Guild Wars 2

Hm, here’s what’s been annoying me at some points: Manta of Distraction’s charges have a 5 second CD. That might not seem like a lot on paper, but it feels like forever in combat. Plus, I feel like the whole point of mantras is to give us on-immediate-demand skills, thus requiring us to charge them before hand or in combat for whatever consequence. If MoD’s charges, or Power Lock, had a shorter CD, like 2 seconds, I feel it would tremendously increase our potential for lockdown chain-dazing and hitting interrupts when they’re present. Now, my suggestion is obviously to reduce Power Lock’s CD.

However, I realize that such a buff might be taken as OP. It might even be so. Therefore I wanted to take it up with my fellow mesmers and the mesmer community on whether or not this seems like it would be a good idea for a buff or not before sending it out into the Professions Balance forum.

Apparition.1576:

@Rose

The problem is that there is no internal cooldown for this ability, which means they are spammable. I believe that is bad game design and wanted to get your perspective.

See, the internal cool down is endurance.

Also, as clones are only good at fueling our shatters, if it had a internal cool down the trait would be useless given it is mainly used to either give use constant clones to punish those not levelheaded enough to spot the real mesmer or to fuel out shatter, which requires 3 illusions to be fully effective. In the case of the latter, we need to either use another skill or a sigil[endurance on swap] to get the most of our mechanic. Clones are incredibly weak and die fast, so if we plan on shattering we want to make clones fast and shatter immediately. If we can’t do that, it will break most shatter builds.

Yeah, no. Null Field is working as is, having it remove everything, or double, is very overpowered. Moderately removing boons, moderately removing conditions, all is well.

1. Arcane Thievery: We got a nerf on this, but no compensation. If anything, I’d like a reduced CD given how the effects were reduced, but the cool down stayed the same.

2. Confusion: Any kind of real buff to confusion, even in the form of a trait. In fact, please, put it in the form of a trait. Increase damage by 20-30-50%? I’d also like confusing enchantments to work on an inactive portal.

3. Mind Stab needs a buff, but any kind of boon-stripping in general can be buffed. Perhaps a trait with “Strip an extra boon when boon stripping” or “damage on removing boon”, which could also buff our sword skills and shatter.

It hurts that I won’t be able to be able to play during the release of the next LS episode. I really want to, and have been there for mostly all the other ones. I’m saddened that I will miss out on some of the hype as the wave of excitement in the servers over the new content comes through for the first time.

However, I can bare with this because of the Story Journal, in which a friend of mine can log in for me and snatch up the content for when I come back. For this wondrous and extremely convenient device added to the game, I want to express my gratitude to ANet once more.

I was on a team in Team PvP that told me to use an engi cheese build, and I hadn’t used engi before. They said it was fine, I thought “why not?” put on turret traits and pirate runes. And I won consistently against players probably better or as good as myself on my main, but given that I had not ever played engi before… ridiculous, really. They should make it do a lot less damage or have a lot less health. I’m hoping for the latter.

Canach. Canach is the “black sheep” of the group, not completely good, but not completely bad. It’s nice to have a guy that stirs ethical conflicts within the group every now and then.

They said that the thing in the center was the Pale Tree, right? That was how Scarlet drew it. Does that mean the Pale Tree is located, perhaps in the Mists, between Abaddon’s Gate and the Gate of Torment? Or maybe that’s where the Dream of Dreams is located, as a realm.

Despite what I said, I do hope for some cool Inquest and bandit characters with some personality, adding a bit of side-flavor to the more non-essential parts of the story.

I think it isn’t that they’re choosing Sylvari right now because they don’t like using the other races. It’s mostly because this piece of the story is centralized on either what sylvari are and Mordremoth, the plant dragon, thus his minions, the villains of this season, will likely be mainly sylvari(probably).

Wondering how ANet will continue the story from here. Perhaps they will have the zone expand each update, or perhaps will have the Maguuma be multiple small zones to be released. Another idea is underground zones, but that’s probably not happening. Thoughts?

Loved the things they did with messing with the players’ field of view, made the game feel more interesting with a new kind of zone. The new mechanics, like adding in the aspects, added a kind of “spice” to the area.

