I like the dual sword, also. A year or so ago, I did try the greatsword, but didn’t like it at all. I died a lot more often using greatsword than I did with dual swords, so I went back to the swords. It is a lot of fun, and “dynamic” is the right word to use for it. It is fast paced, especially with that trait that speeds up your attacks with the swords (forget the name of it).
With the already incoming nerfs, the pve experience is dropping rapidly. In pve, we were finally getting equal to other classes, but because of pvp balancing, we are becoming weak again.
My mesmer has been my main, but I think I am going to relegate it to an occasional character and main one of my other characters, haven’t decided which yet.
You should just give it a rest. It isn’t going to happen, no matter what you think. Maybe in another 3 years with the next DLC, but for the foreseeable future, it ain’t going to happen.
To the pvp’ers, it appears that the pvp environment is drastically different from the pve environment, more so than any other class. Apparently, in pvp the mesmer is so overpowered that they demand nerfs. This negatively impacts those of us in pve who would like to feel powerful like everybody else does. I don’t understand how the two environments could be so totally disconnected from each other, and so much more so than any other class.
Flamethrower is nice, I can just stroll through Orr and ignore all the heavy CC these scrubs are throwing at me
Yeah, that stability is really nice!
Flame Thrower is still far from the best weapon, but it is fun. I think it is in a better place now than it was before.
Ok, I went back in game and looked at the traits. In the Inventions line, there is the grandmaster trait, Bunker Down. That is the one that drops a proximity mine and a medkit, on criticals. In the post above, I got that backwards.
In the Explosives line, there is the master trait, Aim-Assisted Rocket, 33% chance on hit.
I only have about a 25% chance of crit, but the FT hits so often that I am dropping more medkits and mines than I can use. They appear to be constantly dropping every second or two.
The medkits aren’t enough to make you invincible, of course. They only have modest healing, but it is enough to be of significant help to stay alive. I got a little kitteny at one point and got in over my head. The medkits didn’t save me.
Weird, I got ‘kitteny’ instead of the perfectly ordinary non-swearing word that I used. I was basically trying to say “over-confident.”
(edited by redcomyn.4651)
FT seems to be working great for me (open world PVE), at least with the traits that I have chosen.
Curious as to which traits those are.
Care to share?
I’m not in game, right now, so I can’t say specifically what they are called. FT, itself, appears to be about the same as before. Nothing earth shattering. However, in the inventions line. there are traits that help survival. One trait has a 50% chance (I think that is correct), of dropping a proximity bomb and a medikit at your location with each attack. That is very helpful, I can tell you. They drop very often.
There is also a trait, I don’t remember for sure where it is, that has a chance of sending a missile (?) at the target on criticals. I think that is right. It might be 100% chance on critical. That adds to the damage. With all of the FT attacks, criticals do happen fairly often.
When I attack, the medkit drops help to keep me alive and the proximity bombs add to the damage. I will sometimes back away from the enemy while attacking and the enemy will advance into the bombs.
So far, running FT seems to be a lot more survivable now than before.
FT seems to be working great for me (open world PVE), at least with the traits that I have chosen.
When I use GS/Staff, I am usually on the GS. I use the staff defensively, when in melee range. I switch back to GS as soon as I can. But even though I limit my time on the staff, I have to say it is a heck of a lot more fun than the GS. I really, really wish it would hit harder.
Yeah, looks like I missed the part about the op asking about the dungeons. I have no opinion about the dungeons seeing that I have never done them.
But I am bad? In open world pve? I was much worse using the sword. Using the sword, I lost more fights than I won, either dying or having to run away. It simply didn’t work for me. I was much more successful with GS/Staff. I think that I will go with what actually works for me in my personal experience. I have also seen many others not using the so-called meta weapons. I think that what is ‘bad’ or ‘good’ is more opinion and play style than fact.
