Guild Wars 2

Mighty Assasin.3816:

Hmm if there’s a new condition, what does this condition turn into when converted to a boon?

swiftness?

Before everyone QQs too much about mesmers and thieves, there is still a distinct possibility that the OP builds will get nerfed to the ground.

Some the torment condition on mesmers (at least) makes sense because they are 1. one or the two second slowest classes and 2. have no real conditions since confusion was nerfed.

Sinoran.9140:

I agree. ascended amulets are just so kitten hard to get. I mean come on Anet, 50 kills? 1 champion kill? 5 events? PLAY THE GAME? kitten that, that’s GRINDING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think grinding is repeatedly doing something you don’t like in return for a reward it provides. If you enjoy doing it, then it’s not grinding.

Dailies are dull and boring. The very BEST they can ever be is unobtrusive. IMO, of course.

edit: +1 to Vayne’s explaination of the situation. People want the endorphin kick of achieving the next level of something. ANet is only providing what a lot of people wanted while trying to minimize the impact of those that don’t.

I wish they would post the changes that are coming so we can prepare.

This

Skill and Trait Balance Update – The largest balance patch ever is being introduced in this build, which includes significant updates to traits and skills to introduce more viable build diversity. Every profession trait line is seeing changes. Updates also have been made to some less popular skills to improve their effectiveness.

is terrifying.

The Elder Scrolls series is well known for being buggy at launch and also not being particularly well balanced.

Usually you can become crazy OP about 2 hours into their games.

I think the most Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla (look it up) and I can reasonably expect is to see the changes to the traits ANet has been discussing. A balance overhaul including a change to how weakness works. And possibly (but not necessarily) the “new” condition specific to Necros.

Hoping for more than that is asking to be disappointed.

Aeonblade.8709:

Vayne.8563:

Don’t get your hopes up.

Gonna have to agree with Vayne on this one as amazing as it is.

I also think Vayne is right, with the caveat that the correct pronoun for a sentence that has two subjects is “we”.

For example: We started to play the game together and had high hopes; however, they were disappointed with the removal of the peg leg from WvW and left the game. We may try another MMO together in the future.

The only thing that I object to is the number of times we have to repeat trivial activities in order to get the festival achievements.

Given the incredible reward for breaking a pinata, I think a reasonable number to require is like… 5.

I understand the fireworks launching, because it makes it so Lion’s Arch always has fireworks going on. But it’s still not fun.

I did the fireworks, pinatas, and the holographic creatures, but I drew the line at the effigies.

JakobGW.5730:

To Tarnished Coast:

If there is anyone who needs to “learn” from this match, it’s your small man groups. This is where we shine. We enjoy the 3 – 10 man fights, something you are not used to with your zergs. We actually use the target system – you know, hitting the TAB button or left clicking a name. Since you’ve forgotten, this allows you to actually use an ability against a single person. You also have to time your dodges, use your stun breakers effectively, and watch your opponent to gauge his/her cool downs so you know when to capably use your abilities.

Also there is a major problem when one of our berserker warriors eats an entire 100 blades from a TC player and it only takes 1/5 of our warrior’s total health. That tells us that your players are so used to running pvt gear that they don’t even know how to properly fight in smaller skirmishes. They are so used to the zerg meta that they are clueless to anything else.

If you need more advice, all you have to do is ask. I’m sure we can help you “learn” from this engagement, just as you’ve graciously offered your advice.

At the risk of sounding reasonable, I think that’s fair. The gear that I would use in a small man havoc squad is entirely different than the gear I would use when running in a zergball. Heck the weapons and traits I’d use would be different also.

If you encountered a havoc squad in PVT gear your comments are well founded. However, you may also have jumped on a group of people running back to the zerg, who didn’t re-equip for the journey.

When I considered it, it wasn’t worth it to me. I went full P/Pr/Crit. (But I have a Cavalier amulet). But I don’t think you’ll notice the loss in power if you do and you get an extra 720 hp out of it.

However, I do swap out some stuff when going into WvW. I replace my mask and legs with Soldiers gear and my weapons with knights. (which is a pain, I know.)

Use http://www.gw2state.com/temples.html. The site uses Gw2’s API to tell what’s open.

Also, I misunderstood. I thought you were looking for a staff replacement. I think the sword phantasm is as good as you are going to do, if you don’t want to replace the staff.

First, you can pick up an exotic cavalier backpiece from the Temple of Balthazar (Glorious Victory) for 42,000 karma.

