Guild Wars 2

I wound up with a pair of Cavalier Pants from a Fractal chest, and was wondering if anyone has found any more of this stat distribution in other locations? I’ve been searching pretty diligently, but it doesn’t seem to be very easy to find.

None on the trading post, can’t seem to find any at the dungeon merchants, don’t know of a crafting recipe that makes it, and can’t find it in Orr.

I was thinking about combining it with “of the Knight” (Precision, Power, Toughness) trinkets for a high toughness build with decent Critical Chance / Damage.

Any help would be appreciated!

Edited for clarity.

This is exciting and different, and I really appreciate how thorough your explanations are.

Thank you for sharing the build!

Visiroth.5914:

Kincaidia.3192:

It’s broken currently, in more ways than one. It is instantly repeatable, and on top of that you can (or could until recently) actually trigger it after you’ve taken the tower. It needs to be a 30 minute wait AFTER Siegerazer has been killed, and at that time marker it needs to check to see if the tower is owned or not.

^this.

There is a bug that AFAIK has never been acknowledged nor fixed with the breakout events where whenever a breakout is triggered another one will ALWAYS be available immediately regardless of the failure or success of the first breakout with no cooldown. There is nothing sillier than having Siegerazer waiting in your spawn after you have just used him to take a tower back. If the first and second breakouts both fail to capture the tower I believe there is the normal cooldown.

I don’t think this is actually a bug – it might be a feature. From what I understand, if you trigger Siegerazer after already having control of the tower, he’ll approach the tower as normal, but instead of popping the control areas that you typically stand in the trigger the siege building part of the event, his Dolyak instead completely refills the the tower’s supply.

I think that this event was put in place to allow servers to gain a foothold on a map otherwise completely dominated by an opposing force. I think it’s fair and balanced and I appreciate its effectiveness. Some servers really need that extra little push to help gain control of a tower. For the rest of the servers who can field the numbers, I find that most of the time they seem to forget that Siegerazer / Siegecrusher is even an available option.

Heya, Seven Mirror.

Sorry to see you go, (but I love watching you walk away, baby!) I can sincerely say that your videos changed how I play the game. Thank you for being an inspiration, and for sharing that sexy, sexy voice with us.

Best wishes in your endeavors. You’ll be missed! <3

I would love a build editor link for this setup, since 34 minutes of video is kind of a pain.

The channeling is kinda hard to get used to, but the pay off is a nice little on-demand burst that you can cast even while channeling another spell. You can trigger the damage charges of Mantra of Pain (Power Spike) from under a Mimic shield, while using a Great Sword Auto Attack, Scepter 3 ability, casting a heal, etc.

Luckily, if you’re playing with a group, all of the pressure won’t always be on you. The trick is to keep moving. You can cast other instant-cast spells while channeling too, like Blink, Decoy, Feedback, Power Return (Mantra of Recovery trigger), etc. The heal might not seem like a whole bunch of healing at once, but if you consider that it’s healing each of your allies around you (up to four) it’s pretty significant.

I especially like using it to heal up a Phantasmal Defender to give it more up time. It can take some getting used to, and admittedly won’t be useful in all situations, but for extended fights it can make all the difference.

I change my build almost every other day, including but not limited to Condition Damage, Bunker, Phantasm and Shatter builds. I find myself leaning more towards damage and support recently, both in dungeons and in WvW.

Most recently I’ve been trying out a Hybrid Shatter-Glam type of thing with a little bit of Phantasm support too. It’s nice for small group play in WvW and great for Dungeons / Fractals too. The weapon choices are a little weird and it requires that I move around a lot, but the traits and skills available help with those issues. Active defense is a must.

0/20(IV,X)/0/20(II,VIII)/30(VI,VIII,XI)

Dueling: Blade Training (IV) Deceptive Evasion (X)
Inspiration: Glamour Mastery (II) Warden’s Feedback (VIII)
Illusions: Illusionary Invigoration (VI) Dazzling Glamours (VIII) Illusionary Persona (XI)

Sword / Sword and Scepter / Focus

Berserker Armor for Dungeons, Knight’s Armor for WvW
Centaur Runes or Air Runes
Trinkets are a mix of “of the Knight” (High Precision Variant) Cavalier, Berserker with Valkyrie Jewel and regular Berserker pieces.
Berserker and / or Valkyrie Weapons with Energy, Bloodlust, Hydromancy and Accuracy Sigils

I typically use Feedback, Blink, Null Field and Mass Invisibility. I’m addicted to Mirror as a heal, especially with Centaur or Air Runes for the Swiftness.

Phantasms grant Regeneration, Runes and Focus grant Swiftness.
Leap Finishers through Glamour / Ethereal Fields grant good up time on Chaos Armor
Distortion and Blurred Frenzy provide frequent Invulnerability, and Vigor is often up for extra Dodges / Evades. Off-Hand Sword a Main-Hand Scepter both offer a riposte, so you’ll have a block on either weapon set.

It suffers a little from having limited range. (900 on Scepter) but a Greatsword still works well with this setup if you need 1,200 range for certain scenarios. Because it’s a power build, Scepter 3 (Confusing images) can actually pack a pretty serious punch, as can your ripostes.

So… my short answer for the tally is that I like to try a little of everything, but right now? Glamour/Shatter Hybrid kinda thing. <3

I’m enjoying the new match up, even if a handful of Yaks Bend players spam /laugh when they kill me 4v1.

