Guild Wars 2

oh – and btw nobody plays a condition guardian or elementalist. It is possible that some classes are just better with condition specs than others and Anet doesn’t see a viable condi mesmer as a high priority spec.

Noss.4105:

In my opinion the confusion nerf was a right call, it was a bit too strong. And I got a mesmer and condition engineer, so I do use it myself too.
I don’t get why people act like it’s gonna destroy condition mesmers. Even with -50% dmg it’s still gonna be strong condition. And confusion isn’t the only condition mesmers can inflict.
If your target doesn’t do anything while stacked with confusion, it doesn’t matter if it does over 9000 damage or 900 damage.
If your target ignores the confusion, it’s still gonna do lots of damage. It’s just not death in couple seconds.
If it gets cleansed, the damage doesn’t matter that much, if at all.

Agreed. The problem with condition mesmers in sPvP is the lack of reliable access to poison. Condi classes need this in order to win attrition fights. Speccing for confusion (i.e. glamour builds) puts all your eggs in one basket – you stack confusion but if you’re specced for condi damage, they can just wait it out / use their heals or cleanses and be fine because you wont do enough direct damage to pressure them. Consider the comparison of null field and feedback to ranger traps, or necro wells – the confusion you apply just pales in comparison to the damage and condi pressure applied by other classes. Condi specs for other classes rely on high damage condies to apply pressure plus poison to prevent healing from outpacing the condies, and mesmers just can’t stack enough.

ExZee.8109:

I already said this in another post, but I honestly don’t think the devs tested any real numbers before making this balance change. All they did was copy/paste the numbers from sPvP because nobody whines about confusion there, and why bother balancing a game they don’t play.

Just one more argument in this thread that shows how stupid this nerf is.

a) people do whine about confusion in sPvP – just search that subforum. The complaints are usually about it doing too MUCH damage (even at 50% of PvE value).

b) they have been testing this number since they released the game in sPvP, where it is better balanced. They decided to move that into all PvP areas of the game, including WvW.

c) i think the ideal is if they could do an NPC / Player split where it would do PvE damage to NPCs and sPvP damage to players.

For now, I think this change is very reasonable

Thanks for doing this CMF – long past due. I object to the mesmer shatter build posted as it is a WvW build and the guy posting it himself says he doesn’t sPvP much. No sPvP shatter build would be complete without Shattered Concentration (20 point trait in Domination).

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-NFcZ;1VPkz0A7JVV71;9;4JJ;0T06-39;525AURk6;2sV2DsV2D5Bu

Adept major trait in dueling flexible, adept and master major trait in illusions also flexible. Ether Feast best heal hands down. Utilities somewhat flexible – some people like blink or decoy or null field, but with the three in the link that’s basically the six you have to choose from. Elite is Mass Invis or Time Warp. Weapons are somewhat flexible, as you can make a workable build with Greatsword instead of staff, and with pistol offhand instead of focus.

Cheers,

bump.

I wonder if this is the change they are referring to with bringing down retaliation in WvW to sPvP levels? The problem is still that it doesn’t seem to be clearly stated anywhere that sPvP retal is even reduced (not in patch notes, not on wiki)

If you’re concern is sPvP maps – spend some time watching Helseth’s stream. He is the god of phase retreat tricks http://www.twitch.tv/helsethgw2

Pyroatheist.9031:

The retaliation nerf was (just like the last time they said they changed retaliation) unspecified and not clear. They said that it would be reduced to sPvP levels. The problem with that statement is that retaliation isn’t reduced in sPvP. So…..I’ll wait until the patch rolls out, and test retaliation as I always do.

I suspect that it was actually a mistaken statement he made. My guess is that he meant to say there will be changes made to retaliation and confusion, and the retaliation change is the visual thing, not the damage part.

It is kinda on the down low for some reason (not clearly stated in any patch notes) but retaliation does 2/3 damage in sPvP. I’m guessing they are planning on reducing WvW damage to these levels.

See:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Is-retaliation-damage-reduced-by-1-3-in-sPvP

Not a lot of WoW lovers on this forum but UNSTABLE AFFLICTION would be awesome for necros to have in the current meta.

http://www.wowhead.com/spell=30108/unstable-affliction

Damage over time, does extra damage as a spike if cleansed, also silenses (dazes) target for some period of time if cleansed.

