Guild Wars 2

Why not play a Mesmer with it to see how it is.

If you happen to successfully evade an attack through dodging, the mirror is usually ended by the time the dodge or blurred frenzy ends, or a fraction of a second afterwards. In my opinion it is not a defensive trait because you would have evaded the damage anyway, rather it is an offensive trait to deal damage back to the enemy.

Blurred frenzy (or the Well) is limited with cooldown, and dodges with endurance – so it’s not like this is proccing every few seconds…

Good competition, looking forward to watching some beautiful videos.

I think xiao (I think that’s his/her forum username though apologies I can’t remember the number – Tsuki Yomi) already has a great slightly older video now with this song.

Actually I’m quite fond of being able to teleport to people up ledges and other things using ileap.

In fact once I had the clone summon delay post patch work in my favour on forest keep – I cast it on an enemy mesmer who blinked up to the raised level while I was mid cast – the delay in clone summon caused it to appear up top right on him which allowed me to follow immediately.

I would only be in favour of a “reverse leap” if we teleported forward without requiring a target like a reverse phase retreat, and could go up ledges and other things, and then had the option of swapping back. I’d even be ok with them removing the stunbreak and raising the cooldown if it was done properly.

You’re definitely the master of buzzwords.

;)

Bleh, no way.

Distortion is too kitten useful to lose for what I’ve read about Csplit.

tobascodagama.2961:

Curunen.8729:

I don’t like quickness with Blurred Frenzy. I don’t have a lot of use for quickness in my primary build besides stomps/resses. Therefore I don’t want it.

I’ve tested this, and the Blur effect lasts the full 2 1/2 seconds no matter how long the channel is. It’s really easy to check. Without Quickness, the channel and the Blur effect end at the same time. With Quickness, the channel will end but the Blur effect will keep going for like 1/2 s afterward. It’s super easy to check with Time Warp.

Thank you so much.

I haven’t been able to play properly for quite a few weeks and as I’ve never used Time Warp much or any other previous source of quickness I hadn’t tested this so assumed the worst.

That is the single best piece of news I’ve read in this forum all month – so apologies Silverkey if I came on too strongly. Your suggestions then seem to also work for me as I would certainly choose Illusionary Reversion over Cp (especially with iMage).

:) Wow that has really cheered me up.

I believe if Cp is nerfed to maintain phantasm attack cycles then that will solve the whole thing – no need to move or touch anything else.

I don’t like quickness with Blurred Frenzy. I don’t have a lot of use for quickness in my primary build besides stomps/resses. Therefore I don’t want it.

I haven’t played this beta because I’m away but I also don’t want to use Lost Time because it is counterproductive with Confusion – please correct me if it doesn’t reduce confusion skill use ticks on enemy skills.

Therefore the only choice for me currently at GM level is Cp.

And IR is mandatory for me at Master level for reasons already stated.

If StM is master tier with the other two choices being danger time (utterly useless if not having any source of slow) and improved alacrity (this is the only thing I would consider taking in that case) then I find the master trait choices are… not ideal for me.

I can understand Cp and IR possibly being too much together, but if they were put on the same tier then the remaining trait choices are all meh – TCU isn’t necessary, neither is improved alacrity I’d it was aoe share, so I’d literally be taking Chrono for movement speed, alacrity, IReversion and F5. That seems a very small payoff for taking a trait line.

In any case I am firmly and totally against any ICD ideas on Ireversion – no way.

I only care that Illusionary Reversion is left exactly as it is – no ICDs, no moving it to grandmaster, no changing how it works.

For example I don’t want to be forced to pick StM if using mainhand sword and trying to maximise evade durations.

Also if not using Scepter when playing a condition build, you have to sequentially shatter – therefore any change to IR which prevents this, or movement if the trait which forces taking StM will automatically favour a single loadout for condition play – scepter/x and staff, because nothing else will be good enough.

This again reduces diversity in weapon and build choice.

Especially following the MtD hack job which almost killed the build I was playing pre patch (current in signature), Illusionary Reversion and Cp are the only silver lining to that miserable Nerf of MtD.

I do not want to be forced to use Scepter for condition shatter play. My current build is played very aggressively, timing sequential shatters to maximise Condi stack and requires keeping a good memory of opponent cleanses and defensive skills as well as using the good in combat mobility through ileap, blink and phase retreat to run circles around the enemy.

I thoroughly enjoy this playstyle, enough to have stuck with it through the MtD nerf… but it heavily relies on sequential shattering so gutting IR will be a huge kick in the face.

