Guild Wars 2

Eberouge.1693:

Silverkey.2078:

I’m running this in PvP

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7alsnhi0YtawMNwsGL5Gk5FedILDQq7F6PK5MA-TZRHwADuAAw2fIZZAAHEABPBAA

Probably the highest condi damage you can get as a mesmer. It is still fairly bursty to my taste. Often I drop portal for signet of inspiration and get shattered strength for some more might.

edit: fairly similar to Eberouge

Hi. How much success do you have with this build? Maybe I will try PvP again, though I remember having some frustrating rubberbanding issues a while ago =/

This is the build I play the most often because I like the playstyle and I am fairly successful with it. It works ok even with high ping, though as I mentioned I still ended up paying 500 gems to transfer my account to reduce the ping.

The build you gave does not have any condition cleanse which is dangerous in lower tier. Blink is good. For the third utility, you can keep one of your signets for the passive condition buff. You can also use decoy for extra survivability.

Ithilwen.1529:

I’ve used Temporal Enchanter successfully in pve and pvp. Most consider it a weird build. I’ll use [feedback] and [null field]. It works well in the team fight at mid but I get asked wth I’m casting a “useless” glamour for. eg Feedback over a melee fight.

It works well in dungeon stacks especially in combination with Warden’s Feedback and Temporal Curtain.

I kinda agree with Exciton on that. Reflects are strong but… situational in PvP. I’m happy if I have it (for example I use master of manipulation with mirror + blink, simply because it’s the only interesting trait for my build in this spot) but I would not take a utility slot or a trait if there is another choice.

I’m running this in PvP

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7alsnhi0YtawMNwsGL5Gk5FedILDQq7F6PK5MA-TZRHwADuAAw2fIZZAAHEABPBAA

Probably the highest condi damage you can get as a mesmer. It is still fairly bursty to my taste. Often I drop portal for signet of inspiration and get shattered strength for some more might.

edit: fairly similar to Eberouge

Actually I believe Frostball (and also sometimes Helseth) used Maim instead of shattered strength. It is something I had seen before from Helseth, but it feels weird in a non-condi build. The only explanation I could come up with is that since they try to burst people down, the slow might build up just doesn’t help, so the very small DPS increase from the torment is more useful. Still weird though…

LordMazdamundi.2147:

So mind wracking with 3 clones out would do 3 clones worth of damage but in 4 instances? (1 at each clone and 1 on you)?

Exactly.

Fay.2357:

For cry of frustration, diversion, distortion, and continuum shift, yes.

For mind wrack, no. 2 clones + IP is stronger than 3 clones no IP.

I don’t think the question is 2 clones + IP = 3 clones no IP. I think the questions is: 2 clones + IP = 3 clones + IP (since it seems to cap at 3). And the answer is no. Because of IP, 3 clones count as 4 clones (if you are yourself close enough to the target). So 4 clones is stronger than 3.

Yet, you have to remember that mind wrack is not linear in intensity with the number of clones. So at the end, a 1 clone shatter is not that much weaker than a 2 or 3 clone shatter. Here are the coefs:

• 0 clone: 1.15
• 1 clone: 2.3
• 2 clones: 2.67
• 3 clones: 3.08

BlackBeard.2873:

On top of that, eles take 7-8 traits out of 9, runes, 1 or 2 sigils, and all their utilities to maximize defense. It should sustain in those situations.

Well eles take some of their sustain traits in a line (fire) which is focused on damage and on which all the minor traits add damage.

So the question is why there are (strong) defensive traits in an offensive traitline? If eles had the sustain they currently have while using earth/water/arcane, people would not complain as much. But being able to have

• + 150 power in fire
• + 10% damage in fire
• + 10% damage to burning foes

while having defensive traits is a bit too much according to me.

Jojee.5671:

Without staff you won’t be able to build recourses towards usage of Avatar form which is crucial for Druid and without it … you pretty much throw away best druid has – his healing potential.

With the changes, the staff may not be needed for building up astral force. Let’s be honest, with the staff, it was previously way too fast if you had any ally around. Now it will be more balanced.

