Guild Wars 2

I disagree with the general sentiment in this thread that regen/healing should be the way to fill astral force as it leads to situations where you have to take certain weapons (in this case Staff only) or certain traits/heals (e.g., TU and WS) to be able to use Druid effectively. This is horrible for build diversity if you want to play Druid.

DPS should be the main factor in generating astral force and healing should fill it to a lesser degree (opposite of how it currently is) so that you are not tied into using Staff. You should be encouraged to use Staff (through increased astral generation) but not forced to take it.

I am not sure why the dev team decided to make healing be the primary generator of astral force but my guess is that its for balancing reasons. (i.e., they wanted to balance around the fact that users would only use staff which is much easier to do than trying to balance around a variable combination of different weapon sets.) If this is the reason, its a poor reason and highlights to me that Druid was a rush job.

Rym.1469:

Astral Force generation…it has to be looked at. It’s generation even through multiple-hit skills like Warhorn #4 is so low that it’s barely noticeable.

And then you have Staff #1 and jesus beam through any ally. It refreshes whole bar within 4-5 sevonds with one ally and in teamfight it’s practically instant. And Celestial has no ICD.

But I agree that Regeneration should count somehow.

This is an example of what I mean in staff being OP or really being necessary for Druid. Being able to fill your bar so easily by spamming skill 1 while other weapons generate astral force pitifully slow is not good for build diversity.

This is my concern also.

Druid has potential but is very raw at the moment and should have been one of the first elite specs to be released since its tackling a rough subject in trying to balance healing with DPS/support. It needed more time to get to a polished state relative to other specs but got the least.

While I hope that the Druid continues to get more attention once HoT goes live, I realize that common sense does not rule a business model. As others pointed out its much harder to get changes done past beta testing as that is the focus of the company as a whole. The Druid dev team continuing to push for changes once HoT goes live is an uphill battle unless its supported by the company.

Drawing on experience, Mesmer was the last profession to be done and was revealed shortly before the release of the game. The class felt rushed and many people saw core issues with the class but these concerns were never addressed by Anet since their focus had shifted onto other things. Fast forward to three years later, and Mesmers are finally getting some attention to solving some of these core issues in HoT.

Good changes.

Staff should have been a condi/power hybrid since we already have a power (LB) and Condi (SB) ranged weapon. Druid is thematically not about power/direct damage (its more condi imo) and a hybrid weapon would help build diversity. The devs probably just made it a power weapon since they were pressed for time but it should be changed for the health of the weapon long term.

I particularly like the AOE change to staff#1 for more fluid gameplay. Devs mentioned that they wanted positioning to be important but currently we have to fight with our pet and with other party members to set up optimal usage. This is not fun for gameplay and leads to balancing issues since it can sometimes be underpowered or OP depending more upon luck than anything else in normal play.

Justine.6351:

yeah trolls unguent pretty much negates the need for staff if you just want celestial form. Infact its probably better then staff..

This is not good since it makes this heal far more powerful to use with Druid than the other heals. Changes need to be made so that the heals and weapons are more balanced as far as gaining astral force.

Was pretty disappointed with how Druid played:

1) Astral Force generation should be tied to damage and with a lesser degree to healing (basically the opposite of how it works now) so that other weapons can be used besides just staff for Druid. You should be encouraged to use Staff (through increased astral force generation) but not forced into using it to have any hope of sufficient astral force generation.

2) Celestial form was underwhelming. Didn’t have the oomph in terms of burst healing I was expecting since 4 out of the 5 abilities were just heals that healed for small to moderate amounts. Having Avatar skill#4 be a fire and forget healing/mobile water field that can be comboed with skill #3 would help create that burst healing feel. Skill#1 and #2 seemed too hard/clunky to use and not worth using for the small benefits they provided. Changing/adding something to skill#1 (damage reduction for example) and increasing radius (the current 120 radius is insanely hard to target on anything that’s moving) or making it an AOE cone skill in front of you, would go a long ways towards people actually using this skill. Currently, celestial form felt like icebow where people only use skill#4 and drop the weapon. Also celestial form skills currently suffers from long casting times without any access to stability. Adding stability to skill 2 would help with issue.

3) Healing coefficients suck (based on tests already performed) and should have been a major concern for the devs when coming up with a pure healing build. This definitely needs to be looked at and made more consistent across all Druid/Avatar skills.

