Guild Wars 2

DoogySnowStalker.2069:

I’m probably the only one who would be intersted in it, but I want to see a Beast Mastery 2.0 that super charges the pet to be an absolute monster

I think that’s what alot of people want actually. Multiple posts of “will my pet ever be an adult? or grow up?”. How would you see this working?

Tragic Positive.9356:

Matt Stacey.7415:

I like the idea of a mordrem sniper or some kind of tracker. I’ll try to find that post Tragic was referring to, at some point… If anyone has it handy I’d love to take a look

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/ranger/Creative-New-Elite-Spec-Pathfinder/

Interesting concept. It introduces a new profession mechanic, but I like that it makes a condi build much more viable (the current one works, but is a little limited imo (the torch part)).

I am primarily throwing out concepts at the moment. I think the shapechanger idea could be easily done (and I love shapeshifters, and really wish the norn ones didn’t kill your profession mechanic), the spirit magic one I have no idea how it would work but I think it would be very within the lore of the profession. I don’t have a good idea on a pet-centric elite spec, but I hear people say all the time they want one. Any ideas on what that would look like or how it would work?

(Also, keep to ideas on elite specs. There’s a thread for griping about HoT and expansions, and I’d like this one to stay clear of that.)

pepsis.5384:

Enough already, its the condi meta that is out of hand. When supplementary mechanics like condi/boon application and boon stripping become the main way to conduct combat you should know sth is very wrong. I returned to gw2 after years away and made a new character one month before hot launch. A necro, I made it because of the greatsword addition to the a/r/s/e/n/a/l . I main a gs Reaper and I play some pvp for armor skins. When you folks say “nerf the class” please be specific cause I sure as hell dont feel op.

Its not the main way to conduct combat, it’s an alternative way to do so. All builds are either power/direct damage builds, condi builds, or in a few cases hybrid builds. I can’t speak of how it “used to be”, nor do I really care tbh. The “condi meta” doesn’t exist in and of itself. Certain professions will be able to produce a strong condi build, and if that build is deemed stronger than the power build for that profession, then it is considered the meta for that class. Like condi engineer for example. But there is no overarching “condi meta”. Nor is there any reason condi shouldn’t be as good as power. If each profession were balanced well imo, there would be equally good power and condi builds for all of them.

Exciton.8942:

Novamatrix.2569:

well… its already powerful enough. if you put a sigil of torment on the scepter and run with the clone utility skills, it is powerful as kitten. ive stacked over 30 stacks of torment combining auto attack and shatters.

That would only happen to a golem and stacking one condition is meaningless as it can be cleansed easily.

For me staff auto is my go-to auto when I don’t have other cds. Scepter is slow and the damage is probably even lower compare to staff.

The cleansing is wasted, because you are immediately stacking more torment on them. Same as conditions gained for the staff AA. The damage depends on if you can get them to move around or not, and I would only use the scepter AA on enemies that naturally moved around alot anyway.

DeathReign.7821:

Silverkey.2078:

She is the patron Goddess of Mesmers

http://wiki.guildwars.com/wiki/Lyssa

From what I understand, in guild wars 1, there was a clear link between professions and gods.

Also this discussion is interesting
https://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/3d7dkp/do_you_think_profession_lore_needs_to_be_brought/

The full quote is:

Lyssa is the twin Goddess of Beauty and Illusion, individually known as Lyss and Ilya. She is the patron Goddess of Mesmers and Assassins, and is also associated with the Energy Storage techniques of Elementalists and the Mysticism of Dervishes. In the Elonian calendar, she is associated with the Season of the Zephyr.

So she would be a patron goddess to thieves (assassin equivalent) and associated with Elementalists as well.

The main thing is this made thematical sense in gw1 as you could ONLY play a human. Now with 5 playable races and with each race having different gods, these links between professions and gods become human specific.

Or no gods at all (looking at you charr and asura). I figure the Pale Tree and the Spirits of the Wild count as such for sylvari and norn respectively.