I am not sure nerfing the damage was the right thing. Most D/D ele ran fire/water/arcane. Having fire means they are supposed to be fairly potent damage dealer. The problem is their sustain. A bunker build would be earth/water/arcane and that would deal little damage. But fire D/D ele could sustain so much they didn’t need the earth line.

So the sustain should have been addressed, not the damage. Currently, the damage is lower, but the sustain is still too high.

I still feel it sad that “class stacking” is so regulated. I understand that because of imperfect balance, class stacking could be seen as an exploit. But at the same time, in a game like gw2 where all classes can perform any role, it feels counterproductive to prevent it. Allowing class stacking but preventing “build stacking” (which is already partly introduced in those rules) would make more sense to me.

This being said, to come back to OP’s question. I do feel like condi mesmer only works properly if you shatter. I usually engage with a F1 burst, which builds some might (bountiful disillusionment), does decent damage and inflicts enough conditions to force the enemy using his cleanse. Then I swap weapons and prepare and execute my F2 burst. I usually use scepter/pistol for my second weapon set, so the scepter 3 + iDuelist gives very strong damage and condi pressure and I can interrupt the enemy’s attempt to recover.

This ends up being fairly bursty and it is not rare to kill the bad enemies with just this rotation.

Eberouge.1693:

I should add that, (due to playing from Australia), my ping always hovers around 300ms. As a result… I focus on PvE

That is my average ping when playing from US to EU. It was very very frustrating and I ended up moving my main account to US a few weeks ago and making an alt in EU just to play with friends. So I can understand that. I still enjoy playing PvP in EU though, but I use different (more forgiving) specs:

• bunker guard (insanely forgiving)
• condi mesmer
• cele necro although this one is still very tough (in particular, I cannot count the number of times I pop in and out of death shroud because I thought the game didn’t process my F1)

Fay.2357:

Short answer: condition Mesmer is not even remotely viable in pvp. It may become viable once the expansion hits though, so keep an eye on that.

There are newer ways to build it (you use maim the dissilusioned, in illusions for torment on shatter), but no condie Mesmer build is viable right now.

I know you don’t like hearing this, but that really depends on what you mean by “viable”. If you’re not in high tier PvP where very few condi builds work (basically only burn guard), condi mesmer can be strong. I would even argue that if you’re not in high tier, condi mesmer can be better. It is definitely better for me when I play on the european servers (while I currently live in the US) because it is more forgiving of high lags.

And even Helseth used it in semi-serious matches. Sure, he stopped, probably because he felt it was not as strong as the power build. But it is still a decent alternative (I believe he used it because the “illusion” line brings condi clear to the torch but otherwise favors conditions heavily, so he used a hybrid setup).

Krispera.5087:

Mistrust is pretty bad, you need to interrupt (which is already harder than simple damage) and get… 2 confusion ? Not worth the GM at all. Nobody will take it over DE or Harmonious Mantras.

This is basically a bad rune of perplexity. Sure, this is AOE confusion, but in general, when in a team fight, conditions are not that great anyway…

Beside that, I wish Persisting Images and Protected Phantasm were together and not competing with Warden’s Feedback. Not only iWarden is the most fragile Phantasm, if you trait it, it doesn’t have Distortion. At least make the Distortion works till the phantasm finish its first attack.

Let’s see how they decided to change the mechanics of minions to increase their survivability since it seems a change is coming.

That was something I noticed already. With the elite specs, for the first time it was clear we had a developer for each profession, aware of their bad skills and traits and ready to fix them. And it was also clear that they are working together to balance the whole thing. While they currently mostly worked on the elite specs, a few promised us changes for the core profession.

Really looking forward to see that in practice. I still have doubts about the state of balance when the expansion arrives, because some specs seem quite strong. But I have faith in the developers in charge.

Arshay Duskbrow.1306:

I have no part to play in the trait disagreement between you two, but Scepter is inarguably garbage and no amount of “it’s all relative” can make adequate excuses for it.

