Guild Wars 2

Hey Natsu! Okay so I spent a good chunk of change and made the build, roamed around wvw for a little while had a few nice encounters 1v1 but everytime I got hit with a bigger group me and my buddy went down. Had a 1v1 vs a regen ranger and neither one of us could kill each other so I decided to go to pvp and duel some people. Had no problems with 2 eles, 1 war and 1 theif. Then there was a regen ranger, a phantasm mes, and some type of theif idk and they all just shredded me. How on earth do you kill someone with all that regen/condi cleanse?

@Jhughes, Tbh I seem to always have trouble with a good phantasm Mesmer, I just cant down the phantasms fast enough with the conditions and if I try it takes all the pressure off the Mesmer, but then again, they are pretty much a 1v1 duelling spec ^^, cant say that I have had much problems with rangers other then the condi spirit rangers, a lack of aoe on my end doesn’t help, I guess its just a matter of keeping the pressure on as much as possible and trying to make them waste their cleanses before hitting with the heavier condi’s like the torment and such.

Bigger group, how many people? usually 1v3ish would be the most I could handle at a time, or upwards of a 2/6ish but I guess it comes down to player skill and what builds they were running, if they were all bunkerish with plenty of condition removal you were going to have a bad time anyway ^^

Do you have an opinion on Traveler runes with this build? The boon and cond duration buffs are nice, but you lose some condition dmg and the confusion.

Every time I try a build without swiftness at least 75-80% uptime I get frustrated with it.

36g and loosing condition damage, confusion stacks and confusion duration, for what, a negligible 15% boon duration and the ability to run a bit faster? not really worth it, if I want swiftness ill just pop on focus, use 4 in front of me and pop torch back on.

tried this build in spvp. same sigils but runes of the unded and rabid amulet with carrion jewel. ive been quite successful with it.:-)

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

36g and loosing condition damage, confusion stacks and confusion duration, for what, a negligible 15% boon duration and the ability to run a bit faster? not really worth it, if I want swiftness ill just pop on focus, use 4 in front of me and pop torch back on.

On the money, I agree. Although, getting some is not that hard when farming 1-2 Scarlet invasions. I do not support those inflated prices, though.

You will be loosing condition damage (about 150). However, you will gain some health and toughness which will also benefit your build. You won’t lose out on essential confusion duration. The 10% the runes provide are enough to round up to a full second on your short confusions.

Additionally, you will gain one additional second on many other conditions you apply (e.g. torment on Illusionary Counter, burn on Prestige, bleeds applied by illusions…). This on its own might actually be worth loosing the occasional confusion on hit. The additional boon duration will result in one additional second of boons you receive through Chaos Armor, Chaos Storm and Prismatic Understanding. Pretty nice imho.

The addiotnal second might become even more important depending on how the leaked changes work – assuming they are legit – because you will want to stack boons with long durations.

Besides all this… perma swiftness IN combat does make HUGE difference when duelling or in smale scale fights. It might not be that important when zerging. But I personally will never go back to a build without enough swiftness or movement speed.

How do you prevent people from running =/ if they stay and fight I generally dont have problems but geez, the theif and ele roamers just peace out lol. Can’t catchem

@ Xaylin, Swiftness makes no difference to me what so ever in a fight, I do just as well with it as I do without, so this is not a problem.

@Jh, yep, that pretty much sums it up, you could always try to blink, phase retreat whilst targeting something behind them, chaos storm may proc chilled if you drop it on them, other then that, you probably wont catch them if they really want to run, but think of it this way, every time they run, its your victory, minus the loot bag XD.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

@ Xaylin, Swiftness makes no difference to me what so ever in a fight, I do just as well with it as I do without, so this is not a problem.

Humm… that’s not the point I was making. But I guess everyone has to figure out what works best for himself.

Thx to Xaylin and Natsu on thought re: Traveler runes. I’ve tried the “swap to focus, #4, swap to torch” thing and I find it gets pretty tedious very quickly. I seem to spend most of my time roaming or in small groups where getting swiftness from other sources is patchy at best. In a zerg, not so much of a problem.

I find the Traveler runes are worth giving up a little top end performance just for the quality of life you gain. Plus, if you are running a boon share variant (Decoy/Signet of Insp/Null Field/Mass Invis) the boon duration isn’t totally wasted.

