Guild Wars 2

Sergoros.4398:

I blame portal…its all cause of portal. Give portal to warriors. Let them feel, how much fun u can get being utility bot.

Tbh I wouldn’t mind if they deleted portal and veil from the game completely – at least there would be nothing to disguise the poor state this class is in.

Fay.2357:

ASP.8093:

Fay.2357:

… and mesmer is no longer good at doing anything in the game other than roaming as a condie build.

Hyperbole!

No it’s not.

Mesmer isn’t viable at high level tpvp, and hasn’t been for over a year.

Mesmer is only useful for portal/veil/null field in large group WvW. You can’t do damage, you can’t tag, why play?

Mesmer does lower damage than most other classes in PvE. We have (had?) good reflects, but much of our reflect ability is bound to the iWarden, which is the least functional skill in the entire game. On top of that, more and more bosses are becoming unreflectable, making our key role less and less needed.

That leaves open world PvE and WvW roaming. Open world PvE doesn’t count for anything, so that leaves WvW roaming. Roaming in anything but a PU condie build is generally a poor idea, as you’ll get gangbanged and killed, and PU power builds have received a massive nerf with this iLeap change.

So. Not hyperbole. Just reality. Lots of good reasons why I’m not playing this game anymore.

Yep, this is the cold truth.

I struggle to let go of Mesmer and this game given how much I’ve invested in it, but at the moment there is nothing much fun when all the variety is slowly stripped away:
- glamour confusion destroyed
- scepter mediocre (unless running PU Condi…)
- focus in a bad spot (not only iwarden but also 1s on itv…)
- image still useless
- mh sword has its teeth pulled out
…

No need to go on with a wall of text, i do not want to be pigeonholed into gs/staff shatter, PU, or a cheesy 1v1 phantasm build. Doesn’t seem to be any other options now.

Swag Captain.5318:

I feel like I’m the only one who doesn’t really care about this bug fix. Started leveling my Mesmer last week, discovered the bug and was like “Huh. That’s weird.” and went about my day. Granted, it made the RP build I was going for easier (Disappearing Fencer. Uses stealths and teleports to enhance a gentleman duelist.) but the inevitable fixing of one ability didn’t break that. So I can’t pop in, immobilize, and Blink away to summon the PDuelist. Doesn’t mean I have to scrap the entire concept, just gotta work around that.

So far, all I’ve seen is overreacting over the smallest little change. I’m pretty sure within a week or two, everyone who’s yelling they’re quitting the game will find either a new meta for mesmer or a new class that’s “SUPAH UBER BESTEST”. If you truly love your class, you’d stick with it through the good and bad times and not cry fowl when there’s a change you don’t like.

One week of experience does not reflect what many of us have been putting up with for… well coming up for 2 years soon.

A shame, though I can’t say I blame you – I’m equally disillusioned at the moment.

Might just casually poke through the living story for light entertainment, but I can’t take any form of pvp seriously until we get a decent expansion to the game mode.

Can’t see myself playing GW2 with much commitment right now.

Illusionary Leap: Fixed a bug that allowed players to swap places with their clone after it was destroyed.

…

…

:(

That “bug fix” is horrible – I can’t count the number of times that has been useful, waiting and using swap when necessary and not relying on the spawned clone being alive.

Peow peow.2189:

RIght now Mesmers are possibyl the strongest and most volatile class in the meta. <snip>

Not sure if serious…

If serious, sorry but no.

On further thought I would like to be honest – I like the immediacy of casting Mind Stab as it is now.

I do not want to have a long channeled cast.
I do not want to have an AoE with more than one illusionary blade coming out of the ground, because for me it is too " messy".

I do want to have a fast thrust into the ground with immediate effect.
I do want a short root and satisfying animation.

In other words, keep everything the same and either increase the radius / increase the boon strip to 2 / increase the damage / proc aegis (2s) on cast / be a blast finisher (does not have to be all of these).

Everything else can stay exactly the same.

Here is my current look.

Toggle shoulders off for a more lighter/badkitten look.

Hair is new for me – previously had her bald, but I fancied a change. Vigil circlet goes great with this hairstyle – almost like a half cap.

Depends on the player and the build, and what class/build you’re playing.

I can’t flat out say one thing is harder to fight against, 1v1 than another.

