Guild Wars 2

The damage difference isn’t that huge. Meta builds exist for elitism aswell pugs. 10/20 is as I said some kind of overflow to 0/30 I think. I’ve just heared about many mesmers using it. Personally I agree with you, it is not that “meta like” if I think about it again.

The staff isn’t that bad, It just deals more passive damage than big fat numbers except for iWarlock. A 2k dmg aa isnt that bad, if it bounces even 4k. However it is very situational.

It is a good choice if you don’t have to dps that much and are more supporting, like the wall fractale (2 sigils at burning area) where you summon your stuff and heal with mop since your personal damage is not worth attacking aslong as you prevent allies from dying. It’s not a general rule, but I learned how much 800 Heal per seconds are in order to reduce my own damage down to phants and a few attacks, especially with iDefender.

The staff is also awesome against dangerious enemies where you have to escape (2) or just a great dd if you got some condifreaks around, like engi or ele. 4+ conditions and your iWL dps is the highest. The aa also buffs allies for passive damage, however again invisible for you.

In general yea – there are often better options. Scepter + Pistol or sometimes even GS. But the staff is a weapon every good mesmer has to carry around … Actually every weapon

As for a build I still suggest 10/30/0/30/0. Traiting in Illusions isn’t that awesome as everyone thinks imo.

It’s a bit like the beginners. If you are not so good using mantras or just a bit lazy, there is no benefit in duelling 30. So yea, it’s pretty much the same. However I guess more are using 0/30, sadly even if they have just 1 mantra all the time wich would be a waste.

Dawdler.8521:

24 silver each? At 2-3 hours of playing WvW during the evening that’s only 1-1.5 gold… IE its cheaper to get travelers after a month or two if you plan on constantly buying this oil. And that’s just WvW. Traveller give you +25% all the hours in PvE too.

Yea but travelers got extremly shi**y stats for pve.

Those zodiac armor are really the ugliest stuff I’ve ever seen in GW2 … At least Evans version with a blue silvary made it cool again. WP.

“Best” depends on you and your playstyle. The answers however are allways the same:

Beginner Build: 20/20/0/30/0
Is a build only for newb’s who will often use the GS and no mantras. The GS is most of the time a weak weapon in dungeons and will be outdamaged by the sword. However if you are unexpirienced, medium ranged damage is still better than a perma death melee wanna-b. It also will support the nullfield and feedback, but no mantras wich take more attention but are very useful and strong.

Meta Builds: 10/20/0/25/15 or 0/30/0/25/15
They are like the common builds, supporting phantasm damage and personal damage, but at the cost of a inspiration trait. However you also gain either the 4% (16%) personal mantra damage or the +17.25% phantasm damage.

Personal Best Build: 10/30/0/30/0
I’ve played about 1500 hours on my mes, it’s my main and I’ve been testing tons of build over more than just a couple of hours. I know what I am talking about aslong it is about PvE. The personal build depens on what you are doing. As for me I want to deal much personal damage (mantra dmg) aswell phant dmg (10/x/x/25/x), and I want ALLWAYS 3 inspiration traits since they are by far the best stuff we got. I think (my opinion !! not everyones) that 20% cdr on phants aren’t worth all the stuff I got with that build. I like to be flexible, I switch traits depending on what I need, more reflection, more condi cleanse, more heal, more phant HP what ever! I do dungeons and lv50 fotm mainly.

In the end find your own best build Mine has changed over the time too ofc ^^

Frenk.5917:

If you want to do it by yourself the most efficient way (ie: not wasting utility slots) you have to use Big Ol’ Bomb, put the firefield, use healing turret (don’t worry, the water field DOES NOT override the fire one – as I sadly noticed in WvW

What water field? The HT only grants a water field upon activation. I just leave here the rules of the combo fields. So you will understand how combo fields work.

Xyonon.3987:

“Enter>First-come-first-served”
means that the blast finisher will proc that field the producer of the finisher entered first. After that, the “First-come-first-served” rule hits. This rule says that allways the combo field works, wich has been created first.

