Guild Wars 2

The amusing thing about this is, while mesmers are programmed to only allow 3 illusions at once, other classes are not. Theoretically, you could spawn enough clones to crash the server.

While I do hope they fix the limit at 3 for every class, I really want them to keep the reflection clone spawning in the game. I main a mesmer and it could be used against me but it’s just too awesome to give up!

I feel scepter’s biggest issue is confusion. It’s an awkward condition that only worked well in pvp situations and niche pve ones. The recent nerf to confusion made it next to useless all-around. I can’t remember who stated it first but I agree that confusion should be changed to work like burning and poison. With a longer duration applications that applied static damage ticks from any attack made, it would be viable everywhere. Having runes and sigils to enhance it wouldn’t hurt either.

I agree with Archangel about the torch. If the cooldowns were lowered and confusion became a more viable condition, the torch would really shine.

once they fix the bouncing issue and finally nail the izerker bug down, they should up the damage of Mindstab and make it a blast finisher. I would be willing to forgive a lot of the crap they pulled with that change.

That off feeling is because the Mesmer is an advanced class. Almost all of our abilities are average when used straight out of the box so you are going to feel very weak at first. As you gain levels, traits and a general understanding of what mesmers can really do, that feeling will be replaced by the general snobbish attitude that you are a god among men. At that point you are required to wear a flashy, unconventional, high fashion outfit with fuchsia somewhere in your color scheme.

Doppleganker – Summons a phantasm in the image of the current target. The phantasm only auto attacks, however, any damage or condition applied to this phantasm will also effect the target.

Of course, if we’re going to have a phantasm elite, we need a clone one too, so…

Divine Wind – Summons 9 clones at once which will run at the target and shatter using Mind Wrack while leaving Chaos Storm in their wake.

I can tell you how good mesmers are. At level 54, 5 days after the game’s pre-release, I soloed my first champion. That was when I was a complete noob, insisting on having a signet build, couldn’t care less about deceptive evasion and I felt clones were trash.

Today, there are very, very few champions that I can’t solo and that list is constantly growing shorter.

I’m with you but for a different reason. I hate swapping so I just stick to using a focus. It would be great to have a utility speed boost so I can try other offhand weapons.

Here’s another that always seems to shock people. You don’t need a target to use Feedback. Without one, it will spawn 900 units directly in front of you. I find it very useful for defending gates in WvW. Just be careful as, anything reflected off of it is considered your attack. If you’re confused or everyone in the attacking party has retaliation, it will get ugly fast!

Most of the things you listed under “Good to Know” are what I would call quirks. I wouldn’t call them bugs as they are working as intended.

The Phantasmal Warden on Temporal Curtain is a combo. Anyone doing a whirl attack on a light field will cause that same effect.

Dude, if you don’t know about combos, I SERIOUSLY suggest you look into it. Mesmers have quite a few that we can do on our own. Phase Retreat out of any Ethereal Field (Feedback, Chaos Storm, Null Field and maybe Time Warp but that doesn’t work for me) gives you Chaos Armor. Any blast finisher in the field will give all surrounding allies Chaos Armor. My latest favorite is Illusionary Leap over a Temporal Curtain. It’s a bit tricky but, when done right, it gives me and my clone a few seconds of retaliation. Doing a swap afterwards will give even more as long as I and the clone are on opposing sides of the curtain.

Oh yeah, I forgot to add my 2 cents. I would encourage everyone to try crazy things, just to see if they work. I’m learning that blink works in quite a few places where you wouldn’t think it would. One such example is, in Lions Arch on the far east side, there’s a cave that has a jumping puzzle. You can blink from the bridge into the entrance of that cave, even though there’s a gap between them.

When the Fire Shaman uses an attack where he spins around and shoots firebolts, you can use feedback and reflect every single shot! This also works on Kholer when he’s charging up his aoe grapple attack. The great thing reflecting that is, each grapple counts as a CC so it can easily eat through defiant, knock him down and prevent his following spin attack.

When you do have chaos armor up, sometimes it’s better to let yourself get hit. Weak, rapid fire shots can severely cripple an attacker while giving you a buffet of boons!

