Guild Wars 2

DreamWeaver.3145:

Thanks and why’s that? No GS anymore?

GS is definitely not considered meta for dungeons and hasn’t been for awhile. There are specific cases where GS is preferable, so you should always carry one with you to switch to if needed (goes for all weapons). In PvE open world GS is one of the best.

Lately I’ve been running a somewhat meta friendly flex build in all PvE content. It’s 20/10/0/25/15 using the common sw-sw/sw-f for dungeons and then for PvE open world I switch sw-sw to GS.

In dungeons I trait signets (using ether and inspiration), allowing me to maximize phantasm uptime while also refreshing party boons more frequently. In PvE open world I trait GS instead of signets. Gear is full zerker. It works really well.

For runes/sigils the link I provided should give some ideas.

Check out this site, which has updated guides for dungeons and meta builds for all professions. http://gw2dungeons.net/.

The current mesmer build you’ll see is 10/30/0/20/15 with sw/sw-sw/f (or pistol if reflects aren’t needed).

I’m honestly not sure how staff could be considered remotely dead. I run it on my WvW roaming condition build, and roaming will be the context for my comments.

Staff is mesmer’s most powerful condition damage weapon. The AoE condition potential, control and in-combat mobility are second to no other weapon set we have.

• Chaos Storm. itself can load opponents with conditions on a 28 second traited recharge.
• Chaos Armor. Though not as strong as it used to be, it offers respectable defense in protection, regeneration or swiftness when hit, while dishing out confusion, blind or cripple. Add to this the ability to maintain respectable uptime with phase retreat through chaos storm.
• Mobility. One of the best blink skills in the game (phase retreat) is available at a 6 second recharge fully traited. That still amazes me. As others stated, phase retreat isn’t a stun breaker, but when you’re immobilized and out of condition cleanses, it can be a life saver.
• Clones. Last but not least – they are the biggest win. They can proc bleeding, vulnerability or burning with their winds of chaos auto-attack. In addition, if sharper images is traited, on each attack/bounce they have a chance to proc additional bleeding. You can quickly load your opponent up with 10-15 bleed stacks with 2 clones and your auto-attack.

Typically people try to get precision to a respectable level to have phantasms stack bleeds with phantasmal fury/sharper images. However, I think it’s often overlooked that your clones’ auto-attacks/bounces can proc it as well. Even a personal 40% crit chance does wonders.

As master yoda once said, “control, control, you must learn control!” Well, you satisfy this with the staff. Between Chaos Storm daze, chill, poison and weakness and confusion/blind/cripple from chaos armor, you’re in control, ensuring your opponent has a hard time catching or hitting you while in combat.

Out of combat? You’re slow. Ok I admit it. But wait, what about that phase retreat/blink forward trick? Learn it now if you don’t know it. With this and blink on your bar, mobility isn’t nearly as bad, especially with PR on a 6s recharge.

Thanks for the response Powerr.

I have a question regarding your comment, “all these issues that are bugs have been investigated or logged.”

Would be possible for you to let us know which of the items in the list are indeed known bugs?

The documented items are there because it seems to us like functionality is impaired in some way. Some of them are obviously bugs, but others are not. It would be very helpful to know if some of these listed items are intended behavior so we can cease discussing them in a bug related context.

Outside of PvP, MoC has some nice niche uses, for various bosses with knockdown attacks, and other areas of PvE where stability is helpful (AC p1, etc).

I like this mantra for two reasons, 1) to the extent you can slot it no matter what type of build you are running yourself. Could be shatter, tanky support – what have you. It does provide a bit of versatility. 2) the stun breaker utility, very cool. But that’s kinda where it stops.

The stability duration is low first of all. Granted you do get two uses but I think it needs a buff in duration, ala Stand Your Ground. Second, in a team comp you’re talking about using this utility for an AoE stab, meaning you’re sharing the point with other teammates. I understand you may not have that gurd, war around all the time but wouldn’t it almost be just as efficient to plan strats in such a way to gain that longer lasting stability from these (and from your lyssa procs), and refresh durations with signet of inspiration? Even then, not a very strong utility choice for mesmer (depending of course on your build).

