Guild Wars 2

Here’s my mesmer.

Had to level an alt for the vigil chest and gloves, who is now my official “vigil armour requisition officer”, and only exists to provide this character with armour! :p

Sink and Float effects: No longer affect targets above water.
Illusion of Drowning skill: No longer able to affect targets at infinite range. Now respects line of sight.

Aww…

Well it had to happen at some point.

Flintbrow.7985:

Curunen.8729:

Agreed with swapping emeralds for rubies.
Then, depending on your crit chance you could swap in some cavalier trinkets.

My current build is quite similar in the traits, with x/20/20/5/5 as a base, as well as S/S + staff.

I would consider putting the 10 points in domination, only because you have can have the option of crippling dissipation or 15% illusion damage, without needing to respec. Crippling dissipation is a very useful trait.

I did, in fact, take the points in Dom. for Cripples. 10/20/20/20/0.
Why not 15 in Inspiration and 5 in Illusions? I’ll reveal my madness soon enough..moohahahaha.

No 5 points in illusions? Madness!

Now I’m interested to see what your game plan is.

Agreed with swapping emeralds for rubies.
Then, depending on your crit chance you could swap in some cavalier trinkets.

My current build is quite similar in the traits, with x/20/20/5/5 as a base, as well as S/S + staff.

I would consider putting the 10 points in domination, only because you have can have the option of crippling dissipation or 15% illusion damage, without needing to respec. Crippling dissipation is a very useful trait.

loseridoit.2756:

jportell.2197:

Seriously This is not fund for a scepter torch Mesmer… we have so many traits dealing with blind and confusion and Anet is just like IDC! This is why I am no longer using the staff in my condition build because the chaos armor procs aren’t worth the CD… GOOD JOB ANET. Hey lets all play BM rangers they are unkillable.

Are you sure that mesmer have that many abilities to apply blind

chaos armor is bugged and only applies confusion

torch #4 is one attack

signet of midnight

Plus scepter block, magic bullet and traited glamours.

Edit: ninjad. xD

Finally got my asura kitted out!

-Mix of knight’s and pvt exotics.
-Chest and gloves transmuted to Vigil light.
-Dyes are a mixture of black and redemption.

Only seer piece I really like is the shoulder.

Gaidax.7835:

I think people are not getting in their imaginary battles that you are not fighting some dumb NPC… The opponent has a counter tool for anything you can throw at him and even if you let’s say do close that gap, can you actually keep that gap closed for more than a couple of moments? And then is that gap closing will actually really work in your favor to begin with?

The answer is not really.

Same applies to you as your opponent – neither are npcs.
Just as your opponent can counter what you do, so you can do the same to them – all swings and roundabouts, and there are enough skills/traits/abilities to choose from to counter each other (taking into account player skill).

If they are playing a phantasm spec and staying at medium-long range with the GS (with something like the iduelist unloading on you), then yeah it’s tough…

Why not a compromise?

Say, you could only buy something like this IF you already have at least 2 characters leveled to 80 – make that a requirement so it only applies to your second alt onwards?

I must be missing something – what’s your second weapon set?

You can make use of ileap, stealth, focus pull, (traited) duelist, blocks, blink, daze…. there are loads of ways, each situational and varying with build. GS #5 has a long cooldown, and you should have access to enough CC and movement abilities to get in close, fast. If not, then it is best to swap around some skills/traits.

Have you tried using domination V – crippling dissipation? With MH sword, all your clones will run up to your opponent and provide free cripple on death.

You could even use a GS yourself as a second set!

If you’re intent on staying in staff, drop target and use reverse phase retreat to close a little distance.

Don’t worry, my keybinding is incredibly compact – half of them are on the mouse.

It’s nothing to do with reaching keys, more to do with where you feel a particular skill should be – after a certain period of time you get a feel for whether a particular pattern of keypressing flows well or not.

Oh I have already remapped the entire thing, trying to find an optimum, efficient solution – shared between mouse and keyboard buttons.

