Guild Wars 2

Fluffball.8307:

Bow is a lot of fun in competitive, which is pretty much the only place you’d want to use it anyway. Bow in PvE is a lame at best, and frowned upon in groups.

Well Longbow is part of the ‘meta’ for rangers…but it’s only used for the skill 2 and skill 5. You never use skill 4, even if a boss has defiance stack, it’s just not worth it to have your group yelling at you. This is why I usually don’t even bother to bring the LB into a dungeon or fractal, I stick with the sword/axe and greatsword. Don’t bother with the shortbow outside a niche PvP spec…I really wish they’d update and change it to be awesome again. I love the legendary SB and it sucks that it’s only useful to my thief :/

Sword 1 will be frustrating at first, don’t let it get to you though. If you don’t mind having to continually press the 1 key over and over, you can always unbind it from being auto used. If you keep it bound to auto attacking, make sure you face away from cliffs while using it…as the leap part of the chain has a tendency of launching you forward. The other 2 sword skills can help you to breaking the chain when you need to dodge, along with a weapon swap but it just takes practice to get used to it.

Good luck with your ranger! It’s a fun profession if nothing else

Bryzy.2719:

I’ll admit I had this hope too. But the more I think about it, the more naive I feel. Ranger history proves my naivite.

The best analogy I can think of is that of comparing house foundations:

You take the Tempest for example; sure it’s probably one of the worst elite specs we’ve seen so far, but it’s built on a perfect, solid foundation – the Elementalist. The result is therefore an “oh well, we’re still as strong as ever with a few neat new toys to play with as a bonus”.

You take the Ranger; they’re building the Druid elite on top of a weak, broken foundation (i.e. the profession mechanic). Just how good can this elite be? Unless (by some miracle) they have actually addressed and somehow improved the profession mechanic altogether, it’s going to be, for want of a better expression, Anet trying to polish a poo. Sure there might be some cool new features and maybe one or two new utilities – but underneath the new makeup will be the same old, rotten core.

Let’s see just how far they’ve dug with the Ranger/Druid.

I know. I am just holding onto hope from a long time ago, when they announced that they had hired someone to come work on the AI system. Dunno what happened to that guy after that…or what, but holding onto hope.

Yes Tempest was a big fail. I think it was probably hard to add something new to a profession that can already do anything and everything in the game. But holy cow that elite spec is a kitten . After seeing that release video, I noped out of my ele…was getting tired of being an Ice Bow dispenser anyway -.-

I wouldn’t call Ranger rotten, I’d call it misguided and a bit like someone cut ends off jigsaw puzzle pieces to make it fit. We work but our picture as a whole isn’t pretty or polished. I just wish they’d take the page from WoW’s book already and give the pet some AoE damage reduction or another way for Mr. Fluffy not to go SPLAT immediately entering near a boss. I fear those new raids as a ranger…with how the pets bounce around while standing next to you, its so easy for them to accidentally get into a red circle of death.

Do they require any decent skill to play?

Yes and no. This depends solely on how much effort you put into learning the profession. If you want to stand back and use nothing but a longbow with your pet tanking away, you aren’t learning how to play the profession properly. You get nothing about how to micro manage your pet or how the different skills work with not only you but your pet. If you are going to invest time into the profession, I suggest you equip a sword/axe (or warhorn) and a greatsword in the other weapon slot. Ignore both bows for now. Longbow is stupid easy to use, so you really don’t need to practice with it and Shortbow, while I love my legendary Dreamer skin, is pretty much useless. Learning both melee weapons and how they work is really important if you plan on taking this ranger into a dungeon or a fractal.

Are they liked or disliked by the community and for what reasons? Bad players?

Sadly, Rangers are the butt of many jokes and dungeon groups are quick to kick and or blame the ranger for the groups short comings. Another profession uses a knock back skill, prepare to get blamed…even if you don’t have a longbow equipped. Your pet will get blamed for pulling aggro, even though it’s on passive and it can’t pull aggro from most mobs. Bad players and bots from way back when the game first released have bred negativity towards to profession and we are just now slowly removing that stigmata. You won’t be insta-kicked from a smart group but you better make sure you have Frost Spirit on your utility bar and Spotter traited.

