Guild Wars 2

As many of you know, the Invincible Mesmer build lost its retaliation effect and some survivability with the new update. However, I have finally come up with a build that has slightly lower tanking abilities, with massive condition damage.

Weapons – and why
Staff –
Chaos armor, gives protection, regeneration, swiftness, randomly, also applies confusion and blindness!
Chaos Storm. applies aegis for blocking (retaliation) and you will usually get more than one of these in while fighting inside your chaos storm. In addition it also grants retaliation! It all adds up in duration to about 20(s), that’s a good long while of damage from just being struck! you also apply weakness and poison to enemies and chill which increases their recharge time by 66%! Combine this with the daze from chaos storm and your enemy will be unable to use some skills fo a good while

you also get ethereal field, when combined with leap, that’s even more chaos armor. (leap with veil grants more retaliation – veil is one of the utility skills)

Scepter + Torch
The scepter creates clones every third attack from ether bolt, this comes in handy for shattering. The new torment skill is applied through a successful block using the #2 torch skill and is very powerful, especially when the enemy is moving ( this skill aso applies retaliation for blocking the attack!!! Confusing images gives 5 stacks of confusion for some pretty insane damage.

The torch really has come up in this build, The prestige skill grants stealth (boons – aegis and therefore more retaliation) and burning upon the skill ending (blast finisher). The blast finisher when combined with ethereal field give aoe chaos armor for 5 seconds. Phantasmal Mage gives you more retaliation and stacks 3 confusions on the target! What more could you ask for?

Armor
For this build you will want to be using Rabid armor for high toughness, high precision, and high condition damage. I Have not figured out what runes to use yet, open to suggestions

Traits
Dueling 20 – III, X
3(s) retaliation when you block – stacks duration and adds up!
Create clones when you dodge – comes in handy when shattering

Chaos 30 – V, X, XII
clones apply random condition when killed – extra damage
staff skills recharge 20% faster
cloaking skills last 1(s) longer, gain boons every second (protection,regeneration, aegis) – aegis allows blocking, aka retaliation

Illusions 20 – II, V
confusion lasts 33% longer – good for damage
cry of frustration grants retaliation – also applies confusion!

Utility Skills
Healing: Ether Feast
Veil, Decoy, (what ever floats your boat) i use Portal entry
Mass invisibility or timewarp.

• Additional Notes*
  This build will inflict Extreme condition damage due to stacks of torment, retaliation, confusion, bleeds.

base skill rotation
scepter 1 x3
scepter 2
torch 5
scepter 3
scepter 1 till 2 pops up
scepter 2
torch 4 [switch staff]
stakitten stand in chaos storm for blast
staff 3
veil stand in it
staff 2
staff 4 [switch to scepter]
-repeat but skip first attack(scepter 1×3)-

I like the build (it’s similar to one I plan on playing around with) but it’s definitely not new. This build has been around for quite a while, just hasn’t been too popular until the PU buff

That said, good writeup. The one thing I don’t agree with is the skill rotation. I honestly find myself rarely, if ever, purposely including the scepter auto in my rotation. It’s ok when you have nothing else to do, but it’s painfully slow and underwhelming to the point that I’d rather use one of our myriad of other skills to more effectively generate clones.

Well, its new in the sense that traits have change, a lot and therefore changed the build a bit. i just use the scepter #1 to gain agro, that or scepter 3

Ahh, when you say “to gain agro” I assume you mean it’s intended as a PvE build. Sorry!

I play WvW and PvP so I tend to just assume that every build is created for those modes. Ignore me =P

This isn’t a new kind of Mesmer at all. Condition Mesmers have existed since release, and many Condition Mesmers already use Prismatic Understanding (before this patch).

Also, the Illusion traits you should take are V and VII. VII is very important because it essentially double the DPS of your WoC.

And the way to play this build is simple: conjure three Staff Clones and spam WoC. If your target dies cool. If they have decent Cond Removal they won’t, in which case use Confusing Images + Cry of Frustration and Illusionary Counter for a burst. If you succeed that should either kill them or put a significant dent in their health, and you could switch back to Staff and DPS them down.

Runes that I personally use are 2x Lyssa, 2x Afflicted and 2x Krait, for a total of +40% Bleeding Duration (including +10% Cond Duration). I also use Sigil of Doom on Torch for that extra DPS and Healing inhibition when I switch to Sceptre to burst.

Nightmare, Undead, or some combination of Condition Duration (2 x Mad King, 2 x Lyssa, 2 x Nightmare, or something like that) runes might work well for this build.

Boon Duration might also work nicely, like 2 x Water, 2 x Monk, etc.

