Guild Wars 2

Kaamau.5341:

Fay.2357:

Kaamau.5341:

But also in my mind players should be active with their defense and staff inherently makes it more passive. Combining that with what I previously explained, that is why I refer to it as a crutch.

Translated: Staff is strong and I don’t like using it, so people who use it need a crutch obviously.

<3 you too pyro. But you reached a different meaning then was intended. If you can take care of your own defense using timing and dodge rolls, GS is your better option, if you cant, you can reduce your offensive for staff.

The problem is that this 100% false.

If you can take care of your own defense using timing and dodge…then great, maybe you can use greatsword in some situations. But now you take that same situation, you add the staff, and your defensive capability becomes massively enhanced PAST that which is possible without staff.

Greatsword becomes the ‘better’ option if you absolutely require that long range damage pressure. Staff is the absolutely better option in every other situation, regardless of skill.

Kaamau.5341:

But also in my mind players should be active with their defense and staff inherently makes it more passive. Combining that with what I previously explained, that is why I refer to it as a crutch.

Translated: Staff is strong and I don’t like using it, so people who use it need a crutch obviously.

Miku Lawrence.6329:

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_S/S_/F_/P

PVE

If you’re going to post a PvE link…please don’t link to metabattle when we have an incredibly comprehensive and solid guide here on the forums: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-How-To-Mesmer-in-Dungeons/page/4#post4419566

Metabattle is generally lacking in many regards, so it’s usually rather unhelpful to link people there.

MailMail.6534:

Oh I understand what you mean there, but people I have played with tend to use my definition of the term more often I guess?

Like I said before, when people in game tell me something is a crutch, it usually is in a somewhat derogatory way that you mentioned. However, I don’t see many people running dps Shatter Mesmer and saying they don’t use DE because it’s a crutch that they don’t need. lol

Sure, people tend to use the term in that more derogatory way. I’m just saying that those people are idiots.

MailMail.6534:

To call something a “crutch” is to imply that you’re using something because without it, you’d be much less effective otherwise. However, there’s usually the second implication that people who use these “crutches” aren’t actually handicapped to begin with.

For example, in order to be an effective Shatter Mesmer, you need Deceptive Evasion. However, there are several builds that don’t need this trait yet most Mesmers trait into it, because in general, Deceptive Evasion is a crutch.

Yeah…I have to disagree with you pretty much entirely.

A crutch is generally used to describe something that is necessary to reach a certain level. Look at the real life item. A cripple needs a crutch in order to move around like a normal person. In a game sense, a bad gamer needs a crutch in order to play at a level that a good gamer would without it.

However, this analogy breaks down incredibly rapidly if you think about it a little. If a non-cripple uses a crutch…they don’t really get any benefit out of it. However, a video game crutch is generally a technique/strategy/mechanic that is highly effective, even optimal for play. This goes back to the whole scrub gaming definition (summons Ross Biddle).

Ultimately though, a truly good gamer uses whatever optimal strategies they find because that’s simply the most effective way to play. In many builds, DE is required. In many other builds, it’s not required…but is simply the most effective way to run that build.

Some people like to acquire a false sense of superiority and say:

Oh, I don’t use that mechanic. I’m so good that I don’t need it to play well, and anyone who uses it is just a bad.

However, actually good players say:

This mechanic is very strong, and so I use it. By using this mechanic, I’m now playing at a more powerful level than I would be without it.

Tl;dr: A crutch isn’t a term that has any cogent meaning in a video game. There are simply strong mechanics and weak mechanics, and good players will find, use, and abuse the strong ones.

trooper.2650:

Fay.2357:

This build comp sorta backfired when we didn’t adjust it for the double engie (turrets) comp, but it worked great for a normal team.

Looking back, what would you have changed if you knew about the double turret engies?

I’d have changed builds to a gs + sw/focus phantasm build. That sort of build still roams decently, but more specifically it has a lot of aoe pressure + projectile denial. Those two things combined will debunk a turret engie pretty effectively.

Zelulose.8695:

I posted about the 20k mesmer spikes a long time ago its hard to land them so they don’t care.

…?

Dondagora.9645:

Aluren.1896:

Wow! That was a nice victory against their team. Just out of curiosity, was there no standard shatter because of people choosing the specs they are used to or to just shake things up?

Probably chose what they were used to, I think. If one were to logically spec the team, I think they would have added a shatter for the burst potential.

