Guild Wars 2

Since last week sometime – can’t pin it down exactly, I’ve noticed some very odd and disturbing things with illusions (and even other players)

All my illusions look nothing like my character – they are all ugly asura wearing some sort of hood, and all of them perform the same ground smash animation similar to what you can do with the metal bar. Please see the attached pictures – something is very wrong.

Having said that, all of their skills go off correctly, but every single one with the same ground smash – even the izerker ground smashes through targets (see attached picture). Every single illusion does this same thing on land – haven’t tested underwater.

In addition to this, possibly related, I’ve noticed many players all doing this ground smash animation when reviving other players, or even in place of regular weapon skills (skills still have the same effect). Unfortunately this is harder to photograph because I’m usually more interested in fighting.

Obviously something must be broken in the game folder – I just hope I don’t have to redownload the entire client…

Anyone else experienced this?

Not that I’ve noticed.

At first I only noticed the phantasms looking like this, but then also all the clones as well.

And then other players doing this same ground pound while rezzing or using normal skills…

Alissah.9281:

Curunen.8729:

8:58 has a convinced my to pick up greatsword again for EotM.

Interesting, I’ve been in half a mind to try out the 10/20/10 spec recently – been back and forth between all the shatter trait allocations and not entirely settled on any at the moment.

One question – how the kitten do you get away with kitten-all condition removal? I’ve got so used to having mantra of resolve to pop off before a heal or something, I now struggle to play without it.

When I get overloaded by conditions:

1. Notice conditions
2. Run away tactical retreat

In solo Q I also use the resolve mantra, but in eotm and hotjoin I feel like people dont use alot ofconditions :P.

No matter how much I dodge and avoid, I always run into some kittens that poison me at the wrong time or something – especially when more than 3 condition based opponents together (say 2 engis and a necro for example).

I dunno, I’ll try again without it and experiment with 10/20/10 and more powerful offence.

Going to post this in the bug forum too, but since last week sometime – can’t pin it down exactly, I’ve noticed some very odd and disturbing things with illusions.

All my illusions look nothing like my character – they are all ugly asura wearing some sort of hood, and all of them perform the same ground smash animation similar to what you can do with the metal bar. Please see the attached pictures – something is very wrong.

Having said that, all of their skills go off correctly, but every single one with the same ground smash – even the izerker ground smashes through targets (see attached picture). Every single illusion does this same thing on land – haven’t tested underwater.

In addition to this, possibly related, I’ve noticed many players all doing this ground smash animation when reviving other players, or even in place of regular weapon skills (skills still have the same effect). Unfortunately this is harder to photograph because I’m usually more interested in fighting.

Obviously something must be broken in the game folder – I just hope I don’t have to redownload the entire client…

Anyone else experienced this?

8:58 has a convinced my to pick up greatsword again for EotM.

Interesting, I’ve been in half a mind to try out the 10/20/10 spec recently – been back and forth between all the shatter trait allocations and not entirely settled on any at the moment.

One question – how the kitten do you get away with kitten-all condition removal? I’ve got so used to having mantra of resolve to pop off before a heal or something, I now struggle to play without it.

cheshirefox.7026:

great character, amazing voice actress

Yeah absolutely. Love the voice, love the character.

The only thing I am a little disturbed by is her face! It’s too cute – like some puppet about to murder someone! ;D

Art, shatter, trolling, roaming?

Kitten, has to wait till the evening, can’t access video atm… :/

Carighan.6758:

No no, iMage casts Moa Morph! On a 10s CD.

The tears will be wonderful! >:D

I thought part of the appeal of the ranger was that gritty, “realistic” visual vibe, compared to other more flashy classes.

phys.7689:

Curunen.8729:

Substance E.4852:

Godmoney.2048:

I’d pay 800 gems per trait slot. Take my money already just give me GEAR and SPEC templates so I can change everything with a single button push.

This is already horribly likely so please don’t suggest it to further encourage them…

Yeah, take it easy with the money there! ;D

I know we would all be very much interested in such a feature, but let’s not encourage them to milk us even further!

just to offer some perspective here, but if you think about them milking us, the other side of that coin is you milking them. After all everything they develop requires work and money, you got to remember to pay them sometime for some things. So the question is what is an acceptable monetization strategy from your prespective. Where is it ok for them to get their money, and what should be included for free

I’ve spent more than my fair share in the gem shop – I’m not one of those people who expects something for nothing, but there must be a balance. Take the upgrade extractor tool for example – horribly overpriced.

