Guild Wars 2

i’m not taking other patches/fixes into account, i’m just talking about what anet EXPLICITLY said, and whether the changes are significant or unhealthy is your opinion only, i for one think it’s gonna be a fun day next week discovering all the differences anet is giving us, whether they’re good or not, and using what we can to our advantage.

don’t dwell on the past, and don’t hope for the best possible future; the only thing you can do is take action and move in the direction you set for yourself

did you read the mesmer patch notes on the wiki? winds of chaos is going to be able to bounce 2 times if you trait it, and it applies to clones as well

i use IE all the time, the extra bounce on WOC is hella rad even if it’s just for me, and the extra bounce on gs2 is killer especially if you throw it, run at your enemy, dodge+create clone, and shatter in less than half a second

Ross Biddle.2367:

It’s not so much a complaint as it is a factual statement of truth. There were some nice changes, and the meta concerns were unaddressed. What more do you want?

it seems to me that you think the only way to play is “go meta or go home,” when in reality if you actually play the game you’d understand that metas like condi damage is literally only utilized in hotjoin pvp. if you enter tpvp/pve ever you might see a max of one condi-oriented player, and that’s the ceiling.

you might get a better response if you detail what you feel is wrong with the gameplay and how YOU would fix it, instead of just basically spouting “UGH META”

Kelthien.8593:

Spanny.9256:

don’t you think it’d be rad for mesmer to have a wall like staff earth eles possess? the interruption damage could be crazy, no?

It would be nice, for sure. Though any kind of additional effect counts as a buff, and buffs are great.

Since guardians/eles get the movement-stopping wall, I would’ve loved a daze wall or an interrupt wall, even as an added effect to our glamours or Temporal Curtain. Oh well, can’t have it all. :-)

Maybe it’s an idea for down the road if they add more utility spells!

a daze wall sounds like a fantastic idea, hopefully people could get behind this for future updates

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I guess Im dumb, but I’m actually pretty excited. A lot of potential cool stuff on the way. Not really afraid of being let down, it happens. Bugs happen. Skritt happens. I’ll complain after the patch when there are actual (not theoretical) things to complain about.

And we always get buffed crazy in December anyways.

i REALLY hope we don’t have to wait til december to get effective buffs lol

Swish.2463:

Spanny.9256:

i’m actually quite excited for the upcoming patch, i’m not seeing a ton of enthusiasm at the moment from anybody else though??

……

what are the general thoughts on these specific changes and how we can use them to our full advantage?

You haven’t been a mesmer for very long have you?

My general Thoughts are that:
A. I will not get excited or hopeful for changes to make it into the game that are working, will not be altered to a poop state, nor require a hotfix 2 days later to have them “work as intended”.

B. I cannot plan to take advantage of any of these things because i do not know what will now become broken, what will arrive broken, what will be fixed, what wont be fixed, what will be buffed/nerfed, and what wont be buffed nerfed.

Anet can take me to their HQ and show me all the mesmer changes in the game fully working 100% of the time with now new bugs and Promise me that this is what is going into the game on September 9th, and I still wouldn’t believe it.

i’ve mained a mesmer for about a year now and have gotten into the more well-known pvp/wvw guilds due to my mesmer experience so that’s really not the issue..

i’m just trying not to be a pessimistic p!ss ant; it’s been a while since anet’s given us something worthwhile. The update descriptions seem pretty straightforward, if they don’t work like they’re described then you can complain about how mesmers never have nice things like everybody else.

in the meantime at least have some faith that we’re actually getting some much needed love next week

Kelthien.8593:

I mostly run large-scale WvW these days and I’ve always struggled with finding a position for my Mesmer. Something that supports the team, but that will also net me some loot bags!

I plan on running something like 4/6/0/4/0 AoE-Mantra Zergblaster. GS/Staff, damage on interrupt, Mantra of Pain and Mantra of Distraction. Between Chaos Storm, iZerker, Mind Stab, MoP, and daze-damage from MoD and Chaos Storm, I’m hoping to see a lot of juicy damage numbers. Support-wise, it still gives me lots of CC help via dazes along with the potent Mantra splash when I charge it.

