Guild Wars 2

Coulter.2315:

I completely agree with your points on build diversity. However they are kinda necessary for a mesmer to function. My solution would be to move Decptive Evasion into the Illsuions trait line.

This allows you to pick up everything needed more easily and brings back diversity.

Nope. This makes things worse. It pidgeonholes every build that relies in clone generation into the illusions line (primarily shatter based line). It also consolidates almost every single necessary shatter trait into 1 line, which is a poor balance choice.

Mesmer is best 1v1 class.

That being said, 1v1 has almost no place in competitive pvp…

@butch: PvP team is responsible for the lack of updates.

Balance team is responsible for the miserable meta, 0 build diversity, absolute lack of balance, complete lack of counter play potential, petting zoos, evade spam, condition spam…

Everybody seems to think that the problems in Pvp are a result of a lack of resources being given to the balance team. I think this gives the balance team too much credit.

The problems in pvp are due to the balance team being completely incompetent, from the top to the bottom. I honestly don’t see any hope for this changing, as any change would require the removal of the Jon’s and co. from balance entirely, and I can’t see Anet actually doing that.

Ok, just did a ton of testing. Here’s the results.

Halting strike (and Mantra of Pain) do not abide by the normal damage calculation. As far as I can tell, (didn’t test MoP extensively) here is the damage calculation that they abide by:

Damage = Power * Skill Coefficient / target armor, where skill coeffecient is approximately 950-970 for halting strike.

Basically, this means the maximum damage you’re gonna get out of it is something like 3000 under the absolute most perfect circumstances ever.

All invites should be sent.

Nope. Gotta go in.

Edit: For the superior recipe anyway.

iCelerity already ‘went’, and deceptive evasion is going nowhere.

I appreciate your opinion, but it’s wrong.

@ArmageddonAsh: The phantasm damage nerf rumor that seems to be getting thrown around a lot is simply that: a rumor. I looked into that a long time ago, and was simply unable to find any substance behind it. There were no dev posts saying anything, nothing on any streams, not even any potential leaked patch notes. The rumor simply materialized out of thin air, and whoever started it is laughing his kitten off right now.

@Colesy: Mesmers do have unique utilities that other classes lack. Warriors can do aoe stuns, but with proper traiting, the aoe potential of mesmers is incredibly high, much higher than 5 targets. This high target limit is a theme. High target limit boon stripping with shatters, high target limit confusion application, high target limit cripples and condition application and stealthing.

Mesmers are able to work around or completely bypass many scaling limitations that other classes must abide by, and using those utilities to your advantage is how you make best use of a Mesmer in wvw.

dani.1956:

So

Duels – not champion anymore and who cares in a 1vs1

What class do you really think can duel better than a mesmer?

So

Duels

Mesmer is the undisputed champion of 1v1 dueling. Nothing else even comes close. This is not really up for discussion. That being said, efficacy in 1v1 dueling has extremely limited application to other game modes.

PvE

Mesmer brings strong support along with pretty decent damage in PvE. There’s a decent number of really unique things mesmers can do that nobody else can. Mesmers are in a pretty decent place for PvE.

PvP

In PvP, mesmers are still viable. Normal offensive kill team comps are still viable, theoretically. The problem is that that sort of team has to play at a really high level to work properly, and condition spam/spirit rangers/etc are very easy to play, and provide almost the same effectiveness as an extremely well coordinated and skilled team running a kill comp.

This, however, is not a mesmer problem. It is a PvP meta and balance problem that affects all classes.

WvW

Mesmer has a lot of very unique things they can do in WvW. Portaling, veil, feedback, null field, aoe stuns, aoe dazes, confusion spreading, boon sharing. These are all pretty unique things that mesmers can do that other classes can’t. A mesmer put into the proper comp will enhance the effectiveness of everyone there.

Mesmers are also fantastic for roaming kill groups due to their fantastic team support and good kill mechanics.

Invited boredinbc and vutak.

