Guild Wars 2

The only thing RM needs is decent base stats/effects for the mantras, so they are more viable in general/untraited.

@Ross:
So you are saying mesmers are fine b/c we can be fast w/ certain builds that include specific weapons, utilities, traits, and a few gold worth of gear, which usually means gimping your build’s effectiveness in other roles. While most other classes can do it with a single utility or adept trait which has minimal effect on their build.

Yeah, I can see how that’s balanced. /sarcasm.

Chaos Archangel’s Chaos Maestro build also uses healing power gear to pretty good effect. It’s probably one of the best support builds out there if you want want healing power for more of a support role than a tank/self healer.

For a mesmer bunker or just general survival, I recommend mastering your active defenses and using balanced gear with toughness and/or vit over healing power though. Still, you may find something we didn’t if you experiment with it.

The four skills they mentioned were surge, CI, arc lightning, and wrath. Not interference, nor piercing the target, but a line aoe that hits up to 3 or 5 targets from caster to target.

They never said they would destroy shatters. They said they might need to need to lower shatter damage “a bit” with the new beam aoe abilities coming in.

OK, looks like scepter is in fact getting a buff. As a beam, CI will be able to hit multiple targets and put on up to 25 stacks of confusion total (5 to 5 targets). Well that helps a bit.

@Easymode:
Fractals are a bit different. At the end of each fractal boss there is a chest that gives fractal relics based on fractal level. You can do these any amount of times. No lockout.

There is also a bonus amount that shows up at the end of the bonus fractal, but you can only get this once per day.

In sPVP.

If you want balance, you have to play there.

@Dan:
If you have some points in the HoM, you can get a fiery dragon sword with the Jormag and go fire and ice!

It’s way out of place. Mesmer traits are obviously an unfinished product, but, I’m not even sure why it was put there in the first place. Maybe so GC builds can get a condition removal? But so few of those would use a torch anyway.

Pyroatheist.9031:

EasymodeX.4062:

Dungeons suck.

Get a good guild and do them with friends. Particularly as a Mesmer, because having a good Mesmer in a party makes things easier like no other class can.

Get a good mesmer and a good guardian in the group, and it’s a cake walk. The rest of the team can be PUG trash, and you still won’t have issues.

Well, I can see the system getting overloaded tracking and updating hundreds of condition durations, though I’d be surprised if a more effeicient algorithm couldn’t handle the load.

In any case, even if they can only track up to 25 stacks, instead of just ignoring additional stacks, it wouldn’t be any extra strain on the system to just convert them to a direct damage hit and then write them off. No tracking necessary. And this would only need to happen with poison, bleed, and burning anyway.

Yeah, you have to block an attack with them to get the damage. It’s all about timing, but with the last update, both can be used to damage a target at range.

Works great against ranged attackers, and it can really frustrate melee attackers to see their charge/stun get blocked, then they take a chuck of damage as you dodge/stealth away to stay out of reach.

Used properly, both the blocks can be pretty good ranged DPS, too.

But, where I am when activating the skill is all that matters to me, so I count the swordsman as a ranged DPS skill (except in zergs ofc). Think of him as a slow, homing attack with leap finisher instead of projectile finisher. :p

Also I don’t consider the mage as straight DPS, but he can provide damage against bads and pressure/control if used right, so there is that on the sw/t set. Too bad his range algorithm is borked.

CD definitely needs to affect structures in some way for balance. I like your ideas Crossplay, but at the very least, vulnerability and burning need to have their normal affects, and bleeding and poison should convert to damage by some formula.

On a related note, the 25 cap stack for DOT conditions needs to go. I don’t know how they didn’t foresee that being a problem and design for unlimited stacks.

Good point on the finishers. I guess the sw/sw combo pays off so much for me b/c I try to spend as much time in it as possible and only switch to sc/t when I get in trouble or want to BF/CI burst. I also take Blade Training instead of Phant Fury so staying in sw/sw longer becomes much more viable.

Dank’s build is a little more balanced than mine, but I find I can keep up a little more pressure since I have ranged DPS on either set and dodge a lot.

