Guild Wars 2

PvP gear has a higher stat allocation than PvE gear.

Different.

I think you’d have a hard time convincing anyone that the sPvP Vitality allocation on the Berserker jewel makes up for the 40% crit damage that the PvE set has.

There’s going to be even more class balance QQ when you have “out-manned” players dealing 40k damage to other players.

Scratch that, I mean 60k.

I don’t see the point while leveling. Just use x/Warhorn in rotation with SoR. That alone’s not 100% uptime, but it’s close enough.

1. Utility or Elite slot so it at least vaguely competes with Feedback and other stuff.

2. Recharge >45 seconds at a minimum.

3. Mesmers really don’t need more area control / denial capabilities. Curtain/Feedback are already pretty brutal. But, it would be rather funny.

4. I think the most complex part is attempting to code exactly what would be reflected and what would not be reflected. I don’t think this part is easy to identify or categorize except on a skill-by-skill basis, which would be manually intensive and difficult to maintain over time. I don’t think there’s any existing flag in the game (that is apparent to players anyways) that indicates a player “in fast motion”.

Perusing other class forums, it seems like it’s a common issue for abilities where there are tactics that extend the duration — the tooltips reflect the extended duration even though the player does not have the tactic.

I forgot on what I tested it, I think LA targets(?), but iBerserker would hit 3 times(out of 5?) for around 1k, while iWarlock for 1.4k.

Last time I tested (a while ago), iB came out to around 1300 in a set of sPvP power gear with iW at 1500 with 2-3 conditions.

Could just be variance of testing, shrug.

Sidenote: It’s common knowledge that iB does the least damage to a single target (and actually has a low risk of missing one of the hits on a single target actually). The point is that it hits in an AOE, and that it applies Cripple.

Other note: Elasticity is a great trait for GS in a 1v1 type situation, or any smaller #s. The AI of the bounces seems to prioritize alternating enemy and friendly targets — the net is result is that Elasticity usually increases the raw MB damage by 50%, along with the extra 3 stacks of Vuln.

Power scales direct damage significantly faster than precision. Carrion is a great set for specific builds that don’t center on SI, and it’s pretty strong in general, irrespective of SI.

It more depends on how you use your abilities (whether you rely more on illusion sustain pew pew pew or all the other buttons).

I didn’t think the Yojack build was intended for PvP.

It’s a good “run-around general gameplay regen” build centered on bleeds that makes solo PvE a breeze and adapts sufficiently to dungeons (although you have to watch the bleed stacks), but it isn’t critically effective for any specific thing in WvW or sPvP. It’s very generalist.

E.g. damage is too low to kill people in WvW, it has CC for WvW. Too soft / not enough CC to win a dangerous 1v1 encounter in WvW or to frontline in a large-scale fight. In sPvP it would have low damage output due to the more consistent player builds with condition removals. It’s pretty far from a bunker build, and it has 0 burst for roaming.

I have a couple traits that trigger on criticals but they aren’t nearly that vital

This is basically it. People love Sharper Images way, way more than it’s worth. It’s a solid trait no doubt, but highly overrated. The fact that people revise their entire gear / stat approach for a single trait … misguided.

i never implied removing the immobalize,

I wasn’t saying you were: just saying that in general, a large quantity of posters do make that recommendation as part of making the leap function more reliable, even though the immob is 100x more important.

I’ve had 0 issues with the clone not spawning at all.

Only issue is how long it takes for the clone to path and leap to the target. A little over half the time it is very smooth, but the rest it’s delayed or rarely it never makes it to the target.

Sidenote: It does count as a leap finisher.

Sidenote2: Any proposed change which removes the immobilize is a bad proposal.

Tbh, the BV doesn’t matter one way or another in most cases.

Level 1-7: Scepter
Level 7-40: GS and Staff.
Level 41-80: whatever based on your spec/playstyle.

Except when people discuss GS’s DPS, WA is as relevant as HB.

For the most part, most players seem to ignore it.

Whirlwind Attack hits 4 times.

HB hits 9 times.

WA’s hits deal about as much damage as a normal HB hit.

