yeah reflect have long cooldowns, but if u manage to reflect a rapid fire only once, im gonna eat at least 50% of my health cuz im full glass cannon too.
You must be really good, because when I get my attacks reflected I either dodge roll or cancel immediately, taking only 1-2 arrows, then down them after 7 seconds or so, which is basically when rapid fire is off CD again.
I play a ranger too. The issue is not how much damage it dishes out, but how very, very, very easy it is to do it.
The class was never a joke, its just not a lot of people, at least the ones that voice their opinions about it, really knew how to play it well.
the auto atk dmg w/o cd always was the same, before and after patch…
The DPS on the auto attack has also increased by 10%. Read the Wind makes attacks 10% faster to do. Technically, Rapid Fire has had its cast time reduced, then reduced again by 10%.
It’s starting to become apparent that a lot of people don’t think this through.
@The person who said “Just any block, reflect, or projectile destroyer will PREVENT AT LEAST 80% OF THE BURST IF THE SKILL IS USED THE SECOND YOU SEE RF”
Its true. Unfortunately, the auto attack can do almost half the DPS as rapid fire, which has no cooldown, and rapid fire has a 10s cooldown, which goes down to 8s with the trait. Most blocks, reflects, or projectile destroyers, on average, has a cooldown way longer than that, and using not one, but both dodges just to deal with it isn’t okay, especially since the auto attack, which again, has no cooldown and can be used anytime, also does very high damage.
Also, as soon as you see the skill being used, 5 arrows have already hit you, and most likely you are fighting someone else.
@The person trying to give a definition of rangers. You have it completely backwards.
Rangers are the type of people who excel in close combat and raiding tactics. Read a dictionary. To range is to basically roam, not fire things from long distances.
@The guy who said “use reflect to force swap weapon”.
Yo, you know he can just wait or fighting something else while that’s up? It’s not very hard.
Khm… Rapid Fire has animation already… it’s many arrows flying…should it be pink and glow in night ?
That’s not an animation, that’s an attack being already done.
Also remember, Rapid Fire requires no setup other than basics: Line of Sight, be in range. It requires no resources. It comes with 2 easy to use, instant cast, same range set ups in the form of a knockback and stealth, which also share animations with almost all the other longbow skills.
I’m all right with the burst. While the damage potential was basically increased by 150% (extra time to fire extra arrows compared to old Rapid Fire), the actual damage it does… still the same.
What’s really annoying, and no amount of reflect bullcrap sorcery will ever beat, is its really low cooldown. It’s 10 seconds, 8 with the trait. Most longbow rangers will go secondary GS or S/D, both of which are used to create distance easily.
Rapid Fire needs to have it’s CD increased by at least 30%, to 13s untraited, 11s traited, lowering its downtime but keeping its burst.
Edit: 60% may be a bit too much. Still does the same damage after all. Also realize that at 8s traited, it’s basically 100b but better, easier setup, 1,500 range, can move and turn while channeling, projectile finishers.
Despite making the reflect point, people still argue with it? What’s the cooldown on your reflect, and what’s the cooldown on auto attack and rapid fire? In most cases, 25-30s vs 0s and 8s.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
Does not fully work with Shadow Trap (Thief Utility)
There are three parts to Shadow Trap: Placing it, Early Activation, and Trip Activation.
Placing it causes the runes to work as intended.
But using the other two do not, despite them being labeled as “Trap” skills.
Based on this information, the runes are not fully working, or the description should be changed to “When you place a trap”.
However, it would be really cool if it was working with the other two parts to it!
I like the ways they approach these kinds of things. From design, to releasing stuff, etc. It’s very far from the traditional, and the game itself sort of reflects that.
2 week content patches, seasons of PvE instead of an expansion, etc. You know, this could be an expansion on its own but instead we get it little by little rather than waiting a year and then getting it all at once. And you know what happens when you get a massive amount of content on one day: lag, bugs, explosions. Not only that, they made it work with their current systems as well which is a huge bonus.
I feel like a lot of people are just too used to the traditional ways still.
I hope Anet continues to take new approaches.
I’m not sure if they would want to go with a housing idea.
I’ve played Wildstar and I’ve seen and experienced their housing, which was incredible. It was designed as if it was using 3D modeling tools (minus abstract scaling), and everything had collision… except some plants and grass. People have made forests, race tracks, skate parks, random piles of junk…
If anything, they would just make it a guild hall, in which you have your own room.
Nonetheless, +1
The focus shouldn’t be on difficulty (or rather solely on difficulty although adding new challenges would be welcome) it should be on variety of experience…
I think you misunderstood my intention with that part.
I was quoting the other guy earlier on how he said having dynamic weather in low level areas might make it too difficult to do anything, in which I replied the content at lower levels is laughably easy and if it did become a bit more difficult (which I doubt, it doesn’t add combat advantage to mobs and at most, it just limits visibility), it still wouldn’t be enough to make it impossible.
