Guild Wars 2

Play with a team on teamspeak. Learn how to pvp better and you will be a better mesmer. This means knowing when to roam with your team, when to disengage from a fight you know you’ll lose, when to rotate from the point you’re defending etc. etc. A lot of this stuff comes from intuition gained over time. There’s a lot of variables at play in pvp. The key is knowing how to react to these various situations that you are faced with.

I didn’t get better until I consistently played with other people and friends. Yes, it can be rough when you suck or people rage at you, but thick skin is part of the entry fee for participating in pvp anyway.

Lastly, have you looked at guides for kiting your enemy? What about phase retreat and blink spots? Those are extremely helpful guides for all Mesmers.

Cho will definitely be making an appearance in some capacity.

Terrorsquad.2349:

jportell.2197:

This guide is a must for any mesmer Btw

I know right! But can’t increase the hype on my own

Well I always mention your guides to my friends! You definitely have me as a supporter, my friend!

I’ll have my new streamer friend spread the word. He said he’d check it out in hopes of it being very helpful! http://www.twitch.tv/logical_lynx/profile

Dirven.3021:

This build feels so weak compared to other builds used in spvp. Definitely wouldn’t recommend it to anyone. Also the distortion on signet is such a waste since ground-targetted AoEs still hit you. I cannot see how this build would be superior in any situation to other builds currently used in spvp. I can only see this work if you just ‘enjoy’ playing this build, but apart from that… just no.

1. What other builds are you comparing it to? I can definitely pin point the strengths and weaknesses compared to other builds. Off the top of my head, this build is definitely a better dueler than any shatter build. It is the BEST 1v1 build in conquest we have next to PU.
2. What ground-targeted skills hit you? If this is the case, it is obviously a bug that needs to be fixed. I don’t recall any ground-targeted AOE attacks hitting me while distortion is up. One specific ground-targeted AOE skill that I love walking though is the engineer’s slippery shoes. I think they get really kittened when I do that.

Sorry you didn’t enjoy this build. It’s definitely a personal favorite of mine, and I do very well when I use it on my teams. Which version did you try? Sword, scepter, celestial?

Blood Lord.5687:

Honestly i love the idea of distortion on mantra recharge, but 600+ toughness is legit none the less. So if they removed the 600 toughness and changed it to distortion for 2 seconds mind you that trait is in master dueling, you’ll miss out of X trait, forcing you togo 6 in dueling or miss out on an extra mantra charge trait found in grandmaster.

Well imo, I’m not so sure if Deceptive Evasion is always a must for Mantra builds. It’s never really a must-have in a mantra support/tank build, and I would argue it wouldn’t be of grave importance in a dps build either. Especially if you’re going 6/6/x/x/x.

You don’t typically see dps builds taking Protected Mantras, because 600+ toughness on a zerker build doesn’t really make that big of a difference in the grand scheme of dmg mitigation. Distortion, on the other hand, makes a HUGE difference. For a nich build like Mantra, I could see a lot of people preferring the distortion over DE. I definitely would. Distortions are very underrated (see my build in the signature).

Not useful whatsoever during an actual pvp match. You’d have to toggle back and forth so often. There’s already a lot to keep track of in this game. Your camera angles are not something you want to struggle with. I could see it being used during tutorials to better see skill animations for interrupt builds… maybe. But even then, you need to be able to see it among a lot of other stuff happening.

This change is mostly for in-game immersion for PvE. I think it’s a great option to have, and one I will definitely use during the living story and random adventuring!

Or maybe they could just buff Protected Mantras to give distortion instead of toughness? I only take that trait if I’m running a tank/support mantra build, but I don’t think it’s wise to take it in a power based build.

I actually think it would compete with DE for a valuable trait slot in Mantra builds.

I actually LOVE this idea!!! <3 It being in Inspiration trait line would synergize well with mantra tank/support builds!

I think an ICD of 10s with 1-2s of distortion on cast is balanced. Ideally, this would give you a 1-2 second invuln every time you use the mantra heal. Not having an icd would be insanely OP imho.

I love MTD, and we haven’t seen many threads since its initial push. I honestly think MTD is the answer to the cele meta. When I play on my MTD build, I easily rip through cele ele/engi with ease.

Anyway, I know you’ve been playing MTD for a while now, so I’ll check your vids out later!

To answer Alanis, I usually have pDisenchater in my MTD builds. It’s condi clear, it’s boon rip and it’s clone generation for shattering. I think the synergy is amazing in this way.

very helpful in formation!!

