Guild Wars 2

Uh.. I was playing as a Chrono (not the future-meta Dom/Duel/Chrono though) and to be honest.. Only Revenant, one scrapper, and Reaper were any trouble.

* Dragon Hunters are silly predictable.

• Berserkers were abusing the bugged Gun Flame, when they weren’t they were only dangerous when rampaging.
• Tempests are super stylish and great for filling my screen with ineffective crap.
• The few DDs I saw didn’t even use staff.. And were still pretty bad.
• Druid… Uh. Yeah. Never faced one of note.

I’ve never even considered offhand Scepter… How creative!

I really like the concept, too… But would I take it over Chronomancer? Hm..

Where are people seeing Dom/Dueling/Chrono from? …That was obviously an illusion.

Illusions: What? What!? Do I finally get to be included!? Put me in, coach!

Shush, you..

(Though Dueling does work in this build for a more shatter-based alternative wheras Domination favors timing interrupts)

@Armadeus I agree, once I made the switch to Dom I didn’t miss Dueling at all… Which is odd because I love Blinding Dissipation! Were you able to do any well combos? Gravity Well + Calamity did tons of damage. Healing Well -F5-Healing Well saved my life a few times, and Calamity + Recall was Chill/Cripple hell for my enemies!

@Xaylin I tried sword sword.. but my arm felt so odd without a shield on it. =[ I really needa find a new build to make me run Sw/Sw again! What were you running?

@Stormbolt Interesting.. Very interesting. I saw Embolism talking about how Illusions shrinks Shield’s cooldown, but seeing your build makes me really eager to try it. Chaos was a must for me, if not for Chaotic Interruption (5x might + random boon on interrupt is glorious with staff) but also for Chaotic Dampening shrivelling my staff skills the way I imagine Illusions shrivelled yours.

I’d like to hear more about your WvW experiences. Highs and lows, favorite moments and things to work on? Also.. How did you deal with conditions?

Hey Skcamow, here is one of the clips from the matches we played together:

It doesn’t show much, unfortunately, but how smooth your beta-Mesmer looks. =P Though at one point in the clip someone on the enemy team is chastising their Mesmer because of how their damage doesn’t compare to yours

ADD SOME SPICES TO THE MAIN COURSE

.. Runes and Sigils were a given:

• Runes of Hoelbrak: Combines with Time Marches On (-20% Cripple/Chill/Immob) to grant me -40% Cripple/Chill/Immob & -20% all other condis

• Sigil of Hydromancy Adds a bit of damage to staff as well as helps with defense (phase retreat)

• Sigil of Fire and Energy Fire helps me reveal stealthed enemies, Energy gives me doj!

These are pretty staple for me. I always grab Hydromancy on staff (try it and you’ll see) and fire/energy add a needed bit of extra utility. Not much to say here other than I could’ve gone with..

Pack Runes
Strength Runes
Lyssa Runes
Mesmer Runes

or

Sigils of Air
Sigil of Generosity
Sigil of Purity

AND THEN CAME THE TRAINING…

Training with Tek Pulse

Tek trains with top Mesmers all the time, and he was putting a LOT of work into Chrono, he was all too happy to help me get indoctrinated into my build (and high-level dueling) by beating my kitten .

The only win I get is at the very end of the clip, everything else is a painful learning experience, but each fight I adapt more and more as Tek guides me with advice.

Training with Tek pt2

By the end of our training, I felt WAY better on Clockdown and much more powerful, so I’d say those 40 minutes were worth it. So much so that I challenged Tek to a master of the universe ULTIMATE BATTLE OF MEN

… And lost. =[

HOW ABOUT A SECOND OPINION?

Also, FirehawkDAR.9021 did some tests on Clockdown (using greatsword instead of staff in PvP). He was kind enough to send me his notes!

“First, it’s been the most fun build I have played with mesmer since the Apocalypse patch which killed every retaliation phantasm builds that existed. It offers a good deal of damage, CC and sustain by ways of shield skills and interrupts which can keep the mesmer in control of the situation. It is not an almighty build though, it has its weaknesses.

