Guild Wars 2

Absolutely true – I just didn’t agree with the “never” from what I quoted. Confusion, pre-nerf, was a pretty good thief counter, imo.

Master of Timespace.2548:

Confusion or retalation also never were good counters against burst thieves.

Disagree with this completely. A burst thief’s health pool is tiny, and when confusion was doing its original WvW damage, 5-8 stacks would consistently down the ones who didn’t pay attention. It would take them 3-4 actions that caused confusion to tick and they’d be done.

That sounds like a pretty good counter to me – better than just about every other thief counter out there now, matter of fact. LOL

Hmmmm… Lack of condi clears may turn into a problem. Arcane thievery on a 45sec CD may make fighting condi classes difficult.

That’s really the only glaring weakness that I can see.

Andy.9137:

Furiousbeard.7602:

2/10 poorly written. Please proof read and edit before handing in for marking.

it’s like he thought if he kept adding words with more than 2 syllables it would sound smarter, it just made my eyes bleed.

It must be confusing for you guys – I mean, there was only one picture and all those words…

Luvpie.8350:

Random stuff about SoS being picked on.

Nevermind my earlier post about FA’s forum tears. SoS ones are pretty tasty too. xD

Quick Mouse.7635:

Tonight on EBG: Fully T3 SMC with waypoint featuring FA. Co-staring SoS and guest appearance by TC. GG BOMB and militia and everyone who escorted yaks for hours <3

Yar, congrats on the waypoint in SMC – I think that’s the first one I’ve seen in quite some time!

Rezzet.3614:

so are TC and SoS gonna grab each other’s hands and team up again this week too?

It really depends on how much sweet sweet forum tears we can get out of it.

Fun night running yaks from N Camp on TCBL! FA’s [WS] guild group – you guys were persistent. Great fights all night long!

“Mansplaining” is a really dumb-sounding word.

Quick Mouse.7635:

Seriously SoS…all you have done this entire matchup is prevent FA from getting points. Are you scared of TC or something? Especially your oceanic and EU guilds. All the do is karma train FA when we have 10 people on and don’t even touch TC. At this point I’m assuming that all of SoS oceanic is either terrified of fighting or are pve guilds farming their empyreal fragments.

Yawn. 1/10, this is a cut and paste post and boring. I award you no internets.

Wow. Those are some legit walls of text that I’m never going to read.

grabemx.9836:

OMG the zergs are everywhere. I cannot run solo anywhere without being jumped by 230847239847923429834 zerg baddies. This morning I was on my way to work when 02874923479238-1 x eleventy people jumped from the bushes and 1 button’d me to death. I don’t want to live on this planet anymore.

This post is 100% win.

Dawdler.8521:

Yep, no signet passive work on cd (doesnt matter which class).

Well, not really part of this discussion about the healing signet, but this statement isn’t true. Ele’s can trait for signet passives to continue while on CD. Not sure if other classes have a similar trait. Sure would be nice if mesmer had a similar trait, would make this signet awesome/borderline OP. LOL

Super Kruegs.8967:

Been awhile forgot why TC match ups are the worst match ups for groups under 10. TC has no guilds/groups under 10. GF is as close as it gets and they aren’t TC OG. All we see is zergs and zerglings trying to get back to their zergs. We saw NAGA running down 1 and 2 people across almost the entire map at least a half a dozen times last night. The Furiousbeard run down was literally the entire map, from near north camp all the way to our spawn on TCBL. Almost every fight leads to cannon fire as the cowards on the wall won’t jump down as we’re chasing even numbers back into keeps. It’s either blobs or karma trains both being rather boring. Don’t get me wrong I love getting zerged down after a good fight, but I’d like an open field close to even fight once in week. Not QQ just saying have some fun it’s okay to die with less than double numbers sometimes it just might make you better players

Sorry about shooting you with the cannon – we had a pool going to see how long it’d take for you to post on the forums afterward.

Xavi.6591:

Think of the staff as more of a semi-melee weapon and you will the potential.

Sure, and if you can keep your opponent in range, it works great. All I was saying is that GS works great with this build as well (clones/iZerk cause a bunch of bleed stacks), and you get the added bonus of the cripple when folks try to run.

Like I said, not bashing the staff – but this build works pretty well for me in WvW using the GS instead of the staff.

Furiousbeard.7602:

NAGA was hilarious last night. Biggest group of squirrel chasers EVER!

The sight of 30 people constantly being distracted by a single roamer, and then chasing that roamer half way across the map was priceless.

Keep it up guys, all that 30v1 practice will pay off

You got chased because you smelled pretty.

