Guild Wars 2

Talmor.9048:

To the WvWvW guilds out there, do not despair. Your militia will be back and help put us back in first. Just be patient. We are still here, we have not lost guilds or people to other servers. Think about it, we started losing when the Southsun had +200% MF. Coincidence? I do not think so.

Don’t sweat it, nobody expects DB to drop from T2. Even without your recent T1 transfers you’re still stronger than all of T3, and over a hundred points ahead in Glicko. Your core is just as strong as FA and TC’s, so unless something drastic happens in T1 we’ll all be here in T2 a long time together.

Completely agree. Just have to keep bugging them about it, forever if necessary. In cases like these the squeaky wheel gets the grease, just gotta be squeakier and more consistent than the other complaints.

11 pages and 8 months worth of an undying thread on the issue should be getting pretty close to getting that message across.

Asura. I wanted to be a tiny little zipping zooming pinball of death. Not a stickler for looks. That said, satisfied with how she turned out .

Brand new 80 Asura War, Tar Ball:

Homonavn.6348:

My warrior. Running a tanky frontline build for WvW with hammer

Fractal sword!

Really cool armor, esp the helm. What armor is it all?

Just a minor clarification about this issue – you don’t actually retarget when you press the right mouse button, you retarget when you release it.

As if right-clicking targeting wasn’t already weird enough…

RoyHarmon.5398:

Last night, I was leveling up my warrior (if I continue, it’ll be my 6th level-80) and I kept accidentally picking up the Banner of Defense that I had placed. After a split second of confusion, I realized this was just another quirk of the right-click targeting system.

Isn’t that really a quirk of the F key? Eg you were trying to loot a mob but instead picked up the banner?

But in general I totally agree. Even a bandaid fix to the right click targeting problem would be much appreciated. It’s really annoying.

Rednik.3809:

I recommend following:
1. Drop Mobile strikes or swap it for something else. If you run Melandru+Lemongrass+Dogged march, immobilizes is not a big danger.

Ok good to know, thanks. Mobile Strikes came mainly from running around Orr and getting immobilized and pulled all the time, but don’t have the reduced condition duration yet.

Rednik.3809:

2. Swap Bull Rush for Endure Pain if you planning to be frontline. It can eat 20-30k damage alone, if you time it properly (just before jumping inside large group of AoE spammers)

Yeah, Bull Rush is fun, but not useful in a zerg, esp since it only hits one target. WTB AoE knockdown like it implies in the tooltip.

Rednik.3809:

3. Swap Defy Pain for Spiked Armor. Yes, retaliation damage is not that much now after nerf, but with 1/3 uptime of retal buff you will tag ALOT more ppl. More tags – more wxp, more loot, more kills for Realm Defender achievement.

Alright will experiment with that too. Love retaliation on my guardian, won’t take much convincing.

Thanks!

peter.9024:

Hey! A couple notes:
1. I personally like berserker power over restorative strength. If you run dogged + melandru, movement conditions are not a big issue and berserker power will increase your damage significantly.

Ok thanks, will use BP instead, and swap b/t that and Death From Above as necessary.

peter.9024:

2. Currently you have no source of stability and I think you should consider running either Last Stand in place of Embrace the Pain and/or Balanced stance

I do have Balanced Stance here.

peter.9024:

3. I definitely wouldn’t run shouts. Shouts leave you with only 1 stun break, 1 shout which is basically single target and 1 shout that adds slight amount of group DPS.

Only reason I took Shake It Off! is for the short-cd stun break. With Melandru + DM + food, the condition removal isn’t important. Is that not a good way to get a stun break?

peter.9024:

4. If you want to get Burst Mastery, you can either remove 10 in strength (loose damage), 10 in tactics (loose utility) or 10 in defense (loose defense). I’d personally try without tactics see how it goes, but I’m aware that leg specialist helps a lot with hammer.

Yeah, gonna have to experiment with that tradeoff. I’d hate to give up 10 in Strength b/c I intend to swap that trait on the fly for Death From Above when needed – tower/keep defense, traveling.

peter.9024:

5. Defy Pain has an internal CD. Like 90s or so

Darn, knew that was too good to be true.

