Avion Blade.4869

When I recall, I do remember Untamed tyically stay on LB more now that I think about it. Maybe they'll fix up hammer soon.

Hmm, I thought the weakening and stunning part of it would buy time to stay close quarters.

Coming from the perspective of fighting against them using a non-EoD spec: Willbenders You have become more mobile now to compete against thiefs and mesmers via shadowstep teleports. However, using all of them at once will render you vulnerable to a burst. So spreading out your teleports should help you land your burns alongside other hard hits from non-EoD weapons and skills. Your physical skills lets you last longer in melee range. Lastly you have much more access to swiftness. You are built to catch up to the faster specs. Vindicators You have a theme which could be called: I'm in the sky, stand in my circles you die. You have AOE's built in as a follow up to your evades, which is pretty cool. But, similar to Willbender, using them all at once makes you vulnerable to a counter burst. Use those evades and built-in evades in weapons/utilities as a counter-skill against incoming attacks going onto you. Your traits give you bonuses when certain scenarios are met; so being active with your skills, and using endurance and landing on enemies, will make you even stronger, and more sustainable. Bladesworns With pistol access as well as a gunsaber, you now are more versatile than ever. However, completely sticking to melee or using gunsaber without using pistol or shooting with the saber means you are not utilizing the ability to soften up the opponent before katana-striking them for the ender. Therefore, mix up melee and range more. Your special attack has a built-in teleport, so timing it can help you avoid an attack while relocating to strike and end the fight. Your Armament skills are designed to set up how you want to attack the enemy, or to protect yourself from their projectiles, or rushing to you. Mechanists Your Mech is a Bodyguard Miniboss. Standing behind your mech can help shield against some projectile dps and avoid LOS pulls. You are technically 2vX-ing everything you fight. It is hard to fight both as Engineer and with the Mech, as the controls are basically built to control both yourself and your bodyguard. Fight by alternating your leap to the opponent then pulling back through your mech, taking turns like a boxing-ring match. This means every now and then, DPS is divided between you and the mech from the opponent, while you and the mech apply dps on the enemy*. Untamed Combine your ambush attacks with your pet's abilities to soften up/cc the enemy. You have bonus damage against them cc'd. You and your pet work together. Don't stay at ranged with your pet at melee, and if going melee, make sure your pet is ready to stun/removeboons/or chill opponent. You are more lethal up close due to hammer, with slower but hard hitting attacks. The slowness is compensated with your pet's fast attacks. Your hammer has a leap attack as well. Specters With your shadowstep wells, you have mobility with AOE built in. Your scepter may have slow attacks, but hits hard. You will notice your skills and utilities are designed to slow/cripple/fear enemies and support allies, and thus using your mobility and hard hitting attacks is a good combination in general. You are also given more of a support role, but you don't really lose your solo-potential. I am sure you can be used more in Zergs with this spec as well. Cataylsts Many of you might start with using Staunched Auras which is good in combination with Elemental Epitome. Some of you might be afraid due to your slower yet hard hitting attacks, you could be interrupted more; but making good combo fields will grant stability when you gain an aura. Pair this up with whatever else grants stability, and this melee spec that has attacks circling around you built into the hammer as you move is a great help. Time your attacks in combination with whatever AOE you have. Your augments make you more powerful when fighting near them. Catalysts make Elementalists better at locking down close-quarters combat. Ice and immobilize will help you catch up to opponents with ranged attacks. Virtuosos You are susceptible being reflected and damaged by your own ranged shatters, and due to lack of clones, it may feel clunky. However, your range shatters are best used not at full max ranged, but mid-range following CC on the opponent. Closer ranged shatters gives them less time to react, and gives faster results. You still have mobility with your utilities, and are definitely going to use hit-and-hide/run/relocate tactics. Your F4 can still deal damage, and can be used to deceive opponents thinking its chaos aura (it looks like it but looking closer it isn't). You don't have to worry about clones running to the opponent which could be destroyed, but you could still be interrupted. Running Bountiful Disillusionment is a great starter trait from Chaos Spec to cover your shatters with stability. Your utilities have more AOE, and you even have a knockback, which is great against being jumped on by mobile professions. Harbingers With the ability to go glass-cannon on demand, you may feel you could be squished at any moment during blight effects. But, with elixers, drinking before fighting is going to be common. Your leap has a built in evade and a daze on land. You have a utility skill that is a CC crowd-lifter; and so, shoot them or hit them hard in this moment. You have more access now to CC's and faster projectile ranged attacks. Remember, when blighted, burst/be aggressive, because necromancers before would be slow at setting up high damage, but this time; they can deal it much much faster. In conclusion, all the classes have been given mechanics similar to the other professions which already have it, allowing the new Elite Specs bring a new playstyle to each class. And these are just suggestions of how to play them. You might find better ways to play them, but this is based on reading on paper the skills and traits, as well as fighting against them so far in WvW. Many of us have struggled to defeat/use these new Elite Specs already, because both you and I are still learning how to use them.