• Guardians have access to ludicrous amounts of blocks and invulnerability from their elites and weapon skills while they can also unleash the single most disgusting condition as of now in PvP, burning. Since Clockdown has limited condition clear, an encounter with even one guardian can be the end of this mesmer, so engaging them requires a high amount of experience and utilities.*

• Warriors have their difficulty mainly in their stances which nullify incoming damage for a time, but become much more managable once they wore off making it possible to win if you know what you are doing. Beware of GS players though, they can cleave you down due to having no toughness.*

• Rangers are hard to say how hard they can be to kill. Most of who I fought just spammed their LB skills without much success and the sheer amount of stuns and rupts melted them down over time. Rampage as One complicates this however due to providing stability and other benefits, so caution is advised one running into one.*

• Engineers are a pain, they have obscene degrees of survivalibility from toughness and sustain helping them in teamfights, while they also possess significant damage and sometimes condi spam. They are one of the less pleasant classes to fight.*

• ASSassins can be a kitten or simple. If they do hit-and-run attacks, they will likely kill you since you won’t have time to react and just burst you down once you’re vunerable. Close range spammers on the other hand die very quickly since because that’s where CM is the strongest, therefore it can go either way.*

• Necros can either die or kill you it comes down to how much LF and damage they have. Still, unlike Terrormancers and Doomfire runners, most I have seen seemed to be providing a challenging but winnable setup leaning to the mesmer.*

• Eles are eles. Until they have stability and can regenerate with water there’s little to do but force them to shoot their CDs which is not easy by any standards. Coupled with their damage, they are not worth the time fighting 1on1.*

• Other mesmers are tricky. I have run into builds that bursted me down in seconds with full stacks of vulnerability while others were not as painful. Problem with them is they have clone on dodge, Clockdown doesn’t. Your mesmer lacks Decoy too meaning once they get you in their sights, the odds are against you. This is another one of the plays that are not fun to fight against.*

• As for revenants, they are op. They have disgustingly strong damage and sustain too, which kills off any chance to beat down with this mesmer. Even if condi is effective on them, it has pretty much zero to offer in that regard, so they should be avoided when roaming.*

For weapons, I use GS not staff. It has more offensive options and better damage for any range, so the only advantage with staves is that it’s better at defense.
With elites, the gravity well is a viable choice with half the CD time warp has, and even with a smaller radius, it can be very strong.

As for runes, swapping Hoelbraks for Rune of the Ice might also be a possibility though not necesseraly good. Since chill affects movement and skill recharge, it could slow down enemies immune to stun from having stability at the cost of lower power stats. Assisted by Sigil of Chilling it could make Well of Recall a strong skill, extending the chill it provides while giving alacricity to you and your teammates. Of course, none of this has been tested yet, so I could be wrong."

(PVP)

I tried to explore a bit more builds for this beta, but I found that I wasn’t very successful. It’s not for lack of viable builds to try out:

• Dom/Dueling still goes with everything, even Chronomancy.
• Chaos/Illusions Makes for an interesting condi build
• Dueling/Illusions Makes for an interesting Phantasm-Shatter or pure Phantasm
• Dom/Illusions Makes for a pure Phantasm build
• Chaos/Inspiration For an awesome support build.
  
  There is a lot you can pair up with Chronomancy and still come out with a pretty viable build. But for me specifically, one build pulled at my heart and never let go; never left any room for me to show love to any other spec.

Clockdown – Domination / Chaos / Chronomancy

• Sword+Shield/Staff (Or Greatsword)
• Runes of Hoelbrak – Sigils of Fire/Energy/Hydromancy(on staff) – Marauder Amulet

Here’s a video of the build in a ranked match.
Edit: Well that video kind of sucks for the sake of demonstrating the build.. but this one doesn’t!
—-

THE UNEXPECTED BUILD THAT SHOULD’VE BEEN EXPECTED

The thing is, with all the builds I had theorycrafted in anticipation for the beta (especially regarding support builds) I had never actually expected this particular setup to become my main build. I was simply experimenting with a well build, and my thought process went a little something like this …

Me: Alright, so .. Wells. First up, I’ll need a way to keep people from moving out of wells, so that must mean..

Chaos: You already know, buddy. ;D When have I ever let you down?

Me: Chaotic Interruption makes sense, each interrupt will keep them trapped in a well. And so does using staff, I mean all the wells are Ethereal fields, so …

Chaos Exactly! I was made for a Well build! Ethereal Fields, Staff Traited for Chaos Armor, Chaos STORM! Alacrity! =D Your staff cooldowns will wither! And Chaotic Interruption is also BOUNTIFUL interruption! Meaning each interrupt will make your wells do more damage.

Me: You’re gonna stop cutting me off, Chaos line.

Chaos: … Sorry boss.

Me: Alright, so Chronomancer, Chaos .. that leaves one more traitline to specialize in.

Inspiration: Oh boy! =D You know how much you love playing support, so-

Me: Dueling! Clone production and damage!

Dueling: Sweet!

