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Obligatum VII posted:I was, uh, playing WoW I think. A resto spec druid even. wow wasn't out yet in 2003 i was playing city of heroes 
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Jul 5, 2016 19:15
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Y'all thinking Revenant in raids is for braindead boneheads is why I can never get Revs to do goddamned proper bar breaking abilities. If you want to be a good rev there's a lot going on. Raiding Revenant effort post incoming: You should be running Glint/X where X can be Mallyx, Jalis, or arguably Shiro (I disagree with Shiro because you can't run Impossible Odds and Facet of Nature at the same time and if you're turning off Facet of Nature you're not doing your job to support the Chrono and if you're not running Impossible Odds then why are you in Shiro). I generally default to Jalis because it has better bar breaking than Mallyx. DPS rotations by stance: Glint - Turn on Nature, Darkness, Chaos, Mash 1, Mash 2, Pulse Elements (ie turn on then immediately off for Elemental Blast) when it's off CD. If you're careful you'll run out of energy right as you get the ability to switch stances (basically be mashing F1 as the timer hits 0, alternately delay turning on Darkness briefly because you give out enough Fury to power an army anyway and the energy savings will buy you a little slack time for switching stances) Jalis - Turn on Nature, turn on Hammers, Mash 1, Mash 2. Same deal as in Glint, you'll hit 0 energy right as you can change stances. Feel free to end Hammers a little early if you find yourself running out of energy and turning off Facet of Nature. Also note that Hammers are considered projectiles and can bump into terrain or projectile hate and will turn off if they do. Optionally, run in clockwise circles (as viewed from above)around the boss for a minor DPS boosts (it makes your hammers hit a little more often) but really only do this if you're very comfortable with the boss and your class and it's not going to distract you from more important things. Also no I'm not joking, appropriate movement is a DPS boost because by moving you're making the hammers hit more often by making the boss "spin" around you in the opposite direction. Again though, don't worry about unless you're really good and comfortable at Rev and just want to squeeze out a little more DPS for fun. Mallyx - Turn on your Elite, Mash 1 Mash 2. Same deal as Jalis and Glint, Energy-wise, you'll hit 0 energy right as you can switch stances. A common theme between all three is you stack up your toggles to -9 Energy then auto attack and hit Precision Strike on cooldown. If/when you get Alacrity, your energy consumption goes up because you're using Precision Strike more often, and I don't believe you get a compensatory Energy Regeneration buff from Alacrity, so watch your mana bar. Also Rev's DPS rotation is pretty simple, where the class shines (and where you need to use your brain) is in Bar Breaking and in General Utility. Break Bar Abilities (aka "if the group's break bars suck it's probably your fault") First, a brief primer on Defiance Bars aka Break Bars. It's a big blue bar that pops up underneath the HP bar of various mobs, and is a core mechanic of raids. Any kind of soft or hard crowd control deals break bar damage. Soft (aka Condition based effects) will deal damage over time for the duration of its effect, where Hard (ie Daze, Knockback, Knockdown, Launch, Pull, Stun, Sink, Float, Morphs, Freeze, and Petrification) will deal its damage immediately, based on the listed duration of the CC. In general, a second of stun is 100 break bar damage. All that said, Rev has fantastic bar breaks. Better than Warrior unless your Warrior is doing something like Berserk, Mace F1 (ie the regular Burst, no Primal Burst), Mace 2, Shield 5 to do ~1k break bar damage, in which case they're about equal to how goddamned good your bar breaks are. Weapon skills (assuming Sword/Axe+Staff, which is what you should be running) - Sword 2 and Axe 4 both inflict Chill, but aren't really worth using. Use Axe 5 (150 bar damage), then switch to Staff. Staff 5 does tons of break bar damage (depending on how many hits you land it's anywhere from 150 to something like 1k damage, 450-750 is a reasonable estimate imo). Aim your camera directly at the boss, hit Staff 5, and watch its bar disintegrate. Additionally, the followup ability on Staff 2 does a reasonable amount (150) of break bar damage. So from your weapon skills alone you can readily drop 750-1050 bar break damage, which is already enough to out-break most classes in the game. Now for stance skills! Mallyx - Nothing. This is why I don't really like Mallyx, personally, but it's good for other things. Jalis - Forced Engagement deals 250 break bar damage over 2 seconds with Taunt and Slow. Importantly, Taunt and Slow are pretty rare debuffs, so you don't really need to worry about stacking up debuff durations and having to wait around for your bar break to happen. Glint - Chaotic Release (ie turning off or pulsing your Protection toggle) does 232 break bar damage. There's little/no reason for you to not be pulsing Chaos for break bars, particularly if you're not making a habit of trying to put our Prot, or if you have a DH around who can cover it for you. So all told, Axe 5 (150), Staff 5 (450-750), Glint Elite (232), and Jalis Taunt/Slow (250) is 1082 to 1382 break bar damage that you can pump out over the course of ~4 seconds. For reference, Knuckles, Berg, and the VG Splits have 1k break bars, main VG has a 2k break bar, Matthias has a 2500 break bar, Slothasor is 4k, and Gorse has the thickest bar in the game at 4500. Most of the bosses in the game, Rev can singlehandedly rip off half its break bar without help from anyone. General Utility Sword/Axe - Sword 2 and Axe 4 are chills, real handy during the w3 Gauntlet for slowing Wargs or during Gorseval for Charged Spirits. Sword 3 is an evade, though it's a pain to time right because of the windup. Axe 5 is a pull and is good for clustering enemies to cleave them down. Axe 4 also warps you to whatever you hit with it, which can be very useful if you have to move away from the boss for some reason and are looking to get back into melee quickly. Staff - Staff 3 is a block and blind (nice for add phases), Staff 4 is a condi cleanse and heal, Staff 5 is a fantastic travel skill and an evade. The knockback on Staff 5 is also great for emergency seeker control during Vale Guardian. Glint - Facet of Elements toggle inflicts chill for the usual things that need chilling. Facet of Darkness toggle is a stun break (incredibly important, total rear end saver, no one in PvE ever knows or understands what they are). Specifically, if a boss CCs you (say, Gorseval Slam, Sabetha Bandit Thug kick, Slothasor Fear, any of the billion CCs the White Mantle trash mobs put out, KC's jump) then you can turn off Facet of Darkness to instantly bust out of the CC. Additionally, there is a trait in the Herald line that you can take that turns any of your stun breaks into stun breaks for your whole group. Not something to take in every fight, but very very handy and important for some situations (notably Slothasor Fear). Facet of Light toggle makes you invincible (more than that, it makes damage heal you) and is incredibly useful for rescuing people from lovely situations where you'll take lots of damage while rezzing them. Chaotic