Guild Wars 2

This thread. Such catharsis. Purge away guys.

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.

Well the whole triangle thing is just a positional technique to aid a full shatter without a root. Can also be useful in 1v1s against opponents that will easily react to predictable iLeap shatter combos.

Fortunately, 90% of players in WvW do not react to predictable iLeap shatter combos

Yay for the PU change! That Might could be pretty nice and it will be less irritating to fight PU Mesmers which is a plus. Swiftness duration could be a little higher.

However, did clone death traits really need more counterplay? I was aways under the impression that they were designed to punish melee cleave spam and therefore encourage opponents to either 1) use single target attacks on a Mesmer surrounded by clones or 2) use ranged attacks on a Mesmer surrounded by clones. So why do we need anything else? If anything it was the radius of clone death traits that needed to be reduced to encourage more players to switch to ranged. Did Anet discover that the GW2 community is terrible at dealing with punishment mechanics?

Also, Debilitating Dissipation already had an RNG applied to the bleed proc, so again nerfing that was unnecessary.

This all reminds me of the silly changes to Chaos Armour and the double nerf to Blinding Befuddlement.

It should be a duration skill so it actually feels a bit more distinct to Arcane Thievery. So maybe for 6 seconds you get a copy of any boon that your target had on activation of Mimic and also any boon your target receives for the duration of Mimic. Your target is visibly marked to provide some counterplay to this. If you might stack whilst marked, you might stack for the enemy Mesmer too. If you steal from a Mesmer that marked you and consume plasma whilst marked, you give the Mesmer all those boons too.

Thieves will have to react better to Illusionary Leap and Mind Stab will now cover the whole of Shadow Refuge, but apart from that I don’t think Thieves have much to worry about.

Condition Mesmer builds could be problematic but a S/D Thief with SE won’t have to worry too much about that. However, a staff Mesmer that has IE will be a riskier CnD target, so do watch out for that one.

I was doing my Norn personal story earlier this morning and the Kodan in the cutscenes also had this rather funny graphical glitch.

dandamanno.4136:

Swish.2463:

scepter AA chain takes 3.9s

IC+CD = 4s Phase retreat, go test it for yourself if you dont believe me.

You are correct about the AA chain. It takes longer than the 1/2 +1/2 + 1s the tooltips states due to projectile time.

You are wrong about IC + CD though. It goes to 6 seconds (cooldown appears kitten seconds at start due to whole numbers only being shown.)

This is correct. IC + CD provides a 40% decrease in the cooldown of Phase Retreat.

No.

I don’t think this scepter buff is going to be that much of a big deal for the most part, but I think simply plopping a dps condition on scepter is boring and I’d prefer something else entirely actually.

Hah dat Wave of Wrath spam! Tag ALL the things!

:-)

deda.8302:

here it took me 10 min to make this ,it will punish you for anything you do while i can apply ALL condition on you in few sec:)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArfWlsnpBtlqxRNMrRiuhYqHnsVM0O8W5CA-TpRGwAAeAAG3foZZA0HCgAnAACHBAA

That’s one counterproductive build you’ve got there. I hope I see lots of Mesmers using such random trait combinations. I do like me some free kills

The AA itself is fine and, knowing how slow the Mesmer AA cast and projectile speed is, I don’t think there’s much to worry about with this. It would have been nice to have something more interesting instead of just creating another condi AA, but I don’t think I will find an auto-attacking scepter Mesmer particularly threatening.

The clone applying torment though…..still unsure about this. On my condi build I can’t see myself bothering with scepter clones as staff clones will still be superior for both dps and utility (even without taking the fixed IE). However, it will mean that there’s generally going to be extra pressure when I don’t have my duellists/staff clones available, which my build didn’t really need.

Oh well, at least it’s single target :S

vincecontix.1264:

Condition mesmer are already strong and to easy to play even without pu trait. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9PLs0cReY9A

It sure is strong in 1v1s against power builds even without PU, but that’s the case for almost every condi build in the game. I’m surprised that duelling servers allow any condi builds at all really.

Clone death traits are great fun, and not all that powerful outside of tight spots against melee cleave drones and usually only when you’ve gotten lucky enough to proc lots of bleeds from DD.

