Guild Wars 2

this is an intended band aid fix to a bug that allowed TC to stack swiftness infinitely by running back and forth through the line during the Beta period.

The skill has never been properly fixed since then.

Sure anything but the meta builds will be sub optimal that’s why they are meta. I post this because it’s fun to use and it’s a bit different. If someone else can have fun with it other than me or it inspires a new meta then I’ll call it a win.

If your not focused on speed clears and farming it still gets a job done and does it pretty well. Wvw is where I’ve had the most fun with it being able to run a shatter build where I don’t have to be in someone’s face for ip and it still hurts.

Japan actually has very terrible internet…

I think you’re trying to be vaguely racist and generalize the Asian people known as South Koreans, who do have beastly internet..

if you run a Sword Focus all the time I’m sure the foe sitting still and staring at you is entirely true Pyro.

I’ve brought it into basic PvE and Dungeon runs with minor changes and it works just fine. is it super meta? no but it works :P Give it a try, you might like it.

without Sinister gear actually being present in the Build editer tools this is a rough approximation of what I run and the numbers behind it. Just replace the carrion/rabid with Sinister in your mind…

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpMtdqxBNUrNCrBh6sslfSyBEgSWhrB-TFjFABLqGDvPBA42fIXlQDq6QVKBB4CAYkSijUicmuAkPEA8ocAA-w

Goal – To establish a comfortable Hybrid that maintains Large burst Spikes coupled with pressure/sustained damage from Conditions.

End result – Unreliable in sPvP at this time but manageable for WvW and PvE.

The Traits -

this is a 4/4/0/0/6 set up.

Domination : Mental Torment / Shattered Concentraton
Dueling: Far-Reaching Manipulations / Deceptive Evasion
Illusions: Compounding Power / Illusionary Elasticity / Maim the Disillusioned

This traits were chosen to either compensate for gear choices or purely by utility. There is some wiggle room but these are what I’ve found that work for me.

Weapons –
Gs / Staff

Just using the basic double ranged shatter set is pretty robust. Staff really shines here and can catch opponents off guard when the burns kick in.

Gs/Scepter + is also lovely for those more inclined to these types of set ups.

I don’t recommend ditching GS as its a great source for might and bursts tho..

The Gear -

Mixture of Zerkers and Sinister ofc! yes this will be a very glassy build but fear not..

I wont be super particular on the exact things to use but I will suggest numbers to aim for stat wise.

Power – 2k is a great spot to be in. this allows for 1.5-2.5k hits or crits even on the chunkiest warriors with Gs2. (increases with might stacks)

Crit Chance – 40-50% typically leaves you golden you can aim higher or lower but i dont recommend dropping below 35%..

Ferocity – 500 to 600 really makes your crits hurt… you can go lower or higher not that important you just want your spikes to really hurt.

Condition Damage – 1k or above. You can compensate with foods or sigils of bursting or runes if you’d like but getting above 1k is really what lets the sustain from Torment Bleed and Burn cover any dead periods. Personally i use Sigils of Bursting and Signet of Domination to push over that 1k.

The rest is up to you and your preferences. More Vit and Toughness are always a good thing but avoid Healing Power.

The Basics!

Play aggressively. This isnt a build that has a lot of room for back peddling or defensive reaction play. Even when/if using the staff you should be kiting in a way to set up your foes to be within Clone AA at all times.

Know your Foes. If you’re up against a condition immune target such as a D/D ele or Guardian don’t count on passive build ups to bring them down. Shatter bomb them and force them to heal or cleanse (they often cannot do both). against Glass cannon killers (thieves) kiting with a staff and allowing Condition spam to hurt them can put them on the defensive and open you up to shatter/pressure further.

Block happy foes are easily eaten by GS2. Its unblock able and it bounces into them 3 times, that’s up to 8k damage on a foe that just has to take it or waste a CD and dodge.

Weaknesses -

Its glassy so if you get caught with your pants down then you’re probably going to get spanked. practice your scrappy back fighting to compensate.

AoE spam if you are not careful can negate your clones and phantasms just like any mesmer build.

No On-demand F4, be careful about that..

Strengths -

Plays like standard Shatter but can swap gears to more passive play if needed. a bit more versatile on that front. Eats through most builds that compensate for only Condition or Raw Damage.

Lots of Panic to foes that are hit by a large burst and then 1k+ ticks from conditions and confusions..

Actually ticks on foes in PvE

Lets staff run double/triple duty as a Condition weapon (burns and vuln maybe some bleeds) Boon Spam and Phantasm Truck.

