Guild Wars 2

I played mesmer since beta but only to PVP as I hated PvEing. After exclusively playing PvP on-and-off again for the past 2 to 3 years, I rolled up a hunter and have found a new found joy in PvEing. I realized now that I didn’t hate PvEing but that I hated PvEing WITH my mesmer.

In other words, try leveling an alt.

I love my mesmer for PVP but absolutely hate PvEing with him as wonky phantom/clone mechanics makes it difficult to get anything easily done. Generally, I wouldn’t recommend a mesmer for WvW either as your phantoms/clones become useless in any engagements larger than 3v3 since they die too easily to AoE.

Can’t comment on theifs and necros but they both seem to do pretty well in PvE.

Is Sigil of Force or Accuracy the better choice if you can only choose one for a zerk build with Runes of the Ranger? I’m guessing Sigil of Force offers slightly better damage but that Accuracy makes up for it somewhat with marginally more frequent crit procs. Can anyone confirm?

Hadn’t thought of many of the things pointed out. Thanks for the great advice!

As far as the Axe, I’ve heard that it is not that great of a damage weapon but I use it mainly for tagging mobs in PVE. I’m still getting the hang of sword which I’ve again heard is the better DPS weapon.

Just leveled my ranger to 80 and wondering what would be the best all around sigils/runes to use for PVE (dungeons and map completion)? Currently using a power build with LB and Sword/Axe(MH)+Axe/Warhorn(OH), depending on the situation. I’m thinking of using the following:

Runes: Traveler’s Runes (for flexibility of not using Sigil of the Hunt).

Sigils: Air+Fire on Main hand and Bloodlust+Energy on offhands.

I’m using a power LB build and Sword/Axe(MH)+Axe/Warhorn(OH), depending on the situation.

Runes of Strength seems nice but don’t want to overwrite longer might stacks in dungeons (not sure on this since I have yet to do dungeons). Thinking of using Intelligence for Greatsword.

Any advice? I’m poor and don’t want to waste money on costly sigils/runes. Don’t need the absolute best for all situations (such as mob specific mobs, day/night runes, etc.); just the best versatile ones.

@fluxit: Good to see a fellow oh sword user. Gfs

Kharr.5746:

The main problems with “Practice” are:
1) It’s too easy to join an already winning/stacked team.
2) Joining a winning/stacked team is more rewarding than helping the losing team.
3) Joining the winning team gives you a “win” on your personal stats page, which many people seem to care about (e.g. those that leave right before a losing match ends to avoid a loss).

I don’t think 1) is a problem that should be fixed, since this allows a more dynamic jump in-jump out sort of build testing. The main problems are 2) and 3) which encourage bad behaviour.

“Practice” should give no track progression, or a flat “participation” score if you have played for at least 50% of the total match time, regardless if you win or lose. It also should not have any personal stats associated with it (e.g. “wins/losses” that go on your stats page). This would remove incentives 2) and 3) which are ruining the practice mode.

I had suggested that people only be allowed to join games in pairs to keep the numbers of players on both sides even (unless someone drops out) but if you can somehow add an incentive to join the losing side or remove the incentive to join the winning side, that sounds like it would be better.

I’ve been in games where practically all of the losing side goes to spectate and rejoins the winning side once a spot opens up due to the winning members being autobalanced to the losing side. The extremes people will go to abuse the system is ridiculous at times.

Random matches played this week as phantasm spec

http://youtu.be/ASwRYKPzYmw
http://youtu.be/OA1KzbV_leQ
http://youtu.be/DoLC1HAkUks
http://youtu.be/lHjNx1_Shgc

I actually made a post on this in the Mesmer forums today and have a video clip of the delayed reaction I’ve noticed. Mesmers typically combo Sword 3 > Sword 2 but it takes several button presses before Sword 2 activates in the 6:40 mark of the following video.

http://youtu.be/lHjNx1_Shgc?t=6m40s

Dack Saris.2418:

I can’t agree more.
As I Always say : “I work three time harder than you!” while I’m dancing and my phantasm do all the work for me

Agreed

I agree with P Davis.

To the OP, you really can’t control what others say to you (and I’m not talking about block features or getting offensive people banned) but you can control how you choose to feel about what is being said. This is evidenced by the fact that someone can say something in chat and some people will laugh at it and others will be offended by it.

