Guild Wars 2

Guys, I clearly stated how sorry I am for unclear choice of words. Apparently you thought that me trying so dang hard to give credit to Xelnock was a bad choice on my part and jeopardizing the build. It was not my intention. I felt kind of bad that Xelnock did not recieve as attention as BlackDevil did, when they both brought up basically same build and core. I know the effectiveness of that build, so it drove me more to try to make people give credit to Xelnock. Again I am sorry and I hope you forget it. I seriously want people to acknowledge Xelnock some time soon.

Yes, I admit I saw the post, and I give acknowledgement in stating that that person wanted Swiftness as well. However, I want it to be a part of PU. I think it will become very very very interesting if it happens.

But Jester, tone it down a little I have stated already that I am sorry for yesterday. I do not need continuation onto a topic designed to help players overall and increase Mesmer effectiveness in combat. It feels like you want to continue this topic, and don’t realize that I just wanted to give credit to Xelnock, too. If that is so much of a sin to you, then you must rethink your moral list and come talk to me over PM.

You know what I would want for this next Christmas Patch? I know I might be going on a little selfish here, and I haven’t been too good this past year on the forums, so at least do this for everyone else…..plz……

The only thing I want for this next patch is,…

The Addition of Swiftness to Prismatic Understanding. All other classes have access to swiftness in their Class utilities, and it seems like we are the only ones forced to take certain undesirable weapons and Runes to compensate our lack of movment whether it is during combat or OOC.

So, why you ask, Santa? Because the boons listed in the PU right now
(Aegis, Protection, Regen), is part of what I like to call the Defensive Boons Family-

Regen, Aegis, Protection, Stability, Vigor, and finally, Swiftness……

So we already have Regen, Aegis, Protection, Stability, and Vigor… I am wondering if it is at all possible to add Swiftness to PU… So. Yeah..

I hope you will take into consideration. This will by far make one of the most impactful thing so far happening to our class(yes, better than IC in my own opinion), since all other different builds in our class have decent mobility except ones made up of PU. Plz take this into kind consideration. Thank you for reading this.

If you can’t find the time to read this or if you don’t like my idea, well, at least give it some consideration before final decision and discuss whether this is possible or not. Thank you again.

wait, plz remind me how it was hard to get to the tower? Is there like a mob blockin the path? ]

Also, how many players can you have?

Finally, how long do you think it will take? thanks again.

So if I live in California, that will be approximately 4 PM?

Is it ok if I bring my lowest leveled Mesmer(2). I wanna level him up lol.

Also, I am sorry to BlackDevil, Pyros, Valaruka, and everyone else for the mishap on Devil’s thread. I sincerely Apologize. I wanted to give credit to everyone who made similar build to that build.

BlackDevil. Could you record a dueling of your build vs Xelnock’s build. Would be pretty fun to watch. Like an old-timer vs a new build.

So thanks for your answers on this question. My final question.

How many weapons do you think the devs will add over the course of next few years? I feel that too much weapons will make it little too chaotic and too versatile for my taste. Anyone got a guess?

Hey guys, Menace here. I think I remember reading somewhere that the Devs will add new weapons in the second half of 2013. It is the second half already. Are they gonna be adding some weapon stuff in the Dec. 10th patch or something? I might be a bit noobish asking this question. Just very curious is all.

Here me out completely when I say this, as I have tried that setup for over 2 months now. So here it is:

Scepter/Torch- GS is not viable for 1 vs 2 or more. You just can’t afford to even get hit by 1 immobilize in this situation. Having 2 ranged weapons like that isn’t the way to go and you will die in under 2 minutes I gurantee you. That said, someone else is already using that setup, so you can’t use that setup for the BotM contest. It wouldn’t be fair.

Umm… Alissah, to be fairly honest, I have made a deal with Chaos to not bump the thread until I made some progress with testing it with him. So yeah.

I also clearly stated on the thread’s OP page that says what I will be testing. So I hope no one uses those things for the BotM, as they will be used.

Also, plz try not to compare me and Nemesis on this particular topic of Hybrid Mesmers He and I have totally different perspective when it comes to builds that work.

