I’ve got a build focused on Cleric’s gear (Healing/Power/Toughness) and I’m having trouble traiting for it beyond 30 Inspiration. I like the idea of having Regen/Protection enough to tank anything I run into, but I’m doing next to lousy damage.
I’m looking at the Magi set (Healing/Precision/Vitality) and it’s looking a lot more promising right now, but I’ve been told Toughness is much preferable over Vitality.
For a direct damage build (i.e. sword/greatsword) Power is going to give you the best DPS increase per point under most circumstances.
But can you make a power build with little/no precision?
When reviving another player/NPC do casting healing skills on them affect them in any way?
If you have a higher healing power, do you revive people faster?
And.. do healing abilities work on Necros in Death Shroud?
Just curious if anyone specs power into their builds without precision. If so, how much power is a comfortable amount for you and what kind of strategies (weapons/traits) do you revolve around it?
I know how crucial Precision/Condition damage can be for a Mesmer, and Toughness works for everyone, but Vitality, Power, and Healing Power seems to barely get mentioned.
I would generally advise favoring toughness over vitality. Toughness improves your illusions, vitality does not. We can actually hit some very impressive mitigation numbers. We can keep near constant protection up with the trait that gives protection when you get regen and the trait that makes your phantasms cast regen on the party. if you can keep your 3 illusions up that’s another 9% mitigation on top of that. Throw Illusionary Defender into the mix to take half your damage for you, and you can stand up to some tough punches. With the right combo of skills and traits we can have Distortion up continuously for 12 seconds (blurred frenzy, Distortion (with the Illusionary Persona trait), generate three illusions while Distortion is up and use Signet of Illusions, Distortion again, then another blurred frenzy).
We can also have near-constant retaliation. Confusing Cry gives us 5 sec of retaliation for every illusion we shatter with Cry of Frustration, so that’s 15 sec (20 if you have illusionary Persona? Need verification), and we can get Cry of Frustration down to 21 sec cooldown.
But try to keep in mind that at the end of the day you’re wielding your sword in a pretty pretty dress. You won’t get the raw damage reduction of a plate wearer. We’ve got lots of tricks to keep protection up, and the 9% reduction from Illusionary Defense certainly helps, but you’re not going to get the same raw reduction you can get through plate. Careful attention to trait distribution, skill choice and skill use will be critical. We lack a reliable way to apply weakness or blind to our enemies (yes, you can take Dazzling Glamours, but it only affects the enemies in the glamour on the inital cast, not whenever they enter the zone), and while we can generate aegis through Chaos Storm (and you probably should swap between sword and staff during fights for the Storm’s Aegis and chaos armors) we don’t have regular and reliable access to it the way a Guardian does.
All of which is my way of saying “You’re not going to be a tanky tank. You’ll need to stay mobile, kite the enemy when possible, and you’ll rely heavily on boons.”
I kinda agree, but with my build I’ve been able to solo the Champion Risen Giant, Champion Risen Broodmother (Took 20 minutes though.) and whatever happened to spawn in the area while I was fighting. But my build isn’t based on toughness or precision. Its power/healing. Problem is, I’m currently facing a real damage issue.
Between regeneration and protection. (Chaos Storm, Chaos Armor and traits) I can slam my face into almost anything and come out unscathed, and even provide decent healing to allies. But since the build lack precision, my only damage comes from iWarden (Combo’d with Chaos Storm or Temporal Curtain) … Still working on ways to fix that, but as far as tanking I can confidently say that I can soak up almost anything.
Haven’t tested yet, but I think this may work out not bad.
Not so much a shatter build, as keeping the iSwordsman up (and ideally having 3 of them) is rather important. Protection is still really important here, so staff is a must for Chaos Storm (Turns enemies into piss while they’re inside and beefs you up, not to mention it can combo with Sword 3 and Sword 5. ) and Chaos Armor. Mantra of Concentration keeps you from getting stunned, and you can still use Staff 2 while channeling it to keep out of danger. iDefender soaks up half your damage and all the considerable times you’ll be getting regen (Chaos Armor again, Metaphysical Rejuvenation) will be granting you protection.
