Guild Wars 2

Fubuki.7162:

I’ve tried a few dung builds. They all stink.

I recommend a renuzit air freshener :P

Faction.4013:

Im not finding proof of that quote anywhere in the linked post…

Pretty confused here…

There is no proof, just a guy who claims it was said in the mists…hence why there is not much reason to be overly excited. It would seem unlikely that given their track record they are going to be holding a event plus what would seem major changes for professions at the same time. Perhaps there is 30 bullets worth of changes in the future for engi but I don’t think we can count on it being this upcoming patch. I hope of course I am wrong

Until I see the actual patch notes, not much to do but urge caution against getting overly excited. Sounds like next patch has the potential to be huge but with this ambition and no public test servers we are likely to see as many problems created as fixed.

@OP
Ignore Coglin he is the resident grump on the forums, if you really want a chuckle check out some of his arguments with another resident grump about the rifle animations. Their argument sounded like the “nerd” equivalent of those shoes don’t match that dress!
@ Coglin please don’t be angry just had to poke a little :P

Not sure if you consider the monocle a mask or not, but I liked the lvl 50 crafted leather set all the way around and it gives you a monocle for the head piece.

In addition to mine, engi also has BoB, battering ram, rifle, shield, and ft, as well as a 8 second cd immobilize a engi can throw out a ton of cc…..love that class lol. Granted they have the worst access to stability of any class in the game except maybe necro but I think even their’s is more dependable since we can only get it on chance. Typically, I run ft and rifle and take the elixir gun for decent condition cleanse (through trait) then maybe a stun break or another knock just depends on the situation. With decent timing between the immobilize and knocks you can really keep someone off a point and make them blow their stability, that immobile alone on 8 seconds is rough, granted it is horrible at range since it is easy to dodge but up close it is much tougher I think. I am certainly by no means a pro but I enjoy trolling people with it lol I can almost hear the frustration. I typically won’t do a ton of dmg but meh not really what I am concerned about when running that way.

this also works with ft aa, it hits in the direction of camera not direction character is facing so for example if you are getting miss miss miss on a inanimate object trying adjusting your camera angle to look down, no more miss miss miss

Personally I don’t mind the hip shot animation, with the legendary skin I suppose it looks a little off and would like to see them make a skin that does resemble the “feel” of the weapon. I realize everyone has their opinions about engineer rifle but all in all I think it is a fantastic weapon. Yes jump shot can be a touch finicky to land at times but when you can get it to connect on both hits it does pretty decent damage, combined with 3 then 4. Granted I use the weapon primarily as a control weapon but I switch between kits often since they are on such short cooldowns for swap and except for in rare cases I prefer it over the p/x combo. Again these are only my opinions, and I am probably in the rare minority that thinks the rifle is exactly where it should be but it suits me well.

Shajin.5492:

A lot of you guys are discussing some serious lvl 80 engineer stuff, but she is talking about leveling up at level 35!

-snip-

Having played mostly engineer, but also quite a while on warrior, my thoughts are that it is pretty straightforward to set up those massive burst down combos on warrior, and it’s a bit harder on engineer. If you keep at it and learn the class more, you will figure out what you like to do, and can have a lot of fun doing it. For me, I unfortunately got bored with warrior even though it was easy to play. When the options are "swing sword’ and “swing sword more” its hard to keep interested. So try to just enjoy the game play without worrying about numbers. Throw some nades, drop a turret, blast them with fire, drink some strange liquid, or drop some bombs. These are all pretty fun things to do !

Fantastic way to look at it, and I agree wholeheartedly. The engineer may not have as much ready raw dmg as say a warrior or thief but it does have a ton of flexibility and ways to do it. As for me personally I pretty much only run with rifle/ft or rifle/eg (yes I know nades will do more dmg when traited for them but I enjoy the control aspects) I don’t find it particularly slow though the combos used to really burst down a enemy are definitely a little trickier to setup than other classes especially with flame blasts range requirement but once you do figure out the rotation that is able to get you into range for it you can really begin to smash enemies down fast. I usually start with the rifle 5 3 4 combo which puts me in perfect range for the flame blast, if the mob isn’t dead by then which it usually is then I can quickly switch back to rifle net shot and use the flame toolbelt kit to add burning and just let the rifle aa finish off that last sliver of life left. Against multiple targets that I get clustered up I just drop a supply crate if available and pop my haste and elixir b and the toolbelt ft skill and just burn them down with ft aa and then bust out the smores. Always take out ranged targets first since melee will run to you it makes it much easier to get the mobs grouped up. I know this style is not for everyone but I like the close quarters combat feel of it, to the op as long as you are enjoying the playstyle that works for you that is what is most important, you will never see the numbers from one skill like that of a 100 blades or backstab but if you like pulling off combos of skills then engi is a great class.

