Guild Wars 2

Hi Bill,

Upon reattempting the storyline I managed to complete the second phase and the whole portion of the quest without any other bugs coming up, it’s playable again. Thank you for your support!

That’s not the concern the “iMage”, stealth in it’s self is really strong and if a mesmer can run this said exploit he can outlast many of the opposition team’s stealth parties which is very important in pressure gameplay (GvG) therefore a mesmer can sit back with an extra stealth skill and out manoeuvre the opposition. There are many bugs similar to this such as the thief sw 2+jump combo or the ranger blast bug, but stealth is a key component to GvGs, and The Prestige does stack with smoke blast fields so you are looking at a very strong stealth potential which will break down the ability of other focus teams to compete even if they are running different traits or set ups.

We all know that this trait is overpowered when coupled with PU, however I noticed while running with my focus party is if you stand in the blasted smoke field, and activate your The Prestige see the cooldown melt as 2 separate instance of stealth cuts it down massively, hopefully Anet will look into this but didn’t expect it to be used in this manner!

Haha same problem, and I thought it was an ongoing bug thing lol
Yeah please fix ^^

The wvw build options are very open, it does feel a little weak without chaos as it is so easy to get out of yucky situations without it. I do prefer Dom[1,1,2/3]/chaos[3,1,2]/illusion[3,1,2](or dueling[2,1/3,3]), with MoD, blink, Ether Feast, Decoy and MassInv. Weapons are gs + sw/t. Pledge is next to godlike with this set up and your main burst is either of swleap>sw2 combo, or you standard gs burst opener. Runes are of Traveler and the Sigils are gs[Fire and Air] sw[Fire] torch[bloodlust]. I currently run a more condi cleanse with illusions/chaos/dueling which is also very strong and survivable but you trade it off for a stun but you are more flexible. Hope this help and the way I laid it out was not to confusing. If you have more questions contact me on my username

This was the best shatter i have landed so far post patch ^^ (combat log)

Well, I am seeing a lot of what is going on here new people trying their hand at mesmer and let me talk a little about landing shatters. As previously mentioned shatter skills have 4 tones, burst damage (F1), Condi damage (F2), Stun/lockdown/animation breaker(Thief kitten/dag2 combo)(warrior hamburst) (F3), Invuln (F4). The general idea when shattering is waiting for an opening, if you are up against a clever target that sees you coming expect a few dodges thrown in to break your combo. Make sure you count the enemies dodges to see if they performed any and to check if their evades are on a cooldown. Running the meta, Stealth > gs2(MoD) > F1 > gs3 > Finish off, this is sufficient burst to bring down a target.

Shatter skills should be used in moderation, especially your F3 and F4 because sometimes having some clones out on the field helps you confuse your opponent. Try not to shatter with your opponent a sizable distance from you but more with your illusions on your target. I emphasize do not use blink in spvp to close a gap between yourself and your gs2 because this leaves a very mobile skill on cd which sometimes when up against a condi engi can be very hurtful if you blink right on top of him. Shattering is all about timing your plays and knowing when and when not to open, practise this and you can build onto it and expand your proficiency with shattering.

Well, now people start crying because mesmer is doing more damage than it did in the past and it’s a ‘problem’. Mesmer is a profession that is supposed to be along with thieves a high-burst potential class, it has improved that potential through definite skills. The reason why Confounding Suggestions and other traits that seem “overpowered” have been buffed is because (as playing mesmer for a while now) developers wanted to make the damage and gameplay potential brought out by mesmer not a maybe. What do I mean by this? Firstly mesmer is, if not already one of the more difficult classes to master in spvp/wvw and requires lots of time and practise to perfect combinations. These said combinations can easily fall apart if things are left up to RnG so somewhere a middle ground must be found and mesmers need the ability to have a guaranteed lockdown ability, not a charge into combat and not having it all left up to a possibility. Many of the mechanics of mesmer gameplay are left up to a possibility and is why it made no spot in the previous meta, well maybe now it’s time to let them have a shot at having a slot or core role in tpvp.

