Guild Wars 2

Cauldron.1653:

Man that blows. Just as I scrambled the money for a named exotic torch, heh.
But yeah, I can confirm this as well.

I guess its because of the recent 02/26 patch addendum that makes The Prestige always perform its cooldown.

It did occur on that patch. When they fixed the cooldown glitch, they broke the blast finisher.

Embolism.8106:

Nuka Cola.8520:

and what a staff has to do with ‘mind wrack nuking’? Its a defensive weapon which can be used on all mez builds… Plus iLeap is extremely useful to port away when you’re immobilize and getting 100swaged by a warrior for example. For a 20 trait points, it should be applied to your illusions as well (at least clones).

If Illusionary Elasticity’s description was “increase your Staff DPS by 50%”, would you still think it needs work? Because that’s what it does. Three Staff Clones is roughly equivalent to one Mesmer using Winds of Chaos. Illusionary Elasticity doubles the damage dealt by the Mesmer, so your overall DPS is increased by 50%.

Making it apply to Staff Clones would mean it becomes “double your Staff DPS”. Don’t you think that’s too much?

That’s not true at all. In order for the bounces to work effectively, there has to be either multiple targets close together, or you have to be close enough to the targets for the attacks to bounce to you, and remain close enough to the targets for the bounces to bounce back. It is not nearly as simple as just increasing staff dps by 50%.

It depends on how tanky you want to go. If you want to go for a nice tank/damage hybrid, seven mirror’s build is really strong. For absolute tankyness, you’ll probably want to look at my immortal mesmer build, which is completely focused on taking, absorbing, and returning damage.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Immortal-Mesmer-Build/first

I think it’s cute, looks like a little lightning headcrab.

That being said, a lightning headcrab doesn’t look like an air elemental, so I’m not quite sure where that leaves us.

If you want anet to give a response, you usually have to refer to threads in the bug forum. I found this thread started a few days ago, but it didn’t have many responses, and certainly no anet response.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Mesmer-Torch-Skill-The-Prestige-1/first#post1560946

Regardless of all of our feelings about the current torch, the fact is that anet just broke it really badly, and have yet to give an acknowledgement of this fact. I found this small thread in the bug forum trying to get an anet response.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Mesmer-Torch-Skill-The-Prestige-1/first#post1560946

I found this lonely thread in the bugs forum with just a few replies and no anet response. It might be worth our time to help anet notice this issue.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Mesmer-Torch-Skill-The-Prestige-1/first#post1560946

Yes, the blast finishers are gone. We need an anet response on this immediately.

Would love to see an answer to this. I don’t expect one, but I would love to see it.

Daishi.6027:

Lol one day people are just not going to report bugs that benefit the class they main.

People prefer exploits over bugs that hinder us, so I think we need more effort in fixing weapon skills to the level of “working as intended” and testing so it won’t break on updates. or the future is gonna be full of weapon exploits.

As much as I’d love to see this happen to punish anet for their utter and complete inability to test any patches they provide, it would be obscenely difficult to have occur. Anet doesn’t find out about bugs like this one by players telling other players, and that will always happen

@Westibone: If that guy was running a full phantasm spec, I don’t really have any tips unfortunately. I don’t know how to beat that build.
However, mesmers still are your hardest matchup. All other builds are beatable, but they are very hard fights. Take a look at the profession fighting guide I wrote up.

@crmbl: It does provide a lot of healing. The problem is you lose the 20% cooldowns on staff. The question being, of course, does that healing outweigh the loss of chaos armor (protection) and chaos storm (aegis). I’m not really sure, and it could do with some testing. I’ll probably take that into sPvP to test it out.

Embolism.8106:

If you feel Clones are unreliable (understandable if you’re not running a condition build), you could always fire off a WoC of your own before starting Mimic. If there are no allies nearby (WoC does not bounce to Illusions) that should quickly proc your Mimic.

In any case though I do understand that the utilities you have chosen are quite important. Decoy is possibly the only one that is non-essential, but it’s just so useful generally every Mesmer uses it.

As an aside, I find it slightly amusing that you say Decoy is extremely important (which it is) while brushing The Prestige off as merely “very good”. But that’s not relevant to this build.

