Guild Wars 2

LeCardCaptor.6730:

Last utility, from the same thread on reddit.

Tbh that’s a bit… boring? I mean it’s kind of copy paste of axe 3.

Edit: Ok I can see it being useful for other weapons, although the cooldown looks a bit high.

Hot Boy.7138:

I was inspired by the Deadeye’s elite skill when I thought of the new elite for mesmer. The Deadeye’s elite removes reveal and places the deadeye back in stealth on a 5 second cd. Stealth is a core mechanic of thieves and having it be able to do that on a 5 second cd fixes a big issue for thieves as they no longer have to deal with reveal also.

Phantasms are a core mechanic for mesmer. Our biggest issue is currently not be able to change the target of our clones. It makes sense to me for it to also be an elite, like deadeyes, since it is such a strong skill to change the target. Also, it would compete with moa, and timewarp. All 3 utilities will still have a place. Lastly, making it a mantra makes so much sense with the new mantra 2 change system. A 5 second cd would be perfect for mesmers in every game mode. Anything longer than that and it purpose for having the skill will be missed.

I don’t think any of the changes I’ve suggested are far fetched or would break the class. What I really need is visibility. I may post the same thing on the reddit later so hopefully it can get the dev’s attention. I feel like they check the reddit far more than the official forums.

kitten , 5 second cooldown!?! :o

I’m going to be scared to venture into wvw at all at this rate with all the Deadeyes that will be waiting to pot shot me.

Anyway I do like your idea of having a core elite Mantra skill that is an illusion retarget. It would make perfect sense.

I’m hoping the Rune of the Lynx gets put into wvw/pve because that would be so perfect for Mirage. Otherwise I’m going to use Traveler because I can’t be bothered with other ways of maintaining movemement speed.

Yeah the disenchanter is a good idea and I do agree the synergy with traited Mirror and runes of the Adventurer is very nice.

Funnily enough I find the need of having to salvage/sort/sell my inventory more frequently to be more of a hassle. xD

Coming back to this, tbh I wouldn’t leave home keep without Elusive Mind traited, as it seems like an essential survival trait for roaming.

In terms of theorycrafting for hybrid play, assuming Illusions is going to be an essential traitline, right now I’m split between two survival/win conditons:
1. Dodge spam – take Duelling, maximise vigour/endurance regen with food, abuse Elusive Mind to remove conditions, use Deceptive Evasion for extra shatter fodder. Bonus of Sharper Images and Evasive Mirror.
2. Regen/Boon spam and stack passive condi duration reduction – ie use food and runes plus maintaining high regen uptime to reduce damaging condi durations. Bonus of tratng Staff, Mirror heal and even PU or BD.

I’m very likely to go with one of those two options, but not sure which until testing next week.

I’m sure Deadeye is going to be really annoying in general, but I’m not sure it will be as good as DD in close quarters or if it gets found and jumped by a few enemies. Dunno if it will be able to survive/escape as easily as a DD can.

I don’t miss harmonious mantras.

I’d just like the ridiculous 50% contextual healing of Mantra of Recovery reverted to a flat amount.

^Thank you, I like your ideas.

For myself I’m imagining the extra ferocity bonus from grieving stats might be better for my bursty playstyle rather than the expertise from viper, so will likely be swapping all viper pieces.

Definitely going to be rolling with orrian truffle and meat stew, energy/cleansing sigils, and hopefully runes of the lynx. If rune of the lynx doesn’t make it into pve/wvw then I might just go with traveler again.

And yeah very likely to do similar traits, though in Duelling I will definitely be taking Evasive Mirror and Deceptive Evasion (adept tier majors are all kitten if not using Pistol), Illusions will be identical to now and the only Mirage trait I am pretty much 100% certain of is Elusive Mind – before it gets the inevitable nerf after everyone in pvp/wvw complain about it. :p

Oh weapons will likely be Axe/Torch and Staff, unless I can’t stomach the long cooldowns on staff 4 and 5 without alacrity (I tried with core mesmer today and those cooldowns are painfully long), in which case I might go full melee with Axe/Torch and Sword/x.

Options:

Focus (swap weapons in inventory regularly)
Signet of Inspiration
Rune of the Traveler
Rune of Speed
Sigil of Speed
Writ of Masterful Speed (if you’re insanely rich, but for vast majority of players the price of this is ridiculous).

