Guild Wars 2

Staff. No explanation needed.

witcher.3197:

All of these spots are legit, these aren’t bugs or glitches, these things exist since Beta.

…

it’s not a terrain glitch, it’s just a less obvious thus more clever usage of terrain.

Said anyone who ever seriously exploited CoF or Arah or CM or HoTW or CoE or broke doors early in Forfire or used FGS or Tornado + Meteor or Portal to scale a keep wall, etc… etc.. etc..

Exploit is an exploit. if you cant reach it by jumping and you couldnt hit a player standing in that spot (NO LOS) its probably purely an exploit .

Yes Phase Retreat does some weird kitten, it used to blink you through the Floor every 6th time you used it but i would have called that a bug not a feature. If under that floor there was suddenly 20 chests that gave me 50g each i would have still called it a bug and Anet would have called it Exploiting as soon as i had made 500000g.

TY for the guide but i wouldn’t get too attached to these things, Pathing issues are ever changing and eventually Anet might actually fix them rendering these exploits Null and Void.

Yoh.8469:

Yeah, they need to update the tool tip description, it’s just wrong.
I think it used to work that way, but no longer.

far as i remember its always been 1 boon and 1 condition. the tool tip just makes it sound appealing so you try it.

whats this? the anet dev team said one thing and then decided to go another direction? thats unheard of and Outland- wait wheres the link to the manifesto from 4 years ago.. why hasn’t it been posted here yet?

but to point out, its not just Mesmer that Anet is pretty lost when it comes to direction, you can go look at the WvW stances and practices, or sPvP or Necro or Ele or Ranger or core PvE or Dungeons or kind of anything that isn’t Living Story…

I’m sure theres some info somewhere someone’s already written up about this.

But anyway, Cele stats

Why they work on Guardians and Elementalists:

these two classes are very rounded already, low health pools, access to healing cc conditions and straight dps in fairly equal measures just on weapon skills alone. They can still spec into One type of thing to do and do it very well but it alienates other parts of their skills making them less effective.

Why Cele isnt as good on others.

Other classes arent as rounded and often allow very easily for you to choose between DPS or CC or conditions and not have to worry/be forced not to worry about having skills that your stats dont cater to. Warriors are a poor example but they clearly have a CC set, a Condition set and a DPS set of weapons to choose from (no healing set tho).

Why cele is pretty bad for mesmers.

Mesmers have to, due to mechanics and traits and weapon set up, specialize in one or two things only. Yes you can boost all your stats but ultimately this means you have a lot of much less effective choices some of which you may never use given the situation you end up in. as a mesmer this means needing to be “carried” as our basic (non phantasm and non shatter spike) damage is one of the lowest in the game across many of our weapons.

Cele can look pretty good for PU builds but it ultimately doesnt offer just the raw Condition damage boost you need for your short duration conditions to really hit home.

to use the old saying

“A Jack of all trades, is a Master of None”

as the game currently stands, Mesmers cant really afford to not be a Master at something in their build. Not at the high ends of things.

You can of course, still run Cele in open world PvE and never run into trouble, but you can also do the same thing naked so its your call.

TLDR

Its not the best choice, but if you really want to try it, god speed and have fun experimenting.

to answer the question, No, probably not, maybe once just to try it and be assured that it is, indeed, as underwhelming and disappointing as i expect it to be..

i give it another year before anet mentions potentially reworking Mimic yet again.

PU nerf, not a huge nerf.

DD, also not a huge nerf unless we count Warriors and Thieves getting a free pass due to evades/invuln uptime. its hard to dodge / blind the Mesmer while cleaving clones or phantasms. Anets favorite children often get this treatment tho..

Disappointing at the bleed stack and duration time loss.

But really people IE is not a buff, its a bug fix. they are different things entirely. lets not use the incorrect terminology and assign some type of praise to something that is long overdue and hasn’t been correctly accounted for in any builds.

just a thought on the IE Fix, since it hasn’t been present (working to be used) in a Condition build, it may actually require a buff to clone conditions/boons or a similar heavy handed nerf.

Edit:

afterthought, Totally called the PU nerf ahead of time to appease the QQ over the scepter torment Molehill Mountain. didnt think it was coming this patch tho, thought we’d get at least another 9 month run before it showed up.

scepter AA chain takes 3.9s

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

SlimChance.6593:

[EDIT]
The staff however takes a little longer to generate clones. Staff generates a clone on the #2 skill – Phase Retreat and it has a 10 second cooldown.

10s cd base

to pick up IE you need 4 points in illusions

3 points into illusions is IC

Phase retreat now has roughly a 6s CD

add in 4 to Chaos for Chaotic Damping

Phase Retreat now takes only 4 seconds to recharge

thats .1s longer than the scepter AA chain

Staff can generate clones just as quickly, when its built for. and its not hard to build for it and drop BI or MoA.