This means, if there are 2 combo fields on the same spot, one has 300 range fire, the other has 200 range smoke. The smoke one gets dropped first, the fire 2nd.
Now you enter both fields and stay in the middle of them, using (as engineer) the blast finisher of the shield, you will grant MIGHT to the allies, since YOU are the producer, or better; the “projectile” that entered the fields.

If you were a thief, using shortbow 2, it would grant stealth, since there is no projectile, just an explosion that goes off where it lands -> “First-come-first-served” (the visual project and the explosion are independent to each other).

If there are 2 combo fields on the same spot, both have 200 range, the smoke one gets dropped first, the fire 2nd, the “First-come-first-served” rule hits, since you entered both at the same time.

So in the end, the “Enter>First-come-first-served” rule is just an addition that means: "If there are multiple fields on the ground, overlapping each other, you will allways proc that field YOU entered first, regardless wich one is “First-come”, as long as YOU are the one who IS the explosion finisher."

Destroying turrets causes the explosion finisher on YOU, since it’s YOUR toolbelt. So you can put a turret into a fire field and stay in a water field and explode it to grant a heal. This means you can put and explode a turret via “E>Fcfs” rule and grant what you want. The big’ol’bomb however does not work like that since it’s the explosion finisher itself!

Long wall’o’text but worth reading, I hope you all understand and agree.
Gn8 Greez! ^^

Basaltface.2786:

I just made myself 2 of them. One with wings and one without and transmuted both to equal stats. Now i can just switch the backpiece if i know i know rely on kits from the winged to the non winged . No wing clipping and perfectly covered up.

Not sure if im desperate or sad… or both

I don’t get why you did this o.O It’s anyway invisible if it has wings or not while using a kit.

Depends. For me it is fun to be more efficient, to be most useful for my team. I want to be the “wow this engi rocks”-guy. FT just looks good, true that, sometimes its fun. But I don’t enjoy beeing weaker :P

I just made myself the backpiece. I just tought the wings will still be visible under the hobo sack … pff … no it just disappears wtf.

Also the animation when i grab my shield from my back, the new back item jsut sticks to the shield for the duration of the animation istead of beeing actually on my back is … well TERRIBLE!!!

when will come a fix? it’s extremly unfair for any engineer and also for everyone who whields a shield. Just make them visible through anything.

Interesting, cool and sadly much too expensive

lchan.2169:

Keep your distance. I play staff 30/30/0/0/10 all berserk with scholar rune. I’m not even a glass canon. I am far more fragile then that, but I can pound the mobs stupidly and maybe die once in the entire 50min

Almost the same. Just 30/20/0/0/20 here, since vigor on crit aswell staff range are a must have imo. We don’t do many attacks and others can stack vulnerability better anyway.

Just can talk about PvE and there they deal the highest amount of damage. Definitly more than a warrior … But they are also harder to play.

Sounds like a fire only ele … meh :o I think the ele is pretty ok in PvE. Best damage and tons of save skills. If you die you didn’t react.

However yes I also think upscaling the mobs in LA is just a bad joke. “We have no idea how to make them harder, LETS MAKE THEM LV 85!!!” … srsly :/ I was happy when I saw the NC mobs that dodged, revived allies and did something smart. We need more of those instead of “more dmg, more hp, much level, wow” mobs…

Conditions deal less damage than power build, they simply make you tankier. However since the necro relies on bleeding it’s terrible because of the cap and overwriting of others.

New bleeding stacks overwrite old bleeding stacks, wich means your stack that lasts 10 sec with 2k condi dmg will get deleted by 1 crit of a zerker mesmer phantasm.

Also there will allways be bleeding on the enemy, even if you overwrite the others and you tic for 150 damage, you actually just do 105 tics since you just delete anothers 45 dmg tic. Not useful for the group, just for personal dps.

spoj.9672:

No they arent terrible. My guilds old fractal 80 team ran with a condi necro because it was needed for dredge.

