Guild Wars 2

It doesn’t make sense that Rifle damage gets higher as you stack Power… do you uh, pull the trigger extra hard or something? Final Fantasy 12 (twelve; XII) was pretty logical on that, all Guns have a set amount of damage and don’t scale.

If I could throw grenades farther than a gun can shoot, my throwing arm must be so buff… I think it would make logical sense to have my Prybar hit 10k.

And how does dropping a ton of metal in a wooden crate on top of someone not crush his cranium and insta-kill the poor sod? Where did the crate come from? So many questions…

To be serious though… most of the work of the nades is done <600 range anyway (throwing nades at feet one of Engi’s best bet at close range pressure with a rifle). The 1500 max range throws won’t hit anything except downed bodies because it’s so slow.

Sara, I started Dungeoneering on my Ele not long ago, and full Zerk is definitely not the place to start off if you aren’t flawless (nobody is).

Some specs I use when pugging dungeons (DnT/rT stuff):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAodnMISTDW2AuMAfEGQAwCHAqAHgR3AxpgMQNE-TByHwA/UeMXJYPlYd2fU/ZwDAQiOAHaBAcCAIFQELjA-e
D/F 66002 taking 2 out of Earth (Stone Splinters) for Arcana (Renewing Stamina) for more dodges; Fire (Pyromancer’s Alacrity) to Fire (Conjurer) for Lightning Hammer for stacking fights.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQFAWnMIS1DW2AuMAfEGgAQCHIyAhlyUc9bA-TxRBABXpE7m9H1fSRHQWKPaUJYeXAAAeAAkCIilRA-e
Staff 64004 for some fights that are easier to manage at range (Spider Queen), taking Arcana (Blasting Staff) and (Renewing Stamina) to help me with positioning, along with Frost Bow to hold it in place so I can cast in peace.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJArdnMISBEW2AuMAfEGQAwCHAGAHAxpgMQNs0bA-TxRBABXpE7m9H1f64BAgiegsUe0oSQAOBAkCIilRA-e
S/F or S/D with Lightning Hammer is for those really brief fights – Lightning Hammer provides you with your sustained damage should they not be dead yet (Elite Golem stack in CoE p2, 3 before laser death party).

Personally, I prefer the Focus because it has a really nice Invulnerable (Obsidian Flesh; useful for ressing, initial pull, emergency out-of-dodge-bar…) and Condition clear (Magnetic Wave; also a blast finisher) along with a super long-duration Flamewall fire field (Persisting Flames; good with Lightning Hammer). Dagger offhand gives an easy Fire field to blast into but also lacks the defensive capabilities (such as Swirling Winds) in exchange for a brief, impressive Fire Grab number and lackluster, long-casttime Earth Blast Finishers (which can be used out of combat, of course, but the CD is not worth it).

Don’t get too caught up with meta specs, you can change things out if you need to, such as running through TA starting route using Signet of Air and Lightning Flash (Or just bring Dagger/Focus; you don’t need a Guardian if you Whip the flowers), using Water Cantrip Mastery and equipping D/D (don’t forget your cantrips + FGS) with your 66002 spec to run through AC p1 Scepter piece collection.

This is still going on…
Beside Decoy GS “backstab” Shatter, there’s not much a Mesmer has that is actually (apparently) instant. They have such an obvious setup…
If you got 25 Vuln on you then you ate a full Shatter after a dodge, then you just got outplayed…

WTB China whisper me we can negotiate price pls
Here are brackets in Chinese:
http://gw2.17173.com/content/2014-10-26/20141026125018251.shtml
http://gw2.kongzhong.com/activity/20141024/2087.html
This all happens 27-31 Oct.

