Guild Wars 2

1) The option of running in spontaneous 1v1s while roaming.
2) Real gear and build options, not the PvP ripoff.
3) A real crowd standing around and watching not some spectators that can watch but aren’t really “present” (this brings a lot in terms of atmosphere).

/edit: also very much this

People are still playing for points? lol

//edit:

The difference is that you don’t take up valuable queue space if you are in the jumping puzzle.

You know…there are always people from all 3 servers so in the end you lose nothing. Be grateful to the duelers that we remove some of the cluttering and lagging from your blobs.

Also staff 4 became rather underwhelming, especially since Phase Retreat essentially does the same and more, at 1/4 the cooldown. Maybe add a blast finisher, or would that make it OP with specific team comps?

The changes were made to make Staff #4 similar to the combo version of chaos armor like ele auras. Problem hereby is that ele skills generally “do less” than those of other classes to balance out the higher amount of weapon skills the class has.

So we essentially got a skill that does the same as an ele skill but is “costing” us double since we only have half the number of weapon skills compared to eles.

/edit: An easy fix would be to just lower the cd of staff #4 but i’d rather see a replacement of useless RNG elements (swiftness…) for something more useful.

OP should try playing Warrior for 6 months.

Isn’t it great replying to a thread without having read even a single post and without a clue how PvP works?

Culling is more something of category “bugfix”, no new content.

When upleveled players attack me i usually do a /no and move a bit. If they continue attacking…their fault.

I think one of the main reason to not giving mesmer speed buffs (and leaps) was because of portal. Now that every class will get access to their own portal (via new item) this argument is void.

Will ArenaNet do something about it? Most likely not. The balance team has to do living story so they can keep their stupid 2 week cycles.

PvE players will tell you “but you get a new ability line every month” but yeah…seems like the WvW team has been changed into yet another living world team <.<

Actually, every other class has either:
- permanent +25% movement speed (warriors got Warrior’s sprint, don’t even need a signet).
- easy access to swiftness (engi Speedy Kits)
or both.

Guardian would be the next slowest class, being forced to take certain weapons and utilities but with way longer swiftness uptime (my first main actually was i guardian…i thought they were slow but when i switched to mesmer…oh boy).

Should remove immobilize, chill and cripple like thief Withdraw. The CD is okay, i think…only takes 10 points for the CD reduction trait.

/edit: I also would remove the damage. Could be useful to disengage after LB stealth, then.

Thieves are actually quite balanced. They have low access to stunbreaks so they have to prevent getting CC’ed in the first place.

What need to be changed about thieves is:
- BP + HS shouldn’t allow stealth stacking.
- Damage needs to be toned down a bit.

/edit: Yes, i’m playing thief atm (but P/D condi).

Another great thing about sword is that it provides a long duration bleeding. As long as your opponent has a condition he can’t get out-of-combat reg making it easier for a warrior to disengage (eg by Sword #2), reg and re-engage while your opponent is still low.

(This is also what i like about my P/D venom thief. Spider Venom provides 50+ sec of poison when all 5 attacks hit).

Bumping this until a dev reads it.

Out of a Mesmer and a Thief at the same skill level, the Mesmer will win 1v1

Not if it’s a condi thief (eg P/D).

/edit @OP: Both classes are great for trolling opponents. Mesmers can spent a great deal of a fight with kiting and mitigating damage while the illusions put further pressure. The downside: Mesmers are SLOW, horribly slow. I reactivated my thief for this matchup and there are worlds apart between thief mobility and mesmer mobility.

iWarlock has a very, very low attack speed (attacks every 6s with 1s cast time) and a slow moving projectile. If you can’t avoid that, your bad.

For all of you suggesting quickness stakes. Know that there is a bug where even if you finish the animation, if quickness has already run out, you will not get the stomp unless you remain in the crouched position until they are registered dead.

Doesn’t that only happen when the quickness doesn’t cover the whole stomp?

You can still run shadowstep + inflitrators signet for 3 stunbreakers in total. P/d thief stays ranged so you can use skill #3 to get away from melee range cc.

Yeah, i’m currently using Infiltrator’s Signet, Signet of Shadows (for Speed) and Spider Venom + Basilisk Venom as elite (Venomshare for smallscale).

/edit: In groups i’m switching Signet of Shadows for Shadow Refuge when our supporters manage enough swiftness.

