Guild Wars 2

Hey everyone! :) This is my first build that I post, and even though we have some kick-kitten build-creators here on the Mesmer Forums, I thought that it couldn’t hurt to just put my own little setup out there and see what ya’ll think!
I don’t do much sPvP, so I’d say this build is mostly for WvW or Pve.

So! After a lot of testing and practising, I have found the setup that works the best for me. It allows for a lot of control and kittening around, and has some enormous amounts of pressure if done right.

Link:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzKqHTzmGb9IhpHEH5AHNjrn9yHsNA-jQCBINA0CA0FwUHQ5QFRjtsuIasaGYqUER1eEFRrWKAImGB-e

UTILITIES:
Ether Feast
Decoy
Blink
Arcane Manipulation
Mass Invisibility

TRAITS:
0/15/30/0/25

(DUELING) Far-Reaching Manipulations: I chose this trait to get the absolute most out of my utilities. With this, I can kite melees into infinity while still being able to send back conditions to pesky ranged attackers.

(CHAOS) Master of Manipulation: same as above – I like most of the manipulation skills, and this build revolves around utilising them.

(CHAOS) Chaotic Dampening: this, coupled with IC reduces the CD of Staff#2 to 6 seconds, which is vital when kiting and making clones. (Also, Leap Finisher! ;D)

(CHAOS) Prismatic Understanding: I chose this back-bone trait for the simple reason that my build relies heavily on eluding and confounding the enemy, so stealth is very important. Prismatic Understanding makes stealth all the more effective, what with the buffs and the longer duration.

(ILLUSIONS) Master of Misdirection: 33% extra confusion duration is very nice, considering it kicks my Confusion Ray up to 10 seconds with all the other buffs.

(ILLUSIONS) Illusionary Elasticity: Since I have both iMage and spend a lot of time in Staff, this trait is very important for maintaining pressure. It’s not that hard to figure out, is it?

I run with full Rabid gear, for the bleed on crit and toughness/condi dmg. Runes of Perplexity are a new addition to my setup, and they’re functioning quite nicely. The food I use is the standard condi food: 40% condi duration, etc etc. – nothing special there.

Now, I realise that some might consider this build ineffective due to the heavy reliance on confusion, since confusion isn’t really considered a viable condition in WvW. I tend to shatter a whole lot, and I can see how perhaps I ought to keep my clones alive for more bleed procs, but as this build requires a lot of kiting and control, it’s very important to have a dynamic setup. There’s nothing more dynamic than being able to keep pressure with clones up AND shattering them for confusion stacks, since I can prevent bursts with the confusion damage.

All in all, I’m very happy with this build’s performance. I have tested it extensively, and found that I can duel and win against most enemies. The only classes that are somewhat difficult are p/d thieves and necros (of course..).

So that’s it! If I’ve forgotten to add any details, just let me know and I’ll see if I can change something – this is after all my maiden voyage into Build-Creator-Land. I imagine I’ve screwed some things up.

P/D thiefs are easy if you know there moves, generally p/d thiefs are condi based which means you either need to condi cleanse often or avoid the auto attacks (which are just gun shots but also bleeds galore). If you have any reflects like distortion shatter or focus use them, they will save your life.

Anyway the build is great. You utilize your manipulation skills to wreak havoc on your opponents mind. Great concept and I will certainty try it out, even in spvp to see if it can expand its capabilities. My personal take on it would be to move the 5 out of illusions and put it into dueling for Deceptive Evasion for more clone production. That’s just my opinion though. And on the sigils look into a superior sigil of battle for might stacks on weapon swap, which means making the most out of your conditions.
And congrats on first post

Thanks so much! Yeah, I’ve tried using DE for this build before. The reason I changed is that with IC I get a reduced CD on Decoy, which is superb. Also, I’ve found that since I don’t have any on-clone-death traits, I have all the clones I could ever use. But hey, DE is probably really great for this setup as well. xD I just don’t like it that much.

