Guild Wars 2

I thought there were a ton of great suggestions, and it was very cool for the devs to solicit input.

Was there anything posted on the decisions for the final changes for scepter in the December patch? (I’ve been traveling… sorry if this is old news)

Thx!

I agree that following a zerg is more efficient.

If you decide to take out sentries solo, I recommend greatsword and pistol offhand. The berserker and the duelist will do a lot of damage and you can stay at range. When the sentry comes close, you can push back with the wave or use blurred frenzy or block depending on if you pick sword or scepter as the pair with pistol.

Start by casting duelist. Switch to greatsword before duelist shoots. Then cast the zerker and mirror blade from greatsword. Then use wave to push back sentry and flip back to other weapon set. Look for sentry to raise hand and shoot with magic bullet. Be ready for block/blurred frenzy.

@elikal on the demolition achievement, the key is that you have to do enough damage

You do NOT have to use a piece of siege. It’s still a pain, but hopefully that helps you a bit.

I’m only 2 of 15 on merc camps…

Since the reward is only for people who complete the meta, it seems like it should be reasonably nice. Here are a few things that seem fair to consider:
- Finishers – seems like you could make them by tier and finishing position
- Weapon skins – again you could have them indicate level of success
- Back piece – what’s a meta without a back piece?
- “Monetary” rewards (gold, rare items, exotic items, badges, wxp) in proportion to the amount of time it takes on average to do the meta (I’m guessing it’s maybe a minimum of 40 hours WvW play to do the meta – excluding rare cases.)
- Small chance of precursor, ascended weapon

I really like the Travelers runes. I think they are worth the money if you’re doing a phantasm build. They are especially nice if you’re getting boons.

I’m using a PU phantasm build. You might like it since it has some similarities with your Blackwater build
http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

I haven’t followed all the details of discussion, so sorry if these have been covered.

It would be great if there was a place to test builds accurately with WvW rules in place. Ideally, with golems or dummies that could register critical hits.

Also, it would be really nice if there was a place to try out all siege weapons. I remember early on feeling very intimidated to try different weapons since I didn’t know the controls and didn’t want to try learn in the midst of the battle.

Thanks for sharing a preview!

This is the build I use for roaming and taking camps. I like it a lot, but I don’t think many people play exactly like this.

http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

Summon phantasms and then use stealth, block, dodges and interrupts. Swap weapons whenever you can.

After reading tons of great suggestions on scepter, here’s my new wish list:
- Auto-attack – just make it a little faster and not have attack rate depend on range
- Block – as the cancel effect, create a small AoE blind that is also a blast finisher – this gives the blast finisher that Esquire suggested and it makes this skill useful if you’re attacked by multiple people
- Confusing images – give 2s of weakness in small AoE after fifth pulse (doesn’t happen if cancelled before fifth pulse)

The confusing images change isn’t that “tricksy”, but it’s a helpful defensive idea that aid both you and your allies.

I’d love to hear about mesmers playing in WvW in different tiers of servers.

I hear about some kinds of builds not being viable in WvW, and I’m wondering what things are like in other places.

Thanks for doing the podcast – it makes the commute a better time

I really like the idea of another option to get stability.

If this is an option for making the scepter more tricksy and defensive, it would be cool to get stability from something there as well.

I use scepter in a power/phantasm build. I don’t mind the condition damage parts of the weapon. The confusion is only doing 360 per skill use, but it’s helping to cover a few other conditions. The torment does between 1800 and 3600, but it’s very useful for me because opponents are almost always chasing me on the battle field.

The reason I’m using the scepter is that I’m focusing on fighting from range and staying mobile. Ideally, there would be a main-hand, ranged, power-focused weapon, but I’m actually fine with how well scepter fills my needs. But it would be a bummer for me, if it was changed to a condition-only weapon.

Glad to hear these are back.

Will they be available on iTunes? I listen to them on my commute. Thx!

I think dummy a stomp means run up to them and press F, but then cancel it and run over to stomp them after they use their down skill that is their escape.

I think sometimes you can get a clone to be very close to the downed body. If you stand with the clone between you and the opponent, sometimes that can block a downed defense.

Mesmers who play condition-focused builds often use the scepter. The #2 skill on scepter is a block that applies 5 stacks of torment. Torment scales well with condition damage, so it can do a lot of damage. Allisah is saying take out Mesmers when you have a choice of an early target because there are several Mesmer builds which can create a lot of damage in a small amount of time.