Really cool vid! Nice to see this, I’ll be there next time ^^

+1, Caused hours of game play, sleep deprivation and insomnia. A must play profession. 10/10

I would honestly suggest creating a stun chance as it used to be and increase the ICD, not MoD rofl rek build, now every other “mesmers are kitten” before are just rolling a level 2 scrub and running around like a brainless nitwit mashing keys, this irritates me especially because like many other fellow mesmers we have to conserve cool downs or face the consequences. When playing other classes I realise how unbalanced my main mesmer is. It is slightly different for WvW with larger spaces, but the thing with mesmer is, if you can’t run, you’re dead and that is not what mesmer is about. We are all about deception and timing. Now frankly… Practically a ranged thief with instant stuns.

Lol, it’s alright will all change for sure then we complain again!

Definitely illusions as Fencer’s Finesse is excellent, similarly in domination of inspiration are good traits for hitting hard and sustainably.

Yes confirmed. It doesn’t stack, especially when it crits, don’t forget that the bleed is a chance on iduelist not guaranteed.

Upon testing I also find that the might is still awarded if you pre-emptively end your attack.

Strength, to be honest pack is more pvp orientated same as scholar for burst damage although I think scholar is still viable which gs with strength is still bliss Hope it helps!

It has a very modern feel like Divinity’s Reach with the washed marble with a borderline greco-roman influence, really liked it. Spent the whole of the first hour of the game flying around in my magic carpet observing the map, just goes to show what hardwork creates, Anet can be proud!

It’s a change, it will balance, but last patch was not viable in my opinion as one whole profession was being left out from the meta game and it was just becoming boring. Don’t hate the changes, find a way to beat them as best you can and at the end of the day you have achieved something. Goodluck and see you in theory crafting.

Levetty.1279:

When you first create any glamour nearby allies within the glamour radius

This makes it fairly useless for portal, feedback and veil since you only get the speed/resistance if you are in the glamour when its made and thus probably only effects 5 allies. On portal the buffs will be gone by the time the Mesmer makes the second portal which will be nowhere near you, feedback will most likely be cast at distance but can still be used at close range so its can get the benifit sometimes and veil is a little strip so will be hard for your allies to get the benefit. 2 seconds longer on them will be nice of course but that isn’t GM trait worthy.

The trait is good for null field and time warp but not exactly build defining.

Upon testing I found the sad apparent truth so yes, it isn’t worth it but could have had potential if the mechanic was changed to upon entering the field once.

Here is the build as is

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VS;4VPk0197sU-71;9;4STU;0056258237;4Lwl3L;1m9fgm9fgs-Fi2rgG;3EbE6FbF6GbGb-kVJN2s;5cW5PcW5P;9;9;9;9;0k072;1VGV8w

This could definitely use more tweaks and changes when HoT comes out and after some hotfixes. The aim is to chase down targets and to close distance between enemies easily which Veil/Decoy allows you to do as well as supporting the zerg. I like this build because it still has a very good emphasis on powershatter from the previous patch and has a flexible weapon selection to work with. PU not taken solely for DPS but more for closing gaps and escaping, while also supplying veil and Mass Invis to the commander.

Traveller over Strength?
Movement due to less stealth as torch is absent. Torch I don’t feel is very viable in focus parties any more and more so in condi-roamer, damage can be set up in a package with s/p + gs. Short boon uptime (PU) helps with Chaos Minor trait and also Dueling Minor as well Imagined Burden.

Furious Interruptions over Shattered Concentration?
When I interrupt I like to follow up with burst (we all do:P), ie. Pistol 5(fast phantasm before or after) < sw3->Leap >sw2. } *Note: May your interrupt hit you then have a successful ~15k burst on the target.

Imagined Burden?
Why not :P Might and Cripple, what more do you want on a gs.

