Guild Wars 2

Lol, I use BOTH staff and gs. I don’t think anything can be “superior”. They’re used in diff cases. I kite a lot and move around a lot, and can survive and keep from being hit. however, that Staff is extremely useful, it can be a great defensive weapon, my gs is used for offense. by the time i dish out some damage and cripple on my gs, enemy is closing in on me and i switch to staff to fend off their attacks and escape, while getting more condition damage on them, staff is a great defensive weapon. I don’t think you can trump every class without a strong defense. You’ll encounter some players who will take you down easily, but if you’ve got a staff during those situations, they won’t.

In general, staff isn’t really for pure dps, but a very strategic, mobile and versatile weapon. Those clones stack up condition and damage that way, it is disorienting for the enemy and protective. It’s very useful.

And I would agree with whoever said staff is better then, because it has so many uses. You’d need to supplement with something of your choice though. I go gs/staff. lots of ppl go staff + sword/* so up to you. In pvp, I would say staff is more useful across more situations. But i wouldn’t say something is “superior”. there is no one stop best weapon really.

To add more, this week, we are matched with higher tier servers, while we are confident on our skill we just don’t have the numbers and coverage lol so especially away from prime time, when I’m usually on in the mornings, we usually would hold or claim all of our home bl and so on every week no problem, but sigh this week, its really tough and bordering strategically hopeless lol its like zergs of 30 all the time vs 10 man pug groups… and the zergs don’t even split off, they come as a huge group rofl… I usually focus on fights, but this week, during these times I’m focused more on running away and i’m finding it wonderful fun as a mesmer to run away LOL. So out of like 10 – 15 encounters in the morning with those big zerg balls, I’d charge suicidal straight into them, while proccing my boons, chaos armor stuff, blinking, etc, somehow survive, and then stealth away while the rest of our server groups would be all wiped hehe I’m enjoying my more defensive build i guess. If I pulled out more ptv gear I think I would survive or hold off people for longer

Haha I’m loving the stories guys! Especially these, rather than boasting, these are hilarious xD

kazi.6438:

I was about to win my first 1v5 in one of the BL maps and then I used mirror images and somehow got stuck in a wall. They used the chance to rez each other and kill me.

Dammerung.6419:

I was running the standard cof p1 farm, 4 warrs and my mes. We were at the rolling balls of fire part where I dropped my first portal and went to blink across to the other side. Instead I dropped my portal in the middle and ended up murdering my entire party >.>

And omg, I seriously need to learn how to play more tricks and use (what other people would call “cheap”) strategy like this. I believe this is all part of mesmer and player ability A smart fight is a good fight.

Serhend.6382:

1) This is about me killing two thieves in 2v1.

A group of 5-6 were attacking Hills from the wall near the northwest gate, I keep trolling them and running back with invis and stuff, trying to lure them near the cliff to pull them down with temporal. They don’t eat it, I keep trolling them. At last 2 thieves come after me, both level 80 and slightly over average ones so I know I cannot keep it up for long, I have to be quick. In about a minute I manage to pull one of them down the edge but he does not fall down all the way, he just falls to a small edge that is still too high to come back from. I keep fighting the other thief and in about 30 seconds I pull him down right next to his friend. They are just sitting there unable to do anything, probably telling their mesmer friend over TS to port them back. I send join request to their party, they accept me and say “What do you want?”. I click on mass invisibility, jump on the edge they are standing on and put temporal right there, pull and bingo, both fall and die instantly. In party chat I say “This.” and leave.

2) Along with 2 mesmer friends we stood on tower walls and spammed clones, a group of 10 stopped hitting the gate and left, they probably thought we were a group of 10+, lol.

3) I am at the edge of the cliff between Garri and the keep that is neighboring Garri on the West, I do not move or do anything, try to make it seem like I am AFK. I have my cam looking behind me, I see an elementalist coming furiously towards me with all those shiny flamey effects and speed buff, I wait for him to come very very close, then at the perfect moment when he starts coming towards me on a line of flame, I hit decoy, dodge roll backwards, put temporal on the edge, pull and voila, he meets his death with a fancy line of fire behind him.

5) Coming nose to nose with a thief, both doing nothing and waiting the other one to do the first move. I click on temporal curtain to put it on the ground to get him off of me when he jumps at me and I instinctively put it down simultaneously as he probably hits the key, so for one second it seems as if he is on me and then one second later he is pulled back and I am sending my leaping clone at him, he realized it being so perfectly timed and runs away without looking back. I just lol.