Inspiration: … Oh, well.. I guess that works too…

DUELING/CHAOS/CHRONO – ALMOST PARADISE

So my first attempt ended up being Dueling/Chaos/Chrono. Dueling’s Deceptive Evasion grandmaster adds an element of smoothness to the build, making it easy to pump out clones and shatter when needed for both offense and defense. I also figured that Blinding Dissipation would help keep me safe while inside of my wells. I ended up grabbing Phantasmal Fury – Blinding Dissipation – Deceptive Evasion.

With a steady supply of perma fury, vigor on crit and blind on shatter, Dueling offered me plenty to work with. iWarlock hit like a truck, I had shatters out the butt and I felt pretty kitten versatile. It was a lot to manage and a very technical build, sure, but nothing that I felt was particularly beyond me.

Yet I felt… Off.

Me: Sorry Dueling, but it’s just not working out.

Dueling: What do you mean its not working out? Dueling always works out! In any build! Look! /flex

Me: Yeah, and you work in this build, but you don’t excel in it… I just don’t feel like I’m getting enough benefit from specializing in you.

Dueling: Two words, buddy: Deceptive freakin’ Evasion.

Me: That’s thre-

Chaos: Get outta here Dueling! You think you’re so popular because everyone always takes you well not this time! Right boss!?

Me: … >_> This is getting weird even for me.

Inspiration: So.. Without Dueling, I guess that means some survivability and sustain are needed huh? Have you TRIED Mental Defense out with Chronophantasma and Signet of the Ether? =D Now’s the time right? Right?

Me: Right. Now is the time for Domination.

Inspiration: … Oh man. =[

SOMETIMES POTENTIAL JUST ISN’T ENOUGH

Despite the potential damage, I wasn’t hitting hard enough. Plus.. Shatter-based builds really aren’t my playstyle, so Domination was next. I wanted damage and more control, and even though Confounding Suggestions didn’t feel like the best fit (though, admittedly, without Mantra of Distraction it always feels weird.) and I didn’t have the best clone production to make use of Shattered Concentration, I was nailing interrupts left and right even without trying, which meant I needed Halting Strike Power Block.

Oh.. What a difference just one trait can make.

Shield has two chances of interruption, Chaos Storm has 6 chances of interrupting, Gravity Well has 3 chances of interrupting and I always have the on-demand interrupt of [F3]. But lets rewind a bit to Gravity Well.

Gravity Well (or tides of time) + Halting Strike is such a win! The damage is fantastic, and allows me to make a build that doesn’t focus on shatters but still has to make tactical and intelligent use of them.

Here’s a video of skcamow and I kicking butt on Chrono.

Unrelenting assault gets worse the more people are on the battlefield. The heal skill is rather situational..

I don’t even play Rev, but its a new playstyle and thus new kind of opponent to face.. At least TRY to figure out some weaknesses before crying OP

Chronomancer nearly completely outclasses Mesmer for sure, but core Mesmer shatter build will still be powerful.

Depends on if you’re getting the expansion or not. The Chronomancer has many more tools for zerg fighting in WvW and almost completely overshadows core Mesmer in just about everything.

In both PvP and WvW Mesmer has quite a bit of build variety (however the higher your MMR rises, the less viable some builds become in PvP) and can play many different styles – Condition, Support, Shatter, and Lockdown Mesmer all work in both game modes however you will have a lot of people “expecting” you to play a certain role depending on your class.

Mesmer is known for high burst and good in-combat Mobility and brings some unique abilities to a fight such as Portal, TimeWarp and soon: Alacrity (opposite of Chill, enhancing cool down reduction).

You’ll be expected to run greatsword and a power build, usually grabbing Domination / Dueling for a healthy burst. Despite this, you DO have other options if you so choose to explore, and every weapon has builds it can fit into.

So if you want something unique, interesting to learn, but with increasing layers of complexity then go Mesmer. If you wanna be that other guy go with Necro.

And yes. This post is saturated with bias.

@Skcamow: Oh I will definitely be hitting you up about some things shortly!

Mikkel.8427:

This sounds really great, I would donate to keep this going.

However… I hope you’re prepared for the mental/emotional/time investment required to maintain something like this. As someone who has led and organized many different kinds of events in other MMOs (mostly FFXI), Its not easy keeping anonymous ‘friends’ movitated and organized over the internet.

Well that’s why I want to keep it simple. I won’t mind writing things up every other week as long as we can get the information gatherers. I really only intend on posting this onto the forums, but a small easy website for an archive and some builds would be awesome. The reason I wanna talk to Fay about it though is because she already has something going on that may work for this, just some technical things to iron out first.