What can they offer in groups?

As mentioned, we can provide Spotter (150 precision bonus) and Frost Spirit (gives a 7% or so boost to damage). It’s two benefits that other professions really can’t give but with the Zerk meta being what it is, they are hard to argue for providing over slotting another Ice Bow dispenser to a group. Rangers also offer another body for monster AI to target, so it relives a little pressure from the group if you play your pets right. However, this will be not as useful when dealing with big Boss AoE as the pets get squished really fast.

Do you tame pets or do you just get class choice pets?

When you are roaming in the PvE (and some WvW) you will come across a green monster sitting there titled Juvenile ‘Animal’. You walk up to it and if you don’t have it tamed, it will give you the option of pressing F to add it to your collection.

What race has the coolest ranger animations? No asura please weapons are to small.

I actually find the Asura animations to be the most mobile and interesting to look at. I have two, a human and an Asura…the other races have never interested me much. However, there is little difference really to how each race plays as a ranger.

Are the melee skills cool to?

I think so. I think Rangers have the most fun animations to watch and their melee skills, especially with the greatsword, are gorgeous.

And do all arrows look like wooden stick or can they look like elemental arrows when you use an elemental bow for example?

All bows except the two legendaries shoot basic arrows. Legendaries affect different skills depending on the profession using them. Kudzu, the longbow, shoots yellow/golden arrows (I think? I don’t actually own this one) and the Shortbow changed it’s projectiles to the pink Unicorns from the Robot Unicorn Attack game with an Anet mark on the rump. The legendaries are meant to be special, this is why they are the only weapons in game to change skills like this.

How popular are they? I do not care for using over populated classes

Early in the game, when you are new, there tend to be many. As you move on and hit 80, there are less I find. Most are weeded out by the bad sentiment of the community, and fewer take the time to master the profession so they move on to something else. The more populated professions are Warrior and Guardian right now I believe because those are two of the most wanted professions in a group.

Well I can only hope (yeah, stupid I know) that this means they’ve been taking their time to work on the profession…and not just slapping more band aids onto it and it calling it a day. To be fair, the Ranger and the Engineer both needed serious work. Was hoping Druid would be next but alas…as everyone expected, we’re last. Again.

Tragic Positive.9356:

Proposed Changes:

• Our pet is in unavoidable need of buffs and effects sharing from it’s master, food/stealth/boons included. Pets currently ruin any PvE skipping, make rangers hated in all environments and drag them down instead of promoting the unique side of the class.

I completely agree with this post…I just wanted to point out that there is a work around the PvE skips with Ranger. Keep an Endless Arid Devourer tonic and use it before the group gets stealthed. You turn into the Devourer and your pet goes away. Now, I don’t know if you take damage, if you will be knocked out of the tonic and if you can use it while you are in combat to go back into being a Devourer. I use a Cat Tonic I got through laurels with my Ranger and it allows me to turn back into a Cat form while running through a dungeon in combat. I suggested the Devourer one because it’s a few silver on the market and won’t break your bank to buy one for your Ranger…and someone here mentioned that it works like the Cat tonic. Wish more Rangers knew of this trick so we’d could lessen the Ranger stigmata a little.

Now if they’d give us your suggested work around, it would be way better!

What irks me the most is being blamed for something you didn’t do. When I am on my Ranger and a kitten mesmer or engi or whatever else that can knock back, uses that skill…it’s always the Ranger that gets blamed. Even if the Ranger is holding their sword/axe or greatsword. I was on mine, joined a PUG for a quick dungeon run for gold and I didn’t even HAVE a LB equipped at all the whole time (I usually have my GS and Sword/Axe going) but that kitten mesmer kept using their GS5 skill and I got yelled at. I was like WTF have you even seen me using any LB skills? Have you not seen my GS’s Maul AND the Sword’s Snake animations going off during fights??? Ugh…can’t stand people who hate a profession just because it’s the ‘cool kid’ thing to do right now.

Rangers do not suck…players suck -.-

Half an hour for a PAX presentation…I just can’t believe it. I feel sorry for those people who wasted hours standing in line to get into that panel. They really had nothing new to tell us, was a half an hour of trying to placate this community :/

Arccai.4870:

Thanks alot! Really appreciate the help!

