Guild Wars 2

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

From a mechanics and profession design standpoint, Thieves totally own Mesmers. Even to the devs, the match-up is something to make jokes about, but they sure aren’t doing anything about it.

Here is an example in Shoutbow war vs AH guard, the reason why shoutbow has replaced AH is because whatever it just does it’s job better. It can instantly rez with banner, it’s shouts both cure conditions and heal, it’s much more mobile with warhorn, provides boons all while actually being able to provide decent damage. It doesn’t have to sacrifice good damage or mobility to be a good support.

Mesmer, even in this meta, still has a lot to offer. Good damage, mobility with portal, and they’re exceptional at removing boons. Yes we have had buffs to condis, but they simply cannot down a foe fast enough, especially with lots of matchups like shoutbows that have an abundance of condi cleanses. for their team. Thieves, despite being countered by dps guards, still have found their way in the current meta because there are ways to kite a guard or simply escape. A mesmer would have much more relevance had it not been for meta thief, which brings me to another point:

With the exception of ranger, before the September patch last year all classes were in tier 1. And to be honest, I don’t think people should be punished for bringing an entire class. A bad build I can understand, but classes like mesmer, necro, etc. an entire class is just enough to hold your team back from competitive play.

Fay.2357:

I think the time to answer this question is after the thief specialization is revealed and everyone has had some time to play with the revamped traits.

Currently, mesmers have gotten drastic increases to potential control and damage output, along with significant boosts to condition pressure and general condition damage/defensive builds. This could very well be enough to allow us to hold our own against thieves.

That being said…thieves also got a good number of strong changes. It’s really not easy to tell how all the changes will play out.

Agreed, it is good that mesmers got a buff in various amounts of condi pressure over time to combat thieves, I was hoping with some of those changes mesmer might make it back into tier 1.

With the recently announced balance changes, do you think mesmers will have the tools needed to combat thieves and still be relevant in team fights?

Right now I feel like meta thief counters mesmer a little too hard. Don’t get me wrong, everything has to have a weakness, I guess what I like to see more often is maybe a little more even fight or a fighting chance. For example, meta thief is generally countered by meta dps guard, I still feel like thief has a little more options to deal with their weakness such as being able to escape. As a meta mesmer, you can’t kite a thief, you’re basically a free kill if they know what they’re doing with little options to escape.

What do you think?

Viprek.6730:

DrDivine.5378:

Hamster.4861:

IMO Fresh Air, S/D annihilate or S/F are both dueling, roaming, ganking builds.

Play it in conquest the way you would play a thief, or a shatter mesmer. It is quite a comfortable way to 1v1, but 1vX is definitely a serious challenge.

Link me some builds, as I do not have any to go by other than the metabattle variant.

Try this burst ele spec. Let me know what you think!

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-k3d;2B2kX025gMFZ0;9;55-33;159C;149-17-IZ0;3F-03F-035BW

Will do, thank you! I have to ask though, why run tornado? Isn’t this a little squishy to be in the fray?

Hamster.4861:

IMO Fresh Air, S/D annihilate or S/F are both dueling, roaming, ganking builds.

Play it in conquest the way you would play a thief, or a shatter mesmer. It is quite a comfortable way to 1v1, but 1vX is definitely a serious challenge.

Link me some builds, as I do not have any to go by other than the metabattle variant.

Lumines.3916:

AH or Virtues heavy bunker guards used to be staples on teams; but as they run cleric’s amulet, they hit like wet noodles and are really only good for team support, contesting points and what not, dueling and lethal potential is very low.

Shoutbow currently shadows the AH Guard in tPvP atm. It fulfills the same role while having a stronger team elite, mobility, and offensive capabilities. Cleric’s has largely been pushed out by Celestial as it offers incredible sustain without completely neutering the character (provided you can make use of all stats).

Bunker guards are still completely viable, just it’s not as strong as it used to be as the environment around them has changed.

Funny how the roles of whose the better offensive/defensive profession in the Warrior/Guardian dynamic have shifted :B

The HOT changes have me hopeful in the Guardian becoming a stronger support class though!

I do find it ironic that warriors are the best at team support/protecting allies while the guardians are best at being in your face doing damage with a greatsword or hammer lol

I recently started using a dps build I found on youtube thats really good and I like it, but am curious about the more tanky builds. The build Im using now has about 2400 toughness which is good, but when I think of guardian, I think of really tanky and hard to kill.

Whether it’s a tanky dps or support, any good builds for tpvp I could use? Also, do you like AH guard or Shoutbow warrior as the supportive role?

