Guild Wars 2

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Hello Everyone, I hope you enjoy this write up of my build, remember this is a condition/stealth based build, you really wont be shattering much as you will be needing the clones on death traits (let your enemies kill your clones and phantasms, they will be crippled and hit with many conditions every time they do)

Whilst Playing with this build you will be doing your best to spam as many clones and phantasms around your opponent forcing them to either kill them and get hit by conditions, or leave them and get hit by conditions, all while you are in stealth gaining plenty of boons, healing up and confusing the hell out of them.

The details of the build is listed below, a long side the reasoning behind majority of the choices I made in the creation/usage of this build (remember this is reasonably flexible so feel free to change things around depending on personal preference)

• In case anybody is wondering, I named it the Blackwater build because that is my Mesmer’s name “Faith Blackwater” (also, I find that I relate “blackwater” with “dirty water” and relate “dirty” to “conditions”, thus condition build named Blackwater)

Weapons/Sigils:
All Rabid

• Staff with a sigil of blood/doom
• Sceptre with a sigil of purity
• Torch with a sigil of doom

The Sigil of blood was chosen to increase damage and also increase survivability.
The Sigil of purity was chosen to add more condition removal.
The Sigil of doom was added to enhance damage and reduce enemy healing

Traits:
4/4/6/0/0

In Domination, “V” and “IX”
Crippling dissipation and cleansing conflagration

• The reasoning behind these are that I leave most of my clones and phantasms up to do their own thing, and when they get killed I find it useful for them to apply cripple, which will allow you to kite and kill your opponents from safety. Cleansing Conflagration was chosen to reduce the cool down on the torch skills (more stealth here )and also remove more conditions from yourself.

In Duelling, “III” and “X”
Retaliatory shield and deceptive evasion

• Retaliatory shield was chosen to give us an almost permanent uptime of retaliation, increasing our damage out put. As for the deceptive evasion, this is to synergise with crippling dissipation, and debilitating dissipation (more on this below) allowing me to have more clones out at all times, continually applying conditions and distracting my enemies whilst they die from conditions.

In Chaos, “V” “X” and “XII”
debilitating dissipation, chaotic dampening and prismatic understanding

• The decision behind debilitating dissipation was to maximise the conditions I was applying, synergising with my condition damage and my other traits, chaotic dampening was chosen because our main weapon is the staff, and having the shorter cool downs really helps, and Prismatic understanding was chosen to synergise with our elite, utilities and torch, giving us plenty of regeneration and other boons every time we stealth, and also increasing out stealth duration.

Utilities:
Signet of the Ether, Blink, Decoy, Veil, Mass invisbility(can all be changed to personal preference)

• I chose Signet of the Ether because, not only does it provide a strong base heal and recharge our phantasm skills, it will also give us roughly 300-400hp/s regeneration with 3 clones/phantasms up, this greatly enhances our survivability. I went with blink because I really enjoy the teleport, but I prefer to change it out to nullfield if I need more condition removal, decoy was chosen for the stealth synergising with Prismatic Understanding, (more boons, and also acts as a target drop which helps lower the pressure on us), I chose to place veil here for the extra stealth for prismatic and also as a nice light field/escape option(if you need more condition removal, I find that the removal mantra works really well, and so does arcane thievery/dischanter/null field)

Armour:
All Rabid with runes of Perplexity (Runes can be changed to preference)

• I chose rabid armour, because we are looking for the condition damage, however, I also appreciate the precision and toughness provided, (the precision helps with our sigils, and also helps our illusions applying bleeds on their crits, and the toughness stacks up and makes us a lot more tanky, because we already have a reasonable base amount of hp)

• The Perplexity runes can be replaced with Traveler, if you wish to loose the confusion stacks (3) and (5) on interrupt (loose out on pressure and damage) and want to gain +15% boon duration and a permanent +25% speed boost.

Trinkets:
A mix of Rabid, with some Carrion/or dire (dire is better)(mostly rabid)

• You can mix/match rabid and carrion pieces here, personally, I find that 2,700-2,800 armor is a good point to sit at, and although I don’t mind lower hp, you can add more carrion/dire (dire is better) to raise that up some more.

Food Buffs:

• Koi Cake (any 40% condition duration food will do, but Koi Cakes are cheaper then the orrian items) and Master tuning crystals (more condition damage! because this is a condition spec, and we love conditions)

All videos have now been removed. I will most likely not be making any for this build.

Usually, I will follow a rotation similar to the one below, however, most of the time I just use what’s off CD (I am lazy and don’t like to micromanage a lot of the time, still, I hardly ever loose fights just using whatever is off cd, so go figure)

• Sceptre 3
• Torch 5
• Torch 4, move in closer
• Sceptre 2 when torch pops on top of them when they go to hit you
• Swap to staff
• Staff 5
• Staff 2 while inside chaos storm, get some extra chaos armour
• Staff 4
• Staff 3
• Staff auto attack until you have another staff 2 up, or want to swap back to sceptre

• Use your utility skills as needed, try to save MI for when you REALLY need to get out of there, also try not to use the active heal on the signet, the passive is better if you can keep your clones up.