The #2 downed skill is nice on a Mesmer because you can always escape the first stomp if you can find a target. When I get downed, my first priority is to try to find a weak target. If there’s something close to being dead, I try to get several hits in on it as my first priority (I’m not sure if this is good or not). I try to hold off on the #2 skill until I know someone is stomping me. But I’m sure there’s a lot I’m missing. Most of the time when I’m downed, I get stomped.

@Ross

I like your change for scepter auto-attack.

It seems to me that the attacks don’t start until the prior attack hits. So at 900 range, it feels just a little slower then if you’re right on top of the target.

So, I think that behavior of delaying the next attack until the prior one hits would need to change if you wanted the shorter attack intervals. (It’s possible that I’m just not seeing this correctly – I’m just watching the attack against dummies at different ranges)

Thanks very much for all the help!

I’ve started trying to prioritize my initial targets better, and prioritize the first rez (especially if I have Mass Invis available) or the first stomp (especially if it’s a class without a great escape mechanism)

It certainly feels like I can just keep learning in this game

@Carighan

I realize now as I re-read this that I wasn’t clear. I meant for those conditions to apply in addition to the block damage and the torment.

Basically, I’m looking for “tricky” ways that something could be added that could increase the defense. The options could all be AoE around the Mesmer to help allies as well.

Here’s something that could be a lot of fun.

When you cast mimic, it creates a clone of your opponent. For 3 seconds, it uses whatever skills the opponent uses back on the opponent. The attacks only do 25% of the damage that the opponent does with that skill (and maybe only 5% against PVE bosses).

It would certainly add some chaos to the battle field in team fights…

One other thing about the scepter.

The weapon seems designed to fight from 900 range. But the autoattack is so slow, the effective dps drops way below most other weapons when you’re at 900. Speeding up the projectile by as little as 25% would make it a lot more comparable.

@JonPeters

First, thanks for your continued focus on improving the game. Someone will always complain, but it’s clear that there have been improvements and you are always trying.

As someone who uses scepter a lot, here are a couple suggestions that fit your goal:

On a successful block (skill 2), grant one of these (doesn’t matter to me if it’s fixed behavior or the skill picks one randomly – there’s not a lot of chaos in the scepter…)
1 sec stealth
1 sec AoE blindness around the Mesmer
2 sec protection
automatically blinks the Mesmer (like down skill 2 – maybe this is the only time a clone is created).
You could balance this by shortening the block duration (maybe 1 sec or 1.5 sec)

On skill 3, I’m not sure how hard it would be to code checking for all 5 pulses to hit (on up to 5 targets), but you could add an effect if someone manages to hit all 5 like:
- 1 sec cripple
- 2 sec weakness
- 3 extra stacks of confusion

Thanks again for all your hard work. GW2 is my favorite game ever, and a lot of it has to do with the Mesmer class.

I play a phantasm build, and I feel very comfortable with one opponent in wvw. I can beat multiple opponents sometimes, but I feel like I’m probably not playing it optimally. And when I’m fighting with teammates, I’m not sure I’m doing the most important things to help them. So I’m looking for some tips around 1 v 2, 2 v 2, 4 v 4, etc

Specifically, I’m wondering things like:
- When you’re fighting multiple opponents and get one down, how do you decide when to go for the stomp versus just trying to take down the second guy (and maybe leaving one phantasm working on the downed opponent)?

- When your teammate goes down in a 2 v 2, how do you decide whether you should try to res versus kill and stomp the most damaged opponent (and presumably rally your teammate)?

- How do you choose your first target? (I do look at wvw rank. I suppose that’s mean, but I got put down quickly a lot when I started.)

- What are you trying to pay attention to the most in these fights?

- Any other general pointers?

Thx!

PVE & WvW – phantasm

Maybe someday for this poll, we could have people give percentages of their damage from different sources. My build is focused on phantasm damage, but the duelist is typically putting 2000 points of damage in bleeds on for every 6000 points of direct damage.

I play solo a lot, but much more in WvW than PVE right now. Still, I spend a little time in Orr, and I can take out the giants that throw down all the grubs or the champion blob with this build.

http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

And, I’m using the weapons you’re already using.

You don’t have to use Sentinel gear – it’s very expensive. You can get Soldier’s gear at the temples or a couple of the dungeons.

Good luck!

I picked Kaineng basically randomly when I started playing in January of this year. I didn’t play any WvW until March. Now it’s my favorite part of the game.

Kaineng has had a bit of roller-coaster ride in WvW with big guilds coming and then leaving. But WvW has always been fun there for me because I can get in at any time, I can roam solo or in small groups and feel like I can be effective (taking camps, etc), or I can join up with zergs and get into bigger fights (without getting the massive lag that others describe – though the sound does drop out on really big fights).

