Guild Wars 2

As an MtD Mesmer… none specifically. Sometimes a guard or ele that I just can’t seem to kill, but they tend to be unable to kill me either. Really annoying time consumer.

I feel like these durations should stack, however. Not stacking is saying that traiting and gearing your character for CC isn’t welcome despite it apparently being part of the Trinity in this game.

I don’t main necro so I won’t act like I know all about it, but here’s what I’ve theory crafted:
Dhuumfire, Parasitic Contagion, Deathly Chill
Vital Persistance, Path of Corruption, Chilling Force
Speed of Shadows OR Soul Marks, Chilling Darkness, Chilling Nova

I’m thinking, for utility, Well of Darkness//“Suffer”//? and for the Elite either “Chilled to the Bones” or Plague for tanky Chill-on-Blind action. Unsure of what’s best for heal.

I feel like the sustain will come from actively keeping in melee and chilling around you with AoE using Well of Darkness/Suffer/Nightfall/Chilling Nova and so on. Shroud won’t be up so constantly, but the Chills and Blinds will likely give some good sustain with each other. This is for PvP, so it’ll be an on-point fighter, thus being able to land these AoE’s and strikes against Chilled enemies for some Life Force. Note that Chilling Force is about “striking” an enemy, not necessarily using a skill, so Death Spiral on GS will generate 12 Might and 12% Life Force when hitting full effect against a Chilled foe, which’ll have a harder time running from it in the first place. Same with Plague: huge AoE Chilling in addition to minuscule ticks of physical damage meaning 20 seconds of Life Force generation. Once Shroud is up, Dhuumfire scythe is ready to cleave and act as the final push.

So I don’t feel like Life Force generation nor sustainability will be a problem in this build, taking into account the amount of chill and blinds. Axe or Staff can work as secondary weapon sets, as Axe has some fast attacks which can help build up Life Force. This isn’t including the 15% siphon of Parasitic Contagion, which’ll add more sustain on top of the Chill + Blind combination.

Is there something wrong with my logic here? Again, I don’t main Necro, so I may not be seeing something here which one wouldn’t know from just theory.

Sounds cool, yeah that would be great. Trait for chaos armor share, which is pretty rare since Mesmer has 95% of the ethereal fields.

StickerHappy.8052:

Dondagora.9645:

I feel like it’s a good change, but it can be screwed up if they don’t make the punishing damage high enough.

Even so, now confusion can deal more even damage. No more situational damage.

True. I guess my statement can be applied to anything.

Tao.1234:

Jesus…
OP is a clear Thief hater.
Zero insight how to properly nerf anything.

While I would usually agree, this time his ideas aren’t too extreme.

I feel like it’s a good change, but it can be screwed up if they don’t make the punishing damage high enough.

TPenny.5071:

OH Sword = Dualist = It fits best IMO.
Focus = Bard = In the realms of possibility.
Rifle = Sniper = Personally hate the idea.
Greatsword = Samurai = Better than rifle but still not thiefy.
Torch / Warhorn are too bright / noisy for a sneaky thief

Once there was a bard,
who kittened a mesmer off
So he wkittentered into a gajillion shards
The end.

Thus Bard better be a Mesmer spec if it’s ever going to be a spec.

I can see thief with GS. I just don’t see it happening so soon and with redundant weapons. Your point that the elite specs will eventually overlap with each other’s weapons is valid and true, however what we’re saying isn’t that they will never overlap but that ANet will likely not overlap them on their first round of specs while there are plenty of options. It is a perfectly sound assumption to jump to that weapons won’t be doubling up in this round of specs.

Thus, GS is out this time because Necro.

And I don’t see how thief with a rifle is so bad.

Tealots.6095:

Are we sure that it does the extra damage on a “tick?” From what I understood, it had a small DoT component, and then extra damage on an ability being used. Functioning sort of like retaliation.

Maybe I was making that up…

Perhaps. I do like this idea more than some torment-like condi. Hopefully this is the right guess.

This is all based on the wording of confusion in the new traits ANet showed a while back, nothing new. And as it isn’t confirmed, this is speculation, though nothing new. I’ll add that to the original post.

