Guild Wars 2

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Dude.

Bruh.

… Bruh!!

With IP baseline, Lockdown will be the new Mesmer meta. Shatter builds now have very little reason to spec into illusions and CI was already RIGHT behind it.

I don’t usually make such grand claims, but DOM/DUEL/CHAOS will be the new tpvp Mesmer meta unless the CHRONO tree is glorious.

Chrono tree (or whatever it will be called) will very likely be glorious in order to sell the expansion.

I’m fully expecting all classes’ Elite Specs to be more powerful than some of the base trees intially to encourage people to buy HoT.

This will then be followed by some hardcore nerfs over the 6months-1year after release. :p

Ross Biddle.2367:

I find it pretty easy to replace 60404 with something like DODUCH
DO – CS, FI, PB
DU – PF, EM, HM
CH – MM, CT, CI

I already know the trait names thus their corresponding initials. And like this it represents the layout we already interface with (Trait line name, trait picks left to right).

If you were in a hurry you could just list the 3 GM traits. People could put together the rest based on best synergy.

DODUCH – PB, HM, CI

Sounds like a swear word tbh. :p

I wonder what the funniest/strangest trait name combo based off the first two letters from any class could be? Ah, now I have to find out.

But yeah on a serious note I suppose that isn’t too much trouble.

MrAptronym.2846:

I just came to the mesmer boards to ask about this. I am a bit down on my condition necro right now and the new confusion stuff looks like a lot of fun. I just snagged a set of Perplexity runes in preparation. The mesmer traits have great synergy, it seems like it could be a fun build.

I have been using nightmare, torment and antitoxin, but now with things like Mistrust and Confusing combatants (buffed tbh), it might be worth running perplexity especially if focusing on interrupts.

Bubi.5237:

Why not just aab/aac/x/x/ccb? Or whatever you want to call the 3 traits/tier

Ah, that works nicely as well and keeps it similar to the current format.

Could be 123 instead of abc as well (kitten , now I have that song in my head xD).

So 112/113/0/0/332/0 or something?

could be irritating for players that start with the game after this update goes live.

i guess there will be no “order” to what traitline is which number anymore since every line will get an icon and not a number just like the different traits.

I do like the idea of abc though

how about saying like this:
Do/Du/Ch-aab/abc/bbc ? would be less irritating i guess

Good point if the order of traitlines won’t be a thing anymore. I kind of like Bubi’s idea regarding this. Stating Do/Du/Il or whatever seems too awkward.

Rexx.1805:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Honestly, that mind wrack trait needs to be GM at its current state, as it gives 50% damage increase to anyone that isn’t using a skill. So if you take confounding suggestions, you can mirror blade, blink, diversion or mantra, mind wrack and your target will probably have died. If my mind wracks do about 2.5k to the average person without mind wrack trait, with fragility and that trait, they will now do 4.1k (not including extra vuln from dazes and mirror blade), and combined with a 3 bounce mirror blade, that target is going to explode.

Agreed! My jaw dropped when i read that Trait, it’s really powerfull.

But I would change the discription to something like this:

Mental Torment – Mind Wrack does more damage. If your foe is innactive, drop a nuclear bomb on them instead.

LOL!

Yeah, and with confounding suggestions… :o scary as kitten.

StickerHappy.8052:

Condirupt is even possible now

Indeed.

Mistrust and Confusing combatants will be great additions to any condition interrupt build.
CI and scepter traits are even more powerful.

I’m probably still going to take Inspiration because traited focus is too much fun in that kind of build, even if not optimal, but depending on how the “Elite spec” line turns out (as it is rumoured to be cc/support oriented, and could have “slow” condition access) I may drop either chaos or duelling and pick that up instead.

Otherwise taking Duelling, Chaos and Illusions with Scepter/Pistol and Staff will be nasty for a condition interrupt build.

Trying to think of a shorthand way of writing because there’s so many things to highlight in a build, and writing out even abbreviated names of the traitlines is… clunky.

I’m thinking if we number all the current traitlines as:
Domination = 1
Duelling = 2
Chaos = 3
Inspiration = 4
Illusions = 5
“Elite Spec” = 6
etc… (for each added spec in future expansions)

And then given there are three major traits per tier we could label “a”, “b” and “c” at each tier (based on the order in the pictures – the topmost major being “a” and the bottom one being “c”).

So for example, a current standard shatter build would be something like 1aab/2aac/5ccb, or 1/2/5 shorthand.

I suppose this could apply to all classes if traits are numbered in their current order.

Thoughts?

msalakka.4653:

Curunen.8729:

Possibly merged in the “Master of Fragmentation” trait.

Which means I can’t reflect the Lamebow cheese back on my MtD hybrid, since I have to choose between MtD and this.

