Guild Wars 2

Hi all,

I’ve come back to Guild Wars 2 after a really long time out, in anticipation of Heart of Thorns, and a lot seems to have happened whilst I was away.

I see many of my armour pieces, bits of equipment, other stuff (like town clothes) have changed in terms of what they do/how they work, as well as what appear to be huge revisions to how skills and builds work.

Back then, I ran a high precision build that could produce large numbers of crits and shatters, but I’m unsure if this is still viable. I see condition mesmer isn’t viable anymore, which used to be quite popular with staff users.

Just to give me a chance to get back into things, can someone just relate to me a decent build for standard PvE? Not dungeons, not WvW… Just something that can get me through normal encounters/dynamic events/story quests? It’d be a big help. Then I can just pick other stuff up as I play.

For the record, I quite like Sword and Focus (obviously as Focus gives a speed boost, which is useful for getting around in generic PvE).

As it is, I’m not even fully equipped to leave Lion’s Arch!

For the overworld, I’ve found this to be sufficient for most things, particularly silverwastes:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAR8cnsIClphtqBmqBUrhlUDicAlIAlf4EdD9LrZ7A-TBSBwAUuoCFV+FRJ4N1fmt/AKdPIM/B4JFAA-e

This isn’t optimized in any way, and the utilities are mostly best suggestions. This is kind of a mix between shatter and pure phantasm. The shatters provide large AoE damage while the phantasms can take down a tough single target. The phantasms each have a 12 second cooldown, so they’ll recharge from fight to fight.

The build isn’t mandatory in any way. Mental Anguish can be taken over imagined burden for stronger shatters. Focus can be taken over greatsword or off-hand sword for greater movement speed. The utilities are situational, and should be swapped out when something else is needed. Shattered Strength can also be taken over Phantasmal Haste if you’re dealing with a bunch of weaker monsters instead of a few big ones.

BRA’s build is a pretty solid starting point.

Note that Imagined Burden is usually considered a poor trait selection compared with Power Block and Mental Anguish, but it’s good in the Silverwastes because the Cripple condition it applies will interrupt Mordrem Teragriff charges. Very handy.

There are two slightly tankier variants that you can try as well.

The first one switches Illusions for Chaos and takes Staff instead of Greatsword. Chaotic Dampening gives you Protection whenever you have Chaos Armor (which is easy to get off all your Ethereal fields). You can then take Illusionary Defence for the incoming damage reduction and Bountiful Dissipation for the Stability and Might on shattering.

The second one switches Illusions for Inspiration. Take Restorative Illusions for a really solid source of extra healing and round it out with Mental Defence. If you want to substitute Null Field or Feedback for Mantra of Pain, you can take Restorative Mantras for even more healing. If not, take either of the other two. I like Persisting Images, but Medic’s Feedback can be handy when allies get downed during dynamic events. (Don’t rez anybody who’s dead, though. Takes too long. Just let them WP out and run back.)