Guild Wars 2

I don’t do much PvE, but i expect mesmer to be not so useful there, since we are mainly a “dueling” class, means we are best when fighting a single opponent. PvE mobs usually die fast or have lots of AoE that our phantasms won’t dodge.

Also leveling a mesmer is a pain, since the class relies a lot on traits to function properly.

Speed boosts certainly is a huge concern. As already mentioned, Traveler runes help, as do Speed runes for less gold. A mantra build can use Mantra of Recovery (the heal) with Runes of the Centaur as well. I imagine focus works well in PvE, since you will probably trait it anyway for the reflect and can achieve good swiftness uptime with Runes of the Pack or the like.

If i have to stand on that list, at least write my name right :P

You could change one of the sigils on GS to Purity/Generosity and see if that helps. With CI i would also use http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sweet_Bean_Bun if you can afford them, since they bring iLeap and CI immobilize to 3s while also providing defense against conditions.

Also, without torch trait you might consider focus since it provides another interrupt, projectile block and possibility for cleansing bolts.

This is what i’m running currently:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhQQNAR8flknpMtNqxGNcrNipxY6eipGSGwElMkxB-TVDFABVfQAkb/hlUiBwDAoQ1BuSJoAXAAkUegiKOZoRINdBJqSwCHBASBUuWL-w

PU can easily be swapped for CI. I use torch mainly for increased survival in 1vX and for cleanses. Also note the Sigil of Cleansing.

Staff has better defense but less damage and can’t chase, so that’s up to you.

Also, i like Traveller’s, but that’s personal preference ^^ You could use Centaur + Mantra of Restoration in something like 0/6/6/2/0 for Mender’s Purity. Giving up Halting Strike will cost you a good amount of damage, though.

Most people probably have bound dodge to an actual button, so this change (if there is once) won’t be noticed by that many.

That bug has been fixed recently and it seems to work correctly for me now.

I made a short video showcasing what i mean: https://youtu.be/2oTKJBz4DGs

Interestingely, nobody else seems to complain about this, so i guess it has to be something about that specific place or a combination of traits that have nothing to do with Blink + 1200 range.

Shadowstep (also a stunbreak) used from that exact position, doesn’t go on cd.

Are you invisible by any chance (gray status)? If not, relogging usually helped me in the past.

1200 range Blink will go on full cd when used without a valid path:

https://youtu.be/2oTKJBz4DGs

While uploading the first video i found out, that not Blink as a whole is bugged, but only the 1200 range trait:
https://youtu.be/2oTKJBz4DGs

I’ll upload a short video in a few moments to demonstrate what i mean.

Just tested it, Blink goes on full cd when trying to use it without a valid path while thief’s Shadowstep doesn’t. Also, Infiltrator’s Arrow doesn’t use up initiative.

Seems like a bug to me (how surprising).

Softspoken.2410:

Iavra.8510:

Boonsteal should be one of your lesser worries, have you already tested the port changes? The mesmer forum is full of joy right now…

If I understand correctly, you can no longer waste 6 initiative on an Infiltrator’s Arrow that doesn’t actually shadowstep you anywhere. So that’s neat.

Didn’t test that, but at least Blink goes on full CD without doing anything when i try to blink on top of a camp roof, which used to work pre-patch.

/edit: You don’t lose initiative and, interestingly enough, Shadowstep doesn’t go on cd. Seems like (yet another) mesmer bug.

//edit: The 1200 range trait for Blink is bugged, teleports usually don’t go on cd or use initiative when used without a valid path.

Boonsteal should be one of your lesser worries, have you already tested the port changes? The mesmer forum is full of joy right now…

Just tested, you can’t blink on camp roofs anymore. The same probably goes for those ice bridges.

I will die a lot more often to zergs now…

Sadly, blink still goes on full cd without doing anything (aside from breaking stun).