So, confusion seems to be becoming a DPS condition which acts like Torment in that it will tick every second, then double the damage per tick when the opponent uses a skill.

This has pros and cons.

Pros:
-Stronger PvE-ish
-Damage even when opponent isn’t using a skill
-Possibly higher durations allowed to us

Cons:
-No punishing burst when opponent spams skills[Thus allowing skill spam to continue and possibly weakening its effect on thieves]
-Set amount of damage where current confusion has a pseudo-random damage which can be potentially higher than any other damaging condition in the same amount of time.

Thoughts on this? Do you like the current confusion, or would you rather this torment-like revamp?

NOTE: This is speculative information based on the trait information ANet revealed a while back. No new news here.

I’m a condi mesmer who has a fairly easy time with thieves like you.

First thing to know is that condi mesmers are tankier than your average shatter mesmer. They’re not zerker and can last longer against your burst, giving them time to react.

Second thing to know is that condi mesmers’ weapon sets have more “anti-thief” skills. For instance, Scepter’s #2 is a powerful condition block which, when predicted, can immediately hit you as you try to burst[maybe try to wait it out or change your timing a bit?] and Scepter’s #3 is a channelled confusion ray which can track through stealth. This isn’t mentioning torch or staff’s AoE and escape skills.

The best plan would likely be bait out the defensive skills like Prestige and Scepter’s block and maybe Chaos Storm and burst then. MtD counters thieves well, so the only real strategy is to force some skill usage and outlast them as they waste CD trying to kill you.

Engineers have rocket hammers. Logic in fantasy can be twisted for the sake of fun and interesting, so let’s not get hung up on that. Rifle fits in that it is a 1200 range weapon that thieves don’t yet have one while every other does, thus filling a niche, and, if we assume each weapon will be unique, the fact that Guardian’s Dragonhunter has an LB means that LB is already taken and thief won’t get it. Plus, logically, sniping can be very thief-y.

I’m betting on rifle with gadgets.

Interrupt traits should just have add-on effect to break bars, like Power Block and CI and Mistrust makes CC 100% more effective[So you do 4 dazes worth when you hit a break bar with one daze while traited with all three of these GMs]. Then 25~50% for non-GM traits.

This’ll be fair, right?

Question. I haven’t read any of the books, so I’m not so clear on this, but Snaff controlled his golems telepathically and did something similar to Kralky, right? How did he do so? Is he a mesmer of sorts with mind-magic?

You’ll probably be fine. Specs aren’t meant as straight-up upgrades and Warrior is currently strong in WvW so that likely won’t change. For instance, do you really think Dragonhunter will be more desirable in WvW than the core guardian specs we have now? Maybe for certain tasks, as it should, but it won’t at all overshadow the current specs unless the current specs are already undesirable in WvW.

The Revenant’s lack of seeming diversity is one of its weaknesses, though the strength is having two super-specialized utility bars and low-CD Energy mechanic. It’s give and take, really.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/thief/Teef-The-Official-Thief-Forum-Guild/first

Thieves have always been a natural predator to the common Brush-Footed Mesmer. We have always endured despite this danger. Now, however, the thread rises as thieves seem to have grown more intelligent of late and have begun to form some kind of social system. The possible outcomes of such are still under investigation.

If you see a thief or you think one might be around, do not try to fight. Run. It is likely moving in a pack nearby or possibly hidden right in front or behind you.

Should you be caught by a wild group of thieves, attempt to stand at full height and throw your arms into the air. This may make you seem bigger than the thieves anticipated and scare them off. If they do leave, do not stay around to find out whether they’re still there, hidden, or actually left. If they do actually leave, they will be back soon in far greater number.

Attempt to move in groups of non-mesmer personnel from now on. This may make the Mesmer[AKA you] seem like a less appealing prey. Should you be chased by a thief, do not lead him back to other mesmers. This will only increase the casualties. Instead it is standard procedure to create a portal as you begin running and, when finally and inevitably cornered, use the portal to move back to your previous position, possibly losing the thief’s interest in this survival maneuver.

