Guild Wars 2

I play a condi Mesmer. No I don’t play Chronomancer. ( Nor do I play PU stealth Mesmer ) The thought of starting and seeing it nerfed into the ground is too sickening. Maybe, if I see that ANET allows it to be viable I’ll take it up later.

In a “balanced” game there would be no class that was unbeatable to another.

I just came off a match in which a reaper was winning 4 v1. I couldn’t even do noticeable damage on Mesmer.

This is way too much. Heavy Damage 0r heavy tank, but not both.

If you are going afk, you are doing your team a huge disservice and are probably a good part of the reason your team is losing.

I make a policy of allowing anyone in my dungeon groups. It was lame to have to beg for a spot, so I don’t do that to others.

Having said that, I don’t especially want rangers in a dungeon party for three reasons;

I find that rangers often fail to manage their pets well. This causes problems with drawing aggro and screwing up stealth.

Rangers will stand away from a stack. This pulls the enemy ball apart and increases the npc’s aoe while reducing our control.

In general.. rangers don’t seem willing to follow directions. More often than not I find myself having to compensate for a ranger doing silly things.

As to leaving a class subpar… well Mesmer wasn’t even capable of challenging a warrior, literally for years. The warrior heal kept them near full health even after multiple shatters.

That’s what I see happening again. Rangers are easily out healing my condition damage output and now have even more of a nuke bow than before.

For the record I don’t play PU. Ranger and Guardian heal now easily outheal my damage output as a condi Mesmer.

In addition, Ranger got yet another nuke-bow upgrade.

This is what I meant when I said that Mesmer had been kneecapped.

I’m a condi Mesmer and I don’t use stealth much at all. Confusion, torment and heal/sustain have all been hammered recently. Team heal was also axed to near uselessness. After this last patch, the condi reduction was enough that I can no longer break through the heal on ranger or guardian most of the time.

Back to post the last huge Confusion nerf. I persevered for years, hoping that one day anet would take pity on mesmer and allow me to have enough to actually challenge a warrior. For a while even the OG mesmers on forum advised not even trying.

I feel like those days are coming back.

My other account has 58 wins for 138 games for a tiny bit more than a 42% win rate. My percentage dropped substancially last night, post patch vs rangers.

Yeah a 50% win rate would be lovely.. I had it once, briefly. The balance is too poor to expect fun win rates.

I came out of tonight wondering why I play a game that makes me feel so bad.

Uhmm Mesmer got stomped into the ground, again. Please check facts.

Condi mesmer just got nerfed, again along with the ranger buffs. I’m expecting another 3 + years of being considered trash tier. With the ranger ability to change your target, awesome heal and way over the top longbow. It won’t be long before hambow is back too.

My other account has lost the vast majority of matches today.. something on the order of 2 wins and 15 losses. Part of that is the heavy Mesmer nerf.. still.

Not only did PU get a nerf, Mesmer in general got stomped into the turf. This has happened repeatedly over the past 3 years. Mesmer almost achieves parity and gets stomped hard. Ranger and War get large buffs.

The next phase of the cycle will be that anet will be extremely slow to nerf either ranger or war being careful not to harm those classes. At the same time Mesmer won’t receive meaningful buffs for months or years.

Ranger got a nuke shot. Mesmer got trashed. Typical patch.

What are you thinking anet? It’s back to the same thing as 3 years ago. Mesmers kneecapped to trash tier and rangers way overbuffed. I don’t honestly think you’re working from good data.

I think an important point is being missed. Balance is not just about players. It’s also about professions.

With Mesmer kneecapped in the recent patch and ranger given nuke damage potential.. the individual value of each of those professions is significantly different.

Buff ranger, kitten Mesmer into the ground. This has been the pattern for years now.

I think that a dev or devs do poorly against Mesmers. So, they believe that Mesmer must be OP. Not unlike many players on the forums.

There is an alternative explanation.

Uhm, if I recall accurately the Duelist has a “chance” to apply bleeds. I found this phant not very useful. Am I missing something?

Sorry, Please invite Artanis.4791

Holomancer Lyn

Devona’s Rest

Scholar

PST time zone

I was surprised to see a thread asking for a range and direction indicator on portals. This already exists for practical purposes.

Portals are “map range.” So you and anyone in your party can see the range and direction.

PREPARATION:

1. Set your Mini Map to maximum zoom in. Make sure you are centered in the map.

EXECUTION

1. Set a personal waypoint on your icon in the mini map. (Right Mouse + alt )
2. Drop your portal.
3. Now roam freely. You and anyone in your party can now see the approximate range and relative direction to your portal. As long as the waypoint remains on your mini map and not stuck in the margin, you are within portal range. This is especially useful in WvW where you are often stretching portals as far as possible.

-edit- Others can approximate what distance and direction the portal will carry them. They can note where you are and where the portal began and extrapolate from there.

