Guild Wars 2

I remember the staff radius for most spells like fire 2, geyser, earth 2, static field used to be larger before the patch. Can anyone confirm that? Isn’t the staff radius trait baseline now? I remember seeing this but I cannot find any associate trait.

It is absolutely devastating in all modes especially pvp.

ps: nerf d/d kthnx

And on top of that. here is the changes that affect (or can affect) this playstyle:

DUELIST LINE:
Master:
- 1.5 projectile refl on dodge (great synergy with the mandatory energy sigils the MtD uses and the Critical Infusion -5sec vigor on crit)
or:
- Blind everyone around you every time you shatter (great synergy with the newly reduced shatter cooldowns) And MtD uses pretty much all three aggressive shatters constantly.

and a minor that has a chance to add more conf on critical from you or your clones (most MtD use rabid anyway so also great)

THE OTHER MANDATORY LINE:

ILLUSIONS:
- MtD now benefits from Illusionary Persona which became baseline.
- Master of Misdirection minor, increased confusion duration and even more shatter cd reduction.
- Malicious Sorcery grandmaster: 20% cd reduction on scepter and it attacks 15% faster for better clone production.

BASELINE TRAITS OR OTHER GOODIES, WE ALSO RECEIVED:
- Mesmer skills which create bouncing projectiles now bounce 1 additional time. (staff 1 yuhuuu)
- Using any shatter skill now creates the shatter effect on you as well by default. (Illusionary Persona)
- Reduced recharge on Glamour skills by 20%. (for those who run Portal or Null Field or Veil)
- Pistol skills used by you and your illusions have had their range increased to 1200 (for those who like to use Pistols and the new Duelist’s Discipline trait on DUELING)
- Chaos Storm – Increased poison duration from 2 seconds to 4 seconds. (not much but its a buff)
- Confusing Images: Added one additional strike to this skill. Strikes from this skill now display an additive total rather than individual hits. This skill now activates 50% faster. (That’s a big one, 1.5 sec cast time instead of 3 to a skill we use constantly and rely on dealing a lot of damage. Great synergy with the new scepter trait on Illusions)
- Ether Clone (Scepter skill 1 chain 3): Adjusted the timing of this attack to flow better with the other attacks in the chain. The projectile is now launched sooner, but he attack has slightly longer aftercast. The number of clones generated per second by this chain is unchanged. (less clunky auto attacks on one of our main weapons)
- Mass Invisibility: This skill is now classified as a Manipulation. (If you go Chaos traitline you can take Master of Manipulation, which will reduce that and your Blink’s CD by 20% and will add a Projective reflection effect after you use a Manipulation skill. Those who used Arcane Thievery or Mimic will be very happy too. Desperate Decoy in Duelist traitline says that it benefits from the Master of Manipulation even though decoy is a clone skill, so I dunno what’s up here)
- Mirror (heal skill): This skill is now classified as a manipulation. (no one is using that but someone might be now)
- Polymorph Moa: This skill has been renamed to “Signet of Humility” and is now classified as a signet skill. Its passive effect reduces the duration of stun, daze, fear and taunt by 20%. Its active effect remains unchanged. (CC reduction is always great to a class that suffers from lack of stability) Other’s will probably use Mass Invisibility which is also a Manipulation now. lol
- Phantasmal Mage: Instead of inflicting confusion on foes an granting retaliation on allies, this phantasm now inflicts 1 stack of burning for 6 seconds on foes an grants 3 seconds of fury to allies. (long burning is better than conf imo which will add another condition to protect our strong ones like Torment. Fury synergizes better with our On Crit traits than retal)

Now that’s only two traitlines and a bunch of buffs to pretty much anything. We have a third line to choose. Some of you might go Chaos, others might choose Inspiration while others will try the new Chrono. Although I am very tempted by the extra clone production, the superspeed on clones while shattering, the alacrity and the incredible F5 of the chrono, I think I am leaning towards Chaos to take advantage of it’s defense benefits.

