Guild Wars 2

EDITED since apparently I mishead and misunderstand. Very reasonable given how that twitch was going…next time I’m just going to wait until someone types it out so its actually coherent and concise.

Penguin.5197:

I’m unable to watch the stream right now any quick update on what they’ve said so far?

lemme say my take on the sum up:
“We play condi classes (one stated he played condi engi, the other said he plays ele). Therefore we’re nerfing crit damage. We’re also making 2h weapons have 2 sigils (without mentioning if they’re balance the damage accordingly, plus both that were talking indicated they played classes that used 2 handed weapons very often). Changing runes so you cannot do a 2/2/2 combination to stack lots of might, or other stuff. But gave very little hard proof. They indicated a long “these numbers aren’t set in stone”, blah blah blah..so it seems like they haven’t even set in stone whats actually going on and how its going to be balanced in the end.

So far thats what they’ve mostly covered..it seems like it doesn’t really “balance” much, but nerf direct damage and they seem to indicate that their changes will make condi’s even stronger.

RedCobra.7693:

remove 5 out of chaos and 5 out of inspiration, change the master trait in inspiration to wardens feedback and get a focus instead of a pistol, then with those ten points chuck it into illusions for confusing cry, the extra retal could go a long way with the amout of toughness you have

Oh that’s a great idea! I’ll make sure I try it out today to see how it goes! The reason I’ve been liking pistol is:
1) I tracks people in stealth so the moment they pop it out it hits the stealther for lots of damage
2) High dps, doesn’t have to move

I know that the warden has had some issues recently where it will move now to the target, but then not attack. How great do you suppose the dps will change with warden+reflect versus the duelist with the trait?

Jitters.9401:

Handin.4032:

Blocks and maybe even evaded attacks should pop revealed. Thieves and mesmers (I play stealth mesmer) need to be penalized for poor play when in stealth. Thieves can continue to attack while in stealth even if the person their fighting is blocking them using scepter block, or gear shield etc. No matter what, attacking should drop you out of stealth.

Blocked and evaded attacks should never break stealth. That would move thieves to a class so weak they may as well go into wvw as a lvl 1 with lvl 1 traits and lvl 1 gear and only auto attack as an ability.

Just put reveal on black powder stealth and that would help level the playing field.

No, fix stealth and make it so at least block breaks stealth, OR removes time from stealth (1 hit halves the remaining duration, 2 blocked hits halves it again, etc). SOME form of penalty for doing poor play and SPAMMING attacks in stealth while a person is doing a block so you get the last hit the moment it comes off. So, FIX stealth. Then at the same time BALANCE the thief accordingly. There are people on these forums who play thief who I think believe that just because they nerf something doesn’t mean they won’t add something to balance. FIX the mechanic that is broken, and BALANCE the class that is currently only “balanced” because they take advantage of a broken mechanic. It was done with confusion with mesmers, and we’re still OK. It was done with portals, and we’re still OK. They buffed other aspects to compensate.

I am not saying they should break thief. But to honestly say a broken mechanic should stay broken because one class is using it a lot to balance themselves is utterly ridiculous. By that logic they should reverse the confusion update and many many others. If they fix stealth, they will NEED to fix thief.

Blocks and maybe even evaded attacks should pop revealed. Thieves and mesmers (I play stealth mesmer) need to be penalized for poor play when in stealth. Thieves can continue to attack while in stealth even if the person their fighting is blocking them using scepter block, or gear shield etc. No matter what, attacking should drop you out of stealth.

The BIGGEST problem with “stealth” is that it isn’t “stealth”, it’s “invisibility”. There is NO penalty for the thief or mesmer if they attack and it gets blocked or evaded, they stay in stealth with whatever boons they have. This needs to change (and for the record I do play a stealth build mesmer about 1/2 the time I’m roaming). If an attack gets blocked or evaded, they should instantly be revealed. When I roam on my engi and I pop my gear shield against a thief, I sometimes block 5-6 attacks, while the guy stays invis. There is NO penalty really for a stealth thief to attack someone who is blocked. Thats the main issue I see with stealth: very few penalties for poor play. If you miss an attack, attack a guy that is blocking, etc, you keep your stealth.

As for perma stealth in a keep, there is one EASY solution: call a mesmer over and moa. As long as the mesmer starts the moa animation when the thief is targetting, it will channel through even if the thief is in stealth, and they can no longer perma stealth. When there is a perma-stealth thief in a keep, as a mesmer i get my pistol out, and I equip the mantra daze and signet stun and moa. It gets them almost every time.

