Guild Wars 2

Great post OP I agree with you on everything except the camera and queue time.

I think the camera is intended by design to give you a feel that you’re in a confined space and thus need to be more aware of the surroundings.

As for the queue time, i enjoy watching others fight and helping them (or getting helped) while waiting for my turn. I’ve made some good friends through those little chit-chat while waiting.

OP: what are you talking about? Have u tried Retaliatory Shield trait in Dueling? That alone can make Guardian jealous.

Signet giving Invul. got me through Deadeye guy with 5 gambits so I’m gonna use the same tactic for Liadri. Thanks for the guide.

Anise was just jealous to see Logan was so eager to do anything for the Queen and didn’t give a stuff about her. Maybe she’s a secret admirer of Logan after all. o_O

Thank you Anet for this huge improvement. I guess a lot of people busy QQing overlook this, their loss.

Lafiel.9372:

Use hammer, try watch for the animation of his throw and be there before the dog. Kinda predict when he will throw it and use the hammer 5 on the dog (and frequent hammer 3). use speed buff + dodge roll to make sure you get the meat first. By the 3rd meat that you’ve eaten, the dog should be dead. If you can’t kill the dog by the 4th meat, you’re not killing it fast enough. Try get the symbol out of the hammer as well, it’ll help with damage. The food buffs you damage by heaps so a zerker build isn’t alwas the best idea. I did it with PPT.

Thanks for the tip I have trouble with this as well. Would Judge’s Intervention + Banish combo helps?

Quarktastic.1027:

I’ve been trying for days to get this achievement done, and for me, it seems impossible.

My guardian can’t do it, and my ranger can’t do it.

And no, neither of them have berserker gear, nor do I wish to go out of my way to get a new armor set specifically for this achievement.

Hi OP,
I’ve just got the achievement on my mesmer with Subject 7. The reflect works wonder. So maybe you can go bunker and abuse reflect on your guardian. You still need decent DPS though. Rally off spawned oozes if you downed. Hope that helps.

Seeing how aesthetics plays such an important part in GW2 and the main playerbase embrace it, I would suggest if Anet could make damaged armor look different or even better broken armor will also look different instead of the player being naked.
I know it’s not a thing that needs top priority but just want to put it out there.

Others feel free to discuss.

Madcat.2379:

The ideal situation is to have 3 people at one arena. One person resurrects well the other fights, then you fight while the person in queue resurrects and then when you die the person waiting resurrects you. Minimal waiting time for everyone and no WP costs. If you are feeling selfish then make sure you put yourself in the queue before resurrecting.

^ This is the most effective setup – A res trio. Yes i’ve made some good friends and we joke about how we officially become res buddies thanks to this event.

MH Pistol: fast and furious ranged weapon as a niche weapon we’re currently missing.

Hi there,
Let me get this clear, so you’re looking for a build
- to play mainly in PvE, a bit of WvW
- using Staff/ Sword + Focus or Greatsword/ Sword + Focus
- a Phantasm build

Well, Pyroathesits might have good tips for you. But in the meantime, this is something i just put together quickly, just for your reference. Enjoy
Link: http://tinyurl.com/l6vtumt

Nubu.6148:

Palu.3405:

Scizzor.8137:

This is rune can sky rocket confusion dmg and expect a nerf very soon because of the 6th trait not having a cool down…

The real benefit, as others have said, is in the 4-piece bonus. Even if there is an ICD implemented on the 6-piece bonus to prevent massive AoE confusion, these runes will still be quite good.

In my opinion , the real benefit is the 100 % confusion duration.

Other classes benefit from only 4th and 6th bonuses.
Mesmers benefit from all bonuses.

selan.8354:

keenlam.4753:

Bought the runes yesterday somehow I recalled there is a 10s ICD for the 6th effect, I could be wrong. Anyway, I hope Anet will fix this soon.

nope no icd so confusion is easily stackable by almost every class. and the stacks last for 10 seconds, it would be a great addition for mesmers, but unfortunately it is actually hurting mesmers.
we are supposed to be the specialists in confusing the enemy, be it with clones, phantasms, confusion dmg, blink or simply by reflecting their attacks.our build variety has been weakened already, with this rune condi mesmers get a buff, but all the other classes get e big buff as they all get complete access to a viable stackable condition.

Ok, i think you are just being jealous and ignore the fact that we mesmers are specialised in BOTH confusion and interrupt, so this set of runes would be very useful to us.
A thief with no class skill to apply confusion can have 25 stacks. Imagine what a mesmer can do then.

