Guild Wars 2

It actually is highly repeatable, for the example above on the final conclusion this process can be repeated with the Reward system or on the other dungeon / dungeons to remove a lot of guess work that goes into decisions about how or what to change.

It’s just important to remain as arbitrary as possible.

We’re now reaching the final stages and issues should now be much more obvious and easy to spot, many of them may have been obvious from the get go but new ones that may not have been considered may also begin to pop up. Some of those new issues may pertain or be tied to other issues. While not advised, it may be that you need to go back a step and add further information into your list/map to capture everything properly. Now, it’s time to put all of these together. This is the stage where we can point out what we feel are issues but should still refrain from Solution discussion. Things will get more detailed on our list/map now , So lets get down to the example. Still on the dungeon it may look something like this.

Step 1: Players have difficulty forming parties for current dungeon
Step 5: Players exploit boss to speed up encounter/ Players find too challenging when not exploited/ Players Skip due to high risk with little reward/

This above should note the Issue and a potential short blurb as to Why it is occurring. We look back to step one, our goals of Wants/Don’t Wants to provide the blurbs behind the actions. Player Skips is an Issue, it is currently breaking the Not Want of Trivialization as well as the want of Challenge And Motivation.

Now is the final Step, Take all of your issues and list them out. Preferably on a separate area or list. We’re going to begin Prioritizing and combining them under umbrellas with our goals that we began with. You may have a lot of duplicates or things that are happening due to the same issue types, these are the things you want to funnel together as they can often all be solved as a unit by fixing one issue which is more effective that treating them as separate things. Ultimately you should end up with something looking a little bit similar to ….

Players Skip Content:
Players Abuse Exploits:
Players cannot locate parties for content:
Players Find Content not challenging:
Players avoid Dungeon:

Now, we bring in the original goals and start asking Why? We’ll be asking Why a lot until we can find what the core issues are. It may turn out that you can further combine some of these issues are you go, for example from the above ^ “Players Cannot locate Parties” is directly linked to “Players Avoid Dungeon” and will contain a shared core issue and are not two separate issues.

Let’s continue off those two to the final product, without much thought when asking “Why cant players find parties?” you could easily say that “well, no one does it.” When asking “Why don’t players do this dungeon?” it’s easy to throw it back as say “Because they cannot find a group.” But that’s ultimately unhelpful. By searching our goals and Map, we look at the final issues and try to look at them from a different perspective. Let’s walk through the process rather quickly…

We ask “Why Do players avoid this dungeon?” we can check the consensus to see what the underlying issue is. If the dungeon is much more difficult than others, then players may avoid it. “But why would players stray away from simply difficult content?” Players may see it as too challenging and cannot complete it, or the reward for the time investment does not feel sufficient to the majority of the population. We then ask “Why does the Risk Reward not seem sufficient?” ,and may ultimately arrive at the fact that other dungeons provide much less of a challenge, but the same reward level.
This is the bottom line core issue behind players being unable to play the content which was caused by a lack of interest, caused by the lack of MOTIVATION to work harder for the same reward that others can receive with much less effort. And attention can be turned in this direction rather than in another.

A suggested fix may be to lower the rewards for the other dungeon, or to significantly raise those of the current or a combination. This can be combined with other fixes to get a dungeon back up to where it should be.

TL;DR
There isn’t one, go back to the top and learn you a book. :P

Note: I may use the above later this weekend to fully show how this can work and involve the forums and community here to get it done. Suggestions on topics would be appreciated and any questions can be posted below. I’ll do my best to answer them

Ciao, Hope this was at least informative <3

Returning to the process, take a step back and look at your gathered information from the user base, are you missing anything in your original map that should be added? Is there possible added steps or consequences you never considered or accounted for? Bear in mind that you still need to maintain somewhat high level and basic. So let’s return to our example and add and remove one or two things.

1. Player enters dungeon
2. Player experiences short narrative to guide them
3. Player Continues into dungeon and has first encounter
4. Player Continues and experiences another short narrative
5. Player picks “path” to experience
6. Player begins selected path
7. First encounter
8. Second encounter
9. Third encounter
10. First Boss encounter
11. Fourth encounter
12. Second boss encounter
13. First Puzzle/Task
14. Final Boss
15. Player receives Reward
16. Player exits.
Ok, so now we have a much more accurate map of what takes place in our dungeon in its current state.

The change above would say that players are going off the intended path, perhaps for more loot or to remove a section of the path to increase the speed of completion. In this example we’ll say that Players are moving off the path to Kill an extra champion for loot and then skipping a later encounter because it does not provide loot or is not fun for them. Also note that we do not list the reasons why players are doing such things, we are only keeping it basic and telling it how it is.

So far so good, we’ve now got the basics covered. These are, What do we want? What is Happening Now; and the additional information gathered. Depending on the scope of the task, this may be the time to return to the subject in question yourself or with some of the users to take note of where the majority of time is being spent, how long each step takes as well as how quickly players can complete/abuse anything. It may also be necessary to take more exact notes on certain bugs or exploits as well as player base percentages that do things certain ways. Any information gathered here should be tacked into the appropriate slots or between slots to better show the pathway.

This would appear a bit like this

1. Player enters dungeon (5 players/ 4 minutes )
2. Player experiences short narrative to guide them (5 Players/ 0-5 minutes)
3. Player Continues into dungeon and has first encounter (5 Players/ 1-8 minutes)
4. If players Fail ^ 50% Exit dungeon, If players succeed See step 5.
5. Player Continues and experiences another short narrative (5 players/ 2 minutes)
6. Player picks “path” to experience (5 players 30seconds – 2 minutes)
7. If players Pick path One, see Step…

Obviously its grown a bit, and isn’t the full list, but we’re going to move on.

From the above we move to a lower level, reminding ourselves that we are not yet ready to start throwing out ideas or make suggestions on what to fix or what the core issues are. This level is somewhat like drawing out basic directions on a map. Point A leads to Point B.. We’ll continue with Dungeons just for the sake of ease. Here’s the continuation and example.

How do players interact with the dungeon?
Steps in order:
1. Player enters dungeon
2. Player experiences short narrative to guide them
3. Player Continues into dungeon and has first encounter
4. Player Continues and experiences another short narrative
5. Player picks “path” to experience
6. Player begins selected path
7. First encounter
8. Second encounter
9. First Boss encounter
10. Third encounter
11. Second boss encounter
12. First Puzzle/Task
13. Fourth encounter
14. Final Boss
15. Player receives Reward
16. Player exits.
Similar to the previous mission statement we keep things very brief and to the point. Details can lead on tangents and then to false answers as to what the real problems are. All we want is a basic map of how we think it SHOULD happen or how it was planned to happen.

From this point, with a partial map completed, its prudent to turn to those who do or partake on a regular bases, the thing that you are attempting to study. Collecting feed back, in this case from the players (both casual and hard core) is very important. The majority of the information you collect will not be added to the above list but should none the less be saved. Look for things that are inconsistent or fall under the negatives/avoids from the mission statement.
An example would be if you asked a player what they do at the first Boss in Ascalonian Catacombs (Spider Queen) and they tell you that sometimes they battle her in the open but most often they pull her to a location which makes the fight much much easier, this would be a red flag for Trivialization and should be noted to bring up later.

It’s been a long time…

I would like to begin this by saying that I do adore Gw2 and Arena Net for all their hard work and dedication into creating and maintaining this game that I escape to after hard days at work. I will attempt to keep this as compressed as possible but beware you have just stumbled onto a massive wall of text. Enjoy and excuse spelling and grammar mistakes, I don’t have 3 weeks to do these types of things.

Recently at work, I was part of a group meeting that had a specific goal to improve some processes at the site. We used a very interesting way of analyzing things and locating Issues and positives. I would like to share this process with all of you without actually posting the flow chart which I don’t believe I can do. This is mostly in the hope that it will greatly aid the CDI process and even aid the player base in formulating issues to present to the dev’s. This may even help the development team if they do not already have something similar in place.

