Guild Wars 2

MSFone.3026:

I’ve read people say that staff is better for 1v1, yet in all the roaming/dueling videos I’ve seen of people I think really shredding it with shatter, they all play sw/t.

I myself enjoy staff more lately (playing shatter more to get sharp for core trait revamp when IP goes baseline), it feels like I have more control over situations, but of course I’m very possibly just bad with sword/torch.

I also find that when I fight shatter mesmers, the ones with staff feel harder to beat. The torch thing is kind of more predictable it seems. But again, most of the really good people I see run sw/t.

Playing on the fact that people expect burst after you stealth with prestige for example, it’s good to feign it and instead do another combo, or just do nothing and see them blow a defensive cooldown.

It’s easy to avoid chaos storm for a sword/torch player, so the main challenge is avoiding the conditions and damage from winds of chaos, and landing your damage without missing thanks to phase retreat.

But the additional stealth from torch, as well as ileap being able to follow phase retreat wherever the opponent tries to port to I believe allows sword/torch to have a slight advantage over staff when fighting each other. BF also is so easy to avoid burst with.

I think the longer a fight goes on, the advantage shifts to the staff Mesmer, so for the sword/torch player the intention is to finish the fight as quickly as possible.

StickerHappy.8052:

To say that MtD is trash is bullkitten, me and skcamow ran unorthodox builds yesterday and did fine in ToL, Im guessing you are one of those people who put zerk shatter as the only viable build

PS: Build does not correlate skill. I mean why did we advance to top 16 yesterday without shatter? so?

Wow people who play zerk shatter honestly feel they are “more skilled” than other who don’t? Idk it just felt and sounded that way.

Regarding how other players perceive shatter – I was testing mtd with scepter and traited focus the other day when it happened to be Mesmer daily => 3 mesmers on the other team.

To cut the story short, an opponent Mesmer who happened to be playing power shatter described the build I was playing as a “kitten torment build”, despite in my opinion it being harder to play than power shatter with IP, especially against other mesmers who are running that spec given they can avoid all the cc, have more stealth access and can easily burst you down.

In my opinion power shatter us nowhere near as difficult to play as it is made out to be, and this “illusion” of respect for people who play it compared to other Mesmer builds is ridiculous.

The main challenge with power shatter is surviving/sustain, but given you can kite all day against many classes/builds that’s also nowhere near as difficult as it’s made out to be, if it wasn’t for thieves keeping us on our toes constantly. As for killing things, well it excels especially against other mesmers – I think it’s the best option for killing mesmers.

Anyway I just think it’s ridiculous that every condi Mesmer build is labelled as cheese, every phantasm build cheese, every non shatter build (signets, interrupt) labelled as ineffective…

Apolo.5942:

heh
“yeah you heard that right, the two handed hammer is a ranged weapon”

i loled i had and still have the same complaint.

I love it. My only complaint is that they gave ranged hammer to revenants instead of mesmers.

3:30am! That’s dedication. :o

Nice effort for a practice/test – I get that everyone plays what they feel most comfortable with, just wondering what could be potentially more effective.

If Imbued Diversion was baseline, what would they do for F3 in Master of Fragmentation?

I like the idea, I’m just struggling to think of a substitute in that trait.

denis.9487:

Imo we are still starving for illusions. The game is heading towards more shattering, yet we still have de in a trait line. In order to increase build diversity and use our class mechanic de should become baseline.

I think DE should be kept where it is but other things should be added that are accessible for all players so they don’t feel forced into what it looks like either Duelling or Chronomancer to have enough illusions to shatter.

For example:
- chance to summon a clone when you are hit
- interrupting an enemy summons a clone
- chance to summon a clone when you hit or crit an enemy
- summon an illusion when using some utility skill (ie signet of illusions)
- blocking an attack summons a clone (any block inlcuding aegis, stacks with icounter and iriposte)
- etc…

Some of these could be as traits distributed through the different lines – get rid of some of the major traits which still look meaningless compared to the alternatives – eg illusionary defence/compounding power, fall damage (which should be integrated into the mastery system for both pve and wvw masteries), desperate decoy, several of the inspiration traits, and so on.

