Guild Wars 2

In regards to the lowbie commander issue, you shouldn’t be able to rep the tag until you’re level 80 anyway. Not many lowbie’s have access to 100g in the first place, but you shouldn’t be leading a zerg until you’re 80

Of course that’s just my opinion.

There was a reddit post somewhere (don’t have the link) about a hint in the dat file from the last patch. It seems that they’re planning on introducing an AoE loot option that will loot everything within a certain radius.

This doesn’t fully solve the issue, but it’s a start!

ATourist.8359:

If you’re looking for strong damage and in-combat survivability then go for sword OH. The sword trait will benefit both your mainhand and offhand. If you want more utility then go focus. Even without trait, it’s still useful with the speed buff, pull and projectile block.

And don’t forget the AoE cleanse from Warden + TC!

Sororita.3465:

fun times, fun times

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhdUlvSgVg8

I just died a little inside.

ghost.3208:

Holy when did the thread became a gif fight

So trying to get back on topic (hopefully someone can post an in-game one )…

Oh, we probably should have warned you. Every matchup thread GoM is in always turns into some semblance of a gif fight

Now excuse me, I’m gonna go hide before Styx yells at me for posting another one…

Scarecrow.5792:

Anyone out roaming tonight?

Don’t quote me, but I’m pretty sure [RH] will be putting a group together tonight.

If not at least I will be

Straegen.2938:

We run a bunker guardian, ele with a little bunker/good damage, a mesmer which is still being fine tuned and a healing thief. This mix has been working really well for us.

We frequently run with 25 stacks of might from the guardian/ele and perma swiftness. The guardian soaks up damage, ele shares auras drops fields, mesmer clones add battlefield haze and a thief that pops in and out finishing off players who drop below 50%.

I’d be interested to hear what your mesmer is running, because that looks very similar to what we’ll most likely be doing. Seems like a good combination.

@Sars – That’s exactly what I mean, it seems to be mostly about using each other’s combo fields/abilities well as opposed to having the “correct setup”

Unfortunately it’s not that easy of a fix. From my understanding, if they changed the size/frame/design of the different races, they’d have to create all new armor skins, weapon skins, animations, etc etc etc for each one. It’s an insane amount of change.

@Omne – Not sure if you were talking to me, but if so you definitely didn’t really read my post. I wasn’t saying that I don’t want it because it doesn’t mean anything to me. I was saying it will encourage poor gameplay, bad strategy, and zerging.

covenn.7165:

I would like to see a leader board for kill against players and deaths from players as well as WXP. Then sub leader boards showing kill per death, wxp per death, and wxp per kill.

Same thing as my other post. Posting leaderboards of kills would promote zerging, and kills per death would promote turtling.

The more I think about it, the less I want a leaderboard like this to be released.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Definitely looks good.. but runes are so valuable to a build that it seems like a waste to take Centaur runes specifically for the swiftness. (At the same time, it’s understandable)

That’s a good point, I only could justify it if there was a reason other than swiftness. For example, I don’t mind Runes of Air for shatter builds because they also add to your damage. Centaur is nice for zergs though I suppose.

I used to get mad because I felt so slow, but I started swapping in a focus when out of combat (if I’m not running one anyway) and I’ve gotten so used to it that I don’t even notice anymore.

Personally, for phantasm builds I prefer either Runes of Melandru or Hoelbrak, but it’s really up to your personal preference, there are a lot of options.

Tots.3056:

Myst.5783:

Tots.3056:

Myst.5783:

To the [DDLG] group who tried twice to kill our trebs north Hills last night in GoM BL and wiped -hard- each time

You had enough to wipe all the GoM pugs there, yet you focused the trebs so intently you let a DPS oriented ele get a churning earth off right in the middle of you. I had a pretty good laugh seeing how many people I downed.

…

To all the people bickering about who is better, WvW is all about who has the bigger zerg and the better coverage.

You must have missed the six hours up until this where we consistently wiped your trebs/group, and capped everything but your bay and held/upgraded it. I believe we switched to our up levels for exp train at this point though, so that’s why we went for the trebs, they were worth more wxp than you guys were by that time.