4) Staff with some tweaks can be good but skills#3-5 are all situational and #2 is underwhelming which leaves you with spamming skill#1 for astral generation so you can turn into an underwhelming avatar form. LTomato on page 2 and others have already brought up the issues with this weapon. Having Staff#5 remain a water field (even though its not on the tooltip) would encourage more use out of skills #3 and 5.

I realize the devs are trying to limit healing so as not to have it be overpowered for PVP but the current implementation is half-measured. There needs to be discussion between the Devs and the playerbase so that we can create a Druid spec that is both fun/powerful to play with but also balanced for PVP.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

Mcrocha.3891:

I haven’t been able to play but I was watching some streaming and staff 1 was filling up CAF very decently just by itself if you line it up through your pet. I can only imagine that if you heal multiple allies CAF will fill very quickly.

That makes this the only profession mechanic in the game which requires a specific weapon to work properly. This is not a good thing. If someone doesn’t want to use staff, there is no reason at all (at this point) for them to go Druid, as far as I can tell.

Currently damage from any other weapon besides staff generates pitiful amounts of force generation. They need to make it so that any weapon can be used to fill up Astral Force but Staff provides more astral generation (20-50% bonus). This will encourage people to use staff but not be tied to choosing it if they go Druid.

If Staff 1 and astral force generation remains the same, people will stack on bosses and have druids stand behind them with Staff 1 spam for insane amounts of astral generation. This is a broken/lame mechanic but people will do it since its effective.

Not going to mention TU because you can’t have Astral Force generation tied so heavily to any particular heal; needs to relatively balanced across all heals.

Astral Force generation is my main concern at this point since its so out of wack at the moment.

Kreed.2768:

I think you’re confusing this with avatar’s #4 skill, which is indeed a portable water field. However, that one you can’t blast yourself, since it’s a channeled ability.

I was disappointed to find out you couldn’t combo blast Avatar#4 with #3. Makes sense to have a water field on at least one staff ability.

Luclinraider.2317:

I respect all of your opinions. These are just mine from what I see everyday while playing.

You guys should write out a list too. I like seeing other people’s opinions :P

1) Your profession
2) I don’t care
3) Santa Clause
4) SBD farts
5) Kitten videos
6) Ham sandwiches
7) Republicans
8) My profession

Tragic Positive.9356:

Nicknobreak.7543:

Is Cleric armor an answer for WvW/PvE?

It’s hard to say just yet.
We might not need any healing power for druid whatsoever.

Its been a while since I’ve looked at healing tests/reports and was wondering if anyone could confirm how well healing power scaled for our heals? (i.e, Will it be worth it to stack it?) It was my understanding from all of the posts that I’ve read in the past, that healing power scaled ridiculously low compared to other stats and was seldom worth stacking, if ever.

D I V A.6018:

Looking at your message history, this makes sense. You write from the perspective of a meta thief. This is probably the reason why you placed your favourite class in the “worst” spot balance-wise.

That’s pretty much the standard formula for these “scientific” lists.

Mcrocha.3891:

They don’t have to address specific people because no matter what they say half of this forum will cry. And then if the devs actually wanted to have meaningful discussion with some people, they wouldn’t be able to do so because all the haters would flock to the thread and nuke it with vitriol.

Truth.

Just the fact that we have this thread and several other threads on the first page of the Ranger forums calling out devs is a reason for them to not show up. These passive aggressive threads are not how you invite others into having a discussion with you. Dont blame the devs for not showing up, blame yourselves.

I would propose:

1) Healing/cleansing received by the player also heals/cleanses spirits
Anet doesn’t want to make spirits indestructible like warrior banners since they are sentient beings so let us sustain them through heals/cleanses. Spirits being healed/cleansed whenever you are healed would work nicely to sustain them in PVE since they generally take damage at the same time you do through AOEs. Also, since you are not healing spirits directly, they would not count towards the 5 man AOE heal cap. Would not be overpowered in PVP since players can still target your spirits to destroy them without having to worry about you healing your spirits directly. (Not that anyone would actually waste a heal/cleanse on a spirit but this is more for when Druids come out.)

2) Spirits get protection on dodge
Pets already have it so it makes sense to give it to spirits too; would help with burst/spike damage. Would be helpful if spirits also shared your defensive stats, particularly toughness.