Solstice.1097:

I suspect there are certain things that happen behind the scenes at WTS that minors should never have to witness.

Why is it that those “certain things” should effect a minor’s ability to compete? And if you’re implying that these “certain things” count as bad behavior, then maybe those “certain things” shouldn’t be happening in the first place.

First off, you make some interesting observations. Indeed, Mesmer is a thief-lite with more range, more AOE, less single target dmg, and more team utility. That being said, it is just as squishy as a thief but with less evades. I hope you take the time to explore the class more thoroughly as it has a lot to offer once you reach lvl 80

I recommend that you casually finish your personal story and get involved more so in pvp. Leveling a Mesmer by traditional means could be pretty difficult and frustrating. Hence, I’d spend 70% of your time pvping for the tomes and the other 30% doing… other stuff I guess! lol

Here’s some GREAT threads to get you started with pvp builds:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Phantrupt-Asskicker-CS-Interrupt/page/3#post4792209
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Vid-Chaotic-Perdition-WvW-PvP/page/2#post4672303
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Maim-The-Disillusioned-Impressions/page/3#post4605746
Also a link in my signature to another build. If you want something tailored to a specific weapon set that you like, I could help with that as well.

Hope you stick around to see more of what the Mesmer class has to offer! We’re a pretty passionate group here on the forums, so feel free to ask questions as often as needed.

When I drop pistol for focus, I jump on Pack runes. But without a reliable source of quickness, pack runes are kind of wasted.

I’d disagree here. Where as you get cripple duration decreased with centaur runes, you get fury/might/swiftness not just to you, but to surrounding teammates/clones. I don’t know the max AOE target, but I usually see all nearby allies getting the boons. You also get 125+ precision which gives you overall more damage than with centaur.

If your sole focus is on the swiftness and how to reliably apply it, then Centaur is a good choice. Even then, I think Travelor’s runes are the best for increased speed (if you aren’t running focus+pack runes like you mentioned) but you give up some dps with this choice. I just think Centaur runes are overall weak choice for your build in general. The decreased cripple is so… not useful. haha

Give us more videos when you can!!

rotten.9753:

MailMail.6534:

I’m not slugging through 4 pages of intense arguing. I’ll just state my simple opinion:

I don’t think the celestial amulet itself is OP. I think if changes should be made, it should be to specific Ele and Engi skills that make them OP when utilizing celestial amulet. Do NOT nerf the amulet itself.

Celestial amulet gives ~20% more raw stats than others. Obviously, it should give more because that’s a game design with other amulets but perhaps it should be shaved a bit.

But what would be acceptable “shaving”? Celestial will go back to being a useless amulet in pvp. I occasionally and effectively use celestial in unranked for a few of my Mesmer builds. Why should those builds suffer because there’s two classes that are able to abuse celestial amulet based on the OP design of their select skills? Once again, I think if you nerf some of the specific issues with elementalist and I guess engineer on a profession basis, celestial amulet becomes balanced.

I’m not slugging through 4 pages of intense arguing. I’ll just state my simple opinion:

I don’t think the celestial amulet itself is OP. I think if changes should be made, it should be to specific Ele and Engi skills that make them OP when utilizing celestial amulet. Do NOT nerf the amulet itself.

First off, great video! That was some pretty good gameplay on your end. Observations and tips from your video:

• Pay close attention to enemies with stability. There were a few times where you obviously shouldn’t have used MoD but wasted it on someone with stability. You did this with your first engagement with the ele and with the necro when you eventually got 2v1ed. It’s a lot to keep track of, but this is a challenge of interrupt builds regardless.
• Don’t waste Chaos Storm on downed enemies (like the thief) unless you are in a team fight. Simply spawning several Staff clones should do enough to bleed a thief without having to stomp.
• Great job using Time Warp on that rez! OMG that was a close one!! haha Also, those two TW stomps were delicious to watch.
• When engaging Necros, stay ranged when on Staff and only go melee range when you can ensure a blurred frenzy. Afterwards, get back out of melee. Otherwise, you’ll get condi bombed. Nice use of kiting from the ledge at home! If you need more examples of phase-retreat spots, take a look at a video found here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/PvP-Guide-with-Phase-Retreat-Spots/first#post4828757 There’s even more blink spots to be found on every map. You can actually blink up top of the ledge at mid if you know the spot.
• This is probably the most important observation, but your new armour looked amazing!!! Keep making the Mesmer community proud!! <3

Advice on your build:

