Guild Wars 2

I can login but now I’m getting MASSIVE lag while in game with occasional disconnects. My guildies experiencing the same thing. Everyone’s just rubber banding all over the place.

Skill lag and culling are not related. My fps has actually improved slightly with the new culling changes. Skill lag is a completely unrelated issue which has gotten worse recently and will need an additional fix.

Major cause for skill lag being the giant blobs and it’s enhanced even more so today because everyone is in WvW trying out the new culling changes so skill lag is even worse than normal with the maps filled to the brink with people.

On the plus side at least we can now see where the enemy is so you can see what it is that is killing you and moving/dodging you can still do without lag so you have a little bit more control with it but still not being able to heal sucks.

Terrahero.9358:

Progression is both in stats and in looks. If you want nice things, you still have to do PvE.
And honestly, with the added gold cost a set now runs into ~10g. WvW is not a moneymaker. So besides the badge farm, you also have to spend gold to buy stuff. PvE is still a considerably better option. Not only is it faster, but you EARN gold while doing it instead of having to spend it.

No. This is not what people wanted. What we got is still a loooooong shot away from PvE. And considering we’ve had to wait this long for it… This isnt some highly complicated mechanic… New gear and vendors are added all the time. This was supposedly the WvW patch. Why do we get such a half done system!?

kash.9213:

By all accounts they didn’t really improve anything, they just flipped the switch on culling which was their move to switch on to begin with, and that’s about it as far as performance goes. Everything else seems to be a badges or trading post decision for using different stat combos, I can’t think of any WvW players I know who will care much about unique w3 skins or those new abilities or titles.

I definitely agree that new skins would be nice I never disagreed with that I’m just saying people are overreacting about the armour they added. It’s one step forward in improving things and is one of the MANY things people wanted. I’m pretty sure they will add more unique looks to wvw but probably have limited resources to work on everything people want fixed or added.

And we also don’t know how much work went into making what they did now. It might seem like a simple fix to us but fixing problems in games can be very complex to overhaul entire systems. I’ve only had a glimps into game design and could tell how complex things can get.

There’s plenty of room for improvement across the board just need to accept these things are going to take time to develop and when they do roll out improvements to appreciate them for what they are. I just feel people nowadays are so ‘must have everything right now’ what happened to patience and gratefulness? It’s not like you are tied to a subscription forcing you to play the game.

I think people are misunderstanding the reason for why this armour was added and maybe should look more at the positive side of the improvement.

First people QQ that they have to do PvE to obtain the exotics with different stat combinations. So Anet puts in gear with different stat combos that allows you to stay in WvW yet people still QQ. Seriously if people rage quit because they got what they asked for but didn’t get a shiny skin that’s just sad tbh.

Sure new unique skin looks for WvW would be nice but that doesn’t change the fact that this is an improvement. I also highly disagree with putting unique dungeon skins in WvW. Those skins are for the those specific dungeons only. I’m all for more unique skins but current unique skins should stay with the places you obtain them from and should stay unique to that content.

So yes you get crappy basic skins but at least you get the stat combinations you need within WvW itself. Just like everyone I would love to see nicer unique skins for WvW and I’m pretty confident that they will in time but until they can invest resources into making these we at least have access to good gear.

In this patch you’ve received huge improvement in culling, you get different stat options for gear, you get character progression so you have a new purpose within WvW to work on. Maybe focus on all that’s been added and not what has not yet been added.

Things take time to develop especially in a game type that requires careful balancing/testing and there’s only so many resources that can be invested in various things. I sincerely appreciate the improvements we have received this patch and knowing they will continue to work on improving things is great as well just have to be more patient. The game only has been out 7 months and loads of content has been added/improved since launch and they will continue to improve all parts of the game. I really don’t understand the negative attitude whenever improvements are made people act so ridiculously entitled sometimes.

As for ascended gear. Who cares about that unless you are into hardcore gear threadmill fractal grind. Those couple of extra stats aren’t going to make the difference between winning or losing in WvW. If you want more competitive pvp you can do spvp. WvW at the end of the day is just a giant open world free for all, mostly casual pvp zone. Things aren’t controlled nor fair so who cares about about a couple more stats that mean nothing when majority of the time fights are uneven, this isn’t WoW where a couple of extra stats = win.

