ShadowKatt.6740

it's not about the bandits. I didn't even go kill bandits, I did the other things, but that doesn't change the fact that I'm sure AFK farming was going on and even if not there I can promise you you can visit practically any map and find at least one bot there. it's funny because I had no idea that that mechanic was even in the game, and on the wiki it even acknowledges that it's an anti-botting measure. One that's clearly not working since it continues to this day utterly unabated. Instead, it seems a problem of scale. If you cut down the rewards down to 10% of what they were, then the botters and multi-boxers just need to run 9 additional characters to get the same reward, which obviously they'll have no hesitation to do. So clearly it's not enough. DR needs to go down to 0 if there's going to be any disincentive for people to do it, and then they need to be targetted and removed from the game entirely. But again, this all requires the will to act, which no one has. And yes, all confused emojis are still AFK farmers.

As the old adage says, "You encourage that which you tolerate". Anet has done this to themselves because they don't want to do anything about it, so it must be A-OK in their book. The AFK Farming problem was solvable years ago. In case you've ever wandered away from your computer long enough and left GW2 running you know that if you stand there long enough you'll be warned that if you don't move or use a skill, you'll be kicked. There are already tools against idling. All we need is one more. A somewhat shorter timer in the background that counts down and if you don't move or use a skill in X time, you stop getting drops. NOW, that easily takes care of necro farmers, but what about turret farmers? They use scripts to constantly drop turrets, which would reset that timer. Fair point. Alternately, we could simply make a different timer that says after killing X number of the same enemy, reduce the drops. No normal player is going through and killing hundreds to thousands of the same thing. A hundred, tops, if you wanted to do your WV weekly all in one go (which I have done when I was desperate). So say after 100 bandits, you just stop getting drops. BAM! Instantly farming is done. Now this can be circumvented by simply logging a new character in or jumping to a new farming spot but now we're at the point where Anet has to actually DO something. They're like alcoholics. We can set everything up for them, we can make their enviroment the safest and healthiest we can, but if they refuse to stop drinking....well, sooner or later GW2 ends up in liver failure. And that's their choice. Edit: All confused emojis are AFK farmers.

We already have that. The Asura have had that literally since Day 0. Now, tell me how many times you've seen it used. Go on. I'll wait. Because the numbers is so high that a frostbite amputee could count it on one hand. No one uses transformation skills because transformation skills are possibly THE ABSOLUTE WORST skills in the game. Asuran Golems, Norn Spirits, even elementalist, engineer, and warrior have a transformation skill. And no one uses it. Why? Because the skills that you get while transformed absolutely pale is comparison to your own weapon skills, have almost no synergy with your traits outside of accidentally, and it's overall just painting a big "KILL ME!" sign on yourself. I wish they were worth it, but they never were, and they never will be. You know how the meta works. If transformation skills were worth it then the next zerg vs zerg would look like an army of golems and bears/wolves/leopard/ravens in the middle of Tornado Alley on the worst day ever. And then all the transformation skills would get nerfed into the ground again because that's how Anet rolls.

Hence why I don't PvP. I get waaaaaaaaay to angry when I just get assassinated with no chance to fight back. And I'm a mesmer. We're supposed to be un-catch-able. Just steer clear of all of it.

. . . yes. I feel like you probably didn't mean that as snarky as I took it, but I'm still taking it that way because I think it's important. Don't forget that the thief you're fighting is also a player. And every countermove we're talking about, they're going to discuss over in the Thief subforum and they're gonna develop counterplays to what we discuss here today. So when you say a thief that doesn't have a lot of patience...yeah, exactly. That IS the counterplay. The thief intentionally reveals themselves, takes a pot shot, and disappears. Wait for you to exhaust everything you have trying to drive them off....and THEN pounce. Just because it CAN be countered doesn't make it a bad strategy. It just means it needs to have altneratives to be more robust. Thief has stealth, you have AoEs. You have limited ammunition, they have patience. So now we fall back to Bring a Friend. Now you've doubled your skills that can be brought to bare, doubled how patient they have to be. This isn't OW PvE where you just have to figure out the right way to fight the boss and you're set. They're going to adapt and learn as well. We're trying to balance, not completely negate their profession mechanics. That's why I said strike damage is a good compromise. Does it rely on luck? Yes, to a small to moderate degree. Large cleaving weapons and AoEs become your best friends, with a little experience and intuition. Or maybe condi builds. If you can inflict enough torment, poison, burning on the thief then even stealth might not save them as they retreat. The funny think about balancing is that you're actually seeking the point where NO ONE wins, and after that you need skill to tip the balance, and the counterplays I've suggested are that point. The point where neither party wants to play because both lose. How about instead a nice game of chess?