The way I consciously calm myself whenever someone is rude in chat is to imagine that the person making the remarks is an AI, indifferentiable from a human. How silly would I feel that I let remarks from a computer get to me? When I think of this and the calming effect it has on me, it just reinforces the fact that words have no meaning/power other than what you choose to give to them.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

From what ive read from one of Justin’s posts Its a server information issue. It’ll happen when you try to use blurred frenzy and get knocked back/down ECT. The move will still come out after.

I don’t think this is what I’m noticing though. I happen to recently record video of it occurring and if you look at the 6:40 mark, you’ll see that it takes several keybutton presses to activate Blurred Frenzy.

http://youtu.be/lHjNx1_Shgc?t=6m40s

Am I missing something? Did I get feared and just not notice it?

Sometimes Blurred Frenzy will not go off right after using iLeap (Sword 3) and will instead go off after a second or two after repeated attempts at pressing the keybutton for the skill.

I thought I might have been dazed when this occurred but recently confirmed that this is not the case. My guess now is that I’m pressing the Blurred Frenzy button too fast after iLeap and am locking myself out of the skill. Anyone else notice this and know what the cause is?

xDudisx.5914:

What mesmer is not running full illusion traitline nowadays? It’s like find an ele without 6 points in arcane or an engi without supply crate.

As I said before, there are PLENTY of specs/mesmers that don’t have the illusion CD trait since its deep in the Illusions traitline. The only specs I know offhand that go that deep into Illusions is Shatter (obviously since the traitline is for shattering) and some phantasm spec variants.

Just look at at the first few pages of the Mesmer forums to see all the different builds being run by mesmers that aren’t shatter; Mantra, several Phantasm specs, PU, Chaotic Interuption lockdown to name a few. Mesmers are not locked into playing shatter only and have many different viable specs available to them.

Do you really believe every mesmer plays Shatter as your last comment implies?

Edit: Sorry to derail the topic and this will be my last post on this subject but it just bothers me when people manipulate words, take things out of context, or flat out lie about things in order to sway the masses.

xDudisx.5914:

Random Weird Guy.3528:

xDudisx.5914:

I didn’t say they open with that I just listed the simple combo. Decoy+mass invis is a lot of stealth for a class that has a insta cast teleport on a 8s cd and insta cast immune.

Decoy has a 40s cd while mass inv has 90s, a thief can stealth several times in this time frame.
The “insta cast teleport” is a really low range teleport that has absolutely nothing on a thief’s shortbow 5, which is also spammable.
I don’t even know how you can complain about a mesmer having a lot of stealth when thief has more stealth and more ways of kiting around or disengaging from a point.

40s? Every mesmer has the minor trait that reduces illusion cd so it is 32s. Shortobow #5 costs 6 initiative, if they use too much they can’t use other skills. Also why use thief as example if this class in the only natural counter to mes? Comparing mes mobility with everything else it has crazy mobility.

@ xDudisx: Another exaggeration. You have to go 3 pts into Illusions (generally for shatter specs) to get the illusion CD trait. There are PLENTY of specs/mesmers that don’t have this trait.

On the subject of stealth, let’s not forget that Rangers using LB have stealth on 12 second cooldown.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

PvP Specialist Here

It seems like the idea from this thread is this:

1. Doom is strong because celestial is the meta. It’s a necessary evil to counter those builds.
2. Energy is another necessary evil to make up for a lack of defense in certain classes (Mesmer, necromancer mostly)
3. Fire and Air is mostly seen as too much.

Is that about right?

---

I have some other questions about this topic:

1. It’s hard to bring up Doom without also bringing up celestial. If celestial wasn’t the meta and instead we were back to an old meta (Two bunkers, 3 DPS or maybe the Decap meta), do you think we’d still be calling this sigil OP?
2. Let’s say Air was changed to be 5 stacks of vulnerability for 5s, thus removing this combo. Do you think any builds in particular would no longer be viable? Try to ignore what my example for Air is here. Assume that air would be balanced, but still deal no damage.
3. Energy sigil is fairly uncommon now I’ve found. In the past with builds like the Decap engineer or Bunker Guardian, it was very strong and downright annoying. We’ve now sort of stepped away from that bunker meta and only glassy classes take it (Shatter mesmer, S/D thief). Do you think this is the same case as the Doom sigil in that it’s only seen as underpowered because the meta has shifted this way?