Nero.8047:

An Asura Warrior could be an Asura who values tradition a lot.
Remember, 250 years ago a LOT of Asurans you’d see were simple warriors using axes made out of stone (or perhaps obsidian, my memory is slightly hazy on this.)

A Charr Mesmer could work.
Although the Charr in general frown upon the use of magic due to the Shaman Caste it does not stop all Charr from practicing magic entirely.

If so all Charr would be either Warriors, Engineers, Thieves or Rangers.
Remember that individual personalities are more dominant than the shared traits of a race.
There are tonnes of humans in real life who can’t stand the sight of blood, yet others are utterly fascinated by it be the motive scientifically, psychologically or whatever.
A Charr could choose to study the arts and practices of a mesmer as a means to win a fight. Using clones to distract your opponents gives you a significant advantage after all.

A Norn Engineer?
I don’t see why Norn can’t be interested in technology as much as Humans, Charr, Sylvari or Asurans.

I do however agree with you, I’d love to have official lore on the professions from the unique races’ points of view.
I’d love to have more than “It is possible.”

Exactly. I don’t deny any of what you said, I just want some idea of the cultural perspectives, at least in a general sense.

This thread may have already existed but I didn’t see one on the first two pages of threads so whatever I’m making a new one.

So I have a couple of ideas, and people are of course welcome to share their own or comment on others. You get the idea.

1. Some sort of shapechanger type. I’m thinking the utility skills could be different animal forms that when activated replace weapon skills the way engineer kits do. Same low cd as engi kits. I’m not gonna stat out 5 different forms, but feel free to propose ideas.

(Note: another option on this would be to have the elite spec have an F5 skill that allowed the ranger to instead merge with their pet, gaining a different set of skills based on the pet they merge with. This would be an interesting option for people who don’t like the level of control they have over their pets currently. This could be in conjunction with, or a separate spec from the above shapechanger idea.)

2. Something focused around a higher form of spirit magic communion. (Don’t have anything really for this one, just an flavor idea.)

3. I’m not as much a fan of this one, but I know several people have proposed something along the lines of the mordrem sniper. I kinda feel this is better suited to the thief (far better synergy with existing traitlines imo), but the ranger having long bow as a favored weapon, and the opening strike mechanic of the marksmanship traitline makes me feel I have to leave the option open. It could be a good way to introduce a more skirmishy (I know, I know) stealthy feel to the ranger. Utility skills would probably be stealth-based, maybe herbalist in nature? like camo paint for stealth, or poison coating for temporary condition damage? No idea on what weapon this one would gain though….

Anyways, what are some of your ideas?

Just looked through the GW1 professions. I know someone mentioned a Ritualist type elite spec, but I feel like the revenant is already the gw2 ritualist. Now a monk spec I could see. Utility skills that mimic martial arts, not sure what weapon they would go with since we already have staff (maybe dagger?), something like that perhaps?

I’ll reread the articles, but I guess I just want to understand how some of these came about. Like a charr mesmer? or an asuran warrior (when they seem to rely on golems primarily)? Or a norn engineer?

Even separate from the weird race/profession combinations, just general background on how they came about and the roles they play in their respective societies would be nice, at least for the more esoteric ones.

So this came up on one of the profession forums as people were coming up with ideas for new elite specs. I have no clue what the lore is, if any, on the individual professions. I was informed that GW1 had profession-specific quests that more or less taught you about your profession and gave much more of a feel for what your profession was about, how it fit into the world, etc. Is there anything like that in GW2, and if not is there anything like that anywhere in the wiki?

Ghotistyx.6942:

Also, Healer based, Tank based, or DPS based is probably the wrong way to look at things.

Agreed. Even the druid isn’t solely a healer. it has a lot of support and dps boosting abilities too.

