Code-wise, it’s simply allow the dodge roll action (and animation) to interrupt the current chain-attack.
@jcbroe: that is what I’ve always advocated for this weapon. I don’t want it to lose any of its flavor. I just want more control over it. Losing control for an entire attack animation is not desireable :-( Everything else about sword is quite desireable. I have never seen any reason why we couldnt’ have both.
Take a look at: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Boon
I don’t think there is any other class with as many ways to remove/steal boons as Mesmers.
I think we’d have far less issues with Thieves if they didn’t get Consume Plasma (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Consume_Plasma) from stealing on us. That’s a base 10s of every boon and some Thief builds can hit you with Steal every 21.5s.
This can put Mesmer builds without boon removal (they do exist, lol) in a tough spot.
No sPvP section/list ?
“Interesting.” We often have 2 Mesmers in our 40+ fractal runs and simply thoroughly enjoy the abundance of:
My suggestion would be to find good Mesmers. I believe they will change your mind about what a Mesmer brings to the table.
You may just be finding that it’s harder to find good Mesmers because it has a higher skill floor than some other classes.
Let’s try to be more productive next time with our posting. Thank you.
Fay spelled it out quite perfectly; don’t think anyone is surprised there. To add to it, not only would we be able to setup the stage so that the Thief is in trouble when they come out of stealth, we would be able to do that from stealth. That is even nastier.
Thieves have a large amount of mobility and evasion, but not enough to reasonably deal with 3 phantasms attacking every ~3-4s while their Mesmer is also throwing butterflies at them.
Even if they did manage to down you through all of that, they’d need to make sure they had stealth long enough to down you, so they’d likely need to waste a Shadow Refuge cooldown.
Overall, that’s asking quite a lot.
If you wanted something more substantial to complain about with our illusions, I suggest you complain about the various targets in PvE that:
Not a small thing to forget to include :-p
Very nice though as it decreases some of the power of decreased condition duration and ups the power of increased condition duration since now a duration less than a whole number of seconds isn’t a complete loss.
Nice to see going from 4s to 3.96s isn’t a 25% dmg loss any more from a 1% duration decrease. (Note: arbitrarily selected numbers).
Honestly, I get a little annoyed when I think about our 20% reduction to signets (or any trait that is just -20% reduction) and how our cooldowns were nerfed because I’m well aware of the Thief traits that give 20% reduction that also give them Initiative (akin to reducing cooldowns on weapon skills).
I think Pyro Fay’s analogy for Mantras is fairly accurate. I got to try out that very Mantra heavy build I posted in another thread and it was just too many to juggle unless the other team just left you alone … which I don’t believe you should bank on. You need too many opportunities where you’re fine just recasting a spell that is off cooldown in order to be able to actually cast it for effect.
One thing I’d love to see is some way to deal with having 1/2 or 1/3, or 2/3 charges on a Mantra. It’s aggravating when you have to either:
(1) Sit at a sub-optimal number of charges
(2) Use it up real quick and hope you don’t get jumped while you wait for it to finish its cooldown and you recast it.
(3) Swap the utility out and back in and hope it doesn’t go on cooldown
None of those are great options and we’re the only class I’m aware of that deals with this sort of thing.
Personally, I’ve always wished that Mantras would just become multi-charge abilities that you didn’t have to precast and just regained 1 of their charges after their cooldown … though that might be “too powerful” … ./shrug
You also have to recharge mantras if you go in water and come back out.
I also believe being Moa’d resets them … but not sure if I’m remembering that one correctly.
Back when our pets had their longer leash range … roaming WvW with Sword+X & Greatsword having parties chase me while my pet ate them one at a time. If you wanted a diversion so you could set up siege, take a camp, etc … I was there with my ultra mobile, full melee setup.
Sebrent —- Hostile Players —- Pet nom-ing on Hostile players’ backsides. /grin
When [Guard] allowed our pets to scale keep walls … sending my pet (often with other Rangers’ pets) up on walls to kill defenders. Much hilarity ensued on Teamspeak back then … especially with a 5-man Ranger group.
I think I loved that even more than pulling people off walls/cliffs with my Mesmer’s focus.
Controlling my pet while I man siege. Who else can make such full use of their class mechanic while operating siege :-) … though was better with the longer leash range.
@Sezneg: More often than not, yes.
