Guild Wars 2

ANet needs to do a few simple things to stabilize WvW in the short and mid term:

1. Make all WvW objectives, NPCs, walls, doors invulnerable to damage for the first 15-30 minutes after a WvW reset / server restart. They need to do this until they are able to provide consistent access immediately after a reset. Every single reset, there seems to be a random zone or zones that are inaccessible by various servers. Until ANet can fix that technical issue, they need to implement a band-aid to prevent silly free capping due to their network limitations.

2. Supply and siege need to decay much more quickly, with keeps/towers having lower total supply caps. This will make rear towers and keeps much more vulnerable to ninja pushes and prevent spawncamping. It will help simulate a true “stretched supply line”. Currently, it is all too easy to stock insane amounts of siege and supply in fortified keeps and towers and make them virtually impenetrable, depending on terrain.

^

Are you talking to me?

I have IWIN buttons similar to a Thief. I was simply asking to check what the range on Steal was, since I haven’t played my Thief enough to be familiar with it. I mean, I could spend some time on the wiki and builder to research it myself, but I had thought I could get an answer on the Thief forums in less time. Apparently Thieves don’t know the range on their own ability, or maybe it’s just you?

Sidenote: Backstab build is very good when the combo adds up to 33,000 damage at (900?) range within 1.0 seconds.

^

That’s the obvious type of change ANet needs to make. When the DEs are scaled to 20-40 players, the DE should spawn a high ratio of Veteran and some sub-Champ (easy Champs) to replace trash mobs. Instead of waves of 15 trash, it should be 2 mini-Champs, 8 Vets, and 5 trash.

To be honest, that is what I expected when ANet said that “DEs scale to the players”. I expected the mobs to have more HPs or be upgraded in category.

Also: This is a PvP game.

Mesmers can’t do it fast enough to compete there and they are the only ones who can’t.

1. They can do it fast enough to compete reasonably well.
2. Other classes are in the same boat.

the backstab, which isn’t exactly the IWIN Button some people make it out to be.

Dunno, got crit for a backstab for 16k damage last night. That’s pretty close to what I would consider “IWIN”.

a precasted CnD follwed by Steal

Ah right, Thieves can precast that while Stealing. Makes more sense. Too bad it’s hard to see their animation during the night time …

Btw what is the steal range? 900?

Creslin.1758:

So does this complaint boil down to…

We aren’t as good at tagging as engineers QQ?

Yes. This is basically a PvE Orr DE farming QQ.

Mainly centered on the players’ inability to target nearest + iBerserker instantly while inserting Illusory Persona Shatters. This combo WILL net a good fraction of tags even in the Orr farm. However, most players like their phantasm army builds. Kekeke.

The only classes that are really capable at this are Staff Guardian lols, and Engi/Ele AOE spam. Every other class has to Deal With It.

these DEs in Orr that are apparently so zerged that MOBs don’t last more than 1 second. I’ve never seen these on my server, but that is what I hear.

I play on Jade Quarry and during primetime, these events have about 40 players all spamming AOE on the spawnpoint of the mobs. There is some exaggeration — in the super-predictable DEs with literally 40+ players, the mobs will last about 1.0 seconds. In the slightly-less-predictable DEs with 20-40 players, the mobs last about 1.5-2.0 seconds.

In the first situation, you can always get an IP Shatter off, and often use the GS knockback to buy extra time. I can typically actually get iB off for damage ticks as well. In the second situation, iB is always reliable with the Shatter on top. Easy farm.

You know, considering that you have about ~3 attack abilities on your main weapon set, and 3 on your alt weapon set, you can pretty much spam pew pew for the first 10 seconds of any given fight. Same as a Thief. The only difference is you can’t spam the same ability more than once.

A single cycle on my mesmer to defeat an enemy of equal level will see me change through two weapon sets (using all skills) coupled with several Shatters and likely a return to skills that were on cooldown.

Dunno, I kill skales with 3 buttons in 2 seconds.

Basically, Mantras kitten me off until I forced myself to use them for about 20 hours of gameplay. I forced myself to use a Mantra build while getting map completes on the last 4 zones (giv ecto nao), and for level 75-80 story quests.

