Guild Wars 2

I think you’ve found a way to have good clone uptime without DE, which is good. However that lack of condi cleanse is going to get this build killed. What you don’t need is mirror images, so do the smart thing right now and swap it out for mantra cleanse.

Also how married to Krait runes are you? You could just bite the bullet and go Melandru, or Hoelbrak. That way you have -45% condi duration on cripple/chill/imob, which should keep you out of trouble (and you lose kitten all condition damage, not counting the applications). That way you can save your cleanses for burns or other condi bursts.

If you post the NA rally time I can make arrangements.

We did have a good OMFG PvP team raid thing going for a while. But the core bunch got busy with life, or just became slackers. I won’t name names

Chaos Archangel
Tealot
Warlord Chaos
Pyro
Su

+ others (You know who you are. SINNERS!)

Fnix.5608:

I’m looking at the ranged as the best choice.
- you are better equipped to place alacrity where you want it to be.
- and your phanthasm isn’t going to run into it’s death.

It should stay ranged, but the slow has to follow the attack and though should be tuned.
Some of the suggestions over are really good, but for the sake of calling it an avenger, let him throw the shield f.ex. a range of 900, when shield hits foe it does a bit of damage and proc an AoE slow. When the shield returns it proc AoE alacrity.
This way we could se some skilled counterplay by interrupting or blocking the phanthasms attack.

Way to miss the entire point of getting rid of ranged bouncing projectiles with an friendly buffing component to begin with -_-u

I presume you’re in PvE.

The good news for you is that in pve you’ll want your phgantasms to hang around, unless you’re bursting down trash mobs. The thing with mesmer is the class isn’t whole until you reach 80 and are fully traits + gear.

Other than that once HoT is out and Chronomancer you can get the best of both worlds by maintaining plants while shattering to a degree. Mes is the best class in this game by far and the only reason some people continue to play it.

There’s a lot of Mesmers running around these days and while I’m encountering them it’s harder to know where peoples Mesmers are at.

Whether it be PvE, PvP, or WvW, I’m curious what build you’re running, if you don’t mind sharing. Maybe a brief description of your role in your game mode?

Feeeeeed meeeee!

Ithilwen.1529:

This isn’t the place to ask, truthfully. Most of the builds and information are long outdated.

There is also a reticence about sharing. From my POV there’s a faction that believes that Mesmer should be elite and as hard to play as possible.

I’ve gleaned a few bits and pieces by watching youtube videos and then watching them again in slow motion. Watch at 25% speed and pay special attention to the exact sequence that skills are activated in.

I highly recommend Vash Bash and Osicat on youtube. Both are very helpful but the devil is in the details. Again, watch very closely the sequence and timing of skills.

Also, be careful who you disagree with on forum, no matter how sincere. You risk being ostracized if you do not.

Also, while I don’t agree with a lot of this, it is fair to say that a great Mesmer is an intuitive player. Becoming great with the Mesmer class does require a lot of time spent playing it, and attention to, and care with, detail.

Depending on weapons, traits, gear, mode (pve, pvp, wvw), utilities, solo/duo/group, power/condition, etc etc depends entirely on how your question is to be answered. “Mesmer” isnt just one thing you can summaries in a couple paragraphs.

For starters tell us what mode you’re playing in, and tell us what weapons you’re using. That’s a good cornerstone for advice on everything from build to tactics.

Cheers, Chaba The15bodylength.

Just wondering if/who is active on Fort Aspenwood during Oceanic?

Might aswell as if it has any EU or Sea too?

Any phantasm that has to be within 240 range of the target to land its effect is a dead, and thus usless phantasm.

Removing bounce is good.

Putting phantasms in melee range is bad. Worse even.

BTW, Mesmer are mid range duelists. WE don’t even go into the melee, and we have more HP’s. We’re going to get less of the effects than hoping for a bounce off an enemy.

