Guild Wars 2

timmyf.1490:

savacli.8172:

If you want to consistently run fractals in a particular way (clean and non-exploity) you’re going to need a dedicated group or guild for that. No one is forcing you to run with PUG’s, but there are catches if you decide to do so.

It says a lot about the state of instanced content in this game that the expectation of pugs is that you’ll exploit. And that if you don’t want to exploit, you better find a dedicated group or guild.

Especially since the content is so easy.

Yep…it’s a sad fact indeed, and unfortunately the most efficient fix is waiting for a patch to correct the exploits since most PUG’s aren’t necessarily what I consider willing to listen.

http://www.reactiongifs.com/r/shia.gif

If you’re putting yourself through LFG/PUG’s you’re at the mercy of majority vote. If the team votes to exploit or safespot you either have to go along with it or leave the party. If someone intentionally tries to go against the crowd after the vote has been made I can’t say I’m surprised when that person gets kicked.

As far as the Masteries requirement, the group could require everyone to be dressed in pink dyes for all I care; it’s a PUG. The best I can do is voice my opinion and direction. If the team decides to go along with what I said, that’s great. If they don’t, well, that’s part of the game.

If you want to consistently run fractals in a particular way (clean and non-exploity) you’re going to need a dedicated group or guild for that. No one is forcing you to run with PUG’s, but there are catches if you decide to do so.

+1 on the whole “there are more important bugs to be addressed”. Fractals take up a good majority of my gaming time, but I understand that the devs are really looking to fine tune details that pertain to the newer content.

P.S. Lately, I’ve run with PUG’s almost exclusively for fractals, and I can’t say I’ve run into the absurd requirement of Masteries

If I run into HoT maps with a glass staff build such as Fire/Air/Tempest I expect to die…a lot.

However, If I run in with something like Air/Earth/Tempest I rarely die. Though, I’m still not gonna expect to take on Champs by myself at first site since I realize the class wasn’t designed with that in mind; I can’t facetank like some of the more resillient classes, and it’s likely that I’ll burn out on mitigation/evasion tactics before I make a dent on the boss. Not impossible to kill a champ on an Ele, but some classes will have an easier time with it the first couple times around.

Cloudus.8042:

Morning guys,

Having played around with illusions I can certainly see the syngery between the two trait lines now (Illusions & Chronomancer Chronophantasma)

I’ve always considered dueling to be a better trait line than domination for the phantasm fury, ferocity stack, sword cooldown and and the ability to use a mantra 3 times and gain a damage stacking bonus.

Is there something I am missing from the domination trait line that makes it a better pick over dueling?

Kind regards,

Cloud

In a decent group setting targets should be at 25 vulnerability so that’s a reliable12.5% boost in base damage over Dueling’s variable 15% base damage increase through Mantras and 10% Crit damage through Fencer’s Finesse.

For Phantasms you’re comparing a boost in 15% base damage from Domination vs an additional 20% crit chance from Dueling. The extra crit change may or may not be worth the mileage depending on what your base stats are and whether or not your Phantasms are catching boons since Human players are prioritized over player minions when considering boon distribution.

Domination has a lot of opportunity to apply Vulnerability, Interrupts, and Boon stripping while Dueling grants Fury and Vigor to the Mesmer. You also get reduction in Sword CD’s from Dueling which is arguably one of the best weapons for the class.

Dueling also has a few more extra traits to choose from such as Pistol traits, Reflect on evasion, blinding shatters, and Clone on dodge.

For me, Domination provides more of a constant boost to damage and I make more use of the Interrupt traits. Blurred Inscriptions is a favorite since it lets me used Signet of Ether more often, but also the trait can synergize with Inspiring Distortion for more access to group distortions.

The selling point for Dueling for me was the Mantra buffs and the Vigor application on crit. Though now that wells offer more utility (at least to my playstyle) I don’t make as much use of the traitline anymore.

Ultimately, Domination felt more worthwhile to me for most encounters. The only times I would switch to Dueling over Illusions would be in encounters where the fights are too short to make use of Phantasmal Haste, or I will take Dueling over Domination where I need the vigor for extra dodges. The differences are marginal if you’re trying to decide between Domination and Dueling assuming the other two traits are the same in both cases, and you’re using the same weapons. So I would suggest you slot what you feel most comfortable with.

Edit: Sandy’s Mesmer Guide goes into a bit more detail regarding builds if you want to check out that information.

(the link I provided drops you down to the Builds section of the guide).

Cloudus.8042:

Prompt replies

I’d be genuinely interest to hear/see your builds! Up until now, I have considered the illusions trait line to be the “PvP shatter” trait line with almost no relevance in PVE.

My personal opinion is that duelling offers more “useful” options than domination – not to say that domination is bad!

Might I ask how you guys trait your builds?

Many thanks

For general fights, something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAsc8ensIC9ph9fCmfCUrhFVjiMAGhirOZn2qFtLSjsD-TBBXwAA2fU+5S/wS1feoEkUA6J1C-e

Where Blurred Inscriptions and Mental Anguish are changed for Furious Interruption and Power Block where Interrupts are useful.