Again this is all theory, but I think it’s a start.
Just a bit curious since the confusion nerf. Do people still make confusion builds? And if so how much condition damage and how many stacks of confusion do you need to make it still viable?
True, probably more of a viable tactic for PvE or sPvP. I’ve never entirely understood how beneficial projectile combos(like LIGHT fields) work for the shooter.
(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)
Hey thanks for the website link, I definitely did not know about that!
Mining Ores can be a slow process. Yea, not sure if it’s changed but gold is in regular demand due to jewelers it always seems to sell fairly quickly for me and for a reasonable price. For most profit/time go with Ori Ores as many crafters are after the high end ore now,
Yea Orr farming is probably pretty much what you do now. Go for the chain events but tag every single mob you can. Only really works if you’re with multiple people otherwise you get stomped. After that you have lots of drops.
Yea try Fractals as if I recall correctly you may have a chance of an Ascended Drop too in the higher Tiers.
Yea like DEK said Magic Find increases the chance of better drops but only for drops it does not effect chests. Also folks are debating whether anything over 100%MF changes anything. I’m not sure as I do not use MF and have not much problem picking up regular rares. I guess GW has been good to me, :P
Which reminds me of something I’ve been curious about. It really feels as if you get more drops from being in a party, even if it’s just a party of 2. Can anyone confirm this?
Cant argue with that. The music, the scale, the sheer amount of people pitching in. It definitely sucks you in, but how long will the excitement last a year or two from now? What’ll be the impetus for veteran players to return?
If Im not mistaken you can drop a temporal curtain and switch to GS. GS2 over the curtain will make the sword remove conditions (as you can tell Im a fan of combos. Its a shame theyre so underutilized.)
I dont use GS so i cant verify how reliable/situational thatd be.
Seriously.. All I ever get are blues and greens. I know there’s a chance for precursors but at the end of the day, if you don’t have MF gear should you even bother with the dragons?
If you enjoy dungeons, doing ac exp can get you about 1g for all 3 runs let alone the tokens and extra goodie bags they drop now. Use tokens to get exotics and either use them or salvage them for ectos and make even more money. Plinx is okay, you may need to find an alternative route while it’s on cool-down. Black Lion is like stocks, gotta keep up to date about new releases and craftables to know which items will spike when recipes are released.
/edit
most people know how to run ac exp pretty well, but if you are new to it i can show you the ropes…and done well you can get 3 paths done in 1 hour or so
I’d really appreciate that. I’m not big on dungeons and AC I’ve only done for Story. Also, on the topic of ectos, know any expedited way of acquiring them besides purchasing?
I’ve made quite a bit of money and haven’t even hit lvl 80 yet.
Flipping TP is always an option: This does require close management of the market trend though. Flipping dyes is the usual, I managed to take advantage of the mass bot ban leading to dye price inflation. Making at least 1g per dye bought all the big dyes which rocketed.
Farming Orr: Boring but reliable but oh so boring
Fractals: Surprisingly fairly good. You can get some of the rarer mats from there.
Regular dungeons: This can be hit and miss at times. The higher leveled dungeons you can get rares etc. salvage for etcos etc. This depends on the team. Could be good or bad.
Node farming: Ori. Ores and Gold ore is always a good bet.
Don’t know much else.
edit: To Arc’s response you can run AC very quickly. The cash reward maybe higher than the other dungeons but they do not have a very higher chance for better goodies from what I have discussed.
Actually haven’t tried Fractals yet, but I’ll give it a shot.
As far as farming Orr.. what exactly do you do there? I’m lost besides Plinx, mats, and the cathedrals.
.. and I had no idea gold veins had worth. I gotta try that.
Btw, is Magic Find actually worth the effort of getting a whole second gear set?