Hello again! Here's another video session with bonus clip(s) for a duel with a cool Virtuoso! It is a win/loss video in one gaming recording. It shows weaknesses and strengths, how best to play how to maneuver, etc. And also... lol dealing with lag :(. Enjoy! I'm treating this thread as a hub for updating on the progress of this build, so far the means of which to use it is getting better and better.

None could mean they're not interested, still doing the HoT or Pof Specs, or just core without any elites, and that is fine. The context focuses on the New EoD specs because it is recently released. And again it says, "currently", so what they're working on may change in the near future.

Video shows passionate disappointment but hope for this to be addressed, at least. I'd like to really play as the description is as for Mesmer, but it is difficult with the icon-giveaways. This is a handicap and speaking about it is necessary. Non-Boon buffs should no longer be a self-give away, and ought to also be applied to clones. It makes a difference in engaging a Mesmer. You can test this out. Consume no food or utility, do not fight in a home territory, wait for borderlands bloodlust to be lost, use no signet. Fight as a mesmer without any buff-icon giveaways and watch opponent(s) find it more difficult to fight you. It is not impossible for them to beat you, but more difficult because they are used to clicking/tabbing to discover you, after your target break if you use it. Then, fight with the former equipped again, and/or in home territory for the guild objective bonus, and notice the difference in how they fight you. There is no call to touch the mechanics of other classes, or multiplier point adjustments, but only to have the coding that applies the polyluminescent undulating refractors to clones, also be implemented with the buffs spoken of. If I have it, they have it too, (not the boons or the stacked profession bonuses, but only the Food, Nourishment, Borderland Bloodlust, and Guild Objective Aura). It makes a huge difference. I noticed this 4 years ago, but I will bring it out now. - Avion.

Technically, not participating in the poll would mean you have no interest in any of the new elite specs, so there is that. But, ill edit the poll so that there is that option nonetheless.

Alright new Specs here we go! The poll is there to see which new elite spec is most popular and the secondary or second builds for the same spec. Please also add your first impressions post-release! Just curious! I'll give mine within the month! glhf! Edit: Fixed typo for Harbinger from copy/pasting

yeah its hard to explain on paper how to use it. And "Meta classes rolling their faces on the keyboard" is funny haha. I think they can afford that because their stability stacks last a while.

Just know that for all of us, March 1st you have EoD already if you pre-purchased it! Depending on your time-zone EoD may come earlier or later than expected, but on March 1st you can enjoy it together finally 😄