Can’t I argue then? Because calling scepter garbage is clearly exaggerated. It is a good weapon, just not the best one mesmer has. I has a burst, something mesmer weapons don’t really have out of phantasms and shatters. It is not that hard to land a decent amount of the hits, and the damage really hurts in both power and condi. The skill n°2 is also very decent, mixing weak defense with very decent offense. Scepter only suffers from its AA.
So: improvable: surely. Garbage: definitely not.

Despite spending my time trying new builds and having fun, I’m with Fay here. Ideally, all traits should have a niche where they are better than the competing traits. Taking FI for example, I feel this is not really the case because even on an interrupt build, removing boons (like stability) is too important.

The concept of FI is nice: interrupt someone, and while they are vulnerable, burst them down quickly. The problem: mesmer burst does not benefit very much from quickness. Should we AA them to death? If we had a hundred blades to cast, this trait would be beasty. But we don’t… Maybe we just haven’t found the right way to use it. Maybe it is a good time for scepter 3… As Chaos said, the trait is not necessarily bad, but the concurrence is just too good…

You see developers have absolutely no problem feeding in new AOE damage multipliers:

Irenio CalmonHuang.2048:

• Grace of the Land: This trait has been re-worked. Instead of its former behavior, allies affected by your celestial avatar abilities gain 3% damage and condition damage increase for 8 seconds. This buff stacks 5 times.

Anchoku.8142:

Ps
Plague Sending is mandatory and potent for corruption skills so the trade for killing yourself is not as great as it seems.

PS: I also think the self-inflicted conditions are not a great idea because the devs seem to count them in the list of “benefits” for the balance, precisely because of condition transfer. I would rather the skills consume life force or health, something not transferable.

I still think the celestial skills should feel more distinct:

• reduce (or remove) the heal of “Seed of Life” to make it distinctly lower than “Cosmic Ray” (it was about the same if you had healing power, but since you increased the scaling, it will be even higher now). The number of condi cleanse can be increased in exchange.
• reduce or remove the heal from “Lunar Impact” to make it lower than “cosmic ray”.
• strongly increase the heal from “Rejuvenating Tides” (the same or higher coef than current “lunar impact”).

This way, each skill will feel different, and instead of just spamming 54321, one would use them when needed since they now have a purpose:

• 2 : condi cleanse
• 3 : daze + blast
• 4 : burst heal + water field
• 5 : CC

Also, I would keep the whole astral force when exiting the form. I really want the celestial avatar to be something one uses when needed and not spammed when available.

Raziel.8072:

This would be a good direction to take corruptions using MoC, since ya know MoC really doesn’t power up corruptions at all. Taking MoC could add support effects like this to each type of corruption (and not always a damage one, could be other types of debuffs too) so that a corruption build becomes one of necro’s go-to support options. If anyone remembers Mark of Pain from GW1? Yeah that could be a great debuff! Things like that would be game changing for the currently undesired corruptions

That is really a direction I would like corruptions to go to. To some extent, this is already what they do

• blood is power is one of our only boon support
• CPC has now a projectile block
• Epidemic in a sense does increases the condition damage produced by all your team
• corrupting boon is a strong debuff (both offensive and defensive depending on which boons were removed)
• Plague blind spam + weakness is a very strong defensive tool in a team fight

they just need a bit of oomph. Changing BiP to a unique damage increase instead of might is I believe a good added oomph!

Anchoku.8142:

Consumables, upgrades, class mechanics, etc. are all accounted for in boss models. Utilities and skills that do not stack between players are easier on PvE balance. In other words, the skill should be a 1-stack like chill is or like burning was.

I am not sure I get your point. Obviously the damage increase would not stack. So 2 necro using this skill would not make it a 20% damage increase. That is also the way the other “unique” support work: 2 identical banners only count as one.

Even then, if it adds to the Necro’s dps, something is usually traded unless Necro is deemed under powered.

The trade is that this is a corruption. You are killing yourself to help your party. Such a noble act does not seem OP. You are also giving up on a utility slot, which are “expensive”. For example, in PvP as a power necro (a build that is not so great currently), you already have 2 wells so if you take BiP you have no form of stunbreak/defensive utility. In (current) PvE, necro IS underpowered. So I am pretty convinced this will not break balance but on the contrary help it.

