Guild Wars 2

Ross Biddle.2367:

Added another vid
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3b9B25BWLd8&feature=youtu.be

First fight was bunkering a bunker guard on far (00:10), holding it from capping. I jump off eventually to heal/mantra up and to place a iDuelist out of his reach (guard was smart and took notice of the phants), the Guard would have eventually been burnt down but a ranger came in (1:35). Fight quickly turned into a 3v2 at that point.

After that it was a quick trip to mid to put that fight to rest (2:40) before a return to far for a final team battle 3:03. Landslide into Lord after that.

Why are we not doing this good when we que!?

Ross Biddle.2367:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

All in all I recommend this build for anyone wanting to pick something up that’s a little different without being too difficult to learn. It suffers a similar problem to PU in finding a role/place in team fights but 1v1 its pretty beastly. While not the most competitively viable Mesmer build out there, its effective at what it does and there’s plenty fun to be had here.

Thanks for the review Chaos, but where was the star rating?

Anyway I wanted to ask what you meant by the above quote. I understand the problem with PU, but I’m not quite sure what you mean by it not having a role/place in team fights? If one is in a team fight, what would he be doing to be considered as playing a role?

I think role is subjective, For me, anything can be a role as long as he/she is not doing 0 pts the whole match.

Sol.4310:

Let’s be real we complained about traps
For almost a year they gave us poison trap now has poison field there won’t be any trap changes

Better than nothing I guess, lets see after the fraking tournies, maybe thats the time when they finally do something new about gw2.

Shadelang.3012:

Aleksander Suburb.4287:

What about an interrupt, by a short stun when the trap is activated?
With that you’ve the chance, that the enemy stays longer in the trap, if he forgets to dodge after stun or goes backwards. A stun of 0.5 sec is not too much to be overpowered, but it is annoying.
If you stack all traps on the same point, the stun is not additive. So it makes more sense to spread the traps. And if you try to throw it to the enemy, the enemy can react and dodge to avoid the stun.

This is more in line with what a trap actually is. Instead of a stun break. Something you can use to the same effect. They stun you but they set off a trap that either knocks them back or stuns them in return. Negating there abilitiy to take advantage of the stun.

I agree entirely, the thing is, the traps should keep them in the trap long enough or make them impede any advances, IMO thats what a trap should be, if they had KD or Immob, or Cripple when traited it will be also a good idea.

EX:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Tripwire

Pure Heart.1456:

Someday.3650:

All these have been suggested before… a lot. The stow won’t happen, devs don’t like rangers playing without their pets.

So make the kitten pets work properly then for pete’s sake!!! It’s been 2 years!!

Work Properly is a vague term. Give Pets more control and Add -50% Damage taken from AOE.

Or just give us a darn pet trait tree from there, I would just add all defenses to make my pet a living shield.

or.

Use a bear.

Yes although the idea of stunbreakers and provides stability would be so great, i still find it selfish, it would still not be beneficial for your team other than condition bombing (necro or engie looks at you).

Also that condition bombing is only 3-4 unique conditions at the cost of 3 traps.

That’s why we need a trait that added more conditions to traps and boon strip IMO.

With that, now we can also cover conditions, boonstrip and deal damage at the same time, better than traps now IMO.

But hey, The concept of stun break of running 3 traps is still a necessity. I am thinking 3 traits minimum. Boon strip, added conditions, and stability/ stun breaker.

Maybe.

Trap Trait

Strips 2 Boons, You and x Radius gain Stability for X seconds.

Hound, any day. 1 KD, 20 sec cd AOE immob. 16 traited vs spider’s 45. Hits harder than spider, altho dies faster.

eldenbri.1059:

Thx much for the help!

On the wolf, if you’re using a condi build, are you using the fear just to take pressure off of you and let the condis work? Or is it something you can reliably use to interrupt?

I was hoping the stealth from the traps would fill the role of dropping pressure and allowing repositioning, but it seems like only frost traps can do this and even that is pretty tricky (if bonfire or another trap field is doing damage, stealth from the frost trap still gets cancelled for me).

Wolf gets fear, and KD too, no matter what your build is, pets will still hit hard/semi hard, because they have their own stats.

For the trapper runes, just place them behind you, then reposition to avoid triggering and bait them into the trap, if youre using SB use Sigil of Incapacitation, this helps a lot for kiting +SB4.

