Guild Wars 2

I had a ranger shooting right through [Temporal Curtain] tonight. I’m currently running a reflect build with [Warden’s Feedback] traited.

This was at mid in FoeFire. The ranger was on the upper level firing down at me on the ground. The line of sight was through the curtain.

I was hit by auto attack and the first couple of arrows of the rf burst.

The ranger took no reflection damage as far as I could tell.

The other way to tell portal range is : Zoom your mini map to closest range. Either remember the terrain or set a personal waypoint where the opening portal was. As long as you stay within the mini map’s range you are within portal range. ( aka “map range” ). If the opening portal goes off the edge, you’ve gone too far.

A ranger hit me with longbow auto attack and part of an rf burst.. right through my focus #4 [ Temporal Curtain ]. This was at mid in Foefire. The arrows went into the curtain and passed straight through. The line of sight was directly through the curtain, not over unless the curtain is waist high.

I’ve been experimenting with a reflect build, but focus reflect does not look reliable.

I don’t agree. I was using [Mirror Blade]. That could be mistaken, but I don’t think so.

Other classes creating clones would be one more unique skill gone.. moa, confusion, chaos armor and now clone production? I don’t think that’s funny at all. I think it’s pretty bad.

If I’m not mistaken, unblockable also cannot be reflected. The wiki doesn’t seem to specifically say. Still, an attack that can’t be blocked would also logically not be able to be reflected.

-edit- The attack was reflected and in the process produced a clone of the Ele. So there are really two bugs here; Unblockable attack reflected and clone produced.

The game seems to have thought the ele was a mesmer, since he was shooting a [mirror blade] ( by reflecting it.) That should never happen. So the clone production is likely triggered by firing a [mirror blade] which is what the ele did, in effect.

First bug: [Mirror Blade] is supposed to be unblockable. Tonight an Ele blocked it with [Magnetic Aura ].

Second bug: The ele then produced a clone of himself which attacked me.

Power Ranger. Longbow/wolf/hound and GS as secondary. Here’s your ticket to the bandwagon. rotation: point bank shot → rapid fire → pet immob, fear or [entangle] → if immob barrage else auto attack until the immob comes up again.. throw a hunter’s shot in there now an then to untarget yourself. any noob can win.

Apparently not. I watched it happen and asked him about it afterward. He was using a staff in Earth attunement and used [Magnetic Aura]. It reflected my gs 2 and produced an Ele clone.

So a second bug. He did in fact reflect it.

An Ele blocked my GS 2 with magnetic aura ( staff, Earth ). He produced a clone of himself. Is this new? or is it some bizzare stealth nerf?

An ele blocked my GS attack with [magnetic aura ] and produced a clone of him.. Is this intended ?

-edit- My attack was GS 2, aka [Mirror Blade.] This is not supposed to be blockable. The Ele did in fact block it and produced a clone. I asked him about it later.

It seems that the attack has now been made blockable.

My Sands of Time focus sometimes appears rotated incorrectly when used on my female Norn Mesmer. It will be apparently jutting 90 degrees out of her hip when stowed. This does not seem to happen with my Sylvari or Human Mesmers.

( btw this is a very cool focus, though I’d have made it a tad smaller )

I’ve made my point, and so.. to bed!

OK Dears, here’s one of the best of the “skilled gameplay” players. ADVOCATING CLONE DEATH in one of those “skilled” builds. This is a current post in the Mesmer forum.. not sure how to make the snip work:

“Make sure you’re running with Debilitating dissipation in Chaos, AoE weakness is nothing to overlook. Bountiful Interruption is obvious. "

The level of hypocrisy really kittenes me off. Is Chaos Archangel a bad player? a whiner? a bad person? Is the “skilled” interrupt build “cancer?”

I don’t think most of the posters here really know what they are speaking of. Please play Mesmer and learn it before you post here claiming I’m bad. I’m sorry, y’all are just dead wrong.

Chaos Archangel speaking in another thread about an interrupt build:

" Make sure you’re running with Debilitating dissipation in Chaos, AoE weakness is nothing to overlook. "

HAHAHA After the pasting that I have taken in the forums for advocating for Clone Death traits. Here is one of the best of the “skilled gameplay” players advocating Clone Death traits in one of those “skilled” builds.

Does this make his build “cancer?” Is he a bad person? a whiner? A bad player? I’ve been called all of that and more.

Maybe the knee jerk reactionaries failed to consider the beam in their eyes when they castigated me for the mote in mine.

Then realistically you need to accept that power ranger should be eliminated from the game. It has the same basic objections. There really isn’t a counterplay for a one-shot kill from behind at 1200 range. Nor for a fire and forget guided missle.

I will reiterate that my argument is not primarily for condi-clone death Mesmer. I’ve started training in a Phantasm build anticipating the change.

My argument is that ANET is over emphasizing “skill” in the form of rapid button stomping and complex combos.

No, I’m not asking for special privileges so much as I’m asking not to be put out of the game.

