Guild Wars 2

Iavra.8510:

No, it won’t. There just wouldn’t be an invuln shatter anymore. It would however, give Stability/Regen with BD and Reflect with MoF.

So because Elementalist, Necromancer, and Guardian all retain all retain their skills flavors (that is to say, Elements are still elements and can now be overloaded in addition to their normal thing; virtues are still virtues, but their actives are now AoE oriented by default; and Reaper’s Shroud becomes a more melee power oriented version of Death Shroud), F4 will switch from being a defensive trait to an offensive trait.

Seems legit.

I hope you guys realize that by “replacing F4 with F5” you’re not actually going to replace F4 with F5. The way they’ve done the “overlapping of skills” is by slapping another effect onto the skill and retaining some/most of the base skill.

This means that now our CS will also give us (and maybe the Rift) invulnerability for each illusion shattered. Do you really want that?

Iavra.8510:

I know they said it, but i don’t think it should be this way. F5 is something you get for free, no matter what build you are playing. They should instead make the new wells more powerful and give a reason to take them over Blink/Decoy.

No matter what build you play… with a specific traitline.

Just like how Guardians get updated Virtues no matter what build they play… with a specific traitline.

Or Reapers and their Shroud, and Tempest with their Overloads.

Oh I forgot to bring that up. I knew it was long, but I actually thought it was 3s not 2.25s.

IIRC, from the dev video, they wanted it to be punishing if you were playing super safe with it.

I run Fractal 50s only and I do Arah, but only 1 and 2 since 3 is a waste of time for the gold reward, imo, and 4 most PUGs take too long. I also do CM because I’ve been lazily trying to get the trinket.

I never said they’re superior, I just said they have more reflects and their reflects are superior.

Also, I only run in PUGs. It makes things more fun and I can watch Netflix without getting called out, thank you very much.

Okay okay, let’s give IR an ICD per Phantasm. Oh wait, that’s a buff… oh well, let’s do it anyways!

Iavra.8510:

Using the number of new weapon skills as an argument makes actually no sense at all, since you are not losing your old weapons which are perfectly fine. In case of reaper, the GS is even entirely useless and might as well not exist.

It kind of does make sense, because you can only equip the weapon if you equip the elite spec.

apharma.3741:

Sorry but outside of portal and possibly TW mesmer is just not needed in anything but casual runs in PvE.

Even Lupi where mesmers had the advantage in reflecting it can be simply burnt down using slow to bug out the attacks so he never phases before dying.

Listen to yourself man. Mesmers aren’t needed because you can just use slow to bug fights like Lupi.

I’m glad you’re stuck in your high end wr speedrun meta, but there are more than 15 people that play PvE.

Spleen.7836:

Chronomancer got an offhand, so less new skills, that’s probably one of the reason we got a new skill elsewhere. Otherwise mesmers could argue 3 of the skills from guardian longbow should only replace an existing skills they have.

Weeeeeell… discounting heal/utilities/elite since everyone gets 1/4/1.

Elementalist get 2×4 + 4 skills. Warhorn offers 2 offhand skills for each Element. Tempest inherently get their overload skills which is 4.

Guardian get 5 skills + 3 “half” skills. Longbow offers 5 skills, kitten . Each of the F skills get an update, which is both an addition yet not a net gain on skills (compared to overloading).

Reaper gets 5 skills + 5 “half” skills. Greatsword offers 5 skills. F skill gets full revamp, similar to Guardian.

Chronomancer gets 2 + 1 skills. Shield grants 2 offhand skills. CS is a full blown new skill, slightly moreso than overloading.

Druid gains 5 + X skills. Staff is a two handed weapon, thereby granting 5 weapon skills. We don’t know what else they gain.

Soooooo… Elementalist gets the most skills. Reaper has the second most updates, followed by Guardians. Chronomancer gets the least amount of skills in any comparison thus far (even if you count Chrono wearing a Shield compared to other professions not wearing their new weapon) bar the “half” skills not counting as net gain of skills.