Ithilwen.1529:

100% agreement. I’ve lost more than 60 places on the leaderboard to turret engi teams. I’ve also been sent to three straight losses against the same ( apparent ) premade.

Even if I bring one friend, there should be some kind of cap where I only go against teams of 2-3. It’s very overkill if it’s just solo que or me and one friend and we go against full organized teams in teamspeak in ranked. It’s hardly fair. I’m trying to get my llama and actually made it until this started happening.

I am not the one to jump on the forum to complain as I like this game and play it a lot, but I’m very tired of going against full organized teams in solo que and 2 man.

I had my llama mostly secured, but for some reason, it decided to pit me against full teams of 5 while I am in solo que with pugs. That is hardly fair, I don’t care what the enemy team’s skill level is “ranked” as, an organized team vs pugs blazing 2-3 turret engis isn’t fair for people who just want to solo que.

Supreme.3164:

With a good team behind you..maybe the spec reaches a resemblance of viability.
For good team I mean a thief ready to protect your backs while you burst down targets, generally a team where somebody can peel for you, hoping you get away while being heavily focused.

As solo player, the spec is not recommended, you can play it ofc, but don’t expect any help when heavily focused and once enemy team realized you’re zerk..you’ll get focused for the duration of the whole game.

Most I can do in those situations is to down as many targets as i can before getting downed myself, which is unavoidable and this only works when your team has at least a couple of decent tanks.

Definitely fresh air is fun to play and it’s more interesting than d/d, problem is the weapon set is lacking in terms of synergy and self-sustain, making fresh a dubious choice over any other meta zerk spec

That’s a shame, I really like the playstyle. Ele in general has never really interested me due to the meta builds being a little boring for my taste, but fresh air I was a bit decent at.

Supreme.3164:

Here my answers:

-There is no 1vs1 variant

-You will lose 1vs1 against most meta builds

-Fresh air is one of the worst zerk specs in terms of self survival, you will lose most encounters by simply being outsustained..nothing to with your skill level and fun part is meta zerk specs will outsustain you too *(in a direct fight, started face to face and at full CD on both parties )

-No ways to keep enemy at range : you just have LF in some case to buy 1-2s before enemy on you again with no way to keep mele dmg at bay, this is by far the worst aspect about fresh air , a complete lack of range safety skills

-On mesmer you have multiple ways to re-position yourself when caught in a pinch, you have : GS knockback, 2-3 stealth options ( if using focus or not ), a set of short CD and a “long” CD invulnerability skills…and most of all the ability to deal dmg while ducking behind LoS ( cast Izerker before moving/stealthing away)

-Med guardian will simply outheal all dmg that you may do, they have : 3 moderate CD block skills, 7 healing skills of 1.5k and 2k healing on moderate CD, blind on demand.

-Smart thief will only hit when you run out of options, still you have a far higher chance to down a thief than a poorly played med guardian.

Personally I only play fresh air when I see : A – loads of engies/necro on enemy team , B- no guardians or thieves in the enemy team , C – at least a couple of tank/bunkers in my team

Honestly at max level of skill you’ll get heavy countered by : Thieves and Med guardian; conditions can prove to be a serious problem but nothing that let you drop the game out of frustation..at least not that badly as when you face med guardians ( poorly played) who won’t even waste a dodge on you as they heal to full every time and against smart d/p thieves who will make your life very miserable

I always wondered why I didn’t see them to often ,it’s a shame because I find the playstyle much more interesting than d/d or staff so far, so you would say fresh air isn’t a very viable spec?

Gokil.2543:

- 66002 is highly effective in 1v1. If you learn to not double up on blinds you’ll find yourself winning a fair few matchups

- The 2 main combos you need to master are the phoenix flash, and gale-dragon’s tooth. The second is not mechanically difficult at all, but you have to be able to count stunbreaks, and know when to go for it.

Gale-dragon’s tooth is far more important in actual matches. Especially engis and shoutbow warriors are very vulnerable to it.

P.S.: If you run with icebow, gale-deep freeze-ice storm is a pretty much guaranteed oneshot on anything that’s out of stunbreaks.

I need to work on the gale dragon’s tooth thing, can you link me that 66002 build? I’m kinda curious!

I recently got into running fresh air a few days ago, and while I’m certainly not an expert, I have gotten the hang of it while making my own little tweaks. I love the massive damage, but notice I don’t see many fresh air eles compared to staff or d/d. I do have a few questions though:

-Is there a 1v1 variant of this build?
-I know there aren’t any specific combos, but what bursty combos do you usually like to use?

