Guild Wars 2

^That looks interesting. Think I might have to try that myself.

Natsu Blackwater has a fairly extensive guide.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-The-Blackwater-Mesmer-Condition-WvW/first

The stat combination you are looking for is called Rabid.

One word of caution, movement speed sucks. You have a few options to combat this, If you go with perplexity runes, you are either going to have to swap focus to get around the map well

or you can go traveler. Traveler runes have good stats for the build and a constant movement buff. But, they are VERY pricey.

Your other option, which has it’s downsides as well, is to take Centaur runes and use mantra as your heal. You will have constant speed (enable mantra as auto attack) and the speed will be given to anyone near you—and it stacks with other speed buffs.

The downside to this is the power stats don’t help, unless you go with a power based PU build. You will lose the speed in combat (as opposed to traveler runes). Also one of the biggest downsides is not having ether feast as your big heal once you do fight. But, if you go the focus route for speed, being caught with focus in unexpected combat, can equally suck. And who likes swapping weapons constantly?

I know a lot of people probably won’t be thrilled with the pu-condi build suggestion, but it’s a nice place to start. It will give you more time to get used to the class and observe other classes play style.

Eventually, I think you will eventually get tired of this build and look for something different. Most people do.

themenaceofseventhdimension.2075:

Dear OP. This build happens to be same as my Apex Predator build. I am not sure if you have already viewed my build or something. Just letting you know I was planning to put this build into the Next BotM contest. So I hope you will not submit it.

Sorry for being a little bit head on, but I am kind of not sure how to address my speech as of the moment. I actually wanted to submit this build into the contest.

So, since I have already played this build for like almost 5 months now, I can gladly say it has the potential to overcome Pistol attacks and Staff enemies. I have beaten the Blackwater Build with this one and have proceeded to beat the Osicat’s condition cat build, too. They are both amazing builds, so it was an honor to be able to duel them.

You seem to repeat your claims in every thread. Multiple instances of you making claims about your build vs another (popular) build.

My main contention is this, it doesn’t matter that you beat other builds with your builds. How well you perform speaks for your skill and not the quality of the build per se.

Although I may run into a number of mesmers in WvW, this is not ‘Mesmer wars’.

There are other classes I have to deal with in WvW other than the Mesmer.

Unless maybe you think your build is the best? I think you are of sound enough mind to not presume that much.

PS-No one is going to steal your build. Wait… I take that back. Pyroatheist secretly covets your build….he told me..its sekrat!

PSS-There seems to be a repeating theme.

Celeras.4980:

The entirety of their pressure comes from their blocks, and exploding their clones. And they’re the slowest class in the game.

So again, what exactly is there to kill you if you don’t kill yourself? Staff auto-attacks? You want to say they gave up torch for a weak-shooting duelist too like that makes a difference? You sound like a zergling dying to confusion/retaliation and complaining that it’s OP.

I gather, from Lys’s own comments and your observation, there is one thing that is killing Lys.

Pride.

p.s. @Lys, I think you stopped being rational two pages ago…

@Joe You didn’t offend me, but thank you for being kind anyways.

@Xovian You are right, it is an opinion many share. And that’s why I addressed it.
Do you pat yourself on the back for not using PU?

" I iz more leeter than you nubz cuz I dun uze teh gudz bild! "

I respect your opinion.

Sure he was outsmarting his opponents. But this isn’t an @$$ kissing session. He directly mentions not engaging certain condi heavy classes and how his team mates fill in his holes. I don’t believe that to be false humility.

Besides, my post wasn’t about him :P It was about the ‘leets’ talking ill of a very potent build. I see no dishonor in using a solid build in trying circumstances. Being solo in WvW with zergs and skilled havoc groups roaming around…. skill only takes you so far.

Always find your vids fun to watch.

The anti PU build comments, the ‘cheese’ comments are imo, unneeded.

Although I don’t currently run a pu condi build, it was nice for roaming because when I roam, I don’t have an entourage to fill holes in my build. I need all the escapes and all the tricks I can use.

Being glassy high dps is the surest way to eat the dirt soon and often when constantly outnumbered and not in an organized group.