Anchoku.8142:

The dev’s set the vulnerability and might stack limits to 25 to prevent bosses from being burned down too fast by stacking bonuses to dps. A sure way to beat the limit of 50% increased dps will be difficult to justify.

Necromancer has a better chance at gaining utility that does not directly circumvent dps limits set by developers.

The thing is that many other classes already have a way to boost the party DPS (warrior banner + “empower allies”, ranger “spotter” + "frost spirit) and they added more with the expansion (revenant “Assassin’s Presence”, Druid’s Glyph of Empowerment, chronomancer alacrity + quickness probably counts too).

So I don’t see why necro could not have a skill for that too. Having an effect on the enemy instead of being on the ally does not “break the game” more.

I think it would be very interesting to have a tournament with teams of players of only 1 class (e.g. a match would be 5 mesmers vs 5 warriors).
The way gw2 is designed, any class can “in principle” fill any role (roaming, team fighter, bunker) and thus such tournaments would make sense and would allow builds we rarely see otherwise.
There could be a limitation on “builds have to be different” (to avoid 5 cele D/D ele). So there should be at least 3 different builds used (2 builds being different if they have different weapons, different amulet and different traitlines).

I would enjoy a lot watching those.

the noobiniser.7465:

Seems to fit the corruption theme and the DMG does seem in line with the other classes. I like the idea! Would you leave the aoe range as it is?

I guess something like in 240 units (I believe that is the current range) around the targeted enemy.

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

I had a thought a while back that Blood is Power loses the Might and gets changed to increase Power and Condition Damage by 10% for a time.

My idea is nothing very unique, but I just thought that if it was a debuff instead of a party buff, it will fit the necro theme better.

• druids cannot leave astral form and keep the energy they had left: they start from 0
• druids cannot use this “energy pool” as a secondary life, though of course the amount of healing makes up for it… a lot
• druids can in principle use any weapon to build astral force, but in practice only one works. Oh wait, necro too
• druids cannot give much damage while in astral form
• druids can use their utilities while in astral form (grrrr)
• druids can receive healing while in astral form (grrrr)

so quite different. But druids and necro could benefit from each other’s mechanics

• no incoming healing in death shroud is hard (and maybe unfair) for necros
• not having the possibility to use astral form for 1 or 2 skills only and pop out of it after + having most astra skills with very similar function (i.e. healing) means astral form is spammy as kitten. I had high hopes but it ended up being super boring to play.

Many professions have unique supportive abilities, buffs to the whole party that are unique and thus are not hindered by max stacks.
example:

• warrior banner + Empower Allies
• ranger spotter + spirit
• guardian Strength in Numbers
• ele Soothing Mist

Necro actually has one of those (vampiric aura) but this is more of a defensive buff than an offensive one, and necro currently really lacks offensive support. Developers do not want to add party support to the class because it does not fit the theme, and I get that. Necro is all about debuff.

So why not give necro a unique debuff? Something that increases the damage an enemy take even if vulnerability is already maxed.

For example, instead of the lackluster might on “blood is power” (lackluster because very short and many classes give might more easily without having to bleed themselves) have blood is power give a AOE debuff that increase the damage and condi damage taken by the enemy by 10% for 15s. It won’t be too strong since it will be a 7% damage increase on average, which is approximately the type of damage boost other classes give, even if they don’t hurt themselves doing so. But it fits the necro theme of being a debuff class.

What do you think?

I think we all agree the focus is the weaker weapon. I also think torch is weak, only saved by stealth. Mesmer is in otherwise pretty good spot for its weapon viability compared to other classes.

The improvement of swiftness stacking with temporal curtain was great and definitely a needed step forward. iWarden could be great if it was not for the positioning. It only works on static enemies (PvE or turrets). Being cast on the enemy means the enemy can easily step away from it. Weirdly enough, I think it’s a phantasm which would probably be more useful if it was ground targeted and didn’t move an inch from where we put it… This was you could cast in on yourself or allies and “hide behind”…

Chaos Archangel.5071:

• FURIOUS INTERRUPTION (3s Quickness on Interrupt – 5s CD) … Shattered Concentration is the better choice between the two, as it is the single strongest boon ripping trait in the game!

