Guild Wars 2

Hax.6217:

I always call a target for myself and mesmers are a piece of cake =D Ctrl+T and watch why he gets all mad he cant split to avoid you….on the other hand baddie mesmers always move after they make illusions making it really easy to pick em out of a crowd of confusion.
While they are downed like everyone said red arrow above their head is a dead give away.

Unless they use decoy which I always have. So I dodge and right when i dodge I also drop decoy which leaves the thief attacking my decoy then illusionary leap (if i havent used it yet) Blurred frenzy and mind wrack=Dead thief… And you can always tell which thieves are bad… They will spam heartseeker when you are at full health which does nothing. lol

Aleph Naught.9034:

Lordryux.9785:

because its definitly like a must now 1 mind wrack will grant you about 18 stacks of might lol

18 stacks of Might from a single Mind Wrack. Right.

From a single mindwrack and iffffff you use the mirror blade on the GS with illusionary elascticity… So much might…

Lordryux.9785:

Blackmoon.6837:

They do good damage when you’re able to 1-up your enemy. Although I have run into plenty of others who know the mesmer well enough to be able to hold out and drop me like butter. It really depends on who you’re fighting.

As for PvE, not so much. I do dungeons a lot and find that even when I use damage (+10 against svanir etc) and/or +power/precision/crit dmg food… I’m still a weakling compared to the rest of my party. I’ve tried many variations too, and everything feels weak. I’ve tried pumping a precision and power sigil to max before switching to a +10 dmg weapon. I don’t know. The damage rates always feel the same and too low compared to what a warrior or thief is dishing out.

WATTTT i feel like an unkillable god in dungeons lmao damage of izerker is freakin amazing plus the stacks of might u can get with just one mindwrack is rediculous you must be doing something wrong.

like tbh im literally always the last man standing reviving people and saving thier behinds constantly during dungeons even in AC against kholer people getting downed so easily lol im in the back just dishing out crazy damage and spreading my might stacks to my team with signet of inspiration im loving it

I must agree here I completed a full fractal level with a warrior, Ele, ranger, and a guardian I think was the last one. I was the only one that NEVER fully died. And I was downed once by that stupid sons of svanir shaman’s ice explosions… other than that. EVERYONE else went down or died way more than me… A mesmer can be tankier than a warrior. Why? Signet of illusions. If you run shatter heavy have signet of illusions with your sword… You CAN be invulnerable for about 12 seconds… Longer than any block duration and it saves your endurance….

Tulisin.6945:

Art.9820:

Why don’t you people understand gw2 is not a hardcore pvp game…. please understand that this game is for casual players if you want to show how awesome you are go to w/e game where skill is only thing that matters

The funniest part of this is that going to arguably one of the most “hardcore” large-scale PvP environments, EVE Online, and proclaiming that you want to win against >300 % of your numbers because of your amazing skills would get you laughed out of town. Now there’s a game where the community has recognized that decisive objective-based combat rests on the back of masses of average skilled players who can listen to instruction, leadership, resource management, and strategy, not individual player skill.

There’s a place for “elite” small-numbers combat, but it isn’t on the opposite side of the field from a massive zerg.

Chorazin

""but dont have the next important part of the game figured out is finishing enemies""
I think i have it figured out reasonably well, see my above scenario, i could bank on a tw stomp working but if it doesnt come off ive wasted tw for no gain(with still 2 players up, as the scenario played out i used tw to drop player 2) or i could try a distortion stomp to negate the focus DPS i will take when i stand still for 3 seconds to stomp with distortion. Distortion unfortunately doesnt grant me stability so just 1 knockback, pull, knockdown and ive wasted that as well.
You could argue that i should have tried the tw stomp anyway, but its a gamble, i can go ‘the here and now’ lets try and finish this thief by burning everything and hope i can pull through against the other 2 players or as it turns out i chose to hold it out and dropped player 2 with it. Had i used it to stomp im not sure i would have been able to drop that player with a lot of my stuff on cool down that i burned to stomp a player that has already been defeated because he chose to burn 90% of his initiative spamming hs to catch me.

Being skilled at manipulating the downed state means more than “which stomp should I choose”, sometimes it means resorting to direct damage to finish, sometimes means not stomping at all and merely keeping an opponent from rallying themselves. There’s a meta around the downed state, and it doesn’t start when an opponent goes down.

The guardian bubble is annoying. The thief teleport is annoying the mesmer teleport is annoying the ranger pet heal is annoying… On and on… All usually delay inevitable especially for 1v1 fights. But remove them no. Because there are alot of times when it comes down to two downed players fighting each other from the downed state and its awesome! lol.

ktith.6197:

So I hear that DR is already claiming “be ready to be roflstomped” when they move up a tier and might get matched against Maguuma….