No no! Don’t scrap the thread! That’s not what I meant! We all want you to be motivated to work harder on an existing build if that’s where you need to start. It’s ok to start from scratch, just make sure that your build makes a difference, or turns out even better than the scratch one.

umm, I’m not trying to be really mean or anything, but this is just like the Original Shattercat build by Osicat. I wouldn’t really call changin utilities a form of tweaking the build. Again, it is very solid overall, just saying that it is basically the same mostly…

So keep in mind that these are the build’s (Scepter/Torch- GS)major weaknesses that needs to be known.

1. Very bad in 1 vs X (You will need veil to last longer tho, but doesn’t give you higher chance of coming out alive)

2. Control attacks are death of this build(Chill, Cripple, Weakness, immobilize, and most fearful of them all, Stunsss.)

3. too dependent on Blink as a source of repositioning and survivability when out of stealth.

Just Watch outfr these things when you roam, I’m talking about the Scepter/Torch- GS combo rather than having Sword/Torch

I’m done talking now and bothering you. Have fun and enjoy the contest! Good luck!

-from a fellow competitor.

Sup Bunda. Glad you be joining us in our build of the month contest. Here is my thought on this build, since I used to use this build for my Apex Predator build instead of the one I have there. I have been using this build since September, so I know this build inside out, and I was the first on to post a build on it and make a vid of it. So take my word for it everything I say right now:

This build is generally really really really bad when it comes to handling more than 1 people. That is the sad truth I will have to say. I know I am coming on a little too strong, but it is the sad truth. If you get spotted in GS, or you run out of stealth in GS, you are screwed. There is just no melee capabilties to deal with this situation when it comes, notice how I said when instead of if. It also isn’t worth the time in Zerg fights. It’s only best option is to roam and try to find one on one fights, or try to run with At least 3 people or more. Running with just a thief isn’t even close to increasing your survivability. If your enemy chooses to target you the whole fight, you are bound to crumble under pressure. I saw this happen to me A Lot in my time running this build. This build is too easy to figure out. At least with the sword combo, you know how to gap close and manipulate your way around your opponents to get a better advantage. With this build, your only souce of survive against 2 or more people is Blink. Once you use up blink, you only have your stealths to save you. If your enemies spot you and immobilizes you, you will die very fast. I am so very sorry if I discouraged you and sounded like a total, massive jerk. I’m just trying to warn you what will happen in situations that are very very very common in WvW. Continue to put this build onto the BotM if you would like. It’s still very cool definitely.

Adress the problem people! Do not think about re working the whole thing just because you feel there are major problems that need to be addressed.

1. Don’t make this a channeled attack. It destroys us in combat. Four seconds of standing by yourself in the battlefield hoping to get hit with projectile is dumb. (I would have this and trade it for longer CD)

2. The problem is we keep getting bashed by melee attacks most of time rather than projectiles. We never seem to get projectiles right after the activation of skill, so there goes 2 seconds of the skill wasted while you take in massive damage without nothing to do since it is a channeled attack.

3. Make it so that until you get the projectile attack, you gain stability and -50% damage reduction. Discounting conditions of course. Once the projectile hits, stability and -50% damage reduction dissapears, and we are left with the good old projectile reflects and blocks that we already have on this skill.

It’s not so hard when you think about it.

Just my own opinon on the whole outlook of the situation, nothing else.

@ Alissah (1st post after me)- Yes, sorry for my grammar. I was just a bit tired and frustrated that I had to post it like that. I am sorry…

@Witchking (2nd Post after me) – Again, sorry for bad grammar. I really need to becareful not to conjure up a storm..

@Doiid (3rd post after me)- I get the fact that you are annoyed is because you think I am forcing people to try my build. Sure, I am asking you guys to try it At least once and to PM me the results. I never ever care if you continue to play my build or not. Just try it. It’s all I was trying to say. Sorry if I got into your head for not clarifying things.

BTW: I would be glad to fight your friends for fun. I need a good duel anyways. I play on weekends in California.

@Alissah (4th post after me)- I just want people to Try it, PM me the results so I can know everyone’s perspective and outlook on the build, and try to tweak it if there is anything necessary to be tweaked. Then you never have to touch this build again…

@Blackdevil (5th post after me)- I am sorry again if I annoyed you. I just think that I wish people would at least try my build at least one time and tell me the results. That’s all I actually want to happen. Just try, so that I may get at least some source of PoV from other people.

