Guild Wars 2

I’d like to know if Torch is a good option for roaming/dueling.
I’ve started playing Guard only recently and I don’t know much about it. I’d like to make a roaming/dueling build, but I need some input.
Could you tell me if something like this could work?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQNAR8flUgSDXHSOEfIFhNDAiwqCxDXw1DIGxGC-j0CBYLRGdBg+IwUBQJfAZPMaslhFRjVvATXaR1qXAeDMa1SB80YA-w

Are there any previews of how ascended armor will look? I’d like to know if I have to stockpile Transmutation Crystals or not.

Do you really think that NEW players would be able to kill a champ in Queensdale champ train?

Downzilla.8945:

your all just mad that you’s arent on the lvl 2 hype.

HJAHAHAHHAHA! That made my day XDDDDDDDDD

Jedge.3619:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Player Character.9467:

The poster is right… you can do things like make a lvl 2 ranger with over 30khp, 2k condi dmg.

So that’s a lie.

Post a screenshot and I’ll believe it.

3400 Attack, without much optimization.

A worthy foe. Look at all those beautiful locked skills. Getting hit by 1,4k vapor blade surely hurts.
I usually fight upleveleds while I am naked to try balancing somewhat the fight :/

Atoss.1056:

Nice fights in arena

We got an idea with fellow Miller’s asura to organize a little event – Asura Golem Battle
Only 1 rule: jump in your suit and spread the mayhem!
Thursday, 21:00 GMT (if no gvg at that time) at Obsidian Sanctum arena – spread the word among your friends and guildies and of course – BRING YOUR ASURA! :P

I’ll be there, lol.

Did someone watch the epic staff ele fights we had tonight?

Props to Bowler Hat, I felt so clueless when I 1v1-ed you yesterday in the Arena :/

Pyroatheist.9031:

hihey.1075:

Simplicity.7208:

Well, it’s been a good run. But with warriors and necros getting the nerf, PU mesmers are up next. I give it til the end of January. If you have doubt, go look at the thief forum, there are at least 8 different threads on the front page raging over mesmer stealth. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the forums go into an uproar and ArenaNet knee-jerks into a nerf.

They kind of have a point…When I first started with this build months and months ago, I realized it would become mainstream and get subsequently nerfed. So here’s to the good times.

Anyways, my question involves a new build…something with a similar level of deception. My favorite part of my mesmer (and my thief before it got nerfed to bejesus and back) is deception. I love the PU build because when I play it right, my opponent won’t be able to tell up from down, clone from me. So are there any other builds that can accomplish that?

The problem with PU is the boons that comes with all that ridiculous stealth uptime.
Shave the boons, or just cap their duration in a way that it would be impossible to achieve that broken protection uptime without heavy investment in boon duration through runes & food, and its effectiveness will be toned down a bit.

Only counter is a full condi burst from a necro and MAYBE a P/D thief. I managed to kill a PU with my D/P thief, but had to rely too much on stealth myself, since I needed to let him waste all his CDs before attempting to finish him, and I was always on the verge of death, not to mention that the mesmer I fought was really bad.

I tried PU but it’s too cheesy.

Actually, the hardcounter is a well played phantasm build.

@OP: It’s not tons of people complaining, it’s 1 or 2 whiners, Go read the threads carefully.

I tried 20 20 0 30 0 and it does not work. Condi appliances are too frequent and a skilled mesmer would stand near its clones to let them take the iDuelist unload or completely reposition away from the phantasms if the opponent is a GS/Sw+Sw user.

The PU I took down while using a phantasm build were actually really, really bad. The only thing that does not work against phantasm mesmers is Perplexity as they can freely stop attacking if they notice the 5 stacks of confusion.

Helios.3598:

Some classes have less trouble against us like the condi engine and any necro who knows how to dodge and aoe down illusions. If I pop prestige and decoy without much gain I’m pretty much screwed if my opponent can then close on me and hit me with a cc.

