Guild Wars 2

Hey all. Here is the build I have been running around with for a while, and since I liked it so much, I’ll share it here with you. Good for roaming as a lone wolf, but can adapt to run with a pack.

Now first off, I want to say I like being versatile and staying alive, so while my build may not be optimal for everything, it can switch up to do what you need quite well in most situations with plenty of staying power. It’s best for roaming/small group combat in wvw. So, the build link has the set I most commonly run with in wvw since that is where I use it most, but I play this build in both wvw and pve/dungeons, and constantly switch my weapons, ultilities, and major traits around to suit my current need. I’ll explain those as I go. I have mostly exotics with some rares right now and working on the ascended stuff.

Now, to set the frame, here is the build foundation (updated 7/3/13):
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.2|b.1h.h19.f.1b.h1j|c.1g.h14.c.1n.h1|1n.73.1n.73.1c.73.1n.73.1c.73.1n.73|411.d1g.1n.61.1n.61.3t.d19.1j.61.8i.61|0.k4a.u34c.k4a.0|15.7|32.3d.34.38.3o|e

Gear:
Armor: Coat/Pants: Soldiers, Rest: Knights
Trinkets: Amulet: Celestial, Rings: Knights, Back/Acc: Berserkers
Jewels: All Valkyrie
Runes: Centaur

Weapons:
MH sword: Berserkers w/ Air
OH Sword: Knights w/ Accuracy
Scepter: Carrion w/ Generosity
Torch: Rabid w/ Energy
Focus: Knights w/ Energy
GS: Berserkers w/ Fire
Staff: Rabid w/ Energy
(Backup sword and GS w/ Bloodlust)

Consumables:
Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew
Maintenance Oil

Traits:
0/20(IV, X)/30(III,IV, XII)/20(IV,X)/0

Tactics:
Now my playstyle changes up depending on the situation and weapons/utilities I bring, but here are the general tactics and breakdown. First, I only shatter occasionally in this build. I used to run a condition/confusion shatter build, but as I started to become more defensive and put more pieces into this build, I shattered less and kept taking points out of Illusions. This is the main reason I run cond dmg stuff on my scepter torch, and staff. It seems to add a lot more than a little extra power when you don’t MW. I find that most of my phantasms (f-u iMage) hit pretty hard and have great other uses as well (swordsmen are great harassers and proc leaps, wardens are great safe zones and whirl, and zerkers harass, cripple, and whirl). Still, you can shatter when you want in this build, and I do shatter moderately in some situations.

I also love swiftness in and out of combat, which is why I chose centaur runes. It really helps when using stealth and when using a shatter to help my illusions get to the target before they can dodge. Generally, I try to stay very mobile and not get targeted. This is why I carry so many target drops, AOE swiftness, and Blink while my swordsmen pound them, and I hit their backs. It really confuses most players, and mobs are too dumb to adapt. Passive tough and vit are icing to that effect and help quite a bit when I slip up, which is often (not the best player here, but adequate enough to have a lot fun in wvw and dungeons with this build).

I also started using lemongrass poultry soup when I know I am up against high condition builds, but this isn’t necessary in most situations when using MoRec with Mender’s Purity and/or null field.

Weapons

Swords: I love swords in this build. MH sword offers plenty of damage, utility and defense, and paired with a OH sword you get even more damage, clones, and defense, plus the phantasm harasses and hits hard. You can be offensive or defensive with this set. What’s not to like? I also put a sigil of accuracy on my OH sword for extra to keep up maximum vigor for dodging/clones. I go here for boon removals, too.

Scepter: Oh boy. This weapon was hard to get used to and even now it’s not my first choice. But, its getting to the point where taking it makes getting a 2nd OH worth it, and I was getting bored of staff. The key to making this weapon bearable is timing #2 and landing #3, which is why I like to pair it with torch. Coming out of invis in a blaze of fire or blinking on top of someone’s head is a great way to make even good players expend their dodges/escapes. That is when you unload Confusing Images. I can usually get the full channel or close enough. This works ESPECIALLY well in small groups or zergs when there are other distractions around, but good in solo, too. Too bad the auto still sucks. At least it gives decent shatter fodder and synergy with chaos and illusion traits for keeping max illusions. Sometimes I run Debilitating Dissipation, too if they start dying too quick.