Pray that Rune of the Lynx gets added to wvw/pve with the new expansion, as it is currently only a pvp exclusive.

kitten , thanks for confirming.

If anyone at Anet happens to read this, the previous alacrity sound effect was easier on the ears. The new one is headache inducing such that I have to turn the sound effect volume down quite low in order to play chrono.

Adonisis.9736:

I think you’ll have to wait till next weekend to test things out with Mirage. Right now I’m really confused as to what kind of Ascended gear I should make. Viper? Mayne just wait till more things are clear maybe?

Yes I do feel like I am in some kind of mid-life build crisis! xD

The change to mantra of recovery, menders purity, and both utility/food items has thrown me a bit.

I’ve tried different combinations of traitlines, heals and utilities (having to take mantra of resolve instead of mirror images if not taking inspiration), and my favourite has been Duelling with deceptive evasion/evasive mirror plus ether feast and mantra of resolve, which has a much better damage output at the expense of some sustain.

Anyway I do agree that things are in a state of flux right now. I’m not entirely happy with this build as I was pre-patch and believe once mirage comes I will be transitioning with some changes.

I can say though in preparation I am beginning to hoard Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew because unless a new endurance food is released with pof I expect this to go up in price as it seems likely to be the best food for mirage, especially hybrid due to might on dodge as well as endurance regen.

In addition I am hoping the Rune of the Lynx makes it to wvw – currently it is a pvp exclusive rune, but if it is released to wvw/pve then it seems like it could be the best choice for movement speed in addition to power/condi damage, to make up for the lack of Time Marches On.

Xaylin.1860:

Near.7439:

How neat would it be if Jaunt also worked like Axe3, detargets and moves all illusions to closest enemy. Then even power builds could use it.

Nah. Sword #3 please…

Imagine if sword 3 detargets you from all opponents, forces your targeted opponent to retarget the clone and gives the clone 1s blur on spawning. :o

Maybe a bit crazy but kitten that would be sweet.

Ashantara.8731:

Curunen.8729:

I’m only interested in testing the elite specs.

Well, I am! So, did I get this right? We won’t get to test the elite specs this weekend??

Edit: Okay, so apparently we won’t. How lame is that? I’m not going to log back into PoF then either this weekend. What a waste.

I’m just going to do wvw this weekend. Want to save pof pve/story for release.

Next weekend however I’m going to spend a lot of time with the new specs.

Tbh I don’t even want to play the pve beta this weekend – would rather save that as a surprise for release.

I’m only interested in testing the elite specs.

Completely agreed.

Mantra of Recovery is a contradictory mess right now. You get more healing/faster cooldown if you burn through charges quickly to proc restorative mantras on channel than you do by waiting for “ammunition” to refill.

And as you said, the ridiculous contextual healing above/below 50% incentivises waiting to use it below 50% – but the charging mechanics make it more effective to use them as soon as your health drops low enough.

In any case the whole idea of mantra of recovery as compared with say, ether feast, is a relatively “spammable” heal for topping up your health when it drops below each charge’s heal amount, say when you fall below 75% health or so. It does not make sense with MoR to wait until you’re below 50% health before using the charges, because then you’re encouraged to spam both charges or risk dying.

Nevermind the other benefit of mantra heal being for use with mender’s purity (which is also badly nerfed), such that you want to use MoR charges to proc mender’s when you need to clear conditions – because the heal is small and the cooldown is low, it is less punishing than using ether feast or similar for the sake of removing conditions.

I strongly think the above/below 50% contextual mechanics needs to be removed and it reverted to a flat heal per charge, to start with. Fine, have it scaling more with healing power, I’m happy with that, but it should be a fixed amount.

Secondly the ammunition recharge should be reduced – 20s is crazy with the only benefit being you can let it passively fill up at the end of a fight when out of combat. In combat there is absolutely no point in waiting for ammunition refill. It could be 10s to match the cooldown of the skill, so if you happen to use one charge and don’t need one for another few seconds, it might be worth waiting a few more seconds rather than burning both and having the 10s normal cooldown. That might allow for some decision making as to when to use charges.

Offair.2563:

Make oasis a free for all glider zone and add laser guns so we can pewpew lasergame eachother there. Maybe some updrafts/ley lines to shake it a bit more up.