As a second post in response, the whole doctrine of the build follows this idea: - The teleports allow you to be here and there giving you time for cool-downs to reset while the enemy has to take time to travel to you, or spend a skill to get to you. The combination of confusion and torment puts them in this situation: If they are standing still looking for you, they take double damage. If they use skills to get to you they take damage. In essence, you want to be in control of the fight (unless you fight a thief, which is another story). - Striking the enemy shouldn't spend all the teleports at once, it is usually a combination of one utility or two, + weapon skills and a couple of the f shatter skills. Be sure Chaos Low Low Low is always equipped as a specialization option because the first two lows reduce manipulation and staff cooldowns, and the third low is for stability and boons (great for keeping you upright while on axe moving into the enemy). Next one for the all-round version, is; in addition to Chaos; having Illusions High Mid Mid. This is for being able to set up a second burst later due to the second shatter stack for F1. The second mid for quickness after phantasm summon is really to have mirage advance activate nearly immediately. And then the third mid works well together with the shatter bonuses from Bountiful Disillusionment from Chaos third Low. Mirage High High Mid, works together with the previous specs selected. Walking through your diamonds after setting up clones is also another time buyer for your shorter f-cooldowns and manipulation cooldowns, and throw in that staff 1 evade for alacrity and you will see how this build is put together. Combine that with ledges and LOS obstacles with your teleport superiority and you can work wonders! Domination is usually only used in a 1v1 and against the heavy boon-meta users; and Inspiration is for low-risk good reward face tanking any necro/elite (reap/scourge), but in general Illusion is the All-round version. Scroll up to see the listed build(s) variations and know that Chaos and Mirage remains the same while the situation may call for changing up which of the three versions are needed. And if you are okay with avoiding big hits from a 1v1 or 1v2, go head and get marauder accessories, get one assassin ring, and one berserker ring; but keep the rest as usual to maintain enough tankiness to buy time for cooldowns. In essence, jumper mirage wins by a battle of attrition, and/or finding gaps in the opponents rotation for that opportune interrupt into a high crit ender to the fight. Also, never underestimate auto-attacking with axe 1 while they are blinded! --- Therefore: Use confusion vigor shatter (F2) to have the 50% endurance regen, and evade attack to produce alacrity, this works together with the reduced manipulation cooldown on mirror heal and blink; as well as staff itself having reduced cooldown. When being pressured by enemy, only use teleports to get out of aoe or avoid a big hit; use them when needed, not to close gaps (with the exception of doing a crippling daze: axe 2 + blink + f3 quickly in that order in a 1v1 for pressure). Basically, you have so many teleports the goal is to not be stunned as often. Don't forget to combine sometimes jaunt with staff 4 + f2 with clones up. Stacks of confusion help too.

If you're coming from normally using cloak in your rotation that might be the issue and/or the Inspiration Specialization version is also another reason you are having damage difficulties. Because normally cloaking would help incase they discover you, but this build is a real hard challenge without cloak! Advice for now would be: - Spread out the teleports and use them when you really need them. - Stay on Staff as long as possible with clones up and don't move after using Illusionary Ambush, let them work hard to find and reach you. You can use regular attack speed during this, place chaos storm on a clone* to bait them. Use Staff 4 if they get near you to buy time with their miss. - Switch to Axe/Sword when your boons are 15+ Might stacks and then do mini bursts when ther aegis/stablity stacks/protection boon has run out. - Go with the Illusions Spec options High Mid Mid or Domination Spec Option Mid High High. - The Inspiration version is actually based on dealing with necromancers/reapers/scourges in a fight, and is the beginner version. In Theory: Staff to boon yourself up and soften them, and then axe/sword to strike and hit and run them. Sword 4 x 2 for that 2 second daze is useful. Also practice sending dazes to the other opponent in a 1v2 to buy time pressuring the targeted opponent, and then switch vice versa. You can check the second vid on this thread to look at the 1v2 and see how I spread out the ports. If I didn't post the food and utility here it is: Corsair Maintenance Oil Bowl of Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew And also you need this on an exotic or any max level 80 trinket *backpack for me*: Polyluminescent Undulating Refractor ^ buy color of your choice. It is a celestial stat jewel that will also show an icon on your clones to increase the chance opponents will believe they are you. Low Damage output is sometimes caused by not being on staff long enough to get the might stack before switching to axe/sword. Also, Axe 3 + F3 for the interrupt bonus damage with sigil of severence on axe is a must to get more dps also! It does take practice though. I died a lot too when I began using this, you will see those opportune moments in due time! Good luck! Avoid open fields as much as possible, and use ledges/los obstacles when you can. Example of how to escape unwanted scenarios: There is a lot of value gained from standing still while placing a storm on a clone. And also, do the spider web on one of them in a 1v2! If you don't know how to it is in the first vid in the OP post here, about 10 minutes in I think, of how to do it.