I’ve got a couple things on my plate already, so I don’t wanna commit to something bigger than I can handle. This should be rather easy though, especially since it coincides with some Twitch-related plans I already have.

It’s not often when you can tell, without a doubt, that someone is equal skill to yourself.

Sure, you can tell when someone’s better.
Sure, you can tell when someone’s worse.

But equal? That’s a rare thing. I got to experience this in a recent OMFG romp with a few friends, and so I’ve got a little story to share…

When this person first started PvPing (over a year ago now), he had originally come from WvW. He was a little smug, but had no illusions about his skill level: He knew that PvPers were on-average better fighters than WvWers and he knew that he couldn’t match the skill of someone who spent as much time in PvP as he had in WvW. Ontop of that, he was still relatively new to the build he had created (and gave that obscenely obnoxious name to.)

So when we dueled, it was less of a fight and more of an asskicking.

Fast forward a year later, this WvWer is now indoctrinated into the world of PvP. He stuck with his build and has evolved along with it. He is now a force to be reckoned with, but what about me? In that time, I ended up playing less (half because of life, half because of dat Xbox) and found myself getting a bit sloppy. While not bad by any definition, I hadn’t taken the time to improve from where I had left off.

… And then we fought eachother, again, after a year had passed.

Our first fight is at the beginning of the video. AlphaTheWhite smacks us around a bit, and then our next fight is at 14:38. I went into the fight confident, remembering well what had happened the last time we fought. Remembering well how I had beat the snot out of one Ross Biddle.

… Oh, so much had changed!

This time he fought me with a confidence born of experience. This time his reflexes were sharp, he knew how to maneuver, he instinctively knew how to react, and his rotations were on point. I was overwhelmed quickly, and found myself scrambling just to keep up with Ross’s insanely oppressive offense! Phantrupt Asskicker had definitely earned it’s atrocious name, and in both matches he had beat me.

Which, of course, lit a fire in my soul.

How could I lose to Ross?! Had he become better than me in such a short time?! This could not be! I am the prince of all saiyans! I was both surprised and extremely happy for Ross’s progression, but I still did not see him as an equal. Surely I was careless, maybe I went a bit easy on him at first to test out his strength… But I soon came to realize something after our next few fights.

If you watch nothing else. Please watch that final fight. I was determined this time. I fought Ross on a level I usually reserved for Rylock or Supcutie. A level that I don’t consciously unlock, but gets pushed out of me during intense competition. I found myself fighting… beyond myself. There was little planning, little conscious thought to how I played:

- I watched and reacted.
- I predicted his movements by remembering the cooldowns of the skills he used.
- I went offensive on his greatsword and defensive to his pistol, constantly matching his weaponset.

It was a level of focus at it’s most pure. Where all other thought is pushed out besides one single goal: win. I wasn’t reckless, I wasn’t overconfident, and I wasn’t nervous or unsure…

I just fought.

But even thought I won our “Best of 5” set, there was no doubt in my mind when we were done.. As an opponent, Ross Biddle is my equal in skill and a worthwhile rival to overcome. He pushed me to a level I wish I could normally achieve, and the only reason I feel I won was because of luck moreso than experience.

If you’ve yet to find someone who is your equal, keep looking. The things you can learn from dueling someone who matches your skill can’t be put into words: It has to be experienced.

Silverkey.2078:

The weekly butterfly!! We so need a website to put that on (and keep archives)
Actually I think the whole gw2 community should have that. I would love to be able to browse through the archives and see for example the evolution of the PvP meta (I did not play since start, so I missed many interesting meta changes, like how the hell were spirit rangers ever good considering how bad spirits are atm?).

Short question: where do the 5 gold come from? community?

From my (painfully small) wallet. xD Though any donations/assistance would be grand.

A website you say? Hm.. I may have a talk with other-Fay about such things.

Silverkey.2078:

Could you gather all the videos in the competition? I gathered a few links above, but there may be some more.

I have, up in the original post! =D

And a week late, but it is time ladies and gentlefolk! Please vote for your favorite video in the OP, either here if you’re feeling sassy or in a PM if you’d rather be a bit more bashful.

One vote per person, please!

And as for the letter to Miss Sterling, it’ll go a little something like this:

Dear Lindsay Sterling

I know you’re a busy woman, making fantastic music for thousands upon thousands, so I won’t take up too much of your time. I know you’re a big fan of videogames, and have seen plenty of your videogame-based videos. Your song “Shatter Me” happens to perfectly fit the Mesmer class in the Guild Wars 2 videogame, and has inspired several players (who happen to be content creators) to create AMVs using your song as a theme.

