Guild Wars 2

Mesmer: Longbow
I’d want this to be a very short-range, nearly melee weapon with a condition-based cone auto that puts a stack of confusion or other conditions on effected targets. Why short-ranged longbow? Because that’s how mesmers are.

MSFone.3026:

Moa would be a lockdown if ppl in the know couldn’t super sprint away from you as soon as you cast it on them. Whenever anyone hits me with moa (rare in wvw) I turn around and book it outa there; I just escape 9 times out of 10. That is why I won’t use it. Now sure if someone doesn’t know about the escape they will just sit there getting ruled on, but who wants to count on that? If they are that nooby then you’ll probably kill them without moa anyways.

This is true, normally, when putting moa on others for the sake of them not having their normal weapons, psychologically confusing the unknowing. However, it can also be used as a different kind of lockdown, meaning transformation lockdown. A elementalist starts throwing stuff down by becoming a tornado? Make it a moa-nado. Necro going lich-form? Moa it. Guardians bring out the Tomes, or a Thief his Dagger Storm, etc.? Moa it all.

In a certain sense, Moa is the elite to lockdown various other elites since it can override whatever other transformation or channeled skill that they have on them. And on that note, using moa only to counter such elites, poses no threat of being blocked or dodged in most scenarios.

There is skill play with killing a thief, if you can do enough damage or place enough conditions to kill grind them down at the time of their reveal. I’ve killed unexacting thieves with a confusion-heavy build and well guessed dodges. For the simple answer, you just need a way to avoid the initial burst against stealth-heavy thieves and attack when they reveal with high damage/conditions. For more dodge-y thieves or conditions, you need to avoid their attacks and attack at the same time, a benefit of shatter(Dodge for clone-creation and shatter while avoiding damage). Thieves also don’t seem, as aforementioned, used to dealing with confusion and may try to burst you with multiple hits. If you are condition-heavy and manage to get confusion stacks on a thief, you can put them in the red and possibly killing them, assuming they don’t kill you at the same time. In fact, any condition works well against thieves as it doesn’t come off when they stealth.

Anyway, if you want a build that can very perfectly or at least a hard counter a thief, there’s PU. But there are ways to beat thieves in the moments that their stealth comes off, which is the main counter against our AI focused mechanic. Don’t panic when a thief disappears and focus on avoiding their next attack and countering. Thieves tend to have a gap in their attacks, using their stealth for what it’s worth, and then attacking from behind or a side angle, meaning they take time to move and ready themselves before attacking. After the ambush fails, use whatever means to kill them.

And don’t look down on PU. I don’t personally play it, but it is the same as every other “cheese” build of each class. It works.

Some people should get a zerg, have a mesmer portal everyone up, and attempt to defeat the champs.

For PvP, perhaps, rename yourself to something close to “Phantasmal Warlock” and you’ll confuse your opponents with clones, yourself, and phantasms.

It is assumed that the sylvari are, by nature, his minions. It is unknown as to whether she was a champion or not, though it seems so given she worked directly under him and not through another.
There’s also the theory that the Pale Tree is Mordremoth’s champion, in which Scarlet may still be just a minion, or perhaps a different sort of champion or ranked-up minion.

If we were to get new skills for the Mesmer, what would we want? Give ideas here, and hopefully ANet might look at them while thinking of adding new utility.

Types:
-Signet: Passive and Active Effect
-Illusion[Clone/Phantasm]: Creates clones in some manner or a phantasm with a unique utility appliance
-Manipulation: Utility that is meant to reverse situations
-Glamour: Showy fields or area skills that aid allies and/or break foes
-Mantra: Skills with 2-3 charges per use

1. Feedback
Just a great “NO!” to all rangers or warriors who think they can just stay at a range and make us their pincushions. On my confusion build, it does even more damage given they’re both getting condied and reflected.

2. Temporal Curtain
Hilarious on Skyhammer, and very useful defensively and support wise. Also a very visual skill and more strategic with trait.

3. Decoy
Funny way of dodging, like when the enemy finally goes “Found him!” and you undo their target-lock and screw them over once again.