Traps are not supposed to be use all at the same time, unless its pvp, you have a whole lot of space in WvW for clever positioning. Hope this helps Fellow mesmer/ranger.

And dont forget that traps should stay a lot longer in pvp (when not triggered) for careful positioning.

shadowpass.4236:

Merge Trapper’s Expertise and Potency.

Add new GM trait:

Stable Traps:
Traps break stuns and apply 2 seconds of stability when used.

Wow this could also work too, so maybe add 1 more minor trait for traps on a diff tree for boon removal or?

Ross Biddle.2367:

StickerHappy.8052:

BlackDevil.9268:

Or well at least keep a forum post alive with proposed changes and put them in the OP post, if the OP wants to agree with this of course.

Guess I’ll start off:
I-mage reduced cooldown 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

A buff is a buff i guess, but no offense Doiid, I would rather have the Image Shoot a laser and deal 6 stacks of confusion directly, the projectile is what makes it a bad phantasm. Also that’s gonna be 16 seconds traited. might be a bit too much, since you will have that 16 second cd removal. <—- Good for us mesmers but, I will hear a lot of crying from the community for this one if it ever happens.

Give the iMage confusing images. Get a couple of those bad boys up spamming that every 6 seconds would be a major head trip for enemies. Those slow channels might suck on a Mesmer trying to get his skill off, but coming from a third party source would be hard to mitigate much of.

Oh! this is a wonderful idea, altho better than what we have right now, i like the instant 5-6 stacks of confusion, for more reliable application.

Someday.3650:

RoyalPredator.9163:

So it mostly works as intended, and there are more important ranger things to fix than Traps.

Than sounds like “I dont play traps so it doesn’t matter to me”. I think there’s some consensus about traps being the way to make ranger somewhat viable (and some pet fixes). After all, traps are our only real AOE.

Yep that sounds about like it. I think we and the mesmer forums share the same thing too,. there is a divide over the class itself. Oh dont forget Entangle is our AOE although it is not a trap.

Atherakhia.4086:

Behind the pet and shouts, traps are probably the largest thing wrong with the class.

They require too many traits. The traits are all in the wrong tree. They take away too much utility to use. Don’t compliment the class in anyway unless specifically traited for their use. The only thing ‘right’ about traps is if you spec for them, they work great in duels.

So yea, traps are as good a place to start as any.

Exactly, traps are in the same boat as spirits in a sense, they require a whole 6 pts in a line for optimal use, but 6 points in a line for a single purpose should be stronger IMO, you trade so much for them, 6 pts and utility slots.

BlackDevil.9268:

Or well at least keep a forum post alive with proposed changes and put them in the OP post, if the OP wants to agree with this of course.

Guess I’ll start off:
I-mage reduced cooldown 30 seconds to 20 seconds.

A buff is a buff i guess, but no offense Doiid, I would rather have the Image Shoot a laser and deal 6 stacks of confusion directly, the projectile is what makes it a bad phantasm. Also that’s gonna be 16 seconds traited. might be a bit too much, since you will have that 16 second cd removal. <—- Good for us mesmers but, I will hear a lot of crying from the community for this one if it ever happens.

Could anyone confirm this?

I enter a battle with a golem, then hit another golem, and other (killed them in order)

Checked my combat log, [Leech] is only there during my first attack on the golem, never occured again. The description says 50% to steal health on the next critical, so I’m assuming there should be more than instance to it. PS: I used assassin’s amy. so that 63% crit rate

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

StickerHappy.8052:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

StickerHappy.8052:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I think traps are fine, although I think having to sacrifice two trait points to make them remotely effective is a bit silly. I also think the cooldown on Frost Trap needs to be reduced. As is, the cooldown is far too long for a non-damaging utility that only applies Chill. Chill is a strong condition but the cooldown is too long for it to be particularly effective.

Yes Chill is effective, but a lot of classes can remove it or reduce its duration by traiting too.

Dogged March
Leg Mods
The Ele Remove on Dodge
Withdraw
Automated Response

Factor that plus regular condition removal + -Duration Condition Runes

Plus Factor the thief, Thief Weapon skills and initiative regeneration are not affected by chill. So. would you still call it a strong condition in an organized teams.?

If it is, Chill Necro should be a meta by now.

Are you agreeing with me or disagreeing. I can’t tell.