3) Ground target with 1/2 second cast time
As OP stated, would help a lot in keeping spirits alive since you can place them in optimal areas without having to run all over the place and lose valuable time. 4 seconds to cast your spirits on a full spirit build at the start of a fight is too long currently; 2 seconds would be much better/fluid.

4) Start CD on cast instead of on spirit death or activation
This would encourage you to use the active ability after 20 seconds since you can resummon spirits immediately. Also, will help to make sure that you have spirits available at the start of each fight; ie., it makes the spirits more mobile without actually having them move around with you. Cooldown would probably need to increase though to compensate for this buff.

All of these changes are more quality of life changes, rather than direct buffs to spirits, and to help ensure that you are more consistently getting the benefits your spirits are designed to provide.

Chameleon Dude.1564:

I’m surprised Berserker is so low. I feel that if the poll asked us to put them in rank order, it would move further up. It’s not the most exciting thing, but it’s a solid trait line that actually has synergy with the class as a whole… which is more than Tempest and Dragonhunter can say.

I think you answered your own question. Berserker may be solid elite but its essentially just another way for the class to do DPS and thus not much of a change from the core mechanics. Druid and Chronomancer play entirely different from the core classes and could have been marketed as a completely new profession, thus the excitement to play them.

Also, I haven’t looked at all of the elites but it seemed pretty apparent that the Devs realized which professions needed the most help (Ranger, Mesmer, Necro, Engineer) and thus made a conscious effort to give these classes more of a buff in the expansion relative to the other classes (Warrior, Ele, Guard).

Levetty.1279:

You thinking this build was in the Meta shows that you have no idea what you are talking about and are just jumping on the nerf bandwagon. Well you got your wish, now go to the next Class and start crying about them.

It takes a while for the meta to change and my point about the build bringing us into meta was not literal. My point is too much power was given to this one heal and anytime that happens (wether it be a heal, trait, utility, weapon, etc) its not healthy for the profession in terms of build diversity and balance. Any future balance changes to our weak areas would have to take into consideration how it would synergize with this heal and would have stifled creativity and design choices.

You can argue that the heal nerf was too much but considering its still stronger than before, there is not much room to complain about.

The heal had to change and everyone knew it. You can’t have it that the only reason a Ranger is in the meta is because of a single overpowered trait/heal. Its a bad design choice, leads to less diversity, and is a nightmare to balance around in the future.

Having this heal remain unchanged would have been an anchor around our necks when it came to buffing the many weak areas that currently exist for Rangers. Too much focus is being given to a heal that was fine before and is better now. There are plenty of other things that need attention before trying to justify bumping this heal up to OP levels.

I agree that phantasms were poorly implemented and like the ideas proposed here but will play devil’s advocate.

1) An enemy player has to take some time currently to decide if he is going to take out your phantasms since they pose large enough of a threat DPS wise. If phantasms pose no threat DPS wise then an enemy player is free to focus on you, and you lose out on a little bit of survivability. While the difference in survivability may be negligible and can easily be made up somewhere else, thematically, I like that the enemy player has to make a choice. (i.e., It adds to the confusion theme of mesmers.)

2) I felt Robert attempted to address the problem with phantasm/shattering in a way that didn’t completely redo the mechanics of our class profession from the ground up which is probably never going to happen. He reduced the importance of keeping phantasms alive by reducing the time it took to respawn them and by making it much more attractive to keep shattering your clones/phantasms vs just keeping phantasms up indefinitely. This seemed evident through traits like Illusionary Reversion, Chronophantasma, Persistance of Memory, Mental Defender, Alacrity, etc.

Forum bug.

/15 characters

anduriell.6280:

Mainly heal is good, only heal is bad

I don’t understand the mentality of people who think Druid is only healing or will be regulated to a healbot.

Druid is DPS like you normally would to gain astral force (use staff for faster astral force gain) and then pop into celestial form only when you need it for the big heals. How is this any different from how you play now?

When you say healing only or healbots, I think of games like WoW where you literally spent your entire time staring at people’s healthbars to keep them healed. Druid is not that type of playstyle because you have to DPS to gain astral force, and then when you need a heal, you have a nice one at hand.

Nice vid Quickcry.

