Guild Wars 2

Mesmer is the best class I’ve encountered in the online world. I played Illusionist in D&D.
I also played a Wild Mage from the Tome of Magic, (D&D expansion ) which the devs are clearly aware of.

As another poster pointed out; There is now not a single Mesmer ability that is not at least partly duplicated by another profession.

https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/White_Mantle_Portal_Device

There is nothing unique we bring to the table. Remember the meme about not being like "oh look I swung my sword, oh look I swung my sword again?’

I think I will literally go on a walk and have a good cry. I hoped for so long that the tide would turn and Mesmer would no longer be disfavored.

First, corporations make investments. ANET would long since have been out of business if they relied entirely on the gem store.

Second, my question of the devs was this;

Are we going to have to go through another cycle of repeated nerfs and seeing our special talents given to other classes ( Moa went to Engi and Alacrity to Rev? ). If that is the case, I don’t wish to support it by buying the new expac, however much I’d like to return to Elona.

I am in my 5th year of GW2 and actively playing GW1. Both of my accounts pre purchased the deluxe package for Heart of Thorns.

The story telling and, (for the most part,) quality have been outstanding for as long as I’ve been here.

So why would I be debating buying expac 2? Mesmer has captured my imagination and I play it more often than anything else. After a long drought I anticipated being a strong factor again in PvP.

The long series of nerfs to Mesmer and Chronomancer. In particular the transfer of Alacrity to Revenant gives me pause. It’s been very negative for me emotionally to see my class take hit after hit. Moa, (our signature move ) given to Engineers was another dark moment.

If I start on the new Mesmer specialization, I’ll have to deal with the whole cycle again.

I really want to be excited about this. Vabbi is a beautiful and exotic land. I just don’t know.

So we’re getting the expac on Aug 1.

Part of me is crawling the walls with excitement. Vabbi is a beautiful land, ( assuming it hasn’t been turned into another Orr. )

The bigger part remembers the hits Chronomancer took and the transfer of Alacrity to Revs.

I could buy the expac for both my accounts… but history suggests the new specialization will receive large nerfs if it is successful. I’m not sure I want to go through that experience again.

In simple terms I just don’t trust. We’ll see what happens. I’d really like a reply from the devs on this.

The Shining blade ritual was outstanding, well written and executed. This from a long time Wiccan who has lead many rituals. The Lazarus fight was frustrating.

Super tough villians do not drama make. Getting hammered for 1/2 an hour on the final fight really kinda spoiled things.

I’m in Vabbi in GW1 right now farming for Lightbringer promotion points. ( after having gotten protector and guardian) I agree this is exciting. I hope it is handled well.

The whole region is rich with possibility. It’s also a beautiful land generally. I just hope we don’t find another Orr, overrun with undead or some such thing.

Stability was so broken it sidelined a whole category of Mesmer builds. ( Interrupt )

Immunity and blocks are still broken. The extreme cc was an attempt to balance against the extreme defense.

Sadly, I see the situation see sawing back and forth for quite some time before it is resolved. Perhaps it never will be.

The long silence on PvP and other issues has been because it was “all hands on deck” to get the expansion out on 1 August.

Was this because of the policy of not making un-keepable promises or are the reasons financial?

Well.. great storytelling ANET. I loved the Shining Blade Oath. That was a well planned and executed ritual. I genuinely feel I joined the order.

Then we come to the final fight. After about the 15th insta death to Lazarus’ aoe… I stopped caring.

What should have been a heroic end to a long trail was thoroughly spoiled and I went home in my lingerie again. You know? Back when we fought Abaddon in Nightfall.. it was nowhere near this harsh. You needed to follow a pattern, yes.

Instead of feeling good, I went home feeling like I had been used like an old dishrag and unhappy.

Please, ANET, understand; Super tough villians do not drama make. I would have much preferred a puzzle to solve or something along that line.

The EoTN style vision at the end was interesting.

This is typical of a certain faction of “competitive” players. In my opinion, this is the sort of gaming that ruins things.

I found the second puzzle frustrating, but it was nice to be forced to think. Justiciar Araya was, if anything, under powered.

I think it was fairly well done. the particle balls flying out when you hit a glyph were a big hint of how to work the puzzle.