Yes, Doom is used to counter sustainable builds for the most part which the current meta is. This is an example of the players adapting to the meta using the current tools available to us. Trying to balance sigils with every meta does not seem like a good idea to me. (The players are doing the balancing instead here.)

Energy is used by any class that wants more active defense. Generally glass-cannon specs that don’t have either good defense or have access to vigor will value this sigil more than other specs/classes. I believe more people would use this sigil if the meta changed to zerk specs. In general, defensive sigils have to be stronger than offensive sigils in order for players to consider using them since you aren’t always being targeted/attacked in a group fight but you are always getting the benefit of an offensive sigil while attacking another player.

Air/Fire is stronger than the above sigils (and other similar sigils) because of two combined reasons:
1) You get great damage for such a short cooldown.
2) You are always benefiting from the additional damage these sigils provide while other sigils such as Energy and Doom may provide little to no benefit at all depending on the situation. (For e.g. being full on Energy already or having Doom cleansed.)

I was wondering how much damage this trait did and would like confirmation if my math is correct.

With 2000 power, retaliation does about 350 damage per hit. A phantasm has about 3,400 hps in PVP/WvW so thats about 1 to 3 attacks to destroy the illusion.

So would total damage dealt be around 350 to 1050?

kdaddy.5431:

If you serious about pvp you dont care about the scoreboard just the team end scores. I understand your complaint but i honestly dont think its a big deal.

Example is your tim duncan and im manu ginobli. Were the best players on our team, we know it the other players know it. We win the match and score the lowest points, does it matter?

Personally, I agree that its not a big deal but sometimes you want to see the tangible effect you have on a game and it would be nice to see certain things like, healing on others, healing done to self, damage done, etc. It helps me form a better opinion about the type of build I’m running to see its effectiveness.

I know some people don’t like seeing these numbers shown to everyone and I wouldn’t mind if the information was only shown to you. Stats don’t define the effect a person has on a game but it can be useful information to those seeking it.

Random Weird Guy.3528:

Jackalrat.5493:

However, among other issues, the scoreboard in SPvP is abysmal and always has been. I know, from the rest of the content, that A. Net can do better than this.

And how exactly would you measure someone kiting around 3 members of the enemy team off point and allowing the rest of your team to hold a triple cap?

Now I’m not defending the scoreboard, but you can never get a true representation of player contribution in this game unless you have 10 qualified spectators on every match watching each player.

An attempt should be made or at least discussed which is what the op is doing. Im for more stats/transparency whenever the choice exists.

Great points that’s relevant to any class you play.

insanemaniac.2456:

Leodon.1564:

Who are the ones calling for a nerf on these sigils that have been the same since launch? As stated by others, nerfing these sigils would help the meta classes since doom is often chosen to combat sustaining builds.

sigils have not been the same since launch.

Are you saying that these two sigils have somehow changed in the not too distant past or do you mean sigils in general?

I never really used Doom before but have recently started to use it on certain occasions if I’m playing against a heavy number of sustain builds (i.e. celest warriors/eles/engies). For me, its a situational sigil and seems fine as is. All of the nerf talk seems like its coming from the masses that are playing celest builds now.

Who are the ones calling for a nerf on these sigils that have been the same since launch? As stated by others, nerfing these sigils would help the meta classes since doom is often chosen to combat sustaining builds.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I finally said “eff it” and applied. =P

+1

1) Rebind movement keys to E, S, D, F so that your left hand is naturally sitting where it should be with your index finger on the F key. You also get access to more keys. (I personally use A for autorun.)

2) Rebind all abilities to keys around your movement keys, prioritizing the abilities you use or need the most in PVP to the most easily accessible keys. (For e.g. Q, W, R, T, G, V, C, X, Z, A)

3) Rebind all other abilities that you don’t use often or aren’t as crucial in combat to harder to reach keys or to ctrl/alt/shift key combinations. (For e.g. 1, 2, 3 , 4, shift+W, shift+R, shift+T, etc. though I personally don’t use the number keys since that causes your hand to leave its resting place.)

4) Arrange keybinds so that similar keys are close to one another. It will help you to remember your keybinds. (For e.g. 1, 2, 3, 4 for F1-F4 abilities or G, V, C, X, Z for weapon skills 1 through 5.)

