Guild Wars 2

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscRl4zyoHSTmGb9IipH9mvJckU0asWJF32FC-TsAg0CnI+R9j7HzPyfs/MAZByECA

I use mantra mastery for the 8 second mantra heal. I use it on the chill on the grenth runes. I can proc it up to 3 times. 1 on the initial mantra charge, and 2 on the heal. I tried it for the chill control effect.

I also use 2 hyrdromancy on weapon swaps.

for the traits, I use precise wrack bec I shatter after the ileap combo, shattered concentration for the boon removal.
Mantra Mastery for reduced cd on heal and daze.

I also took DE, and illusionary defense for the added survivablity.
Bountiful and CI for the interrupt procs.
Other things are the same for the phantasmic interruption build.

MoD
Cleanse Mantra
Third Utility is sometimes i use SoD for the stun on duels.
But other times it could be blink or decoy.

Soo.. thats it.

Any suggestions?

Do you think i should get menders purity to free up another util slot on the mantra cleanse?

I don’t know if its a good build or not, but sometimes i do make goodbuilds, but the thing is, I can’t utilize them to their potential because I’m not a good player.

PS: Pyro your inbox is full

Not PvP, but for WvW I ran this.
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsf7dlwzKqHTzmGb9IipHEXwJckUYavWJF22FC-jUDBYhYohDiGpBhWYZ0EIBKHqIas1PFRjVbDTFbR16YAmcp2uDwcWRTIgFTAA-w

Only thing is I felt mantra heal wasnt worth it. Sure you can get your chill every 10 seconds, but it turned ether fest was better as, when i needed healing from the mantra, i was burning the whole thing. Also it’d proc on charge which I was often doing away from the enemy.

^hmm, but you still ran the build with ether feast right? how was your experience with it?

StickerHappy.8052:

^hmm, but you still ran the build with ether feast right? how was your experience with it?

I prefer it as part of a small group than solo roaming. Chill really shuts down casting classes, but obviously vs other classes you’re better of with other things (Doom vs warriors for example).

Chill is a very nasty condition for pressuring the enemy. If you can space out your chills, bait our their condi clears etc, and still land another chill after that, they’ll just be shut down and run out of things to do. Thus why as a support to a group it’s particularly potent.

Also in WvW you can get 100% chill duration, that’s 6 second chills, which is nasty. You can’t just wait that out, you NEED to cleanse it.

It’s a solid build for its intention.

I can’t see running grenth runes in a power build in PvP, but grenth runes have the best chill applying capabilities of them all, so if that’s what you’re really after then go for it. I personally run grenth runes in a PvP condition build I use and they do nicely (great for dueling as well).

For WvW, the 100% condition duration we built into your build would work well, but I have to admit I don’t think grenth trumps traveler’s in that build.

@Ross

Doom is good sigil too. I am waiting for the update to pair doom and hydromancy, whatya think?

@Scam

I had a fairly good time using it in a power build, Blink+chill is a good way to surpise enemies,.

Maybe they might even revamp the grenth runes this coming update. who knows. Also is GS a better choice than staff?

StickerHappy.8052:

@Ross

Doom is good sigil too. I am waiting for the update to pair doom and hydromancy, whatya think?

@Scam

I had a fairly good time using it in a power build, Blink+chill is a good way to surpise enemies,.

Maybe they might even revamp the grenth runes this coming update. who knows. Also is GS a better choice than staff?

Yes to doom and hydro.

GS has the benefit of the controlled interrupt, where’as staffs chaos storm is a chance aoe daze. Staff offers great survive, GS is more useful vs ranged, or runners/gap openers. Staff is useless vs Landspeed, and given the landspeed meta we’re in, I haven’t liked the staff for a long time (I don’t like GS either, so don’t take that as an unbalanced bias).

@Ross

Nice point, but would you play it on a Condition build or pow build? it think the runes suit nicely with PU too.

StickerHappy.8052:

@Ross

Nice point, but would you play it on a Condition build or pow build? it think the runes suit nicely with PU too.