The concept is simple but in practice is a bit more difficult to successfully pull off. It’s extremely easy to simply point a finger without searching deeper and that’s what this process attempts to prevent. We’ll begin from the top and I will use examples which may or may not contain fabricated information.

We’ll start with a basic high level concept that will help to guide and define all discussion and decisions after. A simple mission statement and a short list will suffice, so here’s an example.

*Dungeons *
Dungeons are a piece of content that will strive to challenge players with new foes and puzzles they may not encounter anywhere else. Our goal is to provide difficult content that is rewarding upon completion however we would prefer to avoid alienating too much of the player base.

What do we need to successfully create a successful Dungeon:
1. Challenge
2. Motivation
3. Depth
4. Accessibility

What we need to avoid:
1. Alienation
2. Trivialization
3. Obtuse Mechanics

This is a semi workable outline to draw from, and a goal to set future discussions upon. Later when specific ideas come into play they can be molded inside of this “box” if you will, to attain the desired result. The take away here is that a dungeon should be a challenge and rewarding to players, it should provide motivation to attempt to play this content and succeed while maintaining some level of accessibility to the player base. A dungeon should not exclude players or drive them away with overly complex puzzles or battles, nor should it be trivialized thus making the rewards and motive much less impactfull. It also should not contain anything that does not mesh with the rest of the game that would punish or frustrate players for not instantly understanding such a strange and new concept.

Erukk.1408:

CureForLiving.5360:

Oh that’s interesting. Any particular in game dialog to support this?

It came from an interview.

http://www.guildwars2roleplayers.com/forum/m/2737230/viewthread/9902543-2rps-lore-interview-arenanet

Question One: Can Soundless permanently cut themselves from the dream, or is it a meditation they must upkeep?

Scott McGough: Most Soundless sylvari perform a specific kind of meditation or mental exercise in order to shut themselves off from the Dream, a technique developed and disseminated by one of the firstborn. They need to perform this exercise often and repeatedly to minimize the empathic bond they share with other awakened sylvari. This minimization can be virtually complete, but it can never be literally complete—in other words, a Soundless sylvari cannot ever fully disconnect from the Dream, but through sustained and repeated meditation, they can minimize the common day-to-day empathic connection they feel with other sylvari. If the Pale Tree needed to speak to a Soundless sylvari, she could, but it would take more effort on her part than it would to speak to a regular sylvari.

Off topic, but I can’t help picturing the Pale Tree going all Kool-Aid on some poor Soundless’ mental connection.

Pale Tree: OH YEAH!!

This would actually connect very well with the latest comment that scarlet opened a door in her mind that wasn’t meant to be opened.. Or in this case re opened. If the connection. To the pale tree was reversed and scarlet absorbed everything.. Etc etc.. See above.

On another note, after a brief discussion with a few people, the pale tree is capable of seeing into the possible future of tyria and of her children. We only need to look back at the personal story for proof here. If scarlet had seen her own future could her current actions be driven by those visions?

It’s been noted that scarlet was seeking to forge her own destiny and purpose and generally in any story, specially in Greek mythology, those that learn of their future will try to avoid their fate but often if not always end up bring it to fruition by their actions and attempts to change it.

It’s not the pretty and fun to fantasize about dragon or abandon stuff but it’s a grounded and we’ll proven story arch of many people which the writers may have looked to.

I still haven’t a clue what Scarlets end game is but since she has constructed a massive cannon that requires a lot of energy to use, she’s been studying let lines and found an intersection unDer LA, I would guess she is now drilling down to tap this energy for her weapon. What she will be firing it at I haven’t a clue…

Let me google something for you..

“Miasma Define”

….

mi·as·ma
m??azm?,m?-/
noun
literary
noun: miasma; plural noun: miasmas

1.
a highly unpleasant or unhealthy smell or vapor.
“a miasma of stale alcohol hung around him like marsh gas”
synonyms: stink, reek, stench, fetor, smell, fume, odor, whiff; More

^Miasma is a blanket term for any type of vapor/mist that is thought to be unhealthy or foul in nature. Back in times of old, in Europe, The Plague was thought to be caused by mist, dubbed Miasma, and infected those who breathed it in.

My mains (Mesmer) Name is a derivative of this. technically it’s not a real word but Miasmism has a fitting tone to it.

It’s also used in games a fair ammount so I don’t find the need to suddenly jump to lofty conclusions that this is strongly tied into lore. Infact, as stated previously in the LS, some of the Nightmare tower was recovered that was Immune to Jory’s antitoxin, we pondered then what scarlet might use it for. The toxic cloud over LA being exactly what she used it for.

If you want to try and force the Abaddon angle, you’d hafta try and pull the Nightmare Tower into this and attempt to say that it drew power from a dead god, via the Krait and Nightmare court.

This would also mean that the Krait Obelisks are of abaddon. the Pale tree is of abaddon.. etc etc..

Lore doesn’t support your arguments in this case i’m afraid.

Abaddon is dead, replaced and consumed by Kormir. Abaddons chosen race were the Margonites, which were locked away with him. any remaining Remanents of the God are inert and have lost their venom (see Mallyx from Gw1, the creature formed from the last remaining bits of the gods corrupted power). His temple lies at the sea bed, his priests corrupted by zhaitan.

Sorry, forgot one part.

Scarlet like all sylvari, not considering those that shut this down, is constantly connected to the pale tree. Meaning that Scarlet would have effectively taken the Pale Tree into omadd’s device with her, which is what ties the above together. It’s even noted in the blog post that the Pale Tree speaks to scarlet while she is inside the device.

Discuss and argue below.

Forgive any typos I’m just sending this from my phone.

I keep seeing a lot of very far flung theories about scarlet and what she saw on here so I hate put in my own theory. Beware it’s very simple.

What scarlet saw

It was mentioned last episode of the Los that anything that scarlet saw or encountered in oasis machine must have been taken in by her. This rules out dragons or God’s. So what could scarlet have seen beyond what a net already told us she saw so long ago. The pale tree and then the thorny vines choking it but what beyond that a net never said.

The pale tree provides the dream. A way for her children to be prepared for the world when they wake. This dream is filled with the collective pool of knowledge from all syllabi in the world. This includes everything the nightmare court gathers as well.

If we return. To Scarlets. Vision. The. In can be thought of as the nightmare court. The evil that the tree would prefer to keep from the dreamers.

So let’s say that while in the dream sylvari are like…. Sticks of Ram. The have information. Action pass through the . But only retain so much. What if the remnants of the nightmares are simply ignored and the rest is what sticks. That being what gives each Sylvari. It’s calling.

So here’s the theory. Scarlet saw, possibly all at once, all the horrors of the world. How would an inquisitive mind handle and attempt to process so much information and all at once? Likely it would crumble and Shatter as we see in real human minds causing a split personality and pysice.

Tl;dr

Scarlet saw everything the pale tree holds in its collective memory and it snapped her brain like a pretzel under a steam roller.

Shatter vs theirs is a bit tricky to begin with but disregarding that..

My general rule tends to be keep your distance whenever possible. The furthest a their can attack is about 900 to 1000 minus a steal to get close. At the initial burst do your best to negate it and save things like phase retreat or blink for later in the fight. With high mobility theirs they will often resort to hit and run tactics so if you can force them to dash out do your best to maintain pressure.

As far as losing targeting goes there isn’t a lot that can be done but you can also abuse the same tactic to avoid a burst or get off a heal. Tho keeping distance tends to prevent the their from being able to get behind you or out of your sight.. Minus a stealth sheep.

This issue has been hammered away at before and the actual issue, which has been slightly addressed in previous patches (the first Southsun era), pertains not to the Zoom distance but the FoV. Gw2 has a very tight Field of View compared to many other MMO’s and games in general. It’s this limit that makes the camera feel as if its never pulled back far enough.

This discovery came about some time shortly after the betas transference into launch, when many people complained that the camera just couldn’t get far enough away to show them what they wanted to see, and as a result the zoom limit was increased but the result wasn’t the expected improvement.

