Guild Wars 2

You can go to fractals level 40 at character level 2. If you die, should the dungeon be redesigned down to your character?

Yesterday I was doing a fractal, and I decided to send health regen food to all of my groupmates. I successfully sent mail two 2 of them, by the third I received the blocked from sending mail notification. It was not long before it cleared up, but we all had to stand around and wait because I guess I was too efficient at sending mail.

Or you can not put the game at fault when you chose a bad position and were knocked into the lava. Classic case of you made a huge tactical error therefore your team suffers because a member of the team made a major mistake. Team play.

Easy answer on the Lupi…many people have just been carried through the game. 1 competent person in a dungeon makes or breaks it. The difference between last week and this week…this week you actually need at least 2 competent people. —-sometimes-—

DeathPanel.8362:

bllurr.2618:

I’ve been playing Guild Wars 2 since launch (and even before that) and if there is one thing I have realized about dungeons is that people have found ways to cheese their way through them. what I mean by this is that people are finding places where they can stand during a boss fight at just auto attack him from range and the boss will just sit there and do nothing. It makes it very boring for players who actually want to experience all the content the way it was supposed to be played while the rest of the group just looks for a faster way to finish the dungeon and get their tokens at the end. Hope this is something you guys can resolve.
Thank You, Bllurr

People cheese through dungeons because they are really tedious, take too long to get through, or have some sort of near impossible encounter that can’t be beaten without cheesing. (Or would take specific builds/classes to do it and is generally a pain)

If you remove those options without compensating then the unintended consequence would simply be that no one will run those dungeons anymore.

If killing content is what you want then that’s the way to do it.

Take too long is a relative term. This game has the shortest dungeon runs of any game I have ever played.

Many viable builds exist for classes. Granted some are more favorable than others such as the “Auto-Attack” build for each class. Press 1 once then go for a bio, #1 build for most dungeon bosses.

Kill content eh. Considering the gear is not a step above what you can buy or make after a couple hours of play what is the purpose of running dungeons? Certainly not the challenge. Certainly not a time sink. Certainly not a learning experience. What exactly should a person do after putting 100 or so hours into the game?

Compensate…. Really!!! Many would consider the easy cheesy runs that have existed for months to be more then enough compensation for years of play. In fact, what about removing all the gear and money gained by exploiting, that seems fair.

Sarcasmic.6741:

The Gates Assassin.9827:

Being a full glass cannon in PvE is generally not a good idea. Even the devs themselves have said this. Survivability > Cannon for the most part.

I stopped taking you seriously here.

I am so confused about what you find hard to take seriously here.

Indica.1380:

Bombul.2506:

Indica.1380:

Bombul.2506:

Indica.1380:

well most dungeons are there for the exotic gears which alternatively you can craft or buy (excluding fractals). now post-update, its become even more pointless unless you are after a specific gear skin.

i like what you pro-update guys say, if we dont like it then dont play it. then i question what is the use of this debate? what is the use of Anet opening a feedback section? so if we dont like it we automatically become whiners?

anyways back to the subject. if i see a player in down-state now, being a glassy mesmer i will not ress them. plenty of times i tried to ress someone ive died myself, thankfully there were this “waypoint” that i could rely on. but now ressing is not an option for glassy players like me. why would i risk losing more man power by ressing? makes no sense.

This is a big part of the learning curve. Mesmer is an incredible team support class. If you are going into a dungeon to be glassy dps you are falling way short of the potential of the class which should equal greater chance of failure. Mesmer can = almost continual chaos armor for the entire group which =s 50% less incoming damage. And no, you do not have to be a staff user for that. That is only one tool a mesmer brings…choosing to play the class as an exclusive dps should not equate to the game changing around it, it should equate to that person only excelling at a few aspects of the game and failing at others. It is cheap and easy to swap abilities and specs in this game, if one chooses not too it is not a short coming of the game, it is a lack of understanding the potential of the class.

what are you on? chaos armor is a staff skill so you have to have a staff. and it doesnt support allies… and how can i continously spam it?

do a google search for gw2 ethereal combo field. Combo fields are an important part to Mesmer play. Learning curve my friend, learning curve. Combo fields are an important part of most classes.

thanks for the info. tried to look it up but certainly u have to have a staff?.. so this ethereal will be spammable? i liked chaos armor when i use to use a staff but i found it pointless with a glass/crit build since it only last for 5secs and cd is like 35secs. its cheap to change your traits, but not gears since they are not resellable. now harder dungeons its gna be a pain to get gears.