I play my mesmer almost exclusively for PVP and have played with/against you numerous times so I know how potent your builds are. You’re one of the few Rangers that stand out actually.

I was thinking of trying a build very similar to yours but with the changes below for HoT.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQNAnfzmUqA9Ci1CCBDh63ibPn5AYdbgB0A-TlSEABEcIACUJIAPAgLV/ZgjAQWK/YTTAf6BaZ/BHOBAkCwudVA-w

Druid traits:

• Druidic Clarity – Entering celestial form removes all conditions.
• Verdant Etching – Reduce glyphs recharge by 20% and activating a glyph removes 2 conditions.
• Ancient Seeds – Striking a CC’d enemy applies immobilize and bleed.

Druid utility:

• Glyph of the Tide – AOE knockback (pull when in celestial form); 25 sec cooldown.

Druid elite:

• Glyph of Unity – Tethers you to enemies. Any damage you take during the tether is propagated to enemies tethered to you.; 20 sec cooldown.

Electric wyvern for 2nd pet: F2 is a charge, stunning and knocking up enemy

Let me know what you think.

@ Nike
I would like to see how your build plays out but how are you going to deal without having a stun breaker and little condi removal?

This thread should be closed as it serves no purpose from the other thread.

The Devs JUST released the elite specs and will not be making any changes to the Druid elite until at least one round of actual player testing is done. Until then, all points brought up here are speculation and theory and will be taken with a grain of salt.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Natural Mender - Seems like the buff is too short and too small to be able to really maintain it with it being 10 stacks. If it were me, I would adjust it to be 4% and 5 stacks. I’d have to know the exact mechanics though, it may stack up each time an ally is healed by Regeneration, in which case, it is totally fine as is.

As you mentioned, its much too soon to be asking for a buff to this without seeing how it actually plays out.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Cultivated Synergy - I think this is a little un-inspired and pretty weak. Since there are no traits that deal with boons or apply boons, change this to something to do with Regeneration, since we already have miles of it, it would be a good synergy. “Whenever you apply Regeneration, nearby allies gain 2s of Resistance. Regeneration heals for 25% more.” Or something that works in with what Ranger already has.

I disagree with your Regeneration suggestion and the idea that it is free for us. You have to either spec for it, use a valuable utility slot, use warhorn, or some combination of all three. There are no ways to get Regeneration just from speccing Druid/Glyphs so adding a Regen trait makes no sense.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Celestial Shadow - Could also grant the same effects on entering Celestial Avatar, making you much slipperier in PvP for support.

Assuming Celestial Avatar is on a 10 second cooldown, having party wide stealth/resistance upon both entry and exit of the elite form screams OP to me. It might better to change the trait so that stealth/resistance is given upon entering Celestial Avatar instead of upon exiting it but we won’t know without actually playing with the trait.

Heimskarl Ashfiend.9582:

Celestial skills
Needs a damage component on all of its skills for PvE. Good opportunity to add some boons to the Druid, such as Resistance and Regeneration for the modified Cultivated Synergy.

Druid seems to be shaping up as THE healer for HoT (with plenty of sustain and burst healing) and you want to give it more healing in the form of Regen? The focus of Druid is raw healing and I’d prefer to leave boons to the other classes or else we will be stepping on too many toes.

Sorry if I’m coming off a bit harsh but Druid is arguably the strongest elite spec to come out for HoT and I can’t believe we are already discussing ways to make it even stronger without sacrificing somewhere else.

I think its a case of being pigeon-holed into playing one that people are afraid of/unhappy with. As you mentioned, we already do pretty good DPS so what else could the Druid have been that would have made us more wanted in groups that didn’t step on the toes of other classes?

People speculated that Druid would be a support/healer class and its exceeded my expectations.

How long did it take to build up enough Astral Force to transform on the reveal?

I had little hope that the Ranger elite was going to turn out well considering it was the last reveal but Druid looks fantastic and I’m looking forward to playing it.

Kudos Irenio on a job well done.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

It’s… It’s everything I’ve wanted to play since launch.

Must not switch mains must not switch mains omg

Druid looks to be a gamechanger for PVP, if it can output the type of burst healing and control people are speculating. I had given up hope on my Ranger for HoT (was planning on playing Rev for PVE) but man Druid looks good.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Ranger already is one of the highest DPS classes in PvE.