So, the effectiveness of precise wrack does depend on your crit damage and your overall play style. If you tend to use wrack more exclusively as opposed to sustaining with other hits, then it might be better. Also depending on your specific damage path you use, if you blurred frenzy before wrack, then compounding power will give you a boost. If the other way around, not so much.

Ultimately, this depends heavily on your play style, and additionally a bit on your crit damage.

Nope. This has been something on my list of things to do for a while though, and is very easy to figure out. You just need a steady weapon and a buddy who will tell you their armor.

Wokao.7394:

Why put 5 points in illusion tree? Isn’t compound celerity a better choice since you want to run fast and be defensive while your phantasm kills stuff

I haven’t updated this build in quite a while, and the 5 points in illusions is a relic from before we got a visit from the nerf hammer. Go ahead and put those 5 points into inspiration.

MartelDeFer.5798:

Well if this game have guild wars in its name and have mesmers in it and Do not have mesmer unique style do not have Guild versus Guild Team arena Random arena Heroes Ascend just rename it this is not guild wars worthy.
One more thing in guild wars the mesmer got near 40+ Elite skills all of them deserve to be on your skill bar in guild wars 2 all elite skills are garbage sorry

Then out you go, don’t let the door hit you on the way out!

@greyblue: you also neglected to take armor into account.

There is no such thing as ‘base damage’. That value does not exist.

Alissah.9281:

The wiki says we have to use power instead of attack… which makes me wonder what the attack stat even exists for >_<.

It exists for no reason.

The damage calculation is as follows: damage = power * weapon damage * skill coefficient / target armor

In order to test this accurately, you need to know your target’s armor, aka testing with a human. That sort of testing is how I got my skill coefficient range, because it definitely varies a little.

Edit: It can crit.

After testing, it seems that halting strike has a variable skill coefficient from between 2.9 to 3.4. This is very high.

Your math is worthless. I have no idea what equation you conjured up there, but it doesn’t mean anything, that’s for sure.

@colesy: Out of curiosity, how many conditions were you usually loading on the bosses. The warlock really really needs those conditions to make ends meet, as it were. Just as a little example of how it scales, it was doing 11k damage hits on some champion nightmare things when I was downleveled to 66.

The number of conditions makes an incredibly massive difference in dps, and if your party can’t sustain at least bleed/burn/chill/vuln/poison/cripple/weakness, the warlock definitely will not be higher damage.

Short answer: Run in the other direction at top speed.

Long answer: Phantasm builds can be countered by interrupts and blinds. Once the phantasms come out, you’re pretty much hosed, but if you can interrupt and/or blind the casts, you might have a fighting chance of taking them out before they ramp up the damage pace.

themenaceofseventhdimension.2075:

It helps if you play my build and you will realize it can kill anyone, no matter how much defense or condition damage they have.

Okkkkk, do we have to go through this again? I’ll gladly show you how your build can’t kill me…again.

I’ma ctually thinking a tank build using this armor will be a reincarnation potential for my immortal build. We will see.

This will be an interesting set for a condition bunker. Not having precision obviously causes issues for normal Mesmer condition builds, but a bunker build is survival first, damage second, and so taking that sort of hit may be an acceptable sacrifice.

I’m thinking something like 0/0/30/20/20.

ArmageddonAsh is completely right. This is a topic that has been beaten to death many times.

Guild Wars 2 Mesmer is a COMPLETELY different class than the Guild Wars 1 Mesmer

If you come to gw2 expecting gw1, you’re going to have a bad time.

Coulter.2315:

This is for pvp… sorry i should have mentioned that. Not much of a big deal change for pve but significant for builds in pvp.

PvP or not, still a dumb change. Dodging synchronizes with the vigor provided in the dueling line. Additionally, loading almost every single trait necessary for shatters into the same traitline is an unbelievably poor balance choice.

DavyMcB.1603:

This is a hey-let’s-make-thieves’-backstab-more-OP armor.

Uhhhhhh no. Thieves already have plenty high crit chance, they wouldn’t take this armor in a backstab build.