As for implementation of this system, Guild Wars 2 has high hopes of having such a system. If you notice when you enter a cave or something, their lighting system is client based. That means it depends where you are standing, changes the light source around your character, etc. You can test this when you enter the cave in Dry Top: as soon as it goes dark, turn around. The outside will be dark as well, indicating its client based. It wouldn’t be difficult to do that based on a timer for an entire map. It would be difficult and time consuming if it were based on where you were standing, but we are talking about whole zones here: the only places they would have to disable a feature within a zone are places where you have to go inside something. And there’s not too much of that is there.
And lastly, concerning the champion train: it is not a supported feature or anything, true. That doesn’t change the fact hundreds of people do it every day in the same maps. What ANet could do here is, even without the weather system, turn that champion train into a better feature. It’s already part of a daily, how about a reward for making one full round? The catch is that the champion mobs only spawn in maybe 1-2 maps only for the day, or maybe even for only 3-4 hours at most, or maybe even just a few rounds only. The idea behind this is to turn something we already have, make it a little better, and make people go around all over Tyria, including the least favorite and least populated maps, a lot more often.
Having weather change would further make it feel different every time, despite them being on the same map.
OP, that sounds really cool in one’s mind and perhaps on paper, but in reality, such extremes especially in low lvl maps may prove very detrimental for new players. I’m all for dynamic weather but u have to consider how tiring it may become having to battle it all the time, where it actually debilitates you to such an extent. However, being randomly generated, it may work.
I tell you one thing, in gw1 The Realm of Torment, it was an area where Abbadon was imprisoned and it had several maps, most of which had different environmental conditions and people hated them. Granted, these conditions were not generated by the weather, but were just there, so adding weather to that aspect may prove very immersive.
Ultimately, i’m all for more of dynamic and severe weather effects in gw2, but another thing u also may consider is the performance. I for eg; lag bad enough at jormag event as is, add more effects and ur performance drops further, but at the same time, your idea sounds really cool and i would like to see something like that happen.
I think new players would actually find it really cool. In fact, this would be detrimental to existing players because its a change. Too used to sunny skies every day 24/7 for the past 2 years. As far as “extreme” goes: the content at the beginning is laughably easy.
As far as graphics go, the sandstorm is an example. If no one is having trouble with that, I’m sure it shouldn’t affect any other area as much. That or have a separate slider for weather as well. Not too sure on this one.
I think environmental conditions could be left out, such as a blizzard applying a -10% movement speed debuff or something. But if anything: the weather conditions cannot do damage, it must be possible for someone to just AFK anywhere not near mobs.
But enough of repeating the same thing over and over again (ironically), there would be some things about this people would not be happy about:
Change. A lot of people hate change. Enough said here. Maybe I’ll be wrong this time.
All of their old, easy stuff now made complicated.
Why did you take away queensdale train blah blahblabhlabhah.
But its these kinds of things that I see a lot of people also complaining about: All we do is champion train and its boring.
In the end, you’ll be feeling a lot better traveling all over the world, always changing, always with a different condition, despite the fact that its the same queensdale, its the same frostgorge, its the same map in the same spots.
With this system, it wouldn’t be a daily routine you repeat: although you do, the routine must be fine tuned every day. Your days of mindlessly repeating TOSB would be over. People would need to scout (for the beginning only. How epic does that just sound: Sending scouts to every corner of Tyria), people would need to be ready to deal with environmental hazards such as blizzards, heatwaves, and sandstorms, people would need to come together and play together. Regular questing would be a different experience for everyone: The first heart quest in queensdale? Some people may have experienced it normally, others had to do it in the pouring rain. Some had to fight piranhas in a lake, others had to do it while it was pitch black shudders. Maps that people hardly visit get populated. Every day, its a zone map. There’s reason to places, and it changes every day.
That would be like having an adventure in Tyria, no?
I logged in today to witness the sandstorm in Dry Top for the first time.
While a very small part of Guild Wars 2, it felt
SUPERBLY AWESOME.
I get the feeling that if Arena Net implemented Dynamic Environments, it would further complete the game and hold its place for years to come.
Actually, what I’m about to post here is a bit different from just Dynamic Environments.
Creating a world of Adventure in Tyria. Take a further step from traditional systems of old MMOs.
For example, making the open world dangerous.
This is the most overlooked feature of any open world, and is mostly ignored.
All enemies can be seen from far, far away. If there are a group of hostiles, most ignore you while you hack their buddies to death.
Everything except a select few types of mobs (champions) are easy to kill. They are playthings against your mighty sword or bow.
Everything feels static.
Guild Wars 2 is a position where these kinds of things should (I hope) further support their view of what I believe is “a living, breathing world”.
So, a small picture:
Imagine Jormag. About 50 people doing it, lovely. What if there was a blizzard? It’s harder to see, your view distance and ability to target far away has been decreased greatly. Your character is losing HP slowly and moves a little bit slower.