For Reflect/Support fights, my build looks something like:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAsd8ensIC9ph9fCmfCUrhFVj68JGijgMAGhirOZn2qF-TBBXwAA2fU+5S/wS1feoEkUA6J1C-e

Traits being mixed around based on what you need in Inspirations (Medic’s feedback, more heals/cleanses, etc).

Aomine.5012:

MadRabbit.3179:

Aomine.5012:

I assume this is SOLELY from a PVP perspective corret?

In PVE Tempest is quite a solid class with defining tools that outshine other specs in certain aspects. (Many of the new specs ofc are fun, but they’re still in a mix role generally)

Also I do feel like I’m playing a TEMPEST when I constantly summoning thunders all over me and do big AOE damage :P

But if you’re those “PVP-serious high-end must-win” type of players, maybe you’d find Tempest lackluster because it may not be the “top” like the old Ele always were. The funny part is you only brought up 3 specialization that’re considered abit OP right now.

Actually, no, not at all. I came up with a blood magic minion build for reaper that has about an 80% win rate going solo against champions in HoT with dps slightly less than what my tempest was putting out. I have a 0% win rate against champions with different tempest builds.

And that’s not the funny part. I brought 3 specializations, because I am too lazy to list them all. But outside of warrior, daredevil and chronomancer have added a lot more variation to the class than what was there before.

Tempest didn’t bring anything new and it gets boring pretty quick.

Using pet classes are a bad example after the -95% aoe damage patch yknow?

Yes, I didn’t use Reaper at all in jungle too. I use blood/death magic minion master and face-roll most HoT maps. Same can be argued with dps/ survival variant ranger with tanky pets. Those 2 classes are my only 2 classes that can safely solo around 70% of Champs in HoT. But pet class is pet class, they’re the exception. They have their limitation too, especially in big scale battle. Those 2 specs excel in roaming, but that’s about it. In big Dynamic event they do not perform as well as some of the other classes like DH and Tempest.

Chrono also fell in the “pet class” category since the AI on the Champs made them go after illusions. I mean, technically as an Ele, you can throw Golems at the Champ, but they lose out on the benefit of damage reduction since they grab aggro from everyone and don’t have the same replacability that other classes do nor the recovery that Ranger has with its pet.

In other words, it’s not surprising that you wiped as an Ele against those Champs. It’s not impossible, but unless you can lock the Champ into a pattern or have their attacks memorized I can assume there’s gonna be a lot of down time in those fights.

But yeah, having made all my characters go through the HoT maps the Pet Classes were much easier since you could just distract everything with meatshields while you focused on the objective.

Anyways, we’re digressing.

At the end of the day, Tempest has more options as a support build but also offers a different DPS build. Their two biggest items being Auras (a lot of traits here) and Shouts (Works with Soldier runes and have a lesser cooldown).

Depends on why you need condi removal. Well of Eternity is generally enough for your average encounter, and it’ll remove up to 5 conditions if you’re traited Inspirations. If I need condi removal at different times for things such as puzzles in Thaumanova and Aether Fractals, I generally stick to Mantra of Recovery (Inspirations traited).

For encounters where you’re getting bombarded with conditions Mantra of Resolve can also be slotted if needed, but at that point you may need to grab dueling again for the extra activation. Though, if you’re in a group setting you may already have someone that will be on condi removal duty that can do it with less effort so consider that as well.

I personally haven’t used Null Field specifically for Condi removal due to my new options since it’ll difficult to maximise the use of both removing 5-7 conditions while simultaneously removing 5-7 boons as well.

Restorative Illusions work too in situations where you need to support skills of Inspirations but don’t need Warden’s Feedback (can’t think of a specific situation atm though).

A. Choose what Mastery you want to train
B. Once that “Mastery XP bar” is filled you are required to spend the necessary Mastery point to unlock that particular Mastery and be able to progress.

In your situation your stuck until you either collect more mastery points to unlocked what your training, or you’ll need to select something else to train meanwhile you collect more mastery points. Eventually you’ll come to a point where all you XP bars are maxed, and you won’t be able to progress within their tiers until you get more Mastery Points.

Right before you get to the goggles (I want to say its the last jumping pad), if you look to the side there a black box floating in the air that’s projecting rays of light. You need to hop down and land onto that box for your source of sunlight.

As much as I wanted to make use of Chronomancer runes, they unfortunately felt subpar. The runes would have been more worthwhile if the quickness applied to the group. That being said, the stat combination on that rune is really good though Precision seems to be less needed since we have Danger Time, and Rangers/Druids (with Spotter) are appearing more frequently in groups now. Thus, Scholar still seems to be one of the best runes to use.

As far as traits are concerned Dom and Chrono are slotted practically full time. The remaining slot is filled based on the situation:

Illusions: Go-to for extra damage as well as shorter Shatter CD’s
Inspirations: Uptime on reflects as well as party support (group Distortion!)
Chaos: Stealth skips/shenanigans
Dueling: Rarely used now that Mantras are overshadowed by wells (personal opinion).