And if you watched the glyphs and traits – it’s going to be massive for PvP as well as WvW.

Also, Rangers currently have the potential to become the reason why ZerkMeta stays alive and all people might end up loving you.

I don’t see a single reason how can you guyz get disappointed! We already have all the offensive possibilities on live. This was what we needed for CC, Condi Clear, Defensive support.

We
Got
Everything
We asked of druid!

Come on! What’s wrong with you? If you want an offensive Ranger – you have access to it already. If you want any other one – you just got access to all of it with druid.

There is no place for Rangers as an offensive class in the current meta (PVP or PVE) and I don’t see it changing when HoT arrives.

I don’t see PvE getting hard enough where a dedicated healer is required/desired in most scenarios. In the few situations where healing is desired, then we’ll only be invited/desired so long as we spec as a healing Druid (i.e., join as a healbot or gtfo).

PVP is a different situation and I totally see Druid having the potential to completely turn it upside down. If Druid healing is strong enough (leaning more towards a true healbot than a support class), then a druid will be mandatory for groups but again only as a healer.

If you like the idea of only being invited as a healbot, then Druid seems like a good elite. If you don’t like healing, Druid is a disappointment.

I played resto Shaman in WoW for 5 years and while I enjoyed it, I did feel pigeonholed into playing a healer since only a few classes could heal but every class could DPS. If Druid healing is strong enough, then you will feel the pressure to play a healer whenever you’re invite to join a group.

Misguided.5139:

My thought process was like this: I’m going to spend much of my time channeling Glint. If I’m swapping to a different legend, it’s because the situation is rapidly spinning out of control in some way shape or form. I want the second legend to keep me (and hopefully the group) on my feet until things have settled and I can switch back. Swapping to Shiro makes little sense in that situation. Sure, you could swap and use Jade Wind, but then you’re left with no energy and no defense.

So for me, Jalis makes sense as something of a panic button.

My thoughts exactly.

The Legend you choose will obviously depend on the situation though.

savacli.8172:

Bloodlust isn’t as worthwhile as it used to be unless you never re-slot your weapons, and have low to non-existent down [on the ground] time. Sigil of Strength might be a little overkill given the might generation of Sword, Herald traits, and Facet of Nature.

What sigils would you recommend? Its my understanding that Force is the obvious choice but after that, I’m not really sure.

My reason for choosing Bloodlust on Hammer was that I don’t expect to be using this weapon that often since I’ll be camping S/A for the most part and only switching to Hammer when range is needed. Being able to benefit from the bloodlust stacks while camped in S/A seemed like a good idea.

I chose Strength mainly because it synergizes well with the great boon duration you can achieve from Herald. I realize the sigil would go to waste in a good group that is able to maintain max might stacks but its been my experience that this happens maybe 15% of the time in the PUG groups I join.

savacli.8172:

Mixed Berry Pie is a super budget solution, but it’s not much of a damage potential. I generally prefer salads (+damage while moving), but those nourishments tend to get a little expensive. A great budget variation is the Experimental Remnant, but the issue I personally had is the duration of the food is only 10 minutes so it’s easy to forget to renew the buff.

I did check out your build in another thread and noticed the salad food. I’m not a fan of having to constantly stay in motion to maintain the damage buff but %8 is very nice and so decided to make a stack of it the other day for future use.

savacli.8172:

Personally, I’m a fan of Scholar Runes, but if your goal is self-sufficiency Rage is a solid choice.

Its my understanding that Scholar Runes offer the best DPS increase but I don’t see myself being able to maintain the minimum health requirement often enough to warrant its use. If I’m able to maintain Fury easily then I’ll probably switch out Rune of Rage for something else; perhaps Rune of Strength as Misguided suggested.

savacli.8172:

OP, if you could link us your build we can give you a better answer as to what you’ll need.

Based on the builds posted in this forum, I was thinking of starting off my Revenant with the following build/equipment:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vlAQNAsXinXN2gSqJvQRBlbosfyPU4Q5IKYr8ElFNFidMnpNtBYBNwugJshA-TBSBwAUOBAF3fwsSwrK/up+De9BLOCAAeEAECg8WA-e

I plan to use him for PvE (world map completion/fractals/dungeons) initially and am interested in collecting gear that is versatile enough for me to use in solo and group play. I also pug 99% of the time in groups so would want to be more self reliant than the typical min/max builds.

