Guild Wars 2

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Usually depends what weapon set I happen to have out at the time, but I like to start off with sceptre/torch out,

Something like this

> sceptre 3 (5 stacks of confusion, perplexity usually proc for another 3)
> torch 5 (3 more confusion stacks up to 8/11)
> torch 4 (stealth and dodge towards them and be on top of them when you appear again for a blast of burning)
> sceptre 2 (if they are still attacking with their 8-11 stacks of confusion)
> swap to staff
> keep dodge rolling/phase retreating (staff clones are boss for applying conditions)
> staff 5 (chaos storm on top of them, may proc an interrupt for 5 confusion, mostly it will just add some extra conditions/pressure)
> staff 4 for your chaos armour
> staff 3 if you have time (usually hits for 1-2k depending on how many conditions they have)
>keep rolling around and auto attacking with staff for a bit for conditions
> swap back to sceptre/torch, see what’s off cd and go from there

(at any time you need to, use blink/veil/decoy/whatever you have on your bar to help survive and such)

So a problem with this build (also highlighted by the rotation above) is condition removal.

Using the torch offensively makes it very difficult to use for condition removal (because the skills are on c/d). On top of that it removes at most two conditions (one for each skill if they are not on c/d). So even then it’s pretty weak for conditions.

I’ve had more success lately with a 20/20/0/30/0 phantasm power build with condition removal on shatter and condition removal on heal. A power build also addresses issues with runners.

Unrelated, I suspect that perplexity runes will be nerfed on Oct 15 with a cooldown mechanic. This will limit the incredible confusion stacks some players are getting. Pure speculation but I believe it.

I think the crafted precursors are not the same as the current ones in the game. I think they will introduce a second, entirely different, set of legendary weapons which use the crafted precursors. Based upon their current implementation of ascended, the crafted precursors would be account-bound immediately so they could not be sold.

That would keep the current precursor market in tact with little impact. The volumes in that market are small so I wouldn’t expect to see a price drop even if half of the potential buyers change course and go with crafted precursors.

Finally, I think the crafting of the new precursors will be suitably painful that many players will still go the “old” route and buy the first generation off the TP (or craft in the MF).

< start of flagrant speculation >

There’s no expansion because the profit margin is not as high as the stuff players are buying now in the gem store. It doesn’t cost ANet much NRE (non-recoverable engineering) to make some skins and random loot boxes.

The LS has NRE but honestly the LS is very small compared to a true expansion.

If you think LS is a 1-for-1 substitute content-wise for an expansion then I think your’re being a little naive. It’s about the bare minimum you can crank out every two weeks to cover new additions to the gem store.

Nike.2631:

Dand.8231:

Yes I know some of these exist in game, but…. why not in the gem store?? Seems silly to me. Ahem….

Permanent _______ Contracts – 600 Gems each
Flavors include: Bank, Merchant, Trading Post, Hairstyle, Crafting Stations, Mystic Forge

Bwaah-ha-haa-ha… 600 gems? Not kitten likely. Try 6,000 maybe.

Those are SUPER DUPER RARE drops out of the black lion boxes because they permanently cancel a goldsink.

Permanent Transmutation Quartz – 400 Gem

And this goes beyond comedy.

Were you planning to buy a car with loose change picked up off the street, because that’s your pricing model.

Why are you arguing costs? That’s moot, the idea is what counts.

It’s almost like you’re an ANet stock holder or something picking meaningless fights about revenue in a discussion forum that’s Player centric.

juno.1840:

Can you use the item out in the open world?

That was one of the reasons ANet changed the system to force you to a trainer in town. Before beta even launched they announced the trainer requirement to a rather large uproar. The justification was that in-the-field trait resets destroy the “meaningful decisions” you make with regards to your build.

I’d be very surprised if this consumable magically reversed their original decision — or maybe I wouldn’t be surprised… just disappointed at the perceived “sell out” of their previously stated values.

