Guild Wars 2

Since quaggans are like the most adorable thing of adorable things and are finally capable of jumping and dodging, it only seems fitting to add more animations to them, like /cheer, /dance and, most importantly, WvW finishing!

I would totally prefer a whole playable quaggan race, but since this isn’t goind to happen, i want at least be able to drive a glowing orb into my downed opponents chest while comforting him with my adorable looks.

You can’t argument that way, since every class has to give up a traitline in order to spec into their specialization.

Also that last statement is pretty BS. 2H weapons have higher weapons strength, but does that make ele staff superior to their daggers? Also both Reaper GS and Dragonhunter LB are pretty much useless in their current form compared to Chronomancer shield.

And even then it’s not like you suddenly lose access to all your old weapons and are forced to use that new, “weak” offhand weapon instead of the crazy strong 2h weapon all the cool kids get.

Mimic doesn’t work on elites, though.

I still feel bad about the whole “offhand specializations get something for free while 2h specializations have to give up something”. It just feels wrong to me.

Also, seeing specializations as vertical progression is just wrong, as it makes HoT mandatory to stay competitive and could be considered Pay2Win.

3 stacks every 6s would probably be more burning than d/d ele, unless you walk in and out of Ring of Fire like an idiot.

Also remember that torch has to be balanced with Prestige stealth in mind, which probably means that its phantasm has to be weaker than iDuelist/iSwordsman.

The game needs less burning, not more…

The heal seems pretty useless considering that no guardian ever used Lithany of Wrath before Smiter’s Boon was a thing.

Remember that having a breakbar will probably come with a long selfstun and 25 stacks of vulnerability once it’s broken. So this might actually backfire in some situations.

Mesmer is in a really strong place currently, so a weakness to conditions can be considered a good thing. You are supposed to counter most stuff by not getting hit in the first place, anyway.

It’s EOTM, so this officially counts as PvE anyway, not WvW :P

I would like you to present some facts of any kind to support your claim that condition builds put out equal burst of direct damage builds.

I would suggest going over to the PvP forums where the first page is littered with threads regarding burning damage. Further i would watch a few roaming videos showing the amount of damage conditions can do when applied in multiples (widely known as “burst”).

coglin.1867:

Iavra.8510:

Since condition damage per second is entirely unrelated to condition duration

By the way, this statement is factually incorrect.

If I land an ability that causes 4s of bleeding on a 10s cool down. And if I have 50% increases bleed duration, then it is a fact that after 4 seconds all the remaining condition damage is entirely because of the condition duration. It is pretty basic math, and a fairly simple concept to grasp, so I am curious how you justify declaring it doesn’t exist?

Which in turn changes nothing from the fact that the damage done by second by any condition is entirely unrelated to how long this duration is applied. Proof: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Condition_Damage

Further yet, since the recent patch changing poison and burning to stack in intensity as opposed to duration, damaging conditions have been made more capable of bursting and thus profit more from condition damage than non-damaging conditions, which are better paired with condition duration, which in turn is equally important to power and condition builds, rendering the whole debate over buffing conditions in exchange for the removal of +/- condi duration food useless.

Since condition damage per second is entirely unrelated to condition duration and it is widely known that burning is op, your statement of conditions being irrelevant is wrong.

/edit: Actually most roamers nowadays are condition as opposed to power, since those specs are tankier, easier to play and are equally capable of bursts. Removing +/- condi duration food will either lower these numbers or (most likely) not change anything, since not all power roamers are using – condi duration food, either.

So you are implying that + condi duration food are necessary for a condition build to work at all, which shouldn’t be the case, anyway. So the logical step is to remove said food and then see if conditions itself need to be changed.

coglin.1867:

Unless you can support a need for removing + condition duration food, saying for 3 years means jack. Direct damage was the mass majority in my opinion.

Before condition builds couldn’t compete with power builds. Now I am all for removing the food, or at least lowering the percentage. To do that, condition application skills will need a complete pass. Which would cause a base increase in condition duration or stacks in condition application skills, in many cases, or we are right back to where we started, with 3 more possible years of pure direct damage builds. Now in a few extreme cases, some skills or traits may still need a stack or two or so.e duration time knocked off. For the most part, they would need an increase, to compete, without the food in its current form.