Yuchen.5980:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Ah, I thought you meant perception. I don’t believe that accuracy actually increases your crit chance on the char window, and it also does not work for illusions.

It does increase the crit chance in the board. You can test it.

This change was fairly recent – it came on the May 28th Patch.

Source-Wiki

re: Sigil of Accuracy (+5% Critical Chance)

No, unfortunately. Your illusions will benefit from your Precision (a base stat) but will not benefit from your Critical Chance (a stat derived from precision). This also applies to the Sigil of Force, which will not grant the +5% damage to your illusions.

This is similar to how your illusions benefit from your Power (a base stat) but will not benefit from your Attack (a stat derived from your Power and Weapon Damage total)

That said, stacks of Precision from a Superior Sigil of Perception (+10 Precision per kill, up to 25 stacks) WILL affect your illusions, since it applies to your Precision rather than to the overall Critical Chance.

“Most of an illusion’s base stats are inherited from the caster:
Same as mesmer: power, precision, condition damage & duration, boon duration, critical damage, armor, and healing power.”

Sources:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Accuracy

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusion

caveat: I understand that the wiki is not always correct, but I’m just working off of the information provided.

Thank you, that’s really helpful! My knowledge of Guardian abilities is admittedly sort of limited, so having a better idea of what they’re capable of assists in narrowing down my focus.

I appreciate the input!

The link list posted by Fay (stickied at the top section of the Mesmer Forum) is still a good resource, even if some of the individual builds are outdated.

Osicat’s Shattercat is still the go-to guide for Shatter techniques, from what I understand. Kylia and Pyroathiest post the Mesmerized Podcast, which focuses on a variety of different build types. If you look for [Build] or [Guide] tagged threads in the forum you’ll find a good mix of support, damage and tank-control builds. I’d recommend checking them all out and fine-tuning their recommendations to fit your playstyle.

Regarding the strongest weapon, it’s all up for debate really. Some people find that versatility is more powerful than direct damage. Others want a weapon that isn’t directly powerful, but makes good phantasms. Others want a defensive weapon, since you can’t do damage if you’re dead.

I’ll try to outline my take on some of tkittenential elements of each weapon for you:

Main Hand

Sword
1: Short-Range Auto Attack that can hit multiple targets at once, strips boons, applies vulnerability
2: Short-Range, multiple-hit AoE that makes you invulnerable for 2 seconds
3: Short-Mid Range Clone ability that provides Cripple and Immobilize – Leap Finisher
(Our only true melee weapon, good mix of offense and defense)

Scepter
1: Mid-Long Range (900m) Auto Attack that produces a Clone on every third hit. Can be fired early to prepare the Clone attack ahead of time.
2: Riposte ability that creates a Clone if you successfully Block, or can be discharged early to Blind enemies.
3: Multiple-hit Mid-Long Range Ray that can hit multiple targets in a line. Also applies Confusion
(Somewhat difficult to use and thus is sort of unpopular. Can work in both Condition damage or Power Builds)

Greatsword (Two Hands)
1: Long Range (1200m) attack that can hit multiple targets in a line with a small splash radius. More powerful at longer range with diminished damage at close range. Fast attack rate.
2: Long Range bouncing attack that can multiple targets and applies Might boons to allies – Physical Projectile Finisher.
3: Long Range targeted area attack (small radius) that deals low-moderate damage and strips one boon from enemies.
4: Long Range, Whirl attack Phantasm that deals AoE damage. (Potentially bugged) – Whirl Finisher
5: Conical knock-back / interrupt that hits multiple enemies in front of you.
(Powerful long-range weapon. Offensively-oriented. Melee-AoE Phantasm)

Staff (Two Hands)
1: Long Range, Low Power Bouncing Auto Attack that applies Conditions to enemies and grants Boons to allies. Slow attack rate. The closer you are to your target, the more likely you are to receive more boons and apply multiple hits per attack.
2: Clone production and short-range teleport away from your target – Leap Finisher
3: Long-Range Phantasm and our strongest single-hit Phantasm available, especially when your opponent has multiple conditions on them
4: Instant-cast Chaos Armor (Boons for your, Conditions for enemies when you get hit)
5: Ethereal Combo Field that you can place on the battlefield that repeatedly grants allies boons and puts conditions on opponents. Also pulses small damage.
(Versatile defensive, condition damage and support-based weapon. Ranged Phantasm)

Off-Hand

Sword
4: Riposte ability that creates a Clone on successful Block. May be discharged early to Daze foes in a line.
5: Hard-Hitting, evasive Melee Phantasm. – Leap Finisher
(Balanced Offense and Defense. Strong Melee Phantasm)

Pistol
4: Single-shot that hits 3 enemies and applies conditions. Mid-Long Range – Physical Projectile Finisher
5: Ranged Phantasm that rapidly attacks multiple times – Physical Projectile Finisher
(Good range, Combo options and Control Options)

Focus
4: Light Combo Wall that can Reflect projectiles if traited. Provides Swiftness and / or Cripples enemies when crossed. Can be discharged to pull enemies toward it, causing an interrupt and briefly knocking them down.
5: Immobile Phantasm that deflects or reflects (if traited) physical projectiles and hits multiple times.
(Our only weapon-based access to long-duration Swiftness. Good utility but the Phantasm is difficult to use in PvP.)

