Guild Wars 2

Let’s say you have 9 NA servers. Three of them would be changed so that you could only play from midnight to 8am on the borderlands. Once time reaches 8am, the map resets and boots everyone back to Lion’s Arch. EBG and OS would be open 24/7 though. From 8am to 4pm, three other servers have their borderlands maps opened up, and then the last three play from 4pm to midnight.

Every server would have coverage because you’re only worried about the 8 hours that the borderlands are online. Even if one server in the matchup has a huge off-hours advantage the most you’ll lose is EBG. People that defend and scout are more valued because of how there are more players fighting in a smaller chunk of time.

Fair enough. I can see how enabling cross-server play for EBG and OS might be short-sighted and lead to unintended consequences. Let’s get rid of that.

How do you feel about dividing up servers into three blocks though?

Alright, so how about this idea:

1. Take all existing servers and sort them into three groups of nine. EU has 27 servers so this divides cleanly. NA would need three additional servers to bring its total up from 24 to 27. Next, mark each of these groups of servers with an 8-hour time block. Let’s arbitrarily say Block A goes from UTC+12 to UTC+4, Block B goes from UTC+4 to UTC-4, and Block C goes from UTC-4 to UTC-12. We would now have nine (and potentially 18 if EU and NA are merged) servers competing in each time block.

3. Active play on borderlands maps begin each day at the start of the server’s designated time block, and will reset at the end of the 8-hour LIVE period. Eternal Battlegrounds becomes available for players from all servers of a particular color or time block to play with and against, 24/7. Players would be prioritized for loading into the same map shard as the rest of their server. Only points earned during this 8-hour period from the borderlands maps and the 24/7 period of EBG will be tabulated to the matchup score. Existing concepts like stomping players and bloodlust will still exist.

4. When the time block for a player’s home server comes to an end, the three borderlands maps will be shut down and players then have the option of continuing to fight on the dynamically generated EBG maps or join home servers in the other two time blocks. The goal is to have every active WvW player enrolled into three different servers at end of the transition period, with the option to play with anyone regardless of time block in EBG, making it truly ‘Eternal’.

5. Obsidian Sanctum will put you on the same team as all other players with the same color server, and will remain open 24/7, similar to Eternal Battlegrounds. This allows guilds to participate in GvGs and further fosters high-level competitive play.

With these changes, WvW servers with smaller, predominantly one ‘hemisphere’ populations will be favored. Larger servers with significant coverage at all hours will be hampered. Borderlands map play will become more “action-packed”, making skilled offensive, defensive, an scouting play much more important. There will be no ‘off-hours’ to karma-train while your opponents are sleeping. By allowing players from similar color servers to play with each other, Eternal Battlegrounds will live up to its name by featuring large-scale, high-intensity combat.

Alright, so after some pretty extensive testing in unranked, duels, and roaming over the weekend, I’m reporting back with my findings. I wasn’t able to test out Torment runes, but between sPvP and WvW I did try Strength, Hoelbrak, Traveler’s, and Nightmare runes.

Here’s the updated build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpMtFpxTNcrNipBZ6bUkYg6xcmlSqAA-TVCEABQcIAsb/BBVCip6PE8AA0S5Xb6CA4IA8wFAgQAK2CA-w

1. If you pace yourself, the lack of Deceptive Evasion isn’t really a huge deal in a 1v1, especially if you swap out decoy for Mirror Images. Play the build like a phantasm spec but use your shatters to punish them if they overextend.

2. Chaotic Dampening & Illusionist’s Celerity make a huge difference in survivability. 6s phase retreat is amazing and saved me on numerous occasions versus thieves.

3. Might generation and duration is surprisingly strong with this build. Maintaining 12 stacks during a fight is not that difficult. I was able to hit 22 stacks of might in sPVP by slotting in Strength runes. I will need to do more testing with boon duration food.

4. Crippling Dissipation isn’t very effective without Deceptive Evasion. I would argue that Debilitating Dissipation is more effective here because of its longer condition durations.

5. Mantra of Resolve is better than Arcane Thievery in 90% of the cases.

6. Not having Shattered Cincentration is too much of a liability against D/D eles. If you’re dueling one, take two points off of Chaos to grab the trait.

My mistake, sorry for harping on you. I’m very curious to know how and why someone put that in the wiki though. My gut feeling is that someone was comparing curtain to FB on Lupi.

Fay.2357:

I’ll correct a bit of misinformation that the poster above me stated, and add a bit more clarification.

1. Feedback is a sphere of projectile reflecting space, not a shell.

What? Every PvEr that I’ve ever talked to has called it a bubble, from the casuals to the vets in DnT and LoD. And even if we do call it a “sphere of projectile reflecting space”, what difference does it make? We mean the same thing, and I even went out of my way to stress that projectiles within Feedback would also be reflected.

Fay.2357:

There is absolutely no limit on the number of projectiles that can be reflected.

“The skill reflects a maximum of 25 projectiles to your opponent(s). After that, projectiles will be absorbed instead.”

- http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Feedback

1. Feedback will reflect the first twenty-five projectiles that hit the bubble or spawn inside the bubble, so as long as the path of the projectile to your character is intercepted or contained within FB you should be okay.

