Guild Wars 2

Mesmers deserved this nerf for not being smart enough to reroll after the last patch ruined diversity.

Mammoth.1975:

The buff to weakness is one of the biggest reasons DD builds are suffering tbh. The new weakness doesn’t turn crits into half damage crits, it turns them into glancing blows, half damage hits. A little basic math:

50% crit chance.
+50% crit damage.

Half your swings crit and do 200% damage. Half of 200% is 100%.
The other half do 100%. Half of 100% is 50%.
100 + 50 =150.
Total expected damage from any given attack is 150%.

Add weakness.

50% of your swings glance and do 50% damage. Half of 50% is 25%.
25% of your swings crit and do 200% damage. A quarter of 200% is 50%.
25% of your swings hit and do 100% damage. A quarter of 100% is 25%.
50+25+25 = 100.
Total expected damage from any given swing is 100%, down from 150%.

It’s only a 25% damage reduction on builds with zero crit, which don’t exist. The more crit oriented your build, the more it hurts you.

You forgot the portion of attacks which can crit but glance.

Half your attacks do half damage. How does that hurt more the higher your crit chance is?

50% of all attacks glance, including crits. So if your crit change is 50%:
You will get 25% glancing crits, 25% glancing normals, 25% true crits and 25% true normals.
= ((0.25 * 200) /2) + (0.25 * 200) + ((0.25 * 100) /2) + (0.25% * 100) = 112.5% of your vanilla damage.
Compared with non weakness:
(0.5 * 200) + (0.5 * 100) = 150% of your vanilla damage.

It’s basically a 25% dmg debuff overall, whereas before it was only a debuff on non crit builds. Anet said they wanted it to be a debuff to burst damage.

I love PvP. Have done for years.
I’m also quite good at it.

I don’t have the time to dedicate to a permanent team, nor do I care to ‘train’ every day.

Attempting to solo q in gw2 just makes me frustrated and want to quit the game.

Thus I don’t bother PvPing in this game. I enjoy the PvE and WvW elements instead.

Spying should be a part of the game.
Get your own spies?

The problem with not finishing someone is that often in a 2v1 they will continue to attack you in their downed state, or a team mate will come by and attack you/rez him. Unless you know for sure they will self rez and walk away afterwards it’s a bit of a risk.

What would you say if guardians had an elite which transformed them into a ball of light which gave 5 nearby allies aegis every second for 20 seconds?

So I just watched this plugged by the GW2 facebook team:

“Jack is back and better than ever before!

Some of you may remember the Kryta Bomber and Club Elona videos from way back when in Guild Wars 1. In this latest video, talented Machinimator JackMcDaniel brings Fire of Spirit and Friends to rock Tyria’s very core. Are you ready to party? ~AT"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWCTlxEp6Ds

Here is our new Guild Wars 2 Music Video: Bloodbound. After our concert in Lion’s Arch some years ago, we’re back on stage with a lot of exiting scenes from Kodash’s World vs. World battles. Have fun

Music: Bloodbound (Hammerfall), Rockstars (Freedom Call)

One thing caught my eye especially.
Asuras being loaded into catapults as a form of siege.

Please.

Make it so.

Just fyi this was less of a complain post and more to check how other players are coping with all the content.
Maybe I just have less free time than y’all…

I don’t get what the argument is about. In WvW your dps is meaningless anyway and you gear for survivability, and in pve you should be full zerker anyway.

I can’t keep up!

I already have a load of world exploration to do, I have barely touched half the high end fun events, I haven’t even completed all the dungeons already available.

You guys are pumping out an insane amount of content.

And I’m not even paying for it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an mmo pump out this much content on such a consistent basis. Sure, you gutted my favorite class/playstyle lately, but overall the game is just getting better and better. I’m excited to see gw2 turn into the next online behemoth, which.. given time.. I think it will.

Hats off to you, for real. But is anyone else feeling overwhelmed? I don’t know what to do next! Apparently I have to do stuff in real life as well?

Are you sure you’re not just talking about gw2 mesmers?

