Guild Wars 2

I’m going to be venturing into Lockdown Mesmer land soon…

I figure Rune of the Mesmer is a good rune set, but what are good inherent stats to the armor? As in, for example, which WvW set (that costs gold+ Badges of Honor) would be most appropriate? I don’t think I should just go for power… But I’m not sure what kind of defense I should go for/what defense/offense balance is appropriate (As in, I don’t think I should go Cleric’s or Berzerker’s – I don’t want to be a totally glass cannon).

It depends on what you intend on doing. Solo? Small groups? Zergs? Power, hybrid, or condition build? For power you may want to try to mix Cavaliers with Zerker. For Condition Rabid usually works well. Rune-wise it’s hard to recommend when all of them are being changed in 2 weeks but Mesmer Runes are good when rolling with Confounding Suggestions (it doesn’t visibly show the daze duration increase in the tooltip but it does increase the duration)

I’d recommend checking out some of Skcamow, Osicats, Vashury, or BlackDevil’s threads to see what they use in WvW. Theres also some WvW discussion in this thread

As far as runes are concerned, without knowing which build you are using it’s hard to say. But since you mentioned mesmer runes you should know that it’s been tested and the runes do not stack with the duration increase from Confounding Suggestions (GM in Dom). You can easily video and slow it down to see for yourself.

Hopefully they fix this, because if they did we could get 1.5 sec dazes which would be really awesome.

o_O When I tested CS+Mes Runes in the Mists a few months back it definitely worked despite not showing a tooltip change, gonna have to try it out again.

I only know that when I tested in PvE it didn’t stack. In another thread where someone tested not sure if it was pve or spvp. I haven’t tested in spvp personally. It’s hard to see without slowing down video of it, but once you do and time it you’ll see they don’t stack (at least in pve/wvw). It stinks because they should.

Well, I’m also going for a Rabid Twilight Arbor set (keeping the Nightmare runes) for when I focus on condition damage and less on interrupting.

I’m wondering if Carrion would help without sacrificing a bit of defense (vitality) and something condition related (damage). I currently have the karma set from Orr (of Lyssa).

Thoughts?

I still need to play around with interrupt builds to see what I’m comfortable with, but given the other armor sets I have, do you think Carrion + Mesmer Runes would be a good third (at least for a start)?

Thanks for all the info though. Too bad the Mesmer runes aren’t working perfectly though

Lorelei.7809:

Well, I’m also going for a Rabid Twilight Arbor set (keeping the Nightmare runes) for when I focus on condition damage and less on interrupting.

I’m wondering if Carrion would help without sacrificing a bit of defense (vitality) and something condition related (damage). I currently have the karma set from Orr (of Lyssa).

Thoughts?

I still need to play around with interrupt builds to see what I’m comfortable with, but given the other armor sets I have, do you think Carrion + Mesmer Runes would be a good third (at least for a start)?

Thanks for all the info though. Too bad the Mesmer runes aren’t working perfectly though

Carrion is bad for mesmer. There’s no exceptions I’ve found for that yet. You need the precision in a condition build, and we have high base hp, so the toughness is more valuable than the vitality.

Okay, so Rabid would be more preferable then. So the power doesn’t really help (as much) though the domination line is controlled by it.

Any other set work well with particular builds (particularly those that deal with interrupts)?

Also, would it be dumb to have 2 rabid sets, one with Nightmare Runes, and one with Mesmer Runes?

I use all rabid for condition builds, nothing else seems to make much sense for mesmer. You can toss some dire in, but I don’t really think you need the vitality for anything smaller than zerging.

For power builds, full zerker trinkets/backpiece is a good place to start, you can mix-n-match zerker, cavalier, soldier or knight pieces until you get a balance you like. I use knight armor with a zerker chest ATM, still trying to find a good balance.

I use speed runes because the price on traveler is ridiculous but if you can afford them, traveler is the way to go.

Hmm….. So Rabid and Mesmer Runes or Zerker and Mesmer Runes….

Though I often run around with a Guardian, I don’t think I want to totally go offensive (and be a glass cannon). But I do want to be more offensive than my Lyssa set from Orr, which I think Rabid would fit.

Lorelei.7809:

But I do want to be more offensive than my Lyssa set from Orr, which I think Rabid would fit.

The temple sets from Orr are completely out of sync with the game stat-wise. They’re from a time when it was assumed that many players would run a lot of mixed stats for some reason. The result is that if you buy a full set (same name), you often get a weird mix of power and condi damage, with random bits of vitality, toughness and healing power (yuck). Strangely enough, the trinkets are all balanced for the same stats depending on the temple.

You can still get good gear from Orr (soldier or rabid), but you have to visit several temples to get the right stats.
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Temple_armor

Try to focus on 3 stats on your gear, either power, precision, crit (ferocity after april 15th) for power or condition damage, toughness, precision for conditions.
If you feel squishy as condi, toss in some dire. If you feel squishy as power there are a lot of options, but cavalier, valkyrie or knight is best at retaining damage output without sacrificing survivability.

Thanks a lot for the info.

Yeah, that’s part of my problem with the Lyssa set. It was a good base set, but at that time I could only afford Karma, I didn’t have enough gold. I figured Lyssa would be a good guess for Mesmer.

Now I want to start specializing with one or two other sets.

Edit: Now I’m thinking Knights or Rabid. Problem is, I haven’t really set up a build and trait set really for lockdown, I’ve just sort of toyed with it and have been too cheap to trait reset. I’ve been going staff and sword/pistol though, if that helps. But maybe I should use greatsword instead?

You can make either staff or greatsword viable. Greatsword is not optimal with a condi build, but it shines with a power build. The major downside I have noticed in WvW is that people tend to target you more if you bust out a GS.

Staff is much more survivable all-around, but it is meant for a condi build and does not benefit as much from power as the GS.

Sword/Pistol is a great combo that tends toward a power build more, but it can be viable in a condi build if you use the sword defensively and the pistol to apply confusion through ethereal fields.

I might suggest hashing out a rough trait allotment before deciding how to allocate your equipment stats.

Ardent Heretic.8216:

You can make either staff or greatsword viable. Greatsword is not optimal with a condi build, but it shines with a power build. The major downside I have noticed in WvW is that people tend to target you more if you bust out a GS.

I actually find that tends to work in my favor. People follow the purple beam like there’s a free loot bag waiting at the end of the thing. You don’t want to know how many people have run face-first into a BF that way. I’m equally surprised every time it happens. :/