2. Rule of thumb is that if you don’t need the anti-projectile or cleave capabilities of focus, switching to pistol is a smarter move because of its uptime. Even if pistol provides less DPS, the fact that it’s alive outweighs.

4. I actually run a similar build using 24053: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRAsd8cnsISHaWkGuqB1aIR1QObxhorLpCUyOlA-e

IRCC compared to 64004 with mantras personal dps on a phantasm oriented build was in the ballpark of 10-15% less, but the 64004 build doesn’t have Phantasmal Strength. Both styles are viable, but don’t forget to retrait depending on the situation.

5. As someone that only does Arah/Fractals, the only situations in my experience where GS/Sx shatter is clearly superior to phantasm spec is at the end of Arah P2 against Operative Brie. Other fights such as the Molten Duo if your group isn’t using Icebows, Jade Maw at lower levels, and the end boss of the Dredge fractal if your group isn’t one-shotting.

Edit: twenty-five projectiles are reflected by feedback, not twenty. (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Feedback)

I’m working on a hybrid celestial MtD shatter build for solo roaming and looking for some constructive criticism. Here’s the tentative build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpMttpxRNcrNSpBZyfcEUXGNlkBAA-TViFABKcIA4TJokq/AwDAI49HoS53Z6CS4CAcwRAgQAK2CA-w

Traits: The trait setup is 40406, so no deceptive evasion. Instead, we’ll be relying on Illusionist’s Celerity and the CD reducing traits for greatsword/staff to keep up clones/phantasms. With Chaotic Dampening/Greatsword Training, you can put our two phantasms per weapon rotation. Crippling Dissipation punishes foes that try to cleave down our illusions and synergizes well with our double-ranged weapon setup. I am currently leaning towards Greatsword Training over Shattered Concentration and Illusionary Elasticity over Illusionary Invigoration.

Weapons/Sigils: Energy is on GS due to 6s Phase Retreat. Hydromancy provides a little extra damage while filling a similar role to Crippling Dissipation. Scepter may be too strong to pass up in the future, not sure.

Runes: Tormenting runes works well with MtD and has a heal-proc CD that lines up perfectly with Ether Feast. I use Traveler’s on my power set, but I could also see that working well if there are points in Dueling for Sharper Images or if we have Debilitating Dissipation. I don’t think mesmer can capitalize well enough from Nightmare runes for it to be worth using over Traveler’s.

Armor/Trinkets: Ascended Celestial gear is relatively easy for me to obtain because I run fractals. Every armor box that drops from bosses has an option for a Celestial piece. Running Dire armor and Zerk trinkets will also get you 90% of the way there, but you miss out on a lot of extra stats save ~150 power.

Nourishment: Super Veggie Pizzas bring up our torment and confusion duration to 89% and 101%, respectively, before runes/defensive food. I went with sharpening stones to buff the direct damage side of things, as precision and condition damage wasn’t really a concern.

Main Concerns: This build might be more effective as a phantasm build. Limited condition removal means that perfect arcane thievery execution is required.

Mimic won’t give you permanent boon uptime, but it will give you burst damage mitigation and stability. It’s a safety net in case you get threatened by the enemy front line. The 33% damage reduction from protection makes getting hit on a 2000 armor build feel the same as getting hit with 3000 armor in a full PVT setup. It’s just that with this build, you have to actively use Mimic to get the extra survivability, it doesn’t come for granted.

Now, in a typical engagement you’ll be kiting the enemy melee train from range. This reduces the need for increased toughness in the build since you aren’t being attacked constantly. The need to have extra vitality is mitigated by Defense Against Guards and the defensive food. Where things get interesting is when you get focused by direct damage and condi-bombed.

The main thing thing that I worry about when I play this build is getting hit by a full glass thief with daze on steal or by a corrupt boon/signet of spite from a condi necro. Due to power-oriented zerg meta, you don’t really see the second as much as the first, and I usually just use Blink, Decoy, or even Take Root to stay alive in those instances. Where it does become a problem is when you face an organized guild that has it’s own focus party.

When I was running this build in early January with a friend, the UhOh pugmander that was tagged up came across Agg on one of the Borderlands. We won the first engage and forced several banners due to two successful Moas on the driver and larger numbers. Subsequent engages never worked out this well because their focus party would specifically target the mesmers first. But you’ll never come across that kind of focused pressure in a normal setting fighting other zergs. It’s really no different than eles that normally run more celestial in GvGs but switch to near or full zerk when bag farming.

Regarding your comment about veil; when I was crafting the build, I envisioned the third utility as being more of wild card for players to swap decoy with signet of midnight/veil. This is because I often ran the Sylvari elite skill Take Root instead of moa as a specific counter to glass thieves. If you happen to be Sylvari and have that skill unlocked, then it makes a lot of sense to pick veil. Heck, you might even want to run Lyssa runes if the conditions are really bothering you.

