Guild Wars 2

Ynot.8397:

They are making the colors random soon. Don’t worry about transferring servers if you can handle waiting a bit longer.

Just to confirm this, please see Devon’s response: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/WvW-Map-Rotation-1/first#post1972598

And another: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/Current-System-hampers-World-Completion/first#post1975221

He doesn’t specifically say that colors will be random, but something along those lines is in the pipeline.

Danse Macarbe.9027:

You are correct, this is not how we do things nor do we condone that sort of behaviour. Me personally, I would ban the ip from TS etc and prevent the person from being able to join. Problem solved.

Thanks for your response, Danse! We’ve had hiccups by individual players between servers since this matchup, but both SBI and CD work to keep things classy. In gaming communities, these things happen, and I’m glad we’re all interested in a clean fight.

We’ve seen the servers work together to keep the fight fair. This has been one of my favorite matchups because of that. Also because SBI keeps us on our toes in combat.

If there is one, noone’s found it yet. Once you reach the rank of Legend (rank 120), the ranks start all over at Bronze Invader (rank 150). Rinse and repeat for Silver and presumably Gold.

baylock.1703:

Nikked.7365:

I’ll cosign your idea for Change #1. More realistic movement would be nice.

I’d cast a “nay” vote on the dodge-rolling though. I don’t want to interrupt my Phantasms who are already on long cooldowns. Even if they get the same cooldown we do from interrupted skills, they can be fragile and die before getting attacking again. My combat shouldn’t be tied to them that much.

phantasm movment shood stay same only clones move and dodge with you and also if I may add clones shood have also ur offhand wepon

Well that makes too much sense. Only hiccup I can forsee now is dodging after sending out the iLeap but before the swap. If we swap to the wrong location, the immobilize could miss.

This all said, I’m pretty sure that devs once commented that clones are only supposed to be a distraction and not a means of plain-sight stealth. After all, we still don’t have those OH weapons on clones, so this would be even further down the list.

theCOREYCOLAK.5698:

selan.8354:

noticed that too and cry of frustration doesnent give retaliation half the time.

Cry of frustration grants retaliation to the same AoE that the clones shatter. That being, if you’re not in the middle of it, you will not get retaliation.

I noticed the same thing about retaliation, but this is good to know. Most of the time I run Illusionary Persona, but I haven’t paid close enough attention to know what’s actually going on.

At any rate, I’ve ditched those traits post-nerf. I spend way too much in WvW and re-geared accordingly.

Ghedoriah.4290:

I overslept.

Edward Norton thought he overslept too. I bet you destroyed something beautiful, psycho boy.

I’ll cosign your idea for Change #1. More realistic movement would be nice.

I’d cast a “nay” vote on the dodge-rolling though. I don’t want to interrupt my Phantasms who are already on long cooldowns. Even if they get the same cooldown we do from interrupted skills, they can be fragile and die before getting attacking again. My combat shouldn’t be tied to them that much.

Thanks for the confirmation, Bethryn! I added an “EDIT” to the original post so those who are reading this for the first time know what is happening—and the steps being taken—without having to read the entire thread.

Mongo.2490:

Stealth + Magic = Mesmer. No heavy armor but that doesn’t mean you’ll be squishy!

True. No need for the heavy armor on a Mesmer either. There are lots of ways to mitigate damage using traits or playstyle. Also, no fear of button mashing; Mesmer requires finesse and wit.

I went with the Runes of Air to supplement a shatter build. Difference is night and day.

If you’re a Norn, unlock Snow Leopard elite and you can get a wicked long dash every four minutes. Sounds lame, but very useful to get to objectives/away from fights in WvW.

Thanks for the post! I would’ve completely missed this otherwise.

Nope. It’s unfortunate. I had hoped that there would be a rank cap so we could have individual builds (similar to level cap for character builds). Instead, we can get all the points and open all the abilities. So, that theoretically removes the need for a skill point reset.

Thanks for the community effort here! I kept an eye out tonight, but ran without any issues. Happy followers all around.

I assume the bug is still lurking. As the conversation is starting to derail, please let us know if there’s anything else to keep an eye on. Otherwise we leave it to the pros.

Zoja.2631:

After talking with the person we believe was having the issue last night, he did not have a debuff showing on his character, but he was getting a message that he could not drop siege. Once he determined this he relogged and came back into map, and was then able to drop and build siege without it disappearing. There was no attempt at building siege in Citadel, the debuff just carried over, without really carrying over if that makes sense.