One mesmer to another (my first toon):

Chaos Storm (staff specific)
Chaos Armor (staff and mesmer specific)
Feedback (an amazing ability, not weapon specific)
Null Field (awesome, not weapon specific)
Time Warp (greatest ability in the game, not weapon specific)
Veil (not weapon specific)
Chaotic Revival (not weapon specific)
Medic’s Feedback (not weapon specific)

most of these are glamors, so effected by the following traits to increase effect, duration, or reduce cooldown:

Confusing enchantments
Glamour Mastery
Temporal Enchanter
Dazzing Glamours

edit: I typically use GS and SW/Focus or SW/Pistol so I understand your love of power/precison/crit.

Scoundrel, I fully understand. I run many fractals level 1 & 2 with PUGs (just for the cash and because I like the dungeon). Rarely do I mention the fact that I am experienced in that dungeon. Sometimes you just find a group who wants to blame the “new” guy. It is almost funny to watch the group, while telling you what you are doing is wrong, aggro 10-20 mobs and then blame you for the wipe for staying back. Unfortunately I am not that patient and will drop group after a few choice words of wisdom.

That situation is a reality, but it is few and far between for me at least.

FlareHeart.4360:

We have two people who are level 80

end game content man…only 2 have even gotten to top level.

Dyvim.8293:

I disagree. Given some dungeons and some PUGS they have been completely undoable…or complete cakewalks. It varies. To say chat isnt required, which means there is no communication, is LAUGHABLE and makes me dismiss the rest of your post entirely. How can you coordinate without any communication? Or clue in people that have never run a dungeon or given path before? Mind reading? Please, serious posts only.

The lack of a grp finder in this game is puzzling at best. Even a pos game like TOR has an excuse for a dungeon finder. I expect much better from Anet.

If you have to explain an encounter to someone, they are a new player (to the area at least). New players (or first time experiencers of content) should not be expected to complete end game content on their first run. End game content…the epitome of game accomplishment.

Indica.1380:

Bombul.2506:

Indica.1380:

well most dungeons are there for the exotic gears which alternatively you can craft or buy (excluding fractals). now post-update, its become even more pointless unless you are after a specific gear skin.

i like what you pro-update guys say, if we dont like it then dont play it. then i question what is the use of this debate? what is the use of Anet opening a feedback section? so if we dont like it we automatically become whiners?

anyways back to the subject. if i see a player in down-state now, being a glassy mesmer i will not ress them. plenty of times i tried to ress someone ive died myself, thankfully there were this “waypoint” that i could rely on. but now ressing is not an option for glassy players like me. why would i risk losing more man power by ressing? makes no sense.

This is a big part of the learning curve. Mesmer is an incredible team support class. If you are going into a dungeon to be glassy dps you are falling way short of the potential of the class which should equal greater chance of failure. Mesmer can = almost continual chaos armor for the entire group which =s 50% less incoming damage. And no, you do not have to be a staff user for that. That is only one tool a mesmer brings…choosing to play the class as an exclusive dps should not equate to the game changing around it, it should equate to that person only excelling at a few aspects of the game and failing at others. It is cheap and easy to swap abilities and specs in this game, if one chooses not too it is not a short coming of the game, it is a lack of understanding the potential of the class.

what are you on? chaos armor is a staff skill so you have to have a staff. and it doesnt support allies… and how can i continously spam it?

do a google search for gw2 ethereal combo field. Combo fields are an important part to Mesmer play. Learning curve my friend, learning curve. Combo fields are an important part of most classes.

edit: 33% damage reduction, my bad…if you look at the wiki they give a newer version which is a random boon, but in actual play chaos armor from ethereal fields is always protection

LostInSmoke.2590:

tl;dr- OP is bad.

? Bad for not knowing a class that I crafted to 80, yes. Bad for not understanding my abilities and how they interact with others, yes. Bad for crusing through dungeons that I barely know with a class I do not know with little to no problems…obviously the game challenge is bad there.

Indica.1380:

well most dungeons are there for the exotic gears which alternatively you can craft or buy (excluding fractals). now post-update, its become even more pointless unless you are after a specific gear skin.

i like what you pro-update guys say, if we dont like it then dont play it. then i question what is the use of this debate? what is the use of Anet opening a feedback section? so if we dont like it we automatically become whiners?

anyways back to the subject. if i see a player in down-state now, being a glassy mesmer i will not ress them. plenty of times i tried to ress someone ive died myself, thankfully there were this “waypoint” that i could rely on. but now ressing is not an option for glassy players like me. why would i risk losing more man power by ressing? makes no sense.