Personally I can’t step away from my Holy Hell build, which is a hybrid. So you could actually go either way, and perhaps depending on if you’re roaming more (def your blackwater PU stuff) or havok (anything else), its going to make the decision easier. All I’d suggest is, whatever you do what you want is high condi duration so you’re landing 5 or 6 second chills. If you want to strike out with power, or condition damage after that, that’s depends on your cup of tea. Weapons might be the deciding factor. Greatsword is a power weapon, staff a solid condi. Greatsword however grows stronger at range, but you’re going to want to be in the thick of combat. Staff will allow you to duke in and out to land those weapon swap and heal chills.

Your other options are the various mainhand weapons. With my hybrid build I prefer Sword/torch, scepter/focus. Doom on sword, hydro on scepter
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8td7XyA1JU

So imagine that with hydro on both sets and chill on heal. Maybe I’ll make a vid tonight if I have the time.

Focus is an aoe pull/interrupt, which will be good support for your havok small man encounters. Pistol on the other hand has your stun/daze, which is another solid option for more interupt conditions. From there consider the phantasms and what they’re good for. It’s really up to you.

@Ross

A vid would be nice. If I may ask why do you use ether feast aside from the greater heal?

Using runes of grenth with EF dealys the chill a effect by a certain duration before it pops out. Mantra Heal only delays it on the charge. But using the chill + mantra heals when its charged has no delay, making Chill+blink more fluid.

For runes that proc on heal like grenth, torment, altruism, etc, I use mirror instead of ether feast. If I only have one mantra in my build I’ll use the mantra heal. The 15s CD of mirror is really nice, plus you get extra projectile reflection. Due to the quicker CD and lower heal amount, you’re able to pretty much spam it when it’s available and not feel too vulnerable.

^How’s your experience with mirror? Does it also have that delay before it pops out the frost burst?

Do you think the build would be better off as condition based build?

StickerHappy.8052:

@Ross

A vid would be nice. If I may ask why do you use ether feast aside from the greater heal?

Using runes of grenth with EF dealys the chill a effect by a certain duration before it pops out. Mantra Heal only delays it on the charge. But using the chill + mantra heals when its charged has no delay, making Chill+blink more fluid.

If I were solo, Id take ether fest. I like ether fest because I can almost always ensure total regeneration of my health pool, and there’s nothing to not like about that.

If I were with a group where the heat would most likely be off me, I’d take mirror for the 5s less, or possibly the mantra. The one reason why I didnt like the mantra was because of the charge. It’s not so much that I have to recharge it during a battle, or any of the usual mantra concerns. Rather, lets say I’m running to my next engagement and I realise I havnt charged it yet. I’ll hit the button to charge and that’ll proc the chill. I then have a 10s cd on my heal chill. So lets say I encounter someone and that CD is not off yet, and I fire my heal expecting a chill, only it doesn’t come. That makes my chill on heal unreliable.

The next factor is the small healing amount. Lets say I have a charged mantra with 2 heals ready to go. My health takes a hit so I use my mantra heal, the chill procs only one use isnt enough to replenish enough hp’s. I end up popping the other one, and suddenly I’m back to needing to recharge my mantra. Only trouble is when and where I do it might just proc my chill to no effect again, which is a waste.

Mirror on the other hand is far more reliable. I know that anytime I use it, I’ll get chill. And it’s 5s faster than Ether Fest. The only thing I have to ask myself is do I want slightly more chills per battle, or more health per heal? Ether Fest is as reliable as mirror for this reason, if not more so because of the greater heal.

Mirror is 1 1/4 cast time btw. MoR and EF, 1s each. It’s simply a matter of getting used to your cast times (same as casting a phantasm and blinking into range).

StickerHappy.8052:

^How’s your experience with mirror? Does it also have that delay before it pops out the frost burst?

Do you think the build would be better off as condition based build?

Mirror works well, albeit the small increase in cast time vs ether feast. I don’t honestly notice it and it doesn’t prevent or impede the proc I’m trying to get along with the heal.

I use Mirror in this way in a condition build, and you could certainly use the grenth runes in that way. I believe Ross’s build linked in this thread is a power/condition hybrid using those runes.

Gonna do some more but heres something
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MS9GRHUMnRQ

Since im solo im running PU.

It looks pretty good. How’s your experience with it?

DO you ever get bothered on how the rune procs some secs after you heal?

