Guild Wars 2

They’ve already discussed this at lenght. Riannoc still died first.

We may have seen this coming a mile away but that doesn’t make it any less awesome imo.

Considering the fact that some dragon minions have proven to be way more intelligent than your average bandit, I wouldn’t say it’s much of a stretch for Sylvari to be controlled by Mordremo. And even if it was, why does Mordremoth have to have the same patterns as Jormag or Zhaitan? Can’t Mordremoth do his own thing? And who is to say that Sylvari that are his minions aren’t just mindless zombies? We haven’t interacted with them yet so that’s still a possibility.

I’m personally looking forward to the future expac because it looks like it might be a fun ride

There seems to be a duration on Ring of Earth that isn’t quite apparent and also it seems to linger on in the area it was cast. Longer than it should. Many times I’ve lost projectiles to this skill well after it has been cast.

The only thing boon removal is good for is stability. Since it provides you with more opportunities to wreck someone.

I just believe that if I choose to put points into my spirit weapons, they should be more powerful than someone who doesn’t put points into them. So a health boost would really be nice on one of the many traits they have.

It is quite easy to play, no doubt about that but it sounds more like you’re angry because you lost to it.

Whether it be through traits or through a direct buff, these guys definitely need more health.

In a team fight or against a char with lots of cleave, this thing could die in seconds.

I would suggest adding “+75% more health” to the Virtues Trait; Improved Spirit Weapon Duration if Anet does consider buffing the health of these rarely seen skills.

Phoebe Ascension.8437:

Last episode? Oh fizzlesticks… No way such a wide story with still so much untold stuff can wrap up in one episode. Big one or not. It would have to be almost the size of 5 episodes (the bigger ones, all combined) in one episode, to suffice for a ‘finishing season 2’ chapter. So i’m really very pessimistic about the outcome…

I don’t think that was teasing just one episode….. or maybe I’m mistaken…..

Actually I’m probably not. We’re obviously going to enter the portal at end of the episode and wait till the next two weeks to find out what’s in it. #pessimismbasedonpastexperiences

It’s pretty easy to tell which pack they are in because they always use a skill as soon as they are in it.

I’ve have it on Engie ALOT. Jump shot, nades, Any Toss Elixir. It seems to be mostly ground targeted abilities. I should probably have added to my most annoying things list.

Teutos.8620:

Really disagree with your number 5 to 2. Only problem number 1 seems reasonable.

Maybe show us the situation where the problem occur next time?

Don’t think I ever got damage from stairs, sometimes from ledges, but never from stairs.

I guess you play a mostly melee character.

Happy New Year Everyone!

I decided to start off the year on my youtube channel with some GW2 PvP negatives. And no it’s not what you’re expecting because we all know how much we’ve beaten that horse. Anyway, take a look and enjoy.

CMF.5461:

Initial response with the build:

While working celestial, there is not a source of might stacking. So I would suggest a combination of empowering might and or sigils of battle to make up for the damage.

Merciful Intervention is a pain to try to land, or maybe I just suck at ground targeting. Moving allies often are out of reach visually unless standing right next to me already. 1200 range, but tpvp has a lot of corners and walls between each cap point, so obstructions limit use.

Symbols on this build are minimal, so probably swap writ of exaltation for superior aria to have more stability from stand your ground. Or even just pick up 3 meditations and take pure of heart for a little bit more healing on virtue refresh via renewed focus.

Right now this build is mostly a meditation dps build with no condition damage, less power and crit chance, but more toughness and vitality.

Lack damage to kill for the gains made in survival stats.

I will continue to play it more throughout the week.

You can activate Merciful Intervention without allies being around and it would give you the 4k heal. Allies in the area being a bonus.

Have you made those changes to the build and seen improvements? Because the Cele Engie also drops in damage but gains survivability. If you ran Carrions instead of Cele with the Engie, the damage output is incredible.

You can run Purging Flames for a Might stacking field, using Shield of Wrath in it and then leap through it. Depending on the speed of the attacker, you should average 10 stacks of might.

You can also take off the Sigils of Accuracy, 31% base crit chance is fine.