Im looking for a solid condition build for Mesmer… this looks pretty good. ive watched some of your videos and its awesome. Only thing im not sure about is the perplexity runes… my engi has perplexity runes and kill things 5x faster, and survives jus as well. Im not sure if that really means anything though in the long run. I have to give this a whirl

@Azure, The perplexity runes are just a bid of an added bonus over using un dead runes, the bit of extra confusion can help some times.

Just out of curiosity, do you think it would be worth it to use mantra of recovery? The 10 sec cooldown is fantastic, and channeling could be done while stealthed, so yeah.

Oh and great build- love it.

@Purp, honestly, I haven’t tried it, I just happen to like ether fest a bit more, and most of the time channelling gives me a bit of a headache, but it could work out fine so If you wanted to use it then go for it.

Just wanted to say thank you Natsu for sharing this build :-) I rolled a mesmer after being disappointed with my Ele in wvw. I leveled 80 with my mesmer last week and finally got the gear for this build, my stats are almost spot on with yours. I have chosen feedback instead of veil as I wanted the extra damage and the added frustration it gives attackers!

I went out with my mesmer last night and did a bit of soloing along with the usual zerg…I got to say it’s awesome. I won all of my 1v1’s last night and almost won a 1v3 until another 3 enemies came along. Also I have found I get more kills in zerg’s than I did with my ele. I can now roam solo with a certain amount of confidence…something I couldnt do with my ele.

The great thing about this build is that the clones provide a distraction along with applying conditions and quite a bit of the damage comes from the attacker themselves. The only thing I have a minor gripe in this build is the lack of health….so I may swap some rabid items with carrion items but as I said its only a minor gripe.

for spvp

runes and sigils and ammy choice?

I was thinking lyssa + rampager

or undead + rabid

Or maybe lyssa + rabid?

have no clue about what to put on weapons

@divinity, I put the undead runes with a rabid ammy for spvp, I also kept the sigils the same, however I changed the corruption on the torch for hydromancy, but this one can be changed to anything really, battle should work well with its 3 stacks of might ^^

Muffie’s been rockin this build in PvP for atleast 2 or 3 months :P

Couple of quick questions:

The 3rd attack in the scepter #1 chain, “Ether Clone”: description says that it “confuses your target.” So does it actually apply confusion or is that just poor wording?

Torch phantasm: description says it grants Retaliation to your allies. Does it also grant retaliation to yourself?

Joonks.7501:

Couple of quick questions:

The 3rd attack in the scepter #1 chain, “Ether Clone”: description says that it “confuses your target.” So does it actually apply confusion or is that just poor wording?

Torch phantasm: description says it grants Retaliation to your allies. Does it also grant retaliation to yourself?

Scepter chain: this is a tooltip error, just something the devs forgot to correct when they removed the condition application back in the betas.

Torch phantasm: the iMage uses a bouncing projectile, applying confusion to enemies it hits and retaliation to allies.

Thank you, Pyro… and since I have your attention, a follow-up question:

I’m in love with the idea of retaliation and I was curious about how Phantasmal Defender works with the 5 point Inspiration minor trait (Vengeful Images). If I have retaliation on myself and also have a Phantasmal Defender out with retaliation, will a person attacking me receive retaliation damage from two sources? Or does one cancel out the other?

I hope that makes sense…

Joonks.7501:

Thank you, Pyro… and since I have your attention, a follow-up question:

I’m in love with the idea of retaliation and I was curious about how Phantasmal Defender works with the 5 point Inspiration minor trait (Vengeful Images). If I have retaliation on myself and also have a Phantasmal Defender out with retaliation, will a person attacking me receive retaliation damage from two sources? Or does one cancel out the other?

I hope that makes sense…

They will receive retaliation from two sources. For more on how this can work, see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V6ASnuG8uI

Unfortunately, anet nerfed that trait so that it only applies retaliation for 5 seconds. That makes it 100% and completely useless, and nuked my build into oblivion.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

@divinity, I put the undead runes with a rabid ammy for spvp, I also kept the sigils the same, however I changed the corruption on the torch for hydromancy, but this one can be changed to anything really, battle should work well with its 3 stacks of might ^^

did you try lyssa? I like having 65% crit change with a rampagers/rampager jewel and lyssa and proccing bleeds like crazy.

it works great wth vigor on crit too. I was thinking of putting on a “on crit” sigil for bleeds too dunno. Hell even the remove a condition on crit would proc alot. Dunno what to do.

