Guild Wars 2

Yay! I had been waiting for this. Very nice gameplay as usual. I love your outnumbered fights. I know everyone says condi PU is ezmode but I don’t think it’s all that easy when you’re trying to fight 3 or more people that know what they’re doing.

So, I’ve watched this video a few times since you released it (I just watched it again) and I have to say, in addition to the gameplay I thoroughly enjoyed your song selection. I love the first song.

Ross Biddle.2367:

PandaBear.7510:

I run power builds and I do use staff sometimes. However, only find it to be of significant value when i’m fighting outnumbered and when i’m fighting thieves. I really don’t think there is a better option when you are fighting 2 or more people. The sustain/survivability you get is amazing. And against thieves, having phase retreat, chaos armor and chaos storm is invaluable.

On the other hand, I find it’s damage to be very lackluster. I know theoretically, warlock hits like a truck but, from my experience its attacks miss like 90% of the time and the auto-attack is meh. So I end up doing virtually no damage while i have it equipped (unless i’m running shatter). For this reason, i’ve been using greatsword instead since my sustained dps is a lot higher. Though, sometimes i’ll lose a fights that I know I could have won if I had the defensive utility that staff provides. There’s always a trade off.

Probably one of the best examples i’ve seen of what staff can offer you in 1vX is situations is in this video. I still watch Seven’s videos to improve my gameplay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ZQn1RRxBA

The trouble I have with sevens, or any staff play from the past (just look at those old retal procs) is that since release the staff has suffered various nerfs, tweaks, or bug fixes that have altered gameplay from these old videos. The other very important factor is that the meta has changed drastically from those earlier days. Perhaps more importantly, players themselves are vastly more experienced, and even your average enemy player is going to look at a mesmer, look at his staff, and know how things are going to play out.

All good points and very true. I do think it still holds true that staff will help keep you alive better than other weapon sets. Whether or not you come out victorious with it when using a power build I think depends on what build you’re running and what you’re facing.

I run power builds and I do use staff sometimes. However, only find it to be of significant value when i’m fighting outnumbered and when i’m fighting thieves. I really don’t think there is a better option when you are fighting 2 or more people. The sustain/survivability you get is amazing. And against thieves, having phase retreat, chaos armor and chaos storm is invaluable.

On the other hand, I find it’s damage to be very lackluster. I know theoretically, warlock hits like a truck but, from my experience its attacks miss like 90% of the time and the auto-attack is meh. So I end up doing virtually no damage while i have it equipped (unless i’m running shatter). For this reason, i’ve been using greatsword instead since my sustained dps is a lot higher. Though, sometimes i’ll lose a fights that I know I could have won if I had the defensive utility that staff provides. There’s always a trade off.

Probably one of the best examples i’ve seen of what staff can offer you in 1vX is situations is in this video. I still watch Seven’s videos to improve my gameplay.

Chaos.3579:

What ya use to record/ediT the video?

I used MSI Afterburner to record and did all the editing on my Mac.

EDIT: Though, I also do editing on my PC with Sony Vegas Movie Studio 11

Heimdallr.7021:

I’ll watch it at home, thanks for sharing.

:D no problem. Figured it was time to show the community my noobish mesmer skills lol.

So, I finally made my first video. Nothing spectacular; just a novice mesmer having some fun. I’m still making lots of mistakes but always learning and enjoying myself so it’s all good. Anyways, hope it’s at least a little entertaining for you all.

As a side note: The thief and mesmer I fought in this video are REALLY good. The thief is a friend of mine and we trade wins/losses. And the mesmer, that was the only time I was able to beat him/her out of about 15 or so duels.

Nice gameplay! I’m a really big fan of the scepter/pistol combination too.

:O you’ve been playing for only two days?! I wish I could have been this good when I first started playing. I thought you did really well too.

I wholeheartedly agree. It is just baffling to me that this hasn’t been fixed by now. Or at least changed in some way to make it work properly.

Alissah.9281:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Wow, such testing, many QA

I audibly lol’d

Glad to see you’re back Alissah! Very nice gameplay as usual.

