Guild Wars 2

Woah, thanks for this – I had no idea you had to interact with the ghosts… I gave up after trying to manage the stacks on it several times and then ending up with elite skill cooldowns on auto attack.

Amineo.8951:

Curunen.8729:

Amineo.8951:

Curunen.8729:

Sword?!?

Wasn’t expecting that. :o

And it looks great: https://a.pomf.cat/lhbrvq.png

Yeah it looks amazing.

I can only realistically make this or Astralaria for Mirage… going to have to wait to see which weapon I end up using more, Sword or Axe before committing to one or the other.

I was going to start making Astralaria for my Mesmer and Guardian because of next elite specs but after seeing this, I’m doing the sword instead because Ele might get Sword aswell.

I can’t really decide until seeing what the Axe skills end up being and whether I prefer Chrono or Mirage. If Chrono then definitely going to make sword.

kitten, I was hoping they were going to continue the trend of hideously ugly weapons like the new Torch legendary so I could happily ignore them! :p Why did they have to make a good looking sword.

Amineo.8951:

Curunen.8729:

Sword?!?

Wasn’t expecting that. :o

And it looks great: https://a.pomf.cat/lhbrvq.png

Yeah it looks amazing.

I can only realistically make this or Astralaria for Mirage… going to have to wait to see which weapon I end up using more, Sword or Axe before committing to one or the other.

Woah…

Glad I held off on finishing Astralaria. Might save the gifts for this instead.

Sword?!?

Wasn’t expecting that. :o

More Taimi please.

I crack up with every bit of dialogue – mostly due to the excellent VA for her but also how she is written. Taimi is the best (read: my favourite) character in all of GW2.

I love the light hearted tongue-in-cheek nature of the story (I don’t expect gritty serious story from GW2) and more Taimi is always good.

Donari.5237:

Peace out, Faren!

:D

Nice to see an appreciative post from a thief main.

apharma.3741:

Now try without HoT and Chrono…

Yep, and without Inspiration for some serious… kittens.

Randulf.7614:

PoF the Magic Dragon?

You win. bows in respect

OriOri.8724:

Curunen.8729:

Even though it’s still not a great phantasm, I actually think the iMage is better now than in the past because if you synchronise casting with prestige burn in melee range you can stack what – 3+2 stacks of burning, plus another 2 stacks when the iMage throws it’s projectile (which it will recast if chronophantasma). That’s a not insignificant amount of burning, especially if buried beneath other conditions from shattering, etc.

That playstyle doesn’t feel like the torch to me though, getting up close and personal to the enemy just to let your illusion do the damage? Kinda pointless imo.

I’d rather the primary attack on that skill be updated, as well as potentially update the phantasm itself. I don’t use it enough to know how I’d like to change it though

You’re not letting your illusion do the damage – the iMage’s attack is a side effect, an additional 2 stacks of burning on top of the primary effect.

The primary effect is synchronising iMage cast with Prestige burn for a small burst of burn and direct damage – which now after the increased burning, while still not great is certainly non-negligable. I should clarify – I’m counting the on cast effect of iMage as part of the phantasm. The phantasm’s attack itself (the bouncing) is mediocre only because of unreliability of hitting. If it was AoE fury and burn on top of the AoE cast burn, it would be decent.

If the iMage’s attack hits on top of all of that, it’s a bonus which is great (nevermind the fury which will allow you more chance of crit with F1 if playing hybrid, using say Sage amulet with already 25% chance from Master of Fragmentation, or if using Viper gear in wvw).

Well before when prestige did pathetic burn, mediocre direct damage and iMage had no on cast effect, the only thing prestige was used for was to bait a dodge before unloading a shatter so as not to be predictable – you were only interested in landing the shatter, especially if playing power with GS.

But now if they dodge prestige/iMage cast you can follow up and land the shatter – if they don’t dodge they get hit by 5 stacks of burning and some direct damage instantly. Or if you’re guaranteed to land the shatter you can burst on top of the burn for even more damage.

So I’m finding it useful in both pvp and wvw builds currently as it reduces further the predictability of when you’re going in for the burst, and you can spread the damage application a bit more than in the past. The main issue is reliablity of the iMage landing its bounce – which is why I would prefer an AoE attack.