What if it was night time and just absolutely POURING in… Eternal Battlegrounds? Commanders would have to take into account weather conditions. Less visibility, puddles that form across the land that can be used as water fields. Dynamic Environments. What if lightning strikes a tree (for gathering), destroys it, and makes a small fire field around while the broken part will deal 15k+ damage when it lands on people in a random direction?
Dynamic Environment Conditions, or DEC for short. I believe this is the last piece of the game that the open world is missing, and would complete it, at least in terms of having a living, breathing world.
It consists of three things: Weather, Light, and Habitual.
Weather is straight forward. It’s raining. It’s snowing. There’s a sandstorm. There’s a heat wave. These add a constant condition for a long time that players in that zone need to deal with. Mechanically, it doesn’t do much. Maybe visibility and target range is reduced, but visually, it would be amazing. Mobs would have a lower aggro range at night than day?
Light. Is it day time, morning, night? Again, with visibility. Imagine Frostgorge sound: Its nightime, and there’s a blizzard brewing. How awesome would it be to go around doing the champion train like that?
Habitual. What if the champion train could only be done in 1 zone, which changes, every day? Meaning, you can’t go to queensdale and just train your way to easy money. You’d need people to scout the world, find the champions, set up, then do it that way. Of course, changes in champion mob spawns would have to change for certain areas. And every day, it might be a different scenario as well.
One day, the train is in Kessex Hills doing their regular train. Sometime next week, the train is back in Kessex Hills again, but its raining, and its super dark. The next time, it might be just dark, normal, in the morning with a mist, etc. Sometimes its in Dredgehaunt, where the sun is shining down and everyone has a movement speed buff. But another time, there’s a heavy blizzard slowing down everyone’s movement, which applies a blindness that lasts 10 seconds, every 10 seconds.
Having the same environment, but in a different condition, is important in keeping a world alive. You don’t even need to update it. This kind of thing will last forever and could liven up old content without actually changing it.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
1) Press 1
2) Use Grenade Kit as soon as you press 1
3) Spam 1
Grenades will be thrown as if you were shooting your main weapon. Works once, so you need to swap back to your main hand to do it again.
A bit harder to do if you are trying to do Grenade 2-5.
This works with the mortar kit, and that’s how I’ve been able to quick shoot them (get on mortar, shoot a precisely aimed mortar, then hop off, all within less than a second).
You are essentially cancelling your main hand weapon attack with a kit swap, (so this will not work with toolbar abilities or other AoE) which is a ranged attack that uses smart aiming, and replacing it with grenades. For example, Rifle #1 -> Grenade #1, the Grenades will be aimed as if you were doing Rifle #1 and throw the grenades where the rifle shot would have gone.
Great for when you need to throw a specific type of grenade quickly.
Terrible for a fix for laziness and spamming grenades.
*Works on Mortar, FT #2."
Maybe works when you swap to Grenade Kit, and use something else, say toolbar skills. Test it for me.
Takes a bit of practice.
Go wild.
Oracle
“The oracle is a heavy armor profession capable of changing the fates of tyria. Using Rage, which increases as they take damage, they can unleash destruction upon their foes, and if not controlled, their allies as well”.
The Oracle uses Unarmed (No Weapon), Pistol (Off-Hand), or Dagger (Off-Hand).
Rage is a unique mechanic to the Oracle. By taking damage or receiving conditions, their rage meter is filled in interval called orbs. The orbs are spent immediately when attacking, increasing the effects of their attacks but lowering their defenses.
The Oracle has access to unique utilities for the profession only:
Vision – utilities that allow the oracle to forcefully share their thoughts and views.
—- Examples:
Unthoughtful Views: Applies the effect to nearby allies and enemies. If your rage is filled, your allies become target-able enemies, and your enemies receive 10 stacks of might. If your rage is not filled at the end of this ability, all allies are healed fully and all enemies are downed within a 1,000 range. Lasts 10 seconds.
Inexperienced Ramble: Applies the buff to nearby allies and enemies. Enemies are stunned for 2 seconds if they attack you. Allies are stunned for 1 second if they apply a buff to you. If your rage is filled, all allies affected gain all boons, and enemies gain all conditions including agony (level 15).
Ignorance is Bliss: You become immune to all other oracle effects for 900 seconds. If you attack or use a utility, the effect is canceled.
Berate – offensive utilities to curse and hopefully bring doom to enemies, but it probably won’t.
— Examples:
Elitist Scolding: Applies 2 stacks of scolding per attack you make in the next 10 seconds. If an enemy reaches 16 stacks of scolding, they are killed immediately, skipping the down phase.
Cry for Equality: You and the target enemy will have their health equalized to 15,000. If one of you dies, your health will be permanently raised by 2,000.
Fight Me!: Applies Revealed (120s) to all enemies within 2,000 range. The closest enemy can only target you until either of you dies.