Since I’m more of a casual PUG player (that’s still interested in being an effective member), I tend to use food/nourishment that is on the cheaper side. I’d be willing to go with more expensive food though if the difference is noticeable. I tend to pick the best Runes/Sigils though since that is a one time investment.

Any advice on optimizing my gear would be appreciated.

I think we can all agree that phantasms needs to be reworked but for a change to go through (from a devs perspective), we have to consider and eliminate any risks for abuse that the change might introduce.

The first thing I considered was how your proposed change would stand up in all mesmer parties. Is there a possibility that an all mesmer party can be considered OP in a dungeon or sPVP game? Or how about a 20 mesmer WvW group?

In a dungeon, I think a 5 man mesmer party would probably face too little risk; considering how slow mobs attack, relative to how fast 5 mesmers would be able to generate clones/phantasms. I’m not sure if this is necessarily a problem though since 5 rangers with beefy tank pets could probably pull off the same thing.

Which stat (power or ferocity) would be better to stack for max DPS on a zerk build?

I was under the assumption that power was always better as a general rule but is there a point or scenario where ferocity overtakes power? It seems Rev can maintain 100% precision prettily easily and with several traits that provide ferocity, I was wondering if it made sense to try and max out ferocity with runes, sigils, and food/nourishment buffs.

Percentage-wise, how does an optimized A/T Sinister build compare roughly to a S+Axe/LB power build in terms of damage?

Tragic Positive.9356:

Frost Spotter is a thing. But what is getting much better thing for sure is the Sinister. That is becoming a real thing in HoT.
Spirit (Sun+Frost) Spotter with burning keeping it’s DPS at 4K per second and bleeding at around 3k – the DPS gets much higher than with Zerk. The initial 6 seconds are naturally lower due to inefficiency of quickness.

But now you provide 2 permanent fire fields, Sun spirit that is a 3K damage per target affected every 8 seconds (roughly 15K bonus) and your Direct Damage for condi immune targets is better than anyone’s else (playing sinister) due to your pet.

I’m having huge success with it even though it’s not worth for Dungeon Runs. Any boss melts within 8 seconds thanks to Icebows.

Could you please post your build Tragic? How do you provide 2 permanent fire fields?

Signet builds. . .

Anytime I see a mes using a signet/distortion build, he mentally goes straight into the “newbie/non-factor” bucket. Out of hundreds of signet build mesmers, I think I’ve only run across 1 mesmer who was able to play the build well and that was before the patch.

OP, if you actually spent some time either playing this build or spent some more time playing against it, you’d probably have a change of heart. There is a reason why no one really complains about this build.

Skullface.7293:

Velimere.7685:

Skullface.7293:

Me and my team (E Dream) won a game versus the Abjured in the ESLs for the first time since 30 weeks with me on ranger. We are also constantly winning the Academy Gaming tournaments. Ranger is viable if the player is good enough.

I do agree with some of the much needed changes tho!

Do you mind sharing the build you’ve been having success with? You’ve piqued my interest.

Here is the build I am using with my team: http://de.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJARTjEqQLL2wCmsAVLGyEqOZDgD4n8I/x9EPBa8CWdA-TpBFABiXGghHAgc7PQwhAYhLAAAHBAA

I know this build is strong and does very well in 1v1 situations with a competent Ranger behind the wheels. However, I rarely see Rangers use BM in hotjoin and was wondering why this was the case. Most seem to skip the BM traits when that traitline seems to really shine with Bird pets and all the F2 abilities you can pick up. IMO, this traitline is very underrepresented for how strong it is in 1v1 situations.

Bird F2 with Taunt + GS maul crits make for really good burst setups.

I recently bought an extra bank inventory slot from the gem store without realizing that I had maxed out that option. Is there a way to get a refund for the bank slot since I received the item but am unable to use it?

Unlike other account upgrades, the bank slot upgrade does not tell you when you have maxed out purchases for it. Instead, it tells you the total amount of bank slots you can have.

Should have changed mantras to recharge after first cast. Now we need to blow every mantra charge after the first cast to speed up recharge which makes mantra clunky to use again. Why does Anet always nerf things that don’t need to be nerfed and not just address the core issues?

