So once again Arenanet shows that is has no idea what the pvp community really wants.
This would maybe be a fun deathmatch arena style map. But bleh, the cap points feel out of place to me. Or maybe I’m just going to hate any cap and hold map at this point.
So lets look at what it should be doing now and what it used to do.
Old: 100% chance of 33% reduction of dmg. Edit: Protection
Now: 33% chance of a 100% reduction of dmg. Edit: BLIND (Then more on protection below)
At first appearance, these are mathematically similar until you think about it more. This can also negate important attacks like cloak and dagger and screw up a theif combo. THEN ALL CHAOS ARMORS now also have a 33% chance of 33% less dmg as well.
Edit: Also can be 66% chance of 33% less dmg if you have the chaos 15.
This seems like a bug fix and major buff to our defense while also being a buff to our party support since we can now give our group a chance at protection and blind.
I’ve always used staff, but in power builds. Trying it now in condition builds and you are absolutely right. The new “fixed” staff is hell for melee. Thieves especially.
I do miss the on demand prot, esp for eating dps while rezzing or taking a treb hit or something. Otoh, overall prot uptime in combat is good. Chaos armor is now as much or more about the condition application as it is a defensive tool.
They should replace the random swiftness with stability though
Torch is a defensive offhand that is actually quite good with power or condi builds. The one thing that really needs changing on torch imo is the phantasm.
Instead of confusion/ret, just make the image cast a simple fireball type spell that hits for moderate damage and has a short burn. Maybe have it bounce for fireshield or ret or something, but really, if image just did decent (not huge) damage torch would be perfect.
I’m adapting to scepter. It still feels clunky and I don’t like the channeled beam for confusion images especially.
This so much. Chaos armor and the on demand prot is the entire reason I used staff. Past tense. It’s no longer worth the point investment imo. I’d rather use sword/torch as my condition build off-set now. Blurred frenzy and the invis are better active defenses than chaos armor/phase retreat now imo.
Actually, sword torch has been replacing staff in my power builds too. Shame. I loved staff for both the condition application and the hard hitting warlock. I know those aspects are still there, but without the easy access to illusionist celerity, staff has already been feeling flat.
Lol. Really? I guess I can stop trying to find room in my builds for 20 chaos. The prot on chaos armor was the main reason to use staff in tpvp, imo. Can we at least get a CD reduction on chaos armor/storm?
I tried it again and was getting some nice crits (2.5kish iirc) with a standard shatter build. Problem is that it’s not reliable. As Boom mentioned the damage only procs on actual interrupt, not just when you daze/stun. That said, with imbued diversion it can put out some big aoe damage. Could be fun in pvp, but I’m not too interested in playing a shatter build.
The hardest class in the game: engineer. It’s mobile, durable and unique.
Yep, engi is the only thing that engages me on the same level as mesmer. I love being able to switch in and out of kits at will. If they ever change that though…. cold stare @ Anet
Edit: Recently I was running an elixir gun build with rocket boots and speedy kits…. Do not underestimate engi mobility.
Yeeeep. I used to hop in and out of the enemy team, timing was everying. Now, with all the cd loss, and the insane amount of condition aoe going on in tpvp, I’ve switched to a GS zerker build so I can just sit back and 11111 to win.
And I always thought my build was fairly nerf proof since I only went 5 pts into the trees most ppl were spending 25+ pts in. har har. t(-.-)t Anet.
Everytime I think I’ve got a good mantra build, it falls on it’s face performance wise to any of my other standard or gimmick builds.
I like the idea, maybe they’re good for pve, idk. In pvp, though, even if they were buffed to holy hell I’d probly not use them unless they significantly change the feel of mantras. Their whole charge use cooldown recharge mechanic is SO CLUNKY. I just can’t deal.
I consider these traits core to any build I’m going to seriously play. Whether it’s power, condi or tank. I hate wasting a clone.