Also, much better writing and storytelling.

sAdam.5876:

So what am I supposed to do with my time :P
By the way any ideas for exact patch time?

Probably 12 or sometime after. It has never, or rarely, ever been before 12.

I’m getting a very “fairy tale”-like vibe from the song. Looking forward to it!

Usually, if you solo que into Team Arena, you’ll find yourself in a patchwork team against a team that is very likely more organized and thought out than your own. It also takes longer to get in because it prioritizes fully-made teams to soloists because that’s what the arena was made for.

Absconditus.6804:

With the long duration it stays on the floor, imagine just a small army of Mesmers in World vs. World laying down their Portal Entre, side by side, in a grid formation. Individually, a Portal becomes a rather small thing in radius, but when working together with others, it’s not necessarily that anymore.

See? It promotes teamwork! Nice support, there.

So, I checked just to know, and apparently Confusing Enchantments only procs on a portal when it is connected to another. However, I think what might be a very fun and clever way to use portal is to allow the inactive Portal Entre to be able to proc the confusion as well. Given the much smaller area of the portal compared to other glamours, as well as it being effectively nothing but a spot on the ground that will proc confusion until activated, I think the long duration of this AoE confusion might be forgiven?
What are your[The Community’s] thoughts on this matter?

Rather than normal Moba, I’d like a labyrinth type of map that has a lord each team protects and constantly changing scenarios, a little randomness, like pathways changing or shutting. This would make it so almost everyone on offense, except maybe one to stay behind and defend the lord. Yet, it would prevent zerging because if they did the whole team would be hitting a dead-end due to navigation errors or changing scenarios.

I think it’ll be for level 80’s. I believe they even stated that “level 80’s will have the option of switching between their personal story and the living story”, or some such thing, meaning that while those below 80 will be able to unlock the living story for future content, they must either complete the personal story(which will likely put them up to level 80) or get to level 80 before experiencing the story. The zone, which is made with the presumption of the characters completing the personal story or being able to switch to the living story, will probably be a level 80 zone.

Elite Mantra of Creation, creates a clone near you with every charge. 60 Second cd.

I’m not an engineer, but I was playing around with the build editor thinking of cool things I could do with engineers. I came up with this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fdAQJAqelUUpmqVVxuKseNSbBNyf00Qnjl+6P+gAA-T1RBwAX3fIyDAUCWU53N1fQpHwh5PAnAACBMaMA-w

I just want to know what the engi community thinks.
It’s meant to stand above or near enough on walls to the gate of a fort or tower to throw turrets from afar in front of it, creating the reflective shield against projectiles. Then, the melee train attacking the gate up front would kill the turret at some point and thus activate the knock back explosion to disable them for a while. I chose the lowest CD turrets so it could be done more frequently, placing one down with a 1-3 second delay after the last turret dies, giving the melee a chance to get up again and attack.
The damage of the explosion also isn’t bad.

Thoughts on this mesmer’s attempt at engi crafting?
If it’s bad, please correct this mesmer’s ignorance of your class.

As I’ve heard and seen, our scepter’s auto attack was supposed to apply confusion on the last attack of the chain, “Ether Clone”, along with the clone. For what reason was this removed or otherwise?

I hadn’t known about it before, but now that I know, I really want confusion back on this weapon.

Bumping. Bumping. Bumping. Bumping.

Four Bumps, but 3 are clones. Which one’s real?

The answer is “No”.

Not trying to be negative, or any such thing. It’s just… such a low possibility it isn’t really worth considering at this point. I’m also not saying I know what ANet is thinking, but I think I can, with a great degree of certainty, say that ANet is not going to do anything so blatant and out of nowhere. If they were going to add a new race, or profession, they’d have some kind of build up to it. This could be, perhaps, a Living Story arc dedicated to the Tengu opening up and joining the rest of Tyria against the dragons, or perhaps an movement north to defeat Jormag and possibly take back the Kodan homeland. However, we’re going to the Maguuma. As far as I know, there isn’t a likely playable race stationed there.