Substance E.4852:

Godmoney.2048:

I’d pay 800 gems per trait slot. Take my money already just give me GEAR and SPEC templates so I can change everything with a single button push.

This is already horribly likely so please don’t suggest it to further encourage them…

Yeah, take it easy with the money there! ;D

I know we would all be very much interested in such a feature, but let’s not encourage them to milk us even further!

That mesmer elite sounds terrible, I’m almost certain I’d never use it over mass invis.

I hope to see this within the year – say 3 templates with free swap between them, and unlock further storage with gems?

Dawdler.8521:

Mogar.9216:

It’s the best thing about staff . You can get into places that you shouldn’t. Also it’s a free leap away from people on a crazy short cool down.

Alternativly its a quick death when you leap right into a zerg because of targetting fail.

TBH I never had that much issues with the staff. I use staff in all my builds and it can go a week between ending up in a wall or something.

Yeah, can go ages with no problem, then all of a sudden be in the worst position and get stuck. I’ve got stuck twice on top of walls recently – once on the outer wall of stonemist (with enemies coming up the stairs) and once on a BL garrison wall.

Being stuck on the ground in the open is bad, yes.

I just pray I’ve got weapon swap and blurred frenzy available to start moving again.

Hell yes! Any mechanic that allows gliding/flying would make the whole thing a lot more fun.

Saturn.6591:

Mesmers have stealth, and Moa morph. Also, their AI does everything for them, even while they are in stealth (and they are in stealth all the time). Mesmers are OP.

^At least that’s what some people claim. Which of course is complete bullkitten, but hey… who needs facts if you just can Q.Q?

:D

Yeah, when an opponent comes within 1200 range of us they just die, we don’t even have to press any buttons – so OP…

xD

One thing that’s been kittening me off recently is iLeap on EotM – terrain + skill lag makes it incredibly easy to screw up a combo.

Sunshine.4680:

Curunen.8729:

Do shatter with that setup, it’s a lot of fun.

Have any links or anything or ideas, gear type?? I’m here to learn from you all!

I’m not a very experienced player compared to many mesmers here, so I’ll only try to share what I’ve found works for me.

Link in sig shows the build and gear I currently use – standard 0/20/20/0/30 as in the stickied Shatter Cat thread, except using torch and a few other differences.

I’ve gone through a lot of different builds – glamour confusion, clone death, phantasm, power PU – but came back around to staff shatter which is what I find most fun to play at the moment.

The most difficult trait choice in this build is between 1200 blink and sword cooldown. When fighting a thief for example, I’d rather have sword cooldown, but when running from a large mob the 1200 blink becomes more useful.
Still chopping and changing things, but am quite satisfied with the overall performance so far.

Do shatter with that setup, it’s a lot of fun.

Warden, yes could work.

iLeap? No I’d prefer it not to be ground targeted.

Osicat.4139:

Al that I ask for is the cd on abilitys there is in the game nowdays got removed. You cant hit a q of leap + leap and sword 2 as you endup leap then stand in air swing your sword.

Also the leap missfires often, you leap to target and he get immobeliced…. but you to far away from him to hit with sword 2.

/Osicat

I hate that – makes you look like a right idiot if it happens.

skcamow.3527:

Torch shatter builds can be effective and quite devious due to the stealth and surprising prestige burst out of stealth. Vash is one of the better players I’ve seen to use Torch/shatter. Here is a video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

There are a few more on his youtube channel you can browse through. He provides helpful hints here and there on using stealth to your advantage in a shatter spec.

Yeah, definitely one of the better torch shatter users I’ve seen videos of, his videos are excellent.

Here’s one of Seven’s which also illustrates torch nicely, and that’s when prestige was channeled so a lot easier to use now – for example covering mantra of resolve recharge:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BS8iV_Coi2c

Purple Wing also uses torch:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYvIBpN0LQU

Remember prestige scales very well regardless of enemy number. The only other offhand which scales well in 1vX is the focus, and considering the state of the iwarlock and the delay on curtain pull, I would argue torch is very attractive at the moment.

Only pure phantasm builds would not work well with the torch, for obvious reasons.

