Guild Wars 2

Jeydra.4386:

Bump!

I now have three stalkers, and the amount of time I have to spend appearing invisible is ridiculous.

If people are harassing you and you explicitly told them to stop contacting/following you. Take screenshots demonstrating their behaviour and send it to support. That way they can determine whether these people should be banned or not. At least as far as I’m aware harassment is a ban worthy offense depending on each situation.

Most games use the combination of WASD and mouse to move around so it seems you had the unfortunate coincidence that you’ve only played games that use different movement systems.

I think this is a case of having to get yourself used to the different movement system which I would recommend doing as a lot of games use it. I think if you can’t get used to the WASD/Mouse combination you will have a hard time finding other games to play. Just keep trying and eventually you will get used to it.

As for pathing, there is no automated pathing in GW2 but you can alt mouse click on the map to place a waypoint so you can find the general direction of the area you want to go to.

As for exploring this is just a part of the game. You can’t expect to know your surrounding in real life until you have visited it. GW2 uses a similar principle. Instead of focusing on places to go on the map just look into your game environment instead immerse yourself and try to go to places that look interesting. The UI is just there to help guide you.

Guild Name: Destiny’s Edge [Edge]
Server: Desolation (EU)
Guild Type: Casual PVX
Members: 50 (10 semi-active)

I’m looking for guilds that would like to to merge with us and/or someone willing to do leadership duties with a fully upgraded guild that has been around since launch.

The reason is that I don’t really have the time or inclination to lead it properly anymore which isn’t fair on the current members. I’m burned out, want to take things easier and there is nobody in the guild able/willing to take over.

I don’t want to disband the guild as it’s been around so long and there’s still some active people (+ nostalgia). It would also mean that we need someone willing to actively do leadership duties such as recruiting, managing and entertaining members.

If anyone is interested or if you have further questions pm me on the forums, mail in-game or respond to this post.

That’s.. an interesting build name

You can also whisper yourself by typing /whisper yourname ‘link items here’ You get no suppression problems that way + you don’t annoy anyone with spamming item links.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Can confirm, have been stumped by Fay

Hmz, to quote this in my signature or not to quote in my signature….

I also want portals that automatically adjust their distance from one another so I don’t have to take the effort of gauging the best distance for myself! (Note how the guy dodge rolls back just once and in the next scene the portals are much further apart) … Seems legit.

I also wondered why the guy bothered wasting his portal when he could’ve just used the one beam attack to kill it in the first place and who uses portal in PvE anyway aside from jumping puzzles and exploiting?! Such a noob… Wasting cooldowns.

Secondly the bit with the human mesmer using staff. Why don’t we get to kill someone by staring at them, or with one attack that burns, for chaos storm to completely disable and kill enemies in agonizing death and I want to do that weird teleport skill that kills.

I also want the overpowered mirror image clones that will kill enemies for me with a couple of hits…

I guess I can see why they didn’t put these things in the game.. but still would be fun

Does it count if I already have?

I was looking back at one of the trailers about mesmers before the release of the game and half the skills they used in it either don’t exist or don’t work that way now. Which makes me sad. I know it’s just a preview but how I would love to have some of these abilities like a stealth field:

I’d like to point out that people would’ve complained if they had completely changed Halloween as well. I will say that I don’t like that they barely added anything new and instead took several things away.

Another insecure person? Really? Seriously, it’s just a colour… a nice colour at that. Using pink does not challenge your ‘manliness’ in any way or make you any less of a ‘man’. Just look at Pyro he rocks it

They actually significantly reduced the amount of times you hear that ‘mantra’ from before. It was a lot worse prior if I remember right.

mercury ranique.2170:

You can only imagine walking undead to be scary cause you have learned that walking undead are scary (thank you hollywood!). For a kid a rampaging golem or a giant spider can be as scary or even scarier. The thing is that you never know what is going to trigger fear at a child. Also it is different for each and everyone. Therefor my advise to only let them start playing when supervised. As a dad of mum, your presence alone helps in feeling more secure. Besides that when it happens it is a lot easier to have a talk with your kid straight away before the fear moment sets in and becomes a phoby.