Osicat.4139:

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=asExRCMru0c

/Osicat

Video is blocked here in US on copyright grounds (because of the music used in the video)

I main a mesmer but have been making an effort to play my other classes in WvW more because a) I don’t want to be a one dimensional player and b) what was the point of getting all of them to 80 if I never play them? lol. I watched your video and was instantly inspired to bring my War into WvW for the first time. I’ve been having a blast with your build. I look forward to seeing more videos from you.

I had a question for you (and anyone else reading this who wants to answer). I noticed in your previous videos that you were using x/sh + hammer instead of GS. I’m trying to get a good idea of what the advantages/disadvantages are for picking one over the other (GS vs Hammer).

As usual, very nice gameplay and commentary.

Just FYI, the Vol. 2 video is blocked (at least for me) on copyright grounds

Pyroatheist.9031:

PandaBear, you have maximum guilds.

Ok, should be good now.

IGN: Nymëriá (Alt+137 = ë ; Alt+160 = á)
Playstyle: PvP & WvW
Server: SoR
Role: Scholar

Osicat.4139:

@ all Update.

New video:

Build: http://tinyurl.com/OMFG-build

Osi, it may just not be showing up for me, but I think you forgot to post the link to the video.

Solstice.1097:

PandaBear.7510:

Solstice.1097

…I need to find a way to record videos…

I’ve been using MSI Afterburner and it has been working well for me. Also, I heard Nvidia’s ShadowPlay is really good too if you have an Nvidia graphics card.

i have sapphire radeon HD 7870

i know overwolf has a screen capture option but I have not personally used it. has anyone had any experience to recommend it or not?

also most videos I see the first 1 minute or so is blurry until the resolution finally clears up. Does anyone know why that happens and/or how to prevent it?

Just to clarify, I have an AMD card as well (radeon HD 6870) and MSI Afterburner works great. I was only referring to ShadowPlay when I said you need a Nvidia card.

Solstice.1097

…I need to find a way to record videos…

I’ve been using MSI Afterburner and it has been working well for me. Also, I heard Nvidia’s ShadowPlay is really good too if you have an Nvidia graphics card.

I don’t think i’ve seen a build this tanky since Pyro’s Immortal Mesmer. And with 3600-3900 base attack…seems powerful indeed. I’d love to see the build in action in WvW or even PvP.

I feel like Vash’s videos clearly show why shatter is viable when solo roaming. I will say that there are a few encounters that resulted in a win primarily because his build’s damage far exceeds most players defensive stats. I think most mesmers of average skill and a decent understanding of mesmer defensive skills (stealh, blink, etc) could run this build and see pretty good results. Mainly because if you catch the enemy with a iLeap + BF + Mind Wrack combo you are going to obliterate their health as seen in Vash’s videos. Hell, the Auto attack + iZerker in this build alone could drop 1/3 or more of someones health really fast. In fact, I have a friend who runs a build with similar damage output and more or less annihilates people 1v1 if she gets a full shatter. However, even in those encounters it is clear that Vash has a very good understanding of the movement, positioning and reaction time needed to run this kind of build at a high level.

With that said, I do see the point BlackDevil is trying to make. In the encounters I mentioned above, all the “superior” movement and skill use is not needed as much since you will more than likely win because of the enormous amount of damage you do. At Vash’s skill level, more often than not, I don’t think we’d see him challenged very much unless he was fighting 2 or more people. Because at that point, his movement & positioning (which based on his defensive stats, is essentially his primary defense. He basically HAS to not get hit as much as possible) would become more necessary. HOWEVER, you should check out more of his videos because he has had several 1v1 fights where the opponents defensive/offensive stats & skill level were at a level where the playing field was fairly leveled. I can think of a fight he had with a Warrior and a Mesmer that ended up being really close. And in those fights you could really see how proficient Vash is at dodging, repositioning, and shattering to defend himself to make up for the fact that he has, IMO, an almost suicidal amount of armor and vitality lol.

I can understand where you are coming from though. I love to see videos showing a player being really tested (even if they lose) so you can see what kind of skill level you’d need to perform as they do. I a big fan of Seven Mirror’s style of play. This vid is one of my favorites. Anyways, I think shatter works just fine when roaming. I peronally prefer more of a tankier hybird shatter at the cost of some damage but that’s just me.