With all the patch information, videos and stuff like in dulfy.net and on youtube, do we have any new thoughts and theories about lore, and please continue to report in here as we find out stuff during the update starting from tomorrow! I’m interested as to what people think after gathering as much info as we can in the update and new maps

come on haha u can’t have everything instantaneously, we’ve (some people have) already grinded for like 9 months…. a couple of days or a month is nothing really! This is something new, so it makes sense to have it take a while, else it will be too easy

yeah this has been said but:

She didn’t, her clone did

Other than my post about phantasm elites, I think it would make sense to have an elite that has to do with our illusions/phantasms… or even if we had an actual illusion ability like create an aoe “world” that exists for a set number of seconds, and we can’t escape from it until it disappears. Like the ground/interior of this aoe “world” would change the landscape, you see a different ground etc and certain conditions or boons are applied, and the enemy has to fight in this until the effects wear off. Like that also makes sense for a mesmer class

But I do think our current elites are good and effective. I don’t think all elites need to be strong for offense…. Mesmers skills are very utility based, and the elites are also utility based and very useful in situations.

MI is useful not only as a get away but I’ve seen it used in PvP offensively alot, to disappear and then reposition, and effectively take down an enemy… With the PU trait, you have boons and stuff coming from that.. but the CD is not low, but it’s the same as Veil’s base. I think, both should have a slightly lowered CD, maybe similar to the Veil’s 72 sec after glamor reduction? Anyway this utility keeps you alive well. However, it is kind of redundant compared to thief’s stealth… Time warp is your damage if you needed the damage, and useful in group settings. I’ve seen it used solo too. And I do agree Moa is kind of weird, you can pull it off in WvW 1vX but it’s so highly situational, and doesn’t quite work on PvE (does it though? I haven’t used it for a while, from months ago, it was supposed to work after you knock off their stacks of defiant)

I think our elites are nice. But not the best. But not bad either… You’re talking about an ele’s greatsword… Yes it’s a heavy hitter, it’s really cool and powerful and all… but In my opinion, I wouldn’t use it in small group/solo settings maybe useful in wvw zergs, but in that case you have time warp and stuff to help others. It’s just the same thing as having another arsenal of the same offensive magic stuff they already have. It’s redundant as well. People can also dodge greatsword attacks etc, it’s not utility like we do, where it doesn’t matter what the enemy does, but it helps the mesmer ultimately. It’s not always about damage output…

Work in Progress, overlaid some quick block coloring tonight, and i enjoy doing eyes so i did the eye quickly, but some parts look a little weird, need some more tweaks! lololol

I hope to get in lots of layers of high contrast and colors, because I haven’t done enough of detailed, thick digital coloring before :S

We had a thread recently and there are suggestions there about a phantasm based elite. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Elite-phantasm

Something that has to do a fourth illusion/phantasm that does something special. somethings mentioned were:

-stationary phantasm that does fear,
-phantasmal elementalist that summons fire storms,
-elite clone with player health pool that mirrors you, your movement and your actions exactly with a displacement of location,
-phantasm that pulses a chaos storm field around it and runs at targets,
-a phantasm that spawns three clones around it,
-an elite that doubles the amount of clones existing,
-an elite that echos illusion summoning skills for a set time frame doubling all illusions summoned,
-a phantasm that dazes or does something and respawns for three cycles when killed,
-bodyguard style defender phantasms that don’t need a target to be summoned,

Spear is amazing. 2 and 4 sooo awesome, faster than swiftness

Simonoly.4352:

In WvW, lots of moaning on chat about a super ganky D/P Thief causing grief near one of our supply camps. Naturally, I go to the Thief’s last known location and pretend I’m AFK. When the Thief comes in for a backstab, I pop decoy, take two steps to the right, moa morph and then melt the Thief before he even has a chance to react to the fact that he is now a giant bird. Simple, clean, effective – the Thief didn’t come back.

I’ve never actually made use of Moa before, but when you land a good one, hahahah, that must be the best thing ever

Ross Biddle.2367:

You should read the entire thing.

You’re right, there is nothing cheap or unfair about the mesmer mechanics, and learning to play is what’s tantamount in this issue. In fact, until both parties can get on with playing to win, this will never happen.

Question: You said you couldn’t agree that “winning is all that matters”, so that’s made me wonder, what else would you say matters to you?

sorry I haven’t read it yet but I will, however I have to say that question is a little jokes bc… Skill aside, good players and bad players, games are played to have fun, some people play to take their mind off of work or school, some people play with friends to laugh and enjoy themselves, some people play for the thrill for excitement. Winning is only a byproduct and a possible result during the game. Win or lose u should still be playing to enjoy urself. Laughing when you lose, or whatever response you might have that doesn’t negatively affect you.

