Guild Wars 2

With so many ppl complaining about a lack of valid Builds and a stagnant Metagame, I wanted to give some food for thought and experimentation.

I’ve been Theorycrafting and toying around with various Builds a lot in GW2 and here are some of them, I’ve actually deemed worthy of playing in sPvP and tPvP and that have actually worked well.

Somehow the Links dont seem to work if you just click on them, so you need to just copy them into your browser

[Ranger] Combofield Teamfight-Build

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-FV-g;1wEFy-u2JEk-0;9k2I;2TT44;137A29A;4K-F4;28ZF18ZF10Zt

Equipment: Yepp – Celestial-Amu: You get decent Condi-Damage, but can do effective DMG on the Greatword as well and again: You actually can use all the stats on this build! Rune of the Ele works great and you get very high stacks of chilled and burning on targets on small points and in Teamfights. You can also run the build more tanky with Shaman-Amu and/or use more than 2 Traps, if you feel you don’t need the stunbreaker.

Playstyle: It’s more or less not a roamer, you do as little roaming as possible but try to search Teamfights on smaller Points and run with Players that can actually utilize your combo-fields. Most of my Quickness I get from petswapping, I try to use for Quickness-Rezzes – it’s amazing to have a Quickness-Rezz every 20 Seconds and it’s a huge part of why this build is so good in Teamfights.

[Ranger] Cleric-Amu Bunker/Pointguard

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Fg-o;1wEFu-q2JEV-0;9F5E;2ETJ4;13;029A52;2X-V7;2Rk06Rk063NV

Equipment: Since one of the big Aspects that make this Build work is constant reg, going for the Cleric-Amu is a good choice. It’s also a valid option to run this build with other Weapons and Shaman-Amu (I’d at least keep the Greatsword though, cuz the Leap-Finisher and the Block+Knockback are just too amazing), but getting either the Shortbow or Axe/Sword and a Torch works well. I really like the Knockback on the Longbow though – it’s actually one of the best in the game and with Greatsword 4, your Immobilize on Muddy Terrain and the Spider and the fear of the Wolf, you actually have more ways of getting a cap or a decap than any other class.
For the runes, I use the Runes of the Forge, cuz even if you have no Burning whatsoever, it’s IMHO the best for Bunker-builds. I also don’t really need to go for Dwayna, because I have constant reg anyways. I’ve also experimented around with rune of the Guardian (if the opposing team has lots of ranged attackers you can stack up the burning quite a lot and if you use an Offhad-Axe, which works pretty well on this build because of the very long whirl-finisher, you get an insane amount of blocking-time against ranged Attackers).

Skills: Nothing set in stone here – the skills selected work well for me, but there are good alternatives as well: Like the Selfrezz on the Elite, „Protect Me“ or even Quickness for stomping/rezzing.

Traits: If your Team plays Teamfight-oriented, it would maybe be a good Idea to get the pet-swapping down to 15 Seconds, because Quickness-Rezzes on a Tank are just amazing in Teamfights. What’s really important though is the Empathic Bond (all conditions go to your Pet every 10 seconds!) and the 33% longer reg-duration, which enables you to have reg up at pretty much all times, if you are able to stand in your Healing Spring for the whole duration.

Playstyle: Like any other Bunker….. ^^’

[Thief] Stealth my A** Condition-Roamer

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-cR3V;1Vw-a06-wOFd0;9;49J-T94;025;229B2;0KJF4;2KJG4KJG49Zv

Equipment: I run the Shaman-Amu, because the build is pretty squishy and you’ll need the Sustain you get from the Toughness and the Bonus-Heal from Assassin’s Reward. The Runes are Lyssa, because I get good use out of the Boni from Set-Pieces (4) and (6), because both my Heal and my Elite have very low CD’s (it’s actually so low, that you’ll need to w8 5 Seconds after the CD of Basilisk Venom for the Effect to trigger, but still: All condis gone and all buffs for more than 5 Seconds is insane – I don’t even care that much about the Effect of the Venom itself!)
I also run Pistol/Dagger, because it does decent stacks of bleeding and the only time I stealth is because I want to use the first Skill of the Pistol when I’m in stealth.

Skills: I got the Signet for the Movement Speed and 2 Stunbreakers, because you’ll need them to not die to every Burst. Together with the Healing Skill and the Roll for Initiative, you are basically safe against Mesmer-Spikes and Immobilize altogether.