One thing I am enjoying so far is even though thieves are still a counter to it similar to my shatter mesmer, my ele seems to put up a little more of a fight in that the damage itself can scare a thief to play defensively more often. xD

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You could try a -repair of the client, in case of corrupted file(s).

Top/Bottom of Page – Support – Search (Repair)

Good luck.

Unfortunately it did not work, any other suggestions?

Inculpatus cedo.9234:

You could try a -repair of the client, in case of corrupted file(s).

Top/Bottom of Page – Support – Search (Repair)

Good luck.

I’ll try that right now and give you an update if it worked or not, thank you

You know when you pick your starter headpiece and it’s one of the small element dot things that floats over your forehead? I can’t get rid of mine.

Apparently other people can’t see it, but I always have the fire one stuck on my head regardless of what helm I’m wearing. For example. I’m wearing the Wraith mask and yet the fire attunement headpiece is still visible with another helm skin. How do I fix this?

vespers.1759:

Create a weapon with a day/night cycle… whine about the day night cycle!

this playerbase though.

I like the day/night cycle, it’s a neat concept. I was just bringing this up because the game is mostly in night time, and some major areas such as heart of the mists are always night so I don’t get to enjoy the day skin very often.

Talonblaze.3175:

I also wouldn’t mind this, especially for the Ascalonian weapons as the blue glow effect isn’t always desirable.

Ironically I had bought this for my guard once cause Liked the blue, only for me to get intoa day time area and it becoming all grey lol xD

clarkcd.6532:

Or you could reskin Eternity with Dawn since you like that skin better.

Isn’t dawn the precursor?

So I made the Eternity, love this weapon skin and it’s improved particle effects over Sunrise. The day time skin matches my character very well, but because the game mostly takes place at night (in most dungeons, heart of the mists, etc.) I’m almost always stuck with the night skin.

I like the idea of the day/night cycle, but it would be cool if we could toggle that on/off so we could keep the day skin on a weapon if we really like it better.

POPO.7213:

Mesmer can’t stand in the current meta not because they are bad , just thief can do a better job on dealing dmg and roaming.

My suggestion is to remove Deceptive Evasion and build it into mesmer’s basic mechanic. This trait is such a failure that force all the mesmers to waste 4 points on dueling. The original Deceptive Evasion could be changed to something like “increase x% dmg against the target who has higher armor than you,” maybe like [target armor – your armor]%? This change could also gives mesmers a more specific role in the game, which now the thief cannot easily replace.

Would you say thieves are better at something like boon removal? yeah I don’t feel like they’re bad by any means, just that something is missing. Building DE into the basic mechanic sounds fun, I’m not sure if that would mess with other builds though like phantasms. Perhaps making it a minor trait?

I do like thieves hard counter shatter maybe a little too well. Don’t get me wrong, I am completely ok with every build having a counter, I feel like the difference might be a little too good though. For example, DPS guards generally counter thieves, but a thief is still able to keep their distance and avoid it with mobility if they need to. Mesmers have to deal with the constant teleporting to close the gap, the ability to get every boon in the game, etc. making them pretty much a free kill if a good thief is on their team. That’s just my personal input, I’d like to hear more from ya’ll!

I know mesmers aren’t in the best position right now when it comes to tpvp, I still main mesmer because it’s very rewarding and it’s my favorite. Plus tpvp roaming with my friend who is a thief makes for some fun burst shenanigans.

That being said, what changes do you think could be made to have the mesmer class become more viable in high level play?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Yeah but Null is a Condi clear, boonstrip, AND ethereal field, and heavily discourages enemies off point

Plus.. Chaos Armor. So much chaos armor if you’re running staff.

Null field is awesome! There are two reasons I prefer MoR but this is just my personal opinion:

1: The cooldown, pretty straightforward. Only 20 seconds and I can keep clearing condis

2: Instant cast, this is going to sound weird, but I don’t like the temporary delay Null field has. Most of the time I have to use it to cure conditions on myself rather than for boon removal, MoR cures them the moment I use the skill. With Null field, theres this short cast time and can’t get conditions off me as fast.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Sorry, Nullfield over MoD allday errday.

Dat condi clear

Ross Biddle.2367:

Are you saying that if a shatter mes drops portal he suddenly becomes MORE viable? Who knew!

:D PLOT TWIST! D :

lel I always get people saying kitten kitten W/O PORTAL U HAV NU MOBILITY BRING PORTAL FOR TEAM MOBILITY

brings portal

nobody uses portal

MailMail.6534:

Not weird at all!! lol MoR is one of the most popular condi cleanses we have.

