Guild Wars 2

And F5 is really special. It creates a spot to which you will return a few seconds later. Use it to set up double mind wrack combos, double Gravity Wells or even those combined.

There are not that many standard combo’s. But a lot of skills have great synergy together in various ways and it’s how you can combine those.

GS2 + GS3 + F1 is a simple one, best at melee.
Sh5 + Sw3,3 + Sw2 + F1 is another one. Those are the 2 basic shatter combos but you can use a lot of other skills to set these up, for example: GS2 + GS3 – guy dodges – GS4 – guy dodges – now you swap to sword, Sw3,3 and shatter which he can’t dodge. Mesmer has a ton of unique little tricks like using Gravity Well and GS5 to CC before you combo them.

Arenanet clearly likes this skill for the CC it brings and this is why most people use it as well. Nerfing the damage is a logical choice as the skill currently was too strong and they want to keep it as the heavy control well.

Arenanet clearly likes this skill for the CC it brings and this is why most people use it as well. Nerfing the damage is a logical choice as the skill currently was too strong and they want to keep it as the heavy control well.

The combat is really fun and most mechanics are great to play with and against. Skill level is much more important than matchmaking IMO and even when I lose, I don’t hate it as much as I do losing in League.

While thief MIGHT be a bit too strong, but only a bit, these changes would literally kill the profession, I’m not even joking. You want to literally remove all their ways to cleanse a condition, which they already are bad at! The way you talk about these skills as well, make it seem like they are broken. I can do the same for other professions, hold on.

Engineer:

1) Healing Turret: a huge heal, water field with a blast finisher for anyone and yourself to blast in that cures 2 conditions on a 20s cooldown!!

2) Gear shield: a 3s block on a 16s cooldown with a certain trait!! This is a nobrainer. Too much invulnerability

3) Slick Shoes: a pbAoe that let’s you knock down anyone that runs at you in melee range MULTIPLE times + a really short cooldown stunbreak. This is simply overkill.

Elementalist:

1) An ele can cleanse 3-4 conditions every 10 seconds. Regen trait, swap on water, dodge in water, use water 5, get crit to get regen trait. This is over the top and you can’t kill an elementalist with condis unless 2 guys just completely condi train him.

2) An ele can heal over 10k in burst heals. Why is this allowed, Anet please. Can’t you clearly see how OP this is. I get him to 2k HP and suddenly his water attunement is up and he heals for over 60%. Is this real life???

Guardian:

1) Shelter: OMG he can block more and for longer than thief’s Withdraw. Please nerf.

See what I did there? Your suggestions are almost all terrible and would simply kill the profession. No ways to condi cleanse, knocked out of SR 100% of time against someone good, panic strike activated when you had the kill for sure any way already…

I will love it. I think it will open up build options and will create more class diversity due to not being obliged to stand on a point.

I wish they’d make it longer though. Matches of AT LEAST 20 minutes and slower pushing in general. I don’t like how it’s possible to end these games so quickly. I also think there need to be longer death timers. This will encourage grouping.

Right now, you basically have 2 fights going on and if it’s near the end, it’s a race to whoever kills the lord first. This pomotes split fights. One happening on side, the other on side B, which I’m not the biggest fan of.

I wish they’d take the MOBA idea further. Three lanes, like Cygnus said, would be a start. But also, slower pushing. Judging by the demos, you can really easily push the lane out till their inner gate in less than 5 minutes.

I’d wish Arenanet made the span of Stronghold around 30 minutes, with slower pushing, longer death timers and proper objectives. This way when you can get a kill onto someone, it can actually mean something, but not give huge advantages because there’s slow pushing.

I dislike how one half of the team pushes for victory and the other defends. You don’t really know what’s going on at the other half of the map unless you’re on TS. If they’d make bigger objectives and longer death timers, it would mean teams would try to stick together more.

Supreme.3164:

Cynz.9437:

Shiyo.3578:

Thief shuts down or hugely pressures so many classes in group fights, and is the main reason so many builds are completely unviable in pvp.

shuts down many classes? like what? mesmers? so what? medi guards shut down thieves more~ besides mesmer still has good chance to nuke thief

as far as build go, i am pretty sure conquest itself is an issue…

the reason why thieves run zerker is because they don#t have a choice; could they run same faceroll crap like dd eles, they certanly would

shut down many class? like what?
-Like fresh air ele, zerker staff, any non cantrip build, any build with no enough sustain…EVERYTHING that it’s not d/d tanky spec

The reason why eles run celestial is because they don#t have a choice;could they run same faceroll crap like d/p or s/d thieves, they certainly would

I don’t know which game you are playing but thief is not countering many classes. In fact, most meta builds are really strong against thief. DD ele and cele engi should barely lose against a thief. Guardian, especially DPS murders it. Warrior is just a snorefest because you can barely damage him.