Qaelyn.7612:

theory.3580:

Press H, double click focus. Press 4. Double click original weapon to re-equip, press H to close window. Takes about 1 second total, that’s what I do.

Even if it were 1 second (doubtful) that’s what, 7% of my play time opening and closing windows to equip gear?

I’d rather go clean the garage.

^This.

theory.3580:

Press H, double click focus. Press 4. Double click original weapon to re-equip, press H to close window. Takes about 1 second total, that’s what I do.

I hate this ^

When you’re in combat, and getting focussed, try getting your weapon back.

Besides, even if you are just trying to get somewhere and there is no threat of combat (completely unrealistic in pve/wvw) there are times when you’re without a speed buff.

Stupid focus speed buff won’t even stack with itself…lame.

^What pyro said.

I read about 4 sentences of that rambling post and had a sinking feeling it went on forever. Scrolled page and yeah…

Annern, are you manic?

Loco.2830:

How about thiefs rune? Im slowly finding the centaur s rune more atractive. I m really gonna have to get lvl 80 and try them out since they are all reasonable cheap. Thank you for your patience.

How do you not need the speed? That completely baffles me. Sure it may not directly help in the fight, well unless your chasing someone down or running away from zergs or larger groups.

It’s great for solo, duo and small groups as it gives everyone else a run buff too.

Can’t help but think maybe you just don’t have that much WvW experience.
Maybe you play a very low pop server?

alanis.6094:

EnderzShadow.2506:

-Coming from Blackwater staff scepter/torch and perplexity runes —--it’s very glassy.

PU conditions is very tanky, but this build is pretty far from glassy, IMHO.

Well…taking a camp solo, while not impossible, it is ridiculous.

My guild like to take on the zerg in a sneaky way. With only one condi removal, it can get dicey quick. Today though, when we were in outnumbered situations, just switched to staff scepter/torch. That helped tremendously.

-Coming from Blackwater staff scepter/torch and perplexity runes —--it’s very glassy.

You said you don’t run this build in groups. What do you run in groups?

If you don’t know what to expect or how you want to play, you will never find a build that works for ‘you’. That’s not my opinion, that’s a fact.

BlueFrog.3261:

is it really ok for every spec other than shatter builds to completely ignore the class mechanic (with the exception being the occasional f4)?

i dont like AI based builds, im not saying they should be completely removed, but their effectiveness is currently way too much to the point where it is overwhelming player skill.

I can’t help but point out, what someone has already said, this sounds like a “QQ” thread. You ignored a generous reply and resupplied the complaint.

Do you play a Mesmer? Or are you having problems in WvW/PvP with mesmers? If its the latter, the community as a whole is gracious and sincere with advice.

Tentacle Love.3412:

And this is with my build which is NOT optimal. So you can only imagine the terrors that other mesmers can unleash upon your poor unfortunate non-mesmer body.

Now, if your battle log is telling you that you didn’t take enough damage to die, that’s probably a bug on the part of the battle log, which might not be able to believe what it’s seeing either.

cracked me up

Nice vids, looks like you had a lot of fun!

Heinel.6548:

Valarauka.2719:

The other difference between toughness and vitality that matters only to mesmers is that illusions inherit your toughness, but NOT your vitality. So adding toughness makes all your images last longer as well.

Carrion may make sense on other classes with a better mix of personal power damage, plenty of crit from traits/etc. (or easier access to fury), and/or non-crit-dependent methods of applying conditions. For mesmers, I don’t really see it; we don’t have regular fury or ‘natural’ crit traits, and condition application without Sharper Images is pretty woeful. The best I can imagine is a Staff/scepter/torch clone-death hybrid build, maybe 10/10/30/20/0 or something.

I tried clone death build. Zergging PvE events with sigil of stamina (refill endurance on kill). Can’t tag. Not worth it.

If they make one of the dissipation traits do some damage or at least consistently applying a damaging condition maybe it works. As it is now? No.

By zerging pve events, do you mean Champ farming in frostgorge??

I occasionally have problems tagging. I guess it just depends on how much health the npc has. Champions aren’t usually a problem.

Really I would like to see Anet implement dual specs like RIFT or WoW.

One for PvE, one for WvW—all at a push of a button and 5 minute cooldown.

