Guild Wars 2

Okay, no.

Then go play Mesmer or Thief.

Bye.

Not really hoping a change from ANet since the last minimal balance patch, but I’ll give my 2 cents.

1) Ricochet : Keep the damage buff, give the 2nd bounce back.
2) Splitblade : Give the Poison Volley treatment (boost on damage) or make it a real narrow cone attack like Guardian Staff Wave of Wrath (Poison Volley too)
3) Winter’s Bite : Make it AoE baseline and buff the damage. I want it to be a targeted AoE, but some people won’t like it.

It should make Axe just fine.

4) Path of Scars : Bigger and faster.
5) Whirling Defense : 5 targets. Stability.

Already casted channeling skill will follow you, it’s made like that (EG: Confusing Images, Ghastly Claws, etc.). Interrupt it or dodge.

It has already been said in the thread, but the fastest one that comes in my head is Lost Time in Chronomancer line. It’s supposed to work in unison with Danger Time (another useless one).

Without Lost Time, Chronomancer/Mesmer have only 3 skills with Slow application : Shield block, Well of Action (Feels like Danger Time was made to buff this Well) and Time Warp.

Mikkel.8427:

-Malicious Sorcery moved to Chaos Grandmaster. Changed to Scepter, Staff and Trident skills recharge reduced by 20% and attack speed increased by 20%. Swapped with Bountiful Disillusionment.

Love all ideas from members, but especially this one. Staff AA is in dire need of projectile speed. It’s the most annoying-slow AA of the game. It actually makes me anxious to see it slowly hitting something.

Also, Chaos Armor % cooldown reduction was a bad bad bad idea. I’m actually salty about it, because they changed then nerfed it when people were stacking back to back Chaos Armor (Making cooldown reduction harder for Staff (For what ? I don’t know, it’s not an OP weapon at all. It was just a reason to force us to use this useless redundant high cooldown skill that you can get from Phase Retreat + Ethereal Field)). I remember they even nerfed it further by removing Blind and replacing it with Weakness.

Forcing us to use something, then nerfing it. SMH.

fosfor.9076:

If you want the ranger has more damage than now, you must consider other professions as well, balance is not one way to think about.

It has been proven ad nauseam that Ranger has a low DPS, followed by Mesmer as rock bottom.

Don’t pull out the condi SB + A/T that only work in a raid and stationary setting.

It wouldn’t be too much, but I wish Axe was more Power and SB more Condi… Not like ‘’Oh they could do both…’’. Vulnerability would be nice too (Works both for Condi and Power users).

Splitblade needs the Poison Volley treatment.
Winter’s Bite needs the Mind Stab (Mesmer GS 3) treatment (Make it AoE without traiting) and a buff on damage.

It wouldn’t even still make Axe good, just good enough.

Leak said it was a condi weapon. I hope not.

Mesmer needs sustain power damage, not a torment/confusion/bleed condi weapon. Let’s hope the traits and utility will make up for it.

If it’s condi, it’s gonna be Illusion with MtD/Torch or/and Dueling with DE/Bleed Pistol, or use Inspiration to remove condi. With Staff. Nothing surprising or new here.

It’s one of the weapons you play when you don’t want to play with LB or SB. It adds a little spice to Ranger gameplay. It’s different.

Like most of commenters, I mostly use A/A and Staff (for mobility, heal and projectile hate) with Shouts. Easy 25 might and overall good damage for ranged (Ricochet (I am still very very salty about the bouncing nerf)) or melee combat (Whirling Defense). Path of Scars damage is pretty good if you land a 2x hit.

I always mix the build, I mostly stay BM/Marks/Druid (Remorseless with SotP and being stupid with Signet of the Wild (50% dmg boost PoS ? Scary) or Moment of Clarity when you interrupt with Path of Scars).

I also swap with Nature Magic to get even faster 25 Might, it helps to boost the Pet damage and give long lasting boons.

I sometimes go BM/NM/Marks with Axe/Warhorn and Axe/Axe for ultimate burst and DPS. Sometimes wear a Sword/Axe and Axe/Warhorn instead.

Only heard about DH burst and Mesmer boon sharing nerf.

I wouldn’t be surprised about Druid healing nerf, but will be upset about a pet nerf. What about buffing other pets before nerfing those two ?

Anyway, it’s all rumours for now.

Double LB Quickdraw Barrage. Barrage on a 8 sec cooldown.