I wonder why people think WoW is the only mmo that has mounts. FlyFF, an MMO that specifically revolves around FLYING mounts, was in closed beta in Korea in 2003. Everquest has mounts and it was released in 1999. I can’t think of any game with a bigger “mount” distribution than Eve Online and it was released in 2003.

I’ve also been reading the naysayers comments on why mounts shouldn’t be added and most of the reasons are ridiculously stupid. The one stating that it would hurt gem sales is by far the worst. I don’t know of anyone poor enough to need to buy gems, convert them to gold and then use that to pay for a waypoint. So far, the highest waypoint cost I’ve incurred is 4.13 silver. I can make that back in a minute or even 5 seconds if I’m in the right area. On the contrary, a fair number of mounts are likely to be gem purchase only. For a game that lauds itself on cosmetic appeal, it would be a goldmine.

One quick fix is to customize the pitch of the sound files for voice-acting. I know it’s possible because, for the longest, human mesmer females had a glitch that did it for one of their attacks.

I’m also in favor of this. I can understand weapons and armor being soulbound when equipped but there’s no point in making collectible items soulbound when accountbound just makes more sense.

Farm dungeons for tokens and use the tokens to buy exotic daggers. That way you’ll have a better chance at getting a precuror while still making money.

darkace.8925:

I was joking.

I wasn’t. I don’t expect Shakespearean sonnets but periods aren’t just that weird thing girls get.

I don’t think meta event bosses have an aoe limit. What a lot of them do have are scripted attacks. They pay very little attention to players, if any at all.

Now, if you want a challenge, try a few Temples. Melandru is will make you his kitten. Grenth will molest your inner child, put you in a dress and then sell you to Melandru. Lyssa will make you, Melandru and Grenth bend over, grab your ankles and LIKE IT!

darkace.8925:

Didn’t you read the OP!? You’re not allowed to suggest a martial artist monk!! You have to go play Diablo 3 if you want that!

I tried reading the opening post but I have a moderate case of OCD and the grammar was literally making me twitch. Also, I have Torchlight II for my lootfest fix. It’s cheaper, better and I can play it at launch.

To me, Anet’s refusal to make them is as stupid as their attempts at balancing. People keep suggesting it because they want it. The threads will keep coming until we get what we want. It’s easy money too. Hell, if they gave the 2 that are in the game a 33% speed boosts, I would have bought one and then I would buy another as soon as I saw something I liked more. And I would keep doing that.

It’s also mind-boggling to see all the vehicles in a game with vast stretches of land just sitting idle and collecting dust. The art assets are already there! Why not use them to gain more profit? What’s even dumber than that is the fact that there are riding clothes and aviator glasses! That’s like making car seats but not cars!

I would like to see the monk return too but not as a healing class. I want one that’s based on martial arts with a focus on interrupts.

Now if only it stopped bosses and champions from doing their “elites”. I would toss it on The Shatterer just for the luls!

My problem with this thread is you guys are arguing and some even insulting over efficiency. Sometimes I wonder if I’m the only one left whom runs CoF1 for fun.

Ratty.5176:

Does this work with other team mates, as I could see absolute hilarity ensue as every team mate spends the entire battle trying to get another team mate between them and Kholer.

It might. Months ago, I didn’t know how great Feedback was and I was insistent on being a signet mesmer… Good times! i use to hide behind soldier classes while calling them meatshields. I don’t recall getting pulled a lot.

Feedback is HIGHLY effective against Kholer’s pull. It reflects every single one and that’s enough to eat through defiance and knock him down. What’s even better is, because he’s knocked down, he won’t do the spin afterwards. The con is Feedback will only be up every other pull if it’s not traited. Even if it is, it may not be up for every pull.

Another bonus for being with a mesmer is, if you stand behind their illusions, you won’t be pulled. You have to be directly behind LoS-wise but I have used this trick and can vouch that it works.

bPrepared.8104:

If you want to be able to quickly switch from for example dagger/dagger to a ranged weapon use a ulitity like the Icebow or Fiery greatsword. Yes, they might only last a minute, but if you wanted to for example defend a building in WvW then you might as well just get in the building, wait a sec and switch weapons while out of combat.