Stay safe, my fellow mesmers.

MiniEquine.6014:

Dondagora.9645:

I feel like Glint will be the Elite Spec. Revenant will probably get four Legends to correspond with four trait lines and one miscellaneous trait line[Invocation] which deals with Legends in general and Energy in general. Think like Elementalist, four corresponding trait lines and one general one. Thus, Glint is more likely an Elite Spec than anything else.

For roleplayers or lore fiends out there, you can now think of Kasmeer’s saying “What’s that new magic?” to Rytlock in the beta as wondering about the Glint Legend specifically rather than Revenant magic.

I used to think this too, but Invocation actually has a LOT to do with healing and general party support. I would not at all be surprised if Ventari is Invocation’s “legend”. That does not mean that there won’t be a generic trait line, but if there is, it’s probably not Invocation.

Not a lot, it just has some orbs that heal yourself when swapping legends. Ventari is apparently full support-based, and I see a lot of offensive and self-centered traits in Invocation. It does have some healing aspect, such as Equilibrium+Shrouding Mists, but it has a lot to do with fury/crit and self-sustain as well[thus more of a rounded trait line]. Therefore, it seems as if Ventari will have his own line that likely ups his Tablet’s abilities and is more purely centric on support. Also the nature of the traits would be contradictory to supporting Ventari’s support-play, the minors and some majors benefitting from swapping in and out of Legends which makes no sense in regards to Ventari specifically as swapping means killing the Tablet.

And so I conclude that Invocation is likely the generic line.

As a mesmer who’s seen the bad shape Necro is in PvP-wise, I’m actually curious: What’s the worst that could happen?

I’m a mesmer and I support what the OP says~

Not really. Nothing changes, it’s all the same except that a thief might, once in a blue moon, make a stupid decision and overwrite his stolen item rather than just use it.

This changes every— nothing. Look, they can now see their F1 on CD! Look, they can now not use whatever they stole before which still put their F1 on CD and replace it with something new after that CD is over!

It actually makes no difference whatsoever to us. They’ve still got ectoplasm, now they just get the choice not to use it~ No idea how this is bad news to anyone. QoL, not a buff.

I feel like Glint will be the Elite Spec. Revenant will probably get four Legends to correspond with four trait lines and one miscellaneous trait line[Invocation] which deals with Legends in general and Energy in general. Think like Elementalist, four corresponding trait lines and one general one. Thus, Glint is more likely an Elite Spec than anything else.

For roleplayers or lore fiends out there, you can now think of Kasmeer’s saying “What’s that new magic?” to Rytlock in the beta as wondering about the Glint Legend specifically rather than Revenant magic.

Just think of it as… Chronomancers deciding to play a prank and threw Revenants into the past, then screwed up the timeline a bit, and there we go! Deus Ex Machina~

This might work well, actually. Of course, it’d have to be available only a while after HoT comes out to flesh out the people who really don’t think buying a whole expansion just for the elite specs is worth it, despite some complaints, and then make some micro cash on these Elite Spec purchases.

Not criticizing, just saying this’ll probably be a good way of going about things as a company.

What are your thoughts on the current numbers Bountiful Disillusionment is shown to give us in the new spec system? Also, note that some of these are shared with nearby allies, so it’s also balanced for that, but it also seems to still be per shatter and not per illusion.

To the Mesmer only: 1 stack of Stability for 5 seconds

To the Mesmer and nearby Allies:
-Mind Wrack: Retaliation[5 Seconds]
-Cry of Frustration: Might[3 Stacks, 15 Seconds]
-Diversion: Fury[5 Seconds]
-Distortion: Regeneration[10 Seconds]

More Stability? More Might? Longer Durations?

Daniel Handler.4816:

They shouldn’t make any more traits baseline for mesmer. We already got enough.

I disagree with this with the specific example of Imbued Diversion. It is not a matter of “getting enough” or how many traits become baseline or merged, it is a matter of what should be and what shouldn’t. Baseline isn’t about buffing us. Giving us IP baseline is an admittance that mesmer was too weak without it. Thus, it feels more like a balance fix than a buff, which is fine.