It was meant to be horrible. A little levity.. that was very well staged.

Wow, GG ANET. You give great ritual. This is from a long time practicing Wiccan who has led many rituals.

It was focused, it had clear intent. It had clear symbolism and a good drama to drive it. Well done.

I have wondered what happened at the Henge of Denravi since gw 1.

Urejt.5648:

I diagree. PvP is thriving now. Pros are playing more in AT so lesser players can learn a lot. There might not be that many players but it is natural for 20 years old dx9 game.

I have been trounced in the first round of every tourney I’ve entered so far. Less “learning” and more fun please.

OMFG I just realized! It’s Kormir.

Kormir stayed behind. This is the introduction to the expansion into Elona.

Abaddon stayed behind when the 5 left during gw1. ( the words of the avatars of The 5 implied that they were leaving or had left, just before the conclusion of Nightfall.) I think ANET intends to bring him back. Maybe Shiro will make another comeback and stage a cameo.

~edit~ OMFG No! it’s Kormir. This is the intro to the expansion.

I agree 100%. I still think it may happen.

No, of the Six Gods who “left Tyria,” Abaddon stayed behind. Of course we destroyed him and replaced him with Kormir in Nightfall… but I fully expect ANET to bring Abaddon back with some machination… maybe for giggles they’ll rehash Shiro also.

Multiple people on your team were wearing Legend titles. You were “less than civil” in game and after.

You have no reason whatever to complain of “the other side of the argument” inasmuch as you started the conflict.

In the AT that followed, you specifically targeted me. Saying in map chat that you intended to do so.

Also I might point out that despite your 3v1 targeting… I topped my team on defense and ( if I’m not mistaken ) points.

You sound like certain political figures, trying to justify things based on obscure sideline arguments.

The fact is and was that I was complaining about matchmaking generally. My point is that blowout matches and general imbalance are the root cause of many of ANET’s pvp pheadaches.

Actually, I was complaining about match quality generally. I guess I didn’t explain enough for everyone.

Wow…. here and I thought that it was ANET testing problem solving. I’m disappointed.

Here’s my most recent match. I’m the Mesmer, ( currently in Bronze because I abandoned ranked PvP for the season.)

We’re facing 3 + Legend rank players in a premade of 5. One of them whispered me after the game expressly to call me bad. One did it in game.

This, ANET, is why people don’t want to play PvP.

I’m headed back to Elona to farm Lightbringer promotion points. Hard mode is sometimes excessively hard… but I know that I have the same chance as everyone else.

There are not enough people dueling, so ANET is testing a method for keeping people interested by spawning beasts.

SneakyTouchy.6043:

Deniara Devious.3948:

- Arenanet developers have been listening to the wrong audience: elite players and falsely thinking this game could be esports

Stop right there! They didn’t listen to the elite players, they listened to carebears, whiners, and those with little fortitude.

The game also has plenty of potential to move back into Esports if they mend the other points you mentioned.

A big thing would be making every game automatically record to demo files for better spectating, anti-cheating, and reduced storage space like they do with Counter-Strike and many other Esports games.

Yes, actually listening to elite players was a huge mistake.

It lead to ideas like the “competitive” matchmaking system that deliberately created blowout matches for 2 seasons straight.

It lead to a culture of people copycatting a certain loudmouthed ESL player and making non-sportsmanship the norm in PvP.

Sorry, those “carebears” and “whiners” were the population that supported the queues permitting the matchmaker to work properly.

It was the people promoting the idea of “carebears” and “whiners” that trashed the scene. Those kind of ideas alienated enough people that the MM no longer works.

Faux Play.6104:

OriOri.8724:

Ben Phongluangtham.1065:

We’ve identified additional accounts of players who were involved in account sharing and match manipulation.

We’ve given them dishonor for the remaining season for now. Our investigation is still underway, so additional action may be taken later, should we determine it appropriate.