Traits: What I was looking for in Traits was mostly sustain, because the Build should be very versatile and I didn’t want much stealth, so you’ll be able to defend Points as well. And booooy does the Thief have great Sustain! With Vigor through the roof and Feline Grace, I can dodge around like a madman and Assassin’s reward works very well too! I also went for Potent Poison, because the amount of Poison you can put out just by stealing and your Poison-field is amazing. 30+ Seconds of Poison on a Bunker/Pointholder on small points within a few seconds of them standing in the poison field and the 5 guaranteed projectile-finishers of the stealthed „1“ of the Pistol AND Stealing is nothing Special with this build. On Critical Strikes, I was looking to get up to a decent amount of Crit-Chance and the added Vitality helps out a lot as well.

Playstyle: This build is designed to do well against most Pointholders like Mesmers (it literally is probably the most direct counter to Shatter-Mesmers that Portalguard I know of – you can easily escape their spikes, you do condition-dmg, which is always good against Mesmers and you have enough AoE and Bouncing-Attacks to kill their Illusions), Engineers (you can stay out of bomb-range if you want and again; Condition-DMG works well against them), Eles (Poison does wonders and you actually have similar sustain to semi-defensive ele with all your dodges and healing) and Offtank Guardians (just spam them full with conditions from far way with your Shortbow). Also, the build helps out a lot if you try and kill a Bunker-Guardian and on top of that, you can even hold a point to a certain degree (definitely better than a glasscannon-Thief that relies heavily on stealth). It just is an overall great build and it kinda plays like an Ele-Roamer, just with condition-DMG: Similar Movement around the Map, similar DMG-Output (although not as bursty obviously), similar Sustain and the Team-Support is decent on this build as well with your Poison-Field and good AoE, even from a distance (and you will have to stay a bit in the Background in big Teamfights to avoid heavy DPS).

If you use this build together with 1-2 Chars that have decent combofields (like fire-fields on Ele and Engi, Etheral Fields on Mesmer or sth.), the build really starts to get ridiculous, because the guaranteed 5 Projectile-Finishers within 1 Second on the Pistol-1 Stealth is absolutely insane!

[Mesmer] Confusion/Shatter Hybrid (shoutout to Helseth for giving me the initial Idea! ^^)

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N3dFR;0VPV1127JVV71;9;4JJ;0T06-49;545ALJV44;1sV2DsV2D0By

Equipment: I use Celestial Amu, because first of all, it’s the most effective one in pure stats; There are diminishing returns (and certain stats even start at a lower „base-level“ than you get on the celestial-Amu) on all Amulets besides Celestial Amu the higher you go up on one stat (besides Crit-Damage). So if you can use all the Stats provided by Celestial Amu, it’s often a good choice to go for it (unless your build is specifically designed to do lots of condition-DMG to kill a Bunker-Guard or you are going for a Healing-build with lots of Healing Power and Toughness). Secondly, it would be stupid to fully pass up on the great Spike-DMG provided by Mind Wrack and with the Celestial-Amu, you actually still get decent Spikes. There is nothing really special about the other Equip – on the Scepter-Offhand, you can Experiment a bit though and go for the one that works best for you, they’re all valid options. I went for the Focus, because you can’t switch to it for Quickness anymore and a Mesmer with Portal and reduced CD on it, I really think Swiftness is very powerful.

Skills: The only Interesting part is that I didn’t went for the Decoy and that I’m running Blink instead. Both Decoy and Blink are good Stunbreakers, but Blink is better, because you get out of Spikes that use Immobilize (other Shatter-Mesmers, certain Warrior-builds with their Sword-F1, Offtank/Pointguard-Guardians, certain Thief-builds – there are actually quite a lot of ’em). Besides that, I love Teleports because they are so versatile: You can use them for Movement, defensively as Stunbreakers, offensively to get near a Target faster and they are great to somp Thieves, Mesmers and Eles (use stomp -> cancel it immediately -> stomp again, thereby forcing the opponent to use their escape, but still giving you enough time to blink on top of them before your stomp ends).

Traits: Pretty Self-explanatory, nothing special….

