Guild Wars 2

I never understood why there are 4 different degeration conditions (bleeding, burning, poison, and torment). I know that they all have different effects, but really?

Lol you’re using scepter in PvE? wut?

…what new OP builds would arise?

I’m thinking 0/20/30/0/30 PU shatter Mesmer would be really annoying.
Also 0/30/30/0/20 stealth spamming trickery D/P thief.

I’ve been using Greatsword in both WvW and PvP for about as long as I’ve had my Mesmer. Lately I have found that every time I use it, I hate it just a little bit more. I’m getting a little tired of it’s crap.

Pros:
-It can do some really solid dps
-Cone knockback = good
-Cripple on pZerker
-decent sustain dps at 1200 range

Cons:
-pZerker is ridiculously easy to dodge.
-Mirror Blade is very slow and does underwhelming damage
-Laser shows people exactly where you are
-As soon as people get close to you, your sustain drops drastically. Sure, you can use #2,#3, maybe #4 if it’s off cooldown, but then you’re just back to a lame auto attack.
-95% Offensive (5% is if you use iWave defensively), though this may not be a con to some people.

I don’t have anything bad to say about Mind Stab or the Wave. Both decent skills by themselves.

I know a lot of people love GS, and I do think that it’s a fun weapon. It just gets so frustrating. I think I’ll be using only staff from now on as my ranged weapon.

Aren’t eles generally more concerned with thieves than warriors? Thief is the only profession that really hard-counters them. Against a warrior, I just chill (the condition, not the relaxation) and dance around them. It’s amazing what walking through someone as thew are coming at you will do. Also, glyph of elemental power + air attunement is your friend against melee. I agree, eles are probably the most difficult class to play, mainly because they rely on much more active damage mitigation. Warriors and Guardians have armor and boons, thieves have stealth and evades, Mesmers have clones, Engis have cc, Necros have DS, and rangers…dont know ‘cuz I don’t play them. Eles have to be just as active defensively as offensively. I generally rely on focus for this, as projectile destruction, projectile reflection, Obsidian Flesh, and Gale are all excellent defensive skills. Once you get good at the more defensive focus, you can probably move on the the more offensive OH dagger.

AlbertoUlkesh.4517:

Okay, that’s an interesting way to think of the balance issue.

Unfortunately there are more things going on here. To continue the PvE analogy, when a member of a dungeon group drops, I open the lfg-tool and ask for somebody else.

When I’m 4v5 here I open… oh, wait…

The same “get really good” thing applies. 4v5 = higher difficulty. If you play enough of them, you will eventually get good enough to pull off a win. Not a lot else you can do.

This forum and the Profession Balance forum are a steaming pile of negativity. People are mad because of problems created by anet’s lack of iteration as well as other things that are very well outlined by this thread. When a memberof the community tried to make a thread about all the positive things of sPvP, they were met only with an endless stream of sarcasm.

Pretty much everyone in the community has accepted that allisvain.

However, I would like to offer a different approach to looking at all of the hopeless imbalance. This point of view starts with pretending that PvP is in fact PvE. Yes, you can still understand that these are real people and interact with them as such, but when you get frustrated with Hambow Warriors, Spirit Rangers, MM Necros, Decap Engis, PU mesmers, and all the hopeless inadequacies of the Elementalist, you have to look at your enemies as mobs. When we look at PvP as PvE, “imbalance” becomes “difficulty”.

I want to continue enjoying a game that has the best combat system that I have ever come across. The fluidity alone is enough to make it special. Whenever I go back and play a game with four skills like LoL, I feel like I’m playing with boards strapped to my knees and elbows, preventing them from bending.

Yes, many specs include huge amounts of passive play and low-risk, high-reward. The way I see it, there are three options to countering this.
1. Also play these types of builds, and be bored.
2. Quit.
3. Play a more reasonable yet fun build, and become so good at it, that you destroy these passive players.