Get in combat -> Swap -> Barrage -> Rapid Fire -> Swap -> Barrage -> RF -> Repeat.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

apharma.3741:

Actually during the fight you get a buff that makes you do 2-3 times more damage to the boss if not more. Anyone wanna check to see if phantasms get it or if mesmer does the same damage as every other class?

For reference I was getting 18k for rift slash and 12k for the other 2 of the auto.

P.S. Also did it on rev, hilariously easy to do.

Didn’t really notice it before but I’ll try to check it out when I get a chance. It’s still better than phantasms doing zero damage.

Phantasm damage doesn’t get buffed with the Vale Guardian in Bloodstone Fen.

Edit : Just tested it, the buff works in the story.

I don’t know why the LS episode was difficult for you guys. I got all the achievements with my mesmer on first try. Retrait maybe ? I was GS/Staff on Dom/IIlu/Chrono : Signet of Ether, MoResolve or Disenchanter, Well of Calamity, Blink, Well of Gravity. GS trait, Chronophantasma, Shatter/Phantasm Traits.

It’s my general PvE Build : http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJARWnsICFqhtfCmpBEgilUjq+Zr2rlcAKhAA96yutD-e

You should have easy time shattering and rotating with Disenchanter and pBerserk out + Persistence of Memory + Chronophantasma.

I won’t deny I had way easier time with my Rev, Ranger and Necro… The lastest was a cakewalk.

Just use Wells, lulz.

Same, I’ve been playing the same Herald build. It’s just non brainer.

Just look at this simple thing… When you have Might fartingboonutilityskill + Shared Empowerment, you have a portable, moving and usefull Frost Spirit. Perma Might ! Yasss bois !

Perma nonboon -50%Vigor (Vigourous Persistence) ? Perma Swiftness ? Perma Fury ? Why not ANet !

Oh, but perma Fury is not enough, lets put some traits about Ferocity and more traits that buff Fury even more ! 100 crit chance with full berserk set ? Ah, easy.

Mind blowing. Meanwhile, buffnonbuff/nerf to Axe bouncing and lolbuff to Warhorn.

zero.5316:

Please for the love of the six gods, eternal alchemy, eternal paradise, great forge, sky above the sky, great dwarf and, the dragons look into wyvern pets!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QC5dx9fTiE

They do less damage then pigs, pigs! I feel worse brining a wyvern then being a bearbow

I know right!? I cringe every time I see rangers with a Fire Wyvern. They only take it because IT’S SO COOL. Yet it’s the most useless pet of the game. Even the PIG is more useful, it hatches eggs !

Don’t even try to reason with me because you think Wing Buffet is the CC destroyer. Just bring a Wolf instead, it does the same job and actually connect its hit !

So, really, no point to bring the wyvern, especially the Fire Wyvern. At least the Electric one has a good CC charge and it’s mostly used in Raids and PvP.

Ranger axes were always clunky and weird to play with. Many of you says Axe MH is condi, others say Axe is power. It just has an identity crisis, pretty much like most of our weapons.

The bouncing nerf really hurts ranger capability to tag mobs now. It was mostly used to get Might stacks and tagging (PvE and WvW). Let’s see other weapons that have bouncing AA :

Ranger’s Axe Ricochet
Only good part is 250 ferocity and the Might stacking from the AA. The ’’buff’’ was nice, but it’s still low. It doesn’t make any punch.

Thief’s SB Trick Shot
Trick Shot bouncing can attack the same target again. Before the Ranger’s Axe bouncing nerf, the same target couldn’t be hit again.

DH’s LB Puncture Shot
Is at 1200 range, do more damage and do one bounce, like Ranger’s Axe. At this range and damage, it is more understandable. Ranger’s Axe at 900 range do less damage at the same speed.

-

Now let’s compare their AoE ’’equivalent’’. Yes, I understand they are apples and oranges. I just want to show you how much damage is lacking on the Axe.

Axe Winter’s Bite
Pitiful base damage of 168. Can barelly aim it correctly and easily get lost in the fight. Maybe make it a ground AoE ? Also, buff the damage.

SB Cluster Bomb
Large Explosion: 532. Huge damage, can be spammed at melee range, also a Blast Finisher. It’s kinda slow.

LB Symbol of Energy
Pulse 266 damage. AoE size can be buffed (huge) and can have one more pulse.

-

Splitblade : Point blank to be useful. If not Point blank, there’s no reason to ever use it. It does less base damage than the AA and it spreads 1 bleeding per axes. If you’re a Power Ranger (hue), just never never use it.

