Guild Wars 2

This build is designed for large group combat situations. It is extremely durable, and when used properly will guarantee massive amounts of bags.

Also, credit goes to Ross Biddle for the central idea of this build.

Traiting

The traits are 20/x/10/x/x. Those are pretty vague, and I’ll explain why in a minute.

The build that I personally use is found here

The only essential traits in this build are Confusing Enchantments, causing glamours to confuse, and Master of Manipulation, reducing the cooldown on your manipulations by 20%.

I additionally take crippling dissipation due to a lack of other good choices in domination. I take staff cooldowns for shorter phase retreats and chaos storms, and bountiful interruption for good boosts of might when I use chaos storm and temporal curtain. In dueling I take mantra cooldowns for much higher uptime on stability, and in inspiration I take glamour cooldowns to allow me to reach lower cooldown on veil/feedback/portal.

Weapons

Like the traits, the weapon selection for this build is very flexible. I personally tend to take Staff + Sword/Focus. The staff allows me to be highly mobile in larger fights, and chaos storm combined with the temporal curtain pull is great for aoe disruption. The sword also contributes to mobility with leap/swap, as well as adding a nice lockdown for hammer stuns with the swap immob. Blurred frenzy and sword autos are fantastic for adding pressure in a specific spot, and blurred frenzy is of course great defense.

Gearing Stats and Runes

I use full dire gear for maximum survivability. Rabid gear could also work.

The runes used are 6 runes of the guardian. These runes provide additional defense in the form of toughness, but most importantly the 6 rune bonus applies 1 second of burning on block, no internal cooldown, no maximum range (that I can tell) and no LoS requirement.

Utilities

The utilities are what makes this build work. The 2 utilities I never remove are Mantra of Concentration and Mimic. The third utility I take is usually Veil for group utility, but I’ll swap that out for feedback or portal as the situation demands.

Using the Build

The role of this build is aoe condition spreading combined with front line tanky assault. The real key to this build is Mimic.

Mimic has a 4.5 second long channel. If you get hit by a projectile during that channel, the skill activates. Once active, for the duration of the channel you will reflect all projectiles and block all other attacks (unblockable attacks will get through obviously, but unblockable projectiles like mirror blade will still activate the skill).

Due to the Guardian Runes, every block translates into 1 second of burning (+duration) on the source of whatever attack you blocked. Additionally, this 4.5 second blocking shield makes you more or less an unkillable tank, allowing you to easily wade through an enemy group without taking significant damage. Using feedback and/or nullfield as any other glamour build would allows you to increase your condition spread as well as deny projectiles through a choke or other area. Mantra of concentration allows you to ignore unblockable line denial skills such as line of warding or static field.

Once mimic is done, you can go into a general damage rotation of chaos storm, swap to sword for aoe bleeds from geomancy, and then sword attacks.

Traited for cooldowns, both the mantra and mimic are on 20 second cooldowns, which is incredibly short. Many fights will last long enough for multiple uses of mimic.

Vulnerabilities of the Build

If you don’t happen to absorb a projectile with mimic before wading into a zergball, you will die rapidly. A good way to ensure you die is dropping feedback, then walking through it with mimic up. Don’t do that. I guarantee that you will try it, and then die.

Ways to enhance your chances of getting hit with a projectile include:

• Leading the charge
  • If you are up front, you are first targeted, and likely to be hit
• Proccing it yourself
  • Walking close to a target and using the staff autoattack produces a friendly bouncing projectile that will be absorbed by mimic. This eliminates the guesswork and guarantees a good run
  • Mirror blade will also have this effect

I’m currently working to get some good footage of this build in action. It’s been working tremendously well now that I’ve been running with a more organized group.

Potential Modifications

I’m considering swapping out some of my dire gear for Pvt. Since the only real use for my condition damage is aoe tagging with the burning, I don’t necessarily need the full 1900+ condition damage that I reach with a stacked sigil and guard leech. I’ll experiment more with this in the future.