Horus.9685:

O.o who would take master of concecration over uc?

Thanks for making me realize I’m arguing with a brick wall that’s basically doing what everybody who screams Mes is op because we can insert something unrelated to being op here but instead of Mes it’s “guard can reflect better” because insert things unrelated to having more reflection.

Harpies, reflects are better due to them only having projectile attacks. If you’re talking about the knockback attack, then yes, specifically that one attack of theirs, it doesn’t matter if you reflect or block/absorb it.

Cat Golems will not all die in the time it takes to do 1 WoR and SoA. TC, Wardens, and FB will all help nullify the triple agony shots which are brutal. Additionally, dropping a TW once you fight all the Golems at once is significantly helpful due to them all being slowed.

Legendary Shaman, you want to have reflects here. Why? You can reflect his Flame Arrow which puts the Burning Shield onto him, causing him to take ticks of damage + burn. Additionally, dropping a FB on him as soon as he enters Rock form allows the team to take out his Rock without getting hit by the Grubs. You can also save FB for the Grubs specifically to clear them while leaving the Shaman at range. Wardens are fantastic for clearing Grubs.

Before he becomes an elemental, you can use either Reflects or Absorbs to block his Fire Bolt. If your team is ranging, an option is to drop a Warden on an Effigy and stand near it while the Warden is spinning. You might say: “well, you’re losing DPS” and my answer is, how many Phants will survive in this phase? Leaving one Phant to dance around an effigy is the same as having any other phant get cleaved (or, in the case of Duelists, crushed by the ceiling).

Dredge fractal, TC and FB are both extremely useful. If the enemies are clumped (or you’re stacking them), you can use TC very well. If not, you use TC to clump them and use FB. Either way, TC is just as effective as WoR (with the same uptime, woo) since no projectile will go over TC.

Your point of Mesmers losing DPS because Phantasms are dying has nothing to do with Reflects.

Some other fractals where you can reflect: Ascalonian in Urban Battlegrounds (FGS1 vs FB). Aetherblade reduces ranged damage taken against trash (derp) and against the “boss”, you can use it to reflect the pull attacks. Thaumanova has a plethora variety of mobs, allowing Reflects to be usable against most portal groups. Underground Facility has a ton of portions where Reflects are extremely useful. Since the group (and enemies) are usually split, FB is much more useful than WoR here. Also, if you TC enemies into walls at the drill segment (or even initial portion), you can follow up with a Warden against any enemy that uses projectiles.

Boss Fractals:

Mai Trinn: Use FB to prevent her from moving if she’s standing on the zap field. WoR, TC, and Wardens are all usable here as well. Projectile destruction also works, meaning untraited Wardens are also viable (as is simply blocking with OH Sword, MH Scepter, or Shield).

Molten Boss: FB will significantly lower the damage taken from the Molten Duo. If your team is capable of doing the fast strat, the Berserker will die in the duration of one or two reflects, so the difference between a Mesmer and Guardian is negligible. If you can’t do the fast strat, Mesmer has good reflection uptime, although the bossfight becomes a cluster kitten making any reflection strategy simply personal perseverance although Mesmer, still, has better reflection uptime (and also better ranged DPS).

Also, do people actually run illusion over inspiration in pve? 9/10 times I’m running Dom/Duel/Insp for a mix of damage and utility.

circuitnerd.5863:

Well what doesn’t make sense to me is why you’re given 2 opportunities to create a phantasm by either blocking, which spawns it sooner, or waiting till the skill ends which creates it later.

You don’t choose to block, by the by, it either happens or doesn’t. The point of the skill is to intentionally be in a position to get hit and reduce the cast time to lower than that of a normal Phant summon, or just deal with the ridiculous “cast time”.

Basically, since every weapon set has a Phantasm tied to it (offhand or 2h), the Shields is also a block. Having a 1s block skill is extremely high skill floor and since it’s the first elite spec, ANet probably doesn’t want to make it difficult to use. The reason why I bring up 1s is because that’s the time it takes to cast a Phantasm.