Broke the habit of accidentally charging Mantras in combat (this is the biggest thing). Built the habit to charge MoRecovery early. Built the reflex to see how many charges I have remaining. Built the reflex to see which Mantras need charging at a glance (MoRecovery is the hardest one because the icon for the Mantra and for the heal charges are vaguely similar). Built the habit of charging out of combat. Built the habit of charging after zoning.

All of these things you have to do that you don’t have to do for other ‘normal’ abilities. But, once you acquire those skills, Mantras can be pretty fun.

It’s almost like playing another class.

To me, Mesmer learning curve is like this:

1. L2p with clones and phantasms.
2. L2p with advanced phantasm timing and weapon swaps.
3. L2p with shatters.
4. L2p with shatters, phantasms, and weapon swaps.
5. L2p with Mantras.
6. L2p with Mantras, shatters, phantasms, and weapon swaps.

Then you have tangents like L2Portal, but who cares about that right?

Yeah, I use the Warden as a projectile blocker, so I rather like the way he doesn’t move much.

The important thing for dungeons for a melee build is to know wth the enemies are doing. If you understand that, then you can dodge / invuln / softkite anything they do and melee works fine.

(save that non-stackable swiftness bug)

It’s not a bug. Because the Swiftness is associated with a ground object, if it stacked then you could walk over it rapidly and get 10 minutes worth of Swiftness just by stepping on it a bunch.

This leaves you with one choice for an off hand and focus has the swiftness. I have never seen a mesmer with a torch or pistol in WvW.

The reason you don’t see a Mesmer with Torch/Pistol/OHSw is because Into the Void is wtfbbqpwn. The Swiftness is icing.

Of the 3 offhands, focus has the worst phantasm. It does the most damage if you can find anyone dumb enough to stand next to it , but 99% of the time it just stands in place swinging at air.

Apparently I make a LOT of players very dumb using Into the Void and iLeap/swap all the time.

You know what’s amazing? Pulling the whole combo off perfectly, and watching someone eat 8k from my Blurred Frenzy and 7k from iWarden at the same time.

You know what else is funny? Most downed players can’t run away from iWarden. How’s that for lulz?

It is just the normal case of “A-net did balance around sPvP and don’t care about other modes”.

Correct. If ANet balanced for WvW, Mesmers would be instantly nerfed in about 8 different ways. As it is, I fully expect at least 4 or so Mesmer nerfs in the next month or two.

I was jumped by a quickness PW Thief in WvW, and we traded his double PW for my Blurred Frenzy.

Mesmers are lols.

If server A has more players participating in WvW than servers B and C combined, I suggest reducing server A’s 15 minute points (before adding them to their cummulative points) using the following:

No: ALL servers should have point gains reduced by that factor.

Edit: Specifically, I made the following suggestion in a different thread:

Point accrual should be modified by: [all_current_population / all_maximum_population]

This means if 1 server is afk (server A max, server B max, server C 0 population), then all 3 servers get a *0.67 modifier to point accrual.

It makes no sense to penalize a server just because they are actually active. A server that brings the capacity to win should win. Period.

However, it reasonable to reduce everyone’s point accrual by a % when there is lower total activity.

Into the Void is very consistent on where it moves targets.

It moves them a fixed distance towards the center of the curtain. That’s it. That’s all it does. It works 100% consistently 100% of the time.

The issue is that most players are watching the curtain, and they think the Into the Void moves things relative to the “line”. This is wrong. Pretend that Into the Void moves across a single point in the middle of the “curtain”. Pretend it is a black hole. Not a line.

Oh please. Quickness buffs are few and far between. You got owned. Deal.

Mantras are great, the class has insane mobility in combat, the damage is obscene.

And you can still “haha I’m a troll” while doing all of the above.

Sounds like you should reroll a Thief.

You know, when the enemy has 25 different targets to look at (and a bonus 15 more pets and illusions), there is a relatively low chance of them actually noticing you about to snipe them.

In addition, as I stated, you can combo it with Frenzy to virtually guarantee getting the shot off.