Fencer’s Finesse over Blinding Dissipation?
Sword cooldown reduced making it more flexible. The ferocity is nice for proccing crits and can be used to find hiding thieves, slashing around and the Ff procs will tell you about their location. Also good burst potential with sw2 and very easy to stack.

Condi cleanse?
PU and chaos tree covers most of it. Focus is usually about taking out the target in one burst rotation.

All in all I find it a very well rounded build for myself and look forward to contribution from ya’ll

At the moment I am running with one thief which isn’t much support but it’s still helpful and fun as we are a dynamic duo.

No problem here I find it works when you wait for the evades, it would be a bit unfair otherwise. I can’t say that I have experienced similarly with that bug.

It’s high, waaaaayyy high, will be brought down most probably but I was hitting today in pvp a solid 3,5k – 4,5k per illusion. Highlight was a 4,6k interrupt on bunker engi >:D

So theory crafting, theory crafting… Until I stumbled upon the fact that mesmers apparently are the only profession (along with engis) that provide resistance when casting Glamours, the trait reads as follows:

• Temporal Enchanter: Glamour skills last an additional 2 seconds. When you first create any glamour nearby allies within the glamour radius gain 2 seconds of superspeed and 3 seconds of resistance.

Keeping in mind that it is made up of old Temporal Enchanter, while Glamour Mastery has become baseline.

What does this allow?

• Veil: Super fast engagements in WvW, with immunity to marks put down by necros and other AoE conditions.

• Null-field: Adds a bonus to the fact that it already cleanses, and provides a possible escape mechanism when retreating or when wanting to turn the fight.

• Feedback: Useful for point fights, where control is key and incoming stacking conditions could become a negligible interference for said period of time.

• Time Warp: This is my personal favourite and I think when playing in a downhill situation this will really help level the playing field or even sway it to your team’s advantage.

• Portal: Sneaky portal engagements which will be harder to counter than before due to superspeed and resistance on BOTH sides of the portal. ~4sec Superspeed ~6sec Resistance.

My only concerns are:

Necros they obviously have Well of Corruption, this can be played around with or baited out. Necromancer traits such as Curses: V (Path Of Corruption), although this is single target it is still an example of how necros can combat boons and conversion. The counterpart of Resistance is chill, which can be chaotic for a zerg and even more so for a mesmer. Important to notice is resistance has a direct connection to it’s counterpart, chill, therefore if converted to a condition can be reverted back to it’s original boon, this can be seen as a bonus as conversions have been standardized.

Of course kittenmesmers, which also have the ability to strip boons quite easily.

Cooldowns, glamours have always had a long cooldown reset even with the baseline it is very underwhelming and this could make it a single round engagement fight which would require your guild to adjust similarly.

Don’t forget Signet of Inspiration

Are they viable again, if not how so? Looking forward to your feedback! (pardon the pun)

My opinion is as always the same. No we don’t need a nerf. Mesmer has been complaining for a long time since, and this patch provides mesmers a chance to be on par with the other classes. Prior to this and in the patch I don’t see kitten as having an easy time in condi clearing so most definitely we will see a condi meta come out from the other professions.

The developers have realised that mesmer is always being forced to trait 6 into illusions to be at least viable in tpvp, this was stated by the main developer in charge of editing mesmers and is why so many of the Illusion’s trait tree was made baseline along with other long cooldowns being adjusted which mesmers suffer from ie. (no cooldowns=technically dead).

I go into the upcoming patch with an open mind and whatever will become too strong will obviously be changed but the developers have said that they tested many of the mechanics and gameplay and adjustments were made accordingly. Whatever changes that should be made after Tuesday, come what may, I would still like mesmers finally to have a meta which can compete with the other professions in the PvX environment.

Could you clarify? I don’t understand what you are saying here…

I see lockdown becoming a part of the powershatter game play and adding insult to injury with mental anguish + Confounding Suggestions and the like. This patch will create a new era for mesmers, where we will most probably see a condilockdown meta/powershatterlockdown. I am excited for the changes being made and the different ways in which the devs have encouraged areas of mesmer gameplay (glamour/mantra etc.) and FINALLY classifying the Elites as different types of skills I don’t think it will make mesmer as a profession easier to play as interrupting someone has always been and will always stay, difficult. Cheers!