Generally you bring a shatter build because it has the burst while also providing high output boon strip. We didn’t need that boon strip for obvious reasons. Therefor, we were able to bring builds that had more utility in the form of lockdown without sacrificing too much damage for our offensive front. We had a couple support builds, and then myself as the roamer. This build comp sorta backfired when we didn’t adjust it for the double engie (turrets) comp, but it worked great for a normal team.

No, it won’t work. You have little to no illusion generation in that build without deceptive evasion. Illusions are the main source of your condition damage (one way or another), and so that build will have 0 offensive bite.

The V.8759:

Here’s my build. The trait setup is pretty regular, but I think the oh-sword offers way more spike damage, but also another interrupt or a block with high damage.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAscRnsISZa2oGmqB3aGR1YQdXhtGJPIgS2x2A-TZBFwACeAAx2fo9pAoaZAAHBAA

(Made for PvP) Focusses on dps. Still involves condi removal.

This is not the appropriate place for your post. If you would like your build listed in this thread, you need to make a separate guide/build thread which would then be linked to.

Calypso.2578:

kaikalii.4198:

With what kind of solo roaming builds do you use staff? I can usually duel alright with it, but as soon as someone chooses to run away, there’s not a lot I can do.

Solo roaming builds that use staff? You can do many. There are links in the stickies at the top of these forums with builds, but here is one I found for ya: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Category:Meta_Roaming_Builds

I hope you have fun with shatter! ^~^v

In theory metabattle is interesting. In practice it’s worthless, and that’s certainly the case here. Shatter roaming is really ill-advised in WvW, and that build in particular has some odd choices in it that really aren’t the best for WvW roaming either. I’d stick to the forums (where OP has been asking question) for actually up to date and accurate information.

Morfedel.4165:

I posted about this in the bugs forum and got no responses, so thought i’d try here.

So i’m running with a mantra build taking all the mantra increasing traits I can. Including Harmonious Mantra, which increases your mantra charges by one.

But what I’ve noticed is that sometimes, AFTER I’ve already charged the mantras for the first time in a map, AFTER it’s showing that I have three charges, at some point they suddely drop to two charges instead.

I haven’t been able to figure out if it has a trigger or if it just happens regardless. I just wondered if anyone else had noticed this, and if so, do you know what’s triggering the drop to two charges?

This happens when you move through areas of different downleveling (upleveling too maybe?) amounts. This is a bug that Anet introduced with the feature patch. It’s incredibly irritating for those trying to do map completion, and there has been 0 communication suggesting that Anet either knows or cares about it.

MSFone.3026:

-snip-

I’ll just let you save me the hard work of typing that up quite eloquently and say that I agree wholeheartedly. Also, using grenth runes with signet of the ether is an abysmal choice.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Fay.2357:

Ross Biddle.2367:

MSFone.3026:

Do people still play PU condi? I haven’t seen too many people running PU anymore.

There are a few.

But as stated, PU suffers from it’s poor mobility(aka landspeed).

In this fight with my latest condi build you can see how by simply outpacing the PU mesmer using scepter/torch staff I control the fight entirely. I decide where and when our engagements happen and there’s nothing he can do about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-gfWL1DWnvg#t=202

Just gonna put it out there….that PU mesmer was abysmal.

They didn’t proc blocks on your easily blockable skills. They didn’t cleanse your conditions rapidly (indeed, may not have even had many cleanses, a basic blunder in and of itself), didn’t bait your torment blocks with skills before going for persistent aoe like chaos storm, and ran around with torment on them. Additionally, they didn’t pressure you when they could have. Your condition removal in that build is extremely lacking once your heal is on cooldown. At multiple times you were in incredibly vulnerable positions, with no removals and multiple conditions. Properly applied pressure could have caused you to crumple, but they kept running or autoattacking or whatever.

I could go on, but suffice to say a skillfully played PU condie build would have ripped your build to pieces. This isn’t to say that it’s not an interesting and strong build, but it simply doesn’t measure up to the condition pressure that is possible when one plays PU conditions with actual skill, not just facerolling like I saw in that video.

I admit, I’ve faced far better PU condi users.

…but you work with the footage you’ve got. Understandable, but still a bit disingenuous to use it to point out specific potential weaknesses that really can be worked around and ameliorated with a different playstyle in the same build.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Fay.2357:

Boon removal is only a problem because necromancers and mesmers have largely been pushed out of the meta. If boon stacking was truly as much of an issue as you seem to think it is, then you’d see more mesmers and necromancers. The fact that you don’t simply means that the boon stacking just isn’t the insurmountable obstacle that you imply.

