Guild Wars 2

Flashy name for sure, but that’s it is about, you have good access to stealth and benefit from doing so, you also bomb your targets intentionally and not so much, that’s the premise of the build and what sets it apart from FLIMP (known Mesmer user who kindly contributes with his experience on these forums) condition build or also known at this time as the bread-and-butter condition Mesmer.

Firstly the build: Stealthy Condition Clone Bomber

Your first thought: It’s FLIMP’s build!

Indeed it is, most of it, I’ve used it for a long time, and eventually I tried to find my own ways to enhance it (if it was still possible) and I came along some simple yet interesting tweaks that made the build substantially ‘better’ to my understanding.

I’ll segment my reasoning in different categories:

- Traits -

Nothing major here in comparison to the average condition build, but it’s the slight difference what partially defines this build, for that matter I want to highlight the two trait choices that make create this deviation from the all-popular condition build:

~ Dueling: 25th minor trait~: “Confusing Combatants”

Half of the “bomber” part of the build name is in this trait, this is most effective considering how easily you can pop out those clones with Deceptive Evasion, also as stated in the wiki, the confusion applied will be with or without your enemy’s participation since overriding the clone with another will inflict the confusion nonetheless if they target is close to the ‘explosion’.
Although the confusion applied is not affected by condition duration boosts (Boohoo!), it’s always another subtle way to apply confusion along with your other more influential and reliable sources, but wait, it only gets better..

~ Chaos: Fifth major trait “V”~: “Debilitating Dissipation”

Why hello there brother! There’s the other half of the “Bomber”, and yes both are this build’s ‘major’ changes. Same as his brother’s counterpart, the conditions applied will be applied with or without the enemy’s participation as you can apply them by overriding the clones if the enemy is standing on top of them, but the best part is the conditions you apply, you can check them on the wiki.

You can inflict 3x Bleeding or 3x Vulnerability (5 sec) and Weakness (3 sec) PER clone, which means that you have a chance of inflicting 9 stacks of bleeding (which matters the most for us) for more than 5 seconds considering these conditions are affected by food boosts (yay!), in this grand scheme of things, this is a very welcome addition, and don’t forget the confusion from the other trait, which means you can severely punish any enemy going trigger happy mode on you, therefore one more reason to juke around your clone if possible so you can reap out maximum benefit from this trait combination.

Now, what do you lose from choosing these traits:

Dueling (First major slot):
- Extra cooldown on your Blink, less damage mitigation from having clones up or less fall damage + chaos storm (mentioning these as I think they are the most popular trait choices for this slot).