Prevents a lot of “Dead time” that both Shatter and Condition solo based builds tend to run up against where no damage is being done and another set up needs to take place.

Enjoy and Experiment, would love to see it improved and filled out by those who have more time to do it than i do these days!

For those complaining about evade invulnerable.. warriors have access to those too on a lower CD and from traits… They also last longer…

Now what else is there.. attacking while evading see theif daggers and sword…

Now that we have that out of the way we’ve removed and negated the vast majority of posts so far. What else do you guys have?

Los target dependant easily negated majority of skills that make up the Mesmer are a big reason for the counter.

And there isn’t really an analogous feeling when playing another profession aside from maybe an mm metro vs a Mesmer with moa?

I think PB really depends on what you’re fighting against more so than it needs more mesmers using it.

I think if you break down the most popular builds on other classes you’d get a lot more incite into whats going on.

Lets look at the Ele D/D Cele and a lot of its key skills.

How many of them are instant and how many are less than 3/4s (.5s is often enough to defy reaction times and rng when coupled with any sort of lag these would require more luck than skill to interrupt)

Lets for now, ignore anything that is a channeled skill since a regular interrupt is just as effective, and anything that is under 1/2s

Fire attument – Fire Grab 3/4s casting time the big hitter in this attunement and it is predictable when it comes. kitten recharge time.

It’s almost better to just let this one miss than it is to let them spin their wheels for another 10s inflicting burns.

Water – Cleasing Wave – 3/4s casting time and the pain in the kitten heal/condition clear skill. 40s Recharge time

Best to interrupt this one but this is the attunment that keeps ele’s afloat that you really want them to get out of asap.

Air- Lighting Touch – 3/4s casting time. Inflicts weakness and does damage. Completely negligible and probably not worth the interrupt? lets see the recharge…

10s recharge at base. is it really worth interrupting this to put it on its normal CD?

Earth –
Impale – 3/4s Casting time – auto attack – worthless to interrupt
Ring of Eath – 3/4s – blocks projectiles and deals some damage – 6s recharge (this is worth putting on a 10s recharge?)
Earthquake – 3/4s – causes KD – recharge of kitten . Better to interrupt or let them burn it and have to wait a minute to try again?

To my knowledge all utilities used are instant cast cantrips which have 0 chance of being interrupted.

While interrupting the key skills used is always a plus in a team fight or a 1v1, how much is really gained by bringing PB against a D/D ele vs something like CI?

I think PB is also mostly written off due to its non-effect against thieves, which negate this trait entirely. if it were allowed to re assume its ability to put their attacks on a CD i think it would hold its ground in the “viable” builds territory purely by forcing thieves to stop spamming things for 10s or even swap weapons (god forbid they ever do that).

I’ve run into a few cele mesmers in sPvP now and honestly they’re rubbish. Even with 15+ might stacks their shatters are more of a tickle than a threat (even as a full glkittenter myself). Sure they’re annoying to fight just like any mesmer vs mesmer fight can be but it only takes 1 maybe 2 good bursts to drop them just like any other class.

Honestly i think you’re just better off taking a soldiers or carrion or even rabid amulet and skipping over the total misses of Healing Power and Toughness and trying to hybrid as a mesmer. Might stacking is just not something we can comfortably rely on..

Might stacking requires a “ramp up” period where you either have to leech off of your team or meet a very specific set of circumstances in order to even really be effective.. Outside of PvE trying to “ramp up” to doing your best potential damage is pretty much a death sentence for a mesmer. We lack sustain power and passive defense in combat, something that the big and robust cele classes have way too much of.

place holder for later this month >>

all the Mesmer changes aside from the Power Block and Time Warp one look stupid and kitten enough to be legit..

Gw2 PvP is hard to watch no matter what the camera is on but i had my GF watch some some time ago which is a more outside perspective.

She got bored fast but here’s what she thought paraphrased..

Ele fights – Very flashy and pretty but nothing was happening and no one was losing any health.

Engineers – Couldn’t tell what they were doing and often lost track of them amongst particle effects and turret explosions and such.

Warriors – Could tell what they were doing but they were boring to watch just swinging swords or hammers.

Necro – They stand still alot and sometimes they turn black, couldn’t tell there were actually doing anything at all – got lost amid tons of minions which were interesting to watch (ironic really)

Thief – Hard to keep track of during a fight but kind of exciting since they usually ment a fight was about to end or someone was about to die – lack of huge flashy particles made it easier to understand their attacks.

