Guild Wars 2

Good Day all Mesmers!

I have a question to ask, mainly concerning High lever fractals 50+
I am lead to believe that condition specs feature better in these higher level fractals due to toughness scaling on the mobs. Now I haven’t played Mesmer in awhile, and was always a fan of the Scepter on mesmer, and the thought of wielding a scepter and shield…well…that sounds pretty awesome.
My question to you is: How are Condition dmg builds looking on Mesmers these days for higher level fractals? Is there anything viable or is a power sword/shield build still best for 50+ fractals. Im not needing to be top tier dps…Just viable to take into a party for the dmg and Alacrity.

Peace!

If you did literally zero dps but performed your role of providing alacrity and quickness flawlessly, you’re by far the very best choice a group has as their last player.

Ultimately, due to how Mesmer conditions go, you’re not going to be able to do damage that even approaches what condie engie/ranger are able to do. Whether it’s better or worse than power sw/sh….I’m not really sure, but it’s not going to be particularly impressive either way. Just remember that your first priority is pumping alacrity and quickness, with everything else being secondary.

Also, the toughness scaling doesn’t really kick in until 70+. It’s only in the very high levels that the enormous gap exists between power and condie due to the scaling. Quite honestly, unless you have a really good reason otherwise, I’d just avoid those levels entirely. There’s not actually any substantial reason to do them other than to say you’ve been there.

Fay.2357:

If you did literally zero dps but performed your role of providing alacrity and quickness flawlessly, you’re by far the very best choice a group has as their last player.

Ultimately, due to how Mesmer conditions go, you’re not going to be able to do damage that even approaches what condie engie/ranger are able to do. Whether it’s better or worse than power sw/sh….I’m not really sure, but it’s not going to be particularly impressive either way. Just remember that your first priority is pumping alacrity and quickness, with everything else being secondary.

Also, the toughness scaling doesn’t really kick in until 70+. It’s only in the very high levels that the enormous gap exists between power and condie due to the scaling. Quite honestly, unless you have a really good reason otherwise, I’d just avoid those levels entirely. There’s not actually any substantial reason to do them other than to say you’ve been there.

If the primary goal is pushing alacrity and quickness, would we be better off using commander’s gear over assassin/berserker? Or is quickness uptime already good enough that the extra boon duration isn’t needed?

Edit to add- something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseWncfClfi9fC2fCUrhlejyMAugMC91itZreUb1XF-TBCBQB4TfAEV+BOzPIU9nzoEEAPCgss/QAODAkC4rxAA-e

I think the better choice is 3 trait armor but if you can apply the alacrity and quickness, the traits are not going to matter as much as skill uptime for the rest of the party

Kobeathris.3645:

Fay.2357:

If you did literally zero dps but performed your role of providing alacrity and quickness flawlessly, you’re by far the very best choice a group has as their last player.

Ultimately, due to how Mesmer conditions go, you’re not going to be able to do damage that even approaches what condie engie/ranger are able to do. Whether it’s better or worse than power sw/sh….I’m not really sure, but it’s not going to be particularly impressive either way. Just remember that your first priority is pumping alacrity and quickness, with everything else being secondary.

Also, the toughness scaling doesn’t really kick in until 70+. It’s only in the very high levels that the enormous gap exists between power and condie due to the scaling. Quite honestly, unless you have a really good reason otherwise, I’d just avoid those levels entirely. There’s not actually any substantial reason to do them other than to say you’ve been there.

If the primary goal is pushing alacrity and quickness, would we be better off using commander’s gear over assassin/berserker? Or is quickness uptime already good enough that the extra boon duration isn’t needed?

Edit to add- something like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseWncfClfi9fC2fCUrhlejyMAugMC91itZreUb1XF-TBCBQB4TfAEV+BOzPIU9nzoEEAPCgss/QAODAkC4rxAA-e

If a herald is in the party pulsing the facet of nature for 50% boon duration, you can maintain 90% uptime on quickness without any other source of boon duration, which makes getting it on gear unnecessary.

Ultimately, high level fractals are so niche and pointless atm, I’d highly recommend not getting any gear specifically for them. Maybe in a year when anet figures out that the HoT update for fractals was an unmitigated disaster and changes something.

