Guild Wars 2

Sweet! Thanks!

/15 char

Actually mesmer phantasms require a target to work. If you’re stealthed for example, they can’t be called out.

Incurafy.6329:

“But they’re still there! How does the stake miss?!”

For the same reason that a Thief can use magic to create a zone of invisibility that only affects allies and themselves: IT’S A VIDEO GAME.

Seriously dude, WOW, wanting it changed is one thing, but using RL-physics to justify a change in a video game is just plain stupid.

It’s called internal consistency. No one is asking for a real life application of physics. But within the stated rules of physics in game, it should be consistent.

Jackums.3496:

bhagwad.4281:

Being invisible shouldn’t mean that the target becomes invulnerable.

It doesn’t.

AoE, cleave, etc.

But apparently not a killing rod through the body. Bit of a discrepancy no? In this regard, stealth = not there.

Elxdark.9702:

Patrik.2590:

Yeah ask Ventari, actually if you haven’t noticed I am not a pro, neither is my bro. so… And he can beat an ele just not a good one but that wasnt my point. Arenanet ruined PvP just by making warrs.

We agree in one point, you are not good enough(“pro”) so get better.

But then presumably neither was the other guy.

Dahkeus.8243:

Stealth preventing stomp is a good mechanic that provides additional considerations for stomping players so that a downed player isn’t an automatic, brainless press F encounter.

If you’re an engi against a downed, stealth player, you probably shouldn’t have much trouble anyways since you can spam so much AoE damage on the spot anyways. =P

Sigh. Yet another person thinks I’m an engi.

Cynz.9437:

bhagwad.4281:

How did everyone get the idea that I was playing an engi. I said I got an engi down. As a mesmer with all my knockbacks on CD, there was no hope. None at all. My phantasms require a target to work.

there are some things i can’t stop either… like mist form stomps, or shelter etc.

as far as mesmers go, use chaos storm… if you didn’t have it… well, you got outplayed

you shouldn’t be winning 2v1 anyway and your team failed at assisting you

Outplayed? Really? That’s the word you choose to use to describe winning a fight and then being pounced on by another when exhausted with all CDs down? Jeez, I wonder what kind of superman standards people here have. But I’m fairly sure all this is just Internet hero talk. In actuality, no one in my position would have stood a chance, so let’s stop pretending that this is something to do with skill.

Outplayed. Yeah right. I wonder what people would call the opposite of outplayed then. I should have just drunk my magic potion and taught the whole opposing team a lesson! Hey, losing a 2v1 starting at low health means one is outplayed!

How did everyone get the idea that I was playing an engi. I said I got an engi down. As a mesmer with all my knockbacks on CD, there was no hope. None at all. My phantasms require a target to work.

rmBossa.4621:

“Yes they are still there in stealth for your attacks not stomps. So attack!”

Technicality. If they’re there, they should die. It’s a stake through the body. How do they suddenly survive that just because they’re in stealth?

Look, I’m ok with people saying “It’s ridiculous yeah, but well, that’s GW2 for you”. What I get kittened over is people defending this nonsense.

Either accept that stealthing a downed opponent is wrong or forever cease to use the argument “Stealth doesn’t mean the person is not there”. If they were there, they would have died. It’s simple logic.

rmBossa.4621:

Yes they are still there in stealth for your attacks not stomps. So attack!

Refuge is one of the more easily countered “down plays” and better yet you play the class that is best at countering it. If somehow every single one of your CC/interrupts is on CD then drop some poison on the refuge and continue rolling face across the nade/bombs and wala, if the thief trying to rez doesn’t jump out of the refuge with his tail between his legs then you not only finish the first enemy but you’ll secure another kill too.

So now you have 2 of the opposing team waiting to rez while you secure the Tranq buff, you had a chance to be great but blew it because you would rather QQ. = GG

What bombs? I was a mesmer. And most of the mesmer’s strongest skills require a target to work. Autoattack is never strong enough to prevent a res that requires around 3 seconds in total. The whole “attack” distinction is a meaningless technicality.