Sylvari Racism
Skritt vs Pirates Situation
Looters and otherwise
Blacklion Company crushing all other businesses

Thinking, with all this tension in the air of Lion’s Arch, will there be a point in the story where riots break out and anarchy where we’ll have to either come back from wherever the hell we are in the Maguuma or before going to the Maguuma?

What do you guys think? Also, any friction I missed?

No new race, no new profession. That’s what I find is a given. Many people throw these in because they want a new race or profession, but it has never been mentioned nor ever hinted at by ANet. In fact, they stated they don’t want to have a new profession until all current ones are in pristine condition and that new races will be extremely unlikely anytime soon.

Other than that, I’m hoping they’ve refine the lore and stories of the new map’s events and hearts to be fun and interesting and perhaps character-interactive, like mentioning race, profession, and position in the Personal Story.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hehe. I actually got infracted twice today. One for the Pyro thread and again for bumping OMFG… /Conspiracy!?

So question to the mods who like to act like machines when it’s convenient to them, why bother infracting me rather than just accepting the numerous requests for this thread to be stickied? We kinda assumed we were SUPPOSED to bump this thread to keep it more visible than it would be if it were stick’d.

But.. before I get infracted again for questioning my infraction or not “contributing to the discussion in a meaningful way”, how has your experience with the OMFG been? Are there anything you’d like to see changed or improved upon? Has the guild helped you out as a Mesmer?

I’ll not leave you hanging and answer. Yes, it’s very helpful and fun getting help and testing new things with other mesmers, as well as being able to get hands-on advice with specific problems or questions without having to create a thread on the forum completely dedicated to it. I feel it works like a in-game wiki, but more field and fact. Plus, it’s fun and the information net is faster than the forums or ANet, finding bugs within the class and thus letting people know what problems there are and what to avoid.

blitzkrieg.2451:

Confusion is fine the way it is

Do you have any idea how broken this would make perplexity pu condi mesmers in wvw? lol

It isn’t fine the way it is. It is an underwhelming specialty of mesmers. In the collaboration with the community that ANet did to balance the Rangers, a suggestion came up. Along the lines of “We have the most availability to poison than any other class. We should have a trait for it.”. Same thing. While we have a current trait with confusion, it is practically useless.

A while ago, there were a number of confusion mesmers. It was overwhelming. They nerfed it, which was reasonable, but now it is underwhelming. We want it balanced, not too powerful, not too weak. I feel that this, for the cost of a grandmaster trait slot, would help us bring back confusion mesmers as a reasonably viable build, the same as phantasm mesmers or shatter mesmers or lockdown mesmers.

Some would run this, like me, who like the idea of punishment. I’d push for a 33% damage, but meh. Also, this seems to fit more into Illusions, however I can also see it working in Domination.

Mystic Starfish.2586:

That surprisingly sounds plausible. Although I’m not sure how long she’s been around (I know at least since Tower of Nightmares), she has been a very investigative person.

She’s been around since the Molten Alliance, recording stories from the refugees.

I’m guessing Mr. E bought Canach off and is also Ela Makkay, the Priory Scholar that’s been around the whole time. She’s human, appeared and documented all of the happenings in the Living Story, and is also a part of the Priory, which Marjory Delaqua is a part of. In fact, as Mr. E, Ela Makkay may have convinced Marjory to join in order to indirectly give her evidence, hints, and other information.

I imagined it was a mental thing. Like how Scarlet was crazy with voices in her head, I was thinking that the “Rattle” involved sounds bothering the sylvari’s minds.

Perhaps this discontent for sylvari, and the Rattle, will escalate into a bigger arc where we have to quell riots and crowds.

Taimi and I think some other NPCs have been talking about peculiarities with whatever the Zephyrites are bringing on board as cargo, having “readings” from Taimi’s little asuran tech.

I want to be acknowledged by the B-iconics as the Commander of the Pact. It’d be this cool moment like “Yeah, I already killed an Elder Dragon, this is nothing new”.

If you don’t know, Marjory got her weapons from the boy she saw murdered while she worked in the Ministry Guard. They seem pretty magical and are described by Kasmeer “Sharp as a dragon’s tooth”. Apparently, they’re the boy’s keepsake or legacy or something. Any thoughts on what these weapons are, where they came from, and possibly who the boy was who had them?