Fix Chronophantasma attack cycles and that should be enough. But for God’s sake leave IR alone.

Burn Guards/Eles
Condi thieves

Hell no!

No ICD on Illusionary Reversion or Chronophantasma.

If they gut these two traits after gutting MtD, I will probably take a very extended vacation from the game. IR and Cp are the ONLY thing allowing me to accept the MtD nerf.

And I’d like to think I’m in the sensible camp that supports nerfs for PU and CS.

The only thing I seriously hope is LEAVE ILLUSIONARY REVERSION ALONE!

I personally, selfishly don’t care what they do to other traits, but if they do something horrible like slapping an ICD on illusionary reversion before I even have a chance to play a kittening Chronomancer in the next beta, I will be very kittened off. >:(

Hehe, some funny posts.

I also believe that mostly mesmer players truly enjoy fighting against other mesmers – based on the assumption that if you enjoy playing a class because of its theme you also enjoy fighting against the same class as an enemy.

Of course that doesn’t mean other class players don’t enjoy fighting mesmers – for example even pre patch my favourite match up was playing power shatter vs thieves, because it was extremely enjoyable even if we were at a disadvantage.

Some other mains who barely or never play mesmer by extension most likely do not enjoy fighting against mesmers – hence the endless complaints.

Add to that the fact that mesmers are designed to be annoying, manipulative, and punishing enemy mistakes makes for the worst case of profession hatred in the game.

Then you could add other assumptions like a player doesn’t like their “badas(s) warrior” to lose to a “pink butterfly/fairy” out of irrational hatred.

apharma.3741:

So, given how most mesmers in WTS had very little impact do you think we’ve seen an end to most of the nerd crys?

No – not until we have all the ability, health pool and damage potential of a single clone.

It will never stop.

I seriously hope nerfs don’t happen before I get a chance to play with it.

I’m afraid of ICDs being slapped on IR and Cp, especially on IR.

I hope they leave it alone because it’s the only thing since the MtD nerf making me excited again.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Necrotize.2974:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Necrotize.2974:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Necrotize.2974:

It is the main class mechanic associated with the F1 through F5 skills on each class.

So by that logic, steal would be the main thief mechanic, right? Not initiative?
Or toolbelt skills are the main engi mechanic, and kit is just subsidiary?
The mistake of everyone who insists that shatter is “the” class mechanic of mesmers is believing that there is only one main mechanic, or that only one mechanic is worthy of being the focus of a build.
The problem with shatters versus phantasms is that phantasms and shatters are in conflict by their nature. Chronophantasma brings those two closer together, but it doesn’t fix the problem completely.
I took exception to the claim that builds that don’t shatter much “shouldn’t” exist, when builds based largely on phantasms have in the past been pretty fun and useful. It’s only post-patch that it has become too hard to make such a build effective, and that’s a bad thing.

Necrotize.2974:

Anet has stated that many of the changes came about because they didn’t like that certain mesmer builds weren’t shattering clones/phantasms and just overwriting them haphazardly. I believe they even stated that all mesmer build should use shatters to some extent, which was part of their reasoning for Chronomancer’s phantasms and clone production traits( as well as the traits not being in conflicting tiers).

Anet is mostly wrong. Yes everyone should be willing to shatter when relevant, but it is wrong to eliminate a fun build type just because they made the same mistake you are making.

Steal is the mechanic, initiative could be considered it as well since it is in the same place. Steal has more traits applicable to it than the other mechanics for thief and initiative regen is also found quite frequently, sometimes even in conjunction with several stealth traits.

Toolbelt skills are the main mechanic in that every engineer has them, every engineer should use them, and more traits affect toolbelt skills than anything else. Kits just happen to be way better than most other utility options for engineer in most builds. Static discharge build run 1 kit usually and rely heavily on toolbelt skills. But even builds with 3 kits rely on their toolbelt skills.

I’m not saying mesmers have only one class mechanic, I’m simply saying shatter is the main one in that all builds can utilize it to at least some extent, and Anet wants it to be usable for all mesmers. You can say Anet is wrong, but if that’s how they see it, that’s how they’re gonna balance things. It isn’t even a close competition between how prevalent shatter traits are compared to illusions or manipulations or anything else really. Combining minor and major traits across all the lines, there are 18 shatter-centric traits, with most of them being major traits and 5 of them being Grandmaster traits.

It’s a long, long way from saying “that’s how it is” to “that’s how it should be”.
The latter is what I’m criticizing so harshly, but many people can’t seem to see the logical flaw in conflating the two.

