Guild Wars 2

Hey guys,

So I’m looking at trying to put together a GS main weapon Glamour build and am curious about itemization and stats. Now, obviously I want something with a ton of Condition damage since my main source of damage will be Glamour Confusion. I’m not going to have 20 points in Dueling, since I’m going 20/0/0/20/30, so Crit seems kind of worthless since I won’t be stacking bleeds….

So would I skip Precision then too, or does it have an other use, besides my own crits? I’d like to build myself to mostly WvW obviously, being a Glamour build and all, but I also want to be able to hopefully dungeon sometimes with this build. Which is where it gets tricky since I know Confusion ain’t great in PvE. Hence, wanting to have a bit of self burst still.

Should I focus Power/Condition Damage?

Eucalyptus.9784:

Hey guys,

So I’m looking at trying to put together a GS main weapon Glamour build and am curious about itemization and stats. Now, obviously I want something with a ton of Condition damage since my main source of damage will be Glamour Confusion. I’m not going to have 20 points in Dueling, since I’m going 20/0/0/20/30, so Crit seems kind of worthless since I won’t be stacking bleeds….

So would I skip Precision then too, or does it have an other use, besides my own crits? I’d like to build myself to mostly WvW obviously, being a Glamour build and all, but I also want to be able to hopefully dungeon sometimes with this build. Which is where it gets tricky since I know Confusion ain’t great in PvE. Hence, wanting to have a bit of self burst still.

Should I focus Power/Condition Damage?

Separate your glamour builds and your pve builds. They don’t mix, not even slightly.

For a glamour build, you want a massive focus on condition damage. Greatsword is ok for this build, although not optimal as it doesn’t produce condition damage, because the vast majority of your firepower will come from glamours.

In pve, not only is confusion useless, but glamours are completely useless for applying confusion because of their long cooldowns. This is not a build that works in pve, not even a little bit. My advice is don’t try to make it work, you’ll just end up producing a build that isn’t really great at anything.

I think I’m going to try rolling something like this:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.0|1.1g.h17|6.1g.h5|1b.716.1b.716.1b.716.1b.716.1b.716.1b.716|1b.64.1b.64.1b.64.1b.64.1b.64.1b.64|k48.0.0.k29.u589|0.0|31.3a.38.39.0|e

As sort of a hybrid Glamour/tolerable PvE build. I’d probably be switching between GS/Staff as the situation needed, but in WvW the main focus would be GS + Glamour, and in PvE perhaps a more supportive Confusion/Staff role, as the Condition Damage would work well with Staff auto attack.

PvE is easy anyways….

Gear is Full Rabid with Nightmare Runes, and Full Rabid with Emeralds.

Stats sit at:
40% Crit
1156 Condition Damage
30% Condition duration (+33% confusion)
17k HP
2.4k Armor
Plus the Glamours have reduced cooldowns and last longer.

Looks pretty decent on paper to me. As amazing as any Glamour build for WvW, and not too shabby if played with a Staff for PvE.

Using 6 nightmare runes is a bad choice, put in an undead for the 6th slot.

The problem is you have really low power, at 1385. This will mean your greatsword will do very low damage.

Additionally, your condition damage (with the food buffs I added for you) is 1360. Your confusion wont really hit all that hard either.

The problem with this build is precisely what I had identified earlier. As a glamour build, it is weak. Compared to a fully focused condition glamour, you’ll do far less damage. The glamour build that I run with has slightly less than 2000 condition damage with a fully stacked sigil, and its not quite done being geared up yet. Additionally, a condition damage mesmer is pretty horrific in pve, not just confusion, due to a variety of reasons that I’ve been over many times.

On the other hand, you have really low power. Your crit chance isn’t horrible actually, because of the rabid gear, but it’s also not very good. However, because of your extremely low damage, your greatsword will hit very very softly. In pve, you will do horrible damage with the greatsword, especially considering the phantasm is horrifically unreliable due to the bugs.

This build is sorta decent at doing damage with a greatsword, and sorta decent at doing damage with conditions. Adding them together gets you a build that’s sorta halfway decent at being a glamour build, but since mesmer condition damage is really bad in pve, you end up at a build that’s just sorta meh in pve.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Separate your glamour builds and your pve builds. They don’t mix, not even slightly.

