Guild Wars 2 - my colon was impacted because we were raiding for so long

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Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Gonna try out this game again, after playing it a bit at release.

I usually play support classes (healers) in MMOs but playing e.g. the paladin in GW2 didn't feel very "supporty" back at release, but more like a damage dealer with short defensive cooldowns with long reuse timers. Im not even sure i had a direct heal.

Are things still like this? I am unsure if i will have fun playing a support class in this game when they aren't particularly supportive; I have never minded the "holy trinity" of MMO classes to be honest. Are there any classes that can be said to be supportive in this game or are all classes damage dealers with a few other types of skills sprinkled in?

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 15:06 on Jun 17, 2016

# ¿ Jun 17, 2016 15:03

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:17

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Thanks for the input regarding a class to play (~10 pages back)

Several people suggested druid. I don't have HoT but started a ranger anyways. I rarely play pure DPS classes and am not a fan of pet classes so i am not enjoying the ranger all that much. I am a bit reluctant to continue since i don't enjoy ranger and reading on other forums druids aren't good for much other than pure healing (though the forums for this game on other web pages are the most whiny forums of any MMO i have ever seen, so it is difficult for someone with no experience with this game to sift out the whines from the real class concerns)

I made an ele instead, as it was said that they are good supports/healers as well. I quickly got to level 73 (level 30 token + killing yellows + crafting) and now find myself trying to make sense of what build to go for. I am unable to parse what a build actually DOES when i am looking at them on metabattle.com, there are so many abbreviations, unorthodox terms (the word "boon" instead of "buff" like every other MMO uses) and buzzwords.

I want to play a class that improves others, makes them do more damage, keeps them alive longer and generally makes everything go more smoothly. I want my presence to be noticeable, if such a thing exists in GW2.
I am interested in WvW (i played EOTM a bit and it was fun) and dungeons/fractals (are fractals different from dungeons?) I did play a few dungeons in storymode but the only thing i did on my ele was fireball and fire font, i didn't feel particularly useful.
Classes i am interested in are ele, guardian, warrior and maybe mesmer

Would really appreciate if someone could go into more detail what and how these classes actually do when they are support/heal, as well as the playstyle.

# ¿ Jun 28, 2016 15:30

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Thank you to the multiple people for responding regarding class choice! (not gonna quote all that)
You made several classes sound more interesting than i gave them credit for at a glance and explained the playstyles in more detail.

I opted to continue on my ranger with the aim of playing a supporty druid, with a build suited for small groups and PVE map zergs/events.
After grinding to 80 in a couple of hours (a couple of xp boosts + fully bonused enemies makes for incredibly fast leveling!) and spending a couple of days getting "aquainted with" (my rear end handed to me repeatedly) HoT zones and mechanics i had the 250 hero points required to 100% unlock druid.
I am a bit underwhelmed. None of the staff skills seems to pack a very large punch, and the actual healing that everyone has been talking so warmly about is hidden behind a long "cooldown" with an incredibly short duration. (i haven't even had the time to read the description of the last 2 skills yet) And to add even more insult to injury the healing skills behind the cooldown doesn't even seem to heal myself (?!) I honestly was expecting something else when reading the explanations about the druid, but perhaps i was expecting too much. Or at the very least it seems my expectations aren't in line with how this game works at a base level.

When i think of support classes or buffers or healers i think of someone that does that job nearly all - to all the time. Buffs should be permanently up, heals should be spammable. If the druid heals were the baseline staff skills and the cooldown opened up all the dps skill that would be more aligned with what i was expecting (hoping) At the very least buffs should have permanent uptime. Right now it seems they are up 20-30% of the time.

Maybe the game itself isn't for me. I really do not like the weapon swapping mechanic, i find how every single skill is essentially a short duration cooldown type skill frustrating and the thought of trying to decipher what a "build" does to see if it suits my playstyle makes me not want to log on. There are so many terms and mechanics and interactions my thoughts trail off before i am even halfway in trying to understand a build because i find these ways of character customization so boring. (If you have skill A and skill B then skill C will have increased duration if it is winter solstice and you are wearing a tophat)
I do enjoy lots of the features of the game though. The map objective way of "questing" is great, the art style really works, the lore is interesting. The personal story mechanics are great. The first few weeks of gameplay were lots of fun, some of the most fun i have had gaming in a long while. That is why i don't just find a different game to play. I really think i can enjoy this game if i could only get comfortable with a class/build/playstyle but i am not the kind of person to find it interesting to try and make these builds myself.

TLDR; I would really appreciate some (further) help with a druid build well suited for map exploration, soloing tougher enemies, small pve groups and map meta events/zergs

# ¿ Jul 4, 2016 18:56

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Magres posted:

Longbow/Staff Berserker Druid should do the trick I think

Not totally sure about traits though

E: This looks good http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Druid_-_Power_Glyph_Buffer

You don't heal as much as someone using staff, but Celestial Avatar is still good group healing and your glyphs all spit out heals

Thanks! Berserker (or similar names in builds) means the type of armor that build uses?

Thanks for linking a build. I tried it out all yesterday but its not really sitting well with me.

Generic Octopus posted:

Since you have HoT now, maybe investigate Revenant, specifically the Ventari and Glint stances. Ventari healing isn't meta but you might like it.

e: in case you don't know, you can make the character & enter the PvP hub to mess around with all the traits & skills.

Organza Quiz posted:

The other class that I really enjoy from a support point of view is revenant, as someone mentioned earlier. Glint legend gives you a whole lot of buffs that you can have up permanently and give permanently to people who are nearby to you as long as you manage your energy effectively, and Ventari has heal/reflect although personally I normally stick to Glint.

I thought revenant was something similar to the shadowknight/deathknight archetype, i.e. a heavy armor user with evil alignment spells like poisons and drain life.
Could you give a quick (and more accurate) description of revenant and their capabilities?

Blasphemeral posted:

Spending anything near 100% of your time topping-off health bars was one of their primary things they set out to prevent in this game. Everyone has a decent share of the responsibility for keeping themselves alive and motive, and every class has the ability to do that.

I'm gonna be honest with you, you're one of the, maybe, three people I've online-met ever that actually likes that healbot playstyle, and traditional MMOs required at least one in every group just to function.

Odd, i have always seen plenty of healers in MMOs i have played. When i was the GM of a hardcore WoW raiding guild healers were by far the easiest role to recruit, and i mean good ones that wanted to play healers not bad ones that chose the heal role to more easily get groups. The most difficult to recruit for were good DPS. (Maybe its a regional thing? I've mostly played on EU realms in MMOs where there is a EU/US separation)

# ¿ Jul 5, 2016 16:50

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Magres posted:

Huge post about revenant
If I messed anything up, please let me know! If anyone wants to learn raiding Rev and has questions, I love answering questions!

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

# ¿ Jul 5, 2016 20:01

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

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)

# ¿ Jul 5, 2016 21:55

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Kerrrrrrr posted:

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.

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

# ¿ Jul 6, 2016 17:25

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Kerrrrrrr posted:

Druid stuff holy poo poo this took a long time and i don't even play this game anymore but WHO CARES HERE WE GO

Thanks! Lots of good info. The build you linked looks quite different from the previous one you linked (LB/staff) and is also not the build you mentioned with condition damage and sword-axe :confused:

I might be asking for a lot here but i would really appreciate:

1. a short writeup what the first build you linked is for
2. The difference between the first build and the megapost build, as i got the impression the first build was the heal/group build?
3. a link to the condi damage sword-axe build
4. A build for sustained adventuring, e.g. soloing champions

(There is probably a lot of crossover between those 4 points)

# ¿ Jul 7, 2016 16:54

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Sjonkel posted:

Tried this out a few days ago, and bought Heart of Thorns now that the price is 50%. So far I've got 3 characters done with their first personal story quest: A necromancer, an elementalist and an engineer. They all seem enjoyable in their own way, but i might lean a little towards elementalist so far. A few questions, hopefully someone can answer.