Yes but by that notion you have to protect your kid from everything as you can’t know what will scare them or not. I think kids in general are far more resilient than people seem to think. I do agree with that I wouldn’t let a child play guild wars 2 unsupervised as you said it is a good reassurance to show there is nothing to be frightened of and answer any questions.

My main point of the risen is that although the child might not be scared of them it does confront them with a rather adult topic of death and decay that I wouldn’t think is appropriate for a 7-10 year old, especially if they take note and start asking questions which isn’t necessarily a bad thing but I think such a topic could be approached less gruesomely.

But this is why I suggested a game like Myst as it’s one of those games that has no violence without it being super childish in feel and so it can be an enjoyable learning experience to do together for both parent/child. I think games can be a really good medium for parent/child bonding rather than a medium designed to distract your kid to give you some peace.

mercury ranique.2170:

First off all, be aware that your technically breaking the user agreement. Account sharing is not allowed. Children are not an exception for this. However if it is not done structurally, I dont think Anet minds too much.

Also consider that the game is rated 12 years and older. These ratings are there for a reason. Even a mechanic like death can be overwhelming for kids. Often I heard lines like ‘my kid can handle it, he/she is so though’, but you never know what triggers a fear in a childs head and a kids sense of reality when experiencing fantasy is a lot less (so it’s much more real to them).

These two things combined I think specially for your oldest its ok to let him/her play when supervised by you, and only short periods. If he/she likes it you can get an account for him/her in lets say a year.

I think the only thing in this game that could be scary for young children are the risen which are essentially walking half decaying corpses I feel most of the rest of the game is pretty child friendly in the shock department. Sure people are dying but my little mario guy/lara croft died plenty when I was younger and I never thought it was overwhelming.

I think the important thing is to make sure to supervise them playing it and steer them away from areas with risen it would probably be okay (In my opinion).

As for easy professions I would go for either ranger, guardian or warrior.

And if you rather have your child play something that has no violence and is more educational just play the Myst series of games with them.

The mantra changes aren’t going to make mantra builds viable in sPvP. I do like the swap of the two traits but the toughness one is still lackluster I would remove it entirely and change it to a trait that reduces mantra cast time by a second if you use 3 or more mantras and probably put this trait into grandmastery, inspiration maybe?

I also second Pyroatheist in saying that I get the impression that when we do get buffs it’s in odd places where we didn’t necessarily need it or don’t really make sense half the time which makes me wonder if they actually pay any attention.

I mean if elementalists can stack burn/bleed on auto-attack surely we could get some better reliable conditions on scepter? Right now sword is preferable or staying mostly on staff.

Also being able to blind utility phantasms putting them on full cooldown is absurdly annoying seeing how much blind is going around in general and how important these phantasms are for survival. I would say that the utility phantasms should only go on half the cooldown time when disabled with blind or more equivalent to daze/stun.

Yeah, Mesmers are the signature unique profession in Guild Wars 2 but aren’t actually mainstream as statistics show (See screenshot). I would suggest just playing all the professions you are interested in until about level 20 and try out all the weapons they use to get a good feel of what they’re like to play and go from there.

Gamemode: All
Style: Mixed – Mantra Phantasm builds Zerker or Support.

I think this is awesomely hilarious and I hope they keep it that way

Let’s all make a bug report each in their own separate topic in Game Bugs section to say that Illusionary Leap has been broken since launch maybe they will finally fix it then (Just kidding don’t do this!).

Desolation (Which I hosted for) was one of the 11 servers that were running Pink Day in LA cancer charity events: http://pinkday.gamergivingback.com/

Everyone who wanted to participate in the in-game events had to wear pink so it’s not surprising that the prices went up a bit. But we raised over 9000 dollars so far from the events so

I had a great time hosting the event! Hope you guys all had fun. I made a slideshow of a few pictures I took sadly most of them are on low graphical settings as I had turned mine down to make sure I didn’t crash for that reason. (I ended up crashing anyway because I forgot to turn my graphics down!)

http://tinyurl.com/PDslideshow

Also someone was livestreaming the event for most of the day so if you missed it you can still check out what happened:

http://www.twitch.tv/lunatitch/profile/pastBroadcasts

I’ll be hosting things on Desolation EU so hope to see some of you there I’ll post some screenshots here from the event.