Yep, I actually did miss that. Seems it didn’t help you get your lead back.

Switched to uplevels? Right… I still found it funny watching those two [DDLG] rushes fail so spectacularly to even dent a treb.

The waypoint in hills and your paper everything else didn’t give it away? Man you missed it big, we held your map up until about 10-11pm est. You guys were getting rolled all NA prime time in your map. I believe we took your garrison back seven or eight times.

The difference between the Achievements leaderboard and a WXP leaderboard is that the Achievements one doesn’t encourage undesirable play in PvP. There’s no disadvantage to showing it, if people want to grind it, they can, and no one is hurt from it.

However, if a WXP board was introduced, some people would strive to be on the top of it, and as a result would just zerg around collecting WXP instead of actually trying to play and win for their server.

They’d defend less, and small groups would be discouraged even more, which is the opposite of what they want to do. Because of that I doubt they’ll ever introduce a WXP leaderboard. That’s just how I see it.

I guess I see what you mean, but WXP is literally just a measure of how much time you’ve invested in WvW. It doesn’t really indicate anyone’s skill.

I honestly think it would just encourage even more zerging, because people would just want to jump on the WXP trains to move up the “leaderboard”

Do you usually roam alone/with a small group or do you follow a zerg?

In roaming I play a lot with a Phantasm build very similar to this one. The only difference is I take 10 points out of Inspiration and put them into Chaos for the extra survivability via toughness, phantasm regen, and staff cooldown reduction.

On the other hand, if you play mostly in zergs, phantasms are very underwhelming, since they die easily and their damage is mostly single target.

Overall looks very solid though.

Sorry for the double post…I tried uploading the first gif and kept getting a 504 error from the forum. So I assumed it was the gif, and tried a new one.

A couple minutes later I came back and saw 4 copies of the first gif and a copy of the second gif ><

Sororita.3465:

Zumi.6384:

P.S. I’m looking forward to fighting you guys at some point this week. I have all these Dragon Bash fireworks now, so combined we can have a whole show!

they dont work in WvW >.>

/pat pat

But..but…NOooooooooooooo

Sororita.3465:

Zumi.6384:

P.S. I’m looking forward to fighting you guys at some point this week. I have all these Dragon Bash fireworks now, so combined we can have a whole show!

they dont work in WvW >.>

/pat pat

But..but…

osif.8673:

Zumi.6384:

The main reason I’m asking this on the forums is that I main a Mesmer and most (if not all) viable Mesmer builds are relatively selfish when it comes to traits, so the biggest benefit we bring to groups are our utilities (null field, veil, portal, mass invis, etc.).

Mesmers can actually be very solid group oriented players as well. Chaos armor is arguably one of the best buffs in the game. If your group is coordinated well you can keep chaos armor up with just one Mesmer for a decent amount of time. On top of that, running signet of inspiration with the boons that chaos armor gives you, you can keep some key boons up on your party for a pretty significant amount of time. With that said, my Mesmer is very selfish

That’s very true. I’ve seen a few builds based around spreading boons as a Mesmer, but while I always thought they were cool, I just thought to myself that other classes are much more effective at it. I do agree tough, that Chaos Armor is by far my favorite armor. Just providing the Ethereal fields for people to combo with is huge.

Unfortunately I don’t think I can see myself running Signet of Inspiration unless my build is centered around boon spreading lol. Just seems like there are better options out there.

To be honest, I’ll probably end up running my same roamer build, but switch out my utilities to something like this:

Solo – Decoy, Portal/MI/Blink/Mass Invis
Group – Veil/Portal, Null Field, Blink, Mass Invis

@Jinx – I completely agree that being comfortable with your class is more important than picking one and copy/pasting a build. I’m incredibly comfortable and effective on my Mesmer, I just brought up the fact that I was willing to try something new because I love experimenting. Usually it’s with my Mesmer builds, but a new class is an option as well.

