘’hits harder’’ due faster attacks per minute. Too bad it almost always dies after 1 attack.

Was thinking about this but got me to a problem I had long time ago: Why is this phantasm being spawned next to yourself instead of next to the enemy? I find this phantasm to be a lackluster when it comes to PvP. This is mostly caused by the fact that it barely hits when casted from range and even if it hits, it’s damage is pretty weak.
Also a thing to note is that this phantasm is the only melee phantasm that spawns next to yourself instead of next to the target like Izerker, Iwarden, Irogue and Imariner.

Another thing is that the phantasm doesn’t really do much besides damage. Yes it has a leap, but leaps usually only benifit the person that does the leap, aka the phantasm. (Which seems pretty pointless to me since it will most likely die to 1 attack anyway so things like chaos armor are not really gonna affect much)
It’s not like Iduelist or Iwarden that can actually combo well with fields to apply some more conditions.

And then not to mention it’s wierd leap in front and then leap back to like.. 1/2 of the leap range? Why not leap backwards the same range as fowards? 100-130 units leap backwards seems quite pointless to me.

Also take a look at: Rework Weapon Blocks. Sword off hand could get so much more love to be viable…

4-6-0-0-4 is amazing for ranged tagging. Just spam all greatsword skills. Izerker on 12 sec cd with immunity and with the extra bounce you have on mirror blade you also tag lots of ppl with a 4.8 sec cd.

Very minor changes and not exactly ones that were really needed.

1. #3 scepter it’s issue is not at the duration of the stacks, but at the casting time, so this buff is only towards massive aids condi builds in WvW.
2. The buff on I-mage, same story as with #3 scepter, is not the correct buff to give. It’s cooldown is the problem, which should be reduced to at least 25 seconds.
3. Downed state buff is okay I guess. Not something we truely needed. If they wanted to buff it they could aswell just allow us to sign a specific spot where we want it to teleport to instead of this buff.
4. Time Warp buff is not the buff to be made to make it useful again. If they kept it 210 and made it ethereal it would have so many more options than it does now. Not only that but it would be much more in-line with the other confusion buffs they giving this patch. Though I must say that 210 seconds was awefully lot and 180 should be in any case the cooldown, especially when comparing it to other elites.
5. Illusion of Life is very minor and almost not even worth mentioning. If they reduced the cooldown to 100 it would actually be noticeable. A 10 seconds reduction means an 8 seconds reduction with the reduced cooldown trait. I don’t think anyone will notice this over a cooldown of 90+ seconds…
6. Phantasmal Defender
   Now this is something I completely don’t understand. This phantasm is not something you would ever pick over the current utilities because with every meta build, shattering illusions is almost a main thing to do. Not only that but what’s wrong with this skill at first is the casting time and it’s purpose. Maybe if casting time would be instant instead of 1.5, its cooldown would be reduced to 25 and it would become a stun breaker it would actually become useful in practice against thieves or so. Where you stunbreak their basilisk venom, neglect the rest of the incomming damage and just counter burst right after because you’re less worried about staying alive.

Yeah like you say ‘’ranged focus’‘, but that’s… ranged. Aka no thieves so relitively poor damage. Sure it’s possible now, cause of the distortion on izerker, but back then it wasn’t at all. You’ll still be better ending up with no focus party and more necro’s then. And nah, if focus party gets swarmed it doesn’t mean the entire guild gets swarmed. At some point you just lose track of where your melee is moving cause you just can’t concentrate on killing as fast as possible and keeping track of your melee. Sure it’s possible, but too many random factors will kill you in the end. Not only that but it’s extremely useless in choke points.

TD didnt proc on phantasm back then so using your ’’phantasm’’ to utilize the massive damage was totally a waste back then cause it would get stuck 9/10 times. Not only that but the build wasn’t to be super usefull in combat, it was to get bags and only for bags. Like i said before, if you wanna be useful get a warrior. If you want bags as mesmer, you can run this build.

And… errr.. what point are you trying to make with a sort of summed up commentary what I was doing in 30 seconds of the clip?

