Guild Wars 2

Warlord Lu Bu.7905:

It amazes me how so many people are clueless on how to counter gears. I just won a 1 v 7 using gears.

Then the same 7 came back and one of their guys had gears to spam at me. I know how to counter and defeated them a 2nd time in a row.

The only legitimate complaints I can see about Gears is that they do damage to multiple targets (which can be more DPS than your normal move combinations) and appear to be able to hit enemies while in stealth.

“Easy to counter” blah blah.. Maybe if you are playing a class/build which has high access to stability or reflect… Not everyone has those options and even the classes that do shouldn’t have to tailor their build to counter some stupid enviromental pve item.

I’ll say it again. Every class has a certain amount of accessable stuns and knockdowns FOR A REASON, and every player has a certain amount of skills and utilities FOR A REASON.. There are good reasons a Glass backstab thief for example doesn’t have an extra long duration, high damage, bouncing stun to use after he uses Basilisk..

Drarnor Kunoram.5180:

These consumeables do NOT need to go. They need a universal 30-60 second cooldown.

Is one gear going to save someone from dying in a 1v5 scenario? Not likely. Someone would have a stunbreak or when the stun wears off, the five kill the one anyway. Can it buy that one person some time? Yes. Is this gamebreaking at all? No.

Are 50 gears going to save someone from dying in a 1v5? You had better believe it! Is this gamebreaking at all? Oh yeah.

See, the problem isn’t with the item, the problem is with the frequency of use. Throwing a long global cooldown on these bundle consumeables would fix the problems without having to remove them. Since it would be global, they couldn’t chain together multiple consumeables to get the same basic effect.

Spy kits need to stay removed, though, due to allowing memsers to stay hidden for unreasonable amounts of time even with fantastic sweeping by their opponents.

You have a limited amount of skills and utilities for a reason.. Nobody should have extra stuns or knockdowns they aren’t meant to have.. These items are completely stupid and frankly I can’t believe people are ignorant enough to provide arguments for them.

Doomknight.7923:

to you it may seem this way but i guarantee that to ppl on AR or BP its the same. Just depends on when u play and with who.
just like how BP always seems to nab everything during the late night hours and then ween off during the morning.
All just prime play hours.
Ive been on NSP and AR and both seem close in WvW population. BP does seem to have more people on constantly but that’s not to say they have more people on there server, just more active players.

“Seem like it”… I can SEE the buff in my icon bar, lol.. It’s like you didn’t even read the post..

Doomknight.7923:

I like how every server says " were better but you just have more numbers" LOL
It changes every hour, hell, every minute. 1 sec its AR with a 40 man zerg then its BP, then NSP. Our numbers are relatively close server wise we just all have different prime play times. Soo just enjoy the killing while you can and try not to die when u get outnumbered. Other wise stop QQ’ing on the forums and enjoy the mayhem.

Well for example I’ve been playing all day today.. For like god 16 hours (i know)… We have had the outmanned buff in EBG about 13 of those 16 hours.. I don’t think I’ve seen AR or BP with the buff more then once or twice in a week. When I got on this morning(8am pacific), we had 4 people in the map. AR had zergs of about 30 capping our towers.. We didn’t get more then 10 ppl in Ebg till about 1:00 pm..

It is what it is, and I’m not kittening about the numbers.. Just please don’t be so delusional that you think NSP has anywhere close to even numbers with AR or BP..

I will say we seem to have a strong showing on the weekend, probably even – even numbers, but during the week we have jack squat.

Terra Dactyl.2047:

tumadk.1342:

- Zoom hack. Basically you use the zoom hack, put up an arrow cart outside a keep, zoom out and then you can hit things inside. Things you normally wouldn’t be able to hit without cheating. And therefore defensive siege is kind of useless.

- There are other hacks being used as far as I have heard of.

It’s not really a hack. Hell, it’s probably not even an exploit. Arrow carts don’t require line of sight. It’s just how they’re (poorly) designed.

Arrow carts are terrible the way they are now (people holding off a group of 50+ and destroying any siege they build with 4 arrow carts and nothing else from completely out of the range of retaliation, people camping inside the lord room of hills with relatively few arrow carts and holding people off for hours after they should have essentially already taken the keep, etc.).

It’s not really a “zoom hack”, but I’m all for requiring line of sight on them like almost everything else in the game. Being able to turtle inside a keep with a small handful of essentially indestructible arrow carts destroying all opposing siege is silly.

No his point is that there actually IS a zoom hack which makes arrow carts even more of a pain then they already are.. Do a little google snooping I’m sure you can figure it out.