Thanks for the feedback, will go with Melandru Runes and experiment with your suggestions.

/bookmark. Have been thinking about something similar but too new to war to be sure. Will look forward to a WvW action vid of this.

Hi all, just got my war to 80 and am gearing him up primarily for zerging. Would appreciate any feedback on it: 10/0/30/10/20

Notes/Goals:

1. Multiple ways to get out of stuns, immobilizes, slows. 4x movement skills + 2x stun breaks.

2. High armor, low health, so need reduced condition duration. Melandru runes + Dogged March + food buff seem to be best way to do this. Other options are Runes of Lyssa + SoR, or Runes of the Soldier + 3x shouts. Thoughts on these appreciated, haven’t bought the runes yet.

3. Leg specialist for now, though debating putting those 10 pts into Discipline for reduced Burst skill cd for more frequent Earthshakers. That’s 1x AoE Daze every 8s vs 2x AoE Immobilizes every 15s (or 16s realistically, including weapon swap time).

4. Defy Pain – is there an internal cd? The wiki isn’t clear

5. Will swap between Strength II and I (Death From Above) as needed.

Would help to see this in a build calc instead of a wall of text. Here ya go – I got most of it but don’t know what traits 20/0/30/0/20 means, or what utilities. Maybe you can fill in the rest.

Thanks for the pics and vid, guys, just found this page trying to scratch this itch. Itch scratched, much appreciated.

Kript.3291:

no kitten…TC RP pvers fight back…..

We seem to be at our best when we’re getting our kitten kicked than when we’re winning.

Sado masochism – not just for ERP anymore.

Sounds perfect then. Warriors are fine for survivability in PvT. Their healing isn’t as good as Guardians but they have more HP and nice escapes like Endure Pain x2 (trait + utility). Lots of Commanders frontline their zerg as warriors just fine.

And concur, my war is 65 on the way to 80, Hammer is definitely a blast.

Blaine Tog.8304:

However, I like having the option to respec, so I’d like my armor to cover as many direct-damage builds as possible. I don’t have the money to get more than one set, unfortunately.

That’s exactly what I described above. Optimized Knight/Zerker mix. Get both sets if you have the time/motitivation/money, but if not, get the optimized mix.

0/20/20/0/30 is Shatter Cat Heavy, great build, can’t go wrong with it in any situation.

gregmak.2159:

I can’t be bothered with Mesmer anymore. I loved playing condition mesmer and now that confusion is nerfed to the ground the only thing I can run is shatter mesmer, which is too squishy for WvW, unless you’re roaming in a small group and you don’t come against a zerg.

This implies you prefer running with your guild/zerg.

gregmak.2159:

but I hate the fact guardian has no range and can’t tag much.

This implies you’ve never tried Staff on your guardian in zerg v zerg.

I run full Clerics on my Guardian and tag everything with Staff #1. Loot bags galore. You should be able to do even more with full Soldiers.

Lack of range is annoying though, no way around that.

Staff + Sword/Focus is amazing. Very much short-med range though.

My favorite combo: running up to enemy, cast Chaos Storm on them at 1200 range → at 900 range Blink into Chaos Storm → Phase Retreat back → Chaos Armor → weapon swap → iWarden + Illusionary Leap at the same time → Swap → Blurred Frenzy → Decoy → Mind Wrack → Temporal Curtain + ItV knockdown.

GS is ok, but it’s got nothing on Staff.

Start with Full Knights -> then Optimized Knights/Zerker mix -> then Full Zerker.

Full Knights for a new mesmer as you learn the class’s defenses. We mitigate damage by avoiding it – Distortion, Diversion, teleports (Sword #3, Staff #2, Blink), Invulnerabilities (Sword #2, Distortion), Aegis/Protection (Chaos Storm + Armor), Dodge, and Stealth.

Once you get good at avoiding damage, start mixing in Berserker gear working for a statistally optimal stat set (1) , (2) .

