Guild Wars 2

Leuca.5732:

This for real? I can understand the need in PvE, but this signet is bad for PvP. Split for game types, fix the application bug and change to 100% in PvP. Boom, the skill is balanced.

lol

I think you are confused here

Durzlla.6295:

Gaidax.7835:

Skyro.3108:

Gaidax.7835:

Zenith.7301:

Pyroatheist.9031:

The only counter to a phantasm Mesmer in a 1v1 is another phantasm Mesmer.

Since you’re assuming a 1v1 scenario, that allows for specific counter utilities. If I’m going against a condition heavy class, I will take the heal mantra for rapid condition removal through mender’s purity as well as the condition removal mantra. Between the 2 of those, you can remove about 8 conditions every 20 seconds, which is far more than enough to deal with any condition class.

Other classes and builds have different counters. I will change my utilities to suit each individual 1v1. There is no counter to a phantasm Mesmer with utilities set up for your class. If you catch the Mesmer with poorly set up utilities, you have a chance, although the build is still immensely powerful.

So how do you kill P/D thieves that are getting free cnd heals and resets off your illusions?

With P/D thieves it’s not just their conditions — it’s the mini unload from stealth opener they can chain while using basilisk to stun to land the cnd with steal.

Stall them with your own stealth, dodging and ports… At some point soon you will have 2 duelists up – the moment thief unstealths he eats 8k burst and 10+ stacks of bleed, while you are just sitting invulnerable in Blurred Frenzy and the best part is that he won’t avoid it by cc’ing the Mesmer.

Thieves’ strength is also their big weakness really. They attack and then they NEED to go to stealth for a couple of seconds to recover. While they stealth around, phantasms just get their attack cd back up and the moment he appears to attack they just instantly unload on him everything they have.

If you time it right with Null Field, he will also get 15 stacks of confusion too

This is PvP we’re talking about here right? You guys all make it sound like Phantasm attacks are not predicatable and easy to dodge/LoS because you know, they are NPCs after all. Also FYI iDuelist attacks are not 100% projectile finishers (it is 20%), so unless you hit the RNG jackpot you are not getting 15 stacks of confusion on anybody. Let’s have less theorycraft and more actual game experience shall we?

The fact of the matter is Phantasm Mesmer’s strength lies in smallish skirmishes, in the 2vs2 or 3vs3 size fights, where the fight is just hectic enough that you lose track of the Phantasms while at the same time you team doesn’t quite have enough AoE to destroy all the Phantasms quickly. IMO any strong sustain build could likely outlast Phantasm Mesmers in 1vs1s.

In case you did not know from your “actual game experience”, Duelist’s Discipline also turns Phantasmal Duelist attacks into 100% projectile finisher.

So much for your “actual game experience”, lol.

My god does it really? Whelp, i’ve officially found my new favorite trait…

Yup, I think it is a bug (although it is like this forever already), but heck it’s good to have a positive bug for a change

Every out of 8 shots in a volley are full 100% projectile finishers. So basically you land 8 projectile finishers in 2 seconds from one duelist (if you got the trait, that is, which you should).

Skyro.3108:

Gaidax.7835:

Zenith.7301:

Pyroatheist.9031:

The only counter to a phantasm Mesmer in a 1v1 is another phantasm Mesmer.

Since you’re assuming a 1v1 scenario, that allows for specific counter utilities. If I’m going against a condition heavy class, I will take the heal mantra for rapid condition removal through mender’s purity as well as the condition removal mantra. Between the 2 of those, you can remove about 8 conditions every 20 seconds, which is far more than enough to deal with any condition class.

Other classes and builds have different counters. I will change my utilities to suit each individual 1v1. There is no counter to a phantasm Mesmer with utilities set up for your class. If you catch the Mesmer with poorly set up utilities, you have a chance, although the build is still immensely powerful.

So how do you kill P/D thieves that are getting free cnd heals and resets off your illusions?

With P/D thieves it’s not just their conditions — it’s the mini unload from stealth opener they can chain while using basilisk to stun to land the cnd with steal.

Stall them with your own stealth, dodging and ports… At some point soon you will have 2 duelists up – the moment thief unstealths he eats 8k burst and 10+ stacks of bleed, while you are just sitting invulnerable in Blurred Frenzy and the best part is that he won’t avoid it by cc’ing the Mesmer.

Thieves’ strength is also their big weakness really. They attack and then they NEED to go to stealth for a couple of seconds to recover. While they stealth around, phantasms just get their attack cd back up and the moment he appears to attack they just instantly unload on him everything they have.

If you time it right with Null Field, he will also get 15 stacks of confusion too

This is PvP we’re talking about here right? You guys all make it sound like Phantasm attacks are not predicatable and easy to dodge/LoS because you know, they are NPCs after all. Also FYI iDuelist attacks are not 100% projectile finishers (it is 20%), so unless you hit the RNG jackpot you are not getting 15 stacks of confusion on anybody. Let’s have less theorycraft and more actual game experience shall we?

The fact of the matter is Phantasm Mesmer’s strength lies in smallish skirmishes, in the 2vs2 or 3vs3 size fights, where the fight is just hectic enough that you lose track of the Phantasms while at the same time you team doesn’t quite have enough AoE to destroy all the Phantasms quickly. IMO any strong sustain build could likely outlast Phantasm Mesmers in 1vs1s.