@dancingmonkey Yes I was also in the middle east in the 90’s and yes, my disability stems partially from that. I didn’t realize custom controllers were available.. where?

Well, I’d say that’s part of the problem with the game in general. That aside, the reality is that most of the players spam aoe.

Ranger, War, Thief , ele ( non DD ),engi and Mesmer all have focused single target attacks that can melt a Mesmer fairly quickly. Rapid fire, bow and rifle skills, pistol skills, thief dagger skills, staff skills, engi rifle pistol and shield, multiple mesmer modes.

So, your argument doesn’t really fly.

As to condi -clone death counterplay: Clones do negligible damage. The counterplay is simply to focus the real Mesmer instead of mindlessly spamming AOE. The build trades on the lack of skill in other classes. Wars and Guards tend to be especially easy targets. The build attracts hate because it REQUIRES skilled play to beat.

Am I asking for special privileges? No, I’m pointing out that not everyone plays best in the rapid key press / complicated combo regime. I hope ANET will bear that in mind.

Bribery? No simple reality. “The customer is always right.” anonymous and “Give them what they want.” PT Barnum.

With respect to retaliation: I play an altruistic heal/retaliation Guardian.. two of them in fact and they work well, thank you very much. Please don’t chop that apart too, ANET.

Yes, I also play a venom share thief. She does quite well in a dungeon environment, teaching noobs the ropes, thank you very much. I can confidently post “all welcome” on lfg knowing I can add immob and dps to the party. I’m among the few that regularly takes non 80 only parties. Though I suspect ANET will destroy that too.

ANET just stated that they want to make Mesmer unplayable, except to supper gamer kids with maxed out computers and no life to speak of. The real joke is “Skill Based Play.” That’s ANET’S code for “requires multiple combos and perfect timing to be workable.”

It looks like it has way too much CC and damage. Welcome back to the days of rampant HAMBOW.

best: Mesmer

Worst: ranger by far

Yes, I like clone death Mesmer. As I mentioned, I’m North of 40 and my left hand is partially crippled. I dislike the trend of making classes more “skill based.” Let’s be honest, “skill based,” in this context means “better internet connection and reaction speed.”

Let’s be even more honest. I’m in the demographic that has the most money to spend on this game. ANET has made it abundantly clear that profit is a primary motive.

I like my Altruistic Heal/Retaliation Guardians. More important, I can succeed with them. My point is that making a class harder to play for the sake of making it feel more elite is stupid in the long run.

This is why the PvP “community” doesn’t grow. Other than trash power ranger… there isn’t a real entry point for new people.

I vividly remember on Thief… I met a brand new guardian in Queensdale. She was losing badly to a bandit. I rezzed her and killed the bandit, then talked to her about some of the guardian options for blocking and retaliation.

Her response? “Screw this, it’s not fun.” Let that be a lesson to you ANET.

I think that in general ANET is changing too much too fast. They seem to be bent on promoting “active” play. The fact is though.. such play will strongly favor people with newish computers and nice internet connections.

No, I’m not all that good at timing exactly when to throw a block by an enemy’s attack animation. ANET I LIKE MY GUARDIANS, WHY ARE YOU MAKING CLASSES HARDER TO PLAY INSTEAD OF FIXING GLARING BALANCE ISSUES?

WAKE UP! NOT EVERYONE WANTS TO PLAY A HYPER REFLEX ELITIST BUILD. SORRY< BUT I"D LIKE SOME MORE “PASSIVE” PLAY OPTIONS..

I’M WELL NORTH OF 40 AND I DON’T HAVE A KID’S REACTION TIME.

By The Six.. who thought of that mess? I don’t understand ANET’s predilection for zerging scenarios, ick.

Troll confirmed. Nice sarcasm though.

I like this idea. I might even queue unranked occasionally if I could opt out of courtyard.

Perhaps the DEVS would do better to fix the balance issues rather than compund them with more bells and whistles.

PVP isn’t doing well because new people arrive.. get kicked all over the map.. and leave.
Usually they leave with curses from the “competitive” players ringing in their ears.

ANET needs to cater to casuals because they are the major demographic. Truthfully, I’ve only just managed to keep my win % at 50 ish this season. I hate logging out feeling like kitten because my Mesmer got creamed by two rangers or a ranger and a thief that see an easy kill they can troll.

Compete all you want but there needs to be a bracket for new people. ( and less than optimal players like me. )

@John Smith

The equalizer already exists in the form of Magic Find. I’m in my third year playing and once got a look-alike of a precursor in Arah. So the chances are very low.

Still, every player has an opportunity to improve their loot through building Magic Find. Mine is at 169% at the moment. I don’t see why things need to be changed.

Normally I don’t endorse the more conservative type of opinions.. but in this case, I don’t see why people are complaining.

Please don’t remove the occasional lucky drops, they add a lot to the fun.

I agree. removing the hair is why I don’t use gem store hats.

Gravity Well is a Physics reference. It’s usually used in the context of black holes. I like the name and think it’s totally appropriate based on what I saw it do.

