Guild Wars 2

I’m a devoted condition specced Mesmer, but recently I’ve been thinking of rolling another class. Especially if they nerf confusion into the ground. Would Necro be a good fit for me? I love applying condition damage, I mostly WvW, and I do like dead things. For those Necros who know the Mesmer, are there similarities to the two classes in terms of play style? Will my knowledge of Mesmer tactics transfer over or is Necro a whole new bag of beans? I know Illusions & Minions have a similarity… Lastly, are you pleased with being a Necro in WvW? Do you feel useful and effective there? Do you feel like you are a valuable asset to your group? Thanks!

Gotta say I’m nervous about this. As players, we work hard for our gear with both PVE and WvW in mind. Some of us have done a lot of research about what runes, trinkets, etc to use and farm with the entire game in mind.. Are we gonna find out that all the gear we grinded for is now obsolete or ineffective when we transition from PVE to WvW? Will we now need two sets of gear? One for WvW and one for PVE? There’s so much that could go wrong. Whole classes could get swept under the bus in WvW but shine in PVE. It’ll also ruin the “training period” that occers when leveling. I want my character to be the same everywhere. Are we gonna have to re-trait everytime we enter WvW? The game is working great IMO. No need to seperate and fiddle with something that works extremely well (whiners aside). I hope Anet shows restraint. What WvW really needs is better armor rewards / designs to spend badges on.

Thrashbarg.9820:

People keep talking about one mesmer stacking confusion, as if any fights in WvW (that matter anyway) are 1v1.

How many stacks of confusion can you get by having several rangers with quickness and piercing arrows trait, thieves with dual pistol unload, rifle warriors with piercing trait, and every other projectile finisher in the game firing through ethereal fields?

How many stacks can you get on a group charging through a chokepoint by having 20 mesmers all drop every glamour field they have in a 100 meter line?

How many confusion stacks can you get by having 20 necros pop epidemic?

WvW ain’t about me vs. you, or him vs. her, it’s us vs. them. vs. them others.

So let me get this straight. One class, mesmers (and a bit of eng) should be punished because of the combined effect of every class working in conjunction, using teamwork? That makes zero sense. The game is balanced by 1v1. That’s how they do it. Everything you’ve mentioned is just smart playing. I don’t care what skills or class you’re using, taking advantage of choke points is just smart strategy. It will ALWAYS be dangerous to charge into a heavily defended choke point, confusion or no. Every class has synergies with combo fields. An elementalist drops down fire combo fields and rangers fire through that. Now everyone has burning, the condition with the highest damage output. Should we nerf burning? Should all synergy between classes be eliminated? I can’t speak for other servers, but this “epidemic of mesmers” is a myth. In fact confusion mesmers are fairly rare on my server. I run into another and it’s like spotting a long lost buddy. In fact I’m often the only mesmer period in a zerg and people look to me to port and TW etc. What I see a ton of in WvW are guardians, elementalists, and warriors. Plus, as a condition specced mesmer I’ve already made a huge sacrifice on survivability. If I’m caught in 1v1 or 1v2 or 1v3 it’s struggle to survive. Nerfed even more and it won’t be viable period.

Thrashbarg.9820:

If the counter to something is just to not attack (or even dodge or heal) then it’s not a fun mechanic for anyone in the long run.

This is the real gripe people have with confusion. Not that it’s OP, not that it does too much damage, not that it doesn’t fit in WvW, none of that. The real complaint (which the above poster had the honestly to include) is that confusion INTERRUPTS the “flow” of other classes who get pleasure from cycling through their combos and racking up their numbers without thinking about it. It makes you pull back and think for a second, then react. Other classes don’t want to be interrupted from the button-mashing. They want to just do their thing. I get it, I do. But interrupting your flow and turning your combos against you is what mesmers DO. It’s the core element of our class. We are there to mess with your mind. If you have a gripe with confusion because it’s not fun for you, okay I get it, but no class mechanic should be nerfed because it’s “not fun” for someone else. Immobilization, stuns, and stealth are not fun for me, but the thief class needs them.

As the above poster stated: Power/precision/critical damage specs are much weaker in PvP than in WvW. So why act like it’s ONLY confusion that’s weaker in sPVP? Everything is weaker in sPvP probably in order to make fights last longer in tight, confined spaces. So unless all power/precision/crit dam is going to be reduced in WvW too, I don’t think it’s fair to single out confusion. Second, to your point that it should be nerfed because some players can stack 10 then 8 stacks of confusion. Who are these epic mesmers you speak of? Can any mesmer honestly say it’s doable to instantly stack 18 confusion? Even if I time everything in my arsenal perfectly right and unload every skill I’ve got I can only get up to 6 before I have to wait for a major cool down. And that’s only on a single target. Mostly I hover around 2-3 stacks. And yes, I do know a lot of the mechanics of the class. I’m not the most knowledgable mesmer in the world, but I know a great deal. I think much of the “confusion” about confusion comes from rumors and misinterpretation of what actually killed you. If you’re facing a group of 5 mesmers all tagging you with confusion, yes, yer in trouble. But five elementalists or five warriors and yer in trouble too. And some folks just glance at their condition bar, see 15 stacks and think, how could that one mesmer hit me so hard? There’s a ton of posts on this thread about mesmers able to apply 15 stacks at will on the first hit. I really want to know if this is possible. Hell, I’d like to learn! But all the mesmers I know can’t do this.