There is no need for a range indicator or direction arrow. Both essentially already exist.

Portal is map range. Therefore if your mini map is zoomed to maximum detail, you will always be in range of your portal if it is on the mini map and not at the edge.

You can set a personal waypoint when you lay down the first part. This will give a range and direction indication.

I’ll leave aside the narcissism of the post for a moment. Communist Russia used to hold “self criticism” sessions. The were a kind of masochistic secular confession.

Yes, Chaos, having seen you in action you are very good. Here’s my suggestion if you want to improve;

Teach, I have never understood a subject better than when I was asked to prepare a class. Start by teaching how to make shatters hit.

At your suggestion, I invested in a gaming mouse. That eliminates the issue with shift + keys if I understand accurately.

Jump dodging is a habit I never developed since I double tap movement keys to dodge. This would perhaps help you avoid the jump.

Mainhand sword is very good at getting me killed. There’s another class suggestion; mainhand sword in PvP.

It’s clear enough that Scrapper is a phantasm Mesmer ala’ Steampunk. There are days when this stuff just makes me sick.

I found a returned copy of gw2 at Best Buy in the games section. That’s now my second account.

Try using “r” and setting auto run. then steer with the keys or mouse.

I sense a guardian OP. Conditions are finally slowing down the ‘zerker meta. That’s good to see and a long time coming. Unfortunately we are seeing some “condi zerkers.”

No, protection should remain as it is. If anything a lot of conditions need strengthening.

No, cooled down a bit, I see that it’s improbable that a player would be singled out. I’m still kittened to see relative noobs walking away with precursors when I’m getting junk.

I’m going to be glad when HoT comes out. It’s pretty clear that there is no merit based reward in normal loot.

At least with HoT I may finally be able to get the precursor and weapon I’ve wanted since I started playing. If I understand right, it will be available to earn , as opposed to just being tossed out randomly. I’ll enjoy laughing at the people who have priced precursors right out of any reasonable range. The demand will go insta dry.

On heavy armor, males and females wore a skirt. It’s one of the best defenses for the groin. So, your “buttflap” is historically accurate.

On female light armor it’s known as a “peplum” a contrivance to make the hips look wider. Going into battle wearing a ball gown has always seemed a bit ridiculous. The biggest offender in this vein is the Noble outfit, with a hobble skirt. I laughed aloud.

Ever try to run in a long skirt? Much less do acrobatics. I’d love to see simple leggings for light armor.

It’s possible that it’s a modelling problem. As an example; Gunpowder Morgan in Cad’s Manor wears black “gloves” that are simply his hands colored black. So it might be that the long tails on everything conceal a “rear aspect” that doesn’t look good

The Legacy light armor isn’t too bad with a shortish skirt and overcoat.

Despite your sarcasm, two noobs have gotten precursor drops in the same party ahead of me. One on his first dungeon run with me guiding. At the same time I’m getting pure junk with 192%+ magic find.

The odds are against that. So, I want to know why. Does magic find actually work? Did I offend some dev?

Yes, it could be pure chance… but seeing a smart kittened noob with an attitude walk away with the precursor I have been looking for for years has me a bit kittened.

I just watched a player with 1700 ap get Spark. ( not 10 minutes ago ) He had minimal magic find. At the same time I got blue and white trash with my 12k AP and 192% magic find.

This has happened before. Most recently, a player running with me on his very first dungeon walked away with Colossus. He didn’t even know what he had.

I don’t believe magic find even works.

This is the second time the same thing has happened.

I’m in my fourth year of play 12K+ ap and running approximately 192% magic find.
In that 3+ years I’ve gotten 4 precursor look-alikes.

For the second time, an inexperienced player (1700 ap, not much magic find ) has gotten a precursor on CM right in front of me. On the same drop I got blues and whites.

This time an ele walked away with Spark, the precursor I’ve wanted for years. Last time the player was on his first dungeon run and walked away with Colossus.

Does ANET punish specific players by reducing drops? Does Magic Find work?

Courtyard is a demonstration of why “pure” PvP is less than optimum.

I doesn’t bring anything to the game that isn’t already provided by WvW.

More importantly, conquest PvP has some of the attributes of a sport. There are fairly specific goal and stratagies that vary a bit from map to map. In theory one could play an entire match with no one dying, rotating from point to point in a kind of race.

Courtyard on the other hand is simple lowbrow brutality. I don’t see any aspect of sportsmanship, honor… In short, courtyard doesn’t qualify as sport. If I’m playing for simple body count, a first person shooter game ( many of which are free to play ) would be more than sufficient.

I’d love to see Raid on the Capricorn come back.

I don’t like Courtyard. I’d like to have an opt out. Both Courtyard and Stronghold cover ground already covered in WvW.