Fay.2357:

Hi there, I’ll just toss you this link: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-How-To-Mesmer-in-Dungeons/page/4#post4316430

Basically, you’re going in the absolutely wrong direction. If you’re building for PvE, anything that isn’t damage is a waste. No tanky builds are brought in PvE groups, because they’re simply not necessary (No, guardians don’t build tanky either). If you don’t feel comfortable running 100% glass cannon in PvE, then you can add pieces of knights/cavaliers to your build until you feel safer.

as blunt as everyone is going to be here, they often dont really mention a few things.

#1
Swords are not made to make you tank, they are made to let you get in and then run/blink out of a fight after doing what you needed to do. Light Armor+Lower Health Pool + Melee – CC conditions / Boons applied = no tanking for extended periods of time.

Swords don’t proc blinds like a guards and we dont have the HP/Armor of a warrior, they apply vuln, strip boons, provide a short evade and a block. thats just enough to teleport in, hit and then run while blocking PvE wise.

#2
Mesmers arent good passive support. The way the class is set up at this time, added to the lay out of traits along with bugs and limitations from mechanics, mesmers are much better at DPS support. Staff offers almost exclusively offensive boons, same with GS. Torch is basically our “Defensive” weapon with both stealth and a blind.

Your group gets more out of you if you can build for DPS and support/Boost their DPS as well.

#3

Chaos Armor kinda sucks for PvE. unless you can get it on your entire group or run into a situation where you are getting hit a lot but only for small amounts, its a neat thing to have but it isnt what is going to turn the tide of a battle.

Regen from Phantasms goes a lot further than just building for glamours to spend them to get CA to hope you get hit but not by the 1HKO and that when you get hit you get a good condition/boon from it.

30s of regen constantly refreshing and maxing out… or.. maybe 4s of regen or 5s of prot every other minute? your choice.

This is a hotfix from the Betas… not the public betas either.

TC used to stack swiftness each time a player passed through it

that meant you could stack about 5 or 6 minutes of swiftness on a zerg with 1 or two curtains by just having everyone run back and forth through the curtain.

Anet claimed they would fix this fully at a later date..

that was more than two years ago

anet also had a similar hot fixed placed on shatters (that nice global CD they have) and promised a real fix “soon” when “they had time and figured out the core of the problem”

and imo this is far from the last fix the class needs. there’s still a small mountain of bugs and issues in traits and utility skills alone…

warriorjrd.8695:

One of the strongest conditions in game on an AA? One of the strongest conditions in game on your clones AA?

Torment, strongest condition in game?

Torment base = 32 (64 while moving) +3.75 per stack per second

hmm…

Bleeding (42.5 tick + 5 per stack per second)
Poison (84 tick + 10 per Second)
Fear (302 tick + 25 per second)
Burning (328 tick + 25 per second)

would like to say hi?

Staff + IE is looking a lot more OP than 1 to 2 stacks of torment on the slowest AA chain our class has to me, but maybe i’m just not blowing the whole thing out of proportion, idk…

just an FYI for the QQ storm

How to Calculate Torment Damage!

(0.0375 * Condition Damage) + (0.375 * Level) + 1.875 per stack per second
(0.0375 * Condition Damage) + 31.875 per stack per second at level 80

and for Comparison, the most ever present condition in game.. Bleeding!

(0.05 * Condition Damage) + (0.5 * Level) + 2.5 per stack per second
(0.05 * Condition Damage) + 42.5 per stack per second at level 80

So, why all the QQ over Torment on AA?

Scepter 1 applies 2s of 1 stack
Auto chain pauses for 1/2 s for Chain #2
2 applies 2s of Torment

Lets pause for a moment, if you did get hit by both of these that means you currently have 2 stacks of torment on you

Auto chain pauses for 1s, yes 1 full second cast time on this attack.

Pause again, you now have 1 stack of torment with 1s remaining on it.

3 fires off. if it hits it generates a clone. if it misses then no clone and we’re back to step 1

Lets say the clone was generated

1/2s cast time on AA Chian #1. you likely do not have any torment on you anymore or maybe slightly less than 1/2s of 1 stack.

Clone also has a 1/2s cast time. but when it hits it only applies 1s of torment.

Both attacks hit you, oh dear, you now have 2 stacks of confusion,

Clone now cannot attack due to mechanics for 1 full second
AA Chain #2 now takes 1/2s to charge up

etc etc…

lets say you end up somehow fighting a mesmer with 3 clones up still only doing AA and using no other skills.

each clone can only apply 1s of torment and then must wait 1s to attack again. thats how clones work btw.. that means if all three clones hit at once thats 3 stacks of Torment for 1s also known as 1 tick or damage application.