Keybinds should feel natural for you in PVP so experiment with different layouts until you find one that makes “sense” to you. Every ability that you use in combat should be within easy reach and your hand should never leave from its natural resting place. Practice until they become second nature and profit with improved reaction times and a more enjoyable pvp experience.

For the original poster, I’d recommend using dodge on mouse only (keyboard dodging does not feel as natural) and freeing up the Z and X buttons (use right-click on your mouse for camera and movement changes instead).

sPVP match showing my keybinds and how gameplay looks: http://youtu.be/xqha7DASQwE

Added an example video. First time recording gameplay so nothing special about the match. (Just recorded the first full match I played to test out the software.)

Will try to post another video once I have better video captures.

Edit: I just noticed that the youtube video doesn’t show any preview screen. Will try to fix on next video.

DocZed.6973:

You sure have 4 swap runes is on purpose?

There was a patch a while back that removed a lot of the restrictions on sigils so yes, you can use 4 on-swap sigils if you wanted to.

Purpose: This is a roaming dps pvp phantasm spec using sword/sword and greatsword. It does not excel at any one particular thing but is versatile and gives you good consistent offense along with good passive/active defense, particularly for a zerker build. I find it ideal for small engagements of 1 to 3 enemies.

Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAscRlknpRtlpxGNcrRSqhYuYn7JJHEokfOB-TJRHwAp3fQwpAAwTAgZZAA

Full sPVP match: http://youtu.be/xqha7DASQwE

Weapon Set: Sword/Sword + Greatsword
Sigils: Doom/Energy on both weapons
Rune: Traveler
Amulet: Berserker
Traits:
DOMINATION (4) – Empowered Illusions, Greatsword Training
DUELING (4) – Phantasmal Fury, Blade Training
CHAOS (3) – Debilitating Dissipation
INSPIRATION (3) – Mender’s Purity
Utilities: Ether Feast, Blink, Decoy, Mantra of Distraction, Mass Invisibility

How this build differs from other phantasm builds: This build trades some phantasm offense for more passive defense.

Other popular phantasm builds go deep into Inspiration for Phantasmal Strength or into Illusions for Illusionists Celerity and Phantasmal Haste. While these builds offer arguably better offense, you also end up getting a lot of semi-useless/sub-optimal traits. Not to mention, good thieves will eat you up.

Going three points into both Chaos and Inspiration gives you Illusionary Membrane and Phantasmal Healing which provides a nice increase in sustainability due to near perma-regen and roughly 25% uptime on protection. Having protection and regen at the start of a fight allows you to have an easier time withstanding a thief’s initial burst and then to outlast them should the fight drag on.

Playstyle/tips: Avoid using auto attacks unless you’re in range with GS. Switch between weapon sets on cooldown against ranged enemies. Stay in sword/sword against melee opponents, only switching to greatsword when the opportunity calls for it. Melee will have little opportunity to hit you if you rotate through your s/s weapon skills and dodge rolls optimally. Try to save utility abilities for when you really need them. Save shatters for crucial moments such as stomps and finishing off opponents.

alanis.6094:

Seeing more of these builds around.

Yeah, ran into a pretty good mesmer recently named Le Vanilla (sp) using a mantra build. Was quite surprised at how effectively he was using the build to survive and do damage.

IGN: Faye Oren
Server: Ferguson’s Crossing (U.S.)
Playstyle: sPVP
Role: Scholar
Playtime: Evenings

I’ve heard that you can interrupt a thief’s Blinding Power + Heartseeker combo but I’m not sure at what point to try and interrupt it. I’ve tried timing Mantra daze right after BP and also when seeing the HS animation but it seems to make no difference as the thief usually goes into stealth anyways. How do you all do it?

Also, what things do you try and interrupt for Engineers? It seems almost all of their abilities are instant cast and I can’t seem to find anything good to try and interrupt.

Wow I feel dumb. I’ve been using blocks for quite some time and didn’t know it didn’t work against stealthed targets. So sad

Devs should make it so that u can only join a game two at a time (one on each side) so that teams are always even. Would help the situation and be relatively easy to implement.

• What is the first thing that comes to mind when you’re about to face a Mesmer?

There can be only one. . .

How is it possible that after all these years we still have uneven teams in spvp at match start? Is it not possible to add some code that allows people to only join games as a pair (one on each side)? I can’t imagine watching an NBA game and having the game go on 4v5 the entire match. Who actually enjoys this type of uneven play?

