Guild Wars 2

I would like it if out of combat it only applied a speed boost, or granted swiftness periodically.

I love it in pvp, but hate it in pve/wvw – it is incredibly annoying with the ceaseless “go ahead, hit me!” and other sound effects every 10 seconds. Just gets tiresome on the ear.

That is a lot of healing! :o Seems worth a try.

Hmm I hadn’t thought of sigil of blood. 2s cooldown sounds good, especially if combined with high crit.

I have to say, that build looks crazy reckless for me, I don’t think I could drop all traits from chaos/inspiration! ;D
It’s a really petty, stupid, minor thing, but the reason I don’t like OH sword is the separate animations for MH and OH when using S/S. It just looks weird – the OH sword should be included in the attack chain of blurred frenzy, at least animation wise.

I suppose my problem is trying to play a mesmer like a stylish guardian with all the defensive traits/utilities, and using a greatsword…
Guardian is too… crude, even though I love their utilities and certain weapon skills.

The only thing with IP is it requires sinking a lot of points into illusions, and I’m not keen on shatter focused builds.

I’m starting to get the hang of playing this now – mirror blade onto mimic is amazing for tanking a high burst (while other skills may be on cooldown), and a useful defensive option when using GS, before you respond with your own damage.
SoI is just wonderful. Normally I don’t like too much RNG, and it would really annoy me in pve with the constant boons. But in pvp I love lucking out on some aegis or swiftness, or generally whatever boon comes up.

If the sceptre had decent direct damage together with the block, I’d take it no question. Sceptre block is one of my favourite skills. I could take the OH sword like you said, but prefer the focus which is a bit of a style thing too – yeah a shallow reason, I know! ;D

I’ve gotten a bit bored of how easy it is to, well, “facetank” (for want of a better word) using the staff in any aspect of the game, from pve to pvp. I was using staff + Sc/T as a pvp confusion/glamour build, which made point defence and dealing with multiple targets in general no problem.

But I’ve been playing a lot of pve recently using GS/staff, but finally saw the light and switched to GS + focus which are now definitely my two favourite weapons; so I would like to carry this into pvp but am really struggling with the transition.
MH – I’m not too fond of either sceptre or sword (I’d love a MH focus, pistol or half a staff! :p), but find sword slightly more fun even though I love the sceptre block.

Staff just has so many options for survivability from phase retreat to chaos armour (add some glamours for even more options), it’s become a crutch/training wheels, which is pretty hard to do without.

Here’s where I’m currently at with a build (constantly changing things):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAsdRlwzKqHQznGadJh5D9+0Dov8pjqA2JVo0lFA;T0Ag0CnoixEjIGbMuYkxsKZUypkXJTRA

Swap utilities for feedback, mirror images (underwater), pain inverter (pve/wvw of course), portal, veil, or blink as needed. I prefer to shatter defensively/tactically rather than as a primary means of damage. Core traits would be 0/5/15/20/5, with 25 remaining points which I can move.

So far I’ve noticed having to be a lot more accurate and careful with timings and positioning. 1v1 is ok, 1v2 manageable against average players. But 1v2 against good players is much harder than with the staff, and point defence/1v3 or 2v5 is incredibly hard.

So anyone who uses GS and x/F, especially in pvp or wvw I’m interested in any particular tips/strategies.

Edit: on continued practice and experimentation have since changed to this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAsdRlwzKqHQznGbdJi5D92JFQ3yhWApClWJF62FC;T0Ag0CnoKyUkoIbRuikFtKZUypkXJTRA
I realised that extra condition removal from shattering was largely unnecessary.

I’d like skill 1 to be a projectile finisher, regardless of whether it is a chain, burst, channel or single shot.

Certainly skill 2 needs to be an evasive move generating a clone. Out of two MH weapons, sword has the offensive leap, and sceptre has the block.
Pistol I think should have a defensive leap/dodge, maybe to the side or maybe backwards like the staff. It would be nice if it was a leap finisher too.

The final skill is open for debate, with the only criteria being it needs to be funky. ;D

Haha, that’s great.

I hope that mimic gets fixed underwater – it channels for about 1 second and is completely useless.

I’m starting to like it on land, but a shame having to swap it out for something else underwater.

ComeAndSee.1356:

<snip>

Ironically, my favorite Mesmer weapon is the trident.

Funnily enough I prefer both underwater weapons on the mesmer – the spear and trident, to anything they have on land.

Spear 1 has that lovely evasion, 2 and 4 make you faster underwater than on land, 3 is a decent phantasm, and 5 is incredibly powerful.
Every power on the Trident is also great.

I suppose it makes up for some of our utilities being useless underwater. If I could use the spear on land that would be amazing.

It’s one of the few classes I actually enjoy underwater combat with. The thief for example is extremely boring underwater.

Carighan.6758:

Ah, so a superior Time Warp.
20s CD?

20s? No no, 5s CD sounds about right. :p

Ok on a serious note, how about:
- it is an AoE centered around the player, slows everything by 50%
- it only slows enemies AND allies in the field, but grants allies regeneration/protection and enemies vulnerability/weakness?
- projectiles cannot enter the field from the outside, but players can enter or exit at will (depends how long it takes them to get to the edge ;D).

So you can shoot bullet time and matrix around inside it for 7 seconds or so.

Crossplay.2067:

I can’t think of #1 and #2 but #3 should definitely be called Bullet Time. It creates a pbaoe field where mesmers do something similar to “Hail of Bullets” from City of Heroes. Allies in the field have haste while enemy animations and cooldowns are slowed by 50%.

Ok that’s a ******* awesome suggestion, at least for the name of a skill.

I think OH pistol 5 has a lot of the crowd control options covered, so MH would prefer to be the damaging weapon.

1. could be a bouncing shot similar to WoC on the staff, maybe stacking bleeds on the target and some boon on you?
2. Need to have a “trick shot” or evasive type move, maybe stylish from behind the back as suggested, or evade and unload a burst of 3 rounds. Creates a clone.
3. I’d go with that bullet time suggestion. Ethereal combo field? Needs to be a small AoE.

Would you bother traiting Illusionary Elasticity for mirror blade/WoC with this, or is it unnecessary given the extra bounce is always going to finish on hitting someone/thing other than you?

I had no idea you could self trigger mimics block. Going to try this out with the retaliatory shield trait.

It should be a blast finisher.