Lets take a concrete example with the class I am most familiar with – mesmer:
OH pistol – phantasm is on #4
staff – phantasm on #3
OH sword – phantasm on #5
GS – phantasm on #4

Now ideally we should be able to remap those skills, for example:
OH pistol – change to #5
Staff – change to #5
GS – change to #5

This is one example.

Another one is take the Sw/Sw staff pairing
- phase retreat on #2
- iLeap on #3
Personally I would like both of these to be on the same button.

These are just two specific examples of one class, but the same goes for all classes.

Just like we can with the utility slots, I think this is important to have for the 1-5 skills.

Why? Because for a fixed keybinding, some skills are comfortable on certain keys, and other skills (be it from weapon swap, attunements, kits, etc.) in the same position just do not feel right to use.

So often a compromise has to be made, for situations where you want to use one particular weapon’s #2 and another weapon’s #3 on the same button.

EDIT: See image below for example.

This would only be possible after the skill has been unlocked in te usual fashion – so you could not swap #5 with #4 if you have not unlocked #4.

Strongest in terms of damage?
Condition/direct/reflected/retaliation?
Strongest in terms of overall utility?

For overall utility, I’d say the trident with elasticity is our best weapon.

kitten I do not want them touching either trident or spear!! Favourite two weapons in the game.

Quickly, someone mass invis this discussion.

Pyroatheist.9031:

I wouldn’t charge for portals, but I certainly won’t object to taking any donations that come my way.

Yep.

I have given back up to half of an offering, just because I felt like the guy gave me too much for the service; but otherwise I just accept it gratefully and move on.

I just wish mimic could somehow be fixed underwater – maybe making a duplicate skill with twice the duration to make up for the reduced channel. Really bugs me, because it would have great synergy with the trident.

Don’t forget, feigned surge through vortex for free chaos armour.

Yeah, Tybalt or Sieran, without a doubt.

Completely pointless sacrifice.

I’ve been feeling compelled to finish the personal story recently, and (cheesy/cliche as the whole thing is) I’ve found the writing for Trahearne to be pretty decent – the way he seems to exceed his own (often pessimistic) expectations.

But the one thing I absolutely cannot stand is the VO – it is so unbelievably bland and lifeless, breaking what little immersion there is as well as the context of the dialogue. I’m sorry to have to say that, but if it were an option he should have a completely fresh voice over.

I can see why Trahearne is a necromancer – he certainly sounds like one of the dead. :p

Edit: I should say, I like that Trahearne is the leader of the Pact, rather than our own characters always being put on a pedestal as in most game stories.

Awesome video, love the commentary.

fadeaway.2807:

My cats woke me up at 4am today by running around and fighting. I thought I could shatter them to get rid of them.

Haha
And then just summon some more?

CrazyDuck.4610:

You know you play mesmer too much when you try to portal back home after grocery shopping.

I wish I could do shopping in under a minute! ;D

Rizach.4852:

Just opened on Piken Square (EU)

Awesome, thanks.

Anywhere in EU open?

Nice podcast.

I’ve no interest in commanding myself (enough of those responsibilities in RL!), but it is very interesting to hear you apply all the psychological aspects to this situation.

ocgreg.3910:

Hmm well I play an engineer and an ele so I have no idea what you are talking about not many classes can swap weapons as you think. And each difference provides its own playstyle and options.

facepalm OOPS, Yeah I really forgot about engi and ele… xD Edited the OP accordingly!

For the other classes the point stands though – I would like to see the option to either:
1. Be versatile with the use of two weapon sets,
2. Be specialised with the use of one weapon set.

For #2 to work, there needs to be a bonus for the use of one weapon set – either additional cooldown reduction or something else.

Although I accept it purely from a gameplay perspective, personally it feels an extremely contrived system.

Generally for every class (apart from thief, EDIT: engi and ele), you may have up to two abilities other than the auto attack which cool down faster than the in combat swapping timer, even when traited; but given that you would not use them simultaneously, one will not cooldown before the swapping timer has, leaving you with a timer overlap.