Changes that should happen to A.E.D.;
- It should activate when you take falling damage! Seriously! How am I supposed to look kitten whilst jumping off a cliff if not without AED?

- Increase the stun duration the the toolbelt skill to 2s. The 1s stun doesn’t allow much comboing to happen.

CMF.5461:

I think you really pride yourself in being different so much that you base your identify on going against the grain even if it may be without reason.

I have this to a fault but I do try my best to know when I’m extremely wrong.

CMF.5461:

Guardian has been renowned from launch to have a huge sacrifice for damage and survivability with large skews to one side of the scale or the other. This was identified as balanced by the community, which is why we are in “a good place” to this day. Guardian’s are the “most balanced class”.

To the point of celestial amulet attempts, I have tried it and we do not have the same impact as the two/three celestial amulet classes have that engi and ele (to some degree warrior) can achieve. Even with Permeating Wrath.

I think when people say “balanced” they mean, “nothing annoys me with that class”. And to that end I do agree with them.

I also think it’s a question of CC. This is why the Hammer meta is coming back because players are beginning to realize that CC is king in PvP.

Look at the Cele Engie and the Cele Ele, what do they both have? Crowd Control! The Engie has Overcharged Shot and Magnet Pull, the Ele has Shocking Aura, Earthquake and Updraft. Another thing they have his heals that come off cooldown quickly. The Engie has combos with his heal and the Ele has heals built into their skills which means that those guys don’t have to use a utility slot to gain survivability. Same thing with their CC, they don’t necessarily have to spec for those either. And this also could be said of the Warrior as well.
Now compare this to the Guardian. We have to use the utility slots we have for heals (meditations) and then we don’t have enough CC on some of our Weapons to really shut these guys down. This is the reason why people are running around with Hammers now and even then they still suck because Hammer is such a long CD weapon.
This is why when I switched to using a Spirit Weapon Hammer in my Condi build, my TTKs dropped significantly because 3s knockdown could be the difference between dead or alive. And a hammer that interrupts every few seconds is also a game changer in many cases.

Went on a bit of a tangent there but what we lack is definitely Crowd Control. If anything needs to be buffed it would be our ability to CC as often as Warriors, Engies and Eles do.

CMF.5461:

To the point of celestial amulet attempts, I have tried it and we do not have the same impact as the two/three celestial amulet classes have that engi and ele (to some degree warrior) can achieve. Even with Permeating Wrath.

Again this hearkens back to having to go all out on defense OR offense, not both typically.

What do I think is missing? -Leeway- otherwise known as flexibility in the class. We are so polar it becomes restricting.

I recently gave a celestial build a spin and I think it can work well. May need a few tweaks here and there but it gets a thumbs up from me on the “potentially good” scale.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fVAQNAR7dlsApaotDxVI8DNR8gUZgEYOt71/CmD-TJBBwASuIAAeCAF3fAcZAA

CMF.5461:

The cake and eat it issue is more of a point where, here is a trait that, by itself is pointless, but with other traits it becomes usable…but you can never achieve those traits together. I just want the cake to not be a lie.

What combinations of traits are you finding this issue with? I know Spirit Weapon traits are all over the place, and Symbols are a bit weird but apart from that, what else is there?

CMF.5461:

I do not think our sustain is truly that overly amazing over other classes. I think this was a player community generated idea based off bias and preconceived notion that guardians are “tanks”…then we found out there are no tanks in this game but we continued to try to shoe horn the guardian as the “tank”.

Our sustain can be quite good in team fights. Merciful intervention can heal you for the same amount Shelter would and it could also heal you from 0-100% if you have enough allies in the area (so turret engies/engie’s elite on your team, spirit rangers or even Minion Masters can take you to full health by just teleporting to them with their pets up.).

CMF.5461:

….I tried to not get into it, but I feel this ended up being still confrontational with the previous post…sorry. I was just trying to voice my opinions and perspectives with as much reasons as I could. Not trying to pick fights. I voiced it as best as I could and I will leave it alone from here.

It’s alright. I think I sounded more confrontational in my last post compared to yours so don’t worry about it. You were fine.