I’m asking because I haven’t been able to adopt a theory or prediction that satisfies me. There are also multiple points of confusion in the story surrounding them.

First, the boy was only a witness to something a Minister had done having to do with dark magics and torturing a woman. Now, taking this up as true, he might have been an innocent and random bystander, however what the heck is up with these cool and lethal weapons? Well, my idea of it currently stands within the lines that the boy is not an average citizen and was most probably doing something or had a task that got him caught up with the Minister’s business, thus making him a target.

Some ideas might be that he was a thief or agent and stole the special weapons from the Minister. This may work, but is unlikely given that the Ministry guard, after killing him, did not confiscate the weapons once more. Going out on a leg, as the weapons are said to hold significance to him, he may be related to the woman tortured. Also unlikely, given his dialogue of calling her a “woman” and not by any relation. He might have also been a servant working of the minister, thus the seeing of the crime. However, this does not explain the weapons.

And so I’m at a lost. No idea what to think of them. Are there any better theories out there?

It’s their class mechanic.

Ah, I see. So, ignoring that point of my theory, any opinions on the zombification of the already zombie-like dragon?

I’d like to see these guys step up to the bigger stage of the Living Story. It would definitely be interesting to see these elite fighters in action, as well as how they’re recognized by others.

I know this had been done to death[pun slightly intended], however while it is confirmed by the debs that Zhaitan is “dead”, as the Elder Dragon of Undeath, I think its not too far-fetched to assume that he has some ability to “un-die”. There’s also the fact that Elder Dragons are comparable to gods in many aspects. We know from Abaddon that when a being of immense power is slain or killed, the concentration of power will run amok. Given the fact that Zhaitan’s power did not explode into a colorful ball of death and doom, I think it’s safe to assume that Zhaitan, or the Elder Dragons in general, may have some survival ability that will either transfer their power[Tecquatl theory] or simply that Zhaitan has a special undying mechanism. This might be something used to give an expansion on the current Arah dungeon and possibly a better ending to the Personal Story. Assuming the latter of the two mechanisms, this may also lead to new plot points in season two with dealing with Mordremoth.
Thoughts?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW8clknpRtdqxANUrNCrhYyVlQ940hJZhAA-TZxHwABuAADOIAa2fYZZAAPBAA

This build is meant for the purpose of sharing boons gained from Bountiful Interruption in mass dazes. This would include a traited Diversion, Chaos Storm, and possibly Counter Blade. Under the circumstance of team battles, this would allow you to likely generate multiple stacks of might which could then be shared with allies while the enemy is both unable to do anything, wasting a stun-break, and/or full of vulnerability[at least 5 stacks] as well.
In this build, I’m hoping to use Bountiful Interruption to gain the maximum of what it offers by aiming to interrupt clusters of foes then multiply what is gained through boon-share.

Traits
4/0/4/0/6
Domination:
-Signet Mastery: For boon sharing
-Shattered Concentration: For even further weakening of the opponent team as a whole.
-Halting Strike[Alternative]: This can also work due to the power on this build as well.
-Rending Shatter[Alternative]: Can also be used to weaken the opponents for you or your allies to tear through with the gained might

Chaos:
-Debilitating Dissipation: Sometimes clones don’t make it. This if for then.
-Bountiful Interruption: Might per interrupt. This is very useful for gaining boons and a lot of might.

Illusions:
-Confusing Cry: Some retaliation on the side during cooldowns. Better than nothing.
-Illusionary Invigoration: More shatter, more might, more boons. Very simple choice
-Imbued Diversion: Mass dazing, very useful for gaining might in a very AoE fashion.

Weapons
Staff-Sw/Sw

Staff: Simply has a very useful AoE daze. It’s random, so the opponent doesn’t see it coming within the conditions, and it can also sometimes trigger twice. The natural conditions from it are also very useful, along with other benefits like useful clones, defensive skills, and a powerful phantasm.

Sword[Main]: Has a good mix of offense, defense, and control. Mainly, because this is a build meant for team fights, the AoE immobilize helps in this semi-lockdown. Also, useful clones, stacking vulnerability if they hit.