It’ll be a little carpal-tunnel inducing, i’m sure, but I’m really looking forward to trying it out. I’ve still got my elementalist as backup if it turns out gross. :-)

don’t you think it’d be rad for mesmer to have a wall like staff earth eles possess? the interruption damage could be crazy, no?

Kadj.6725:

I plan to test the hell out of Mimic. This “AT is better” nonsense really doesn’t hold up in my mind because it’s too unpredictable. Great! I got your one second of Retaliation! … Why do you still have 20s Fury?

Mimic aside, definitely stoked. I think I’ll be trying lock mesmer and MtD(possibly together) in WvW, and maybe dabble in restorative MoP in bigger fights. I dunno, I have a good feeling about this patch!

i basically feel the same way, i’m excited that they’re giving us more access to potentially effective aoe.

i’m not really feeling like i’m gonna change any of my current shatter-based utilities for arcane thievery OR the new mimic, the only way i’d use mimic anyway is if i saw a guard put up all his shouts or a thief drink that elixir that gives them all the boons for a duration

Ross Biddle.2367:

General thoughts:

Some nice changes.

Most major meta issues still unresolved.

this is why anet hates us

they give us a bone and forum mesmers be like, “ugh nothing IMPORTANT fixed might as well nerf us”

they give us an inch and you guys complain about not being given the mile

i’m actually quite excited for the upcoming patch, i’m not seeing a ton of enthusiasm at the moment from anybody else though??

illusionary leap clone is now summoned at target location so it has less chance of getting stuck

mind stab is an actual aoe now

~scepter AA applies torment~ (i don’t really use condi builds anyway but it’s still nice i guess)

maim the disillusioned now has more torment duration, probably is a killer combo with scepter, could actually make a condi shatter build now if you tried/traited hard enough

~unsure how well mimic is going to be utilized though, i feel like arcane thievery is just better as long as you know how to time it

pain mantra is aoe

daze mantra is aoe+

++++illusionary elasticity affects clones using winds of chaos (do you realise how many condis you could stack on someone kiting your chaos field for its duration while you and your clones just send double-bouncing attack after attack??)++++++++++++

-condi builds that use khamikaze-clone traits are nerfed-
^this was inevitable, and most likely just, as a lot of the conditions applied were unavoidable. it’s not like now that it’s avoidable players are just going to be parkouring away from clones, they’ll still get the condis, because they’ll never see it coming:)

—pu is nerfed hard— once again, probably inevitable as it was probably one of the bigger things newfriends were qqing about. I look at this positively though, as it means less noobs humping boon/stealth combos and more players either rerolling to inferior classes or actually becoming decent mesmers (win)

what are the general thoughts on these specific changes and how we can use them to our full advantage?

mesmers have plenty of boon removal, we don’t need more
boon removal is more of a specialty, a way of getting on even footing with other classes that have the big boon generators, just like necros are able to counter the boon-rich classes by CORRUPTING

I saw the title and instantly wanted to punch you in the face

i read your original post and now i just want to gently caress your soft cheek and whisper:l2p

don’t qq over mesmers, we’re glassier than all hell and when you get a couple conditions on us we’re toast.

overcome the fact that necro is not the most mobile class and use literally everything else to your advantage

blowing adrenaline on whiff should have been here since day one;

you don’t see thieves complaining when they miss their steals (absolutely crucial if you put half your traits into buffing steal) and venom attacks due to evades

you don’t see mesmers qqing when literally everybody knows how to avoid getting shattered on, the kitten pcs are briskly jogging towards you menacingly in a worst case scenario.