Lastly, I ran your build numbers through the spreadsheet. Assuming no might and guard stacks, your iZerker 4-hit cleave will do an average of 3700 damage to a target with 3000 armor and no protection. Compared to this build which deals closer to 5400 damage, the damage in your build is roughly 30% less. If we add Guard Killer and Phantasmal Fury, the damage difference is around 18% less. I could see where the decision to bulk up makes sense, but it’s not like you’ve found a way to have your cake and eat it as well.

I think you’re selling Mimic short.

A successful Mimic in this scenario gives the mesmer every boon in the game on a 24s cool down. Nearly every boon stacks in duration, so you are looking at significant uptime in useful, life-saving boons like protection and regeneration, the same things you stated would make it more difficult to cleave down an enemy melee train.

On the other hand, Mantra of Concentration shares the same cool down duration with Mimic, gives no other boons besides stability, and overlaps with the stun breaking function of blink and decoy. Mantra of Resolve is also redundant in the current meta of passive condition cleanse through poultry food buffs and Hoelbrak runes.

Learning how to identify drivers in a zerg is a skill that will come to players naturally with experience. I do want to repeat again that, from a survivability standpoint, it’s not the end of the world if you can’t pinpoint the exact player since other members of the melee train will also have defensive boons that can be copied.

I honestly can’t think of a more optimal use case for Mimic.

Thanks for the quick reply. I suppose I’ll go down the line.

While it is true that iZerker will trail behind the target slightly, the hits are calculated independently. If it doesn’t hit the driver, it will certainly hit the rest of the melee train behind him. These four hits, multiplied by the target limit of five, give us a total of 20 opportunities to inflict damage. I was routinely able to get at least a dozen if not more hit marks in live testing, many hitting for critical damage.

I couldn’t help but laugh while reading the bit about Mimic. I definitely could have done a better job of explaining the purpose of the skill and its use case. For anyone that doesn’t know, Mimic now copies all the boons on an enemy target (range: 900) onto yourself. It has great synergy with enemy drivers, simply because those VIP targets are constantly saturated with great boons like might, regeneration, protection, and swiftness. It is not not hard to pull off a successful Mimic. The skill is unblockable, so the only thing you realistically have to worry about is the skill range and whether the driver is dodging or using renewed focus. Most pugmanders are easy to identify because they’re often highly ranked, running guardian, and at the front of the pack. Even if the wrong player is selected, chance are you’ll still get the same complement of boons, albeit in lower durations and stacks. I really think this is more of a L2P issue in positioning, considering that there are also people that go zerk staff ele for ZvZ combat.

I think you make a good point about the low toughness/vitality of the build. Swapping in pieces of Soldier’s trinkets is always a good idea if one is having trouble with positioning. Sometimes I’ve even swapped Moa for the Sylvari racial elite Take Root just for the guaranteed invuln. Fortunately we don’t have to worry about retaliation in this build as much as other classes would, so I’m strongly considering mixing in some Cav to get that toughness stat up.

Lastly, I think this build would lose out to some sort of 44600 or 44006 power phantasm build if I focused the backline instead. The benefits of Triumphant Distortion and Mimic wouldn’t outweigh the negatives- costly trait points, difficult timings.

Hi everyone. I’ve been playing mesmer for just under a year now on Maguuma and Dragonbrand. I really like the versatility and challenge of the class, and wanted to share with everyone a new build that I’ve been experimenting with in WvW. It’s designed to be used in a pug zerg to prey on the enemy driver and melee train with focused direct damage. We are operating with all the assumptions we normally associate with zerg vs zerg combat.

These assumptions are:
The enemy force has only one driver
There is no coordinated enemy focus party
Opponents are not perfect, people will die

The Build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8flknpMt9pxRNMrNSpBZqfQ6FEgEU6TUujC-TlyAABA8AAS4CAQq6PopEMLlfGt/ge6Aa4IAwxBBYPNDkBgZLA-w

Much of the direct damage from this build comes from the Mirror Blade and Phantasmal Berserker that you will be spewing out. Combined with the dueling grandmaster trait Triumphant Distortion, you will be inflicting tens of thousands of damage on an melee train.

iZerker Damage Numbers: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZOJOELPmz1bwoFfuiW8uO3QIipPdyfe1Pb7RHcZrLqc/edit?usp=sharing

Damage mitigation comes primarily from Mimic. This incredibly utility, revamped last year, now allows for excellent survivability in large scale combat. Use Mimic on the enemy driver if he pushes, and you will gain access to every boon in the game. Damage avoidance comes from more traditional abilities like Blurred Frenzy and the various stealth skills at your disposal. Ideally, your primary focus should be putting ranged pressure on the enemy driver, hitting him with Mimic or Moa once cool downs are gone or if he/she overextends. You’ll want to position yourself similar to a zerk necro- close enough to deal damage yet staying out of the kill zone.

I should note that there is a negligible difference between using assassins or berserker’s armor, though Assassins is slightly more optimal due to Might mechanics and Sharper Images. Much more important is staying alive, and to that end, not getting caught by the enemy focus party. Don’t waste your cool downs early and make yourself too obvious of a target with Spacial Surge. Lastly, this build is not viable for GvGs, nor does it try to be.

Thanks for reading!