Dont’ tell me how to fight a fresh thief when I’m just done and exhausted after defeating a tough opponent with all my skills on CD. I challenge you to have done better. It’s ridiculous the way people give advice here as if they’re PvP gods or something. No self respecting class would have lost to me when I was in that state. The least I could have done was to have killed the guy I’d already defeated.

I would like it if people didn’t defend the indefensible. Stealth doesn’t mean invulnerability. They’re still “there”. A stomp drives a flag through their body. They should come out dead. It’s that simple.

Draugl.8079:

The explanation is that stomping doesn’t count as an attack and therefore the “chaneled skills still hit” rule doesn’t apply. If you wanted to make stomp an actual attack there would emerge other problems, as the stomped could be blocked by aegis given by a guardian for example in that case.

Yet all other non-attacks still impact the stealthed target. Like phantasm summoning. The bottom line is that stealth doesn’t mean the person vanishes. They’re “still there”, you just can’t see them. This has been drilled into us over and over again by people defending stealth. They say “we’re not invulnerable”. We still take hits. We’re still there!

Clearly this is in contrast to a huge stake being driven through the heart of the person lying on the ground. Nothing has changed. The person is still “there”. They should be dead.

Kryshade.6075:

When he’s stealthed your stake misses his heart and doesn’t kill him. There, I’ve answered your question. Now please stop trying to dumb this game down anymore than it’s already become.

But magically cleaves and all other auto attacks don’t miss? Merely coming up with some random explanation doesn’t make it a valid one. It also needs to make sense no?

Kryshade.6075:

Stealth does not mean invulnerability. Use cleave damage when they go into stealth.

Sorry but using stealth to prevent a stomp is both skillful and tactical in play. We don’t need any more dumbing down of this game.

If you miss a stomp due to stealth you have lots of options open to counter play that move. If you’re out of cooldowns that’s not the games flaw.

You got beat. Yes you won the 1v1, great, but his teammate rotated properly and in time and did the right thing to prevent the stomp… you want this punished and taken away?!?

You haven’t answered why if stealth means the player is still “there”, don’t they die to a completed stomp. My stomp wasn’t interrupted (I made sure of that), so everything is the same, the guy is still lying exactly where he was before, so why doesn’t he die?

In this case, the game acts as if stealth = not there. And that’s just out of sync with what we’ve been told to expect from stealth.

Why is this even being debated? Seems a pretty watertight argument from here.

Lupanic.6502:

Prevent the stomp with shadow refuge while you are invulnerable. Sounds like a skill

But stealth doesn’t mean the person is invulnerable right? So why do they survive a stomp?

Luto.1938:

I don’t want to say it’s a learn to play issue here, but there are ways to counter stealth survivability when trying to stomp. If you see that shadow refuge or an enemy go stealth that you are trying to finish dodge to cancel your stomp and use any knock-backs/aoe that you have on the area they were down. People still take damage while stealth and a lot of times you can knock-back or down the person trying to res.

I have two CCs, but they were both blown since this was the end of a fight. And one of my knockbacks requires a target . There was literally no way for me to counter this. If I was fresh and had all my CCs ready, then yeah. I could have pulled the thief out of SR. Not in this case.

My point is that stealth should not mean invulnerability. By implication, this means that they should be affected by a stomp which is also a channeled skill that usually tracks targets. After all, they’re still “there” aren’t they? So why don’t they die when we drive a stake into the ground through them? They haven’t changed position

Ryan.9387:

Nobody determines the mesmer by their glory booster buff.

We see erratic movement or non clone annimation and click the person.
We would see your booster only if we already had you selected…

It’s useful when tabbing through to find the real guy.

I got an engi down while at tranq and was getting ready to stomp. I was low on health, and had saved my last invulnerability to avoid his CC. It was a good fight and though I saw another guy heading to save I calculated he wouldn’t be in time. Until he arrives and puts down shadow refuge.

Poof! He ressed, they killed me, got tranq, and we lost the game.

Thieves are so fond of telling us that stealth =/= not there. Wrong! It’s a huge flag/stake through the heart. Being invisible shouldn’t mean that the target becomes invulnerable. At best, stomp is a channeled skill and we all know those track through stealth. The attack lands. The stomp should be complete.