PS: I’ve been doing some testing with my condition build. With this runeset (100% +confusion duration), i can easily maintain a minium ~10 stacks of confusion AoE almost 100% uptime.

Bought the runes yesterday somehow I recalled there is a 10s ICD for the 6th effect, I could be wrong. Anyway, I hope Anet will fix this soon.

How can a thief stack 25 stacks of confusion with those 15s and 10s internal cooldowns?
Are you guys exaggerating?

Hi OP,
Others have given you advice how a confusion build is not optimal (but still viable) in PvE. In fact, a condition build is in general not optimal if your group has more than 2 people specced full condition since condition damage of 3 people will start interfering with one another because of the condition caps.

Now, if you truly want to go forward with a condition/confusion build, here’s my current Clone Spammer build for your interest: http://tinyurl.com/jwxxw5g
Try the new rune set (Superior Rune of Perplexity). They’re a bit pricey atm but they are really good, you can easily have 10 stacks of confusion on enemies most of the time with this build.

As for how to get rabid gear, refer to this wiki page: http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Equipment_acquisition_by_stats
It has pretty much everything you need to know.

For ~420k karma, I got full exotic rabid trinkers from Dwayna temple and 4 exotic pieces of armor from Grenth and Lyssa temples. The other 2 armor pieces (chest and boots) and weapons, you can get from WvW merchants with badges and gold.

Hope this helps.

Thanks guys for your comments
I was actually putting together a somewhat bunker build based on retaliation and interrupt traits, so just trying to take advantage of the changes in the latest patch.
Here’s a link to the build for your interest: http://tinyurl.com/nxljf2o
Sword #4 got buff, so happy. Still deciding between Focus and Pistol for 2nd set OH.

@eldenbri: so if it does indeed proc 100% with traited pistol, it’s basically a full cleanse every 90 seconds (or 72 seconds if traited) because, realistically, I don’t think people can stack more than 8 conditions on you.

Strictly speaking and legally, OP is not wrong in naming his build “Shattercat”, it’s not like the name is patented by Osicat or anything.
However, the name is misleading and easily mistaken by someone, especially who is new to the forum, in the sense that the build is somehow related to Osicat.

@OP:
I’m not sure what your purpose in naming your build like that while you can easily name something else different like 7th Dimension’s Shatter build for example.

So to OP:
At best, if you name it so in honour of Osicat, you should make it clear in your post.
At worst, if you name it so to attract more attention/acceptance then it’s false advertising and people have the rights to criticize you.

Thanks, Hexxen I didn’t know that.

Hi guys,
Given Veil is now a light field, has anyone attempted to use traited iDuelist to shoot through Veil to get 8 times condition removal. I heard that traited pistol has 100% projectile finisher on iDuelist 8 shots. Would the removal effect work on the player or just on iDuelist himself?

CobaltSixty.1542:

Shemsu.8721:

Dagraan.2854:

Doggie.3184:

As for the other question, probably not, Anet just hates Thieves exclusively.

HAAAA!!! best joke of the day right there.

And yet not a single fight in the entire gauntlet takes away other class mechanics, strange isnt it

Stealth isn’t a thief’s class mechanic. Steal (and initiative) is a thief’s class mechanic.

Stealth IS part of thief class mechanic. Source: https://www.guildwars2.com/en-gb/the-game/professions/thief/

GoldenTruth.2853:

Zaxares.5419:

So what’s the general consensus with Liadri? Is she easier/harder than T3/4 Trials pre-patch (or post-patch)?

pre-patch? harder

post-patch? easier

Though imo Candidate Trials had the wrong type of difficulty (massive hp pools) while Liadri has the correct type of difficulty (unforgiving mechanics, however, the fight can be learned through high situational awareness and understanding the fight).

Though some classes have a much harder time than others (cough necro).

Thanks, very glad to hear it’s hard in a good way.

displacedTitan.6897:

The best looking staff was the Dragon’s Jade one IMO.

I think so too and thats what i’m using.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I would expect a 10-15second cool down slapped on it sooner or later.

20s ICD. Not like it was appealing to me in the first place. Too good to be true.

It has always been like that. People just want to make Scepter AA and #3 faster as a permanent change without the need of quickness.

Hi OP,
you need to figure out which playstyle you’re attuned to: 1) shatter your clones a lot or 2) let them die to inflict conditions. Mixing between these 2 extremes would yield a less optimal build.

If you like shattering, definitely check out Osicat’s builds as Xavi already suggested.
If you like condition and death clone effects, you can check out my build since your build has very similar trait setup to mine. Link: http://tinyurl.com/kbqtc33

Cheers

Counterblade is fast now, much easier to interrupt. So glad.