Best thing to do as a mesmer is the wait until the animation is almost over and throw a feedback over the kill shot warrior. Since they’re glass it’s just so hilarious to see them drop themselves xD That being said, the only time kill shots have ever been an issue with me is if its a large ZvZ and with the combination of lag and particle effects it is hard to notice it…but I’m normally dodging enough that I miss it. I even rolled a warrior to try out doing kill shots, and it’s really not as effective as most people may think. I was only able to get off ~1/3rd of the killshots I initiated, and unless you’re full glass it’s probably not worth it (but I was only a lvl 7 warrior…so…)

Almost every class has skills that can hit for 10k+ in full zerker. Even mesmers if in full zerker can hit for that with mind wrack if traited. It only because an issue if they’re like traited in healing/toughness/vit gear and still hitting for 10k+, which they’re not.

SnubFighter.7613:

I use a signet build that is quite different from this. Doesn’t focus on using phantasms or shatter. They just work as a bonus to overall dmg/cc and survivability.

I will admit it does use PU which many state that a PU build usually offers little to the team. However if you use it with Signet of Inspiration you can gift your surrounding buddies with some great defensive boons.

I’ve had great success in WvW and sPvP(Knights Amulet) and I’m mostly using Exotic gear currently.

This is my end goal:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8fnUEFQbCNG1wWbEx0jg74AOSKcNYrkCc7CB-jEDBYfERzUgAUEQEIwZnFRjtErIasqZJVVLy6aYKXAWzAmzMa1A-w

I might try the Runes of Resistance that you mentioned in your build for the extra aegis.

Yeah it looks like a blackwater variant almost. What I would suggest for that is to make it 20/30/20/0/0, and swap out PU for the trait in the duelist line which gives distortion on signet use. I think that would make it much more effective instead of using PU (since the boonshare is very limited range with the signet)

Winkin.1490:

Spockime.1364:

AoN talking smack about NOPE? Priceless. Here is a list of what AoN is “good” at:

1. Running from even numbered fights
2. Running from lost fights with tonics
3. Following a zerg to gank stragglers who are alone with 2-3x the numbers of the stragglers – which then becomes bragging on the forums about their “skill.”
4. Following a friendly zerg to capitalize on the numbers when needed then coming to the forums to brag about how they killed huge zergs with less than 10 people.
5. Emoting dead players
6. Running away (had to mention this twice)

Honestly, you are kind of a joke guild that mapchat always tells everyone to ignore. When you want to get serious instead of ganking stragglers, come back here and let us know. If you want to GvG, I’m sure several guilds on TC would be happy to humor you.

Look, we get it. NOPE is like any other large guild. You guys run 20-30 (plus pugs) and are very organized. You consider AoN a bug that you can squash, which you can, since we run 7-8 most nights. No one is saying anything to the contrary.

But just stop with the “AoN runs from even numbers.” We had an informal GvG against EMP/HzH a while back and beat them 7v10 without having a single downed. We beat GF with lesser numbers multiple times when they were on EBay. The only guild that has given us trouble recently with even numbers is Anonymous Defender (hopefully they hold as high of an opinion of us as we do of them).

Anyway, just stop. No one who has played WvW for more than a month is going to believe the ridiculous garbage you posted.

I just wanna add that spock is not a NOPE member, but seems to just be a fan I’m not sure what the obsession with 5v5’s is honestly…it’s not that I’m against them, I just don’t see the fun in preset numbered “get ready, set GO” kind of fights. WvW (WORLD vs WORLD) to me has always been more fun as large scale warfare, taking keeps, getting ganked, ambushed, etc: 5v5’s is why I go to tpvp. (Yes I know they’re different, but the fighting should essentially be the same if you’re doing well because of SKILL, rather than builds or food). I’ve also never understood the argument: “If you run with more than _ people in WvW, you must be bad.” Or.. “If you run from a fight you must be bad”. I’ve seen people from TC, Mag and FA all run from fights, it’s just part of the game (though I do feel like using the tonics is just as cheesy and lame as guilds leaving mesmers by the watergrate in Bay…)

That being said, if any AoN wants to 1v1 me for fun (or anyone for that matter) just drop me a tell and I’ll meet them I do like doing 1v1’s since I test out new builds that way.

Entioch.6594:

=
Those were fun duels ^^ take care.

That they were! Cheers!

Entioch.6594:

Handin.4032:

Winkin.1490:

Handin.4032:

Brode.7689:

I’m assuming you were the asura PU condition mesmser that wasn’t actually doing any damage at all? I did say to him on mumble “I need help over here. This fight isn’t going to end.” You should have just let me kill that up-level.

