Guild Wars 2

Want to add to “Predicting Interrupts”:

After you stun or daze an enemy, you can keep an eye on the stun/daze status icon on the opponent. When that icon disappears, there’s a 0.5-1 second period when the opponent is likely to perform a skill, usually a high-damage or tide-turner or heal[I observe][This also works for knockdown/pull, harder to tell, though]. There’s also the chance that they might just try to dodge away or, if thief, stealth/shadowstep. I tend to use an interrupt at this time and I tend to be able to chain my interrupts from then after so long as I continually hit in this interval.

Always some exceptions, but this is a pattern I find works a lot.

And Whirl, which sends out Cleansing Bolts, thus those can cleanse you.

Haha! That was a funny read. gg, sir, gg. Very trolltastic. Fabulous Max!

I’m US, by the way…

I’m thinking, since many say Power Block isn’t good because thief is basically excluded from the effects, why not create a good PB build that is created under the assumption that we don’t face thieves? After all, we can check the opponent’s professions in sPvP before hand.

So, firstly, good idea?
Secondly, anyone have any thoughts on a PB build?

This is probably OP, but I think a cool version of mimic could be one which first requires us to use a very small AoE targeting field[180 radius, maybe] capture the target in it. The skill then switches to kitteno, which we can use to forcibly teleport enemies back to their position inside the mimic. This can, of course, be dodged so there is counter play, and does not interrupt skills they’re using.

I don’t know why, but the appeal of “resetting time-space” really hits me as very mesmer and cool.

I don’t speak for every person in my profession, but the feel that I’ve gotten from the mesmer community is that this new Mimic is lackluster and unsatisfactory. There are a few reasons for this, but I’ll name the top three:
1. Arcane Thievery: We already have a skill on a shorter cool down which can do something similar with more purposes. Sure, it won’t give us “all” the boons, but it is less situational and has the dual purpose of being a condition cleanser.
2. Ranger Changes: Just as rangers gain a very powerful buff to their [super] long-range projectile attacks, mesmers lose a skill which would essentially become a super strong counter to such focus-fire attacks like Rapid Fire. I assume that this was on purpose, but it feels like mesmers were made to take a nerf for the sake of ranger’s buff, which seems a bit like poisoning grapes to make the newest apple seem juicier.
3. Singular Purpose: It has such a straight-forward effect, it has no duality which the mesmer is based upon. Almost every skill a mesmer has can be used in more than one way. For instance, OH Sword’s #4 can be a high-damage block or a projectile daze. This is minor.

There are other reasons, among these. The point is, it seems most of us would like the old Mimic back or at least an alternative change to this one, or even perhaps a tweak to the current one which makes it more appealing as a whole[remember, duality].

Any thoughts or suggestions on this?

On the other hand, this opens up the possibility: Who wants a skill to teleport opponents?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hehe, the Thief forums duplicated our Grimoire. What can we say? Mesmers are trendsetters.

Edit: HOLY CRAP WE MISSED OUR ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY! O_o

Gasp! What’ll we do? We can’t let this milestone go unannounced and un/dance’d!

So, it seems ranger forums are creating their own guild. Also, bump.

Go to Lyssa’s Grimoire at the top of the mesmer forums. It has just about everything you need to know.

Lyssa’s Grimoire
Official Mesmer Forum Guild
Build List

First one is almost all the information on mesmers. Second can get you help from expert mesmers. Third has a lot of good builds, though unsure what’s still viable and up-to-date with all the changes.

If you could create your own 5-7 member guild of heroes[preferably from minor races] to save Tyria along the side of the B-Iconics and the "A"-Iconics, who would they be? What is their past, background, quirks, or abilities?

This is meant to be fun and, if you want, silly.

Personally, I’d like to see a few with Hero-tron as the leader. Maybe he’d be a guardian? One might think engineer, given his mechanical origins, but the way he’s been supporting in fights seems more guardian-ish.

Inspired by this thread, I decided to make one more broad and open than simply copying and pasting an old map with a few changes. I’m thinking an arena based on some of Dry Top’s functions and perhaps other tidbits people can come up with.