Naturally, this is not necessarily the most optimal setup for a 1v1. However, it does have a lot of viability. Notice that the majority of players kittening around in WvW will push until they are low on life, then retreat using defensive cooldowns.

What happens when they go from 100→downed instantly? No escape. Even with lesser setup, going from 80→downed is much more effective than taking 2 people from 80→20%.

Mesmers obviously need a signet with 10% passive runspeed!

Orbs are much less impacting than people are making them out to be. While they are notable and do add up, they do not directly cause any significant swing in WvW performance.

Ok. This thread is kind of funny actually. Looks like most players don’t even know how to build for max DPS. To get that kind of kill shot, you do the following (and note the 25k kill shot posted in this thread):

1. Full Berserker’s level 80 Exotic gear. This should be obvious. And it goes without saying you pack full Ruby accessories. Edit: And weapon ofc.

2. High-DPS rune set like Scholar, Divinity, Strength. Other options like Eagle are also fine. You want power and crit damage.

3. Food with crit damage is a bonus.

4. Guild claim keep buffs.

5. Weapon with Bloodlust sigil to stack 25×7/10 (Superior at 10 per stack is expensive, I have 7 per stack for +175 power fully stacked). Note: since the Rifle is a 2h, put the sigil on your weapon swap. Then use a Sigil of Force on your Rifle for +5%.

6. Full glass cannon trait build. Pew pew pew.

7. Go shoot someone. Preload it with SigRage, FGJ, vuln debuffs if applicable / immediate. Add in Frenzy so you can immediately follow with a rapid fire volley to ensure a kill after you down them.

That is how you brutalize someone in WvW.

That is kind of depressing if it is true.

5 keeps? Looks like we still have Garrison in HOD BL.

… looks like another night of assassinating Sunny/Crag Trebs over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over.

You chain portal in 50 omega siege golems to tear through the keep very fast.

It’s kinda simple really.

1. We can’t get a foothold.

This is partially silly, but partially very key. First, players have 3 exits out of the spawn, two of which dump them into supply camps so they can build siege to regain a foothold. I think the design is pretty effective for the losing team to regain a foothold, TBH.

The thing that is a big problem that needs to change is to make the winning team more vulnerable is the decay of supply.

The current issue is that when a team starts winning, they get a supreme supply advantage. Note that this has nothing to do with orbs or bonuses. Those don’t actually matter. What matters is this:

1. The winning team has the keeps.
2. They have the towers.
3. They have the tower in your face.
4. They have 100% control of several supply camps.
5. They have moderate control of your supply camps.
6. They have tons of siege in all their towers and keeps.
7. Their rear positions are “invulnerable” to moderate attacks.
8. They can invest their forces completely into spawncamping you.

What needs to hapkitten the following:

1. Siege needs to decay more quickly.
2. Siege needs to decay while being used.
3. Maximum supply in keeps and towers should be reduced. Corresponding upgrades should be decreased.

This is what will help the losing team gain a foothold and make a comeback — by reducing the winning team’s biggest advantage: free supply everywhere. If their siege at their rear tower decays, and their tower/keeps themselves have a smaller supply cap, it makes them very vulnerable to harassment from the losing team, or better yet a full assault from the 3rd server.

This will force the winning team to break camp and go defend “seriously”. Without the spawncamp, you can now take back your tower or several supply camps.

That aside, most of your suggestions are completely horrible. Reseting in the middle of the week? May as well just have a new matchup. Absolutely terrible idea. Stat buff to the losing team? I understand the sentiment, but unnecessary idea.

You’re thinking in terms of a novice in WvW. The supply changes would change everything. A random stat buff is irrelevant. At best, I would say give a random % bonus to karma and a small one to gold. This would get people doing things in WvW — incentivize them to go take some supply camps and towers. The magic find is a problem because that gets them farming mobs.

The only suggestion that’s really key is the free server transfers. HOLY kitten THIS IS STILL IN THE GAME. Sigh.

You guys are pretty weird.

I tested in the Mist yesterday and there was an obvious difference in attack rate with/without PH for the phantasms I tested briefly: iS, iB, iD.

Sidenote: I don’t recall the patchnotes saying anything about iBerserker.