I usually play support roles, and enjoy those the most. Which professions are especially good at a support role? Doesn't have to be any of the three I've tried so far.

You sound like me. I have only ever played support roles and healers in MMOs and it took me a long time to come to terms with that this archetype does not exist in GW2. Essentially everyone are dps'ers and everyone has a self heal skill (on button 6, the most powerful heals in the game) which they do need to use to stay alive even when classes with heal heavy builds are present.
The way this game works is that every profession (class) has multiple builds. Builds are a certain layout of traits (talents) and weapon choices that together create combos, synergies or generally work well together. A few of the professions has builds that are much more support oriented than some of their other builds. A few classes has very little support at all.

The ranger can have a very heal heavy build with its druid specialization. This build has very little personal dps and few boons (the GW2 word for buff)
The ranger can have a more dps oriented build that also throws out multiple buffs, but is unable to keep these permanently up.

The elementalist has a heal and boon heavy build under its tempest specialization. This type of build is called auramancer. It can be tweaked in various ways to offer more/less healing at the cost of personal dps.

The warrior can keep up a big stack of "might" (a boon that increases power) permanently through its normal gameplay but offers no other support in this build.

The revenant has a build that keeps multiple boons up permanently but this has a heavy upkeep of the revenant unique resource and means they can do little else than auto attack.

I have a ranger, elementalist and revenant at 80 and tried their support builds and have the most fun with the auramancer style of elementalist. I do decent dps and am fairly sustainable and constantly keep several buffs up on my allies (and myself). It has exactly the right amount of button clicking to be intersting without being too dependant on a perfect rotation.
The ranger didn't click with me as the "healing mode" is hidden behind an unlock mechanic (do x amount of damage or healing) and it only lasts for like 15 seconds.
The revenant has a ton of interesting skills, both mechanically and visually, but you don't get to do any of that if you play support.
Just keep in mind that "healer" in this game is comparable to e.g. a retribution paladin or enhancement shaman in WoW trying to play a dedicated healer. You can keep people alive for a little longer but you aren't saving anyone from the big boss attacks, it is up to each player to dodge those.

I have heard mesmer and guardian have supportive builds as well but i know nothing about them.

Disclaimer: i am by no means an expert, having only played the game for a month. The information above is my impressions on this topic

Sjonkel posted:

And lastly, is the European goon guild still active? Is it possible to get an invite if so?

I am from europe and am in the EU goon guild as well as in the US guilds, as are some other people. The EU guild is very dead but since you can be in 5 guilds at once i haven't seen a need to leave it. I am not sure if there are anyone left that can invite. I joined it when the game had just released. I only played for a week and recently returned to the game. I had not gotten kicked for 3 years of inactivity

Join one or both of the US guilds. It doesn't matter what region you are in for many of the activities in the game. Chat, the trading post (auction house) and outdoor maps are global while dungeons are region specific. Only WvW is dependent on what realm you are on. I spent 1800 gems to join SFD on their home realm Maguuma so that i had the opportunity to WvW with them but in hindsight that was not the best use of my money as i have never seen any advertised WvW group. I am guessing this type of activity happens when us europeans have gone to bed.

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 19:12 on Jul 20, 2016

# ¿ Jul 20, 2016 19:08

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

I've mostly been doing HoT meta events without any particular goal but it is time to start working towards something, and i am thinking ascended weapons and/or armor. I am assuming all these materials that have slowly been piling up in my inventory and bank is for crafting ascended stuff.

I currently have over 2 thousand Bloodstone dust, 500 empyreal fragments, a thousand airship oils, almost a thousand dragonite ore, 500 auric dust and several hundred globes of ectoplasm. There must be something i can use these things on.

I tried googling for and reading an ascended crafting guide but it doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The guides are messy and seem to make several assumptions that i know many of the required aspects already. They are also seemingly out of date? (they mostly seem to have been made before HoT, one guide was as old as 2013)

Is there an up to date guide and or a more condensed step by step instruction on how to craft this stuff?

# ¿ Jul 24, 2016 12:46

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

CLAM DOWN posted:

One day there will be a late night hero train for Pacific

And one that eurogoons can join

# ¿ Jul 26, 2016 07:22

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Can someone explain the consequences of the elementalist changes?
Were the changes justified and brought elementalist in line with the other classes or is elementalist now a weak class?

The official elementalist forums seems to think the world is ending but people being emotional about MMO class changes is nothing new. Seeing as i am fairly inexperienced it is easy to listen to such posts and treat it as truth. I even caught myself thinking about playing a different class yesterday.

Do i need to care if i play a Fresh Air Auramancer, primarily do map meta events and solo pve? (and would like to start doing more fractals now that i have most masteries i am interested in)

I already felt fairly squishy even with primarily magi and cleric gear (very little oomph from the heals) and Wash The Pain Away feels even less oomphy now (even with all that healing gear)

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 12:47 on Jul 27, 2016

# ¿ Jul 27, 2016 12:45

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Ra Ra Rasputin posted:

With a about a hour of spare time and all the exp boosters you can find you can fill out the gliding mastery by just doing fast, high exp activities, your choice from doing quick gold medal adventures, jumping in when it's time to boss rush one of the zones like tarir octovine takes 10-15 minutes when it begins and verdant bank night time bosses you can tag all 5 of them and collect the event exp and loot as they get downed.

I tried double dipping the VB night time rally point defenses but only got participation and rewards from one. Does the double dipping trick only work on events that don't end at the same time?

CLAM DOWN posted:

I guess I'm just hopeless then I can never remember.

e: I guess what would be useful for apparently slow people like me, would be some kind of guide where there's a list of adventures, a little map showing where it is or how to get there, then any requirements for it? Like aren't some only open at certain times? I never learned any of this and never saw any kind of learning process or tutorial for this. I'm not someone who goes out of my way to put effort into learning this anymore, I want to have my hand held.

Did you look at the event timer page? It shows when the various HoT meta events start. After discovering this i no longer constantly refresh LFG hoping for a new meta event group to be up and instead roughly know when i should start looking for them.

I am generally in a similar boat as you. When i first started HoT my enjoyment of the game tanked something fierce. The maps were super confusing and all the enemies did way too much damage and had so many stuns, knockdowns, roots and other things that are simply not fun. I kept playing though and feel i have a good grasp of the HoT map layouts now and find myself enjoying HoT. I suppose i also got better at playing the game as the HoT enemies are much less intimidating now.

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 22:41 on Jul 29, 2016

# ¿ Jul 29, 2016 22:36

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

SlothBear posted:

Adventures?

I have no idea what any of this stuff is. Adventures?

# ¿ Jul 30, 2016 10:32

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

The more i play this game the more i enjoy it and all its unique mechanics. The event system as a main grouping mechanic and questing mechanic instead of singleplayer quests and 5 man dungeons suits me perfectly and i wish more MMOs did this.
I also really like how all classes have unique mechanics and/or resources. Well done ANET.

I am still not able to settle down on a class to play though.
My 80s with fully unlocked elite specialization are druid, revenant, elementalist and mesmer. I have tried all the other classes in the PVP lobby and they don't really interest me so whatever fun i get out of this game must happen on one of the 4 classes i now have.

-The Revenant was a blast to level but not fun at all in HoT events.

-The druid was fun to level and sounds like a suitable class for me with its support and healing capabilities but i couldn't find the fun in it. The celestial form being on a cooldown is such a let down.

-The elementalist was a joyride during leveling and its the class i have had the most fun with in HoT, playing an auramancer. Having a bunch of buffs and heals on short cooldowns is quite fun and it feels like i am really contributing, be it in fractals, dungeons or pve events. I am dying way too much though, and that is killing my enjoyment of the class bigtime. If i get hit by a single mini kamikaze elemental during bloodstone fens blood elemental champion events i am dead, because i will get knocked around by bomb after bomb until downed state then death, without being able to do anything about it.