If you currently play MtD, do you spec in Duelling for DE?

If so, just taking Mirror on evade trait will easily make up for this.

Possibly merged in the “Master of Fragmentation” trait.

mrstealth.6701:

Curunen.8729:

Windsagio.1340:

You see what you want to see.

First reply = best reply.

I can see a lot of potential – and more useful diversity than at present. Depending how things are tweaked and finalised it could be fantastic.

Or we could have all of the good changes, and the current flexibility if we could still partially invest in a traitline/spec and continue being able to sacrifice a major trait for a second adept.

Tachenon.5270:

Useful diversity? Useful? To whom?

Some folks don’t care if one of the ‘new’ builds hugs corners better, or some other ‘new’ build can go from 0 to 60 in under 6 seconds. They’d rather drive the one they customized themselves from parts they scrounged from the junk heap out back. So what if it gets poor gas mileage and the windshield wipers don’t work. Is this game some sort of race? Is the EPA running Anet? The point being, these individuals paid for the game just like everybody else. Their money is just as (insert appropriate color here) as anyone else’s. Why are they the ones whose vehicles are being crushed into neat, easily stackable squares?

“Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.” ~ Henry Ford.

Wvw and pvp are competitive => if you’re running something that is well below par you will be in for a hard time.

The way people talk about dungeons/pve, it is also competitive => the same thing applies.

From a mesmer perspective – there are currently so many negligable traits, despite the “flexibility” of being able to pick what you want most of it is useless and the result is less than a handful of “core” builds with minor variations, across all 3 game modes.

That is not diverse.

With these changes, who knows where the state of the game will end up, but potentially with each trait having a more meaningful impact there will be more reason to branch out.

erm yeah, this is a huge buff – now it will be default.

Windsagio.1340:

You see what you want to see.

First reply = best reply.

I can see a lot of potential – and more useful diversity than at present. Depending how things are tweaked and finalised it could be fantastic.

I’m guessing Master of Fragmentation will give the usual Reflect on Distortion, AoE Diversion (if they don’t make it default), Increased crit chance for MW, and I don’t know about CoF…

I think they might change retal on CoF based on their comments about mesmer and retal – so who knows how it could be augmented.

So… with the lovely CI buff, defauly IP, ability to go 0/6/6/6/0, default iElasticity, mirror traits and so on – this looks like it will get a kitten good buff.

Ok, big loss is debilitating dissipation, and chaotic transference if you want staff cooldown – but I’m sure it should be easy to adapt.

Or even potentially 0/0/6/6/0/6 with “elite spec” line – depending if there is a lot of slow application available for even more crowd control.

I’m really excited to be able to test out new possibilities for this build.

GreyWraith.8394:

The engineer version should turn people into a super adventure box Monkey.

lol.

But yeah, Moa should be a unique mesmer thing – feels more like a “magician”.

Engineers should get a suitably themed transform – maybe turning people into holograms, steam creatures, or whatever.

Xaylin.1860:

The healing value is indeed rather low (while the HPS isn’t thaaaat bad). However, against a ranged opponent you can potentially negate a bigger amount of damage than any other heal would ever heal. Additionally, you can hurt them quite significantly. On top of that, the cooldown is very low making the only alternative to MoR when running specific runes.

I’m quite sure you are aware of all that. I’m just trying to say that people really underestimate Mirror. I’ve been running it exclusively in PvP since almost two years and I don’t regret it. Mirror becomes better than other heals in many situations as soon as your opponent runs at least one ranged weapon. Of course, it falls a bit flat against pure melees or those pesky GS Mesmers (hissss….). But it still is a reasonable choice despite the healing value.

gs mesmers and d/x thieves are part of the reason i don’t mirror more often. GS is pretty much a hard counter to mirror.

However the fun that can be had trolling all the other classes is often too good to pass up.

I’m thinking if “Chronomancy” line (or whatever it will be called) has a lot of Slow access, I might run Chaos, Inspiration and that for a condition interrupt build.

Given clone death traits are no longer a thing, and given IP is default – I don’t feel duelling line will be necessary for me in that build. Ok the loss of sharper images would be unfortunate, but I could make up for that somehow…

At the very least it will be fun to troll pew pew rangers, ks warriors or even p/d thieves with.

Holy CI buff!?!?!

I am definitely looking forward to that – merged CI and BI.

With the high uptime on mirror access through dodge roll trait, manipulation trait and the skill itself, throw in a traited focus and it could be quite fun to mess around with.

I hope they buff the heal of mirror a little though – to say 4.5k (unless I’ve missed reading something it seems it could stay the same?).

Holy kitten that’s some insane buffs!!! :o

Edit – I haven’t seen the other class buffs yet so of course can’t comment on the relative strength.

