Guild Wars 2

I think condie or power, you will need to rely a lot on portal and moa/gravity well anyway.

Going condie also means you will be even more worthless in a teamfight. But you can be a stronger side-point contester.

With that in mind, I feel the inspiration line will be a must for condie mesmer and you have to give up dueling. This way, you may have enough sustain to win most 1v1s and survive larger fights.

They are quite challenging.

Even though the meta and strategy have been figured out, I would say it will probably still take around 30 hours of practise for a decent group to clear the content from scratch.

‘Mesmers have always had practically perfect condition clear’
Stopped reading after this….

Sorel.4870:

Korusef.3714:

Sorel.4870:

So why all the fuss about this venom?

Look at the team composition in the League right now and compare it with the situation before HoT. Before almost no Mesmers, now Mesmers on many teams, after …

Actually, even before June, a couple of teams played with mesmers. Mime, Frostball, Helseth and Supcutie were all playing the profession at the highest level of play.

The difference was that back in the days you could play two different comps: a bunker comp with guardian or ele to hold points, with mesmer/thief to get kills quickly, or a bruiser comp a la Abjured.

You guys need to let go of the bunker mesmer build. It just can not exist on a profession with so much mobility. If we want every profession to be viable in pvp, they need to have different roles. The bunker mesmer was a problem because it basically killed the burst strategy completely, and as a result everyone was playing the exact same comp.

I’m glad we’re back to shatter mesmer. If I want to play a bruiser build, there is at least three other professions I could turn to. When I play my mesmer, I want it to feel different.

I think majority of ppl here agree bunker mesmer is problematic to the game and needs shaving. But does that mean we should have an n-fold nerfs from all directions to this spec.

Such hard nerfs will result in not only the death of any possible support-orientated mesmer builds, but also affects the effectiveness and variety for our burst damage builds which are already inferior to Rev, engi and DH.

People are so narrow-minded right now.

I can’t even find a pug spot with condie engi because they only want burnzerker. It doesn’t matter I have plenty of killing experience on the boss. They just want burnzerker.

I don’t see condie shatter become a thing at all.

1v1, they will never be as strong as condie necro. Condie necro counters the entire boon stacking meta and also do well against other condie spec with condie transfer.

Then there is also condie rev. That spec has way better mobility than mesmer. Chasing down whoever he wants with ease. Long resistance uptime also makes them quite tanky against other condie spec.

Condie mesmer may be good against many other specs in dueling situation. But it will not make the class viable as it brings nothing special to the team.

runeblade.7514:

Skullkger.2804:

Serdoc.7261:

Look, Helseth mains Mesmer. His rantings IMO are just a transparent ploy to protect his beloved, nothing more.

Bunker Mesmer is studiply OP right now in PvP, nerf it into oblivion.

And this is why most opinions here are trash for balancing. You want to see no mesmer in high competitive play, well with those changes you won’t. Mesmers themselves didn’t like the bunker memser, Just getting rid of slow quickness rez would’ve perhaps been enough for a first iteration after all that was their kitten job.

More like I want to see all profession in high competitive play equally.

Bunker mesmers are stupidly OP and needs a nerf if I want to see all profession to get into competitive play, or make everything else OP and contribute to the power creep.

Before patch, profession you don’t see: thief, warrior, you rarely see: guardian

After, profession that goes into oblivion: guardian, elementalist, mesmer, warrior.

The number of profession out of high-level play will likely to be the same. All they do is switch from one set of OP specs to another set of OP specs.

Saiyan.1704:

Exciton.8942:

It will be in a terrible state, completely relying on portal and moa and That’s it. Same as thief currently, completely relying on next-level mobility to cap and decap.

Has it not been that way since… forever? Even when Mesmers and Thieves were at their peek meta game, what you described was their exact playstyle and it was borderline OP.

There’s a huge different between “it’s viable” and “I don’t like that playstyle”. It’s the latter to you and you’re calling it a “terrible state” when that’s completely not true.

Since when mesmer was at its peak meta game?
All I know is that only one mesmer(helseth) played at highest level for the longest time. Not even supcutie can make it work and swapped profession.