Hey guys,

First I am going to apologize for my bad english.
Attrition fighting is my favourite kind of PvP style. I almost exclusively play such roles (apart from power necro, but we all know what happened to necros now so let’s roll our eyes). Mesmer is one of my favourite classes in the game and probably the most interesting in terms of condition application. I am talking about the famous Condi Shatter or MtD.

Although it was already a good build for mid tier PvP and managed to stand on its own vs terrifying enemies like thieves, it seems the new mesmer changes are coming to pump it to a whole new level. All this is from a PvP perspective.

The minors of Chaos traitline are all great and will greatly help with surviving, what dazzled me the most is the Chaotic Dampening Master trait. Chaos armor already has a chance to give 5 sec protection when struck by an attack, now it will automatically give 5 sec protection when you activate Chaos armor. In staff you have skill 4 and skill 5 with the leap from skill 2. That’s two of them. Both giving 5 sec of protection and plus extra protection if we get struck (each boon, currently three, have 1sec internal CD). That’s a lot of protection.

And then you have the new Prismatic Understanding. Which makes the whole concept even worse.

Am I understanding something wrong here? That looks like a ridiculous amount of protection plus other defensive boons which get even longer by Chaotic Persistence Minor in CHAOS)
Sounds great and all, but a bit, too much? Perhaps the lack of condi cleanse will even things out, but vs non-cond builds we will be extremely survivable.

Laraley.7695:

Jekkt.6045:

Azure The Heartless.3261:

Jekkt.6045:

rangers and necros still bottomfeeders

Necros maybe, Rangers nah. Maybe Reaper will bring them up to par, and still have to see how the condi changes affect them.

then tell me what is the benefit of having a ranger (with the new changes) in your team?

I don’t think anyone can say what’s gonna be good atm. Things need to be tested first. Idk about rangers, but they should stop acting like they’re the most hurt profession in the game by these changes. Necros are.

I am mostly playing an engineer, and sometimes Mesmer in PvP, and I was so happy reading the upcoming changes (especially for the cond builds I enjoy). I thought ‘’what a wonderful way to shake up our classes’’, everyone must have gotten the same treatment. And then I read the necro and to a lesser extend, the ranger changes. Wow. What a sad thing to behold. I respect seeing a good necro or ranger in pvp and I was rooting for you guys getting some justice after all this time to bring you back in the battlegrounds, but that was just….

What baffles me is the confidence of the developers about the upcoming GROUNDBREAKING necro changes. I laughed, but then I realized how many people were looking forward to that… only to get slapped in the face. I do hope power Reaper will get to see some play though, as it looks like a fearsome and fun enemy to deal with.

Omocha.4931:

I’d say he’s right! Thieves are OP! Lowest HP pool in the game and shabby condi removal, quite a hard choice between survivability and burst overall, no invulnerability, stability, summons or decent condi damage. No spammable skills due to initiative restrictions, but yes! OP! Remove the stealth and the half-broken shadowsteps, pl0x! And while at it, remove their weapons too! Give them a broom!

It’s on the same note with “Ranger OP! 1500 Rapid Shot happy wefs!” and “Necro OP! Remove Death Shroud and Lich Form pl0x!”. How about remove the attunements from eles too?! Make each weapon only give 1 att or 2. And give mesmers only 1 clone, remove the virtues and Elite Focus from guardians and maybe the stances from warriors. You might as well, take the grenades and elixirs away from engineers! Hell! Even better! Give every class a broom as the only weapon!

I get what you’re doing… It’s not funny. But I get it.
Although blind and fury-filled threads are not the best way to begin a discussion, it not a coincidence that so many threads for the thief exist nowadays. What the OP is trying unsuccessfully to do is to highlight the dominance of a specific class in the PvP environment. I do think that everyone kittenpects himself and does some basic pvp knows this to be true. And that’s nothing new.

The difference between the classes you mentioned and the thief is that none of those are represented in top tier pvp. Very very few exceptions. Don’t take this as patronizing, but ranger’s 1500 range and ‘’hurr durr second HP bar necroes’’ is not even close to the problem the thief is creating. Pushing basically every other possible zerk build out, and directly counter them without much retaliation. I am not saying rangers mesmers etc. cannot do the same role as the thief, it’s just that the thief outclass them and many others by a large margin.