The only way I can see this “pleasing everybody” is by giving it a “cancel skill” similar to almost all other blocks in the game, where you can instantly summon the Phantasm. This skill would either not have a cast time AND only be available after 1s of blocking, or have a 1s cast time and be usable instantly.

Tl;dr: It’s a block. That’s how blocks do.

Rampagers is a contestant for hybrid due to Precision being such a useful stat in both Condie and Power builds.

And Pyro is right, you don’t need the bonus from Assassin’s. I’m sitting at 80% with food/nourish and now that Mesmers have self fury, I have 100% crit chance. Danger Time is just going to be overkill.

I dunno about everyone else but I’m always running 3/3/1 although the staff trait is weird.

I like Chaos line, but I tend to go for CI…

I like it on Mesmer when it’s traited.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Esplen.3940:

Uhhh… even without Wardens we have higher reflect uptime…

WoR: 40s CD, 10s D untraited. 25% uptime
32s CD, 12s D traited. 37.5% uptime

FB: 32s CD, 6s D untraited. 18.75% uptime
32s CD, 8s D traited. 25%

FB x Mimic = 38s CD, 12s D untraited. 31.58% uptime
40s CD, 16s D traited. 40% uptime

I don’t know how many times you guys go into Fractals as a Mesmer and don’t bring Mimic Feedback, but I sure as hell do (because we have so many utility skills that are more necessary than those two, right?)

If you’re going to talk about sustained reflects, I went over this in another thread.

But hey, clearly because Wardens can die (and Shield of Avengers), Mesmers are worse. And PvE Mesmers don’t ever run Inspiration (because Focus traiting isn’t a thing in Reflect Wars 2).

Mimic’s on a 72s cd traited. How are you getting it at 40s?

I’m telling you the effective CD of FB. If you want to go over the full cooldown over a 72s period, you just do something like this…

Mimic + FB → Wait 8 Seconds → FB → wait 32s → FB → wait 32s (FB and Mimic are up)
= 24s Reflect in 72s = 0.33% CD (assuming you’re on a boss that takes 72+ seconds to kill).

If you go and tell me: 32 + 32 != 72, then I’ll respond with you have to wait 8s after the first Feedback, which means 32 + 8 + 32 = 72.

And in between you’ll have Temporal Curtain which is 5s on a 20s cooldown, so you can actually do…

Mimic → TC → Wait 5s → FB → Wait 8s → FB → Wait 8s → TC → Wait 20s → TC → Wait 4s → FB → Wait 16s → TC → Wait 11s → Mimic is up now, FB is up in 5s, TC is up in 9s.

Not a true rotation (you’ll have to go a lot longer for it to become that, how many fights require reflects up for that long without being a full reflect fight or the enemy dead?)

Additionally, this does not count Wardens, which can be timed to fill in the non-reflect gaps.

If you argue that TC doesn’t reflect very well if you drop it below the feet of your opponents, try dropping it below the feet of your allies instead, it works much better that way, especially if your opponents are tall (if you fail are not having success at doing this, try dropping it in front of your feet, instead of directly on your feet).

Still want to continue?

Uhhh… even without Wardens we have higher reflect uptime…

WoR: 40s CD, 10s D untraited. 25% uptime
32s CD, 12s D traited. 37.5% uptime

FB: 32s CD, 6s D untraited. 18.75% uptime
32s CD, 8s D traited. 25%

FB x Mimic = 38s CD, 12s D untraited. 31.58% uptime
40s CD, 16s D traited. 40% uptime

I don’t know how many times you guys go into Fractals as a Mesmer and don’t bring Mimic Feedback, but I sure as hell do (because we have so many utility skills that are more necessary than those two, right?)

If you’re going to talk about sustained reflects, I went over this in another thread.

But hey, clearly because Wardens can die (and Shield of Avengers), Mesmers are worse. And PvE Mesmers don’t ever run Inspiration (because Focus traiting isn’t a thing in Reflect Wars 2).