Release, as well as being decent for break bars, is fantastic for seeker control during Vale Guardian or for just blowing trash mobs around because it has an enormous area of effect. Jalis - Inspiring Reinforcement (aka Dwarf Road) pulses Stability, though it can be awkward to use. Try to get the timing of it though, being able to lay out Stability at the right time can legitimately save a raid from a wipe. Rite of the Great Dwarf can similarly rescue people's butts but is very expensive, so having the energy to use it generally means you're screwing up your DPS rotation. That said, if poo poo's hitting the fan and your group needs rescuing, don't be afraid to switch into Jalis and immediately pop Rite of the Great Dwarf, if I'm not mistaken it stacks with Protection so you can pop Facet of Chaos, get some Prot out, then pop Great Dwarf and have -66% damage from Power damage. It's a good rear end saver if you can get it out at the right time. It's usually better to sacrifice some DPS and make sure your group recovers well from a stumble than it is to mindlessly continue to pump out as much DPS as possible while you team wipe. Mallyx - Pain Absorption is AOE resistance and can save people during Slothasor's spore attack by buying time for them to clean some conditions off themselves if they screw up. Banish Enchantment strips boons and can be vitally important during Vale Guardian (you have to boon strip Blue Guardian to kill it). Unyielding Anguish is a handy movement skill, which can be really important against some bosses, notably Matthias during Storm Phase (movement skills don't count as movement for the purposes of walking around and building up knockdown stacks). Wrap up Rev can be played as a simple DPS class with a little bit of support that you turn on then ignore while you mindlessly mash 1 and 2 on Sword. You can get away with this because people don't understand how much it can bring to a raid group and just assume everyone brings it for Facet of Nature and nothing else. If you play Rev this way you're playing Rev pretty badly. Rev's DPS rotation is actually interesting if you're trying to squeeze everything you can out of the class, it's the highest break bar damage among commonly used builds (Venomshare Thief beats it out, but no one runs Venomshare Thief and Basilisk Poison doesn't work on Matthias, stupidly), and Rev packs a ton of utility into its abilities. Please don't play Revenant as a braindead class! It's a cool and fun class with tons of ways for you to contribute to a raid in expected and neat ways, well beyond what people expect out of you. Rev isn't the hardest class in the game to play at a basic, passable level, but if you want to play it well then (imo) it's in the top 3, behind Chrono and Engineer because there's a lot of nuance to juggling energy consumption and cooldowns at the same time. If I messed anything up, please let me know! If anyone wants to learn raiding Rev and has questions, I love answering questions! Magres fucked around with this message at 08:16 on Jul 7, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 19:27
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Kerrrrrrr posted:wow wasn't out yet in 2003 hmm, goes to show how good my memory is. I played EQ before WoW, but there was a gap that 2003 probably fell under. Magres posted:You should be running Glint/X where X can be Mallyx, Jalis, or arguably Shiro (I disagree with Shiro because you can't run Impossible Odds and Facet of Nature at the same time and if you're turning off Facet of Nature you're not doing your job to support the Chrono and if you're not running Impossible Odds then why are you in Shiro). I generally default to Jalis because it has better bar breaking than Mallyx. Shiro is good when you're not in an organized group (I use him when I'm just soloing around), but otherwise, yeah, a chronomancer can provide an alternate source of quickness that actually applies to the whole group and Shiro doesn't have much else going for him. I think Mallyx could pull a lot of weight if you did some sort of weird condition build with him. The Rev seems to have the tools to support it, although condition builds only get noted in PvP. I don't know why, what about it makes it less appealing for PvE? Obligatum VII fucked around with this message at 19:35 on Jul 5, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 19:29
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Magres posted:Y'all thinking Revenant is for braindead boneheads is why I can never get Revs to do goddamned proper bar breaking abilities. If you want to be a good rev there's a lot going on. Idk what inspired this post, but should probably note at the beginning that this is Raid-related, because Rev really doesn't need to be this complicated outside of that.
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Jul 5, 2016 19:54
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So as someone who basically stopped playing after HoT I started playing again in the last few days here and I'm liking the game a lot more now than I did then, fwiw.
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Jul 5, 2016 19:58
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Generic Octopus posted:Idk what inspired this post, but should probably note at the beginning that this is Raid-related, because Rev really doesn't need to be this complicated outside of that. People were talking about Rev being braindead in raids. Or at least I thought they were? Maybe I'm just dumb  Obligatum VII posted:hmm, goes to show how good my memory is. I played EQ before WoW, but there was a gap that 2003 probably fell under. Sorry yeah I meant it for raiding. I almost always do Shiro/Glint when I'm soloing in open world stuff, or in WvW. I love playing Hammer Rev in WvW, if you turn on Quickness and just spam hammer auto attacks and it crushes people really quickly. Then they get close and you hit Shiro heal, switch to Glint, and pop Sword 2 Sword 3 and blow away the remainder of their HP. It's really fun
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Jul 5, 2016 20:00
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Magres posted:
Thats a good write up. Revenant sounds interesting. Magres posted:People were talking about Rev being braindead in raids. Or at least I thought they were? Maybe I'm just dumb I think it started with me asking for class advice, based on wanting map soloing (champions)/small groups/map meta objective zergs in the context of playing a support class. Could you detail a bit about the revenants capabilitiesto do this? Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 20:06 on Jul 5, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 20:01
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Huge post about revenant
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Magres posted:Sorry yeah I meant it for raiding. I almost always do Shiro/Glint when I'm soloing in open world stuff, or in WvW. I love playing Hammer Rev in WvW, if you turn on Quickness and just spam hammer auto attacks and it crushes people really quickly. Then they get close and you hit Shiro heal, switch to Glint, and pop Sword 2 Sword 3 and blow away the remainder of their HP. It's really fun Done any experimenting with a Mallyx/Glint condition build in PvE/PvP? I think I want to try giving it a shot, but I want to know if it feels fun/effectual before going into the hassle of collecting Viper armor.