both of those skills have a larger cd and are far more unforgiving than a warrior’s burst skill, which they have one on each weapon and plenty of adrenaline recharge at disposal, stop complaining and actually learn how to play a warrior class effectively instead of having this line of logic:
TARGET IN RANGE > FULL ADRENALINE > F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1F1

Ithilwen.1529:

Rangers are just beyond the pale. Too much range-

call the police, rangers actually have the upper hand in ranged combat.

if you’re throwing three full shatters at ANYBODY with little to no result, you need to re-evaluate your playstyle, because i myself am a fulltime shatter mes and rarely to i get downed by a ranger, and big dumb warriors are easy to juke.

anet is probably already having a hard time enough with players constantly summoning pets/illusions/bots/CPUs in a matter of seconds, which takes up a significant amount of memory; mesmers are doing this CONSTANTLY in combat, i doubt they’re going to give us any more illusions haha.
besides, we have a decent heal anyway, a signet for phant mesmers that heals you roughly 1k hp per second if you have the illusions up, and ether feast, which can heal loads, you just have to have the illusions up.

Sublimatio.6981:

it should absorb every projectiles it blocked through casting time and then unleash them in the same order

do we really want that though, a 4 second duration channel of what a rifle warrior tried to deal to us back at them? that spells trouble, i’m fine with it absorbing the first and blocking/REFLECTING all other attacks/projectiles for the duration

“Phantasmal Haste is being swapped with Maim the Disillusioned. We feel that this will provide build diversity and allow more players to trait Maim the Disillusioned.
Removed Torment from Maim the Disillusioned.”

i fukken lost it
but no really i hope it’s not just mind stab getting changed; in all honesty i hope somehow they rework confusion to be like, “x damage on hit,” instead of skill use, which would not only be a general buff in pvp/pve but it’ll make classes think twice about using skills that hit multiple times in one skill use (pp thieves/hundred blades/bouncing attacks/etc.)
i’m even down for having that effect and the damage per hit slightly reduced so it’s not uber op.

would anybody think this would be an improvement?

at one point i had 30+ seconds of burning in wvw just from coming in contact with a guardian i’m almost certain..

anyway yeah honestly i liked where you were headed with the confusion idea but when you detoured into the pve aspect i got a little lost

confusion isnt an EFFECTIVE pve condition, but thats just my opinion

p.s. mesmers are not as glamorous in pvp as you lead readers to believe but that’s a whole nother can of worms i’m not gonna get into; long story short i get asked to play other classes like ele/hambow warr when i show up with shatter mesmer (which i’ve played for months)

Fay.2357:

Now, another option is to run a PU condition build. This actually is viable up until you get to the very highest levels of tPvP, which it doesn’t sound like you’re at. However, most teams don’t know how to effectively utilize this type of build, and even less people know how to effectively play it in a tPvP environment. It has the option of viability though, because it can tear apart all thieves.

I don’t use PU condition builds because
1) it’s awfully cheesey how you can stay in stealth longer, get outrageous boons from said stealth, and then on top of that be naturally tanky.
1a)the tankiness and conditions rip apart thieves, i’ll give you that, but when you’re up against another bunker build with condi-cleanse(and there’s always going to be that guard in tpvp), the fight is just painfully slow. in all honesty i think one of the players just gives in and either runs away or just lets them down the other.

2) because of the focus on stealth, your capping capabilities are much lower than other classes, which is the main reason i don’t use pu/anything in tpvp.

so unless you’re giving other reasons why pu/condi isn’t in high level tpvp, i’m just gonna say that i’m not a scrub, but i know what i’m talking about

1) i’ve done death drop portals in lions arch more times than i care to admit

2) illusionary elasticity is the most op trait in the game

3) i’ve only moaed someone once in pvp as a troll

4) people have flirted with my clones before

5) i love it when after i kill you, you say in mapchat, “i hate mesmers so f***ing much”

For over a year i’ve played mesmer and have gotten particularly fond of the various shatter mesmer builds, and i’m not shy around the phant/mantra/interrupt/lockdown/condi builds either. mesmer’s fun to play in pve, but the range of builds are fewer the higher the difficulty of play.