@Kazhiel:
That’s a really cool setup. It really allows you to defend yourself while your illusions keep the pressure on, and then when you go on the offenive, they better watch out!

I run the same trait lines and weapons, but I pair the 2 swords together and the scepter with the torch. Having 2 blocks on the same set is cool, and can pay off big in an AOE with a duration, but my playstyle uses a lot of stealth, dodging, and jumping around. So I’ve found that having 2 different kinds of defense always available work best for me (1 block + invuln/stealth). That way, I always have the right defense for the situation no matter which weapon set is up.

ChaosStar.3162:

I would contest the “new” IP would be useless, but this is a thread about your ideas If you want something that makes shatter hit more reliably, the best suggestion so far, IMO, is +move-speed when being shattered. You could tweak this a lot depending on the balance of the trait. For example, you could have protection, swiftness and stability granted to illusions when you command them to shatter.

Funny, this is already available in the game with Centaur runes, and it’s a strategy I use fairly often. But yes, a trait, even a GM trait, is quite a bit less investment than 6 runes. Also the passive effect would be nice since it wouldn’t require a heal.

BUILD UPDATE

Due to the recent changes in the last patch, particularly the nerf to “on crit” foods, I switched up a few things in the build. I dropped the omnomberry pie since it only returns a little less than half the health it used to and switched it with Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew. This modified how the build played a bit, so I adjusted my sigils and traits slightly as well to accommodate for the extra evasion, but less heals. Especially since I can now dodge during The Prestige. The end result is that I can keep more pressure on with my illusions, while I’m evading just about everything like a madman, and can turn on my opponents at any time.

Also, as I played the build more in PVE, I took Pyro’s advice for a PVE variant. It focuses much more on phantasm damage since I’ve been finding ways to keep them (and myself) alive in more places. It has higher DPS than the primary (wvw) variant, but a little less survival.

Generally, no, they do not affect illusions.

Although when testing these traits, I did notice a jump in phantasm damage when summoning other phantasms, only (never clones). The effect was inconsistent however, so likely a bug, and I wouldn’t rely on it for a build. The best way to produce the effect(bug?) is to summon a clone, then summon phantasms and eventually overwrite the clone.

@Harbinger:
At the expense of a little class balance, I too would like to see some truly unique abilities for each class, esp out of combat abilities. Here is a post I put while ago to that affect, which you may like:

Gaiawolf.8261:

I’m going to expand this topic a bit and bring up an idea I suggested in beta.

The GW2 class are woefully undeveloped for general/exploratory/RP/etc scenarios that do not involve fighting. Each class should have 2-3 out of combat only abilities that they can slot ONE at a time. These abilities would only be available when not in combat and all effects end when combat starts. Some of these would affect movement and allow each class to at least keep up when traveling. Now obviously something like this probably won’t show up, and certainly not until an expansion, but it’s fun to dream some times.

Here are a few ideas (I’ll start with mesmer since we are here):

Mesmer:
Teleport: TP up to 1200 range (CD: 15s).
Illusionary Disguise: You transform into a neutral animal present in the current map while active with no skills. (Mesmer Mind Trick)

Warrior:
Marching Orders: All nearby allies receive +15% passive movement while active.
Field Repair: You repair one piece of damaged equipment (CD: 10 min).

Ranger:
Tracking: Reveal enemies on the mini map and reduce your aggro range by 50% for 10s (CD:30s). (Yes, this was a beta ability, too, but slightly modified.)
Animal Rapport: Control your pet while active up to 3000 range.
Pathfinder: +25% movement for you and your pet.

That’s all I have time for now. Don’t get me started on what the engineer could do.

These were options for getting rid of the +25% utilities that I think are just bad design. And here are some other unique class specific abilities I thought up when it was announced Portal might be shared with other classes:

Engineer: Construction Tools (trait): You cap a point and repair structures 50% faster with a tool kit equipped. (Diminishing returns for multiple engineers)
Thief: Sabotage: Lay a trap that slows enemy capping by 50% and does massive DOT to structures while active (not nearly as much as siege but better than other character abilities). Thieves need help in siege, not roaming, or even zerging, abilities.
Necro: C’mon, what necro doesn’t want a self res? Would be awesome in WVW and even great in sPVP.

