Guild Wars 2

Xaylin.1860:

I think you might be having a wrong idea here. It is a PvP build. Not PvE. Interrupts aren’t that great in PvE, especially against bosses since many are immun to it.

When constantly swapping weapons, you should be able to maintain 9 stacks of might which will require 3 weapon swaps (20s might duration on swap +50% duration).

yes its not pve build, i just try to compare the applying of vulnerability with might stacks and therefor the runesetup for my armor (max boon duration or not).

Just tested it all day with several weaponsets and some minor changes.
S/S + GS, S/S + Staff, S/P + Staff, even Staff + GS.

After a while you get the “flow” and stacking might is easy. It’s a really nice build, the only problem I see (or should I say don’t see?) is that there are no real advantages compared to 20/20/0/0/30 (with halting strike). Overall damage is about the same, only difference is that with 30 in Illusions and Illusionary Persona you can burst much more often. Using sigills of battle, runes of hoelbrak and shattered strength combined with Illusionary Elasticity and greatsword, you’ll also get many mightstacks without relying on interrupts and having “slower” shatter bursts.

I won’t say it isn’t viable, because it definately is at some point. It’s just that standard shatter (+halting strike) is so much faster with 30% reduced shatter CDs. Plus, with some mightstacks and IP + HS, the damage is probably still slightly better. Somebody should do the maths here.

tetrodoxin.2134:

Just tested it all day with several weaponsets and some minor changes.
S/S + GS, S/S + Staff, S/P + Staff, even Staff + GS.

After a while you get the “flow” and stacking might is easy. It’s a really nice build, the only problem I see (or should I say don’t see?) is that there are no real advantages compared to 20/20/0/0/30 (with halting strike). Overall damage is about the same, only difference is that with 30 in Illusions and Illusionary Persona you can burst much more often. Using sigills of battle, runes of hoelbrak and shattered strength combined with Illusionary Elasticity and greatsword, you’ll also get many mightstacks without relying on interrupts and having “slower” shatter bursts.

I won’t say it isn’t viable, because it definately is at some point. It’s just that standard shatter (+halting strike) is so much faster with 30% reduced shatter CDs. Plus, with some mightstacks and IP + HS, the damage is probably still slightly better. Somebody should do the maths here.

The main problem is that you dont have the 30% boon duration which is essential for this build…also i think the biggest problem is that you dont have bountiful interruption which gives you 5 mights stacks for like 13 seconds which is HUGE! imagine u interrupt two enemies with gs would be 10 might stacks for 13 seconds…therefore you can keep up the might stacks way easier than with 20 20 0 0 30

also you dont get the random boon from bountiful interruption which is also nice to share with your team

hardloop von edgehoven.8512:

Xaylin.1860:

I think you might be having a wrong idea here. It is a PvP build. Not PvE. Interrupts aren’t that great in PvE, especially against bosses since many are immun to it.

When constantly swapping weapons, you should be able to maintain 9 stacks of might which will require 3 weapon swaps (20s might duration on swap +50% duration).

i guess 875 power for 25 stack is around 25% damage boost? or is it more?

yes its not pve build, i just try to compare the applying of vulnerability with might stacks and therefor the runesetup for my armor (max boon duration or not).

you also get 25 vuln stacks easily on your target because of the interrupts… so you have an average of 15 might stacks on you plus 25 vuln stacks on the enemy..which is huge!

updated the build in the build link

Change to GS is actually really nice. Haven’t done much testing with it yet, but have seen the benefits immediately. Will test it out some more in the next few days.

As I said, it’s not that hard to get ~15 might stacks with the build I described. I mean sure, you can get even more stacks with BI and have 30% longer buff duration, but at the same time your shatter skills have 30% longer cooldown. That’s 4 seconds for Mind Wrack and even more than 10 seconds for Diversion. You may have the might stacks, but not the tools to deliver the damage sometimes, that’s what I’m saying. In addition to that, the damage coming from IP is also missing.