Torch
4: Phantasm that applies confusion to enemies and grants retaliation to allies at mid-long range.
5: Invisibility and AoE Blind + Blast Finisher that applies burning to enemies.
(Our only weapon-based Stealth option and our only Blast Finisher. Phantasm slightly underpowered)

Which weapon set is best for you? I recommend trying them all out! (I’m not going to cover water at this time, sorry!)

Your damage output on a Mesmer (or really, on any class) will depend a lot on the gear you select, and also on your play style and trait choices.

That said, you have a lot of options for doing lots of damage in a few different ways. You could go with a Shatter build, which would provide a lot of short-range burst damage, a Phantasm build, which would grant Illusions that deal high sustained damage, or a Condition build, which would focus on whittling down an opponent by applying burns, bleeds and confusion that would all ignore an opponent’s defense. From my understanding, those are the three main types of Mesmer Damage builds. (There’s other options for tank, control, and support builds too)

A shatter build would probably require the most practice to master, but all of them are viable and popular options.

It looks to me like the first build (0, 15, 0, 25, 30) is a little more defensive and support-oriented whereas the second build (20, 20, 0, 0 30) has more offensive capability.

The weapon skill recharge-oriented build will likely net you more dps due to faster Phantasm recast from Domination X (Greatsword) and Dueling IV (Sword) and IX (Pistol), as well as the additional 200 Power, 50 Precision and 5% Critical Damage bonus your traits will add. This is considerably more offensive than the 250 Vitality and Regeneration / Retaliation on and from your Phantasms that the 25 Points in Inspiration would net you. (50 Precision is equivalent to a little over 2% Critical Chance at level 80, which is less than the 20% your clones would get from Fury, but being able to cast them 20% Faster will likely provide more overall damage in extended fights.)

For PvE situations you may find a group that could potentially benefit more from the first setup, but I don’t think the gear choices you’ve selected will lead to particularly durable clones, even with a 20% health pool increase. If your goal is to net more DPS, I’d say that the second build you posted is a solid choice for both PvP and PvE situations. I wouldn’t say it’s the most survivable build, but that doesn’t really seem to be what you’re going for.

This is more or less what I’m running now. I’ve made some other “Mindgasm” builds but I never get any comments so I tend to cry little purple butterflies until I fall asleep in a puddle of shattered dreams.

I like to roam with a small group in World vs World (Kill-Shot Warrior, Support Guardian, Bomb-Elixir Engineer and myself) so I play a sorta supporty-DPS hybrid. I like to stay alive via active defense / stealth although I’m transitioning out of a more tanky build. In dungeons I usually prefer reflects, but otherwise offer predominantly single-target burst dps. I’m officially in love with Ethereal Fields combined with Blast Finishers for group Chaos Armor.

Waiting on more Laurels / Commendations to try out some other Ascended Trinket options. Any tips or insight are appreciated!

Traits

0/10(IV)/30(IV,X,XII)/25(II & VIII or IV & X)/5

Sword / Sword & Staff
or
Sword / Sword & Scepter / Focus

(Short / Mid-Range mostly)

Gear

Berserker Armor (Power, Precision, Critical Damage)
Centaur Runes (+165 Power, 15 Seconds of Group Swiftness on Heal Skill use due to boon duration traits, +15% Bleed Duration)

Berserker Weapons
Main: Bloodlust Sigil (+10 Power Kill Stacking up to 250 Power)
Off: Hydromancy Sigil (AoE Damage and Chill on Weapon Swap)

other off: Energy Sigil (+50% Endurance on Swap)

“of the Knight” (Precision, Power, Toughness) Amulet
Berserker Rings
Cavalier Earrings (Toughness, Power, Critical Damage)

Trait Detail

Domination
None

Dueling
Vigor on Crit, Blade Training: 20% Sword Skill Recharge +50 Precision w/ Sword

Chaos
Regeneration @ 75% Health, Protection on Regeneration, 5% Toughness to Conditions
3% Damage Reduction per Illusion, 20% Staff Recharge & 50 Toughness w/ Staff, +1 second and Random Boon with Stealth

Inspiration
Phantasms have Retalation and provide Regeneration, +15% Phantasm Damage

(Remove one Condition on Heal & 2,600 Group Heal w/ Mantra Preparation)

OR

(20% Glamour Recharge & Focus 20% Recharge + Reflects)

Illusions
20% Illusion Recharge

Utilities with Staff
Mantra of Pain, Blink, Decoy

Utilities with Focus
Feedback, Blink, Null Field
Phantasmal Defender, Phantasmal Disenchanter optional

Mirror as Heal for Perma-Swiftness and Reflects

Build Editor Link

~ Special thanks to the Dark Cloud [DC] Guild in Crystal Desert for often conflicting but always helpful build advice, and to the Mesmerized Podcast, which I resisted listening to for a long time but now tune in to once in a while. ~

From what I understand, On-Critical Sigils share an internal cooldown, so using two different Sigils that are supposed to trigger would not be to your benefit. This is particularly of detriment since a main-hand Sigil will generally have priority to activate over an off-hand, so you would essentially never see your Sigil of Generosity trigger, which would be a pity since they’re so expensive.