OK, some of these aren’t great and definitely would need tweaking, but you get the idea.

EasymodeX.4062:

Definitely. But you can’t really kill anyone that turns around and walks away, or who’s not attacking you (presumably in a group situation).

You’d probably have a hell of a time killing anyone with any measurable healing power / heals in their build and backed by any toughness. Well, as long as they don’t shoot a barrage of stuff into you + the iDefender, but I would consider that a major error.

Fortunately, major errors is what most wvwv players do best.

You’ll need to post your build to get a good answer, but rabid is best for most viable mesmer specs.

The block is really what defines the OH sword and gives it so much extra dps compared to other OH weapons. The swordsman is no slouch, but there are other phants that are just about as useful.

I have found that even with good timing I end up using the daze in PVE fairly often, so it’s best to try and get one of the “on interrupt” or “on daze” traits there. That way even if you don’t get the block, clone, and damage, you can still get some utility out of it beyond the daze.

In PVP, I usually have no trouble getting the block since ppl spam certain skills. Also, whenever you see a red circle, hit #4 while heading for the edge and you almost always avoid AOEs, snares, etc. and send the caster and nice present, too.

EasymodeX.4062:

Ah, irrelevant?

Yes. Quite irrelevant.

Indulge me by considering the following:
1. Legendaries are PVT. (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Legendary_weapon)
-They are not for casual pickup. People have spent long play periods before obtaining them.

Yeah I had those confused with the precursors. Regardless, the Legendaries are 99.9% skin, and 0.1% stats.

You’re still about 10 miles from establishing a link between the stats of legendaries and their cost.

QFT. Easymode likely didn’t elaborate because he probably felt he shouldn’t have to. Either that or he was being an kitten ;p

Yeah, legendaries take hundreds, if not thousands of gold and plenty of time to construct. Transmutation stones take a few gold to buy instantly. Don’t tell me you honestly believe anyone with the means to acquire a legendary weapon will have the slightest trouble obtaining a stone.

So, irrelevant.

I don’t recall them saying it will be fixed properly. Do you have a source for this? Afaik, the band-aid fix was their solution, and they felt it solved the problem well enough.

I agree with most of the conceptual changes. There really are several traits in odd places or ones that are obviously intended for beta clones or phants. Not likely to happen, tho. At least not until an expansion…. maybe. Even then probably not. There are also a few traits that could use a slight nerf you seemed to overlook.

I use scepter. Actually, I think it works better in a power build b/c both #2 and #3 scale very well off power. It definitely has its issues, mostly on the auto chain and animation for #3, but if your playstyle and build align just right, you can find some great synergies that make the scepter work. Just don’t try to use the scepter on its own merit; it has to fit in with your other skills.

Personally, I started using it simply so I can have 2 offhands and found some good synergies in my build as I played around with it. Check out my build guide below. It also outlines some general strategies to get scepter into a groove and hide its flaws.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Lone-Wolf-Mesmer/first#post1513632

Wow. The last time I heard anyone crying about staff’s random properties was back in beta before anyone had a chance to see it in action. Staff is borderline OP, esp phase and CA, and CS isn’t far behind at all. It’s so good even power users love it. It’s a chaos weapon. It’s effects are meant to be random (they do stack btw), and it’s darn good at it. Any change you suggest would make it OP and soon to be nerfed. No thank you.

Also, I like snarks.

Dahkeus.8243:

Question: Is the 6th rune worth it for the lightning strike, or do you go with 5 runes of air and 1 of something else?

The strike is one of the best features of the air runes, if not the best. No reason to not get it really.

@kittenos Vant:
Did your analysis cover enemy healing? B/c the main draw of burst/higher dps is that the enemy heals less due to dying quicker. So even if you live longer to do more damage, so does your enemy to heal more and negating some of that damage.