GodHasResigned.5720:

Ever stop to think that maybe it was because they had you on their team?

BUUUURRRNNNNN!

CMF.5461:

It is effective, but not (I hate to use the words) “optimal”.

Neither is the current DPS Guard from what I hear.

CMF.5461:

Our healing potential is situationally dependent, and our damage suffers if we spec for survival.

Everyone has this issue. Some less than others. It just so happens that Anet also know how effective the Guardian can get if given more survivability without sacrificing damage.

CMF.5461:

In comes what I feel should work but does not -> Our bunker spec should damage via conditions.

What’s stopping you from grabbing a Cele Amulet, Permeating heat, Supreme Justice, a few other utilities, stacking might and burning people with a bunkery/Burning spec?

CMF.5461:

Our traits have synergies all over, but they are often out of reach or in the same line and overlap as to prevent these potentially great builds.

It’s really not neccessary to have Permeating heat or Supreme Justice. You can make a good build without it. It just so happens that you want to have your cake and eat it too but really, it’s quite balanced this way. In other cases though, there isn’t enough synergy to form cool builds (hammer being a prime example of that.)

CMF.5461:

WE are missing something, and I feel the community is finally starting to see that, as I see a lot of hate talk about how useless guardians are in pvp now.

Apart from what you’ve mentioned above (which I think is personal taste), what else do you think is missing?

CMF.5461:

Burning guardian -works-, but I don’t think it is better than standard damage

I think it works very differently and it’s all based on preference. Only situationally, is one better than the other.

Lately I’ve been using Elixir R and I’ve found it to be quite inconsistent. In many cases I’d throw it down and it wouldn’t appear where I threw it. It seemingly just vanishes.

I know about projectile reflections skills ability cancelling thrown elixirs but this happens even when there are no projectile deflect skills in the vicinity.

Yodelay!

CMF.5461:

Five things that prevent me from being convinced condi guard is as good as you say:

Burn on Block
Aegis and protector’s strike are the primary “repetitive” blocks, with a long cooldown between burns (15s and upwards of 30+ if you use retreat). This will only net you about 2-4s of burning on a target doing maybe 2k dmg every 15 seconds. Shelter can provide a lot of burns, but then you are left without a defensive cooldown/heal

Radius of Permeating Wrath
240 range from the player restricts a lot of potential burn effects, especially when a majority of opponents in pvp are ranged (engi, ranger, mesmer, necro) Even ele and thiefs kite in and out and will not be in melee too long. This leaves warriors and other guardians who will melee you.

This is saved “somewhat” by point defense needing people to stand on a point, but often it is ranged aoe that wins that point not standing inside of it.

Torch to Burn Targets
If torch is used as a primary way to burn instead of VoJ/Permeating wrath, it can only burn 3 targets at a time. This is not horrible, but it limits your aoe potential. Also has a radius of 180, even worse than permeating wrath. Better burn duration than blocks and VOJ though.

Survival to see Burns
Guardian’s use blinds more so than blocks to survive damage as they have more of that available. After that they rely on a lot of dodging. Without crits you lose out on vigor. This can be made up for with energy sigils and/or intellect sigils. After that they rely on self healing either via meditations or AH if near allies.

If you do not have precision or 6 down valor, then you lose out on survival. But now you lose 6 points that you could use for virtues and zeal.

so now your burning build either does aoe burns but at regular damage, or you do single target burns at 33% extra damage. (I wish they would make both more accessible maybe like 4/0/6/0/4 and you could have permeating wrath and amplified wrath achievable)

Time to burn
This comes up time and time again, but there is no burst with burning. So a direct damage build can front load damage and get a kill, while a burning build needs time. The more time you give an opponent, the more time they have to either heal through your damage or kill you before you can finish your damage.

It was already shown that while condi builds can do as much as zerker builds theoretically. It will always be “12 seconds” behind. (another post showed how much burning damage they could do with whirling wrath stacking 12 seconds of burning, but in 12 seconds you could get a second whirling wrath off and doing double the original burning damage)

---

I “WANT” a burning/condi build to work and I keep theorycrafting them and testing them out, but they are not ready yet.