Asuka Shikinami.5462:

On a side note, I know the feeling. Friend asked me to teach them how to play mesmer, scheduled for a couple of hours later and in the meantime someone told them carrion was the best set for mesmer… so they came in full carrion exotics without knowing anything about the class… worse they wanted to learn shatter…

^lol…/facepalm

Dietzen.6127:

Pyroatheist.9031:

EnderzShadow.2506:

I’ll make it easy on you guys, I would love to hear

“Enderz, youre crazy, this build is incredible and will only get better with gear.”

“Enderz, you just need more practice.”

And to be fair the above are true.

But, what I want to know, will I always struggle against HIGH DPS builds even with the ‘more practice and better gear’.

Enderz, you just need more practice.

The blackwater build, when played appropriately well (I suppose counting in the tweaks I make when I run it) will never lose in a 1v1 situation to any class other than an ultra high dps phantasm mesmer. That is the single build that can beat it.

As an aside, you generally want to completely disregard anything menace says until it’s independently verified, just a good rule of thumb.

I beat blackwater builds constantly with my 10/30/30 hybrid build, I push out more dmg with everything I got, compared to their conditions. However, I don’t think they were of Natsu’s caliber, but I’ve met some quite good players that I didn’t have any problem beating.
I actually switched to a 10/30/30 hybrid after running the blackwater build, and getting completely smashed by aforementioned hybrid maybe it just suits my playstyle, or maybe it’s better, I can’t say, but it fits my playstyle perfectly.

I realize I came here for help, for answers, and I don’t mean this in a harsh way but…. what you said would matter to me ONLY IF every class in the game was another mesmer.

I think it’s great you beat other BW mesmers. I’m sure you are skilled and it probably does fit your playstyle, and I might even give it a try once I feel completely confident running BW build at its peak (which I am not)

How well you do against other BW mesmer builds is irrelevant…unless that’s just your thing and you enjoy hunting other mesmers lol

But I have to ask, how well do you do against every other class?

Do you think you do better because the build is better or because the build feels more natural to you?

I generally understand why in a Pu Condi build Toughness and Precision are better than Vitality and Power.

But I didn’t understand it well enough to explain it to a guildy who was under the perception that Power and Vitality (carrion) would serve me better.

So the convo went like this,

His idea was “Power = more dmg!!”
And my response was "Where exactly would I get more damage, and I explained a basic rotation (I know its not a rotation in wvw) "

He then said “Well, there is no point having a kittenload of toughness without vitality.”

At this point, I could tell the conversation wasn’t going anywhere.

So I just told I’d make a forum post and beseech the all knowing Veterans
That’s where you guys come in.

What does toughness and precision do for the Condi Pu Build (what some refer to as blackwater)

What would the advantage/disadvantage be of taking Carrion Armor?

keenlam.4753:

EnderzShadow.2506:

about other classes that are glass cannon’ish builds.

OP, my reply is not meant to insult your skill or anything, just want to shed some light on the matter.

In principle, any condition build is a hard counter to glass-cannon build, because:

- they’re built to last for attrition fight with high defensive stats (they are tough and/or healthy with the use of Rabid, Carrion, and/or Dire gear)

- they deal condition dmg which ignores armor whereas GC builds need to crit thru armor and want to finish the fight as soon as they can. Thus the longer the fight gets, the more advantage the condition build gets.

Blackwater build is a really tough build to beat because it has both the passive defense (stats from gear) and active defense (block, stealth, boons, etc.). Decoy and Torch #4 are pretty much your 2 reset buttons when things go bad.

So I find it surprising that you have trouble fighting against bursty builds. My advice is to control the pace of the fight to your advantage by timing your block/disengage skills (bursty builds usually have hard and fast pace but if they lose the momentum, they’re losing the battle overall).

Now about the hybrid builds matter that Menace raised in this thread.
My view is that hybrid builds are not easy to play and master compared to more purist/specialist builds, that means if you encounter someone’s playing a hybrid build well. They must have great skill and they beat u because they outplay you, not because their build is better than Blackwater. Blackwater is a great build and it has been proved over and over many times.

There is no best build in general imo, only builds that best suit your style.