CrassBippy.4619:

Entropy.4732:

I beg Anet not to listen to this confusion / mesmer witch hunt. Most of these posts are factually inaccurate and propagated by people who haven’t played a confusion spec . I’ve run OP classes in MMOs before. Mesmer / Confusion is in no way OP. As a warlock in WOW we had a truly OP ability called seed of corruption which would do massive damage if a target tried to remove our conditions. I WISH we had that ability here, but we don’t. A simple condition removal gets rid of our confusion. Boom, it’s gone. Everything we traited for, gone. Plus, and I reiterate, confusion really doesn’t do good damage. Burning is a much more powerful condition. People who get hurt by confusion are getting hurt for 3 reasons: 1.They refuse to carry any condition removal skills or runes or sigils. 2. They don’t look at their condition bar and continue to mindlessly spam attacks. 3. They don’t pay attention to AOE placed around them and stand in the AOE. All of these counters to confusion are EASILY accomplished with even the slightest thought and application. Having a class that forces a mindless Zerg to think a bit and play smart is a brilliant move on Anet’s part. As for myself, when I get hit with confusion it gives me zero worry. I drop Null Field on myself and I’m fine. Or I just wait it out and back off. Easy.

I love how people who run confusion builds instantly cry that very one is a noob hen stating opinions/facts. sorry bud but I Pvp alot, understand all the mechanics and I can still realize certain parts of my class that might be toned down in the future, I don’t cry if they might nerf my class. It’s not a l2 kitten ue, and the people who use the class are the people in this thread not giving ideas/feedback. I’ve played a Mesmer alot too so I understand its mechanics.

Also no, cond removal NEVER reliably removes confusion. Only a remove all, so that’s false to act like people casually remove it with ease

Firstly, what I pride myself on never doing is posting that other classes need to be nerfed. I tend to accept the game as is. I never post about how this class or the other is in need of the developers stepping in and weakening it’s core mechanic. To me that seems like true “crying”. As opposed to defending a class you love. That’s loyalty. Second, no one ever said skills that remove a single condition should be able to solve all your problems. Naturally a full condition remove is in order. And most classes have a full remove. Or you could always NOT ATTACK. Lastly, keep in mind that this is a DOT. Why is it that when an ele does 25K direct damage in 2 seconds that’s not considered O.P. But when I, as a condition mesmer, manage to do a measly 2K over 3 minutes we deserve a nerf? I accept that elementalists excel at direct damage. I don’t want a nerf to elementalists or any other class. If confusion is so OP, why is it that I never die of it ever when anyone tosses it on me?

I beg Anet not to listen to this confusion / mesmer witch hunt. Most of these posts are factually inaccurate and propagated by people who haven’t played a confusion spec . I’ve run OP classes in MMOs before. Mesmer / Confusion is in no way OP. As a warlock in WOW we had a truly OP ability called seed of corruption which would do massive damage if a target tried to remove our conditions. I WISH we had that ability here, but we don’t. A simple condition removal gets rid of our confusion. Boom, it’s gone. Everything we traited for, gone. Plus, and I reiterate, confusion really doesn’t do good damage. Burning is a much more powerful condition. People who get hurt by confusion are getting hurt for 3 reasons: 1.They refuse to carry any condition removal skills or runes or sigils. 2. They don’t look at their condition bar and continue to mindlessly spam attacks. 3. They don’t pay attention to AOE placed around them and stand in the AOE. All of these counters to confusion are EASILY accomplished with even the slightest thought and application. Having a class that forces a mindless Zerg to think a bit and play smart is a brilliant move on Anet’s part. As for myself, when I get hit with confusion it gives me zero worry. I drop Null Field on myself and I’m fine. Or I just wait it out and back off. Easy.

ChesterWing.5321:

hello i’m probably going to transfer to this tier (prob NSP or HoD)

Can anyone explain to me why NSP is red this week, weren’t they second last week or did I miss something? I don’t understand the points or rating system and would actually like to know how it works so I dont transfer to a server and have it move up or down the next week

Come to NSP! We have skritt shinies!

If you really want to see iWarden shine, go with Chaos Maestro build. Giving phantoms fury really helps. Question… I’ve seen some class fire electricity at my iWarden and he spreads it all around him in an awesome effect, shooting electricity around and out everywhere. I guess that’s the “whirl finisher”, but I can’t get confirmation on what other class spells synergies with this and how to make it happen. Anyone know?