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Dastion.3106:

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Definitely agree with the above notes, as with #5 you can’t hit F5, no clones, and activate a 1s cast skill at the same time, as CS ends before it actually activates.

You have to use CS during the cast of the skill. So long as you use CS just before the skill actually goes on cool down it will be affected. So cast Gravity Well, use CS during the wind-up, and tada, refreshed 1s cast skill.

Yes, I think that was established. I was stating this because CS is 1.5s duration with no clones, and Gravity Well for example is 1s yet it cannot be used together except by doing exactly that, that it has to be used right before it finishes casting.

Are you sure you’re not just waiting too long after using CS?

tobascodagama.2961:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Esplen.3940:

It takes 2 mesmers to permastealth, fyi.

I think I could do it with a chronomancer. I was almost there with The Pledge.

Obligatory reminder that The Pledge is still giving twice as much recharge as it’s supposed to.

More than*

Why are we arguing? These people are playing the legendary 6/6/6/6/6/6 build. Able to spawn phantasms capable of constantly attacking with no cooldown. Clones that override your targeting, making you have to reclick on that pesky mesmer. Every shatter gains mind wrack in addition to their other effects, like applying Confusion, Torment, Might, and Vulnerability. Distortion is always readily available, despite being on a 40s cooldown. Able to use both MI and TW in a single fight. Uses Decoy and Desperate Decoy to bypass Revealed. 100% Slow uptime on enemies with permanent AoE pulsing Alacrity to all allies. Able to both (yes, both) stealth with Torch while spawning Duelist, Berserker, and Swordsman with a single weapon swap (or two). PU for infinite stealth whether or not you’re slotting Mimic… and more, duhhhhhh.

Dastion.3106:

Esplen.3940:

BlackBeard.2873:

Thus every continuum split is a free, pretty large burst for absolutely no cost.

Free damage, sure, but free burst is pushing it. Just mashing buttons because you can might actually lower your DPS (and even burst potential).

He’s referring to insta-cast skills, things you can do while maintaining auto-attack or channeling Blurred Frenzy. If it’s instant cast and you’re NOT using it during a CS then you’ve essentially wasted it. However, given the timing it might be difficult to do so while maintaining your normal DPS without utilizing a keyboard macro.

Of which the only available skills are Shatters (which, again, can drop your DPS if spammed improperly), Feedback, Mantra Charges (which don’t come back), Phase Retreat, Chaos Armor (staff skill), Signet of Midnight, and Portal.

Sure, if you can drop a Shatter without lowering your DPS, that’s fantastic and you should use it. But don’t always drop skills willy nilly (I guess Feedback, SoM, and Chaos Armor can’t hurt).

BlackBeard.2873:

Thus every continuum split is a free, pretty large burst for absolutely no cost.

Free damage, sure, but free burst is pushing it. Just mashing buttons because you can might actually lower your DPS (and even burst potential).

Well yeah, I did the breakdown above and you’re cutting it close (and also just basically casting for 8s in a 10s timeframe).

Items (Runes/Sigils/Food/Nourish) most likely won’t work. I’m quite sure it’s only going to reset things tied to Mesmer, specifically. If Medic’s Feedback works, you can probably also get double iDefender from evade (forgot the trait and too lazy to check atm).

Could you test it with trait ICD likes Medic’s Feedback?

I can’t test it since I don’t have the beta, but numerically you should be able to do it. The entire rotation is kitten , meaning you have 1.5s of backup time for any mistakes. Just make sure you queue up spells properly and try to always be casting (e.g after weapon swapping, press the phant button asap, don’t wait until it appears).

Wait, Pistol5 actually applies the bleed? Wot.

I mean, sure, you’re slowing them but is it really worth it?

Seyiwaji.4082:

Did you even purchase Hot?
do you even play Mesmer?
Do you even read my first post?
Where kitten is this weapon switch coming from?

Gs/S.Shield
2 or 3 illusions f5
Spawn 2 phantasm shattering, Spawn 2 phantasm shattering.

Ok let’s wait 2 more months….. i am off .