As for the topic of the thread (wow that derailed quickly!) I think based on what I’m reading that we should be able to put together something pretty effective without having to switch many of our main professions, which is nice. If we just went with the default class of those who’ve been talking about it we’d have:

1 Shatter Mesmer
1 D/D Ele
1 Warrior
1 Guardian

Seems pretty solid to me.

I think the general lesson to gather from this thread is that the best way to put together an effective group is to make sure you have everything covered (boons, dps, cc) and from there just play with each other and figure out what works. I look forward to rolling with it!

Jinx.7258:

Currently being in a 5-man group in WvW is THE worst idea that could have occured on you. Why? 5 men will easily kill 1 or 2 enemy players and will easily be wiped by the guild raids going in WvW which are between 20-35 players.

And you dont need to have traits “synergized” to be effective as a team in WvW. All you need is to know your class and how this game works.

Im playing HGH engi and I do play equally in both solo and group scenarioes. And there’s no “perfect class match up group”, Ive seen 5 thieves surviving and killing as much as SPvP groups roaming in WvW having no doubles as of classes.

Yeah I’m going to have to strongly disagree here. To be more clear I roam a lot solo, but I’ve been running with my guild in groups of 3-6 for a long time as well. This is just the first time we want to plan our builds around each other. I know first hand how effective a well organized small group can be, as we’ve wiped groups 2-3x our size multiple times. I just want to take it to the next level

The main reason I’m asking this on the forums is that I main a Mesmer and most (if not all) viable Mesmer builds are relatively selfish when it comes to traits, so the biggest benefit we bring to groups are our utilities (null field, veil, portal, mass invis, etc.).

That said, I might have to swap over to my Guardian if others in the group don’t feel like running theirs, because I completely agree that they bring more than any other class to a small group.

Jinx.7258:

Ok when you are so smart answer me what exactly are 5-man going to do in wvw?

There are quite a few things an organized 5-man can do in WvW to help the server/score.

They can take camps/sentries, protect those camps to provide supply to nearby towers, split up/flank enemy zergs, ninja towers while the main force is distracted by the zerg, even fighting/occupying groups larger than your own provides your server with an advantage. If you’re fighting a 5v15, that’s 10 more enemies that aren’t fighting other groups or defending towers that are being attacked.

Again, that’s only a short list of things 5 mans are capable of, and we use it to great effect in our matchup every week.

You may not enjoy running with a small group, but I promise you it can be plenty effective.

P.S. The “Perfect” part of the title was mainly used to spike interest/discussion. I don’t think there is really a “perfect” cookie-cutter group in this game, which is one of the things that makes GW2 great imo.

osif.8673:

I think every group needs 2 guardians and a necro. From there, it’s kind of personal preference and what works best for your group specifically. Mesmers and thieves are useful for stealthing the party for a clutch rez or fleeing the scene when the odds are against you. Hammer warriors are great CC and damage if you’re not fighting a perma stability group. Rifle warriors can do some insane burst if you’re lacking single target damage. Having an ele is always nice too. A perfect group in my mind is:

Heal/Support guardian
DPS/Support guardian
Condi necro
Shatter mesmer
Rifle/GS warrior (must be an Asura)

Again, the mesmer and warrior can be replaced and still be a wrecking ball of a group… the guardians and necro are the backbone.

I would say, mind you this is all just personal opinions and I’m not trying to offend anyone, avoid running with engies and rangers. In a group of 3, they’re fine to have… but if you’re planning on running with 5 their usefulness diminishes and their roles can be fulfilled by other classes.

This was generally the direction I was thinking, although I hadn’t thought of a Necro being a central part of the setup. I thought Mesmer would be a very good addition since we bring a lot of things that are unavailable by other classes.

Your point about engies is interesting. Why wouldn’t you recommend them in a 5 man? From what I’ve seen (never played one past level 20) they have quite a lot of CC and could be a good addition to any group to help lock down targets.

I actually just found a good thread from a month or so back that’s talking about exactly this….apparently I didn’t look hard enough before posting ><

So I’ve been a WvW roamer for a long time, and while it’s a blast taking on multiple players at once, I want to try something new. So my guildies and I are going to put together a group of 3-5 that will build everything (traits, utilities, gear, etc) to synergize with each other with the goal being to be nigh unkillable.

