Guild Wars 2

Here’s a guy running torment runes in a heavy condi build.

Ansau.7326:

@GOSU That clearly shows how much wvw videos you have seen. My opinion is based on what I’ve seen after facing servers from VS to AG (13 servers) for a year, and a bunch of videos from servers like Blackgate to Dragonband (pugs, guilds roaming…).
First, there are tons of ZvZ EU videos. My guild uploads 1 every week, and I’m in a server based on guilds.
Second, one thing is playing with blobs, an another totally different is basing your playstyle in blobs as a server. There are some eu servers which, in certain periods of the day, they only run a 80 man blob jumping the maps, mine included.
NA servers seems to have less packed pug zergs. In EU, we play with ball zergs, 50 people in the same point following the orders of a commander.
In EU, the commander is a leader. It is common he decides when to attack, which, how much, when and where siege to put, when to put water and fire fields… I’ve seen NA videos where the commanders are eles or necro full dps. That’s nearly impossible to see in first half part of EU servers. Commander are so important to simply go full dps and be the first to die.
I’ve seen in a lot of videos there are like 4, 5 or more orange swords on minimap. That is very difficult to see on Eu servers.

All this is about pug commanders, like KT ones, on eu servers with quite coverage. Of course in dedicated guilds this doesn’t happen, and in lower eu servers the playstyle is different.
At first, I founded a lot of builds from NA players useless, while seeing people amazed with them. It wasn’t after seeing a lot of videos that I understood wvw is not played in the same way in both server groups.

@SrebX DE is a personal preference and I only use it to roll twice and use Distortion. Phantasmal Fury is a great alternative, and you can also use 30/20/0/20 and take focus trait or Restorative Mantras.
I first started 30/20/0/20, but with new changes, Protected mantras will grant +600 toughness and I find it more useful.
Also, illusions die instantly only when the zerg is not compacted. For what I’ve seen, this tent to happen a lot in NA servers. The photos are an example of the power of iZerker.

Sure those are nice numbers, but a warrior can just auto spam 1 and outdamage your iZerker in two swings. Meanwhile your zerker dies and the warrior keeps spamming. Nice numbers in a still frame, but no comparison.

DevonCarver.5370:

Chuck Zitto.2367:

We need more things to use them on or to atleast be able to sell them. Myself and tons and tons of other people have gotten to the point we just destroy them. They take up inventory space.

Without giving any specifics, I’d highly recommend you change that strategy. There are things coming soon that will give you lots to spend it on.

In the meantime, where the hell are we meant to store it all? Mind passing a memo onto the loot/storage/currency guys?

DevonCarver.5370:

Jayne is correct, we do want to address this. It’s mostly a matter of having a more reliable system that lets us track when people are doing this things in order to reward them. Currently we are not able to track that well, if at all. Which means we can’t assign rewards to them. We absolutely believe that defending and scouting are critical to success in WvW and want to be doing more to reward them accordingly.

Why not set towers up with frequent events. That way the guy standing in the tower scouting it is also in a prime position to run over and tag the event.

Simple things like “scout the north”, so you go run and stand in the little circle to cap it. “scout the south”. Then all siege in a tower becomes event tracked, when siege in a tower hits 30 mins it pops up as an event to refresh it.

When a tower is flipped there should be an event to build five pieces of siege within the tower. Anyone who dumps supply into said siege tags the event. Scouts who stay around to place/build, or run sup to finish it get those rewards.

The siege build event can reoccur periodically until the siege cap for the tower is met. That way the events promote/support sieging towers, and scouts get to actively capitalize on rewards.

How hard is it to implement events? Would this sort of thing need the “tracking” you’re talking about?

drkmgic.9583:

have they addressed our abysmal aoe’s as pve player i hate have to do crazy stuff like take mirror images so i can shatter to tag mobs or take sword when i’m a condi build.

You’ll need an entire new weapon for that.

It’s actually Charr. Only due to Charr culture mesmers are highly frowned upon, and thus, deeply closeted.

How about this

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8dl4zSpHVTsGaNJhZGBH5nUwcnjWAJFwG1A-jUCB4iRG1BgaAmEJQZSFRjtMqIas6GYKWER1OFFRrWKAYmGB-w

This way you can get some damage/tags off your glamors. Among other things.