• I like the mental torment and your rationale behind taking it over Halting Strike. I don’t think there’s an denying that you get more overall dmg out of Halting Strike if you connect most of your interrupts though.
• I think both GS and Staff are optimal choices for CI builds, but I do prefer the more conservative approach to using Staff. It definitely provides more utility and survivability.
• There are better reasons to use other sigils besides Torment. I get the rationale here as well, but with you shattering often, there’s not a high chance of you getting many attacks out with pWarlock. That being said, the dmg increase you’ll get from him utilizing the extra condi spot pales in comparison to the overall dmg you’ll get from fire sigil procs. This also helps to make up a tiny bit of dmg for having taken Staff instead of GS.
• I get that you want the speed boost from your rune, but you have good enough mobility with the increased distance on blink. Also it requires use of a heal skill which you get every 20 seconds. In my opinion, you should just go with Pack Runes, which will give you swiftness as often as you get it with the other rune. Additionally, when procced, you and nearby clones will have 75% crit chance with fury, which makes up for lack of Phantasmal Fury. Lastly, the extra 6% crit chance means more sigil procs and more dmg.

VERY solid build. Thanks for your contribution!

Sorry I never commented again. I’m currently watching Survivor (yes, it’s still on after 15 years) and will be looking at your build after it’s over!

Cannot get enough of this build, specifically the 2/6/6 Celestial Interrupt Signet build. Doubt its for everyone, and I doubt its the best build for upper tiers, but I just really enjoy it and don’t encounter much that I really have a great deal of trouble with; or at least if/when I die don’t think that there wasn’t anything I could have done better. Seems to have a lot of tools.

That’s the thing about signet builds: they are so versatile and doesn’t lend itself to a lot of weaknesses that other Mesmer builds will face. It can handle heavy dps pressure and can handle a moderate amount of condi pressure. It has high sustain via toughness & the healing signet.

I told you this before, but what I love about your celestial version is that it can ease other Mesmers into the classic CI lockdown playstyle. When I was testing your build out, it was very important to interrupt skills using MoD, but when I didn’t connect them, it was a bit more forgiving on fallback. You can’t say the same for zerker CI lockdown though where the interrupts are do-or-die. I’m so happy that you’ve brought a new build into the spot light. I’m seeing a lot more signet Mesmers these days.

1. Large condi spikes from +1 fights. Vs your typical condi classes I can usually get them down, as I do pretty strongly vs Necro, grenade Engi, and decent vs condi Ranger.

I noticed this issue as well. It forced me to sort of kite more often than I usually would, because I want clones generated in the thick of battle. It doesn’t help that with this iteration, you don’t have Mender’s Purity to cleanse 3 conditions per heal. However, this is a drawback that MOST builds have, so it’s not that huge of a drawback. Dps shatter can’t get hit by any conditions before melting away so there’s that!

2. Point holding vs several professions. The distortions really add up. This is my biggest issue, but often in pug your still one of the best holders (or at least, willing).

This is the biggest drawback. Despite the point being decapped, I see it as an advantage that you can 2v1 for a long while despite not being a bunker. If there’s any build in the Mesmer category that serves as a “bruiser” role, this is the closest we’ve got, but it does come as a price.

In terms of the Malignant signet build, you did inspire me to go 6 into Chaos for the Staff Cooldown instead of taking Mender’s purity. I have experience a significant amount of more condition dmg (more phase retreat and pWarlock) and more dmg mitigation (more Chaos Storm and Chaos Armour). This does make me a lot more susceptible to condi classes than I was previously without Menders, but I see there being more pros than cons in this trade off.

lol Suggesting that they eliminate traits completely is a waste of everyone’s time, because that’s NEVER happening. To reiterate, it would be more productive if while we pointed out its shortcomings, we came up with simple ways to buff it instead. This will help when we have an assigned forum specialist to send clear messages to the dev team.

Also, there is a way to have high power and moderate toughness. It’s called Soldier’s rune like I previously pointed out. That’s the most efficient way to run retaliation. However, soldiers runes don’t really work too well on the Mesmer class.

StickerHappy.8052:

I can help coordinate since im also a semi high rank member in WIND

Let me guess, that’s the Ranger guild?! It reminds me of Talim from Soul Calibur exclaiming “WIND!” during battles!

Anyway, I’m totally down with some type of coordination. One of the biggest ways to coordinate is simply discussing how our classes interact with one another. I’ll be honest, but I don’t really frequent the other forums often. That being said, I think our forum is a wealth of knowledge for Mesmer users as well as others. One way to bridge the gap between our guilds is simply posting in their forums more often.