-The mesmer is a really interesting class and maybe the most unique class i have played in a MMO. It is aparently a great support character but i am unable to find a build that does what i want. I want to keep playing PVE open map events and be a support class (boon giver) while retaining some ability to solo (can be separate builds). The 100% quickness uptime and the boonshare genre of builds seems interesting however all the builds i can find seems to be either specifically tailored for raiding (and tanking therein), WvW or high end fractals. e.g. dependant on a big stationary target so they can keep illusions up more easily, or other mechanics that are lacking in PVE events. None of the builds i can find seems suitable for the content i enjoy (open world events) while providing the kind of gameplay i enjoy (support)
The chronomancer support builds are also highly dependant on boon duration of which both commander and minstrel prefixes are extremely expensive to craft even as exotic items (commander has ludicrously expensive recipes, minstrel insignias are super expensive). Wanderer's, another prefix with boon duration, is a lot cheaper. Quite affordable, even.

# ¿ Aug 4, 2016 18:17

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Harrow posted:

Any tips for getting around Bloodstone Fen when you're only workin' with updrafts? Because hoo boy, that was a fun adventure last night. I don't think I managed to locate a single event, though I only tried for a half hour or so.

Seems like a really, really cool zone, though.

You really Really *REALLY* want advanced gliding, as it makes getting to that next updraft far away trivial, which makes navigation in the eastern floaty islands of Bloodstone Fen trivial. You do not at all need leyline gliding. In fact i find it quite detrimental; 90% of the time i find myself in a leyline it is because i accidentally touched it while trying to go "through" it. I wish there was a button i could hold down to not get sucked up into a leyline at times.

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 18:29 on Aug 4, 2016

# ¿ Aug 4, 2016 18:27

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

SlothBear posted:

You don't have to do that in this game.

Maybe YOU don't.

I find a lot more enjoyment from MMORPGs when playing a "main", learning that class very well and doing all i can on that class as opposed to either leveling a bunch of alts and/or swapping between a few alts all the time based on the type of content im doing.

# ¿ Aug 5, 2016 09:24

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

treizebee posted:

That's what I remember too, and I recall a few others years back saying the same things regarding saving your tomes for the slow slog of 50-70.

I have leveled 3 characters to 80 in the last 2 months and i noticed no real slowdown in the higher levels. If anything i'd say it was faster as there is less competition for targets.
Depends on how you level i guess. I grinded enemies, not hearts or story quests.

# ¿ Aug 6, 2016 08:26

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Waci posted:

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.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 07:59

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Waci posted:

Ok, next part of my series of pointless effortposts about mesmer mechanics: weapon skills. Next up ~~either tonight or~~ tomorrow, heal/utility/elite skills.

Book of Mesmer - Chapter 3: Weapons

Sword (main hand)
By far the most popular mesmer weapon due to relatively high DPS, a great evasion skill, and boon strip on autoattack. Used in in more builds than not, including (nearly) all power builds. Melee attacks with a short-range gap closer. Relevant trait is Fencer�s Finesse from the Dueling line.

Mind Slash/Gash/Spike: The autoattack chain. Each step can hit up to 3 targets. The first two apply vulnerability and some damage, the third one does larger damage and strips one boon. The damage increases slightly if the target has no boons.

Blurred Frenzy: A 2.5s channel that deals heavy damage in melee, and during which you evade all attacks. Note that unlike Distortion this is evasion rather than invulnerability, and thus unblockable attacks such as Dragonhunter pulls, retaliation, and certain raid boss attacks still affect you.

Illusionary Leap: A triple-purpose clone generator, gap closer, and immobilise. When you use the skill, you create a clone at your target and cripple them. When you use the chain skill, you swap places with your clone and immobilise enemies in melee range of where you end up. The swap (not the initial use) is also a leap finisher. A standard starter for your burst in many builds for the obvious reasons, and the clone creation and leap finisher make it useful mid-fight as well.

Scepter
A mainhand-only medium range condi weapon. Can gain increased attack speed and reduced cooldowns from Malicious Sorcery in the Illusions line. Notable for the autoattack chain spawning clones. Unlike most chain skills, you can advance in the chain without hitting a target, meaning you can in some situations set up your autoattack chain so that your first hit uses the third skill in the chain, which can be helpful for quick burst setup for condi shatter builds.

Ether Bolt/Blast/Clone: The first two attacks fire projectiles that cause Torment. Note that when autoattacking, the chain wont progress until the projectile actually hits a target, meaning your attack speed slows down as your distance from the target increases. Quickness and the Malicious Sorcery trait ignore this limitation. The third skill will either spawn a clone that uses Ether bolt (only Bolt, not the whole chain) or inflict yet more Torment, depending on whether you have unused illusions slots available. Unlike the first two, the last skill in the chain is not a projectile.

Illusionary Counter: 2s block channel that ends after 1 hit. If you block an attack, inflict Torment on the attacker and summon a clone that casts Ether Bolt. You can interrupt the channel to shoot a medium-range line that blinds targets in it.

Confusing Images: Channel a beam between you and your target that inflicts pulsing damage and confusion on the target and others in the beam. Channel lasts for 2 seconds and hits 6 times.

Greatsword
Two-handed long-range weapon. The default ranged option for power builds of all kinds. Damage scales with distance, making it less than ideal to use at short range. The Imagined Burden trait from the Domination line reduces cooldowns, adds Might to Spatial Surge, and Cripple to the other four.

Spatial Surge: Shoot a purple laser at your target, dealing damage that increases with distance from your target. Can hit two additional targets within the line.

Mirror Blade: Throw an illusionary greatsword that bounces between enemies and allies (including yourself). Deals damage and applies vulnerability to enemies, applies might to allies. Spawns a clone at the first target. Bounces 3 times. Each bounce towards an enemy counts as a projectile finisher with a 100% success rate. The attack is unblockable.

Mind Stab: Ground-targeted AoE damage skill, also strips one boon from each target hit. Note that this actually has a 0.25 second casting time, which is interrupted by movement.

Phantasmal Berserker: Summons a phantasm that leaps through the target in a whirling AoE attack. The attack cripples enemies, and also counts as a whirl finisher. Because the phantasm moves during its attack, the actual damage dealt to a target varies depending on the target(s)'s position(s) and and the size of their hitboxes, varying from very high if all 4 spins hit something to not much at all if only one does. The movement is perpendicular to the line between you and the target, and covers a distance of roughly 720 units.

Illusionary Wave: Deals minor damage to and knocks back enemies in a 450 unit range 90� cone in front of you. The knockback distance is one of the longest in the game (though multiple Launch skills have equal or greater range).

Staff
The other two-handed ranged weapon. Used to be common in PvP as a defensive weapon even in power builds, still the premier long-range option for condi builds of all kinds. The Chaotic Dampening trait reduces cooldowns and buffs Chaos Armor, which the weapon has multiple sources of.

Winds of Chaos: Shoots an orb that bounces between enemies and allies (the first target is always the one you cats it at, after that it will bounce to the closest enemy or ally) for 2 bounces. Allies randomly gain fury or might, enemies randomly gain bleeding, burning, or vulnerability. Note the range of the bounce is based on the previously touched target rather than on you, meaning as long as the first target is within 1200 units of you, consecutive bounces can reach targets that would normally be out of range.

Phase Retreat: Teleport away from your target for 400 units and summon a clone that casts Winds of Chaos. The clone is summoned at your initial position. If you have an enemy targeted, you teleport directly away from the target. If you have no target, you teleport backwards base don your characters facing. If you use staff, I recommend binding a key for 180� turn to allow you to easily switch your characters facing. Note that like most teleport skills, this can allow you to travel over certain ledges, which can be useful particularly in sPvP.