I think it can be useful, don’t get me wrong, but in higher end team play not sure it’s worth the slot. You’re not really speaking to that though it seems – for more uncoordinated groups I can see a larger benefit but would always wonder if I could take something else that would be stronger for myself or the team.

Anet has added new healing skills unique to each class and that anti-toxin heal available to everyone, so I wouldn’t be surprised if more skills were added down the road.

If they’re going to add more skills for the mesmer, I hope it’s not another mantra due to the current cumbersome nature of them.

The fact is, there are a host of simultaneous actions one can perform without interrupting a mantra charge, and something that can be adaptable for players willing to put the work into it. Even still, going full mantras is useful for very few things in all game formats. Overall the play style is quite clunky and generally not preferred beyond anything more than one or two for utility.

This poor phantasm is still bugged after today’s patch.

I noticed something I haven’t before though. At times you spawn it, you hear the attack sound effects occuring and the hits, observing enemy health going down, but it isn’t doing anything (just standing there).

FWIW, here are my findings following the patch today:

Base Recharge is 10s

No CD traits taken

• Illusionary Counter untriggered: 10s
• Illusionary Counter triggered: 10s
• Counterspell: 10s
• Tootip: 10s

Only Malicious Sorcery taken

• Illusionary Counter untriggered: 8s
• Illusionary Counter triggered: 10s (BUG)
• Counterspell: 8s
• Tooltip: 8s

Only Illusionist’s Celerity taken

• Illusionary Counter untriggered: 8s
• Illusionary Counter triggered: 9s (BUG)
• Counterspell: 8s
• Tootip: 8s

Malicious Sorcery and Illusionist’s Celerity taken

• Illusionary Counter untriggered: 6s
• Illusionary Counter triggered: 9s (BUG)
• Counterspell: 6s
• Tootip: 8s (BUG)

Anyone please feel free to validate. That 9s thing is odd, but pretty sure that’s what it is.

EDIT: Added BUG to the MS and IC Tooltip item.

I wonder if other cc’s might trigger it. MoA isn’t a typically chosen trait so I could see why it wouldn’t be as noticed.

MailMail.6534:

Pyroatheist.9031:

MailMail.6534:

All I’ve got to say is: why use PU when you could be using Chaotic Interruption instead?! :O

Because chaotic interruption isn’t particularly good?

On the contrary… In my experience it has been devastating in lockdown builds, especially in combination to Temporal Curtain. You can essentially trait it with many of the Mesmer weapons, but I like the focus pull the most.

Yeah CI is definitely good, but not as good as PU.

ninja buff to mirror of anguish? Nice.

sirsquishy.8531:

skcamow.3527:

I agree, at first that’s what it sounds like, but I personally never get above 50C on the CPU and GPU never gets over 60C.

When did you upgrade to Win8.1, and did you upgrade to 8.1 from 8 or was it a fresh install. Same question if you upgraded from 7 to 8.

Went from 8 to 8.1 over the top.

Evernessince.8035:

There is no such thing as cpu lag. If your cpu had heat issues it would shut down, possibly creating artifacts on the screen. I’ve had cpus overheat on me due to fan failure many times.

This issue you describe sounds like a hard drive issue. When a hard drive is seeking or reading data the cpu remains idle, exactly the same as you are getting. Mechanical issues also cause seek and read times to increase which results in the “lag” you describe.

In order to diagnose the issue you need to get the proper software for your manufacturer. I will list the two major ones below:

Seagate Drives: Seatools

Western Digital: WD lifeguard

Actually the next thing on my list was to try playing the game from a different drive to isolate that possibility. I’ve not run diags on my drive with the manufacturer tools, which I’ll do. Good to hear this feedback, thanks.

Looks like we have more dev commentary on the iWarden today (part of a larger update on client/server performance):
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/gw2/Official-state-of-skill-lag-and-server-optimizations/page/5#post3699821

I agree, at first that’s what it sounds like, but I personally never get above 50C on the CPU and GPU never gets over 60C.

jarthur.3649:

it may come to that but for now i’m going to see how it does for a couple days before i scrap it. if i do scrap it do you know of any condition builds that i could make use of the focus in I’ve found that i really like how the weapon plays and would like to use i in a build.