• At any time, dodge attacks or just dodge whenever you have enough energy (although, try to save your dodges for when you have staff out, staff clones do a LOT more damage with the winds of chaos auto attack)

This is a good roaming build imho. If running with any sort of group larger than, say, five or so, I would feel the low health pool though (and would worry about dying and potentially rallying opponents). Also, having run a similar build in the past, condition classes tend to be problematic (again, just talking from my experience here). I’ve never taken the torch trait before – does The Prestige act as a condition clear altogether, or does it only remove a set number of conditions?

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

Nice write up, I’ll give the build a try in WvW

Opeth – Blackwater Park! The inspiration behind your Build/Name?

Just curious

I’m using almost the same build. I’m using sigils if doom on my scepter and staff though with 2 different rune sets to boost duration. The last rune set for condition damage. I used it to a huge amount of success in WvW since the 25th.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNArfWlwzipXUTsGb9IipH9WwBckUUavWJF22FC-jEzAINBRqTEpSA5wioxWLDS9Ns14opZw0oJVHLIbuFkdIKrCBsYNA-w

Dhampyr.2104:

This is a good roaming build imho. If running with any sort of group larger than, say, five or so, I would feel the low health pool though (and would worry about dying and potentially rallying opponents). Also, having run a similar build in the past, condition classes tend to be problematic (again, just talking from my experience here). I’ve never taken the torch trait before – does The Prestige act as a condition clear altogether, or does it only remove a set number of conditions?

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

Yeh, I find that I’m mostly roaming around by myself, and I believe the torch trait removes 1 condition each time, but I’ll have to test this when I get home

Colly.4073:

Nice write up, I’ll give the build a try in WvW

Opeth – Blackwater Park! The inspiration behind your Build/Name?

Just curious

Have fun! An the name Blackwater came from a series of books I rater enjoyed reading by Michael.j sullivan, and Faith was chosen because I just like how it sounds

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Dhampyr.2104:

This is a good roaming build imho. If running with any sort of group larger than, say, five or so, I would feel the low health pool though (and would worry about dying and potentially rallying opponents). Also, having run a similar build in the past, condition classes tend to be problematic (again, just talking from my experience here). I’ve never taken the torch trait before – does The Prestige act as a condition clear altogether, or does it only remove a set number of conditions?

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

Yeh, I find that I’m mostly roaming around by myself, and I believe the torch trait removes 1 condition each time, but I’ll have to test this when I get home

Boo. The torch trait would be much more appealing to me if it was a condition clear rather than just a single condition removal.

I don’t have a link to my build atm (posting from my phone), but I run a 0/20/30/20/0 build with a few pieces of PVT armor to boost my health a bit. That build seems to work well for both roaming (has enough condi dmg to hurt, and can trait prismatic understanding and the scepter trait for more condi dmg) and for ZvZ for when I’m with my guild group (I swap out Prismatic Understanding for Bountiful Interruptions as might is easy to come by in a ZvZ, swap the torch for focus, and trait the focus for reflects). The only sad part is that I can’t trait the torch with that build.

Dhampyr.2104:

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Dhampyr.2104:

This is a good roaming build imho. If running with any sort of group larger than, say, five or so, I would feel the low health pool though (and would worry about dying and potentially rallying opponents). Also, having run a similar build in the past, condition classes tend to be problematic (again, just talking from my experience here). I’ve never taken the torch trait before – does The Prestige act as a condition clear altogether, or does it only remove a set number of conditions?

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

Yeh, I find that I’m mostly roaming around by myself, and I believe the torch trait removes 1 condition each time, but I’ll have to test this when I get home

Boo. The torch trait would be much more appealing to me if it was a condition clear rather than just a single condition removal.

I don’t have a link to my build atm (posting from my phone), but I run a 0/20/30/20/0 build with a few pieces of PVT armor to boost my health a bit. That build seems to work well for both roaming (has enough condi dmg to hurt, and can trait prismatic understanding and the scepter trait for more condi dmg) and for ZvZ for when I’m with my guild group (I swap out Prismatic Understanding for Bountiful Interruptions as might is easy to come by in a ZvZ, swap the torch for focus, and trait the focus for reflects). The only sad part is that I can’t trait the torch with that build.

Yeh its a shame the torch doesn’t remove all conditions, but 2 every 25 seconds or so is still helpful, and it also adds with the sceptres purity sigil, which is another condition every 10 seconds

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Dhampyr.2104:

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Dhampyr.2104:

This is a good roaming build imho. If running with any sort of group larger than, say, five or so, I would feel the low health pool though (and would worry about dying and potentially rallying opponents). Also, having run a similar build in the past, condition classes tend to be problematic (again, just talking from my experience here). I’ve never taken the torch trait before – does The Prestige act as a condition clear altogether, or does it only remove a set number of conditions?

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

Yeh, I find that I’m mostly roaming around by myself, and I believe the torch trait removes 1 condition each time, but I’ll have to test this when I get home

Boo. The torch trait would be much more appealing to me if it was a condition clear rather than just a single condition removal.

I don’t have a link to my build atm (posting from my phone), but I run a 0/20/30/20/0 build with a few pieces of PVT armor to boost my health a bit. That build seems to work well for both roaming (has enough condi dmg to hurt, and can trait prismatic understanding and the scepter trait for more condi dmg) and for ZvZ for when I’m with my guild group (I swap out Prismatic Understanding for Bountiful Interruptions as might is easy to come by in a ZvZ, swap the torch for focus, and trait the focus for reflects). The only sad part is that I can’t trait the torch with that build.