Phantasmal Warlock: Summons an illusion that attacks one target and deals damage depending on the number of conditions on the target. With no or very few conditions, the damage is quite low, noticeably behind other phantasms, but can scale to be very high. Note that the warlock�s projectiles travel along the ground, meaning they will be stopped by unwalkable ledges or gaps unlike most projectiles.

Chaos Armour: You gain Chaos Armor for 5 seconds. The aura gained is identical to the one gained from an ethereal field+leap/blast combo, but the aura is a good defensive buff. You gain a random boon from protection, regeneration, or swiftness every second, and each time an enemy hits you, they gain a random condition from weakness, confusion, and cripple.

Chaos Storm: Ground-targeted AoE that persists for 5s. Each second, enemies within the AoE take a small amount of damage, and gain a random one of chilled, poison, weakness, and daze. Allies within the field gain a random boon from aegis, retaliation, and swiftness each second. The AoE is also an ethereal combo field, meaning it can serve as a source of chaos armour when combined with the leap finisher from Phase Retreat.

Sword (offhand)
A popular offhand choice in PvE, especially for power phantasm builds due to the excellent phantasm. Benefits from Fencer�s Finesse just like the mainhand version.

Illusionary Riposte: 2.5s channeled block that ends on the first hit. When you get hit, you deal a moderate amount of damage and summon a clone. During the channel, you can use a chain skill to end the channel early (ie before blocking the single attack) to shoot a medium-range line towards your target that dazes enemies hit by it for 1s. Note that when you block, you also teleport a very short distance in a random direction (you�ll be in melee range of where you were before), which can be worth remembering if you�re in a place where your positioning is very precise, like standing in a small gap between red circles.

Phantasmal Swordsman: Summon a phantasm that hits your target with a sword. Counts as a leap finisher on you when you use the skill and on the phantasm when it attacks. Generally the highest-DPS phantasm (exceptions apply due to certain other phantasms� damage scaling off various things that aren�t easy to standardise).

Focus
Off-hand only utility weapon, with an AoE pull and an anti-projectile dome. The Warden�s Feedback trait from Inspiration makes both skills reflect projectiles.

Temporal Curtain: A line-shaped ground-targeted AoE that grants swiftness to allies and cripples enemies. Is also a light combo field. One second after casting, you can use a chain skill to end the effect, pulling enemies within 600 units of the field�s centre towards it. Pulled enemies always travel the same distance (450 units), regardless of their distance from the centre, meaning you can pull enemies past the line if they�re close enough to it when you do so. Excellent for pulling people off cliffs or walls in WvW, one of mesmer�s precious few sources of swiftness. Note that while the curtain�s cripple and swiftness have no limit on the number of targets, the pull can only affect a maximum of 5.

Phantasmal Warden: Summons a phantasm that does a stationary whirling attack with 12 attacks over 5 seconds, with max 3 targets. Every attack counts as a whirl finisher. Good damage if all 12 attacks hit. The attack also destroys projectiles that pass through its AoE (unless Warden�s Feedback is active, in which case they�re reflected instead) .

Pistol
Long-range offhand, with a bouncing hard CC skill and a good condi damage phantasm. Used to be used for condi phantasm builds and occasionally for interrupt-heavy gimmicks. Now uncommon due to bugged damage on the phantasm. Duelist�s Discipline from the Dueling line causes both your and the phantasm�s pistol attacks to have a chance of causing bleeding, and causes interrupts to partially recharge your pistol skills.

Phantasmal Duelist: Summons a phantasm that attacks 8 times. The damage in itself is decent, made better by combining the large number of attacks with Duelist�s Discipline and Sharper Images in condi phantasm builds. Currently out of fashion due to bugged damage scaling.

Magic Bullet: A bouncing projectile attack that stuns the first target (2s), dazes the second (2s), blinds the third (5s), and confuses the fourth (5s, 1 stack). Is also a projectile finisher.

Torch
The offhand weapon for stealth and condi builds, and reasonable common especially in sPvP and WvW roaming for other builds as well due to having stealth on a weapon skill. The Illusions trait The Pledge causes both skills to remove conditions and to recharge faster while in stealth.

The Prestige: Blind enemies around you in an AoE and stealth for 3s. When the stealth ends, deal moderate damage and inflict burning on enemies around you. The end of stealth is also a blast finisher, the only one that mesmers have. Note that the damage at the end of stealth technically occurs before the stealth ends, causing you to get the Revealed effect if an enemy is within range to be damaged by it.

Phantasmal Mage: Creates a phantasm that uses a bouncing attack that inflicts burning on enemies and grants fury to allies. All around decent damage phantasm, current standard for condi phantasm builds alongside Phantasmal Warlock due to not being bugged like Phantasmal Duelist.

Shield
Chronomancer only offhand, with a very good block skill, a phantasm that grants alacrity and slows enemies, and an AoE stun and quickness. Has no weapon-specific trait outside the one that unlocks its use. Common for builds of all kinds across all game modes.

Echo of Memory: 1.5s block channel. Unlike other mesmer weapon blocks, this one does not end after the first blocked hit. Instead, if the skill is allowed to channel for its entire duration, summon a phantasm that grants alacrity to allies and applies slow to enemies (both 2s every ~8s, in an AoE around the target). If the skill blocks an attack, an identical chain skill becomes available for 10 seconds, allowing you to effectively use the skill again before the cooldown starts.

Tides of Time: Launches a small moving AoE towards the enemy, which grants quickness to allies it touches and stuns enemies. The AoE travels 600 metres, and then returns to you, having the same effects on the way back. Touching the returning AoE reduces the skill�s cooldown by 10s. Note that targets blocking the skill or colliding with impassable environment cause the skill to end immediately, without turning back. One of the few AoE hard CC skills without a limit on the number of targets that can be affected. Targets with very large hitboxes like many champion and legendary mobs may be hit more than once as the AoE passes through them. Is also an ethereal combo field.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 07:59

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Magres posted:

Mesmers, Raiding, and You! Something something time traveling and illusions shutup I can't think of a clever tagline right now

I'll mostly be calling Mesmers "Chronos," shorthand for Chronomancer, their Elite Specialization that everyone always uses in every raid ever, because there's no reason to ever not use it. Chronos' job in raids is mostly to get as much Quickness and Alacrity onto their teammates as possible. Quickness makes people cast abilities 50% faster, and Alacrity makes their abilities recharge 33% faster (if someone has permanent Alacrity, their abilities will take 75% as long to recharge as they would without Alacrity). Doing a good job of pushing out tons of Quickness and Alacrity can increase your group's overall DPS by something like 30%, so it's a huge boost to your group's damage.

Build

There's actually a plethora of choices to be made when building a Chrono, so we'll start with the stuff that's fairly stable.

Weapons - Your weapon sets will be Sword/Shield and either Empty/Sword or Empty/Focus. Your mainhand slot in your second set remains empty so you can use your mainhand Sword in both sets. This is because you'll want a rather expensive Superior Sigil of Concentration (46g as of my writing this) in that sword. It gives you a big pile of Boon Duration (making your Quickness last longer) every time you swap weapons. You can, in theory, do Sword/Shield and Sword/(Sword or Focus) and have two Sigils of Concentration if you're rich and want to, but it's a waste of money. I generally run X/Focus because the 4 skill on Focus has an extremely good pull that is incredibly useful in a variety of situations, but for Matthias you essentially have to run Sword. Sword gives you better Illusion generation once you get good at it, because its 4 skill pops out a Clone when you block with it, and its 5 skill generates a Phantasm, where Focus only generates a Phantasm on its 5 skill. User preference!

Armor - you have two basic setups, Berserker or Commander. Commander armor is a more involved build that means you'll always be tanking and will deal even crappier damage, but also means you don't need a Revenant to hit 100% Boon Duration. (Sidenote, Revenants and Chronomancers are often paired together because Rev can hand out 50% boon duration). Commander armor is also a huge pain in the rear end to make and not really worth it (imo) so I'll be focusing on the Berserker setup. You'll want full Berserker armor with 6 Superior Runes of the Chronomancer in it. The 6th thing on Chrono runes helps you spit out extra Quickness.

