Guild Wars 2

Currently running a Greatsword/sword power/crit build. And while it’s hard to tag more than one or two mobs per wave in events it’s not impossible.

Playing with the idea of switching to a condition damage / staff build and I’m curious is it even harder to tag mobs enough in events to get credit?

Just to head off some misdirection ahead of time. I am not talking about getting credit for the event (gold, silver, bronze) but talking about credit for the individual kills in a mob pack. IE. Mob is lootable or not.

Greatsword stomps Staff for mob tagging.

Best Mesmer setup for mob tagging is basically GS + Illusiory Persona.

If you’re only tagging like 2 mobs per wave, you’re basically doing it wrong. Note that you don’t get 100% chance for loot drops even if you tag the mob.

if you are doing an event in a large group the only thing I have found with the mesmer is choas storm. And you have to time it just right because sometimes they show as invulnerable on their incomings. Unfortunately with the time in between uses you cannot get every wave
I would imagine the silvari plants would maybe work as well
we just dont have much by the way of AoE
The greatsword you could try the phantasm as well but you would have to time that as well
We just arent very equipt to do the large group ones etc the big ones like temples or dragons

I use a 30dom/30duel build with mantras (for 16% damage increase) for tagging and bagging orr DE’s and I never run into issues with tagging multiple mob waves. What are you opening with? I usually open with Ibeserker/MB swap to BF, sword 1 spam. I don’t see how a staff build would do much better except for the fact that you get Chao Storm. From my experience attempting what I do with a staff build though, it actually generates me less loot.

Yeah, the cooldown on Chaos Storm is simply ineffective for DE tagging. It’s like 3s every 2×. Not gonna work out.

GS’s attacks are pretty fast and long range. Very reliable as long as you can actually target the mobs.

I use GS with all its AoE stuff, sword for blurred frenzy, and mirror images + mind wrack. I have zero issues tagging mobs in DEs. Doesn’t seem any more difficult than it was with my elementalist.

focus warden is great AOE tagging. If I use sword+focus and then Staff on secondary I co do great for AOE damage most of the time. The GS is even better for AOE just less defensive. And I usually run Sword+Focus for offense and Staff when I need to kite and go defensive or drop a chaos storm.

Once you hit 80, the tag damage from Chaos Storm often isn’t enough to tag mobs before they get slaughtered by the 40+ other players who all unload. At the moment, GS/Sword with Illusionary Persona is about the most effective way to go, and it’s… still not all that great.

Anyone suggesting Chaos Storm for tagging mobs in DE isn’t in Orr. Plain as that.

Tagging is done with GS + Sword/Focus. Everything else isn’t even close.