Some eles are devastating, some thieves are easy, some rangers are tough, some guardians weak.

Also note that due to the nature of the game mode, you don’t have unlimited amount of time to fight 1v1 (unlike in other scenarios – ie wvw). Most of the time, time and cap pressure, as well as danger of it turning into a 1v2 forces you to make “bad” choices, which you wouldn’t make in a straight out duel.

So yeah as said – dungeons apparently GS is a no-no (I wouldn’t know as I don’t play them).

Everywhere else (open world pve, pvp, wvw…) it is a great choice.

Sounds fun, I would probably try it out over mass invis on occasion.

Ranger = danger.

Never underestimate, especially the good ones.

Think it happens on every class, although can see why with ele or engi it would be more noticeable – I’ve had some horrible skill delay on mesmer which neuters any sort of decent play.

Viking Jorun.5413:

5 Easy Steps to Ensure You PvP Happily:

1. Set your online status to invisible.
2. Disable all chat functions, or create a new window without any chat.
3. Make sure you have a team that’s well coordinated enough to simply use map pings for rotations
4. Play your best
5. Accept your losses and learn from them.

Keeps me calm and rager-free for the entirety of my day PvPing.

Only thing then is missing out on the odd nice conversation with friendly players – sometimes you run into funny characters as well.

Alternative ideas, just to add to the discussion.

Anything which offers a more streamlined and flexible pve/wvw gear system would be welcome.

^Excellent ideas in there, will link this thread there as well.

Raging to yourself is one thing – insulting other players in chat is annoying. I never initiate that, and only say something back if someone has typed some abuse toward me.

Dunno, but my block list will continue to increase.

Yeah I realise this has come up many times before. I felt that now with the wardrobe and other changes it is about time for this feature to be implemented.

@Deimos – I completely agree – I want to give them every excuse to make this happen.

I think unlimited stat change should be restricted to legendary items.

Ascended could have a cheaper method of unlocking a new stat combo on the same item – for example apply a second inscription/insignia with the ascended item in the crafting menu plus small amounts of say crystalline dust or whatever. Then the new stat will remain unlocked for that specific ascended item, with a drop down menu to change between them. This can be repeated multiple times for as many additional stats as you want on the individual item.

Exotic could work in a similar way – applying new exotic insignias/inscription plus whatever crafting materials.

Oh and yes, infusions should be swappable as well.

I think that should give players sufficient things to do with their gold, but also reduce pve/wvw item clunkiness into a more streamlined/intuitive system.

Buy rune/sigil – apply to existing weapon/armour piece – rune/sigil remains unlocked for that specific piece of armour/weapon drop down menu allows applying multiple runes/sigils to an item of armour or weapon, allowing option to swap at any time free of charge.

Especially with full ascended weapons/armour – it makes no sense to either:
- craft an entire duplicate set for a different rune/sigil.
- use the hideously overpriced upgrade extractor for every item every time you want to change rune/sigil.
- overwrite the existing rune/sigil meaning you have to buy it again if you want to swap between different runes/sigils.

Being bound to the individual item of armour or weapon means you still have to pay a decent amount of gold for a rune or sigil to be unlocked on an entire set – not to mention if you want to run different builds with different sets of armour (ok you could have a legendary weapon, but at least there is no legendary armour… yet).

I appreciate there needs to be gold sinks in the game, but rune/sigil restrictions on gear should not be it.

Haha, fantastic!

Everything about that is just perfect.

1. Raid on the Capricorn
- jumping into the water at the start was a great way to open a match – felt like some pirate raid.
- I love the underwater fighting/kiting
- just the general vibe of the map is great

2. Skyhammer.
- sending people flying over the edge never gets old
- I love the jump pads.

(true story)

Darnis.4056:

Curunen.8729:

What I’m tired with in conquest is:
- being forced to fight near/on point, where aoe spam is king and certain builds/classes have distinct advantages.
- being forced to fight in a timely fashion against point bunkers – unlike wvw where you can kite around for half an hour if you like.
- being forced to do a silly dance rotation to cap the points/meaningless objectives.

What makes a fun to play/ Fun to Watch Game mode?
1. Kiting for hours
2.Fighting in one area.
3. No Point Bunkers

Really ? :/ I think that would be an awful to play and awful to watch gamemode..