Finally, once you’re confident enough in your mesmering abilitles, finish it off with a full Zerker set.

Put 6x Runes of the Air in both sets so you can mix and match. Those help with our lack of travel speed, while being very good for PvP, and decent but not optimal for PvE.

Then you’ll have 2 sets you can mix and match as the situation calls for – easy dungeons and whatnot, go full Zerker. Harder stuff go hybrid Knight/Zerker, or full Knight.

Full Knights: Craft, SE, Arah, WvW.

Zerker: Craft, CoF, Arah, WvW.

Rayya.2591:

so you got all boons except stability for 18 seconds every 48 seconds (Trained)

You must not be fighting any boon-stripping zergs then.

Rayya.2591:

i am sorry but SY is an poor choice even for boon durations and clerics, and i gave you 3 reasons for that

Actually you gave me 1 reason – HG. I already run the other two shouts with SY.

But HG is a good reason, and I swap SY for it sometimes depending on the situation.

For example, if our zerg is defending a Lord Room vs an attacking zerg, HG is better, because we’re stationary bunkering on top of the Lord, and everyone can stay in HG for the duration.

But if we’re blitzing another zerg in open field, or breaking into a keep and attacking another zerg bunkered up in it, I use SY for a couple reasons:

1. Strip Necro mark/well conditions from allies as we run through them. Staff Necros first line of defense neutralized.

2. The fight is more likely to be mobile, won’t have the luxury of bunkering in HG the full duration.

3. Another stun break. After SyG Stability has worn off, multiple on-the-move stun breaks are clutch in ZvZ.

4. Almost half the cd. I get more use out of short-cd shouts than long-cd, stationary Consecrations in all open-field ZvZ fights, and some keep fighting.

5. As I said – anti-focus-fire defense. Particularly useful for my huge Norn guardian frontlining our zerg that gets targeted all the time. Maybe not so much for tiny Asura guardians and the like, who knows.

Saying SY is a “poor choice” is hyperbole. At worst, depending on the situation, it’s the second best choice after HG. At best, it’s better.

I play both Guard and Mes, and here’s the first thing I’d try for the Guardian. Depends on what the Mesmer’s setup is, but assuming they’re all running Shatter builds, I’d counter with an AoE healing bunker spec:

Everyone run a modified Healway build. kitten near unkillable.

1. Kill their Illusions with AoE fast, ideally before they can Shatter them. GS #5 + #2, Mace #2 (increased symbol size) + Shield #4.

Or try Staff instead of GS – #1 is spammable AoE, plus massive AoE Might stacking from #4, and the #5 bumper will be useful.

2. Stack on the point and bunker each other with stacked Symbol of Faith (Mace #2) + rotating Shield #4 for 100% Protection uptime. Run full clerics, heal through their damage – dodge + Symbol of Faith.

3. Keep Retaliation up, it scales off Power which Clerics provides.

4. If they’re all using Null field and Arcane Thievery, intending to win with Boon stripping, then swap to an Altruistic Healing build, that heals you when you apply boons to allies but does not depend on boon uptime.

Thieves, for example, fight mesmers with shortbow – cluster bomb their Illusions to death, whittle the mesmer down by kiting them and attacking at range (since mesmer’s only real burst is melee-range – IP Shatter + Blurred Frenzy), then when Mes hits 50% (or ideally below 25%) swap to Dagger and C&D + Mug + BS + HS them to death.

Rayya.2591:

i see no real reason to use SY on 30 vs 30 for example

I see six reasons: Protection + Regen + Retaliation + Vigor + Swiftness + Stun Break.

There are few better non-elite anti-focus-fire skills than SY, and if you’re frontlining your zerg in 30v30 you’re gonna be getting focus-fired a lot.

Then again, I run with full Clerics + Boon Duration runes, so SY works really well in that setup. With OP’s build, the boon duration will be way less, but the defensive boons will probably be even more valuable since his gear makes him so glassy. And, short cd Stun Break is always clutch.

