Guild Wars 2

A problem is Chrono offers such basic quality of life features that it pretty much “fixes” what is wrong with core Mesmer – for example Chronophantasma, Time Catches Up, Time Marches On, Illusionary Reversion…

I mean, look how tied we were to Duelling for DE before HoT. Now it’s Inspiration because it offers so much in terms of survival and Chrono because DE isn’t mandatory anymore.

What I don’t like is how trait lines are such All or Nothing choices – it forces builds into any given line depending on the state of the game.
Want passable condi cleanse? Must take Inspiration. Want to play conditions? Must take Illusions. What decent clone/phantasm generation? Must take Duelling and/or Chronomancer. Want to play dps? Must take Domination.

I just don’t agree with the “high level” theory behind what trait lines should be as it creates forced choices and restrictions, and mesmer is especially subject to this problem.

I’m happy for chronobunker to be normalised, however care must be taken with the effect on the core spec lines because core mesmer along with other builds are not all that compared with builds fulfilling similar roles (ie dps) from some other classes.

Can’t they put Confusion on crit back in so condi can actually have a choice of weapons to use instead of being forced to use scepter?

Carighan.6758:

Curunen.8729:

Personally I’m not conflicted at all – I love the extra physicality of asura animations.

Me too, though I do mind how oddly the upper hand’s wrist angles. That specific element should be reworked slightly.

That’s a good point, it is a very extreme angle.

Hehe, yes I see it now too. xD

Hmm, I can’t remember exactly but I don’t recall it was necessary to have stability to complete that jumping puzzle – I didn’t have bountiful disillusionment or the mantra at the time. Isn’t there some other way to pass that obstacle?

But I do remember it being a serious pain in the kitten, hence never wanting to touch it again.

Which jumping puzzle is that?

Haha, on the other hand I love the music.

Ross Biddle.2367:

I’m conflicted.

On the one hand, saying you can work magic with your sword shouldnt be ignored.

But at the same time, if it requires two hands to lift you’ve got nothing to be ashamed of.

The thrust of this dilemma is powerful indeed

Personally I’m not conflicted at all – I love the extra physicality of asura animations.

Tahm.8290:

Meanwhile, Charr just waves it with one hand

Well most greatswords are bigger than any asura that wields them, even with scaling.

Yeah but asura ears extend/quiver while doing the gs1 animation, as well as them leaning back while thrusting like they mean to impale their foe.

I don’t like human/sylvari/norn animations – they are all too “floaty” and weird looking.

In my opinion the asura animations are superior. They don’t hold and point it – they THRUST it at their foes with the force of a thousand charging dolyaks!

All asura greatsword animations on mesmer (and every other weapon/skill/class) are superior – one handed mirror blade throw, awesome mind stab action, BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL one handed iZerker summon and an iWave animation that looks like it has some proper momentum behind it.

Levetty.1279:

Curunen.8729:

Yeah, one or two more burn stacks for the image and the prestige would both be nice.

And Winds of Chaos.

Yeah that too.

Yeah, one or two more burn stacks for the image and the prestige would both be nice.

Good to see another Sword/Torch + Staff condition build.

Interesting choice of Viper and using Chaos to shore up the glassiness, although don’t you melt instantly to incoming conditions if making one wrong move, especially with those necros/revs running around?

Personally if not taking Inspiration I almost always take Mantra of Resolve (in addition to The Pledge) which is a lifesaver in bad situations (entangle, necro throws your conditions back at you, etc…).

I also prefer to run with Duelling because between DE, IR and Cp I can do big burst condi application through chain shatters eg, staff 2+3 -> dodge + any shatter -> dodge + any shatter -> swap weapon, ileap (swap) -> dodge + any shatter. That’s back to back 3×4 so 12 torment + a lot of confusion with blurred frenzy and prestige up and ready to disappear after unloading that. Of course, this can be initiated with F5, although it reduces to -1 illusion shatters because Cp runs out and dodges run out, but there is still time to summon an iMage before doing the whole thing again when out of F5.

But on the flipside I have a very big disadvantage running Rabid (and Undead runes for max intensity burst) against all the DS eles – though I can accept ignoring one enemy in order to be more survivable against all the others.

I can’t post the build because on a phone, but it’s Duelling/Illusions/Chrono (blinding dissipation + DE, the pledge + mtd + Ineptitude, TCU + IR + Cp), Blink/MoR/Decoy/MI/EtherFeast, sw/t + staff with double energy/doom sigils, rabid + undead runes.