You know what I think would be a perfect solution to all of this? Someone above...let's see if I can find them... Oh wait! Those were all you! Anyway, I think that's actually the fix we need for this. I think if I had to make a change to stealth, I would make it so stealth breaks on damage. Not just AOE, but any damage, or if we want to be generous, just strike damage. That way if you're poisoned you can still try to slink away into the shadows. But if strike damage could reveal, not to extra damage but just reveal, it would effectively counter it. Then wild swings or saturation bombing with AoEs would give an element of counterplay. Now ironicly this is roughly the same tactic as I said above with bring a friend just in a different form. Either way you're just adding more power. One is widespread effect, the other is an additional body, and as a mesmer lemme tell you not to underestimate having another or three bodies around you. Thieves are precision strikers. Pick a target, destroy the target. The opposite of precision is broad and blunt. So that's the counterplay, and if strike damage inflicted revealed I think that would solve everything.

I find almost all PvP in any form to be a "not terribly enjoyable experience". Thief ambushes are the START. Warrior juggernauts, Minion Masters, Inescapable rangers, stun-locking engineers, immortal or just incinerating Guardians, nuclear elementalists, AND I'M A MESMER. I wouldn't want to fight me and my three other me's. I find ALL PvP to be basically just "Here's the worst of every profession. Go get your kitten kicked by it!" I can sum up this thread real easy: "I got killed by a thief and now I want all thiefs nerfed!". Come on, we all know it, we've all seen a hudred of these threads. But here's the real dirty secret about that: Every profession is like that. Sure, the meta wibbles and wobbles back and forth so who's on top changes about every two-ish months, but every profession complains about every other profession. "Thieves have too much invisibility!" "Necros have too much healing and barrier!" "Holosmith is OP" "Mirage ambush needs to be nerfed back" EVERYONE has a complaint. It comes down to this: if you're gonna play, get ready to lose. If you're not ready to lose, don't play. It's really that simple. And I'm not directing this at you in particular, this is directed in general to just everyone in the PvP market. I'm not immune to this. I HATE PvP. I have to log into WvW for a gift of battle or something, I've got three deaths and I'm rage quitting. But that's also why I stay out of it unless I absolutely have to. Anyone that voluntarily goes into PvP needs to grow a thicker skin. It's not the thiefs fault. It's yours.

