I’m sure they tested it with more stacks and different conditions. Something like torment wouldn’t be so bad if you’re looking at what one reaper can do, but would get stupid fast the more reapers you have stacking chill. That said, bleeding sucks.
Shhhhhh. Let them weep.
Having a few necros would make for some mayhem to be sure.
It isn’t just that flesh golem doesn’t work underwater – it is that minion masters underwater can’t use an elite, because it will unsummon all your minions. That restriction on elites makes underwater combat more restrictive for minion masters. Which hasn’t been a common complaint because so few necros use minions.
Well, we are getting new skill types at the same time as we get a new trait line. Either the traits for those skills go in the new trait line, or we have no way to trait for those skills. Just like every other trait line we have, you can opt to pick up those traits, or not, depending on what you want to do.
We don’t currently have any line that is made up entirely of dagger traits, spectral traits, or well traits. There’s no reason our elite spec would be that way either.
Lich is close to what I expect from anet, just for a different reason. Somewhere along the line they said that the goal with the base professions is still to let you fill any role with any profession, while the elite specializations will be tailored to be good at a specific role. I’m pretty clear that they see us as a tough profession to begin with, and won’t be surprised if they build on that to make us into default tanks. (I wouldn’t mind that if its done in a fun way – but I wouldn’t mind being surprised, either.)
Most of your questions about minions are answered on the wiki.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Minion
For build, it really depends on how you want to use minions. You can use any build and drop minions into utility slots you otherwise wouldn’t know what to take for a passive bit of damage and damage mitigation. Or you can build your traits around them.
For solo play, I tend to use them as a source of damage and healing by taking Training of the Master (+25% minion damage), Flesh of the Master (tougher minions, tougher necro), Death Nova (more minions) and Bloodthirst + Vampric Minions (damage + heal from every minion attack.)
For pick up groups I might drop Training of the Master and pick up Fetid Consumption (condition clearing) and/or swap Death Nova for Necromantic Corruption (boon stripping).
Favorite weapons are staff and axe/focus. The staff will let you keep regen on your minions so they live longer. Death nova can usually give you an extra 3-5 Jagged Horrors if you pair Flesh of the Master with a consistent source of regen to counter their natural degen. The axe stacks up vulnerability so you’re buffing minion damage that way.
Gear I opted for clerics – healing power, toughness and power. It helps you keep minions going without being squishy yourself or hitting like a wet noodle. It isn’t the best choice for non-minion builds though. Your mileage may vary.
These builds work fine for your general pve. (Just about any build will though.) Play with it and pretty quickly you’ll figure out where minions work for you, and which situations call for a different approach.
This change would be most unwelcome to most necros.
Thanks for the analysis. I do use some of the traits at times, so its useful to see how the math works out. I use them as much for the damage boost as for the healing, which is slightly higher than the figures you came up with.
Vampiric traits provide a decent passive damage/healing boost along the way when you’re picking up something more important anyways, but as your build shows its not worth building your entire character around them.
1) I don’t think the class is as bad as the forum would have you believe. I’ve never played an MMO where forum complaints were a totally fair reflection of the class. Most players never look at forums, and of those who do, most don’t ever post. Every common complaint is based on a real problem, but how big of an issue that really is for you could vary quite a lot.
2) For me, leveling a necro was worth it. It is my 3rd 80 and probably will be my first in ascended armor. It works for me because it is quite easy to play in sub-optimal groups. You can do most things well solo, and even when you’re grouped you can barrel through on your own despite a bad team. If you’re looking to be wanted by good groups, necro isn’t worth your time, and you might be happier with a guardian.
Poto Ergo Sum
Voodoo Tina.4180
PVE, ready to try some PVP
Crystal Desert
1 Necro
For PvE, kiting is not a necessity for solo content. If you’re talking about dungeons and fractals, you’ll have to be more aware.
- Clones can take a significant number of hits for you. Since you don’t like to shatter pick up several of the on clone death hits and capitalize on them dying. Your gear, Persisting Images trait, and/or signet of illusions make them last longer.
- Phantasmal Defender eats half your damage taken.
- Combo Chaos Armor off ethereal fields. It depends on you getting hit, so that’s perfect for you.
- Prismatic Understanding gives you defensive boons when you stealth – great way to take the pressure off you if you start to get overwhelmed.
- Runes of Dwayna with mantra of resolve can give you a lot of healing over time. Especially if you have healing power and boon duration.
For PvE Mesmer can easily build to be tough enough to take mobs toe to toe. You do sacrifice damage so most people don’t.
Fast Casting
As a trait line, have it reduce cast time and increase movement speed as passive bonuses. Traits and skills could focus around quickness, interrupts and mobility control.