WitchKing.5317:

Hey fay sorry but the link goes to the old forum post.
Theres a new thread now in my signature.

Should be fixed now

Sorry for the delayed response. There is a charity event for cancer being held on the 19th (Pink Day in LA) and I’ve been tasked to host it on Desolation EU kind of last minute so I’m quite busy.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hey Fay, do you think Lockdown builds should get their own category? They don’t really fall under any of the above.

List of Lockdown Builds

I’ve added your list of lockdown builds let me know what you think and if you notice any issues

Virtuality.8351:

Suggestion: would it be better to separate the WvW builds into two section, roaming (solo or small team) and GvG (or zerg fighting, etc)? it should be easier for people to look up for the builds they need for particular circumstances.

And thanks for this post very helpful.

Feel free to point out specific GvG focused builds and I can add ‘GvG’ to the description at the end but I don’t feel there is a need for it’s own category as it’s more a play style rather than a build style.

As for zerging/roaming that is up to the builds owner to elaborate in their topic as to what the purpose of their build is. I try to keep the list concise with the bare details to keep it an easy overview. I think the dedicated gamemode of a build is enough.

LHound.8964:

Is it possible to add this build to the list?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/BUILD-Thorns-of-the-Rose-sPvP-WvW/first#post2498971

There is a lack of Scepter/Sword builds (only Pyro has a similar, that relies on a different core mechanic )

/cheers

Added the build

WitchKing.5317:

Hey fay,
Could you update the thread please? My corrupt build has changed, the name and traits but it can still stay in the mantra section.
Much appreciated
(Build in my signature)

Adjusted the build details let me know if you notice any mistakes

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Hey Fay, do you think Lockdown builds should get their own category? They don’t really fall under any of the above.

List of Lockdown Builds

Sounds like a good idea I’ll sort it out when I have some time

Haha! I just noticed your signature Chaos, that’s so funny! At least we managed to resuce the pillows in the end so it’s all good! Also you didn’t add me to all the category’s </3

Congratulations guys great builds

Lahel.6381:

I was wondering if I could have my build featured in this sticky?

ps: build in sig

I’ve added your build

There’s no option for all of the above

I’d just like to remind the people who say the dungeon is too hard that people said the same thing about all the other dungeons just after launch and every change thereafter.

Then after a few weeks everyone speedruns through it easily enough. Just give people time to learn the encounters (And yourself) and it’ll be much easier.

Are you from NA or EU? The two are separated so knowing where you intend on playing will help you find a guild

Astral Projections.7320:

I bet she is followed everywhere by hordes of Skritt. “Oooohhh SHINY”.

She should get herself a Skritt mini pet. ^^

To them I’m the holiest of shinies and they worship me wherever I go

<— The aforementioned shiny guild leader ^

Radioactive.1248:

It’s hard to find apologies when you aren’t looking. Here is one of them that I posted on this thread:

Radioactive.1248:

The staff himself has not shown himself to be remorseful in any way. He had somebody apologize on his behalf. How sincere is that? I apologized long ago, and continue to apologize at this juncture, but I’m sure many of you are just posting out of your kitten , eager to prove the GvG community (of which I am not an active member) is somehow solely at fault for the pathetic actions of an EMPLOYEE of the game. Did I use foul language? Yes. Should I have handled it in a different way? Definitely. Should the ANET employee be held to a higher standard? Yes, we are not employees, and yet we are man enough to apologize, not send a liaison to send a cookie cutter apology to the community and call it good. Don’t ask for the guild leaders to apologize if you are ok with ANET’s apology, ask for some random viewer who can “talk on my behalf” about “how sorry I am”.

But, I can see that when you dedicate so much time to being somebody’s personal excuse vendor, that you don’t have a lot left to verify your claims about what I did or didn’t do.

You don’t sound genuinely sorry for anything to me and that post doesn’t sound like an apology but just more accusations. Which is fair enough if you aren’t you aren’t. Just want this thread locked so we can move on from this insanity. I’ve said what I came to say and I stand by it.