I just want to thank Anet from the bottom of my heart for bringing this brilliant game to the Mac. So often us Mac users are unable to play great games because of not owning a PC. The Mac version plays great. Thank you so, much.

EvilSardine.9635:

Confusion damage is completely overpowered right now in WvW and no one can argue against that. There’s a reason why confusion does 50% less damage in PvP and it’s to BALANCE things.

Confusion damage needs to be dropped by 50% so it’s balanced like PvP. The end.

No, no. Not the end. You’re 100% wrong. This is WvW my friend. Not some sideshow like SPVP. This is the main show, and it’s designed for a ton of players. I’ve run OP classes in MMOs before cough warlock cough. Mesmer / Confusion is in no way OP. As a warlock in WOW we had a truly OP ability called seed of corruption which would do massive damage if a target tried to remove our conditions. I WISH we had that ability here, but we don’t. A simple condition removal gets rid of our confusion. Boom, it’s gone. Everything we traited for, gone. Plus, and I reiterate, confusion really doesn’t do good damage. Burning is a much more powerful condition. People who get hurt by confusion are getting hurt for 3 reasons: 1.They refuse to carry any condition removal skills or runes or sigils. 2. They don’t look at their condition bar and continue to mindlessly spam attacks. 3. They don’t pay attention to AOE placed around them and stand in the AOE. All of these counters to confusion are EASILY accomplished with even the slightest thought and application. Having a class that forces a mindless Zerg to think a bit and play smart is a brilliant move on Anet’s part. As for myself, when I get hit with condition it gives me zero worry. I drop Null Field on myself and I’m fine. Or I just wait it out and back off. Easy.

Amins.3710:

95% of the people responding/supporting confusion fall into 1 of 2 catagories:

1) They’re Mesmers
2) They run w/ a Mesmer who does all the killing for them.

Even if this weren’t pure conjecture, by your own logic that means everyone complaining about Mesmers is not a Mesmer (or doesn’t run with Mesmers), has no idea how Mesmers work, what kind of damage output confusion really has, and is simply jumping on the Mesmer witch hunt band wagon so they don’t have to bother looking at their condition bar. Or simply because they don’t like purple butterflies.

Hey there my glorious purple comrades,

I’ve been running Sword/Focus and Staff for ever and I’ve gotten curious about using scepter instead but I find it’s skills awkward and odd. Like the skill that blinds folks in a line? Can’t seem to get beyond the block to get that blind. Nevertheless, I bought a scepter and tried it out a bit. I love the fact that it’s underused. With my condition build it has some interesting potential but I’m still trying to master it on the field. Would love any combo or technique advice / guidance from veteran scepter users! Thanks!

Tallis.5607:

The problem are not mesmers alone, it’s when a mesmer runs with a necro. Together they apply 5 different conditions in the blink of an eye and you can’t clear them all, you just got to be lucky that your 2-3 removals takes out the confusion too. Else, well… else you can only run away.

It’s pure luck, really. If you cleanse confusion, you have a chance to win. If you don’t cleanse confusion, you will probably die.

Aside from that… it’s kinda unreasonable that you got to trait in a certain way just to survive that one class. Imagine if every single class had one type of attack like that, that would make the game unplayable!

So, yes, you can do something about it. But it gives this class a big advantages over other classes. They already have stealth. They already have time warp. They already have decoys. They already have ignore-LOS-destroy skills. They already have on-wall-destroy skills. They already have portals. They already have AOE reflection.

No need to have ANOTHER uber skill, in my opinion.

So basically you want to nerf one class because of the fact that when paired with other classes you don’t like the general effect? That’s like saying, I hate the way guardians can heal warriors so fast that warriors almost never die and can use whirling blades without dying. Nerf guardians. It’s illogical. Plus, the game is designed so that every class is vulnerable to some other class, no matter how you trait. When a thief jumps me in WvW I’m done for. That’s it. In 2 seconds my 21k HP is at zero and I’m dead. I accept that. I don’t go around posting about the thief class needing a nerf. I understand that the thief class is designed to do exactly that, counter soft cloth-wearers like me. I think you just don’t like Mesmers. Each class is designed to fulfill a role on the battlefield. WvW utility, helping our group move around fast, buffing our group, creating misdirection, and debuffing your group is what we do. That’s what we were made for. I can’t hit like a warrior, I can’t down like a thief, I can’t do massive instant damage like an ele, I can’t heal and tank like a guardian. Each class has their strengths and their weaknesses. And you don’t need to re- trait to deal with confusion. Keep a utility slot skill open for a condition removal skill. Every class has em. Pop it when you get confusion. You take 1 tick of confusion damage and you’re cured. End of story.

And this thread should really be moved to the Mesmer forum.