About my mesmer, that one individual says is like a bearbow, I only do open world pve. Neither pvp nor dungeons hold any interest for me. So I really don’t care what others think about my build. I play for fun, not to be frustrated by constant dirt naps trying to meet the expectations of others, people that I don’t even know.
I leveled my mesmer using greatsword, with the staff as my secondary weapon. It works great. The GS may not have as much damage as the sword, but you are certainly safer at range than in melee range. Mesmer’s are lightly armored and take lots of damage.
I did try the sword a few times. I died far more often. So I stick with the range weapons. I kill slower, but I die a lot less.
Necros are far from the only class to ask for nerfs. In fact, I don’t ever remember seeing any necros calling for nerfs. Mesmers, however, are notorious for asking for nerfs to their own class. It is absolutely ridiculous that elitest mesmers hate their own class so much that they they are constantly asking for nerfs. It is like they only want to win fights if the odds are heavily stacked against them. Makes them feel special, I guess.
From their description, it sounds like the dragonhunter is strictly a support profession. I don’t like that. I am a solo player so it sounds like it has nothing for me.
Still, have to wait until we hear more. Perhaps it can do more than support.
Carighan said:
“Has little to do with elitism.
But if you have to axe off 1 extremity to get 4 functioning ones instead of 5 broken ones, why not? And clone death is the least-involved playstyle, meaning it has the least change in gameplay compared to no-spec-at-all.
As such, as little “playstyle” as possible is lost."
I have been using clone death in my builds. I have never used dodging to create a clone to make a current one explode. To my mind, that is dumb and wastes a dodge that could be used to dodge a strike. However, whenever my weapon creates a clone or phantasm, I consider clone death as just part of the damage dealt by my weapon. I don’t see the problem with that.
As a solo pve player, I don’t care about mass condition removal, or many of the utilities. I need to kill the MOB, not prance around playing with butterflies and hoping that someone will come by and kill it (or them) since I can’t with very little dps, after they remove my ability to fight back effectively.
I have noticed that in the mesmer community, there are a lot of elitists who demand that there are only certain ways that is ‘honorable’ to fight. So they cry for nerfs to every build except their own. There favorite criticism is that the play is ‘passive’, even though they really aren’t.
I use the phantasm clone death build and I work my tail off to win the fights, and not just by dodging. I want my phantasms to cause as much damage as possible, so I want them to survive as long as possible. If I have 3 illusions up, I am using my weapons instead of wasting time on dodging.
I remember the previous times that the elitists. complained about builds they despised. Well, we got the nerfs, but they were ones that even the elitists didn’t like. The nerfs were such that they effected nearly everyone in a negative way. It happened every time, and there is no reason to think it won’t happen again.
And every single time they were designed to supposedly balance pvp.. They have always, always, made things a little more difficult in pve. Maybe not a lot each time, but they have been accumulating over time. Today, the pve experience is noticeably worse than it was at the start. Build diversity is constantly being whittled down by anet, at the urging of mesmer pvp’ers and elitists. I am sick of it.
I am totally opposed to removing clone death effects. With them removed, the opponents can completely ignore them. They can’t damage while alive, and now, they apparently won’t be able to damage when killed. I have been currently using them, but I never go stealth after making them because the phantasms I create, and myself, are the main damagers. Can’t stealth and damage at the same time. I mostly use the clone death effects for the crippling so I can try to maintain distance from the MOB. I see absolutely nothing wrong in that. I have to play actively and the crippling is for defense. Being lightly armored, I need what defense I can get.
I leveled to 80 with dual swords. It doesn’t do as much direct damage as GS, of course, but it works without any problems. Fights just take a few seconds longer. I am talking solo open world pve here, of course.
True, I don’t like greatsword. I am sure that it is coloring my perception. My real point is, though, that swords are viable. It does work. I leveled my warrior to 80 using dual swords without any problems. I don’t doubt that greatsword has higher damage. I just don’t like it.
It is kind of funny, though. On my guardian, which I started a little over a week ago, I do like the greatsword. Don’t know why.