There is only one thing to find out in this thread – is cleansing conflagration worth it in a shatter build.
Personally I would find 10/20/10 with blink cooldown, 10/30/0 with sword and blink range, or 0/20/20 with staff cooldown, or 20/20/0 with boon removal all to be more useful than traiting torch.
But to the OP – try it out and see how it goes.

^What? Stealth shatter works just fine – I’m assuming you’ve seen Vash or Seven’s videos using the torch with shatter. I’m posting from a phone so can’t find other examples.

Concealing a burst, giving yourself breathing room, blind, blast finisher (nice to combo with staff chaos storm), little bit of added damage on exiting stealth… I use it all the time in my medium armour shatter setup.

Sylv.5324:

Curunen.8729:

Not the least popular, but I’d be surprised if they’re more popular than warrior/guardian/thief.

I’d say somewhere in the middle.

No, all three of those are much more popular.

You see a lot in early zones but folks reroll about halfway through the leveling curve. Mesmer is near the bottom of played classes, iirc.

Er, that’s what I said – guardian warrior and thief are more popular.

I do believe Mesmer is more popular than engi, necro and ranger.

^Agreed, torch synergises nicely with shattering. Whether it’s worth traiting for is another matter.

Xyonon.3987:

My main and beloved Madame E. Le Blanc! <3

I just have 3 questions to you guys!

• Do you like the first one or the second one more?
• Is there any other special headgear? Wanna see my hair!
• WHY IS THIS CAT IN THE 2ND PIC CAUSING ME NIGHTMARES!?!?!?

greeeez ^.^

I like the second more personally. And yes, that cat is freaky! :o

azuzephyr.7280:

Why do I get the feeling that a lot of this is due to PU.

Shatter/phantasm do not have too many defense options, it’s only PU which becomes untouchable between spamming stealth, aegis, blocks and evades ontop of that.

Why do they add in OP trash traits and then balance around that

That needs nerfing too, more than anything.

But CI was inevitable/overdue considering all the other classes.

Vuh.1328:

Curunen.8729:

Critical infusion nerf is well needed – one of the most powerful 5pt traits.

With the sigil change, providing sigil of energy stays similar to how it is now, just put a sigil of energy on every weapon (plus whatever else you like).

mesmers are already playing with energy on both weapon sets already so much won’t change there, altho energy sigils are probably getting nerfed aswell :>

True they could be ruined by the patch. I don’t use energy currently anyway.

Just giving options – the trait is definitely too powerful. If it harms illusion generation, then the class can be tweaked to provide them in some other way.

Yeah sometimes I’d rather have a 4th utility slot instead of an elite.

chemiclord.3978:

Yeah, you kinda lost me at “nerf warrior even more.”

This.

Regarding the topic title, for me I’d say no, they are not destroying it – I am enjoying some of the new content that gets added, even if the process feels slow on this end.

Can’t belive I didn’t see it in your OP – chill is a great idea.

Maybe it could be RNG 2s burning or 2s chill (50/50), plus the usual confusion and retaliation?

I don’t think the condition removal would be enough to make it worthwhile – beyond getting rid of that poison to heal or something – even in that case I’d prefer mantra of resolve or something in a utility slot.

Having said that I’m sure some people must play like this with it – have a go and let us know what you find out.

SlimChance.6593:

<snip>

Right now, our chilled ability is RNG with Chaos Storm, and the Chaotic Interruption trait (again, a “random” chance). I think it would make sense to add it to iMage, as well.

Well kitten me, that’s GENIUS, fantastic, can’t believe I never thought of that!

Chilled on iMage completely fits with the theme of the class – a torch that freezes people.

This has to be done.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

I like the frenzy elite. Please give me that so I can use it on the glass staff ele over in that corner doing 10k meteors <3. Thanks for wiping your own zerg! Love, Mesmer

Given the nature of our class I think it’s a dimension that is sorely in need of being explored – the ability to turn enemies against each other, or make enemies think you’re their ally. Should be the basis of any illusionist style class.

Could make group fights a lot more interesting.

Critical infusion nerf is well needed – one of the most powerful 5pt traits.

With the sigil change, providing sigil of energy stays similar to how it is now, just put a sigil of energy on every weapon (plus whatever else you like).

Xaylin.1860:

Curunen.8729:

That does sound cool, but instead of adding a new shatter this could be a new trait for either diversion or cry of frustration?