Why is the tpvp mesmer deemed so terrible?

in pvp hotjoin, the shatters are ungodly. at one point after a game i was the only one to join with 9 other players spectating and one yelled:
“SOMEONE GET A THIEF TO KILL THE F***ING SHATTER MES”
Thieves even can have a hard time with mesmers. After all, a year of learning how to juke, shatter, and time your bursts can make a mesmer formidable, not only in 1v1, but 1vx.
Sure, i’m not capping their home point, but if i can keep 2 or 3 of their players huddled together on a single point, then i’m doing my job correctly and the other two pvp points are as good as ours.

Why is it then, in rated pvp matches, that the mesmer is deemed so unworthy?

In some recent matches with a pvp guild i’m trying out with, they looked down on the mesmer class, deeming it unfit for a proper pvp team. In forest of nifhel in a guild 5v5, our team has 2 mesmers, and later the consensus was that the reason we lost was because the team had two mesmers in it, one of them getting the top score for the game anyway(me), one of them decapping mid from the bunker guard(me) and one of them shattering down both a power ranger and a power necro in a 1v2(me).

Later, in another game, with a new mix of players, i was asked to play hambow warrior, even when i told them i rarely ever even play warrior(i don’t like the playstyle; it’s too slow and yet is way more bunker than it leads on and is too much cc/disable potential for one player). our team thief(very very experienced as a thief) was then immediately asked to play a shatter mesmer, even when that thief said shatter wasn’t their strong suit.

we ended up winning the next two games; i consistently roamed around, killed some players, called out some nice cc, and got lowest effective score. The high mobility, high glkittenter mesmer bunked home for the entirety of the two games.

I was a little more than peeved when the team leader ask that i play a class that i’ve played probably a total of 10 pvp matches with and a total of 10 hours on in game, and then replace me with ANOTHER shatter mesmer, that subsequently said that shatter wasn’t the best build for them.

After that the opposing team replaced their mesmer with a warrior as well; unfortunately, that mesmer mains only the mesmer class, which, concerning her warrior play, left a lot to be desired, and after the game told the guild that she didn’t want to be put in that situation again.

Frankly, i’m not going to change the class i main just to be in a guild that has a fair reputation of being a good pvp guild. But why all the hate towards mesmers in pvp in general?

i’ll agree with the fact that mesmer can be hard to play in high level group play, but i can confidently say that i can hold my own in tpvp, regardless of who i’m against, be it a bunker guard, ranger, hambow/eviscerate warrior, condi/invis thief, or even another mesmer.

Has anybody else experienced the feeling that just because you’re a mesmer, you’re not really wanted? or the feeling that teammates think you’re ineffective/the reason you lost a game or two?

This probably came out more like a rant since it’s around 2:30AM for me and i’m cranky, but i legitimately want to know, even though we aren’t the most supportive class, why people think mesmers aren’t effective enough to be given a spot in tpvp?

title says it all; i noticed it immediately when i logged on and started pvping on a staff ele. when i kited around and tried laying down aoes, the mouse was nowhere near where i left it when i changed the camera angle. i never use keys to move, i use only the mouse to move around, kite, and change camera angle. usually when i change my camera angle with my mouse, the arrow disappears, but reappears IN THE SAME PLACE when i stop changing my camera angle. now, when i turn my camera roughly 180 degrees, the arrow is all the way off the window.

any help/suggestions to fix this? someone in mapchat told me one of my mouse buttons was stuck or something, but i’m not sure.

i’m not letting the leap nerf affect me, i just switched to gs/staff. i can still beat the classes, granted im fighting more off point now that i use two ranged weapons.

phase retreat will never have something as op as stealth, even for a quarter of a second, especially when it has like a ~5 second cd, is a defensive blink, an illusion summoner, and a combo finisher.