Torch: Yeah, I only pick this for The Prestige. It’s a great target drop that has some extra utility/damage attached. The blind actually helps to keep my clones alive and the invis on decent CD is perfect setup for scepter #3. Oh yeah, it’s awesome for staying alive, too. iMage still sucks, but I can live with it, especially since it gives me retaliation and tends to make players burn condition removal (another good time to use Confusing Images). Can’t wait ‘til they improve this guy.

Focus: I use the focus a fair bit in place of torch or OH sword. Maybe even more than torch, and half of the time in PVE. It’s just too much utility. Since I use Centaur runes, a focus means 100% swiftness for my entire team in and out of combat. Now I do switch up my build a little bit for the focus, since it is so awesome and has great synergy with MH sword. I usually pair it with the MH sword, pick up Warden’s Feedback and Ether Feast (drop RM), and put the OH sword with the scepter (or use staff or GS). I make heavy use of retaliation and reflect when running with a focus and can even do a rather light version of the Chaos’s boon storm if I put a staff in the OH and take SoI. https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-The-Chaos-Maestro-Boon-Support-Tank/first#post1472714 (Great build, BTW)
The build is just that versatile. Or maybe that’s just the focus.

GS: I usually take this for zerging, dungeons, and events. When I just need some good, ranged AOE DPS. ‘Nuff said here.

Staff: I ran staff in a condition/confusion build before trying the scepter and still love it for defense and the extra ethereal field. In some dungeon parts I still switch to it as a backup for my GS, or when I need to kite a boss while the team takes care of adds.

Utilities:
Decoy never leaves my bar. Blink only when I am in a dungeon or zerg, and my party needs more support/combo fields. Then I replace it with Signet of Inspiration or Null Field. Feeback gets switched around a lot; usually with Portal, Defender, Null Field, MoP, or Veil depending on my situation. Mass Invis usually gets swapped out in dungeons, events, and any group bigger than a small coordinated team.

Traits:
Dueling: Pretty stoked about these, and they never leave my bar unless I put down the swords. Which usually means my zerkers and warlocks get to play with more fury.

Chaos: These get switched around whenever I pick up a staff. Since my strategy means I almost always have 3 illusions out, I always have 9% damage redux, which is nice, and the extra tough and boon duration are icing. When I run with a staff, Chaotic Dampening is boss. If I take blink out, I usually put in Debilitation Dissipation for some extra D (weakness) or damage buff (vulnerability).

Inspiration: Love this line, and it got most of my points from Illusions. It’s just so versatile. Wish I had points for more (contemplating taking some out of chaos for 30 here). Mender’s Purity takes care of conditions very well, especially with the mantra heal, and RM makes MoR worth it, plus helps keep my teammates and fragile phantasms alive. Mantras also pair well with my stealth and warden giving me the safety to charge them. That said, RM and MoR get the boot any time I pick up my focus. WF is just too good. When Malicious Sorc bugs get fixed, they will probably go for good. I’ll also use Medic’s Feedback and Glamour traits a lot in zergs or dungeons. Did I mention I love the versatility in this line?

Well, there it is. As I said, it may not be the best at everything, but it’s a good, balanced build that can adapt and work well enough everywhere. I’d be grateful for any advice you can give to help me improve it.

PVE Variant

10(III)/20(IV, X)/10(IV)/25(IV,X)/5

In PVE I changed the traits around a bit to match the more strait forward style of PVE content. That said, I recommend the primary variant when dealing with difficult PVE content for the first few times to get a handle on it. Then you can switch to this variant once you become familiar with the area and mob patterns for some more DPS. The reason is because this build gives up a little bit of D and a slight bit of utility from staff that you might need when getting your feet wet. Note that I also almost never use torch in PVE, since it quite honestly sucks there. So focus, staff, and GS see much more action (and staff still performs just fine even without the trait). The return is that your phantasms do much more damage, and good sustained damage at that, without giving up much utility. Plus I also noticed that I tend to interrupt and daze a lot in PVE, so the chance to plant some extra vulnerability is nice. Other than that, the skill/trait strategies I outlined for the primary variant still apply.

I like it. Just a few tips though. You would do well to separate this build into pve and pvp versions. If you take 10 out of chaos and put it into inspiration, you’ll have a variant of my pve phantasm support build (https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Supporting-Phantasm-Build/first#post1465485) that I run everywhere in pve because it has so much versatility.