We're gonna be dying a lot first before we become more effective with Virtuoso. I forecast that we might forget a clone won't pop up to meat shield for us. Phantasms will still appear, but will then become blade stock. So it will be difficult at first to adjust. Therefore, the first common builds will primarily focus on high damage burst hit and runs with cloak involved. Our shatters are ranged now which is actually crazy to realize. They are On-demand darts so to speak. The utilities are AOE and we have a knock back utility, so that helps against thieves and any other class with a skill to insta teleport to you, new or old. Power is definitely the go-to expectation because conditions benefit from clones for the extra stacks. The dagger for the virtuoso has a supplementary attack hitting the flanks of the target, so sigils that use flank-attack bonuses will benefit from that. After while, people will counter virtuoso with adding a lot of stuns/ccs, and I think Chaos top, top, bottom might help with virtuoso. Without clones, a storm on heal will be helpful, condi converted to boons while stunned is necessary, and the stability while you are sending darts will be nice. I think Domination, Chaos, and Virtuoso might be the go-to, but mesmers will start with duelist/domination/virtuoso. Illusions is good for that quickness, but requires a phantasm, so quick shatters for quick darts require phantasms. But illusions benefit from clones being generated; when you generate blades I know compounding power will still apply, but the synergy is with the clones for the shatters. So Illusions would be used for phantasm summon + shatter for follow up. But for domination, I hope the shatters remove boons at range with domination, it wouldn't make sense if it didn't. Illusion might be the less-likely pick, but in a 1vX it may be used because of the lower shatter cooldown.

Mimic is great in 1v1s. Have you tried double domination for the double 3 second stun? Super useful if you want to use a burst twice. Beyond a 1v1, its only good for a specific action to be done to a greater extent solo. But in a group you can specialize in whatever role: Resurrecter, reflector, nullifier, etc.

Alrighty. I guess no one wants heals to be a chore out of combat. I remember when mantras needed to be charged up first before the stacks could be used. How about extending the time you need to be OOC before healing back to max automatically? Right now I think it is as soon as you get OOC, but maybe after being OOC, a 5 or 10 second wait before the heal kicks in?

I did say "should, but doesn't have to be". I also understand that for casuals they like to survive being targeted on their way to the zerg. And, since people are used to how it currently is, I don't mind. I am calling it what it is in all honesty. The one thing to really look at is both going OOC when one goes OOC doesn't always happen. You can test this when an npc is hit by an orb or an aoe unintendedly, and when the enemy goes OOC, and you are the one that hit the npc on accident, you don't heal up when the other person does; they can then use that against you and then down you. It happens both ways. While typing this, I am also realizing perhaps keeping it how it is will keep WvW new-player friendly too. So there's that.

Another thing is, if as a bystander an npc animal gets hit, and the opponent who didn't hit the animal OOCs, the one who did hit the animal is still in combat, while the OOC person heals up and then comes back to the person who couldn't OOC heal due to npc intervention. Hope it makes sense; this is also why disabling this feature should be done, but doesn't have to be because everyone is used to it. I'm just typing to see if anyone thinks similarly.

This means even when OOC and safe, yet you are damaged, you still need to heal up actively via skills. This applies also to NPCs. Sometime players who kite NPCs will kite outside the NPCs aggro range threshold, and then the NPCs will just heal up on their way back to their post, even though they're taking damage. 😕 This will also remove the exploit that some classes use, especially the really mobile ones. It will make WvW more interesting and give caution for survival. You know how that warrior just nike's out of combat then comes back? Or the thief who invis ooc then comes back quickly? or that weaver/soulbeast/scrappernader, or that other mesmer? Yeah, this time when they come back, they resume the same way they left. So, when they OOC they have to commit to really running away on their warclaw and then find a place to heal via skill. Or just recommit to fighting their way out. I'll take that challenge too if I need to run away, got to plan where I'm going and find a low-traffic spot to heal up. I also predict that, if this is implemented, it will really challenge players to improve when fighting with lower HP due to attrition. I believe it will make them more comfortable fighting with lower HP, and learning to pay attention to certain animations. I exploit this too for now, and it feels really horrible, and sometimes I do just stick it out until downed and stomped, whether me or them, because I know that frustration when they OOC at the tip of your fingers but they slip away 😮 Oh the grief!