Mesmers – Similar to thief but much harder to understand and very flashy. they ment a turn in battle but it was never clear how they managed it, a lot of things would just appear and then vanish again when they showed up.

Ranger – Very boring to watch, they just shoot arrows at things.

Guardians – too flashy hard to follow through all the particles. seemed to make a difference in a fight when they showed up but they made it hard to watch through all the blue fire and bubbles. 1v1 guard fights were boring.

I think a huge short fall on the Esports scene is the lack of a “pre season” that shows matches with further explinations and slow motion play backs and break downs that really explain wtf is even happening and what each player is doing on the field.

That being said, even with things like that it’s not exciting to explain that an Ele is going to hit F1 and then 2 then 4 then 3 then 5 and then F2 and then 4 etc.. etc.. over and over in the same order no matter what the fight is of when they join.

Thief and Mesmer are probably the most exciting to watch and explain as they have so very little passive padding in their play. You dont have to explain that a thief can tank 3v1 because it has full adrenaline and 4 traits that cure conditions for it at set intervals while its signets provide passive healing that is boosted by another trait …

you just have to say that this thief/mesmer has a boost to that one attack and that this is how they set up to land it and the result is obvious when it misses or lands.

I would theorize that if you could give the other 6 classes as many passive bs skills as thief and Mesmer have (which is maybe 2 or 3 max and you cant even access all of them in a viable build) not only would the game itself be more exciting but the meta would shift entirely.

Just to add to the point, LoL is a nearly pure active pvp game where you can see everything and understand everything that is taking place without any or very little prior knowledge. same for CoD or Halo or Dota.. while complex under the surface, at face value they are very simple and easy to understand.

If you start out as easy to understand then a viewer can enjoy watching and appreciate advanced play more readily, and Gw2 offers both of these sparingly to almost not at all..

Think back to the first “no-scope” video you ever saw. pretty awesome right? you understood that it was hard to hit a target with a precision weapon when zoomed in without any pretext or having to read a block of text, and the fact that someone could aim and hit without zooming in was instantly obvious of some form of an above average skill level..

What in Gw2 is similar to that? Maybe a Shatter mesmer bomb that 1 shots or a thief that can shred something apart in 2 seconds or less.. but what else?

I’ll give you 2 minutes to come up with something..

…

Got anything yet? No?

Don’t worry, i know you couldn’t have come up with anything else because there is NOTHING else…

TL;DR
Thief is the easiest class to understand for an outsider, mesmer a close second only by virtue of muddy class mechanics.

Passive back end padding that keeps the other 6 classes afloat (aside from necro and ranger maybe) is likely the biggest barrier to exciting combat and comprehensive viewing experience to a non-Gw2 player.

The average viewer wants to understand and appreciate high stakes competitive play at the highest levels without having to first read a small novel. Gw2 does not offer this and never has.

I’ve had minor success running a mtd shatter with a mix on zerk and sinister armor and trinkets. But I’m a low tier server..

Anyway what I’ve discovered is that rune sets often don’t make a lot of difference as to your effectiveness aside from a limited few sets. If your build needs runes to. Shine then you’ve got options but shatter is not a build that really requires a rune set to succeed which is kinda nice.

I use travelers these days and don’t notice a big difference from when I used other sets as my play style has changed to compensate and abuse the movement speed rather than counting on crits and raw power spikes.

It also let’s me run a staff gs set up so that’s a plus for me.

I would guess 3 seconds would be enough but without being able to actually physically test it I don’t know. Maybe just have a conditional application such as if target is already dazed or stunned then it does not apply additional.daze or interrupt or.something..

rather than an AoE circle daisy chain (which sounds like a nightmare to code) you could just have it generate projectiles that travel X distance? Kinda kills the ohkitten mystery but probably makes it a lot less OP by being block able and visual (able to be clearly dodged or avoided)

It should also have a small ICD to avoid rampant daisy chaining inside of huge zergs or tight clusters of foes. Small enough to allow for multiple chains at max range but long enough to prevent infinite “bounces”

Something that maybe looks like a WoC projectile but travels about 50% faster

making it projectile also allows for combo fields and reflect counter play balancing it against other classes and encouraging other builds to form around it to counter play.

Thats just my thoughts.

and war beat me to the first thought i had.. i should refresh more often

All is vain?

i think anyway

the decaying rate for Gw2 match making (the rate at which it looks for even matches and then fair matches and then close and then who cares i need a match up) may be a little bit too fast i agree..

but remember that Gw2 PvP has a Very very small selection of players on and in que at any given time to be selected from.