Check out Ross Biddle’s Holy Hell builds. I’ve also run a build with Staff/Sc-F in WvW roaming for a couple months now that works well and will be posting it with video in the coming days.

calavel.6249:

Did I say blink removes conditions? No. I said it lets you move your character (by blinking) even when you are immobilized. Blink moves you, that’s what it does, primarily. The only way you cannot move with blink is if you are dazed, at least I can’t think of another reason.

He’s trying to help you understand that blink is a stun breaker, which can get you out of daze (like any other stun break will).

Recently I’ve been getting odd CPU lag, where randomly the screen (and mouse) will freeze for like 5 seconds. When it’s done, I’m running in the direction I was before the freeze, most often times into a wall. So I was still moving as far as the server was concerned but frozen at the client. I’ve tried a few different things, messing with in game graphics settings, setting gw2.exe to high priority, setting my GPU/CPU fans to run high, ensuring I have no bad sectors on my HD, reinstall of the game and these instructions as well.

I have an AMD Phenom II 965 CPU with GeForce 560Ti 448 core GPU on Windows 8.1 and have been running GW2 really well since launch until now.

It happens so randomly – I can be in the middle of a PvP match or just sitting in an explorable area doing nothing. It happens either in windowed or non-windowed mode. When it happens, I see in task manager the CPU go down from the normal 50-70% to like 10-20% before it finally recovers.

Anyone run into this?

Mek.2947:

Ross Biddle.2367:

Mek.2947:

The only thing I’ve found helpful with focus is pulling people off walls, and sometimes dropping a warden in the middle of a group of people.

Focus offers

• High dps
• AoE
• Area denial
• Projectile destruction/reflects
• Swiftness
• AoE Pull/interrupt
• Condition cleansing
• Cripple

I was speaking to things you can do reliably.

Getting all those benefits in open WvW are extremely difficult. You have to be standing near the warden, ie near the enemy to get things like the reflects. In open WvW there’s a vast amount of space for people to avoid the warden and to avoid your temporal curtain. If you’re in a choke point then yes those skills are awesome, but it’s pretty situational. The GS is way more reliable for damage and cripple when chasing in open WvW.

I don’t know – from my personal experience, all of those things listed can be done reliably and without much difficulty, but it takes practice like everything else. It’s another reason mesmer is difficult to master (not saying I’m fully there). IMO focus is one of the strongest off-hand defensive juking weapon we have, paired with either sword or scepter main hand. Beauty is you can take the focus into those chokes or other larger fight and it does really well (especially if traited and unbugged).

I personally pride myself on be a details guy, but admit I am also confused about this. I thought it was clear on Ready Up a month ago that the next balance patch would follow the first living world season.

I thought March was when that was going to happen and like most others, thought March was then when we’d see the next balance patch. But this does not appear to be the case? So, after the first living world season means what, exactly?

dominoeffect.4216:

I know this thread is mainly about tPvP, how about WvW?

Has anyone tried a lockdown style build extensively in small-man/solo WvW? I am going to start playing it, however I see a couple concerns as of now:

1.) Taking a condi clense + daze mantra leaves you with either blink/decoy and mass invis for escape.
2.) GS and s/s offers a lot of offensive power, cripple, and immobilize. Swapping to s/t allows for an additional stealth with a loss of daze + iswordsman.

What do you guys think? Zerker gear and traveler runes allows for decent defensive stats, and I feel if you swap out zerker pieces for more defense stats then you lose more burst, which I’d like to try and retain as much as possible.

Yep, you can spec for decent defense while maintaining nice offensive stats and near 100% condition duration. When I get my traveler runes, I’ll be running this build in WvW for roaming lock-down.

Five
/15 chars

Something to think about – you could go with the disenchanter (vs MoR) along with mender’s purity. This gets you some much desired boon removal (dat stability) when running an interrupt focused build.

For awhile I’ve run MoR with mender’s in hot join/yoloq with chillruption, but am going to force myself to switch to the disenchanter for tPvP as it brings much more to the table, albeit a little less controlled condition removal.

The biggest thing with GW1 and lock-down was the existence of the cast bar, which doesn’t exist in GW2. There was absolutely nothing like chain locking a monk or ele with power drain > cry of frustration > power lock (or your other myriad of combos).