Not to mention, running focus party against a blob of 70-80 guys you gonna get swarmed in seconds and you gonna get 3/4 vs 10-15ed constantly or you gonna be forced to kite off after every dude you down, which most likely gonna get ressed up. Focus party is the most useless thing to run against blobs, that’s why most of our focus party switches necro or ele once we only fight blobs that day.

Well… If you think like that then you can aswell just roll necro or warrior if you actually want to support your team in a guild vs zerg situation cause mesmer is not gonna do the job really well

But yeah, 4-6-0-0-4 is probably best way to tag kitten if you don’t have 2 guards and 1 shout warrior in your party while fighting blobs. Just spam that izerker, mirror blade and mind stab and you’ll be fine.

Or well at least keep a forum post alive with proposed changes and put them in the OP post, if the OP wants to agree with this of course.

Guess I’ll start off:
I-mage reduced cooldown 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

Errr… http://strawpoll.me/3324333

Well… The max we can do is do a mass petition to rewind a couple nerfs and buff certain confusion based skills/traits.

xDudisx.5914:

BlackDevil.9268:

xDudisx.5914:

StickerHappy.8052:

xDudisx.5914:

Nice topic. I was thinking in a celestial build for wvw mesmer

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAraRnsISja2pGmpB3aGB3gM1EQ9SGyJLdA+1AA-TlhIABAcEAQS53a6DgTJohq/8x+DkCgJlRA-w

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWnsISpa2oGmpB3aGB3gM5EaAq/xQOZJDwvA-TlhIABAcEAQS53a6CgTJohq/8x+DkCgJlRA-w

The biggest problem is that mesmer is not making much use of the healing power. Anet could give us a utility or trait or weapon skill that makes use of healing to make celstial mesmer viable.

I thought you were on a crusade in nerfing shatter mesmer?

I consider zerker shater mesmer op in spvp. Celestial is a completely different story. I think the underpowered specs need a buff

And what exactly makes shatter mesmer op in spvp? The fact that they can deal 10k damage with a full combo that is easy to see from far away on a 10 seconds cooldown while being left with no condition removal and poor sustain? Sounds very op to me.

Good mobility, ranged skills, insta cast skills, immunes, more hp than a thief.

You couldn’t be any more vague.

They will never totally rework the condition because that would affect the game way too much as confusion is much easier to come by for a lot classes and it would need a lot rework on a lot skills.

Not only that but confusion on other classes is actually balanced, due that 1 skill or ’’effect’’ as in interrupt on warrior with trait causes instant 4-5 stacks confusion. Mesmer has at max a skill that applies 3 confusion by a phantasm that has a way too long cooldown and often fails to hit it’s bolt.

Soooo… solution: Increase the amount of stacks and/or duration on (almost) all confusion applying skills and traits for mesmer. Easy fix and no major reworks.

I like your idea but I wouldn’t take it either. To be fairly honest, the last thing we need it buffs on utilites that are underpowered at the moment.. :<

Besides, the 1 stack on gs is kinda… err… 1 stack is nothing so at least 2 stacks would fit a lot more.

Swiftness on focus seems rather pointless seeing temporal curtain doesn’t stack with normal swiftness. There’s a pretty big chance you will waste your temporal curtain cause you randomly get the swiftness just before you walked over it. I’d say give focus either retaliation or regen and give something like torch swiftness.

Redg.9807:

Domination

• Confusing Enchantments : Glamour skills cause 3 secs of daze to foes who enter or exit their areas.

Lolwat.

xDudisx.5914:

StickerHappy.8052:

xDudisx.5914:

Nice topic. I was thinking in a celestial build for wvw mesmer

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAraRnsISja2pGmpB3aGB3gM1EQ9SGyJLdA+1AA-TlhIABAcEAQS53a6DgTJohq/8x+DkCgJlRA-w

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWnsISpa2oGmpB3aGB3gM5EaAq/xQOZJDwvA-TlhIABAcEAQS53a6CgTJohq/8x+DkCgJlRA-w

The biggest problem is that mesmer is not making much use of the healing power. Anet could give us a utility or trait or weapon skill that makes use of healing to make celstial mesmer viable.