The butterflies, the shattered glass, the clockwork, it all perfectly matches the Mesmer, which is a mage class that specializes in “shattering” illusions to defeat foes. So as a result, we’ve created a friendly competition to see who the community believes created the best “Shatter Me Mesmer Video,” all inspired by you. Here are the top 3 winners, and though you may never actually see this we had to atleast make the effort to bring this to your attention.

We love you much, please don’t smite me down with a lawsuit. No one is making any money from this! Though I’m sure a little extra publicity doesn’t hurt.

Much love and respect, from the Mesmer community!

While a decent core template, its.. Kinda lacking some of that Chaos-humor though. o_O Must work on that. Regardless, what say you? Anything we should add/change?

AND DON’T FORGET TO VOTE! AND TELL YOUR FRIENDS, MAKE THEM VOTE! SASS THEM IF NEED BE. SASS THEM SO HARD!

With the advent of Chronomancer and Heart of Thorns later this month, GW2 will be seeing some massive shifts in the known status quo. An idea that’s been rolling around in my mind is putting together a small team (4 or so people) to gather news on everything Mesmer. The topics would include…

• PvE News (Covering Living Story, Open World, Dungeons/Fractals & Raid Content)

• PvP News (Interviews with top players, builds entering/exiting the meta and upcoming tournaments)

• WvW News (Mesmer-based strategies and commanders. Scheduled WvW runs)

• Bugs/Glitches/Technical Notes

The goal is to keep it simple, with a weekly or bi-weekly (fridays) report on everything related to Mesmer interests. Participants will be given 5g per article. Reports are expected to include.

- The current meta build at the time as well as upcoming potential builds.
- Any changes of note, mostly regarding how a Mesmer should approach said topic.
- New discoveries for said content as well as if a patch has made certain tactics unviable.

POTENTIAL REPORTERS

PvE

PvP
- Chaos Archangel

WvW

Misc

Elementalist:

• note: Heat Sync is currently over-performing in its ability to spread all boons to allies. We’ll be looking to narrow down the boons it can spread, to just the Might boon, in order to keep its purpose more clear.

Mesmer:

• Temporal Curtain now grants 12s swiftness the first time an ally passes over the curtain, 1s swiftness each other time.

It looks like Tempest won’t be getting Signet of Inspiration after all. Additionally, we got a pretty nice buff with the fix to Temporal Curtain finally working with other forms of swiftness.

Things are looking good for boonshare Mesmer at the moment, especially with the coming of Chronomancer enhancing our abilities even further. Like lockdown, there is a strong chance boonshare could become a more prominent playstyle, especially with reports of being able to stack tons of quickness ontop of everything else.

In fact, I believe Quickness sharing along with Alacrity has the potential to make boonshare a very powerful spec for PvP and WvW.

After testing Alacrity/Well support and Chrono-lockdown, this next beta I intend on focusing on raw boonsharing with an emphasis on quickness. The build would look something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAsdWn0nBlphlfCGoBUrhlej6cEKhWzMAugMquUb1ZF-TpxEABQcCAGvMQDHBAb2fAgDBADPAAA

Featuring: Illusionary Inspiration / Seize the Moment / Bountiful Disillusionment & Chaotic Dampening

Now this would be more of a broader boonsharing build, if I wanted to focus on a ..uh.. Quicklock(?) build I’m thinking…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseWn0nBlphlfCGoBUrhlTjysFGiiiMA2ggqOaz2vF-TZxHABEcKAuuMQAHBAV2fAgHAAA

Quicklock has a nice ring, and the idea is to mix Seize the Moment with Furious Interruption for a strong boonshare. I’d miss out on Inspiration, making this a rather offensive boonshare build, but if I have to chose between Inspiration and Chaos, Chaos edges out Inspiration in terms of types of boons shared (Protection, Stability) , despite Inspiration allowing for a higher boonshare output (losing Illusionary Inspiration.)

A lot of jumbled ideas. Maybe someone can help me sort things out before I get testing tonight? What do you think?

Sounds like Druid is for you.

I am learning a lot from this thread. Much appreciated guys!

Linfang.1087:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Is there a way I can do damage and still provide meaningful healing?

Chaos, are you going to join the dark side and abandon your Mesmer for a Revenant? :P

And to answer your question the healing really comes into play on your Legend. Ventari and Herald stances is where you would get heal/support. The staff in conjuction with these Legends you are in will provide solid DPS

Nah. Mesmer will always be my main, but Daredevil, Revenant, and Druid are all competing to kick Ele from 2nd.