HB’s 9th hit deals about double its other hits.

HB hits about 10 times.

WA hits about 4 times.

HB takes ~3.5 seconds.

WA takes ~0.8 seconds.

10/3.5 = 2.9

4/0.8 = 5

WA has almost twice the DPS of HB when used appropriately.

WA hits all 4 hits on a melee target (although you will end up moving slightly out of range by the end of the spin).

WA is the bomb kitten for finishing opponents, or for comboing back with a Bull’s Rush, Bladetrail, or in the direction they move to eliminate the displacement.

WA is a whirl finisher.

Why do people talk about HB?

Spin 2 win.

Discuss.

Backstab thieves are a problem? I just parry it (painfully to them), immobilize them when they pop out of stealth, and burn them down.

That’s not how Backstab operates in an actual gib build.

Anyways, nerfing Backstab itself is unnecessary. The issue is clearly the signet that turns a 6-8k big hit into a 15-20k pile of cheese.

In fact, ANet could be flexible with the tweaking: have Backstab maintain its rated 2x damage from behind, but allow it to deal 1.5x damage from the sides to make the core ability more reliable.

The primary issue is the ability to stealth + shadowstep + mug + signet backstab instantly at 900 range. The abilities need some delays between them, and the Signet in question is just broken. Tbh, I think a good set of changes to resolve all issues would be the following:

1. Change the CnD animation to apply its damage almost instantly, then complete its animation to stealth. E.g., make it a “dagger and cloak” ability. This would force the Thief to steal early if they wish to inflict the CnD damage as part of the combo, allowing the opponent a moment to react, and slide in a small window of time between the stealth and the Backstab.

2. Alter Mug to inflict 2/3s of its current direct damage, but add 3x Bleed or Poison (or Burning?) effect. Perhaps tweak it to deal even less direct damage but add more condition damage.

3. Make the Signet not what it is. Hell, make it Chill the target for 5 seconds.

4. Allow Backstab to deal 1.5x damage from the sides.

This set of changes would maintain CnD’s general mechanics and actually make CnD more reliable as a stealthing tool. It would retain most of Mug’s capability. It would even improve Backstab’s reliability and consistentcy.

Engineers can rifle skill 5 their way to other platforms which helps them with Jump Puzzles, so I feel that Blink not letting us do the same is a bug or an oversight.

This is working as intended. Teleports do not allow players to bypass terrain, including puzzle jumps or walls. The trick is that Blink will look for a valid path to your destination. If it can find it, even if the path goes up or down an incline or the path is not directly in front of you, it will work.

From my casual observation, it seems that Blink will use your LOS to look for a path up, and as long as the entire path is within 900 range, it will take. Mastering this subtlety can allow you to do some pretty tight moves like teleporting up the back of stairs in a tower/keep at certain angles, or up a hill that you normally have to run around to get up.

Abilities like the Engi jump or Warr Sword leap are jumps, not teleports, and function differently.

Luckily Mesmers have Portal which more or less shuts down any jump puzzle comparisons instantly.

Quickness isn’t happening.

High damage isn’t happening. GS is already a high damage weapon with mobility.

Also, it seemed he’d do only 60% of what iWarlock would do(without conditions).

Berserker does about the same damage as Warlock without conditions.

I honestly believe that Mind stab should be changed to allow you remain mobile while casting it like Chaos storm or Null field for example.

That would require that the damage be nerfed.

Mind Stab does fully average damage in an AOE, along with a boon removal. That’s a pretty full package. Removing the quarter second root would have to see its damage reduced by half IMO.

Absolute highest: Warden.
Highest power general: Swordsman.
Highest power w/ high variety of conditions: Warlock (requires ~8 conditions to exceed Swordsman).
Highest with max crit% and condition damage: Duelist.
Highest AOE: Berserker.

The Might buff is the simplest fix that would resolve most of the absurdity. That instant combo would still overkill me by about 6k damage, but that’s a far sight more legit than being overkilled by 15k. The other more complex piece is Mug during CnD, but that has more sensitivity and requires more consideration than the IWIN Signet.

