Guild Wars 2

Tulisin.6945:

The caltrops field lasts 4 seconds and pulses once a second for a maximum possible application of 4 bleed stacks. I believe the bleed stacks last 4 seconds as well, but I’m unsure to what extent they can be affected by condition duration increases. If you play around with it a bit you can test this yourself by getting 4 bleed stacks out of a single dodge once you can get the target to stand right on the field for the duration.

However, the field is really small, and an enemy coming straight towards you over it is only going to experience one second of the effect. It takes a bit of skill and timing if you want to effectively keep an enemy on dodgetrops, and you’re only really going to be able to pull off a full 4 hits in PvE or against an inattentive player.

The tradeoff for the relative weakness of the caltrops is that they’re incredibly cheap to deliver, especially if you’ve traited into Acrobatics, have the Vigor boon, or are using Signet of Agility. Along with all of that dodge synergy, they also work well with Signet of Malice, each bleed application triggers the on-hit heal. Obviously, since they’re an AE, they’re also going to be more effective against clusters of enemies.

So…happening to catch one enemy for one second in your caltrops after you dodged away? Probably not worth the trait.

Dodging 6-8 times in a row through a crowd of mobs or players? Now we’re talking literally over a hundred bleed stacks being applied (4 stacks per target per dodge), and consequently Signet of Malice triggering over a hundred times. Doubly impressive because you did it via dodging and were invulnerable for almost all of the duration.

It is just one of those traits that doesn’t really shine without some synergy.

Awesome reply, ty. That explains a lot. I am wondering if this one enemy I am pulling through manages to get through them in between those pulse. This is why I hate abilities that pulse every second, there is actually a big gap for it to fail.

I’ll keep it for now and just keep leveling. After a few days, if I find that I am not getting anything out of it, I might switch it out until I get some of those other traits.

Daecollo.9578:

it has a 0.7 second duration.

but it should at least apply every time, correct, or at the least, apply a bleed even if there are DRs? I was just kiting around some mobs and dodging, and they ran right through them and they didn’t get a bleed or snared at all.

Has there been a nerf or is this trait skill broken? I finally got it tonight, and while testing it out, I found that it wasn’t snaring any enemy, and only applying 1 stack of bleed. Hardly seems worth it. About 40% of the time it did nothing at all.

Edit, I managed to see it snare once now.

Troponin.4081:

Neko.1860:

low level thief is easy till you get daggerstorm, then it’s just faceroll

1-40ish:

Step 1. Run around picking up 50 mobs
Step 2. Use Caltrops
Step 3. Spam Death Blossom
Step 4. Spam dodge (With traited to drop Caltrops)
Step 5. Collect loot

40+

Step 1. Gather mobs
Step 2. Use Caltrops
Step 3. Use Death Blossom until out of initiative
Step 4. Dagger Storm
Step 5. You’re level 80 with full exotics

I changed up my [playstyle and gearing a bit. I didn’t realize that DB was an AoE. lol That makes a big difference. I didn;t realize how insane Caltrops were until now either, thanks for showing me that.

I am going to change up my set up a bit for condition removal. I restarted another thief too, this time NOT human, so the story so far has been a ton easier.

Has Uncatchable been nerfed or is it broken? I finally got it today, and it MIGHT apply a bleed, 1 stack, and I have yet to see it snare any enemy.

Neko.1860:

low level thief is easy till you get daggerstorm, then it’s just faceroll

1-40ish:

Step 1. Run around picking up 50 mobs
Step 2. Use Caltrops
Step 3. Spam Death Blossom
Step 4. Spam dodge (With traited to drop Caltrops)
Step 5. Collect loot

40+

Step 1. Gather mobs
Step 2. Use Caltrops
Step 3. Use Death Blossom until out of initiative
Step 4. Dagger Storm
Step 5. You’re level 80 with full exotics

I changed up my [playstyle and gearing a bit. I didn’t realize that DB was an AoE. lol That makes a big difference. I didn;t realize how insane Caltrops were until now either, thanks for showing me that.

I am going to change up my set up a bit for condition removal. I restarted another thief too, this time NOT human, so the story so far has been a ton easier.

You won’t do crap for condition damage until level 40+ when you get access to sharper images. Power and/or precision will be much better stats until then.

jportell.2197:

Troponin.4081:

I am level 30 on my mesmer, have all blue/green gear etc. With one enemy, I can take them down ok, the problem is, with CDs and lack of a good AoE (and I don’t mean, 1 AoE with a CD too long to use a second time in a fight), running from enemy to enemy, you kill slower and slower, or you’re waiting on CDs before you pull the next one. I NEVER have this issue on any of my other alts. I have every prof up to level 30, and Mesmer is by far the squishiest, slowest killing of any of them, even with a glass spec.