This is a big part of the learning curve. Mesmer is an incredible team support class. If you are going into a dungeon to be glassy dps you are falling way short of the potential of the class which should equal greater chance of failure. Mesmer can = almost continual chaos armor for the entire group which =s 50% less incoming damage. And no, you do not have to be a staff user for that. That is only one tool a mesmer brings…choosing to play the class as an exclusive dps should not equate to the game changing around it, it should equate to that person only excelling at a few aspects of the game and failing at others. It is cheap and easy to swap abilities and specs in this game, if one chooses not too it is not a short coming of the game, it is a lack of understanding the potential of the class.

dablo.9546:

Srsly this is just not ok, dungeons were hard enough before but this is just too much. How are we suposed to do cof path 2 now? Please remove this, this just make the 5 man dungeons 10x harder than they were before and even then they were hard. What are your thoughts on this?

uggg…..If every aspect of a game is easy to new players, why would people stick around? —dungeons were hard enough before-- a matter of opinion, one that I do not share.

Glad you changed that boss listing…was a bit weirded out there for a moment. GL is the hardest boss in the game. I for one would be really upset if he were changed since he is very doable, just requires alot more skill then the tipacle new player has.

My best advice would be to adventure in the areas where dungeons are and wait for a lfg call or find a new guild. If you are looking for story mode your level should not be an issue. Several of the explorere (aka hard mode) dungeons are soloable so 1 “low level” (aka appropriate level toon) would not be a burdon.

People above the level for the dungeon are scaled down. It is not a perfect system, they still have way better abilities then someone who is actually that level. The dungeons being hard is a completely different matter. As a new player they do seem really challenging. Dodging, defensive abilities and timing are very important in this game. Unfortunately as you gain experience and these things become second nature the dungeons start to seem really really way too easy. 1 skilled player can carry an entire group of slackers. Before fractals they had no system in place that accounted for players having skills. Now high end fractals take skill and gear and bundle them into one. It would be awesome if other dungeons were less lenient to experienced players. Hopefully one day that is what the explorable modes will become and the story modes can be used by new players instead of the gold/gear farm they currently are.

Dungeons in this game have been REALLY REALLY easy. Text chat is not even required. Integrated VOIP would be nice, but not a requirement for previous or current state of dungeons.

Why does one need an agony resist backpack if not doing fractals?

Charming Rogue.8071:

gamefreak.5673:

No, lupi will not make or break any more groups then before because the run back was already so long most groups wont notice the difference.

uhm. Wrong. Many times I’ve seen people die in subsequent order and running back, keeping lupi from resetting and eventually killing him.

The question is, was this beating the boss, or was this cheating the system? I think everyone knew the answer while doing it. Gear rewards without required skill or knowledge. Think of the first 80 you ran through your personal quest. Did you stay near your level? Did you ever die? Now I look back, running about 8-10 levels above myself wondering how that could ever happen. Lupis in blues on first toon…really really annoying but doable. That is end game guys, and yet a new person in very poor gear could revive and defeat him. Is there anyone who actually thinks that is fine? Gear collecting is golden, but far from a good game design. Having unending do-overs to succeed…why would a person play for more then a couple months?

I just wanted to extend a whole hearted thank you to the dungeon design crew. I had given up on running dungeons months ago. Traditionally I am a dungeon/raid junky. Over the past couple of days I have decided to give dungeons another chance (never stopped fractals, but all others).

My experience: 10-20 minute runs with people complaining it took too long. Someone in party always pointing out invulnerable spots so mechanics completely ignored. Rez rushing…luckily avoided any parties using this tactic lest I would have rage quit. I took characters in green gear whose skills I know very little about, have no idea what any mobs do, cruised through with few issues.

Thank you for bringing a potential challenge back into the game.

Now if we would just raise the difficulty of encounters it would be a day to celebrate.

Josh Mitchell.1596:

Matt Witter.6982:

There are a few different knobs we can turn in regards to AoE some of the bigger ones being:
Radius of the AoE
Frequency of the AoE Damage
Damage of the AoE
Max Targets of the AoE

Currently, some players causing the AoE are able to do more damage to one person while also controlling a portion of the field, compared to a player with single target damage.
In our balance discussions we always look at what these changes could do to PvE as well as PvP. Any changes we make will undergo a lot of testing, both internal and by our trusted alpha team. It is important to understand that we are not doing a blanket nerf to all AE’s or a dramatic adjustment of the damage AoE’s can do. There may be some cases where players can build for AoE damage, but are just not viable or other cases where AoE is clearly the dominate way to build, and as such the other builds get left on the side lines. Its these classes/builds that we are concerned about.