Part 2, I typed too much …. v.v;

Racial : Race currently means having a handful of special skills and your appearance in game. While I am greatly appreciative of not having to choose how to make a toon based on what race synergizes the best with a class. I do feel that Racial differences could be included in Horizontal Progression with some potential new skills or Negligible Passives (Asura have an racial bonus to Magic find perhaps [1 to 2%]) which could allow for some new mechanics to be added in as quality of life. This may be best linked to the possibility of Player Housing and its implementation.

==

New Weapons and Utilities: This is generated on the Above version of a Subclass System (scroll up bro). Basing weapon usage on sub class (to a limited extent). This does not mean that a Raging Warrior can only use a GS, Axe or Sword and nothing else, but rather this warrior would give up use of his shield and mace and gain the ability to use, just for funsies, lets say a dagger or if its in the cards, a new weapon like a Pike. Some utility skills could apply in a similar manner. Maybe the Raging Warrior focuses on burst damage and thus no longer has room (time, if you love Lore) for his Banners but gains more Stances. This would allow for greater ease of new skill Balance by limiting the amount of variables that they can interact with (rather than 500 traits or 1000 traits from a double trait tree, they only interact with 340 or such). Please note numbers for mentioned are not exact totals, and i haven’t done the math for current trait max numbers.

====

Hope some of this was helpful and most of it was clear. Back to lurking in the shadows.
Best of luck Anet team!

Perhaps I’m a bit late to the party but just some finalized thoughts on a few of the subjects that seem to have the greatest focus as of late.

Subclass System: I am all for new ways to fine tune my character (Mesmer) in ways that allow me to play exactly the way i want to play it. New skills Different traits being a large portion of this. On the off hand I personally do not feel that adding a large amount of “everyone can use these” skills, or a Secondary trait tree into the mix are where the answers are. This to me, seems like a lot of work and a high potential for Balancing issues with so many class mechanics compounding and potentially breaking singular skills out of a Mass pool. Say Necros can abuse 1 skill to have 25 stacks of permanent Torment placed by AOE, this skill now requires a nerf to balance it for Necro use and can thus render the skill useless for every other profession. That skill would then for all intents and purposes, become a necro skill that no other profession would want to bring to the table. A secondary Trait system and tree after 80 also seems like an addition to a problem to me. Its potentially off putting to new players who have just successfully hit 80 and now find that they have to progress even further down a new and confusing trait system just to catch up. In short its a cliff in a learning curve.

I would propose that, insted of forcing a web work of new systems into place, a slight alteration and addition to systems we already have.

Sub-Classes: I will use Mesmer as an example since it’s what i’m the most familiar with. Lets say you just created your first toon, and its a mesmer (god help you). You gracefully fumble around with your weapons till you find some you enjoy, and level as any normal player would. as you reach level .. let’s say 20. The same point that you unlock your final utility slot. You are now presented with the option to choose a “Sub class” Via your skill trainer. You’ve already managed to discover how your profession works at the core i would hope, and are present with a few options, lets say 3. One option slights you away from Clone reliance and presents you with replacement Weapon skills and Class Skills (F1 F2 F3 and F4) And locks away as well as opens up New Trait Options in your trees. One keeps the mesmer as it currently is. And the third option is for greater reliance on clones, presenting you, again, with new skills, traits, etc..

As a player you feel this is more of a natural progression and also a choice that means the game adapts and accommodates to your wants and needs. Personally this would feel more like the Game opening up and bending to you rather than some of the current trouble of “Trying to force the game to work the way you want it to” (as quoted from someone in LA).

This approach brings subtle diversity, In my opinion, and allows for smoother transitions for new and old players. This would also alleviate some of the work of attempting to fit 100 new traits into a secondary trait tree, by instead altering the traits available and keeping all of them Relevant to your specific “sub-class” generating some room for new traits.

Weapons would also allow for some diversity, where as Player X who chose Subclass Y uses a Sword as a Martial weapon, Player Y and Z who picked Subclass X can use a sword as a Defensive and evasive weapon to generate Clones. This may not allow for fully customizable weapon skill sets but does mean that we can remove some of the stagnation from the current.

====

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8alwzipnSzqGZ9IiJFEHyR6hpxanWJF82FC-jEDBYfKyofAIhYpmYJPKsZPQJQAlUFRjVXDT9SRW/CVDDAA-w

Roughly the set up i currently use with this build. Utlities change often based on the situation and what i need to cover, tho blink is almost a constant. I tend to aim for a more balanced stat combo and often swap runes to Lyssa but Mesmer is what I always bring for PvP.

As stated above, Sword Sword also works very well for this build as it brings the offhand potential to daze or block. I choose pistol for the projectile finishers from the Phantasm as well as a guaranteed stun and Daze/second stun if there are multiple targets in range. Pistols 5th is also considerably faster than swords 4(4) and as far as i can tell, isn’t as easy for people to evade. The trade off here being that its on a much longer CD meaning It’s generally only useable 1 or rarely 2 times in a short battle but the Phantasm synergizes a bit better with my own combo fields (Fear of death by confusion for the enemy) as well as with other combo fields. Its my personal preference.

Deceptive evasion rather than the Pistol trait allows for easier and sudden shatters to rip stability or regen and push a fight back in a direction I want it to go.

I also personally recommend Chaos X for the reduction on all staff skills, this means more retreats and chaos storms in less time. If you feel comfortable enough to drop this then Bountiful Interruption is a good idea for the Might stacks. Its a trade off between defensive play and Russian Roulette in a sense. The Mind crush build is Solid but It’s just not quite my style of doing things.

This is going to be Long, apologies and as a curtousy to keep the page short.. I’ll stick it under a Spoiler.

TL;DR Version.

-Needs More-
Armor Skins
Character and Play Customization
Skill based Rewards (Not gated behind Rank or time)
Meaningful Rewards (Not gold or improved RNG chances)
Deeper Impact and Motivation to Heavily Invest into Toons.

pistol also provides a ranged daze on its bounce.. sword is not alone

Tease Final Break Down~

Strengths:

Crowd Control
Boon Hate
Reasonably High Damage
Multitude of ways to generate damage.
Flexibility to change on the fly for each situation.
Situational Support.

Weaknesses:

Condition Removal
Higher Learning Curve to Newer Players.
Poor Tanking ability
Fairs less well against constant and consistent Invisibility.
Poor Condition Damage.

But wait, I forgot the Gear specs… or Did I? The answer is, No, This build is forgiving enough to work with almost any gear set you currently have. Pure Zerk wearers will have a blast as will far more tanker specs like Knights. Mix it up, Find the weapons that work the best for how you want to make the build work!

I currently, Do not recommend condition Damage for this type of build but there may be someone enterprising enough to come up with a great way to do it.

That’s all for now~
<3

To start things off, I’ll be brief and note that this is intended to be a Lock-down oriented build. For those of you new to the idea or Mesmers, the general idea is to Shut down your foes and prevent them from: Moving, Attacking, Fleeing, Smashing in someones face, etc…

What does “Flex-Build” mean? Short hand, it stands (to me anyway) for Flexible Build, meaning there is room for change and stats among players, as well as a fair amount of wiggle room to play style.

Tease The Basics ~

Domination: II / VII / XII
Dueling: IV / X /
Chaos: III / X /
{30/20/20}

Keystones ~
Staff
Confounding Suggestions

Tease The Wall-o-Txt~

Play Notes

Intro:
As noted above this is a Lock-down styled build, Your goal is to dominate the field in fights both short and long. You have also just graduated to a Master of Crowd Control which means crippling your foe at crucial points so that your team can stomp out an easy victory or recover and rejoin the fray. The current build, as shown above, also denotes you as the parties most celebrated hater of all boons and buffs. In PvP this means you become a key to dislodging that bunker(s) since the majority of them rely heavily on boon upkeep.

What to Bring:
Bring a Staff for the love of Lyssa! Chaos storm is your new best friend and everyone else’s nightmare. The staff also offers high mobility and support (also through chaos storm and some luck) to allies. With some practice, a well timed and well placed CS can destroy a group or save yours. It is also relatively easy to gain the end result of a chain-stun/daze (no moving, no attacking/healing) and snag a few interrupts to further punish foes for attempting to use a skill.