Uhm… what? What do you actually need to dodge from a PU mesmer?
Any decent guy can dodge scepter #2 or #3, everything else is just passive play, with clone/phantasm bleeds and random condi procs. Not to mention that a skilled PU would use scepter #2 while in stealth to ensure the torment is applied if he sees his opponent swinging his weapon (as he should do against a recently stealthed opponent), since it does not give revealed.

Simplicity.7208:

Well, it’s been a good run. But with warriors and necros getting the nerf, PU mesmers are up next. I give it til the end of January. If you have doubt, go look at the thief forum, there are at least 8 different threads on the front page raging over mesmer stealth. It’s only a matter of time before the rest of the forums go into an uproar and ArenaNet knee-jerks into a nerf.

They kind of have a point…When I first started with this build months and months ago, I realized it would become mainstream and get subsequently nerfed. So here’s to the good times.

Anyways, my question involves a new build…something with a similar level of deception. My favorite part of my mesmer (and my thief before it got nerfed to bejesus and back) is deception. I love the PU build because when I play it right, my opponent won’t be able to tell up from down, clone from me. So are there any other builds that can accomplish that?

The problem with PU is the boons that comes with all that ridiculous stealth uptime.
Shave the boons, or just cap their duration in a way that it would be impossible to achieve that broken protection uptime without heavy investment in boon duration through runes & food, and its effectiveness will be toned down a bit.

Only counter is a full condi burst from a necro and MAYBE a P/D thief. I managed to kill a PU with my D/P thief, but had to rely too much on stealth myself, since I needed to let him waste all his CDs before attempting to finish him, and I was always on the verge of death, not to mention that the mesmer I fought was really bad.

I tried PU but it’s too cheesy.

The Hammer.5960:

This thread is golden…

Special hugs to the Ranger lovers out there… (hue hue hue). However, I think only a couple of people who have posted have ever actually gone blob busting with a guild raid before…

I’d say that even 20 zerker bearbow (with sword/warhorn) rangers could destroy everything. That Barrage! +perma waterfield and blast with warhorn.
And if things get bad, they’ll all vanish in a second thanks to LB #3, deceiving the enemy. They don’t even need veil.

Arcuss.6457:

Well it seemed like a good option because of the higher crit damage. Mix that with hidden killer in theory could cover the lack of overall damage. But i guess i’ll stick with my assassin’s gear. Thanks for the input.

Only piece which provides really good bonuses compared to the other choices is the Celestial Helm. Everything else is a waste.

I think this joke shows how…. stunning the warrior is at the moment.

Prysin.8542:

you’d want atleast 3-4 rangers for high waterfield uptime. Eles should focus on pure DPS and statics.

Right. Full Cleric Bearbow rangers are really an invaluable asset to a group of 20-25. I’d say having at least 5 of them is a must for every guild.
Eles should be full zerker staff eles, build: 10-30-0-10-20. That 5k+ hits are really overkill. I’d say at least 5 in group of 20-25, so that your opponents will melt.
Rest should be either condi thieves for ganking the backline (3-4 should suffice), Engis for more waterfields and aoe stun with supply crate (4), one guardian for stability and one warrior for bannerrez. Lastly, a mesmer (PU mesmer with perplexity and Veil).

This group would be unbeatable

Tyldor.9078:

I hope more respect will be shown this week towards the epic fights this matchup could bring us.

Actually, with the trolls stopping annoying people in the Obsidian Sanctum, I’d say that the most epic fights I had so far where in the new arena

DrLane.5248:

Sword needed a nerf for sure , as alll the mechanics from S/D or S/P.

THe skill 2 is just too powerfull when you have infinite init , becuz u can use it to break stun , avoid dmge , cure condi , and many more.

Then the endurence regen is way too high considering u have vigor on heal + regenend while dodging.and when you run out of , just use the signet for more dodge spaming.If you manage to use all your end , which is nto usual , u can use teh skill 3 while it regens.

IF you cant see that sword was way too powerfull the way it ws used , its becuz you are blind or smthing.Its like the most permissive gameplay u can find on thief , infinite dodge ,infinite init , decent cure condition , very good mobility .And dmge still good becuz you have no down time of dps , u can just use 2 , 1 , 3 , then port back again ( repeat this gaY(mer) pattern for ever.

nb. i play thief and i played s/D thief for 3 month and when you go back to smthing else like a 10 30 0 0 30 d/P , you just learn again how to play , and what a theif should grants u : high risk but high reward.