Playstyle: You use it as you would use other Shatter-Mesmers; mostly Portalguard your point, maybe Portal offensively and Help out in teamfights. This build in particular is very helpful when you’re trying to get rid of a Guardian mid or when you are engaging in big teamfights and you have a Necro spreading your confusion. Seek out MU’s against Engis, Bunker-Guards, other Shatter-Mesmers and Shortbow-1-spamming Rangers but avoid Eles with Ether renewal, Necros and anything with good Condition-removal. Because you aren’t really tanky and your Spike is weaker than that of other Shatter-Mesmers and it’s hard to channel the Confusion-stacks onto a Thief going Invis constantly, Thieves are a Problem for this build as well.

[Mesmer] Sustain/Shatter Hybrid

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-NZ-FR;0VPV1127JVV71;9;4JJ4E906-49;21;05;0U-V44;1JF04JF044By

Equipment: Valk-Amu is a decent choice for Mesmers, because their Main-Heal benefits quite a lot from the Healing Power and I specced it in a way that I get lots of reg from Metaphysical Rejuvenation, Phantasmal Healing and my Chaos Armor. In order to still have decent Spikes, I went for lots of Precision on basically everything else

Hugs and kisses and a bucket full of merry christmas-wishes
Thx for the post m8

Really interesting read. Would love to see some more builds!

hey dude, got any love for a warrior/engi?

they are valid for tpvp and paid?
it would be very nice if some streaming dedicated team would try to use them in paid to see the effective power. and maybe to diversify the meta

Unfortunately there is a huge lack of viable builds in PvP. Pretty much your only viable options are:

Ranger: Traps, Double invulnerability glass cannon
Warrior: 100b, High damage Mace/Axe cc
Thief: Backstab, Deathblossom
Necromancer: Power Wells, Tanky conditions, Power Melee
Mesmer: Shatter, Phantasm
Engineer: Rifle bunker, Conditions
Guardian: Bunker, DPS
Elementalist: Bunker, DPS

Many of these builds are sub-par and do not bring nearly as much to a team as the popular builds.

I for one am tired of seeing everyone with copy/paste builds because they’re the most effective. I’m tired of seeing every team use a Mesmer/Guardian because no one can fill their roles better.

@Raytek: I am sorry but did you read the 1. post at all?

I’ll add another one.
Engineer: rifle roamer
yes I play it and yes it is very effective, great survivability with perm swiftness and some crazy burst.

This isn’t meant to sound rude, but on paper, that thief build looks unplayable. Perhaps I’m wrong (and I will be testing it out tonight to see), but it seems there’s just an overall lack of damage, and many wasted talent points. I’ve run almost 0 power P/D builds before (specifically with a Sham Ammy too), and nearly every point in Crit strikes is wasted – you’ll be hitting non-glass cannons for 100-150 (iirc), so your crits will be adding 70-100 damage, and your crit% isn’t great to begin with. Low base condition damage + base length bleeds (you’re 5% short of an extra bleed tick per pistol shot) is just more and more time for you to slip up and get pasted by a glass cannon, or for help from the opposing team to arrive.

The condition removal is also a bit lacking – in any other build, it would be fine, but this is an attrition build (and a slow one at that), any class that relies on condition damage is going to eventually overwhelm you once you’ve popped BV and shadow return.

Lyssa’s rune seems nice, but the on heal effect can range from nearly useless (might, fury), to situationaly useful (swiftness, regen), to amazing (protection, stability), and therefore can’t be relied on in a fight. Although the spec doesn’t rely on stealth, you can still get forced off the point by enemy AoE, and not using stealth at every opportunity for Sneak Attack seems like it’s going to slow down this already low damage spec even further. Shbow is going to be an initiative hog, since the autoattack will hit like a feather.

Don’t get me wrong, I do hope my take is off – I’d love to run something new and effective.

I have actually used very similar ranger builds. They do work pretty well. However, I never used them long enough to become intimate with the skills to get a feel for the full potential of the build.

that ranger “bunker” build isnt a bunker. for a true bunker build u need Vigorous Renewal and 900+ healing. due to investment in wilderness, it makes sense to equip shaman’s and just go conditions along with the vigor regen bunker. and your pet hits like a truck too.

as for the GS, it’s a great utility weapon but hits like a wet noodle and doesnt synergize too well with conditions. the condi bunker can actually kill, so in a sense, you have less people to tank.

i see what youre trying to do though, it’s appreciated.