Active – These utilities focus on the removal of details to give yourself a better advantage, at the cost of losing it later.
The N.E.R.F Bat: Equip the N.E.R.F Bat, which allows you to reduce the health, damage, and movement speed of those you hit. Stacks indefinitely, until the target dies. By hitting a certain class in PvP, you take a certain effect:
Hitting a Warrior will stun you for 2 seconds.
Hitting a Guardian will heal them for 3,000 health.
Hitting a Ranger will inflict all conditions on you for 1 second.
Hitting a Thief will remove Revealed status on them and Grant them stealth for 2 seconds.
Hitting an Engineer will spawn a Flame Turret.
Hitting a Necromancer will grant them 10 stacks of might.
Hitting a Mesmer will create a clone, regardless of over limit.
Hitting an Elementalist will deal 2,000 damage to you.
Hitting an Oracle will also apply the effects of the N.E.R.F Bat to you.
If you die while using the N.E.R.F Bat, this utility is unlearned and must be repurchased.
Level the Field: Reduces the target’s effective level, as well as your own, by 30. Cannot go lower than 1.
One Man Army: Creates a clone that deals 100% of your damage and has 100% of your health. The number of clones created is equal to the amount of enemies within 3,000 range minus one. If no clones are created, you are instantly killed.
The Oracle has access to 3 powerful Elite skills:
Angry Retreat: Teleports you to a random location on the map, fully heals you, and makes you invulnerable for 3 seconds. Can only be used if rage is full.
Prayer to the Coliseum: Start an incantation that appeals to the Coliseum, where the Gods of Tyria now reside. 1% of the time, the gods will smite all enemies in the map. 4% of the time, all players including yourself will be hit with the N.E.R.F Bat. 95% of the time, nothing will happen.
Test of the Chosen One: Transform into the profession and build that counters your target’s profession and class for 60 seconds. If you die to that person, your oracle’s profession is turned into a new profession Novice, in which you have no utilities, traits, or gear, cannot equip gear or weapons, and permanently in combat, and your effective level is reduced to 7.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
Stealth is not overpowered. There needs to be a sticky somewhere to stop these posts, its pointless and if it was really broken, we’d know by now.
but if you have traits such as incendiary powder and that procs of of the Big Ol’ Bomb then you will get the revealed status.
Nope. Tried it without this trait, while testing. Yet revealed.
Confirmed.
Using turrets, however, will not reveal you even if you have the trait to knock people back, because turrets blowing up are their own action.
Know all of your skills before hand. Practice them while doing PvE or something. Swapping between kits frequently is a normal thing, and kits have a 1s CD for swapping. You could be firing a rifle, then swap to an elixir gun for a condi clear / heal and swap back quickly. Maybe your taking heavy fire? Toolkit to #4 instantly. It should come to you without even thinking.
That’s if you are running kits though. Also know your tool belt skills as well: they are quite important in dealing damage / surviving.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
Due to latency issues, Magnet can still work even if the enemy is evading/dodging.
This has happened to me multiple times in the middle of a dodge roll.
Thnx for the link!! :-)
Just a quick warning: without the play style, you will get trashed on quite easily. At least that is how it was for me in the beginning.
I am guessing the high condi damage isn’t real. I run a power build but uses condi food for cripple and weakness and a long bleed to stop people from getting out of combat and regen but not for damage. I’m going to guess whoever you fought most likely does the same.
It wasn’t. I found out that condi contributed to just screwing with me and masking the other condis that he really wanted on me (vulnerability, cripple) using bleeds and stuff.
I see this as phantasm/power PU mesmer, much has been said already but:
– any mesmer using staff will spam conditions, but those will not tick for much if he uses spec above
– removing conditions is a pain for all memser, although with lyssa and both sigils it may look like he removes them all (hint: keep the pressure, loaded with condi and lyssa on cooldown makes me very unhappy)
– ‘heal while in stealth’ is weird, but most PU mesmer (at least I do) actually simply use their heal while invisible to prevent interruption, so it’s not something automatic. The regen PU sometimes give in stealth will not be very noticeable.My advice for those:
– put conditions (or direct damage & poison, I hate poison) on mesmer while he is visible
– kill his phantasm when he disappears
– if you can spam AoE. do it (warrior longbow, thief shortbow, etc…)
– don’t worry too much about the conditions or his autoattacks. his damage will come from phantasm (kill them when he stealth) and occasional shatter (dodge when they run to you)
– a lucky large AoE knockdown/interrupt if you see him go invisible on low health will mean victory if you hit him Always worth a try – very useful with a hammer warrior in sPvP (where mesmer tend to stay in the circle).
A bit late, but this was basically what it was. I got a hold of some mesmer guys who were on and that’s basically what they told me.
Stats for a mix of CC and Damage…
Well, CC comes from turrets regardless of stats.