I guess this is the place where they put up various videos, but not sure about WTS – do they have a stream at all?
Edit:
This may be it.
?!?!?
http://gw2.178.com/zt/wts2014/

Liewec.2896:

if you’re after an easy-to-play alternative then you could try a static discharge engi.
not as bursty kittenter/fresh air perhaps, but a whole lot easier to play

SD Engi might have burst that is a bit easier to pull off, but they usually run no stunbreaks and are even more unforgiving xd
Ele and Mes both have invulnerables and built-in control skills at long ranges to keep a ranged game, but SD has to be basically in melee range to unload.
In the end, all of them have great burst potential, but if you’re also taking into consideration which is easiest to land/hardest to dodge, I would go with Ele.

Both both.
AoE is situational. Best on downed state clusters.

5 is too hard to reach. Thus:
1-5 Weapon Skills
WER Left Forward Right
D Backpedal (Only use for Channels like Drake’s Breath and landing your Fire Grab)
Q Heal
T Stomp
ASF Utilities
G Elite
ZXCV Attunements (F1-4)
Y About Face
Left Alt Stow Weapon (for Lightning Whip spam)
Tab is Next Target
Capslock is rebound to Shift and is Dodge (so you can dodge jump with space)
2 mouse buttons: 1 is Set Target, 2 is Push to Talk on TS/RC/Mumble
6 is Acquire Target

Read these and have a think?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/Heavy-PvP-practice-What-are-the-essentials/first

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/A-Guide-to-sPvP-0-Beginners-Guide/first
This says Beginner’s Guide. Wait, don’t go “pfffft” yet, there’s stuff here that you absolutely have to keep in mind at all times.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/A-Guide-to-sPvP-1-Teamcomps-and-roles/first

GoogleBrandon.5073:

Despite this, I see a pattern within your threads… You hate power based specs and lable them as unfair – you call these discussions when all you want to hear is people agreeing… And when the majority is not, you decide to call them all Mesmer fanboys, which kills the arguement…

Is this what they call cognitive dissonance? The engine of self-justification.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=12125926

I don’t think it has to be this complicated.
All they really need is to make hotjoin distribution random again. But why do you even play hotjoin so much? Queuing for team queue is so much better… Even solo, and even when you lose.
The other solution is to make a “balance queue” that only puts you in the game when someone else joins other side. But you can still exploit that by spectating. Maybe force you to spectate/join without easy switching and wishing to do so forces you to leave the server etc.
All in all, old hotjoin interface is best. Makes it harder to stack and “vigilantes” trying to flip teams by themselves won’t need to work so hard.

About your suggestion:
It’s like giving everyone Celestial?
Just like with the amulet itself, some classes can utilise everything better (hi Cele D/D)…

sorrychief.2563:

full clerics pve or bust

when your mates can’t dodge/block/evade lupi aoes. . . WHO WILL HEAL THEM?

y r u sou maen 2 wulf

As of now there is no place for S/D vs. curret meta matchups…
You can try something insane like 06206 or 56001 Tempest Defense with Berserker’s and Pack/Strength Runes which can make it work to a degree… but you are also going to run Double Arcane Lightning Flash to attempt to one-shot anything with no Stability so you are probably going to be the squishiest glass cannon there is.

S/F is matching a burst weapon with an entirely defensive off-hand and is much more viable (though still not doing very well compared to D/D). 06044 is still glassy but you don’t lack in active defense.

Play some solo-team queue a.k.a. YOLO queue…
Less wait time, less 4v5s, higher chance that you get teammates that know what they are doing, no Skyhammer, more reward/rank points…

It’s not really the class or weapon set that’s the problem, it’s the Might stacks.
Condi Necro, Shatter Mesmer can kill it relatively fast due to the boon removal. Hambow can drive it off-point if the Ele fails to pressure the Warrior before his dodges/stab/sustain runs out.
Mobility is also not that much of an issue, because no other class uses a 180 second CD just to run away/run to something…

Unhappy day with D/D run-ins I guess?

Bump for interesting mindset, playstyle, and build.
Nobody wants to 1v1 on a Staff Ele?! Pretty much nobody has you figured out yet…

Check out the DnT forums for the optimal builds, and you can work from there. There’s also an Ele PvE guide on Dulfy (written by [rT]).