So yeah… ANet did sell out on their original position. I guess decisions are not meaningful if you’re willing to toss RL money at them.

Occasionally when I cycle through all my toons parked at a JP, they register as having competed the JP even though they have not for that day.

Steps to reproduce the problem:

1. Log into a toon at a JP chest
2. Chest will appear unopened
3. Open the chest
4. Immediately press F12 and pick another toon parked at the same JP
5. Chest will show as already opened (bug).

Once this happens, logging out or restarting the client does not fix it. The toon in step 5 is flagged as having opened the chest for the remainder of the day.

I’d rather they keep the history forever, but add a “search” feature so I can find something more easily than scrolling through a few hundred pages.

If you speculate on various items, it’s nice to dig up your original price — rather than having to keep a log book with gasp paper and pencil.

Can you use the item out in the open world?

That was one of the reasons ANet changed the system to force you to a trainer in town. Before beta even launched they announced the trainer requirement to a rather large uproar. The justification was that in-the-field trait resets destroy the “meaningful decisions” you make with regards to your build.

I’d be very surprised if this consumable magically reversed their original decision — or maybe I wouldn’t be surprised… just disappointed at the perceived “sell out” of their previously stated values.

Please do use cotton — I’ve bought a few thousand in anticipation of the upcoming armor patch…

Seregmir.6375:

As far as I know, Warrior can get about 790hp / sec passive, with full adrenaline, 25 sigil stacks, food, runes and of course with best items. That is about 1125 hp / sec with regeneration and 2175 hp per shout with 20, 20, 24 sec CDs. And all this with 3 k attack, 3,3 k armor and 22,7 k hp. So have fun with that…

They still die to power mesmer builds — don’t expect a single build from a single profession to beat any and every prof/build combo you can find. It’s more like rock/paper/scissors (and GW1 was sorta like that as well). Warrior is just the rock to your scissors right now.

+1

Lost an hour into the new TA path when the leader left (and we had no clue who entered first, it’s not like the leader is flagged in any way).

Behellagh.1468:

juno.1840:

An expansion with new zones, dungeons, gear, recipes, story content, end-game dragon with similarly themed PvP maps.

Channeling Chi McBride – Oh Hell No!

None of those things should be behind a pay wall and this thread is about what should be offered in the Gem Store, not what should be added to the game.

You don’t think people will pay for content? That’s the model I loved from GW1 — buy the content, play it forever.

In GW2 I get the content for free, but it’s not the same quality as if I had to pay for it (sounds like an old adage). As to why it’s lower quality would probably be a good discussion, but my opinion is that the content is designed to keep you busy while supporting the gem shop. Quite the opposite of what I personally as a Player wanted.

An expansion with new zones, dungeons, gear, recipes, story content, end-game dragon with similarly themed PvP maps.

I get a fairly decent amount of ori/wood from salvaging blues and greens for luck. More than I ever obtained from my “farming” runs.

Also consider that farming the ori/wood may not be as time efficient as farming something else and selling it on the TP in order to buy the ori/wood directly from the TP.

If you go that route make sure you don’t blindly use the immediate buy/sell features of the TP — I see so many players in my own guild use the TP without a good understanding of how it works. I blame that on the user interface, but honestly it may just be a tax for the mathematically challenged.

Brother Grimm.5176:

juno.1840:

ANet could also make money via expansions (a la GW 1). However they’ve gone another route with the 2-week content, which always features nifty new items in the Gem store.

Saying that ascended weapon time gating is justified in order for ANet to make money just reinforces the poor decisions ANet has made with regards to revenue.

I’m not justifying the system and stating it is right or wrong. I am stating that I understand WHY they need to keep people IN GAME and the realities of the economic system being used here.