It would be better to just clean up DD by allowing clone death traits to be blocked and also by disallowing clone death traits to proc when refreshing clones. Other than that, it’s good to have deterrents to kitten y melee spam.

I’d much rather see the +1 second stealth duration of PU removed, thus removing 1 boon proc. Maybe add swiftness to the selection of possible boons to reduce the chance of getting Protection and Aegis. Or just ditch the Aegis entirely.

About 12 threads down in this sub forum is a list of ways to counter play Illusionary Leap. Just subtract the counter play to do with the clone leap/pathing issues, and you’ve still got a bunch more ways to counter this than you have other teleporting/leap skills.

Everything will be fine. Mesmers will just have a reliable gap closer, which means you just have to dodge it more. If you can dodge Infiltrators Strike, Steal or Flashing Blade, I guarantee that you will be able to dodge Illusionary Leap.

Well the change to IE does make shatter condi builds a bit more appealing now. But still, I think it’s the base shatter condition skills that are holding back condi shatter builds.

The change to Main the Disillusioned is fine, probably still not worth doing a condi shatter build though because Cry of Frustration isn’t good enough.

I am concerned with the change to scepter AA though. I suppose the attack chain is slow and easy to kite, but still, could we not have had something more interesting?

Thank you for putting in the extra work to correct this. It really would have undermined the whole point of different coloured tags if there was an accompanying gold sink. This will facilitate raid organisation in both WvW and PvE, which will be great for the health of the game.

Yes please. This would be an excellent addition to many parts of the game outside of specific PvP modes.

Henrik.7560:

Mesmer: Use a Greatsword with PU, and have pretty high damage. Take them out with long range, remember spatial surge has 1500 range, and their pistols are 900. Use blink and keep high mobility up.

This would only work against quite bad P/D Thieves who are unaware of the CnD fodder that illusions are. A 1200 range spatial surge won’t hit a P/D Thief very hard and Mesmer doesn’t really have the mobility to keep any thief off them without using staff.

As a Mesmer it’s better to try and end a fight with a P/D Thief as quickly as possible by locking them down and bursting them hard, with the hope that they will use Shadow Refuge so you can knock them out (if you are using GS). However, much of this is dependent on a Thief’s inability to dodge predictable combos and cc, so don’t bet on it.

I haven’t tried it myself, but I imagine a very glassy phantasm spec with Harmonious Mantras and Mender’s Purity for fully traited Power Return and Power Cleanse is probably the optimal counter to P/D Thieves.

Confusion damage was too strong but the glamour builds themselves were absolutely fine. The only direct glamour nerf was that of Blinding Befuddlement where they added a rather unnecessary ICD on the trait proc. I’m still expecting Anet to revert that one at some point in the non-future.

I’m still hoping that Anet will give condi Mesmers a reason to actually use their offensive shatter skills. Main the Disillusioned simply isn’t good enough to justify the sacrifice of illusions that could be stacking conditions themselves.

Reducing the base cool down of Cry of Frustration to 15 seconds so a Mesmer can condi burst frequently would be a nice start.

I’m willing to give this Siege Disabler a go. I’m guessing there’s going to be a Disabler immunity to prevent chain disables or a personal cool down to prevent Disabler spam?

If not, I will enjoy buying up stacks of disablers, with the intent of creating ridiculous situations where attackers cannot do a single thing other than to cata or treb from afar. Even then, I will just get a Thief to Shadow Refuge me at this afar location for more disabling. So much troll potential.

I just use +movement speed runes (speed or traveller) so I can remain fully mobile. Necromancers can’t really give you swiftness, so this would work well for you.

I usually aim for 1200-1300 toughness if doing shatter roaming with 1 or 2 people. I wouldn’t recommend full glass unless you have a Guardian or Ele to keep your health topped up as well providing important regular condi removal.

If you roll PU, chances are that your Terrormancer will get focused down hard, at which point your roaming duo will cease to be. As Necromancers cannot sustain like Guardians or Warriors, you need to distribute aggro more evenly and you also need to kill quickly so you don’t get overwhelmed. So, as others have already said, shatter would be your best bet.

How is this gold sink helpful to us as a community in any shape or form?

All we want is a few different colours to help us organise and create structure on the fly. Why over complicate such a basic piece of functionality?