Crimson Shi.5047:

Once again, if it wasn’t for necro, and it’s boon corruption everyone would just accuse Heralds, Druids, Tempests, Scrappers as being OP. That’s the only reason necro is considered too strong because it is a class meant to strip enemies boons. Even then with proper timing, and skill you can evade/cleanse/stun, and possibly even fight a necro to a standstill. If they had left warriors berserk stance alone they would probably have been teh counter to reapers but since they stack a boon even that got turned on them.

People do accuse them of being OP, even despite the boon corruption.

You misunderstand.
There is a stat set for trinkets that is a mix of berserker and valkyrie.

Each individual trinket has this mix of the two in it.

Look for the one that has power precision ferocity and vitality.

It’s not marauder. You can get all of them from the laurel merchant, or the rings from the fractal one, or the accessories from the guild commendation trader.

Edit: for instance the ascended amulets are called Conundrum of Maut, Bud of the Pale Tree, and Heart of Melaggan.

That discussion is very interesting. Had a similar conversation with a friend about WoW. Apparently before Wrath of the Lich King/Cataclysm, WoW had class-specific quests that really gave you a feel for what your class/profession was, what it was about, where it came from, etc. They took them out with one of those expansions, much to the dismay of some (the lorehounds) and the joy of others (typically pvp types who don’t care about the story/lore/etc).

Seems like something similar happened here, where GW1 had those kind of quests, and GW2 doesn’t. I would LOVE to have quests that were more centered around my profession and gave me a better feel for the class I’m playing and how it fits into the world. As it is now, it just seems to be this thing that some people can do, but has no relevance on the game, the story, or anything else.

This is probably more appropriate to some of the other non-profession forums, but yeah, I would love if they had those in this game…

They will release more elite specs, that is certain. DH isn’t bad, it’s just not what some people wanted. The same complaint has been made on all of the profession forums, and while there is always some amount of fine-tuning needed, the complaint usually boils down to “I wanted something else”. So just wait and see what else they release. And who knows? They may use one of the suggestions here, especially if its written up well and has cohesion, lore, and functionality.

Starbreaker.6507:

Forgive my noobish question since I haven’t delved too deep into HoT yet, but how does one go about acquiring quadruple stat gear.

Can you craft it like other gear, or can you only get it through rewards (karma, drops, etc…)?

It can be crafted like normal gear, with a few caveats.

1. marauder and crusader recipes are available at the usual crafting merchants. The rest require purchase from vendors on specific HoT maps (depending on which one you want), using the special currency of that particular map.

2. They will require their own special crafting component like every other stat set (like Black Diamonds for Viper Gear) which are rare drops. You can purchase them on the TP, but depending on which one you want, expect to pay alot for them.

3. You will likely need to build up a particular mastery in order to access the vendors that sell the crafting recipes.

Wow. Ok.

I’m really happy I read this thread. Thank you Gaile, I now have a better idea of what’s going on, both with how devs do things, to how the communication team works, and I sincerely hope some of the concerns mentioned are acted on, in particular the explanation of changes (buffs/nerfs) to classes and other parts of the game. Would be awesome if that were added to the Game Release Notes so they are easily accessed at any time. The [Suggestion] tag is also a good idea, and I will try to use it.

Is there a centralized place that has all the tips/tricks for how to best use the forums as a communications tool with the devs and whoever else?

I am also gonna go read that thread on searching the forums, as that has been a pain to do. Thanks again!

atheria.2837:

Wondrouswall.7169:

I just wish CA 1 on-land came with a tiny bit of damage on it like the underwater version so I can proc sigil effects.

No healing whatsoever underwater – no staff.

How is this a healing spec again?

On land we are barely passable to do damage and survive.

Underwater we are like “gee, I am sorry, you are on your own”.

This is one of the problems I have with the game in general, the elite specs in particular. The ridiculously high number of skills that don’t work underwater. Most of the elite spec stuff only works on dry land regardless of profession. This is just annoying!