Strange Box appears in Rata Sum

Stuff is going down! Can’t wait to find out what this is about

I think its a good change the only thing I would suggest is perhaps have it so the titles become more see-through when there are large amounts of people nearby in WvW just so people can see what’s going on in battle.

Eternal Battleground on Desolation EU just crashed. Can’t reconnect get ‘connection error’ code=1069:9:17:3148:101

It seems I can’t access WvW at all.

Edit: That was a quick response from the dev team:

Jason King.2647:

Hey everyone,

We’ve temporarily disabled WvW to fix a server crash. More information from Matt Witter can be found here.

Love how scepter is more viable now already made a build for it with the improvement in mind. Also love greatsword being multi target but yea timewarp won’t be so OP anymore.

eldenbri.1059:

Thanks for all the great builds and guidance, Fay.

I’ve been experimenting with Scepter but from a power build perspective. I like to fight from range, so I have been trying Greatsword and Scepter/Pistol. Combining this with 30 points in domination and using mantra of distraction is pretty fun. If I start off with mirror blade, shatter that clone with diversion, and then hit mantra of distraction, I’m up to 13 stacks of vulnerability. Then it’s pretty quick to get off berserker, switch to scepter/pistol, cast duelist, hit magic bullet, and then do confusing images on the scepter. I’m assuming magic bullet should give the “inactive” state that’s needed for Wastrel’s Punishment (I would love the “definitive” answer to what triggers this skill). It’s easy to toss in three shots of mantra of pain in that sequence as well.

I like how you’ve managed to create a totally new build around scepter. I’m really curious to see how the patch turns out.

Thx again for all the great info – I learn a lot from you!

I believe Wastrel’s trait refers to when someone isn’t using abilities for example when they are stunned or dazed.

I like the idea of using scepter as a power weapon my only concern is that confusion doesn’t last an awful long time so you want it to do as much damage as possible when your foe does use an ability so I always prefer using it with a condition build. I think scepter is kind of in the middle in regards to power and condition which is a very strange mix to say the least and both are feasible, I guess if I want to do power damage I just much prefer sword for that.

Thedenofsin.7340:

Does running 30/20/0/20/0 provide more damage than 20/30/0/20/0? I’ve been running the latter for some time in dungeons, as it provides the additional +4% damage per readied mantra, while still being able to swap to reflect focus if needed.

Because the 4% Damage is dependent on how many mantras you have readied and because you are constantly using them it doesn’t allow for a reliable damage increase where as with Harmonious mantras you can use more mantras more reliably especially the extra daze is very useful.

I think the 4% damage one would be most desirable in conjuction with Harmonious mantras but this basically means you are far more berserker than you really want to be as a mantra mesmer. It could be a feasible option in a hybrid build where you compromise one of you mantras for survival utility which means 3x less mantras readied.

Certainly it’s possible but I found that without restorative mantras and the additional vitality/healing that you become far too vulnerable. It’s a careful balance game between doing enough damage to do bursts effectively and not being too vulnerable as you can’t hide behind your clones as much you need some additional protection. 2600+ healing every time you cast your mantras is VERY nice.

I don’t mind the timewarp nerf even I could see it was far too powerful. I’m just happy they also buffed scepter and greatsword so it’s not all bad.

A lot of other MMO’s have special servers dedicated to open world pvp where you go out into the leveling zones and gank random people trying to level up.

Guild wars 2 has done away with this by creating open world zones with pvp as it’s focus. This is actually a good thing because it means your ‘open world’ pvp experience is overall far better because everything around you was designed with this in mind without doing away entirely with the feel of open world.

So yes there is some PvE in WvW but a large part is about PvP. WvW was more intended as an alternative choice for leveling up characters etc. to normal PvE as well as obviously some competition but people have taken it so serious that they forget that the leveling up and casual play is also part of WvW and that WvW will never be strictly competitive because unlike sPvP fights aren’t strictly controlled nor fair. WvW is like a huge free for all where anything can happen.

Difference now is that competitive guilds have found that zerging is the most effective method in WvW to win (generally though not strictly this is indeed often the case). I get the impression however that WvW was never intended to be so much about the blobs and that large fights could happen but that skirmishing would’ve had a far greater roll than it does now. To be honest I would prefer seeing the blob versus skirmish ratio better balanced.

