As long as i have blink i feel super sneaky with any mesmer build. That being said i almost never fight on open ground, in wvw i stick to places with lots of trees or large rocks and cliffs and juke people.
In 1vx fights if you are in the vast field west of citadel in the bl lead a group into the minotaurs then invis or blink out. or run southeast and kite them around the forest north of runes.
At the west entrance to the bl the large rock is your best bet for juking.
In EB use Oakhearts and champs for nasty tricks and bodyblocks then blink out and pick off the easy targets.
The only way to win a 1vx against >smart< players is using the environment against them because most people are too focused on skill use. Blink and mass invis are enough for most situations and clones confuse ai so it makes it highly unlikely that you will be on the sad end of any of the mob tricks.
you will lose 1v1 against zerker warrior with melandru / lemongrass and some other classes zerker builds can really test your skills – but yeah – against the usual players in wvw – pretty stronk
Nah I didn’t copy off of anybody.
@everyone else, I have fought many combinations of players, tons of PU mesmers, and lots of all kinds of necros, plenty of condi and perplex engis and thieves, have yet to lose to any of them. A zerker warrior stands no chance at all against it. The build is just really cheesy and as far as I know I have yet to come across someone to tame it. I have ended in a draw against a couple of players though, a d/d Ele who played super conservatively, some really super tanky ranger, and another d/d ele. I was pretty confident if we would have gone on forever I would have beat the ranger, but the two ele’s were definitely a forever long battle.
@killahmayne, I have never really fought in large scale battles as I hate the zerg scene, but it does very well in group fights as well with plenty of group support and the aoe burning.
again the only reason why I posted this and even rolled a warrior was to experience just have over powered warrior was and how easy it is to play.
Warrior isnt OP other classes have stealth….. and teleports :’D
Edit: And you do 100% of your damage unlike all those AI classes. Thieves guild is so stronk.
okay warrior may not be the most op, but this build is with my playstyle. Compared to my main professions, ele and thief, warrior is definitely OP.
from what I’ve experienced currently, PU mes and some necro (no nothing about necros) are most OP. I’d throw in condi engi, but they are super easily countered by playing smart.
They really need a sarcastic font i tried really hard to display it in the text.
you will lose 1v1 against zerker warrior with melandru / lemongrass and some other classes zerker builds can really test your skills – but yeah – against the usual players in wvw – pretty stronk
Nah I didn’t copy off of anybody.
@everyone else, I have fought many combinations of players, tons of PU mesmers, and lots of all kinds of necros, plenty of condi and perplex engis and thieves, have yet to lose to any of them. A zerker warrior stands no chance at all against it. The build is just really cheesy and as far as I know I have yet to come across someone to tame it. I have ended in a draw against a couple of players though, a d/d Ele who played super conservatively, some really super tanky ranger, and another d/d ele. I was pretty confident if we would have gone on forever I would have beat the ranger, but the two ele’s were definitely a forever long battle.
@killahmayne, I have never really fought in large scale battles as I hate the zerg scene, but it does very well in group fights as well with plenty of group support and the aoe burning.
again the only reason why I posted this and even rolled a warrior was to experience just have over powered warrior was and how easy it is to play.
Warrior isnt OP other classes have stealth….. and teleports :’D
Edit: And you do 100% of your damage unlike all those AI classes. Thieves guild is so stronk.
I like you lol. Strong build (not going to use OP because people kitten about that) and you are a solid outnumbered fighter and good player in general you should post more vids…………………………….I dont say that ^ about many people.
With all the vigor nerfs and the large amount of condis why isnt warhorn used more.
When traited it can keep up perma aoe swiftness and almost perma vigor let alone converting conditions into boons.
I run scepter/pistol and sword/torch in pvp/wvw and love it. Scepter and pistol pair really well together, as you can summon your #4, stun with #5 and then immediately begin channeling #3. It’s glorious when it works as they’ll eat a full round of bullets from the phantasm and most, if not all, of the #3 ticks will hit.
Yeh sc/p is super fun and great with rampagers and sharper images.
After poking around the skill tree for a couple hours, I came up more or less with something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vgAQJARGGJMzo3IHNjrndSKadqB-zABBZmFRjt4qIas6aYKXER1iCIiA-e
Basically spawn illusions at a fast rate and alternate between F1 and F2 shatters and while you are not shattering, stack yourself and your allies on boons and enemies on debuffs(Winds of Chaos+ Mirrorblade+Chaos Storm). Instead of relying on crit, condition damage makes up for it.
Thoughts? Critique? Optimization? Thanks!
2/2/2 boon duration runes and take boon share signet and battle sigils and use the 5 points for chaotic transferal somewhere else.
I would run Sw/T and Sc/p if you want to run that build. Then take Master of manipulation over the chaos clone death trait. Swap Mirror images for blink. I would also add more power to make the sword a viable choice.
And to the person who said scepter is underpowered unless running condi PU… so not true it works well in many builds.
Not sure if i fought you on my engi but if you have a vid it would be great to see it. Its nice being able to see what you do wrong. Hopefully will improve my game play.
