Guild Wars 2

The Silverwastes is an excellent map. It’s full of character, gorgeous vistas and events that have meaning and cohesion. My only gripe, is that I think the defence events don’t scale up enough. Even with lots of players defending one fort you rarely see elite mobs or champions and it’s already getting a little too easy to succeed. Other than that, I think the Silverwastes are perfect.

The Living Story instances were also mostly brilliant. It seems that Anet has fallen back in love with the lore of their own making! I wasn’t a huge fan of the the attunement and crystal mechanics of Glint’s Lair as it was quite tedious running in circles waiting for buffs to be available or removed. But I guess it beats the usual dps fair.

Yep 0/6/0/2/6 is probably my favourite due to Mantra of Recovery + Harmonious Mantras + Mender’s Purity providing all the condi cleanse you need freeing up a utility slot.

It’s so hilariously broken. I face palmed with all the power of my strong throwing arm when I realised it could be done again. As funny as it is to watch a Thief remain almost completely uncatchable for however long it takes for the chasing players to fill their tower/keep with stealth traps, it’s probably not good for the game to leave this unaddressed for an extended period again.

I’d love to think that this will lead to an onslaught of new ways to scout a map, but I think it’s unlikely.

Unfortunately, the fundamental issues of removing white swords cannot be made up for by anything other than a new mechanic that replicates what they already do.

Where currently white swords act as a ‘come get some action here’ indicator, with their removal we will be left with a map screen with no indication of fights to be had. Groups of camp cappers, tower flippers and roamers passing each other like ships in the night. It has the potential to make WvW very very boring.

The future of GW2 is the Living Story, so WvW is unlikely to see a large dose of content to truly invigorate it. Best thing you can do is join a relatively active WvW guild that know how to have a laugh and just kitten about fighting other people. I personally enjoy small group roaming, trying to take on larger numbers etc. Try and come up with some interesting builds that might benefit the group in some unseen way. Cast away the boring meta builds and get experimental.

Signet of Domination used to have a 1 second cooldown, I think. Anet probably reduced it so Mesmers could utilise it in interrupt builds. It was a well needed buff to encourage interrupt style play.

The counter-play to Signet of Domination (and Power Lock) is Mesmer skillbar awareness, covering your important casts via stability, aegis or simply LOS and baiting the Mesmer’s interrupts.

Since the RNG boon pool for PU was increased to be more ‘chaotic’ PU builds just aren’t as much hassle as they were before. Also, the community understands what PU builds can and can’t do and it lost its fotm status a long long time ago. So you’re cool…....scumbag.

Moa is absolutely fine. It is a highly situational single target removal elite that has a high failure rate. “Flee” was actually nerfed because it gave a Moa’d target such an easy escape button that Moa Morph became completely useless.

It’s still very easy to survive in Moa form (especially in WvW) and immediately put the Mesmer at a disadvantage (no mass invis for you lol). Immediately use Flee, then double dodge and Kick to gain even more distance to a a position where you can abuse LOS against the Mesmer. Now kill the Mesmer.

If its non stacking feature is to never be changed, Anet should at least update the tooltip to say it does not provide swiftness if you already have it.

This is an actual source of confusion for new players and should have been addressed along with the NPE.

What a strange remark for someone to make. Being a ‘crutch’ is irrelevant as its all about build synergy. I’ve tried running triple sword shatter whilst roaming in WvW and the defensive options are simply not enough against any competent opponent or in a severely outmanned situation. There is far better synergy running Staff with S/S than GS with S/S. That’s just the way it is.

A completely baseless nerf thread.

How is the current shatter Mesmer meta build damaging for sPvP? Does its presence exclude any other classes from this game mode? Is it integral that every serious tPvP composition includes a shatter Mesmer? Does it reach a point where shatter Mesmer begins to carry a team? Is the risk/reward payoff totally out of skew?

These are the sort of questions that lead to balancing changes. You can’t just say something needs a nerf simply because it exists and/or is currently trending.

Removal of white swords? That’s going to be horrendous for low population servers. Seems like a change that is really not needed.

It will increase PvD scenarios as there will be defenders completely unaware that an objective is under siege. It’s completely unreasonable to think anyone is going to sit in a tower or keep for hours waiting to see if anyone is coming along for a fight. How very dull.

It’s also going to be detrimental for new and casual players that just want to hop into WvW and find some immediate objective related action.

This will make condition shatter a bit more viable. But they still need to reduce the cooldown of Cry of Frustration so it can be used more frequently.