So many people have been choosing options 1 and 2 lately, but I can only continue to enjoy this game if I choose option 3. I’ll just keep playing, getting better at builds that are fun, active, high-risk, high-reward, because it’s all that I can do to keep having fun in a game that is at its core, great. Perhaps the situation may not be ideal, but we all have to make the most of it.

tl;dr: Anet isn’t fixing their game any time soon. Make the most of it by working to become good enough to destroy OP passive builds. All is not vain.

Phenn.5167:

This thread needs to stay at the top of the first page until it gets significant red posts.

This is exactly what I was thinking. We cannot let this die until it is adequately responded to.

jebro.6370:

I applaud the original poster for trying to insert positivity

The guys being sarcastic well, thats their issue let them vent.

Ill not put a number but ill put this:

(number), Anyone in the pvp community thats still positive and helping to support the scene. They are out there and they are doing great things to help the community grow, thankyou!

^^ I came to this thread expecting people to actually be positive. Isn’t that what we need in the midst of all the QQ? Here are some of the things I like about sPvP.
-You have fun whether you’re winning or losing.
-No snowballing (thank god. Kittening mobas.)
-It’s a much more fun way to level than PvE.
-You can make a little gold.

Carpboy.7145:

If you have at least 5 in acrobatics, dodge and use 2 (or 3, if you can get 3) heart seekers. If you don’t have swiftness, or are trying to teleport up a cliff for example use SB. Wooden potatoes has an excellent video on how shadow steps and blinks work, i strongly suggest you watch it. It helps out with teleporting up cliffs sooo much

Oh ya I have seen that video. Helped me a lot. Totally forgot about the swiftness from dodging!

In terms of out-of combat mobility per initiative, which of these it better? Should I do the occasional IA or just spam HS when moving around WvW?

Enjoyed the video! You probably should have edited out the ad at the end though, but I like your taste in music. Lol for a second, when I looked at the picture above, I though you were telling us to use just one weapon at a time. That’s smart for the energy though. I noticed in the video that you never used sw#2, not even when chasing. Why is that?

I’ve been playing a lot of thief recently, and I’m having a blast with D/D. Against melee enemies I generally do alright with my backstabs. Against ranged, I can usually land a CnD, but I’ve been having a hard time chasing them when steal is down because a lot of the time they just run away. Also, a lot of the time when I do get to people, I have difficulty actually landing a back stab and end up doing a front stab for half the damage. Any tips on this?

The F1 ability is called steal. Thieves steal thing from their enemies, and then use those items against them. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be stealing things from your allies.

I am not a fan of this. This would effectively decrease the value of lower tier metals like copper and iron, since you could jut turn mithril into a bunch of it. Mithril is currently very cheap because people get more high level drops than low ones. Maybe I’m biased though because I like using iron gathering as an income. I suppose it would raise the value of mithril a bit though.

Gotejjeken.1267:

kaikalii.4198:

Recently I picked up my level 32 thief and actually started playing it, mainly in sPvP, as I’m too weak for WvW, and there’s no way I’m leveling through PvE. Keep in mind, I’m coming at this from a Mesmer main.

One of the biggest problems a lot of people have with thieves is the spamming of stealth. I have never really directly had a problem with stealth. Whenever I die to a D/X thief, I never think “OMG STEALTH OP”. Rather “I should have made some attempt to make the backstab harder for him instead of just running away in a straight line.” After actually playing this style of thief, I have found that, while it does create a huge amount of survivability, you kind of need it. On a full zerk build, you can get away with about 1 mistake every 30 seconds; 2 and you’re dead. Also, anyone who isn’t braindead (like I sometimes am) will try to move around or in some way make thier movements unpredictable to make landing backstab harder.

Perhaps a D/P thief has it a bit easier with the stealth spam, but it also costs 8 initiative. Still, it could be toned down. However, D/D I find is very balanced; high-risk, high reward. If you miss CnD, you’re probably dead, and the long cast time doesn’t make it easier.

I would have to say that a well played PU Mesmer is probably stronger against other classes than any stealth thief is. From now on, whenever I look at a “stealth op” thread, I will only think “l2p”.