It’s still early in this week’s matchup and ask Dragonbrand what happened last matchup when they thought Maguuma was going down a bracket.

If it’s meant to be, I’ll welcome it….as I’ll be GASM hunting the entire week, and a few PRO too.

Gasms love to fight.

Also make SURE that you use signet of illusions… Clones stay alive longer for you to put more out and if you run through all your shatters you can still reset them all by activating the signet.

Troponin.4081:

I am level 30 on my mesmer, have all blue/green gear etc. With one enemy, I can take them down ok, the problem is, with CDs and lack of a good AoE (and I don’t mean, 1 AoE with a CD too long to use a second time in a fight), running from enemy to enemy, you kill slower and slower, or you’re waiting on CDs before you pull the next one. I NEVER have this issue on any of my other alts. I have every prof up to level 30, and Mesmer is by far the squishiest, slowest killing of any of them, even with a glass spec.

This is where the “grinding” comes in… As a lvl 80 and I was downleveled for this part of the map pve I took on a Vet Cave Spider in timberline falls with ONLY a GS I just had 3 beserkers up and sat and watched as the spider killled one but was crippled again because of crippling dissipation. And then I set up another beserker… I honestly did not use the auto attack a SINGLE time…. I just stayed out of the way. Trust me mesmers really really are fun. In WvW you can solo a 2v1 with other players and WIN. So don’t hate the class.

Rashiakas.2459:

not sure why my post got deleted, but again:

I don’t want to be rude, but I can’t really believe you. I COULD see the class being less of a pain with both -20% cooldown talents, but before then you just don’t get enough clones out to fight more then one opponent at a time efficiently. Sure, I can kite 5 mobs around as well, but it takes ages to kill them and only works with melee enemies anyway.

Staff? Damage is subpar. Why does it have vulnerability? Why do I want +1% dmg? Garbage.

GS? Why do I do LESS damage the closer the enemy is? What a * mechanic for PVE. Also, 3’s area is way to small.

Sword? A good weapon, really. But going melee is a deathwish with this class.

Pistol? Good weapon, but cooldowns are way to long.

Focus? Gimmicky.

Torch? Yeah. As if confusion is working in pve.

Overall, the summon CD’s are to long, the time between attacks is to long for its damage, not enough AE and cooldown on shatter is just not optimal.

Try getting more traits int the precision/crit line. When you get to twenty pick the deceptive evasion major trait. Everytime you dodge you can drop a clone. And then in illusions pick illusionist celerity reduce recharge on shatter skills my 20% absolute must. I felt the same way you did about mesmer but when I set my traits right is when it became really fun. And the CD on pistols is long but they are great skills for crowd control and mobs. and sword if you do illusionary leap blurred frenzy with mind wrack your DPS/burst can beat a thief. I run a GS/Sword Pistol combo and it is really powerful. In mobs or against bosses try getting three ibeserkers up at once. Its really fun.

KensaiZen.3740:

Thief are not OP. Their stealth+game engine makes them broken.

Or if you look at it in terms of balance. They have highest damage, highest mobility, AND can go invisible.

There is no negative side of their play style. They can pretty much kill most people as they like because their is not negative to them being high damage or their high mobility or their stealth.

The combination of these three elements is what makes them seem OP when in fact its their stealth ability alone which makes them broken.

They should be moving -75% mobility when in stealth as you have to “sneak” behind someone to back stab them, not sprinting to them. Escape also removes targeting which is pretty powerful as it is combined with their mobility but to be invisible completely and only appearing well out of 1200 range is stupidly powerful. 100% garauntee escape.

Every class has their strengths and weaknesses but where is the weakness of a thief?

Stupidly low health pool. Aside from that the system in WvW (Ie rendering/culling) is the real problem. This completely negates the 3s debuff when a Thief breaks stealth to enter combat. If it worked properly then thieves would be way deader. However as a mesmer fighting a thief is something i find challenging. Usually I win unless they pick me off when I am fighting someone else (Which is something Anet did intend) was for thieves to hop around the battle field picking off weaker opponents when they can.

Nightarch.2943:

Tyr.6097:

Introducing a sword offhand.

/Signed

As for S/P, S/D: rework pistol whip to be exactly the same as Blurred Frenzy, instant and convenient, flanking strike should be exactly the same as serpent’s strike, just with an off hand poke and without the snake.