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Jul 5, 2016 20:12
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Ineptitude posted:Thats a good write up. Revenant sounds interesting. Sure! Not sure about soloing champions. I haven't had much luck doing it in Zerker gear, but maybe in Soldiers you could? Rev's not super good at self-sustaining if you're running Shiro/Glint and Sword/X + Staff (X being Axe or Shield). For doing Hero Points I've always just declared something like "VB Hero Point Train" on LFG, gotten a few people together, and cleared the map. Non-HoT champions are pretty easy to kill by comparison though, and Rev doesn't have a ton of trouble with them. For open world PvE stuff I tend to default to Shiro/Glint and Sword/Axe + Hammer unless I know something is going to need a lot of bar breaks. A lot of open world bosses really punish you hard for being in melee, particularly if you run Berserker gear, so being able to hang back slinging Hammers can be nice, particularly if you want to just chill out and not worry about dodging attacks that will rip off 70% of your hitpoints if they connect. Also Hammer 5 is an okay break bar ability (it's got nothing on Staff 5 but it's ranged, which is handy). It just takes an eternity to cast, so you have to be quick on the draw or it'll come out too late. My general procedure with my default setup is to pop Nature, Elements, Darkness, and Strength and use my 1/2 skills (on Hammer or on Sword) until I run out of energy (let yourself run out of energy) then switch to Shiro, hit Impossible Odds, and spam 1/2 until I run out of energy, switch back to Glint, rinse wash repeat. The reason you want to run out of energy here (but not in raids) is so you can turn off Facet of Nature without having to manually turn it off. Just running out of energy puts it on a ~5 second cooldown, manually turning it off gives you a bunch of boons but puts it on a ~20 second cooldown. Nature, Elements, Darkness, Strength in Glint should give you 100% uptime on Fury and Swiftness and generally keep you hovering around 10 stacks of might, so you'll hit pretty hard. Also In my experience the default raid build on metabattle works fine for open world stuff.
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Jul 5, 2016 20:16
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That's a really good post but I have to laugh at the idea of '99% spamming 1, 2 and occasionally F1, 1% hitting weapon swap and 5' as not being braindead.
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Jul 5, 2016 20:19
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Obligatum VII posted:Done any experimenting with a Mallyx/Glint condition build in PvE/PvP? I think I want to try giving it a shot, but I want to know if it feels fun/effectual before going into the hassle of collecting Viper armor. Condi Rev doesn't really work in PvE because it does almost all of its damage through Confusion and Torment, which are basically non-functional in PvE because no enemies move enough or attack fast enough to make them useful conditions. It sucks, I'd love to have Condi Rev be a thing in PvE. In PvP the 'meta' build for Condition is Shiro/Mallyx and Sword/Shield + Mace/Axe. It gets away without Glint because Mace/Axe lets you set up and blast fire fields, and with Facet of Nature Rev can readily hit 65% boon duration (Herald has a 15% boon duration minor trait) and you can keep yourself at like 15 Might stacks. I don't really like the Condi build, personally, just because it hasn't ever really clicked for me, but I've definitely had people kick my rear end with it. Illuyankas posted:That's a really good post but I have to laugh at the idea of '99% spamming 1, 2 and occasionally F1, 1% hitting weapon swap and 5' as not being braindead. It's a class that's really easy to pick up, but relatively complex to master. That's actually one of the things I really like about Revenant, its only got a few abilities that are "core, must be used" abilities but tons and tons of situationally fantastic abilities. It means you have lots of room to think about what the boss is going to do next and how best to help your raid group mitigate that. Magres fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Jul 5, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 20:40
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I mean it shouldn't be surprising goons don't read whole posts, see something they don't like, and then make enormous write ups about what they think is being said. There have been so many posts trying to answer the question of "I want to play a support build in non raid pve and wvw" that haven't actually done so and it kind of bothers me.
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Jul 5, 2016 21:04
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People have actually posted a bunch about different ideas for support builds though? I think the only major build that hasn't really been covered is Phalanx Strength Warrior which hits people to hand out lots of damage buffs.
Magres fucked around with this message at 21:13 on Jul 5, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 21:07
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yeah i posted a supporty druid thing 
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Jul 5, 2016 21:12
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Phalanx Strength Warrior Guide 1. Equip a greatsword 2. Wait until someone brings up PSEA warrior so you can say 'all you have to do is press 2, what a dumb build for idiots' 3. Continue spamming gravedigger for big loving numbers
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Jul 5, 2016 21:28
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GRAAAVEEEE DIIIGGGERRRRRR
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Jul 5, 2016 21:31
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Someone effortpost Mesmers and Guardians tia
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Jul 5, 2016 21:34
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Kerrrrrrr posted:yeah i posted a supporty druid thing Indeed you did! i am going to try your build out next, after having played the LB/sword-axe build a bit more. (im not really feeling the LB/sword-axe build but want to give it a fair try)
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Jul 5, 2016 21:55
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Ineptitude posted:Indeed you did! i am going to try your build out next, after having played the LB/sword-axe build a bit more. (im not really feeling the LB/sword-axe build but want to give it a fair try) i forget if i did the support build traits right since the site is blocked at work but once i get home i'll check and put together a real support build.