Carpboy.7145:

What i would choose

Elite Signet of Air
Passive: 25% increased movement speed
Active: who cares

Literally all i want

I just did
Good one

I hope he/she wins something! xd

Elementalists have the lowest health and armour and fairly limited condition removal and healing sustain, but they become one of the best at it after traiting for them. At 80 with very defensive trait spreads like 0/0/2/6/6 you become a boon dispenser. I suggest you deck out in a mix of knights and zerkers with arc-water traits before moving onto the meta DnT PvE specs, which specialise into the Ele’s many blast finishes and fire fields – giving you strong might stacking potential.

As an Ele it is unavoidable that you weapon swap. You want to go into Fire to lay down fire fields and switch to other attunements with blast finishers. This depends on the weapon sets. For ease of use I highly recommend to start off dungeons in D/F. It has invulnerability, and two short projectile-hate skills. It comes with three blast finishers and modest sustained damage.

Search DnT, go to forums and look for Elementalists builds.

To be honest, Necro and Ele are in a different tier of micromanagement, with Ele right up there with Engi for complexity starting off.

New elites in 3014…

I’ll settle with just small current-elite tweaks, but we know how the design is… it’s never going to be a slight change to stabilise the situation.

Most likely we’ll wait a few more months for 1 new elite for each class and expanded traits + drastic trait and weapon skill tweaks.

I’d like to see an Arcane elite, but the Signet one seems cool too, in line with the Guardian’s class-mechanic themed Renewed Focus. Recharge attunements, temporary reduced weapon skill CDs, all seem viable.

My bad. I assumed something without trying it. I take my words back about the Valk spec, because I have no experience with it and therefore no basis on which to judge.

The point I would like to raise is that current Berserker LB/GS Rangers are not equipped to stand on point, especially in large team fights. If it is a 1v1 on side node, it depends on the matchup, but Zerk LB/GS is still very CD dependent in that case. You either pressure the opponent to disengage (with that set, need a decent amount of game knowledge), or you have to leave yourself (most likely, with many new to tPvP’s node-based structure).

To win with a Berserker LB/GS in your team (66200 or 60260), there is a need for other players to hold nodes for the Ranger to roam, so that he is in position to outnumber and gank effectively.

It felt like a very slight damage increase, but otherwise there’s no real change.
30 seconds is a bit of an overkill really, it’s the first crucial few seconds with Lich that really matters – downing the squishy or bunker with no CDs and cleaving the absolute kitten out of the ressers and the downed.
And there are so many counters to Lich – Steal, pure focussed damage, projectile reflects (2-shotting themselves)…
Adding to that, you basically have to build a team around the power necro to protect it so it can pump out its ridiculous damage without seeing the floor every 10 seconds, even with good positioning.

They are usually the reason in pug groups that you don’t send your team to mid in Foefire at the start… there is too little to LoS behind for their long range autos and rapid fire.
The only thing that’s really making longbow rangers somewhat useful is their free-casting ability with a LB, and some cleave with the GS.

Even if you slot a power ranger with Valk, he’s probably not going to live very long outside of signet of stone when he’s on point and attempting to “tank”. Even if the Guardian is trying to keep him alive (and wasting CDs).

About getting on point: there is no reason to get on point if the character is likely to be downed in the next few seconds. If by staying at range and kiting you can take the enemy down sooner, that’s the better choice. Also, you can sometimes make enemies leave the point to LoS because of your LB shots. You can then get on point and knock them back for a decap (then fight off-point and kite), and better yet make them waste some CDs getting to you.

The power ranger isn’t a 1v1 spec (though there are people who can play it well), it is a small fights ganker. It can turn any balanced 1v1 2v2s very quickly. It is basically a Shatter Mesmer, as above.

Things like in the heat of a fight, a Hambow switches to Hammer. There’s an Intelligence Sigil hardbuff on his status bar. Most people in the heat of a fight will dodge immediately to avoid the Earthshaker that’s sure to come, but you can wait for the dodge to finish.