Ooh~ This will be an interesting topic in the future. We’ll probably get some new pets as well. Granted, I don’t have a ranger… but I will, by the time the season starts up I swear I will just for the new pets.

Tiresias.6473:

Wow… this thread is a pretty blatant attempt to incite class warfare.

Well, partially, yes, but I also want to know how everyone(forum people) stand on each profession right now and find such conversations interesting and thought it would be interesting if people could try to quantify their beliefs.

On that note:

a)
1. Warrior
2. Guardian
3. Thief
4. Elementalist
5. Engineer
5. Necromancer
5. Mesmer
8. Ranger

I couldn’t decide the order between Engi, Mes, and Necro. They’re all within the same place towards their roles, I think.

b)
1. Elementalist
2. Mesmer
2. Engineer
4. Necromancer
4. Ranger
6. Thief
7. Guardian
8. Warrior

Admittedly, some engineer builds are very strong with little skill. I know this because I tried a cheese build with an engineer for a single day, never before playing it, and I won consistently. However, ignoring that one build, I find the single weapon set that engis and eles have to be hard to deal with and am very bad with the attunements and kits. While I accept ele as the single most annoying thing I’ve tried to play with, I find engineer is more around the mesmer(what I main) level of skill.

c) …Don’t know. One of the reasons I’m asking.

Yamsandjams.3267:

Fay.2357:

Ok, not gonna lie. That was an impressive number of duplicate posts.

Oddly enough, it’s thematically appropriate for the mesmer forums.

Should we all start creating dummy posts to fool the devs and casual forum-surfer?

[Disclaimer: This is a joke, not trying to incite anything… just saying.]

On another note, very cool video. I laughed so hard, how those guys couldn’t find you at all. Partially due to all those clever maneuvers with the clones, stealths, and teleports.

Minos.5168:

Mattus.1345:

I hope, there will be more than 1 zone added to the world map on July 1st, but ONLY the first will be available. The other could be unlocked as the LS goes on…
I hope the new one will be available to player who completed personal story only – just to keep the concept of story journal

That wouldn’t make any sense, though.

You can go to Fort Trinity and Orr without doing any of the personal story.

Also, what’s the point to locking the zones via story? You lock zone 1, and no one would be able to go to any zones that branch off from it unless they had that story.

I think what he’s saying is not as you do it, but as the season progresses, like 1 zone at the opening then another zone as more of the season 2 content is released. It wouldn’t be locked off until you did the story.

Maybe the sylvari racism will have people blaming Aerin for the explosion? Might be interesting.

IndigoSundown.5419:

I find it hard to believe that turret engineers, who are far from the best build at fighting mobs in PvE, are a struggle for players in a PvP mode.

You don’t seem to have a lot of PvP experience. I’m not accusing anything, just my analysis. Basically, in PvP it is almost completely conquest, thus an engineer is capable of setting up a number of very powerful “minions” around the point they’re in charge of defending. Turrets, in truth, are probably more powerful than other minion types in exchange for the ability to move. In PvE, their immobility makes it hard for them to be useful against most kinds of mob. In PvP, however, the enemies have to come to you to fight, thus turrets give you the home field advantage. Very, very strong with the Experimental Turrets trait, among other things.

I’d rather have moa as our transformation. Altering ourselves isn’t really “mesmer-like” in my mind. I’m thinking an elite mantra(like the guy above’s idea) would be a better suit for our class.

Just a public opinion thread. Since the question is vague, I’ll split it into three lists.

a) List the professions from 1-8 from strongest<1> in its role to weakest<8> in its role.

b) List the professions from 1-8 from requiring the most skill<1> to the least skill<8> to play.

c) List the professions from 1-8 being the most broken, imbalanced, or otherwise<1> to the least broken, most balanced, and overall “okay”<8>. For this one, perhaps give a reason, or even just whether it is imbalanced in the “OP” fashion or broken in the “UP” way of things.

Try to keep it civil, also, even though this topic will provoke a lot of arguing.