Hell yes, I want this.

Strider Pj.2193:

High ground matters???

Anakin! Don’t be foolish! I have the high ground!

lol, now I’m going to have this on my mind if that kind of situation arises near a cliff in our owned territory. xD

Gliding is fine.

Adding another dimension to be able to kite from and escape enemies when in your own territory is fun and creative. Defenders should have the advantage, I don’t see the problem with that.

In fact it adds further incentive to capture even things like ruins and camps whose territories encompass cliffs or high areas, to give you the advantage of being able to use gliding as a means of escape/kiting.

Levetty.1279:

BogOtter’s interview also had them saying the entire design process of Mirage was, ‘yeah Mirages are in deserts right?’, which explains why it doesn’t appear to be that useful for any mode.

lol yeah fair point it did sound like that xD

Hmm, I reduced the sound effects volume in the options menu so it’s a bit more bearable now, but I seriously think it’s a different sound effect than before.

Previously it was more a fast ticking, now there’s a low pitched hum with higher frequency ticking. It’s difficult to describe but I’m sure it has changed. Either that or I’m forgetting things! xD

I just listened to BogOtter’s interview with the devs on elite specs and heard you can dodge/blur while stunned as well. It’s almost like F4 “lite”.

Edit: from the sounds of it that wasn’t regarding the GM trait, it sounded like a standard feature of dodge.

Is it me or have they raised the volume or changed the sound effect in some way?

I never really noticed or heard it much before but now it’s actually a bit irritating – more than that I’m put off playing chrono. :/

Actually given the signet of midnight access to stealth, how about a Domination/Signet build?

I mean that gives access to Rending Shatter and Mental Anguish which are huge damage boosts for this build.

edit: It’s fun but signet cast times other than midnight are painful – and Blurred Inscriptions distortion with master of fragmentation reflection breaks signet of midnight stealth… :/

So I’ve kept almost everything the same with Inspiration but changed decoy for SoM. Even with the mantra nerfs, the sustain from Inspiration is useful in surviving tough situations.

edit 2 – Also while Sweet Bean Buns have been nerfed (no more +15% duration, only 70 expertise…), they’re still just about useable for the passive reduction. Tuning Icicles are negligable though, debating what utility to replace them with, maybe power.

edit 3 – looks like toxic focusing crystals might be the most beneficial stat conversion so going to swap tuning icicles for those. Unfortunately I can only get a few stacks because the price is much higher.

TyPin.9860:

I have actually abandoned Inspiration to focus on the new nice confusion + blind application of dueling. Here is the new build (the traits must obviously be switched with their patched counterparts, if applicable).

So far it works out, the dmg output is greatly increased (due to longer and more condition application and better buffs from power food). I have not yet had the chance to really test it out rigorously, but it feels nice… and let’s put it nicely… thrilling^^

Yeah this looks more fun. Good shout on replacing Decoy with Signet of Midnight – I think it is certainly objectively better for us now given the passive effect and active stealth.

I’m glad in a way the Mender’s Purity is nerfed because it’s one less anchor to Inspiration.

Trouble is right now I’m in limbo – half of me wants to wait for Mirage before shaking everything up, half of me wants to redesign my build. Ah, at least it’s not too far away. :/

Hackuuna.4085:

Curunen.8729:

Mantra of Recovery / Mender’s Purity is a noticable nerf.

The whole “heal more while below 50%” thing doesn’t make much sense for mantra as it is the kind of heal you want to keep topping yourself up with when you drop below 75% or so (assuming average health pool of ~18-20k). Mantra isn’t the sort of heal like Ether Feast where you let yourself drop low in order to make the most of the heal. It’s the more “spammable” heal where you want to keep topping yourself up and not let yourself drop too low if possible.

I strongly think the conditional under 50% normal healing and over 50% reduced healing should be reverted to a flat heal amount. Nevermind the nerf to Restorative Mantras which while it is good to be reliant on healing power, does reduce the effectiveness of heal on charge. And also nevermind the loss of extra toughness on charging mantras…

I am certainly feeling the reduced sustain in wvw.

Completely agree that the 50% requirement for the heal needs to be removed. Sustain is now gone and in it’s place is huge damage. Oddly enough Chrono is less appealing now since it has no real sustain/condi removal traits. It’s burst or die.