Generally speaking, a static buff like Force or Accuracy or Kill-Stacking Sigil like Bloodlust would probably be better suited for your Focus, since you’re using an On-Critical Sigil on your main hand. Also worth noting is that if you use an On-Weapon Swap Sigil, it will also activate the internal cool down timer, thus preventing any On-Critical Sigils in the same weapon set from activating until the On-Weapon Swap Sigil’s cool down time has passed. (Confused yet? Me too.)

As for the Greatsword, you could really use whatever you’d like since the timing of weapon swaps and internal cool downs would likely minimize any interference from your other weapon set.

Here’s the only other combinations I can find that would grant you 12% Critical Damage via Armor upgrade slots other than Rune of Divinity, although in my opinion they don’t offer what you seem to be looking for in raw stats:

5 Superior Runes of Air + Ruby Orb

+20% Swiftness Duration
5 Seconds of Swiftness when you use a Healing Skill
20 Power
14 Precision
12% Critical Damage

5 Superior Runes of the Golemancer + Ruby Orb

20 Power
64 Precision
12% Critical Damage

5 Superior Runes of Rage + Ruby Orb

+20% Fury Duration
5% Chance to gain Fury for 30 seconds when hit (60 Second Cooldown)
20 Power
14 Precision
12% Critical Damage

6 Ruby Orbs

120 Power
84 Precision
12% Critical Damage

Happy tinkering!

Well, here’s the rough comparison:

5 Superior Runes of the Eagle + Ruby Orb

20 Power
179 Precision
10% Critical Damage

vs

6 Superior Runes of Divinity

60 Power
60 Precision
60 Vitality
60 Toughness
60 Condition Damage
60 Healing Power
12% Critical Damage

So basically, you’d be trading out 119 Precision (Which I believe is about 5% Critical Chance at level 80) for a moderate boost in each of your other stats.

Granted, you’re probably not going to notice a significant change in some of those stats (Healing Power and Condition Damage, specifically) but the slight increase in base damage and ability to survive might ultimately allow you to do more damage in the long term. (You can’t DPS if you’re dead!)

That all said, Superior Runes of Divinity can be pretty pricey. If you’re just looking to drop some Precision and boost Toughness/Vitality, Valkyrie Armor in a slot or two and maybe switching a Trinket might be a more cost effective option that would yield similar results. The main thing that you can’t really substitute is that extra 2% Critical Damage you would gain by swapping to Divinity Runes, so it’s really a matter of how much Gold that extra 2% is worth to you.

Is this mostly for PvE or PvP? For the former, it sounds like you’re pretty much set. You might even consider swapping out some of the Cavalier pieces for Berserker or Berserker+Valkyrie trinkets if you’re not having trouble staying alive.

For PvP, swapping in some Valkyrie armor pieces (Trading Precision for Vitality) or more Cavalier Trinkets could potentially help with staying alive if that’s a challenge for you in World versus World, but otherwise it seems like you’ve pretty much got a goal in mind and have figured out how to gear up appropriately already. <3

Grimms.9016 (Seven Mirror) currently runs a very similar build. In fact, I think the gear choices, including runes and sigils, are actually identical. The trait point distribution is also the same, although you two have some slight variability in Major Trait choices and Utility Skill options. (Most notably, he uses Deceptive Evasion, but I completely understand why you’ve decided not to)

Some fun gameplay videos here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Seven-Mirror-WvW-Mesmer-05-26-13/first

I’ve tried this build out and it’s very survivable while steal dealing some nice damage. My main issue with it is mobility – Swiftness does wonders in World versus World. Blink helps, but doesn’t quite fulfill the same role.

Null Field is great for the reasons you’ve outlined, (Condition removal, Boon stripping, extra Ethereal Combo Field) but the recast is a little long for my tastes. I often feel a little cheated on the duration too, since it doesn’t seem to last as long as its tool tip indicates.

I’d encourage you to try out Mimic, especially since you’re using the Dueling III trait and often find yourself in 1vX fights. You might find that 4 seconds of channeled blocking will give you a pretty sweet Retaliation duration stack every once in a while, and the initial absorb can potentially be triggered by your Staff Clones too.

(Whoops, most of the points about Mimic have already been addressed – sorry for repeating!)

+1

A range indicator would be great, and would make the skill more accessible for new players, particularly in World versus World.

Gyargh… I can’t do a trait set up for this one right now for some reason. Grr!

I started out with Rampager, switched to Rabid, changed to Knight’s, and now use a Knight-Berserker mix with Cavalier Trinkets.

It really depends on your traits and play style, in my experience.

It’s awesome when someone says something like this:

Rezzet.3614:

well im out too many kids hurt because they got truth told at them

… and then comes back to the thread to make in excess of five more posts.

Into the Void can be blocked with Aegis as well as dodged / evaded. I think that allowing a 1 second long telegraph of the incoming pull effect would make the ability a lot less useful.

Also, Stability completely negates its pull effect. I don’t think there’s really anything wrong with the ability as it stands now.

Tobias Steele.2071:

Sinomi, try posting something positive in the match thread for once. Atm it’s like reading a rendition of The character Eeyore from the Winnie the Pooh series lol.

Eeyore is awesome. Thanks for the compliment.

My perceived pros and cons with 3.0

Pros:

Good Mobility with Temporal Curtain and Rune of Air

Good Defense: High Toughness, Vitality, Regeneration from Phantasms, Protection on Regen from Chaos Trait, Scepter Riposte and Illusionary Defense damage reduction for maintained illusions.