Celestina.2894:

A commander that has time to complain about rangers is a commander not doing his or her job to lead the zerg.

Just saying

And he/she can’t even spell. OP, I find no reason that you should get upset by this.
I’m new to playing a ranger in WvW but i find that i can do a lot for my team: scout, run supply, (being one of the fastest roaming class), siege attack/defense with quick burst (QZ + LB #2 to finish off fleeing enemies when they just got hit by siege and trying to heal), lay down combo fields, etc.

Atherakhia.4086:

Allow the pet to evade when you do isn’t really going to solve any problems. There are scenarios when the Ranger may not need to evade because they’re ranged and the pet would. There are scenarios when the Ranger needs to evade and the pet wouldn’t.

If you were to give anything to the pet on dodge, I would prefer aegis. It’s not great because of all the AE and such so the pet may still get smashed, but blunting the first hit may be enough to keep it alive.

Alternatively, just give rangers a 1200 range pet :/

I actually thought about Aegis as well since someone already brought it up in some other thread. However, i think evasion is better because it’s an instant effect that rewards your good timing and awareness of the pet.

Comparing to Protection on dodge, it’s a buff but it also has a trade-off that makes it balanced. And that is exactly like you said, there will be times you waste your dodge to save your pet. Overall, you will need to dodge twice more often. But giving how the current design forces us to take good care of the pet, this would be a welcoming change.

+1 great post, OP. I think all rangers would agree to what you said.
@Miyu: nice vid, looks like the player just gave up on using the pets after they died.

Ravak.8912:

6 arenas, up to 75 people per instance of a Pavilon, up to 69 people in a queue. Assuming the queue is pooled, arenas are pruned at the same time (everyone starts at the same time, and finishes exactly 2 minutes after), the waiting time would be:

1-6: 0 minutes
7-12: 2 minutes
13-18: 4 minutes
19-24: 6 minutes
25-30: 8 minutes
31-36: 10 minutes
37-42: 12 minutes
43-48: 14 minutes
49-54: 16 minutes
55-60: 18 minutes
61-66: 20 minutes
72-2: 22 minutes (two people that started would re-enter now)

So 22 minutes is the worst case scenario – everyone rushes, queues and fights for full two minutes. It’s highly unlikely (except first day, when everyone is searching for a bug and a way to exploit it, like 60s JP reward last time). I expect waiting more like 10-15 minutes if I’m unlucky though…

Hi, your calculation sounds to be very well thought-out. Just want to confirm if you have considered the players fighting at the lower level (like group event designed for 20-30 people).
If so, waiting time might be even less.

I don’t have problems stacking conditions, and we mesmers stack different types of conditions as well, which makes it really difficult to cleanse.
I don’t get why people so obsessed with stacking a same type of condition, enemies just clean it with a push of a button.

My suggestions to improve scepter:
Skill #1: 2nd attack has 20% chance to be combo finisher: projectile
Skill #2: increase range to 1200
Skill #3: remove the purple beam.

Hi eldenbri, just want to give my 2c.

Bountiful Interuption is a great choice since you use 2 weapons that are most easy to pull off the interrupt (pistol and greatsword, skill #5). If you enjoy interrupt, you may find Halting Strike (replacing Empowered Illusions) is interesting as well. With your power/crit chance/crit dmg, Halting Strike can hit very hard.

Unholy Pillager.3791:

…
I think the biggest problem with pets in a PVE setting is survivability. The entire basis of the combat system, from the ground up, is avoiding the attacks that are sent at you. We have dodging, we have blocking, evades built into weapon and utility skills, distortion…and, because of this, major enemies can pretty much one-hit-kill anything in front of them that doesn’t avoid the hit. Into this combat system they introduce a profession that relies heavily on an AI NPC that utterly lacks each and every one of these vital abilities. It has no choice but to face tank every attack directed towards it.

^This.
Pets don’t have much damage mitigation. I would really like to change to protection on dodge roll trait to give pet evasion. That’s 100% dmg mitigation instead of 33%. Might need some balancing but would really have with pet survivability.

Hi Natsu,

Cool build. Not sure how i missed out on this gem until now.
Looks like most condi builds run with 20/20/30/0/0 setup these days. It’s such a flexible setup, you can switch traits on the fly.

Anyway, I’m interested in the retaliation part of your build since you have Retaliatory Shield trait and with PU, iMage, Scepter #2 block., i suppose you don’t have a hard time keep retal up all the time. However, the build is condition-based with only ~2.3k power. So how is retal hitting?