I never knew if it was viable or not without portal, I really enjoy it xD

Supcutie had convinced me at one point in solo que to take mantra of resolve over portal, and strangely enough, I find my performance as a shatter mesmer improving a lot in both solo q and team fights.

It’s not that portal is bad, in fact, it’s an extremely useful skill for team mobility. I thought about it, and it came down to the fact that even in team fights, barely anyone used it but myself so it was used less for team mobility and more for me getting out of bad situations in a more selfish way lol. I actually like it a bit better than null field for the reason that it is faster to cast and has a much shorter cd. Isn’t that weird? xD

It was a lot of fun! I was happy that my sylvari was a finalist.

My friend wanted to come but she’s a thief and I said if a thief showed up to a Mesmer convention they would all scatter like kittenroaches when you turn the lights on ;-;

Im trying to help a friend out, she wants to find a good p/p build but im not sure as I main mesmer, not thief. Anyone know a good dual pistol build for tpvp or 1v1s?

I WANNA BE FASHIONABLE

Ross Biddle.2367:

If you want to see what I did with the challenge there’s a full build thread + vid + in depth discussion here. There’s a ton of ways to approach it, and I found this to be a potent mix that has great success.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Phantrupt-Asskicker-CS-Interrupt/first#

Im having a hard time keeping damage up with that build, perhaps its not my playstyle.

Tealots.6095:

I’ve mentioned this a bit on other threads, but I’m going to say it here. The Mesmer class has probably the most diversity of what can work (OK maybe warriors with their 9238402394 weapon combinations).

This class is all about style. Viability really doesn’t mean anything. And it’s why I don’t really post any new builds that I try on here because there are some people who have a solid idea of what works and what doesn’t.

If you can make/find a phantasm build that suits your style of play, meaning you enjoy it and you win, it’s viable.

That’s actually where im torn at, im feeling like theres actually not many viable options in terms of tpvp. In duels I can get some stuff, but I can’t seem to find many builds that function in tpvp or have any any kind of solo killing potential when the enemy team has let’s say a thief lol

Fay.2357:

DrDivine.5378:

Fay.2357:

DrDivine.5378:

Fay.2357:

DrDivine.5378:

Fay.2357:

Yeah, to add onto what chaos said…

Most of the time when you see people talking about ‘viable’ PvP builds, what they actually mean is ‘Helseth said this was viable on a stream, and I’m parroting Helseth’, when in reality viable is simply a function of what you can make work.

People have sworn up, down, right, left, and backwards that PU conditions is totally worthless in any type of PvP scenario. When I bothered PvPing, I played almost exclusively PU condie (power phant on khylo) and routinely hovered around rank 90 in solo queue and rank 150ish when soloing in team queue.

You make the build viable, not the other way around. If you can figure out how to play a build in such a way that makes it work, then it’s viable. If you can’t, then it’s not currently viable for you and you either need to get better at it, or find a different build. I’d recommend taking a look at my guide ‘A Mesmer’s Guide to Solo Queue’ (you can find it in the stickied build/guide list) for a more in-depth explanation of how to make something viable in PvP.

Is it ok if you look at my setup I commented above and take a look and see what I could change?

Looks pretty decent. I’d consider going sword/sword and taking the sword cd trait…or just taking the sword cd trait over the pistol trait regardless. Other than that, it seems pretty standard for an offensive phantasm build. You’ll need to be careful with thieves or other builds that can get up in your face and burst, but it should be pretty solid. It’ll ofc suffer from the standard set of problems that phantasm builds face: aoe pressure kills phantasms, so try to keep that in mind when casting, and summon them on targets outside of aoe blobs.

So this is a build thats pretty standard im guessing? What makes you choose s/s over pistol?

I like the swordsman better, I like having a block to help deal with thieves, and s/s allows you to make the sword cd trait do double duty.

I’ll try it out in the upcoming match then, my fear was that duelist did more damage than swordsman but I havent actually done the math yet lol

Swordsman will outdamage duelist after a couple attack cycles. It also attacks faster, making it hard to consistently dodge.

so duelist is better for the initial burst, but swordsman puts more pressure overtime?

Fay.2357:

DrDivine.5378:

Fay.2357:

DrDivine.5378:

Fay.2357:

Yeah, to add onto what chaos said…

Most of the time when you see people talking about ‘viable’ PvP builds, what they actually mean is ‘Helseth said this was viable on a stream, and I’m parroting Helseth’, when in reality viable is simply a function of what you can make work.