Matt Stacey.7415:

Tragic Positive.9356:

bearshaman.3421:

I’m playing a wait and see game at this point. I suspect that there will be other elite specs (all of which will only go in the 3rd spec spot to keep them exclusive) and I want to see what else they come up with. I love druid (can it be improved, yes, but everything is like that), and I’m curious to see what else they come up with.

Yup, this would be my attitude as well.
But one thing I know for sure. I’m not buying any expansion until they actually do something right for once.

I can’t be the only one still wondering how the hell did we get powers to control cosmos, stars, black holes and what not. Weren’t we rangers before? Whole Ranger fiasco feels like they do not know and still think they know better.

I am also playing the waiting game currently, when it comes to my ranger. As much as I want to play it more, I find it hard to because I’m not exactly motivated to do so. I truly hope I don’t have to wait years for the next elite specs – a different elite spec could definitely bring me back to my ranger. As someone who works full time, I truly don’t mind paying more another expansion if it means elite specs I’d enjoy and more content to play. Of course, I pray that the next time around the ranger elite is the first spec to be released, instead of the last. In the meantime, I’m enjoying my condi reaper in HoT content, so that will hold me over until the next expansion. Until then, good on you for all you rangers here, I wish I had the motivation to keep playing my own

Tbh, i think alot of my enjoyment of the class comes from the fact that I don’t play pvp, so I feel less of a need to compare it to everyone else. Necros throw out tons of condis? Great, that will be awesome when we’re fighting Vinewrath/Jormag/etc! I just have a co-op perspective on these things instead of a competitive one, so I am not as upset about alot of this stuff.

The only time i think it will impact me is if I’m doing fractals and I get dropped because i’m playing a class that the others in my party don’t like for whatever reason. While I know that has happened to others, it hasn’t happened to me yet regardless of what profession I’m playing, and here’s hoping it stays that way.

If someone would make a link to it, I’m curious where it says that mesmer are inherently linked to Lyssa. I know thematically the connection is obvious, but it’s the same as necromancer to Grenth, or ranger to Melandru. For a human it makes sense, but for everyone else, it has a different flavor. to me at least.

Quarktastic.1027:

I don’t even like playing my guardian in PvE anymore. I can just log in with my reaper, roll my face over the keyboard, and easily defeat content that makes my guardian sweat. I don’t think it’s a case of the reaper being too strong either.

If you can faceroll it, the class is too strong. You should always have to pay attention to what you are doing, and there should always be at least a small risk of death.

King Cephalopod.7942:

EphemeralWallaby.7643:

One thing I’ve been pondering lately…

…there are 9 classes in GW2. If all things were ‘properly balanced’ and equal then that should mean each class should win a pvp battle roughly 1/9 of the time…

…which means that many of those playing PvP across the board will feel their class incredibly underpowered and imbalanced because they lose significantly more often than win. And, many of those people will cry for nerfs or buffs according to their personal tastes….

…which those kinds of cries are happening seemingly in most/every class subsection.

Not saying it’s true, but some food for thought…

…and I’m sure I’m going to be schooled about how my math is wrong. /flameshield

~EW

Cut it with the excess ellipses. You don’t get a flameshield, that was one of the worst attempts at math I’ve ever seen.

There are 9 classes, so for a given class there should be 4 favorable matchups, and 4 unfavorable matchups in a scenario of pure rock/paper/scissors counters (ignoring the complexity inherent to build diversity).

His math may be weird but the idea is sound. No one should be able to beat everyone else. it should be about 50/50 if everything is well balanced.

scorekeeper.6524:

Give me back the ability to pick and choose from my six (now seven) trait lines. I feel that ever since we were forced to max out 3 and only 3 trait lines, the utility of the engie was lost.

As for the OP- turret/gadget love pls

Won’t happen. They needed to make the traitlines work they way they do now so that they could introduce the idea of elite specs, which will be exclusive of each other (once they introduce more down the road). That ship has sailed.

For me, I don’t really have one, as I readily admit I’m still wrapping my head around the many possibilities of engi, even after having leveled one to 80….