I agree on Shadow Return being too OP in terms of Reward/Cost, but LS did not need a nerf. S/D, while still providing high damage, was mainly used to kill bunkers who relied too much on boons. I find stupid that a full bunker guardian can easily tank all the damage that comes from a single opponent, as defensive kind of play is totally boring – and people know about this. S/D thieves with their boon stripping provided a really nice utility to the team. But with the nerf to LS, the reward/cost of this skill is too small. We are not talking about a 10% nerf, but of a good 50%, which is broken.

Ironvos.9014:

To all those attempting to fail at counting how long a mesmer can stealth, ill make the math simple.
Assume all traits and skills affecting stealth.
And not considering conflicts for when skills come of cd and you may still be in stealth.

I’ll give the amount of stealth as a fraction of stealth divided by cooldown.

Prestige traited: 4/24
Decoy traited; 4/32
Veil traited: 6/90 (no way to run trough it 3 times with PU, you would need the glamour skills for that aswell)
Mass invis 6/90

Adding that all up comes to 17/40
Which is 42.5%.
Requires 20/0/30/0/25
Assume we add:
Desperate decoy 4/90 (assuming you are below 50% hp everytime every 90s)
Requires 20/10/30/0/25

Assume we add the glamour traits, veil will have -20% CD and last 2s longer.
Veil: 9/72 (you can run trough 3 times now)
Requires 20/10/30/20/25

All this would add up to 19/36 stealth time.
Or 52.7%

And it would only require 105 trait points …

Normal PU mesmers with traited torch and untraited decoy will have 26.6% stealth uptime at most. Most dont use veil cause it uses up a spot for a condi removal skill.
And mass invis is usually a last resort skill that can easily be interrupted.
And noone takes desperate decoy.

“Normal” PU Mesmers are 20 20 30 0 0, utilities being Blink and Decoy. The third could be either a Veil or Null Field or the condi cleanse Mantra. This alone means 33,3% Stealth uptime. Mass Invi easily interrupted? I’ve NEVER been interrupted while casting it because I always use my on demand invuln while casting it, and every decent mesmer knows this.

In WvW roaming they mostly use Veil and tend to flee if they meet condi heavy classes like necros or engi (not hard to escape those classes with all those stealths).
In duels they always slot veil if they are fighting a power based opponent.
In sPvP they are crap and I always /laugh at them, trying to play easy mode in tournaments lol.

Puah, I’ve already learnt not to chain more than 2HS into a BP (I usually go with 1, I chain 2 if things are getting really bad and I never chain 3 unless I’m in trolling mode “hide n seek”, which I stopped doing a few months ago).

With the improved Ini Regen, I will actually be getting a buff. And all those gimmicky easymode trolls are getting the bat.

messiah.1908:

with 2 conditions cleanse on heal skill you gonna see more 0,15,30,10,15 builds and even maybe matra build with 6 potential condition clear

what i am saying is anet just gave mesmers more builds abilities for roaming

That would be a “?” build.
No shatters.
No phantasms (maybe some iDuelist with some bleeds but pitiful damage).
No condis (No Deceptive Evasion, so clone generation would be too slow).

Just how do you do damage? It would just be a troll spec – maybe it could work with perplexity, but really, what doesn’t work with perplexity?

The change to Mender’s Purity would benefit pure Phantasm Mesmers a lot, as conditions really screw them.
Illusionist Celerity would be good in a hybrid Phantasm spec, 10 20 0 25 15, maybe with Sw+Sw/Sw+P… gonna see, but I doubt I’ll drop my build for that.

StickerHappy.8052:

So meaning to say, for example 6th rune of grenth chills foes for 3 secs. but thats excluding the 2nd rune bonus of +20% chill duration? so its 3 secs + 20% more?