Stowing Pin Down as well, that usually makes anyone dodge. Dark Path (OP Chill + Path of Corruption), Signet of Spite, Fire Attunement (Glorious Burning Speed), Basi Venom, Magnet, Moa, Point-Blank Shot (because Rapid Fire is going to come), Dark Pact (power necros are super rare), iLeap (not iStumble anymore), iZerker, Flanking Strike hit -> Larc Strike Buff… Thief walking toward you with Dagger offhand… Shield Bash (usually stunbreak + dodge roll if you are Axe + Shield)

Generally anything that’s hard-hitting and has a 0.75 cast time (but is not a leap so you can stow weapon to fake cast) or above is going to make people dodge. Unless he knows you super well he won’t bluff your bluff…

Hi random pedestrian here.
Play all the meta specs to a decent level then go back to your warrior (and run an effective build).
You’ll start to see how certain specs ramp up their damage/initiate and you can then count CDs and dodge etc
Rather than reading off a checklist that someone compiled with their own interpretations of priorities, and you having to compensate for that bias, wouldn’t it be better to have you try everything out and come to your own conclusions?
Read and know all skills across all weapon sets and utilities for all classes, that’s just maybe couple minutes. Play each meta build the way it’s meant to be played or play enough tPvP and critically appraise your cons vs each matchup, and constantly ask why I died to that, what I could have done better, is there something I can tweak or look out for etc etc.

This is all on Metabattle.com
Look up streams for D/P gameplay.
Twitch: Aeroxe, Caed, Collero, Sizer (this ones S/D) etc

Classic D/P
2 Mug
6 Practised Tolerance/Critical Haste/Executioner
0
0
6 Thrill of the Crime/Bountiful Theft/Sleight of Hand
Infiltrator’s Signet/Shadowstep/Shadow Refuge/Basilisk Venom
D/P Fire + Air
SB Energy + Fire
Runes of the Pack/Ogre/Strength
Zerker amulet
Moderate skill floor, very high skill cap. Best thief set to start off with, does not allow many mistakes and hones your thief-sense.

Panic strike D/P
6 Mug/Improvisation/Panic Strike
0
2 Shadows Embrace
0
6 Thrill/Bounty/Sleight
Same gear. The immob proc from Panic Strike allows you to hold target in place for your final spike to bring it down.

Can use same traits for S/P. Recommend mastering D/P and not giving up.

Evade S/D
2 Mug
0
0
6 Power of Inertia/Pain Response/Vigourous Recovery
6 Thrill/Bounty/Sleight
S/D Air + Fire
SB Energy + Anything
Same utilities as D/P
When you get used to evading key skills and using D/P mechanically and effectively, use this. Don’t rely on dodging randomly though. Just makes you a mediocre thief.

The first set to actually learn should be D/P.
The feature of this build is the Black Powder + Heartseeker combo which is Smoke + Leap = Stealth. This allows you to enter stealth without a target, or at range, to escape or to land a Backstab.

To begin to improve as a thief, don’t spam Heartseeker. Initiative gives you options, and locking yourself into a leap animation doing a predictable move allows opponents to outplay you, particularly when you run out of initiative.

All thieves should learn to use Shortbow effectively in PvP, it’s the set you will spend 75% of the fight in. The D/P set is used to spike low targets; it has tremendous chase potential. The SB grants the thief its renowned mobility via 5, has good point blank AoE, poison perfect for suppressing resses, and emergency evades (use it like a dodge, with proper timing).

Things to learn (a casual checklist to mastering thief…):
What to interrupt, managing conditions with your heal and shadow step, knowing your position, spatial awareness and when to disengage, blinding key skills, evading key skills, initiative management, teleport spots, ganking squishes in teamfights, anticipate and count enemy cooldowns, use dodges effectively and not randomly, stealth jukes, managing own cooldowns, landing steal, using stolen skills to counter professions.