So you said a lot in there about smoke fields, and I had to look that up because I don't pay much attention to combos. I think combos are highly overrated but you've convinced me that perhaps I need to give them a second chance. Still, with what you're talking about it sounds like there's a bar for entry when it comes to keeping a thief stealthed. Maybe it's not a high bar, but the bar is there nonetheless. You also point out that it leaves a trail of smoke fields, so much like the trail of bubbles in the water if you see smoke, you know there's fire. It's not perfect stealth is what I'm trying to say here, and so I see no problem with this. So....thieves doing exactly what they're supposed to do. They're not frontline fighters, and they're not support casters. They are opportunistic, back-stabbing ambush predators. The appear, do their damage, and vanish. Again, and I can't emphasize this enough, I GET IT. I don't play a lot of WvW but I have been murdered by my fair share of theives. It sucks. But it's what they do. So the best counterplay for thief seems to me to be....friends. Seriously, if the thief can just kill you, make it so there's two of you. If they pop out and try to get one of you, the other has your back. A smart thief wouldn't try it, and a dumb thief might not get away. Again, that's how they play, and you're welcome to not like it. I gotta say I disagree when if they use a smokebomb that's the classic *FLASH!* *SMOKE!* they're gone.....so I'm not gonna agree with you on that. That being said though, if you've got a video to show how Deadeyes abuse this to a ridiculous degree, share it. I want to see it, not to try and disprove anything but I want to learn what they're doing and how they do it. That's usually the first step to countering these things anyway. I've already addressed these points above so I'm not going to repeat them here except to say that that's the profession. I know someone argued about using TF2 comparisons instead of WoW comparisons but I'm going to keep using them because they work well. The thief is all the best or worst aspects of the Spy, Scout, and Ranger depending on your perspective. Using Stealth they can approach you and backstab like a spy, and being able to vanish lets them pick their battles or retreat like a scout. And for Deadeye having the ONLY other 1500 range weapon in the game because Arenanet had to give us a stupid HEALING rifle instead of a 1500 range weapon so we cou- I'm sorry, I got a little distracted there. The Deadeye having the ONLY other 1500 range weapon means they can safely engage you before you even knew they were there. But this is really nothing new. None of this is stuff that gamers haven't dealt with for decades now. Beware the thieves, don't go out alone, head on a swivel, know your exits. This is all basic stuff. We can argue about balance all day but this whole discussion really boils down to, in my opinion, just hating thieves for being thieves. And that's fine, hate them. And then learn how to beat them, don't go to Anet and ask them to break their toys so you can win. Get better than their toys.

Stealth has a downside: Time. You can't be stealthed forever. Sooner or later it's going to run out. There are two professions that use stealth, Thief and Mesmer, and nother can keep it up that long. I'm a mesmer and with all skills and traits I can max out my invisibility at about 30....ish seconds. But that's doing nothing BUT invisibility and you can't attack without breaking it. I don't know how long a thief can keep it up (that's what she said) but they have to follow the same rules. Attacking still breaks stealth. It already has downsides. It just sounds to me like you're mad about getting ambushed. I get it. Getting backstabbed sucks. Anyone that's ever played Team Fortress 2 is well aquainted with having a good day, getting your kills in, boosting that ratio and BAM, you're dead. Never saw it coming. BUT THAT'S THE PROFESSION. You can hate it all you want but that's thieves doing what they do. Are you going to get mad at the elementalists for setting you on fire? Maybe the rangers and necros for ganging up on you with their pet or minions? You have to get over it. Treat every open stretch of land and every corner like there might be a thief waiting to backstab you and, I hate to say it, get good. Edit: All confused emojis are just people mad they got backstabbed. Checkmate.

Is there a difference? The mesmer rifle couldn't kill a deer in the OW, what's it going to do to a 'roided up warrior in WvW or sPvP?

There's a super big problem with that too though. Not that I really believe them when the balance team says "We HaVe A pOwEr BuDgeT" but any good game developer knows they have to balance things. This is a big problem I have with the Rifle 1. It does damage AND it heals, and because of that it does kitten poor damage and only decent healing making it only mediocre at both. Rifle 5 gives an Aegis-amount of Barrier and Resistance that, while it's not the worst thing in the world, I think resistance is probably one of the weakest boons in the game in terms of impact. I could be wrong on that one though, that's my subjective experience. But then we have that useless portal. Now what SHOULD have happened in the room where they were discussing this is "We have a shot that gives resistence and barrier for allies" "Okay, but I really wanted that portal shot" "Well, we could do the portal shot on a second activation, but we'll have to nerf the barrier and resistance down if we want to include it" Because that's how balancing works. To add somewhere, you have to take away from somewhere else. So now....and I cannot believe I am defending this piece of kitten rifle....maximum effort Captain Deadpool....NOW we have this useless portal on Rifle 5, taking up space and resources that could have otherwise been diverted to giving more barrier and resistence or maybe even an additional boon like maybe actual Aegis for an additional layer of protection. THis kind of thinking is just bad on their part, and it makes it look like they never really think through the consequences of their actions opting instead for FLASH! SPECTACLE! SHINY! SPARKLES! and absolutely no substance.