Reserved for future edits.

wait i always thought the 6th effect of the rune has an icd, and is it aoe burn?
This is awesome.

mimic has been my favorite utility skill for a long time, but have never even thought about those block!block!block! can proc anything…
you are always inspiring. thanks

Love that you’re finding a good use for Dire gear and running front line. I’ve been having a lot more fun in zerg battles on the front line rather than sniping from the rear, and easily getting 3x the loot bags as well.

I posted a similar build (build link) a little while ago, but relying more on interrupts and runes of perplexity (in all their cheesiness), which is pretty easy to proc in combination with null field.

Quick question: I’ve been switching back and forth between 20/25/25/0/0 and 0/25/25/20/0, between crippling dissipation & confusing enchantments (in domination) and medic’s feedback and warden’s feedback (in inspiration), but usually end up taking the latter. Any reason you prefer the former (i.e. is damage that much higher?), or is it mostly personal preference?

Also, quick suggestion re: sigils: There’s currently a bug with sigil of torment in that the cooldown is separate to other sigil cooldowns. As such, I’ve been using sigils of torment and fire, both of which are aoe, for a ton of additional condi pressure. Throw in a sigil of stamina for full energy on kills, and you can pump out nearly limitless clones on dodge for even more condi stacking.

Finally, awesome combo of mimic and runes of the guardian.

so one single enemy hits you for that 4 secs… how do you calculate the burning then? so every attack adds to initial duration of the first blocked attack?

StickerHappy.8052:

so one single enemy hits you for that 4 secs… how do you calculate the burning then? so every attack adds to initial duration of the first blocked attack?

i believe the burn stacks in duration.

@StickerHappy: Keenlam is correct. For example, if a mesmer comes up and blurred frenzies you, he will have 8s of burning.

@Bunda: Confusing enchantments really lets me spread massive amounts of confusion if used correctly. Dropping feedback/nullfield into a choke or other areas that the enemy is moving in a tightly packed blob allows you to really gum up the works, as it were. That opportunity doesn’t exist without that trait.

Wow, that combo Mimic-Guardian Rune can be a blast. But I see it won’t work very well against guilds. The fact that to activate it needs a projectile firsts is a big flaw. Most guilds are based on melee trains and non-projectile ranged people, so it’s more common to receive a warrior cc, necro mark or aoe ele skill.

Also, from my experience, focus is a broken weapon for zergs.
- Temporal curtain has a lot of problems: swiftness doesn’t stack, very few reflections due to the very low height of reflection (If it has something like the Guard wall would be different), puts you on combat with any creature it crosses it, and the pull has become very predictable with the internal CD (Only noobs and clueless people will fall from walls).
- iWarden has become the worst phantasm in zergs. Its root made it a mini-feedback. Now it has become the biggest failure chasing the enemy around all the aoe skills. It ends up doing no damage, not reflecting anything and giving the sensation you have been useless for those 2-3s.

I’ve run torch instead of focus and guys, what a change. It’s even good in a pure power build!!!
- Blast finisher (Hard to coordinate with statics and fields, but at least you’re not a stranger in the whole combo mechanic).
- Stealth gives you insane freedom and survivability on zergs. I was a bit skeptical about this at first, but after try it, you realize it gives you very good results.
- The burn/direct damage explosion means lot of damage.
- Even without the torch trait I find it much more useful. Yes, eles and guards are there to clean conditions, but having a personal one is always good. Think about immobilize, chill, long cripple from arrow carts, 20 stacks of bleeding, 10 stacks of confusion… And iMage at least attacks and can clean 1-2 conditions is best scenario.

With the new Dazzling Glamour change, I’d consider a 30/20/0/10/10. Lots of ways to apply conditions: Glamours, Mimic, shatters, Chaos storm and armor, Prestige blast, Scepter #3 is aoe if well applied…

This would be a great mesmer commander build.

Maybe going 10-20-10-0-30 and spec around 1450 tough/vit, put the rest on power and cond damage and then go shatter, causing confusion spread on shatter + damage + burning on the block and get mimic-blink-feedback/null field would maybe be better for mesmers just running with the raid and who can survive without being super tanks.