Their reasoning though is this:
Bleed = (0.05 * Condition Damage) + 42.5 per stack per second at level 80
Torment = (0.0375 * Condition Damage) + 31.875 per stack per second at level 80
@Gotejjeken: What makes you think this?
(1) Jump on an Engineer
(2) Equip Elixir Gun
(3) Use #4 (Acid Bomb)
(4) Swap out the Elixir Gun at any time during that 550 range leap
You’ll find that you are able to interrupt it at any distance of the leap.
If it is possible for that ability, I don’t see why it would be impossible for our shorter 300 and 430 range leaps.
Additionally, the “chasedown functionality” comes from it simply performing these leaps directly at your target (or direction you’re facing if you have no target). Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t see why that would need to lock people out of dodge rolls in order to “preserve the chasedown functionality”.
First off, grats on the free Ascended :-)
Settler’s vs Apothecary is a bit of a toss-up.
On one hand, Toughness is a multiplier for your health and healing. More toughness makes whatever health and healing you have even better. Toughness also increases your max effective health so reduces the chance of going from X health to downed.
On the other hand, Toughness is ignored by conditions while Healing is always effective against direct damage and condition damage (though diminished by poison). More Healing also allows you to provide more support with any Healing you provide to others
@Zenith:
Lol, very true. Now we just need a shortbow so we pair our butterflies with a weapon that shoots unicorns. A Mesmer can always dream :-p
Usual longbow damage.
Hunter’s shot.
Swap to Greatsword with Sigil of Intelligence.
Maul + Hilt Bash (… or Hilt Bash + Maul)
Some wonderful damage there. Not nearly as quick as what I can do with a Mesmer or a Thief … but I also feel it can sometimes be more flexible and I can do it while still being a bit more passively durable … we don’t have the action defenses via evasion for days like thieves (without using Ranger Sword+Dagger) and don’t have Distortion like Mesmer … double if they traited for it and use that trait intelligently.
Honestly I’m more concerned with a good condition Ranger than I am with the [too] often griped about Longbow Rangers.
One of them I can drop with a good burst. The other looks at me after the burst and heals up disturbingly quickly … and most of us Mesmers hate conditions :-p
First, thank you for the feedback :-)
If I was going to drop any of the traits currently there, I think I’d probably drop 2 from Chaos to put in Domination for Shattered Concentration. Of those you mention, I believe it is the most useful/powerful. In fact, I think that would be more beneficial … more vulnerability from daze and boon removal outweight 33% direct damage reduction that is up for only 3.25s every 15s (21.6% * 33% = ~7% dmg reduction).
Harmonious Mantras could be argued that it conflicts with Restorative Mantras.
I think between interrupts and blocks, you could handle a burst build, but that does mean you need to land those interrupts and/or use those blocks intelligently (and have blocks).
I could see Sword+Sword & Staff (or Greatsword) working. I’m reminded of how Osicat would often run in with the same setup sometimes with a Shattercat build and then get out while various abilities recharged. Same with Grimm/SevenMirror.
That sort of hit-and-run does more often have a place in smaller scale WvW than in sPvP though. Note, they weren’t running far, just enough to give them a little breathing room … and they’d judge the situation pretty well; sometimes not even moving back out because they had solid momentum in the fight.
While you may feel the need to move off the node to charge mantras, I don’t see it as required. I believe it’ll depend on how hard you’re being pressured at the time just as with any other build … though this could possibly have more potential for “recovering”.
Smart use of [Mantra of Distraction], [Distortion], [Chaos Storm], etc. could be leveraged to recharge a Mantra. That being said, Decoy causes you to not contest a node either :-/
I’m curious about playing this with Celestial instead of the usual Berserker or Rabid setups most often used. Obviously less burst, but more everything overall. Almost every Mesmer build is applying some sort of damaging conditions be it confusion from [Cry of Frustration] (or all shatters), bleeds from [Sharper Images], or the obvious condition weapon abilities. Likewise, you’re always doing some direct damage; especially with all of our weapon phantasms minus Torch’s.
I’m going to try to get some time tonight to play around with it (familial obligations … being a dad is lots of work sometimes, lol). I recall doing quite well with something like this over a year ago, but need to see about it now with the current change and meta.
I’m interested in the 1v1 capabilitiy, but also in the extra healing that it provides to teammates in group fights … compare it with the capabilities of the standard 4-4-0-0-6 shatter build that aims to quickly drop an opponent from the fight.
(edited by Sebrent.3625)
What might I ask are you doing 11111 with on a Condition-spec’d Ranger?