I’m quite curious how you have intimate knowledge of ANet’s revenue in such a way as to describe their decisions as “poor”. You have every right to state you will not financially support them because of this issue or that, but to make a broad statement about the companies overall financial state or past economic decisions is slightly amusing (and purely your opinion). I’m not saying you may not be correct in the long run, but nothing I have seen indicates that this game is moving in the direction of shutting down, so I can’t fathom how you are defining “poor” from the evidence at hand.

You thought I was referring to ANet’s revenue decision as “poor” in regards to how it impacts ANet — I wasn’t. It was a reference to how it effects the Game (and therefore the Players). You can probably conclude that the decisions are “great” for ANet because they keep making the same decisions over and over.

Personally I would have preferred an expansion (a.la GW1). I’d willingly dump my money into content, but not for the current gem store fare. I represent a non-trivial part of the player base, but it must be trivial compared to Players who continue to buy items from the store (otherwise we’d have an expansion at this point).

As mentioned by Morrolan above, one reason to keep playing GW2 is the lack of a worthy competitor — but it will arrive some day.

Very funny!!!!!!

ANet could also make money via expansions (a la GW 1). However they’ve gone another route with the 2-week content, which always features nifty new items in the Gem store.

Saying that ascended weapon time gating is justified in order for ANet to make money just reinforces the poor decisions ANet has made with regards to revenue.

Obtena.7952:

Aberrant.6749:

So WvW already being imbalanced is a good reason for not needing to get 10% more stats when they are available how?

WvW isn’t imbalanced because of stats, nor will an increase in stats favour a specific server so …

I think you need to read all the posts about the bloodlust bonuses… it’s just stats.

No need to remove it — if you don’t like it don’t play it. Removing content that doesn’t conflict with new story threads is not a good move.

Honestly I think the decision was more of an engineering effort — easier to use the existing NPC choices and map terrain rather than craft up a whole new fourth path to the geography and dialogs.

So in short, budget and man-power ruled the day.

A DPS meter would definitely be a worthwhile addition in this discussion — if only ANet would add one.

Then we could post some screen shots using the different weapons in various situations… even have competitions to see who could repeat said situations with their weapons for better DPS.

@bigmonto: I disagree strongly with “looking for free handouts”. Nobody asked for a free weapon. Try to stay on topic — honestly — no use of the word “entitled” ???, I really expected that from a response like yours.

Cost does play into it — and item #1 in your post above applies to every creafted item (Mystic Forge or Crafting Table — irrelevant). The mats required to forge Whisperblade are well over 100g right now. That’s significantly more cost than crafting my Zojja’s Greatsword… seriously.

I agree that players get the weapons for the skin — but if that’s the intent then ANet should have made the recipes produce skins… not weapons. Agreed?

Since these items are actual weapons, they should be best-in-class given the costs involved.

Raven.9603:

Ranger:

• pet survivability has always been flat out unacceptable. Often 1-2 shot in dungeons and large scale wvw.

• Instead of having “passive” mode, give pets a “spirit” mode. The pet stops attacking, no longer takes damage, but imbues the Ranger with a pet-specific buff. For instance, maybe a crit bonus while a cat is on passive, maybe a chance to cause bleeding while a shark is on passive, you get the idea.

• pigs: pet f2 performance is unacceptable. drop an object on the ground? really? that enemies can pick up? really?

• why does “Guard” shout have a cast time?

Thief: in combat restealth options need to be on cooldown (lengthen revealed timer). out of stealth survivability needs to be improved.

Elementalist: Really good defensive mechanics needed in offensive lines to compete with water and arcana. Class not viable without speccing for a defensive mechanic, of which there are really only 2 (water 15 minor trait, and evasive arcana), arguably 3 (earths embrace). Alot of this could be done by improving fire aura into a melee reflect, similar to magnetic aura. RTL 40sec cd too high, triggering full cd even when used offensively.

Engi: grenade(#1) deserves an auto attack / auto targeting option to avoid carpel tunnel syndrome.

Guardian: Mobility needed

Necro: Why isnt Epidemic instant?