Isnt it possible to just dismiss the pet during stealth stage tho?

Not so much, if you jump down while stealthed and take falling damage, the pet will pop out of being stowed. Basically, any time you are damaged in any manner and the pet has been stowed it will come out. You cannot restow while you are in combat either. It’s really irritating and wish they’d not let the pet just do that :/

It’s really important to have it when you are in the Arah paths. There is a part right before the boss named Lupi that you have to stealth through and drop down, taking falling damage. The moment that pet pops out, its ruined because the Eye stalk things will target your pet and start the aggro for the whole group. It’s just better to take the tonic for dungeons.

Good note Wonderouswall! I will have to remember that tonic for later…

Sword/Horn is a perfectly viable way to run your ranger for PvE. You’ll want to equip a longbow in the other weapon slot as well.

Currently the PvE ‘meta’ build is this: http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Ranger_-_S/A_LB_Spotter

While it does use an axe for it’s offhand, the warhorn can be used instead if you prefer. The meta builds are just all about as much damage as you can put out. You will want to be sure to take the trait Spotter and the utility Frost Spirit if you plan on joining dungeon runs…as those two are the only reason most groups will let a ranger into the party. Tough to hear, but groups can be super picky these days and most don’t want a kitten build you are running for funsies.

Pets recommended are the Jungle Stalker for it’s F2 Mighty Roar that gives the group 5 stacks of might and the Jaguar, as it’s F2 stealths the pet and it does the highest amount of damage pet wise. If your group has an ele who is proficient with the might stacking or a PS warrior…you can swap out the Jungle Stalker for a River Drake for trash mobs and it’s tail blasting.

No racial skills are worth taking over the Ranger utilities so choose whatever race you enjoy playing. There is some PvP advantage to an Asura, they have a daze racial that can let you daze lock with the Moment of Clarity trait. It’s a minor advantage, and they are small so it can be harder to see their casting animations.

Edit – Also if you plan on running dungeons on your Ranger, you will want to find a tonic that you can use to drop your pet when you are doing stealth runs. The tonic will perma stow your pet and not have to worry about your pet not being stealthed with you. I use a Cat tonic, but that costs 100 laurels so not the wisest of investments if you don’t already have your full ascended set of trinkets. Wish I could remember what tonics would do it…some will knock you out of the tonic when you take damage. An endless one is preferable so you can always use it. It just makes the whole pet aggro thing simpler for skips.

Good luck with your ranger!

Your rife and my shortbow. Still only two professions use each. As much as I love my Dreamer, only being able to use it on Thief…and to an extent Ranger (but no one uses SB on a ranger in PvE), sucks. All these professions get to run around with their huge ugly GS on like almost all of them…but Predator and Dreamer owners are stuck. /sigh

So this is a stupid question, yes I do know this…what with the megaserver and how it behaves.

However, I am on Fort Aspenwood currently and it seems to take longer for my loading screens between maps than it used to when I was on a medium server. I used to have some WvW friends who had me transfer to the larger server (this was long after the Megaserver update btw), but I find that my load times are way longer than they used to be. Loading into LA takes so long it’s ridiculous! I don’t remember it taking so long on the medium server. So I was wondering if I should just swap back to my old medium server and if I’d get my faster loading times? The group I was running around with doesn’t play anymore so me being there is pointless if it’s gonna give me the grief that it feels like it’s been.

Am I just seeing things, that my loading times aren’t affected by the amount of people on my current server? Don’t want to waste the 500 gems swapping back if doing so won’t change a thing.

Azure.8670:

Domination Dueling and inspiration for power mesmer. However I’ve been messing with sinister and the chaos line instead of inspiration is really nice. I don’t think power mes will be meta anymore but we will see

Probably not, but I can’t see dropping Inspiration while doing group PvE work. Having two more reflects and and Mender’s Purity for free…I just can’t let those go.

Scapper.4236:

Definitely illusions as Fencer’s Finesse is excellent, similarly in domination of inspiration are good traits for hitting hard and sustainably.

Fencer’s Finesse is in the Dueling trait line, not Illusions. Domination, Dueling and Inspiration are probably going to end up being your go to picks for PvE Mesmer.