This is such an underwhelming decision from you guys. These guys didn’t just break the ToS of your game. They are also ruining NA PvP for everyone else. Its people like this that keep GW2 from having a real competitive scene, and everyone knows that Anet wishes that GW2 had one. So you need to take real actions against these accounts, and you need to change the system so that this can’t happen as easily in the future. NA PvP will always be nothing more than a joke if you don’t start taking real action against these players

Somewhat ironic that you argue for a competitive scene by wanting to ban the best players. The reality is anyone that plays a game enough to win the monthly is investing a huge amount of time into it. That same time investment in other games would allow someone to profit from it. If they would rather sell out and win for another player so what?

Your attitude can be summed up as “They’re nobles, they can do what they want.” I can’t say exactly what I think of that on this forum.

Let’s just say; “I profoundly disagree. Further, history will back my assertion that views similar to that one have resulted in extreme corruption and social breakdown.”

It will be interesting to see what comes of this. Maybe matches will improve.

That’s an interesting point.

If you punsih a player with dishonor you are in fact punishing the next lower tier of players. They get “blessed” with the punished player.

I quoted Sun Tzu because I thought the OP would relate, given there name. I think buffing rotations are a fairly low learning priority, particularly for a new Mesmer in PvE land.

My point was to be flexible. A gw1 friend calls me mouse.. the point being to remember I am squishy and slip in and out of combat. Good advice for Mesmers generally.

Sun Tzu said: ( James Clavell’s English Translation of The Art of War . This is my favorite version )

“He will win who knows when to fight and when not to fight.”

There are quite a few situations in-game that cannot be solo’d. They are expressly designed not to be solo’d.

Again, Sun Tzu; “There are armies that must not be attacked, positions that must not be contested, commands of the sovereign that must not be obeyed.”

Here is the really critical point:

This is the final sentence of chapter 6, “Weak points and strong.”

“He who can modify his tactics in relation to his opponent, and thereby succeed in winning, may be called a heaven born captain.”

If all that Taoist language turns you off, I can quote Bruce Lee: “When my enemy expands, I contract. When he contracts, I expand.”

I suspect that your basic issue is that you are trying to create an optimal or “meta” strategy. There is no such thing, really. Read the situation and react accordingly.

Think about what you will do if it goes bad. Think about whether you should really engage at all.

Can you “pull” part of a mob to you from extreme range? Will the mob situation change over time?

Condi has a pretty limited attack pattern though: Hit from stealth with an interrupt to prevent the defense then they are kinda done. So you either pre-block or eat the first hit and counter the second ( [Distortion].)

At that point most of the thieves I’ve seen running this go to auto attack or stealth. I load them with condi and they tend to fall. (Since most don’t seem to be traited to lose conditions on stealth. )

I’d like to see less jumping around, especially by heavy armor, ( I’m looking at you DH,) but I don’t think the current condi thief is OP. It’s annoying.

I’m pleasantly surprised to get an answer. Thank you.

In the past few seconds, I left the unranked queue in order to join a tournament team.

I was kicked into the loading screen for Super Adventure Box and landed outside the door to Rata Sum in Metrica province.

Sorry I wasn’t quick enough to get a screenie for the SAB loading screen.

I was standing atop the jumping puzzle when I exited the unranked queue. Sounds like something is seriously cross wired.

apharma.3741:

Now try without HoT and Chrono…

I do, on a regular basis. Chrono doesn’t feel good for me. You should hear the kittening I occasionally get playing PU. (Which, let’s face it, is kind of a Mesmer/thief )

Admittedly, I think thieves have a pretty high skill bar too.

Here’s mine:

• Crash <—*
  Exception: c0000005
  Memory at address 00000000`00000000 could not be read
  App: Gw2-64.exe
  Pid: 11520
  Cmdline:
  BaseAddr: 00007FF7E0AC0000
  ProgramId: 101
  Build: 79386
  When: 2017-07-20T03:07:37Z 2017-07-19T20:07:37-07:00
  Uptime: 0 days 0:35:58
  Flags: 0

This was a winning match

Stronghold was removed because farm teams played nothing else and easily got legend. There was a particular build combo that was nearly unbeatable.

Queue dodging is the only known solution right now. Friend the jerk, then wait ’til they are on a pvp map before you queue.

Sample nickname from my friend list “kitten teamup ele Avoid.” Meaning a duo player who is less than desirable.

I so agree. Seeing M.O.X. reminds me of having him in my GW1 party. It’s sad to see him all trashed.

