Guild Wars 2

I disagree…it would be totally unbalanced if phantasms didnt get shattered too.
Edit: On PvP point of view, probably different in PvE.

Basically, you are asking for :
1/ passive sustained dps (phantasm) for the duration of the fight
2/ while being able to launch controlled burst (clone shatter)
Ok we can call ourselves rogues in light armor. jk

imho, phantams by design deal dps when left alone, but they die somewhat at first damage .. They are all illusions, it makes sense that you just need to swing at it once and poof it vanishes.

On the other hand, I agree shatter design is far from perfect.

Main problem is that shattered illusions should hit their target no matter what, at this stage (being shattered) they are not illusions anymore, its hex/direct damage bombing. Problem is, illusions are stuck into their “i die at first hit” design, thus lowering shatter benefits or rather nullifying it (dodge/etc) once u face someone who knows how to act against shatter.

Thats the main problem with mesmers whatever our build is :
- Completely op versus people that don’t know much how mesmer work or how to counter us
- Really below average once you face an “experienced” opponent

Oh of course we can always do our ‘escape’ tricks, but once we go attack mode everything is so predictable that you easily find yourself outplayed, and whatever your player skill, because your class mechanic (clones and phantasms) don’t work at all against a good player.
And you don’t need that much experience to completely counter all the mesmer mechanic.

Also, we should have different builds, viable alternatives. And least to say, traits don’t bring much to the table on that point : all illusion centric, nothing much for mesmer, choose one tactic and fully trait into for it to work against random foe.

TL/DR:
Our weapon skills do low damage, due to the illusion mechanic (see my first comment or it would be op for real)
Our clone mechanic is too esaily countered
= mesmers are fun for sure but I think we better have 1 or 2 alts, cause I know at some point I’ll just shelve the mesmer.

Or maybe is it the other way around ?

/boggle

Happened to me also, but not often.

I remember i found a workaround, not sure its either :
- you open hero window there is a swap button in between ur 2 sets of weapons, try click it and see if it fixes swap bug
– or maybe try to manually unequip / re-equip weapon on 2nd set to reactivate swapping

something like that.

I didnt get the loading screen bug yet and today i kept getting it in tournament as for half my team :/

If you burn cooldowns, yes indeed you can guarantee that you will cast it, BUT casting it does not mean it will land.
Because of so many passive buffs/auras around and if your target is already in fight, odds that he’s gonna dodge or use defensive stuff while you cast moa.

If I would change something I would reduce moa duration a little, Im pretty sure that will fix the qq around moa. But too low duration could make it totally pointless.

Finally, I don’t want to put oil on fire but im almost 150% sure it was 3 second cast time in the beginning, and it was really hardly castable in fight… Now its 1 second cast time so its easier to pull without using decoy or other evasive move first.

So 1.5 months of qq’ing about moa = stealth/undocumented boost for moa
Keep it going !!!
lol

I dont like being able hold the repair kit through my portal, it should drop on the ground as you enter it. I hope they fix it soon.
It is just bypassing the point of having to repair and opposing team can not “intercept” the kit.

Anyway, to counter this issue you can :

1/ When the mesmer runs away, look around for his portal at or down the treb and keep an eye on it while destroying the treb .. when the portal starts to glow pink that means the mesmer is going to port back in next few seconds (activated portal lasts 20s but usually u drop other portal entrance at repair kit, pick the kit and port back). So destroy treb, camp his portal and gank him when he shows up.

2/ When the mesmer runs away, put the treb to 5% life then just wait at his portal (unused portal lasts 60s). Bascially the mesmer runs to repair kit for nothing, then he has to port back (portal glows pink) to his treb since his portal is already wasted. … Now you can destroy the treb.

And I agree Treb is doing way too much dmg, it should be halved maybe : knockback + some dmg would be good enough. Also in some situations, I can chain treb people : they barely have time to stand up before getting another shot. Some are gonna argue that stability helps a lot and thats true

You complain they cant balance their game (Id disagree but its not the point) …
Yet you are actually asking them to balance 3 games into 1 ?