Or that there is another part of the meta that is so hostile to necros and mesmers that they just can’t justify a spot. Both are possibilities.

One and the same. If boon stacking was truly that bad…a spot would be made, comps would be built around having that boon removal capability. The fact that that doesn’t happen means the boon stacking is not bad enough to justify that sort of drastic restrategization.

Boon removal is only a problem because necromancers and mesmers have largely been pushed out of the meta. If boon stacking was truly as much of an issue as you seem to think it is, then you’d see more mesmers and necromancers. The fact that you don’t simply means that the boon stacking just isn’t the insurmountable obstacle that you imply.

WhiteRose.6934:

Fay.2357:

…skillfully played PU condie build..

These nouns and adjectives don’t go together.

Just because you unreasonably have rabidly white-hot hatred for PU condie builds doesn’t mean the rest of this forum thinks in the same distorted fashion.

Ross Biddle.2367:

MSFone.3026:

Do people still play PU condi? I haven’t seen too many people running PU anymore.

There are a few.

But as stated, PU suffers from it’s poor mobility(aka landspeed).

In this fight with my latest condi build you can see how by simply outpacing the PU mesmer using scepter/torch staff I control the fight entirely. I decide where and when our engagements happen and there’s nothing he can do about it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=-gfWL1DWnvg#t=202

Just gonna put it out there….that PU mesmer was abysmal.

They didn’t proc blocks on your easily blockable skills. They didn’t cleanse your conditions rapidly (indeed, may not have even had many cleanses, a basic blunder in and of itself), didn’t bait your torment blocks with skills before going for persistent aoe like chaos storm, and ran around with torment on them. Additionally, they didn’t pressure you when they could have. Your condition removal in that build is extremely lacking once your heal is on cooldown. At multiple times you were in incredibly vulnerable positions, with no removals and multiple conditions. Properly applied pressure could have caused you to crumple, but they kept running or autoattacking or whatever.

I could go on, but suffice to say a skillfully played PU condie build would have ripped your build to pieces. This isn’t to say that it’s not an interesting and strong build, but it simply doesn’t measure up to the condition pressure that is possible when one plays PU conditions with actual skill, not just facerolling like I saw in that video.

I have a reasonably fleshed out guide in my mesmer guide to solo queue, you can take a look at that.

As a starting note, only confusing combatants (dueling 5) works on phantasm death. All the other on-death traits are clone only.

So the first thing I notice is that you have no stunbreaks. This is a really bad choice and will get you killed. The next thing I notice is that your stat choices on the weapons are very…odd. I’m not sure if this was intended or not, as you don’t actually have any armors or runes listed either.

At any rate, reading through your details paragraphs tell me that you think this build is supposed to work in a larger group (hence the glamours). This is false, this build will be abysmal in a large group. The largest group I’d feel comfortable running a clone-death build in would probably be 5-8, maybe 10…any larger than that and it rapidly becomes pretty pointless.

You also have an odd bit of information about how you try to keep aggro on your clones. This seems to be a PvE-specific bit of advice…and you really really don’t want to use this build in any type of PvE.

I guess I’m just sorta confused by what you think this build is capable of doing, where you designed it to function, that sort of thing.

The biggest problem with this build is that you’re putting all of your damage into a very easily destroyed thing: 1 condition. Yeah, your bleeds will tick a bit and yeah, your burn from torch will do some damage, but you’re really focusing on torment.

You don’t have much cover condition access. Really debilitating dissipation is all you’ve got, and that means anyone with even modest removal will result in you doing no damage.

jihm.2315:

Dondagora.9645:

jihm.2315:

Fay.2357:

jihm.2315:

Lachanche.6859:

mesmers are awesome !
they make the plays and are high risk high reward (talking about 4 4 0 0 6 shatter don’t get strange ideas), master mesmers mechanics and you will really play gw2 pvp to the fullest.

where is the risk when you never die?

Ooh ooh! It’s the guy from the profession balance forums that got torn into small pieces by Rylock and now complains nonstop about mesmers! We’ve been visited by a celebrity.

yeah besides thief who else can kill you?