So what does it matter? Well the thing is, it leads to gameplay where you cycle through the skills of one weapon, somehow pull another weapon out of thin air and then cycle through the skills of that one – the only exception being posssibly one (maybe two) skill(s) which you would use more than once before switching, plus the auto attack. If you don’t swap you are hurting your efficiency by staying in that weapon and waiting for skills to be ready to use again.

Only thieves have some benefit from duplicating sets, with traits refunding initiative on swap for example, or sigils triggering on swap.

I would like to see some solutions which favour equipping two of the same weapon set (or simply using only one weapon set without a second set equipped), with the main two in my mind being:
- an additional -20% cooldown on the single weapon you are using (or set if it is MH+OH)
- maybe the ability to use two of the same skill in a row (by swapping) before the cooldown triggers?

1/10.

1 because of the effort gone into thinking up and typing this post, but lacks in humour.

The other threads (only two in this style in any case, with additional suggestions for bows/shields), have at least sensible suggestions for skills, not beyond the scope of the game.

As for the hastag title – for the record, I don’t even use twitter – I was being a bit tongue in cheek at the pistol thread.

Embolism.8106:

If you take a look, every profession that uses the Sceptre uses the Focus, and vice versa. There is no such correlation between Sceptre and Torch or any other off-hand.

Yeah, fair point.

I think we just have too many good offhands and not enough mainhands – if sceptre auto attack was 3 rapid fire pink bolts rather than lazy arcing blobs I would use it more often.

More reasons to stay in the best zone of the game.

Open in EU anywhere?

Here’s my current theorycrafted build for reference – armour and trinkets still up in the air, but I wanted to share it as feedback for your build.
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.1|1.1g.h15|6.1o.h15|1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r.1c.7r|1p.61.1g.61.1g.61.1g.61.1g.61.1c.61|a5.p2a.a5.5.k37|15.7|31.3j.34.35.3o|e

Damage is slower and more sustained, but a little more survivable. I can do with some more precision, so will be adjusting gear accordingly.
Still tempted by some rampagers, because conditions are non-negligable, and can contribute damage – even a few hundred here and there. But because of that it’s hard to find a sweet spot. Condition damage is like a bottomless pit with this build, one I’m not sure how far to fill or whether it’s even worth filling in the first place!

Mantra of resolve swappable for pain inverter, blink, feedback, or whatever else is suitable for the situation.
Compared to yours it’s easy to see my biggest weakness – speed.

And regarding the posts mentioning shatter – just because a build isn’t optimised for shattering doesn’t mean you can’t use it – they still have utility and deal damage. It is the class mechanic after all and worth using in any build.
For me shattering is situational
- if I need invulnerability now, hit F4
- if I’m being focused and clones are too far away to be useful, shatter (daze is good) and refresh
- if you’re on the offensive it can help for a short attacking burst

Work in progress!

Way I see it sceptre is counterpart to the torch.

Yes I admit the skills in the OP are quite biased in favour of my favourites from other weapons and making use of the elasticity trait, but I am open to completely unique ideas.

Nretep.2564:

Since it’s supposed to be an offhand weapon, why not try something completely different? Instead something for 30 Domination, rather for 30 Illusion.

• #1 1.5s casttime; 0s CD; creates a clone with a random weapon; grants 2 random buffs to allies within 600 range; causes 2 random conditions to enemies within 600 range; no direct damage
• #2 0s casttime; 10s CD; creates a clone and transfers 2~3 of your conditions to it; 2s blinds opponents within 300 range; stunbreaker
• #3 .75s casttime; 20s CD; aoe heal by ~2000; 10s aoe swiftness; 4s aoe aegis

Now this is interesting!

^Sounds good.

The skills in the OP are just an example off the top of my head, and I’m not set on them in any case.

I like the idea of an illusionary copy of whatever you’re holding. Not sure about the blast finisher chance though, if anything it could be a projectile finisher.

I like the random boon on allies with #2, and yes maybe some sort of evade is necessary. I think it could have a short cast time given it’s utility (while your character spins on the spot or something), before leaping/blinking.

Skill #3 – while it would make more sense to absorb projectiles, traited it would have to reflect them as you say. Maybe it could explode without being a finisher, so just keep the ethereal field?