What else matters? Everything else matters, and winning shouldn’t matter as much.

That said I have nothing against being a good player and learning to play well and people definitely shouldn’t complain about being cheap or something lol. If that’s the case that also is playing “to win” focusing too much on how one lost or can’t beat someone…

Oh another one, 1 v 3, was tough cuz there was a hard hitting thief and warrior. Well by chance, I managed to get off a focus pull and both of them was thrown off the cliff LOL so it was just 1v1 after safe

Then there’s a CoE dungeon run, where everybody kept dying and I was solo-ing the boss for the next like half hour…. #staffOP XD I always say when I pull out my staff you know I’m serious lolol

If we’re cheating then what are perma-stealth backstab thieves? lolol and oh i also hate necros that fear you all the time!

Each class is unique and has its own play style and functionality, mesmers rely on all those tricks to stay alive and to fight.

If you’re a zerker mesmer and they can’t get you down, it’s a play skill thing, because you can be very fragile if hit properly.

As for the question, no you shouldn’t. You should be doing what you’re good at and what you’re comfortable at. If you’re good enough to not die as a zerker and burst down people, that’s your play style and your build. What’s a powerful d/d ele and thief do? burst people down? lol same thing

So i decided it’s about time I started drawing proper digital art for my characters

Here’s work in progress of my main mesmer character, just the line art kind of done, after a few more tweaks I’ll be moving on to color it next ^^

I use SAI and Photoshop and the like. We’ll see how it turns out when it’s done! It’s my second or third time making anime digital art, though I study graphic design, anime painting and drawing is quite different. I hope it’ll turn out okay, I’m going to color it as heavily with tons of contrast as possible to take on a strong fantasy feel?

I may make more character art, maybe arrange them into one big group picture, for my fanfic you can see the story at http://tiny.cc/reiff

Hai! Not sure if this is done before but, anyway, I want to hear about your favourite and most satisfying moments! Be sure to describe in great detail

I’l just tell two of mine:

Zerg busting crew in wvw, I haven’t ran with real zerg busting groups til the past few weeks, so these experiences were refreshing and eye-opening for me. and we were up against servers who had much greater numbers and coverage. (not naming any server names) So typically a fight would be 15 of us vs 30-40 of them. The same thing in this case, we had 15 and they had around 35 attacking our garrison. The wall was down by the time we got there to defend and they pushed into the garrison once or twice, but with our crew, taking advantage of a blind corner and timing all our aoe and such they were wiped. So when they returned with more numbers, I think they must have recognized our guild tag because they stopped short and didn’t advance forward much, seeming to be planning or uncertain. Anyway we decided to go suicidal and take the fight to them. A mesmer down a portal outside the garrison, far right of their group, still slightly of infront of them, after portal, and i laid down a veil, and we ran at them and cut sharp right which put us behind them. We were completely invisible, and caught them off guard. was a complete wipe in a very little time. We stayed outside the garrison because there was another zerg coming another 30-40 so people. We faced them head on, and sent a mesmer off to the side, moving along the left behind them. While they thought we were facing head on, and moved forward into us, we used the portal and appeared behind them. Another wipe for them! It was great haha I hadn’t done much of that before so running with a zerg busting crew is great fun and mesmers really changed the tide of the fights even in outnumbered situations sometimes

Another story is way back, months ago, near release time, when I was levelling in PvE and still a noob. I think I was level 25 and the mesmer in PvE when played right really has such great survivability, and I was levelling in maps that are like 5 – 10 level higher. So I happened to decide to be suicidal and go to Harathi. There I ran around tagging centaurs with my staff trying to pick up as many as I could and see how long I could survive lolol. I had like 5 or 7 or so around me and I think one of the dog/wolf things with my staff and sword/focus, I thought I was only going to survive for a short time. But to my surprise I ended up killing them all after a long time of crazy kiting, dodging, moving, trying to stay alive. Back then, I swear my play skill was higher than it is now lol! Like levelling in tough places, or levelling in general without full traits, build, gear, really put me on my feet. In PvE now, i just autoattack, cuz most mobs are brainless and I can take hits with my build so I end up being lazy, except for the tougher events or bosses. In WvW, it feels like real fights outside of zergs are relatively short lived, and depends on difference in numbers, play skill, builds, classes, etc, one or the other will go down, so it’s almost like there wasn’t enough time to truly get into the rhythm or vibe of things, it’s super fast instinctive kind of fighting

Anyway, i’m sure there’s lots of interesting stories, share your own!

