Guild Wars 2

Fix thread, sorry was researching. I could not see anything.,

On another note, I can’t wait till we get slow and taunt, along with other new stuff, because I think this build could be tweaked to provide unparalleled control. I believe it will only get stronger come HoT (or at least a variant of it).

Maybe it might also work better in chronomancer spec rather than mesmer, depending on the specifics, who knows.

Looking forward anyway.

Has anyone tried Antitoxin Runes + Sweet Bean Buns with this yet?

Expensive food, but the only analogue to Melandru + Lemongrass for condition builds rather than power builds.

I can’t justify the ~50s for that food sadly.

Curunen.8729:

On another note, I can’t wait till we get slow and taunt, along with other new stuff, because I think this build could be tweaked to provide unparalleled control. I believe it will only get stronger come HoT (or at least a variant of it).

Maybe it might also work better in chronomancer spec rather than mesmer, depending on the specifics, who knows.

Looking forward anyway.

It remains to be seen how we’ll receive the slow condition and taunt cc. Would be great if we got some of them as part of the original mesmer tool set. Probably goes without saying that we’ll get at least slow with the new chronomancer specialization. There will be many different avenues of exploration for sure with this build and many others. Slow is going to be great for more reliable interrupts, leading to more CI immobs, etc.

Curunen.8729:

Has anyone tried Antitoxin Runes + Sweet Bean Buns with this yet?

Expensive food, but the only analogue to Melandru + Lemongrass for condition builds rather than power builds.

I can’t justify the ~50s for that food sadly.

I continue to be amazed at the nourishment options that become available. This one seems quite OP but yeah I’d use it if not so expensive. As for Antitoxin runes, I think they’re decent and use them on another WvW roaming build. Not sure about it though on this build as it gimps damage by a fair amount. Maybe you could give up the condi clear slot though for mantra of distraction (trusting mender’s purity to save you).

On that very note, I’m actually working on a variant I may post here in the coming days to see what you all think. Thanks for all the discussion thus far, it’s been interesting reading the various ideas.

I do prefer to use MoD (reluctantly) on this now instead of MoR, being more offensive, hence carrying an extra set of armour with antitoxin runes.

That sweet bean bun + antitoxin is pretty ridiculous, but I can’t justify 1g/hour of play. I mean, the only defensive weakness of this build are conditions, so having -64% with ridiculous toughness while dealing out sufficient condition damage (plus the 5 might stacks for 13s from the runes are nice) is crazy – but at least balanced by the cost in coin.

Even then, if the food was cheaper, I may still opt to run nightmare + sweet bean bun to give -40% defensive and + 40% (+25% +15%) offensive condition durations, not to mention that useful fear.

As the main set I do prefer nightmare over torment, simply because I don’t have to micromanage torment application and scepter clones – and I find the durations on all the conditions are sufficient. The builds I’m currently running are in my sig.

I think the single biggest problem with this build is the shatter mechanic – aside from Diversion (And Distortion which is always useful) it doesn’t gel, which is why I’m interested to see what the specialisation mechanic will be. I hate ignoring F1 and to a large extent F2 (unless needing to get rid of surplus iWarlocks…).

On that note, the iWarlock – the only other thing which doesn’t gel. I’m hoping under the new spec that phantasms may either be replaced on weapons for new skills, or have alternate effects. Otherwise I may plan to end up running Sc/F, X/Sh, depending on the skills.

So… with the lovely CI buff, defauly IP, ability to go 0/6/6/6/0, default iElasticity, mirror traits and so on – this looks like it will get a kitten good buff.

Ok, big loss is debilitating dissipation, and chaotic transference if you want staff cooldown – but I’m sure it should be easy to adapt.

Or even potentially 0/0/6/6/0/6 with “elite spec” line – depending if there is a lot of slow application available for even more crowd control.

I’m really excited to be able to test out new possibilities for this build.

Curunen.8729:

So… with the lovely CI buff, defauly IP, ability to go 0/6/6/6/0, default iElasticity, mirror traits and so on – this looks like it will get a kitten good buff.

Ok, big loss is debilitating dissipation, and chaotic transference if you want staff cooldown – but I’m sure it should be easy to adapt.

Or even potentially 0/0/6/6/0/6 with “elite spec” line – depending if there is a lot of slow application available for even more crowd control.