Interesting, will have to try that sometime. Looks like it could be fun :-)
Trying to fill in the holes that weren’t mentioned …
Since you mentioned a “Water Field”, I assume you’re using [Healing Spring].
Since the build has so many Survival skills, I assume the Major Adept trait in Wilderness Survival is [Wilderness Knowledge]
Not sure what those remaining three traits are, but there are some good options.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQNAT8fjMq0xaLL2sQ1aABhaVA0uG0Cu5rB-TZRHwABeCACOIAAuAAh2f4YZAA
Given the abundance of cleanses in the build, I’m curious about swapping out [Emphatic Bond] and taking [Bark Skin] instead.
Thief uses Refuge.
I swap to wolf.
Wolf howls.
Laugh.
I loved having Mirror and Mimic when there was an abundance of projectiles.
“Cast” mirror … cancel before it ends … it’s ready again in 4s
“Cast” mimic … cancel before it ends … it’s ready again in 4s
Might be part of why they changed Mimic :-/
I think people’s problem is that they primarily play a class that is usually countered quite strongly by most Thief builds currently being played.
They don’t realize that Thieves also have classes that do this to them like the aforementioned Meditation Guardian and Dual Kit Condi Engineer.
When I get on my Thief I have my moments of “omg, this is easy” as I run from one glassy opponent to another tearing them up. Then I hit a Meditation Guardian and the only thoughts afterwards are “Ow! Stay away from that!” … though I ignore my own good logic and try again anyways … it’s a challenge and I like those :-)
Getting caught in entangle kills you, so I’d guess he’s taking Krait runes and/or dropping Torch on them.
Practically condition immune, so I imagine 6 points in [Nature Magic] for [Survival of the Fittest] … possibly also 6 points in [Wilderness Survival] for [Empathic Bond] … and maybe even [Signet of Renewal] though I think that would be ridiculous unless the build actually doesn’t have [Survival of the Fittest].
I imagine the build is something close to this as far as traits and weapons go:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRAnY8PDds2yiDLUtGgQoWFAtjhiNFcXvzwWD
Possibly reallocate 2 of those trait points out of Marksmanship based on preference … or simply pick a different Major Adept trait in Marksmanship. Several good options.
Going celestial instead of straight condition damage is intelligent given that both Axe and Sword make use of Power damage so it doesn’t “go to waste”. Ranger doesn’t really depend on crit chance so y ou don’t need a high one, but the precision is always welcome given the previously mentioned power damage.
Utilities could also be changed a bit for personal preference … same with heal … but that is a common setup given that the immunity is always welcome and you still have 3 survival abilities for cleanse + fury … and Muddy Terrain means you have both it and Entangle for immobilizing an opponent to aid in landing your attacks … not to mention your pets (depeneding on what you take, of course).
Sword+Torch/Axe+Dagger gives you two weapon sets with plenty of condition application and both have evasion as well so you have some extra defense. Some prefer to swap it to Sword+Dagger when being defensive and Axe+Torch when being offensive, but it’s up to personal preference again. Balance or Offense/Defense.
Traits
[Illusion of Vulnerability] for some vulnerability whenever you interrupt. Synergizes well with having [Mantra of Distraction] but can synergize with various weapons as well. Better-or-worse based on your selected weaponsets. It can make [Diversion] better as well. Even if you’re not a power-build, vulnerability helps conditions and can help “shield” other conditions from cleanses.
[Halting Strike] turns [Mantra of Distraction] and [Diversoin] from “just daze” to direct damage nukes as well. It’s even better if you have additional interrupts from your weaponsets.
[Critical Infusion] vigor helps us dodge more. Dodges help keep us alive and generating more clones. Always nice to have.
[Mantra Mastery] is currently selected since you have 3 Mantras in order to help with getting them “reloaded” quicker … though [Mantra of Pain] doesn’t really need it. If your weaponset(s) included mainhand and offhand sword, I’d entertain replacing this with [Blade Training].
[Sharper Images] makes illusion crits bleed. More deadly illusions is always welcome. More welcome if you run with condition damage.
[Deceptive Evasion] we live and breathe our illusions. I don’t see this build being an exception.
[Metaphysical Rejuvenation] regen at a threshold you’ll likely always get to unless you are stomping your opponent(s) so badly that you really don’t need regeneration. Synergizes well with [Illusionary Membrane] for some extra protection.