Makes sense with everything else presented here. No debuff icon means the affected person doesn’t realize it until they try to place siege and get the message. Someone who is unwittingly bugged that puts supply into a build site then causes it to disappear. After all, there are many players who help build siege, but often times only a handful that are placing it.

That’s all just my speculation, but having this possibility means that we can attempt workarounds until the fix is in place. (Try to organize so one person builds at a time, have the bugged person relog, have multiple people throw siege, etc.) Not ideal, but it’s better than having to abandon an objective because siege placement is failing.

Burl.9567:

It isn’t anything to do with the spawn area. We had this problem at hills, bay, briar and lake towers all on the same night. Ended up losing about 15-20 blueprints and about 400 supply when all was said and done.

I’m guessing it is due to the siege timer with despawning blueprints.

I think what Devon was asking is if the Siege Deployment Block stuck to a person after leaving the spawn area (there’s an icon in you boon bar when you are in the spawn area). So, if that block didn’t come off after leaving, we wouldn’t be able to build siege anywhere on the map. This would only effect some people, but not all.

This could explain why a ninja group was able to recap that NE tower with siege after I left. (When I’m commanding, I place most of the siege myself.)

DevonCarver.5370:

Has anyone noticed if the person that causes the siege to disappear has the siege deployment blocked icon on them?

Thanks for the response, Devon and Moderator!

I was definitely away from the starting zone, though I wasn’t actively looking at my boon bar to see if the siege deployment block was on. Unless someone can report sooner, I’ll keep an eye on that tonight.

Aside: There was speculation that if a commander puts supply into a build site, it speeds up the timer by a crazy amount. I tried deploying and building with my pin on and off and received the same effect. Friends who don’t own a pin also had their siege despawn, so i think we can dispel that one.

I’ve come across this before. You throw a piece of siege, get a few people to start building it, and it suddenly disappears. (This is new as of the last patch.)

It hasn’t been as problematic as it was tonight. My team lost our NE tower on our home BL. So, I tried to treb it from garrison. We lost 4 trebs (I threw three before giving up, someone else threw the fourth) due to this glitch. No worries. We decided to take it the old-fashioned style: rams. Well, those wouldn’t stick either, and they kept despawning.

When I’m commanding, I rely heavily on my pick-ups and I work hard to make sure they’re having a good time. After all, if I perform poorly, they won’t have fun. I’ll lose numbers, and they’ll walk away feeling feeble. This isn’t what I want.

Whatever this bug is, it’s breaking my pin. My followers were patient when we struggled, but I’m not comfortable trying to lead using mechanics that are broken.

EDIT: From this thread, it appears that this bug is tied to the Siege Deployment Block that is ineffect in spawn points. Infrequently, when a person leaves the spawn point, the siege block icon disappears but is still active. If the bugged person attempts to put supply into a build site, the build site despawns. (This is a safety mechanism so people can’t build a siege in a no siege zone by standing just outside the zone and throwing it in.) The only way a person knows if s/he is bugged is if s/he tries to place siege and the “You can not place siege here” message pops up. Relogging is an effective solution. It has also been recommended that repairing a wall/gate can clear the bug. Devs are actively working on a fix.

If you’re hearing crickets, it’s because the question is entirely too broad to answer effectively.

What are you looking for in a class? With that, we can give feedback that works for you instead of my opinion, which is clearly going to be biased.

Chajomi.1765:

That was me with the 2nd group. Trying to get my guild more involved in WvW and we had a great time battling you all. Thanks for the good fights.

Ohh, I loved that golem! I made a few kamikaze runs at it. I was kind of sad when it died.

Hope your guildies had fun and got some bags out of it!

Welcome to the game!

I can’t speak to leveling, (I crafted my way through the difficult times), but we’ve seen a lot of people express difficulty in leveling a Mesmer. I promise the upper levels are well worth the struggle.

So far as making sure this is the class for you, Mesmer has a steep learning curve. It’s a difficult class to master, but as you hone your skills, you’ll never have a dull fight. We bring a lot of utilities to the table and we have a lot of viable builds. It just takes a bit to wrap your head around everything.

If you like a fast pace and clever tactics, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed by sticking with it.