there’s something just really satisfying when contribute to your zerg teams like a zerg busting group all outnumbered and your veil and portals completely are the turning point of the fight and you can see the enemy completely confused or unaware and then scattering in terror xD

Also when you land a full blurred frenzy, blast them with torch prestige after u followed them around in stealth or get them with a knockback from gs, idk, those really are satisfying for me

Feel free to check out my build, which has high survivability, based on boons, stealth, mitigating damage and then some significant steady simple damage to do what needs to be done xD
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Prisma/

I loved all the books as well it makes the entire environment so real as we know the backstory behind everything. Sea of Sorrows was really powerful particularly because it spanned so many years and we saw the development and founding of Lion’s Arch as we see it now. It’s really breathtaking to feel a part of it and “experience” the many years of its making and then recognize the places in game

I agree with everything that has been said and just wanna say lore =/= gameplay one more time bc… Look at Logan Thackeray and rytlock and the rest of destiny’s edge, they’re supposed to be heroes and champions in lore and tremendous fighters. Logan can keep up his shield forever and nothing can get past it apparently in the CoF gameplay with baelfire haha

But u notice how quickly NPCs “die” and we don’t? If that’s the case were like god level in ability compared to the countless “lives” lost in combat. See to put it simply, we’re the ones who are truly out of place here, our ability is way beyond the real NPCs of the world, and the NPCs are also dumbed down. This is simply for gameplay matters. The balance is there so it’s actually playable. The time and amount of people it takes for us to take down a temple priest in Orr … Does that mean the priest is more powerful than the dragon? Don’t use the gameplay as a tool of measurement in lore.

Stand in Lion’s Arch ledge in front of the bank and look pretty and play PvC (player vs chat) thats basically all i do all day HAHAHAHa half jk… but half not..

just to remind about the post i made earlier again,

i think if all arguments are pushed aside,

you have to consider the players, ALL players.

there are some who are just extremely jumping challenged. they can try it for three hour and get nowhere, and get stuck in the same spot over and over or have to start again. especially on release when there were big and small characters crowded together

some people just can’t “physically” make it to the end of a jp even if they tried. some might have eye sight issues, sensitive to light, i also know some colorblind (even to certain colors only) that would hinder them. maybe someone who has a disability in their hand? who knows

people have different gaming ability. And even someone who is amazing at pvp and wvw, and fighting, but they might not be accurate with jumps.

at the end of the day, these people would be treated unfairly if there were no mesmers helping people with portals.

the portals are a must. Choose what way you want to get to the end as simple as that

Arale.4207:

Actually, I’d like to see some kind of color scheme or design slot for our class mechanics to change their look or color. This could give people more customization on looking cool or different, aside from just armor.

That would be interestinggg

On the other hand, at first I thought you were talking about illusions, cuz that reminded me of the color change trick for fun haha. put out a clone, then change ur dyes and then put out another clone and so on, and they all are multicolored xD

And also another fun trick/glitch is to use an elite skill like mi so it affects your phantasms, and after the skill wears off, they will look like full colored clones instead of phantasms

Narsil.6579:

The thing with the Staff / torch / sword build, …

I think to each their own. I think sword/torch is great, if you enjoy it by all means. My personal playstyle i enjoy kiting , and actually don’t think u need that extra fourth stealth (though it is a blast finisher and does condition damage and image sounds awesome) like you said, the staff and some stealth here and there is plenty enough defense, especially with the traits. I also am not focusing on conditions so my build won’t scatter/place stats, buffs into condition damage. My staff would only be mainly for defensive purposes, while a condition here and there is nice, conditions aren’t really the point of my build. I generally feel a build might to be too scattered, and i have an annoying nagging at the back of my mind when I start going for more things. So even if I wanted to, even if it might be good, I couldn’t make myself do it. The intention of my build is simple and straight forward, to stay alive very well and hit hard, keep the pressure on and sustain strong damage. I enjoy the gs for that simple heavy damage and keeping a distance

Narsil.6579:

I run runes of centaur, a mix between zerker, rabid, rampager and knights for gear to balance out stats, i run valkyrie weapons for that extra crit and vitality, power toughness crit trinkets and rabid back piece, still testing the build atm. Also for utilities , go blink, decoy, veil, mass invisivility, and for healing go for Mirror, that Mirror can be a life saver, usually it depends, if running against a group or necro, Lemongrass Soup with Maintenance oil, or add in once in a while for extra crit Butternut squash soup

I love mirror. It’s perma swiftness with centaur. If u read my notes I say I use mirror, and veil often but I didn’t set it into the buildcraft link, that’s up to players to decide for themselves

Curunen.8729:

For PU I’d argue Prestige > Mimic, although you’d have to lay aside either staff or GS.