This thread is a great read for ALL classes: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/The-How-Do-Mesmer-See-The-Others-Interview/first#post4824576

I can always depend on ArrDee for a heaping cup of truth tea.

As stated earlier, I don’t think nerfing energy or doom is the way to go.

Retaliation on Mesmer isn’t effective unless you are using Soldier’s runes and/or have a a high protection uptime via BI or chaos armor. I have a neat courtyard support build that utilizes retaliation.

I could definitely look at other traits as being more useless than this one, but instead of getting rid of it completely (which let’s be serious, is unhelpful and unrealistic to even discuss), let’s talk about potential ways it can be buffed:

• Have it work like Phantasmal Fury with 10s with an interval of 10s.
• Have it work for all illusions, and keep the duration the same. This would severely punish AOE attackers. I actually like this buff the best instead of the former one mentioned.

I think you make an excellent case for that type of application when listing all the other traits available to other professions! 1+

StickerHappy.8052:

How bout confusion makes them attack nearby friendlies for 3 attacks. Every attack they do also damages them, same coeffecient for burning.

No nearby allies, dazes them instead.

I actually LOVE this idea, but this would make confusion a status effect anyway. Similar to taunt. I think it would have to be just auto attacks though.

But honestly, like I said earlier, it would be easier to simply buff all the base duration/stacks on our confusion skills.

Your numbers are wildly overpowered, Ross. El.Oh.El

With careful balancing, it’s a neat idea though. With the way you describe it, it would essentially be the self-inflicted version of the burn condition. Low duration but high dmg. However, it should still scale from condition dmg. We have retaliation for that type of buff/debuff.

The Gates Assassin.9827:

PvP Forum Specialist here.

I want to test the waters on this issue a bit. Here’s a few scenarios. Keep in mind, I have no idea what they’re actually working on. I only tell them what you’re saying:

1. Is the issue that it’s too hard to change a team comp for this map? If that’s the case, would it be enough to implement build templates to solve this issue?
2. Is the issue that you truly only want to play this mode?
3. Let’s say they did put a separate queue (In that you’d select unranked/ranked and it would ask do you want to play Conquest or Stronghold). Would you want Stronghold to be in both unranked and ranked queue based on what you’ve heard?
4. Would you be okay with TDM maps being in this separate queue? I’ve always found that certain builds in Conquest simply don’t work well in TDM so I have to quickly change my build to something else. Stronghold, as it has no points, seems like it would fit better.
5. Here’s the tough question. Let’s say that if there was a a separate queue, queue times would increase for both (after the initial hype of stronghold). Right now, I get matches about every 2 minutes on good days and 4-6 minutes on bad days. If this change would increase queue times or make you face worse players in order to maintain the same queue times, would you still be for this change?
   1. This question in particular I’m looking for the most feedback on.

If you agree but have nothing to add, feel free to quote any posts you feel express exactly what you are thinking. The more feedback I can give them the better.

1. This is EXACTLY one of the core issues. It takes me more than a minute and a half to change builds to an appropriate TDM build. This is one of the issues with skyhammer/spirit watch in that you can’t just slightly “tweak” your build in order to be successful. Implementing build templates is a huge quality of life change that would be fantastic.
2. I think Stronghold should only be unranked for now. Not that anyone takes the LB seriously… but still for the sake of appearances.
3. In a perfect world, there should be 3 separate queues. Because there simply aren’t enough maps to warrant such a change, I wouldn’t be too let down by a “non-conquest” queue. Maybe in 5 years, we’ll have extra maps of each type and a larger player base that enjoys all game types.
4. I’d rather have longer queue times than be forced to ever play skyhammer again if I so choose… Long term, I think it’s better for the community to have this quality of life change.

I would apply, but despite me appearing very congenial, I also have a folder of pictures titled “Flame Wars 2”. I can be sort of… aggressive when I want to be.

Maybe you’re right. I just think this is an unfortunate nerf to stability in general. The classic bunker [guardian] role continues to be pushed out of play entirely it seems. Now, the way to “bunker” is by taking a bruiser instead like cele ele/war/engi.

But yes, I do fully acknowledge that this is a buff to boon strip mesmers as we can use our CC to take away stability instead of using the boon strip if we so choose. Now, we have the ability to “kitten away” at the stable fortress! haha

StickerHappy.8052:

I’ll reply to your feedback later.

Bump.

Almost 200 views and 1 comment?

I guess everyone is on still the meta train. lol.

It’s not their fault. Meta build(s) are the only ones worth playing in ranked. Though, we do shine in unranked play with lots of variable viable builds. We just don’t realize it as a community!!