Doing my PR stuff myself for once:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZNsx8fED24

Note that the video is blocked in germany, so use a proxy or download it if that affects you.

nicknamenick.2437:

Larynx.2453:

nicknamenick.2437:

Tao.5096:

There are no “easy stomps” against team with experienced players.
L2p.

invulnerability

Stealth.

Team utility of AoE stealth is huge, that’s why you have them on a large amount of teams. Not to mention the simple opportunity cost. Blowing a large CD in the form of invulnerability to secure a stomp is not an easy stomp. You lose an enormous defensive CD, which later on might cause YOU to get stomped, fail to res a team mate because of cleave, or force you off a node to prevent death, ceding the point to the other team.

Hmm good point! :-)

(but only from a team point of view!)

If its an 1v1 situation i still find this really lame to do..
But yeah yeah its not about 1vs1

So i Agree with you Larynx

Well, in 1v1 being downed is usually the end anyway, unless the other guy goes down at the same time or shortly afterwards, in which case he also probably wouldn’t be able to safestomp you.

3 dazes, huh? I can top that with 4 (3 of them in a row) ^^

https://youtu.be/LqvSP44WeAc

Well, since DE spawns clones at the beginning of the dodge it would basically mean being invulnerable while dodging, which allows to dodge through Static Fields etc but otherwise doesn’t do much.

But overall “get invulnerable for 1s every time an illusion dies” is extremely strong, especially with short cd clone producers (Mirror Blade, Phase Retreat) and dodges. Also, since certain build (D/D eles, any warrior etc) cleave with everything they do, we could potentially be invulnerable for the majority of the fight.

A (weaker) Mind Wrack would allow for a power version of the clone spam build, though you will get revealed when it happens, unlike Debilitating Dissipation.

/edit: On afterthought “gain distortion during dodge” sounds like an interesting mesmer trait.

Ah, okay, i never used that Sigil myself, but saw some Guard throwing snowballs in OS after he switched weapons…probably used packed snowballs or how they are called.

Mischief probably because it spawns snowballs, which can be picked up and thrown, which is not something they want in sPvP.

You make it sound as if thieves are designed to not be interruptable, yet i can perfectly interrupt every skill used by them that is not instant (like with any other class) and have other traits, say Chaotic Interruption, apply.

Well, Power Block could just give 5s cd to thief weapon skills. This way it would simply add +5s to the normal interrupted cd (which is 5s for every other class, 0s for thief) and would actually do something.

Besides, cooldown for thief skills is not 0, it is null. It doesnt exist. You cant add time to null.

Well, for once, this is not Java and even then, you would get a NullPointerException trying to calculate 2*null, so it seems to be an actual 0 instead

Hvaran.6327:

Wickie Pedia.

Wait, is Raniri still playing or is this just someone with a similar name?

If not, i could actually nominate Icechilly from old Miller’s Sound.

So post-patch “good” is different from pre-patch “good”?

Mesmers couldn’t care less about these changes, because we didn’t have any useful stability to begin with. If anything, this is an indirect nerf to stripping stability, because elites refresh themselves.

I think it will be funny to see all those blobs plastering each other with wards until no one can move. Smallscale is mainly unaffected.

It allows you to jump as far in fight as you would be able to out of combot with a normal jump.

24/7 open world deathmatch is far from being the solution for WvW.

Actually i know a fair share of people that want exactly that. Sadly WildStar dropped it with multiple bad design decisions.

https://youtu.be/9_Tl5b3fJq4?t=25s
https://youtu.be/9_Tl5b3fJq4?t=2m30s

Not saying those thieves or myself are good, but you see me interrupting Flanking Strike and Heartseeker (the latter even twice in a row). Heartseeker especially is pretty easy to interrupt if you watch for it.

Pistol Whip has a ramp up time where it doesn’t evade and i believe Death Blossom has an aftercast that you can interrupt.
/edit: Death Blossom probably has a short ramp up, too, now that i think about it. I don’t see that many thieves use it, though.

Shadow Shot and Headshot are both instant, so you can’t interrupt them. Infiltrator’s Strike is instant, but Infiltrator’s Return isn’t and can be interrupted.

