Guild Wars 2

Just hit level 80 and tried out a couple dungeons. Those runs generally went okay. I don’t want to jump to conclusions, but I had a couple issues. And I’d like to have a plan in mind before I invest what is a lot for me to make exotic armor and weapons.

Leveling has been great, and I really enjoy the greatsword. I like all the skills. In addition, as an Asura, I’ve had a ton of fun using it conjunction with Radiation Field. For 15 seconds, I can shoot mirror blade and iBeserker through it and tear down groups. The extra poison and weakness has made a ton of fights really easy. My current build is 20, 20, 0, 0, 30. The dodge to create a clone in the dueling line and the synergy of the increased crits and bleeds from the clones seems fantastic. I’ve used a few options as weapon set 2. The most fun was sword/pistol as the iDuelist firing out of the poison field causes havoc.

So here’s the issues I see in dungeons. I’m squishy and I’m not sure I’m providing enough support. In regular pve, I generally just kite if things are tough. So I’m thinking about gear / traits for a bit more survivability (I have berserker gear now – armor is only green). In terms of helping others, I try to use lots of fields. In addition to raditiation, I have time warp, null field, and I’ve equipped staff for Chaos Storm. But staff for chaos form feels a bit like a waste. I can get a lot of conditions going and throw out iWarlock. But most of the other skills feel a little underwhelming.

So basically I’m wondering what people recommend if I want to take the position that I want to keep GS but I’m flexible on traits and secondary weapons. I’m open on any recommendations – would like to plan carefully before I start making/buying final equipment. Thx!

i dont do dungeons so this may be stupid of me to say but i would go with:
staff and second set i dont know (not gs though)
for gear stats i would look at something with condition dmg (duh), a survival stat (toughness, vitality, healing) and precision (clones bleed on crit trait). Pretty sure a stat combination of toughness, condition dmg, precision exists but i think it might be interesting trying a healing, condition, precision build and getting the trait that heals when using a mantra and picking up mantra of pain just for an aoe healing skill. Again im not sure how optimal that would be or if that stat combo exists.

Here is a build I’m considering. Probably I should give up on the Asura radiation field racial, but it just seems very helpful to get offense and defense and combo abilities for 15 seconds

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAR8dlwzCqHVz5GadJipC925DUHaBkUoapWJF42FC;TwA5TCnkOpeS5E1MmZEzYnxNjcmBGA

I’m doing dungeons with a GS/Staff build, so far I did AC, TA, CoF and SE without problems. I’ve used various builds:
20/10/10/25/5 – Phantasms build (+30% dmg on phantasms, GS CD reduction), its ok, but once you have the phantasms up you basically stand and do nothing and can’t use Mirror Blades (good dps skill) nor Phase retreat (fantastic defensive skill) in order not to substitute one of the phantasms by a clone, but if you go for Inspiration trait that gives heals on mantras you can then switch to casting mantra of pain time after time to heal your teammates (check Pyro’s Ultiate support build)
10/20/10/10/20 – a kind of a shatter build, with Mind Wrack +20% dmg trait, clone on dodge, Debilitating dissipation for a chance of weakness on clone’s death and Illusionary elasticity for another bounce on WoC and Mirror Blades – it’s ok, you deal dmg when shattering and even if the clones die or get substituted they either cause aoe weakness, 3x vulnerablity or 3x bleed

Soon I’m going to try a 20/20/20/0/10 build for CD reduction on both GS and Staff clone on dodge and 3%dmg per illusion.

Overall conclusions:
- I think IP is not that useful in dungeons since you want to stay away from mobs (I think one second distortion on a long CD will not save you as much as being aware of your surroudings staying 600 units away from harm )
- 10 in Inspiration for the Remove Condition on Heal trait is worth it (especially paired with runes of the centaur – e.g. if you get immobilized you heal, remove immobilize and get swiftness to run away more efficiently)
- 20 in Inspiration for Warden’s feedback is useful for some of the dungeons
- 5 in Illusions is more important than CD reduction trait for any weapon
- There’s no point in putting a lot of focus on defensive gear if you go for staff CD reduction trait – you get to Phase retreat every 6 sec, have good uptime of chaos armor and can frequently cast chaos storm – just keep moving and you’ll be fine

Hope it helps. Cheers!

Drop 20 from Domination and put 20 in Inspiration so stats are 0/20/0/20/30.

20 in Inspiration helps opens up a good chunk of ally-support options. Phantasms grant AoE regeneration. Feedback Bubble (3s) when you revive your ally on a 10s CD. Self-curing Conditions on Heal. Healing on Mantra charging. Glamour Skills Recharge Faster and/or last longer (read Feedback or Null Field). Lastly, Focus skills REFLECT projectiles. Pick two, any two.
(If you really want to just support, put 30 in Inspiration by dropping 10 from Illusion as well. Trading IP for a third from Inspiration can be really worth it in dungeons. Then you can select three.)