Raytek.6193:

Unfortunately there is a huge lack of viable builds in PvP. Pretty much your only viable options are:

Ranger: Traps, Double invulnerability glass cannon

traps suck. the bleed stacking bunker beastmaster is a better roamer, bunker and duelist, bringing more utility to the table.

nerva.7940:

that ranger “bunker” build isnt a bunker. for a true bunker build u need Vigorous Renewal and 900+ healing. due to investment in wilderness, it makes sense to equip shaman’s and just go conditions along with the vigor regen bunker. and your pet hits like a truck too.

as for the GS, it’s a great utility weapon but hits like a wet noodle and doesnt synergize too well with conditions. the condi bunker can actually kill, so in a sense, you have less people to tank.

i see what youre trying to do though, it’s appreciated.

Raytek.6193:

Unfortunately there is a huge lack of viable builds in PvP. Pretty much your only viable options are:

Ranger: Traps, Double invulnerability glass cannon

traps suck. the bleed stacking bunker beastmaster is a better roamer, bunker and duelist, bringing more utility to the table.

Would you consider taking “protect me”? In theory, you would be able to take undead runes in a 0/0/30/10/30 axe/torch making you sit on 1127 condition-dmg and 944 healing … and 16k hp and 3250 armor. Does seem viable, or?

yea thats pretty much what i do, except i trade off undead runes for lich to get more vitality. in utilities i always have Lightning Reflexes and SoW, third being whatever i need (SoH for roaming, sometimes muddy terrain). i dont use Protect Me as I prefer my pets alive at all times for dps and regen.

in theory, dolyak runes/sword/dagger/GS/dogs would give most survivability, hands down. but i prefer to be a threat by stacking bleeds with axe/dagger/SB and cats. two different styles.

i thought about trying some power bunker builds with signets, but they just dont seem as good, even on paper.

evilapprentice.6379:

This isn’t meant to sound rude, but on paper, that thief build looks unplayable. Perhaps I’m wrong (and I will be testing it out tonight to see), but it seems there’s just an overall lack of damage, and many wasted talent points. I’ve run almost 0 power P/D builds before (specifically with a Sham Ammy too), and nearly every point in Crit strikes is wasted – you’ll be hitting non-glass cannons for 100-150 (iirc), so your crits will be adding 70-100 damage, and your crit% isn’t great to begin with. Low base condition damage + base length bleeds (you’re 5% short of an extra bleed tick per pistol shot) is just more and more time for you to slip up and get pasted by a glass cannon, or for help from the opposing team to arrive.

The condition removal is also a bit lacking – in any other build, it would be fine, but this is an attrition build (and a slow one at that), any class that relies on condition damage is going to eventually overwhelm you once you’ve popped BV and shadow return.

Lyssa’s rune seems nice, but the on heal effect can range from nearly useless (might, fury), to situationaly useful (swiftness, regen), to amazing (protection, stability), and therefore can’t be relied on in a fight. Although the spec doesn’t rely on stealth, you can still get forced off the point by enemy AoE, and not using stealth at every opportunity for Sneak Attack seems like it’s going to slow down this already low damage spec even further. Shbow is going to be an initiative hog, since the autoattack will hit like a feather.

Don’t get me wrong, I do hope my take is off – I’d love to run something new and effective.

I’ve playtested the build in 1v1’s extensively yesterday and I’ve run into the Problems you’ve described. It’s the build and class I’ve least experience with, but I liked the build so much, I’ve wanted to post it anyways.
I have already tried going for no crit-chance; it’s not worth it for the few bleeding-stacks you get and it worked much better. I’ll also try some specs with Celestial Amu and a few other traits. Unfortunately, there aren’t many viable Options to remove conditions if you don’t wanna go stealth, which I choose not to with this build and I do still think the build has lots of potential, but I guess I’ll just try and playtest it a little bit more.
Of course I’m grateful for every input I get to make the builds better, so if you come up with sth. that worked well, don’t hesitate to tell me! ^^’

@ Nerva: Holy moly, I haven’t actually tested vigorous renewal with Healing Spring, but it gives you vigor every tick, so it’s indeed a very good choice, you can easily swap it in this build without making any big other changes. And yeah, I don’t get that much use out of the condition-dmg from Wilderness survival and yes, it’s a good option to go for other weapon-sets as well, but I went for the max amount of knockbacks on this one – it’s a personal preference and has both advantages and disadvantages over other weapon-sets: Use the one that works best for you, it’s really as simple as that. ^^