Mantra of Resolve is great for this, not a bad cooldown and can smack off up to 4 conditions before you have to charge it again.
What weapons do you use?
-The LIGHT field from a focus can remove conditions if you put it under the iWarden, of course then you need a target and some decent timing to pull it off. Blinking to the Warden while he shoots out his awesomness tends to help.
- The torch can be traited to remove conditions with 20 Dom.. And you’ll get a nice stealth with the prestige, but of course the iMage is buttcheeks.
- IV (Menders Purity) and XI (Shattered Conditions) in the Inspiration tree could help depending on your build.
If you’re a precision build, you might want Sigil of Purity on one of your weapons. 60% chance to remove condition on crit every 10 seconds.
Plinx farming?
Black Lion?
Crafting cheap golds and then breaking them for the ectoplasms?
I’m tired of going up and down this financial rollercoaster trying to get my Exotic (and eventually Ascended.. sigh) gear set and weapons I want ect. I was curious as to how those people with 40+ gold make there cash.
I know “you gotta spend money to make money,” but I wanna start investing properly and any advice would be appreciated.
In PvE, ok I won’t deny that.
But in PvP? Really? Mesmer were prolly the most effective Pvpers prior to last patch, and they still are really affective.
Care to give more information? I also play with a friend who play an Ele and a Mesmer, and there is no way necro have it easier in PvP. He keep asking me to switch class for a FotM like Mesmer,thief or D/D ele.
I played with mostly every build we have there. Powermancer, Mr Freeze, Fearmancer, Condimancer, MM, Hybrid. I don’t see how we have it easier then anyone else?
Care of giving me more info? So I know why you have it so easy? And also, it might just be your friend that is bad at mesmer.
Actually, I’m the Mesmer. =P And by “easier” in sPvP I mean he’ll sit back and spam conditions on large groups while they’re preoccupied and rank up tons of points. I chose not to go with a simple Power/Precision shatter build and even before the ZerkerNerf I wasn’t much of a GS user (Found it too easy to be honest). I’d rather expiriment with different forms of support with staff, sword/torch-focus-pistol
His build is pure condition damage, Signet of spite, Epidemic and.. some other Utility that I don’t even think he uses.
I’ll admit my knowledge on Necros is very limited, thats why I posted the thread; to learn more about the different types of Necromancer one could viably make. Busting out a staff and running around leaving a bunch of circles on the floor just seemed so… Lame.
(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)
My friend and I started playing GW2 at the same time. He made a necro while I made a Mesmer. Throughout PvP and PvE hes always had an easier time progressing than I did. (Granted I lean towards more difficult builds while hes content to sit back with staff and spam conditions) to the point where we’ve dubbed necro the “Easymancer”
I browse the forums to find people comlaining about how underpowered he is. Are conditions all necros have going for them or are people just uncreative?
Offhand pistol isn’t very good in a support build, even if Phantasmal Duelist is bugged to kick in regen faster.
A better way of looking at Phantasmal Defender is that it can absorb up to 5300 damage total for allies in the area. This seems OK, but then you consider that 1) it also absorbs damage from other illusions, which is a complete waste and 2) any damage it takes won’t be absorbed from allies, and since it’s going to be in melee range of enemies, it’s probably going to take a lot of damage that it won’t be absorbing.
How does Phantasmal Defender increase allied healing?
Wait.. Phantasmal Defender defends EVERYONE!? Do they defend eachother if I have two out? Does the effect stack and mitigate damage 25/25?
Wait.. Phantasmal Defender defends EVERYONE!? Do they defend eachother if I have two out? Does the effect stack and mitigate damage 25/25?… And wouldn’t they get wiped out in like 3 seconds in sPvP?
mesmer is a good support, but not a good healer.
you can have a kittenload of reflection skills, speed boosts, as well as stealth and useful aoe skills like feedback, and null field.