This is absolutely bizarre.

“Stack!”
“dps here!”
“waypoint”
“don’t use keep/tower supply”

You are now a good commander.

Mardi Gras mode confirmed. Dust off those steel drums, it’s time for a parade!

I’m really excited about the change. It’s going to make playing Warrior so much more interesting, to the point where I might spend some more time on it

I am intrigued by the rate of adrenaline decay. I wonder whether it would be worth attacking ambients and other mobs to build up adrenaline before entering a fight.

I’d like to see an improvement to the Illusion UI. If a phantasm is slotted it should have a mini timer in its illusion spot to show the time until its next attack. Of course if you’ve played Mesmer long enough you get a good feel of phantasm attack rates, but I honestly wouldn’t mind a little bit more information on screen, so I can micromanage my illusions a tad more.

As it’s PvP, you’re main threat will probably be S/x and, well, you’re going to have a bad time. My best advice against S/x Thieves as a shatter Mesmer is to try and dump your burst at specific moments either before or after the many evade frames usually in combination with an interrupt. Mirror Images is great for delivering some unpredictable burst and many Mesmers use Mantra of Distraction just to tackle S/x Thieves as it allows you to react to important interruptible attacks. Some S/x Thieves go a little crazy with their auto-attacks, allowing for greater chance of landing your burst, but sword cleave hurts a lot, so you don’t want to be in that for very long, unless you know it’s going to pay off.

It’s generally a pretty high level matchup for Mesmer, so you will of course lose often. But shatter is one of the last truly great high risk, high reward builds in the game, so keep on playing it. I also guarantee that the longer you spend on shatter the better you will become at the game

I really don’t think that clone death proc via clone overwrite is that much of an issue. I’d just like to see clone death explosions become blockable etc.

My only hope is that Anet nerf PU before anything else. I’d love to see it completely change to something less silly, but probably the most realistic preliminary nerf, would be removing the +1 second of stealth, which would equate to one less boon proc.

Well Choking Gas and Phantasm summonings are pretty different in the mechanics behind them, so this probably wouldn’t be the correct solution. And really, phantasm summoning from stealth isn’t much of an issue and it’s actually easier to anticipate and dodge an attack from a phantasm that has been summoned from stealth as you will see the phantasm before it attacks – unlike regular attacks where you won’t see the player until an attack has either landed or been attempted.

It’s more of an issue that if the phantasm connects with its target, the Mesmer will not be Revealed, which kind of undermines the whole principle of that debuff. But I’ve never heard Anet’s stance on the relationship between external dps summons and stealth, so who knows if this was always intended.

After all, Thieves guild will not reveal a Thief, turrets will not reveal an Engi, and I presume a LB Ranger will not be revealed by their pet, so it’s a game wide principle that we happen to see more with Mesmer due to the mechanics of the class.

I run a similar build in WvW, but I chose to put those 10 remaining points into Inspiration to get Mender’s Purity, which allows me to free up a utility space for some well needed boon stripping. Nothing quite as irritating as fighting a Warrior with Balanced Stance AND Last Stand when you’re running interrupt traits.

Holl.3109:

Ah ok. Than i asked the wrong question….

Updated question: what is a good/well-used condi mesmer build not using PU?

http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Mesmer_-_PU/Mantra_Condition_Roamer

Someone uploaded this recently. I’ve been using the exact same trait distribution for a long time now. I prefer sceptre/pistol with staff, and I usually swap between Mantra of Resolve and Mantra of Distraction depending on whom I am roaming with. Much more fun to play than a PU build.

Poor troll attempt. I much preferred your “Stances should Reveal Thieves and Mesmers” thread. That one was more….punchy

It can be a pretty trivial boss fight for Mesmer. Drop you phantasms on the statue and pew pew from afar with Greatsword. When a mender enters room just auto-attack and cc it to death whilst phantasms are still plucking away at the boss. Shatter is pretty useless in PvE as is using any gear set other than zerker’s (unless you’re doing a world boss where you can’t crit).

The only thing I don’t like about this fight is the orbs. They kept on spawning right on top of me which is a bit silly really.

Manasa Devi.7958:

There’s a good counter for the persistent vines attack: melee. That champion doesn’t pose much of a threat from up close, I had no trouble staying upright even when I was the only one doing melee.