The playre can only ever himself/herself keep a maximum of 2 stacks of torment roughly every 3 seconds (scpeter AA chain takes 3.9 seconds to cycle through completely, its the SLOWEST AA CHAIN IN THE GAME)

The max torment damage you can take from AA clones + AA mesmer is 5 stacks for 1 tick.

But where does bleeding come in?

Here is where.

In the world of conditions Bleeding is can be considered as a 1

Burning is somewhat like a 3

Torment on an unmoving target is a .75
and on a moving target is a 1.50

Lets calculate bleed and torm at 1 stack with 0 for condition damage at level 80

Torment
Unmoving = 32per tick
Moving = 64 per Tick

Bleeding
Constant = 42.5 per tick

Now, to explain further, Conditions only gain serious footing when stacks appear and can be held for long durations. Realistically you are going to dodge/block/evade or just plain cause a miss on more than a few of the AA attacks that come in projectile form, regardless of class. We can also assume that either on purpose or by accident, provided you play any of the 6 classes that come with Cleave / AoE attacks, you will be murdering clones left and right.

Torment is not going to get very many stacks and if it does, not for very long in this case.

Bleeding on the other hand often comes with 3 4 5 6 7 etc.. durations for almost any of its applications and its extremely easy to apply for any class. Its easy to stack up and easy to quickly restack when removed.
TL;DR

You as a player will have to worry more about Bleeding from Clone AA’s caused by Sharper Images (a trait mesmers have) than you will torment. If anything, cry about IE finally working with Staff and ask to nerf that, its going ot be hitting you a hell of a lot harder.

TY <3

So i just finished watching the update.

Good things that will help mesmers spread out and have a few more options for utilities

Mantra AoE’s

… uhm thats kinda it.

Scepter gaining Torment on AA + Clones AA will quickly push PU into the cross hairs of the OP nerf hammer, more so than it already is. Not saying its a bad change but i still wont be picking up a scepter.

IE, something i already use on staff will finally be nice to have for condition spam/support builds.

MtD isnt getting much for a buff, only a +2s duration. doesnt help the GM trait gain much if any ground on IP.

iLeap – bout time but I wonder if it will actually work as well as we hope/want it to. i’m expecting a lot of bugs on this one and a return to getting stuck in the floor/wall/wtfwhereamitheceiling?

iWarden – Fixed again.. apparently.. tho they didnt actually show it working.

Mimic, on a 30s Recharge (untrained i would think?) means anet increased the CD on the skill. it also seems to only copy remaining durations on the target so i called it on this one, throw it out and never use again is how i feel atm.

TD- nice change, still crippled but the terrible internal CD, wont be taking this one unless someone can figure out how to create a Phant build that uses 30 into dueling and at least 15 in Illusions.. sounds awful already.

on the end note i’m glad for some of the other changes tho they seem so minor and confusedly slapped in. Still no recognition that Mesmers need TLC on the clone/Phant mechanic and just how badly it interacts with a lot of the more “social” (Zergs) or competitive (DPS Problems) aspects of the game when it cant be/isnt brought into play.

Ultimately i’m mildly interested in how this will turn out but having been burned so often in the last 2 years, still unwilling to get excited or hopeful as i wait to see what actually makes it in, what is changed before then, and what ends up Broken on arrival and either requires a hot fix to save some warrior egos 3 days in or another 15 month wait for another shot at bug fixes.

Edit- MoD is only getting a 140? radius on its aoe, thats half the radius of a shatter aoe..?

Edit2: Rewatched – MoP = 240 AoE / 5 target
MoD = 180 AoE / 5 Target limit.

Shatter AoE = 240

MindStab AoE (Current) = 120

So you can kinda think of MoD’s new AoE as slightly larger than the green circle for GS 3. Hope that helps anyone planning on huge Daze party bombs limit their expectations realistically.

I think the on hit confusion is the one that will proc once. The on interrupt should be per unique target at least that’s how I remember it working. That was before I swapped rune sets a few weeks after the April poo patch

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Post-Your-Build-Thread/first

that thread is a good place to start for builds, some of which are a bit out dated but meh..

as far as your build goes, its a fairly basic Phantasm type of build. Ok for PvE but it falls apart quickly in PvP when you fight someone who knows how to deal with a mesmer.

the current tPvP build is a basic Shatter build

4/4/0/0/6 bring Blink/ Portal and something else, usually Nullfield or the Mantra you have or Mirror images.

If thats not your style you could also try a PU build which is the “tankier” OP option

If you want to try your own builds out then i would suggest you find a GM trait you like and build around that, not bringing a GM to a fight as a Mesmer is basicly showing up naked; the way the class is designed and set up kinda makes it that way.