It can be quite confusing for some players when they are burst down by a Mesmer because so many sources coalesce to form the burst. But the combat log is really quite detailed now, so there’s no excuse for all the confusion over how ‘that burst happened’. As far as I know, it even logs when vulnerability is applied, so this person could have worked it out for him/herself.

Pistol Whip is nothing compared to the damage the Thief sword auto-attack can do alone. For a cleave weapon, I’m always surprised by how much damage I can do on my sword Thief by simply auto-attacking. But oh well.

I’d still like to see Blurred Frenzy activate quicker.

It was always a terribly designed mechanic for all the reasons Menzies listed above (probably more). Allowing it stack was a step too far.

coglin.1867:

So if you used a cleanse and another immobilize was applied, you were out of luck.

But allowing immobilise to stack does not prevent this from occurring. You can still simply chain immobilise skills to account for cleansing. In fact, I still do this all the time. If the community really did request the stacking to prevent chain immobilise I really have to question the competence of the GW2 playerbase.

Sandrox.9524:

Simonoly.4352:

I’ve just been using this for a good year now: http://tinyurl.com/o7by6av

Nothing special and not particularly original, but probably the most viable condition interrupt build I’ve used for small group roaming.

That build is exactly what I told him,which he said mobility is a king,which I dont really sure how 6s lower cd gonna help it.I would rather take far reach manipulation instead of the fury on phantasms.Cause blink von awesome.

Mobility certainly is king, but people just go about achieving it in different ways depending on what other skills they are using. For me, I personally find that Phase Retreat + Blink is usually enough to put enough distance between myself and a target (or for chasing). I find Phantasmal Fury is very helpful for getting a full 8 bleeds from a Duellist’s unload, and Debiliating Dissipation is still strong additional dps.

However, if I wasn’t using Staff in my condition interrupt build, I would consider using a fully traited Blink as I can certainly see how that would help in the absence of a staff.

Neko.9021:

You see into the future and predict it like all the other amazing untelegraphed stuff in this game.

This. Maybe one day Anet will realise that all this instant non-telegraphed damage we can do to one another isn’t particular good for a game boasting such an active combat system.

I’ve just been using this for a good year now: http://tinyurl.com/o7by6av

Nothing special and not particularly original, but probably the most viable condition interrupt build I’ve used for small group roaming.

I think this is the case for pretty much every class now. Anet are yet to add any significant changes to how we build and how we fight. We need new weapon skills, utilities, traits and elites, but as a large package rather than being drip-fed to us over a prolonged period.

Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s any room for large additions like this alongside Anet’s Living Story directive.

Are you from the past OP? Mesmers don’t complain about condi removal anymore (that was addressed ages ago) they complain about the horrendously long list of bugs that are introduced to the class with what seems like every single patch.

0/6/6/2/0 (BI and CI) staff/scepter+pistol condi interrupt is still my favourite roaming build. The nerf to DD (and clone death in general) was a pain, but the buffs to scepter AA and Mantra of Distraction have massively improved the functionality of this build for small group roaming.

Also works well in solo roaming, but obviously not as optimal for survival as a condi PU build.

Cynz.9437:

Simonoly.4352:

I’d say Mesmer, Engineer and Elementalist feel the most mechanically intensive, but all 3 classes are capable of running builds that reduce that intensity significantly.

I personally find Thief, Warrior and Guardian the least mechanically intensive.

^^never played a thief apparently

in terms of press as many buttons as possible would be ele and engi spam
in terms of precise timing/positioning/combo etc. would be mesmer and thief
imo

I’ve played Thief enough thanks. I find it quite straight forward mechanically. I’m not talking about skill level in any way here, I just found the mechanics of the class pretty easy to get my head around when I first started to play the game.

I’d say Mesmer, Engineer and Elementalist feel the most mechanically intensive, but all 3 classes are capable of running builds that reduce that intensity significantly.

I personally find Thief, Warrior and Guardian the least mechanically intensive.

It was a very pointless change to Mimic. At no point in the game have I ever really come up against a target with ALL boons, other than when a Thief uses Consume Plasma. So Arcane Thievery already had us covered on that front, whilst also being a steal and a condition transfer.

At least turn Mimic into a duration effect. If a target is marked with Mimic, then for 10 seconds any boons they acquire are also copied to the Mesmer that marked them. Counter-play: party should avoid giving boons to a marked target or, err, kill the Mesmer.

