Guild Wars 2

That is a question that indeed needs clarification.

°summons Josh°

Just curious if we should have an OMFG chatroom linked in the opening post? Ingame won’t work since most members aren’t representing, plus not everyone wants to run the game all the time. I don’t have the resources to set one up (and I don’t know any good free providers), but someone else might.

Just tossing the idea out there, yo. Keep on mesmering :0

Some (Sylvari) Mesmers do look like a burnt purple branch (including mine), that’s why the torch kinda fits.

That is absolutely stunning, I will blog this immediatly. :0

Fay.2357:

The nightmare torch from twilight arbor looks fantastic.

This guy, he knows stuff.

As for pistols, Ilya/Lyss is pretty Mesmery. I also like the ascended pistol (purple version) since it looks so elegant > Click me hard <
Lovestruck Pistol Skin looks similar and is cheaper, if you can’t afford the ascended.

Funny. On the first page of this thread balance was ruined (THOUSANDS of players deleted their engis!), cause they couldn’t perma 33% anymore. Now seeing it rebuffed, the difference doesn’t matter that much anymore? Oh, the irony :P

Anyway, better hide this thread before other classes see this. I foresee a kittenstorm (<- not actual kittens, that would be mean) :0

Well, at least you can trait it now to have a 144s CD, in addition to one condi cleanse and 1s distortion. Ain’t that bad.

glenndevis.8327:

Even though I agree with you i don’t think anything will ever change to the point where you can confuse a good player into thinking that you’re a clone.

It could happen, but I don’t think anet would ever do this.

This, and to be honest, I don’t see any reason why they would. The benefit of having clones (once you hit a certain skill level in gw2) isn’t the diversion, that only works on newer players. Clever illusion positioning grants you boons, extra bounces, bodyblocking attacks and it’s rewarded with effective shatters (triangle mind wrack, triple interrupt).

Frankly, I don’t give a kitten that my clones aren’t fooling any good player.

No I won’t stop!

Expansion expansion expansion!

Pretty sure I didnt, yo :0

50% uptime is more than enough. Some people tend to forget that while we get new ways to gain speed buffs, we’re not losing the old ones. As Pyro said, Focus is still there. So is Blink, Staff 360 noscope or Time Marches on.

Because they finally changed Mimic into something useful:

Mimic: Updated functionality of this skill. This skill now causes the next utility slot skill you use within 10 seconds to recharge in 1 second. Increased recharge to 90 seconds.

edit: Nike shoe was faster. How surprising.

Movement speed in gw2 is capped at 133% ooc as far as I know. You only gain the whole benefit of those 50-100% speed buffs during combat, since the base movement speed is reduced and the buff doesn’t hit speed limit then.

A 50% speed buff in combat feels like a “normal” speed buff at ooc basespeed, and it’s still capped at 133% when used for regular ooc movement (125% for in-fight).

See here for more information:
https://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Movement_speed

… so now the forums are flooded with QQ threads, QQing about QQ threads?

In all seriousness, the issue isn’t black & white. Of course, many (if not most) of the complaints are unjustified. But on the other hand, not every complaint is unjustified either.

Not a fan of this change, but I’m pretty sure they do this to distinguish chill/cripple versus the new condition, slow.

Ridiculous ICD incoming :p

Evasive Mirror seems bad? Am I missing something here?

You can basically reflect any incoming rapid fire by dodging it x_x

Sounds like a poor-mans Torment to be honest, since everyone is pretty much moving all the time, but not everyone is casting skills all the time. The damage would have to be MUCH better to compensate that. Or maybe triple the damage when using a skill. What happens when the skill gets casted between two ticks?

Still, as Ross Biddle said, even a poor-mans Torment is better than what we have currently.

Where’d you get the infos?

//edit: I’d prefer the version Tealots just mentioned :p

//double edit: I’d like to see some more traditional confusion mechanics, like a small percentage of your attacks being able to hit allies. Like, 1% per stack. Imagine confusion bombing a zerg, holy moly.

I’m glad we agree.

And you’re starting to compare to other classes, for some reason. I wasn’t even asking for nerfs here or to remove stealth from thief or the D/P build, but some people tend to feel attacked once you state the obvious. Yes, other classes do have vigor. Yes, D/P depends on stealth for the most part and they don’t have invuls and blocks, but it also has access to plenty of evades (and other stuff) if necessary. If a class picks a vigor trait or evade skills/utilities then yes, I’d say it picks it as a part of its defense.