Ran through a level 50 fractal today with another mesmer in the party…two time warps was amazing. Slow is awesome and being able to spread all those boons by summoning a phantasm was so much fun.

Looking forward to see what the new meta/metas will be for us…hoping the Zerk meta will finally be put to rest. Rampager’s looks like fun!

I find that if I place the fire field so it’s vertical in front of my character and before I use comet, I step back to the end of the fire field…it will usually land at the other end. It’s a little longer to cast but it’s usually reliable.

Things are changing a lot in the game today with a large balancing patch, so whatever you experience up until the patch, don’t get too attached to

Ranger is a good stepping stone for getting into the game, but if you use it like most new players do, you will find you don’t know how to play the game even at level 80. Most use the pets as a crutch for not learning how to dodge. So, if you make a ranger…try to use a greatsword or sword while leveling, this way you learn the mechanics of the game and don’t end up what they call a ‘bearbow’. Longbow is tempting to use but learn it after you know how to dodge!

Thief is a fun class but warning it is squishy and you will die a lot learning how to play it. This isn’t a bad thing. You learn how to dodge while playing a thief. Sword or Dagger/Pistol is usually the PvE go to when leveling, because the Pistol 5 skill will blind a small AoE around you do you can just cleave into things and reapply as needed. Stealth helps a lot with some areas in the game (Orr is a nice place where you can run around with Shadow Refuge and not have to deal with everything attacking you all the time).

I’d say try both out for a while and see what you enjoy best!

I’m having a hard time with the new choices. I tend to run a reflecting Mesmer, so one of my obvious choices will be taken up by the Inspiration line. Having my focus reflect is really helpful with the Dungeon/Fractal content I enjoy running. This leaves me with two more trait lines and Chronomancer is really tempting. Wells sound fun and a lot of the Chronomancer seems to be aiding your allies. However, the other lines sound just as good for PvE. Domination and Dueling would be nice to have…

Too many nice choices…it’s frustrating and awesome at the same time.

Probably going to start working on a condi based one now, I already have my Zerk. Maybe Rabid…dunno yet.

Do we have a Rune set in mind yet for the new PvE Mesmer or will the old stand by of Scholar > Everything be in place?

I know a few might change out to condi but not sure if the new changes will bring a condi mesmer into a dungeon or not?

I don’t even take my necro seriously anymore, I hardly play it except if necro happens to pop up on the PvP daily list. Even I hurt reading this…sorry Necro community, they took a big kitten on you guys

Anomaly. It’s so pretty! Not a fan of the Spirit links myself, don’t like the plasticly movements of it.

So, how will this affect those who do the Triple Wurm fight? Will it still reflect the eggs if the wurm has to be targeted now? Before, if we had the Wurm targeted, feedback was useless…

I am sure there are other instances of Feedback placement without target being useful but this was the one that stuck out to me.

Jana.6831:

Using D/P in a dungeon never made sense to me.
D/D = ~4 k CnD and you’re stealthed within a second, with D/P you have to use infiltrators strike to do some extra damage, make a smoke field (which might interfer with someone) and have to use heartseeker before you can do a backstab.
I do use S/P, especially in lvl 35 (or 34?) fractals in which no poison should be used and especially in the hammer fractal, no matter the level. I never threw the enemies around, they stay at one place – and coupled with Signet of Malice I can keep my group alive.
I carry all weapons with me and swap before each fight (I get that it’s sometimes impossible). But I either use D/D, S/P, P/P and always SB as my second.

I don’t think that in this case the OP really was the one messing everything up, even if D/D is a notch better against single targets, I guess the party had other problems.

Well, I prefer the D/P over the S/P set, but I’ll take the D/D over the /P any day for bosses. When trash clearing is when the /P comes out, never for bosses if I can help it. Harder to backstab for sure with /P! /P gives the nice AoE blind, and most groups expect you to run D/P for the trash clears and swap to D/D on bosses. Depends on if you are quick enough before they go ham on the boss to get your /P swapped out…I really wish they’d let us set a weapon as being always off hand, would make it easier to just double click and not worry about it replacing your main hand. Sometimes that extra half a second I need to right click and swap to /D isn’t there with a Leroy Jenkins sort of party.

