Guild Wars 2

playing with phantasms as your main(=50% dmg at least) u have to beware that it takes pretty much time and in most situations really static poisitoning by the rest of the group to build up maximum damage. i tried out many variants of phantasm setups and the one with fastest damage output and the best support was with sword/pistol plus sword/focus.

so all in all phantasm mesmers are mostly kitten to lose their optimum due to failpositioning or selfish behaviour of others (who on the other hand dont hesitate crying for timewarp…).
its sometimes a pain in the kitten to play phantasm mesmer hte bad traits and bugs not mentioned, but its a hell of versatile gameplay tbh.

hm i think his intention of saying " no synergies" is based on some of the mesmers truly exisiting problems, but all in all mesmers have pretty much synergies tied together via trait or weapon switchting and the fact that it takes a kittenload of time for mesmers to pull out his maximum.

for me it seems to be depending on
- some really strange long animations before the skill is working
- weapon mechanics are inconsistent
scepter has awful mechanics, sword/sword doesnt feel like dualwielding )blocking with a sword? are u kidding. he is more blocking with his elbow than with sword. give mesmer some energy shield or whatever, like engineer has during block, THATS immersive blocking mechanic.
some of the 3step mechaics are plain ridiculous
like : step1 makes this,
step2 makes more of this,
step 3 sounds diffrent but makes basically the same and HEY cos U ::R:: MESMAAAH u get a illusion on top of it or u rip a boon or set a condition or whatever and because of this the base damage is plain bad and animation feels awkward…what the hell???)

- all that random generated boon bullkitten is plain horrible
- 30 point traits are pretty lame
- of course some annoying bugs here and there
- list some more clunky stuff here

it feels pretty inconsistent in many fights to use the pretty good longrange stuff (of course made then strangely inconsistent with its different ranges, on gs for example)
and then switch to closecombat weapon sets which then have a ton of rangelimits
or, just in case of 2h + sword/sword or sword/focus, you are forced to run constantly from max range to close combat and back while just loosing dps or whatever.

not mentioned the pretty stationary stuff like warden which dont move with the targets or yourself is hitting nothing but nylon while having a nice flurrry animation…asf

Carighan.6758:

Crossplay.2067:

I won’t repeat my entire post here. I’ll just say that bugs are a lot harder to fix than you think. There’s a reason why fixing one usually breaks something else.

Working as a developer, on a 100k+ lines of code project which we took over from a previous company, I will not ever blame any developer for not immediately fixing bugs again.

Seriously.

Been in the industry two years now, and bugs are starting to creep into my nightmares… Especially, as you say, when you try to fix something.

and they should keep in mind that its like finding a grammatically wrong sentence in a book written in a language you only know for maybe the basics. guess its even worse, cos evry coder has its own style of coding.
and it gets even worse, guess what happens when u have a book were sentences are wrongly set on random pages and u have to find out which part is on which site of the book.

when im using builds i always try to think in layers 1, 2 and 3.
that means, im planning on using more than one set of traits depending which situation.

usually im starting with this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAW7dl0zypHVzmGaNJxpHRf5PHVBsTqgqLpA38G-e

10/20/0/30/10
i got stats around:
21000 hitpoints
3100 attackpower
45% crit (boostet with superior sigil of perception stacks to an average of over 60% up to maximum of 70%)
40% critdmg
1250 toughness
nothing special about it and still lots of substance left on top of it.

so if i want, or need i can use traits for sword, focus, pistol and scepter.
mostly using greatsword (i never regret sacrificing the 20point gs trait in any circumstances so far).
sometimes i switch to gs/staff and switching to more conditiondamage gear, but i still have to farm cond gear^^.
if needed i switch to mantra/shatterheal traits for some more healing for the group too building up illusions with dodges pretty fast.

but the main spec is of course for maintain phantasms and let em do their jobs (aoe, singletarget dmg, cripple, while suing all sorts of combofield mechanics).

i tried out phantasmal haste, but never saw the big advantage while sacrifing other stuff which makes the build far more versatile.
tbh except shatterbuilds using warlock, its another lousy trait and i even think that my new 30point trait for shatterhealing isnt worth being called a major 30 trait.
but at least its better than 5 points for personal regeneration in groups.

i was using scepter/torch but its too specialized weaponset for me atm. fun thou but i need a second full special set for staff scepter/torch combo and even then im not sure if its viable with phantasmbuilds like that.