Second all of these — excellent suggestions!

Obtena.7952:

juno.1840:

Time gating was a mechanism in subscription based MMOs to keep your subscription active. If it takes longer to do something, chances are you’ll cough up your fees next month. (ANet even mentioned the “time wasters” you find in subscription MMOs and that they would “not do those things”)

Time gating can also be used as an effective throttle to minimize some impacts to the economy. Selling crafted high-end items for example.

With those two ideas in mind, it does NOT make any sense for GW2 to be time gated because it’s not subscription and the high-end crafted items are all account bound.

Maybe they want to keep their active player base numbers high (i.e. we have 100,000’s of players logging on daily!!!! — never mind it’s because they have to in order to finish their first ascended weapon).

Maybe there are more reasons for time gating than the two you have accounted for.

I’m definitely not an expert like most people in these forums. If you can think of others please share — I’d love to read your opinion.

Time gating was a mechanism in subscription based MMOs to keep your subscription active. If it takes longer to do something, chances are you’ll cough up your fees next month. (ANet even mentioned the “time wasters” you find in subscription MMOs and that they would “not do those things”)

Time gating can also be used as an effective throttle to minimize some impacts to the economy. Selling crafted high-end items for example.

With those two ideas in mind, it does NOT make any sense for GW2 to be time gated because it’s not subscription and the high-end crafted items are all account bound.

Maybe they want to keep their active player base numbers high (i.e. we have 100,000’s of players logging on daily!!!! — never mind it’s because they have to in order to finish their first ascended weapon).

eldenbri.1059:

I really appreciate all the research!

@juno just one point on Sharper Images – it’s a minor trait at 15 points, so it’s not optional. Everyone who goes 15 points into Dueling has it.

The minimum damage that trait can do is 42 per second for five seconds for each crit. So when my duelist shoots 8 times, I usually get 6 or 7 bleeding stacks at my crit chance. So at a minimum it’s about 250 additional dps for the duration of the bleed.

Adding a bit of might and 20% condition duration can turn this from 1250 damage to closer to 2000 over the course of 6 seconds. So that’s a pretty big impact on dps even without traiting or using combo fields.

In theory, the warden could get 12 crits, but players don’t stand around long enough for that. And the 3 or 4 crits that the berserker can get are actually a reasonable contribution to overall dps.

It’s optional in that you’d have to put 15 points into Dueling — I always have at least 15 in dueling as I love dodge clones and sharper images. I was just stating that there may be some builds that do not use the dueling line at all.

For PvE, the warden can definitely apply a lot of bleeding — more so than the duelist. Totally agree that is NOT the case in WvW or PvP.

My other point on bleed stacks is they have no effect when your opponent already has 25 bleeds — very common for world bosses in PvE. However in WvW the bleeding is definitely a great DPS add.

I love Duelist in WvW, especially when fighting stealthy thieves as a couple duelists will kick kitten when he pops.

They really should change the recipe to be a skin… would still save the stone. I guess that goes against gem store sales though.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Just wanted to follow up on the pistol vs gs.
8 bleeds does add up.
Running around with 6 might (sigil) and 25 illusions gets bonus bleeding to 524 per volley. Having a group with banner of strength/25 might gets that to 859 more bleed dmg.

IFF traited the pistol can also do
burning: 5.2k
poison: 1.7k
life steal: 1.6k dmg
confusion: 2.6k dmg per tick
The other combo fields aren’t dmg oriented.
So around 900 to 3k to 10k (confusion vs alpha) bonus damage.

That’s some significant damage. Of course it is single target but that was part of cosleys argument? Most dungeons are skip trash kill single target. Of course the pzerker is aoe but the gs 1 and 2 are basically singlet target vs the sword cleave. Personally, I like to melee but I understand why ppl would want to use the GS at times. The pistol is significantly better at single target than the power numbers would show.

