Guild Wars 2

I’ve been having quite a good time with this build and it seems to be working well. So I’d like to share and see what you think! Do try it out if you want! I’ve seen similar builds to this but doesn’t seem too common, I think it can be a good approach to the Mesmer.

Objectives
High defense and steady strong phantasm based damage. Traits focuses on synergy of stealth, constant boons like regen, aegis, protection, mitigating damage, movement and enough escapes. On the other hand there is significant phantasm damage with high power and constant might stacks.

See:
http://tiny.cc/prismer

Traits
0 20(v, x) 30(iv, vii, xii) 20(iv, v) 0

You can opt for glamor reduction if you want

Notes

Slot Skill 1: 
Mimic / Veil / Null Field
I interchange between a lot , i run veil a lot, but really depends on what you’d prefer on slot 1 (decoy, blink and mi I keep on at all times)

Heal Skill:
I enjoy using ‘Mirror’ most of the time (perm swiftness on centaur runes, quick CD, reflect projectiles – just remember to heal earlier, easy to keep your health up higher)

Trinkets:
Reflects my current trinkets… I still need to grab some more ascended!

Weapons:
I prefer gs + staff because it is my kiting and evading play style, but I think sword/* works as well, sword/torch for example with the extra stealth, and focus with the extra combo fields but definitely keep a staff handy.

I swapped to a Sigil of Hydromancy on my staff lately, because I swap to staff often once the enemy comes closer and I need to get away/ keep my distance. Being a defensive yet close quarters weapon, not focused on dps, Hydromancy seemed to fit the bill to put a good distance between you, put out some aoe damage and give you a edge for a few seconds.

I didn’t feel a need for a staff boost trait either, because most of the time you swap weapons as soon as available, (adding might stacks) usually you bring out the staff putting out some clones or phantasms that will stay relatively safe to stack that damage and for defensive maneuvers, (dropping chaos storm on both you and the illusions will keep all of you pretty safe), but as soon as you’re out of harms way – and the staff is really good at that – in a few seconds you’re back to gs, then back to staff as soon as you’re threatened again and so the cd’s aren’t really an issue, you’re not staying with one weapon for long after the skill cd’s

For defense, we have available: 
Mimic (4 s block all attacks after catching projectile), Stealth + boons, Chaos Armor + combo, Chaos Storm, distortion / interrupt shatters, regen + protection hand in hand, 3% reduced damage per illusion, Regen from phantasms, mirror of anguish reflect cc every now and then

The build doesn’t include boon duration increases and so on because I didn’t really feel a need for it. With the amount of options available, you always have some sort of strong defense and boons at all times

For offense
Straight power/precision/crit damage from gear and food, might stacks can be maintained around 6-10 easily, for pvp I switch out runes for more might duration. All in all the damage potential is still high up, and from what I experience rather than burst, it is steady , significant and sustained

Shatters
I save shatters for dazes and distortion but do occasionally shatter offensively. But for the most part it’s super fast to get phantasms up and esp those warlocks stay alive pretty long since they are ranged

WvW
The set up is good for roaming and staying alive through 1vX encounters. Been quite durable against many different classes. It can be used in a Zerg setting, you can stay alive well, while helping allies with some boons but it might be necessary to change slot skills.

It might not seem perfect but its working for me very well so far! I just wanted to share and i bet some of you might have better results than me though :P

PS I don’t know why i called it “Prisma” oO

http://tiny.cc/prismer

I had a build with torch, sword, sceptre psitol, all stealth uptime, and just letting my duelist crit on them while i go from behind and slashing at them and retreating, it works but i was a noob and couldnt afford much gear to make it 100% optimal, even though it won me most fights, I am working on one atm, if you would like to work on it with me xD

Narsil.6579:

I had a build with torch, sword, sceptre psitol, all stealth uptime, and just letting my duelist crit on them while i go from behind and slashing at them and retreating, it works but i was a noob and couldnt afford much gear to make it 100% optimal, even though it won me most fights, I am working on one atm, if you would like to work on it with me xD

annnnnnnd this i why i freaking LOVE the mesmer community!

on another note lokos interesting, i’ll try it out tonight been meaning to try a Gsword + Staff centered build again for a while now, ill give feedback later once i’m in from work.

You are taking PU with only one stealth skill? Why? You could either take another stealth skill or two to get more protection uptime. Or you could build around something else… PU isn’t like shatters where it is easy to work with to begin with by going 30 deep. Going for PU means that you are likely going to make your entire build revolve around it… It doesn’t seem like you are here just an observation. If you really want to capitalize on Prismatic understanding it pretty much means that you should go after all the stealth skills at our disposal.