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Jul 5, 2016 22:01
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Stormgale posted:Someone effortpost Mesmers and Guardians tia I can effortpost Chrono and Guardian for raids if people want. Guardian is pretty simple in raids, Chrono is probably the most difficult role in raids but is also very rewarding to play once you get it down. I don't know open world for either of them super well (I have opinions about Guardian because I play it a little out in the wild, but other people probably have more informed opinions). Magres fucked around with this message at 22:25 on Jul 5, 2016 |
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Jul 5, 2016 22:15
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I've not really played much recently, just logged on for dailies then buggered off, so here's a few pics of some of my favourite alt outfits, please post your own so I can    I generally went for a range of appearances for all my alts, from my ele looking classy, to my guard looking... less so. Also despite the plant pieces my warrior isn't actually a sylvari.     Likewise my engineer actually is one. Really, sylvari are easiest to get away with an all cultural armour look, such as what my sweet-rear end necro is decked out in, but if you can find the right pieces a combo of plant/regular skins like my rev and my ranger here can be pretty darn good too.  Included because Fat Darth Maul.    Trying to outfit asura is a mixed business. Sometimes you can find a decent combo, like my ranger, and sometimes you aim for weird as hell as per my mesmer here. Usually though you find a decent look like my warrior is sporting there and no one notices because of how hosed up asura are. Post your own, I want to see who has the best fashion sense and then admire and plunder it mercilessly
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Jul 5, 2016 22:29
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Blasphemeral posted:Many of them on separate occasions specifically told me this. I see that there's a decent number of people reporting in this thread to the contrary, and that's cool. To you heal-lovers: where were you guys in 2003? We really could have used your help. I've played healers or other support types since I started playing the type of game where that's option, though that was in 2005 when GW1 came out. goddammit I just want my monk back ok Stormgale posted:Someone effortpost Mesmers and Guardians tia What do you need? I can do a raid chrono effort-post. Or a WvW mesmer effort post. Or a PvP mesmer effort post.
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Jul 5, 2016 22:35
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Actually, gently caress it, I have an hour or tow to kill, I'll make a mesmer general effortpost. Will edit it here later.
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Jul 5, 2016 22:44
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can a dedicated ventari revenant even be remotely good as a main healer/supporter
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Jul 5, 2016 22:45
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Compared to druid, tempest, guardians, or Glint rev? No, not really.
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Jul 5, 2016 22:57
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Johnny Joestar posted:can a dedicated ventari revenant even be remotely good as a main healer/supporter I've never used it personally, but from reading and seeing a couple in play it can work but only with a bunch of Healing Power behind it. Contrast with Druid that heals well regardless, or Tempest that can heal better even without Healing Power. Basically it's not necessarily bad, it's just the worst. I only brought it up 'cause it seemed to fit the poster's preferences.
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Jul 5, 2016 22:57
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Hello just started playing this, as a sylvari. I got to around level 14/15 at the north end of caledon, but when I go through the portal into kessex it's right into level 21+ mobs. Is there an alternative to going through the gnome zones to the west?
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Jul 5, 2016 23:19
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pisshead posted:Hello just started playing this, as a sylvari. I got to around level 14/15 at the north end of caledon, but when I go through the portal into kessex it's right into level 21+ mobs. Is there an alternative to going through the gnome zones to the west? In the Grove, there's an Asura Gate to a city called Lion's Arch. It'll take you to a little gate hub where you can access every race's home city, and from there all their starting zones.
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Jul 5, 2016 23:23
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Ineptitude posted:Indeed you did! i am going to try your build out next, after having played the LB/sword-axe build a bit more. (im not really feeling the LB/sword-axe build but want to give it a fair try) okie doke here's my pure support druid build! http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?vNAQJAWTnEqAVsitsAOsActgFCBzZ2NDudLluAQVD+reWTrnIdtnC it will work anywhere you're running around in a group other than spvp and raids probably. dungeons, events, wvw, whatever. this thing will poo poo out buffs and heals like there's no tomorrow. you can also do some decent damage with condi gear. do not underestimate the fire trap. let me know if you want me to go into more detail on how stuff works and combos together. most of it isn't too complicated. place field, blast it, win.
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Jul 6, 2016 00:40
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I raided as a guardian once. I hit things with my hammer and then we won. The end..
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Jul 6, 2016 01:37
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Generic Octopus posted:In the Grove, there's an Asura Gate to a city called Lion's Arch. It'll take you to a little gate hub where you can access every race's home city, and from there all their starting zones. To add to this, if you're on a Free account, it won't let you in to Lion's Arch until level 30 or so. To compensate for this, all new characters get a waypoint in each starter zone, to let you hit other starter zones without having to route through LA.
