Guild Wars 2

Dhampyr.2104:

kerona.3465:

Phantasm CDs seem to cap at 40% reduction.

Just out of curiosity, how would you bring them down lower than that? With the 5pt Illusions trait and the weapon 20% redux, I get it – is there another trait that I’m not thinking of at the moment?

There is not. Maybe Phantasmal Haste causes some confusion, but this skill just lowers the phantasms own attack cooldown.

You are very wrong on the iZerker too… ^^

I think you should not underestimate this part of Greatsword Training:

Reduces recharge of greatsword skills by 20%.

Variations are OK, I change the setup for myself fairly often ^^…

I never exploit and I’m doing perfeclty fine. We gained so much without using the bug that it will be perfectly fine if it gets fixed.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

Any more questions? ^^

Nah, I mean facetank like in that big bad thing is hitting me in the face and I just stand there taking the hits. Last patch this was nerfed a bit to be honest, but it is still doable.
I just think, most people are overwhelmed by all the possibilities and have a hard time to realize what is possible to achieve.

Mackdose.6504:

digiowl.9620:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Tanking stats – tanking gear – tanking traits: check
Healing stats – healing gear – healing traits: check

Produces results like farts in a hurricane…

Damage stats – damage gear – damage traits: check

Just build a character the way you like. It is all in the game. You can have all the trinity you want…

Like Ford said, you can get your model T in any color as long as it’s black.

My shout warrior in cleric gear would like a word with you.

Mesmer here, I think mantra healing is fairly efficient.
Kitten, I can even facetank most mobs in power/toughness/vitality gear specced 0/10/30/20/10. And I thought that was awesome for a caster.

No clue what people want more…

Tanking stats – tanking gear – tanking traits: check
Healing stats – healing gear – healing traits: check
Damage stats – damage gear – damage traits: check

Just build a character the way you like. It is all in the game. You can have all the trinity you want…

My advise? Get full Berserker, run 20/20/0/0/30. If you know what you and your enemy are doing, you will be fine.
If you are not, just spec for something more defensive for that time (I have a dungeon build that looks like 20/0/30/15/5), no need to run around with a second set.

Most of the time I simply use my build adjusting the utility to the mobs I face.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/the-game/releases/january-2013/

Got a feeling this is not all we get yet…

Get berserker and then mix in as much defensive gear as you feel you need. If you get better/used to the content, you can switch back to berserker again.
If you have a lot of gold, get runes of air, but I still prefer runes of the centaur overall.

Honestly, it is still in the game. I can specc my Mesmer to facetank most mobs. The trinity is gone in terms of class roles. It is not gone in terms of gameplay.
I can specc my Mesmer to be a healer. Or a tank. Or a supporter. Or a damage dealer.
If you want to play as a trinity, get some players, coordinate setups and builds and you will be fine.

Sounds like your playstyle will be pure joy on 80, if you follow my guide:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116
This moments you talk of will not stop, cooldown times are short. Enjoy.

A lot of good feedback. Hope some at ANet will see it, but I fear they are all on holidays… ^^

Bit of brainstorming, maybe we should do this with every weapon.

Thinking about what feels write and wrong with this weapon.
Based on a PvE point of view:

Spatial Surge: Fine.
Mirror Blade: Sort of fine (a bit random, but this seems to be part of the class design). Would like to see the last bounce of the sword to explode, damaging targets in a fair area (would help a bit with tagging and aoe in general) and maybe grand a random boon to nearby allies.
Mind Stab: Very limited use. Would prefer to have an attack like the new Shatterer, that moves away in a line from the Mesmer hitting everything on it’s way.
Phantasmal Berserker: Well, looks sort of OK right now.
Illusionary Wave: Very limited use. Damage is too low to tag anything (even in full zerker gear and glass cannon), most elites and bosses are immun. Maybe it should have an additional short leap (teleport) backwards so it would not be a total waste of a skill in most of the challenging fights…

Just my thoughts. Would also like to hear the PvP point of view.

This signet is just bad design and bugged.
How about a group heal depending on the number of illusions up as active effect.

I am mostly running my own build with some variations in utility depending on the mobs.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

If I feel things might get messy (some dungeons in pugs), I have a more defensive build (20/0/30/15/5), same gear.

Cempa.5619:

Thanks, first time I actually got to read your post..Love it! Every GS Mesmer needs to read this, or at least the lazy ones.