June patch gave the class a significant boost but it is still not good enough in meta game after tuning.

spartan.9421:

Rome.7124:

Helseth has commented on this reddit thread, see below quote.

LordHelseth:
From my perspective mesmer will be completely unplayable provided that these notes are all the meaningful changes. Similiar to how warrior is in its current state right now, I can’t find a single justified reason to play shatter mesmer in pvp over thief, rev or necro.
Bunker mes is completely dead with quickness rez and alacrity nerf sso shatter is our onl hope. From what I’m theorycrafting shatter will be n such a pitiful state that it wont even be worth playing casually, might aswell reroll thief
It seems to me that arenanet is killing the chrono bunker mesmer because they don’t want ANY iteration of this build in pvp but my question then is what build do they want us to have? Shatter? Shatter was already not viable and inferior to thief/dh/rev before the patch. So if the bunker archetype is dead and shatter is unviable mesmer will have no spot whatsoever, which I feel might be intended by the devs because they simple have no idea how to balance it. Frankly, I don’t either. Portal is completely broken and so is moa and the effect of continum split along with those effects so it’s really hard to be viable without being mandatory.
Still sad that the class I’ve mained for so long is likely completely dead for half a year.

Link:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/416x1z/as_a_mesmer_main_for_years_i_am_not_too_fussed/

Here’s the thing: People are acting like a mesmer nerf is the end of the world, but it’s not. If you quit a class simply because of a slight nerf then maybe that wasn’t actually your favorite class. Thief was nerfed into the dirt and people were still able to make good use of them. So you won’t be completely OP, darn, but that doesn’t make the whole class completely useless.

As if there was no or little QQ from thieves for the past months….

There will still be ppl playing mesmers. But it will be in a terrible state, completely relying on portal and moa and That’s it. Same as thief currently, completely relying on next-level mobility to cap and decap.

Don’t understand how some ppl still have problem with Helseth’s personality on stream. You really shouldn’t take it too srsly and I think he is probably a much nicer person in real life.

His role playing is actually really funny to me and one of the reasons I like his stream. There are a few other good streams as well. But none of theirs can give me as good a laugh as Helseth’s after a hard day’s work.

Of course, I also like his analysis of the game. There is a lot of ego in his videos. But they are still the most helpful ones out there. Most other videos may teach you a bit of mechanics. But his has so much focus on the mostly unnoticed details of the game. How to use terrain, interesting strategy of rotation etc.

Overall, I would definitely rate his stream the best out of all for gw2.

I think it is fine to have some passive procs.
But they SHOULD follow the rule: low input, low reward. They are passive, so some of them shouldn’t be as strong as they current are.
One example would be revenant’s ‘Eye for eye’. Such long taunt duration on a passive is way too ridiculous.

Agemnon.4608:

I’ve said before that even if you nerf mesmer into the ground it’ll still be useful due to its portal, moa form, cooldown reset, elite daze signet, and alacrity. So they have strengths that don’t rely on raw numbers like other classes do. Reaper having spammable chill and boon corruption likewise can be very viable for that reason even if it were to hit like a wet noodle. Daredevil, warrior, and druid on the other hand need to have good damage and/or healing coefficients to be useful.

Yes, portal and moa are strong.

But don’t forget mesmer has been out of meta like forever before June update except for helseth. Mesmer had all those tools back then and the build was actually pretty decent itself as well. However, being decent does not justify your position in a team.

How about
1. Making portal an elite skill
2. Make F5 not affecting elite.

Then we can bring other mesmer personal fight power up to bar.
Current mesmer gameplay is boring as kitten. Completely relies on double elite and portal +1. Useless in all other situations.

msalakka.4653:

If nerfing ONE skill turns the class into “trash”, then perhaps the bigger problem than the nerf is that the class was trash to begin with and being carried by the skill.

I don’t think majority would go that far to say the class goes trash because one bad skill change.