Having said that, mimic works pretty nicely with mirror blade and staff #1 + clones.

Yeah! I’d say go sword torch and staff if you come from a sword or background of playing up close. I enjoy kiting and never letting melee opponents reach me. I like the damage gs deals from a distance and the knock back timed right is just so satisfying and useful. Just preference. Sword torch will work very nicely if you enjoy it. U have blurred frenzy and prestige and that’s some powerful defensive + offensive. Great tools

Xavi.6591:

Also Viel. Now you have 4 stealths.

Yep I like to run a veil but sometimes other things, so slot 1 is up to you situationally
I only have three though I usually am not running torch cuz I don’t like to get close haha

jportell.2197:

You are taking PU with only one stealth skill? Why? You could either take another stealth skill or two to get more protection uptime. Or you could build around something else… PU isn’t like shatters where it is easy to work with to begin with by going 30 deep. Going for PU means that you are likely going to make your entire build revolve around it… It doesn’t seem like you are here just an observation. If you really want to capitalize on Prismatic understanding it pretty much means that you should go after all the stealth skills at our disposal.

?? I have decoy and mass invis, did u see the link?
The slot skill note was only for slot 1 I keep decoy and blink and mi as default

This is so awesome!!! keep it up hahaha

I’ve been having quite a good time with this build and it seems to be working well. So I’d like to share and see what you think! Do try it out if you want! I’ve seen similar builds to this but doesn’t seem too common, I think it can be a good approach to the Mesmer.

Objectives
High defense and steady strong phantasm based damage. Traits focuses on synergy of stealth, constant boons like regen, aegis, protection, mitigating damage, movement and enough escapes. On the other hand there is significant phantasm damage with high power and constant might stacks.

See:
http://tiny.cc/prismer

Traits
0 20(v, x) 30(iv, vii, xii) 20(iv, v) 0

You can opt for glamor reduction if you want

Notes

Slot Skill 1: 
Mimic / Veil / Null Field
I interchange between a lot , i run veil a lot, but really depends on what you’d prefer on slot 1 (decoy, blink and mi I keep on at all times)

Heal Skill:
I enjoy using ‘Mirror’ most of the time (perm swiftness on centaur runes, quick CD, reflect projectiles – just remember to heal earlier, easy to keep your health up higher)

Trinkets:
Reflects my current trinkets… I still need to grab some more ascended!

Weapons:
I prefer gs + staff because it is my kiting and evading play style, but I think sword/* works as well, sword/torch for example with the extra stealth, and focus with the extra combo fields but definitely keep a staff handy.

I swapped to a Sigil of Hydromancy on my staff lately, because I swap to staff often once the enemy comes closer and I need to get away/ keep my distance. Being a defensive yet close quarters weapon, not focused on dps, Hydromancy seemed to fit the bill to put a good distance between you, put out some aoe damage and give you a edge for a few seconds.

I didn’t feel a need for a staff boost trait either, because most of the time you swap weapons as soon as available, (adding might stacks) usually you bring out the staff putting out some clones or phantasms that will stay relatively safe to stack that damage and for defensive maneuvers, (dropping chaos storm on both you and the illusions will keep all of you pretty safe), but as soon as you’re out of harms way – and the staff is really good at that – in a few seconds you’re back to gs, then back to staff as soon as you’re threatened again and so the cd’s aren’t really an issue, you’re not staying with one weapon for long after the skill cd’s

For defense, we have available: 
Mimic (4 s block all attacks after catching projectile), Stealth + boons, Chaos Armor + combo, Chaos Storm, distortion / interrupt shatters, regen + protection hand in hand, 3% reduced damage per illusion, Regen from phantasms, mirror of anguish reflect cc every now and then

The build doesn’t include boon duration increases and so on because I didn’t really feel a need for it. With the amount of options available, you always have some sort of strong defense and boons at all times

For offense
Straight power/precision/crit damage from gear and food, might stacks can be maintained around 6-10 easily, for pvp I switch out runes for more might duration. All in all the damage potential is still high up, and from what I experience rather than burst, it is steady , significant and sustained

Shatters
I save shatters for dazes and distortion but do occasionally shatter offensively. But for the most part it’s super fast to get phantasms up and esp those warlocks stay alive pretty long since they are ranged

WvW
The set up is good for roaming and staying alive through 1vX encounters. Been quite durable against many different classes. It can be used in a Zerg setting, you can stay alive well, while helping allies with some boons but it might be necessary to change slot skills.