Some could be added on skills – for example Ether Feast could have an illusion generation component, signet of illusions could generate a phantasm based on your current weapon set,

The most important thing is that these should all remain optional choices, just like DE, Illusionary Reversion and Chronophantasma will be, so for those pve players who don’t want clones they can avoid them.

Windwalker.7421:

Improved Blade Training:
- Recharge Reduced: 20%
- Precision: +50
- Increased range on #3 skill to 900
- Increased Sword damage by 10% (Mesmer only!)

I like this.

In addition, increase the iSwordsman’s leap range so both mainhand and offhand sword gain some benefit.

Perhaps playing into the boon theme, all sword skills have a chance of removing a boon on hit – say 20-30% chance? Maybe with a few seconds ICD or reduce the chance to balance it? I like the idea of all the skills including the iswordsman having the potential to rip boons when traited, providing it is carefully balanced.

You monster. :o

I usually spare the rabbits.

No more vertical progression thanks. Some runes/sigils are already very powerful – a superior" version of them could have a huge negative impact on the game. I’m thinking energy, fire, air, doom, stacking, and so on for sigils. And imagine if perplexity or tormenting runes had a better version? Would be horrible in wvw.

I think a better option is to introduce limited stat selection for ascended weapons and armour (ie you have to buy new stats but can merge them into one item), and ability to “store” runes/sigils and swap them in armour.

Leodon.1564:

I would consider not using Decoy at the start of a fight. Decoy is very versatile (can be used offensively and defensively) but has a long cooldown. Typically you want to save your “Aces” for when you really need them and that means trying to hold onto them as long as you think possible. I generally never use Decoy at the start of a fight unless its against someone that I think I have a 50/50 percent chance against. For example, against a good mesmer who uses Decoy at the start of a fight.

The other issues you mentioned (e.g., when to use Distortion, using S#2 defensively, landing immob) are all things you’ll get better at with more practice.

As you say it depends entirely on the situation as well as the weapons you’re using.

Sometimes, if “in the zone”, then opening with decoy is a good tactic. For example one time vs this thief in graveyard on foefire we were running straight at each other from opposite sides. I decoy dodged overhead as he tried to Steal, got hit which spawned two clones – swapped weapons to sword for ileap blurred frenzy 4 clone mind wrack which ended the fight. I wouldn’t have done that all the time, but it just felt right to decoy in that situation – the funny thing was instead the “normal” use of sword 2/2/3/F1 which usually everyone and their grandparents can avoid but I got lucky.

So to the OP, if you have two stunbreaks (ie decoy and blink), try to keep one off cooldown at all times – if they both go on cooldown make sure you have an alternative survival plan (distortion, diversion, kiting, blurred frenzy, etc…), or run away to reset for a bit.

But don’t be afraid to use decoy or blink offensively as an opener because it can be a good tactic.

Three things I will consider essential come HoT for any condition shatter:
1. Movement Speed
2. Illusion Generation
3. Condition Removal

I have zero intention of using traveller runes ever again come HoT, so the choices remaining would be very likely:
- Signet of Inspiration
- Chronomancer line
- Traited Focus (not ideal but can work)

That leaves only one decent possibility that doesn’t use Chronomancer – which is Illusions/Duelling/Inspiration. This combo should have enough illusion generation and built in condition cleanse which allows use of a utility slot for signet of inspiration (or traited focus).

The other options without Chronomancer will all have big weaknesses in my opinion:
Illusions/Chaos/Inspiration – not enough illusion generation for shatters.
Illusions/Chaos/Duelling – one utility spot fighting for signet of inspiration or more condition cleanse. You could get away with only traited torch to remove conditions, but I feel the better alternative is again swapping Duelling for Chronomancer, having built in movement speed and being able to at least have a choice of third utility skill.
Illusions/Duelling/Domination – same argument as above, and even less sustain compared to Chaos.
Illusions/Chaos/Domination – not enough of all three of the essential points.
Illusions/Inspiration/Domination – lacking in illusion generation again. Can take Signet because of built in condition removal.