I don’t find the S/ to give any benefit, beyond the one condi clear and the extra cleave, over the D/. I’d prefer to have the ability to get stealth if I need it. I keep one in my bag though, incase someone wants me to run S/.

Auesis.7301:

If people are stacking bosses up against walls, they need to catch up because it’s not 2012 and Fiery Greatsword isn’t a thing anymore.

I wish more groups would keep this in mind. A lot of dungeon runners are still in the habit of backing a boss up against a wall to pummel it to death. As a thief, this is frustrating because they are limiting my ability to do what the group wants of me, can’t exactly backstab when there isn’t much of a back/side to stab.

I find most of my groups won’t take the time to stop and let someone swap weapons, you run/skip/kill and keep going. So I tend to run with D/P and if I can make it before they start in on the boss, I’ll swap to D/D. Yeah, Sword cleaves one more than the dagger, but I find Heartseeker to be more useful to me than the Infiltrator’s Strike (Pistol Whip is nice…spamming it isn’t a good idea and will make the Ice Bow using Ele angry when you kitten up the stacks…defiance bar might make this less of a problem though). I have 4 other people who usually can cleave, so me not hitting one trash by using D over S isn’t going to make that much of a difference for me to take the time to swap it out.

In the end, it comes down to your choice and if the group wants to keep you around. You probably should have swapped to D/D on bosses…but I think the guardian could have been a little nicer about it.

Drop them into the forge…and don’t complain. Holy kitten the amount of unnecessary rage is too kitten high these days!

I hate scepter, I cannot safely spam the AA without a chance of overwriting a phantom. That will make me never use it. I know it’s great for shattering/clone production but I don’t PvP so there is no need for that for me. Though, with the update and them wanting us to shatter, I may take a relook at using it. But that slow AA casting just irritates the kitten out of me.

I love sword, I do think it needs a buff to the AA. Sword 3 can be a bit annoying…wish the clone spawned had a little invulnerability to it so we could reliably use the swap.

Xillllix.3485:

The elementalist now needs a serious buff if it wants to go head to head with a Reaper. The classes are so unbalanced together now it’s ridiculous.

Nope…all Ele will have to do is spec down Water and take a nice little trait called ‘Stop Drop and Roll’. We’re good…like the song says, Don’t fear the Reaper

Why couldn’t they have just made the shouts be blast finishers? What is the harm in giving the necro-reaper some sort of group utility? It’s not like they have any fields that are worth blasting…

The Great Al.2546:

Would love to see Ele/Thief with some stealth mechanics, but how would that fit into a ‘Tempest’ theme?

Sure…the definition of a Tempest is a violent windstorm or a violent commotion. Combine the tactics of a thief and an ele and you got something violent

Or…a thought just struck me with my theory list. We could be getting mechanics from one profession and a weapon from another.

So:

Warrior – Thief (or Mesmer) and ? (?/?)
Guardian – Ranger/Thief (longbow/traps)
Engi – Guardian(or Warrior)/? (hammer/?)
Ranger – Ele and ? (staff/?)
Thief – Engi and ? (rifle/?)
Ele – Mesmer (or Thief) and ? (Sword/?)
Mesmer – Guardian (or Warrior) and Necro (Shield/Wells)
Necro – Warrior and Guardian (Greatsword/Shouts) Order doesn’t matter here, as both professions have access to both.

Would be interesting to see…this thought came about because it struck me that while Mesmers are getting wells, they are also getting a shield. Necros don’t use a shield…so where does that come from? Obviously from another profession.

Ele/Thief would definitely be my pick. Would be awesome to have stealth…

Also, we know for sure 100% that Engi is getting a hammer. That means either Guardian or Warrior, but Necro already got Warrior this week. So that leaves Guardian for Engi.

Warrior can’t get Ranger because Guardian already got it.

