Guild Wars 2

To my knowledge, the #1 Fractals build at the moment is widely accepted to be DPS phantasm (either 10/30/0/30/0 or 0/20/0/25/25). The specific trait build will likely change come December with the move of IC, but as far as I know powerful sustained DPS + reflecting is considered to be the best thing to bring to Fractals.

But: What is the #2 archetype? Shatter DPS? Boonsharing? Condition?

I wouls say pure dps. 30/30/0/0/10 or 10/30/0/0/30. But you shoud stay with #1 builds

Don’t let the traits dictate your playstyle. This is not Soviet Russia. The game doesn’t play you.

First determine what you enjoy doing, then add traits that compliment it. As long as you have feedback on the bar most groups won’t say anything about your build.

Heinel.6548:

Don’t let the traits dictate your playstyle. This is not Soviet Russia. The game doesn’t play you.

First determine what you enjoy doing, then add traits that compliment it. As long as you have feedback on the bar most groups won’t say anything about your build.

No.

Mesmer damage is low to begin with. You don’t bring it down even further by going into a 48 fractal and putting out no DPS.

Zenith.7301:

Heinel.6548:

Don’t let the traits dictate your playstyle. This is not Soviet Russia. The game doesn’t play you.

First determine what you enjoy doing, then add traits that compliment it. As long as you have feedback on the bar most groups won’t say anything about your build.

No.

Mesmer damage is low to begin with. You don’t bring it down even further by going into a 48 fractal and putting out no DPS.

There’s no such thing as no DPS. The game is not flexible enough for you to create a build that cannot attack. On top of that, you augment numerical outputs via equipment stats, not via traits.

That aside, at lv 48 player skill comes into play as well. There’s at least some manual dexterity required to succeed in those encounters, and that is more valuable than the non-existent DPS meter. Too many times have I seen zerker warriors that basically have to be carried (read: they’re dead the whole fight) through encounters such as grawl final boss. That is a clear example of the build playing the player, where the player is not able to cope.

Heinel.6548:

Zenith.7301:

Heinel.6548:

Don’t let the traits dictate your playstyle. This is not Soviet Russia. The game doesn’t play you.

First determine what you enjoy doing, then add traits that compliment it. As long as you have feedback on the bar most groups won’t say anything about your build.

No.

Mesmer damage is low to begin with. You don’t bring it down even further by going into a 48 fractal and putting out no DPS.

There’s no such thing as no DPS. The game is not flexible enough for you to create a build that cannot attack. On top of that, you augment numerical outputs via equipment stats, not via traits.

That aside, at lv 48 player skill comes into play as well. There’s at least some manual dexterity required to succeed in those encounters, and that is more valuable than the non-existent DPS meter. Too many times have I seen zerker warriors that basically have to be carried (read: they’re dead the whole fight) through encounters such as grawl final boss. That is a clear example of the build playing the player, where the player is not able to cope.

Unfortunately true, even if a build has a higher potential (for damage output, or what ever else) the player still has to be able to fulfill that potential, and even in high level fractals you find players who cant(don’t) do so.
While I’d agree the pure dps build is best under good circumstances with a very regular group of skilled players within a certain set of team comps (or being run by someone skilled enough for that not to matter), a build with more leniency that offers support or defense may be more valuable to other groups.
I don’t see what’s hard about playing a pure dps phantasm build in the first place, but people are weird and have trouble with things I don’t expect all the time, so eh.

DPE – Damage Per Encounter.

Easy to measure too. For example, just show the total damage I’ve dealt to lupi once he goes down on top right beside the gold/silver/bronze event medal that pops up. Should include direct, reflect, condition, and pet damage combined.

Heinel, I’m not asking for a philosophy of play, I’m just curious about the state of the class. I’ll play what I like, but that’s no reason for me not to educate myself of the various builds out there.

“Pure” dps means what, exactly? Compounding Power and Empowering Mantras?

