Javonovich.5280

Hi all, Does Mesmer have any good duelist builds right now in sPVP? I know of many sidenode options, but are there any good builds with decent staying power and damage that can handle the punishment coming from some meta classes like guards and warriors?

I'd love to know what power and condi builds people are running with Reaper to make them so oppressive. I've dueled Dr. Meta many times in the Yolo Arena on mesmer. They're an excellent duelist, but I've never felt like the class was overperforming. In fact, unlike some classes that can easily facetank you and have a nice "uh oh" button (like a guard) while still doing tons of damage, Reaper requires excellent positioning and some real finesse, otherwise you're just a sitting a duck. I don't find it a faceroll class at all.

The block/invuln builds were a symptom of a poorly designed class for pvp to begin with. The constant blocks and invuln were awful gameplay resulting from a bad class that had distortion slapped onto it at the last minute because it sucked that bad in competitive modes. After distortion bandaged Virt, it was only useful as an ignorable nuisance in spvp, where you had to hope someone took the bait and fought you. Otherwise, opponents could really just rotate around you or take advantage of the fact you couldn’t hold a point because of invulnerability. It fulfilled no role that other classes couldn’t do better. After the nerfs, we got no compensation to actually make Virt useful in spvp. None of the major problems are fixed. It’s worse than ignorable now, it’s farmable. I don’t know if this was motivated by spite, but I do think it’s motivated by ignorance of Virt and of Mesmer as a whole.

I've messed with mimic + Blade Renewal. I'm struggling with condi builds, though. I feel like power is the way to go.

PLEASE give Mirage its second dodge back in competitive modes. Or at least tell us that you’re thinking about ways to make this work. What are you afraid of? Automated tourneys have been running all cata teams. There is no way mirage becomes even THAT strong.

The problem is that while Mirage has been completely erased from pvp, so have most classes as of the recent balance update. People will gladly fight the current meta, which tournaments have shown hardly has a tier list: Untouchable God Tier: Catalyst SSS: Spellbreaker SS: Vindicator S: Healer: Either core guard or auramancer depending on how stacked the enemy team is. Everything else may as well not exist. I'm not saying mirage doesn’t need love. I desperately want that second dodge back. But spvp is in such a terrible balance state now that I don’t see this as a priority.

This is immensely helpful! Thank you! On the condi builds, do you see any reason to go any ammy other than carrion? Also, do you have an opinion on power vs condi? For a while, I was thinking condi was dead with the last few patches, but I've actually been having more luck with condi than power for virt.

Hi all, For those of you using virt in spvp, I'm wondering what builds you've had some success with. Virt builds do not seem to be all that well described or all that diverse. I've been using this with the most success: https://hardstuck.gg/gw2/builds/mesmer/virtuoso/ I just swap out the sinister for carrion for more survivability, and I like Signet of Illusions more than Blade Renewal. This is similar to what's on meta battle with the exception of some different rune/sigil choices: https://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Virtuoso_-_Condition_Signet_Virtuoso I've tried using Chaos instead of insp, but I tend to find myself a pretty easy target. It's also hard to give up the synergy between Blurred Inscriptions and Master of Fragmentation. Any advice?

The problem I have is that it’s a great marketing tool that could attract new players… until they realize it’s pretty out of reach for people starting the game. I’d like to see the base skyscale more easily obtainable, then the mastery skills used to upgrade it behind more of the timegating and progression quests. I think this is a reasonable middle ground. (My bias is that the SS has really broken the game’s core philosophy of exploration. But there’s really no turning back now. We’ve got it, and now we have to deal with it.)

Since this is required by the story, I think it really needs to dynamically scale its difficulty depending on how many people are in the instance. It sort of happens already, but not enough at the lower end for solo players who end up here outside of peak times.

What build are you using for this? When I solo champs, I usually swap to my mirage.

Your traits are exactly what I’ve been messing around with. I haven’t quite been able to decide between dueling vs illusions, sword vs scepter, signet of midnight vs illusions.

What builds are people using for Harb? I’ve messed around with blood/death to try to give it some survivability, but it seems really hard to keep it alive in just about any game mode.

Thanks for this topic. My wife who is a relatively new player discovered combo finishers in the text of the skills for her revenant (searing fissure >>> echoing eruption). She asked what they were, so I explained and demonstrated them. But I noticed that there was no notification that the finisher was happening. So I Googled and found this thread. Sure enough, it’s a bug. And an annoying one at that.

Bingo. Virtuoso has no self-sustain at all. Sure you can steamroll most regular mobs with it, but most classes have no issue with that. When you encounter anything stronger, you’re going to miss the self-sustain that Mesmer has.