This is where the “grinding” comes in… As a lvl 80 and I was downleveled for this part of the map pve I took on a Vet Cave Spider in timberline falls with ONLY a GS I just had 3 beserkers up and sat and watched as the spider killled one but was crippled again because of crippling dissipation. And then I set up another beserker… I honestly did not use the auto attack a SINGLE time…. I just stayed out of the way. Trust me mesmers really really are fun. In WvW you can solo a 2v1 with other players and WIN. So don’t hate the class.

I am not trying to hate the class, they just happen to be severely gimped at low levels. It’s probably one reason why most people don’t make it far in the leveling process with them. They depend WAY too much on traits, it seems.

I am level 30 on my mesmer, have all blue/green gear etc. With one enemy, I can take them down ok, the problem is, with CDs and lack of a good AoE (and I don’t mean, 1 AoE with a CD too long to use a second time in a fight), running from enemy to enemy, you kill slower and slower, or you’re waiting on CDs before you pull the next one. I NEVER have this issue on any of my other alts. I have every prof up to level 30, and Mesmer is by far the squishiest, slowest killing of any of them, even with a glass spec.

Kerithlan.1659:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Hide_in_Shadows
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Infiltrator%27s_Strike

Just swap up your bar for the duration of the fight. Use sword/pistol for the interrupts and shortbow for kiting/range/better dodging (you’ll dodge better when you can clearly see what’s important or not).

That might not be the best setup but it’s a decent enough start to get yourself going. Just play around with it until you get yourself into a groove.

I tried hide in shadows, but every friggin time I stealth, the enemy resets!! How annoying is that? I have to use all non-stealth abilities during the fight or he reset. :/

The fight I have the most issues with is the Charr that stands at the tower, just beside the ghost areas with cannons etc. I think his auto attack bleeds, so you get two dodges, then you’re screwed.

One issue I have a lot of with my thief is conditions. I don’t really have a way to remove them. There are a few skill challenges that I have run in to that the enemy is ranged and stacks bleeds with every hit and I cannot kill him. The bleeds get really bad, and stack fast.

Any ideas? Kiting isn’t an option because they are ranged. :/

Zenith.7301:

It’s not worth it. You have enough boon duration to keep the boons up if you keep rotating attunements.

Agreed. Arcane line gives you +5 seconds to your attunement boons, which is pretty significant. I rarely see them getting close to running out when I am active in combat.

Thrashbarg.9820:

cesmode.4257:

I can’t tell you what it would be for my thief, or my necromancer, because it would be different each time.

Seriously? Thief? Dude…..

P/D: Press 5, press 1, press 5, press 1, press 5, press 1…… D/D: 5,2,2,2,2…… or shortbow 2,2,2,2,2,2…… zzzzzzz hell, I never even needed to learn what half my thief skills did to get to 80 on that silly class.

You don’t move during churning earth? Why not? Lightning flash tp……

Optimal rotation…. geez

(I don’t know about necros, never played one, stinky green zombies…..)

Pve mobs are all boring and can be killed by most classes with 1-2 buttons (champs and dungeon mobs aside, but if you can spam dps rotations without thought or movement on those things, please share your build, since I apparently suck since I have to dodge and kite and stuff…..).

I almost quit the game completely because of how monotonous almost all the profs are in their rotations. It’s seriously two buttons for most of them for an entire boss fight. How boring is that? In this sense, I feel that GW2 has taken a huge step backwards from GW, where you could could completely customize your bar and make every skill on your bar an important part of the fight. Sure, there were standard set ups for encounters, but it was a very strategical game, and was very challenging the last half of leveling.

Anyway, I then found Ele and Mesmer, and my interest in the game sparked again. They are the only Profs that don’t use two buttons, switch weapons, use two buttons, switch weapons…

One of the best things I did for my Ele, which made me really love playing him because he now stays alive through a ton of trash, is stacking toughness trinkets, then going all condition and power, with a bit of healing/vit gear. I then put 5 in to water for regen when I go to water, and then 10 in Earth. I then went fire. The ONLY time I die now is if I am AFK or accidentally pull a champ and don’t realize it. lol

I will probably redistribute a bit at level 40, but honestly, this is working really well so far. Damage is still far above my other “tanky” alts too.

Kazhiel.8194:

Troponin.4081:

Kazhiel.8194:

Troponin… you really can’t compare low lvls of anything to what they’ll be at 80…

Yeah, I am coming to realize that. What I dislike about that is the fact that you can like something at low levels, get high, then suddenly, at end game, it’s not so great. :/

That’s not really true, each class gets better as they lvl, if you liked them as a low lvl you’ll like them more later. If you didn’t like them as a low lvl chances are you’ll like them better later also lol. I was really frustrated with my mesmer for the first twenty lvls or so, and then I started getting the hang of how to play it and it only got better and better from there. Different traits really really affect game play more than a person would think, then you add in all the various stats of armor, weapons, and accessories. There’s a lot of options. At high lvl I was frustrated with my mesmer again trying to do wvw… till I sat back and read forum and found some different builds to try more suited to wvw and tadaa no more frustration.