Why do you keep focusing on one build? There’s isn’t just one build for the Condi Guard. Also why do you think that you can actually figure out how this build works using just theory? You actually have to play it to figure it out.

And about “Time to Burn”, do you truly believe that no one can evade burst multiple times? Conditions on the other hand, when you apply them in so many ways, will always catch your target. And recently I decided to merge a spirit spec to my condi build, just to see how it would pan out. I have faster TTKs (Time To Kill) now because CC is king.

I could show you buildssszzzzzz that “theoretically” shouldn’t work, but just end up working. One of which is my very crazy version of the condi guard.

Fact is we need split Solo and Team Queues. That’s the only way teams will get their good match-ups and Solos will feel more at ease (even if they’ll forever complain about 4v5s and bad players urgh!).

We don’t need to revert back to the old system. If anything, a team Leaderboard would make things all the more interesting.

Royal Passes? Who buys those?

Keksmuffin.1450:

So yeah… all in all there was nothing new in this thread, just the people who kept creating all these condi guard hype threads defending their standpoint. I’m gonna say it again: If you want to give your arguments any credibility play in one of the streamed tournaments, ESL, mistpedia or whatever and do well in them.

Just to add to what Messiah said, there a tons of builds that were said to be “not on par” or “aren’t competitive” till some almost famous person plays it in a tournament and everyone is like “best build evar!!!!”

Just look at Rom’s new build. I wouldn’t play that on my Warrior in a million years and yet a lot of Warriors are swearing by it.

This is my problem with the current Cliffhanger syndrome, they show me something in the trailer and I’m anticipating finding out what it is but then, at the end of the story, the very thing they show in the trailer is the last thing you see and you don’t get any of your questions answered.

My advice, don’t put anything you’re not going to expand on immediately, in the trailer. I can live with not chasing down the pale tree after Caithe left but when you show me something so monumental in the trailer, I have to get more than just snippet about it.

mistsim.2748:

Saiyan.1704:

I will say, however, is that my friend is using a 61601 condi/hybrid (or it’s equivilant) build of mine and it took her to the top 250 in the leaderboards (or what ever put her in Llama gift status)

it’s just so hard to see this build doing well. your friend has zero condi clearance. you can get to top 250 by just playing a lot.

They have plenty of condi clearance. And I don’t think any player should focus on one particular combination of utilities for every single fight. Sometimes you just need Contemplation of Purity, other times you just need that SYG. Believing that the end all be all build is stagnant and can’t change depending on the situation is short sighted. If I know I’m coming up against a Necro, I’m definitely packing that CoP and Smite Condition.

@Keskmuffin

You’ve been looking at the wrong condi guard builds.

Relentliss.2170:

The burning on block enables you to play like a proper tank. This game is based a lot on Moba combat. And you become like a properly built Moba tank able to really punish people for attacking you.

Any good player will dodge your medi burst leaving you on cd. Any time they try to damage you they cop burning with a hybrid. And it just gets stronger the more you block.

Sometimes I 1v2 and win. And when I lose I dish out so much burning that anyone who rotates to help can quickly mop up.

The hybrid really punishes beserker classes. You can kill zerkers in under 10 sec.

Depends on the type of Zerker. A slow hitting Zerker could easily make you look silly for trying, like someone who depends on big spaced out hits and has a lot of CC.

Black Box.9312:

The hybrid guardian has been a thing since Amplified Wrath was added. The only reason why it’s as effective as it is right now is because people are just now starting to realize that the build exists, and they still don’t quite yet know how to effectively counter it.

It’s mostly just a fad, essentially. It’ll go out of style once people learn how to fight it.

It’s very hard to “know” how to fight it. A good condi guard player who knows how to play mind games can really turn the tables on you. And if you pressure a good condi guard, you’re probably going to go down as well unless you’ve got some top notch condi removal.

Lopez.7369:

Solstice.1097:

points per win is pretty valid. that means regardless of your win/loss record ,the highest points per win will be players who only lost games they were expected to lose, and never lose games they were expected to win.

the problem many don’t seem to understand is that NO system will make much sense or be very accurate when the majority of players have still only played a few dozen games so far on it.

give it some time.