Two ideas which I somewhat stole from the previously mentioned thread are a sandstorm mechanic and quicksand. I’m thinking if the sandstorm activates automatically for 1 minute every two minutes, in which case a third of the match will be played with poor visibility. Quicksand can simply help divide the map into sections or perhaps be placed on points to make it slightly harder to go full bunker on the map as CC can drive people into the blinding-damaging AoE. For more strategic play, the quicksand could do little to no physical damage and instead apply blind and bleed every second, in which case players can quickly traverse this terrain using anti-condi skills/utility along with leaping or teleporting.

As for other fun things, the map could be made with layers or heights. The Home/Far will be on the upper level while there will be a mid level and a lower level. On the lower level, I’m thinking, is a good place to put Mid. From the upper level, one will be able to see through the sandstorm from above and thus have some tactical advantage.

Any ideas on this kind of arena, or additions you think could be made?

I think the Assassin Amulet is new in PvP? Never saw it before, so I assume so. I’m pretty sure that Assassin stats benefit us, along with thieves, the most. We can avoid a lot of damage and weren’t tanky to begin with, so any ideas on the best way to use this amulet?

Rym.1469:

Half of those are invalid.

When we’re to judge, we need specifics in this game, full build, not a profession.

True, these won’t speak for every build, however we can speak for the whole profession if we only look at the accessibility the profession has. For instance, mesmers don’t have a great amount of OOC mobility. However, with the right build, weapon set, or gear it is possible to gain that OOC mobility. This is, let’s say, average mobility. Now, we can look at, let’s say, elementalist and see a greater ease via weapons, utility, and traits in gaining OOC mobility, and thus it will have a higher standing in those terms.

So this is more like class/profession raw data rather than ranking one class above another, which would require analysis of specific builds, as you say.

Haha! I just got the joke! Rangers get super pew-pew, Mesmers lose one of their anti pew-pew which perfectly counters the new machinebow Ranger’s got. Oh, ANet, we see what you did there!
Though, I hope that isn’t the actual reason and perhaps we get a new mimic. This current mimic isn’t dual-purpose enough to be mesmer. Mesmer skills are almost always dual-purpose, in that there’s one way to use them, and a secondary way to use them such as the Illusionary Riposte with it’s high-damage block and its ranged daze projectile. If we, maybe, had Echo where we could either choose and delay when we get the boons copied or if we AoE share the boons, it might work.

The purpose of this thread is to understand the general and specific views of people regarding each profession and see how each class is balanced in as close to a quantified manner as possible. Please speak for only classes you yourself play. Also, please do not partially fill the form out. You can do just the General information or just the Specific or both, but not half of one, or else it creates data easily misinterpreted. If I missed anything that should also be applied to the data, please tell. Each piece of data is in a format of 1-10 or 1-5 in which 1 is the least amount of the attribute while 10 is an abundance and easy access to the attribute.

[Class]

———General———
Damage: [1-10]
Mobility: [1-10]
Control: [1-10]
Damage Mitigation(Armor, Evade, Stealth, Condition Cleansing, etc.): [1-10]
Support: [1-10]
Utility: [1-10]

———Specifics———
Melee Direct Damage: [1-10]
Ranged Direct Damage: [1-10]
Boons(To Self): [1-10]
-Fury: [1-5]
-Might: [1-5]
-Retaliation: [1-5]
Melee Condition Damage: [1-10]
-Bleeding: [1-5]
-Burning: [1-5]
-Confusion: [1-5]
-Poison: [1-5]
-Torment: [1-5]
Ranged Condition Damage: [1-10]
-Bleeding: [1-5]
-Burning: [1-5]
-Confusion: [1-5]
-Poison: [1-5]
-Torment: [1-5]

In-Combat Mobility: [1-10]
Out-of-Combat Mobility: [1-10]
Boons(To Self): [1-10]
-Stability: [1-5]
-Swiftness: [1-5]