Just a heads up, as of right now FA is open for transfers.

smithkt.8062:

What am I missing? OP wants to transfer to FA. FA is currently Very High, not Full, so transfer. Problem solved?

Oh look, it isnt closed. It was btw thus the inspiration for the thread. Looks like I’m good.

Still, the point behind the thread still stands. Like, what happens when I find moving to FA was a huge mistake and want to move to join friends on TC, BG, JQ, or YB :p

Tongku.5326:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Tongku.5326:

Ross Biddle.2367:

So currently with the way server populations are locked there’s no way to move between servers that’re already full. I know, dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

This means

• Friends/Guilds can’t consolidate on a single server that’s locked if they’re not already on it now.
• New players with friends on full servers can’t play with their friends (in WvW)
• The Coverage War issue is exasperated as full servers are closed to new players who might otherwise fill an empty time zone

The option we’ve been given as players is to move “down” to servers with available space, however this also means moving away from the action in many cases, not to mention friends, guilds, and allies. It also means moving away from servers where non dominant time zones are well represented and established (oceanic, EU, two examples that are present on a few servers but not most). Worse still is the prospect of some sort of organized shift in population, and the pop cap reaching its limit mid transfer and friends/guilds being cut off/split (they tore the Berlin wall down for a reason -_-u).

While there’s no easy fix given the current circumstances, I would like something like a Transfer Queue.

• This would allow a player to at least put himself into a position to transfer, even if he’d have to wait for other players to move off first (a “your place in queue” feature would be nice – the process could take weeks but that’s irrelevant).

• Guilds could do the same thing at the same time, or even in some sort of “as a guild” feature allowing for a combined, unified trasfer when space became available.

Personally I’d like to join friends/guildies who’re on another server that is currently locked so I can continue WvW activity with people I enjoy playing the game with, but there is no option open to me. I mean, I could try to make other friends on my current server, but to hell with that!

No.

What they need to do is drop the map caps on those full, so people actually destack, unfortunately they lack the balls for that.

to have a que system or add anything to one of those overstacked servers is right down idiotic. any and all efforts should go towards the ones that suffer from lack of players due to this overstacking, not helping them to overstack.

A server queue wouldn’t allow any more players to join a server over the current cap. It’d only allow players to move on to server X up to the cap – once those spaces become available.

Also, idiotic is expecting players to move to servers without any allie, or enemy presence. You can’t play where there’s no one to play with/against -_-u

Doesn’t matter. Any time or single line of code written in order to “help” T1 is too much of a waste and going in wrong direction. Again, impliment map cap sizes on full servers, destack.

Once you destack you will have people to play with / against, and you dont have to go to T8 or T7 or anything like that, you can pick T2, T3, maybe even T4 if small stuff is your cup-of-tea and you are not NA prime.

If you are NA prime then you have absolute zero right or credibility making such statements unless you are currently on T8 or T7.

A combination of destacking the top + shutting down the bottom 2 tiers would do absolute wonders for the entire game, and would do so immediately, without wait, without fail.

Yes there woudl be whining and QQ and some people would leave, but everyone that left there would be 2 or 3 returning players because now there would be actual fights throughout entire WvW. + new players being directed to servers other then full when expansion launches and not being stuck on bottom tiers would further improve things in the entire game.

Yeah… loving these replies and, again, the prejudice that’s leading you to totally miss your targets.

I’m currently in T2, the leading T2 server (Tarnished Coast), and I’m wanting to move to the lowest ranking T2 server (as it just so happens to be). I’m also Oceanic, playing from New Zealand.

Really though all of this is beside the point seeing as the way things are set up I’m locked out of playing with my friends/allies/guildies with no way to overcome the issue. What time zone or server I’m on or wanting to move to is irrelevant.

As long as the ranger contributes it’s all good.

On the other hand, this is Ranked play vs a team with 3 rangers.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0dsUvOnOiI

Pretty standard experience from my PoV.