Radioactive.1248:

The fact that this slow-paced GvG that was not in any way “one-sided” could be construed as kill trading should be looked at as a laughable and not even plausible excuse for the dev’s behavior. As the foul-mouthed raid leader, was it clear that I used foul language? Yes, I did, but I’m not an employee and ambassador of ANET. I paid for the game, I don’t get paid to make it a fun environment like the Dev does. There is a certain amount of respect an employee owes a customer and it was clear that this developer was very uninterested in showing us any respect because we weren’t playing the game his way.

Not being part of a company/organization of some sort doesn’t condone the use of verbal abuse towards other people regardless of setting. You can’t demand respect if none is given from the start on your end. “I paid for the game” and yes you paid the 50 something dollars for the game. This again doesn’t give you a free ticket to verbally abuse people.

The person in question from what I’ve discerned dedicates hours, days, months of hard work far beyond what is required to help make the game as good as it is. I’d get annoyed as well if I was in his position after I put that much hard work into something just to get people swearing at me because I stood in the wrong spot. Sure he made a mistake he shouldn’t have, he apologized for it. He can’t turn back time so what more do you expect?

You were equally if not more so in the wrong and I’ve yet to see an apology from your end instead you try to make excuses for your behavior when in actuality what you said was far worse than anything he did. But that is just my opinion. I just hope they lock this topic ASAP. As it’s gone far out of control.

Genev.2450:

And Lily, I would expect you to be aware that people ahve tried the polite route, repeatedly, only to get ignored without even a pat on the head (honestly, in that way gamers are like children – pat us on the head and we’ll be happy for a limited amount of time), and over time as people got more annoyed, the reactions by ANet got worse, creating a vicious cycle which honestly will at this point only be broken by an empty map thrown our way or by the release of the next game with mass PvP (so I heard there’s several in the works..).
And as you said, ANet is a business… Off the top of my head, I can think of several ways to make money out of GvG, and I’m not particularly the most creative person. Putting in the game mode would also spread it to people previously not involved in it, which would increase the revenue of it.

I know people are annoyed but really this isn’t the way to go about it. To single out one person and hold him responsible for all the wrong done and frustrations just isn’t fair on that person regardless of setting.

gennyt.3428:

There is your account of this person’s personality and then there’s the video >.>. Granted some of the comments went too far in my opinion. But if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck, its a duck. This person was acting like a kittenhead and they got called on it, as they should.

Nobody deserves to get 25 pages of public lynching over what he did. Nobody is a saint 24/7. I’m not saying the mistakes he made were right. I’m just letting people know he’s a good guy and loves the game as we do. He already feels remorseful about his mistake as Chris Whiteside has stated on his behalf which I believe is meant. There is no need for the ongoing hate train it’s completely out of proportion.

If you have an issue with WvW/GvG then put it on the doorstep of the people that are responsible for that not a person who is not.

Nuance.4872:

He didn’t apologize, ANet pr did.

He did apologize through Chris Whiteside. It’s part of Anet pr’s job to make public statements on employees behalf in such situations as they probably aren’t allowed to do so personally. Similar to having a lawyer read out your case/standpoint. Doesn’t mean it’s any less meant in the slightest. Knowing the person involved I believe it is. It’s just what company’s do and certainly isn’t a good excuse for the continued undeserved hatred.

Stark.1350:

This thread needs to be locked.

This ^

I second what Courin has stated and would like to add my own confirmation to what she said.

The Anet person in question is one of the most dedicated, passionate people I know when it comes to this game. I mean, I’m super dedicated to the game and he honestly puts me to shame in comparison.

Having had the pleasure to play the game with him and get to know him I’ve been watching this thread with horror because he’s literally the last person to deserve to be dragged through the mud. He’s a lovely, kindhearted and fun person that I’m honored to know and people in this thread are making complete incorrect assumptions about him.

Having watched the video myself all I see, knowing him is someone who tried to find out what was going on. Then got verbal abuse thrown at him and then tried to defuse the situation using his tag. Unfortunately this was taken completely the wrong way and blown way out of proportion.

I can guarantee he meant well and to be honest I feel he was correct in trying to resolve the situation at hand. He made some small mistakes in the way he did which then got woefully misinterpreted, blown out of proportions and all this hatred towards him is seriously undeserved no matter who he is or what he does.