Care to explain why “that’s funny?” I don’t even understand how anyone would argue that. All I was saying is that even on D/P, you also have evade traits/skills. I was just correcting a statement with my response above, claiming “thieves only have stealth”, which is wrong. That’s it, no harm done.

I’ll stop here before I get sucked into the thread. x)

The point, I think you guys missed it.

Also, you make it sound like a D/P thief only has stealth. There’s withdraw, bountiful for vigor, disabling shot, lots of evades in my eyes. Again, I’m not complaining, just stating that “Stealth is a thiefs only defense” is not correct. I won’t even start with blinds here. ^^

Some builds rely more on evades, some more on stealth. But you’ll end up most likely with having a mix of both, which is a good thing.

Sebrent.3625:

Anyone else bothered by the fact that there is a trait that makes a single skill/mechanic +100% more effective (1 use changes to 2 uses)?

Doesn’t that seem like a balancing issue waiting to happen?

Either it’s likely to be UP without the trait if it’s balanced with it …

… or it’s likely to be OP with the trait if it’s balance without it …

Agreed. I thought they’ve learned their lesson when they merged many of those “x2 effectiveness-traits” into baseline for many classes, but this change seems to be quite the opposite direction. It’ll be very hard to balance those stolen skills.

#MakeDoubleStealBaseline (?) :p

Either that with the proposed “nerfs” for stolen skills, or keep it at max x1 usage but buff some of the weaker ones.

Shadow.1345:

Thieves have nothing else for defense.

Well…

Shadow.1345:

And if people aren’t complaining about thief stealth they are complaining about the amount of evades.

Aren’t all those evades also “defense”? Not complaining here, but stating that thieves don’t have any defense beside stealth is kinda wrong, don’t you think?

I’m curious for the trait revamp.
Stealth/Reset at will, ticking condi cleanse and heal, and 50% damage reduction does indeed sound a bit too powerful to me, especially when most classes don’t even have access to reveal thieves.
And that’s just from one traitline <_<"

We’ll see, but I’m expecting the worst. Good thing I have my thief fully equipped and ready to play :P

apharma.3741:

Also remember that stolen items are being changed as certain ones were too strong (ecto) and others pretty weak (gunk) so ecto may not be stolen anymore or changed in functionality.

Sorry, got a source for that? Sounds interesting.

Interrupting and confusion go hand in hand since runes of perplexity exist.
But I agree. The new Blinding Befuddlement seems a bit underwhelming when compared with its trait competitors. Is there any information on how many stacks of confusion it will apply? From what I’ve heard, confusion will get overhauled with the specialization system. More stacks, “easier” application, but less damage per stack. Don’t ask me where I heard that, can’t remember.

Cause Warriors have the worst condi cleanse, and other classes aren’t affected by condis :0

Zodryn.4216:

They get Chronoshift which is like the ultimate arcane echo (they can re-use all weapon skills, heals, utilities, their elite and reset health and endurance), so I don’t think it’s that big of a deal.

Mesmer was my main in GW1, and it’s still my most played class in GW2, thief probably being the second. I’m a bit biased here. And I’d probably participate in that uproar :P

GIMME MY ARCANE ECHO BACK.

Concerning CD-increasing; take a look at Power Block; a flat CD increase sounds way more likely! I don’t think they’ll ever introduce a skill that doubles CD.

Zodryn.4216:

True, but look at Dragonhunter. It’s very rangery while still having guardian flavor. The focus skills have thief flavor (active defense with dodging and stealth), the utilities are very GW1 mesmer, but again, steal is the only thing in GW2 that already does something similar. Mesmers in GW2 are more illusionists, not spellthieves.

I guess that’s a matter of perspective. Personally, I couldn’t imagine the new Dragonhunter traps being Ranger traps because of their overall design and functionality. On the other hand, I could imagine your suggested Manipulation skills being Mesmer skills. See where I’m coming from? I’d add thief flavour to the point where they wouldn’t “fit” to the Mesmer anymore.

Btw, here’s some stuff that might give some ideas:
http://archive.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/psm/20040723b
http://dndtools.pw/classes/spellthief/

I know D&D ain’t GW2, but the flavour is the same. Huehue.

