Guild Wars 2

So I’ve been playing a Condition Chronomancer and it’s been an absolute blast. This is my current build:
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INSPIRATION

• Restorative Mantras
• Restorative Illusions
• Mental Defence
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ILLUSIONS

• Persistence of Memory
• Maim the Disillusioned
• Malicious Sorcery
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CHRONOMANCER

• Time Catches Up
• Illusionary Reversion
• Chronophantasma
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WEAPONS

• Staff (Sigil of Leeching, Sigil of Energy)
• Sceptre (Sigil of Earth)
• Shield (Sigil of Bursting)
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SKILLS

• Mantra of Recovery
• Blink
• Mirror Images
• Portal
• Time Warp
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GEAR

• Rabid Amulet
• Runes of the Nightmare
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Offensive Strength: The combination of traits, illusion blocks and Alacrity more than compensates for the lack of Deceptive Evasion, and low Shatter CDs allows you to cycle between your three offensive Shatters almost non-stop. The cadence is so good I don’t even care if I’m not in melee range for Illusionary Persona, since my next burst of conditions is just seconds away.
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Defensive Strength: Constant Shattering means very regular healing and condition cleansing from Restorative Illusions. Generous use of illusion blocks further mitigates damage, and if things get a bit dicey you can switch to the always reliable Staff. Runes of the Nightmare help protect you from ambushes.

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Okay, so now to the “help me out” part. A few questions:
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• I took Malicious Sorcery because I spend most of my time in Sceptre-Shield, but that means I’m not taking Ineptitude… should I take that instead?

• I didn’t take Persistence of Memory because it doesn’t affect iAvenger, and it doesn’t seem worth it if only iWarlock benefits. I do however have iDefender from Mental Defence, but I’m unsure if it’s affected by Persistence… does anyone know? Persistence of Memory as well as Alacrity confirmed to affect Mental Defence.

• An obvious variation of this build would be Dueling (or maybe Chaos) instead of Inspiration. I went with Inspiration for easy condition cleansing (not to mention great heals), but that means I’m not getting the synergy between Precision and Condition Damage on the Rabid Amulet. The alternative is the Carrion Amulet, but I’m a bit iffy about not having any Toughness… do you think that’s a problem?

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Any feedback is welcome, and feel free to post your own builds and findings.

Regular defender gets the cd reduction, but I haven’t tested the version from the trait.

The build I’ve been theorizing (and got to play today) has a much more aggressive power/Condi hybrid slant, substituting chaos for inspiration (bountiful disillusionment being the key) and making use of that with shattered strength to stack massive amounts of might

Misguided.5139:

Regular defender gets the cd reduction, but I haven’t tested the version from the trait.

The build I’ve been theorizing (and got to play today) has a much more aggressive power/Condi hybrid slant, substituting chaos for inspiration (bountiful disillusionment being the key) and making use of that with shattered strength to stack massive amounts of might

Seems like a pain to test, really… I hope the answer is yes though.

Are you using Rabid or Carrion for your build?

Trouble with Rabid in Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono is the precision is useless.

Sadly the pvp amulet selection is kitten, but I’d rather take Carrion in any case.

Thanks for your feedback on this trait selection – I am very much looking forward to playing it in the future, with minor adjustments.

Curunen.8729:

Trouble with Rabid in Inspiration/Illusions/Chrono is the precision is useless.

Sadly the pvp amulet selection is kitten, but I’d rather take Carrion in any case.

Thanks for your feedback on this trait selection – I am very much looking forward to playing it in the future, with minor adjustments.

Yeah that’s why I’m considering Carrion, but I really like Toughness especially with all the healing I’m getting. So I’m torn.

I know, losing the toughness is sad.

Perhaps you could throw in some on crit sigils to make use of the precision? Maybe things which provide cover conditions or something instead of the bursting sigils?

Embolism.8106:

Seems like a pain to test, really… I hope the answer is yes though.

Are you using Rabid or Carrion for your build?