:)

Adjustements/nerfs are bound to happen, the game is just released and everyone will agree it still needs some tweaking/polishing.

Just play the class or classes you like, not like it takes long to lvl 80 and pvp is automatic lvl 80 so u can test all classes at lvl max/best equipment against dummies or class npcs.

quote from OP : “I honestly feel guilty using it — it’s a one button win every time. In group fights it leaves someone absolutely defenseless as they get focus fired, unable to do anything for 10 seconds.”

You know, your ennemy died to the focus fire while being cc’d, moa or stun/immobilize/knockback/etc … and hes dead same way not using any elite skill.

Focus fire is the key in group fights… ccing the focus fired target is indeed smart so its guaranteed kill in most cases.

Without focus fire/additional cc, just dodge away and you’re good.

Thx Kyrul, more or less what i wanted to write but was too lazy to go into details/check skill names etc hehe

The good thing with mesmer is once ur confident with your build u can either specialise into specific weapons or if u dont go into weapon traits u can switch weapons to gain access to different skills depending on the situation.

Assuming GS + anything/pistol
30/30/0/0/10 then u go all for dmg traits and cooldown reduction
20/20/0/25/5 almost the same (cooldown reduction etc) but u get max dmg on phantasm

From these “glasscannon” builds just play around lowering dmg for survability as needed …

Weak dps ? Weak aoe ?

While leveling (ie with noob gear) I always had to salvage/destroy crap during DEs because my inventory was full, and i wasnt using 4 slots bags since im tailor haha

hint Greatsword is … great !
Only the autoattack is not aoe, the 3-skill is small size aoe but hits hard then we have 2 and 4-skills = rofl@spambignumbers.com and 5-skill is good enough to help tagging mobs too

Power/crit build is mandatory is u wanna deal decent dmg, but i guess its same with any class.
Do not forget our phantasm inherit our stats, ie if u have 2k attack and 5% crit then your phantasms gonna do low dmg, if you have 3k+ power and 50% crit then watch and smile.

8/ …

Just kidding but the list of hints between human playing and poor AI autoshooting could go forever.
Now ofc its easier to write than in the heat of the battle, but thats the general idea .. Dont panic and find real one.

5/ if he has buffs then its the real one, if it has no buff or only regen then its an illusion (for /tab spammers). It could happen the mesmer doesnt have any buff too but not very likely
6/ if he moves around, its the real one, obviously also if he dodges, strafe … illusions are like mobs they get in range then they dont move around
7/ if he is using skills and not just autoattacking then its the real one (although some mesmers mimic their clones hehe)

Maybe out of topic, slightly, but …

There is a heart quest in NW corner of 70-80 map or maybe the 60-70 map right before not so sure anymore …

Well anyway, this heart quest gives you some kind of rocket launcher and u have to kill mobs around…
This rocket launcher was dealing insane damage compared to my usual weapons (almost made me make an engineer hehe)

So I shot a couple critters … 137.092 critical dmg

I didnt count but almost never died in PvE from 1 to 80 (beside 1 dungeon run i did hehe)
Solo’d every single Champion boss i saw, some were hard and took a good 15 mins fight but who cares when the mob hits you once in a while ?

Weak dps ? Weak aoe ? ROFL
While leveling (ie with noob gear) I always had to salvage/destroy crap during DEs because my inventory was full, and i wasnt using 4 slots bags since im tailor haha
hint Greatsword is … great
power/crit builds helps also

I just autoattack necros with my 1handed sword .. Works great. But Im mesmer so it doesnt count i guess

Explanations for the masses:

- nerf on phantasm recharge : to avoid the free “hide and spam phantasm” tactic.
Good nerf ? Now you gotta think when summoning ur phantasms… Or not … yet to be tested. Anyway it doesnt seem to hurt/change that much.