[Debilitating Dissipation] makes clones almost always useful. Punish people for cleaving your illusions.
[Illusionary Membrane] gives some extra protection when you gain regeneration (though 15s ICD these days, bah!). This works well with [Metaphysical Regeneration], [Bountiful Interruption] (chance at regen + protection), and [Phantasmal Healing]. Depending on your weaponsets and/or runes, it can provide even more protection … though with [Phantasmal Healing], you’ll likely not need other sources of regen to proc this. Darn that 15s ICD.
[Bountiful Interruption] is there for the always welcome Might + random boon when you interrupt. It obviously works well with [Mantra of Distraction] as well as various Mesmer weapons and [Diversion]. However, this is another trait I could see some people swapping out based on the weaponsets they select.
[Vengeful Images] simply for punishing people for targeting/cleaving your phantasms.
[Mender’s Purity] combines well with [Mantra of Healing] since it thankfully has no ICD, so you can get your cleanses from a skill with 2 charges and a very low cooldown.
[Phantasmal Healing] practically ensures that you’ll have at least 3.5s of Protection applied to you every 15s given the cooldowns on Phantasms, how this pulses every 3s. The regeneration isn’t bad either and synergizes well with your healing from [Restorative Mantras].
[Restorative Mantras] is there so you have some more sustaining power … in fact, over a year ago when I tried something like this, I found that when I was needing to be extremely defensive, I could constantly recycle Mantra of Pain to get some extra healing in. This also helps makes [Mantra of Healing] a little stronger as you now heal when recasting it as well as when using the charges.
Final Note:
Mantras can feel wonky, but they do have the added benefit of being able to be cast while you’re casting something else. The offensive mantras (Pain and Distraction) also provide no real tell for opponents to react to, so unless you are playing predictably (or unlucky) you are quite.
You can go in, hit hard, get out, recharge, and go back in. With the extra healing from [Restorative Mantras] and your sources of regeneration, you can have recovered more health each time than most opponents.
Sadly, no boon removal from utilities nor shatters, so you’d want to take Greatsword, Sword, and or Sigils for boon removal.
Over a year ago, when daze and Mantras weren’t as good as they are now, a couple of us were playing around with various Mantra build ideas.
One idea with the power of mantras was their ability to unload so that you sort of “joust”. Go in, unload your offensive Mantras, get out, reload.
In that train of thought, I put together this allocation of traits, but without weapons, runes, sigils, etc. as I’m curious how others think it could work (if at all).
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQBVSfmS0WlGb0wtGJmGjJvJmTWVUkKgSOy4A
Skills
[Mantra of Healing] gives you a heal on a very low cooldown. It’s primary drawback is having to take the time to recast the mantra. This can be made “more worth it” via traits and/or runes with on-heal effects.
[Mantra of Pain] and [Mantra of Distraction] provide you with instant direct damage since you have [Halting Strike]. So you can go in, unleash phantasms, shatter, etc. and throw these two in for kicks and giggles for a little extra “tickle” so they know you’re there. [Mantra of Distraction] also helps reduce what your opponent can do to retaliate, stop a heal, etc..
[Mantra of Concentration] is there for a much needed stunbreak as well as stability (for your team as well!). I know we all love Decoy (I sure as heck do!), but with [Mantra of Concentration] I can get two stunbreaks and on a lower cooldown (though I have to recast the Mantra). The stability is always helpful when you want to make sure you can recharge a particular other mantra and/or helping your teammates not be interrupted for their own casts.
[Mass Invisibility] is an often “crowd favorite”, but it isn’t particularly necessary for this build, though some stealth when you’re heavily pressured and need to recast a Mantra would not be a bad thing … it’s also excellent group support and has the lowest CD of all of our current elites.
Could we do some Spring cleaning of the OP? If you need help, please let me know.
I think that is a separate discussion than being able to interrupt the attack to perform a dodge.
Whether or not you like the leap seems unrelated to whether or not you want to be able to dodge when you need to.
@Rym:
Take your Reef Drake underwater :-)
No percent; more based on scenario.
If they are downed on a point, I stomp so we can [de-]cap the point.
If I have a downed teammate, stomp unless they are low enough it’d be quicker to burn.
If I’m outnumbered, I’ll likely try to burn them down unless I can pop cooldowns to keep from dying while I stand still to stomp.
If they aren’t on a point and I have no pressing reason for them to be dead … one arrow into them any time they heal … or let pet take 1 bite. Waste as much of their time as possible.