Very cool to see people experimenting with Daze/Stun builds. Every time I look at Mesmer builds, ANet’s emphasis on Daze/Stun and expectation we play that way at least some of the time is clear:

Runes of the Mesmer 6x set bonus
One of our four main class skills, Diversion
All the Daze/Stun – related traits

It’s been on my todo-list to experiment with this some as well, but haven’t gotten past just theorycrafting builds. My biggest problem with it is you pretty much have to give up Illusionary Persona to make a Daze/Stun focused build, and I’m just too addicted to the utility + dmg IP provides.

But maybe if I start getting pwned by Daze/Stun mesmers I’ll change my mind.

fadeaway.2807:

Am I missing something? You don’t have access to many dazes, was it realy worth focusing your traits and gear on them?

Unless he changed his build link since you posted this, he has 5 Dazes and 2 Stuns, on 20s – 45s cd’s. Should be plenty.

Signet 1s
Mantra 2d
Magic Bullet (1d + 1s)
Chaos Storm 1d
Diversion 1d (or up to 3 if you count per illusion)

the uprising.6317:

or when in an organized group, allowing you to get in melee range. Meaning he could basically not get many drops/xp unless he was in an organized group.

Is this still the case? I feel really feel like I should have picked Warrior, I would have had a bow…

Yes this is still the case. For leveling a guardian in WvW, it’s even more the case.

I main a guardian in WvW using a Staff bunker zerg-busting build that gets tons of drops. But that’s because I frontline the zerg, bunker my nearby teammates with long-duration boons, dodge to heal them, tag everything with Staff #1 and increased-size Symbols, and smash enemy zergs, push through to their backline and smash their squishies, etc.

Loot bags galore. But I can do that b/c I’m at 80 in full Exotics and Ascended and have the survivability and full Traits needed to do that. While you’re leveling you won’t be remotely close to being able to do that.

You can still try it, just run slightly behind your 80 frontliners so they get targeted and not you, but not so far back that your staff #1 still hits enemies as your frontliners get to them.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news here. Before rerolling or quitting, also try tagging things with Scepter #2. It does good AoE damage, not too terribly long of a cd, and lets you attack enemies from a bit more range.

But if neither of those work, then yeah, Warrior. But if you can stick it out, Guardian is well worth it at 80.

Krispera.5087:

The torch light radius can only be seen on your screen. Other players won’t see it.

Ah, awesome, thanks! Just need the tiniest possible model then.

Mesmer clones are relatively easy to distinguish since they have no offhand weapon.

This is even more the case when you’re running Torch offhand, and it puts a halo of light around you on the ground, making it even easier for enemies to distinguish the mesmer from the clones.

Anyone know if there’s a torch skin that gives off no light and perhaps is not very big, hard to see?

Flissy.4093:

Honestly, as long as you have 20 Dueling and 5 Illusions

At a more meta level, what you really want is constant illusion spawning. Whether you get that from 20 pts in Dueling for Dueling X Deceptive Evasion, or some other method, doesn’t matter. There are alternatives.

Here’s a leveling guide based on cripple-kiting mobs with staff. Very survivable, able to solo same-level Vets, some Champs, and survive accidental overpulls in enclosed areas (bandit caves and the like).

I figured this out while leveling my mesmer and it was the most fun leveling I’ve had in this game (3x 80s, and a 60).

Yeah, unfortunately a short Norn isn’t enough, the movement mechanics and sluggishness are still the same.

And yeah, cultural armors are another issue, but since they keep the name even when transmuted, theoretically they could be converted to the new race’s equivalent T1/2/3 cultural armor skin.

I feel potentially responsible for this, having complained about it , but had I known the fix would be to render this potion completely useless in WvW I would kept my frikkin mouth shut.

Yes, please revert if possible, I used this potion to mitigate a bug with my Norn Guardian, where using Greatsword Leap of Faith completely misses targets if they’re slighly lower elevation than you. Doesn’t happen with my Asura guardian, just a frustrating bug with the Norn model.

I also much prefer the movement mechanics of Human/Sylvari to Norns – they feel quicker, more alacrity. Norns feel so sluggish and unresponsive by comparison.