I meant giving up reflects for a little more if dps. So yes, and full mantras on your bar

Many players also use 10/30/0/20/10 for fractals as well (though it was initially formed as the arah-slaying build). To me, this is the best pure dps build second to the 10/30/0/0/30 pure DPS build. Some people also go 15/30/0/25/0 for more phantasm damage. This gives you 2 things:

(1) With 20 in inspiration, you get access to both reflect traits which is the Mesmer’s purpose in reflect-heavy instances, fractals being arguably the biggest one. The damage you will put out in a place like the dredge fractal and arah due to reflects is enormous. However, if reflects are not at all needed, then 10/30/0/0/30 with 4 mantras is your absolute best DPS build.

(2) With the 10 in illusions for compounding power and the 30 in dueling for either sword or pistol cooldowns and empowering mantras, you (a) give phantasm reductions on your off-hand phantasm of choice and (b) maximize the reflect damage you put out with empowering mantras. In a place like the dredge fractal or arah, you can slot mantra of recovery and 2 other utility mantas (in addition to feedback) to maximize your damage.

So after watching the gw2twich video, a lot of the ideal builds might change because of the mistlock instabilities being introduced. At lvl 39 for example, the enemies explode after they die. That will make melee stacking harder to pull off.

I wouldn’t be surprised if another instability is increasing the armor/damage reduction of power dmg by a lot which would be an indirect buff to condition damage… or maybe even retaliation bunkers o_O.

There are supposed to be an instability that is unique to each lvl from 31-50. Only 1 more day of waiting!

I doubt it. When I did COE story with some pug full of bads there are a bunch of mobs there that I think stack toughness the more damage you deal but I just zerked it all down. Not sure what the point of this thread either, who asks for a second best build?

colesy.8490:

I doubt it. When I did COE story with some pug full of bads there are a bunch of mobs there that I think stack toughness the more damage you deal but I just zerked it all down. Not sure what the point of this thread either, who asks for a second best build?

I wouldn’t necessarily count them out yet. Anet definitely knows about the whole stacking deal, and I guarantee that they don’t like it too much. With this instability thing, they could easily introduce some pretty nasty mechanics for stacking.

Imagine if you did aoe damage to allies, or applied a debuff, or something like that. They could even do something like cleaving attacks do damage to yourself for every additional enemy hit.

There’s a lot of pretty creatively nasty things I can think of that would instantly kill stacking.

Edit: If you did aoe damage to allies equal to outgoing damage you dealt. THAT would be nasty.

I wouldn’t put it beneath them, they love punishing competence. We should all just be bad, efficiency is for those filthy scum who actually make an effort and take pride in trying to play as best they can.

Pyroatheist.9031:

colesy.8490:

I doubt it. When I did COE story with some pug full of bads there are a bunch of mobs there that I think stack toughness the more damage you deal but I just zerked it all down. Not sure what the point of this thread either, who asks for a second best build?

I wouldn’t necessarily count them out yet. Anet definitely knows about the whole stacking deal, and I guarantee that they don’t like it too much. With this instability thing, they could easily introduce some pretty nasty mechanics for stacking.

Imagine if you did aoe damage to allies, or applied a debuff, or something like that. They could even do something like cleaving attacks do damage to yourself for every additional enemy hit.

There’s a lot of pretty creatively nasty things I can think of that would instantly kill stacking.

Edit: If you did aoe damage to allies equal to outgoing damage you dealt. THAT would be nasty.

Actually they’ve already instituted an antistacking mechanic long ago for Sorrow’s Embrace – General Molradovich.

Playing the best you can is something they’d encourage, rather than simply spamming a single mechanic all the time, every time, everywhere. A skilled player can adapt. The bads will just die and complain about how GW2 is broken.

Hayashi.3416:

Pyroatheist.9031:

colesy.8490:

I doubt it. When I did COE story with some pug full of bads there are a bunch of mobs there that I think stack toughness the more damage you deal but I just zerked it all down. Not sure what the point of this thread either, who asks for a second best build?

I wouldn’t necessarily count them out yet. Anet definitely knows about the whole stacking deal, and I guarantee that they don’t like it too much. With this instability thing, they could easily introduce some pretty nasty mechanics for stacking.