Illusions (Lack of 2nd major slot due to investing 5 points into Dueling):
- No extra bouncing attacks from Staff and Trident and no shatter recharge on 50% health. (These are both good traits and I was reluctant at removing them in detriment of Confusing Combatants, but I believe it fits strongly with Debilitating Dissipation and this better results for my play style)

~~~ Continuation..

~ Weapons & Sigils ~:

Nothing point out here, Earth is straightforward for Main-hand and Corruption on Off-hand for that sweet extra condition damage.

~ Armor & Runes ~

Karma Orr set with Prec/Tough/Cond (Only 4 parts) + Carrion armor for the remaining.

Rune wise, this build greatly benefits from Lyssa Runes due to optimal boon usage and benefits you get from them (if you ran this type of build you know all the details).

If not Lyssa, Undead runes are excellent as you have above average toughness and will give you a significant condition damage boost overall.

~ Jewelry ~

Rampager’s/Carrion – Mix between these to match the optimal crit chance (45% is optimal, more than that is wasting extra condition/toughness/vitality)

If you’re into fractals and been keeping those laurels coming, aim for the condition/toughness/vitality ascended jewelry if you’re still keeping crit chance optimal from other sources.
—
Well, there’s no much more to add, like I mentioned at the beggining of this build, it’s a small deviation from an already popular and very effective build, It’s your choice to whether it fits better with your play style or you may even have your own tweaking in mind, but as all things considered, it’s never wrong to offer alternatives routes.

Thanks for reading and please leave your feedback on what can be changed or even your own alternative version of the all-around condition build.

:D … funny its basicly same as mine build i was using .. ur using even same runes + signet XD … just lil different gear

cheers Xixsa

I love the on-clone-death traits as well. My only issue is fitting them in with all the other great traits we also have.

I think they make the scepter, as you stated, a much better weapon. I think they also make it easier for a Mesmer to punish overly aggressive or noobish play as enemies constantly inflict themselves with conditions and eat confusion damage. Lastly, rather than focusing on making clones good only when shattering or only when staying alive, you now make clones good even when killed. It reduces clones to only being “useless” when killed by ranged attacks with no enemies around.

I really don’t feel 3 seconds of Confusion on Clone death is worth losing 33% of your Staff DPS. Any decent opponent would go right for you, the only way Clones would die then is to stray fire or if you replace them; and even if they do die your opponent has to be near them for them to suffer the effect.

Plus you can Shatter your Clones for 3x to 6x Confusion that is affected by +CondDuration, which is likely a more efficient and reliable use of your Clones than replacing them to trigger the death effect.

@Chipmunko: It’s not surprise here, like I stated, the build doesn’t invent anything, just deviates from the most popular version, but glad and not surprised to know others would have come for this alternative.

@Sebrent: I share the exact thinking towards clones usage, they are not just meant for shattering (which is undoubtedly their main reason), but it also gives you another trick up the sleeve while your waiting on shatter cooldowns along with another reason to exist for clones like you mentioned, and it’s amazingly effective at countering AoE melee Warriors and Guardians who go Rambo on you, eat the clones!

@Embolism: It’s a totally valid point, as I mentioned in my post, I was also torn between quitting that extra bouncing and it sure maintains as more consistent and overall more ‘effective’ trait than just one ephemeral confusion stack minor trait which I believe shines in the right moments, but having tried the latter, I find it more fitting to my play style, preferences I guess. As for shattering, there’s no deny it’s the best way to inflict confusion, the CC trait would just be just an welcomed extra if found that way.

I run a very similar setup, only i still like my centaur runes and use a sword instead of scepter. The sword provides the immobilize that is so nice for shatters, plus gives me another quick burst dmg. I started using this over a more traditional cond setup since I like to jump into the mix and often noticed I was overriding illusions because of my rolls so why not use that to my benefit.

My only other change is feedback for signet of inspiration. I noticed that not many people run it and it can be a really devastating skill. I use it even when I’m against an opponent that it won’t work against since it gives me yet another field to get chaos armor off of.

@Embolism: yes shattering give more dmg however i feel that build more condicion based and there is 30s base cd on CoF is kinda long this traits helps a lot in add dmg for cond. builds … bdw its aoe condicions :P

@Lahm: …. well im fan of Osicat and Seven Mirror guides mostly … 1st FLIMP vid i have ever saw was his last “stomp of year” ..

Chipmunko.5870:

yes shattering give more dmg however i feel that build more condicion based and there is 30s base cd on CoF is kinda long this traits helps a lot in add dmg for cond. builds … bdw its aoe condicions :P

Mind Wrack inflicts 3x Confusion, and both Mind Wrack and CoF are AoE too…

Even using Mind Wrack is more efficient and far more reliable than replacing Clones for death effects.

This is almost my exact build
I’ll actually modify mine, looking at your traits, a bit, thanks.

Just for those who have never used something similar:
- I can escape big zergz and not get downed
- I can harass big zergz with hit-n-run tactics, and still not get downed
- I make a lot people run away after 10 sec of fighting with me (with big stacks of confusion on them)
- I have to leave my toon in the middle of enemy’s spawn in wvw and go make myself a coffee to die…

This is the absolutely best thing I ever used (after shouts guard and condi traps ranger). Every mesmer should try it out at least once, it’s a lot of fun!

@eoloe: yeah .. however one big weakness of this build in wvw is that enemy can simply walk away if they find out that u not gonna die :P …

@Embolism: i cond. build which this one is … is MW good only for confusion part .. multi shatter MW + CoF … however on death traits are good for additions dmg cuz cond. build = scepter = tons of clones die for 1st attack only also clones are fine tanks which give extra punishment this way … and about MW efficiency in cond. builds …. well 3 staff clones can do more dmg when they are alive

so far for cond. build is good to have 25 points in chaos .. what u wanna pick in 1st tier instead ?

@Chipmunko
Yeah, catching up is not easy… (unless you stack confusion and blink after the guy so he panics and kills himself)
That’s why I usually attack 2+ players. They usually don’t try to run until it’s too late… =)

It isn’t about shatter vs not_shatter. You should still be using shatters with this build.

What it’s about is what happens when someone is AOEing/Cleaving/Bounce-Attacking your clones to death and what happens when you overflow on illusions.

Interesting note: If I’m fighting two enemies and my illusions are on the first enemy and it dies then my clones die as well … which procs the on-clone-death traits. It makes it very nice.

Tired of summoning illusions on a target and it dying quickly before they can get there and shatter, etc? Well here’s a solution.

Thanks for the feedback and for presenting your own build’s variations!

@eoloe & Chipmunko: The build is straightforward if you already played condition mesmer and doesn’t stray a lot from the core. As for weaknesses, they are always bound to exist, this build really shines against bloodlusty enemies who want you down and commit to that, but if you go against a wary and cautious opponent who is paying attention to his conditions, then you’ll have a much harder time indeed, as for fleeing opponents, it’s the biggest weakness of this build by far, just hope you can inflict some burning with your staff and watch them melt before they run out of your range.

Juking zergs is hilariously funny as well, and it severely plays in your advantage since culling will be in your side and stealth skills will benefit you even further as you run around as you please.

@Sebrent: Thank you for highlighting what this ‘build variation’ is about, shattering effectiveness was never questioned as it’s a core mechanic of this profession. As for that interesting note, it’s indeed amusing as the ‘killed’ effect works on clones who are overriden either by your clones or if your enemy is killed while having active clones on him, though I usually keep clones as I try to stomp someone in the middle of a zerg so I can pop Distortion at its full extent (that if I don’t use a stealth skill to do it).

I personally find it to be more and more effective since enemies just think the best way for them to reach you is going rambo on your clones with their AoE, expecting to hit the real you, whilst they eat those conditions which are very subtle but deadly when they are coupled with your other ‘weapons’.