Why not change certain AoE skills so you can use your mouse wheel to scroll up or down the radius and give each skill a min-max radius, a min-max number of targets, and a fixed amount of damage that dynamically changes based on how many people are standing in it?
Would work something like:
-Less targets, smaller AoE radius, more damage in that area [Ex: single target getting hit by AoE for 1500 damage/tick, easier to dodge out of; two players in same AoE hit for 750/tick])
-More targets, larger AoE radius, less damage to individual targets, but overall the same amount of damage [Ex: three targets hit by AoE for 500 damage, five targets hit by AoE for 300 damage/tick, larger radius to dodge out of])

Having radial AoE scale up or down based on the amount of enemies inside of the AoE at a given time might be viable. Perhaps that may work to allow it to hit more than 5 targets? Then again it might be a giant cluster and simpler to just tweak numbers. Just a thought.

Wow, this is an awesome concept.

Pendragon.8735:

Some professions build for AoE because it is all they are good at. It is the only thing that gives them viability, not just in AoE situations, but any situations. Speaking as a Necromancer WvW player, you absolutely need your AoE if you want to have a chance in any single target fight. For example vs a thief, my 1v1 weapon is pretty much my scepter/dagger, though even there, 3 of 5 skills are AoE. You simply have no choice but to use it, short of auto-attacking over and over, which is a recipe for a comedic defeat.

I would never stand a chance against a competent thief only using this one weapon set. He is simply invisible too often during the fight, and the only recourse during this half of the fight is to try and hit him with Staff AoE, to discern his location and continue to weaken him so he cannot fully cleanse conditions and heal up in stealth. If AoE were nerfed to where it is useless to use in these kind of 1v1 engagements, and then also much less valuable in team and zerg battles by extension, you might as well throw this profession to the dogs, because its player base is going to dry up, more than it already is.

Anet talks about building up more viable specs for all professions, but lets put our money where the mouth is, and then actually get this done before or in tandem with any AoE adjustments. Not just kick the can down the road endlessly with more talk of balancing while the few viable existing specs for several professions are just nerfed into even more weak choices. It has already been far too long since the last balancing patch, when it is clear several professions are out of whack and very over represented in both sPVP and WvW.

What should not be discounted is that while AoE may be easy to splash around in large fights, in smaller fights, and down to 1v1, it can actually miss, unlike single target skills. Especially with stealth professions, clones, high mobility builds, culling problems, lag, etc, its entirely possible to mistarget a certain percentage of AoE abilities which then do zero damage, severely reducing expected DPS, which is something single target never suffers from, outside of natural counters like blind, weakness, etc.

This is less a problem in sPVP where AoE is less likely to miss as the battlefield is a small contested ring, and if your AoE forces them out of it, you are winning the contest. In WvW players are free to dodge around and avoid AoE with no penalty to losing the fight, unless sitting in a Lord NPC Ring.

Some professions build for AoE because it is all they are good at: This a problem that should be addressed. It would be nice if all professions could pick ST/AOE/Support/Bunker.

Speaking as a Necromancer WvW player, you absolutely need your AoE if you want to have a chance in any single target fight.: That is the heart of the problem. A single target person is a challenge for you as an aoe class. However you have a good chance using AOEs. The single target person/skill only effects 1 person while an aoe specced class is damaging/controlling multiple people simultaneously. If an AOE person can defeat single target specs in 1v1 without some divine intervention, and then can have the same effect vs 5 targets at 1 time that is an issue. In fact that is THE issue they are talking about.

For example vs a thief, my 1v1 weapon is pretty much my scepter/dagger, though even there, 3 of 5 skills are AoE. You simply have no choice but to use it, short of auto-attacking over and over, which is a recipe for a comedic defeat. : Well said.

Anet talks about building up more viable specs for all professions, but lets put our money where the mouth is: That would make me soo happy.

Thank you for your post good sir/maam.

Cloud.7613:

I don’t understand this, no one and I repeat no one has complained about AoE on the forums. One of the big things people have complained about is thieves and this is an indirect buff to them because AoE is one of the only things that can counter the culling/invis issue, not to mention some classes like elementalist is forced to use AoE.

I just don’t understand it, I just dont.

The forums is not an adequate representation of the player base. Important fact, almost no-one I know or play with comes on the forums. When mentioning “did you see on the forums” I usually get snide remarks about why I would spend any time reading that dribble. The outrage and en masse complaints in this thread is exactly why. A few here are dicussing their opinions and view, but most are just complaining, making rash assumptions, and climing to speak for everyone.

No-one complains about aoe on the forums…here…The abundance of AOE based abilities (whether pbaoe, gtaoe, conical aoe, or bouncing aoe), and the relative strength of those abilities in regards to its damage capability and utility effectiveness against 1 enemy in comparison to other single target abilities is one of the major reasons why this game is coming up short as a skill based esport machine.