Will be using Sinister on live, but Carrion since that wasn’t an option.

the problem with insp line and shatter build is when you need to cleanse you play defense and not offense thus you loosing some dmg for 10 -20 sec if you got burst from condi

dueling give you the blind on shatter trait which combine with ineptitude. so if no dueling no ineptitude is needed.

chaos line is nice for more defense and control so take sword pistol and scepter shield to maximize the benefit of it but than again is more dueling set

i use now dueling / illusion/ chrono so massive amount of illusions are rdy to shatter faster

The way I see it, Insp-Illu-Chrono has awesome synergy.
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• Shatter forever! With Master of Misdirection and Flow of Time, you Shatter CDs are ridiculously low as long as you keep Shattering, and with a condition build you’re always applying Torment and Confusion while doing so. Illusionary Reversion and Chronophantasma means Deceptive Evasion is not required at all, I get 3 Illusion Shatters with minimal effort every time, Mirror Images can mostly be relegated as a stunbreaker.

• Heal and cleanse forever! Add in Restorative Illusions and you’re always healing and shedding conditions. If you need a bit of extra healing and cleansing, Mantra of Recovery is there to help, which also charges a bit faster thanks to Malicious Sorcery.

• Block forever! Traited Illusionary Counter with constant Alacrity is almost always up, and there’s also Echo of Memory and Deja Vu for even more blocking and Alacrity. Against projectile-reliant professions, Tides of Time really ruins their day. Mental Defence throws iDefender into the mix now and then and doesn’t dissolve immediately thanks to Chronophantasma.
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The result is a build that is strong both offensively and defensively. In fact I feel I could almost bunker on point with this build in Sceptre-Shield.

And of course the above didn’t even touch on Continuum Split and Time Warp, or the constant Slows thrown out by iAvengers…

I wish they would replace slow by either stun or chill instead. Slow doesn’t seem to hold mobs in wells enough.

I’ve been working on a very similar build, but not for pvp yet.

Here are a few things I’m doing differently:
- Shattered strength instead of MTD (lots of shatters)
- Trying to only use scepter mainhand and torch/sword offhands (there’s a bug with sword block not making a clone)
- In PVE, I’m using runes of aristocracy. Testing runes of strength with beta.
- Carrion gear

It’s squishy for me right now, but I suspect a better player could do some serious damage.

Alright, I’ve confirmed that both Alacrity and Persistence of Memory works with Mental Defence. Before you get too excited no, Alacrity doesn’t work with trait ICDs that don’t use a skill.

Embolism.8106:

Alright, I’ve confirmed that both Alacrity and Persistence of Memory works with Mental Defence. Before you get too excited no, Alacrity doesn’t work with trait ICDs that don’t use a skill.

Are you a very sad mesmer?

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Embolism.8106:

Alright, I’ve confirmed that both Alacrity and Persistence of Memory works with Mental Defence. Before you get too excited no, Alacrity doesn’t work with trait ICDs that don’t use a skill.

Are you a very sad mesmer?

Yes! Haha.

Embolism.8106:

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Embolism.8106:

Alright, I’ve confirmed that both Alacrity and Persistence of Memory works with Mental Defence. Before you get too excited no, Alacrity doesn’t work with trait ICDs that don’t use a skill.

Are you a very sad mesmer?

Yes! Haha.

Lol, I was testing permastealth on Mel Ashar at the same time.

Carrion is generally a superior amulet on nearly all condi builds in spvp, aside from engineer, as they’re the only class that has an actually strong crit proc as apart of their kit.

Carrion is superior simply becuase the power overall lets you do more damage in the long run than the generally kittenty duration on crit bleed procs that mesmers and necros have. It also ensures that more damage is ultimately done even when condis are cleansed early.

nearlight.3064:

Carrion is generally a superior amulet on nearly all condi builds in spvp, aside from engineer, as they’re the only class that has an actually strong crit proc as apart of their kit.

Carrion is superior simply becuase the power overall lets you do more damage in the long run than the generally kittenty duration on crit bleed procs that mesmers and necros have. It also ensures that more damage is ultimately done even when condis are cleansed early.