I love s/d thief but i understand it having a cast time. That being said .25 is much more reasonable.
The problem is – it is queued behind other skills… so even if it’s a 0.01s cast time it can still get random delay depending on what are you doing at that time, so using it as a reliable reactive avoidance skill while you are fighting is almost impossible. It needs to be instant(or almost instant) and cancel out queued skills(this definitely).
I feel like i recognize your user name from ingame :/
0:24: You used Dancing Dagger and Scorpion Wire to catch the ranger. You could have used sword #2 instead. Costs less initiative and gives you a chance for a condition removal.
0:32 Same thing again.
0:48 Shadow step doesn’t evade ranger downed #2. Weapon swap would have given you just enough ini to Cloak and Dagger off the ranger to try a stealth stomp. Not that it would have succeeded because of the guardian ressing.
1:18 Ranger interrupting your stomp nearly cost you the fight when her friends came; you were at 750 hp before healing. CnD or popping your Basilisk venom for stability would have let you stomp her easily.
1:30 You go in without any kind of disengage. Sword #2 would have given a way to fall back in case things go bad.
2:34 The stomp thing again. Using CnD would have let you stomp engi. There’s always risk of more enemies showing up, so finishing downed quickly is the safest option.
Also, consider not pre-casting Basilisk venom, especially with Lyssa runes. The boons and condition removal is very important. With kitten cool down you may really miss them during the cooldown. I actually consider Lyssa rune to my elite and stun just a small added bonus.
Other than above mentioned errors, nice fighting. I’m always glad to see more s/d and no SA in wvw.
Yeh you dont take advantage of all the easy stomps thieves have.
Try to save your dodges also it lets you play way more aggressively when you need to kill.
S/d is by far my fave set and my thief is a norn so respect.
If an engi is sitting on just 1 kit not swapping to anything else just burst them down it should be really easy (unless they are Hgh stacking watch out for that).
I get in game for the first time in 9 months and you put up a video of me getting rolled in a duel :’( lol. I really need to get my gaming comp fixed so i can play more often. You where one of the only 2 really good players i got to fight over christmas break so ty (thought you where running condi thief the whole fight, didnt know d/p was used for power builds). The other was Initialize on my engi.
I mean jeez I can last as long as my dodges are there which is (2) after that i just get melted..
You also have access to leaps, evade and block skills, aegis, invuln, invis, vigor, blind, and even portals so be creative and use some of your class defense.
I use the exact same gear just a large trait change. Both builds are fun, i use the shatter when im not solo roaming and the PU when i am (it lets me handle 1vX easier).
60% condi reduction usually does the trick for me with torch traited in the rare occasions it doesnt i swap utility 3 for condi clear.
Each banner should have its own burst skill. Its not anything game changing but it would be fun. Im not sure what kind of skills i would want, but maybe make them compliment the stats given.
Pwent, as has been said you’re so wrong it’s laughable.
Mesmers need both a duration and damage buff to confusion. That the duration is so short, and that the damage was nerfed (reducing overall damage for all mesmers, and that on top of a plathora of nerfs) is a problem that has never been acknowledged let alone addressed.
It seems like Anet just wants confusion to go away, and if that’s the case then fine. But replace it with something else on mesmers across the board.
You are agreeing with half of what im saying it is clear the damage needs improvement. It is obvious that anet wont buff confusion without changing it they dont seem to like going back on things they have already changed (4 sec reveal excluded). So if they happened to re balance it a small decrease in the duration would be reasonable in exchange for a solid damage buff.
Perplexity runes tells us that they’re fine with sudden, easily applied, high stacks of confusion on an excessively high duration.
So it seems its fine so long as none of that is part of the mesmer class mechanics. The changes they made (including glamor and blind related nerfs) were a mistake, and need revision. The real problem here is A: the lack of interest in properly addressing mesmer concerns, and B: a total lack of understanding, albeit respect for the mesmer class from the balance team.
Agreed.
Yeh even engi is more scarier with confusion which makes f2 really sad. It would be cool if confusion shatter was more viable suddenly the condition damage in illusions might make sense.
Pwent, as has been said you’re so wrong it’s laughable.
Mesmers need both a duration and damage buff to confusion. That the duration is so short, and that the damage was nerfed (reducing overall damage for all mesmers, and that on top of a plathora of nerfs) is a problem that has never been acknowledged let alone addressed.
It seems like Anet just wants confusion to go away, and if that’s the case then fine. But replace it with something else on mesmers across the board.
You are agreeing with half of what im saying (so i guess that only makes me partially wrong) it is clear the damage needs improvement. It is obvious that anet wont buff confusion without changing it they dont seem to like going back on things they have already changed (4 sec reveal excluded). So if they happened to re balance it a small decrease in the duration would be reasonable in exchange for a solid damage buff.
6 seconds is not something you can sit out in a fight unless you want to die.