I’m happy you like it. The build you posted looks fairly similar though. Im not the biggest fan of Null Field, I prefer Arcane Thievery. Also blink never goes off my skillbar.
But this are just minor adjustments.

Burst just means shatter more clones, this might help:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

Merry Christmas from Japan to everyone out there. Hope you enjoy some days off (not too long though, as I’m looking forward to the January update ^^).

To be honest, I like Orr (on my Mesmer main). It was designed to be an always active zone.
Fractals killed it though. Too bad.
I am returning from time to time just to do the events if i feel like doing a daily. Kitten, so much potential…

I could you redirect here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

Should work for any situation.

In the end, ANet hates how the economy has turned out to be in GW2. It is out of control, which is a bad thing, as it is not predictable. They try to fix it, but they have no clue how to do so.
Most items are worth nothing, some items are worth everything. That’s a deathtrap. ANet is approaching it with minor fixes to droprates, but it won’t work in the long run.

This bloody 5% tax is not the problem. It is perfectly fine. But the ALL-OR-NOTHING loot is pretty much a failure, resulting in this economical chaos.

Future will tell if ANet can ever fix this broken mess…

I will tell you something. FFA servers were nice in the past. When you met the same ppl on a server on a daily base, and every player was sort of a nerd because he played a MMO.
Nowadays, there are thousands and thousands of players on a server. Noone knows each other, random ganking has no consequences. Griefing gets out of control, people quit.

To be honest, I would like to have the one or other FFA zone, but I do not expect it to happen, and in the end it is probably for the better…

Eugenics.6953:

Thief,Warrior or Mesmer if you like the colour purple. The rest of the classes arn’t even worth mentioning. And I leveled Ranger and Engineer to 80, what a waste of bloody time.

He is talking about PvE and your advise is to roll a Mesmer? Have you ever tried to level a Mesmer in PvE? It probably is the weakest PvE profession in the whole kitten game and before level 40 it is just pure pain.
If you want an easy to level profession go with guardian or warrior. Both are fairly fun and pretty fast in getting things down.

Well I never posted my guide here, so it is about time:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

Have fun, feedback is very welcome!

Guild Wars 2 is missing a story. Ever since Zhaitan got his undead butt kicked the world has become a story empty place. Ah, the Karka? You must be joking…

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

Thank me later. ^^

It would make more sense if he was specced 20/20/10/0/20 in this case. He would loose some crit, but gain 200 cond damage, keep reduced skill cooldown on GS and S, and get as well a longer confusion (V) and more damage with each illusion (III) .

Wise.8025:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

Nah, he has a direct damage build with bleeds as an additional effect.
Just do the math. In exotic gear he should be above 50% crit chance.

Math is not my strength though so the numbers might be off. Critmulti is 150%, with berserker it is about 210%.

100 damage: crit w/o berserker 150 damage
100 damage: crit w berserker 210 damage

With 50% crit rate:
Average damage w/o berserker: 125 damage
Average damage w berserker: 155 damage

Damage increase: 24%

No way to get a similar result with stacking cond damage for the bleed.

He’s taking conditions on clone death and clone generation, he may not be specing into condition damage but that’s where he’ll get his best results from those traits. It’s really an excellent 1v1 build. It eats bunkers, and eats thieves even if they spend their whole lives cloaked. It doesn’t do well in large scale warfare though as it is a dueling spec. All you have to do to make this build successful is dodge roll and swap your weapons. Make 3 clones and after that they start blowing up. If your opponent starts killing them for you just make more. Personally I like to pop out iDuelist at range to whittle them down and stack tons of bleed while the other 2 clones keep dying and spreading conditions.

I get the point of this build. I just say that even with the conditions caused by dying clones, he would be better off with crit damage on a GS S/S build.

Nah, he has a direct damage build with bleeds as an additional effect.
Just do the math. In exotic gear he should be above 50% crit chance.

Math is not my strength though so the numbers might be off. Critmulti is 150%, with berserker it is about 210%.

100 damage: crit w/o berserker 150 damage
100 damage: crit w berserker 210 damage

With 50% crit rate:
Average damage w/o berserker: 125 damage
Average damage w berserker: 155 damage

Damage increase: 24%

No way to get a similar result with stacking cond damage for the bleed.