I have gotten the hang of this prof, I really have. I am a quick learner and have tended to play the most difficult classes/specs of any MMO I play. I am a bit an elitist too, so I read a lot, research play styles and specs, and fine tune everything to a T.

The biggest issue I have now is just the pain story quests though. I get mobbed in seconds and can’t lose aggro at all. These quests are the death of me and although the experience is good, they are just too difficult for some classes (human quests, at least). I really wish I wouldn’t have started a human now. I think it would have been much less of a headache. :/

Kazhiel.8194:

Troponin… you really can’t compare low lvls of anything to what they’ll be at 80…

Yeah, I am coming to realize that. What I dislike about that is the fact that you can like something at low levels, get high, then suddenly, at end game, it’s not so great. :/

Advent.1387:

um u might have to unequip everything then reequip it sometimes armor stat increases get buggy, i find that more often than not when i replace my runes the armor will read 12/6 for the number of runes on my gear but eventually it fixes its self, and the minor dolyaks do stack i believe its 4 of them for the max bonus

Tried and had no luck. These are minors, so they are 2/2. I was trying to use 8 of them. lol

So I found out that Runes of Dolyak don’t stack, unless they’re bugged.

Nuka Cola.8520:

i keep saying this but try toughness/rune of the undead/rabid gear. its far from squishy and always wins 1v1 against anything (d/d ele included)

Rabid gear is pretty high level, so that wont quite help me atm, but I will def keep those in mind when I get higher.

Soooo, I just tried the Runes of the Dolyak, which gives +10 toughness, and replaced some marks that gave +5 toughness, and it made my toughness go down!!?? My health didn’t go up either, instead, it stayed the same. WTH is going on, are these bugged?

Ok, I am going to stack a bit more toughness, and pull the points out of illusions and put them in to Chaos instead. Will see how that goes.

Advent.1387:

well at level 25 you dnt have much flexability in your build choice but mind if i ask what you are running for your build and what weapon sets you are using?

Sure! Any help is appreciated. Using Staff/GS, with a Vit, Prec, condition based build. I have attempted toughness, but it doesn’t seem to make as much of a difference at this level.

Just FYI, I have a human thief and Engineer too, and those too have mega issues with the story quests. I have several norn alts, and those are a walk in the park compared to the humans

ok…now I remember what was so painful about my Mes. It’s a human, and these were by far the hardest story quests of any of my other alts. I am getting destroyed in them. I just died 4 times in a story quest because every single enemy in the area came straight for me, even though I never even attacked them. They hit HARD too.

Anyone else have a human mes and have a lot of issues in the story quests? This is ridiculous. I just had one where there were 10 combined NPCs, clones etc, and every single enemy on the screen came after me, and they were too fast to kite.

Thanks for the feedback. I have spent the last 3 hours respeccing, re-gearing etc and testing each spec. I am only level 25, so the process wasn’t as grueling. I also did some more reading, and I read that mesmers are far more dependent on traits than Eles are, so an Ele will see far more in gearing than with traits early on, where as the mesmer will see a ton more from traits later on.

I switched to Domination 10 and Illusions 5, and changed around my utility skills. I think what was happening was, my clones were dying really fast and not getting the time to attack, then let me shatter. Now I have Signet of Ilusions and Feedback on my utility bar, giving me both a lot more defense and offense. In fact, I watched an enemy literally kill himself and his turret with feedback then I focused on the two melee which went down a lot faster, and I took barely any damage.

I want to like my Mes again, but it’s getting more and more difficult to. I am leveling a few alts atm. The problem is, I rolled a D/D ele, and with a mix of toughness, healing, power and condition damage, he’s a beast. He can tank and do pretty crazy damage all in one. No, this is not a “nerf eles” discussion, btw.

What I am struggling with is, I want my mes to do that kind of damage and be durable too. I know we use illusions etc for distracting, but the bottom line is, they aren’t 100% and getting aggro on a mob, especially multiples, you WILL take damage.

I respecced in to more of a toughness build to see if I could replicate my Ele’s build, but I am lacking in a ton of damage now.

So, am I asking for too much in comparing the Ele to the mesmer in this regard? I feel like, on my mes, I have to run around like a chicken with its head cut off to survive anything at all.

Zoid.2568:

Troponin.4081:

Zoid.2568:

It depends on what build you use. I’m currently going 20/30/20 and i’m happy with it.
I set up traps from a distance, they get 600 range and twice as big radius.

I use Axe + Axe and Axe + Horn.

There’s also another build you can trait so spirits gain more health, they follow you around etc. Really good if you are support with the elite spirit skill.

