Here’s another idea. What if you could disable 2 elements to gain weapon swapping? For instance, disabling fire and earth would allow an elementalist to still use wind and water with weapon swapping. That keeps the number of available powers at 20, gives elementalist the ability to change their range on the fly and opens up a LOT of new builds. All those, “only in fire attunement” traits would make a lot more sense if you have 10 available fire skills instead of 5".
That’s what I think too. There needs to be a way for elementalist to specialize in one element. In fact, I wouldn’t mind being in water only if I could swap between D/D and staff while in battle. That would probably be my preferred build.
The greatsword is essentially a sniper rifle. You aim for the furthest target and you hit everything in-between. Staff players usually don’t stay at the full range to take advantage of the bounces. In my opinion, it’s best used right outside of melee range and clone to clones so you can soak up all the boons while applying a lot of conditions.
Now for the meat and potatoes about how this build works. Here’s the kicker. You HAVE to stay in the fire attunement as much as possible! You can do whatever mightstacking magic that you want at the beginning of a battle but you have to end it while in the fire attunement. I personally set it and forget it. I know that sounds crazy but it’s worked pretty well for me so far.
Depending on how much heat I’m about to jump into, I may pop Armor of Earth first for protection, more regen, stability and a small 6% boost in damage. If I know I can handle it, I’ll start off with Burning Speed as a gap closer and to lay down my first fire field. Immediately afterwards I use Ring of Fire and hit Arcane Wave. Depending on the situation, I may use Dragon’s Claw a few times at point-blank range so all three lines hit. If I feel my opponent is low enough, I’ll go for Drake’s Breath to set them on fire then use Fire Grab to finish them off.
This whole rotation can take about 5 seconds and, every time I use a fire attack, I gain 1 stack of might which the runes insure last 15 seconds instead of 10! Arcane Wave in a fire field will give 3 on it’s own while criting all nearby enemies and Bountiful Power will give an extra 2% damage for every boon on you. Add in all the other damage bonuses and it’s possible to finish an entire wave of risen in one rotation and have 8 to 14 stacks of might up and ready for the next wave. With that much, every individual claw of the auto attack will do 100 more damage and I’ve never stopped to figure out how it would effect burning.
I’ve done some testing and found that I can sustain 14 to 16 stacks of might with auto attacks alone. If I do everything right, I can peak at 21 stacks and easily hit 25 if the right people are around me. You can’t argue how great that is for staying in one attunement.
As a bonus, the fiery greatsword’s attack count as fire spells. If I’m ever in a situation where I need even more dps, I can pop the elite and go to town with little to no worries. I will lose a few stacks of might but the damage more than makes up for it.
Now, the downsides…
This build is all about raw damage so, when I’m in a situation where I need control more brute dps, I’m out of luck. Sure I could always swap attunements but my damage will slowly trickle away until I go back to fire. Also, almost all battles will be a war of attrition. Even high vit and toughness can’t hold out for long against an angry mob so you have to take them out fast. I wouldn’t advise using berzerker armor with this build because even with carrion, I was downed in seconds while trying to pull off the same stunts. The biggest issue is all the fire effects can easily block enemy tells so I have a hard time trying to dodge properly. Maybe with more practice, I’ll be ready for it.
So, what do you guys think? I could really use some input on making this build better.
First let’s get a few details out of the way. This is my very first build so it’s not going to drastically change the meta. My ele is secondary to my mesmer so I’m not as informed with all the class mechanics as my main. I’m also creating this build to purposefully balk at conventional thinking so you will see a lot of things that will make you think “WHAT DA HELL!” keep that in mind and you’ll do fine.
The reason I’m calling this the Mightmancer is because the main purpose of this build is to increase damage through Might stacks. This is a very simple build and I consider it to be in its alpha phase but I’m already seeing some interesting results so I’ve come here to see what those with more experience than me can add to it.
At this moment I’m using full soldier armor because a my playstyle requires me to be up close and personal with enemies and we know how abysmal the base ele survival stats are. Due to the nature of fire skills covering enemy tells, I doubt that’s going to change anytime soon. I’m also using dueling daggers but I plan on testing out a focus when I can get the one I want. Yes, I HAVE to make a fashion statement when I’m on the battlefield! That’s the mesmer in me. Besides the human T3 focus is awesome and I have yet to see anyone else carrying it.