However, that modification is less viable in pvp, where tossing on a staff can be necessary, and running around charging mantras isn’t always viable. Alternatively, you could lock yourself a bit stronger into certain weapon sets by taking those 10 from chaos and putting them in domination for the 15% illusion damage, and 5 out of illusions for the 25 insp minor of another 15% phantasm damage. With that modification, your phantasms will hit like heavily loaded trucks, but limit you from using staff, and possibl greatsword.

I like it also, looks like the play style I’ve been leaning toward where I shatter less than I used to. I like Pyro’s suggestions as well. Here’s what I’m running at the moment, which is similar to his suggestions: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQRArf8dlwzaqXUTmGbNJyZGQ3yhWAJFq2rVSBudhA;TcAA1UGZMSYk1InRSjA
Yes I really have that much condition removal, just add lemongrass poultry soup and kitten in the face of angry mobs from enemy servers as they try to catch you in wvw. I really love the torch and focus as off hands because of all the great combos you can do with them with team mate’s fields not to mention the sword/focus retaliation. Can also switch out some utilities, I usually replace decoy, for other options on creating your own combo fields. I use full soldiers armor/runes of melandru and most of my weapons are soldiers as well. My accessories are a mix of knights with valkyrie jewels and a berserker amulet. With a bit of trait switching this build is very versatile for a variety of purposes.

@pyro:
Thanks. Sometimes I do change up a bit for PVE, but I was going for something could just hop from game mode to game mode here. Your suggestions definitely look good for most of the PVE content, and I’ll give them a whirl for times when I’m not to lazy to visit the trainer after a romp in wvw. Don’t want to go too far into phantasms while I’m running the torch, tho. Just doesn’t scale well with the mage, but CI is awesome with the +9% from Comp Power.

@Jalliel: Cool build. I like how you got the CD trait for torch in there. I was looking for a way to add it in mine w/o giving up too much defense and mobility.

Gaiawolf.8261:

@pyro:
Thanks. Sometimes I do change up a bit for PVE, but I was going for something could just hop from game mode to game mode here. Your suggestions definitely look good for most of the PVE content, and I’ll give them a whirl for times when I’m not to lazy to visit the trainer after a romp in wvw. Don’t want to go too far into phantasms while I’m running the torch, tho. Just doesn’t scale well with the mage, but CI is awesome with the +9% from Comp Power.

@Jalliel: Cool build. I like how you got the CD trait for torch in there. I was looking for a way to add it in mine w/o giving up too much defense and mobility.

Ah, yeah. I avoid the torch like the plague, simply because it is soooooo much worse than every single other offhand I use in all of my builds, so that is never really a consideration for me.

Torch definitely takes a certain kind of build, and more than that a certain playstyle, to make it good, but its key for that playstyle due to the target drop. But I’m finding new ways to use it all the time, including the synergies with scepter I listed in the build. Understandibly its not for most and takes some of practice. But hey, so did focus for me.

Great build Gaiawolf! This build covers a ton of ground and is really versatile. I love it. I’ll have to check out the life-steal food as I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. Good stuff man.

Grimms.9016:

Great build Gaiawolf! This build covers a ton of ground and is really versatile. I love it. I’ll have to check out the life-steal food as I haven’t had a chance to play with it yet. Good stuff man.

Lifesteal food can be pretty crazy in a high crit build, especially with the greatsword. I always have a stack on me in wvw, because the damage ignores defense. With high crit (and no cooldown on the proc) the greatsword autoattack can do really hefty damage to a supervisor with flames still up.

Gaiawolf.8261:

Torch definitely takes a certain kind of build, and more than that a certain playstyle, to make it good, but its key for that playstyle due to the target drop. But I’m finding new ways to use it all the time, including the synergies with scepter I listed in the build. Understandibly its not for most and takes some of practice. But hey, so did focus for me.

The problem for me with the torch is that you take it for one skill. The prestige is awesome. I wish I could have that skill. Unfortunately, I’m not willing to get saddled with a phantasm that simultaneously does objectively the least of any phantasm while having the longest cooldown.

The Prestige is not the only reason i run torch. Well not the stealth part anyway. An Aoe blind, when im in my condition build, is an aoe confusion. Add to that a phantasm thats spamming confusion and it adds up nicely. I put out the phatasm especially on thieves. Phantasm, decoy and wait till my phatasm tells me where the stealther is. Most of the time he will show me, before the thief is even visible to me. Hes durable enough and hes ready for a shatter when i need him to be. The extra stealth is just an awesome bonus.