Sword[Off]: While focus might be useful for normal interrupts with the pull and perhaps pistol with its bouncing stun-daze-blind, the sword also has the duel function of a normal block(with high attack power for the counter) and a very powerful phantasm during cooldowns.

Utility
-Ether Feast[Heal]: Nice and simple heal skill. You can also use Mirror or the signet, though I believe this will be better.
-Decoy: Stun-break clone and stealth escape. Sets up shatter and gets you out of tight situations.
-Mirror Images: Stun-break with two clones. Useful for later shatters, though doesn’t make the most out of Diversion due to the proximity of the clones to each other and the likely target.
-Signet of Inspiration: Boon-share. Some boon every ten seconds is nice, but mostly taken for the boon-share.
-Time Warp[Elite]: The tons of might your team will have after the initial wave of dazes will likely turn the tides, but if that’s not enough, add speed to your might.

Equipment
Soldier Amulet: Main power boost with both vitality and toughness. This adds to the overall survivability of the build while it focuses on interrupting. Also, dps.

Strength Runes: Longer duration of Might for sharing, a bit more might when hit, and more damage under the influence of might, which you will usually have on. As always, a solid rune set.

Staff=Energy/Hydromancy: I don’t feel like I need to explain every choice here. Hydromancy, chill. Energy, dodge/survivability.

Sw/Sw=Energy/Battle: You’ll likely start battles with the staff and switch to the swords, thus the battle rune. This will add more might to the already stacking might to be shared. Energy is just for survivability.

I haven’t tested this build yet in PvP, but I want to know your[the community’s] opinion on this hybrid of lockdown-support. Or if, somehow, this already exists elsewhere that I haven’t seen or isn’t viable, I’d also want to know.

As the title might suggest, I believe that the confusion nerf in PvP and WvW is too much. I understand the overpoweredness that came with the original confusion damage, however I believe that the nerf underwhelmed the condition which was/is one of the main mechanics of mesmers. Thus, a middle ground; Simply make it 2/3 of the original, non-nerfed damage. It’s closer to 1/2 than the actual midpoint between the halved and whole confusion damage, but I believe this is the small push it needs to make confusion builds viable again.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Lyssa-s-Grimoire-The-Mesmer-Handbook

This is the major guide for mesmers, having the main gameplay mechanics and build-types that are used. It should probably answer most questions you have about the class.

I’m just focusing on the new ones for the sake of simplicity.

Power Block: Not bad, in my opinion, though I could wish for some interaction with thief initiative

Triumphant Distortion: Not great, but possibly good in WvW or PvE where you might be able to gain more reliable 3 seconds of distortion per 10 seconds via zerging.

Bountiful Disillusionment: I find that the concept itself is appealing, yet needs something more. Perhaps longer boons, or something other. Truth is, I can’t find a good fix since it seems that if it’s buffed a little too much it could actually become OP.

Disruptor’s Sustainment: I think the concept needs to be scrapped or at least look for something new. Perhaps gaining raw health on interrupt, not healing? This might help more with a “Disruptor”, AKA Lockdown, which would mostly go into the Domination, Dueling, and Chaos, thus not a lot of normal “sustainment” except from heal skills.

Maim the Disillusioned: Fine as is, probably.

That’s my take on them. If you have anything you think would be a better fix, or a whole replacement for one of these traits, post at your leisure.

Bump

/15 char

Apparently, if you color it right with the glow and armor, you can make yourself look like a phantasm as a sylvari. There are even phantasmal weapons.
Though, I went human. In the GW2 story itself, it seems there are more human mesmers[Anise, Kasmeer], though both Norn and Sylvari make sense in it. This seems indecisive, but just giving some information on it.

Xaurniven.2065:

mango.9267:

selan.8354:

pretty much what pyro said. if u were truly a mesmer u would know that phantasms are our only way to deal dmg that can compete with any other class.and suddenly everyone uses phantasms?!? erm phantasms are part of any build. any power mes build has to rely on phantasms cause thats where our dmg comes from.
sorry but its very very obvious u dont play mesmer. u main another profession that cant deal with mesmers thats why u come here to whine.
there really isnt much left for mesmers to spec into. if u nerf our main dmg dealers then u would have to buff our other weapon skills. if u nerf pu or rework it, u would have to give mes a buff to be able to survive better.
honestly, very bad acting like u were a real mesmer that mains this class. golden raspery for u!