Yeah, no decoy?

Decoy + mass invis should be essential.

Edit: post below – apologies I somehow did not see the link at all and mistook slot skill 1 swapouts for all 3 skills!

jportell.2197:

You are taking PU with only one stealth skill? Why? You could either take another stealth skill or two to get more protection uptime. Or you could build around something else… PU isn’t like shatters where it is easy to work with to begin with by going 30 deep. Going for PU means that you are likely going to make your entire build revolve around it… It doesn’t seem like you are here just an observation. If you really want to capitalize on Prismatic understanding it pretty much means that you should go after all the stealth skills at our disposal.

?? I have decoy and mass invis, did u see the link?
The slot skill note was only for slot 1 I keep decoy and blink and mi as default

Also Viel. Now you have 4 stealths.

Xavi.6591:

Also Viel. Now you have 4 stealths.

Yep I like to run a veil but sometimes other things, so slot 1 is up to you situationally
I only have three though I usually am not running torch cuz I don’t like to get close haha

For PU I’d argue Prestige > Mimic, although you’d have to lay aside either staff or GS.

Having said that, mimic works pretty nicely with mirror blade and staff #1 + clones.

Curunen.8729:

For PU I’d argue Prestige > Mimic, although you’d have to lay aside either staff or GS.

Having said that, mimic works pretty nicely with mirror blade and staff #1 + clones.

Yeah! I’d say go sword torch and staff if you come from a sword or background of playing up close. I enjoy kiting and never letting melee opponents reach me. I like the damage gs deals from a distance and the knock back timed right is just so satisfying and useful. Just preference. Sword torch will work very nicely if you enjoy it. U have blurred frenzy and prestige and that’s some powerful defensive + offensive. Great tools

jportell.2197:

You are taking PU with only one stealth skill? Why? You could either take another stealth skill or two to get more protection uptime. Or you could build around something else… PU isn’t like shatters where it is easy to work with to begin with by going 30 deep. Going for PU means that you are likely going to make your entire build revolve around it… It doesn’t seem like you are here just an observation. If you really want to capitalize on Prismatic understanding it pretty much means that you should go after all the stealth skills at our disposal.

with the PU, it heavily does have to rely on a all stealth, which is with some tests being ran, it helps to be both offensive and defensive in and out of stealth, dueling and taking camps, soloing camps it has no problems, although one thing it suffers from is lack of extra abilities you give up with the 30 into Chaos, One upside to this build is if you use PU, the boons you will gain stealthed are insane, paired with a staff it is awesome, as well as the hidden flame aspect = torch + sword makes a great combo to keep foes guessing, so I am working on either a full uptime build, 20 (2/9)20 (4/10)30 (5/8/12) which makes it so that ur always popping out clones, they give off conditions when killed etc, problem is there is no cd for pistol if you go into this and the only thing suffering is you giving up Inspiration trait line for that torch skill, so working on a new build i went, Hidden flame completely which is condition damage and crit damage based

Sword torch staff with runes of centaur and high crit damage with atleast some toughness

I run runes of centaur, a mix between zerker, rabid, rampager and knights for gear to balance out stats, i run valkyrie weapons for that extra crit and vitality, power toughness crit trinkets and rabid back piece, still testing the build atm. Also for utilities , go blink, decoy, veil, mass invisivility, and for healing go for Mirror, that Mirror can be a life saver, usually it depends, if running against a group or necro, Lemongrass Soup with Maintenance oil, or add in once in a while for extra crit Butternut squash soup

Narsil.6579:

I run runes of centaur, a mix between zerker, rabid, rampager and knights for gear to balance out stats, i run valkyrie weapons for that extra crit and vitality, power toughness crit trinkets and rabid back piece, still testing the build atm. Also for utilities , go blink, decoy, veil, mass invisivility, and for healing go for Mirror, that Mirror can be a life saver, usually it depends, if running against a group or necro, Lemongrass Soup with Maintenance oil, or add in once in a while for extra crit Butternut squash soup

I love mirror. It’s perma swiftness with centaur. If u read my notes I say I use mirror, and veil often but I didn’t set it into the buildcraft link, that’s up to players to decide for themselves