I thought you were on a crusade in nerfing shatter mesmer?

I consider zerker shater mesmer op in spvp. Celestial is a completely different story. I think the underpowered specs need a buff

And what exactly makes shatter mesmer op in spvp? The fact that they can deal 10k damage with a full combo that is easy to see from far away on a 10 seconds cooldown while being left with no condition removal and poor sustain? Sounds very op to me.

Cele benifits from might stacking so you would kinda want the bountiful interruption. Also, Ether feast scales pretty well with healing power and you should have around 50-75% of the time regeneration.

Besides, any other build involved with cele for mesmer would require you to run without blink and portal, which are the main skills for mesmer to have in spvp.

20 in domination wouldn’t work as well cause you lack might stacking, boon duration for the might and also a bit sustain. And let’s be honest, what do you get for it in return? Boon removal? It can work sure, but I highly doubt it will work better than 20 in chaos. And also, if you gonna just do the 4-4-0-0-6 then you can aswell just stick with zerker cause cele is never gonna be better than zerker with the typical 4-4-0-0-6 build.

For cele you need sustain and might stacking, which you get with 0-4-4-0-6. You just need to find some good combo’s like a confusion bomb of 8-10 stacks with chaos storm + mirror blade + cry of frustration. Cast this the moment someone used his condi clear and you’ll see him spam 5-7k confusion damage easily, especially with eles, engies and thieves.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpUtlpxWNMrNitxYyLiA1Dd0UlMghB-TpBFwAOOCAEuAAJOEAt2fAaZAAPAAA

With this build you should easily be able to stack up to 25 might stacks and have good enough sustain to win 1v1’s on point.

Downsides: only 1 stunbreaker, lack of initial burst (Get’s much better the moment you hit 15+ stacks might)

I wouldn’t say that this build is better than normal shatter but it’s a fun build to play with, especially if you’re tired of the mass targeting on you during team fights and if you want to play on point a bit more.

maha.7902:

BlackDevil.9268:

Well doubt we get any massive changes soon so, in the theme of the Mind Stab change, what skills or traits would you like to see changed slightly that would, in your eyes, improve mesmer in PvP?

My changes would be:
Increase confusion duration on shatter from 3 seconds to 5 seconds on cry of frustration and Illusionary Retribution.

Especially in the current cele/hoelbrak meta the confusion is way too short and not to mention it’s only 1 stack which already deals pathetic damage. This should in my opinion totally get a buff ever since confusion was nerfed.

Illusionary Warlock":
Been long enough that this phantasm is so easy to avoid and so unpredictable. I would totally give up 5-10% damage on the phantasm to make its projectile somewhat like Wind of Chaos.

Phantasmal Mage:
This phantasm is pathetic… Cooldown should be reduced to 20 like all phantasm.

What are your changes?!

Your changes involve making the mesmer class stronger.

The last time ANet decided to buff mesmers, there was enough forum QQ that the tears could fill an entire stadium.

Your changes will therefore not happen.

Sooo… Pretty much your conclusion would be to just leave every class alone or nerf every class because everyone is QQing about every class being OP? Yeah that works.

My changes are such small changes that it will never bring mesmer to a state where cele ele or engi is at the moment. Apart from ranger, mesmer along with necro are probably the least favored class in the current meta sooo… I don’t see the issue by buffing it slightly.

Besides, let’s be honest, these changes shouldve happened long time ago… What’s the reason for image being the only weapon skill phantasm to have 30 seconds cooldown, while all other weapons skill phantasm are 20 seconds? Not to mention it’s even one of the worst phantasm also.
Cry of frustration, +/- 100 damage per skill for 3 seconds? Massive for a 23-30 seconds cooldown skill.

A nerf in damage and a buff for accuracy for a phantasm to create less RNG? Probably the biggest buff in the whole list, yet not really big.

Well doubt we get any massive changes soon so, in the theme of the Mind Stab change, what skills or traits would you like to see changed slightly that would, in your eyes, improve mesmer in PvP?