[Warrior] Condition-Warrior

I’ve been playing this build for fun quite a bit, but I haven’t been able to properly play it in sPvP. The Amount of Bleeding I get onto a Target with Sword F1 is pretty insane though and the build is kinda tanky as well. Anyways, here’s the build:

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-sFwo;1VKFM0e4oL-60;9;5TT-9;124B48A;15;0KJF4;2KJG4KJG42ZC

Equipment: I guess the most obvious thing is the Longbow. I actually think that it’s almost a „must-have“ for Condition-Warriors, because the F1-Skill is very good on smaller Points and the Burning it provides is one of the only ways a Warrior can dish out other Conditions than Bleeding. It also gives you a good Combo-field, so you get a Fire Shield with one of your many Leap-Finishers, which is decent as well.
I went for lots of precision, because I want the extra Bleeding-Stacks of the Earth-rune when I spike with my F1-Skill, so that there are lots of stacks within seconds.
Again I went for the Lyssa-Runes, because my Elite has a short Cooldown and I can use the Precision as well.

Traits: Deep Cuts is obviously a „must-have“ and is just insanely good and makes up for the fact, that Bleeding is one of the few damaging Conditions you’ll be able to put out. Rending Strikes is more or less only there, that I get a bit more other Conditions on the Target, so it gets harder for them to remove my Bleeding. Blademaster is probably better though, so if you run with Chars that put out some Conditions other than Bleeding, definitely go for that one. Even Opportunist is a neat Idea, cuz it gives you Fury with every F1 of the Sword. The Quickness from the last trait is very good for stomping and Quickness-Stomping is one reason why Warriors are even used in sPvP.
Missile Deflection is mostly thought of as a counter to engis and Condition-Rangers, because you don’t have that much Condition-Removal.
In the Discipline Trait-Line, I went for a shorter duration on my Elite, to get more Fury (and therefore have more Bleeding-stacks up in a short Spike with my F1) and to be able to roam better with Swiftness.

Playstyle: the build is decent at roaming and very good against Bunkers on smaller Points and has decent sustain as well, so it’s a pretty good all-rounder and it’s probably more important to pick out good MU’s for the build (sth. That doesn’t deal much Condition-DMG and/or doesn’t have good Condi-removal), than to simply try and put him onto a certain Position.
I’ve had decent success against Bursty Char’s with this build, like Mesmers, Thiefs, 100 blades-Wars and glassy Ele-builds, because your defense is pretty good and with your Sword F1, Bulls-Charge/Shield bash and Frenzy, you only need a small Opening to do pretty insane Bleeding-DMG. The AoE-Fire also works well against Mesmers and Thiefs, to kill off Illusions or to damage him while he’s in stealth.

I’ve played that confusion spec in serious tpvp(helseth here)

It’s decent in certain composition, add a necro with epidemic and a rather tanky composition, possibly with one burster and you have a completely viable playstyle.

example:
nec – condi
mesmer – conf shatter
guard – bunker/support
ele support
thief – backstab/caltrops if you wanna be cheesy, of course, in that case you could run engi or another nec aswell.

I’m a mesmer who’s always looking out for new builds, so I thought I might give some of my opinions on this one.

The first build looks promising, I haven’t seen how celestial + divinity works since I have only worked with divinity runes only, but seems rather gimped by the very wide spread of stats and extremely strange weapon choices.

With that setup, you’re going into battle knowingly that you will be inferior to traditional 2handed mesmers with greatsword and staff. Why would I choose this build over a traditional mesmer build? Swapping decoy for blink isn’t really that special, focus is inferior to greatsword as a hard knockdown, and your spikes are weakened by slow clone generation. How do you handle this kind of situation?

The second build I have tried a variation of briefly before I saw you post on the forums, but it still seems strange to me. Why use Sigil of Fire? With 30% critchance, you barely have 9% to crit, so you would have to go through three cycles of your sword on average before it connects. Would it be better if it was swapped for something else? Also, if you are going for sustain, why not Runes of Lyssa if you’re going for Mass Invisibility as your ultimate? As the ulti with the shortest cooldown, you can gain more precision and reset your health/conditions when you go mass invis, giving you more survivability.

I like the idea of constant chaos armor/protection, but this build lacks the condition damage to give it strength. Also, illusionary membrane only gives protection on a 15 second cooldown now, so it has been severely weakened.