Imbued Diversion in particular was always an odd trait out, a weak GM that made most anyone who saw it think “Wait, this isn’t how it worked before?”, as in it seemed so common sense that Diversion should indeed be multi-target that it is shocking we needed to trait for such a thing.

Therefore, I believe ID should be baseline. Not to buff us, but just to balance mesmer that much more to the level of common sensibility of how we should work. There should be no limit to how much you can give or take to balance.

Imbued Diversion.

Condi could definitely be possible with Chill becoming a damaging condition with traits, so scepter isn’t as off the table as you’d expect~

Ross Biddle.2367:

Dondagora.9645:

In case of thieves, MtD is always an option. While not as spike or peak damage as Power Shatter, it’s decent enough and better than most of our builds at dealing with thieves.

I actually had no problem eliminating him. The problem was I was just one mesmer stretched across three points needing to cover 4 other mesmers. DILEMMA -_-u

Mhn, I see~!

Well, maybe have you and another MtD mesmer to double the coverage. At least, against thieves, which’ll be most of the matches. Can’t have a mesmer team without an anti-thief strategy, after all.

In case of thieves, MtD is always an option. While not as spike or peak damage as Power Shatter, it’s decent enough and better than most of our builds at dealing with thieves.

I enjoy watching people kill themselves. Torment + Confusion = Pseudo-Lockdown or Death.

I find it especially hilarious when a thief tries to get their mesmer kill of the day and I shatter them up until they try to run away, but by then its too late.

Felt like bumping this in the midst of the new announced changes, see if people view the ideas here differently given the current overhaul.

Changes I’d make to the original post are that instead of infinite point increase, it’d be increased points per upgrade and, just as many people have suggested already in various threads, make the upgrading an event that counts arriving dolyaks, thus making caravans directly correlated with when and if a structure upgrades, instead of a timer system.

Sich.7103:

Just remove all this stupid thing, just maintain the buff for the yak when it’s escorted. Maintain the second upgrade for the door. Keep the gold cost, keep the supply cost, and keep the human factor to start the upgrade. It’s fine, it’s work fine. No need to make this change… Oh and don’t remove WP from the keep, and that the WP must be at T3…. Just stupid to have the WP once you have the keep…

All this modification are stupid, very stupid. This make the game always more for casual player and near to eotm.

We have something that work fine for people who try to play for the server. People who only want to make bag can go to eotm.

Lots of stupid, not a lot of logic.

The separation of upgrade and supply/gold is a terrific idea. It lets supply be used for siege as it should be. Gold sinks are also pretty contradictory, seeing as you want to reward upgrading and defense, not force players to pay out of their own pocket to support the objective, AKA punishing players for attempting to upgrade. On these points, ANet got it right.

As for waypoints, I can see the logic here, both mechanically and logically. Home server advantage gets their waypoint in a keep, denies some snowballing in that a dominating server gets map-wide mobility.

The auto-upgrade system on a timer, however, I can see as a problem, though I won’t say it can’t work. I would indeed rather the system center more around the supply caravan and allow the enemy to completely deny upgrades instead of having it inevitably happen eventually.

Just posting this out of curiosity. How do the vets of WvW view these Elite Specs that HoT will be bringing? How do you predict the meta will change? To rephrase: taking into account the Stability changes bringing the Pirate Ship meta and the new Desert Borderlands, what can you see becoming the new meta, or do you think the meta will stay the same as always?

Just to list some important details of the specs:

• Chronomancer: Continuum, the ability to create an object at an area then, after a few seconds split off from it, revert to your exact state from when the object was created. Object can be destroyed and thus force-revert the Chrono. Also, infinite-target stun field moving a distance forth and back once. Also, new AoE via wells.
• Dragonhunter: Ability to created up to 5 warded circles around 5 targets. Unknown if it will affect other foes than the specific targets, but might become a strong CC ability capable of shaving 5-10 stacks of stability from zergs. Traps with AoE potential.
• Reaper: Strong cleave, specialized with Chilling, and offensive Shouts. Most importantly, Reaper can gain pulsing Stability while in Death Shroud to bypass CC barrages and, at the end, create a short range AoE Fear around themselves.