It has a beautiful effect in WoW arena of actually forcing cleansing classes to pay attention to the conditions they were cleansing from their teammates (or themselves) or suffer negative consequences.

My thread here has some more info:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/What-will-be-custom-about-custom-arenas/page/2#post1704941

Standard mesmer shatter build:

(greatsword or staff) + sword/(focus or pistol)

20 I, VII
20 (variable), X
0
0
30 (variable),(variable),XI

Ether Feast
sigils = energy on both sets, 3rd sigil variable
berserker amulet, jewel variable
runes variable (damage oriented)
utilities variable but usually pick from following (portal, mirror images, blink, decoy, null field, illusion of life)
Elite usually Time Warp, though others getting some play since quickness nerf

I think it would be cool if they added some other statistics like “total ranked games played across all players” and “total players playing more than 10 ranked games”

Anet please nerf Mug to beyond usefulness. See above maths as evidence.

Nice vid, thanks for doing this

I think using the NPCs on the battlefield to shield you from attacks is an intentional design decision judging from the minion master necro. A lot of what makes things like that viable at all are the defense you get from hiding behind your minions.

Also, I’ve often intentionally stood behind a clone while stomping a warrior or something to avoid their downed interrupt projectile.

I don’t think the mechanic needs to be changed – just learn how to adapt to it, use it to your benefit, etc.

I think a good way to balance that satisfy’s the various areas (PvE, WvW, sPvP) is to modify damage delivery rather than simple nerfs. I think what they did to Assassin’s Signet, for example, was much better received than the nerf to Dancing Dagger (though arguably warranted).

They could change things like Mug to do part of its damage as a bleed effect, or give it a debuff effect like vulnerability that will result in net equal damage over the next 5 to 10 seconds. This keeps the PvE-ers happy. WvW thieves have absolutely nothing to complain about – way more viable builds there than in sPvP. I think most of the burst damage problems with the thief revolve around Mug (and to a lesser extent, heartseeker for newer players).

Razor.6392:

Lol, if I leave the phantasms alive I get destroyed in the next attack rotation. There are only so many things that I can keep track of (iLeap, random shatters, phantasms, the real mesmer and his movements + position reset aka stealth or blinks)

Maybe I’m just not a good player!

It’s kinda ridiculous how many things you must pay attention to when facing a single player… if that player is a mesmer.

You can also kite the melee phantasms like iBerserker. NPCs cannot jump or go up things that require jumping or off ledges. Just jump up, watch the phantasm run the long way around to get to you, and when it gets to you, jump back down. This technique is useful for a variety of summons / ranger pets as well.

I like the minimalist UI, but some of the longer internal cooldowns of traits, perhaps anything >10 seconds, could be displayed just like other class specific buffs like Guardian Virtues or Signets (show up as a buff when its available, maybe a grey icon while recharging with a spiral cooldown effect).

It may be better if it was not visible on your enemies though – could be too much of a tell “oh that mesmer has Mirror of Anguish up”

I agree it should be done mainly with traits and maybe sigils with long ICDs >10 seconds (Sigil of Rage – are there any others?)

permastealth thieves anyone?

The cast time on iDisenchanter is way too long

Oni.5429:

Berseker is bugged. It hit’s for 5k once every 15 hits or so. Normally it only hits once, for barely 1300. The only way you’re going to tank all three hits is if you’re accidently running into the direction where the zerker is running, which is far more rare than a full phoenix hitting for example.

This.

Also to the person above that mentioned the phantasm build with retal/signet of illusions and defender etc with soldier’s amulet – the chance of a iBeserker hitting for 5k in that build is literally <1% (crit chance ~20%, all three hits need to crit), and even them I’m not sure because the crit damage in that build would also be quite low.

Also, you get many chances to mitigate iBerserker damage – dodge/interrupt the initial cast (which has a very obvious animation) and the phantasm doesn’t even get summoned. Blind also causes summon to fail, and you can LOS it. The cast time of phantasms ranges from 0.75 sec to 1.5 seconds. Then when they summon, they have a 0.25 sec delay before attacking, in which you can dodge or kill it instantly (Chieftan style!).

Lastly, as has been said above, a mesmer with a phantasm build that pimps out his phantasm damage is giving up stuff elsewhere i.e. shatter damage, condi-clear, illusionary persona, something. The “standard” 20/20/0/0/30 build’s phantams generally do NOT hit for more than like 3.5k on a crit (unless you do something stupid like stand next to an iWarden for 5 full seconds).