I’d go for anything with a 970m in it so you’ll be good for a few years.

Between msi, gigabyte, asus, sager/clevo among others, there’s plenty of choice at the moment, depending how portable you need to be.

Edit: Sorry I just realised this might be over your budget. Actually the new dell inspiron seems to be excellent value for money given its performance – has a 960m I believe and can be had for around £700.

How weird – how come this is moved to community creations forum when every other mesmer video thread usually stays in the mesmer forum?

Would be nice to see this fixed soon, especially with the crazy price of Maguuma Lilys…

Jack.4082:

What does the prize of the presents have to do with the jumping puzzle? You can make good amounts of presents in the bell game. The only way you earn more in the Jp is if you are really good, which has little to do with laziness.

I have spent so much time in the Jp, but because of the challenge not for the reward. For presents I’d go for bells. There the presents are guaranteed and relaxing.

Agreed, bell choir is so much easier to farm gifts.

I’m still bothered by the MtD nerf and removal of the Confusion on Crit trait before it even made it into the game.

1. Taimi

2. Magister Sieran

Don’t get stuck behind an 8 foot Norn/Charr…

Action Camera / Combat Mode / Any autohotkey script to toggle on right click helps…

Don’t rush.

I like the left and right path. Not too keen on the middle path.

Tbh that was the first build I was playing with Chrono (previously Duelling/Chaos/Illusions Sword/Torch + Staff condi), but had to drop it because of as you say it was way too vulnerable against all the other overpowered elite specs.

But now that There have been some nerfs handed out, I have been tempted to try it again – and also before I used Improved Alacrity – however now Illusionary Reversion is working much better for me to allow back to back max shatters with a single dodge.

I’ve switched back to this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAsfWlknhy0YRawRNwtGLvGV5E0bRT9wesLLaAkTNBA-TJRHwAw2fIZZAAnCABPBAA

because I was getting bored of Shield and wanted something more fast paced with higher risk/reward.

Has obvious hard counters and severe weaknesses, but you can unload serious condition burst if done right, and it is fun to play.

Most of the Jumping “puzzles” in the game aren’t really puzzles anyway, so it hardly makes a difference.

ouch, my sympathies.

Well I’ve not been able to get into the JP at all so far. Keeps kicking me out.

Pepsi.8907:

I’d say that even with Inspiration we are severly weak against condis
Despite the minor and the trait that cleanse condis on shatter, you cannot use your shatters only for the cleanse, you’re wasting one of its chore mechanics
It’s a great, if not mandatory trait, but calling people immune and since resistance nerf, glamour aren’t as powerful as they used to be against them (it’s still valuable, but definitely not as “immune” as, say, Diamond Skin ele))

Ok I exaggerated, but it’s still a huge all or nothing choice.

geekilo.8512:

@Azukas- overtuned? on the power side yes. Mesmer still dont have a decent condi build like other classes. Condition removal is a huge issue for mesmer unless you run inspiration with mantra.

One thing I don’t like about the current trait/skill system is the all or nothing nature of trait lines.

For example, take Inspiration – pretty much immune to condis/can slot any utilities you like; don’t take Inspiration – severely weak against condis.

Yeah this is pretty irritating.

The “Powered Up” core traitline in the third slot sounds like a good idea for a full core build.

Could be as simple as small value increases to traits or other unique effects.

Yay, Taimi is the best – has the best dialogue, best jokes/wisecracks and fantastic voice acting.

Jekkt.6045:

mesmer:
chrono support is still incredibly strong… nerfing it now after precog fix could be difficult. one strong part of chrono is the stability on shatter. basically what’s needed is tiny little shaves at some points. something that will always be really hard to balance is continuum split.. double elites is ridiculously strong.

The trouble here is any nerfs to core mesmer traits like Bountiful Disillusionment make Chrono even more necessary. A full core mesmer build is already inferior compared to chrono given that it’s rare to see anyone playing it anymore.

But the other problem is the Chrono line provides a lot of band aid fixes to core mesmer – such as 25% movement speed, chronophantasma, time catches up and so on.

If Anet want to take that route in the future when more elite specs are made, that every player must choose one elite spec and two core specs, then I could live with nerfs to core traits.

If they plan to nerf all elite specs in 6 months when enough HoT has been sold so players won’t be handicapped by running core only builds, then they must be careful when touching core traits.

kitten good use of Illusion of Life. Great stuff!