But as other have said, some of the skills are bad and pets still have some problems.

I am curious. How do you gear for a/a and a/h? The axe has very little condition damage, correct? My ranger is still only level 35, so I haven’t gotten really far in to the traits yet.

Most classes are bad at low levels. Wait till you are atleast 60 and you will see a big difference, at 80 you will feel entirely different than what you did at 35. Traits do alot and also sigils + runes.

I use the second skill for bleeding ( the closer you are, more stacks), Flame Trap for burning, Spike Trap for bleeding and slow and Viper’s Nest for poison. Also you can get pets with conditions.

That sounds pretty interesting. Do the traps become ground targeted? I am terrible with being speedy with ground targeting. :/

Zoid.2568:

It depends on what build you use. I’m currently going 20/30/20 and i’m happy with it.
I set up traps from a distance, they get 600 range and twice as big radius.

I use Axe + Axe and Axe + Horn.

There’s also another build you can trait so spirits gain more health, they follow you around etc. Really good if you are support with the elite spirit skill.

But as other have said, some of the skills are bad and pets still have some problems.

I am curious. How do you gear for a/a and a/h? The axe has very little condition damage, correct? My ranger is still only level 35, so I haven’t gotten really far in to the traits yet.

I mention this in almost every thread like this. The one thing that seems to stand out the most to me that severely cripples the Ranger is the fact that pets and spirits go down in second(s) to AoE. In other words, you can have your best utility/buffs up, and they can all by wiped out in one AoE.

Spirits and pets should need to be focused fired at, not all 4 one shot with one button. They should have a buff that decreased AoE damage taken by a certain % to prevent them from being taken out in one or two AoEs.

I have to give a big thanks to this thread too. I have attempted to make ele alts multiple times, and each time, I was bored with it, and felt I was too squishy for the damage I was dealing. As dd, holy crap this is fun. It’s kind of a bit more of a high risk/high rewards atm though. I am still trying to get my gearing down as I level. I only hit level 14 so far, but that’s 9 levels further than ever before and with a much more motivated outlook on it.

I see you are suggesting toughness on every piece of armor for pvp, but what would one be looking for for PvE? I have about equal toughness, precision, vitality, and so far, no healing.

The game is filled with great events etc during the leveling process. The problem is, there is rarely anyone around to help! Once I leave the level 15-20 areas on any alts, I can go hours without seeing anyone at all.

On one occasion, I ran in to another player and we grouped up and played for a few hours. I think both of us were terribly afraid to disband because we might not ever see another person. lol

I am on Ehmry Bay, been here since release. Has this server just never taken off?

I wouldn’t put much stock in pets. They die WAY too easily, and if you invest a lot in to them, there goes all your damage. Until they add a buff that decreases AoE damage taken by 90% like another game we know, IMO, pet’s shouldn’t be priority in terms of dealing a large % of damage.

On paper, everything about the engineer just seems amazing. I too was so pumped about this prof. It was the first prof and I thought it would be the only. So I started off grabbing the “necessities” with skills, and even the necessities just seemed meh once you get them and use them. It’s ok, because I was holding out for the Elixir gun, the ultimate in condition damage, right?? Nope, what a let down. The damage is mediocre compared to every other class condition damage build. It’s absolutely horrid. There are maybe 3 skills in the ENTIRE bunch that are decent, the rest are complete lackluster.

I agree that this necro doesn’t even hold a candle to the necro of GW. I LOVED being a necro in GW. It had so many great roles, and for soloing in a crowded area, minion masters were insanely fun and useful. GW 2 necro pets last all but 3 seconds, save for the Golem, which lasts about 6, the jagged horrors are complete lackluster and a complete waste of a 5 point skill, and lastly, necros should have a way to AoE heal their pets, like they could in GW. THAT is what made them ultimately viable in the end.

There is an easy PvE fix to pets dying so fast. This is an issue in almost every other game out there, well, WAS. The fix? Pets now have a passive that decreases AoE damage by 90%, since they can’t avoid it. This way, in PvP, if someone wants to focus fire on a pet, it won’t effect it in PvP but will be perfect for PvE. Why this hasn’t been implemented yet is beyond me. The AoE damage in this game is downright insane. I don’t even like being melee in this game at all because of the low survival rate of melee.

It’s hard for me to play other classes after the Guardian. He can range, melee, heal, bring tons of utility, and survive insane bursts from enemies. I can kite when I need, and I can melee when I am bored of kiting, although, his dps lacks a bit if you don’t switch frequently.

THen I jump on an alt, and realize “Hey dummy, you can’t stand toe to toe with that group of 5 mobs…” or …“that boss”.

The only downside is, they lack burst, so PvP can be a bit grueling. You end up getting pigeon holed in to one or two defensive positions, unless you’re super geared.