Actually in non-Chrono Condi Mesmer builds Rabid is king because:
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1. Precision lets you proc Critical Infusion which is important for fueling Deceptive Evasion.

2. Sharper Images. This is great with Duelist and Staff Clones with their multi-hit attacks.

3. Toughness works well with Runes of the Undead and/or Chaotic Transference if you choose to use them.

4. Staff skills except Warlock scale terribly with Power, and CoF/Diversion which are offensive in Condi Mes builds deal little damage.
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For this build since I’m not using Dueling I am indeed considering Carrion, but my reluctance is because of losing Toughness, not because of Precision (which would indeed be relatively useless without Dueling).

Embolism.8106:

nearlight.3064:

Carrion is generally a superior amulet on nearly all condi builds in spvp, aside from engineer, as they’re the only class that has an actually strong crit proc as apart of their kit.

Carrion is superior simply becuase the power overall lets you do more damage in the long run than the generally kittenty duration on crit bleed procs that mesmers and necros have. It also ensures that more damage is ultimately done even when condis are cleansed early.

Actually in non-Chrono Condi Mesmer builds Rabid is king because:
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1. Precision lets you proc Critical Infusion which is important for fueling Deceptive Evasion.

2. Sharper Images. This is great with Duelist and Staff Clones with their multi-hit attacks.

3. Toughness works well with Runes of the Undead and/or Chaotic Transference if you choose to use them.

4. Staff skills except Warlock scale terribly with Power, and CoF/Diversion which are offensive in Condi Mes builds deal little damage.
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For this build since I’m not using Dueling I am indeed considering Carrion, but my reluctance is because of losing Toughness, not because of Precision (which would indeed be relatively useless without Dueling).

For the sake of the sport of argument I postulate:

1. Energy sigils>Vigor

2. Sharper Images is only really good if you’re running pistol. Carrion is better when you shatter for condi bombs, since you can usually get 1K damage per mindwrack hit.

3. Scavenging runes with carrion > Rabid with undead, just as much extra condi damage added, plus the ability to get minor heals and damage from the leech effect. Chaotic transference argument is valid, but I hope you woulnd’t go into chaos at all due to the cultural backlash of using PU. Personally I used duel/insp/illusions for condi-shatter build, but I’d swap insp out for chrono if I intended to continue exploring that playstyle.

4. Scepter and Sword (countless runs sword in his carrion/cele builds) have attacks that scale well with power. Plus the mindwrack I mentioned above. Its overall more uncleanseable damage with carrion if you shatter, however I guess weak crit procs from rabid would outdps it if you just sat around and use staff clone autos the whole time, which you shouldn’t.

Energy Sigils and Vigour at the same time gives you more fodder, not to mention personal defence. It’s what I do.

I don’t use Undead personally, just citing it as an example. Not everyone who goes into Chaos takes PU (though I don’t go into Chaos, like you I use Duel-Insp-Illu). I’d also say that “cultural” (wut) backlash really isn’t a valid argument, a more valid argument would be stealth being inherently selfish unless you’re playing a roaming ganker role.

Taking Sword as a Condi build is basically defensive, you’re likely be saving Blurred to avoid burst; if it does damage that’s icing rather than your goal (if I’m wrong in my assumption here, feel free to correct me).

Unless you’re up against a Diamond Skin Ele I don’t think the extra Power makes a big difference by itself. Precision on the other hand boosts your defence, improves your Shatter cadence and gives you Bleeding, which is not only more damage but also another condition to be cleansed.

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There’s also Toughness vs Vitality. I personally prefer Toughness when I use a build with significant self-healing, i.e. Inspiration builds.

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In the case of this build, Carrion’s Power is indisputably better than Rabid’s Precision, so it boils down to Toughness vs Vitality. I’m going to give it a try and see how it feels.