This is the largest problem for any match making system. make it as robust as you want but when you’ve only got 20 people in the pool it’s still going to end up kittenty on your end.

Before you grind to kitten the pairing systems i think you need to improve and Grow the Player Base to really see if it works or not. As it stands i think it probably works very well. We just can’t tell..

you guys are nerds…

if you get lucky you can be pretty useful in sPvP team fights against Pugs.

you should really only use it when a fight is very close and you know you can get a kill for your teammate to keep them up tho.

Beyond that its only good for repositioning so you can res a downed player.

anet implemented the pieces back when they were still committed to making sure Each class tier was distinguishable on the battle field. They didnt want an Ele to be able to look like a thief or a guardian or a warrior to be able to appear as a necro or mesmer etc..

Later the gave that up and removed town clothes and created full Outfits and let everyone look the same.

It’s just a timing thing really.

Mirror Blade – Improve bounce target promotions. Tired of this skill bouncing between my clones and allies and only striking my target once.

Mantras – Alter to Instant Stances with duration and a passive – retain charge secondary that drains from duration/removes passive. Increase CD’s to compensate.
Two stances shouldnt be allowed to be active at one time maybe?

Mantras are just too micro management happy and really bring combat to a halt when your bar is filled and your blowing through them and having to recharge them for 3 seconds over and over..

Allow Mesmers more “Passive” punishment such as traits the can interrupt on critical hits or Boosts to Confusion damage (x2 maybe?). More damage per unique boon on a target would be lovely as well.. As a class that has nearly 0 passive traits it would help put us more on par with the “popular” classes.

Mimic – Roll it back or have a full CDI with the mesmer community just on this one utility so we can figure out what would be a good change to make and maybe get it into circulation for mesmers.

Usless / Subpar Traits either removed and replaced or buffed to be competitive with the current “staples” such as DE/BI/Halting/Rending Shatter/ PU/ IP/ etc..

Rethink on Clones and how they are generated. DE is so popular as it is the ONLY reliable way to pump out clones and maintain a footing in combat or a meta. More traits with similar effects or a rework of how weapons or Mesmer in general can keep clone generation an after thought vs a priority would/should be top of the list imo.

Some New Weapons not just a MH or two, but a full set of at least a MH OH and TH made available.

Introduction of the Hallucination Condition in some form (probably not just for mesmers but this really should be a condition in the game not just a toxic spore thing).

Alternative CC , such as draining Endurance or flip flopping a targets stats for a brief period of time. (imagine flopping a thiefs Power stat with its Healing Power or Toughness or Vit)

Bug fixes across the board and improved AI pathing would be lovely.

and as i cant think of anything, Making mesmers Scarey again.. I wish that when i rolled up the reaction was “oh kitten a Mesmer everyone be prepared for anything!” vs the current “It’s a Mesmer, just dodge the shatters / kill clones and wait for our thief to eat it..”

as little as i personally use MI, i can find more uses for it vs the Ether Signet which is not a great healing skill even tho it looks it on paper.

denis.9487:

In a perfect world but since the only pvp we have requires you to stand on a circle. Engies are very difficult.

unless your team has abandoned you or are completely incompetent…

or unless you are attempting to push far by yourself for some strange reason..

you should never have to stand on a circle and fight 1v1. You should be able to skirt around the circle or leave it entirely at any moment if you need to. >.>

Been pondering this for a while but i havent the time or patience to do it and do it well..

So. for the community a challange.

The NPE and Trait changes seem to be something we are premanently stuck with so how about this.

a General guide for brand new players or mesmers that covers.

- What to spend SP on as you level (best utilities to unlock without wasting what little you get)

- What to practice and pay attention to

- What traits to unlock for builds and what can be ignored / done later (traits that are seldom or never used)

Tips on coping with being an “end game” class (full potential and play locked behind the now level 80 GM trait wall).

Perhaps a “if your goal is to use this toon in X game mode” header that links to specific builds to ease navigation and headaches from walls o text.

Things to exclude – Alternative leveling guides, there are enough of these as is. along with lengthy weapon guides as there are a lot of these as well.

Would really love to see this happen and it might later give someone upstairs (or a forum monkey) something to point to for some reason.

I’ll just leave this here for now, feel free to use the area below to post links or make suggestions or whatever should you decide to participate.

PS : i know your guide semi-covers this chaos but it would be nice to have it in a bit more detail and step by step of where to go and what to do and when (ie go do 100% completion of this area and do this while you’re there if you want to open up a Shatter/Phantasm/PU skill at the same time)

When it comes down to it, you really have to abuse just about every system you can just to stand a chance against better or stellar thieves.