You contradict yourself a lot. If it is a L2P issue, why does D/P ‘need to be toned down’?

Also, if you come from Mesmer who is borderline OP with stealth, of course the thief will seem harder. The opinion is skewed.

I only said that D/P is a bit op. A skilled player should still be able to deal with it. I don’t play PU Mesmer simply because it makes me feel unskilled when I can just faceroll my keyboard to win 1v2s. On mesmer, I usually stick to shatter, lockdown, or troll teleports.

Recently I picked up my level 32 thief and actually started playing it, mainly in sPvP, as I’m too weak for WvW, and there’s no way I’m leveling through PvE. Keep in mind, I’m coming at this from a Mesmer main.

One of the biggest problems a lot of people have with thieves is the spamming of stealth. I have never really directly had a problem with stealth. Whenever I die to a D/X thief, I never think “OMG STEALTH OP”. Rather “I should have made some attempt to make the backstab harder for him instead of just running away in a straight line.” After actually playing this style of thief, I have found that, while it does create a huge amount of survivability, you kind of need it. On a full zerk build, you can get away with about 1 mistake every 30 seconds; 2 and you’re dead. Also, anyone who isn’t braindead (like I sometimes am) will try to move around or in some way make thier movements unpredictable to make landing backstab harder.

Perhaps a D/P thief has it a bit easier with the stealth spam, but it also costs 8 initiative. Still, it could be toned down. However, D/D I find is very balanced; high-risk, high reward. If you miss CnD, you’re probably dead, and the long cast time doesn’t make it easier.

I would have to say that a well played PU Mesmer is probably stronger against other classes than any stealth thief is. From now on, whenever I look at a “stealth op” thread, I will only think “l2p”.

Overview
Make WvW the average of what it is now and EotM.

NPCs
The NPCs in WvW are ridiculously easy. Those in EotM are actually a bit difficult and take some time to kill. It takes me longer to kill an EotM NPC than it takes to solo a WVW camp. NPCs in WvW should be balanced between the two.

Verticality and Choke Points
I love these features in EotM, but I find my self missing the wide open expanses of WvW. Perhaps there should be just a few more choke points in WvW as well as some more areas (camps) with some y-axis freedom. The sewers in keeps in EB come to mind.

Those are the two points I really care about. I like the better matchmaking in EotM, but I don’t think it would work in WvW.

I’ve just recently really gotten into WvW roaming, and so far, everything has been fun. However, tonight this happened:

[img]http://i.imgur.com/h9kU84o.jpg[/img]

(This is SoS, FA, and SoR. I’m from SoS, the blue one.)

All I wanted to do was roam, win some fights, lose some fights, have fun, but there was no one out and about. Maybe a few trying to defend their garrison from our ridiculously large zerg, but that’s about it. Only other roamer I saw on an enemy world was another mesmer that, upon seeing that she had Bolt AND Bitfrost, I decided to run from.

Does this kind of thing happen a lot? I mean, it’s not like the different servers are in different time zones. Shouldn’t there be more people to deal with my server’s superzergs, or at least bless me with a good fight? It has left me feeling bummed out.

Oh, and responses of “if you want fights go to PvP” will not be appreciated. I do enough PvP and I’m doing WvW to change it up a bit.

I run centaur runes when I roam soo… doesn’t really affect me. However, this is kind of bs. It already doesn’t stack on top of other swiftness, and now its going to be even worse?

Malakin.2809:

kaikalii.4198:

Wow. The last time I checked this thread a few days ago, there were two replies. Now there’s a ton!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

For me, it’s the latter that I respect this thread. Whether or not PU is OP doesn’t matter, what matters is that we have more diversity than just one playstyle. Theres a lot of different players here who all bring different experiences to the table, I think that if anyone could put their heads together and explore something new it’d be us. (New doesn’t have to be BETTER, but something thats as viable as PU)

Thank you Chaos. When I started the thread, I had no intention of it being “is PU OP or not?” I guess people just read the one thing I said about PU being OP and ignored the rest. I’m just tired of playing PU when I know there are so many viable options out there that can make me a better player, and I had intended for this thread to be about other methods of surviving while roaming, but alas, the community has to argue about balance.