Exactly. What is shown in the runes/sigils is just the BASE duration of the effect they give (either a boon or a condition). That BASE duration is then increased by adding either the +boon duration or the +condi duration stat, which you can read on your hero panel.

messiah.1908:

hihey.1075:

I’ll also add: PU condi is getting buffed next patch, since the Chaos 25 bonus will provide more Condition Damage

and also Illusionists Celerity will be master trait so more phantasm doing dmg

anet really pushed mesmer to extreme and now in wvw we will see all running PU instead of giving them more group utilities and skills

I don’t think Illusionist Celerity will be such a big deal for condi PU mesmers, which are really the plague of WvW and duels nowadays. Power based PU mesmers are a lesser threat, since their damage should come either from phantasms (which any skilled player should prioritize anyway) or from Shatters (which make the mesmer revealed).
The FotM 20 20 30 0 0, Sword+Pistol/Scepter+Torch or Sword(Scepter)+Torch/Staff build will not be changed by the buff to Illusionist Celerity, since all those traits are a must for roaming: 20 in the Power Traitline are needed for the condi removal, 20 in Duelism is necessary for Deceptive Evasion, while 30 in Chaos are needed, well, for PU.

The nerfs S/D got are beyond imagination. I could understand this one, but I think what really killed the build was the nerf to Larceneous Strike.

EFWinters.5421:

Lol people who think invisibility in this game is OP clearly don’t know basic game mechanics.

PROTIP: SIC EM.

Please, get good.

Wow, it’s christmas time already?

I’ll also add: PU condi is getting buffed next patch, since the Chaos 25 bonus will provide more Condition Damage

Sifu.6527:

messiah.1908:

+1 hihey

just dont use % rather seconds. lets see how long a mesmer can be stealth by skills rotation
1.prestige – 4 seconds + blind + burning+aegis+protection+regeneration
2.decoy – 4 seconds + breakstun+aegis+protection+regeneration
3.veil – 3-6 seconds (can be used twice)+aegis+protection+regeneration
4.mass invi – 6 seconds + aegis+protection+regeneration
5.Desperate Decoy – 4 seconds +aegis+protection+regeneration
and 1 again for 4 more seconds
so total of 30 seconds uptime for stealth while getting aegis+protection+regeneration as defense and getting few offense as blind and burning

and if he use blurring so he is invuln for 3 seconds and distortion for 3 seconds more
so 36 seconds up time (after 40 decoy is up again)

so to say 50% up time its really depends how long you fight the mesmer
if you fight him 1 min so yes 50% and even more with evade (like hihey mention)

so what have we learned from that (or what have i learned from it)
mesmer can attack you for 36 seconds without being seen at all or 44 seconds with 4 seconds to catch them between their clones.

again- mesmer CAN attack you from stealth without being REVEALED!!!

while we theives dont (or wont use it) have the ability to perma stealth that long unless all our utilities are SR (16 s) BP (4 s ) HiS (4 s ) (or use combos) which dont allow you to attack unless you want to get revealed

i try to burst the mesmer first to use his utilities earlier and than try to win the stealth contest by prolonging the fight above 40-60 seconds with cnd. if i manage to do that my odds getting better but so far 50%/50% for me (i dont have utilities to stealth thus only cnd so i must not miss). if i manage to do that and if the mesmer is smart he will disengage the fight or put lots of clones just to get more skills rdy to be used, thus i usually let them run

I would like to add a few things.

Veil is actually 3 secs and 4 secs traited.

Mesmer has easy access to vigor.

Decoy is not affected by reveal.

For a mesmer, your DPS somewhat stay static even when you’re in stealth for the full duration (the illusions do the work for you).

For a thief, you use stealth for DPS and the longer you stay in stealth, the lower your DPS.

PU vs SR – Thief gets roughly 300 health per sec in stealth which is about 1200 hp for a full SA thief. Mesmer gets about 0-1560 from regeneration for entering stealth. So basically, it is anywhere from 0%-130% of what thieves get from SR. However, they get protection on top of that. It’s RNG but I have always seen protection since if you get regen the minor trait gives you protection.

I knew about the Veil fact, that’s why the stealth uptime provided by Veil is higher than the one provided by mass invi in my calculations
Every mesmer has perma vigor.
The only way to take a PU mesmer down is through a really high condi spike. Every power based build is bound to lose to any decent PU mesmer – the only exception being a REALLY strong S/D thief with Lyssa runes.