I play a thief and a Mes Blurred frenzy=Heartseeker imo. And The extreme over poweredness that thieves get with backstab and steal in WvW is kinda nuts…

Dual.8953:

jportell.2197:

Dual.8953:

jportell.2197:

Dual.8953:

jportell.2197:

Rinzler.8072:

Dunno, a thief that can kill one person fast. But a mesmer can portal in a whole zerg that can kill 20 people fast and take a whole tower/keep.

I would argue that a mesmers portal ability is more powerful than a thiefs ability to beat someone in a duel.

Thieves are powerful at killing players, mesmers are powerful at taking WVW objectives.

If u wanna nerf stealth, u gotta nerf portals too. aka make them only transport 5 people in max.

Portals have been nerfed to a limited number of uses. Thieves on the other hand haven’t been touched… I do not support the nerfing of any class rather wish that we could all max out how we run our own builds and get a preference there.

Thief has been touched a few times by damage nerfs. Anet’s probably reluctant do anything to stealth because 90% of thieves’ survival comes from stealth along with a large chunk of their offense. They’re very weak without it.

Where were the damage nerfs? Steal BS HS is still ridiculous in damage. Like half your health in a few seconds… But that only happened to me when I played as a thief in WvW

-Heartseeker: Reduced damage of the 100%-50% threshold by 20%. Damage thresholds changed.
Old: 100%-66%, 66%-33%, 33%-0%.
New: 100%-50%, 50%-25%, 25%-0%.
-Assassin’s Signet: This skill has been updated to grant 15% damage for 5 attacks rather than 50% damage for one attack.
-Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
-Basilisk Venom: Increased stun duration to 1.5 seconds. Stun breakers now work on this skill.

As for ones that don’t pertain to BS and HS spam builds:
-Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%
-Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
-Pistol Whip: Reduced damage by 15%. (Used to be complained about, now is no better then auto attack and S/P has pretty much been dropped by players)

I notice alot of those have only in PvP. So how does this factor into WvW where most people are griping. When you go to WvW you only get upleveled your stats for the most part stay the same as PvE… So do the ones that were nerfed for pvp also get nerfed for WvW? Does anyone have feed back for that?

If 2 is “a lot”, also not sure. I do know that I’ve never come to WvW looking for a fair fight. It’s not a balanced world, and there a lots of things that can kill you. I find the thought that one or more players can come over the hill and smite you stimulating.

Well i meant damage wise because CnD do ridic damage in WvW I conversely have never done spvp so I wouldn’t know.

Dual.8953:

jportell.2197:

Dual.8953:

jportell.2197:

Rinzler.8072:

Dunno, a thief that can kill one person fast. But a mesmer can portal in a whole zerg that can kill 20 people fast and take a whole tower/keep.

I would argue that a mesmers portal ability is more powerful than a thiefs ability to beat someone in a duel.

Thieves are powerful at killing players, mesmers are powerful at taking WVW objectives.

If u wanna nerf stealth, u gotta nerf portals too. aka make them only transport 5 people in max.

Portals have been nerfed to a limited number of uses. Thieves on the other hand haven’t been touched… I do not support the nerfing of any class rather wish that we could all max out how we run our own builds and get a preference there.

Thief has been touched a few times by damage nerfs. Anet’s probably reluctant do anything to stealth because 90% of thieves’ survival comes from stealth along with a large chunk of their offense. They’re very weak without it.

Where were the damage nerfs? Steal BS HS is still ridiculous in damage. Like half your health in a few seconds… But that only happened to me when I played as a thief in WvW

-Heartseeker: Reduced damage of the 100%-50% threshold by 20%. Damage thresholds changed.
Old: 100%-66%, 66%-33%, 33%-0%.
New: 100%-50%, 50%-25%, 25%-0%.
-Assassin’s Signet: This skill has been updated to grant 15% damage for 5 attacks rather than 50% damage for one attack.
-Cloak and Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 33% in PvP only.
-Basilisk Venom: Increased stun duration to 1.5 seconds. Stun breakers now work on this skill.

As for ones that don’t pertain to BS and HS spam builds:
-Dancing Dagger: This skill’s damage has been reduced by 50%
-Cluster Shot: This skill’s damage is reduced by 15% in PvP.
-Pistol Whip: Reduced damage by 15%. (Used to be complained about, now is no better then auto attack and S/P has pretty much been dropped by players)

I notice alot of those have only in PvP. So how does this factor into WvW where most people are griping. When you go to WvW you only get upleveled your stats for the most part stay the same as PvE… So do the ones that were nerfed for pvp also get nerfed for WvW? Does anyone have feed back for that?

WrathOfGod.4695:

Sapphirias.7164:

jportell.2197:

GASM was doing amazing last night in EB. one 5 person team going bonkers taking several towers and then retaking them because AR and NSP were trying to defend their keeps from morningstar’s relentless assaults.