In case you did not know from your “actual game experience”, Duelist’s Discipline also turns Phantasmal Duelist attacks into 100% projectile finisher.

So much for your “actual game experience”, lol.

We’re fine. I accept that as a reasonable weakness. We can’t have it all, seriously and I’d rather have the current package instead of getting passive speed for most certain nerf as a payment.

Also… You can’t disengage from a fight as a Mesmer? Really? I am nearly unkillable in tPvP just because I am as slippery as a piece of kitten that gets flushed in the toiled. I’d say only thieves and an occasional ele are better at getting away.

Catching people may be a bit harder, but then GS, pistol, focus and main hand sword all provide good means to catch up with people on top of blink. You need to actively avoid these weapons to not be able to pursuit someone reasonably well.

I like it this way. I was playing WoW for 4 years (quit for good just before the whole Pandas thing). I first played GW1 (in between WoW breaks) and I was really sold to the whole 8 skills concept. IMO it is awesome, because you don’t have to be a pianist this way and there is an added value of flexible builds where you can “create” a spec yourself and not go by the mostly predetermined road.

10 skills make it natural to play while the build flexibility retains the whole feel of depth. IMO, having 3 full bars of skills and then the “mod” wars to control it all is pretty much an outdated design.

IMO, it provides a right level of complexity without you having to bind 20 keybinds on top of movement, just to control your character. IMO, the real complexity should come from preparing beforehand, taking tactical decisions and using right tools at the right time, like it is done in MOBA games.

Zenith.7301:

Pyroatheist.9031:

The only counter to a phantasm Mesmer in a 1v1 is another phantasm Mesmer.

Since you’re assuming a 1v1 scenario, that allows for specific counter utilities. If I’m going against a condition heavy class, I will take the heal mantra for rapid condition removal through mender’s purity as well as the condition removal mantra. Between the 2 of those, you can remove about 8 conditions every 20 seconds, which is far more than enough to deal with any condition class.

Other classes and builds have different counters. I will change my utilities to suit each individual 1v1. There is no counter to a phantasm Mesmer with utilities set up for your class. If you catch the Mesmer with poorly set up utilities, you have a chance, although the build is still immensely powerful.

So how do you kill P/D thieves that are getting free cnd heals and resets off your illusions?

With P/D thieves it’s not just their conditions — it’s the mini unload from stealth opener they can chain while using basilisk to stun to land the cnd with steal.

Stall them with your own stealth, dodging and ports… At some point soon you will have 2 duelists up – the moment thief unstealths he eats 8k burst and 10+ stacks of bleed, while you are just sitting invulnerable in Blurred Frenzy and the best part is that he won’t avoid it by cc’ing the Mesmer.

Thieves’ strength is also their big weakness really. They attack and then they NEED to go to stealth for a couple of seconds to recover. While they stealth around, phantasms just get their attack cd back up and the moment he appears to attack they just instantly unload on him everything they have.

If you time it right with Null Field, he will also get 15 stacks of confusion too

Pistol is good all around, Focus is better in organized action.

If you use GS and S/P – go for 10/30/0/25/5 – this way you can take Fury and Sword/Pistol specialization (besides another 10% crit damage and 100 precision is great.)

With Phantasm Build the 20 points trait in Domination for -20% GS cd is not that hot for Phant build really – you can’t spam Mirror Blade, because it will overwrite your Phantasms, Mind Stab is pretty bad (and even then you won’t be using the moment it is up either), Knockback is great, but again, not something you spam as soon as it is off the CD. The only thing that hurts is that you will have extra 4s CD on Berserker, which is something you will get used to.

Instead you will have -2s on Leap and Blurred Frenzy, both of which are essential in PvP , easily worth the trade.

I used to take 20 in Domination all the time, but then I sat back and did some thinking and came to conclusion that 10/30 is just better than 20/20.

Honestly I’d be happy if Mesmer is left alone. It’s in a good spot now. Just fix iZerker and Signet of Illusions and it’s perfect.

That would be disgustingly op… Null Field + Duelist? That’s like 15 stacks right there… Even with 0 condition damage that is like 1k damage per skill activation and that is without other clones and phantasmal stacking more…

Never seen staff Ele yet… I can imagine anything with good AoE is troublesome.

As for engineer, they are pretty easy. Turrets are really easy to counter – get Berserker out on one, it will usually whirl through all the turrets, then leap in the middle of them and Blurred Frenzy all of them. That is usually enough to get rid of most of them. After that it’s a field day on that engineer.

Null Field to counter condition spam.

So… What does this all has to do with us?

Just wait for support response, it will take a day or two, but you will get it. No point creating noise on forum.

In sPvP? Yeah, probably that’s true.

I main Phantasm Mesmer and I can vouch that in a pure 1v1 it is almost impossible to lose. I still get surprised here and there, but let’s say – 70% of 1v1 fights are total cheese, 20% more are actually decent and 10% are hard.

Even if you somehow manage to start losing, you can just run away pretty easily. This also lets you use Zerker gear in sPvP, since your 21k HP and tons of active defenses is more than enough for all common tasks.

