Guild Wars 2

Some more Stealthed Shatter Gameplay. Only a 4 min video but feel it show soem of the potensial of the setup, also it have less of a problem with condis as the build can clear 2 × 2 from mantra and 1 × 2 from torch skills every ~24 mins:

/Osicat

@All.

New video, shatter Cat Ghost at its finest:

/Osicat

@Charkin, best way is alwasy ion open world to in a team fight go for the sigil tanky warriors 1st. IF they in a while in into fight show to be kinda glassy and take dmg mark him for your teama nd lcokdown and kill. I usualy play 2-5 man team and we still always go fro warriors last as even if you get them low thye just might poff away.

Have a good recent warrior video btw where the warriors chose to stay and not poffing away, might be cause thye have 2-3 vs 1

In solo open word do dmg to them in steady rate, and make sure its more dmg than they heal. Dont waste burstdmg on their immunitys and blocks, dont let phantasm about to die without shatter them.

At some time you run into a wery tanky sigil warrior who only go for your phantasms in a 1 vs 1, he will never kill you as he dont have the dmg to do so but you will have a hard time to accualy kill him to, if he go low he just run away and with al imunitys and passive heal you will have extremly hard catch him. Truth is that the sigil is a bit to strong atm i terms of healing, noted by a-net and it will geta tiny nerf next patch.

/Osicat

@Bryson, 15% is amazing. Say your berzerker crit for 6k on a necro 6k x 1,15 = 6900, big dmg buff. Fantastic trait for the build and not whta I would call “nothing”.

/Osicat

When I play shatter with my guildmates (2-5 man team) I use Shatter Cat Ghost, latest of my builds. Its a hard hitting stealthy Shatter build who move wery fast for roaming + stack vuln for team mates.

Its also fairly good in terms of defensive stats, so you no free rally for your team. Tbh dont go full zerker, al it take is you to messup and your team lose due to enemy team rally.

/Osicat

Build can be found in my sticky on top of the forums.

My latest shatter build deal some wery good burst, have superb mobility, some strong cc and stack vuln for your teammates to use for burst.

Enjoy

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=JqmKDutFAVQ

My power PU build is not a standard defensive “hide in stealth passive aggressive” but high mobile high burst aswell. Just cause a build have PU it don’t have to be a defensive condition build.

http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HTc-GuHlfKs
/Osicat

@Cufufalating: but that change would make Torch with its weak phantasm extremly weak for any no PU build. Cant baance a wep aroun a trait that not al build use. A shatter build with torch atm is perfectly fine (even if I not agree with al this doom talk about PU eather).

/Osicat

@Harris. Totaly depends on what you after, al builds can kill ppl but condition have least burst and hard as you say to kill ppn not interested in a fight. Can categorice my builds 1-5

Mobility:

Condition Cat: 2
Hidden Cat: 5
Shatter Cat Ghost: 4 (not shorter cd on blink but 1200 y)

Burst:
Condition Cat: 3
Hidden Cat: 4
Shatter Cat Ghost: 5

Steady dmg
Condition Cat: 3
Hidden Cat: 5 (with several phantasm up)
Shatter Cat Ghost:4

Defense:
Condition Cat:5
Hidden Cat:4
Shatter Cat Ghost:3

Difficulty to play fantastic (Higher number = harder):
Condition Cat: 2
Hidden Cat:3
Shatter Cat Ghost:4

So pick what you like No of the build have both top defense, burst, mobility, u need to give 1 thing up to get another.

/Osicat

No other ability is so central in shatter and melee Mesmer gameplay as this ability. Yet no other ability cause so big amount of frustration. I played this game as Mesmer from the later betas, and still this day the ability is badly bugged.

I think we come to a place now where we can in next big patch demand it to be fixed OR changed. And I also want to know, what do you developers think about this ability and it’s potential fix.

I sure we won’t se a lot of balance buffs for Mesmers in next patch, other classes will have the focus, but at least fix this bug, (and iWarden aswell).

/Osicat

Good fight, just wonder, you have 70 stacks of food and 76 of oil but use non? saving if for better day?

/Osicat

Mabye you can contact the perosn who made the “fake” notes and get him into the balance team. He seem like he got some interesting ideas

/Osicat

@Curunen, Mantras big weakness is teh loadup. But with stealth timing I can charge mantra while uninterupted. also I start mantra, let 1 sec chanrge then bink = endup with almost full mantra and wery hard to be interupted.

+ Mantra after charged can be used when stunned etc

/Osicat

@Major update.

Shatter Cat heavy landed in the grave. New build Shatter Cat ghost. My 1st shatter build in ages.