No, I didn’t do extensive testing. I play to have fun, not do math. All I know is that as a dual sword warrior, I usually win my fights, including against multiple opponents. When I tried the glass cannon GS warrior, my wins against multiple opponents was about fifty-fifty. GS warriors win fast, but also die fast.
Actual experience trumps math, probably because the math is only true when everything goes perfect.
Sword warriors kill a little slower, and last a lot longer.
I disagree with HawkEye about the viability of sword. He said it isn’t viable and that is flat wrong. It is viable.
I leveled my warrior to 80 using dual sword. True, it isn’t optimal, but the GS only kills things 2 or 3 seconds faster than dual swords. How ridiculous it is to be so impatient as to quibble about such a short period of time. How anal!
I’m not a fan of glass cannons when it comes to melee. In a tough fight, a berserker GS warrior will be dead on the ground while I am still up and fighting and getting the job done (or at least lasting longer).
I did try GS sword, once, for a few days. I died far more often than as a dual sword warrior.
An Asuran shopkeeper, in Rata Sum, as far away from danger as possible.
My problem with Marjory, is the voice acting, and I use the word ‘acting’, in very broad terms. The voice actor is horrible. Monotone, no emotions in the voice. I guess it was okay as a film noir shtick, in a minor role, that she had at first. But now that she has a larger, and longer term role, that voice is very bad and annoying.
I have a necromancer minion master that I use in open world PVE. I am using cleric armor and weapons. I do some damage with my staff, but rely mostly on my minions to do the damage. My main purpose is to keep them alive as long as possible (and damage the enemy at the same time). That is what the cleric stats are for, the healing power.
It seems to work pretty good, and with most of the enemy npc’s, I am very hard to kill. I can take on a sizable mob of trash npc’s with no problems at all. Some champions I can take on by myself without ever being in great fear of dying, e.g. the giant champion in Cursed Shores. The worms condition me, and I then just send all of the conditions to the giant. There are exceptions, of course (looking at death knight with its flame attacks). Then again, all other classes are just as vulnerable against the death knights flame attacks, if not more so, than my necromancer.
Yeah, I have to agree about that problem. I have noticed quite a few times where the flesh golem just stood there doing nothing, even when standing right next to the villainous npc. Occasionally, some of the others won’t do anything, either. It is frustrating.
I have a character in every class, except guardian, which I really dislike. My necromancer minion master is by far the tankiest. I have to really get in over my head or just go afk to die. My necromancer wears cleric armor and has cleric weapons, and I use staff. I let my minions do most of the damage. It only takes an extra few seconds to kill the enemy. On really tough fights, the warrior(for example), will die and be doing zero dps, while my necromancer will live and gets the job done. When I play my necromancer, I feel immortal.
I have 7 characters, 6 of them at 80. Only my thief isn’t. Hard to survive on that one. The only class I don’t have is the guardian. I absolutely hate the guardian. I tried it once and couldn’t win fights against range characters. Against one, I could sometimes run away, against 2 ranged characters, I always died. From my POV, that class is absolutely worthless. Obviously, others had a better experience with it, but I have no idea how they do it.
I have no Charr characters. They just don’t appeal to me. Three of my characters are Asuras. I find them amusing. Two Norns, and one human.
I like to have variety in the classes to ward off boredom from doing the same thing all the time.
In open world pve, blink is entirely optional. I have never used it. Occasionally, I did put it on my bar, but I never found it necessary to actually use it. It was wasting a spot that was better used for another utility.
I have used decoy, though. Still, I would rather use another utility since I don’t really find that necessary, either.
My opinion on these is based on my using gs/staff phantasm build. I have used shatter builds at time, but just didn’t care for it. I always go back to phantasm.
I saw the title of this post, and thought the exact same thing as the last couple of posters. Every single MMO, without exception, is a grind at endgame. That is just the nature of MMO’s. So it is really silly to complain about it in GW2.
Shinjo, you should see the Archeage forums. It makes the GW2 forum look like a love nest.