My changes would be:
Increase confusion duration on shatter from 3 seconds to 5 seconds on cry of frustration and Illusionary Retribution. Or! Increase the 1 stack on shatter to 2 stacks on shatter and leave the duration. Like this an enemy should be aware the short duration but high confusion stacks so he’s not bound to wait 5/6 seconds for them to disappear.

Especially in the current cele/hoelbrak meta the confusion is way too short and not to mention it’s only 1 stack which already deals pathetic damage. This should in my opinion totally get a buff ever since confusion was nerfed.

Illusionary Warlock":
Been long enough that this phantasm is so easy to avoid and so unpredictable. I would totally give up 5-10% damage on the phantasm to make its projectile somewhat like Wind of Chaos.

Phantasmal Mage:
This phantasm is pathetic… Cooldown should be reduced to 20 like all phantasm.

What are your changes?!

Recharge

Reduce the recharge of all your skills based on the amount of clones shattered:
1 Clone shattered : 15%
2 Clones shattered : 30%
3 Clones shattered : 45%
(Combined with IP, 4 clones : 60%)

So for example; You cast chaos storm, it’s on a 35 seconds recharge and you wait till it goes to 30 seconds till you cast F5, it’s cooldown will drop to 30 × 0,4 = 12 seconds.

Though I don’t really know if this is possible to program so I wouldn’t mind it reducing the cooldown by 60% based on the full cooldown no matter what cooldown the skill is on. ( so if it would be 30 seconds cooldown, it would drop to 35×0,6 = 21, 30-21 = 9 seconds CD left)

Vapour.7348:

BlackDevil.9268:

Archaon.9524:

BlackDevil.9268:

NeXeD.3042:

Umm yes NA did win gvg. AGG won on EU and NA.

No they did not
The only GvG Guild that ever came over to an EU server is EP, which btw totally got destroyed by even kitten guilds on EU.

considering there is no gvg in this game sounds pretty legit to me. GvG is GW1 everything else it’s just random wvsw bs spam

“Blast blast blast blast!!1!1!” roflmao

GvG has much more teamplay and has much more discussion going on with optimal team comps and gears than spvp has in this game.
It’s a total different ‘’game mode’’ compared to spvp and has other ways of skill than just bunkering and cheesing 15 minutes through a game.

It’s seriously much different than spamming blast skills or running after a ’’commander’’.

sPvP seriously can learn something teamplay wise from GvG’s in many 4v4/5v5 team fights and comps.

You just can’t clearly see skill if you have no interest in how and what people do and because there is no spectate mode. ’’roflmao’’

It’s easier for an sPvPer to adapt to GvG than the other way around.

Based on what? You can teach someone in less than 5 min his role and what he should do in spvp and he will do it.
You can tell someone his role in GvG, but will probably fail for a long time regardless of his skill, due that coordination requires a lot practice. Not only that but there are many tactics involved in gvgs that are never to be seen in spvp only already due that GvG has more numbers so much more play with combo fields.

Archaon.9524:

BlackDevil.9268:

NeXeD.3042:

Umm yes NA did win gvg. AGG won on EU and NA.

No they did not
The only GvG Guild that ever came over to an EU server is EP, which btw totally got destroyed by even kitten guilds on EU.

considering there is no gvg in this game sounds pretty legit to me. GvG is GW1 everything else it’s just random wvsw bs spam

“Blast blast blast blast!!1!1!” roflmao

GvG has much more teamplay and has much more discussion going on with optimal team comps and gears than spvp has in this game.
It’s a total different ‘’game mode’’ compared to spvp and has other ways of skill than just bunkering and cheesing 15 minutes through a game.

It’s seriously much different than spamming blast skills or running after a ’’commander’’.

sPvP seriously can learn something teamplay wise from GvG’s in many 4v4/5v5 team fights and comps.

You just can’t clearly see skill if you have no interest in how and what people do and because there is no spectate mode. ’’roflmao’’

NeXeD.3042:

Umm yes NA did win gvg. AGG won on EU and NA.

No they did not
The only GvG Guild that ever came over to an EU server is EP, which btw totally got destroyed by even kitten guilds on EU.