• EVASIVE MIRROR (1.5s Mirror on successful Evade – 1.5s CD) … Blinding Dissipation completely overshadows it

The problem is quite clear: shatters are too important on a mesmer. If you had a build where shatters are not so central, these traits would work fine. The problem is that an interrupt build is just a flavor of a shatter build. The mesmer is too dependent on it.
If you look at guardian or warrior for example, their class mechanics is an addition to them, but for us mesmers, our class mechanics is everything: our only reliable damage, some of our main defensive tools etc…
I don’t know if many would agree, but I think the class would be much better off in any game mode if the shatter damage was reduced and the weapon/phantasm/etc… damage was increased to compensate. The class would be way more balanced this way.

• BOUNTIFUL DISILLUSIONMENT (Stability + Boon on shatter) Stability! Stability in spades at that, especially when you merge Illusions into your build. All of the boons on this skill are decent (save for Regen on Distortion), granting us access to boons that are normally difficult for a Mesmer to obtain, such as Vigor on f2 or Fury on f3… But if you’re in the Chaos line, you’ve mostly likely come for Prismatic Understanding or Chaotic Interruption. Shame, sorry BD.

I am a bit surprised that you include this one. Probably because I take BD so often. I just feel like any condi build without PU would take it, most support build would take it etc…

• TEMPORAL ENCHANTER ( 3s Resistance + 2s Superspeed on glamour cast) You’d think Resistance would be pretty highly desired in all gamemodes, being that it prevents you from taking any condition damage! But the problem comes in the fact that it’s tied to Glamours and it’s rare to ever take more than one glamour for … Anything.

The main problem of this trait is that it does not work well on most glamours. Null field and time warp are the only glamour for which it works. Superspeed and resistance if you cross veil or if you take the portal would be amazing in WvW, but you need to be ON the veil/portal when cast for it to work, which is not the way you usually use those skills. Feedback is not ground targeted, it is put on the enemy. So the chances of getting the effect are slim.
The trait just needs QoL change and I think it would see more use. I already use it sometimes for support. Resistance when reviving with Medic’s Feedback: awesome. Resistance on null field before the cleansing pulse remove the condis: awesome.

Dahkeus.8243:

Well, the best way to nerf any OP class is to do so little by little. That way, you bring them down without wrecking the class. However, the risk is that you don’t nerf them enough and well…sometimes that happens.

This!
The devs have a bad habit of nerfing with a hammer. I feel recently they have been more moderate, and I like that.

Elementalist is a mess to balance. They are top-tier everywhere (PvE, PvP, group and roaming WvW). But then suddenly they created a different PvE content and people fear that ele will be trash tier there…

They recently nerfed D/D ele while buffing scepter. D/D ele is still god-mode, scepter is still bad. But that’s the right direction, and considering how busy they are with HoT, you could not expect a more in-depth patch.

Focus has a niche in PvE as our only AOE off-hand phantasm + reflects. However, the problem of phantasm survivability and the positioning makes it unviable in PvP. From what we can see in raids, the problem will also occur there (enemy constantly moving). So I suspect focus will die completely. I hope for a small rework.

Torch is obviously very strong in WvW/PvP. I suspect it will remain in WvW, shield may outclass it in PvP.

Pistol is good in PvP, with a good interrupt and high damage phantasm for both power and condi.

Scepter is good in PvP, not meta but definitely viable. If they remove the phantasm overwrite, it may become meta in PvE when range is needed (probably the case in raids and high level fractals).

Shield, as I said, I suspect it will be strong in PvP and may outclass the torch. In PvE, it depends on how valuable is the extra quickness and how reliable is the phantasm for alacrity.

smiley.4739:

1. It is way easier to apply condis than it is for someone to remove them.

As someone said, you need more offense than defense. However, there is more counter to condis than there is to power damage: you can cleanse it, you can heal it.

2. It is insanely easy to play

Why? For example burn guardian (the one people complain most often) is just media-guard with different traits. Why would that be easier? Yep, it isn’t.