This whole ordeal reminds me of an angry incoherent mob with their pitchforks and torches ready to lynch someone over the slightest thing despite said person being innocent of all the unrelated accusations/complaints being made in regards to GvG/WvW which he is not responsible for.

Also. As Courin said, I’m not speaking on this persons behalf. I just can’t stand seeing people wrongly accuse someone whose kind.

I understand peoples frustration in regards to the GvG/WvW subject but that’s no excuse for this public lynching of a single unrelated person. Secondly to those people who keep demanding GvG. What do you expect them to do? Magically pull a whole new game mode out of thin air?

GvG is done by a minority of players. Anet is a business. If they do decide to implement GvG it would be out of love for their playerbase as they certainly wouldn’t make money out of it and if anything loose money as they’d have to pay a team to build it. Such a process would take a long time that is if they even will.

So, have some patience and see what happens in a year or two. And maybe if you’d ask nicely instead of throwing abuse at Anet they’d be more likely to consider it.

If you really hate the game so much if there is no GvG then perhaps you should play something else in the meantime till they do instead of spamming livestream chats, making demands and constantly creating a negative and toxic environment in the community. You’re just making it less likely anything will happen and just annoy people in the process by being rude.

Just send all the people affected by the change a free hair change kit.

Great work! I’ve added it to the guide section of the stickied build/guide list.

JQKAndrei.8705:

umm, there isn’t any GSword & Sword/Pistol build for WvW, they don’t work well in WvW or what?

i use that and i like WvW so i wanted to learn more about my build but there isn’t any?

I would check out the builds that use gsword & sword/focus or sword/sword. They should be in-line with sword/pistol builds.

I’d personally probably go for/try something like this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8alwzipXVTqGa9IxZGKn5kZo6UXSBvzNA-jEyAYfioZKyQ0oPwpvioxWzKiGruGT5SEVbwLiWtUAjKMC-w

I went for more precision/crit there so your duelist illusion will stack more bleeds. Other than that it would be a pretty standard power build. I added some vitality to it so you wouldn’t drop like a fly instantly but if you mostly run with the zerg I would try to add more toughness/vitality as the power of a zerg comes from it’s numbers and ability to survive, not so much pure damage.

If you prefer skirmishing however and are used to running Berserker you can take the chance and go less tanky just don’t be surprised to get steamrolled by an enemy zerg. If you like to shatter more than keep your phantasms up you’d want to go into Illusions more and I’d also check out Osicats builds: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-WvWvW-Pve-Shatter-Cat-Updated-16-8

Pyroatheist.9031:

This should probably be put on the list as well: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Dungeons-Phantasm-build-s/first#post2884450

I’ve added it, thanks for the suggestion

skcamow.3527:

Our AoE condition cleansing is going to be obscene as it is, but throw null field in there for blink, trait glamour reduction instead of mender’s purity (because you will be “passively” cleansing yourself constantly anyway) and it starts getting a bit ludicrous. No class can come even close to this without blast finishers. Plus that AoE boon strip = amazing on points.

That’s the idea and the way we can be useful again as we’d be the hard counter against the condition meta. I wouldn’t go full on condition removal as you already have the shatter and mantra condition removal + the healing to counter condition damage. Adding nullfield to it is unnecessary for condition removal but the boon removal would be a plus. I think there are a lot of variations and options you can go for depending on your teams requirement.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Im still torn between MoPain for heals and MoDistraction for control/safer mantra charges.

Hey Fay how did you change font size?

The forum uses Textile Formatting I use that to format my posts.

Because the build I devised is heavily focused on healing/condition removal to combat conditions MoP is preferable as you can get more healing output when required. You can of course swap it out for MoD or MoC whatever your team requires more but I like the extra bit of damage you can do with MoP to make up for some of the loss of damage due to stats as well as do damage while casting other mantras.

I’m going to be testing this following build when the changes take place I decided to pick 3x mantra trait over the 20% mantra recharge reduction as I feel it will be more efficient and less time wasted charging mantras.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7fl4zipHRTkGb9IxpHQ35Tn0jS/6VXqQsB-T0AA1CmIuRdj7GzNybs3MaY1w+jTDvGA

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I hope I don’t count as a “wiser” Mesmer. =[

I was dungeon running with Fay and Pyro once, I made a “running away like a wet girl” crack AND a lude “That’s what she said..” joke.