So damage can come from power, crit, or condi damage gear. Pick one you like and choose a weapon accordingly.
Engineer can be incredibly tanky, I can give you that.
Combined with condition damage you got a mean engineer build. Tanky + Condi is rather easy to do.
But its far from hilariously overpowered for sure. There are ways around it, I assure you.
And hilariously OP!
Turret mobility was never an issue for me, and I roam a lot in WvW and sPvP. Especially in sPvP. If you ever see me in game, I almost never try to hold points, I’m always going places.
Great write up… thnx for taking the time. Any chance you could link to an actual build page, maybe limited to just sPVP gear? Would bring everything you have said together in an easy to follow way. (for the more noobish amongst the engie’s… ahem… me….. ahem) -thnx!
This is what I was using in the video. Again, there are many variations, and for turrets, I strongly recommend making your own. I just wrote my experiences down and stuff here to help you make one.
In tPvP I run 2/0/6/4/2 instead with Soldiers/Clerics.
That’s why I titled this thread the “Universal Turrets”, because to me there really isn’t just one build that everyone can go to and use, but I do strongly believe that there is a solid baseline to work off of, and that’s 2/0/0/0/2 with the certain traits.
And for people who wonder why I don’t take up experimental turrets: You could always give up fortified turrets for them. I just prefer having a counter against long ranged players, in which there are a lot of these days. If you plan on dropping either of the 2/0/0/0/2 things, you lose a lot of defensive/offensive ability.
Oh my god that warrior ping ponging around in the 2nd fight had me dying.
Are you using sweet fx? Why does your fortified turrets look so different from mine?
I’m using nothing. Maybe its the graphic settings.
The ping pong is actually something I regularly did when I ran Rifle/Rocket/Net. The easiest setup was Rifle #2 into Net Turret Overcharge. If they did not stun break or clean immobilize or have stability, its bouncin time.
Of course, the video was a 1v1 situation. Usually I have a team mate with me just wailing on the poor guy getting juggled.
It looks like this build is decent in PvP. Do you have anything to say about PvE? According to the beginning you said you’ve used it for both, but I’m curious what your experience in PvE was?
It does decent damage in PvE if you go full zerkers of course, but that is due to using a rifle.
In PvE the same thing applies. Lots of CC and control lets me take minimal damage without dodging while able to dish out damage.
In dungeons when we stack I’ll often stack with the group, attack a bit, then throw out turrets eventually on the side to prevent ruining the stack.
It does work quite well. lvl 20+ fractals, dungeons, etc. Unfortunately, there are some cases where actually having the turret out all the time is impossible (Subject Alpha in CoE) or where they don’t shoot at all (Boss events) but I assume they don’t shoot at world bosses so that people can’t leave a turret out and AFK tag, since turrets do tag enemies for you.
No
Mines at your feet in which the enemy mobs have to walk over, especially when using the rifle < Raw damage for each condition on the enemy
Random Turret Facts and Tips
Turrets are one of the only few things in the game that, no matter what state you are in except dead and downed, you can control them.
If you have surprise shot, you can use that as sort of a targeting beam for turrets even while stunned. Use that in conjunction with turret overcharges for some sweet plays.
Detonate Turret and Turret Overcharge can be used while stunned, dazed, or blinded. The knockbacks will knockback regardless of being blinded.
Every time you use a toolbelt skill, including detonate turret, thats 10 endurance back for you.
So for example, healing turret water field and 4 blast finishers. Not only do you get a huge burst heal, but you also get a free dodge roll. Great for emergencies.
Turrets face the direction you are facing when first placed. If you need a turret shot to go off immediately, adjust your facing position before the turret lands.
Turrets have a very slow turn time. Someone with swiftness can actually run around a turret and not get shot for quite a while. Again, another reason why not to nest.
A rifle turret, rocket turret, and a flame turret can do about 600 + 400 + 100 + 300 (burn base) every second. That’s 1,400 damage a second, in theory. Add that to whatever you are doing with your regular attacks. The best part is (ironically) is that it does not scale to stats. So with a full healing power build, I can do that much damage, + 500 rifle damage shots, yet still have about 1,600+ Healing Power. Oh, and a lot of CC.
Detonate Turret does damage. About 1000+, cannot crit, regardless of build. You can be a full condi build and still do about 1k on turret detonation.
Weakness
AoE is still a weakness, even if you don’t nest. In most cases, the enemy will be able to hit you and the turret. That’s why I often utilize a Drop N’ Pop method: the turret is going to die anyway, might as well make use of it. Adopting this play style mitigates the weakness.
Mobility is still a weakness as well. Again, adopting this play style makes it less of a pain.
Longbow Rangers with 1,500 range. Because no amounts of reflect will change the fact they can wait or shoot something else without you posing as a threat.
Mesmers with a whole bunch of reflects. Mesmers with staffs.
Ranged CC. But then again, Ranged CC works against any build.