Path of Scars : Speed so slow it never hits a moving target. Radius/Size so small it never hits a moving target. Slow speed + Small size + Moving Target = Never hits. Or have the spatial awareness of X-Men’s Cyclop to land it.

Whirling Defense : 3 targets, why ? Warrior’s Whirling Axe hits 5 targets and can move around (Yah, I know it doesn’t reflect). It’s already hard to pull it correctly without being killed. Could use the Natural Convergence treatment (Stability)

• Not Ranger’s Axe related :
  Hunter’s Call : 25 % buff is nothing. Make this skill AoE 3 target or 5.

-

Meanwhile when I play my necro, ele or rev, I can’t help but be speechless at the raw AoE damage they can dish. Here we are, one bounce removed. I don’t understand.

I don’t really have hope for a change either, since https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Needed-Buffs-Tweaks-2016 never really got a serious attention from the devs. As you can see from the last Balance Patch. I just needed to vent.

The nerf to the third bounce was uncalled for. They should have buff Splitaxe and Winter’s Bite too.

Path of Scar need to be bigger, imo.

I find Axes weird, but I guess they do the job.

Used to do it to troll people in Season 1 and to break bar in HoT maps.

2 x Staff (or Staff and GS). Add Moment of Clarity and Beastly Warden in the mix.
+ Wolf fear/kd and Smokescale burst/smoke field/kd.
+ Glyph of Equality
+ Hydromancy and another on swap Sigil. I don’t know, put Superior Sigil of Mischief if you’re in WvW.

Offensive power is just fine.

Shortbow or MH Pistol. The Dreamer and The Quip fits the Mesmer.

Sustain Power Damage.

Third chain ‘’Inflict torment instead if you have the maximum number of illusions’’.

They removed the animation to buff the third chain of the scepter’s mesmer. It’s a direct attack/hit to your target.

I only play Druid for Nimbus 2001. Otherwise, I wouldn’t.

Zealot’s Fire do more or less the same damage as True Shot, yet it doesn’t pierce. Yes, it burns, but it shouldn’t be the reason why it doesn’t pierce.

Sorry if it becomes an another Scepter/Torch post, but it would make Scepter/Torch the viable alternative to DH’s LB.

Artaz.3819:

Zenith.7301:

Ranger and mesmer DPS is pathetic and they refuse to buff our autoattack and skill DPS.

Rangers and Mesmers have these things called pets and they add to the overall damage they do overtime.

No, they do not. Plenty of people already calculated the DPS with pets and phantasms, it doesn’t make the Ranger or Mesmer competitive.

The DPS gap isn’t close at all.

Seed of Life was one of my only reason to use Druid, with the Staff leap. Now, not so much and lol @ the pet nerfs.

When is the tyria pet buff anet ?

apharma.3741:

Yay, yet more nerfs to core Mesmer because it synergies too well with the elite spec.

Exactly. Mesmer core is already a mess. They shouldn’t take decisions based on the elite spec. Sigh.

Anet gutted spirits so they could give a better version of boon farting to Herald.

For something stationary and with a HP, they need to be way stronger, but they are pretty bad. Raid people inc. and talking about how frost and sun is used in raids. Yeah, because you know, raids is one specific thing.

It’s all good, but you don’t have a condition cleanse. How do you think you’re going to deal with it ?

Mantra of Resolve instead of Well of Calamity ? The Pledge instead of Persistence of Memory ?

Yes LB AA will always be better, but Staff AA is good because it’s following the target and it’s not a projectile. You can’t miss with the Staff AA, except when blinded of course.

Levetty.1279:

Step.1285:

If you’re taking Scepter, you’re going to want to build condition. It deals rather abysmal damage if you go for a power build,

As far as Mesmer weapons go Scepter works quite well with power.

Yep. Confusing Images do more or less the same damage as Rapid Fire.

It’s pretty insane. Power Scepter is good.

Eh…

Scepter/Sword. Trait Mantra, Sword, Scepter, Quickness on Shatter. Have fun spamming MoP.

Or Calamity + Recall on Utilities should help you for tagging.

Confusing Image = Rapid Fire now, lol. I love the change for Scepter and Wells cooldown reduction.

Oh boy do I miss GW1 mesmer. It was all about hexes and interrupt. It was the anti hero.

Chronomancer wells and mantras are interesting for me, for this reason : they aren’t dependant on clone factoring.

GW2 mesmer is nothing like it and I agree, they shouldn’t have been given clones. It’s limitating.