I suppose, but to give all mechanics present a class equal representation, it would either remove a ton of traits for the current main mechanics or add so many for the under-represented ones that we’d need years to test and see them all balanced. I’m all for new traits, but trying to put smaller mechanics like utility types or weapon skill types on par with the trait support for F1-F5 skills seems really unlikely on Anet’s part.

I’d settle for letting phantasm builds actually function, since that’s a build that actually existed in the past, and many people (myself included) are fond of.

Personally I don’t believe such distinction exists anymore.

Illusions (both clones and phantasms), shatters, weapons and utility skills are all used in conjunction with one another for the purpose of dealing damage, supporting allies and controlling enemies. I believe every build should make use of all of these features in order to be most efficient – with each build emphasising different features, but not at the expense of ignoring the primary Mesmer class skill of shatters.

I believe Anet has done the right thing in encouraging everyone to use Shatter skills – with varying frequency and purpose, rather than being able to ignore them with past builds.

If shatters were not meant to be the primary class skills of mesmers, then all illusion generating skills (phantasms especially) should have been put on the F1 to F4 buttons, with shatters being tied to weapon sets or utilities. But they’re not.

It’s a shame it conflicts with PvE bullet sponge design at the moment, but I hope that’s something they can work out in the future, starting with HoT.

Well it would certainly make for more interesting and engaging mechanics instead of the boring “summon pet to attack your foe” nonsense which is basically what phantasms boil down to.

I know, losing the toughness is sad.

Perhaps you could throw in some on crit sigils to make use of the precision? Maybe things which provide cover conditions or something instead of the bursting sigils?

Trouble with Rabid in Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono is the precision is useless.

Sadly the pvp amulet selection is kitten, but I’d rather take Carrion in any case.

Thanks for your feedback on this trait selection – I am very much looking forward to playing it in the future, with minor adjustments.

Unfortunately I can’t play right now as I’m away from my computer, but it should be easy to spec yourself.

Just take Chrono, and any third traitline (Inspiration, Duelling or Chaos), spec for conditions on shatter and job done. Scepter/X and whatever you like (Staff, Sword/Pistol, etc).

messiah.1908:

ok test results

1. condi shatter – chrono/duel/illus – trait which give clone and phatasm when you shatter and DE
a. with almost perma 3 clonse up the dmg is insane – maybe now fits more the nerf on torment.
b. shield block is nice and if i block i wont shatter to put bit slow on my enemy. the daze is nice also and try to use it with staff/sword leap for combo.
c. well – well of action very nice indeed on point
d. slow is another condi to cover

short sum up – very good build of offence conditions with no chaos line so no stability and protection

Thanks for the feedback.

I’m looking forward to playing condi shatter with DE, IR and Cp and I’m glad to hear it remedies the MtD Nerf.

Edit: In fact that has finally set my mind at ease regarding MtD given how livid I was with the nerf. Now I know I will be always playing condition shatter with Chrono in the future. Ah it’s lovely to think about.

Oh they will, it’s just a short respite.

I bet this weekend will see even more complaints… :/

There are different ways, buy mostly those numbers are against enemy glass cannons (ie thieves or other mesmers), especially with the mirror blade nerf.

Easiest is (stealth) – Mirror Blade – Blink – (MoD) – Dodge overhead + F1 (3 illusion shatter) – Mind Stab

Take Mental Anguish, boon strip and other damage boost sources (sigils, food, traits).

You can also try with the mantra damage boost but personally I don’t like that and find DE more useful overall.

I enjoy “playing badminton” with it (asura animations).

Jump while initiating the third attack for a smash.

xDudisx.5914:

Curunen.8729:

How about say pre patch, if everyone ran 0/0/0/0/0 on every class, Mesmer would be the worst by far

Worst by far??? You gotta be joking.

Ele without evasive arcana, cantrip traits and elemental attunement is squishy as hell.

Warrior without cleansing ire, fast hands will get destroyed by condis and the combat fluidity disappears.

Medi guard without medi traits has no sustain and does low dmg.

Mesmer with no traits is still a ranged high dmg class. With lots of defensive sources via teleports and stealth.

My observation comes from levelling classes in pve (the only one I have never levelled is necro so I can’t comment on that).

Mesmer was the hardest to level until having unlocked key traits. Everything else was easy in comparison (especially ele and warrior) they were still decently effective without any key traits.

So yes I didn’t mean in pvp with classes going up against each other, although I still reckon pre patch Mesmer would have been the worst untraited.