People have sworn up, down, right, left, and backwards that PU conditions is totally worthless in any type of PvP scenario. When I bothered PvPing, I played almost exclusively PU condie (power phant on khylo) and routinely hovered around rank 90 in solo queue and rank 150ish when soloing in team queue.

You make the build viable, not the other way around. If you can figure out how to play a build in such a way that makes it work, then it’s viable. If you can’t, then it’s not currently viable for you and you either need to get better at it, or find a different build. I’d recommend taking a look at my guide ‘A Mesmer’s Guide to Solo Queue’ (you can find it in the stickied build/guide list) for a more in-depth explanation of how to make something viable in PvP.

Is it ok if you look at my setup I commented above and take a look and see what I could change?

Looks pretty decent. I’d consider going sword/sword and taking the sword cd trait…or just taking the sword cd trait over the pistol trait regardless. Other than that, it seems pretty standard for an offensive phantasm build. You’ll need to be careful with thieves or other builds that can get up in your face and burst, but it should be pretty solid. It’ll ofc suffer from the standard set of problems that phantasm builds face: aoe pressure kills phantasms, so try to keep that in mind when casting, and summon them on targets outside of aoe blobs.

So this is a build thats pretty standard im guessing? What makes you choose s/s over pistol?

I like the swordsman better, I like having a block to help deal with thieves, and s/s allows you to make the sword cd trait do double duty.

I’ll try it out in the upcoming match then, my fear was that duelist did more damage than swordsman but I havent actually done the math yet lol

Fay.2357:

DrDivine.5378:

Fay.2357:

Yeah, to add onto what chaos said…

Most of the time when you see people talking about ‘viable’ PvP builds, what they actually mean is ‘Helseth said this was viable on a stream, and I’m parroting Helseth’, when in reality viable is simply a function of what you can make work.

People have sworn up, down, right, left, and backwards that PU conditions is totally worthless in any type of PvP scenario. When I bothered PvPing, I played almost exclusively PU condie (power phant on khylo) and routinely hovered around rank 90 in solo queue and rank 150ish when soloing in team queue.

You make the build viable, not the other way around. If you can figure out how to play a build in such a way that makes it work, then it’s viable. If you can’t, then it’s not currently viable for you and you either need to get better at it, or find a different build. I’d recommend taking a look at my guide ‘A Mesmer’s Guide to Solo Queue’ (you can find it in the stickied build/guide list) for a more in-depth explanation of how to make something viable in PvP.

Is it ok if you look at my setup I commented above and take a look and see what I could change?

Looks pretty decent. I’d consider going sword/sword and taking the sword cd trait…or just taking the sword cd trait over the pistol trait regardless. Other than that, it seems pretty standard for an offensive phantasm build. You’ll need to be careful with thieves or other builds that can get up in your face and burst, but it should be pretty solid. It’ll ofc suffer from the standard set of problems that phantasm builds face: aoe pressure kills phantasms, so try to keep that in mind when casting, and summon them on targets outside of aoe blobs.

So this is a build thats pretty standard im guessing? What makes you choose s/s over pistol?

Fay.2357:

Yeah, to add onto what chaos said…

Most of the time when you see people talking about ‘viable’ PvP builds, what they actually mean is ‘Helseth said this was viable on a stream, and I’m parroting Helseth’, when in reality viable is simply a function of what you can make work.

People have sworn up, down, right, left, and backwards that PU conditions is totally worthless in any type of PvP scenario. When I bothered PvPing, I played almost exclusively PU condie (power phant on khylo) and routinely hovered around rank 90 in solo queue and rank 150ish when soloing in team queue.

You make the build viable, not the other way around. If you can figure out how to play a build in such a way that makes it work, then it’s viable. If you can’t, then it’s not currently viable for you and you either need to get better at it, or find a different build. I’d recommend taking a look at my guide ‘A Mesmer’s Guide to Solo Queue’ (you can find it in the stickied build/guide list) for a more in-depth explanation of how to make something viable in PvP.

Is it ok if you look at my setup I commented above and take a look and see what I could change?

Mogar.9216:

You need to add a bit of something else. Like ppl already said you can’t really count on your phantasms do more than just the first attack. So add in a bit of shatter or halting strikes you’ll be fine.

My setup is 4/4/0/6/0 ogre rune, zerker amulet gs and sword/pistol (air and energy, generosity and energy) with the 6 in inspiration having increased phantasm health, cure condis when using healing skill, and mantras heal allies. My utilities are often mantra of recovery, blink, mantra of distraction and decoy. It uses duelist discipline and greatsword training, my goal was to try to make a phantasm build where I myself have good enough power to still be a somewhat competent threat. What do you think?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Here’s my perspective..