For HoT solo story (an some HP), since you’ll need CC to break bars, I went Double Staff + Glyph (Primal Echoes, Verdant Etching, Moment of Clarity (works on those 2 before)). Beastly Warden helps too.

For Tagging and grinding my HoT mastery level in DS, I went Double LB Quick Draw with Barrage, you’ll tag LOTS of monster. Just don’t mess up your rotation.

Why Chrono’s wells aren’t unblockable like some Necro’s wells ?

Well of Action, Recall and Calamity could be good recipients for it. I understand Gravity Well should be out of it.

Well of Corruption, Well of Darkness and Well of Suffering are unblockable. Also usable underwater.

Chrono’s Wells could use some buff by cooldown reduction. Only direct buff to Well of Action is Danger Time.

Simple, because high ranked spvp players tried condi mesmer and people followed. They could pull a real weird build, make it work and people would follow.

UmbraNoctis.1907:

Are you using Enlagement?

Yep, this bug exists since Druid (forever). Don’t use Englargement with Druid or in CA.

I agree with everything you’re asking.

But, Solar Beam and Crossfire do more or less the same damage. It doesn’t do half damage of it. Just open your combat log.

Crossfire do a little more (like 50-100 dmg more) and can hit to 5 targets. Solar Beam is very easy to target and stays ’’flat’’ (horizontal). Crossfire, like all arrows, tend to shoot not in a line if you don’t take the target behind, but up high in all directions (vertical). It’s even worse in close range.

Solar Beam is at 1200 and Crossfire at 900. IMO, for fast and reliable damage (instant) that won’t miss (projectile) and get reflected, Staff beats Shortbow.

Now, should Staff be reworked to do more damage ? Yes. Should Shorbow, too ? Yes. Astral Wisp could be something close to Orb of Light (Guardian Staff 2) and Vine Surge a reliable CIRCLE AoE or CoR (Revenant Hammer 2). Sublime Conversion a dome like Feedback (Mesmer).

Druid’s Staff is the ONLY weapon of the new specs that didn’t have changes to it since HoT beta. We also got NO CHANGE last patch to Druid.

They couldn’t dent the Reaper. They got eaten alive.

I bet they were smashing buttons trying to do something, with no results. Clones got killed so many times before hitting you.

I use double drakes for PvE (marsh and river). With Quickness pet swapping + F2, it’s good too.

I use Smokescale and Bristle or Wolf for PvP.

I know Staff purpose is more defense oriented, but core Mesmer could use a buff since last scepter buff was a joke.

1) As many people asked already, oh my god make the stafkittenoes faster. Just looking at it flying away is painful. Trident AA is perfect speed.

Just by upping the Staff AA speed, you solved lots of problem with it. You don’t even need to touch the damage or conditions duration or stacks. It has the lowest damage in all professions with Staff and also with similar skills (Ranger Axe AA and Thief Shortbow AA)

2) No need the change.

3) Reduce casting time (actually reduce all phantasm summoning casting time), make it pierces, faster and more reliable.

4) Chaos Armor : Long cooldown for no reason and useless in PvE. Just remove the % reduction from Chaos Armor. Since the devs changed the Staff trait to make Chaos Armor obligatory to reduce cooldown of all staff skills, they been NERFING it.

Why are you forcing us to use Chaos Armor, then nerf it when we use it too many time ? SMH… Just slap the 20% cooldown reduction back and put something more usefull than Chaos Armor. Which is redundant because I can Chaos Storm + Phase Leap.

5) Chaos Storm : Reduce cooldown. My god, even Meteor Shower is on a shorter cooldown. Also, too many traits need to work together to make Chaos Storm do enough damage (Confounding Suggestions, Power Block, Chaotic Interruption, etc), don’t let it stay like that just because you been making all kind of traits to make it worth.

Sariel V.7024:

Silly question, but did you have the egg in your inventory at the time?

Not silly at all ! It actually worked !

Looks like the one in the achievement collection isn’t working, so you need to get a second raven egg.

Thank you

I just tried to get Chaos Treatment, sat in the middle of SB and died 2 times.
Got screenshot of being hit by Chaos Rift damage and from SB as well.

Still didn’t get my achievement

From GW2WIKI :

Acquisition

Stand in the Shadow Behemoth’s Chaos Rift in Queensdale with your Raven Egg to prepare it for the chaos of the Mists.

Note: The chaos rift is the spot where the Shadow Behemoth’s body meets the ground – not one of the green portals that appears around it.

This is what I thought. Very interesting.