Bazeleel.8219:

Dhampyr.2104:

With the IC change, I think this is a great idea. I think the build will also work decently with GS (instead of staff), given the bleeds that GS clones can stack. Will definitely give this a try in WvW!

The staff is the key part of this build imo. I would replace the sep/pistol before I got rid of the staff

For me in WvW (mostly wide open spaces), I don’t like how slow the staff projectile is. Plus, the staff phantasm is based on power and doesn’t add to the Condi pressure much. GS also adds a cripple, which helps catch runners – staff makes them run, but you’ll never catch up once they do.

Definitely not saying staff is bad by any stretch – just that, for me, GS does what I want (in WvW) more than staff.

With the IC change, I think this is a great idea. I think the build will also work decently with GS (instead of staff), given the bleeds that GS clones can stack. Will definitely give this a try in WvW!

HughJass.5930:

Dhampyr.2104:

+1. I fondly recall both the BG/KN/TC and the FA/TC/DB T2 matchups, where the week was up in the air right up until Friday. Right now, both FA and SoS are giving great fights, and I’m finding myself setting an early alarm clock just so I can get an extra hour of fun in before work.

Welcome back, FA, and glad we still have you in our matchup, SoS. Fun week!

Side note – to the SoS Guardian coming out of South Camp on FABL a few hours ago (that quaggen’ed himself while crossing the bridge) – you, sir, are the reason I love this game so much. Laughed my backside off for a good five minutes. Well played!

AHA! that was me, love it when people appreciate things like that! :P

Two thumbs up, dude. You made my entire day. Totally wasn’t expecting a quaggen to greet me. Plus, it figures that you’re a CNB guy – are you originally from Kaineng as well? Original T8 Kaineng here. :-)

Handin.4032:

Thanks to the SoS that dueled me in Obsidian Sanctum! I was trying out a new hilarious 4-signet mesmer build! Good fights though!

Share! Have you posted it in the mesmer forums yet???

Me Games Ma.8426:

Signet works extremly great in PvE with the warden

Also I could imagine that the combination with Phantasm – Signet – Phantasm could really change a whole duel. You don’t just heal up but also have the chance to hit twice as hard.
IMO this skill really needs to be used by really good mesmers that know when they can take profit in having 2 phantasms of the same type summoned quite fast.
I’m going to create a build with that one for wvw roaming that can spike with phantasms.

This is exactly where I think money will be made using this signet. You heal, then immediately summon 1-2 more phants for a quick spike in damage. Haven’t used it yet, but sure sounds like it could potentially turn the tide in a small scale fight.

What’s the CD on the signet?

ykyk.2740:

I don’t think anyone in gold league should give a crap if FA tanked or not. They got a bunch of free wins and picked up momentum and now T2 looks fun again. Pre-league this matchup would have been over by monday or something, which kinda sucks for everyone.

+1. I fondly recall both the BG/KN/TC and the FA/TC/DB T2 matchups, where the week was up in the air right up until Friday. Right now, both FA and SoS are giving great fights, and I’m finding myself setting an early alarm clock just so I can get an extra hour of fun in before work.

Welcome back, FA, and glad we still have you in our matchup, SoS. Fun week!

Side note – to the SoS Guardian coming out of South Camp on FABL a few hours ago (that quaggen’ed himself while crossing the bridge) – you, sir, are the reason I love this game so much. Laughed my backside off for a good five minutes. Well played!

OK, just went out and re-tested (should have done that before posting probably lol).

So, with no other conditions and 76% condi duration, the staff burn procs once, every single time apparently. With other conditions on the target (vuln/bleed from staff for example), I got two ticks every single time (limited testing, 50 burn iterations each, with and without other conditions on the target).

From that limited testing, I’d guess that you wouldn’t be able to rely on two ticks from Guardian runes at 76% burn (unless you had some other way to get AOE conditions).

Bottom line, I’ll just shuddup and color – nice builds, Ross. ;-)

(separate note – wow, the acronym STF-yoo gets “kittened”. Silly.)

Awesome and thorough builds. Question regarding the 1s burning from the Guardian runes – with the staff burn, the 2-tick burn comes at 76% (I recall someone else doing the math ages ago on the forums, and I tested on the dummies – I do indeed get two ticks of staff burning at 76% condi duration).

Would it work the same with the Guardian runes? If so, you should be free to put different weapon sigils (your 80% base duration increase should do the trick).

grabemx.9836:

TC’s unemployment and student crew is apparently greater than FA’s

It’s how we took third in Gold League.

WB Flimp! Glad to see you’ve come back, looking forward to your vids. What server are you calling home now?