PS: for the whiners, I use Ele for guild raids, Thief for WvW roaming and Mesmer for duels or sPvP: after I tried almost every possible build for Mesmer I was so utterly disgusted by how cheesy PU condi was that I will never use it again.

Yes, the duration will be increased.

Eloquence.5207:

Travlane.5948:

Qaelyn.7612:

Thief and mesmer is all I’ve played so far. And yes, mesmers are a pain in a lot of ways.

But I spar a lot with people who can absolutely tear me apart. It’s all gameplay experience. With mesmers success depends on learning to read the tells and pick the player out from among the distractions. Practice doing that by watching behavior and even spectating other fights.

BS. mesmers enter stealth and RARELY RARELY RARELY EVER get revealed. they are also in stealth a good 60% of a fight. this is a condi spec but still. bs.

Torch stealth: 30 (24) seconds CD
Decoy: 40 s CD
Veil: 90 (72) s CD
Mass invisibility 90 s CD

The last two skills are probably used during initiation or escape. It’s not like a Mesmer can “kitten kitten BACK STAB YOU FOR 7K” and get away with minimal to no risk.

Mesmers have to use their stealth much more strategically than thieves. Thieves? Pffft.

The prestige: 16,7% stealth uptime. (traited)
Decoy: 10% Stealth uptime
Mass Invi: 6,7% stealth uptime
Veil: 7,78% stealth uptime (untraited)
total: 41,18% stealth uptime. It can reach 45% if Veil is traited, and it can be brought to 55% if you take Desperate Decoy (assuming you make it proc), but you have to give up Blade Training for that.

If we add to this a 26% Evade uptime thanks to Blurring Frenzy, a 5% invuln uptime thanks to F4 and perma Vigor… Good luck taking one down :/

TheGreatA.4192:

As an example, I was fighting a competitive duel with a guy from TEO guild, and while on the verge of victory got hit by around 30 TEO players from behind and a few laugh taunts on top. Now I could whine about not getting a “fair fight” but on the other hand you’re supposed to help your guild mates out when they are in trouble, so who am I to criticize?

And to think that the only time I saw a guildmate of mine interrupting my duel I let him almost die because I stopped playing as soon as he attacked my opponent :/

TheGreatA.4192:

As an example, I was fighting a competitive duel with a guy from TEO guild, and while on the verge of victory got hit by around 30 TEO players from behind and a few laugh taunts on top. Now I could whine about not getting a “fair fight” but on the other hand you’re supposed to help your guild mates out when they are in trouble, so who am I to criticize?

And to think that the only time I saw a guildmate interrupting my duel I let him almost die because I stopped playing as soon as he attacked my opponent :/

Berk.8561:

hihey.1075:

Working as intended. I’ve done things like this before (but used only 2 alphas and it was a T2 keep, and we were 4 people, 3 of us were mesmers lol) and it’s incredibly funny.
I can say that the pleasure YOU had in upgrading all that stuff was way less than the pleasure those 5 guys had when taking those keeps.

You are aware that the game has this whole other huge map full of easy-to-take targets defended by a variety of NPCs called PvE, right? If you find beating up NPC guards a blast, you should find endless entertainment there. They even release new Living Story content there every 2 weeks to keep things fresh. You can even follow endless champion-farming loot trains around several maps in PvE, an experience not unlike doing PvDoor against an outnumbered opponent except that the encounters have a little more variety and may actually be a bit more challenging to defeat with 3-4 players.

Ehm… wut? If you are accusing me of being a pvd lover you picked the wrong user.
Thing is, when you roam at 3 AM and you find no one anywhere, with the exception of a 30+ppl karma train, you are inclined to group up with some other roamers and try something different rather than the occasional sentry or camp.

Was it funnier than a proper duel or an outnumbered fight against 2 bad players and 2 upleveleds? No. But it surely was funnier than going around cappin sentries while fleeing from a zerg.