Edit: Maybe something like this? http://intothemists.com/guides/2129-raid_build_30

I also always assumed that the rune had an ICD on the 6th attribute. If not, this indeed is pretty interesting. Are you using Retaliatory Shield or isn’t it worth it because of wearing Dire? I personally would probably ditch Debilitating Dissipation in favour for Glamour Mastery.

Let’s hope they do not “nerf” Mimic today.

Xaylin.1860:

I also always assumed that the rune had an ICD on the 6th attribute. If not, this indeed is pretty interesting. Are you using Retaliatory Shield or isn’t it worth it because of wearing Dire? I personally would probably ditch Debilitating Dissipation in favour for Glamour Mastery.

Let’s hope they do not “nerf” Mimic today.

If they nerf something they will probably nerf the guardian rune.

However 1s of burning per block is pretty small….soooooooooo I don’t think anything will be nerfed.

If anyone hits you with a channeled attack they will suffer a much longer burn than just 1s. But yes, for this specific combo they could just implement an ICD for the rune.

However, I said “nerf” Mimic because Mimic obviously is in discussion to be changed based on the post of the patch preview. Jon literally said they want it to change. If they removed the block the combo above would not work anymore.

Question: as Mimic “reflect” (not block) projectile attack, would the 6th rune effect proc?

Projectiles wouldn’t activate the #6 effect, as reflection and block are different concepts, they both have their own mechanic and related traits.

For example, Missile Deflection, trait V Defense from warriors says: Reflect missiles whenever you are blocking.
The notes says: Reflecting a projectile no longer counts as blocking it, for the purpose of effects that trigger on block.

I don’t see why a mesmer would be running a condi build in large scale play. If your goal is to wade in the middle and proc burning on the frontline then you’re just going to get the condi ignored, shout-healed, or purging flamed off in under a second.

Glamour mes also died the day the confusion nerf hit. Any guild that still tries to run variants of it (like AVTR), can basically be ignored and rolled over on the battlefield.

You don’t have blink, you don’t have IP for on-demand invuln, you don’t have a stunbreak, all you have is this one util with a block that you plan to use offensively instead of defensively. Your build basically looks like rally bait against any coordinated zerg.

@ Pyro: the biggest concern I have with this build is going up against warriors using signet of might which make their attacks unblockable. How would you deal with that?

Seriously, if there are warriors using that sigil in zergs, they deserve to be called bad players…

@Ansau: I’ve been considering the use of torch for many of the same reasons.

@Blackdevil: A variation of this could definitely work well as a commander build, since it doesn’t rely so much on the high Mesmer mobility to make it work, easier to follow in that way.

@Keenlam: Ansau is correct in that. With regards to signet of might, warriors really don’t have room to run that in builds. Perhaps with the new heal skill you might see some, but I honestly doubt it.

@Pichichi: The point of the burning is not just for frontline, but also backline. Eles with ground target skills, rangers with barrage, necros with (untraited) marks, all of these will get hit with the burning, since there is no maximum range or LoS requirement. Hitting the frontline with burns is just an added bonus.

Contrary to your statement, glamours used properly can still have quite significant effects. 400ish damage per skill use on an entire Zerg at the moment of engagement is a significant effect, especially when you consider the additional reflection that feedback provides.

I have been taking Mantra of Concentration, and it’s been working rather nicely. I definitely was feeling the lack of stunbreaks, so that mantra very nicely fills the gap, and the aoe stab is a bonus.

Another benefit is from debilitating dissipation. When the frontline engages on your dodge clones, they get hit with cripple and weakness, along with bleeding and vuln, but those are secondary. Although both conditions may get cleared quickly, they still significantly hamper the effectiveness of the frontline at the moment of engagement.

@pyro

Do Consecutive hits really increase the burn duration? I tested it in pvp and somehow all it does is reset the burn timer. Maybe its just me.

StickerHappy.8052:

@pyro

Do Consecutive hits really increase the burn duration? I tested it in pvp and somehow all it does is reset the burn timer. Maybe its just me.