I’m actually sure that warriors are viable for PvP. The thing is: They don’t bring anything unique that justifies taking them over other classes. If necros aren’t going to get nerfed i can think of CC spam warriors being brought to counter them.

You CAN survive a melee encounter. Has it ever occured to you that you may just be a bad player?

/edit: Just in case you don’t know: “Melee encounter” doesn’t mean that you just stand there trading blows and hope to be the last one standing.

I like the current pain response…

Can we please borrow Daecollo for the mesmer forums? Judged by the amount of buffs warriors received, maybe the devs will then finally hear us :>

/edit:

Protection for warriors would be balanced because they have to be in melee.

Please, stop…Guardians have to be in melee, even scepter is better in melee range. You want Warriors to be guardians with double hp and more damage. Please go play a guardian, then.

^ Mind Stab (GS #3). Also torch #4 blast should REALLY be put at the begining of the skill. Doesn’t make any sense with the delay it currently has.

You can comment in my suggestion thread (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Suggested-Trait-and-Skill-changes/) if you want to. It’s time the devs finally hear to our needs.

I’m currently playing P/D condi-thief. CC is probably the best counter since the thief class doesn’t really offer much stunbreakers (honestly, Blinding Powder should be a stunbreaker).

Doesn’t really help when the mark is cast on your position. I’d suggest something like ele glyphs which show a unique animation at the ele’s hand while casting.

/edit: Not saying that i want to deny you your holographics ^^ Necro animations are actually kinda plain and could need something.

OP post seems more like a mesmer. It’s purple after all :P

Basically, you take a mesmer for:
- portal
- illusion of life
- high burst damage

Spirit rangers can do better reviving and necros/thieves are equal or better at burst damage. So that only leaves portal which isn’t enough to justify the amount of babysitting that’s needed to protect a mesmer in the current condi meta.

/edit: A mesmer can (in theory) be built to work against condi classes but this only works when taking other utilities than those mentioned and speccing in a less agressive way. That means, you now have a mesmer that works (partly) against condis but doesn’t provide anything relevant for the team.

Umm..why are you grouping up with the enemy if you don’t want them spying?

/edit: Aaaah, now i fully understand your post…that’s most likely a problem with the transfer system. Transfers should cost much more and only be payable by money, not converted gold.

Actually, i think they do but stun duration gets rounded up to the next second and (an example, don’t know actual values now) 3.5s or 3.75s makes no difference in this case.

Then just create it, maybe the devs will finally hear us ^^

Random thoughts:

Illusionay Self (180s CD):
<random skill description goes here>
Duration: 30s
Stability: 30s
Triples toughness and vitality.

#1: Mind Feast
medium damage
1200 range
2 Confusion / 5s.

#2: Phase Out (10s CD, instant cast)
2s Distortion

#3: Mass Hypnosis (20s CD, 1s cast)
900 radius PBAoE
2s daze

#4: Illusion of Battle (25s CD, 1s cast)
1200 range
summons 3 random phantasms

#5: Alter Reality (30s CD, 5s cast)
channeled skill.
1200 radius PBAoE
while channeling:
- converts 1 boon on enemies to 1 condition every sec.
- converts 1 condition on allies to 1 boon every sec.
- every boon an enemy gets is converted to a condition.
- every condition an ally gets is converted to a boon.

^ yeah, i just wanted to create a skill with this name and couldn’t come up with a better idea

Bump + another update:

The Prestige (Torch #4, major):
- blast finisher now happens on cast.

Not quite. I think it does the following:
- remembers which illusions you had when channeling the mantra.
- summons a copy of those on cast.

90s seems much too high for this when the max cd for any illusion is 30s untraited (iDefender, iMage).

Also i don’t think anyone would really take it…clone/phantasm cds (apart from iMage but that skill sucks anyway) are already decent.

JI is great for stomping thieves. You don’t even have to look for where they are.

Also, JI + Banish is pure awesome.

I think you should probably try to roll your face from right to left on your keyboard instead the other way. Works wonders sometimes.

- Sun Spirit’s active (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Solar_Flare) could be used to counter Guardian/Warrior/Engi/Ranger/Necro #2 and safestomp. Bird pets can do the same (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Blinding_Slash) but due to activation time and pet AI i don’t think it’s reliable enough.

- Rampage as One for stability. Should be self-explanatory.

From a non-necro perspective, staff needs something to tell from what mark is being cast. Honestly, all 4 animations look exactly the same.

Not sure if i really got what this skill should be doing but 90s CD seems too high for me.