Chill is very strong despite how many ways other professions have to reduce it’s duration. A well timed chill can make a big difference, especially if you use it after someone has popped their heal. Ranger has access to a chill on a pretty short cooldown via Winter’s Bite. If you reduced the cooldown of Frost Trap too drastically it’d be too easy to keep perma-chill on people which would be very strong, especially because you wouldn’t really have to sacrifice anything to do it. I’m just saying that for a trap that does no damage and only applies a fairly short chill duration it should either have it’s cooldown slightly reduced or the chill duration slightly increased.

I made this suggestion before but how about with Trap Potency trait you also gain a second condition per-trap.

Flame Trap: Burning / trait – Burning + Blindness per pulse
Frost Trap: Chill / trait Chill + Vulnerability per pulse
Viper’s Nest: Poison / trait Poison + Weakness per pulse

Per pulse = duration/stacks increase the longer the target stands within the trap.

Ooops sorry. Yes I agree with you, but the point that makes me contemplate is that the status of chill itself.

If it is really that strong, why are there no builds that play a chill centered build on High lvl play?

And yes, I have the same idea as adding 1 more condition. This would eliminate the hassle of making new trap altogether and as such, Anet’s resources could go on other ways like our pet.

The main issue is here is the lackluster traits.

Same goes for Vigorous Spirits, why not make it 70% by default since Spirits are also squishy as kitten.

Valid point about it not being used on high level play. With how easy it is to remove or reduce the duration of chill as you mentioned, I don’t think many people try to factor it in to their builds. Yet at the same time, too much chill would be extremely powerful. Ever fought the keep champion in Edge Of The Mists with Eternal Frost Aura? Pema-chill like that is insanely strong. I don’t know where I stand on this really I just think that if Frost Trap had it’s duration reduced too much, it would be too strong, even if a lot of people are basically immune to it, the ones that aren’t would get freaking rekt.

And yeah, anything to buff spirits would also be nice IMO. If anything the trait that gives them more health should also give them more toughness, assuming they even have toughness to begin with.

I’m on the fence about the whole trap situation though. As long as they’re not nerfed I guess I’ll be happy because I’ve been a trapper Ranger for over half a year now and I love it to death.

I am also a trapper ranger to pvp and I love it to death, Im just iffy on the Redundant traits, 2 traits and it doesn’t even make it a game changer.

Also, most of the time you will slot in Spike Trap for the short CD and immob, wouldn’t you wish it was AOE like all traps?

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

Atherakhia.4086:

Do you think a Ranger will find a spot in a group just because their traps remove 2 boons per proc? Over a Necro or Mesmer that can remove far more? I don’t know… but that’s what needs to be considered.

Just bringing boon removal to the table isn’t going to help unless the entire class has a niche to fill that isn’t better filled by another class.

We have the most access to immobilize. I wouldn’t really call that a “niche” but just saying, if you build for it, you can darn near keep people perma-immobilized.. Jungle Spider F2 and regular attacks, Spike Trap (with trait), Muddy Terrain, Entangle and Stone Spirit active attack. All of that can even be used in the same build, annoyingly enough.

Exactly. or. Dog f2, KD, Spike Trap, Muddy Terrain, Entangle, Swap, Wolf f2, (while immob to prevent cleanse), KD, so add that boon removal on the equation + the suggestion of adding 1 more condition to traps, tbh I would run that on my team.

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

StickerHappy.8052:

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I think traps are fine, although I think having to sacrifice two trait points to make them remotely effective is a bit silly. I also think the cooldown on Frost Trap needs to be reduced. As is, the cooldown is far too long for a non-damaging utility that only applies Chill. Chill is a strong condition but the cooldown is too long for it to be particularly effective.

Yes Chill is effective, but a lot of classes can remove it or reduce its duration by traiting too.

Dogged March
Leg Mods
The Ele Remove on Dodge
Withdraw
Automated Response

Factor that plus regular condition removal + -Duration Condition Runes

Plus Factor the thief, Thief Weapon skills and initiative regeneration are not affected by chill. So. would you still call it a strong condition in an organized teams.?

If it is, Chill Necro should be a meta by now.

Are you agreeing with me or disagreeing. I can’t tell.

Chill is very strong despite how many ways other professions have to reduce it’s duration. A well timed chill can make a big difference, especially if you use it after someone has popped their heal. Ranger has access to a chill on a pretty short cooldown via Winter’s Bite. If you reduced the cooldown of Frost Trap too drastically it’d be too easy to keep perma-chill on people which would be very strong, especially because you wouldn’t really have to sacrifice anything to do it. I’m just saying that for a trap that does no damage and only applies a fairly short chill duration it should either have it’s cooldown slightly reduced or the chill duration slightly increased.