Hard Control(Daze, Stun, Knockdown, etc.): [1-10]
Soft Control(Chill, Immobilize, Cripple, etc.): [1-10]
-Chill: [1-5]
-Cripple: [1-5]
-Immobilization: [1-5]
-Weakness: [1-5]
-Vulnerability: [1-5]
-Fear: [1-5]
-Blind: [1-5]
Indirect Soft Control[Punish]: [1-10]
-Poison: [1-5]
-Torment: [1-5]
-Confusion: [1-5]
Boon-Stripping/Conversion: [1-10]

Health: [Low, Medium, High]
Armor: [Light, Medium, Heavy]
Evasion: [1-10]
Stealth: [1-5]
Condition Cleansing: [1-10]
Self-Healing: [1-10]
Boons(To Self): [1-10]
-Aegis: [1-5]
-Protection: [1-5]
-Regeneration: [1-5]
-Vigor: [1-5]

Boons(To Others): [1-10]
-Aegis: [1-5]
-Fury: [1-5]
-Might: [1-5]
-Protection: [1-5]
-Regeneration: [1-5]
-Retaliation: [1-5]
-Stability: [1-5]
-Swiftness: [1-5]
-Vigor: [1-5]
Healing[To Others]: [1-10]
Other Support: [1-10]

Fields: [1-10]
-Dark: [1-5]
-Ethereal: [1-5]
-Fire: [1-5]
-Ice: [1-5]
-Light: [1-5]
-Lightning: [1-5]
-Poison: [1-5]
-Smoke: [1-5]
-Water: [1-5]
Finishers: [1-10]
-Blast: [1-5]
-Whirl: [1-5]
-Projectile: [1-5]
-Leap: [1-5]

Warrior and ranger can give you some long stun/dazes, however mesmers have more interrupts and can keep a person locked down for long times using these together with traits. Chaotic Interruption immobilizes on interrupt, so you can potentially keep people locked down in place while your friend pew pews them down.

I’m fine with the swapping of both builds and classes. I play only mesmer[trying to branch out], but I view multi-classers who are can swap depending on the opponent as a tactical play style. Take the Art of War, by Sun Tzu, for example:

“26. Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose. "

To be able to have and use multiple classes is a tactical advantage one has over his opponent, the same as a player with more “skill” having an advantage over one with less “skill”. In a certain way, skill can be looked at as brawn, while brain would be creating a plan during the time provided before the match. In this description, brawn would be one’s ability to defeat opponents and brain would be preemptive planning and good decision making[running instead of fighting, etc.]. Swapping of any kind before the beginning of the match, as in being able to comprehend the enemy’s composition and understanding how to best counteract that composition, is part of brain. In such a way, builds of any kind are also a part of brain, arming one’s self with the best abilities and traits thought out well before the match for a certain purpose.

This is another reason why 1v1 isn’t the way the game is balanced nor a game type [yet]. If it was, it would only focus on brawn and no brain.

Therefore, if multi-classers have the skill to play each of their classes and the tact to read/counter the enemy before the fight via class-swapping is simply another type of play style.

StickerHappy.8052:

Korusef.3714:

You could always start leaping through light fields to build some retal or try the new runes.

I wish i could, but i dnt run zerk.

Retal doesn’t crit, I think, so zerker doesn’t matter much. Maybe soldier for health and armor with same amount of power?

Let’s say in PvP Legacy of Foefire, there’s those ledges on mid where people can fire down from with ranged without ever coming into the threat of melee. Is pathing any problem when using ileap to teleport up there?

I’m in, though for the top 100. Won’t be good enough for top 10 unless people decide not to join in.

GAAAAAAAAH! GWAAAAH!?!

This isn’t anger, it’s the sound of my frustration as I lost the plug-in for my wireless mouse today and thus can’t fully enjoy the joy of mantras. It’s a roller-ball mouse, so I can’t just borrow another since I’m not used to it.

GAAAAH!!!

I want to mantrakill too!