Keep up the feedback, more ideas all welcome!

Nice, hope it works for you again.

Yeah mine is similar, although I went for phantasms having retaliation and confusing combatants rather than GS training, which means I am switching weapons more instead of staying in GS most of the time – in fact I often stay more in staff than in GS. It’s nice to have enemies also punished for attacking phantasms, and confusing combatants just adds one more condition for them to have to deal with – with 3 conditions on death and more from weapons they might waste condition removal and pay less attention to what is really damaging them.

I’m contemplating pieces of sentinel armour because its easy to get off the TP and makes up a little bit of missing health (I like to have over 18k to feel comfortable).
Planning on melandru runes and -condition duration food for this, although not yet bought because I’m umming and arring about armour!
I was also planning to use beryl on trinkets, but if I go with some sentinel gear then I might go full berseker/rampager with some coral and ruby.

I like how fluid it is in combat – compared to say S/x where it is point to point burst.

What I’m working on is not pure suicide clones, but a hybrid (very hybrid) build which is a disguised power build.

The suicide clones are there for:
- distraction (explosions are disorienting to the enemy)
- added conditions (for iwarlock damage for example) – vulnerability, cripple and weakness are debuffs so no need for condition damage. Confusion/burning/bleeding are a bonus so I am boosting condition damage by a little bit, but it is supplementary to power.
- has an effect when I don’t shatter – I’m using 3% damage for each illusion trait, so I only shatter when I can get 3 more up immediately, or when I’m being focused and all the clones are too far away.

Most of the damage is pure power/crit from GS with the conditions supplementing that – a few hundred here and there and it does add up.

I would post my build on the calculator, but I’m not happy with armour or trinkets yet (debating soldier/berseker/rampager hybrid).

Key thing is as you probably know to stay near your clones and make your enemy chase you through them, and timing when you hit them with direct damage (could be a shatter if necessary). What I’m doing often is running up to the target and dodging backwards (leaving a clone) followed by mirror blade for example.

Of course, I have mirror images and decoy as utilities. The third is changable – mostly either pain inverter, mantra of resolve or blink.
I do love pain inverter when I can use it – if a couple of clones go boom, you pop mirror images, CoF shatter and pain inverter, the confusion is more of a deterrent but it does give non-negligable damage (in the meantime you pop izerker, mirror blade, iwave or whatever).

It doesn’t really excel in any area – not pure zerker, not conditions, not defense, not shatter… but it does hit in ALL areas (majority power) making it harder to counter.

If it has any weakness it is fairly predictable with weapon/skill cycling and probably more importantly it has very low mobility – chasing and running are tough and require a lot of trickery (stealth, phase retreat, cripple, blink), so picking and choosing fights is important. It is painful to run around. If I had 5 more trait points I’d grab compounding celerity, but I can’t sacrifice any points elsewhere.

Underwater with trident this thing is pure beast mode, and you have the mobility of the spear which makes up for the build’s biggest weakness.

I half levelled a conjoured weapon ele (axe/hammer/FGS – the bow is awful tbh), mainly to get Vigil armour, but also because I wanted to try it out for myself after reading the pve lightning hammer build thread.

While it is far more “in your face” and action oriented than mesmer, I eventually found it to be lacking in… sophistication. Yeah it’s fun to just smash things all over the place, and the mobility is great. But once the novelty wears off it does become quite repetitive.

If anything it made me appreciate the mesmer even more.
I’m playing a GS/staff mesmer 10/25/10/5/20 with all on death traits and elasticity. Currently in testing stages and deciding which gear to go for, but played very much “in your face” (not full zerker), and the GS is very satisfying to use in mid range (and complements the staff which is amazing in mid range) – you don’t need to be within touching distance of your target as with sword, but likewise you don’t have to play from 1200 range just because it’s supposed to be a “ranged weapon”.

^Yeah I must admit dual Anomaly or dual fans… very tough decision there!

Enough with the pistol, let’s get a proper MANLY weapon!

And to those who say focus is only an OH weapon I say, why not! We have a ranged GS, we’re the most suitable class to wield dual foci.