I made this suggestion before but how about with Trap Potency trait you also gain a second condition per-trap.

Flame Trap: Burning / trait – Burning + Blindness per pulse
Frost Trap: Chill / trait Chill + Vulnerability per pulse
Viper’s Nest: Poison / trait Poison + Weakness per pulse

Per pulse = duration/stacks increase the longer the target stands within the trap.

Ooops sorry. Yes I agree with you, but the point that makes me contemplate is that the status of chill itself.

If it is really that strong, why are there no builds that play a chill centered build on High lvl play?

And yes, I have the same idea as adding 1 more condition. This would eliminate the hassle of making new trap altogether and as such, Anet’s resources could go on other ways like improving our pet.

The main issue is here is the lackluster traits.

Same goes for Vigorous Spirits, why not make it 70% by default since Spirits are also squishy as kitten.

PS: Maybe change vulnerability or make it 5 stacks, It wouldn’t matter if its 3 pulses because its only 3 stacks = 3% more damage since traps can only have 3 maximum pulses.

sendaf.8375:

Having an elite trap added would be a huge help as it would open up a utility slot for survival.

Maybe something like this?
Spike Pit- Deals X damage on proc, Dazes X seconds on Proc, Strips all boons on proc
only 1 proc, 3 targets max

It sets up other traps well, brings boon strip utility, and will weaken the hammer train in wvw by not only ripping stability off the front line but also makes them stand in the other traps stacked on top of the choke point.

IMO, as a mesmer main, having a 48 second Elite is still better than most, its AOE too, immob. Although is hit or miss elite, its the same boat as our MoA, hit or miss, single target, 180 second cd.

Since Entangle is already 48 seconds with traits, it also synergizes really well with on-elite runes like krait or lyssa.

So Entangle is 48 second AOE, immob bleed poison torment elite. I would rather just fix the traits, and maybe fix or improve current traits.

Atherakhia.4086:

StickerHappy.8052:

Atherakhia.4086:

I kind of agree with Sendaf. I personally would just make traps fill a hybrid role so they’re valuable to condi and power builds than simply try and focus all their attention on condi playstyle.

I’m also not sure removing a boon on trigger and traiting that to 2 boons is really powerful enough, but given the cooldown on some traps it may work out.

As for the comment that traps are fine, other than some quirks and spike trap overall, they’re not bad if you play a condi bunker build. Traps do have the problem of never being taken unless you spec for them though. The problem is the class overall just doesn’t provide much to the group and one thing this game needs more of is boon removal. Giving rangers access to it may start seeing them break into the meta in WvW and PvP.

I’m just not sure 2 boons per trap is enough when you consider how reliant rangers are on their utility skills to keep them alive. They sacrifice a lot to take a trap. Especially if they don’t specifically build for them.

1 or 2 or 3 boons, it doesn’t matter, the point is you have something new to bring to the table to your team, instead of just you know spending 6 points into Skirmishing just for a regular trapping playstyle.

Fire trap, Viper trap, Frost trap, are the only ones AOE, and youll be only getting 2 of those because you will lack stun breaks.

Spike trap should be AOE too. given its immensely helpful immob.

Do you think a Ranger will find a spot in a group just because their traps remove 2 boons per proc? Over a Necro or Mesmer that can remove far more? I don’t know… but that’s what needs to be considered.

Just bringing boon removal to the table isn’t going to help unless the entire class has a niche to fill that isn’t better filled by another class.

Yes i think so, don’t forget that we are not replacing condis on traps for removing boons, we still have that past ultility for condi bombing AOE + removing boons. and we have entangle on top of that

SpellOfIniquity.1780:

I think traps are fine, although I think having to sacrifice two trait points to make them remotely effective is a bit silly. I also think the cooldown on Frost Trap needs to be reduced. As is, the cooldown is far too long for a non-damaging utility that only applies Chill. Chill is a strong condition but the cooldown is too long for it to be particularly effective.

Yes Chill is effective, but a lot of classes can remove it or reduce its duration by traiting too.

Dogged March
Leg Mods
The Ele Remove on Dodge
Withdraw
Automated Response

Factor that plus regular condition removal + -Duration Condition Runes

Plus Factor the thief, Thief Weapon skills and initiative regeneration are not affected by chill. So. would you still call it a strong condition in an organized teams.?