The thing is, for all our support options, can one actually make a support build? And would the support build be just as useful as a cookie-cutter shatter build?
you have to understand, shattering is not a one trick pony, it is only a mechanic, of which you can choose to enhance certain aspects.
it just so happens that most people tend to focus on the pure damage or condition applying aspect of it, with traits you can choose to apply mass daze, mass vigor, mass condition removal, mass boon removal, mass damage, mass confusion, or enhance your own offense/defense.
the things is, once you focus on one of these aspects, you have to specialize for it to be effective, but once you spec for it, you’ll be above average in that field.
For a mesmer however, i prefer that you enhance your reflection abilities, since you have tons of it.
Max either Chaos and Inspiration and leave the other at 20, primarily to enhance your stealth and Glamour skills, you will also need to use a focus and a staff, with maybe a sword to add a little extra utility.
There is a trait that makes focus skills reflect projectiles, so that’s 2 skill with reflect, with feedback that’s 3, with the illusions traits “Distortion grants reflection” that’s 4, add in the heal Mirror that’s 5, if you choose the Inspiration trait that creates a feedback bubble when you revive someone that makes it 6, you can take the skill that adds +1 second to stealth and choose mass invisibility for an elite, and pick Veil since you will have reduced glamour CD anyway.
You will be sacrificing your pure damage to do this, but you can choose gear with condition damage since you will have a staff, and one of your other major stats that you invested in (vitality for inspiration or toughness for chaos).
this is all just hypothetical but i hope you get the idea.
Wow that… That is really creative.
This game isnt about “Healer Role” or “Tank Role” or “DPS role”.
The combat system relies on “Damage/Control/Support” which means…Every class has to deal “Damage” while staying in “Control” and being able to “Support” themselves in combat to be self effeciant.
Every class has their own playstyle preferences when it comes do Damage/Control/Support.
If you only focus on “Support” then ur kitteny.
if you only focus on “Damage” then ur also kitteny.You need to focus more on balancing out the 3 to kick the other player’s kitten
Or. PvE/dugnoens lolMesmer have really powerful “Control” mechanics. Usually using Clones to confuse players in PvP and enemies in PvE. I rarely take damage when I fight cause of Cloning and other factors. =)
I agree that it’s good to have a balance, but why add traits like “blahBlah heals others” or give boons to others if everything is for yourself? and I see plenty of people speccing DPS and speccing Tanks, but few speccing support.
I was under the impression that each class isn’t SHOEHORNED into being just one role (I.E. Warriors are tanks. Casters are DPS. Priests are healers.) and that if you WANTED you could still make a pretty viable support character the way you could make a glass cannon or a beefcake.
“heal” is not a role in GW2, but a part of but not all of “support” so yes we dont have a lot of heal, but we got tons of support (Null field, feedback etc)
the 3 roles in gw2 is control, damage and support
From what I understand, you forge your own role in GW2 depending on how you spec your character. I thought it was optional to make a healer if you wanted to.
mesmer is a good support, but not a good healer.
you can have a kittenload of reflection skills, speed boosts, as well as stealth and useful aoe skills like feedback, and null field.
The thing is, for all our support options, can one actually make a support build? And would the support build be just as useful as a cookie-cutter shatter build?
(edited by Chaos Archangel.5071)
Restorative Mantras + Mantra of Pain. 2.6k group heal every 5 seconds. Is that healer enough for you?
And yeah, to do that you completely shut down your own DPS, since you can’t do very much else while channelling a Mantra.
Well thats the thing. Are the heals worth the DPS shut down? Wouldn’t the group be better served if you helped kill whatever was damaging them with ridiculous precision/power?
This is half a question and half a challenge. I KNOW Guardians and Elementalists make excellent healers, but one of the biggest draws of this game was the philosophy: “Any class can fill any roll.” Yet it seems Mesmers are left out of this too-good-to-be-true motto.
I know Mesmer can do good damage, there are plenty of shatter builds and a few good condition damage builds but I’m curious about those people who’re trying to think outside the illusory box.