Yeh its a shame the torch doesn’t remove all conditions, but 2 every 25 seconds or so is still helpful, and it also adds with the sceptres purity sigil, which is another condition every 10 seconds

Casting iMage removes a condition, then the iMage bounce cures a condition. If you keep the iMage up, he’ll remove another condition on bounce every 6 seconds.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Dhampyr.2104:

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Dhampyr.2104:

This is a good roaming build imho. If running with any sort of group larger than, say, five or so, I would feel the low health pool though (and would worry about dying and potentially rallying opponents). Also, having run a similar build in the past, condition classes tend to be problematic (again, just talking from my experience here). I’ve never taken the torch trait before – does The Prestige act as a condition clear altogether, or does it only remove a set number of conditions?

Great write up, thanks for sharing!

Yeh, I find that I’m mostly roaming around by myself, and I believe the torch trait removes 1 condition each time, but I’ll have to test this when I get home

Boo. The torch trait would be much more appealing to me if it was a condition clear rather than just a single condition removal.

I don’t have a link to my build atm (posting from my phone), but I run a 0/20/30/20/0 build with a few pieces of PVT armor to boost my health a bit. That build seems to work well for both roaming (has enough condi dmg to hurt, and can trait prismatic understanding and the scepter trait for more condi dmg) and for ZvZ for when I’m with my guild group (I swap out Prismatic Understanding for Bountiful Interruptions as might is easy to come by in a ZvZ, swap the torch for focus, and trait the focus for reflects). The only sad part is that I can’t trait the torch with that build.

Yeh its a shame the torch doesn’t remove all conditions, but 2 every 25 seconds or so is still helpful, and it also adds with the sceptres purity sigil, which is another condition every 10 seconds

Casting iMage removes a condition, then the iMage bounce cures a condition. If you keep the iMage up, he’ll remove another condition on bounce every 6 seconds.

ah cool, I didn’t realise that

I have been testing this variation for sPVP and I’m really liking it:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsfWlwzipXUzmGb9IipHEXwBckUUavWJF82FC-TsAAzCoIKSVkrITRyisFNyYlx8DA

The worst thing is the lack of swiftness because of torch instead of focus… But this build lets you survive long enough to ‘bunker’ capture points, and it’s great for sneaking combat (really funny vs stealth thieves).

On the down side, it lacks the out of combat movement and the burst damage if your play style fits those. (I alternate between this one and the berserker shatters 20/20/0/0/30 or 0/20/0/20/30 all the time)

Morghana.6342:

I have been testing this variation for sPVP and I’m really liking it:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsfWlwzipXUzmGb9IipHEXwBckUUavWJF82FC-TsAAzCoIKSVkrITRyisFNyYlx8DA

The worst thing is the lack of swiftness because of torch instead of focus… But this build lets you survive long enough to ‘bunker’ capture points, and it’s great for sneaking combat (really funny vs stealth thieves).

On the down side, it lacks the out of combat movement and the burst damage if your play style fits those. (I alternate between this one and the berserker shatters 20/20/0/0/30 or 0/20/0/20/30 all the time)

Nice too see people are enjoying this build! I feel a bit like I’m giving back to the community who have helped me so much =)

Yeh, It can be a bit slow at times, however its a simple matter to swap to a 10 copper level 1 focus and get some swiftness whenever you need too running around, and put the torch before on before you start fighting, but whilst fighting I don’t really notice the lack of swiftness, as I’m already teleporting and dodge rolling all over the place.

I take it you prefer the swords blurred frenzy distortion and burst more then the sceptres condition and confusion, its not a bad idea, although I find that I like the 5 stacks of torment (which last for 7+ seconds) and the 5 stacks of confusion a bit more, as this build generally lacks in normal “power” thus the normal bursts wouldn’t be able to do as much damage, and also, how’s the lyss runs working out for you? as nice as they are you would generally be sheathed and not doing that much whilst you have the extra boons.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Morghana.6342:

I have been testing this variation for sPVP and I’m really liking it:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsfWlwzipXUzmGb9IipHEXwBckUUavWJF82FC-TsAAzCoIKSVkrITRyisFNyYlx8DA

The worst thing is the lack of swiftness because of torch instead of focus… But this build lets you survive long enough to ‘bunker’ capture points, and it’s great for sneaking combat (really funny vs stealth thieves).

On the down side, it lacks the out of combat movement and the burst damage if your play style fits those. (I alternate between this one and the berserker shatters 20/20/0/0/30 or 0/20/0/20/30 all the time)

Nice too see people are enjoying this build! I feel a bit like I’m giving back to the community who have helped me so much =)

Yeh, It can be a bit slow at times, however its a simple matter to swap to a 10 copper level 1 focus and get some swiftness whenever you need too running around, and put the torch before on before you start fighting, but whilst fighting I don’t really notice the lack of swiftness, as I’m already teleporting and dodge rolling all over the place.

I take it you prefer the swords blurred frenzy distortion and burst more then the sceptres condition and confusion, its not a bad idea, although I find that I like the 5 stacks of torment (which last for 7+ seconds) and the 5 stacks of confusion a bit more, as this build generally lacks in normal “power” thus the normal bursts wouldn’t be able to do as much damage, and also, how’s the lyss runs working out for you? as nice as they are you would generally be sheathed and not doing that much whilst you have the extra boons.