I’m guessing every server has its ups and downs, and I’m sure Kaineng won’t win season 1 of the tournament in the bronze league. But there seem to be a lot of good players who are fun to go to battle with here, and I’m often pleasantly surprised what a small group of players can accomplish.

So I’m wondering whether folks are having as much fun doing WvW on other servers, and if there’s a really fun part of WvW that I’m missing not playing there. I’m guessing there are some players who like participating in highly-organized competitions, and I’m sure there’s some fun in knowing that your server is likely to win or rank well. It feels like that wouldn’t be a good tradeoff for me if I had to deal with login waits or difficulty in accomplishing things solo, but I don’t really know what it’s like. So I’d like to hear what is making WvW fun for you – especially on higher-ranked servers.

In any case, good luck to everyone and have fun.

I prefer to fight from range. This is the build I use.

http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

It works nicely in WvW (mostly smaller groups but can be fine in zerg)

I haven’t played much in dungeons with this build. It doesn’t have reflects (although you could take feedback instead of null field). But it’s quite durable, and AoE stealth can be very helpful.

Good luck

I play at least an hour each day with some multi-hour stretches each week.

I mostly play on the borderlands, but will help out in EB from time to time. I’m on a tier 3 server, I think we’ve only captured SMC a couple times in the couple of weeks (never when I was in EB).

I had never done a jumping puzzle to completion anywhere in the game before. But I learned how and did one in my borderland.

So far, I have about 6 achievements completed. I think I’ll be able to complete the meta, but I’m not sure. Definitely would feel a lot more comfortable if it was 12 out of 19.

The one thing I’m wondering is whether this will have a big impact in the last week or two when some servers may effectively be locked in a position. Perhaps there will be organized groups taking merc camps or porting people in the jumping puzzles.

I don’t play a “full” phantasm build (I don’t have the 25 trait in inspiration or the 25 point in illusions), but I’ve played phantasms as my main source of damage since March.

I think the phantasm builds work fine in small fights. The big thing now (in WvW) seems to be figuring out how to deal with all the conditions. I use stealth to avoid getting targeted as my primary strategy.

When I see that someone is using phantasms against me (particularly berserker or duelist), I try to make sure I take out the phantasms fairly quickly with my direct attacks. I certainly see other classes using this approach against me. But with a decent amount of stealth, mobility, blocks and interrupts, it seems like I can usually get the phantasms back in action in time to win the battle even if the opponent focuses on taking them out.

I’m not sure if this is what the OP is asking, but this is how I see phantasm builds playing in WvW now (lower tier servers – smaller fights – your mileage may vary). Good luck!

I play this PU power build. http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

When I look at your build, I’m wondering whether you want the clone traits that you’re taking. I don’t know that they will contribute too much to your damage and you have stealth for survivability

I’m using the phantasms as my primary source of damage. So this build is limited in zergs – I tend to fight on the edges. It’s really fun for solo and team fights – especially if you prefer to fight from range. It works fine in any PVE that I’ve done, but I haven’t done much PVE recently.

I don’t see a ton of PU power builds posted here, but it’s been a very fun playstyle for me. Good luck!

I use this build as a phantasm build in wvw http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

It has similar point distribution to Blackwater, but it’s not a condition build

I mostly use it in small groups and solo. In bigger fights, it’s a bit tough to keep the phantasms up long enough to do a lot of damage. I tend to fight on the edges in larger fights.

The way I play this build is try to get two phantasms up quickly and then dodge / stealth / block / interrupt to give the phantasms time to do their damage.

I’m in the bottom third of WvW servers in U.S., so it’s hard to say if this translates to WvW everywhere.

There are more “pure” phantasm builds, but I find that this does plenty of damage and I like having the toughness and stealth to be able to survive.

Good luck!

I’m a little bummed about the duelist change. I can see how it’s more inline with other weapon traits now since most of them do cooldown plus one other effect.

But I was having fun trying to use it as a condition cleanser in conjunction with veil. It was hard to pull off in a tough fight, but it was very rewarding.

It was also fun to occasionally drop the duelist in the middle of null field and then use scepter 3 at the same time

I don’t know if I’ve ever convinced anyone else to try this, but I find it really fun for solo roaming in WvW. Lots of stealth. Decent speed from traveler runes (plus swap in focus for occasional swiftness). And scepter apparently is getting buffed in patch tomorrow

http://bit.ly/15DgtxQ

Good luck!

I try to play primarily from range in WvW, and I really like the greatsword.

This is the build I use: http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

Other classes will want to close the distance, so stealth is very helpful for getting back to the range you want.