In pve, not only is confusion useless, but glamours are completely useless for applying confusion because of their long cooldowns. This is not a build that works in pve, not even a little bit. My advice is don’t try to make it work, you’ll just end up producing a build that isn’t really great at anything.

I disagree, While confusion isn’t optimal in MOST fights, There are some select boss fights in which confusion completely destroys certain bosses. Risen Priest of Grenth for example. Each icicle he drops ticks confusion, With proper timing, it’s fairly easy to dish out 60k+ damage with proper confusion stacking. The same thing occurs with the boss in the Ice Fractal. Each icicle = Confusion. – Direct damage in PvE is generally the safer option, but there ARE fights in which confusion is the single best condition to use.

Glamours are also not completely useless for applying Confusion in PvE. They have long cooldowns, but with a traited pistol, Duelist firing through an ethereal field, It’s another 8 stacks per duelist. Although that requires a completely different build (20 in dueling at minimum)

As for the OP, With a 20 0 0 20 30 build
Greatsword is not very optimal to use in that build, at all. With no power it’s going to do squat for damage, It’s clones won’t potentially cause bleeding, and it’s Phantasm is buggier than ever. (Feels like another 20% drop in damage, though that’s probably paranoia)

x/Focus would be a wonderful thing with a glamour build, You can pull people through the field an additional time.

Precision wouldn’t be very good on the build either, While I generally feel that Rabid is usually better than Carrion, for that specific build I’d feel it might pay off more. Your damage reduction and deterrence can come from loading up on Chaos Armors, From Staff or from Combo Leaps in an Ethereal Field.

Blinding Befuddlement + Chaos Armor offers incredible survivabilty and damage. I’ve killed fast attacking Rangers with just one Staff 4 use.

If you do PvE, You could also take a look at the Ascended Condition/Toughness/Vit/small amount of Precision gear.

thetarot.8246:

I disagree, While confusion isn’t optimal in MOST fights, There are some select boss fights in which confusion completely destroys certain bosses. Risen Priest of Grenth for example. Each icicle he drops ticks confusion, With proper timing, it’s fairly easy to dish out 60k+ damage with proper confusion stacking. The same thing occurs with the boss in the Ice Fractal. Each icicle = Confusion. – Direct damage in PvE is generally the safer option, but there ARE fights in which confusion is the single best condition to use.

A couple select fights don’t really make the condition much less useless in pve. Subject alpha will also proc massive amounts of confusion damage. The thing is, by focusing on confusion, you make yourself useless for killing anything else. At grenth, you’re useless for shades (though dealing 60k damage is pretty sexy), in the fractals, there’s no guarantee you’ll even get that fractal, and in CoE you’re useless for anything but subject alpha. It’s just not worth it.

Alright what if I swapped all my gear for Carrion stuff and just rocked Power/Cond/Vit gear, to help balance my “Hybrid” style of GS + Condition?

I know it’s somewhat gimping myself still, but I’m not trying to min-max necessarily, I’m about having fun while still being useful. I think a Glamour build with Staff definitely has a lot of use, although I see the benefit of a focus too. The severe lack of mobility will probably get to me anyways.

My survival would be very good still with Null field + remove a condition on heal, Chaos armor, a knockback and a ton of clone generation + port (Staff 2), and just general Good mesmer play knowledge…

Thoughts on this?

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.0|1.1g.h17|6.1g.h5|1h.716.1h.716.1h.716.1h.716.1h.716.1h.b19|1h.62.1h.62.1h.62.1h.62.1h.62.1h.62|k48.0.0.k24.u589|0.0|31.3a.38.39.0|e

Edit: There has to be an effective GS/Staff build …

There are effective gs/staff builds, they just utilize straight power/crit damage with greatsword as primary weapon, and staff as defense + the warlock that hits like a mac truck.