Tempest gives no love to staff Ele. =[

Chokolata.1870:

So, my question from start is:

- Since Anet is very heavy handed in nerfing obnoxious spam builds, why does this exist where someone can just keep dodging, stealthing and spamming conditions at an insane amount.

Well.. I tried to give a constructive answer.

This build doesn’t “spam conditions.” You just don’t know the right conditions to avoid or how to properly fight it.

If you keep viewing the build as “keep dodging, stealthing, and spamming conditionsat an insane amount” and praying for nerfs then you’ll never beat it, and never realize what you’re doing wrong.

Don’t blame the build for your mistakes, just because so many others do.

That video is painfully accurate (except, I actually look just like Miguel ). xD and that was a terrible roll up

I’m truly and honestly honored though man, NAH MEAN!? I’ll show you how to make Ross run his jeans jacket in no time.

On topic though.. This thread does make me wonder if we could be a bit more active in discussing traitlines and balance on the forums (which are read by atleast one dev at least some of the time). An idea forms..

TheGuy.3568:

READ AND LEARN or Continue to whine

I am going to be a bit rude with this post because the counters are really simple.

Since the numerous passive traits were removed from this build (it has been nerfed into the ground for a while mind you) this is strictly a l2p issue. I mean this not as an insult but cold hard fact.

1. For the shatters kill the clones. They will have no uptime vs any competent cleaver. Clones dead equal no shatter burst.

2. Dodge the laser. Confusing Images has a 2 second cast if you dodge when you see it coming or on the first hit you will get very little of it.

1 and 2 alone and you have avoided most of the damage that could have been done to you hooray!

---

3. Bring a cleanse. This is common sense but mesmer doesn’t have much in the way of cover condis. Application can be high but not lasting.

4. Time your attacks. This is common sense. Condi mesmer pushes button spamming. Confusion and torment will not tick like a burn. You end up killing yourself by just spamming skills.

5. For PU apply condis. PU mesmers generally have weak condition management (vs Inspiration which have strong but weak stealth if any at all). If you apply condis many will have to back off.

6. STOP DUELING wait I forgot something STOP DUELING LIKE A NOOB. A good team or even a pug will have a guard or ele or inspiration mesmer than can clear condis for the group. If they are doing their job due to the lack of cover condis mesmer conditions are on the easy side to handle.

7. Generosity is your best friend. Much like Burn guard condi mesmer is weak at covering for itself so sending back the confusion and torment is pretty simple.

8. Call Target. Most condi mesmers will not stand up to spike for long if at all. Ctrl + T and have your team just burst.

9. Last but not least there is not much room to nerf it. Condi mesmer is actually one of the weakest condi builds. It has none of the burst of burn and none of the cover of engi and necro. It is hard countered (very hard) by signet necro and AoE. It has been nerfed of every passive condi application (confusion damage has been nerfed too). It is nearly a pure skill based build as in literally there are no lucky procs or on crit traits. The mesmer did all the work.

I can understand your point but this build will catch a bad player “slipping” every single time. A good player knows all of this already.

Now you know how to beat a condi mes. Your welcome.

+1

This is the best advice anyone could give. It has nothing to do with “defending everything Mesmer” and everything to do with providing the community with proper information rather than misinformed ranting and hopefully creating better players in the long run.

Novuake.2691:

skcamow.3527:

ozzy.8059:

you will be able to maintain 12 stacks of confusion and watch your enemy kill its self.

Which is a major l2p issue. Players with half a brain won’t do this. If this has been your experience, you definitely haven’t been fighting good players.

Yes because thats all that matters.

Remove it, get double dmg, leave it and let it tick? I think not.

Remove it and hopefully the larger stacks drop of because you knwo? RNG and esports makes sense.

Its stupid how SPAMMY it is.
Same goes for Engi conditions.

Your essentially clearing in the hopes of the worst one dropping of when you need it too, its just WORSE with confusion because each one hits harder the more you fail to cleanse confusion.

If they reintroduce a reliable clearing method(left to right for example), I would agree with you. But the way it is now is kittening RNG, which is downright kittened.

Uh.. Well the thing is that it could.. Be avoided.

Take a second and clear out thoughts of “spam” and “cancer” and analyze what the class is actually doing. Ima explain it assuming you’re actually open-minded about learning to beat the build rather than mindless ranting/complaining.

- Damage sources: Scepter block (6x torment) – Confusion (average of 3 persistent stacks. 6 with a full scepter channel)

- What can they do in stealth Hide and heal and.. That’s about it.

What does this mean?

