Guild Wars 2

Necrotize.2974:

Another thing, if the main reason you liked playing the class was because it was an underdog at the time, you probably picked that class for the wrong reason. Just seems like you purposefully picked the perceived underdog to lord it over other classes or give yourself an excuse should you lose.

If you jump from class to class wanting to play what’s weakest and are advertising it, it just comes off as a little elitist.

Using my class as an excuse for losing is a very strong accusation. Again this post wasn’t to complain, but rather to express what I personally felt after the patch. Clearly some people will disagree and agree, but a frontal accusation isn’t appreciated. (1v1 me irl m8)

After the announcements for the changes coming to Mesmers I was super hyped. I had the mindset at the time that the buffs we would get would make us up to par class, with strong game changing capabilities which did in fact happen. For the first two weeks I fully enjoyed the CI-Shatter builds, and the large survivability PU gave me during GvGs.

This week things started to change. When I began to duel more and more mesmers, I woke up to the fact that fights became more luck based. Whoever burned out on cooldowns, or got that Mantra of distraction off was most likely to win. It was even heart breaking at times to lose to other mesmer players who have less than half the hours spent in the class.

Now, before I get a bunch of casuals complaining about “it was a well deserved buff”. I’d like to say, im not here to complain. I’m just here to say I PERSONALLY liked mesmers better when they were a bit weaker. Where the room for error was borderline none, and the time spent learning the class was clearly distinguishable through duels.

What now? I’m most likely going to roll the underdog class. Play a non-SA thief till mesmers get nerfed again.

TLDR; The shatter management, and cooldown management where much more enjoyable than the mash n’ bash we have now. <3

It’s PvE. Go zerker. If you learn to WvW or PvP zerker stats are also good.

Basically, human’s in GW2 are considered to be the “pretty people”. They can wear skirts, and belly shirts and look like they came straight out of a playboy magazine. Norns on the other hand have a more realistic, and imperfectious look. A norn mesmer is completely possible, its just that ArenaNets idea of light armor is all "skirts, dresses, and melon poppers, which doesn’t really fit the norn. When playing a norn in light armor you really wanna get more of a “bad-kitten ” look for your character, which is extremely limited.

PS: Norn’s have big rears, and ASSets is life.
PPS: Anet please stop adding boobfocused armor, and pay more attention to the “ASSets”

My question is, from a shatter Mesmer’s perspective.
Does the new Alacrity (66% cooldown recharge speed up), outweigh the new Illusions basic minor trait, Shattered Strength which gives a flat 30% shatter cool down reduction, along with might stacks?

Will shatter mesmers traiting into Chronomancer be required to play less aggressively?

Dear Devs, thanks so much for that pistol main hand. We already have 50 mofkin offhands. oh wait…

Personally, I already hated the concept of shields. The time well sound support orientated, which isn’t my personal play style. If the traits in the new line out weigh the illusions trait line, in shatter skills, i may consider it. Other than that in my eyes its just another casual addition to mesmers for them to mess around with, but nothing to phenomenal.

I’ll probably be the only one who thinks this way. lmfao

@Reto.6712
As far as I know t4-5 is somewhat unstable in rankings and people tend to come and go a lot which I personally don’t like.

@Ark Bladesteele.2943
I don’t mind 5 man gank squads, I only mind their frequency, but I do understand your point, no matter where you go condition players and gank squads will always be there.

@insanemaniac.2456
I have to disagree with your point on how all worlds equal in skill.
Worlds with more people are more skilled with large group combat where as low populated worlds have players a lot more attuned to small scale, or even 1v1 combat situations.

@Buell.3701
T8 is a bit too low for me. Also I have a few people down there I’d rather not see again. Ya know, personal reasons.

@Xenesis.6389
Yea, I’ve been receiving a lot of requests from friends on Mag and FA, and even from people who have read this forum post. Both have their push and pull factors, so it really does come down to what I personally prefer.

@Exciton.8942
I’ll make sure to knock SoS off my list then. :P

@Treeoflife.4031
When SBI had rotations with IoJ, I left quite a few “disheartening” impressions, and I don’t think i’d be too welcome.

@FearedbytheGods.8617
I know what you mean! I have more friends on Blackgate and TC each individually than I do on JQ, due to having connections with roamers.

@DarthMcCoy.8657
I know that a low tier like Darkhaven would be great for solo roaming, but I still have the small fear of desertion and a fear of world unstability, thus my reasoning to avoid falling too far down.

@Solori.6025
EU and NA time are factors I completely forgot to consider, so thanks for bringing that up.

Sorry for not getting to everyone, but when I get a chance I’ll make sure get all my responses in. Thanks so much for the advice so far!

I’ve been solo roaming on T1 for half a year now, and two things have finally started to dawn on me.

1. A solo glass roamers life is a living hell.
2. Zergs, and condition builds are the majority of encounters that you’ll find.