The problem is…we saw a profession using a thief stealth mechanic when they were first showing off the HoT expac. It looked like a warrior but I haven’t looked at the video for a while. So if I had to guess:

Warrior – Thief (speculating because vid showed a prof that looked heavy using shadowy)
Guardian – Ranger (we know this because they are getting traps and longbow)
Engi – Guardian (speculating this because we know 100% they are getting hammer)
Thief – Engi (we know thief are getting rifle, video showed med prof using rife)
Ranger – Ele (speculating this because we know 100% they are getting staff)
Ele – Mesmer
Mesmer -Necro (we know this because they are getting Necro wells)
Necro – Warrior (we know they are getting shouts and a greatsword)

Though Warrior/Mesmer and Ele/Thief could be switched

Well they are clearly mixing the professions. Guardian/Ranger, Mesmer/Necro, Necro/Warrior…this leaves Ele to be mixed with a Thief, a Mesmer or an Engi. Most are predicating that Ranger is getting either Ele or Guardian…though, Engi is getting a hammer so that could be Guardian too. Ahh…so much stuff!

All three seem like a neat idea…dunno how they will implement it though.

I noticed a certain weapon that most thieves use on a regular basis missing from the new content stream. In fact they even removed the only trait that even had anything to do with SB (power shots…but who ever took this anyway?). Did I miss something in the stream? Are they really going to ignore this popular weapon with the new trait system? I saw 2 traits in the Deadly Arts related to pistol on top of the dagger traits. I don’t like pistol as a main hand and I don’t understand why they are trying to push it onto us as our ranged option? Or are they going to force us into rifle when the specialization comes out, basically letting SB fall to the trash bin? I love my SB and if this is the case…it’s going to hurt a lot.

Am I missing something here? I went over the new trait lines like 4 times and haven’t seen anything on SB

Not once during the time it took me to make both light and medium ascended sets did I ever think ‘Awww poor me, I have to wait a month to craft it…ANet should do something about this.’ There is a cost of time management for this, as this isn’t just something you can buy for a gold from some WvW vendor. It’s supposed to take a while and give you something to do after you’ve done everything else. Stop trying to turn it into something you can craft in an afternoon.

Question is…do you plan on ever doing level 50 fractals? If not, don’t bother. It’s not worth it to anyone who never touches the higher end fractals.

Not gonna lie, I saw the Reaper and actually said ‘Holy Kitten’ at the presentation. It looked exactly like how they described…a monster from a horror movie.

However…we still have butterflies and purple. That beats everything else alone

Come on baby, don’t fear the Reaper…(sorry I had to)

I remember some place a while back, a dev was talking about the new bar and saying how blinds would be ‘less’ than say a halting strike in terms of amount of the bar break. Not sure how little that number will really be and if traiting for blinds would be effective for it. All I know is, a mesmer will be helpful to a group when it comes to breaking that bar down efficiently and quickly…and all our new toys will secure us more of a role in group work, besides being the guardian’s reflect back up.

Sebrent.3625:

Currently … Dungeon is Sword + Focus / + Pistol … unless your party is bleed capped in which case I believe it is Sword + Focu s /+ Sword.

Hmm, really? I hardly ever bring out the pistol, mostly because I like having the block and the swordsman phantom. Going to have to give pistol a shot (heh…puns are neat) the next few times I take my mesmer into dungeons. I don’t think most of the parties I run with ever really cap bleeds, I tend to run with non-optimized guildies.

It would solve the issues the two sides have, the ones who like the outfits as a whole and the ones who like certain parts. Don’t understand why they haven’t done it yet.

I don’t think they are? Maybe he’s thinking about when it changes to a defiance bar instead of stacks? It’s hard to interrupt a boss when he’s got those kitten defiance stacks on him…

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

Staff clone on the other hand has a baseline bleed/burn but their attack rate is also slower. Compared to GS clone, which has 3 chances to inflict bleed and confusion at around a 70% chance (in rampager gear), a staff clone only gets 2 chances to crit for bleed/confusion, but gets two additional chances to bleed or burn. In terms of condition damage, it’s really going to boil down to whether 5 ticks of bleed and .7 stacks of burn (on average) is worth more than 3.5 ticks of bleed and however much confusion you get from the extra greatsword hit.

True enough…we are getting the chance to stack confusion and bleeds. Still I prefer my staff clones, probably because I prefer the staff. I like the synergy between the phantom and the clones/my AA. Not saying GS is a terrible option, I just find most memsers who use it…stand there in a dungeon and spam AA over and over and over and it gets old fast. With that new GS trait, we are going to see a rise in GS spammers.