It’s very easy to see this with a multi-hit attack such as blurred frenzy or pistolwhip.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Also, credit goes to Ross Biddle for the central idea of this build.

Oh hey, cheers for that Pyro. You’re a star

One thing I found is that, having the torch, I can drop deceptive decoy. It allows for that much needed target dropping once I’ve run my mimic/glamors. Because of that I can run Mimic, Blink, Feedback. Blink is great for that much needed stun breaker, and also to eject you from a sticky situation. Since the build is light on condition removal, anytime I’ve eaten a huge stack of condi’s I can’t clear, I can simply 1200 range blink directly to my commander who’s standing on his next water field. Insta cleanse, insta heal.

In this way I’m finding myself staying in scepter/focus most of the time, aa’ing + 2/3, placing iwardens, and pulling for interrupts (mimc/feedback of course). Then when the kitten hits the fan, weapon swap, torch 4, heal up and reposition.

The other advantage to torch is image has a bounce, and the projectile is retal. Which is just bonus damage.

Ross Biddle.2367:

One thing I found is that, having the torch, I can drop deceptive decoy. It allows for that much needed target dropping once I’ve run my mimic/glamors. Because of that I can run Mimic, Blink, Feedback. Blink is great for that much needed stun breaker, and also to eject you from a sticky situation. Since the build is light on condition removal, anytime I’ve eaten a huge stack of condi’s I can’t clear, I can simply 1200 range blink directly to my commander who’s standing on his next water field. Insta cleanse, insta heal.

In this way I’m finding myself staying in scepter/focus most of the time, aa’ing + 2/3, placing iwardens, and pulling for interrupts (mimc/feedback of course). Then when the kitten hits the fan, weapon swap, torch 4, heal up and reposition.

The other advantage to torch is image has a bounce, and the projectile is retal. Which is just bonus damage.

Post-patch, I plan to run feedback, mantra of concentration, and mimic. With the mantra, I’ll spend my adept dueling trait on mantra mastery.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Ross Biddle.2367:

One thing I found is that, having the torch, I can drop deceptive decoy. It allows for that much needed target dropping once I’ve run my mimic/glamors. Because of that I can run Mimic, Blink, Feedback. Blink is great for that much needed stun breaker, and also to eject you from a sticky situation. Since the build is light on condition removal, anytime I’ve eaten a huge stack of condi’s I can’t clear, I can simply 1200 range blink directly to my commander who’s standing on his next water field. Insta cleanse, insta heal.

In this way I’m finding myself staying in scepter/focus most of the time, aa’ing + 2/3, placing iwardens, and pulling for interrupts (mimc/feedback of course). Then when the kitten hits the fan, weapon swap, torch 4, heal up and reposition.

The other advantage to torch is image has a bounce, and the projectile is retal. Which is just bonus damage.

Post-patch, I plan to run feedback, mantra of concentration, and mimic. With the mantra, I’ll spend my adept dueling trait on mantra mastery.

Nice idea. The 20s cd creates some good synergy.

I never really found out how scepter > sword in zergs for people. You would have to find a really good target to use 3 on and hope the enemy doesn’t got good condition removal.
What’s so good about the burning is that it has a short duration that can be reapplied rather quickly. This makes condition removal in those 4.5sec pretty much useless if they continue to hit you.

I feel like this trick is more something you should use as damage boost, rather than your main damage. Might test it out soon when I got the gears together.

BlackDevil.9268:

I never really found out how scepter > sword in zergs for people. You would have to find a really good target to use 3 on and hope the enemy doesn’t got good condition removal.
What’s so good about the burning is that it has a short duration that can be reapplied rather quickly. This makes condition removal in those 4.5sec pretty much useless if they continue to hit you.

I feel like this trick is more something you should use as damage boost, rather than your main damage. Might test it out soon when I got the gears together.

In this case, scepter provides a few things.

Firstly, sword just doesn’t do much for this build. Full dire really doesn’t make any use of the sword at all.

Confusing images does require a good target, but if you get a good target you can easily strafe much of a group with that one attack.