Instead, we have to look for tells, which you definitely become more accustomed to the more you fight, but can become problematic when camouflaged by spell/attack effects. If they were able to tone that stuff down somehow, enabling us to have clear view of our opponents, then we’d have a better counter-play game and interrupts would feel much more viable and controlled.

selan.8354:

ohh but btw we got something that could maybe be a good sign…anet posted:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/pvp/pvp/About-mesmer/first#post3683757

With baited breath … kinda.

Xaylin.1860:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Xaylin.1860:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Just did some testing with Illusionary Counter (scepter 2). It’s bugged pretty badly.

Base Cooldown: 10 seconds.

Behavior with either Illusionist’s Celerity or Malicious Sorcery: 8 second cooldown if untriggered, if used for the active, or if the block is triggered.

Behavior with both Illusionist’s Celerity and Malicious Sorcery: 6 second cooldown if untriggered or used for the active, but a 10 second cooldown if the block is triggered.

Urgh…

Did you test Illusionary Riposte, too?

I didn’t. I also mistyped there, it’s an 8 second cooldown with both, it doesn’t go back up to 10 thankfully.

Did a quick test on a golem in the mists (1. without traits, 2. with Blade Training, 3. with IC, 4. with Blade Training and IC). Illusionary Riposte appears to be fine cooldown-wise although I only checked displayed cooldown on the skill itself when using it. However, it still displays a false 12s cooldown in the tooltip when using Blade Training and IC.

So – I can confirm this was accurate as of the last patch (meaning 2/4). At that time, I’m pretty sure Malicious Sorcery didn’t affect the actual recharge of either the un-triggered or triggered (only Illusionist’s Celerity did). Pyro I will re-test based on your findings yesterday.

Illusionary Riposte has worked as expected with both individual (BT), global (IC) and combined trait recharges as of two or three patches ago (stealth fixed), though it was bugged badly before that.

EDIT: I haven’t re-tested since the 2/18 patch.

Pyroatheist.9031:

I also mistyped there, it’s an 8 second cooldown with both, it doesn’t go back up to 10 thankfully.

Yeah in my experience this was because IC was doing that (not MS).

Whoa! They fixed it!
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/info/updates/Game-Update-Notes-February-18-2014/first#post3673444

False alarm here, folks. Patch notes were confirmed earlier by Anet to be bogus.

False alarm, patch notes were confirmed to be bogus.

I know OP doesn’t want the focus, but I’d still encourage it. Reflects (when they do work) are still a necessity even in the warden’s current state.

I run a somewhat meta friendly flex build in 20/10/0/25/15 using the common sw-sw/sw-f for dungeons and then for PvE open world I switch the sw-sw to GS.

In dungeons I trait signets (using ether and insp), allowing me to maximize phantasm uptime while also refreshing party boons more frequently. In PvE open world I trait GS instead of signets. Full zerker of course. It works really well.

The swiftness thing may not be so bad – might work like guardian’s symbol to stand in it to accrue swiftness. Running/kiting through the field to continue to stack swiftness, especially while in battle would be pretty cool. This and of course the buff to allies running through it. Out of combat though, yeah a nerf.

The rest don’t appear to be balancing much honestly. Seems like the current PU condition build OP state is really the driving force behind the clone death trait nerfs, and to compensate, they buff PU itself. Sigh.

This plus the sigil changes – if these notes are correct or even close, there is going to be A LOT to sift through and calm down from in the meta following this patch. I bet the next balance patch isn’t for 6 months after this next one.

But honestly, please just fix the bugs. When was the last patch where they just focused on them? It’s in dire need and I still hold to the fact that if they fixed all the current bugs – even if just the major ones, balance would be shifted, and probably more significantly than they think.

Nausicca.6038:

PU is bad because when I kill a hambow warrior with my shatter spec, he says :" you’re pathetic with your PU build". It breaks my heart </3 ( true story, it happened last evening in hot join…)

I believe it – I’m hearing this more and more and it’s so ridiculous. Mesmers are now so infamously known for prismatic understanding that any kill is chalked up to using it, regardless of what build you’re running.

Honestly though, Warriors have had it worse with so many being criticized for running their “cheese builds” for months now. I know all’s fair and these builds are available and we play to win, but man – it’s brutal.