Being used to 00266 Staff, and too afraid to do 66002 because I don’t want to be looking at the downstate most of the time in a match (l2p issue tots), this just seems to be a great, flexible middle ground to advance my magecraft…
Azilyi, any advice against D/P and S/D thieves in general? I can hold them off for a while, but I would like to be more offensive against them.

Be aware of burn proc. Good engineers will attempt to disable you or cover up the burn with CC. Remove it with HiS if the situation is right.

Dodge magnet.

Be ready for Overcharged Shot, it could easily go into a CC chain with Magnet and Nades. They can do it mid block, mid nades, right after a dodge. I’ve seen thieves fast enough that they stunbreak into a backstab, taking advantage of the self knockback.

Don’t fight an Engineer who just crated, no matter how low he is. He will block and get all the medkits, potentially immob you because you want the kill, then remove all of your health in 1 combo. Reset or shortbow his turrets. Or be useful elsewhere if you are low. Make him waste a 180 sec CD.

One of the best ways to kill an Engineer is to gank him midfight in stealth with a Basi backstab. That usually forces his defensive CD (Elixir S, the stealth etc). If he runs Elixir Gun he will stunbreak into Gear Shield. Then most likely Turret heal.

Oh yeah, strafing in and out of his character + blinds messes up all his rifle setups.

Sube Dai.8496:

Did we ever figure out what a frand is?

Friend/Fan
Kind of an in-between because you’re a famous celeb but you lurv your frands

Nevets Crimsonwing.5271:

Malediktus.9250:

Noone will miss you. This thread should be closed for attention seeking

The irony of your signature must have flown right over your head.

I’ll miss Vee Wee.

Bye frand!

Where were all the Engineers when P/P Enhance Performance Tool/Nade was a thang…

Now everyone’s a Turret Engi…
Good thing though, running with inexperienced players using it makes them semi-reliable and usually unable to die until someone comes assist.
There are lots of problematic matchups for them though… Well of Suffering, Meteor Shower, Hambots, Terrormancers, Rabid Balth Engi’s…
Maybe it’s because of their prevalence that it’s slowly becoming Ranged Wars 2.

Significant lag playing NA while in EU.
Skills take 2 seconds to start casting then in the two games total I played today there were two counts of 3-4 second lags, and an impressive 7 second lag spike.

Server: NA (JQ)
Player Region: EU (UK)
Mode: Team Arena
IP: 64.25.33.86
~9:30pm GMT+0

Think in the 2 years I’ve played this game I Moa-stomped twice (getting Moa’s while stomping).
In a team game, it’s just really convenient to get a free Guardian kill. Random Moa-ing without coordinated burst is bad anyway. Gotta team up with your thief to make full use of it and immediately safestomp. Besides, there’s always the Warbanner/Guard res/stealth res/Spirit res/signet res/glyph res/stab-stripping/CC to counter it.

S/F max damage.
You need to invest in the Air line taking Fresh Air (this is a must have)/Air Training/Bolt to the Heart.
I take it you are trying to put more survival into the build? It won’t be necessary in PvE so I figure you are in a game-mode with some sort of PvP going on.

Depending on if you want Arcane skills to go off CD faster or more raw damage, you put points in Arcana or Fire lines. You go a maximum of 4 points in Water so as you also get Elemental Attunement, which is very helpful in PvP.
Looks like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJArdhcM6cW5wlBf0AOAGxgQMQcEIA0BLeFWCA-TJBFwA12fIxJAoaZAAPAAA
Zoose’s Guide/Talk-through:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXjGXYXSwek

A very ancient spec is to go 0/2/0/6/6 and Scepter/Dagger with Might Duration Runes (Hoelbrak/Strength) and Battle Sigil and stack might constantly with fire fields (an inherent skill all Eles must have is knowing how to do the might stack rotations). This build is very fragile though. Use it with Berserker armor pieces, but please know what you are doing – Zerker Ele can’t take any hits at all.