Shockwave.1230:

Imagi.4561:

I think it’s nice in concept—and would certainly be great in PvE—but has a lot of OP potential in PvP with being able to pressure with phantasms and shatters simultaneously.

I don’t know that I agree with that. You can already do a burst shatter and quickly follow up with new phantasms.

So, you burst/shatter your clones, your phants are still up, and then “quickly follow up with new phantasms” in addition to the phants already up. End result – get bursted by the shatter, then have to contend with three phants at the same time. Sure sounds pretty powerful to me.

I just don’t think it’d work in PvP, and as silly as ANet’s balance team can be, I don’t think even they would be able to miss the OP potential here.

Nick.6972:

Also, I heard TC lost some guilds? How? You guys won SOR.

Was definitely pretty psyched to place above SoR. To be fair, SoR’s loss of folks impacted them pretty badly too – I’m not entirely sure how many left, but I know [IRON] at least was part of the Great SoR Exodus of 2013.

Furiousbeard.7602:

CERN, did you have your 70 man blobs out last night? That’s about all I remember from you guys previous to leagues.

No idea, wasn’t on at reset last night. Just got in Dub v Dub this morning to face the FA and SoS hordes on an outmanned EB. Was fun leading the FA blobbers to the SoS blobbers (and vice versa) and watching the hilarity.

Furiousbeard.7602:

*sniff

It’s been SO LONG!!

I can’t believe I missed you guys so much

Silver league was horrible

/cheer FA! And good to see ya again, Mr Beard. xD

BlackDevil.9268:

Why compare guardians to mesmers? That’s like comparing apples to pears.

Hmmm… I think it’s more like comparing snails to snails.

deathTouch.9706:

I can tell it’s Waypoint Challenge Friday for TC, where players all across the server compete to see who can open their map fastest and quadruple-click the nearest WP marker when faced with an even fight.

Bonus points for 180 degree turn to whirlwind —> rush --> bull’s charge while doing it.

1/10. Yawn.

Jhughes.8341:

Hmmm looks to me like Dhampyr and Skcamow need to transfer on over to FA (: Pyro you recruited me to omfg forever ago.. And I swear everytime I have a question you are never on &gt;.&lt; Let’s roam soon!

Will definitely think about it - short of TC, FA is my fav server. Are you planning to roam under the [OMFG] tag, or another one?

Would love to roam in a small mesmer group tho, what a fun idea.

capmasterflash.5690:

Thanks for securing 3rd place TC! I was afraid I couldn’t trust you guy to get me a finisher after I left.

Um… You’re welcome, I guess? xD

Thanks for the fun week, Mag and SoS! Your roamers are always top notch and fun to fight.

Also, wanted to apologize to the few SoS guys in TCBL N Camp this morning (server time) – I didn’t realize you were only going for the POI and Vista until it was too late. Hope you guys ended up getting it!

WyldKat.4712:

No, but I’m interested in running away from it.

Long time, no see the FA. I miss joo.

As another TC’er, I +1 this. FA always brought awesome fights. Plus, FA has always been known for their awesome mesmers – AVTR comes to mind. ;-)

Transferring for something like this might be worth it… man, I wish I didn’t like being on TC so much, what a great idea.

Used to main a mesmer, main an ele now. From my experience, except for the obvious differences (traits, dmg, etc), they work identically.

Anicetus.1253:

Just that D/D sucks for roaming or in smallscale. And it doesn’t promote high speed play, just flats out the skill level required to bash low skill players.

This statement confuses me – D/D’s strength is roaming and small-scale. What spec is better for roaming than D/D?

To the JQ solo roamer at S Camp JQBL about an hour ago that got killed in a 2v1 (sorry, forgot your name already) – I accepted your party invitation to tell you that was some awesome kiting on your part, took us forever to kill you. I even /salute’d after. Not entirely sure why you had to start with the name calling and being mad – I mean, we 2v1’ed you, the logical outcome happened, and you got sent back to spawn. Nothing to be mad about – you played well.

Hope your day wasn’t ruined.

Had some awesome fun roaming TCBL last night – mostly escorting yaks from N Camp to the west (and trying to save N Camp whenever a group of JQ or SoR made a push for it). To the JQ and SoR who were yak sniping over there – thanks for the awesome night, had some great small group fights. Didn’t see a single blob (ours or theirs) outside of N Camp.

This is looking to be a fun matchup.

Fannwong.3059:

Hello,

Thanks.

But I’ll be serious with you. PPT wins of >20%-30% deviation is a sign of coverage.

The SOR commanders want to thank instead the TC and Mags that came out to fight. You are true warriors. We respect you.

