I’ve been running this build since I hit level 80 about 7 months a go and it works great for PvE. It is especially dungeon friendly and was easy to work with during levelling because it gives a lot of survivability. It can be used in WvW to effect IF you’re in a reasonable sized group. Solo it’s a bit naff I’ll admit now.
Ok the weapons are Staff and Greatsword. The Greatsword is for range as far as you can get. I put the superior sigil of force into take advantage of the high power with it’s auto attack as well as improve the phantasmal beserker’s high damage as well. Also the skills for the Greatsword are quite useful in dungeons or for supporting allies. (mirror blade.)
The Staff I use for range and close quarters mainly because it’s damage is always the same and at close range it buffs me quite quickly plus if I need distance phase retreat is right there to be used. It is a great weapon as it can be used to crowd control, support allies and inflict conditions. In this I need to change the sigil, I used to run the Sigil of Life because I had cleric jewellery but now I have ascended soldier so anything goes sigil wise. Both Soldier stats.
As for armour I run full solider stat armour with 5 soldier runes and 1 crest of the soldier. The gives high power and high vitality + toughness essential for survival.
The trinkets are dependable. As I said I run now ascended soldier stats however ascended is a pain to get but so are exotic stat trinkets because no one ever seems to take Grenth.
However there are alternate options one option is Cleric exotic trinkets this compliments the defence trait line which I shall tell more about below as well as the healing power helps heal you (since as mesmer healing skills aren’t great) and your phantasms will grant health regeneration due to your traits.
Another alternative is Carrion trinkets. Like Cleric it offers power but instead of toughness you get vitality and instead of healing power you get condition damage. This really helps the staff out as it powers up the conditions you inflict (and your clones inflict) it also makes you less of an anchor in your team as your armour rating would be lower so if you have a soldier or knight type warrior or guardian they would pull the initial aggro a lot more easily over you.
If you don’t want to spend money then because Melandru is open go get the Wayfarer trinkets for karma. This isn’t a bad idea as although you get no power you do get toughness + vitality and when has magic find ever been a bad thing. Even if you don’t fancy these trinkets I’d always advise the back item. If you do get them you can fill them with exquisite jewels from the trinkets above for some of those stat boosts or fill it with crest of the soldier.
Traits wise I run 10 on Domination (power) equipping 15% more damage for illusions.
30 on Chaos equipping Illusionary defence, Chaotic Dampening and Debilitating Dissipation.
30 on Inspiration (Vitality) equipping Glamour mastery, Persisting Images, Temporal Enchanter.
This trait set up is very useful if you focus on getting phantasms out as it means that the Phantasmal beserkers can do high damage and now take damage as well. (plus they have retaliation so deal damage back to attackers.) The phantasmal warlocks are good for high damage from range and as long as they don’t run in can act almost like healing turrets as getting between two-three of them can give you a health regen stack of 30 seconds or more.
Skills wise use Null field and Feedback. This is why the traits help glamours. The reason I chose not to have 20 points in power to make them add confusion was that this is meant to more help allies then hurt enemies. (Though Feedback is insanely useful in dungeons Se path 1 is highly recommended testing ground for this skill) The final skills is a signet but it can be midnight or inspiration depending on what you’re doing. Normally I have midnight on but if in a dungeon the party doesn’t output a high amount of boons and might stacks I switch to inspiration.
The end.
If I have missed anything or any questions feel free to ask or say.