I’m afraid w/o that factor, your findings are sorely flawed. Not that defensive stats don’t have their place esp in bunker/survival builds and when outnumbered (and I run a defensive build myself; mostly knights/soldiers/valk gear), but but living longer and more damage over time doesn’t always mean living last.

_

About mantras in defensive builds: In my experience they are pretty bad options use take other skills to cover them as Embolism said and at least one mantra trait. I use heavy stealth and teleports in my most recent build and can usually channel my mantra(s) while invis or hiding, but stealth won’t help you hold a point. For this reason, I don’t like them for bunker builds or tank builds at all.

Gaze sucks. Adam is better.

samski.5194:

Could you please clarify how it is inconvenient and annoying to watch youtube videos on mobile devices ? To my knowledge none of my videos are restricted on mobile devices so all should be viewable. I have watched many video’s on my devices with no trouble at all.

I have honestly lost count of the number of times I have clicked a build link and it hasnt displayed properly with my mobile devices, There is one build calculator website that just doesnt load traits at all on iOS for some reason.

Limited bandwidth in certain locations and limited data on many plans makes vids inconvenient for many mobile users.

Guildhead works fine on all mobile devices afaik. The only one I have problems with is http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/ sometimes. Don’t use that and you are fine.

Pistol is a great weapon especially for CD builds and the stun. Personally I prefer OH sword tho for the same role in a power build which I run now. It just has more utility (block→dmg/line daze) and a better phant in power builds.

Stiv.1820:

Gaiawolf.8261:

Staff phase is unreliable because it requires ambient creatures at specific locations. Seems like quite an investment for unreliable mobility that consumes our resources, esp since the rune set might not be optimal for one’s build.

Unless something has changed.. you still port just no clone without a target right? It’s great mobility combined with binding the 180key.

Osi, doesn’t just 6 sec of swift every 15 suck compared to the Centaur? Or does dat dmg just make up for it that much?

Yeah, that sound like fun every time I need a quick leap. [/sarcasm] But at least it’s a little more reliable if it works like that. Never bothered to check because the 180 key doesn’t always work for me ( seems like the camera needs to be zeroed first or it fails). Still, camera jerking/exploiting seems like a seizure-inducing, spastic work around compared to the hit button -> leap forward of which most other classes get at least one.

As far as the air runes go, yeah it can be a nice little spike every once in a while. Whether it’s worth it depends on your build and a great deal of personal opinion. Personally, I think they are one of the better options for power/crit mesmers, but I prefer centaur for the more reliable speed in my tanky build, and bonus to power is a better net gain for my build. Personal choice there.

Frankly, if SoI gave swiftness more reliably, and iLeap worked like a normal forward leap when you have no target or target out of range, I’d be happy.

Good players will spot a clone quickly no matter what you do. The best way to gain a sec or 2 is to disguise the summoning or cast the skill out of view. Generally this means using stealth, teleports, and dodge rolls off the edge of their screen when summoning illusions. Busy spell effects like chaos storm, feedback, etc, can also help.

Mirror image does not heal; you mean Mirror, right? And those runes are available to everyone, not just mesmers, so it doesn’t resolve the issue. We still have to give up gear slots for mobility when most others only give up a utility, or possibly a cheap trait that provides much more. More investment (universally available) for lesser gain versus less investment for greater gain (class exclusive).

Also short CD on Blink does not exist. The only way to lower it’s CD is with is with Chaos III, and that only puts it at 24s. Hardly able to keep up even with other speed buffs and it requires a utility plus a trait. Staff phase is unreliable because it requires ambient creatures at specific locations. Seems like quite an investment for unreliable mobility that consumes our resources, esp since the rune set might not be optimal for one’s build.

Versatility.

Even w/o respec I can jump from pve events and dungeons into wvw and roam or zerg at the drop of a hat. And do all these well with engaging play that requires resource management, awareness, and combos so the gameplay does not get stale. Pretty effects help with that too.