And much like a children’s christmas list, it ignores hard realities.

Superior runes of the pirate. YARR! !x_o

Depending on your placement, when the next matchup starts, on your next Wxp level, you’ll get a bonus chest.

elikal.7356:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Anet is concerned about your negative gameplay experience and will seek to alter these problems sometime in the future when it’s to late. cough

Or maybe the guy in charge of WvW will put his foot down and the minions will scurry into action. Who knows!

Great so on top of failure to get more than 3 in HOURS and the sheer frustration I get mockery as well…

Sorry, but connecting this, esp. the Merc Camps to WvW achievement was the worst idea ever!

It is indeed mockery, but it’s not aimed at you.

lordkrall.7241:

Becka Williams.4978:

Good for you. Some of us need a reason to fight, not just fighting for it’s own sake.

And that is one of the biggest issues with todays gamers.
Instead of playing for the sake of fun, they feel the need to get something as a reward for playing.

And if you don’t think you are contributing, then you are clearly doing something wrong in WvW.
In WvW every single person is able to contribute in a real and useful way.

So instead of taking into consideration years of gaming development, gamer psychology, and what makes a good game, you blame the player and dismiss him out of hand.

Has anyone ever gone to you to ask how to make a good game?

Devon Carver mini.

Tradeable WvW exclusive Devon Carver mini dress up accessories.

If you let the mesmer stay inside he can port his zerg past the doors so they can flip it asap, thus allowing your side to recap it for maximum rewards!

I have a mesmer trait point allocation that can swap from solo to zerg on the fly.

Anet is concerned about your negative gameplay experience and will seek to alter these problems sometime in the future when it’s to late. cough

Or maybe the guy in charge of WvW will put his foot down and the minions will scurry into action. Who knows!

Jackums.3496:

The staff’s competitive status has nothing to do with its conditions and everything to do with its utility. Phase Retreat for mobility and clone generation. Chaos storm for daze and ethereal field. Etc, etc. The conditions are defensively useful (ie. chill /blind), but are hardly the reason why the staff is taken in so many builds. The majority of competitive Mesmer builds are power-based, anyway, so the damage the staff does via conditions is negligible.

Point is, the scepter is a condition-centric weapon, just like the staff, and adding a condition (or multiple) to its auto-attack does not automatically create an issue. The staff is a testament to that. It just depends on what they implement.

I personally find the torment and confusion on the scepter, alone, to be powerful in a condition build. But leaving the auto-attack as is would leave the scepter in an undesirable and incomplete place, and implementing a power-based buff to it would just make it feel out of place. The only other option is a utility buff.

Perhaps the auto-attack gets no damage buffs (power or condition based), but instead receives a change to improve its utility, a la Phase Retreat. Obviously not another teleport, because God forbid we give people more to complain about, but something along the lines of a defensive/utility ability would be fitting, IMO.

Why not another teleport?

The third attack on the chain could turn to a second icon effect whereby, if pressed before the weapon resets the chain, you can swap places with the generated clone (such as iLeap only without the imob). That way the utility of the 900range scepter is that it’s a chase weapon. If you can manage to spawn a clone on your enemy as they’re fleeing, you get an extra teleport to stick tight to their kitten . Sounds like a great utility function.

I’ve known a thief commander who would just port to the other side of an incoming pain train, and everyone was to just push through to him. Slightly different but the same thing in the end. You could achieve the same thing with blink.

Yeah, The zerg will drop their swiftness on the commander, especially if his kitten is slow and falling behind.

Building to survive is a solid option. As the commander, you should be the last to die because the moment you’re dead, the fight’s lost.

Rainshine.5493:

Luthan.5236:

Make cannons more radius and range and remove all boons with all of the cannon skills on hit. No mastery needed.

That would negate the point of cannon mastery, unless we also want trebs to automatically remove supply, rams to automatically apply vulnerability etc.

You do bring up a point, though, that there is extra condi removal already available to everyone in cannons.

So portable cannons?

All you need is Gate Mastery.

It’ll let you apply a 10 min buff to gates that reduce incoming damage by 50%.
Also a burning gate feature that deals explosive fire damage to rams striking a gate.