I like the build though! very tanky and people get confused because I am popping in and out all the time

Update Just letting everyone out there know that this build has been added and approved in the build of the month contest for September, if you particularly enjoy using this build or any of the others that have entered, feel free to go over and give them a positive vote!

curious, how is this build for pve?

@Azure, I really don’t do all that much PvE using a condition build, I find that almost every time, a damage based spec works best there, although I doubt you would have much trouble at all staying alive and well in PvE and killing w/e, just might be a bit slower as it takes longer to apply some nice condition stacks and get them damaging, and at least mobs cant cleanse them or dodge away from your torment, and its guaranteed that they go and proc the on death clone traits when they kill all your clones.^^

interesting. Im only asking because I use mesmer and engi mostly. I got a full rabid set with perplexity runes for my engi to use in WvW, but decided to use it in PVE lately since I (Accidentally) salvaged his zerker set. The perplexity runes in PVE are actually amazing! its only OK for dungeons, but for events and and open world its actually better than going full power. anyway was just curious thanks

How is condition ever better than power for PvE?

Besides, the 6th rune bonus isn’t very good for PvE. replacing it with one rune of the Krait (+28 Condition dmg) or even a jewel would be a dps increase over 6/6 perplexity.

anyone spvp with this? need advice on runes/sigils

@Divinity, I suggest checking out Osicat’s sPvP build, it might give you some ideas. I believe it’s a variant of the blackwater build:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Shatter-Cat-sPvP-section/first#post2562449

Yeh, Osi defiantly has some good shatter builds out there,

@Divinity, you could always just play around with the runes/sigils until you find a set that works best for you (I personally like the undead runes/blood sigils in spvp)

What have people been testing on this build? I have tryed Lyssa + rampagers and Undead + rabid ammy.

Not sure which one I like more though.

Sigils on weapons are also tricky. (remove condi on crit? bleed on crit?)

This build can literally go so many ways, it is bothering me haha

Yeh, in the end it comes down to what you like best, however I really do recommend the rabid ammy, the toughness is almost one of the main focus’s of this build to maximise survivability, and the precision minor still gives you a really nice crit chance for proc’ing sigils and the sharper images trait.

My current specific loadout is this setup . And yes, the customizability is good, still tweaking things.

I had the celestial gear already (in fact, coming from triple-swords this saved me tons of time :P ). Also the cloak is celestial, but ItM doesn’t list it.

Sigils I’m not sure about yet either, but with the slow attack speed of the Scepter clones I opted for +5% crit for some more bleeds and it seems to work quite well so far.

After using Runes of the Traveler on my necro, I feel so slow on my Mesmer. Anyone using Runes of the Traveler with this build?

I kinda want to use this build on PVE but I’m unsure how perplexity works in events/dungeons. It might be a wast of a good 6/6 runes. I dont know if we have enough interrupts to proc high stacks of confusion.

Does the confusion on attack procs on illu as well?

Conditions in PvE are a nightmare, especially confusion. The NPC’s just don’t proc it very often.

Confusion is terrible for PvE. Even if you decide to run perplexity runes for PvE, most only run 5/6 Perplexity with the 6th rune being one that just gives +28 Cond Dmg (like Krait).

Xavi.6591:

After using Runes of the Traveler on my necro, I feel so slow on my Mesmer. Anyone using Runes of the Traveler with this build?

Yeah, using Runes of the Traveler for a slight variant of this build. Such a wonderful improvement, and can’t imagine ever switching to anything else.

I tested this build out in sPvP last night(Which I never play I just didn’t want to buy the gear if I wasn’t going to like it). I really liked it.

I’ve been looking for a solo/small group roaming build for WvW now that they added the nodes in the middle. I think this build is going to be perfect for that. I still need two pieces of Rabid though.