i’m all for granting cry of frustration more confusion, even if it was a trait or some junk. confusion kicks kitten if you know how to shatter properly, even in a zerker build the stacks can REALLY hurt a spammer thief/ranger who doesnt notice them in time.

and yes hitting a mesmer channeling ether clone needs to actually be punishable; i can’t count the number of times that i’ve blocked an enemy with ether clone only to have them dodge 3/4 of a second later so my torment doesnt land.

you’re running a standard shatter mes build (4/4/0/0/6) in tpvp (or even a phantasm build if you want), and come up against either an s/d permavade thief or d/d(p) thief that fancies their stealth more than you do.

your weapons are gs and staff because you normally fight from a range and dodge around in close combat while shattering from time to time.

your utlities are decoy, blink and either arcane thievery/mirror images with the heal being either feast and elite being mass invisiblity.

QUESTION: how do YOU beat the pesky thief?

i ask this because it’s basically the permavade thief that i have trouble beating in a match; i am able to down a d/p thief from time to time if i’m quick enough and i keep my illusions corralled within shatter radius to provide a deadly burst for when they leave stealth to backstab.

the s/d and d/d thieves work very quickly with getting damage down, it can be hard to summon up the necesarry illusions to provide the necessary damage to counter them, and even then it can be harder to pin damage on them with their own slew of teleportations, offhand dagger stealths and evades that their abilities offer along with damage spikes.

tell the mesmer community your approach against these builds

frankly i’m fine with the 3 condis/3 boons transfer, i would like a smaller cd.
thats really the only update id like one it, i recently took mirror images out of my utilities to get a little condi clear for my shatter build in tpvp; have yet to look back i love the skill that much.

total bump (everything in this post is in regard to pvp); frankly I always saw the ileap blink as a lifesaver from stunlocking builds as well as a lockdown to immediately burst afterwards, which is the bread and butter of most shatter builds in my opinion.

sure the skill was already buggy, blinking me out of the map/underground every once in a while and not having the clone leap up stairs or any variations in the terrain, but that’s why you learn not to use it in those situations.
now i try to take on the chieftain and svanir in pvp and they immediately take out the ileaped clone in one hit, leaving me little to no time to bring up any other clones/phantasms and then immobilize them to burst.

another good point someone in pvp mapchat brought up was the fact that the clone is easily going to get destroyed by aoe before you even have a chance to blink to a target. i am in no way going to trait up/regear or use up a utility to increase the health of the clones i’m just going to shatter anyway.

in this sense i feel the devs are not helping the mesmer specialty of good old fashioned shattering and, in fact, driving newer players to play phatasm/pu builds that keeps the player out of the fight as well as away from capping points

in other news i’m learning to like this new 4/4/6 lockdown build with gs/staff

simple thread, tell me why you choose GS over other weapon sets for pvp.

in my opinion the phantasm is extremely easy to avoid because any semi-decent opponent can see it pop up right next to them and it gives them ample time to evade the whirl attack.

the auto isnt bad, mostly for ranged so i try not to use it much because i try to be inside the capping point

2 is alright as long as it bounces onto the same person, very easy to see as well and avoid

3 is meh, its got the highest one-hit damage gs can offer but its a small aoe and the effect is lackling considering the cd time

5 is okay for an interrupt but it’s nothing compared to pistol/staff/focus interrupts, and its considerably easy to see and avoid if you’re looking for the beginning animation

once again post why you use GS over other weapons or just post counterarguments to my points above, thanks again!

knbBlackTemplar.3059:

DS is not “short” duration if nobody hits you.

yeah but neither is stealth at the moment lol.