So overall I think most good condition shatter variants will use chronomancer – with only one decent option without it. An argument for everything else can be made as to why it is better to swap one of the trait lines for chronomancer. Domination for example seriously offers nothing for condition shatter apart from boon strip – which you can just take arcane thievery. The only boons we really have to worry about would be Resistance (should hopefully be short duration), Aegis (easy to remove) and Regen (should be able to overpower it with damage). I do agree it’s a shame to not have boon strip to help in team fights but it’s better to take a different option.

@Sebrent – The biggest difficulty is waiting!

I would really like to roam with sword/torch + staff condition shatter and take torment runes now, but if I run that set I have to currently take traveler. :/

Condirupt with perplexity runes, offhand pistol and mistrust should be nasty (duelling/chaos/… don’t know which will be best out of illusions, chrono or possibly inspiration).

Sebrent.3625:

I’m curious about a Condition build with both Illusions, Dueling, and Chronomancer.

• Illusions and Chronomancer is going to help make our cooldowns even less. Dueling too if you take Pistol and/or they improve the Sword trait.
• Dueling and Illusions are going to provide us with more condition application … Chronomancer too with slow … though that doesn’t do dmg.
• Dueling and Chronomancer can help with illusion generation … as can lower cooldowns, of course.

I’m likely to try to swap in Chaos at sometime because Staff and Chaos Armor … so good.

There’s a few permutations but I’m not sure which will be best suited to which role.

Illusions for Maim and other condition bonuses is a given, Chronomancer for movement speed, alacrity, clones/phantasms back on shatter, quickness on shatter and super speed for illusions on shatter. I think both these trait lines will be optimal for condition shatter (I know other possibilities like Duelling/Inspiration/Illusions should be good but I have a feeling I may become addicted to Alacrity!) so that just leaves one space.

As for the third trait line – well it’s a toss up between Duelling, Inspiration and Chaos.

I think Illusions/Chronomancer/Chaos it will be the best condition shatter roaming setup – with x/torch and staff, PU MtD and staff trait for ridiculous protection uptime. The only downside is condition removal so torch trait plus some utility would be necessary.

Illusions/Chronomancer/Inspiration could be the best tank given mender’s purity, RI and SC. Could run Scepter/Shield + Staff or x/Torch. Not sure what role this might be best for – perhaps just an alternate roaming setup but lacks the extended stealth disengage. Perhaps the condition removal and heal on shatter will be better though – who knows. It does allow for a choice of utilities though because of the built in condition removal, so perhaps wider scope for things like taking Portal or Feedback or even a Well.

And I think Illusions/Chronomancer/Duelling will be the most beneficial condition shatter spec for pvp – because of always having enough illusions for full 3 or 4 clone shatters as well as the on crit bleeding/confusion. Downside is sustain comared to Chaos or Inspiration – but if in a small group with cleansing guardians or whatever it should hopefully bring a lot of pain.

Windwalker.7421:

I really enjoy various MtD builds ranging from standard to pretty whack, in both unranked arena and WvW solo roaming. Although at times it can be frustrating in group fights, especially on-point group fights, overall it’s an excellent package of damage and survivability. You don’t have to run scared from Thieves or rely on your team to keep you alive.

Especially in WvW solo roaming where you mostly fight Thieves, it can be a really satisfying build as it’s simply more active and less reliant on poor enemy play then say a PU Condie build is.

All that said, it’s still just a smidgen short of totally competitive IMO, but I am confident that Condie/MtD builds will be significantly stronger after the release of HoT.

IP alone is a huge boon to all MtD builds, as are the new MS, AE blind on Shatter, and Confusing Combatants. I can see Dueling/Illusions/Chronomancy being really strong as MtD can actually make use of all the illusions you can produce, and you get to double up on your main burst shatter thanks to the new F5 shatter.

I think this will largely put an end to the easy countering of MtD with passive condition cleanses. You will have the Clones and the shatters to just keep pumping out AE Torment & Confusion, and gain more cover conditions from Dueling as well.

Of course, Power Shatter and Lockdown are also getting huge improvements, so it’s very hard to say whether MtD will still end up playing catch-up.

Yeah I totally agree.