About the stability thing, it was never about duration for the Guardian. The only reason people bring Guard to tourneys (this is opinion from back when the game started, after the retal and Guard hp nerf because Guard OP) is because of the group-wide, low CD (basically on-demand) stability. The Guard can kite and dodge and use skills but someone else with enough hp can stomp through the Guard’s 24 second CD, AoE stability. In sustained group fights a Guard can use it twice or even thrice and get safe stomps when no other class could (and its innate blinds and blocks). The efficiency is amplified by Indomitable Courage.

Warrior has long stabs but they are less accessible readily (Rampage is fun but other 2 more practical). Also the easiest among Guard Ele Warrior which has decent stab uptime to get feared with corrupt boon (due to lack of covering boons) or shattered off.

Ele could have on-demand stab if they do Rock Solid, I’ve done it before when I pug team queue with no heavies. I feel like my Banner bunker all over again. However, it’s not much of a tradeoff because Cleansing Water is an incredible trait to sacrifice for stability (and there are situations where you just had to go into earth and can’t save it for stomp). I only ran it when I know the people on the other side is only 2/5 condi. It’s a vaguely useful trait for pushing Turret Engis with someone else (to get that Burn off), but if I know there are 2 of those on the other team, it’s time to go staff ^^

I’ll point out that the meta D/D Cele Ele is basically Condi Ele. You Drake’s Breath someone then dance around stacking ~20 stacks of might with Evasive Arcana, Fire fields and Blast finishers + Battle Sigil, and end up with 600+ ticks of Burning. One of the ultimate sustain builds out there that can wear down basically anything (careful of Condi Necros with Corrupt Boon) with hybrid damage.

Look for the build on metabattle.com.
If you don’t want to, here’s a link to the build (or one of its variations):
(Celestial gear can be hard to get):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fFUQJAoYhcM6cW4wxBf0AiAB5slqRBlfHTB-T1RHwAfV/BvSwCPAAK6BIq8DwJAg0+DkCgJhRA-w

Some opt to forego Celestial entirely for Soldiers/Knights/Zerker’s/Cavalier’s mixes to achieve 1600 toughness, 2000+ power, 25%+ crit, 170%+ crit damage, and 18000 hp. That’s the traditional Power roaming setup, with very good burst after might stacking, but you will have lower sustain.

Of course, Earth-camping Signets with Stone Heart is pretty funny too. Search for the thread Diva made. That crazy build has 3.7k auto attack bleeds…

Well, I switched to Staff ele to try something new today, and did my usual single team queue. Lost 8 games in a row… close ones, most of them.
I did think trying something new had to do with it. I admit I played ridiculously badly xd (lack of sleep? Is jus rly badd?)

Pugging is like this, don’t worry about it too much. You win some, lose some. If you are on a lose streak and it’s affecting you, take a break.
I hope you feel better now…

Bump for justice.
Where is that STICKY

If it’s your pull not working, try getting the enemy in combat first.
E.g. skyhammer thief pull:
stealth -> stand on panel -> SB 1 -> scorp wire + dodge back

If the target isn’t in combat, the pull from magnet/scorp wire can miss.
Also, if the target dodges exactly as you pull they will only stumble.
Of course, there’s also buggy terrain, but you should check the above if you are on (seemingly) flat terrain.
#flatgroundobstruction

Disengage, LoS, Nullfield and heal.
You shouldn’t ever be on a point unless cleaving with sword. You see a teamfight, you ledge hard and GS squishies. When they get low and have no CD, go in and kill it. Let your bunking heavy stomp/finish. You drop Nullfield on the heavy ressing the body and shatter and strip stability and GS push/Focus pull them away.

Example targets when you are freecasting are power necros, thieves out of position, DD Ele getting low and going into Water.

holodoc.5748:

Lachanche.6859:

There are mace/sword and axe/sword variants to the defense/discipline theme, there is also an axe/warhorn build recently made popular by rom as well as a greatsword/longbow build occasionally seen around (although imo gs is not quite there yet).