3. Does higher burst than someone who is specced in zerker or marauder.

In general not. Bursty burn classes (mostly burn guard, engi and ranger quite behind) are about as bursty as bursty power classes (mesmer, thief, power ranger, medi-guard and maybe warrior)

4. Being able to run rabid or carrion is really nice since I get either vit or toughness. Cele is good as well.

Marauder also has extra vit. Carrion has barely more. Rabid has more sustain, but rabid does not have the same burst!

@nearlight
I don’t know how relevant to the discussion all of this is, probably because I’m not quite sure what OP’s point is really. But I agree strongly with you, and in general, I think people tend to forget: the meta is not the best collection of build, it is the optimal collection of build, in the context of high tier play, for the specific role they are meant to achieve (ooo I start to sound like Nemesis O.O )

Because of this, the meta build may not be the best for the large majority of the population. One example that comes to my mind: the “vamp rune meta” is really useful only if you have team support incoming or if you’re fast enough to be able to retreat immediately after. In lower MMR, the vamp rune will mostly delay your death by a few second, without you achieving anything useful from it. It will then mostly be annoying when it procs and interrupts what you were doing. Any other rune will probably be more useful.

TheFrighteningFrenchFry.3275:

“A five second burst is the exact limit that MoD places upon its users.”

Confused as to what your saying here. Are you saying MoD gives off a five second burst window?

I believe he means you cannot burst more than once every 5s (i.e. if you wait for your next mantra charge)

“Mesmers however don’t have a five second burst.”

yeah they don’t have any abilities that have a five second channel. Is that what your saying? You have to be more clear.

The mesmer burst cooldown is a 10 or 12s. So even if you could in principle burst every 5s with MoD, you have to wait at least 10 or 12s.

“And to gain the potential of basilisk they give up a utility slot.”

Yeah, meanwhile thieves give up a elite spot.

I would argue that in many cases, the utility slot is more expensive than the elite slot (because of the few elite choices).

“The only benefit MoD has is the secondary charges. The thief is still overall better off.”

How so? MoD has a shorter CD than BV unless you wait a while to use your second charge. In addition you can dodge the thieves attacks so there is a lot of counterplay unlike CS.

You can hardly dodge “steal”, so the initial burst is exactly as counterable for both professions. As for “thief is better off”, then we start to get into sloppy discussions.

The fact is simply that a-net gave stealth, burst and an instant disabling skill to both mesmer and thief. There is no ton of counterplay to the initial burst but one burst won’t kill you and there is enough time between the bursts for you to recover and start to retaliate.

“You asked me about burst with no counterplay. By your logic BV is one of said bursts. So is any medi guard nonsense. Any burst class will use a stun or an immobilize, the counter is stunbreakers or cleanse.”

Except you can dodge most stuns or immobilizes. CS however doesn’t have a animation. And the counter isn’t stunbreakers or cleanses if you don’t have time before your bursted.

See above point about steal being instant too.

The problem is the balance between low MMR and high MMR. There is no problem in high MMR, as shown by the fact that most mesmers there do not use MoD. So the problem is low MMR. In low MMR, people can get killed by about anything. A burn guardian, a power or MM necro, a shatter mesmer, a thief, a power warrior (hundred blade is OP!!), a LB ranger, a D/D ele (actually in high MMR too…), a flamethrower engi etc… There are plenty of not-so-hard to play but powerful-if-not-countered-properly specs in the game. This is how the game is designed, to allow beginners to feel powerful and not have a super high skill ceiling to reach before having fun.

Hooglese.4860:

I really find lost time/chronophantasmia way better in PvP. Addressing the people that use it for stomping: I find blinding dissipation has you covered for stomps. Lost time is also an insanely mean trait since you can pair it with the major trait to get 100% crit chance and quickness on a mesmer is kinda meh, since your damage goesnt always come from the auto but your bursts and StM requires a shatter which makes a subsequent burst hard.

