Guild Wars 2

WvW Havoc Squad Condition Build

Hey all! So, this is my first official build post, and although I’d like to claim it’s completely original and my idea, most of this build comes from a Frankenstein accumulation of everything I’ve ever read on these forums – so, up front, I’d like to thank you guys for this build that works great for me!

Before I post the build, I should emphasize that the build is designed for WvW Havoc roaming (5-10 folks) – it gives enough punch to work well 1v1, and it has some additional fun stuff built in for when your camp busting squad finds a zerg coming in fast.

The build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQJAWRlwzipHWTqGb9IhJFEH5oeg9szdSKUNrB-j0BB4MQYNA00AkIQZSFRjtsuIasKZER1SBAz0I-w

20/0/20/0/30

Domination (III, VII) –

(III) Having illusions do more damage is always good, and even with 30 in the illusions line, this build isn’t really meant for continuous shatters. Plus, in WvW anyway, I find that my clones really don’t live long enough for reliable shatters anyway.

(VII) – Shatters remove boons on hit. Stability is always a pesky thing – it messes with my group’s DPS bombs, so having multiple ways to strip stability prior to the initial impact is a good thing. With the Greatsword, the phantasm and mirror blade clone spawn right in the middle of their group, so a quick mind wrack will strip some boons from the group.

Chaos (III, X) –

(III) For me, mobility is king – I rarely stay in the middle of my havoc group and tend to harass adversary outliers (such as staff eles, etc). However, with a lack of condi clears, I need to be able to bounce into the group pretty much on demand for AOE heals/condi clears. Shorter blinks are key for that.

(X) The staff is my main weapon – shorter CDs on all five skills is awesome for me.

Illusions (III, VII, XII) –

(III) Like I said above, I don’t shatter too much with this build – having lots of staff clones out works great for spreading the condi love around. Having extra damage because I tend to keep clones out is, IMO, the best choice of a bunch of not-so-good choices.

(VII) Between Mirror Blade on the GS and Winds of Chaos on the Staff, having extra bounces helps a lot.

(XII) – AOE diversion shatters has the potential to interrupt a bunch of folks in a group. Between Chaos Storm, iWave on the GS, and F3 shatters, you’re an AOE interrupting machine. With the Runes of Perplexity, that’s a bunch of swirly purple numbers that kill folks.

Gear

For my gear choices, I went with Dire stats, since precision is pretty much wasted with this build. Runes of Perplexity x 6.

A key component of the build is my staff – I have a Giver’s staff with a Sigil of Malice, giving the staff a 16% Condi duration boost. With food (+40% condi duration), the Dom line (20% condi duration), and the staff, I hit a magical total of 76% condi duration – which means my staff burns all get two ticks instead of one. It’s a huge uptick in damage, and condi clears really don’t help opponents out much since the burn is such a short duration and nearly constantly re-applied.

Utilities

Ether Feast – Biggest heal, ‘nuff said.

Blink – already explained above.

Veil – either helps my havoc group with strategic positioning, or helps us disengage from a bad situation.

Null Field – another initial use utility to attempt to get rid of that pesky stability in an opposing group.

Summary

Looking forward to comments/input – I’m sure I haven’t addressed everything in this build post, so feel free to ask questions!