Anyway, it is not you who decide what people can do and what people cannot do to have fun. If people fight for PvD, let them. I have nothing against it, since I couldn’t care less about points. Sometimes I even follow the night karma train just because I like making fun of other people in TS. Sometimes I troll the guys in Teamchat and throw 20+ ballista blueprints in front of a gate. This is WvW.

Wamgor.9347:

That is true, as for whining about it just stating facts of our server… maybe I have a less biased opinion than some people who always says enemy servers always blob but not their own.

When your allies constantly add into your fights, to spoil them and make them unchallenging and uncompetitive, that is worse… and its a case of swings and roundabouts at times in WvW… but we never fully endorse that style of play… some will get paybacked no worries about that… but to rob yourself of fun/challenge/victory by easymoding in zerg is tedious as hell(if easymoders laugh doesn’t bother me im laughing too out of pity)… If ya want that playstyle just x fer to a tier 1 server… make a well necro follow blue dot and tag everything… pretty straight forward for playing WvW as it was “designed”

Ps. Im allergic to handholding unless its with Turx… then its okay but only on weekends

Well put.
If every guild shared the same opinion, WvW would be a better place imho.

jonnis.2946:

My Story

I’m a total novice to the game in WvW terms, just got to rank 20 on one char and have rank 10 from the rest of my play since the games release, or whenever ranks came out, I really don’t know, I spent most of my time before that in sPvP. So I voice these opinions from a back drop of little experience accepting that many of them have probably been voiced before, and perhaps many of the solutions I’ve though of too.

Rant

hide spoiler

I’ve been playing for about 3 days, and got home late after the reset. I started working on Garrison and Bay, both keeps that we held but that we’re in relatively early stages. As a team effort we pushed Garrison through to T3. I was running Dolyaks mostly, and also invested a lot in the upgrades. I also retook and upgraded camps and at times scouted enemy zergs.

We got the waypoint up at Garrison and most people went to bed, it was late. I got fortified walls started before turning most of my attention to bay. I pushed bay through reinforced walls, gates and cannons and was halfway through mortars. In that time, I ran a tonne of Dolyaks, endlessly recaptured the south camp and held it for lengthy periods of time, and warded off two zergs with the help of some other players on my server.

Having just got into WvW this was what I found myself really wanting to do, making the fortresses that our Zergs had built impenetrable. I was sure that we could hold GG, and hoped to have Bay up to a similar standard.

Then five kittens from a rival server turned up. They had two Omega Golems and one Alpha golem, that was it. 5 people, 3 pieces of Siege. As soon as they appeared on the map I sieged up Bay, feeling sure that Garrison would hold. I had arrow carts and a ballista set up on the inner wall, as much as I could manage before they got to me.

This 5 man force managed to take first Garrison, fully upgraded, then paper Hills, then Bay, within the space of about 10 minutes. I didn’t receive any support from my team mates, and I put up a hard fight, but I was left empty handed as eventually they got in, got me downed, and killed my lord

TL;DR
I spent ages upgrading a few keeps. 5 players with 3 golems came and took all 3 of our keeps in 10 minutes.

I can honestly say that I have never felt such an overwhelming sense of disappointment and helplessness. I felt like my efforts that evening were totally trival. I piled time, effort and gold into upgrading those keeps. I called for help on EB and got none. If a 70 man zerg had rolled in and taken them, that would be something else, but the way it happened for me is just unacceptable, all my hard work undone by 5 people doing something very very basic.

Working as intended. I’ve done things like this before (but used only 2 alphas and it was a T2 keep, and we were 4 people, 3 of us were mesmers lol) and it’s incredibly funny.
I can say that the pleasure YOU had in upgrading all that stuff was way less than the pleasure those 5 guys had when taking those keeps.

Since I will finally be done with my degree Thesis next Thursday, I invite everyone who is willing to do some nice duels to show up in the new Arena on Thursday, December 5th, at 6PM UTC.
No stacks, no perplexity.
Be warned, though: if you bring an easymode PU Mesmer I’ll come with a D/P Thief.

Barrigon.8965:

I think the more annoying class is P/D thief.
Anyway i’ll be really grateful if somebody can post where can i search good for solo roaming specs, especially guardian, all i dive into ase useless and i wanna have a point of reference.
Ty all.