Thanks to the few of you who started your posts with “@op”.

Added an edit to the op about this.

Actually according to your original post your sole motivation for searching for new builds is PU being OP (no one said you where asking if it was OP or not). I’m always more than happy to see new builds and play styles. Please lets find more! But don’t pretend this thread is just a “lets think of new builds” when it really is about “lets get away from PU”.

You say you know there are many viable options out there. I guess you don’t know them yet. Or if you do, please show them to us! And let the players use them because they like them. Not because PU is bad and they have to stop using it.

Perhaps you are right that I am a bit unclear. What I really want it some roaming builds that focus on teleports and/or interrupts. Now that I think of it, I probably should have just stated that from the beginning. Teleports are already used in every build, but they can be enhanced. Interrupts as a play style, while prominent in PvP, are almost absent from WvW roaming. I wanted the community to help me think of some ideas to incorporate both of these ideas into a single build or build type in a way that is both fun and viable. Thank you for pointing out my inconsistencies.

Wow. The last time I checked this thread a few days ago, there were two replies. Now there’s a ton!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

For me, it’s the latter that I respect this thread. Whether or not PU is OP doesn’t matter, what matters is that we have more diversity than just one playstyle. Theres a lot of different players here who all bring different experiences to the table, I think that if anyone could put their heads together and explore something new it’d be us. (New doesn’t have to be BETTER, but something thats as viable as PU)

Thank you Chaos. When I started the thread, I had no intention of it being “is PU OP or not?” I guess people just read the one thing I said about PU being OP and ignored the rest. I’m just tired of playing PU when I know there are so many viable options out there that can make me a better player, and I had intended for this thread to be about other methods of surviving while roaming, but alas, the community has to argue about balance.

Thanks to the few of you who started your posts with “@op”.

Added an edit to the op about this.

Bump/Can’t wait to play!

The reason that people always put points into dueling is because it is such a good line. If you need more clones,more phantasm damage,lower sword/pistol cd, or longer blink range, dueling has your back. Why wouldn’t you want to put point into it? I’m usually sacrificing points in other lines just to get 10 more in dueling.

tl;dr at bottom

Ever since builds like Blackwater, Prismatic Understanding builds have been extremely popular, whether they be condition or power based. They are extremely powerful, and in the right hands, a single Mesmer can have a real impact on much larger groups.

However

Lately, I have been trying different builds in WvW that do not use PU, as I have developed a few issues with it. Keep in mind, this is in regards to solo/small group roaming in WvW.

My two main problems with PU:

1. It’s a bit OP. i.e. If perfectly balanced is a 5/10, then I would say PU is a 7 or 8. I main Mesmer, but I would only consider myself of medium skill at best. With my skill level, I shouldn’t be able to win 1v2’s or 1v3’s against people of similar skill. However, the constant stealth combined with Mesmer clones and high damage makes 1v2-1v4 situations perfectly doable. I sometimes feel like I may as well just play a D/P permastealth cheese thief.

2. It takes up a lot of trait space. This is also the reason I don’t play shatter too often. For PU, you have to put 30 points into Chaos. Okay, you have PU, and maybe you put in a III in Chaos as well for blink cdr. In the middle slot, most builds trait Bountiful Interruption, which is a very good trait, but I would much rather take something else like weapon cdr.

So, what to do?
Mesmers have been solo roaming since far before PU was as popular as it is now. You’ll still see the occasional shatter mesmer out there, but shatter has such rigid traits. 30 for IP, 20 for DE, 20 more that you sacrifice a lot of damage if you put them anywhere but Domination. Building tanky also sacrifices damage while not utilizing nearly as well all of the wonderful ways mesmers have of avoiding damage. Other than stealth, mesmers have distortion, chaos armor, clones, interrupts, and my favorite, teleports.