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Jul 6, 2016 02:11
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Ok, I said I'd write an effortpost on mesmers. Turns out effortposts are a lot of effort, and this might take a while, but here's part 1: traits and shatter skills. Since it's past 4k words, I'll break here and write up weapons and skill tomorrow a similar way, with descriptions of what they do, notable interactions with other things, and why they're commonly liked or disliked and which kinds of builds are they used in. After that's done and the basic class properties are done, I'll write up something explaining a common build or two for each game mode with some playstyle advice, and usage notes for special situations like portals. I know this isn't a use these skills push these buttons in this order type build advice post like someone might have hoped, but I hope it might help people not familiar with mesmers understand WHY metabattle tells you to use certain traits or to put together their own builds. Mesmers 101: Effortpost 1 - Class abilities: Like most classes, mesmer traits significantly modify the class abilities. In addition to their core functions, all of them can, for example, grant you quickness or alacrity, act as condi clears, or strip boons. Because of this, most builds want to use all of them, all the time. Exceptions exist for phantasm-focused builds which only use shatter skills when really needed, but thanks to some of the traits in the Chronomancer line, even they usually want to be quite liberal with their shatters. Actual shatter builds basically want to use them on cooldown unless you have a reason to believe you will need Distortion or Diversion before the cooldown is over. If you don't know that you should specifically be avoiding them, you should be smashing those buttons. Remember that the effect also happens on your character (you count as an illusion), so for example Distortion will still give you a short period of invulnerability, boon strips and condi clears trigger, Continuum Split will still duplicate your emergency Moa, and Diversion will still interrupt someone even if you have 0 illusions up. Shatter skills are all instant cast and can also be used during crowd control effects or while channelling another skill, which can be useful eg. when you're stunned and REALLY need that Distortion, or want to use their condi clear to get rid of Fear. Mind Wrack: The main source of damage for all power shatter builds. Notably also the shortest cooldown of them all, making it optimal for use as a boonstrip or condi-clear button without worry about having it available later, and something that you should be using on cooldown even out of combat if you're using Chronomancer so that you can keep getting Alacrity. Cry of Frustration: To condi builds what Mind Wrack is to power builds. The second-shortest cooldown, with the same implications a for Mind Wrack. Diversion: The crowd control button. Dazes the target (or up to 5 targets within the small AoE, if you're using the Master of Fragmentation trait). Note that Daze duration does not stack, so if you have multiple illusions up (remember you count as one), try to position yourself so that the illusions hit slightly after one another for repeat effect. Distortion: Your Invulnerability button. Reminder yet again, you count as an illusion. The duration is longer for each illusion you have up, but even that 1 second from just yourself can save you. Note that since this is actual invulnerability (ie, skills that ignore blocking or other evasion effects do not ignore Distortion), you do not contribute to contesting circles in PvP while Distortion is active. With multiple illusions up, this can last long enough for an enemy to decap a point from under you. The Inspiring Distortion minor trait form the Inspiration line makes this an AoE, granting 1 second of Distortion to up to 5 allies within the small AoE. The short duration makes it somewhat gimmicky to time, but it is also the only AoE invulnerability skill in the game. Continuum Split: Chronomancers only. Plop down a space time rift. Number of illusions increases duration before rift closes. When the rift closes, your health and all your cooldowns return to what they were the moment you created the rift, and you teleport to its position. You can also close the rift voluntarily, using the chain skill that replaces it. The rift is visible and targetable to everyone, and can be destroyed with a small amount of damage, ending the effect early. Notably excellent for effectively allowing you to reset the cooldowns on a set of long-cooldown skills like wells and elite skills. Note that if you have a skill on cooldown when you use Continuum Split, the cooldown will return to what it was before you used it when the split ends, even if the cooldown expired while the rift was open. Mesmers 101: Effortpost 2 - Traits: Domination The power damage tree. Also contains a few things that may make it useful for other builds, such as Shattered Concentration. Lots of traits that cause or benefit from Vulnerability, as well as a bunch of on-interrupt traits in case you want that GW1 mesmer feel. Minor traits: Illusion of Vulnerability: Inflicts 3 stacks of Vulnerability for 5s when you interrupt a foe. Dazzling: Inflicts 5 stacks of Vulnerability for 8s when you Daze a foe. Far more useful than the previous line thanks to Distortion. Note that this does not have an internal cooldown, meaning you can very quickly put 20 stacks of Vulnerability on something while also Dazing them, which is great on its own and even better with the next minor trait. Fragility: Deal 0.5% more damage for each stack of vulnerability on your target. Vulnerability stacks up to 25, so at best it’s a 12.5% boost to all damage you deal to the target. In group PvE, this will happen more often than not against any enemy where it would matter. In WvW and sPvP, the bonus you’ll ever actually get (outside of a well-executed burst utilising the above) is much smaller, but it is still a straight-up you deal X% more damage, as a minor trait. Tier 1: Confounding Suggestions: 100% chance to Stun a target instead of Dazing them, with a 5s internal cooldown. Also increases duration of both by 25%. Sounds nice, but in practice there’s no point. Empowered Illusions: Illusions deal 15% more damage. Great for phantasm builds. Worthless for shatter builds. Rending Shatter: Shatter skills inflict Vulnerability. Remember what Fragility does. If you’re using Domination with a shatter build, use this. 1 stack, 10 seconds, but again, remember that each illusion is a hit, and most shatters are AoE. Tier 2: Shattered Concentration: Shatter skills also remove a boon on hit. One per hit. Note that with 4 clones, that can be 4 hits, and most shatter skills are AoE. Remember stability is a boon, and Diversion is a shatter skill. Blurred Inscriptions: Signet recharge is reduced, and activating a signet removes a condition and grants 1 second of Distortion. Signet-heavy builds aren’t as common anymore, but this can still be a very strong defensive trait if you have 2 or 3 signets on your bar and know you don’t need Shattered Concentration. Furious Interruption: Gain Quickness when you interrupt a foe. Quickness is good, but interrupts are never going to be reliable enough to make this trait worth it over the beautiful bastards that are the other two. Tier 3: Imagined Burden: Whenever you or a clone uses Spatial Surge (the greatsword autoattack), you gain might. GS skills have reduced recharge. All other GS skills inflict