Bigger fights are annoying though – phantasms are very weak to AoE and the more people around – the more random AoE kitten flying around. On the upside, though, you can disengage easily and return in a couple of seconds while enemy team switches attention to the friendly cannon fodder and start sniping people from range pretty well. Honorable mention – iZerker from 1200 range – sometimes it whirls through all the enemy party giving off 4k AoE damage and cripple… Pretty cool seeing everyone’s HP plummet there in a split second. Switch to sword and leap in with Blurred Frenzy for another 3-4k AoE, you will survive just fine too.

Play on 5v5 servers like I do, IMO 5v5 is just the best really.

I hotjoin sPvP with my Mesmer – I’m just your average casual fish, but maybe my input will be interesting to down to earth people like me.

Before that, I must honestly say that I never yet had a completely hopeless encounter, I’d say the balance from my PoV is pretty in a good spot and most of professions are not that far from each other.

Here is my list:

S-tier: NONE – really, no profession there that is consistently amazing all the time.

A-tier:

+Mesmer (Amazing in dueling and 5v5’s, can disengage and burst almost as well as thieves, but unlike thieves they can effectively defend and attack at the same time.)
=Elementalist (Bunker ones are virtually unkillable solo unless they insist on staying in a fight to the end, otherwise, they can just drag you around forever if they decide to run, they are also kitten good at taking out illusions.)
=Thief (You can’t catch the good ones and they are very dangerous in small team fights, they can burst down wounded guys in 3 seconds flat without much warning)

Tier B

=Guardian (Bunker ones are tough to bring down, but can’t really kill you either, they are a royal pain in the kitten in team fights though. DEEPS ones are somewhat easy – they rely on a couple of bursty skills – dodge those and you are golden.)
=Engineer (so-so, they seem to get better the longer the fight goes, thus they are pretty weak to strong offense early on)
-Necro (They can be tough, but they seem to have a really hard time with direct damage bursts and burst condition removal)
-Ranger (I honestly have no idea why everyone sticks then in S-tier, maybe I never met a good one yet.)
-Warrior (I don’t think they are THAT horrible, they are generally easy, but if you wasted your stun breaker CD’s before they can be extremely dangerous. But yeah, all in all, I’d say they are really weak as a whole, just too easy to kite and peel… they are also very predictable in what they do.)

In WvW, I’d bump Mesmers to S-tier= and Thieves to A=

Even after the resent nerf, Mesmer in WvW is often a game changer. Portal, Veil and Time Warp/Mass Invisibility are just amazing, Feedback is also pretty strong.

Thieves on the other hand are less useful in mass action, but they are perfect predators when it comes to roaming, IMO.

The solution is pretty simple really, make it like PvE events – if you participate in the process of capturing a contested point and it gets captured let’s say in 20 seconds since you last been there – you get the credit regardless of you being there or not when it flipped.

20 seconds rule is just to make sure people actually fight on that point and not just “tag” it and run along leaving others to give them candies.

That should be good, really.

Yeah yeah… Pics or didn’t happen…

Well, Mesmer has a lot of snowballing traits that come into play only later on. It’s kinda hard to “own” at level 13 when your effective damage output and survivability are cut in half just because you don’t have the very core traits and utils yet.

FYI, Mesmer in that video runs no condition removal AT ALL (and I mean it – he only has Sigil of Generosity on staff for that)… So he would have a hard time with condition based guys, while that Ele has plenty of condi removals on top of what he has in that video.

So yeah, they both went 100% all in… The problem – Ele could do 120% of that, because he would also do just as good against condition spammers.

Other than that, I do think shatter specs could use a slight nerfbat in dueling and I say that as a Mesmer player.

CrazyDuck.4610:

they are horrible in WvW/PvP now

raises an eyebrow

Actually it works just fine, there is this little problem with procs on sigils/runes – let’s say you have Rune of Air and you go stealth – if you get hit by some AoE and proc Lightning Strike on attacker – it counts as attack and you are revealed then. I guess it works like that with all similar procs.

Other than that I did not observe any issues.

I also was skeptical about staff, but it proved to be fantastic in 1vX fights and against Rogues in WvW. Damage is not really the point there, it has some amazing defense options.

I still use GS, S/P phantasm build, which suits my playstyle more, but when I run shatter – I always pack Staff.

lol?

Yes, buff plx…

Mnemesis.8257:

Guardian- Renewed Focus makes yourself invulnerable for 2-3s (90s cd). Sure, RF is a channel based action, but it is generally regarded as something to be used in anticipation of large spikes and its end effect.
Warrior- Endure Pain grants no damage from attacks for 4s, with the possibility of an additional 4s at 25% health when traited (90s cd).
Ranger- “Protect Me!” (60s/48s cd) and Signet of Stone (80s/64s cd) can grant an astonishing 12s of 0 damage, granted SoS requires extensive traiting to do so.
Thief- Stealth says it all, even with the implementation of “Revealed”, 3-4s isn’t much of a window if someone knows what a dodge or a heal is for.
Mesmer- Distortion 3-4s evading damage (60s/46s cd) coupled with 2s of Blur evasion every 8-10s; adding stealth only bestows this class with more impressive survivability.

Aside from Stealth, none of the above have a genuine negative drawback when calling upon their respective “Oh kitten!” buttons.

Wut? Are you joking?

Guardian – RF – can’t do anything while channeling, only move. ELITE.
Warrior – Endure Pain – does not block CC, does not block conditions.
Ranger – Pet can’t attack. CC gets through.
Thief – Stealth does not make immune to damage, not the same class of ability.
Mesmer – Distortion – destroys all clones and Phantasm (pretty heavy drawback of you ask me). Blurred Frenzy – you are rooted and unable to act.