It’s not very good?

I feel very frustrated when people just bluntly say that. I respect you lots loco, but I hope everyone just stops Assuming hybrids are weaker than a full power DPS, and weaker than a full Condition. It’s very frustrating for me when people go about saying that. It has the best of both worlds. I know I am being a bit loud about this matter, but I don’t get why you just assume when you barely even touched on this build even in PvP, much less get to try it out. That is why I said I will bring up the vid. I get that you might think this build will be easy to beat. So ok, I appreciate your opinion, but I politely beg to differ. PM me in-game. I will gladly fight you for fun.

@Doiid.

1. I felt this build was underappreciated because people are hesitant about roaming it in WvW due to expensive armor gears. I am working hard to create a vid for PvP so that people will have more reason to try it out in WvW

2. I am not forcing anyone to play it. But I want them to at least Try it out and tell me what they thought of it by PMing me or even posting it here. I doubt anyone has even tried it. I just know that for a fact, lol.

3. Also, if you think Necro, Engis, and thieves are harder for you, well, that is very surprising in my own opinion. They are by far one of the easiest classes to beat in very many ways. this is my own opinion from my own experience.

4. Keenlam said somewhere that people should keep updating builds for the BotM if we happen to change them so that it becomes better viable. This is what i am doing, but only with PvP, so that people can experience how the build will look like in WvW.

5. The thing with testing against other builds are because I know them to be very viable and very amazing. I clearly stated somewhere else in this thread that all of my respect goes to you people who created these builds. I don’t know why you act like I am disgracing your builds.

6. The only difference in PvP and WvW is that in WvW, you can run away and use lots of terrain. There is also the fact that people can jump on you anytime. This is why I made the WvW build so that it suits those things. Now I am trying to convince people that this build is viable in PvP, thus will be also viable in WvW given the right utilities and Runes.

Finally: I don’t get why you jumped on me for no reason. I was just preparing people for the upcoming vid that is gonna appear soon. The only reason this build is underappreciated is because people aren’t willing to try it out until they see some cold hard evidence. Which is what I am trying my best to hurry up and finish it now. I hope you will not be so cold to me next time. I used to appreciate your attitude and builds. I still do, but that post you made was surprising in a lot of ways for me.

Updated PvP build so as to run I am running now. Way better overall build in my opinion.

Videos incoming. Very good footages for PvP dueling. (Credit to all of these people and Pyros especially for answering my one thousand questions. Thanks pyros!)

Sorry guys. Hehe. I thought i heard the other day that tester is not required if you experience hardships of aquiring one. Guess I over exaggerated it without knowing it. Sorry people. Forgive me.

You don’t need a tester~!
If you can’t find the time to find a tester or just can’t find one, it doesn’t matter. We will gladly make sure your build gets entered. The Tester thing is just for your own benefit, so if you feel that you can’t get a tester or that you don’t need one, just post the build here. Just try to make it as viable as possible, so as to increase your chance of winning the contest

LET EVERYONE SEE THISSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Could some kind tester help me test my Apex Predator Build?

I live in California and play from Friday to Sunday (Afternoons on Friday)

Yes keenlam is right. No need to be stressed out about being afraid of the build stuff. Maybe the ORB members can even PM you the results privately. Anyhow there will be absolutely NO unnecessary bullying in this contest or anything else in the Mesmer forums. Me, keenlam, Chaos, Pyros, and everyone else will defend by you if such thing would occur. I check the Mesmer forums at least like 30 times a day. I know what the conversations are going on. Trust me. I will defend your honour if it happens that it was unfairly criticised. Post your build, watch as it gets some votes, try other builds, and have fun! Who knows? Maybe your build will win and you will gain lots of prizes!

Guys! Come on!! barely over 200 views like whut?? I know you guys have some cool builds. You yourself described who you are in Chaos’ thread. Now we want to see the build.

If you aren’t attending because you are afraid and want your build to be seen only by you, well, that’s sort of shameful.

If you can’t find the time, well, that’s ok I guess.

But if you are not attending because you are afraid of being criticised? Don’t worry! This is a friendly contest. Good place to become part of the community. Join now!