Cripple. The Might gain is significant, 2 stacks for 5s every time you or a clone autoattack, and the cooldown reduction is nice as well. However, you probably shouldn’t be spending that much time autoattacking with clones (note: not phantasms) up Good for phantasm builds in places where you don’t expect to reliably interrupt anyone. Mental Anguish: Shatter ills deal 15% more damage, increasing to 30% more against inactive foes. The mainstream option for shatter builds, especially in PvE where inactivity is more common. Power Block: Interrupting an enemy deals damage and inflicts weakness, and interrupted skills have their cooldown increased by 15s (does not affect skills that have no cooldowns). Consider what this can mean in sPvP, with particularly healing skills. Not that useful in PvE (the cooldown isn’t relevant that often), but if you can land your interrupts with any sort of reliability in PvP, use this. If you can’t, use Mental Anguish. Dueling: The crit damage line. Used to be practically mandatory due to Deceptive Evasion pre-HoT, but has fallen from it’s lofty position. Lots of on-crit and on-dodge effects. Still great for condi phantasm builds. Minor traits: Critical Infusion: Gain vigor for 5s on crit, 10s internal CD. Consider the on-dodge effects later in this line. Sharper Images: Illusions inflict bleeding on crits. Remember what I said about condi phantasm builds? Only 5s base duration, 1 stack, but some of your phantasms are quantity monsters. Master Fencer: Gain fury for 5s when you strike an enemy below 75% health. 5s internal CD. You do have other options for Fury upkeep, but this is a decent one. Tier 1: Phantasmal Fury: Your phantasms gain 10s of Fury every 10 seconds. If you’re using a power Phantasm build or a non-pistol condi phantasm build, you want this. Desperate Decoy: Summon a clone and gain 3s of Stealth when you take damage under 50% health. 40s internal CD. Great escape/repositioning trait for WvW roaming and sPvP, sorta nifty in PvE. Note that stealth prevents capture point contribution. Duelist’s Discipline: Pistol attacks from you and your illusions have a 50% chance to cause a stack of bleeding. This is the trait you run if you’re using a condi phantasm build with a pistol. 50% chance for 1 stack may sound like not much, but remember the Phantasmal Duelist attacks 8 times each time it shoots. Tier 2: Blinding Dissipation: AoE blind centred on you whenever you use a shatter skill. An excellent defensive trait in any game mode for any build that uses Duelling, with the added bonus of combining excellently with Ineptitude from the Illusions line for condi shatter builds. Evasive Mirror: Gain 2s of projectile reflect on successful evasion, with 1.5s internal CD. Enormous fun in sPvP against rapid-attacking ranged classes like power longbow rangers or pistol thieves. Not as useful in PvE where the quantity of projectiles is rarely enough to be worth it or in WvW where the amount of AoEs is generally a bigger concern than direct projectile spam. Fencer’s Finesse: Gain a stack of Fencer’s Finesse for 6s each time you or an illusion strikes with a 1h sword. Each stack grants you 15 ferocity. Reduces recharge on sword skills by 20%. If you’re using duelling in PvE, you use this. No exceptions, no buts, no using a sceptre in PvE. Love your sword, love your Blurred Frenzy, love your Finesse. Great with the ubiquitous mainhand sword, even better if you have the off-hand as well. Tier 3: Harmonious Mantras: Mantras can be activated 3 times instead of 2. Activating a mantra gives a stacking (max 5 stacks) damage buff of 3% for 10s. The first effect makes this mandatory for any mantra-heavy builds. The main drawback is that you would be using mantras. Mistrust: Whenever you interrupt an enemy, inflict confusion in an AoE centred on them. Small radius, but 4 stacks. If you’re on top of your interrupts, good in condi builds of all kinds, and winner by default for power phantasm builds as well. For power shatter builds, you might as well take Deceptive Evasion instead for more illusions to shatter. Deceptive Evasion: Before HoT, this trait was practically mandatory for every mesmer build. Thanks to the Chronomancer traits Chronophantasma and Illusionary Reversion, there are now other ways of keeping your illusion numbers up. Chaos: Sort of the condi line, mostly the stealth and miscellaneous stuff line. Home of many things that would be really cool if they were just a little better. Lots of random boon or random condition on [trigger] type traits. Minor traits: Metaphysical Rejuvenation: Gain regeneration for 10s when your health drops below 75%. 15s internal CD. Illusionary Membrane: Gain protection for 3s when you gain regeneration. 15s internal CD. Chaotic Persistence: Outgoing boon and condition duration increase by 3% for every boon on you. This is one of the traits that makes Chaos better in large groups (raids, WvW zergs...) than solo. Still, even with only the 2 or 3 boons that you’ll maintain on yourself, the bonus is nice. Tier 1: Descent Into Madness: The mesmer fall damage trait. Creates a Chaos Storm (Staff 5) on fall, with 35s cooldown. Like all fall damage traits, raises the question of how often do you take fall damage while in combat? Illusionary Defence: Take 3% less damage for each illusion you have in the world. Excellent for phantasm builds, good for others. The usual option for this tier. Master of Manipulation: Reduce recharge on manipulation skills and gain projectile reflect for 2s when you use one. If you’re in a PvP match against a gimmick team of 5 P/P thieves, maybe, and even then only maybe. All other cases, bring Illusionary Defence instead. Tier 2: Mirror of Anguish: When disabled by a crowd control effect, reflect the effect back to its source. 60s internal cooldown. Helps make some fo the more CC-heavy PvE zones less annoying, and fearing someone off a ledge in WvW with their own fear is utterly hilarious. Also great for negating that initial burst in sPvP. Not that great in PvE outside of specific areas, but generally the default for this tier. Chaotic Transference: Gain 10% of toughness as condition damage. Useful for certain WvW condi builds, utterly irrelevant for anything else. Chaotic Dampening: Chaos Armour grants protection for 4s. Staff skills recharge by an extra 2.5% each second you have Chaos Armour. Good if you’re using a staff and are on top of your combos. Tier 3: Chaotic Interruption: When you interrupt someone, they are immobilised and gain one other random condition, and you gain might and a random boon. Durations vary from 3 to 5s. Condition list is all soft CC, not damage conditions, meaning that if you’re focusing on interrupts a lot this can be good even on power builds. Prismatic Understanding: Heavily nerfed from its short-lived glory day, but still a great buff for stealth-heavy builds. +50% stealth duration from mesmer skills, and gain a random boon every second while in stealth. Bountiful Disillusionment: When you use a shatter skill, gain a stack of stability for 5s and you and nearby allies gain a bon dependent on which skill you used. Mesmers have very few sources of stability, so even the one stack for 5s helps enormously in WvW, especially on something you’re using as much as shatter skills. Boons are Might, Vigor, Fury, Regen, Resistance in that order, of which the most significant is 3 stacks of Might for 15s on a skill with a 12s base cooldown. Very useful in WvW for all builds because of the stability, and a safe default for shatter builds everywhere. Inspiration: The healing and support tree. Don’t take that to mean it’s critical for raid chronomancers or anything like that, it’s not, but it is where your meagre group healing comes from. As a bonus, has a picture of a pink, sparkly unicorn. The star of the line is Restorative Illusions, which add healing and condi clear to your shatter skills, with Inspiring Distortion which makes your Distortion an AoE in second place. Minor traits: Power Cleanse: Cast Power Cleanse when you use a healing skill. Effectively adds a 2-condition AoE condi-clear to your healing skill. Actually quite nice especially if you’re using one of the very low CD heals like the mantra. Inspiring Distortion: Well hellloooo. 