Let’s just hope we’ll enjoy it. Another AOE will be welcome if it pulses … better tagging in open world :-)
Makes me happy that I replaced my Asura Mesmer with a Norn … a Norn with a shield looks better :-p
Birds Swiftness when you want it instead of wasting time they could be attacking.
Canines cripple and knockdown when you want them.
Spiders immobilize and poison when you want them.
Devourer knockback when you want it.
Bear invuln when you want it.
Drake tail swipe when you want it (Blast Finisher!)
… the list goes on … and it would be so nice to have.
The fact that my pets’ stats are completely independent of my own so one or both of us can be glassy, tanky, etc..
Yeah, love that too. Glad the devs didn’t listen to the 785324347 threads asking for pet stats to scale with ranger stats.
Well, separate discussion … scale as a %, not directly :-p
Different thread. Open if you want to discuss ;-)
Just a tip …
Several of us were screwing around and did an all-Ranger fractal.
Now, all of us knew what we were doing, but it was one of the smoothest fractals I’ve ever been in. Smoother than when we’re our usual variety-pack of classes.
3+ “tanky pets” (canine, drake, dog) keep bosses, adds, etc. off of your Rangers due to the way AI is attracted to higher Toughness, Vitality, etc.. In fact, they keep them still pretty darn well which makes it even easier.
I recommend leveraging this guild to try it yourselves.
This is an instance where ArenaNet should blatantly copy Blizzard.
Allow us to manually control the abilities and whether any of those abilities are on/off auto-cast for the pet.
Some abilities I want full control over. Others I just want my pet to cast every time it’s up.
I’m always for anything that gives more control/options to the player.
The abundance of viable builds, both power and condition, including the variety of sub-builds within each.
The fact that my pets’ stats are completely independent of my own so one or both of us can be glassy, tanky, etc..
My pet distracting champs for me while I grab a chest/node and run (when I don’t feel like soloing a champ).
Being able to give my pet silly names that make myself and others smile :-)
The only difference I saw in pre- and post-patch in your original post was that the mob you were attacking is now ignoring your pet when before it would stick to your pet.
In your follow-up you have made it more clear that your pet is not even hitting the mob.
Please look at my post history. I’m not looking to start an argument with you or anyone else.
If you wish to have people help you, it would behoove you to use less aggressive wording.
I have personally not noticed any differences in how my pets behave. If the mob sticks to them, they continue to attack it. If it runs past them, they nip at its heals (as best as a Ranger pet can nip at a moving target >_> ).
My Mesmer’s sword clones (another melee AI) have not appeared to have any trouble either.
That being said, this patch seems to have broken several things unrelated to the various aspects mentioned in the patch notes, so it is possible.
What pet(s) are you using?
Where are you fighting?
What are you fighting?
Does your target have any movespeed enhancements?
Does your pet have any movespeed enhancements?
Also, are you capable of making a recording of the issue? Any time you can recreate the issue and make a recording of it, that is very beneficial.
I think the two groups are:
I do not understand why people think we can’t have both. I’ve already cited instances where other classes are able to have both.
I believe we should be able to have the leap and be able to cancel it with a dodge roll and it not require a trait point.
My concern is that the developer(s)that coded up the other classes’ abilities did a good job while the developer(s) that coded up the Ranger sword auto-attacks “coded like a pig” and now it’s a mess that will be hard to fix :-/
Aye, Shanks, good points and Offhand Training is indeed awesome :-)
I think the choice between the two boils down to how much you get out of Offhand Training (what weapon sets are you using, do you often benefit from the range, etc.) as well as how often do you have regen on you without Oakheart Salve. More range and shorter cooldowns on 4 skills or potentially more regeneration.
Also, a special mention … Offhand Training will always be useful as it is based on your weapon set(s) with an offhand weapon. Oakheart Salve can go unused in some fights as there are builds that do not apply any bleeding/burning/poison.
I disagree that no one ever takes Marksmanship for Shortbow … some want Piercing arrows when they run a Longbow/Shortbow build. It’s not the current “hot thing”, but it is still done and I’ve seen some very good Rangers be very effective with it.
I’d love to see Piercing Arrows combined with the cooldowns reduction. Ranger is one of the few (if not the only) class that still has traits that are only a weapon cooldown reduction and nothing else.