LordByron.8369:

Entropy.4732:

I use confusion as more of a deterrent to zergs…. kind of an anti-zerg spray that doesn’t kill anyone but gets the zerg to back off and calm down a bit. In this regard it’s useful and one of the ONLY counters to the mega-zerg balls that are plaguing WvW. If anything I think confusion needs a buff so I can actually kill a player in 1v2 or 1v3.

You know that is exactly why its OP.

There are 2 cases:
a) you nerf confusion
b) you give other professions antizerg skills

Where even the AoE profession like ele are laughed at with current zerg wars, having 2 professions that can easily do what you said its indeed OP.

Also because all those “stop mashing buttons in WWW” (or try to cleanse) get roflstomped by the opposing zerg so an indirect effect is huge

This is an illogical argument. There are many classes that have anti-Zerg effects. Necromancers have a ton of extremely effective aoe’s they can use at choke points to wreck zergs. As an engineer my traited grenades tossed at range are extremely effective at controlling zergs and unlike confusion, my grenades actually kill players. A well-placed warrior whirling blades skill or thief’s twirl effect (don’t know the name of that skill) can completely destroy the core of a Zerg. Elementalists have the most though, that fire storm thing is insane damage and absolutely destroys siege on walls. Rangers can press one button and apply a ton of arrows and bleeding and crippling at massive range (far better range than any Mesmer abilities) with a great cool down. Very effective against zergs. Guardian reflection wall anyone? And the list goes on. To say no other classes have Zerg deterrents is simply absurd. And most of those attacks are direct damage you can’t do anything about. Don’t attack and confusion does nothing

I’m going to try to answer the OP honestly here as a mesmer who plays a lot of WvW and is running confusion builds and playing around with their effects. Do I laugh? No. Mostly because confusion doesn’t do enough damage for my taste. I’m a fully exotic geared Mesmer with carrion armor, although I still need to get all my trinkets, and I’m always disappointed with the numbers I’m getting on confusion. I love seeing the pretty pink dam numbers pop up, but they are always much, much lower than I expect and confusion never lasts long enough to really significantly drop health on players. Plus most players are savvy to confusion now and simply cleanse conditions or wait it out, backing off.

I use confusion as more of a deterrent to zergs…. kind of an anti-zerg spray that doesn’t kill anyone but gets the zerg to back off and calm down a bit. In this regard it’s useful and one of the ONLY counters to the mega-zerg balls that are plaguing WvW. If anything I think confusion needs a buff so I can actually kill a player in 1v2 or 1v3.

I have a sporting chance in 1v1, but if you trait for confusion you are in big trouble if there are more than 1 players targeting you. Basically you have to get the heck out of there, or port around a bunch and just keep retreating and distracting them till help arrives. Who I do see laughing in WvW are elementalists. Whenever I hear the whoosh of that ball of electricity attack I know I’m dead. Usually in a few seconds. And I have 21K hp. I can only imagine the kind of damage output they have in comparison to my few measly ticks of confusion.

But yes, if dropped right, confusion can affect a bunch of people in a zerg, so it gives you a feeling of having an effect on the battlefield. But it comes at a very high price in smaller fights and survivability. No nerf is needed. Plus the recent TimeWarp nerf really hit mesmers hard where we lived. It used to be one of the best elites in the game. Now I use it as just another etherial field to toss down with a very slight uptick in speed for players. At 50% quickness I sometimes can’t even tell if it’s working.

I think the real reason people don’t like confusion is that it’s tricky. I turns the player against themselves, and that feels sneaky to some players. Wait, I’m hurting myself??? But being sneaky and tricky is what mesmers are all about. Take that away and we got nothing. It’s the aesthetic of our class.

GrandmaFunk.3052:

Another morning of being very impressed with KING.. and suffering horribly at their hands

See what gentleman we are at NSP? The above poster confirms our noble, productive attitude.

SilencedScream.2167:

dank.3680:

They are simply frustrated they couldn’t find ANY small group action coming from SF.

I will reiterate this sentiment.
Despite my multiple posts about boycotting this week, I’ve found it very hard to stay away from WvW (I’ve played -just- WvW for about eight hours this week)… but I’ve yet to have -any- encounter with SF that had less than twenty-five.

Like a post I said earlier – I imagine that a lot of your players have skill; but amidst all the zerging, I’ve yet to be able to confirm this. I’m not looking for a 5HoD vs 1SP fight – but when my group of twelve -only- runs into 25+, skill no longer becomes a factor. It’s all about numbers.

Again (and I’m doing this for all my posts, because I don’t want this to be taken in a bad light), I’m not saying your players aren’t skillful. I’m saying that, because of your numbers, I can’t tell if they are.