I really LOVE lyssa runes with mass invisibility for sPVP, I found it pretty amazing as offensive CD or defensive one, decoy + mass invisibility can literally stop any heavy burst on you and let you retake the whole situation in your favour adding extra damage boons as well. It’s also really helpfull for team mate revivals or stomps because stability and aegis.

I dislike the scepter because the slooow paced attacks mostly, and I found in sPVP the whole sword attacks quite useful, boon striping + inmovilize – leap + burst – evading are simply too much to pass.

The sword is a better weapon than the scepter.

That being said, I’ve been using nearly this exact build since the patch quite a bit. It’s good fun, a very strong build. I tend to take disenchanter with it for condition management. The scepter block is VERY strong now. The annoying thing is that vs a ranger or Mesmer, it will be extremely hard to land the block, but it does do a ton of damage.

The scepter is still a bad weapon, just as the torch is half a weapon, but they make sense and work well together in this type of build.

Pyroatheist.9031:

The sword is a better weapon than the scepter.

That being said, I’ve been using nearly this exact build since the patch quite a bit. It’s good fun, a very strong build. I tend to take disenchanter with it for condition management. The scepter block is VERY strong now. The annoying thing is that vs a ranger or Mesmer, it will be extremely hard to land the block, but it does do a ton of damage.

The scepter is still a bad weapon, just as the torch is half a weapon, but they make sense and work well together in this type of build.

Yeh, the sword can defiantly be more powerful then the sceptre, if you like the direct damage and distortion every 9.5-12 seconds, however I find myself trying to stay at range for most of the fight, instead of close up, and added to that, I barely spend more then 10 seconds with the sceptre/torch out before I go back to staff, so the weak auto attack doesn’t really get much use anyway.

And I have noticed that, against a few rangers the pet would always hit on my block and take the torment instead, and with other Mesmers, majority of the time a clone will take it unless you time it very well, its a minor inconvenience at best, but I still need some work on my timing hehe.

Currently been testing out some other weapon combos, such as sword/torch +sceptre/pistol, and seeing how much confusion I could stack,

using the duellist trait, summoning a iduellist, then a feedback bubble on your enemy, or a null field, followed by a sceptre 3 + shatter 2, you can get around 20 stacks of confusion, for a short amount of time, but still, it hits like a truck if they do anything.

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Care to explain why you think you need that?

Pyroatheist.9031:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Care to explain why you think you need that?

It increases Condition Damage. That is pretty much it.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Pyroatheist.9031:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Care to explain why you think you need that?

It increases Condition Damage. That is pretty much it.

Exactly. That’s all it does. You don’t make a mesmer traitset because of the stat boosts, you make the traitset because of the traits.

Pyroatheist.9031:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Pyroatheist.9031:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Care to explain why you think you need that?

It increases Condition Damage. That is pretty much it.

Exactly. That’s all it does. You don’t make a mesmer traitset because of the stat boosts, you make the traitset because of the traits.

Thats true, but its not as if all the traits are useless. I was thinking of a More Bunkier build going for a 0/0/25/20/25. Te only problem i could see is that only one of the traits involves Conditions with that being Debilitating Dissipation. Running with Scepter+Torch and Staff combo means it still has plenty of Conditions though

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Pyroatheist.9031:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Pyroatheist.9031:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Care to explain why you think you need that?

It increases Condition Damage. That is pretty much it.

Exactly. That’s all it does. You don’t make a mesmer traitset because of the stat boosts, you make the traitset because of the traits.

Thats true, but its not as if all the traits are useless. I was thinking of a More Bunkier build going for a 0/0/25/20/25. Te only problem i could see is that only one of the traits involves Conditions with that being Debilitating Dissipation. Running with Scepter+Torch and Staff combo means it still has plenty of Conditions though

Now currently looking at 20/0/25/25/0 Using the Scepter Auto attack means if timed right i could keep Cripple on the target at all times and also inflict additional conditions every time a clone/phantom is killed.

Domination = V and IX
Chaos = IV and V
Inspiration = VI and VII

So basically Clones cause Cripple and a random Condition when they are killed/replaced and i get a 3% reduced damage for each clone/phantom that i have out as well as 10% movement increase for each clone/phantom. To finish it off +200Condition damage and 20% decrease in Scepter skill recharge and Torch skills remove conditions (not sure if this is ALL or a set number) and decreases recharge time by 20%

But a few traits i think i could miss, 25Illusions, without it Mirror Images is a 45second cool down and all clone/phantoms are a lot longer cool downs then i am normally use to. I have pretty much always taken DE so not to sure how i will get used to not being able to create clones when dodging in stealth

Pyros and Natus builds booth seem wery interesting. Condition is not as bad as its reputation nowdays. I do miss the self controll from direct dmg when go full condition so I lean towards hybrid/synregi direct dmg builds as my favorite. Its harder to conuter aswell as alot of ppl lack condition removal.

Personaly I latley been more into a high direct dmg setup but with condition dmg synergi. I wont ninja this build thread with my latest vid but can find in my guide.

Interesting is that with bounce conditions/boons now viable I often find ppl confuse me with a shatter ordered clones as my behavour is run strait towards ppl while my clone and me pepper the player with staff bounce.