My question to you is this: What have you found to be the most effective group composition that consists of 3-5 players? Currently my only 80 is my Mesmer, but I’m thinking of leveling an alt anyway, so I’m open to anything.

It could be a group you run with currently, or one that you always find yourself running into that drives you crazy. Or, it could just be an idea you have for a rockin’ group makeup.

Let the theorycrafting begin!

Snow Ghost.6817:

Have [RH] multiplied since the last time we fought you guys? Sure there were more than 5 of you last night.

And bloody hard to kill as always.

/salute

I actually wasn’t on that night, but I heard we had a decent sized group going. We’ve only grown by about 5 or so members since our last matchup (we don’t really recruit at all) but people have been coming on a lot more the past few days.

I think we have just over 40 members total at this point, and that’s just the way we like it

P.S. I’m looking forward to fighting you guys at some point this week. I have all these Dragon Bash fireworks now, so combined we can have a whole show!

Gab Superstar.4059:

Myst.5783:

To the [DDLG] group who tried twice to kill our trebs north Hills last night in GoM BL and wiped -hard- each time

You had enough to wipe all the GoM pugs there, yet you focused the trebs so intently you let a DPS oriented ele get a churning earth off right in the middle of you. I had a pretty good laugh seeing how many people I downed.

Let me guess.

5?

haha I see what you did there

It teleports you to a random spot.

/Close thread

Interesting, how did you use portal so quickly in that first portal stomp? Looks like you popped back and forth pretty much instantly!

And from pausing the video it looks like you start the stomp, then drop portal, then use it…..I didn’t think this was possible?

Edit: Never mind, you just dropped portal and started the stomp very quickly Had to look again to see it.

Tiglie.5834:

Is there anyone decent in this matchup, 4 months gone and LARP comes back 4 deep to faceroll wave after wave of bads with red names. I may have to start playing with one hand taped behind my back, or petition to remove confusion nerf so some groups can cheeseball us behind a shattercat mesmer again, anything to help up the level of competition.

P.S. Leaving the safety of a wall is the only way to l2play, spamming 1 as a cannon master 4 will teach you nothing.

Nope, we’re all terrible, haven’t you heard?

Sorry to disappoint.

Just….no. Absolutely no.

Ramiah.5648:

So, here’s the questions: Would you rather us be less unique? Would it have been better if Mesmer abilities were more in line with other professions, therefore making it easier to balance? Are you willing to be a bit less settled than other professions simply because you provide skills and create circumstances no other profession can? Are you happy having relatively scattered trait choices and capabilities instead of being really good at your chosen specialization?

Everything in this paragraph is completely false.
*We’re not weaker
*Our trait choices aren’t scattered – in fact they’re one of the more synergistic in the entire game.
*We’re incredibly good at whatever we decided to build for/specialize in.

Sorry if I come across as rude, but this entire post is just plain inaccurate.

Jossa.8301:

Zumi,

Do you mind posting your build for us?

Not at all. I just threw it into an editor: http://tinyurl.com/lnkyrx4

Depending on the situation I sometimes switch out portal for another utility and/or the Inspiration trait for 20% Phantasm health.

Other than that I sometimes swap in a focus for swiftness when out of combat, and put the sword back on right away. I’ve gotten very good at it, so it doesn’t bother me as much as it used to

Iavra.8510:

What do you see phantasm lacking in WvW?

Mostly mobility. You can substitute for not using staff/focus by slotting centaur/air runes but your phantasms will stay slow. If your opponent decides to stay and fight: You most likely will win. If he runs: You don’t lose, but it’s not really satisfying either.

Also, it’s much harder to run from an incoming zerg, something that happens all the time tin WvW.

I can see how there might be less mobility than a build with the focus, but it never seems to be an issue for me. Between blink, phantasmal retreat, sword three, and the occasional portal I never really have a problem chasing down runners. There are exceptions of course, but in general I don’t have much of an issue.