Now, after considering my options, and my lack of will to return to a tier lower than 4, I am taking into account two transfer options. The first being Yak’s Bend, and the second being Fort Aspenwood.

A few of my friends have told me that players in tier 2 are far more skilled in 1v1 and small scale combat, which is a huge plus point for me. I was also told that the numbers are usually even, and the frequency of getting “Zerged” is a lot lower. The only downside is the fact that T2 has MANY thieves, and what makes it worse is their ganking squads.

I would like to know, which server is better in terms of avoiding ganking squads, and which one would be a lot less straining for a glass mesmer.

No. This will not work. Arena Net hardly ever listens to the community.

This message was brought to you by “The Mesmer Forums – ‘Where our opinion never matters’”

Depends on the kind of mesmer you play. If you’re glass, then you want a guard or warrior who can be the “diversion”. If you’re playing tanky, then a thief would be nice for faster DPS.

If you and a thief both play glass cannon. You’ll probably be the first one down due to the fact that you have less invisibility in comparison.

Nightmare runes only activate when you are hit. Not your clones. I’m not sure if that applies to all runes but if you put two and two together…….

After the nerf on critical damage, shatter is go zerker or go home. You have nothing close to 900 ferocity and even now I am at 1000 feroicity and feel that it is too little. You will hit no damage on crits due to the low levels of damage ON crits. You need to accept two things when playing shatter.
1) Full zerker works best but you are risking it all. (Conditions and thieves will eat you alive)

2) It is not optimally balanced for WvW. The risk/reward factor isn’t worth it. You’ll get 1 shotted by classes wearing full zerker more than killing players in general. (Classes like thief, ranger and ele make use of zerker gear alot better than mesmers)

One of my guildies got an invite!

Anyone under “Shatter” have the time to give me a few pointers? I’d really appreciate it.

“This video contains content from WMG, who has blocked it on copyright grounds.”

I think in Bog Otters’s video about his trip to ArenaNet Headquarters, he said that there was no information released on class specializations. Don’t take my word for it, just watch the video to make sure.

I’ve moved to t1 as a fill glkittenter mesmer. Solo roaming started off like hell. All I could find where thieves or zergs. Now i’ve come to learn how to handle myself A LOT better in outnumbered battles and I can also hold my own quite well against thieves, in comparison to a large portion of the mesmer community. I think a thank you to the thief community and myself for persistence is in order. :P

Whats this? A new shatter build? I must try it! Thankyou for pizzazzing up my week

Usually im in support of mesmer videos, but having seen you, and your guild in day to day action, my eyes have been opened to the fact that a montage is a montage.

Anyone can collect a few lucky/winning moments and mash them all up, but what people don’t see that the buttwooping the player receive on a daily basis.

Ross Biddle.2367:

This isnt a slight against you but I’m finding it tragically funny how many, and how regular, a thread is posted with “Here’s my roaming/shatter gameplay vid”. Same build (essentially), same fights, same setups, weapons, and rotations.

Shows the sad, sorry state of current Mesmer builds/gameplay out there.

That’s because people tend to use whats most optimal for “montage worthy game play”. Condi builds have less risk, and are somewhat looked down upon. (Considered skill less cheese), and CI build’s don’t have that 100-0 burst aspect/thrill. I have respect for shatter mesmers in WvW due having first hand experience of its down sides.

Shatter build’s themselves have many variations, due to a large number of shatter orientated grand master traits, but again, 6 in illusions is the most “burst orientated” thus most used.

Rotations really depend on weapons, but again the only changes can expect are different offhands and maybe staff, so variety does die their.

Finally, we can all agree when I say “no fight is ever the same in WvW.”

Your pew pew ranger deserved that 11k Eviscerate and I hope you get many more.

I’m going to start farming scrolls just to avoid leveling. PvE and EoTM is mind numbly boring and the new NPE system makes it even harder to put up with farming experience. The rush to end game is real!

I feel like berserker gear is too rewarding in PvE but nowhere near as rewarding in WvW.
We need a change that won’t damage players running full berserker in WvW because risk/reward gameplay does hold high value to many players such as I.

I’m 16

I started GW2 a year ago and I’m hooked. Even though its hard to find other players in my age group, the community is so polite it doesn’t even matter.

I’ll stop playing when GW3 comes out. I have to say after playing GW2 other MMO’s don’t look as attractive. Anet has officially spoiled me.

What if we get a skill that’s like the old mimic? I feel like that is a extremely likely possibility.

Basically, with our new secondary class, we will be able to stack swiftness with focus 4.
Enough said, the hype is real.

But in all seriousness I hope we get main hand pistol, because an offhand shield isn’t looking too attractive for an offensive weapon. Hopefully we get more damage rather than condition orientated changes.