I’m really excited to be able to test out new possibilities for this build.

Yeah this condirupt build just got a lot more interesting, at least with what we’ve heard. For sure it’s now shatter based.

I can see going 0/6/6/0/6 for some decent options (confusion on shatter, malicious sorcery). I’ll be messing with that for sure.

In the spirit of the original build though, 0/6/6/6/0:

• Dueling: phantasmal fury, evasive mirror or blinding dissipation and DE. I’d at least consider mistrust if I felt I had enough clone generation. Duelist’s Discipline is awesome but I hate pistol in a CI build.
• Chaos: manipulations, chaotic dampening and ofc, CI.
• Inspiration: mender’s, warden’s feedback and shattered conditions now that we have IP (oh, drool).

Would take MoD, blink and decoy. No need for condi removal on the bar now. For heal, with the many reflects we already have I would probably go mantra of recovery. That would work better with rune heal ICD’s (especially grenth) and validate mender’s purity. Will be fun to play around with.

Sounds great. So many reflects now it will be so much fun.

I’ll probably be going:
Duelling: Phantasmal Fury, Evasive Mirror, Mistrust
Chaos: Manipulations, Chaotic Dampening, CI
Inspiration: Mender’s Purity, Warden’s Feedback, Shattered Conditions

And yeah, no need for condi removal on the utility bar then – those inspiration traits and focus are more than enough to manage.

So hyped for default elasticity on staff – that was one of the major things I felt this build lacked with not having the extra bounce.

Will probably start off with the standard Blink, MoD, Decoy, MI on the bar, still scepter/focus + staff.

Not sure about heals at the moment – depending on whether mirror is buffed, it’s a toss up between that, ether feast or the mantra. Still leaning towards mirror just for the additional reflect.

Rune choice is interesting now – I might try perplexity, especially with the new confusing combatants and mistrust, as well as all the interrupts.

I can’t wait to try it out.

Your build seems nice,however,the video you given,is not doing any favors for it.

Your fights seems to be awfully longish,especially vs necros which you should steamroll especially with “inturrpt build” .

You saying CI is killer for thieves,as a thief main,I never ever got downed on first CI and never ever got downed cause of getting caught with first CI.Im using s/d and always have shadow return when needed.(sword skill)

Sandrox.9524:

Your build seems nice,however,the video you given,is not doing any favors for it.

Your fights seems to be awfully longish,especially vs necros which you should steamroll especially with “inturrpt build” .

You saying CI is killer for thieves,as a thief main,I never ever got downed on first CI and never ever got downed cause of getting caught with first CI.Im using s/d and always have shadow return when needed.(sword skill)

Thanks for the input. The video was purely meant to showcase the play style, of which I think it does rather well even if not perfect. I realize some of those opponents weren’t especially skilled and I noted that in my OP.

Not every thief runs s/d or withdraw. If a thief can be immobilized and can’t readily cleanse, they’re in big trouble. That kinda goes without saying with any class, but for thieves in particular if they’re stuck in a spot for an measure of time it’s usually worse for them than most other classes.

The necro fight should not have gone on as long. Unfortunately I missed dodging signet of spite when I re-engaged. Also in this version of the build I wasn’t running mantra of distraction, which I do now and it’s much more effective.

skcamow.3527:

Sandrox.9524:

Your build seems nice,however,the video you given,is not doing any favors for it.

Your fights seems to be awfully longish,especially vs necros which you should steamroll especially with “inturrpt build” .

You saying CI is killer for thieves,as a thief main,I never ever got downed on first CI and never ever got downed cause of getting caught with first CI.Im using s/d and always have shadow return when needed.(sword skill)

Thanks for the input. The video was purely meant to showcase the play style, of which I think it does rather well even if not perfect. I realize some of those opponents weren’t especially skilled and I noted that in my OP.

Not every thief runs s/d or withdraw. If a thief can be immobilized and can’t readily cleanse, they’re in big trouble. That kinda goes without saying with any class, but for thieves in particular if they’re stuck in a spot for an measure of time it’s usually worse for them than most other classes.

The necro fight should not have gone on as long. Unfortunately I missed dodging signet of spite when I re-engaged. Also in this version of the build I wasn’t running mantra of distraction, which I do now and it’s much more effective.