Mimic will still see a major change being brought to point gameplay and other escape mechanisms which we have a shortage on!

Cutting the crap and talking constructive for bit here:

To be honest with you Photinous power shatter works. It’s all about waiting for the right MB opening which spells the thief’s doom so I would suggest practising with a friend or other thieves. I don’t think asking thieves to get worse is an option but just improve your game play, as mesmers I would say we have the highest skill cap in the game, so it is really easy to f-up and look bad while the thief hits steal and “2’s” you to death then /laughs because he thinks it was skilfully played. Counters to thieves, they exist in the form of lockdown and condi, but I don’t like condi because I would not do to someone which I don’t want unto myself and lockdown, well… it’s solid but I prefer power shatter as I know where the damage is coming from

I was also in the same predicament as you sometime back, I watched some youtubers such as My Face Is Pi (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCc4K1jcAgShsKwniX-dTD8g) if you shuffle through some of his/her videos you will find a good video where he/she vs’s thieves and shows you some useful tips as a shatter mesmer in wvw using GS + sw/t which is also viable in spvp in my opinion. I have learnt a lot from these videos and I would personally like to thank My Face Is Pi for them and every day I learn something different about my profession and that is why I enjoy it so much.

To sum it up with thieves you have up to three cases:

• Thief sees you first (stealth) > Mesmer unaware
• Thief sees Mesmer = Mesmer sees thief (usually the case in spvp)
• Thief unaware < Mesmer sees thief first (stealth)

Generally the fight will go the thief’s way but it can be easily turned because thieves tend to be careless against mesmer and will have fun killing you :P. Punish them for it, as it is most satisfactory landing a successful mirrorblade+F1 on a thief and having them downed in one go. Remember they have a low health trait (WvW) which throws down smoke and they are safe, follow the mirrorblade if they go down that fast to see their position and mindstab in proximity, then take out sw/t (have sigil of fire on) Helps find the darn bug, and voila. This is an ideal situation but the odds are always in the thief’s favour and will be forever. Just practise some openers similar to this and you should have it sewn up.

I don’t discount condi or lockdown which are two extremely powerful builds vs thieves situationally, but I find that knowing what thieves do, almost every single one of them, is the key to beating them because some of their combo+finishers are just too strong and can be beaten. I am not going to rant about how unfair the match up is but mesmers have good odds at winning and I think it will change in the upcoming patch with an almost “Next Gen-Shatter/Lockdown” which looks sweet so I sit here with bated breath!

I absolutely agree with you. Many of the people I have come across in the game are like “never learnt it” “too difficult” whereas when I switch to another class it is more or less easily learnt. I guess the thing with mesmers are, and this has been stressed rigorously over and over again, is that mesmers are a difficult class to master and takes many hours to play proparly. The rewards for playing well eg. 6 clone shatter line up or positioning, is just one of the hallmarks as to why people who do make their mind up about a mesmer as a main, stay mesmers for life practically. The class just has some down sides to it, but it makes it a fun challenge in the class as you can take them on, the mesmer allows us to do that (and we are constantly making new builds :P). The variation of patterns (shatters) in a fight that you can dish out have endless combinations and reasons as to why you would do so. The mesmer I have found has the unique ability to adjust its offence and defence in a fight and can easily oscillate between these two due to its versatile weapon skills and slot skills I find, but that’s just me

For the rest I love the profession 10/10 and can’t wait for HoT!!

In my opinion down to the mathematics they would hit around the same amount if (xmesmer) was hitting from far away. Although for all intensive purposes it really comes down to play style as I find for myself to move from IP to just a usual shatter takes some adjustment.