I don’t think this build is bad at all, I really enjoyed playing it. Group support with BI + Signet of Inspiration is fantastic. This build has its strength in midfights when 2v2 or even 3v3 people are fighting each other, you said that and it’s absolutely true.
Still, for bursting and damage dealing, I think “traditional” shatter is more effective at the moment. I’m hoping for some buffs to Chaotic Interruption, I really like that trait but it should be more effective somehow (duration, maybe?). Or Imbued Diversion moved down to master tier, so we could try 0/20/30/0/20 for massive crowd control (Imbued Diversion + Chaotic Interruption + Bountiful Interruption + Chaos Storm + Into the Void would be insanely funny)

yea i miss those shatters but actually u depend on both shatter and phantasms so your main idea is not to only shatter

Was messing with signet of domination? Improved condition and when you hit it you get 3 second stun, thought of this build you tried out.

Used this with pistol for 5 seconds of stun, it was kind of OP 1v1.

I was using a phantasm build at the moment, I may try this build, but why wouldn’t you put that signet in?

Divinity.8041:

Was messing with signet of domination? Improved condition and when you hit it you get 3 second stun, thought of this build you tried out.

Used this with pistol for 5 seconds of stun, it was kind of OP 1v1.

I was using a phantasm build at the moment, I may try this build, but why wouldn’t you put that signet in?

Because signet of inspiration is actually good for tpvp to share all the boons you get with your team and aswell as supply you with your own boons in itself i kinda like it because sometimes.. that aegis proc saves my kitten more times than not and signet of dom would be good if you didnt want to share boons with ur team you could swap it out for a more selfless roaming build but.. hey thats up to you :o

Lordryux.9785:

Divinity.8041:

Was messing with signet of domination? Improved condition and when you hit it you get 3 second stun, thought of this build you tried out.

Used this with pistol for 5 seconds of stun, it was kind of OP 1v1.

I was using a phantasm build at the moment, I may try this build, but why wouldn’t you put that signet in?

Because signet of inspiration is actually good for tpvp to share all the boons you get with your team and aswell as supply you with your own boons in itself i kinda like it because sometimes.. that aegis proc saves my kitten more times than not and signet of dom would be good if you didnt want to share boons with ur team you could swap it out for a more selfless roaming build but.. hey thats up to you :o

Oh yeah…I was using both signets, I sort of run inspiration in every build now, it is just a really great signet. People complain about a 3 sec stun from warriors? We have it instant cast + 180 to condition damage. I really like these two signets, and use those 2 and decoy as my three utilities at the moment on my phantasm build. I might actually try the stun on my shatter build too.

well i usually play nullfield in this current meta since most of the enemies have stability and you get spammed by condis a lot so its awesome

When used optimally, BI can be pretty powerful. Into the Void works nicely with it as does Imbued Diversion. A 0/20/20/0/30 with sword/focus + scepter/sword could work there with along with Mantra of Distraction to maximize your intterupt capability. You’d want to spam Diversion as much as possible. Signet of Inspiration and Decoy might work for secondary utilities, but this (as always) leaves you with little cleanse capability.

Granted, that makes for a possible low synergy build and Imbued Diversion is not always useful in a tpvp. This, of course, pushes those skill points up to Halting Strike, Chaotic Interruption, and 10 points leftover likely going into Domination to get Dazzling and Shattered Concentration.

glad you take your time to test it for yourself

Hey Sensotix, really loving this build. I’m having a lot of fun with the build and think it’s great. I’ve only played it in hotjoin though, so I’m unsure of how it will truly fare in tPvP, particularly Solo Arena, which is where I usually play the most. Do you have any idea of how well it puts up in the Solo Arena environment over an extended time?

Also, have you played around with Lyssa runes, along with Staff instead of sw/sw or sw/p? You end up having one less sure fire interrupt in exchange for a random interrupt from chaos storm, but you also gain plenty of support and boons from chaos storm, along with Lyssa Runes’ added elite effect. I personally use Mass Invis which can be played offensively or defensively, gives you every boon, and then use Signet of Inspiration to copy every boon to teammates. I’ve only played a couple games with this setup, but it has worked wonders. It’s a shorter duration on might stacks, but I’ve found I don’t really need them to last for too long before a fight is over or decided, and it isn’t difficult to get them back up again anyways. Plus you’re receiving plenty of other boons from staff.