27 servers in EU just seems a tad dated now. Could easily cut that down to at least 15 servers through merging or scraping the current servers and simply creating a number of new servers for players to affiliate themselves with. WvW is pretty stagnant at present and is in serious need of some mixing up, so I welcome the chance to build new communities within a different infrastructure.

Will Phase Retreat become the new Phantasmal Warden? Answers on a postcard.

Hah! That reflect bug in particular is hilarious. No escape reflector!

Looks good. Don’t bother with Mantra Mastery though as you’re only using MoP and therefore the cooldown reduction is insignificant. In the Duelling line, you’d probably get the most benefit from Phantasmal Fury and Deceptive Evasion (shatter flexibility). As you’re backline, you probably won’t need Blade Training either as you will mostly be on your greatsword.

Well the format of this tournament is far better than the previous, but the population disparity that is the nature of WvW still prevents the leagues from being truly competitive.

In WvW after feature path:

1) Guardian – the most important class for almost everything.
2) Warrior – high dps, high self-sustain. Put one next to a Guardian and lol.
3) Elementalist and Engineer – king and queen of AoE spam. Also amazing roamers.
4) Thief – squishy murderer, skipping facilitator, mild irritant. Can’t CnD walls
5) Mesmer – thieves with cooldowns. Herders of golems. Put veil here, now go away.
6) Ranger – pew pew pew, should donate weapon swap ability to Engineers.
7) Necromancer – sacrifices him/herself so everyone else can run. You lovely guys!

eekzie.5640:

Simonoly.4352:

Okay, the most recent account-bound unlock changes are very much a step in the right direction, but there’s still so many pacing issues to address.

It still seems odd to have things like skill points unlock at level 13 when there are skill points available at lower levels. Why can’t a new level 8 player challenge themselves against a level 8 skill challenge? Aren’t these supposed to be challenges?

Come back at level 13 to do a level 8 skill challenge! That’s some funky pacing right there.

It’s mostly so that new players don’t have 50 things to do once they walk outside of a city. Considering it is unlocked account wide after hitting level 13 with one character, I don’t think this is an issue.

Well the reason I brought it up is because I had to explain to a new player earlier why they couldn’t do the Mysterious Patch of Ground skill challenge in Caledon Forest, even though they were at the same level as the mobs and other events in that area. They were displeased that they could not complete the zone sequentially whilst levelling and would have to instead come back and do the skill challenge when they were overlevelled for that challenge. For this new player it was just an inconvenience.

Obviously it’s not a deal breaker, but it would be wise to make the minimum level of every skill point level 13, so when a new player tries to interact with a skill point they at least know why they can’t do it yet.

Okay, the most recent account-bound unlock changes are very much a step in the right direction, but there’s still so many pacing issues to address.

It still seems odd to have things like skill points unlock at level 13 when there are skill points available at lower levels. Why can’t a new level 8 player challenge themselves against a level 8 skill challenge? Aren’t these supposed to be challenges?

Come back at level 13 to do a level 8 skill challenge! That’s some funky pacing right there.

I find it rather difficult to really judge how OP the longbow changes could possibly be, as the majority of the Rangers I encounter in WvW still refuse to use the mechanics of the game. No dodging, no weapon swapping and often not even moving – I sometimes have to double take to make sure I’m not fighting an NPC. I guess these changes are good for these players as they get to play the machine gun archers they all so obviously want to play, even though it gets them destroyed often. But I think these changes could have the undesired effect of further perpetuating Ranger discrimination.

I can see this taking a few roamers by surprise. I would personally find this build much more threatening if you had increased movement speed runes, a sigil of doom on one weapon set, swapped Duellist’s Discipline for Harmonious Mantras and swapped Ether Feast for Mantra of Recovery.

If you want to make this build more versatile, you need some boon stripping in there somewhere. By taking Harmonious Mantras and Mantra of Recovery you will have a decent source of instant on-demand cleanse, which means you can get rid of Cleansing Conflagration and take Shattered Concentration instead. Alternatively, just swap Signet of Domination for Arcane Thievery

I tried it out post-patch. Realised that my staff clones accounted for the majority of my dps and then stopped using MtD. It was fun to use, but I honestly felt like I was kittening myself over by sending clones to shatter. MtD needs to be 2 torment stacks per clone (reduce duration back to 4 seconds) and Cry of Frustration needs to have its cooldown reduced so your base condi shatter skill can be rotated like the base power shatter skill (Mind Wrack).