Please, let me clarify one thing:
“Sharper Images + Phantasmal Duelist” mechanic WORKS with Rampager Amulet. Using another set won’t even remotely produce the same result, especially a P/T/V set. ^^
I should clarify, when I said these traits I meant the condis on clone death traits. They’re worth picking up even with a power build imo. But yeah, for max bleeds you’ll want rampager ammy. However, even with P/V/T ammy, my phants will have 50-65% crit rate from fury, 25-30 in dueling, precision runes and sigil. I’m not basing my power build around any of these traits, but they all add up to help deliver the goods.
Yes, I find myself going 25 into illusions for decoy cd and taking the points out from my weapon traits since celerity affects some of the weap cd’s. It feels clunky as all hell. I’d rather they had just given something a flat % damage nerf. This one change completely messed up the feel of the prof for me. All of my timing that was ingrained over thousands of games is shot. QQ
I’ve played with mes might stacking a few times. Here’s my input:
Pickup the extra bounce trait. Mirror blade is your single best source of might, aside maybe from sigils of battle. Staff and GS actually synergize well together, and it will help both weaps.
Bountiful Interruption gives 5 stacks, but only 10sec duration. Not saying it isn’t worth taking, but I wish it were 2-3 stacks for 20sec. I feel like I have to work to make this trait work for me. Would rather have the staff cd’s if I have to choose.
Try using signet of inspiration…. It’s pretty fun dropping aoe ret and might stacks on your team.
Yes, from the pvp community as well. This change did not significantly hurt phantasmmesmers. It greatly hurt everyone else who wasn’t shatter. Clone spammers unite! :P
I’ll also say that my old build was totally perfect. Screw you Anet for moving illusionist celerity.
I used to run 10/30/20/5/5. Staff, sword/pistol. Soldier ammy. Incredibly tanky, hard hitting phants, AND clone spam. It was beautiful. My playstyle still works of course, but it’s driving me mad trying to optimize around the new illusions line :P
I consider these traits core to any build I’m going to seriously play. Whether it’s power, condi or tank. I hate wasting a clone.
Inspiration is a very lackluster trait line imo. I know pyro has a lot of success with his tank build, but for this if anything you’d want 20 in chaos. I used to put 5 in Inspiration for the ret on phants, but haven’t missed it lately. The regen from phants is nice, but you get plenty of regen and prot from Chaos/staff. The one condi removed on heal isn’t worth it. You already get vigor from crits… So yeah.
For clone spamming, right now I’m liking 10/25/10/0/25 or 0/30/10/0/30 or 0/25/20/0/25.
With all the Mesmer bugs and nerfs… we are lucky if the iZerker actually hits u… all you have to do for that guy is stand still and wow… you took 1k damage at the most… and one stack of bleed SO OP! I duelist is strong but it is one of our only strong phantasms in general… iWarden is easily dodgeable and he just stands there, Swordsman, Warlock and mage all do 1 attack per rotation so all you have to worry about from them is one stack of bleeding, iZerker once again is bugged so as long as you stand still… you will likely only get one stack of bleeding… therefore the only phantasm you need to worry about is iDuelist and one dodge negates half their damage and bleed stacks…
Yes… keep your kitten dirty hands off of my iduelist
I REALLY don’t understand why alllll the new games have achievements and think gamers give a kitten. Build an interesting world for us to explore and tough things to kill. The conquering and looting is achievement enough. I don’t need your hollow points to validate my gaming.
In the end I went through 3 heals or so and had taken well over 20k dmg from retaliation. I know the obvious answer is to stop attacking but when one of those beasts is camping a point and you need to get them off, you can’t exactly just ignore him and win the match.
Yeah, bunker guards can be super annoying. But hey, like you said they don’t really do anything most of the time. Sure they can keep a point locked up, but so can a lot of profs/builds. In a big fight they can basically be ignored other than to interrupt them from stomping or rezzing. I pity their boring, monotonous and innefective play-style.
If you really want to kill one, boon stripping and interrupts are very helpful.
A big, fat, glowy bubble with high HP/Armor that moves slowly. You’d be very dependent on team support and everyone would be equal in terms of orb carrying.