But then they’ll add anti gate buff mastery which reducing incoming buffed gate damage by 50% as counter play.

Solution: have 3 scouts in every tower manning superior AC’s with mastery 24/7.

Swap out your +10% sigil of smouldering. At just 10% its not enough to grant you another tick of burning on anything. Id suggest another hydromancy or perhaps doom. Or Superior battle for +3 might stacks for boon share. Anything else really.

tyrone.5974:

Still new to the mesmer world, PU means? Also a link to this build so I can mess around with it would be nice.

PU =- Prismatic Understanding. 30 in Chaos, grandmaster trait.

Got to be able to run and chase, get some cc in there. Build smart.

Wasbunny.6531:

Ross Biddle.2367:

I know it’s not up in the discussed changes, but I’ve had this idea for a while.

Since clones are aoe fodder in WvW, and are weak in zerg situations, shattering can be ineffective much of the time.

I suggest making clones invulnerable upon hitting the f1-f3 skills. That way they can run through a zerg to their intended target without being eaten alive by aoe and weapon 1 spam. They can still be dodged, of course.

Not all builds are optimal in every situation, as it should be. I consider a shatter / Mindwrack build the equivalent of a thief backstab build; high spike damage for single target. Very tough for a thief to pull this off on a target in the middle of a zerg.

Mesmers have an interesting advantage with this however in the ‘on death’ traits, potentially forcing a decision to be made whether to use a dodge, kill the clones and take AoE condition damage, or just eat the shatter. I do feel that the target zerg does not suffer enough of a penalty from just spamming AoEs and killing clones. Possibly if some more ‘zerg-busting’ consequences were added to the on death traits (AoE imobilize, AoE Stun/Chill whatever) commanders might someday have to tell their mindless horde to stop spamming AoE.

DR isnt a horrible idea, however other things came to mind. In a large scale fight / ZvZ your target isnt exactly standing still. Potentially clones will be getting dragged through copious numbers of enemies chasing a target who’s moving in the opposite direction as them. DR vs AoE will only do so much.

Then there’s conditions. Being hit by direct attacks is one thing, but a clone running, without dodging, through condi fields and under condi application is going to die just as quickly. But it gets worse. Meteors from meteor shower can’t be cripples, chilled, or immobilisers. Pulls, knockbacks, fears, they’re susceptible to it all. Heck, base run speed is problem enough without all the CC’s on the field. anyone running traveller runes who’s in combat is going to move faster than a clone without any speed buff.

It’s not just about avoiding damage for the clones who’re running to shatter, that’s just the start of it. The mechanic simply cannot function under the high demands of standard, designed, large scale combat game-play. That’s a serious problem that needs addressing.

Shatter based trait: Clones gain swiftness upon activating the f1-f3 keys.

Xaylin.1860:

Kaiyanwan.8521:

How on earth do you want to play a shatter build half decently, without Deceptive Evasion? 20/x/x/30/15? What kind of madness is this?

What you need for a shatter build is x/20/x/x/x. With the patch, x/20/x/x/15 looks inviting. Putting 30 into Inspiration for shatter still sounds like a bad idea for what you have to give up on the other side.

People should really learn how to keep an open mind .

First, if you are so attached to DE, then go 0/20/0/30/30. You will lose some Mind Wrack damage and won’t be able to strip boons. But the stuff I said a bove remains. It would be a very strong supportive shatter build. I don’t see how getting Shattered Conditions and Vigorous Revelation does not make up for the loss in 20 Domination. It does make up for it. It is just unappealing for people who are insisting on maximum damage.

Second, the other thing you should be aware of: They are going to nerf Critical Infusion. They don’t know how yet. They might swap it to a different spot (15 minor won’t change anything, 25 minor would be horrible but who knows what they think is best). They might reduce the procc chance (e.g. only 50% chance on crit) which will make quite a difference for shatter Mesmers since they do not attack as constantly as other builds and will make it useless to any support or bunker Mesmer since they often lack precision. Or they might attach an ICD which would result in a 50% less up time (since 10s ICD are most likely imho) for all shatter Mesmers because they usually do not bring any boon duration. This is going to happen. It is not an IF question but a WHEN and HOW question. In every case DE will be A LOT less appealing for shatter Mesmers if you are not running Vigorous Revelation (if they do not nerf it, too).