I’m glad they are slowly improving WvW step by step, I suspect some awesome things within the next couple of years from WvW. Gotta give them time to implement improvements step by step. Doing away with culling is a huge leap forward in improving wvw. I know the problems are frustrating but they are being dealt with just got to be more patient and appreciate any improvements being made at the end of the day you can always take a break and play something else for a while if you are really annoyed by the issues yet to be fixed.

As for OP, I don’t see how Racial sets should be available for badges. Granted monetary rewards in WvW are dire versus some pve content farming but that’s a problem to do with reward balancing and not to do with pve content (That said WvW rewards are a bit better now with the better loot drops from one of the recent patches). 100 something gold is a lot no matter if you play pve or wvw.

Not enough Asura in this thread!

FLIMP.8172:

Awww… how anti-climatic. I thought you some how conjured a mantra-confusion build :p

That would be so awesome if they made a confusion mantra or a trait that adds confusion to mantra of pain or something. Sadly mantras and condition builds aren’t really compatible for now. They are mostly for power and support builds.

Maybe we should poke some devs to revamp Mantra of Concentration to be about conditions instead. There are maybe a couple of occasions where Mantra of Concentration is really of use. Maybe if they made the stability last a long time then it could be past on with Signet of Inspiration in a support build and not be an entire waste but a revamp to be condition build compatible would be nice as well.

On another note, I just finished shooting some more videos for the Panacea support mantra build and am editing them as we speak so expect a video tutorial on it in next couple of days \o/

Phloww.1048:

Your new Kydoi build trait setup is exactly what I have that I’ve posted here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Glamour-Builds-I-m-New/first#post1688405

However, weapon-wise, I went with scepter/focus + GS. I’m having a lot of fun with this setup and I’ll be giving yours a try too! I am also looking forward to the new ‘beam’ improvements and hope there will be more than just that!

Thanks for sharing such great builds!

Same point division but different trait choices but you know what they say great minds think alike! I think a build like it will be very viable with the improvement to scepter and there will definitely be room for more build variety now that the scepter is not a complete waste of time anymore (in pvp anyway).

I’ve added the new Celestial build by Remus as well as my own new Confusion build Kydoi. I will be adding the word New in front of any new builds I add from now on so you can easily see what’s been recently added. I will remove the new part whenever I add new builds.

There will be some changes to the mesmer profession soon according to what Anet has been saying in the podcast (possibly this patch) so get ready to update your builds or at least clarify that it’s still working as intended on your various posts etc. as I will be adding * In front of all builds to indicate that they are out of date till further notice (That is if there are significant changes upcoming patch).

I will also go through and prune some of the less detailed build posts and remove builds that aren’t updated after a couple of weeks grace period from patch day. To keep the list up-to-date and oversee-able to both new and veteran players.

I’ve finally managed to find some time to add another build to my website and make some adjustments here and there. I’ve been insanely busy of late. So without further ado I would like to introduce:

Kydoi Confusion Build

I theorycrafted and tested this confusion/shatter/glamour/condition build keeping in mind the improvements to Confusing Images as mentioned during the SOTG podcast. It’s already a very solid build and I expect some awesome results with the new improvement coming up.

I have also been recording some videos for the Panacea build and made some minor adjustments to traits and advice but have not yet edited the videos together. Only problem is they wont be perfectly accurate in representation because getting the right exotic gear is expensive I simply haven’t had the time to grind for it so rares will have to do! Regardless the Panacea build is very effective and great support.

Additionally I’ve been writing a comprehensive mesmer guide for beginners. It is not yet finished so for now there is only a placeholder guide on the website however expect many goodies in the next few weeks! Hope you are all as excited about the mesmer improvements to beam attacks as I am and I hope as always that you will find my builds useful.

Just wait till you’re lvl 80 and have a go against subject alpha or lupicus see how far you get without dodging

I think the idea with it being soulbound and alts is that you can invest points in offensive abilities when you are on an offensive orientated character and you can invest points in defensive abilities if you are a defensive character and slowly build up your characters that way, I don’t think the abilities are so vital that you weaken yourself in any significant way if you do not get them all on one character right away.

I get the impression that the various categories give a tiny advantage but not in a game breaking overpowered sense it would require a lot of work to get one character completely leveled up with wxp but I do not think it’s really ‘needed’ either. With so many people placing points in various things it will all largely balance itself out when within a group.