Kaamau’s Evasive Signets is probably one of the best builds that uses distortion for survivability. Chaos armor can be quite strong, but I really don’t like the way that it lets people know that you’re you. Clones are built in to every build so…check. I have never seen an iterrupt build in WvW (although I often use them in sPvP), so any input on this would be nice.

Finally, teleports.
I love teleports. I never run a build without blink, and I always feel kind of naked without one or both of the cdr or range increase traits. Sword#3 is also extremely strong both offensively and defensively. My favorite combo is iLeap into a huge group->Blurred Frenzy->Blink to gtfo. Staff#2 is also okay, but 1. staff gives you chaos armor, effectively revealing you, and 2. staff doesn’t do a huge amount of damage outside of condition builds, which I personally am not a fan of. Last but certainly not least is portal. Whether you’re porting golems (I know, not small group stuff, but still) or doing a super-fun portal entre-> jump off the wall into swarm of invaders-> blurred frenzy -> portal exeunt to gtfo. Even if regular open-field combat, the sheer mobility and trolling power it gives you is limited only by your imagination. I don’t like going without it. Teleports are also very strong defensively. Never underestimate the power of suddenly being behind someone. In that time that it takes for them to realize that they are hitting clones, turn around, and find you, they are already dead, or you are already gone.
Here is my idea for a build based on teleports.

Interrupts. Not much to say here except that in a WvW environment, where running into a single person is pretty rare, you should probably be running Sw/F and GS for aoe. I know that staff also has an aoe interrupt, but it’s too unreliable for my tastes. The exception to this weapon spec is probably using imbued diversion, which is ridiculous in bigger fights.
Here is my idea for a WvW build based on interrupts.

The builds presented here are in no way my presentations of completed builds to the community. They are my ideas that I hope other mesmers can help me with. I would like more ideas for non-PU builds in solo/small group WvW roaming. (Also, preferably not x/20/x/x/30 shatter builds)

tl;dr: I’m tired of using PU. Please help me come up with some ideas for non-PU based WvW solo/small group roaming builds.

Edit: Lol you guys I don’t care whether you think PU is OP or not. I would just rather not play stealth Mesmer anymore because I’m tired of being able to win fights despite my poor awareness (please don’t let that sentence rile you up). This was supposed to be a thread about brainstorming other methods of doing damage and surviving when roaming, and I would appreciate if it could get back on track.

1. Ranger (Pets have so many problems)
2. Elementalist
3. Mesmer (Non PU stuff)

Just submitted, can’t wait to play. Good for you taking action instead of waiting for anet to get their kitten together. Perhaps this will bring some freshness to PvP.

Anyone have any good front line Mesmer builds? I want something that lets me at the front of a zerg or in the middle of a large group fight. This would be mainly for WvW. I would prefer to use a staff and probably some combination of zerker and soldier gear.

I was just wondering if anyone has tried this. It would b a standard 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build, just with torch offhand. I feel like it would add some more survivability in the form of stealth as well as mitigating one the the shatter mesmer’s biggest weaknesses, conditions, without sacrificing precious utility slots. I though it also might be good for WvW roaming where stealth = god. I know it wouldn’t be nearly as good without PU, but still… Has anyone tried this out?

So, I had never played LoL before, but a friend of mine wanted me to to try it and play with him. After playing a few games, I realized…it doesn’t hold a candle to GW2 PvP. Given, I was only high level enough to fight bots, but I cannot imagine it being much better against real people. The combat is incredibly clunky compared to GW2. You can’t even use a skill until you’ve stopped moving. With the minions everywhere, I felt like I was fighting 2 or 3 MMs the entire time. Also, 6 skills, most of which have very long cooldowns, does not make for very interesting gameplay.

Now, if this were just some game, I would understand, but as I understand it, LoL is one of the most if not the most popular esports games, yet I can’t imagine playing it while GW2 exists. GW is so much more dynamic and interesting, mainly due to the necessity of mobility, skill choice, and timing in battle.