Anastasis.7258:

Without any CD reset, I called it a 1v2 (Not really but it’s a dream). Use this video to show how zerker warrior can be a high risk/high reward setup if played well. Nothing offensive to players in this video, they are all good players.

http://www.twitch.tv/tarcisanastasis/v/16055447

The dream is arrived bois! (DD Ele still so OP!)

http://www.twitch.tv/tarcisanastasis/v/16056639
Another 1v2 vod if people enjoyed the vod above.

:D

If it’s not uploaded on youtube, it didnt happen.

As a mesmer main I find dodging to be an effective means at avoiding my damage.

When playing Ultimate Killshot warrior, I utilize this same method when facing stealthing burst mesmers.

I know, it sounds unorthodox, but it works.

SunDrop.4897:

Still tweaking the build?

Don’t know exactly what Guapo is running but here’s what I run

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNArfRlsnhG1YZawINwtGLvGk5KG+IKnQvjGaAa+RA-TlyEABGcEAoU9nkUGolSwBOBAQp07hDBga6DA4BAI3+DkCAmtAA-w

You taken a break Nevhie? Your play looked a little rusty.

Anyway, I like the editing on this vid. The build “feature” highlights at the start, they weren’t a major but I liked it.

FYI, you can purchase accessories with guild accommodations, you need 12, so you can make yourself a savings.

Final bump for final entries.

Kolompi has it right, generic shatter build leaves you wanting.

To help overcome the deficient I go the shatter lockdown route. Using mental anguish with CS stuns from MoD price you can assure the landing of your burst with the extra punch you’ll need to get penetration beyond that last 10% HP. If you do fall short dropping your iZerker with a swap to pistol stun + iDuelist can give you some follow up burst/lockdown the torch just will not allow.

An ele might live to face another burst but locking an ele out of his skills with hard CC is a hard biscuit for them to eat.

Finally though, best to +1 on them with this approach as they can’t survive a 2v1 under such burst and heavy CC.

Tongku.5326:

Ross Biddle.2367:

So currently with the way server populations are locked there’s no way to move between servers that’re already full. I know, dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

This means

• Friends/Guilds can’t consolidate on a single server that’s locked if they’re not already on it now.
• New players with friends on full servers can’t play with their friends (in WvW)
• The Coverage War issue is exasperated as full servers are closed to new players who might otherwise fill an empty time zone

The option we’ve been given as players is to move “down” to servers with available space, however this also means moving away from the action in many cases, not to mention friends, guilds, and allies. It also means moving away from servers where non dominant time zones are well represented and established (oceanic, EU, two examples that are present on a few servers but not most). Worse still is the prospect of some sort of organized shift in population, and the pop cap reaching its limit mid transfer and friends/guilds being cut off/split (they tore the Berlin wall down for a reason -_-u).

While there’s no easy fix given the current circumstances, I would like something like a Transfer Queue.

• This would allow a player to at least put himself into a position to transfer, even if he’d have to wait for other players to move off first (a “your place in queue” feature would be nice – the process could take weeks but that’s irrelevant).

• Guilds could do the same thing at the same time, or even in some sort of “as a guild” feature allowing for a combined, unified trasfer when space became available.

Personally I’d like to join friends/guildies who’re on another server that is currently locked so I can continue WvW activity with people I enjoy playing the game with, but there is no option open to me. I mean, I could try to make other friends on my current server, but to hell with that!

No.

What they need to do is drop the map caps on those full, so people actually destack, unfortunately they lack the balls for that.

to have a que system or add anything to one of those overstacked servers is right down idiotic. any and all efforts should go towards the ones that suffer from lack of players due to this overstacking, not helping them to overstack.

A server queue wouldn’t allow any more players to join a server over the current cap. It’d only allow players to move on to server X up to the cap – once those spaces become available.