You should try swapping between weapons continuously and/or fighting more interesting mobs. E.g. more / higher level mobs.

I drop iWarden on a down player so the enemy rezzers run up.

Then they run away from iWarden.

Then I Into the Void the players back into iWarden.

Then I swap back to GS and MB-iB-MS them. Now there are 4 downed players make happy.

Yeah, I play some alts from time to time, but my Mesmer is way too much ROFL and LOLOLOL that I can’t stay away.

Easymode: are you on SBI? I find your posts extremely helpful/informative.

Nope, I am on JQ .

I’ll point out the same things I’ve done in other Mantra threads:

1. As single-slot utility skills, they are fine. You get some excellent condition removal, daze, and bonus damage for a single slot if you need them.

Mantra of Resolve is better at most condition removal than Arcane Thievery. It’s faster removal than Disenchanter. It’s faster than Null Field. It has a lower cooldown than all except Disenchanter.

Mantra of Pain is actually solid burst damage for short engagements. Burning through PvE mobs? Throw in an extra 2 shots of pain every fight, and charge between fights.

Distraction is pretty solid in PvP for specific builds.

Mantra of Concentration is the only ‘meh’ one as an independent ability due to its very short duration of Stability, and due to the alternative choices of Blink and Decoy, with Blink basically doing everything MOC can do, but better.

2. They are also very good when you combine only a few traits with only a few abilities. RM + MoPain/MoRecovery is a classic example. Hmm … actually it’s probably the only example. Anyways.

3. A full 30/30 Mantra build is actually pretty kitten strong for WvW for many reasons. I’ve been running this in WvW for about a week, and it’s been pretty hilarious. I would say more, but that’s basically the first step to getting a nerfbat.

So if the Mesmer legitly was just hiding in a corner and tried to port his team past a wall, that is unintended. Which honestly makes sense to me – one class being able to bypass all the mechanics surrounding taking a wall/door down sounds massively broken to me.

1. Removing that capability would essentially remove Portal from being used … almost ever. Theoretically you could still use it to “second chance” jump puzzles, depending on what they do to nerf it. Also help skip siege golems and the orb carrier around I suppose. Still, pretty limited and would make keep warfare much less interesting.

2. Tbh, it’s pretty easy to just sweep a keep for Mesmers. I thought it was basically standard operating procedure by this point, but people fail so hard at basic things, I guess I’m not surprised.

His wording isn’t 100% clear. He may be referring to what seems to be one way to glitch past the walls, involving some sort of portal spam to bypass the geometry (using a second portal later on to actually transfer people inside the keep).

If that gets nerfed though, then portal is pretty much gone as a tool. Very rare anyone would want to use it if you can’t actually use it, right?

Was mainly wondering why you equated tab4tab4tab4tab4tab4tab4tab with exploration.

Could you extrapolate?

I’ve made a whole post, it is worth reading, don’t you think?

Not really.

Have fun with your fair and well balanced Moa Morph.

… oooook. Considering most don’t use Moa, I have a feeling it won’t be a huge change in Mesmer lifestyle.

Didn’t know mashing the attack button required movement.

1. It is a channeled skill.

2. Channeling is not correlated with break-on-move. For example, the Warrior Axe1 (third attack) and Axe5 both channel while moving. Warrior GS2 channel breaks on movement.

3. Pretty sure Blurred Frenzy is working as intended.

4. Use in combination with iLeap / Swap to make the target stick in place while you blenderize.

My clones crit for 15.

<— Stacking power yo.

Now which skill wipes out more than an half of your life bar without giving you the chance to heal or to stunbreak? I think none.

You can heal in Moa form. Lols.

When you are Moaed at about 3/4-1/2 of your life bar, I think that 10 seconds without healing are enough to getting killed, isn’t it?

Last time I was Moa’d, I lost 6.7% of my life bar.

Try harder.

Edit:

OHkitten MOA. WAT DO WAT DO??

Precision -> SI is highly overrated.

Class includes several other sources of condition damage, and while precision is useful to enhance SI, neglecting raw cdmg will lose a lot of confusion/burn/poison/bleed damage.