Solo I can duel well, run gauntlets, and scout. In groups I can provide good damage, amazing support and cc, and unique utility that no one else can. Long range? Melee? Stealth/deception? Survival? Burst? Confusion? No problem. We have it covered. That’s why.

A few silver to respec, and you can do even more.

Wait a minute. Ileap clone has trouble negotiating terrain that the swordsman does not? Seems like a no-brainer. Replace iLeap clone pathing algorithm with the one used for the swordsman, or savage leap, or heartseeker, or <insert working-leap-skill here>.

@Stiv:
Portal I will give you, but stealth is just a tool for a role, not the role itself. Movement is a role of which passive speed, leaps, swiftness are the tools.

Saying other classes can move fast but can’t stealth is like saying they can do damage but cannot use phantasms. No they can’t use phantasms, but they have other tools for that job. Exaggerated a bit, yes, but just to show the relationship. We have little tools for the desired job (movement) in any form. That’s the issue.

Yeah, we’ve been over this a few times now. I’ll throw in my input that I can remember in order of preference:

1) Shorter CD. Why this is so long is unbelievable. The mage is only good as a tool to get just a little bit extra out of an already devastating confusion bomb or against event bosses if you can keep 3 alive in condi build. Neither will benefit so grossly with a shorter CD, but it will increase the mage’s usefulness in most other scenarios.

2) More punch and longer duration. Seriously, 3s of confusion/retaliation on an unreliable attack with a 7s attack rate? The confusion really needs to be at least 4 stacks and the duration for both need to be 5s, esp for the retaliation. Boon/condition duration effects should work as well.

3) Better bounce logic. It really should be enemy-ally-enemy(-ally) to help stack confusion.

4) AOE effect. Instead of bounces, make it a blast at the target that gives aoe retaliation.

If Anet feels the new the concussion bomb is balanced (5 stacks of 5s aoe confuse on 18s CD), I’d say 4 stacks confusion/retaliation for 5s on a 20s CD is OK for us considering the mage just might live for repeated bolts and our other sources of confusion.

@OP:
Warriors and engineers are actually incredibly mobile with minor utility/trait investments respectively. Warrior utilities can give them almost permanent swiftness and many weapons give leaps or other mobility enhancers, so they can be very fast if they want, and still pretty fast even w/o damage to their build. Engineers have an adept trait in a useful, versatile line that gives them perma-swift with any kit.

@All:
I agree with Carighan. Highly mobile builds need to be something of an investment for all classes equally. Sure some classes should be able to do it a little better than others (thieves, rangers, mesmers, and maybe warriors), but all classes should require at least some trait/weapon investments to be mobile. Gear options should remain available for any class. Not some utility you can switch out at any time regardless of build.

^
That combo has been debated in the past. Nothing new, but still only explains why The Prestige doesn’t need much buff (only the channel removal was needed, slightly shorter CD would be nice).

It does nothing to explain why the mage still sucks AND has the longest CD of any phant. Yeah, you have to balance the weapon as a whole but having a weapon with 1 good skill (that really is only good for a certain playstyle) and 1 skill that is only marginally useful at best for ANY build is rather lopsided and circumstantial. Overall, still obviously UP, and the illusion is what needs Anet’s attention more anyway.

I agree with Easymode. Unless you are going pure offense, defense, or support, the celestial usually works out better for most builds. I ran the numbers for me (w/o food/stones):

Berserkers: +12% damage
Cavaliers: +9.6% damage
Knights: +10% damage
Celestial: =9.7% damage

And that does not include cond damage, just DD. The fact that I have several soldiers/knights/valkyrie pieces makes the celestial a no-brainer for me. Slightly less increase in offense plus 54 to v/t/h? Yes, please (OK so the +h is silly, but still +108 combined to v and t). Celestial should really give less +crit dmg to be balanced.

Now if I wanted total berserkers for events or a pure support, etc build, I might consider a skewed amulet, but not otherwise. Plus, Celestial still viable if I ever want to switch builds.