But that’s the thing. It’s not a quick switch. In a game where a fraction of a second can mean the difference between life and death, conjures have be be ground-targeted and then need another second to summon. It can also be interrupted easily. I can’t tell you how many countless times I’ve been neck deep in risen, trying to summon a greatsword but can’t because I’m constantly getting hit with control effects. On the other hand, I can weapon-swap instantly on my mesmer, thief and warrior.

Getting out of combat to swap also has the same problem. You literally have to get away from the action, take time to put find and change your weapon with a UI that blocks part of your screen and then go back and regain your pace. This is clearly an action-oriented game and that breaks the flow and immersion of a fight. Hell, if you had to do that on single-player games, it would be listed as a major con. I can’t imagine why anyone would accept it here.

The last problem is on that has been stated over and over and over again. Even with 4 attunements, you can’t change the range at which you’re fighting. In just about every boss fight, there are moments when it’s straight up suicide to go melee and then there are moments where it’s more effective to get in their face. Elementalists, for all the claims to be a jack of all trades, can’t adjust to this flow easily. Though far superior at times, conjures are a niche because of limited usage and long cooldowns. If you drop one to use one of your other abilities, you can’t pick it back up again. You either have to use your other conjure, if it’s still there, or wait to summon again.

While writing this, another issue occurred to me. Players are more inclined to put themselves in a specific role and build their armor set accordingly. Elementalists can’t do that because attunements have role they fulfill. Fire is clearly for direct damage, air is for precision and control, water for support and earth is defense with attrition damage. Most elementalist are trying to fulfill all these roles in short intervals and that’s great… for an avatar-type build. There should be a way to separate them so they can be focused and perfected.

This is why I say yes to in-combat weapon swapping but with limits. Changing all the elemental grand master minor traits to allow weapon-swapping but lock out the other elements would, at most, give the elementalist 20 skills to choose from but they would be split 10/10 in two attunements instead of 5 in all four. Another idea is to create a new Elite signet that would allow weapon-swapping as a passive but lock all attunements during combat. As an active, it would allow one element swap before locking them again. Being an elite, and potentially powerful, naturally it would have a very long cooldown. Of course, for it to work, elementalist would need a second weapon set and they might as well add out-of-combat swapping too, since that’s half the coding.

If nothing else, it would be another elite that would work underwater. But I suppose that would force Anet to make a spear powerset for elementalists.

Wiki says it’s suppose to be a 3-second cloak. I might get one second, if I’m lucky, even if I don’t attack at all. However, I’m not sure it is my clone causing me to unstealth now. I’ll have to test this further.

Edit: Nope, I was right the first time. I cloak, the clone attacks and as soon as it hits, I lose stealth. The max has been 1.5 seconds.

Gonna test the down skill stuff now. In the meantime, the #2 skill summons a clone. You need a target to summon most clones. You also have to have line-of-sight and not be blinded or summon on a blocking opponent. How is that a guaranteed interrupt?

The way I see it, it works on the same principals as Mesmer’s Blink. You pretty much have to have to be able to walk to where you want to go with it. It won’t allow you to climb most hills or jump most gaps. If it fails to get you where you want to go, you “teleport in place” and the skill goes on full cooldown. Once you get use to the limitations, you’ll be able to use it with more reliability.

I would be all for this if there was a way to have in-combat weapon swapping at the cost of attunement swapping. Sometimes I feel I would better serve my team if I stayed in water and had the option to go staff for when the team needed bigger heals or go d/d where I could be more offensive but still supply moderate support. It would be a boon to my Mightmancer build which relies on several traits that have a “only works while attuned to fire” clause.

But best of all, IT WOULD ENCOURAGE MORE BUILDS! I wonder why so many people are adamantly against it and then turn around and complain about the lack of build variety.

wads.5730:

illusions damage does not break your stealth.

Unless that change was extremely recent, it always has for me.