I’d much rather maintain a high level of in-combat mobility than receive a general swiftness buff. (Love and Nerfbats seem to go hand-in-hand.)

That said, I would also love a good reason to use a pistol in WvW, but my focus takes up the OH slot 90% of the time.

Happened on CD last night when we were building trebs to get a tower back on our borderlands. Eventually we got them built and took the walls down, but SBI stacked up in there to the point we couldn’t take it. Should’ve taken the despawning trebs as a sign :P

DevonCarver.5370:

snip

Secondly, this change is going to require new tactics and those tactics include things like using ballista and catapults to destroy arrow carts. With that in mind, we’ve been looking more closely at the numbers of all the siege weapons and there are definitely some changes that need to be made to bring them in line with their intent. We are going to take a holistic pass at siege weapons in the coming months and drop a rebalance of all of them to get them to more closely align with what they should be doing.

snip

I very much appreciate this response. My only remaining question is: are arrowcarts meant to benefit from LoS? We can place ACs in spots that cannot be cata’ed or ballista’ed down. The new tactic may then be to place carts only in those spots. (i.e. when you can place them at a gate and hit the rams, but the carts can’t be damaged.) There’s an argument for both sides of this. I was just curious.

I’ve noticed this on uneven landscapes for portals that are in range. I was running portal chain drills in the Mists once and occasionally the Portal Entrance was unable to be used (though clearly within the confines of portal range). Sometimes there was a “sweet spot” to get the portal to work if you tapdanced a little. It seems rare from what I’ve seen in combat, though.

No Snip. Ok, maybe a little.

Chris.3290:

I respect the heck out of the people who we’ve been facing in NA prime and even your after hours crews (I was up late one night).

Both servers have improved greatly and I’m very happy with the level of fighting we’re seeing.

It feels so good, after all the BS in T3, to have enemy groups not afraid to take you on directly. You don’t hide in towers or run away from fights like YB and DB.
You respect us and yourselves enough to bring a good fight, and I salute you guys for it.

I’m enjoying the fights too. Open field is far more fun than other combat. At this point, anyone can grab an arrowcart and go bag-grabbing. When we face off in the open field, I know I’ve earned those bags (and you’ve earned the ones I’ve dropped for you.)

We’ve seen some comments about people being tired of this matchup. Looking at the scores, things aren’t going to change for a bit. Still, I’m engaged and striving to learn all I can before this matchup changes. Clearly there are many who share this sentiment given the battles we’re having.

Push hard, stand tall!

MrKnieves.4162:

LOL I guess he expects that people dedicate their lives to this game, instead of working/school.

In the words of Amber Vine: “Work so interferes with my gaming life!” Even yesterday, my supervisor kept coming in and asking for things, and I was all, “Don’t you understand?! The patch notes were just posted!” Alas, her righteous indignation was strong.

I apologize for wanting to belittle your work; you’ve put a lot of effort into this and the numbers are solid.

Confusion is a class mechanic for Mesmers. Burning and bleeds are not. (Citing poison is a joke here.)

Haha sorry. I am in fact downloading the patch now

Lots of activity today with the patch. We’ve got people drilling through the ground, keeps being ninja-ed by golem rushes that you can’t see coming, and my confusion build got hit with the nerf bat wicked hard. It seems that all there’s left to do is stand in towers and scout steamrolling zergs that no one will respond to because they are standing in their own towers.

Fortunately, it’s not my first time I’ve stood in a tower for 30 minutes doing absolutely nothing. I love to hide and portal people back in, and I’ve got a fair success rate. It’s got very little to do with knowing the right spot; it’s all about observing enemy movements and knowing which objectives they don’t plan to hold. This is an exciting dynamic for me, but never did I think it would become a full time job. Standing still, that is, waiting for an incoming zerg, not even being able to attempt a zergbreaker confusion trap when I’m the only one here defending. I may even pick up one of those drills so I can at least hide under the ground. Then when I kill enough lords from recapping, I might be able to replace my gear that is so “last season.”

Of course, I should probably get home from work and download the patch first to see how all this plays out before shredding the forums to pieces.

I’m continually impressed by the caliber of players in this matchup. There have been issues that have come up, and we’re effective at communicating with each other and addressing them. Yes, there was that one necro that moved at lightning speed, and I’ve heard reports of the engineer that can fly. Getting the formal reports in can be difficult, but last I heard that engineer no longer had a guild tag.