I’m pretty sure the OP is talking about PvE Mesmer, so interrupt builds aren’t really meta there. Most of the time they mess with defiance removal, though when they change that to a bar…it might go from being useless to useful. Dunno about making/speccing an interrupt build for PvE…doesn’t seem too helpful.

I’d just like to be able to use my staff in dungeons…I love that weapon with Mesmer and it pains me to have to use a GS for ranged damage. Sure, mirrorblade is a great skill but clones from a staff are actually useful as they can give fury and might as well as the condi. All a GS clone does is stand there and proc a crit hit a few times. Not to mention all the staff skills have a place in the rotation, where as the GS has that push that’s not so used in a dungeon setting (unless you want to get the ranger in trouble). Though the new GS trait is really interesting, but you’d have to keep clones and not phantoms up to get the time reduce…it’s a dps trade off.

With the elasticity trait becoming baseline…maybe I’ll be able to dust my staff off and get to use it one day.

So here’s the deal…if you PvE as a mesmer, you should learn the sword and offhand of your choosing (usually it’s focus, but another sword works too). In the secondary slot, you can use staff all you like but you probably shouldn’t use it as your primary source of damage. It’s utility weapon, where most dungeon groups want damage. You do not want to be the mesmer who stands back from the group, spamming AA on a GS or a staff. There are a lot of dungeon mechanics that can get ugly real quick if someone isn’t with the group.

Have to learn how to be in melee range on a mesmer to be fully effective for your group. Sword and a traited focus will not only give you a nice low cooldown evade with sword 2 but you will have two different ways of reflecting projectiles with just weapon skills. You can use staff with setting up a warlock to be fairly safely away from the AoE attacks, but you swap to sword to close the gap with sword 3 and AA. Even then, it’s probably better to use sword/sword as the phantom with that one is a bit more useful than the warlock is (warlock’s higher DPS is dependent on how many conditions an enemy has on it and since most groups don’t stack condi, it’s potential is lowered).

GS tends to be used more in a dungeon mesmer build, it’s phantom is little more damage stable. All I can say is learn to use sword as your primary and if you must, use staff for a secondary.

If we’re talking about PvE sigils, you can’t beat a sigil of force and a sigil of energy for keeping you alive. The Bloodlust, while nice, is too easily lost on an Ele (we drop faster than the stock market sometimes) so those built up stacks are gone quick. The crit proc sigils are nice and all, but they won’t save you if you need an extra dodge quick and a flat 5% damage boost over the whole fight vs a crit proc is usually better. As an Ele you will get more mileage out of having an Energy Sigil than some of the other professions, you can easily rely on being able to swap to it if you need the extra dodge.

I am sad that I can’t dip into Inspiration for Mender’s Purity anymore, was nice having that condi cleanse on my heal. I can’t see giving up Chrono or Dueling and not to mention, that Chaos staff trait is making my favorite weapon look so awesome it hurts. Going to have to find other ways of condi removal I guess. It’s nice knowing we will have to make choices again!

It’s me again, I had to make room with guilds for awhile…but I have my open slot for OMFG again…yay! Busy times were busy but I’d like to be readded when you guys can.

name: Phevva
playstyle: PvE and a little WvW
server: Fort Aspenwood
role: scholar
time: any really

Half of my characters are human and the other half are Asura. I flip back and forth between which I like more any given month…at the moment I am loving the Asura again. I find humans boring sometimes but kitten it, their armors are amazingly gorgeous.

100% agree! I was disappointed when I saw that Blade Training wasn’t getting any shiny new bits added to it. Compared to the other traits it’s going to be one of those boring ones now.

Yeeeah…this is awesome. Thanks for being quick on getting these to us! Now I have to wait until the Ele Tempest to see which I want to main…gonna be hard pressed to beat that Chronomancer though.

I’d kill to be able to right click on an off hand weapon (one that can be a main hand like dagger or sword) and be able to set it to ALWAYS be an off hand weapon. That way I can just double click it and go, instead of having to right click it make sure it’s the right one with the right sigil.

Not gonna lie, I would love to have an off hand staff I just hope they do sword something different than dagger…two melee main hands could be way too similar in what they do.