Ya know the best idea for this skill? Have the player be the one leaping and applying imobilize, leaving a clone in our place, with the second activation still swapping us with the clone (could use to dart in/out). Pathing issues are with NPCs not players. The skill could be like Savage Leap http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Savage_Leap

Also, while they are at it they could make it usable without a target (just wouldn’t create a clone without a target – similar to decoy) and we could even use it for mobility and comboing stealth with a friendly d/p thief!

Mesmer Stormbluff Isle (guest on Anvil Rock usually) NA rank 40 streaming tPvP

Kavia Kael
http://www.twitch.tv/kaviakael

In the vids from last week I am mostly running a phantasm build (anticipating a shatter nerf, lol!): http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Ng-FR;0VPV1187sUV71;9;4JT;0J29-018;429-6-k6L;1G3G3G3G35BW

More recently back to typical shatter build: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-NZ-Fc;0VPkz027JVV71;9;4JJ;0T06-39;505AU-k66;1sV2DsV2D5BD

I don’t claim to the most technically proficient, but I have been playing exclusively sPvP on my mesmer since October and have some recent footage on twitch you can view:

http://www.twitch.tv/kaviakael/videos?kind=past_broadcasts

On the side topic of sPvP vs. WvWvW – the main difference for me is that tPvP is balanced. Success in wuvwuv depends at least in part on your ability to level to 80, farm exotics, obtain food, grind ascended gear, etc. In tPvP the teams are always even and the access to gear is the same for all players, making success more about creating an effective build, personal skill and teamwork.

Also in WvW since the matches last a full week its difficult to have a satisfying feeling of personal accomplishment i.e. “we won because of me!”

Yes

I support this OR a standard race normalization option (i.e. turn all opponents into humans, similar to color normalization options).

Take a class with animation tells, roll the smallest Asuran you can, profit

Another thought with the idea of giving it more utility instead of straight (surprise) damage – give it the assassin signet treatment: increase the damage of the next 5 attacks by some amount that totals the current damage it does now.

Re: it being a mid range heartseeker with 45 sec cooldown – I would not have any problem if it performed like heartseeker with a leap and cast-time – at least you could have a split second to see it coming and avoid, just like you can with heartseeker or warrior eviscerate.

Bump b/c people on first page still asking about this

I was disappointed to see that Mug remained unchanged in this patch. I think it needs the “kit refinement” treatment. It remains way too powerful for its position on the skill tree.

Now that 100 nades is gone, I don’t think there are any other 10 point traits that do this much damage (6k+ in some situations), let alone instant cast from 900 range. In fact, show me any other instant cast skill with no animation that does this much damage. What makes this game’s combat fun and exciting is reacting to what your enemy is doing, and with mug, there is simply no chance to react.

Suggestion: make the damage apply only if the steal was initiated in melee range OR reduce the damage coefficient OR make it so it cannot crit OR move it to a deeper trait spot in a non-damage oriented tree.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@Kavia: You’re pretty much 100% wrong. Arcane thievery is completely different from decoy, and the one does not replace the other.

I understand they are completely different, I just think condi removal/stealing ability would better suit the build for duels than decoy since he already has multiple ways to remove stuns but no way to remove immobs or condis (except warden, but using it to remove condies generally means you aren’t using it to do damage or cc….). Could get into trouble with long immobs from necros or engineers.

so it will triple your phantasms health?

I’m confused as this bug was reportedly fixed way back in September per anet, https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/news/Update-Notes-8-September-2012

but it is still listed as bugged on the wiki and I read some stuff in recent forum posts referring to it still being bugged. Can someone who has actually tested it please confirm this, and also tell me how it interacts with the 20% phantasm health trait?

Cheers,

Pride N Greed.8106:

clay.7849:

Adris.1859:

Drop Conquest, bring back GvG, HA and TA.

Yes. This.

Than its a no on the tally :P

Wait, I am really confused by what we are responding yes or no to. Now that I look back at your original post there were no less than four questions that could be answered yes or no in there, and in some cases you may say yes to one but no to another leading to contradictory answers. I can shenanigans on this poll.

1. Do you guys feel there is another another game mode that should replace conquest?
2. Maybe a month or so?
3. Are the devs really listening and adjusting accordingly as they claim to be in SoTG?
4. Is the game’s PvP headed in the direction you want?
5. Does it fall short compared to it’s predecessor?