I haven’t really played any games competitively other than GW2, so I’m probably extremely biased, but is this really the best the rest of PvP gaming has to offer? If LoL gets several times more fun against actual people, then I guess I should just try it more, but if not, then I don’t really understand why people complain so much about GW. Sure, it has it problems, a lot of which seem to be ignored by the devs or take a very long time to fix, but would you really rather play a different game with far more tiresome, clunky combat?

Just a note: please don’t put me down for inexperienced with other games and still judging them. I know that LoL is not a representative of every other game. If my conclusions seem misguided, please let me know your opinion.

Excalibur.9748:

kaikalii.4198:

FancyNancy.6709:

Excalibur.9748:

There is no point in handicapping yourself on purpose. I don’t mind playing my favorite build if it is not the most overpowered build, but I don’t like to put myself in a position to work extra hard to get kills. Bunker warrior is in very good position right now, minimal effort, maximum wins. Why would you NOT play it? For the challenge?

1 of the example of S tier kitten

I agree with Fancy here. The entire reason I play PvP is because it is challenging. To me playing things like bunker warrior is just as boring as PvE. I want an interesting, dynamic play style where losing is a substantial possibility.

I play for fun and winning is fun for me.

Fair enough. To each their own I guess. :\

FancyNancy.6709:

Excalibur.9748:

There is no point in handicapping yourself on purpose. I don’t mind playing my favorite build if it is not the most overpowered build, but I don’t like to put myself in a position to work extra hard to get kills. Bunker warrior is in very good position right now, minimal effort, maximum wins. Why would you NOT play it? For the challenge?

1 of the example of S tier kitten

I agree with Fancy here. The entire reason I play PvP is because it is challenging. To me playing things like bunker warrior is just as boring as PvE. I want an interesting, dynamic play style where losing is a substantial possibility.

Poxxia.1547:

And again: Having your mediocre skills as player being revealed is not pleasant either; it is much more comfortable to play a build, that has a less chance for that to happen. That is how we are.

This is an interesting idea that nobody above has said yet. Of course, if you play easy mode builds just so no one can see how unskilled you are, they will know how unskilled you are anyway just because of the build you are using. “Oh sprt rangr he muzt have very littel skillz but he wil kil me anyway lolz.” However, if they never try harder builds, they will never get better. It really is quite sad.

SoLeciTO.3490:

enemy: kitten thief keep hiding.
me: kitten engi keep spamming mines.

enemy: kitten thief blind spammer.
me: kitten mesmer clone spammer.

enemy: kitten thief evade noob build.
me: kitten ranger pew pew pew spirit noob build.

enemy: kitten you, fight with out using stealth noob.
me: kitten you, fight with out using any condi AOE spam noob necro.

enemy: BS spam noob.
me: Stun lock warrior spamer noob . . . and dead.

And i could go on and on and on.

I haven’t had a ton of stuff said to me (except for stealth complaints), but I very much enjoyed this

I really like playing a standard 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build with Sw/F, Staff. I use a soldier’s amulet with a berserker jewel as well as fighter runes, so I have more survivability but still have a decent power and crit rate.

The only time I actually fight underwater is those kitten sharks at the ruins…

I highly recommend Fay’s Hecate build. Really good burst damage that combines phantasms, shatters, and mantra damage/interrupts. It has served me quite well in sPvP.

I don’t know why this build didn’t get more love when you posted it. I really like interrupt builds, but I needed AoE for point fighting, and you just put them together! I’ve been using it, and I usually finish near the top. Great build!

Only think I did change though was I swapped mirror images for arcane thievery for condi removal.

Ah update. I’m in US, and I would like to do lockdown roaming/shatter.