I haven’t quite decided on halting strike or empowered illusions however.

Here’s the actual build I’ve tweaked it to.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQJARWlwzCoHTzmGb9IipH9mvJckUoapWJF42FC-ToAg0CnIKSVkrITRyisFNEZFB

Edit: Forgot to post build.

i would not use staff because the boons are just toooo short and about lyssa runes..same problem…boon duration is just way too short so what you want to do with this build is to mainly stack might therefore i would play gs for mirror blade and the nice aoe interrupt its awesome!
and glad you enjoy it!

have you tried confounding suggestions

50% chance on daze for a 1 sec stun

Divinity.8041:

have you tried confounding suggestions

50% chance on daze for a 1 sec stun

Chaotic Interruption is pretty much the same thing. A daze and an immobilize simulate the same effect as a stun and it is more guaranteed.

This is an awesome build, I’ll be sure to try it next time I’m on. Currently using a confusion build I made up based on 100% projectile finisher pistol thing I learnt from you. Great videos also, keep it up!

thanks a lot dude more to come!

Dirame.8521:

Divinity.8041:

have you tried confounding suggestions

50% chance on daze for a 1 sec stun

Chaotic Interruption is pretty much the same thing. A daze and an immobilize simulate the same effect as a stun and it is more guaranteed.

Using BI and CI in this build is really nice – they have great synergy with each other. I use the same setup in my chillruption condition build.

To clarify, CI procs on interrupt, not daze. Daze is obviously one of our best ways to proc an interrupt but it’s important to make that distinction.

Also confounding suggestions is good, but IMO a bit overrated. It’s very effective for 1v1 lockdown builds, but you have to daze your opponent for the potential stun proc (chaos storm goodness). Even then, to counter this, aware opponents can choose to wait out the typical short daze duration. To interrupt, we have daze and pushes/pulls on top of that. If they changed CS so it works like CI (stun on interrupt), it would be killer and much more worth taking. With the 50% proc chance, I don’t think it would be OP either.

Fantastic idea, thanks for this build.

I’m using a variation in WvW and it really works well.

I use sword/pistol and staff. I have high direct damage (for bursting/shatters and interrupt dmg) and decent condition damage, while still maintaining some good toughness. With high boon duration and condition duration, I can just pile up the boons and conditions throughout a fight. I often will finish a group fight in WvW with five or six boons on me, including 10+ stacks of might. It’s beautiful.

The signet of inspiration will often put up 3 boons at a time when I’m just standing around due to their extended duration, it saves my bacon regularly, and my hybrid damage output is scary. I feel survivable, effective, and useful to those around me… it’s really nice.

I’m having a ton of fun with it…it’s going to be really hard to choose my utilities once we’ve got even more support options with our mantras.

Thanks again for the new direction, and something I hadn’t considered.

Gave a BI + CI, GS build a try last night. I tried GS + Staff and then switched to GS + Sw/T with BI + PU. The GS + Staff with BI + CI was superior rather than the BI + PU hybrid. Neither worked as well as my current PU build. Clone spam + DD + PU gives you a ton of survivability and traited Duelist + ethereal field is unstoppable (EXCEPT verse reflection mesmer…. sigh).

That said, the GS + Staff build with at least BI worked surprisingly well. I used Runes of Hoelbrak (Noble not in PVP yet), Sigils of Battle, and a Rabid amulet. I could see possibly going Zerk amulet with Soldier upgrade here as well. The problem with this build is that it’s highly dependent on iZerker hitting and intterupts going off.