Here was some trolling with it vs some bunkers
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6PrPVEPFlEA

The delay doesnt bother me. Sometimes it even helps as I get a free second to get someone into range (or they move into range themselves). You just get used to it.

Experience good, im sticking with it for the time being. Trouble is finding people these days. WvW is so dead (and im on SoR).

Got a good duel in. Had to take pistol and used the space to really capitalize on the chills.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9BceGSMbEQ&feature=youtu.be

Anyway here are my thoughts given the setup I usually like to use. The build most definitely shines brightest as a support build, i.e. in a group setting, dropping PU for Chaotic Interruption. The reason being that mesmers are focused on last in group fight battles, leaving you free to do your thing while not needing the boons provided by PU to survive.

For roaming I prefer to run my Holy Hell Scout setup, leaving the Grenth runes and keeping boon duration. It’s just more speed, and more survive. The boons stack better and thus I can spend more time out of stealth. With that setup (which I got two great vid/duels of) I can keep hydromancy on each weapon set for kitten chill to pretty much the same effect (at least for roaming).

So a “chill build” is best in a group, and in that case taking all 5 sources of chill at 100% chill duration (2x weapon swaps, chill on interrupt, 5% chance on hit, chill on heal). If you’re gonna roam solo, for the survival opt for whatever rune set/setup is best for that, and just take hydro sigils to add chill into your kitten nal.

I’ll have the two solo fights up later so you can see what I’m talking about.

@Ross

Very nice fight.

A few Questions:

1:) how do you cast your phantasm when he goes on stealth? it needs have a traget right?

2.) I noticed someone talking in tagalog (Filipino language) in the guild chat. You filipino?

StickerHappy.8052:

@Ross

Very nice fight.

A few Questions:

1:) how do you cast your phantasm when he goes on stealth? it needs have a traget right?

2.) I noticed someone talking in tagalog (Filipino language) in the guild chat. You filipino?

1) All channels will complete their casts once started, even if the target goes into stealth. Watch here as I sceptre 3 and let go the movement buttons http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=a9BceGSMbEQ#t=53
The channel follows the thief as he moves during stealth.

2) No, but I am in the oceanic prime time, and had Filipino friends growing up.

Ohh. sorry for the off topic question. I am filipino too that’s why. haha.

There was a recent thread that says that they have seen Halting Strike do 4k-5k damage. I am still dumbfounded on how it could reach that range. If that was the case why do very few people use it?

Can you confirm this for me? If HS indeed viable i would retrait my build.

StickerHappy.8052:

Ohh. sorry for the off topic question. I am filipino too that’s why. haha.

There was a recent thread that says that they have seen Halting Strike do 4k-5k damage. I am still dumbfounded on how it could reach that range. If that was the case why do very few people use it?

Can you confirm this for me? If HS indeed viable i would retrait my build.

I’ve read it also but not played with it myself. I believe that sort of damage is from crit, which means zerker. Either go refind the thread, or open a new one asking the question.

So here’s an example of what I was talking about just taking two hydro’s with 5s chill (80% condi duration), using PU and 70% boon duration for roaming.
V Warrior
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ziexi3-fbZA&feature=youtu.be

v Thief
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GTnTnbQYYw&feature=youtu.be

On the warrior fight what runes were you using? I figured on a PU build the fight takes too long for chill to be really on there. Just my 2 cents.

Also, how’s your experience with FI in the past?

StickerHappy.8052:

On the warrior fight what runes were you using? I figured on a PU build the fight takes too long for chill to be really on there. Just my 2 cents.

Hydro + corruption on both.

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘fight takes too long for chill to be really on there’.

Most PU builds I’ve seen/encountered are all full condition, which can mean really long fights. I split condition damage and power/crit so that I can also pressure directly, and end a lot of fights more quickly.

The chills I was landing were 5s every 10s (he may have had some mitigation, i didnt look closely). So in theory that’s chill on the enemy for 50% of the fight, regardless of the duration. That’s some serious CC, and would wreck havok on someones rotations regardless of their build. Poison would have messed him up too, but as you could see, despite him deciding not to run far away, his superior landspeed allowed him to kite as he pleased when he needed to (iDuelist would have been ideal over the iWardens for the pressure/dps, but focus always brings more in general imo (as per the thief duel).