It is ridiculous that soo many classes and abilities do not even have to so much as target their intended victim and yet has strong effect of either crowd control or damage. Hey I will press tab and fire no-matter who it targets I will get him. The guy behind me is almost dead and I need some incoming damage off of me, let me swing my sword at the guy in front of me so I can kill the guy behind me. There may be someone hiding in our tower, should we leave people here to stand guard…nah, lets just run a couple circles spamming whatever button will fire off then leave this tower completely unguarded.

Please do not assume that you are speaking for the masses. My post is my opinion, your post is your opinion. Too many posts here seem to claim they know no one is upset about, no one dislikes, you are not doing anything, etcetcetc.

EnoLive.2367:

I ask you how many ele’s have you seen or read about ever use dagger/dagger let along be a close combat fighter.

I would have to answer…most of them, including myself.

Matt Witter.6982:

There are a few different knobs we can turn in regards to AoE some of the bigger ones being:
Radius of the AoE
Frequency of the AoE Damage
Damage of the AoE
Max Targets of the AoE

Currently, some players causing the AoE are able to do more damage to one person while also controlling a portion of the field, compared to a player with single target damage.
In our balance discussions we always look at what these changes could do to PvE as well as PvP. Any changes we make will undergo a lot of testing, both internal and by our trusted alpha team. It is important to understand that we are not doing a blanket nerf to all AE’s or a dramatic adjustment of the damage AoE’s can do. There may be some cases where players can build for AoE damage, but are just not viable or other cases where AoE is clearly the dominate way to build, and as such the other builds get left on the side lines. Its these classes/builds that we are concerned about.

Thank you for expanding our field of consideration. Dev input on forums is always appreciated.

deviller.9135:

Another ridiculous change: only can res people when you are out of combat. Really ? Res-ing people in combat has been a hard choice for people (if they res their team, they will undefended), just imagine if you fighting a boss and you cannot res your teammate. Your team will eventually wiped out (this is clearly shown in Fractal). What Anet needs to change is to reduce the speed of player to revive people (by making it 1/5 or 1/10 from now is enough), limit resurrector to 4-5, and make stomping progress faster.

Enhancing a single damage output is more than welcome (but if I remember, almost all skills are AoE, the only one without AoE is thief and GS mesmer(1 skill only) (ninja buff for them ?)). But again if it is not taken care, it will become ridiculous. (imagine killshot can have damage 20k, backstab 20k, etc).

I am still on the fence about the no in combat rezing idea.

The good WvW: it hurts the zerg way more then the small party. In a small party (or several small parties) vs zerg encounter, the likelyhood of the zerg being able to rez an ally is far greater then the small party. One of my tactics within a zerg is to watch for enemies to go down and then shift to their position to prevent rezing.

The good PvE: Whilst some boss fights are challenging in this game, the fact that you can respawn and run back in is the most hello kitty thing I have ever seen in a game. Are we sure they were not clumping respawn and rez together?

GS Mesmer has only 1 single target ability, #5 is a player based cone, #4 is an enemy based mobile aoe, #3 is a ground based aoe, and #2 is an enemy based bounce attack. #1 is single target.

Anfauglith.6715:

The solution to the AOE Problem is soo easy:

A: Limit AOE to one per “Spot”. So you cant stack it anymore and do insane damage in short time.

B: Lower the AOE per Caster on same spot. That means when someone casts AOE on Spot A then he does full Damage, Next one on same spot in same timerange (that means a AOE from someone else is still running on that spot) makes half damage. Next 25% and so on.

A or B would solve the problem. The Elitists can spam their AOE in their ubber skilled group on same spot BUT they are not supposed to wipe huge amounts of foes

And to the guy who said: use dodge. Dodge is limited through endurance and 2 times dodged and its gone. That means as ele you die very fast.

Yesterday i had the fun to go through a area with spot stackers and guess what? i died in 2 seconds without a chance (my dodges were already gone..). AOE as it is atm is a tad too much when stacked. I would prefer B

A and B are interesting alternatives on paper. I had the luxury of playing WAR when they decided to implement similar systems to repair their AOE fest. The result was if there was another of your class around, 1 of the 2 of you may as well log out because you are completely useless. If WvWvW is intended to be hundreds vs hundreds vs hundreds that approach…dunno, doesn’t work in my brain.

Same goes for immune buffs after being cc’d. The game became “you may have alot of ccs, but please do not use them, i need to have mine just in case”. Anything that makes player abilities just strait up not work, or significantly weaker, because an ally used an ability has no place in a social game in my mind.

I just wanted to put this out there as several posters and people upset about the change do not seem to know this:

AOEs are already capped at 5. They are not talking about capping them at 5, that is how the game has been playing.

I feel better now.

I have an end game Mesmer, Ele, and Ranger. This is my 4th MMO that I have stuck with long enough to spend significant time at end game. All things stated below are my opinion and just an opinion.