Draygo.9473:

Ubi.4136:

Draygo.9473:

Ubi, ill give you a hint, golems wasnt the first thing they have banned from WvW use, this is probably next on the docket now that anet is aware of the issues with this item.

The game is HUGE, let me ask you, name every single consumeable in this thread right now, and what it does.

Cant do it?

The point is I didn’t make the game (so no reason to), but they (hopefully) did, and should know what everything is/does. And after needing/deciding to ban the first item, you (or I at least) would hope that someone in that room would go…what about all the other combat consumables?

I’m guessing either that meeting didn’t take place, or no one cared and it was faster to just “fix” the one item and wait for another thread like this to ban the next item.

Lets put it this way, a few months ago the devs banned every item thought to give an advantage in WvW in one pass, however they missed 2 items, GiB and this one. GiB was discovered and fixed, and now this one will probably be fixed relatively quickly.

Mistakes happen and we can help anet by reporting these mistakes, there are a LOT of consumables in the game, (in the hundreds i think). Its pretty easy to miss one, or think you disabled one but didnt by mistake.

Yeah and Spike Fruit, Planks and Bars, and others that haven’t gotten popular so I won’t mention them on the forums..

wickedgreen.4685:

Another thing you and your friend seem to have missed: “I have zero interest in WvW” So telling me to go form a group, encourage my server, join a wvw guild, and storm the wvw maps are rather moot.

Something you seem to repeatedly miss (or ignore) is the fact that some of us have ZERO interest in the PVE maps as well.. I have 4 80’s leveled and geared purely through WvW.. But if I was to want that shiny gold star, guess what, I would have to go grind out all the PVE maps..

The achievement is what it is, it includes both WvW and the PVE world, nobody cares if you don’t like part of whats required for an achievement.

Today my daily includes crafting, I have ZERO interest in crafting.. Guess what I have to do if I want to complete my daily…

Now this is a realistic GW2 WvW PvP video. Your best vid yet!

lol man you got so “outplayed”.. People are actually arguing these should be allowed, lol.

BrimstoneAshe.5043:

dank,

I see you’re in the guild DOWN. I came across a an Asura Mesmer last night with that guild tag running with a Thief from Envy. Please pass on my tip of the hat to that mesmer… best mesmer I’ve seen so far in WvW.

That would be Varconi from this thread, I’ll pass it along but I’m sure he’ll see it in here.

Walabone.6713:

This is a solo / small group warrior video. I spent almost the entire day messing around in Anvil Rock Borderlands earlier this week. For the earlier part of the day, I was a part of groups ranging from 1-3 members. At one point there were literally 2 BP players including myself in the zone. We were constantly outnumbered! But we persisted! Our camp takes helped keep our point total up, and AR’s down. Eventually we were able to flip some towers with some help; and at the end of the day, while commanding, we were able to take Hills and Garrison after wearing down AR all day.

A longer video than I’d like, but I had almost 3 hours of footage to comb through, so it was really hard narrowing alot of it down! (Not to mention all the fights I didn’t have the camera rolling… I remember one fight where I kept killing Kodiak over, and over, and over again since his zergies kept rezzing him!) I’ll probably try to make multiple shorter videos in the future

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ4UHZ_BkTs

Enjoy!

Best part of the whole video is when you got flame rammed…

Leo Paul.1659:

I think Sword+Focus (or Pistol)/Scepter+Sword is perfect for a hybrid shantasm build. Depending on the weapon set, the gameplay changes drastically (in theory). I’ve been very interested in developing a Sword+Offhand/Scepter+Offhand build for my mesmer just because of its uniqueness. Perhaps its versatility is underestimated at the moment.

Sword/Pistol Scepter/Sword is very good in a phantasm focused power/crit build. It’s what I’m currently running as of the last couple days and it is a blast.

So your wanting the JP to be carebear with absolutely no risk especially if you’re on an overpopulated server and control it at all times.. Sounds fair, or not.. I’m all for completely removing it from WvW but your suggestion is dumb IMO.

My favorite is the iSwordsman because it hits like a truck, attacks fast, hunts its target relentlessly(haha thieves), and evades also keeping a decent range most of the time to not get crapped on by melee’s.

My second favorite is the iDuelist, it also hits very hard, has a decent attack rate and keeps its distance while mostly properly chasing its target. Also it stacks a nice amount of bleeds and like mentioned is great as a finisher through combo fields.

The iWarden is probably the hardest hitting, has great utility and imo isn’t near as hard to land its attacks as people claim it is.. It’s great as a siege harasser, resser harasser and stuff like that too.

My opinions all stem from my experience in WvW.