I am slightly going to change a few things.
I’m taking Phantasm Fury instead of retaliatory shield.
Since the goal is to basically keep from getting hit very often I thought the extra stacks of bleeds would add up to more DPS.
I’m going to test Travelers Ruins because I can’t stand being in WvW without access to speed. I’ve tried the focus swap method to many times on different WvW builds and I just always hate it. I ran with Centaur ruins for a very long time because of it.
I’m Sylvari so I am going to test out Healing Seed for my Heal Skill when fighting on the center nodes. I will be fighting on/near it most of the time so I will get 30 seconds of regen ever 45 seconds plus the initial big heal(which is less then Ether Feast). That should give near perma regen and the seed should give me 2 Procs of Illusionary Membrane so even more protection.
Roaming I will stick with Ether Feast

Hope to have the gear finished out tonight to give it a test.

Hmm, phantasm fury could help, but you know, using a staff and sceptre/torch it would be next to useless, as they only have 1 attack every 6 seconds or w/e it is, thus the 20% more crit is kinda wasted, the sharper images really comes in handy from all the normal clones/illusions attacking, not phantasms.

Retaliatory shield on the other hand will be procc’ing all the time, with 30% boon duration, I think its like 5 seconds of retaliation on every block, so essentially, you get 5 seconds from the sceptre block, then every time you enter stealth, with prismatic, you will probably get at least 1-2 aegis every stealth, which is another 5-10 seconds, ending up being almost permanent retaliation, which, as it happens, will do more damage then a small chance of your phantasms critting and putting up 1 bleeding stack every 6 seconds.

Just wanted to say thanks for the build, Natsu. I wrote it off a little after using shatter builds for so long, but this has been the most perfect/fun build whilst in small teams/roaming WvW.

Still haven’t migrated from Undead to Perplexity runes yet, still in the works, hoping that sees a big improvement with the confusion damage. Apart from that, all I’ve done is grab some Dire weapons (tough/vit/cond) instead of the normal Rabid. The extra vitality I’ve found is very useful.

Will report back once the Perplexity runes are in!

Glad you are enjoying the build Monkey!

After playing your build for so long and enjoying it I have changed it up slightly, using Sceptre/Torch & Sword/Pistol, 0/30/30/0/10

Traited Far Reaching Manipulation, Duelists Disciple & DE, Debilitating Dissipation, Bountiful Interruption & PU, and by putting the last 10 in Illusion I pick up all shatter skills cause Confusion & Master of Misdirection to extend Confusion by 33%.

Have enjoyed the changes and moving away from Staff for a change.

Cares Less.9631:

After playing your build for so long and enjoying it I have changed it up slightly, using Sceptre/Torch & Sword/Pistol, 0/30/30/0/10

Traited Far Reaching Manipulation, Duelists Disciple & DE, Debilitating Dissipation, Bountiful Interruption & PU, and by putting the last 10 in Illusion I pick up all shatter skills cause Confusion & Master of Misdirection to extend Confusion by 33%.

Have enjoyed the changes and moving away from Staff for a change.

I thought about this too, the only thing I’ve been considering is the effect you get from those 33%, since you get condi duration just by going into Domination. In this case though, you will get 23% more confusion duration instead of 10% condition duration, and afaik the 33% is multiplied AFTER other multipliers, making it quite good.

I also swap staff out for sword/pistol which is pretty good. I am also using Traveler runes which I love.

Cares Less.9631:

Traited Far Reaching Manipulation, Duelists Disciple & DE, Debilitating Dissipation, Bountiful Interruption & PU, and by putting the last 10 in Illusion I pick up all shatter skills cause Confusion & Master of Misdirection to extend Confusion by 33%.

As much as I’d love the extra 33% Confusion duration, the condition removal from Cleansing Conflagration (IX) in Domination is just too useful since half of what I am coming up against now is condition builds.

Planning to try Scepter/Torch + Sword/Pistol however once I’ve got the Pistol sorted. It looks like there’s a bit of extra DPS to have there.

A good point Dietzen.

Would it be more useful to go with carrion gear instead of rabid?

The toughness from rabid doesn’t help when receiving conditions. In addition, there is little value from the higher crit chance in this build (other than with the sigil proc) as the +crit dmg and power levels are low.

The scepter and phantasms would benefit from the higher power and vitality offered by carrion.

Just a thought — what do you think?