Guild Wars 2

Ouch! xD

How many times did you do it without opening the chest?

Wow, great to see this still being updated, legendary guide.

BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL!

Mogar.9216:

pop invis right away and burst in their face. Burst them down to 1/4 and they will pop their invun or invis. stealth yourself again wait it out then burst them down. Do not play defense, it’s a dps race and we should win most of the time.

Yeah, agreed.

It’s those nasty axe wielding condi rangers that are the real nuisance tbh.

Liam McColgan.7689:

Guys, he plays gs + staff…so give him tips with this build. Whats the point in linking him other random specific builds/traits when he already uses what is regarded as the best weapons set and shatter build for mesmers in tpvp.

It’s silly to trait/ change weapons sets JUST TO COUNTER ONE SPECIFIC BUILD ( lb ranger), taking him out of his comfort zone.

Stick to staff + GS ( or take sword + torch depending on team comp) and jsut learn to counter the specific skills rangers use that cause you problems.

You dont need all these reflect traits blah blah blah, learn yo use what you have (cd’s eg. Blink, Phase Retreat, CS, decoy) and trust me, you will soon see lb rangers as a free kill.

What’s the point in not linking alternatives?

If you noticed, I initially commented on gs+staff before offering an alternative which happens to trivialise things like engineers, rangers and all those things shatter builds usually have difficulty with. And as an extra bonus, that 0/4/6/4/0 CI condition build happens to be excellent in pvp as a group support/control, so it’s very relevant in this context.

Anyway, back to shatter, 1200 blink is kitten useful to close the initial gap if you don’t want to waste a stealth. Got to close that gap to melee range asap otherwise it’s gg. Sword allows a luxury of using BF to avoid RF if you happen to get caught out with other skills.

For the record, I play gs+sw/t most of the time.

Edit: Also, regarding Entangle – mantra of resolve solves this problem but you will of course have to sacrifice portal or something. When entangled, hit power cleanse to remove the inmobilise and immediately dodge out of it. You will have a split second to dodge before the immobilise is reapplied.

Difficult with staff/gs shatter. LoS and positioning, plus heavy burst tbh – draw out their SoS if they have it and other annoyances.

But for a different build, this build eats LB rangers for breakfast:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Vid-Chaotic-Perdition-WvW-PvP/

StickerHappy.8052:

Yes, i know a lot of these stuff already,. I’m asking like what if the competition is now with really skilled players, how can I pull of shatters really well?

The blink shatter works for unsuspecting foes, without them seeing you first, if they manage did see you first they can count, and dodge or block the incoming shatter.

Any new tips on surprising foes or landing shatters really well?

I like using my Gs5 blink push, I think not all people are expecting that.

Sorry mate, I didn’t mean my post to come across like that.

I think other have covered the lockdown stuff – personally I find it tough to sacrifice choices in a build especially where there are already so many rigid limitations on traits and skills in order to be successful.

Unfortunately I’ve never been much of a fan of pistol – I can see other people being really effective with it, but I dunno, I never truly gelled with it.

Of course, while sword+focus is in a sorry state compared to the past, it’s still good for that warden, pull, ileap, shatter combo. I don’t have the godlike skills to use it successfully all the time – sometimes it pays off, sometimes it fails miserably. As such, I don’t like to use that weapon set much anymore.

Perhaps running Sw+F, Sc+P/T shatter could be an interesting set. Especially if you take both pistol and focus. Ok, you lose the easy burst of the greatsword, but in exchange you get far more control through pistol and focus.

If we had MH pistol, I’d probably run Sw+F/T and P+P/T… one day maybe…

Stealth + mirror blade + blink (if necessary to close distance) + dodge shatter + mind stab is my favourite. Thief killer, glass killer… timed right, no one can see it coming.

Sw+T is usually positional/evasive set. If the enemy is good then stealths + positional shatters (mind games) is usually the way to go. Sometimes I might use the 3, 3, 2, F1 combo, but only if I expect the enemy to do something predictable – otherwise it’s a waste of good evasion and in combat blinks. Depends on the situation – for example fine against a necro, not good against a s/d thief unless you time it perfectly after baiting.

But depends on the enemy – things like engis can soak up any initial burst with ease, so it’s usually a case of backing away for boring pew pew to keep the pressure on them before diving in for a second (or more) burst. I had a 1 v 2 engis on mid point in Forest (this was just hotjoin) earlier, and my god the most tedious fight ever that accomplished nothing – spent ages just trading blows with both of them, not able to finish one but resigned myself to toy around with them (was pretty funny tbh) until eventually losing cooldown rhythm and forced to run away to be ganked by a thief…

Anyway, engis are so so so so annoying and tedious to fight, especially in conquest, so I sympathise. There’s no fun or satisfaction in fighting, killing, or being killed by an engi, only relief that the tedium is over. Funnily enough the 0/4/6/4/0 traited focus condition CI build eats engis for breakfast, but at the same time has an achilles heel when it comes to eles and fellow mesmers…

Hmm, only NA players?