Decent Damage: Average Precision (Roughly 30% Critical Change depending on Food and Stacks) and fairly high Critical Damage (Above 80%, depending on Food and Gear choices)

Light Support Options: Group Heals from Mantra of Pain, Reflection, Regeneration from Phantasms, Might from Greatsword 2 Ability

Cons:

Unfocused: Damage could be refined, but at the cost of defense. Support could be improved, but at the cost of offense - it’s hard to be the best at everything!

Lack of Conditions: Even with Mender’s Purity, it can be hard to deal with Conditions stacked on you without the proper food or Runes (which I don’t usually use) This guild also lacks much Condition Damage / Duration to apply to enemies, so Bunker builds can be troublesome.

Limited Crowd Control Options: No immobilize, Stun or Daze to apply to enemies, although Temporal Curtain is amaaazing!

Sin.M.3.B

Mirror Mage Mindgasm 3.0

I’ve been tinkering again and have settled, (At least for now) on a semi-tanky, semi-support Phantasm build that can still do decent damage. It sort of seems like I put too many monkies in the box sometimes, but it works well for me without having to swap around traits or gear too often when jumping between WvW or Dungeons.

I’ve read up on a few different builds, and this one is sort of a mix between Seven Mirror’s and Ocicat’s gear styles and Fay’s and AngelicChaos’ traiting styles. (I’ve made a few changes myself, of course)

Here’s the spread:

0/20(I, X)/15(IV)/30(IV, VIII, X)/5

Domination – 0

Dueling – 20

(I) Far-Reaching Manipulations (Exra range for Blink)

OR

(II) Phantasmal Fury (20% Extra Crit for Phantasms)

(X) Deceptive Evasion (Clone on Dodge)

Chaos – 15

(IV) Illusionary Defense (3% Damage Reduction per active illusion)

Inspiration

(IV) Mender’s Purity (Remove one condition on each heal skill use)

(VIII) Warden’s Feedback (20% faster cooldown on Focus skills, Focus skills add reflection)

(X) Restorative Mantras (2.7k 600 Range AoE Heal on Mantra Cast)
Skills

Heal: Mirror

Mantra of Pain
Blink
Decoy, Mimic, Feedback, Portal, Illusionary Defender etc.

Elite: Mass Invisibility (WvW) or Time Warp (WvW or PvE)

Weapons are Greatsword and Scepter / Focus. (Berserker GS with Precision Sigil to build up stacks, then swap to Valkyrie) GS – Fire or Ice, S/F Force or Accuracy and Energy

Armor is all Knight’s, with the opportunity to swap to Berserker’s in the minor armor slots (Shoulders, Gloves and Shoes) with Superior Runes of Air (Critical Damage, Swiftness on Heal, occasional Lightning Strike to someone who hits you)

Trinkets are all Cavalier. (I sometimes swap in the “unnamed” pseudo-Knight Necklace that is Precision, Toughness and Power, <3 Tybalt Leftpaw Accessory and Boozie Accessory)

Nomenclature (First stat is primary):

Valkyrie – Power, Vitality, Critical Damage
Berserker – Power, Precision, Critical Damage
Knight – Toughness, Power, Precision
Cavalier – Toughness, Power, Critical Damage

Playing this build:

I do a lot of roaming in either small groups or solo, and this build has suited me fine for either of those styles as well as in zergs. The Greatsword is a keenly offensive weapon, and although Illusionary Berserker seems like it leaves something to be desired in terms damage, it can spread out some nice area of effect DPS and can also cripple players who are either trying to run away or chase you. The Greatsword’s unreflectable, long range auto attack is fantastic in zerg of small group situations alike, and the Greatsword has a nice interrupt / knockback to help keep opponents off of downed allies or to prevent heals.

The Scepter/Focus combation might seem a little weird, but the Scepter’s mid-range attacks combined with the Focus’ reflection and pulling abilities actually compliment each other pretty well. The Scepter has a nice riposte in case enemies get too close, and the Focus’ Illusionary Warden is a great deterrant for approaching enemies as well as for projectile-based enemies if you stand really close to it.

Mantra of Pain, in addition to being traited to provide a spammable group heal, can also be cast while channeling GS1 or Scepter 3, and can even be cast from under a channeled Mimic Block. It’s a nice little burst of on-demand damage that often crits between 1-2k for me. Combined with the Phantasmal Defender, you can do wonders for keeping a group alive while still dishing out a little damage here and there.

Since the Greatsword is pretty offensive, the gear and traiting for this build is mostly defensive. Chaos and Inspirations provide regeneration, protection, additional health and toughness, while also boosting our Phantasms a little (15%).

Adding a few pieces of Berserker gear (Minor armor pieces or trinkets for the best stat to crit damage return) reduces one’s defense a bit, but this can be mitigated by trying out different skills (iDefender or Mimic, for example)

… still working on it, but please let me know what you think or if you have any tips!
Afterthought: I’ve tried using the Staff, but this build is already pretty defensive so I enjoy using the more offense-oriented Greatsword instead. Plus, I have a soft spot for some of the Greatsword skins. :P

ReapersSolitude.1940:

I want to say great work SoS we have come along way from the fall. All the veteran commanders out there you have mad respect from me. For the recent new commanders any questions or you need me to tag up please pm. Keep up the great work. Great fights all around on the battlefields!