I can’t believe this discrepancy still exists. Everyone says that if your opponent is stealthed, your attacks will continue to connect. Stomps should connect as well. It’s ridiculous that you can cheat someone of a killing blow right in the same place just because a thief stealths them for whatever reason.

Pyroatheist.9031:

bhagwad.4281:

garethh.3518:

bhagwad.4281:

Red Raven.7824:

bhagwad.4281:

And the benefits of showing glory buffs?

To remind you to use your Glory Booster.

But how does it add value to the enemy seeing it?

So… out of all the issues in GW2… you think Glory Boosters showing up on the buff bar is a serious issue worth an immediate fix…

What.
The.
kitten.

I hope you’re not being serious.

Well, it would give me an incentive to use my booster stacks before glory becomes useless no?

A skilled mesmer plays in such a way that assumes the enemy always knows which one you are. A skilled enemy will always know which one you are, so you should play assuming a skilled enemy. No buffs showing up on your bar matter in the least amount.

I notice that it definitely makes a difference in practice. Guess pretending to be a clone does actually work huh? The bottom line is that the buffs do make it easier to identify the real mesmer. And why should I hand my foe an advantage no matter how small?

garethh.3518:

bhagwad.4281:

Red Raven.7824:

bhagwad.4281:

And the benefits of showing glory buffs?

To remind you to use your Glory Booster.

But how does it add value to the enemy seeing it?

So… out of all the issues in GW2… you think Glory Boosters showing up on the buff bar is a serious issue worth an immediate fix…

What.
The.
kitten.

I hope you’re not being serious.

Well, it would give me an incentive to use my booster stacks before glory becomes useless no?

Red Raven.7824:

bhagwad.4281:

And the benefits of showing glory buffs?

To remind you to use your Glory Booster.

But how does it add value to the enemy seeing it?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

(Assuming ur talking about pvp. And replying from phone so forgive typos)

Thats a bit of a broad question as Mesmer has many different options for team support. Some of the most valuable tools we have are:

- Boonstripping (Dom VII, iDisenchanter, Null Field)
- Boonsharing (Staff+Focus, Signet of Inspiration)
- Reflects (Feedback, traited Focus)
- Control (Chaotic Interruption and friends)
- Condition Removal (Mantra, Disenchanter)
- Utility (iDefender, Portal, Veil, Illusion of Life)

The trick is blending those aspects into a build without spreading yourself too thin. We can do great damage while taking any of the above as a secondary (and even tertiary depending on the build) feature and make ourselves invaluable to a team. Id say boonstripping, portal, reflects and condition removal rank among our most useful team-oriented abilities.

Thanks for the list! I guess some of these functions would be better performed by other classes. For eg, for boon stripping I would guess a necro would be better and condition removal, a guardian and again a guardian for sharing boons. For control, I’m guessing a hammer warrior or even a necro (though single target) would be more appropriate.

Reflects and portal…those are solid mesmer benefits I think.

Liewec.2896:

bhagwad.4281:

I can’t understand why Anet thinks it’s so kitten important to show stuff like glory booster buffs on nameplates. Or mantra charges. Or even signet counts. I have whole stacks of glory boosters but because I run a mesmer, there’s no way I’m using them and giving away my identity. Mantras are the same.

What possible use can it be to an enemy to know whether the other guy is using a glory booster?? Stop showing irrelevant stuff and let me use both mantras as well as glory boosters.

what possible use can it be to display whether or not your enemy has signets and mantras? alot of use!

for example, if i see that my enemy has Signet of Stamina i know he has access to a full condi clear.
if i see my enemy has Signet of Ether i know to kill his clones fast.
same for mantras, if i see you have a readied Mantra of Distraction i know i need to get to cover before trying to heal.

you might aswell ask “why show buffs?” because its the same, the fight alters depending on if your enemy has stability/protection etc just as it would if they had certain mantras/signets.
i think we’re past the stage of people actually being confused by clones now too, so if that was what you were worried about it is kinda mute, if you hit staff 2 nowadays noone will get confused and attack the clone at your previous position.
(and if they are confused that easily then i doubt they’ll be thinking about checking the status bars of their target)

And the benefits of showing glory buffs?