Best options are:

Illusionary Persona – Creates a shatter on you basically giving you a 4th shatter and a huge boost in burst damage. Used in shatter builds because it doesnt fit in with anything else.

Chaotic Interruption – Imob on interrupts makes locking someone up a bit more effective, mostly used in “lockdown” builds but these vary and can be hard to get a hold on if you arent 100% sure of CD’s and other class/race skill animations mean.

Prismatic Understanding – Invis kitten the kitten out and grab a chunk of defensive boons. leads to tankier builds that are more passive and requires a lower time investment to get used to. These also mostly hinge on letting your foes kill themselves while you kitten about untargetable and safe from pressure.

Confounding Suggestions – not as popular but also falls into Lockdown styled builds, adds a chance for dazes to become stuns (50%).

Things i wouldnt recommend as of the current meta

Running Reflect on Focus – iWarden is terribly unreliable and most meta builds dont use projectiles or can easily work around your brief reflect times

any GM trait in the inspiration line..

Any GM trait in the Dueling Line (PvE builds excluded for mantra trait)

2/3 of the Domination GM traits, Power block looks interesting but cant seem to find its footing at this time.

PS. Mesmer is not really anyone’s first choice for tPvP and is often pushed to “roaming” or “viel/portal” duty in WvW. if you can find a team willing to work around you being a mesmer and adapt their play to having you there then more power to you, if not i would suggest you grab your thief for tPvP, everyone loves having atleast 1 on their team.

TLDR

Welcome, search the forums for the current builds/look at others builds and success rates. Good luck.

if you would like to play the class that has the highest burst potentials

stay on warrior

if you would like to play the class with the most stealth

stay on warrior anyway.

Its probably better for you to be bored on your “OP” Warrior than frustrated and sad on any other class.

I’m not thrilled about it and i’m going to speculate in my more realistic and blunt nature as usual.

consider Anet keeps the animation and channel and CD

you now have a channeled skill that takes 4s to copy boons with a minimum of 20s to reuse.

the average boon application lasts for about 5s

you just stole x boons for their remaining duration

yay 3 or 2s of all the boons, but you cant spam apply them like your target does.

Anet removes the channel keeps the CD

4s/5s of all the boons.. you still cant spam apply these

Anet keeps the secondary (echo) to extend boons copied.

they wont make it very long, maybe X 1/2 Remaining Duration, to keep it balanced.

this would be a bit better but why would you bring Mimic to a fight when Passive/Non boon related builds are what are the most effective? Mimic probably doesnt copy that Signet of healing.

Anet shortens the CD

Rest of the community kittenes about how Mesmers have too much access to boons/ Mimic is later nerfed.

Anet removes the Block

Mimic is now AC without Condition removal, or punishment.

…..

Copying Boons is a neat idea on paper, in practice i’m fairly sure it’ll quickly lead to
“woo i got all his boons! oh wait that doesn’t help, he still has all his boons too… and my build cant strip them now..”

Mimic doesn’t fit into Power builds far as i can fathom, Shatter doesn’t leave room for it in the utility bar.

PU doesnt leave much room for it either.

Phantasm builds maybe? but that’s mostly for PvE where enemies dont have much in the way of Boons to copy…

TLDR

Its a underused skill due to functionality that’s being changed to a new underused skill due to functionality…

" For this update, we’re looking at improving "

Anet is taking a look.

this does not mean
“We have changed and it is implemented and working correctly already”

Looking means planning, no promises, to try some things.

some of those things may fall flat on their face or be broken or may not even make it at all.

“multiple”

Multiple – meaning any number greater than 1.

some of the new grandmaster traits and improved upon their original implementation

Some does not mean All. i’ll hedge my bets that Some means Disruptors Sustainment and the dueling waste of space trait. the others are not being touched.

I’ll also hedge my bets that there will only be 2 or 3 “changes” made that are not already listed above.

Anet doesn’t understand Mesmers and can’t fix them short of pulling the plug and recoding and redoing the entire class.

The above would require a lot of effort and money

its easier to let mesmers rot, a few players will leave but most will reroll and keep spending money/playing.

Moa

ruins an MM’s day every single time.

they often don’t even have a dodge and just have to take it.

Hayashi.3416:

Different weaponspecs have different levels of skill required, and different max potentials.

Mesmers’ greatest weakness is AoE conditioning, and they’re strongest against direct melee attackers.

Not a lot of skill required to learn what each skill does and its not a hard transition from thief.

Also as far as Mesmers not relying on Twitch reflexes? I dare you to play a mesmer with even a half second of lag, see just how much timing really matters for you to matter in a fight.