So, i’m just curious here since there are quite a few ways to play mesmer (Shatter, Phantasm, Condition/PU, Lockdown, Hybrid, etc.).

What playstyle do you like best? Which do you feel is our most effective overall? Or more specifically, if you had to pick only one to deal with a variety of situations (1v1, 1vX, Group roaming, etc) which would you choose? And why?

Dammerung.6419:

Panda, aka damage sponge, you weren’t supposed to come creep on my posts. Also, GS 4 LYFE! :P

Lmao, creep? I read all the forums, not just the mesmer one

I am the aforementioned friend/party member that serves as a damage sponge while dammerung goes off to heal the sustained dps in our party.

I have always felt that I know what to do against thieves, it’s just a matter of doing it well enough to actually win. It’s good to see some of the feedback given here confirm that. I’ve started to record my roaming and it is interesting to see the precise moment where I make a mistake that causes me to lose. It’s usually something like: I didn’t heal as soon as I should, I used one skill when i should have used another, or I didn’t use a particular shatter at the exact time I needed to. I don’t always lose but when I do it’s because of one of those things. But these things will iron themselves out as I continue to play and get better. However, this all assuming that all things are equal and I know that i’m about to engage a thief. Like dammerung said, our problem is when we are taken by surprise with 2 attacks that take 75% of our health. It is difficult to recover enough from that kind of encounter in order to survive the second round of attacks. But I suppose that’s the point lol.

On another note, I am very glad to hear staff recommended in terms of offense. IMO, pound for pound, it is the mesmer’s second best weapon preceded only by sword. I think it is often overlooked how offensely it can be used despite it’s defensive design. All of my wins/very close losses against theives have happened while using staff. In fact, I was able to walk away from a battle with 2 thieves last night. I know it is entirely possible to beat a thief without a staff but to me it seems like that weapon gives us the best chance. Unless you really know what you’re doing. Which I don’t (yet).

Thanks so much for the info everyone!

Pyroatheist.9031:

I use fraps, it’s pretty straightforward and easy to use. Your frame rate will take a significant drop with it active though, and it records completely uncompressed, so the quality is high, but so are the file sizes.

Thanks Pyro. I’ll try it out and see how I like it. I added a second question to the OP. What software do you use to edit your videos?

I’ve seen a lot of awesome gameplay vids posted here and i’m curious as to what software you all use? I’d like to start recording my roaming in WvW to:

a) Study the times when I make silly mistakes (which is fairly often lol) in order to learn from them

b) To capture the moments when I do really well.

So if you could please, let me know what software you use and your experience with it (Quality, ease of use, etc..)

I’d also like to know what software you all use to edit your videos after you’ve recorded them.

Thanks in advance.

So i’ve seen a few people mention that they prefer to use traveler runes instead of perplexity on their condition builds in WvW. I’m curious to know what people’s reasoning would be for picking one over the other? Personally, I’ve been using Osicat’s Condition Cat build (with perplexity runes) and have been having the most fun i’ve ever had on my mesmer. But I have to admit, the mobility of the build is annoyingly lacking.

I’m looking to join an active PvE guild on Sanctum of Rall that has a focus on running dungeons. I’ve spent a lot of time getting myself exposed to the different elements of the game and leveling the characters I like best (I have 4 level 80’s – Mesmer, Elementalist, Warrior, Guardian). Now I want to focus on what I like most about the game – dungeons. I’d like to join a guild that more or less does dungeon runs everyday and has enough active members to run multi-group runs.

Osicat.4139:

New spec, still experement

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrWWc_kIvFg

/Osicat

Wow. That was really impressive.

Sinaya.4201:

PandaBear.7510:

@Grimms

What build do you/would you run in tPvP or 1v1?

Also, on your current WvW build that has 20k vit, 3.1k armor and 87% crit damage, what is your crit chance at?

This was asked and answered already, I think:

Grimms.9016:

I shoot for a 30% crit chance, it seems to work out good for me. Couple that with fury, a 5% increase with accuracy sigil, and of course a 20% phantasmal fury trait, and we are in pretty good shape. I can get my crit damage up to 95% with food and still maintain 3.1k armour with a 19-20k base health. The ascended gear is needed for this, with upgraded infusion slots (all tough).