So basically, as you see – every for of invulnerability HAS a drawback. Why should Mist Form be special then?

You got me… 4k…

I’m a tank now

I have no idea what are you talking about…

Now if you will excuse me, I have to go farm some Eles on my Mesmer.

Peace, man!

:)

Umm… If you say that he hit hard and he healed for 80% HP with signet then he is most certainly Zerker…

LordByron.8369:

Gaidax.7835:

@LordByron

No dear, I am not a troll, because before the RtL change, Eles would just lol at me in WvW and not because they killed me or something, but because I had snowball’s chance in hell to catch them with 20 sec CD RtL.

Learn to play and equip a focus…..
Seems good mesmer have not that issue.

Also tell me how easily you can catch a thief……or a tanky ranger or a warrior that wants to escape..

Ele was already the third or ourth profession for speed…now is one of the slowest without anything in Exchange…

And that was not because you couldn t kill an ele but because a selfish pvp balance team don t think of pve/WWW consequences….

if you read pvp forums you’d know that…its not MY opinion.
And that tells a lot of self entitled pros in this thread

I learn2play and equip Pistol and GS, so that I can cripple or stun your sorry Ele kitten from 1200 range to have a chance to catch you to begin with. With Focus I would never catch Ele to begin with.

I can’t catch a good Thief, true, but then if I actually do catch them – they die in 3 hits. So makes sense for me for them being so slippery – they are like a piece of paper in the middle of a kitten Firestorm. Bunker Eles on the other hand are pretty tough, catching them is half the problem, you need to actually kill them too before they kite you all over to their keep. So it does not make sense them having insane mobility to begin with.

makku.2508:

Gaidax.7835:

makku.2508:

Gaidax.7835:

makku.2508:

Gaidax.7835:

And I’m fine! Can I run away from one guy? Probably yeah, I can drag this long enough to get to the keep. Can I catch a guy? Probably yeah, but not sure if he won’t drag this on long enough to get to his keep.

Can I run away from a couple of guys? Not really, unless I juke real good and they don’t pay attention.

Well, I guess there’s different definitions of effective roaming then. Regardless of class, when 10 enemies appear nearby, and – given enough time to react properly – I have no chance of escaping them, I’m not effectively roaming by my standards.

Side note: You’re claiming Mesmers are only decent roamers when speccing for it, while Eles seem to get everything for free. You do realise roaming D/D Eles did HEAVILY spec for exactly that? Running 3 utilities that all can be used to escape, and getting yourself locked into the only weapon set (remember, no weapon swap for Eles) that offers the needed mobility but is exclusively melee range is ‘getting everything for free’? Really? I mean, I don’t like calling people names, but… ah, whatever.

And with all that somehow a change to Ride the Lightning brought you on your knees? Must have been a pretty overpowered ability then if it was all that held your kitten together, eh?

Mist Form and Lightning Flash are suddenly useless? Want more? Take Fiery GS and whirl around ftw…

====

Don’t you think you are overreacting? So, WvW solo roaming is gone just like that? Yu gotta be kittenting me.

You think that being able to run away from 10 people is a “standard for effective roaming”? Dude… really… just stop?

Are you really that dumb? One of the key aspects of roaming is mobility. That’s what RTL provided. They took it away -> they killed roaming. Everything else still works like it did before (except for Mist Form obviously, lol), doesn’t matter tho because they took away one of the KEY ASPECTS. Is it really that hard to understand? Do you have a driver’s licence? Own a car? If I took the motor away from your car, would it still work? No? WHAT KIND OF NOOB CAR IS THAT, I MEAN, IT STILL HAS WHEELS, BRAKES AND FUEL, DOESN’T IT?!

And yeah, getting away from 10 people (even 50, for that matter) while not being in combat yet is one of my standards for effective roaming (Newsflash: there’s even classes that manage to pull such stuff while IN combat). But again, standards vary. A garbage player might be glad to barely get away from a single opponent on his ‘roaming’ build. I have different standards.

So basically you want to tell me that having less CD on one ability made all the difference for you in being able to run away from 10 people or not?

What you basically say is your whole build did not matter – only this weapon one ability?

I think you need to lower your “standards” a bit down to earth… you know, just to where all the other 95% of the guys in WvW are. If just that change is what turned your escaping from the “pro” quality to “garbage player” quality, then maybe you are not really that pro, but were instead carried by that ability?

Cry more.

And here I am, thinking that car example would even make an ape understand it.

I’ll vary it a little: If I took away the wheels from your car but left the motor in, would it work? No? If I gave you back the motor and the wheels, but took the fuel out, would it still work? No? Something’s ringing yet? Of course the other parts of the build do matter. There’s stability, damage reduction, invulnerability, condition removal. All stuff you need to reliably escape tricky situations. All that stuff doesn’t matter tho without mobility (or stealth, but last time I checked Eles didn’t have access to that). RTL was the thing that provided the mobility. Just like wheels on your car get that whole thing rolling. And yes, twice the CD + a 20% range reduction (for some reason people always seem to forget about that one) make all the difference.

And no, I don’t need to lower my standards. When I am better than 95% of the other guys in WvW, then I can afford to have higher standards than 95% of the other guys. Makes sense to me.