Well that sucks.

I guess MI and TW will still be superior then.

How about say pre patch, if everyone ran 0/0/0/0/0 on every class, Mesmer would be the worst by far – in other words, traits were more crucial/game changing for Mesmer than any other class, as evidenced by how difficult it was to level a Mesmer to 80 outside of pvp after the NPE changes.

For example certain things being unplayable until unlocking DE or IP, staff autos being pathetikittenil unlocking iElasticity, and so on. Add to that the number of “useless traits” (ie Protected Mantras) that nobody ever took because either they couldn’t spare the trait points due to Mesmer (pre patch) being extremely pigeonholed in trait options for effective builds, or because the alternative trait options were just totally superior.

Now fast forward to post patch – immediately we can see that mesmers are less reliant on specific traits than they used to be and certain things (weapons/skills) are actually effective untraited.

Now can you see why these traits were made baseline?

If you want warrior buffed – which incidentally I agree with for the sake of warrior build and gameplay variety – then just ask for it plainly and straightforwardly. Comparing the number of “baseline traits” pre and post patch in two entirely different systems as well as being out of context is not a sensible way to look at things.

Mesmer – because it’s the only unique/original class in the game compared to all the generic boring fantasy stereotypes.

Edit: It also has the most beautiful visual effects and skill themes.

The two builds I’m itching to try are:

1. Illusions/Chrono/Duelling, Staff + Sword/Torch Condi shatter
Taking Nightmare runes and double Energy/Doom sigils with mostly Rabid and a bit of Dire gear (full rabid in pvp). Should allow for beautiful sequential shatter cadences while also being very slippery and extremely mobile with every in combat blink/teleport on low cooldowns thanks to alacrity.

and

2. Illusions/Chrono/Inspiration, Staff + Scepter/Shield Condi support tank.
Taking Nightmare runes and double Energy/Doom sigils with full Dire gear.
Mental Defence + Persistence of Memory + Chronophantasma = hopefully beautiful. If that doesn’t work out I’ll respec for Glamours and take Null Field, Medic’s Feedback, Time Warp and Temporal Enchanter for max AoE support while still maintaining blink, decoy and enough Condi cleanse to survive.

Ah kitten, I’m so disappointed I have to wait for the second beta weekend…

Pepsi.8907:

I remember the time where mesmer, to fight any class, had to bait and forced the other player to overcommit and pile up countless of mistakes. I remember the time where mesmer was fodder for most of the class in team fight because it barely excelled in 1v1 fight because of the MB shatter. I remember how thieves did everything we did and so much better, I remember how frustrating it was to not barely be able to make a mistake and how unforgiving mesmer was compared to other we fought.
How not taking ip was the death of us and how we were forced to take DE to feel that we had enough clone production in order to catch that mistake the other player did.
I rememver how funny I thought it was to see a mesmer on the other team and simply hoped he didn’t use or knew how to use portal… Hard and high skill ceiling? Yes. But it’s a very frustrating way of playing and not very rewarding in my opinion

Many people are criticizing these days, because mesmer received many buffs. Over the top for some? Yes. Justified for others? Yes.
Some of the critics are justified, acceptable and more than welcome because there are real issues. BD was an issue, and CS still is. So is PU. I am saddened by the Hm and MB nerf, but I c an live with it. I am saddened by the fix on mantras, but I understand the complaints.
We were one of the class that lacked the most condi cleanse in the game with little capability to survive outside of our burst. We were the class that only masters could do sensibly well with.
But what irks me up the most are those complaints that come out of nowhere… I saw whining about blurred frenzy being op, about phase retreat and diversion being op… You know, I’m fairly sure the community whine for the sake of whining… I’m not going on the warrior forum qqing about rampage, nor am I whining about those kitten condi engis even if I hate them. Because these class? I don’t know them. I’ve never played them and I can’t offer proper critics because I lack understanding of their mechanics…
And I understand the case is different because the class, for these two profession, is not considered as strong as mesmer currently is. I said strong, not op. I don’t consider mesmer op and I think most of the community needs to take a good look at the definition to remind themselves what op means. Most people need to take a good look at how mesmer work, because some of these things I see, some of
These whining are just laughable and pathetic, screaming how clueless some of you are. I am open to critics, and I am capable enough to notice the inherent flaws and things that need to be brought in line, but some of these messages shouldn’t even exist because it’s full of half truth and pointless misinformation.