Can you make a Mesmer that can support an entire team through heals and/or buffs? Can you be just as good as an Ele, Necro, Guardian, or Warrior at supporting your team through more than just damage? Will speccing a healer make you so abysmal DPS-wise that it’s actually less helpful to your team?
Prove that Mesmers are more than just weird damage dealers!
I often hear a lot about the D/D Elementalist and Staff ele, are there any viable builds for the scepter or focus? I’m trying to figure out the pros and cons of each weapon and if any are entirely superior to another. I’d like to work with a scepter build, simply because I never see anyone using it, but I’m assuming that there is probably a reason for that.
Also, is the focus just plain worse than dagger?
After the patch, is the previously given advice still viable?
No elementalist will do well without using all 4 elements, you have to be switching between them constantly, especially in PvP :]
Well I didn’t plan to ignore all of the other elements, but I was hoping for water/ice to be the primary, especially when traiting.
Are you talking trait focused, or skill/element focused?
Trait and weaponry. I’m hoping to make a support ele that can solo without taking 40 minutes on a single Risen Abomination.
.. though, I didn’t know about the Water/Arcane thing being standard. What weapons are worthwhile? I really like the dagger/dagger concept but I dunno how viable it is.
I don’t mean pure water, but water as the main element. I know it’d probably be difficult, but I doubt its impossible.
What weapons/traits/stats do you think would be necessary for such a build? I’m thinking Water/Earth would probably be most viable.
in Mesmer
Posted by: Chaos Archangel.5071
You know what? I think if the phantasms had some more health, a lot of these problems wouldn’t be so bad. The greatsword has always been solid, and the nerf doesn’t really affect it much anyway.
..But what if you don’t want to use it?
I don’t use Sword/Sword and tbh Greatsword feels too easy/simple. If you’re not going pure DPS here, these nerfs really screw you.
But yeah hearing Anets mentality behind the changes would really put my heart at ease.
I get an 8 second count before the Warden does his attack. Either that, or the animation doesn’t match the cool down time. I figured it got nerfed since the patch says “5-second” cooldown rate. How do you incorporate your warden?
Personally I’m a Sword/Focus kind of guy, but with the severe nerf to the iWarden it seems much harder to make the focus viable. Still, the projectile reflection trait works wonders when you have two iWardens out and a portal beneath both of them. I feel you just have to be a bit more creative with this particular offhand, but I’m curious to see what others use and the philosophy behind them.
I hear pistol rocks. Any dual swordsmen out there?
The October 1st patch (My time that the patch dropped could be off.) stated that Mesmer’s Phantasmal Warden Focus 5 skill cools down every 5 seconds. In the game I’ve counted it to be actually 8 seconds (7 secs with Phantasmal Haste)
I tested the Phantasmal Berserker (Greatsword 4) to make sure it wasn’t just my timing being off, and this phantasm is definitely quicker. Seeing how the Warden is a stationary defensive Phantasm with very low HP (The greatsword Phantasm can also take more damage), and it’s trait allows it to reflect projectiles, such a long cool down renders it almost useless.
SIDENOTE: Since the patch, destroyed clones leave their weapons lingering in the air. I’ll put up screenshots shortly.
There’s places/people to roleplay with in this game? Please tell me where!
Well that’s the thing. If you’re in the mists, then you’re not participating in PVE stuff anyway, so even out in the world it’d be the same as if you were travelling away.
But if an event pops up you can easily break off from the duel with no consequences and still participate. If its only in the mists, you’d have no way to affect the PVE world.
Let me clear one thing first: This game is awesome. It has just about everything anyone can ask for when playing an MMO, except one thing.
Dueling.
Most other MMOs have this, and it seems pretty surprising its not implemented seeing as how it was in GW1. Sometimes you dont want a big pvp, sometimes you just wanna compete with your friends without having to worry about someone jumping in on you.
The more people speak up, the quicker and more likely we are to receive it. So I’m posting to gauge interest. Even if it was just relegated to dueling in the mists so that people can contribute to events in PVE, it should be somewhere.
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