Even though ANet has not taken immediate action in all cases, I’m glad we can continue to police ourselves to keep a clean fight.

I don’t play a thief, but generally thieves are my least favorite encounters. So much stealth, it’s hard to keep track of you guys! That said, I’m a blink-happy Mesmer popping all over the place. Between the stealth and the teleports on both sides, it usually ends up being a dizzying stalemate.

Came across a clever crew ganking the other night though. Two Mesmers pumping out clones, and one Thief hiding among all those extra bodies.

Silver.4798:

Back to more relevant topics at hand, the S/P mesmer plays a lot like the thief S/P. It feels fairly strong at low levels but I’m not sure how it will do at lvl 80 in dungeons and such. Also, staff looks very interesting too but it seems to be condition based. Although I dont necessarily wanna make a condi mesmer, generally speaking, how’s a mesmer condi build? I havent really seen many ppl run condi builds of any class tbh, (which actually makes me wanna give condi a shot haha).

Now, the GS… I must be missing the point with this weapon because it feels pretty awkward and inconsistant with the varying damage at distances. The damage output doesn’t seem to be all that impressive in comparison to other weaponsets, I’m not sure why people are in love with this weapon for mes. (I’m not trying to criticize I genuinely think I’m playing this wrong and am missing the point)

There are a lot of fun combinations with S/P and Staff. Pop an iDuelist and charge in with iLeap. While you’re in blurred frenzy, you can pop off insta-cast skills, which includes things like Mirror Images and Shatters. So do that, then swap to staff and phase retreat away, falling back to do condition damage after the burst. There’s low risk here because of the invuln on the sword attack, and you can immediately get out of melee range. Even at level 80, I always run with a sword. It works well in dungeons.

So far as the condition question, we’re all awaiting the patch notes and have to retest a lot of the confusion builds at least. The staff clones are the only clones that do significant damage because of the conditions. So three clones + you throwing winds of chaos is effective.

I share in your disenchantment with the great sword. It seems to be used more commonly for glassy builds, but there are places where it’s vital. If you run fractals, the staff attack counts as a projectile and is reflected by anything jade. Not the GS though. The staff is also terrible at destroying objects, but the GS can handle them just fine. Attacking towers in WvW is also easier with a GS, because you typically need to spike defenders who pop their head out and take out oil/cannons.

Long story short: always carry a GS even if you don’t use it often. When you need it, there aren’t really any other alternatives.

So far as survivability goes, clones can take a bit of a beating. They inherit your toughness, and the sigil that increases their health will let them act as mini tanks for you.

For the builds, check out some of the phantasm builds and adjust them to your level. Shatter builds will be difficult until you get to level 40 and can crank out clones, but once that happens you can spike damage really well.

Is pontificating the new trolling? It seems we can’t dance across tornadoes without getting sucked in every so often.

I support rugged or intimidating legendaries. Everyone needs something that suits their preferences even if it isn’t my preference.

Oh, SBI. I enjoyed the game of cat and mouse we played at Bluelake on CDBL last night, and you definitely earned that tower when you came back with an army and guild catas.

Always a good fight with you guys. Keep it up.

Jemmi.6058:

Not sure if it is because I use my signet to improve hp of illusions, but they rarely if ever die when I am fighting in the open world. They only die if 1. I am fighting a veteran/champion or 2. if the mob uses a particularly (and unusually) strong attack.

Ah, that makes sense. I’ve heard good things about the signet; it just never seems to make it to my bar. I primarily WvW, so I’m used to seeing things like a thief backstabbing a clone. Instant butterflies.

Wish I had known about this clone tanking when I was leveling!

I’ll second the Mesmer suggestion.

The clones serve as poor tanks as they die fast (they do inherit your toughness though), but they make great distractions. So far as “kiting” goes, Mesmer is just really adept at in-combat mobility. We can blink all over the place with a handful of skills, and we have some short stealth abilities as well.

If your enemy can’t believe their eyes, then you’re doing your job right.

Mesmer.

Very engaging gameplay from this profession, and tons of tricks to uncover as you go. Gotta get past level 40, though. Those first levels are rough.

I have no useful input here, but I’m always amused when people fashion their game suggestions using Asuran technology.

That said, my Norn hands are entirely too large and clumsy to work a tiny little Asuran pocketknife.

