Guild Wars 2

I’ve been wanting to create some sort condition build for my mesmer and my first thought was a confusion/torment build. Is it any good or reliable against an enemy zerg or even for roaming. I want to get information from others before spending gold on a build that isn’t very effective and isn’t very cheap to make.

Torment shatter is hard and the effect is limited in ZvZ. But certainly useful in roaming. Problem with ZvZ is your clone/phantasm die immediately. If you summon your illusions among their zerg they’re either killed by zerg’s buffing AoE or CC train when the zerg is charging. If you summon your illusions and let them run into enemies for shatter…well they also died miserably. The only reliable way of confusion is glamour but following the nerf they’re useful in tagging but subpar in damaging. Some confusion/torment weapon skills may potentially build up reliable conditions on few opponents in zerg but they’re usually quickly cleansed (emphasis on the word potential).

Conditions don’t work very much in zergs due to the massive amount of condition cleansing.

On top of that, landing a shatter in a zerg can prove quite the feat, since our clones are dying like flies, so the torment on shatter trait won’t work.

The torment from scepter only afflicts 1 target. You can go with runes/sigils to reapply more torment, but the condition cleansing I mentioned earlier can easily handle that.

TL;DR: conditions don’t work in ZvZ

While I wouldn’t argue with the above posts, for ZvZ, the torment/confusion shatter build is probably one of our better options now. I’m definitely tagging more now, that’s for sure.

Just to be clear, I’m definitely not saying mesmer is on par with GWEN for ZvZ, but we’re better than we were.

Dhampyr.2104:

While I wouldn’t argue with the above posts, for ZvZ, the torment/confusion shatter build is probably one of our better options now. I’m definitely tagging more now, that’s for sure.

Just to be clear, I’m definitely not saying mesmer is on par with GWEN for ZvZ, but we’re better than we were.

Tagging more doesn’t mean you’re being more useful. I could drop Shattered Concentrations for Confusing Enchantments and I would tag much more, but the boon ripping is way more useful than a bunch of 200ish.

I don’t see condi cleansing the truly problem. What I think is more important is that we apply very low stacks of conditions (confusion, torment and bleeding). Damage will be a lot spread, but you won’t be pushing enemies hard.
And the real key in zergs is not CC, but spike damage…

Ansau.7326:

Dhampyr.2104:

While I wouldn’t argue with the above posts, for ZvZ, the torment/confusion shatter build is probably one of our better options now. I’m definitely tagging more now, that’s for sure.

Just to be clear, I’m definitely not saying mesmer is on par with GWEN for ZvZ, but we’re better than we were.

Tagging more doesn’t mean you’re being more useful. I could drop Shattered Concentrations for Confusing Enchantments and I would tag much more, but the boon ripping is way more useful than a bunch of 200ish.

I don’t see condi cleansing the truly problem. What I think is more important is that we apply very low stacks of conditions (confusion, torment and bleeding). Damage will be a lot spread, but you won’t be pushing enemies hard.
And the real key in zergs is not CC, but spike damage…

A mesmer’s usefulness isn’t rooted in DPS at all. We bring things to the group that nobody else can, and a skillful mesmer can turn the tide of a battle. We’ll likely never compete with guards, warr, ele, or necro for ZvZ DPS. Thing is, none of them bring what I bring, and that’s why I still play mesmer in groups.

Folks say we’re weak in groups. While that’s true from a purely numbers standpoint, I’ve lost count of how many times my well-placed veil or portal has grabbed a win from defeat. If people want numbers, roll a different profession. If people want to make a difference, well, playing mesmer is still a fun thing to do.

Dhampyr.2104:

Ansau.7326:

Dhampyr.2104:

While I wouldn’t argue with the above posts, for ZvZ, the torment/confusion shatter build is probably one of our better options now. I’m definitely tagging more now, that’s for sure.

Just to be clear, I’m definitely not saying mesmer is on par with GWEN for ZvZ, but we’re better than we were.

Tagging more doesn’t mean you’re being more useful. I could drop Shattered Concentrations for Confusing Enchantments and I would tag much more, but the boon ripping is way more useful than a bunch of 200ish.

I don’t see condi cleansing the truly problem. What I think is more important is that we apply very low stacks of conditions (confusion, torment and bleeding). Damage will be a lot spread, but you won’t be pushing enemies hard.
And the real key in zergs is not CC, but spike damage…

A mesmer’s usefulness isn’t rooted in DPS at all. We bring things to the group that nobody else can, and a skillful mesmer can turn the tide of a battle. We’ll likely never compete with guards, warr, ele, or necro for ZvZ DPS. Thing is, none of them bring what I bring, and that’s why I still play mesmer in groups.

Folks say we’re weak in groups. While that’s true from a purely numbers standpoint, I’ve lost count of how many times my well-placed veil or portal has grabbed a win from defeat. If people want numbers, roll a different profession. If people want to make a difference, well, playing mesmer is still a fun thing to do.

And that’s why I play a boon-ripping shatter build. Quite useful, ok DPS (seeing 3k with MW and 4k with BF), lots of mobility and really skillful.

Ansau.7326:

And that’s why I play a boon-ripping shatter build. Quite useful, ok DPS (seeing 3k with MW and 4k with BF), lots of mobility and really skillful.

Exactly. And that’s why I play torment/confusion condi shatter with GS/Staff. I get plenty of bags myself, and the survivability is better (in my opinion). To each their own, imo.