In the end, my interrupts were simply not landing enough. Yes, I was timing them, but against high skilled players in tpvp you see so much stability, evasion, and tuned builds that low duration dazes were nearly useless. The only thing that seems to win is outlasting your opponent and providing high, sustained damge and team coordination.

as far as i have been playing this build in top 100 tpvp its quite easy to remove the stability from an enemy when using arcane thievery or when you have a necro with corrupt boon or a s/d thief in your group which 80% of the teams playing have so its extremely strong if you just step back and let your phantasms do the work while you help out your team with an awesome dmg boost

I’ve played rank tpvp recently and understand the level of play required. However, being in a casual tpvp guild can make it hard to find teammates sometimes so coordinating at the level you’re talking is typically not an option.

well grab some buddies and create some builds harmonating together start a tourny and then go to mid and wipe everything
the thief “just” has to press 333

Added the updated build video some of you have requested
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G1faqoShIU

I think this build can be modified to be a semi decent power build for WvW with Traveler runes with pistol maybe instead of Sw/Sw.

Big disadvantage with PU build is movement. Travelers solves that and you still get 15% boon duration instead of 20% might duration from Hoelbraks. Can do slightly better than PU in bigger zergs 20+.

that sounds like a nice idea and i am currently trying to get to rank 80 since a lot of people have requested that i do some wvw videos
maybe i will open up a thread for more experienced wvw players to see how they would modify my build for wvw

Sensotix.4106:

that sounds like a nice idea and i am currently trying to get to rank 80 since a lot of people have requested that i do some wvw videos
maybe i will open up a thread for more experienced wvw players to see how they would modify my build for wvw

Need to decide on a stat tho, since its WvW. Prolly Berserker’s as usual.

Good thing is, its the same 20/20/30/0/0 so basically you can switch to PU anytime with rabid gear.

Frega.9247:

I think this build can be modified to be a semi decent power build for WvW with Traveler runes with pistol maybe instead of Sw/Sw.

Big disadvantage with PU build is movement. Travelers solves that and you still get 15% boon duration instead of 20% might duration from Hoelbraks. Can do slightly better than PU in bigger zergs 20+.

That’s pretty much exactly what I’m doing. It works very well for WvW roaming / camp and point capture. I love the traveler runes.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8alwzCoXUTmGbNJipHEnvJcnKAdkKYalUgbXIA-jUCB4iAYLRmWIQkIwJPFRjtMsIasqFYqTER1eDFRrWKAYmDA-w

45% boon duration, 60% condition duration. When I switch to sword / pistol for burst, I’m at just over 50% crit and 70% crit damage. Often I’ll have multiple stacks of might and fury which bring the damage up even more. I went with a bit more defense by dipping into the Inspiration line to get a condition cure and some vitality. My toughness is quite respectable, especially when I switch to staff.

Signet of inspiration really makes a huge difference in survivability, and makes you everyone’s best friend in a small group.

EDIT: The 30-point trait in the chaos line is a very tough call. I’ve actually been using chaotic dampening…because a shorter cooldown on phase retreat and chaos storm is really really huge. I can definitely see using chaotic interruption, or even prismatic understanding for even more boon stacking.

yep i will try it out in wvw once i am rank 80 and then i will provide you guys with a wvw build

Are you guys finding GS more viable in this build than staff?

GS #5 is a more reliable interrupt than Staff #5, but the overall team-support that staff adds seems way more valuable compared to what the GS can bring.

The GS seems good for 1v1ing and roaming, but in the current pvp scene, I generally think mesmers are better suited for the team support they can bring, which is something I think Sensotix’s build has been able to emphasize better than anything before with the might stacking/spreading and the interrupts/lockdown mechanic of the build.

I mainly prefer the staff due to chaos armor and chaos storm. Chaos armor will provide you with plenty of boons, with the 30% boon duration, to spread to your team, as well as spread conditions to anyone specifically focusing you. Chaos storm provides an aoe boon/condition applier, as well as an interrupt, and it is an ethereal combo field. The combo field is what really sells it for me, since it sets up combos for the team and applies chaos armor to them as well, giving them a boon/condition applier anytime they are attacked.