If you are better than 95% of the other guys in WvW then what’s your problem exactly? You are a good player, surely you can try harder, right?

You rule as it is then, grats

@LordByron

No dear, I am not a troll, because before the RtL change, Eles would just lol at me in WvW and not because they killed me or something, but because I had snowball’s chance in hell to catch them with 20 sec CD RtL.

I for one am overjoyed with RtL nerf, because now I can score rightful kills on Eles, that before could have gone away no matter how bad they were. The good ones still can kite me all the way to their keep and that’s fine, IMO. It’s just that now they have to actually try hard to shake me off.

Of course I’m kitten happy – me and frikkin half of the WvW players that don’t get to be trolled by Eles anymore.

And I am not a Shatter Mesmer – I’m Phantasm one.

It was abused, it got nerfed… Move along?

makku.2508:

Gaidax.7835:

makku.2508:

Gaidax.7835:

And I’m fine! Can I run away from one guy? Probably yeah, I can drag this long enough to get to the keep. Can I catch a guy? Probably yeah, but not sure if he won’t drag this on long enough to get to his keep.

Can I run away from a couple of guys? Not really, unless I juke real good and they don’t pay attention.

Well, I guess there’s different definitions of effective roaming then. Regardless of class, when 10 enemies appear nearby, and – given enough time to react properly – I have no chance of escaping them, I’m not effectively roaming by my standards.

Side note: You’re claiming Mesmers are only decent roamers when speccing for it, while Eles seem to get everything for free. You do realise roaming D/D Eles did HEAVILY spec for exactly that? Running 3 utilities that all can be used to escape, and getting yourself locked into the only weapon set (remember, no weapon swap for Eles) that offers the needed mobility but is exclusively melee range is ‘getting everything for free’? Really? I mean, I don’t like calling people names, but… ah, whatever.

And with all that somehow a change to Ride the Lightning brought you on your knees? Must have been a pretty overpowered ability then if it was all that held your kitten together, eh?

Mist Form and Lightning Flash are suddenly useless? Want more? Take Fiery GS and whirl around ftw…

====

Don’t you think you are overreacting? So, WvW solo roaming is gone just like that? Yu gotta be kittenting me.

You think that being able to run away from 10 people is a “standard for effective roaming”? Dude… really… just stop?

Are you really that dumb? One of the key aspects of roaming is mobility. That’s what RTL provided. They took it away -> they killed roaming. Everything else still works like it did before (except for Mist Form obviously, lol), doesn’t matter tho because they took away one of the KEY ASPECTS. Is it really that hard to understand? Do you have a driver’s licence? Own a car? If I took the motor away from your car, would it still work? No? WHAT KIND OF NOOB CAR IS THAT, I MEAN, IT STILL HAS WHEELS, BRAKES AND FUEL, DOESN’T IT?!

And yeah, getting away from 10 people (even 50, for that matter) while not being in combat yet is one of my standards for effective roaming (Newsflash: there’s even classes that manage to pull such stuff while IN combat). But again, standards vary. A garbage player might be glad to barely get away from a single opponent on his ‘roaming’ build. I have different standards.

So basically you want to tell me that having less CD on one ability made all the difference for you in being able to run away from 10 people or not?

What you basically say is your whole build did not matter – only this one weapon ability?

I think you need to lower your “standards” a bit down to earth… you know, just to where all the other 95% of the guys in WvW are. If just that change is what turned your escaping from the “pro” quality to “garbage player” quality, then maybe you are not really that pro, but were instead carried by that ability?

Cry more.

Puandro.3245:

I feel safer roaming on my phantasm mesmer than my D/D ele. Between blink/decoy/veil/mass invis and clones confusing bads i get away np. 40 sec RTL on the other hand…. they catch up eventually and kill me.

TBH, i’d drop Veil here and take Null Field or even Arcane Thievery instead (it really got better by the way – always works), just to not get totally hammered by conditions. Removing 1 condition every 15/20 seconds just does not cut it really.

makku.2508:

Gaidax.7835:

And I’m fine! Can I run away from one guy? Probably yeah, I can drag this long enough to get to the keep. Can I catch a guy? Probably yeah, but not sure if he won’t drag this on long enough to get to his keep.

Can I run away from a couple of guys? Not really, unless I juke real good and they don’t pay attention.

Well, I guess there’s different definitions of effective roaming then. Regardless of class, when 10 enemies appear nearby, and – given enough time to react properly – I have no chance of escaping them, I’m not effectively roaming by my standards.

Side note: You’re claiming Mesmers are only decent roamers when speccing for it, while Eles seem to get everything for free. You do realise roaming D/D Eles did HEAVILY spec for exactly that? Running 3 utilities that all can be used to escape, and getting yourself locked into the only weapon set (remember, no weapon swap for Eles) that offers the needed mobility but is exclusively melee range is ‘getting everything for free’? Really? I mean, I don’t like calling people names, but… ah, whatever.

And with all that somehow a change to Ride the Lightning brought you on your knees? Must have been a pretty overpowered ability then if it was all that held your kitten together, eh?

Mist Form and Lightning Flash are suddenly useless? Want more? Take Fiery GS and whirl around ftw…

====

Don’t you think you are overreacting? So, WvW solo roaming is gone just like that? Yu gotta be kittenting me.

You think that being able to run away from 10 people is a “standard for effective roaming”? Dude… really… just stop?