This is a math problem. We don’t need to wait to see some magical scenario in which each person plays hundreds of matches. The current leaderboard system is a grind — pure and simple. The old system actually measured skill better, even with all its problems.

Points per win doesn’t solve any of these problems. In fact, it arguably worsens them since high-MMR players have a much more difficult time getting matches that are worth more than 1 point.

What’s worse is these aren’t some new, unsolvable problems that ArenaNet is the first to tackle. Other games have had functioning leaderboard system for years. But the developers ignored those solutions and instead created a monstrosity of a system that satisfies a handful of people who like grinding tons of matches.

You can’t fault them for trying. All we’ve been hearing for the past year is how bad the old system was. New system in and well…. yea…

Fact is though, this new system is good. The only problem? Solo q and Team Q smashed together. It feels like no Team is getting challenged so people form teams so they can steam roll people. If the queues were split Team Q peeps would get their fair share of leaderboard grinders but they’ll drop pretty fast if they come up against people who they should beat but end up not beating and Solo Q will remain solo Q, random and painful.

Lopez.7369:

Win-loss ratio is a completely useless metric. If I won 100 matches against a team full of keyboard-turning clickers who don’t even have traits, an amulet, runes, and sigils selected, I’d have a 100 percent win ratio and would be ranked higher than someone who won 50 out of 100 matches against Abjured — even though the person who can beat Abjured deserves to be ranked much higher.

The current leaderboard sucks, but a ladder based on win-loss ratio is the worst possible replacement.

May I suggest the old leaderboard system with Split Solo and Team Qs and Leagues or brackets?

Gaile Gray.6029:

maybe the conversation is relevant to PvP, PvE, WvW, or AbC.

ABC? Alliance Battles Confirmed? ALLIANCE BATTLES CONFIRMED! :P

Supcutie.2538:

@Dirame and others

Listen I’m sorry to say this but the talk of comparing builds will go on infinitely – this is the bottom line:

This thread and most of the Mesmer balance discussions are talking about high level play. We don’t have to prove that your build is bad until you show that your build is good. Top players have a lot more evidence on their side currently. Show us your evidence fighting top players. I don’t want to see or hear about unranked or hot join success either.
What is good in theory is not necessarily good in actual top tier gameplay if you haven’t experienced it. Your build might work in unranked or even top 100 but when you get to top 20 and up in tournament level gameplay, you’ll find what works and doesn’t changes a lot.
Can’t get good enough or don’t have the time to network onto a top team? Then I’m sorry but you’ll just have to trust that someone has thought about and theorycrafted what you’re thinking of and decided in won’t work in their environment. Top players are good for a reason, and part of that reason is playing what works, and not playing what doesn’t work.

If you want to just have fun on mesmer you can do that with many builds at many levels. I don’t complain about Shatter in hot joins or unranked queues. I don’t even complain in ranked queues. I’m good enough at Shatter that my skill can overcome the imbalances at those levels. But at the highest level the imbalances are exposed. I even have fun playing other random mesmer builds that I have tried and know don’t work in higher level gameplay. I just play them in lower elo areas of the game, with success, just like many people who claim those same builds are good.

I’m sorry but you have to understand that you may not be as good as you think you are. You need to do some more research and simply play at a higher level before you earn the ability to have a weighted opinion on the matter.

I’m not claiming I’m the perfect player either. I’m simply saying that we need evidence here instead of theorycrafted claims. If you can’t provide, then you’ll simply have to trust that other people are smart enough to have thought through what builds work and don’t.

The question still remains; “What are these shortcomings?” because I genuinely wish to know. Is it the movement, dps, condis, survivability, escapability etc? Because at the start of the game Ele was apparently bad but then it was suddenly good with no change to the class by the devs. “Experts” said they were bad and they had tried everything. Same thing with Engie, same thing with the new Dhuumfire.

So please, I’m not trying to undermine your knowledge, I’m trying to pick your brain and find out exactly what you think is lacking.