Also, idiotic is expecting players to move to servers without any allie, or enemy presence. You can’t play where there’s no one to play with/against -_-u

DresdenAllblack.1249:

That’s because too many people are riding the coat tails of the monster servers. Like. Your. Friends.

When the going gets tough, dig your heels in instead of buying gems and fleeing.

My server loses every single week. The challenge is daunting, but only the weak or selfish depart.
By the way, if they were your ‘friends’ they would never have split.

This is funny. I’ve been on SoR in the days leading up to, and during it’s T1 stint in which it was the underdog vs the overstacked BG and JQ. Then TC when the exodus of SoR guilds occurred, remaining in T1- still the lower populated of the three.

Now I want to transfer to Fort Aspenwood which, as I understand it, is the reigning champion for worst of T2. No, I don’t have a thing for playing the underdog server, I just want to join friends/guildies there.

So yeah, if you can move beyond your prejudices for a second, this isnt about trying to move to overstacked easy-win servers. It’s about customer satisfaction. Simple as that.

Oh, and just so you know, the friends I met via another guild. I’ve never WvW’d with them, but I’d like to.

Edit: Oh not to mention, other friends new to the game (joining a server for the first time) can’t even join me on my current server since it’s locked. There’s also no point moving to another server that’s open to join them since that only further exasperates the problem of not being able to consolidate with others I’m already looking to play with -_-u.

Dondagora.9645:

Ross Biddle.2367:

The name. No seriously, that name.

The stroke?

Soft… ’lock?

Stroking is an accepted method of curing softness to be sure -_-u

Oh, well, that wasn’t my intention, but I guess that’s a fine interpretation as well.

So what you’re saying is, it’s so deep rooted in your psyche that it leaks out of your pours and into all your creative procee’.

I approve, and would like to subscribe to your magazine.

Eponet.4829:

Windwalker.7421:

lol! Now you’re just getting silly. No good reason? Assertion? DE has been a requirement for shatter builds for the entire game’s existence! This is a fact shared by pretty much anyone who has ever had a clue about any form of shatter-based Mesmer play. People have time and again tried to create Shatter builds that didn’t take DE, but they all failed miserably in presenting these builds as being competitive/viable. Do you deny this?

Wasn’t the harmonious mantras trait, that’s incompatible with deceptive evasion nerfed due to PvP shatter builds?

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_Mantra_Shatter

Even the elitist website still considers it good, even after the nerfs.

Ehh, since the trait changes shatter without DE is possible. That’s thanks to IP for one, and the rate of which we can generate clones to shatter across various builds now.

Tao.1234:

Ross Biddle.2367:

I had a match last night, 3 eles and a mes on my team, with me as a Mes main. Before the match begun I had to DC because my kid woke up. After dealing with her logged back in, entered the match late, and we still won 500-100 -_-u

Oh yeah, because there is no way that enemy team is made of bad players.

Enemy team is always filled with good players and they lose only because of some Rune, sigil or cat’s sneeze.

Since it was ele daily, I was actually really worried I might have a team full of kitten ing ele alts.

I know I like to kitten with a full zerk staff ele somtimes ;D

Still, ele op, nerf diamond skin, nerf burning stacks, ticks, sustain, remove cele ammy, nerf cc, might stacking, etc.

So currently with the way server populations are locked there’s no way to move between servers that’re already full. I know, dumb dumb dumb dumb dumb.

This means

• Friends/Guilds can’t consolidate on a single server that’s locked if they’re not already on it now.
• New players with friends on full servers can’t play with their friends (in WvW)
• The Coverage War issue is exasperated as full servers are closed to new players who might otherwise fill an empty time zone

The option we’ve been given as players is to move “down” to servers with available space, however this also means moving away from the action in many cases, not to mention friends, guilds, and allies. It also means moving away from servers where non dominant time zones are well represented and established (oceanic, EU, two examples that are present on a few servers but not most). Worse still is the prospect of some sort of organized shift in population, and the pop cap reaching its limit mid transfer and friends/guilds being cut off/split (they tore the Berlin wall down for a reason -_-u).