Looks like you are from the PvP side of the game. Nontheless you might wanna try this:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-guide-to-PvE/first#post850116

Yeah, just get berserker. Looks like glass cannon anyway from your gear setup, so crit damage will help a lot.

Why would you use condition damage gear with this build? Looks like a waste of a stat for me.

Gord.8654:

The JP does not impact the PvP game. Since there is no tactical advantage or score associated in that area, camping it is greifing. If you want people like me to shut up, put it in a keep or tower so then we do have to fight for it and contribute to WvW or make badges available in a PvE zone.

No matter how often you call it griefing, it is not. Actually I do not want people like you to shut up, to put it in your words. A bit of nerdrage now and then is fairly entertaining.

Step 1: Join a PvP map
Step 2: …
Step 3: Profit

You have obviously trouble to figure out Step 2, as you seem to get no profit. I give you a hint, it starts wit Pv and ends with P.

Surbrus.6942:

Karizee.8076:

Since you do insist on going in alone when your enemies are controlling the puzzle, you may want to take advantage of the Mystic Fountains located there. They grant 5 minutes of Invisibility which should be enough to get through the puzzle or the major portion of it.

Actually the three Mystic Fountains provide enough time to complete the entire Jumping Puzzle while invisible. I’ve used the Mystic Fountains to initiate flank charges on people camping the arena with siege on several occasions. Other times I might just walk right past them if I feel there are too many of them… well, walk right past them to grab the ori and the chest, then come back to kill as many as I can.

That’s the spirit! PvP happens in a PvP zone! ^^

It is impossible to grief a certain player anyway, as you do not know any names. If a player decides to constanly die at a place crawling with enemies, it’s just a sign of his own stupidity, sorry.

ThiBash.5634:

supergica.8652:

I love this type of threads. I camp regularly in the EB JP, and every time i see QQ-ing it brings me so much joy knowing that the noobs suffer so much. My server (Seafarer’s Rest) has some dedicated players, myself included, that lock that place down during prime time.

I’m disgusted that we’re on the same server. That you camp for badges or just because you can is one thing, but to actually gloat over the fact that you’re griefing other people…

OK, I’m mainly a PvE player and I still cannot see the griefing here. People don’t have to do the jumping puzzles. They can get the badges by other means. They can just leave this contested area as it is in the hands of the enemy.

It’s a PvP map, it’s obviously a point of interest, it is a place meant for PvP to happen, as any player will get a reward for succeeding. Where is the griefing please?

Gord.8654:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

PvP happens in a PvP area? Sounds horrible.
You didn’t attack because you wouldn’t have had a chance anyway and expect the enemy in a better position to act like carebears?
No one forces you to do the jumping puzzle. You do it to get badges for PvP rewards. It’s part of the battlefield.

Nowadays ppl cry that they get killed by the enemy in an area especially labeled for PvP? Dear Santa…

I’m not crying because I got killed. I got jumped by 30 players.

The point is that when a group of people go out with the sole purpose of harassing other players it’s wrong.

Somebody further up said that if I cannot collect 500 badges I don’t deserve the legendary. I don’t agree with that. The badges of honor are the only PvP exclusive item in the whole recipe. There is nothing that you have to buy with glory is there? Every other mat is available in non PvP zones so why do I have to get badges to craft a legendary?

I’m sorry but I feel that the issue is being watered down. I don’t care about competitive play. I do it when I want for fun. When I’m not having fun I move on. Point is people should not have a pass to harass players just because it is a PvP zone and a PvE player should not be forced into a PvP zone for a PvE reward.

A legendary weapon is not a PvE item. It is going to be the strongest weapon in this game which will affect PvE as well as Wv3. Just because you do not want to PvP does not mean you should get the most powerful item without doing so.
As if Wv3 players had any option to get their legendary weapon by just Wv3 PvPing…

At the end of the day, you are just kitten because it takes some effort to get the badges, while most other items are just farming PvE or the AH.

PvP happens in a PvP area? Sounds horrible.
You didn’t attack because you wouldn’t have had a chance anyway and expect the enemy in a better position to act like carebears?
No one forces you to do the jumping puzzle. You do it to get badges for PvP rewards. It’s part of the battlefield.

Nowadays ppl cry that they get killed by the enemy in an area especially labeled for PvP? Dear Santa…

Yeah, I lately avoid Wv3. I have the mapcompletion star and everyone with half a clue about mesmers can see which are my clones…

Ah c’mon, this topic again. Many want pistol as MH weapon, there have been many threads on this.
I think we need another melee weapon (set). Also staff is nice for close range combat, it misses the feeling of melee.