Well, decoy is extremely important in this build because of the stunbreaking, and the clone generation. This build really lacks reliable clone generation, and so that alone qualifies for extremely important. The Prestige has no stunbreak, and creates no clone, while only being on a cooldown 2 seconds shorter than decoy.

Embolism.8106:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Embolism.8106:

Have you considered using Mimic for 4s Block/Reflect on 25s CD? It seems to me it would be perfect in your build.

The problem is that it would replace something else that is more important. Mimic is a 4s block/reflect, but only under certain conditions. If the first attack it takes is a cc, then you lose the whole thing. If they don’t shoot you, then it becomes useless. In very specific situations, it can be really great, but in almost every single one of those situations, the exact same thing would be accomplished by simply dropping temporal curtain and letting them attack into that.

Additionally, if you take it for the retaliation stacking on blocks, not only do you have to put 10 traits into a useless line, but it is even less necessary, since the build already gets over 100% uptime on retaliation.

Did you know that Mimic can absorb friendly projectiles? By using Winds of Chaos or just having Staff Clones out bouncing Winds of Chaos at you, Mimic is a guaranteed Block/Reflect.

And Retaliatory Shield is actually not very good with Mimic because it will only trigger off non-reflectable attacks.

I do know that, but it still ends up being less useful than other utilities.

Phantasmal defender is one of the things that this build is built around, it effectively doubles my damage output from retaliation, and can not be removed in a small fight. In a zerg battle, it becomes useless, but the spot is taken by blink, which is arguably even more important.

Mirror images is vital to my clone production. Since this build has really low normal clone generation, in order to have any reasonable way of bursting confusion or having a fast distortion, mirror images is really important. Additionally, it is a stunbreaker.

Decoy is similar to mirror images. It produces a clone, it is a stunbreaker, but it is also a target drop for stealth. This is extremely important.

Mimic will block/reflect for 4 seconds. The reflection is unnecessary, as I have a traited focus that does that job. The blocking is situationally useful, but since I can’t control how fast my clones are attacking, or whether I will have staff clones out when I really need those blocks, it goes from situational tool to ineffective in almost all cases. I simply can’t rely on always having a WoC to absorb exactly when I need to produce those blocks.

Embolism.8106:

Have you considered using Mimic for 4s Block/Reflect on 25s CD? It seems to me it would be perfect in your build.

The problem is that it would replace something else that is more important. Mimic is a 4s block/reflect, but only under certain conditions. If the first attack it takes is a cc, then you lose the whole thing. If they don’t shoot you, then it becomes useless. In very specific situations, it can be really great, but in almost every single one of those situations, the exact same thing would be accomplished by simply dropping temporal curtain and letting them attack into that.

Additionally, if you take it for the retaliation stacking on blocks, not only do you have to put 10 traits into a useless line, but it is even less necessary, since the build already gets over 100% uptime on retaliation.

WhiteRose.6934:

Darnis are you using Frenzy and then sending you #3? Or sending the clone, #2, and then swapping? Because the latter works, that’s what I do quite often, but I’m very positive that the initial spell (sending the clone forward) has always cancelled the channel as it’s not an instant-cast like a mantra or Mirror Images.

No it doesn’t. It doesn’t work, and it never has. Go try it out and you’ll see.

So I just went and tested it out. I would put good money on the fact that very recently those clones gave the buffs properly. I think they broke it in one of the recent patches.

That being said, the underwater clones are the only illusions we have that are actually affected by illusionary elasticity….so that’s something at least.

The clone attack not only applies bleeding AND boons, it ALSO HEALS YOU. I was noticing this while getting underwater slayer, go test it if you don’t believe me. Every time you get hit by the clone’s bounce it actually heals you for a small amount.

@Star Ace: It all depends on durations and cooldowns. A warlock in a full damage setup will do an average of 7k-8k crits on a target. In order to match that sort of damage in a full condition damage setup, you’d need something like 5 seconds of burning and a few stacks of bleeding for about 5 seconds, noting that the conditions can also be removed, negating significant portions of their damage. Looking at it that way, something like what I proposed wouldn’t be overpowered at all.