The +100% to PU seems a little crazy.

lol, I was just about to edit my post having figured out the truth but you lot are too fast! xD

Oh well, 6/6/6 is still interesting given both the current builds I play are locked in 3 trait lines anyway.

I just read through the whole thing – very confusing, but it seems like they are putting in a lot of work.

One line which got me is “More power! You now get to select nine major traits instead of seven, including three grandmaster traits.”

Seriously?!? 9 major traits => 18 total trait points.

Will we be able to do things like 0/4/6/4/4 and so on?!?

kitten now I’m hyped.

DE of course.

(but both would be interesting)

Dondagora.9645:

In martial arts, there’s a bit of a yin-yang parallel called hard and soft styles or skills. Hard involves directly breaking things, hitting a bone to break it. One that omits force. Soft involves indirectly injuring the opponent, conserving energy. In this case, one who receives force and manipulates it to become one’s own.

I feel like mesmer, while having its fair amount of hard abilities, is a specialist in softness, and I don’t just mean the butterflies. Confusion and torment to turn the opponent’s recklessness every move against them, reflection literally sends their attack force back at them, interrupts deny the opponent momentum and increase our own, clone-death traits makes the opponent’s aggressiveness into their demise, and our very mechanic of illusions buy us the time and cover we need to set up and react to the opponent’s moves in such a way that we can benefit from their actions. Other classes are not nearly as specialized for softness as mesmer.

Basically, I love our role as a controller. Plus, mind-mage and purple and butterflies.

Very eloquently put – this is exactly the reason I love Mesmer.

Pink
Butterflies
Time/Space manipulation
Visual/aural effects of skills
Active mechanics
Unique/original concepts – ie Greatsword
Non-stereotypical fantasy genre class, unlike all the other peasant classes.

Chaos number 4? :p

A minor switch that won’t require crafting a load of new gear is swapping PU for CI, dropping 4 in domination for 4 in inspiration and taking traits focus instead of torch.

You may need more rabid for the precision so iwarden can stack a decent amount of bleeds.

It’s more fun and active than PU with the torch, obviously is weaker in 1vX because less stealth and no PU, but is way more fun to play in small skirmishes – and you can actually catch/chase people.

Dreamer + Bifrost + Unicorn finisher = good times.

Out of those two – charr.

Ross Biddle.2367:

If you’re not playing Mesmer in this game you’re better off playing another game. It’s the single best part of the game. All other classes are boring by comparison. You’ll get more out of eating wheatbix.

The other classes can be good for a kitten , but Mes has lasting power. Regardless of what “spot” it is or isnt in atm.

My thoughts exactly.

Mesmer is the most unique thing in GW. The only reason I still play is because you can’t find mesmer like mechanics in any other game – whereas you can find all your stereotypical warriors/guardians/thiefs/rangers/eles/necros in any other fantasy game, and engineers in any kind of role playing tps/fps.

Play whatever you like – if the theme/style of mesmer is attractive to you then who is to tell you otherwise.

I say dive right in, learn as you go.

You’ll probably die a lot at first – don’t be put off, just keep at it – I promise you’ll gain a much deeper appreciation for the class by sticking with it through the difficult learning phase.

Edit: For the record – I never played GW1 and the last tab targeted game I have played is KotOR 2. I had never played a game with holding right click to rotate the camera, so the entire combat experience in GW2 was completely alien to me at first.
I started with thief (got bored after 2 weeks), then moved straight to mesmer – took me at least a year to properly understand how to play, but it has been my main ever since and I have absolutely no regrets. Actually I feel like all the deaths and failures have given me an invaluable experience of the class – including stupid things like doing most of map completion without a focus/speed boost.

I’m very happy I didn’t faff about with other classes to “learn the basics” because it would have been a waste of time – and less time I could have spent enjoying mesmer.

Calypso.2578:

Curunen.8729:

and… the long ears. :p

All my asuras have the longest ears possible.

Haha, so does mine.

Sebrent.3625:

First off, several people seem to gravitate to Asura because they think that size is an advantage.

• If you need that supposed “advantage”, you should instead focus on getting better (my opinion)
• In ranked matches, there is an option that is going to make you a human. No supposed “advantage” for you.

My first Mesmer was an Asura. Then I realized that end-game is about aesthetics.

IMO, most armor looks horrible on an Asura, and it is so small that you don’t really get to admire it unless zoomed in. I also didn’t want to put legendaries on an Asura as they simply turn into glowing toothpicks.

Lastly, when using a Greatsword, the Asura Auto just holds it in their hand … Human/Norn/Sylvari hover that puppy and rotate it.