Runes of the Mesmer (or other condition duration oriented runes) Also bring some punch to the build, but this is where the build is far more flexible and lax to Player preference.

Other Weapons to bring to bat include: Swords, the Pistol, the Great Sword, the Focus, and, arguably, the Scepter. Traits can be moved or pushed around to accommodate some of these weapons. For instance, the GS itself brings a small amount of Boon removal and the trait can be swapped in the Domination line. For those confident enough to forgo Deceptive Evasion, increase the range and reduce the recharge on your pistol. Each brings something to the field with this set up so attempt some Experimentation!

Clones are no longer going to be your source for a lot of things, such as regen or in some cases, damage (besides shatters) since they won’t be up for too long. Get used to the idea of having to play aggressively and make moves before your opponent can. The best defense for this build is a strong offense.

Technical Gibberish

How it all comes together:

For those still unclear as to how the build builds momentum, Let’s take a look at what exactly comes into play in almost any battle.

Stun/Daze – Your opponent cannot move/use a skill for a brief moment. Your opponent can be interrupted by either condition.

Interruption – Skill is put on a brief Cool Down and cannot be instantly reused, Damage generated from Halting Strike.

5% increased Damage to Inactive targets. Typically the same amount as 4-6 stacks of Might, Applies to any target that is not currently Using a Skill (running does not count as doing something).

Boon Removal – Shatters are typically the main source of this which can mean up to Six boons on 5 targets, or 12 Boons on a single target.

Vulnerability – x% increase in damage taken, Stacks each time you Daze a Foe (even if they are not dazed)

50% Chance that a Daze becomes a Stun – Pretty self explanatory but, ProTip: Each time your Daze becomes a Stun, in PvE, it removes 2 stacks of Defiant, making it possible to gain more use of CC on a Boss. That’s 1 CC applied through a trait equating to 2CC attacks.

Condition Masking – I call it “Causing Panic” in my head, but this is the task of either forcing your opponent to waste a condition removal by covering up another condition with your short duration ones, or scaring them badly enough to force a use. Either way, you just won, as this build is not very conducive to condition damage as a whole.

best guess from me would be anywhere from 2 months to 8 months.

also depends on future “changes and tweaks” to ascended gear and crafting systems as well as new legendary teir items.

Short of another bot farming epidemic, Mats probably wont cheap for a very very long time.

If you took the time to investigate before ascending (i’ll assume you checked the wiki page or some outside source for the recipe) you’d have found out that all skins and infusions on it will be deleted. this isnt a big and its been known about for a very long time.

i wouldn’t say the Vial is a super common drop but you can easily score one in any level of fractals as a drop. FoTM itself is also not much of a challenge if you’re accustomed to the other Dungeons in Tyria.

give it a few runs with some friends.

gee i wish this looked useful and mesmers could be less dependent on Clones and Phantasms and regain some of their independence from Gw1 :\ ah well.. further shoved down the path of reliance on NPC AI, hooray..

Finished~

6. Commander Visibility- Too many Chiefs is almost always a bad thing. 16 Blue chips floating about the map, all trying to get the most people in their squads just to stay visible doesn’t promote healthy competition or fair competition in the world of leadership. In fact many people who think of themselves as being good leaders or potentially great leaders are often, the worst of the worst and least suited for the job.

Commander visibility should not, thus, be based on Popularity (Squad size). This is something that may require more thought than I am able to put into it, but here’s my crack at it.

Commander tag Opacity – The more Opaque the tag, the more squad members it has on it. Translucent meaning fewer followers in the squad.

Tag limit – Bouncing off the error from Gw1 “Too many mini’s in this outpost already” It’s sad to say, but perhaps we should only allow a first come, first serve approach to having tags up (mostly in WvW but could also apply to PvE). If there is already 5 or 7 Commanders in the map, do we really need 8 more trying to gather squads to make the others vanish from the map? A Commander Stand-by of sorts could create a Que for tags to pop to avoid some unfairness here as well.

Commander Ranks – This would probably be the hardest to implement but a system where in, upon creation of a Squad or contained within that same window, Commanders are given the choices to become visible only in certain circumstances.
All – whole map, like it is now
Squad- Only visible to current squad (Option may also close squad)
Nearby – Tag shows up only to those within a certain distance (Say distance for example)
Ninja-Kitten – Tag only visible to fellow Commanders.

7. This is less of an Idea and more of a suggestion about what Commanders should feel like to the average player. Finding a commander in WvW or PvE should not feel like something you should want to avoid going to. Commanders should feel like their own Dynamic events, providing some guidance to players without demanding they have TS, Mumble and Ventrillo in order to participate and “Have fun” or “Be Useful” in what is going on. They should be a sign of activity and a beacon to rally around without promoting mindless zerg-balls, this is most important in PvE where a zerg does not often equate to fun (that’s not to say the same doesn’t go for WvW, But zergs are the standard tactical bread and butter anymore).

8. Commanding Respect – It should be possible for players, when reported for misconduct or trollish behave, abuse of the system, etc.. to lose their commander tag. Provided that the tag is being used as part of the misconduct (ie: Using the tag to call attention to ones self while spouting profanities in chat or to lead others to known exploits). Commanders should have to act differently when their tags are up. Similar Moderators in a forum, those that abuse their tags or powers, should have them disabled or removed.

9. Spies Among us- I say this asked about by one of the devs, and figured i’d put in my thoughts before i hit Post. Spies are always going to be present in WvW, and some poor soul is always going to be willing to pay the gold/money to get the gems to transfer his alt account to another server just to take up space and help out his team. It’s impossible to stop but it may be pertinent to put up a “Dishonorable” styled debuff on players who transfer servers “Too often to be up to anything good” that would prevent them from entering WvW for X to XX amount of days, or from seeing commanders on WvW maps.

Hope some of it was helpful/useful.
~Swish~

So I skimmed over the last 3 pages, forgive me if any of this sounds like the beating of a dead horse :P.

Current Issues with commander system are:

1. Squad Chat/ Font based Communication isn’t entirely feasible in the middle of a massive zerg rush in WvW while you scramble to stay alive and ontop of your role in the battle.

2. Currently the tags promote only massive Zergs. The less that are present the larger they become.

3. Limited resources to draw from. We get the blue marker and a squad and the extra way-points, however no one can see those way points without joining the squad (I believe) and with the massive marker that can easily be followed not many join a squad.

Proposed Ideas:

1. Like the idea of new colors, this could help out in the short term greatly.

2. Hate the idea of making the tags tied directly into rank in WvW. From several hundreds of hours spent, Pre-Ranking system implementation, in this area of the game, I feel confident enough to say that I know what I’m doing in here even without being Rank 200. :P

Tying this directly to rank would also not “fix” bad commanders, as you can easily purchase WxP from the laurel vendor and rank up that way. (secondary thought)

3. Squad by Vicinity: Instead of making squads something you have to make a deliberate effort to join, a quick pop up on a players screen as the approach a commander asking if they would like to join “the squad” similar to party invites. This takes some of the weight off of new, or unfamiliar players and smooths an easy transition into playing with the group vs following the group.

4. Squads – Temporary Guilds? I saw the ideas to promote fellow players to lesser commanders inside of a given squad, and i find the idea interesting but I have no suggestions as to avoid UI clutter or difficult choices for every commander.

5. Map Markers. Waypoints are lovely but they don’t provide much detail or meaning without context. Most of this context is provided via VioP and a majority of players tend to miss out on this. I would think a revamp of the Waypoints to say.. the Green Star, Green Arrows and Red Arrows we see in our personal story mini maps and Dynamic Events world wide, Would provide much more clear and succinct direction to a group. They are easy to see, and are familiar to all players (unless you’ve never left WvW or sPvP) and with the simple touch up of a few tabs/buttons along the mini-map, they avoid UI clutter on a mass scale.