When you are in team fight, especially in high MMR, people rarely try to stomp, because it is easily countered (CC, stealth) + the rezzing is typically too fast. Blinding dissipation hardly helps. So a rezz/stomp is typically a question of “does the damage enemy A puts to finish the guy beats the rezzing enemy B is putting before the other members of B get too low in health to continue?”. So quickness increase the rez speed to beat the enemy cleave or the cleave speed and even allows stomps faster to make them possible. That is the main reason why bunker guards use their quickness elite shout: revive speed!

While I don’t want to do thief-bashing because I know the class is not in its best state, how is CS + GS burst different from Basilisk Venom-Steal backstab burst?

I did play a condi shatter boonshare recently using staff, but this was because I was in a casual full mesmer party and the might generation was close to 0, so I thought I could help. I managed to stack 15-20 might fairly consistently.

Now let’s be clear, most classes would do a better job at it (maybe not necro), and my personal DPS was not sky high (even for a mesmer).

The key is to be able to do what is needed in the current situation, but staff will rarely be what you need.

Your choice of utility seem to indicate you are discussing PvP, so here it goes.

The key is to define the role you want to take. Mesmer in PvP is often used for its burst damage and mobility, to take down very fast an enemy player on a point away from the main team fight, usually in solo or preferably duo (thief/mesmer is a deadly duo). For this role, you can play stealthy (sword/torch-GS, blink/decoy either portal or a condi cleanse depending on your needs and traits), you can play more interrupt-focused (some combination of sword/pistol, GS and staff, blink/mantra distraction, probably using inspiration for some condi cleanse). The condi version also works (just replace sword by scepter, GS by staff and add illusion in your traits), though it does not kill as fast but can be more durable.

If you want to go for team fights instead, then this is a bit of an uphill battle, as mesmer does not thrive as much in these environments. Chronomancer will make the job easier. But this is definitely possible and the idea is that you can support your allies with boonshare (signet of inspiration, together with the chaos line for a lot of boon production), as well as some nice utilities (AOE condi cleanse if using inspiration traitline or if using null field, time warp, etc…).

Honestly, while I respect Helseth as a mesmer and a player, his role-play as an arrogant kittenhole does not make me want to have him as a mesmer ambassador anyway.

Go Frostball, go!

I see it more as a ranger (druid) weapon, with a branch and a crow, this screams “nature magic” to me…

I think we can agree that CS even with MoD is not that OP anymore. I would have liked to see it nerfed some time ago, but a-net nerfed everything else instead (the mantra recharge “fix”, harmonious mantra, mirror blade, PU) so now mesmer is fine and not OP in any ways.

Now the only thing I would like to ask is if they could keep chronomancer healthy. I hear the QQ everywhere, so I hope a-net will adjust chronomancer properly without slaughtering build diversity by nerfing in the wrong places.

Kelthien.8593:

I’d support that. It’s hard to tell if ANet is going for “theme” or “purpose” with its specs. Chronomancer feels like it’s centered around a “theme”, but doesn’t have a specific focus. It complements a lot of builds, but doesn’t stand out as being the best for a specific play style. Druid, on the other hand, has a very particular focus: support. Whether it’s supporting through pure healing numbers or through damage reductions or stun-breaks: you are supporting.

I think it’s important to note that chronomancer was a full class concept, and because of that, has a naturally broader focus. Druid on the other hand is a an extreme case, being too focused in my opinion… Most other specs tried to have a clear damage/support/defense etc… mix in the new trait line. The thing is that slow/alacrity/quickness are effects that are very general and apply to any playstyle because they just enhance whatever you are doing.

I’d love to see each line get this kind of focus. I’d love to take Domination, knowing that each and every trait there is somehow bolstering my ability to control. Or have Inspiration be our support line, replacing the selfish phantasm-only traits with group-oriented support.

I doubt we will see much of that in the future. If they release a spec every 2-3 years, they cannot go too focused on one very specific playstyle, at the risk of disappointing a bit part of the community (if you look at druid, there are very strong opinions on both sides about the concept itself, more than any other specs).

Exactly what we asked for…

Kalriostraz.6819:

Terimac.5871:

I dunno why you are complaining about a guy camping the hammer? How hard is it to go there and have a proper 1vs1? That’s what i do and i love it.

