Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been going through build tweaks like crazy trying to find one that feels right… but to be honest, none of them really feel wrong, haha. They’re all fun and I am loving my Mesmer (level 63 so far).

I hadn’t used a Focus off hand since the single digits levels (for some reason, I got it into my head that it sucked, lol) but decided to check it out again… seems like the Warden is decent enough to make up for Curtain’s highly situational use (don’t get me wrong, it has it’s awesome moments).

Warden seems to do a bit more damage than Duelist does as far as direct damage goes, but I don’t get as many bleed stacks somehow.

In any case… if anyone was interested in checking out the build I threw together and offering their spin, I’d appreciate it. I am mostly doing PvE at the moment, but intend to casually do WvW and other PvP too once I hit 80 (yes, I know the scaling and equalizations/etc).

Thanks in advance!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgUQNAW8dlwzqqnUzoGgOJxZGRf5oUg9sTqgqLfg3A

—Vorago

If you are using I.Warden a lot for dmg, trade in the Illusions “+1 Bounce to Bouncing Attacks” for Phantasmal Haste.

MLieBennett.9031:

If you are using I.Warden a lot for dmg, trade in the Illusions “+1 Bounce to Bouncing Attacks” for Phantasmal Haste.

I was wondering about that… but thought I might get a more even spread of capability by keeping the Elasticity for when I switch to Staff in combat, but perhaps not.

Thanks for the suggestion, I will definitely be trying it out.

…never mind. Too annoying to deal with completely stationary Warden. :-P

lol that didn’t take long.

I find warden really shines when dealing with ranged.

If there is some dude plinking me with arrows i toss a warden on them and they no longer do damage and slowly die while i deal with everything else. Plus ranged attacks in pve are usually stationary so it works perfectly

Its like a long term feedback.

Haha, yeah, I gave up quickly. When it works out, it’s great… but in dungeons, word events, etc etc the mobs either run around or get pulled around and then my Warden just becomes an awkward guy… dancing in the corner alone… so alone.

I know the feeling when the monster gets away from the I.Warden.

Leap→I.Warden→Swap to chain the enemy in place for a few seconds next to the I.Warden is one option to get a bit out of him.

The other is to sacrifice a little damage, run over to where the I.Warden is dancing around, and spawn I.Warlock and Staff Clone in his little effect. He’ll protect them and you from any Ranged attacks, so its not a total loss. Besides, dropping a Light or Ethereal Field on him is always nice, either throwing around Confusion or clearing Conditions.

When the CD on the I.Warden is cleared, Shatter and try again in hopes the target isn’t pulled around.

Yeah. it’s true that I lack patience for this sort of thing… and I may need to muster up a bit more.

Staff, for me, is a given… I like it, it’s fun… seems good. The second set is something I am struggling to figure out. At this stage, I don’t necessarily need to milk out every last point of damage possible but I cannot seem to feel settled on anything.

I really like scepter, but it does suck when you destroy your own clones for free (no shatter or killed benefit). So that means sword. Ok, not a big deal… sword is fun even if I feel lazy for a few seconds if I am stuck on cooldown and forced into range. On the other hand, Scepter 3 is so cool for confusion and laser beams, lol. XD

I like the idea of condition builds, seems to feel like more of a fit w/ my Mesmer mentality. I’m not stuck on it and a pure damage build would be cool too, I suppose.

Anyway… just ranting a bit, guess I am back to the drawing board.

Maybe something like this would be decent:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNAsaWlwzipXUzpGZNJhpH9O4I/sAUKue2Lfg3A;TsAg0CnoQygkAJLSOkkItKYQx8DA

For sPVP its little too less to have 18k hp and 2,1k armor. At least get ~20-22k hp. If you want use sword for shortrange weapon you probably don’t need to use illusionary elasticity (at least its my opinion – I just think its useful only if you can have additional bounce to enemy when facing 1v1 (enemy-you-enemy), when it comes to hit 1 more random enemy it’s a bit poor – you are not specced with condition dmg.).

+ forget about fighting as melee in WvW. Take GS or scepter/p (scepter/f) instead of s/p

At the moment I am a bit more PvE minded, but I will definitely keep those comments in mind when I do more PvP type stuff. Thanks.

I’ve pretty much always gone staff + sw/focus, couldnt see it any other way. I love all the tools it gives me and the synergy is tremendous.

You don’t worry too much about the Warden being stationary once in play?

iWarden has a learning curve. There are basically three factors that make iWarden effective, and you need at least 2 of them for iWarden to be really worthwhile:

1. Into the Void to yank the target into the iWarden. Into the Void is very consistent in the way it pulls, and if you can master it, you can use it very reliably on a single target very quickly.

2. Sword3. Cripple + Immobilize will lock a target in the iWarden’s AOE for a good bit.

3. Warden’s Feedback. Abusing this trait doesn’t require the [projectile-using] target to be on top of the iWarden. You can just re-position yourself. Easy.

There are a couple other things that help as well — Blinding a target and letting the iWarden get aggro anyways (target get nailed by the full attack, but doesn’t kill the iWarden due to Blind), giving the iWarden Aegis with Chaos Storm, but those are all pretty fringe. You can get a ton of mileage out of the 3 things I listed above.