The scepter also provides a block/counter. In a big fight, you can’t generally aim where that block is going, but you do have the satisfaction of knowing that you just made someone’s day worse with a 5 stack of torment. In this particular build, the block also guarantees another proc of burning regardless of LoS or range, which can be amusing when people are shooting at you from or on a wall/gate.

Pyroatheist.9031:

BlackDevil.9268:

I never really found out how scepter > sword in zergs for people. You would have to find a really good target to use 3 on and hope the enemy doesn’t got good condition removal.
What’s so good about the burning is that it has a short duration that can be reapplied rather quickly. This makes condition removal in those 4.5sec pretty much useless if they continue to hit you.

I feel like this trick is more something you should use as damage boost, rather than your main damage. Might test it out soon when I got the gears together.

In this case, scepter provides a few things.

Firstly, sword just doesn’t do much for this build. Full dire really doesn’t make any use of the sword at all.

Confusing images does require a good target, but if you get a good target you can easily strafe much of a group with that one attack.

The scepter also provides a block/counter. In a big fight, you can’t generally aim where that block is going, but you do have the satisfaction of knowing that you just made someone’s day worse with a 5 stack of torment. In this particular build, the block also guarantees another proc of burning regardless of LoS or range, which can be amusing when people are shooting at you from or on a wall/gate.

Was thinking the other day about that “double whammy” block on scepter #2. Awesome. Same could be said for Sword #4 but obviously you’re not taking that.

Yeah but wouldnt it be better to go more hybrid specced? I mean, damage output of 1 shatter+ BF is much higher than those few ticks of conditions that mostly get cleared much sooner (or the enemy gets killed sooner) than the actual duration is.
And then I’m not even talking about the difference of auto attack ;>

Also, sword got an aoe immobilize and a good evade that gives you good survivability. 2 things that are really important in raids.

The decision is only a matter of play style. For people who risk and go to the middle of everything sword is way better. For people who stays more in the backward, scepter will be better.

But as it happens in pve, melee gives more DPS than ranged. The only thing is that in WvW, melee needs a lot of good positioning and mobility.

Heh. Have you tried this using PU and Chaos Storm for additional Aegis blocks/Burning? Could be interesting, with the Malice from an all-Dire build.
Otherwise, nasty build … wish I’d have thought of it.
How does your anti-Zerg survivability match up with that from the Immortal build?

BlackDevil.9268:

Yeah but wouldnt it be better to go more hybrid specced? I mean, damage output of 1 shatter+ BF is much higher than those few ticks of conditions that mostly get cleared much sooner (or the enemy gets killed sooner) than the actual duration is.
And then I’m not even talking about the difference of auto attack ;>

Also, sword got an aoe immobilize and a good evade that gives you good survivability. 2 things that are really important in raids.

Hybrid is certainly an option, but now we’re talking some substantial changes. You’ll be giving up some significant amounts of defense to go more hybrid.

Additionally, shatters would be pretty meh. No IP means that the most you’ll really ever get is a 1 clone shatter…maybe a 2 clone with some luck. No mirror images since there’s no room for it on your bar. The aoe immobilize certainly is nice, but blurred frenzy not quite as much. If you happen upon a Zerg stacking retaliation, blurred frenzy is a death sentence. Additionally, standing still for 2.5 seconds while crashing through a Zerg is (in my experience) a great way to get killed.

@Ansau: Generalities of PvE don’t really transfer to WvW so well. In this case, I designed the build specifically to be in the middle of everything and still survive. The key is that being in the middle of everything is incredibly dangerous in a Zerg. Standing still is just bad. General confrontation modes involve the 2 groups moving through each other, then regrouping for heals/etc. Staying in the middle of the meat grinder is simply a way to get killed.

@Advent: I most certainly use chaos storm for additional blocks. PU isn’t really viable though. You can’t rely on staying stealthed when you’re dropping things like feedback and chaos storm. I’d additionally have to remove one of the normal traits in chaos for it. It’s definitely a thought though, I’ll have to look and see how often I can maintain stealth in a group fight.