I get what you’re saying about thief not allowing other berserker classes to join the meta. I kind of agree, but not entirely. A ranger for example, is not thief food anymore. If you can shoot him back and he doesn’t have his 60s cooldown stunbreaker up, the thief should be dead.

One last point. Funny how you say d/p is faceroll but defend DD ele. I love both classes. I play thief, mesmer, engi and ele for over 2 years now. Those are the 4 classes I enjoy. But the hardest are definitely thief and mesmer because they can’t get stunned. If they do, they are most likely dead. Ele can facetank a lot of stuff.

I think eles and engis are slightly OP, but not like many people say. Just adjust the healing power ratios on their healing skills and nerf all of their skills slightly. Slightly means barely anything. Just enough to keep celestial in check but not hurt other builds.

And if you want to roll another class: Engi and Ele are my picks. Not because they’re OP but IMO, they’re the more complex classes in the game and they’ll always be relevant in some way, especially engineer.

A tip I want to give you is to save your phantasms. A lot of new players to mesmer generally open with GS4 into a shatter or GS2 and shatter. A better way to open might be to use GS2, shatter and then spawn your Berserker.

There are a couple of reasons for this: 1) you can have him attack twice if lucky. 2) they have dodged your shatter so their endurance is out, garanteed hit. You spread out your damage more. 3) They will be crippled which makes it easier for follow up damage with the staff or especially, the sword.

Whenever you swap to a weapon, know you will use 1-2 shatters in the next 2 seconds, hold on to spawning your phantasms. Spawn clones, dodge, shatter and then spawn them.

This is not always the best way, you’ll learn what to do in different situations. But too many people do GS4 into a shatter or even their staff phantasm and it didn’t even get an attack off.

Is Kit Refinement strong in thuis build? I feel like it’s not a very strong trait because you can’t know when it procs exactly in a long battle. It can also miss, in the bomb’s case. I feel like other traits might be stronger here.

Like Adozu said: your first class will be the hardest since you not only need to learn class mechanics, but also pvp mechanics. Once you have a good understanding of how to fight other players, you can probably get a decent hang of class mechanics in less than 25 games.

Mastering a class will take you at least 300, depending on the classes difficulty/adaptability on different situations. But you don’t need a lot of time to know a class’ mechanics. GW2 isn’t that amazingly hard. Hardest classes are IMO: Mesmer and thief. And maybe engineer if you find it hard to press many buttons quickly.

Rangers were terrible for 2 years? I think everyone is forgetting the Beastmaster builds, like they always do like they always do to justify RF.

I have no problems with RF EXCEPT that it’s 1500 range. The damage is high but many other classes also have high damage. However, none of them can stand so far away from the fight and bust out this amount of damage. Except for killshot, which has a more visible animation and requires Adrenaline and thus, will not have the same short cooldown.

I think ranger is a good class now, that can hold its own. I just don’t find it fair that they can snipe targets with 6-12k damage standing somewhere completely safe. However, if Arenanet decides to change nothing, I’d accept it. Because there’s plenty of other over the top things on all classes bar a few.

MSFone.3026:

Dude your videos are bar none the best mesmer videos I’ve ever seen each time. Way to go, awesome to watch!

While very impressive, they don’t beat Vashury’s IMO. Still great work Comandrika

igsy.8027:

Macros and phantasms need a nerf… but mainly macros.

I doubt most mesmers use macros. I’ve been called out for it before, but I don’t use them. Once you play it a lot, you can do any combo really fast and a macro forces you into the same combo over and over which limits flexibility.

If you notice the winrates on that reddit thread, they are actually really balanced except for the elementalist and engineer. 52-47% winrate for 6 of 8 classes is really good and doesn’t show you anything. The only thing I do see however, is the pick rate of mesmer, which is all the way at the bottom. Doesn’t it make sense that they win “more often” (barely 2% more) then other classes. Most mesmer players will main it and not hop to the next best fotm thing.

Also, the meta needs to shift towards more glass cannon builds. Fights are not boring things that last 5 ages. You actually need to dodge the hard hitting skills from other classes, unlike your precious celestial bunkers that can face tank it and then heal back.
Almost all bunkers counter glass cannon builds and here you are complaining about zerker builds. Zerker builds promote active play and counterplay as well.