Minion Mancer, to a certain extent. You will most likely go down, but so will the necromancer. You will most likely hurt the MM necro really badly before going down.
Turrets
Rifle Turret, Rocket Turret, and Flame Turret is my usual setup.
Net Turret is great if you have trouble with enemies trailing you all the time, or if you have trouble setting up CC. Terrible for any big fights you want to get into.
Thumper Turret. I had thoughts on swapping out Rifle Turret out with a thumper turret: Yes, its 3 blast finishers in one, it has 1 knockback (trait) and 1-2 launches (overcharge). It cripples. It includes a stun break in the turret build. What I don’t like about it at all is mobility. A rifle turret will keep shooting as long as they are within 1,000 range. A thumper turret needs to be within almost a fifth of that range, which is terrible for any mobility reasons.
If you like to fight on point or stuff, Thumper Turret over Rifle Turret is actually a better choice.
I have rocket turret for burst damage and CC overcharge. The CD is 20 seconds! It’s a must for me.
Flame Turret, as I explained before. Fire Field, Smoke Field, Blast finisher, Burns. Throw-able, moderate cooldown. To me, this is the best turret, minus the healing turret.
A lot of people love the rifle turret. With a high damage shot for 8-10s cooldown, instant cast projectile finisher as the tool-belt skill, its definitely something to keep on your bar.
Um… what else…
Just stay calm, don’t pick fights you can’t handle, don’t yolo / over extend, don’t kitten after using CC, etc. Typical advice.
Thanks for reading my mess, hope you learned something.
Trait and Build History
So the base trait line for this “build” is 2/0/0/0/2.
The rest is really up to you: do you play condi damage? Zerker? Or you want to be super tanky? How about healing power? It does not matter what you take, because it will work. The play-style is generally the same, the stats merely reinforce a certain aspect of it.
2/4/2/2/4 is what I used to run at first. It featured decent rifle damage, SD, 50% reduced damage while stunned, as well as some minor traits that proc every minute or so. Rifle Turret, Rocket Turret, and Net turret.
I slowly started to run 2/6/0/0/6. At this point, I was zerking my way through everything. High rifle damage with high SD burst, relying on immobilize to stop stability users from reaching me. Any thief that sneaks up on me usually has a bad day.
At this point, no matter what build I faced except a few cheese builds, it didn’t matter if I had abysmal amounts of condi clear or 0 stun breaks. Hambow warriors and necromancers died to that build. CC is very strong, especially when its chained for great durations while dealing high amounts of damage. They can’t apply conditions on me if they can’t do anything to begin with.
I started to overlook the fights that actually happened. Most of them were 1v1 encounters. If it was a group fight, I’d always be on the sidelines, just like my turrets would be, bursting people down. If 2 or more people started to gang up on me, I was basically screwed and had to run.
A burst build with high CC is quite deadly. I wondered why people didn’t run this kind of setup to begin with.
I actually took the liberty to run this very build today. Here’s 3 “fights” that happened where I proceed to lock the kitten out of the enemy, clicky
Please forgive the terrible video. There were a lot of areas where I could have improved, but I was too busy recording with terrible frame rate.
Fight #1: Placing rocket turret on the edge. So that guardian would have gotten shot down there multiple times.
Fight #2: Healing Turret button got bugged out. You’ll notice that its flashing to activate but it never did, so he was able to use his block. No biggie.
Fight #3: When fleeing, I could have put down fire field and blown up my turrets to knock them back while stacking some might. I messed up the dodge jump roll and fell down. I mistimed the flame turret and placed it before the overcharge was ready. I should have walked up and blunderbuss + jump shot the shadow refuge. I should have waited for the thief to appear first and then overcharge the flame turret (I knew the thief would come after me): instead I was too hasty and did it immediately, which ended right when the thief showed up.
Anyway, I’ve ended up with this:
2/0/6/4/2
The 6 in tools for Fortified Turrets, for obvious reasons. One of the turrets weakness was range, especially those that can extend beyond a 1,000 range. No longer. Because I don’t nest, the use of fortified turrets is (wait for it) fortified.
4 in alchemy. Acidic Coating and the trait that gives protection when stunned. An extra tack on survival. With flame turret smoke field up AND acidic coating, good luck touching me at melee range.
Also, learning that thieves hate being blinded is also good to know.
I have run this setup in rated PvP matches, some of which were played with top 500 players on my team / enemy teams. I’ve held my own, I’ve almost never lost to a 1v1 at home point, I’ve even had a decap engie come to me and much to his surprise he couldn’t decap me (I wonder why) and in the long run ended up dead as soon as a second team mate came. In a single day, I’ve entered the top 500 myself, lol.
For those that like more damage, 2/4/6/0/2 works well. About a 25% damage increase at the cost of survival.
I did consider including a bomb kit somewhere at some point, but the problem with bombs is that:
1) You cannot use your weapon.
2) Bombs are put at your feet.