I’ve gotten all 9 characters to 80 as well as unlocked 100% of their Elite specs, and for the majority of my time I’ve been putting a lot of hour into the epicness of the Chronomancer. So, I finally gave Tempest a test drive in PvE (where I spend most of my time in the game), and I can say I was honestly surprised by its potential.

I haven’t quite made it over to Warhorn yet, so a lot of my time was spent in D/F. I ran Air/Earth/Tempest and used Air/Water/Tempest when I needed more condi-cleanse. The surprising part of the class was it was able to keep up with being versatile. Auras do a lot of the hard work by being able to maintaining uptime on Fury, Swiftness, Protection (if traited Earth), Vigor, and Regen. Regen can also be further traited to remove conditions. On top of that each Aura application applies a decent heal even if full Berserker.

I also underestimated the Overloads. Fire and Earth are great at stacking more boons, Air does a great deal of damage, and Water does a great job of cleansing and healing (again, still noticeable even in Berserker). Using the Fresh Air trait I primarily focused on returning to Air attunement similar to any other Fresh Air build while attuning/Overloading the other Elements as needed.

The Shout skills weren’t too bad either. The big selling points were that they have relatively shorter cooldowns (compared to an Ele’s other skills), and most of them apply Auras which is the bread and butter of a lot of the support. I originally thought that the radius on the shout skills was smaller too so that was another pleasant surprise.

Overall, I enjoyed the class since it reunited me with an Auramancer build that I played quite heavily back when the game first released. The damage was still great, but I was able to play more of a front line support.

Probably my next goal is going to be crafting a set of Minstrel gear for my Ele so I can further boost his boon distribution and healing capabilities.

Warrior and Necro are both new-player friendly particular because their class mechanic is straight forward, and they both have a very high health pool that is very forgiving of mistakes.

Thief and Guard both have the lowest health pool and rely on both passive and active defenses/reactions to stay alive so they’re not the most friendly to newer players.

End-game though Guardians and Warriors are both highly valued in a team setting as they provide defensive and offense buffs/boons respectively that make clearing instances much easier for everyone. However you get frowned upon if you bring anything other than the “go-to” builds for these classes.

Uniquely, Necros provide a lifesteal boon as well as doing some tricky things to those in Downed State. Thieves are generally sought after due to their high stealth and smoke field capabilities as well as their single-target Striking capabilities. Otherwise, both of these classes don’t get as much screen time as other classes are able to quasi-replace then (if not overshadow their utility entirely) so they lose appeal due to others being able to "get the job done better.

Ultimately, it goes down to player choice. The play styles of the 4 mentioned classes are pretty unique from one another, and we can’t really decide what’s best for you to play.

Short Answer: There’s no build yet

Long Answer: We saw just a brief preview of what the fight is going to look like. Even then, for us to give you a build based on that fight alone would imply that there will be little to no changes to the encounter from what we saw in BW3. The other problem we run into is what team comp are you planning to work with? Yes, we saw a handful of boss clears and folks put together the “ideal” team comp, but should something change in the encounter that may potential throw the whole composition back to the drawing board.

Until we have more concrete data on the encounter we’d just be theorizing at this point. Personally, I see use for a Tempest in Raids being able to both distribute boons as well as providing a good amount of healing. They still retain the versatility and combo field generation of the core Ele as well. If you’ve already labelled Tempest as subpar, well, I don’t know how flexible you’d be with suggestions others might make as Tempest excels in Team situations over solo situations.

The Cliffside fire? Oh man, that thing is in its own league. Not sure if its by design or not, but that burning has been known to not be cleanse-able through traditional means (similar to the Whiskey in Arah).

Rewards are about the only thing I’m wanting a revisit on from the dev team. Boss damage/resilience could use some tweaking as well. Otherwise, everything else is fine.

Buggy collections? Anet just did a huge expansion release. So yeah, I expect bugs all over the place. From a priority perspective I wouldn’t think something like this would be on the top of their list either.

Definitely open a support ticket on this. It may take a ticket or two, but the support team has been known to assist in cases like these. give it a shot!

He…has…risen!!!

+1 to watching your videos during my Mesmer noob life. I owe you an illusionary precursor for all the insight/info you provided in your original video series!

Edit: Risen in the sense of back to life. If you were Risen risen, well, I’d have to kill you.

Without looking closely at the numbers my guess would be no. While something like Air OL has great potential, you lose out on a lot of damage modifiers due to having to drop a traitline for Tempest.

Spam 1 on Water Staff? Ice Bow viable again?!?

Guys!! I found the new Meta!!!!!

On a more related note: The fight was pretty hilarious, and overall it did a brilliant job of demonstrating how easy fractals have become even at the ultimate Scale 100. Elite specs or not that fight was nothing but Lazy Mode fighting. Congrats on getting the job done, at least?

The individual meteor strikes hit the 3 nearest targets. Given the range of the Meteor shower it is very likely you’ll end up hitting more than 3 targets overall as each meteor strike could hit a different set of 3 targets.