Trinkets - depends on whether you're tanking or not. If you're tanking, run enough Toughness to break 1400 Toughness and whatever you want past that, otherwise run full Berserker.

Traits - things get a little more contentious here. My quick summary default setting is Chronomancer 333, Inspiration 122, and Illusions 222. Domination instead of Illusions is also viable I prefer Illusions to Domination, but take your pick. Illusions works around a 2 quickness push cycle where you'll do a Continuum Split (CS) push, then a non-CS push, then a CS push, etc etc. Domination does a 3 quickness push cycle where you do a CS push then two non-CS pushes. For Inspiration, all three traits can change, but I prefer 122. Some people like Persisting Images for the first trait, but I think Medic's Feedback is significantly better (faster revives, protective bubble when reviving). Second trait is between Warden's Feedback and Restorative Illusions. Warden's Feedback is very important for specific fights (ie Slothasor) for the reflect on focus skills, but outside of that I run Restorative Illusions because extra healing is very good. For the third trait, some people like Mental Defense because the Phantasmal Defender can help you stay alive longer, but in my opinion Illusionary Inspiration is much better, because having an extra Signet of Inspiration to proc can let you push out a lot of extra Quickness if you do it right. Finally, I run 222 for Illusions. I like Illusions because it reduces your Phantasm and Illusion summoning cooldowns, as well as the cooldown of all your shatter skills.

Skills - almost always the same, but there are a couple variations. For starters, you will always run Well of Action (aka Quickness well) and Signet of Inspiration in your utilities, and Time Warp for your elite. After that, you can pick between Signet of the Ether (healing signet) and Well of Eternity (healing well) for your heal skill. The Signet of the Ether is a little easier to play, Well of Eternity lets you push more Quickness. I highly recommend Healing Well, personally. For your third utility slot you want to run Well of Recall (aka Alacrity well) unless you need Feedback (used for Slothasor and Matthias).

Food - any 20% boon duration food, and your maintenance item is whatever you feel like, really, though I use Superior Sharpening Stones.

Rotation(s)

I'm going to be assuming anyone reading this is running the Illusions build, cause the Domination rotation is different. For a quick guide to the Domination rotation, watch the youtube video of it on qT's Raid Chrono build guide. Additionally, there are two actual rotations, depending on Continuum Split vs non Continuum Split, and I'll be talking about them separately.

Continuum Split Rotation - If starting in Sword/X (ie not Sword/Shield), it'll be Weapon Swap, Continuum Split, Time Warp, Well of Action, Well of Recall, Well of Eternity, Tides of Time (ie Shield 5), Signet of Inspiration. You want to buffer cast them all (ie hit the next skill while the current one is casting so the next one starts casting the moment the current one ends) because you don't have the time to spare to mess around with waiting for reaction time and latency. One way to buy yourself a little bit of spare time is to Continuum Split while casting Time Warp. CS has no cast time and can be used mid cast, and if you pop it during the Time Warp cast you can buy yourself an extra ~0.15 seconds to get your rotation off, and it actually matters sometimes. Just be careful and make sure you actually pop CS before Time Warp finishes, or you've just blown a 180s cooldown you didn't need to blow.

For the CS rotation, your goal is to have 3 illusions out and be sitting on Sword/X (ie not Sword/Shield), so you can swap to Sword/Shield to proc your Sigil of Concentration before starting the rotation. If you only have two illusions out and everything's on cooldown though, you can switch to Shield, use your 4 skill, then begin the rotation and you'll have enough time before Sigil of Concetration's effect ends.

As a side note to the rotation, if you find yourself stuck in Sword/Shield when you're wanting to pop out a CS rotation, you can do Continuum Split, Tides of Time, Weapon Swap, Time Warp, Well of Action, Well of Recall, Signet of Inspiration. You have to skip something to make time for the Weapon Swap, and Well of Recall is a more important Well to double up on than Well of Eternity. Additionally, at the end of your rotation you want to immediately drop into your non-Continuum Split Rotation as soon as possible, because all of your Quickness skills come back up as soon as Continuum Split ends.

Non-Continuum Split Rotation - Starting in Sword/X, Weapon Swap, Well of Action, Well of Recall, Well of Eternity, Tides of Time, Signet of Inspiration, Phantasm Skill. Don't use Time Warp! Only use Time Warp during CS pushes so you can turn that 3 minute cooldown into a 76.5 second cooldown. If you're starting in Sword/Shield, your rotation will be Tides of Time, Weapon Swap, Well of Recall, Well of Action, Well of Eternity, Signet of Inspiration, Phantasm Skill. For clarity, by Phantasm Skill I mean either Shield 4, Focus 5, or Sword 5. You have a 30s cooldown trait that procs Signet of Inspiration when you summon a Phantasm, and managing it properly (ie lining it up with your non-CS rotations) will let you push a ton of extra quickness (like 40% more).

Regarding skill order, it's not super important as long as Time Warp and Well of Action are early and Signet of Inspiration is last. Time Warp and Well of Action both take a while to put Quickness on you and you want to give them as much time to work their mojo on you as you can before sharing the Quickness. Signet of Inspiration goes last because it doubles up everything you've already done, and putting it last lets you double up more stuff.

Outside of pushing quickness - spam illusions, shatter them for quickness. Use abilities, don't die! For tanking, use your dodge rolls, Sword 2, Shield 4, and Sword 4 (if you have it) to mitigate damage. Just keep an eye on your cooldowns for your wells and CS and plan accordingly - when your Wells are getting to ~15 seconds left on cooldown, switch to Sword/X to be to Weapon Swap to Sword/Shield when appropriate, and when CS is getting low on cooldown try to crank out some illusions to be ready for it to come up.

Learning to do this nonsense

I highly recommend not starting tanking unless you've already tanked a lot on other classes and are extremely comfortable with the bosses. Chrono rotations take a lot of focus until you've done them for a while, and so does tanking, and trying to do them both at the same time means you'll probably wind up screwing both of them up a lot. For boss specific advice, read boss guides! If anyone has boss specific questions I'll try to answer them, but I'm not a terribly good tank.

A drill you can do to just get used to how pumping quickness feels and playing that fast for bursts of time is to walk up to a random person and do the following rotation, with no illusions at all: Time Warp, Chrono Split during Time Warp, Well of Action, Chrono Split Ends, Well of Action (again), Well of Recall, Well of Eternity, Tides of Time, Echo of Memory (Shield 4, it spawns a phantasm and triggers your traited Signet of Inspiration), wait a second or two, Signet of Inspiration. The reason to wait for the second Signet of Inspiration is because, on the back end of GW2, even though Quickness stacks in duration it actually keeps track of your stacks of quickness. I don't know all the details, but from what I understand you can only have 9 stacks of Quickness at a time, and by waiting a couple seconds to recast Signet of Inspiration you let a couple of them expire and then refill those slots with more, longer duration stacks.

Beyond that, go play Chrono in the open world stuff out there and try to pump quickness out onto people, and play fractals and pump quickness. I adore a good chrono in fractal groups because having quickness and alacrity is really fun.

E: Oh, a note on Keybindings.