It’s totally in fashion to compliment your own team. All the cool servers are doing it.

vinceftw.5086:

Ah, it is indeed this skill that he used as he was sylvari. And I still stick my point on contesting keeps, especially the ones that aren’t SM. Brb, hitting walls for 3 hours to make others run. Seems pretty low life to me.

You seem to complain about Crystal Desert, the server that is losing to yours by a pretty large (roughly 30%?) margin often.

I’m elated that changes to our match ups are rapidly approaching. Hitting a wall to raise swords or contest a waypoint is just as viable of a strategy as leaving a corpse behind as a spy, or flipping NPC camps to send monsters at an enemy’s camp or keep. An entire zerg doesn’t need to run to a location in order to scout the situation – that’s a choice. A single person can see and report if there’s an actual threat.

It’s not as if the players you’ve complained about are utilizing hacks or exploits to make the game more difficult – they’re utilizing the tools at hand to manipulate their opponents’ actions and apparently yield predictable responses.

Additionally, you jumped to a conclusion about a player exploiting runes or NPC attacks when it turned out to merely be a racial ability. Although you conceded that you’d made a mistake on the matter, it only goes to show that you may not know as much about the game as you might think.

That all said, Seer armor is pretty cool looking. :P

(This is kind of long – it started out as a comment, but I decided to make a post instead.)

Personally, I’m excited about the new changes and think that they’re a well thought-out step in the right direction. I appreciate the gradual changes happening in the game, particularly in WvW, and am pleased that there’s now a method for getting chests through ranks with rewards somewhat similar to the chests available from Daily Dragon Chests, etc.

I’m going to be harder pressed to drop WvW to, for example, rush off the catch the Shadow Beast event in Queensdale or catch the Claw of Jormag Event in Frostgorge Sound knowing that I can earn chests that also include Badges by increasing my rank. Knowing that I have roughly a 40-chest backlog of chests meaning that I’ll be getting double chests for the next 40 ranks is also pretty cool.

Regarding Laurels, I think the biggest problem with them is that they are a bit unfair to players who manage multiple characters (alts). Otherwise, I think that most of the rage surrounding them is coming from players who didn’t or don’t or don’t want to utilize other methods of gaining Ascended Gear. (Fractals or Guild Commendations, specifically.)

Regarding what to do with extra badges, (Since some players seem upset that they can’t burn their stacks of badges directly on Ascended gear without using any Laurels) I believe there’s entire exotic armor and weapon sets available that could theoretically be utilized to either try new builds on a main character or buy gear for alternate characters. Siege blueprints are also an option.

I’m often surprised with the general tone and overall feeling of animosity in the WvW forum. Our community expresses a lot of distaste for a game that we apparently loathe yet continue to play, based on how folks write and comment about changes. I feel like any change is sort of a lose/lose for ArenaNet, given how we as customers tend to respond. If I worked there, the repeated backlash the ANet team is subjected to wouldn’t exactly be incentive for me to cater to the community’s demands.

Allowing players to dump (in some cases) thousands of badges for Ascended items may not seem to impact the game economy directly, but it would make an immediate and measurable change on the existing demand for exotic jewelry that players can make or buy with karma. For players who don’t have a lot of Laurels, these pieces are usually the best in slot option until they can acquire enough Laurels, Commendations, Fractal Relics, or get lucky while running Level 10+ Fractals. In some cases, Exotic pieces might even offer more options since their “jewel” slot can be modified whereas Ascended items are static. (The net gain may be less, but Exotic Gear’s slot nature offers extra options and flexibility) Given that players can, (and apparently have) potentially earn hundreds of Badges a day through a few hours of dedicated (albeit somewhat unpredictable) fighting in WvW, I think it’s fair to say that the badge token generation is too volatile a resource to allow to be spent exclusively on otherwise time-gated gear.

So basically, to ANet – Not everyone is as upset as some players who are writing may have y’all believe. To my WvW community – I’m guilty of being a whiner too, but this backlash feels overly dramatic to me.

(This is kind of long – it started out as a comment, but I decided to make a post instead.)

Personally, I’m excited about the new changes and think that they’re a well thought-out step in the right direction. I appreciate the gradual changes happening in the game, particularly in WvW, and am pleased that there’s now a method for getting chests through ranks with rewards somewhat similar to the chests available from Daily Dragon Chests, etc.

I’m going to be harder pressed to drop WvW to, for example, rush off the catch the Shadow Beast event in Queensdale or catch the Claw of Jormag Event in Frostgorge Sound knowing that I can earn chests that also include Badges by increasing my rank. Knowing that I have roughly a 40-chest backlog of chests meaning that I’ll be getting double chests for the next 40 ranks is also pretty cool.

Regarding Laurels, I think the biggest problem with them is that they are a bit unfair to players who manage multiple characters (alts). Otherwise, I think that most of the rage surrounding them is coming from players who didn’t or don’t or don’t want to utilize other methods of gaining Ascended Gear. (Fractals or Guild Commendations, specifically.)

Regarding what to do with extra badges, (Since some players seem upset that they can’t burn their stacks of badges directly on Ascended gear without using any Laurels) I believe there’s entire exotic armor and weapon sets available that could theoretically be utilized to either try new builds on a main character or buy gear for alternate characters. Siege blueprints are also an option.