The majority of their gap closers do not require them to be facing you (unlike every other profession) And they cannot have their weapon skills placed on a CD from an interrupt.

you can stop them from attacking with a Daze chain or a Stun but that really only lets them build up more initiative to hit you even harder with.

So, what can you do.

if its a D/D or D/P or SB or P/P you stand a good chance. try not to blow all your gap openers at once, try to use them along with stealth or dodge rolls (or just a blink) to not only get some distance but get Behind them. Heart Seeker might let them catch up to you again but they’ll have to use it a few times to get to you after they blow Steal.

Chaos Storm is a short reprieve from stealth happy ambushers and can let your Cooldowns come off so you can drag the fight out longer.

S/P is very annoying but their evade animations are easier to predict and they are easier to Hit once you’ve got it figured out. Often if you can set up clones and then lead the thief away so they are behind them, you can land a good burst. Its hard to see things coming up from behind and most players get tunnel vision when they think they’re about to win a fight.

S/D hey best of luck, this is pretty much just a hard counter and a middle finger from Anet. Best luck i’ve had is just blowing up in their face Right after they land their #3 evade + small damage hit. If i’ve got a clone or two nearby then its all the better. Honestly tho you do need a team to peel these off of you or else i’d say 99% of the time you are not going to last on or around a point.

Things to Practice would be the dodge roll and then Phase retreat out of camera view (behind) on all players.

Blinking behind players as they line up to take their bigger shots at you.

using Decoy or MI to place yourself somewhere that is least suspected, aka dont just keep running in a straight line or back track slightly…

How this stuff helps:

Gw2 combat is based off of tab targeting and auto targeting.. often if you or a foe is not in your LoS a skill will go onto a half CD or auto lock onto the next nearest target in the LoS cone (in your case probably a clone or Phantasm)

Without monkeying around with targeting and hit/auto attack settings players can easily end up having to try and “find the real mesmer” once their mistake happens and they hit one of your AI buddies. This is either a life saver or only a very short lul where you can heal up or set up a new burst..

Last bit of advice i can give is that while thieves may put pressure on you constantly you cannot play defensively and reactionary as a Glkittenter. You have to return the pressure while flying all over the board which will take a lot of practice to be able to pull off.

PS: standing on the side lines pew pewing away like a bearbow power ranger without looking behind yourself or to the side is a sure fire way to get ganked and gutted by a glass thief, your team cannot help you if you are out of reach or out of the way.

Short of a instant level 80 scroll that also grants + 500g + 500 Sp or unlocks all traits ..

thats with no changes to the NPE or trait system…

Even with a new profession or race i don’t think i could struggle through the labors of leveling and hunting down all the traits just to test and see what is or isnt viable or completely useless and broken or bugged…

majority of Anet is on Christmas vacation.

Fixes will show up around the 13th after they return and have a week or two to look at the issues and then decided if they have the resources to fix them properly or bandaid it and throw more shiny things at you and hope you won’t notice it’s not really fixed.

as enlightening and healthy as the thread started out. i think it’s provided all the competent answers it can from those that are able to present them effectively..

Ty to Sup and chaos and other chaos and anyone else that helped shine some light on the matter, i’m too lazy to go look up your names but yay for you.

As it seems, the thread has now devolved into trollish behavior, name calling, and general uneducated anger I think it’s just time to let this thread be consumed back into the recesses of the Gw2 2nd+pages..

aka, at this point stop feeding the trolls and let the thread go (before it gets locked or deleted)

Just to clarify what I mean by stacked deck.

To win in Vegas you cannot make many mistakes and you have to come out positive what you went in.

For the casino to win they just have to get you to 0. You have no end game.

For specialized builds and classes you can only make so many mistakes .. you have to bat 100% to come out on top

To cele builds they only need to outlast you and have room for a lot more mistakes. They really only need to bring the 51% to tip the match in their favor.

I find the topics on “why is/cant/arent Mesmers X” always have the same answer..

It’s a similar answer to Why Vegas will always sustain itself and make money.

It’s a stacked deck.

Mesmers are currently and often have been on the wrong end of a stacked deck or the 49% to the houses 51%.

Mesmers focus on large single target situational CC and Damage and Conditions in a game that often never presents those situations even in sPvP. They’ve been repeatedly nerfed or bugged or changed and very rarely were they given compensation down the road. I can probably safely say its the least buffed class since launch day…

Mesmers also lack Passive, back end defenses or offenses. It’s almost a purely active class in a meta and game that is full of the exact opposite. Warriors, Guardians, Necros, Elementalists are all very passive heavy on the back end and have a lot more wiggle room to play with when they kitten up.