Traits
- Stolen Speed – gain quickness when you cripple your opponent
- Psychic Instability – knockdown on interrupt
- Smbolic Celerity – activating a signet gives you swiftness
- Persistence of memory – getting interrupted recharges your skills
Skills
- Mantra of Recovery (elite) – recharges all your mantras
- Arcane Languor (elite glamour) – foes’ skills cast inside stack confusion and torment, allies’ skills grant retaliation and swiftness
- Keystone Signet (elite signet) passive effect: signets recharge 50% faster active effect: disables targets skills for 3 seconds
I wouldn’t mind a shorter cast, but it does feel quite epic to me. Many times it has saved me or a team mate – its almost a reset button. The duration is plenty of time for you all to reposition, heal, strip conditions, and/or buff – you should be coming out of stealth in a much better position than when you entered it.
My my, Revelations, you seem nice.
Any build you put some thought into is useful for pve. The only bad builds really are ones that work at counter purposes, and ones that are too inflexible in their design.
I tend to run mantras because I like them. I liked them before they got buffed and so like them even better now. I prefer 30/30/0/0/10. That gives room for Harmonious Mantras so they are charged more often than not, empowering mantras for up to 16% damage and Compounding Power for up to another 9%, along with weapon recharge traits for sword, greatsword and/or pistol.
If you just played that way its ok, but gets a little boring. And clearly sometimes you’re better off taking one or more utilities other than just mantras. That’s where flexibility comes in. The same build can flip to focus more on interrupts (Halting Strike, Furious Interruption, Confounding Suggestions along with Domination Minors), phantasms (Empowered Illusions, Phanstasmal Fury), shattering, clone death, signets . . . there are many ways you can trait out this sort of build when mantras aren’t ideal.
So yes, a mantra build can be great for pve. Also, the stats provided by a mantra build lend themselves beautifully to a lot of other builds you can switch to on the fly, so don’t feel like its mantras or everything else. They’re just one trick in your tool box, don’t forget the rest.
Ah yes, the 10/10/10/10/10 build. That can be a little tedious.
Yes. You had crappy utilities equipped and it took him thirteen minutes to down you. That’s the most OP class you’ve ever seen ever? Cry more, your tears amuse me.
I think the problem with low level mesmers is that it’s not so obvious how to kill quickly. You learn how to play it by level 35, great traits open at 40, and you get in the groove. I have an 80 Mesmer and went back to play at low levels, it’s better than my first time around.
Warrior hits 1, waits, mob dies.
Mesmer (say sword/focus) hits leap, phantasm, swap, blurred frenzy +shatter, mob dies.
Warrior hits 1, waits, other mob dies.
Mesmer swaps weapon (say to staff), phase retreat, phantasm, chaos storm, mob dies.
Takes the same time, more effort.
One thing that takes some getting used to is not being afraid of packs. A lot of our damage is AoE or multi-target, so pulling mobs one at a time really slows you down. (Sword and staff auto, focus phantasm, shatters, staff clones, chaos storm/armor.)
A popular guardian build is Altruistic Healing – they need to buff their team to heal themselves. Three guardians can pump out tons of might/retaliation/protection/regen etc when given the proper motivation to do so.
I agree with all your points until I picked up a sword. Then I learned better. It’s a great weapon, it just depends on your build and gear.
It attacks fastest so against single targets it will proc Virtue of Justice fastest. It does also have limited AoE. If you find you need more AoE, torch handles that nicely. It can get a higher crit rate than any of your 2handers, so it’s a better choice for on-crit traits like Empowering Might.
I generally roll with sword/torch and GS. In pve at least, the sword is what I use 95% of the time. There’s really nothing wrong with it as is.
I think most people felt this way the first time they fought a Mesmer. Thankfully most people aren’t 10 years old, and try fighting Mesmers more than once before running to the forum to boohoohoo.
The staff is a buff/debuff machine. It doesn’t just spread conditions. Vulnerability is a good fit, as it supports your team. The staff isn’t what you equip for great damage, but it has its role.
If you increase the damage to make it competitive with, say GS, without nerfing down its supportiveness, why would anyone not use it? We don’t want one choice to be best for every situation or we lose any real choice in how to play.
1) are mesmers that hard to lvl?
2) r they perfect in pvp?
3)and if they r hard to lvl, can u give me a way to lvl up fast? i might make ine a sylvari or human?
4) and wat r the best weapons to be used?thanks
1) If easy means you auto-attack your way through 80 levels, no, Mesmer is not easy. If easy means having a blast while leveling, yes, Mesmer is kitten easy.