Oh I’m going to give you all a tip I learned with landing iWardens full attack. You can cast iWarden, and during its cast time cast iLeap, both will be on your target at the same time allowing you to swap and immobilize them in the warden.

Acaleus.2198:

Also, You can most certainly roll in prestige, it helps immensely if your trying to kill off your illusions and confuse opponents.

You can NOT dodge roll during The Prestige, the entire skill is a channel from blind-to-burn, if you do any non-instant action it will break the channel and give you the revealed debuff.

Hammerhorn.1347:

Varconi.1804:

imalog.7689:

Varconi.1804:

If there are any ALS players that are indeed good can someone list them for me, would love to fight them as all the ALS I have fought to date were free kills.

Did you get stepped on while we were on the way to somewhere? Its hard to say sorry to all the road kill out there in wvw.

Even an ALS commander can not dispute my point. Why quote something if you are not going to make a point remotely related to the quote?

“The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit” apparently not always

Bla bla bla bla bla bla bla that’s the wit I hear from you.

Commenting on someone else lack of wit, with the majority of your statement being “bla bla bla bla bla bla bla”, is quite ironic.

selan.8354:

Supersun.4603:

selan.8354:

selan.8354:

if u have gotten 5000 dmg then it was a crit and u must have run into th nullfield that was placed together with th bubble.

I ment crit from the other player, he basically hit himself crit.

You have no idea how confusion works, do you.

Oh i do, the higher the attack you are using on us the higher the dmg u are dealing on yourself if it is a projectile. I dont know if u can crit yourslef but i get pretty high numbers but not up to 5000 by dodging. I don’t know but vs certain players like thieves i get crazy numbers though. Btw I love rare veggie pizzas that increase condition dmg and duration.;-) (uh-oh next thing the op wants to nerf.

lol really? You play a glamour Mesmer and you don’t even have a clue how it works.. Amazing..

Varconi.1804:

Hammerhorn.1347:

You guys can poke at ALS all u want truth be told they a talented bunch of players on our server that listen well to instruction and execute objectives.The fact that you talk about them soooo much just shows how much time you spend thinking about how they owned you.

That has to be a troll

Don’t you remember that time they “owned” you 30v1? Sounds like a l2p issue Varconi.

kodesh.2851:

The best way is to /dance while their buddy gets off the res, then down them again. Ragequit is 100% effective.

Definitely the most fun.. I find a special amount of satisfaction downing someone so many times they just get instant defeated..

Gaiawolf.8261:

dank.3680:

Well sw/sw scepter/focus is easily viable.. I wouldn’t use the sword mainhand for both sets even with the reduction trait unless you like trying to chase people around with a 130 range slow skill for 8 seconds.. I mean it could work but there really isn’t any reason not to take scepter as the other main and keep pulling some dps out in between your frenzy CDs(which match well with swap cd).

Sw/sw sept/foc? If he really wants the sw/sw aesthetic, having blocks on each set is nice, but there’s just so much synergy between the MH sword and focus with curtain and iLeap, it’s hard not wanting to go sw/foc scept/sw. Scepter really needs a combo field or finisher to keep up the sw/foc combo. I’d have to play around with the skill flow to see if I’d really consider it the other way around.

Naw I would not take this setup in a million years personally lol.. If I was to use these 4 weapons it would be like you said sw/foc scept/sw.. But he specifically said he wants sw/sw(aesthetic) and a focus offhand on the other set… Merely pointing out that taking a Scepter as the second main is WAY better then using sword main on both sets.

Gotta be honest, would not mind running around with duel pistol/duel sword… Sounds pretty epic to me..

Nuka Cola.8520:

dank.3680:

Nuka Cola.8520:

Skill 2: Replace dat **** completely

‘Man you are crazy, don’t touch my iCounter or I shall scream.. Scepter/Sword is THE best thief troller there is.. Open with my iswordsman who hunts him like a rabid wolf, smack a confusing image on him as he try’s to stealth (they always do right now), throw up a sword block, oops no backstab and you took 5k, oops swordsman did 5k too, oops blocked your cnd attempt with scepter 2 and you are downed glass thief(or running in which case confusing images for the finisher, even if they try to stealth)..

YOU may think Scepter sucks, and that’s fine, but I enjoy it quite a bit as many others do. Sure it could use some minor adjustments but it definitely is not trash.

Phase retreat is much better thief troller. The problem with scepters skill 2 is, when you decide to blind a target it doesn’t summon a clone which means this is the ONLY weapon of all mesmer weapons that has no illusions unless you happen to block something. No able to generate a clone for needed shatter because X person isn’t attacking you is…………..