I love spellthieves (one of my favourite specs in D&D, although it was horrible in 3.5)! Pretty sure that this specialization will happen sooner or later – for Thief or for Mesmer. Or both? Who knows :P
Anyway, 100% agree that it’s more exciting than any potential Sniper spec, and I’d definately play it, be it on my Thief or my Mesmer.

Some thoughts on your suggestions:

• Arcane Echo was a Mesmer signature skill, I can’t see that skill becoming a thief exclusive. There were plenty of threads in the Mes subforums requesting this skill. Imagine the uproar if Thief will get it xD
• Some utilities are way too strong and probably won’t happen unless they’re coupled with ridiculous CDs. Arcane Latency or Memory Loss, for example. Those skills are even Elite-Skill worthy!
• Heal skill sounds interesting, but the percentage would probably be very low, since it’s kinda easy to tell when the enemy will use his/her heal skill.
• In general, your suggested utilities (except AL) sound very Mesmery. It’s pretty clear that with the elite specs we already know, the utilities are heavily flavoured by the main class, not so much by the class they’re “imitating”.
• That said, I like your focus suggestions. That’s the “thief-flavour” I was talking about.
• F2 seems a bit useless to me.

Overall, yeah. I really wanna see spellthieves happening in the future :P

I agree with Shatter/Slow Chronomancer vs. Thief (S/D or D/P).
Let us see if there’s any improvement in that matchup :P

They just HAVE TO change that Lich-cancelling with the new AoE Moa elixier the Engineer gets (on a lower CD). Just as a sidenote.

Interesting build, will definately give it a try!
Plus that video was fun to watch, you could r eally see the increasing desperation of those thieves x)

There would be absolutely no reason to not take that specialization, ever. Except another elite spec allows 4 weapon sets :P

Still working as usual for me. I set “change direction” to the X key, so it’s “X>2>X” for me, the 2 being activated with my Logitech G600 mouse.

Yet another offhand? Noooooooooooooooo

Gabriell.4856:

With mesmer GM being baseline, I don’t see why Sleight of Hand cannot be baseline for thief. We are constantly force to go into trickery to get this trait and arguably Bountiful Thief. If they made SoH and BT baseline, it would open so many more builds.

I say yes! Do it!

When a class receives a buff this strong, it doesn’t really mean that every other class should get something similar “just because”. The reasoning behind buffing and nerfing is to achieve a balance between classes, if you buff and nerf all classes simultaniously all the time, the balance won’t change. Right after the Mesmer changes/traits were announced, tons of threads popped up (I’ve seen quite a few in the Warrior subforums) with demands to make this and that baseline. If they’d do that for every class and continue doing that, the power creep would be ridiculous (even more than it will be with HoT).

Once you get your “best traits” baseline, the next best will be taken and considered mandatory, and the demands for them to become baseline will continue. This new trend of stuffing everything into “baseline” is horrible and I hope it stops soon. A much better approach to face these “mandatory” traits is to make alternatives actually worth taking, just my humble opinion. Forcing players to make decisions is a good thing.

I’d argue that some of the Mesmer traits weren’t necessary to become baseline (Elasticity, for example), but that’s another story I don’t have influence on. Sleight of Hand (in its current form) baseline would be ridicously strong in combination with some other trait options opening up. Making Illusionary Persona baseline fixed the design flaw of a class mechanic being able to literally do nothing at all. That fact alone made Deceptive Evasion even more mandatory – a trait that is still highly mandatory for any shatter build. And nobody with the lightest sense of balance would want that one to become baseline, too.

I kinda like evilapprentices suggested compromise, but I still don’t see SoH as mandatory for the class as IP is for Mesmers (see above).
Just wait for the elite spec, I’m sure there’ll be lots of stuff to make interesting new builds for thieves. I am aware these are the thieves forums and I will probably get jumped for saying that (especially as a Mesmer main #nohate =0). Don’t kill me mah stealthy friends!

I kinda feel like they made this change in preparation for the new elite spec… maybe that one includes something to substitude either elemental attunement or evasive arcana (in a different fashion, of course). A fifth attunement seems very unlikely to me (too many new skills), I’m expecting a powerful on-attunement-swap effect of some sort (expanding the current mechanics like for Guardians) as part of the elite spec. So yeah, maybe wait for the Tempest announcement to make a final judgement on this topic. I’m pretty sure anet is aware of this issue.