Yes, that does answer my question. Thank you. Dunno how I missed that.

Nordic Natedog.4360:

PandaBear.7510:

@Grimms

What build do you/would you run in tPvP or 1v1?

Also, on your current WvW build that has 20k vit, 3.1k armor and 87% crit damage, what is your crit chance at?

I am sure that Seven is like me. I don’t spec for a 1v1 aside from perhaps adjusting my offhand (like if i had a focus on for movement but change to a pistol, sword, or torch depending on my current spec) and/or a utility skill. I understand the weaknesses in my setup and as such I adjust my play of that setup based on what I am encountering.

Right, I understand that. And in WvW I do the same. I was mainly asking in regards to tPvP. Specially, what amulet/jewel combinations he uses (assuming he plays tPvP)

@Grimms

What build do you/would you run in tPvP or 1v1?

Also, on your current WvW build that has 20k vit, 3.1k armor and 87% crit damage, what is your crit chance at?

Lanny.6987:

@PandaBear – Just go to first page of this thread and look at “power pistol” build. Grimms has it all written out. If you look back a few posts you’ll also find a gear setup I wrote up that gets close but doesn’t use ascended.

Ah, i see now. Thanks so much!

Grimms.9016:

Hey thanks Asuka

Yeah I’m at 3.1k armour and an 87% crit damage. I’ll have to check exactly as I’m not in game, but it’s still bringing people down, and more importantly, keeping me up.

20k vit, 87% crit damage, AND 3.1k armour?? How??? Please, tell us!

Here just head on over to this site:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

Thanks! That helps a lot.

@Nevhie
Thx so much for doing that so quickly

If I may make a suggestion though, could you create you build with the editor under WvW mode (instead of PvP mode) so that we can see your traits and your weapon/armor/trinket combination? That way we’d be able to see what your complete stats are and what gear we’d need to get.

Could you please create your build on this site and provide a link in this thread?

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/

Pyro, this is very well put together guide. I recently started playing mesmer using Osicat’s Shattercat Mist 2.0 build and i’ve been having a blast in sPvP and WvW. Though, since i’m new to the class I didn’t want to just expose myself to just one type of build. When I saw yours, it seemed more well suited to my play style. I went ahead and got a whole new armor set and trinkets for this build today and then spent a few hours in sPvP. So far i’ve found that while I do enjoy the shatter build, i’m more effective running your immortal build. I had a successful duel with a mesmer that I would have normally lost with a shatter build. I look forward to doing some tPvP to really get the hang of things.

Also, for anyone who wants to try this but doesn’t have the laurels for ascended trinkets or the dungeon tokens for all PVT gear, i’ll link my modified version of the build which uses only exotics below. I was able to get pretty close to Pyro’s stats.

http://tinyurl.com/pj5dnet

Osi, many thanks for taking the time to put together such a comprehensive guide. Of all your builds, I liked the Mist 2.0 the best since it seemed to be the most balanced and mobile. I’ve been running the build for a about a week and I must say it’s a ton of fun. My favorite profession is D/D ele and I really didn’t think i’d like any other class anywhere near as much. But this definitely comes in at a very close second.

Just FYI for anyone like myself who wants to try this out but doesn’t have the laurels for all ascended trinkets (or doesn’t want to run temple of Balthazar to get Cavalier trinkets), I’ll post my modified build below. The are two down-sides to my version of Osi’s build. The first being that it does a bit less outright damage (Power/Attack). The second, it does about 18% less critical damage.

Link: http://tinyurl.com/mef7yw5

I also use another version of this build (again without ascended trinkets) that does more outright damage, has a higher crit chance and has more vitality. This build does13% less crit damage when compared to Osi’s build. Downsides to this build is that since it uses divinity runes in stead of air you miss out of the 1-2 seconds of extra swiftness (which, I personally don’t mind) and more importantly, the 5 secs of swiftness on heal. And it’s really expensive. The divinity runes are about 9 gold a piece. I pretty much only use this build in PvE (mostly dungeons) when I know I wont’ need to be so dependent on being mobile and I have the support of my group. But i’ve ran it in WvW without any issues. The extra vitality has saved me a bunch of times.

link: http://tinyurl.com/l2dzk3j