BTW Pyro i love how you shill your spec everywhere. It shows how much you love your class, and your character. There could be a post about the best food for a gaurdian, and you will post a link to your spec. Its just awesome!

Jester.1236:

The Prestige is not the only reason i run torch. Well not the stealth part anyway. An Aoe blind, when im in my condition build, is an aoe confusion. Add to that a phantasm thats spamming confusion and it adds up nicely. I put out the phatasm especially on thieves. Phantasm, decoy and wait till my phatasm tells me where the stealther is. Most of the time he will show me, before the thief is even visible to me. Hes durable enough and hes ready for a shatter when i need him to be. The extra stealth is just an awesome bonus.

BTW Pyro i love how you shill your spec everywhere. It shows how much you love your class, and your character. There could be a post about the best food for a gaurdian, and you will post a link to your spec. Its just awesome!

Firstly, my build is in my signature. …thanks for noticing?

As far as the iMage goes, the problem is that any other phantasm could do the job better. Particularly in a confusion build, you’d be better off running with a traited pistol, and then simply dropping an eth combo field for the duelist to provide a full 2.5x more confusion stacks, bleeds, and much more base damage.

I do understand the dual (triple?) utility of the prestige, the problem is that the useless phantasm just is too much of a demotivator for me to use the weapon.

@Seven:
Thanks, man. It was your 4 vs me vid that motivated me to stick it out with scepter.

Pyro is right, no ICD on the life steal food is what makes it so good, especially with sword or GS autos. Plus, every time I nail a BF or CI, it usually takes an extra 650-1000 off the target and puts it right on my health bar. More, if I hit a group or bust out an izerker on a zerg/mobs. I expect it to be nerfed at some point.

@Pyro:
Yeah, unfortunately the iMage sucks compared to other phantasms, but the skill isn’t completely useless. Like scepter and Prestige, it just takes a little creativity to make it worth picking the weapon up. As long as he is around, you can get over 40% uptime on both retaliation and 3 stacks of confusion. It’s the retal I’m really after w/o having to give up Prestige’s invis. You just have to play it smart and try to protect the guy. It should be closer to 100% to match other phants, tho, but I just really wish the CD wasn’t so kitten looong. Patiently awaiting a buff here.

@Gaiawolf: I actually don’t think it should reach 100% uptime on confusion and retal. No other phantasm actually applies buffs, and that could end up overpowered.

What it does need is it needs the confusion to have the condition and confusion duration traits apply to it, or simply last a base of 5 seconds. It needs to be affected by illusionary elasticity, and lastly the cooldown time needs to be brought in line with all the other phantasms, instead of the ungodly thing it is right now.

BUILD UPDATE

Due to the recent changes in the last patch, particularly the nerf to “on crit” foods, I switched up a few things in the build. I dropped the omnomberry pie since it only returns a little less than half the health it used to and switched it with Orrian Truffle and Meat Stew. This modified how the build played a bit, so I adjusted my sigils and traits slightly as well to accommodate for the extra evasion, but less heals. Especially since I can now dodge during The Prestige. The end result is that I can keep more pressure on with my illusions, while I’m evading just about everything like a madman, and can turn on my opponents at any time.

Also, as I played the build more in PVE, I took Pyro’s advice for a PVE variant. It focuses much more on phantasm damage since I’ve been finding ways to keep them (and myself) alive in more places. It has higher DPS than the primary (wvw) variant, but a little less survival.

Hi Gaiawolf, thanks for sharing this with us.

Somehow, I always thought Scepter is only viable in a condition build (and even in those MH sword is not a bad choice either), but it is really not that bad in a power build. It’s so refreshing to be able to run around with two offhands….

Also those two heavy-damage blocks in scepter and sword OH seem to be really bad news for glass-cannon thiefs…

Thanks, Ferawyn. Glad you like it.

Yeah, a lot players only see scepter as a condition weapon, but only #3 is any good for most of those builds, and the auto does little to sustain any condition pressure. However, all 3 skills scale pretty well with power, especially #2.

Being able to run 2 off hand weapons was key to developing this build along with finding a good defensive setup without using the staff. For that reason, and the good amount of stealth, it owns thieves and other GC builds. No matter what set you are locked into at the time, you can use a block to setup a nasty counter. Sw/sw? Riposte→iLeap/Swap→BF/MW = dead thief. Sc/t? Counter→CI→MW = dead thief.