At first glance, Tempest got a giant MEH from me since it didn’t look all that great. However, after digging around I found that Tempest has some really great synergy with existing trait lines especially when it comes to Aura synergy.

Auras apply Fury and Swiftness….and Protection…and Regen….and Vigor…Oh. My. Glob.

Overall, I found that Tempest made for a great support character while still being versatile. They do require a bit more invest than, say, a Druid who does exceptionally well in Healing even with little to no investment in stats/traits.

Ultimately, your decision should be based on whether or not you plan to participate in high level fractals. If so, I would highly recommend going for trinkets first and slotting Agony Resistance accordingly. The advantage there being trinkets can be used by all 3 of your toons vs armor/weapons may only be usable by 1-2 toons depending on what you make. Trinkets alone will let you take your toons all the way to about scale 50-ish and is easily doable with your budget. If you want to pursue making Ascended equipment you can cheat and craft the cheapest prefix/stats of the item and then use the Mystic Forge for to transmute the item to the prefix you want.

As far as the boost in stats from upgrading to ascended equipment, you’re looking from a fraction of a percent to about 12.5% if you make use of every single infusion (which is extremely costly and doesn’t make THAT much of a difference. If you’re curious on the math, some one made a spreadsheet detailing out where to get the most bang for your buck.

I personally do not recommend Legendaries as they are extremely expensive and do not have a mechanical advantage worth the amount of resources invested into the item (not all your toons will be able to wield it either). Mechanically, Legendaries are glorified Ascended weapons that can change stats. Aesthetically speaking, some of the most beautiful weapons in the game.

Finally, depending on how long ago it’s been since you’ve taken a break I would recommend playing through your classes for a bit to figure out what’s changed about them. We’ve had a huge traitling overhaul earlier in the year, and the new Elite Specs/trait lines add some new mechanics to your base classes. This may help you narrow down what class(es) you want to focus on gearing up for.

If you’d like, feel free to PM me if you have any questions regarding to your classes and how they fit in fractals/PvE overall. I would add those details to this thread, but it would definitely derail your original question.

For Fractals I personally I run:

Signet of Ether
-Traited with Blurred Inscription unless I can make use of Furious Interruption (trash mobs mostly)
-Used primarily to start the fight with 3 Phantasms ( I run a ChronoPhant focused build)
-Additional source of Group Distortion if traited with Inspirations

If I need condi removal (which is rare) I’ll slot in Well of Eternity it it’s an encounter or will just use Mantra of Resolve (traited with Inspirations) if it’s a puzzle like Aether/Thaumanova consoles.

Since HoT release I haven’t made use of Null Field in PvE primarily because I don’t come across a situation where I need that many condi clears/boon strips at once. In other words, if I’m in a situation where I need more than the 3 condi clears I get from Well of Eternity it’s probably in a fight where condi’s are going to slaughter me anyway. In which case, I’ll look to a team mate to help with group condi clearing (E.G. Mai Trin boss fight).

Utility slots vary wildly based on the encounter

• Well of Recall: Almost always
• Mimic: try to slot so I can double cast (or quadrupple cast if CS is used) key utility skills for the fight.
• Well of Action: Quickness is always a good thing
• Well of Calamity: Great damage, though the pulsing weakness is the selling point for me.
• Well of Precog: Used in encounters where one shots are otherwise to quick to dodge (Well is casted in anticipation), or the team is under a barrage of attacks for a few seconds.
• Time Warp: Almost always. Quickness for the team, and Slow destroys Breakbars
• Mass Invis: Skipping

Traits

• Domination: Almost always used to better damage output and Interrupt shenanigans
• Dueling: Rarely used as Mantras are overshadowed
• Chaos: Stealth skips
• Inspirations: Team support/reflects
• Illusions: More damage output as well as faster Shatter Recharge
• Chrono: ….speaks for itself

You can really make use of Power Block in those niche situations. Best example I can provide is the tentacles on Jade Maw. If you successfully Power Block both their attacks they’ll just sit there doing nothing. Power Block also isn’t bad for the extra damage and weakness it provides. Pair with something like Tides of Time from shield (no target limit) you can potentially shutdown a group of enemies.

Yep, no problems here with upgrading my versatile +5’s to +7’s. Only issue that still stands is the occasional ring that got bugged and won’t ascend. Everything else AR wise seems to be converting/stacking just fine.

Zach.2618:

savacli.8172:

Zach.2618:

I’d say any and every class you can play well, just depends on what build you use. No particular useful classes. I’d take a good thief who can survive and contribute over a viper ‘meta’ condi engi any day. If you can support your party and carry yourself you should be fine.

Only problem with that mentality is that at higher level Fractals physical damage starts to make less of a difference than Condition based damage due to the way toughness scales. In which case something like a Viper Engi/Ranger is even more worthwhile due to them bypassing scaled defenses with high damage output Cindition builds.

You can still bring traditional Berserker/Assassin builds but just know that some encounters are going to take an absurd amount of time to finish due to how mobs will naturally soak physical attacks at those levels.