Also, I jumped on you twice because, you may have gotten away if you would have just cleared that one bleed on you, 60 second bleed is nasty. However, instead of running a condition clear you run decoy/blink/veil

Aww, you remembered me I wasn’t specced for 1v1 (hence the lack of damage…I was specced for zerg v zerg survival), but happened to see you gank an upleveled. I figured: “hey, its a mag guy, he’ll want a fight, its even a VR guy, they always talk about wanting fights!” so…I attacked…then I got you down to under half health and you had a necro buddy come help It was kinda cute hehe. If you want a rematch feel free to PM me, I actually really really like to 1v1 people in WvW Win or lose, it’s always fun! Maybe this time I’ll even spec for damage just for you (I wasn’t really speced for condi stuff, mostly just for survival in ZvZ) Just be glad I wasn’t on my bunker engi…then it definitely woulda been a long time fighting!

I sometimes just chill in Obsidian Sanctum looking for 1v1’s..feel free to come join!

PU Mesmer looking for 1v1s. Shocker.

I don’t run PU in 1v1’s when I’m dueling But it is quite handy for zerg survival

Correct me if I am wrong, but your saying you run a build that becomes less effective the more enemies there are in a zerg setting?

also I’m gonna start a pool, the closest person wins 5 gold and you can pick any assortment of the choices, for his 1v1 spec is he running:

-glass phantasm
-tanky phantasm
-condi on clone death
-4 stealths
-condi mesmer
-“hybrid” (The build equivalent of calling yourself agnostic.)

1) Your statement makes no sense about PU…PU has nothing to do with the number of enemies attacking you. It is very useful in popping a decoy or when veiling in ZvZ play to gain these buffs to help survive initial pushes with as much health as possible. I do find it funny though that people complain about PU in 1v1’s, then when people state they don’t use, they still complain or insult the mesmer. Until you know what builds I run (which it sounds like you don’t…several of them I’ve even posted on the forums!), please PLEASE don’t start talking smack :P I never run base cheese builds that I see MANY other mesmers play
2) None of those, SO HA!
3) I’d be more than happy to duel anyone (I was in OS for a bit today)..oddly I never get tells
4) I’m more than willing to talk mesmer stuff in game, just shoot me a mail or a tell when I’m on

So, tl;dr: If you’re going to try to smack talk me, or insult me, feel free to message me in game instead of making broad statements about my play when you obviously have NO idea

Keira Ferland.5619:

Handin.4032:

Winkin.1490:

Handin.4032:

Brode.7689:

I’m assuming you were the asura PU condition mesmser that wasn’t actually doing any damage at all? I did say to him on mumble “I need help over here. This fight isn’t going to end.” You should have just let me kill that up-level.

Also, I jumped on you twice because, you may have gotten away if you would have just cleared that one bleed on you, 60 second bleed is nasty. However, instead of running a condition clear you run decoy/blink/veil

Aww, you remembered me I wasn’t specced for 1v1 (hence the lack of damage…I was specced for zerg v zerg survival), but happened to see you gank an upleveled. I figured: “hey, its a mag guy, he’ll want a fight, its even a VR guy, they always talk about wanting fights!” so…I attacked…then I got you down to under half health and you had a necro buddy come help It was kinda cute hehe. If you want a rematch feel free to PM me, I actually really really like to 1v1 people in WvW Win or lose, it’s always fun! Maybe this time I’ll even spec for damage just for you (I wasn’t really speced for condi stuff, mostly just for survival in ZvZ) Just be glad I wasn’t on my bunker engi…then it definitely woulda been a long time fighting!

I sometimes just chill in Obsidian Sanctum looking for 1v1’s..feel free to come join!

PU Mesmer looking for 1v1s. Shocker.

I don’t run PU in 1v1’s when I’m dueling But it is quite handy for zerg survival

u play kittening PU in large scale fights? r u joking me?

What do you mean “play PU”..that’s a totally silly thing to say..its just a trait. I have lots of different builds that I swap between depending on what I’m doing. Some have PU, some don’t lol….(P.S. Don’t act like mag never runs PU mesmers, I’ve seen them many times )

Winkin.1490:

Handin.4032:

Brode.7689:

I’m assuming you were the asura PU condition mesmser that wasn’t actually doing any damage at all? I did say to him on mumble “I need help over here. This fight isn’t going to end.” You should have just let me kill that up-level.

Also, I jumped on you twice because, you may have gotten away if you would have just cleared that one bleed on you, 60 second bleed is nasty. However, instead of running a condition clear you run decoy/blink/veil

Aww, you remembered me I wasn’t specced for 1v1 (hence the lack of damage…I was specced for zerg v zerg survival), but happened to see you gank an upleveled. I figured: “hey, its a mag guy, he’ll want a fight, its even a VR guy, they always talk about wanting fights!” so…I attacked…then I got you down to under half health and you had a necro buddy come help It was kinda cute hehe. If you want a rematch feel free to PM me, I actually really really like to 1v1 people in WvW Win or lose, it’s always fun! Maybe this time I’ll even spec for damage just for you (I wasn’t really speced for condi stuff, mostly just for survival in ZvZ) Just be glad I wasn’t on my bunker engi…then it definitely woulda been a long time fighting!