It may be just fixing what was broken, but at least they did that. Still a plus.
I like it, also. Unfortunately, there are some mesmers crying about the buff and wanting a nerf, again. Sigh!
Once again, some mesmers angry about about mesmers getting a buff and calling for nerfing. These changes are good for PVE. I am tired of PVP’ers demanding all changes being geared toward PVP.
I wouldn’t care what you wanted if PVE was separated from PVP, but it isn’t. You need to accept that PVE’ers have a stake in this, also.
Then I must have just trashed it, then. In any case, I didn’t see any use for it.
If I am supposed to get something funny from the shapes on the map, I don’t get it.
I had gotten one pretty quick, also, but I didn’t know it was good for anything, so I vendored it. It looked just like typical trash.
In the 2 years I have played and up to 2 days ago, I have never been able to get more than 20 gold. Since then, I have managed to get to 25 gold because of some luck, but I don’t think that will last. To me, 120 gold is an extraordinary fortune.
I only do open world pve, having absolutely no interest in pvp nor dungeons, but I certainly agree with zone. I love my sword/sword warrior. Very rarely die. When I tried the supposedly best greatsword warrior for about 3 months, yeah I killed faster, but I also died faster. I died far more often and it simply wasn’t any fun. A couple of weeks ago I went back to sword/sword, and I am back to having fun again.
SirJack, you are very mistakened about mesmer. It got hit hard with the nerf bat.
I don’t mind joining someone into a quest. What I do mind is dungeons that can only be done by groups, which is almost always the case. So I am liking this single person “dungeon”.
If you have multiple characters, can only one do this?
Strange coincidence. I started playing with that exact combo, today. It has only been for maybe 15 minutes or so, and I am only level 25, but it seemed to work out okay. So I would be interested in the answers to these questions, also.
I also think the ranger is the best at soloing open world pve. I have played characters on every profession. With the ranger, I have died the least of any of them. My ranger is currently level 63. I have died only about 3 or 4 times in total. And I don’t think I am a particularly great player. I am average at best. I have been playing my ranger as a LB/SB ranger. This makes it easy to avoid damage, when I have my pet doing the meleeing. When I do get caught up in melee, that means that my pet has “free” hits on them.
To say rangers are bad at soloing in pve, is flat wrong.
Einlanzer is right. Basically, the “archer” is a subset of “ranger.” In history, rangers, were sometimes the law enforcement for a wilderness. Rangers could also be scouts. Neither role necessitates the use of a bow. Some used them, some didn’t. I suspect that rangers that ranged open land frequently used bows, while those that ranged thick forests were more likely to use swords (or other melee weapon).
In fairly open forests, such as those in England, I am sure there was a mix of both.
Ok, I guess I was wrong about the single target bit. However, it still took longer for me to kill multiple mobs with the dual axes than the dual swords, which is why, I guess, that I thought axes were single target. Single targets, sure the axes did better, but multiple targets, axes just didn’t do as well as swords. In two same situations with multiples, I would die, or nearly die, with dual axes, but be no lower than about 2/3 health with dual swords. How would you explain that?
I don’t know. Perhaps I am just more talented with swords than axes. But still, I have had dramatically different results with the different weapon sets.
I have played both dual swords and dual axes, and for each I had traited for it. I like dual swords better because it was far more survivable than dual axes.
Let’s say I was facing 4 trash mobs. With dual axes, it is mostly single target. It takes time to kill all of those mobs. With dual swords, I can hit 3 of them at once. As a result, I would kill all of the mobs much quicker. Which means I took less damage.
I died a lot more often with dual axes than I did with dual swords. Personally, I am completely convinced that dual swords is far better.
I better add that I am only talking about open world pve, here. I don’t do dungeons or pvp, so I don’t care what works or not with them.
(edited by redcomyn.4651)
I use Sword/Sword and have had no problem whatsoever. I like swords. Although I will say that I only do open world pve.
Odd to see this thread in the Norn group.