MORE POWER! MORE BURST! MORE CRIT!

How do you guys learn to play classes in the fastest time possible?
By learn I mean know the traits, builds, small tricks, and just playing the class well overall.

Personally I start off with specs I find most comfortable, and play PvP for an hour and I become a decent player with that class.
(Eg : As a glass mesmer main, If I wanted to roll engineer I would play static discharge because its a playstyle I’m familiar with.)

I think that having a dueling spvp game type wouldn’t be too bad. In PvE maybe we could have dueling, if people want duels to incorporate what armor stat combinations they have.

Why is everyone against this? Ya’ll scared of a good buttwooping?

Well, clearly If i want to run shatter in WvW, ill need to obtain more tanky gear. Of course doing this means a loss of crit damage, so, instead of sacrificing a lot of burst, i’ll be looking towards a power or condition PU or Phantasm build and maybe a interrupt build. (Once you go full zerk you can never go back)

Osicats napalm cat sounds interesting, so I’ll make sure to try it out. PU gameplay feels too passive for me, so I may also attempt CI.

Now as far as I know CI can go two ways, condition damage or power. Which one, is something i’ll probably have to figure out.

Now, I have attempted a PU build with full zerker gear, and even with some knights trinkets where and their but the results aren’t as impressive as expected. Now, I’m leaning towards a condition build. Is it possible to find a condition build with high mobility ( for escapes or to catch up to a target)* and provide condition “burst”?*

*Mobility does include phase retreating with staff.
*Condition thieves and some necromancers do have access to high condition burst.

As a player on tier one world, I rarely encounter 1v1’s. Of course this this is expected. Many of my fights involve two to three players. Now it usually isn’t too difficult to handle, due to the fact that these duo’s or trio’s consist of zergers who quite frankly play very poorly. Now, recently I’ve noticed that many players have switched to dire/rabid condition gear orientated builds, celestial builds (engi/ele) and of course some berzerker builds (rarely). Due to this, solo roaming becomes a lot more difficult. As a glass cannon shatter mesmer, 25 bleed stacks literally melt me.

Now, i’ve noticed that many other classes with burst specs have some type of “outnumbered” build. This build usually consists a well rounded stat base with considerable mobility and power.

Examples of this include:
-Glass thieves with perplex runes and around 1.2k condition damage.
-Elementalists of course have their D/D which doesn’t need much change.
-Celestial engineers which hit as hard as a static discharge build, but also have considerable condition damage and toughness.
-Rangers with their condition damage, easy access to evades and regeneration.
-Carrion guards, with their heavy burns and considerable damage, and due to specific trait lines around 1.2 toughness.
*I’m not so sure about necromancers and warriors

I would like to know what builds do mesmers have available to them In these circumstances. Do they involve switching to PU or simply traiting more toughness orientated gear? Also, do they lack mobility?

I’m usually the mesmer in this situation, but ill say it as if I was the guard.

When a shatter mesmer hits “me” with full burst and retaliation takes away more than 1/2 the mesmers HP, and I heal up back to full health in 2 seconds.

Thieves do not need a larger health pool, they hard counter mesmers, so it’s really a learn to play situation. When you play a glass cannon thief, you need to learn that accidentally walking into AoE’s is something you can’t let happen and to avoid it, not ask for compensation for players that are too lazy to avoid red circles or pay attention to animations. Its a risk reward situation, and if you can’t deal with it, then you picked the wrong class. Re-roll or re-spec.

When I’m out numbered I run:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhMQNAsfRlknpRtlpxINcrNitxYyH6F1Fd0UlMghB-TVCFAByt/AAHCgCV/5KlgIp8TgnAQa6CyQLwCnAAA-w

Normally I run:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhMQNAsfRlknpRtlpxNNcrNCrxg6u26MSOQAlsirB-TVCFAByt/AAHCgCV/5KlgIp8TgnAQa6CyQLwCnAAA-w

As a shatter mesmer on tier 1, I die a a lot no matter what as a solo roamer. Traveler runes are a better option than speed runes and provide mobility, which mesmers lack ,(Unless you have staff and you know how to phase retreat forward). If you want that burst, glass cannon is your best bet, and dying a lot of a part of the package and no other rune set can change that unless you’re willing to sacrifice a lot of shatter power.

Before switching to full glass, I used to run this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhMQNAsfRlknpRtlpxINcrNSrxg6ryqMSGQBlciqB-T1CBABCu/QfaCOTJoEHBAsU+BwJAwSVO84RAkiWg80Bkp6IAA-w

It requires proper management of phantasms, and you need to really set up your shatters properly for this to be effective or the burst will be literal trash.

Overall, you’re running one of the most optimal shatter builds, and changing runes is up to you, but at the cost of less mobility, I don’t think it’s really worth it.