Maybe EA + EA in combination with the potential new on-swap effect the Tempest has turned out too powerful, who knows. We’ll see!

Fun video as always, but why on earth are you quoting yourself? In your own video?

Just some thoughts on Continuum Rift/Shift and possible counterplay. Here’s what we know already (as Robert Gee stated, all numbers are still pending balance), just to wrap it up:

• Shattering F5 will place a Rift on your spot that can be destoryed by enemies
• Pressing F5 again will reset you to that point/time with all your CDs, health and endurance
• The duration as of the rift (as far as we know) is 3 seconds, assuming it works with IP, that’d be 12 seconds max.
• Continuum Split has a cooldown higher than 60s, I’m assuming something around 90s.
• It has a range of 5000, making it possible to combine with some crazy portal play

What we don’t know:

• The exact cooldown
• What happens when you die during the Split
• How much health the Rift has

Alright, I get that it needs to be destructible for counterplay. The Mesmer community has always been very reasonable when it comes to that, so I guess most people will agree.

However, I’d like some fanciness added to the Rift itself, to counterbalance it a bit. This is of course without knowing the actual amount of HP the Rift has. Let’s assume it can be destroyed by 1 zerker class bursting all it’s damage in a few seconds. I don’t like that assumption, but I think it’s pretty realistic considering the insane amount of burst some builds can pull off. So here are some ideas for the Rift to be more sustainable – and maybe that’s the synergy with Master of Fragmentation.

Bare in mind that all of these combined would probably be too strong, I’m just listing ideas here.

• When it gets popped BEFORE the duration ends (by yourself or the enemy), it’ll explode, applying AoE slow. The duration of slow applied is directly corresponding to the seconds it would have left naturally.
• Returning to the Rift (by yourself or enemy) will give the Mesmer Protection & Resistance directly corresponding to the amount of seconds it would have left naturally.
• It’s pulsing slow every few seconds, affecting approaching enemies in a small radius
• It’s pretty tanky. Boring, but effective I guess.
• Dropping its health under a certain threshhold will notify the Mesmer <- why not, eh?

Activate the Continuum return! Exactly! xO

#forumbugkittenmit

I love these on-paper fights. Feels like Dungeons & Dragons with GW2 classes xD

Activate Shift => Blink 1200 range towards Necro => Problem solved? :0

Shiki.7148:

keenlam.4753:

Xaylin.1860:

keenlam.4753:

Fully traited Death’s Charge vs fully traited Phase Retreat. The chase is on.

Reaper: Your soul is….
Mesmer: Nope!
Reaper: Your soul is…
Mesmer: Nope!
Reaper: Your soul is … … !!!
Mesmer: Nope!

Awww… glorious.

Lol
Meanwhile, in another match:

Reaper: “YOUR SOUL IS ….”
Mesmer -interrrupted and stunned the reaper-
Reaper: “YOU ARE ALL WEAKLINGS!” – breaking stun and feeling strong with 10+ stacks of might-
Mesmer: Thank you for that! -stole the boons with AT-
Reaper: Wait? What? Oh no, you can’t have those boons. “NOTHING CAN S…!”
Mesmer -interrupted again, then blew the reaper up with shatters-

Mesmer: Sigh, I really hate it when people yell at me! -walked away in slow motion-

;)

Edited: btw, I’m sure this thread is just meant to be a tease so please dont be so hostile towards OP. I’d prefer to save it for thief specialization, I’m sure there will be nothing short of broken OP-ness.

And then you realize the Necro popped Infusion of Terror before doing all that and thus had stability.. and Mesmer will be like “Wait WHAT, Stab on a Nec-dead”

(joking of course… Chronos and Reapers should ally! Quickness on Reaper looks so fun )

Then you realize Mesmer popped Continuum Shift before doing all that and thus resetting all his/her CDs and health… :p

WHERE DOES IT STOP!