/Osicat

Osicat.4139:

Interesting is that with bounce conditions/boons now viable I often find ppl confuse me with a shatter ordered clones as my behavour is run strait towards ppl while my clone and me pepper the player with staff bounce.

/Osicat

Talking about Bounces – did they nerf Staff #1? I swear it used to bounce 3 times (4 with Trait)? Now its just 2 and 1 for clones????

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Osicat.4139:

Interesting is that with bounce conditions/boons now viable I often find ppl confuse me with a shatter ordered clones as my behavour is run strait towards ppl while my clone and me pepper the player with staff bounce.

/Osicat

Talking about Bounces – did they nerf Staff #1? I swear it used to bounce 3 times (4 with Trait)? Now its just 2 and 1 for clones????

Staff 1 has not been changed.

Pyroatheist.9031:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Osicat.4139:

Interesting is that with bounce conditions/boons now viable I often find ppl confuse me with a shatter ordered clones as my behavour is run strait towards ppl while my clone and me pepper the player with staff bounce.

/Osicat

Talking about Bounces – did they nerf Staff #1? I swear it used to bounce 3 times (4 with Trait)? Now its just 2 and 1 for clones????

Staff 1 has not been changed.

Mmmmm, i swear at the start it used to bounce 3 times lol

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Ah, I was wondering when someone might bring this up.

I feel that I don’t need ANY points at all in illusions, I am already sitting at 1,800 ish condition damage in WvW, and the extra points are really un-necessary.

lets see, if I were to take points and put them into illusions, the bets I could do was to take points out of duelling, as I cant take them out of domination or chaos because I would loose my prismatic understanding, or my torch cd’s and condition removers.

So I would loose 20% critical damage (remember, my critical chance is easily over 40% at most times, and my base damage is already low enough) and also maybe 7-8% critical hit chance as well, not to mention Deceptive evasion, so I would have way less clones running around inflicting conditions, and also a source of retaliation.

And what would I gain? some extra condition damage that I don’t need, cool downs reduced on my shatters, which I don’t use very often, and maybe gain an extra bounce and 9% more damage when I have 3 illusions out.

To me, that just does not seem worth it.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Ah, I was wondering when someone might bring this up.

I feel that I don’t need ANY points at all in illusions, I am already sitting at 1,800 ish condition damage in WvW, and the extra points are really un-necessary.

lets see, if I were to take points and put them into illusions, the bets I could do was to take points out of duelling, as I cant take them out of domination or chaos because I would loose my prismatic understanding, or my torch cd’s and condition removers.

So I would loose 20% critical damage (remember, my critical chance is easily over 40% at most times, and my base damage is already low enough) and also maybe 7-8% critical hit chance as well, not to mention Deceptive evasion, so I would have way less clones running around inflicting conditions, and also a source of retaliation.

And what would I gain? some extra condition damage that I don’t need, cool downs reduced on my shatters, which I don’t use very often, and maybe gain an extra bounce and 9% more damage when I have 3 illusions out.

To me, that just does not seem worth it.

I already replied with a different build, do agree with you that after making a new build that doesnt use illusions tree that it doesnt seem like its a requirement or anything for Condition build – shame that lose out on the 25point trait that cuts down the cool down on illusions but am slowly getting used to this.

Now currently looking at 20/0/25/25/0 Using the Scepter Auto attack means if timed right i could keep Cripple on the target at all times and also inflict additional conditions every time a clone/phantom is killed.

Domination = V and IX
Chaos = IV and V
Inspiration = VI and VII

I am not yet level 80 so i cant get all the gear and everything so it might not work, currently its doing okay despite the awful gear i have

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Ah, I was wondering when someone might bring this up.

I feel that I don’t need ANY points at all in illusions, I am already sitting at 1,800 ish condition damage in WvW, and the extra points are really un-necessary.

lets see, if I were to take points and put them into illusions, the bets I could do was to take points out of duelling, as I cant take them out of domination or chaos because I would loose my prismatic understanding, or my torch cd’s and condition removers.

So I would loose 20% critical damage (remember, my critical chance is easily over 40% at most times, and my base damage is already low enough) and also maybe 7-8% critical hit chance as well, not to mention Deceptive evasion, so I would have way less clones running around inflicting conditions, and also a source of retaliation.

And what would I gain? some extra condition damage that I don’t need, cool downs reduced on my shatters, which I don’t use very often, and maybe gain an extra bounce and 9% more damage when I have 3 illusions out.

To me, that just does not seem worth it.

I already replied with a different build, do agree with you that after making a new build that doesnt use illusions tree that it doesnt seem like its a requirement or anything for Condition build – shame that lose out on the 25point trait that cuts down the cool down on illusions but am slowly getting used to this.

Now currently looking at 20/0/25/25/0 Using the Scepter Auto attack means if timed right i could keep Cripple on the target at all times and also inflict additional conditions every time a clone/phantom is killed.

Domination = V and IX
Chaos = IV and V
Inspiration = VI and VII

I am not yet level 80 so i cant get all the gear and everything so it might not work, currently its doing okay despite the awful gear i have

Sorry, I must have missed the other build, that’s my fault there.