I was a part of that team. It also gained me a level boost from 73 to 77 in about 3 hours time. not bad.

I think it was me who made that team, if it was then I am proud that it made it to forums =)

- – Get used to it NSP + AR, because I’m going to be doing that all week long.

Firefly?

Dual.8953:

jportell.2197:

Rinzler.8072:

Dunno, a thief that can kill one person fast. But a mesmer can portal in a whole zerg that can kill 20 people fast and take a whole tower/keep.

I would argue that a mesmers portal ability is more powerful than a thiefs ability to beat someone in a duel.

Thieves are powerful at killing players, mesmers are powerful at taking WVW objectives.

If u wanna nerf stealth, u gotta nerf portals too. aka make them only transport 5 people in max.

Portals have been nerfed to a limited number of uses. Thieves on the other hand haven’t been touched… I do not support the nerfing of any class rather wish that we could all max out how we run our own builds and get a preference there.

Thief has been touched a few times by damage nerfs. Anet’s probably reluctant do anything to stealth because 90% of thieves’ survival comes from stealth along with a large chunk of their offense. They’re very weak without it.

Where were the damage nerfs? Steal BS HS is still ridiculous in damage. Like half your health in a few seconds… But that only happened to me when I played as a thief in WvW

Rinzler.8072:

Dunno, a thief that can kill one person fast. But a mesmer can portal in a whole zerg that can kill 20 people fast and take a whole tower/keep.

I would argue that a mesmers portal ability is more powerful than a thiefs ability to beat someone in a duel.

Thieves are powerful at killing players, mesmers are powerful at taking WVW objectives.

If u wanna nerf stealth, u gotta nerf portals too. aka make them only transport 5 people in max.

Portals have been nerfed to a limited number of uses. Thieves on the other hand haven’t been touched… I do not support the nerfing of any class rather wish that we could all max out how we run our own builds and get a preference there.

Gubrz.7283:

jportell.2197:

Okay so is it safe to say that mesmers arent busy blowing up the WvW forum kittening about thieves?

no more than anyone else who hates their silliness

the BUGS is what has me annoyed.. an easily powerful class gets turned into TOO powerful

oh, i also hate their aoe stealth vs ours

id trade them any day…

anyone who tries to make the mesmer one sound better is just blinded by the fact its an “elite” rolls eyes

oh, and their run buff

im sure theres 3 other things, but im sure you can just guess what they are, so when i eventually think of them, i wont edit and drive u nuts…

No please I am enjoying the feed back. this is more constructive than the WvW thief rage. But I am glad to see that us as a class feel we can deal with the “thief” problem effectively.

Okay so is it safe to say that mesmers arent busy blowing up the WvW forum kittening about thieves?

^Thank you. Every SINGLE class has a dmg mitigation ability and crowd control all of which are necessary for EVERY Build in the game in WvW pvp and pve… Class bashing is getting annoying. And I main a mes.

So essentially the biggest whiners when it comes to thieves are noobs or people that want a cuddly class they can see coming? Well in general classes you see coming will light you up anyways. Take a D/D ele. And mesmers you can see coming but don’t always know which is which. But this can be figured out eventually. Being well rounded is way more viable than griping about the power of another class.

Glad we could help. Mesmers for life.

I sincerely love signet of illusions for BOTH effects. I run a shatter heavy build and this signet gets me out of more than a few sketchy situations. Think of it like this you can drop your illusions and keep them alive then boom shatter. within a split second you can have like 3 more up playing your cards right. then switch to phantasms and if it gets sketchy use f4 which is awesome. and if its still sketchyACTIVATE the signet recharging all skills while dropping more clones then shatter again. and you have EIGHT seconds of invuln in a row… so this signet is the absolute best signet a mesmer can have IF they run shatter heavy.

Xuthus.8103:

1st of all, if you love what your Ele is doing for you right now. then stick with it.

I want my mes to do that kind of damage and be durable too.
• I don’t use ele so i think i don’t know that “kind of damage” that you are talking about. but finding your right build(don’t wanna spoon feed) can came up for a durable and powerful in damage mesmer as well.

I know we use illusions etc for distracting,
- Using clones and phantasms are not only for distraction. Depends on your build.

By using shatter build, Usually you use it to shatter and deal significant damage.
By using condition damage build, you usually maintain your phantasms (not clones) alive to help you dealt more damage.