The problem with swapping out the staff is that it’s your primary defensive weapon and you simply cannot replace the movement utility. However, you could consider sword (or scepter???) / pistol. Take 10 points from Chaos and add it to dueling for either blade training or duelist discipline. (Although with the blade training is probably better.) You still have 3000 armor which is very very high.

If you try to sword / pistol, don’t buy a second sword. If you leave the slot blank for the second main-hand weapon, the same sword will be used in both sets.

You could also get a kill stacking sigil for the pistol, either perception or bloodlust.

Like this…
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.0|c.1i.h1.a.1i.h8|c.1i.h1.c.1i.h14|1n.71j.1n.71j.1n.71j.1n.71j.1n.71j.1n.71j|2v.0.2v.0.3v.0.2v.0.3v.0.ci.67|a3.k24.a3.p45.5|0.0|0.3d.3l.34.3o|e

I’m making a second mesmer for exactly this reason.

Use this to find where the temple is open.

http://www.gw2state.com/temples.html

First I recommend gearing up.

For a tank guardian there are three conventional gear sets to consider. Clerics, Knights, and Soldiers. (You can also run Zerker gear and demolish things, but you said tanky).

Clerics is power / toughness / healing power
Knights is toughness / power / precision
Soldiers is power / toughness / vitality

Personally I like Knights.

Check out this thread https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/guardian/Guide-Hammer-and-Altruistic-Healing-gameplay

It has tons of details.

For me, movement speed outside of combat is a quality of life issue. Because we have so many useful utilities, I don’t think I’d trade any of them for a speed boost signet.

I think our in-combat mobility can be pretty awesome, with phase retreat, portal, and blink.

The determining factor to me is how much better tier 2 was from tier 1 and tier 3 was from tier 2.

The ascended items to date have increased the effective power (from gw2buildcraft website) by 6.5% which is significant, but not overwhelming.

@Vayne.

I agree (re population), but in all fairness, TC has had an ongoing campaign to lure new people to our server (unofficial RP server, WvW bandwagon, etc…). So the experience on TC may not be indicative of the experience everywhere else.

I never played GW1, but I understand that people still had to grind for skills. So there was almost always something to work toward. I think the GW2 design made a mistake in not including something like this. (besides Legendaries, which are so gated behind RNG as to not really be an incentive for many of us (at least not for me))

I don’t mind ascended trinkets, but I’m not looking forward to ascended armor and weapons. Even if I could pick a single main, I still like playing around with different builds, and I think ascended gear stagnates that.

For example, I saw the meta in WvW migrate from all-damage-zerker-we-are-the-champions to Knights-gear-can’t-touch-this. I suspect that the meta will migrate to conditions-burning-down-the-house. However, ascended gear could slow or stagnate that shift, because it’s too hard to gear up and change play styles.

I absolutely understand why ANet introduced ascended gear, I also understand why they did it. However, I think the introduction of a relatively grindier gear set (only compared to exotics, I’m not comparing this to MMOs I haven’t played) has some reprecussions.

What is your goal build? I usually decide how much of each stat I want and build from there.

For me, ascended gear is the hardest to swap out. (The biggest pain to obtain), so I tend to pick ascended gear that’s useful in any situation and guild from there.

In general, I would go full beserkers and make up the deficit in vitality from my armor.

Depends. If something gets a big buff or someone announces an interesting build I’ll try it out (if I have an 80 in that class). But invariably I return to my two mains.

Vayne.8563:

I’m against the RNG for all the best skins too. Though Anet ocassionally throws us a bone, they’re clearly reserving the best skins for RNG boxes. Not cool at all.

Bookmarking this for the next time someone accuses Vayne as being a blind fan boy.

I also hate the RNG, I think everyone does. I find it’s easier if I don’t even look at what’s available. Invariably, the items they give us are things I don’t really want.

pullnointer.1476:

TooBz.3065:

Dailies are to encourage people to get out into the open world and repopulate the desolate zones. So its actually pretty common that after running dungeons and fractals you may only be at 2/5.

I have the same problem with WvW.

wrong way to do it. forcing people to get ascended gear so they are competitive/can do fractals by making them do the easiest thing in the game repeatedly? strong.

Yeah, I’m not a fan. My complaint with daily activities is not that they are “required” its that they aren’t fun. Often people comment that it doesn’t matter that they aren’t fun because they are easy. To me this makes no difference, a boring task is boring whether or not it’s easy.

penatbater.4710:

With all the QQ I hear, I wonder what people spend on their laurels =/ I stopped doing dailies (coz of lag) for a week or two now, but I still have around 60+.

Gear for alts. So far I have bought four amulets, and a ring.

Yeah, thanks. I was misinformed.