I sometimes just chill in Obsidian Sanctum looking for 1v1’s..feel free to come join!

PU Mesmer looking for 1v1s. Shocker.

I don’t run PU in 1v1’s when I’m dueling But it is quite handy for zerg survival

Smooth Penguin.5294:

katniss.6735:

TC so mad about losing WP in ebg, they crashed all the maps.

Is it just a coincidence that TC gets mad, then the game servers crash?

You’re implying we need that keep :P We’re just happy sitting our spawn as dolyaks

Brode.7689:

I’m assuming you were the asura PU condition mesmser that wasn’t actually doing any damage at all? I did say to him on mumble “I need help over here. This fight isn’t going to end.” You should have just let me kill that up-level.

Also, I jumped on you twice because, you may have gotten away if you would have just cleared that one bleed on you, 60 second bleed is nasty. However, instead of running a condition clear you run decoy/blink/veil

Aww, you remembered me I wasn’t specced for 1v1 (hence the lack of damage…I was specced for zerg v zerg survival), but happened to see you gank an upleveled. I figured: “hey, its a mag guy, he’ll want a fight, its even a VR guy, they always talk about wanting fights!” so…I attacked…then I got you down to under half health and you had a necro buddy come help It was kinda cute hehe. If you want a rematch feel free to PM me, I actually really really like to 1v1 people in WvW Win or lose, it’s always fun! Maybe this time I’ll even spec for damage just for you (I wasn’t really speced for condi stuff, mostly just for survival in ZvZ) Just be glad I wasn’t on my bunker engi…then it definitely woulda been a long time fighting!

I sometimes just chill in Obsidian Sanctum looking for 1v1’s..feel free to come join!

melodey.4652:

Handin.4032:

Lord Kuru.3685:

Have No Faith In Me.1840:

…

Not 100% sure, but if Anet considers this an exploit, you might be infracted for your post. You might want to delete it.

As for fixing the issue: have the client (to save server resources) check whether the position you’ve targeted can be seen on a one of the “standard” monitor configurations. If not, the target circle goes red.

The server can do occasional random confirmation checks to make sure there isn’t funny business going on with the client.

It’s been posting several times (feel free to dig through the forums yourself) that this isn’t an exploit.

Please link these “several times”, because I’ve never seen them. In fact, I’ve seen on two occasions Anet specifying that they are against the rules, considered an exploit due to giving an advantage over other players. Once was Gaile Gray responding to a post about changing your aspect ratio, and the other was here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/wuv/wuv/Which-kind-of-zoom-is-intended
They are VERY explicit that any other zoom other than default is considered a bannable exploit.
Stop spreading rumors to benefit your own exploiting. Anet has been a bunch of puppies about actually cracking down on this, but regardless, it IS bannable. This game is already on easymode, stop being a child and play it as it was intended.

1) Thanks for assuming that I exploit, it makes you seem so intelligent
2) Thanks for calling me a child for explaining the forms of zoom ‘hacking’ that MOST people are thinking of the aspect ratio, NOT using external software. It would be impossible to ban people based on aspect ratios. If they want to totally prevent it, then when they go into windowed mode, force them into certain aspect ratios.
3) Most of the times people claim zoom hacks, its actually just clever AC placements. I’ve actually been accused of a zoom hack by a player from my own server who was a pug. I told him (in proper aspect ratios mind you!) where to place the AC, and how to tilt the camera to rotate the view to see through a gap above a door. It seems like MOST of the time people claim zoom hacks, it’s mostly because they don’t notice an AC that is placed well within range, or don’t know that AC’s don’t require LOS.

All match up threads, especially ones with these servers remind me of seeing daffy duck and bugs bunny arguing on cartoons growing up… (see attachment)

I’ve had reactions like this when I play bunker engi..people saying “You’re not doing anything, just healing!” after I kite them for 4-5 minutes calling me noobs.

In the end, I’ve found that in spvp just about everyone uses cheese builds…I just ignore it lol. Most of the time they’re just angry they cant do some simple AoE to get rid of those phantasms :P

Lord Kuru.3685:

Have No Faith In Me.1840:

…

Not 100% sure, but if Anet considers this an exploit, you might be infracted for your post. You might want to delete it.

As for fixing the issue: have the client (to save server resources) check whether the position you’ve targeted can be seen on a one of the “standard” monitor configurations. If not, the target circle goes red.

The server can do occasional random confirmation checks to make sure there isn’t funny business going on with the client.