StickerHappy.8052:

@OP

Told you, you won’t get any constructive replies… haha..

^^What he said. I have too much of a bias to give constructive criticism on this topic, honestly. I might be right, or not. I probably won’t ever know.

Personal opinion: Moa is fine since most mesmers will be Mass Invis’ing it in PvP, but when we do take it, it is with the intention of countering Lich. It’s also, as someone said, an anti-elite skill and befitting the theme of mesmer’s manipulation skills meant to turn a disadvantageous situation into an advantageous one.

Most of what I say is probably bias, thus you should see how the PvP forum views your suggestion instead.

Ah, no, I’d rather my moa still moa. Not speaking of necro itself, but Lich and the other transformations don’t have much of a counter to begin with. Mesmer’s all about turning the tables. Plus, moa itself isn’t that bad. At worst, it reverses the situation between you and your opponents while you were in lich form: instead of them being forced to run away, you are. Simply put, it’s not that bad. What I think you’re caught up on is the difference in power that moa makes you travel. For instance, if a player is normally Power Level 2, their transformation is Power Level 3, and Moa is Power Level 1, being Moa’d from transformation means you’re traveling down 2 Power Levels instead of 1, but that doesn’t make Moa and more powerful from when you’re in Lich form than it does from when you’re not.

Therefore, I believe Moa’s current effect to be fair play.

Phantom has a good point in that damage won’t be repairable if the enemy turtles and ignores yaks. Still, I’d like the system to be slightly less passive, or at least give room for strong active denial or sabotage to the upgrading process.

Thus, I think that the upgrading shouldn’t be on a static timer, but instead a system which uses yaks as its resource. By this, I mean that, perhaps, it takes 20 Yaks to reach the next upgrade of the keep. This means each time a yak arrives to the keep, the counter ticks up 1/20, then the next yak pushes it to 2/20, and so on. Thus, yaks directly fund upgrades while still not touching the player-usable supply.

Of course, it could also encourage mass yak hunting and defending, making it zerg play rather than roamer play, so I’d say ANet’s new system is to encourage roamers to defend and hunt yaks, making it rewarding and influential, but not so important that zergs will be sweeping the entire map for it. Of course, it might not be a problem in regards to the new Desert map (which is harder to traverse across so easily with large groups) and EB (which is harder to “sweep” in).

Operative: Upgrade attributes associated with solo roamers[can’t think of much in this department at the moment] and, at the max, gain the ability to attack objectives without raising the white swords on the map[which wouldn’t work if you had a team or others who didn’t have this upgrade attacking with you]. Might be fun for specialists to be running around covertly with this upgrade essentially covering their presence. Would be hard for larger groups unless they all maxed out this line for this purpose, so an operative guild.

Felt this would be a fair way of introducing the “no white swords” back into WvW without making it too apparent in the course of the whole game.

Immensus.9732:

How can i get invited to the guild? pretty pretty please ? Im on full Ascended Berserker armor, running mantras in zerg. i also pvp all the time

Right here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/OMFG-Official-Mesmer-Forum-Guild

StickerHappy.8052:

Dondagora.9645:

Here’s an idea I’ve been rolling around in my head, but haven’t gotten to finishing:

Specialization: Inquisitor

Shatter Alteration – Sleeper Cell: Shatters now place a magical time bomb inside your targets body, creating an ethereal tether from you to your target[will break when far enough]. When the time is right, hit the shatter again, and the bomb will explode to hit the target and an AoE around the target for new and unique affects. Until the shatter is hit again, however, the Sleeper will continuously emit an AoE circle around the target, good for ostracizing certain targets from the group. 360 Range. Lasts 20 seconds.

-Saboteur’s Commitment[F1]: Sleeper explodes to do light-to-heavy direct damage.
-Unknown Unknown[F2]: Gives one random condition[Confusion, Torment, Burn, Bleed] of random intensity[1-15] for a random amount of time[3-15 seconds] per illusion.
-False Emergency[F3]: Blinds/Dazes/Pulls targets to the center.
-Prisoner of War[F4]: Create a circle of warding[but purple!] around the target, entrapping the target and whoever else nearby inside it. Lasts longer per illusion[2, 4, 6, 8]

Weapon: MH Pistol

1. Opportune Cut-Off: A projectile attack which can bounce to nearby allies. When it does, both targets bleed for 2 seconds. If it doesn’t, the single target will get 3 seconds of cripple.