If it is, Chill Necro should be a meta by now.

Atherakhia.4086:

I kind of agree with Sendaf. I personally would just make traps fill a hybrid role so they’re valuable to condi and power builds than simply try and focus all their attention on condi playstyle.

I’m also not sure removing a boon on trigger and traiting that to 2 boons is really powerful enough, but given the cooldown on some traps it may work out.

As for the comment that traps are fine, other than some quirks and spike trap overall, they’re not bad if you play a condi bunker build. Traps do have the problem of never being taken unless you spec for them though. The problem is the class overall just doesn’t provide much to the group and one thing this game needs more of is boon removal. Giving rangers access to it may start seeing them break into the meta in WvW and PvP.

I’m just not sure 2 boons per trap is enough when you consider how reliant rangers are on their utility skills to keep them alive. They sacrifice a lot to take a trap. Especially if they don’t specifically build for them.

1 or 2 or 3 boons, it doesn’t matter, the point is you have something new to bring to the table to your team, instead of just you know spending 6 points into Skirmishing just for a regular trapping playstyle.

Fire trap, Viper trap, Frost trap, are the only ones AOE, and youll be only getting 2 of those because you will lack stun breaks.

Spike trap should be AOE too. given its immensely helpful immob.

Adrian Guardian.9480:

Problem is the dependence on a GM trait, I think.
Random suggestion: Remove the trap potency trait, move the double duration to default, move the recharge reduction to Trapper’s Defense (that currently pretty weak adept trait), and make the replacement GM trait unrelated to traps.

If you change Trapper’s Defense, it would be more problematic, because all classes’ downed traits are weak and most often not traited for. SO in the end, Anet should rework majority if not all downed traits.

Sube Dai.8496:

It has been discussed before…traps force you to sacrifice your survival utilities which are essential in PvP.

We need access to at least one on-demand stun break whilst running 3 traps…

Nothing else is required.

Again, the point of the improvements are to:

A.) Make us viable in team fights, If traps can remove boons, then we are of use for another important duty, also, if Spike trap now pulses, it can affect more than 1 target, again helps immensely in team fights.

B.) Creating a new trait, merging and putting some stuff into default makes the traits for traps more reasonable, makes it more worthwhile to go 6 into Skirmishing.

EX: you waste a major trait just to make traps ground targeted and larger, which IMO should be default so you could have smart placement of traps.

Justine.6351:

traps are fine.

yes they are in small skirmishes and 1v1. If they were fine, We should’ve seen a lot in Tournies by now.

Responses like this are meh. Couldve justified youre post. Rangers are fine, traps are fine, those kind of comments.

Don’t you wish your class offered more utility?

^I don’t wanna blame the devs, but I think they didn’t think of mesmer traits thoroughly, in fact I think they were made in a hurry, so it calls for such fixes, and you know other FIXES comes from nerfs too when people can’t find the real mesmer.. boohoo

Simonoly.4352:

Pretty much all the Mesmer traits and skills that apply confusion are outdated…

Phantasmal Mage has the longest cooldown of the all the weapon phantasms as I presume both the retaliation and confusion that it applied were considered ‘strong’ on release. However, even before confusion and retaliation were nerfed in WvW, Phantasmal Mage had terrible projectile tracking and an overly long cooldown that didn’t really suit Mesmer weapon skill rotations. With the subsequent nerfs it became an obsolete phantasm that is really only of any use as an unreliable source of condition removal….that requires 4 trait points.

The same tale can be applied to almost every form of confusion application Mesmer has. It’s all horribly outdated.

Its not even outdated, These are the same traits as before except the BB ICD. The only difference is that even though our application was bad before, Even a few stacks dealt major damage. Now the damage is nerfed, combined with our pitiful stacking, GG.

Also, we had the Duelist Trait IX before that granted the iDuelist 100% Projectile Finisher, so combo that with an Ethereal Field, and it was certainly a more reliable way to stack confusion; and now, it was FIXED so yea.

As a trap ranger (spvp), although i feel like its powerful, i think there is something missing. I wanna discuss the current state of traps and ways I think to improve them. I hope everyone gets on the discussion on their ideas.

First traps are strategic, not nuking them all at the same place.

My first suggestion would be.

Make traps last longer

Make them last longer when you place them (not triggered) this would enable you to put them at strategic location that would benefit you or your team.