It’s been posting several times (feel free to dig through the forums yourself) that this isn’t an exploit. Even using eyefinity, which is really just a graphics card software to allow people to use multiple screens fully. While its really cheesy to use, its in no ways an exploit..and it’d be really hard to enforce it because some people play in different aspect ratios (i.e. I play in windowed mode multitasking, etc…and I set the window to just what seemed to look best, though its pretty close to normal aspect ratios)

Also, if its a guild group running, more times than not the commander is the guy leading the charge. So, if you’re towards the front too, the first guy you tab to with “target nearest enemy” is most often the commander. So this is a good way to find a tagless commander. It’s how I hunt them down to moa them >:D

As long as only certain player AoE’s can hit over walls (necro and ele AoEs especially which seem to hit you even if your arrow cart is not in the circle), and as long as players can constantly AoE and AC through gates, the treb is one of the few pieces of defense which you can ACTUALLY count on. Many AC positions can just be AoE spammed down even though it really shouldn’t reach. Since you realistically cannot repair while the enemy is attacking because the AoE, defensive trebs are really the only piece of siege you can place which is actually difficult for the enemy to just spam away.

Get rid of defensive trebs, and you’ll have to get rid of all the other offensive nonsense (AoE’ing over walls, AC’s over walls, etc). The very fact walls can just be AoE’ed on in my opinion makes them fairly worthless…in fact all doors and walls in WvW seem to not actually be too useful in the end.

Seigfried.5938:

Tibstrike.2974:

It’s almost as if Anet is trying to stop the proliferation of condi-builds in WvW. Maybe now we will see less condi-necros. Maybe.

Personally, I’m fine with Diamond Skin. If you can’t chip away the 3-4k HP it takes to drop an ele to 90% then you are completely ignoring an entire part of the games damage system. You can still run condi damage heavy while still having a few attacks that can do damage.

Please tell me how you build an ele with 30-40k HP? The max I have reached is 26k.

I can hit 30k buffed on my mesmer..so maybe its possible for ele with full sentinel armor and trinkets..? Either way, you can always quickly take down the 10% really fast. The only time I’ve seen it be really effective is when people just spam their hardest condi skills constantly blindly and without thought

Ive never had an issue with Diamond skin. I’ve even tested it with a guild mate. You only really have to do ~1.5-2.5k damage to get past the threshold. I believe every auto attack does some level of damage. You don’t have to switch entirely to power necro, just spend a bit of time initially doing a little bit of dps. As a condi engi (and a pretty nooby one at that admittingly), I still have no problem. I spam my pistol shots a few times, and Im in the clear.

in the end, if you notice an ele with it, STOP spamming your condi skills and just auto attack for a few seconds.

It could be fun to have a mesmer hammer. I can imagine (keeping in line with the pattern of staff and GS)

1: Melee auto attack
2: Crack in the Mind (AoE attack that spawns clone after attack)
3: Crippling Thoughts (Ground target AoE: low damage, causes AoE cripple)
4: Illusionary Hammer (spawn phantasm that causes knockback on single target attack)
5: Fake an Earthquake (AoE ground target. Weakness with chance of daze)

could be interesting…

DirtyBird.6093:

The strength in the duelist is the bleeds on crit. This adds huge dps pressure. Torch is nice but the phantasm associated is completely worthless. I’ve tried running torch and don’t like the feel of it at all. Duelist’s job is to continually keep high bleed stacks while the warlock provides good str8 up dps due to them having a variety of condi’s. The mix just seems to work well.

Yeah that’s true! I was mostly thinking that if you were counting on your illusions to die that at least you wouldn’t be wasting a duelist and could use all 3 dodge clones for conditions. But very good point!

So for condi, here are my suggestions:
1) Swap out the pistol for the torch. If you’re going for death by condi, the pistol really adds nothing to the conditions (unless your enemy is standing in a chaos storm letting the duelist shoot him). The torch gives you access to 2 more conditions, plus if traited will give you a condi clear. Then you can swap 10 of the traits in dueling for 10 in chaos to get Chaotic interupt for your f3 and chaos storm/armor. This will spam more conditions.
2) Swap out portal for arcane thievery. This skill I’ve found is just so useful all around. If your enemy pops a bunch of boons, you can steal them all. If they give you a bunch of conditions, you can give them back. The portal, while good for mobility and position I feel like doesn’t add too much for the build.
3) If you do the above, you can swap out dueling II for dueling I. This will give your blink a very far range to help reset fights, and then use dueling X for your 2nd trait.

Just my suggestions. It seems like this build is part condi, and part phantasms, but without the focus on either which could be a big weakness.