This doesn’t seem like the right sub forum… but whatever. Anyway, I firstly understand that the OP is making an extreme claim, and this may not be the actual person’s thoughts. If the OP wishes to prove his point as fact, the best thing would be to post on the forums and spread word to people to vote on the best duelers they’ve come across. The names which pop up the most frequently will duel, along with Kronos if he wasn’t voted up, and thus we can give a more confident statement regarding the best dueler. Of course, this tourney would require the “No Rules” rule, as a boxer who can’t beat a below-the-belt kicking thug can’t call himself the best fighter, right? And it also isn’t like only the best duelers go into tournaments like this, so there, of course. Some simply duel for fun and don’t want to spend money or commitment on it, so it should be a very open and easy to understand tournament.

Well, that’s just my two cents on the matter.

Taimi will fall out of Scruffy and Heal-o-Tron will jump in, becoming the head, and become Super-Hero-Tron!

Or, at least, I hope he gets an upgrade to a full body. Maybe he becomes the spokesperson for the Black Lion Company and Evon hooks him up with the coolest and latest tech. That might be cool.

I, too, would like us, along with the biconics, to be more “person-before-hero” in the sense that we are not perfect Mary sue or Marty Stues which are all so benevolent and altruistic. Maybe if we can choose three new personal story paths to develop our personal reasons for joining the fight instead of something like “For the Queen~” when you’re a street rat and must not really like the nobles and ministers alike.

Hell, even if our character was given a mental disorder to explain why he’s so hellbent on killing forces of nature might be cool[Luckily, there are dragons, or else he might be swinging a sword at passing gusts of wind.]. Simply put, we need clear and consistent(<-this is important) motives for all characters for the plot to feel relevant to everybody(despite being a dragon that will eventually destroy the planet. People don’t care about that kind of stuff a lot, look at global warming for inspiration).

stof.9341:

Xiahou Mao.9701:

It’s pretty clear that they don’t intend to have Power Block have any special functionality towards Initiative skills.

It still doubles the interrupt cooldown effect, just like it does for any other skill

…Touché, friend, touché.

Xiahou Mao.9701:

The precedent in the game doesn’t work for you. The Chill condition also affects cooldowns, making them take longer to recharge. If it was intended for skills/traits that modify cooldowns to affect Thief weapon skills, Chill would already be doing that. But it doesn’t affect that, and devs in the past have said that Chill not doing anything to Initiative skills is intentional.

You’ll just have to accept that Power Block isn’t going to be quite as useful against a Thief as against other classes. Look on the bright side, when you interrupt Hide in Shadows using your Power Block trait, you’re going to get a dead Thief.

You may be right, but my OCD about this trait is annoying me endlessly. I just feel like it should do something, though I know the devs have also stated that it not effecting initiative is intentional. However, this makes the trait even weaker than it already is[not that all classes don’t have the problem with the new traits].

T raw.4658:

Dondagora.9645:

How about we start small? pausing initiative regen clock for 1-2 seconds?

Fine as is

l2p

I don’t even use the trait. I just believe it should interact with initiative. And I am not complaining about thieves being overpowered or too strong. Once you stop their movement, bursting them down is usually easy. Confusion also kills thieves as fast. That’s not even important.

A l2p issue is if I had a problem against thieves. This is a thread about allowing a trait to effect everything equally. Thieves are in a particular situation with Power Block because putting them on CD would break their class. Anything too big like doubling the initiative toll also breaks the class. Many ways the trait could theoretically interact with thieves could break the class. Which is why I’m asking for a very small, yet somewhat significant interaction which will not break the class by asking the thief community’s opinions on such. Please understand what I’m trying to say without thinking I’m doing this in a grudge against you or your class or because I blame the trait for my lack of skill.

How about we start small? pausing initiative regen clock for 1-2 seconds?

MIrra.3604:

Dondagora.9645:

This isn’t a QQ about thieves, for those of you misunderstanding. I personally am fine with a mesmer’s place against thieves, it’s a l2p issue, mainly, and not having a counter for a thief’s mobility and stealth and spam are an issue with the build and/or player.