I asked this question myself and what I’ve came up with is this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse8ansIC9filfC+pBUrBFcjqMASgXruVv1cF-ThhHAB6pEMX1f2V5X57PAwTAo2TCofgUALqsC-e

Don’t despritly try to go for condi damage with staff or scepter. IDuellist is the strongerst dps basher, a scepter might be good if you can prevent a clone from spawning, otherwise sword aa power dmg + vuln is better for the pt.

All the wells, time warp and two important traitlines aswell the shield for quickness gives you the ability still to adapt. You can take one additional traitline wichever you need and the shield can be swapped for focus if required.

What I’m trying to make work right now is: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse7ansIC9filfC+pBUrhlcjqMAOgWD9HKpcoeVr1bF-TxSBQBNU9nJpEcDnAAqpEzZHEg+pZAP6B+3+DY4IAsFlHA4BAAA-e basically swaping weapons as often as possible, use scepter for confusing images, block/blind and summon phantasm/break bar with pistol 5, then use some AA/blurred/shield skills if needed on sword and swap again. It seems that scepter 3 is on par in dps with sword AA + it sacks confusion.
With chronophantasma/some clones flood with scepter it seems like a good idea to shatter as much as possible.
The downside is that in this build you cannot swap any traitline for inspiration if more reflects are needed (without dueling you lose lot bleeding, without illu we lose lots of confusion). But with ****loads of class getting reflects with their specialization (scrapper/druid/eles providing aoe magnetic auras) it seems not be much of an issue I think.
I’d love to use rune of perplexity but it seems almost impossible to interrupt now. Same thing makes mistrust and duelist discipline not that useful. It would be great if they provide us with some changes to interrupt mechanic for PvE b4 raids.

Any opinions? I’d love some feedback about sigils because I’m bad at picking them. Overall since mesmer dmg wont ever be highest I think hybrid like that might work.

Gibon.1705:

What I’m trying to make work right now is: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRAse7ansIC9filfC+pBUrhlcjqMAOgWD9HKpcoeVr1bF-TxSBQBNU9nJpEcDnAAqpEzZHEg+pZAP6B+3+DY4IAsFlHA4BAAA-e basically swaping weapons as often as possible, use scepter for confusing images, block/blind and summon phantasm/break bar with pistol 5, then use some AA/blurred/shield skills if needed on sword and swap again. It seems that scepter 3 is on par in dps with sword AA + it sacks confusion.
With chronophantasma/some clones flood with scepter it seems like a good idea to shatter as much as possible.
The downside is that in this build you cannot swap any traitline for inspiration if more reflects are needed (without dueling you lose lot bleeding, without illu we lose lots of confusion). But with ****loads of class getting reflects with their specialization (scrapper/druid/eles providing aoe magnetic auras) it seems not be much of an issue I think.
I’d love to use rune of perplexity but it seems almost impossible to interrupt now. Same thing makes mistrust and duelist discipline not that useful. It would be great if they provide us with some changes to interrupt mechanic for PvE b4 raids.

Any opinions? I’d love some feedback about sigils because I’m bad at picking them. Overall since mesmer dmg wont ever be highest I think hybrid like that might work.

Interesting build, whats the damage numbers like?

If you want to do any type of sustained condition dmg on mesmer in high level fractals without sacrificing your alacrity pumping potential. You need to be dueling/illusions/chronomancer. Vipers gear/weapons, sinister trinkets. Duelists discipline/phantasmal haste with signet of ether as healing skill. Starting a fight you start 2 phantasmal duelists and then scepter 3 pistol 5 for breakbars. Drop your wells to get alacrity going strong. As soon as you are able pop pistol 4 for a 3rd duelist then swap immediately to your viper staff and camp staff dancing around dropping staff 5 and using 4 situationally. Then drop more wells on cooldown. Only swap back to pistol/scepter to summon more duelists. Taking full advantage of the phantasms taking 95% less dmg they will RARELY die and if they do you can use the heal signet to get two back up quickly without losing much dps uptime. If you have the right group who can maintain 25 vuln/might and good quickness uptime on your iduelists you can maintaing CRAZY sustain condi dmg. I was pushing numbers in fractals tonight that were very impressive, 10k bleed ticks with around 5 might and 5 vuln on target and no quickness. I can see a top level mesmer in the right group easily hitting 20k bleeds. Also the duelists attacks are 20% projectile finisher so fire fields be sexy. ALSO rangers sun spirit become super sexy. Warrior condi bannerz. Sexy