My Asura Mesmer is now a bank tab with crafting skills and 100% world completion.

My active Mesmer is a Norn. I find that having large illusions is more effective than being small. Dueling people with both my Mesmers is how I came to this conclusion as that was the common consensus among them.

Personally I don’t give a flying kitten about a potential size advantage – I play asura because I love the lore, the culture/society, the animations, the PC voice actors, the personal story, and… the long ears. :p

DavyMcB.1603:

No doubt mes is best paired with asuras. They even have racial skills that do confusion and 3 sec daze. I sitll regret making human mesmer until this day. Too much investment to change char now.

Technobabble is more fun in a MoC zerker ranger build – perhaps GS+SB, going for those interrupts/dazes and massive maul damage.

iKeostuKen.2738:

Not better versions, rangers pet will still have more hp and defense :P

Thanks Are you more into the shatter method?

Yes, when it comes to illusions I prefer shattering them – because I like the visual effect with them arching back and clenching their fists – I like the artistic design of shattering, elegant and beautiful.

So like a better version of a ranger’s pet? :p

Interesting, I personally don’t think I would enjoy playing in that way, but it is a good variation.

I hope the execution lives up to at least a fraction of the hype.

I really want this to be good.

Since they buffed MoD to be AoE, they should do the same with Diversion and make this default – and replace with a new trait.

As it is, IP is far superior.

It’s stupid and definitely the worst thing about GW2.

I hate holding right click to turn the camera. Ridiculous archaic system I hope is eliminated in GW3. Also the only reason I have been tempted to switch over to ESO, if it wasn’t for their game world being bland and uninteresting…

Maybe try an autohotkey script for toggling right click (among other useful features that will save you a lot of discomfort/finger strain/broken mice).

Quality!

kitten good video, very impressive play.

Welcome! Enjoy the butterflies!

GS + Sw/D melee power ranger is actually my favourite “alt”, and the only other class build I truly enjoy besides mesmer.

This thread motivated me to mess around with some other classes again in pvp.

After one day I just can’t stand it – I have no connection to any of the characters, and personally they’re all boring compared to mesmer.

I’ll probably start off with either supporting our lane or harassing the enemy team’s lane – seems like a fun role.

Smashdex.6158:

Nice and purple

Haha, I like it.

I am also a Main only person.

I have dabbled in some alts, but alts are always temporary – only to enjoy the combat with other classes. When I get bored with them they get deleted.

I wish I could hide all the empty character slots on the start screen – annoys me to have 4 empty slots and only my mesmer.

Edit: To clarify – compared to mesmer, everything else just gets boring very quickly. Only melee ranger has given me a decent amount of satisfaction as an alt – but still temporary.

Ruby.1824:

Hi, so I basically have been playing Guardian only ever since I got the game mainly due to the laziness to level another toon. However, I feel like it’s time to switch it up and have been trying to look for a new class. I like something that is fast paced and very mobile as I hate moving slowly…

Thief?

A – Boring stereotypical fantasy genre class, highly effective in all areas of the game, you will always be in demand, stacks extremely well with any other class.

B – Highly unique/original and beautiful class, effectiveness varies with player skill and sadly aside from a few utilities “anything it can do, another class can do better” – apart from having fabulous aural/visual effects.

Part of me really wants to engage in this because it looks far more interesting than what we currently have.

I really like your consolidation of weapon cooldown traits, which both makes sense and also makes room for more interesting new traits and should have the effect of increasing trait choice in any build.

The other part of me is concerned with wasting effort on an exercise that will 99% be ignored by the people who have the power to implement such changes…

Favourite = Honourary Skritt and Finders Keepers.

I like that they are a little cheeky (especially Finders Keepers because I main Mesmer), and if I could make a playable skritt character I would. If I could choose to wear any title it would still be one of those two.

I respect titles which require serious effort and time investment, like Champion Brawler.

I dislike seeing “Legendary Champion” or similar “awesome” looking titles that are absolutely meaningless. There are too many of these around to count and I find them ridiculous.

I would like a title based on the Dye collection, with a suitable cheeky/funny name as you have mentioned in the OP.

Jasher.6580:

Curunen.8729:

rchu.8945:

Jasher.6580:

If you are playing a shatter Mesmer against any player who is decent, you are going to have a rough time.

Anyone who tells you otherwise is wrong.

+1

and someone mentioned a medi-hammer guardian is harder than shatter Mesmer from a post above, lol…

Glass mantra mesmer is harder than shatter mesmer IMO – micromanaging 4 mantras in a zerker build has to be the hardest thing in the game.

Oh, I thought we were talking about viable builds in the current meta.

I reread the OP and yeah I guess you’re right, so yeah – then I’d agree shatter is the hardest useful build.