EasymodeX.4062:

iWarden has a learning curve…

So maybe I ought to focus more on getting decent with the Warden and less on changing trait specs seven times a day, lol.

Thanks… I appreciate the post.

And iWarden is great to kill couple of monsters at once. Focus is probably best for solo exp/farming. Put down iWarden, blurred frenzy, switch to staff, chaos storm and attack till everything is dead (+chaos shield and other Staff spells).

I feel your pain about the warden, man. So bad that I started a mesmer yet again and started with focus from the beginning. Believe me, if you stick to it, and practice in areas with lots of targets where you can intentionally swamp yourself, you will get better at it. There is no shame in dying in your practice area, you can only get better if you persist.

The only thing is, whenever I use Into the Void, I kinda feel guilty for pulling the enemies from everyone …

E: If you go into the mists and go to the area that has lots of practice golems, you can nicely test what Into the Void does in relation to its placement (middle of a group, to a side of a group, how far will it pull).

Lol, yeah when I [seriously] try to learn a new build or weapon, I force myself to stick with it for at least 8 game hours. Mesmer’s too timing-intensive for anything less.

i just recently switched from a staff+scepter/torch confusion build to a staff+sword/focus phantasm DPS/dungeon support build, and i love it. so many technical tricks to pull off.

especially with iWarden. that little ball of fun seems to be able to do anything…except chase the target :P but all i do is PVE, so it’s less of a problem than against other human beings.

plus, yeah, Into the Void. magic.

try this on for size; iWarden with Temporal Curtain and Chaos Storm dropped right down on top of him. projectile reflection, condition removal, AEGIS, and whatever other goodies you get from CS.

people will want to stay inside that area so long you could charge RENT.

You guys have convinced me… I’m going to suck it up and stick it out a while and see what happens.

Just curious: What stats are you guys stacking as Staff & Sword/Focus? Power? Condo damage? Precision? Crit%?

Rampager’s Gear here at the moment, so thats Power, Precision, and Condition Dmg.

I try to keep my Crit Rate around 50%, Condition Dmg as high as I can, Power at a decent amount, then throw anything left in Vitality that I can spare. Crit% is simply a waste of a stat slot for me with this setup, (G.Sword + Off-hand Sword in a Power Build would be a different story where its Condition Dmg thats mostly useless.)

Precision is just always nice. Its even better with Sharper Images to let Clones bleed when they crit.
Condition Dmg makes said Clones actually painful, whether it be the Sword Clones stacking Vulnerability and Bleeds at a rather high rate or Staff Clones passing out Random Conditions to enemies constantly.
Power is for Shattering and tagging.

It ends up leaning more towards Glass Cannon for me, meaning skills lean towards Decoy for breathing room, Feedback for Anti-ranged, and Mantra of Resolve so I don’t get stuck and killed by Cripple and Immobilize. Further, traits go with Clone and Random Condition on Clone Death to keep from reaching me too fast, Phantasmal Haste for the I.Warden for a Cast and Forget on a ranged mob. Dodge Clones for clone generation, and for Clone Death triggers when I dodge away from a nasty attack. Sword Training for 8 second Blurred Frenzy and about 7 second Leap Clone + Swap to combo together.

6x Superior Runes of the Centaur + Temporal Curtain means easier Kiting, especially if I try to circle around my I.Warden when he is up, when facing group. As I can’t really stand in one with these stats for the basic swing without dieing. I tend to rely on swapping with the Elite Clone, hit Blurred Frenzy, and bolt from crowds.

Solo kills are easy. Just pin the poor enemy between you and the I.Warden, and release a few Sword Clones. If its a Veteran, just time your Blurred Frenzy with the Veteran’s big attacks. Champions act more like dealing with a group, with hit and run tactics.

I do find myself hiding behind walls or using cover quite a bit, waiting on my Heal CD at times. I still contributing to fights using Phantasms or creating Clones/Shatters, while waiting it out. Eh, its what happens when you don’t focus on Toughness, Vitality, or Healing as one of your big three. I’m still playing around with my stats to find a nice balance that fits me.

I read this earlier after thinking it would be awfully nice to have the focus wall in wvw, and after trying it a (very) little bit, I just can’t dig focus. I did, however, find that I rather do like sword/torch. It might work better pve than pvp but I play it kinda like a burst class using the clones/leap/whirl/invis. I kinda doubt it would be effective in pvp on full hp targets but I can see it being not to shabby on ones that have been softened up.

Ok, so after a night of practicing in an area with lots of mobs (Arathi Hinterlands) I think I’m starting to get the hang of it. I won’t claim to be great at perfect positioning of Curtain while fighting things, but I’m getting there…

There idea of pairing up Warden with Leap’s root works well.

The only issue that seems annoying and not something I can overcome is that about ~20% of the time, Warden is summoned behind the NPC so I cannot be behind him. There seems to be some range where the game decides, “Instead of making him appear and run to the NPC, he is now a Rogue and will simple appear behind.”