While there’s no easy fix given the current circumstances, I would like something like a Transfer Queue.

• This would allow a player to at least put himself into a position to transfer, even if he’d have to wait for other players to move off first (a “your place in queue” feature would be nice – the process could take weeks but that’s irrelevant).

• Guilds could do the same thing at the same time, or even in some sort of “as a guild” feature allowing for a combined, unified trasfer when space became available.

Personally I’d like to join friends/guildies who’re on another server that is currently locked so I can continue WvW activity with people I enjoy playing the game with, but there is no option open to me. I mean, I could try to make other friends on my current server, but to hell with that!

Vapour.7348:

meow one twenty.4376:

abc.5790:

what I’d really like to see is a buff on the classes that are trailing behind.

Power creeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep. Buff the necessary, nerf the necessary. No one should be good at everything.

You know it’s interesting how everyone on the team already feels spent and deflated before match begins when facing a team with 2 or more eles than you have.

I had a match last night, 3 eles and a mes on my team, with me as a Mes main. Before the match begun I had to DC because my kid woke up. After dealing with her logged back in, entered the match late, and we still won 500-100 -_-u

abc.5790:

Let me remind you that the devs do not nerf, they gut.

Gut away.

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Ross Biddle.2367:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Silverkey.2078:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Assuming decent duration, resistance is vastly superior to removal because

• It has no condi limit

• It can be activated preemptively or retroactively.

• It provides a superior gameplay mechanic, the details of which are far more superior a topic for here :)

I accept the argument. It is basically immunity to conditions for at least 3s (assuming it ticks 1s resistance), which is particularly strong against burst conditions like burning, which to be honest is the main condition you want to avoid.

I guess I was still locked in the mindset that during BWE1 I used the trait to remove conditions on wells which I missed a lot in BWE2 (I had to use null field).

I run signit heal on my kshot war, no defensive line, zerker shout, rifle sw/wh. When the kitten hits the fan, im getting focused, dumped with condi’s and burst hard, activating that signit grants 5s of resistance which allows me to shrug off not just the damage condi’s, but all that imob, cripple, chill, etc so I can leap out of the fray and make for a hidey hole.

It’s a really, really great feeling mechanically.

But is the 3s you’d get from the Well enough, esp since you’ve gotta sit in the well to get it?

It needs to be on activation, otherwise it might as well be a passive proc, not utilized in any meaningful, intentionally skillful way (You’re just hoping it happens to do something). If activating it retroactively you already have the well cast time in the way, which could be under the effect of slow for all you know. Currently instant cleanse skills are the only way to go in terms of cleansing play. Cast times are death. Waiting 3 seconds in a well for resistance is to little to late. Also, increasing how much resistance you’d get won’t change this fact.

Resistance is clutch. The race will be lost if you don’t get into gear in a timely fashion :p

I meant in terms of replacing Vigor, as it gives vigor with every pulse. It starts when activated just like Time Warp, but just like TW you need to stay in the well for the duration to get the full benefit.
They’re pretty attached to the pulses doing something in our wells, I don’t think they’re likely to just put the entire resistance at the front.

1s resistance pulsing for 3 seconds would be fine. That’d give you (counterable) condition resistance (since they’re still applied, and resistance can be stripped, or the caster removed from the well) for the duration, meaning you could tank and “sustain” a fight on a point under various forms of assault.

If they wanted to be really nice they’d give baseline 1.5s resistance on pulse for 3 s :p

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Silverkey.2078:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Assuming decent duration, resistance is vastly superior to removal because

• It has no condi limit

• It can be activated preemptively or retroactively.

• It provides a superior gameplay mechanic, the details of which are far more superior a topic for here

I accept the argument. It is basically immunity to conditions for at least 3s (assuming it ticks 1s resistance), which is particularly strong against burst conditions like burning, which to be honest is the main condition you want to avoid.