Man, this post is much more whiny than OP’s post. Calm down and breathe. For what it’s worth, he did say he’d like to see other aspects buffed to compensate.

I kinda agree with OP. That said, if Anet nerfed phantasms, mesmers would be much less viable in PvE.

From a PvP standpoint, I do think phantasms are a bit strong. They do heavy damage while letting the mesmer kite around, promoting passive gameplay. I think buffing weapon damage and buffing shatters could be a nice way to promote active gameplay without destroying the class.

Nah he was very calm saying this, idk what are u talking about.
And yeah lol you don’t play Mesmer it seems to me. So how about you run along to your friends and whine with them ^.^

Seems like you’ve just been….Mind Wrecked if you know what I mean …oh wait you don’t play Mesmer sowwy

The OP plays mesmer. Perhaps he was just trying to think outside the box, making it seem like his ideas came from someone who didn’t understand the class, but do not all bandwagon onto Pyro’s posts to gang up. Check the post history of the OP first before spouting bullkitten.
Now, I believe that phantasms and clones and our reliance on them is quite the same as a thief relying on initiative or a warrior on his adrenaline and so on, thus I believe the current gameplay with them is okay. I understand where you’re going with it, but making ourselves stronger with normal attacks will push us to become too much like the other classes. Thieves and warriors and etcetera don’t rely on AI’s? So what, that’s them, we’re us, and this is how we work. If we wanted something else, we can play another class, you know what I’m saying?

a t s e.9614:

You fill the role of understanding the prismatic.

Yeah, shut up. You already have had a thread about this, don’t bring that here.

BUMP

reaggfwnviouabfdonbda

I’m voting for #2-4
Though 5 seems interesting, but I’m not exactly sure how it would work, whether we might have to click and choose multiple targets or if it would work kind of like the Engi’s grenades. Personally, I’m imagining it will be targeting and stabbing independently after the first hit.

Bump~
/15 char

Pyroathiest.4168:

Dondagora.9645:

To (3) sPvP is Solo PvP, counter parted to TPvP[Team PvP]. These are arena types.

This is absolutely not accurate.

sPvP is structured PvP. tPvP is tournament PvP.

sPvP is just the overall catchall for pvp that occurs in heart of the mists, in both normal hotjoin and tournaments. tPvP refers specifically to tournament matches, which are composed of ‘solo queuing’ and ‘team queuing’.

Ah, well then, I’ve been completely off this whole time. And the acronyms were perfect too… Apparently, every time I post, one thing has to be wrong. All a learning experience.

To part of (2), all gear is normalized. You can use any weapons a mesmer can do, not limited to your inventory. You can use nearly every rune in PvP off the bat, as well. There should be a button on top labelled “PvP Build” where you can freely customize your character’s stats and gear. PvE gear does not affect PvP.

To (3) sPvP is Solo PvP, counter parted to TPvP[Team PvP]. These are arena types. When you open up the PvP menu, there’s a label called “Arenas” where choosing between these is possible. You can also go into non-tournemant arenas through the Game Browser option, usually for testing or just for fun.

While Pyro’s jokes were funny enough, I believe they may have been a bit much. The OP was ignorant, yes. He simply didn’t understand something, or possibly anything, about Mesmers. It would then be our duty to enlighten him on the issue as well as making sense of what he was saying by probing the issue. It’s not like he was telling us we were overpowered or QQing about our no-skill.

Ah, my ignorance then. I guess I’m more so wanting some sort of Power Block interaction with it, then.

Ah, to be clear, I have no quarrel with thieves. I’m a mesmer main, by the way. I’ve just been thinking, for interrupts not to put thief skills on cd seems a bit off. This is explained by the devs saying that thieves have the collective cool down pool of initiative. So, in that sense, wouldn’t it make sense to have interrupts remove a certain amount of initiative instead? 2 on a normal interrupt, 4 on Power Block interrupt?
I think this will work since a single interrupt won’t lock the thief down, but interrupt builds may be more viable against thieves. If, for some reason I don’t know, this would break thieves, please tell here.