Now, if the mage was not a damaging phantasm at all, and took the debuffing role, it becomes much harder to quantify its relative strength, since the effects of things like weakness, chill, and cripple change drastically depending on the situation. If this were the case, it would have to be balanced with playtesting, because there are really no analagous skills or phantasms to compare it to.

Scepter/focus is actually really bad, they have almost no synergy at all.

Sounds like you’re using flimps build, which actually gets away with using the torch because its not a main weapon. In that build, you use staff, and then switch to scepter and torch as a utility set for some confusion that might do something, and a target drop while your enemies are taking condition damage, and the torch is really only useful for the target drop.

Edit: to fix the Mage, it needs to be changed massively. Just letting one trait apply to it will change nothing. Only applying confusion is one of the big problems, because confusion is useless on its own, it needs backup or additional pressure to really function properly. The Mage should be a condition damage phantasm. It should have a 20s cd like all the others. It should apply multiple conditions, confusion, sever stacks of bleed, and burning. Alternatively you could have it function as sort of a debuffer, stacking up chill, cripple, and weakness. Whatever it does, condition duration needs to apply, and the cooldown needs to be normalized with respect to the other phantasms.

Actually flimp, with regards to the food. The bleeds applied by the staff are rather crazily long, a 7 second base duration. This would benefit massively from the 40% food.

That being said, the -40% food is really strong, especially since your build has 0 condition removal (lyssa runes are worthless, especially for condition removal) so it’s more a matter of choice.

@Star Ace: Again, you seem to be ignoring what I write. As I said, it is my opinion that people who use torch could do better with another offhand. That is not a fact. There are no facts that support it, and no facts that contradict it because of the nature if the statement. It is simply my opinion, and is also the reason I will not use torch.

The only times I cited facts was with relation to the worthlessness of the Mage. If you really want to get into that, by all means try to prove what I said is wrong, but you’ll have a hard time of it.

Pahldus is correct. I had experimented with this to see if it worked many times in the past. Nothing has changed, this is how it always has been.

@Star Ace: If you had read my original post, you would be a bit better informed about my opinion on the torch.

The prestige is an awesome skill, even if the cooldown is a tad long. No arguments here, this is a great skill in every way (once they re-fix it again, and probably fix the fixed skill since they’ll probabl break something else with the second fix).

However, the Mage is completely useless. That is an indisputable fact. Any arguments to the contrary made I will gladly tear apart.

The problem is that the torch only has 1 viable skill on it. It’s a great skill, but it’s not so great as to carry the weight that should be shares between 2 skills on a weapon. For that reason, I won’t use the torch. Now, for some people, the prestige is good enough to ignore the Mage and just work with the one skill. I think they’re mistaken, but now we get more into the realm of opinions, and away from facts.

Not using the torch is my choice and my opinion. That the Mage is the worst weapon skill of any class of any weapon in the game is fact.

@Everyone: Go back and read my post earlier in the thread, you seem to have ignored what I wrote about the Mage, but I’ll address a few things here.

The Mage doesn’t perform any better in confusion bomb builds, or condie builds. It is still useless. 3 seconds of confusion is completely worthless. Most confusion builds have at least +70% confusion duration so that the confusion actually lasts a reasonable time. The Mage ignores that, staying at 3 seconds of confusion. Completely worthless.

As far as the retaliation damage, 3 seconds is more than worthless. In 3 seconds, your enemy is unlikely to do more than 3 hits. The total damage from retal in a condie build will be around 600-700 damage. Worthless. Additionally, you can’t control when that retal is applied, and since it is applied with confusion, that makes it even less likely that you will get any benefit out of it. On top of that, using sword/focus gives you highly reliable 14 seconds of retaliation from the leap combo. Anyone who uses the torch for retaliation needs to get their head examined.

Overall, the Mage is worthless. It’s not better in certain builds. If anything, it shows how bad it is even more in confusion builds. It’s on the longest cooldown of any phantasm with a horribly placed cd trait so almost no one takes it, so it is completely useless even for shatter fodder. It is the worst skill of any weapon on any class in the entire game, with no competition.

Alchemist.3692:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Alchemist.3692:

what i would love to see is it actually do immobilize and cripple. Can’t count the number of times thieves just walk away from an iLeap. Seriously, walk away, since our mobility is just ridiculous and the one attack that the one handed sword relies on keeps us rooted. Makes it pretty tough to kill someone by just swinging your sword around rampantly. We’ll never get the dmg output of the other professions.