Xstein.2187:

I can really only speak for mesmers. Many of the mesmer skills need some tweaks, like confounding suggestions and blinding dissipation. This is easy to do. However, what Gee helped do was change the trait lines and make more builds viable. He also did this based on experience and knowledge of what the mesmers is all about and how the game works and has transformed. This is not easy. It is easy to nerf a class to the ground or buff it till it is op. However, how many classes have this many variety of builds available to them now? Not just talking about pvp, but all aspects of the game. This will be the case no matter what happens to the mesmer. Even if CS, blinding dissipation, etc. where not as good, many mesmers would still love some of the changes he made. Changing the trait lineup of a class is not just about “ohhh lets make this trait more powerful” and Gee understood this. And that is the point. Even if the mesmer wasn’t as powerful as it is now, the mesmer community would still love the changes he made. These changes allowed a larger variety of builds, synergy, and play variety that was never seen in the class before, and I think most classes would want the same thing. I’m sorry many did not have as dedicated of an individual investing so much time into their main class. With that said, I don’t think Gee should balance all classes. However, I think all classes needed someone as devoted as Gee working on them before the patch.

p.s. There was also many people working on the mesmer, not just Gee. These people also need credit for the great job they did as well.

Well said.

Robert helped forge an identity with the mesmer class (e.g., masters of time). When I look at the upcoming Revenant traits, it feels uninspired, lacking in direction, and I am uncertain as to what “identity” the designer is trying to promote for the class. (At the moment, it seems like a bunch of random traits for the sake of having traits without a clear purpose or build in mind.)

I play Ranger and unfortunately, it did not receive the same treatment that mesmer received this patch. I don’t want mesmer to be nerfed, rather I would want Ranger and other classes to be beefed up with several viable and distinct builds.

Mesmer right now has several very distinct builds (PU, max shatter/burst, CC builds, boonshare, condi) which seem to be viable.

Situations.2416:

Fay.2357:

…

This statement is so silly, anything in top tier is high risk, high effort.

Whats silly is a non-mesmer coming to the mesmer forums to tell mesmers we are all wrong about our class and have no idea on what its like playing a mesmer.

Aoe clones, have the mesmer use a couple of dodges/invis, then Rampage. A mesmer is the weakest after a burst, instead of healing up/kiting, go on the offensive after the mesmer mind wracks with hard hitting attacks.

A mesmer generally needs about 10-15 seconds to setup a burst. If the mesmer has lots of clones/illusions up then expect a burst. When they are running towards you and they bring their greatword up in the air, expect a stun/burst combo so use dodge then.

Lots of mesmers use mantras so pay attention to their charges. Once they are used up the mesmer will probably try to charge them up. Press the attack then and try to interrupt/prevent the mesmer from charging them.

If the fight is going badly, run away and come back after you’ve healed up.

Einlanzer.1627:

Balance patches should really happen weekly. I’m not sure who’s in charge here.

You are playing the wrong game if you think Anet has the resources/capacity to do this.

GW2 PVP never took off and as thus is a very small percentage of their revenue which in turn means they are going to allocate a small percentage of their resources on it; like very small. Balance among classes is one of the least reasons as to why GW2 PVP never became big, and is in the bad spot it is now.

Sandrox.9524:

on serious note,look for Vashury on youtube he got excellent Tut’s

+1
There is a big difference in damage between a shatter and an optimal shatter as explained in Vashury’s video.

Tealots.6095:

I still find PU to be more of an issue with a condition-based Mesmer than a power one. This is, perhaps, coming from the fact that I came across a duo of two PU condition mesmers in SPvP yesterday and trying to survive was absolutely brutal and impossible. Especially with zero cleanse.

Having zero condi cleanse means you also have zero chance of beating a condi PU mesmer 1v1 or surviving against their condi AoE in group fights so this is not really a good example of how powerful they are. You should have slotted Inspiration and focused more on exploiting their weaknesses and trying to win the match to better gauge how effective they are.

Not to say they aren’t powerful but your example is a very lobsided match in their favor which can bias your opinion. I run Inspiration and generally ignore condi PU mesmers in group fights while providing my teammates with situational condi cleanses. Trying to 1v1 them is playing to their strengths and something I largely avoid.