I agree with this completely. SF’s tactics of strength by numbers gets boring fast. I’ve played a lot this week, but I gotta say I had much more fun with the GoM, HoD match up. I’m not trying to say SF are bad players, only that their tactics are dull and lead to blob zerg stalemates. GoM and HoD have a more intellectual, strategic approach to WvW, sending off small groups of 5-8 to cap camps, create distractions, hunt yaks, cap NPC’s, etc. With GoM, NSP, & HoD when Hylek or Dredge were up it seemed imperative to grab them because every extra NPC player could be the difference in the smaller, more balanced clashes. Skill use and exact placement of siege seemed to matter much more. With SF, when I notice Hylek up I’m like, “Oh… guess we COULD go cap them although it won’t really matter much.” Plus 5 v 5 fights really allow you to sense a player’s psychological approach to combat. And I do have to say that HoD and GoM rarely camped our spawn points. They always allowed us the ability to defend our keeps. Fighting SF is like fighting a giant slug that lurks on your doorstep and eats your garbage. They are always there, always a massive zerg, always camping spawn. Plus, as this thread proves, I don’t like their general attitude on the forums. Too much bluster, bragging, and trash talk. I look forward to SF’s departure from our tier so we can get back to more balanced and enjoyable WvW.

I think we’ve all seen this coming for awhile. Too long have the mesmer class forums been cluttered with inane posts about how an “inevitable nerf” of some minor aspect of our class is imminent. It’s all malarky. Nothing is inevitable. Mesmer is perfectly balanced. Please stop all this random fear-mongering and rabble-rousing disguised as valid predictions of the future. I call on Anet to nerf all posters who post about inevitable nerfs. Most of them are disgruntled trolls from other classes who want a nerf because they envy the fact that we are the only class who can produce pink butterflies at will. The other half are weary mesmers who have tired of portaling golems around and have nothing better to do. I call on Anet to nerf these threads hard with an across the board reduction in font size so they are almost impossible to read.

Necros are so lucky! I love the relationship the VA has with their minions. We mesmers say nothing when we summon or send our illusions to their shattered deaths.

Dear GoM,

I know we had our spats at times. I know we fought bitterly towards the end there, but we really, REALLY miss you and we’ve been thinking we made a terrible mistake leaving you for SF. At first, Sorrows Furnace seemed like it was everything you weren’t. On our first few dates, SF was super easy to get along with. But after we started going steady, SF turned into a total nightmare to live with. It’s just not working out. SF is, like, totally wrong for us.

Look, we… we might have rushed into things. We regret breaking up with you, GoM. You should move back in with us in T7. SF just doesn’t get us. Last night at 4:00am they camped our spawn point for hours with a massive zerg while they simultaneously hit our keep so we never had a fair chance of defending it. I know we accused you of cheating on us with HoD, but you would never have camped our spawn point like that. Never. You always took our keep fair and square. SF is super insensitive to our needs. They mercilessly taunt us on the forums and mega zerg us constantly. It’s just not the same as it was with you, GoM. No more razor close matches, no more waking up on sundays and going shopping with you at the Skritt farmer’s market for shinies. Sigh. We want you back GoM. I know you’ve got a new tier now and you’re seeing somebody else but I think we should give this relationship another chance. Come back to us GoM. Fight your way out of this T8 mess so we can break up with SF and get back to some fun, sexy, romantic WvW. We miss you.

Love,
NSP

P.S. I found one of your old loot bags in Golanda and it still smells like you.

God I miss GoM. Here’s to hoping SF gets bumped up to T6 and we can get back to playing some balanced WvW with more fairly matched fights and less forum posturing.

It’s coming. The inevitable Opening Poster nerf is coming. The people are crying for justice and their pleas will be answered in one swift, decisive blow. I don’t know how, I don’t know when, but the time of the OP who dispenses unfounded slander against the noble, perfectly balanced Mesmer class will soon be over, and WvW/sPvP alike will rejoice. My only wish is that this attempt at rebuking the ignorance and unproductive ranting of the Opening Poster is over-done, and forum trolls everywhere are nerfed into the ground, transformed into walking bags of shame. Such should be the punishment for taking advantage of a forum that allows pointless QQ posters from other classes to waste the time and energy of the wonderful, difficult-to-play-right, applicable and fun, not at all over-powered Mesmers on their lovely forum. Amen.

Phreak.9356:

I think it actually depends on something else (the combination between Race, Gender and Items texture models) rather than the items themselves. I say this due to the fact that I’ve seen this post written by you Entropy and I, myself, never had this bug and I’m playing this Class at this moment. In any case, take into account the fact that if they change even something small it could have big repercussions on the game as it is (a.k.a new bugs). I’m not defending them at any point, all mature people should take responsibility for their actions, but take into account the fact that they are just a handful of people and we are Legion
Hope it’s fixed soon and happy gaming.

What race/class/gender are you? I’m a Sylvari male. As per your logic of “Don’t fix problems because they could cause other problems” I respectfully disagree. Just because things are working well for you doesn’t that mean the rest of us who’s clones don’t work as a proper decoy shouldn’t want or get a fix. Anet are extremely competent programers. They won’t implement a fix unless it works.