The finish from GS4 disappeared from both the skill and the tooltip. Seems unlikely both teams would pull the same blunder unless it’s intentional. It’s entirely possible this was done to make room for a finisher on GS3 later this month.

Yup, staff is mostly for utility (offensive and support) and survival in a power build. It can also do amazing damage to bosses. If you can keep them alive, 3 warlocks will out-DPS anything else in the game, especially in a pack of other players doling out conditions you don’t have access to.

Sure, I plan to keep a few in my back pocket as spares.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Edit 2: I just did a bit of additional testing. I am unable to make the iMage attack bounce to more than one hostile target, even if I have aggroed multiple enemies, and I am out of bounce range. The attack will simply hit the first target and stop there. Therefore, I can safely assume nothing more than those 3 stacks of confusion per attack, there will be absolutely no chance of more than that getting applied.

In my experience the mage projectile targets 1 enemy to cause confusion, then bounces to up to 2 allies to spread retaliation. It will not bounce to another enemy. This might be a bug, and perhaps why anet hasn’t buffed the mage (“hey, it can keep up 6 stacks of confuse on its own with p. haste!”) ???

@all:
As I have said in other posts, like many I use the torch for the target drop, because I always run Decoy on my bar, and very often Blink as well. The chaining/synergy between these skills is a massive boost to my playstyle and confuses the hell out of players and mobs alike more than any 2 OH weapon skills, or any amount of clones (only staff comes close; warden/void combo can occasionally). Now that the Prestige is no longer a channel, the synergy between it and scepter is given a nice boost as well.

The mage is utter crap for me, especially since I am in a power spec. It’s only savin grace (it doesn’t save the skill, nor the weapon; Prestige does that for me) is that I am usually in or close to melee range and can get the bounce. So that helps me get close to 100% uptime of retaliation with my other skills. Plus regen sometimes since he doesn’t move much. So I get some use from it, but it doesn’t compare to other phantasms. Thankfully, the Prestige makes up for it in my build.

To improve the mage, it definitely needs longer stacks, and perhaps another stack of confusion (4 stacks of 5s confuse, 5s retal), or work with bonus duration stats, or both (probably both on the retal since its even more unreliable). More than anything, though, it needs a much, much lower CD on the skill.

Pyro, I especially like your idea to add debuffs like chill and cripple (and like it for all phants; fulfills the original design for phants to be living hexes much better than just straight damage from most), but don’t see it happening. Mage is supposed to emulate backfire/empathy from GW.

Edit: I’d move the torch CD trait to chaos, too. Would do inspiration, but that already has 2 and they both work better there.

I’m not a fan of most of torch skins either; too short. So, if you are looking for something different, the charr steam and asura glyphic torch skins are kinda cool.

The steam skin looks more like an electrical doohicky and the asuran skin leaves a neat trail of glowing spheres behind you when you move. Fractal skin is fairly similar to the glyphic skin and cool too, but I’m not sure if it trails you. I’m actually using all glyphic weapon skins now simply for the unique glowing effect (2 swords, scepter, and torch)!

I will likely change the swords to fractals when I get them, tho.

No, its not hard to fix the oathing issue. If it was, then savage leap would have missed at least once in all the time I’ve played my warrior. So would swoop, heartseeker, the guardian one, or any other working “leap” skill. Just summon the clone at mesmer location and have it activate savage leap lite (clone damage mod).

Kelthien.8593:

As a player, I 100% gravitate towards Condition damage and mesmer playstyle. I’d love to find a build that’s solid in all areas and maybe excels in just one or two. Have you done much pve?

You can try my build here as well: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Lone-Wolf-Mesmer/first#

It’s built around using dual swords and a torch for pretty intense misdirection and being extremely versatile/effective in all game modes. It does good damage while being able to survive anywhere. I can solo tank in wvw and dungeons while waiting on my group and still dish out some threat, then disappear when the heat gets too hot. Also has some support built in.

I outline some good synergies for using the torch as well, so even if you don’t use the build look at those. It’s even better now that Prestige isn’t a channel. Only thing is that it’s a power build, not CD.