I suppose I should applaud the devs – certainly gives a strong incentive for switching to Mirage.

But I already bought pof anyway so nevermind. xD

I mean, Duelling would be good but the adept major traits are all still kitten (I mean Desperate Decoy seriously needs to be replaced with something better) and has no sustain.

Heh, well there you go, maybe it was or maybe a dev also loves Chrono Trigger.

Mantra of Recovery / Mender’s Purity is a noticable nerf.

The whole “heal more while below 50%” thing doesn’t make much sense for mantra as it is the kind of heal you want to keep topping yourself up with when you drop below 75% or so (assuming average health pool of ~18-20k). Mantra isn’t the sort of heal like Ether Feast where you let yourself drop low in order to make the most of the heal. It’s the more “spammable” heal where you want to keep topping yourself up and not let yourself drop too low if possible.

I strongly think the conditional under 50% normal healing and over 50% reduced healing should be reverted to a flat heal amount. Nevermind the nerf to Restorative Mantras which while it is good to be reliant on healing power, does reduce the effectiveness of heal on charge. And also nevermind the loss of extra toughness on charging mantras…

I am certainly feeling the reduced sustain in wvw.

I was worried about the Mantra of Recovery/Mender’s Purity/The Pledge changes in regards to this build, but it seems so far that the changes have minimal effect.

The healing nerf on power return above 50% is harsh, but fortunately we’ve got Restorative Illusions to supplement that. The nerf to Mender’s Purity and The Pledge aren’t so bad given the other sources of condition removal and passive condition resistance. Thankfully MoR still has 10s cooldown so we can make use of Restorative Mantras often. The ammunition change only really serves as a quality of life change out of combat so you can just let them recharge themselves – in combat it’s still better to burn through all the charges into recharging for Restorative Mantra heal and repeat – because alacrity cools it down so fast anyway.

The flat -20% cooldown to torch and extra burning is actually pretty good though – more burst burning when synchronising prestige/image cast with shatters, and more consistent fast cooldown of prestige.

Edit: however regarding food/utilities, the reduction in condi damage from tuning icicles and reduction of duration is noticable sadly.
And secondly survivability is definitely a bit lower with the mantra healing nerf and mender’s purity nerfs – not as much sustain as previously.

I’m feeling a little… jaded I suppose. It still functions but it feels a bit flat and not as effective as it could be.

If anything Anet are succeeding in incentivising the use of Mirage, because I think I might switch and use 25% movement speed consumables or something instead.

Really? That’s interesting – I suppose an effort to make it more relevant for pve, but it does kind of negatively affect the uniqueness of each condition in pvp – sounds more like bleed with an additional effect.

Little Howl.5231:

Ok, being constructive now. For me roaming is 1 vs many. I get bullied, i get griefed , i get rofl-stomped, i get corpse jumped and i get condi bombed.

BUT, i still get up again like a motherkittener and dish out some payback. I loose some, i win many.

That is roaming.

Amen to that!

I agree the rework is a little… underwhelming.

The removal of condition removal is a loss, even if prestige has one as standard. The only real bonus is having flat -20% cooldown.

Angel de Lyssa.4716:

Really? I can not play now because the servers EU are offline. If not have time interval, then it’s going to be really powerful.

At least you could access the forum – I couldn’t do either!

A shame to see Mistrust be deleted but I like Ineptitude in Duelling and yeah the changes do seem to be pushing towards using Mirage/Duelling/Illusions.

Ah finally the EU servers are back up and running – was a shame reading all this but not being able to log into the game or the forum!

Mender’s Purity, Mantra of Recovery and The Pledge changes are a little odd and I hope they don’t affect me too much – I don’t want to change to a different heal yet.

Signet of Midnight looks awesome.

From what we know so far I think I will likely swap all Viper for Grieving stat on Mirage, to boost direct damage crits at the expense of condi duration. And then change runes/food for something to boost endurance to maximise dodges rather than the passive anti soft cc that is possible with chrono. But of course it’s impossible to say for sure until having played it.

In pvp I don’t know – the healing power from Sage only really benefits Restorative Illusions right now so if Mirage builds don’t end up using Inspiration then I don’t know if Sage will be the most effective amulet. Will have to wait and see.

They do freak me out.