Yes it is. If the build is applying confusion lasting that long, that’s literally the only thing the build will do effectively. So take your pick, counter with condition removal, counter with ignoring it and attacking through it, or counter it with /dance, but anything works.
Any wvw condi build + confusion trait ends up at around 5 3/4 sec.
Im trying to say it would be better as a burst condition instead of another that just adds up over time.
6 seconds is not something you can sit out in a fight unless you want to die.
Maybe bump the confusion trait up to 50% so its easier to reach the 100% duration.
Permanent confusion is something you just have to cast skills through. If it was harder to keep it up on all professions and the damage was increased it would make counter play so much fun and make it so its something more game changing. I really do miss the 2k+ confusion ticks.
Yeh but with condi buffs and trait it sits around 6 seconds reduce those 3 second confusions to 2 seconds and but the damage by 30-40% or increase the stacks. It would make it way more fun to play.
Added a slight analysis of StickerHappy and Sensotix’s 20/20/30/0/0 builds.
I strongly believe that Mesmer lockdown will be getting some buffs in the future. What I’d love to see is a change to Wastrel’s Punishment(Dom 25) into something like “Interrupted skills take 75% longer to cooldown” or “reveal enemy cast bars.” (the latter seems highly unlikely though)
what would be nice is if they changed Protected Mantras to something like “Mantras have a wider AoE range; Mantra of Pain/Distraction become AoE” or a trait for imbued Diversion to make it “Refresh Diversion on interrupt, (20s cooldown)”
The concept of Stability and it’s prevalence amongst the current meta’s heavy hitters shot Lockdown in the foot for me, personally. I’m still practising occasionally because I so desperately miss the days of Guild Wars 1 where I was rewarded for skilfully locking down and interrupting an enemy.
What I wouldn’t give for cast bars, and increased casting times for skills in general (across every proffession) to slow down the ridiculous pace of the game, and actually put some reward into it.
I used to be a top notch Mesmer in Guild Wars 1; and it saddens me that I’m unable to read a battlefield at the glance the way I used to be able to.
As it stands we work with what we have but other classes can do it better, this definitely needs to be a more emphasized aspect of the Mesmer.
P.S: Remember the sound effect that played when you interrupted someone’s skill, and the icon above their head disintegrating? I still fantasize about that. That was the sound of satisfaction and a job well done.
Out of curiosity.. which other classes can lockdown better than we can? Thieves have a nice interrupt and Wars have, well, hammer but I wouldn’t consider either of those superior to what Mesmer can offer.
Also, have you been running shattered concentration? I know it’s a bit obvious but I rarely have a problem with stability because of it. In fact, I feel like Mesmer are the best counter for stab-heavy classes specifically because of Shattered.
S/d thief with 30 in tricks can dish out lots of daze its fun with runes of the mesmer. Thief blind spam can also lockdown pretty well.
That being said i still think chaotic interruption mesmer is the best.
Pulling into warden and sword leap into sword burst with daze mantra is the coolest thing ever.
Lol thief is so much easier to play than most other classes excluding war and guard.
I use a mix of rabid and carrion armor most of the time.
other fun high skill cap classes for wvw are ranger (not as underpowered in roaming as most people think), mesmer (don’t go condi pu its not so fun), and ele.
I would rather have Flamethrower being a scary kit because of what it can do to you, not because of an in-built game mechanic that just tries to convince you that its frightful.
:/ i would rather see it as a pure control and utility kit. It could hang out with the ever loved toolkit. Engi has lots of other ways of dishing out dps no need to have multiple top dps kits for pve you dont see warriors speed running dungeons with mace/shield often.
Fear fits flamethrower perfectly its an intimidating sickening weapon. Torching people when you could just blow them up is all about being scary. Its not about the amount of conditions it about the terror that is inflicted with the weapons an engi uses they are by far the most gruesome in the game.
Not only would it fit the flavor of the kit it would work with the functionality of it also.
A combination of napalm, shrapnel grenades, fire bombs, acid bombs, toxic gasses, land mines, blowtorches and flamethrowers, electrified nets, and steroids would make me feel friendly and nice even if i was a necro.
Mirror can deal great amounts of damage and sometimes prevent more than any other heal can heal for.
Decoy will reduce the condi damage in your build but it has a lower recharge and stealth making it better for utility (i would take it).
I would go for staff trait over the reversed stun thingy, it will give you more clone output and damage. Phase retreat will be on a 6 sec cd making it great for kiting and getting out of nasty places.
I never leave base without blink it is strong in any build and has let me avoid more deaths than any other skill and lets you chase better (dont get me started on blink stomps they are amazing).
I am not a fan of the mantra condi clear but it is strong.
Most importantly i would go rabid gear to rack up bleed stacks.
Engi has almost every non proffesion game mech other than fear, torment, and blink (might be missing some). Yes the fear thing would be nuts with perpex runes but it really does fit the flavor of the class same with torment. The could be balanced to fit or just made really weak.
Only thing that wouldn’t fit an engi imo would be blinks and teleports, unless it was a random one on stunned kind of like thieves hard to catch.