Countless uses a clone-death build. Ross, though still new to pvp, uses a Phantasm/Interrupt mix with good success. Misha has gone to tournaments with a CS/CI 6/2/6/0/0 build with no DE. Icyicyicy in OMFG is the best PU Mesmer I’ve ever seen and completely shatters all of the PU condi stereotypes.

Viable, in the ultimate measure, is whatever works for you. Shatter and CI Interrupt are powerful builds that work all the way up into high level play, but they are not the only builds that will work in tpvp. Your team, your opponents team, your personal playstyle and ability all need to be taken into account. “Viable” essentially ends up being “most successful.”

Phantasm builds are considered unviable because they are too 1v1 focused, Phantasms die to AoE, and take too long to kill a competent opponent. These are the challenges that any Mesmer going phantasm in pvp must face but that should not stop anyone from making the attempt. It will take time and practice and suck at first, but that’s just kind of how it is with almost all Mesmer builds.

If, for whatever reason, you ended up on a top team and won a high level tournament against the Abjured/TCG/55HP Monks with a phantasm build, then suddenly you just made Phantasm viable. Don’t let the meta define you.

Icy is actually a very good friend of mine (we’re in the same guild lol), and yes he absolutely owns the PU build. I kinda put together my own phantasm build I like, it’s not mobile, but I find im able to deal with a little more threats, abusing GS with sword/pistol with ogre rune. and zerker amulet. I wanted to make a phantasm build where the phantasms hit hard, but im also able to do good damage on my own.

I like to make my own builds as well as use meta ones, despite me having some good success with my phantasm build, I often get tied by the meta saying “use shatter or lockdown its the only viable in tpvp”.

Im just curious, have certain phantasm builds been considered viable in tpvp? Or is it just shatter or lockdown?

I’ve been playing this game for two years and have never had a problem until just yesterday. The game will be flashing with blue pixels before crashing saying “Unrecoverable graphics card error” with a link to the forums.

I have tried updating all drivers including graphics card, and re installing the game entirely and I still can’t play it, how do I fix this? Below is an image of what the flashing pixels look like

DrDivine.5378:

I’ve never had this problem before, but after work today the game has had serious issues. As soon as I get into heart of the mists, the screen starts getting these blue squares everywhere before crashing saying an unrecoverable graphics card error has occurred, please go to the forums.

It says “guild wars 2 has encountered an unrecoverable graphics driver error and must terminate”
I updated all the drivers but still nothing, any ideas?

I’ve never had this problem before, but after work today the game has had serious issues. As soon as I get into heart of the mists, the screen starts getting these blue squares everywhere before crashing saying an unrecoverable graphics card error has occurred, please go to the forums.

It says “guild wars 2 has encountered an unrecoverable graphics driver error and must terminate”
I updated all the drivers but still nothing, any ideas?

insanemaniac.2456:

correct, there is no upgrade slot for an upgrade of that type on ascended gear.

That’s lame, I wanted to glow xD

Out of curiosity, let’s say I have all ascended accessories, is there no accessory thats ascended that will let me apply my Poly-luminescent Undulating Refractor to glow orange?

CoraxRnR.5742:

Hello there,

Don’t really know how to start this one, so I guess I’ll just give you a quick overview. I’m playing the standard Double Ranged (and switch to Gs/SwTorch if the enemy team runs a paintrain too), my thief-buddy usually runs either Executioner D/P or Panic Strike. Normally this works out relatively fine, but in recent matches we ran into another kind of paintrain, Mediguard+Shattermes (SwTorch variant commonly) and we’re having huge issues with that. Don’t get the wrong impression, our mobility still works in favour of us, but sometimes we’ve got to take on the 2v2 and that’s when things go South. I had my share of problems with Mediguards in duels, but nowadays I’m relatively confident to take them out. But paired with a mes it’s a huge P in the D. Worked out well at first though, I pressured the guard heavily enough for my thief to snack the mesmer, but after they changed their focus on my kitten it was an uphill struggle, we can’t really take out the mes first because the moment my thief pops out of stealth, the guard snacks him and I can only kite for so long against the pressure of both + SwTorch can outstealth me because I usually run Moa. Hiding in a refuge midfight doesn’t work because either we’re eating damage from Scepter 2 or Whirling Wrath or just get knocked out by iWave. Any advice other than l2p?