@jaif You’ll probably see other threads in this forum on fighting mesmers – lots of people help. One thing that’s important is separating the person from the illusions.

Phantasms are glowy white. They don’t look like the player at all. But they can do some damage. If I see a berserker or duelist phantasm, I try to take it out.

Clones look like the player. But they won’t have food buffs on them. If you’re tabbing through, the one that has the most buffs is the most stuff below is almost always the player. The other thing is that clones mostly stand still, and they never dodge. Lastly, if you see a bunch of copies of the character running toward you, try to dodge roll through them. They are trying to shatter on you for damage or some other effect.

I think the rest is mostly just practice.

I have no doubt that Blink would be very helpful. Because my build is meant to fight from range, I often have to run to get the stomp in – and I’m not particularly great at that.

But since I never kept Blink on my bar long enough to get good with it, I don’t miss it. Now, losing Decoy would be really hard to handle…

Duelist is so helpful when dealing with thieves, and you can do fun things like put a null field around it and stack confusion quickly (especially if you use scepter at the same time). The build is designed for direct damage, but there’s no harm in making the opponent sweat about 13 stacks of confusion.

I fought someone with torch and a PU build tonight. Definitely was a lot of stealth to deal with, but I wasn’t very worried about the phantasms.

I’ve been playing a direct damage build that’s similar in style

http://bit.ly/14SIa7E

I like offhand pistol so much that I just can’t take torch. I don’t have quite the condition removal that you have (you can use veil to remove conditions, but it’s tricky). The pistol is just so nice for burst damage, and magic bullet is great for stopping runners (and the interrupts help with the might stacking)

I play this build primarily in WvW. I sometimes will lose a 1v1, but I feel like I can win any 1v1 fight. The travelers runes really help.

Good luck with your experiment. I may talk myself out of the pistol someday – and then I’ll try your build.

I really appreciate all the research!

@juno just one point on Sharper Images – it’s a minor trait at 15 points, so it’s not optional. Everyone who goes 15 points into Dueling has it.

The minimum damage that trait can do is 42 per second for five seconds for each crit. So when my duelist shoots 8 times, I usually get 6 or 7 bleeding stacks at my crit chance. So at a minimum it’s about 250 additional dps for the duration of the bleed.

Adding a bit of might and 20% condition duration can turn this from 1250 damage to closer to 2000 over the course of 6 seconds. So that’s a pretty big impact on dps even without traiting or using combo fields.

In theory, the warden could get 12 crits, but players don’t stand around long enough for that. And the 3 or 4 crits that the berserker can get are actually a reasonable contribution to overall dps.

I think the easiest way to test is to target a neutral mob at 600 range.

Cast null field on top of yourself. Then immediately cast phantasmal duelist.

It should shoot all of its shots from inside the field.

I should have been clear that Stuns can also cause interrupts.

Daze stops skills.

If you happen to daze while the opponent is trying to use a skill, it will cause an Interrupt. When you interrupt, the skill they were trying to use gets a short cool-down timer (5 seconds) before they can attempt to use it again.

There are some traits that give you benefits or harm the opponent more if you interrupt them (e.g. bountiful interruption)

I’ve been trying out Runes of the Traveler and like them in WvW.

Does anyone know if movement speed is fixed for illusions or it’s a trait that’s inherited from the Mesmer?

Thx

I really like GS in WvW. It’s great for catching runners. It hits multiple targets with all of its attacks. None of the attacks are impacted by projectile reflects. The damage scales nicely with power.

Just remembered one more that applies to this build. If you are trying to revive someone who is down, it’s great to be able to cast Mass Invisibility before you start. In addition to making it hard for opponents to attack you while you are reviving, the boons from Prismatic Understanding will increase your defense (with Aegis and Protection) while you revive.

It’s likely many of these have been listed before, but they are all little things that are helpful for me. Some of them only apply to the weapons / traits in this build ( http://bit.ly/14SIa7E ) but most of them are generally applicable

- You don’t enter into battle until your phantasm engages. So if you lead off with something like duelist or zerker and then swap weapons before they attack, you can cast the other phantasm and be able to swap off that second weapon set immediately if you want.

- On the flip side, if you use sigils of battle (or other on-weapon-swap sigils), you can jump off a ledge or a hill and immediately swap (anything that gets you a little damage). This will put you in battle, so you will trigger the weapon swap cooldown. But the might stacks from on-swap last a long time (especially with 45% boon duration). The sigils of battle are very nice because the might applies to the phantasms unlike things like sigil of perception where the crit chance only applies to you.