LordByron.8369:

With mesme ryou can run away as much as you want……
Just blink, decoy and focus 4 gives you miles advantage.

I have a mesmer too is 100% better and now faster than elementalist.

My point exactly – IF I bring Focus and bring 2 utility skills just for escaping – then I will be better at it…

So, pray tell… Why your Elementalist can’t bring 2 utility skills for that? For example Lightning Flash comes to mind… It’s pretty much the same as Blink you can trait it for less cd TOO like the Mesmer does.

===

LordByron.8369:

4 seconds invulnerability….+ another on a 5-7 seconds CD.
DAZE
absurd DPS
and your invulnerability is also the fact that your target has to kill phantasm fast if he doesn t want to die, while evading clones because they crit for 10.000+

Dude, exxagerate more? 4 seconds invulnerability = 30 trait points in Illusions + destroy 3 illusions.

Clones critting for 10k+? Are you high? I am running Phantasm Mesmer with full exotic gear and the total best crit I seen in WvW on the glassiest of the glass dude is 6k with iSwordsman (which I do not use) and it is much less with iZerker (around 3k) or iDuelist (4k). And you can’t really have that and 30 points in Illusions too, by the way.

Blurred Frenzy invulnerability is on 8 seconds CD at best… It’s CD is 10 seconds untraited, which is what I have. It also roots, by the way – so much for escape.

Really, I don’t like calling people names, but you are simply a flat out liar, man. You play as mesmer? Riiight…

And heck even then, what you said to me – spec and gear for stuff! So pray tell… Why should not Elementalist do that too?

ResJudicator.7916:

Ilthuain.5634:

Gaidax.7835:

Minion of Vey.4398:

Ilthuain.5634:

Slot Lightning Flash. Trait Cantrip Mastery. Trait One with Air.

Your roaming is fine, just don’t get to roam for free any longer.

One with air? haha.

Is necro a good roaming profession when it slots signet of the locust?

Or are you suggesting that the 900 range lightning flash on a 36s cooldown is what sets it over the top? 36s traited at that, 45s base.

Funny stuff.

Wow you people are spoiled… I roam with my Mesmer with 32 seconds CD traited Blink which also ports 900 range, Mass Invisibility and around 40% Swiftness uptime and I am a happy kitten with that.

And here comes some Ele and says that it is horrible… lol… Just shows how good they had it before…

Get down to earth people!

As another mesmer who tries to keep up with eles, necros with signets, rangers, and thieves, I agree. ;-) I still roam, I still attack camps, and I’m still effective.

I would kill for a 25% passive speed boost, but that’s just not good enough, it seems. You need to have 100% swiftness AND a get out of jail free card on a 20 second cooldown or else you’re COMPLETELY USELESS OMG THE MOST GARBAGEBAG PROFESSION ANET HATES US.

Mesmer has easy access to stealth and blinks. That is a pretty big “get out of jail free” card. They’re also on low cooldowns (~30s w/ just the minor trait). This compensates for the mesmer being slightly slower, although you can still maintain 100% uptime on mesmer so you don’t need a 25% ms signet.

Sure we have IF we bring no utilities to WvW and run with Focus.

But the point I’m trying to get across is very simple – a lot of professions and specs (like my case) roam just fine and do that with not that much escape tools or mobility.

I roam – I have 1 32 sec cd Blink, 1 90 seconds cd 5 seconds duration invisibility and 6 seconds of swiftness on 15 seconds cd (heal).

And I’m fine! Can I run away from one guy? Probably yeah, I can drag this long enough to get to the keep. Can I catch a guy? Probably yeah, but not sure if he won’t drag this on long enough to get to his keep.

Can I run away from a couple of guys? Not really, unless I juke real good and they don’t pay attention.

Do I wear heavy armor and have warrior’s healh? Nope, light armor and about 2-3k more HP than Ele. Do I have invulnerabilities? Yeah, but one roots me and another needs illusions up to function and then is 3 seconds tops for me on 60 sec cd.

I think I do fine roaming and I have less mobility than Eles.

====

You tell me – “you can gear, trait and equip certain utilities to get more escape options!” I agree… But then I ponder, if you, Elementalist, want more escape options, then is it unfair to ask YOU to gear/trait/equip for that?

That’s why we have hard time relating to your “plight”, you are basically telling us to spec and gear for escape options, while you are somehow entitled to get that for free because you are Eles?

You lost me there, can’t sympathize with you, guys.

It’s not broken. The mechanics rule for Blink is that you may teleport only to the location to which your character can run to without jumping and there is no obstacle between you and the target spot.

TLDR: you can only blink to the spot to which you can run to in a straight line without jumping.

It’s not a bug. It’s a feature.

Who cares about confusion? The 1 nuke itself is among the strongest to begin with and Phantasmal Rogue hits like a truck.

Minion of Vey.4398:

Ilthuain.5634:

Slot Lightning Flash. Trait Cantrip Mastery. Trait One with Air.

Your roaming is fine, just don’t get to roam for free any longer.

One with air? haha.

Is necro a good roaming profession when it slots signet of the locust?

Or are you suggesting that the 900 range lightning flash on a 36s cooldown is what sets it over the top? 36s traited at that, 45s base.

Funny stuff.

Wow you people are spoiled… I roam with my Mesmer with 32 seconds CD traited Blink which also ports 900 range, Mass Invisibility and around 40% Swiftness uptime and I am a happy kitten with that.