I’m not offended. And thank you for explaining that.

Multiple Bursty DPS specs beat me this last week. It made me think that maybe they were my bane lol. Maybe I should just except that they were my hard counter.

I wanted to know that I wouldn’t regret the time I spent. And I wanted to know what I would expect.

I love you guys. Best community ever. Someone even offered to duel with me to get an idea for what I was doing wrong. In WoW forums they would tell you in no certain order that “You are a waste of life, kitten, QQmoar and gdiaf.”

What a refreshing difference.
Thanks

Thank you for taking all the time to say all that.

So your argument is that a hybrid of the PU build is much better damage.

What I didn’t understand is how you mentioned Torch against a Blackwater PU Build.
The BW Pu Build does use torch as well.

And then I didn’t understand when you said “pointers” as in “tips” —- you gave me no tips and no pointers. You just said that about any class in game that is hybrid will be a tough fight for a BW PU build mesmer. I think thats a bit of a stretch…

I have a better idea, since you seem to be the odd one out in these discussions, why don’t you explain in detail what a typical Blackwater Mesmer would do in a fight and how your “hybrid build” is better. I want to know. I really do.

Better yet, I’d like to hear two of you discuss it! Set it up Pyro!!

Fraps some PvP like YISHS does and explain what your doing.

Pyroatheist.9031:

This question is rather silly.

Theoretically, a flawless thief is not possible to beat, because you won’t be able to do enough damage to them. They will dodge your lock downs, cleanse your immobilizes, and disengage at will.

Theoretically, a flawless mesmer is not possible to beat. They will dodge your lockdowns, block your backstabs, and cleanse your bleed stacks.

I’m really not sure what you’re asking here.

What happens when an unstoppable force meets an immovable object?

That’s really what he’s asking.

Eremoo.2785:

Ross Biddle.2367:

You just gotta build for speed.

http://youtu.be/tffTmVN-zG0

For both chase and escape,
-cripples
-high condi duration
-temporal curtain
-into the void
-high swiftness/boon duration
-long range blink
-lowered cd blink
-Illusionary swap (sword 2)
-Arcane thievery for swiftness denial/gain

Mobility is arguably the single most important thing in the game. So your builds should start first and foremost with it.

I suppose that makes mobility denial the second most important thing.

yes but I do a stealth condition build (PU) because I don’t always run in a group, infact most of my time in WvW im scouting / hiding in bases, so I have to run with a torch..these runes were suppose to cover my speed problem.

Also is it true the trait that grants clones on dodging is getting reworked? I sure hope not, it’s the core of most builds :d

Same here, dont’cha love it when people in effect just say… “CHANGE YOUR WHOLE BUILD AND BAM…EASY FIX!!”

Everyone I have consulted that has either great knowledge of the class or high skill as a mesmer with a PU build, they all swap focus in and out while soloing in WvW.

While running in a small group, it is even less of an issue as someone usually drops some speed.

If you run solo however, I would take blink over some of the other common used utilities in the build. You can do with one less stealth option.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Eremoo.2785:

Also is it true the trait that grants clones on dodging is getting reworked? I sure hope not, it’s the core of most builds :d

Great its going to be another nerf – i expect 10 second cool down at the very least. Maybe make it so that the clones NEVER attack your target. Get stuck in terrain, dont know their own range…

Are you just guessing?

Where is the link?

I want to eventually try a gs build again. But for now, I spent too much money to at least not learn the build and see how it goes.

I guess you could say I am vested.

And what I run doesn’t use any sword or melee. It’s not hard per se or even difficult but it is not very self explanatory.

But hey, that’s why I got you Vets for

/special thanks for in game help Pyro

@Dawdler
I sucked it up and bought most of the gear for the Blackwater Build and played it extensively last night, strictly solo getting into 1v1’s and taking camps.

There are a lot of things I like about it,
-Put out a ton of clones
-Easy to get lost in the mix
-Alot of stealth options keeps me alive because I’m not targeted often
-I was able to elude and frustrate my opponents with ease.

Juno, its funny you mention chasing down a foe in the same breath as GS Izerker.