Mesmers also require as stated, a lot of setting up to do things. You want to land a 8-10k burst on a target? you need to use a few skills at the right time and then hope they arent dodged or evaded or invlund or blocked or you arent blinded and then when you’re ready you have to hope that the AI pathing is working at atleast 95% and there is no heavy cleave or AoE and that nothing bugs out and your burst lands.

Compaired to lets say.. a Glass warrior. You use a skill that can KD or Stun and hope its not a miss and then just press F1 or 100blades.

the Cele meta really kills off classes that need to specialize to do well.. There is an issue with something somewhere (i’m staring at Might as a huge cause along with other things) when the traditional and long standard saying is no longer true..

A Jack of all trades is a master of None, does not apply for Gw2 for some classes.. in these cases a Jack of all is a Master of all, and easily outshines those that can only do 1 maybe 2 at the same level…

Its not a good design or balance and it really needs to be looked at in depth if “Esports” is ever going to get off the ground and a healthy Rotating meta is to flower in the stagnate pools of 2 years neglect..

lmao..

charr footprint bug has been a known bug since closed beta..

I take moa as it tends to be much more of a game changer than mi..

Sure mi can allow a repositioning or res but it’s hard to coordinate with a team while moa… Well if anyone sees a moa they can focus and bring it down without much effort.

China kinda refuses to allow its citizens access to the world that is anything outside of China.. it’s self induced.

Chinese players don’t visit this site because they cannot visit this site (the vast majority anyway).

Chinese players can’t play with us in game, they can’t even google or Youtube up half of the videos we post about the game or matches or whatever…

It’s a big deal to get a game into china and have it make it to launch, but beyond that point you’re really just shooting into the dark kitten little information leaks back and forth..

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/The_Lost_Shores

people were mad

cool idea tho bro, next time do some research tho kay?

Mimic does work on thief when they have all the boons but the problem is that they can easily steal yours.

Mimic also has a long CD that means you have to use it at the most optimal time…

All the boon spam classes can also continuously re apply their boons which typically have short durations on them… Mimic isn’t a good option against these as it only puts you on equal footing for a few seconds…

Hmmm..

Strengths for me..

Shatter builds I’m great with I can drop almost anyone even if I start out poorly. Good with surprise bursts and positioning as well.

Gotten better with 2v1 fights but still can’t handle some match ups.

Baiting out key skills and interrupting stomps and res attempts.

Weaknesses..

Not good at hiding in stealth

I love to stand and stay on point when I probably shouldn’t I also don’t run away when I know things are bad and I should just give up a cap.

Micro management builds are just too much work for me

I often blow skills before or after they are needed when I get lazy or over confident..

I think if you want to discuss ls and the fact that no one can seem to meet in the middle on wether it’s been a success or not you need to look at some larger issues and things that look unrelated.

As far as pve and new story are concerned that ls is a bit slow and seems unreliable for delivery where some episodes have added whole maps while only 3 or 2 instances and others have added 5 or 6 instances but no new map. It’s a scrap shoot and we don’t get a lot of warning as to what we can look forward to or what’s in the chamber.

As far as ls delivering on mass bug fixes and character progression through new skills weapons or traits and sweeping game changes as most other traditional mmo expansions do then ls is extremely far behind the curve. ls seems to take away from core or vanilla improvements and push them off the table.

Also concerning is the dev team split where in we have a small ls team a small PvP and balance team and a small gem shop crew so what are the other 160+ people doing day in and out.. there’s no clear communication and what appears to be a serious lack of sourcing the forums.

Yes the forums are kitten to read when you spend your days creating this game but there are some gems on here and some very intelligent people. There are also a.few that show potential as game designers but they are rarely recognised.. a net also tends to have a poor track record when it comes to negative feed back. But feed back is information and all information is useful when it comes down to making directional choices for a product.

I also think many people lash out at the ls because they receive inaction in areas of the game they want changed or improved.. the consistent rehashing on old ideas seems to be taking precedent over working on older and more pressing issues… This is the 4th redo to dailies and the 3rd redo to PvP match making while many bugs and older complaints sit quietly in line to be addressed.

I could write.more but I need a bit to do it more clearly and cleanly

a fun favorite of mine when i run solo is to bring Mirror Images and blink.