I like the idea of ranger runes as well, but in this case Nash is right. Necros have the least need for precision now of any class because of those two traits, and with a minion build you won’t even be taking that much damage anyways. Even less so if you are using the Blood Magic traitline.

Anchoku.8142:

Berserker has Power, precision, and ferocity.
Valkyrie has Power, vitality, and ferocity.

Precision give critical hit chance while vitality increases max health and max life force.

and the trinkets have a mix of the two.

Lexander.4579:

musu.9205:

Lexander.4579:

if i stopped playing mesmer i would feel good too, playing this broken class every day would make me feel dirty

you are worse than dirty you know , so at least its improvement for you . enjoy

nice try to make me play mesmer, but if i wanted unfair advantage i’d rather play rev, at least melee class is more interesting

I don’t know what your problem is, but you need to go see a proctologist. You are just about at the top of the charts for the worst case of kitten ever. I don’t know if there is a single mesmer thread you haven’t QQ on. Stop being a baby, go get potty trained, and stop bothering us. We aren’t interested in babysitting you.

random question: do you do fractals? Or plan on doing fractals, particularly past scale 30 or so? because if you don’t, ascended gear is a waste of money for the very minor stat boost you get imo.

Zantmar.5406:

bearshaman.3421:

Zantmar.5406:

Thaddeus.4891:

Celestial would be your best choice if you don’t like zerker.

marauder

Which is basically like berserker. You lose a tad bit of power and ferocity to gain a bit more precision and a smidge of vitality. It’s berserker for HoT zones basically.

ur so called smidge of vit is over 2k hp
marauder gives 10% more stats compared to tristat like zerk it is mroe efficient then running any thing elese if u desire bit of tank. honestly didnt have problem with pve content in my current set (marauder armor, Zerk twinklets) solo HoT champs just fine

No argument really. 2k is a smidge compared to what you’d get with Carrion or Soldier. My assessment of marauder is the same as yours; the better choice IF you want to be a bit tankier than berserker. I’ve seen it used alot for HoT zone stuff, where berserker takes a hit on dps simply because you get downed more frequently.

Awesome work! thoroughly enjoyed it!

If you aren’t using Balthazar runes, you should slot a full set of that, along with Smoldering and Malice sigils imo. It will greatly increase your burn duration, allowing you to get more stacks on the enemy.

That’s pretty good otherwise.

Tomiyou.3790:

it legit made me want to quit Gw2 and go play Tetris.

I was eating when I read this. I nearly choked. I’m sorry but that was funny.

I’m playing a wait and see game at this point. I suspect that there will be other elite specs (all of which will only go in the 3rd spec spot to keep them exclusive) and I want to see what else they come up with. I love druid (can it be improved, yes, but everything is like that), and I’m curious to see what else they come up with.

Crinn.7864:

TheLastNobody.8319:

The reason was to help counteract the boon spam that had creeped into the game over the years. Class that rely on boons like ele and revenant of course are our natural enemies, and we can potentially not just shut them down, but turn their very prescence into a hinders be for their team.

I keep seeming people say that boon corrupt counters boon spam, but honestly I think that’s totally backwards.

Boon Corrupt is stronger against classes with moderate to low boon generation because the low amounts of boons allows me to target specific boons, and the boons that get corrupted are much harder to replace.
However against things like boonspam ele or Scrapper, boon corrupt is far less effective because the sheer quantity of boons prevents me from targeting specific boons and the boons that I do corrupt are easily replaced within seconds.

There’s a post in the “necro is too op” thread that shows how much boon corrupt we have. I don’t think this is that much of an issue. So long as you intelligently cycle through your boon corrupt abilities so you always have one off cd, you should be fine.

Akrasia.5469:

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

Akrasia.5469:

We are not best at DPS, We are not best at bunkering, we are not best at boon removal,

I have to nitpick, but Necros are very, very much the best boon removal in the game right now. Mallyx Revenants are second with Mesmers third, but Necros are a level above all other professions on that front.