I think there will be other problems to deal with (Resistance boon and Revenants chucking conditions back in our faces), but baseline IP will be the best buff for condition shatter.

But Maim with alacrity, baseline IP, and all the other huge buffs should be amazing.

EDIT: OOPS sory for the double post – I meant to edit my previous post! :o

Before the confusion nerf and blinding beffudlement nerf, I used to enjoy glamour/confusion because I was a total noob and plastering AoE stuff everywhere and letting people kill themselves was the easiest thing to do.

After the nerf I thought I’d never go back to condi – thought I’d play exclusively power builds (mainly shatter), but I got an itch to play a “controlling” manipulative playstyle using the focus – which eventually led me back to condi with skcamow’s Chaotic Perdition condirupt build. I love the survivability and the mind games with traited focus, mantra of distraction, staff and mirror heal.

Tbh I never really thought much of condition shatter until very recently – instead being a die hard power shatter fan, but the low burst damage of the above condirupt build forced me to look for something with similar tankiness but more damage output – because the above condirupt build has very low burst potential.

Now I seriously enjoy it and believe that since it will be hugely buffed with HoT I might end up running condition shatter builds most of the time – because I can run sword/torch plus staff and still do good damage output – unlike power shatter where you kind of need greatsword nowadays to be a serious threat.

Pink Portal Fairy.

Guild name – Portals Are [PINK]

Second time I’ve been blessed to witness this miracle of a norn. Amazing character design.

tbh it’s really difficult to play right now without dreaming about ip becoming baseline – I kind of wish they hadn’t told us!

ronpierce.2760:

For anyone saying not jumping will pseudo fix it, thats also not true. It can happen when using a leap skill.

Especially annoying with phase retreat, but yeah any similar skill.

Menzies The Heretic.3415:

Curunen.8729:

Superform.1067:

they still think they are bunny hopping in de_dust

More like jumping over a map obstacle and getting hit with Entangle while in the air… GG

I’ve read that having /sit permanently typed in chat (and I have chat set on the Enter key) should at least be a workaround – so hitting the Enter key twice would fix it.

What was that thing again? Where you had to /dance your way out?

I don’t know which specific emote work, or whether they all work (can someone help/clarify please), but I’m never going to engage in combat with other player again without having an emote pre-typed in chat… until this bug is fixed.

Superform.1067:

they still think they are bunny hopping in de_dust

More like jumping over a map obstacle and getting hit with Entangle while in the air… GG

I’ve read that having /sit permanently typed in chat (and I have chat set on the Enter key) should at least be a workaround – so hitting the Enter key twice would fix it.

When mtd gets free IP and the new scepter trait, along with things like free clone and quickness on shatter, not to mention confusion on crit in addition to bleeding for you and illusions, I reckon it could be a very effective point holder (or decapper vs say engineers).

Edit: I forgot alacrity and continuum split – I think even the shoutbows and eles might struggle with the condition output. Revenants on the other hand are what worries me…

StickerHappy.8052:

FYI. Anything is viable in casual pvp. Who decides whether something is viable or non viable in that tier? Noone. Except you.

Remember it is casual.

So how many mesmers play top tier pvp here?

I put up my hand and say I don’t – I’m a fairly casual solo player so when it comes to highly organised team play with voice communication compared to mute solo pugs there’s no contest and tbh have no ambition to do so either.

Hehe, great thread.

I should share a related joke.

Two separate occasions running a condirupt build:
1. Using Debilitating Dissipation – labelled a “condi noob” in chat (more than one occasion)
2. Not using any on death traits – praised for skillfull play (again more than one occasion).

The only thing different was one trait – DD for illusionary defence. Ridiculous how something so small can have such a big difference on how you are viewed as a player.

I think clone death traits automatically are red rag to noob callers – that is if they see a mesmer running on death traits they must be playing a cheese/noob build. Try it – run a conditon build without any on death traits and I’ll bet you get less criticism and actual praise rather than the opposite.

Anyway I look forward to the patch/HoT to hopefully increase exposure to other builds than power shatter, and who knows maybe even useable by the high level tournament players.

Just died to this nonsense – I can’t wait till it’s fixed.