“I can’t believe how much loot mesmers get in dynamic zergs, time to roll one to zerg farm”

“So glad I brought this torch along, that iMage just saved my kitten”

121106-002048

I have three pending transactions being held against my account for the one gem bundle I tried to purchase and was told the transaction failed. The response I recieved from support was as follows:
Hello,

Thank you for providing that information.

Your previous transaction attempts failed because the CVV number you entered from the back of the card is not matching what is reported as correct by your financial institution. We’d like to suggest that you contact your financial institution to resolve the CVV issue, or that you try using a different credit card.

If this were the case that it was a cvv issue then why would the transactions be showing against my account in any shape form or fashion? This is the same card I used to pre-purchase the game and use online for various other things and have no similar issue. While the response did go on to further say that these transactions will not actually post to my account, the money is still tied up in limbo until the pre-auth falls off which is frustrating to say the least. I suppose I will not be spending money with ANET/NCSOFT, even if the option exists to purchase a gem card why should people who wish to support this otherwise wonderful game be forced into that method when there is supposed to be a online way to do so?

Netsu.3769:

coglin.1496:

Noble helm is the same monocle.

Exactly, the crafted Noble armour has the exact same monocle. Also, the crafted Leather armour has a slighlty different model of a monocle that I actually like better than the starter one.

I really like the look of the crafted leather armor set all the way around have been using it and transmuting because it actually looks and feels like a engineerish set to me!

Hand.1692:

If they are running a build with both an elixir gun and a flamethrower… they already have 2 trait slots devoted to these. If they are not using these traits and the build incorperates the 2 kits they can continue to use neither and no effect takes place.

The only situation that any effect will take place on is this:

If they are running both kits, yet for whatever reason are only using one of the two traits. They would now have a ‘focused’ trait making half of their kits much better while the other kit is still at basic.

If you cannot see how this would make any difference I challenge you to create a flamethrower only build, then make an elixir gun only build… and note the differences such a change would make.

Elixir gun would no longer be forced to have an additional 20pts in firearms.

Flamethrower would no longer be forced to have an additional 20pts in alchemy.

Dual kit people would obviously have both sets of traits and can continue to do so with no effect.

As I said in the post it was early and I was groggy after re-reading the post and actually thinking about the traits yeah I can see where the potential could be for improvement with your suggestion. I learned a lesson, never post before the brain is awake you will most assuredly mis-understand something lol

Not sure I understand how this would help really, if you separate the two onto different traits. The example being if you select fireforged trigger you have the option to switch easily between support or dmg, and in the case that someone does run both then they are now required to pick up both traits and end up losing out on another trait to be effective with both weapons. Even if you are not using both at the same time, whichever one you pick at the time gets full impact from having the one trait so I don’t suppose I see it as a “waste” to not use both. Just my two cents on it and it’s very early and no coffee yet so I may be a bit groggy in my thinking heh.

For soloing I really like the rifle/FT combo, the amount of control I get from these two weapons in close range is amazing between the kb’s and immobilize. I have found it more effective to use the rifle kb then switch to ft to land flame blast since it actually knocks down the target. Of course if there are multiple targets the self kb off rifle can be a small issue at times so have to adapt to that situation. I also really enjoy the elixir gun yes even geared for power immobilizing a enemy in the acid bomb does a ton of dmg (of course I am speaking from mostly a pve perspective). I know nades do much more raw dmg than either ft or elixir gun or rifle, I just find them cumbersome to use solo without having to constantly circle strafe, at least with rifle/ft or rifle/elixir I feel like I can get in and out of situations a little easier using almost hit and run tactics of large bursts in short periods then controlling my enemy. I realize this style of play is not for everyone, especially those looking to drop enemies in the absolute fastest way possible but I really enjoy controlling enemy movement in most games I play and as of yet I have not seen a combo of weapons that work better for this than using rifle and ft or eg.

Drunken Mad King.8193:

Thank you all. I just hit 40 and I am loving mesmer. I truly love the shatter build and concept. I believe I am getting it down but I was just trying to get some of the basics on the traits down. For shatter builds does power play into the damage or condition or both? Thanks again for every ones opinions and knowledge.