“increases movement speed while in death shroud (+25% movement speed)”

Could you imagine actually making this trait useful?
i’m talking about stacking locust signet with it so that, like the thieves, we could have +50% speed bonus for a short duration! if it was stackable would anybody else consider switching out a trait for it? i feel like it could change a lot of things about my builds if i had that kind of mobility.

i immediately regretted making this thread once i figured out their plans for sword nerf. frankly i thought they were going to focus on nerfing uber mega stealther thief more than s/d builds..

infiltrator’s return nerf is gonna be the straw that breaks the camel’s back. i can deal with permastealth being nerfed, heck i’m even a little for it. but giving THE CLASS THAT SPECIALIZES IN MOBILITY less mobility in a world full of cc is not cool people. if you’re gonna do that i honestly don’t know how i’m planning on playing my thief in pvp. you’re narrowing it to kite-tastic p/d condi builds imo.

i’m a little disappointed i don’t see as many thieves playing s/d build in spvp; it’s all still backstab stuff. i’m just hoping people are ready to deal with it when the build is nerfed beyond usability if you’re not experienced enough to consistently backstab and keep away from dps.

the traits i run are pretty traditional, 30 in the critical strikes trait with +20% damage and another 30 in acrobatic for some mad initiative gains and condition removal. The last 10 is pretty much free but i like to get some might/swiftness/fury when i use steal.

the utilities i’m fond of using is tripwire, signet of agility for emergency dodges/condi removal, and finally shadowstep because thats just a must have.

i’m reading countless threads about how the meta warrior trumps the thief in general due to recent buffs/nerfs; warriors just can’t touch this build, and even if they somehow get you in a stunlock, theres always shadowstep or sword #2 to get you outta there.

i’d say tripwire is my favorite skill. just run away and bait the player you’re fighting as if you’re going to lose, lay down the tripwire, and you get a solid amount of time to land some massive auto-attacks when they fall (just make sure they don’t have stability).

in my opinion runes of lyssa coupled with basilisk venom is a must, the 100% condi removal + stability + stun is indispensible and great for turning the tide of the fight.

catching the foe unaware with a larcenous strike+steal from 900 range away is really fun as well.

personally i feel this build is very survivable given the amount of evades and dps and a natural counter to warriors that just want you to stand there stunned while they wail on you. if they want to hit you that badly, they’re going to have to try a little harder.

(i personally don’t think evading is a crime, everybody has them, this build has more, just like a warrior has more disables than other classes)

1) is the skill Decoy supposed to be a different invisibility mechanic as opposed to the other stealthing skills? the way it is now i believe you can come out of stealth attacking an opponent and, immediately after, go back into invisibility using Decoy without having to wait for the revealed condition to leave you.

2) is the focus 4 curtain move going to be viable in terms of actually giving you more speed boon duration? the way it is now (i know i sound repetitive), you aren’t able to gain more speed boon duration if you already have the speed boon on you. other skills, such as shouts, warhorn skills, and the guardians staff symbol will still give you more speed boon duration even if you already had the boon. why can’t the mesmer’s curtain be fixed so that it works like the guardian’s staff symbol, where it will just keep replenishing the boon to the specific duration shown on the tooltip even if you’re standing in it. if the curtain worked like this, you could run through the threshold as many times as the curtain was up and youd still just have the boon replenished to whatever the duration the tooltip said.

i only ask the second question because i feel like mesmers aren’t as effective as they can be in roaming zergs where everybody is giving allies speed buffs. when a mesmer puts a curtain down in front of a speed buffed zerg, people dont even bother to run into it because they know it wont give them more speed boon duration if they’re already buffed, and continue to keep a lookout for the next guardian to put their staff symbol down.

thanks for reading and thanks in advance for your answers :)

(addressed to anet/other professionals) What are you doing to assist the colorblind population that plays GW2? I have a friend playing who is colorblind that that absolutely loves the game but has a considerably difficult time enjoying the aspects of the game such as jumping puzzles and guild rushes. our guild does its best to help him out when we’re in the rushes but there’s only so much we can assist with. is there anything you can do to help us?