Here is my well tested zerg busting glamour build. Quite a few mesmers in guild have swapped to in when zerging to very successful results:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Glamourous-Medic
(note it hasn’t been updated in MONTHS, but it shows the general idea)

(Continued from above, from running out of space)
Why 2 build links?!
So, you might be asking why are there two build links, with different labels. The passive build has all the stat sets that are described above. It is very good at kiting the enemies while letting your phantasms do all the dirty work, using the distortion and boons to keep yourself alive. However, after Zen graciously tested the build, he suggested an alternative stat set to make the build more active. This is what is in the 2nd link. The traits and skills are exactly the same, the only difference being the stat sets. This stat set replaces some of the vit and toughness beefiness that the passive version has with the offensive attack and crit stats. Using this replace, you will be able to be much more active and face your opponent head on in dps. The goal then is to burst your enemy down much faster, instead of kiting them around. However, it is entirely upto your preference. I personally prefer to be more passive, and Zen more active. This build allows the flexibility for most play styles!

VARIANTS:
There is already 1 variant, and that is to remove the distortion on signet and replace it with condi removal on signet use (Chaos 9). This can help if you know you’ll be facing a lot of conditions but not a lot of direct damage. There was some discussion between me and Zen after he tested whether it would be better to have distortion on signet use or condi removal. In the end we came to the conclusion that distortion will be more widely useful. However, if you know you will be facing a very condi heavy group, you can respec very quickily into condi removal on signet use. This means that your signet heal will remove THREE conditions, as well as refresh all your phantasms.

I’d like to give a huge thanks to Zen for testing out this build, suggesting stat changes, and strategies. I will be adding very shortly a paragraph or so on some battle tips! Please vote for this build https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/OMFG-Build-of-the-Month-Contest-December to show your support!

Build: 4-Signet Phantasm Warrior
Originator: Me, Handin
Testing Partner: The great Zen has graciously accepted to help test!
Link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/BUILD-4-Signet-Phantasm-Warrior/

Have fun! The 4-signet mesmer seems to always be underestimated, but it does really really well!

PSA The dolyak parade will be in TCBL in 1 hour, meeting by the windmill!

Furiousbeard.7602:

Well I’m glad tier 2 has seen some rebalancing since it makes for a much better match each week.

This will only be the third (correct me if I’m wrong) time that FA has beaten TC. I don’t think it will be like this consistently in the future, but who knows…

I think 2nd? Either way, it seems that the transfers FA has gotten are really helping them stay competitive which is nice! I’m just curious if those transfers will stay if FA does well enough to start facing T1 servers…

Tarnished Coast Dolyak Parade
I apologize profusely for announcing this the day of! My week has been hectic with multiple finals and work machines crashing. However, I still want to hold a parade this week, because next week with the holidays it will be hard to hold one! So, despite the last minute, I hope y’all come! Theres been some good fighting, and I think its great to finally see a competitive FA!

For those who do not know, the Dolyak parade is a time where we get together and just have fun, and of course, parade around as dolyaks around the borderlands! Of course, you do not have to be a dolyak if you do not wish to be.So come out and celebrate the dolyaks, who sacrifice much for our endless war!

Information

• Where: WvW borderlands. The exact one will be chosen ~1 hr beforehand
• When: Thursday (12/19) at 7 PM Server Time
• Who: Anyone is willing to participate! If you come and need a tonic, just ask a friendly DOLY representative and we can give you some to join in!
• How: If you choose to become a dolyak, there are 2 ways: a Ruminant Tonic, and a Dolyak Tincture (feel free to wiki these). Of course any other kind of tonic is welcome, or even none at all if you just want to run along!

If anyone has any questions, comments, concerns, or good dolyak jokes, feel free to send me a message!

I added in some extra stuff, better explanations and a link to gw2skills build as well

Hope people have tried it out I’ve found it to be very fun. The signet of midnight seems to REALLY pack a punch to ranged enemies when activated (since it doesn’t have a casting time, I’ve found its great to cast when someone gets up close in the middle of a dodge)

skcamow.3527:

@Handin, you should submit this for the December build of the month contest
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/OMFG-Build-of-the-Month-Contest-December

Oh wow thanks! I completely didn’t know about it! Will do

Durzlla.6295:

Handin.4032:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Since you have on stealth or blink, id suggest full celestial/divinity
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8alwzConQzhGbNJh5D9GNDs3dSFcdJF4e3A-jECB4fCyoLYINI0CJL5rIasVNFRjVVjIqWlELAIB-w

Would celestial be best if your phantasms are doing most of the damage while you kite?

Don’t use celestials with your build, it gives defenses sure, but the condi damage would be primarily wasted and if you’re running celestials you’ll want ALL those stats to be used, otherwise you’re just gimping yourself.

Agreed. I was debating between knights: for the crit damage to try to kill the enemies faster, or PTV: for the increase in vit which will give you more time to kite your enemy to let your phantasms work.