Because thats one of the things I don’t like about the condi build.
1- Having people run from me and having a tough time catching them

and 2- Getting destroyed by high power specs. Last night had serious trouble vs a GS Mesmer with phantasm…..because I “couldn’t” get away from him. The amount he put out vs my weak gear—-and condi damage made for a one sided fight.

Now I am curious if its possible to take the stealth + torch/scepter with a GS and make it work lol

Dawdler.8521:

EnderzShadow.2506:

And just the opposite with the Power builds, they need to focus on that one person, and if they let off to help a team mate , then they have just effectively wasted their build and the time they put into taking out their opponent.

Well you could easily argue that the condition builds have “wasted” their build if the opponent has condition removal. Pretty much the same thing.

But I agree with you on the riposte style of play that condition builds have. I dont like them either, I find them boring – especially for the Mesmer, given how random condition application is.

What kind of build do you like to play?

Is it something like Pyro mentioned, GS with Phantasms?

Pyroatheist.9031:

Mesmer condition builds in particular, more so than any other class, really do rely on the countering style of play. A lot of your condition pressure revolves around either your clones dying or landing the torment block. It’s definitely not very easy to actually chase someone down in a mesmer condition build.

So instead, you have to play it in such a way that people chase YOU down. I personally like to go zerg tickling, or do a lot of roaming in the ruins, where people are actively trying to kill you. In this situation, you don’t have to worry about getting someone to attack you, that’s already taken care of. Those situations allow you to really maximize the use of the mesmer condition builds.

Your impression of ‘set it and forget it’ for condie builds is pretty incorrect though. The closest any builds comes to that is probably either a phantasm build or a ranger beastmaster build, but not really. You can’t really just load someone up on conditions and hope they die, you have to continually reapply the conditions, keep the pressure up, etc.

Similarly with power builds, focusing on one person then letting up to go help a teammate isn’t wasting their time, it’s simply changing focus. In the greatsword phantasm build, you have a lot of aoe pressure, and that allows you to spread out your focus without really trying too much. In the more offensive version, you have 2 high damaging phantasms, and that allows you to either concentrate both on 1 target, or split your focus between 2 easily and effectively.

I guess I’m just a little unsure of why you think changing targets results in a waste of the time and effort you’ve put in. It’s not like your previous target is able to instantly pop back up to full combat effectiveness. If you took chunks out of their hp, they’re either forced to back off and heal, burn cooldowns, or enter into a fight while severely vulnerable.

^That’s true. I guess I said that because I’ve seen not just in this mmo but in others, where if you lay off of someone, takes no time at all and they are back up to full health, just as big a threat as they were when they started. But you’re right, at the very least they are either putting themselves at a disadvantage fighting you or entering the fight after burning cooldowns.

Pyroatheist.9031:

EnderzShadow.2506:

Question is simple, if I go for a mainly "ranged’ (greatsword) build, am I gimping myself?

Are mesmers meant for up close and dirty melee fights?

It feels contrary to how I want to play the class…like I am using a screwdriver like a hammer.

Mesmers can play ranged pretty effectively, as well as getting up close and personal. Fortunately, you can do both in the same build.

Greatsword is a fantastic weapon for wvw fighting. It allows you to have strong power damage from long range. There’s a number of different builds you can use though, and your best choice will depend on what type of fighting you would like to do.

You mentioned that you want to run small groups and roaming. Greatsword is a strong choice for small group play. In roaming situations though, it’ll be a bit less optimal. The reason for this is greatsword has strong offense, but limited options for defense. The greatsword really excels when you can stay a little bit out of the fight and just let your phantasms and ranged damage tear people apart. In a small fight, you’ll also probably want to have a sword/focus as your swapped set. This allows you to have aoe disruption as well as retaining the ability to skirmish well.

Once you drop your small group and go solo roaming, you’ll want to change your setup a little bit. You have a few options for solo roaming. You could toss on a staff for the strongest defense option, or you could go more for a high offense build that I prefer: sword/pistol +scepter/sword. Either way, you’ll lose some group fight ability, but drastically increase your 1v1 effectiveness.

The traits I recommend are either 10/30/0/30/0 or 20/20/0/30/0. Both of these options are phantasm specs and will do well. The 10/30 build is more optimized for the roaming route, and the 20/20 is more optimized for the greatsword and small group fights.