Mesmers greatest weakness’ is

Conditions
AoE’s
Stealth
Sustained DPS
Burst DPS

We don’t hold up very well to a lot of things that others can get away with without resorting to things like PU. yes a Mesmer in a 1v1 has a good chance of winning, but a Mesmer vs a Thief is almost a guaranteed loss, vs a guardian or necro it depends on the build, vs a CC spamming Warrior its all about twitch reflexes and who got the drop on who as to who is going to win.

Mesmers are really only Strongest against New/dumb players who actually get confused by the clones.

Mesmer builds ultimately all break down into the same two categories at the end of it all

1. Shatter

2. Non-shatter

Shatter you will be using F1-F4 for damage or quick buffs

Non-Shatter you will be all but ignoring that you have a class mechanic unless kitten hits the fan and you need to hit F4.

Everything else is situational as to what will work and what wont/ when to do what and when not to. It needs to be learned from Play but its not as hard to learn as a few mesmers want to believe that it is..

Fay.2357:

Uhm….no? I don’t think having a viable trait is the definition of being god of all you survey. That title is going to have to go to the few hours of kami-mesmers.

i think the ability to bypass

Stability
and
Defiance

and put

Ressing
and
Finishers

all on CD timers with an interrupt is a bit more than a Viable trait.

staff isnt a bad weapon specially if you can get even a little condition damage behind it.

no you dont need full condition gear to max it to make it hit hard

no it doesnt instantly do 2k dmg from its auto attack

its a slow wind up weapon that supplies better defense and sustained pressure and damage in mid/close range fights than a GS can.

I use staff over 80% of the time on my mesmer and it hasnt really ever presented an issue in any game mode for me.

I’d suggest you just experiment with it on your own in various situations rather than approaching the forums where Meta is most important and Min/Max is the only thing you should do..

also staff still half stun-breaks with 2 and 4 (can use while stunned/cd’ed)

I’ll sum up my thoughts on running Mesmer in WvW in a few words.

“WvW?”

“Hold on, lemme switch to my (insert Ele/Warrior/Guardian/Necro Here) and I’ll brt”

Sorry this was so stupid i had to log on to answer.

So.. you’re asking, what if Power Block happened?

What would I do this time around?

Not bother attempting to persuade the devs to keep it as useful as it is and just wait for the nerf while not bothering to test any new builds with it because tomorrow anything i discovered that was potentially meta changing is going to just be another sub par piece of kitten after a quick “hotfix”

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Power_Block

What did you do when that happened? or did you forget about it in the last few months of carrots on sticks to distract you?

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

I presume by global 2s CD you mean increase CD time, since 2s on skill usage are exactly what daze/stun does. However what you’re suggesting is a bit like chill (less RNG but somewhat less effective) in chaotic interruption.

all interrupts apply daze then?

lovely idea on the trait, if not totally abuse bound for wvw requiring a massive nerf on chaos storms CD timer yet again..

I’d like to point out a convo with pyro i had where in it was discussed about how interrupts alone are not the most useful thing to buff.

1. the game has no cast bars
2. the game has a LOT of tiny casting windows
2.1 – the big hitting/super important skills to interrupt often fall into the 2 catagory
3. race disparity makes reading animations on “casting” somewhere between painfully obvious (norn) or extremely hard (asura)

also interrupts don’t carry a huge punishment right now, yes 5s on nonuse on some skills can be horrid but if you are not a zerker facing off against a zerker then battles can last long enough to render interrupts negligible. key examples are against bunkers or high sustain classes like Warriors.

Personally I’d love to get some more interrupts and better access to them but they need to pack a bigger punch without needing to pick up a damage minor trait or a GM increased CD trait (which limit build potential).

Maybe have interrupts place a 2s global CD on all skill use? obviously Auto attacks and thieves should be immune for some reason, after all if you cant spam away the game is too hard and unfun… or something..

I’d rather see

Mesmer – Taken back to the drawing board. Complete class code and mechanics overhaul and redo.

I’d rather relearn my class than have all my bugs fixed and find out that my class still has 0 traction on the Warrior dominated hill of balance…

Carighan.6758:

vincecontix.1264:

So wrong in wvw and duels pu condi or hybrid is almost unbeatable.

1v1 fights are explicitly not a supported form of PvP. If you fight it, you accept you cannot and should not expect any balance.

hold on, lemme go find those notes again from dulfy..

….

ah here we go, JUNE 13th

Mesmer: Misdirection, crowd control, utility. Brought in for utility all the way from GW1.

