Guild Wars 2

Knowing that phantasms won’t get the “out of phase” buff and will do 0 damage, you’re better off with a build that buffs self DPS. Its doable with 10/20/0/25/15, I’ve done it before, but you’ll be cutting it pretty kitten close.

Woa, this is exact build I’ve been running for a week now but with Deceptive Evasion and Debilitating Dissipation instead of the manipulation traits. I also traded Portal for the Daze mantra to get a few more interrupts in. Gotta say, loving it so far

sw/torch – sc/pistrol too.

lol, which is exactly what I specified “If you prefer pistol oriented s/p-s/f playstyle”

One more thing for OP. In the end it will come down to how effectively you handle your mesmer. A good mesmer with bad build will still be good. A bad mesmer with a great build will still be… bad.

There are many viable PvE builds.

10/20/0/25/15 is good for phantasm heavy s/s-s/f build.

If you prefer pistol oriented s/p-s/f playstyle and/or value faster disenchanter attacks, sacrificing a few percent of phantasm dps for quicker phantasm attacks (PH is a ~12% DPS boost for duelist) is worth it, which makes the build 10/20/0/20/20.

If you can’t keep phantasms up for too long and want higher self & reflect damage, 10/30/0/20/10 or 0/30/0/25/15 mantra oriented builds are equally viable. It’ll all come down to whether you prefer higher self dps or faster iWarden summons.

All above builds assume you will trait your focus.

I’ve been noticing this for about a week or two now. I often find myself getting fried there even when I’m not touching any lasers. Could have been a stealth change from the Dec 10th or any of the following patches. May be even the same patch as the Arah P2 change…

Jack of all trades, master of all.

A world of thousand viable builds.

A new bug every two weeks, guaranteed.

Everyone loves a mesmer, join the ranks.

Yes

Experienced is someone who can complete dungeon with 916 /vit and stay alive, without relying on any glitches/exploits.

Retested it in LA on test dummies, cursed shore, and coe explorable (all lvl 80 areas). The numbers in OP still correct. I even equipped signet of illusions and phantasm health increased by exactly 50%. Activating signet caused health to immediately drop to 5,969 & 12,794 for the phantasm & defender respectively.

Next, I had a friend join me in both downleveled and lvl 80 areas and we compared the health values I was seeing with the number showing on his health bar. In both cases our numbers were identical. This only reaffirms that the health pool values I’m seeing really are correct.

Looks like the health pools have been updated since the time whoever posted the data on the wiki. Here are the current values.

PvE

• Clone – 4,277
• Phantasm – 5,969
• Defender – 12,794

PvP

• Clone – 2,507 (2,495 underwater)
• Phantasm – 3,499 (3,482 underwater)
• Defender – 7,500 (7,463 underwater)

WvW

• Clone – 2,495
• Phantasm – 3,482
• Defender – 7,463

The biggest difference from the data on wiki is the pve phantasm/defender values. Phantasms are 7,955 -> 5,969 and defender is 19,943 -> 12,794. I really hope that was just an error on the original testers part and not a some kind of stealth nerf to phantasm health pools in PvE. PvP health pools are more or less still the same

Nobody has to be an instance owner. If you’re worrying about cutscenes, show everyone their own char in it. If you need a unique ID for the instance, ID is the the timestamp of the instance it was created salt hashed with the ID of the instance opener. Refer to the instance by it’s unique ID, not by the ID who created it. If two instances are party-merged, the one that initiated the merge is the one getting destroyed BUT do show a warning that if you merge your current instance will be done. What’s so hard about this?

Someone must have been ignoring the basics when creating the db for managing the parties…

I used the gw2dps app to record 10 min worth of dps data and recalculated everything. This should eliminate any possible error on my part since previous tests were timed by hand. While the error margin was very small it’s still better to have data that eliminates possible human error. End results were more or less the same, the list order didn’t change. I updated OP with the latest data.