- chaos storm : like guardian previous nerf. In defensive mode i was hardly killable due to stacking chaos storm with some other skills. Again not a huge nerf (5s), its just that its not up all the time.
Id rather seee them address the general issue with defensive buffs being somewhat too efficient (or too long duration) rather than nerfing cd on our only aoe skill but thats how it is.

Nerfs are bound to happen, we are somewhat the fotm class, everyone qq about us … So better get used to changes and adapt …

Mesmers are fun thats only reason why i play one.

For almost every pvper i know it all goes the same with every new game (and i play mmos for like 15 yrs) :

1/ any racial advantage usable in pvp ?
2/ depending on the advantage, and ofc if no to #1, then whats the smallest race ?

In this game no racial advantage in pvp (excluding WvW) so any pvper will pick small race.
Now I know a few friends pvpers that dont care and always choose the race they like / looks coolest.

But wait … Why small race ?
Being small helps in 2 critical pvp things
1/ being able to hide about everywhere (rocks, bushes, .. or behind that random Norn)
2/ being harder to get targeted manually

Asura ftw !

This is NOT a pve game, yes there is pve part but go back to WoW or whatever grinding pve game if you really want to beat subpar AI mob all day long, aka pve.

This is a PvP game go play pvp and leave the BS mobs alone, and voila now u can enjoy a great game, as simple as that.

PvE is weak, people complaining about costs and whatnot ? ROFLMAO
Its so cheap u can travel everywhere for nothing, mobs so easy u never die, all content = move there, beat everything, quest done before you know it, move next spot. So kitten hard lol, gaining 10 levels a day while having a job and family .. Rarely seen so casual friendly pve :p

But again go play PvP, skill and game knowledge matter, and challenge is up there too.

Torch works wonder in a defensive / condition build. I used scepter/torch + staff and u get 2 sources of retaliation + spam bleed/burn/confusion/blindness and whatnot.

I would just rush a spot with whatever number of ennemies, pop chaos storm tank a little, switch to scepter/torch stealth out, summon mage, run back in with new retaliation, spam more conditions / shatter clones for even more conditions, rinse/repeat.
But usually all were dead or 20% life in matter of couple seconds.

In a group fight, pop TW at the start and its ridiculous, all dead and stomped in less than 5 sec.

Now its a condition/retaliation build so it got weaknesses too. If your opponent is not doing damage / cleansing himself then you do no dmg too.

Its a little bugged at the moment.

Id recommend reading this post

A little off-topic but embarrassing too :

I actually discovered weapon switching at level 21 when i finally tried to put a weapon in the 2nd slot. I knew my mesmer could swap weapons in mists/pvp … but didnt know at what level, i was thinking it would show up somehow lol

You make a valid point as its easier to keep graveyard while dodging around. But i wanted to point out something else …

Maybe for a tanky guardian its convenient to dodge inside the graveyard ….
For a glasscannon build id rather run around the quarry or the waterfall where i can break los every few meters … hence i said i had to dodge here and there to avoid about all incoming damage while moa’d.
If i couldnt dodge i would die in less than 5 seconds, moa’d or not.

Necros are fun to play and can be very powerful despite what most people say on forums

Maybe its just that pve pet builds are not very good in pvp …

Using moa on a bunker with %% block rate is not that great too …

Just an example, in a spvp game i played earlier there were 2-3 mesmers in other team, i play mesmer too, glasscannon build.

I got moa’d once, and i just ran around the spot (graveyard in legacy of foefire) dodging here and there and didnt really took any but random damage.
Later on, I got moa’d again and i dodged away from the fight area as 2 of them were following me, had to use a heal at the end of moa, more or less like any kiting away move, then went back into the battle.
Near the end of the game, I got cornered by guardian/mesmer/rogue/elem .. and i got moa’d at 30% life or whatever and I did DIE !!
omg moa is op ? or just a not so useful moa on an already dead target at 4v1 ?

Guaranteed kill in that case, yes of course .. Im not saying moa is useless, but not as good as it seems at first glance.