While removing SW from rotation can we also remove temple, khylo and the rest since they are wayyyyyyyy outdated by this time. SW is by far the best map in spvp and there are more ways to win than just focusing on the orb, personally never bother with the orb myself and tend to do well on that map even with hotjoins but it will be balanced soon apparently. I would do things to get new maps…. serious things.
I love temple, just because it has the lowest amount of bullkitten. IMO they just need to get rid of the gimmicky stuff like mobs and catapults. I mean… mobs in PVP? Seriously? Get rid of the stupid sharks, lords, forest creatures and all that crap.
Spirit Watch is a step in the right direction, even though I really don’t enjoy playing the map as it is. I do think you shouldn’t be able to cap the orb at all unless your team controls the point. That would encourage point control and coordination and dampen the RTL problem a bit.
Really though, played 1600 games of spvp, about half as mesmer. Now I’m rockin the sword/longbow bleed warrior and loving it. Doesn’t feel weak at all even after so much time as a so often called OP/faceroll prof.
That said, I think warrior utilities could use some love. They do feel a bit less potent to me than some other profs. Maybe that’s by design though, since the weapon skills are superb imo.
Just thought I’d test this again since it’s been a known bug for a few months and a lot of stuff like this was fixed in the last past. Unfortunately, rune of strength 6th bonus of 5% damage when you have might still does not apply.
I agree that pvp rewards need an overhaul. I cannot fathom why they let ppl buy paid reward chests with tickets. I had been ranking up in hotjoin and had only done a handful of tourneys, and now like everyone else I have full paid pvp gear. It’s lame for those that really worked for it, and the rest of us have pretty much no incentive to continue to tourney. Especially with the current matchmaking flaws.
I’d play for gold, skins that are useable in pve/wvw, chests with rare/exotic pve gear. But right now there’s nothing in the current set of pvp rewards that I want.
idk, I hated pve on all of the profs I tried. I only got my mes to 80 riding our zergy WvW matchup. I love the combat system for fighting other players, but for some reason the pve in this game just wasn’t very satisfying for me.
@razor I specifically said even team fights. So your 1 vs 2 comment, really doesn’t apply to anything I said. Try reading again maybe?
@Dejay ya thief/mesmer would break it but is anyone naive enough to mist stomp first time until they do their first stealth? lol. I’m not so it doesn’t really apply to me.
If you’re talking about changing global mechanics, you don’t get to pick and choose which scenarios are relevant to the conversation. Any change to stop mechanics will impact every kind of fight, not just even matches.
All of these “cheesy” ways to stomp can also be used to rez, or dps or avoid damage. Are those mechanics also unfair in the other situations?
As a mes if I blow my invuln to stomp, that’s all my illusions and a 60 sec cooldown on my best defensive move. Choices on when to use skills and what for are good, not bad.
A#1 learn to spot the real mesmer. Good mesmers practive moving like their clones and generally being hard to spot. Clones never do anything besides 1 attack, so look for any other animations including skills/dodge rolls. Call target on the real mes when you find him, and re-target as needed. It’s helpful and good practice.
Practice watching your conditions and their boons. If they have a staff expect retaliation/confusion. As the above poster said, it’s generally bad to hit them with chaos armor up, but a good mes can have it up a lot so you have to know when to apply pressure.
Best thing you can do is try one for a while and get a feel for it.
Looks like he’s running null field, I’d put all 10 in illusions and get confusing cry, or 5 illusion 5 dueling for confusing combatants and illusionary retribution. Even if you’re not running a condition build, those couple extra ways of adding confusion stacks/retaliation are >> 1 condition remove on heal imo.
In case I was not clear, just have a friend join a hot join match and then click join friend in pvp. You will have whatever starter stuff they give you, but you can exit to the mist and change your stuff.
<3 thank you so much, that’s brilliant.
ANet, please just give a skip intro story option on character creation, even if it’s not a pvp only toon. I personally despise that overly scripted spoon feed you story crap. Just let me play the kitten game.