Even if pathing fails are difficult to solve – I still don’t why we cant have the cripple and immob work properly. I don’t even want to get started with out of range fails. If you cast iLeap within range but the person takes 2 steps out of range cuz they’re running away you have to now wait for a full cd.

But no, lets not fix this issue and continue the nerfs.

Cripple and immobilize work fine. The clone WILL cripple if it gets to the target, and if you swap when the clone is near the target, it will immobilize properly. As a matter of fact, the immobilize is aoe, not target based, meaning you can easily immobilize a group of mobs with swap.

I rarely ever get it to work. I know how to use it, and when it’s supposed to work (and under what conditions) but it just doesn’t and I don’t know what it is. Maybe i’ll post a video if I get time

If it rarely works for you, then you are using it wrong. My suspicion is that you are activating the swap too soon, before the clone makes it to the target. If you do that, then the clone will not get there to apply the cripple, the immobilize will not be applied, and lastly you won’t properly move to the target.

I have a new video up, detailing the method for efficiently soloing a fully upgraded supply camp.

Alchemist.3692:

what i would love to see is it actually do immobilize and cripple. Can’t count the number of times thieves just walk away from an iLeap. Seriously, walk away, since our mobility is just ridiculous and the one attack that the one handed sword relies on keeps us rooted. Makes it pretty tough to kill someone by just swinging your sword around rampantly. We’ll never get the dmg output of the other professions.

Even if pathing fails are difficult to solve – I still don’t why we cant have the cripple and immob work properly. I don’t even want to get started with out of range fails. If you cast iLeap within range but the person takes 2 steps out of range cuz they’re running away you have to now wait for a full cd.

But no, lets not fix this issue and continue the nerfs.

Cripple and immobilize work fine. The clone WILL cripple if it gets to the target, and if you swap when the clone is near the target, it will immobilize properly. As a matter of fact, the immobilize is aoe, not target based, meaning you can easily immobilize a group of mobs with swap.

samski.5194:

Pyroatheist.9031:

You were fighting that tower lord in an absurdly sub-optimal way. You mentioned something about keeping chaos armor up, but you didn’t use a leap combo in chaos storm or feedback ever to get chaos armor. Additionally, you were using a weapon with a bouncing attack, the staff, but you were so far away from the lord that none of the attacks were bouncing, effectively robbing you of massive amounts of might, fury, and double the dps on the lord.

Yea it was only my second time going up solo against a tower lord so I was being careful with range and what have you as I wasnt sure what his attacks were.

I narrate videos after they are recorded, my build is based around keeping chaos armor up as much as possible, roughly when I say it I drop Null Field and staff 2ed out of it to keep it up, when I rewatched it while narrating I must have saw that and said it :p

Technique is improving slowly on getting these guys down solo as its so hard to get in the tower with no support.

Thanks for the feedback though

If you intend on making soloing towers a habit, then modify your build for the occasion by putting 20 into inspiration and traiting focus. As you did notice, the lords are 100% ranged. The traited focus obviously won’t do as much damage in a condition setup like you have, but once you get 2 wardens down (with illusions X as well), you have pretty much 100% uptime on projectile reflects, so you can just afk the fight.

You were fighting that tower lord in an absurdly sub-optimal way. You mentioned something about keeping chaos armor up, but you didn’t use a leap combo in chaos storm or feedback ever to get chaos armor. Additionally, you were using a weapon with a bouncing attack, the staff, but you were so far away from the lord that none of the attacks were bouncing, effectively robbing you of massive amounts of might, fury, and double the dps on the lord.

Confirmed, in PvE, WvW, and HotM. Blast finishers are completely gone.

Anet, you guys are bad at coding, and you should feel bad.

crewthief.8649:

How about they fix iLeap altogether? It’s been finicky since BWE.

Actually fixing the function of the skill is many MANY times harder to do than fixing the cooldown. To fix the cooldown all they need is for 1 intern to go into the code and change 1 number. Easy and fast.