As for runes, I’ve gone 2 Monk, 2 Water and 2 Fire. I prefer overall boon duration instead of more might duration because I get a lot more use out of 30% of every boon instead of 10% more from might. As for sigils, my mainhand dagger will always be Bloodlust while the offhand is tailored towards whatever group I’m fighting or Force just to cover the basics. Yes this means I’ll have to carry a lot of daggers but their are some very cheap rares with soldier stats that do quite nicely.
I’ve taken 30/10/30/0/0 in the trait lines. I can already see a few of you guys rolling your eyes but hear me out. Internal Fire, Pyromancer’s Alacrity and Pyromancer’s Puissance are a must. They make up the bulk of my damage. Flame Barrier and Burning Rage will help due to the in-your-face playstyle but Sunspot is practically worthless.
The 10 in Air is for Zephyr’s speed for a moderate mobility boost and Bolt to the Heart. The latter is to help finish enemies off quickly and with more style. I’ll explain how later.
The 30 in Water is pretty obvious. Soothing Disruption, Cantrip Mastery and Cleansing Water all work together to turn cantrips into stunbreakers and condition removers. Soothing Mist, Healing Ripple and Bountiful Power all help out with my “OH KITTEN” plan when things aren’t going my way and I need to survive.
To heal I use the Signet of Restoration because I intend to spam the hell out of my skills. I NEVER activate it, even when I’m about to go down because its passive is far more valuable than its active. I have experimented with the other heal skills and, while functional, they don’t suit my playstyle. This is all about getting in the enemy’s face and being relentless. Taking even a moment to heal is detrimental so I leave the recovery to health regeneration.
For utilities I take Lightning Flash, Arcane Wave and Armor of Earth. Lightning Flash is because I’m so use to Blink that I suffer trying to play any class without something similar. Because it’s a cantrip, it works very well at getting me out of hairy situations, a bit of regeneration and clearing a condition. I always use it defensively. Arcane Wave is to help with might stacking but I also find it useful in other combo fields. Sometimes giving everyone Chaos Armor is a lot better than 3 more stacks of might. Armor of Earth is for when I know I’m about to put my nose against the grindstone. It has helped me survive sticky situations I purposely run into. The fact that it’s also a cantrip is just icing on the cake.
For my elite, Conjure Fiery Greatsword is a must! Luckily all the skills fall under “Fire” so they add to the might stacking.
The last thing I do is use Mango Pie for a bit more health and to supplement the Signet of Restoration. I also use potions tailored to whatever group I’m fighting. Both are easy to get off the trading post or make and make a huge difference in survivability.
Whine whine whine…. you don’t need stunbreakers….
Have you been to the Cursed Shore lately? I’ve been stunned more in 5 minutes there than in 5 hours of wvw.
I use to run rabid armor and it is great for dueling and soloing camps. I even had one proud moment where it took 3 npcs and 4 to 7 players about 3 minutes to chase me away from a supply depo. However, the armor set has one huge flaw; you’re pretty much useless against anything that doesn’t take condition damage. You can forget trying to take out siege weapons on your own and might as well not even bother with walls and gates.
Curunen I love your confusion idea! I imagine using a glamour to hit an enemy zerg with it then teleporting right in the middle and purposely instigating all kinds of chaos! Even if I died, it would be a glorious zerg buster! And if I died, I’d just change my armor to a different looking set and do it again! I wouldn’t even care to collect loot bags! There would be giggles for days!
I love the idea. Personally I feel that magic find stats shouldn’t have been incorporated in armor to begin with. It’s too “selfish” and goes against the philosophy of everyone pulling their weight in dungeons.
I use to think that weapon-swapping would be too powerful for elementalist too but I’m starting to reconsider because of the nature of combat. I’m used to switching from short to long range attacks mid-battle as needed but I just can’t do that on an elementalist. Conjured weapons don’t fix the problem as they’re are too many variables involved in them. Sometimes I’ve been downed as soon as I make one and end up losing it. Other times someone else pics up my spare when I need it. There’s also the time and use limits. It’s just a convoluted mess.