If the high physical damage is real, it was probably a phantasm mesmer that spammed conditions to increase the output of damage by the Warlock and stealthed as you were only paying attention to the conditions. Focus on the warlock first and take out the clones when the mrs stealths before clearing condis… Is what I think, at least.

I made a topic a while back that connected the name Mordremoth to the unknown and unseen[at the time] plant/jungle dragon. Assuming the connection to Sylvari and the jungle dragon was correct, along with the name provided in the Crucible of Eternity, it could be that Mordremoth comes from Mordred of Arthurian legend given the celtic and arthurian influence on the sylvari.

I’d like to bump this thread, since I’m also wondering about that “no cooldown” change with this trait.

I run them as well with my PvP bleed build. I use focus, so mobility isn’t a problem, and moa. The AoE triple condi is great in facing multiple opponents as well, along with having the best bleed duration increase of all the new runes[I think]. The whole rune set works better for me, really. The #6 is more like a finisher move than something I want to spam every other second.

Bunda.2691:

I would also like to hear their explanation for why they made the change.

Probably to open options for Lockdown and interrupt builds; 30/30/10, 10/30/30, and so on. You can now have Confounding Suggestions or Chaotic Interruption with Harmonious Mantra.

It bumps, swims, and flies. What is it?
Goose

Anyone else notice that the damage in the tab of the iDuelist when equipped with Empowering Illusions is “slightly” off, like by a couple thousand?

sirrealist.1360:

Hi all! Can someone send me a guild invite? I’m new to guilds, and I couldn’t find a search function in the guild interface.

Bumped, but for your convenience:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/OMFG-Official-Mesmer-Forum-Guild

BUMP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

lioka qiao.8734:

LS should take a page from Tolken and George Lucas… Introduce the bad guy first. (I’m going with movies here… not books as i didnt’ read the books).

Lord of the rings: How much screen time did it take to find out who Sauron was? About 3 minutes.
The Hobbit: Smaug vaporizes a town and a city within 5 minutes of screen time.
Star Wars: Darth Vader cuts through a door, chokes a guy and captures one of the main good guys within 10 minutes of screen time.

Once you do that you can add good guys, add supporting evil characters, and give your player/viewer a place to start hating the bad guy and a reason to care about how it goes.

So for the next living story take have us visit a town on the outskirts of the Tengu place for some kind of party (we saved LA party, whatever). Then the dragon you showed us in the cutscene shows up and just straight up levels the place. Houses destroyed.. Fried chicken everywhere. We have to rescue whatever Tengu we can and ferry them to safety. One of the rescuees happens to be the main good guy. Part 2: the dragon’s main lieutenant is sent after us to “chase down the survivors”. We deal him a minor setback and thus the story begins. Where you take it from there who knows but we have
A. A main bad guy. B: A badguy lieutenant we personally know, C: a good guy we know.

I’d play that LS.

I agree with some of this. I want a personal nemesis, someone who seems likable except for his goals. Perhaps make a person who’s sole purpose is to stop us. Someone we’d like to have on our side but has philosophical differences that pits him/her/it against us. Scarlet did not fill this role well. Perhaps evil, yes, but not a personal nemesis. More so just a villain.

- Hasn’t been a big problem yet. You’re probably right, though. I’ll try it.
-True, I’ll try it. Kinda feels less powerful, but that’s probably just my attraction towards “more damage!”
-15 in dom is to put the crit Bleeds up to 9 and not 8.75 or something. DE may work to put more constant crits, but I feel that having 2 phants doing 8 bleeds for 9 seconds in a burst may be better than 3 clones needing to be constantly maintained for a bleed or two every few seconds.
-While true, I again have a hard time relying on clones for what I need. Phantasms can provide a more reliable hit with less maintenance and at a constant rate. Besides, that 1 second can be helpful in the long term, along with the faster summoning cds.
I may, again, be wrong, but these are my current thoughts on it.