First I want to say, what a great community and thank you for the replies.

Because of the build that was mentioned by seventh and an ensuing conversation about the Blackwater build that included you (Pyro) and a few others in another thread, I decided to try it out.

The build being 20/20/30/0/0
Scepter/Torch Staff
Rabid Gear with Runes of Perplexity

The gear I have isn’t all exotic, just playing in green gear, rare weapons and exotic runes to get a feel for how the build plays before I commit to buying expensive gear.

The first thing I notice, is the feeling that I have repeatedly had anytime I take a condition build,

….how do I say this, they feel like ‘counterpunching’. They don’t feel very offensively inclined. They are not aggressive. My first reaction is to go after people. My natural inclination is to not not go after people halfheartedly, drop a couple clones and “react” by blocking or interrupting ….bleh.

I want to go after them, put a boot in their @$$, and then run/stealth/kite, to be able to reopen on them. Or stun them and reopen. (almost sounds like a thief)

And here is where I feel conflicted…. please correct me if I am wrong. But condi builds can set it and forget it—-and that makes for a little extra time, and not having to constantly focus on burning their target down, they can play more creatively and help the group.

And just the opposite with the Power builds, they need to focus on that one person, and if they let off to help a team mate , then they have just effectively wasted their build and the time they put into taking out their opponent.

Would love to hear your opinion on this Pyro as well as anyone else who wants to chip in.

I came to the mistaken conclusion because so many pvp videos, Ossicat builds…none had greatsword.

Thank you for the suggestions everyone

I was looking at builds tonight, and your’s looks intriguing. I can’t find rabid gear at all though.

/edit Figured it out. What you call Rabid gear could have all kind of names…grrr

Nope, didn’t want to zerg. Small groups—roaming.
lol..wrong class for that?

Question is simple, if I go for a mainly "ranged’ (greatsword) build, am I gimping myself?

Are mesmers meant for up close and dirty melee fights?

It feels contrary to how I want to play the class…like I am using a screwdriver like a hammer.

Sanduskel.1850:

I’ve never had a problem dealing with a warrior on my thief.

Nobody said anything about Warriors being OP or even 1v1ing warriors…

Never said I didn’t want to get better, reading comprehension for the win.

Let’s be honest, this is a video game. We sit on our kitten and stare at a screen.
Playing this game is lazy.

I want to play a spec that will help me become acquainted with the thief while being semi successful. In time I would like to switch to a more demanding spec.

Zepi I didn’t $hi* on your idea, you tw@t. I don’t have anything against using a better mouse with more buttons.

I DO Not have a 80 thief. I was curious how the high the skill cap is.
I wan’t to be realistic. The mmo’s I have played as a stealth class have had perma stealth. I want to roam in WvW.

Taking into consideration ^^all that, I was considering between a Thief and a Ranger.

Thanks for the replies.

Black Cat.1024:

infantrydiv.1620:

EnderzShadow.2506:

I am not a great keybinder. I do not have the fastest reactions. Realizing those weaknesses, If I don’t have fast reactions and know my keybinds in a blink, am I going to completely suck on this class in WvW?

I know everyone likes to spout how pro they are. I don’t care really. I want to get honest opinions before I invest a lot of time into a new class—namely the thief.

2nd question, are there more forgiving and easier to play builds? I ask because I see posts like Jumpers, and how he has a build he reccomends, but people comment how high the skill cap is.

I’m thinking, maybe I can start easy and learn the simpler builds and go from there.

What do you guys think?

Thanks for your help in advance.

I’m pretty average. Thief requires faster reaction times than a lot of other classes. If you are talking about WvW roaming, then thief can wreck people whose builds are not meant for fighting alone or in small fights. However you will have to spend a lot of time practicing to fight against other roamers efficiently.

If you want to try out thief, I’d recommend starting out with Bemeric1’s stealth based Dagger/Pistol build for WvW roaming.