I think it also depends a lot on what you do in WvW, do you mostly zerg or skirmish etc. if you are with a coordinated guild you could even better define roles within your group.

Sure 5 extra supply is very useful and saves you having to run to a camp as often but it isn’t very often that you run out of supplies in big zergs if the commander knows what they’re doing and knows when to resupply/build seige and knows when to send some people to quickly grab some supplies while the rest holds the position etc.

If anything it’s smaller groups that would benefit from it most. If everyone in a small group had the extra 5 supplies it would be as if there was an extra person there carrying supply allowing them to build better/more siege without having to leave their defensive position and thus can accomplish more with less numbers.

Still overall I think none of the progression things being added appear to be super vital to success nor are they useless I feel they struck the right balance with it and if anything adds a little more depth to WvW for the hardcore players. At least, I guess we’ll find out the details after patch.

She’s watching you…

(Couldn’t resist!)

Supply Capacity is far more costly than any of the other categories if you look at the picture just one bit in Supply Capacity is 20 points while the others are all 5 or so. So they do understand the value of more supply and therefor made it hardest to progress in. So you’d have to figure out what’s more of an advantage only a couple more supplies over a long period of time or putting in some points in other areas to help against siege defense/damage or against guards etc.

thisolderhead.5127:

Moral implies truth – we are talking about the name of a made up group, in a game, set in an imaginary fantasy land, and the unhindered and unchallenged seizure of its property…

Its a stretch to say there is an ethical question to be answered, definately not moral.

Just because the world we interact in with each other isn’t real doesn’t mean the people behind the characters aren’t real. Social decency should still apply unfortunately there’s always people who feel like you that because it’s online that somehow makes it okay to behave badly. If anything that says a lot about you as a person in general, I’d personally stay clear of anyone who acts nicely in real life but treats people online like trash, to me that’s an incredibly two-faced thing I wouldn’t trust that kind of person.

pahldus.1678:

There is a bad link on Akkichan’s Boon Dispenser build, it goes to Pyro’s Phantasm support build instead.

Thank you for pointing that out it should be fixed now

I can confirm that items stolen from guild bank are not returned as we had a person who was hacked in our guild few months back and who took everything from the vault which support couldn’t return (might have changed now but I don’t believe it has).

As for the blame on GM, yes it’s silly to store 200g in guild bank that is accessible to everyone as people can’t be relied on to comply by normal decent manners and integrity over the internet as much as in real life however that does not make it right to steal and it’s most definitely not a good excuse.

To the people saying it’s okay to steal everything that’s ridiculous. That’s like saying it’s okay to stay over at some family’s house and eat/drink everything out of their fridge/cupboards. Those items are clearly meant to be shared, it would be selfish, rude and theft to take those items as you didn’t buy them so they aren’t yours to do with as you please just because you have courtesy access.

Any decent person would ask for more valuable items as well (like a bottle of expensive champagne). Just because you are able to take everything and the family didn’t lock the fridge doesn’t mean it’s okay to take everything and that it isn’t theft.

That so many people seem to be okay with doing so is pretty appalling.

I remember a while ago there was a massive battle in garrison and I was at redwater supply camp and couldn’t use any of my abilities so it’s not like it only makes it unplayable near big zerg clashes but it makes entire borderlands grind to a halt. So if culling gets fixed but not the lag problem then it doesn’t really matter as you can’t really play either way so I do hope they will fix this problem.

Loved the old loading screen but the main thing it reminds me of is the sometimes hours of spamming the login button trying to get in because the login servers were overwhelmed by people trying to get on So had to listen to this music and watch login screen for ages building up excitement (and frustration)! Totally worth it though

Mantra builds are a lot about micro management you want to use other abilities while casting them (shatters/mantras/blink etc.).

It’s only really useful if you use mantra of pain (allowing you to spam the heal as mantra of pain does not have a cooldown) and/or full mantra builds (2-4 mantras in utility). In which case it gives some nice additional heals on top of your normal one.

Check out my Panacea mantra support build. Hope that helps

You can also check out the Hecate build which is mostly damage with a bit of mantra healing support, can always attempt to hybrid them.