Even though it’s still not a great phantasm, I actually think the iMage is better now than in the past because if you synchronise casting with prestige burn in melee range you can stack what – 3+2 stacks of burning, plus another 2 stacks when the iMage throws it’s projectile (which it will recast if chronophantasma). That’s a not insignificant amount of burning, especially if buried beneath other conditions from shattering, etc.

My favourites are:

Urban (with a team that doesn’t flatline at the first door…) – race change (I play asura), fun mechanics.
Solid Ocean – nice environment, easy and relaxing to play.
Chaos – the different areas keep things fresh.
Mai Trin – nice and short.
Uncategorised – apart from the poison golem it’s a fun fractal.

On the other hand I really really hate the first section of Swampland, even though everything after that is reasonably cool.

I play fractals for rewards so any tedious challenge is not welcome, I just want to be moderately challenged and get the rewards/dailies in a reasonable time frame.

From favourite to least favourite:

Bitterfrost Frontier > Draconis Mons >> Bloodstone Fen > Ember Bay >>> Lake Doric

If Lake Doric actually had a lake and not a dried up puddle and if it wasn’t obscured with all that purple palette then I might like it. As it is though, it’s a boring eyesore.

Bitterfrost is stunningly beautiful and fun to play. Draconis Mons has lots of cool areas and the vine grapple is a lot of fun.

Gliding in Bloodstone Fen is fun but all that red colour is also an eyesore.

Ember Bay is… meh, but at least more interesting than Lake Doric.

mtpelion.4562:

They should have created a basic “Unlimited Tool” for each type that had a medium cost attached to it.

Then they should have sold the skins (and the affiliated animations) separately allowing your basic “Unlimited Tool” to become any of the new tools as you desire (just like buying an outfit).

Finally, they should have added an “enrichment slot” to gathering tools that gives you a % chance to obtain a specific bonus item (sprockets, Azurite, UM, snowflakes, etc.) when it is equipped in a gathering tool. Unlimited versions of these enrichments could then ALSO be sold on the gem store.

This system would have not only permitted players to have significant control over their customization and convenience, but would have resulting in MORE gemstore revenue for ArenaNet.

Fully agreed.

One.

Sometimes I create an alt to dabble in it for pvp but otherwise and currently I only have one character.

Going for “celestial” look – sun/moon theme with gold fractal sword and chronomancer’s shield plus relevant dyes.

Torch burns are certainly nothing to be sniffed at anymore, especially if you coordinate them into a burst. Nice video.

I end up transmuting my bifrost to the Priory staff every time I want to do pvp or wvw, or even fractals – less negativity directed at you if you don’t use flashy gear in those gamemodes.

In pve I transmute back to the normal bifrost skin because I find it looks nice.

apharma.3741:

Curunen.8729:

OriOri.8724:

I hope we don’t get another stealth utility. In every game that has had it, stealth has annoyed me because its never balanced. Its either worthless crap, or its overpowered as kitten. GW2 leans heavily towards the later, even though recently they have been trying to scale that back.

I’d also rather not have excessive stealth, but thematically deception, blurring and stealth fit the theme of a mirage.

I mean Veil technically would make sense as a deception skill for mirage. I guess they will balance it out somehow if at least one of the new utilities ends up having a stealth aspect and phantasm casts do help with that balance.

I agree, I think stealth in the entire game needs clipping down substantially. I’d rather mesmer did more clone swapping, something you actually imagine a mesmer or fighting a mesmer to be like. Where you CC and hit with a burst attack only for it to splinter as it was an illusion that the mesmer switched places with.

I’d like to see some moving around of skill types between specialisations – for example things like Time Warp ought to be Chrono exclusive, things like Veil Mirage exclusive, and things like swapping positions with illusions base mesmer specific.

Just an example but I’d rather those core features of mesmer be actual core features of base mesmer so Mirage isn’t used as another band aid for stuff we don’t have but should have, just like Chrono was.

Xaylin.1860:

Curunen.8729:

I mean Veil technically would make sense as a deception skill for mirage. I guess they will balance it out somehow if at least one of the new utilities ends up having a stealth aspect and phantasm casts do help with that balance.

Since they gave up on Glamours (compared to Wells) and Manipulations (AT, Mimic) a while ago, I’ll just hope for the best. I really enjoy evasive Duelist-ish gameplay but we don’t really have the appropriate utilities to properly do so.

I imagine a few of our current utilities will be made redundant, or be superceded by superior utilities with mirage.

Though I don’t think anything will ever be as good as blink or decoy – those things remain in a level all of their own.