I’ve found so far that against melee, the Signet of Midnight’s blind is VERY effective. As kitten second blind, you can do a lot in that time to turn the tide if they don’t remove the condition. It seems like I can kite most classes fairly effectively. I’ve also found using pistol #5 with sword takes out a decent chunk of health that it makes the opponent retreat back to try to heal.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Since you have on stealth or blink, id suggest full celestial/divinity
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8alwzConQzhGbNJh5D9GNDs3dSFcdJF4e3A-jECB4fCyoLYINI0CJL5rIasVNFRjVVjIqWlELAIB-w

Would celestial be best if your phantasms are doing most of the damage while you kite?

x Charlie.4820:

Handin.4032:

The GS currently has a prec stacking sigil (not sure the best for it!).

Stacking sigil should go on your other weapon set.

Handin.4032:

Armor/Trinkets:
I am currently debating to myself which armor to use. On the one hand knights armor will give you some extra precisions to help you hit criticals and more damage. On the other hand, PTV will give you much more toughness to be able to kite your enemy around. Maybe the best option will be a mixture?

I also think your wording is wrong here, Knights gives you more toughness than PVT.
PVT will offer slightly less toughness and no prec in exchange for vitality and slightly more power.

Yes! I started off saying it gave more Vit, then for some reason I changed it o.O I edited it now

So, after the creation of the signet heal, I thought quite jokingly “What about a full signet mesmer!”. Then..it sat in the back of my mind, and I finally decided to try it. The only way I saw it to work was the pair it with phantasms, with the Signet of Illusions.

Link1, Passive: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAR8anUEFQbDNK0wWjkw8hefmB0jOpCuukCcvbA-j0BBYgCyUEA0HQUJwZnFRjVZDT9iIqGA-w
Link 2, Active: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAR8anUEFQbDNK0wWjkw8hefmB0jOpCuukCcvbA-jkCBYfCyUEA0HQUJwZnFRjtmpIas6aYaXBR9KyqYoCBEaCA-w

Utilities:
Signet of the Ether: Great passive and active heal, see traits for what else it can provide when traited
Signet of Inspiration: Lots of boons to keep you beefy. This will help keep you alive while you kite your enemies!
Signet of Illusions: Make your phantasms harder to kill, with the option to recharge any shatter skills you might want (I’m looking at you distortion!!)
Signet of Midnight: Allows you to keep your boons longer, and the AoE blind is very useful against melee opponents who get a bit too close. The stun break is also invaluable.
Elite: Mass Invis. I’ve found this is a great reset skill, since you will be able to heal while invis, and get off at least 1 phantasm while in stealth. If properly timed you can get off both your phantasms while still in stealth and healing up.

Traits:
Dom: 10 (Signet mastery)
Duel: 20 (Duel II, Duel VIII)
Chaos: 15 (Chaos IV)
Inspir: 25 (Inspir IV, V)

Explaination:
Domination: It was pretty obvious to take the signet mastery. It turns our new signet heal into one that can be used fairly often with a 28 second CD (Not bad for a ~6k heal)
Dueling: Dueling 2 gives your phantasms fury, which is great for that initial burst. Dueling 8 gives you a 1 second distortion whenever you use your signets. 4 seconds of signet distortion is very useful!
Chaos: I use this trait line purely for Illusionary Defense. With 3 illusions out nearly constantly, you take ~10% less damage. It makes you very very beefy. The gaining protection on regeneration is also very helpful since it will proc a free protection when your Signet of Inspiration gives you regen. Free boons are always good!
Inspiration: This line provides THREE very helpful benefits. First, Mender’s Purity now means your signet heal will not only give you the passive heal and 8k active heal, but also give you distortion AND remove 2 conditions! Inspiration V will also provide your phantasms more health, which when combined with Signet of Illusions gives your phantasms 70% more health. Finally the grandmaster trait will increase your phantasm damage by 15%. For FREE you also get retal on your phantasms, and your phantasms will proc regeneration on any allies!

Weapons:
I am currently using a GS+ s/p. The GS and pistol phantasms are great for damage. The iBerserk will also cripple your enemies making it much easier to kite them, while it and the duelist chew your enemy down. Sword is used for the leap and the blur. The GS has a prec stacking sigil . The sword has a sigil of luck, and the pistol a sigil of purity for more condi removal. All weapons have knight’s stats in the passive build, zerker in the active build.

Armor/Trinkets:
I’ve found that Knight’s gear and PTV trinkets works really well for the passive! Runes of Resistance are great to use, since you get the aegis whenever you pop a signet. When you pop a signet, you get distortion (evade all attacks) and aegis (block an attack that might get through).
For the active build, it uses a combination of knights gear with zerker/knights/cavalier trinkets. This increases your damage output quite a bit, though it also removes a chunk of your vit. However, if you are active and dpsing faster this should not be an issue. Centaur runes allow you to keep up pressure with stronger attacks, better bleeds, and more in combat mobility with swiftness.