Necros are the best at boon corruption. This is where they excel in fact, but Mesmers have way more access to boon removal and can steal boons. So in terms of effectiveness this one is debatable. But in shear numbers of boons that can be removed Mesemers have the crown

But why remove when you can corrupt? It’s like free damage and condi pressure whenever they try to buff themselves. It’s psychologically damaging because they will hesitate before applying a boon to themselves, knowing it will bite them in the butt momentarily. You make your opponent hesitate and question themselves, and you will win.

Removing a boon doesn’t have that level of impact on your opponent. Corruption over removal any day, and we have a ton of ways to do that.

Edit: Oh and the post above mine thatI somehow overlooked lays this out very well.

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

MSFone.3026:

Warlord of Chaos.7845:

Even as a dom mesmer main since gw1 (I was THAT guy), I find it really hard to play GW2 these days. I loved playing the game before the dumbfire and June trait revamp patches. Ever since then it has gone progressively worse. After HOT, which severely reduced the skill of all classes and increased the power creep to 11, I lost motivation to play my mesmer. I only play now just to see if the game is worth coming back to (Which it isnt for me atm). A real shame considering what this game could have been.

I really miss the old days of 20/20/30 CI mesmer. It was so much fun to play that spec, especially with my way of playing it

Well if I hadn’t left already, this post would have made me. Sad to see pretty much a legend retire. All things come and go, the good times in mmo’s maybe more so.

That actually makes me really sad. I didn’t realize I was a legend :o. In fact, I was actually terrible in the beginning of gw2. I decided to get better to prove people wrong that were always laughing at my ideas/me. I was a big wvw theorycrafter back then, so I had a lot of wacky ideas. Some of them like venom share and corrupt boon spiking stuck, but most of them were really bad lol.

On the topic of other games, I’m sorta looking for new games to play. Any advice?

I plan to check out Shroud of the Avatar when it’s released.

I think your issue (which you didn’t clearly state in the title or the OP) is that you have newbies playing a meta build in ranked pvp and not knowing what they are doing with it. Your annoyance is better directed at the newbies for jumping into ranked pvp. Period. Instead of learning the build and getting good with it first.

This is a problem regardless of build OR profession. It’s called overconfidence on the part of new players.

Zantmar.5406:

Thaddeus.4891:

Celestial would be your best choice if you don’t like zerker.

marauder

Which is basically like berserker. You lose a tad bit of power and ferocity to gain a bit more precision and a smidge of vitality. It’s berserker for HoT zones basically.

jacky.7932:

Thanks for replies and it seems most common answer is celestial, which upon closer inspection looks nice, though condi power is a bit of wasted stat (burn is sweet condition, but I feel like comparatively big % of all pve enemies types are immune)

only ones I know of are destroyers. If there’s something I’m forgetting let me know.

Cost is no factor as changing stats on ascended armor & weapons is dirty cheap and rings can be gained from fractals easily, leaving only accessories as hard to get and amulets + backpack as something that needs a bit more time.

Join a guild that does guild missions, you can use the commendations you get from those to get accessories for the guild commendation trader.

@EphemeralWallaby right now I’m wearing my cleric/knight set on Guard and I’m thinking exactly about low total health: in things like 77th fractal I can certainly sustain even in offensive rotation against mossman but there are times when my hp goes extremely low. Not mentioning (rare) situations when half of team gets downed due to no surviavbility and even minimal lag – getting them back is a pain as in that moment using most of my mitigation/healing means stopping reviving and I can’t really just stay there with such small hp pool.
I’m actually curious which class you are talking about (depending on which section of forum you’ll visit, I have seen people swear by their eles/revs/druids/chronos and even more common stating that “other” class has certainly op sustain/tankiness and should be nerfed :P)

Me too.