“In addition, all Guild Wars 2 Forum Specialists… must live in the USA and be age 18 or older, for legal reasons…”

Well if we were allowed to vote, I’d vote for any of you guys here who knows the class inside out – at least we might have a chance of seeing something fresh injected into the class.

Snakebyte.2804:

I’m going to try this build with MoD and Perplexity runes to cause as many rage quits as possible in WvW.

As for travelers runes, over the course of a sprint equal to the duration of the trained focus cool down (20sec) you have 33% extra speed for 15.5 seconds and 0% speed for 4.5 seconds. 33*15.5/20 = 25.575% weighted speed over the course of the sprint, which slightly surpasses the landspeed of Travelers if you use your curtain perfectly. Therefore I do not find Travelers runes speed for that 4.5 seconds of no swiftness worth the offensive power you give up.

Let us know how you get on with perplexity and MoD there.

I think that’s what’s nice about this build – there are half a dozen decent rune choices, and third utility skill choice is flexible.

SlimChance.6593:

F5 – Shatter Phantasm based on Shatter Hex
Shatter Only Phantasm at its current location, doing damage and add a unique effect. 30sec cd
…

This is brilliant, I really like it.

Yeah, I’d love any form of crowd control / physical ragdolling shatter.

So pulls, knockbacks and so on – just not sure whether it should be centred on the mesmer, or centered on each illusion.

Pull (Implosion) would be cool (like spear #5 vortex), but only problem is what do you follow it up with? Unless you specifically take mirror images to do a pull+mindwrack, but in most cases it seems push/knockback could be more useful.

I dunno, I just want to see more flinging targets around the screen, like into the void, iwave, vortex…

Explosion All illusions shatter where they stand and knockback any target within 240 radius of each illusion. Base zero damage, only physical ragdoll effect. Base CD = 60s.

Can synergise with interrupt traits such as halting strike.

Bumping this because it is a great fun build.

EDIT:

Nevermind – gone back to this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlsnpMtlqxRNcrNitxY6LKJjTWzKlMghB-TJRHwADeCAi2fIZZAAnCAA

It’s just disgusting crowd control with hydromancy + grenth and doom to maintain poison in 1v1 if it comes down to it. Yeah, a shame to have to lose the energy sigils, but I’m finding it’s ok as long as I dodge efficiently, instead of to blow up illusions or randomly – often a focus pull + dodge/weaponswap is enough to begin the annoyance.

Currently running this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlsnpMtlqxRNcrNitxY6LKJjTWzKlMghB-TJRHwAw2fIZZAAnCABPBAA

Decided to try without grenth runes and hydromancy sigils to see how it would work. Raw damage output is certainly the most difficult thing to create unfortunately.

I like double doom sigils here because it helps me to focus one target and keep a high uptime of poison on them. Undead runes are just a placeholder – I can’t seem to make my mind up on rune choices – ideally trying to boost damage output.

Wvw version – still gearing up a couple of trinkets for this, so again things like undead runes just a dirt cheap placeholder:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlsnpMtlqxRNcrNitxY6LKJjTWzKlMghB-TFSHwAmU/5iGGjK/gt/ggnUAgTpAa9BRVCGAABYmlZZOzA+uMH6MH6MLFAMzBA-w

The trouble with things like torment/perplexity/grenth and so on, is only boosting one condition duration – and the problem I have with that is due to damage coming from many different condition sources – bleed/torment/confusion/burn – it seems a shame to only boost one rather than boosting them all.

Anyway, just a bit confused trying to squeeze out as much single target focused damage without sacrificing too much of what makes this build fun.

For the record, I used to use energy+fire almost exclusively but decided to try out air some months ago, and find I prefer it.

Of course depends on the build, the situation and what your goals are. Air allows me a bit more bite when bursting single targets (for example mirror blade dodge mindwrack on a squishy thief), but the downside is potentially no extra damage if it procs on the wrong target (eg if an enemy mesmer goes invis and your target switches to an illusion and the sigil happens to proc).

Whatever floats your boat really.

I don’t particularly like battle because I don’t like being forced to swap weapons in order to maintain might – I like to swap weapon at precisely the right time to be efficient in skill use rather than have it be dictated by boons.