Undead will likely give the biggest bang for your buck, since it’s relatively inexpensive and the 6-rune bonus is another 5% of your Toughness applied as additional condition damage. (This stacks with the 5% you’re getting from the Chaos 25 Trait)

Centaur or Air Runes are also nice options if you’re feeling that lack of Swiftness with this build, or you could just swap in a Focus for running around. (Centaur has a much longer duration on its Swiftness, is group-friendly, and also extends Bleed Duration)

Btw guys, just noticed that if I trait for the staff, the bleeding duration from chaos wind decreases from 7s to 5s. Anyone of you got this?

squallaus.8321:

Btw guys, just noticed that if I trait for the staff, the bleeding duration from chaos wind decreases from 7s to 5s. Anyone of you got this?

It’s a tooltip error. The actual duration is still 7s.

However, Staff Clone WoC Bleeding duration is actually 5s, but this isn’t directly related to Chaotic Dampening.

PS – Your build is new in the sense that it was posted recently and combines the aspects of “Hidden Fire” (A Power-Bursty Prismatic Understanding Build) with a condition build.

Given the rampant use of Shattercat, Immortal, Seven Mirror and Chaos-Support attempts, I think that it’s fine to try something different – at least for yourself – and share the play style. Don’t be discouraged by folks’ “It’s all been done before” attitude. It was new for you, therefore it was new.

Thank you for sharing the build and giving us the opportunity to talk shop about it!

PPS – Have you considered swapping the 20 in Dueling for 20 in Domination?

This would give you access to the Torch Cooldown Trait, longer Condition Duration, and the Crippling Dissipation Adept Trait for Cripple on Clone Death. Since you’re using the Scepter and Staff your clone generation is probably pretty good even without Deceptive Evasion, and since you’re not utilizing a Power Build, Critical Hits aren’t quite as important for landing / improving Condition Damage attacks.

You’d be missing out on the Vigor boost from Dueling 5, but would have 20% extended condition duration over all, plus additional Condition Removal on your Torch Skills, (something that Mesmers sorely need)

Sinaya.4201:

Don’t be discouraged by folks’ “It’s all been done before” attitude. It was new for you, therefore it was new.

Please don’t put words in my mouth or assume I was being discouraging in any way. In fact I immediately stated that it was a good write up/build.

I know you’re just trying to encourage the OP (which I totally agree with) but I don’t like being portrayed as the bad guy

Sinaya.4201:

PPS – Have you considered swapping the 20 in Dueling for 20 in Domination?

This would give you access to the Torch Cooldown Trait, longer Condition Duration, and the Crippling Dissipation Adept Trait for Cripple on Clone Death. Since you’re using the Scepter and Staff your clone generation is probably pretty good even without Deceptive Evasion, and since you’re not utilizing a Power Build, Critical Hits aren’t quite as important for landing / improving Condition Damage attacks.

You’d be missing out on the Vigor boost from Dueling 5, but would have 20% extended condition duration over all, plus additional Condition Removal on your Torch Skills, (something that Mesmers sorely need)

Deceptive Evasion is absolutely necessary. The focus of Mesmer Condition builds is always on the Staff, the recent buffs to the Sceptre is nice but not enough to make it competitive in a prolonged fight. And a lot of the Staff’s DPS comes from Staff Clones, so you need to be able to conjure three Staff Clones very quickly and replace lost Clones very quickly. 8s on Phase Retreat absolutely does not cut it.

The other essential trait Dueling provides is Sharper Images, which again is a huge part of Condition Mesmer DPS and is the reason why Rabid is so much better than Carrion: it allows you to translate Precision into Condition Damage.

Speccing out of 20 Dueling kills your DPS as a Condition Mesmer. For us, 0/20/20/0/20 is pretty much as fixed in stone as 10/20/0/0/30 is for Shatter Mesmers.

Didn’t call you out personally, Zumi. It was more about this statement:

Embolism.8106:

This isn’t a new kind of Mesmer at all. Condition Mesmers have existed since release, and many Condition Mesmers already use Prismatic Understanding (before this patch).

Folks are too reliant on Deceptive Evasion, in my opinion.

Sinaya.4201:

Didn’t call you out personally, Zumi. It was more about this statement:

Embolism.8106:

This isn’t a new kind of Mesmer at all. Condition Mesmers have existed since release, and many Condition Mesmers already use Prismatic Understanding (before this patch).

Folks are too reliant on Deceptive Evasion, in my opinion.

It was a fact. This exact same build has existed for a long time and even enjoyed popularity once (mainly due to FLIMP’s videos), and despite having become more obscure is still played by many Mesmers.

In the post above I explained why Deceptive Evasion is so important to Condition Mesmers, and also the importance of Sharper Images. These two traits, together with Illusionary Elasticity, Winds of Chaos, and Staff Clones, are the core of Mesmer Condition DPS.

Sceptre and Torch, as interesting as they are, remain supplementary to the Staff.

Sinaya.4201:

PPS – Have you considered swapping the 20 in Dueling for 20 in Domination?