But this skill itself is quite dead with such change. There hasn’t been too much variety on mesmer utility bar. Precog well has been a really nice viable addition. Now it is completely gone out of the picture.

SlayerSixx.5763:

Conquest is either bunker or roamer. Fortunately, bruisers will be taking a huge hit with celestial (maybe they can properly rework them and they’ll come back?). I still think chronobunk can work, but you’ll no longer be able to face tank the entire team. I feel like all of these bunkers will finally have to…..rotate. OH THE HORROR, THEY’LL NEVER BE ABLE TO JUST SIT THERE AND TANK THE WORLD.

Your assessment of chrono bunker is completely wrong. The power of that spec is in its incredible ability to support teamfight, super fast rez and stomp. It’s not that it can face tank opponents. And this is the same for most support bunkers in GW2 pvp history, let it be bunker guard or shoutbow.

Now with the rez and stomp normalizing and alacrity nerf. There will be no bunker chrono anymore. There are hundreds of other super tanky specs out there. You don’t have to play mesmer to be able to tank. The key in this game to be a bunker is not being tanky, it is being able to turn the tide of a team fight.

Also, rotation has always be important to bunker. Even more so than a roamer or bruiser. As a bunker, you don’t have the ability to decap a point. And even 1v1, you can at most stalemate most matchups, and will even lose to some spec(e.g. condie reaper). Also, you are more useful in a teamfight. It is your team’s bruiser’s job to engage 1v1 on point(e.g. condie rev, druid, engi).

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Fay.2357:

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

25% is still good. I actually expected it to be 20% so it was “more in line” with all of the weapon CD reduction traits. Chrono will still provide all the quickness in raids.

You won’t hit 25%. With the lower effectiveness of it, you’re not going to be able to put anywhere close to 100% uptime on your allies, so it’s going to probably end up sub-20% when all is said and done.

3 shield phantasms is 9 seconds of alacrity for the mesmer and 6 seconds of alacrity for allies every 7.5 seconds. If PH wasn’t bugged, that alone would be perma alacrity on 5 allies. Add chronophantasma for a bit more. Alls well that ends well is still going to be a thing and will synergize with rune of the chronomancer for more quickness. So yeah, the 25% can be hit. Will I want to though? Need to see the rest of the “buffs” that are supposedly coming.

Okay, so when I am commenting, I am usually only having PvP and maybe a bit of WvW in mind. I hardly care about PvE and will just play the OP/meta build in that game mode. It is extremely unrealistic to get a lot of alacrity out on a shatter spec(the one most will play in next patch right?)

Regarding my second comment on alacrity only applying on skill on CD, the difference I am pointing out is as follows:
For normal CDR reduction trait, every time you use a skill, that skill has only its original 80% of CD.
For alacrity, you only get benefit if you have alacrity when your skill is on cooldown. This means, you have great limitation on how to use your skills if you want the benefit of the CDR.

Of course it may not be a big issue for PVE where you just keep an optimal rotation and have super high alacrity uptime. However, as I said before, I mostly just kept PvP in mind.

style.6173:

Ithilwen.1529:

That is a huge “KITTEN YOU” aimed right at Mesmer. Combined with Well of precog now being basically worthless ( auto attacks will destroy the aegis almost instantly ) It makes Chronomancer essentially defenseless to thieves. Who, btw, are getting a major damage upgrade.

So I ask again, ANET.. why do you hate Mesmers?

Stop whining. You don’t even know all the changes in the release yet. We get it. You are used to playing a class that is completely OP and want to keep playing it that way.

Soon mesmer will actually take a bit of talent again. That’s good.

Unfortunately, I don’t see it happening. Mesmer will be all about portal and elite skill. It already is like that besides the obnoxious bunker spec.

This class is completely kittened. I will probably quit playing it.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

25% is still good. I actually expected it to be 20% so it was “more in line” with all of the weapon CD reduction traits. Chrono will still provide all the quickness in raids.

Your assessment is wrong.
20% CDR traits are simple and flat.
Alacrity is different:
1. You won’t get 100% uptime. You probably won’t even get 50% on most builds.
2. alacrity only works on skills that are on cooldown. If you don’t use skills when you have alacrity, it is essentially wasted.