This has been suggested by literally everyone. Except me. I didn't suggest it. But that's just because everyone else did. Illusion of LIfe is exactly where it needs to be. It is the ILLUSION of life. Just because it doesn't go as far as you want doesn't mean it's broken. Illusion of Life is completely in line with Vengeance with the difference being Warriors can get themselves up, and we can get others up. But we are Illusionists. If you want to be super technical, it shouldn't even allow you to stay up after you kill a foe because illusions aren't real. But you can. If we changed it to remove the condition it wouldn't be Illusion of LIfe anymore, it would just be LIFE.

Are we really complaining about Stability now?? Should we just reduce the entire mesmer kit down to a bunch of boon buttons to make everyone happy. Press 1 for Vulnerability, press 2 for alacrity. Press 3 for might. press 4 for fury. Press 5 for stability. Press 6 for heal other. Press 7 for regen. Press 8 for vigor. Press 9 for barrier. And press 0 to reset all cooldowns so you can do it again. I think I just found the IDEAL mesmer. SOMEONE GET ANET ON THE PHONE!

You done goofed. See, in your sarcasm you've accidentally revealed what so many people have been saying who are not fans of the rifle. We didn't need a weapon to be support focused. Chrono was doing that for years. Chrono + Inspiration + Illusion is a great support build, and it remains a great support build as far as I know. I have heard people saying that chrono is ruined but I don't play a lot of chrono so I haven't noticed. So if we already had support options before and they give us this rifle, we're supposed to be thankful? This rifle that does decent healing...and that's about it. It doesn't really boon, doesn't cleanse, no mobility, the list goes on. It's a garbage weapon in every respect. So even you admit we didn't need it to be a support profession, which means there's really no excuse for the state of the rifle we got. None at all.

Just my two cents here, but I carry a melee weapon and a ranged weapon. I feel that makes the most sense and I never liked the idea of using ranged weapons in melee. It feels...wrong, but I guess that's my hangup. So as a mesmer we have lots of range options, GW, Stafff, Sept, Dagger, and now RIfle, and only two for melee, Sword and Axe. But it does mean that whatever ranged weapon I take, I'm stuck with it. Now I WANT to use a rifle. I've wanted a rifle forever, but I literally cannot take a rifle while I'm on my own. I have to either double up on ranged weapons or take something else.

Whoa whoa whoa there. You just hold the kitten up. We absolutely ARE a support class and always have been. Mesmers in GW1 were a support class, and mesmers in GW2, core at least, are a support class. We are OFFENSIVE support. Picture this: You're a warrior. You have a veritable arsenal of weapons at your disposal, something for every situation, but you are still just a warrior. One man holding back the horde, as it were. And just about to be overrun as you cut down another risen, cleaving its head in twain only for it to be pushed aside by another. And then out of nowhere this mesmer shows up to help you, flanking your right and meeting a risen blade to blade. Horray, you have help! It's just one squishy mesmer, but it's help all the same. Then you block a strike to your left and notice the same mesmer over there parrying blows from another. You hear a call "Watch out!" from behind you as another mesmer, or the same mesmer, you're not sure anymore swings their scepter and throws magic into the face of the risen in front of you, and then appears at your side scepter and pistol in hand to hold the line, only for the voice behind to call out "Together!" This scenario, brought to you by someone in desperate need to get back into dungeon mastering, is what we as mesmers DO. In GW1 we were interupters and punishers. We either stopped casters from supporting their team or punished their front line for pushing while the warriors and rangers pressed their advantage. In GW2 we support people by tipping the scales in terms of numbers because we can fight four things at once, or use glamours to tilt the battle field in our favor, and our allies favor. We take a fair fight, and we turn it into an UNfair fight. THAT'S what we do. That's what we've always done. We were never healers, we were never boon support not that that really existed in GW1. But offensive support? That was our bag and we were the best at it. And we still could be if we were allowed to be. But instead we're being forced first into frontline DPS roles, which we were never meant for, and now into healer roles we were never designed for. It really shows that Anet doesn't even understand their own game anymore and have no idea what each profession was supposed to do in the first place.

But here's the thing. You're right, but the WV just says "Maguuma Jungle". So where did you complete yours?