I guess I was still locked in the mindset that during BWE1 I used the trait to remove conditions on wells which I missed a lot in BWE2 (I had to use null field).

I run signit heal on my kshot war, no defensive line, zerker shout, rifle sw/wh. When the kitten hits the fan, im getting focused, dumped with condi’s and burst hard, activating that signit grants 5s of resistance which allows me to shrug off not just the damage condi’s, but all that imob, cripple, chill, etc so I can leap out of the fray and make for a hidey hole.

It’s a really, really great feeling mechanically.

But is the 3s you’d get from the Well enough, esp since you’ve gotta sit in the well to get it?

It needs to be on activation, otherwise it might as well be a passive proc, not utilized in any meaningful, intentionally skillful way (You’re just hoping it happens to do something). If activating it retroactively you already have the well cast time in the way, which could be under the effect of slow for all you know. Currently instant cleanse skills are the only way to go in terms of cleansing play. Cast times are death. Waiting 3 seconds in a well for resistance is to little to late. Also, increasing how much resistance you’d get won’t change this fact.

Resistance is clutch. The race will be lost if you don’t get into gear in a timely fashion :p

The name. No seriously, that name.

The stroke?

Soft… ’lock?

Stroking is an accepted method of curing softness to be sure -_-u

Silverkey.2078:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Assuming decent duration, resistance is vastly superior to removal because

• It has no condi limit

• It can be activated preemptively or retroactively.

• It provides a superior gameplay mechanic, the details of which are far more superior a topic for here

I accept the argument. It is basically immunity to conditions for at least 3s (assuming it ticks 1s resistance), which is particularly strong against burst conditions like burning, which to be honest is the main condition you want to avoid.

I guess I was still locked in the mindset that during BWE1 I used the trait to remove conditions on wells which I missed a lot in BWE2 (I had to use null field).

I run signit heal on my kshot war, no defensive line, zerker shout, rifle sw/wh. When the kitten hits the fan, im getting focused, dumped with condi’s and burst hard, activating that signit grants 5s of resistance which allows me to shrug off not just the damage condi’s, but all that imob, cripple, chill, etc so I can leap out of the fray and make for a hidey hole.

It’s a really, really great feeling mechanically.

Kageseigi.2150:

Ah, I’ve only seen the previews! I’ll have to check it out! Thanks!

Haha, but I always enjoyed watching Kelly’s Heroes! :-D

The fight in question

It is actually 3 v 1 (if you exclude the 4th taken out at the start).

Zenith.7301:

No. No more interrupt traits, these are terrible for PvE.

You do realize mesmer interrupts are on longish cooldowns besides the offhand sword offhand and don’t work on mobs with defiance bars, right?

People take damage in PvE? What do you even need healing for?

Silverkey.2078:

Seize the moment: also works with IP (but possibly reduce the quickness per illusion)

About well of eternity: I would have preferred some condi removal, but resistance is next best (and allows not to step too much on null field).

Assuming decent duration, resistance is vastly superior to removal because

• It has no condi limit

• It can be activated preemptively or retroactively.

• It provides a superior gameplay mechanic, the details of which are far more superior a topic for here :)

meow one twenty.4376:

Hi Kaishina!

Um, your post took so many strange directions that I don’t know what to say. Sorry about the hacker thing… Hope you come back with a bang!

Which, hopefully, isnt the sound of your CPU exploding as it loads up GW2 or something..

I go through entire matches, coming out the other side with absolutely no idea of who I just played with/against.

Mechanically I think of rifle as ranged (touch) melee attacks when I’m playing. Like with a GS or sword I just have to be within the range limit.

No its not ideal but ohwell.

Hey, if an Anet dev comes down to the gun range with you and goes back with some fresh new ideas, will rifle attacks have to start accounting for crosswinds etc too? :D

I run Ultimate Killshot War in PvP. Zerk ammy, rifle sword/warhorn. Strength, arms, discipline. All sigs + berserker stance. Role is roaming DPS.