Example use -=- Commander Steve has 30 players in his squad. He coordinates via TS with Commander Cody to attack Keep X. Steve wants to let his Squad, who are not on TS, Know what the goal and path are. Steve heads north and places/draws his green arrow towards the keep door. Cody does the same to the south. Everything is going smoothly and Steve breaks through the door at the same time as Cody. Suddenly X zerg of X server arrives just behind Steve’s Squad! Steve lays down his Red arrows to let his players know tis time to GTFO while he yells at Cody to do the same.

Both squads players loose a few but the majority avoid the incoming zerg and escape to regroup and attack again. No typing required and everyone who glanced at the mini map got the message loud and clear.

Continued~

I run these personally, And theres been more than a few ocassions where the +Boon duration and Random Boon on heal have saved my kitten :P

The condition duration is also lovely as is the mass of boons and condition removal from the elite use.

I mainly run staff as a constant so it benefits the most imo.

Might work alright in PvE/ Dungeon content. Would not reccommend this for sPvP or WvW with your current expectation of the build

“Reactive, utilizing conditions and phantasms from range” Staff is more suited for condition spamming, Scepter has a shorter range and brings torment and confusion to the table which are more effective as Shut Downs or CC.

“Sword burst Dps until retreat is possible” Short of a good blink, special runes and invis and a well placed portal there is no such thing as retreat for Mesmers in over 80% of fights.

While very diverse our class is also very poorly optimized to build in such a way. Trying to cover every potential situation generally, I find, Leads to you being prepared for none.

Mirror Images benefits the most from IC, which brings the cool down to a reasonable time (36 vs 45) but this requires the illusions line and thus promotes that you should instead invest in more shattering/clone generation skills and mind set.

Mantra of recovery is also something i would not recommend without investing 30 into Domination and Inspiration to fully maximize both the healing and potential from it.

It also isn’t do-able in a way that is fair to the people that purchased the new armor. They (and I in this case) bought it because they liked it enough to choose to buy it over other things. To be fair, each person would need to have the new armor replaced with some other thing they liked enough to have purchased the other thing instead. They (and I in this case) have every bit as much a right to be happy with their purchase as people who purchased the T3 cultural armor. Just giving back gems (or money) doesn’t make up for the fact that you’ve taken away something they liked.

And, just giving back gems or money for the armor doesn’t account for the dye, base armor, weapons, total/hair makeover kits, minis and/or character slots someone bought with gold/gems or either via money to go with the armor. It doesn’t account for time they invested in getting everything together or opportunities to do other things with that time and money that might have been more enjoyable or resulted in having something rather than having something taken away.

Just as it was not fair to diminish Hours or Gems or Time spent gathering up gold, stones and Exotic or Ascended armor to place the original skin on?

I would debate that My 3-4 months of grinding and several hundred (or thousand in other cases) hours of Game play equates to a bit more than 10 or even 30 dollars and 2 hours spent looking at dyes etc. Specifically in Time spent that cannot be given back that also could have been spent doing other things.

It’s easier to remove something everyone just grabbed and hasn’t formed an attachment to as apposed to those who now have had T3 for months or even over a year.

Is it fair either way? No. No it is not. Is there a winning situation? No, someone is going to lose any way this goes. Just don’t try to defend or defeat a solution by saying your time was more valuable than someone else’s, please and thank you.

While rather well thought out. there are a few flaws here, specifically those related to the massive can of kitten worms anet has now unleashed.

The presedent has been set at thus:
`. Tweaked Cultral armor (particle effects) Is and now must remain 800 Gems for a full set.

2. Purchases are a one time deal, buy it again if you want it multiple times.

3. Cultural armor is no longer legitimately cultural and this must now apply to all armor sets across the board.

As far as rectifying the situation, there really isnt much Anet can do short of a completely new set of armors for each race (heavy, Med and light) to “replace” what was once unique. However damage here now states that even new cultral pieces will not remain exclusive over the span of the game.

Or.

A complete reversal of the current gem shop armor. which is entirely Do-able. A mass refund is also Do-able tho it would mean a massive blow to Anet and NCSofts Financial gains for the entire quarter.

While I, for one, would appreciate some of your above suggestions in a quality of life patch, the stark and obvious elephant in the room is that Player Trust has been lost on a massive scale, and that kind of Damage is almost impossible to reverse no matter what is done going forward.

RedStar.4218:

I’m not bothered too much by the fact that now anyone female norn and sylvari can wear human T3, I’m not a fan of limiting armor. What bothers me is that medium and heavy didn’t get so lucky.
And guys, don’t expect to see Charr and Asura cultural armor get the same treatment because it will force them to create female model for those armors.

KOPPER.1458:

Is it just me or do some of the colors or textured seem blurred as well?

Check your graphics options.

^ the just created female/male models for the Charr for this.

^ This Plus 1.
Gem shop worked perfectly less than 24 hours ago (pre patch)

Have already attempted:
Character swaps
Restarting the client (6 count)
Clearing the Gem Store/TP Cache from computer (twice)
Restarting Computer.

Running Windows 7 Pro x64.

It’s been a long time coming. After playing the class for over a year now and watching the Meta “evolve” I’ve begun to notice and peg down certain trends that leave the Mesmer apart from all the other classes. If anyone has further input for the discussion feel free down below.

Masters of Manipulation~
Mesmers began in Gw1 as a very conditional Class. You often did not do straight forward damage; instead you forced an enemy to either shut down or inflict a wide array of hurt upon themselves. You had to pick and choose your skills very carefully and your build was ever changing.

Later on Mesmers got a nice patch to bring more direct damage and less situational need to use skills. This patch was to bring them more on par with the other professions in the game.

Masters of Illusion~
Mesmers graduated into Gw2 and effectively retained a strong sense of the originals from Gw1. We were given Clones and Phantasms to replace some of the old hex’s. High mobility in combat to keep our enemies guessing and a few tricks to get out of the way of an attack if need be.

However with these changes we lost a lot of the Terror that came from Mesmers in Gw1. And its picked at me over and over at what our class seems to be.. missing. While i cant claim to know how it would effect the meta of the game, these are my thoughts on the class that would bring us to a more level playing field while maintaining a healthy balance with others.

Trait Lines~

We’ve been given a trait tree that is rather different from many other classes in game, and much of this also deals with our classes weapons and Core mechanic. Mesmers are in a Minority where our traits dictate play. Rather than choosing a way to play and finding traits to boost and improve the experience, we are instead made to pick what traits stack well together and attempt to play inside of the “box” they create.

A hard look at the traits we have, imo, reveals a lot of scatter shot-ing that removes many potential builds from the board due specifically to a lack of trait points. Others are simply not worth a heavy investment to use.

Core Weapons~

At launch many of our weapons had semi-short Cd’s on their skills. It didn’t take too terribly long for several nerfs to come in and increase these, in some cases several times over. This plays into the trait system above as now some weapons are almost nonsensical to bring without a trait to simply decrease wait times.

Other weapons still don’t feel quite right, most notably the scepter, even after a few tweaks here and there.