/Osicat

Both PU and Shatter is viable, and both are fun. Play what you want.

/Osicat

@All.

My first Shatter Video in ages. Hope you enjoy it. New build btw

/Osicat

@Andytheffboy, I battered with shatter setups up and down, finally found a setup who work. it’s to early to release traits etc but it’s now shatter cat heavy who will be added first, it’s a new shatter cat mist.

/Osicat

Two things amazes me.

1 – That some ppl have to go al elitistic 2you al noob, giving my class a bad name" just cause thye not like to play abuild. I rather sure there are both newbie mesmer and some rather good mesmers who play PU. Just cause they play a sertan build its not = bad player.

2 – Why do so many ppl do PU build = Condi . Atm I find alot of ppl who experement with different setups of PU both power, condi and hybrid. Seen 0-20-30-0-20, 10-20-30-10-0, 5-15-30-10-10, etc al played by both new and experienced players.

/Osicat

@Dorkopotamis, Copy pastle this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8flwzKqHTTkGb9IhpH923AnkCV/6SKwttB-jEDBYgCyEEwkIBK1MiZnDZtMsIasabYKXS1aXAaYI2cDRzaO1SBMqyI-w

The other dont work cause you use a protetcion on your webb reader who prevent tiny url etc to rederect you.

@Marsares, Burst is there, just need to use al abilitys, shatters aswerll. But ofc, a try zerker build do betetr pure dmg. The best side of the hidden cat is that it can chose its battles.

On the other side, you notice how amazingly strong the build is first when you teamed up wityh 1-3 other good roamers, use your phantasm burst + sword + and stack might, shatter with daze for 15-20 vuln and burts down a target together. Same as you so tanky that the other team cant down you.

@Andytheffboy, Bloodlust 3 reasons.

1- Crit with fury for phantasm already high, more dmg of interest.
2- Retaliation more viable due to high toughness, even traiting for Retaliation on block some times. Retaliation scale with power.
3- lower crit dmg in latest build = less value of crit, and in next balance patch will crit dmg be even less of value due to crit dmg nerf. This inc value of power over preci in terms of dmg.

/Osicat

IF your main focus is pve there is no reason to go PU or shatter, get a solid phantasm build who deal range dmg and keep you alive. GS / s/pistol 10-20-0-25-15 is a suggestion.

/Osicat

@Deiniol, you want to do dungeons and open world pve or wvwvw and dungeons?

/Osicat

Image also give retaliasion.

/Osicat

On iPhone so short answer. Bloodlust 3 reasons.

1- Crit with furu for phantasm already high, more dmg of interest.
2- Retaliation more viable due to high toughness, even traiting for Retaliation on block some times. Retaliation scale with power.
3- lower crit dmg in latest build = less value of crit, and in next balance patch will crit dmg be even less of value due to crit dmg nerf. This inc value of power over preci in terms of dmg.

/Osicat

@Zypher.

This is my PU power build, Hidden Cat. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Osicat-s-Hidden-Cat-4-0-Power-GS-PU/first

Into video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTc-GuHlfKs

/Osicat

PS The Osicat homapge for Mesmer builds etc: http://osicat.weebly.com/index.html

@Loadin, Seems you got a solid setup there, personaly I would change the manipulation cd trait for 3% defense/ clone, giving you 42% less dmg take with protection up. Also would probobly go for precision stacking over 5% crit as stacking buff your phantasms and clones while 5% crit is only for you.

Biggest weakness for every shatter build atm roaming in current meta is a: Thiefs, b: conditions. Thiefs you cant do alot about as a good and wellgeared thief 1vs1 can drop you more than 50% in every opener, and you cant heal that up and he have more opener than you have defenses. Best defense is to not get caught 1 vs 1. For condition you need to beef some vitality, mabye pack condi lovering food (as you not have holbreak runes you will struggle a bit with condis).

@Myrias, the build gained toughness, vit while it’s preci remain high and power extremely high. This seve several purposes. First the PU power synergies superb with toughness, it’s traiting give a condi pressure based on might and % toughness! the high crit give good bleed apply. The sharpening stones give power on toughness so it’s a sweet stat.

Also lately I spent more and more time fight in 5 man team with experienced roamers, Zerg diving and fighting extremely outnumbered and still not gone down. A higher toughness give better ability to res, it also only cost % crit dmg.

Crit dmg in its own is a rather expensive stat for PU power. This as it have a high number of attacks and dmg who not rely on the stat. Retaliation, condi dmg on clone crits. It’s high dmg also make it deal good dmg with less need of crit or crit dmg.