2) A well played Mesmer is a force in pvp.If pvp is what you’re into, Mesmers not a bad place to start at all. Perfect for annoying other players, without a doubt.
3) Believe it or not, you can get a lot of levels by crafting. Don’t ever vendor your mats, and when killing things gets boring, use them up and you can gain 5 or 10 levels more or less effortlessly.
4) That’s entirely about how you want to play. Staff is very defensive and supporty. Sword has good DPS. GS is good ranged DPS. Scepter is ranged (and that’s the nicest thing I can say about it – some like it, its not my favorite.)
If you’re having difficulty, you can alter your gear and build. It shouldn’t be necessary but it might make things easier until you get the hang of fighting those mobs.
Get 30 points in Inspiration for Restorative Illusions, 30 in Illusions for Illusionary Persona. . Phantasms will be giving you regeneration, so when they are up they help you survive, and if you have to shatter, it will heal you. You can shatter even with no illusions out if need be. Signet of Illusions makes your phantasms tougher (though it is still bugged), and lets you reset all your shatters in case you need more heals.
If you still die a lot, toughness, then healing power, then vitality will help with that.
The thing to watch for with Orr is adds – monsters move around more and respawn faster, so if you compromise your damage too much for survival, you’ll kill too slow and eventually get overwhelmed any ways.
Raw HP tells you nothing about how survivable a profession is. My mesmer has more hp than my guardian, but it not significantly more tanky or less, unless I spec one tougher than the other. The HP amounts are balanced around the professions skills, not the other way around.
Once you figure out a few things.
- when to dodge
- how to kite with range, and circle strafe with melee
- remembering to use distortion when you’re in trouble
With s/p you should take little damage, with GS hardly any.
For example, start with GS, get a few hits in, whack them with mirror blade, drop phantasm, swap to sword and drop phantasm then auto attack. When you see mob start a hit, blurred frenzy. Next attack, dodge back. Jump back in and strafe behind while he is immobile. Next time he swings daze with pistol or blurred frenzy again – it should be dead by then anyhow.
Also look to your combos. With sword, make sure you have an ethereal field or two so you can get chaos armor whenever you want. As long as its up you sort of want the mobs to hit you for a change.
If you are dying a lot at twenty, your gear is old, or you’re trying to play like a warrior and face tank things. For stats I did better with presicion and power at low levels. Toughness didn’t stack high enough for me to notice a difference, but it’s pretty easy to get over a 50% crit chance for not much money. (At later levels I love a tanky build.) Dead things can’t kill you.
The tool tip was bugged. It said blurred frenzy grants distortion, in fact it granted blur. That is why blurred frenzy never worked with masterful distortion, because it never actually granted distortion. Mouse over the effect it gives you and you’ll see that.
I think it was intentional it didn’t work. Or why have two buffs doing almost the same thing? Maybe it should be changed to work together, that’s a different question.
I picture smite’s animation as a swarm of chickens slamming your enemies instead of otherworldly fists, and I am amused.
And utilities – really depends on you. Some are easier to use than others. I’ve used almost everything and it all works, it’s a question of what you need. I’m lazy so often running with signets since they work for me even if I do nothing. But like consecration a for fire fields, some spirit weapons (sword and shield), shouts and meditations (judge’s intervention and smite conditions).
There aren’t a lot of flat out useless utilities, it’s more about what you’ll actually make use of. Since I solo the ones I’ve skipped are anything team or heal related, as I don’t need it. But if you’re in teams those same skills could work for you.
At low levels the commonly suggested builds aren’t possible. I just hit 40 on my guard and it made a big difference. Leveling up to that point I went first with radiance, then zeal. After that virtues. (Virtues 5 is strong, but only if you’re using them actively. At that point I used them some but not all that often.) I used all the weapons but found I liked sword/torch, GS, and hammer best.
After 40 things change because of master traits. Now I’m at 10 zeal, 20 radiance, 5 virtues. Extra damage vs burning targets, justice gives might, burns, blinds and vulnerabilities enemies, justice recharges every kill (except when it doesnt for some reason) and sword/spear deal more damage.
This is no where near a full build yet, but for leveling its great. Monsters 3-4 levels higher die faster than torch skills recharge, and groups up to 3 are easy. Four is suddenly hard, it is possible to die if you get too kitteny!
Poultry AoE is getting nerfed? I mean if its just chickens I get it. But ducks and geese? They can’t be serious!
As I read it, they are just talking common sense. A single target skill should do more damage to a single target than an AoE does on that single target. An AoE skill on multiple targets should do more damage than burning them down one by one with single target damage. Where that’s not the case, expect to see changes.
I played around with a daze heavy build and would have liked it a lot – except I’m lousy at interrupting.