Ross Biddle.2367:

I know it’s not up in the discussed changes, but I’ve had this idea for a while.

Since clones are aoe fodder in WvW, and are weak in zerg situations, shattering can be ineffective much of the time.

I suggest making clones invulnerable upon hitting the f1-f3 skills. That way they can run through a zerg to their intended target without being eaten alive by aoe and weapon 1 spam. They can still be dodged, of course.

That would be a pretty powerful change. They might still be dodged but the question is: When to dodge? You do not necessarily know if the clones will shatter on you or someone else. Making them invulnerable will make countering them nearly impossible.

A change which was done in DAoC – I think – which I could see for every pet ingame (illusions, turrets, minions, ranger pets, spirit weapons, elementals … yadda yadda): Make them less vulnerable to area effects. Something like “Take a maximum of x% of their maxium health as damage when hit by an area effect.” The threshold could be different for each pet to balance it for their respective purpose. It would make pet usage in larger fights a lot more profitable without making them too strong. You could kill them with single target or cleave attacks. However, you will have to invest time on killing them, giving their death some purpose.

Powerful, or a reality? Clone shatters are our long range AoE attacks. At long range they’re slow and you can see them coming. To compare, imagine if with spammed sword swings or some randomly placed AoE attacks at your feet you could destroy incoming meteors from meteor shower. They can still be dodged, of course, but if other classes AoE effects cant be destroyed before reaching their target/location, why not clones upon shatter?

I know it’s not up in the discussed changes, but I’ve had this idea for a while.

Since clones are aoe fodder in WvW, and are weak in zerg situations, shattering can be ineffective much of the time.

I suggest making clones invulnerable upon hitting the f1-f3 skills. That way they can run through a zerg to their intended target without being eaten alive by aoe and weapon 1 spam. They can still be dodged, of course.

WitchKing.5317:

Any news on the scepter yet Anet?

John said he is working on sub forum responses in the main thread.

D best.3547:

Icarus.3689:

@ A-net

pay 5 point on trait to dodge per 6.66 s as ranger -> nerf

pay 5 point on trait to dodge per 5s as mesmer/guard -> fine (as vigor build)

Why?

Not only mesmers but also guardians and elementalists also have permanent vigor for 5 and 20 trait points respectively. don’t worry though it’s not that bad engineers need to spend 20 trait points to get 5 seconds of vigor every 10 seconds.

Do any of those classes require massive clone generation to fuel all their class mechanics? Mesmers generally need clones, and for those mesmers who need a lot of clones then vigor = clone on dodge = class working. Maybe vigor on crit needs to be 15, 15 becomes 25, and 25 then 5, but Mesmers need vigor in their current mechanic. Of course 5 or 15, its all the same as clone on dodge is 20. Vigor isnt about dodging so much as clone generation, so its a package 20 point investment, and its a class crutch currently.

roamzero.9486:

Ross Biddle.2367:

I wanted to add the requested Mimic suggestion here.

Mimic

30s CD
Breaks stun
Grants 4s Stability
4 second channel, reflects all ranged, blocks all melee. Counts the total number of hits, or blocks, and multiplies that times X (to a maximum of Y) for a single target ranged dps attack Echo effect post channel.

Personally I think they should completely rework the utility into something new: 90s cooldown, you literally become whatever your target is for 10s (stats, traits, everything except HP). Naturally, you wouldnt be able to transform into bosses/champs/etc, but to preserve the pve utility you can turn yourself into a friendly player.

Why would a Mesmer, with traits and skills all surrounding clone generation with which to utilize for damage, conditions, cc, invuln, speed, the works, want to change into a warrior, necro, or ranger? You’d lose all synergy, playstyle, and survivability. If you’d like to test it, make a norn mesmer, pretend you’re targeting a warrior, and transform into one of the beast forms.

I wanted to add the requested Mimic suggestion here.

Mimic

30s CD
Breaks stun
Grants 4s Stability
4 second channel, reflects all ranged, blocks all melee. Counts the total number of hits, or blocks, and multiplies that times X (to a maximum of Y) for a single target ranged dps attack Echo effect post channel.