With staff you can still get plenty of might stacks, and you get the added boons and support that staff usually brings. The only things is the boons are a bit short, but with the 30% duration, they should last plenty long enough for any team fight, plus you can always reapply rather quickly depending on your traits.

i think its personal preference actually i decided to go with greatsword because of the cd reduction of blink and stuff like that but if you feel more confident with staff sure! play staff
i will switch staff and gs from time to time depending on which team we are facing

please vote for this build on the monthly build contest

@Sensotix
What do you think about changing this into a condition build and using rune of perplexity since it’s already focused on so much interrupts?

I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Having great Power DPS is good. If you add passive confusion it is great, but the next patch will have icd on 6/6 perplexity runes. It will probably be around 5-10 seconds of cd. maybe more. I personally would think this will be a bad idea since it is not consistent anymore. Better to have actual condition weapons sets I should think.

I don’t think that’s a good idea since you are most likely to use gs which doesn’t really help you if you are playing a condi build but I know what you mean:)

what is it that I m not seeing here?! The only interrupt I recognize comes from GS #5.

Greatsword #5, Sword #4, and Diversion [F3]. Since sword 4 is on a low cooldown and hits multiple targets, it can land some really nice boons.

Hey Sensotix, did you see the reviews/results for the BoTM contest?

Mpiftekis.1529:

what is it that I m not seeing here?! The only interrupt I recognize comes from GS #5.

chaos already said it

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Greatsword #5, Sword #4, and Diversion [F3]. Since sword 4 is on a low cooldown and hits multiple targets, it can land some really nice boons.

Hey Sensotix, did you see the reviews/results for the BoTM contest?

ah no i must have missed them

Almost won the contest if not for popular vote. Congratz

———————————————————————————————————
Stage 2 results finalized
———————————————————————————————————
Sensotix Bountiful Interruption TPvP/WvW Build
Link to build thread
Current score: 17
ORB test results: 6+8+3.5
Final score: 34.5
———————————————————————————————————
Kaamau Evasive Signets WvW Build
Link to build thread
Current score: 13
ORB test results: 7+4+2
Final score: 26
———————————————————————————————————
Natsu Blackwater Build
Link to build thread
Current score: 22
ORB test results: 9+7+1.5
Final score: 39.5

(Chaos Archangel)
SENSOTIX’S BOUNTIFUL INTERRUPTION
Sensotix, real talk, I had my reservations about this build. It wasn’t that I didn’t think it was good, I knew it was good before even picking it up, but it was because of how you had seemed to contradict yourself with it’s conception. When I had first published Mind Crush (though it was still conceptual at the time) -even though I specifically mentioned that the build would take a few days to really grasp since the style was so different and lockdown builds weren’t really explored- you had tried it for about an hour before detailing it as unviable because of Arcane Thievery not being enough condition removal, lack of Illusionary Persona (you said Decoy mitigated the need for IP, but didn’t have Decoy in this build either), and the fact that it was missing either Portal or Illusion of Life.

Then, lo’ and behold, Sensotix’s Bountiful Interruption build appears! Complete with everything you said wouldn’t work.

So my first reaction was, of course “Wow, this guy … -_-” since the build seemed rather derivative from concepts skcamow and myself were working on. But I didn’t want to go into judging the build with such a jaded mindset because I wanted to be as fair and impartial as possible, so please keep that in mind for what I’m about to write…

This. Build. Rocks.

It rocks so hard dude. It was easy for me to pick up since it was similar to concepts I’ve explored before (boonshare, lockdown) and its trait distribution makes it a powerful phantasm build even without the boonshare/lockdown. But with it? Everything comes together so well that you could easily use this build in PvE or WvW (Great for small groups, terribad for Zergs though) even though it wasn’t made with those venues in mind. It was my favorite build to play of the bunch because I felt like I both did good damage AND was valuable to my team with my lockdown (definitely gained respect for Chaotic Interruption here) and boonshare (With this Warrior Meta, stealing their Elite Signet and giving it to my team is glorious). This build had actually got the highest score from the judges, but was beaten by popular vote. #Dat Democracy.