Sidenote: Not sure why Mug really needs to deal so much damage. Makes me roll my eyes. I wish my power line bonus damage trait were anywhere near as good. I get ~400 damage for interrupting stuff. Wtb 15 times that much damage on a reliable effect.

Bleed is the only reliable one a Warr has access to. Burning is semi-accessible via bow, but bow itself has no bleeds, so you’re dealing with an exclusive situation (why bother using bow for burning if you could just stick with your other bleed weapon?). Still useful, but it’s not like your doubling your condition damage output or anywhere near.

Edit:

The real value of condition damage in this format for a Warrior is to have moderately good and reliable DPS, in a hybrid build. A strong power build sits on 2-3 DPS stats. A condition build can get by with 1-2, leaving a lot of stat investment for Vit/Tough.

Then your build is bad for Orr DEs?

You could at least swap to a better weapon for Orr DEs if you’re unwilling to drop 3.5s to respec? The game allows you to switch weapon separately from your build?

Do you think condition or support Guardians make excuses about Staff, even though a power build would tag better? Does a condition Engineer eschew grenades for farming? Does a condition Thief stop using Shortbow direct damage AOEs? Or a condition Elementalist (do these exist?) stop using direct damage AOEs?

And that matters how? Do you think Guardians LIKE using Staff? They use what works.

I favor GS because it’s good for my purposes (WvW and tearing through trash PvE, particularly with a Power-centric build). If Staff were a good weapon for my build or gameplay focus, I would use it.

It’s not.

I don’t use it.

If Staff were good for Orr DE farming, I would use it when I farmed Orr DEs. I have 1 of every weapon in my backpack, and have since level 10. I even have a Scepter.

I use the tools that work best for the job at hand. To complain that a weapon you don’t want to use is actually good at something specific … lolz.

It completely boggles my mind. I mean does a GS Warrior kitten about the lack of CC? No, they switch to a kitten Hammer. How simple can this get?

There’s a weapon in your backpack that will increase your performance … let’s not use it and complain instead!

The brutal irony of Mesmers complaining about “having” to use a particular weapon for Orr farming when all other classes are limited to specific weapons as well.

The reason why stuff will get nerfed is because you can:

1. 150% signet the backstab.
2. Use steal while casting CND to bypass CND’s slow casting limitation and backstab’s general stealth/position limitation.

It’s an effective use of capabilities, but it’s over-the-top, particularly for WvW. Dealing >33k damage almost instantly at 900+ range is a bit problematic.

Against someone with heavy armor + toughness, that will still combo for 15k damage, which is a huge health deficit when the Thief still has ~8 Initiative and has only burnt 1 utility and steal.

Bleed damage per stack at the same condition damage at the same level will do the same damage between a Ranger or Warrior, except for the difference in +% total damage traits and effects (also worth mentioning: the same stacks of Might).

The difference is the number of bleed stacks applied and any other conditions you can stack simultaneously for more damage.

When I hadn’t yet grasped the class, I kept on playing and thinking until I did.

Edit: And then I proceeded with the assumption that I only grasped 25% of the class. And then I repeated this process a few times.

I’m still terrible at the class, but I can at least press 1,2,3,4,5 now without looking like a complete scrub.

900 range
Line attack
60% Eviscerate damage
Removes 1 boon per adrenaline level on all targets

You can even keep the uppercut animation and have it cause an air vacuum style slash that travels across the ground, cough RurouniKenshin cough.

Edit: Could drop the damage and add stacks of might to the line as well. But, shrug. I think that is optional / superfluous.

I’m pretty disgusted by your actions.

I would have killed you then teabagged your corpse. Set up a catapult sighted on a jump spot to knock you off.

Warrior signet elite has a passive effect. Its active effect is diluted by both its low-ish cooldown and its Signet nature.

Thieves guild is pretty brutal, guardian tomes can be rather potent. Warrior’s transform would great if it weren’t bad, but it’s bad. Shrug.

I thought this was obvious, but it’s good to get it on a post for people to read!

First 5 points should go into Illusion.

HP pool … shrug.