Good luck with your new match-ups

Yeah, about this…

11. Abaddon’s Mouth
10. Augury Rock
21. Dzagonur

Blobbing everywhere and whole zergs chasing after 5-mans. Looots of fun.

/edit:

It’s just that I sometimes feel accused when I teleport people into wherever when the enemy just didn’t sweep and guessed the same thing happens on all sides.

You don’t have to. I hid myself in 2 towers and 1 hill last week and portalled people in. Totally their fault (1 arbor ranger even saw me hiding in hills. Seems like he didn’t care <.<),

Tier 6 (150 WXP): Supply Traps now also summon a champion dolyak for each opponent in range that steals all of a players supply on kill (revenge!)

Don’t forget they will also add Commander Mastery, consisting of 10 ranks each 1000 WXP and unlock another color to dye your commander sign with every rank (up to #10…Hot Pink).

8s stacks of confusion on immobilize would be quite OP considering how easy it is for a warrior to apply cripple + Leg Specialist.

Someone needs to actually define what sustain means to Daecollo and some other people.

- Sustained damage: Warriors got it pretty good with hammer, sword, rifle, axe and possible also other weapons.

- Sustained healing: No profession, excepting maybe the guardian when really going for it, got as much passive healing as a warrior since healing signet got buffed.

- Sustained..umm..mitigation: This is were it gets a bit complicated. Warriors got very high mobility and a lot of CCs that help with mitigating damage in an active way. Some decent blocks/evades with GS, MH mace, OH sword and shield also contribute to this.

Also don’t forget the diverse stances which allow the warrior to get partial immunity for quite a long time. All of this can be achieved while also speccing heavily for damage.

Personally, i think thk warrior already got good sustained damage and amazing sustained healing. Passive damage mitigation is more for the guardian so i’d like to see a slight increase on the active side like the often proposed defensive F2 depending on OH weapon.

/edit: I’m actually leveling a warrior atm (asura ofc) mainly to wear this amazing new helm from the gem store. I could give it to the guardian but it doesn’t really fit the class imho.

I once played against a Sword/Shield + Longbow condi build (using Bulls Charge) using this trait. I absolutely got destroyed by it and he proceeded to kill a ranger + ele in 1v2 afterwards with ease.

I play a mesmer, though, so that means my condi remove is kitten.

Certainly depends on your build.

- Shatter specs, without using the GS, aren’t that great in terms of sustained damage as they do mainly burst damage. I was actually duelling Osicat 1 or 2 weeks ago and could nearly do whatever i want as long as i mitigated the bursts.

- Condi specs aren’t that great for DPS, either. The main damage comes from short confusion (either F2 or Scepter #3) or Torment (Scepter #2) bursts. We can’t stack conditions as fast and as high as other professions AS LONG AS the other guy keeps killing iDuelists cause these guys are kinda brutal in a condi spec.

- Phantasm specs actually have quite good sustained damage that also comes from different angles. The main trick is to try to not get all phantasms to attack at the same time (hard against stealth since it causes all phantasms to sync up the moment the enemy reveals. However they still put a good amount of pressure against thieves that try to backstab you).

Just pointing out that you aren’t dealing any real damage with this spec when fighting against opponents that don’t suffer by lag, clustered vision or serious cases of 1-spamming.

Feedback does its main damage by reflecting projectiles so it’s more or less useless if your opponent just steps out of it or does nothing (like confusion).

/edit: It is kinda useful against guardians mid-WW. Whoever had the glorious idea to put these projectiles on a melee attack…

Bumping this a bit.

Also adding these changes:

Protected Mantras (Dueling VI, minor):
- now a master trait
- now reads “gain stability while channeling mantras” (note: this removes stability when channeling is finished so it cannot be abused by stacking boon duration).

Mantra Mastery (Dueling VII, minor):
- now an adept trait.

Actually necros do have a very high stability uptime (50%+) when going 30 into Soul Reaping, taking both Near to Death and Foot in the Grave and getting some boon duration.

Whether it’s viable? Don’t know…

Last time i checked, thiefs were one of the best professions for sPvP, tPvP and WvW roaming…don’t know much about PvE and WvW zerging, though.

I know, i already got another thread about something similar but it’s already quite old.

I will put the proposed changes in major and minor to indicate the priority these changes have for me. It also indicates those changes that i’m not really sure of.

Heal/Utility/Elite:

Ether Feast (major):
- removed the additional healing per illusion alive.
- now cleanses the mesmer for 1 condition per illusion alive (IP counts, too).