Yeh, I really wouldn’t mind taking some points in inspiration, but I just cant afford to take anything out without loosing so much,

You could always try PvP, its a great place to test builds and have some fun without it costing anything, and remembering that the builds will generally be stronger in WvW/PvE because you can use food buffs, and certain traits/skills are better as well.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

I am slightly confused, You are a Condition build but no points in the Condition Tree – why is that? I am trying to make a Condition build myself, but think that You NEED points in Illusions

Ah, I was wondering when someone might bring this up.

I feel that I don’t need ANY points at all in illusions, I am already sitting at 1,800 ish condition damage in WvW, and the extra points are really un-necessary.

lets see, if I were to take points and put them into illusions, the bets I could do was to take points out of duelling, as I cant take them out of domination or chaos because I would loose my prismatic understanding, or my torch cd’s and condition removers.

So I would loose 20% critical damage (remember, my critical chance is easily over 40% at most times, and my base damage is already low enough) and also maybe 7-8% critical hit chance as well, not to mention Deceptive evasion, so I would have way less clones running around inflicting conditions, and also a source of retaliation.

And what would I gain? some extra condition damage that I don’t need, cool downs reduced on my shatters, which I don’t use very often, and maybe gain an extra bounce and 9% more damage when I have 3 illusions out.

To me, that just does not seem worth it.

I already replied with a different build, do agree with you that after making a new build that doesnt use illusions tree that it doesnt seem like its a requirement or anything for Condition build – shame that lose out on the 25point trait that cuts down the cool down on illusions but am slowly getting used to this.

Now currently looking at 20/0/25/25/0 Using the Scepter Auto attack means if timed right i could keep Cripple on the target at all times and also inflict additional conditions every time a clone/phantom is killed.

Domination = V and IX
Chaos = IV and V
Inspiration = VI and VII

I am not yet level 80 so i cant get all the gear and everything so it might not work, currently its doing okay despite the awful gear i have

Sorry, I must have missed the other build, that’s my fault there.

Yeh, I really wouldn’t mind taking some points in inspiration, but I just cant afford to take anything out without loosing so much,

You could always try PvP, its a great place to test builds and have some fun without it costing anything, and remembering that the builds will generally be stronger in WvW/PvE because you can use food buffs, and certain traits/skills are better as well.

I have been using it quite a bit in WvW and it seems okay, though the main thing is due to the EPIC skill that is known has Feedback the amount of times i have been downed because Retal after slapping it on attackers/defenders of towers is to many to count lol

Yeah i would have liked to go into dueling for DE but not quite sure how that would work with Scepter #1 creating clones as i like them to be as close to the target as possible and Sharper Images would be nice of course for that extra bit of Condition damage.

I am thinking of replacing Compounding Celerity with Glamor Master for that extra few seconds off the Feedback cool down. Though taking Choas and Inspiration was to add a bit of “bunker-ness” to the build so that i am not cannon fodder for the burst classes.

Pyroatheist.9031:

The sword is a better weapon than the scepter.

This is a really stupid blanket statement. Scepter definitely has a place in condition builds that sword can’t field.

I guess someone had to post this build eventually although I was hoping people wouldn’t. I’ve been running a 20/20/30/0/0 since the patch and imho it’s broken OP. There are a few things you’re doing wrong though:

1) Use duelling III trait — blocks give retaliation. You will proc lots of aegis from prismatic understanding which converts into extremely high retal uptime. You also get it from scepter 2.

2) Use boon duration runes. I’m running 2 Superior Monk 2 Superior Water 2 Superior Lyssa for 20% boon 10% cond. 20% boon duration is around the minimum to keep reliable protection and regen uptime.

3) Your sigils don’t really make sense. You need sigil of energy on staff to make it easier to get staff clones up, they are your main damage dealers outside of scepter 2. I personally use corruption on scepter, doom on torch, and energy on staff.

4) Why are you using portal instead of veil? Veil gives you 2 sets of stealth which lets you leverage PU even more. Veil is also excellent for staking: Veil -> Stomp -> Veil again. If you expect the down person to get AoEd then you can just do phase retreat + blink stomp or distortion stomp instead.

You should shatter to make sure you can get staff clones up. When you use scepter 2 or Torch 5 you put up clones / phantasms that you actually don’t want up. When you’re back on staff and ready to set up more clones you should dump the phantasm 3 for extra damage then shatter so you can get 3 staff clones up. This build is all about clone management and ensuring that you have 3 staff clones up as much as possible.

zastari.1730:

Pyroatheist.9031:

The sword is a better weapon than the scepter.

This is a really stupid blanket statement. Scepter definitely has a place in condition builds that sword can’t field.

I guess someone had to post this build eventually although I was hoping people wouldn’t. I’ve been running a 20/20/30/0/0 since the patch and imho it’s broken OP. There are a few things you’re doing wrong though:

1) Use duelling III trait — blocks give retaliation. You will proc lots of aegis from prismatic understanding which converts into extremely high retal uptime. You also get it from scepter 2.

2) Use boon duration runes. I’m running 2 Superior Monk 2 Superior Water 2 Superior Lyssa for 20% boon 10% cond. 20% boon duration is around the minimum to keep reliable protection and regen uptime.

3) Your sigils don’t really make sense. You need sigil of energy on staff to make it easier to get staff clones up, they are your main damage dealers outside of scepter 2. I personally use corruption on scepter, doom on torch, and energy on staff.