Warriors, Eles, Necros, some Guardians, other Mesmers, Rangers[Especially with their new pew-pew builds], and a good many decap engis.

rangers are now for the first time equal with mesmers,
facemelters with too much utility and survivability also

See, let me explain to you the difference between yourself and a good player.

Good Player: Gosh, that [mesmer/ranger/other class] is quite strong and [beat/almost beat/destroyed] me. As a result, I’ll [improve/learn/adapt] until I can beat them.

You: Gosh, that [mesmer/ranger/other class] is quite strong and [destroyed] me. As as result, I’ll [go to the forums and complain nonstop].

Source: looked at your posting history. Over the past 5 months, over 90% of your posts have been complaining in one form or another about how you got beaten by someone else.

jihm.2315:

Lachanche.6859:

mesmers are awesome !
they make the plays and are high risk high reward (talking about 4 4 0 0 6 shatter don’t get strange ideas), master mesmers mechanics and you will really play gw2 pvp to the fullest.

where is the risk when you never die?

Ooh ooh! It’s the guy from the profession balance forums that got torn into small pieces by Rylock and now complains nonstop about mesmers! We’ve been visited by a celebrity.

Yeah, with just the heal mantra, I’m thinking that restorative mantras really isn’t worth it.

The main problem I see with this build is that it doesn’t have a clear idea of how to do damage. With berserker gear all of your skills will do a bit of damage, but mesmers are an extremely trait-based class. Your traits determine what is effective and what is not. In your case, you have no trait support for shattering, no trait support for interrupts, no trait support for phantasms, no trait support for conditions (not that it’s a condition build with a zerker amulet). So that leaves me wondering…what is this build supposed to do?

Learn to love the tears! If people cry to you it means you’re doing a fantastic job, keep up the good work!

Edit: You can turn off chat filtering through an option in the f11 menu, just in case you wanted to disable that.

Swish.2463:

I’m really only asking because sometimes i just don’t feel like i have the right answers myself.

I wonder if it was the bugs that pushed us to fill out the “Base build” quota more quickly than the other classes seemed to have done. Or if it was something else.

So if it was not the Bugs then what was it really?

Class Mechanic or lack of .. well there’s no really kind way to put it.. terrible traits?

I’m trying hard not to pin it down onto our classes mechanic but it’s hard not to.. it may be a combination of traits utilities weapons and mechanics yet one of them has to be the bigger “offender” than the others.

Fay.2357:

That also being said…I don’t think this is necessarily an objectively bad thing. It’s more of just…a thing. It’s not really caused by bugs or poor design decisions (rip immortal build) or anything like that. There’s simply a finite number of combinations of the factors in the game that can create both functionally unique and effective builds.

Curunen.8729:

Fay.2357:

Curunen.8729:

I’m of the opinion that this whole “build ownership” thing is a bit silly when you think of the number of different players out there – just pick your traits/skills/gear and adapt where you need to.

I’m not sure why you brought this up. Build ownership doesn’t actually have any relation to whether or not a build has a new and unique idea/functionality to it.

I brought it up because it was relevant with the “rehashing” comment – to me that implies ownership, or at least that’s how I interpreted it. Maybe that wasn’t intended by the OP.

The concept of build ownership is a non-issue with regards to that. Whether or not someone ‘owns’ a build has no bearing on it having been done before and no longer being a new idea.

The concept of new ideas is a pretty broad one. You could say ‘oh, 0/4/6/0/4 is a new build, the trait fix allowed that to become something new’. Well, I’d disagree. There’s no truly fundamental difference between than and the standard PU condie build that everyone’s been running for so long now. Sure, it’s a slight tweak, but the idea behind the build is absolutely identical. Owned or not, it’s not a new idea, it’s a small modification on an existing build.

Curunen.8729:

I’m of the opinion that this whole “build ownership” thing is a bit silly when you think of the number of different players out there – just pick your traits/skills/gear and adapt where you need to.

I’m not sure why you brought this up. Build ownership doesn’t actually have any relation to whether or not a build has a new and unique idea/functionality to it.

I hesitate to use absolutes in a situation like this. I would avoid saying that there are no new builds, as I’m always open to the possibility that there’s an idea of interaction that nobody has thought of before that can be used to create a new and interesting build.

That being said, I haven’t seen any truly new builds in probably close to a year at this point.

Every new ‘build’ has been one of two things:

1. Hey, I made some minuscule modification to an already prevalent build, what do you guys think?
2. Hey, I’ve come up with a trait distribution that nobody else uses, what do you guys think?