This change also prepare the build a bit for the changes to crit dmg, power will get a even more valuable stat when crit dmg gets nerfed.

/Osicat

Tbh I’m bored with the silliness of this whole discussion. What is the point of this thread? Is it a complain about Mesmer by Mesmer about we have traits that actually are useful.

Serious, want to play harder cause it’s more fun go by al mean, go spec a setup you like, use focus by al mean and maybe even play with one hand cause then sure ppl will respect you in open fights better cause. If you win with that you deffo pro.

I do not seen any thiefs threads about thiefs want their backstabbing unviable as the fact they kill people make them look bad, don’t seen any warriors want the signet deleted as it sure would make ppl respect them if they dint have it.

Tbh, we mesmers have portal in tPvP, let’s start a hate thread about that as it’s useful, if we instead used feedback, mimic and mantra of pain we would be more respected. And GS accualy not bugged anymore, we should get that some attention cause we can’t have it that way.

In RL do you guys turn of ABS in your cars as it’s cheating, do the dishes by hand for more respect and refuse to eat anything you not hunted and killed yourself?

/Osicat

@Limey, personally I would start work on my accended weapons by do instances daily (cof x3 + 1 fractal), and 3-5 world events. This give ~ 7 base gold + drops for ~ 3-5 g at the same time as you get mats for your accended weapon. It’s also rather fast and not hardcore grinding as several h of champion train / week.

Check “guild wars stuff” homepage, good guide to find world events.

Beside that, get into the saddle again, start duelling and solo roam some.

@Lord Chesworld III, the build gained toughness, vit while it’s preci remain high and power extremely high. This seve several purposes. First the PU power synergies superb with toughness, it’s traiting give a condi pressure based on might and % toughness! the high crit give good bleed apply. The sharpening stones give power on toughness so it’s a sweet stat.

Also lately I spent more and more time fight in 5 man team with experienced roamers, Zerg diving and fighting extremely outnumbered and still not gone down. A higher toughness give better ability to res, it also only cost % crit dmg.

Crit dmg in its own is a rather expensive stat for PU power. This as it have a high number of attacks and dmg who not rely on the stat. Retaliation, condi dmg on clone crits. It’s high dmg also make it deal good dmg with less need of crit or crit dmg.

This change also prepare the build a bit for the changes to crit dmg, power will get a even more valuable stat when crit dmg gets nerfed.

/Osicat

Pyro, can just so I dont make a misstanke and insult a-net by strata thread about something bugged or not working with the class, could you pls tell us why you got a warning.

God save me but I think I posted in some thread that sword leap is not working as it should, and I even criticised the current sPvP meta another time, I kinda sure I might get banned soon if I not stop this.

/Osicat

Exotic version added.

/Osicat

Updated Hidden Cat to 4.0, exotic version incomming.

/Osicat

Updated Hidden Cat to 4.0

/Osicat

@Curunen, would like a staff like move, port/phase/blink back, clone summoned beside you both shoot and enemy gets immobilized like from sword swap.

1 : auto attack 1 2 3 when 3 do effect and hit harder

2: phase attack, se above cd same as staff 2

3: Sniper attack, longer cd, hits about as hard as blade flurry but in a single shot

/Osicat

Combo of both GS and Pistol ( GS+ s/p) can be used in party if you feel immortal and want to max your dmg, its not a reccomended setup thu as you wont use the PU enough. Your condition mangment will also be close to zero as you to be able to stealth effective need 2 use decoy, veil and massinvis (blink is a must).

The setups I reccomed is:

Sword/Torch – GS = core, group, solo and zerg

Weakness = Thiefs, d/d eles

Sword / Torch – Septer / Pistol = single target dmg, some duels, work vs some d/d ele setups.

Weakness = group combat

Sword/Torch – Septer /Sword = 1 vs 1 Thiefs and some warriors.

Weakness = bad at chasing or ranged combat

Sword/Torch / Staff = maximice trolling, with trait close to impossible to catch, can be used as a hybrid dmg setup.

Weakness = Low burst dmg.

Important, dont missuse the torch “the presitge”. A perfect used Prestige is a extremly effective attack and should land like =

Blind opponent – use stealth uptime for charge a heal, phantasm or mantra + get al boons – exit thru a sword leap into immobelice into blurred frency – Land presitge dmg (crit for 2,5k~normaly) ontop blurred dmg, a mindwrack and ~1,5-2k burn dmg.

Only backside with torch is its phantasm dela low dmg and is underpowered sens the retaliation and confusion nerfs.