I guess it’s the Crystal Desert equivalent of sentient mushrooms? These guys look like watermelons, melons, gourds and all sorts of weird fruit when they explode. Very odd, creepy and intriguing at the same time. :o

lmaogg.7325:

Isn’t it in a few more hours?

I dunno if it was supposed to be today, next week or some other time between now and pof. I hope it is today.

Good question. Would be nice to know.

I’m glad foods and utilities are being normalised in this way. Hopefully might make things easier to balance in the future.

Faaris.8013:

“How do you get to 80 without getting bored?”

Use the level 80 boost or Tomes of Knowledge.

This.

Beyond levelling my main to 80, I have never attempted to level a single alt to 80 because of remembering how tedious it was. In the future if I want to level an alt to 80 I can easily do so with my large stockpile of ToK or using the level 80 boost from this expansion preorder.

Yeah I imagine given you can chain them it could be used as a segmented blink on a longer overall cooldown?

Me Games Ma.8426:

Lily.1935:

Dodging while ressing…….

Dodging while stomping…… <3

lol I hope they don’t nerf either of those possibilities – sounds like too much fun. xD

That would be sweet.

Amazing I’d buy that.

As long as there is still some kind of underwater overhaul and expansion in the future such that boats don’t negate the possibility of more underwater exploration, then I’m all for it.

I’m more excited for tomorrow’s patch than I am for the upcoming elite specs. Right now I’m not sure I’ll enjoy Mirage more than Chrono, so I’m just waiting and seeing how it turns out.

If we had a medium sized spvp skirmish map (eg a bit less than the size of one of the new living world season 3 maps) with multiple objectives requiring a range of specialised roles, each rewarded similarly and incentivising splitting into small groups of 1/2/3 players, with the need to spread out and win objectives, also incentivising combat more than cap circles, I would play that all the time.

Spvp does not offer this sadly.

Downstate could do with a bit more hp reduction, but otherwise I’m cool with it. Stomping is a fun system after all. Edit- and having an opportunity to be returned to combat is good, especially given the amount of surprise burst out there.

However I’m not cool with rallying off npc kills – that is a pve mechanic and should be disabled in wvw. Either an ally resses you, you res yourself or you die. Shouldn’t be able to tick an npc then miraculously jump up, heal to full and win a fight or escape. Edit- for clarity I don’t mind if rallying remains on killing players although wouldn’t mind either if it happened to be removed.

Tseison.4659:

Curunen.8729:

Tseison.4659:

Just keep in mind you can’t run Chrono and Mirage at the same time…just putting that out there for those that forgot…

Thanks for aiding anyone else reading this, although I think everyone who’s posted in here along with the majority of this forum are already aware of that.

I’ve tread through 8 other mirage based topics and not many do sadly…

Honestly I’m surprised given it was one of the main features of introducing specialisations, that you could only choose one. Anyway the builds in this thread are pretty focused on Chrono and any similar hybrid play on Mirage will likely have some significant differences – runes and food for one.

anduriell.6280:

And just out of curiosity.. But i’m pretty sure all those who defend ganking is alright are thieves or mesmers mains. Just saying, it sounds like it….

As a mesmer main who roams, I never gank. That’s not an exaggeration. There’s no satisfaction in surprise bursting someone who is unaware of your presence to begin with.

Edit – reflecting on this evening’s play session and in general, I find that GS power mesmers are more likely to gank than hybrid or condi mesmers. Running into a few gank groups tonight – succeeded in escaping a couple (notably the first which was consisted of three mesmers and a couple of others who setup a diversion and had one of them try to gank from stealth with GS shatter combo – that whole 10 seconds or so of outwitting them was more satisfying than the previous 20-30 minutes of play and again highlights why roaming solo is fun), and failed at one (similar setup as the first although I think it was 6v2 of us and I failed to react to the mass invis sound effect – they ganked me good and hard, but tbh I had an opportunity to prevent it but failed to act).

So much for power shatter being “honourable”.

Tseison.4659:

Just keep in mind you can’t run Chrono and Mirage at the same time…just putting that out there for those that forgot…

Thanks for aiding anyone else reading this, although I think everyone who’s posted in here along with the majority of this forum are already aware of that.

haha you got me!

I was just coming in here to ask if I could have your stuff, but nevermind!