The raw stats from the trait lines don’t matter too much. The traits you pick up are much more significant. Rely on your gear for stats.

Yes and Phase Retreat pops clones pretty quickly. Again I am a Shatter not Phantasms, I actually shatter them quite consistently (phantasms).

Mirror Blade pops clones even faster. Facepalm.

Always have 5 points into Illusion.

Each stack of stacking buffs or debuffs has a separate timer. Sounds like you inflicted all 10 stacks at the same time, so they disappeared at the same time.

Edit: That or it got removed if we’re talking PvP. I think there’s a rare PvE mob somewhere that has condition removals as well.

Again, you guys rely on GS way too much. I don’t see the AoE you guys do. I really don.t You have a bounce, I have a bounce and if it does Fire each time… rather than the others (it’s random) also Chaos Storm + Chaos Armour. Phase Retreat with the CD reductions I’m using it quite a lot.
You forget Chaos Storm is Condition….

1. Phase Retreat doesn’t do damage.

2. You realize iBerserker does AOE damage right? It’s like an AOE iWarlock with a little less damage and bonus cripple?

3. You realize that WOC has a 33% chance to inflict burning? Not 100%? And another 33% for bleed, which helps. Still, only a 2/3s chance to do decent damage.

4. Mind Stab actually hits multiple targets. Needs practice.

5. Chaos Storm has a similar RNG on the chance to inflict Poison over Daze or Chill.

6. Chaos Armor has a similar RNG on the chance for Confusion, which is … Confusion.

Eliteseraph.4970:

Hmm….thanks for the info guys. I suspect that mesmer is a class that I’ll never master, but I’m getting some really good insight into how it all works together. The guys I see in PvP must be really good, or at least have a firm liking for micro-management of their illusions.

The one side benefit of Mesmers not being faceroll in PvE and actually having to press more than “11111111111111111”, is that by the time you hit level 80 you usually have at least some concept of how to play the game.

In terms of level I strongly recommend:

Level 1-7: Scepter mandatory. You have 0 traits and no weapon swap until 7. Your illusion generation is terrible, so you need the clones off of Scepter1 to Shatter.

Level 7-40: GS and Staff. Simplest highest AOE combination with good illusion generation and strong kiting and tanking. I killed multiple mobs 6 levels higher than me simultaneously at these levels by simple kiting (mostly because I refused to go to the other racial starting zones, so I was under-leveled for the current content and story quests).

Level 40+: Any weapons using specialized builds.

So … you’re saying that the advantage for staff is that you will be downed and have mobs low from condition damage?

Despite the fact that GS has superior AOE and will probably have most of the mobs dead anyways?

suedetooth.3150:

Take note: All prefer Staff.

That said, I haven’t ruled out GS as a viable burst option. It’s just hard when Easymode is it’s only solid proponent (if Easymode is the Easymode from Rift pwning with warlock builds, I will concede that the dude knows mage class burst builds) and he hasn’t released any vids that I know of.

1. Probably a different player. I primarily played a Rogue in Rift although I did have a Mage first. Also, I don’t do videos.

2. GS has stronger burst than Staff. There is no question. Mirror Blade can hit as hard as a phantasm. Mirror Blade + iB > iW. MB + iB + Shatter > iW. Note that MB/iB illusions will be closer to the target than iW/Phase Retreat illusions. Furthermore, the GS trait is in the power line whereas Staff is in the Toughness line. Which will have more burst damage?

3. Staff is effective for sPvP because it is a tank / short-range kite weapon. In WvW, people are willing to run away across the entire map. Even if someone dives you and you “tank it out” with Staff, they will just disengage and run away. iWarlock gets obstructed in any siege. E.g. Staff is weak in WvW for these and several other reasons. About the only really niche for Staff is stalling an enemy push through a chokepoint with Chaos Storm. For everything else, it’s “meh”.

suedetooth.3150:

If you think an SPvP / TPvP build is in anyway ‘different’ then the build you use when your in WvWvW you either:

A. Are a complete noob to PvP
B. ONLY WvWvW at ALL times with your 5 best bedroom buddies / guildes.

[…]

Edit to Add: These staff dudes are destroying in 2v1’s and 3v1’s in Spvp where everyone has the same gear. Imagine the carnage in a 2v1 scenerio in WvWvW where the pvp is less egalitarian. haha

The entire WvW dynamic, gearing, and stat spreads are completely different from sPvP. If you’re using the same build for both, you’re probably a kitten^.