We have the scepter as second ranged weapon though, which should be fixed first.

P.S.: Give us hammers as aoe weapons.

Nah doesn’t work with mesmer clone on dodge trait. Sort of random.

Any of my builds have 5 to 30 points in Illusions. 5 is mandatory. Every weapon combo, damage setup, tank setup, dungeon setup, Wv3 setup etc. benefit from this trait.
It is too good to skip. Everytime I spend those 5 points, I think, why do we have to? This should be part of our class anyway…

Yeah, clones that are not spawned by a targeted skill will attack the closest target. I am fine with that except that they also attack neutral targets. It’s hard enough not to pull half the map with bouncing weapon skills already…

AcidicVision.5498:

Coming in with an opposite perspective, I think there is a huge amount of lore and story to the game. Using a human character as an example:

1 – you play through the event that sets you up as Hero of Shaemoore which kicks off personal story.
2 – you resolve your biography choices that really flesh out your character as a…character.
3 – The orders are introduced one by one and they explain who/what they are and the dragons.
4 – Play through your order arc that really gets into how bad news the Dragons really are for all races.
5 – Prepare/stage the assault on Zhaitan.

There is a pretty clear progression there and unless you are just clicking through or skipping all of the personal story dialog scenes and options, it’s pretty hard to miss. The only thing I could see being a bit out of no where would be the reunion near the end, but if you do the story mode dungeons along the way then you see every step of that happening.

If you are talking about lore and details that are superfluous to your character’s story and the Zhaitan arc, that gets filled in by talking to NPCs and listening to chatter. There are kids in LA and the Foothills that explain the Charr/Human conflict about thirteen thousand times a day.

The Dragonbrand is also explained by various NPCs in Blazeridge. Where it came from, what its doing, how its affecting creatures, how it might be fixed. All voice acted things you participate in, via hearts or dynamic events.

I guess a case can be made for the lore and events of races and the world not being shoved in the face of, and shovel fed to, players. But if you slow down, explore, participate, and observe, then you get everything you need to know and more.

If the deeper lore of the franchise is something you are really interested in knowing, then spend and hour or so reading through the original games wiki, and/or check out the two books that have been published so far. There is a ton there to invest in, but most of it isn’t directly related to the Zhaitan chapter of the Dragon plot.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m constantly deleting characters, just to get some more personal stories (up to the factions).
My personal opinion is, that a PvE game needs a “carrot on the stick” story outlook. Like the next big thing ahead is “Dragon X”, prepare yourself for whatever.
Since the first elder dragon is gone, what am I supposed to look forward in GW2? FotM?

mulch.2586:

I’m fighting a response of “if you want Skyrim, go play Skyrim”

But it seems akin to complaining that there’s not much action in chess. GW2 is an action game based on dynamic events. WvWvW happens why? Just for the sport of it!

They’re still struggling to get quests to be stable, let alone interesting or engaging. Which is totally ok, cuz it’s really not what GW2 is about.

Who are you trying to fool. GW2 is 90% PvE. Wv3 is just running in circles on 3 similar maps and one extra map. PvP is one kind of minigame on some boring maps.
Events are OK for some time, but they get old fast. A PvE game needs a story, no matter how lousy it is written.
Right now, GW2 has no story at all. Zhaitan is gone, personal story is done, and the Karka are just a joke on a deserted island.
Give me the feeling that something is happening, pretty please.

To be honest, there is not much of a “meta”-story in GW2. You got your personal story, which imho is not very personal at all. And then out of no where you go to Orr fighting undead for whatever reason.
There is no story arc that could have been introduced by an opening cinematic. I like this game, but the story that is been told is really shallow.

After 3 months we still have no new story missions, which does clearly not help to get anyone feel like being part of the world, such a shame. I am an old fashioned player, I want to know why I am fighting all this evil creatures.

Yeah there are two things broken in Divinity’s Reach.
One thing is that some random voiceacting is constantly repeated.
The other one is that one of the random voiceacting is the voice of woman constantly moaning in a more then obvious fashion.

Must be an insider joke at ANet though.

I get a boon if I stun a target even if it is doing nothing (golems in the mist), though I’m technically not interrupting them.