I got a portal after some days of grinding and nearly giving up. They seem to be focused in the big boss events and the labyrinth.

Have to admit, I’m not liking the zerg fest map. Hopefully, HoT will support solo and small group content.

That was a very nice idea ANET. Now add a Tai Chi straight sword main hand and a traditional Chinese Toggle Front jacket with loose pants.

Please.. make the female outfit without any form of skirt or peplum. That’s very frustrating for my light armored females. I don’t know if you’ve ever played live medieval combat… but a ball gown is definitiely not appropriate for the battlefield.

@Duka.. True that’s a pretty good troll, sounds like something the government would do.

I like the tomes. I hadn’t thought of using them for key farming.. that’s a bit crass, but you could make some nice profit on it I’m guessing.

“Shrug” I don’t understand all the claims that LB position is meaningless. I have managed to keep my win % over 50 ( almost exclusively playing in Ranked queue as a solo. Condi-shatter and phantasm Mesmer ) at this point. So, that makes me feel good.

The farming teams sucked. I’d like to see no pre mades at all in PvP. Turret Engi ran away with this one imo and that skewed the results.

Beyond that.. since I don’t have a realistic chance of being in the llama category.. who cares?

-edit- Most of the matches seemed somewhat balanced. There weren’t many matches where one side or the other got completely run over. That seems to have changed in the past week or so. Just recently I have been seeing more blowouts.

Great News, thanks. Spirit Watch and Courtyard are just about zerging, not my cup of tea. Skyhammer is just too easy for Rangers.

Courtyard and Spiritwatch are why I won’t queue unranked.. though I used to have a lot of fun on Skyhammer before it turned into exploit wars 2.

Counterplay is one thing, automatic counter by the the simple expedient of being in an aoe field or stomping the 1 button is not counterplay. It’s a noobish hack.

In any case, it trashes shatter.

Having watched the stream this afternoon, Chronomancer looks superficially like a lot of fun.

The nerf hammer is on the horizon though. Non Mesmers won’t “get” it and the crying will rival the crying over thieves.

Shatter will still not be a mainstream pvp “thing.” Here’s why; The basic issue that holds back shatter hasn’t been addressed, viz. the clones don’t survive aoe fields or simple button 1 stomping.

The environment nerfs shatter. In any team fight aoe is near constant as is blind weapon swinging. Soap bubble clones are mostly destroyed before they can be used.

This is why I had been running shatter with [Maim the Disillusioned] and clone death traited.

Until clones become more survivable, shatter will remain a dueling arena thing.

So ANET, if you want to see shatter played.. make it workable.

@Googlebrandon, yes, I have 16 80’s and at least one level 80 in every class on my main account. 6 Mesmers.. not sure the current count since I deleted some that were played seldom. Also “Been there, Done That” and some of the other titles.

You’re dead wrong. Even trying not to learn.. with 4800 + hours in and 2300+ games… I would inevitably develop some skills. Dragon Rank is meaningful, even if it’s fashionable to discount it.

This is not a “l2p” issue. I’m foul sick of people knee jerking with “l2p” like parrots.

I know how to play reasonably well. My point is that ANET destroyed a build that I like and have had success with simply because a dev lost to it.

That is very uncool.

@googlebrandon.. Sorry that you say you suck. My point was that I know how to play. I have a favorite build that was NEVER shown to be OP. It beat a dev.. and so is now being crushed out of the game entirely.

I’ve gotten some of my win percentage back since I last posted ( just over 50% atm ) perhaps the string of losses were just the influx of thieves and noobs doing dailies.

-edit- No this isn’t an L2P issue. I’m winning a slender majority of my games at the moment. That’s probably pretty good as Mesmers go.

anet nerfs your build because a dev lost to it.

I crafted, not bought, my legendary and have 12K+ AP and Dragon rank.. You learn to play. ANET apparently trashed a favorite build secretly and I’m not happy about it.

You learn to think for yourself instead of parroting the latest “cool” snark on forums.

First impression? All hype. “If” it works it’ll be insta nerfed. Looks weird to me.

“l2p?”

LEARN TO THINK FOR YOURSELF. Crying? Make a well thought out reply and stop parroting.

I’m thinking that ANET was embarrassed by the live stream. They are trying to convince Mesmers they won’t be out of the game.

I think that;

1. the skills will implemented in a way that is hard or impossible to use.

2. They will be instantly nerfed to uselessness.

Sorry, it’s been too long. I just don’t have a lot of faith that anet has good intentions vis’ a vis’ Mesmer.

I’m betting it’s Mesmer. The devs started a new session of dislike for clone death in the last livestream. Suddenly I hear terms like “turret mesmer” when no one even knew it existed pre livestream.

So, after hearing that my build was “unhealthy” people are suddenly all over it.

Don’t celebrate yet, Engi looks to be getting nuke level buffs in the near future.

I have to agree, with engis getting the winning lotto ticket. The outlook isn’t really that good.

I don’t know, but I wish that would happen for ranked.