Just as the title suggests. Went into the Dragons End meta at the very beginning. Figured I'd knock out two birds with one stone: 100 Modrem and 15 events easy. The 100 Modrem I had before the halfway mark, but at the end of the meta not a single event had counted. Is this a bug or did I misunderstand somewhere and should have gone to Caledon Forest instead?

I didn't include underwater since underwater isn't really a thing anymore. It's literally dead content, so I didn't think it was relevant.

You know I love that you made that point, because it's a point I've tried to hammer so hard across these forums with the rifle being pigeon-holed as a support weapon and Anet trying to force down our throats that we needed to have a more solid support option. I've already explained that we had plenty of support options. Our inspiration line is basically all healing and cleansing, and combined with the Illusion line and a Shatter Storm build, along with a scepter and good clone generation, we're actually super good healers, and even if you JUST bring Inspiration in your kit we can provide a little healing in a pinch. Now are we the best? Of course not. Nor should we be. Guardians should be the best healers in the game. It's literally in their name! They guard! And expecting mesmers to heal on par with guardians is like expecting torch to perform on par with everything else. It doesn't. It's not going to. It's never going to. BUT DOES THAT MEAN IT DOES NOT WORK? The answer is of course NO! You run Condi Mirage Axe/Torch. I have an invisibility build that uses MH Sword/Scepter/Torch. They work. It's never going to do fire damage like a Fire Elementalist or a Guardian....which is weird that they do so much fire damage but regardless...but that doesn't invalidate it EXCEPT to the most hardcore, DPS chasing, Meta enforcing number counters out there. I'm actually tired of the devs trying to make us good at everything instead of just making us the BEST at something. I want to be the BEST at something. Professions exist for a reason. I picked Mesmer for a reason. And if I want to play something that's not necessarily in line with my best skills I'm prepared to just be good at it, and that's where skill comes in.

We've seen an erosion of Mesmers being Mesmers since Path of Fire. Mirages are fun and all, but Mesmers have really been an attrition class, usually condi but you can power through it if you want. But the idea is that we're hard to catch, hard to kill, and it doesn't matter how long the fight lasts because it always ends the same way: Mesmer wins. But Mirages? They're offensive. They want you to spike and ambush, something we're not suited for but we make it work. Then we have Virt which also wants you to be offensive AND takes away your clones. No more attrition, now it's a straight up fight, which we are NOT here for. It's kinda funny in retrospect. "ThE mEsMeR nEeDs A sUpPoRt WeApOn" after they spent two expansions trying to turn us into a more DPS focused offensive profession. Losses in mobility have just kinda been part of that. That's not mobility though. That's Crowd Control. The end result is the same though so I'll give you that but I wouldn't normally argue it. that being said though, since YOU would argue it... A good question. Let's take a look. Staff: I already mentioned above. Phase Retreat. Love it. Best ability in the game (arguably) Greatsword: Doesn't have mobility per se. However, as @apharma.3741 said earlier, if you want to count CC in the mobility category then it has Mind Stab for Cripple and Illusory Wave for the Yeets. Scepter: None. But it does come with a block, so I wouldn't call it a mobility weapon as much as I would call it a "Stand Your Ground" weapon. You're not supposed to be mobile with it, your'e supposed to block attacks and eat them. Still, not mobile. Point to you. MH Sword: Illusory Leap. Literally teleport to your enemy. Great mobility. I use it all the time with my sword. OH Sword: None, but it has a block like the Scepter. So a "Stand Your Ground" weapon. Makes it kinda interesting when you pair them, but point for you. Focus: No mobility by MY definition. However, Temporal Curtain gives you swiftiness and cripples your enemies, which actually acts like Superspeed if both effects hit together. While I wouldn't really count it, it is used to tremendous effect in WvW, so I'm gonna count it. Pistol: None at all. Point to you. Torch: None....but with a caveat. While the torch doesn't have any inherent mobility, The Prestige is a false teleport. You vanish, losing targetting, and you're free to move until you appear somewhere else. Is this mobility? Technically not. But it DOES achieve the same effect. I'm gonna count it for my definition. Shield: None. But it's a shield. It's firmly in that "Stand Your Ground" category, particularly with its double block. Tides of Time however does grant Swiftness and dazes your enemies. So according to @apharma.3741, mobile. Axe: Axes of Symmetry. Teleport you AND your clones to your target. Very mobile. Not counted but the Mirage also has a very mobile utility kit. Dagger: None. At all. And no clones to give you protection either. It does offer some in the way of Cripple which I wouldn't normally count, but again @apharma.3741 would so I'll give it half a point. So before we look at the rifle, lets look at what we have here. Of all our weapons and generously using all our definitions 8 out of 11 meet some definition of mobility here. Depending on your definitions some are more or less but that's still 3/4 of our arsenal. Then we have the rifle. It doesn't teleport either forward or back. It doesn't grant swiftness or superspeed. The only thing is does is cripple on 2 which I'll give it some credit is very spammable, and Daze on 4 which while I'll give it credit for that it has been constantly complained about for being too slow, too telegraphed, too easy to dodge, block, or interupt, so it's hard to give it any points for that. And it has no blocks either so it's not a "Stand Your Ground" weapon either so it can't even perform on the same level as Scepter, OH Sword, or Shield. The rifle is on par with the Dagger in terms of mobility and then fails in every other category which is what has prompted almost all mesmer players to look at that and ask what the hell they were thinking.