When i get about 3 clones up and the fight is going well i’ll move in and pop an F2 just for that “ohkitten” reaction where someone will burn a dodge or block or invuln etc..

as they try to get out of the way of my most useless shatter skill I simply blink behind them and out of sight and Throw down Mirror images and a quick dodge in their direction.

if i’m close enough and done it properly they’ve either gone into scan mode trying to find me or their AA has auto locked them on a new target and they’re focused there now. this only works if I and my clones are just out of their frame and the F1 bomb sinks home.

I’ve found that higher tier players tend to disable or neglect their backward dodge and movement and a surprise rush from behind leaves them vulnerable until they can spin their camera around..

and the way the cam is seated.. the clones really only appear as they explode leaving very little room for only the fastest of reflexes and connections to get out of the way.

basically is Feight > abuse camera > set up > Fire away > let the camera do the work for you > stomp if needed? > profit

Alternatively, tho i never was able to make it work very well myself, Bring Viel.

Even charging clones and phants set to shatter that walk through a Viel go invisible. and its very hard to get away from invisible clones…

its a huge CD and sacrifice just to land a big hit tho.

I’ve also seen Focus 4 used to pull an enemy into a clone blob and then get bombed as they scoot along the floor like a dog with a dingle berry..

Pistol is great when traited but 20s still feels pretty long to me for the stun/daze/blind/(extra blind if you’ve got IE) and i feel like i miss out on too much to take it. untraited i wouldn’t bring it along personally..

aand i’m tired and cant think of anything else i dont see done very often..

Just a note that gs2 is unblockable and using it on a block happy guard or engi that thinks it’s safe while shields are up can really make them panic.

44006 is decent for damage and boon stripping but you still end up pretty squishy.

04406 is tankier but your damage will only tickle until you can really stack conditions on a target.

never tried a 04046 build myself but if you want to pick up the scepter trait then give it a shot i guess.

Just bare in mind that condi shatter preforms less than awesome in large team fights and if you run with a core group be sure that they understand you will not be offering any quick bursts when it comes to sPvP.

if you play smart tho you can pretty easily wipe an enemy off a point in a 1v1.

Outside of sPvP Sinister stats (mixed with zerker or cavalier or something similar) can actually let a Condi shatter basicly run an effective Hybrid between medium to large direct damage spikes and High ticks from the torment.

PvE its less than awesome but conditions will always be that way…

at least it works well on the mordrem if you’re into LS

Slippery and very complex slope here.

Far as I know most studios don’t take issue with machinima but the programs and technical know how to crack into and then extract and later alter and reimplement into a private rendering of the world will take a lot of learning and you will not find those answers on these forums.

A net does not allow mods to their game that make it client side nor do they offer support for private servers.

If you wanted to have custom animations you’d be making your entire video inside of something like Maya or the like.

As for monetization check the user end licenses and legal stuff for that.

StickerHappy.8052:

Swish.2463:

Phantasm generally means a build that uses clone and phantasm up time to generate its damage, or a build that neglects shatters.

Clones don’t do damage. Any decent mesmer whatever build he uses does not neglect shatters.

Clones used to do +damage beta days.

clones apply conditions, last i checked bleeding still did damage

also sharper images only applies off of clones and phantasms.

but hey lets only take the first part of my post and run with that.

Chaos Minor is a great place for some of the stronger but “not as good as Y” to go live imo. Almost none of those traits are worth picking up x.x

I’d wish for a trait to carry over a similar effect to the ele’s one where we get to retain passive effects even after using the active. Many of our signets boast less than stunning passives as they stand now and something like that might make me reconsider taking Ether Signet out of the “meh” bin.

Phantasm generally means a build that uses clone and phantasm up time to generate its damage, or a build that neglects shatters.

we have a lot of builds but the majority pin around those two things.

do you abuse your F1-F4 skills or do you ignore them unless absolutely needed?

those are what will define a play style for a build tho weapons and utilities and traits can go further down the rabbit hole. From a top down/ newer player perspective I would think it would be easier to start from The key stone and move down into the murky waters that can become a signet build or a mantra / support / boon share/ ect..

Deciding if you want to focus first on learning how to place and leave your illusions up for the greatest effect or learning when to shatter to do the most damage or cause the most trouble.

I would say if you’re going to mostly level through general PvE someone new to a mesmer should lean towards Phantasm based builds or those that don’t focus on shattering such as PU or the Dungeon builds or a mantra build etc..

I listed the Big three tho i admittedly forgot Reflect for higher end PvE stuff which would make it the Big 4. The reflect build is technically just a Phantasm build tho highly specialized.

maybe we just need a better generalized name for Non-Shattering builds. Sorry for any confusion.