This is what i found to be working good in 4/4/0/0/6 GS + S/T shatter for me:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhQQNAR8flknpMtNqxINcrNSrxg6wOrMSGQBlciqB-TVDFAByt/wSKxA4BAUoaAXpEUgLAASKPQRVnM0IQwBBINdBJqSwCHBASBUuWL-w

I usually try to get 2.1 – 2.3k armor when playing with a good amount of stealth and 2.5k+ when not.

That said, Furious Sharpening Stones are amazing (even more so for guardians/warriors, but still).

Depends on your playstyle if items are common or not. I’m usually lacking Bloodstone Dust when crafting ascended stuff but i practically swim in Empyrial Fragments.

Some people want to play outnumbered. That buff should never give any stat buffs, Bloodlust already does that and should be changed not to.

I don’t mind at all, i’m actually pretty honored to have my lockdown gameplay complimented by you ^^

I have a few more fights currently waitig to be made into a video (part shatter, part lockdown), but that would be ~9mins, so i rather collect some more. “Sadly” i’m running a lot with Jathres lately and when he is recording i don’t usually do.

That depends on your overall style…since my mesmer uses Tormented weapons, it would be Tormented Shield.

Overall, i think the Fractal Shield is pretty nice, but since i don’t do fractals i will never have it.

iZerker on a gate can be useful, as it will cleave through it and damage people repairing from the other side.

Still, staff eles are doing this job way better.

I never (or rarely enough to not remember it) had my phantasms bug out on me. I don’t use focus that much, though.

You probably should rely more on phantasms than i do. I shatter too often and don’t wait for the right time, same with my Mantra usage.

GS auto with fire/air sigils does a lot of damage, so use that to bait out defensive cds, before going in with shatters.

First, there is nothing forcing you to use these exact weapons. Staff is amazing because of Phase Retreat and Chaos Storm, but i recommend learning Phase Dashing (About Face -> Phase Retreat -> About Face) for general movement and quick infight ports.

GS is something i feel comfortable with, since i used it in shatter for ages. I like the ranged pressure against basically everything that is not a lb ranger and i want something that allows me to chase people to a certain extent (you still won’t be able to chase a GS warrior, obviously). The tradeoff is that it basically has no defense except #5 and can’t deal with stealthed targets unless the thief roots himself and you are Helseth.

I try to start fights in GS, do some pew pew damage and spawn iZerker. Staff is for defense and kiting purposed (though i can imagine playing GS + Sword/Torch in 4/4/6 for stealth and better cleansing).

Currently i find myself switching between shatter and lockdown almost daily, as i feel i have better condition cleanses and 1vX capabilities in shatter, but lockdown has a better thief matchup and feels more useful in group fights.

At one point, guardian GS skills had their CDs rebalanced which caused the #3 and #4 skills (i think) to switch places.

There were a lot of complains following this on the forums.

If you play a while with the same setup, you stop thinking about which button to press and do it intuitively (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscle_memory).

To get rid of this can take some time and you will certainly fail a lot while relearning everything.

Gamemode: WvW solo/smallscale roaming, WvW/PvP duelling

Name: Pocket Mirror
Played Mesmer Since: ~1.5 years
Favorite Alt: Guardian, actually my first main. Because it wrecks thieves, which i struggle against on mesmer.

Favorite Class to fight: Other mesmers, engis. Mesmer fights are even and help to find out what, how other players see you in fight. Engis (SD in particular) are challenging and usually provide fun fights.

Least favorite Class to fight: Thief. GS shatter can’t fight what it can’t target and has no passive defense to rely on.

Favorite mesmer spec: GS shatter, because it kills people and leads to a very active playstyle. I’m currently learning lockdown, though, which also makes a lot of fun but seems not as fitted for roaming.

Favorite duo partner: I’m used to engis, but generally anyone who can peel thieves from me.

Other classes:
- Elementalist:
Depends on the spec. Scepter burst usually leads to fun fights which involve a lot of decisions over a short time. D/D is painful and i will have to keep attention to my cds, since the ele outresources me.