Dailies are to encourage people to get out into the open world and repopulate the desolate zones. So its actually pretty common that after running dungeons and fractals you may only be at 2/5.

I have the same problem with WvW.

Its meaningless to most people. Every month someone posts about how they bought two of the same item and got kittened.

This happens all the kitten time. At least once a month someone posts about this. The “unique” label is NOT information bearing and really should be changed to something everyone can understand. I’m really really disappointed in ANet about this.

I think the condition nerf was really targeted a the HGH engineer which could stack a ridiculous number of conditions so that you killed yourself trying to remove them.

I posted this in another thread but I recommend buying masterwork (green) gear with power as an attribute. Also I prefer the sword or a pistol over the focus. And don’t forget to upgrade your trinkets.

I sort of don’t think that requiring a stomp at all is fair. It rewards zerging over small group play.

The stealth stomp, mist stomp, portal stomp, stability stomp, etc… are the only ways to get a successful stomp off in a zerg.

I don’t think we was complaining. If he was, he’s more subtle that most forum posters.

Hawkian.6580:

Aeonblade.8709:

Zepidel.5349:

Log in and chop down 5 trees, salvage some junk i had to go get off low level mobs, maybe do a boring easy dungeon, and talk to the laurel vendor. I then receive my anet issued 1 laurel per day. Then Proceed to find a group for fractals a dungeon I have run 9001 times so I can have a shot at a ring and my anet issued 1 pristine relic per day. Look down at my keyboard and think well guess i have no reason to be online anymore till tomorrow, but hey in 2 months ill have a piece of jewelry that is 5% better than the one that took me 5 minutes to get.

This is the endgame in GW2… doing dailies. Who would of thought a company could take one of the worst things introduced in world of warcraft and build a game around it.

Are they ever going to make this game interesting past leveling up and exploring?

Incoming legion of fanboys to tell you this game isn’t for you and you are playing it wrong.

To answer your question: Maybe, but we the players have to keep being vocal about how displeased most of us are with the end game.

shrug Why isn’t it a possibility that the game isn’t for him?

Really dangerous use of the word “most” there anyway.

It is possible that the game isn’t for him. However, if the introductory statement is correct, that the end game is nothing more than doing your daily achievements (which I don’t think it is.) then I have to ask, who is it for? I have great difficulty imagining that there are enough people itching to chop down 6.66 digital trees every day to support the game.

For me, my end game is WvW, at least for now. I desperately do not want a gear grind / gear treadmill. I’ve never done a raid, so I have absolutely no opinion on them.

lordkrall.7241:

TooBz.3065:

Alternatively, they could scale the cost based on server population. It should cost less to move to a low population server than a high population server. (Which I thought was the plan, but I must have dreamed it.)

That is actually already the case.

Thanks, when I looked at transfers I must have missed the difference. I’ll check when I get home.

Alternatively, they could scale the cost based on server population. It should cost less to move to a low population server than a high population server. (Which I thought was the plan, but I must have dreamed it.)

TL;DR Sword / Sword, Staff, Power gear, Decoy, Mirror Images, Blink, Illusions 5 → Dueling 10 (Blade training) → Domination 10 (Mental Torment) → who care

I just leveled my second Mesmer from level 1 to 40 without crafting. I know these levels can be difficult, so I figured I’d post a summary / guide of how I did it. All of this is just my opinion.
To gain levels, I did events and hearts in the area and also always did the story missions when I hit the appropriate level. I did not do them early or late. If I didn’t have any level appropriate hearts in the zone, I’d swap. Getting to 40, I cleared Queensdale, about half of the Plains of Ashford, Cleared Kessex Hills, Cleared Gendarran fields, Cleared Lornar’s Pass, and about half of Hirathi Hinterlands

Gear
Glass Cannon… anything with power including weapons, trinkets, and armor. I changed out my gear every 5 levels (more or less). Once masterwork gear (green) was available I never bought fine (blue) gear again. Green gear isn’t always available at each level, but there’s always something available within a level (for example, I think some green gear is available at level 19 and 26).
You can save money by placing buy orders on the trading post. Usually I would place orders 5 levels before I needed the gear. So when I hit level 10 I’d place a buy order for my level 15 gear. It would be waiting for me then I got there.