Why would anyone want to use GS/longbow combo? Those weapons do not synergize at all. If you rely on longbow then it means you are probably wasting trait points on something like “Cleansing Ire” instead on going offensive. There is absolutely no reason to use GS with defensive builds. Yes GS is an excellent gap closer for warrios but what do you do when you reach your target? Ask him/her nicely to drop dead?

btw i think i forgot to mention sword/shield + greatsword wvwvw builds, every now and then you see them used around.

For roaming maybe but you will have a really hard time finding a warrior in WvWvW which uses a shield. In zergs its useless because standard warrior support builds usually consist of sword/warhorn + hammer or GS+hammer. For roaming people usually choose warrior condition builds because its not unusual to fight a 2vs1 against enemy camp flippers. In those cases an off-hand sword or even mace are far more useful weapons than shield.

Duel Vassangel on his GS/LB (or watch him play in his duel server, NA only). Don’t know if Tarcis streams while playing GS/LB anymore… You’ll see why it’s workable. You have to be absolutely mechanical to utilise the GS mobility in a 1v1, and land your LB shots to actually deal pressure.

And there are very few opportunities to burst (Bull’s Charge, Pin Down) which require you to outplay your opponent. He kills you harder on his zerker hambow, but sometimes he runs GS/LB because mastering it requires a high amount of skill. GS burst is really just using Whirlwind Attack simultaneously as attack and evade. Arcing slice still hasn’t found its place. Spec is

4 Short Temper OR Great Fortitude/Slashing Power
0
4 Dogged March/Cleansing Ire
0
6 Vigorous Stances OR Signet Mastery/Destruction of the Empowered/Burst Mastery

Pack Runes, Zerker Amulet
Berserker Stance/Balanced Stance/Bull’s Charge
GS Air/Fire/Intell
LB Battle/Energy/Doom
Or run 40604 first for Defy Pain. Frandlier version. Less dying.

Sword Shield/GS is the “runner” spec for WvW. You take mobile strikes, dogged march, hoelbrak runes, -40% food, and you can run from anything and come back for a quick 100b when you catch chasers alone. Shield is used as a Sword F1 setup and as a functional Endure Pain. Watch M Black’s Warrior clips on Youtube. Or maybe Team Riot.

Lukas.7159:

Ralkuth.1456:

a thief trying to cleanse all the conditions with shadow return is wasting all his initiative.

backstab thieves don’t run the stealth cleanse.

a typical power ranger does not run empathetic bond

dont even get conditions.

1) rather waste initiative than die right?
2) as far as i know (i dont play thief by myself) backstab is 60206 (with the condi remover trait in the 3rd trait line)
3)not every power ranger is 66200, there are a lot with more sustain like 60620 or 60260
4) and your last sentence is a joke right?

You put the words in my mouth :0

Ledge as much as you can as a Mesmer. Positioning is half your game. Usually it is not necessary to stand on a point because you can’t hold it like a Warrior, Guardian, or Turrets. Also, come into fights late so you get a brief period to freecast, and always keep an eye on Thieves and know where they are at all times.

The balance is that Mesmers using 44006 have burst with boonstrip and good CC, stealth, and teleport mobility with staff. You kite like a king and try not to get hit by collateral AoE. If you are not fielding a full team queue or don’t have anyone dedicated to peeling for you, consider tweaking your spec to have a bit more survival. Because normal queuers don’t really watch out for you.

In arenas, you will be trained by Thieves and Eles, that’s a fact, especially glass, because you have the burst to turn teamfights around. It is mandatory that you get peels and condi cleanse from your team, and you should also abuse LoS with your staff and ports. Or go out of fight completely with blink and portal.

Shatter Mesmer is like this. You’re either good, or dead. Thieves rely on staying out of big fights and spiking low health targets then gtfo. When D/P blows stealth house or HiS heal, they are out of the fight. They can’t come in again or they die to any cleave. They always need to have escape options. Mesmers have comparatively less mobility and trade it for damage, so you have to have your team support you to let you do your job.