I haven’t played the beta but watching streams I agree it is beautifully designed and so much nicer than all the desert wastelands we’ve had up till now.

Desert wastelands are my least favourite environment type and one of the reasons I’ve never liked Fallout games.

Calliope.8675:

Fay.2357:

This refers to the value of an arena token if you wanted to buy it with gems as opposed to getting it for free from the glorious reward track.

Can’t buy them with gems anymore. There is a vendor in the Mists who sells them for 2g.

Oh I see – my apologies then.

I’ve seen funny hate whispers but this one is pure gold.

So I’m playing scepter/focus + staff condition shatter and this thief loses multiple times up on the roof of clocktower (duelling if you like), game finishes and next one is skyhammer – I leave to have a rest.

They whispers me afterwards… wait for it… “hiding upsteres and bugged my teleports is kinda gay, and now your riaging in good maps”

A thief – complaining about bugged teleports to a mesmer, saying skyhammer is good, seemingly oblivious that there would be only one outcome on skyhammer – ie multiple focus pulls off the map. xD

Only one I’ve seen almost as good as this was a thief complaining I was hacking when playing melee ranger.

What are the funniest hate whispers you’ve received from other classes – particularly thieves because those make me laugh.

Regarding the guild and custom arena time tokens – I applied 15 tokens to the OMFG arena a few days ago and in the motd it says they are worth 2 gold each?

I don’t mean to be annoying, but who can I speak to regarding this? Thanks.

AresFyra.3570:

My game play is synced to the music that I play to already.. Maybe not in previous videos, but now! My experience of WvW is mainly based on the last 5 days of play.. ^^ So don’t judge me, since you’ve probably played WvW a bit more? I only have ONE lvl 80 toon.. That’s how little time I usually have to play! But I’ve been glued to my computer since Thursday now. And the improvement is off the scale.. My knowledge of other classes skills is next to zero. With that in mind, mobs are easy but I’ve had to adopt a playstyle which works on most classes anyway.. But thieves are as bursty as me or more, plus stealthy as kittens. Usually one of them that gets me..! My theoretical knowledge of the mesmer is top notch though.

But today I feel so confident in the build I’ve been mainly running for two days straight. My best build yet tbh! At least for me. Maybe since I’ve played it so continuously lately..

My weapons of choice are: Scepter/Pistol and Sword/Sword btw.

Peace! (Might have time to edit tonight a bit..) Expect several dreadful videos with me doing nothing special by next week..!
As for future content: Bunnies will die, is all I can say at this point.

On a serious/helpful note, I only have one character as well, and the best place to learn how to fight other classes is in pvp or duels. You can also mess around by making “throwaway” characters to learn the basics of other classes (I’ve done this for most of the other classes), and also have some fun in the process! Melee ranger is heaps of fun for example and great for trolling players.

I would spend gameplay time in pvp arenas or asking people for duels to improve.

Bleh, feeling a bit more worried about traits like CI now.

Are warriors likely to get something like this in their elite spec?

Jurica.1742:

While I am somewhat active on forums I don’t actively read all the responses so I didn’t know, my apologies on that. It also sounded like a bit of an attack which I didnt want it to sound like. I apologize if it did come across that way.I did of course see you post a lot but only while I was glancing over all the different posts, I did read through this thread because I had enough interest in peoples opinions on this topic to take my time and read through it all which I often cant do because its just a lot of posts being made.

I don’t think really that I have to wait on ileap or blurred frenzy unless I want to use it 2x in a 3 second time period. Very few times does it happen for me. I too stay in sw/t for at least two blurred frenzy durations and its perfectly fine to me this way. I guess its what you’ve learned to play with. I’ve basically had lack of blink range kill me more than I did not having blurred frenzy. As is, between having distort, kiting, dodges, bf on a short duration as is, decoy, blink if I go in so out of position that all the cd that I mentioned wont get me out of there I did deserve to die. If its enemy extending I will make it out most of the time, if I somehow fail and I die then its also my teams fault for not peeling and focusing the enemy who went out of position.

I dont know about WvW as again, I dont play there much. When I did I was running torch trait but swapped to boonrip as I’m running mantra for condi cleanse as is and it was sufficient enough. The extra cd on prestige isn’t better than boonrip in my eyes. Again, personal preference.