While an improvement to Cry of Frustration would be nice, adding a fear would help neither F2 nor F4. When feared by F2 there would be less time to be damaged by Confusion. When feared by F4 you would not need the Distortion.

And please, don’t take away my F3 Daze…

Fear on F2 could work if it applied Torment instead of Confusion.

Well I didn’t say anything about Distortion.

I believe adding a 5th shatter for that purpose would be messy, complicated and unnecessary – therefore the only shatters it makes sense on are 2 and 3 – but having it a base feature is also not good given how they work now, therefore the only way it makes sense in the current state is as a traited improvement.

I believe fear fits 3 better than 2, if it can fit anywhere at all. In any case, 2 should have some torment stacks added – I have no idea why it was put on scepter when the name “cry of frustration” is literally crying out for torment.

Dondagora.9645:

Thought for a bit, and felt that rather than a normal Fear, which terrifies people into fleeing, a manipulation skill, maybe an Elite, called “Attract” might actually force the target to run towards you instead of away. It could help shatters hit and could, given manipulation is meant to turn the tides, literally force the opponent into the corner you yourself were just in. I feel this is more “Mesmer-y” than Fear.

This is interesting, it could work really well.

bladeofky.3067:

How about a Fear based shatter, similar to Diversion? Duration depends on how many clones are up and can be traited for AoE fear.

That does sound cool, but instead of adding a new shatter this could be a new trait for either diversion or cry of frustration?

I’m bothered by the state of cry of frustration at the moment – I think it needs to add torment or something, because it’s lackluster compared to 1, 3 and 4.

Mass Hysteria elite would be pretty cool – reminds me of master illusion spells in Skyrim.

On that note, what if we had some new short duration conditions:

Passivity – all players appear as allies and cannot be damaged by your attacks for a short time, and neither can you.
=> Harmony elite – AoE passivity – enemies cannot damage you, you cannot damage them.

Frenzy – all players appear as enemies and can be damaged by your attacks for a short time
=> Mayhem elite – AoE frenzy

5 player target cap for each maybe?
Condition duration around 2-5s?

Do you mean hotjoin? If yes, anything goes.

Some players just want to look for some quick fights or test builds, some don’t care about capture points, some just want to mess around and have a laugh.

If you’re serious about the game mode (I’m not), better to look at solo/team queue.

Daelin.6782:

My warrior ^^

The gas mask skin was just what I needed to complete the effect! Now I’m just looking out to see if a better (more appropriate) shoulder skin comes along

This is kittening amazing. Seriously good look – I thought it was from Fallout for a minute! :o

Somehow missed this thread. Think I’m done with the look now. Apologies for the lighting – need to find somewhere else to take some screenshots.

Dyes are indigo, redemption and antique gold. Student pants, vigil chest/legs/gloves, temple mask, exalted shoulders.

What is your second set?

I don’t know much about pve beyond open world, but afaik anything works, so you could go Sw/Sw + Sc/F for example.

First pushback thread and now this? I suppose we haven’t had much trolling recently, so it was only a matter of time…

I don’t know about having daze/knockback on a phantasm – I think it could be too powerful. Remember, the other skill is arguably one of the best off hand skills at the moment, so iMage needs to balance it out.

I think simply applying 2 or 3s of burning to every enemy the bounce hits, in addition to confusion stacks and possibly blind? Then increase the retaliation duration on allies, and maybe increase the bounce by 1.

Heh, not bad, I’ve seen worse attempts.

That was fast !

Thanks to whoever was involved in fixing this – good job!

So I finally got a chance to play in EotM today and yeah, I have to agree with this thread title.

However that’s not a bad thing – in fact it’s a good way to mess around and have fun with little consequence.

I’m not fond of the lack of open space – makes roaming a bit dull as you’re forced along strict paths on the bridges and walkways. But it is visually impressive.

Needed more flat open land though.

Phi Is Sly.1857:

Why is this getting hotfixed? when thier are 100’s of broken skills in the game what have been waiting a good part of a year for fixing. :S

I agree there are other things that could be dealt with quickly, but this seriously harms the basis of an entire class (illusions) – I should think it would be fixed fast.

On that note, good on the devs for doing that.

ronpierce.2760:

Fix moa on MM when you fix this. It’s just as problematic, pl0x! Hard counters are hard counters!

Yeah they can go ahead and fix it too – not like most of us would care as we don’t use moa.