I hate to do this but I gotta. We have a grand total of ONE(1) trait that makes Burning better, and a whole bunch of traits that make Confusion better. And the only skills we have that really inflict Burning is the Torch, which basically no one uses. While I'm sure they did this accidentally we benefit far more by having more confusion application than we do burning, and we would be far more effective if they would QUIT NERFING CONFUSION AS WELL 😠 but the point is that we don't currently have the kit to really support burning damage. All mesmers are great with confusion and torment, Virt is good with bleeding, and we have good support for those. Let's focus on what we're good at...while we're still good at it...

For my own two cents, when I think "Mobile", swiftness and superspeed are generally not it. Don't get me wrong. I suppose if you're in, like, WvW and dueling, and they try to run then swiftness while chasing them down is exactly what you need. But when I think mobility I think of Leaps, Retreats, Teleports, Dodges, etc. For example, I describe the mesmer Staff as being HIGHLY mobile. The reason is Phase Retreat. It is an instant teleport away from whatever you're targetting with the added benefit of spawning a clone AND retargetting your enemy. But just the retreat is great for dodging charge attacks, escaping AOEs, all that stuff. MIrage THrust is also a great mobility skill. Once you kill your current target, double tap > 1 to leap to the next one dealing damage and interupting their actions. And we have more. I think that's what most people think of when they think mobility, and some have more or less. Mirages on the whole have less mobility since Mirage Cloak doesn't actually move anywhere, which has gotten me into trouble on many occasions. But the rifle? The rifle has ZERO mobility. The only mobility option it brings is a single use, one way portal that brings someone else to you, and if you want thoughts on that they're not hard to find. So in the end, you're not wrong. We're highly mobile, and we still can be with the rifle. But it's NOT HELPING. It should have some kind of mobility on it but it doesn't, because it was poorly designed, poorly implemented, and fails at generally every task besides sustained healing.

Do you remember what shape that was? I remember what shape that was. Wandering squads of mordrem assault teams. Champion modrem that could one-shot an ill-prepared squad. A jungle so hostile the actual map could kill you without any enemies around. Don't get me wrong, it was good times. I'm a vet from GW1 where the idea of going solo was reserved for the brave or the insane. But GW2 sold itself on the solo experience, and so HoT got nerfed harder than mesmers get nerfed today (and that's borderline grape, with the hungarian silent g). It's a different player base they're catering to, and a different game because of it. A bottom of the barrel, one size fits all, mass market appeal kinda game.

You should have tested Diversion/Time Sink as well. Just speaking for myself, after Signet of Humility that's my go-to for breaking defiance, although only if I have to. My clones are more valuable to me alive generally. It's also worth noting, and I don't know the numbers here, that Chaos Storm has CC as well and I use that for at least tagging defiance bars for the WV dailies. Greatsword also has a decent knockback as well, although I don't use greatswords and I try not to get that close in the first place.