Not everyone plays in shatter builds ya know. It helps if you actually use the block, to you know, block an attack rather then just throwing it up willy nilly.. And, I can’t see myself using it just for the blind or a clone honestly,

Well if you like bickering and trolling you can always hop in the BP/AR/NSP thread.

Nuka Cola.8520:

Skill 2: Replace dat **** completely

‘Man you are crazy, don’t touch my iCounter or I shall scream.. Scepter/Sword is THE best thief troller there is.. Open with my iswordsman who hunts him like a rabid wolf, smack a confusing image on him as he try’s to stealth (they always do right now), throw up a sword block, oops no backstab and you took 5k, oops swordsman did 5k too, oops blocked your cnd attempt with scepter 2 and you are downed glass thief(or running in which case confusing images for the finisher, even if they try to stealth)..

YOU may think Scepter sucks, and that’s fine, but I enjoy it quite a bit as many others do. Sure it could use some minor adjustments but it definitely is not trash.

Balidore.2790:

it’s a game, quit overreacting.

heheh Yeah Balidore it’s just a game, quit overreacting. WINK

My giant Norn “Dazlin”, complete with pink S&M gear and Princess Wand.. Pretty intimidating dude.. (he rocks a scary quaggan pack too but you can’t see in the pic)

Well sw/sw scepter/focus is easily viable.. I wouldn’t use the sword mainhand for both sets even with the reduction trait unless you like trying to chase people around with a 130 range slow skill for 8 seconds.. I mean it could work but there really isn’t any reason not to take scepter as the other main and keep pulling some dps out in between your frenzy CDs(which match well with swap cd).

UnknownFreak.2805:

dank.3680:

Yeah now I can get an instant 20 bleeds lol, just as OP imo, maybe even moreso.

meh, was able to get 25 bleeds

just so sad I don’t run condition, maybe I shall get a condition gear as well…

Oh I can get 25 stacks easily, but I said I can get 20 “instantly” not quite instant but pretty kitten close.. 1 auto attack – mirror images – dodge = hello 20 bleeds. Using sigil to add bleed on crit, also a decent crit chance for my clones and it’s trait.

Yeah now I can get an instant 20 bleeds lol, just as OP imo, maybe even moreso.

Gaiawolf.8261:

@dank:
I’m using a very similar trait loadout and gear set, but I have less focus on phantasms. Basically, 0/20/20/20/10 with +3% damager per illusion and Blade Training instead of phant fury since I run both MH and OH sword.

I found that since I started using this build, I don’t shatter very often and almost always have +9% damage. I never liked relying on pet damage, but I guess that’s more of a personal choice. It would allow more of my damage to be automated which would be nice though, so I may have to try that out. Still, I love BF on 8s CD.

One question though. You say you use food to offset lack of condition removal, but it looks like you have Mender’s Purity. Do you find that is not enough? Seem like another food would be more valuable, and you can always go MoRecovery w/RM in a clutch.

Well I do like Blade Training and swap it in every now and then but I find that with the way the CD’s work and how often I’m swapping back and forth it synergizes well without it. But the main reason I pick Phantasmal Fury instead is because I want to guarantee my iSwordsman crits, that Phantasm is very good especially against thieves..

I have the same experience, I RARELY shatter if I do it’s either a Mindwrack on someone I’m sure that will be finished off by it, or a distortion shatter to spike someone. I really want to keep my sword phant up, it’s a major source of my damage (I always open with that skill btw).

Menders Purity only removes one condition every 20 seconds which is usually fine for a 1v1 or maybe even 1v2, but when your jumping into 1v5’s like I do on a regular basis you tend to acquire a lot of conditions.. Things like chill/cripple etc can really cramp your style. If you aren’t worried about conditions then I would probably take omnomberry ghost(which I do sometimes), a very good food, either that or the one that boosts power by 100(i forget it’s name).

Kazhiel.8194:

Thanks Seven and Dank for speaking up here about the usefulness of the weapons a lot of people seem to want to hate on lol I like scepter, I like torch, I like all the mesmer weapons really, they all have a role to play.

Dank, what kind of build are you running?

I’m currently using 0, 20 II-X, 20 IV-VII, 25 VI IV, 5.. Using a mix of Knights/Valk with a few pvt thrown in to basically keep at least 45% + crit chance and have 40% crit damage (which I’m saving gold to change out some gear to raise that in trade for toughness).. Atm with that setup I have 21.5k hp with 2850ish armor.. The one stat which lacks is power sitting at about 2900 attack atm but I use bloodlust to offset that.. Oh btw I have to use master maint oils in this setup to get my crit % where I want it. I use Lemongrass poultry to offset the lack of condition removal..