You should complain about the engineer who has an undodgeble burning proc (it’s like mind wrack on auto’s!) and their toolkit block which gives them almost more immune uptime than mesmer WITH tanky amulet stats and more fields/blasts.

One fear bomb with some burning and bleeds is able to kill the mesmer without any real effort. If you can’t land something like that in a fight, you need to get better.

I have been running a shatter build ever since I created my mesmer 2 years ago. Now it’s a gimmick build because it’s on that site?

“Game isn’t balanced around 1v1’s.” – Ignorant quoter.

Elementalist is one of the best team fight professions in the game. However, I don’t find them OP, except their heals. Get them low, heal up, low again, heal up. Just going water and dodging heals for over 4k.

Chaith.8256:

sinject.4607:

you know what else dies to a coodinated burst that fast?
everything else in the game

congrats on the great post man

No 2 professions is going to kill an Ele, Warrior, Guardian, a Thief with Shadowstep&Refuge, a Mesmer with blink/decoy, in 5 seconds. All these professions have multiple stunbreaks and o-kitten buttons that they can layer. Most professions can expend cooldowns and exit harm’s way, and will need to be hard swapped to LATER.

If it comes down to it, you can hit up to 3 stances. Up to 3 Cantrips. Stunbreak, Stunbreak/teleport, Shadow Refuge. You get the idea.

The point is, which you are being too kitten dense and trolly to observe, is that Engineer defensive CDs blow. They’re god awful. They don’t displace you, or drop you as a target / stop the pain train for more than 3 seconds. The only reactive ability that is capable of doing this is the Elixir S Stealth. The problem with this is that you get Steal/Doom on you as soon as you exit your Invuln, and the stealth is easily interrupted. In the first place, Elixir S is the only one that’s really capable of doing any of these things. What if you aren’t packing Elixir S and Toolkit? God forbid anything else be brought into PvP.

Are you saying that an engineer cannot survive 5 seconds of getting trained? Elixir S, dodge, swap mid air, block with Tool Kit. Your last sentence is also a gem. A thief HAS to take Shadowstep and Shadow Refuge. A mesmer HAS to take decoy and blink. What if they want to take something else? All classes have must-use utilities, not only the engineer… Most engineer builds even run celestial or rabid amulet, providing defensive stats as well.

I really dislike the jump dodging all the time. Also, you dodge too much randomly, which is something S/D really encourages though. Overall, I think the nerf is not too bad but I was never really a S/D player.

I play a D/D 2/6/6/0/0 thief and I once fought a glass axe warrior with a pure DPS build. My backstab hit him for around 5k crit max while he dealt 11.7k damage with eviscerate. I dodged many eviscerates but once in a while, that stun or bolas he throws lands and he just deletes you.

I have a level 80 warrior as well and I tried his build. While you’re squishy (for a warrior), you can still take double the beating a thief can easily while dishing out 10k damage on the regular. Not to mention the auto’s cleave and can hit up towards 3k.

A thief has to set up his damage. Do you know how hard it is to consistently land backstabs? In spvp they barely go above 6k on glass targets. I’ve seen it crit for 2k on guardians. Meanwhile this skill requires to land on the back, which is quite hard against an opponent that knows to move. Eviscerate has more damage, doesn’t require you to hit the back, gap closes and has a really short cooldown. When the cooldown is there, you still have your auto’s that hit for 2k easily, and you have innate tankiness and sustain.

Can a thief outplay others and even get away in really sticky situations? Yes, mostly. But that requires thinking and knowing when to go in. One CC is often enough to kill a thief with a combo.

I auto in between HS 90% of the times

I was thinking about this question a few days earlier and realized it’s really hard to answer this one. Most people like a class because they like the class mechanics, how skills interact with each other or certain weapon sets and traits.

Because your favorite skill is such an isolated object, it might not even be from your favorite class. I can imagine people love Corrupt Boon but not the necro class in general.

For me; it’s Heartseeker. I love the feeling of hunting my target down with executing damage that gets higher as my target gets lower. The ultimate assassinating move in my opinion. Dat feel when it doesn’t crit 3 times in a row tho.

So what’s yours?

NO. I’m tired of facing condition stealth mesmers and other kinds of low risk builds.

I heard you need a level 400 crafting discipline. Tailor for light armor, etc.