The issue is that you’re not stealthing before he casts his attack. This is a mechanic of stealth not a bug in ranger skill usage or any other skill for that matter.

I actually don’t see Doom needing a nerf. It’s a direct counter to high sustain builds with a lot of burst healing. Zerkers are susceptible to all conditions poison or not, so a nerf to this wouldn’t really change the scene. If your issue is the lack of powerful healing, I think you should direct your attention to the scaling of healing itself, not sigil of doom or poison in general.

As for sigil of energy… I’m a Mesmer main, so all of my offensive builds (dps or condi) desperately need this since Vigor was severely nerfed for us. A nerf to this sigil would severely handicap Mesmers more so than other classes, so I’m pretty biased.

Aomine.5012:

MailMail.6534:

Hot join will forever be a horrible playing experience for me, personally. You should never be able to join a team making it uneven. A small queue while waiting for someone else to click join would make it a much more enjoyable experience where people can’t abuse the autobalance system.

Leave the “Join red/blue team” for custom arenas where people can and will continue to abuse the system. Hot join in its current state is atrocious and simply isn’t fun… ever. Every month or so when I pop in, I’m brutally reminded of this.

Too bad it’s not fun fighting a bunch of pre-mades when you just want to casually play unrank and have some fun battles and some wins and loses. The recent PVP makes me much less motivated because of this.

Well honestly, if they reworked the way hotjoin is played as I suggested, you would have a place where you can casually play without the fear of premades. Instead, you either get cubstomped from premades in unranked, or curbstomped in hot join from people abusing the system.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

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

heroic music plays in the background

I, the dark butterfly as known as “Cho Kurai”, approve this message.

Things I’d appreciate:

• A separate queue for strong hold, which I am HIGHLY anticipating.
• Bring Raid on the Capricorn back which is more fun than both Skyhammer and Spirtwatch combined. I know people dislike underwater combat, but more options are better than less, especially when players have complained about the stale game mode for so long.
• More maps for deathmatch so that it can have its own queue as well. Because these maps don’t incorporate objectives, I don’t see how design would be harder than other maps.

Thanks in advanced!

Hot join will forever be a horrible playing experience for me, personally. You should never be able to join a team making it uneven. A small queue while waiting for someone else to click join would make it a much more enjoyable experience where people can’t abuse the autobalance system.

Leave the “Join red/blue team” for custom arenas where people can and will continue to abuse the system. Hot join in its current state is atrocious and simply isn’t fun… ever. Every month or so when I pop in, I’m brutally reminded of this.

Illusion of Life
Target thread has the illusion of activity for 4 days before dropping to the 2nd page.

Anton.1769:

What about boon remove? 4 staks are removed like 4 boons or still like 1 boon? If 4 – it’s big nerf for shatter mesmers

This is not how boon removal works. If you 4 shatter someone with 25 might stacks, you don’t just take away 4 stacks leaving him with 21. You get rid of the entire might boon and 3 others. This will be the same for stability. Now that stab works kind of like blind, this is a huge buff to any Mesmer with multiple CC skills.

However, maybe I’m over-thinking this, but won’t boon strip mesmers become even less desirable in teams? Now, long-lasting stability won’t be an issue for most groups, so the small niche we filled has become easier to fill for other classes whom only need a few CC skills to take stab completely away. So our class is buffed in a way yet watered down in comparison to other classes yet again? Hmmm!

It all depends on how they change all of the existing skills with stability. Will their duration decrease? Will they get several stacks of it? It’s hard to exactly judge right now, but I wouldn’t start praising Lyssa yet for these impending changes.

p.s. I think it’s dumb that they keep watering down boons. Instead of nerfing the boons in and of themselves, they should nerf application and availability to classes. It’s really dumb. See the might nerf. What’s next, reducing fury to 10% increase?!

I agree with most of your changes. For Mesmer to be the class with most ways to apply confusion, we seem to be one of the worst classes at making it an effective condition. Irony at its worst. In general, I think they simply need to increase base duration by 1 second and increase stacks by 1 for most skills. That would make confusion more of a profitable condition to base a build off of.

The only one I slightly disagree with you on is Confusing Images which imo is in a perfect state right now. Yes, there is a large wind up that leaves you susceptible to interrupts, but if it connects even 3 times, you are looking at a lot of dmg. This is even m ore the case for power/hybrid builds using scepter. Also, this skill typically baits out dodges, which is perfect, because there’s a million other things they should be dodging from us.