I have guildies who use the same weapons in a full PVT setup with a drastically different trait build and they also have great success..

grimmson.9154:

so scepter is ok-nice in direct damage builds, great. could we get a ok-nice condition weapon set besides staff? :\

I’ll agree it doesn’t do a very good job in a condition build and that Mesmer lacks a 1 handed main condition applying weapon. I actually view the Scepter-3 as a temporary shutdown skill rather then a condition damage one..

Pyroatheist.9031:

If up close and personal dps is your goal, as you said with “Jumping into the middle of 10 people and going to town” then the sword is infinitely better than the scepter. You have more mobility, more damage, more combo finishers, and more defense. With that sort of playing, there is literally nothing the scepter does better than the sword.

Except that it takes a 2 seconds to blow everything useful the sword has swap-leap-frenzy which are always used together for the most part.. Then if you want to stay with the sword you are forced to be in melee range to keep applying damage, which most of the time is a suicidal move. Then if your target decides to use a movement ability to gain some distance from you, you are now worthless with that sword, whereas I can still be doing damage with the scepter.

I actually do already use the sword though.. I mentioned earlier my set is sword/torch scepter/sword. All 4 of my weapons in this setup have specific uses and all 4 have a great synergy together and create a flow of combat that I absolutely love.

I’ll sometimes run GS-Sword/Sword which is also great, but for me the set has different purposes. Basically I switch to this when I have a lot of people that keep running away from me because the GS shines as a “chaser weapon”.

The beauty of the sc/sw sw/tc in my build is that on both sets I have a high dps output while at the same time both sets have massively defensive abilities which together mitigate a ton of potential incoming damage.

I personally don’t like comparing any of the Mesmer weapons to each other because imo they are all great and all have different things they shine at.. I’ve run with every weapon combination possible along with tons of different builds and at no time with any of them did I feel I was putting myself at a disadvantage using them.

Like I said in an earlier post I generally change my build around (and my weapon sets) on a daily basis, though I’ve been using my current setup for around 3 days solid so far because I’m having so much fun with it.. I do this because I love them all and like to keep it fresh.. I think I have something like 14 exotic weapons on my Mesmer…

I use Centaur runes in wvw, I switched out for other things for awhile but I was pigeon holed into using a focus.. Which is a decent weapon, but not one I prefer using. Being without swift in WvW is just bad..

Embolism.8106:

dank.3680:

Embolism.8106:

I don’t think there is any doubt that the Sceptre can be used and can be used well. The question is whether another weapon can do the job better.

You can certainly achieve a significant amount of DPS with just Ether Bolt, but is it better than Spatial Surge DPS? The answer is actually yes, at close range. At longer ranges however Spatial Surge takes over, plus it also has 33% more range, is hitscan and is unreflectable.

What about Illusionary Counter? Obviously this is comparing apples to oranges, but let’s compare it to Mirror Blade. In terms of damage they are not dissimilar, but Mirror Blade has a shorter CD and stacks Might and Vulnerability. Illusionary Counter has a longer (effective) range and blocks an attack: it also roots you for short time when it triggers. Overall, if damage is what you want, Mirror Blade will likely give you more of it.

As for Confusing Images, it is actually quite damaging in Power or condition builds. The problem is, as mentioned multiple times, it is depressingly easy to avoid by any competent opponent.

Another thing to consider is Clones. Even in a Shatter build this is significant, as Clones will generally get a few attacks off before they get Shattered. In this department, with Sharper Images, the Greatsword is vastly superior over the Sceptre.

Generally, the GS is just a superior ranged DPS weapon than the Sceptre is. I suppose if you want the defensive strength of the Staff and want to use a particular off-hand you can justify using the Sceptre over the GS, but that’s about it.

I hope you realize that you are comparing a two handed weapon to a 1 handed mainhand. There is no weapon you can compare the Scepter with in the Mesmer set because it is the ONLY 1 handed range main we have. You can’t compare it with the sword either because one is melee one is not..

I am with Seven here, I use the Scepter and I like it.. I also dueled him with my thief when he was using it and he used it quite effectively.

You of course read my last paragraph? I didn’t state it outright but it should be obvious I acknowledged the Sceptre as the only ranged MH.

In any case, I don’t think my comparison is invalid: your MH determines your Clone and your autoattack, so those two are most certainly comparable. Other skills are far more subjective, but that’s how it is.

My point is you can’t compare a 2h to a 1h main because the offhand can drastically change the role you play and the flow of your combat.