Weakness: Conditions are hard to deal with. Lack of AoE – good single target damage but weak at AoE situation. (A bit weaker than where we want to be. We don’t want to make it too strong as we want you to bring Eles for ranged AoE damage). Mobility – not a ton of mobility due to lack of swiftness but they do have a lot of teleports such as portals. Mesmer can get there and back with portals but can’t go too far forward due to lack of swiftness. Low defense against high burst damage – maybe some small tweaks.
Official design: Access to key utility skills. Gain defense through stealth, evasion, misdirection. Strong 1v1 ranged damage dealer but weaker in sustained AoE damage. Weakness – conditional removal, sustainability if illusions are countered, AoE damage make it hard to sustain illusions.

Mesmer, Balanced only for 1v1 combat, strong at 1v1 combat, weak at team combat and also weak at 1v1 combat.

1v1, is apparently a supported thing, just very very kittenly supported…. for only 1 maybe 2 if you count thief? classes..

if you would like to boon share and view that as being your sole source of “group support” then just pick up the signet and hope your allies give you good boons to share with your allies..

otherwise if you want to run actual support then be prepared to run veil and null field and bring TW or MI and swap for portals… etc..

in WvW if you run Shatter, be prepared to be useless if you run into a larger group when it comes to damage. also you’ll die from splash damage a lot quicker than you want to..

in WvW if you run PU, be prepared to also be kinda pointless if you hit a zerg but at least you wont die by someones luck/accident.

in WvW if you run Phants enjoy never ever being able to support/do damage in a group this size.

If you want a more viable class that has multiple viable options outside of 1v1 dueling (which everyone seems to thing the game is not balanced around and yet that’s the only thing Mesmer’s are balanced to do) for larger team WvW, I’d drop Mesmer and grab almost anything else.

I almost always take my Guard into WvW and have a much better time of things regardless of what build I use..

Short more honest answer. No

Official answer.. when it’s ready..

Weirdly i went in a spiral with mesmer after i hit 80.

first i tried a phant type of set up

then i realized that their AI is kitten and they die too quickly

So i tried to make a build that didnt have to use/rely as much on … what i now consider.. the crippling and build limit defining class mechanic.

Never really found one that could get me back some kind of old Gw1 mesmer trollishness

still havent..

Later, sighed and tried a Shatter build and found it to be the most effective for the class.

Played around with Interrupt builds before it was cool and Flavor, left them shortly afterwards.

Tried conditions, gave up on that

tried PU condition later, and hated the playstyle

Moved back to Shatter

Stayed at Shatter

Added some condition damage

currently kitten ing around with MtD only for “fun” and still grab a zerk/pure shatter build for sPvP when i feel like giving a kitten and being helpful to my pug/team.

Something to take note of is the change in games since WoW launched with the core group it had vs the newer games with the newer core of younger gamers.

Younger gamers are more comfortable and used to games like Mine craft or Base Gw2. No real directions just a basic set of kitten they can do and then you let them loose and tell them to figure it out and make it up as they go.

Mobile games are also moving in this direction as well.

WoW is a much more “structured” experiance and probably not the best bet but…

anyway, take into account other games you child plays and enjoys, what are they like and how to they play out?

Slap her into a free trail of WoW and then maybe let her loose on a new toon on your Gw2 account. let her make a choice and then let her sit on it for a day or whatever before she makes a final choice for you to spend money on.

I would say that once you learn how to dodge, Gw2 is more friendly to random solo BS than WoW is..

but maybe just go try Wildstar instead.. its Gw2 with a WoW sub and a kitten ton more content.

while i wouldnt say they are OP, as someone who mains a profession that doesnt get a lot of AOE or piercing attacks, an MM necro is annoying as all kitten to fight.

also the classy “terrormancer” isnt much fun to fight either with so little condition cleansing.

as for your other builds, yeah.. its fun being bottom of the barrel with only 1 or 2 builds that aren’t terribly effective…

at least you guys get to have “fun” in WvW zergs tho.

hate to say it, but, while i dont main a mesmer or engineer, the notes from the stream about the changes they wanted to tell us about dont seem dramatic… like at all..

ranger doesn’t look like its getting any game changers, its still a class bound to its pet and handicapped for damage.

Engi’s new heal is getting a buff and their overtly annoying ability to CC the kitten out of anything that lacks a 20s stability is still left entirely intact.

I dont see anything meta shaking so far for PvE or WvW or sPvP and my hopes arent high that we will until maybe 2016? 2020 at the latest…’

As for what mesmers will get… Maybe some promised bug fixes that won’t show up or need atleast 5 to 7 patches to actually take effect and make it into the game… a handful of new bugs, a return of some old bugs, a sorry from anet 2 months later

oh and maybe a nerf to PU to bring its effectiveness back into line with the rest of the class.

What i don’t expect and will be mildly surprised if it pops up, a proposed rework of the class and its mechanics and an admittance to kittening up creating a class so tied up in half baked AI and balanced only for 1v1 combat.

and…

I retain the ability to edit this post tomorrow when I am less drunk and grumpy..