A few things you forgot to mention:

• Buffing the duration and/or stack on both chaos armor.
• Same for Illusionary Retribution. See above.
• Traited bounce on magic bullet apparently adds a pathetic stack of confusion. This is so negligible I can’t even contain my laughter. el oh el.

Ross Biddle.2367:

MailMail.6534:

I think that would be wildly overpowered in capture the point. It could simply be a buff to Illusionary Person where you add a blast to the spot that you’re on instead of creating 1-4 blasts.

I honestly think just adding a blast onto GS 3 would be enough for Mesmer.

Because every Mesmer does, or should run GS? :p

First of all, Mesmer isn’t a class that is predisposed to having “blast finishers”. Let me give you some statistics so that everyone understands. Access to blast finishers according to class:

• Engineer 18
• Elementalist 14
• Warrior 12
• Guardian 5
• Necromancer 3
• Thief 2
• Ranger 2
• Mesmer 1

These numbers includes all types of skills & traits available. Rangers have it on one weapon and one pet skill. Thief has a utility and one weapon. Necromancer have it on one weapon and 2 utilities. I don’t play with GS very often, but it’s the only weapon that makes sense to add a blast finisher to. None of our utilities make sense whatsoever.

The other ways they could give us blast finishers would require too much work than what it’s worth (either through traited clone deaths or shatters). And considering there’s a lot of things they could be working on for the Mesmer class, I’d rather them pool their efforts into more important things.

So yeah, just give us the blast on Mind Stab and call it a day Anet!

I think that would be wildly overpowered in capture the point. It could simply be a buff to Illusionary Person where you add a blast to the spot that you’re on instead of creating 1-4 blasts.

I honestly think just adding a blast onto GS 3 would be enough for Mesmer.

RANGER

• 70% in my favor.
• Because I don’t play dps shatter anymore, I don’t really understand how or why Rangers are such an issue for us. Well, I do understand, but I just can’t relate due to the type of Mesmer builds I play. I usually don’t pay them any mind unless they are pew pew, and if they are, getting in their face for even a tiny bit will shut them down completely. God forbid I’m on CI lockdown as they are EASILY locked down with interrupts. It’s almost as sad as a Necro.
• Obviously my strategy if they’re pew pew is to get into melee range, and it’s a 90% chance you drop them no matter what build you’re playing. If it’s anything else, you simply dodge the elite immob and the condi burst, and you’re fine. I always save my condi clear for the entangle, because that’s their one trick pony. If you beat that, you’ve beaten the ranger.

WARRIOR

• 45% in my favor
• First off, I think warriors in a general sense are the whiniest players in the game. Why, when their class is the only to be mostly OP/balanced in the game, I’ll never understand. The irony is that I feel like this class complains the most about all other classes being OP. So right off the bat, I’m annoying by facing a warrior. LOL
• Unfortunately, warriors are tough no matter what build you’re playing. I think in general, we have a hard counter (thief), a soft counter if your skill is lower (engineer) and a regular counter in Warrior. They have stability. They are not easily burst. They have the capacity to endure conditions over a period of time. It’s just tough. If skill is equal, I typically win; it just takes a long time. The higher their skill level is, the more likely they are to win, which is obvious, but this is more so with the Warrior. Dodging their bursts is easy, but it becomes more of “who makes a mistake first” than anything else really.

THIEF

• 65% in my favor
• If you’re playing dps shatter, then you have a 10% chance of winning, but I typically run builds that directly counter thief. Fortunately, most thieves don’t expect this, which makes me happy to see thieves, because they typically waste their time engaging me instead of a weaker teammate. It’s also funny to see a thief CONTINUOUSLY target me out of frustration, because they don’t understand how they aren’t rekting me. This happens quite often. I’m also annoyed by thieves in general for similar reasons as the Warrior. The difference is that MOST thieves are bad players, but have inflated egos.
• My basic strategy is to NOT blow through CDs right off the bat. I’m way more conscious of CDs when facing thieves than with other classes, because there’s usually a wait period in between their bursts where you have time to relax. Most of my builds use Staff, so having Chaos armor up when you know they are going to burst is VERY important due to the protection that it usually procs. Chaos armor are theives worst nightmare as the blinds will also help to mitigate a tone of dmg. It usually takes a high skilled thief to take me out, which I don’t see often at all.

NECROMANCER

• 80% in my favor
• My mouth literally salivates when I see a necromancer.
• Save my condi clears for when they use their long-lasting chill conditions, which is usually the biggest hindrance for me. Also save my stun break for the 2nd fear. If they have a 2nd fear, it means they have a 3rd in their rotation. Keeping these two things in mind, it’s simply a matter of interrupting any big moves they make. If I know they have a lich coming soon, I save my boon strip and interrupts to rekt them then when they’re most vulnerable.