Ok, should be fully caught up.

Thrones.6739 and Warrshock.1486 have full guilds.

I’ll be around all this weekend and some of next week. I’m maybe sorta halfway decent on a thief, and I can always be there for tips and techniques on fighting thieves and warriors.

nearlight.3064:

Just a question to add onto this. If you have a legendary on your mesmer that has a footstep effect, will the clones get it as well? otherwise you’d be given away oh so easily in wvw.

Yes, they will. It’s pretty awesome.

It is not possible to perfectly imitate the attack patterns of clones and actually fight. The only way to imitate the attack pattern is to stand perfectly still and use only auto attacks. Unfortunately, this doesn’t generate clones or phantasms or stunbreaks or anything.

So, while you could in theory perfectly imitate a clone’s attack patterns and movement patterns, you will be completely and totally useless, unable to fight or do anything really.

I won’t use staff in all fights, generally ill use it in fights where I can reasonably place the warlocks where they’ll survive for a little (no idea if you use sig of illusions, but use it for this).

Usually I’ll spawn a warlock to start, then swap out to whatever other set I have. Once the weapon swap cooldown is up, swap back to staff, and summon your second warlock as soon as possible, then get back to your normal set. The objective is to stay out of staff for as much as possible, so take the time to carefully position where you spawn the warlocks to make sure they survive.

@colesy: I’m talking about no vuln or might stacking. The highest hits I’ve seen from the warlock was 14k on Grenth, in a 10/10/0/30/20 trait set, not full zerker armor, and no might (25 vuln probably). Extrapolate from that as you wish.

I’m thinking a mix. Remember that phantasms have the bonus of permanent fury.

@colesy: In a party with an engineer or necromancer, so where most bosses will continually have a least 7+ conditions, the iWarlock does enough damage to blow everything else out of the water. It scales 10% damage per unique condition on the target. On a boss with 7 conditions, it will normally be doing over 10k each hit. More conditions simply means more damage. So for single target damage, the iWarlock rules everything, no contest.

That being said, sometimes I find that greatsword is a better choice because of the cripple on the zerker. This is particularly helpful in mobile boss fights.

In non-mobile boss fights where your team doesn’t have good condition pressure, I’d go with pistol or sword, tending towards sword because the swordsmen will usually stay alive better.

Edit: One thing to note with iWarlock vs iDuelist, they have the same recharge time on their abilities (both are affected by phantasmal haste in the same way) but the duelist attack is a channeled unload, so the warlock ends up with an overall higher rate of attacks.

I’d like to talk about guild missions and influence for a moment. Since we’re all on different servers, influence must be purchased through cash donations. So, if people want to see us unlocking guild missions, just send me an ingame mail with the subject of ‘for influence’ or something, and I’ll start getting things unlocked.

frifox.5283:

Has anyone played around with storing siege projectiles in wvw, such as mortar/cannon/golem? If it works, with Echo’s 1500 range it might be quite… interesting

Golem maybe, but you’d only get 1 rocket, so it wouldn’t do much. Mortar/cannon/ballista/treb/catapult will all activate mimc to echo (you need stability for some of those) but activating echo will do nothing.

Thrones.6739:

Sapphirine.1023:

Yes, guild members from other servers can get the commendations as long as they guest to the server that the mission is happening on and as long as they represent the guild while doing the mission. I know for sure because our own guild is spread over several servers as well.

The downside for server guests is that they can’t see the tab for the active missions in the guild menu, so you’ll have to tell them which targets you got. Also, server guests cannot participate in the Guild Trek because the glowing circles are not there for them, but since that mission type is the only one that does not reward commendations anyway, it should not be a problem for them.

Since a player can only guest to two different servers within 24 hours, make sure to tell your members from other servers to keep one of these two guest slots open for the server the missions will be happening on.

A quote from someone who asked a similar question in the Guild Misions forums.

Awesome, thanks for the info.

Ok, I should be fully caught up with invites.