5s internal CD, 300 unit range AoE, centred on you. Max 5 targets. When you use Distortion, grant 1s of Distortion to nearby allies. I mentioned his in the Distortion description, because it is awesome. If you can time this right, you can completely negate a big attack for the entire group. Because it Distortion also makes you immune to unblockable effects, this lets you do funny things like save someone who hosed up from Sabetha’s unblockable instakill flamewall. Healing Prism: When you heal yourself, nearby allies are also healed for a small amount. This can be nice if you have a large number of smaller heals, like from Restorative Illusions. Gain 100 healing power for each illusion. This would be nice if you had skills that heal that aren’t your healing skill or shatter skills. Tier 1: Medic’s Feedback: +10% revive speed, 6s projectile reflect dome on you when you revive someone. 32s internal CD. One of the better on-revive traits, especially in places like raid wing 2 where you generally want a lot of projectile reflects. Restorative Mantras: Even for a mantra trait, this is poo poo. Heal allies around you when you finish preparing a mantra. For one, it requires using mantras. Secondly, its healing happens on a trigger than you reaaallly only want to ever encounter out of combat. Persisting Images: Phantasms have 20% more health and spawn with retaliation. Great for phantasm builds, less necessary after the changes to AE damage to minions but till the one you’ve made the at best dubious decision of running Inspiration with a phantasm build. Tier 2: Warden’s Feedback: Focus weapon skills recharge 20% faster and reflect projectiles. A good trait if you need a lot of reflects, somewhat dampened by the fact that focus 5 already destroys projectiles anyway. Restorative Illusions: The usual reason for taking this line in the first place. Your shatter skills remove conditions and heal you for a small amount depending on how many illusions you have active. Remember your shatter skills can be used while you’re disabled by CC. Great sustain for shatter builds, and lets you strip off fear or taunt. Protected Phantasms: Phantasm’s gain distortion for 1s when created, and illusions gain protection for 2s when you use a shatter skill. Sounds good, but then you remember minions take minimal damage from AoEs and realise how little it would actually do for you. Tier 3: Mental Defence: Spawns a Phantasmal Defender when you block or evade. A lingering 50% reduction is nothing to sneer at, but in order to actually keep the bonus you have to stop using your shatter skills and not replace the phantasm with one of your damage ones, meaning you either gain no practical benefit from the trait or gently caress over your damage. Illusionary Inspiration: Phantams grant regeneration to nearby allies. Whenever you summon a phantasm, cast Signet of Inspiration on 30s internal CD. Signet of Inspiration is a core utility skill for support-focused chronomancer builds, and another copy is always welcome. If you’re a mesmer in a raid or fractal group, you’re probably using this for that reason. Temporal Enchanter: Glamour skills last 2s longer and grant nearby allies superspeed and resistance for 2s when cast. Has potential in open world PvE if you use combat glamours, but tends to not get used because the glamours are outdone by other utility skills. Has a place in portal bombing in WvW. Illusions: An oddly excellent trait line, included in most current mesmer builds, both shatter and phantasm. More important for condi than power, but welcome in both builds. Minor traits: Illusionary Retribution: Shatter skills inflict confusion on hit. One stack, but remember what I keep repeating about the number of hits. Illusionist’s Celerity: Reduces recharge on illusion-summoning skills by 20%. Consider that pretty much all mesmer builds are fuelled by summoning illusions, either to fuel shatter skills or to replace lost phantasms, and then consider whether this is a good trait for literally any mesmer build. Master of Misdirection: Confusions you inflict last 33% longer. Shatter skills recharge reduced by 15%. Well then. This is what makes Illusions the core of condi shatter, and excellent for everything else. There is no mesmer that doesn’t benefit from CD reduction on their Distortion and Continuum Split. Tier 1: Compounding Power: Gain 3% damage and 50 condition damage for each active illusion. The winner for phantasm builds of all kinds. Persistence of Memory: Shattering a phantasm recharges all phantasms by 1s. Note that this is per phantasm. Consider how this could combine with Chronophantasma. An excellent trait for shatter builds, and a good one for phantasm builds in places where you expect to need Continuum Split/Distortion/Diversion regularly since this will help you get your babies back up faster afterwards. The Pledge: Torch skills remove conditions and recharge faster while in stealth. Since stealth focused builds tend to use torch anyway, this is an excellent trait for its narrowly defined niche. Tier 2: Shattered Strength: Shattering illusions grants you a stack of might per illusion for 10s. Power shatter builds, here’s your might stacks. Phantasmal Haste: Phantasm attack skill recharge reduced by 20%. And for the phantasm builds, here your winner. Maim the Disillusioned: Shatter skills inflict torment on hit. The condi shatter winner, especially in PvP where enemies are more likely to take the extra damage from torment. Tier 3: Ineptitude: Blind also inflicts a stack of confusion. Blocking or evading blinds the attacker for 4.5s. Internal CD of 10s separately for each target. Combines well with Blinding Dissipation from Duelling. Not that useful in PvE, but can be a good defensive trait in PvP (for anyone, with an extra bonus for condi builds). Your blocks and dodges negate two attacks instead of 1, what’s not to like? Master of Fragmentation: Borderline must-have for power shatter builds, and good for pretty much anyone. Mind Wrack crit chance increased by 10%. Cry of Frustration cripples. Diversion becomes and AoE. Distortion reflects projectiles. Continuum Split slows nearby foes when it ends. Malicious Sorcery: 20% increased attack speed while wielding a sceptre, and sceptre skills recharge 20% faster. Good if you use a sceptre and don’t need the extra defence from Ineptitude. Chronomancer: The current meta, for a good reason. Contains the game’s only sources of alacrity, the couples weapon and extra utility skills are all great, and the traits in the line were good enough to displace the previously-mandatory Deceptive Evasion. Once you have it unlocked, never take it off your list in any game mode. Minor traits: Continuum Split: Unlocks access to the titular shatter skill. Flow of Time: Gain 1s of alacrity for each illusion you shatter. Remember, you count as an illusion, and alacrity applies out of combat as well. If you have skills on cooldown and are not