By looking at this, clones nor illusions are built for mesmer damage output.(Thats why Anet boots its damage in the latest patch note) actually in my point of view, being a destruction for clones/phantasms is just a bonus for mesmers. But, remember. Skilled enemy player no doubt can easily track you by Ctrl+T. <— Its OP Anet pls nerf it..

they aren’t 100% and getting aggro on a mob, especially multiples, you WILL take damage.
- In my opinion as a mesmer, you should never give your phantasms aggro at all. Why..? they are not like Ranger’s pet that will tank for you. They are built for damage output, and not capable of taking that damage to keep you alive. Its a matter of positioning your self well in battle, Maintaining your Clone and Phantasm cooldown on track, avoiding by using Dodge and using your invi. (Decoy)+ other utility skills well to put your self out of danger.

I don’t know if i helped you for your issues. But as a fellow mesmer, kindly let me fix some of your misconception about the class as i know it and for those pro-mesmer users out there. kindly correct me my info if wrong. Thanks.

100% right. Mesmers do not need nerfed into oblivion And it is a class that is tough to play because sometimes dropping enough clones to do anything is hard if they get killed before you can shatter/heal (ether feast is awesome) We do have some amazing group utility and I have had ppl try to counter this but from my experience mass invis CAN stealth more than 5 people. It is just the range. So enjoy the D/D ele. And we mesmers will try to decieve you enough to do some damage. Btw I think ele’s have it good because they have more weapon skills due to attunements than you can shake a stick at.

It GREATLY depends on what you have traited. If you have 0 traits in the Chaos line i think which is all about Cond damage and use a staff then yes you are a joke because the staff is all about the Cond damage over time not raw power. The best way to find out if you are doing it right is look at the trait lines and you will often see traits that mesh nicely with weapons you are using. It is a very synergistic type of game that they have made with regards to weapons/skills/traits. But if you are running a staff enjoy! I like GS/SP and only use a focus really if I need to get around.

I will say that I love WvW when you run with a good team and don’t solo. I have never played ANY MMO before this. But I play on a 13" Macbook pro. (gasp) yes a mac. With the lowest system specs. Get VERY little lag if i avoid zergs (and if I am right that is because of culling not the PC) And love playing with my guild. I think Anet has done a good job with WvW for the MOST part. DR is a super fun server to play on to because noone rages that I see.

We better be careful. Pretty soon people are going to be calling for us to get nerfed. Shhhh… I wish people would just like the game with the class they enjoy the most.

Why is everyone calling for nerfs on other professions just because they cannot effectively fight it. Being able to have any dmg mitigation in your set up is crucial in EVERY build even a glass cannon build should have one dmg mitigation. For mesmers that run shatter heavy that is decoy. We do not need nerfed. NO class in this game needs nerfed. People need to pick a profession they love and stick with it and learn how to fight every other profession.

Sapphirias.7164:

jportell.2197:

GASM was doing amazing last night in EB. one 5 person team going bonkers taking several towers and then retaking them because AR and NSP were trying to defend their keeps from morningstar’s relentless assaults.

I was a part of that team. It also gained me a level boost from 73 to 77 in about 3 hours time. not bad.

Yup Playing smart in WvW can be way more fun than mindless zombies following a blue diamond. Commanders are great but sometimes there are so many people that think the Commander is talking to them lol…

Coming from a mesmer. I play mainly in WvW and will dodge and drop decoy as soon as a thief starts to open up on me. They are busy heartseeking or DBing my clones and I am still invisible. Then once i am sure they have burned through their ini I throw in illusionary leap (which is kinda buggy) blurred frenzy and MW and that usually gets them to almost jack health because you guys have 12,000 in WvW right? And then I can stun and interrupt them SEVERAL times which alot of other professions can do. So my only real issue is with culling and lag. Which I’m sure you all agree is not a class base but system based flaw. Thieves may be OP in some respects but then again so IS every other class… in some respects. Mesmers with shattering warriors with adrenaline guardian=block block block. Necros can drop more condi than anyone and have that annoying death shroud. Im sorry everyone is calling to nerf you guys. They are calling on it for mesmers too… It’s sad when people blame game design not their lack of adaptability.

Please no more thief rage. I don’t play one in WvW much I think my thief got the least love of all my toons. But seriously… Stealth does not equal invuln unlike a mes that could possibly be invuln for 12 seconds playing their cards right. The entire basis of the thief class is hit and run. They have the lowest health pool and if they have ALOT of skills that encourage stealth then they are also burning ini quite quick… The only issue I have about fighting thieves is something that is not in the hands of the person at the keyboard.

^and the thief thought he was killing you hahah. Shatter builds with A COUPLE stealth skills and thief is dead… 1v1. I have gotten owned by thieves that ganked me while I was soloing a supply camp. But all my skills were in cool down and i think my health wasnt full. But seriously thieves have 12,000 HP… THEY need the stealth to even hold a candle to any class. Just the other thing that is out of our hands.