Variations:
Click here!

Most effective people to moa are commanders. It is almost guaranteed to wipe zergs. I’ve gotten PMs from players from other guilds that I know on other servers that their commanders start raging when you get 2-3 mesmers to start to chain moa commanders.

Santa.4753:

YOLO is not agg, we are a completely different guild. We dominated the runescape pvp scene for 6-7 years, and got payed IRL to stop killing everything and play a different game. So we decided to take our talents else where into GW2. Soon we will dominate the GW2 pvp scene…we take cash or credit

You played runescape pvp for 6-7 years? o.O That got so old and boring after less than 1 year….

The fact that it reflects anything that touches the “sphere of doom” is why feedback is SO powerful right now in WvW. The current meta is mostly based on ranged attacks, so throwing a feedback on a group that is stacked will normally down at least a few players since it takes several autoattacks for people to realize there is a feedback there.

Dhampyr.2104:

Handin.4032:

Thanks to the SoS that dueled me in Obsidian Sanctum! I was trying out a new hilarious 4-signet mesmer build! Good fights though!

Share! Have you posted it in the mesmer forums yet???

Not yet, but I will be doing so when I get home from work! I found a build set that seems to work well…I won 1 1v1 last night, and lost 2..though those 2 loses were very close and long, great fights! With some help from a BLNT mesmer I think I finally settled on one. It’s fairly tanky!

Thanks to the SoS that dueled me in Obsidian Sanctum! I was trying out a new hilarious 4-signet mesmer build! Good fights though!

Furiousbeard.7602:

Stay tuned for the stunning conclusion of this weeks thread when FA joins the Dolyak parade as a participant rather than a spoiler…

Since it is finals week for many people in college, the dolyak parade probably won’t be happening Also the Hobbit comes out that night..so…

I was using my Endless Toymakers Tonic and realized that I’m only getting gift dolyaks. For anyone else that has one of these: are you getting the same thing?

I’ve seen guilds find an easy way to deal with trolls. After the GvG, they all zerg the one guy, kill him down, and kill anyone who tries to rez him. It seems to work…no one will rez a troll if it’ll get them killed to.

Perma-stealth isn’t really a problem. I’ve found a sure way to deal with perma-stealth thieves inside of keeps/towers as a mesmer. Wait until they just become revealed, target them and MOA!! For some reason, even if they stealth, if they don’t dodge it they get moa’ed in stealth. This will pop them out of stealth, then you have your fun! I’ve killed quite a few perma-stealth thiefs this way (even in field). They tend to be a bit squishier..so if you throw a few dazes/stuns on them they tend to either die or run off.

If a perma-stealth thief attacks you and runs off, don’t chase. That is something I see people do all the time and get frustrated. If you’re chasing someone down for a long time, they’re winning.

The only “broken” part of stealth that I really see is that if someone attacks you from stealth, and you block their attack they stay in stealth. A block should bring up the revealed (think of what BLOCK means! It’s not evade, it’s coming into contact and blocking the attack!). That is really the only broken part…I can sit doing my mesmer scepter block and see “block block block” but the little bugger stays stealthed. Of course..then I know he’s around…so it’s not all bad?

Also, I think nothing ruins a thieves day more than throwing an AoE right when he/she uses Shadow Refuge..it makes that skill use totally useless!

PSA The dolyak parade will start gathering in ~50 minutes in TCBL at the windmill!

PSA The Dolyak parade will be TONIGHT at 7 PM server time! We meet by the windmill. Borderland location will be revealed later!

Tarnished Coast Dolyak Parade
It’s the end of season 1!!! So, come and celebrate that it is finally over by joining TC in a dolyak parade! Come as a dolyak, or anything else you wish. Just a fun time amongst all three servers!

For those who do not know, the Dolyak parade is a time where we get together and just have fun, and of course, parade around as dolyaks around the borderlands! Of course, you do not have to be a dolyak if you do not wish to be.So come out and celebrate the dolyaks, who sacrifice much for our endless war!

Information

• Where: WvW borderlands. The exact one will be chosen ~1 hr beforehand
• When: Thursday (12/5) at 7 PM Server Time
• Who: Anyone is willing to participate! If you come and need a tonic, just ask a friendly DOLY representative and we can give you some to join in!
• How: If you choose to become a dolyak, there are 2 ways: a Ruminant Tonic, and a Dolyak Tincture (feel free to wiki these). Of course any other kind of tonic is welcome, or even none at all if you just want to run along!

If anyone has any questions, comments, concerns, or good dolyak jokes, feel free to send me a message!