I’m trying to come up with a good build based on Retaliation (check my signature for the power build I’ve come up with so far) but seeing your build I’m truly inspired to make a hybrid build mixing between the 2 power and condition dmg sources. Here’s something I compile so far. Please have a look and give me your thoughts. Thank you.

Link to build: http://tinyurl.com/of4oyaq

Cheers

Fortus.6175:

Iavra.8510:

Now that every class will get access to their own portal (via new item) this argument is void.

source?!

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/livingworld/jubilee/Personal-Portal/first

@Shiren:
https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/dungeon-rewards/?utm_source=client
based on this, i say different champs drop differnt types of rewards and it makes sense that harder champs drop better types.
Cheers

hihey.1075:

Staff is a beast in WvW.
ever tried blinking inside a Shadow Refuge and casting Chaos Storm inside?
Terrific, really.

Mesmer to Thief: “Thanks for the shelter, you know there’s a storm coming.”

Guys, as much as I appreciate your input, i think we’re going off track here since you keep mentioning about protection uptime.

@ its core, this is an interrupt build that also makes use of retaliation to reward counterplay, so you can easily get 100% retal uptime with the 2 blocks on scepter and sword, not to mention aegis and mimic utility if used.

It just happens that it synergizes well with boon/utility support in group settings, but make no mistake, this build is not to make you a walking buff station. Its not a full support build so no contest to Hexxen’s White Which or jportell’s Protection Master. These builds already excel at what they set out to do.

Regarding to utilities, these are just default setups, i switch utilities a lot as i read the combat circumstances and one should too. Be flexible.
In fact, with the signet version, i would even replace Decoy with Signet of Domination, sacrificing stealth for more interrupt. Similarly, with the glamour, replace Decoy with Feedback.

@skcamow: I’ve been running staff build without Chaotic Dampening and I can live without it. I think it boils down to personal preference but like you said, the options are there, you can easily switch between the traits without go to town and pay like 4 silver to retrait.
As you pointed out, Guardian and Thief are your best friends, Dark Field and Light Field, perfect combination.

Btw, thanks for the vid. Its really enjoyable.

Hi guys, thank all for your feedback.
I have decided to gear up to give this build another go. Time to dust it off.
I am taking your ideas on board regarding to gearing towards a tank build with decent dmg to make more use of retaliation. Also, the build will be more group-oriented, more support and CC.

There are two versions:

1) Signet variation:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArcWl0zKqHQThGb9IhpH923AnkCT76SK0NvB-jUCBYMCiEEgkIBK5rIas1tht6KalXBRZDT9iIqWEAzYA-w

- This variation is more about boon support with Signet of Inspiration. You only have 2 stealth skills but you can group up with Thief or other Mesmer if you want to more stealth options.

2) Glamour variation:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArcWl0zKqHWTqGbNJhpH923A/UBmTqgpLpQ38G-jUCBYMCiEEgkIBK5rIas1tht6KalXBRZDT9iIqWEAzYA-w

- This variation is more about utility supports with Veil, Null Field, Feedback are all glamours. Better condition removal with traited Null Field.

Common changes:
- more tanky gear set up: Knight weapons, Celestial armor, and Soldier trinkets.
- use MH scepter to stay ranged, extra block, and make use of that little condition dmg.

Edited: If you want to use this build for solo-roaming, simply use focus instead of sword, and swap Blade Training trait out for something else. Some good options are:
– Deceptive Evasion
– Phantasmal Fury
– Desperate Decoy
– Blurred Inscriptions (if you run the Signet version)

Still deciding to swap Blade Training for Deceptive Evasion in group setting, since now only use OH sword. Traited OH sword #4 and Scepter #2 both have 12 seconds CD which mean they can be chained more effectively. Not sure that would worth giving up Deceptive Evasion.

What are your thoughts on this?

Edited: eagerly waiting for Chaos to post here

There are really challenging champs out there, u guys should explore and look for them instead of asking for buff. Try Kol Skullcrusher in Harathi Hinterlands if you think they die fast and any Krait Champ if u think you can stand in one place and faceroll.
If anything, lvl 80 players in full exotics should stay away from those starting zones and seek challenges for themselves.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

I mention it because I don’t think a lot of people realize you can have only 1 main hand and 2 off hands.

^ Lol this. Saved me a lot of money during leveling.

Given its a powercrit interrupt build, i say it’s DPS with CC built in. Now, about the retaliation part, i know it’s confusing but let me clarify: Retaliation in this build is more about defense, not offense. It’s not like “Please hit me, i hit back with Retal.”