AOE in most games (all that I have played extensively) is over powered. AOE healing without line of site or requirement of staying close to the player or in a confined area is outright ludicrous (just threw that out there because it is my #1 pet peeve for any mmo).

AOE in this game is capped to the number of players it hits, but it hits way too hard. I do not use AOE because I am up against a large group of people, I use it because it hits hard.

AOE attacking a group of players and doing large amounts of damage is not a skillful strategy, it is the heart of zerg easy mode. If you have to single target fight in melee range 100 v 100 v 100 you must pay alot of attention to everything going on around you. Those who shine have to use mondo skill. Standing 1200 ft away and spamming abilities while not being threatened in melee and being potentially immune to AOE due to the 5 person limit is not skillful game play.

I am in agreement here with the few people who are suggesting to increase the number of targets but cut the damage back considerably. AOE 5 people for near t0 greater damage then single target (I will pick on Mesmer, my main…Phantasmal Berserker….single enemy or 200 still using it to open…shatter…there are but a handful of abilities in the game that can do more single target damage when spec’d for it….Blurred Frenzy, I considered this to be an amazing ability, then I realized it was a cone), that is just silly. I would not be upset to see something to the effect of limit 20 people, damage cut to 25%. Relaxing the target limit would quickly equate to zerg buster, cutting the damage would cause more people to use single target abilities bringing that spread out zerg into close range to be able to kill.

I had a problem with 1 fish going into a wall. Once I identified it, I was able to aoe it down. Dunno, worth a try.

Carighan.6758:

Oh, so you wouldn’t buff Focus, since well, no one uses it in combat. That ofc makes a lot of sense, why buff underpowered stuff?

Well then, you and I sir have drastically different views of underpowered. I consider the focus the strongest/most versatile weapon we have available.

Defensive stats are important in any pvp situation. There will always be someone who can get the jump on you (ehhem….theives….ehhem).

Do not be thrown off by the greatsword is bugged comments you see on these forums. GS #3 (beserker) was way OP bugged for months. It has now had a leash put on it but it still performs very well. The developers seemed to panic a bit when the bug was first corrected and openly stated that it was underperforming, but the fact that they have not adjusted its damage, and the fact that most 80 mesmers you see are still using the GS shows that it is still a good weapon.

I use MH Sword and Focus. Focus is our most versatile OH weapon (#4 alone is a speed buff, enemy slow, ranged pull/knock down, ranged interrupt even against boss mobs, combo field light (retaliation on combo finisher blast or leap such as #2 on the MH sword), reflection field, I am sure I am missing something) and the #5 is a powerful phantasm, immobile, but usable in combination with MH #2 that also serves as a reflection sphere for swapping off to a ranged weapon and remaining stationary.

GS, MH Sword, and OH Focus are all based on power specs, so you can direct your gear to enhance the effects of all three without becoming a middle of the road on everything.

As for traits, the mesmer is amazing for having many viable trait lines, and even many situation trait changes with the same spec.

Utilities…soo many to chose from…my advice is never use the same setup for more then a couple hours….soo many great options.

Mimic is great…it is not just ranged attacks that it provides 100% block against!!!

It really depends on your weapon choices and trait choices. I have been playing GS/main sword focus off and I trait for glamer skills. All three of the weapons and OH Sword benefit greatly from power but do nut use much in the way of condition damage. I tend to wear Power/vit/toughness armor and slot Precision/toughness/crit accessories and jewels.

If you are traiting for shatter (with appropriate condition effects), then condition damage becomes viable.

If you were to run Staff, scepter, torch these weapon benefit alot from condition damage.

Pistol…sorry, have pretty much completely ignored this weapon post 80 so not sure but I suspect condition and power are both great options.

Illusion nation traits…condition would be good.

Mantra traiting…let me know, I really want to try it out.

You can sort of see where I am going here I imagine.

I found the problem for me at this step was that the enemies spawned inside the rocks. Once I attacked a fish, my accomplace ran into the rock and I was able to slowly auto-attack all of the mobs as they came near to the rock face. This would be every mob after the 1st undead encountered.

Thank you Karl, wonderful update and explanation.

ehtom.5047:

Before this patch my opinion of PvP in this game was that it is fairly fun but quite imbalanced compared to other PvP based games I play (DotA). So rather than playing lots of PvP in its frankly, broken form (lolol airrune or thief ability hitting for half my hp) I decided to play the PvE content and WvW while waiting for things to be fixed.