I can 1v1 pretty darn well, but in the opinion of the mes community, what’s the most effective team based build? I’ve run stuff with chaotic interruption, but it’s unreliable. I’ve also tried imbued diversion, but again it’s a bit random.

I can kill people as a point defender, but because of the small area I’m forced to remain out of the circle especially if I’m killing a necro or a warrior. This defeats the purpose. Stealth is another issue as points get decapped.

So question – what is the best way a mesmer can help his/her team and what role do we fulfill?

I can’t understand why Anet thinks it’s so kitten important to show stuff like glory booster buffs on nameplates. Or mantra charges. Or even signet counts. I have whole stacks of glory boosters but because I run a mesmer, there’s no way I’m using them and giving away my identity. Mantras are the same.

What possible use can it be to an enemy to know whether the other guy is using a glory booster?? Stop showing irrelevant stuff and let me use both mantras as well as glory boosters.

I can confirm it still works as of yesterday.

Yes they do. But as mentioned, nothing is guaranteed. I got two from a set of six but YMMV.

I don’t remember getting the fashion achievement when I purchased Sylvari T3 armor.

On Jan 28th 2014, a player who’s the author of this comment won 20 bazillion dollars, and defeated all sPvP players in GW2 by using one skill.

So it was written. So it shall be done.

People tell me I have a mean sense of humor, but I’ve always wanted a ranger to knock himself back by reflecting his “Point Blank Shot”. I’ve seen some amusing stuff like a warrior killing himself with his own rifle, immobilizing himself with a bow, an engi eating away his own lifebar dismayingly fast as he shoots his grenades into my phantasmal warden and a thief not realizing that his projectiles are coming straight back to him.

But today I finally got it! I was defending a point, a ranger comes along, I put on temporal curtain and waited. Sure enough, he knocks himself back with his point blank shot. Aaaah..satisfying!

What would really be awesome if that happened on skyhammer and he falls to his death

fugazi.5139:

No. Makes no sense. Once something reflects…it loses damage,speed or whatever it maybe.

Then what if my stats were better than the attacker’s? It don’t think it makes sense.

Today I was reflecting back a warrior’s bow attacks, enjoying seeing him immobilize himself etc but I noticed that I wasn’t doing as much damage as he would have been doing. I figured the reflected projectiles were using my stats instead of his.

While I can sort of understand this, it doesn’t make sense. Once a projectile is fired, it is what it is. Say I take a trait that shoots nuclear missiles instead of arrows. If that missile gets reflected, it can’t suddenly turn into an arrow no?

Divus.3175:

I played since the beginning: pure condi necro, necro boon corrupter, engi grenadier, engi bunker with automated response and phantasm mesmer (s/f + gs). Most spammy was condi necro (now “terror” necro) and engi grenadier. Engi bunker, even with automated response, need some cooldown management. Phantasm mesmer with s/f and gs is not so spammy too. You’ve got less possible choises than shatter mesmer, and you can’t mindlessly spam everything, like condi mesmer. I played thief a little bit, and it doesn’t feel so spammy too.

As for your question about outshining with skill – watch for example Teldo. He’s build, back few months ago, wasn’t crazy good. But in his hands it was deadly. I’m sure there are more of this kind.

Wow – that’s kitten good play . Is his build still viable now?

ahuba.6430:

Well, I have played d/p thief/engi/mesmer and pre-nerf d/d ele a lot, and of these the ones that felt less faceroll, and that would leave themselves the most vulnerable if spamming, is the mesmer and d/p thief. Now thief can get away with more spamming (hurr shortbow #3 for days) than before, but engi is still the king of spamming while a mesmer that doesn’t manage his stuff in this meta is a dead mesmer (talking shatter mesmer).
I think the meta is favoring spam builds because a build that can spam implies a tanky spec that can survive even with a lot of skills on cooldown, like warrior or spirit ranger.

Best 1v1 is warrior, and both warrior and bunk guardian are the classes defining the meta (guardian has always defined the meta anyway). Warrior is definitely spammy, while guardian still needs some timing with it’s key utilities.

I don’t believe there is any “huge skill required” builds out there. There are some that require some muscle memory like ele or engie, but after a few days and games you’re good to go. There are obviously builds that are completely the other way around: stupidly easy to pick up and play.
Not really sure what you mean with 5.