The elementalist has been lackluster for more almost a year. People are just getting back to them after these SLIGHT buffs because they missed playing it. I’m constantly playing ele now cause I finally have a chance against others classes.

^ Ele always had great AoE, they were still played a lot in group play, like 5 man WvW, it’s just their dueling was bad. Now they are competitive, although not unkillable. I finally feel my ele is good again, but not overpowered.

I’m pretty sure most people play ele BECAUSE of attunement swapping. It’s dynamic and fun. If you don’t enjoy it, just don’t play an elementalist.

I have a mix from PVT, Knight, Zerker and Cavalier but for my new ele I’m leveling, I’ll go mostly celestial. I think celestial with some PVT is the way to go now. Just my opinion.

I have an asura elementalist and I’m remaking it for sylvari, currently level 29. Asura elementalist has no advantage in PvP because ele animations are the coolest but the clearest in the game, everyone can see what you do, no matter how small you are.

Asura has smaller animations though, and that’s lame for a class with such beautiful animations, so pick sylvari. I have tier 3 on my asura and it’s cool, but not very noticable. I have tier 2 on sylvari and it looks great, so much awesome color combinations and effects. I’m saving for tier 3 now, which is just incredible, might be the best looking armor in the game.

Be special and pick sylvari, you won’t regret it.

Great post but I believe Osicat still loves shatter the most. It’s just that PU is a lot stronger IMO. If that’s not viable to roam, what is?

^ My mains are mesmer and elementalist, they don’t have I win buttons. Although mesmer has an I win trait: Prismatic Understanding.

If you’re talking D/D, a mix of Soldiers, Knights, Valkyrie, Cavalier and Berserker, just get the stats you want.

Like pmnt said and what Einlanzer means is that now, the elementalist rotates through his attunements to have optimal control/damage. He needs to go to water to keep his DPS and control going, instead of attacking with the weak earth auto-attack, thus wasting a heal which could prove useful 3 seconds later.

What you want to play is an Engineer. I created after seeing this lack of “free will” in the Elementalist (even though I still love it) and it’s really close to what you want. Need DPS, go to bombs and grenades, use toolkit if you want damage mitigation with blocks, go DPS again with another set of grenades or kite with your pistol. Engineer offers that quick adapting to the situation-gameplay (even though it has its own problems) that few other classes offer.

You ALWAYS have a solution close at hand, while with the Elementalist, that solution might be forced on to you because of your lack of damage if you don’t cycle attunements. If you really want what you ask, try Engineer.

Locuz.2651:

egan.2751:

thnks locuz i’ll have a look to it

The team that won the tournament of legends had a dagger dagger ele that ran with this build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fFAQJAoYhcMKc25wxBd0AiAB5ukqRBlfHTB-TJhIwAAOBAX2f47DAQYZAA

Vod with footage of the finals:

http://www.twitch.tv/guildwars2/b/523635495

Notice how at 2 hours 32 and 20 seconds the DD ele is forced to prefent a cap against a mesmer and a thief. 15 seconds later he not only survived but managed to get the mesmer in downed state, in a 1v2. The guys he faced are the current rank 1 and 2 on the teamq leaderboard, so they are top tier.

Notice how he not only has the dmg to kill stuff + is able to survive vs some of the best bursters in the game + add a lot of support with condicleanses and 25 migthstacks on everyone in bigger teamfights.

I don’t see the fight you’re talking about at 2:32:20.

Thx a lot mate! Have fun with your next engi or ele ^^

Hey, would you care to elaborate on how to power level? I need 7 levels on my guardian

Engineer currently is the stronger of the 2 because they can apply intense condition pressure. Eles are mostly power based and require more skill to play since you have to manually aim some skills (Burning Speed and Fire Grab).

They are both a ton of fun and the main difference is that an ele goes through certain rotation, depicted by his attunement cooldown and the engi has more freedom. He can use skills that best fit his situation.

What the ele offers is a amazingly fun playstyle with D/D although still underpowered. I’d go engi.

Haven’t played around with it yet but it seems hardly OP.

a) other classes have stronger evades
b) other classes evade skills hit more reliably. Burning Speed needs to be actively aimed.
c) its damage is good, but not that amazingly strong.
d) elementalists are not in the greatest spot at the moment (or the last half year) they deserve this.

Burning Speed is already a skillshot as you have to manually aim where you go, it doesn’t automatically go to your enemy, just like Fire Grab (x/D Fire 5). I agree though, more skills need this feature. Brings more skill into the game and is one of the reasons why League of Legends combat is so rewarding.