Since the proposed change is removing both + and – condi duration food, nothing else has to change. Thise just removes the need for people to run – condi duration food to counter + duration food and vice versa.

Some time ago you could actually reflect Phase Retreat which would cause the reflecting player to get pulled towards the mesmer.

Solori.6025:

While we have condi rev’s putting on 15-20 stacks of burst torment.

So a class in beta is unbalanced compared to a class that’s been out there for years? I’m shocked…

Regarding Cry of Frustration, keep in mind that a condi shatter can burst with every shatter when compared to Power, not just F1. I’m all for making F2 better, but there would need to be a downside to iRetribution/MtD in exchange, especially considering that F5 will give 2 extra applications of both.

messiah.1908:

i really dont know how 2 torment stacks were too strong

The thing is, due to the nature of shatters it’s not just 1 torment stack difference, but potentially 4 or even more, depending on how much you shatter.

Also, prepatch there was no Ineptitude, no burn stacking (mesmers don’t do much burning, but staff clones can actually hurt due to that, not to mention the new iMage), Confusion damage could be completely avoided and Scepter #3 didn’t stack as fast as it does now.

I’m split between these two. I think that MtD was too strong at 2 stacks and needed a nerf or at least a GM spot next to Ineptitude/different traitline to not make Illusions/Chaos be the cure-all for condi builds. Chaotic Dampening, on the other hand, feels too weak for someone who hasn’t played staff when it was 5%, so i can’t argue about its former state.

Regarding Chronomancer, i think it feels in a better spot since the announced changes, though i’m still against giving it (or any other “OH weapon only” specialization) a free F5 without any tradeoff.

I hope they bring Sigil of Cleansing intp PvP, soon

Quickness maybe? It makes them whirl faster and move a shorter distance (at least i think it works that way. If not, it might have been the other way around → Slow).

Sure, the moment I pop TW it’s very strong, but then I got 180s without it.

Eh, yes, that’s exactly what an elite skill is. Warriors for sure would like to have 24/7 Rampage, too, but that won’t happen.

Vermillion.4061:

I’m highly against zergs but 5 players should not be allowed to kill an entire zerg.

Actually, they should, if the zerg is stupid enough to tank all AoEs.

Moa, Timewarp and Massinvis are all pretty elite-worthy, though.

Managed to login after several tries, but crashed again when i tried to enter WvW (loading screen stuck at 100% for ~5mins now).

Well, technically shatters are F1-F4 (F5) and thus the class mechanic

A year ago the situation was a bit different. PU was only +1s, which by itself is not too strong, but gives you a slight edge in mesmer vs mesmer situations (which is ok, because you were giving up on, say, IP). On the other hand, you had clone death traits, which were the actual reason that build was faceroll.

Now, clone death is gone, but PU got buffed and those 3-5 extra seconds actually make a big difference. The trait revamp also made PU more accessible, so it’s basically mandatory for every mesmer that wants to roam/duel (i know, not what the game is balanced for) and doesn’t want to be fodder for his/her fellow mesmers.

Why even bother playing mesmer when you are actively playing against the class itself?

The best advise probably is to not start panicking. Patient thieves will wait out your defenses and have their bursts ready due to the nature of initiative. Don’t spam your defensive cds in advance, making yourself an easy target.

Also make sure to always have an iWave/Chaos Storm/Temporal Curtain ready for Refuge, since that’s probably the worst thing that can happen to you.

I’m inclined to agree with you, but i know that many follow mesmers here don’t, so better prepare for a verbal Pyro beating.

Still bugged

Yeah, that’s pretty much faceroll.

Nah, it still works, you only have to build slippery enough not to get caught by 5+ ganking groups. That’s why you see a lot of PU mesmers running around.

With staff and Signet of Inspiration/Focus OoC you don’t need Traveler that much. Learn how to Phase Retreat forward and do so constantly to achieve a decent movement speed.

That’s why you never do your whole burst without baiting out dodges/blocks/invulns/cleanses beforehand, regardless of build.

Besides, that amount of confusion will do serious damage even when the only skill you use cleanses it.

Quickness used to be a 100% increase, but was nerfed to 50% some time ago.

What has this to do in the WvW forum?

Like Nubu wrote, i’m bad at playing condi, i’ve always been a power/shatter person. But he played condi basically since release and we have played together long enough that i can tell you how broken Chrono condi was.

