Just returned to GW2 after a LOOONG time, a bunch of friends lured me in with Heart of thorns and the Chronomancer shifted the Mesmer meta a whole lot from what I see. I’ve been running a Weller that stacks alacrity and what not. Focus to spam clones to shatter as much as possible, giving more alacrity and swiftness as well as boon stripping. It seems like fun so far, always enjoyed supporting roles and for me mesmer has been lacking in that department for a while. Looking at builds I dont see many people running Torch/Shield for some reason and yet I feel it works, but they may be seeing things that I’m not. So have a gander and any advise would be much appreciated
Advice on Build, PVE Alacrity Stacking
Open world – doesn’t matter. Run whatever you like.
For fractals and especially raids, read up on the quantify build and check the rotation (http://qtfy.eu/build/mesmer). If you read through the first page of the mesmer official forum you’ll currently come along a multitude of threads which deal with exactly the same topic you opened.
Torch gets outclassed by sword and focus offhand in pve. Focus for the target movement of temporal curtain and reflects when traited, Sword for the extra block and superior phantasm (both cd and damage wise compared to torch). Shield is our best offhand though by far.
Open world – doesn’t matter. Run whatever you like.
For fractals and especially raids, read up on the quantify build and check the rotation (http://qtfy.eu/build/mesmer). If you read through the first page of the mesmer official forum you’ll currently come along a multitude of threads which deal with exactly the same topic you opened.
Torch gets outclassed by sword and focus offhand in pve. Focus for the target movement of temporal curtain and reflects when traited, Sword for the extra block and superior phantasm (both cd and damage wise compared to torch). Shield is our best offhand though by far.
Thanks, yeah Ive seen those, but my reasoning behind focus would be that it spawns clones asap thus giving me shattering fodder. that procs alacrity and swiftness.
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Thanks, yeah Ive seen those, but my reasoning behind focus would be that it spawns clones asap thus giving me shattering fodder. that procs alacrity and swiftness.
Well yes but torch is mostly a condition damage weapon (or stealth utility) and most pve meta still revolves around direct damage for mesmer (due to the high investment skill, trait and utility wise on condition builds poorly interacting with our support skills).
As far as alacrity, if you keep up a semi healthy rotation you will have permanent alacrity yourself and provide 50-100% uptime to your allies depending on how well stacking and rotation is done. Also keeping 2-3 shield phantasms up instead of shattering goes a long way (which makes the trait chronophantasma so powerful).
Quickness becomes a matter of rotation and boon copy (boon duration gear, you want ideally leadership runes) with special note to Tides of Times and Signet of Inspiration for upkeep.
This is all for a support mesmer though (which is the most common mesmer run for fractals and raids).
Shield is basically the best weapon in game for Mesmer. It rules. Great CC and a phantasm that casts Alacrity?! Crazy