Scepter/torch + staff condition spam build works pretty well for tanking/support but lacks dps in small scale battles.
Always same problem with scepter imo, the 1 attack is hmm lets say disapointing

station.6421:

iBeserker. Satisfying to watch it fly through a group of mobs and cripple them all.

Spin to win!!

zerker ftw !

Sabbathius.1465:

I’m probably not the only mesmer with this issue, but it really irritates me that Phase Retreat oftenly gets me stuck in a wall or the ground, and a lot of times with foes nearby, so you can’t even waypoint out of.

You think getting stuck in a wall is bad? I got ported inside a dolyak once. And got stuck there… True story.

LMAO nice one

I dont remember getting that bug but once maybe i fell under the map (not sure if this was teleport bug or just random glitch), and once in Legacy of foefire I phase retreated into the fortress walls, I made it out with blink though .. staff is usually not my main weapon so maybe why i didnt get it much.

Really I dont get it

From patch notes :

- Updated all phantasms and clones available to the mesmer to ensure they activate within their range.
nice fix although clones are now maybe a bit aggressive on random targets lol .. but i guess it fixed more than broke

- Updated mantras to now function underwater as they do above water. They also no longer go on full recharge when interrupted.
awesome fix

- Illusionary Riposte: This skill now functions properly with the Dueling trait Blade Training.
another nice fix for sword users

- Phantasmal Warden: This skill no longer has a 0-second recharge when affected by traits. It now has approximately a 5-second recharge.
expected fix for gamebreaking bug

I never used warden as i found it useless being static / dead fast.
Duelist / Warlock / Mage are ranged so you can summon them out of the heat
Zerk keeps running in and out which gives him some survability + he cripple ennemies in line so he can kite-tank …
lol some difficult champion mobs i soloed i could only because of the 3 zerkers up.
Usually i use any combination of duelist/zerk/warlock, sometimes mage depending on what im doing or facing.

Anyway, to me this patch was a very nice surprise. I do hope they keep fixing things that way.

Cheers

hackks.3687:

Ele’s take 9 sec before they can use vapor form. If someone can’t F-inish them within 9 sec they have bigger problems than downed states.

Thief and Mesmer downed state aren’t really all that either. They do basically what all downed states should do. Buy you a little time.

Vengeance is the only downed ability I have issue with. I just downed the kittener, why is he back up again? It’s counterintuitive to the entire mechanic.

edit: in regards to theif and mesmer downed states – it is a bit ridiculous when you’re teleport can put you on an entirely different z-axis. I was downed as a mesmer a couple times and used my #2 downed ability only to find myself on the other side of a wall on top of of hill well away from where anyone would find. I had a good laugh at that everytime it happened.

100% agree.
Im mesmer too and depending on luck 2 can puts me : same place (kthx), middle of the heat (ohnoooes), or completely out of the place (/laugh). It should only teleport in line of sight and maybe not same place too lol.
Vengeance yea i dont like either. I think its fun skill though but my main issue is it should NOT fully rez the warrior if he kills someone while in vengeance mode. Its just wrong imo. Vengeance ok but not this “out of jail card”. I know you dont get always a kill while in vengeance but still you should end dead no matter what like all other temporary rez skills

I tend to agree that some skills are maybe a bit op … But I dont like hasted nerfing too and im not sure quickness is the top priority.

Yes its frustrating to be literally oneshot when u get caught by surprise.
Hence its NOT guaranteed win, i need to be caught by surprise and ideally while im not full health too, so i wont have time to react before being downed.

But by nature quickness or more generally glass cannon builds purely rely on this. Remove their ability to dispatch 1 opponent in a blink and they become useless subpar dps that die or disappear at the first sustained aoe fight.

Maybe, like retaliation, the problem is people can stack quickness from multiple sources without any real side effect to balance it. To avoid this maybe there should be an “exhausted” debuff after using any sort of quickness so you are weakened or cant benefit from another quickness for a while.

