Guild Wars 2

Heya peeps, been messing around with builds a bit recently, and discovered that I actually really like the utility of Manipulations in WvW, so decided to try and build something around it, however, in the process I noticed that the same build can also translate well into PvE with a few adjustments to chosen traits/weapons.

WvW

This is aimed at solo/small group roaming, whereas it may work in zergs, there are better choices out there that don’t rely on phantasms which are incredibly prone to going splat in large fights.

http://bit.ly/1imkBoo

Weapons:

• Greatsword – Berserker’s ( Sigil of Battle )
• Sword/Pistol – Berserker’s ( Sigil of Battle/Sigil of Perception )

Armour:

• Berserker’s with a Knight’s Coat and Valkyrie Boots.

Trinkets:

• Amulet: Berserker ( Exotics ), if you can afford Ascended, then Bers/Valk.
• Rings: Valkyrie ( Exotics ), if you can afford Ascended, then Cavalier.
• Accessories: Berserker/Knights.
• Back: Cavalier/Soldier ( Whichever you prefer ).

Food/Enhancement:

• Curry Butternut Squash ( Prec/Crit Dam ) or Curry Pumpkin Soup ( Prec/Vit ).
• Superior Sharpening Stone ( Power ) or Master Maintenance Oil ( Precision )

Final Stats:

• ~3k Attack
• ~50-60% Critical Chance
• ~80-90% Critical Damage
• ~18-20k Health depending on Valk/Cavalier
• ~2.1-2.3k Armour depending on Valk/Cavalier

Traits and Utilities

Mirror /Decoy*/Arcane Thievery/Blink/ Mass Invisibility

• Mirror is just personal preference, short CD, reflects projectiles and procs swiftness every 15 secs.
• Decoy is also personal preference, if you’d rather have an AoE-stability for your group, take MoConcentration instead.
• Arcane Thievery is a personal favourite of mine, great for dealing with Condition and Boon based builds alike. If you can steal a guardian’s Stability/Protection/Aegis, you’re in for a good time. Being murdered by some nasty Torment/Bleeding/Poison stacks? Return the favour.
• Blink is hands down my fave breakstun we have as a Mesmer, and when traited can move you a luuuurvely 1200 ( feet? yards? I still have no idea what this number refers to haha ) every 24 seconds.
• Mass Invisibility is great for both personal and team-based offence and defense. Can save your life, secure a stomp or be used to get in/out of a fight.

10/20/15/25/0

10 – Domination:

• III – Empowered Illusions: Illusions inflict 15% more damage.

The build focuses on our phantasms for both damage and defense, more damage is always handy and this combined with the Inspiration Grandmaster Minor trait, results in some pretty huge numbers, seen iWarlocks hitting upwards of 15-16k in PvE, sure it could be higher with higher levels of vulnerability on the targets.

20 – Dueling:

• I – Long Reaching Manipulations: Your manipulations have increased range ( +300 )
• II – Phantasmal Fury: Your phantasms have fury.

As I tried to focus this build around the damage of phantasms and the utility of manipulations, these seemed to be fairly strong choices for me, however, they are flexible. You will be running around 50% crit once Perception has built up it’s stacks, so if you don’t feel the need for Phantasmal Fury, or the added range on Manipulations doesn’t tickle your fancy, feel free to swap them out for Blade Training/Duelists Discipline for faster recharges on your pistol interrupt/illusions/blurred frenzy.

15 – Chaos:

• III – Master of Manipulation: Your manipulation skills recharge 20% faster.

Went 15 into this tree for 2 main reasons. One, shorter recharges on Blink/Thievery. Two, the Master Minor trait ( Phantasms grant Regeneration to nearby allies ) compliments the Inspiration Master Minor trait ( Gain 2 seconds of Protection when you gain Regeneration ). With phantasms being our primary method of damage, this grants Regen/Protection a lot of the time.

25 – Inspiration

• IV – Mender’s Purity: Healing removes a condition.
• V – Persisting Images: Phantasms have 20% more health.

Went 25 in this line for several reasons. Even with Arcane Thievery, conditions are still a problem, being able to remove one every 20 seconds ( Ether Feast ),15 seconds ( Mirror ) or 10 seconds ( Mantra of Recovery ) is incredibly handy. I also take Persisting Images to give my phantasms a little more health so that enemies focusing them down isn’t always the best option, and it helps me to keep up Regeneration/Protection. And last but not least, the GM Minor, +15% damage to our phantasms.

PvE

This dungeon variation replaces the manipulations with glamours, which are ( in my opinion anyway ) a better choice for dungeons.

http://bit.ly/1gSB20h

Weapons:

• Sword/Focus – Berserker’s ( Sigil of Perception/Sigil of Battle )
• Sword/Pistol – Berserker’s ( Sigil of Perception/Sigil of Battle )
• Just keep one sword with Sigil of Perception and put Battle on the OH Swaps. If you want, bring another Sword with a Sigil of Force or Fire to switch to once you have full Perception stacks.

Armour:

• Berserker’s with a Knight’s Coat and Valkyrie Boots.

Trinkets:

• Amulet: Berserker ( Exotics ), if you can afford Ascended, then Bers/Valk.
• Rings: Valkyrie ( Exotics ), if you can afford Ascended, then Cavalier.
• Accessories: Berserker/Knights.
• Back: Cavalier/Soldier ( Whichever you prefer ).