20 in Inspiration basically sets you up for Reflection spamming, which is a great help in projectile-happy fights as its both defensive for your allies and offensive in that the enemies die faster.
When massive amounts of Reflections aren’t needed? I usually slot Mender’s Purity and Restorative Mantras myself (When I’ve got 20 in Inspiration. Warden’s Feedback is the 3rd in 30 Inspiration). With Mantra of Recovery, this usually leads to a rather nice amount of healing done over time (with the skill almost always off CD when I need it … even if I have to charge it), and it cures 2x Conditions per charge instantly. No 1s cast time to get out of the Immobilize to dodge, no 1s cast time to get out of cripple, no 1s cast time before you get some health. Just the 3s cast time to actually make use of it once you use 2x charges during the fight.
- I usually ignore slotting Mantra of Pain for AoE ally healing, preferring just to catch an ally or two that needs it when I start charging my own Mantra of Recovery. I will slot MoP when I know a fight we will be standing close to each other and taking damage.

Further support? Boon Ripping. MH-Sword + Clones can help deal with a number of pesky Boons from a number of Dungeon bosses. It just takes getting used to being in melee for a bit to actually use the Sword. There really isn’t much that can keep up for the amount of boon removal the MH-Sword + 3x Clones can do.

Lastly is consumables of the Environmental Weapons variety.
Mortar Seed Turret #3 for the Healing Turret always AoE heals a flat 400 hp every 5 seconds no matter the level. Not too useful at 80 (Its about half that of what 5s of Regen would give at the LEAST), but its still nice have around. Especially for the lower capped dungeons, where your hp pool is smaller. (Use #1 or #2, doesn’t matter as both are the same despite what they say as both just do damage, when you just want to throw in an extra bit of damage.)
Frost Gun. Chilled Condition is always great, and a way to constantly slow a creature’s movement speed is RARE for Mesmers without getting 3x Zerkers up on a target. The Flamethrower-like quality means you can apply this to numerous creatures at once. Just make sure to have your Phantasms up before equipping this weapon.
Pot of Hylek Poison. Poison Condition. Poison is great on a number of bosses that like to self-heal or have regeneration of some type. Again, Poison for a long period of time is something we Mesmers can’t pull off normally.
Medical Kits. Condition Removal, Fury+Haste, and a bit of healing. The fact these are left on the ground for others to pickup potentially can be a boon.
Healing Seed Pods. Condition Removal + Regen for 5 seconds AoE. Again, useful. Especially if Null Field is down to rip conditions from allies.

As Leshay mentioned, I did put together a support build with staff and greatsword designed specifically for PvE. It focuses on damage through phantasms, and party support from aoe healing and regen.

The build can be found here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-PvE-Supporting-Phantasm-Build/first#post1384283

Thanks very much for all the help!

I was definitely noticing that I was having a hard time deciding between wanting clones out and not wanting them out.

I will give your build a shot, Pyro. Thx for sharing! One question – where do you try to stand with this build? From soloing mostly up to 80, I’m used to moving around a lot and dropping clones. And from playing a shatter build, I have bad habits of flipping through guys and shattering. I’m guessing this is still about standing at range, but close enough to the party to share the heals.

I run Sword/Sword and GS in fractals. I found that all of my survivability issues were resolved by Mixed Berry Pies, they sell for a little over a silver each for 30 minutes of 60 Precision and a 50% chance to heal yourself for ~300 whenever you crit. With my berserker jewelry that means I heal myself quite a lot with triple hitting GS auto attack or invulnerable blurred frenzies. Granted, I feel I’m fairly good at avoiding damage in the first place. I’ve been running 20+ Fractals with 0-5 Agony resist (with friends) and I am usually among the most survivable in the group, the exception being the Jade Maw unavoidable Agony. Luckily it’s extremely predictable so a concentrated effort usually saves me :P

My build is also a typical 20/20/0/30. The extra dodge from a 1s Distortion at will us nice, and I feel like providing a burst if 20 stacks of Vulnerability every 30s is worthwhile to my team’s overall damage capabilities (4x Daze from Diversion combined with 15 pt Dom trait).

If you and the others know what they are doing, go 20/20/0/0/30 if you like the GS.

If not, speccing into Inspiration will help you and your group to live a bit longer. Take some trait points out of Illusions, as you want them as distraction and for the regeneration, and not for the mind wrack damage.