Maybe also the real “quickness frustration” is because it should only work on combat skills, not fiinshing a downed opponent. I always feel lame when finishing people in 1.5 seconds. it just goes : quickness -> burst -> finish downed .. U can press the F key while finishing your burst so it goes all in a chain. That is wrong, imho.

At first I was the same : “ok great a kitten chest containing useless junk”.
Whatever i dont care, I have fun pvping, indeed because i dont feel the need to grind.
Around rk20 I started looking for infos about crafting pvp gear (and started to salvage).
By the time I made it to rk30 my locker was full of items and salvages so now all my chars have badkitten armors and weapons.

There is no “oh Id like to wear that armor but its stats sux for my build” just wear whatever u like, change outfits whenever u want.. There is no set of items either, u can mix this helmet with those gloves, etc.

Finally the “preview” u get at the locker is pretty nice since u can preview items u dont have so u can choose what to craft.

Thats decent reward imo and keeps everyone on par.

Hiting Escape key will also stop autoattack
But hitting Escape key a second time will remove your current target, so do not spam

Its something like :
5 pts / kill
10 pts / teammate revival
10 / objective neutralized / captured
xx pts / “boss” killed, iirc its 15 per treb 25 per forest boss 50 for guild boss
10 pts / ennemy finished
10 pts / objective successfully assaulted / defended (how it is determined im not 100% sure but i think it only happens when an objective is actually defended and you have to be there from start to end of the contest period)

Then u get 5 glory bonus for each of those 8 categories if you are the best of your team and another 5 glory if your best overall player of your team, maybe 1 or 2 others i didnt pay attention.

And finally the 30 glory bonus for victory.

The best is to manage to mix some zerging with some solo action so you can snag the “best of team’” off different categories.
Also finishing ennemies and reviving teammates is often the key in the fight outcome and therefore it gives more points than just spam killing w/o terminating your ennemies or saving your teammates (10 pts each versus 5).

Yeah, the wait timer is what keeps me out of tournaments.
I do some here and there cause its also more adrenaline / incentive to win, but I’m having tons more fun in spvp as it is non stop fighting / map cycling.
They did a good job on the short queue time before u get into the tourney but then the wait timer is killing it.

LMAO SupahSpankeh

.
.
.

But then I watched the video and now i cant stop laughing …

Thx both of you

I was more in pvp mindset but I agree ur build sounds good too.
I like 10 in inspiration for the “remove 1 condition on heal” but its just matter of tweaking here and there depending what u r facing.

At first glance, if u go pure condition u dont need power or crit since they dont change condition damage.

As a mesmer u have decent hp pool (i think its above average) but u have low toughness so your main problem will be warriors and rogues ==> u need chaos line to compensate (nice enough its the staff line for reduced cooldowns)

Now that u have basic setup on paper lets see how it goes in real world.

Condition/tanky build basically you go for long/slow fights where the ennemy is gonna kill himself.
BUT … conditions can be easily countered/removed so any smart player will not die so easily.

Another weakness with pure condition build is that u will have troubles against high HP pool players (necros ofc but any class spec’d high vita) cause your conditions will not kill them fast enough and mostly for necros they are better than us at throwing gazillions of alerations on you so you would die first.

To compensate this u can go power/chaos/illusions so you can do “some” direct damage too… Most important is your power determines your phantasms damage so you definately want to mix phantasm and personal power with conditions.

As for stats I generally prefer the toughness/condition runes (undead iirc) and bloodlust on weapons.

TL/DR:
- toughness / condition / power + leftover points into Inspiration for extra hp

Hahaha, yes fast licking our fingers is key skill in pvp)

yes actually you are right, mesmers are so unbeatable that we dont really use utilities or elites, just hang there spamming clones and watching the 4 dmg spam :p

At least try to be constructive or funny … u are dispointing troller

Oh and FYI i play mesmer as main but really often I play necro too and sometimes rogue or guardian.