Terrible, terrible change. This skill is officially DEAD.

This shows how careless the balance team are treating this class.

Even shoutbow warrior is more interesting than this.

Feels currently shatter chrono is all about portal and F5 elite skill play. Not as fun anymore.

Not possible at the moment. It is pretty much the same situation for all professions.
Elite > core. Unless they do a complete rework with balance between elite and core in mind, it cannot be fixed by small adjustment.

Also, maybe it is intentional for the devs to design a stronger elite than core. That’s why they call the new spec ‘elite’.

Alex Shatter.7956:

for clarity, when i said blurr, i meant the entire corpus of mainstream mesmer evasion: sword 2, distortion, well of precognition, shield 4. i think these should prevent point capture contribution or something. if they nerf aclarity, they should at least make it easier to share with other teammates, because at the moment it is just a selfish way to reduce CD on utilities and elite skills

F4 and precog well give distortion, which is invulnerability, already prevents point capture.

Sword 2 is an evade. You still takes, say, retaliation damage or get stunned by shocking aura. Shield 4 is only a block, you can get hit by any unblockable skills and the game currently has plenty of them.

Evade or block for any skill from any class DO NOT prevent point capture which is a norm.

Not sure how the matchup works. I thought it should try to generate more even teams.

I just got this one but luckily we won and got 3 pips Almost had a heart attack when they lord rushed us with portal and I was the only defender for 15 seconds.

Can we get some QoL improvement on greatsword 1? Similar to what you did to ele dagger air 1 in the past.

It is annoying have to keep stowing weapon to achieve max damage on GS1.

For me, the best state of gw2 pvp game was last year, before June patch and after dd ele nerf.

The only real annoying spec in that meta game was shoutbow warrior. But even that shoutbow seems so much more vulnerable compared to some of today’s bunker spec.

Unfortunately there will always be meta builds that are more effective than others.

Before league was introduced, players still try out different, maybe less effective builds. But now that with league implemented, all ppl care about is winning. So everyone plays OP meta builds. To make things worse, current meta has multiple super tanky broken builds. As a result, the gameplay is not very fun.

NoTrigger.8396:

Exciton.8942:

I can also interpret it as the encounter mechanics are not difficult enough for players to go a bit tankier either through traits or gear.

if you can go a bit “tankier” it will be easier.

That’s simply not true. On my engi with zero vitality/toughness(and everyone else), surviving is so easy with VG or gor with just one healer in the group.

If you compare horizontally with PvP and WvW, surviving with full offensive gear and traits is unthinkable!. I would say the environmental pressure is so much lower in raid compared those other game modes.

Harny.6012:

Exciton.8942:

TLDR; New raid content is fundamentally no different from old ones. The only way to ensure being challenging is a timer.

Isnt the main problem here with the huge huge difference between a bunch of 10 glass cannons and a bunch of 10 super tanky builds (and not only gear stats)?

Edit: This!

Timers are in place to require you to run a somewhat glassy setup and engage with the boss mechanics in a noticeable way.

I can also interpret it as the encounter mechanics are not difficult enough for players to go a bit tankier either through traits or gear.

So here is my question for the players and devs:
Is a timer the only way to make challenging PvE content?

So in general, the raid content has been well received in terms of providing challenging content. But how big of the percentage of the difficulty can be attributed to a timer and large health pool?

Let’s say, we also put a 22m health and a 7-8 minute timer on old bosses like Lupi, Mai trin or shaman(also some nerf to reflection damage). Will they just be equally challenging as the current raid bosses?

The bottom line is that despite of some interesting mechanics, the biggest challenge of those raid encounters is still all about dishing out max damage per second. This is pretty much the same thing ppl did in all the old content. It is still fun, but definitely not very innovative.

When I first read the raid introduction blog, they were advertising like ‘ppl run for their lives’. It gave me an impression that the raid content will provide such a hostile environment so that you need to constantly worry about staying alive. However, the reality is very different that I am not under that much pressure to stay alive. I am only under the pressure to dish out more dps. The gameplay is still pretty much just maintaining a max dps rotation.