FW

Traejan.1729:

Grats to SoR for what appears to be their first win of Season 1

/cheer FW, been awhile my friend! Definitely wise words on coverage – the fights this week have been hella fun and I’ve seen each of the servers do really well at various times. Good matchup imo, even if the PPT doesn’t necessarily always reflect it.

Rama.6439:

Dhampyr.2104:

I didn’t realize it took so much talent to click the “transfer” button to win. Maybe it’s just me.

That being said, I should apologize to JQ as a whole – didn’t mean to imply the whole server is like that, you guys rock and have class, unlike some I shall not name. (being quoted)

Ha, seewhutIdidthar?

Yeah, you misspelled What and There.

Not quite – I spelled “whut” and “thar” correctly. They’re the proper part of the colloquialism “seewhutIdidthar”. You’re no fun to spar with, you don’t get the jokes.

Rama.6439:

I do not leech, I have talent and use it, unlike others that I shall not name. (being quoted)

And I know people on every server EAT TOAST FOR BREAKFAST! LOLOLOLOL…

I didn’t realize it took so much talent to click the “transfer” button to win. Maybe it’s just me.

That being said, I should apologize to JQ as a whole – didn’t mean to imply the whole server is like that, you guys rock and have class, unlike some I shall not name. (being quoted)

Ha, seewhutIdidthar?

Rama.6439:

Never said I was sensitive, and us beating on you now and pushing you all back into your keep, thats called farming, we will tell you all when you can come out and play, thats how its done baby… please dont get upset over this, it is just for fun after all, lol.

After all, why would I be upset over winning? LMAO… Only thing I am the least bit upset over is my buddy being on TC when he should be here sharing in the spoils of our victories, Miss ya Chuu…

I think the actual term that you’re trying to define is:

“Bandwagon” – the act of moving to a winning server so you can leech off them.

Wow, I just love bandwagon chest thumpers. The last time I saw it this blatantly was when it happened to Dragonbrand with Red Essence and Cryptic Omen, and most of us probably recall what happened to RE and CO then too… xD

That EP staff ele general in EB… you rock, dude. So much fun chasing you around. LOL

We miss you guys on TC, hope SoS is fun for ya!

Bah, I hate false advertising. There’s no build here.

Huh, looks like duelist falls behind if you don’t take Phantasmal Haste (but, of course, EVERY build should take that, right?).

But iZerker is horrible, guys, I swear.

(Note to all the rational people out there – I realize the difference between duelist and zerker looks to be within the margin for error. I just don’t care for blanket statements from folks who reply without reading.)

kyro.3487:

I think it’s worth trying 30/30/0/10/0 and having remove condition on heal (since you use healing mantra that’s really nice) or shatter for vigor if you like to have your endurance up a lot to help dodge attacks. It also gives phantasms retaliation, which can come in useful since you often have them out and not shattering too much.

IMHO, vigor on shatter is a waste for this build – with the vigor on crits, you’ll generally have permanent vigor anyway. The condition removal on heal trait is tons better, particularly with the healing mantra (as mentioned).

To the [RQ] folks RP walking outside of Durios a few hours ago – sorry, we didn’t realize until afterward. We had just defended Durios against some DB guys, saw your group outside, and just jumped in.

Xavi.6591:

This week in WvW, ran into an opponents guild that ran nothing but Guardians and Warriors (about 15+ total). They destroyed their enemies with their hammers.

They’d better hope they destroy their opponents quickly – without water fields, their sustain is going to be pretty bad. Personally, I’d love to run into a group like this with our comp’ed guild group – it’d be farming time. ;-)

colesy.8490:

On the other hand, warriors can provide condition cleansing with warhorn, immobilise with sword burst skill, AOE stun with hammer burst skill, two sources of knockback from hammer, weakness and cripple from hammer too. Guardians can pull with greatsword, buff might with empower, block enemies with ring/line of warding, blast fields with their hammer and easy access to stability with stand your ground and even hallowed ground. Blasted light fields also offer retaliation which is great at making it so enemies can’t camp range too often (3 ticks from greatsword auto of 300 damage ret does add up, especially if you’re shooting through guys all with ret).

Not sure if warriors/guards can boonstrip, but between nullfield (and I disagree on it not being useful in ZvZ, that’s exactly where I think it’s most useful) and boon ripping shatters, AOE boon stripping is pretty easy on a mesmer. With an adversary group with stability, just about everything offensively you mentioned on warrior/guard is pretty much useless – meaning the boon ripping becomes pretty important.

I’m not saying that warriors and guards are bad by any stretch (that would be just silly). What I am saying is that mesmers bring quite a bit to the fight that makes a real difference.

To each their own, I suppose.