I did find confounding suggestions to be a useful addition, except in pve. A dazed monster will hang out while you wail on it, after the first couple rounds a human will get the hint and run away – daze won’t help you catch him.. When half of those dazes turn to stuns, you can keep up, and your opponents level of frustration goes even higher.
You can be as tanky as you want. It’s a trade off, more survival stats leave less room for damage. Gear however you like. Pick up groups will often misunderstand what you’re doing, but you’re not playing to gain their approval, just have fun.
If I’m using deceptive evasion, sigil of stamina. Without using utilities I can crank out clones as soon as I shatter the last batch.
Well, if thieves stole it, you think you’re ever going to get it back?!? Kiss it good bye, it’s gone man.
I keep trying to enjoy thief but its very hard for me. Mesmer (pve especially) is a breeze by comparison. My hats off to anyone who made it to 80 on thief!
That’s me, ymmv.
They are corpse eating butterflies. I swear they are real, you can’t make this stuff up!
That, and he thinks guardians are better support than mesmers!
Personally, no.
The class mechanic was surprising at first, since we had nothing like an illusion or shatter in gw1, but it works for me as a redesign of the intent behind mesmers – distraction, misdirection, control, and punishment.
The distinction between clones and phantasms gives you more flexibility. Phantasms deal damage but are easier to kill. Clones don’t deal damage (much) but are harder to kill and serve as a distraction.
We wouldn’t want to have only one and not the other. And if they were everything at once – damage dealing distractions that can take a few hits – they would be too good.
I am not interested in any of these suggestions, thanks.
I enjoy my clones, my phantasms, and my shatters. I use them all, don’t take my toys from me. The time for a game changing revision like that is long gone (during beta) regardless.
Mesmers are not Bards. Neither should they be.
Despite many threads of Mesmer tears after nearly every patch, my PvE experience has improved since launch. Bug fixes have compensated for any losses from my standpoint.
Do you give a fat patient candy (give) for doing burpees (take)? That’s what you’re expecting.
If a skill needs to be adjusted its because its needed. Done. We can’t expect to be compensated every time something else changes – it’s not what “balance” means. Buffs have to come for the same reason needs do, because they are necessary.
Fans? False advertising? I LOLed.
Once upon a time, you could drop temporal curtain and run back and forth across it, stacking swiftness each time. Devs saw that players used it this way and “fixed” it to make that impossible.
I know I’m the minority view point on this, but I think the signet is well put together, aside from the delay. That bug is the reason I stopped using it, not the functionality.
If you look at the design of mesmers, we were made with illusions AND shatters. A lot of people are playing the profession with illusions OR shatters and then frustrated that the game isn’t made that way. In this signet we have one utility that supports both sides of our profession mechanic – which it should.
In any phantasm build, having tougher illusions is very important. So important that you will seldom activate the signet no matter what the active effect is. The passive is just that good for a phantasm build that you never want to give it up. Still, every build should be shattering frequently, since illusions die on target death, you might as well.
In a shatter build the active is clearly what you’re after, but the passive is a big help for those glass cannon builds where illusions are easily killed before they can get to their target. The active is what shatterers are really after – with shattered strength as it is, it can be flat out obnoxious.
For a balanced build you make good use of both the passive and active. When you have the passive up your illusions are tougher, then when you need a shatter that is on cool down, it’s there for you. Really, the only thing to not love about it is the bug that keeps it from kicking in right away. Frequently illusions aren’t around long enough for it to hit them, so until its fixed, it’s generally a waster.
Jasher, he understands. Quickness does what he is saying – it speeds up attacks but not cool downs. If your phantasm has a one second attack and a 5 second cool down, giving it quickness speeds up the one second attack but not the 5 second cool down.
(edited by Voodoo Tina.4180)
Useless for 12 seconds? Small price to pay for what amounts to 12 heals on little to no cooldown. Compare to the cooldown on ether feast.
You can use mantras while charging, and shatters. There are easy enough ways to cover yourself during recharge – distortion, diversion, MoD, mass invisibility.
If you’re not using mantas already it doesn’t seem that powerful, but to anyone who is used to them the abuse factor is obvious and obscene.
2k would still be quite strong. Bringing 4 mantras would let you burst area heals for 8k – instant cast, useable while CCed, uninterruptible, on demand, and that’s in addition to the use of the mantras themselves. Going into a fight you would have a total of 12 heals stored up to use as you like – bring a few mesmers with this trait and a group becomes impossible to kill, or very nearly so. Compared to other professions it seems very out of balance.
I like mantras, and agree that trait isn’t as fun as it could be. I think some folks like it though. Still, making it in mantra use would be disgustingly good, unless the heal amount were much much lower than it is now.