Watch out and change the title STAT! This topic violated the rules of conduct.

To be fairly honest, I actually enjoy battling against very skilled players from other professions, however, Mesmers give me a hard time whether or not the players are skilled. That is why I love to fight other Mesmers. They are a challenge everywhere I go.
Skilled Mesmers are just a pain, and that’s what I like about it. The feeling of beating other skilled Mesmers is just exhilarating for me. Haha. (Much respect to these skilled players no doubt)

Anyone available for Testing this build? Plz. I really want to put this build in to the BotM for November

I actually did testing for 3 months and have aquired some really nice dueling footages in PvP. I was gonna create the video from Ezvid, but it happened so that my computer was hacked with hundreds of viruses from Ezvid(becareful what you download from online). So I went to a professional to get it fixed. Turns out I had to delete ezvid permanently, along with the finished videos. Now I am back to accumulating videos again and trying to make the video from Movie Maker, which is a bit different for me.

Is Any Tester Available? I need your help.

I need a player who is willing to spend their time helping me duel against the listed builds above to successfully create the Montage.

I also need a TESTER who is willing to test this build in WvW/PvP and PM me their game results, so as I can see how this build appeals to other people.

I play in Northern Shiverpeaks server. I live in California and play on Friday to Sunday.

Thanks kingsman. Thanks Alissah!

These are the new chosen builds to fight against. It will be final:

Osicat’s Condition Cat
Blackwater
Maximised Hybrid
My old version of the Apex Predator
Holy Hell Build
Gaia’s Lonewolf Mesmer
Random builds from Mesmer and other classes

These are all very very very GREAT builds. More reason to fight against them now since they are very respectable.

1. Could anyone help me make this montage by Dueling me? I will try to find these builds in Dueling Servers, but some of these builds are very scarce, so I need the help of my fellow forums Mesmers. Again, will post the losses, too.

2. Is someone available for Testing my build out for WvW and PvP? I have done testing for 3 months now, so I know my build inside out, however, keenlam strongly suggested I use the knowledge and perspective of other people, so I will need a Tester to help me in WvW and PvP. I live in California and play from Friday to Sunday.

Plz. These two things I want to accomplish very badly.

Nope, not gonna happen. Then we become frickin Pink Minion Masters. Just buff the phantasms a bit and it’s all good for me anyways. At least in my own opinion.

Just seemed like a good setup in my eye. Also thought it would be kind of fun tho. Well, what would be the max number of people that 3 playser could take on? 6?

What if they weren’t complete noobs. What if they were actually pretty decent. What strategy do you think that these 3 people should use?

Spread out damage?
Single out players?
Etc?

I was thinking more of around 3 vs 10-15+. Haha. What’s your thoughts on that?

Just a thought and nothing else.

I was wondering what would happen if 3 Mesmers roam with these 3 builds

The Holy Hell Build, Osicat’s condition cat build, and the Apex Predator build.

WHy? Mainly because they all have 20/20/30/0/0 (Prismatic Understanding and torch cd)

with Scepter/Torch and Sword/Focus,Pistol, and Sword.

Just a thought nothing else. Just a bit curious on what you guys think of this combo. Haha.

Thanks for the help guys, I feel more at peace. I have one request to ask you tho.

Could you post all the builds that you think will be able to overthrow me?

I am not trying to be arrogant at all, but I do want more variety of builds to go against for this montage, so I hope that you guys will comment below on builds that you think should go against mine. Just curious what will happen is all. Thanks in advance. It means a lot. If you yourselves could find the time to duel me by PMing me, that would be tremendously awesome. I live in California and I play from Friday to Sunday.

I will post the wins and losses of course.

image is not the Worst phantasm ever. iWarden is. There is no place in the game for iwarden except combo finishers and reflects. Damage sucks since you can’t even hit your opponent with it. Lol. That’s the truth I have to say. They should really somehow modify iwarden so that it follows the enemy more precisely. They have to rework the animation tho. I would rather have that than have the reflect on the phantasm itself. Just my own opinion.

I’m not joking. I would log into check it right now, but I gotta run to school. I checked the wiki last night but it didn’t say anything about this subject, or maybe it was hidden from my view. You don’t even have to re post. Just edit onto the post you have there. Or if anyone else want to answer, you can just pm me privately, if you don’t want to bump my post.