Lots of people, NPCs and players, were talking about things the Zephyrites were bringing on board. A glowing ship, weird signals from the cargo. Either the cargo itself was dangerous, or somebody wanted what they brought. And it would also be interesting to see how Trader Aerin and the Zephyrites survive. Perhaps we’re sent to the Maguuma to rescue them, initially?

Well, they just killed/shot down the Zephyrites. Dark enough? I’d say yes, for now that’s enough death to satisfy the beginning of the arc.

So, who do you think shot them down? I don’t believe it was Mordremoth just yet given the explosions being not very plant or earth like, but there are possibilities of it being bandits/White-Mantle, Inquest, etc.

As for them being shot down in the first place, I’d just like to give ANet props for that awesome intensifier. Perfect way to introduce season 2, full of conflict and drama(same thing?).

Agreed, don’t think it’s just a single zone. Maybe it will start with a single zone and expand from there. It also showed some cliffs in the trailer, so we might hope for multi-layered zones.

I also use Soldier’s, actually, though have been getting into Berserker’s.

On another note, I tried out a PU-Lockdown build I cooked up. I don’t think it will work well. It isn’t particularly bad, per se, but more so it just takes a lot of managing with both the stealths and the dazes. Perhaps it isn’t meant to be, but I’m thinking the skill-cap might just be too high.
Or, I just haven’t played it enough.
What do you guys think of the idea of PU-Lockdowns?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7cl0npRt1oxYNcrNipxY6bipGSFQpHZ8FA-TJhFwAAeCAJuIATLDwb/BA

With the Retaliation on phantasms minor trait, you can still cause a good bit of damage if they try to take it out before its attack. At least, with a power build, which is what I’m assuming given the use of phantasms.

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

Also, I would really like them to tone down the way Asura technology is an answer to everything. I know this is a world filled with magic, but the Asura have become a tiresome plot device.

I second this. I hadn’t thought about it, really, but nearly every important weapon in the game is from the asura. It would be nice to see some variety in the solutions. This may require some creativity, as lasers a quite a straightforward thing. Perhaps the resistance to such magi-tech might prove to be a good twist?

I think, given the original plan to kill Marjory, the writers are currently aiming for a more “real” feel for the game. From what I hear, GW1 could get what would be called “dark”, which I’d like a bit more of in GW2, but don’t expect it in zeal.

I don’t think you’re too far off saying that sylvari are the seeds of the tree… but I don’t think all of them may be. For instance, all the seeds for the pale tree, we assume, were in a single place in the cavern Ronan found. This would mean multiple sylvari died in that single space. However, this is unlikely. A more likely answer is that very specific and individual sylvari are the seeds. By certain sylvari, I am referring to Malyck, the currently dreamless sylvari. My reasoning for this are the words spoken by a sylvari who is particularly close to the workings of the dream when referring to Malyck.

“A distant shore—and darkness. A root, a cave…you. You are the seed. What Ronan knew and never told still lingers in the Dream.”

The seed. It is possible that what Ronan buried with his family’s grave was not a seed, but a sylvari. Or, at least, a piece of the sylvari that worked as the seed. In any case, it is very likely the Pale Tree’s seeds do take the form of sylvari, however it may also be possible that these seeds have their own “Dreams” and are thus independent of their tree.

We’re right here

While I’m all for new weapons, I think doing so would bring an overwhelming number of bugs and needed fixes that would consume ANet. For now, let them focus on the current bugs and fixes and then, perhaps, new weapons could be discussed.

If you don’t know, Power Block is a mesmer trait that gives skills interrupted by the mesmer a 10 second CD instead of the normal 5 second CD. Now, the issue many, including myself, see a problem with is that the thief’s initiative pool completely bypasses the way this trait works due to the lack of a time-based cool down. So here’s my suggestion: If a thief skill that uses initiative is Power Block interrupted, the interruption removes either the cost of the skill. For instance, a thief might use a skill that costs 3 initiative to activate, thus paying that 3. Then, the skill is interrupted and 3 more is removed. Also, this would punish the interruption of higher cost skills. If not, the removal of a set amount of initiative might also work, such as a 3-4 initiative removal.