As for running from a zerg, this is something I never have a problem with. We have so many tools to get away from zergs, and they’re certainly not exclusive to focus. Blink/Phase Retreat up terrain, portal, along with 2 stealths and 2 invulns, zergs are rarely a problem for me.

I’ve ran plenty with a focus, and the only thing I truly miss is the ability to pull people off cliffs/walls

Might as well put my name in for consideration, sounds like a lot of fun!

Name: Willowbreeze
Account Name: Zumi.6384
Rank: 10

I’ve played tons of WvW and I’ve been getting into tPvP a lot more over the last month or so. Tried all kinds of builds, and always open to learning/theorycrafting new builds/strategies.

Osicat.4139:

In 1 vs 1 ofc GS as phantasm is strong, but phatasm spec is faar from optimal in wvwvw and lack in many areas.

/Osicat

I’m curious what you mean by saying they’re far from optimal in wvwvw?

I’ve been running a phantasm build as a roamer (very often solo, but not always) with a tremendous amount of success. I often run into various types of 1vX and do just fine, I’ve even won 1v6’s before (although the players were bad, this is very rare).

What do you see phantasm lacking in WvW?

Hi Arc,

This is exactly the type of thing I’m looking for! I’ve recently been getting into tPvP a lot more, and although I’ve learned quickly I’m still relatively new (rank 10 at the moment). I generally pop online and start asking around for people who want to team up, but I’d like to find a more semi-consistent group to run with. Nothing crazy like required schedules/practice time, but maybe 5-10 people that play a lot together, that way if some people aren’t online, there are enough that can fill in.

It sounds to me like this is the type of thing that they AOTM is looking to do, so please feel free to send me an invite (or I’ll whisper you in game).

I main a mesmer (NA), but I’ve played guardian a decent amount, and I’m 100% willing to learn a new profession depending on what a team needs. I tend to enjoy varying roles anyway.

Thanks!

Next matchup confirmed:

GoM v TC v Dragonbrand

FC vs ET vs Vabbi

Bring back 3 round tournaments! So much more fun/rewarding.

I honestly think that any of those types of builds can be successful roaming if you play them right. The key is to figure out which play style you enjoy more/are better at and learn how to use it to the max.

I’ve personally won some 1v6’s with my phantasm build, and I’ve seen videos of Mesmers beating similar numbers with shatter builds, tank builds, etc.

Alsom Mogar is absolutely right, winning a 1vX is all about movement and good use of terrain in my opinion.

Two possibilities here:

1) Successful troll.

2) Terrible player who also lies about how often he sees Moa.

I’ve been playing GoM since release, and although we are growing in numbers, we are FAR from zergy. I play in the BLs 90% of the time, and we rarely have a zerg, and I run solo/in small groups anywhere from 2-7 people 100% of the time. We might not be the small man server, but there is plenty of small man action to be had, and we definitely have a big impact.

That said, I’d have to agree that NSP is an excellent choice. They have some awesome small man groups, and playing them was a blast.

But in general I’d have to agree with Tocos, pretty much any of the bottom servers is a good choice, as our idea of a zerg is a max of around 30 players haha

@Zumy: back off my name bro!

ManCaptain.3154:

The build you linked, it uses ascended gear and has 94% bonus crit damage which is not obtainable in spvp.
And you took that build and said “hey guise, see how hard phantasms crits for?”.
I’m ignorant? You’re a liar.

Or you could read literally the next line after the build link where he explains what amulet/runes to use in sPvP and not look like a total idiot.

Maybe instead of trying to look like such a pro forum troller you could duel him, because I guarantee if he’s running the build he posted there is zero chance you will win.

I’d also highly recommend Mimic. It’s a 4 second channeled block/reflect every 25 seconds (20 if traited).

I created this thread for this exact reason, but I have too much going on to maintain it. Feel free to use what I’ve compiled on it!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/List-of-Incorrect-Tooltips/first#post2160747

Terrible timing Seven, they just announced ESO is going to be on consoles too.

http://elderscrollsonline.com/en/news/post/2013/06/10/eso-on-next-gen-consoles-and-new-gameplay-trailer

They’ve pushed back the release date to “Spring 2014” as a result. Maybe I’m just being cynical but I’m not too excited about it anymore. I’ll probably end up just sticking with GW2 now.