We lack stability options. Manipulations are ripe for having one. Also this Mimic is a zerg friendly option, while also being useful solo. Also, whatever Mimic is, as a stand alone utility, or in a Manipulation focused build, it has to be on par with Decoy. I think that’s got to be the standard for Mesmer utilities. Is it good enough to replace a stun breaking, 4 second (with PU) stealth, that generates a clone (who tends to waste enemy cd’s), and grants protection/regeneration/aegis (again with PU)?

If you make Mimic as above so that it’s an assured, reliable utility that grants a sorely lacking feature for mesmers, that can be used well in both solo and zerg gameplay, has that fun mesmer x factor (Echo), and is better than the all powerful stealth option, then you’re on to a winner. The current Mimic has great features, it just needs its problems cleaned up.

Fozzik.1742:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Also, ever consider the fact that A: the target could stop attacking (ala confusion counter), and B: if it summoned on an enemy clone, it’s attacks would be dealing 0 damage? Current Mimic suffers from that problem. Ever absorb an enemy clones projectile? Yeah…… what a waste of a seconds cast time clearing that off your Echo. You’re wanting an entire phantasm/clone that does that on repeat.

If an opponent just stops attacking for 5 seconds or whatever it lasted, I’d call that a really powerful ability. In my own experience, most people in WvW pay little or no attention to conditions beyond generic clears…people continue to chase me and cast skills regardless of how many stacks of confusion and torment I put on them.

The mimic I suggested could have a very short cast time… so it could be used as a carefully targeted counter to opponents bursts or chains of attacks. Sure, if you cast it on a mesmer clone it’s wasted…but that’s sort of your fault. If you cast it on a warrior starting 100 blades or a thief just before he does stealth/backstab or HS for the 100th time in a row… it would be highly effective. Most abilities in the game are at least somewhat situational, and work dramatically better if you use them at the right times.

If nothing else, I think it would freak out the opponent pretty well and knock them out of their comfort zone. Seeing a clone of yourself coming at you and mirroring your attacks… that would be scary.

I can foresee other issues. A warrior runs up to you and drops a 100 blades, at the same time your newly created Mimic phantasm runs up to the warrior to drop its mimicked 100 blades. Both get two swings off, and while the warrior keeps going, the phantasm is suddenly dead after soaking up the warriors crazy damage.

Let’s not forget PvE. Cast Mimic on a Jotun. Mimic mimicks an attack every 10 seconds.

Hammer stun warrior launches a hammer stun, Mimic coppies, only AI has no awareness of targets Stability. Hammer stun is used to no effect. Mimic suddenly finds himself hammer stunning into the patch of a now wildly swinging hammer warrior.

Necro drops aoe condi plagues etc. Mimic does the same, only Mimic is standing in Necro’s aoe’s. Goodbye Mimic.

Or back to one of my major concerns not addressed. Large Zerg force approaches enemy Zerg force. You cast Mimic on random enemy in crowd. Mimic appears and charges forward to attack said enemy, only to be disintegrated by the enemy melee train being covered by the ranged AoE from the back line.

I’m happy you’ve thrown your idea into the pot, but please, no more phantasms.

Fozzik.1742:

My idea for mimic would be -
Have it summon a clone that mirrors the current target for a few seconds (looks just like the target, instead of like the mesmer). This clone of the target would do the same actions / attacks that the target does…including any damage. So…when mimic is cast against you, whatever you do for the duration will be mirrored back on you by a clone that looks just like you.

I’ve seen a lot of clone/phantasm based Mimic ideas. Here’s why I don’t like those ideas and think Mimic shouldn’t go in that direction.

Whatever the utility is, it needs to be as good as, if not better than the current leading utility picks. People aren’t picking Mimic now as it is, at least over other, better options. Whatever Mimic is, it needs to be on par with decoy. Phantasms and Clones are unreliable in WvW, large scale combat, and even small scale combat given wide sword arcs and general AoE are the bane of clones/phantasms. A manipulation like the above will not show up in a Zerg. How many people slot iDefender and Phantasmal disenchanted for a zerg? We have a ton of single target, passive, or below par utilities in the game already. We have a ton of damage dealing phantasms already. Whatever Mimic is, it needs to not die before it get’s a chance to do anything.