Without Objectives which concentrate fights (PointsLordFlag) You end up with an unbalanceable Doki-doki-carebear-run-run game mode.

We already have that, It’s called Wvwvw, we don’t need to make PVP into Wvwvw.

If you read my previous post, you would see I am in favour of strong objective based modes, with some plot/scenario behind them and non-linear approach to winning with secondary objectives on the map.

The maps would have to be a little more complicated than at the moment – not as open and more built around the specific objective (whether escorting an VIP along a path or defending a base).

That in itself would be enough (along with a time limit or kill limit – maybe a certain number of lives) to make it fun.

The “kite around for half an hour” was tongue in cheek – of course no pvp match should last this long. But you should not be forced to fight a bunker on a point as it is now. Nevertheless I enjoy watching skilled survival of a 1vx scenario, no matter the time.

WvW does not offer enough when it comes to this sort of thing – need more small scale and focused objectives, but less restrictive than the current pvp.

Edit: for reference, I’m thinking of the moviebattles II mod for jedi academy, and the team based objectives there. Matches were only 5 minutes, but each class would have 1-3 lives (depending on the relative strength, ie basic trooper vs droideka). Obviously that would not work with gw2 – everyone would need the same number of lives (unless one player is a VIP or something). But what would apply is how this game mode can work in a short time frame (15 minutes).

Darnis.4056:

PU Mesmers, Condition Thief, and Straight up Condition Warrior are irrelevant 1v1 builds only used on duel servers. O_o

Evis/Longbow Half Condie warrior is strong because of Burst potential+Point control+1v1 Ability.

There’s like one guy playing condi necro in high end play still.

I don’t personally view them as irrelevant – maybe because I value 1v1 or 1vX fighting more than conquest/team play (I don’t play tpvp because like other players I don’t like conquest much). Yes I know that is kind of a stupid viewpoint when the entire gamemode is against playing like that – but I’ll make do until we get some new mode.

Yes, maybe this is a general comment about fighting other players in the game – more suited to dueling and wvw.

If you end up 1v1ing one of those condition builds/classes on a point, it will likely be a hard fight – disregarding capping/decapping the point.

What I’m tired with in conquest is:
- being forced to fight near/on point, where aoe spam is king and certain builds/classes have distinct advantages.
- being forced to fight in a timely fashion against point bunkers – unlike wvw where you can kite around for half an hour if you like.
- being forced to do a silly dance rotation to cap the points/meaningless objectives.

Darnis.4056:

Darksteel.8412:

Curunen totally said it right there,

Yes all hail our new lord and saviors the unranked Darksteel and Curunen.

No seriously do you guys even play pvp in any game mode? :/

The PVE Profession balance Forum is over there
And the Open World PVE against 2 other servers forum is also not here.

The only class with such Noskillrequiredspam2win condition application that it needs to be looked at is Engineer with Incindiery powder (How Dhuumfire + is still in the game is beyond me)

Don’t lump me in with that please – all I said was that condition/passive play is not nice to play against – hardly complaining in the same vein as the OP.

Edit: on rereading that I should add – what? In terms of general fighting (putting aside organised team play and conquest nonsense) what about PU condition mesmer, condition thief, condition necros, even kitten condition warriors? Don’t tell me they are useless in a straight up unorganised fight.

Condition/passive play is nasty and unfortunate, whatever the class/build – but I have no idea the direction in order to solve the problem without making condition builds obsolete again.

Personally I don’t understand the appeal of MOBAs, so am not really interested in such game modes for gw2 pvp.

I would prefer to see more action oriented game modes – akin to those from different TPS/rpg games.

For example team based multi layered objectives:
- one team has an attacking primary objective (capture an enemy base, destroy a generator, kill a VIP npc, escape a prison…) and another is tasked to defend/protect something (a base, escort a champ, capture prisoners etc).
- multiple objectives along the way – for example hacking door controls to open new pathways in order to access the defending team’s base, enabling/disabling turrets,
- defending team can employ different countermeasures (secondary objectives) such as activating npc guards, putting up walls/forcefields

There could also be scenarios where neither team is the clear aggressor, but a more intricate “plot” instead.