I also crafted a spreadsheet that calculates phantasm’s damage and the calculated results were within 1% to 3% of the observed ones. I figured that was pretty kitten accurate so I went ahead and calculated a scenario that involves fighting a 2600 armor mob using a 10/20/0/25/15 build with zerk armor/weapons, ascended zerk trinkets, 25 might stacks, banner of discipline, and dragon’s breath buns. Under those conditions iDuelist should crit for 8.3k to 9.8k and iSwordsman under same conditions for 7.5k to 8.3k. Versus a 1,836 armor mob (my glass mes) duelist will do 11.7k to 13.8k and swordsman will do 10.6k to 11.7k

bhagwad.4281:

I also wonder if there’s a way to chart the damage as you summon your phants. The reason is I can imagine that sharper images will make duelists stronger as more of them are out. But that takes time and it’s more than likely the fight will already be over by then.

Till the time three duelists are up, the swordsmen might well be stronger. I really wish GW2 had a kind of “Master of combat” like they had in GW1 giving us DPS numbers periodically.

With the signet its usually about 15 seconds before you get 3x duelists up and running. If the fight is over before then, then the difference in killtime by having swordsmans instead will be too small to notice. With my s/p-s/f setup i start off the fight with warden + 2x duelists and then 15 sec later replace that first warden with another duelist.

bhagwad.4281:

The only other place I can get five more points is maybe from domination giving up the 15% damage increase.

I ran into same dilema as well. Thats why in dungeons i now run 10/20/0/20/20. It fits my s/p-s/f playstyle perfectly. The only difference between that build and the 0/20/0/25/25 pre-patch build is now i have 100 more power (about 3 might stacks)

IGN: Frifoxy
Server: SoR
Role: Scholar / PvE Tester
Playtime: Late PST
Playstyle: PvE/WvW

My bases stats with 10/15/0/25/20 and zerk trinket, ranger runes, no sigils:

• 1,939 power
• 50% crit chance / 43% crit damage
• 200 condi damage / 10% condi duration (from traits)

Goal was to keep everything as controlled as possible to eliminate any external factors.

I’m well aware of what PH is and what effects it has on our phantasms. If, and its a big IF, phantasmal haste is fixed for swordsman then I surely will do the experiment again.

Spent the day comparing these two phantasms and came to some interesting conclusions. In my tests I used 10/15/0/25/20 (has all phantasm related traits) build with phantasm base crit chance being 70% (typical unbuffed zerk). What I was comparing are the effects Sharper Images and Phantasmal Haste have on the phantasm DPS. In all tests I had 3 phantasms up and only them attacking.

No sharper images, no phantasmal haste

• 1,383 dps – duelist
• 1,931 dps – swordsman

With sharper images, no phantasmal haste

• 2,066 dps – duelist
• 2,085 dps – swordsman

With sharper images, with phantasmal haste

• 2,358 dps – duelist
• 2,085 dps – swordsman

All results, ordered by total dps

• [59%] 1,383 dps – duelist
• [67%] 1,575 dps – duelist + PH
• [82%] 1,931 dps – swordsman
• [88%] 2,066 dps – duelist + SI
• [88%] 2,085 dps – swordsman + SI
• [100%] 2,358 dps – duelist + PH + SI

To test no sharper images, I ran 10/14/0/25/20 build which is loss of 1% crit damage (10 precision were recovered with 1 stack of accuracy) compared to 10/15/0/25/20’s stats. I considered that to be acceptable. Tests were completed by taking an average of 600 DPS values (10 min worth of attacking) recorded with the gw2dps app.

Also, note that all tests were done with 0 might stacks. Direct damage and bleeds scale differently with might and results probably will be different.

I did an interesting test earlier today. At the end of CoE p3 I aggro’d Alpha to the usual los corner at the bottom of the stairs and jumped on top of that glass wall (a glitch really, since you can’t and probably shouldn’t be able to get there by normal means). I essentially then had line of sight to alpha but no actual walkable pathing to him. Then, I summoned swordsman who spawned on top of that glass wall too. I proceed to jump down and fight alpha as usual. Halfway through the fight swordsman started attacking alpha’s essence. He kept doing that randomly till alpha was dead.