Grimwolf.7163:

Curunen.8729:

I also have to go with Norn.

They should have been secondary tribe of humans who were slightly larger and taller than usual.

Good news; if you ignore their meager lore, that’s exactly what they are.

Yeah I could definitely accept them like that if the game didn’t try to always make them out to be a unique race.

I really miss the “BY THE POWER OF GREYSKULL” animation on asura using GS4…

The new animation doesn’t have that same awesomeness.

I also have to go with Norn.

They should have been secondary tribe of humans who were slightly larger and taller than usual.

OriOri.8724:

I hope we don’t get another stealth utility. In every game that has had it, stealth has annoyed me because its never balanced. Its either worthless crap, or its overpowered as kitten. GW2 leans heavily towards the later, even though recently they have been trying to scale that back.

I’d also rather not have excessive stealth, but thematically deception, blurring and stealth fit the theme of a mirage.

I mean Veil technically would make sense as a deception skill for mirage. I guess they will balance it out somehow if at least one of the new utilities ends up having a stealth aspect and phantasm casts do help with that balance.

Levetty.1279:

Curunen.8729:

For anyone who knows of the Redwall novels and has read Marlfox, there were “magical” silver foxes as the main antagonists who used stealth and deception to become like shadows or illusions and whose trademark weapon was an axe. Sure that description could read more like a thief spec but I think it can equally apply to Mesmer.

Well rumour is the new utility skills are deception skills.

Yeah I saw that and am really happy about it.

I think things like the current changes to active cast on phantasm skills in order to break stealth might be in preparation for balance if we end up getting at least one more stealth utility – otherwise I could imagine stealth uptime would be too much (especially in wvw) given our current stealth skills and things like PU – I can just see the whining on the forums from other classes, “permastealth mirage OP, nerf now!” and other annoying stuff people would post on here.

Well I suppose whining will happen one way or another as it’s mesmer.

For anyone who knows of the Redwall novels and has read Marlfox, there were “magical” silver foxes as the main antagonists who used stealth and deception to become like shadows or illusions and whose trademark weapon was an axe. Sure that description could read more like a thief spec but I think it can equally apply to Mesmer.

In any case I think thematically axe makes perfect sense for this elite spec and also most of the axe skins in game are magical and elegant anyway. Dagger is so cliche I’m glad they didn’t go with that.

Finally I don’t give a kitten because I’ll finally be able to use Astralaria on a Mesmer – that’s reason enough to like it.

OriOri.8724:

I don’t blame you for thinking that.

Also remember that I didn’t start playing until HoT dropped. I didn’t experience the round of class nerfs that came before HoT, so I’m not quite as jaded as some of you are. But, considering that they moved to an expansion based model, and considering how poorly received the insane powercreep was with HoT, I’d be surprised if Anet did the same thing again.

Will the next round of elite specs be more powerful? In all likelihood, yes. Will they be as broken as HoT specs were at launch? I highly doubt it. Which means the resulting nerfs shouldn’t be nearly as harsh as they were with these first elite specs.

Plus, remember that Anet took a lot more time to design these next elite specs. They won’t be half-baked ideas (I honestly believe that to be one of the reason they were so broken at release. To help cover up that their designs weren’t completely finished).

I do a agree that they would have learnt from HoT and hopefully the new elite specs shouldn’t be as broken as HoT specs were on release of that.

I still think the best period of balance was between the June 23 specialisation patch and HoT launch as it was also in general the first time Mesmer had got positive changes after in general continual nerfs and neglect since release.

Right now gameplay is kind of monotonous with chrono – I don’t find it fun anymore since they forced everyone into shatterspam or one trick burst damage boosted by alacrity. I really do hope Mirage takes a completely fresh approach with how to play Mesmer and provides some variety in effective and interesting builds we should be able to create.

Even with the buffs to sword 4 and scepter 2 and huge damage of scepter 3 and fast illusion generation… I still prefer staff because it plays a lot “smoother”.

Phase retreat is such a powerful mobility skill that even though the rest of the weapon is mediocre it’s still beneficial to use.

Malice.8439:

Looking forward to mainhand Focus.

As a major supporter of mainhand focus ideas, it would be cool if one day in the future we got this.

Levetty.1279:

Curunen.8729:

Levetty.1279:

Yeah that immobilize should really help us land axe skill 2

I’d save the salt until after knowing how the skills will work.