Merge trap traits

The ground targeting traits and Trap potency would be Merged for A GM trait OR
Merge them With Trap Potency and make traps Ground Targeting and 240 Radius By Default.

Traps by Default

240 Radius and ground Targeted

OR

Traps By Default

Ground Targeted

So New GM trait

Trap Potency

Traps are larger and their conditions last longer
Reduce Recharge of Traps by 20%

To further improve our viability in team fights

We replace the old trapper’s Expertise Trait by A new Effect

Trapper’s Expertise

_Traps now remove a boon when triggered and causes 1 additional condition*

Spike Trap 1 Sec of Weakness
Frost Trap 3 Stacks of Vulnerability
Viper trap 2 stacks of Confusion
Flame Trap 1 sec Blind

OR

Trappers Expertise

Traps now remove 2 boons when triggered

Lastly, I think Spike Trap needs some love, yes the immob is good and the trap is so good at 1v1, but it is only single target and does not pulse, even a clone or pet can trigger it and yea, it is wasted.

Spike Trap

Set a trap that bleeds and applies Torment 1 sec immob, 3 stacks of bleed (only initial trigger), 1 sec Torment for 3 pulses

Frost Trap

Just make it deal damage to make it in line with other traps.

So what you guys think?

With these changes, i can see a slight opportunity to be able to viable in team fights.

PS

I don’t see this as overpowered because it needs you to trait fully into Skirmishing to be able to Utilize full effects, takes away utility slots for stun breaks, condi clears, shouts, and etc. If this was implemented, I might as well slot 3 traps.

The rangers were… 1 trick ponies, RaO, 4, 2, 3, 5, 1. The valks Ranger didnt even weapon swap. lol.

Anyway. Youre looking great in the video (as a matter of fact, its been a while since I saw you this great, That DA makes you rusty! haha) keep it up chaos, can’t wait to team again.

To be honest, I think confusion is still good even with the nerf, the main problem mesmers have is application, yes we have a lot of sources but they are being stacked 1 stack at a time.

EX: Scept 3 5 stacks for a channel < Engie prybar 5 stacks for a single hit
3 Stacks from Image < Engie 5 stacks concussion bomb
6 Stacks CoF shatter = Warrior 4 stacks on interrupt
(This still needs to be 3 clones)

Confusing Combatants is still situational if you kill your clones and all that for 25 pts in dueling, (I mean CMON!)

Confusing Enchantments (1 stack for entering and 1 for leaving) again- too situational, 1 get 1 stack, i won’t be bothering coming back and out again for more if I were the foe. (A master Trait too, CMON!)

If we had more reliable ways to apply it, (better than other classes, IT IS our staple condition anyway) i think we wont even need a damage buff again.

tdopun.7439:

My latest look. I’m pretty happy with it.

Steampunk mesmer I like it.

I think the spike trap needs some love too, because it does not pulse. Also we need to make our condi pets useful, make them have a condition damage or healing power stat.

I would love to have a new pet. maybe 3 pets to swap.

Secretwep.2054:

The only real suggestion here I could agree with is a permanent stow so that your pet doesn’t come out when you get in combat, but really, pets are amazing! Whether it’s PVE, sPVP, or WVW, they can deal a crap ton of damage if you have the right traits and often can save you if you get downed. As for…

thefantasticg.3984:

Here’s what it boils down to:

1) If they aren’t going to let us option out of pets, we need much more control over pets… Uh, hello… Guard/Active still doesn’t have a keybind! That is a glaring problem.

2) AOE damage reduction in PVE on pets. Anywhere from 80-95%. Been to world boss Golem Mk II? Yeah, like that.

we do have plenty of control of pets already; if your pet is dying to AOE all the time that’s on you. Often on bosses with lots of AOE, especially the sort where they make a ring around them and you have to get out of it, just step out of the AOE and call your pet back with f3 real quick. AOE damage reduction for your pet would just be way too overpowered, especially when you should be able to avoid this sort of stuff yourself. Also, is it really that hard to have to click on the passive/guard button? I imagine it’s not key-binded so that people don’t accidentally switch their pet off from passive when they’re trying to avoid mobs. Pets are fine how they are; if you don’t like them, it’s because you don’t know how to use them.

Pets are good but they are not fine, so allow me to disagree. They have pathing issues, they cannot stick to their targets and the best of it all, is that you cant control their skills.