It was 68, and that was back in the “competitive” match seasons. At that time teams were heavily stacked with one side to win.

Matchmaking was awful and that drove away a lot of people. Lack of population is the major issue now.

Yes, at the moment, I’m likely winning 50% + on a core Mesmer.

Ziggityzog.7389:

Anet and all their wisdom created a circle dancing non competitive style of pvp that requires just zerging mid and having 1 bow teef run around.

Anet failed when they made a 3 circle dancing routine with a super speedster class available. Teefs have no purpose other then to decap and back cap in gw2 pvp. Its the easiest class but the one that does the most hurt to the other team. So you can have a ftp pug come in on teef and just sb 5 all around the map and win matches. When pvp is that easy for 1 class its non competitive. Hell gw2 start i was one of those first main teefs who rolled thru circle dancing. then it got boing quick because it’s so bland.

-SB 5 around to a point decap

-Maybe cap it if team needs mid help just de cap

-If you need the cap you hold and cap

-If someone gets near you then run like a lil coward like you are to the opposite side of the map.

“Repeat above sequence”

If after a year or so of playing Teef if someone still mains it in pvp then that just means they lack pvp skill other then to dance between little circles every game. Teef got boring after a few months, got all classes now adays.

100% disagreement. It takes real skills to play thief well.

I love my pve thief, but I don’t bring her to pvp. ( d/p venom share is awesome for dungeons and general futzing ) Thief is almost entirely active defense and you need to be good at it. ( Things I don’t see pvp thieves doing; Staying behind your opponent and using blinds and stealths intelligently as defense) There’s some interesting commentary about that in the hardcover game book.

For a long time I (as Mesmer) was practically a free kill to a thief. I think the nerfs stem from stealth. People don’t understand and can’t play against stealth. (I run PU Mesmer in pvp right now )

Bottom line: ANET is consistently heavy handed in adjusting classes. Thief will be top of the food chain again next time ANET decides to boost them a little.

Foefire, gold ranked; I jump out of the cage and head mid. My mini map shows all four teammates headed home. They wiped not long after.

I went and capped far.

Forgiving builds are the solution, not the problem. PvP is cruising over the shoal because of matchmaking.

Oh and btw, I’m playing right now on a pure vanilla PU Mesmer build that is fairly successful. People expect the “meta” moves but Mesmer is about unexpected and deceptive.

It means that rewards are increased. It implies that ANET is hoping to draw people to PvP. The Greater Call of the Mist was previously only for special events.

Here’s hoping that ANET works on improving match quality.

Ziggityzog.7389:

Dancing in cicles is pretty much what killed any chance at competitive pvp, Esl failed because circle dancing doesn’t work. I loved having a choice of something other then that boring junk pvp and played stronghold. Now pvp ranked since season 5 has just been unworth playing.

The failure of ESL had little to do with conquest mode. The teams involved had a great influence on the outcome and there were other factors.

Stronghold was “strongly” farmed. This made it non viable for PvP.

Courtyard was withdrawn because of the problems associated with it.

Conquest or “circle dancing,” your terms, is the only mode that consistently works.

ANET why not bring back Polymock?

Here’s a system that is a straight fight, There are no confusing objectives. ( I prefer conquest mode personally. Still, lot’s of people complain about side objectives. )

It’s fantastically easy to balance.

You could start with two options. When and only when you have those worked out, add a third token etc. You could sell or set up grinds for better tokens. Here’s a free idea for making some profit on pvp. I invite you to run with it.

Even better, it’s a piece of Guild Wars history. There’s already a designated Polymock arena area in Rata Sum ( and there has been for centuries.)

Thank The Six. Courtyard was awful. Some kind of formalized dueling, 1v1 might work.

Thank you, source please. Are gm’s able to assign dishonor?

Precisely so. I find that advanced technology ( such as the force fields displayed by the latest armor ) ruins the atmosphere of GW2.

Much better the Charr attempt at a Chinook style helicopter or the semi plausible Asura magitech.

If I wanted tech armor, weapons and techniques I could run ground missions in STO with my very well equipped henchies and heroes. ( There known as “Bridge Officers” )