Only problem? Squishy as hell. Once you get focused, Greatsword doesn’t offer enough defense and untraited Blink isn’t enough of a disengage in many cases.

(Pyroathiest)
Bountiful Interruption
This build, although I’m highly biased against interrupt based builds, actually is pretty good. It has the best damage of the 3 builds, and so is the most effective in PvE because of it. In PvP, it does really well with aoe control and boon support for the party, while supplying pretty strong damage. The greatsword knockback combined with chaotic interruption actually provides some interestingly strong utility for decapping points. In WvW, it does quite well in small fights, but any strong solo roaming build will eat it, and it loses effectiveness in zerg fights due to it’s fragility and lack of strong aoe damage at range.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Almost won the contest if not for popular vote. Congratz

———————————————————————————————————
Stage 2 results finalized
———————————————————————————————————
Sensotix Bountiful Interruption TPvP/WvW Build
Link to build thread
Current score: 17
ORB test results: 6+8+3.5
Final score: 34.5
———————————————————————————————————
Kaamau Evasive Signets WvW Build
Link to build thread
Current score: 13
ORB test results: 7+4+2
Final score: 26
———————————————————————————————————
Natsu Blackwater Build
Link to build thread
Current score: 22
ORB test results: 9+7+1.5
Final score: 39.5

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(Chaos Archangel)
SENSOTIX’S BOUNTIFUL INTERRUPTION
Sensotix, real talk, I had my reservations about this build. It wasn’t that I didn’t think it was good, I knew it was good before even picking it up, but it was because of how you had seemed to contradict yourself with it’s conception. When I had first published Mind Crush (though it was still conceptual at the time) -even though I specifically mentioned that the build would take a few days to really grasp since the style was so different and lockdown builds weren’t really explored- you had tried it for about an hour before detailing it as unviable because of Arcane Thievery not being enough condition removal, lack of Illusionary Persona (you said Decoy mitigated the need for IP, but didn’t have Decoy in this build either), and the fact that it was missing either Portal or Illusion of Life.

Then, lo’ and behold, Sensotix’s Bountiful Interruption build appears! Complete with everything you said wouldn’t work.

So my first reaction was, of course “Wow, this guy … -_-” since the build seemed rather derivative from concepts skcamow and myself were working on. But I didn’t want to go into judging the build with such a jaded mindset because I wanted to be as fair and impartial as possible, so please keep that in mind for what I’m about to write…

This. Build. Rocks.

It rocks so hard dude. It was easy for me to pick up since it was similar to concepts I’ve explored before (boonshare, lockdown) and its trait distribution makes it a powerful phantasm build even without the boonshare/lockdown. But with it? Everything comes together so well that you could easily use this build in PvE or WvW (Great for small groups, terribad for Zergs though) even though it wasn’t made with those venues in mind. It was my favorite build to play of the bunch because I felt like I both did good damage AND was valuable to my team with my lockdown (definitely gained respect for Chaotic Interruption here) and boonshare (With this Warrior Meta, stealing their Elite Signet and giving it to my team is glorious). This build had actually got the highest score from the judges, but was beaten by popular vote. #Dat Democracy.

Only problem? Squishy as hell. Once you get focused, Greatsword doesn’t offer enough defense and untraited Blink isn’t enough of a disengage in many cases.

---

(Pyroathiest)
Bountiful Interruption
This build, although I’m highly biased against interrupt based builds, actually is pretty good. It has the best damage of the 3 builds, and so is the most effective in PvE because of it. In PvP, it does really well with aoe control and boon support for the party, while supplying pretty strong damage. The greatsword knockback combined with chaotic interruption actually provides some interestingly strong utility for decapping points. In WvW, it does quite well in small fights, but any strong solo roaming build will eat it, and it loses effectiveness in zerg fights due to it’s fragility and lack of strong aoe damage at range.

Thanks a lot for the info
glad that it got some votes and that people had a good time with it
i think once the condi meta goes back it will see plays in high end tpvp