Are there any good power staff builds out their? I know staff is great for clone spamming, but I’m not a huge fan of conditions (also, all my gear/trinkets have PXX stats). The only thing I can imagine working well is shatter, but how would one go about focusing on shatter while capitalizing on the defensive capabilities of the staff? Most of Osicat’s shattercats use staff, but they don’t have condi clears for the meta. Any thoughts? I really want to be able to use my favorite weapon with my favorite style.

PS: I do sPvP and WvW (zerging/solo roaming/small group roaming)

I get why people get worked up by iLeap, but 99% failure? That’s a little high. Mine fails about 1/4-1/3 of the time, and when it does, i just stay out of the way of damage while my clone runs up to the enemy at a normal pace.

This sounds amazing. I could just imagine the enemy facing 6-15 enemies at once. I know I wouldn’t know what to do. Count me in!

I’m proficient in stealth condi, shattercat, op phantasm, clone factory, and mantra builds (which are actually pretty awesome). I’ve never really tried support mesmer, but I think I could give it a go if needed.

A very simple change that would satisfy most of my problems with pets:
If your current pet is dead or stowed, scale the ranger’s damage up to 100%.
Then I could just jungle stalker, f2 for might, stow pet, attack.

Also, points in BM should increase pet stats way more so that if you want to play a pet-centered build, you still can, and it’s more effective.

nearlight.3064:

kaikalii.4198:

Sorry, but crippling dissipation and debilitating dissipation only work when your enemy kills a clone, not when a clone dies from being overwritten by another. Because of this, there is not reason to “clone spam”. You don’t need to make clones any faster than they are destroyed.

This is untrue. I tested this on golems with scepter autoattack. its very much applies the condition(s).

Ah thank you. It would seem I was misinformed.

Let’s imagine a magical world where an update was released that gave every profession one additional weapon and one more of each type of skill. For Mesmer, this would mean 1 weapon + 1 signet, manipulation, glamour, clone/phantasm, mantra, heal, and elite.

What additional skills would you want to see for Mesmer?

Personally, I would want a MH pistol, a 25% movement speed signet, a manipulation that makes you and your foe swap places, a phantasm with a weak but constant attack (i.e. no time in between attacks), a mantra that charges a spell that restores half your endurance, a phantasm that heals you for a small amount periodically, and an elite that allows you to have more than 3 clones/phantasms out at a time (maybe 4 or 5?). I’m not so sure about a glamour.

Anet has said that new skills will be added, so anything is possible!

Well, for range you are probably going to have to go with greatsword. 1200 range on all skills (except maybe last one). The pistol also has 1200 range if you trait it. combine those with some PPC/PPV/PTV armor and you should be good to go.

For group support, just bring the basic Mesmer group utilities, i.e. Veil and portal.
For more “supporty” support but less range, I would check out Chaos Archangel’s Chaos Maestro. That’s about as supportive as it gets on Mesmer.

I find the pistol very offensive. I far prefer more politically correct weapons, such as the staff.

KOK.2650:

4)Guards strength should be scaled with number of enemies

I’m all for this. However, if I am on the side with more people, I would like to be somehow informed of how strong the guards are so that I can know if I can take on X number of guards by myself or not.

Also, scaling it in favor of the outnumbered people would hurt the people on that team who are solo/small-group roaming instead of zerging.

Just wanted to get opinions from other Mesmers. I love all of the shattercat builds from Osicat. However, lately I have found that in such a condition-heavy meta, a build with no condition removal falls a bit short. Even a class that is semi-speced for conditions can take me down. Is there a way to get around this, or are the current shattercat specs simply nonviable atm?

BTW: I play solo/small-group roaming in WvW as well as sPvP

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

CrazyDuck.4610:

-Stability mantra/stability needs a buff! Long cast time, long cool down and only lasts 2 seconds for each mantra which makes it pretty useless for “pushing” into anything.

Mantra’s overall are pretty weak, not just this one, Though i rarely need stability anyway.

I’m not so sure about that. I’ve started using Fay’s Mantra Build in sPvP lately, and they can be really amazing when combined with other aspects of the Mesmer. (also, condi removal)

But ya, 2 seconds of stability is pretty lame.