Only class i have yet to test is engineer

I point out game flaws or what appears game flaws to me…

You can disagree but you should think a little outside of the box instead of taking 2 words out of context.

L2P it helps so u would stop complaining about MOA or other stuff …
Many things are out of the wack…
But everyone complain about MOA which is not that good..
Yes it can be an easy win versus a noob glass cannon, but other than that its bullkitten

You dont have to believe me but i almost never slot MOA cause i never have to use it anyway when slotted.

Really first time u play mesmer u use MOA and its awesome to protect ur noob kitten Once u play a little more u use mesmer skills which basically make MOA unneeded.

My 2 cents.

Reading comprehension ???
“After staff 2 you stillstand there weaving your MOA skill animation and u do get interupted if ur not facing random noobs like you”

Now for noobies, u use 2 on staff when u want to switch spot with a clone, the point of doing this is ?
No clue ????
Get away from assist chain or people focusing you .. Hence u dont want to waste ur trick by immediately saying outloud "hey this thing u are hitting is my clone look im RIGHT behind him trying to channel a skill :p

More important as in, a well used 2 is as good as stealth so yes again u dont want to waste it for MOA casting. Because if u dont mess it up u wont need MOA to begin with.

You obviously havent played much or not a mesmer lol.
You can staff 2 all you want (thats if not on CD cause staff 2 is used for more important stuff but whatever stay clueless noob)… After staff 2 you stillstand there weaving your MOA skill animation and u do get interupted if ur not facing random noobs like you

Thx. And dont pick 1 word and make it sound outside of the full sentence. I never said MOA is weak, but its FOR SURE not OP Rofl. It can be frustrating but all mesmer is frustrating so deal with it

It should be 1 min or 30 sec … Like you never played the map and need to setup strategy ?
Its a tournament you’re not supposed to be afk or you should go spvp.

/sign

Yeah the offensive golem is really awesome :
- huge sustained dps
- so much dps that he draws aggro
- but … he can tank really really well

Easy to solo outdoor boss / encounters when you pop the golem.. Feels like cheating lol

You got it wrong Vigil, although everyone mention here and in other threads too that the problem is not guardians being OP …
The problem is the Control the Point game is too easy for guardians indeed they are wayyyyy toooo muuuuch efficient at it compared to any other classes. Of course we could say guardians are good at it and its normal/obvious and I have no problem with that basically. But when talking about competitive pvp, why implement a pvp game that is unfair by design since 1 class outshines all others :p

Guardians are ok, pvp battleground design is fail :p

Phy.2913:

“In other mmo’s that I’ve played it required parties, to take down bosses, or gain xp with each other, and in that process, you’d end up making friends, and having awesome conversations, and just enjoying everyones company.”

When did this ever happen?

In all MMOs, u know what stands for M.M. on mmo ? Massively Multiplayer, hence gathering many players on same server to play together duh ^^

Like OP said, modern / most recent MMOs mostly target egoists/centric people because nowadays everyone brag about useless kitten on FB so they feel important. And same mentality invaded mmos, they want it all, they want it now, without effort or they wont have anything to brag about.

Game has no challenge whatsoever, I dont remember last time i died in pve you barely have to look at the scrren. So of course everyone play solo cause they dont care. It goes a lot faster when grouped though, so in this game they implemented the “group up together without having to actually invest into making a group”, just zerg altogether.

On paper its great idea, no more trinity, no more mandatory group … but in the end its a solo pve game. No pvp in real world, only in WwW is also a big mistake … How can u pretend releasing a pvp game (not even worth mentionning esport lol) when there is actually no pvp outside of a single and isolated battleground mode.

Could you make it so we dont have to wait 1 min timeout before the game client tells us the server we tried to join was full or unavailable ? Also the debug mode / error message is really not user friendly

Its actually a lot faster to logout / login and re-open game browser for spvp. I never use “Play Now” button as it always sends me to a dead server with 4 people max on it.

Look at all elite skills please then tell us how many elites have 3 seconds of stationary casting time …