Bumping these to remind those who are complaining Now and throwing out “ideas” now what was already attempted and ultimately ignored.

Want to try and be constructive this time around?

Just wanted to bump these to remind all the complaining mesmers what was attempted and ignored, you wanna try doing something constructive this time?

Open world PvE makes anything “viable”

you can run around with just a scepter, naked, with no traits and still get through the majority of Orr just fine.

As far as your build right now. I personally would suggest you drop the 2 in Inspiration for something else. Medic’s Feedback is a cool gimmick but there are better and more useful traits out there.. like IP or that Mantra dmg % increase one.. or .. uhm.. uh.. idk..

If you want most optimal without personal flavor look at those builds posted above.

only able to briefly skim through it here but it looks like you did a fair amount of work on this.

Some good ideas in there that Anet could have maybe used 4 years ago when they were still hammering out classes but idk how much they can do with them these days.

While i cant comment specifically on any one thing in there, i will ask if you considered all or any of this against the limitations of the Core combat and its various add ons. also against the balance and limitations of the other classes.

As badly as the game probably needs it, Anet, or any company/dev does not ever want to admit or fold to the fact that they should/need to go back to the drawing board and start from scratch. They, in this case, would rather focus and expand on the LS sector and hope it distracts the players enough and keeps them interested and in game. its easier and more cost efficient from a business stand point to do this rather than rehash and rebuild good will from players and renew interest from the hardcore crowd.

not saying you should give up, just don’t expect this to reach the old men at the round table at NCSoft who control the money hose.

I expect to be taking a very very long vacation from Gw2 depending on how it appears LS2 and the core game updates are handled.

I also expect that mesmer will be in the “last to be shown” category with either Thieves or Warriors in this “new” balance preview format…

and that the forums will go into an uproar and rage based on both mesmer and warrior “changes” that are potentially coming…

PS i say potentially because the track record between what is said/promised/suggested vs what is delivered is laughable to say the least.

5 patches to fix the CD bug on Arcane thievery anyone?

I confess that the Mesmer NPC’s are more useful, powerful, and less buggy than mine.

specifically Countess Anise, Kasmeer and queen jennah..

PS, not even the Edge of Destiny Jennah, the Personal story version that just stands there…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7alknpMtdqxUNMrNCuBZyJECU/jhcySGgfB-TZBBwAAeIAC3fIcZgJXAgMHBAA

This is the set up i’ve had the most success on.

Fury on Phants allows iDuel to stack up some bleeds before you blow it up

IE also applies to pistol 5 for some extra mayhem in group fights plus the Stun helps land shatters.

I threw in the chill Sigil for some extra condition trolling, it can throw off some rotations or atleast slow an opponent down.

Sigil of Doom to throw in poison to screw with heal spammers and cover it with confusion/torment

Its very much a support/troll build. I dont recommend attempting to Solo cap far or even Mid. Extremely strong against a lot of classes and builds in a 1v1 but it falls apart quickly in a 2v1 or against anyone who has Slow attacks, long attack chains, doesn’t need to move much, has passive and mass/spam condition clears.

If CD isnt your thing i would also recommend BI or MoA for the chaos master trait, both are solid choices and can really screw with some classes.

Manipulation Range increase is also a good option if you dont take Phant Fury in dueling.

As I stated last night while barely awake.. This type of build suffers from the same issues a Spike Shatter build does. Mostly ending up with all but 20 trait points tied up to play with.

It means thieves are an issue so if you get competitive you need someone to run with to save your kitten and really help the build work.

Limited Burst on this build means any fight you start or end up in, your goal is to make it quickly tilt in your favor and then draw it out. Only stupid players on the right classes (D/D ele’s specifically) will manage to spam/run themselves to death in a few seconds.

Hambows are an issue.. but they’re pretty much an issue for any build if you aren’t ready for them.

Did i mention Thieves?

Anyway, It can be a fun build but dont expect to ever get a ton of mileage off of it in the grand scheme of things. It doesn’t fill any roles that arent already filled in the competitive scene and it’s not a zerg mower for WvW. It doesn’t hit as hard as a typical IP shatter build and its not as cheese as PU.

Play it for fun, i dont recommend trying to force Maim into the Meta.. Its just not going to work in the game as it is right now.

been running this type of build for over a month off and on.

It can work in PvP and “small duels” in WvW.

Works just fine in PvE even dungeons if you want.
My general Set up.

Staff + Scepter / X

0/20/20/0/30

Staff + IE = more conditions = more dot = more boons (only from your auto attack but at least its better than some of the other options for Master teir)

DE – must have for any sort of torment pressure.