Playing with default keybindings makes Chrono more or less impossible to play well. Your rotation has to be fast enough to make it fit that the time it takes to move your hand across the keyboard to hit 6-0 actually matters, a lot. I'd say it's more or less impossible to do a good CS split on default keybindings while also handling boss mechanics. Everyone has their own setup so if you have your own customized keybinds that let you reach all your stuff comfortable, carry on. If you use default keybindings, PLEASE redo them or you're pretty much crippling your ability to play Chrono well (and, imo, default keybindings are just really unpleasant because not having your heal and utilities and elite within easy reach sucks). My setup for keybindings is as follows:

Movement keys: WASD (forward, back, and strafe side to side)
Turning character: hold right click and move the mouse

Weapon Skills, 1-5 changed to QERFZ
Heal Skill, 6 changed to X
Utilities, 7-9 changed to CVT
Elite, 0 changed to G
Profession Skills, F1-F5 changed to 1-5
Dodge: Mouse 4 (rear thumb button)
Weapon Swap: Mouse 5 (forward thumb button)
Special Action: Tilde (~ key, left of 1)

You can definitely make due without a 5 button mouse, but it does make life easier. Without mine I'd do something like Ctrl for Dodge and Mouse 3 (middle mouse button) for weapon swap. If you don't have a 5 button mouse and want one, I use the Logitech MX518 and love it because it's the only mouse big enough for my enormous hands, and my fiance uses the Anker Gaming Mouse and really likes it, though I'm not a fan of its thumb buttons.

Waci posted:

Note that in addition to giving you a little more of that ever-precious alacrity, the healing well also has built-in condi clear (holy poo poo vital in wing 2), and is an AoE heal instead of healing just yourself. It wont make you a druid, but every bit helps. I would also say that even for Slothasor, you should only replace the alacrity well with Feedback if you're noticeably lacking in reflects from guardians. Both guardians and mesmers can reflect, only mesmers can hand out alacrity.

Maintenance item should be bountiful sharpening stone if you can at all afford them (at something like 70s each last time I mathed). Your personal DPS isn't that relevant on a raid scale compared to the group DPS boost from your boons, and you'll get better DPS anyway by using boon duration consumables and DPS gear than the other way around.

I'd recommend starting your CS rotation with Well of Recall (remember Alacrity isn't a boon, so losing the weapon swap bonus for that one skill doesn't matter) and using CS right before the casting time for it is finished, since it has a longer casting time than Time Warp and you have a smaller risk of lag loving things up, as well as using the shorter skill during your precious few CS seconds and the longer one outside of them.

Like Magres pointed out, you should pay attention to your signet of inspiration from Illusionary Inspiration. As I said, your DPS doesn't matter anywhere near as much as your buffs, so just stick to clones for shatter fuel between rotations.

I'd also like to add a point about paying attention to WHEN you use your buff rotations. If your CS rotation comes up right when VG is about to split or a breakbar phase in any fight is about to come up, it's better to wait a couple of seconds and use it when the group is back at DPSing. Even more importantly, pay attention to when the group needs to move (e.g. running for the walls on Gorseval or avoiding Sabetha's flame wall, right as a boss is about to die on bandit trio, dodging ghosts on keep construct). Delaying your CS rotation by 5 seconds sucks, but using it right when the group needs to move and wasting it completely sucks even more.

You can also reach 100% boon duration with only partial commander's gear (the trinkets are much easier to get than the actual armour, though you'll need a couple of pieces of armour as well. I recommend the pick-your-stats raid loot you can buy with magnetite shards), but realistically, you usually want to bring a revenant anyway since they can do other things as well in addition tot he boon duration so there's really no reason to go for 100% boon duration instead of 50% other than "because I can" cred (consumables should give you 30%, so get a couple commander's jewels or a piece of armour or two to bump it up to 50% if you want to raid chrono regularly).

Also, non class specific advice for everyone: bind a key to about-face. Do not be the guy who RP walks out of the red circles.

Magres posted:

I don't run Bountiful Sharpening Stones cause with a Rev, a Sigil of Concentration, and 20% Boon Food you're already at 100% Boon Duration.

Well of Recall first for CS Split is interesting , I'll have to try that. I think I like it a lot better than Time Warp first. You might lose a shred of Quickness from not putting Time Warp first, but it should make the rotation a lot easier and more reliable.

Waci posted:

You lose about a second of quickness, but I find the extra leeway during CS worth it especially since I play with a less than perfect connection. It also buys you enough extra time that if you need to, you can dodge int he middle of your rotation and still get everything important off in time.

I don't like relying on the sigil for boon duration because it limits what else you can do with your weapons by making weapon swap a part of your rotation. Sucks if you're relying on shield to survive or using focus for reflects or pulls. I think that might be a stylistic difference though, I like dumping my CS rotation and non-CS rotation right after each other (ie before weapon swap comes off cooldown) to make sure as much of the buffs as possible is around during DPS phases, but that might just be me being weird about the sigil. Not needing the sigil as a part of your rotation also lets you swap to a ranged weapon if you need to, which depending on group may or may not be useful for some fights. Still though, good point that if you're aiming for 50% by yourself you can do it with the sigil if you pay attention to it.

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 08:01

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

My longest posts on this webpage and they are quotes...
Thanks Waci and Magres for your effortposts!

I'll admit they are not 100% relevant for me as i don't raid. I do find mesmer very interesting but the build i am playing right now (Redshifts "100%" quickness chronotank) is not very fun for the content i am doing, more or less nothing but HoT open map meta events.
Could either of you mesmer experts (or anyone else for that matter) help me out with a build for open world meta events? These types of builds are very difficult to find, it seems the "meta" of this game is that open world = easy and/or doesn't require builds and tactics. I have seen way too many failed Chak Gerents or Dragon's Stands to agree with this.

On my mesmer I feel really loving useless on any event i go to as i deal very little damage and the quickness rotation is nigh impossible to set up with all the cc, conditions and aoe damage flying around on meta events. I think literally every single boss has a wide area gently caress melee type of attack so getting in there and dropping wells so they both benefit me and do some damage is out of the question. I haven't been able to find other perma quickness builds that doesn't rely on revenant.
Is there any point in bringing a mesmer if it is not to provide perma quickness? If you have a random build how much quickness/alacrity do you provide compared to a dedicated such build?

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 08:36 on Aug 12, 2016

# ¿ Aug 12, 2016 08:16

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Waci posted:

More mesmer info

I swapped into GS + Sword/shield but i have no idea about traits.

Domination 221
Dueling 123
Chronomancer 333

Well of Eternity, Well of Recall, Well of Action, Blink and Time warp for utilities

Being ranged on PVE meta events is something i should have done sooner but i don't feel this build has a lot of direction. It has several nice to have traits without much synergy. Could you suggest a better build?

# ¿ Aug 13, 2016 18:54

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Getting the hang of necromancer. I was a bit disappointed in discovering reaper spec's focus on greatsword and close melee range, being ranged is so much more fun and less frustrating on meta events, particularly against bosses such as the Chak Gerent. It is however the best profession i have tried so far for Verdant Brink nighttime meta. I could escort Pact Soldiers solo and could hold off rally point attacks with just 1 other player, something none of my other professions have been able to do.
In a strange twist of fate i could NOT solo the Champion Mushroom HP just at the Auric Basin entrance from Verdant Brink, something my ele, mesmer, ranger and revenant all could do...

While i think it is hard to find a more effective profession for meta events than necromancer, based on how much better i do with it than my other professions so far, i still want to level an engineer. Egnineer is the last profession i am interested in, with guardian, warrior and thief not being interesting enough to consider leveling, for the time being.

I quite like the A/T condition playstyle on my druid. Applying DoTs at range and kiting enemies is fun. I understand engineers pistol/pistol is also a ranged condi playstyle, however the meta builds i find does not use the scrapper. I thought scrapper was how engineer got gyros among other things, which sound really useful. Are there any p/p condi eng builds that use scrapper? How gimped would you be compared to the metabattle build that doesn't use it?

Magres posted:

Commander gear is lame to get,

Very true.

A full set of commanders exotic armor costs roughly the same as a full set of commanders ascended armor.
Commander's exotic armor recipes (for light armor) cost average 70g each, thats 420g just for the recipes. Add another 84g for the armor itself.
In contrast, crafting the cheapest insignia Ascended armor (magi insignia atm i believe) then converting it to commander's costs about 550g.