Coulter.2315:

I think the only buff I have ever asked for Mesmer has been to give GS3 a Blast Finisher component (before the last update), I don’t want Mesmers buffed I want Cele, Fire+Air, Geo+Doom nerf’d. Halting might need looking at for nerf too but lets wait til we deal with the Rune/Sigil mess first.

@Dirame – is that your youtube channel in your comment? If it is I’m glad you’re producing content for GW2 thats definitely commendable however I looked at your thoughts on the most recent Mesmer and Ele changes, there is an issue which discredits your opinions on Mesmer. You never noticed that Illusionary Elasticity didn’t effect clones before the update – if this escaped your notice for 2 years then I’m sorry but you cannot come here and demand that people think and try harder. I don’t want to discourage you too much and you can stick to your thoughts BUT I’m pointing out a massive mistake you made for 2 years so you may be mistaken again. Please don’t take this as a personal attack I’m just trying to show that you might want to rethink as you’ve not noticed stuff in the past.

I take my own advice because I enjoy trying new things and developing new ideas. If you feel offended that I’m demanding something that you’ve already done then I apologize for offending you. Wasn’t trying to.

I’m not the best mesmer in the world, never claimed to be, but my thoughts are just based on the fact that I’ve never seen any tournament representation of what I’d consider to be the good ol’ college try. No offence to anyone who has already tried.

Coulter.2315:

The build you just described was 44600 if you think Mesmers haven’t extensively tested this build and come to the conclusion it is worse than 44006 Shatter you’re wrong.
You might not know me (and thats perfectly fine) but you have seen supcutie reply too and told you that he has tested many builds (as have I but I’m trying to pick someone’s opinion who you’ll take).
I’m not saying Mesmers are weak, I love it and they are excellent to play BUT they are certainly on the decline and its because of the meta and I have explained rather well the reasons why.
Mesmers are disappearing not because we’re not good and thinking players its just we’re naturally weaker in the current situation, its an MMO though so balance and change will sort this with time.

I personally don’t know to what extent any mesmer has tried any of the builds. I’m just going off of my own experiences.

And don’t believe I’m not taking your opinion into consideration just because I’m sticking vehemently to mine. It’s just that I’ve never actually seen a mesmer play without any of the holy trinity of skills they use.

Supcutie.2538:

@Dirame I’ve used almost every spec that makes sense to try in sPvP/tPvP. It’s not a creative issue at this point. I posted in the Mesmer forums what specs I’ve tried (and I’ve tried even more since then), you might be able to find it in my post history. I can also assure you I was able to play the specs at an adequate level to test.

I’d truly like to know what you’ve tried and what you haven’t because I really fail to believe that things are that bad.

I read some of your old posts and one of them mentioned something about the shortcomings of the mesmer coming to light when teams start to get better and smarter and I guess my question is, “What are the shortcomings of the Mesmer?” apart from being extremely squishy and not being able to handle condis unless you spec a certain way. Because from what I personally have tried and tested, I feel like players who are better than me should be able to run away with how powerful the mesmer can be.

coglin.1867:

Throw wrench has Double the cool down. I guess if your suggesting to double the cool down of net shot, that the idea as a whole might fly.

Rifle Turret – Surprise Shot. Same cooldown.

But you think it’s a bad idea because it would make Rifle more powerful? The only power in the Rifle is the Ov-Shot really and I personally was never a fan of how powerful that skill was/is from the beginning. An instant knockback that leaves a target on the ground for 3s? And there’s only a small chance that you’d actually dodge the bloody thing? Nah. I play the engie and I am not a fan of it even if I do use it. I do understand why it’s there though, the Rifle would be comparatively weak without it and a nerf to Ov-shot would decimate the Rifle population. But I personally don’t see how making Net Shot a 100% projectile affects the power of the Rifle, all that change does is give you more smart ways to use that particular skill.

And its okay to be unquestionably against my suggestion. You’re just one opinion in a million.
——————

If we want to discuss the problem with the Celengi though, I can tell you that the problem isn’t the Rifle. If the Rifle was the main issue then all Rifle builds would be an issue but that’s not the case is it? The fact is, the dev who made the call to buff celestial amulet probably made a bad call and we’re all suffering from the consequences of that.
Think about it though, why is it that since the beginning of the game, no one really gave Rifle much of a shot. It was always P/S this and P/P that and in the rare case Rifle would pop up in a Burst build of some sort. Only when Cele came along did Rifle really start to shine, so the real problem is Cele not Rifle.