That’s why I said any class not any build… Which the op was asking about is class. It’s not as if engi is the only class which can use condi. Don’t get why so many people are obsessed with meta condi engi, yes I know it is the highest condi class currently and yes I main engi, and yes I cleared every stage to 100 with engi. I’m just saying you can play any class you want. As Long as you are good I won’t mind that 1 or 2 extra mins our party takes to kill the boss because apparently we don’t consist of a chrono engi ele ps war and ranger. The mentality that most people have is wrong, builds matter classes don’t matter, but what matters more than those 2 is your skill lvl and attitude.

You’re right on the class vs build, but when it comes down to what the best is we run into an argument of phiw vs most efficient. If OP is wanting to know what the “best comp” is (assuming the players are skilled with the selected classes) then there are some classes that just do a better job or have more to offer than others.

Chronomancer: I could type up a whole thread on the potential uses of a Chrono. Up front, they’re not that great in the damage department. However, they excel at bringing utility to the team though boon distribution, Alacrity, recovery (heal and cleanses), projectile control, stealth, interrupts, boon strip, etc. The goal of a Chrono being that you have someone on the team to empower everyone else.

Warrior/Berserker: High damage output (physical and condi), and they are naturally resilient due to their default health/armor value. The selling point here being that they bring unique stat buffs (banners/Empower Allies).

Herald: Without even trying they are an excellent boon bot. They have on demand access to various key boons, and they help make sure everyone is topped off on might. If needed they can slot in for skills focused more on mitigation. They also supply Assassin buff.

Ranger/Druid: Excellent condi builds, and they have the unique Spotter buff. Even with offensive gear their Celestial form has high healing potential. Humurously, they also have access to group stealth and smoke fields.

Engineer: Similar to a Mesmer they have a lot of different utility to bring to the team: cleanse, healing, stealth, boon distribution. Though, what sets them apart is that they are capable of utility while still maintaining high damage output.

Ele’s lost some love since their bow got nerfed, and their Tempest doesn’t work as well in Fractals as far as the support focus is concerned. They still are great at providing a lot of blast finishers as well as stacking Fury and providing the occasional boon every now and then. As far as a mobile healer they fill this role very well, though they require more investment in healing stats.

Guards are still fantastic to use, but their availability to Retaliation could drop a team in a heartbeat due to boon stealing + mobs with high Power stats at higher levels. Great tanks and can offer a bit of healing as well. Though their highly reliant on boons and may not do as well as a “raw tank” like a Warrior would be.

Necros….have lifesteal? Otherwise, they’re still pretty selfish with their buffing. Their few group buffs are overshadowed by other classes who can either do it better or can offer the same utility simultaneously with other utility sets.

Thieves? Same issue as Necro in the department of “others can do it better”. I’ll admit they’re still the kings of stealth, but now with more classes having access to it Thieves are less needed for perma-stealth based skips.

Overall, we’re no longer locked into the whole 3+1 runs since we are tackling a Fractal instance one at a time, and we even know up front what instance we’re going into so we can prepare ahead of time for the “best classes”. Other classes do perform better than others when it comes to Fractals, but ultimately it boils down to the player? Do they actually know the class, or did they just copy-paste a build they saw thinking it would destrolish (destroy + demolish) everything?

As much as I am an opponent of elitism I can actually appreciate something like this. Even though we can kick someone if we find out they’re lying about AR we usually find out this information at very inopportune times (such as a boss fight). I’d much rather know before the round even starts that said team mate is not up to par on his AR so I can consider replacement. Not like the AR check process would take very long. Just have everyone run through the dot once, and you’ll see who’s ready to go and who’s not.

Plus, with some of the joining glitches going around I generally tend to make sure everyone can get to the Lobby before queueing up the fractal. At most, I’d just be adding a few seconds to my usual schedule.

cursE.1794:

Even if you devs disagree with elementalist getting one more stunbreaker; consider it as an apology for tempest being total crap.

The irony in this statement alone…

More on topic: Cantrips already have enough attention as it is. For the most part Ele’s are stuck with skills that have high cooldowns because we’re supposed to supplement “utility gaps” with skills from our multiple attunements so the cooldown argument is practically a dead horse at this point.

I’m also curious as to why you’re claiming to continuously die from condi pressure. If you’re going for some sort of glass build relying on Fire alone, well, that sounds about right that you die a lot. Earth, Water**, Arcana, and Tempest (enhanced shouts) all have ways of dealing with Conditions.

As far as Tempests are concerned they make for great team players. A lot of their skill set gets shifted to a more team oriented focus so they may not have the same solo survivability as a traditional D/D Ele.

If you’re wanting a hard and fast Stun-break, go with Signet of Air. Otherwise, there are other stun-breaks out there, but they’re nowhere as cheap.

As much as you don’t want to hear it, OP, the issue is more of a l2p.

If I run full Berserker on my Ele I run with the expectation of being one shot by practically everything. In HoT, especially, the amount of mobs and their given damage is absolutely insane. You’re right, you can’t dodge everything so you have to fill in the gaps which what will help you survive. That’s not to say the class is weak or underpowered, but it requires a bit of planning. You even said it in your initial post that running soldier’s with 15k made no difference to you so why ask for the HP buff then?