… Then Fay beat me up in sPvP.

Haha! You aren’t that bad give yourself some credit

Chaos Archangel.5071:

To your point, that’s actually a really huge issue that should be addressed ASAP; Mantras shouldn’t lose their charge when downed.

But that’s why I always run staff whenever I’m running Mantras, Phase Retreat and Chaos Storm + Armor are such great defenses for charging (and would help a bit with the getting up from downed issue).

Also, with the build I posted, I the Stability mantra would allow me to charge the other mantras unmolested. Still, it’ll have to be put into practice before I can really say how well it works.

I’ve used MoRecovery + Pain for a while in sPvP while I was trying to come up with a sort of Bunker/Healer (Had mixed results. I still feel Mes mechanics make us lousy bunkers) and with Cleric’s gear at least, MoRecovery was working really well. Having a high regeneration obviously was also a big help, but I didn’t have too much issue charging Recovery mid fight (I was interrupted a couple times, but MoPain also healed me when charged). I know in theory it feels like you’ll be interrupted nearly every time you use a Mantra, but in practice its actually not too bad.

I use MoRecovery way earlier than I would for Ether feast to keep me constantly topped off, so even when I was interrupted I still had some life/defenses to spare. That being said, I only tried it for a couple days. In PvE/WvW I have very little issue though, and I live by MoRecovery/MoPain/Regeneration for heals there.

(Btw, I hope you don’t mind I added your build to the Lockdown list)

Staff is definitely great for Mantra charging with phase retreat which is another reason why support/condition builds are preferable as Staff and Torch both give that much needed moment in time to charge Mantras.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Oh, and to answer Fay’s question, I think something like a .4 reduction of Mantra cast time would be perfect.

Someone also had the idea that Mantras begin their cooldown immediately after being charged, the way Mimic/Echo does. I like that idea a lot too.

Another cast decrease would definitely help and also the cooldown. Good ideas!

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Hey Fay, I ran out of editable space in my old guide, so I put all the things in a new complete one, which offers me some room to expand.
Maybe you can change the link in the list to

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Kai-s-Complete-PvE-Compendium/first#post2848334

I’ve changed the link, thanks for letting me know and keep up the great work!

First a question to all of you: What would you do to improve mantras and their traits to make them viable in PvP if you could?

tetrodoxin.2134:

I never checked how much it heals.

The healing power scaling on Restorative mantras isn’t amazing if you go full on healing power you may peak it just over 3k per cast if I remember correctly.

I actually really like your trait layout, I just wish Protected Mantras was more useful than just adding 400 toughness.

skcamow.3527:

That AoE condition cleanse is going to be powerful and won’t require mesmers to go 30 into inspiration for shattered conditions anymore. I may even think about swapping the daze mantra for stability, but would take more away from the lockdown focus.

Daze has always been one of the best mantras for PvP for it’s effectiveness in completely shutting people down the problem with it is of course that it’s single target and takes considerable time to charge + cooldowns and because of it other utility has been preferable to equip over MoD as there are options more reliable, faster and more effective.

The daze mantra is viable on it’s own to go along with a build but I don’t think it fits in with a viable full on mantra build as such. Despite lockdown builds being powerful with it being a condition heavy meta, dazes don’t stop conditions once applied.

Xaylin.1860:

I felt that ranged weapons are more suitable for mantras because of the recast. Did okay but not great. I had trouble recasting the Mantras and I am also not used to fighting with the scepter.

Yes, scepter is definitely still subpar with it being a hybrid weapon. The reason I used it myself in the above builds is for torment which will make your opponent want to move less to avoid damage giving you time to move away from them and the occasional clone to shatter for condition removal will also be helpful.

Sword is too much designed to get you near your enemy. Scepter helps you to stay more mobile and since you are focused on support not damage it can be somewhat ignored that the scepter does mediocre damage.

Kupi.7864:

I’m guessing there’s at least a few good reasons why it actually isn’t viable for sPvP.

This is what you’d want to do if you tried running a daze/damage mantra build but the problem is that you forgo so much defense sacrificing utility and defensive stats that it makes you far too vulnerable to make it realistically viable. You essentially significantly cripple yourself for a little bit extra damage which isn’t worth it.