I rest my case.

Coulter.2315:

Dirame.8521:

I think the Mesmers just have to give up on using portal and focus on making a new build. Playing Mesmer the way EVERYONE plays it and then complaining that it can’t sustain in team fights is just so self-defeatist to me.

If Mesmers really want to be in teams, they should start dropping what they feel is the status quo and going yolo swag to see what works.

People are winning matches without the use of portal. You really have to ask yourself if portal is so necessary with that fact in mind.

Mesmers are taken because they do AoE Power Damage, Boon Strip and Portal. If you start messing with the 44006 build you’re immediately losing 1 or 2 of those things after which other classes just become better choices.

If you want to make a tiny tweak to become better resistant to condis for example you have to lose either Boon Removal, Decoy or Portal And thats making 1 tiny change. Mesmers are VERY trait locked – as you can tell from them using the EXACT same trait spread since launch (Halting being the only update and we wouldnt even have used it if it hadn’t been in Dom 2 position).

That’s my point. You guys are trait locking yourselves because you hold too much value to all those things. The only way you’re going to improve is if you start breaking out of that and who the heck can interrupt better than a mesmer? No one! You also said it yourself, no one can boon strip better than mesmer so even without portal, they are still useful.
If you think a different class would be better in place of class that can boon strip a group of people then proceed to interrupt all of them and immobilize all of them in place so that his/her team can have free reign to nuke crap down then that’s your opinion, that’s not a fact.

Aerveor.9617:

No matter what your class or build, the goal is to contribute more to the fight than players on the opposing team. Specialized builds have one job. In the case of the Shatter Mesmer, that job is to provide high damage and clutch interrupts. All of our survivability and kiting tactics exist so we can do those two things. Making a single mistake on a specialized build is so incredibly bad. Not necessarily because you might die, but because messing up means that a cele build is going to “out-contribute” you in the fight.

The new matchmaking changes highlighted this point for me. I’ve really been struggling to win as a Shatter Mesmer queueing solo since the update. With the randomness of the queues now, my perception of cele builds has changed a ton. They seem much more effective than they were before the update. It just makes so much more sense to me to run these builds in solo queue because these builds are GUARANTEED to make a contribution to the fight. As long as they use their abilities they can provide healing, condi cleanse, fire fields for might etc etc. Whereas if a Mesmer’s mirror blade doesn’t connect and a thief jumps on them right after…they’ve essentially contributed nothing.

I suggest trying a proper interrupt shatter mesmer (mantras) or a Condi Shatter mesmer (and not the sad one that only tries to catch you with the scepter 2 block) and you might have more luck.

I personally haven’t done so myself so all I’ve got is conjecture but I’m hoping you get better results.

I think the Mesmers just have to give up on using portal and focus on making a new build. Playing Mesmer the way EVERYONE plays it and then complaining that it can’t sustain in team fights is just so self-defeatist to me.

If Mesmers really want to be in teams, they should start dropping what they feel is the status quo and going yolo swag to see what works.

People are winning matches without the use of portal. You really have to ask yourself if portal is so necessary with that fact in mind.

coglin.1867:

It is difficult to justify. Skills that offer special functions beyond that of damage, such as conditions of immobilize and cripple, as well as vulnerability, would be obviously over powered by being a guaranteed to be a finisher.

I don’t see how it is difficult to justify. Throw Wrench is 100% projectile AND has cripple and vulnerability on it.

I also feel like you’re putting too much weight on the power of a 100% projectile. While it is useful, it certainly won’t be game changing to the point where if you don’t do the combo, you automatically suck at your class.

coglin.1867:

When there are threads in 5 different sub forums, clamoring to nerf rifle, due to its low cool down CC, I hardly feel this is a wise suggestion at this point.

Well, if they do nerf Ov-Shot then cool but that doesn’t stop them from making Net Shot a 100% projectile.