Core Mechanics~
Shattering is a very unique and powerful mechanic in game. But by all its glamor and power, it’s still always crippled by AI that must path-find its way to a target. Illusions are heavily relied upon by every weapon and by more than 33% of our traits making this an even more unique condition when shown against other classes.

~~~~~

Thoughts on Rework (without gutting the class like a fish)

Weapons~
A harder look at base cool-downs and effects from attacks. Perhaps swapping down effects from skills and adding them into Traits. (Theory Example: Phase retreat – Untraited – Teleport away from a foe. Traited – Teleport away and generate a clone)

Trait Lines~
A rearrangement here could help substantially, as well with the consolidation of several conflicting traits on different lines and the introduction of traits that can be used to improve builds rather than be considered Keystones to make a build viable.

Shatters & Clones~
A change in focus on clones being a need to a bonus of being a Mesmer. A change on shattering that has clones and Phantasms vanish on their current location and direct damage come from the Mesmer (shattering looks more like a Mantra, but with a slight delay).

TL;DR Version
Mesmers changed from Gw1 to Gw2
Gw2 Mesmers rely too heavily on traits and illusions to be viable.

Goal: Lessen Scattered traits, Create more build possibilities, Pull attention back to the Mesmer and off of clones (unless you want clones to be your thing).

Clones are generated with a % of your total health, Armor and Prec. Without any traits they do not spawn with any boons, even if you, yourself, have a fancy array on at the moment.

Clones and illusions can be effected by all boons and conditions and they will take the same effects they do upon players however they must be applied by you or another player (excluding traits which cause them to be generated with a specific boon).

Things that clones can be directly tied to are Weapon Sigils. a Crit from a clone counts as a crit from you/your weapon. For example, your GS clone can set off your Sigil of Fire with its auto attack if it crits.

Clones are not generated with your Rune set and cannot gain or cause any benefits related to it. Example.. your clone cannot spawn a Rock Dog on hit.

Rule 1 for leveling a mesmer. Get a staff.

Rule 2 Be prepared for things to kinda suck till you hit level 60 and unlock traits that make the class useable and much more powerful/playable.

As for builds.. look around the forums after you figure out how you’ll be playing your mesmer.

Actually relatively close to a build i use now that can wreck 90% of the field in both spvp and general PvE (WvW included)

After months of trying and failing and a few tears at attempts to get some sibilance of the old mesmers lock-down and interrupts from Gw1.. I’ve found its just not gonna happen with the way anet has our class designed currently.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQJAWRlwzipnRzmGb9IipHEnvhckUYapWJF22FC-jkDBYfQofAUgQEJA5cYJPCsZPQJQIVRFRjVXDT5CV9Ky6XIaYAA-w

Armor and trinkets arent exact.. blah blah.. Tons of arguments about what weapons are best but for me and my play style here’s whats what.

Traits: Throw out sig recharge.. the trait is garbage across all professions, throw out your sigs as well.. the recharge is awful and the passive’s arent worth it.

Bring Weapon recharge traits! a faster Chaos storm is always a good thing. Drop 30 from Prec, throw it into chaos to grab Chaotic dampening for your staff and also grab bountiful. Throw in the GS trait. Bring in the manipulation traits for increased Range and lower CD.

What does all this mean..? You now have a Staff for defensive play and for, rng willing + a few enemies, a fat stack of might. The staff is also better for cramped places and Close combat.

A GS for burning down targets from a distance, this weapon also spawns your clones ontop of your foe making for a quick return on a well timed Diversion (thats more might if you interrupt). Wave can also interrupt and give you some much needed space.

Blink – with a range of 1200. this means an easy port behind a foe or a mob and off their screens and thusly also out of an auto target lock. or a fast get away from an aoe bomb or out of reach of a presuer.
Arcane – also with a massive range means boon stripping from fleeing foes or condition return on a pesky ranger.

Ultimately this is a build that means you can rely less on your ditsy. clones and phants and dish out direct damage on your own.

Runes- I run with lyssa for the condition removal and boon durations.

This is the best maximization I could squeeze out of this type of build :\ Armor and runes and sigils can all be up to you, I run something more balanced to keep me up with the D/D Thieves show up. Chaotic Interruption can also be useful as a GM trait for the imob but without an extra 5 points into Dom for the minor trait for damage increase to inactive foes, it cant be fully capitalized upon..

I cant recall exactly who states this in Gw1 but it may be Pyre Fierceshot..

“The Humans Blew Orr into the ocean and oblivion rather than allow the Charr to over take it. I view that as a compliment.”

I could be paraphrasing.. it’s been a while.

Regardless, The Searing is the event which begins the whole story for Gw1. It begins with Ascalon, destroying the great wall and much of the city, burning away the lush land to ash and mud and dirt. It turned water into foul lakes of Oil and left the land pot marked with Massive Crystals.

As stated in much of the original Gw1 lore (See the wiki, players handbook, etc) The charr pushed past Ascalon, Determined to keep humanity out of their turf forever and went straight to their cultural heart in Orr. They laid Siege to the city of Arah some time shortly after all but squashing ascalon. Vizur Kildebran sought to defend the city and used magic from the forbidden scrolls locked away in the vaults of Arah (some of Abbadons Magic) and perhaps, unwittingly and much to Abbadons amusement, Sent Orr to the bottom of the sea (this did not turn the nation into an army of undead as stated above, that was Zhaitan…). This event, Gave the name to the Sea of Sorrows.

Unrelated, the Charr also sought to eradicate Humanity from Kyrta, causing the king there to flee for his life. With Sal’De Asalo (name check) and the Help of the Muursat, the charr were defeated and never reached Lions Arch. This gave rise to the White Mantle being the heads of power in Kyrta and thus setting up events for the events following in Gw1 as well as Queens Salma retaking the thrown many years later.

Erukk.1408:

Kormir did gain all the knowledge of Abaddon, I’m guessing he had knowledge on something of even greater concern then the Elder Dragons, and my guess would be whatever drove the gods and humans to Tyria in the first place.

“Among them was Abaddon—once secret-keeper, now betrayer. How you have fallen from the glorious days of old. What passed beyond in the Mists, only you remember.”

The first day of Kormir’s godhood, after all the new powers and knowledge got settled of course, was probably relaying to the other gods some of the secrets Abaddon kept, and for them to plan for the future with the new knowledge.

And since I am here.. The gods left Tyria long ago Due to Abbadons treachery and the War that He and his followers instigated. After striking him down, The gods left and so began the Exodus which is where the Tyrian years get their Abbreviation of A.E.

There’s no other pressing matter and no relation to the elder dragons that caused them to take their absence.

Kormir as a human – Was partly responsible for unleashing Nightfall ( the return of Abbadon) upon Elona. She organized the sun spear excavation of some of the ruins containing relics of the forgotten god. Afterwards she kinda helped the island of Istan stave off invasion, then got captured. Stayed captured for a while and then got her eyes stolen by one of Abbadons minions. Later she was sucked down into the realm of Torment due to being “touched” by Abbadon. She was later re-rescued and then was toted along like a stack of talking potatoes to the final battle with Abbadon where she became a Goddess by absorbing the dieing gods power.

As a Goddess – Kormir lorded over the Realm of Torment but had to enlist help to deal with the remaining Servants of Abbadon in the Domain of Anguish Via the Order of Whispers, Allowing for the player characters to stop the final major threats while ultimately… doing nothing herself.

So all in all.. I’m with you, I can’t see why anyone worships her aside from the possibility that people have made up stories about her or the fact that she ascended to God-hood from mortality (something that a lot of people, I’m sure, wish they could do.)

Step 1.
Get used to being the weird class in terms of Damage and CC as well as support.

Step 2.
Understand that Clones and phantasms are tool and not friends like ranger pets.

Step 3.
Think outside the box of what you are doing and watch who you are fighting. Half of what mesmers do is dictated by what we are fighting is doing. If its spamming attacks all the time, put confusion on it with a shatter or attack. If its keeping long range use feedback or blink closer. If it’s trying to CC you with imob or kd, use staff 2 to get right back up or gt out of the way.

Step 4.
always be on the move. Get used to setting up your target for heavy damage, they won’t do it by themselves. Its also very easy for a Mesmer to get behind someone without them even realizing it.

Step 5.
Pick the weapons you like the most an trait for them. a lot of our weapons are terribly slow without traits helping with CDs.