PS – ANet I would pay real money for a race change, even if it required completely resetting the personal story. My norn guardian looks awesome, but I much prefer him in human form.

Really fun looking build – spawn a bunch of high damage illusions, then disappear while they fight for you.

But agree with ammayhem, drop the cond dmg, focus on P/Pr/CrtDmg/T. Since you’re taking the trait that gives Phantasms fury, focus your build on that + stealth/deception/teleports:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsfRlwzipXUToGb9IipH9GxBckUoavWJF42FC-jkyAYrASWAJCAJPl1EogYNrIas6FMVpQq6MyejioVDA-w

Also, how to optimize Zerker stats – make sure you get the best bang for your Crit Damage buck:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/warrior/pwr-vit-tough-vs-pwr-pre-critdmg/first#post1322140

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/18q7oe/not_all_slots_are_created_equal_dos_and_donts_of/

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/12dmi5/tip_stat_optimization_with_crit_damage/

PS – I went with 6x Runes of the Centaur instead of 6x Air because if you get hit by AoE while you’re stealthed, and that triggers the 6x Air Lightning Strike, you’ll get knocked out of stealth.

Centaur gives a lot of Power, plus longer-duration (AoE) Swiftness. Only wasted set bonus with Centaur is Bleed duration.

salaman.7913:

tl;dr Why is levelling a mesmer supposedly very difficult?

For one, it’s really only difficult for new players leveling their first character, or perhaps players who specialize only in heavies and aren’t used to squishies.

And second, open field fighting when you can kite is fine, no problems there. The problems arise when you have to go into caves or other enclosed places where you can’t kite without accidentally overpulling.

For example, the bandit caves in Queensdale (esp the one under the cemetary), give new players a ton of trouble, unless they’ve figured out how to use Staff + Sword/x to fight multiple mobs at close range.

Here’s a leveling guide that covers that , fwiw. You can actually solo some same-level Champions while leveling with the first build.

The Baws.5164:

3: Are they a worthwhile class to run, if looking for a decent levelling experience and a good experience in PvP?

They’re awesome everywhere, except leveling. Leveling they are a pain in the kitten. This will help

Moral Hazard:

9/10. Looks great, only thing is the wolf has the cursor highlight.

My Norn Guardian, Hammurabi, having ventured down from the Shiverpeaks and discovered his first Asura outpost – Valance Tutory.

AC weapons, transmuted Orr Karma Armor. Liked the contrast of the evil-looking undead armor, esp the face, and ghostly weapons, for a traditionally “good” protector role. Hopefully he scares away the evil spirits.

Phantom.8130:

i’d recommend getting one from newegg or tigerdirect. it’ll take a little longer for it to get there, but it’ll be a bit cheaper and you won’t have that “someone just shot me in the junk with a staple gun” type feeling you get from dealing with best buy’s “professional computer experts.”

Second this. With Newegg you’ll probably get it in 2 days, even if you select slower shipping. They’re just that good.

Kreaven.3172:

And besides. I was also curious to know if my laptop could run it. Not I get to find out lol.

This compilation of performance optimizations should help.

Talentless.5708:

some of us are getting bored of the current WvW meta of zerg this, zerg that (no not from dying to zergs, but from our only food being stragglers trying to get to them).

Would there not be interest from those who run <10 on a daily/nightly basis to consolidate to a single pretty static tier, like the bottom? If just 9 groups were up for this in a single prime time slot, that would leave us with 3 per server. It would allow us to keep the fun of unknown roaming, as opposed to organized GvGs, as well.

Please note I am focused on NA prime time.

You should arrange this on Anvil Rock for NA, or Desolation for EU, the dominant sPvP servers.

Anvil Rock would probably be better since Desolation is already a T1 zergy EU server, AR is T5 and from what I’ve heard, plays WvW the way they play sPvP – small groups of highly skilled roamers.

Would be cool to build on that foundation and make server full of 24/7 coverage of disruption squads.