You may not be able to kill the Condi mes, but with even the slightest thought to how you play and how the build does damage will keep them from killing you.

The fact that you’re so adamant that confusion is the cause of Condi Mesmer damage..

The fact that you can somehow keep 6 stacks on a target permenantly…

The fact that you think anet should balance off duels (Condi mes has little team presence)

… Perfectly proves the OPs point. And no, you’re definitely not fighting good players

Is there a way I can do damage and still provide meaningful healing?

Chokolata.1870:

I feel like this is a proper question to ask. And before you attack me that I need to learn to play, I actually know the build and what it does.

My question is, since Anet is very heavy handed in nerfing builds that are bad for the game, why is Mesmer allowed to constantly stealth and just dodge all the while pumping out insane amounts of conditions that, even if you fully go for condition removal, are simply impossible to cleanse.

This is from a Ranger and Warrior perspective.

To answer your question, its because the build is smothered by myths and falsetalk than facts. Condition Mes has already been heavily nerfed and the majority of its passive play has been stripped with the removal of clone-death traits.

Here’s a tip against any Condi mes, pu or otherwise: Only one attack does burst damage and there’s only one condition you need to worry about cleansing: Torment. The only way they can do meaningful damage to an opponent that pays attention is with the scepter block/counter. Players like Ozzy shouldn’t even be able to touch you. Confusion damage should be minor in most cases.

All the stealth and other stuff is just fluff, a PU Mesmer is at a disadvantage in PvP and is one of the least useful Mesmer builds when played improperly (which is 90%) of the time. Anet doesn’t balance around duels, and when’s the last time you’ve heard of a Condi Mesmer being a threat outside of a 1v1?

ozzy.8059:

im playing it right now.because im so sick of it.

now i have never played condi mesmer before, infact im terrible at mesmer (350+ping) so i lag and cant dodge some attacks because they are to fast no matter how early i react thanks to ping. i have won almost all my 1v1’s so far bar an engie with flamethrower…

i practically turn team fights with 6 stacks of confusion on the target and chaos storm wreaking havoc. i can even jump into the middle of it and get some shatters off because i have way to many ways to mitigate damage.

its godmode cheese cancer even necros die to me because signets cant transfer to what you cant see/blocking/invulnerable targets its a joke.

This post.. Is everything wrong with the playerbase asking for nerfs.

You practically turn teamfights by.. Pressing 3 with the scepter on a target too incompetent to press dodge or carry any sort of cleanse? 6 stacks of confusion on one target is making a difference in a teamfight? Is this hotjoin?

It must be hotjoin.. If chaos storm is “wreaking havoc” in a condition build and you pressing random f-keys to beat people.

You can scream “cheese” and"cancer" all you like, but if the above are your examples of why then its fairly obvious your experiences aren’t coming from someone who fights even average players. Confusion and shatters aren’t even what makes the build decent, neither are clones.

Tealots.6095:

Ross Biddle.2367:

I propose high tea

All day, ‘erry day, n’ah mean!?!?!

That.. Is how I actually talk. =[

Just had a few questions about the Revenants staff, if yall wouldn’t mind taking the time out to educate me a bit…

• Can the staff be used effectively in an offensive build? Is it better for power or condition?

• Is it really pure melee? How does it feel to use compared to Greatsword or Hammer?

• Do you see staff being a popular weapon?

• What offset best compliments staff?

• What kind of build would you recommend for someone who wants to maximize the effectiveness of this weapon?

• Which legends best compliment the staff?

I’ve seen yer build Silver. Chronomancer may actually still be an upgrade over Dueling.

Chaos/Inspire/Chrono with shield offers stronger healing and more unique (as in can’t be replaced by ele/guard) boonsharing.

I can’t say for certain though, the two builds I explored (lockdown and alacrity support) weren’t geared towards boonsharing but a friend of mine explored boonshare and their notes are really promising. They called it the “Boon Fatty” xD

However, a discussion on core Mesmer support vs Chrono support may be in order in a new thread.

Awesome! Noted for the guide.

Chronomancer is pretty much Mesmer 2.0.

The Chono traitline (and new utilities) open up strong options for Mesmer support (via control/boons) in PvE/PvP while wells and Shield allow us to do meaningful damage in zergs in WvW. You lose almost nothing by jumping to Chrono (except a traitline), and gain more diversity and flexibility for Shatter, Lockdown, Boonshare, Phantasm, and Condition Mesmer.