also because it is passive dmg through your phantasms leaves you more time to run around and do fight mechanics and avoid red circles not dying and wiping your groups as often. Unlike those sinister condi engis who are so focused on their 60000 button cooldown management system rotation that they keep dying to bloomhungers circles.

Uh Viper sucks super bad for mesmer. You lose way too much precision, you drop from getting around 50 stacks with Rampager down to about 20-30. It hurts. The ideal set for mesmer would be the PvP version of Wanderer (cdmg+, pre+, tuf, exp) but that doesn’t exist in PvE unfortunately so you’re best off in Rampager or Sinister.

http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/97685-the-blazbluemancer-chronomancer-builds-for-pve/

The condi variant is the best I’ve been able to scrape together. If you’re able to put together a full Rampager set solely for high fractals, it comes out a fair bit ahead at scale 100 (based on very rudimentary testing, Fractals toughness bonus probably about is +1% per level). You can also stack 5 Fractal Offensives for approximately +300 precision at 150 AR, which significantly increases the number of bleed stacks you get.

That said, it’s probably not really worth the hassle of getting a full ascended Rampager set just for a few dungeons you only have incentive to do once. You can get Fractal daily super easily without going past 77 so anything past that is solely for the one-time cheevy.

siestakey.9378:

If you want to do any type of sustained condition dmg on mesmer in high level fractals without sacrificing your alacrity pumping potential. You need to be dueling/illusions/chronomancer. Vipers gear/weapons, sinister trinkets. Duelists discipline/phantasmal haste with signet of ether as healing skill. Starting a fight you start 2 phantasmal duelists and then scepter 3 pistol 5 for breakbars. Drop your wells to get alacrity going strong. As soon as you are able pop pistol 4 for a 3rd duelist then swap immediately to your viper staff and camp staff dancing around dropping staff 5 and using 4 situationally. Then drop more wells on cooldown. Only swap back to pistol/scepter to summon more duelists. Taking full advantage of the phantasms taking 95% less dmg they will RARELY die and if they do you can use the heal signet to get two back up quickly without losing much dps uptime. If you have the right group who can maintain 25 vuln/might and good quickness uptime on your iduelists you can maintaing CRAZY sustain condi dmg. I was pushing numbers in fractals tonight that were very impressive, 10k bleed ticks with around 5 might and 5 vuln on target and no quickness. I can see a top level mesmer in the right group easily hitting 20k bleeds. Also the duelists attacks are 20% projectile finisher so fire fields be sexy. ALSO rangers sun spirit become super sexy. Warrior condi bannerz. Sexy

also because it is passive dmg through your phantasms leaves you more time to run around and do fight mechanics and avoid red circles not dying and wiping your groups as often. Unlike those sinister condi engis who are so focused on their 60000 button cooldown management system rotation that they keep dying to bloomhungers circles.

I run something like this in dungeons but with sinister gear and it works great (i think) As an added note, wells and chaos storm are ethereal fields so having 3 duelists or wardens up usually stacks about 15-20 confusion if your party lacks fields.

SuperHappyGrunt.2591:

Interesting build, whats the damage numbers like?

Not sure about dmg numbers but I have been able to keep constant 20-30 bleeds with 2 duelists and 1 avanger for some more alacrity (I still believe its main role of chrono), and like 15-25 conf most of the time (ethereal combo with wells).
I really believe that with some changes to interrupt this would be much better build. With trash around single shield 5 alone can stack like 20conf in no time.
The sword AA’s are not much weaker than in full zerker (3rd in chain is hitting like 2-4k depending on might instead of 3-5 as far as I remember that was the numbers in zerker).
I’d love to use staff but its just a great utility with breakstuns and chaos armor but I kinda feel it falls behind for dps without staff clones and we are sacrifacing shield for that which means less alacrity/quickness