I love the Reaper, fits perfectly to the necromancer. Time to dust off my necro afterall x)

Ha! Funny, I was actually thinking the same for the Druid spec. It kinda seems perfect for a Druid…

…and how does that not affect other classes? Last time I’ve checked, chill doesn’t even affect thief weapon skills :P

I see where you’re coming from, but a passive boost for yourself isn’t support no matter how you see it. If there’d be some direct support added to it… sure, but then why not use swiftness afterall. Maybe those 25% for yourself and the swiftness on shatter (without IP) for your allies… which kinda feels too powerful already. I also highly doubt that Time Marches On remains unnerfed.
And yes, there are some selfish traits in this traitline – which makes it even more important to add some more team-oriented traits!

Still, that wouldn’t negate the fact of this 25% buff existing two times. I don’t think that’s a good circumstance at all. Does it stack? Would be OP. It doesn’t? Welp, incompatible traits aren’t good either. It just feels wrong to have two traits that similar.

ASP.8093:

• Your net overland speed when you’re by yourself is actually considerably slower than Trav runes.

Maybe, probably. Is it really that important? In combination of what else we got (blink, phase retreat, curtain) I think it’s more than enough to catch enemies or roaming in general. We’ve all managed to roam before Traveler Runes were changed, and some of us (me included) still have builds that don’t use them. It’s not like you only get swiftness on shatter. You still have your old stuff as well.

ASP.8093:

• It’s so fiddly. Like Speedy Kits but you have to put important stuff on cooldown instead of just spamming your pseudo-weapon-swap with abandon.

Is it? You could just use mind wrack with its 11s CD all the time, basically. That’s hardly fiddly, imo. I’m not a Warrior, I don’t want passives everywhere. Do something for your buffs! :P

ASP.8093:

Overall, it’s a trait I’d consider taking for the group buff while still wearing Trav runes so I can keep my personal speed up, especially in bad circumstances.

Exactly! There’s much more synergy. You also have that Chronomancer trait still lying around.

ASP.8093:

Enh, that ship has sailed already, given how many new tools for bursty power shatter builds are in Chrono anyway.

I give you that, but the Chrono traitline is still being balanced

The more specialization reveals I see, the sadder I am about our two new weapon skills and F5. :<

Anet, it’s still time for that Pistol Mainhand! Bullet Time?

Good post! I agree, Compounding Celerity is underwhelming, to say at least.

However, I’m not a huge fan of the promoted solution. You see, the Inspiration line is meant to provide support. A passive 25% speed boost fits to the Chronomancer, I don’t think that’s the case for Inspiration.

Now, having two traits that would basically do the same doesn’t make much sense anyhow. Remember how Anet said they want to promote using our shatter skills? Then how about something like this:

Shattered Celerity:
Grant swiftness (5s) to your allies for each illusion shattered (10s ICD).

>>Make it work with Ilusionary Persona<<. There you go, supportive swiftness that works out of combat. ICD is needed for obvious reasons. Max possible swiftness would be 20s in combat, if you’re lucky enough to stand next to all illusions shattered. Some might say that it’d be overpowered for Power shatter builds to be that mobile. Mind you, those builds would give up a lot of damage to pick the Inspiration traitline.

Out of combat/roaming? Mental Torment as a short speedbuff for your group. 5s base plus possible +duration buffs on a 10s CD is worth taking imo. Swiftness on Shatter (as long as it works with IP which is baseline now) would promote our class mechanics, be supportive, reliable and it wouldn’t just be a copypasta of “Time Marches On”.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t remember us having any method to reliably share swiftness. Curtain doesn’t stack, Chaos Storm is random.

Eiland.1405:

Sebrent.3625:

For a class that doesn’t have the weapon skill movement shenanigans of several other classes

DO YOU EVEN MESMER?

10sec (8 or 6 traited) staff#2 “phase retreat”
12sec (10sec traited) sword#2 “illusinary leap”
And not on weapons but: blink and portal

A good mesmer is already uncatchable w/o any movement buff. This trait is gonna OP.
L2P b4 posting?

Sword #2 is blurred frenzy. Do you even Mesmer? Ileap can’t be used ooc. Plus most people wouldnt count Portal as a movement skill since you have to set it up first… worthless for catching up. The only skills that qualify as pure movement skills are phase retreat (180 flipping) and blink, which is on a rather long cooldown.

Mesmers needed out of combat “landspeed”. Thats what this trait and the new SoI are for.

Whats with all these warrior players flooding the Mesmer sub lately?
Why dont you start discussing on how to make fast hands baseline here? It’s cozy, and we have cocoa. ;P