Did you even read my breakdown of how this doesn’t actually work?

Ok let’s wait 2 more minutes…. i am off. (and then the next troll post arrives)

Scourge.1563:

Dude your fooling your self if you think its not OP I’m sorry its fun and all but its incredibly Broke.

Umm ok, let’s see what your reasoning is. It sounds like you’ve actually played one because it’s fun and all, so what makes you think it’s OP/broken?

I sat in a fight and was slowed 100% of the time while they have quickness and pop clones out faster then a mother on welfare.

You… sat in a fight… against a Mesmer… and were slowed while they got quickness… :/

So you didn’t actually play Mesmer and you just sat in a (double?) Time Warp while they did Mesmer things to you. Ok. Ok, maybe there’s some actual evidence.

I can not dump the slow so that in its self is broke. so I stand there with my thumb up my kitten and cant do anything.

YES. YOU SAT IN A TIME WARP. TIME WARP.

TIME WARP:
11 PULSES OF 1S QUICKNESS AND SLOW.

CHRONOMANCER: CAN DROP 2 ELITES.

2 TIME WARP:
11 PULSES OF 2S QUICKNESS AND SLOW.

YOU WERE SLOWED.

HE WAS QUICK.

YOU SAT IN A FIGHT.

HE SPAWNED ILLUSIONS.

I don’t get it…?

Its funny that you say that about the Mesmer that its cause no one knows how to fight them yet but I don’t have that problem with the other elite spec’s.

Have you considered pressing one of these keys, they might help you win the fight: WASD. Pick one, any one. And press it. If you want to get fancy, you can toss in a V. Woah. Woah, I’m sorry. It’s pretty far from that 1 key, you might have trouble. I suggest using your index finger to press it.

As for your other point… Ele has a support-oriented elite spec. Necro has a slow elite spec. Guard has a support-ish elite spec (deals damage while supporting).

So of the released elite specs, Necro and Mesmer have damaging elite specs and you’re taking lots of… damage… from them. You not being able to fight a Mesmer does not inherently make them OP. I know if I hop into PvP, I’ll get wrecked by any profession (I can’t really hold my own but I can bring people down with me). Does that make them OP? No. It just means I suck and need to play PvP more or gtfo (which I do, I gtfo of PvP).

this was also not just a few hours of Spvp this was from last night until now. So go ahead and think and justify it in your head but reality is that its broke and needs some toning down.

So you’ve spent from last night until you made that post which is 13 hours without sleeping constantly fighting Mesmers and not learning how to move out of Time Warp.

The only thing you even brought up being OP in that entire rant of yours was Time Warp, which Mesmers have without the elite spec. TW is strong, but it is not OP (unless you’re mixing it with teamplay forcing an entire enemy team to be slowed, immobilized, and punished). You also sat inside of it the entire time. How does that make Chronomancers OP?

Are we talking PvE or PvP efficiency? Phantasms have a 1s cast time, assuming you have the full duration of CS (6s, not 4s or 3s with no clones as people have been putting it), you can theoretically do the shatters you expect.

Spawn 2 Phants → SotE → Spawn 1 Phant | 4 seconds have passed at this point | → F1 → Chronophantasma → F2 | At this point, 4.5 seconds have passed and your opponent still has not reacted to you | → 1.5s left of CS (this area is used whenever you make a mistake or don’t properly queue an ability).

Then you can start the chain from the beginning, meaning you have spent 10 seconds of shattering on your opponent without them reacting with 8s of casting and 1s of shatters (each shatter has a 0.25s global ICD before you can activate another).

Disregarding Phantasm damage, that still isn’t practical unless you’re running a hybrid condi shatter build. Plus you’re setting yourself up to get interrupted, damaged, killed, or basically anything. If any of your Phants get cleaved, the DPS is significantly lowered.

If you’re going for Mind Wracks, it’s more efficient to just single illusion MW twice since you don’t have to worry about prep or illusions being cleaved (dodge over MW, CS ends, dodge over MW).

