Guild Wars 2

With 30 Chaos (30%), 2 runes of superior water (15%) and monk (15%), 2 runes of sanctuary (10%) Omnomberry Cream (20%) and Signet of Midnight (+10%) it all adds up to 100% boon duration, the other class that can get 100% boon duration is warriors with their banners, other classes can get to 90%, I was wondering if a staff build with lots of ethereal fields that give chaos armor and chaos storm giving all sorts of buffs, I was wondering if it would be useful.

Go try it and let us know!

hmmm, i’m not a huge fan of mixing runes, but this might be crazy enough to work, however, you need to look at the opportunity cost (depends on build).

i’m currently running full rabid gear, 30 chaos, and 20 dueling/illusions.

by the way, chaos armor is not as chaotic as you think, it only gives you 1 of 3 boons for every hit you suffer.

the only real scenario where i believe this can be useful is if you’re going for a full “tanky” mesmer, since chaos storm and chaos armor only grant defensive boons, so you’ll find yourself investing in toughness, healing power and/or vitality.

Certainly an interesting idea. There might be some merit in a WvW group since you can fit in Warden’s Feedback along with the normal group support, and you can even send your 100% longer boons to allies through Sig of Inspiration…

with shaterred strenght in to the mix i think you could easily mantain a steady 10-12 stacks of might(and giving them to your party) without loosing your capability of delivering damage. The problem is that this would severly narrow your traits. 20 in dueling for deceptive evasion would be a must and also 30 in illusions for illusionary persona+elasticity(extra bounce! yey!). All of this from a pve stand point

90% is actually part of my tanking build, as you want to have protection active all of the time.
Just be creative, you may find some use for it. ^^

Tortimer.9750:

with shaterred strenght in to the mix i think you could easily mantain a steady 10-12 stacks of might(and giving them to your party) without loosing your capability of delivering damage. The problem is that this would severly narrow your traits. 20 in dueling for deceptive evasion would be a must and also 30 in illusions for illusionary persona+elasticity(extra bounce! yey!). All of this from a pve stand point

I’m curious how you’re going to run 0/20/30/0/30. Is there a cheat code to get extra trait points? :P

im actualy running something like this already 0/0/20/30/20 , full giver’s exulted set 1% extra boon dur per piece, with 3 monks runes and 3 water runes, and snowflake trinks/ring/neck 2% boons dur per piece. the constants regens nice with healing power it actualy ticks for a decent amount. it does get boring after while tho >.<

Richard Nixon.6573:

Tortimer.9750:

with shaterred strenght in to the mix i think you could easily mantain a steady 10-12 stacks of might(and giving them to your party) without loosing your capability of delivering damage. The problem is that this would severly narrow your traits. 20 in dueling for deceptive evasion would be a must and also 30 in illusions for illusionary persona+elasticity(extra bounce! yey!). All of this from a pve stand point

I’m curious how you’re going to run 0/20/30/0/30. Is there a cheat code to get extra trait points? :P

yeah, after the post i realized i messed the numbers. Well the idea is still there, just not the same way(dropping 10 points in chaos).

With increased boon duration you can get a high uptime on your defensive buffs as you noticed.
I don’t think it’s viable without Deceptive Evasion, Illusionary Persona and Might on Weaponswitch (this will work with boon duration, with only 50% increased boon duration you’ll get 30 seconds of might on each weaponswap)
Also, Signet of Inspiration is almost a must to be a benefit to your team.
All in all it severely narrows down your choice in traits/runes etc. but it is viable especially in dungeons, I ran around with a similar build (only 60% boon duration without bufffood though) before the buff to Illusionary Persona and even then it was already strong.
I actually even posted my build with the gear/traits I was running this setup with on this site but I won’t bother looking that one up again.

I run a build very similar in concept, 0/0/30/20/20 (or …/30/15/25 for shattered strength). With six pieces of giver’s armor of altruism and five snowflake jewellery (plus back item insert) and signet of midnight, that’s +72% boon duration before food buffs.

Other utilities are Decoy (for stealth boons) and Signet of Inspiration for sharing with allies. Alternatively, use Feedback or Null Field for combo fields, or one of the other two signets as the situation warrants. Mass Invisibility adds extra boons, but might not be terribly useful otherwise, so elite skills are swapped as necessary.

Six runes of Altruism give fury and 3 stacks of might to yourself and nearby allies whenever you use a heal skill -including charging or spending Mantra of Recovery- every 10 seconds. Shattered Strength, Confusing Cry (Illusion II), and Vigorous Revelation (Inspiration III), make Cry of Frustration generate significant boons, ready to be shared with Signet of Inspiration. Six stacks of Might, Fury, Vigor, and Retaliation all at once, with Regeneration easily obtained from phantasms makes for quite the show. Damage output takes a small hit, since power isn’t invested, but the easily stacked might makes up for it by adding a little oomph.

Weapon choices are up to the user, depending on the role. Greatsword is more offensively focused, with might from mirror blade. It’s not quite as reliable because you can’t always tell where the blade is going to bounce. Staff is very defensive, with Chaos Storm applying all manner of defensive boons, to yourself and allies in it. I generally favor the sword mainhand, and focus offhand for an easy retaliation combo. Lay down Temporal Curtain, stand on it, and use Illusionary Leap/Swap for instant retaliation. Torch is also a good choice, for the stealth boons and blast finishers, as well as the Illusionary Mage’s retaliation boon to allies. If using the torch, the scepter is also a viable option as it allows for a more offensive confusion based approach.