Best to just avoid map chat (or ignore comments) and obliviously have fun.

IGN: Kortham Raysplitter
Server: Yak’s Bend
Game Type: All equally

@basepi and Raunchy, check out StickerHappy’s build for ideas (sigils, etc), which uses this trait spread using GS training for WvW, GS/Sw-Sw in a semi-shatter focused spec: Phantasmic Interruptions

You can always run the builds mentioned there but going 20 into illusions for illusionary elasticity. That’s still decent DPS, though obviously not as good as the meta weapons. If your team is competent, you’re running in an organized group and they’re OK with it, it should matter too much.

For more boon share/support and WvW potential, take a look at the Chaos Maestro or Paladin builds in the build sticky. In dungeons, running those builds full zerker is fine in PUGs due to not knowing what you’re going to get (but not in groups advertising experienced only) .

Geesh, that’s horrendous.

Simonoly.4352:

I think the vulnerability application keeps condi builds in check whilst also adding utility for power builds. It would probably make staff clones too strong in condi builds if they were always able to apply bleed or burning.

And believe it or not, it adds a deceptive amount of power damage for condition builds that go 20 into domination. It’s really not difficult at all to rack up a quick 20-25 stacks of vuln in a chaos storm. That 20% to 25% increase in damage output is significant.

I see the OP’s point, but also agree that the lesser loved vuln condition balances WoC out adequately.

Interesting change in furious interruption. Even though your interrupt sources aren’t many, I could still see it working decent due to the 15s ICD on the trait. It makes MoD that much more valuable. Even though it’s just a single target interrupt, it can get you quickness which applies to all your actions. Furious interruption is also all the more valuable due to your use of 2 mantras.

Also, the on-swap sigils you have on sw/t will conflict with each other.

I encourage you rangers to do this. For myself, being a recent ranger newcomer, I’d love to join a guild like this. The mesmer forum set up a similar guild a few months ago and it’s still going strong. Maybe appoint a handful of leaders so if one or two (or five) leave, it can still continue.

The mesmer guild [OMFG] has been immensely helpful for many new and seasoned mesmers, and has close to 300 members. Some info that may help this effort or provide some inspiration:

• We have a three tiered system of ranks: Teacher, Tester and Scholar that each incoming member can choose to associate with. Newcomers (usually Scholars) know they can contact anyone with Teacher rank for information on how to play, etc. People theory-crafting know they can reach out to any member with Tester rank (or Teacher for that matter) to bounce ideas off of.
• Leader and Teacher ranks can invite/add newcomers to the guild.
• We set up a custom arena to spar against each other, test new builds and to just hang out.
• We provide a teamspeak server for members, which has seen much more use than I expected.
• Most mesmers don’t rep the guild but that is to be expected. With our numbers we usually see around 4-5 repping at any one time (usually more on weekends).
• We do random all mesmer dungeon events, which are loads of fun. This ofc depends on who’s repping at the time but when the call goes out from someone, usually at least one jumps in.
• We do random all mesmer team queues in PvP. Let me just say this is fun. One night we somehow ended up against an all necro team. It was classic.

For more info on how we set up the guild, here is the official OMFG thread

trooper.2650:

skcamow.3527:

check out the WvW build in stickerhappy’s Phantasmic Interruptions thread.

I will

Done. That’s actually what I was using myself except Mental torment and gear choice slightly different. But I bet the playstyle is the same. It could be a L2P issue from my side, but this build doesn’t asnwer positively to Osicat question…

Well if you’re building a roaming build that must meet those requirements you’re going to need a moderate amount of stealth, which usually means torch for sure and almost always means PU.

Keep in mind that there is absolutely no doubt playing a PU based build is the best way to roam as a mesmer. That said, you can certainly roam with other, non-PU based builds, but just expect you’re not going to have as much survivability or disengage ability.

Just want to help manage expectations.

I personally do not play PU, fully understanding that I would survive longer and get more kills if I did. I like playing non-PU builds to test myself and the strength of other builds that may get looked over in a dominant PU meta.