The only reason I see doing that long chain is if you’re testing “lolopdamagenerfnerf” against a Golem which isn’t going to react to you (aka PvE). If any of the Illusions dies on the way to the Wrack while already being casted, your damage is going to drop lower than doing a single illusion MW.

Lots of casting for little to no return. Even if you wait for the Phants to do their attack animation (which you can’t since you’re on a time budget in CS), it only becomes super high DPS on paper and not actually practical.

Unless, of course, your opponent plays with a handicap, like one hand or 500ms+ latency. Not that a one handed opponent couldn’t whup another player, but if they were stubborn and didn’t decide to adjust the hotkeys and change their setup to accommodate it, they’re probably not going to be able to target you, position properly, and avoid the damage (especially since Duelists and Swordsman will be Wracking at separate times).

Oh right, Duelists and Swordsman will be Wracking at separate times meaning this isn’t a nuke (did I mention you’re also casting for 8s?)

The problem is you’re arguing that Guardians have something more when they don’t. While you might particularly enjoy their reflections more, the original argument/point was the idea that Guardians have more Reflection uptime than Mesmers, which is false.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Esplen.3940:

It takes 2 mesmers to permastealth, fyi.

I think I could do it with a chronomancer. I was almost there with The Pledge.

Chrono/Illu/Chaos, you could probably do it with Mimic Decoy PU and Prestige. I wouldn’t bother with Veil since it doesn’t add much although if you’re good at timing it, go for it.

I’d do the math but I don’t know the exact CDR off Pledge (roughly 5%, but roughly doesn’t quite cut it for theorycrafting and this isn’t something you I’d want to napkin math).

Lunacy Solacio.6514:

Definitely agree with the above notes, as with #5 you can’t hit F5, no clones, and activate a 1s cast skill at the same time, as CS ends before it actually activates.

I’m not part of the beta weekend, but you get 1.5s of CS if you use it with no Illusions. Also, it has no cast time (I assume, since people are using it mid-Frost Arrows) and can be used similarly to a Mantra Charge, thereby allowing you to use it on 1s and even longer spells (just make sure to use it once you’ve started, and not before).

Me Games Ma.8426:

Portal does not “really” work with CS since the cooldown of the portal starts on using portal entree and runs in the background. You can only revert back to that cooldown if you place the portal excount while under the effect of CS

Portal has 2 cooldowns. There’s the innate 72s cooldown that ticks in the background. This one only comes into effect if the Entre expires, putting your portal on a 12s cooldown. If you do cast Exeunte, then the 72s cooldown refreshes itself at 72s and starts ticking again.

That’s why if you use Mimic, you want to use it on the Exeunte, not the Entre (since you do refresh a cooldown, but it’s a dummy cooldown that you won’t benefit from).

It takes 2 mesmers to permastealth, fyi.

I think it’s fine. If you run Sword/Shield, you can give yourself Chaos Armor, which helps if you’re running Staff as backup (Chaotic Dampening).

Other than that, Chaos/Ethereal Fields are kind of niche in their usage and most teammates would prefer Water/Fire/Smoke for blasts.

apharma.3741:

So what does chill do, perhaps it’s worth checking how that works given we can check that at any point in game.

If chill makes a 3s cool down ability take 5s to recharge then we know alacrity should be making a 5 second cool down ability take 3s to recharge.

Assuming you’re chilled forever, 5s cooldown will take 15s to complete.
Assuming you’re Alacrity[ied?] forever, 5s cooldown will take 3s to complete.

Instead of thinking about it as a %, think about it like this:
Every second in Alacrity reduces your CD by 1.66s.
Every second in Chill reduces your CD by 0.33s.
Every second in neither reduces your CD by 1s.

They negate each other but are not actually inverse (because, you know, having 3x shorter CD’s would be kind of ridiculous).

The tl;dr version of what I wrote is:

Server-side, usually things that are counted in certain intervals are always counting. That means 1s intervals are only being checked once per second.