It seems that this patch phantasms may have gotten smarter. If they can’t reach their target they may swap aggro to a nearby mob they can actually reach and will attack him instead. Of course, this is only a theory so I’ll need to test more to be sure…

I was messing around with Veteran Giant (speedkill favorite) and noticed something odd. I summoned two iWardens and after attacking the targeted mob once both of them decide to walk away and chase some other target. Since when did our phantasms gained the ability to change targets?

ps: I recorded it on video, probably can upload it to youtube if someone wants it

TheKillerAngel.3596:

Mesmer: 0/30/0/20/20 is the maximum reflect trait setup

x/x/x/x/20 trait I’m assuming is Phantasmal Haste. As of right now it’s broken for Warden and is useless if you’re taking it to better your warden reflect uptime. Might as well shave off those 5pts and invest them in x/x/x/25/x which is a nice +15% DPS for your phantasms.

I tried, and failed. So I’ll assume that no, golems can’t be Moa’d.

Sustained DPS tested in HotM. 3 swordsmans + sword auto-attack, zerk amulet/jewel, ranger runes, no sigils.

2,052 dps = 0/0/0/0/0
3,332 dps = 10/20/0/25/15 (0 mantras)
3,444 dps = 0/30/0/25/15 (4 mantras)
3,512 dps = 10/30/0/20/10 (3 mantras)
3,944 dps = 30/30/0/0/10 (4 mantras) (3 duelists)
4,117 dps = 30/30/0/0/10 (4 mantras)

The DPS numbers are calculated from the average of 10 to 15 consecutive indestructable golem kill times. The golem has 78,870 health points. The numbers I believe could have an error margin of 100 DPS (bleeds are ticking for 50 to 150) so I will need to do more extensive testing if I want more accurate data.

PS: for 30/x/x/x/x builds Wastrel’s Punishment could be adding extra 5% dps due to golem not using any skills and triggering the trait. This test also assumes 3 iswordsmans so builds that have dual CD reductions might actually perform better vs those with one or no CD reductions.

If Bjarl bugs in one spot, have everyone break line of sight by going behind a pillar or something. He will unbug. Incidentally, same trick prevents his charges so make sure NOT to break LoS when he’s not bugged.

Then again, doubt anyone actually fought him legit enough to even realize that…

Veteran Risen Giant = 126,192 health

16s kill = 7,887 dps
15s kill = 8,413 dps

16c each, spammable knockdown with no CD. Now unusable in dungeons.

It was bound to happen sooner or later.

As of right now,
- Spear
- Greatsword
- Sword
- Focus

PH doesn’t apply to any of them. Warden still doesn’t initially attack half the time you summon him either. Mesmer is now officially the most broken class.

I cheated in some of my off-the-record attempts by using Dragon’s Breath Buns instead of curry butternut squash soup and killing trash before engaging the Giant to gain +200 power. The kill time was practically equal to my normal attempts (~1 second difference).

(video)

The best I could get with 10/15/0/25/20 (III-II-V/IX-III/X, s/s, s/p) was 22.3 seconds. Compared to the 16s kill that’s 40% slower. Do builds really make THAT much difference?

(zerk armor/weapons, ascended trinkets, ruby orbs, battle + fire sigil, stacking precision)

Had to do the quest 3 times. First two times it bugged and I couldn’t progress. Seriously, 1 FALCKING YEAR LATER and still bugged. Anet has no proper Q/A team.

Add an icon to our boons/conditions bar to display supply trap / stealth disruptor trap status. Have it display an icon if its active and remove it as soon as the trap is triggered.

I use my clones as meatshields. Summon a few and stand inside them. Works beautiful with the on-clone-death traits

Not that the fight is hard or challenging in any way, just found a technique to solo the power suit part of the encounter with almost no effort:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL1kc6lT3tQ

Wonder how many other melee bosses can be completed the same way.