so far its fun to play with a wide range of weapon/trait/utility settings.
gearwise i am stil lable to sacrifice def stats a lot to go glasscannon, which i dont like, to more bunker-style stats. my actual stuff would let we go from 18k hp with lots more power and crit to almost 25k hp and 1500 toughness and still doin “enough” damage.

most players suck (never made kholer or lupicus asf, never made anything else than skiprushbla haha). especially those ones with citadel of noob full equip and bigmouthing others while searching for other “pr0s”.
talking about builds without even knowing about class utilities.

nicee skoteinos, just figured out that theres someone doing almost the same as me^^.
im chaning here and tehre for testing purposes + my gear is still subpar, but based on that traits i can recommend this build for evryone and evry stament skoteinos did here about this build i can affirm with my experience.

in my case i use gs+sw/foc and still testing sw/foc + sw/pistol or scepter/pistol under some circumstances. combofield mechanics are important too with this weapon switch combinations
the range of this build either if its statswise ( more bunker/support or more power/crit etc) OR buildwise + weaponswitching + utilities tops evry other build i tried so far.

even if u use staff from time to time for some situations its not useless.

its like building up a different houses on the same stable and rocksolid foundation.
for me its the essence of playing mesmer.

i actually have that build. jsut miss the stats but im halfway to have em.

pve-wise it has its flaws especially when using focus for warden and your group is heavily moving. u have to check your timing and often its better to start with sword/offhand on targetassist (with generating combofield boosts) and then take distance.
really depends on situation, but u have a wide range of tools too.
u can setup full glamour, some signets and escapes or mixing it up a bit.
next thing im trying to get a pistol to have a close combat setup with mainhand/pistol + sword/focus (sword/sword is decent but cannot compete with warden tbh)
if u have the gear u checked im sure u doing some mean damage on multiple targets with berserker/warden switching in not time and this includes not even the damage u do by yourself.

pvp wise, no big use for glamourskills. escapes and movement/dodge stuff should be the better choice with any setup, but thats only theory from my side (after watching certain vids).

im still not sure about the supporthealing aspect of this build. if someone can tell sth about it i would appreciate it much.

fyi
my gear is actually on
21k hp
3k power
40% crit
30%critdmg
1k toughness
15% boonduration
some cond dmg
some healpower
so maybe i can squeeze 20% more out of my socket and trinket stuff wiht this gear.

i even hardly use it with my phantasm build. the worst is non-max range and pretty long casting time. should be more like instant cast and long range with longer cooldown maybe. or replace the condition on allies remove with a slight regeneration
via a major trait in inspiration on 25 or even 30 point, which would make it a good support tool.
i always feel more like wasting time not using other skills to help the group.

i regularly use it on one boss in TA though.

the distribution of traitpoints depends on what IDEA your playstyle is based. watch mr.prometheus on yt for further explanations and an excellent indepth mesmer guide.

im playing a glamour/phantasm based lightsupport mesmer and it works.
u cannot take all goodies, but u are able to combine pretty much, as long as u r not the sort of “stats-maxing oldschool mmo frikkin dps no def horst” we usually meet in dungeons complaining about getting down evry 10secs…

heavily check your playstyle u like (e.g. shatter or never, staff or greatsword or dualwield AND weaponswitch combinations!).
then search for the big traits giving you the maximum possible support for that style
(in my case mainly phantasm powerups and glamour boosts with greatsword and sowrd/focus).
THEN check which stats u missed on your gear and fill it up (mostly people fill up power…and dont do any damage or support cos theyre DEAD in dungeons…).

but i agree wiht that 30 point critics generally. personally i dont like any of the 30 traits. worthless imo to waste points for losing another good trait or even stat for just the weaponswitch

heres mine. lvl1 mask + t1/t2 cultural norn armor mix + TA chest (havent found a better one yet stylewise and t3 cultural armor for 30g?…no way lol).
colors: midnight rust, evening red and arrogance

most important rule for these knockback pest: stay together on one spot an melee them (assist/maintarget the big ones, evrything else goes down in aoe pretty fast). they mostly burrow if there is a target for them outside.
using combofield mechanics helps too, e.g. chaos armor for all, retaliation for all, even extra-dmg thru combofields like condition-dmg with fire/bleed/poison.