When there’s a patch that significantly changes how builds work I will put a * in front of all the builds to indicate that the builds might no longer work as intended till they are updated. So far none of the patches have been significant enough of a change that it has been required and the current builds are still viable. Any builds that are not updated for some time I will most likely remove to keep the list as current as possible.

I definitely feel there needs to be an improved system put into place when it comes to such problems. Recently there was another person Tiger Ashante I think? Who also ran into a lot of problems with lack of support for guildleader system problems.

Edit: Yea I found the topic here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/I-was-guild-leader-and-I-m-now-the-lowest-ranking-member

If a guild leader can demote themselves by accident and not get help I very much doubt you will get help with the guild mission issue. I don’t think there’s any protocols in place for these kind of situations perhaps?

Fuzzion.2504:

Nice ! I have added it to the screenshot list. Hope u dont mind

Not at all Those pink quaggan are so adorable!

No, it’s because more people are doing the events now for the guaranteed rare a day (ectos) I personally think it’s great as ectos we’re far too expensive or at the very least if you didn’t buy them incredibly hard to collect.

Wesley.4590:

1st case:
That’s pretty much an example of sketchy stuff. Getting an Achievement with someone else’s money is of course not the right way to go.

That’s hardly sketchy I mean how is it any different from someone giving him the money or earning the money he still had the money for the achievement regardless of how long he was in possession of it. As long as it’s properly earned money and not bought from gold sellers then it’s their prerogative on what they use the gold for. Nothing wrong with helping someone get an achievement.

If that was the case then all those people being carried through dungeons or paying for dungeon master title should be banned also (Not saying that I necessarily agree that it’s an honest way of achieving them as I personally feel it’s a cheap way of getting them but it’s not a sketchy or bannable offense).

Same problem here

Server: Desolation (Europe)
Code: 42:6:3:2158
Build: 16845

Meanwhile at Anet the server technicians are hard at work:

(Sorry just never get’s old)

Embolism.8106:

Oh yeah, you can abuse MoP and RM for AoE Healing, but I wouldn’t call that a Mantra build. Burst is more relevant in PvP than PvE, so my point holds. So is Daze, for that matter.

Still can’t say I agree. I use mantra of pain and mantra of recovery in my Panacea support build which gives two heals to party on use of each as well as the rune triggers on MoR. It’s a hybrid between mantra and boon builds. You wouldn’t spam mantra of pain unless things get really rough you generally want to use it to top people up in between distributing boons.

As for daze on Hecate build as I mentioned you want to use resolve in dungeons over daze since obviously most bosses in dungeons do not respond to dazes. Great thing about it is that you can dish a lot of damage and swap to mantra healing in seconds to support your group.

To say it’s not a mantra build doesn’t make sense, having all mantra utilities generally doesn’t work well you want to leave at least one open for a different utility but that doesn’t make it any less of a mantra build as long as you use at least two and make them have an important function in your build it’s at the very least a mantra hybrid build you would never really use all of the same utility types as a mesmer (or rarely).

The reason you would call it a mantra build is because mantras have a very distinct different playstyle to other builds as they require more combos and micro management.

Oranisagu.3706:

you can’t l2p around bugs like non-interruptible rumblus or unmoving ghosteater (yeah, knockbacks sometimes unbug him, not always).

I thought they fixed this?

Quote:

Colossus Rumblus’s Cave In Shout can now be interrupted.
Detha’s Path: Fixed an issue with the Ghost Eater encounter where the Ghost Eater would sometimes get stuck in the trap. We also fixed an issue causing the traps to sometimes not fire and break, blocking the fight.

I haven’t done it since the patch though

Khal Drogo.9631:

Fay.2735:

A. it was hard in pug groups back around launch as well give it 2 months time as I said for general public to catch on then it will be a lot easier again
B. vit/toughness keeps people up longer rather then fall over at the slightest gust of wind
C. Kholer is 10 times easier now then it was before O.o

A. Problem is the people who got all their Gear wont run AC anymore and lets face it GW2 new players arent going be as many as there were at launch, thus no more large PUG base. Once they lose interest, its on to the next game.
B. Only ever so slightly.
C. Kholer isnt the issue. Its not 10 times easier if you already know how to beat him. Its the other issues like the trash knockdowns etc.