Oh and for those mesmers who say the class is fine as it is, let me tell you some things. When there is such a big amount t of cries from the community about something being out of line, it usually is a sign that something is wrong. The deny makes it worse and only make you look like disillusioned fan who refuse to seek balance and fairness. Should all the complaints be listened to? No, but amongst all the kitten there is bound to be justified things that need real fixing.

Fantastic post, well said.

I really get kittened off with the nonsensical complaints over things like blurred frenzy, distortion and other rubbish most likely from players who barely play or never play Mesmer. Especially mainhand sword as a whole – which has already been gutted far more than it needed to be. MH sword requires you to be in melee range to deal any damage (which in general we can’t do for extended periods of time like other classes, even on our tanky builds), has the most unreliable leap in the game (complaints about swap being a stunbreak? Seriously?!?), and the only evade roots us meaning it’s not only easy for an enemy to avoid the damage (because ileap swap into blurred frenzy is stupidly easy to avoid), you also know exactly where the Mesmer is and can prepare your burst to unload it in full as soon as the evade duration ends.

Even though sword in pve may be the go to damage weapon, I’d say in pvp it is mostly a utility weapon so any further nerfs to that utility will render it entirely useless as everyone will choose scepter (which is a better offensive weapon even in power builds), greatsword or staff over it.

BD and CI are way more fun than PU.

BD is also extremely useful – can stab stomp or res using F1 saving things like F4 for other situations.

I’m a little disappointed that I won’t be able to play this beta due to being out of the country, especially because of how much I’m looking forward to Chrono, so I’ll look forward to the second beta weekend which hopefully falls on a more convenient date.

ASP.8093:

Things that are also OP:
.
.
.
Not logging into the game.

The art of fighting, without fighting.

:p

Don’t you mean “stealth + PU + movement speed”.

Because it’s only with PU that disengaging becomes trivial. If not traiting stealth then it’s easy to be caught by any competent player(s).

Condi ranger perhaps?

Nomad.9764:

Phent.9350:

It is usable(as usable like any condi builds now) and notching more, for pvp i would change signet of inspiration for blink. Mental Anguish for condi build? Rune of the nightmare IMO is better than undead

Signets of inspiration is for the swiftness, distortion and fairly low cd, went mental anguish due to not knowing what else (went down that tree in the first place to get the signet trait) and this being a fairly bursts condi undead provides max condi dmg and synergies well with my amulet.

That’s my biggest problem with trying to use Domination in a pure condition build – all of the GM traits are uselss (assuming not using greatsword in something weird).

I think a power/condi hybrid would work better if taking Domination.

No thanks, I’m glad they’re gone.

I’d rather have MtD reverted or F2 buffed.

Alacrity and Illusionary Reversion.

Those two things will be game changers for shatter heavy condition play.

lol, this is a good one. xD

Velimere.7685:

MailMail.6534:

Velimere.7685:

denis.9487:

MailMail.6534:

Velimere.7685:

MailMail.6534:

Illusionary Elasticity’s effect is actually most pronounced in condition builds with Staff Clones AA-ing. IE was always in tough competition with other traits in the master line, but it was only a “must-have” in condition builds going into Illusions.

What you are saying is completely irrelevant to what I’m saying. Double Ranged Shatter is a power-based build that saw tourney play. Condition-based Mesmer builds are for hot-join heroes. We’re not even discussing on the same level here.

Double Ranged Shatter & Classic Shatter sucked in tourney play. Other builds put in 50% less effort and got 50%+ more reward. The fact that it was present at all is irrelevant to this particular discussion in which you claim IE was only taken for Double Ranged. I’m just here to inform you once again that IE is most potent in condi builds. Have tougher skin, darling. It’s not that serious.

Other builds classes take care of that effort reward which has no bearing here. If that was the case where was this condition build in top level tourney play? Seems if it was an option we would have seen it. Hot join hero stuff if cool but not relevant. The ramp up time is 4ever hence the lack of high tier condition staff clones aa. It was taken in power builds even if using sword torch it is a big boost in damage.

Quoted for biblical accuracy and truth.

Saying that IE’s main and best use was for Double Ranged Shatter while also implying there was no competition with Illusionary Invigoration is a factually incorrect statement. I know internet scholars don’t like the bitterness of #TruthTea sometimes, but my statement wasn’t meant to incite an unnecessary argument.

Illusionary Invigoration for Double Ranged Shatter? Nope.

I agree and I’m glad I don’t play power shatter anymore, and I used to be a die hard Sword/Torch + GS player, never liked double ranged.