Warrshock.1486, you have full guilds.

frifox.5283:

Pyroatheist.9031:

a guesting member of a guild will not receive guild comms from guild missions that are based on a different server.

Every Saturday I guest to another server and run guild missions with another guild and always get my commedations with no issues.

Oh really? It seems I was given false information then. I’d love to get a little more confirmation, has anyone else done this?

skcamow.3527:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Very good ideas Chaos. I want to reinforce the point of a lack of gild hierarchy. Ranks are purely chosen by each individual. There are no higher or lower ranks. Anyone who wants to teach can, who wants to learn can, and who wants to test can. Ranks can and will change at any time simply upon request.

Jus want to mention things I looked into. Wvw obviously is not going to be easily possible due to the cross-server and cross-region nature of the guild. Guild missions are in the same boat, as even guesting doesnt allow you to participate fully in guild missions (c’mon Anet >_<).

Maybe we could split up events between EU and NA. So EU guild members voice a call for WvW or guild mission, choose a server, people guest, then same for NA, etc. Takes one barrier out of the equation at least.

Then maybe … maybe once a month/week/whatever we try to organize a guild wide event which involved both regions?

That doesn’t work for wvw for obvious reasons. As it turns out, a guesting member of a guild will not receive guild comms from guild missions that are based on a different server. Essentially every single possible function of guilds other than guild chat is completely and totally locked to servers.

Very good ideas Chaos. I want to reinforce the point of a lack of gild hierarchy. Ranks are purely chosen by each individual. There are no higher or lower ranks. Anyone who wants to teach can, who wants to learn can, and who wants to test can. Ranks can and will change at any time simply upon request.

Jus want to mention things I looked into. Wvw obviously is not going to be easily possible due to the cross-server and cross-region nature of the guild. Guild missions are in the same boat, as even guesting doesnt allow you to participate fully in guild missions (c’mon Anet >_<).

Ok, once again should be all caught up with invites.

Ok, I’m all caught up on invites. If you didn’t get an invite, you have a full guild list. Everyone comes in as a new member (game mechanics) so once you’re in the guild, send a pm to myself or another teacher online to choose your rank.

I’m not actually going to regulate teachers/testers/scholars in any way. I want this to be completely community driven, so if you want to teach, or if you want to test, then by all means that’s what you can do.

skcamow.3527:

Fay, can you add Lazy Kai’s leveling build? It’s still valid and updated recenly by the OP.
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Lazy-Kai-s-Guide-to-PvE-Leveling-Guide-Update

It’s still there. Look under shatter builds.

Hi everyone, I think I’m all caught up on invites now. Ranks and such are still iffy, so most everyone is still in the “New Members” rank. Pm me or any other person with teacher rank for additional invites and rank modifications.

Here is a list of people who had maxed out guild membership:

• smilko.4056
• Cares Less.9631

Just as a quick intro as to what I envision the guild being. Repping is most definitely not required, but encouraged of course. Since this is a multiserver/multiregion guild, we definitely won’t be doing group wvw. Guild missions are a possibility, and these would be based on Fort Aspenwood. As for EU, they would be based on desolation. Not entirely sure what else to mention other than that I’m looking forward to seeing what this becomes. This will be a fantastic opportunity for all mesmers certainly, and I’m excited to witness how it grows.

jportell.2197:

Pyroatheist.9031:

I’ve created the guild. The name is Official Mesmer Forum Guild [OMFG]. Send me a pm for invites.

TROLOLOLOLOL I love the guild name. repping required?

Hahah, repping purely optional of course :p

I’ve created the guild. The name is Official Mesmer Forum Guild [OMFG]. Send me a pm for invites.

Knote.2904:

As silly as it might be imagine if not only a phantasm would acquire a new target when it’s old target dies, but also would reset it’s attack cooldown.

Suddenly Berserker could do an aoe chain reaction in a group of mobs assuming it can actually stay alive, something like corpse explosion.

Would be obscenely overpowered lol.

Fixed that for you.