This is the bug forum. It’s our job to post the bugs that really create a problem with the intended class mechanics and this is one of them. Clones are supposed to be an exact replica of our character models. Because of this bug, thieves always spot the real me. They never attack my clones. I’ve died many times because of this bug and paid for it in armor repairs. We deserve a fix. It’s up to Anet to prioritize what’s the most important bugs to fix. I happen to think the checker board shatter bug is worse, and the dev’s have prioritized that, which I think is the right move. But it would be great to get this fixed as well so the mesmer class works as advertised.

Sebrent.3625:

It’s been this way since beta. ArenaNet is aware of it but hasn’t gotten around to fixing it. It’s sort of like how in beta they promised to allow us to put 2 sigils on 2hand weapons so they are equal to wielding two 1hand weapons (which allows you 2 take 2 sigils for that set) … but haven’t done that either.

Gahh… that’s annoying. I really hoped this would be a quick fix in the next update kinda thing. Hopefully they’ll fix our checkerboard shatters AND this in the next patch.

I have the exact same issue. Raising character model details sometimes helps but adds lag. Regardless, it’s annoying.

Anyone else notice this? My clones are not holding my character’s second hand weapon (focus, torch, pistol, sword). Instead they just make a fist. I posted it on the bug forum, but wanted to see if any other mesmers were noticing this issue or if it was just on my end. Makes it really easy to spot the true mesmer in WvW. Hope they fix it soon.

I just got the epic “Chalice of the Gods” focus, which looks amazing. Upon equipping it, I realized to my horror that my clones were not holding the Chalice. Instead, they were simply gripping their fists with nothing in it. Supremely disappointed, I did some tests and discovered that ALL second hand weapons (torch, pistol, focus, sword) do not appear on our clones. Having gone through 80 levels with my Mesmer and having never noticed this before, I can only assume this is a recent bug. Besides the aesthetic issue, this bug poses a very real threat in PvP and WvW. Our clones are supposed to fool enemies. With very obvious and noticeable second hand weapons, like Chalice of the Gods, the real Mesmer stands out like a sore thumb. Any fool would simply say, “Oh, the one with the glowing cup of mist is the true target.” Is anyone else having this issue? Would love a fix. See attached for visual reference.

@ Kard I did read his post. Very carefully. And I’m sorry if my post sounded aggressive. It’s my Italian background. I never said the OP stated he wanted a confusion nerf, he didn’t. I was just pointing out that many times posters who want a nerf often post a “This nerf is inevitable, there is no hope, this is the reality of what will happen” kind of post. Now in reality he may not want a nerf. In which case, don’t post about it. By posting, he’s actually, intentional or not, making an argument for a nerf by stating that confusion is OP as a fact. It’s not a fact. It’s not OP. And it’s dangerous to post stuff like this because it can start rumors that confusion IS OP. I love this class and I don’t want another nerf. Engineers were nerfed into the ground. Mesmers are just right. Let’s leave it alone.

This is complete nonsense. Confusion does NOT need a nerf and neither do glam abilities. I wonder if the OP has ever played a confusion build in WvW? The game was well designed by Anet so if you trait for one area of expertise you get weaker in another. If you trait for confusion you do so at a great expense, namely you are very weak in 1v1 or small group encounters. Thieves and warriors who can cure conditions easily make mincemeat of you most times. Yes, confusion glam builds can be useful in Zerg situations, but only if you nail the placement of your AOE effects AND the Zerg is noobish enough to not clear conditions or hold off spamming abilities. I play WvW constantly and I can tell you that this perfect placement situation happens about two or three times in a three hour game. When it does hit, confusion is useful in pushing back or breaking up zergs, yes. But in killing players? Not so much. If anything confusion needs a buff. Yes, I said it. Running a confusion build is fun until you realize it rarely downs players on it’s own. Even with the right armor, your confusion will tick 800-900 about 3 times on each player before it ends. On a good hit. That’s hardly gonna down anyone. I got 21k HP, and when I get confusion it hardly hurts me. I usually don’t even both waiting it out. I actually re-traited away from confusion because of a lack of survivability and not enough dam output. Burning is a MUCH more powerful condition. Personally, I think the OP has a main for another class and wants a nerf to mesmers in WvW but instead they post about the “inevitable nerf” like they’re against it. As it stands Mesmers are one of the ONLY counters to mindless mega zerg rushes in the game. And not even that effective a counter at that. Especially after the TW nerf, please leave our confusion / glam alone. It’s fine. Rant ends here.

greyblue.4962:

Was sort of funny watching NSP send wave after wave to their death at Aldon’s. I must have gotten a couple hundred NSP kills tonight between the failed golem rush at SM and the hour long defense of Aldon’s. They eventually took it, but a couple people claimed to have gotten 2 rank ups before they did.