This is what I’m currently playing:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseWlknhy0YRawRNwtGLPH1ZBEAHW9geoLK6ilPNAA-TJRHwAm3fAZZAAnCABPBAA

The cast time is a bit silly.

I’d rather have a 60+s cooldown and the original 1/4s cast time.

I use them nearly all the time. I love the simplicity and the floating crystal theme. I even transmutes my Bifrost back to the Zenith Spire because I don’t like being too flashy all the time.

The only one I don’t like is the greatsword – it’s too bulky.

Personally the Zenith Shield (and torch tbh) are still the coolest for me so I probably wouldn’t use the timekeeper skins anyway.

Yeah thanks, I’m going to get the sword.

I have 1 BL ticket to spend and I’m debating between the Sword, the Torch and the Shield.

I’m probably going to go for the Sword because it will see more use.

On the plus side it means you can get the iAvenger out faster.

It is very bad right now, yes.

I would like to see the projectile get a big speed boost (same with iwarlock).

Also perhaps each bounce could proc a small radius aoe explosion on impact (similar to the iAvenger’s aoe pulse, just at range)? So enemies directly hit by the bounce could take 4 stacks of confusion and the aoe pulse could do 1 stack of burning to other enemies in range; allies hit by the bounce could get 2s resistance and the aoe pulse could give a few seconds of fury to other other allies in range?

How many bounces should it have?

I’d be happy if they just slapped a +50% torment damage to moving targets on MtD and called it a day.

Mistrust should equally have a +50% confusion damage to targets using a skill – at least it would be attractive over DE and be a good tradeoff.

Then buff/fix staff AA burning, prestige burn (number of stacks), and do something good to iMage.

Guapo.1624:

adelaide.6213:

You could probably make some minor stat optimizations with your gear by using Marauder/Berserker instead of a hodgepodge of Berserker/Assassin/Valkyrie/Knights.

Marauder gear has a bit more stat points compared to the others.

Something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseRn0nBNqhlpB2oBEgilTj68JiirjMAWggqOar2tF-TVCFABNcCAA4JAclSQkUe5kSEw3fggDBQa6b0X9HSBs1CA-w

Edit: Linked original build by accident.

(Use birthday blaster food instead of the one in the template)

Looking at the stats, it trades off a little bit of precision, ferocity, and power for an increase in vitality. This might be a welcome change as 1k HP is nothing to scoff at. Once I find a reliable way to make marauders I’ll have to check it out. Thanks for the post!

Marauder is quite easy to make.

The ascended amulet you can get from HoT story chapter 3 achievement completion (the rata Novus one) which is probably the easiest of the HoT story achievements.

I think the armour insignia recipe is available from the master tailor, and doesn’t require any timegated material to make so you can just throw gold at it. I can’t remember the details, just that it was easy to do.

Unlike trailblazer on the other hand which is a huge pain to get… :/

With the current state of things, Inspiration is very useful when solo given all the Condi revs and so on out there.

Doon.2364:

Remove their stealth abilities.

Which ones? Given a bunker would not use torch and choose Precog Well instead of Decoy, and Gravity Well instead of Mass invis…

The problem there is rabid amulet is almost a waste of one stat (precision) without Sharper Images, and Settler amulet just hasn’t got good enough damage even if using undead runes to supplement the condi damage.

Wanderer is glassier than rabid and every other condi/hybrid amulet is pretty much pure glass.

I know dire (and now trailblazer) are excessive in survivability, but there should be a compromise for pvp amulets, with something providing just a little toughness/vitality (could just be 450 each) in addition to condi damage, expertise or power.

Either that or give us more condition on crit traits/skills to make use of the precision.

On that note I’ve also started using Carrion + Scavenging runes in pvp with Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono Sword/Shield + Staff and I find it a good compromise between survivability and damage output.

Page bug again…

Well I could take Gravity Well, however in roaming I like having two stealth sources (usually Decoy and mass invis) so I always have a gtfo free card ready to use if I run into a big group. Being on Deso with our matchups this happens more often than not.

I would always use gravity well in a small skirmish though or in a duel.

I’m also returning to a Condi build inspires through your build so got 3 different things going on – not sure which way I prefer yet but it’s going to take some time and crafting before I can find out.

Staff AA could do with a burning fix (raise to 2 stacks or increase to 2s base), and iWarlock could do with a supplementary condition application of some sort.