I want to sympathize but…

…I’m a Mesmer going for Bifrost. Rainbows and butterflies for everyone!

We can’t prioritize your personal or guild goals for you. Discuss it with the people you play with most and make an informed decision. No matter the outcome, it’s very charitable of you to think of other players.

Don’t forget the Norn! Snow Leopard is a godsend in WvW. It comes packed with stealth, and the range on dash exceeds portal range.

My guy is set to the tallest character model available, but I still manage to hide in towers and keeps consistently. Hiding is more about anticipating zerg movement than it is about stature.

Sarlack.4096:

What Server you on? Sounds an awful lot like a fight I had 2 days back….was the Ranger a Silvari in Cultural Armor with Owl/Raven (Jellyfish/Armorfish in the Water)

Sent a PM just in case I miss a response here. I’m on Crystal Desert, and your water pets definitely match (don’t remember the land ones). So far as armor is concerned, I keep my WvW settings turned down pretty low for when big battles come up. Everyone looks the same to me.

osif.8673:

OrigJoker.1870:

A good ranger will destroy a confusion mesmer all day.

That’s not true. It’ll be a very long fight and either player can easily reset the fight/run away… but a good ranger won’t destroy a confusion mesmer. In fact, the mesmer will usually win if it goes uninterrupted for long enough.

I got a good laugh out of this. I met a ranger in WvW the other day and it was definitely a long battle (I’m the confusion mesmer in question). We went back and forth never breaking combat on land. Ended up in the water at the SE camp on borderlands. I was able to down him in the water, but couldn’t finish him off before his pet got him back up, which he did twice. Finally an ally showed up, but we still struggled. Quaggan guards showed up too, and between the whole lot of us, we killed him.

I know virtually nothing about Rangers’ abilities, but you better believe I’ve started reading up on those.

It’s rough out there with that pin. Commanders who don’t communicate lose followers pretty quickly. Even when I’m in TS with other WvWers, I still try to type into team chat for the PUGs. They’re just as important!

I probably type too much, but people are more likely to stick to me when I do. Of course, while typing and autorunning, I’ve led groups right off a cliff…more than once. I usually start shouting “Don’t follow!” But they do anyway. At that point I tell them their repair bill is my stupidity tax, and they should send me the bill. :P

Mesmer has a steep learning curve; it requires a lot of finesse to be devastating with this class. As such, learning to fight a Mesmer also has a steep learning curve.

EDIT: Wanted to include a quote.

Crossplay.2067:

The versatility of our powers seems limitless as long as we are constantly thinking, “I wonder what would happen if I did this?”

When I was a new Mesmer, I once stood still in the middle of a WvW battle because I wanted people to confuse me for a clone. Then my teammates started screaming over VoIP: “Jackal! Get your head out of your kitten and do something!”

This is right after I failed to portal golems from the water at Bay onto the dock. I didn’t realize I could use portals in water, and I put the portal where the golems couldn’t reach. I felt super important until I botched that one.

Whether you’re fighting them, playing them, or teaming with them, Mesmers have a little something to teach everyone. That is: Don’t be distracted by the butterflies.

The ability to drop siege may also have the same effect as the stat bonuses, though to a lesser extent. There are those would pop the pin for the siege. (Again, only a small fraction.) Still, considering how much the pin cost us and how often commanders are the ones throwing siege/upgrading, anything to save some silver would be welcome.

I like the signals though. As a commander, I spend half my time looking at the map anyway, so dropping markers instead of typing into chat would be useful. The squad function is busted, IMO, as we can’t see commander WPs without joining the squad. When I’m not commanding, I don’t join squads because I want to be able to see all the pins.

To add a thought to the signals, joining squads should highlight your commander’s signal, while other commander signals still show up on the full map but not the minimap. Or any variation of this like a different color for the commander you’re following or faded signals for commanders that you aren’t following, etc.

Guess I didn’t think that one all the way through. ANet should buff cannons so we can make it rain cannonballs.

Persistent siege isn’t a good idea right now. Even having the keep/tower workers tend to it can create issues. Lame, I know.

Better solution: Make it so cannons/mortars aren’t hanging out in the open. Those things are just asking to be hit because of their placement. We like to build our own siege because we know where to put it. I can tuck an AC into a number of nooks and crannies and cause some havoc that way. Cannons? Not so much.