I remember looking at a build that looked like this : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhMQNAsdWlsnpRtlpxUNcrNitxYyHiA1Fd0UlMghB-T1iFwAqURoqSQjK/A8AAMpeAjzAwFtBn1Bk4QAsa/BUqwAA-w

It involves getting might from interrupting with focus 4 and staff 5, getting might on weapon swaps, getting might when getting hit, and getting might when shattering.

5 stacks per interrupt
3 stacks per swap
1-3 stacks depending on how many clones you shatter

The hoelbrak runes grant a 25% chance of getting might when hit, and might also lasts a lot longer so that 20-25 stacks stays a bit longer.

If you find this build worth the investment, then try strength runes.

I think their was some reason I didn’t like this build, but it’s been a long time so I don’t remember why. Maybe due to interrupts not being a dependable source of might.

What if signet of inspiration granted 1 boon every 10 seconds, and also removed 1 condition every 10 seconds. That would be a lot more useful. Maybe convert a condition to a boon every 10 seconds, but that doesn’t sound as useful.

No matter how tempting it is, I didn’t want my mesmer to look like a hooker. I decided to go with the whole, frost/blue mesmer look.

Thanks so much for these guides. I’m gonna be honest, around 90% of the mesmers I play against in sPvP don’t know these tricks, but I don’t mind. It gives me a HUGE competitive advantage and a mobility boost.

STRENGTHS
-Classic Shatter Mesmer is something I play best in WvW, and sPvP
-I adapt fast to my opponents combat style
-I can learn to play almost any power build
-I use mobility to my advantage

WEAKNESS
-I can not play, or understand condition damage builds
-I need time to warm up in battle. (Get that brain working)
-Anger is something I do not contain. I am the definition of toxic player
-I do not use the map to my advantage
-I tend to use my condition removal too fast, or not use it at all

This build was shown in one of osicat’s videos. I, knowing that the build is outdated, and also keeping in mind, your most likely little experiance with a glassy mesmer play style made a build which will probaby best fit your needs.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRAsa7fl0npRtlpxINcrNCuxY6JaICUGUTlMgfB-T1SBABFpEbH1fCc/hrUeExDAUCii+hFOIAIYiBjjAgGnAAAMBBA-w

Power isn’t too high, but you can fix that with sharpening stones. You having a perfect amount of toughness. Phantasms will hit hard. You have trav runes for mobility and you have scepter 2 for blocks. You also have invisibility from decoy, torch 4 and mass invis. You also punish your opponents for killing your clones/phantasm with Debilitating Dissipation which causes bleeds, vulnerability and weakness.

So it is possible to 1 shot someone even through downstate? Never happened in my life time. I must be doing something wrong. im 99% sure it isn’ t my gear.

I wish mesmer’s could still crit like this.
It would make running glass cannon really worth it.
What do you guys think?

I finally finished my norn mesmer. 93% ascended gear (im too lazy to make an ascended torch.) Who says mesmers need to be purple/pink. Blue looks amazing!

It sucks so much how after we use the downstate 2 skill we have a HUGE red arrow on our heads. If that wasn’t their it would be the best down skill EVER!

Your probably looking at a guardian or an elementalist, but any class can play support really. Just some fit the idea a bit better.

Hey guys, I’ve been running the standard 4/4/-/-/6 shatter build in WvW for solo roaming for a while now.

The traits I’ve been using in Domination are Mental Torment and Shattered Concentration. In Dueling I’ve been using Far-Reaching Manipulations and of course Deceptive Evasion. In Illusions I’ve been running Precise Wrack, Illusionary Elasticity and Illusionary Persona . My utilities are decoy, bink and arcane thievery

I’ve seen many other shatter mesmers running Halting Strike or Cleansing Configuration over Shattered Concentration. Also many chose to have no condition removal skills, and go for mantra of distraction or mirror images.

I would like to know if, as a full glass player I should go full dps and burst, or if I should keep using condition clearing traits and utilities.

xDudisx.5914:

Mirror blade already gives mesmer too much might on a super short cooldown and unblockable skill. If shatter mesmer needs one thing is a nerf.

Nerfing is a harsh word. Shatter mesmers define risk/reward gameplay, and are currently fine, If not, then they infact need a damage buff.

I really want that trickster skin, but I guess i’ll have to wait for a regular sale.

saalle.4623:

Why would any1 bother to kill 25000 boring mobs to make a sword that makes no difference in game at all…Legendaries are waste of time,they are ugly but cost you lots of invested time and money.With this you even made grinding for legendaries even more ridiculous.As for myself…im not selfish so i don’t care will they add this up or not,i would not use legendary even if someone pays me…but i just cant see a reason why would anyone bother lol.

Some people have different tastes, and actually like the legendary skins. Also some people believe it or not do enjoy the grind. Sadly, I think that a mob grind for a legendary is completely mind numbing and shouldn’t be rewarded.