Guild Wars 2

I have no prob with thieves (100% victory so far in a 1v1 situation in WvW / I only do WvW for monthly achievements though and don’t play sPvP as Guardian).
I run a 0/0/30/30/10, Aegis gives retaliation, +toughness with shield, retaliation +25 % duration, shouts recharge faster, gain might on crit (pick whatever you like), Altruistic Healing all the way.
Scepter and Shield. Choose your second weapon set. Shelter as healing skill, Retreat! Save Yourselves! and Judge’s Intervention because teleportation is great in WvW. Renewed Focus so you can get 2 extra Aegis. About attributes try to have a bit of everthing and you’re fine but Retaliation goes with Toughness.

Buff with retaliation+protection+regen and everything you can find on your way and shoot orbs till he dies. Seriously that’s quite simple.

My way to PvE with hammer :
Is there any fire field?
- Yes : Use 2.
- No : Use 1.

Symbol of Protection’s damage is great. It hits lot of times which is good for AoE Might. Oh and it also consistently applies vulnerabilities if traited.
Now by its nature it not very effective in PvP but there is nothing we can really do about it.

Something you don’t consider about Ring of Warding is that you can combo with instant teleportation 1200 range withouth breaking the cast. Still I would like to be able to cast it on-the-move.

Zealot’s Embrace (#3) does a bit of damage (the same as one swing of hammer) and apply immobilisation in a line. Multiple targets is very strong but binding two enemies this way is just once in a lifetime. The cast time is a bit too much for the 2 secs of immobilisation (scepter #3 cast time is great).
Overall, it is no argument to be used over Symbol of Protection in dungeons.

I don’t think the extra gold obtained from bosses are needed.

Gold needs to be looted then “deleted” using waypoints, repairing, fees, cultural gear and that was pretty well rounded before the patch in my opinion.

But right now we are seeing numerous parties farming Forgotten Path of Arah for the first two bosses and making tons of gold with Omnomberries Bar which turn obsolete any other way to earn gold throughout Tyria.

Proof that too much gold is created is that most materials that don’t have additional usage after the patch are priced more and more each day, steadily.

1080p, big changes. It is a lot better even if the image seems a bit distorded but it’s the cost for higher FoV.
I would like to have an option in the settings.

Thanks guys!

I am experiencing the same, it is highly noticeable. Crucial M4 but it does not seem to be the matter.

Hi, today I had a Crucible of Eternity and as you might know there is a terrific Subject Alpha with enourmous AoE’s.

I died few times by these AoE’s and each time I could swear I was outside of them (no dishonesty). The thing is : I have the automatism to jump when at the extremity of the radius so when I died I was in mid-air.

I believe that if you are airborne, even if the run-up gets you outside of the AoE, you will still be an eligible target. Can anyone confirm this? I have not tested it yet because it is not so easily reproductible.

Fight spamming abilities with confusion (Chaos Armor will just do it fine + Chaos Storm to apply Weakness/Aegis and add an other Chaos Armor) and or retaliation (don’t count too much on it because you don’t have any reliable way to have it).

Try to get some burst to finish them before they stealth (Mirror Images + Mind Wrack why not).

Heal yourself as soon as they go stealth. Remove poison before.

PIck either/both Confusing Combatants (Duelling 25) or/and Debilitating Dissipation (Chaos V). That makes your illusions explode upon death rather than just fade away/disappear.

Serious business.

100% Agree on “Prestige burn/blind should be swapped”.

No need to blind your foe if you are stealthing. Would appreciate to have the explosion combo finisher not after a 4 seconds delay and also to be able to dodge during the stealth duration without breaking everything : that would help a bit to place the AoE.

I found Grandmaster traits not enough “game breaking”. They should have more impact on one’s gameplay as said. It is not about numbers but about the changement they can offer : I woud like them to add a serious effect to skills just like Restorative Mantra or something like this.
Personnally I don’t use any of them in sPvP. Concerning PvE : I spent 30 points in Inspiration but the purpose is to use two traits from Master (tier2).

@Tigger : this trait is tier2, not tier3. But yeah it is great.

I currently play with Inspiration X and I find it very good in a dungeon (groupe pve).

Beside of it you have seriously strong combo field and useful skills (Feedback, Focus skills that reflect, …) that do not let you lot of time to auto-attack. Basically auto-attacks you would do are replaced by casting either your healing mantra or your damaging mantra which has 1 sec recharge time.

Confusion from Phantasmal Mage (Torch5) lasts for 9 sec while he attacks every 6s. Currently every stack of confusion I place deals 177 damage. Now do the math 177 by the number of actions you can do within 9s.

Plus it grants retaliation. Although this boon may be more mysterious, be sure that it can deliver great damages.

People call OP when they can’t handle it. In a 1v1 situation, a Mesmer with the right build (a.k.a. staff) will almost always win and this because they are very versatile. The fact is most of us (forum users) play public games where you can be stomped.

Now in a competitive situation when you play against an organized team, you can’t really call Mesmers OP as they are in public games. You don’t even play the same spells.

I think Lumines.3916 said it all. Every word was true.

You have many ways to play a Mesmer, just today I changed my spec in PvE for Mantra Restoration that gives my team 2500hp every few secs while my phantasms do the job.
But concerning sPvP, after playing lot of games, I think there is no subtitute to a staff. Just chain your chaos armors with Blinding Befuddlement (Illusions IX) and either or even both Duelling 25 or Chaos V which will GREATLY enhance graphical effects when your illus get destroyed and all of a sudden you will not die no more, giving you time to do lot of things.
Well I can’t develop here too much, and that would take a whole night and a good Mesmer is a lot of meta.

The Focus Phanstasm deals good damages if you have Phantasmal Haste (so great uptime) / Fury and the bleeding if illusion crit. I mean it.

Only the second greatsword skill worth it, with a 4.8 sec cooldown and maybe the bouncing improve. Gives tons of boons and conditions (3 stacks of Might or 3 stacks of vulnerability for 10 freakin’ seconds) for up to 5 targets. In a 1v1 situation this is up to 10sec of 9% vulnerability and 10sec of 210 Power-Condition Damage.
:D

Best :
Chaos Storm (Staff 5)
Phase Retrait (Staff 2) : up to 6 sec cooldown. Insta spell. Grants Chaos Armor when done in an ethereal field (I based my pvp on it and it works very good).
Temporal Curtain (Focus 4) : cripples, grants switfness, interrupt and pull back, quick cast.
(Greatsword 2) : up to 4.8 sec cooldown, good damage, bounce, creates an illusion, quick cast.

Unusable :
Mind Stab (Greatsword 3) : how to waste time.
(Sword 2) : no move.
(Focus 5) unless you have Phantasmal Haste (traits -20% phantansm’s skill recharge) when it becomes very good, mostly usable on PvE.

Yes, they lack of reliable AoE’s. No they don’t really need them.
No, they are not squishy. My illusions tank a lot for me and my allies.
I found my Mesmer pretty effective in PvE. Despite Confusion being d*mn weak in PvE because mobs don’t attack every 0.1 second.

(This is my personnal opinion, feel free to disagree)

I’ve noticed it too. With good timing you can blind and burn without triggering the base 30s cooldown.