I feel that weapon-swapping can be balanced for elementalist by making it a signet. The passive could allow weapon swapping while in one attunement but lock out all others while in battle. The active would allow one swap but then lock attunements again. This would encourage more diverse builds and make some sense of so many traits that require being in a specific attunement to work.
I am an Engineer, half my bloody abilities rely on RNG. You get to sympathy from me.
Kitten please! I main a mesmer.
I’d be okay with Fire Grab if it was more accurate. Sometimes I could be standing face-to-face and close enough to kittenslap my target but it will still miss.
I cant comment about pvp because I don’t do it at all. In fact, the only reason I enter the Heart of the Mist is because it’s a cheap way to get to Lion’s Arch.
Suzut, I feel you’re still missing my point. I like Sharper Images and I like condition damage. I even agree that the iDuelist is awesome, however, it is not good enough to base a condition build around. I don’t feel any of the random conditions that mesmers do is enough to create a build around by the very nature of their application being completely random. Now take into account that the Signet of Domination seems tailor-made for a condition build as that is the only situation I can see taking it over some of the other utilities available. Even the active isn’t good enough because I could simply trait glamours for blind and have them work on entire groups instead of single targets while having their projectiles reflected or being stripped of boons.
In essence, this signet is worthless to me without a condition I can reliably stack. That’s why I use condition damage as a supplement instead of a main focus. Now, if they replaced Winds of Chaos’ vulnerability with poison, then this signet would be a LOT more attractive!
As for this, it would be good, but might stacking is already easy on an ele, and this trait requires time in a single attunement to build up, which offensive builds often don’t have much of.
That’s not quite true. While it does require staying in fire, I’ve used it while diving into a group of 6 to 8 risen and come out with 12 to 17 stacks of might 8 seconds later. Using auto-attacks alone will sustain 14 stacks and, on great days, I’ve gone up to 25. The beauty of it is you don’t have to rely on combos to gain might. That means your skill chains are less predictable.
I would remind you not to ignore chill as a condition. While it doesn’t do direct damage, is can slow opponents and their recharge rates considerably.
I would say Pyromancer’s Puissance is a VERY GOOD trait. I’m able to add between 100 to 300 damage per auto-attack and that’s without precision and crit damage stats.
Am I the only one who realizes that with Fury and Haste, Duelists shoot 8 times every 4.8 seconds with an 84% chance to crit and proc Sharper Images? It seems very reliable to me. Throw in a Staff clone and a Warlock to even out the damage. ._."
If you only received a paycheck 84% of the time, would you still call that reliable? I have a 57% crit rate before Fury and main a staff but I only use condition damage as a supplement because there’s no guarantee Sharper Images will trigger every single time I need it to. That’s my issue with it and that’s why I still won’t pick up this signet.
The problem isn’t the signet. It’s that mesmers don’t have any condition we can reliably stack besides confusion. Now that the two (insert insult of the day here) working on balance made sure that’s not very viable either, mesmers don’t really have a reason to spec primarily for condition damage.
I would love to be proven wrong though. I would also like world peace, more gothic lolita dresses and some devs actually willing to INCREASE THE NUMBER OF POSSIBLE BUILDS LIKE THEY SAID THEY WOULD! Naturally I’m not holding my breath on any of those things.
I too like the idea of clones moving as I move, if they dodge when we dodge, it should be the animation only, not the invulnerability. As crazy as this sounds, I want good players to be able to tell the difference between me and my clones. It’s no fun if they can fool everyone.
I supplement my dps with condition damage instead of crit damage. I just tried the signet out in Orr but only gained at most 16 more dps with it. It could make a slight difference in long, drawn out fights but it’s still not worth giving up a utility slot for. I’ll also add that the blind didn’t stop the veteran risen giant from hitting me with conditions.
(edited by Crossplay.2067)
If they didn’t nerf confusion in the same patch, it would have been a no brainer for a glamour build. I’ll try it with my condition build and see if it makes a difference.
Time Warp works on dances! You’re welcome!
I don’t have time to read this whole tread but if I get the jest of it, Vanthian is claiming Blurred Frenzy is over-powered. I would counter that claim by saying Vengeance is overpowered. I can’t think of any other downed skill that would allow a player to get back on their feet and theoretically use ALL of their profession’s skills as well as food and environmental weapons. Plus it lasts a hell of a lot longer than 2 seconds. The only down side is death, if you can’t kill something else in that timeframe. Considering what everyone else gets while in the same situation, I’d say that’s far more than a slight advantage.