It is the same case with exotic commander trinkets, around 40g for each recipe.
Commander weapon recipes are "cheap" in comparison at only ~10g.

If you just want boon duration both Wanderer's and Minstrel's recipes are virtually free. Wanderer's insignia is also quite cheap, requiring insignia specific items that are less than 1g. Minstrel insignias cost 24g just from the insignia specific Freshwater Pearls, so Minstrel is also a somewhat expensive option.

If you don't want to be dependant on a revenant you can:
*Add platinum doubloons in your accessories and back for 24% boon duration
*Sigil of concentration for another 33% duration
*Add armor sigils for 20% duration (though you would miss the chronomancer runes)
*Add 20% boon duration food. (can get expensive at around 30s per use).
This totals to 97%.
Other alternatives are Leadership runes for 30% duration, though these requires 600 crystalline ore from Dragon's Stand which is a gigantic grind.

If i had the money i would go for
*Commander's exotic trinkets with platinum doubloons (38% boon duration total)
*Commander's weapons (7,8% boon duration)
*Sigil of Concentration (33% boon duration)
*Armor sigils of Chronomancer
*18% boon duration food from pvp (these can be bought for 5s each aparently)
This gets you to 96.8% boon duration with full zerk armor and backpiece.

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 09:33 on Aug 18, 2016

# ¿ Aug 18, 2016 09:23

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Kessel posted:

P/P condi engi is the following traitlines: explosives, firearms, tools. Of these,
- you can't drop explosives, because you lose glass cannon/grenadier, vuln, bonus damage on vuln, and shrapnel, all of which are significant contributors to your dps;
- you can't drop firearms, because you lose a lot of bleed and crit together with the 33% extension on bleed/burn, meaning you have to make a lot of suboptimal gear choices to get back to 100%.

So you have to drop tools for scrapper. What that boils down to is losing some decent damage buffs and extra endurance regen for passive survivability and access to gyros. Function gyro is good and you can swap to scrapper for some fights (Matthias for reflect, wing 3 keep for stealth gyro) but if you know your fights and are good at dodging the additional endurance from tools should be enough. Plus adaptive armour raises your toughness and can gently caress up your tank in a raid. Scrapper minors aren't great for PvE - decisive renown is bad and 25% reduction to stun isn't going to do jack.

Overall I wouldn't use scrapper in a raid but for high fracs and open world where you don't trust your pub team and have no time limit scrapper is okay. Just remember to bring a passive speed boost so you don't kill yourself

Thanks. Reason i ask is because i want to use HoT spec on all my professions. It seems like a waste to have the expansion pack if the spec is not used (i realise this isn't v ery true)
I didn't play this game before HoT so all specs are "new" to me. I can't imagine how it must be for engineer players before HoT to still use nothing but pre-Hot traitlines.

# ¿ Aug 18, 2016 18:35

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

drat, i thought i was an adult but i find myself mashing the login server trying to get back online...

# ¿ Aug 23, 2016 19:55

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

What are the various "meta builds" for higher end content? (raids and high fractals)

I have played HoT open map metas and Silverwastes extensively now and i would like to try some more organised group content.

The reason i ask is i want to start making ascended stuff (i have enough materials for several weapons and enough currency for at least 2 sets of trinkets) for a profession/stat i enjoy playing.

From what i have gathered so far:
PS Warrior (is this power?)
Herald (im assuming zerker gear)
Chronomancer (im assuming boon duration gear and zerk)
Condi necro
Heal druid (zerk or condi?)

What other professions with which stats are "meta" for organised content?

# ¿ Aug 24, 2016 11:27

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

AnacondaHL posted:

Meta summary

Thanks!

Which professions actually get brought to (pug) raids? It sounds like most of them aren't very desireable.
From what i can see you want 2 warriors, 2 druids, a herald and a chronomancer. What about the other 4? Will my Necro using the viper horror raid meta build be able to get pug raid spots? Would i have to be fully ascended since its not super desireable or would weapons/trinkets be enough?

I almost exclusively play open world meta events (SW and Maguuma Jungle) and am doing fine there with rares and exotics, but would also like to try a few pug raids. Mainly to unlock the HoT mastery as it is very demoralizing to play in Maguuma Jungle now and have all my xp "wasted". I am not that interested in nor really have the playtime to make ascended armor, so i am trying to see if there are any raid meta builds that has some overlap with what i enjoy playing for open world so that i can get ascended weapons and trinkets that suit both playstyles. (and not have to get ascended armor)
I have enough non bloodstone fens stuff to get full zerk trinkets and enough blood rubies to get 2 rings + neck + backpack for Viper, so both zerk and viper roles would suit me. Additionally my necro is my favorite open world profession so it would be convenient if i could also get into raid groups with it.

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 08:41 on Aug 25, 2016

# ¿ Aug 25, 2016 08:28

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

This anniversary sale turned me into whale.

3 character slots, 3 bank tabs, 3 inventory slots, Copper-o-matic. I even bought some gold with gems because gently caress spending my limited free time on grinding for gold.

# ¿ Aug 29, 2016 09:15

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Tsurupettan posted:

is there a good guide to just mindlessly leveling my alts up to 80 as fast as possible? I checked the OP and even looked at dulfy's site before asking!

Some methods to level fast to 80:

0. Use level 80 boost (duh)
1. Play WvW or PVP and get tomes of knowledge. You get 2 tomes for every track milestone, so 10 tomes per completed reward track (feel free to correct me here as i dont WvW or PVP)
2. Grind enemies (more below)*
3. Craft (more below)**
A. Use experience scrolls in combination with any of the above for faster leveling.

*To level through grinding enemies you want a celebration booster and an experience booster. Celebration booster gives 100% xp from kills, experience booster gives 50% xp and lets you accumulate killstreak for an additional doubling of the combined xp from kill + boosters). These things combined means a total of 500% xp per kill. Combine this with killing enemies that no one has killed in a while for a huge xp bonus and you will level very fast. We are talking 20-25 enemies killed to get a level up and 12-16 levels per hour. The trick is to go to zones without much population and to just stay in the same zone or same level range of zones. XP is normalized and gear/character is leveled down to the level of the zone you are in so you don't need to go to the TP regularly to replace your gear.
I leveled my ranger from 30 to 80 in an evening in the zone with the shatterer event. (Bottom right zone of ascalon zones i believe)

**Leveling with crafting is the fastest way to level outside of 80-boost or tomes. It is HIGHLY recommended to use both an item booster (50% increased chance of crit craft) as well as experience booster (this one will make you get more character xp per craft but will not make the crafting itself gain more craft xp) Each 500-cap craft skill will level you ~17 levels with the xp booster. Cooking will level you ~11 levels. The level gain is ~11 and ~7 levels respectively, without booster.
Leveling crafting can get expensive depending on how much components you craft yourself, how well prepared you are as well as which types of materials you craft needs. Cloth is the cheapest materials, metals second and wood most expensive.
Tailoring cost me 15g to level 1-500 whereas huntsman cost me around 150g.
The key to efficient crafting leveling is discovery, not repeatedly crafting the same stuff over and over. Crafts are divided into tiers, 0-25, 26-50, 51-75 etc all the way to 400 (401-500 is a special case, more later). Every 3 tiers (75 skillpoints) the materials you need change, but the method remains the same) Every tier has a new set of insignias available. To level from 0-25 you would buy 3 each of the 3 insignias available at that tier and discover 9 recipes (3 recipes for 3 types of equipment) For example for tailoring you would buy 3 Vital, 3 mighty and 3 malign jute insignias and 3 jute breeches panel+lining, 3 jute tunic panel+lining, 3 jute wristguard strap+padding. Combine these with the insignias in the discovery panel and you will discover vital breeches, tunic and wristguard, mighty breeches, tunic and wristguard, etc. This gets you to 25 (well more like 27) and you repeat the process with the 3 new insignias available at 25. Every 75 skillpoints you swap to a new material type. Repeat this process to 400. From 400 to 500 just keep grinding exotic items by checking what exotic insignias are the cheapest and buying those. 400-500 discoveries and crafts give a ton of skillpoints, much more than previous tiers. You can also recoup most of your costs here, as people actually buy the exotics from the TP.
With practice it takes you around 40 minutes to fully level a tradeskill from 1 to 500, which gains you 17 levels.