Also, Mesmers do have cleanses but they are in the Inspiration line. If you feel absolutely overloaded with conditions, take Null Field or cleanse Mantra. Slot Hoelbrak, or Traveler to help you kite. Land a big Shatter, down someone, cleave for a bit then go out completely.

Power engi is thug life right now bruh.

10/10
And here I found this little gem in the mire that is the forums.

LightningBlaze.4913:

Mbelch.9028:

LightningBlaze.4913:

I didint insult Serane. I insulted you. I’ll have you know I started with d/d since open beta. I played hybrid, bunker, support, condition, dps and bust builds with it. As proof there’s a post around this same thread of me raging because many others started to run d/d because of Daphonix. Everything you are going through right now I already experienced it including the training, dueling, wins, builds, etc. This discussion isn’t about your or my experience. It is about you discrediting someone many acknowledge and respect.

Lol like I said, I’m done on your ring around the Rosie. You don’t even know what you’re talking about at this point.

No, you are just trying to shift the discussion to something else, instead of admitting how stupid you were to discredit Dapheonix. You really do deserve to be insulted.

D/D was Anet by design. We don’t know if 0/10/0/30/30 was created by Daphoenix or if he’s the #3982 to catch on. However, he made guides, text tutorials, theorycrafted and promoted D/D in general. He even suggested celestial before it was hype.

He helped a lot of players get that initial grasp/skill boost to push them to master D/D eventually. Sure, you can be much better than he is, you may have come online and instantly played it like a master. But what he did was to teach, and comprehensively. He didn’t have to. He made D/D accessible to a lot of people and they also had fun. For that, I give respect.

I’m such a necro.

Longbow is your only reliable on-demand condition cleanse as of this patch (excluding interrupts on it). This is because of the out-of-combat adrenaline deterioration they put in recently. I am excluding Banner Regen Warrior with Warhorn. Don’t think you’d run that.
Also because all your bursts are easily dodgeable and the setups are very visible as well (GS comes out the fastest, but it’s not the recommended weapon, though fun).

Hambow and Axe/Sword Longbow are good because you have a spike weapon set and a good pressure ranged weapon to kite with. The burning adds up once you build up some might stacks, and is great pressure. A celestial axebow can get around 15 stacks with Hoelbrak, Battle sigil and fire field combos and the burning approaches 600 along with 7-8k Eviscerates.

They do require a certain amount of skill. And they are effective in a team game. Learn how to work around a longbow and these recommended melee weapons. When you do master them, go off and do your own thing. But you want to ensure you are up-to-date and viable at the very least when you are required to be.

Specs and brief tutorials are up on metabattle.
http://metabattle.com/wiki/Category:Meta_Conquest_Builds

If you truly don’t want to use meta because they are lame, then there are other things you can master. Dodge key skills, be on top of your guaranteed stab stomps, improve your team game (immob and stun for team, cleave downed bodies, rotations), improve your 1v1s, 2v2s (skirmishes on side nodes) through game knowledge (how your spec will do against that etc., switch traits for matchup).

Oh, read Supcutie’s shatter guide.
You can just google this.

Shatter builds run Illusionary Persona which has a rather large animation on the Mesmer (Same as clone detonations when they shatter) and you can tell what they used from the sound too.

Dodging through shatter means dodge into the oncoming clones as they come to shatter you so they blow up while you evade. You can prep for it if they run sword because of iLeap, watch the finger pointing and the pink boot buff. If they use a Decoy or Torch stealth, run the hell away and be ready to pop a CD, likely your Obsidian Flesh.

Blurred Frenzy is 2.5 secs (0.5 precast, can burst here; 2 second evade) and swings 4 times hits 8 times. There is a purple blob buff for it. Wait for last swing, but they will most likely dodge or decoy after or switch GS to kite until shatter back up.

Please do try out Shatter, beats just fighting them because you then know their mechanics and burst patterns. The better a Shatter Mesmer you are the better you will be fighting them.

Chaotic interruption screws you over rather hard. In that spec, they have just as much on-demand burst as you do but much more control and active defense…
In other words, have to outplay…