For the actual function of the skill itself, you need to interact with automatic pathing, with negotiating different terrain, and then figuring out what sort of elevation and distance switches are allowable with the swap. As much as I would love to see it fixed, I understand that it is a really tough problem to solve from a coding perspective.

Aiwe is right. Most of the weapon cooldown traits don’t show up in the tooltip, but they do actually work. However, this is not true for illusionary leap, where the blade training, whether with or without illusionists celerity, simply has no effect on that skill at all.

The problem with the torch is that it is somewhere between 30% and 50% of a weapon.

You have 2 skills on the torch, The Prestige, and the phantasmal mage.

The prestige is a fantastic skill. 2 blast finishers (though those are bugged now?) aoe blind, 3 second stealth, and aoe burn. Unfortunately, the cooldown on this skill is far longer than it should be, and desperately needs to be shortened. All things considered though, it is a very handy skill.

The other skill is phantasmal mage. This skill is useless. The mage casts 3 stacks of confusion for 3 seconds, and allies will get 3 seconds of retaliation if the attack manages to bounce to them. Additionally, the retaliation is not affected by boon duration, and the confusion is not affected by condition duration.
Just looking at that, this is a horrible skill. It deals effectively no direct damage, 3 seconds of retaliation is useless, and 3 seconds of confusion is even more useless. Unfortunately, there’s more (but wait, there’s more!!).
The phantasmal mage has a base cooldown of 30 seconds. This is the longest cooldown of any phantasm skill in the game, on the least useful phantasm in the game. Not only that, but the cooldown trait for the torch is in a strange spot that is difficult for effective confusion bomb builds to take without losing other important traits.
When you add all this together, it quickly becomes obvious that the phantasmal mage is quite possibly the worst skill in the entire game, for any class, for any reason. It has absolutely no uses. It has absolutely no saving grace. It does absolutely nothing on an absurdly long cooldown.

So, the torch has only 1 skill, and that one skill has a bit too long of a cooldown. I’m not willing to use a weapon that only has 1 skill, especially when all of our other choices (including oh sword, which is one of our most powerful offhands, lysico, but I’ll explain that later) are so fantastic with so much damage and so much utility.

Edit: I know flimp and seven mirror both use torch offhand. Flimp uses scepter/torch as sort of a utility set to his main weapon, the staff, which is very evident if you watch his videos. This neatly side-steps the problem of the mage, since he only uses the torch for the utility of the prestige. Seven also uses the torch in a similar way, though he does at least try to use the mage a bit, though it doesn’t do anything useful of course. I still maintain that both of these builds would be better off using a focus instead of the torch (and I think seven has been using a focus recently as well).

KnattyDreads.1856:

Pyroatheist.9031:

The reason you were wined at for using it in pve is because the torch is horrible in pve. It only does condition damage, and Mesmer cd builds are really weak in pve. Additionally, the utility of the stealth with the prestige becomes a non-issue in pve, while the phantasm is even worse in pve than pvp. If you want to try to use the torch in pvp, to for it. I still think it’s a waste of a weapon, but I can see the uses for it. However, using it in pve just makes you a liability to your team.

I respect you contributions to the Mesmer forum and the class in general. I disagree that the torch is a ‘waste of a weapon.’

edit: unless we are talking pve :p

Well, it’s just my opinion that unless a weapon has all of its attacks viable to use, then it’s not a viable weapon. Additionally, the cooldowns on torch, oh both skills, are far too long, even traited, which is why I will never use it in pvp.

In PvE it’s simply objectively one of the worst weapons in the game, hands down, even with the buggy cooldown.

To the best of my knowledge, this is just another half-working buggy trait to add to the list. It works as I listed in my original post, and that’s really all I’ve got for you.

The reason you were wined at for using it in pve is because the torch is horrible in pve. It only does condition damage, and Mesmer cd builds are really weak in pve. Additionally, the utility of the stealth with the prestige becomes a non-issue in pve, while the phantasm is even worse in pve than pvp. If you want to try to use the torch in pvp, to for it. I still think it’s a waste of a weapon, but I can see the uses for it. However, using it in pve just makes you a liability to your team.

Omaris Mortuus Est.2738:

I do like that when it comes to the JP a lot of people actually think, “should I kill them or let them go”

Anywhere else in WvW you would attack them if you think you can kill them, or call in help to kill them.