Unlike a flame turret, which
1) Can be thrown
2) Fights regardless of what you are doing
I included what I used to run because they still work. They still do what they do, provided you play it that way. But with the changes in meta and what I usually see, I decided to take on a more defensive option. Feel free to run whatever you like: the traits should be quite obvious.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
Rule of Thumb:
Don’t nest. It’s a bad habit on any who uses turrets. You want broken turrets? Because that’s how you get broken turrets.
Nesting = Placing all your turrets down in a nice, small area before anything even happens.
Instead, try to keep one out when holding a point or when you know someone is approaching. Having every single one out before the fight starts generally does not play out well. Try to deploy them as the fight goes on: they are more likely going to be placed where you actually want them to be at the time and the enemy can’t AoE them beforehand.
This applies to PvE as well. You want the mobs going after you and not your turrets. If you can keep it like that, your turrets will last much longer. In dungeons, never place turrets before fights start, especially when stacking around corners. Luckily, you should have deployable turrets, so you can have them where you want without actually going there.
Also, the throw range on Deployable turrets is 900. Rifle turret has a range of 1,000. That means you can basically put someone into combat from 1,900 range. Great for when you see enemies coming you don’t want to face: putting them into combat means they move a lot slower.
Turrets are not for damage. People have done the math. They are for control. Use them for control.
Try to control enemy pathing as well. In GW2, people don’t zig zag. There’s no reason to. They want to go from Point A, their position, to Point B, you, the delicious engineer. In big open areas, try to position or place a turret so that its between Point A and B.
Drop N’ Pop, which is basically the practice of dropping a turret, overcharge, detonate, is not generally a bad thing. Don’t use it for that sole purpose though: you can have a lot of extra damage from keeping a turret out.
Prioritize interrupting enemies when you can: it means you live longer, they can’t attack or move for a while, and maybe they will waste a stun break. It also sets you up for a burst of damage: knocking back with rocket turret, followed by an immobilize and the rocket overcharge can dish out quite a bit of damage.
Don’t forget about your turrets. Sometimes there’s so much going on that you lose track of what turret has done what. If you know when they recently fired, you can time your overcharges a lot better.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
From experience, making the turret build that I would stick with was my goal. But I never really settled upon one, and for months, way back when turret hitboxes were the size of mountains and were crafted by unskilled workers, I juggled around ideas and tried to put them into action.
The great thing about it all is that the builds I did run all had three things in common:
4 Turrets
1 Base Trait Setup
Used in WvW, PvE, and PvP
Today I’ll be sharing my experiences on all this and for any other engineers out there who want to use turrets but popular opinion makes you iffy. Careful though: I did not prepare this as a guide and merely pouring out what I know, so it might be all over the place.
I hope people who want to use turrets better or something can learn from this and perhaps shape and play their current turret builds.
There are 2 important traits that all turret builds should probably have:
Accelerant-Packed Turrets
Deployable Turrets
One allows you to turn Detonate Turrets into a knockback. This has become very popular over the last few months with the decap engie.
The other allows you to fully utilize your turrets to their maximum potential. Positioning of Turrets and Turret longevity is greatly increased with that trait.
Also, having Deployable Turrets means you get extra endurance regeneration, due to the minor trait that comes with getting 1 in Tools.
(edited by WEXXES.2378)
Thanks for all the helpful answers guys, really appreciate it.
I think the biggest misconception is not many people actually look into what a PU Mesmer is and their only experience with it is fighting which teaches you the strengths but not so much the weaknesses.
Definitely.
I think the newest gm traits were purposely put on traitlines that you wouldn’t expect them to be on, such as that stealth trait on acrobatics for thieves. It does give you a reason to branch out on other traitlines that you otherwise might not normally though, and ends up creating some build diversity.
This, very much so.
8) Constant Condi Removal
Lol, please tell me how this is done on mesmer
Sigil of Purity + Generosity,
2 every 10 seconds, 1 of which transfers instead of clears just from attacking.
4 every 10-12 seconds from healing with Power Return with the trait Mender’s Purity.
5 every 40(32) seconds with null field.
probably, the other thing i see happening is he confused what was from the Mesmer and what was from other sources maybe.
That could be it as well.
procs aegis protection/ regen and stealths .
It was actually just the staff in conjunction with decoy.
What you listed was ludicrous and impossible. I prefer for people to do one of two things.
a. Recognize that they’re not skilled enough to understand what’s going on and proceed accordingly
b. Understand what’s going on and ask for help correctly.Notice that neither of those include
c. Proceed to forums and make absurd accusations about how overpowered a class is.
The problem with your claim is that I did say I don’t understand. And it was a serious post. Nothing about complaining about how overpowered something is. I asked for help. I made it clear:
This is a serious question.
I don’t understand the balance of this. There has to be a weakness, but I’m not seeing any. So I came over here to ask, and I get sarcasm.