If you’re looking for the best non-PU build that meets the requirements stated by Osicat, keep experimenting. Who knows, you might have success with the torch/CI idea. I’m personally working on a couple non-PU builds that are as strong as most I’ve seen for survivability, but it tends to be a constant state of experimentation.

I have tried to make the torch work in a lock-down type build using chaotic interruption to no avail. The reason being is simply that there are no interrupt proc’ing traits available on the weapon set containing the torch. This renders your expensive CI trait useless when using that set. Just not worth it IMO to only have MoD and whatever else on your second set.

For more ideas on a power 20/20/30/0/0 setup using CI, check out the WvW build in stickerhappy’s Phantasmic Interruptions thread.

Regarding blink vs. decoy, it depends mostly on if I need more mobility in the build, though in general I never run without blink. Decoy at times can be the better disengaging tool due to the stealth, but overall I’d say it’s a toss up.

Carighan.6758:

Do we actually know that Daze only works in 0,25s increments? As in, did someone capture the video and count frames to make sure?

No, that’s actually the problem as it’s difficult to measure accurately. I remember a similar post to this one a couple weeks back and the answer wasn’t ultimately available or validated. It would take a coordinated two people with stopwatches to really give this a proper test/validate results. Here is the prior thread; looks like this person did quite a bit of testing themselves, for what it’s worth.

Regarding teleports, mesmer is indeed the undisputed master but trying to build around them as the focus (with nothing else) doesn’t seem very effective. I could certainly see them used as a spice around another build focus though.

Regarding interrupts, Staff/GS with CI/Imbued Diversion is pretty much chillruption (see my signature). I have a variant in that thread as well which is pretty much the exact trait spread in your interrupt idea. Both are very strong in PvP and WvW but vary in their effectiveness due to your opponent’s use of stability. If you’re up against a PUG zerg, the builds will do very well. If against organized guilds, you’ll have a tougher time but if you’re with a team that can boon strip for you, it’s golden.

I personally never played PU builds and have generally created builds outside the meta. Some have been effective and some not so much, but always fun. Keep up the theory-crafting and I’m sure you’ll find something you really enjoy.

Atiar.5469:

Xavi.6591:

I randomly fear 1 second at a time on my condie Mesmer.

This is true, I proc fear as well. Is this from Mirror of anguish? But it even proc’s when no fear was cast on me

Runes of the Nightmare most likely.

Right, meant to say the plan is obvious to nerf these traits across most (if not all) classes.
Yeah you’re right in everything you say but unfortunately I don’t think there’s much we can do about it (like I said I’ve seen many folks try).

Maybe we’ll get one more shot when they officially announce all the March balance changes but I’m not holding my breath.

EDIT: I thought there was at least one class where a vigor trait was nerfed and it was ranger in the 12/10/13 patch.

Anet wanted to nerf deceptive evasion and we as a community pushed back and changed their mind. Many have similarly brought up concerns with critical infusion but it doesn’t appear they’re going to budge.

Anet knows what they’re doing with the nerf (whether it’s the right decision or not for us), as they made similar adjustments to vigor on crit traits for other classes. The problem is, I believe the nerf affects mesmers more detrimentally than others.

As with many of the other nerfs we’d had, I think we’ll have to play this out and deal with it the best we can. Many other things will be changing at the same time, such as the sigil/rune enhancements, so we’ll see what the landscape looks like post-patch.

Xaylin.1860:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I can’t lie, this got me a little hype. Reason #5

Justin ODell.9517:

I play lock-down mesmer and a Teldo engineer build, in that order.

Hmm, that’s awesome.

I’m still confused, though, when thinking back to December where the devs said that they consider Phantasm, Shatter and Mantra to be the main Mesmer types…

Had to ask him what build he plays.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Did anyone try traiting Warden with pHaste? (I haven’t. Idea just hit me) Maybe a broken phantasm merged with a broken phantasm trait will make a bug out to make working phantasm!

/logic

I have. It does nothing but make you sad that you wasted trait points to get a trait that doesn’t work.

Not only that, but it’s insult to injury because iirc, the same patch that broke the iWarden also broke phantasmal haste with iWarden (and a couple others).

Justin ODell.9517:

I play lock-down mesmer and a Teldo engineer build, in that order.

Which lock-down mesmer build do you play?

^^^
Congratz Kai