Gummiplutt.7493:

Thanks so much! Yeah, I’ve tried using DE for this build before. The reason I changed is that with IC I get a reduced CD on Decoy, which is superb. Also, I’ve found that since I don’t have any on-clone-death traits, I have all the clones I could ever use. But hey, DE is probably really great for this setup as well. xD I just don’t like it that much.

Fair enough, like i said just my opinion. But you are right, with no real need to keep them up because you already have so much clone/phantasm up-time DE is really not necessary, but always an option And again with the P/D thief, you can always switch out master of misdirection for Masterful reflection to not only block thiefs condi’s but send them right back at them

I’ll give that extra reflection a shot next time I duel a thief. Also, I think I’ll toy around a bit with different sigils. Mine might be a bit outdated, not entirely sure..

Probably not very good for PvE.

Haha yeah, you’re right. When I PvE, I change Arcane Manipulation for Signet of Domination, Torch for Pistol and Far-Reaching Manipulations for Phantasmal Fury.

I’m seeing more 0/15/30/0/25 condi builds all the time (I’m running one myself). Though the points are distributed the same, they are traited and played differently and I love the flexibility in Illusions for condi builds.

About the build, just a couple comments. You have runes of perplexity but only 2 interrupt sources, is that enough to make it worthwhile? You take sharper images but don’t really exploit it with the weapon choices. I wonder if those dueling points could be better used elsewhere. One thought would be (for 1vMany), take 5 from dueling and throw 30 into illusions for imbued diversion. This has great synergy with your perplexity runes and effectively gives you two AoE interrupt sources instead of one. You only need one clone to F3 blow up on a group and then just watch the purple bubbles fly.

Taking illusionary elasticity, my thought is you’re going to want to keep two staff clones and the iMage up as long as possible for maximum condition pressure. Keep in mind IE works for iMage but doesn’t work well if you’re only up against 1v1. When 1vMany, that confusion bounce will go 3 times opponent to opponent.

You’ve probably already experienced this, but watch out for those winds of chaos bounces to reveal you from stealth.

Just my 2 cents, good build!

Nice job! Haven’t tried perplexity runes yet but I love using a build like this. I find you have to play a bit more aggressively because of the clone generation but either way I think its a solid set up

Thanks for your impeccable feedback! I’m glad you all like it!

@ Skcamow, I think that I’ll give that a shot actually. I like Imbued Diversion, and you might be right in that I need to be utilizing my Perplexity runes a tad more. This far, though, I’m more than happy with them, but I’d be a fool not to try alternative traiting. And yes, that thing about staff clones and iMage is correct – those are things that are incorporated into my playstyle without me thinking about it, I think. A regular start of a duel for me is: Confusion Beam, Prestige, iMage swap weapon Phase Retreat and so on. I think that accomplishes what you mean, does it not? Anyways, thanks for helping!

@Jedge Indeed, the burst you can get if you play aggressively is quite formidable. I melt most who attempt to kill me. Your defensive mode is basically a cover to make you able to play aggressively again ASAP: either getting some breathing room with the teleports, gaining basic immortality for a few seconds with Chaos Storm or changing the tide of battle with Arcane Thievery. It’s all about turning the tables here.

Sorry if this has been answered, but I’m wondering, do you still feel you dish out enough condi dmg, when you don’t have dodge clones and dibilitating dissipation?

Definitely. With all the confusion, torment, burning and Winds of Chaos bleeds going out (with the occasional poison from Chaos Storm, I guess) I can put crazy pressure on ppl. Of course, it’s not the surreal non-conditional burst of phantasm or shatter, but I’ve got extreme sustain, and if you can trick your enemy into bursting with 6 or more stacks of confusion, you’ve already won.

btw you mention the extra bounce for staff and in that context also mentioned the image… I was under the impression that trait only works for your own staff AA’s?

Indeed, and iMage ofc. Did I write that the staff clones benefit? :o

No, just the iMage good to know though