Food/Enhancement:

• Curry Butternut Squash ( Prec/Crit Dam ) or Curry Pumpkin Soup ( Prec/Vit ).
• Superior Sharpening Stone ( Power ) or Master Maintenance Oil ( Precision )

Final Stats:

• ~3k Attack
• ~50-60% Critical Chance
• ~80-90% Critical Damage
• ~18-20k Health depending on Valk/Cavalier
• ~2.1-2.3k Armour depending on Valk/Cavalier

Traits and Utilities

Mirror /Feedback/Null Field/MoConc/ Time Warp

• Mirror is just my preferred heal, feel free to swap it out for either of the others.
• Feedback is immensely useful in dungeons, the reflection provided from this and your focus are invaluable.
• Null Field is handy for heavy condition fights, however, this is more of a spare slot. Feel free to use this for Portal or w/e else takes your fancy. If you don’t want to use a second glamour here, change the Inspiration trait II ( Glamour Mastery ), to V ( Persisting Images ).
• Mantra of Concentration is a handy little tool in dungeons. AoE-Stability ( albeit it with a rather small radius ) that breaks stuns and can be used twice every 25 seconds. Very powerful ability.
• Time Warp. What more needs to be said? Warn your party, pop this down and watch things melt.

10/20/15/25/0

10 – Domination:
*III – Empowered Illusions: Illusions inflict 15% more damage.

The build focuses on our phantasms for both damage and defense, more damage is always handy and this combined with the Inspiration Grandmaster Minor trait, results in some pretty huge numbers, seen iWarlocks hitting upwards of 15-16k in PvE, sure it could be higher with higher levels of vulnerability on the targets.

20 – Dueling:

• II – Phantasmal Fury: Your phantasms have fury.
• IV – Blade Training: Sword skills recharge 20% faster.

Any way to buff your phantasms is good, hence the Phantasmal Fury, however, in PvE being at range isn’t always the best option ( you miss out on a lot of your partys boons. Might, Fury etc ), so taking a MH Sword for both weapon sets is recommended. As you aren’t full glass ( armour-wise ) it’s not particularly risky either as long as you use your shatters/frenzy sensibly. As a result, I take IV – Blade Training, to make the sword a little more comfortable to use than it already is. If you prefer, take IX – Duelists Discipline instead for your duelist to be up more often.

15 – Chaos:

• III – Master of Manipulation: Your manipulation skills recharge 20% faster.

Went 15 into this tree for 2 main reasons. One, a little more defense while your phantasms are up. Two, the Master Minor trait ( Phantasms grant Regeneration to nearby allies ) compliments the Inspiration Master Minor trait ( Gain 2 seconds of Protection when you gain Regeneration ). With phantasms being our primary method of damage, this grants Regen/Protection a lot of the time.

25 – Inspiration

• II – Glamour Mastery: Glamour Skills recharge 20% faster.
• VIII – Warden’s Feedback: Focus skills reflect and recharge 20% faster.

Went 25 in this line for several reasons. Glamours are pretty kitten good in PvE, especially Feedback for it’s reflection. We then expand on this already powerful skill by traiting the Focus skills to also reflect projectiles back at their attackers, an incredibly useful ability to have. And of course, we can’t forget the GM Minor trait, +15% damage to our phantasms.

Playstyle

Thing I love about this build is it’s flexibility. It works with most weapons and setups and can be adjusted to do pretty much anything you want, in both PvE and WvW. I’ve even tried it out in sPvP and it seems to work just fine there as well.

At no point feel like you’re locked into a weapon set. If a fight really doesn’t allow you to stack up, feel free to use a Staff or a Greatsword. Staff has a fantastic AoE, and if your target has a lot of conditions, the iWarlock, it’s phantasm, hits like a train.

Don’t like sword? Take Scepter, with a power build it’s 3 ability ( Confusing Images ) ticks for a pretty decent amount, and the block can save your life ( but be careful with it’s auto attack, don’t let it overwrite your phantasms ). Don’t like Pistols? Take an OH Sword, the phantasm is one of the hardest hitting we have, and it’s block/interrupt is always useful.

In WvW I like to take Greatsword and Sword/Pistol. The GS has a nice knockback, fantastic range and a powerful, hard hitting phantasm that cripples your foe. The sword’s Blurred Frenzy is fantastic for both offense and defense, hitting very hard but also allowing you to evade things that are going to result in a painful death. Here’s a fun fact, you can Blink out of it. To avoid large AoE fields that you wouldn’t be able to roll out of/didn’t have time to evade.

Keep up your phantasms and your pressure, yes it’s a phantasm build but don’t be afraid to shatter. If all your phantasms attacks are on CD, and an enemy is close to death, feel free to Mind Wrack or Diversion to finish him off or interrupt a heal. Distortion can and will save your life if used right.

Take your time over things, pay attention to your enemies and time Thievery so that it causes maximum mayhem. Necro put conditions on you, his guardian gal-pal giving him stability? Give his friend those torment stacks and steal those boons. Pistol 5 is a fantastic daze/stun on a not-too-long CD, use it to interrupt heals etc, don’t just fire it off because, well, you can.

Feel free to try it out, any questions/criticisms/suggestions are welcome