And what was he for? Engi heals more, grants might, has higher AoE, same goes for Ele. The mesmer could grant +50% damage with nullfield cleanse the protection, a thief for skipping, and all the other classes simply deal more damage and got utility.

In the end I stopped playing my necro because of two things:

• condi necro deals almost 0 damage and is decreasing others dps slightly with overwriting bleedings
• power necro just deals damage but does nothing else. no buffs, no utility and nothing special another class couldn’t do better

I think the necro would be awesome with the following changes:

• remove the godkitten bleeding cap already in PvE! It’s useless, bleeding is ONLY DAMAGE!!
• give the necro a trait that grants an unique aura wich shares a % of your own toughness.

They both have a 9 sec cd like all weapon swap sigils. They share CD like any other sigil too (until sigil rework patch).

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Also note that iZerker only works on practice dummies cause they’re big, they usually only hit 1-2 times on most mobs.

If the phant spins against the running direction it hits ø2 times. If the mobs stays still ø3 times and if it spins with the running direction or into a wall where the mob stands 4 times. It also depends on the hitbox of the mob, making it more efficient against large mobs. Also it sometimes happens that your phant gets crippled or chilled, making it stronger since it moves slowly trough the enemy (like getting rooted by a krait while channeling spear 2 xD)

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

frifox.5283:

Assuming you’re running both Empowered Illusions and Phantasmal Strength traits:

[1,931 dps] Swordsman
[2,050 dps] Swordsman (with Sharper Images)

[1,383 dps] Duelist
[2,066 dps] Duelist (with Sharper Images)
[2,358 dps] Duelist (with Sharper Images & Phantasmal Haste)

Note that Swordsman will catch up and is roughly equal with PHasted Duelist at max buffs, since Duelist doesn’t scale as well with crit damage since damage is partially bleed.

frifox.5283:

Condition damage scales with might and most other damage buffs are ignored by phantasms.

Condition damage scales poorly with might, also bleeding gets often overwritten and is duration castrated against champs. However power scaling is better at the swordsman. Banner etc affect them too via your own stats. And don’t forget the double trait for sword!

You normally use focus and sword, and if you dont need a focus, use a pistol instead. But in general (! not allways !) sword > pistol.

Single Target

• iSwordsman for your personal block
• iDuellist for a safe position phantasm
• iWarlock for safety for you and your phantasm or when there are 4+ conditions on the enemy

Multi Target

• iZerker good for trash, most of the time us GS only for phant and 2-5, then switch
• iWarden good for reflection and burst, cood combined with Sword 3 hold

in a nutshell

zodiac? ugly as hell. now the poor weapon designers invade the armor designers aswell? oh my…

ascended

So you also have to spend traits only for the rifle? I wonder what trait you are missing then :/ Also i don’t get how you calculate 37k rifle dmg but k. In the end it doesn’t make a huge difference in terms of damage, but you are still missing utility.

@ Linc
@ Wondrouswall

Yea, those nubers and that attachment exactly shows the same dps, since rifle attacks require more time to be cast than bombs. You can do ~1.5 bombs during blunderbuss aswell definitly 2 bombs during jump shot. I think you can do the math by your own.

€dit: 3 stacks might for 5 persons btw.

So lazyness warrants ~50% efficiency?

I’m a person that likes to test instead of just accept things myself. So tyvm for confirming the already known.

Definitly go on Rune of the Strength – you will have permamight for the damage buff and the additional might dura increases your buffs for allies aswell. It’s a must have. For sigils +5% dmg or battle, pretty much the same stuff. Battle is just harder to use, better if 25> stacks might, but it doesn’t really matter.

As for combo I do not recommend the thumper turret, only if you really do not need any utility. Otherwise use the elixier gun for condicleanse, heal and a high damage combo finisher.

Pistol + Shield >>> Rifle, since for damage Bomb 1 hits as much as Rifle 3 or 5. So you simply change the appearence of your damage skill for nothing. Better keep the shield utility.