Similar to a Guard we rely on our resources rather than our Health to get by. Yes, they have Aegis, but that’s only one attack mitigated and they don’t get to choose whether to get to block the kill shot or a small attack from a barrage. We have excellent access to Protection, large amounts of heals, projectile control, evades and vulnerabilities on our skills, and we can summon minions to draw aggro from us.

Ultimately, it’s a matter of bringing the right tool for the job. But yes, Ele’s can get absolutely destroyed if you plan on just waltzing into HoT maps.

Zach.2618:

I’d say any and every class you can play well, just depends on what build you use. No particular useful classes. I’d take a good thief who can survive and contribute over a viper ‘meta’ condi engi any day. If you can support your party and carry yourself you should be fine.

Only problem with that mentality is that at higher level Fractals physical damage starts to make less of a difference than Condition based damage due to the way toughness scales. In which case something like a Viper Engi/Ranger is even more worthwhile due to them bypassing scaled defenses with high damage output Cindition builds.

You can still bring traditional Berserker/Assassin builds but just know that some encounters are going to take an absurd amount of time to finish due to how mobs will naturally soak physical attacks at those levels.

You mean to say that there are choices within a given tier that are causing us, as players, to make hard decisions about what traits to choose? How dare Anet bestow such decisions upon us?!?

In all seriousness, the trait line’s focuses are Phantasms and Glamours with Healing Power being its original associated attribute. Warden’s Feedback is locked into the master line (based on other identical weapons traits being Master grade).

I can’t say I agree with the arguments as a lot of them seems geared to PvP. From a PvE perspective, Distortion alone can save a team rather than trying to recover from an attack that could have been avoided to begin with. RI doesn’t get as much mileage unless you know you’re going into a condi heavy fight (in which case, Well of Eternity should be enough), and PP is rather meh after the damage changes to player minions.

The rewards were probably “immense” when they first came out, but everything changed when price inflation attacked.

Each Phantasm will only get the Chronophant Buff when they are first summoned through normal skill usage. Their “resummoned” variants will never get that Buff and will disappear permanently if you shatter them.

There’s a lot to take into account here, but it mostly boils down to what your goal is in the group vs who is in your group.

If your goal is to maximize your boon output then going with +Boon duration food may be worthwhile as well as slotting in gear with Concentration.

If you have team members who can boost boon duration (primarily Rev) then boon duration food becomes a little over the top.

Personally I run Attribute based food since the stats I gain roll over to my Illusions as well. Occasionally, I take a Salad when I want to Reflect nuke someone (looking at you Lupi), but for the most part I try to shy away for nourishments that do not apply to my Illusions.

Fay.2357:

Ultimately, having 3 phantasms right off the bat doesn’t make a huge difference to your dps. With permanent alacrity, you’ll be dropping your second swordsman within about 8 seconds anyway, so that’s a difference of about 2 attacks, practically nothing compared to what everyone else is doing. The benefits to taking heal well, as you acknowledged, are fairly large as a tradeoff for that.

Depends on the encounter. If my party is stacked pretty tight all the Alacrity goes straight to human players. Alas, my poor little Illusions never get the buff. Though if any of them do get the buff it’ll drop their Sword attacks to just over 2 seconds at best.

I run Dom over Duel so my iSwordsmen summons are on a 20 second cd (12 with alacrity), so since I take pHaste I’m getting about 3-4 attacks from the start before I can cast a replacement iSwordman. However, I generally wait for Ether to come back up so when I shatter I can get a full replacement set of Phantasms letting their Chronophantasma’s all line up.

The Heal Well is great and all, but it just doesn’t benefit my setup. It’s not very often that I need the recovery aspects of the Well, and Alacrity isn’t necessarily what I consider on short supply with the skills I choose.

Though, this is mostly with boss fights in mind. When it comes to trash mobs I usually nuke them with Calamity and Action since they’ll likely already be dead by the time I’m trying to whip out a Phantasm or two. That, and Calamity’s weakness pulsing is an amazing utility to mitigate constant bombarding.

Fay.2357:

Heal well is a far superior choice compared to the signet. You get aoe healing and condition removal, plus more alacrity. Signet is unnecessary as your phantasms survive fine due to the pet change, and 3 illusions for starting CS is easy with sw5, weapon swap, sh4, sw3, CS shatter.

I slot Signet primarily to get 3 Phantasms right off the bat. I originally tried using Sw 3 in place of the 3rd Phantasm, but the only use I got out of it was the initial F5 activation. The minion damage change is the very reason I prefer Signet over Well (for the most part) since the suitability of Phantasms is extremely high now. That way, I start with 3 Phantasms (usually two swords, one shield), and I get to keep them around. The extra iSwordman from the start also makes up for my preference to not take Calamity. Well Heal has a lot of utility though and is my first go to when I need big group heals/cleanses, but I don’t prefer to have it on my bar. Alternatively, if I’m running Inspirations the Signet Heal is another source of group distortion.