Updated with my newest build. I might have found the perfect fit for my playstyle this time (until 4 hours from now when I think of something else and theorycraft a build around it…..)

Sadly still no videos Someday, I promise!

Enjoy!

TeamBattleAxe.3901:

I hope to run into both of you out there. Even though I’m on GoM and we out-number you guys pretty drastically this week, I’m usually off on my own looking for some 1vX.

If you ever see an RH gunslinger thief out and about, send me a /w or party invite and I’ll give you some fights.

Copy this post and replace “gunslinger thief” with “black sylvari mesmer”

Lanny.6987:

Grimms detailed his scepter/sword + sword/focus build in the last SOAC: Mesmerized. At a guess it’s the scepter/sword + staff gear and 10/10/30/15/5 (I know the traits are correct because that’s what he said in the podcast). Improved phantasm damage, Increased Manipulation Range, Prismatic Understanding, rest as before. The podcast is worth a listen if only to hear Grimms get a huge lightbulb over his head at one point on the use of a utility. I won’t spoil which (go listen!) but predict a video at some point showcasing it.

@thelma – Use of staff is replaced (or augmented if you can break agro and switch to it) by increased range on blink. Invis – blink – run like hell to drop agro.

I think everything above is a correct understanding from the podcast but “reader beware”.

I just re-listened to the whole podcast, and I’m not sure which utility you’re talking about? I don’t want to spoil it either so I’ll leave it there, but I’m not sure what you’re referring to.

Your summary of his build is right on though. I’m running a pretty similar setup, but instead of putting the extra 10 in Chaos for PU, I put it in Dueling so I can have both II and IV. I really feel like it rounds out the build between a huge amount of defense and a really good amount of damage from phantasms.

I will say though that I ran with increased blink range for a while and it’s really hard to let go of once you’re used to it. It’s such a huge lifesaver!

I change my build practically every few days, but I always find myself coming back to 0/20/20/15/5 phantasm build with 10 points floating. I just love the play style and crazy in combat mobility I have while still being really tough to kill.

I’ve tried shatter, bunker, mantra, glamour, etc an I always come back to the phantasm. The damage, survivability, and group utility are just so awesome.

I’m still not sure what to do with those last 10 points though. I can either put them in Domination for the 15% illusion damage and vul proc, in Dueling for the extra precision/crit damage and blink range, Chaos for the extra condi damage and Prismatic Understanding, or Illusions for the 3% damage per illusion. So many options!

Sarsbear.3469:

I think Purimm was trying to get one of you guys guard whacked, we don’t use voice but he seemed pretty content to hang near invuln. Didn’t you guys get a couple stomps on him? I was just waiting to die, but my bar still had cooldowns.

Recording is a double edged sword, you get to see how you can improve, but you also get to see all the stuff your partner does to ruin your gameplay. If I get 1 more person kicked out of my ring….

Yeah, we got him down twice I believe, and you’re right, he did keep trying to pull us in haha. That was the frustrating part, we’d finally get a stomp on him and he’d just walk back the 50 feet from spawn.

And I bet that is frustrating to watch lol, but hey that’s how you learn right?

That’s why I’m so in love with Hammer + that teleport skill (I forget the name) when i play my guardian. Instant ring around them is so awesome. I find I can never land it otherwise.

Ever since the last update I’ve been experiencing some weird things:

• Loading into a zone takes FOREVER (this may be my PC, I’m gonna try upgrading to an SSD)
• After loading into a zone I can’t see my character, and my camera is stuck on the waypoint. If I say something in chat I can see my speech bubble in the distance at wherever I walked to, but the camera is still at the wp
• Sometimes sound doesn’t kick in for a good 30-60 seconds after i’m loaded in

Anyone else experiencing this?

My computer definitely needs some upgrades (2.3 GHz cpu, 4 GB ram, NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTS 512 video card) but I don’t think it’s on my end.