What I’m asking about here is consistency within the game. It is not that interrupts don’t punish thieves, but that the trait which should increase the base punishment of interrupts does not do so for thief initiative skills, which I see as a hole in the trait design.

I am not pretending to know everything about thieves, so that’s why I’m asking, what do you thieves believe the best adjustment for initiative skill interaction with Power Block is?

@Pinkcomet
That’s a good point, pausing initiative regen for a second or however long might be a less situational effect than initiative draining.

Look, if you really don’t understand and are not trolling, I will explain it to you. The reason as to why Power Block does not affect thief is because it will break the thief class. For the same reason why summon clones does not reveal a stealth mesmer, decoy bypass reveal, or how you can’t dodge a phast summon. It will break the mesmer class if everything is consistence across all professions.

No, of course I understand why it does not force thief skills to have a cool down. That would break one of the core mechanics of the class[Initiative, universal CD pool]. However, I believe that there should be some sort of interaction between the thief and power block or else it is a trait that makes an exception of an entire class, not just a build or two. As such, it isn’t as if I don’t understand the thief to some extent, however I don’t want to act as if I play it and can therefore speak like I know best for balance. What I’m asking is what kind of interaction thieves believe might be good at adding the same kind of punishment Power Block is supposed to toward interrupted initiative skills without breaking the class altogether.

As for those inconsistencies about mesmers are probably true[though I believe you’re talking about the dodge-clone with stealth?]. Yet that has no bearing whatsoever on this discussion. They may be issues or inconsistencies, but they are not the ones being discussed here nor do they have common factors with this issue. This is an inconsistency with a class’s mechanics ignoring the mechanics of a trait. Those that you mentioned are simply faults or mechanics of skills, which can be discussed in a thread more dedicated to them if you wish it[Personally think Decoy should be effected by Revealed].

I am not, I repeat, attempting to have Power Block add 10 second CDs to thief skills on interrupt.

This isn’t a QQ about thieves, for those of you misunderstanding. I personally am fine with a mesmer’s place against thieves, it’s a l2p issue, mainly, and not having a counter for a thief’s mobility and stealth and spam are an issue with the build and/or player.

What I’m asking about here is consistency within the game. It is not that interrupts don’t punish thieves, but that the trait which should increase the base punishment of interrupts does not do so for thief initiative skills, which I see as a hole in the trait design.

I am not pretending to know everything about thieves, so that’s why I’m asking, what do you thieves believe the best adjustment for initiative skill interaction with Power Block is?

@Pinkcomet
That’s a good point, pausing initiative regen for a second or however long might be a less situational effect than initiative draining.

StickerHappy.8052:

Okay, to be fair, when fighting a mesmer, thieves have halved stealth durations. Class mechanic vs Class Mechanic.

How…?

Sagat.3285:

Dondagora.9645:

I was talking about this earlier this year, and thought of a few ideas.

Our interrupt [I had thought] takes the initiative the thief spent on the skill. If it apparently doesn’t, well, it should then. This is the replacement for a non-Power Block interrupted cool down on skills. ANet should make sure that if a thief skill is interrupted, it still costs them initiative, which I think may be a bug if it doesn’t.

Now, against thieves I believe our Power Block should not put them on normal CD, given that their mechanic is having a universal CD called initiative. Power Block should therefore drain from their initiative instead to increase their CD. The obvious, yet wrong solution, is to take as much initiative as the skill interrupted cost, thus doubling the amount the thief lost. This is too much, given that skills interrupted are all globally put on a 5 second CD, or 10 seconds with Power Block. Therefore, the extra initiative drained should be universal.

The best number of initiative to remove is 3, I think. Interrupt a Heart Seeker, you make it cost twice as much without any result. You interrupt a 6 initiative skill, you take 9 and make it so they can’t use it again[in most cases] right after the daze, but doesn’t eat their initiative whole. It punishes but doesn’t make them unable to fight on a lucky daze.

Let see how many reasonable players agree with this “proposition” . Let’s allow 1 interrupt to put thief into submission mode used initiative isn’t enough.