This subject is to help me know if there are any minor changes left to make before I move onto WvW after 2 more pvp vids.

Re EDIT: Gosh darn it, Divinity and Traveler’s are both so good. I just keep going to and fro on both runes. I think that I will in the end FOLLOW your advices. It just took a while for me to get it through my head, that having

30increase in stats, 6% crit damage, 15% boon, 10% condi, and 25% movement speed

is better than just having

60increase in all stats and 12% crit damage.

Thanks guys for helping me. It’s been a blast so far trying to use all your suggestions.

Plz comment on the build itself much more deeply if you can. I need to know more lessons on this if it is at all possible to draw any more out of the build.

I have to go to sleep now, so I am going to ask you guys one last question. I should know this, since how much I use stacking sigils, but I never seem to pay attention to my stacks after I kill an NPC, so I am confused on whether sigils stack on killing NPCs also. Thanks for the help guys.

Well, Generally everyone in WvW is almost impossible to chase with or without Traveler runes and traited Blink, etc. I see your point, and this may be true, but you seriously don’t expect to have a fight where the enemy will disengage and run away entirely. They might come back after gaining some health. Also, it is quite easy for this build to run away since you have so much stealth, so you just go in the other direction of your enemy after you stealth. Traited blink is not really useful, especially if your blink is on CD during the time when your opponent is trying to run away.

I personally think you don’t have to equip traveler runes with focus. If you really want to limit the mobility of others, try to find 1 thief player to play with.

EDit: If your enemy is going low on health and you have some illusions up, you could activate Sig. of Dom. to stun for 3 seconds, and allow the phantasms to safely finish the down.

I get this vibe that people are even more doubtful with this build. Granted, the old version was becoming more popular, as I have seen the Scepter/Torch – GS build setup quite often.
I admit, it is a unique and good setup, but it seriously lacks the defensive ends that come with possessing melee weapons. If I made one mistake with the old build and happened to get immobilized without condi removals and blink, I was doomed. That was that. No questions asked. The immobilize gave way for other builds to trash me while I was helplessly cornered. With this new build, I can counter back in any situation that comes my way, whether i am stealthless, blinkless, or even conditionless, or even illusionless. It allows for fast recovery in these situations.

I have posted the PvP build, and I will try to make the dueling vid with this build soon which will include fights of:

Osicat’s condi cat setup
Blackwater Setup
Maximised Hybrid Setup
Random builds
And most importantly, how this build fairs with my old build.

The video that will be featured will not be to hate on these builds listed above, but only because they are very very very good builds, and I felt that for this build to be able to get recognition in it’s current state, I need to show you guys its capabilities. Again, the future vid is not to anger anyone, but instead, to prove that this build has what it takes to hold its own and possibly beat All of the Awesome builds listed above. Stay tuned to find out how I do!

Edit: Again, this is not to disrespect any of the builds listed above. They are AMAZING builds. I know you guys all think so, and I love you guys for giving these people a lot of credit. But I also know that only legit videos will satisfy you guys, so I am going to try my best to get good fights against good players

Plz comment below on anything, about the WvW build or even the PvP. I need to know what you guys think of the updated version.

Actually, about 5 hours before I posted this, I went to work against Every condi build I saw, and all different types of builds I saw. I won because of the passive regen, the dodges, and the fact that I dealth massive damage while maintaining high amounts of stealth, armor, health, and condi removal

Sorry for my choice of words tho. Will change it.

EDit: Thanks a bunch Hexxen. I need people like you to get me on track and remind me of why I am in the Mesmer forums. Much thanks !!!!