I am thinking of going Staff and scepter/pistol.

If you are running that particular weapon set the answer is both, you will want power and condition dmg. The power will of course boost your direct dmg from weapon skills and mindwrack and overall help increase the phantasms dmg, while the confusion stacks will benefit most from condition dmg as well as the conditions from staff. Rampagers would probably be a decent set for this style of play and you can adjust how much survival stats you would or would not like through trinkets and runes.

gurugeorge.9857:

Chaos Storm + Phase Retreat means you get “free” Chaos Sphere protection without having to use the Chaos Sphere power.

However, since Phase Retreat was changed recently, this combo has become less reliable and less fun to use because while formerly you retreated in the opposite direction to which you were facing, now, the way you are facing seems to be random where you end up, so it’s always a bit disorienting; plus you go further back than before. Actually a bit of an overall downgrade IMHO.

You now phase retreat opposite the direction your target is facing if I recall correctly.

Eliteseraph.4970:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Once you can get clone on dodge it doesn’t matter if they die quick, because you pop more out every single dodge. I would use mirror images then ileap blurred frenzy and shatter, then summon iwarden/izerker dodge roll let them get their first attack off then cry of frustration. If anything is left standing after that just iwave to push the mobs away mirror blade then mind stab this whole string of combo can be done very quickly. Using this method though most mobs will come after you since you are in range to start, giving your clones time to not die unless it is through heavy aoe. You will get vigor on crit through traits and then I reccommend using a energy sigil on weapon swap you can pretty much dodge roll infinitely every 1-2 seconds.

Good info. Like I thought, the class starts out really weak, and just keeps getting stronger. Other classes don’t really feel like they have such a steep power curve, and level out much sooner.

I have to change my stance. At first I thought it was micro-management hell, but really it’s not that bad once you get used to it. You don’t really need to keep track of illusions like I originally thought, since they’re more fire and forget. The only thing I need to watch is how many I have out at a time for shattering.

Yeah as others have stated it really takes getting to 40 before mesmer really starts to feel like it comes into it’s own, to start at 40 I would put 5 in illusions minimum and then 20 dueling then distribute how you wish from there, the build I use is pretty much the standard 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build, you yourself will be very squishy but between the ability to dodge whenever and use blurred frenzy every 8 seconds as well as the kb from iwave you have plenty of survivability, if you need some cc support you can early on until you get the 20 in dom line filled in switch between precise wrack and the cripple on death trait, which also applies even if a clone is overwritten, it does not apply on shattering however. Gear for power, precision and watch mobs melt….it does seem counter intuitive to want to purposely put yourself in melee range with a squishy caster type of toon but blurred frenzy is amazing for both dmg and dmg negation. On the harder hitting bosses of course you can switch out focus for pistol if you like and pop the iduelist safely out of range of any aoe….staff is a great defensive weapon but ilock is pretty bland on anything except a boss fight with tons of conditions on it so I generally stay gs + s/f or s/p at least that way if my phantasms do go down and I am having trouble getting my clones into range for shattering I can still contribute some pretty significant dmg at range with the GS AA. This setup will easily get you into orr and still works there fine providing you are good with movement and positioning. As far as running dungeons with that setup it can be a little dicey at times if you get focused on or caught in a aoe you don’t expect but it is still not horrible, mesmer imo is by far the most survivable while still running “glass cannon” spec of the classes due to the nature of how it all comes into play especially once you get illusionary persona and shatters effect off you so you can use your distortion and diversion shatters even if you don’t have any illusions out..really helps for trying to rez someone especially if you just dropped a time warp on them. Mesmer is not a straightforward press one button to win class but it certainly can be one of the strongest professions in the game (yes even in pve, despite peoples complaints about dynamic farming in orr). Hope at least some of this helps and welcome to mesmerville hope you enjoy your stay and if you are anything like me you probably won’t leave.

Edit: This is by no means the only way to play and possibly not even the most effective, but it fits the style of combat I enjoy and I don’t struggle to use it (figured I should put in the disclaimer before someone else comes along and tries to rain on the parade lol)

Once you can get clone on dodge it doesn’t matter if they die quick, because you pop more out every single dodge. I would use mirror images then ileap blurred frenzy and shatter, then summon iwarden/izerker dodge roll let them get their first attack off then cry of frustration. If anything is left standing after that just iwave to push the mobs away mirror blade then mind stab this whole string of combo can be done very quickly. Using this method though most mobs will come after you since you are in range to start, giving your clones time to not die unless it is through heavy aoe. You will get vigor on crit through traits and then I reccommend using a energy sigil on weapon swap you can pretty much dodge roll infinitely every 1-2 seconds.