But I find it funny when you come across a player who wants to kill you when you arent going to kill them, and even gesture to show you wont attack. They just see red and run at you.
I think last week, RS took our Bay, may have been BB maybe this week; I was on my ele and was standing on the bridge at watergate. RS didnt sweep. I stood there for a few minutes noone came to sweep.
So I decided it would be fun to see what would happen in I, a wee little asuran elementalist decided to have a nap on the bridge.
Minutes later a RS invader, even seeing me just lying there attacked with everything they had! I jumped in the water, I had the permanent speed boost from the signet skill, so was outswimming them. 10 seconds later I look back and 10 other invaders had jumped into the water and killed me.

All I wanted to do was sleep on the bridge
But there you have it, some players would have laughed at the fact an enemy invader was sleeping so openly in an enemy keep, others will just attack you.

Anyone alive inside a keep can res a dead Mesmer. Just because you aren’t a Mesmer yourself doesn’t make your presence any less of a liability. Anyone with half a brain in their head would have killed you just like they did.

imalog.7689:

Pyroatheist.9031:

imalog.7689:

FilthyRat.4652:

imalog.7689

you’re stomping two dead servers, i wouldn’t be too excited to play active wvw servers which will probably stomp you.

Looks like your match next week should be good for you when DH moves up. Can’t wait to see how that works out for you….bet you guys get stomped!

lol put the pipe down. DH isnt coming up on their own, check the scores. They are coming up because NSP has to go down. Maybe T8 doesn’t totally understand the overall point score, who can blame you? SF is destroying the role-playing server and the other dead server, yet still holding a -50 point evolution. Things must be pretty backwards over here.

That -50 point evolution is primarily due to the absurdly low point totals of the other two servers. The glicko system does work pretty well most of the time, but when it encounters massive point disparities in a tier like that, it can provide some really screwy results.

Ultimately, its going to be at least another week or two before SF manages to pull out positive score movement if they maintain their current level of domination. Ironically enough, if they start doing worse, they’ll get positive score faster due to the 2 lower servers gaining their score quicker as well. However, since SF is probably going to drop another 100-200 points before they start turning around, it isn’t an exaggeration at all to say they are stuck in T8 for at least another month, if not a month and a half.

whats ironic is the possibility that NSP knocks HoD down and SF up. In which case Mr. Rat here would thank AR for such an opportunity considering how we held NSP’s borderland for the start of the week prompting their current score, in which i lead the majority of that on nsp bl.

Not being even close to any of those tiers, I haven’t the faintest idea of what the relative strengths of NSP and DH are. However, I can say that it would have to be a monumental blowout for HoD to get knocked down below SF. SF is currently dropping 50 points, and this is only going to slow down slightly next week. T7 is already somewhat of a blowout, and HoD is only dropping 10 points, while also being ~80 points above the current total of SF. In theory, it could be possible. In practice, it won’t happen for a minimum of 3 more weeks.

imalog.7689:

FilthyRat.4652:

imalog.7689

you’re stomping two dead servers, i wouldn’t be too excited to play active wvw servers which will probably stomp you.

Looks like your match next week should be good for you when DH moves up. Can’t wait to see how that works out for you….bet you guys get stomped!

lol put the pipe down. DH isnt coming up on their own, check the scores. They are coming up because NSP has to go down. Maybe T8 doesn’t totally understand the overall point score, who can blame you? SF is destroying the role-playing server and the other dead server, yet still holding a -50 point evolution. Things must be pretty backwards over here.

That -50 point evolution is primarily due to the absurdly low point totals of the other two servers. The glicko system does work pretty well most of the time, but when it encounters massive point disparities in a tier like that, it can provide some really screwy results.

Ultimately, its going to be at least another week or two before SF manages to pull out positive score movement if they maintain their current level of domination. Ironically enough, if they start doing worse, they’ll get positive score faster due to the 2 lower servers gaining their score quicker as well. However, since SF is probably going to drop another 100-200 points before they start turning around, it isn’t an exaggeration at all to say they are stuck in T8 for at least another month, if not a month and a half.