No worries, I apologise if I came back harshly but it was only because of having played gs + sw/t for a long time, I’d like to think to a good standard and as you say having my own playstyle preference, and I know you have been a big staff/gs fan in the past (which by contrast I have barely played because I prefer sword/torch).

Again, although I have pvp’d with my guild team, we have kind of drifted away (I think some of them are playing other games at the moment) so I am more of a solo player right now and as such have learnt to rely on my own build to survive – and because of this I now mainly stick to unranked, hotjoin or wvw.

I love 1v1ing thieves and in general doing stuff that isn’t really the aim of conquest (I think I’ve said this a lot in the past as well) because it’s what I find fun – and when 1v1ing a thief I find that extra few seconds on blurred frenzy and ileap extremely more valuable than an extra 300 range on blink. Even in a 1v2 or 2v2 or whatever on point, I love fighting in melee range, and the cooldown on sword allows me to survive things I shouldn’t be able to.

Because of playing in pug teams, I have had to sometimes sit on point/take a point for myself – so the extra cooldown on sword skills as well as the extra dodge on greatsword allow me to sit in melee range for longer than should be possible if not taking that trait or that sigil. Again, in an organised team I shouldn’t have to do this but quite often I have to do things not intended for this build or class (ie getting yelled at by warriors for kiting off point…).

In wvw boon strip is entirely unecessary outside of a duel, because you can turn tail and run away from anything if you can’t win. The condition removal on torch and lower cooldown on stealth is far more useful – and likewise the 1200 blink is more useful over there as well. So generally in pvp I go blade training + boon strip and in wvw I go torch trait + 1200 blink. In both cases I have taken iElasticity for mirror blade.

Anyway, currently I’m playing other builds for fun (reflect/troll builds) so am a little rusty on shatter – which isn’t something you can drop for weeks at a time and expect to retain the same tight muscle memory and timing.

nearlight.3064:

this is getting a bit offtopic, but I honestly feel like illusions will be more of the condi-shatter trait line rather than a power shatter traitline, so I’d wager that power shatter builds wouldn’t need it most of the time. This is mainly because most of the reasons we’ve gone into illusions before have been for IP and Ielasticity, and those and the 15% shatter recharge will be baseline, so I don’t see it as necessary anymore outiseide of condition builds.

Oh I agree – I’m not planning to use Illusions in power shatter because alacrity should make up for the 15% extra recharge on shatters as well as IC, I’ve lived without Imbued Diversion so ignorance is bliss, masterful reflection isn’t necessary given you can take evasive mirror (although blinding dissipation looks better anyway) and the might/confusion on shatter is no big loss given the huge buff to mental torment. I’ll definitely be going Dom/Due/Chrono for power, and reserving Illusions for condition shatter.

Anyway sorry, I don’t want to take thus offtopic.

Hmm, I’m in the camp that never uses this feature. In fact I’ve remapped control to something else entirely.

I like having to look for things using my eyes on the screen – and nightmare pods are seriously easy to find given they glow bright pink in a dark background.

Remove the feature completely I’d say because it defeats the challenge of having to find something.

Clownmug.8357:

PSA: Mesmers have lower overall damage than most other professions no matter which weapon you use. If you care about achieving maximum damage, then play a different profession.

lol, good point.

nearlight.3064:

I think its interesting seeing how the offhand meta has shifted in regards to mesmer. Earlier on pistol and focus were the top choices, however pistol became more alligned with phantasm builds and focus got kinda nerfed with the temporal curtain pull icd.. so then everyone started using torch on power builds for the stealth.

That being said, do you guys think that shield could supplant torch for chronomancer builds? Its phantasm is probably more useful than the iMage for a power build, though not too stunning damage wise, and tides of times could be a really potent stun in teamfights. the loss of stealth may be problematic, but the 2 blocks per 30 seconds is still a nice boost to survivability.

Depends if taking Illusions and the torch trait (I imagine some people might play Domination/Illusions/Chronomancer, although I prefer the look of duelling over illusions for a power shatter build) for comdition cleanse.