Wolfar.6508:

I would much rather see them fix Net Shot first. Often it will be ‘obstructed’ while there is nothing blocking it or it is out of range when you are next to the target. Same case with the Warrior’s Throw Bolas ability.

Happens to a lot of projectiles, not just those two.

It just makes sense to me. Shooting a Net Through fire should light it on fire, it would get wet if shot through a water field, electrified if shot through a lightning field etc.

Another modification that could make the rifle more powerful to use smartly.

Nope nope nope. I think if it should be changed to anything, it should be changed to “Watch Yourselves!”

Justin ODell.9517:

Courtyard, Spirit Watch, and Skyhammer will not be included in ranked arena once the beta ladder officially starts.

Could Courtyard be put in Arenanet’s Custom Arena rotation? I think it would be great over there.

I don’t have a favourite skill. Just a favourite combo; Banish into Judge’s + Ring of Warding.

Spartacus.3192:

Question on F1 passive burn. It says every 5th attack (or 3rd if traited for Supreme Justicne). Does that tack cleave attacks into account? For eg lets say im using staff (not saying i would but humor me). It cleaves 5 targets on Auto Attack (assume im in a zerg battle so can hit 5 people each time). Does that mean i burn one person each staff Auto Attack? or is it every 5th auto attack?

Thanks

Yes it does take cleave attacks into account.

RUMBA!

this post was made to solve a problem with the forums

SilkySmooth.1574:

thats the thing. this will never happen in higher tier ranked matches..

I also find it funny that you think a situation like that couldn’t happen in higher tier matches. I’ve been watching higher tier matches, they are quite prone to making mistakes as well.

Nah, it just wasn’t used enough. Maybe if they made it create a phantasm that copied all your spell actions and movement… it would be like a clone but does everything you do without actually casting a spell itself.

Eclipse.5912:

3 conditions? You clearly haven’t tried condi guard extensively enough to be criticizing it. Let me draw it out for you in crayon:

Condition 1, Blindess: Flashing blade, VoJ, RoJ
Condition 2, Vulnerability: Upon blinding, enemy receives 3 stacks of vulnerability
Condition 3, Burning: If this needs further explaining…
Condition 4, Poison: Weapon swap, 60% uptime
Condition 5, Bleeding: Krait runes give this 100% uptime, 3 stack minimum
Condition 6, Torment: Krait rune elite activation; timing is everything.

6 conditions that stack in intensity, duration, and have nearly 100% uptime.

Wow, 100% uptime on torment? Where can I get that?! /sarcasm

Torment doesn’t even come close to having 100% uptime. If you just said, in a match where you have condi cleansers the ability to reapply burning even after it has been cleansed repeatedly is the key, then only people who don’t understand that fact will argue with you.

SilkySmooth.1574:

it wont dont worry, its not half as good as a zerk medi build in high end pvp:P

Opinion not fact.

yLoon.5289:

Condi build may sounds viable in 1v1, however I don’t think condi guard possessed any threat in a group fight. ( And yes, i have tried myriads ways of condi. build ) Condi build just sacrifice too many CC and support skills (SYG) in order to get the Burn, just don’t worth it imo.

Even Medi-guards don’t need to sacrifice SYG. It’s just a choice. If you want to play with SYG, you can.

And it’s hilarious that you think condi guard doesn’t pose a threat. 3 people tried to focus me in a fight the other day, the mesmer got downed by passive burning, the Warrior that tried to stomp me got downed and the Engineer who tried to rez the mesmer got downed and I got rallied off the mesmer only to stomp the other two so yea…. not effective at all.

Actually… it might work. If you have a team then your survivability should be held up by how well they can support you.

And if you take Rabid, burst won’t hit you too hard but then you have to change back to Carrion when you encounter a condi team.

Justin ODell.9517:

Saiyan.1704:

This may or may not be in the ladder matches, along with skyhammer.

It will not be included during season play.

I think it’s a bit of mistake for you guys to put it in Ranked Queue but not in Custom Arena/Practice mode Auto-rotation. I feel it’s better there than in ranked queue.