- If you cast null field, duelist (with the duelist discipline trait) and scepter 3, you should end up with 13 stacks of confusion on your target in a few seconds. This build doesn’t have much condition damage, but it’s a nice way to stack confusion quickly.

- Duelist with the trait (and mirror blade and magic bullet) can remove conditions shooting through veil.

- The easiest way I find got get might from bountiful interruption in wvw is the healing “tell” from guards when taking camps or sentry points (they raise their arm straight up in the air). Generally, starting with duelist, zerker, and mirror blade plus a couple of auto-attacks (or the #3 skill from either GS or scepter) will typically put a guard at a point where they need a heal. (So you want to be in range and have illusionary wave or magic bullet ready)

- When using stealth and planning on continuing to fight, it seems like running behind the opponent is almost always the best choice.

- You do not need to face opponents to cast phantasms (at least this seems to be true for me in most cases)

- When you have ranged auto-attacks like GS and Scepter, as soon as you see blindness on yourself, immediately trigger your auto-attack to clear the blindness. Casting a phantasm with blindness on you really hurts.

- The phantasms benefit from getting might stacks on you. So when casting mirror blade, it’s helpful to step in to get the bounce to hit you. I find if I cast berserker and then cast mirror blade as I’m moving in, I typically get the bounce to hit me versus the zerker. (Then I typically back up if I’m staying with GS so that the auto-attack stays at higher damage)

Hope there was something helpful for you there!

I play a 20/20/30 power/precision phantasm build with PU. I just switched to these runes from divinity runes, and I really like them.

Previously, I was always swapping in a focus from inventory to run faster in WvW.

The extra boon duration is really nice because I use a lot of might stacking with this build (sigil of battle, bountiful interruption) along with the PU boons

what would you conclude about the state of the Mesmer?

There have been times here where there was more or less united feedback around a particular topic (e.g. something wrong with Phantasmal Berserker).

Recently, it seems like there’s:
- an effort to form a Mesmer-specific guild
- quite a few build posts
- some arguing about what weapons are good or bad
- an occasional post about the rarity of Mesmers in pvp tournaments

Overall, I think if I was a Dev reading these forums, I think I would conclude that Mesmers are in an pretty OK place except for their viability in pvp.

Is that accurate?

@mice – the duelist definitely removes conditions from you. It takes practice to position yourself – you want to be basically in the line of fire and close to the Veil. You must have the trait to get the 100% condition removal effect on each shot through the viel

And basically, the bottom line is that I don’t usually run away. I don’t run quickly (I swap in focus out of my inventory to move faster – I’ll get Traveler runes someday), and I’m actually more inclined to stay and fight. I feel like I should win every 1v1 battle (I don’t always – there are better players) and I feel comfortable trying a 1v2.

In terms of escaping if the fight is pointless, it basically comes down to whether I’ve left myself enough stealth skills. This is the build I’m using right now http://bit.ly/1e71SAv If I have multiple stealth abilities left, I feel like I should be able to get enough distance. Otherwise, I’m just gonna die

Stealth has been very helpful for me. I’m using a 20/20/30 power build with greatsword and scepter/pistol.

Besides decoy and mass invis, I’m putting veil on my bar (along with null field). The cooldown is so painfully slow, but it’s nice to have another stealth option. And a traited duelist shooting through it can remove 8 conditions (plus you have magic bullet and mirror blade to shoot through it to remove conditions).

It really does seem like you can get an incredible number of conditions stacked on you very quickly in WvW fights now.

Hi Yams – I play with very different weapons, but I have a lot of fun roaming and soloing camps, so this build might be good for you.

http://bit.ly/1e71SAv

If I was making this right now, I would pick Travelers runes over Divinity (it would be easier to run people down or run away).

This build is pretty easy to play. The goal is to summon both phantasms and then stealth.

If you get jumped by a thief, block with scepter 2 and hit Decoy. Then your goal is to get the Duelist and the Berserker phantasms out. Then you just stand by the phantasms, if the thief unstealths near you, it will go poorly for him.

The long cooldown is a pain, but I like the skill (especially in a PU build)

Not only can you use it as described above, but with a traited duelist and a bit of work in positioning, you can remove quite a few conditions.

Just a little cooldown reduction would go a long way for me on this skill

Very cool!

In game name: Elbrin
Mostly play WvW on Kaineng. Doing some PVE now with friend who just joined.
Put me down for scholar / tester

I’m out for a bit on vacation, so might need to catch up on this next week. Have fun!

Thx much for the help. Mesmer had a real issue being effective before level 40, so I get the idea that some builds aren’t viable early.

I guess I’ll try to play what’s fun and helpful in a group as I level and see what things look like when I reach 80.

Thx again!