DPE – Damage Per Encounter.

Easy to measure too. For example, just show the total damage I’ve dealt to lupi once he goes down on top right beside the gold/silver/bronze event medal that pops up. Should include direct, reflect, condition, and pet damage combined.

They can’t fight SoR/TC head on so they are hunting karma-train uplevels

Still possible, can complete story mode in 5 minutes or less. Any plans to fix or patch this exploit?

If entering the Garrison through North inner gate, you can blink directly to the 2nd floor without actually going through the choke leading to the Lord’s room. Place portal, go through the broken gate, blink to 2nd floor, drop exit. Now you and your allies have successfully avoided enemy choke (usually in the tunnel leading to the Lord’s room or the side stairs right as you go through the gate) and got the higher ground advantage.

Watched Thor and kept thinking that Loki is a mesmer. He moa’d his brother!

Yes.

Well over 3k hours played and I am sure GW2 is the right game for me. I have all professions at 80 (even multiples of some of them) and have explored and still am exploring various playstyles those classes provide and love getting creative on every encounter with them. I have reached a point where it’s not enough anymore, I want hard numbers to back up my theories and strategies. Call this an interest in theorycrafting and exploration of the min/max side of gw2.

Give us a toggle that would keep the damage floaters seen above the enemy from disappearing/resetting on each hit.

Right now they disappear after each skill use but what if we had an toggle button to temporarily disable the resetting of those numbers, for both direct and condition damage floaters. As the fight goes on the numbers will accumulate until you reset it or toggle it back. This solution will be simple, non intrusive, and should fit right in with the current system.

We already have an option for Simple vs. Detailed condition floaters. Make it a 3 choice option with 3rd one being the one I’m proposing in this post.

Thank you!

Of many months using the soul-bound version and mining the same node (away from any mobs / interference), I’ve had absolutely zero ruined chunks. Traded in for an account-bound version, got ruined chunk the same day.

Here’s a video showing that if I’m interrupted, confusion is stacked on me. Then, I swapped out the runes and got myself interrupted again – no confusion this time. Swapped runes back in – confusion stacked on me once again.

Perplexity runes are killing me.

I was using the unlimited account-bound Molten Alliance Mining Pick. Mined a rich platinum node and got [3 Ruined Ore Chunks]. Description on them says “Use a mining pick of higher quality to avoid ruining materials”. Gem store mining pick and it can’t even mine platinum properly…

The Black Lion Trader NPC in Mt Maelstrom near Firebreak Fort Waypoint quite often ends up unresponsive/bugged so I decided to find out what gets him bugged once and for all. For about 1hr I kept aggroing enemy mobs into the camp killing the friendly NPC’s. After getting most of them dead to the south entrance, and getting some as far in as the said trading post npc, I went to the north entrance and started wiping the NPC’s there instead for about 15 minutes. When I came back, the TP NPC was unresponsive and couldn’t get him to pull up the trading post window. He was fasing the south entrance, which means he was engaging someone that came from south gate.

I don’t know the exact cause but I do believe cause to be the enemy mobs that stroll into the camp and engage the trading post NPC in combat eventually getting him bugged.

Please look into this and track down the exact reason why the NPC is getting unresponsive. This bug has been present since the game launch and after filing countless bug reports, it’s still present.

I won’t argue with the bullet points you posted since it’s obviously a matter of opinion and experience so we probably won’t agree anyway. The last one I do agree on though, if I don’t have pistol traited then it’s hard to justify not swapping in a sword instead. The trait is what makes pistol better than sword for me. A weapon with one of the best phantasms, near instant single target shutdown skill, and a 1200 range aggro tool even if mobs are spread out.

Changing graphics settings, in my case switching to “Best Performance”, while engaging a zerg (30+ people) will 9 out of 10 times crash my client. This time it crashed right as we were capping enemy’s garrison… fml

Waited few days farming gold. Bought traveler runes. Zero regrets.