Longer version:

Theoretically this works for anything that has an interval based on duration, but it’s not actually true. For cooldowns (and their interaction with Alacrity) it should check your buff bar whenever it ticks, not in between the ticks. However, it sometimes does not work as intended, as noted with Torch stealthing (ignoring the CDR bug) not always granting the correct amount of intervals.

Note: the terms intervals and ticks are the same, simply meaning when it occurs. I use these interchangeably because I’m used to the term tick (in regards to DoTs, etc) but the game description uses the term intervals.

If you want to talk about things that occur after the fact, Restorative Mantras no longer heals upon immediately finishing the channel, it now waits a set duration (always the same, based on my eyeball math) before healing. Before (the trait revamp), it used to apply the healing as soon as you could use a Charge (aka as soon as it’s charged).

EDIT:
A possible solution is instead of having the interval ticks based globally, set it based on the duration of your boon. I don’t believe there are any sources of Stealth or Alacrity that are given in non-Integer (assuming fractions of a second are not Integers) and there is no way of getting fractions of Stealth/Alacrity. This way, whenever your stealth ticks, it will apply the proper effects.

However this poses a problem, with regards to Alacrity no longer affecting cooldowns until a full second after it is obtained. Additionally, this check will need to be made for every stealth application (unless they’re properly hierarched in code) in regards to Stealth-related traits.

The current system is “fine”, but it does have some quirks relating to these newer interval-based effects. (The problems existed with the old interval-based effects, but it wasn’t as noticeable. For example, as a Thief, do you notice if you lose a condition as soon as you stealth or have to wait for the full interval to lose a condition with the appropriate traits? Usually not, you just kind of stealth and wait for your conditions to get cleansed. There’s a lot of finesse going on that people don’t always pay attention to.)

Xenon.4537:

Are you sure you didn’t have the 33% alacrity duration trait or something? Or maybe the game places alacrity on you a fraction of a second after mind wrack goes on cooldown? It doesn’t sound like there’s different math going on. It sounds like a slight delay due to programming limitations.

The game ‘ticks’ interval recharges on a global-like basis, not a per-case basis. You can test it with Pledge and Prestige. You should have 6 intervals (6s of stealth) with PU, but you sometimes only get 5 intervals. Just count how many times the cooldown “ticks” down (not literally ticks, but you’ll see when it jumps/skips). Ignore the fact that the cooldown is ticking too fast for Pledge’s 1.5% CDR. Just keep dropping it every so often and you’ll see.

So… your point is that Mesmers have less reflect than Guardians, but suddenly because it’s stationary (just like WoR), it’s worse?

Oh, and then you talk about projectile absorb and bring up summons, but Wardens both absorb and reflect (depending on how you want to play it) with 100% uptime.

So Mesmers have more Reflect than Guardian and they have the same Absorb as Guardian (albeit the 100% Reflect/Absorb uptime requires ~20s of setup, during which you can maintain 100% Reflect via Curtain or double Feedback). If you maintain 100% Reflect/Absorb uptime, you’re also bringing significant DPS through both higher Reflect damage, constant DPS through Wardens, and then you can use any ability you desire on top of that.

So while Guardians may be more “mobile” due to lower skill cooldowns (although I’m not sure how a 40s WoR is shorter than a 32s Feedback) and able to position it anywhere (because, TC doesn’t exist, right?), but they can also Absorb projectiles, something Mesmers don’t have any access to, right?

Tl;dr: Now that Mimic is actually useful, can we stop saying that Mesmer is worse at Reflecting than Guardians when actually they aren’t?

PS: If you say: “Well Mes has to take 2 utilities”, you do realize FB is on a shorter CD than WoR without Mimic. And running Mimic in PvE is absolutely fine in regards to being (non speedrun) meta.

PPS: If you are talking about speedrun meta, Mesmer > Guard because Portal double Blink.

tobascodagama.2961:

Esplen.3940:

You only need to cast Mimic before closing the Portal.