I think you got it backwards my friend. I didn’t die once in Aldons while you guys perished in droves. I know HoD is partial to glass cannon builds, but man alive do y’all go down fast. We pushed you back to Rogues four times by my count. It was only cuz we had zero supply and no camps that Aldons fell.

KyoHanakaze.8145:

Entropy.4732:

Fighting HoD is like Night of the Living Dead. Outmanned, we noble NSP few defended Aldons against wave after wave for at least 25 minutes. Like zombies, HoD doesn’t seem to value their lives much. They just toss bodies into our keep’s mortor range, stand on AoE, leave walls alone. I think their philosophy was to tire out our fingers by giving us so many downed players to finish off. I musta killed 40+. Bags EVERYWHERE. Red arrows covering the ground outside Aldons. But they just kept coming, running back to die at the gate. Again and again. Wave after wave. Good times. Eventually the tower fell, but man was it fun. Exactly like a good zombie flick.

Were any of the guilds as follows:
WvW
PHZE
CATZ
HELL
GARD?

Can’t recall.

Fighting HoD is like Night of the Living Dead. Outmanned, we noble NSP few defended Aldons against wave after wave for at least 25 minutes. Like zombies, HoD doesn’t seem to value their lives much. They just toss bodies into our keep’s mortor range, stand on AoE, leave walls alone. I think their philosophy was to tire out our fingers by giving us so many downed players to finish off. I musta killed 40+. Bags EVERYWHERE. Red arrows covering the ground outside Aldons. But they just kept coming, running back to die at the gate. Again and again. Wave after wave. Good times. Eventually the tower fell, but man was it fun. Exactly like a good zombie flick.

Thanks guys! This is vey helpful.

I love WvW, but I always grit my teeth when the mega zergs clash and I encounter skill lag and my comp can’t render every toon properly. For me, this lag has got way worse since the latest patch. I’ve been fiddling with the settings in order to reduce the lag but haven’t found the sweet spot yet. Any suggestions besides the usual unhelpful response of “Get a better computer noob!”. Much appreciated.

Krash.9486:

Entropy.4732:

I think there needs to be a way that commanders, in addition to having the blue tag, get a few abilities and one of those abilities should be the power to cut off someone from taking supply on their server for a 20 minute time period. This issue happens from time to time where some lunatic or saboteur from another server will purposely spend an hour wasting supply building a bunch of siege and no one can stop them. We just stand around helplessly whispering them to stop as they drain all the supply in SM. Then the other server attacks and takes the point. Sometimes it’s just some fool who doesn’t realize that supply is limited. If the commanders could cut that player off for say 20 minutes to a half hour, that would solve the problem. They could still play, just not carry or take supply.

And then what happens when this or another troll buys a commander tag?

A better solution IMO would be to let the other players be able to vote kick a player out of WvW and have that 20 minutes applied as a buff preventing the player from reentering WvW.

It would have to take a decent amount of votes to avoid abuse, like 10 or more.

For that matter commander tags should be by player vote too and not just go to whoever is willing to spend 100 gold for one. In that case commanders could be given additional power because they could be held in check by the vote.

It could be like Siegerazor event where you need 20 people to all check a box to kick someone or give them a 20 minute “time out”. The problem with this though is that guilds with rivalries could abuse this and kick someone they don’t like or are bullying out for no good reason. Maybe the solution is to have a position higher then commander that IS voted on. And there would only be three per server. High Commander or something. These high commanders would almost be liaisons to Anet and only THEY could cut the troll off of supply or kick them. A RED square. I think the blue tag should remain a purchase, but red wold be voted on.

I think there needs to be a way that commanders, in addition to having the blue tag, get a few abilities and one of those abilities should be the power to cut off someone from taking supply on their server for a 20 minute time period. This issue happens from time to time where some lunatic or saboteur from another server will purposely spend an hour wasting supply building a bunch of siege and no one can stop them. We just stand around helplessly whispering them to stop as they drain all the supply in SM. Then the other server attacks and takes the point. Sometimes it’s just some fool who doesn’t realize that supply is limited. If the commanders could cut that player off for say 20 minutes to a half hour, that would solve the problem. They could still play, just not carry or take supply.

Great posts! Sometimes my Sylvari’s english accent gets a bit wonky in a hilarious way. Most of the time he maintains a slight upper class brit accent, but on certain lines it shifts. For example, when he gets retaliation and says “Hit me! I dare you…” he sounds a bit like Kennedy. Then, recently, out of nowhere I took a camp in WvW and heard him say “That’s done” in a thick, irish accent. It was very startling and hilarious.

I posted about this in the bug forum because it started happening to a ton of people for the first time after the recent patch. Ive logged hundreds of hours since launch and never noticed it even once until the latest patch. It doesn’t happen to everyone, but it’s been happening to a lot of people. Most likely it has to do with the way a new set of code is reacting with a specific graphics card type. Thankfully Anet mods posted twice on the bug thread and have assured us they found the problem and it will be fixed in the next patch. Go Anet!