In case one, it’s just…nothing new, nothing special. Yeah, it works, and it works because it’s basically the same thing as before. In case two, there’s usually a really good set of reasons that nobody uses those traits…they don’t work together/at all/etc.

That also being said…I don’t think this is necessarily an objectively bad thing. It’s more of just…a thing. It’s not really caused by bugs or poor design decisions (rip immortal build) or anything like that. There’s simply a finite number of combinations of the factors in the game that can create both functionally unique and effective builds.

The only thing that could really crack that sort of hard barrier is significantly new options, and we have seen some semblance of an effort on Anet’s part to provide these. The new grandmaster traits had the potential to do this, to add truly new options and could have been really cool.

Unfortunately, we know what happened instead. The new grandmaster traits either have very minimal effects (triumphant distortion) or are so unbelievably bad that it boggles the mind that nobody in the development process ever said ‘hm, these are all abysmal…weeeee should throw them all out and try again for real this time’ (all the other new traits).

So what are we left with? We’re in the position of really just needing to wait for meaningful changes changes and additions to the game before further build innovation can continue. Not bug fixes or little buffs, but fundamental additions that can form truly new things.

Swish.2463:

I dropped DE since this is a Phantasm build. and its either BI or CI if you want condition removal, i dropped BI because might on you doesn’t effect phantasm DPS.

This is backwards, might on your phantasms doesn’t affect them because phantasms inherit your base stats. Might on you increases your base stats and so transfers to the phantasms.

Verock.8234:

Fay.2357:

Verock.8234:

Fay.2357:

The biggest problem I’m seeing here is that you have literally 0 access to condition removal. If you get hit by anything, you’re just going to wilt. An engie hits you with blind, freeze, poison, burn, and bleed and suddenly you’re absolutely crippled. Phantasm casts will miss, you can’t move, you can’t heal, and you’re losing hp fast. You absolutely need at least some access to condition removal.

Agreed, that’s what I’ve been dealing with. I’ve been thinking about switching out signet of midnight for the condi cleanse mantra.

And with that change your entire build starts to fall apart. This why signet builds are almost always horrid across the board.

Swapping out signet of midnight substitutes one problem for another. Now you have no stunbreaks, meaning that if a hammer warrior jumps onto you…you just melt. Additionally, it makes blurred inscriptions a completely useless trait. Your only remaining signets are the heal signet and the stun signet. If you use the stun signet for distortion, you just wasted a 45 second cooldown for a 1s invuln. Similar story with the healing signet. If you happen to have a situation where you need a quick heal, phantasm refresh, and invuln…then it’s worth it. Otherwise, you’re wasting functionality in a big way.

Every build has their counters. So, what you’re saying is that I need to melt them before they melt me in terms of condi-heavy builds?

Any suggestions on improving the build? I’ve been doing well against Necros, for a condi-heavy example, each time I play them. It’s pretty easy to anticipate their moves and interrupt them / distort.

Necros really aren’t your main enemy as far as conditions go. Engineers are far more dangerous in general for condition load. The key with necros is that they have signet of spite. It’s an attack that can be dodged/invulned, but if they’re doing it right they’ll use it on you when you’re not ready to avoid it, and that single attack will straight up instakill you. It won’t kill you in and of itself, but the enormous load of conditions it applies will lead to your death with 100% certainty.

This is a phantasm/interrupt build, which makes me wonder where exactly it’s being played. Phantasm builds have always been questionable with respect to team fights, and this build is no exception in that regard. You actually have absolutely nothing that boosts the survivability of your phantasms, so they’re just not going to work well. That means you’re a side point assaulter.

As a side point assaulter, you’ll have to deal with the enemy roamers/side point bunkers. The interrupts/invulns could handle a thief reasonably well, provided you play extremely effectively, but an engineer is a massive problem. They don’t really have any particularly important attacks that you can avoid—they just walk up and faceroll a full load of grenades/bombs/etc onto the point. You might be able to dodge one or two, but you’re ultimately going to get loaded up without any projectile defense or condition removal.

You need more defense in general in this build. The invulns really aren’t all that impactful, and they do nothing against nonstop condition spam. Being a phantasm build, you’re pidgeonholed into a side point build, and that means you need to be prepared to deal with side point roamers. S/D thief, condition mesmer, turret engie, condition engie, and d/d or s/d or s/f ele are going to be your biggest problems that you need to be ready to handle.

