Guild Wars 2

5 sec area blind is long enough. It is enough to chase people out of a point or when paired with well of suffering to punish anything stupid enough to enter without retaliation.

If I need a 10+ sec area blind I switch to Plague form and laugh at the misfortune of my enemies.

If you want to shed conditions more often pick up consume conditions and alternate that with well of power.

1. is such a short cool down I pop that as often as it comes off, kiting just far enough ahead so that I can get the regen off of it. You can keep regen up 24/7 in combat this way.

1. and #4 work amazingly in conjunction with each other as often as possible. I only use #4 when #3 is up unless mob is about to die (#4 does an okay smack). #3 sets off a field which #4 finishes. Area weakness for all mobs caught, makes the regen spamming off of #2 that much more powerful as it reduces damage coming in from everything chasing.

1. is the only one I retain for use in emergencies.

Most matchups start with 2-3-4 layed down quickly on top of each other to stack condition quickly, I cycle through marks then on as needed, 2 and 3 used right off cooldown to keep myself regenerating and enemy chilled for control and poison to make sure he stays down.

Since i spend most of my time kiting just ahead of stuff Fast cast is easy because everything is following me into demise at just the right distance, never have to move mouse. Works best in PvE. WvW doesn’t matter where you cast it in zerg, you garunteed to hit lots of people. I’ll be honest I don’t much much PvP experience outside of WvW. It will most definitely be different against enemies who can actually think outside the box in attacking me and move in less than predictable ways.

Also helps that I typically keep staff out as regen, again, is quite nice and can be shared with allies close enough to benefit, and cool downs come off fast enough that it is never really an issue. Also play it shorter range except in WvW so that I can benefit off of the regen, makes targeting much easier with fast cast.

Only time I switch out is against bosses which is sceptor so i can stack the conditions quickly. I have it paired with focus so that it very much acts the same as my staff in conditions applied except in a more single target fashion as opposed to AoE.

makes strafing so much easier. i hold my right mouse button down a lot which makes two click that much more difficult. It is also easier to simply spam all four marks on a place quickly if I just need to click the button once down the line.

grenades are also a lot easier in my opinion with fast cast. I was being thrown off with double clicking and I would be switching nades without actually tossing the previous grenade. It becomes worse once you get used to just clicking and being done with it.

Amen,

Picked up necro for the second time not long ago. (First time I played it wrong, and didn’t give it a chance to start picking up utility skills). I am an alto-holic as one of my friends like to refer it as so I’ve switched a lot. Still yet to get one to 80.

Maybe I just haven’t run into that wall of omg I die to everything (quit my mesmer because of how lackluster it is in PvE), so far I end most of my fights at full health, I’ve safely pulled groups of 8 mobs and trashed them (still at full health or close to it), I am an annoying pain in PvP running with smaller raiding parties (Plague form Roflcopter 20 second blind spam is game over for anyone who can’t build distance without at the same time needing to hit something) and I can keep regen up on all my allies without needing to even trait for it (well of blood equally epic for keeping small parties going).

Our down state yeah, it is pretty horrible in pvp enviroment… but is probably my favorite pve for the 1 skill alone. You can get back on your feet pretty easy all the while actually contributing to damage.

Yeah we are bugged, most of the traits I am going to pick up are currently bugged. But you know what. I am going to equip them anyways. If I can cope and wreck things with bugged traits, I am only going to be just that much more epic when they are fixed.

Necro is anything but unplayable. Even minions, as bugged as they are, can’t be that bad. Because majority of the necros I meet are running them (granted it is pve alone).

I am fairly 98.7 certain this will be the class I lvl 80 first as main. It is fun, and the play isn’t diluted to 3 or 4 buttons. As a whole, necro is a win class for me.

Roll a second one, what I did. One to tank spank with, the other to torch the battlefield with LB. Enjoyed both play styles but to make Either work spectacularly you had to cut deep into both. So yeah, made a second.

Also have a second Engi as well.

Helps if there are some classes you have no intention of playing.

I enjoy it with mace as 4 out of my 5 attacks mitigate and the base attack still hits pretty hard.

In the last trait line at 10 points there are two traits that work well with shield. One is reflect projectiles on block (which WvW you can kick back a ton of damage), and the other, the one I enjoy for upping damage quick, is stacking might on each block.

Facing a horde of 10+ mobs (I am tank) you get a ton of might quick (also am traited to build adrenaline each time I am struck), I then swap to hammer to smash with f1 and blow the kitten out of everything around me. It is a really nice table turner when traited for it.

I am going 20 into the trait line eventually so I can use both, my block will be God mode.

I went Norn, Love tattoos. That and Raven Lodge. Raven is all about misdirection and using your head to defeat more powerful enemies. What mesmers are all about.

I rolled mesmer solely because of the butterflies. Then i actually played the class and fell in love for the rest of its kick kitten nature.

Yes, My main is beast meat tank support build. I started off with the Long Bow but in order to really make the long bow shine I had to trait out of what benefited my primary purpose. So I am rolling a second Warrior that if my theory craft works well will be a beast with the Long bow and literally lay down a perpetual sea of fire (at least as fast as cool down comes off, should generate some sweet lvls of adrenaline). Pending on what I feel like doing in WvW zerg crashing or tactical strikes will be hero of the hour for me.

I love the Long Bow way to fricken much just to let it sit on the side line. I need the second warrior (Ranger just seemed way to linier with the bow, Warrior in my opinion is far more tactical).