Key words “if traited”… and it appears you also made assumptions about available combo fields. Lastly bleed damage doesn’t do much when the target is already capped at a full 25 stacks — and requires Sharper Images from Dueling line (great trait but I imagine some builds don’t use it?).

We could all theory-craft a scenario where any phantasm out-DPS’s another (except maybe for iMage — not sure how ANet let that one through QA).

The iDuelist is a great phantasm especially under the scenario you described above. However if you start to say it’s “mandatory” then you imply by association that a very specific gear and trait setup are also “mandatory”. Makes you wonder why ANet even made traits and gear itemization to begin with? (yeah that was sarcasm)

Will weapons that are constructed in the Mystic Forge be promoted to ascended quality?

Examples:

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Whisperblade
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Vision_of_the_Mists

Currently they are exotic quality only. They cost more to assemble than an ascended weapon.

If not, I guess I’ll just use a transmutation stone, but it seems a waste of a valuable stone.

Pyroatheist.9031:

juno.1840:

Pyroatheist.9031:

@juno

…or you’re comparing apples with oranges. The numbers calculated in the op were sorta random numbers that don’t mean anything over a long period of time. You just calculated some specific things assuming only 1 attack from the phantasm.

A sanity check on my calculations:

iZerker = 344 DPS (when it completes a single attack chain and dies)

Total damage for the attack chain = 344 DPS * 20s = 6880

That’s reasonable for the numbers I see when I launch my iZerker. However my zerker crits often and hard — so maybe the coefficients are a tad high? How’d you calculate them?

Honestly Juno, I have no idea why you’re calculating based on a period of 20s. Just calculate damage per single attack of the phantasm, then use the attack period of the phantasm to calculate dps.

By calculating this random number over 20 seconds, you’re just making things complicated.

2.03*2*1000*2300/2800= 1667.5 per hit, non crit. Assuming 90% crit power and 3 hits landing, all crits, you get 12006 damage. This does seem a bit high honestly, so I’ll go recheck my damage coefficients when I have time later today.

The 20s is not random — it’s the recharge of the phantasm skill itself (i.e. every 20s you can summon an iDuelist).

My math was for a very specific use-case: Phantasm dies shortly after summoning, getting off a single attack-chain. It’s a valid use case in some fights where phantasms die to AoE or by direct attack from a mob.

The recharge time of the skill is important — example that the iWarden is 25% less frequent than an iDuelist. It effects the ability to crank them out, and so raw damage for a single attack chain occurs less frequently.

It was mostly an exercise to satisfy my curiosity and provide more data — not to prove any particular point. I’m quite pleased that most of the phantasms are in the same arena with regards to damage output.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@juno

…or you’re comparing apples with oranges. The numbers calculated in the op were sorta random numbers that don’t mean anything over a long period of time. You just calculated some specific things assuming only 1 attack from the phantasm.

A sanity check on my calculations:

iZerker = 344 DPS (when it completes a single attack chain and dies)

Total damage for the attack chain = 344 DPS * 20s = 6880

That’s reasonable for the numbers I see when I launch my iZerker. However my zerker crits often and hard — so maybe the coefficients are a tad high? How’d you calculate them?

Thx Nretep — so using Pyro’s coefficient numbers (this time for the full attack chain):

Phantasmal Swordsman: 7
Phantasmal Berserker (4 hits): 8.12
Phantasmal Warlock (3 Conditions): 8.7
Phantasmal Duelist(8 hits): 8
Phantasmal Warden (12 hits): 13.2

Cooldowns for each weapon (no 20% wep traits as that’s just a raw increase of 20%):

Phantasmal Swordsman: 20s
Phantasmal Berserker (4 hits): 20s
Phantasmal Warlock (3 Conditions): 18s
Phantasmal Duelist(8 hits): 20s
Phantasmal Warden (12 hits): 25s

Taking the coefficients and dividing by the cooldown gives this picture:

Phantasmal Swordsman: 0.35
Phantasmal Berserker (4 hits): 0.406
Phantasmal Warlock (3 Conditions): 0.483
Phantasmal Duelist(8 hits): 0.4
Phantasmal Warden (12 hits): 0.528

Now multiply by the weapon damage to get DPS (for this scenario of one attack chain and then phantasm is dead — assumes 2000 power and 2600 armor which is reasonable — it’s just scaling):

Phantasmal Swordsman (1000 dmg): 269
Phantasmal Berserker (1100 dmg): 344
Phantasmal Warlock (1100 dmg): 408
Phantasmal Duelist(1000 dmg): 308
Phantasmal Warden (900 dmg): 365

Unfortunately these numbers don’t match well with the numbers already calculated so either there’s a different assumption for numbers like power and armor — or the coefficients are wrong — or ????

Xyonon.3987:

I wonder how one calculates the DpS :o

I suspect you’re trying to be funny — but you did touch on the root of what I’m discussing.

If you assume the phantasm dies after it’s initial attack chain (i.e. doesn’t get a second round of attacks), then the DPS equation will use the skill cooldown (for the phantasm) in the denominator. The DPS calculations above use the phantasm’s actual skill recharge in the denominator.

I understand math is hard — let me know if you need me to clarify it some more

Would it be more useful to go with carrion gear instead of rabid?

The toughness from rabid doesn’t help when receiving conditions. In addition, there is little value from the higher crit chance in this build (other than with the sigil proc) as the +crit dmg and power levels are low.

The scepter and phantasms would benefit from the higher power and vitality offered by carrion.

Just a thought — what do you think?

It would be nice to capture the numbers for a single attack “round” on each phantasm as many don’t live long enough for a second round of attacks (due to AoE, mob death, or shatters).

In this case DPS is not that useful since the damage is not sustained. However damage for the attack chain is useful. Example: if Duelist unloads for 2k and Swordsman for 1.5k, then duelist is better for the scenario where the phantasm dies after the attack. However skill c/d comes into play now as you can only repeat the single attack per the c/d.

The following clone skills will fail to produce a clone in some cases:

- Illusionary Leap (sword 3)
- Mirror Images

The use-case to duplicate the problem:

1. Target a foe
2. Move away from foe until skill is “out of range” indicated by red bar below skill
3. Nudge back into range until skill is barely in range (red bar vanishes)
4. Activate skill

The skill is in range but the clones do not appear. In addition the skill goes on cooldown for the full c/d amount.

This bug may be present for all clone producing skills but I’ve only tested on the skills above.

If the casual gamer community cannot take down tequatl then maybe it shouldn’t be in the open world which is the casual gamer paradise in GW2.

If it requires raid coordinate, then it’s a raid — doesn’t matter if it’s in the open world or not (a raid by any other name is still a raid). Requiring voice comms is another data point that this is indeed a raid caliber encounter.

If you need organization, then require organization in the form of an instance. If players are not willing to sign up for a raid instance, then they probably shouldn’t be attempting the raid instance in the first place — it requires that level of involvement.

VOLKON.1290:

What would be interesting is if mesmers had a mantra that, when popped un-stealthed stealthed foes within a certain radius.

This idea makes me giggle — would be too much fun against pansy thieves in WvW.

That being said, I can’t see it as the amount of QQ would be huge… HUGE I say.

Should raid caliber content like Tequatl be limited to a raid system?

I feel that open world content should be designed around the casual player. You can call it “easy mode” or whatever you want, but it really exists to support the causal play base. There’s no organization required to head out into the virtual landscape and have fun.

Tequatl content is really raid caliber requiring organization and… dare I say it?… a raid system. In other words instanced content for large groups of 25, 40, whatever (insert big number here).

This is my opinion — what’s yours?

Vol.5241:

Did you expect a whole ascended armor set to be accomplished in a day for free?