in combat, spam your shatter skills to keep them recharging faster. Time Marches On: The thing that made traveller runes no longer necessary for doing WvW as a mesmer. Move 25% faster. Duration of cripple, chill, and immobilize on you is reduced by 25%. Tier 1: Delayed Reactions: Interrupting a foe slows them for 4.5s. Slow is a good condition, but even if you land your interrupts reliably, this trait is utterly overshadowed by the other two. Time Catches Up: Activating a shatter skill gives your illusions superspeed. The way to 1v1 a mesmer in pvp is to get away when you see illusions running at you. This makes that significantly harder. For sPvP, you definitely want this. For WvW, you want this for small group or solo stuff. All’s Well That Ends Well: Wells grant 2s alacrity to 5 allies when they end. If you’re chronomancing for a group, you are most likely running wells. If you have more than one well on your bar (and are not in sPvP), you want this trait. More alacrity means more better. Tier 2: Danger Time: +30% crit chance against slowed enemies. Useful, since you have a few different ways of inflicting slow, but again a good trait is overshadowed by exceptional ones. Illusionary Reversion: Shattering at least 2 illusions generates a clone. A good trait for shatter builds. Take this if you know you will have 100% alacrity uptime in combat without Improved Alacrity. Improved Alacrity: Alacrity applied to you lasts 50% longer. A holy poo poo awesome trait. More alacrity means more better. You probably want this trait regardless of who and where you are. Tier 3: Lost Time: Gain a charge each time you crit. After 5 charges, your next hit slows the target for 3s. This is a cool trait, once again completely ignorable because the other two are excellent. Seize the Moment: Gain 1s of quickness for each illusion you shatter. Quickness is very strong, and this is a good trait in any game mode, bumping right up to awesome in sPvP and small scale WvW. Bring this if you can keep your illusions up without Chronophantasma. Chronophantasma: Your phantasms are resummoned the first time they are shattered. Resummoned phantasms are dazed for 1.5 when summoned. This is why Deceptive Evasion is no longer a must-have. This is an incredibly strong trait in any game mode. Bring this if you find that your shattering is limited y the availability of phantasms.
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Jul 6, 2016 02:59
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Blasphemeral posted:Many of them on separate occasions specifically told me this. I see that there's a decent number of people reporting in this thread to the contrary, and that's cool. To you heal-lovers: where were you guys in 2003? We really could have used your help. I was 7 in 2003. I don't mind healbotting, and I actually enjoy playing support in Overwatch. Sometimes though I like doing damage. vov
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Jul 6, 2016 03:54
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pisshead posted:Hello just started playing this, as a sylvari. I got to around level 14/15 at the north end of caledon, but when I go through the portal into kessex it's right into level 21+ mobs. Is there an alternative to going through the gnome zones to the west? If you've been to Brisban Wildlands, it's a shared gnome/sylvari zone and not just a gnome zone and it's the intended place to go after Caledon. If you haven't been, it's in the northwest corner, at the end of the road that goes past Wychmire Swamp. Kessex Hills is also a level appropriate zone, but it's in human lands and the level 15 stuff is in the northeast corner. You'll have to leave the jungle zones eventually, since there aren't any between levels 25 and 55. Like others mentioned, you can go to the other race's zones through the Lion's Arch portal if you bought the game/expansion (I'm not sure how it works now) or by finding the appropriate waypoints on the free version. You can also gently caress around in the other starting zones, since both experience and loot scales with level.
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Jul 6, 2016 11:19
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   I don't even know anymore. Lonk fucked around with this message at 14:02 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 13:28
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Waci posted:Very good words, all of them A++ effort post. Mesmer is a very rewarding class to play well.
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Jul 6, 2016 16:32
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Lonk posted:
I can see why she wears the shades. DonVincenzo posted:A++ effort post. Mesmer is a very rewarding class to play well. A very frustrating one to play poorly though, cause it means you'll eat dirt really fast. The mesmer is absolutely reliant on evasion, so mess up once or twice and that's it. You're a red smear. Also kind of tough to solo with due to that aforementioned wet tissue paper durability. Good evasion timing can help mitigate it, but if a PvE fight drags out, you're probably toast. Obligatum VII fucked around with this message at 16:57 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 16:54
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Kerrrrrrr posted:okie doke here's my pure support druid build! Thanks! What gear should i primarily use with this? Please say berserkers as all my gear is berserkers. The condi gear you mention sounds like an optional way of playing the build (?) Would also appreciate a writeup on how to play it. I do notice for example that the troll ungent tooltip in the build editor looks different from the one i see ingame (the blue lines are not there) Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 17:33 on Jul 6, 2016 |
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Jul 6, 2016 17:25
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My ele remains the only outfit I'm not changing every few days I'm playing a character.
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Jul 6, 2016 17:27
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Ineptitude posted:Thanks! what gear you wear depends on how much you want to specialize. personally i wear a stupid mishmash of various stats because I switch what i'm doing a lot. definitely get healing on your staff though. magi's? mender's? i forget these dumb names. berserkers is The DPS Gear for doing power damage (longbow, greatsword, sword). it probably wouldn't work for this particular build because your only power damage is gonna be from staff 1, axe 1 and horn 4. piddly damage! most of your actual damage is gonna come from your Fire Trap (burning) and Splitblade (bleeding) which are condi. this is a support build anyway so you want support stats. i honestly forget the name of the prefix but if you can get condi damage/vitality/healing (sage's? cleric's? seers???? I FORGET) you'll be set for this build. plus it'd be cheaper than zerkers anyway. that said, you can easily wear zerkers, switch out the axe/horn for a longbow (and swap to marksmanship traits), get a staff with healing on it, and go to town. i think that's what my first build i posted was. ranger is very very versatile and you can pretty easily adjust your build to match your gear. okay as far as how to play it! ...will have to wait til i get home from work cause these people are crazy and i can't see the builder website anyway.
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Jul 6, 2016 17:56
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