Ex: You cant knockdown when you want an opponnent with the wolf. You can cripple leap when youre chasing, you can ask swiftness from a bird when the situation calls.

A little more freedom and fix the pet stats and I think we are good.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Benjamin.8237:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

The only thing you can do against a thief is hope anet will buff Mesmer or nerf consume plasma. I don’t expect either to happen for a while.

You see Mesmer isn’t really nerfed, or in need of a buff. The problem we have is the celestial meta means that warrs/eles/engies all bring a lot the table, making them extremely effective to have in a team. This makes less room for a mesmer. Except, Mesmer is great at dealing with celestial builds? Except we can’t fill in that spot because outside of dealing with them we don’t offer a lot to the table at the moment, and thieves still hurt us bad. Mesmer brings huge mobility to a team, but the current meta prioritizes split pushing and spreading onto 3 caps…our mobility isn’t needed as much as another classes sustain.

Oh and about thieves, I don’t think consume plasma is the problem (even though it’s very strong). It’s more to do with steal being so strong against mesmer with the poison preventing us from healing, and the thiefs ability to engage and disengage more easily than us. In a flat damage fight we just have to hit a mirror blade and mind wrack inbetween their flanking strike frames.

If a thief comes out of stealth and you’re an interrupt Mesmer, thief = shut down and very likely dead. GG Mesmer.

If a thief comes out of stealth with consume plasma running, stability blocks the ability to interrupt, GG thief.

We have more than enough tools to go toe to toe with a thief, unless you’re running the wrong setup (4, 4, 0, 0, 6 shatter mes for example). Its little things like consume plasma on top of the insta cast no los in conjunction with evade spam and stealth that make it ridiculous.

But if the thief is running that Absurd number of evades its still hard as he will evade that daze.

We should add hallucinations too ala toxic campaign

This was a build I made with ArrowSlanger (ItIsFinished) before, you could give it a try.

Owl for the quick f2 chill and cripple
I use frost trap although untraited, you can leap or blast it for frost armor. Axe can chill too and axe 2 can be a finisher for frost trap
Torch can be changed to dagger i just like torch for the variety of conditions. Malicious Training for longer chills, and RUne of ice for AOE chill when struck and pet will do more damage when target is chilled.
Sharpened Edges could be changed for Pets Prowess to make owl hit harder
Cave sdpider for Weakness Vuln Cripple f2 and the Ocassional Immob and poison.
Other are the common choices, entangle OH training.

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fNAQRBHfxG2IjK1r2yi/KUtIAQoWFAtzhmNGY1APHjrtkNdA-TZhHwACeCAAOIAk2fAZZgAnAAA

Belarorn.9062:

Predators Onslaught- Increased Damage for yourself and your pet when opponent is crippled chilled or immobilized
Superior Rune of the Ice – +7% Damage against Chilled Foes
Lets say we go 6/6/2/0/0. now we have
Steady Focus- 10% extra damage while full endurance. We have Natural Vigor which involves 25% increased endurance regen and we can trait for vigor on heal and upon being crit hit. If we run anything with a sword or a dagger we have weapon evades that involve not dodging.
+10% damage from flanking from the Skirmishing Grandmaster Minor trait
With Traps, Pets , Sigil of Ice, some condition duration, and Axe #3 Perma chill can be a thing, very easily, Also Ice Combo field for leap or Blast finishers from horn, sword, GS, Projectile from dagger or Axe.

So with all this extra damage from chill and the bonuses from chilling people is this not viable? and is so is no one using it?

Threw this together for your Viewing Pleasure

Build

Rune of Strength is +5 damage with Might, sure you have might in there but ice runes give +7

Rune of Ogre, also popular is +4 is the rock dog really worth 3% damage boost?

Finally 6/6/2//0/0 should be really dang squishy but with all the evades and chill.. Have you ever seen someone try to attack while chilled?? Its Hilarious. Go fight Bookworm Bwikki if you doubt.

So is this Viable? Is Ice Rune on Par with ogre or Strength runes? I’m kinda Curious

The one weakness i see for now is lack of condi removal, condi rangers would eat this alive.