Probably Necros for me due to how relatively easy it is to CC them and keep them from disengaging. (I generally call target them first in a group fight for the above reasons plus they can be dangerous in a group fight if left unchecked.) I run Inspiration so their condis aren’t a huge threat in 1v1s so long as I pay attention to spikes.

I’m a fan of sw/sw also. Only real complaint is with how clunky the block/daze mechanics works. Have the retaliatory counter hit quicker and daze travel faster and it would golden.

I saw a video recently about class balancing and how in FPS games, a noob gun (that is very powerful for how easy it is to use) is provided so that newbies have some fighting chance against pros. The pros/experienced players don’t use the noob gun themselves since there are better choices for them. The reason the gun exists in the first place is to encourage new players to continue playing the game until they no longer need the crutch of the gun and move onto other weapons. If the gun did not exist, new players would get frustrated from being farmed over and over again and would quit the game before getting the necessary experience to compete with others.

PU reminds me of the noob gun. From my experience, its generally used by new/inexperienced players to carry them vs other inexperienced players and to have somewhat of a fighting chance against pros.

As a mesmer, I used to hate seeing other mesmers use PU because I viewed it as a “troll” build. However, after seeing the video maybe other classes need more access to an easy to use/high reward build so that new players can get acclimated to PVP without getting facerolled in the first 5 seconds.

This is not to say that PU is the answer for mesmers either or that it is fine as is. I think it generally leaves a sour taste in everyone’s mouth to have to go against it. I just don’t view it as badly as I did before.

Luclinraider.2317:

I’m usually not one to talk about nerfs. And my main is a mesmer……but still, I have to agree we could use a little tone down lol.

Quote from another thread.

Luclinraider.2317:

I didn’t play my Mesmer……like…..ever. I loved the whole Mesmer class and the idea behind it. But just couldn’t get into the play style.

Quote from this thread.

Luclinraider.2317:

I can roam from point to point seamlessly with a near perma invis that gives me haste. Once I am there I can generally kill whoever’s guarding, even 1v2, without much effort by keeping them blinded. And once I lock down a point, I can defend it from 2-3 players no problem. With the ability to stealth myself and all my clones on the point and keep them that way for quite a while….all I would do is wait….for groups of 2…3….sometimes even 4 to come and try to take it back before shattering from invis and dropping them all into downed. (No I couldn’t finish the job because 4 downed people will still kill me) But it takes them out of the fight, giving my team an easy 3 cap.

You down 4 people with ease because you are a mesmer? Do you even have any PVP experience or are you here to just troll? Please say you are because it boggles my mind that you would think anyone would actually believe this…

I tried reading through the rest of your BS story but gave up halfway through.

Edit: Another quote from the OP.

Luclinraider.2317:

One of my main PvP chars is a P/D Thief, and I actually feel like we do more damage now…
But for the last 2 weeks ive consistantly been top player on spvp, and still am a brutal roamer in WvW.
The biggest difference I see is that I actually think we are EVEN STRONGER 1v1…..and we are now a little weaker 1v2+

Very convenient that you listed your thief in the bottom tier…

bhagwad.4281:

“You can’t have it as your sole reason” – why not? How does it affect you? It doesn’t. Live and let live. You play for your reasons. I’ll play for mine. You don’t get to dictate why other people should play.

Well if you have no interest in PVPing and your sole reason for PVPing is for some artificial carrot, then it does affect others because it leads to situations that Cogbryn described in his chess example (a chess player forfeiting all of his games so that he can quickly reach 100 games played).

We see it today in sPVP where people will join and just afk, players from one side all going into spectate mode as soon as their side starts to lose and then join the winning side after autobalance has kicked in, etc. These are extreme examples but I do see it happen from time to time.

@ bhagwad – Calm down buddy; I didn’t mean to kitten in your cheerios. Of course you are free to play as you want (just as I am free to play as I want) and I am sorry if you felt I was trying to dictate how you should play. My post was just my opinion on why some people have less fun PVPing.

As an example, some people like playing chess for the enjoyment of playing it and nothing else. No monetary rewards, no fame, no perks, etc. There are some people who PVP for the same reason.

If you hate playing chess but play it because you get money to do so then you won’t have a good time doing it. (i.e., The monetary reward will not change your feelings about playing chess.)

@Cogbyrn – You are too sensible to be on the these forums.