it doesnt help at all if u have people not thinking outside their “hey im profession X with weapon Y, i dont have any closerange weapons i dont give kitten about it” box.

and dont forget to use omnoms for xtra-money (and xtra%mf on top^^) on trashloot! believe me its much gold out of one, e.g. AC, complete clear run.

do as ratty posted, we also do this tactics and dps is just a push, but not that important as long as u organize your group.
we made that a dozen times and i guarded hodgins even with my mesmer wearing his staff (i am not even skilled for staff tbh).
just use evry esacpe or cc together with aoe mechanisms u have for not being controlled by the gravelings.

if u have enough dps on burrouws u can semi “split” groups too to have faster access to the next burrow and not wasting dps (and cooldown) on one burrow only.

this event is no dps check, its a check for tactical behaviour as a group.

“What makes you think people too terrible to skip trash are going to be good enough not to wipe repeatedly doing a full clear?”

others who also started like evry player with knowing nothing about dungeon xy, incl myself.
getting nervous the first times and checking nothing is a very normal process u know.
nothing to worry about.

but all those team-gimps out there only playin for their own pocket and their own fun without caring about others pocket and others fun destroying evryones learning process at all when forcing evry new one to play the skipping bullkitten.

we met dozens of players with even full exotics skipping kholer e.g., when u ask them, almost all didnt even kill him once in their player career. its hilarious.
those are the ones spamming the forums, those are the ones spamming the game and destroying the gameplay and gaming culture within gw2.

i dont like it, its asocial, like it would be in real life. i will fight this forever.

if i only count the last 6 days we met a dozen new players who never did a full ac run before, didnt know nohting about some bosses, or how loot u can get out of it.
now theyre askin regularly for runs and spreading the word to their companions that its possible to make a full clear run in no time.

and yes there are always players who dont learn nothing even after playing for month and weeks, but with 4 decent players u even can pull this ones thru these dungeons unless he dont force wipes regularly.
at least he can do some damage on top, cos thats all most people can do: some damage.

thing is that things tends to get worse and worse, cos players are ACTIVELY supported to imitate playstyle by those who actually cleared evrything a thousand times with non-pugs, and starting to misuse other newbies of gw2 for skipping mobs and for me the most intriguing fact SKIPPING THE BOSSES.

pug players arent dumb (we FULLY cleared ac last night 3 times in a row in not time, WITH PUG group, yes we made kholer too in no time, we explained evrything and we cleared pathes from mobs so evrybody has empty pathes and not wiping on mobs while running from waypoints back losing time and nerves).
we had probs with ghosteater but noone wnats to leave. took us 1h til evrybody got the mechanics inkluding nasty bugs there.

i dont care if someone is skipping, i care about palyer culture and that skipping pest leads in a wrong direction.

if its all about the argument evrybody plays like he wants, ok..

we got some nice little tricks to plaguestrike back if we get some skip-“pr0s” NEVER

some really niiice little tricks to annoy the hell out these skipping pest.
and i dont mean provoking wipes because this would be waaaay too cheap and short.

and to all those writing about my grammatics, its not my native language, but at least i know a bit of a second one. how about u? or did u skip that in school too?

Anet should really implement countermeasures against that skipping plague.
theres enough stuff they could do to end this plague.
its just annoying for “new” players or those who enjoy clearing dungeons completely, fully exploring them asf.

hell they even start skipping storymode dungeons…because THEY CAN.

same reason over and over again:
“skip this”
“Y”
“time efficieny”
then same story over and over again:
first one dies on mobs running behind the leading skip/rusher
second one…
and so on.
end of story: time efficiency -100%

if u ask y they skip the boss xy, u almost always end up being told that they NEVER EVER tried to manage him, they just HEARD its hard and EVRYONE is skipping…
people who were running 100 times Ascalons never even heard of special chest after kholer, never figured out burrows tactics and so on…

i t is a painintheass to find proper people taking their time and have fun doing the ONE AND ONLY maximum efficient runs:
clear evrything, get most money out of it, most exp (in points AND knowledge) and most loot in the shortest time possible. oh and most fun for my part
(we managed to clear the “so-called” harder paths of some dungeons even with 4 newbs with subpar equip so noone tell me its too hard)

THATS EFFICIENCY FOLKS.

and dont forget to equip toughness and vitality and use some more skills than the one who make damage…

so please Anet do something to EDUCATE people to play the way it is meant to be done.

thx
end of rant