- Engineer:
SD is the same as Scepter ele, good and fastpaced fights with a lot of split second decisions. Other builds i can usually outrange with GS if i manage to kite (note that i mostly play with torch trait and cleanse mantra).

- Guardian:
Medguard is my bane after thieves, most guards in WvW are too tanky for me to kill before they get to their zerg/tower, so i won’t bother chasing.

- Mesmer:
Condi is a pain, i’ll need a large area for kiting around. Phantasm is hard too, i need a lot of pressure to force him into F4. Other shatters are fun, similar to ele and engi.

- Ranger:
Good LB rangers will ruin my day if i don’t have the means to LoS them. Condi BM takes forever with better chances for him.

- Thief:
Urgh

- Necro:
I actually much prefer fighting condi necros over power ones. If there is LoS, i can fight power, too, otherwise i autolose once he reaches enough LF.

- Warrior:
Take forever to fight against while still doing extreme damage. Against certain builds i usually have to avoid every skill, including AAs.

I don’t feel like giving clear odds, since a lot can happen during a fight. The only classes i feel i have absolutely no chance against are (S/D) thieves and medguards.

Warrior is probably the profession with the most spammable leaps (sword #2), while engi can jump the farthest (Super Speed + Rocket Boots).

Number 5 excludes portals and since mesmers have no movement skills, we are probably the worst profession for jumping puzzles.

Since GW2 is my first MMO, my keybinds evolved over time (this is for german keyboard layout):

WASD – movement (strafe, no turn keybinds)
space – jump
mouse 3 – dodge
shift – weaponswap
</> – about face
Y/X – interact
tab – target nearest

Q – weapon 1
mouse 5 – weapon 2
mouse 4 – weapon 3
alt + mouse 5 – weapon 4
alt + mouse 4 – weapon 5

1,2,3,4 – profession skills

C – heal
E,R,F – utilities
V – elite

Well, it works. I had to teach windows to ignore alt + tab and alt + shift, though ^^

That’s not what he meant. It’s more like and added “50% chance to do nothing” added to the skill. Even better would be a random transform to, say, Rampage/Lich/Plague. Fits with the mesmer theme, eh?

Well done OP, well done.

Should be in here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3tcjVz12Ago

Also, this is Vashury’s thread, consider asking in there so he can answer you:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Shatter-Tactics-II-Video-Vashury

It’s definitely harder to see if you are in combat now. Usually movement speed is the biggest tell for me currently.

As long as they are fully optional and not like dungeons where you need to do them so access certain runes, i’m fine…

Unlike dungeons it will be hard to find a zer..eeh enough people to do them if you don’t want to run with randoms.

For tPvP i would take a look at Helseths twitch channel: http://www.twitch.tv/thelordhelseth

There’s also Supcutie, but i don’t know if he has a channel. You can search youtube for him and also for Vashury, BamfJoe (although they both usually play WvW, not tPvP).

Supcutie also created a very comprehensive guide some time ago. I don’t know if it’s fully up to date, but you can take a look at it: http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1ul7cz/supcuties_comprehensive_pvp_shatter_guide/

To be fair, i haven’t read the whole thread. I’m mostly ok with Rapid Fire, although i would lower its damage coefficient to that of Backstab (currently 3.75, backstab is 2.4 if hitting from behind).

But what’s really putting me off are 4k autoattacks from 1500+ range that somehow can be queued up to hit me after i stealth.

There are MF recipes that need luck essences…also loot bags take up less space than their contents, so they are useful for a longer gaming session without having to sell/salvage.

I got a little picture here to show you, how squishy a glkittenter mesmer (2k armor) is.

Note that there are 2 rangers, thus the auto attack in between the rapid fire hits. Note that the auto attack hits for about 4k, which is twice what spatial surge (mesmer gs aa) does with half the cast time, so 4x the dps.

Also, judging by these numbers, 1 full rapid fire hits for 18k, which is enough to one shot me.