Yes ice runes give 7% but you will lose out on the lack of power stats it gives. Runes strength is only 5% but you get 125 power in return, which is a lot if youre using GS or LB

Zenos Osgorma.2936:

Same here, i found increasing the chill durations didn’t do much just the basic axe chill and a pet chill or frost trap , combined with only 1 cripple , like barrage or a sb cripple or sword cripple makes it more than enough at its basic amount.

you can add hydromancy sigil into the mix but its not worth focusing every thing on inreasing the chill durations as sticker said too the -50% on wars would mean your still better off using the Basic amount of chill and improving other aspects.

though in some way you could combo those basic chills using gs/ sword+axe (sigil of ice >maul aoe chill for 3secs) and snow wolf aoe chill for 4 secs , without even having to increase any duration and still keep it as a power based build.

Wait, how can maul be an aoe chill?

xDudisx.5914:

Nice topic. I was thinking in a celestial build for wvw mesmer

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAraRnsISja2pGmpB3aGB3gM1EQ9SGyJLdA+1AA-TlhIABAcEAQS53a6DgTJohq/8x+DkCgJlRA-w

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWnsISpa2oGmpB3aGB3gM5EaAq/xQOZJDwvA-TlhIABAcEAQS53a6CgTJohq/8x+DkCgJlRA-w

The biggest problem is that mesmer is not making much use of the healing power. Anet could give us a utility or trait or weapon skill that makes use of healing to make celstial mesmer viable.

I thought you were on a crusade in nerfing shatter mesmer?

I agree with Cufu, tried a chill build numerous times, it will not work for these reasons.

Highly useful against mesmers but Wars have dogged march, Engies have the response thing -50% all condi duration, they have leg mods, thieves can remove chill with withdraw (it doesnt really affect thieves that much for chill) Eles can remove chill when dodging.

And add the regular condi cleanses on it.

Good on paper, but a little bit too, not RNG. Having you pewpew on GS gets you might 1 might every 10 secs, 3 Every Gs2 untraited. 6 on swap, Runes of strength Duration and 1 more stack + might shatter so basically staying on greatsword gives you perma might. I think you didnt mention that it will only work in combat. so you can stack might OOC?

Helicity.3416:

MailMail.6534:

Well if you’re not playing top tier, then I see nothing wrong with using a condition build. There is more than just PU you know… You can hold your own against most classes, and you can definitely destroy thieves when on condition Mesmer.

It simply means you have to play a different playstyle and won’t be bursting as much. It also gives you room for support type utilities like Null Field.

Condi mesmer is very strong, but in WvW at least; you can only kill people who are silly or very brave. Everyone else (who isn’t a necro) can just casually walk off into the sunset and there’s nothing you can do to stop them.

+1 Helecity. And Feel free to correct me if I’m wrong, Most videos in WvW that i watch, I feel like “Dude do the players the OP face know how to play?” I always get that feeling.

CrazySushi.5748:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0fFB2FIpBM

this is a condition mesmer video i ran into, and after watching a fight vs a ranger underwater i decided to google ranger underwater op gw2 and got redirected to this thread, i saw your discussion above and i just want to show you guys this video clip the fight vs a ranger underwater starts @ 4:00

what armor was that mesmer wearing? that long skirt?

Arrow is ignoring me.

@Topic

Videos please!

Ross Biddle.2367:

StickerHappy.8052:

What is saucy?)

It’s the tasty stuff that goes on top of a delectable dish.

Sauce = Clothes Body= Delectable Dish! Makes Sense!

What is saucy?)

Notimik.3589:

How viable is the power shatter in www roaming or spvp? I seem only to be able to kill bear bow ranger with it now a days ( could of crouse be due to lack of skill. Even with zerker burst dont seem to be high enough to take out other classes.

It is really viable, I can burst anyone down. The trouble comes from thieves and condis. If you don’t have a team and your teammates are maffcabbages and the opposing team has thief that has you all game, goodluck.

But if you have a team and they can peel for you the better. When I am playing solo, i do not take portal (laugh at me if you want) and take cleanse, other people in solo don’t even know how to utilize portals, so yeah.

Ahm, Ross. Nice build.

Can’t wait to see you in game. <3

To Tell you frankly, You just need to get lucky, if not you die. That’s it. Generic Forum Tips won’t work if we are talking bout high rated thieves, (Toker, Caed, etc). Coming from shatter mesmer with those games, No thank you sir.

Tele 1 1 1 Tele f1 111 Stealth. YOu get blinded, can’t summon phants.

The absurd Number of Evades too, Evades my f1 burts, Mindstab, Gs2, etc.

Blink Decoy Port(Either or/ All) and a cleanse, all others are preference