P/D thief is hardcountered by D/P and by any kind of elementalist. Also, depending on their utilities, Hambow can easily dispatch a P/D.

Nick.6972:

Upscaled bear Rangers.

You mean this?
http://i.imgur.com/fydTXML.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/RByhx2D.jpg (after he chased me for 30 seconds, but I didn’t stomp)

He was even using Magic Find food.

The best part is when he pressed “D” for 3 seconds in order to turn his body.

Reserved

Reserved

Since the release of the new Arena, I managed to get a lot of new, entertaining fights against a vast combination of classes – I’d say, with the exception of Elementalists, I’ve dueled almost every spec out there.
The purpose of this topic is to make a reliable guide about which specs can counter other specs. There is a similar thread in the sPvP Forums, but that does not cover the whole lot of possibilities provided by WvW, hence the reason to make this one.

Disclaimer: this topic is meant primarly for 1v1s. It does not involve PvD, siege, zergs, guilds. This is why I will NOT include builds like Healway Guardians or Hammer-Sword+Warhorn Warriors, as they are not meant for small encounters and will not be relevant to the matter at hand.

Keep in mind that this will be a collaborative topic. I will try to update it regularly and I need all the possible feedback I can get in order to keep it simple and effective.

Let’s start by listing the most common specs you can find in WvW. I’ll avoid mentioning Perplexity as most players still consider it broken even after the nerf:

Elementalist
Tanky D+D Ele with Might stacking (Soldier gear & Sigil of battle), usually X X X 20 30
Burst S+D or S+F Ele, usually X 30 X X 20 (found only one of these in two weeks, but can still be listed here)

Engineer (I don’t know much about Engi traits as I’ve never played one, so could use some help on these)
Condi Engineer, P+S (never fought a decent P+P before)
Static Discharge Engineer, Rifle

Guardian
Meditation Guardian, Sc+Torch/GS (some of these are really deadly!), 10 X 30 5 X

Mesmer
Pure Phantasm Mesmer, GS/Sw+P 20 20 0 30
Shatter Mesmer (too many variants here), X 20 X X 30
Prismatic Understanding Condi Mesmer X 20 30 X X

Necromancer (know nothing about Necro’s traits, could use some help on this too)
Power Necro (met some, not really appealing in 1v1 imho), Staff/D+D
_Condi Necro with Dhuumfire, Staff/Sc+D

Ranger
Power Ranger GS+LB (again, not very appealing in 1v1 imho)
Condi Ranger, mixed utilities, SB/Sw+D or Axe+Torch
Spirit Condi Ranger, SB/Sw+D or Sw+T, X 10 20 30 X

Thief
Condi Thief, P+D (traits can vary so much that it’s difficult to define a base spec)
Permastealth Thief, D+P, X 20 30 X X
Burst+Stealth Thief D+D, 10 30 20 X X
S/D Thief S+D, X X X 20 30

Warrior
Condi Warrior, Sw+Sw/LB, X X 20 20 X
_Hambow Warrior, LB/H, 0 10 0 30 30
_Permastun Warrior, H/M+Sh, 0 10 0 30 30

Of course, please do tell if I was wrong in some points: I’ll try to mend my mistakes ASAP (but please provide some reasons too)

Now, on to the “who beats who”.

Of course, assuming an equal skill level of both opponents, this is what I have learnt from the duels I had as a D/P thief and as a Pure Phantasm Mesmer:

D+P Thief wins over:
_Condi Warrior
_Burst Ele
_Static Discharge Engineer
_Power Necro
_Condi Necro
_Power Ranger
_Condi Thief
_D+D Thief

D+P loses to:
_Condi Engineer
_Shatter Mesmer
_Hambow Warrior
_Permastun Warrior
_Spirit Condi Ranger
_PU Mesmer

D+P is fighting on equal terms with:
_Meditation Guardian
_Pure Phantasm Mesmer
_Condi Ranger
_S+D Thief

Pure Phantasm Mesmer wins to:
_Condi Ranger
_Power Ranger
_Hambow Warrior
_Permastun Warrior
_Static Discharge Engineer
_Power Necro
_Condi Necro