The thing with the Staff / torch / sword build, is PU gives and adds 1 sec of stealth, that makes it 5 secs of extra stealth if u run all stealth build, desperate deception, decoy, veil, mass invis, prestige, you to play around with dodging alot, and the staff for clone spam, and conditions spam, the staff for boons and protection, also you want to make it so you heavily rely on your staff and clones so that you mainly buy some time to only use the prestige and decoy, keeping veil and mass invis as latter resorts in battle to either escape, in theory, Staff = Chaos Storm, Chaos armor, giving you boons applenty, plus with stealth even more boons, with 30% boon duration it is nice,
against another class that has boons applenty you can switch is blink for arcane thievery (to steal boons and give conditions) or Null field, always keeping your stealth up, Mirror + centaur = perma swiftness, Lemongrass soup = That nice shield from conditons , Maintenance oil = extra precision for that damage, a mix of zerk coat, rabid legs, knights gloves, zerk helm, zerk boots or knights either way, runes of centaur, and valkyrie weapons with torch = sigil of accuracy, sword either sigil of battle or sigil of Geomancy (bleeds), along with a valkyrie staff and sigil of force, with either sigil of corruption or Bloodlust on another weapon and farming stacks , for either extra power or condition damage, Debilitatin dissipation + crippling dissipation = conditions and cripple on enemies, a rabid backpiece , with Power tough crit trinkets all the way, you could add a knights piece to balance out stats, in theory it sounds like it should work, but atm i am still in the testing zone trying to optimize it to the fullest.

Narsil.6579:

The thing with the Staff / torch / sword build, …

I think to each their own. I think sword/torch is great, if you enjoy it by all means. My personal playstyle i enjoy kiting , and actually don’t think u need that extra fourth stealth (though it is a blast finisher and does condition damage and image sounds awesome) like you said, the staff and some stealth here and there is plenty enough defense, especially with the traits. I also am not focusing on conditions so my build won’t scatter/place stats, buffs into condition damage. My staff would only be mainly for defensive purposes, while a condition here and there is nice, conditions aren’t really the point of my build. I generally feel a build might to be too scattered, and i have an annoying nagging at the back of my mind when I start going for more things. So even if I wanted to, even if it might be good, I couldn’t make myself do it. The intention of my build is simple and straight forward, to stay alive very well and hit hard, keep the pressure on and sustain strong damage. I enjoy the gs for that simple heavy damage and keeping a distance

Narsil.6579:

jportell.2197:

You are taking PU with only one stealth skill? Why? You could either take another stealth skill or two to get more protection uptime. Or you could build around something else… PU isn’t like shatters where it is easy to work with to begin with by going 30 deep. Going for PU means that you are likely going to make your entire build revolve around it… It doesn’t seem like you are here just an observation. If you really want to capitalize on Prismatic understanding it pretty much means that you should go after all the stealth skills at our disposal.

with the PU, it heavily does have to rely on a all stealth, which is with some tests being ran, it helps to be both offensive and defensive in and out of stealth, dueling and taking camps, soloing camps it has no problems, although one thing it suffers from is lack of extra abilities you give up with the 30 into Chaos, One upside to this build is if you use PU, the boons you will gain stealthed are insane, paired with a staff it is awesome, as well as the hidden flame aspect = torch + sword makes a great combo to keep foes guessing, so I am working on either a full uptime build, 20 (2/9)20 (4/10)30 (5/8/12) which makes it so that ur always popping out clones, they give off conditions when killed etc, problem is there is no cd for pistol if you go into this and the only thing suffering is you giving up Inspiration trait line for that torch skill, so working on a new build i went, Hidden flame completely which is condition damage and crit damage based

Taking a 20/20/30/0/0 build is great for the clone spam and the reduced CD on the torch but I feel like you don’t really need the CD on torch. In fact most players I know that run a build with PU don’t take the traited torch. I made a build pre PU buff that could get 100% protection uptime and now its even better but you need boon duration runes/protection duration runes to achieve it taking the 20 from domination and putting it into inspiration gives you a few options
1. Reduced CD on glamour (More stealth uptime=more boons!)
2. Options for more condition removal (Menders Purity+ the 2 MORS) and using mantras is more feasible in duels simply because usually duels do not have the interrupt spam that dominates team fights.
3. Better Team utility. See reduced glamour CD, this is also good for things like portal (PvP/WvW) and Feed back which is amazing in wvw as well.

Or you cold take the 20 from Domination and put it into illusions for one big reason.
Double the damage from staff. There are a few builds I know of that are 0/20/30/0/20 and they are absolutely insane with the amount of condition damage they can do. Currently the meta is dominated by condition spam which is an area we lack however taking illusionary elasticity in a PU build gives you a two fold bonus better condition damage while still maintaining very high survivability.

I am by no means saying your build is garbage and I think there are few Mesmer builds that actually fall into that category. I like when players take a trait and try to make their build work around it.

Ps another option if you were taking the reduced torch CD condi removal Pdisenchanter is also amazing for that in small team fights/solo roam.