And here comes some Ele and says that it is horrible… lol… Just shows how good they had it before…

Get down to earth people!

Oh come on… Pretty much all that got nerfed is just confusion and a couple of highly specialized confusion heavy builds.

Phantasm and Shatter are pretty much untouched and those are basically the main builds we use anyway.

The only annoying thing about this update is that iZerker bug is still here.

Honestly, I actually think that we got relatively stronger now, Thieves, Eles and Engineers all got quite a few painful nerfbats in their face, so we will have easier time with those too.

Woohoo! Glorious… I’m totally having a blast farming Eles in WvW now. I met a couple and they are much weaker now really.

The dude I met 1 on 1 20 mins ago had no chance to escape ever with his RTL being on 40s cd.

Now Eles can’t run away from my Mesmer anymore. Awesome

Don’t be sad guys – just reroll Mesmers – we got 900 range instant teleport on 32 sec cd. Sure, we are the next on the chopping block, but hey, you will have fun for 2 months at least

/kiss

I tried to roll with S/S as phantasm mesmer in WvW and I do not really like it. IMO, it’s inferior to Pistol.

Sword Phantasm is weaker – it does great damage, but it is not really ranged and it does only one attack so if a target got block or aegis on, that’s all the damage down the drain (sadface) and even if it hits – it may end up not critting which is fail, compared to Duelist who kittens all over aegis and blocks with his 8 attack volley and will always do consistent damage since every attack crits interdependently and on top of that it is great at stacking bleeds and confusion if you have ethereal field (even with no condition damage both can do nice damage when stacked).

Illusionary Riposte can be awesome sometimes, it nukes hard if you block in melee range, but IMO Magic Bullet is just WAY more awesome in WvW. 2 seconds of stun on demand with 1200 range and it has only 20 seconds CD traited??? That’s like WAY better than one block with a nuke attached for just about any reasonable situation.

The only upside in S/S, IMO, is that you can can easily pick Blade Training which is great for blurred frenzy and leap, but IMO it’s not worth losing Duelist and Bullet at least for Phantasm build.

Maybe for Shatter it is a good trade-up, since Phantasmal Swordsman pounces on targets so it’s easier to shatter and hit with it.

Daishi.6027:

Phantasm burst?

Protection?

Reflective/Condi reflect?

Stun?

= Phantasm build and Arcane Thievery?

K listen dude. that build is pretty much God tier 1v1 and takes little to no skill to use. Is that bull kitten? … Actually no =D

Ok well maybe a little, best option is to just not fight this 1v1. It’s a bad build in team fights and thats how it’s balanced. I know it seems a little silly but in competitive play it’s not a big deal and unless they are solo queue side point a good majority of mesmers don’t actually run this crap.

The rest of the mesmer builds are pretty strong yes but can be countered pretty well if you know how to out play them. (just don’t be a warrior when you try to do it)

Yup, sounds like this build. It’s definitely good for messing around, I run it in WvW for solo-duo roaming, since I just love that side of WvW.

It’s not good in team fights though, just because your Phantasms get stomped the moment you put them out and you can’t really port into zerg for Blurred Frenzy burst either.

Basically it is a loner duelist type of a build really, just like Thieves for example.

Just to wrap it up really, be open minded about it – you will see tons of guys who will be like the Under Web dude above “I played Mesmer for 2000 hours… it’s horrible… we are always nerfed… bugs”.

You know the fun part about it? You will get the same response from just about any profession forum (replace “Mesmer” with whatever profession that is). Seriously, just try me – go to every other profession forums and see the threads. Honestly, it’s ALL whine all around and I am not kidding. Guys who get a nerf immediately scream that their profession is done for and they delete their characters/become free meals/go play another game. Guys who get buffed scream that they are useless/free meals/go play another game, because this buff is just pointless and they are tired of playing their crappy chars and even guys who do not get any real changes (Guardians) will whine that they are nerfed, because other profession got buffed and thus they are now relatively weaker (and by relatively I mean “the sky is falling”) to that profession than before, therefore nerfed and you guessed that… delete their characters/become free meals/go play another game.

Dude, I’m not kidding you, it’s like a comedy club here

One huge tip would be just to go to Mists asap at level 2 and gear up in PvP stuff and try to take down Svanir and the other dude solo there without using elite skills. They will give you a run for your money as a new profession player, so switch around builds and see how it goes.

The point is – see if you like the mechanics and the tools available. It will take you one hour top to test out most of the mainstream builds and you will get a feeling of what you are going to be like at 80.

Mesmers are good. I am not some blind Mesmer fanatic, but really, Mesmers are in a very good spot in PvE, PvP and WvW and they are really nowhere near the danger of losing that spot, despite all the tears.

Entropy.4732:

I’d wait on creating a Mesmer until the details of this mega 50% confusion dam nerf disaster hits tommorow. It eliminates a core build and severely hampers damage for all Mesmers. See what the effect of it is before rolling. Having said that, I love this class. It has a lot of functionality and style.

A dude said that he is not interested in condition damage, so he won’t really care about that.

Besides, what’s with the drama? So basically they nerf one major WvW build out of many for mesmers… big deal, really. It does not hamper damage for all Mesmers, heck, as a matter of fact, I don’t think that any Mesmers besides glam ones would give a kitten really.