Power Block can be worth it, but you won’t be able to comprehend its effects very well due to its nature. Maim the Disillusioned, I believe, has been proven to not be as good as IP. Triumphant Distortion might be good in WvW zerging, maybe. Disruptor’s Sustainment is trash, ignore it. It was just an attempt of the devs to create more diverse options for lockdown builds. As for Bountiful Disillusionment… I don’t know. If you can find a good use for it, I think it had a lot of potential, but at the moment there haven’t been any revolutionary builds around it.

Don’t care much about the spam. I just want, and constantly mention, Initiative interaction with the Power Block GM trait.

I have a small bit of a question; Confounding Suggestions, does it trigger the stun after the daze or is the daze replaced by the stun or do they happen at the same time. I haven’t tried the trait assuming the second, but now I’m thinking I may have been mistaken. Was I?

shimmerless.4560:

Power Block

This trait was nerfed incredibly fast on release, and it is now seldom taken because the amount of spells you can reliably interrupt through all the blocks, instant casts etc. in the game are fairly few, and fewer still have an effect powerful enough to warrant a ten-second cooldown (over CI’s spell-ambiguous movement halting abilities).

This one is a real shame to me. Am I alone on this? I believe the devs were a bit overzealous in stamping it out. The trait is 30 into a glassy line and was something truly unique to the Mesmer (and one of the few real parallels to its predecessor). You could feasibly run it as support (in which case you gave up damage) or as a traditional burst (in which case you are very fragile). The risk-reward is always there.

I am not at all convinced the original incarnation was too strong, and I would love to see it returned to normal. The trait caused so much excitement and the burgeoning of a new variety of smart, punishing Mesmer setups, why would the developers want that killed off so quickly? It doesn’t make sense to me.

We all know that the original Power Block they gave us was a bugged skill from the get-go, yes? I mean, it went through Defiant, stability(I think), and screwed even AA. Basically, it wasn’t nerfed, it was fixed. And it also isn’t that the trait itself is far worse, only that we can now not see how well it’s working.

In the past of Season 1, there was some overlap in the story lines, such as when the story of one section continued past during the next two weeks as the sequel went on. I would personally love this, as I cannot[and actually cannot] be there for one of the two weeks and still want to play the content as it is out. Thus, the question is, will this happen in Season 2?

The journal helps even if I miss it, but it’s fun being part of the hype and up to date.

Mesmer

Strengths:
-Control/counter-play, through dazes and pull/pushes with our focus and gs, is a fairly established variant of mesmer builds now. More access to chill would be nice. Perhaps chill on shatter trait? Chill on clone-death? It’s secondary, but making sure it is out there. Boon-stripping is also part of this.
-Punishment should be the strongest points of mesmers, however the confusion nerf hit mesmers the hardest due to our large array of skills that have access to it. I believe a trait for our Confusion damage, just like for the Ranger’s [Poison Master], is needed to make Mesmers a more viable option for punisher-play.
-Single-target damage is our current strong suit, focusing our phantasms and shatters on a single target to give a streak or burst of damage. However, phantasm mesmer is nearly the only viable build in PvE right now because of this.
-Damage avoidance is our fourth strength, being able to dodge and stealth and divert damage so we never take it in the first place. Reflections is also a seemingly strong field of play in WvW and PvE, I hear.
-Conditions are a secondary strength, however not exactly weak, though most of our conditions play into punishment and control, such as clone-death traits and Chaos Storm and CI.
-Support is another secondary field of play, but can be specialized if skilled enough, however this is currently a high-skilled task for mesmers to accomplish

Weaknesses
-Massive AoE damage is our current weak point, as we can mostly not create large fields of normalized AoE damage. I’m okay with this so long as we can produce abnormal results through other means, such as clever use of reflections, clone-death, and AoE interrupts/confusion.
-Bunkering damage, as in taking all the damage head-on. It would not be the end of the world like it may be for thieves, however it isn’t the mesmer’s strongest point.
-Conditions cleansing are one of the weaknesses of mesmers, who have mostly abnormal and sometimes unconventional condition removals.

Kryptonite:
-Thieves hard-counter control with their Initiative
-Conditions are the main bane, as most mesmers don’t have an efficient and timely way of removing them.