Verock.8234:

Fay.2357:

The biggest problem I’m seeing here is that you have literally 0 access to condition removal. If you get hit by anything, you’re just going to wilt. An engie hits you with blind, freeze, poison, burn, and bleed and suddenly you’re absolutely crippled. Phantasm casts will miss, you can’t move, you can’t heal, and you’re losing hp fast. You absolutely need at least some access to condition removal.

Agreed, that’s what I’ve been dealing with. I’ve been thinking about switching out signet of midnight for the condi cleanse mantra.

And with that change your entire build starts to fall apart. This why signet builds are almost always horrid across the board.

Swapping out signet of midnight substitutes one problem for another. Now you have no stunbreaks, meaning that if a hammer warrior jumps onto you…you just melt. Additionally, it makes blurred inscriptions a completely useless trait. Your only remaining signets are the heal signet and the stun signet. If you use the stun signet for distortion, you just wasted a 45 second cooldown for a 1s invuln. Similar story with the healing signet. If you happen to have a situation where you need a quick heal, phantasm refresh, and invuln…then it’s worth it. Otherwise, you’re wasting functionality in a big way.

The biggest problem I’m seeing here is that you have literally 0 access to condition removal. If you get hit by anything, you’re just going to wilt. An engie hits you with blind, freeze, poison, burn, and bleed and suddenly you’re absolutely crippled. Phantasm casts will miss, you can’t move, you can’t heal, and you’re losing hp fast. You absolutely need at least some access to condition removal.

StickerHappy.8052:

Since we are having our birthday, can we have additional ranks/titles for some people who has been here long enough?

Tough thing is that there’s no guild functionality support for figuring out how long someone’s been in the guild for…

Shiren.9532:

Honestly, the only decent match ups for NA Gold League are the week 1 and 4 match ups. I agree it’s clear the original statement of no repeat matches is false, but that’s a good thing. A TC/BG/JQ match is superior to a BG/Mag/FA match.

NA Gold League is just a terrible league. The population imbalance between T1 and T2 is dramatic and the two shouldn’t ever be paired in a fair competition (even T2 has become unhealthy lately). It’s better than season 2 (ironically season 2 encouraged more surprising outcomes than season 3 did) but NA Gold League is better off the less T1 and T2 are paired up.

This is absolute truth, but the unfortunate side effect is that you get the T1 servers locked into a repetitive matchup, and you get the T2 servers locked into an increasingly unbalanced repetitive matchup. What would be a better system is to make leagues at least somewhat variable, knocking holes in those solid walls between gold and silver. I’m all for letting the T1 servers have fun zerging their way around the maps 24/7, but Mag shouldn’t be forced to be stuck at 10 ppt the entire tournament, and it would be nice for FA to see more than just blowouts or slightly more even blowouts.

What on earth would this do? Say blackgate gets ganged up on and deleted. Let’s follow this to the logical conclusion.

Blackgate is deleted. Everyone on blackgate is forced to move. Everyone on blackgate moves to SoS. SoS becomes the new blackgate.

Did this solve anything or make it even remotely worth anyone’s time? No, it did not.

You can also casually stroll away from them, that works too.

summons ross biddle with his dolyak dodge video

Link isn’t working for me.

Bleeds are condition damage. In no way in any part of the game for any reason is any condition damage affected by a % modifier unless explicitly stated (poison trait for rangers, burn trait for guardians).

killahmayne.9518:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/warrior/

If you look at this website right here, it will tell you the overall damage reduction based on the toughness you have. It uses 1836 armor as the reference point. 1836 armor basically means you take the most amount of damage that is possible. If you double that that basically means a 50% damage reduction. because 1836/3672 = 0.5. Toughness gives you your overall damage reduction from which you apply stuff like protection and frost aura. It is basically a measure.

I am not referencing at all that armor works like (incoming damage * (100(100+armor))). GW2 is incoming damage/armor, but that armor is based on a % overall damage reduction value from the base of 1836.

And having 2k armor means your damage reduction is at 8.2%, which means you are still taking 91.8% percentage of the damage inflicted on you. This is because 2k armor is an 8.2% increase from 1836 armor, which is the base value (0% damage reduction). It is rather simple really.

What you’re saying here is incredibly misleading, although technically mathematically accurate.