[Ele] Zerker Staff (Shoutout to Hyxorcristen for giving me the Idea!)

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-kZ;3BJ-V0y47NkY0;9;4T;0JJ56A;428-46-U;5sV2DsV2D5gR

Playstyle: Just to be clear; this isn’t a build that win any straight-up 1v1’s and if you get into the midst of fights and get targeted and you have no cantrip rdy – you’re gonna die!
It’s an absolutely insane build to pressure small points with a group of at least 2 players (1 rather tanky and on the Point) and the Ele will just stand in the background, constantly spamming the Fire 2 and the other Fire-Skills – dealing ridiculous AoE-Dmg.
It’s also a good build to kill off doors and the treb, but on the third Map, if you run him mainly as a treb-destroyer, it’s probably better to go for Valk or even Soldier-runes, cuz trebs don’t care about crits. ^^
The build does well alone to pressure Points guarded by a (Condition-based) Holder, but don’t fight him head on: Stay out of sight and pop in just to put down a field or sth: The DMG should be enough to either force the Char off the Point (at which point you blink in and force him to stay off the point with knockbacks, Immobilize and Static Field) to get a quick decap and/or force sm1 to return to the Engi. It’s also very hard to catch the Ele if you don’t burst him down, so it’s possible you will just be able to retreat safely.

Equipment: Almost everything just to maximize DMG, but with the Soldier’s Jewel to get at least a bit of Health/toughness and Runes of Divinity, to get a bit of other stats and good Crit-DMG and the Energy-Sigil, to be able to dodge a bit more often – cuz hell; you WILL need to dodge with this build! ^^.

Traits: Pretty much max Fire-AoE as well. I went for the 2 buffs for the cantrips, to at least have sth to get out of Bursts, so I’m not just a freekill. I also went for Elemental Attunement, although you’ll mostly be staying in Fire, but it’s just too good to switch to Earth and get Prot if you’re getting spiked, to Water to heal up a bit or to Air if you have to run around.

Skills: Again, the cantrips are there to not be a freekill and as far as the Elite goes: I really like the Fire-Sword on this build, because it’s just incredibly strong and it gives this build a decent way of also dealing good single-target-DPS and not only AOE, thus making it more versatile.

Kid Taylor.5479:

I’m a mesmer who’s always looking out for new builds, so I thought I might give some of my opinions on this one.

The first build looks promising, I haven’t seen how celestial + divinity works since I have only worked with divinity runes only, but seems rather gimped by the very wide spread of stats and extremely strange weapon choices.

With that setup, you’re going into battle knowingly that you will be inferior to traditional 2handed mesmers with greatsword and staff. Why would I choose this build over a traditional mesmer build? Swapping decoy for blink isn’t really that special, focus is inferior to greatsword as a hard knockdown, and your spikes are weakened by slow clone generation. How do you handle this kind of situation?

What do you exactly consider a traditional Mesmer-build? Because in terms of traits, it’s pretty much a vanilla-shatter Mesmer. The difference between this build and normal shatter-builds is, that you get confusion and somecondition-dmg and trade it for weaker shatter-spikes. So this is just a variation of a Shatter-build that has certain advantages, but also disadvantages of course. The Clone-Generation is pretty standard for a shatter-mesmer: you get 1 from Focus or Pistol 4, 1 from dodging and 1 from Sword 3 → spike! ^^

Kid Taylor.5479:

The second build I have tried a variation of briefly before I saw you post on the forums, but it still seems strange to me. Why use Sigil of Fire? With 30% critchance, you barely have 9% to crit, so you would have to go through three cycles of your sword on average before it connects. Would it be better if it was swapped for something else? Also, if you are going for sustain, why not Runes of Lyssa if you’re going for Mass Invisibility as your ultimate? As the ulti with the shortest cooldown, you can gain more precision and reset your health/conditions when you go mass invis, giving you more survivability.

I like the idea of constant chaos armor/protection, but this build lacks the condition damage to give it strength. Also, illusionary membrane only gives protection on a 15 second cooldown now, so it has been severely weakened.