^ Although there is a chance that the builds are actually the same, it is unlikely. Hence it’s not guaranteed that you’re a kitten.

ManCaptain.3154:

EasymodeX.4062:

My iWarlock crits for >7.5k.

Trolling as always.

Yours … doesn’t?

Could someone please post a youtube link to their build and gear setup for those of you hitting 9k with iSwordsman and iBerserker, and getting 2-3k with GS autoattack?

Full Berserker/Ruby gear.

It’s pretty much as simple as that. If you’re not running it, you won’t get big hits very often.

I found it very long… and enduring… again because of lack of AoE… Again I speak to using a Staff and Scepter/AoE 20/0/20/0/30. I’m probably the most specced as an AoE a mesmer can get.

Are you trolling?

AOE = GS and Focus/Sword and vaguely staff. You’re about as “non-AOE” as a Mesmer can get. Edit: Although you do have IP and I assume Mental Torment, so not completely off-target.

Oh, I wasn’t really responding to your post. I was actually referring to Badaboom’s and the general concept of making illusions persist.

They simply don’t need to. Sure, maybe they could add 1 second of fade-out time wherein you have a short grace period to do something with the expiring illusion, but that’s a minor fringe training-wheel (“quality of life”?) change that won’t really impact Mesmers.

The biggest thing is to make Orr DEs actually scale to # of players by upgrading trash mobs to vets and even minor champs. The susceptibility of any significant game content to raw bot-style AOE farm pew pew is absurd. It’s an issue not really tied to Mesmers, although Mesmers get hit by it.

For the rest of PvE, stuff works. A slight decrease in AOE damage taken by illusions may also be useful, but not a major deal one way or another. I mean, illusion expiration traits rely on them getting popped. Shrug.

- Valkyrie and deal with the lower precision by using a precision stacking sigil?
- Valk and use a slot or two of Rampager?
- Knights?
- Triforge Pendant?
- Swap a slot of two of Zerk for Soldier?

Whatever you do, the most important thing is to maintain power while trading for Vit and/or Tough. To be honest I would focus more on picking up Vit rather than Toughness on a glassy DPS Mesmer …

^
Ah, that’s good to know. Similar bug/undocumented feature to the Mesmer Pistol trait for iDuelist.

Just cancel the attack if they break the immob -_-.

Anyways the Immob is obv the most powerful aspect of the ability — low cooldown relatively strong Immob? Awesome. Bonus damage is bonus.

Best part is they can’t turn while doing it, so roll through them or something.

So for warrior to see more play they need better general application which would happen from changing those two hard counters to soft counters. This would happen by giving warriors a small amount of innate condi removal, an option to punish blind spam, an option for boon stripping, a reliable way to damage high toughness builds in while using power and a compression in the extreme damage range warriors have.

This is a good assessment.

One thing I noticed with my Warrior is that there’s pretty much 0 you can do about boons short of running a crit build with the sigil, and/or trying to match your opponent in boon-spamming (which just doesn’t work for a Warr, obv). It’s definitely something they could replace on, say, Axe2 or other attacks/traits that are generally lackluster.

The blind effects can be mitigated by ANet re-tuning warrior attacks to make more of them multi-hit. I think a lot of the weapons sets are “ok” on the multi-hit part, but there could be a slight improvement.

Lol.

On a lowbie in WvW my 1x Mind Wrack crits for up to 5100.

Edit: My 3x in a Mantra build or 4x in an IP build exceed 10k in PvE (PvE mobs have higher armor than lowbies in WvW …).

Sigil quickness is unreliable. Trait proc is fun and I like to use it in addition to Frenzy.

Edit: Going quickness-enhanced apekitten with Axe is awesome, but GS has the escape tools after you run your course.