The more that we all play these builds the closer our builds are coming to look a lot alike, this is exactly the build I ran till I swapped to Mirror heal, (take off Restorative Mantras throw on Focus Cooldown Reduction and reflect) then you kill all rangers all the time. You have all the blocks you need for thieves, you have focus for pulling them out of their Refuge when they try to disengage, repositioner mid cast of Warden for around 1.5k damage on them (rarely will people get out before taking some damage from it) so on and so on.

This is one of the best flex builds available to a Mesmer, allowing you all you need to be useful and powerful in both PvE and PvP environments both. Depending on traits food and such you can flex to a bunkerish style of play or swap some gear/traits and go far more offensive, the build allows for swapping out Blink CD redux for Debilitating Dissipation for taking out camps in WvW (throw out a ton of clones then just dodge around making more).

Just by swapping traits you can run a full Support out of this build, so on and so forth. I sometimes take the 5 in Illusions and put it in Inspiration for Heal on Shatter to be mega annoying. Thanks to everyone who has been putting up these builds lately, there are 2 or 3 versions of trait point allocations with many different ways of playing it.

Also, with Focus and vitality food you can get a pretty high uptime on retaliation and couple it with Defender instead of Feedback for double Retal (if you get the Warden up and stand next to it while they are pegging you with melee auto attacks with a defender out you have 4 stacks of Retaliation hitting them every time they AoE melee you, eat that warriors!). Bang bang, great build thanks again Gaiawolf.

@Delofakitten:
Yeah, the versatility for this build, and similar builds, is what makes it so attractive. I am convinced it is primarily due to the range of traits available in the Inspiration line. Also, MH sword and focus are very powerful weapons with a ton of utility so they each have a place in my build. The fact that you can trait both is a huge bonus.

I tried to use my personal playstyle and my experience with the scepter and torch to give it a little something new, and it really payed off. It works great for how I use it most (roaming and getting jumped in wvw) and can play rather well in other situations with a few minor tweaks.

A new tactic I developed since the March patch is too blink or stealth myself right behind a target on the fringe of the fight, and line up a shot to catch a few attackers in the CI path. Making a jump like that really confuses other players, and the CI just rips them up before they even know where you are. A lot of times they panic and start blowing skills, too.

Update (5/3/13):

I changed the scepter and torch from CD stats to power stats due to the confusion nerf. Other than that, there were no negative impacts, and I still consider it to be an excellent build since it never relied on condition damage anyway. Actually the buff to mantras improved the heal and MoP. I’ll do some further testing this weekend to be sure no stealth nerfs or buffs to other classes impede success.

UPDATE (7/3/13):

OK, the 6/25/13 patch hit hard, so I had to do some damage control and mods to the build. Obviously, the 5 points I had in Illusion had to go. I ended up going with 30 in Chaos due to the awesome buff to Prismatic Understanding. It’s working out really well, and actually adds some great D to the build while also covering for the higher CD on the summons, but you lose a bit of damage. That’s not too bad in a phantasm build, though. I put the condition scepter and torch back in due to the damage nerf/torment add on the scepter as well.

I am also testing out a more offensive variant, and I’ll post on that when I’m happy with it. I’m still not sure if it will end up with 0/30/10/30/0 or 0/20/20/30, but I’m leaning towards the latter.

I’m running the same traits and runes as you! But a bit diff haha, bit more offensive perhaps, lots of might, zerker, but still focused on survivability i found its working quite well http://tiny.cc/reimes mimic/veil/null field/feedback i switch around

How do you intend to win a 1v1 with such low damage potential?

Also, torch rocks in WvW. Stealth, aoe burn blast, and cleansing? Yes please. Plus, iMage sounds like he’s firing a cannon. It makes battles sound so much more epic.

I don’t do a lot of duels or 1v1, but the times I have come across solo roamers in wvw I generally just confuse the hell out of them. The build actually does decent damage thanks to crits and boon stripping, so don’t be fooled by the defensive trait lines. Between jumping out of stealth with BF, CI, Prestige, MW, and knocking back their own attacks with blocks on both sets while the swordsmen harass them, they don’t know where to turn as their Health plummets.

Those that are a bit better than me, I can generally outlast, and they usually fall before I do. This is one of the few mesmer builds that most builds besides thieves or d/d eles have trouble escaping too, because of teleports and perma swiftness. This build has no trouble living through most encounters even when I’m outnumbered; 1v1 is even easier.