What I mean with #5 is…is there any build (or set of builds) whose effectiveness eventually outshines all the other builds if you get more and more skilfull? For example (just for argument), if we had an infinitely skilful mesmer, he/she could rule just about any enemy out there by accurately interrupting key skills repeatedly and causing huge damage with a combination of interrupt traits.

Unfortunately without skill bars and with all the bam boom graphics, it’s not really feasible to keep an eye on a person’s animantions especially if they’re tiny so such a person would surely never exist.

Like that, are there any build which become exponentially better as your skill levels increase? Or do the effectiveness of all builds kind of “flatten out”. With “spammy” builds, the curve is almost exclusively flat when the difference between a highly skilled spammer and a low skill spammer is minimal.

Reading the forums, it seems that every profession has been named faceroll. Warrior, Mesmer, Engi, Necro, Ele, Ranger, and Thief. So…is there any viable team or 1v1 build that is not faceroll?

On a related note (assuming players of equal skill):

1. Which is the best 1v1 profession/build?
2. Which is the most wanted team profession/build?
3. Are either of the above “easy spam”? If yes, why does anyone ever run anything else?
4. What is the viability of builds that require huge amounts of skill?
5. Is there a profession where you can reach unlimited effectiveness merely by improving your skill?

I have my own opinions of course, but I’m curious to know what the rest of the community thinks. For what it’s worth, here are my own thoughts to the questions:

1. Phantasm Mesmer or MM Necro
2. Warrior Hammer/Bow
3. All three above have been called “spammy” (true or not). People play other builds because they disagree to the answers of question 1 and 2
4. It seems builds requiring lots of skill still fall short of so called “easier” ones
5. Doesn’t look like it.

entropy.9613:

ronpierce.2760:

entropy.9613:

Is my saying that I’m Elvis proof that I’m Elvis?

I don’t quite understand your failure to understand.

Seeing him at the beginning is fact-checkable, though. Did I see him standing in the spawn room? Yes. Just like you being Elvis is fact-checkable. Are you? He’s dead and you’re still talking. Likely, not. If someone is being rude, and you happen to see someone afk and especially ADMIT to it, and further being rude, I’d venture to say forced-dishonor should be applicable. Of course, it’d have to be a 3/4 vote, I’d say, including 1 person not in the player’s “party” outside of the match (otherwise, easily abusable), and with severe abuse penalties, but certainly, people should be able to weed out the kittens.

Me being Elvis is fact-checkable, but really, really not worth it. Same with AFK players.

Maybe the guy standing in base had an important phone call. Maybe he is typing some epic strategy into team chat. Maybe he’s having a seizure. How do you ascertain these things? Who is the judge? What are the rules/boundaries?

Or maybe that guy has been carrying hard the whole game, grinding out tough 1v2s while the rest of the team 4-man zergs and he’s just had enough. He admits he is going AFK, but who deserves dishonor in that situation? The guy carrying or the four scrubs farming him?

Too many variables and too much overhead to police. There was a report system in GW1, but even when there were blatant AFK players that were called out in team chat, few people bothered reporting and they rarely got punished for it.

EDIT: Although maybe the problem with GW1 report was that if a third or less of your team reports this player, you will also be given 2 dishonor points for issuing an unsupported report.

The reasons don’t matter. If someone was AFK, then they get dishonor points. Doesn’t matter if he was having a seizure or his grandma died. If any of those were true, then getting dishonor points will be the least of his worries. And you don’t get banned immediately either. The system is set up so that you get screwed only if it happens repeatedly. So what’s the problem?

Or do they just hope someone else will answer it? I can only hold out 2v1 or 3v1 for so long you know…

What is MMR?
/15 chars

Guys…of course I “painted” the pic. It was never meant to fool anyone – just a joke. And it’s deliberately so bad that no one looking at it can possibly think it’s real.

Relax!