Also, this build would be EXTREMLY strong if we got mainhand pistol. My dream setup=

Sword/Torch + Pistol/Pistol, traited for 1200 range and 20% cd.

/Osicat

@Tseikk, My opinion is that my build Hidden Cat, or a version of it is one fo the most effective PU builds for roaming.

Solo Burst:

Group combat:

/Osicat

PS build can be found on my sticky Mesmer Guide in top of this forum. “Shatter Cat”

Xaylin.1860:

A power Mesmer doesn’t deal damage while stealthed. He will have to stay out of stealth longer which makes him more susceptable to counters.

And how does roaming not involve duelling? It’s not like power Mesmers are better at walking than condition Mesmers. Please clarify your argument.

Regardless of the Warrior/Thief issue you also got to consider that out of combat mobility simply is a weakness Mesmers have. Creating a workaround for that would be pretty imbalanced.

Note first of all I not totaly dissagreeing with you, your arguments are valid in soem ways. Especialy the Thief forcing the current build/specc/class setup valid for roaming.

I do hower have a feeling alot of ppl think power PU deal low dmg, I see loads of post about ppl say PU power have trubble with bunker spec, necros etc. here I dissagree as my experience is that power PU deals tons of dmg, with vuln on shatter a daze shatter stack a huge amount of vuln for the team aswell.

In any team of 2-5 player setup power PU deal a huge amount of dmg.

Specced 10-20-30-10 with mantra heal and mantra condi clense you can fast deal with 2×4 conditions, and ofc add stealth to that. So condition is not accualy a big porblem for PU mesmers as long they specced for it and not go full in versus a condition team.

The part about power btter for mobile fighting I base on the fact a condition mesmer NEED your enemy to be aggressive to deal maximum dmg potensial. A power mesmer can fast combo GS Bounce attack, phantasm, sword form ground + 2 source shatter into sword cripple + sword 2. This deal nice aoe dmg, it burts ppl down who have no intesnion fo fight and it apply some slows etc.

The workaround for mesmer in mobility is called “travaler runes”

PU mesmer Burst dmg:

/Osicat

50% hp = reset shatters is a far stronger trait both defensive and offensive than 10% inc crit chance for a single skill (mindwrack). Halting strike can both be good or bad, but there is several stronger alternavive. Boonstripping for once, GS 20 cd if you use GS.

/Osicat

Xaylin.1860:

PU will ultimatively have to be changed considering its dominance when it comes to roaming. I think it is important to point out that PU is strongest in condition builds. It is a lot weaker in power build. Main reasons probably are that conditions still deal damage while stealthed and that you can run Rabid gear. When PU gets nerfed – which it probably should – people need to keep in mind power builds.

[Edit] Bad math

Must say its obvious your whole post is based on your experience and mainly come from sPvP. In wvwvw power PU as a roaming tool is in my opinion even stronger than condition as the enemy often chose to not fight you while in the smal room of sPvP it’s easier to force a fight. Also the introduction of accented gear, and especially weeps let power PU deal EXTREMLY good dmg, it’s possible to have well ower 2600 power with good crit, toughness etc by use food, gear, stacks etc.

So to say condition PU is stronger than power is in my opinion a misunderstanding. Only in wvwvw duels vs Elementalists I would agree in this, but then PU power is not a duel build, ins a roaming build mainly.

When you say PU need 2 be changed due to its dominance for roaming you can not only go for changes and nerds to PU, you HAVE to look at alternative roaming builds/setups aswell. Atm no other build give tools to handle a gank party going for you in open wvwvwv if it’s a team of thiefs and warriors.

A roaming thief can always stealth and poff away. A warrior roaming tun into Mr Bolt and run etc, mesmers main tool atm is stealth, boons and blink.

/Osicat

There is a build sektion in top of this froum, you find what you seek there. Called [list] find your builds and guides here. No reason for the theorycrafters to make guides, builds etc if ppl don’t bother with click them but make a post like this to have others do their work for them.

/Osicat

@Lavra, would not go so far to say all PU builds watch there clones kill for them. You cant compare condition PU and Power PU gamestyle just cause they share 1 trait. A well played power PU 20-20-30 you need to use vuln from daze shatters to get max potenstal, boonstrip shatters in group fight is fantastic aswell.

/Osicat

Ppl can rum what build they want, but I ask this. IF you solo roaming and rum into a gank party of 2 bs thiefs and a warrior, can you survive and get away? IF you fight a guardian or 2 and a pair of necros jump in to gank you can you survive and get away?