But aside from that, you show me Mirror Blade completely negating a Backstab or CND or any thing else like that while also dealing good damage, then I will agree that the GS is a better weapon then the Scepter in all ways.

GS has it’s role and is an awesome weapon, I can’t and won’t argue with that. But for my particular playstyle which is to jump right in the middle of 10 people and go to town, the GS actually has a lot of drawbacks that the Scepter doesn’t share in that situation.

Not everyone is going to like the Scepter, it has a drastically different playstyle then the commonly used weapons. But my point in this thread is that it is not trash. I would agree that it could use a projectile speed increase on the auto, and a channeling speed increase on Confusing Images, but I could live without any changes too.

Attackers attacking the side wall of Cliffside with cata’s.. I run up to bring the pain, GS Mesmer is ready for me and Gs-5’s me right off the cliff. WELL I was using the Mirrored Anquish trait, so he also went flying right off the cliff. I’m sure he was laughing as hard as I was as we lead dead down below 10 feet away from each other..

Embolism.8106:

I don’t think there is any doubt that the Sceptre can be used and can be used well. The question is whether another weapon can do the job better.

You can certainly achieve a significant amount of DPS with just Ether Bolt, but is it better than Spatial Surge DPS? The answer is actually yes, at close range. At longer ranges however Spatial Surge takes over, plus it also has 33% more range, is hitscan and is unreflectable.

What about Illusionary Counter? Obviously this is comparing apples to oranges, but let’s compare it to Mirror Blade. In terms of damage they are not dissimilar, but Mirror Blade has a shorter CD and stacks Might and Vulnerability. Illusionary Counter has a longer (effective) range and blocks an attack: it also roots you for short time when it triggers. Overall, if damage is what you want, Mirror Blade will likely give you more of it.

As for Confusing Images, it is actually quite damaging in Power or condition builds. The problem is, as mentioned multiple times, it is depressingly easy to avoid by any competent opponent.

Another thing to consider is Clones. Even in a Shatter build this is significant, as Clones will generally get a few attacks off before they get Shattered. In this department, with Sharper Images, the Greatsword is vastly superior over the Sceptre.

Generally, the GS is just a superior ranged DPS weapon than the Sceptre is. I suppose if you want the defensive strength of the Staff and want to use a particular off-hand you can justify using the Sceptre over the GS, but that’s about it.

I hope you realize that you are comparing a two handed weapon to a 1 handed mainhand. There is no weapon you can compare the Scepter with in the Mesmer set because it is the ONLY 1 handed range main we have. You can’t compare it with the sword either because one is melee one is not..

I am with Seven here, I use the Scepter and I like it.. I also dueled him with my thief when he was using it and he used it quite effectively.

Well I run sometimes (am at this moment) Sword/Torch – Scepter/Sword in a tanky crit based build. It’s not as bursty as say my GS-sword/sword build but it has a really nice flow and great survivability. (though no way to really stop runners, which sucks).

Knock it all you want but The Prestige is a really great skill both offensively and defensively, not only do I deal a decent amount of damage + burn with it but the extra stealth for target drops/repositions is invaluable. I don’t have it traited atm but it’s even nicer with the lower CD and condition removal. I’ll agree that the iMage is mostly trash but I still use it as a distraction + some people will stop attacking when the confusion is on them, even if I have pathetic condition damage and it only hits them for like 350 a skill lol.

The Scepter/Sword combo I really enjoy, though it has a way different flow then most Mesmer weapon setups, so I can see people not liking it. The Scepter auto attack isn’t all that bad with a power/crit based build, though it could be better.. I mostly use that for finishing off runners.. Confusing Images can actually hit pretty hard directly on top of the battle control of putting confusion on someone as I move in for a melee burst. You get used to landing the channel successfully after you use it for awhile, though some of it can be avoided with 1 dodge, in my case 1 stack of confusion is just as good as 5 as I’m not after the condition damage just to get my target to think twice about using skills. Having two blocks is quite amazing once you get good at using them well, especially versus pesky thieves.

All in all, sure they could use some improvements, but they are certainly not trash and can be used with great success.

Though I change my build and weapon load out basically on a daily basis and can perform well with anything I happen to choose that day.

Dovgan.8605:

Pretty much expect this round to go like the others. NSP and BP will come tearing through ARBL while smaller forces from BP will secure parts of NSP BL putting NSP at a deficit by day 2 after AR resecures it’s BL and NSP focuses on EB while ignoring BPBL almost entirely. Then a 5 day shoot out between BP and AR. Anyone want to add a prediction?