Haftoof Dustpaw.2936:

I think Matra’s are solid, I like them but I don’t think that the “Mantra” related perks are in the right trees. Currently they are spread over 3 entire trees! that’s redic.

The mantra traits are one major problem. They’re all over the place and contradictory in purpose that it’s difficult to make a build around it. As for support lacking, well that’s what I’m hoping to find out. Right now Mesmers aren’t up to par as a damage spec because of the conditions making other professions preferable.

But if our support is strong enough and as useful as a for example guardians then we may be able to fill a role there that people want. The role being to counter the millions of conditions flying around. If it works out in practice it could be a very strong build.

Like everyone else I’m concerned by the time requirement to cast mantras and how vulnerable it makes you while casting it. Will it pay off? Won’t know till we get our hands on trying the new AOE mantras and try it out in practice.

selan.8354:

the problem with mantras is that they can get interrupted quite to easily and in the current spam meta, they are not really viable yet. also the traitlines for mantras are pretty random.

This is definitely their weakness and that’s why you want to try to mitigate it with stealth and your team supporting you but it’s tough going that is for sure but the upcoming changes might just push them over the edge of being viable. There is potential there but it’s hard to say till it’s tried.

selan.8354:

the problem is that we are duelists and a lot of our dps come from clones(shatter) or phantasms.

That’s the great thing about mantras though, you don’t rely on your phantasms/clones as much as you would normally. I just think right now the difficulty/time requirement to deal with mantras does not pay off properly.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

- Link to Build -

Good build setup! Seems like we all seem to come up with different variations hoping to achieve a similar thing. It will be interesting to try all the different setups to see what works best in practice.

Maybe they should hide the boxes of the mini-pets that are extremely rare like this one. That way it at least looks like you have your collection complete.

Edit: Additional question for you guys; What would you change about mantras and their traits to make them viable in PvP if you could?

— Mantra Viability —

So, let’s focus on the positives first with the upcoming mantra changes. They are actually starting to improve mantras! -Big cheers all around!-

• AOE condition removal
• AOE stability
  source: Upcoming Balance Changes

Still a long way to go for mantras as a whole but I’ve been thinking about it and I feel that mantras may be viable now as support in PvP.

— Let’s Theorycraft —

So let’s theorycraft on how viable this could make mantras in PvP (As they already are for PvE).

First of the only way we could make mantras viable currently in sPvP would be to go in the tankiest spec possible. There will be periods of time where you will obviously be exposed as you cast mantras so you won’t be able to dish out a lot of damage + the time requirement with casting mantras also takes away from damage up-time. The upside is that you can do superb team support.

Right now mesmers are sitting largely on the sideline since the condition meta hit because we struggle with the conditions. Support builds I feel are the answer for us to make a comeback and builds focusing on support are the key. Mantra healing and AOE condition removal are a great solution. So I’ve come up with some ideas that may work in practice.

— Build Ideas —

First build: Heal Focused

The main purpose of the build is to heal up your team as much as possible and removing conditions. I’m aware that restorative mantra healing power scaling is pretty bad but added up across several mantras it makes a big difference.

Secondly you will be receiving a lot of regeneration from your runes and trait skills which gets passed on to your team to combat conditions. The best counter against conditions apart from removal is healing. We have tons of that to dish out.

That gives you two sources of healing:

• Direct 2.8k+- Mantra Healing
• Regeneration through traits/runes

And gives you five sources of condition removal, three of which are team based.

• Condition removal on shatter
• Power Cleanse
• Disenchanter
• Mender’s Purity
• Cleansing Conflagration

Second build: Boon Focused

This one I thought to go more towards focusing on the boons with boon duration and signet of inspiration passing along boons while still maintaining a healthy dose of healing.

Third build: Condition Removal Focused

With this one I went full on condition removal it only uses two mantras in the build but it’s all about the condition removal in team fight. I don’t really feel like quite this much condition removal is needed but it may be worth a shot.

— The Issues —

So of course it’s not as simple as equipping some mantras and it’ll work! sPvP is fast paced, high damage environment and the time it takes to cast mantras is generally what the problem is.