Can your build win more than 50% or ressult in infenite draws vs a skilled thief in Wvwvw duels alternative let you escape and lose a thief who go for you 1 vs 1

IF no is the answer on any of these q its not a effective roaming build.

/Osicat

@op,

Hidden Cat power pu doing wery well in most parts of wvwvw.. Its a effective, fun and poppular roaming build.

Build video:

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=m-ch-fea&v=HTc-GuHlfKs

Enjoy.

/Osicat

To understand why the roaming builds look like they do you have to look at what we face. I refuse to play any build who is easy countered by 1 single class. No matter how skilled you are the majority of builds posted on this forums is easy shut down by a good thief with accented weapons.

Ppl simply don’t find it fun to end up in situations you can’t flee or win from. Sure shatter is fun, but how fun is it to repeatedly lose stacks and respawn just cause u run into "back opener [GXJ] for the 4 th time?

If we ever going to see a change to who is roaming and on what classes and builds thiefs need a change to their mechanics.

/Osicat

@Erithus, Key is to understand Warriors using signet. They got superb survival due to long passive healing. To get them down you need to dps more than they heal passivly and to do this you need to cut edges. If your phantasm is about to die a shatter can give a good cc or dmg source. Traited for boonstrip a warrior fight is ALOT easier (20-20-30, drop torch in favour for boonstrip).

This fight is accualy me attacked and succesfully fighting off 3 warriors, it start just after I downed 1 of them.

/Osicat

Tbh Give mesmer a new MH, Pistol, traitable 1200y for dual pistol setup, sort bugged sword. Then you can buff Rangers, Eles and even Engis al you want and I be a happy Cat

/Osicat

1-ranger
2-mesmer
3-element

@Kyla jane, Bets help I can give is my video:

Condition vs condition resistant classes:

/Osicat

Ofc its viable, in the sens it can kill ppl and it can be played. Is it the best possible spec then for wvwvw? In this I have to say no as long it is about roaming. Shatter is not the “best” spec for roaming, solo or in group. It can be forced to work ofc by a good player as it deal heavy dmg.

I Played shatter for roaming sens the release of the game about, even have some builds I fellt was close to pefect. The biggets changes form then to now is:

1 – changes to sword blurred frenzy
2 – Changes to enemy skills offensive and defensive

Pyroatheist.9031:

Take a look at Vashury’s videos if you’re trying to learn shatter burst. He runs very glassy burst builds in WvW roaming, and his techniques and playstyle allow him to pull of burst that’s just plain disgusting. Watch this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c3fUhFuUP-E

Yes ofc you can deal heavy dmg, but do this deffine a good roamer build? No in my oppinon it dont. Why a thief is so good for roaming is cause you can choose you battles, not cause you can win every single fight. If you endup in a situation were you loosing/cant win in romaing (witch you always will) a good roamer build let you withdraw from battle and dissapear/outrun enemys.

What do you do as a shatter mesmer if you midfight with a engi get attacked by a skilled condi warrior and a BS theif? 9/10 you endup dead. As PU as long you play well you stealth, use 1200 blink restealth and get away.

/Osicat

Not realy Zerg but group combat:

New vid.

/Osicat

Group combat as Hidden Cat mesmer.

/Osicat

Here we go, some group combat and not only solo roaming in the build.

/Osicat

@Sentient, I been experementing with both s/s, Staff/Gs and even sword/pistol/staff for the Shatter Cat Heavy. Al work more depending on the player than the overwhelming effectivity of the build. I have a feeling best setup atm is eather s/p/staff or s/s/staff both atm traited for staff cd.

Pverall shatter atm is working for the ppl who play well enouth to lift the build, but fact remain, a-net’s nerf of sword 2, bugg of sword leap and buff to other classes (mainly warrior) make shatter less effective than another class/specc.

Atm there is only 2 solid roaming builds for mesmer who not is hardcountered by a skilled thief or a team with cc and condis.

Hidden Cat
Condition PU (Blackwater or condition cat.)

Phantasms build work aswell but are uneffective in to many situations in wvwvw to be a good option in my opinion.

Signet of Eather is a wery interesting healing setup, Its 2 big backsides is 1 its not a effective heal vs landed burst (try duel a good bs thief and you endup play defensive 70% of the fight) 2 its depening on your clone,s meanng in group fights when your pahnatsm and clones die as fast as you generate em you will lack healing.

Atm I feel its better for the Condition Cat build as its a build suppose to be played defensively, Hidden cat is a extremly agressive build (what alot of ppl missunderstand with the build alot due to teh fact ist a PU build) and a heal who forces you to play defensive make the Hidden Cat less effective.

/Osicat