So enforcing a timer looks like a cheap way to make content challenging. But with current PvE encounter design sole focusing on dps, it is also probably the only way to make sure content is challenging.

TLDR; New raid content is fundamentally no different from old ones. The only way to ensure being challenging is a timer.

Can’t think of three things for each. but overall fun experience for me.
Good:
It is indeed challenging content that takes hours to complete
Bad:
Mechanics still not diverse enough. Overall, focus of the player buids is still pretty much dominated by sustained dps. CC is probably the only other factor that is emphasized. Many other utility, health sustain, avoiding damage, condie cleanse, burst damage are all pretty much useless.

Just thinking about it, is the raid difficulty mostly from the timer and gigantic boss health pool?

Let’s assume we also give bosses like Lupi and Mai trin 22m health and put a 7-8 minute timer. Will it be just equally challenging anyway?

Tried everything, random oakheart, event oakheart, different level swamp runs. Didn’t get it.

Then I decided to suck up and just started farming all those oakhearts with full magic find boost. Still took me more than 1 hour of farming to get it.

Although there is no details or timeline, this is still great news to hear.

Other condie spec may come close in dps compared to engi but will probably not has as much versatility.

So I still have to suggest engi even if you don’t like it that much.

Kaffeglass.5371:

I dont understand why u think OP is a troll..

Lets say hes a thief.. He goes stealth.

You can then.
Blurred frenzy
Block
Dodge
Block
Dodge
Well of precognition
Continium Split
Blurred Frenzy
+refilled dodges

Can someone count how many seconds of evade+block that is?

In a 1v1 thief vs mesmer, if mesmer goes defensive, it is very easy for thief to match up and recover cooldowns way easier because of class mechanics.

The only way mesmer wins against thief is to go offensive and force thief to make mistake.

Agaetis.4518:

Ppl should just find a guild they can raid with. In gw2 ppl can be in multiple guilds so no problem to be in ones with different focus.

The problem is that it has to be 10 dedicated players with common free time. It is easier said then done. Obviously, it is not as difficult for ppl who have tons of time playing. But majority of players have work and life, there is only certain hours of the day they can play.

lol, you got ‘ganked’ by a mesmer in dueling server…
What can I say. Tell him to show some manner and kitten off?

What it takes is 10 ppl who know what they are doing and putting in quite a few hours’ of practise.

You have played it for 30 hours. As long as you were doing it the right way, you should be good enough to beat the boss. All you need now is 9 other ppl who also know what they are doing.

It is time to be really picky with your teammates. Only group with experienced ppl.

Alternatively, wait for a couple weeks. By then, there will be plenty exp players and it should be much easier to find a competent team.

You can take the tank/healer role.

Wanna make a legendary?
Start playing wood logger 2!
Don’t see how something feels legendary by just logging wood 24/7

Just minutes ago, I was queuing for a pvp game. Then queue pops, I clicked accept. Then somehow the queue gets abandoned. I immediately received dishonor and prevented me from queuing for 3min.

Plz fix the bug.

Nyspar.6103:

Jordo.5913:

Nyspar.6103:

Mark Katzbach.9084:

without ensuring that those reading their comments were fully aware of the fact that they had been given early access.

I was under the assumption that DnT is not allowed to identify themselves as raid testers, as stated in the NDA.

you assumed wrong LOL,

my guess is once the first raid wing went live you could totally say that you tested the first raid wing…you just can’t say that you are testing the other raid wings yet

NDA’s dont end as soon as the content goes live, they are forever

NDA means testers don’t disclose the content before it goes alive.

DnT and another guild have been publicly announced to be beta testers already. It is a fact not something that is not disclosed.

So DnT’s problem is not going against NDA. It is because they are raising an unhealthy atmosphere by bragging about speed clearing w/o noting the fact that they had a lot of chance for practise for the past month.

The community should continue provide constructive feedback on how to adjust some unreasonable overpowered skills.