Why I took MH sword over GS? Well, after months of testing, I came to the conclusion that I always seemed to lose against a MH sword stealth builds with my build (GS and Scepter/Torch). Then I thought, what could be the prob? So I immediately realized that having the invul was a life saver. While he was taking no damage, I was getting all the hits by his phantasms. So I decided to switch out GS for Sword/Sword. Why take offhand sword and not pistol? Anyone can dodge the bullets, and one dodge= around 4 missed bullets. That’s a lot of bleed stacks you are risking to lose. Sure, the pistol stun is great, but sword can do that and also be able to block attacks if you need it. Plus, if I happen to face another Mesmer with sword pistol like even Osicat’s condi cat build, My healing over time will greatly limit there damage effectiveness when I go into stealth, along with the fact that I have multiple dodges. Why not take Focus? Well, the swiftness is great, but it Is only good for really holding the opponent in and not allowing them to escape. The combo field is good, too, but you really rarely find the time to use it during the heat of battle. Curtain pull is also devastating, but it can easily be dodged by anticipating the amount of time left on the curtain and guessing your opponents next move. iWarden is special, and it has its place, but it is virtually useless until you get an opponent immobilized next to it, or you use it for defense purposes, which actually helps, but does no where in tryin to defeat an enemy. Just a defensive purpose use mostly. Sword actually blocks an attack, can be used for interrupts, can be used to retaliate back when blocked, and also summon a phantasm that does around 3-4k damage every 3 seconds. Plus, it is much more accurate on when it is hitting. Somewhat even more accurate than the GS phantasm, as it will fail under difficult terrains. I also took out Crippling Dissipation, as it only makes the enemy more cautious. Without this trait, the enemy is just too overconfident in their ability to beat me. Then I just counter and end the game.

Build Effectiveness explained:

Better Mobility
Way Better Survive
Higher damage output
Best weapon combo to be able to Come back from the brink of death. Seriously.

Another reasons for taking offhand sword- The best possible way to get back into fighting position after using Distortion shatter. With any other offhand weapons, it takes a Century to bring up perfect combo of clones and phantasms to be able to strike back perfectly. With this setup, now I am all set to take on anyone even after using Distortion and destroying my previous illusions

Comment on anything if you can. I need more feedbacks/concerns to get an idea of my Polished version when that comes into play after a few weeks.

to be fairly honest and frank Bunda, I have dueled Osicat’s condi cat builds and other MH sword stealth builds with GS and Scepter/Torch for over 3 months almost. I know how devastating they can be. There is just no stopping a MH sword build when paired up with stealth and other mobile utilities and weapons. Plus GS, Scepter/Torch sucks at 1 vs X, just don’t have the change of combat style to throw your opponent off. When you lose to the same type of builds against even noobs, that tells you that something is wrong with your build. I don’t really want to accept it, but it is what it is.

I was not thinking of just 1 vs 2. I was thinking of like (2 vs 10+) or something. In those situations, going aggressive is futile. You just lose no matter what with this setup. That is what I was concerned about. How would you deal with that? If you were unlucky enough to become immboilized suddenly with no condi removal, you are in serious trouble and will probably die in the next few seconds.

I am kind of dumb struck on how this build is good at 1 vs X. This build is genuinely cool, and it has so many awesome things within itself, but without blink and only 1 real source of constant stealth (decoy) you are bound to be chased down pretty badly against even 3 people. 2 people you might be able to handle, but it is still very very very tough in my eyes. Again, it is just my own opinion and nothing else. overall great and interesting build. If you can, explain how this build can take on multiple people. I would really like to know to better understand your PoV.

I know first hand the effectiveness of the combo Bunda mentioned, since I have been the first one to post and put together a build on that. However, that build Loses a lot of times against MH sword builds. It just doesn’t have the melee to face MH sword head to head. It will crumble if MH sword plays right and surprise attacks from stealth. That is why my revised build, which will come out tomorrow, is updated to better suit that problem. Check it out when it comes up. It is called, the Apex Predator.

Ross, I have seen your video compilation. They are amazing, but I want to see the build. Could you have the time to put your build into skills.net and show it to us? Just curious. I think everyone else is too. that’s what I was asking in the beginning.

Hm, I am also wondering. What does your build look like without additional buffs from worlds and orbs? Could you show us?

Thanks a bunch man. Now I have a clearer path. Will post the revised build in this week if I can. It’s been like a month of revising lol. I can’t post the vid as same as the date of build release. I am finding insufficient people to duel against. And I have to find them on the weekends, which is kind of a short period of time to duel and record each time.

Thanks for the help Advent. really. I’m starting to get the hang of this.

One Very Last question. no more after this. Is having Blink and Torch CD with lower stats better than having No Blink and No Torch Cd with higher stats? Plz answer soon. Then I think I can finish the build a heck of a lot quicker.