Although IP persona is useful in the sense that it provides a strong nuke, and it is what mesmers excel at with a iZerker, 2, Blink, Dodge F1 rotation for example.

Chaos!!!! Elementalist can also use shield, and that one isn’t even a just offhand, it has a full skill range.

I rate the phantasm will be something like a aura which is creates absorbing/blocking attacks and exploding/shattering a percentage of or the damage it received, or even at a certain threshold (This could encourage mesmer point defense play). What type of damage it will be confusion or raw I have no idea, but I guess it won’t just be a CC skill but also a block sort of skill in the form of a phantasm which shields all tend to have.

This is all speculation but it would be cool to see it implemented.

I do feel that the mesmer meta has sat a little static within its comfort zone, but other classes develop and move onto different pastures so it is only suiting that we must follow-up.

Some questions surrounding the issue and problems I would try to draw attention to on a more social level.

What has made people stick with Shatter builds for so long, is it fondness and mastery over the build which allow/ed/s players to push it to it’s maximum potential i.e trait variants, slot skill changes or is it time for a change in reaction to the cele-meta, if so is there a layman’s build that does well against this?

Nevertheless, should a Shatter Vs Lockdown/CI debate cross out development on either of the builds as its place in spvp/wvwvw or should players play with what they feel most comfortable with?

Really like it, works nicely with smaller groups to be honest as it is lockdown but I really like the nuking capabilities of the build as well as the stun and the creative aspect that was put into its creation Big + from me!

Xylith.4873:

I haven’;t played for a while, just came back after like a 10 month or so break. Back when I was playing, the Phantasm build was quite popular, I really enjoyed it, but I’ve noticed it’s not even listed on the metabattle website.

Did something happen to the traits for this build ? I was trying it out earlier in ranked and it was working a treat.

The problem is and I have been trying builds in sPvP and wvw/roaming with Phantasm is that the class is yes, difficult to build ‘trait wise’, as well it is easy to counter while clone generation is low. Inspiration probably the most underused trait tree for mesmers has most of the stronger Phantasm lined traits and passives for phantams, so you will see a really strange looking build like 2/4/2/5/3 which I use while I think most of the phantasm builds are out of date, but also it is difficult as there are very few Grandmaster selectable traits which are buffing Phantasms (like adding a new skill for each Phantasm depending on the combination of weapons you have equipped.)

Mesmers are generally tricky to play against because there is so much of a “person” running around (saw someone actually calling their character Illusionary Berserker :P) So clone generation has almost become obsolete in the idea of Phantasm build while the idea is that you run around the person gets killed but Deceptive Evasion probably a very confusing and useful trait must be ignored as it contradicts you build. I stress that Phantasm build are very orientated to a 1v1 situation which mesmers do excel at with the amount of lockdown they have with just shattering. But clone generation just contradicts the idea of having a phantasms and the build so it doesn’t make sense, they are mainly seen in the sense of burst in mesmer builds like the recent META Double ranged shatter and not particularly a lengthy battle which is where mesmers tend to loose due to conditions etc.

Phantasms despite having good attacks like Duelist and Swordsman lack constant DPS which can be resolved by Trait X in the Illusion Trait line, but that is only “20%” Although it is very manageable with PU which just seems a bit to plain and simple I understand you are looking for a good Phantasm build, but frankly, stick to Shatter until they make fixes because even though you have the Compounding Power Trait or the Illusionary Defense Trait which is 9% extra damage and 9% damage reduction for three illusions they are also just to easy to kill and poof goes the buff. I am working on a build currently and will get back to you with feedback, but see it as only usable in one area of the field of “pvp combat”. This is really a shatter and condition season for mesmers so take it as it comes.

IGN: Ageax (Main Mesmer toon)
Server: Piken Square (EU)
Playtimes: Whenever I have time
Role: Instructor/Scholar, Condi, shatter builds and Meta builds
What I play: Dungeons, spvp, wvw (roaming) and boss events

Would like to join 5 man mesmer roaming squad. Would be fun