Class Match-ups

ELEMENTALIST

• Odds are 55% in my favor.
• Oh you’re an elementalist? Cool beans there darling. It takes a lot of skill to be an overall decent ele, so I’m already impressed. Unless they are one of those one trick pony zerker eles, I’m pretty prepared for most attacks and not worried. A lot of the skills are easily telegraphed, but someone hard to interrupt. The problem is their burst healing and the ability to disengage easily.
• Ideally, you have to watch out for only a few things when fighting an elementalist. The long lasting burning is one of the biggest concerns if you’re running low amounts of condi removal if at all. Also, regen/protection are readily available for eles, so if you’re planning to out-sustain, have a plan. This is usually accomplished through boon strip and timing your burst efficiently. I usually play enough condis where this isn’t a problem, and it becomes a bait and kite match of out-sustain.

ENGINEER

• Odds are 40% in my favor
• As soon as I see an engineer, I’m deathly afraid of the crate. Simply standing inside of it is a death sentence for most builds which automatically puts me on defense. I typically become very anxious at the thought of being chain CCed by turrets, knockbacks and dazes with a nice condi bomb waiting to happen.
• Luckily, engineers have the same issues as Mesmers, which is a lack of stability. Where as we have “creative” ways of evasion, they have a single OP block and an abundance of CC in order to make up for it. I typically bait out their block before chain-dazing/stunning. If that doesn’t work, we’re the better kiter as long as you keep the pressure up, because they have great healing capabilities. It basically comes down to who can dodge the most CCs first and get their skill rotation off. Unfortunately for us, they can take more hits than us, so they have the upper hand.

Guardian

• 50% in my favor
• Whenever I see a guardian, I wonder if they’re playing the boring dps medi guard or something more interesting. I respect guardians, because in the past, they have typically served as support roles, which are currently very out of the scene now.
• Because I play Condi builds for the most part, I don’t have trouble against dps guards. God forbid I’m playing Malignant Inscriptions, because I’ll gladly create clones for them to plow through. Their main attacks are easily telegraphed, so you can prepare to react to them. If it’s not a dps guard, they aren’t very threatening at all.

MESMER

• 20% in my favor
• As soon as I see a Mesmer, I kittening panic. Yes, this is the way our low tier class typically succeeds against evenly matched opponents!! You’d think being apart of OMFG would help me with this, but Mesmer remains by far my weakest match up because they cause me to panic and make silly stupid mistakes.
• My strategy when facing a Mesmer is IMMEDIATELY identifying their build. You can guestimate a lot based on several indicators. I won’t go over them all, but there’s some obvious signs like signets, mantras, GS = phantasm/shatter, scepter = heavy condi, etc etc. The most dangerous thing about the Mesmer is their team, so knowing when to pressure the Mesmer and when to refocus on their teammates after they blow an evasion (Decoy/Blink) is key to using your time & energy wisely. If you don’t panic and remain calm, you will beat a Mesmer every time. I need to do a better job at following my own advice here.

You guys can all call me MailMail, which is my irl nickname, but I go by “Cho” in Guildwars 2. All 4 of my Mesmers begin with the name Cho, which loosely translates to “butterfly” in Japanese. Depending on character theme and/or build type, they have different last names. I’ve exclusively played Mesmer since the Flame & Frost patch which seems like oh so long ago!! Around that time, I was in an amazing casual guild that did all types of game play. I was an integral part of the 500+ guild until I became a pvp purist around the Nightmare of Towers patch.

In terms of my Mesmer-ing style, I tend to play either CI lockdown or a variety of condition builds whether it be my “Malignant Inscriptions” build or a variety of Maim. I’m very passionate about creating builds that are atypical from the top tier standard shatter. I want people to realize that the Mesmer class is the most versatile when it comes to mid-tier gameplay. We can play tanks. We can play support. We can play condition. We can play zerker. We can literally do everything, so you will typically see me theory-crafting and testing out weird builds for the sake of our community. And when I’m not doing that, I’m sticking to my familiar condition builds or CI. Because of this, I tend to either roam or play home guard/defender in organized teams. In pugs, as an experienced player, I play whatever roles I feel my team needs the most and to the most of my capabilities.