In any case thematically it will be like having dual axes, just in an indirect way with the offhand.

It’s not salt, it’s me wondering what you are talking about when we have no idea what skills axe has. I’d understand if this was about sword/focus with its double immobilize.

It’s called being excited for a thematically cool weapon set.

Heaven forbid we’re allowed to look forward and speculate on a potentially fun combination…

Focus is now kind of an offhand “illusionary” axe, given the active addition to iwarden which I think is kind of cool and again could thematically pair up well with a mainhand axe.

Yes it could be kitten, but who cares, I like imagining fun things.

Levetty.1279:

Yeah that immobilize should really help us land axe skill 2

I’d save the salt until after knowing how the skills will work.

In any case thematically it will be like having dual axes, just in an indirect way with the offhand.

eldenbri.1059:

It’s funny. After several years, we pretty much always have to give analysis with a sarcasm flavor.

It’s totally possible that giving the might stacks to the phantasm is just a mistake.

It’s also possible that this is a change that will have an actual real benefit for people playing the Mirage spec after the expansion is released. The F keys have to do something if they don’t shatter. One possibility is that an F key (or maybe even a grandmaster trait) lets boons (or at least might) actually affect phantasm damage (and maybe even grants some might to the phantasm when you use it). Another possibility is that one of the F keys does a copy of boons between phantasms and mesmer.

If they were giving might to the phantasm for any of these expansion-related reasons, it’s unclear what Anet would say at this point to explain it.

There does seem to be a bit of a trend toward rewarding casting phantasms in close range (iMage was already like this), and I do find I take more risks in trying to finish my cast near my opponent to get the benefit. So this change seems to match that concept.

Yeah part of me does think we don’t have the whole picture so these changes could either simply be a mistake or they are being made taking the new elite spec into account.

Either way we won’t find out until the expansion.

Given the new iWarden active cast, anyone else salivating over this weapon combo?

I really hope Warden’s Feedback is moved into a separate tier from Restorative Illusions because currently that’s the biggest issue with taking focus in pvp or wvw given the latter trait is mandatory if taking Inspiration.

I must say I do like the offhand sword 5 animation now and it seems like a fun weapon to use.

lol.

Well at least the iWarden active seems cool, might play a bit with Focus again.

It’s the beginning of nerfs to prepare everyone to shift to Mirage and buy the next expansion.

I’m expecting Chrono to get some gutting sadly. :/

Dawdler.8521:

Basicly, you got to love the skin in order to justify a legendary, any of them. The stats are irrelevant. For the price of a single legendary, you can make like 30 ascended pieces. For most people thats pretty much gearing their entire account.

If you have 3000 gold doing nothing in the bank… well I suppose we all get bored sometimes and succumb to temptation.

Yeah I agree. The skin is the only reason you should make a legendary.

Stat choice is unimportant given you can easily with comparatively trivial cost craft yourself half a dozen ascended items with the different stats you might want and even buy more inventory space to hold them.

Otherwise there’ s much better things to spend gold on – ie a lifetime supply of expensive foods/consumables.

Some speculations and brainstorming:

If all illusions are phantasms and we only get mainhand axe (ie, no offhand axe), does that mean Axe will have a skill(s) creating phantasms on the mainhand? Would certainly make sense.

Will all phantasms in that case be made to look like the player (so no pink ghostly effect) if the intention is to make them more difficult to distinguish?

If new F skills are to work with old shatter traits in pretty much every single trait line, could they become directed phantasm attacks instead but keep similar properties to what they are now, like ranger pet F2 for each function skill? That way all the other shatter traits will work as they could become enhancements of directed phantasm attacks?
ie F1 orders all phantasms to burst direct damage on a target, F2 condis, F3 to daze… F4 doesn’t quite fit so could be something completely different.

I take it gameplay will be around maintaining three phantasms at all times and manipulating them strategically – so not like the old autopilot phantasm builds but instead requiring us to actively manage them to succeed? If so, how could this be made functional in say large scale wvw?

So in this case could Chrono remain the go-to Shatter elite spec and Mirage become the go-to Phantasm elite spec,

Will we get a choice of dodge modifications similar to Daredevil, or will all our phantasms perform the same dodge effect (perhaps blur without movement) when we dodge?

Crucially will the hp bar showing things like buffs and food be copied onto all phantasms to keep up the ruse, otherwise the whole deception would be useless.