Regards
WhateverCorax
Sorry for possible mistakes, English isn’t my mother tongue

There’s a few factors that may help you out, as both of those 2v2 team comps can compliment each other well. You’ve got to think about what target will be easier for you and your thirf to kill the most effectively. Generally double ranged shatter mesmers are easy kills for thieves because they don’t have much of a way to kite them. Moa is good, but can be hard to land on other mesmers, and you have to watch out for blocking/ dodging the moa from guards. Sometimes something as easy as getting the moa on guard first so you can effectively destroy them. Another factor may be your weapon choice. Staff is generally better for kiting and the auto attack hits multiple targets which can help with things like condi pressure, boons and killing mesmer clones before they can shatter.

Medi guards and most mesmers hate conditions, and a meditation guard generally has to use all of his good defensive skills to play offensively, which can leave him very open. Boonstrip him first before having your thief go in there with basilisk venom

DrDivine.5378:

glorius.1235:

TyPin.9860:

Curunen.8729:

TyPin.9860:

Curunen.8729:

Erm, you can take boon strip – no one holding a magic bullet to your head to take cleansing conflag. I do all the time (need to correct my sig link tbh).

No, you are using torch… so use the appropriate trait or else…

Yes sir!

Is that before or after greatsword training? :P

GS is different. Everyone knows that. GS is awesome by itself, while torch looks ugly, so it needs to be flavored with a tasty torch trait… now go out there and do as I say.

As a somewhat rookie mesmer (started a month or so ago, after 1,5 years on guardian), I can already tell you that long drawn out fights are not amongst the shatter’s strengths.
Generally, you either snipe and land that burst, or you’ll be eaten alive – unlike thieves, that have the ability to reset fights anytime via on-demand-stealths. Sure, you have a fair share of survival skills on Sw main hand (btw anyone who uses it offensively over defense is doing it wrong imho – unless it’s a finishing move), but apart from that, you have not much room for errors.

My experience is that fights rarely draw out for so long that I’d need my Torch skills to come up again. That 1 cleanse is kinda ‘meh’ and tbh Torch skills have kinda long cd, even with the traited reduction, that its not really worth to lean on that defense-wise.
Sure the stealth is nice to have up when you are suddenly getting outnumbered and need to get the hell outta there, but apart from that I always tend to use it offensively.

Open with iZerk + stealth, get in melee range and MB+shatter his face off >> usually tends to be my strategy (obv has a large variety of different applications). Then again, each have his own playstyle, whereas I tend to play mesmer really aggressively (not saying that it’s always optimal btw!)

Bottom line is, I’d say it’s much better to have boonstrip and mitigate dmg by stripping that Fury/X stacks of Might, or just use torch stealth to remove target and set up your own burst. Not to mention that removing that Protection is also kinda neat, considering having that up pretty much negates your dmg.

Sure, you could wait for the enemy’s boons to wear off, but I found that it has key importance to control fights on mesmer, otherwise you will be worn down. You can’t be sitting and walking around without doing constant pressure, otherwise most classes will outsustain you.

just my 2c’s

I love double ranged shatter, the major problem I’m having with it is team coordination and effectiveness. Whenever I solo or team que, nobody really uses the portals I set despite them being a tremendous shortcut, whenever I am pitted against a team of one or two thieves there is little to no room for recovery from my team. Which brings me to my biggest issue, light armors cannot be played in solo que ranked.

Whenever I want to bring out my mesmer using something like double ranged or lockdown, I am ALWAYS put with a team of no heavies, usually a bunch of light or mediums that have a similar glass cannon roaming motif. Because of this, there are countless times where I have to cap home or mid myself (as in being on point with a glassy build) because everybody is roaming like I’m suppose to be and end up not capping anything.

I played about 14 games yesterday and only got heavies on my team once, which consisted of 2 warriors and guardian. I was thinking “Awesome, maybe now I can roam and fight off point like I’m suppose to!” lol nope, two glass cannon gs warriors and one glass cannon meditation. I’ve been having to switch back to osicat’s 3k armor sword/torch gs build because of this and sacrifice boon stripping and damage burst just to win.

glorius.1235:

TyPin.9860:

Curunen.8729:

TyPin.9860:

Curunen.8729:

Erm, you can take boon strip – no one holding a magic bullet to your head to take cleansing conflag. I do all the time (need to correct my sig link tbh).

No, you are using torch… so use the appropriate trait or else…

Yes sir!

Is that before or after greatsword training? :P

GS is different. Everyone knows that. GS is awesome by itself, while torch looks ugly, so it needs to be flavored with a tasty torch trait… now go out there and do as I say.