Now you won’t see me posting about this on the Warrior forums because I find that foolish. Instead I would point this out to the devs and say, “Why can’t more classes have downed skills this powerful or at least this opportunistic?!” That’s what you should be doing.
I prefer the underwater attack speed but even I have to admit that would be insane on land.
Anyone whom stands still long enough to get 35k worth of damage deserves to die. I don’t even care if that person is me, they deserve to die horribly!
Think about it Lightbane. It takes at least a month to earn some ascended trinkets and some people had 3 or more the hard way. How would you feel if an update nerfed your favorite build and the equipment you worked so hard to gain? Worst yet, how would you feel if that nerf was done to pamper newbies instead of teaching them the more advance facets of the game?
Excuse me as I sigh discontentedly which even having to remind the masters of out profession that it’s… called… fuchsia!
As for the OP’s question, a great man once said, “Don’t brand the cattle; brand the buyers. They’re the ones likely to stray.” Basically don’t try to track your illusions. Instead, track your opponent and trick them into fighting on your terms. There are plenty of guides around to give you more specific tricks but I can tell you one tactic that should always be in the back of your mind. Never stop plotting. What truly makes mesmers great is that our builds very drastically. Our opponents never know what to expect until they are actually fighting us. Even that can be used to your advantage.
Sometimes I act like a shatter-zerker, spawning clones quickly then using F2 as if it was Mindwrack. Pros will notice this behavior and are likely to focus on dodging that shatter. When they do, I go into rabid mode and tele-dance around them while spawning more clones. Considering I have rampager gear, some are quite shocked to see how much damage I can put out. Oh, and they burned a dodge on a pitiful confusion shatter while I still have Mindwrack in my back pocket.
power percision condition gear?
Now I can say I’ve been rocking rampager gear before it was cool. With it, I am able to kill faster with a staff than with sword/focus and I’m not even specced for condition duration. And today, I noticed that my trident bleeds are INSANE! I can get 21 stacks in about 3 seconds! They only last 2.5 seconds but enemies won’t last much longer.
This gives me a tiny bit of hope. Still not enough to make up for confusion nerf though.
Intended. In fact, i doubt he was meant to move at all.
Guys…guys….guys….you’re killing me here.
Seriously, have you all devolved so far that you can’t spot a troll this obvious at 10 paces? Please don’t feed it.
I feel that we’ve been nerfed so much that we’re willing to agree with this troll on the off chance that we’ll get buffed or at least left alone. I wonder if this is what battered wife syndrome feels like.
Time Warp speeds up animations, which is useful when you want to do something faster.
From my experience, people whom say mesmers are op usually don’t understand how mesmers work. We are duelists that excel at creating chaos and confusion so of course we’re going to be hard to beat in a duel. It’s one of the professions where you have to sit down and play it to understand how it works and then find its weaknesses. Anyone whom won’t do that isn’t serious about dueling.
Both are viable but I lean towards rampager because… well, I’m a hipster and zerker is too common for my taste. The good thing about it is you can get some “on crit” sigils (earth is my favorite) and go with the sharper images trait so you do a lot more bleeds.
The glass cannon argument is a matter of personal taste. Because I only roll with one condition cleanse and I often place myself in harm’s way just to see what I can handle, I have a little bit of toughness and vitality.
Sorry about my delayed response. I’ll go play masochist with karka to see if I can replicate this bug.
Edit: First i have to say, “OMG! THE LIGHTBLOOM! I’m blind, Peg! BLIND!!”
In all seriousness, I can’t seem to replicate the situation you described. I can’t even find any young karka that do stuns. They only cripple and bleed with their raned attack and then do melee attacks until it recharges. The hatchlings do a full array of conditions but I have yet to see a stun.
On the movement side, the best I could do is blink inside certain rocks. While it is way too easy to do so, phase retreat got me out just as easily.
(edited by Crossplay.2067)
It has worked for me plenty of times. Hell, when I first hit 80 I thought it was useless because all it did was move me a few feet away and projectiles still hit me. It grew one me when I was told that it broke stun and worked while prone. Now I can’t imagine playing without it.