Even using GS + Sw/T in classic 4/4/0/0/6, iElasticity was still superior to iInvigoration even with it only buffing mirror blade – for the reason of maximising burst especially against other glass cannons such as thieves.

Now it’s not even an option, although with the current state of damage in the game it’s not such a big deal – until they shave all the amulets/damage formulas…

Setay.2135:

Well not only did they nerf the recharge in the background they also nerfed the unprepared mantras.

Have mantra of resolve off of cooldown (meaning no stacks) then charge up Mantra of recovery. Now use mantra of recovery. It puts Resolve on 20 second cooldown and refreshes that cooldown every time you push recovery.

Way to fix an apparent “bug” while giving us another one.

WHAT the KITTEN?!? :o

I haven’t played since this patch, but that sounds ridiculous.

tobascodagama.2961:

Maim the Disillusioned.

Either that or buff Cry of Frustration to apply one stack of torment as standard.

How strange nothing is done about CS.

I believe a suitable middle ground for mantras would be to have them recharge in the background once you have used one charge so that the number of charges remaining is less than the maximum.

That way there would still be some quality of life if you say have 1 charge remaining (and not using HM), but you couldn’t get 4 or 6 casts back to back.

Terrorsquad.4802:

phokus.8934:

This is the most ridiculous post about “fixing” mesmers I’ve ever seen.

I find it comical that non-mesmers try to fix other classes.

While mesmer-mains are protecting the class and throwing 99% of the suggestions into oblivion..

Oooh the irony…

Because we’ve already largely agreed on the issues that need dealing with – definitely PU and CS, some for Blinding Dissipation and MoD (due to background recharging).

The other “99%” of suggestions are misguided nonsense.

I’d also go with Spirit Watch or Temple.

I’d be happy to have a Reaper with me if I’m playing Chrono.

I want my invuln mantra.

I don’t agree with these suggestions.

15% slower clones on shatter? F3 nerf? What is the point of that?

Any potential sealth nerfs should also affect all other classes – thief, engi, ranger and anyone using trapper runes (ie Dragonhunter in the future).

Only CS, PU, BD and MoD need fixing, everything else is fine.

cheese.4739:

Xstein: you’re kind of ignoring the point.

Mesmer has been a stealth class since launch, it’s just not had *this much stealth available in this many builds. *

Nobody’s saying “make Mesmer unable to stealth”. The point being made is "Mesmers can currently stealth too much and are too strong due to the trait that does this.

Right now Mesmers can do high damage, with CC, from far away, with relatively little counterplay. Stealth contributes to this significantly.

Not to mention that Mesmers’ stealth access literally just got buffed significantly – as chibbi says, the relevant trait got a buff as well as got made accessible to more builds.

What?

Prestige, Decoy, Mass Invis and Veil are exactly the same – apart from minor changes that have happened over the years – for example Prestige being changed to and from a channeled skill, Decoy being changed to be affected by Revealed after the 09/2014 patch, and now the ability to trait MI for 72 second cooldown – but with the danger of revealing yourself due to the reflect.

Otherwise these skills are exactly the same and perfectly fine. The complaints about Prestige and Decoy are utterly ridiculous seeing as they have worked in this way for years (apart from the time when Prestige was channeled) and not been any problem.

Now suddenly due to higher damage across the board as well as buffs to mesmer stunlock, it is possible to annihilate people from stealth bursts – so in that case fix the damage and stunlock instead of breaking/ruining Prestige and Decoy through misguided nerfs.

The ONLY things affecting stealth access are:
- PU
- The Pledge

Now I think most players (mesmers included) agree PU needs a significant nerf.

And The Pledge is actually a bad trait if not using PU so many people are in favour of changing it back to a flat 20% cooldown reduction to torch – which would solve the problem of encouraging stealth camping and extreme synergy with PU as well as allowing it to be useful in builds not using PU.

Windwalker.7421:

That 10000h would amount to well over a year of doing nothing but playing the game 24/7. So I’m not sure I’d want to admit to that even if it were true, because that would mean that I spent 1/3rd of my life these last 3 years playing GW2. ;-)

Just a bit over 1k in almost exactly as many days played. So I average about an hour a day. I feel semi-competent until I run into one of those competent ones, then I feel pretty scrubby. ;-)

Heh, agreed – that’s a crazy amount of hours to fit in 3 years – I’d be embarrassed to admit something like that. xD

In any case I don’t think you need 10000 hours to be “master” GW2 – it’s nowhere near anything like mastering a musical instrument, sport or similar activity where the skill ceiling is effectively infinite.