You gave me this right after:
Nope, there’s no weakness. You’re referring to the full shatter PU bunker clonespam confusion bomb shatter condie removal build.
You proceeded to troll a second time. You didn’t even ask for specifics or anything. Maybe I was seeing something but it was actually something else.
And you know what’s funny? It was indeed possible, not 100% to match the description, more like 80%. There was indeed high burst damage, and high condi spam but because the person in question used Berserker, the condi damage itself did minor damage. There was stealth, there was null field, there were sigil of purity. I apply conditions regularly but not like a condi spammer, so it definitely looked like he had constant condi removal.
The build in question had at least 0/20/0/30/0, not sure where the other points go, but that’s what I’ve been seeing on builds similar to my description.
I can’t describe what the build is 100%: I neither play mesmer or do I get answers for my questions when I did ask (as demonstrated). Luckily, a lot of people here are indeed helpful. When people ask me about engineer stuff, it tends to be over exaggerated because they don’t know the class, which is fine.
Apparently you can use Decoy while under the effects of Revealed from Sic Em. Decoy grants stealth.
Apparently its a power based build that just happens to apply a lot of conditions in the process of whatever they are doing. I tried it out just now, could apply bleed, burn, confusion, vulnerability pretty often but they didn’t really do anything. The main source of damage obviously came from shatter/phantasms/weapon.
With the addition of null field, traits, and sigils I can have 8-9 condi clears done in almost 5 seconds, so when someone is applying a lot of condis on me, it looks like constant condi removal but it isn’t.
@Dhampyr
I did. And I really don’t know what I’m talking about, which is why I asked. That is no reason for pyro to be an kitten to someone new to the profession’s workings.
I finally got an actual serious answer.
A Staff / GS mesmer. Using a variation of PU.
Finding some examples, they use Decoy and Null Field. Sigil of Purity on their weapons.
Shatters heal, apply confusion, etc.
The downside is having a very low health pool and armor, allowing 2 burst damage players to take the mesmer down very quickly or condi-pressure. They are able to get boons through chaos armor and traits.
The condition damage itself does not do a lot, but they give the illusion that it does since they can apply a lot of it while smacking down targets. Confusion also sucks for anyone with fast attacks.
They start with staff but quickly switch to GS after putting staff skills on CD.
@Pyro
For someone who writes guides for mesmers, I hope new mesmers don’t look for your guidance.
@Steeple
At least that that’s helpful in some way, thank you.
And yes, the build does exist. I may have exaggerated it a bit, but I don’t know jack about mesmer.
Ahhh yes, the 30/30/30/30/30 build dualwielding greatswords and staves. I know it well. You don’t fight it, you juts lose.
This is a serious question.
I don’t understand the balance of this. There has to be a weakness, but I’m not seeing any. So I came over here to ask, and I get sarcasm. Great mesmer community impression already. You’re very great help, thanks.
I’m not asking for a secret formula or anything, but as of right now: whatever that person was using seems very, very overpowered downing people constantly while not dieing in the heat of everything. It was also very obvious who the real mesmer was but he just keeps disappearing and then reappearing with almost full health and boons a few seconds later.
It lacks range frankly and that is its biggest headache.
The second is the sheer time it takes projectiles to cover that measly range.Speed it up and make it go farther and you would have a good option.
Yea, I guess the range. Just because you can THROW grenades as far/farther. Might as well just throw the mortar at them, why use a launcher?
If you have 3 mortars shelling a single spot during a big fight, it’s pretty hellish. Lack of aiming and planning would make the projectile speed bad.
I need to know how to fight this mesmer that:
1) Has High burst damage
2) Has High condi spam, mainly confusion, bleed, burn
3) Has protection/aegis on and generally reduces any non-condi damage by half
4) Constant Stealth
5) Constant Healing (while in stealth)
6) Million of clones no matter how many AoE spam there is
7) Uses GS
8) Constant Condi Removal
I’m guessing its a PU or w/e that thing is.
This works as intended. Improvisation is best used with many types of utilities to increase your chances of recharging a skill.
I’ve done 3 Shadow Refuges chain stealth with improvisation before. It’s a bit of a gamble to have this trait.
I applied Sic Em to a mesmer, but they are still able to break target and disappear while having revealed on them?
Don’t take Med Kit over healing turret.
Swap out the runes for rune of water. You get an extra condi removal and extra healing when placing down a healing turret for everyone nearby.
Practice placing healing turret, overcharging, then picking it back up again. You get 6 seconds of regeneration, 2 condi clears, and about 6,6001400 healing every 14 seconds. About 5k of that healing goes to allies as well.
The overcharge of the healing turret also grants regeneration and acts as a water field. That can be used in conjunction with Shield #4 or Rifle #5 for another 1700~ healing for yourself.
Instead of keeping a long stack of regen, which can be removed by necros and such, you have constant application of regen so any boon removals you encounter won’t become a problem.