I predict that as usual AR and BP will fight over who can take more of NSP’s BL and NSP’s corner of EBG while NSP has no people to defend it. Meanwhile each being afraid to actually attack the borderlands of the other server that has even populations. All the while claim the reason NSP lost their Borderlands was bad tactics by NSP, disregarding the fact that we run the outmanned buff on all maps 75% of the time.

Well I watched you press 1 with the shortbow and spam 2 with d/d for about 3 minutes and then closed the video.. Not even close to interesting gameplay.

Aldare.5836:

I respectfully disagree with the sentiment that a small group is more skilled than a large guild. That kind of statement can really apply to any person v person scenario. Any group/guild anywhere can have a better player than another group.

But people who always run in large groups get used to that sort of no effort very little risk type combat.. Where your biggest worry is trying to get in a hit fast enough to tag for a lootbag.. Those who run in small groups all the time are conditioned to fight against impossible odds and generally have a very good understanding of their class + everyone else class, because if not, you won’t last long.

It is a pretty good generalization to say those who run always in small groups are going to have higher individual skill levels then those who always run in big groups. That isn’t to say that every player who runs zergs has no skill or that every player who always small mans is very skilled.

This post has no correlation between the Paxa/OS Argument, just my observations on the difference between zerg runners and small group players.

I btw prefer the small group / skill based encounters rather then mowing people down with a 50 man zerg, but that doesn’t mean I don’t play that side of the coin sometimes.

Oh and also, I don’t ever care about the points or who wins or loses. I care about having fun doing whatever I feel like doing at the time. I also don’t care if people think I’m worthless to my server… Even from this standpoint I still defend/attack structures, drop siege and fork out cash for upgrades – when I feel like it.

Rashagal.5867:

Also, big props to the [envy] crew in EB just a bit ago around Ogrewatch. You guys are loyal and dedicated to lurk around that long to wait while I get bored of camping your buddy I had previously noticed you trying to res. You deserved the badges you got off me for that. Nice fight.

lol the funny thing was I was just afking there dead.. And some random thief was rezzing me without asking. Then my guildy showed up and finished the rez and we did have some fun.

Nice fights though, I had a lot of good fun tonight.

Sunspots.9861:

TC is cool because literally everywhere you go there are tons of people of all levels. The map chats for every zone are enthusiastic and enjoying the game. Even though I spend a lot of time in wvw I run into people constantly that play the game completely different than I do but are having just as much fun. It’s a huge advantage for me because I enjoy the social aspect of the game.

I guest regularly on TC because you guys always have temples open. Hooray for TC!

I find it funny either of the 2 larger servers would complain about being double teamed. The name of the game appears to be who can pvdoor and zerg the 15 players on NSP map to win more points then the other. LIke right now, each bp and ar have double the amount of players NSP has on NPS BL zerging all of our stuff, while each of their BL’s remains untouched save for a couple camp flips.

You don’t see us complaining about it(I’m not complaining just pointing out the irony).

I made a portal to bring ppl to the end of the jump puzzle… Well I put it a bit close to the edge and watched as everyone entered it, then dropped down to their deaths..

Also once I tried to res my own clone, and many times someone else has tried to res my clone while I’m screaming “I’m over here!! the one with the arrrow!!”.

Anvil Pants.3426:

AKLbow.2463:

Just wanna say thank you to whoever fought us at Redvale in Anvil Rock Borderlands. Was a great time.

The picture says it all .

Yes, we had fun with that, too!

It all started with AR finally securing our map fully, about 5 hours after reset. [ALS] formed one of its roaming groups, Team Tig Ol’ Biddies. When some NSP decided that they wanted the southwest supply, Biddies spent about 20 minutes defending and keeping it contested (lots of delaying action and trips to waypoint for both sides… we only had Garrison waypoint).

Eventually I had to switch from Necro to Mesmer, since my team was complaining about the NSP mesmer clones. I can play that card, too.

That was a few minutes before [Envy] showed up, with the camp secured for NSP finally, to build at least one of every siege weapon (include an anti-personnel Alpha Siege Golem.)

We sparred back and forth at that camp for nearly 3 hours, while I used my commander hat to draw in reinforcements. NSP was gaining no points from the action, so I followed suit with letting it play out as a front-line sparring match, without planning to build any counter-siege. I think a few on our side did throw down an occasional ballista or something. We had Bay south gate siege, and simply held that line and used the camp exits to choke.

It ended with roughly equal numbers on both sides, and AR’s [SOS] guild whispering me to say that they were preparing to sneak into the back of the camp. I tanked and flanked with [ALS] and all the others following the dorito, while [SOS] did their thing.