As far as survivability goes, it’s definitely more survivable than the immortal build. That build was never really optimized to stay alive in a Zerg fight, and relied a lot on the defender/other illusions for damage output and mitigation.

Hm I seem to survive just fine with my +/- 1450 toughness playing shatter for the past… 1/2 year? unless you can shoot out a bold of immense conditions that spike everyone down in a few seconds, I don’t see conditions working really good in zerging.
Or well, maybe zerging, not good organised raids that rely on hard hitting flanks. I don’t really see conditions flowing anywhere if the enemy is dead 2 seconds later.

And well, 10-20-10-0-30 with about 700 condition damage and 2k power isnt hard to get.

Yes it might require a bit more skill to play, but playing with staff, full tank, 4.5sec block every 24.5 sec and blink, is just a spec you can pretty much faceroll and still don’t die with it.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Additionally, shatters would be pretty meh. No IP means that the most you’ll really ever get is a 1 clone shatter…maybe a 2 clone with some luck. No mirror images since there’s no room for it on your bar. The aoe immobilize certainly is nice, but blurred frenzy not quite as much. If you happen upon a Zerg stacking retaliation, blurred frenzy is a death sentence. Additionally, standing still for 2.5 seconds while crashing through a Zerg is (in my experience) a great way to get killed.

@Ansau: Generalities of PvE don’t really transfer to WvW so well. In this case, I designed the build specifically to be in the middle of everything and still survive. The key is that being in the middle of everything is incredibly dangerous in a Zerg. Standing still is just bad. General confrontation modes involve the 2 groups moving through each other, then regrouping for heals/etc. Staying in the middle of the meat grinder is simply a way to get killed.

From my experience, even in WvW, being sometimes in melee (It doesn’t mean you have to be next to commander all the time) grants you more DPS than always trying to avoid the melee trains.
As I said, you take a lot of risks being in melee, but with time and practise I have manage to enter in melee, drop shatters (dodge+F1+dodge+F2) + The Prestige, BF and some autoattacks, and get the hell out of there without major problems.

Even with full dire, the sword deals ok numbers. Some test, 1300 power (that would be a full dire build with ~15 stacks of might) and no crits:
- Sword autoattack deals ~1100 every rotation (about 2,5s) per player.
- BF deals 1k-1,5k per player.
With the scepter, we have something similar, with 2300 power and 67% crit damage:
Autoattack means 1,2k for rotation (4s) but it’s a +1000 range skill.
Confusing Images deals 2,5k-3k per player (Not counting confusion).

So in the end it only matters how you play the mesmer on zergs and which weapon is the best for your most common situation.

I’ve never said this build is bad, or sword is better, just saying that I’ve experienced very good results being more offensive and taking more risks. In this case, sword will be better than scepter.
I also enjoy more this risky play style. I’ve had better results than being in background, dropping all aoe skills and trying to survive.
Btw, BF has never killed me, in fact my butt has been saved a lot thanks to it.

Would love to see some footage, how you use this build and how you take advantage of scepter, cause I’ve always been a crap with the scepter xd.

@Ansau: It’s very situational. Being in melee is not the problem per se, it’s all about positioning. If you’re with the commander and you’re hitting BF on the opposing back line then all well and good, but if your in the middle of a hammer train or you get stuck on the other side of the zerg from your commander then you’re gonna have a bad time.

As pyro says scepter just brings more to the table if you’re rocking dire. The auto attack is nice for dropping clones on the zerg for debilitating dissipation, and the block is great for running through chokes.

At the moment I’m switching between a full glamour build when running with guild groups and 0/30/20/20/0 when with mostly pugs. For the pug build I normally run mantra of concentration, null field, and after reading this I’ve just switched the third uti to mimic. Much fun is being had.