P.S. If I came across as someone who don’t like zerker then I need to add: certainly zerker has it uses and I like it for most tasks; it’s probably just preemptive knee jerk reaction as half of all threads I’ve read here come down to
Q: valid question about something more or less theoretical, for example “what’s the exact damage of boss X and is there way to build to not be ohko’ed”
A: “git gud and wear zerker”

I’ve seen that alot as well and it’s truly annoying…

redcomyn.4651:

I leveled my mesmer using Staff/GS also. Since, I have experimented with the other weapons. But I really like the staff. Any clones I make while using the staff cause condition damage, and that really adds up. Also it is much easier to survive using staff.

For a while, I had been using sword-pistol as my second weapon set, but I just think that the mesmer is far too fragile for melee. Yesterday, I went back to using GS as my second weapon. I still mostly use the staff, but I have the GS when I need power, or when all my illusion making skills are on cooldown, and I will switch to GS to get out those illusions.

I tried it out in Verdant Brinks, including a couple of events, and it seemed to work pretty darn well. So for now, I am sticking with Staff/GS.

I do like scepter after they improved it somewhere along the way. the #3 is alot of confusion all at once, and the torment is great when kiting and staying out of something’s range. Or against enemies that are constantly moving anyway. GS with the imagined burden trait is a great way to stack might for yourself (and the SoI to share it), and has some other utility as well. Plus IBerserker is nice.

But yeah, I completely agree about melee range. I tried melee range and I just feel too squishy. Even with the evades and dodges, I still feel like I’m just getting wrecked, and since you have clones and phantasms to be taking the hits for you, why melee at all?

Antarctica? Ok I’m curious but I won’t pry. Had a friend that worked there for 6 months as a dispatcher.

If you have the reaper traitline, there is no reason to use berserker exclusively for a power build. You produce enough Vulnerability, that it is ridiculous to not use Decimate Defenses. With Valkyrie armor, Berserker + Valkyrie trinkets and Berserker weapons, you will (with fury) have 100% crit (plus or minus 2%). The boost to vitality is more useful than the wasted precision.

Edit: if you like reaper’s shroud alot, you can use the Soul reaping and reaper traitlines, and just take full Valkyrie. Between Decimate Defenses and Death Perception, even fury becomes superfluous.

I played a Necro with no minions before HoT came out, and for a quite a while after. I could run around in the Mad King’s Labyrinth and solo pretty much everything that wasn’t one the Big boss npcs in there. I actually get yelled at on map chat cuz there was a organized group on the other side of the map (didn’t notice), who were upset I was soloing the doors in there, and this is with not that much experience playing the class (lots of tomes were used in the making of that lvl 80 necro).

It’s a tanky class (with basically two lifebars), it can dish out a lot of damage at multiple ranges (power or condi), and with the blood magic line it can self heal very effectively. It can turn other people’s boons into a liability, forcing people to rethink buffing with boons, which hoses up all other builds, and putting conditions on them just gives them more ammo.

This thread that has been rezzed from the past was actually quite helpful to me in a way. When I first played mesmer (pve, I hate pvp, and may try wvw at some point), I played a staff/GS build while leveling. I went with Dire gear for my first set of exotics, and honestly, I had a lot of fun with that character. I don’t remember the traitlines I was running, but I didn’t use shatters much (new player, didn’t understand how to use the mechanic), and I used a mix of clones and phantasms. I didn’t understand the class that well, but I was having a lot of fun being tanky while everything around me wilted from condi damage.

It’s been almost a year since then, and I kinda have gotten lost on the class. I’ve been reading the forums (which has helped and hurt at the same time), reading the wiki, played almost every profession in the game (to 80 with the exception of rev and warr, working on those), and come to better understanding of a lot of the mechanics of the game (boon, duration, cast times, condi duration, active defenses, block, evade, etc). Mastered, no, not by a long shot. But Ive definitely hit the point where I feel I know alot, but not enough to be a pro. Skilled amateur probably.