4) Why are you using portal instead of veil? Veil gives you 2 sets of stealth which lets you leverage PU even more. Veil is also excellent for staking: Veil -> Stomp -> Veil again. If you expect the down person to get AoEd then you can just do phase retreat + blink stomp or distortion stomp instead.

You should shatter to make sure you can get staff clones up. When you use scepter 2 or Torch 5 you put up clones / phantasms that you actually don’t want up. When you’re back on staff and ready to set up more clones you should dump the phantasm 3 for extra damage then shatter so you can get 3 staff clones up. This build is all about clone management and ensuring that you have 3 staff clones up as much as possible.

“doing it wrong” is a bit of an overstatement, my play style is my own and I’m quite happy with it

As for the runes, I really don’t notice the boons much anyhow and prefer to take the cheaper undead runes, which provide toughness and a large amount of condition damage.

I use portal in WvW because its great, and id take it over veil anyway, but as I said, that’s my style and preference.

My sigils are fine, the purity on the sceptre cleanses more conditions with the torch, and the corruption stacks up for 250 more condition damage fine. the sigil on the staff is also fine, as its the weapon I spend most my time using, those heals that proc help keep me alive/high health, whilst also lowering theirs.

as for managing the clones, it really seems like a wasted effort, as i’m looking for them to die to apply more conditions and such, so it really doesn’t matter which clones or phantasms are out.

I been running this on my mesmer since patch I have after falling in love with the potential of the new block.

I run it exactly the same as you layed it out even the manipulation skill trait.

I tried different combinations boon duration runes, prot runes blah blah, runes of lyssa, 2 runes of mad king (insert random other rune)

In the end I run runes of undead the extra condition damage is good and you get to 2.9k armor.

The difference in what I run and you is I run giver scepter and torch.

There is no doing it wrong lmao. Run how you like I like undead and the only other rune I would honestly use other than undead is full lyssa.

Lyssa gives the precision for bleed on crit and vigor on crit synergy and condition duration and full wipe of condi.

Either way run what you like I do run arcane thievery with decoy and blink its alot easier to get remove condi with arcane with the help of stealth imo. You can also target some random mob to wipe in a emergency.

This build is good and alot of fun I been running it since the patch I would suggest rabid condi lovers give it a try.

Nice write up.

PS: Why do people always want to say a build is broken OP because you can 1vX on it? The build is good you can 1vX on many mesmer builds this build doesn’t make you invincible. Run into a necro in a 1vX that will load you up on condi and corrupt boon you and you will see how broken/op this build is not its just a good build.. kk that was my rant.

Nice to see other people are enjoying builds like this one!

Did some testing replacing the sceptre with a sword, and the staff with a sceptre/pistol, it worked alright, but I definitely noticed that without the staff, I was getting hit more and causing less conditions.

already had the equipment for it from a similar condition build on my mesmer, so I gave this a shot in wvw today. It has amazing survivability! All that stealth and prismatic makes me very tanky, and able to break target lock when needed.

I survived a 1v10 for about 5 minutes (running away…slowly). In 1v1s – 1v3s I felt confident, but did find myself occasionally unable to finish opponents, usually leading to them running away. In small group battles, I was the most survivable member of my groups, and felt like I was addding solid pressure. In zerg v zerg, I was able to cloak and run straight into the enemy zerg, dropping clones everywhere. I felt confident in my ability to get out as needed, and break target lock as needed. I felt like I was doing enough aoe damage to get my loot bags, but the main value I was bringing my team was as a diversion…getting parts of the enemy zerg to pay attention to me (as out of position as I was) more than my zerg.

The real weakness of this build is lack of swiftness…so maybe some runes for that would be beneficial, otherwise I am loving it for survivability and solid pressure.

bobross.5034:

already had the equipment for it from a similar condition build on my mesmer, so I gave this a shot in wvw today. It has amazing survivability! All that stealth and prismatic makes me very tanky, and able to break target lock when needed.

I survived a 1v10 for about 5 minutes (running away…slowly). In 1v1s – 1v3s I felt confident, but did find myself occasionally unable to finish opponents, usually leading to them running away. In small group battles, I was the most survivable member of my groups, and felt like I was addding solid pressure. In zerg v zerg, I was able to cloak and run straight into the enemy zerg, dropping clones everywhere. I felt confident in my ability to get out as needed, and break target lock as needed. I felt like I was doing enough aoe damage to get my loot bags, but the main value I was bringing my team was as a diversion…getting parts of the enemy zerg to pay attention to me (as out of position as I was) more than my zerg.

The real weakness of this build is lack of swiftness…so maybe some runes for that would be beneficial, otherwise I am loving it for survivability and solid pressure.

Yeh it really does have some great survivability, as for the lack of swiftness and speed, ooc I just use a focus which seems to do the trick just fine, and in combat I find that i’m blinking all over the place anyway, so the lack of a speedboost isn’t too noticeable for me, until i’m trying to run away from the zerg :’(

One more thing I tried…I happen to have sigil of stamina on my torch. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Stamina

In regular fights this isn’t great, but in zerg v zerg fights, when things are going in your favor: once you start downing people, you get so many free dodge-rolls from this, which only help to improve both survivability and aoe tags. It also helps keep the pressure on, by dropping aoe bleeds and cripples everywhere, meanwhile it’s a good way to get loot bags as a mesmer, which tends to be difficult in big fights without things like feedback.

bobross.5034:

One more thing I tried…I happen to have sigil of stamina on my torch. http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Sigil_of_Stamina

In regular fights this isn’t great, but in zerg v zerg fights, when things are going in your favor: once you start downing people, you get so many free dodge-rolls from this, which only help to improve both survivability and aoe tags. It also helps keep the pressure on, by dropping aoe bleeds and cripples everywhere, meanwhile it’s a good way to get loot bags as a mesmer, which tends to be difficult in big fights without things like feedback.