To clarify my answer,

1. NO
2. sure?
3. YES
4. YES
5. NO

Due to the inherent problems with this thread I propose a new thread be started that more clearly frames the poll, or use a spreadsheet like Reroll’s poll did that clearly counts the responses.

So to be crystal, how many times was it cleared up in the SOTG?

a) once
b) twice

Please advise, thanks

for duels arcane thievery is OP you should take it instead of decoy. Works on immob and you already have blink and MI for stunbreak. Also quite delicious to steal a signet of rage or similar.

At this point I think it is mostly speculation. I just thought I’d throw out a few things I’d like to see customizable and hear your thoughts

-match size
-point limit (i.e. make it 1000 for longer games)
-match time limit
-turn cap points on/off
-turn resurrection on/off
-change resurrection timer (hotjoin style vs tourney style, longer, shorter, nonexistent etc)
-points per kill
-time to neutralize/time to cap
-manipulate secondary mechanics (NPC spawn times, repair kit on/off, buff spawn times, point value for secondary objectives)
-scale cap point size
-class restrictions
-amulet restrictions (or even stat restrictions – i.e. no toughness > or < some threshold)
-utility, weapon swap on/off
-map rotation

Any other ideas?

These are painful to watch. The animations are so bad you can’t tell what anybody is doing and 8v8 is too many people to keep track of what is going on.

Doesn’t seem like it was all that popular either from the amount of views on this and other GvG youtube vids.

Whats up with them only fighting in like one area of the map, too?

Conquest >>>> this b/c you can actually tell what is going on and feel the tide of the match (via a very noticeable score – even my wife knows when I’m winning or losing a match). GW2 will be way better given time and tools which are in the pipe according to the devs

yes

15 characters

Nice game wtb VODs more like this

Would like to see build in action in tPvP please

Hey all,

with guesting coming later this month, we can have something many sPvPers have wanted for some time, and that is a unified Mists, here’s how:

1. Everybody choose the world they want to WvWvW on before Jan 28th

2. After Jan 28th, all sPvPers looking for a unified mists guest on Anvil Rock NA or _ EU (Desolation?).

3. Enjoy

Thoughts?

Hey all,

Thought I’d throw out a topic in this form related to competitive gaming since a lot of these monitor manufacturers are targeting us as their audience while releasing these 3D capable monitors with 120Hz refresh rates. I guess things feel smoother.

Anyone use one in tPvP? Have any thoughts?

It seems that there is some sort of shortage of these things right now, too, as I can only consistently find Asus and BenQ ones for sale on multiple sites, and many have them out of stock or some such. I was able to find some good deals on international sites i.e. Canada, UK but am wondering if I should just wait until more of these hit the market.

I want this: http://www.benq.com/product/monitor/xl2411t/ but cannot find for sale in US.

I’m in the market but ideally would not spend more than $300

20 I, VII
20 II (flexible), X
0
0
30 VI, III (flexible), XI

Berserker’s amulet/jewel

6x Rune of Divinity

GS / S+P or Staff / S+P. Greatsword more damage from range, staff better for defense. Focus can be used instead of pistol for mobility but trickier to maximize effectiveness
Sigils of Superior Energy on both swap sets, can put whatever you want on offhand of the one handed weapon set – precision and on-crit sigils are popular.

Ether Feast
Mirror Images
Null Field
Portal
Time Warp

You have some flexibility with utilities, none are absolutely essential but all are really good. Portal is difficult to maximize if you’re not on voice coms so it’d be the first I swap out. Other great utilities are Decoy, Illusion of Life, Blink.

JonPeters.5630:

felivear.1536:

JonPeters.5630:

This is not true, skills have a cast time and after cast based on the animation they use. To ease any thief worries we are not limiting back to back skill use on purpose. This is in fact the point of initiative and why thieves feel different than other professions.

just curious, are you happy with and is it your intention for moves with no cast time to be able to be used in the middle of a move with a cast time? For instance lightning flash during churning earth and steal during cloak and dagger.

Yes this is part of the design of the combat.

I wish ya’ll would add a 0.25 second cast/animation to steal, it would address so many complaints of thief burst without affecting its intended purpose of a gap closer / unique ability after use on various classes. Thieves could still use shadowstep as instant cast gap closer but without the complaints of the stacking damage of mug/c+d+backstab leading to insta-gibs.