Mesmer is still amazing for wvw roaming and pve, however for organized zerg fights involving stacking, charges etc unless you want to be reduced to a portal/veil bot I’d suggest another class with decent mass support or aoes.

There are a lot of weird builds out there atm but I think 20/20/0/0/30 and 0/20/20/0/30 are the best roaming shatter builds and 20/20/0/30/0 is probably the best if you have to take reflects for pve.

From the sounds of it you need warriors as well as guardians in the melee train, but ele (fields/blasts) and necros (aoe blinds, aoe dmg) are also useful.

Roe – you’re probably thinking unorganized pugs. I’m talking organized fights where the groups are usually stacked up properly.

Sure you can avoid the majority of the well, but when a necro goes darkness plague and latches onto your group there’s not a lot you can do about it.

I agree, it is a problem. I’ve heard stories of people creating intentionally weak characters and running with an opposing server’s strongest group with the intention of offering a free rally to their real guildies.

AoE blind every second for 20 seconds & AoE blind every second for 5 seconds

Now I don’t know a huge amount about wvw, in fact I only just started playing it properly.. but these skills stand out as being really powerful to me. I was wondering if anyone had any comments about it, as blind effectively stops the next attack to hit you.. it’s kinda like aegis. If guardians had aoe aegis pulsing every second for 5/20 seconds I reckon everyone would freak out. From the look of it a few necros with these skills can shut down a whole zerg in the charge.

S-tier:
None

A-tier:
+Guardian
=Mesmer
=Ele
-Necro

B-tier:
+Thief
-Ranger

Free points tier:
—Warrior

I can see why anet have to be careful with warriors though, since I used to main one for many months. If you are dumb enough to let them get in your face and hit you a lot, they will destroy you. If you rarely get to your target you need to make it count when you do get there which is why we see many burst builds. Unfortunately all of the gap closers/pindowns are easily counterable, and the longer the fight goes on the less special moves they have such as bullrush, shield stun, pindown etc so sustain isn’t always a good option either.

Oh man… decisions decisions! To be honest it sounds like the most succesful groups just stack necro/ele/guard/war so I should be able to contribute nicely as any of those.. just gotta find which one suits me I guess.

The thought of getting caught in a small skirmish by myself on my way somewhere or with the wrong weapons equipped and not being able to run away quick enough or 1v1 well really annoys me.

GSSBlunaspike.4153:

It’s helpful to have one or two eles, but that’s it

Could you expand on this please? I assumed the more eles the better due to the aoe dmg.

Once again thanks all for the insightful replies.

Thanks for the replies. I think as long as I have some decent aoes I will be okay, I’m more interested in reliably being able to aoe often and provide support. I won’t be zerker anyway so dps is never going to be anything to shout about.

I tried a staff ele yesterday but it felt kinda clunky. Like randomly swapping attunements and firing all aoes not recharging was optimal.. maybe I was doing it wrong.

how are guardians compared to eles/nec? I see a lot in wvw videos.

Reminds me of maskcasting in shadowbane..

Watched a few of your vids, that’s a lot of guardians you guys have!
Cool vids

I plan on almost always being with a group on this character (solo/small roaming will remain my mesmer) unless i am running somewhere. I assume if i am running somewhere and get ganked the ele will have more chance to escape than the necro even if caught with a staff? If they are both pretty kitten good in zerg fights i think i am leaning more towards the ele just because it seems better in other areas as well as zergs. How do they rate compared to other top wvw classes? (I’m guessing ele/nec/guard/war are the main classes for top in-combat usefulness) in both zergs and escapes/running places?

I didn’t particularly enjoy this video. You beat an inferior warrior who was clearly not prepped for 1v1 dominance like you were twice (she would have killed you twice in the first fight if you didn’t have stomp stunbreak or defy pain) and allowed her to vengeance three times. She sat and ate an 8k 100blades. She was not specced for defy pain which is one of the best 1v1 talents an offensive warrior can pack whereas yours procced at 25% and saved your life at the 1min35sec mark. In the second fight she had a guard on her as well.