Well Envy was there the whole time, in fact it was us that were there first and started the whole thing. We are also the ones that built all the siege, we had about 3x as much siege as we did people, the siege was more of a joke then anything. We did not care about earning points as we were just having a little fun. Also the numbers were never even, especially not at the end lol. We started with I think 7 of us and gained 2-3 pugs by the end of it. Though most of us were Mesmers so I could see how the numbers would look much higher (though I switched to my ele halfway through).

This is something we did on ferg for fun and will do it here too, it’s not about the points, it’s about creating a small scale fight. We all had a blast and I have to give credit to ALS and also thank them, as they never gave up even after they got wiped several times. Even BP came by and stood on the sidelines to watch… And good job finally pushing us out, it was bedtime for most of us at that poiint.

Azure Prower.8701:

Aurika.6751:

dzeRnumbrd.6129:

The root cause of the issue here is that Veil does not adhere to the usual AoE rules of ‘max 5 players’.

If Veil only stealthed 5 people then I think people would be OK with that.

Shadow Refuge only stealths 5, the same should apply for Veil.

I’ve been using Veil for months. Seeing it become the new “it” skill makes me sad because I am sure it will now be nerfed into oblivion.

The bigger problem is culling. Peole have said it above. Culling lets the stealth last longer than it should and the recent patch made it even worse.

Shadow refuge also lasts for 10 seconds. If they up Veil to 10 second would not be opposed to the 5 person limit.

The funny thing to me is that on the Mesmer forums the skill is still basically derided as a wasted utility slot.

Your veil is comparable to Thief’s blinding powder. If you want 10 second Veil. Give thieves 10 second blinding powder.

Oh and blinding powder already only stealths 5 players at a time.

I’m wondering how a skill that has a cast time and you have to place on the ground and then run through, with a 90 second cooldown compares to an instant cast with low cooldown..

Boomstin.3460:

So the tier 9 and 8 winners will go straight to tier 1 after winning their blowout matches after this week? Hmm, how does this reset help anything other than adding another month of unbalanced matchups?

For example Sorrows Furnace did not belong in T8. They grossly outnumber the other two servers but with the ratings points the way they were no matter how big the blowout the couldn’t move out of the tier. Sure the next few weeks will be unbalanced as they also don’t belong in tier1, but next week they will lose by a large margin and move down somewhere closer to where they belong.

imalog.7689:

Kubb.9764:

imalog.7689:

Kubb.9764:

congrats man. that was funny lmfao. sadly, zerging around takes no skill even naked.

i’m currently baffled on how we ever wipe with armor on.

ALS? lmfao good one. as I said before. it was hilarious to see that naked army stroll the naked mile around SM.

was going to just clear the walls again until i realized BP was busy with their own tower. Maybe NSP should try fighting together, you let paxa get into your heads about how wvw is meant to be 5v5.. its ruining your scores.

Well some people care more about fun then scores. And lets face it, the reason you don’t run 5 man groups is that you would get slaughtered. You wouldn’t get to feel like a big man like you do when you finally manage to kill 1 guy with 30 people and a ballista and an arrow cart after he killed 5 of your guys in a 10 minute 30v1 fight.. I can honestly say ALS is the worst group of players I have ever seen in GW2, by a large margin. That’s saying a lot having played with other “karma train levelers” such as RED and GASM..

But I guess that’s what happens when all you do is zerg and level in karma trains, you never actually learn to play your class.. But if the score is what makes you happy at the end of the day, have at it.

Nikked.7365:

I’m not sure that all your facts here are correct. The torch has a combo finisher (The Prestige is a blast finisher). Blasts are one of the most effective finishers. Setting up the combo field then requires Null Field, Feedback, Veil, or Timewarp. (All confusion based, except for Veil.) If the staff is your secondary weapon, you can also use Chaos Storm. We don’t have any whirl finishers, which you said the GS has.

Further, Scepter + Torch isn’t a pure damage weapon combo; they are condition based (confusion primarily). Sword + Pistol or GS are both damage setups. Confusion is a weak condition in PvE. In sPvP or WvW, players do suffer from it, but they can also remedy it with condition removal. So, it’s a gamble.

Personally, I’ve never found a use for the scepter, so I can’t imagine carrying around two of them for the extra Confusing Images. This is the only weapon available to use that I actively avoid.

First off.. Blast finisher in Ethreal field gives aoe chaos armor, not spread confusion. Secondly GS does have a whirl finisher its the Berserker. Third the scepter can actually be decent for a power/crit build. The autos crit around 1k and the block is incredibly useful and also hits fairly hard. (thats actually with a low crit damage % around 30ish, I never used it with any higher).