Guild Wars 2

I know, right? What a twist!

Compounding Celerity (Inspiration VI – 10% speed increase per illusion) is a trait that adds an interesting aspect to any build: The ability to chase down opponents and an easier time disengaging crappy situations. I was testing it slightly this weekend in Mind Crush (Went 30/30/0/10/0) to see if I could find any use for it, and surprisingly.. I did.

Mind Crush is a melee-heavy build that uses sword for majority of it’s damage. One of the weaknesses of many Mesmer build is the enemy’s ability to just.. run away when things are looking bad. Compounding Celerity eliminates that as long we we have atleast one clone up. Suddenly, if the enemy doesn’t have swiftness, we’re faster than them. The more they run (if we have Deceptive Evasion or are in Phantasm-summoning range) the faster we become to the point where 3 clones is essentially perma-swiftness

The Good News…

For me, this was great for pressuring enemies and keeping them within sword auto-attack range, which is only slightly less damage than Blurred Frenzy and strips boons. It also allowed me to boogie outta danger with a well-timed Blink when fights started to turn crappy. What surprised me the most is that every time I changed traits to explore the other INSPIRATION options (a few good choices in the Adept tier), I was always inexorably drawn back to Celerity.

The Bad News…

Yet at the end of the day, I found myself still going back to the original 30/30/10/0/0 concept. The clone deaths were simply a stronger option for group fights and damage mitigation. Compounding Celerity definitely has it’s use, but its contribution to my build wasn’t strong enough to warrant picking it over other choices,

…and there’s the rub.

There are too many good Adept traits to take that outclass Celerity. Even in it’s own tier it has to compete with solid, reliable traits like Medic’s Feedback, Mender’s Purity, Vigorous Revelation (a very underrated trait), and Glamour Cooldowns. For me, it’s just not enticing enough to warrant passing up so many other stronger choices.

Has anyone found enough use of this trait to make it preferable over others?

I think I used it in a Mantra+Phantasm build I created with 30 20 0 20 or something like this but after 10th dec I’d choose Mender’s Purity.

TBH I’d much rather see this put in as the adept trait. It’s good, but still not good enough to slot in.

But since the Vengeful Images nerf they’d have to rebuff it to make it viable for a slot too and I don’t think that they’ll do that.

I tested it a few times, but never really got it to work with new builds.

I also tested it with existing, viable builds… But when they added runes of speed in pvp :P right now Im just waiting for traveler runes :o

If I run with Melandru runes, and depending on party composition (swiftness=check, other ways of condition removal=check), I have picked compounding celerity, makes life easier avoiding the angry melee ball.

But that’s also because Vigorous Revelation doesn’t look that appealing to my build if I’m not actually shattering – if I did I think is a great support trait.

Me Games Ma.8426:

But since the Vengeful Images nerf they’d have to rebuff it to make it viable for a slot too and I don’t think that they’ll do that.

that would make someone happy…someone that uses idefender…but retaliation got nerfed in general and vengeful images got a double whammy when they added a CD to it. it’s almost like anet is discouraging bunker builds that uses retaliation. the same goes for bunker builds that uses blind also…when they changed how blind work and added CD of blinding befuddlement…i saw no more rainbows…just dark clouds…and when it rained…i cried for the very first time to hide my tears in the rain ( T ^T)

It’s good for Phantasm Builds with 20 20 0 30 0. I use it all the time in sPvP.
In WvW I use the cond removal on shatter though, because I have Traveler Runes and it would be wasted otherwise. But yes, it is NOT a totally useless trait.

Pretty ok for PvP, WvW, but wasted in PvE.