I more or less used the same setup, I primarily used sword/focus first then my gs second. I would start fights out with mirror images then ileap to a target, blurred frenzy then shatter; if the mob was not dead then summon iwarden/izerker to finish the job with one attack cycle and if still not quite dead then use cry of frustration to finish off that last little sliver and if still not dead since you are in gs now and waiting for the ability to switch back can use the iwave to push the mobs away and then mirror blade/mind stab. Not saying this is the only way to play of course but I found it quite effective, sounds like alot of steps but once you get good at your skills can be pulled off very quickly, though I found up until lvl 70 or so not much surived after the initial opening combo and then a iwarden. Hope this helps some enjoy!

Jjiinx.8795:

They’re all powerful. Just build any mesmer and roll your face on the keyboard for free kills.

Spoken like a true thief

Qelris.6901:

Sadly, there is no priority on the user using it.. Kinda lame..

Agreed this is one of the biggest changes I would like to see in the game, and it goes not just for mesmer skills either, Anet should come up with a way for skills to prioritize players over “pets”/npc’s

Winds.3087:

Archituethis.8274:

Second, a lot of people fail to realize that with illusionary persona simply running into a pack of mobs and pressing f1 and f2 will tag most if not all of the mobs.

You don’t have time to run in orrian DE’s. Most of that pack will be dead before you even get there.

Why run when you can blink or ileap?

Zen.9135:

ShadowPuppet.3746:

Zen.9135:

I have found Mesmers, even at low level, to be very effective in PvE. It’s not Warrior faceroll easy, but easy enough. It’s also much more interesting and fun to play than a Warrior. The only downside I have seen, is rather limited AOE. Though there are AOE abilities, they are just not as easy to use. Great survivability, utility and fun though!

Stack power and shatter use sword/focus and gs and there is plenty of AOE dmg to throw around

I do, but the iWarden can die nearly instantly. I find the iBerzerker can be more reliable for AOE. Sword #2 is great as long as you hit and run. I do with Mind Stab had a larger AOE radius.

Don’t summon iwarden first, use ileap then iwarden it will serve as enough distraction to at least get the first attack off, though I don’t use phantasms as my primary source of dmg since I am built to shatter so I rarely expect/have anything alive long enough for the 2nd attack to trigger on them the exception of course being vets and above even then though I find it more advantageous to only use phantasms as another source of dmg in between shatters unless I am parked on a boss that I can have the time to actually pull up three phantasms on a staff or pistol and keep them out of aoe range.

Zen.9135:

I have found Mesmers, even at low level, to be very effective in PvE. It’s not Warrior faceroll easy, but easy enough. It’s also much more interesting and fun to play than a Warrior. The only downside I have seen, is rather limited AOE. Though there are AOE abilities, they are just not as easy to use. Great survivability, utility and fun though!

Stack power and shatter use sword/focus and gs and there is plenty of AOE dmg to throw around

funky fat thighs.1267:

I have this problem. not just with Mesmer but with every class – its probably just the server I’m on but getting a story team in order to do explorable is sometimes a real struggle.

I really hope I don’t get parties who refuse Mesmers to make matters worse ^^- but I don’t see the logic in this. I haven’t reached lvl 80 or anything with my Mes, but it’s quite obvious they’re great at applying conditions. With blind, confusion & chaos armor you’ve pretty much got everything you need to neutralise a mob. Granted you can’t keep it up all the time but it contributes just like you’re supposed to in a party. I’m told at high levels they don’t do as much in the way of damage as some other classes, but their party support imo is through the roof. What exactly is the vendetta against support in this game?

I don’t find mesmer damage to be so much lower than other classes, I think most people that feel the dmg is lower are basing it on the spawn phantasms style of play and they can’t just keep up their phantasms 100% of the time because of AOE. I never relied on phantasms as my primary source of dmg instead choosing to focus more on shattering, still using the same kind of power/prec/crit dmg gear as anyone else but when you can spawn clones on top of the boss and immediately shatter then follow that up with a phantasm spawn until mind wrack is off cd it keeps the dmg stream flowing pretty smoothly.