I mean come on, theres no need to convince anyone that new AC isnt a dud. Give it two months or 2 years at status quo, there will be much fewer players doing AC. But Anet go ahead listen to the minority.

And its been a week. So much for a week for people to learn new mechanics etc.

P.S You know why I know some elitists suck? This guy I was pugging with was saying learn to dodge and got mauled to death by the AC gravelings. Win.

A. I run AC because it’s fun and I know a lot of other people do as well. That or to help newcomers learn the dungeon.
B. It does make a difference especially if you’re low level it gives you a larger margin of error for most encounters an additional second to respond.
C. If you are talking about the champion stalkers. They were in the dungeon before, Just don’t go near them and use teleport/blink/stability etc. to get away from them when you get knocked down as you’ve always had to do with the stalkers who were already in the dungeon (Which I guess most people wouldn’t know as they run past everything).

They aren’t listening to a minority they are not budging because they know people will eventually learn to do the dungeon properly just like they did around launch + They are planning to revamp all dungeons eventually. I personally can’t wait to see more interesting fights like the new end bosses in AC.

Derelyk.2719:

I know 3 people in my guild that will answer quite simply, they don’t know.

why? because they won’t do dungeons anymore. One evening of frustration, and they consider dungeons a no go, same with fractals.

I don’t know if this is working as designed, having people not experience content. But if that’s Anet’s goal, it’s working great. AC level of difficulty as a introductory dungeon is kitten Full on kitten

If people give up after one night of trying then that says more about them. I remember how long some of the dungeon paths took us back at launch with our lower levels/not knowing tactics. It took us days to get searing effigy down pre-nerf. Now if it can’t be done in 10 minutes time it’s ‘too hard’ and ‘not worth the time’….

Khal Drogo.9631:

Millionth time: do it in a PUG party comprising of nothing of low levels and make a video with it, preferably with at least 1 noob. How is vit toughness going to help since every stat is downscaled as well?

Also as mentioned higher up in the thread, the defend Kholer part has become harder for most (hint: my main is a mesmer, kiting isnt that big a deal for that particular profession, and same goes for skilled elementalists IMHO).

The proof is in the pudding: GW2LFG.com. Filter out AC Exp.

A. it was hard in pug groups back around launch as well give it 2 months time as I said for general public to catch on then it will be a lot easier again
B. vit/toughness keeps people up longer rather then fall over at the slightest gust of wind
C. Kholer is 10 times easier now then it was before O.o

Everyone shouted the same exact thing after launch, give it 2 months and everyone will have either figured out how to do the dungeon properly (which will be a tiny percentage) or will have learned to skip half the content or know the rudimentary basics to stay alive long enough to brute force the encounters.

The dungeon is NOT hard, it’s just different. Maybe also for once people will stop thinking full on berserker gear is the bees knees and get some vit/toughness going.

Oranisagu.3706:

did a lot of ac runs before the patch. often got quite decent players in pugs which, without having to talk much, made perfect runs in path 1/3 burrows (for 3 perfect meaning no breeders out of 4, 8 and 12).
now I’m glad to get a group to get path 1 done with less than 5 wipes during burrows. scepterpieces I usually collect all 5, maybe someone takes the one at the entrance before dieing and crying about knockdowns (you know, where dodgeing and stability works wonders).
path 3 I don’t even attempt anymore (thank you bugged grast).

so yeah, I completely agree, nearly no experienced players are running ac anymore. it’s just not worth it. bad rewards for one of the hardest dungeons. lvl 35 yellows for 30 tears don’t really compare to the lvl 75 yellows from cof.

before the patch, I usually did every path a few times a day for leveling my alts or just goldruns. now AC is dead and I had to move on. cof 1/2, coe 1.
new players will try ac as its the first available dungeon, see the completely borked mechanics and will stop playing dungeons forever.

AC isn’t hard at all it’s just different and requires some actual coordination. the old AC was hard when people first started to do it as well learning the tactics. It only became easy because everyone skipped 99% of it and the rest was brute forced.

I did the old AC with low level group without knowing a thing. It was hard first couple of tries and this one will be as well but not hard because it’s ‘so much harder’ but only because it’s different. I can guarantee you in 2 months time people will have finally learned how to skip half of it or learned how to counter a boss so it will be easy to find people to play with again.