I wonder if this is how Mimic interacts with Mantras…

Mantras were really weird because they used to go on cooldown as soon as you cast them, but now this is how it should work. If you use it on an individual Mantra charge, it’ll give it reset the cooldown of it, so you could do 2 MoD back to back, or you can use Mimic final charge → recharge instantly (in the current Mantra system) → charge mantra.

If you use Chronophantasma and Illusionary Reversion, you’re going to overwrite a Phantasm.

Guardians do not have better Reflect uptime than Mesmers anymore.

Before, they only beat out Mesmers due to the unreliability of Wardens and the low reflect (literally, it doesn’t have a very high y axis reflect) on Curtain.

Now, even without counting Focus, Mesmers beat out Guardians on Reflect, although they have to slot 2 Utilities, not 1.

You only need to cast Mimic before closing the Portal.

Testing this now.

EDIT, yeah, it’s a little more than doubled. 10s of stealth brings you down to 9-10s CD.

6s of stealth brings you down to 16s CD. You tend to only get 5 intervals here, so there’s 8 seconds of CD dropped due to Pledge. It’s possible to get the 6th interval, but it’s not guaranteed. The 6th interval drops the cooldown to roughly 15s.

Napkin math suggests we’re looking at roughly 5% CDR during Stealth.

Torch trait doesn’t do a lot unless you (literally) want to stand in stealth for 50 seconds (50s stated here because you can attain 54s of solo stealth with PU Pledge MoM Prestige Decoy Veil Mimic MI).

[b]The tl;dr on the torch trait is:

If you have stealth up 100% of the time, you get 30% CDR on Prestige (dropping CD to 21s).[/b]

The not long; did read is:

However, since most people don’t maintain stealth for a full 21 seconds, you’re looking at…

Duration | Lowered CD | Remaining CD | % CDR
     1s                  0.45                  28.55            1.5%
     2s                  0.9                    27.1               3%
     3s                  1.35                  25.65             4.5%
     4s                  1.8                    24.2               6%
     5s                  2.25                  22.75            7.5%
     6s                  2.7                    21.3               9%
     7s                  3.15                  19.85            10.5%
     8s                  3.6                    18.4              12%
     9s                  4.05                  16.95            13.5%
    10s                 4.5                   15.5               15%
    11s                 4.95                 14.05             16.5%
    12s                 5.4                   12.6               18%
    13s                 5.85                 11.15             19.5%
    14s                 6.3                    9.7                 21%
    15s                 6.75                  8.25               22.5%
    16s                 7.2                    6.8                  24%
    17s                 7.65                  5.35                25.5%
    18s                 8.1                    3.9                  27%
    19s                 8.55                  2.45               28.5%
    20s                 9                       1                    30%  
    21s                 9*                      0                   30%

Note: All numbers are in seconds except the % CDR (removed the s on CD due to swear filter picking up 45 and s making an item nomenclature that was unintended).

*Note: Only 9s CDR is attained on 21s due to the cooldown being completed at this point, and the interval finishing once the cooldown is complete (unless you have 0 or lower latency, you won't be able to cast Prestige again at this point).

Also note, all of these numbers assume you start with Prestige and proceed to… sit in stealth for up to 21s.

So, as you can see, to attain a “standard” weapon skill trait, you need to maintain ~13-14s of stealth for it to payoff. The same numbers are used for Phantasmal Mage since they share cooldown (numbers, not actually on the same CD).

Do note (yes, there are a lot of notes), Staff has different numbers for the “payoff” since the cooldown % per interval is 2 instead of 1.5.

Tl;dr v2:
PU + Pledge + Prestige -> MI = 24% CDR on Prestige. GG ANET, HIGHER THAN MY OTHER WEAPON SKEELZZZ GG NERF.

Edited for slight formating.

Sounds like something for a phant spec.

Carighan.6758:

roamzero.9486:

To fix PU just reduce the duration to +50% and make the Aegis proc only on entering stealth.

True, there are still Mesmers taking it over the other two actually useful traits. Got to fix that!

Seriously? I only see PU being remotely viable in PvE stealth runs (derp?) and WvW.

Because there’s supposed to be balance in ZvZ and 1vZ?