Pyro this is a great build, and kudos to Ross as well. I’m loving the Mimic love! I’m currently testing a build I created that uses Mimic as well, but with the Guardian runes you most definitely get the most bang for your buck on your build. I’ll try this in the future since the reward for burning unsuspecting players seems too trolly to pass. BTW which sigils do you use? I’m assuming energy for staff, or of stamina since this build has enough tagging power, maybe corruption for the extra condi damage as well as the tagging, and the third…

GreenLentil.3927:

Pyro this is a great build, and kudos to Ross as well. I’m loving the Mimic love! I’m currently testing a build I created that uses Mimic as well, but with the Guardian runes you most definitely get the most bang for your buck on your build. I’ll try this in the future since the reward for burning unsuspecting players seems too trolly to pass. BTW which sigils do you use? I’m assuming energy for staff, or of stamina since this build has enough tagging power, maybe corruption for the extra condi damage as well as the tagging, and the third…

Group composition also comes into play. Because guardians boon share, and boon share aegis, it’s always worth grouping with at least one (as though you wouldnt anyway). I always love seeing random burning procs pop up out there in the middle of the zerg and asking myself “Where the hell did that one come from???”. Random aegis/hits. Fun.

Pichichi.1975:

I don’t see why a mesmer would be running a condi build in large scale play. If your goal is to wade in the middle and proc burning on the frontline then you’re just going to get the condi ignored, shout-healed, or purging flamed off in under a second.

Glamour mes also died the day the confusion nerf hit. Any guild that still tries to run variants of it (like AVTR), can basically be ignored and rolled over on the battlefield.

You don’t have blink, you don’t have IP for on-demand invuln, you don’t have a stunbreak, all you have is this one util with a block that you plan to use offensively instead of defensively. Your build basically looks like rally bait against any coordinated zerg.

i run a hybrid build and it works quiet well. and yes i use blink! and tormenting runes and tormenting sigil atm and getting some nice numbers…..yes the classic glam is ok for tagging but it doesnt kill.anet has to take their focus off the heavy classes for a while and actively put work into condi mes and mes aoe imho.

I tinkered with the runes of the guardian today in a build I have that is like the OP’s. I use Sc/Torch and Sw/Sw. The build already blocked a good amount as it was via Scepter 3 and Sword 4 along with the dueling trait that grants retaliation upon blocking. This is a nice icing on the cake, I liked it a bunch.

Another note, Torch 5 also proc’s mimic, you can summon the phantasm and then start mimic for quite a few blocks, it’s quite nice to be sure.

@Pyro, any chance you could post a build link to show what you typically run with all decked out? I know intothemists.com has the 12/10 updates in their build editor.

EDIT: aaaand gw2skills.net is updated now.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Ross Biddle.2367:

One thing I found is that, having the torch, I can drop deceptive decoy. It allows for that much needed target dropping once I’ve run my mimic/glamors. Because of that I can run Mimic, Blink, Feedback. Blink is great for that much needed stun breaker, and also to eject you from a sticky situation. Since the build is light on condition removal, anytime I’ve eaten a huge stack of condi’s I can’t clear, I can simply 1200 range blink directly to my commander who’s standing on his next water field. Insta cleanse, insta heal.

In this way I’m finding myself staying in scepter/focus most of the time, aa’ing + 2/3, placing iwardens, and pulling for interrupts (mimc/feedback of course). Then when the kitten hits the fan, weapon swap, torch 4, heal up and reposition.

The other advantage to torch is image has a bounce, and the projectile is retal. Which is just bonus damage.

Post-patch, I plan to run feedback, mantra of concentration, and mimic. With the mantra, I’ll spend my adept dueling trait on mantra mastery.

Nice idea. The 20s cd creates some good synergy.

I was thinking about food today. While I like to build around the 100% burning duration for 2s procs, I was considering the stability from mantra of concentration. With the 30% boon duration from chaos you get 2.5s, but if you throw in boon duration food (+20%) you get 3s stability from your mantras.

Thanks Pyro! I’ve been looking for a zerg build for a while. I’ve been using the tri-force for a while, which I guess is kinda outdated because of the confusion nerfs. Definitely going to try this out next zerg night. BTW they need to update the tooltip on Mimic. I didn’t realize it had a block after the first projectile, but then again I’ve never really used this skill.