Yea,but most thieves who dont run s/d and withdraw run hide in the shadows or shadow embrace.That said thieves w/o condi cleanse will get owned by that build,but that is for every condi build they face. I think your build is like very fun to play but not as strong as the usual builds.This is my opinion of course.

Sandrox.9524:

skcamow.3527:

Sandrox.9524:

Your build seems nice,however,the video you given,is not doing any favors for it.

Your fights seems to be awfully longish,especially vs necros which you should steamroll especially with “inturrpt build” .

You saying CI is killer for thieves,as a thief main,I never ever got downed on first CI and never ever got downed cause of getting caught with first CI.Im using s/d and always have shadow return when needed.(sword skill)

Thanks for the input. The video was purely meant to showcase the play style, of which I think it does rather well even if not perfect. I realize some of those opponents weren’t especially skilled and I noted that in my OP.

Not every thief runs s/d or withdraw. If a thief can be immobilized and can’t readily cleanse, they’re in big trouble. That kinda goes without saying with any class, but for thieves in particular if they’re stuck in a spot for an measure of time it’s usually worse for them than most other classes.

The necro fight should not have gone on as long. Unfortunately I missed dodging signet of spite when I re-engaged. Also in this version of the build I wasn’t running mantra of distraction, which I do now and it’s much more effective.

Yea,but most thieves who dont run s/d and withdraw run hide in the shadows or shadow embrace.That said thieves w/o condi cleanse will get owned by that build,but that is for every condi build they face. I think your build is like very fun to play but not as strong as the usual builds.This is my opinion of course.

Yes, it is below average in terms of overall strength – especially in the burst damage department. However in the spirit of having fun, it is effective enough to work while having a lot of fun at the same time.

Currently (well, tbh a few weeks ago because I have been on a melee ranger binge since then) I have taken to running double energy and doom sigils (1x corruption in wvw), as well as ether feast for the significantly larger heal, and nightmare runes.

Where the build shines is small scale team fights (2vx, 3vx, etc) – if you have a friend who is on a high dps burst build, you will wreck many things. On its own this build’s moderate sustained damage and weak burst damage (comparing to power/condition shatter) means in a 1vx scenario it has disadvantages. In 1v1 however it is very strong if played right (taking MoD, and then having chaos storm, curtain, diversion, nightmare fear for interrupts) because of the crowd control, damage mitigation and high survivability – with main hardcounters being things that can shrug off a lot of the damage like bunker eles.

Coming back to think about this build and condirupt in general for the upcoming changes, given the reveal of the Reaper as well as traits like Time Marches On, that the Revenant will have access to stability on dodge as well as condition resistance, and who knows what the other professions’ elite specs will have in terms of anti-cc condition immunities/reduction, I’m starting to question the value of CI in the future.

There are likely going to be more builds/classes who can shrug off CI, so then the main benefit will be the might stacks.

I would like to think that this build can still work given base ielasticity, buffed confusing combatants, mistrust, buffed mirror and crazy amount of reflects as well as good condition removal – but I am seriously questioning the “control” aspect.

Does anyone else feel the same way about CI? I’m sure it will still be great against a decent number of builds, but more chance of running into something that completely hardcounters the soft cc conditions.

So…

I’m tempted to give this a go again but obviously a big problem with the staff trait being in a bad state.

Going to try:
Duelling ~ Phantasmal Fury – EM – Mistrust
Chaos ~ MoM – CT (or CD) ~ CI
Inspiration ~ RM ~ WF ~ MD
Scepter/Focus + Staff and see how it goes.

Wow, traited mirror with grenth runes and hydromancy sigils! :o

Running this:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=VR3dZ;1kUV11I7sU-71;9;4TUV;0047256236;4WsG7T;1ecX9ecX92z

Still debating sigils – which to choose out of doom and energy – but hydromancy with the grenth runes is lovely on point. The chill procs are insane, no one takes much notice of the pDefender so you can take quite a few hits, and the overall cc is great.

Only weaknesses are:
1. Movement speed – need to waste curtain to run fast
2. Condition removal – can get overloaded

I think Mistrust could do with a buff because currently it feels much too weak a payoff for landing an interrupt – especially when compared to things like Power Block – unless enemies are all bunched together and you get overlapping interrupts. Either increase the stack or give it some secondary effect (weakness?).