GASM was doing amazing last night in EB. one 5 person team going bonkers taking several towers and then retaking them because AR and NSP were trying to defend their keeps from morningstar’s relentless assaults.

dirtyshame.1863:

Let’s try to tone this down a bit. Looks like people took it as a personal attack on them when I mentioned these things. So… Let me just say what I am really concerned with and try not to offend.

My biggest beef with the mesmer class is that they aren’t punished for shattering clones as they should be. Many builds actually encourage it. I like the idea of the class and played it in spvp and leveled a little.

Let me explain a bit further: Clones are cool idea, and they can be read through. I think the best player should be the one that mimics the clone, not a player than can toss them out like candy. If you do not think they can be spawned at a super rate, then I suggest you look for videos of it being done. I have seen it, and I am sure they are skilled players, but it still seems backwards. To me the shatters should be emergency buttons, and losing a clone should be a big deal to the mesmer. Ranger lose their pets, its their fault to some extent (and ranger is my #2 toon.) Engineers lose turrets easily and explode them on emergency vs picking them up. Granted the turrets are bad, but the idea is still solid I think. Necros lose pets, and it can be a very big deal to builds that revolve around them. You shouldn’t destroy your helpers unless you really need to. I would like to see the builds revolve more around phantasms and clones with good HP so players have to look for the right one. Guardian specced spirit weapons shouldn’t be undestructable as they seem to be either. If you choose a class that has a micro manage system of clones or what have you, then the class should be structured to support that system, not blow it up constantly in your face.

I would be open to a rework of the class myself that involved more about keeping clones alive for trickery and tankiness.

My OP was about playing on my Engineer, but I have played all classes and I know Engineer already has one leg in the hole. The burst control AoE shatter can be too much, and I think it should be toned down. Give the mesmers something to compenstate for it though.

we good mesmers? let’s shake hands ok?

Lol hands shaken. And yes there are builds that revolve around keeping clones up but they reduce the attack time between phantasms by half. That means the ibeserker can do the AOE attack MORE often than a warrior could while possibly dealing similar damage. And the iDuelist can unload their pistols almost at the same rate as a thief. And if the mesmer gets three phantasms up because the phant summoning skills are ridic short with builds that encourage it… It would be almost as damaging as the shatter heavy MW builds. So yes mesmers do run the build that you speak of but some just prefer to drop the clones shatter usually mw first. And if they are dropping them like the should then in 3 more seconds you will get hit with CoF from a full stack of clones. And now usually comes the point when a mesmer will summon phantasms and try to keep them alive. Unless they need distortion to get out of jail free.

EnRohbi.2187:

Greatsword has been my weapon of choice for Mesmers since I was like level 50.

Mind Stab doesn’t bother me anymore, it did for the first few weeks. Last two months or so though I’ve found more uses for it. The boon removal is useful, even if unreliable. I’ve used it to strip retaliation off bosses so many times that I would otherwise just kill myself from retaliation. Though it’d be awesome if it was a blast finisher, the prestige on torch is a pain in the kitten to synergize with fields.
Even in wvw though, I can land Mind Stab without much difficulty, and it does have it’s uses.

I can’t imagine why Illusionary Wave is considered limited use, it’s one of my favourite attacks. The cooldown sucks but the knockback is endlessly useful. An AOE knockback even better.

The AOE burst damage possibilities with Greatsword are awesome if you synergize it well with shatters.

Thank you I completely agree with everything there. And in my melee setup I use S/P How do people like that coupled with a greatsword?

First of all demanding that mesmers lose the ability to shatter and drop clones defeats the basis for the ENTIRE class. Secondly Engineers can have up to count it up to 20 WEAPON skills available at the drop of a hat with ZERO cooldown between swapping kits just the weapon skills are on cool down and if YOU PLAY the engineer right you can be doing damage and causing conditions SEVERAL conditions constantly. And add to this the tool belt skills which are the same idea as a mesmers shatter skills. Our clones do CRAP damage when they are out and the Phantasms have such A LONG pause between their attacks that once they attack they need to be shattered. So no mesmers are not OP and engineers are not UP they are the MOST versatile class in this game not to mention SUPPLY DROP which stuns drops turrets and med packs and that equals a dead Mesmer…guardian…thief…warrior…ele…necro…ranger… Have I made myself clear? And also I think mesmers are THE ONLY class that doesn’t really complain about thieves in WvW. So please learn your profession and understand that as an engineer you have access to some of the most damage dealing condition causing skills in the game.

But you don’t have any huge complaints like OMG thieves are Op and need nerfed into oblivion right?

