Mesmer Portalling - Halt until official word is given

Greetings Everyone,

I've asked ArenaNet to voice their yay or nay for the use of hide and seek protocals in Mass Portaling people inside the outter wall through the Mesmer portal skill. Until they give official word I would like it very much if we avoid this practice. I don't believe it's a exploit, but as a sign of good faith and fairness I want to give ArenaNet time to make an official statement before we resume practice. Thanks guys.

Fog

Now to figure out a way to fling my warrior over walls with a treb...

Just a note it may not be portal http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Portal_Entre that they are using to exploit. There is the second staff ability called Phase Retreat http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Phase_Retreat that can glitch you into structures. I've had it happen a couple times in PvE when kiting a mob I glitch into a structure such as a bridge, scaffolding, etc... I can easily see where it might work backing up to a gate and trying to do it. And yes I've reported it as a bug.

Tserash is right - Staff 2 (Phase Retreat) is pretty buggy. I was fighting (PvE) centaurs in a town last night, and it pushed me through one of the town walls, so I would imagine that it could also push me through a keep wall. I've also had it push me through one of the invisible barriers around areas you're not supposed to go. I haven't figured out how to control it, though, so I keep winding up stuck in trees and rocks. Using this in WvW would definitely be an exploit, as I understand it. I've also seen Sword 3 (Illusionary Leap) mentioned as a potential problem child. According to the description, the skill creates a clone at your position, which leaps or charges at your target. However, it's been my experience that the clone actually just appears at the target instead. The secondary function of the skill allows you to swap places with the clone. I haven't tried it, but it might be that you can target an enemy on a keep wall, pop the clone which would appear on the wall next to the enemy (I know for sure this part works with several of the Phantasms, I don't know about clones), then swap places with the clone to put you on the wall.

Interesting. Yes staff 2 skill got me stuck underneath (inside) a set of stairs. The mob above me kept me in combat so I could not port out to a waypoint. After relogging I was still stuck, but had dropped combat so I could port. Would not occur to me it could be used to exploit, but can see how that might be. More of an annoyance, hope they fix it. On the other hand, the mass portal takes timing and strategy, and does not seem like it should be deemed an exploit IMO.

I found this thread at the official GW2 forums under the WvW discussion. https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/WvsW-is-unplayable-because-of-mesmer-portal-abuse The topic was people were complaining about mesmer portal in WvW. 15 minutes ago, Anet replied; "Hi everyone. As we have stated, this is no exploit so far but another tactic that players can use in their gaming experience. Thanks for your concerns. We will proceed to lock this thread now."

» Edited on: 2012-09-27 04:57:37

No surprise there, though it is nice of them to state it explicitly. Portal is just a skill like any other - as long as it's "working as intended", there shouldn't be a problem.

https://forum-en.guildwars2.com/forum/pvp/wuvwuv/WvsW-is-unplayable-because-of-mesmer-portal-abuse Our portals are legal, so hush and play. ;)

Yes!


» Edited on: 2012-09-27 07:57:06

Yay. I'm glad ArenaNet replied so quickly. I plan to play WvW for years to come, and it'd become quite boring if they limited it to only the most obvious, no-coordination-required tactics.

This good news, anything else would have been extremely disappointing.

Although that answer is to a different issue of the Mesmer portal. That topic is dealing with having a mesmer portal their army into the middle of enemies causing an invisible force wipe out the opposing side. Too many people so the defenders don't even see the attacking army before they are dead/dying. It's about abusing the rendering/culling issue that is a client problem we all have experienced. The ANet response here is not in response to using the portal to bypass keep defenses. Just sayin...

» Edited on: 2012-09-27 10:33:25

Portal is still off my utility bar until I see the Official Fog Big Thumbs Up.

The portaling into the middle of an army thing mentioned in the linked QQ thread does not make any sense to me at all. A few of the things I see wrong with it: 1) How is the mesmer supposed to plant the portal in the middle of an enemy army in the first place without getting killed in the process? 2) The portals always seem to show up just fine, so if you do see a portal that is probably just a great place to stack a ton of AoE and kill people as they go through it. Even if you can't see them they will still die to your AoEs. 3) They could just walk right up to the army and there is a good chance they won't render anyway. 4) If you can't see them there is a pretty good chance they can't see you either. The render issue cuts both ways. So how is it an advantage to blindly go through a portal in the middle of an enemy army? I suspect the anet response was to the portal into the keep thing and he did not take the time to read and parse the entire post to find out exactly what the OP was complaining about. Since every other portal post I have seen is about the keeps.

"Now to figure out a way to fling my warrior over walls with a treb..." Hahaha! I imagine cramming as many people as possible into the treb shot holder, there's a misfire and we all splatter up against a keep wall. I would pay a not-insignificant amount of money to have this be possible.

Let the portals ride.

I don't see how mesmer's using their skills in wvw could be considered an exploit anymore than an elementalist using his to drop AOE on tops of keep walls hoping to hit something would be. Pointing a catapult at your keep door and firing on it to knock back and damage players and siege on the other side, while doing no damage to your own door seems much more like an exploit to me. Yet in reality this is just a smart tactic using the limitations of the game engine to your advantage.