TheLargeUnit.2793:

NA Master Race

We beat them in GvG, we beat them in PvP, now we just gotta beat them in PvE!!!

No you didn’t beat ’’EU’’ in GvG, there’s 0 proof for that since NA were too scared to come over to EU servers. But w/e enormously off topic.

Along with sPvP: This is rather an issue with Abjured > TCG, since there are many other teams with better comps out there in EU that have beaten TCG with bigger scores than abjured did, whereas abjured and absurd are the only good teams in NA that would have a much smaller chance of winning.
If you’d have 4 teams of NA and 4 teams of EU all together playing LAN it would come down much different probably and much more accurate than just saying ‘’NA > EU’’ after 1 team fight another on LAN.

Ahwell the EU > NA or NA > EU drama will always continue.

I don’t see why you would need ‘’stow weapon’’ if you already dodge. Dodge already cancels any casting time. Not only that but ileap casting time is incredibly low, I’m amazed that can have an aftercast so big that you can neglect it.

Eh…
Sw-T / GS
2-6-0-0-6
W/e gear, for tagging I guess as tanky as you want.
Spam 1 and blurred frenzy once enemy pushes on you or you push into a big blob with many aoe’s in there. Just f1-2 once you see people around you for extra tagging. It’s so much more effective than spamming mantra of pain.

MSFone.3026:

It’s in inspiration, have it be phantasm related.

Landing an interrupt resets your phantasms attack timers. This would pair so awesomely with CI, mmmm.

I like Pyro’s idea from a while back: Landing an interrupt reduces the cd on all skills currently on cd by X seconds, so if you have a skill with Y sec left on cd, landing an interrupt makes it only have Y-X sec left, or brings it off cd is X>=Y, and it does this for every skill on cd.

This would apply to all skills, elite, heal, utility and weapon skills. This would also make for an awesome pair with CI.

I think any heal on interrupt less than 5k is not going to be worth 6 into inspiration, even them I’m not sure. It would have to be a boss heal with an icd. But then you have the icd issue, as I don’t think any trait related to landing interrupts should have an icd. The heal on interrupt was a dumb idea imo. Pyros idea above would be amazing.

Why should it be related to phantasm? Nearly the only ’’traits’’ that are affecting phantasm in inspiration are the minor trats.. A good +/- 90% of the adapt, master and grandmaster traits are based on anything but phantasm.

Well since there are many counters to ‘’illusionary counter’‘, it’s probably that what is the issue of getting those 5 stacks on someone.

Counters: Block, dodge, blind, immune, CC, not attack when someone has the block up, LoS.

SlimChance.6593:

And I was saying Arcane Thievery SHOULD do 5.

SlimChance.6593:

Thinking outside the box.

As far as mimic goes, both the tooltip and wiki say it copies 12 boons. Seems to only copy 5 max. Which I believe is what was originally proposed by ANet when they announced the change. So tooltip is wrong.

If it did copy 12, that would certainly make it more appealing. Mimic copy 12 and Arcane Thievery do 5. Then you might actually see those being used.

Still searching for the ’’should’’ in this post. And no, it Shouldn’t because then:
1. mimic would be totally useless. Everyone would pick mimic above arc thievery if it was for boons only already. Stealing 10 times > copy.
2. Stealing 5 boons would also mean giving 5 conditions. This is not how you balance skills. The more of these skills, like necro has, the more aids will come to the game. Reducing cooldown would be a much better solution for a buff.

Anyhow, mimic, bugged or not bugged, is super useless. I don’t see why you would ever pick this above 10 other utilities.

tldr: its useless

What..?? No? Mimic is supposed to copy all boons. Not just 5. That’s how they presented it also. If its only 5 its a bug. Arcane thievery steals 3 boons, not 5 either.

Fay.2357:

Mesmer gets PU.

…yeah.

Oh lel, forgot. PU solves everything.

Though, the trait isn’t especially directed to a special type of skills, unless they rename all stealth skills to ’’Stealth’’ like with glamour and manipulation etc.

Gaile Gray.6029:

Bellizare.5816:

LOL, looks like torches and pitchforks time.