ErionHashimoto.3015:

Well, good for HoD with all the transfers. You guys are doing great now. And I wasn’t there, but sorry NSP for the lack of sportsmanship with the double-teaming spawn camp. ..

I want to thank this noble gommie for his kind, righteous words. It’s gommies like this who will save the honor of WvW. We at NSP value good sportsman, krait sandwiches, skritt shinnies, and a fair fight. Let’s all work this week to keep the fights clean and honest. Victory is far sweeter when you win playing fair and square.

I do think there should be simple rewards for smaller groups. Like, the less people you flip a camp with, the better loot is dropped. Something simple like that. There should be better rewards for upgrading keeps too.

C

Best server ever. Great people. Great WvW. Valient commanders. Join us!

titanlectro.5029:

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Every server gets double teamed!

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NSP and HoD have double teamed GoM. GoM and NSP have double teamed HoD. GoM and HoD have double teamed NSP. If you cannot remember all of this happening, then you either don’t pay attention or your memory sucks.

The difference between a wining team and a losing team is this: How do you handle being double teamed?

I understand that it sucks when you cannot win because you are being double teamed. You can come to the forums and yell at people for their “shameful” actions. Or you can fight to the last man to slow them down. The double team will shift again soon enough.

Completely disagree. My lovely and noble server NSP is not upset because we were accidentally double teamed. That happens from time to time naturally. We’re rightly outraged because this was a PLANNED double-team where GoM and HoD commanders were specifically telling their troops NOT to attack each other, where GoM and HoD where HANGING OUT next to each other and camping our spawn point. Not only is this completely unethical and dishonorable, it also breaks the game’s intentions for WvW. I used to think GoM and HoD were decent servers with good people. It was a relief not to fight AR. But now? I’ve lost all respect for GoM and HoD. Here at NSP we value a good clean fight. Our commanders would never do anything so low. I call on those decent, honorable players in HoD and GoM, of which I know there are many, to speak out against this kind of behavior in your player base. You can still save your reputations by getting it together and playing the game as it was intended. It’s up to the good, honest commanders on GoM and HoD to make sure this doesn’t happen again or the stain of this knavish dishonor will follow you around through whatever tiers you’re in.

This attached pic was when I logged on last night and saw the shameful situation.

C’mon HoD & GoM, go attack each other for a bit. Some of us have to work and spend time with our families. We can’t defend our keep from both sides all kitten day while both your territories in EB go untouched for hours and hours and hours on end. We’ll be on later tonight after we’re suitably drunk. You can double team us then. —Sincerely NSP

Jason King.2647:

Thank you for the information, everyone! We believe we’ve found the issue and are looking to implement a fix in an upcoming update.

Amazing! You guys rock! Thank you so much for addressing this.

Seresh.8045:

when you’re walking home from the shops with your wife and find yourself circle strafing her and watching out for incoming trying to gank your supply yak.

also….when you refer to your wife as your supply yak….that didn’t end well

Hilarious.

….when you accidentally text your friends “Dredge up”.

Jason King.2647:

Thanks for adding the screenshot!

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like everyone is having this problem, so it may be something caused by graphics settings or hardware. If you are having this problem, please provide a screenshot of your graphics settings and a DxDiag report so that we can try and find out what the common cause might be.

Thank you so much for responding. Much appreciated. I love the mesmer and this bug really destroys the immersion. If you can fix it that would be amazing. As others on this thread have stated, I’ve played hundreds of hours since launch with the exact same computer on the exact same settings and never seen this problem ever. After the most recent patch the checker board of death appeared out of nowhere. Thanks for giving this a look. Maybe it’s not happening to everyone, but clearly it’s enough of the player base that it’s an issue.

Processor is 2.2 GHz, 4 cores, 4gb of memory Intel Core i7
Graphics Card: AMD Radeon HD 6750M (ATI)

I’ve also included my graphics settings below:

Okay… I just want to say that the Dungeon Armor designs are absolutely AMAZING in this game. TA especially is truly lovely and artistic. What I don’t get is why Anet can’t add more great skins like that for WvW? Is it really that hard to design a few more original armor sets for the game? A lot of my friends are graphic designers and they could dash off an epic armor set in 10 minutes. I’m sure it takes a lot longer to actually program and design the thing on a computer, but still. I can’t imagine it’s as hard as fixing culling of writing / programing the living story. I think it would have really upped player enthusiasm in general to add new skins. If they were worried about drawing attention away from the great dungeon sets, all they had to do was add a few more for the dungeons too, or make the WvW skins not AS spectacular as the dungeon sets. But to recycle the same old same old is really odd. Anet should understand what players want: More original, amazing skins for weapons and armor. Every single player wants that way more then ranks in WvW.

Totally agree. Please get rid of those titles, or at least allow them to be turned off.