It might not seem perfect but its working for me very well so far! I just wanted to share and i bet some of you might have better results than me though :P

PS I don’t know why i called it “Prisma” oO

http://tiny.cc/prismer

I play gs/staff, it is AWESOME for pve and wvw, its so much fun, tons of moving around and kiting galore with nonstop survivability and my build has traits that focus on defensive stuff 0 20 30 20 0. I’ve had so much success with it and soloing champs is easy. While other people might go down, u can stand strong.

It is synergizing stealth + defensive boons, mitigating damage, invuln/blocks, movement and blinks, tons of illusions and u have a great deal of toughness while dealing strong sustained phantasm damage, with might stacks and some zerker gear. I’d recommend looking at this for pve, it makes pve quite easy really.

Mimic/veil/null field I interchange as well as often I like mirror heal for the perm travel swiftness cuz of short CD and also cuz of short CD I can spam it more, keeping my health at max while reflecting projectiles

about the staff boost trait i dont use it bc i dont need the quicker CD since im swapping between weapons as soon as possible, once ive done everything i need to and get might stacks from it. With my build its perma 6-10 might stacks .

Staff is good for escape and defense and putting those long range phantasms around u for regen + protection traits and stuff. Chaos storm and chaos armor and everything u got theres so many boons and defensive things but once uve used the cd chances are ur on safer ground again and can go back on gs offensive, then swap back once ur target gets near again etc

http://tiny.cc/reimes

I’m running the same traits and runes as you! But a bit diff haha, bit more offensive perhaps, lots of might, zerker, but still focused on survivability i found its working quite well http://tiny.cc/reimes mimic/veil/null field/feedback i switch around

I’m using a roaming defensive phantasm build? 0 20 30 20 0 haha all my traits focus on defense and self-preserving, being hard to kill, mitigating damage, stealth + boons, invuln/blocks, etc etc, but using gear and food and might for sustained strong damage over time, i’d change the runes if its purely fighting.. and mimic/veil , slot skills switched for other stuff in group setting, still needs tweaking http://tiny.cc/reimes

Yes to all!

I had no issues pve levelling either, if you are fluent in ur playstyle and comfortable with mesmer tricks, then you will have no problem. I was levelling in zones like 5 levels higher throughout the entire journey lolol

Definitely no issue in the rest either

You’ll need to really plan ur build, something that fits you especially. some people play zerker with no problem while others might opt for more defensive traits. some people go all offensive with gs, sword etc, while others might stick with staff. In tougher dungeons I do suggest staff at all times though

I don’t think we’re necessarily lacking in any aspect. Thieves and warriors may still be OP, but i mean its still possible to be effective against them, depending on ur own skill

The names all sounds so cool. but to add on how bout Art of Manipulation? or somehow something along the lines of manipulation, maybe there is a cooler word for it. But essentially Mesmers are really about manipulation, whether it is the “scientific” aspect of it which is manipulating space and time, i.e. spatial surge, time warp, feedback, blinks, etc or manipulating the mind with illusions, tricks, confusion etc, i think mesmers are based on manipulating!

Other than that, this sounds like an awesome project! I remember there are a few videos that helped me play mesmer in the beginning, i forgot who it’s by? but it was super comprehensive and focused on the usage of the staff in builds, which is essentially one of the most powerful things for mesmers, and it helped me whether it was pve/wvw etc there’s a lot of good advice from ppls, i hope ull be able to compile everything!

^ that’s basically my build too after patch lol my build is here http://tiny.cc/reimesbuild 0 20 30 20 0 still gonna tweak it but

It’s working great for me it’s hard to kill but does plenty enough damage. I switch between veil/mimic/null field depending on situation, I’ve been running mimic a lot in wvw lately as well as mirror heal bc mirror gives perma swiftness, of course my weapon choice is also just my play style I say you can opt for staff + sword/*

Also the idea is for synergy and focus on stealth + boons, mitigating damage, invulnerable/blocks and defense while not focusing and optimizing on the damage side of things it is dealing good sustained damage via phantasms and shatter when necessary. I’ve got zerker gear and get about 7-10 might stacks during fights

Good for roaming and self-preserving/focused fights, it works well in zerg situations as well and can take on multiple enemies or at least get you out alive!

I don’t like jumping into Heated or tense discussions but I must say just one thing. Why are you saying people are ignorant? Why do you think people don’t use scepter?

There ARE Mesmers out there who have scepter builds. Not that many but NOT little either….

Don’t assume you know something special bc other people are using the same weapons

I don’t use it, cuz it doesn’t suit my play style just like how most people might use sword or pistol and I have stopped using sword altogether recently… It’s preference…. There’s nothing about knowing something or not here.