If not then the double shield blocks could be very useful (nevermind being able to dodge immediately for a 3 illusion shatter followed by a second shatter thanks to Illusionary Reveresion) – probably less useful in wvw where stealth engage/disengage is superior, but maybe more useful in pvp? GS + Sw/Sh could become superior to Sw/T in that case.

Hell, maybe even GS + Sc/Sh with quickness on shatter to boost scepter skills – playstyle I guess would be reactive shatter on blocking (given 3 blocks in that set).

I’m quite eager to try Sw/T + Sc/Sh and drop the two handed weapons entirely, although that would probably be better off in a MtD build rather than a power build.

Jurica.1742:

Mesmer doesn’t use rotations… You’re not a d/d ele. Sure you can get extra evades in 1v1 but that doesn’t really matter. I beat Rylock 1v1 when he was running the trait and I wasnt a few times. (I’ve not practiced 1v1s much except when I duel him for fun which is really minimal and he ofc wins a lot, but I do win here and there if I am not as predictable on my bursts and track his cd a bit more than usual.)
If you make mistakes the extra evades wont help you much, maybe it will allow you to win a few 1v1s but thats not something I’d aim at. If you play well, you won’t need them.
I tested it and I didn’t like it.I guess its personal preference. Supcutie was playing it a few weeks ago, he said he might swap back to blink range, not sure if he did..

About dieing with swt a lot. Thats something that bothered me when I swapped to it. Basically how I approach playing it is:
Camp dat GS at range and do your stuff. Go in close range only when someone is out of position and you’re ganking him with your team (to immob and swap mirror blade burst, mind stab mind wrack burst or whatever the situation allows) If you get attacked by say a thief you swap sw/t for defense if you cant kite and save yourself that way. Thats very superficially the swaps explained. Theres a lot more to it which you’ll get a feel for the more you play.
Its different than staff but IMHO better at the moment. I still run staff sometimes on niflhel or against a lot of celes when I’m with pugs but thats about it. In WvW I too prefer it for Excitons reasons.

For the record – when I say “rotations” I of course mean it loosely so please don’t hook that out of my post, I couldn’t think of a different word to use – I’m sure you are aware that in any post I have made in the past regarding shatter I have always stressed being unpredictable and avoiding any set skill sequences. If not, please see my post history over the last year or so.

Now having said that, when I use this word I mean things like “fitting in” with all the other cooldowns and I never find myself waiting for either blurred frenzy or ileap when I need them. I never find myself “running out” of options (between dodging, moving, shattering, blinking/decoying, prestiging and so on), and I can often stay in melee range and make use of both skills twice (defensively or offensively) allowing me to pressure/play aggressive before needing to swap weapons. But then I also take energy sigil on greatsword and tend to spend more time in melee compared to the status quo of pew pewing a lot from range. Just my playstyle preference, hence the reason I find blade training invaluable in pvp.

In wvw of course more ranged pew pew and running around means that extra few seconds on sword skills isn’t necessary – and then I also don’t take boon strip on shatter, instead opting for torch trait.

Coming back to think about this build and condirupt in general for the upcoming changes, given the reveal of the Reaper as well as traits like Time Marches On, that the Revenant will have access to stability on dodge as well as condition resistance, and who knows what the other professions’ elite specs will have in terms of anti-cc condition immunities/reduction, I’m starting to question the value of CI in the future.

There are likely going to be more builds/classes who can shrug off CI, so then the main benefit will be the might stacks.

I would like to think that this build can still work given base ielasticity, buffed confusing combatants, mistrust, buffed mirror and crazy amount of reflects as well as good condition removal – but I am seriously questioning the “control” aspect.

Does anyone else feel the same way about CI? I’m sure it will still be great against a decent number of builds, but more chance of running into something that completely hardcounters the soft cc conditions.

Chickpea poultry soup is -28%, and paired with either melandru or hoelbrak runes should be sufficient as a passive option. It is also a lot cheaper than leek and lemongrass poultry soups, so you can afford to “waste” it without worrying about losing coin every 30 minutes.

In any case you should have at least one active condition removal option – for tight situations (ie immobilise or high damaging stacks of something).