Mesmer, briefly, had some sustain. ANET quickly nerfed it to near uselessness. The only speeds I have are too costly to use in PvP ( focus and traveller runes ). It’s really the zerk meta again, except now it is in condi form. If you get in an engi’s face and burst them.. that seems to be the best method.

In City of Heroes there actually was a Warrior style build that was almost entirely passive toggles. Stand next to the enemy and take the damage until they die. CoH is dead.

I’d like to see balance done in smaller increments, more frequently. ANET also has a habit of trying to balance with esoteric changes. It would be far more effective to balance directly by changing damage, for example IMO. The odd changes tend to have ripple effects and unintended consequences.

I agree, Warriors are weaker than they probably should be atm. From my POV that’s a nice change. I remember not even engaging a Warrior or Thief on Mesmer if I could help it. The warrior heal would remove all of my damage before it was even a nuisance.

I think they need a microscopic boost. I choose the term microscopic… because with any encouragement they will bring back the unstoppable hambow. Call for much less than is needed, hoping the overboost won’t be too bad.

I agree, courtyard should have an opt out. It’s best for specific classes and builds.

Mesmer was left way underpowered for years. Hambow ruled pvp for weeks or months. My hopes/expectations are pretty low.. I’d like to see HoT come out without Mesmer nerfed into the ground and without a super OP Revenant.

I dislike rangers, generally. Anet will prob give them shatter skills and buff the longbow.

you can craft perplex runes. Buying the watchwork stuff and going that way might be less expensive.

Please Invite me as a scholar, Devona’s Rest, (na) PST time.

I will work more on including small shatters in my repertoire. From my POV, they hit so seldom that they aren’t really a main thing.. just a trash attack I throw out there for the (tiny) aoe and heal.

I’ll see what focusing on 1 or two clone shatters does.

I’ve found Malicious Sorcery bad in PvP and go with the [Ineptitude] trait instead.

Largely spot on.

I’m guilty of failing to shatter. I’ll add that without [Time Catches Up] shatters with 3 clones and the personal shatter hit are rare as hen’s teeth for me. There is so much pbaoe (even from auto attacks) that placing Illusions close to a target is impractical. Far away clones seldom hit because they are slow and dumb..

So, I become dependent on non shatter skills like [ Confusing Images ]. Insight on this would be much appreciated.

-edit- The primary complaints about PU are frequent stealth and the ability to attack from safety. The same is true of Rangers who can attack completely out of LOS and use “fire and forget” Pet attacks. Not to mention frequent stealth.

The new Engineer is going to have mobile golems with the same issues.

Clones dying before they were useful has always been a major downside for Mesmer. The other thing is that they are basically slow and dumb.

On the one hand they have to be close to hit and on the other they can’t be close or they won’t survive. Catch 22. Chronomancer has addressed this slightly with [Time Catches Up], which I think should be baseline.

The re install worked. I also got rid of Lavasoft. Things seem to be working now.

It is also possible to time things. As an example; Alpha in Crucible of Eternity has an attack that you must dodge a short time after he launches it. I count a slow 1-2 then dodge.

Vicky and Wahlen in Cad’s Manor have almost exactly the same timing. When Wahlen throws, red aoe appears all over the floor. Count a slow 1-2, then dodge or block. When Vicky stealths, do the same. Turmaine’s wells are similar you can stand in them for a count of 2, then move or dodge.

You’ll notice over time that the bosses tend to have behaviour that is similar in timing and pattern and you can block or dodge without needing to see a specific animation.

-edit- Your f4 shatter works wonders on those flurry (multiple ) and unblockable attacks.

I’m running condi shatter built around blind and confusion. The blinds only proc once per, so they don’t have a lot of defensive value. They do stack confusion.

I do use Temporal Enchanter at times for team support. Otherwise, I choose Mental Defense, heal on shatter and medic’s feedback for peels. ( I wonder if Temporal Enchanter works when I peel? ) other than that; Deceptive Evasion, ineptitude, maim the disillusioned and the pledge.

Utilities are usually [feedback] , [blink], [null field] and [Signet of Humility]

So, scepter / torch and staff.

I had no intention of insulting you. You are being way oversensitive. In addition to that I handed you a valuable piece of advice that is seldom available anywhere. If you can play the class, then why are you posting such a question?

I will say that if you are that thin skinned, you won’t make it as a Mesmer.

I agree that Mesmer is the best class in the game. It’s also not terribly easy to “pick up.”
The answer to the OP, imo, is “it depends.”

As to shatter lacking in power. I will tell the OP a secret that no one was willing to tell me; A shatter alone sux. The key is to combine 2 or more shatters. The first builds vulnerability, allowing the second to do much more damage. In the case of condi Mesmers, the combined shatters stack more conditions than one alone would.

If you like the class well enough to be willing to stick it out, stay. You will eventually be rewarded.

If not, take up another class. Guardian is probably among the easiest to play. That or d/d ele.