Yeah the cultural QQ against PU condi Mesmer is so strong that I feel I may develop social cancer if I ever play it.

for condi shatter carrion is far better . mw can do with 3 clones up 4k dmg plus the conditions so its nice combination of hybrid dmg

rabid is good when you play solo and dont have good awareness for the enemy burst

it took me few hours to get used to carrion and i love it more than rabid now as the dmg even with diamond skin ele (in some point) as with rabid you just cant

Okay, some number-crunching comparing Rabid and Carrion against a Light Golem. Assume that three Clones are conjured for each Shatter and each Clone only gets one hit before it expires. Assume that Sharper Images deals 550 Bleeding when it procs.

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MIND WRACK

Carrion

• Direct – 2,500
• Sharper Images – 65
• Total – 2,565

Rabid

• Direct – 1,700
• Sharper Images – 750
• Total – 2,450

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CRY OF FRUSTRATION

Carrion

• Direct – 1,000
• Sharper Images – 65
• Total – 1,065

Rabid

• Direct – 700
• Sharper Images – 750
• Total – 1,450

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Looking at the numbers, Rabid and Carrion are more or less the same when it comes to raw damage. This does not however take into account a number of important factors:

• Clones usually get more than single hit in before expiring. The more hits, the more heavily Rabid is favoured.

• Condition cleansing isn’t taken into account. At first glance this may seem to favour Carrion, but remember you’re also applying Torment and Confusion with your Shatters (which is of course the whole point): unless your opponent immediately cleanses 3 or more conditions, Rabid should come out on top.

• Phantasms are not taken into account. I won’t post more number-crunching but iWarlock favours Carrion by ~300 damage per shot. The iDuelist on the other hand would of course heavily favour Rabid.

• Damage with other skills are not taken into account. Again I won’t post more number-crunch, but for the Sceptre: with Malicious Sorcery, Illusionary Counter and Confusing Images gives Carrion a ~145 DPS advantage if used on CD. Spamming the Ether Bolt chain at point blank range with Malicious Sorcery gives Carrion a ~270 DPS advantage.

So you don’t fully take into account the skills that counter your argument? That’s not biased at all.

your all math is theoretical

i get fury with carrion so 25% crit chance
also direct dmg if done favourable versus condi

if you do any math condi versus power in 10 sec interval you will see both of them doing the same result (more or less with any class)

with carrion i can do average mind wrack 3-4k and not 2.5k
bleeing i get is 2 stacks so 200 dps and not 65
confusion images doing 3-5k direct dmg ….

also rabid fall against class which immune to condition like warrior, ele

i dont say rabid doesnt good as it is but after testing it more than 2 months for me carrion is much better

nearlight.3064:

So you don’t fully take into account the skills that counter your argument? That’s not biased at all.

Two, if not three of the variables I mentioned are likely to favour Rabid. The direct damage skills that favour Carrion, as you can see, don’t actually contribute a significant amount even assuming they are used on CD under the most ideal conditions (which, in the case of Ether Bolt, the main contributor, is basically impossible).

@Messiah: Rabid also has access to Fury. Hitting 4k with your Mind Wracks doesn’t mean much unless you also tell me the conditions (against how much armour? How might Might and Vulnerability? Rune and Sigil effects?), plus Rabid would also scale up so if you can hit 4k with Carrion you should be hitting ~2.8k with Rabid.

Warriors are immune to conditions? My experience with Warriors has always been that they’re very vulnerable to condition damage. They do have a few skills that grant them immunity but they’re short-lived.

If you’d like to see some numbers based on 4k Mind Wracks with Fury on Carrion, here it is:

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CARRION

(Calculating Carrion’s Mind Wrack damage per Illusion)
4*0.24*1.5X + 4*0.76X = 4000
1.44X + 3.04X = 4000
4.48X = 4000
X = 893

Sharper Images: 550*3*0.24 = 396
Total Damage: 4000 + 396 = 4396

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RABID

(Rabid’s Mind Wracks deal about 53% of Carrion’s non-crit damage)
Y = 0.53X
Y = 473

4*0.66*1.5Y + 4*0.34Y = ?
1873 + 643 = 2516

Sharper Images: 550*3*0.66 = 1089
Total Damage: 2516 + 1089 = 3605