@Rym Any one of those servers is good for roaming. Gandara might be the most renown for its roaming culture (it’s why I transferred from Desolation myself) but I’ve always come up against plenty of strong roaming on Piken and GH.

Yep character models are now zoomed in too far.

I’ve seen it fail twice in WvW since patch. Once whilst capping a camp where it seemed to get confused by the the many NPCs surrounding it. And the second time when I casted a Warden on a keep cannon and it simply stood there doing nothing. Definitely fails less than pre-patch, but still…

Vayne.8563:

Simonoly.4352:

Suggestion – when starting a new character, players should be able to choose whether this new character has ‘Beginner’ or ‘Veteran’ status. A Beginner status character has the new level gated system, whereas a Veteran status character has no such level gating, other than the restrictions that were already present before the feature patch.

Actually the first character should not have that choice, but all subsequent characters should.

Sounds good to me :-)

It’s a bit mental. I was following a LB Ranger in WvW yesterday and she was bursting things down so quickly that I didn’t even have time to get into range before most things were downed. It was hilarious to watch, but I fear this is going to turn even more people to the condi bunker dark-side.

As with every other nerf/buff included in the patch, we need to sit on these changes for longer before calling for more balance.

Suggestion – when starting a new character, players should be able to choose whether this new character has ‘Beginner’ or ‘Veteran’ status. A Beginner status character has the new level gated system, whereas a Veteran status character has no such level gating, other than the restrictions that were already present before the feature patch.

Ah yes I just checked the wiki and found their respective pre-patch names. All good.

The following 3 heart events have been reset across all of my characters (who have map completion for the respective zones):

1) Help Delilah keep the farmer’s fields safe – Caledon Forest
2) Rid the training area of pests – Plains of Ashford
3) Help Tolona Ironrustler with her farm – Plains of Asford

Not a big deal. But worth mentioning.

It’s way too early to truly judge how much the condition buffs to Mesmer will actually affect anything. Need time for everything to settle before demanding any further balance changes. I’m personally finding the torment on scepter auto-attack and the scepter clones themselves rather underwhelming in a real fight. It’s all very slow and many people naturally kite outside of the path and range of scepter clones anyway. Nice to be able to use scepter auto-attack for the first time in forever though.

The change to IE with staff clones though, is immediately noticeable and I love it. It makes staff Mesmers with IE really quite powerful in group fights. Not only does your party receive nice amounts of fury and might, but it’s now a very good idea to lure your opponent into range of a Mesmer’s staff clone to improve group dps through double procs. Condition Mesmers can now occupy a much stronger role in group fights and I think that’s great.

I’m not particularly worried about how these buffs affect duelling. Most duelling arenas have restrictions put in place to attempt to bring balance to what is essentially a player driven game mode. If I want some balance to my duels I will simply go to these arenas.

It was a silly change but it’s never going to be reverted. Most likely Anet will eventually introduce more immobilise removal skills into the game when they realise what they have done.

Not even close to being ‘cheese’. MtD still won’t be that much of a threat because baseline condi shatter does not offer enough burst to make up for the dps you lose by sacrificing illusions that could be stacking bleeds and burning (and torment soon).

Anet need to add more stacks of torment to MtD or buff Cry of Frustration for condi shatter to ever be that much of a threat.

Phantasmal Mage is an awful skill. Useless as a condi applier, pitiful damage in a power build, terrible bounce logic and an awfully slow projectile that misses easily. To make things worse, it shares the highest phantasm cooldown with iDefender. It needs to be changed.

It’s only slightly passable as a useful skill when traited for condi removal, but even this extra utility is out-shined by any combinations of Mender’s Purity/Harmonious Mantras/Mantra of Recovery/Mantra of Resolve. Or alternatively you could just slot Phantasmal Disenchanter which is so so much better.

Absconditus.6804:

Simonoly.4352:

I do roll my eyes when I see other Mesmers trying to stack swiftness with Temporal Curtain. Although it’s perfectly possible that this “feature” is not as widely known as I thought.

Some Mesmers will throw it down to try help people that may be falling behind in WvW though, since you know, they already have the Swiftness as they’re in the pack, so why not help out those that are slightly too far behind, losing their Swiftness. Just in defense of some Mesmers at least, haha.

Very true. I can get on board with this :-)

Never going to happen unfortunately. As nice as it would be to have more natural counters to stealth instead of select Reveal applying skills, the Thief class would just be shut down by any random source of aegis. So this could only ever work with active blocking skills that a Thief can react to with certainty.