I’m often surprised with the general tone and overall feeling of animosity in the WvW forum. Our community expresses a lot of distaste for a game that we apparently loathe yet continue to play, based on how folks write and comment about changes. I feel like any change is sort of a lose/lose for ArenaNet, given how we as customers tend to respond. If I worked there, the repeated backlash the ANet team is subjected to wouldn’t exactly be incentive for me to cater to the community’s demands.

Allowing players to dump (in some cases) thousands of badges for Ascended items may not seem to impact the game economy directly, but it would make an immediate and measurable change on the existing demand for exotic jewelry that players can make or buy with karma. For players who don’t have a lot of Laurels, these pieces are usually the best in slot option until they can acquire enough Laurels, Commendations, Fractal Relics, or get lucky while running Level 10+ Fractals. In some cases, Exotic pieces might even offer more options since their “jewel” slot can be modified whereas Ascended items are static. (The net gain may be less, but Exotic Gear’s slot nature offers extra options and flexibility) Given that players can, (and apparently have) potentially earn hundreds of Badges a day through a few hours of dedicated (albeit somewhat unpredictable) fighting in WvW, I think it’s fair to say that the badge token generation is too volatile a resource to allow to be spent exclusively on otherwise time-gated gear.

So basically, to ANet – Not everyone is as upset as some players who are writing may have y’all believe. To my WvW community – I’m guilty of being a whiner too, but this backlash feels overly dramatic to me.

wads.5730:

no one in wvw can see star

This isn’t true in my experience. At the very least I’m certain that my team mates can see my star, and I can see theirs. Unless they’ve changed how you can view opponents, I seem to remember seeing stars on opposing forces in the past.

Even if we can’t see the star, (Which would be my mistake, if this is in fact the case) the issue of off-hand weapons and the food and banner buffs etc. is still a concern for me. I’d like to know if this is a “bug” and thus could be corrected, or if it’s an intentional flaw in Mesmer clones put in place to deliberately make the true Mesmer easier to spot.

Given the rate one can earn a rank, especially with the apparently doubled amount of WvW XP players can get from events, I highly doubt that this would ever be implemented. One could potentially earn dozens of WvW laurels a day

Laurels have always been available for devoted WvW players who took the time to actually pursue them. Half or more of the Daily Quest options are generally available to complete within WvW, (the exceptions being zone-specific, living story or dungeon/fractal options) and two (now three) have recently been changed to even be WvW Specific.

Examples of ones that can happen in PvE or PvP

- Spending 750 Karma
- Killing 5 Veterans
- Killing 1 Champion
- Killing 50 monsters
- Killing 30 Ambient Creatures
- Killing 25 Water Opponents
- Completing 5 Events
- Earning 3 skill points
- Gaining a Level
- Crafting 10 items
- Harvesting 20 items
- Completing a Jumping Puzzle
- Locating three jumping puzzles
- Salvaging 20 items
- Using the Mystic Forge 5 times
- Completing 2 Group Events

… I’m probably forgetting some, too.

WvW specific ones:

- Killing 5 Dolyaks
- Repairing 25 structures
- Killing 10 players

… any I’m missing?

The point is, Ascended items are – for what ever reason – deliberately gated for all players, whether they be PvE or PvP-leaning. Even sPvP players can earn Laurels. The biggest issue this poses is for people with alts, since players can only earn one Laurel a day, (Or roughly 1.3 Laurels if you always complete the Monthly option) but adding a potentially accelerated way for players to earn Laurels, even if they are WvW specific, would be dramatically game-changing.

PandaBear.7510:

@Grimms

What build do you/would you run in tPvP or 1v1?

Also, on your current WvW build that has 20k vit, 3.1k armor and 87% crit damage, what is your crit chance at?

This was asked and answered already, I think:

Grimms.9016:

I shoot for a 30% crit chance, it seems to work out good for me. Couple that with fury, a 5% increase with accuracy sigil, and of course a 20% phantasmal fury trait, and we are in pretty good shape. I can get my crit damage up to 95% with food and still maintain 3.1k armour with a 19-20k base health. The ascended gear is needed for this, with upgraded infusion slots (all tough).

This is mostly about WvW.

Just to confirm, my understanding is that if your character has earned the little star by their name to show that they’ve earned world completion, the star will not show up on any of their clones.

Consumable food / utility items, banner and boost buffs, etc. will also not show up clones. (Although I think that the “Outmanned” buff in WvW may show up)

Combined with the absence of offhand weapons appearing on clones, I was wondering if these distinctions are intentional or oversights regarding how to identify the true Mesmer and their clones. I realize that many clones don’t last long due to deliberately quick Shatters, but some play styles might actually want their clones to hang out a bit longer than just a few seconds, (Particularly if they’ve invested a lot of points into passive Toughness or have traited / used signets for Illusion Health)

That all said, is there any way to hide or remove the world completion star, aside from rolling a new character? Likewise for temporary buffs, aside from just not using food and such?

Thanks ahead of time for your response!

This bug is really frustrating, especially when you place a Temporal Curtain on the ground in front of you that should provide 10 seconds+ (depending on traits and runes) in front of you, but then get Swiftness unexpectedly from another source, which regardless of duration prevents you from benefiting from your own Curtain.