The Elite was a mistake – I’m running the Time-Warp of course. ^^
in terms of the Sigil of Fire, it triggers basically every spike thanks to blurred frenzy and it’s just a small boost to the spike-DPS. But you can surely try out different Sigils and see what works best for you.
I’ve tried using runes of Lyssa and Mass Invis, but I don’t really like it, because I’ve made this build have much more sustain than other Mesmers and trade in DPS, but then I pop Mass Invis and they can decap my point anyways → Sad Panda….
For the Chaos Armor – I use it because of the Buffs I get, the Conditions on the opponent are just a small Bonus. Also, I don’t use Illusionary Membrane.

I would try something like this –
Thief; No stealth Pistols
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fYAQRAqY6alYmKP3dS6E9JFxWBg6z4riVXQ3DuaVtC;TwAgyCqoSykkIJbSukkJt+YEweh5CA

I ran this for a bit yesterday – seemed like it might be effective, but tbh, I didn’t test it too extensively. Could probably use some tweaking around the runes, and maybe those 5 points in DA (4 init on heal from 30 Trickery means you can spam Unload almost endlessly). Still has trouble with conditions, but more focus on damage should drop your target more quickly, meaning your shadow return should deal with most of the conditions you’ll get stacked on you (and you can switch assassins reward for pain response). Stack a couple bleeds, drop caltrops on point to either force them off/punish them for staying on. Once they’re bleeding and a bit low, switch to P/P, steal for the poison, and go to town with unload. The 10% from pistol mastery, 10% from not-full-endurance, and the 1% for each initiative stacks nicely to make the pistol hit relatively hard (considering your lowish power and crit).

Great thread!
Elementalist – Burn baby Burn

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fEAQJAodhMmYbvR5gjDAEFmoy4BIhQSRBOzA;ToAgyCuoAzAmAMLYOwkgNEZuA

Now this build isn’t anything groundbreaking, it still relies on popular Earth, Water, and Arcane traits, but what makes it fun (at least for me) is the integration of condition damage. Basically, you’ll be a hybrid damage dealer that excels in 1v1 fights and makes for a solid side-point holder.
The trick with this build is to keep a burn on your target, and supplement that with direct damage and control. Thanks to Rune of the Forge you have enough protection, and the focus skills are add amazing survivability if used correctly. Unfortunately this is still an Ele build so it requires a lot of play time with the class before you start to really figure it all out.

PowerBottom lulz about ranger dude

dronos.1027:

PowerBottom lulz about ranger dude

I don’t get it……

I’ve been enjoying a variation of the “bunker” ele that’s geared to do conditions. Evasive Arcana’s fire dodge does about 3k damage worth of burns; very fun.

I appreciate you trying to diversify the meta, but creating builds simply for the sake of diversity doesnt seem to be the best way to go about this. I’m going to be honest, that I dont see any of these working well in paids aside from your condition thief.

I’d love to be proven wrong, but frankly there are reasons some of these builds have lost their viabilty and arn’t effective against the current “meta” builds.

So basically, trying to diversify and find ways to work around what is commonly accepted is not a good thing? No wonder people say that the “meta” or whatever fancy alternative name for “gameplay” nowadays is stale.

Yeah this thread is a nice attempt but until the current meta’s best builds are nerfed we wont be seeing any diversity in tpvp. Shatter mesmer, d/d ele and bunker guard need a swift whack with the nerfbat. BS damage needs to be reduced by 20% straight up, and stealth abilities cds need to be increased. Aoe damage needs heavy nerfing.

Warrior, ranger, engie, necro are balanced between each other imo.

HappinessFactory.4910:

I appreciate you trying to diversify the meta, but creating builds simply for the sake of diversity doesnt seem to be the best way to go about this. I’m going to be honest, that I dont see any of these working well in paids aside from your condition thief.

I’d love to be proven wrong, but frankly there are reasons some of these builds have lost their viabilty and arn’t effective against the current “meta” builds.

I didn’t make these builds simply to do sth else, but because I love theorycrafting and testing out new stuff.

And depending on how your Team-Setup is and how you want to play, some of the builds are very much viable. If your Team goes for a teamfight-oriented playstyle and can utilize the combofields well, the Ranger-build does wonders as a semi-DD/Supporter – the AoE, combofields and the Quickness-Rezz can often decide a Teamfight.

The current Meta builds don’t represent the pinaccle of effective Builds; they are good and well tested, but because of streams and because they work well, nothing new has to be produced and no1 experiments with other things that could be viable.

And yes: If the current fotm-builds get nerfed, these builds will probably get even more effective, because I don’t really see anything important in those builds getting nerfed.