Yeah, quite honestly, I usually leave people alone in jumping puzzles, unless I’m in a particularly nasty mood. However, some people like to mess with me, and so they’re the ones that end up faceplanting off a cliff in short order.

I should probably mention as well, the lazy kai pve guide is also fantastic. I haven’t tested it myself, but I’ve heard many good things about it. It really comes down to your personal preference, and at low levels you can really mess around with different builds and playstyles until you find one that you really like.

[cut]

Are you resorting to an ad hominem attack because you can’t think of a real response, or because you realize there is none?

WvW is a pvp battleground, plain and simple. Entering the zone is an acknowledgement that you are prepared and willing to fight other players, and complaining when other players fight you, no matter where it occurs, is simply pointless.

The badges are used to make a legendary weapon. The gift is called the gift of battle. Legendary weapons take materials and items acquired in all parts of the game. Making one is meant to show your mastery of many different game aspects, and wvw pvp is one of those aspects that is meant to be displayed. The fact that badges can be obtained from jumping puzzles is simply a gift to you from anet, allowing people that don’t want to pvp or are very bad at it to obtain the badges with a minimal amount of fighting.

Notice that I said minimal amount. Again, by entering wvw you are consenting to fight, but the jumping puzzles provide a far less pugnacious option to obtain the badges than normal fighting.

Because it’s fun. Because I like killing people. Because throwing people off of cliffs with various skills makes me chuckle. Because it’s in wvw. Because you get siege for completing it. Because if you call for help it draws resources from other parts of the map. Because why not?

Shazirah.8350:

To everyone who showed up tonight, thanks! It ran with very few hiccups. (We were there for 4 hours!) Great sports, the lot of you.

Good luck next week! — S.

I miss you maguuma fight clubs. We tried to organize one today with YB, and it ran ok for an hour or so, but some commander came up to them and riled them up or something, so they killed a few of us. That ended in our 3 mesmers and 2 guardians smearing them all over the floor a few times, which was fun, but I still miss maguuma.

Ross Biddle.2367:

The change they made made it easier for people to tag enemies. Which comes in to play especialy when a target is being mass DPS’d by big groups of players (Zerg v Scout in WvW anyone?). Therefor, even a crappy mesmer who cant dish it all out in 1 second flat should be able to “qualify” for the tag/loot too.

The change they made has to do with the definition of tagging. You used to be able to gain exp from a kill, but not have tagged it enough to qualify for loot. Now any kill that you tag for exp has the potential to drop loot.

It does not affect staff clones, nor does it affect any phantasm with a bouncing attack. It does however, affect underwater trident clones.

Oddithekeen.6084:

what sigils do u use on your weapons? And thx for the build just started it last night but had a blast in wvw.

I use energy on my staff, bloodlust on my sword, and hydromancy on my focus.

Embolism.8106:

As a very rough rule of thumb, Healing skills benefit from Healing Power by having its value added directly to the amount healed. Non-Healing skills that heal generally get only a percentage of Healing Power added to its amount healed. Regeneration, as pointed out, benefits the most from Healing Power, thus for any profession you should only invest in Healing Power if you are able to maintain Regeneration.

Overall though, I still find it a relatively useless stat considering other stats scale better and generally affect more things.

Unless your build has a focus on survivability or team utility, I wouldn’t recommend going for healing power, you are right about that. However, especially on a mesmer where 100% uptime on regeneration is trivial to get, stacking some healing power can create AMAZING sustainability in a lot of builds.

You always remain in combat when you stealth, especially in WvW. This was not changed at all in the most recent patch. In pve, sometimes using shadow refuge will eventually get you out of combat, but the only way to get out of combat in pvp is to get out of the combat radius or kill your enemy.

Make sure you take feedback. Start with bursting confusion onto the scouts, and drop chaos storm at the same time. This will do a lot of damage to them.

Remember that you can LoS their attacks. Kiting around with a staff and phase retreat produces clones that can usually take 2 shots from the scout before they break, which is 2 shots you don’t take.

Also, take a focus with you. If you have 20 points in inspiration, you can trait it and cycle wardens and temporal curtain for loads of reflects. Even if you can’t get that trait, the warden still blocks projectiles, and will whirl finisher in an ethereal field for more confusion stacks.