It’s legit. I swear!

gesho.9468:

mini.6018:

Well it all consists that the player/build pushing on far to be really effective.You can’t just send a bunker because then you will only be stuck
in a 1v1 concluding nothing and if you are too bad and die then you just crippled your team more than just sticking to mid.

wouldn’t bunky build (with knockbacks and stability) make more sense for decapping? you decapp, help mid, decap, help mid… you can tie one player to far while being able to help mid once in a while. that’s using time difference edge between capping/decapping. and bunk can live through 1v2.

I guess it’s whether or not you believe a bunker can survive a 2(or 3)v1 against people of equal skill. I personally think not, but if you’re confident, go for it.

Personally, I don’t like to tempt fate. I’ll quickly backcap, and run away. Why fight when you can get away with not fighting after all eh?

Lupanic.6502:

bhagwad.4281:

Lupanic.6502:

You do not need to decap far. Play defensive. Win mid and support close. gg

Assuming equal skill on both teams, then mid will be ours half the time and half the time theirs. And say we hold close 80% of the time. They still win on an average by 1/3rd points (again, assuming equal skill) since their close (our far) is never decapped. They get theirs for free.

Holding just close and mid is therefore not a dominant strategy (“dominant” as used in game theoretical terms)

Come on. If you fine at mid. Go decap close if it is for free or you know you win the 1on1 or you play a decap build.
If you lose mid rush far. I am fine with that.

What I mean is sometimes you have a hard time to win mid. Lets say you won a 4vs4 teamfight at mid and often 2 people rush far to decap it after the teamfight and the opponents repop and have easy fights with 5vs2 at far and 4 vs 2 at mid or things like that.

Do not try to decap far if you know you have to fight 1vsX (X>1)

I usually just wait till the person has left, then quickly decap and leave. I prefer not to fight at all. It takes me just 4 seconds to decap. I leave a portal, decap, and go back to what I was doing before.

My point is…if you ignore far, you allow them to leave it unattended and that effectively makes it a 4v5 battle.

Lupanic.6502:

You do not need to decap far. Play defensive. Win mid and support close. gg

Assuming equal skill on both teams, then mid will be ours half the time and half the time theirs. And say we hold close 80% of the time. They still win on an average by 1/3rd points (again, assuming equal skill) since their close (our far) is never decapped. They get theirs for free.

Holding just close and mid is therefore not a dominant strategy (“dominant” as used in game theoretical terms)

Lupanic.6502:

You do not need to decap far. Play defensive. Win mid and support close. gg

And when their close (our far) always belongs to them, we’re pressurized to hold our points while they get theirs for free.

That’s very good for them.

So this guy openly admits to going AFK and there’s no option to report him? How do we do it? Under the “bot” option?

Many times now I’m holding close only to have wave after wave of enemies come and contest it as well as mid. All the while, our far (their close) is lying happily vacant giving them a solid edge since no one from our team goes to at least decap it thereby distracting them and easing some pressure on us.

I understand trying to hold far might be a bad idea (though I’ve seen that happen as well). But at least backcap it for free without fighting or at least decap it without wasting the time to take it.

Keep them off balance and don’t let them take advantage of our complacency. The best defense is a solid offense.

On the one hand they say that maxing out crit damage via full Berzerker is 50% more efficient than taking other stats. Then they go ahead and reduce crit damage only by 10%.

Shouldn’t it be more in the range of 30-40% instead?

A few unique skins. But I could have gotten that from the forge as well. I did get a frog scepter though!

Are there any items that have a low (<1%) chance of dropping from the mystic forge? I need to get rid of tons of tournament and rank tokens and have all the usual stuff…

Qaelyn.7612:

No, they really aren’t. It’s basically about a dozen people in here constantly with the same complaints over and over again.

Even if it were more of them, it wouldn’t matter, because their complaint is invalid. It is not reasonable and not fair to have game decisions based on the demands of people who have turned it into a job and then demand that the “job” be made easier.

Nobody cares about your “rank” on a “leaderboard” that measures only how many hours you spend grinding meaningless tasks. Do them or don’t do them, but stop expecting the 99.99% of the rest of the game to have to change to deal with your lack of self control.

If anything should be removed from the game, it should be the achievement “leaderboard” itself, since it serves no purpose other than to encourage this dysfunctional behavior.

That “dysfunctional behavior” is the sole reason to play the game for many, many people. It is after all, an MMO.