In a nutshell the idea is for each team to have one overall primary objective that can be accomplished by either:
- completing the primary objective
- killing the enemy team a sufficient number of times until reaching a point cap
- time limit expires and one team wins by default (team defending a base for example – the attackers were unsuccessful).

And along the way there are multiple secondary objectives that offer a non-linear approach to winning – carefully balanced around what each team is tasked to do (defending one objective may be easier than attacking it for example).

As a ranger you will attract a lot of hostile attention – enemy players will fall over each other to kill you first. You are the prime target for players hungry for kills.

When you say 3 damage – are you underleveled? But then you already have 97% completion, so I assume must be level 80.

Explore everything you can in your section of EB while you’re a particular colour. Use whatever mobility skills, traits and survivability gear you can – for example mainhand sword double leap, greatsword swoop and block, evades, +movement speed signet, -condi duration runes and food, rampage as one, lightning reflexes…

Edit: stack toughness as well. If you run full melandru + poultry soup you shouldn’t need to take too much vitality beyond base/traits. Take fall damage reduction trait. Work on running – with the right setup you should almost never be caught – only a good thief or warrior could keep up. Maybe go full wilderness survival or beastmaster/regen.

Deal with the other BLs when you rotate colour (maybe explore south for both enemy BLs now so you only need to do north when you rotate).

Oh, and make sure autotargeting is turned off – use the ranger’s insane mobility on weapon skills to explore and escape nasty situations. Put both bows away for this IMO.

I have not done this personally on my ranger (doing 100% on mes was enough) – if/when I can be bothered to do it, that’s what I intend to do.

I agree with manveruppd.7601 regarding skill/trait unlocking during a match.

I would HATE such a system – classes/builds would not be equally handicapped and some would be pretty much unplayable with anything less than their full skill/trait set.

New hair!

Vigil circlet actually goes really well with this hairstyle.

I wouldn’t worry about focusing on any one weapon set right now – levelling is for you to enjoy trying different things out and see what you like the feel of.

At the end it depends whether you like to focus on pve or wvw/pvp, because different weapons work better in different scenarios.

What the strengths/weaknesses/kryptonite should be, rather than are?

I don’t believe any profession should be pigeonholed into exact strengths/weaknesses, and none of them should have a “kryptonite” – there should be no hard counters (ie S/x thief vs shatter mesmer).

Every profession should be able to be built in a variety of ways and it should be up to the player to decide what strengths/weaknesses he or she wants in the specific build, whether that is:
- good/bad burst or sustained direct or condition damage
- good/bad aoe abilities or single target focused abilities
- good/bad condition removal, passive or active defence through stats or abilities
- good/bad crowd control and support mechanics
- and so on…

All of that should be possible for every profession, and it should be up to the player to decide what compromise to make.

Professions should mostly be adding flavour through their unique mechanics – do you want to feel like captain planet or inspector gadget. However the effect of these mechanics should not be restricted to a profession but the choice given to the players instead.

Elxdark.9702:

<snip>
*Try to listen chill music while playing, it is a good idea to keep in mind

If people are using wvw builds just ignore them*,<snip>

This – I always have some nice relaxing music on in the background.

Zaxares.5419:

-shrug- People will play what they wanna play. Just focus on your own performance.

If you’re winning, keep doing what you’re doing.

If you’re losing and you want to get better, ask for advice or do some research.

If you’re losing and you don’t mind losing because you’re having fun anyway, keep doing what you’re doing.

If you’re losing and it’s because you have bad teammates, then play Team Arenas. Getting potentially bad teammates is part of the scene in Hotjoin and Solo Queue. You win some, you lose some.

And this.

There are some seriously unhappy players out there and like to blame it on anything they can.

People spectating to join the winning team and/or switching teams mid game is irritating – there needs to be restrictions on this.

Had one hotjoin recently where our side is in the lead by a decent margin, though teams were even – one particular player appears to quit, but then when it becomes a 5v3 and autobalance kicks in, I get chucked on the other side despite top score and contributing majority of leg work for our team – then this kitten rematerialises and proceeds to join the winning team…
It doesn’t matter that this is “only hotjoin”, that kind of thing should not happen.

Likewise landslide victories/losses and horribly unbalanced teams.

I always join the losing team/team with fewest players if I can help it, although sometimes there’s just no point if faced with a semi organised guild group.