Also, ever consider the fact that A: the target could stop attacking (ala confusion counter), and B: if it summoned on an enemy clone, it’s attacks would be dealing 0 damage? Current Mimic suffers from that problem. Ever absorb an enemy clones projectile? Yeah…… what a waste of a seconds cast time clearing that off your Echo. You’re wanting an entire phantasm/clone that does that on repeat.

Tentacle Love.3412:

I’ve had no problems using my shatter build in large zerg v zerg fights, it’s very easy to mistime though and you very much so need to be prepared.

I usually start by slamming myself down in the middle of the zerg when we attempt to split it open, putting a chaos storm at my feet, and throwing the greatsword. then I summon the berzerker, and dodge roll into something. at this point I immediately cry of frustration, then use another dodge and a decoy to get two more clones out. if necessary I switch weapons to throw down another phantasm but since I count as an illusion when shattering I usually just mind wrack right then and there.

At this point I’ve unloaded a ton of damage directly into the back half of an approaching zerg. the front line of the zerg is turning around screaming “STACK STACK ON PIN!” or something like that, and the rear of the formation is lamenting their missing traveler runes and wondering why they showed up to fight.

If it seems unfair to you that your shatter build isn’t working in WvW, you’re not doing WvW right. When you’re in a zerg, you’re either steamrolling or you’re getting steamrolled. As a mesmer, you’re never dead weight to your team. Portaling golems is an incredibly valuable skill. Portaling team members up to the lord after a zerg just steamrolled your keep, and someone didn’t check for mesmers? well, sucks to be them. Sure the walls are paper now but whatever, you got it back.

If you get the impression that you’re just not getting as much out of your mesmer than another class, well, play what you want!

I love how you just countered “My phantasms cant get their attacks off/do damage” with “You can portal your teammates places!”

Oozo.7856:

“Immobilize now stacks in duration to a maximum of five times.”

We figured out pretty quickly that the changes you made to immobilize could be exploited to get some ridiculous immobilize durations. We used it ourselves at first, but we don’t tend to exploit things that are totally broken like perplexity runes and your current broken implementation of immobilize.

Any classes that have decent duration roots can stack a ridiculous amount of root duration. Now add venom sharing and devourer poison and just look how stupid it gets.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRYMjNT5uTY

Just wait until the run-of-the-mill no-skill unimaginative 15-20 man autoattacking spam blobs figure this one out.

Another change that gives a huge advantage to the side that already has a huge advantage due to numbers. I guess it was too easy fighting 5v15 before. Now you will have to do it while be rooted for 20+ seconds.

Fix it. And for God’s sake, get some testers who actually understand the game.

You’re right of course, and yet it was the OP Necro who won the day?

Divinity.8041:

Dimswitch.6381:

Easy.

Mimic:
3/4 sec cast, 30 second cooldown
Obtain (copy) all of your target’s boons.

This would be an exact copy, including stacks and duration. Obviously certain boss/npc boons could not be copied. This will effectively give Mesmers some “boon hate”. Cast and recharge would need to be monkeyed with to find proper balance, but this could be some real fun in pvp.

this is actually the best idea I have hard so far, and very easy to do

Albeit boring and “mimicking” Arcane thievery- also a manipulation.

Mimic

30s CD
Breaks stun
Grants 4s Stability
4 second channel, reflects all ranged, blocks all melee. Counts the total number of hits, or blocks, and multiplies that times X (to a maximum of Y) for a single target ranged dps attack Echo effect post channel.

We lack stability options. Manipulations are ripe for having one. Also a zerg friendly option.

Mimic
4 second channel, reflects all ranged, blocks all melee. Counts the total number of hits, or blocks, and multiplies that times X (possibly to a maximum) for a single target dps Echo effect, post channel.

Mimic
30s CD
Breaks stun
Grants 4s Stability
4 second channel, reflects all ranged, blocks all melee. Counts the total number of hits, or blocks, and multiplies that times X (to a maximum of Y) for a single target ranged dps attack Echo effect post channel.

We lack stability options. Manipulations are ripe for having one.

Shriketalon.1937:

Pyroatheist.9031:

The scepter autoattack SHOULD have a unique aspect that the clones can inherit.

The scepter autoattack SHOULD NOT have a condition.