If only it was a little bigger or faster. It lacks a little oomph. Some QoL on Astral Wisp and Vine Surge would be appreciated.

Infusion.7149:

Dondagora.9645:

Mantra of Pain needs some looking at. Right now it’s just too weak.

This is true since it has about the damage of an autoattack. Even if the damage doubled , the skill is incredibly narrow in use so it’d likely not go on my skill bar. Maybe if guaranteed crit / 2.5x to 3x current damage… it’d be like shattering for lazy mesmers which is broken since there’s no cast time and you can chain it 3 times in 3 seconds

Malicious Sorcery makes the mantra cast faster. But yeah… It eats an utility slot. It does more or less the same damage as Well of Calamity (same radius), longer range, but no fields and cripple/weakness.

It’s just annoying to keep recasting it.

I don’t want to know when it’s circling around the foe, I want to know how many targets from your character to the foe. (Damaged and also Healed)

It never really bothered me before, but it has now. The skill tool tip doesn’t specify. I tried to get big zerg of monsters, but I always lose my count.

Astral Wisp :

Send a wisp to attack your foe. While attached it will circle the foe, healing allies it passes through.

Damage Damage: 323 (0.8)
Healing Healing: 322 (0.1)
Duration: 5s
Radius: 130
Range: 1,200

Staff 5 (Sublime Conversion) or CA 4 (Rejuvenating Tides) + Clarion Bond = Area Healing… Or Drakes, but it’s harder to do.

When I use CA for immediate heal, I do 3 first, since it’s faster and daze your enemies. Gives you more flexibility to do anything after.

I saw many mesmers with a shatter build while pvping last night. I encountered a very good mantra chrono shatter mesmer 3-4 times vs my pug teams and wow, if you ever recognize yourself, I’m amazed GG.

I don’t know if they are fine, but I’ll wait for the meta to settle down. Right now, lots of Necros and Thieves.

Levetty.1279:

TheOneWhoSighs.7513:

Can all of the people who repeated the mantra:
“We don’t even know all of the changes yet”

Please stand up, and leave the room.

Okay, are they gone now?

So, who wants to play B&S until BDO comes out?

Please, they are all in game on their theives spamming auto attacks. They were never Mesmers.

I just went against 3 necros and 2 thieves. We still won tho, but kitten… I was the only mesmer.

I went Sc/Pis condi cancer to see how well it works. It’s pretty good.

I was ready to kitten my pants when I saw the team composition thought.

That’s it for scepter ? Why bother writing it on the Q1 thingy.

Only good thing is Feedback QoL.

I’m sorry OP, we aren’t talking about your question, but I think it can help you to make a decision about SB.

Fluffball.8307:

This isn’t fair. People keep comparing SB-from-front and LB autoattack to staff autoattack, and then forgetting that the bows are at least partially offensive weapons and staff is a healing weapon. LB2 does a lot more damage than staff 2, to put it mildly.

Staff for a ’’healing’’ weapon is better than SB, an offensive weapon. LB is expected to do more damage, it’s our power weapon. At long range LB is king, but at some point Staff is better than LB (AA only) if the range is closer.

It makes Staff more flexible.

Fluffball.8307:

You don’t see any DPS comps in PvE running staff.

You don’t see them use SB or LB either.

Fluffball.8307:

Staff is a great weapon and you can win fights with it. I wouldn’t be offended if you said it was our best weapon. But without checking the wikie I suspect it’s the worst damaging weapon across all 9 professions (shields and whatnot aside.)

Maybe you should. The staff hit 3 times for 1.35 seconds, which makes one hit every 0.45 seconds . It’s not the total damage, it’s each pulse damage.

The SB do ONE damage in 0.54 seconds. SB hits per sec is slower. Also, take in consideration the projectile speed and it has to land. Solar Beam needs no projectile speed (instant) and will still hit the target if it strafes or moves.

SB has no variation of damage in its other skills (Poison Volley is a little bit higher if you manage to hit someone with the 5 arrows, which means you’re in melee range). SB needs Light on your Feet to pierce with a pitiful damage boost after dodge.

For theorycrafting sake, double staff gives a more reliable daze (AoE daze. Primal Echoes, 8 secs then use Ancient Seeds proc) than projectile Concussion Shot (traited 20secs/25 secs) from the SB.

In summary, SB needs serious rework. You can say it’s a condition or hybrid weapon, but it is not doing a good job at it. I really want to make SB viable, I even have The Dreamer, but it’s just not good enough right now.