The problem with #1 is the change to confusion. Many times I’ve been downed and in battles of attrition, only to lose because I couldn’t squeak out 10 more damage. The confusion nerf will only make that worse.

I’d be okay with #2 if it was a guaranteed teleport AWAY from the target AND the mesmer stayed stealthed the entire time limit, regardless of what the clone does. There’s no point in having a stealth ability if the clone always breaks it before the time limit is up.

Skill #3 is fine as is. That thing hits like a mac truck carrying hydrogen bombs! If you manage to get a clean hit and still can’t kill your opponent, you were going to die anyway.

Skill #4 has a problem that I have with ALL professions. It heals way too slowly. It’s extremely rare that I’m able to get myself back up from using it while in battle. It’s even worse if everything around you is dead and you have to use it to get back up. It just takes way to long.

I’ve been here since bwe2 and I can attest that, at one point, it did remove all at once. I don’t mind the change though. I find that the present version is highly effective against enemies that constantly reapply boons/conditions so it’s a decent trade off.

I want Blink to be a signet with a 25% speed increase as a passive, teleport as active. That makes perfect sense to me.

The global cooldown is a fraction of a second that’s meant to stop clones from having more than one shatter triggered on them. Why should that be stopped?

I went for named exotics instead. I have the T3 Asuran Peacekeeper sword, Anomly, Ignus Fatuus and I’m presently working on Mirage.

Iavra.8510:

I could imagine using Staff + GS in a condition build, mainly using Rabid gear.

GS auto-attack tends to do a lot of hits and could be used with Sharper images to quickly apply lots of bleeding.

I would suggest Rampager instead of Rabid if you’re going to use the greatsword as your main weapon. Both weapons scale well with power but the GS comes out on top as it has a longer range, does more direct damage per second and beam attacks can’t be reflected. The staff is better at condition damage and makes one hell of a defensive weapon, if played right. I also suggest a superior Sigil of Earth to take advantage of the precision and stack with Sharper Images.

I second Rampager. I actually prefer it over Berzerker because, with the right traits, it allows my clones to be adequate threats instead of mere distractions. Rabid has its uses as well in WvW. While direct damage output suffers, the mile high condition damage paired with toughness, the right traits and all the active defenses makes one very hard to kill mesmer. Just don’t expect to do anything to walls and gates. You’d be better off manning a siege weapon in that instance.

The staff can do excellent damage! You just have to build for it. Rampager gear helps a lot. I’m also hoping that this bouncing mess gets retracted quickly or places priority on players because it is literally chaotic. I’ll even second another poster’s idea that mesmers should receive the buff if it hits their clones.

Yes it is. It was a “fix” long ago to prevent Mesmers from running back and forth through the curtain and stacking a lot of swiftness too quickly. What we have been complaining about ever since is why it doesn’t simply limit the refreshed swiftness instead of ignore it completely.

You do know Forgal is Norn, right?

I agree that she needs shoes and could use a more elegant hairstyle. Other than that, she’s fine to me. At first I thought she was too bright-eyed and bushy tailed to be a good ruler. Then I saw her interactions with Caudecus and Logan at the end of the second story dungeon. She’s very manipulative but has a way of appearing whole-heartedly honest with her intentions. She truly is a mesmer.

The one Charr by the WvW gates
“Uh huh. All I know is, this soldier’s going through that gate tomorrow and my movements will be completely badass!”

Random Norn in Lion’s Arch
“By Ugdun’s Hammer, what savings!”

Captain Penzan singing
I am the very model of a modern pirate general,
I’ve information magical, mathematical and mineral.
I know the Queens of Kryta and can cite matters historical,
From Bloodstones to the dragon spawn in order categorical.
In fact, I write my washing bills in old Canthan cuneiform.
I’ll tell you every detail sewn on Caudecus’s uniform.
The skills and builds of warfare are essential to my strategy,
You’ll say a better pirate general has never sat-a-gee,
For when you know the habits of the Charr and the Elonians
When you can tell at sight a Kurzick from an Ascalonian,
You’ll know my martial knowledge, quite extensive and still myriad,
Myriad…myriad…myriad…ah!
Has only been updated for the Interregnum period!
But still in matters magical, mathematical, and mineral,
I am the very model of a modern pirate general!