+1
His build definitely is a good way to start, lots of survivability with stealth, AOE blind and daze. It’s also pretty tanky with 30 toughness and 20 vit.
It also gives you a second to think what to do, or run away.
Here’s his vid – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRcTKt47ixk

Gotta love yishis. Wish he would explain just a little more. That’s video five and in six he goes back to a previous build. I’m new so understanding why he bounces between builds….well confuses the f *&%^ out of me.

I guess Ill just try both and see what plays smoother.

Since there is a bit of a misconception regarding my post, let me rephrase my questions.

How high is the skill cap on a thief?

If I wanted to grow in skill, what would a starter build look like and once I felt competent what would you try after that?

My goal in playing the thief is roaming in WvW. Small fights. 1v1 1v2, picking off stragglers.

Namely I just want to bullkitten aruond and have a good time doing it. Getting a group together in my opinion is a pain in the @ss and I don’t always have the time.

Aw ok

After you typed that I found this saying the same, “The boost increases bonus crafting experience, but does not affect experience towards leveling. In other words, you use fewer materials in order to gain crafting ranks.” —-bah who knew.

Thanks…

Of course not, but I have seen food that gives buffs like 50 percent xp for crafting, so while 2 crafts wouldn’t necessarily get you to 80, but maybe 4 or 5 would.

I don’t know. It’s why I am asking.

Have any of you used food buffs to gain better crafting experience?

How much has that effected how many crafts it has taken to get to 80?

(Yes I am resurrecting a thread, don’t cry about it. I haven’t seen this many posts about this subject.)

Having read other threads that are contradictory to the claims that stun locking “isn’t” possible I am rezzing this thread to find out what you guys think. I am not nearly as experienced as you are, that’s why I am asking. Thank you for the help. (ps- I realize this isnt a WoW rogue, I am just curious to what degree you could build a Rogue knockoff)

This is the thread in question http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/63583-stunlockbuild-i-encountered-today/

and here are some of the more relevant posts

I’m guessing they are using “panic strike” (immobilise for 4 secs when hiting target under 50%) plus infiltrators strike coupled with the 30% condition duration from Deadly Arts+condition durations from runes. Immobilise stacks in duration so off top of my head you could be immobilised for up to 6.5 secs??) Are they opening with a hefty backstab to get you around the 50% health mark? I’m assuming they are using basilisk and devourer venom too.

I’m not sure what they are using to burst you down with after that – are they switching to S/P pistol whip (plus haste) or D/D heartseeker afterwards (assassins signet plus sigil of intelligence)? Check your death log (print screen) and combat log to find out what is causing the damage – might be able to work backwards to figure things out.

pen with infiltrators strike (1 1/4s immobilize) Then pop quickness and devourers venom. There’s another s immobilize. Use pistolwhip repeatedly cause little 1/2/s immobilizes on each attack. And finally Panic Strike in grandmaster Deadly Arts for the 4 second immobilize to foes under 50% HP. There’s 7+ seconds of immobilize. You’re dead if you cant break it period lol. Because of the deadly arts traits you are also poisioned weakened and taking +10% damage if they throw a steal at your first. You could also have needle trap handy so if they break your initial immobilize you just pop a needle trap and they are locked again

**I’m using a superior sigil of ice to chill on crit. It’s very handy when using pistol whip because enemies can’t escape that easily. My build is not centered around ganking once in a while so i’m not using a stunlock build or something similar. I haven’t encountered a stunlock build yet but it can defy be made with the tools that a thief has. Scary stuff!

I would love to see a pvp vid of how it all comes together

….ok I am new so what is the deal with changing “G. .i. .m.. .p. .e. .d.” to kitten?

Is that word offensive some how?

Don’t get me wrong, I love high dps. But glass cannons without utility are kitten imo. And I wouldn’t mind pitching in to help the group if I choose.

I think you are right, I think it is the class for me.

ty

I recently started playing, and I don’t have as much time to play as I would like, so I am trying to narrow down my class choices before I invest.

In DAOC I played a Sorcerer
WoW -mage, rogue and lock

I love stealth, crowd control and utility—-doing decent damage is always nice.

From the videos I have watched, Mesmers seem to do solid damage, have great utility, blink like a mage, stealth like a rogue and have a bunch of other tricks depending on the build.

From your experience, do you think the above is a fair description?

Are they valuable in groups in WvW?

Thanks for the help