I intend to find out~

Hello, thief community! I am a mesmer and am ignorant of your problems and struggles with your class! I am here to discuss interaction between thieves and the Mesmer Grandmaster trait [Power Block].

Power Block:
Enemy skills that you interrupt have an increased cooldown.

Duration: 10 s
————————————

As you may or may not know, when a skill is interrupted it normally goes on a 5 second cool down. Power Block increases that cool down to 10 seconds. This, however, does not work against thieves.

Thief skills, when they are interrupted, do not go on a cool down. This is all dandy, as they lose initiative used for the skill interrupted[though I recently learned that that may not be the case in certain situations, but that’s not important for this discussion.].

However Power Block, a trait which essentially effects only the timed cool down, does nothing against interrupted initiative skills. This, I believe, is a very big flaw in the design of the trait. There have been discussions about interaction with a thief’s initiative. I’m not going to suggest anything ridiculous like doubling the initiative taken, like some have, however I do believe there is need for Power Block to effect thieves in some way. Remember that it is not that the thief’s mechanic is no cool down, but that the thief skills share a universal CD pool called initiative.

Personal Suggestion: Drain 3 additional initiative on interrupt.

Other Suggestions: Stall initiative generation for a period of time[?].

What is your, the thief community’s, opinion on this matter? How do you want it handled, if at all?

I ask you because I know that I don’t know thief. Thus, I hope you will try to see this not as an attack against thieves but as an oversight that should be looked at.

I was talking about this earlier this year, and thought of a few ideas.

Our interrupt [I had thought] takes the initiative the thief spent on the skill. If it apparently doesn’t, well, it should then. This is the replacement for a non-Power Block interrupted cool down on skills. ANet should make sure that if a thief skill is interrupted, it still costs them initiative, which I think may be a bug if it doesn’t.

Now, against thieves I believe our Power Block should not put them on normal CD, given that their mechanic is having a universal CD called initiative. Power Block should therefore drain from their initiative instead to increase their CD. The obvious, yet wrong solution, is to take as much initiative as the skill interrupted cost, thus doubling the amount the thief lost. This is too much, given that skills interrupted are all globally put on a 5 second CD, or 10 seconds with Power Block. Therefore, the extra initiative drained should be universal.

The best number of initiative to remove is 3, I think. Interrupt a Heart Seeker, you make it cost twice as much without any result. You interrupt a 6 initiative skill, you take 9 and make it so they can’t use it again[in most cases] right after the daze, but doesn’t eat their initiative whole. It punishes but doesn’t make them unable to fight on a lucky daze.

I don’t know about you guys, but I think the Biconics need to add some “Points of Awesomeness” to each of their characters. Taimi is smart, Braham is big, Rox is cat, but none of that really get’s the heart beating. We need things that make us think “Oh kitten! It’s going down!” And I don’t mean on the level of Kasmeer throwing a fit over Marjory’s “death”[twas good, but didn’t have the “power” I’m looking for]. I’m thinking:

1. Braham is actually Over-Level-9000 strong and was only taught the way of the Guardian so that he didn’t accidentally abuse or misuse his strength. Then, on a trigger, he goes all beast-norn on us and beats some mega-strong boss down on his own.

2. Marjory showing her dark side, perhaps when interrogating a captured enemy with torture[either physical or psychological, though the latter works best]. This goes with her Ministry Guard background.

3. Taimi, I’m hoping, begins going down a darker path of science. Begins experimenting with dragon energies and learns to harness chaotic magics into her machines, much like Scarlet was trying to do.

Can’t think of anything else, but I do hope ANet bring up interesting[ly dark] background quirks of the character. I would be disappointed, though, if they twisted any of these ideas into brighter, happier ideas like Marjory simply cajoling hostages into revealing secrets, though it may also fit her, or forgetting Taimi’s unique and rather unhealthy obsession with Scarlet.

Any thoughts on how you want characters, not just the Biconics, to progress?

I feel like they should give us the option of deciding our dialogue if someone important ever asks “What’ve you been doing?” or “Why aren’t you helping the pact?”