From what I have seen, Mesmer is like the most powerful addition in WvW to any group-size just because of amazing utilities. Seriously, I personally remember how in WvW two days ago I was in a team of like 10 guys and we spotted around a double size of that force laying a siege on some keep and we basically stomped them all just because I chained Veil and Mass Invisibility and we sneaked on them undetected. It was seriously amazing and full of win.

And that is not even half of what a Mesmer can do in WvW. That’s some frikkin’ amazing power there even before you start actually do damage. I have seen some other Mesmers do crazy kitten with portals too and tossing Time Warp, Null Field or Feedback at the right time are also a game changers.

Heck, there is so much game changers in Mesmers’ toolbox in WvW that it is not even funny, you could basically do 0 damage and still turn the tide with utility skills alone, without even traiting for it really.

Silver.4798:

@Entropy, I was under the impression that confusion builds really only are viable against opponents in wvw or pvp, and is unreliable in PvE. Would the confusion nerf really make a difference in PvE/dungeon/fractal play?

You are right about that… Furthermore – confusion in PvP is already “nerfed” and it is absolutely worthless in PvE to begin with, none runs confusion in PvE (besides it won’t be changed for PvE anyway). So this “nerf” really affects only one thing WvW and only some very specific builds who are based on condition damage for some very niche (albeit significant) parts of it.

Sure you will get a storm of posts that the sky is falling now, but really, most of it will be just from guys who geared their kitten off just for maximizing confusion in WvW. So yeah, they will naturally be kitten about this nerf and will keep telling you that Mesmers are dead and other BS like that…

I simply did the personal questline thing until I got to the point where it outleveled me, then I got 2 crafting professions up, did some more questline. Got to another wall and then I simply took 2 professions and leveled them to about 200, which is not that expensive and still gives tons of XP.

After that I just finished with questline and events on the way to the questline instance entrances. It was pretty fast really, besides it is good for getting a hang of a Mesmer.

Well, I am not a huge expert on WvW seeing I am at 80 for like a week and was in WvW for like 4 days so far, but I think GS and iBerserker is awesome for roaming because it cripples. So yeah the damage is sometimes off (but honestly it is still quite good overall), but that 1200 range cripple is just amazing for both catching people and running away.

I got quite a few kills just because of that really and I am sure I escaped a certain death here and there just because you can cast it while running away and it will still hit the guy chasing you and cripple him.

I really like roaming and from what I seen – mobility is pretty much a king there. You can basically win a fight or survive, just because you move faster than whatever you face.

Blademaster Zelas

I really like swords and a caster with Swords and especially Greatswords was very attractive for me, so I naturally named it with a sword themed title. I also think “Blademaster” title suits her very well, because you can make your sword and GS do some insane and unnatural stuff way more advanced than just bashing things.

Zelas is from the old Slayers anime I really liked (do not mix with Xellos – 2 different entities).

The guide is great. I am a new player and was lucky to have DreamyAbaddon help me out in-game. I totally had no idea that I could actually go on and test-drive professions in the Mists area and his tip on that and the testing encounters there was invaluable.

I think that tip should be added, since it is simply amazing and new players won’t think about trying out going to PvP area at level 2, while it is just awesome place for the new players to help them chose their profession and see how it is done.

So, big thank you for the guide and I really liked 8 professions video. Would be nice to see another one with different weapons, just to give the idea how different it can be in the same profession.

Hey, LHound.

I liked your reply, very detailed.

Could you please elaborate on why you think GS is not good for Zerg situations? Honestly I am not looking for some amazing Zerg performer, the thing that I want the most really is being able to single out a guy and burst nuke him before he can realize what happened. Can GS deliver it?

Also, I think I have seen some mean GS build for zerg with confusion spam through Glamours and traits. Won’t it theoretically be great for zerg with mass stacked confusions, while still able to smash someone’s face in fast with burst?

Also I am not really married to GS, I realize that I will have to swap weapons. I just want to know if I can build a viable solo Mesmer which has eye-popping burst, uses GS mainly and is still decent for zerg.

Can it be done?

Hey guys!

I am a new kid around the block and I am currently trying to decide on my main. I work and study, so I don’t have the time to spend leveling something that ends up being a miss for me.

What I am looking for in Profession:

1. Greatsword users – I just love greatswords aesthetic-wise.

This limits me to Mesmer, Guardian, Ranger and Warrior. I don’t like dealing with permanent pets and I just don’t like Warrior.

So this leaves Mesmer and Guardian.

Next requirements are:

2. WvWvW viability – what I want here is 2 things
a) A good, offensive oriented solo gameplay – I would prefer something bursty with reasonable defense.
b) Zerg viability – I know there will be a lot zerg situations where you can’t really just jump in and start spamming, so I want something that can be good without having to get too close. I would like some decent nuking power from the safety of range, so I guess Mesmer is better here.

So with that in mind, I am currently more inclined to go for Mesmer.

What do you think about Mesmers WvW-wise solo and zerg?

Is there any good and proved direct damage Greatsword burst build for Mesmers in WvW? What is it or at least what is the idea behind it? Phamtasms? Shatters?

How do you feel about the state of Mesmers in WvWvW now?

Both Mesmer players and those who play against them are welcome to help me here! Feel free to link videos and boast about your prowess, guys. That will help me a lot.

Thanks.