Just rely on the damage calculation:

Damage = (Skill Coeff * Power * Weapon Damage)/Armor

That’s how it is calculated. You can calculate % reduction based on some arbitrary baseline armor value, but it’s really misleading to talk about % reduction from armor in that fashion.

So here’s what the total damage equation would look like:

Incoming damage = [(Skill Coeff * Power * Weapon Damage)/Armor] * (Crit Modifier if applicable) * (.5 weakness modifier if applicable)

So there’s your incoming damage. Notice that both Armor and Weakness values/modifiers are in that equation. Now let’s go for reduction.

Total damage taken = Incoming damage * (.66 protection modifier) * (.9 Frost Aura multiplier) * (.5 Iron Hide Modifier) * (.5 Phantasmal Defender modifier) * etc etc

I think you get the idea. All the damage reduction modifiers are multiplied with one another, not added separately. This means that it’s not possible to reach 0 damage. With Iron Hide and pDefender you take .25 of the total damage, not 0.

Noah.9654:

Hey all! My guild and I are finally planning on getting into the WvW scene and I was wondering what kind of builds I can try. I’m an avid PvPer but I’m told that my PvP builds don’t always translate well into WvW.

Side note; are PU and mantra builds viable in WvW after the patch? I’m really interested in using MtoP.

Thanks!

What aspects of WvW are you looking to do?

adorkable.9430:

Yeah I had a feeling it was like that. And I know the build is awful, it was supposed to be a starting point. I guess if there isn’t anything I can do I’ll move onto another class. Thanks for your help.

-Jay

Mesmer brings a pretty enormous amount of utility into teams. Might stacking isn’t part of that utility though. You have mob control, high output reflects, condition removal, boon stripping, and aoe regen all in the same build. You can additionally add signet of inspiration to double the might on your party, even if you’re not generating it yourself.

vcxxx.3159:

I don’t think you will read it because you are clearly an elitist who just bashes people’s builds because they are better than yours.

chuckles
I don’t need self-validation from comparing other builds to mine. I got enough validation from anet nuking my build from orbit. I simply say it how it is.

vcxxx.3159:

First of all, people usually look at an oddly numbered trained build and just dismiss it. These people clearly can not count unless it is by even numbers. Someone who dismisses 1/3/5 in a build is a troll.

Perhaps some people look at an oddly numbered build and dismiss it, but I don’t. There are most definitely some minor traits that are worth getting. Illusions 3, dueling 3, domination 3, inspiration 5, (situationally) dueling 5 to name a few. Unfortunately, Domination 5 isn’t on that list, because it truly is a worthless trait.

vcxxx.3159:

I will admit that signet of ether is a semi-permanent modification to your boons that will make you more easily identifiable however everything he said about it healing less and how it is inferior to ether feast is completely wrong. Once again, someone who can not do math.

See, the nice thing about math is that you can’t argue with him. Luckily, I have a good relationship with math, and he tends to back me up. Let’s take a look, shall we?

0 Healing Power
Signet of the Ether
Passive heal over 20 seconds with 3 illusions: (980+.125*hp)x(21/3) = 6860
Passive heal over 20 seconds with 2 illusions: (660+.085*hp)x(21/3) = 4620
Passive heal over 20 seconds with 1 illusions: (340+.045*hp)x(21/3) = 2380
Passive heal over 20 seconds with 0 illusions: 0

Ether Feast
Heal per 20 seconds with 3 illusions: (5560+1* hp)+ (640+.1* hp)* 3 = 7480
Heal per 20 seconds with 2 illusions: (5560+1* hp)+ (640+.1* hp)* 2 = 6840
Heal per 20 seconds with 1 illusions: (5560+1* hp)+ (640+.1* hp)* 1 = 6200
Heal per 20 seconds with 0 illusions: (5560+1* hp)+ (640+.1* hp)* 0 = 5560

As you can see, Ether Feast is far stronger at all points. Additionally, ether feast scales far better with healing power compared to signet of the ether, meaning that every point of healing power increases the bonus that ether feast has. Lastly, it’s very easy to make sure you have 3 illusions for the 1 second cast of ether feast, but incredibly difficult to have 3 illusions for the entire duration of those 20 seconds of ticking. Ether feast is by far the superior heal, and math helpfully backs me up.

vcxxx.3159:

Finally, to address the condi. There is a setting in the game where you can “Turn red circles on for enemy aoe.” Turn that setting on. That’s a good setting.
Most elitist PVPers in this game always say, “Fight on Point and die on point.” Yeah you could abide by that philosophy if you want to get aoe condi bombed and die.