I have no idea why you wouldn’t be shattering every chance you got… I am not traited for shattering but I use free extra damage and debuffs whenever I get the chance. Whenever my phantasm comes off cool down I send them in kamikazee style and immediately pop up the replacement team once they go boom. Takes me maybe 5 seconds to replace my two clones and phantasm if I don’t want to burn my mirror image.

I don’t see where the complaints are based but I haven’t played mesmer for long and I don’t have much expertise in pvp. As for stealth, cheap tactic yes, but they are trading in dps for survivability. And as far as I can tell with goofing around, almost all the phantasms attack at range/are stationary for a bit of their attack cycle. Pick them off from range in the down time if you are worried about on death effects. If players are kittening themselves with only a melee speck I fail to see why I should take pity on the fool (I don’t even use stealth build). All builds come with strengths and weaknesses. All builds have trade offs. Nail them in their weakness.

As far as I can tell with pesky stealth users, just nuke the area with AoE and keep your head on a swivel for when mesmer pops out of stealth to use abilities or recast. Or buddy up, two heads are better than one.

Personally I have no issues with sceptor. I switched out of it when I started to rely on my staff more and more for support and buffs. I didn’t want my staff clones to be replaced by sceptor clones.

Sadly now I am left with sword which only gets flipped to when I need hit #2 while waiting for a dodge or my off hand focus to makes some distance with portal and into the void. Also have focus on that hand which is invaluable for other things. Also sword is handy to break stuff. Seems every other weapon takes a century to break stuff.

Eventually I want to make another mesmer to clone spam with. I don’t think anything could be more hilarious then watching a bunch of mini asuras running everywhere and exploding all up in everybodies grills. Bah, curse this game mechanic. All the classes have so many different ways to play and no where near enough character slots to do it.

You mean you don’t want to run around in butt chaps? (Way it looks from behind) No furry love?

played with the shield some more yesterday after speccing 10 points into discipline. Getting might on block is pretty sweet. Most might I’ve specced so far is 13 off a single block. That was before I dropped my other might buffs on top of it.

Besides giving me temporary boosts in damage #5 slot shield; it has become invaluable for blocking channeled attacks where it truely shined. It is definately one of those aces in the sleeve that renders some enemies best attacks as comepletely useless.

Still up in the air about recharge times (I am traited to improve) but I can see it getting pretty rediculous if I could toss by block stance more frequently rendering allmy enemies power attacks useless, not to mention how frequently I would be able to stack up might in short time.

Only complaint with it so far is the might boon off the block is really short lived so its best to dump it into your own power bomb short after (going to swap out my horn off hand secondary for axe). I can usually get 3 or 4 good hits in before the mights start to drop off.

Might experiment with 5 more points in discipline for faster swapping between my mace/board and sword axe, so that I can dump my damage quick and get back into mitigation.

Edit: I forgot to mention I am also traited to deal extra damage for each boon on me. So that shield stance leads to some pretty awesome burst damage when used at the right time.

Just the way I have been making some better use of the shield besides two mitigations with rediculously long cooldowns.

there are also some traits you can pick up that boost run speed when you are specced with certain weapons. You might simply be getting caught by players who are specced to finish off deserters from the battlefield.

Love it! So much so that I am building a second Warrior to level. I really wanted to play Longbow but it wasn’t synergizing right with the rest of what I wanted to be able to do.

So I am going to build my second warrior focused around the long bow, I’ve got it pretty well theory crafted and should be dumping fire fields like nobodies business if it works like it does in my head.

Trait lines are probably one of the most ingenius aspects of this games. It allows for amazing customization within classes versus other games where I’ve seen classes stuck with one build, no matter what the weapon selected.

try mace/ shield, 4 out of your five attacks will mitigate/interrupt. And your burst also inturrupts/stuns. I can wade through 8 something enemies and laugh with #5 skill. I also have 10 points in discipline (last trait line). It stacks might everytime I block (that long block duration of 5 is epic). In mobs or versing an enemy with a channeled attack I can quickittenurn tables and up my offense.

also your basic attack 3rd strike weakens reducing damage of attacking mobs.

Key to using the bow in PvE is to not use it at range, I actually go with a tanky build using the trait that allows you build adrenaline off of hits as well as signet of rage. The bow is customized for the F1 skill, the auto attack adds two ticks at a time, the #2 shot 3 ticks and up. The smoke field, again lots of adrenaline.

That combo field is great combine with three and when you shoot it at close range, the slow projectory speeds won’t matter. You can chew up groups of mobs rather quickly 8+ at a time dropping fields.

With the regenerating signet you can also kite til the cows come home without worry. Again tankish build, not a whole lot of dps but it takes a lot of kitten before I start worrying and thinking of an exit plan.

I used to run rifle/bow when I started, I ultimately wound up dropping the rifle because of how linear it was as a weapon. Currently am running with a hammer secondary, but I may switch to sword/x. Above posts mentioning a leeping jump of doom and it sounds fun. May grab the horn to further improve my support role I favor.

But that is just me.

My long bow is my best friend. That is also simply because I enjoy a support role. I focus on building up and dropping the fire combo field as often as I can while tossing out shouts to boost allies.

also spend a bunch of time running around reviving since I am specced a little into healing with bonus toughness while reviving and armor out thekitten Beating people off who are channel finishing with my hammer has also become a hobby of mine.

I’ve always enjoyed a tankable support role in most mmos I play anyways. So it is par for the course.