Mirror Images – See DE

Problems the build has.

Scepter doesn’t hit very hard and its a slow and easy to interrupt / screw up the auto chain.

Confusion is neutered as kitten in WvW and PvP. (i can get 6-10k dmg from confusion stacks in PvE which equates to maybe 2k with some luck in PvP with optimal gear)

Food in WvW … its an issue for any condition build.

Staff – doesnt hit very hard and but gets the most mileage out of a condition / hybrid build

Slow to start hard to keep going – Condition clears suck and can halt your dps.

Dont expect to bunker, you’ll almost always need a buddy in sPvP to let this build have its full effect.

Warriors – Cleansing Ire is an issue for this set up in a huge way.

Daniel Handler.4816:

Okay but imagine the situation where one Mesmer is moving through a zerg, and getting random aoe. This produces a Xv1 situation without the actual targeting of Xv1. Added is the fact that we can share our boons. Guardians are good but they can’t give perma protection/retal/regen to five people around them.

idk if a single tiny aoe boon share every 36 seconds could be considered Perma but.. i mean if you know a way to get that much prot and retal and regen when the game seems to cap at 25 seconds.. please.. let me know.

Curunen.8729:

In all seriousness what we do need is ranged direct damage main hand. I don’t care if that is a dagger or a pistol or something else altogher – scepter is just not good enough at direct damage. The greatsword is great, but it does become a bit monotonous.

Would also be nice to have more mainhand melee options – seeing how mainhand sword has been well and truly kittened over the last year or so.

Fans of course thematically fit (as it’s in the confounded class portrait), although I’m not sure whether they should be an entirely new weapon or simply skins able to be used on a focus. If fans were added, I would almost certainly use sword+fan or similar.

+1 for fans but can i get those without a phant or clone skill and can i get them to deal 2x the damage of any other weapon set we have?

also can i get a new class mechanic and remove all our clones and phants to utility status… and then buff all our other weapon damages and uses to compensate for what the devs considered to be a good idea being resigned to where it belonged all along?

Demonts.4593:

Now there are always those people who say “well the LS is free” but you have to take into consideration that the original Guild Wars didn’t have many micro transactions (Gem Store).

except Gw1 did have a cash shop and micro transactions..

for costumes
skill unlocks
content unlocks
and in-game items.

no it wasn’t on the bloated what scale that Gw2 adopted but it was there.

I see this arguement a lot lately when it comes to , typically, newer players or newer gamers telling others that “everything is kay, stop qqing bro”.

Some people are losing intreset and patience with the current LS system of Trickle content and it hinders their ability to enjoy the game. Some people want a full expansion and are fully aware what that means for the short game and what it means for bugs and issues when something like that hits..

Arguing against this by stating “in order to get what you want and enjoy the game more, you should not play the game” is not a valid argument.

Lets look at what Game means

game
g?m/
noun
noun: game; plural noun: games

1.
a form of play or sport, especially a competitive one played according to rules and decided by skill, strength, or luck.
synonyms: pastime, diversion, entertainment, amusement, distraction, divertissement, recreation, sport, activity

Games by definition and by association with similar terms are meant to be Played, participated in for enjoyment. In order to enjoy a game you should never have to tell or ask someone to simply not be a part of it in order to enjoy it. That, good people, is exactly the opposite of what Games are meant to provide.

People are in full right to have an opinion and feelings about the things they do in their every day lives. If that thing happens to be a Game and they feel the direction it is being taken is counter to their enjoyment they have full right to voice that opinion.

If you do not agree then you also have full right to argue against that opinion with your own but in order to be and remain successful the argument cannot devolve into “well don’t play then”. You might have to submit that you did not or do not have the full picture and that YOU, on either side, might just be…

well..

Wrong.

PS. GW2 needs as much effort its gotten on the LS put back into expanding the core aspects of the game and further iterating on aspects of the game that have been slowly proven to not work by the community it contains..

I think its because the old class became impossible to translate into Gw2 when Anet Chose to Remove Enchantments and Hex’s..

and cast bars..

and decent visible animations..

and CC..

and the trinity..

and punishment for poor play…

.. GG..

Except Protection means 33% reduced damage.. and if 5 people are beating the crap out of you..

lets say they all only do 100 dmg each per second but you only have 900 health

100 reduced by 33%

66 damage * 5 = 330

330 * 5 = 1650

You’re still dead, boon stacking did not matter.

No, The only place that CA can be really abused to gain a very serious upper hand is in 3v3 / 2v2 / 1v1 combat.. mostly 1v1 where an attacker can quickly deal 3 to 7 hits per second. CA was useful in zergs for mass boon/punishment for attackers but only when applied in mass.

Anet, Balancing one class around 1v1 and the rest around group combat since 2012…