I get a little peeved when I’m on my Engineer and his Rifle shots pierce without any trait required. It’s not like he’s hard-up for ways to deal with multiple targets (bombs, grenades, flamethrower, etc.)
Puck and Ouroboros are quite correct about the maps. In my opinion as well, Foefire by far favors a longbow ranger as you can sit up on that cliff and cover 2 points with damage that simply can’t be ignored. The other maps don’t allow. In fact, they more often cater to more close-quarters combat. This causes issues for Ranger as we lose some of the effectiveness of our Longbow and our pet AI has trouble with people smart enough to exploit the AI’s issues with terrain … or be a thief that evades and jumps around like Nightcrawler so much that a melee pet is barely ever on them.
@Puck:
None of us should post before having our coffee … but we do anyways ;-)
It doesn’t sound like your pet is doing anything different, so I don’t understand how it could be related to your pet’s behavior.
There are varying levels of “Trapper” and “Beastmaster”. You may find that you do like having some elements from those “types” of Ranger.
I would suggest not discounting the utility your pet provides. Play a Mesmer and see how you feel about a Ranger that lets their pet chase you to the ends of the Earth :-p
One condition build I run sometimes is a mix of condition and beast. The beast gives me even more sustain (via more healing) and makes my pet an even bigger monster. It has worked well for me.
That may become the answer, Crapgame, but my intuition tells me that that would simply break down into …
Classes A,B,C excel in format #1
Classes D,E,F excel in format #2
Classes G,H excel in both.
I imagine that this would still lead to some valid griping.
@Belzebu:
They wouldn’t even need to care whether or not that “trait” existed. It could be forced upon them (e.g. not a trait, but just fixed) and they could continue doing what they do now … not dodging.
@Crapgame:
I have to disagree that the lack of telegraphs is required for class separation.
First, look at the differences in gameplay between Warriors with different weaponsets. There are some quite big differences and that’s with the same class just using different weapons.
Then look at differences between an Elementalist and a Warrior. Most of an Elementalist’s abilities have a telegraph and I don’t think anyone is arguing that an Elementalist and Warrior play the same. Ranger is great about having telegraphs for their abilities (and their pets’ abilities!) and it doesn’t play like either of those classes. And so on…
@jcbroe:
Aye, a lack of boon removal is a glaring difference; especially in a boon-stacking, Celestial meta.
As the article states, there is also the lack of cleave in comparison … though pets can be a nice alternative.
I’m sorry, but I have to disagree that a trait would be a good answer to this.
How would that trait read? Now you can interrupt your ability (like other classes already can) in order to dodge roll?
Who would not take that trait? People that don’t want to interrupt it with a dodge, but if they don’t want to interrupt it with a dodge, all they have to do is not dodge mid-attack.
A trait for this is like a utility for basic pet control … we shouldn’t have to pay extra to get basic functionality that should come standard.
They have both stealth and awesome maneuverability … that’s what separates them from Mesmers (though most Thief builds have more access to stealth than Mesmers can have).
My primary beef isn’t with stealth or even Thieves, but with what prevents there being as much counterplay.
Fighting a Warrior is a good example of the use of telegraphs that enable counterplay. You see them throw that Bola. You see them coming at you with an Eviscerate. You see that Earthshaker coming at your face. Since you can see it, you can try to react to you. Despite the fact that we can see and react to these things, good Warriors still win fights and it doesn’t feel too horribly bad losing to one.
On the other hand, there are tons of high-impact skills in the game that have no telegraph whatsoever. You simply get hit by them. Attacks from stealth are what first come to people’s minds, but it doesn’t end there. Steal is the same way. Mesmer offensive Mantras are the same way as well. You don’t see any animation when I pop Mantra of Distraction on you; in fact I can hit you with it while I’m casting something else.
Thief and Mesmer aren’t the only ones, but we’ll stop there for brevity.
The issue with when you can’t see a skill is that the counterplay breaks down to “guess when it will be used”. This can be fine except that when a class combines multiple skills together where the answer to it is to “guess”, the counterplay can break down.
In a 1v1, it isn’t as bad given that with enough experience you learn to anticipate those abilities and it becomes a bit of a game of chicken with your dodges/cooldowns and their uses of those abilities. However, as fights scale up, you now have to keep track of multiple opponents and still somehow guess when these zero-telegraph abilities will be used. I’m sure everyone can remember a time when they were fighting someone and then suddenly were downed by a backstab or steal or constantly locked out of their abilities by Mantra of Distraction from a Mesmer that joined the fight.