Ah kitten, got to wait for the answers! Hopefully we’ll get more info in August once Episode 6 has finished.

Oh I’ll be buying it for sure.

I can’t express enough how excited I am for Mirage. Of all the choices of elite spec when we had the threads with people creating and discussing their ideas, I was always hoping for a “Mirage” themed spec based around mind games and deception.

Even better if it is a sustained damage spec with shatters replaced so no huge one-trick burst of power or shatter spam of condi, both of which are one dimensional and kind of boring now.

And Axe is the icing on the cake because Astralaria is hands down the sexiest legendary in the game.

So yeah I’m properly stoked, can’t wait to use the new spec. Probably will switch exclusively to it if it it doesn’t have any particular mechanic that annoys me, because Chrono is a band aid for illusion generation, movement speed and cooldown reduction, as I don’t use wells, don’t use Shield and don’t really like F5.

Hopefully Mirage should be a fresh spec that reimagines mesmer in a way that I’ve been hoping to play for years rather than simply fixing it like Chrono does.

Edit – I’m really keen to see how Axe/Focus plays out, especially if traiting focus for reflects. Could end up being a really fun set.

Taimi is kittening amazing, best voice actor and best character in all of GW2.

Every interaction and dialogue with her character puts a smile on my face.

Axe/Torch and Axe/Focus should be awesome though because the former should play very well into the theme of a mirage given the stealth and the latter has iWarden which wields dual axes.

I’m pretty stoked to use either combination.

Overall hybrid is better as it allows greatest flexibility for the player to choose what stats they like to use with the weapon.

If I was able to do it, I’d make all weapons hybrid, or at least have skill options for power, condi or both allowing the player to decide how they want to use the weapon and not saying “you can only play this with a power build” etc.

I hate restricting weapons to either power or condi. It limits build possibilities.

Titus.2085:

I can go full cosmic with Sunrise/Twilight/Eternity and Astralaria.

Tbh Bifrost and Astalaria also go nicely together thematically. Staff + Axe/x hopefully will be a nice combination.

SloRules.3560:

Thing is that it’s a mainhand weapon, sword is already the best weapon we have. So it’s likely we wouldn’t be able to use one of these or use both and than use our crappy offhands(there is a reason shield is in every build). I don’t like this, i would realy preffer another offhand or 2 handed weapon. Unless they change something about our offhands ofcourse.

If axe has a blur and hybrid damage then I’ll happily swap sword for it. I doubt it will have the mobility of ileap for chasing people or kiting around maps in pvp, but on the other hand I’m sure just like how Shield was totally superior to Focus on HoT release, Axe will be superior to sword as a melee weapon, at least to begin with but perhaps with a couple of trade offs.

Exciton.8942:

Curunen.8729:

omg I just read the full leak – Axe with Deception utilities… :o

Sign me up right now!

Deception skills? Looking at the leaked image, that does make sense.

I am hoping for more skills that let me swap position with clones like sword 3.

I can see some of those icons easily being deception related.

I’m thinking if they are Deception skills then just imagine the amount of qq that will follow… xD

Can you imagine, already with things like Decoy and Prestige, then other deception utilities. Nevermind all clones becoming phantasms (this part didn’t make sense to me in terms of making it difficult to distinguish the mesmer, unless they are planning on overhauling phantasm visuals for mirage so they look identical to us) and taking the relevant phantasm traits from say, Inspiration or Illusions…

I can guess at some seriously troll builds that could arise from this.

The only thing I’ll really miss is +25% runspeed and -25% on cripple/chill/immobilise.

That single trait is kind of crucial for my whole build (runes and food) so depending on what Mirage offers in terms of mobility and condition management I’ll have to change around a number of things.

In any case thematically it is far more interesting to me than chronomancer – hopefully it finally brings back some proper mind tricks and creativity into mesmer play rather than one trick power shatter or shatter spam condi builds.

omg I just read the full leak – Axe with Deception utilities… :o

Sign me up right now!

Catastro.8410:

Cleaving hybrid weapon, that’s all I want from axe.

Yes please.

I’m very happy to be getting axe – there are a lot of beautiful axe skins in the game.

Very glad Axe is next because I already have everything but the precursor ready to craft Astralaria.

Will now start working on the precursor so I can craft it immediately when the next elite spec is released.

lol, has it got that bad now?

Just thought I’d pop my head in and see what’s up with this game – thanks for the funny post.