Personally I prefer to frontload boons/buffs. That way if the fight starts to go south I have more freedom to worry about the fight rather than having to try to stay on top of my buffs. Granted, the tradeoff there being a sloppy start will ruin the battle to an extent.

Yes, Mimic is primarily for Recall (or Feedback in reflect fights) in my setup.

frifox.5283:

Guanglai Kangyi.4318:

No one bothers with reflects on mesmer anymore now that Chronomancer is a thing.

That’s quite a bold statement. Why throw away a niche playstyle at which mesmer can actually be VERY good at?

Completely agree with Frifox on this one. Mesmers/Chrono’s have dangerously high reflect potential that make us an excellent candidate for Reflect duty. We’re also not giving up that much in order to accomplish this task. Alacrity and Quickness uptime is managed through maximizing multiple casts of Well of Recall, Tides of Time, and Time Warp through F5 and Mimicking. Simultaneously, we can counter projectile pressure through Feedback (mimicked/F5’d if needed), Temporal Curtain, and iWarden.

Being on Reflect duty doesn’t mean we 100% revert back to base Mesmer. Instead, we incorporate our niche skills and enhance them with out Elite Class.

Starting point would look something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8cnsIC9ph9fCmfCUrhFVjiMAGhirOZn2qFtLSjsD-TRRBABXt/o8DP9DA8EAoU9HzUCSKA9kaB-e

Domination can trade Blurred Signets and Mental Anguish for Furious Interruption and Power Block if you’re against mobs that are easily interrupted or have skills that you want to shut down.

For Reflect heavy fights where mimicking/rifting Feedback doesn’t cut it (like Uncategorised Fractal) you’ll want to bring something like: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8dnsIC9ph9fCuqBUrhFVj68JGijgMAGhirOZn2qF-TRRBABXt/o8DP9BA8EAoU9HzUCSKgR1ZB-e

Now with this build you’re looking to maximize your Critical Strikes. So if you’re lacking Precision you can swap Improved Alacrity for Danger Time, run with Accuracy Sigils, or you may need to have a set of Assassin’s gear on hand. Granted Revenants are bringing perma-Fury, and Rangers/Druids are being more common in groups. Thus, Precision is easier to get a hold of as well.

The lack of damage is compensated for the Alacrity/Slow that it pulses as it simultaneously buffs up to 5 allies while de-buffing 5 enemies. Against bosses, the skill also ticks away at their breakbars. The block duration is also great in situations where the single blocks from other weapons would either not be enough. The 5 skill has no target limit so you can buff your whole team + minions as well as stun all enemies within the trajectory of the wall.

For the most part I run Shield and Sword for offhands. when I need reflects I choose Focus. Pistol has gotten shelved, and Torch is used for the odd blast finisher or stealth run.

When it comes to wells my preference is Recall, Action, Calamity, Precognition. My bar is typically Mimic, Recall, Action. Mimic is reserved for Recall. If a small amount of reflects are needed then the secondary well is swapped out for Feedback.

Heal skill is still Ether Signet to be able to start a fight with 3 Phantasms for maximum F5 duration. Elite is Time Warp

Typical starting rotation is to summon 3 phantasms: Swordsman, Swordsman (from Signet), and Avenger → F5 Shatter -> Time Warp -> Mimic -> Well of Recall -> Secondary Well (usually Action) – Mimicked Well of Recall -> and Tides (if I can squeeze it in).

Once the Rift breaks I’ll try to cast a second Tide as catching the returns of both of the Tides will reduce the cooldown of the shield 5 skill by 20 seconds. From there it’s a matter of using my Wells again, and shattering once I know I can resummon my Phantasms.

Ultimately, Chronomancer emphasizes the role of being the team buff bot. At that point your damage isn’t going to be outstanding, but you more than compensate for that by buffing your teams actions and cooldowns through the roof.

Assassin’s + scholar is generally the best setup as we are often times placed on reflect duty. With max’d buffs, that stat combination is comparable in damage to Berserker’s when reflects are not involved as well.

Though with Druids and Revenants appearing more readily in parties we may shift back to Berserker’s.

The extraction tool sells for 24s and will safely pull from Offensive/Defensive slots as well as the infusion slots.

Quickfoot Katana.8642:

PoquitoCabeza.9128:

To be honest I still hope they just forgot about it and they will implement this in the future.

Guys… should we tell him?

Don’t you dare!

Short answer: Depends on the situation. Reflect based fights go with Assassin, No reflect go with Berserker.

Longer answer really involves a lot more variables such as what build you are using, your usual party comp, what buffs/foods you use, etc. With Mesmer’s we’re kinda burdened with having to swap builds and such depending on the situation.

If I could only choose one gear set for the rest of my illusionary life? I’d have to go with Assassin’s.

The issue I found with Tempest is that the Elite in a vacuum is rather on the meh side. The true potential is once you start mixing in resources:

Auras:

• Zephyr’s Boon: Auras grant fury and swiftness when applied.
• Elemental Shielding: Gain protection when applying an aura to yourself or an ally.
• Elemental Bastion: Auras you apply heal allies. Apply a frost aura to yourself and nearby allies when struck while below the health threshold.
• Invigorating Torrents: Auras you apply also grant regeneration and vigor.