StickerHappy.8052:

Also, how’s your experience with FI in the past?

I play with FI in PvP. WvW is a different ballgame, and there’s just better builds that’ll give you a better time there (PU an obvious choice).

I was taking some vids the other week but just went on to get some more. Captured a few good examples. I run 20, 30, 20, cripple on clone death, torch cd, manips range, clone on dodge, FI, manip cd, might on interrupt. Full zerker. Sword/torch scepter/focus. Sigils of battle + precision stacks I think.

Pretty much there’s two different FI combo’s I use, depending on what’s off CD and the situation. Either,
Temporal curtain, iWarden, confusing images, into the void for interrupt- this allows you to get off a quickened confusing images while your iWarden does his thing.
or
Temporal curtain, iWarden, into the void for interrupt, weapon swap, prestige, sword 3 for imob, sword 2 for shatter. FI will allow you to quickly move through the weapon swap, prestige, and sword 3 in the blink of an eye. Sword 2 + shatter for the big numbers.

I’m still very rusty with it, and with PvP in general. If I put a whole lot more time into it I could probably do some amazing things. Still, I’d love to see it buffed in some way. Could make it appealing in WvW too.

@Ross

Not the sigils, I meant the armor runes, those weren’t grenth on the warrior fight right?

On the chill part, I meant that chill could be more effective if you can kill them quickly too, because they won’t have any chance to make decisions on top of being frustrated with chill.

I’m not saying that long fights are not viable, it is twice as frustrating for them with the chill, I’m just not a big fan of long fights. That’s just me.

I’m thinking of getting FI too, but reducing 10 points in dom = 10% condi duration. Balthazar runes are also on that get list. hell 6 secs of burning every 10 secs add more pressure. I know you use to run them before so that inspired me try them out.

So after all that brainstorming, would you think that interrupt/lockdown builds suit pow or condition builds better?

I was running boon duration in that fight (75% total). I’m not sure the fight could have gone any faster without having some big burst full power/crit. The guy was playing cautiously, and even then the higher reward would have come with the higher risk (he burst me good a couple times, but I’m also built tanky). Also keep in mind that he could have left at any point if he wanted to, including after a failed burst.

I’ve never run Balthazar. I have run Guardian for a 2s burn on/per block. So that can stack up well over 6s depending on who and what’kittenting you. The thing about burning is that it only stacks duration, not intensity, and no matter the duration once its cleansed it’s all gone. So with that in mind, my Burn the Zerg build using Guardian for many many, minimally 2s burns at around 1200 damage total (more if they stack more than once and dont catch a cleanse) is a great means of damage (and tagging really). In a duel though I’d prefer something else.

You can always stack more and more DPS, and technically that’s what gets people down. But I think CC is more beneficial in every circumstance. It’s good for offense, it’s good for defense.

I’ve never played a strict interrupt/lockdown build. Playing from where I do I have to consider latency as an issue. Often I’ll dodge an incoming attack, and by all counts the animation tells me I should have evaded, but I cop the hit anyway. So I dont have the best experience with such builds. However, I’d think power would be preferable over condition. But that may depend on your runes (perplexity for example), and what mode you’re playing (strict power in WvW can have its troubles these days). You could always take both.

Edit: Oh btw, Balthazar might give you the burn on heal? but Guardian with PU will give you procs from mimic, scepter 2, OH sword 4, PU aegis, + any group share aegis. But only 1s if you don’t have 100% burn duration.

If i may infer, on the build that i posted, what rune sets would you recommend? I agree with you that guardian runes do good on a PU build. On the other hand, i do not run it, i am usually the in your face lockdown mesmer but not like a literal stun/interrupt mesmer. Most of the time i only use the lockdown factor to make a fight more difficult.

I tried FI earlier, suprisingly it was reallybgood with CI. Although i felt the trait itself could use some buffs.

I tried balthazar too, although it added dps rather than cc with grenth, having 1 more condition to cleanse acts as a cleanse waster on top of the bleeds from Si chill from grenth acts the same way but i just preferred burning since you get chills on swap too for every 10 secs.

Ps: i think chill on heal on grenth runes deal damage too. At about 1.5k. I have no idea how it scales. It’s called frost burst on the combat log.