The main idea of it is, basically, to duel. The tethering with AoE circles basically tells the enemy’s team “stay out of this” and the auto on the pistol becomes more focused without other enemies around. I’d find it funny in WvW to tether someone with this and suddenly the zerg isolates that target on a one-man island or else gets punished for that one guy trying to stay with the zerg, basically saying “die or ruin us with you”.

Where the H have you been?

Um… School, technical difficulties, drugs, sex, and rock’n’roll? Wait, one of these things is wrong…

Maybe get the speed at a later spec? Not like this’ll be the last, nor is this one likely supposed to have everything you need in one go.

Height. Definitely height. Or width.

Here’s an idea I’ve been rolling around in my head, but haven’t gotten to finishing:

Specialization: Inquisitor

Shatter Alteration – Sleeper Cell: Shatters now place a magical time bomb inside your targets body, creating an ethereal tether from you to your target[will break when far enough]. When the time is right, hit the shatter again, and the bomb will explode to hit the target and an AoE around the target for new and unique affects. Until the shatter is hit again, however, the Sleeper will continuously emit an AoE circle around the target, good for ostracizing certain targets from the group. 360 Range. Lasts 20 seconds.

-Saboteur’s Commitment[F1]: Sleeper explodes to do light-to-heavy direct damage.
-Unknown Unknown[F2]: Gives one random condition[Confusion, Torment, Burn, Bleed] of random intensity[1-15] for a random amount of time[3-15 seconds] per illusion.
-False Emergency[F3]: Blinds/Dazes/Pulls targets to the center.
-Prisoner of War[F4]: Create a circle of warding[but purple!] around the target, entrapping the target and whoever else nearby inside it. Lasts longer per illusion[2, 4, 6, 8]

Weapon: MH Pistol

1. Opportune Cut-Off: A projectile attack which can bounce to nearby allies. When it does, both targets bleed for 2 seconds. If it doesn’t, the single target will get 3 seconds of cripple.

The main idea of it is, basically, to duel. The tethering with AoE circles basically tells the enemy’s team “stay out of this” and the auto on the pistol becomes more focused without other enemies around. I’d find it funny in WvW to tether someone with this and suddenly the zerg isolates that target on a one-man island or else gets punished for that one guy trying to stay with the zerg, basically saying “die or ruin us with you”.

Don’t think its mentioned, but I’d assume the set up to generally be Domination-Chaos-Chronomancer for maximum lockdown affects. PB will be our damage and backbone, CI will force a burn of cleanse or simply impede the enemy as a secondary control measure after the stun/daze, and Chronomancer for the mobility, shield, and control affects associated.

DE-PU-MtD will probably be my set up. Need nothing else, plus we get some extra condi and survivability.

Chronomancer from the future here. Wanna let you know, Druid’s most likely coming next week. You now have a whole week to be anxious and hyped. Ok, bye.

So, here’s a discussion: Reapers have been stated to be slow swinging yet extremely powerful with the capability to continuously chill enemies. Chronomancers have the ability to slow and gain benefit off interruptions, including CI’s immobilization, along with the easy access to quickness and alacrity.

Chronomancer’s lockdown ability seems to be the natural enemy of Reaper’s long wind-ups, but together the Reaper can gain quickness for 26 seconds or so via double Time Warp and Tides of Time. With that, Reaper is not only powerful but unfairly fast.

Do Necro’s see this same potential synergy between our Elites?

phokus.8934:

What’s more relevant is that they have high wind up on the great sword skills so any firm of cc is going to be he end of them.

Not necessarily true. They might still get that Break Bar. More relevant, though, is how Chronomancer’s might have synergy with Reaper in that we’ll be speeding their long cast times up and helping them dominating with Time Warp and Tides of Time.