HealT, BigOB, FireB, destroy HT, Shield 4 twice, Elixier Gun 4 and you’ll have your 12 stacks might for everyone, 15 with battle for you. With Rune of the Strength and Traits (dunno if I even have something there xD) you’ll grant 12 stacks for 25 sec on a 30 sec CD <3

it’s possible to do, also very funny in a water or smoke field.

The Flamethrower is ok in open world but pretty much garbage in dungeons where it get’s serious, like high fotm. The main problems of the Flamethrower are:

• low dps
• skill 1 only hits 3 targets
• only a few vulnerability stacks
• juggernaut might stacks are wasted since you gain over 25 stacks might in a party
• forces you to stay on the weapon for might stacks

Compare it to grenades and bombs:

• more vulnerability
• hits 5 enemies (tagging up to 15 with ’nades … theory :P)
• more dps
• more blinds
• better fire field
• chill
• combo finisher
• overall just MUCH MUCH BETTER

In open world it may be funny, but I really hate FT engis in my party, since I know how much might he could grant the whole team by using bombs, how much vulnerability comes from grenades and how much utility the elixier gun grants.

Howere – swapping in for toolbelt seems ok… Or just for the style to burn those TA flowers down >:3

I just read a “I’m too lazy to craft, so gimme the ascended right when I got the materials” …

It’s like “I don’t want to farm so long for a legendary, just give me one after 1000 hours playtime” …

T____T

Best PvE Mantra builds are 30/30/0/0/10 for max dmg (open world) or 10/30/0/30/0 for max usefullness (dungeons / fotm).

I still don’t think that I would go into war with a deck of cards. It’s the wrong game for … cards. A skill with cards for utilities or between the fans like knifes ok, but never as a weapon.

You should play League of Legends → Twisted Fate

Fan should more be mh AND oh. Short range cleave, maybe even a “+25% speed while wearing a fan” trait etc.

Pets aren’t a flaw, the AI and mechanic to control them however is. I’ve played a MMO Asiagrinder (oh god why …) before that was based on a pet system. Everyone had a pet, petclasses had 2. The pets were controllable, moveable, you could use their skills as you wish and they had their own skilltree. I don’t think GW2 needs all of this, since the main focus is the ranger himself. However, pets need more control.

So … you wanna remove pets?

I think mobs should cleave

Nope – it’s gone now. Copyright is a kitten, :o

STOP IGNORING THIS THREAD ALREADY …. and all the other 928239 threads that have been made yet.

I disagree. Every MMO has to “destroy” gold somehow, to keep the inflation low. This will be done with the TP, that’s why there is no 1-1 trading option. 10% of all the trading gold is eaten by Evon Gnashblade and that’s good.

Dyes aren’t that expensive if you think about the endgame of GW2 → visual appearence.

Yea … fans are totally stupid for a mesmer. /sarcasm off

Fans are just like the must come soon weapon, but ok.

I really like this thread, and I’d like to see more usage of chaos armor. Not only the skill, also the blast finisher. However I’m mainly talking about the skill now, since it’s really useless with that long CD… (PvE). So many good and easy and minor changes, even one of them would already be enough!

• Aegis on activation
• Blast finisher
• Pushes enemies back
• Reflection
• Grants all the buffs like standing in a chaos storm
• same for debuffs (melee aura)
• 1 sec distortion
• inc damage goes to clones>phants>yourself
• . . . .

Doctor Strange.5420:

Just got my ascended revolver… This warranted a photoshoot : P

You sir, require a Rapier <3

I’ve rarely seen a good lookin’ Asura. In general all Asura are ugly. Well, here we have an exception.

Keep it simple: Battle tank/suit thing (more charr like golem suit), same skills as the kit you just use, sexy animations, 100% crit ratio for 30 sec, 180 sec CD.

Synergizes with vulnerability trait.