I don’t understand why people try to make these severely hybrid builds that are meh at everything and good at nothing. It really isn’t that hard to swap gear and traits when you leave pve and go to wvw, or vice versa. It takes me a maximum of 30 seconds to swap all my gear and reset my traits, and for that 30s of cost, I can have a build 100% optimized for condition damage with glamours, and then swap to my tank build 100% optimized for damage reduction/return/etc, and then swap to my phantasm support build for 100% pve damage and team utility.

Well for the time being it’s more of a Gear Availability thing to be honest… but also just preference of not swapping gear all the time.

If I were to compromise and use Staff + Sword/Focus, would the Rabid set I initially had listed be the best Glamour gear setup?

So this:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.3|6.1b.h5|c.1b.h17.d.1b.0|1b.716.1b.716.1b.716.1b.716.1b.716.1b.b19|1b.62.1b.62.1b.62.1b.62.1b.62.1b.62|k48.0.0.k29.u589|0.0|31.38.3d.39.0|e

For the glamour build, I’d recommend scepter over sword. Confusing images is a fantastic way to stack up lots of confusion in a group, and the line aoe blind from activating the block will add an additional stack of confusion. Also remember to toss out that last nightmare rune and put in an undead rune. 5% chance to fear when you’re hit does you no good.

Other than that, it looks good. Keep in mind you can pick up exotic rabid accessories from the temple of dwayna, and you can slot them with crests of the rabid if you so choose, though the orbs work fine. Consider that you can also choose to trait the focus. This won’t always be optimal, but it will allow you to reflect projectiles with the curtain, which can be super useful in a lot of situations.

Interesting – will have to play with Scepter a bit, never used it much tbh. I liked the Sword MH swap so I could combo for Chaos armor with Leap, as well as the 2s Distortion obviously but… I guess both weapons are situational.

Thanks a lot for the feedback – sorry for being stubborn Appreciate it.

Cheers,

Man Pyro’s doing all the hard work for me in replying to confusion builds

Check out some of my video’s if you want to see the Scepter use with confusion builds

Yeah Pyro likes to talk hahaha

To the op there is a pretty decent gs glamour build but it drops the 20 in inspiration and puts the points in dueling, uses carrion armor. It’s pretty much great for running with a zerg and tagging all the enemy players, you’ll get tons of bags, and be helpful in that you’ll have combo fields up and a little added damage from confusion tho you won’t have very high condition damage. Its no good solo wvw because you’re not strong enough in any direction to kill anyone cept maybe a noob or two. It would probably be your best bet for an easy way to switch between a pve/wvw build without switching gear, just change a couple traits and utilities and it turns into a shatter build for pve. Check the guide list stickies at the top of the page for playandchill’s guide.

Heh. You could try the following:
30 Dom (GS Training/Confusing Enchantments)
20 Chaos (Chaotic Dampening)
20 Illusions (Master of Misdirection/Blinding Befuddlement … swap for Illusionary Elasticity when needed)

Staff/GS, Rampager weaponry, Carrion Armour, Rabid Trinkets. You’d still be rather hybrid, but would pack decent power for both GS and IWarlock hits. You’d also be able to still do some Glamourbomb, but less efficiently. Another similar set’d be 30/0/0/20/20, with GS/ScepFocus.
Either spec -with that EQ- should at least keep you alive in a 1v1, although you will
want to swap in some utility clone-gen to help out. Especially since you’d lack Dueling, and its improvements to both clone-gen and bleeds.

(OTOH: I’m not going to say that Pyroatheist is wrong, buildwise. Truth is, we -as a class- do excel at specialization. Correspondingly, we rather bite at being generalists.
I personally settled on Rabid Armour/Trinkets, Rampager weapons. Keeps a bit of extra Precision/Power for Condition procs and Power-based weapon attacks.)

I had thought about compromising and just using a Staff/Sword+Focus, but last night I did some dungeons in crappy gear with an odd spec, and just can’t kick the GS playstyle. I do understand that we suck at hybrids though, so perhaps I’ll lean towards Power more. I just don’t like being all power focused.

I’ll have a look at a 30/0/20/0/20 build with GS/Staff maybe. Or even GS/Sword-focus?

A mix of Rampager/Carrion/Rabid is what I presume I would use. I can afford to be a bit squishy because I’ll have a lot of good “getaways” to stay alive with abilities anyways I think.