It should be almost a pure cc weapon with a mixture of additional condition/direct damage and slightly longer cooldowns than usual, to carve out its own niche.

Skill #1: Throw focus
- toss out an illusionary version of the focus, like a frisbee (with a short trail of butterflies?), which bounces between allies/enemies the same number of times as winds of chaos or siren’s call, granting boons and conditions.
Cast time ~3/4s
Allies get – swiftness/fury/vigour (up for debate)
Enemies get – bleeding/vulnerability (or just direct damage?)

Skill #2: Flutterby (clone)
- Twirl on the spot and blink in a direction determined by the movement key you are holding at the time, leaving a clone in your place which casts Throw focus – so forwards, backwards, left OR right, each the same fixed distance.
Blind enemies where you appear for 3s.
Blind radius: 180
Cast time: 1/2s?
Combo finisher: Leap
CD ~10s

Skill #3: Singularity (ground targeted)
- essentially a land based version of Spear #5 vortex.
- deals minor damage at target location? (say a few hundred points per second?)
Duration ~5s
Combo field: ethereal
Pull radius ~400 (as vortex)
Any time while active: Explode
- detonate your singularity dealing damage to all in the area
Combo finisher: Blast (cannot self finish with the ethereal field!)
CD – undetonated ~15s
– detonated ~25s

Cooldowns and abilities up for debate, I’m only giving an example above. #2 could be ground targeted for example, and it could have a short cast time of around 1/2 a second.

Finally we need two fan skins and with F/F we’re good to go!

(Unfortunately) I must agree with you – staff is just too useful to be without.

Why unfortunate: because my two favourite weapons are GS and focus, but staff has become such a crutch defensive weapon I just have to have it equipped, so I can’t use GS and focus at the same time.

Give me MHfocus with a phase retreat copy and bouncing (spinning fan) attack and I’ll be over the moon!

Yes I would vastly prefer weeklies instead of dailies.

Edit: if not, then at least give us the option to hide all achievement trackers on the screen to remove hud clutter.

darkace.8925:

I read it to say “we’re going to release an expansion when it’s in our best financial interest to do so.”
<Snip>

Yeah it makes sense.

My first thought would be around the time ESO launches, or shortly afterwards.

Parry should be on a separate key from dodge (perhaps a new key altogether).

Other than that I like all of the suggestions.

Hmm, nice idea, it certainly wouldn’t do any harm.

I don’t have any screenshots of my own to post at the moment, but I must agree – scenery is top-notch, from the colours to the structures… often has me staring around in wonder, just doing nothing.

It’s a shame the camera fov is so restrictive making it difficult to appreciate the environment properly.

Depends on your definition of cool.

Sceptre auto attack – yeah it doesn’t do it for me either; just not visually satisfying to use.

Go Sw/P + GS maybe (or staff).

Identifying the real mesmer on sight is easy – the difficult part as a new player is becoming fluent with the game’s targeting system – selecting, locking, switching and so on.

That’s what I struggled with at first anyway – the camera and targeting is extremely clunky so it takes practice to reduce the short delay between “I want to target that person” and actually having them locked on.

Look through all the options for targeting in the menus (such as autotargeting, autolocking) and see what you prefer using.

Narcemus.1348:

I hate fighting against the dredge, especially solo. This right here is where a majority of my hatred for the race has come from. Playing through their ridiculous jumping puzzles to get to View Points only to be knocked down and killed halfway up constantly and other such annoyances. As a race, I think they are very well thought through and a great addition to the game. They just very much annoy me as enemies.

Yeah I agree there.

Hate is quite a strong word, but I admit I really really dislike fighting them in pve, mainly because of the annoying noises they make when they get hit.

I know skritt won’t happen, but would love to play a skritt mesmer with racial utilities that summon more skritt – do they get smarter with more illusions out? :p

On a serious note, Tengu 100%. If they are not the first new race, I’ll… I’ll eat a piece of clothing!

Could you not use the show/hide hud toggle, and use the look behind key to see your character from the front for a screenshot?

If that’s what you’re going for; seems easier than trying to find specific vistas.