That still doesn’t help your situation though so let me know exactly where you used it and I’ll do some testing too to see if we can pinpoint the problem.
Kabooky, I have no idea what you just said. I’m not trying to be insulting. I mean I’ve literally read your post over a few times and I still have no idea what point you were trying to make.
I’ve encountered something similar but that was when the ground was very, very slightly slanted. That caused me to blink in place. I also know that if you try to cross a gap with it, even a small one that’s on level on both sides, it’s likely to fail. The rule of thumb is, if you can’t jump it, you can’t blink across either.
I cannot agree that confusion is suppose to supplement mesmer damage. We have 4 weapons abilities that cause confusion. Our second shatter causes confusion. We have 5 traits that deal with confusion. Our down state’s auto attack also causes confusion. There may be more but these are the ones that are directly affected. That’s 12 aspects of our class that have been nerfed just by the 50% reduction alone. For perspective, the second closest affected is the Engineer with a total of 4 aspects. Even if you ignore that huge disparity, I can’t see how anyone can honestly say it’s “complimentary damage” when it was possible to create an entire build specializing in it. No other class can do that.
And that’s only half of the reason why I have lost faith in the profession devs. They did this to help newbies which is flat our WRONG! You help new players learn the rules of the game. You do NOT balance anything according the skill level of new players! Doing so is just dumbing it down, which only hurts the game in the long run.
Take a look at any popular e-sport and you’ll see one thing they all have in common; they are simple to play but hard to master. I’ll even take it one step farther and say the more plausible strategies available, the more entertaining they are.
If they truly believed confusion was overpowered, they should have started by reducing it by 10 to 15% and then give it to some common enemies in pve so new players could get use to seeing it and what it does. What they did instead is make it even harder for newbies to spot as the numbers are low enough to be part of the “background noise” in wvw, which was the only place it was still being heavily used. If they don’t die from it, they are less likely to ask about it and therefore less likely to understand it.
I’m going to end this post here because all this is doing is frustrating me.
I think the devs don’t respond in the profession forums because it won’t solve anything and it’s likely to cause more drama. It’s already obvious that half of their decisions aren’t popular. Personally, I’ve lost all faith in them and struggle to be subjective about any decision they make. However, it is clear to me that having them try to explain their reasons in these forums is like Adam Orth defending “always online” consoles. The results of such actions are likely to be twice as ugly too.
As for the matter at hand, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Mesmers relish in being unorthodox. The fact that the greatsword is our longest ranged weapon is proof of such. In that regard, every weapon is viable for proliferation to mesmers.
If they did change to pbaoes, kamikaze zerg-bombing with Mantra of Distraction would be glorious!
I feel mantras should be listed as shouts so we can get the benefits from runes as well. That would make them a lot more attractive to me.
I’m more concerned about the effects this will have on the meta. With glamour being less favorable, more mesmers may go for shatter burst or rabid builds. And if Anet thought confusion made newbies cry…
I don’t mind the reticule but it needs to be a lot bigger. Trying to hit it at full range, even on flat ground, shouldn’t be as difficult as it is. I prefer to keep the rooting animation because of how epic it is, however, it should be counter-balanced by giving it knock-up. A daze could work as well and would better fit the name. Instead of ripping a single boon, it should prevent enemies gaining new boons for a few seconds. That would be a unique form of boon hate and far more useful. But no matter what, it NEEDS to be a blast finisher!
heh… I don’t even run 5 in illusions. I suppose now is as good a time as any to try another build.
Same problem than the OP here. I’m trying, but I always end up with GS+sw/focus. I’m trying, I’m trying…
It just may not be your type of weapon and that’s okay. Beyond a few bugs, there’s nothing wrong with the greatsword. I always carry one with me for situations where it’s more useful than staff.
Try rampager gear, get a sigil of earth, trait yourself with sharper images and/or illusionary elasticity and then try again. Like many aspects of mesmers, you have to build towards it. Even then, the staff is still for defense and support. To fight with it, it’s best to kite enemies while staying just out of melee range. Blink, dodge or phase retreat when anyone gets too close.
Not at all. The sword you are referring to would make battles trivial. Legendaries in GW2, on the other hand, are just really, really, really pretty exotic weapons. They offer no statistical advantages.