The last two patches have convinced me that you do not know how to balance this game properly and that it will always have terrible balance. Among other things (these just stand out as especially bad):

- Everyone said thief burst is ridiculous, backstab untouched, mug untouched. Only CnD got a token nerf. Nerf daze instead. Force every thief to play backstab lol.
- Everyone uses bunker guardians in tpvp, you nerf staff ele.
- Air rune 25% damage nerf is a complete joke. The problem is that it can crit and scales with your abilities. Lets nerf protection instead, so that you definately get 1shot.
- Shatter burst is the same, but phantasms nerfed into buggy oblivion. Newsflash: nobody played phantasm even before you started nerfing it 3 patches ago. Side effect is that mesmer in WvW now has nothing to do in a siege. They are a portal-bot now.

I imagine that before this patch many people were like me and very much on the fence about if this game will become an esport. I’m fairly certain that most if not all of these people will now have decided that gw2 is basically a PvE only game and will play whatever game they usually play when they want to play PvP.

P.S. I know alot of replies to this will be “blablabla you’re a noob you dont understand pr0 balance” or whatever. Here’s a screenshot of me playing in a game that had more viewers than the entirety of gw2 and is me solo queuing and getting matched with professional players: http://i.imgur.com/0ZpuK.jpg.

My main is a mesmer, my favorite current toon is an elementalist.

Theif burst: air rune damage nerf (80-100% crit is a reasonable assumption on their initial burst), c&d damage nerf, stealth rendering nerf = less damage, greater ability to avoid effects. Small steps lest we alianate 1/8th of the community (1/4 of the pvp community).

Phantasms: These were strong and often complained about for good reason. They fixed a trait bug which, left without a new counter balance, would have made a really good thing way too really good. It is a shift, maybe it tests to be too much and they adjust, maybe it is right, maybe it is not enough. LOS and defendability were bugs mate. This is a game based around out playing your opponent. If he has no way to counter your attacks how are you out playing him?

Esport: Countering your enemy as he acts is what differentiates a pvp game from the masses. These adjustments definately push us further in that direction.

And although you did not touch on it, it has been mentioned several times on these forums…

Bunker: Yea a nerf to healing is a detriment to bunker builds. Once again small steps. The two most offensive bunker classes, guardian and elementalist, took the largest hit on the healing front.

When traited 15 points into arcane, the might granted by attuning to fire lasts 13-15 seconds instead of the intended 5 seconds. All other attunement buffs seem to last the expected 5 seconds.

Yes it was a bug. No attack targeting a player directly in the game is supposed to ignore LOS. Hence the fix this patch.

Thank you Kousetsu, I agree totally.

grimfeather.7519:

im new to mesmer what skill or weapon allows you to pull people or is it something you spec into?

The #4 skill with focus equiped in the off hand. When you create the wall, it has the effect of adding swiftness to friendlies and slows enemies that pass through it. Also the wall is a combo field light, so any combo finisher blast grants aoe retaliation for 3 sec, and combo finisher leap (such as the second click of #3 main hand sword) grants the individual retaliation for 5 seconds. If traited a certain way, the wall acts as a ranged attack reflect.

If you press the #4 focus button again, the wall “collapses”. When this happens, nearby enemies are pulled through the location and knocked down.

Hope this helps…focus is amazing.

Shadowlancer.7102:

Seriously, this much damage in 3 seconds. I understand there is PvP but for goodness sakes that is ridiculous amount of damage in 3 seconds.

I don’t even know how to counter this, spec wise.

Screenshots: Look at combat log.

Hmm, that was at least 6 button click abilities….

Baladir.2736:

For the majority of the player base, this is their first game when a light armor wearing caster is reponsible for their own healing and when damage evasion has become so important. While many players have been adept at often successfully playing casters in other games well enough that they did not need much heavy healing, many needed healing and received it. Everyone would need it at one time or another. And by heavy, I mean enough that it overcame all incoming damage and was necessary to survive. Now that does not exist. There is no healing spec.

Agro management used to work well to avoid damage and that is out the window now. It’s often random. I often seem to find myself laughing my kitten off when a melee mob starts chasing my ele around in a dungeon, ignoring everyone else, much to my as well as everyone else’s amusement. How often in this game have you heard, “He must really like you.” That’s a rhetorical question lol. The elite mobs in a dungeon really can two shot an elementalist and there is no healing or much of anything anyone can do until the mob randomly changes agro again.

In other games, players could often effectively play a caster if needed and not need awesome skills. There were true glass cannon builds who could stand in the back of a group and contribute little else other than dps, not now. There were crowd control specialists and debuffers who were safe from most agro, not now.

@TheGuy You sound like the kind of player who lived, and lives now, to take your caster out and solo whatever comes your way, maybe even challenge yourself in how many of what kinds of mobs you can solo, or what objectives you can solo. Maybe you are even one of those who have tried or succeeded in soloing a supply camp in WvW. For you this game does not require a drastic change of strategy because evasion, crowd control, debuffing, and pulling have always been part of your style of play. My point is simply that many casters have been able to do perfectly well in other games without that, and now they can not.