Maybe some options like:
1. “The Pact’s been busy, but I was given a vacation after leading the assault on Zhaitan. Sadly, I just couldn’t sit still.”
2. “The Pact can handle itself. I prefer adventuring, so I decided to take a leave. Trahaerne approved.”
3. “Um… Haha… Well, y’know… I kinda got bored after Zhaitan left. There just wasn’t enough people would bother asking me to do.”

I like the way that Arena Net is making the Living Story, helping to balance around their version of the “Holy Trinity”. For those of you who don’t know, ANet stated that their goal was to eliminate the old damage/tank/healer trinity with their damage/control/support version. This is more evident in the recent Living Story updates. While Damage is almost always necessary and you can make do without the other two branches, the game is shifting so playing control and support are easier to make use of.

For instance:
-For Control, certain non-boss enemies are moving about with a specific purpose. This can be seen in the mordrem fight where you need to move Marjory’s minion close to the boss. You can use control to stop the hound from killing the minion and slowing it to an extent, removing damage being done to the minion itself. This is a different alternative of tanking where you remove the damage being done instead of take it yourself. Another example is when you have the ability to slow the ghost mender from buffing the boss in the Rytlock fight, making it easier to win, even slightly.
-For Support, you have stronger allies to buff or defend to act as the main source of damage as you keep them alive. I admit, this isn’t as well done or as blatant as control, but I believe this is a step in the right direction, using the support role to empower NPC allies to become strong enough to act as the player’s main dps. This needs some work, I think, but the stronger NPCs definitely helps.

For those of you who don’t want GW2 to become a frenzy for only zerkers and zergers, how do you want to see ANet improve the roles and jobs that these two[Control/Support] can provide? Special mechanics for enemies? Alternative victory requisites? Anything that can help ANet push diversity in PvE and instances, please post here.

Also, try not to be a kitten and say “DPS is the only thing that matters, lolz”
I don’t mind the first part, it’s an opinion, but the “lolz” really annoys me. Just don’t.

Yes, well, this was a mistake on my part, having had a misinformed idea of the nerf. I retract my complaint and revise my opinion in thinking that the current version is balanced well enough.

For those of you who do not know, this skill basically gives the mesmer a boon and the enemy a condition for each time the mesmer is hit. However! It was put on an ICD of 1 second for handing out conditions and boons. The part mesmers are sore about is that this ICD is on themselves and not the enemy, which would be like the equivalent of the elementalist’s Fire Shield[Burns foes and grants might for each hit with a 1 second CD for each individual attacker]. For Fire Shield, it basically means the if two attackers hit at the same time, both get burned and give might. Then if another attacker hits after half a second, it procs again. For Chaos Armor, it simply means if two attackers hit at the same time, only one of them gets a condition and the mesmer gets only one boon.

The simple fix, I believe, is making Chaos Armor work like Fire Shield where it puts a 1 second CD on each attacker instead of itself.

Thoughts on this?

I don’t really care about the clone being destroyed part of the complaining. That’s just counter play, and we should be careful about sending our iLeap into an aoe field. However, the uneven ground bug and constant failure of the skill activating while still putting it on cd are the things that really break the skill. It can be mad useful, if it was consistent and reliable in that manner.

So basically, if they’re going to fix the skill based on the toolbar, I’m okay with, so long as they fix everything to be what the toolbar says[clone leaps to your target]. Let’s hope for that in today’s Ready Up.

Undead or Adventurer for various condi specs
Mesmer for lockdown

Hm, mesmers and rangers are in bad situations, but of different kinds. For mesmers, it’s fundamentally a fairly good class except for a handful or useless traits, which I’m sure many classes have, and a good dozen of bugs that break one’s strategy. Ranger, on the other hand, has it worst in my opinion. There problem doesn’t lie in the “Diseases” which are bugs, and can therefore be cured, but rather in their natural disposition making them weaker in general, having been made to rely on the “crutch” that is their pet. Mesmers are harder to play than other classes, but if every bug was fixed, we’d be just as hard to play with just as high potential. Rangers, if their bugs were fixed, would still be variably weaker. These changes to ranger are steps in the right direction, but it can go further without making them OP.