Food / Consumables
Anything with power. Sharpening stones

Main Weapons
Sword / Sword. Sword is a terrific main hand weapon, blurred frenzy is the major damage dealer.
Staff. Staff our best AOE and defensive weapon. Chaos storm is great. Stay in the storm for boons and to keep enemies getting conditions. I found that staff was best early on, by level 40 it was losing some of its power, but my preferred alternate weapon.
Thoughts on other weapons
Greatsword is too weak up close for solo leveling. The auto attack hits too slow. The only good, close range, attacks are Mirror Blade (GS 2), and Phantasmal Beserker (GS 4). Enemies recover too fast from the knock back and you can’t sent them over cliffs for Illusionary Wave to be useful (GS 5)
Focus. The untraited focus is a utility weapon. The phantasm spawns right next to the enemy and is frequently killed on the first attack. Temporal Curtain is great for mobility / fleeing from mobs, but the pull isn’t that useful for the same reasons as the Greatsword. I love the focus in WvW and traited in Southsun, but I found it underwhelming for leveling. Swiftness is great, but you’re better off sucking it up and walking.
Pistol. Is a mixed bag. The Phantasmal Duelist is terrific, but Magic Bullet tends to agro enemies you don’t want. When I was testing it out, I’d get into trouble, fire off Magic Bullet for a stun / escape ,and end up worse off then before because the second / third hits would aggro / pull other enemies.
Torch. Another mixed bag, I really like the Prestige, but I don’t love the first and forget blast. I haven’t found a use for the Phantasmal Mage.

Utilities
My first Utility skill was decoy, it stayed on my bar for the rest of the leveling process. It’s a clone generator and stealth, which makes it a good “Oh Kitten” button.
At level 10 I added Blink. Decoy / blink is great for escapes. Also, blink can help with the general slowness of the weaponclass.
As soon as possible, swap out Blink for Mirror Images. Generating two clones is awesome until 40.
At level 20 I added Blink again.
Level 30 elite is Time Warp.

Traits
I put the first 5 points in illusions,
I put the 10 points in dueling. I took “Blade Training”.
I put the next 10 points into domination. I took “Mental Torment” but “Empowered Illusions” may be better. I haven’t decided.
Last 4 points into inspiration or chaos (doesn’t matter.)

Rotations / Combos / Style
I’d spend almost all of my time with Sword / Sword. I only swapped to staff if I felt too much pressure, or if the enemies were very resilient.
Sword
Phantasmal Swordman (Sword 5), Illusionary Leap x2 (Sword 3), Blurred Frenzy. Depending on the attack pattern of the enemy I would either do Illusionary Riposte (Sword 4), or the auto attack chain. By getting between the phantasm and the enemy, I could usually keep focus on me, leaving the phantasm free to attack.
Staff
Chaos Storm (Staff 5), Phase Retreat (staff 2) for clone generation and chaos armor, run back into the chaos storm while hitting (Staff 3) (phantasm). When the chaos armor ends (Staff 4).

Shatters
Mirror Images + Mindwrack (f1)
Mind Wrack is plenty for most situations. If Mind Wrack was on cool down I’d use Cry of Frustration. Diversion and Distortion I’d only use if I was really in trouble. In general, I would try to shatter in the following circumstances:
I was being mobbed and I wanted AOE damage.
I had three clones up and my skills were off cool down (rarely happened, fights don’t usually last this long).
Clones were being targeted and were going to die.
The target of the clones was about to die.

pricer.5091:

One more thing.

Nah…just joking. Cya.

This made me laugh. Thanks.

WvW is a piece of cake. Just go to any battleground (EB or a borderland), look for the blue commander icon, and follow him for a bit. You’ll pick everything up and be solo roaming in no time.

Just don’t be upset if you die…

a lot…

Everyone does.

First, some of the WvWvW zerging on TC side is probably due to the unbalanced match up. Not a lot of risk in zerging right now. (Not that there ever is, but you get my point).

Second, some of the WvWvW stuff is due to the relative low quality of dragon bash. TC is still a fairly PvE centric server. Even we can see that this one is a grindfest.

Third, last night I got into the CD borderlands and the SoS borderlands without a single queue. That almost never happens. So some of it may be in your head.

I love the way the Mesmer is now and I dread any change they make. I think that the Mesmer is very different that every other class is the best way.

I love that there are dozens of viable builds. I love that Kylia can post a video and I can’t figure out the entire build just from looking at it (how is he doing that anyway… amazing).

Mesmers are the only class that can be in your face while kiting. It’s terrific.

However, from the tone of your post, it seems that you are struggling with the Mesmer. Do you have anything in particular that’s bothering you? There’s lots of people on this forum providing helpful advice.

I suggest you buy your items off the trading post. You get a much better item.