Seriously, how am I supposed to kill a Duelist in 2 seconds, which is the time the Mesmer needs to cast Moa when stealthed?

I recommend starting with the button on your keyboard labelled “1”. There are other options as well, by default associated with the buttons “2” through “5”. Generally speaking, a casual roll-face of these buttons will usually have the desired effect on the dreaded Duelist.

3. So, the best counter to Moa is to run? Wow, that’s what the mesmer wants! Is he defending a point?

Hmmm. Well, let’s see … if the Mesmer is not on the Treb because he is fighting you … you are succeeding.

If you run away successfully and return 15 seconds later … hmm, now you get to fight again and the Mesmer has no dreaded Moa.

Good show!

Ironically, they did that due to player feedback that the boon voice-overs were “too annoying”.

Lol Thief got rolled.

Have to admit that trolling Necros and disabling Thief ability-based escape mechanisms are the 2 reasons I ever used Moa. Negating Elementalist ability-based escapes was a bonus.

But really, I always saved it for Necros that Thieves.

Yeah, for general PvE, my take is that Axe1 is GOOD ENOUGH © for Everything™.

Axe5 is:

3.) can be used while dodging (this is more relevant to pvp)

Otherwise 1112111111111111111.

@Odaman, are you still running the 30/30 build?

If so what is your gear level and highest damage hits.

er what heal do we have on a 10s cooldown? i hope you don’t mean the regen at 75% health trait

Mantra of Recovery triggers heal procs on both/all discharges and the charge-up. But, it’s only viable for level 80 for full exploration since you’re burning superior runes for the effect.

Oh and when people say that if you lose a 1vs1 when you’re moad you would’ve lost anyway without it is quite laughable.

^

The laughable part is that TW is better than Moa in 2v2 or more. TW gives the players roughly 2x the combat power. They go from 4502 power to over 9000. Moa subtracts 90% of a player’s combat power for 10 seconds, basically delaying the fight unless the Moa-ee isn’t ready for it and panics.

In a normal fight where you have two 2251 players versus two 2251 players, TW would make it 4502 versus 9004.

If a player Moa’d someone on the second team, it would be 4502 versus 4952.

As you can see, the team with TW still wins in a 2v2.

Sorely lag behind? That missing 10%, oh my.

Like I said previously, a 10% Signet is fine, although it’s /zzz.

Just don’t pretend that the movement is a major problem when you’re unwilling to use a weapon swap when most classes resort to that very thing, or to trait improvements to Blink. Also, don’t neglect that Mesmers move faster underwater, or that Mesmers have the best Vista / jump puzzle capability via Portal.

Also, you refuse to accept Centaur runes when comparing “runspeed-optimized” professions. If you actually wanted to make an even comparison, you could. But, you don’t. Zzz.

The blue flames are a Guardian activatable nearby-ally buff which will make your next attack inflict a ~5s burn.

My take is that condition builds are a very poor choice for “MAX DPS BURST PEW PEW”.

The bottom line is this:

1. Power x crit damage scales with 3 stats: power, precision, crit damage. Cubic.

2. Condition x prec scales primarily linearly with condition damage. The precision piece getting you a few more bleeds or whatnot is relatively minor. Also note that Rampagers gear has cdmg as a secondary stat. So there’s some inherent de-synergy here.

What I’ve noticed that work pretty well are:

1. Carrion. Two linear scaling stats: power and cdmg. The difference here is that the cdmg scaling is heavy, the power scaling is good. Bonus that you get Vit as a secondary. I see this as excellent sustained damage with some hybrid-ish stat spread. Normally in a cdmg build, you end up with a lot of buttons on your weapon that do piddly direct damage. The power scaling on Carrion rectifies this by a pretty good degree — to the point that the abilities may not be critting for 5k, but they are hitting for a solid 2k+. And, you are getting a full investment into condition damage.

2. Plain condition damage. This allows for heavy defensive hybridization. As the above poster mentioned — acrobatics and shadow arts. Condition damage simply does not take much stat/trait investment in general compared to fully-invested BARZARKAR. As such, it seems very compatible with more defensive builds.