I used suggestion two tonight with a party running around EB in the DR/NSP/AR match up… It was sooo fun and effective to boot.

Okay so I LOVE me some WvW and all I hear on the threads in the WvW forums is thief rage… Imo mesmers can stealth like thieves (not for as long) Much higher burst damage if running a shatter build and we can stealth an entire zerg w/in a 1200 radius… But we get no rage? I love fighting thieves because yeah they can stealth but we stealth and drop a clone they fight the clone we annihilate them. I avoid zergs in WvW because I think that is a dumb way to play it. I have a lot of people that enjoy doing 5 man parties on specific tasks. But the main reason for this post. MESMERS how do you feel about fighting thieves in WvW? I think its fun and challenging and if I die. Then they did good. If I kill them. I did good.

I like that last one… I like the greatsword for the vuln and the beserker. So synergic with the greater distance the greater damage… Also if you are traited right dodging and continuing to kite are really easy with a GS. I like never use a staff.

Okay very well I guess it was terrible… Like I said I was going off the Majority of posts I read concerning the culling because I was not doing WvW at the same time the “fix” was in place…. But they have also said it is going to be addressed in Feb. So lets see.

The culling fix wasn’t something I experienced personally so I based my opinion off of the majority of posts that I have read concerning that fix. And if Anet deletes my post. I understand but I hope that this wouldn’t be considered me calling them out as much as asking for their help or input on the matter. I have seen people whine about getting zerge d over the BoH in jump puzzles and people get mad that those in the puzzle badge farming are making no real contribution. If the badge drops were more reliable from killed enemies or lords then the participation in WvW would rise sharply I think.

This will heavily address issues I have with WvW. NONE of these are enough to make me rage quit the game and I am sure this will be lost in the redundancy of posts made by others.
Issue #1.
Culling… Apparently there was a trial done that a lot of people liked in WvW that really helped with the culling. Hopefully the Devs listen to the people and restore it. I wasn’t playing WvW at the time but if the majority says it helped who am I to argue. I also feel that culling can be addressed by the players if they keep to smaller more organized units (if the definition I have of culling is right). Zergs just seem so unorganized and like everyone is standing around the siege waiting for the wall to come down. This brings me to my next issue.

Issue #2. Communication…
This is a solely player based problem. ANET needs to do NOTHING. If you come onto a map… The only thing you should say in map chat is Lfg and then say what you would like the party you join to be doing so an example is LFG supply. So your party that 5 person team would be taking supply camps… running supply to siege or defending supply camps that are supplying siege. A good strategy that I would do with communication is using the different channels appropriately. Map chat used if a soloer spots something that needs reported. Team chat commanders talking to commanders. Squad chat (needs used more) Commanders talking to the leaders of specific parties. Party chat. The party talking and devising a strategy amongst itself. It takes a lot of discipline to run like this but a well organized server with small groups assigned and fulfilling specific tasks ONLY will take a map much quicker than a zerg following a commander diamond. Once again all the tools we the players need are there we just need to be more organized and STRUCTURED.

Issue#3. Badges
This is something that needs addressed by ANET. The badge drop rate from killing players is HORRENDOUS. I think that if people want WvW to maintain the player aspect the badges need completely removed from the jumping puzzles (the most reliable place to get them) and guaranteed to drop from killed players. 1 badge per killed player would prolly make everyone that does use badges for siege or weapons or the GoB much happier than jumping through your puzzles. Also I have noticed that they drop more reliably from the Supply Camp supervisors than tower and keep lords. Maybe I don’t do enough damage on them when we breach a wall but it is just an observation. In my opinion this is something that ANET could fix more quickly than other problems and that would get people out of jump puzzles and into defending and taking territory.

Aside from these I don’t really have any major problems in WvW. I am not going to stop playing WvW or GW2 but I hope players and Devs alike read because there are issues here that we players can fix and the devs can also fix… Please provide constructive feed back if you deem it necessary. I am also fairly new to WvW so this is not a fully expert opinion but hopefully has some decent insight. If all I have done has created more rage so be it. We players must be patient for fixes though. I am excited for Feb and hope that it does address some of my issues. Thank you all.

I am fairly new to WvW I only really started doing it for the badges but then came to like, yes I said LIKE several aspects of it. I do like the cooperation of it very much. It is great to see organized 5 man parties doing what is necessary to help bring down a keep or a tower or take a camp from behind in someone else’s BL. An effective commander that asks for everyone to be in a party is a good commander. The jumping puzzles having a PVP aspect in them especially somewhere like EB keeps it frustrating but if a game wasn’t a little bit frustrating it would never be a challenge and never be FUN. I plan to continue playing WvW in DR because it is that fun. Now my thoughts on different professions in WvW.
1. The dreaded thief.
Low Health Pool-(12,800)
Can stealth ALOT but when they break stealth to enter combat they have a Debuff that prevents them from reentering stealth for 3 seconds.
Culling is a big deal that can be abused by thieves whether they know it or not.
High burst damage but it can be mitigated by ALL professions with almost any build…
And Damage Mitigation shouldn’t focus on countering thieves… Just countering in general.