Hotjoin has a vital place in pvp – a place where you don’t have to worry about rank, meta builds, disconnects or great team synergy, but can kick back and have some casual pvp in your own time. At the moment though it is a mess.

Well I don’t like or use either bow, so no pew pew from me!

As said, probably people are playing just for a change, and ranger melee has some of the coolest animations in the game.

Viking Jorun.5413:

As far as basic gameplay and securing stomps go, I’d highly recommend checking out my channel.

shameless plug

;D

Nice use of pet swap quickness, birds and sic em! :o

Might try that instead of the quickening zephyr.

kitten – now I try to play mesmer again and it feels so sluggish without swoop, sword leaps, LR and a million evades…

Elitist.8701:

Sigh OK, lemme rephrase my question. What mesmer spec is there that isn’t hard countered by thieves, isn’t incredibly boring to play and is viable in PvP. NOT PU. ENOUGH ABOUT PU. I don’t care, even if it was viable, I would never play a stealth spam class.

At the moment? “Equal” skill level? Nothing tbh.

The topic has many different angles as shown by the variety of posts – depending on the situation each player is considering as a priority – a solo/team fight, pvp duel, wvw duel, wvw pug group fight, wvw guild fight, organised tpvp…

If it’s just about countering in terms of pure fighting, anything that can seize the thief and burst hard would be effective (interrupt/lockdown/shatter style), excluding phantasm or PU builds.

Benjamin.8237:

Jurica.1742:

Nice video and mesmer. Would you mind posting a screenshot of the front of your asura?
I’m working on Vision of the Mists and Strength runes, but I’ve been thinking about getting T3 armor(just need the legs) and using it on mine..
Have a wonderful rest of the day mate!

~Monns

Sure thing: http://imgur.com/kZpSWnv,r6zUHwQ#0

Badkitten asura.

In my limited time playing as one, it seems the one thing that is the most difficult to manage is the way rangers deal damage.

All other classes are easily capable of high damage burst (power or condi) at the right opportunity to down an opponent, whereas with rangers it seems to be much more difficult to coordinate pet and personal damage in order to spike high damage at the right moments.

Many things must be sacrificed in order to setup a perfect high damage burst as a ranger (traits, skills, pets, gear etc) – often leading to lack of sustain afterwards, making it a do or die situation.

Steady sustained dps is difficult to work with in outnumbered situations, especially given how healing works in this game. In 1v1 encounters it is a surprisingly easy class to play. Going 1v2 or more, the difficulty grows exponentially.

Again, just from my very limited experience.

For weapons, definitely go for zerker on all of them – that way no need to mess around with other stats if you feel like using a different weapon sometimes.

For armour – no one can tell you what you feel most comfortable with, as everyone will have their own way. Personally I think full zerker is a good way to go for armour – you’ll certainly not be disappointed. Trinkets can be easily swapped in and out depending on what toughness or other stats you want.

I think whatever you go for, power should be the primary stat – I don’t like knights because they don’t have this.

Regarding trinkets – I know this sounds silly but I’m influenced by their names – for example I like Sieran so I have to use the magister’s field guide. Just a little bit of role play compromise with stats.

As long as you have >2k power, ~50% crit and at least 200% crit damage, then do whatever you like.

Regarding condi removal – prevention is better than a cure – best to work on avoiding in the first place. Patience and tactical retreat help, and as long as you’ve got one active removal to get rid of poison to allow a full heal, then all is well. Personally I take poultry soup to deal with it – open inventory and eat if approaching a condition heavy conflict. MoR is great, as is null field. AT a bit harder to use, as well as idisenchanter in shatter… Torch trait is always there too, if you like that.

shadowpass.4236:

OMFG I hate this. I typed a whole long post explaining a ton of tactics to use against thieves and mesmers and when I clicked post, it said this page is unavailable >.> when I hit go back, I lost it all.

kitten this kitten it all

:( My sympathies, horrible when that happens.

I know the targeting in this game is clunky, but IMO you can’t play mainhand sword or greatsword properly without turning autotargeting off.

I turn it back on if going back to mesmer, as there’s nothing like swoop that requires detargeting on occasion (only phase retreat “advance”, if you use staff).