Power damage struggles due to Aegis and protection. Condi damage struggles due to cleanse and resolution. CC struggles due to stability and profession/spec specific invuls. But really what PUGS need to work on is implementing boon removers into their roam or small group build. Which is why stack vs stack fights last a while because it is a battle of whose boons will last longest to tank and when their boons go out, so do does their group, being downed and stomped via domino effect. Of course if it is just you vs, the enemy team's group/zerg/blob what would you expect, but if you are talking about contributing toward weakening them before your team's group/zerg/blob shows up, it would be better to save your cooldowns when more people come and just scout out how many of what profession is in that group. However! The most useful skills to help against zerg are AOE invis and/or AOE boon/removers; any reflects, and also aoe blocks vs projectiles. Singling out the players not in their stack also help. Another things is basically communication; sometimes I type to have people's utilities to swap to anti-boon and then you see some progress made. The thing about stacking though is that if you don't fit yourself right, even if you stack, you'll eat up the damage and die quickly because you didn't have enough toughness/vitality and the support's max-cap is used up by others in the stack. I get your frustration though, we want to be useful and feel bad if we feel useless. The overlap of boon sharing is really too much. Another thing! Don't feel bad about using another teammate as a meat shield. You can take turns going in front of each other to share direct LOS damage and tank for each other. It goes both ways tbh. In short, fighting those boons blobs requires your own team's boon blob. Nobody should go to war with the lesser of equipment, and unfortunately the same applies to WvW.

Another vid up from improved use techniques. More coming soon! Thanks to all who asked and put their thoughts in! Please wait for processing. I'm exciting of showing the progress of the potential of this build! Something new or revisited at least, another style of mirage that may be uncommon or unseen! And also, finally, a non-lagging vid! I need to get better comp system. I will soon upload a win/loss compilation with voice over on learning from it. This build is for high-challenge on purpose due to no cloak, no signet, one evade.

Thanks for that! I actually did work on it as you said Cheers!

Links: Jumper Mirage JDAM stands for Jaunt, Deception, Alacrity, Mirror Celestial Beginner Anti-Condi Sustain Celestial Beginner Anti-Boon Bonus DPS Celestial Beginner All-Round Initial Quickness ^ CBARIQ is the standard for versatility due to lowest cooldowns available for shatters and dps from compounding and might generation. You lean more on power with the build overall, condi is a supplement. Build Usage: Begin with Staff and build up Might and then switch to axe sword. With the Illusion Spec summoning sword 5 phantasm will enable you to have quickness to have a fast mirage advance. With the Domination Spec you really push more at removing boons in addition to softening them up with staff then striking combos against them. You have blocks, reflects, teleports, use clones as meat shields, against thieves who cloak, stand inside your clones they will hit the clones with pistol or any LOS-based skill. I am remaking my videos because of improved methods of fighting style and also better editing for texts/transitions etc. If you want more DPS and can avoid condi/damage, with the exception of the amulet and backpack, mix up some marauder/assassin/berserker trinkets. I use two marauder on accessories and one assassin and one berserker. Due to no cloak, any more dps armor weapons pushes the build to being limited to a 1v2 hit and runs; but with the above standard you can 1v3 but have to kite. You will die a lot at first, but once you figure out the rotation it will be fun. Because you have a lot of teleports, the goal is to not be stunned to begin with. Combos (Not field combos but using the skills for the build). Crippling Daze (surprise attack) = Axe 2 + Blink on opponent + f3 Spider Web Daze Chain = Staff 2 + jaunt on opponent + Illusionary ambush + Chaos storm on opponent + f3 -> switch to axe sword, axe three + axe 2, then power shatter then sword 4 (twice for 2 second daze) then shatter again or cry of frust; mirage advance, run away, mirage retreat, switch back to staff; opponent should be at a distant to reset. These are done quickly.

The key to beating Condi Bunker is interrupting their heals and/or poisoning them. I have been a victim of the thing I just posted when I would run a Condi Bunker, and also successfully did the same against opponents who are Condi Bunkers. After I while I lean more on power now with condi as a supplement, and a little less tanky for that extra power/prec/fer dps.

Kill one guard at every enemy tower. If it is captured you get credit for it even if you are not in the circle. That helps with some EXP.

I think it takes 145 WvW ability points to unlock the dismount throw. So the people who invest into the lance throw early on are already giving up other abilities unless they have WvWd a long time already. A little tip on avoiding being dismounted: Look aft or backwards and keep a good distance from your enemy, and watch out for the throw and then evade when you see it. Don't go straight towards the opponent and try to turn sharply out of their LOS if they're behind you. Ride through terrain and LOS barriers like trees, rocks, etc. Remember this also, your travel speed is the same on the warclaw, and they need to be in 1500 range to hit you; so that is enough distance for an opportunity to evade. Save your second evade just for not being dismounted; and space out the first evade for speeding.