Ya’ll need to calm down. About a month ago Jonathan revealed a lot of what is planned for PvP. We know what they are working on, just let them do it. People on this forum make some pretty wild accusations of how bad Arenanet is at communicating to their players, but they have explained multiple times their issues with revealing upcoming features to the players before they are ready. Its a catch 22 for them – they are crucified for making false promises or for saying nothing. Cut them some slack.

Sprawl.3891:

why do you call it bad luck of bracket setup? even if they did seeding worst team plays best team, that’s how seeded tournaments work. It would be stupid to have equal rank teams playing each other in the opening rounds. Even when they add rankings it will be highest rank team (1) plays lowest ranked (8), 2v7, 3v6, 4v5. More of a reason why tournaments are a dumb idea.

so if they add rankings and seed tournaments like all tournaments are, if you are lowest ranked team queuing for paids you will face #1 team 1st round, every game. Enjoy!

I call it bad luck b/c who you meet in round 1 is essentially random at the moment, and whether you get to play 2-3 games vs. 1 for your 5 tickets is kinda luck of the draw even if you’re better than most teams in the tourney. I just really like the idea of getting a guaranteed 3 games for your “money”.

Rankings and seeding assume you had preliminary rounds to determine seed position. Since we don’t have that (yet), they should do a multilevel tournament. See: http://tinyurl.com/bb85vu3

Esplen.3940:

He didn’t use Diversion, he used Blurred Frenzy. Look at his character animation, you’ll see the blurry effect appear on the real one as the THREE clones explode.

Look at it frame by frame.

Then explain how he uses Blurred Frenzy again on the downed body?

Scepter and torch are probably the least useful weapons in sPvP/tPvP in their current forms. Using almost any combination of any of the other equip-able weapons you will be more useful.

20 I, VII
20 II, X
0
0
30 III, VI, XI

Berserker’s amulet/jewel

6x Rune of Divinity

GS / S+P or Staff / S+P. Greatsword more damage from range, staff better for defense. Focus can be used instead of pistol for mobility but trickier to maximize effectiveness

Sigils of Superior Energy on both swap sets, can put whatever you want on offhand of the one handed weapon set – precision and on-crit sigils are popular.

Ether Feast
Mirror Images
Null Field
Portal
Time Warp

You have some flexibility with utilities, none are absolutely essential but all are really good. Portal is difficult to maximize if you’re not on voice coms so it’d be the first I swap out. Other great utilities are Decoy, Illusion of Life, Blink.

Have fun!

I think this would help our newly formed team very much. Frees are not much of a challenge unless we find a like-minded team queuing them b/c paids aren’t popping yet, but it is really frustrating to lose on map 1 due to bad luck on the bracket set up.

We would love to practice the second and third map against competitive pre-formed teams more often, and having a guaranteed 3 games for my 5 tickets would be great.

Knock all you want on paids, but I think they do effectively separate competitive pre-formed teams from total randoms without voice coms. I don’t think there is any total randoms or solo-queuers in paids. Frees would be nicer if they just gave everyone who played in the tourney a single tourney ticket – it would remove the impression of good teams “farming tickets” in frees (which at least to my team, seems really silly b/c we play frees only because its better than hotjoin in terms of a competitive game, not to farm tickets. You’re way better off PvE farming gold and trading gold for gems to buy tickets. Frees are a horribly inefficient way to farm tickets).

I think the loser’s bracket idea is worth supporting because it is feasible that this could be implemented easily with very little coding necessary on Anet’s part. There are other problems sure, but this is a simple change that I think you would be hard pressed to find someone who truly would not want this. So far the negative posts on this thread have all been saying “don’t do this because other things are more important” or “this wont fix pvp” but none of them say it will make it worse.

Please do this!

Ya the reason I posted this is because I originally thought as Osicat says that the shatter build would win handily, but after getting my backside handed to me a couple rounds in a dueling hotjoin server (love the community in these btw) I started to question.

I think it has something to do with regen/prot uptime on the phantasm specs mitigating my mind wrack damage. Also, your dodge clones aggro onto a bunch of various phantasms or clones (that will not die to one clone hitting them) and if the phantasm mesmer spaces them out enough your aoe is much less effective.

So anyway – ya it turned out exactly opposite of how I thought. I’m trying to figure out why.

If they fix the phantasm delay, now with our boon traits fixed, I think the “Legion” build will become more popular again