Mirror (minor):
- removed the reflect.
- now evades during the cast, cancelling Mirror puts it on full CD.

Portal (minor):
- cd reduced to 60s.
- visible buff now indicates how long it is until the first portal vanishes.

Veil (minor):
- increased stealth duration by 1s.
- enemies crossing the line get Revealed for 10s.

Phantasmal Defender (minor):
- now has permanent retaliation.

Signet of Midnight (minor):
- passive changed to +20% boon duration.

Signet of Inspiration (major):
- passive changed to +25% movement speed.

I’m actually unsure which signet should get the increased movement speed passive, but it should go to one of them. Both passives need a buff, imho.

Mass Invisibility (minor):
- cast time reduced to 1s.

Polymorph Moa (major):
- replaced by something else, can be discussed in this thread.

Time Warp (major):
- now is a glamour skill.

Deception (Downed #2, major):
- will randomly teleport and stealth but won’t create an illusion when nothing is targeted (now works without a target).

Weapon Skills:

Mind Stab (GS #3, minor):
- increased radius to 180.
- reduced AoE limit to 3.

Winds of Chaos (Staff #1, major):
- removed vulnerability.
- bleed duration reduced to 5s.

Ether Bolt, Ether Blast (Scepter #1, first 2 attacks, major):
- now apply 1 stack of confusion for 2s.

Temporal Curtain (Focus #4, minor):
- now applies 3s chill instead of 5s cripple.

Into the Void (Focus #4 follow-up, major):
- reduced delay to 1/2s.

The Prestige (Torch #4, major):
- blast finisher now happens on cast.

Phantasmal Mage (Torch #5, major):
- reduced cd to 20s.
- now attack every 4s, down from every 6s.

Traits:

Signet Mastery (Domination VI, minor):
- moved to master tier.
- merged with Cleansing Inscriptions (Chaos IX).

Confusing Enchantments (Domination VIII, minor):
- moved to adept tier.

Confounding Suggestions (Domination XII, major):
- now reads “every daze you apply is converted to a stun. Every stun applied to you is converted to a daze. Durations are preserved”.

Protected Mantras (Dueling VI, minor):
- now a master trait
- now reads “gain stability while channeling mantras” (note: this removes stability when channeling is finished so it cannot be abused by stacking boon duration).

Mantra Mastery (Dueling VII, minor):
- now an adept trait.

Retaliatory Demise (Chaos VI, major):
- now applies 5s of quickness when you are downed.
- now has a 60s ICD.

Mirror of Anguish (Chaos VII, minor):
- ICD reduced to 60s.

new Chaos Master tier trait: Infusion of Chaos (minor):
- every 10s, a condition is transfered to a random illusion (only works when at least 1 illusion present).

Compounding Celerity (Inspiration VI, minor):
- now is a grandmaster trait.
- now reads “you and your illusions move 25% faster”.

Temporal Enchanter (Inspiration IX, minor):
- now is an adept trait.

Shattered Conditions (Inspiration XI, major):
- now is a master trait.
- AoE limit reduced to 3.

Illusionary Invigoration (Illusions VI, minor):
- now is the 15pt minor trait.

Illusionary Elasticity (Illusions VII, major):
- now fixed.

Illusionists Celerity (Illusions 25pt, major):
- now is a master trait.

Shattered Strength (Illusion 15pt, minor):
- now is the 25pt minor trait (again).

That’s it. In first place, i tried to adress our weaknesses against conditions and our slow movement speed. Some changes, like Compounding Celerity, are kinda strange but in this particular case i needed a replacement to move Shattered Conditions to master tier.

These are my thoughts so far and i’m hoping for a healthy conversation and many good suggestions regarding Moa replacement ^^

Happens to me everytime when i (on mesmer):
1) teleport after stealth.
2) chain different kind of stealth (Massinvis and Decoy don’t stack but can be chained by having them overlap for a very short time).

Mesmer illusions should always count as “players” and been priorized in this way. Making tab an “instantly find the real mesmer and continue bashing him without even thinking about it”-button would totally destroy the class’ profession mechanic and probably the class in general.

Actually, the only class that has no stability (outside of a useless mantra) is mesmer.

/edit: Could be nice if Protected Mantras gave stability while casting mantras (possibly also protection, removing the flat +400 toughness). Mantras need some buffs to be viable outside of MoP heal spamming.