Your sustain is nothing special, you were able to outheal the ele because she did terrible damage. On the other hand your damage is very high and she managed to sustain through it. She was obviously wearing cleric gear for drawn out fights due to how much the hp bar moved on your 5-6k eviscerates rather than expecting to find zerkers and need vitality. This meant it was easy for you to burst her down with a rather basic combo of shield stun, eviscerate and whirlwind. I’m surprised the fight lasted as long as it did, though that was probably because you made sloppy mistakes such as eviscerating through protection buffs which were due to expire in 2 seconds and popping bullrush while the ele had stability up from armour of earth.

I wouldn’t have bothered replying but the title ‘sustainable god’ annoyed me.

Jester.1236:

fadeaway.2807:

Huge prot/retal/swift/regen stacks?

Bountiful Theft : Stealing removes 2 boons from your target and grants them to nearby allies.
Larcenous Strike: Stab your foe and steal up to two boons from them.

No thanks.

So now boons are bad to?

If you can reliably reapply them mid-fight, I would recommend against stacking them this high vs certain classes.

Huge prot/retal/swift/regen stacks?

Bountiful Theft : Stealing removes 2 boons from your target and grants them to nearby allies.
Larcenous Strike: Stab your foe and steal up to two boons from them.

No thanks.

It always surprises me that people get annoyed at players who play fotm builds and reroll to something better when it is overnerfed.
Part of being good at a game is being able to recognize what your best options are. You don’t get a prize for winning, a prize for playing a bad build but losing, a prize for playing a weak class and a prize for sticking with your overnerfed class when there are better options available to you.

I don’t see many footballers playing with ballet shoes or tennis players wielding miniature rackets because they want a challenge or because they prefer it.

No, people play to win. Not only are those people usually better players naturally due to the mindset, they also gain experience every time they follow the trends. And chances are they will beat players who sneer at rerollers regardless of what class they play anyway.

If you find winning fun, play to win.

Chefdiablo, for solo roaming I will probably keep my mes. This character is mostly for running with either the zerg or my guild which is fairly big at times but not the ‘blob’, we are decently organised but not on the level some hardcore guilds are because we are kinda casual.
Thanks for the replies all

I assumed ele would be the better of the two for roaming due to the movement skills. Was I wrong? What are the main differences between the two in zerg setting? I haven’t written off other classes like guards if there’s a good reason to play them in large group fights.

Null field, feedback, veil and portal are nice I agree, but on such long cds and ofc you can only pick 3 (even if you deny yourself anything useful like blink). Once the groups crash into each other and you have blown veil, possibly portal/feedback/null the actual combat feels pretty bad on my mes… really lacking in aoe compared to guard/nec/ele which is why I’m asking for opinions.or anything else you guys can suggest.

Using sword/sword, sword/focus or sword/pistol?
If you are blinded you either have to get in melee range and take a swing, , wait out the blind duration, or miss your phantasm cast. Swinging at the air no longer gets rid of the blind.

Unless you fancy missing your illusionary riposte or magic bullet I can’t see another way to land phants against a blinder without getting into melee range.

I watched a bit of your video and your hectic voice instantly made me REALLY stressed and nervous. I need a shower.

That’s an insane amount of kills though, congrats on your achievements and well done for all RG have done.

I’m in the process of picking a new WvW main, I’m not too experienced with WvW as I have previously spent most of my time pvping or pveing.

I think I have narrowed it down to ele or necro (maybe guard) as from what I gather their abilities scale the best with large fights thanks to all the aoes, fields and boons. I don’t rate mesmer highly (my pve/roaming main) because even though veil/portal is nice the actual in combat abilities (aoe capability) just feel lacking.

Advice would be much appreciated <3

I don’t like shatter specs.
With that said I’ll be rolling another class until my beloved mesmer has another option available to it.

robocafaz.9017:

That’s fine. You guys sit here and drink your own tears while the rest of us go figure out the new metagame. You can come back once all the best Warrior builds are all nice and theorycrafted for you.

Already done.
Warriors still rock in pve.
Warriors still suck in pvp.

Xavi – overall phantasm damage output is higher with 25 points in illusions than it is with 25 points in inspiration now, assuming they die at some point during the fight.