2. Mesmers
My class of choice.
Shatter skills are amazing.
Can stealth (just enough to annoy thieves)
Can deal high burst damage and distract opponents.
Get caught with out clones they can be screwed.
Using the right skills they can be invulnerable for 6s. Which is a long time in a fight.
They are not invincible they have light armor and in a glass cannon build are super easy to kill.

3. Engineers
With the right skills they can have 20 weapon skills available….
Supply drop will destroy all.
Very hard to kill but not impossible
Great for defending siege with turrets.
More crowd control skills than you can shake a stick at.

4. The all powerful Ele.
I dont know alot but what I can tell
They can have 30 weapon skills between attunements and the skills that drop weapons.
Can become invulnerable AND move really fast… Annoying but good for them.
AOE damage could drop an entire zerg (exaggeration but not extreme)

5. Ranger
Pets are annoying (good for rangers)
If it is a profession specific skill BINDING ROOTS is just all sorts of good for immob.
Up close they can throw bleeding and down on an opponent in seconds.
Great for scouting and protecting siege plus attacking defenders on walls.
6. Necromancer
I think I have counted 5 “Fiends” around a necro at any one time.
Can drop more conditions than any profession I have seen. And steal health
I think they are under appreciated in WvW and are very powerful.

7. Warrior
Haven’t played a warrior as one of my toons but fighting them 1v1 is a very challenging prospect. They have very high health and heavy armor plus they can dish damage out like its nobody’s business and when the adrenaline is full… I’m pretty much dead… Not to mention the “Shake it off” skill that removes conditions, and I think has a veryyy short cooldown but that is my perception…

8. Guardian
THE ULTIMATE tank. They have Aegis up when every they want it seems like and can pass it off to other characters and it lasts forever! They also have a protective bubble type skill I think… Which is good for protecting siege. These guys are great in groups and almost impossible to bring down yes even by THIEVES.

I have another post I will be making if I haven’t already gone over the limit here. It will be the “issues” I have with WvW

Well the quality of system that mac offers with the customer service and vertically linear servicing really help people buy macs to begin with and other games aside fromWoW such as Half Life 2 and several others have ensured they offer a Mac version… I doubt alot of people share this sentiment but if they were to charge a subscription that would help move the mac version forward I would GLADLY pay it. Like i said I doubt others share that sentiment.

I changed the VRAM setting on Config for my MBP 13" and the notice was almost negligible but we all know the graphics card in the MBP. And the graphics card I would be getting would be the highest available GPU for the iMac. Glad to know the extra ram isn’t really necessary though. And as far as people that are talking about all the bugs they have with mac other than the low FPS on my MBP I really have no lag unless I get zerged in WvW which everyone deals with. But I really do think that the Devs are paying more attention to the Mac version than we think and the biggest issue they have to address if they want to release a full version is how they use the TG warper. Hopefully they system they have on the final release will be flawless… But if a dev reads this WE APPRECIATE the work you do on the game when you can do it. Still an amazing game.

Thank you so much that is really helpful I was considering buying windows only for gaming but hearing this is a big help annnddd I just saw some posts that the devs have responded to. So I think Anet is getting in gear with their Mac version

So I am a Mac person through and through. I can clearly see that gamer devs are paying more and more attention to us Mac Folks…. I am currently playing the game on a 13-in MBP which is obviously on the lowest specs that you can run this game on. I get okay performance but have major lag problems in WvW (I heard this could be due to Anets culling issues). Owning a mac is more important than playing any game to me and this would be a machine that I would use for hopefully 4-5 years. Here are the specs on what I am looking at and I was wondering if any other people are gaming on a 27 in iMac These are the specs that I would be running which are much better than my current MBP

Processor-3.4Ghz Quad core Intel i7 Turbo Boost
RAM-16GB 1600MHz SDRAM
Hard Drive-1TB HDD
Graphics-NVIDIA GeForce FTX 680MX 2GB GDDR5
This is clearly higher than ANETS min system requirements but I am wondering if anyone is gaming on this system with these specs and what their performance is. If its perfect tell me if you have certain problems tell me. I am really not having the same problems that I am seeing posted in these forums though aside from the Low FPS.