Well, PvP in this game is a function of point control. If you decide to run away every time a condie build shows up, you’re not going to be very effective at PvP.

vcxxx.3159:

I believe this user completely disregarded the guild wars 2 form motto, “Be heard! Seek wisdom! Join a conversation with fellow adventurers, or start your own.”

I fulfilled the ‘offer wisdom’ corollary of that motto, you just didn’t like the wisdom offered.

Mesmers are horrible at might stacking. The build you’ve linked is not only going to be bad at might stacking, it’s also going to be just plain awful at any type of PvE. I’d highly recommend not trying to do it.

Conditioned.2467:

Well I said that it wont transport me.

You actually didn’t say this at all; you just said that ‘it fails’. Saying it won’t transport you is far more useful for me.

Conditioned.2467:

The other guy expands on that saying what he first thought and then that you need to have enemy visible.

He did say this, it’s 100% inaccurate though. iLeap has no LoS or in-vision check. As a matter of fact, no skill in the game has an in-vision check, though many require you to be facing the target.

Conditioned.2467:

Now you claim to have more information on how to do an ileap correctly. Can you do that, with a high degree of precision

Absolutely.

So here’s the deal. You say it won’t transport you. There’s a couple things that could cause that.

Option 1: The clone doesn’t get summoned. This can happen for 2 main reasons. The most obvious is that you’re out of range. The skill will go on cooldown, but it’ll do nothing. This is pretty obvious though, so I’ll assume you’re using it at the proper range.

There is actually a bug associated with this. It happens very rarely though, so it isn’t your problem, but it’s worth mentioning. Sometimes if you’re close to maximum range but still in range the skill will act as though you’re out of range and just fail. This is a bug that still happens unfortunately.

Option 2: The clone dies. This is my guess as to the root of your issues. I haven’t seen you on these forums before, and looking at your forum posting history I see that you’ve been gone for about a year. What this tells me is that you may be unaware of a massive nerf that Anet smacked this skill with a month or so ago.

It used to be the case that you could swap to the clone’s last location even if it died. Anet, in their infinite wisdom, deemed this to be a bug after 2 years of the game and ‘fixed’ it. Now the swap only works if the clone is alive. Unfortunately, they didn’t feel the need to do the change properly. If the clone dies, the ‘swap’ skill still shows on your bar. You can use the swap…and simply nothing wil happen. This sounds like what you’re experiencing.

Due to this change, basically the only way left to use iSwap is to mash 3 as fast as possible to swap instantly, because the clone will die and make the skill fizzle if you do anything else.

Conditioned.2467:

Fay.2357:

Matron.8013:

Be sure your opponent that you are leaping to is inside your field of vision. I used to think it was front conical but you just have to have them visible on your screen or the leap will/may fail.

No, this isn’t even remotely accurate.

Care to be less vague? Maybe you have some insight into this that you could share?

I could tell you that you’re just bad and using it wrong, because it never fails for me. However, that wouldn’t be productive would it? So instead I asked you to elaborate on how it’s failing for you so that I could more accurately give you advice on how to do it better.

Since you decided not to, I’ll take the first option. Sounds like a personal problem to me.

Matron.8013:

Be sure your opponent that you are leaping to is inside your field of vision. I used to think it was front conical but you just have to have them visible on your screen or the leap will/may fail.

No, this isn’t even remotely accurate.

Conditioned.2467:

I´m talking about the fact that it fails in about 35-40% of cases.

Care to be less vague? How does it fail for you?

I’ve ditched air runes after they killed me a few times.

If you’re stealthed and you get hit, the 6th bonus can proc and reveal you. This has killed me before, and I rather have that not happen.

Sandrox.9524:

Fay.2357:

And when you say ‘almost every power build’, what you actually mean is ‘the power builds that for some reason never take anything in inspration, don’t have room for the mantra, aren’t able to take traited torch, and don’t want to take pDisenchanter’. We can simplify that down to ‘the build I use’.

Haha,that is a good one.
Didnt know the usual shatter build or the usual lockdown build are mine!

Ah, I suppose I misunderstood. I had assumed that you were using something other than shatter or lockdown because I’ve already explained in a quite detailed fashion why those builds do not need easier access to condition removal.