Step 6.
Keep playing, eventually you’ll put 2 and 3 together and things will just start falling into place about skills, timing, and builds.

There are also some guides on the forums of various builds you can try out, but everyone plays differently so experiment as well.

I would avoid it per shatter personally, I dont recall the recharge if it does have one. I tend to build for multiple situations at once and this seems to feel like a trait that would really only help against guardians or D/D Eles which are very boon heavy and reliant.

Sigil of Nulification on a Staff of GS or just using a main hand sword will get the job done in most cases I’ve found.

On average my Phantsasms don’t hit this hard unless you’ve built for a Glass cannon Mesmer.. and lets face it that’s what Half the MMO population loves to do… and most of the numbers you see for Izerker and such are due to multiple hits across multiple foes.

In combat with a Mesmer Phantasms are good Bust damage but often are on the field only for a very short while. These are each weapons Spike damage dealers (btw scepter doesn’t have a phantasm..) and are much more unreliable than a Warriors 100Blades.

Broken down:
Phantasms do Huge damage every once and a while, often miss or are killed after 1 or less attacks. Higher damage spread inconsistently spread out over minutes
Vs
Dps classes that do High bursts or medium busts consistently over minutes.

End result: Phantasms in a drawn out fight have lower Dps.

Note: Unless fighting another Glass cannon you will be in for a much longer battle than 1 or 2 shatters and a Phantasm hit. (My Mesmer kills your Glassy Shattercats every time just by surviving and drawing out the fight).

Yes the sigils work

Also check out the one other Condition removal sigil for sPvP if you go in there.

Draw backs are that its 60% on crit that you cause every 10 seconds so they are not great for removing more than 1 maybe 2 conditons per fight you get into.

Clone crits from their attacks do not trigger the sigils either. Shatters that crit do activate it tho.

I know its painful to not bring Blink for some builds but if you have it traited, bring Arcane theivery. Steal some boons off that D/D ele or Guard or Necro or Theif and give their conditions back in the middle of a fight.

I actually do this not just in WvW, but sPvP all the time..

IP+Mirror Images+ random other clone = CoF = 6 or 8 Stacks of confusion on a thief or D/D Ele that is completely focused on trying to Spam me down after i hit 60% health

Generally you guys melt your faces off and either knock me down along with you, where i can continue to apply further confusion, or go down and I can then just watch my clones kill you from afar.

This is the best counter we have against Hyper twitch classes like Thieves, Ultimately its always going to be about a 50/50 chance that a HS/Invis thief or the Confusion Mesmer is going to be the one going down, no matter how much you know about the tactic, it’ll boil down to luck in timing and player skill.

What is the Mesmer Class in Gw2?

Let’s take a closer look… The Mesmer is different from every other profession in the way it’s mechanics and full potentials come from. “But what does that mean?” you might ask.

It Means that a Mesmer’s power comes from CCing or Direct burst damage. Direct damage is Direct damage, it’s easy to counter and work around or with. But this is not where the mesmer shines. CCing for a Mesmer is not just immobilizing a target or knocking it down like it is for many other professions… Mesmers biggest CC comes from turning an enemy’s movements against them. A semi large amount of dodges, blocks, and blinks to make enemies waste attacks and ofc the condition we are famous for…

CONFUSION. Which is, by design and in all ways a very short lived condition that cannot stack duration. This is one of the most powerful CC’s in game because a well timed confusion stack on a Stupid or Ignorant enemy can literally allow for them to auto attack or spam until they melt.

Confusion does not stack duration and often lasts for only 3 to 4 seconds at a time. This is the same duration of the average Theif stealth pop… And it takes up to 6 stacks to do seriously dangerous amounts of damage to a non glass build of any type.
Like any CC it is easily countered.

Is it annoying when several Glam mesmers keep Confusion on you for a while? Sure, as a fellow Mesmer i have to wait for the condition to vanish on its own since i cannot cleanse it half the time but it’s terribly easy to survive these assaults (Provided you play smart and havent built into a glass kitten face rolling build)… more so than it is waiting for a thief to Pop HS for the 15th time from stealth so you can try to get an attack off..

TL;DR

Multiple counters for this one type of build, this is strictly a learn to deal with getting rolled by a mob for a change without getting to run like a kitten before you die/learn to play issue.

/thread please

Lemme break this down for you…

“Blade Tempest (when with equipped melee weapons, this includes shields): Stands rooted in place whirling with the equipped weapons, striking all foes in melee range and blocking attacks.” – See Mesmer Blurred Frenzy

“Bullet Storm (when equipped with pistols or rifle): Stand rooted in place whirling with the equipped weapons, firing a barrage of ranged attacks in all directions and blocking attacks.” – See Thief Elites

“Main-hand Sword: A fast weapon used for flashy spinning attacks. Based used against single targets, but has effective blocking skills.” – See Mesmer Sword Main Hand

“Off-hand Sword: The counter point to the main-hand sword, this weapon brings an area attack in the form of a spinning AOE as well as an additional block.” – See Mesmer Offhand Sword (also contains Phantasm to shatter for AoE)

“General weapon concepts: Melee weapons block or daze, ranged weapon evade or knock back” – See Mesmer GS and Staff as well as Scepter and Swords and Focus

Pretty sure this class is called the Mesmer but I could be wrong..

well at least half of it is.

Did I really make it too long?

4.
Keeping the world Alive

I find it almost vital that Hardmode be a non-instanced experience. Alternative versions of zones with rules that don’t need to conform to Lore would allow for insane events to take place upon these maps (King Adlebern assaulting Metrica Provence with his ghastly army anyone?). While taking some finessing and work It does allow the Dev team to apply some of their hard work to gain places in the game outside of their natural habitat (Dungeon bosses that some people may have only ever seen once). This could also be used as an outlet for “Massive” events without hindering a new players progress in a given area as well as further weekend “Trail” events to avoid excluding previously stated new players.

5.
Rewards

Everyone loves the Shiny stuff, everyone wants the Shiny stuff, Gotta get the shiny…
This too is a balancing act, avoiding rewarding players with what they can already attain else where, while still providing harder to obtain items that avoid becoming an economy ruining “Fire hose”.

A. Ushering in the Old.
Bringing in a larger loot table to each given enemy with a slight increase to certain drops means players can (and often already want to) spend a little less time getting what they want or at least something they can trade up from. This doesn’t mean making Hardmode a place where only rares and exotics drop, nor does it mean making it a place where you are guaranteed a rare or higher drop from a boss-like monster.

B. Rolling out the New.
Tieing this in to dungeons such as Fractals is extremely easy by applying drops of Mist themed items or Dungeon tokens (in very small amounts). New Mist themed (or racial themed) weapon skins as well as armors. This is also a good way to insert hints of where the World is headed next (Can I get my Kurzick armor back.. please Anet?) or to throw in goofy off the wall skins (Shield that looks like a dagger? they’ve done it before..)

C. Currency
Adding more to the Laurels cant be such a bad thing can it? Adding ways to get them here can’t be that bad either. We may even add in a new currency but that’s treading a bit far into the deep end of Stuff to keep track of.

D. Skills
Hardmode only PvE Skills. No crossover to sPvP, WvW, or regular PvE. Nuff’ Said here.

F. Getting Risky
Introducing new ideas.. always Consult Tom Cruise about this kind of Risky Business..

I. Similar to other games (and some people are addicted to it) A new leveling teir, for hardmode only. Regrettably this is effective at letting players re-explore and slowly climb back to the top of the PvE world but does tend to go against the semi-anti-treadmill policy of Gw2. While rewarding I personally am against this as it promotes gating content and a larger gap between “noobs” and “Vets”.

II. New HM only Gear also plays on the above problems, but is still very rewarding to some players: getting that next new and best thing that is. This would also ultimately cause HM to become Medium Mode PvE as it would trivialize the lower ended HM content.

III. Titles and achievements seem to fit in perfectly here and be a real “no brainer”.

IV. Ascetics are what GW has always revolved around, and It’s my personal opinion that I’d love to see a set of Mist related armor and weapons come from this type of HM. As a reward showing that you have completed various tasks (100%HM Map completion?) and have truly mastered PvE. Presenting players with tokens to purchase a box containing their chosen gear or a Mystic Forge recipe. This could also be a way to add in Legendary Graded Armor and new Legendary Weapons.