And Gaile, people are reacting in an understandable manner.

It’s because they are angry.

The big question in my mind, is why?

Yeah, I was thinking the same about the pitchforks and torches.

I don’t discount players when they are upset, though, and I truly understand that sometimes things hit close to home and cause some angst, anger, upset, any sort of reaction. (I’d think it was possible to have the discussion without it devolving into unpleasantness, but then, I always was an optimist! )

I asked a quick question of a team leader about the changes. I thought the answers were pretty clear so I posted them. But if you want more info, maybe there’s more to be learned and I’ll ask about that tomorrow.

Oh I can easily answer that question why people are mad: Many, but really a huge majority, is being treated like dumb cows. Just simplify everything and give us a lvl 1-80 scroll, and maybe simplify pvp too because so many people get confused by all these skills. It’s amazing you were part of the ones that came up with this.

Anyway, I’m gonna give arguments on your arguments because I’m totally amazed by how this system was brought up via your arguments:

Gaile Gray.6029:

Hey there,

Here are a few tidbits from the team:

• A lot of newer players had trouble with the interface. That doesn’t apply to you, you’re veterans who have been around the conversion block a time or two. But newer players will benefit from the updated system.
• The goal was to make the Gem Store more like other shopping experiences, and if you think about it, there is more of that feel to it now.
• You may be surprised to know this (I know I was) but very few people bought gems at smaller denominations than the first one offered in the new system. That’s not to say they never did, nor that there wouldn’t be the desire to do so. But overall, the current options were selected based on player purchases in the past.
• The team is going to listen to your feedback and, if and when it’s practical and desirable, they can look towards adjusting the new system to better meet your needs.

• Newer players will not benifit from this at all. Why? Because gem prices are already way too high. It’s not like a ‘’new player’’ can easily go on and buy a constume for 700 gems, aka 150 gold. The moment this new player got that 150g, I’m pretty sure he’s smart enough to figure out how a system works that even my dog could understand.

• Expience like other.. what…. If I go to a merchant and I want to buy apples, I can tell him the exact of amount of apples I want. If I go to the gem store and I want to buy the exact amount of gems, It will show me the list and fill in what I’m forced to take. Not only that, but also a forced minimum amount of 400 gems. If I want 1 apple, then I buy 1 apple, not 4 because im forced to buy a minimum amount.

• Of course the majority buys more than 400 gems at once, because costumes and fashion is the biggest market on the gem store, which is mostly around 700 gems. This, however, doesn’t mean there are a lot people still buying gems lower than the majority. It’s a big middlefinger to those who do buy gems in more parts or those who have still gems lieing around, but just not enough to buy the item they want. Nice way to treat your players.

• I hope you listen very carefully to the feedback in this thread, because this system is just amazingly bad. Patches are supposed to make your game better, not worse. Do something useful with your time instead of throwing everything around to make it ‘’less confusing for newer players’’.

Err.. I could be wrong but is mesmer the only profession that has 0 traits related to their elites? :<
Warrior got signet
Elementalists got conjure weapons
Rangers got spirit & entangled
Necro got Flesh golem
Guardian got renewed focus
Thief got basilisks venom
Engi got turret and elixer
Mesmer got…. nada?

Discuss!

Rune of the Mantra
1) +25 Power
2) +10% Boon Duration
3) +50 Power
4) +15% Condition Duration
5) +100 Power
6) Mantra charges have a 50% chance to maintain once used.

Or

6) Gaining a buff to cause the channeling of a mantra, after channeling a mantra, to be instant cast. (Buff will remain for 10 seconds)

It would, maybe not in pve but 100% in pvp. As it is now, it spawns on the location of the enemy once it’s casted meaning it will always spawn next to the enemy. This, combined with immobilize right after it makes it viable for the damage.
Once you have it ground targeted you have to know where your enemy exactly is 1 second later. That’s in most cases pretty impossible unless someone is afking on 1 spot.

It would take away all its potential of dealing damage in pvp and only be used as shield or distraction then. Bit sad for a phantasm that has the highest dps.