I did the same thing, but unfortunately switching to melee still had me murdered by vines. Although I did just do the champion ranging and was only attacked by the vines once. Some other poor guy had to waypoint 3 times because the vines wouldn’t leave him alone

Atoss.1056:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aD_sQ5SAJGw

Seems legit.

Gawd they’re not even uplevelled. IWIN button + Asura animations = GW2 PvP in a nutshell. I am most entertained

I’m surprised no one mentioned how irritating some of the new dynamic events in Iron Marches are. The new Mordemoth mobs are great fun to fight in Dry Top because there’s ways to counter their strong attacks and utility (strip retaliation, interrupt the thrasher vine attack etc). But in Iron Marches there’s one event where the mordremoth wolves have unstrippable retaliation (fun? no) and another event where a champion Thrasher along with that horrible vine attack that hits like a truck cannot be CC’d successfully because of defiance ofc.

I find the Thrasher champion particularly awful, because this mob was so obviously designed to have its powerful vine attack susceptible to interrupts, which legitimised it’s strength, persistence and it’s ability to track and hit through stealth. Now you just have to blow through defensive and evasive skills in the hope that the vines will go away, but they actually come back for you quite quickly so you inevitably go down, and there’s a constant stream of players way pointing back as to stop to res someone is certain death.

You can’t just upscale the class of mobs like that without considering their original design. It does come across as rather lazy tbh.

I’m so torn. On one hand I agree that FGS4 trivialises much PvE content to a ridiculous degree. But on the other hand, most PvE content in this game is trivial by design, so I usually just want to get through it as quickly as possible so I can return to WvW – and FGS4 certainly facilitates this.

Anyway, I do consider the OP’s plight honourable and it probably should be addressed.

I’m sure it was very annoying having a player moan about Mesmers on a Ranger themed thread, but why spread the misery here? You should have quarantined that nonsense on the thread you came from. Implement basic forum quarantine protocols

Build dependent, Mesmers and Necros counter each other fairly well and I generally consider it to be a great fight because of this.

OP would be wise to simply hop on his/her Mesmer and see exactly what a Mesmer might be doing to counter his/her Necro or ask fellow Necros for specific counters.

Good Rangers will absolutely obliterate people with these upcoming changes.

Average Rangers will be pleased that it’s now easier to pew pew things down.

Terrible Rangers will simply kill themselves quicker on the nearest source of reflect

It’s……going to be interesting

Curunen.8729:

ASP.8093:

Well, if nothing else, you’ll get to have some fun reflecting Rapid Fire. :P

Going to run Mirror just for that!

My thoughts exactly

I can’t wait to start reflecting the new Ranger pew pew. It’s going to be hilarious.

Eviscerate sure does trivialise many fights and I don’t believe it’s particularly healthy for the game in its current state. It’s an easy to land heatseeking leap that does not require much in the way of glass investment to cause an insane amount of damage. It was palatable in the past because Warrior was far more “do or die”, but now it just doesn’t feel right.

I’m quite disappointed with the answer from Steven Waller. We spend so much time with Destiny’s Edge 2.0, following Scarlett’s foot steps meticulously, only to suddenly have the answer to this mystery basically solved off screen by the NPC and player character. Pacing and procedural logic are so important for good story telling, so this is obviously rather jarring. Quite the anticlimax, at least character revelation wise.

It’s because condition Warriors struggle to maintain stacks of bleeding…

But seriously it’s a pretty hilarious trait in WvW when combined with koi/pizza. It would certainly be nice to see the Mesmer Master of Direction increased, seeing as base Mesmer confusion durations are terribad.

Regarding Mesmer, it’s basically a lot of bug fixes and various trait merges/buffs needed. Anet need to push more Mesmers to high level play (away from tanky PU) by increasing damage delivery methods and rewards from interrupt traits (lol Disruptor’s Sustainment lol) whilst also revitalising Glamour builds and shatter specs. Mesmer probably needs a little bit more help against Thieves, but that’s mostly for sPvP.

I assumed that I must have skipped some piece of important dialogue with Aerin where he revealed the existence of Modremoth. But disappointed to see that it’s just an Anet writing team hiccup.