If you like “living on the edge”, air+fire is sick, but of course you lose the free dodge every swap.

Energy + air/fire/battle/doom

I prefer energy + air.

Decoy.

Applications and tactics are numerous, it’s just so versatile.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

I understand how you feel about having a near useless skill, allot of classes still have them.

Best advice I can offer is make sensible suggestions, keep making them & keep getting more people to agree with you.

Arena.net knows that said skills are rarely used if ever & if enough people speak up they will likely change them.

Who knows they might be planning a large amount of changes. They did just get over 110 million a while back for “future development” from their overlords at NCSoft.

The point is that it was not useless before that big patch a few months ago. It was a good skill but in need of some love – but instead it was utterly destroyed. They should have just deleted the skill from our utility bar instead of “remaking” it into something that serves absolutely no purpose on the mesmer’s precious 3 utility slots.

It was very situational. It required very niche builds to make use of – for example making use of winds of chaos or mirror blade to trigger the block.

It had one of the coolest animations in the game (bubble shield). It was good against ranged projectiles – getting a warrior to killshot themselves was priceless. It was a fantastic aoe channeled block, allowing you to tank everything for 4 seconds.

It had a few problems in that it was not easy to use outside of very niche applications – and this is what should have been revamped.

Instead, Anet, probably through fear of not wanting to have any hard counter builds to the pew pew buff (ie, running mirror, traited focus, mimic…) very uncreatively decided to kill it and pretty much make an inferior version of arcane thievery.

It is not unique anymore, it is absolutely useless. They took a skill with awesome visual animation, unique effects but difficult to use in many situations – required forethought in order to trigger the block through using bouncing attacks, and completely destroyed it.

This is total nonsense.

Clownmug.8357:

Mimic? Huh, they should call it gimmick! Amirite?

lol, I support this.

Arikyali.5804:

I think I used it a few times in duels, to copy 25 stacks of might from someone, and that was it. I thought it was great for boon copying when it first came out, but I…don’t recall ever using it since.

I miss the old mimic too…that was fun. Maybe the devs thought it was a little too OP…

They just didn’t want to leave the possibility of pew pew hardcounter builds due to making the ranger LB change at the same time, and being uncreative just looked at arcane thievery and though “let’s just make it copy boons only instead of stealing them”…

Words cannot describe my disgust for the mimic change – would have been better if they simply deleted the skill from the utility bar.

Doesn’t look like much change yet.

Ragnar the Rock.3174:

As a concept mimic is unique & good.

The problem is they didn’t go far enough with who it could copy boons from.

If it could simply copy boons off of allies it would be great & especially so if used in combo with signet of inspiration.

Not really unique when now it overlaps so much with arcane thievery.

Bubble shield was unique and one of the coolest animations in the game.

At least it would be something new… this game really needs something fresh in 2015.

Agreed.

I miss mimic bubble shield so much – such a terrible decision to remove it.

Mesmers = Badminton (intricate net shots → setup → SMASH)
Thieves = Modern/Contemporary Wushu
Warriors = Football (soccer)
Guardians = Rugby
Eles = Figure Skating
Necros = Wrestling/grappling/Judo/etc…
Engis = Squash/Table Tennis
Rangers = Archery/Tennis

I don’t know where you read it being referred to as a crutch, but the last time I called it a crutch was I think at least 6 months ago.

And the same the year before that – for the simple reason that it was my crutch – I could not pvp successfully without using the staff. Anytime I used to use a different weapon in place of it, I used to find it much more difficult.

I’m also confused if we’re using the same definition of crutch – just to clarify from my point of view, I used to call it a crutch because I was unable to play successfully without it – so essentially if you take the crutch away (give me a greatsword) I would fall over.

Edit: Now, as Clownmug said, I use the stealth crutch for shatter. :p

Edit 2: I think my definition of crutch is different to your definition in the OP, unless I’m reading it wrong.

Neptune.2570:

Curunen.8729:

Neptune.2570:

Yes. Asurans are better in PvP. Because jump dodges. And the way they hold there GS.

Oh, this, by far.

Asura greatsword mesmer and ranger animations > all. My biggest disappointment is not being able to use both ranger and mesmer greatsword at the same time.

Asuran ranger holding his GS with the swoop animation bug. Perfect

Haha!

But just imagining things like summon izerker → mirror blade → swap → swoop →hilt bash → maul + mind wrack…

drool…

Neptune.2570:

Yes. Asurans are better in PvP. Because jump dodges. And the way they hold there GS.

Oh, this, by far.