very helpful responses, i will definitely be using these strategies the next time i fight another condi class

i would have the base hp of an ele if all theyd give me is some mobility, thats all i ask for. i simply hate trying to kite foes in pvp/wvw when they have so many more teleports and leaps to get at you/away from you, when all i have is 2 dodges and the slowest teleport known to gw2 (deathshroud’s dark path #2 skill), which is useless to condi builds if you’re main goal is to kill from a distance

adding fear to ur build doesnt help much either when they have a lot more stability and many a stunbreaker. only noobs get caught in fear chains anyway.

i’m just having a hard time putting conditions on the mesmer/warrior as a necro before they start stealthspamming/disablespamming while condition cleansing or giving it back to me; i’ve also only recently realized how IMMENSELY powerful a mesmer’s arcane thievery really is against a condi necro. ur 10 stacks of bleed/torment/whatever else just got put back on you and i stole whatever boons you managed to grant urself! (also really useful for taking stability off ur elites if ur not using flesh golem, or hell, take the uber long stability ur golem gets after u use his elite)

i started playing as a necro, and quickly switched to mes because of the usability and how fun the various builds are. imo, the lack of mobility/stealth/clones/reflects/stunbreakers a usual necro has compared to a typical mesmer is why i think a condition mesmer can really stick it to ya, or anybody for that matter with relative ease:
1. stealth
2. summon phantasm
3. come out of stealth iLeaping and frenzying or using sceptre conditions
4. dodge
5. switch weapons and repeat

mes probably has the 2nd best defensive down skill among the classes, with ele’s mist form being first imo. only with ele mist and mesmer tele/stealth are u guaranteed not to get stomped if you use it right.

in pvp/roaming wvw stomping warr/guard/engi/ranger/necro is pretty easy; thief is a little trickier because they can tele away right as youre about to stomp, but can be easily countered with a blink/teleport of your own (i especially like using a thief’s steal skill because its target oriented :p).

like many people before me have said, with other classes, their #2 interrupt can be countered with blind/stealth/stability/mesmer invul shatter (love doing that), only with mesmer and ele #2 are you able to stay alive a little longer. theres even been times when i’ve teleported behind a rock or something and the person i was fighting never looked behind there and i fully ressed myself haha.

Thanks for all the answers guys, the tips on reducing your foes speed with cripple/chill/immobilize is very helpful, as well as the kiting advice

in wvw i’m learning how to take on builds like this, i’m basically an all glass mesmer that is able to take away stability from warriors if they use it and apply it to myself, so i have some cc of my own to keep them off me as well as ranged abilities. the only real trouble i have with using a build like that is backstab thieves because they down me so quickly and the condi-meta that multiple classes are using now.

in pvp i’ve yet to try the kiting techniques with my mesmer, but i have managed to hold my own with a stealthy/blinding thief and even have managed to down them once or twice, but id rather not run a permastealth/blind build as i find it troll-ish.

also thanks again for all the helpful advice as well as taking my topic seriously instead of thinking i was just complaining.

just wondering, never played gw1; what’s a necro bomb?

you’re not being entirely descriptive
which makes me wonder what exactly they were doing

oh sweet jesus halfway through i thought u were serious
that gave me a hearty laugh

and just to be clear isnt the bloodthirst trait supposed to increase the heal and damage of siphoning skills by 20%? or is it just the heal by 20%?

plus im just doin some basic calculations and it doesnt look like the siphoning/pulse heal from dagger 2 is getting a full 20%boost, roughly 18% and lower for other siphoning skills like minions. am i not taking something into account, like healing?(but idk how healing could lower the siphon boost to under 20% anyways)

im sorry but did nobody else notice that the siphon damage for minions gets increased (75 => 90) and the siphon heal gets DECREASED (70 => 63) WITH the bloodthirst trait on?
the life siphon damage and heal for the minor vampiric trait BOTH get increased with the bloodthirst trait, this can’t be right, really disappointing.

plus the fear duration for skills shows that its not affected whatsoever by the master of terror major trait. i mean come on i was really looking forward to the tooltips and how i could get a bottomline duration for conditions and such.