I feel condi in general is just a bad idea because its next to impossible to balance for since a large part of its power is dependant on the number of people running it. For example, if you have one person on the other team running condi, no one really complains about his conditions since for the most part you can keep up with condition clearing just fine. If everyone on the other team is fielding conditions, then you pretty much are screwed as you have no way to keep up with the condition clearing and end up feeling conditions are “overpowered”.

Will I lose all the progress I’ve made on my current track, if I decide to do another track for a while and then come back to my current one later.

Can you no longer view other people’s armor while spectating? That was a nice feature before that I’m going to miss if it’s no longer available.

Caedmon.6798:

killahmayne.9518:

I’ve actually used Sigil of Fire and Air on my greatsword and it is actually really strong.

Yeah thats fun if they both proc at the same time while landing a burst that also crits.Fire + Air is a pretty strong combo for dpsing.Purity + Generosity will also become a really strong combo,for cleansing that is.

I thought there was a shared internal cooldown between all on-proc sigs and on-swap sigs so that you couldn’t have the situation above take place. (i.e., proccing the air sig would cause both the air and fire sigs to go on cooldown.) Its been a while since I’ve tested or read up on this so it may have changed since then.

I’ve got about 225 laurels banked and was wondering what the best use for them would be. I rarely pve and have obtained the laurels solo through the daily pvp rewards.

Can I turn those laurels into money or should I try and make gear with it?

Rebind, rebind, rebind!

1) Bind a key for autorun
2) Bind a key for dodge (I use and recommend the side mouse button)
3) Bind all keys you need on-demand around your movement keys to minimize the amount your fingers have to move.

This game is no different from other games and is simpler to play than some. (Try playing WoW with over 70 keybinds for all your abilities.) Its just a matter of experience and working with a keybind set that is comfortable for you.

Coming from a mesmer, I always call target on necros first in a group fight for two reasons:

- You guys tend to hurt multiple people alot if left alone (similar to grenade engineers)

- You guys go down to focus fire quickly since you tend to have poor movement abilities and no stability

As mentioned above by another poster, stay on the edges of a group fight so that you can run when you are focused. Having a tanky build can help you avoid being targeted first as well.

Hot Boy.7138:

I actually really like illusionary leap as it is. I don’t like that it fails on uneven terrain, but besides that, which is just a pathing issue, illusionary leap is a phenomenal skill.

Agreed 100%. It doesn’t seem like many mesmers use this ability defensively but I use it for this purpose all the time as a S/S, GS mesmer and changing the mechanics of the ability, as suggested in this thread, would be a nerf to me. I’m all for fixing the AI pathing though.

2 thumbs up. Remember its only a game (and akittengood one at that) and the angst/qq you feel now will seem silly when you think back on it a year later.

I use both Blink and Decoy for sPVP. Blink is better in certain situations and Decoy is better in others. I use to slot for Blink only but have come to really appreciate Decoy as well for its ability to increase your survivability.

I agree there should be a better way to report hacks specifically. I report botters all the time but hackers you need to describe in more detail. I once saw a hacker/botter ranger (Llc on Northern Shiverspeak) that could shoot WAY past the max range of shortbow (almost double), teleport to every kill he made (again across absurd distances), and had way too many buffs/heals to be legit.

I agree with EasymodeX on this. In PVE, being able to bypass pretty much every mob without fear of dying is priceless and helps to make up for the difference in land speed we have with other professions. (We may even come out ahead depending on the areas being explored.) I’ve played a thief with the 25% movement speed buff and it is indeed very nice but I still would not trade my mesmers ability to get around the map unhindered for it.

Is there any point to saving glory? Or do you guys just use them on chests as soon as you have enough points? (I have a bunch of glory saved up and not sure what to do with it.)

Also, what is the difference between buying from the different rank vendors? Should you always buy from the highest rank vendor you can?

I’ve seen plenty of botters in the game but yesterday I saw a botter/hacker ranger (Llc on the Northern Shiverspeak server) that was doing some pretty insane things. For example, shooting WAY past the range limit, teleporting, all sorts of random buffs appearing constantly, etc. I reported him as a botter, through the game reporting feature, but was wondering if there was a way to report him as a hacker as I see that as more of a game breaking cheat?