I started playing my mesmer actively after seeing Osicat’s shatter cat video’s. Those were just the bomb. He’s a really great mesmer, although he often uses skills that can save his life at unnecessary moments, but it works for him!

I was in his guild this past summer and I remember dueling the first time again him as my, back then, recently nerfed ele. I thought I could handle a shatter mesmer quite decently.

Only, he wasn’t shatter, he just switched to the Blackwater build. I got schooled hard. I couldn’t find him anywhere and got melted by conditions. I used the build on my mesmer too, immensely strong.

However, on pure skills from what I’ve noticed, Vashury is better. He bursts harder, his actions are quicker and it’s more violent. Osicat’s playstayle is go with the flow, which is also great

It’s funny how Guardians are defending their Retaliation. Engis are already not wanted AT ALL for zergs, just like rangers and now people want to make it a little better for them and that’s not allowed?

God some of you are just the biggest kitten heads I have ever encountered. When you encounter a zerg, do I really have to check every guy in the blob to see if he has retal. Is it fair that an engi or ranger can’t use its powerful moves while a guardian and warrior smashes away? You already bring much more support with stuns and heals and now you deny others to bring what they do, damage?

It’s the same desperate cries I hear in the Pvp-setting:
Healing signet is not OP
Hammer is not OP
PU isn’t OP

Keep clinging to your cheap stuff, noobs

Shatter mesmer, DD burst thief, burst guardian, rifle engi, DD burst ele

Are you serious about the ele remark? I still don’t play my ele because it’s weaker than everything else. If the Vanilla Ele would exist today, it’s still not as strong as a warrior or necromancer. Diamond Skin is rather kittenty.

Oh lawd. Necromancers are in a strong state in WvW and PvP. They can still condi bomb someone to death and wells are a great WvW tool.

OP: you want to play an ele? Prepare to feel like an idiot compared to the necromancer, unless it’s for zergs.

Necros keep whining and I agree you have some issues, mainly mobility but you’re FAR, FAR from the worst class in the game.

Lukin.4061:

I find it a good test for this is to show games to people that have not played them and observe their reactions. For example showing cs:go mostly everyone understands what players are doing. I showed gw2 combat and most of them had no idea what was going on, some had strained their eyes, one person understood that the fight is for colored circle, one person asked is this some kind of mutant rat (asuras) gladiator arena.

Seriously? Counterstrike is a shooter, everyone knows what a shooter is, it’s as simple as 2+2. An MMORPG is not the same, not even close. I watched a match of some RPG’s that are very renowned like DoAC and Warhammer but without having played them, I don’t understand kitten what’s going on.

@above me: you read my mind. Everything that I wanted to say, you summed it up perfectly. Just 2 hours ago, I was playing the old DD burst thief and it was a lot of fun but 1 dodge or blind could mess me up incredibly. Meanwhile, a condi engi just had to static shot me and my HP kept on dropping (shadowstep on cooldown) There was literally no chance for me to survive while he just kept on blocking and dodging and putting even more conditions on me.

Play a thief and you will learn to control yourself.

skcamow.3527:

I haven’t seen the vid yet, but let me just say I’m elated one of “the originals” is back!
Definitely one I learned a lot from in my early days as a mesmer. Welcome!!!

Now, if we can just get osi and seven to do the same …

Osi has been logging in a few times over the past few weeks but not for very long. He has uploaded a new video I believe.

I can’t believe you guys seriously think someone screaming like a kittening idiot is commanding.

This is Parthis from JDGE. At the end of this video we’re surviving with 15 against 30-40 until we get overwhelmed but you don’t see that in this video. Not saying this is the best commanding, but I think it’s better than a guy whose balls barely dropped screaming in the mic.

Thanks for the massive tips as I have rewatched your video and especially the start where you give instructions, it’s probably me not paying enough attention to where my clones are. You always hit 3-4 clone (iPersona) mind wracks and you also make sure they’re close so they all hit. I’m going to try hard to make the greatsword work because it offers so much damage. I’m also trying to play mesmer more. I was always the guy to play lots of classes but I’m going to try to really make mesmer my main as it’s so fun and unique! Thx again and great gameplay.

Starting at 40, you can get deceptive evasion which makes you clone on dodge. This helps a lot with shatters, mainly Mind Wrack for big aoe damage. It’s probably lack of inexperience too. I have remade a mesmer for fun and I didn’t have any problems surviving anymore because I was used to the style.