This would give you access to the Torch Cooldown Trait, longer Condition Duration, and the Crippling Dissipation Adept Trait for Cripple on Clone Death. Since you’re using the Scepter and Staff your clone generation is probably pretty good even without Deceptive Evasion, and since you’re not utilizing a Power Build, Critical Hits aren’t quite as important for landing / improving Condition Damage attacks.

You’d be missing out on the Vigor boost from Dueling 5, but would have 20% extended condition duration over all, plus additional Condition Removal on your Torch Skills, (something that Mesmers sorely need)

Yes this was my initial though, but the clones on dodge and retaliation on blocks is amazing for this, for shattering, and because you will be blocking a lot

Despite the prevailing opinion on Deceptive Evasion and Sharper Images, I’d still encourage you to try out the Domination Traits at least once or twice.

With the proper combination of resources, you can effectively double the duration of your conditions, including burning, bleeding, cripple, confusion, blind, vulnerability, etc. (Basically anything with the red background icon, so not stun or daze)

x 2 Mad King (10)
x 2 Lyssa (10)
x2 Giver Weapon (20)
20 Domination Trait (20)
Rare Veggie Pizza / Garlic Kale Sautee / Koi Cakes (40)

It’s an argument of quality over quantity. Yes, you would sacrifice illusion bleed on crit, but the other conditions you apply could improve drastically. The AoE burn from the Prestige would become a 6 second burn instead of a 3 second burn. 7 seconds of bleeding from Winds of Chaos would become 14 seconds. Even the crappy Phantasmal Mage’s Confusion would become 6 seconds instead of 3, and it would also cure conditions with its bounce. (You could potentially increase the Mage and Warlock’s rate of fire by taking the Illusions X trait instead of Illusions V, since you’ll already have plenty of condition duration.)

More duration means more ticks, which means more damage. Cleansing Conflagrations (Domination IX) would also mean that you could use The Prestige more often. (24 second cool down, reduced from 30 seconds)

As of the patch last month, Condition Duration supposedly also applies to your illusions now, so your staff clones will also benefit from your extended condition duration. (2 second burn, 14 second bleed, 10 second vulnerability – when you have 100% Condition Duration)

Just because things have been a certain way in the past because X person made Y video months ago doesn’t mean that new ideas are inherently flawed, especially in light of recent mechanic changes.

@Sinaya: You are being purposefully misleading with your numbers. Changing 20 dueling traits to domination will provide a 20% boost in condition duration. That is completely separate from the runeset and food. The 20% boost is nowhere near being worth losing nearly 50% of your bleeding output and more or less unlimited clones.

If the build is built around being able to stealth often to take advantage of Prismatic Understanding, isn’t at least the reduced cool down of The Prestige worth considering, especially coupled with Condition removal, which the build currently lacks?

I was trying to outline the potential of Condition Duration, since the current suggestions don’t really seem to implement it as much as it could be utilized. (Aside from Bleeding)

Runes and food aside, the comparison of the two:

20 Domination – (V, IX)
+ 200 Power
+ 20% Condition Duration
+ Inflict 5 seconds of Vulnerability when you interrupt a foe
+ Dazing a foe also applies 5 stacks of Vulnerability
+ Clones cripple nearby foes when killed (Trait V)
+ 20% Faster Cool down on Torch Skills, Torch Skills Cure Conditions (Trait IX)

20 Dueling – (III, X)
+ 200 Precision (Roughly 10% Critical Chance)
+ 20% Critical Damage
+ Gain 5 seconds of Vigor on delivering a critical hit. This effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds.
+ Illusions inflict bleeding on critical hits.
+ Gain 3 seconds of retaliation when you block an attack. (Trait III)
+ Create a clone at your current position when you dodge. (Trait X)

I understand how Dueling III is definitely worthwhile since between Aegis procs and Scepter II, a lot of blocking will happen.

That said, the build currently lacks Power, so its retaliation wouldn’t be as potent as if the build were running say, Soldier’s Gear or even Carrion gear or something. It has Precision because of the Rabid gear, but there isn’t much Power or Critical Damage for Critical hits to increase. Mostly the Precision is for Sharper Images and Critical Infusion, from what I can tell. Removing those traits removes most of the need for the extra Precision provided by Dueling.

I guess I’m thinking about the build from a different gear perspective, which is where the problem lies. Another benefit of Rabid gear is thakittens Toughness is shared with Illusions, whereas the Vitality on Carrion gear would not be. (But it seems to me that Clones are so fragile now anyway that the Toughness they gain is kind of negligible.)

The original poster asked for Rune suggestions, so I provided some, combined with an alternative spec that could help capitalize on the benefits of the Rune setup I provided. I wouldn’t say that I’m being purposefully misleading. None of the information I offered was false to my knowledge, and I didn’t say that it was the best setup in every situation. I was simply suggesting another option that some players might fight more suitable to their play style.