Pretty much a useless post — nobody said anything close to that. Honestly I’m surprised you didn’t launch into an “entitled” argument.

This topic is really a lament on the perceived effort for crafting ascended armor — essential ascended weapon x6. Don’t derail it just to float your ego.

Funny part: nobody has done the math for ascended jewelry which is coming too.

Here’s my angle on it:

Open world is really meant for fun, casual play. Raid level coordination is not fun for casual players. If people want to run raid caliber content, it’s best to form an organized group (i.e. from a raid guild) and then run it.

So… players don’t go to south sun island because in general it’s not fun for casual players.

The same applies to the new Tequatl (and to some extent the revamped bosses). Most players in our guild (i.e. more than half) simply avoid tequatl because it’s not fun to them.

imho the tequatl should have been something like a raid dungeon — with a team of 25.

@Reilem: you’re assuming prices won’t change when the crafting comes out — a very poor assumption based upon weapon crafting.

Got a BL salvage kit last night for my daily reward. So they still happen — I’d say at the same rate I’ve always received them (maybe one every 75 dailies).

Utility skills don’t count towards any weapon so no issue with Defender and Enchanter.

For the weapon skills to “count” against the associated mastery two things have to happen:

1. Weapon skill needs to do damage
2. Something needs to die as a result of that damage

The phantasms don’t do damage on summon so I think they violate “rule” number 1 above.

I like to think it’s a bug that phantasms for a weapon don’t count towards the mastery — but honestly it’s probably a “design oversight”. Regardless I think it should be fixed — it’s possible this topic is more of a suggestion than a bug. Until ANet says otherwise, I’m content leaving it as a bug report.

If you have been salvaging all your blues and greens for luck, you’ll find you have a pretty nice influx of ori and ancient wood. Honestly I think I get more from salvages than actually farming nodes.

I’m pretty confident that precursor crafting will make your eyes bleed.

It will not be a panacea to the current Mystic Forge method — and for good reasons.

On top of that you’ll need to do all the work everyone else does currently to get their legendaries — the crafting is only for precursors (not the actual legendary).

Nretep.2564:

No illusion kill counts as weapon master achievement.

I believe it should — they are skills which originate from specific weapons.

Honestly every weapon for every profession should contribute towards the mastery achievements. I believe there are a handful of weapons which cannot tick the associated mastery trait — mesmer focus is one of those.

Sword/Focus + GS

I have all three weapons traited in a 20/20/0/30/0 build. Traited focus is simply amazing in some situations. It makes me smile — often.

My gear is built around high power, crit chance, and crit dmg. These weapons suit that build nicely.

I use the Sword/Focus unless I want range at which point I switch to GS. I’ll also use GS if I’m far away while closing the gap (if not using blink and too far away for sword 3 which is a horrible gap closer).

EDIT: GS is only for range — using GS at less than 900m is really poor DPS — however if you need a knockback or want another phantasm it would be ok for a quick switch at close range. I wouldn’t stay in GS at less than 900m if it can be avoided.

The Risen Thrall attacks bypass the evade mechanic of Blurred Frenzy.

Found this out the hard way when fighting a few thrall at the same time just north of the bridge from Oxbow Isle Waypoint. All the thrall beat me down while frenzy was active.

I’ve tested against other risen and the evade mechanic works. I’ve only found Thrall so far where evade doesn’t work.

The Illusionary Warden skill does not credit kills towards the Focus Mastery achievement.

I suspect the same for Illusionary Duelist and Pistol Mastery, although I haven’t tested duelist specifically.

Pack runes are 64s each today — not a wallet breaker in any stretch of the imagination.

As mention ruby orbs will increase power by 120, precision by 84, crit dmg +12%.

Rune of the pack will increase power by 165, precision by 100.

I went with the runes because to me the extra power and precision outweighed the +crit damage (which I have quite a bit of already). The other rune bonuses are not bad, but not ideal for mesmer.