Swapping weapons is a great idea for more buffs on ranger. However if I were you I’d stick to cheap sigils and runes, probably even ruby orbs or kitten jewelerie, since there will be a complete rune / sigil rework soon. To save money, just wait for that Comes in March / April~

“This video is private” :|

I wondered that too. I mean everyone has their personal preferences, maybe the whole team consists of many classes but only one mesmer, and that mesmer does not like the staff for example as a weapon. So it will never be balanced, allways a tiny bit weaker etc…

Horrifying nightmares of every MMO… :s

Neo pretty much thinks the same as me about the ranger and his pets. I just don’t like the river drake … it’s so ugly too ugly to be used xD I guess the other aoe drake (swamp thing however it’s called xD) is pretty much the same damage wise :P Oh yea, and I use the cave spider for ranged dps with weakness + vulnerability.

But seriously everyone, how do you keep the cats alive? AoE fields, getting aggroes often, places like TA (blossoms), fotm where they get almost instant oneshotted by some attacks. The terrible thing is that F3 doesnt seem to work fast enough, aswell the stupid pet is allways staying too far away from you. I want it right next to me

You guys know that the scepter attacks faster if you are closer? Also you can allways prevent the scepter aa from overwriting phants by using 3 and offhandskills aswell utilities instead of aa 3. There is NO reason to stay at a weapon as a mesmer, since you wanna swap as much as you can to keep up 2-3 phants.

And you should not compare GS with Scepter in specific situations. The scepter will allways be better against single targets, since those are often dangeriously → block. Scepter + Pistol / Sword + Sword for those. And if you need AoE ofc the scepter will be the wrong choice. Sword + Focus / GS it is then.

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Not to mention Sc/Sw + Sc/X has two phantasm cooldowns versus GS which only has one.

… so … if you use GS you use no other weapons? seems legit :P

@hendo.1940:
A weapon is not good if you just swap it pre fight for a blast finisher and skips :P
Btw the GS became a superior weapon since the healing signet. My gosh I never thought I’d say that But yea, it’s awesome as long as you don’t use the AA. So for aoe → 2, 4, 4, 3, 2, swap to sword + focus and keep going. Enemies die in general before you have to swap back, so yea. The only kittenty about GS is the aa.

@Carighan.6758:
Don’t forget that you can doubletrait sword, aswell that sword got a line daze on 4 too. And Focus 5, then place 4 under him for cleaaaanse

The LB 2 deals great opening damage, thx to the vulnerability you will stack. However, after that you are pretty useless. The LB is only good if traited and for AoE if you need be ranged or simply can’t facetank with the party. It’s compareable to the mesmer GS (situational).

TurtleDragon.3108:

Basically, the only 2 viable builds for rangers are 30/25/0/15/0 and 20/25/0/25/0

this

As for weapons:

Top Tier:

• Sword mh (simply the best weapon for highest dps, remove aa chain)
• Axe oh (extremly high damage, pull, vulnerability, reflection, rampage as one support for skill 5)
• Horn oh (i feel furious, single target dps, rampage as one support for skill 4)

Situational:

• Dagger oh (good single target damage, long evade on short cd)
• Axe mh (you need cleave range and wanna keep your offhand, fire fields in team)
• SB (you need to kite single target)
• LB (traited, aoe, long range, for “do not touch” enemies only, high level fotm fire ele for example)

Meh:

• GS (simply bad dps, no offhand (horn / axe hitting harder))
• Torch oh (just a fire field, others do better. Horn is a better support)

You can use it for skips. That’s it. A finisher every 30 sec isn’t worth anything. The torch may only be useful once condi damage has been fixed, aswell as a cleanser when traited … but who traits for 20 in dominion nowdays?

Sword offhand is only for the doubletrait and for evil evil enemies like mossman to block his attacks. It’s definitly harder to use. The pistol is only used for single target → bosses → less bleeding time. Focus + Sword offhand is the trashmob melee usage, since the block has a infinite target line daze.

Sword and Scepter mainhand aren’t compareable since they have completly different roles. A good mesmer has both of ’em in his inventory… actually every weapon (except torch …).