Because Helseth can’t play condi at all. If he were to learn it i’m sure he would be a bigger help to his team in the current meta.

Condishatter is very much viable in the current meta. You just can’t hide in stealth 24/7 and spam clones anymore, which is a good thing.

I think Chrono in general needs only a few fixes:
- Make iReversion and Chronophantasma share a trait tier (either Master or GM, it’s not like that really matters).
- Do something about F1-F4 or F5, so not to be a strict upgrade to base mesmer. What exactly is up to debate.
- Maybe take a look at Alacrity, because as it stands some builds can keep it up nearly permanently and this might be too strong.

It’s kinda hard to see but i think the Tempest isn’t wielding a mh weapon, either:
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Tempest_concept_art.jpg

Chronomancer is cut off, so it could be either way:
http://dulfy.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Chronomancer_concept_art.jpg

+1 to removing 40% condition food (both +/-). Also i would think about reverting vulnerability affecting condi damage.

Regarding MtD, i’m on Helseth’s side and think that 2 stacks of torment would be much too strong, even more so with Chrono.

Vigor helps you refill the endurance you just used to dodge. When Evasive Mirror procs, chances are high that you just dodged a projectile, anyway, so unless the other guy is spamming autoattack or Rapid Fire/Unload, those reflects won’t be of much use to you. Also, to trait Evasive Mirror, you need to give up on Blinding Dissipation, which is one of the main tools for Dueling mesmers (as in the traitline, not as a gamemode) to deal with heavy melee hitters like warrior or thief.

Don’t use F3 just for the vuln, it’s worth much more as an interupt.

As much as i like Inspiration for its cleansing/healing, the Mender’s Purity aftercast bug always throws me off :/ Though i’m still using it when playing CI since i need MoD for it to be effective.

Chrono Condi is actually very powerful (too powerful for my liking, but that’s just my opinion). Since your damage comes from every shatter, F5, iReversion and Alacrity allow for frequent chain shatters.

Build would be Dueling/Illusions/Chrono with Scepter/Pistol + Sword/Torch. You can pick the cleanse Mantra if you like or MoD for control/pistol spam.

Scepter is mainly a condi weapon, so if you intent to play condi chrono, go with it. For power, i wouldn’t recommend it, really.

What does an ele give up to overcharge an attunement?

The attunement itself as it gets a cd for 20/16s. And if you want to argue with Fresh Air, you should have better test it beforehand. I have tanked the overload on zerker reaper against a zerker tempest and the damage it does is laughable.

Does a dragonhunter give up aegis for the new shield thingy?

Actually, yes. According to http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Shield_of_Courage there is no active Aegis anymore and the Virtue isn’t instant on top of it.

Elementalist:
Gets off hand weapon so gets extra class mechanic ability.

Mesmer:
Gets off hand weapon so gets extra class mechanic ability.

Dragonhunter:
Gets full 2 hander weapon, 5 skills and altered class mechanic.

Reaper:
Gets full 2 hander weapon, 5 skills and altered class mechanic.

Except that this line of thought makes no kittening sense at all. Even if the mesmer shield would be absolute trash, there is nobody forcing you to take it and you still have every other mesmer weapon available to you.
Did you even take a look at Reaper GS or Dragonhunter LB, though? Both are worthless and i can guarantee you that every necro would gladly give his or her GS to you to be able to take both DS and RS. But that won’t happen, because the way it currently is offers you a choice and not just a flat improvement over the base class.

Fay.2357:

Iavra.8510:

Change CS to be 1s per illusion/self and make the mesmer invulnerable for the whole duration. Since CS has a longer cd than Distortion, it would probably be balanced (might need to exclude elite skills from the reset to prevent double Moa etc).

Maybe change the skill to only revert on 2nd activation and remove the forced revert after the rift is destroyed or the buff runs out to make it usable for jukes.

So… A flat nerf to Mesmer defense. Yeah, great idea, 10/10.

Yes it is, in exchange for the ability to reset skill cds. This is how other specializations work, you know. Giving something up for new stuff.

Sorry to dissapoint you, Coarr, but the best ranger has to be Wizzö :P

On the other hand WTS has shown that mesmers are kinda outclassed in the current PvP meta and while buffs in some areas might help you risk creating a better thief if you leave the amount of stealth the same.

Though we can argue all day long, it’s not like it will change anything.