Granted all those buffs/boons apply from just one Aura, and many of our skills share Auras making Powerful Aura unneeded.

Shouts

• Superior Rune of the Trooper: Rank 6 – Shouts remove conditions

I haven’t played too much with Warhorn, but on paper it looks like a support weapon with a bit of recovery and support options.

Overloads are rather on the odd side seeing how it contradicts our core mechanic, but as someone mentioned above this feels more like what an Elite Spec should work (give up “this” for “that”). Though you can run into some odd combos such as Air Overload + Fresh Air for insta-refresh.

Ultimately, Tempest plays like a passive healer and boon bot. The selling point for me was that I could walk away from Arcana/Water comfortably and still be able to support myself as well as my team to an effective extent.

Chronomancer, on the other hand, is more of a buff bot. By itself the trait line offers Alacrity which that alone is a very strong buff. The Elite class also isn’t as straight forward to play and can excel very well for players who are creative or can think outside of the box.

Well, well, well…all of them offer very powerful effects, but the issue is trying to balance your utility capability. Chronos tend to burn out very fast if you try to slot utilities for multiple roles, and there’re more tangible trade-offs.

At the end of the day though, both classes play very differently and have different capabilities. There is overlap in their roles, but both classes approach a problem from different viewpoints.

Quickness has a max stack of 9. If you’re using Runed Wells for your source of quickness you could only get a theoretical max of 18 seconds (9×2 using Rift, Mimic, and/or Signet of Inspiration).

The boons you have on your Mesmer get copied to your team members, but your own boon duration does not change. So in the chain you described above, when you pop Signet (or use a traited Phantasm spawn to do it) your teammates will get an additional 12 seconds of quickness while your own quickness does not change.

To fully unlock an elite you have to first unlock all your core specializations (your 5 traitlines) which is a gimmee because you’ll have all the necessary points you need to accomplish that by the time you hit 80. After that, you have to collect another 250 Hero points to fully unlock an Elite Spec. You can do this in the Non-HoT maps, though I think you cap ~210 if you go to every map.

However, in HoT, each Hero point is worth 10 points. Some of them are easy in that you just walk up to them and just channel them to get the free points. Others require you to do a jump puzzle or discovery of sort to find the challenge. Lastly, some of the Hero Points require you to slay fairly difficult mobs/bosses to gain the points. It’s the last variety of Hero Point challenges that usually require help as you could very easily be up against Champions by yourself.

Honestly, your first toon will be the hardest since you have to learn the layouts of the maps and discover the locations of the Challenges (though there are guides online if you want to just look them up). Each sequential character is a little bit easier since the layout of the map becomes more familiar to you.

My Revenant, having 0 points and mapping (he was my new character) took about a full day’s worth of grinding to get the necessary Hero Points. granted at that point I had no guides nor any clue on where to go for the majority of the points.

For my two toons that had map completion (~210 points) I spent about 10 minutes each to get the last few points I needed (I went for the easy/quick Challenges).

On my lesser played toons (~100-120 points) I’m spending about 30-45 minutes each getting the rest of their points.

Two big tips I found to be very helping:

-On your first adventure try to pick a very mobile toon. Your first objective is to learn the maps so the faster your toon moves the faster you can figure out where everything is.

-Talk to your map. A lot of times there will be people waiting to do a challenge because it requires bodies. If you know you’re about to go up against a difficult challenge type it out in map chat, and you’ll usually have a few people pop up to help out.

Ultimately, you’re not that behind.

Xyonon.3987:

Mesmer and Chronomancer have to retrait and change skills and weapons all the time to adapt to situations and be strong. A single build won’t be able to be “the best” all the time.

If you really are that lazy and want a single build for every situation, you’ll be forced to take inspiration for focus trait, duelling for mantra trait and chrono for … well chrono. But you will be forced to change your skills and weapons.

^ Pretty much

If I had to pick a lazy build of sort it would looks something like this

If you really want to excel at the class I would highly highly recommend having multiple builds at your disposal. At the very least you need two: one for high damage and offensive support while keeping on reserve a build for reflects and more defensive support.

Eponet.4829:

I’m actually curious on how some pieces of marauder’s gear holds up.

It’s slightly less overall offensive stats, but power/precision together are very close to berserker/assassin levels, while the stat being reduced (Ferocity) is the least valuable of the three when taking fencer’s finesse into consideration.

Uuuuummmmm, I don’t think it’s that simple. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be completely up for throwing away Ferocity, but we’re often on Reflect duty so Precision and Ferocity are rather important to our class. Though, we run into the same problem of we have no idea what raids are going to look like.

Thus far, we know that Chronos are going to be favored for their buffs primarily. So, we may need to be more defensive geared for survivability since other classes can better fill the role of damage output. That’s not to say that we won’t be contributing damage as well, but we’ll have a more focused primarily role maybe.