People were shouting the exact same things back around launch. After a couple of wipes from surprise tactics we got them down pretty fast so if people are struggling so much it says something about how little they actually understand the game (thanks to speedruns).

Embolism.8106:

I wouldn’t use MoP in PvE. If you charge it during combat (i.e. use more than your initial three charges) you’d likely end up with less DPS.

In fact Mantra builds in general are more relevant in PvP than PvE. If you’re not going to get Empowered Mantras it probably isn’t worth speccing into Mantras.

I’m sorry but I disagree. If you use restorative mantras in combination with a support build they are awesome for spam healing your party when things get rough. Also using it in power builds they do a lot of burst damage when used in combos.

Hecate Build Burst/Heal/Daze(or resolve) works great in both pve and pvp

Panacea Build
Amazing support distributing a lot of boons, protection, support and healing. Love this one for dungeons.

As for OP, You can have a look at my three builds and maybe find some ideas that would help your build but so far it sounds you are on a nice track towards getting a build together. Let us know what your testing shows once you figured out how to best optimize it.

The good ones are still about but because people no longer learn dungeons but rather rush through them nobody learns the actual tactics of each individual mob and just run past everything which causes people to be absolutely atrocious in general compared to if more veteran players would take the time to teach people how to do fights properly and how to counter them all properly in stead of kicking people who don’t meet their imaginary requirement list of ‘lvl 80 full exotic/ascended berserker speed runner warrior/mesmer only’ elitism stuff.

All the good players either:

A. Are bad because they never learned to actually fight everything properly and so you wouldn’t know they were good because they constantly die not knowing how to actually beat an encounter or utilize their profession to the fullest.
B. People who learned all the tactics for themselves in a dungeon group with people who learned them together whom are few and far between
C. Doing other things in game, Stick to doing dungeons with the same people or have left

Of course there are exceptions but I generally find that a lot of potentially good players are bad only because all they know is speedruns and are taught by elitist that you must be lvl 80 full zerker ascended warrior to be a skilled player which is laughably ignorant to say the least and incredibly damaging to the community.

Rest assured though there’s plenty of still good players out there in all parts of the game. Even some speedrunners are good. I personally stay clear of any speedruns and exploits and if I do pug I take newcomers and lower levels with me who are up for actually enjoying the content and learning who then become better players because they aren’t mindless rush zombies.

locoman.1974:

I actually find it funny that one of the armors that show the most skin on males happens to be a heavy one that’s supposed to be the most armored..

http://www.gw2armor.com/norn/male/k2/heavy/display_looks.php

Isn’t that pretty much a standard rule for MMO’s? Light armor get the robes then the heavy armor get metal bikinis? (Or medium gets the ‘cloaks’ in this case)

‘Feathered’ shows a lot of skin as well but only really the front …

http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/featherednorn1_thumb.jpg

Desolation is packed with people no matter where you go and if you don’t see anyone as soon as an event kicks of people tend to show up from all over. I think it’s very depended on server you are in

lordbachus.6091:

I stopped bothering using them in pvp, their heal power is very low for a spell that takes more then 3 secconds to cast. So unless you run a group that moves tightly together, which you dont want in pvp, so they are kinda useless.

I disagree, you use them in combination with other abilities and if you use a good build and know when and how to use them they can be very useful even in pvp.

Xaaz.8472:

I love watching all the MF users in dungeons cry “noooooo”, “elitism”, etc. However, it’s easy enough to realize it on the first fight and kick them then.

It wouldn’t just negatively affect magic find users. It would also cause problems for anyone who doesn’t play x build or x playstyle that an elitist party desires and think is somehow better without knowing anything about it not even allowing a person with unique builds to show they are skilled before blocking them access or kicking them.

I for example run a lot of mantra builds, you don’t see them an awful lot and because my gear and traits are specifically designed and theorycrafted for it they aren’t what would be usually expected. Yet the build is still very effective and helpful. I don’t want to be kicked just because I play a bit different from the crowd.

Pink Quaggan cooooo \o/

Have a look at my Panacea Build which is a support/heal build using mantras and boons.

As well as my Hecate Build which contains some videos and more in-depth information on the subject of mantra healing, Hecate being a heal/burst damage build.

When I got some time I will be making more videos on the Panacea and Gaia build to demonstrate them in more detail. Hope it helps