Best ranger is GS + Sw/x melee ranger. I prefer 0/0/6/5/3 with energy/battle on sw/x and energy/intelligence on GS (might also on pet swap, lower pet swap cooldown, and wolf/drakehound). Full zerker, TU/LR/SotH/SotW/RaO.

I like dagger offhand because you can seriously troll enemies with the stupid amount of evades, no one will ever complain or be rude to you about cheese (which I find ironic because evade spam is the ultimate cheese – more so than stealth or conditions), in fact you’ll mostly get compliments despite it being quite easy to play (remember to turn off autotargeting so you can drop target to fly around).

Once the pre-HoT patch hits we should be able to get zephyr’s speed with this as well as other goodies which will further buff melee ranger.

suffish.4150:

Things that I am proud of on my account:
- Two legendaries (Bolt and Flameseeker prophecies) which I crafted and farmed for myself.
- Almost 20,000 AP in just over 2 years
- My Dungeoneer and blazing light titles
- My luminescent armour
- Over 3,000 gold on my account that I will never be able to bring myself to spend much of

Can I have some please. :p

Balsa.3951:

game will not change for me i guess since i quit PVe a while ago all that clicky hurt my finger ( not joking)

so i play pvp only now, i still click but at least I click for fun not for opening 250 stacks of loot every hour to salvage them and click than again to make the mf increase. just thinking about it makes me not wanna play at all.

oh and since i only play pvp i will not buy the expansion anyway

You don’t want to play revenant or elite specs in pvp? :o

CrimsonDX.4821:

Right now I am actually more hyped for the trait/skill system changes that are coming out BEFORE HoT. I hope they come out this summer.

Yeah, same.

In order of hype:
1. Core specialisations and trait changes (especially for mesmer)
2. Elite specialisations (especially chronomancer)

Other things are great, but these two things are by far the most exciting changes. If I was to pick 1 specific thing that I wish I could have right now, it would be baseline Illusionary Persona.

I seriously hope this is an option – even if a one-time stat change/reset.

Weirwynn.2390:

It seems foolish to me to assume that one would never need the tomes of experience, especially when skill point scrolls are so commonplace, but hey, whatever you feel is important, I guess…

I’m a main only kind of player (only mess around with alts in pvp), so no I don’t really need tomes of knowledge.

I’ve wasted too many on levelling alts in the past, only to eventually delete those characters, so I think I’ll be better off with the MF currency rather than hoarding the tomes.

Endless Soul.5178:

Looking at a Guardian in Lion’s Arch right now named Deal or No Heals.

Was he at the Bank? :p

This thread never fails to disappoint!

My PC, decent internet and enough free time so I can play and enjoy the game.

Anyway to answer the topic, not much even after what, coming up for 3 years now – but then I tend to do activities that don’t bring in too much gold (I cba to farm silverwastes for example). But then I’ve spent all my gold from the last few months working up towards a legendary.

I suppose Mawdrey, Light of Dwayna, enough ascended trinkets and weapons for a variety of builds, and some nice skins and rare dyes for the wardrobe. Nice and simple.

Just a flesh wound.3589:

Curunen.8729:

I have a question – if I’m not interested in levelling a new character to 80 when HoT launches, should I just use all my tomes of knowledge up now (gaining extra skill pints) – because whatever MF currency would mean being able to convert to more gold?

I suspect that when the expansion comes the tomes will be reworked to give the new skill point substitute that will be used to buy items for crafting in the Mystic forge but if you don’t want to chance it and are not going to use them to level a char, then using them now is probably a good idea.

Thanks, I think I’m just going to use them now just in case.

I have a question – if I’m not interested in levelling a new character to 80 when HoT launches, should I just use all my tomes of knowledge up now (gaining extra skill pints) – because whatever MF currency would mean being able to convert to more gold?

This is a very good idea if it could be implemented into the base game (pve or wvw masteries) and obviously adapted so as not to be too powerful or too weak in different situations.

Absolutely fantastic, beautiful video.

Two thumbs up – I was applauding and smiling at so many moves in that video, well played.

Please, keep them coming – quality entertainment.