This is sooo awesome haha how do u do this? How long does it take? Love it

Here’s the issue, i for one, can’t jump to save my life lol. I’m very JP challenged, and same with many other players. We use the same controls you use, we use right click mouse button navigation, we do our best we can, but its just impossible for some of us… to judge distance on pixels and stuff, just not naturally inclined at it, or maybe in games in general. Not to mention, there’s people with eyesight issues, like the screen or the jp being too dark, or some who are light sensitive and get tired easily, or are claustrophobic or whatever you describe people who get dizzy with the quick movement of camera angles (especially as i mention again below, when you’re in tight spaces). There’s a LOT of reasons how people might not be able to do JP. People got to the next stage like half an hour ago and I’d still be stuck in the same spot. Yet people still attempt it and still want to finish it.

I made it to the end after a super long time was porting people who can’t make it up. There’s people who spent like an hour trying to jump it and failing at certain places. It was a tough JP, and what made it worse was the design of the tight spaces so the camera angles sucked and constantly put ur camera like right into your character’s bum… plus at release, there were so many people, with big characters that blocked out the field of vision. It was literally almost impossible for some people to make it. So it wouldn’t be fair if only jumping inclined players gets an award for completing it, yet some people who couldn’t make it, spent like an hour trying to do it.

I don’t think there’s anything we can do about this nor should be done. If you enjoy jumping the content then you can do it, but for those who can’t do it, or don’t want to, then let people port. It’s a way to be nice to fellow server mates. It’s hardly done with stealing in mind. I was porting just to be nice and help people, new players, people who can’t jump, people who are frustrated, and by all means if people are just plain lazy then that’s their choice right?

Here’s a build I just made and started using lately, not sure if its been done before, probably has! But i’ve been wvw-ing a lot and this focuses on roaming and versatile survivability but still maintains high sustained damage. definitely doesn’t focus on synergizing damage, the damage is just there to down targets when possible.

Prismatic Mirage 1.0 : Phantasmal Defense

http://tiny.cc/prismames

Centered around defense, moving in and out of danger and mitigating damage, proccing boons and using lots of stealth at the right times for survivability, while delivering steady and significant kiting dps at a distance, with phantasms, and shatter when necessary, for example, to indicate stealthed targets or distortion or finishing near-dead enemy

Notes

Slot Skill 1:
Mimic / Veil / Null Field are interchangeable
(if no glamor switch out glamor trait for phantasm life or whatever)

Heal Skill:
I enjoy using ‘Mirror’ (perm swiftness on centaur runes, quick CD, reflect projectiles – just remember to heal earlier)

Weapons:
Staff + Sword/* (Focus, trait for focus reflect or Torch for extra stealth) also good

For all our defensive “invuln” ish stuff, we have:
Mimic (4+ s block all attacks), Stealth + boons, Chaos Armor + combo, Chaos Storm, distortion shatters, (optional: blurred frenzy if running sword, focus reflects and Mirror heal reflect)

At the very very least, decoy should have a shorter base cd! it is survival and almost default in most builds/situations, with Mass invis as an elite being at such a huge cd, decoy definitely should be shorter… if possible, so should veil

this is great! its very helpful, it helps show that we need to be thinking like this and not panic when in danger thanks

This is so cute! XD i love all the details you put into the “screenshot”. next time anyone takes a photo should say lets take a screenie xD

So, probably discussed before but I was wondering if anyone used Mimic in their builds? At first I stayed away from it for a long time, because other skills just seemed to be better to have. But I’ve been wvwing a lot… this skill from what I am told, from what I read/understand and from trying it out today blocks all attacks for four(+?) seconds after absorbing the first projectile, if you don’t send it back yet. You can move while having this shield and blink and what not as well. It also has a super short CD and feels almost spammable.

Personally, while not configured to support a team or zerg, while being more focused on self, roaming, solo, etc, I find it quite useful and helps tank/keeps the survivability up, even amidst a big enemy zerg. While sieging towers or keeps and being barraged by projectiles and whatnot, it can help block a lot of attacks. Also its another oh no! button. With staff Chaos Armor combos and chaos storm, and stealth and stun breaking blinks, distortion, blurred frenzy, like we can literally be “invuln” or close to “invuln” most of the time :O

Question though because I haven’t used it alot yet, does it literally block all attacks including melee and other “magic” for example a mesmer gs autoattack? Of course you still take condition damage no doubt. But this seems very useful, esp with the short cd, and really brought up my survivability and tanking ability even while i rushed in all suicidal into an enemy zerg xD Mesmer friends and I might argue that theres better skills, but for self-protecting/self-centered situations, it feels very useful. How do you find it, would you use it or do you already use it?