Both Scepter and Sword work great with the shield, Shield also seems to fit into any build you want to create (though shatter Mesmer will likely still opt for torch). On it’s own, Shield provides the best defense of any offhand (except maybe torch’s stealth in PvP/WvW, but in PvE it’s defense is unmatched) and surprisingly decent damage when traited with Power Block. It also holds one of our strongest CC’s with Tides of Time and one of the few reliable ways for us to stack quickness.

Here’s a link to some PvE Chrono talk/videos

And here is a link to a PvP lockdown build thread with Chrono

That’s kinda hilarious

You forgot.. It’s also a stream of projectiles. Which means.. Bodyblocked, absorbed, blocked, reflected..

… Or my favorite, the humble dodge that negates 90% of the attack.

Trigr.6481:

Capricorn XI.4390:

It was nerfed because otherwise bleed stacking with iDuelist would be ridiculously strong with the potential for 3 stacks of bleeding on crit, x8 for each shot from the duelist. As it stands now, you can get up to 16 stacks of bleeding per duelist vs 24. I think that’s fair.

Please refer to my edited top post, which leads to the end of your failed argument.

Countless

Those are the same lines Countless uses to woo the ladies. He’s a classic man.

Yeah man, as a long time ranger main I’m sick of all these posers and pretenders offering balance advice to a class they have no idea how it works! And then to pretend to be a ranger.. Ugh. It’s so frustrating sometimes.. You just don’t know who you can trust.

.. Except me. You can trust me.

The bumblebee says… Whattup tho!?

Clone Death traits – axed.
Duelists Discipline – Nerfed on arrival by 50%
Maim the Disillusioned – Nerfed same day by 50%
Mistrust – Nerfed on arrival by 33%
Confusion – Nerfed in pvp, primarily a Mesmer condition. (at least it was)

As it stands, Condi Mesmer seem to get brutalized with each balance pass. This is especially odd since Condi is not even meta or viable in high end play, useless in large scale WvW (glamour bombs nerfed) and only good for soloing dungeons in PvE (less efficiently than other classes at that)

So what gives? Is Condi not supposed to be as prevalent as power? With the arrival of Herald and Druid should we not expect classes to bring condition removal? On their own, none of these traits are very worthwhile for a build versus their power damage counterpart, and even together their effectiveness is questionable.

Mistrust – Competing with DE is bad enough, but to only grant 2 stacks per interrupt isn’t worth a GM, especially not with such a pitifully small AoE. Increase by 1 stack

Maimed – You may as well move Maimed into chronomancy, because core Mesmer cannot get much value from such a low amount of torment. Increase duration at least

• - And can we get our Glamour bombs back please!? -

I don’t even play condition, and this is ridiculous. I could never recommend a trait like Mistrust to anyone, and yet condi-lock is sooo close to being a thing.

You still owe me some ranger training sticker! You set me up with an awesome build and taught me how to press 2.

.. Then Rylock came and stomped me with my own Mesmer build. =[

Bryzy.2719:

Urgh another “Ranger finally got something nice so let’s QQ” thread.

Just back off and let us be viable for once.

Ironically, not a single person seriously QQ’d in this thread. And there are some compliments to the elite.

=D Reading helps.

… For transformations!

One of the things that make Druids iconic is the ability to turn into animals, I had really been expecting something similar to…

F5: Shapeshift into a copy of your pet

Don’t get me wrong, I loved what’s been revealed so far, but if Druid elite doesn’t transform into animals.. It doesn’t seem likely any will!

2.5% …

/flipstable

It’s… It’s everything I’ve wanted to play since launch.

Must not switch mains must not switch mains omg

My brain… I can’t.

Neither can disenchanter!? Blasphemy!

Working on updating the Mesmer guide and it turns out that [at the time of writing] iMage’s bouncing projectile could not bounce back to the same person twice.

Can anyone check real quick to see if this has been changed?

Clutch!

Thanks Ithilwen, adding this to the guide

@nearlight: Omg dude I didn’t even realize how cringe-worthy my MIC is. Definitely better now. I can’t believe supcutie didn’t mind sitting through that ear-damaging nonsense.

@Silver: It also helps you escape sticky situations. You’re under attack, swap to staff (hydro procs) phase retreat. Does a decent bit of damage (1k on marauders) and an extra condition for Warlock to work with.

@Curunen: I will totally be hitting you up for arena time.

And this is why Anet says “When it’s ready” x_x

I’m literally updating now, these past few weeks have been.. tumultuous. Trying to accomodate for Chronomancer too!

Edit: So… Close!

Feel free to hit up myself or anyone from [OMFG] if you’re looking for someone to hang out with and/or catch up to speed on all things Mesmer/PvP. There’s usually always someone on who’s willing to play, and many PvP.