True, now that I think about it. But I’d have no problem with that as long as the standard profession elites were still generally preferred. Nice to have slightly inferior but fun and situational options though.

phaneo.4597:

Forums are never pretty, no matter how hard you try to keep them clean! Everyday a troll gotta troll the trolly troll outta trolls.

Not true. We’ll always have the epic BG-KN-TC lovefest thread.

Nabrok.9023:

Unfortunately I barely even got a chance to pick up the few I got off you in the early engagements.

People actually pick up loot bags? I thought we all just screenshotted them for our trophy wall and ran on to the next objective (or respawned as the case may be).

Haha, greatsword + hammer + focus using npc = haxxor.

On male norn guardian (tallest, skinniest build possible), Leap of Faith frequently misses if I’m at slightly higher elevation than the target. This doesn’t happen on my Asura guardian.

akunadin.5017:

And trully theese guys passed me solo fighting 1 or 2 ppl like 10 x this week:P

It’s either eHonor, or they’ve got somewhere more important to get to and their commander is ordering “DON’T CHASE”.

But yeah, nice when people don’t interfere with duels.

Haha, love it.

Wtb 3m cd on Norn elites instead of 4. 2 would be even better.

Lysico.4906:

Well as a big time pvp warrior, I LOVE our cat form when I need stealth.

It allows me to get away and/or into spots without being seen. I don’t keep it up over my main elite all the time, but when coming up to a tower or when I know I am being chased down, I slot it, and time it for the stealth and get in or away.

Works great.

I also love it on my guardian in WvW. Judge’s Intervention (1200) + Flashing Blade (600) + Leap of Faith (600) + Cat form Pounce (600) + Dash (1600) = 4600 movement in a matter of seconds.

Throw a 5s stealth in and it’s awesome, either escaping a zerg, or a 1v5 I’m about to lose (while baiting them into chasing me away from their original objective), or ganking someone unawares from behind.

A thing of beauty.

Only complaint is the cd is waaaaaay too long. 4m cd kitten Needs to be in 2-3m range.

Edit: Speak of the devil , lol.

Usagi.4835:

Sab.5291:

So when is FA gonna man-up and report their thief from Pink that is using exploits. Don’t say he is not he was just on our keep walls a little while ago.
All he is doing is hurting your server rep.

Actually, he’s moved to KN now and has been reported repeatedly. In spite of that, he remains smug as ever.

Yeah, I chased him around EB lowlands two weeks ago on my thief, hoping to get close enough for a C&D/Mug/BS and maybe kill him by surprise.

But impossible when he map hacks from LLK to the Golanta ridge in 3s, or teleports up to the top of walls.

After an hour or so of keeping LLK contested that way, he got bored, retired to SMC, and gave us a /salute before disappearing for the night, lol.

Rawnoodles.1398:

Hey!

Server rep/leader of a very big WvW guild here!

If any guilds/players are interested in moving elsewhere please contact me!

Some exciting information to share with those that are interested joining a newly reformed dedicated WvW server

To give true credit where it is due, that accolade belongs strictly the DB loyalists who stuck with their server after a big exodus, and have slowly worked their way back up. They got themselves back to T2 all on their own, overcoming a number of obstacles on the way:

1) Free transfers were still in effect for some of that time, yet they managed to not completely fall apart.

2) Every server and its mother trying to recruit their strong Oceanic/SEA guilds (yours truly included).

I’m sure there are others I’m not aware of, but /salute to DB for persevering through it all and ‘reforming’ their own server. A really inspiring demonstration of what can be accomplished when people reject the path of least resistance.

Bananasmile.4126:

and whoever goes down to Tier 3 will surely get a well deserved break and even time to recoup and bounce back harder than ever.

Actually whoever drops to T3 will probably gain so many points they’ll jump back to T2 a week later. And then, repeat. I foresee quite a bit of that for the next couple weeks. Those who want some variation are going to get it.

UCF Knight.8095:

Most of us don’t get into this whole TC vs FA nonsense anyway.

Oh it goes way back.

In the beginning, there were dolyaks …