It isn’t like when you’re fighting and an opposing Warrior joins the fight. You see that Warrior and you see the ability. You have a chance to react to it … not guess when it will happen.
Some will say “you just have to anticipate”. First, this is just a nicer way of saying “you have to guess”. Second, a Thief can stealth for long periods of time. I don’t have enough dodge rolls and cooldowns for that; especially when I also don’t want to get hit by their Steal or the next time they Stealth and try to backstab me. Additionally, good luck guessing when I will use Mantra of Distraction on you with my Mesmer. If I get you low enough to force you to heal, you are in trouble if you can’t LOS me because you’re either going to (1) Get dazed/interrupted (2) Dodge it thereby interrupting your heal … for (2) you might just dodge nothing and I laugh to myself.
tl;dr Enabling true counterplay is a good thing for PvP. Most, if not all, things that detract from counterplay are bad for PvP.
Give a cue that Mantra of Distraction is going to be cast or between cast and when it would hit. Give a cue that a backstab is about to rip your backside. Give players something to see and/or hear so they can react. The pros will react quickly and do very well. The rest will react slightly slower and get outcomes that reflect that.
(edited by Sebrent.3625)
I still primarily play Ranger and Mesmer .
Thieves beat out both Ranger and Mesmer largely for this one reason … when a 1v1 becomes a 1v2 to the Thieves disadvantage, the Thief can more easily disengage from the fight than a Ranger/Mesmer.
Thieves are more mobile and not dependent on long cooldowns (e.g. Portal) for their mobility.
Additionally, you bring one of these classes to +1 a fight. With superior mobility, a Thief can more quickly +1. It is common knowledge that Thieves dominate the Berserker meta. Check the “pro” Mesmer guides and you’ll see their advice vs Thieves is to avoid them … which is a liability for your team; particularly with the abundance of good Thieves at high levels of play.
I find Ranger can give Thief a run for their money, but if the Thief is losing, he can often disengage while the Ranger can’t (back to mobility).
The primary thing I think the Ranger brings that the Thief can’t is the long range. A Ranger exerts a much larger threat range than a Thief and doesn’t have to commit in order to put pressure on a target. Unfortunately, it is a double-edged sword. A Ranger using their Range is often not [de-]capping a point as that compromises the advantage they gain from their bow.
Mesmer is a little worse as they have to mobility, stealth, etc. that make it harder to contest a point.
If you’re using Axe and ever find a few seconds where you’re using Axe’s auto-attack, then you might want to look into having a minimum of 3 trait points into [Nature Magic] in order to get [Fortifying Bond].
[Fortifying Bond] and Axe are best friends. Just counting 3 trait points in [Nature Magic], you only get 3.5s of [Might] per Axe auto-attack, but, with [Fortifying Bonds], your pet gets 11.5s of [Might] per Axe auto-attack.
Despite the tooltip saying 0.25s for the auto-attack, the wiki (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Ricochet) currently states ~1.0s per attack, so you can get up to 11 stacks of [Might] on your pet from just auto-attacking. [Might] helps your pet’s power and condition damage, so it can be quite nice.
This is why you’ll often see a Beastmastery spec take the Axe. In fact, you’ll often see them use Axe, have [Fortifying Bond], [Companion’s Might], and [Superior Sigil of Battle] so that their pet has 3 sources of Might (2 from crits, 1 from hits).
This is why, despite the Axe’s auto-attack “hitting like a wet noodle” (as some put it), it can still be beneficial when you have nothing else you can do at the moment.
[Fortifying Bond] also shares other boons with your pet, so [Swiftness] so they can better deal with moving targets, [Regeneration] and [Protection] to be more durable, etc. etc.
If you are wanting both Condition Damage and Power on your gear, your choices are:
… or you can mix-and-match prefixes to get the right blend of stats you want.
(edited by Sebrent.3625)
Just a tip for Ascended Gear …
Most people will tell you that the primary reason to get Acended Gear is for fractals; so you can get more Agony Resist on them. So if you are crafting Ascended Gear, craft it with stats you would be happy using in a Fractal.
Additionally, Ascended Gear is Account Bound. So, if you are crafting Medium Ascended Gear, try to craft something you’d be happy using on your Thief, Ranger, or Engineer (assuming you have or plan to ever have these classes).
I suggest this because Ascended Gear is not cheap in time nor resources so I find it in your best interest to maximize what you get out of it.
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