On another note, I do hope they fix essential mesmer bugs as well as allow Power Block to interact with thief initiative.

I began using CI and focus after seeing the results of Warlord’s lockdown. It is, I must say, very satisfying. The AoE “stun” the GS and focus provide makes it easier to land while giving additional utilities like hitting more people and forcing people out of points, immobilized. It also feels more “heavy” and “powerful” than the subtle off-hand sword’s daze.

The fact that channelled skills track stealthed enemies doesn’t seem to be beyond its original purpose. Stealth makes it impossible to target the user while they are stealthed, however given that a channelled skill targets them before they are stealthed, the mechanics thus state that stealth does not “break” the tracking effect of the channelled skill.

To restate in another manner, there are two mechanics against each other:
1. Channelled Skill: These track the target[s] using beams of sorts with multiple hits over time.
2. Stealth: These prevent people from targeting the user.

Given these two mechanics, neither truly overlaps with another. Channelled skill tracks a target, the target stealths and makes it impossible for the channeler to target them. However, the channeled skill was used before the stealth, and the stealth doesn’t act as a “skill break” like it might as a stun break. The mechanics do not overlap, therefore there is no contradiction.

My personal opinion?
I think somebody got confused and wrote Mimic instead of Arcane Thievery. Yep, I’m pretty sure this is all a typo.

Not saying it would be bad, but it feels kind of out of nowhere. If this change was done to Arcane Thievery instead, it would make sense.

Now, assuming this isn’t a typo, I think this change can actually be quite good. I might miss having that 4 second block[Though I don’t think I ever really used Mimic]. If we had the block and the boons… I don’t know. Seems like that would be too good to be true.

And, on that note, it would be overlapping Arcane Thievery. They would be both boon copiers with only slightly different application. How, exactly, will Arcane Thievery differentiate itself from the new Mimic? Or, is this meant to be on purpose to create a new facet for boon-sharing mesmers. If so, we would become something of boon parasites which steal and copy boons from the enemy only to multiply them across our whole team, which is a cool idea, but might funnel support builds in PvP(maybe).

Chaos.3579:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Chaos Archangel did video my fights against him. He just doesn’t want to post them yet.

Also Chaos: you may be Chaos, but I am the Warlord of Chaos. Bow before me (evil chuckle). Anyway, ill pm you sometime soon for duels. Only thing I ask is no PU. If you do use PU, I use PU

I’m busy irl ATM. We can duel Ina week or so.

Questions about my payment however.

10 gold for win. But 15 for being part of (omfg)? What kind of elitist bs is that?

50 extra gold for using lockdown? Including ci?
Why? 30 chaos tree Mesmers have although a somewhat demanding skill floor , the lowest skill ceiling than every other Mesmer build except full phantasm tank/survival based Mesmers ……so why the bonus for such a build?
You would think that a bonus would be for using something that’s not meta new/unpopular/unheard of that does not use for the most part any deciding factors that reduce skill and instead change play style.

Edit: oh and I don’t use PU….I’ve hated what that trait has done to mesmer play style since it was buffed

Warlord of Chaos is in this situation for supposedly being the best lockdown mesmer as of yet. Therefore, to win with lockdown would be to beat him at his own game and thus claim the “Title”, and so you get extra for being that good.

What are all your theories that you’ve procured from analyzing the vision the Pale Tree shoes you at the end of the most recent chapter?
Breaking it down into parts to place your interpretation:
1. The Forest which which has a face drawn with the branches

2. Shadow of the Dragon flying over the clouds as columns of light burst through. The last of these has some kind of object inside it. This object descends below the clouds.

3. A cavern of crystals. It seems that one of the columns of light is coming from here, and perhaps this place is also housing the object that had previously descended.

4. Tendrils and vines begin to crush the crystals of the cavern and seem to swallow and bury it under numerous layers of vines.

Discuss as you please, though putting it into this order and format may help others understand.