Proper 1v1? 80% of my fights up there end with one of us going off the edge or through the glass. If you call that a proper 1v1 then I’m very confused. Also I don’t see anyone here saying they like courtyard. That map is also trash.

Exactly, fighting there is just plain boring if you play a class without fear/push and with little access to stability.

On the other hand, I like courtyard, or at least death match (I don’t like the map that much, but I like the format). But here again, it is very build dependent so we need build templates…

Terimac.5871:

Man, most of you guys are so salty :P I guess you guys prefer the braindead playstyle couryards offer.

We are speaking about PvP, so how is fighting players braindead? Isn’t that the point?
When a map distracts you from that (Skyhammer is one, Stronghold may be even worse) to force you play gimmicks, this is not fun.

Sitting on the hammer to kill people is not PvP.
Killing people by pushing them over, that is barely PvP.
Playing a match where you have to kill the NPC guards, so that your NPC allies destroy the (NPC) gates so that you can reach the NPC lord and kill it with the help of your NPC heroes… That’s PvE.

kitten.8746:

they’re fixed. so why don’t you keep your likings to yourself? (no offence)

Fixed or not, they are the reason for the “rezz meta” we have right now, which favors sustain around the map. When you have ESL tournaments where every person is using them, that shows a problem (you know, the same things kitten D/D ele in a team, it shows balance issues).

Xyonon.3987:

Superior Rune of the Puppeteer

• +25 Power
• When a companion gets hit by a lethal blow, it survives with 1 HP. Each companion can only be affected by this bonus once. Does not work with self inflicted death (shatter, suicide).
• +50 Power
• +20% condition duration for companions
• +100 Power
• +20% damge for companions; +125 Precision

That’s a nice one! I can see rangers and mesmers loving that one in PvE (which I guess was the purpose)!

I just pugged a dungeon with “mesmer-only, any build” (and I had a lot of fun). After a few fights, I realized we really lacked might so I switched to a condi shatter boonshare (approximately like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAW7alsnhO1YBawINQtGL5Gk5F+QILDQq7F6Py9MA-TZwaAAQZAA
it was twilight arbor so I used the mantra for cleansing the poison)

and I could maintain an approximate 15-20 mights (despite having no rune of aristocracy or any might duration), plus some protection (always good in Pugs) and a low but decent damage. I think I didn’t really need the mirror image, since my illusion generation was already good enough compared to my shatters cooldowns, and thus use the condi damage signet for some extra damage and a ice bow 5 alternative if needed

So yes, having a sinister/rampager set can be useful in odd situations…

Dondagora.9645:

Nerf CS how you like, but no “on-interrupt” on it. It overlaps too much with CI, and it’s just ridiculous to think that having two traits that do essentially the same thing exist on the same profession.

I very much agree with that. Either adjust CS or just make a new trait with something different.

Embolism.8106:

Silverkey.2078:

I saw somewhere a suggestion to simply remove the trait and instead “your control effects remove an additional stability” which I think made sense.

That actually sounds pretty strong with Diversion. Fits Mesmer better than Revenant anyway IMO.

Exactly! Now the question is: does that mean you stun someone who has only 1 stack of stability, or the trait just does not do anything special in this case?

Wishes.3021:

the fact is no top mesmers play with mantra of distraction and the point remains it’s only for people who aren’t skilled enough to land a burst without locking their target in place

Wrong. There is one top mesmer every week in ESL (NA) who uses mantra of recovery and distraction with a staff/GS dom/duel/insp build. And before mantra got “fixed” (when they had their recharge in the background) most top mesmers ran mantras. The only reason it is not used as much is because the current meta build was deemed better (i.e. PU with decoy was deemed better than the mantra). In competitions players usually play what is the most efficient (which depends on their playstyle of course, but usually end up being the same meta build), so if mantra helps, they run it, but decoy helps more.

And honestly, it is harder for top mesmers to land their shatters, because top mesmers play against top enemies who know how to avoid shatters. So they would have more motivation to stun enemies than someone like me for example.

I saw somewhere a suggestion to simply remove the trait and instead “your control effects remove an additional stability” which I think made sense.