This is why I kept choosing torch as one of the weapons of choice as well as mass invisibility. Stealth will give you the time you need to cast a mantra (or two).

Secondly you can opt to equip the new AOE stability mantra over mantra of pain which you can also use to prevent being interrupted or even better your team can look out for you with additional stealth, stability and boons.

It’s important to remember that the Mantra support mesmer is a team player. Your team needs to work with you strategy wise for it to work adequately. But just think about it if your team supports you how glorious the condition removal will be. How nicely the healing will counter all those nasty conditions. Your team would greatly benefit from having you there. I honestly feel it’s worth a second look.

Downside of this clearly is you will need an experienced team, experienced mesmer who can really put this to the test. I’m very much looking forward to seeing how it plays out. Right now I feel it could go either way in viability.

I just know that when last I tried running mantras as a build in sPvP that it almost worked but not quite but that was before the mantra cast reduction, before the upcoming AOE changes and before the condition meta. Mantras are weak versus burst, but condition rules right now so time to dust off those mantras and see if we can make a come back

I would love to see what ideas people come up with and what people think of my ideas.

Thanks for the big compliment Chaos. (Large wall of text inbound:)

I’ve been a firm believer from the start to play what you enjoy. When I first gained the Dungeon Master title in the first month or so of the games release. Nobody was really doing speed runs because nobody knew the optimal tactics at the time and it was fun, discovering, learning, experiencing the content.

In fact I distinctly remember how Mesmers were the least liked profession in dungeons and people advertising groups stating ‘No Mesmers’ at the time this was because nobody knew much about Mesmers or how to play the class properly.

Like yourself I don’t like skipping mobs and cheesing fights constantly. To me this feels like ignoring the fight mechanics, ignoring the content there. It’s not fun to do in my opinion and although I can see some of these speed run strategies require a little bit of practice/skill I feel it requires more general experience and skill to do all the encounters properly without cheesing it.

Because at the end of the day, if you don’t skip or cheese all the encounters you actually get confronted with the mechanics of the game. The more mechanics you are experienced with countering the better your general knowledge and skill in the game will be.

This also goes for expanding your experience across game modes. After gaining a lot of experience with the dungeon and PvE content I dove into WvW and found a whole new level of experiences that I was unpracticed and inexperienced at. Suddenly I had to adjust my play-style, become better and learn new things.

It went even further when I then expanded into sPvP. I honestly am a firm believer that although being good at one game mode doesn’t automatically make you good at another. I certainly feel the lessons you learn in each will improve your overall ability in the game and as a Mesmer as a whole.

I often see people from each game mode make fun of the other. For example I see WvWers/sPvPers make derogatory comments about PvEers as if they’re bad but then if you place them into a dungeon they are 9 times out of 10 dreadful. Expanding your general knowledge can only improve your ability as a player.

Being tunnel visioned into one game mode, ignoring game mechanics by skipping things. This hampers your growth as a player. You hold yourself back by cheesing/ignoring things.

I even feel this way about things like SAB. People don’t like it, because it’s hard. But practicing in SAB tribulation mode improves your precision and timing overall. I think jumping puzzles in general have helped me improve as a Mesmer. Or with the Gauntlet having to fight a boss like Liadri. All these things add up to making you a better player.

So, to not run builds because they aren’t optimal cheese factories is only limiting your own ability and experience in the game. Sure it’s what some people enjoy but it’s actually only running a certain build and cheesing content that makes you overall a worse player than players who experiment and learn by expanding their experience and knowledge.

I know there’s this whole culture of speed running in gw2. Everyone’s eyes are on getting the most reward the fastest. For me it’s always been about the journey. Enjoying the road to the end, enjoying the now before it passes, enjoy the company of the people there and that’s why I rarely pug groups because you loose out of experience from skipping content as well as the social interaction with others that make the game more fun.

I truly wish more people would forgo speed running but it’s just general human nature to try to gain things the fastest, easiest. You can explain this to people as much as you like but people will do what they do and all you can really decide is what you do yourself and the people you do it with.

But if you really want to become better as a player as a Mesmer you will have to dive into all aspects of the game and try different builds extensively and always seek the hardest encounters. That is my advice to anyone wanting to improve anyway.