7. (cause I forgot what number I was on)
Final Statement

I a, in now way, shape, or form, a Game designer; only a mere Player. I have given the above a lengthy amount of thought and have done my best to keep it short and sweet and to the point. If any of you have suggestions, criticisms, or thoughts to add or rehash, Please open the flood gates. I will gladly amend and update this thread as it grows to reflect the general populations wants and dislikes, and hopefully… Anet can use this as a blueprint for the future of Gw2. Thank you all for the Read <3

~Swish~

TL;DR
Make HM using existing Open world maps, Keep it Open World, Make it hard, Add New Stuff, Talk about it people.

And for good measure, Kitten.

2.
Mechanics

It’s very hard to not just slap on the old “more health and higher dmg makes it harder” idealism to a hard mode. So what could possibly make this mode hard without just making it take 3 times longer to down trash mobs?

Short of adding Agony to every veteran beast out there this seems like a huge road block, but I disagree. So to avoid the agony/ascended crawl and QQing.

A. Removal of Hints

AoE Circles and Attacks with massive wind ups that telegraph for 2 to 15 seconds that “Hey guys, you outta dodge soon” Should vanish from this mode. As well as predictable Rounds that enemies tend to make with attacks (Ex: Wait 3 seconds, Attack 3 times with sword, wait, 3x sword, block with shield, repeat)

B. Armor Damage.

One death causes damage in regular PvE to one slot of your armor and only after dieing a ridiculous amount of times does it become a hindrance when your armor actually breaks and severely weakens your stats. Death is not feared so much as it is an annoyance in regular PvE.

Up the fear of seriously emptying your bank and ending up in serious trouble with poor play by having armor pieces break entirely upon death and even perhaps become damaged upon down.

C. Debuffs/Boons/Conditions

Theres plenty of room for new things here to up the challenges here are the thoughts I had. Some are things Anet has avoided and will most likely continue to avoid for good reason but perhaps their reintroduction wouldn’t hurt the game too terribly.

I. Death Penalty: Alternative or Compounded with armor loss, a small decrease in stats and in the spirit of Gw1, a decrease in overall health and endurance and stats for dieing that requires the player to preform a given task to remove it (Killing Critters, effectively evading attacks, ect..)

II. Swallowed By the Mists: A Debuff that effects casting times, movement speeds and Skill Recharge rates forcing players to be far wiser and more precise with what they use and when. This would combine with a later suggestion to avoid the “Well i’ll just spam 1 and save everything for later” issue that makes combat incredibly stale.

III. Forced Exit/Respawn: Upon death your team has a limited portion of time to resurrect you before you are forced from the mists version of a map and placed back in the over world as there are no Waypoints. Alternatively, Higher WP costs added with far fewer Waypoints to pick from and rez-rush events from.

IV. Cleansing vs Miasma: Playing in the mists applies an environmental Debuff that can be removed via preforming events/kills/puzzles as the player battles their way through each map. This debuff can vary from map to map and if left unchecked (going afk or trying to run across a map without participating in various events) can result in sever punishments to the player.

V. Infusions: a Buff gained by players for completing events/maps/challenges which can be applied to their armor or self to counter act debuffs such as Current infusions do with Agony. Perhaps allowing players to spend more extended periods of time in these areas rather than granting them some type of serious advantages over those just beginning their journey here.

D. Entering Hardmode

Easy as pie if using alternative versions of open world maps. Simply add an option in the UI that allows players that have achieved level 80 access to the Mists (fractal) version of the map that they are on.

Note this also means that cities could become battle zones (remember the Karka attack in Lions Arch or The Shatterer’s assault on Ascalon and the inquest invasion of Divinitys Reach during the Beta?)

Omg another hard mode thread right?

While its true the game has various ways of keeping the challenges there for players I think an elegant and effective solution for a PvE (non-dungeon) Hard-mode would be to somewhat rip off what FoTM currently does.

So after a few months of thought and a few final pieces just clicking today: Swish’s Suggestions on Hardmode~

1.
Tapping the Mists
It’s fairly well established that the mists is a kind of Miasma that contains remnants of the magic and history of Tyria, a somewhat alternate reality or Purgatory. This is the place where (In Gw1) domains such as the Under World, Fissure of Woe, and Domain of Anguish were held. The mists are bendable and easily entered (but not survived) and allow for a certain amount of error or ambiguity to what they contain.

What does this mean and how does it relate? The Mists can easily contain the PvE environments we play in every day (past and present versions). They can also contain a vast variety of the standard monsters we pound on as well as a new terrifying batch never encountered.

To paint a vague picture for those having trouble still.. Imagine walking through a hazy version of Queensdale or Ascalon where you stumble upon a Gigantus Lupicus or Jotun Stargazer as a world boss. Or if the dev team feels so inspired, a Pristine and shining, never sunken, Orr.

Want now right? Well before we get there..

So I see a lot of builds on these forums every day, some more popular than others, some similar to the one i run but none really capturing a full spectrum of what the mesmer can really do. So it’s about time I post up an all around build that plays much harder on the mesmer strengths and does not require food or extra items to get things rolling.

Firstly this is a Shattering focused build but can also be easily tweaked to fit different personalities that aren’t as used to, or that don’t like to shatter bomb squishy red things.

Weapons:
Stats: Pick your own, I choose to use Soldiers stated, avoid unneeded and unsupported such as MF or in some cases Condition dmg.

Staff: Predominantly a long ranged weapon, damage output rate Poor. Movement Capabilities High. Support potential High. Survivability High.

Swords: Short range/ CC weapons. Damage output Average/High. Movement Capabilities Average/Poor. Support potential Poor. Survivability High.

Sigils: 1x Perception (Increases Prec by up to 250 which is enough to hit the magical 40% mark on crit chance at level 80) 1x Nullification (used on staff to remove boons move effective due to bouncing projectile) 1x Generosity (Cause nothings funnier than giving back those 25 stacks of bleed to a warrior or thief in the middle of a fight)
Traits: 0/20/20/0/30
Expendable traits 10-30 (all drawn from Illusions)

Traits Taken: Blade Training, Deceptive Evasion, Chaotic Dampening, Illusionary Persona : Optional- Master of Deception, Masterful Reflection, Illusionary Elasticity.

Gear: Predominately Soldiers or Knights.
Armor: 3x Knights (Shoulders, helm, Boots) 3x Soldiers (Chest, Leggings, Gloves)
Trinkets: 2x Zerker (Back, Necklace) 2x Knights (Earrings) 2x Soldiers (Rings)
Runes: (Fill as you see fit, I run Pack)

Utilities: Bring what you are most comfortable with and what applies to the situation, I typically keep Mirror Images at all times and swap the other two as needed.

Playing: Everyone plays differently, but here’s some general suggestions.

Staying mobile: Staff can get you out of almost any situation with Retreat or Chaos Storm/Armor. If you need to play keep away or find yourself in a ranged situation this is the weapon that keeps you the most mobile.

Avoiding Damage: Staff and swords both play well with this part of the mesmer, Staff with its stun breakers and boons, and sword from its block and blurred frenzy attack. Low cool downs from the traits means you can swap back and forth and almost always have something ready to earn you those extra few moments of relief from damage.

Supporting yourself or others: Again mostly up to the staff, and when combined with a few clones and IE (see above trait) you can quickly buff up anyone within Winds of Chaos’ range. Chaos storm is also good for both Chaos armor (33% chance to gain protection on hit) as well as Aegis for a block or two for you or an ally standing inside.
Unrelated, Time Warp can be used to generate heavy pressure on a target from damage or be used to speed up a Rez in a tight spot.

Damage: When using Staff your main damage will come from constant shatter spikes upon a target as well as confusion (chaos armor and shattering). Swords are a far more direct weapon and supply a far higher crit chance (again see traits) and when used with some practice can take massive chunks out of even the toughest Guardians, Necros, or Warriors.

Short Comings:
Lack of swiftness upkeep
Short on condition removal
Smaller heals (Ether feast + 3 will only result in a little over 1/3rd of health gain)

Pros:
High Survivability
Self Sustaining
Forgiving to those who experience lag/make mistakes.
Well rounded for Support or DPS/CC (easy to change jobs as needed)
Makes Glass Cannons Cry
Functions well without Clones/Phantasms in larger battles.

Feel free to make suggestions, ask questions and the like. Make Pinkish-Purple butterflies follow you on your journey!
~Swish~