@theguy

I learned these lessons playing a HoX in AoC. It never occured to how much of a culture shock it could be for other clothies.

@Baladir

I am glad someone finally mentioned soloing supply camps. I have seen groups of 3 or 4 people bulk due to not having enough help. I was starting to think I was the only only who did this (and yea, it is really annoying sometimes…sometimes the time to kill is just a little bit too slow).

JAX.8347:

I lovedmy Ele and played it to 80 all exotics.

After weeks of WvW I have given up on it and have a 70 Mesmer that has been much more enjoyable because I am not constantly dead.

I have defensive outs and put out as much damage (not AOE) I wish they gave Ele a chance in WvW way to squishy with crappy DPS overall unless your in a zerg AOeing walls.

I love this comment. I started as Mesmer to 80 exotics then re-rolled an elementalist and I have the exact opposite reaction. In WvWvW I find the staff elementalist to be 100 times more useful taking towers and keeps. I guess it always looks better on the new charecter.

Wreck.2634:

Arcane is in no way useless…

I would tend to agree. The abilities in arcane are amazing to me. Constant free buffs (free=no action time required), extra damage/healing/combo finisher blast effects on dodge. Amazing.

Gribold.4298:

I know I’m probably doing it wrong but I just can’t seem to play the elemental. I’ve tried about 10 different (recommended) builds and none of them seem to work. Since my ele hit eighty I’ve spent nearly 2 GP in armour repairs as a result of getting rubbed out more or less as soon as I engage. The toon survives all the one-on-one engagements but, the minute two mobs target me, (even lev 77s) I die almost instantly.

• Yes, I dodge (you only get to do it twice before you run out of energy);
• Yes, I swap attunements (I start with fire and end with water in the vain hope of surviving long enough to cast a heal);
• Yes, I hit heal in time.
• I throw as much shielding up as I can;
• I’ve tried staffs, daggers & sceptres, none of them seem to make much difference;
• I’ve tried cantrips, glyphs, arcane and all the variations thereof.

I admit my armour isn’t the best (only mid range level 80 exotic but then I’ve run out of money doing repairs). The upshot is that I’ve NEVER managed to get to the centre of the Altar of Lies in Malchor’s Leap. I invariably get wasted on the way.

The bottom line is, I can’t seem to do enough damage before I get killed so I must be doing something wrong and I can’t see what! I’ve read loads of forum posts about techniques and (allegedly) unstoppable Elementalist builds but I’ve yet to try one that works (for me)

By contrast, I have a human warrior that’s virtually indestructible. Easily takes on four or five mobs and, while I was levelling it, could take on two or three mobs five or six levels higher without any trouble.

Really sick of this character now. It’s just too much hassle to play without (from what I can see) any significant benefit.

Maybe my network connection is too slow or something.

I couldn’t help but notice you did not mention combo fields or finishers here. Elementalists are one of the classes that these things can make or break. Did you know in the course of about 3 seconds you can give yourself (and all nearby allies) 9-12 stacks of might in dagger/dagger? Change to staff and you can be a regen macine. The list goes on.

Warriors can be very effective without paying attention to the finer aspects of combat, but for elementalist, mesmer, (and i have been told) engineer understanding and controlling combos makes the difference between someone thinking you are fodder, and someone thinking your class is OP.

CommanderPC.8609:

I’ve been using greatsword and scepter/pistol.

That could be a large part of your issue. If there was 1 piece of advice I would give low level mesmers it would be avoid scepter and be weary of great sword.

GS is amazing at higher levels, but at low levels kiting and defense are much more important and the staff/mh sword shine for those.

I can’t believe I am saying this but….

Mesmers have a target issue when downed (they need a target for anything). A thief who stealths and then begins her stomp renders them completely useless.

And that is why we use butterflies…they are just better then we are!!!

Dwelve.6149:

I suck at the mesmer, I can survive, I just cannot kill, I cant find a leveling build, on the rare occasion that I find one I cant find how to use it. My problem is that I take 15-20 seconds to take a mob, if I am at my very best I may take 12 seconds. I need to know how to play this, I am a level 54, and I want a build and how to use it, I am not looking for videos, I just want some advice, I currently use a staff, and sword pistol based on phantasms but it seems having them kill the target takes a bit even with my (2) sword ability

gs/ s&f

power/vit/toughness gear

you don’t really have to dance all day…just long enough to lure them into place

“everything i say on the forums is taken seriously.”

“I didn’t laugh when reading the elementalist forums and seeing how UP they all think they are.”