Forcing hybridization on our weapons when we only have one ranged main hand choice is bad design. If we had a condition onslaught whip and a direct damage mainhand pistol, then sure, go nuts. But we don’t, and thus we can’t afford to pidgeonhole the scepter with a stat split.

All that’s only true is hybridization truly is weaker. That’s a big claim, and I challenge you to support it.

I offer my rebuttal
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8td7XyA1JU&feature=youtu.be

Mimic/Echo
Also can someone look at the skill icons for mimic and echo? They’re to similar. I often find myself forgetting ive got echo up, running into battle, firing the skill expecting Mimic, and seeing nothing happen because ive forgotten/confused the two,.

I did have a thought about scepter attack speed. Perhaps the solution isnt to increase the overall attack speed, but rather increase the rate of the attack chain. So the chain would be 3 very fast attacks (including bolt speed), with a pause between chains.

Currently it’s
—> attack —> attack --—> attack, —> attack —> attack --—> attack,

Instead make it
attack/attack/attack —-—>, attack/attack/attack —-—>

Clone production remains the same, but the damage and spawning of the clone are done in a quick burst.

Part of the problem with scepter has always been the chain reset, and the fact that targets moving behind your LOS cause the long attack channels to pause/interupt (its like a free interrupt :p). Also, if clones share this attack behavior, then it’ll help fix any clone death before 3rd attack hit/effect.

Valderro.6389:

For scepter clones there is two problems with them, they are the worse clone for applying conditions (with Dueling 15 Sharper Images, they don’t attack often enough or with a chain of skills) and they don’t do anything special unlike other clones that copy skill 1 on their respective weapons.

The clones should cast the exact same sequence as the mesmer, when they cast the 3rd skill of the chain they destroy themselves and appear beside the target, skill activated every 8-10 secs.

That would really combine the three traits that cause conditions on clone death into a unique build for mesmers i.e. a build that is especially punishing to stationary targets and really make the scepter into something special.

Even without the traits, clones that automatically recreate at the target every 10 secs would have a benefit for a shatter heavy build, with timing shatters when most or all your clones recreate at the target, something for an opponent to watch out for.

My one concern about everything being based on the scepter clones #3 auto attack is that you’ll never see it take effect. Why? Because I don’t know about you, but between scepter clone spawn, clone on block, clone on dodge, phantasm spawns, mirror images, decoy, and any other weapon skills that spawn clones, my scepter clones are dieing every few seconds. Not to mention my enemies aoe and melee swings are actively destroying my scepter clones constantly. The mythical third strike effect will never see the light of day.

Think about it. Two phantasms in play + one clone? That clone barely gets his first attack off before replacement.

JonPeters.5630:

Mimic
Last thought. This skill is for almost all intents and purposes just not working, but is causing some broken behavior with certain bosses. I would like to replace it with a complete redesign and am open to discussion on that as well.

Jon

Mimic

The problem with Mimic is the echo, and more importantly proccing the effect (It’s to unreliable, and I stand a better chance of proccing it off my own projectiles than the enemies. That said, I NEED staff+clones to manage it reliably). I really want to take it for a full manipulation set. But decoy (especially with PU), is just so much better. I need mimic to be a more appealing option.

Why not keep it simple. Drop the echo. Mimic is a 4 second channel that grants 4 seconds of retaliation, blocks all melee, and reflects all ranged attacks. It’s pretty much the same as it is now but swapping a retal boon for the echo effect.

To me, I could swap this out for decoy. Instead of 4 seconds of stealth + clone + PU boons (protection, regen, aegis), I’d get 4 seconds of block + passive offense. My enemies don’t get another annoying, dissapearing mesmer skill to play with. Instead they get to maintain their eyes on me the whole time, and are forced to think about their attack spam (whereas stealth promotes spam).

If nothing else, for the time being why not clean mimic up by keeping it more simple. Then later if you come up with something to make echo work, reintroduce it to the game.

(P.s the one thing I DO really love about Mimic is the 24 second cooldown. Whatever you do don’t make it something that’ll inflate that. I enjoy more active utilities over long standing cooldowns).