Forums are great but I will point out and correct that Mesmers have only two.build types.

Shatter and phantasm

Shatter covers the meta PvP power shatter and the weaker cousin of condition shatters .

Pu and some of the other passive more bunker builds fall under phantasms.

Lockdown is a middle ground between the two but can easily lean one way or another.

We also only have about 3 or 4 base builds with minor variations on them to grab different perks or support different players.

These builds are shatter, pu, and lockdown. I’m sure I’m forgetting one but I’m at work and can’t search for it.

Find those and go from there

Mesmer are a bit meek by design and seem to show the growing pains of the games design and the short comings of being one of the Last classes to be finalized..

That being that Warriors (who came first) have a majority of active combat skills and a lot of back end passive effects (and i mean a lot) and are generally probably overbalanced in some unfix able ways. To the Rangers or Engineers that were finalized somewhere in the middle that have a mix of active and passive and are more manageable to fix.

and then there is us, almost completely active defense and skills with very few to no passive back end and a lot of extremely situational traits and skills that probably should have been scrapped but were not tested or given a solid chance to be replaced. under-balanced and in need of a lot of tlc for what could be unfix-able problems (at least those of us here in the forum can never agree on a good solution)

this creates problems for newer players as well. when fighting a mesmer or thief these two classes dont and cant behave like any of the others as they are designed so differently and require a separate learning curve in approaching and playing. It becomes frustrating quickly for people new to Gw2 or MMO’s or Games in general and thusly before they can learn or adapt they simply just deam it OP and demand it be nerfed.

The direction change sharply turning towards retention of newer players and hand holding is not a good thing for mesmers or thieves. When your aim is to make it as friendly as possible you can end up making the more advanced or different professions terribly weak because even a brand new player needs to be able to kill it and win a fight against it. this is whats happened to both of the classes and has really only recently halted and turned around a bit.

As the games gotten older, most players are now able to easily or without effort stomp on a majority of mesmers due to a lot of nerfs or introduced bugs or buffs on their side and it made Mesmers a very very unwanted class outside of some dungeons in PvE.

However our recent mini buffs and alterations also send up irrational fears of the return of the “unbeatable” mesmers many players faced when they were new so it’s a knee jerk reaction to yell and be angry any time mesmers might look like they’re about to get something that will put them on equal footing with Guardians or Eles or Warriors.

Thats the Bed anet made for us and we have to live in it… Poor choices lead to a much harder time coming back from the brink of “Just reroll if you want to participate”.

I don’t think any of us regulars on here would qualify for the illustrious position of a Forum monkey, as many of us at some point or another have called out anet on bad design or lack of attention etc etc…

and typically its in less than a professional manner.

I get the feeling Anet wants people or a person who is going to give coverage to every forum sub section and who will do so without agreeing with or folding to other players reasoning or anger whether it is justified or not.

Best of luck to those that apply tho!

Can I just have it change all phantoms and clones targets to my current target instead of shattering?

If not then have it be a boon Condi swap like at. One boon to you and one Condi to them with damage multipliers for each remaining boon and or condition on you or the target.

Shard 11
~String 14-1

Smooth tile greeted their feet once more, all except the norn, who found the relief of home with his lips and nose and the rest of his face as he lay sprawled at the base of the gate. A flop onto his side and a quick glance at the others caused a deep and guttural laughter to burst from his belly. The sight of them all back, and the little asura, face still twisted in the efforts of his magics, was like the musty warmth of his fathers finest ale in his gut.

It was South who gave in next, she never as able to explain it, but the Norns thunderous guffaws always got her going too. Her laugh was much more of a hearty chuckle with a growl mixed in, but Charr are always growling in some way, no matter the times. After her came the hearty cheers from both Ralos and Knurt as the armor clad human clapped the wispy Sylvari on his shoulder.

Ely maintained her composure up until the point where, with another clap on the shoulder, Knurt was sent reeling into Thalkk, sending the very grumpy Asura into a flailing rage of cursing and screaming as he struggled to push the “Foul Shrubbery” off of his tiny frame. She joined in their laughter and merry making as Brojm righted the Squirming asura whilst apologizing to the sapling.

In the end it was Thalkk that brought them back to their focus. Even though he hadn’t escaped the mirth without a smile himself, it was his sharp and light tone that cut through the noise. “Another,” his tone dripping sarcasm, like a Dolyak in a rain storm, “/successful/ excursion it would seem… Yet we still are no closer to discovering the key, or the source.”

Slowly he tottered to an about face, and gazed into the swirling iridescent nothingness. “Which one do we try next?”