Mek.2947:

Thanks Pyro! I’ve been looking for a zerg build for a while. I’ve been using the tri-force for a while, which I guess is kinda outdated because of the confusion nerfs. Definitely going to try this out next zerg night. BTW they need to update the tooltip on Mimic. I didn’t realize it had a block after the first projectile, but then again I’ve never really used this skill.

Yeah, the tooltip on mimic is somewhat underwhelming. The problem is that the actual functionality would be really really hard to condense into a succinct, easy to understand tooltip, which is probably why they’ve held off on making it better.

The triforce is definitely a strong build. However, it’s designed to be used in a group with others running the same build. It synergies really well with itself, but is very underwhelming if you’re the only Mesmer there.

I really like this build, but I am thinking of trying to utilize the runes on my Guardian and see if I can make a condition build work for the Guardian.

The reason I like the Burn via Block is that it is a short burn, which means if the attacks are a little slower, the burn does it’s damage, dissipates then is reapplied, making it difficult to cleanse.

That is why I am hoping it will work on a Guardian. The Burn proc via Virtue and via blocking should act for as an additional attack to deal extra damage but as condition damage. It is just a stop gap measure until I get a Mesmer leveled but this might renew my interest in my Guardian.

Is anyone currently running this build still? What are your experiences with it? Do you try to use Mimic with your own projectile, and if so, how successful is that? (i.e. does your projectile bounce off another ally instead of you?)

bladeofky.3067:

Is anyone currently running this build still? What are your experiences with it? Do you try to use Mimic with your own projectile, and if so, how successful is that? (i.e. does your projectile bounce off another ally instead of you?)

Well, I’m certainly running my holy hell version in eotm with my guild atm. Because of the way its set up, and the new meta’s that are taking place in there, ive not needed to concern myself at all with IF i’ll catch a projectile. Everyone brings ranged weapons now as the terrain, the chokes etc, demand you bring them.

My experiences are good and its my preferred build and style of play currently. I can survive so much and still cause havok to an enemy zerg (and tagging well is always a good plus).

Cool, thanks for the info. I’ll probably try it out with my rabid gear. I’m thinking about running it with CI and BI to get a nice AoE immobilize after my burn has run out.

bladeofky.3067:

Cool, thanks for the info. I’ll probably try it out with my rabid gear. I’m thinking about running it with CI and BI to get a nice AoE immobilize after my burn has run out.

BI is good if you can catch some interrupts (and not just hit a bunch of stabo users), but CI I think is wasted in zergs. Again, IF you intterupt someone, in the mass chaos and condi clearing of a zerg you’re not actually gaining any control over a target. You’re cc’ing someone, but you’re never going to single that person out. In which case you’re just landing a condi at random to no other purpose than to land a condi at random.

So, if you’re going to land a condi at random with guardian runes why not take PU? Lets say you use The Prestige, you get 4s of boons, some of which will be aegis, which will proc burns, then the flame blast + burning after 4s, then all the survive leftover from the protection and regen. There’s just a better payoff than CI in anything greater than a small man havoc situation.

I think I’ll have to try this build next time I punish my pc by zerging. Coming from PVE the hybrid phantasm build works for me with zerker trinkets, but any time I zerg I die (i’ve only been in one zerg that didn’t get continuously wiped) .

I gather from listening to old episodes of Mesmerised that the triforce build is better suited to a guild of mesmers. So time to try the Zerg mower. Any tips for a pve player? Don’t worry I’ll do eotm so I don’t bring down the server score.

saxmachine.6024:

I think I’ll have to try this build next time I punish my pc by zerging. Coming from PVE the hybrid phantasm build works for me with zerker trinkets, but any time I zerg I die (i’ve only been in one zerg that didn’t get continuously wiped) .

I gather from listening to old episodes of Mesmerised that the triforce build is better suited to a guild of mesmers. So time to try the Zerg mower. Any tips for a pve player? Don’t worry I’ll do eotm so I don’t bring down the server score.

Stay on your commander. Do this and you’ll soak up all the rally heals and condition clears.

EoTM is a lot more chaotic and undisciplined though. You’ll find better zergs on the BL’s.