Asura greatsword mesmer and ranger animations > all. My biggest disappointment is not being able to use both ranger and mesmer greatsword at the same time.

messiah.1908:

pls put the second one with commentary

Yes please, even if it was a failure it would be a good opportunity for us to learn from any mistakes.

From the opposite perspective, to be honest I would have said it was the other way round – gs + sw/t users have more difficulty to kill a gs + staff shatter because staff is so evasive.

I have found that when up against a good gs+staff user, the best way to win is to out-manoeuvre them – I can’t simply charge in because staff is too slippery to be caught – so stealth and positioning are crucial.

Essentially I have to treat them like a thief – mirror blade dodge mind wrack being a significant damage source, with sword skills used more defensively to lure them in to attack.

Sw/T lacks mobility and range compared to staff – use that to your advantage when having two ranged weapons, both with iElasticity.

Ground target would be nice, although I’m sure there would be some downsides I haven’t thought of yet.

You get these for every class.

Do something well or get lucky and first reaction is you must be cheating.

I recall once “one-shotting” a thief for around 15k – first reaction was from them was negative but after breaking it down through the combat log – with all the little details that came together, and with the help of a spectator who also explained, they understood (or at least I think they did).

Make a charr – you’ll look more impressive.

Haha, nice, fun to watch.

No arguments there!

Ostricheggs.3742:

Curunen.8729:

Elitist.8701:

LOL at backpack saying Caed can beat Sizer 1v1. Not trying to insult Caed but Sizer is much better at 1v1s and S/D vs D/P is equal. Obviously Backpack wouldn’t know that because he’s not actually best multiclass NA and is average at everything except engi. In teamfights Im going to assume TCG keeps tabs on all members of the opposing team, so no mega ganks from Caed. Also Tage can hold 1v2 vs double cele ele for a long time, and can hold any 1v1. Helseth can 1v1 Oeggs both eles and maybe Nos depending on how well he kites. I dont understand why you people assume TCG will simply take 2v2s that abj. gives them when they can easily rotate mesmer/thief in extremely fast while ele/guard or ranger/guard hold 2v3 for at least a minute unless Nos is there, but Nos is usually in the 2v2. None of you people arguing for abj. are taking into account portal allowing for instant rotations for TCG, and high mobility forcing either freecaps all day or someone camping home and being ignored all game. EU rotations are far superior to NA as well.
Sorry if some of this post doesnt make sense, I wont bother rereading it because I dont feel like it.

I’m willing to bet 75g that TCG will win, PM me in game tomorrow 3-5:00 CDT if you wanna bet against me.

-Teef Teef Teef Teef #2/#3 SD thief NA

That makes sense, but as someone said earlier it boils down to who executes their strategy best. TCG have much less margin for error – any mistake could be costly.

I think you mean that any mistake can be costly for the abjured. Our comp is punishing to the other team when we win and costly when we lose. Czech was accurate in his diagnoses of our comp’s flaws. Our non-tanky members are seriously non-tanky.

Also, I love the euros who have been just losing their mind ever since this weekend. I thought NA was supposed to be the kittentalkers, but all I heard during the TOG was how much EU would stomp on us while we’re just 500-0’ing everyone.

Hmm, from my solo player layman’s point of view I would not have expected that – instead thinking that especially mesmer will have to play exceptionally well with good rotation and use of portal.

Elitist.8701:

LOL at backpack saying Caed can beat Sizer 1v1. Not trying to insult Caed but Sizer is much better at 1v1s and S/D vs D/P is equal. Obviously Backpack wouldn’t know that because he’s not actually best multiclass NA and is average at everything except engi. In teamfights Im going to assume TCG keeps tabs on all members of the opposing team, so no mega ganks from Caed. Also Tage can hold 1v2 vs double cele ele for a long time, and can hold any 1v1. Helseth can 1v1 Oeggs both eles and maybe Nos depending on how well he kites. I dont understand why you people assume TCG will simply take 2v2s that abj. gives them when they can easily rotate mesmer/thief in extremely fast while ele/guard or ranger/guard hold 2v3 for at least a minute unless Nos is there, but Nos is usually in the 2v2. None of you people arguing for abj. are taking into account portal allowing for instant rotations for TCG, and high mobility forcing either freecaps all day or someone camping home and being ignored all game. EU rotations are far superior to NA as well.
Sorry if some of this post doesnt make sense, I wont bother rereading it because I dont feel like it.

I’m willing to bet 75g that TCG will win, PM me in game tomorrow 3-5:00 CDT if you wanna bet against me.