Edit:
Silly me, retal doesnt proc on block (thus a waste). Instead-

Mimic

30s CD
Breaks stun
Grants 4s Stability
4 second channel, reflects all ranged, blocks all melee. Counts the total number of hits, or blocks, and multiplies that times X (to a maximum of Y) for a single target ranged dps attack Echo effect post channel.

We lack stability options. Manipulations are ripe for having one. Also a zerg friendly option.

JonPeters.5630:

I think we have a pretty good understanding of the mesmer scepter auto attack problem. I would really like to design a chain of auto attacks here that end with something good, and then allow the clones generated from scepter to also do that thing. That being said, we are trying to avoid just condition spam overload with that weapon because that would be greatly compounded by clones spamming as well.

-So why not a 1 second chill on third attack for both mesmer and clones? That way multiple scepter clones left alone would become a mounting problem. It’s no additional damage from conditions, but it does generate a bit of a shutdown/blocking nitch to the weapon. It may also mitigate some of the chase/fleeing issue you get from other classes when the fight isn’t going their way.

-What about increasing direct damage? Third attack has 100% crit chance, and clones third benefits from mesmers power/crit for the same attack?

-Better yet, take the above power/crit idea and third attack is aoe blast damage, hits up to 5 targets in a 300 or some such.

-Scepter clones attacks bounce to mesmer, granting .5s aegis for rare additional block procs. Creates synergy with on block traits/runes (rune of guardian, retaliatory shield).

-Third attack causes 1s, or .5s stealth (both clones and mesmer). This would create a very confusing, misdirective engagement for people fighting a scepter mesmer and his clones. They’d all be disappearing/reappearing in quick succession.

Be inspired!

Reverence.6915:

Johje Holan.4607:

How is BG pounding SoR like that anyway?

Variety of factors including RL issues with some of SoR’s commanders, low morale and burnout. That, and BG fought hard after the weekend to catch up again. Saw many many NA players during my oceanic prime which was pleasantly surprising.

Because SoR’s CORE has always been about playing for fights. So in the second week, when SoR was dominating BG, players got bored and stopped logging in (there was no one to fight). Boredom is a moral issue btw, its just different than the typical presumed moral problem. So BG logged on in force, pulled ahead, and to be true to SoR’s usual approach to WvW, they couldn’t care less.

Now the PvDoor is running strong on BG while SoR feels more like the old days for those still logging in. Outnumbered, out coverage, and to top it off the third server is capitalizing on a strong double team effort.

The good news (which is kind of bad in a way) is that all roads lead to garrison, and we’ve been getting a heavy bag farm wiping BG when their giant blobs have had to funnel into a garrison gate. With situations like no supply, SoS camping our north camp, and nothing between loosing it all but bodies and commander tactics, the teamspeak is full of sickened laughter at just how bad the fights with BG are. “They’re so bad” is SoR’s current mantra.

So BG gets their PPT, and SoR gets their fights. To quote Jack Nicholson “Is this as good as it gets?”

hugemistake.5317:

Moon.6371:

Wow, kingcracus and hugemistake, you`re pretty good at making clear you`re either new to the game or just terribad. You know, there are classes, that have casttimes on 95% of their skills, autoattack included.

Try duelling a decent perplexity interrupt mesmer, thief or engi (with instant, undisplayed and in some cases spamable interrupts) with such a class and please fraps your great play to show the world how easy it is to counter.

I bet you guys never leave the cozyness of your blob to actually do some pvp in wvw, judging by your posts this is the only possible explanation for so much ignorance and trashtalk.

Best regards

No really, you need to L2P. Perplexity rune on a thief is cheasy, good players have no problem at all beating a perplexity thief. Engineers are able to stack 25 confusion without the rune. To be able to stack 25 confusion on someone with perplexity rune, you need to be interrupted 4-5 times in a few seconds. If it happens to you, you s*ck and deserve being downed by your opponent.

So I insist, L2P,

Regards

Your maths is bad. L2M?

The answer to this question is so simple I’m surprised it’s even being asked.

Time itself would stand still, and when it started again the entire fabric of time and space would implode on itself. The resulting reverberation will bring to life one single, unmeasurable truth. The Pink Butterfly.

Actually I imagine that they’d all set out from their destination, and after The Holy Hell build arrives and deals with the current situation, the other two builds would show up wondering why they didn’t bring swiftness and a long range blink.