As a somewhat rookie mesmer (started a month or so ago, after 1,5 years on guardian), I can already tell you that long drawn out fights are not amongst the shatter’s strengths.
Generally, you either snipe and land that burst, or you’ll be eaten alive – unlike thieves, that have the ability to reset fights anytime via on-demand-stealths. Sure, you have a fair share of survival skills on Sw main hand (btw anyone who uses it offensively over defense is doing it wrong imho – unless it’s a finishing move), but apart from that, you have not much room for errors.

My experience is that fights rarely draw out for so long that I’d need my Torch skills to come up again. That 1 cleanse is kinda ‘meh’ and tbh Torch skills have kinda long cd, even with the traited reduction, that its not really worth to lean on that defense-wise.
Sure the stealth is nice to have up when you are suddenly getting outnumbered and need to get the hell outta there, but apart from that I always tend to use it offensively.

Open with iZerk + stealth, get in melee range and MB+shatter his face off >> usually tends to be my strategy (obv has a large variety of different applications). Then again, each have his own playstyle, whereas I tend to play mesmer really aggressively (not saying that it’s always optimal btw!)

Bottom line is, I’d say it’s much better to have boonstrip and mitigate dmg by stripping that Fury/X stacks of Might, or just use torch stealth to remove target and set up your own burst. Not to mention that removing that Protection is also kinda neat, considering having that up pretty much negates your dmg.

Sure, you could wait for the enemy’s boons to wear off, but I found that it has key importance to control fights on mesmer, otherwise you will be worn down. You can’t be sitting and walking around without doing constant pressure, otherwise most classes will outsustain you.

just my 2c’s

I love double ranged shatter, the major problem I’m having with it is team coordination and effective. Whenever I solo or team que, nobody really uses the portals I set despite them being a tremendous shortcut, whenever I am pitted against a team of one or two thieves there is little to no room for recovery from my team. Which brings me to my biggest issue, light armors cannot be played in solo que ranked.

Whenever I want to bring out my mesmer using something like double ranged or lockdown, I am ALWAYS put with a team of no heavies, usually a bunch of light or mediums that have a similar glass cannon roaming motif. Because of this, there are countless times where I have to cap home or mid myself (as in being on point with a glassy build) because everybody is roaming like I’m suppose to be and end up not capping anything.

I played about 14 games yesterday and only got heavies on my team once, which consisted of 2 warriors and guardian. I was thinking “Awesome, maybe now I can roam and fight off point like I’m suppose to!” lol nope, two glass cannon gs warriors and one glass cannon meditation. I’ve been having to switch back to osicat’s 3k armor sword/torch gs build because of this and sacrifice boon stripping and damage burst just to win.

Jofu.9637:

Here’s how I run my GS – Sw/T – Hybrid Shatter/PU build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8flknpTtNqxWNcrNSrxY6QS5ESGQBlshqB-TJRGABAcRAS4JA02+DMXGAA

I followed Osicat’s build for this and I find this really effective.
the torch 4 + Sw 3+2+Mind Wrack combo provides a good dmg spike.

It’s definitely a fun build with decent tankiness, idk maybe I need a guide on it xD. Is this one still viable?

I love mesmer, but recently I’ve been so torn on him right now as he cannot seem to compete with my warrior in terms of effectiveness. Double ranged shatter is good, but has a glaring weakness to thieves and in solo que for ranked, I often do not get good coverage (I either get one or two more mesmers on my team or all light armors).

I made my own phantasm build that works pretty good in 1v1s and decent in teams, its jsut at the cost of things like portal or traveler rune so he’s kinda slow, but has good damage (although no boon removal). Any advice?

Curunen.8729:

The thing to note with GS and sw/t is that you only have one decent power phantasm which on the flipside is not good in a condition build.

So you kind of have to play a power build, and then you have to balance between damage sources (yourself, your illusions and shatters). There’s not much room for variety with that weapon set. Take whatever traits you like, but damage will have to revolve around GS pew pew, the izerker and shatters.

Swapping torch for a different offhand instantly opens up other possibilities (phantasm, interrupt, etc).

Recently I’ve been trying to make my own builds, one thats been fairly effective centered around phantasms that uses gs and sword/pistol. After seeing the traditional shatter build that uses gs and sword/torch I wondered if maybe there were other weird options to use to make it effective. Im guessing it’s not possible?

I know there’s a traditional shatter build, but is there any other builds that use gs and sword/torch effectively? Maybe a power PU build or something? I’m curious (this is for pvp teams or dueling is acceptable)