I feel defense is a waste if you can handle engagements and use your tools appropriately. Whenever coming up against a war running a similar build but with defense, I can easily beat them despite the defensive lines effects coming into play. I’m a mesmer main since release so the gameplay is suited to me I feel. I’ve only ever played U-Kshot War on my war :p

I run sigil of speed BTW. On sword/scepter in wvw, and sometimes on both sets in PvP. Good synergy with pack runes also.

Btw: However you answer can radically altar the piramaters with which you can generate your build. Thus why going to metabattle is for dorks and you can get much more finely tuned advice here :)

For WvW? Is this roaming, large scale, or small group?

Condi, power, or hybrid preferences?

For true fans

Kelthien.8593:

Just wanted to say I loved the vids! I had a great time with a similar build in group WvW and can’t wait to step in to PvP and try yours out.

The second group vid was “private” so I couldn’t see, but since it’s such a group-supportive build, first one was fantastic.

I’m really surprised how often folks stood in the shield stun wave and the wells. I wonder how much practice and display fixes (the big noticeable clock hands don’t always display…) will change the performance of the build.

Until then… I dig it

Avoiding that first shield wave might be (relatively) easy, but once you’re caught in it that second one comes back and reks you unless you take appropriate action.

I think the thing is, unlike so many other stun based attacks, the associated animation lets it just come out of nowhere. The wave is the only real thing you see.

DUUUUUBE! I’ve got a two day weekend. Stop whatever it is you’re with your life that you think is important, and lets get some PvP on.

When you get your chrono back in your hands, you should dump that alacrity on my kshot war.

Curunen.8729:

apharma.3741:

As for PU, it’s fine as is. It’s a GM, build defining trait which is exactly what ANet wanted. It wasn’t fine at +1 second as only 1 build in 1 game mode ever took it. Before the boon nerf power builds could take it for the guarantee of something defensive when they stealth, afterwards it was not worth it at all which is why they went for IP as being able to use distortion whenever was more viable.

It wasn’t commonly taken because we didn’t have access to 3 full traitlines simultaneously, and IP required using 6 or 30 points in Illusions.

People even tried before to run shatter builds without DE in order to go 6 points in Chaos and 6 points in Illusions, because even at +1second with the boons it was very strong and almost worth the sacrifice of DE.

Now it [PU] is pretty much a free choice, no sacrifice needed.

It didn’t need buffing at all.

Shatter without IP or DE was completely unviable and not even worth taking Chaos pre patch simply for PU. An investment into Chaos was ONLY verging on worth while when taking the ENTIRE package into account. You got manipulation range or cd, can’t remember which, chaotic dampening, regen at 75% health, protection on regen proc, a bucketload of toughness, AND then PU on top of that (which was only +1 second… come on).

Others were more interested in getting at Chaotic Interruption.

Embolism.8106:

I think it’s because the thief/rogue archtype: hiding in stealth and bursting enemies down in an instant: naturally attracts players who like to win without effort.

Is this why the #1 played class in GW2 is ele, and you see ele’s in multiple figures holding down capture points?

Noss.4105:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Come to think of it, where are the 3 illusions coming from for this super-mind wrack combo? Mirror Blade gives 1, but this build is Dom/Illusions/Chaos, it doesn’t have DE to make a dodge clone…

The combo is usually done with 1 clone. And why the build has to be dom/chaos/illu instead of dom/duel/chaos?

It doesn’t. That said, a 1 clone MR might not be enough damage -_-u

As for MoD, if we’re gonna talk “meta” builds there’s no room for it after decoy, blink, and portal D:

Even then, you only have 2 MoD charges, and even if you land a burst with those two after that you have the mantra on CD + recharge time when you can get to it. Thief has his backstab whenever stealthed.