My favorite class to fight against by far is the Necromancer. No matter what build I’m on, I find their skills to be amazingly easy to interrupt. And because every single Mesmer build has a minimum of 3-4 interrupts at its disposal, it’s no wonder that we’re a strong counter to Necros. Notice, I didn’t say “hard” counter, because the only hard counter in this game is thief vs Mesmer. Anyway, Necros are easy for me to demolish no matter what build I’m playing on, but especially when I’m on an sort of interrupt build with MoD.

On the other hand, my least favorite class to fight is definitely the engineer. If I get my rotation off well, I should usually be ok with the builds I typically play, but the biggest problem against engineers is their constant CC. Once I get CCed a few good times, it’s usually gg.

If I could give Mesmer one single general buff, it would simply be to fix our bugs and make certain skills work the way they say they actually do…

Seyiwaji.4082:

Yes Signet of Midnight with distortion give you huge advantage in fight, but i had to choose between it and Blink. Since i wanted some mobility i took blink. Decoy is a must since i don’t use stab or torch.

The Cooldown on Signet is an heavy weakness, i already thought about it.

Mobility is king. I get it, but I simply put emphasis on winning team fights, and distortion on a 24 second S. Midnight is god tiers more helpful than Blink could ever try to be. Personal preference, but Blink is great.

It just looks like, at first glance, you’re starting a good thing with Blurred Inscriptions but that isn’t enough to have 2 signets on your bar. Signets typically need to be traited for more heavily to be of great use. Their CDs are atrocious, and this would be your biggest hindrance imo.

Since I’m a signet fanboy, I’ll give your vids a look and give some more opinions! Thanks for your contribution!

I actually like this build. Any build utilizing that mega stun with pistol/S.Dom has potential for being devastating in a team fight.

I’m just happy people are experimenting more with signets. They have always been severely underrated due to being subpar utilities on their own, but when traited for, they become VERY effective.

I may come back and critique it more, but I would potentially switch up a few things. S. Midnight > Blink is obvious for me, as a distortion with S. Midnight every 24s is totally OP. Also, I’d probably take the Signet cooldown instead of illusion buff. I feel like it’s really needed here to make the signets worth it.

I’m sorry guys, but CI is already an amazingly strong trait. They are NEVER going to buff it even though cripple makes 0 sense. I also don’t see them buffing Chaos Storm for similar reasons.

Still, my gut tells me these new buffs/debuffs will be mainly incorporated into the new specializations unless it’s an OBVIOUS fix to an old skill like Time Warp. There’s some interesting ideas here though.

Taunt doesn’t make sense on iDefender as that’s really OP to have an interrupt on such a low CD especially in this capacity. I don’t see us having access to taunt whatsoever unless it’s one of the new utilities. And let’s not forget this: we WILL be getting new utilities. They could be related to the specialization (new “chrono” category means we get 4 new ones?) or could simply be 1 each of a glamour/clone/manipulation/signet/mantra utility.

“New boons, conditions, and status effects have been added to the revenant as well as spread across other professions’ specializations”

This is important. I think we’ll see a few changes to particular skills (Time Warp for example), but not many others. Literally, I only see TW being changed as well as maybe Veil (slow). It would make sense to have MoD cause Taunt, but I don’t seem them making such a change. Resistance seems like something the Ranger specialization would get. And obviously, Slow will be the Chronomancer’s main condition!

Really interesting. If I weren’t heavily testing this tank build, I would be spending more time to testing out the cele build you suggest. The way you describe it gives me the impression that it has a certain amount of viability. Honestly, the only other cele build I could see working is a 0/4/04/0/6 Maim build.

But could “Malignant Inscriptions” work with cele. You make a convincing argument based on your posts. The weapon sets actually lends itself to being a great hybrid phantasm build.

• pWarlock doing increased dmg per condition, while the myriad of conditions from clone deaths and Staff AA ticks.
• pDuelist dealing significant physical damage while also proccing a ton of bleeds with crit chance.

Traveler’s is a decent choice. The mobility is its most impressive feature obviously. You make an ok case as to why it’s good in this build, but you obviously lose a lot of condi damage. My fear is that with that rune choice, it’s very watered down when you’re fighting on point.

This build is my baby, and I promise to actually give an updated review on the concept of this build based on my own testing when I get a chance!!

this is amazing and a great way to potentially make some money while supporting the guild!

Yeah, I definitely think that in a celestial build, nightmare would be the superior rune choice. So you think cele would be the build you’d most likely keep in your set of builds? I have been on a small hiatus traveling recently.

I’m working on my second big theory crafting project. I’ll be posting the build soon, but I’m so happy that you’ve helped the community to explore this build with even more depth. Thank you so much!!