Many other elite specs are strong but only DH is very clearly in the OP region.
The way the spec dishes out CC and damage together is way too easy to pull off. It is hands down the king in teamfight while still be able to 1v1 some bruiser spec. Way over the top.

DH traps simply needs nerfing together with the passive anti-cc proc trait.

This build is hands down the best support build currently. Druid and scrapper are better bruiser but really can’t sustain a team fight as well as this one.

Have played quite a few games on this and can deal combined 400k damage, 200k self healing and 300k team member healing ,very all-around.

Hot Boy.7138:

Quadox.7834:

Hot Boy.7138:

xiao.2614:

Hot Boy.7138:

I really think they need to remove the part about mirror blade that is unblockable.

1. its so easy to dodge at long range; at short range is a little bit harded but mb has kitteng animation so if u are good its not problem for u and if u are bad… l2p
2. so, 0 ublockable skills for mesmer class is okay yea?

Yeah, that’s okay with me. Mesmer shouldn’t have any unblockable skills. Especially one on such a short cd that hits so hard. Unblockable skills should go to classes that have a hard time landing attacks. But mesmer is attacking from all directions at all times with clones, phantasms, shatters, and wells. Mirror Blade should be blockable.

Okay, warrior.

Oh wait, that’s it.

I’m a mesmer and has been since launch. If you don’t agree, then fine. I stand by what I say.

It’s too strong as it is. No one wants to see their precious class nerfed, so of course no one on this thread will agree.

If i were going to change Mirror Blade, I would make it blockable, OR make it so it’s unable to bounce at all.

WTF? So I am deserved to see revenant heals up in his safe shield bubble w/o the ability of doing anything? There is already an over abundance of unblockable skills from other class. Why can’t we have something similar?

Altair.8402:

Lord of Rings.5371:

One faster way to get gold might be spending time outside the game and making money in real life.

After you have made enough money outside the game, spend $600-$700 buy gems and converting them to gold to buy a legendary from the trading post.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/search/Eternity

For $700 on a minimum pay of $7.25 requires a little less than 100 hours of work which is pretty fast to get 4455 gold in about 100 hours assuming 12.57 gold per 100 gem exchange rate.

http://www.gw2spidy.com/gem

o_o

Do people actually spend hundreds of dollars on a shiny video game skin?

Yes. They do. Players are not like 100% rational and a few hundred dollars is not that expansive for some of them. On the contrary, the time that would be otherwise spent on grinding is probably more precious.

Piel De Osa.7209:

Is that an account bound weapon though? Or, when you unlock it, you get better drop rate? Even from the chests in Dragons, its been greens and blues.

Yeah, it is account bound. But isn’t your goal ascended items? Gold is just a way to get them right? Hoarding gold is meaningless in itself since this is just a game.

The majority of drops are blue/green for sure. But every DS run I got like a lot of yellows, T6 mats as well. My ecto storage alone raised by 300 after expansion goes alive(That’s basically 100 gold worth).

In addition, you will get an over abundance of T5 mats from salvaging blue/green. You can use them in two ways:
1. make daily gated ascended mats. You will need them for ascended crafting anyway.
2. make level-80 yellow greatswords. Sell them on TP if you want quick consistent profit. If you like gambling, put them in mystic forge for a possible precursor.

Piel De Osa.7209:

Well, Obtena, I never said that doing dungeons was the only way to make gold. So your response is just dumb. That wasn’t the only thing they nerfed. Drop rates have gotten worse for SW and DT, as well. Plus, coin drops from monsters has been diminished. TY, Exciton, I will give it a try. But I haven’t had much luck in drops in that area. Everything I have gotten that was good, has been account bound. I’m just looking for a new way to farm. Especially with the way that everything costs more to make.

Tangled depth event progression reward includes a junk item that sells for 30s.
Dragon stand event chain should give you tons of yellow weapons that sell for 20-40s each.

Also, don’t completely narrow down your scope to gold. There are other forms of reward too. I myself has been working on the elite specialization weapon unlock. It is an ascended weapon with fancy skin.