Press ‘O’ and a menu will open up.
Select the tab that looks like scales.
Click "show filters’
For category select “weapon”
For subcategory select “staff”
For level range select 5 6 (always include a level that’s a multiple of 5 and below your current level, weapons are crafted for each 5 levels, so there’s more inventory"_

Click search and you’ll see a Mighty Crude Staff for about 77 copper. You can buy one immediately for that price, (You pick it up from the black lion trader, which looks like the scales symbol on your map).

Alternatively, you can place a buy order (select place a custom offer) You can place an order for 1 copper more than the highest order and it should be filled in a while. Right now the highest buy order for a staff is 31 copper, so if you place an order for 32 copper you’ll be at the front of the line.

I usually place a buy order for all the weapons I want ahead of time. For example, a level 6 I’ll place an order for my weapons at level 10. That way everything is ready when I get there.

I don’t get why people can’t understand that a game is suppose to be fun. Things that aren’t fun are bull.

To further explain. There are intrinsic rewards (things you do because you enjoy them) and extrinsic rewards (things you get for doing stuff).

I think guild wars is the best when those two system align (this is not rocket science).

But an extrinsic reward can be useful to push someone out of their comfort zone.

For example, if I were afraid to run a dungeon because I didn’t know the path and I’ve heard that people are kittens to newbies, but I do it because I can save 5 gold on the sword I want if I do it a five times, then that’s all good. If I find that I hate dungeons I can spend a relatively small amount of money and avoid them.

On the other hand, I think extrinsic rewards that (for all practical purposes) “force” someone to do stuff they hate or find dull are bad. If I feel like I have to run a dungeon to get the sword I want (not talking about skins) because otherwise I have to pay 50 gold then the incentives are too misaligned. Because even if hate running dungeons, I’ll do it because the alternative isn’t reasonable.

If I feel like I have to do enough stuff that I hate, I quit. And you all ask for my stuff (which is soulbound anyway)

Stone.6751:

TooBz.3065:

The game is best when it rewards you for doing which ever content you personally prefer. For example, exotic gear, karma, etc…

I think the game falls down when they try to direct you to a particular task. This has been done extensively with ascended gear. Rings are much easier to get through fractals (or so I hear, repeatedly), accessories are much cheaper if purchased using guild accommodations. Almost all ascended back pieces require fractals.

It would be better (IMO) if they weren’t so heavy handed about weighting particular activities.

I enjoy standing around in LA chatting. Should that be rewarded too?

Aren’t you?

The game is best when it rewards you for doing which ever content you personally prefer. For example, exotic gear, karma, etc…

I think the game falls down when they try to direct you to a particular task. This has been done extensively with ascended gear. Rings are much easier to get through fractals (or so I hear, repeatedly), accessories are much cheaper if purchased using guild accommodations. Almost all ascended back pieces require fractals.

It would be better (IMO) if they weren’t so heavy handed about weighting particular activities.

You’re not bad, but carrion gear is not the best choice. You probably need to start swapping it out for berserker gear as soon as you can.

Sadly, mesmers aren’t the best at condition damage, our conditions are too randomly applied.

I would be more in favor of a gem reward for the outmanned server that keeps playing all week without giving up. It’s easy to play when you are steamrolling to victory.

I think a lot of people play the way you do. Even though I frequently disagree with your forum posts, I still play more or less the way you do. I honestly think that it’s the only way to enjoy the game.

I completely understand. It’s not fun to get stomped because you are outnumbered (even though you guys play great).

If they are going to continue with these unbalanced matchups they need to do something to even the odds. Personally I’d be in favor of something along the lines of removing the downstate from the leading server. That is, currently, if someone from CD or SOS (for example) downs someone from TC, the TC person is finished.

I agree with Iculpatus. The only way to enjoy guild wars is to do play for the intrinsic reward of playing (that is, play for fun).

Do what you want when you want to do it. If you get bored do something else. You’ll get enough gold etc to cover repair costs and sock a little (very little, we talking change-in-the-couch money) away toward those shiny divinity runes (or whatever).

I think play the way you want meant that each aspect of the game was suppose to be more or less extrinsically rewarding in its own way (Loot). For example, whatever you did you could get exotic gear (Best-in-slot at launch) from doing that activity.

Which is true, but the fact is that the game is very stingy with its loot. IMO there are only two parts of the game that are out of line, COF p1 (sleeping walking for gold) and Fractals (ascended rings very very fast).

I’m also playing around with dropping pure of voice and 5 in the bottom line and taking 15 in radiance.

I run full knights. Knight great sword and staff. I have runes of the soldier. Sigil of perception on the staff and sigil of hydromancy on the sword.

I use an AH build 0/0/30/30/10.

For trinkets I have ascended beserker accessories and amulet.
Knight exotic rings.