-Teef Teef Teef Teef #2/#3 SD thief NA

That makes sense, but as someone said earlier it boils down to who executes their strategy best. TCG have much less margin for error – any mistake could be costly.

Booms.2594:

Sizer.2654:

I accept any bets vs any team in the WTS, up to maximum 3186gold. If your interested in betting against TCG and losing your money, please contact me ! We would have to organize a middle man that we trust such as jebro or blu and give them small cut from the earnings ofc.

500 gold abjured wins vs TCG IF thats the WTS matchup. id like to be one of the first who can get in on this awesome opportunity.

I would put down 50 gold on Abjured if bets are being taken/are allowed (I’m poor).

shimmerlessEU.6841:

Much like focus Mesmer sword is a total shadow of what it once was. Quite possibly the most heavily nerfed weapon in the game.

It makes me sad to remember what sword/focus was – arguably our best weapon set, now arguably one of the least useful (Edit: of course I’m NOT talking about pve).

Even more annoying because sword/focus always required some skill to use – not like scepter/torch, greatsword and staff.

DrLane.5248:

Abjured is for sure a serious team that none should underestimate.It’s jsut you can’t say they are better or tcg are better.In fact the team that will think and manage to counter the strat/comp of the other team will just win.
They got 2 different grp comp , with their strenght and their weakness.But at last , its always the same , the ones that make the les mistakes and take advantage of other’s will just win.

No argument there.

Even though I’m in the EU, my money and support would firmly be with Abjured in the case of this match up.

I dunno – I kind of like the dual axe animation.

But it would be nice to have the option.

AAeriaM.7045:

A question aimed towards Jackums although anyone can answer….

You said that shatter specs and PU specs are generally pretty bad in PVE. I can see how PU specs can be inefficient because combat would take so long and the boost to survivability isn’t needed in most content; however, what makes a shatter spec so bad? As far as PVE goes, I’m pretty much talking about map completion/world bosses/a few dungeons here and there.

Simply put, dungeon enemies have stupidly high hp. Shatter is not built to repeatedly smash one’s head against hp brick walls.

Shatter works against other players because even the tankiest bunker can be dropped with a few well timed/setup bursts.

In a dungeon it’s incredibly inefficient – sure, you can play a dungeon using a shatter build just like with any other build, but you will be much better off with a zerker phantasm build for the sustained damage in pve dungeons.

In open world, you can do what you like – most things work well.

Generally, if you’re taking a “PU” spec, you’ll be dealing a significant amount of damage through illusions – whether phantasms if a power build, or clones and clone death if condition, in addition to your personal damage from weapons.

When it comes down to it, you don’t need to trait for PU, or take more than decoy/mass invis as personal survival. So instead if thinking “PU spec”, think "do I want to play condition (through illusions – phantasms, clones, clone death) or power, or a mixture of both – and this in turn dictates the weapon sets you could use.
Then think about how will you stay alive – and while PU (the trait) with multiple stealths is unmatched for staying alive (especially in an outnumbered fight), there are other options, particularly when it comes to conquest where you might want to be able to hold a point.

Shatter is better for quickly bursting targets down, and providing things such as boon removal and other control elements to help your team overcome a group fight.

Valentin.2073:

There’s a need for a new meta. I don’t care whatever class would replace eles but just kittening kick them out of that throne already. It’s lame and so god kitten boring. Seriously, not everybody wants to play with magic-based powers. Some of us enjoy playing with REALISTIC damage like guns, bows, and swords.

Heh – like firing a few arrows into the air and dozens rain back down to the ground? Or firing a bow faster than a machine gun? Or blocking and throwing a sword into your enemy but still holding the sword in your hand? :p

Sorry, I couldn’t help it!

Dragician.3854:

yup…im trying to win an solo join at a team arena for long long time after event started….but why?
<snip>

There’s the reason.

For anyone who wants to play well with a team – make one.

Otherwise I don’t care what mode – be it soloq, teamq or hotjoin – it’s all casual to me.

If they wanted teamq to be “proper” they wouldn’t allow solo players to join – the fact that they do means who cares – unless you’re desperately hung up over leaderboards and rank, which personally I don’t care about.

Well it certainly makes sense, otherwise it is weird having fire water and lighting, but no Earth.

Would require balance tweaking on the relevant classes, but I think it certainly would be a good thing to introduce.

Take x/F, x/P or GS in the off-set.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Vid-Chaotic-Perdition-WvW-PvP

Decent point holder and great support in a group fight – just requires skilled use of the focus among other things.

Weaknesses are no boon removal and no huge spike damage.

Haha why not! (yeah, restrict to hotjoin)

Would be funny to see what troll/overpowered specs people could make.