Pure Phantasm Mesmer loses to:
_Condi Warrior
_PU Mesmer
_S+D Thief
_D+D Thief
_Spirit Condi Ranger

Pure Phantasm Mesmer is fighting on equal ground with:
_D+P Thief
_Condi Thief
_Shatter Mesmer
_Condi Engineer
_Meditation Guardian
_Condi Ranger
_Burst S+D Ele
_Tanky D+D Ele

These are from MY experiences. If other people agree with me on these, I’ll write this in the second post of this thread.
Now, please do share YOUR point of view on the specs you use: if the general consensus agrees, I will put those in the second post.

If everything goes as planned, we would have a complete and exact list the pros and cons of every common spec.

Thank you in advance for your collaboration

Thank you AM for trolling in the new Arena. I loved killing your troll GS/Mace+Shield Warrior and that 30 30 10 0 0 pure zerk thief.

I like it. A lot.
There are the usual trolls but nothing that can’t be dealt with – they mostly don’t even know how to play so they are a free kill.
I’ve even found some nice tricks that can be used in nasty situations

Can anyone link the recipe for this stuff?
What EXACTLY is required to craft an ascended backpiece?

Nice fights with the Hammer/Axe+Shield Warrior from Apox (rank: Recruit) in the new arena! Those fights were really a blast!

Zord.6130:

aspirine.6852:

Zord.6130:

aspirine.6852:

xandermander.4810:

aspirine.6852:

So is this a bug, an exploit or perhaps both? Whatever it is it does not look like it should happen.

Not a bug or exploit its just placing a cata on the ground at that spot

But there is no ground there. I doubt this was intended by Anet.

That cata must have surely been placed by the plague AM, who not only relies on blobbing to win, they also uses exploits and zoom hacks and pass through walls and spies and…

Ahh the old sarcasm trick, I get it =)
It happens to be that this AVA guild was the same one that tried to bug it’s way into woodhaven. But I suspect you will have quite the sarcastic reply to defend this.

Ahahah! You never cease to amaze me

Nice video, entertaining to watch.
That’s a solid condi build you are running, but I would have liked to see that against a PU Mesmer or a Hambow (or even condi) warrior.

Aracknoid.2538:

Leviathan.8029:

Props for GD tonight on MS border.

Had some amazing fights all evening.
We won some, we lost some. I’ve had a lot of fun, even though being outnumbered (was a nice challenge)
Tonight, you guys offered us exactly what we wanted when we transferred back to EU, so thank you.

I’d love to fight you on even numbers any time soon, because you have some very skilled players and I would love to see the outcome of those fights.

Too bad we lost a lot of players due to the log-in servers and RL stuff, so we had to call it a night.

We need more fights like this to get back to our old level!

~Tiff

“elevator music”

Hey, you copied my Staff Ele build!

I often laugh at people using FotM builds and lose badly when they weren’t supposed to lose to a build like mine.
I often throw ballistas on SA Thieves’ corpses.
I often run from a Perplexity Engi or a PU Mesmer.
I never stomp if the fight I just had entertained me.
I never stomp the last downed guy in a outnumbered fight.
I never kill upleveleds unless they chase me for 30s straight (and I will not stomp them after downing them).
I am the author of all my builds, but some of them could still be considered “FotM” because the game has been out for so long that all viable builds have been discovered already.
I never run away from a 1v1 unless I see other opponents incoming during a balanced fight.
I always stop fighting if I see a servermate joining and interrupting the duel, and if my opponent manages to down my servermate I will not interrupt the stomp.

So, am I dishonorable or honorable?

Thank you for the 600 kills in 3 hours, AM and MS

Noss.4105:

I’m not 100% sure of the PU, but asura with staff+scepter/torch, perplexity and Knight -rank if I remember right.

Ah, the Bane of every roamer. I was lucky I was unable to roam in this matchup, if I were to meet that guy I would probably ragequit

Wanze.8410:

Looks like ascended armorcrafting wont be introduced with next patch and you all can relax a little bit.

Source?