Cooking does not work in the same way, just follow this guide for leveling cooking. It takes less than 10 minutes and costs you about 7 gold, for 11 levels.

# ¿ Aug 31, 2016 13:40

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Anyone up for the Subject 6 Deep- Sixer fractal achievement (for mastery point)?

It is the last Tyria Mastery point i need and i have tried getting groups for it to no avail.

# ¿ Sep 6, 2016 12:03

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Thanks!

I am on EU time though and am able to play from 19.00 to 23.00 central european time (5 PM to 9 PM UTC i believe)

# ¿ Sep 6, 2016 12:48

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Magres posted:

we can bang

I didn't see you online yesterday

# ¿ Sep 7, 2016 09:47

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

So i made an engineer primarily to play it as pistol/pistol, but i find the class no fun at all to play. And to be effective it barely uses the pistols which further ruins the idea of a gunslinger type of asthetic.

Is thief pistol/pistol viable for PVE? I exclusively do HoT meta events, fractals, story missions, and some solo PVE exploration. By viable i don't mean "yes you can equip 2 pistols and eventually kill stuff because every build is viable in pve heh heh" but an actual useful build. (Doesn't necessarily need to be ~META~)

# ¿ Sep 13, 2016 14:11

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Did they add new ascended stuff buyable with currency from the new zone? (Like bloodstone trinkets)

I don't have time to check out the new zone for a week or so...

# ¿ Sep 20, 2016 21:16

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Lonk posted:

reminder that the 3 wood per heart in ember bay adds up to 15 a day and it is per character.

Are these soloable? I am probably going to miss the train on high population in the new zone, just like with BFD, and am worried its gonna take ages to get the wood for the 2 earrings i plan to buy.

# ¿ Sep 24, 2016 13:09

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Dreggon posted:

arent the earrings unique

Can't i just attune one?

# ¿ Sep 24, 2016 21:39

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

Azathoth posted:

I played this at launch and for a few months afterwards, going so far as to get a character to the max level, but quit when the endgame was "check this external website to see which world boss will spawn next, go to spot, hit it a couple times, collect loot, repeat". I understand that there's a whole bunch of new stuff available and I'm looking to come back.

However, I'm curious how necessary it is to immediately purchase Heart of Thorns. Assume, for the sake of argument, that I don't care about playing the Revenant class right away and that I plan to start a new character, not pick up any of my old characters. If it doesn't grab me, I just don't want to have dropped $50 for something that I didn't need to. I had fun the first time around, so if it's integrated into the starting experience, I'm willing to take the risk but I figured I'd ask here first.

I recently started playing this game, and bought HoT as soon as i hit 80 (afaik it offers nothing to sub-80 characters?) and i do not regret that one bit. GW2 is legit the most fun i have ever had in any MMO, including the "first mmo experience" type of fun. I played WoW for nearly 12 years and recently returned to it when its most recent expansion launched (taking a break from GW2) and it is difficult to get into now. GW2 does so many things so well, the account bound nature of everything is amazing, the professions are interesting, the skill mechanics are great, the UI works super well.

I don't really know how GW2 was pre-HoT and i have mainly played HoT content but it is hella fun. Gliding (you can glide in the pre-HoT world as well!) is tons of fun. Exploring the HoT maps (labyrinths) is very interesting and its such a huge sense of accomplishment when you realise you can navigate around with ease and even help newer players move around. The events are fun as well, huge hour long events that culminate in a boss fight.

My only 3 gripes are:

1. if you miss out on the start of a HoT event it can be over an hour before anything starts again as all the events start at roughly the same time.

2. ANET seems to really push/force people to raid for some reason that i can't really understand. Raids are tuned for having ascended gear, yet ascended gear is the best gear. Raids are traditionally a place where you get gear upgrades, and one of the prime ways to entice elitist players into staying in your MMO so they can lord their fancy gear over filthy casual scum who can't get said gear.

3. The community is extremely toxic, far worse than WoW (I honestly believe this is because i play GW2 on US servers but WoW on EU servers. You americans are so hostile towards random people, holy poo poo. If you ask a question in map chat there's an avalanche of oneupmanship in trying to come up with the most sassy or trolly response, virtually no one ever actually answers your question. There is also always so much hostility, racial slurs, meme spam and creepy poo poo. The goon guild(s) chat is great though, and goons are as always great to play with!)

# ¿ Oct 5, 2016 09:25

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

The only raid i have done was with goons. Due to my playtimes it is difficult for me to join the goon raid so before i raided with goons i was considering joining a PUG raid. They all had requirements such as full ascended, having a ton of LIs (requirements ranged from 25 to 100) and requiring a meta build. PUGs have no idea of the skill level of random players and only have their gear to go on, as such it is only natural that they want players to have full ascended to maximise chances of success. Maybe the raid mechanics doesn't require ascended but the community certainly does to an extent.

Of course some players are able to do the raids in lower quality gear than ascened. If the raids REQUIRED ascended gear for the best players in the world then extremely few players would ever be able to complete the raid. Tuned for ascended means that your slightly above average group that is organised and puts in a little bit of effort can successfully complete the raids.

Maybe saying ANET is pushing people to raid is a bit of an exaggeration but they do contain exclusive stuff of interest to most players:

-Legendary armor only comes from raids. Why? Legendary weapons requires quest chains, collections, lots of time and are largely soloable. They can even be bought on the TP! Why do legendary armor only come from raids? Its not like raiders needs this armor to complete raids, as the stats as the same as ascended. "only raiders needs epix" is one of the most common MMO clich�s used by raiders to lord over non-raiders but is not applicable here. As a non raider that do a lot of different types of content i would love to have legendary armor so that i can change the stats to what is apropriate for the content i am doing. I use vipers, berserkers, valkyrie, commanders and celestial on my light armor characters. Having all that stuff in 1 armor set would be great. Having legendary armor gated behind raids seems to me to be a way to get people to raid.

-You still need to raid to get a full set of accessories with HoT stats. The LW3 zones have remedied this a bit but does not allow you to get a full set. The HoT stats are meta for other content than raids so why are they gated behind them? Why should someone that raids be able to perform better in fractals than someone that does not?

-If you want to max out your masteries you need to get a raid kill at some point to unlock the last mastery track. This has been discussed in this thread before but is even more relevant now now that you get spirit shards every time you "level up" after maxing your masteries. If you have not raided and unlocked the last mastery track you do not get these spirit shards. ANET could easily fix this by not requiring the raid mastery track to get the spirit shards but they have not and have given no indication they will.

# ¿ Oct 6, 2016 08:02

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# ¿ Apr 27, 2024 18:17

Ineptitude: Mar 2, 2010; Heed my words and become a master of the Heart _{(of Thorns)}.

rap music posted:

I have an MMO itch that needs a scratchin' but I heard HoT wasn't so hot.

I have spent quite a lot of time in the following MMOs; Anarchy Online, WoW, FFXIV, Everquest2 and Rift and i recently picked up GW2 + HoT. HoT is the most fun i have ever had playing any MMOs. It was like getting that "first mmo" feeling all over again, despite having played MMOs for many years and being really jaded. GW2/HoT is great and well worth the tiny amount of money it costs.

Ineptitude fucked around with this message at 09:59 on Oct 13, 2016

# ¿ Oct 13, 2016 09:48

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > The MMO HMO > Guild Wars 2 - my colon was impacted because we were raiding for so long

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