Mad Queen Malafide.7512:

I’m not sure if this was mentioned earlier, but one of the Bloodstones is considered the Keystone. The stone to which all the other bloodstones were originally attached. And it is supposedly larger (or so we assume) and stronger than all the other Bloodstones. It is also required if one was to reassemble the Bloodstones, and make them whole again.

The Keystone could be the one in the Ring of Fire. And I agree with Konig that the likely hood of one of the Bloodstones landing in the sea is extremely large. I also agree that it is likely, but unsupported by any evidence at this point, that the other Bloodstone lies in Orr. Since we haven’t seen 50% of Orr, this is still possible.

If you are going to write fan fic that involves the Bloodstones, I’d be really careful with the facts. There’s still a lot we don’t know. And it is even possible that the previous locations of the Bloodstones as seen in GW1 may have changed. Until we see the Bloodstones in their original places in GW2, we just can’t be sure. The bloodstones are surrounded by a lot of speculation. And anything you write about it, may end up being undone by a future expansion.

Thanks for the info everyone! Really appreciate it ^^ and yeah I know that there’s a lot we don’t know, I’m just having a little fun with what we got so far and making a more imaginative story from it but I do want what we know so far to be incorporated and be the foundation of the story

Chapter 15 , 16 is posted today ^^

I’ve been playing since release and run three level 80s, my primary is a Mesmer, and have been doing a lot of heavy pve, farming, dungeon runs, etc in the first 5 months and then did a lot of wvw onwards. I’ve ran a guild and part of large guilds as well!

But! I’ve always enjoyed creative writing, the gw2 landscape/scenery and lore and stuff, I used to RP on forums when I was in middle school xD so I’m wondering how it would be to RP in a game/with a guild! (never did it before) it seems like something interesting after experiencing most of what gw2 has to offer currently

I love building communities, family like atmosphere, epic laughs and moments and am very friendly

I’m EST, Ehmry Bay and can’t really transfer as I have ties here but I’d love to guest, spend lots of time and learn what it’s like!

I’m working on a little something that is sort of a super long novel version of my characters backstory and various friends/players that’s in the story haha ^^ if u want to take a look just check out the link on my sig, and look for the link there!

Thanks for your time! Please let me know if you think you’d be able to welcome me

I agree also. Before patch I didn’t go down this much… I had to change my build lately, pulled out staff and traited for more toughness, stealth and boon specs which should be quite a survivable decent build. But I feel squishier than I was when I was pretty zerker lol. idk what happened either

My sci-fi ish mesmer? Lightsabers! xD

So I honestly don’t know what I’m doing anymore after the patches it’s been a few months since I came back to the game lol and for the past few weeks I still been adjusting my build and stuff and also seeing what i enjoy doing the most lately.

So here’s what I have come up with so far… I think this kind of build already has been done before but I just figured it out myself yesterday. I used to be all zerker phantasm and stuff, I tried shatter once but I can’t adapt to that playstyle…

I’d like to stay more survivable in roaming on wvw, of course utility can be switched out for whatever situation but for the most part

Instead of Null Field I switch for Veil if it is like one or two people I’m up against. but otherwise there’s a ton of conditions and boons, blast finishers in situations with more ppl or with a team so yeah Null Field.

Also Centaur runes was just for the swiftness for travelling… For pvp I’d likely use something different xD

But overall, it seems like I’ve been doing well in some situations with this, sometimes can win like 1 v 3 but in other situations or vs some classes I go down too fast. I think it’s my clumsy fingers with my new keybindings or mistakes and my play skill when I do mess up? xD I can’t tell yet though, I haven’t used this enough in enough situations.

Also I like gs and staff and keeping my distance just bc its a play style I feel more comfortable with, sometimes i go sword/focus + staff

http://tiny.cc/reimesbuild1-2

I’d really appreciate your feedback, pointers, or even if you want to try it out and tell me how it works ^^

Thanks for all the information guys! I ran Arah so many times but it was always with dungeon-fluent guild teams that always skipped all the cutscenes and dialogue LOL so i felt pressured to skip them too XD

If possible, can I hear more theorycrafting for the location of the bloodstones, or direct me to some links or sources with those discussions?

Secondly, extra question, i apologize for my ignorance, but, are there any other “artifacts” that come to mind that affects or controls magic in the world? Seeing that it is uncorrupted magic, what about other magic then? Things like the Lost Scrolls which is dubbed “dark magic” which sunk Orr, is that “corrupted” magic?

thanks all!