Another thing that makes these builds attractive is the fact, that IMHO, it’s actually important to try out new stuff and builds and play other classes, because thats how you get a deeper knowledge of the game and the different Matchups.

sure. But if there isn’t a NEED to run anything else, people won’t. Current “top” builds are too effective.

nerva.7940:

sure. But if there isn’t a NEED to run anything else, people won’t.

Some people might – I did…

Honstely, I agree with you though – for most Players your statement is true. But thats why I made this Thread; to encourage them to try other stuff out because I had much fun doing it myself.

IMHO, people are focusing too much on winning now anyways, when they could work towards exploring the game and getting a better knowledge of it.

Teams and players that run the same builds over and over again will sooner or later run into Problems, when they realize that they can’t play anything else and they don’t have a clue what other possibilities and playstyles are out there.

I completely agree with you PowerBottom. But I guess it depends on what kind of person you are … I am of the curious kind, that can never be satisfied with only winning but can’t help exploring as well. Some people are not like that … they just want to win even if it would imply something I would call boring and dull.

For me it adds depth and understanding; to theorycraft and try things out is the way I understand things better. Frankly it is more important to me than winning, but of course my priority changes when I am playing on a team.

Poxxia.1547:

I completely agree with you PowerBottom. But I guess it depends on what kind of person you are … I am of the curious kind, that can never be satisfied with only winning but can’t help exploring as well. Some people are not like that … they just want to win even if it would imply something I would call boring and dull.

For me it adds depth and understanding; to theorycraft and try things out is the way I understand things better. Frankly it is more important to me than winning, but of course my priority changes when I am playing on a team.

Well, for me it is about winning, but winning in the long run. So improving and figuring out the game is more important to me than winning right now.
I think it will benefit players greatly in the long run, if they try new stuff, play new builds etc.

Don’t get me wrong .. I am always playing to win. I hate losing, but years in elite-sports have taught me to be constructive about losing, but that doesn’t make me like it one bit

But the exploring-thing has to do with the physicist in me, I believe …. I can’t help thinking “what if … ?”. Anyway .. I am off for the holiday … Merry Christmas everyone.

I also agree with power but in gw2’s case, after u explore, u just go back to whatever is most effective if u wanna win.

nerva.7940:

I also agree with power but in gw2’s case, after u explore, u just go back to whatever is most effective if u wanna win.

Sure, but I would be kinda arrogant to think that there are no valid builds out there that haven’t been played to death.

[Engi] Point Decapper/Support

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-V70;2Z-Vv0u5FQFx0;9;5T-T9;115A;10195;0S;5qNnCr7W36BK

Playstyle: On my former Team, we’ve been running this Build quite a lot and If you have good Map-Awareness, it can be very Powerful. The main goal of the Build is to roam to points that are guarded by one Pointholder and decap it and maybe stay on it, so the enemy can’t easily recap it. If you are facing only one opponent, you will get the decap within 10 seconds or so and you can guard the point for quite a while, forcing the opposing team to send sm1 back.
Unfortunately, the build doesn’t have a very good Damage-output and even though the Team-Support isn’t bad, the build really is best used decapping points in 1v1-Scenarios.
Just push the enemy off the point, Immobilize him, push him off again and stay alive for as long as possible.

Traits/Skills: I wen’t for decent Teamsupport and Condi-Removal with the Elexirs, mostly because the Build would be basically useless in Teamfights and because you often encounter Condition-Builds as Node-defenders. I also went for quite a bit of Mightstacking, so you’ll at least be able to do good sustain-DMG. A little tip for using Juggernaut: The Might-gain has an internal Cooldown of 3 Seconds, but it isn’t bound to the time you have the Flamethrower equipped – so if you switch to the Flamethrower, get the might, you can switch to another weapon and if you switch back shortly before 3 Seconds went by, you’ll instantly get the Might-stack, even though you weren’t holding the Flamethrower all the time.

Equip: I wen’t for a rather tanky setup, because the build doesn’t need to do very much DMG if you play him the right way. Also, because you have lots of Boons, especially Might, I wen’t for longer Boon-duration.
You can also use the Valk-Amu – it’s decent for the regeneration, but I went for more vita, because as stated above; you’ll encounter quite a bit of condition-builds and often, the Condi-remove from the Elexirs wasn’t quite cutting it.