Yeh, this build was never really meant for zerging along, it doesn’t really have the aoe damage comparable to classes like eles’ and so on, but focusing more on roaming/smaller group fights, or spvp holding/taking points, where its a lot stronger.

suit yourself, but the survivability and stealth make this ideal for portal bombing. And as I mentioned, the sigil of stamina helps make sure you get some loot bags out of it.

You made me curious mate, ty for post your build. Had to try condition for once, strapped on my rabid gear tweeked some with traits and run a rather simmilar build to yours.

/Osicat

Osicat.4139:

You made me curious mate, ty for post your build. Had to try condition for once, strapped on my rabid gear tweeked some with traits and run a rather simmilar build to yours.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e8qRXiBOF8g

/Osicat

Nice video, so what were your thoughts after using a build like this?

That reminds me, I still haven’t gotten around to making any videos myself, sooner or later I will though XD

Morning guys, how’s the Mesmer been treating you all?

Anyone else tried a build variant similar to this and would like to share their thoughts?

The more i aam playing my Condition build, the more i am loving it. Sure might not have the damage burst others have, but i have solid toughness that i SHOULD be able to withstand a first round of attacks with plenty of stealth options.

My final build is slightly different to yours where i have gone

Domination(20): V, IX
Dueling(0)
Chaos(30): V, IV, XII
Inspiration(20): VI, VII
Illusions(0)

Taken Rabid gear, Undead Runes Sigil of Earth on Scepter, Sigil of Corruption on Torch and Sigil of Blood on Staff more then 2,600Armor, 1800Toughness, 1200condition damage in staff, 1400in Scepter all without food or anything.

Taken Ether Feast, Mirror Images, Decoy, Feedback, Mass Invisibility. I am trying to think of what i could take instead of Feedback and just use that when attacking/defending camps/keeps and such

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

The more i aam playing my Condition build, the more i am loving it. Sure might not have the damage burst others have, but i have solid toughness that i SHOULD be able to withstand a first round of attacks with plenty of stealth options.

My final build is slightly different to yours where i have gone

Domination(20): V, IX
Dueling(0)
Chaos(30): V, IV, XII
Inspiration(20): VI, VII
Illusions(0)

Taken Rabid gear, Undead Runes Sigil of Earth on Scepter, Sigil of Corruption on Torch and Sigil of Blood on Staff more then 2,600Armor, 1800Toughness, 1200condition damage in staff, 1400in Scepter all without food or anything.

Taken Ether Feast, Mirror Images, Decoy, Feedback, Mass Invisibility. I am trying to think of what i could take instead of Feedback and just use that when attacking/defending camps/keeps and such

I actually find that mantra of resolve is really useful to have, if you need the condition remover, and blink can also help if you need to get out of the way and reset a fight.

how’s the condition stacking without deceptive evasion working?

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

The more i aam playing my Condition build, the more i am loving it. Sure might not have the damage burst others have, but i have solid toughness that i SHOULD be able to withstand a first round of attacks with plenty of stealth options.

My final build is slightly different to yours where i have gone

Domination(20): V, IX
Dueling(0)
Chaos(30): V, IV, XII
Inspiration(20): VI, VII
Illusions(0)

Taken Rabid gear, Undead Runes Sigil of Earth on Scepter, Sigil of Corruption on Torch and Sigil of Blood on Staff more then 2,600Armor, 1800Toughness, 1200condition damage in staff, 1400in Scepter all without food or anything.

Taken Ether Feast, Mirror Images, Decoy, Feedback, Mass Invisibility. I am trying to think of what i could take instead of Feedback and just use that when attacking/defending camps/keeps and such

I actually find that mantra of resolve is really useful to have, if you need the condition remover, and blink can also help if you need to get out of the way and reset a fight.

how’s the condition stacking without deceptive evasion working?

I think in a way its better and in a way its worse.
Its better as the clones summoned via Scepter (my main source of them) are summoned right next to the target which is great but it is quite slow process, thinking if i had DE in this situation i would have to be on top of my target or it would have to run to it which i dont want.

It would be better in that i could spawn clones that little bit faster though and While in stealth it would be nice to dodge and create clones though to add that bit more confusion (not the condition lol)

I am not to bothered with conditions as with stealth and that it makes it that little bit harder for me to be focused by people, i have the torch trait so that helps a bit. I was thinking Veil for that added stealth or maybe Blink for another range maker, I think i will test various options out and see what happens

@ArmageddonAsh: Taking 20 points into inspiration unfortunately provides this build with nearly nothing. The 200 condition damage while in scepter pales in comparison to sharper images and deceptive evasion. By not taking these two traits you are cutting out both your clone generation AND a significant source of damage. Your only reliably rapid clone generation is now your scepter autoattack, which isn’t reliable at all. Therefor it also makes your clone-on-death traits pretty much useless.