But coming back to the topic, it might be nice to have directional control on hornet sting, because sometimes it can throw you in an unintended direction, especially if there’s a bit of visual clutter in melee range (aoe fields, letting zoos, etc).

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

In WvW i would play the being chased rather than the chaser a Ranger is a magnet in WvW let them chase you and keep kiting. they will only be wasting their efforts trying then getting side wiped by a zerg truck if you kite correctly with lighting reflexes back into the Friendly zerg with a small group in tow.

im the boarder collie they are the sheep chase me if your dare.

Haha, that sounds like a lot of fun!

Yeah, if I’m going to have a permanent target painted on my head right from the outset, then I’ll happily kite around like a sheepdog!

Heh, strangely enough I find it easier 1v1ing a thief compared to any other class, providing I use both swords and offhand dagger. Easier than on mesmer tbh – can out evade them, bit of poison here and there, counterattack and hilt bash/maul timed right are wonderful. Only trouble is no way to kick them out of shadow refuge (I do miss illusionary wave).

Difficulty arises when outnumbered (ie 1v3) – can easily disengage, but most likely have permanent target overhead so no way to reset a fight other than run away and run back in again.

A bit worried how this will carry across into wvw – assuming either SB, LB or mainhand axe is mandatory for chasing – all of which I don’t like at all.

In an ideal world I’d love greatsword only, and weapon swap between mesmer greatsword and ranger greatsword!

Just posting this to cover my back – some thief accused me of hacking in hotjoin using the above build… :/

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YjEq0yaBLmsw1aALhqdDEAFwvT1bJ8AZcVKyqA-TZBHwAGOIAAuAAq2fYwTAoZZAA

Too much evade spam I guess?

Oh regarding strength runes – I tried them out for a while but found necro fear spam and short stuns to be pretty annoying so switched back to melandru for the time being. Perhaps a little redundant with empathic bond but I’ll change them back and forth to see how to work around each one’s shortcomings. And I decided to keep energy sigils on both weapon for the time being – helps when fighting something like a thief.

I think what I find most challenging is the lack of decent stun breaks.
Protect me ~ kill my pet
Signet of renewal ~ kill my pet (60s cooldown? Seriously?)
Quickening zephyr ~ kill myself (worse healing)

Lightning reflexes is the only one I find to be reliable as a stun break. I mainly find myself using QZ to burst down something using sword auto attacks.

But if there’s something like a hammer warrior and interrupt mesmer hovering around, things can be painful if you get caught.

Amethyst Lure.5624:

Spear on land? Rope spear/whip? No? I wish…

Sword/Torch is my favourite setup feelwise but I seldom feel like it’s optimal. Staff is almost always my defensive weapon.

Spear is super sexy (as is trident). Such a shame we can’t use them more often.

Underwater weapons > land weapons.

shadowpass.4236:

@Curunen
I edited ur build. Also, it works with cavalier amulet too.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAR8YjEq0ya/Kesw1aALhqdDEAFwvT1bJ8AZcVKyqA-TZBEwASuCAMeAAp2fAwBBIbZAA

u can swap signet of renewal out for signet of the hunt if u want more mobility

Hmm that does look good, thank you.

I really need to let go of energy sigils – kind of become a crutch but I’ll give it a go!

Just a couple of questions about the pets – what makes the lynx and snow leopard better than jaguar or a bird?

Those 5 stacks of might look great so I really should take the lynx (EDIT: Oops, got confused between that and the jungle stalker!) , but I’m not sure of the snow leopard’s 2s chill on pounce.

I was thinking the raven’s blind might be useful (swapping to it and activating during a stomp for instance), but is it not great in practice? I haven’t had much chance to extensively test apart from the mist npcs.

Edit2: Wow that might is nice! :o

eldenbri.1059:

Greatsword + Scepter/Pistol

I pretty much never see anyone else run this, but I’ve used it for so long it’s just natural. Every attack can be done at range. The phantasms are both summoned on the 4 skill. Both of the 5 skills are interrupts.

With this set, I think of the weapon skills as basically all offense/interrupt (scepter block is the only real defense and it’s still quite damaging). The rest of the defense comes from mixing in some sentinels and knights pieces along with PU from decoy/mass invis.

And, with this set, I can stay hopeful for some changes to scepter at some point…

That’s a pretty unique set, with a lot of ranged and interrupt potential, nice.