It’s more like when you engage in group fight, enemies realize you glasscannon since your phantasm hitting like a truck thus will focus fire on you, worst case scenario you blow all your defensive utilities and go down but retal might just bring enemies down with you or make it easier for your group to finish them off. In general, retaliation is there to discourage people attacking you, so they can’t keep the pressure on you.

About solo-roaming, not sure how good this build could be since I never had good success with it.

@skcamow: Thanks for the input. I knew somehow this would bring the nostalgia of Pyro’s fabled Immortal Build. Too bad, Anet killed it.

Anyway, my build is definitely not designed to be a bunker build (quite glassy and stealth heavy) and its main dmg is definitely not from retaliation. However, this is where the problem lies i think, its not obvious whether big spike dmg will come from shatters or phantasm. So I have adjusted a bit to make it play more like a phantasm build.

Admittedly, my original idea was to make OH sword work in a build that makes full use of its 2 skills and i think this build accomplished that, at least on paper :|

Phantasm variation: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscWl0zKqHWThGb9IhpH923AnkCTr6SK0NvB-jUCBYLCiEEgkFBKBqIas1tht6KalXBRXDT5iIqWEAzYA-w

The change is to move 10pts from dueling to domination, dropping DE but getting Empowered Illusions. This way, iSwordman can crit for ~4k.

Gearing is flexible, one can easily adjust to get a personal balance between DPS stats and defensive stats so what i posted is merely an example.

Also, I think scepter could work in this build too, you get 1 more block on a relatively low CD. Depends on playstyle, melee or ranged.

Blimm.5028:

Mimic. If you have the retaliation trait never go without mimic. Its OP!

Tbh, i never used it before, didn’t know it is considered blocking. Edited OP to include it.
Thanks

Hi guys,

I was replying to another thread and then revisited one of the builds I made before but didn’t have much success with in WvW. However, since I’m not one of the best mesmers out there, I figure I share this build with you guys hoping that in the hands of a skilled player, they can wreck stuff and have fun with this build.

Link to build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscWl0zKqHWThGb9IipH9mvBckKYaleob82FC-jUCBYLCiEEgkFBKBqIas1tht6KalXBRXDT5iIqWEAzYA-w

This build plays just like any power-based interrupt build out there but with a twist: the additional fail-safe feature: Retaliation in case you get hit.

So basically you do your best to avoid dmg while at the same time, the enemy also does his best to hit you. But when he does, he would wish that he didn’t. Ok, a bit dramatic, but you get the idea. So at the end of the day, enemies would think twice before they spam multi-hit bursts on you. I can see how it would work well against such attacks, as you block the first hit, the next coming hits would proc retaliation and punish the opponents.

Defining traits:
- Halting Strike and Bountiful Interruption for interrupts
- Prismatic Understanding: for stealth buff and more importantly to gain Aegis boon, which synergises with
- Retaliatory Shield: proc Retaliation when you block an attack

Slot skills:
- Ether Feast or Mirror
- Decoy, Veil, and Mass Invisibility for stealth
- Mimic (as suggested by Blimm) (edited)
- Signet of Midnight (SoM): for boon duration
- Alternatively, can swap out Veil for Null Field or Arcane Thievery to deal with conditions.

Gear:
Zerker weapons, Knight armor, and zerker trinkets

Mixed runes to get the best +boon duration possible —> maximise Retaliation uptime after a successful block.

On-crit sigils are good since your crit chance is quite high.

Regarding to armor, I think good players can get away with full zerker because this build provides a lot of active defences through:
- Interrupt (Sword #4, Staff #5, F3)
- AoE blind on SoM
- Block (Sword #4 and Aegis boon)
- Stealth and lots of defensive boons
- Blurred Frenzy (honorable mention )

(obvious?) Cons of the build:
well, not surprisingly: 1) poor condition removal & 2) out of combat speed

So that’s the build. Please discuss guys and if you like it, give it a go.
Cheers.

PS: If anyone can suggest a cool name for this build, it would be very appreciated. I feel the current name is a bit unimaginative.

OH Sword is hard to build to its full potential. This is the best I can come up with to use OH sword, but I have little success so far. I post it here in case anyone interested in and want to try it out: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscWl0zKqHWThGb9IipH9mvBckKYaleob82FC-jUCBYLCiEEgkFBK5pIas1tht6KalXBRXDT5iIqWEAzYA-w

It’s basically a powercrit interrupt build + retaliation high uptime with retal on block and PU traits.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/dungeon-rewards/?utm_source=client

Enjoy everyone.