Perhaps I am one of those “crazy” mesmers that has absolutely no quams about being in melee range of mobs using s/xyz. Sword is a fantastic tagging weapon especially when paired with illusionary persona and mirror images/decoy I just don’t find tagging mobs in de’s to be such the issue that others have stated. Do I have to be a bit more aware of position sure but it is not a insurmountable obstacle, then again I am much the same way in real life as well….lay it on the line sometimes you gotta bleed (metaphorically speaking most of the time lol) to be good at something. As for kill speed of mobs I don’t generally find it to be all that lacking either but then again I absolutely despise using staff except for in very certain circumstances (3 ilocks on a boss with tons of conditions on it can absolutely crank out some good numbers if you can keep them up)

@Effusion, not to derail the topic or start a flame war but I don’t find there is much setup time needed to get clones out especially for shattering. Plenty of traits and utilities help with this, the caveat being if you plan to play as using phantasms as your primary source of dmg then yes there is considerable ramp up time. Having said this though if by inefficient you mean we can’t just press one button and win then yes I suppose you could say it is but the same can be said of anything not warrior or thief.

One thing to note with GS is the autoattack is distance dependant, mesmer is a very mobile in combat profession. Try running with Mirror images and decoy both help to pump out clones which can and should be shattered fairly regularly if you trait for it. I run null field, mirror images, and switch between decoy, blink, and feedback depending on what types of mobs I am mostly against in a area. I use GS and sword/focus, temporal curtain is not only a great speed boost/cripple but it also can be used to pull targets away with a knockdown, with a bit of practice you can get good at using this to round up groups of mobs into your iwarden and then blurred frenzy on top of it as well as a shatter if anything is still left standing switch to gs use gs skill 5 to push them away and get some breathing room and allow for time for the cd’s on sword/focus to reset. Honestly I think mesmer is one of the heartier classes plenty of escape tools in the utilities if need be such as blink or decoy which will grant invis as well as create a clone. Keep at it mesmer does get much better post 40, there are so many ways to play and none of them are wrong but I have found the way I prefer and I never have issues taking on even fairly large pulls of 4-5 mobs. I run completely power/precision and have crit dmg on my jewlery and weapons, which will not be available at your level. All in all mesmer is not so straightforward as other classes but it is by no means “weak” in pve once you start to see the possibilities you can do with it.

Mesmer is more than capable of dishing out tons of dmg and doing it safely, just seems like people have this opinion that mesmer is bad in anything pve based solely off of a notion that mesmer can’t tag mobs in DE’s. I have never had trouble with either dungeons or events, is it as straight forward as facerolling your keyboard nope but the class is a excellent addition to any team in any game mode. If anyone tells you they don’t want a mesmer in their run they are simply just doing what comes natural to many mmo players, hear a rumor and go with it.

As previous posters have said, shattering won’t give the on death effects however overwriting them still does. So if you are running a hybrid shatter build like I use with clone on dodge you can pump out enough clones when needed and use the overwrites to still cripple. Of course you can also just replace with the dmg increase to mind wrack when needed plays fairly flexible that way, need more cc less dmg just switch some traits.

OP, I am not sure what the point of this post is other than to stir people up or complain…Guardians are still by in large in a fantastic position compared to many other classes. The class description when you create a guardian says “Guardians specialize in protective and defensive magic. A deep sense of loyalty fuels their passion and power. They’re also skilled with a variety of weapons which they put to good use against their enemies.” This sounds exactly like what a guardian is still currently, a fantastic blend of offensive and defensive/support capability for both yourself and your allies. Nerfs/buffs happen all the time in MMO’s adapt and move on or don’t play it’s really that simple but these types of posts do little to help convey any kind of constructive feedback. Just my two cents not that anyone asked lol….

MLieBennett.9031:

Wait, Bots take portals?!

…

Combine that with the Teleport Underground bug and … Hmmm…

The bots must still use interact to retrieve their loot, though on the bots that teleport around the map it is much less effective. However on the bots that cluster in a zerg ball it works quite well

No the botters, certain ones use multiple bots and just stand in a zerg ball like 5 of them at a time but they are also constantly using interact as well to pick up the loot. Though I have not seen that type recently since they changed the anti-farming stuff.

I think the most fun I have had with portal was using it to move around the cluster bots that sit in one place and kill mobs (seems they must have interact going at all times). Drop the portal on them and pick a hilarious exit and watch as they get split apart and killed. Amazingly satisfying!