Dasboba.1652:

It’s a shame they buried your well written formal complaint into a thread that will soon be 10 pages deep.

I’m happy to repost it under a different title and risk the mod wrath.

Helios. Ask yourself why you are spending 25 points in that build for 15% phantasm damage, and still using a focus (bad choice for phantasm build compared to offhand sword or pistol) when you could spend them in illusion/duelist for a fantastic shatter build, still grab +15% phan dmg from domination if you want it, and suffer no drawbacks from using the focus since you no longer care so much about the phantasm’s dps?

There’s a huge difference between viable and optimal. Not too long ago we had quite a few specs considered optimal, now we have 1.

There is no good reason to play phantasm over shatter anymore.

selan.8354:

ok maybe kylia and pyro will find a way to work around all these changes and maybe find gold somewhwere….and it shall be hidden or it gets nerfed..maybe open a new forum to discuss secret builds that could be viable

20/20/0/0/30
0/20/20/0/30

Pick one.

Yeah, go shatter.

If so, what to?
If not, why not?

Well the good news is that they fixed zerker.
The bad news is that nobody uses phantasm specs anymore anyway.

Phantasm/illusion recast nerfed.
Retalliation nerfed.
Blurred frenzy nerfed.
Signet of illusions nerfed.

RIP phantasm mesmers indeed.

I’m done with mesmer. Anyone else?

Vengeful Images: This trait now only applies retaliation for 5 seconds when they are created and does not persist after that.

Blurred Frenzy: This is now evasion instead of immunity. This means it will be affected by retaliation. Increased the cooldown to 12 seconds.

Signet of Illusions: Decreased the bonus hit points to clones and phantasms to 50%.

Illusionists Celerity: Moved to the Grandmaster Minor trait.

Originally aimed at celerity nerf:
It is a much larger loss than you think. With cooldowns of 12 seconds on your two weapon sets a phantasm mesmer would use this rotation:
phantasm #1
swap weapon
phantasm #2
wait 12 seconds… phantasm #2
swap weapon
phantasm #1
wait 12 seconds… phantasm #1
swap weapon
phantasm #2
over and over…
The result was 2 phantasms every 12 seconds.
Using the same weapon swap logic we now get 2 phantasms every 16 seconds, or a 33% nerf in phantasms per second.
Under the new logic you will be waiting for the 48 second mark in a fight to unleash your third salvo of phantasms, previously it took just 36 seconds. Make no mistake, this is a huge nerf to phantasm builds.

I once did a lot of maths to come to the conclusion that is is absolutely essential for a phantasm build to have both the weapon trait AND illusionist’s celerity in order to maximise phantasms per second. For this reason I only ever used 10/30/0/25/5 with sw/sw + sw/pi, or 0/20/20/25/5 with sw/sw and staff.

Shatter vs phantasm was an even tossup prior to this. Those extra 4-6 seconds on the phantasms make this a nobrainer for me, it’s back to shatter I go. If shatter is nerfed next patch to complete the nerfing of every single decent mesmer spec I’ll swap mains.

I would have preferred a damage nerf due to target swapping and the increased hp per second the enemy would have to chew through if they decided to kill the phantasms (which in turn gave more retaliation damage back to them).

Don’t forget you also lose the cooldown buff to things like staff #2, greatsword #2 and sword #3. Not to mention decoy.

Phantasm spec almost requires signet of illusions now, but shatter spec is free to take something more useful.

Finally, anet said they do not balance around 1v1.

Shatter > phantasm by far for all modes of gameplay if this change goes through, and I’ve been a phantasm fan almost my whole lvl 80 life whether it be roaming, zerging, spvping or pveing, even through the confusion era.

Sounds like a wicked adventure! Have fun & be careful.

Esplen.3940:

Welp, guess it’s time to try that x-x-x-x-25 phant build with phantasmal haste… >.>

Phantasmal haste is broken I’m afraid.

Bas.7406:

how the thief work effectively in pve

Wait, what?

Can I ask what sort of motorcycle do you have? ^^