Chris.3290:

If nothing else, you should REALLY be encouraging people (from other servers you are not likely to be facing) to transfer to us because with next week’s change to the rating system. You’ll be facing us every other week, with a more dynamic system like they are promising, unless we are able to fight at parity with YB and Mag.

In return, we’ll work hard to make sure YB goes down here, and you can face a pure NA server, and find a whole new set of excuses to lose; or pick yourselves up and beat them.

Oh, so we should help y’all recruit? I’m sure Stormbluff Isle and Crystal Desert will get right on that, especially with the sentiment of your last sentence.

I’m speaking just for myself here – I want Sea of Sorrows out of the tier more than most, but I’m definitely not interested in actively participating in recruiting more guilds for your server. I think you’ll be hard-pressed to find anyone on another server willing to dedicate time and / or resources to helping you recruit when past tier 4 match up threads have been plagued with Azure Prower’s troll-rific screenshots of Oceanic domination, even if the guilds requested are for North American time coverage.

If the options are to spend time helping recruit guilds for another server, not play at all, or continue playing as normal, the latter two are definitely better options from my point of view.

Invisibility is far from useless. In my experience, the best way to use it is to make one’s movement unpredictable. Stealth then dodge, maybe? At the very least, changing direction is helpful once invisible. As has already been mentioned, players can and will continue attacking with abilities that don’t necessarily require a target swiping / shooting at where they think the invisible opponent might be.

Invisibility doesn’t need to be adjusted to make it more powerful than it already is. Invisible does not and should not mean invulnerable. Being “squishy” is a play style choice. Every profession has access to traits and equipment to make themselves more durable. If the “get of of jail free card” target drop invisibility isn’t having the desired effect, it might be time to adjust your setup accordingly.

I can confirm this. It’s especially annoying when you’re fighting in World versus World and the Clone that appears ends up attacking an Ambient Rabbit or something and then disappearing immediately, or even worse ends up attacking the previously mentioned tree monsters (Veteran Oakhearts, most likely?) while you’re trying to dodge away from something else, causing you to get immobilized.

drongas.4189:

but dont forget if lie iwarden in combo field. like ethernal its aoe confusion, or in water field its aoe cond removal

Two things:

1) If I remember correctly, a Water Field creates Healing Bolts with a Whirl Combo Finisher, which sort of shoots heals out in a semi-radial aoe. Cleansing Bolts (semi-radial aoe Condition Removal) comes from a Light Field + Whirl Combo Finisher.

2) Both Illusionary Warden (iWarden – Focus 5) and Illusionary Berserker (iZerker – Greatsword 5) provide Whirl Combo Finishers, although their respective tool tips do not indicate this.

Roughly 11:30 PM – Server Time

Still seeking a guild that allows people to guest for the Guild Challenge, preferably before the next reset. (Saturday, 5 PM – Server Time)

Anyone out there? ;(

Score update, roughly 1:20 PM, Sunday – Server Time.

… is anyone doing a Guild Challenge before the next reset though? I’d love to make up my last two commendations if possible. :-/

“Real In-Game Currency” <3

Mini Southsun Kasmeer is currently valued at nearly five times the amount of Mini Southsun Faren.

I want to have an academic seminar on the implications of the supply and demand of these “objects” … !

Night Hawk Ix.7360:

Sadly Anet will delete any post from people who post exploit info on here and they risk THEIR account if they share it on here or in-game. Even talking about people exploiting eg who, when, where is grounds for post removal by devs and warnings given out. Any exploiters caught should be directed to exploits@arenanet.com with all the info you can get. Even asking for info about current exploits is risky to your account.

Well, that’s good to know.

SoS1: Hey, hackers exist and they make your server look bad so you should do something about it.

SoS2: btw, if you talk about it you might get banned.

While I do appreciate your warning that I might receive a warning, it’s not exactly incentive for us to try to change anything or put extra effort into writing to a robot box about exploits. I guess I’ll let the people who know what’s going on take care of it then.

Thanks, Sedanis! I’ll send ya a message ~

Could we receive a little more detail about the specific hack / cheat that people are using to get into buildings and how to identify it so that it can be reported? I’m not sure how to tell the difference between lag / speed hacks, and rezzing through a door or whatever seems like an issue that can be circumvented / prevented with appropriate preparation.

What is this “glitch” people are talking about with keeps? It’s obviously not a mesmer portal or something, because that would make it legitimate, right?

Or SoS could just leave the tier already so they can stop making excuses about why their Oceanic domination isn’t winning them enough points to move already… or we could keep crying about hacks, bots, and exploits on the forum instead of actually playing the game and just /reporting issues we see.

I’m in the Crystal Desert Server, but can guest over if needed with a temporary invite if it’s available.

I’ve been trying to find a guild I can join that does Guild Missions on a schedule I can work with, but I have trouble making the times that people tend to do them on my server. They seem to happen in the big guilds on my server most often on my server immediately at reset (So Saturday, 5 PM PST) or sometime in during the week as a make-up night. (Usually around mid-afternoon or early evening PST)

I generally only play during the evening in my time zone, which is Pacific Standard Time (Server Time, from my understanding). I don’t currently have a really solid fit in a guild that fits with my needs, so I admittedly do a little guild hopping as I try to find a good place.

If any guilds out there haven’t finished their Guild Challenge this week, I’d love to help out in order to earn some commendations. Please mail me at Sinomi or send me a whisper if you’d like to chat.

Thanks for reading!