Epic.3950:

the easiest way to beat a warrior in a duel is to keep them at a distance until you burst. you want a fluid in out combat or they will hurt. when they are low you gotta put the pressure on them because they can only regen over time. at around 25% pop a stability and go onto the offense, if you dont have stability, have a contingency plan and attack smart. make sure you bait their dodges and be wary of mace cracks. never dodge roll anything that isnt backbreaker, ES or shieldbash (macecrack is kinda BS and looks like an auto attack which is dumb) as a warrior since launch I have used the exact same tactic on the OP classes before me with great success. I also use this tactic against other warriors to great success. manipulation is key my friend and FOTM warriors are so easily manipulated.

thanks for this
very in-depth and helpful, i’ll try to remember tactics like this when fighting

Nuorus.8415:

what about if Anet made it so you can’t chain stun someone and not perma blind someone. some kind of cd is needed.

this isn’t particularly helpful i’m not gonna lie; the purpose of a chain in any sort of game is so that there isn’t a cd, its like in any fighter game where you bust out a super combo on your opponent and they can’t do anything while you’re performing it. your opponent goes flying after your combo, they are able to get back up afterwards(in most cases there are invul frames when they recover), and the fight goes on.

anet did a fair job on ensuring that most classes could stop the chain with skills that include stunbreaks so you can get away or fight back, i’m just making the point that a warrior build could possibly have an excessive amount of disables. while it doesnt look like anet is going to deal with this anytime soon, i’m asking you how you deal with builds like this.

fey.5438:

Hammer/mace builds are very predictable so it’s easy to kite/dodge them. It’s also easier when you have played as a warrior with such build.
Blind, dodge, ranged weapons helps.. but you just need more experiance.

i have thought of going against the build with an uber-blind thief, but i guess to me it feels like im fighting a troll-ish build with another troll-ish build, permastealth/blind to me is a bit unfair to anybody.

i do understand the stun builds are predictable, excluding (imo) a mesmer chainstun build :p. i will just have to duel against it more frequently just to get used to it like you said. thanks for the reply

kroven.4895:

Dodge, duck, dip, dive, dodge!

very helpful thank you XD very helpful Dodgeball quote haha

i feel like a total kitten for posting this in the warrior forum but frankly idk where to put it.

now we all know there are some builds in dpvp that are advantageous and some that are not. but in all honesty i feel like there are some particular builds that utilize stuns/disables to an excess.
i’m referring to specifically hammer and mace/shield warrior; does anybody find a problem with there being up to 6 skills that disable you, not even including utilities?
1)mace 3
2)shield 4
3)hammer 5
4)hammer 4
5)mace burst
6)hammer burst

unless you have a phuq-ton of stunbreakers or stability, its hard to stay away from all of them, especially if the warrior has played the build the whole 10 minutes it takes to practice the various stun/disable combos.

combined with the healing signet(healing), signet of stamina(condi cleanse), berserker stance(condi cleanse), dolyak signet(-damage/stability), and even runes of lyssa(condi cleanse/everybuff), the warrior alone is very survivable against both condition and dps builds.

i know its wrong of me to post this in warrior section because people will think im just QQ-ing, but i’m watching these warriors in duelling servers take off their body armour when duelling because they dont want the effect of runes of lyssa. As a warrior, what does that mean when you can outduel another class naked?

i’m trying to not make this sound like a hate session on a class, so please don’t reply telling me to QQ moar.

instead, i’d like your legitimate opinion and critique on a build like this, or how you yourself have beaten people that use this build

by the way the reason i’m posting this is not just because i came out of a stalemate with a permastun warrior when i was a nooby mes, but also so you can post your strategies for what the shortcomings of this build is and how you take advantage of it when your fighting it yourself. i hope you don’t see this post as rageful, im legitimately curious, and i’d rather ask the professionals themselves than anybody else.

thanks for reading and be sure to post your comments/answers/opinions(constructive) and thanks for reading :)