So present day. Mesmer forums are about the most depressing part of the forums. Everyone complains about their class getting nerfed or unbalanced or something, but only here have I encountered the silent resignation and active deterrence of others playing the class because of the belief that it is that awful. And I can see the points being made in that vein. All of this at a time when I’m not sure what build to use for a mesmer, and no idea what to make.

This thread has if nothing else reminded me of my initial build. No yours isnt the same exactly, but it has a few points that makes me nostalgic for something like that old mesmer I started with, and a working idea of how to go about it.

I’m also getting over the meta thing. Most of the “meta” is either pvp-based (and thus invalid for my purposes), or raid-based (which I don’t have a lot of interest in anyways, and tbh would rather they hadn’t introduced, they could have stuck with more and harder dungeons). I’m working on builds that I simply enjoy playing. Will they be effective? Definitely more effective than what I started with a year ago. Will they be maxed dps? Probably not, though I do want to do alot of damage, but not if I’m gonna get downed regularly. I know alot of people say the berserker meta is best, and you just have to get better at active defenses, but that neglects the fact that that is a particular playstyle and not everyone is gonna enjoy or be good at that style. While I’ve gotten better, it’s not always fun for me. Taking the hits and out-healing the damage, or using something else to take the hits for you is also viable options, and there are others I’m sure.

In any case, I say all that to say this: regardless of what happens to the class, I can still have fun playing it how I want to play it, regardless of what others think. I doubt things will ever get so bad that I die repeatedly in OW, and I have other professions that I can play in the places where I have to worry about what others think of my build (ie. fractals).

Off to recreating my chaotic staff mesmer, and seeing what fun things I can do with it.

I’m working on a celestial set for my guardian. I enjoy too many different playstyles, and I don’t do pvp/wvw, so I can just make the one set of armor, and then I can do tanky, power, condi, whatever.

redcomyn.4651:

If you take away the damage in pvp, you are also taking away the damage in pve, which would make it totally useless, and nobody would use reaper in pve anymore.

I would. Decimate Defenses is my favorite trait from the whole reaper traitline. Deathly Chill is just some extra damage, but doesn’t come close to what I do with constant crits.
Valkyrie Armor, berserker/valkyrie trinkets, and berserker weapons (cuz I don’t need as much precision thanks to that trait, and I hit almost 100% crit real fast).

Obtena.7952:

This might not be where your thinking is now but …

Ascended armor can be transferred so you might want to think about alts you might have that could benefit from whatever stat set you decide to make. Personally, I would go with zerkers because you just can’t go wrong with a zerk build on any profession.

I generally agree with this, although I favor condi builds, so berserker isn’t necessarily the best. Depends on your playstyle. Need to know more about what gametypes you plan on playing in, and what you enjoy doing with the class.

Bronze Knight.9231:

I only play PVE and I’ve just started doing fractals as well as HOT and I wanted to work on agony resistance. And I was wondering if I should build Berserker or Viper ascended armor.

I’m mostly useing this build

But even a power buid MM is viable, thoughts? (I love MM builds but would like to try out others at some point)

(Also this is a long term goal, I’m not going to build a full set of ascended armor in a day)

For this specific build, regardless of where you use it, Berserker over Viper. You aren’t doing enough condi with this to make Viper worthwhile.

Jski.6180:

I think chron still the “best” in gw2 its the only class who has a true cdr buff the only real cost for using an abitly in gw2.

After the alacrity nerf, chronos are getting kicked from alot of competitive group runs. It was the only thing mes had going for it in the eyes of alot of people apparently.

Edit: As someone who has almost all classes at 80, and lurks all the profession forums, there are three classes that come up repeatedly as the classes to beat. This is one of them, alongside reaper/necro and herald/revenant.

So it saves the build some kind of way? Cuz I was using that but I didn’t see the save or whatever you do to be able to access it later. (yes, I’m probably overlooking it, I feel stupid for even having to ask.)

Edit: nevermind, figured it out. Thanks!