Imagine if you did aoe damage to allies, or applied a debuff, or something like that. They could even do something like cleaving attacks do damage to yourself for every additional enemy hit.

There’s a lot of pretty creatively nasty things I can think of that would instantly kill stacking.

Edit: If you did aoe damage to allies equal to outgoing damage you dealt. THAT would be nasty.

Actually they’ve already instituted an antistacking mechanic long ago for Sorrow’s Embrace – General Molradovich.

Playing the best you can is something they’d encourage, rather than simply spamming a single mechanic all the time, every time, everywhere. A skilled player can adapt. The bads will just die and complain about how GW2 is broken.

Meh. That mechanic is hardly noticeable. When I fight that boss I just stack up and dps like with anything else.

Hayashi.3416:

Pyroatheist.9031:

colesy.8490:

I doubt it. When I did COE story with some pug full of bads there are a bunch of mobs there that I think stack toughness the more damage you deal but I just zerked it all down. Not sure what the point of this thread either, who asks for a second best build?

I wouldn’t necessarily count them out yet. Anet definitely knows about the whole stacking deal, and I guarantee that they don’t like it too much. With this instability thing, they could easily introduce some pretty nasty mechanics for stacking.

Imagine if you did aoe damage to allies, or applied a debuff, or something like that. They could even do something like cleaving attacks do damage to yourself for every additional enemy hit.

There’s a lot of pretty creatively nasty things I can think of that would instantly kill stacking.

Edit: If you did aoe damage to allies equal to outgoing damage you dealt. THAT would be nasty.

Actually they’ve already instituted an antistacking mechanic long ago for Sorrow’s Embrace – General Molradovich.

Playing the best you can is something they’d encourage, rather than simply spamming a single mechanic all the time, every time, everywhere. A skilled player can adapt. The bads will just die and complain about how GW2 is broken.

Stack very close to each other and you don’t even feel that much damage. And they don’t encourage playing the best they can because they’re trying to cater to the anti stacking/berserker/good player crowd by trying to hinder them in every new instance released. The problem is, the good players will just overcome and obliterate content like they always have and bads will just have an even harder time, so they complain even more and whine about things like no trinity. I actually find the anti-competence mentality of the average gw2 forumers sickening.

“Broken Mirrors You cannot reflect missiles”

http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/1rim71/data_mining_upcoming_features_from_fractured/

This is going to be interesting.

Edit:
Sick Day Random conditions are applied to you when you deal critical damage.
Tepid Toxins Your condition damage is reduced.
Barbaric Only two-handed weapons are effective.
Social Security Effectiveness is greatly reduced when allies are away.
…
And I just realized this is a lot more than 19. Now I’m not sure what is going on

More than 19? Probably partially implemented ones that are intended for levels >50. I strongly suspect that they planned more than 50 levels for this update, but couldn’t get them all in by the deadline. Those instabilities must require a decent amount of testing.

colesy.8490:

Not sure what the point of this thread either, who asks for a second best build?

Pure curiosity about the state of the profession.

Things I find interesting so far:

• The #2 archetype is in a pretty strange state: it uses Empowering Mantras, despite the fact that a 4-mantra bar is by itself a pretty odd choice for fractals, since the charge-and-fire design of mantras has no inherent synergies with the fractals gameplay.

• I was completely wrong with my guesses on what would take the #2 spot (shatter, boonsharing, and conditions).

• It’s funny when you think about the fact that Mesmers are the most likely to rely on their pet DPS in fractals, beating out necros, rangers, and engies.

Gingelyr.3648:

More than 19? Probably partially implemented ones that are intended for levels >50. I strongly suspect that they planned more than 50 levels for this update, but couldn’t get them all in by the deadline. Those instabilities must require a decent amount of testing.

Yup. That reddit page is all the data-mined instabilities. Dulfy is already hard at work (and taking input on) the currently released instabilities: http://dulfy.net/2013/11/26/gw2-mistlock-instabilities/

So far as the second best build? Well, with some of the data-mined instabilities, we’re going to have to figure this out soon.