I still feel the best thing to do is not to buy keys at all. In fact, I don’t buy anything with ridiculous rng elements attached. If they want my money, they need to put the actual skins on sale so I can pick and choose which ones I want.

I’m wondering if Zhaitan really is out of the running. granted I have yet to play the final story mission so I don’t know how everything ends but one though keeps nagging me. Can you really kill someone that has such an impressive mastery over death?

I don’t think he’s the most powerful though. In fact, I figure he’s the youngest of all the dragons as his abilities don’t seem as advanced as the others.

Actually they might be. I’ll have to take another look but they remind me of the gate to Ebonhawke.

No one mentioned Braham and Rox? He just lost a LOT of family and friends, not to mention how “lovely” his relations is with his mom so I know he’s feeling vulnerable. Rox, on the other hand, is a bright-eyed, bushy-tailed ranger that desperately wants to be recognized. They have already hit it off well so it wouldn’t be a stretch for them to form an interracial relationship.

Also, I hate to admit it but I find Rox adorable. She has piercing green eyes and, given her interaction with her new pet, she gave the impression of a woman on the cusp of motherhood.

You also have to look at the other side of this coin. Pirates, real ones at least, are incredibly democratic. They don’t care where their members come from as long as they can get along with everyone else and prove their worth. They also vote on whom their captain will be. If that captain fails to deliver, he steps down or is impeached and they vote on the next. If the game really followed this rule set then we should see krait, quaggan, skrit, jotun and a lot of other nonplayable races as pirates too.

Try telling someone who loves jumping puzzles that mesmers don’t need out-of-combat speed buffs.

The only part of the Seer set that I like is the mask. I might get it, especially if it doesn’t interfere with my mesmer’s hairstyle. However, I roll the Cabalist set and I couldn’t be happier.

Minos.3450:

Personal satisfaction.

I have my right hand for that.

Everything on Southsun hits like a truck. Some are delivery, others are big rigs.

I don’t know who to side with because this story doesn’t make sense.

First off, Norn and Charr running from the molten alliance?! REALLY?! I can understand the Norn running form Jormag as he’s likely twice the size of Hoelbrak, has an army of minions and has eaten Owl. There’s not enough liquid courage in the world to convince the Norn they could win that battle. The Charr, on the other hand, are constantly battling Ascalonian ghosts whom just regenerate after being slain again. And the Charr are WINNING! But they ran from dredge and Flame Legion, both of which are a lot easier to kill? I don’t get it.

Even when I slapped suspension of disbelief on that, all the refugees HAD to have known what was going on in Southsun. While it looks like paradise, the wildlife there was dangerous even before Canach got his hands on them. Given what the Karka did to Lion’s Arch, surely rumors would have spread about how inhospitable the island is. And the Consortium, they might as well be a subsidiary of EA for all the shady stuff they were getting away with.

Still these are Charr and Norn. They probably get off on the idea of living with deadly animals on a daily basis. Even so, they were in Lion’s Arch! That city is literally MADE of ships! You’re telling me none of them thought to rip one down, patch it up and sail away on their own? You also have to consider that the Charr and thick fur and the Norns are accustomed to cold weather. Why would either race choose a tropical island to call home?!

Now going back to the Consortium, they have got to be dumber than a box of rocks beaten with an ugly stick if they thought, even for a second, they could subjugate the most rowdy, blood-boiling, brawl-happy, got-my-wife-a-battleaxe-for-her-birthday races in all of Tyria. I’m shocked that, after 2 days, there are still Consortium employees alive, much less in arguable control. I imagine the Charr and Norn would have taken turns seeing fast they can make the pencil-pushers wet themselves before throwing them into the sea. The best the Consortium could do is hire players to fend off their new “clients” while they drained the island dry of all resources and cut their losses.

This just doesn’t make any sense!

For all the mesmers, there’s another trick. Remember that you are completely invulnerable while using Blurred Frenzy.