Guild Wars 2

Hello everyone o/
I’ve been looking for months for a build that could work while being extremely fun to play. Of course the concept of “fun” is subjective, but I strongly suggest you to try it before to judge. Also, my build is not set in stone, so and you can change about 20 points from traits while mantaining the initial idea.

While reading please keep in mind that english is not my native language, so be patient for that.

This build is entirely based around 2 Mechanics:

1. Sharper Images + Phantasmal Duelist
2. MH Sword + Deceptive Evasion + Confusing Combatants + Debilitating Dissipation

Pros:

• Mobility
• Interrupts
• Very High Stopping Power
• Burst Multiple Conditions

Cons:

• Fragile
• Not so easy to play

°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ ( HD-VIDEO ) °º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸

––––•(-• ( BUILD ) •-)•––––

¨’*•~-.¸¸,.-~* ] ( GEAR ) [ ¨’*•~-.¸¸,.-~*’

• 2x Afflicted / 2x Centaur / 2x Krait Runes

• Sigil of Earth on Staff

• Sigil of Agony on Sword

• Sigil of Agony on Pistol

• Rampager Amulet + Rabid Jewel is the ONLY combination that allow me to reach 60% critical chance.

I want to have an high crit & condition damage because my clones and phantasms inherit them.

This, paired with Phantasmal Fury, makes my Phantasmal Duelist skyrocket to 80% crit. chance, so almost 7-8 stacks bleeding every bullet barrage. Using Phantasmal Haste it will also shoot every 4.4s.

,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸-(_ ( Q.A. Section ) _)-,.-~*’¨¯¨’*·~-.¸

Q: What is the purpose of this build?
A: The key is to land Multiple Conditions in a brief interval of time… with a mesmer. Then deny the heals/escapes, interrupting.

Q: Why do you use sword instead of scepter?! Are you crazy?!
A: Imho, scepter is better for some situations, but way less fun. Sword instead, suits better because my sword-clones will chase to death my targets, applying:

• Weakness, 3x Bleed or 3x Vulnerability at random
  AND
• Confusion.

Plus, every sword-clone will put Vulnerability AND Bleeding almost every attack. Last but not least, I’ll have Cripple/Immobilize because I HATE PEOPLE THAT RUN AWAY FROM ME.

Q: How does this build do in PvE, dungeons/fractals/solo PvE?

A: Well, in these cases I always make some changes.

This is my current PvE build

But, if I know that in a particular encounter there will be long lasting conditions, (like the spider in AC) or it’s impossibile to stay melee at boss, I use to change the Sword with Scepter in order to use Sigil of Generosity on it.

Scepter & Generosity version
For normal situations, or solo PvE you are perfectly fine with the sword/staff with Sigil of Battle on both. (First build).

NOTE: If you’re running fractal daily, at Maw there will be some “problems” like reflect on projectiles. So you have to change weapons:
- sword with scepter,
- pistol with focus (I know that’s wasting one trait, but I can’t find any solution xD )
- staff with GS.
Sigils are the same :P

,.-~*’¨¯¨’*•~-.¸-(_ ( TIPS ) _)-,.-~*’¨¯¨’*•~-.¸

• Against melee targets REPLACING CLONES is the way to go, DON’T SHATTER OFTEN, do it only WHEN you need to interrupt or burst down you target

• Against ranged targets try to stack iDuelists (at least 2) , be sure to place them far from each other, then interrupt/manipulate them to death.

• Try to interrupt Finishers on Downed teammates, you’ve got 3-4 way to perform this.

• Use the Phantasmal Duelist + Feedback + Magic Bullet combo for 9 stacks of confusion AND 8 stacks of bleeding. You can also Leap-Combo into the Feedback gaining Chaos Armor.

• I often change the Signet of Domination with Arcane Thievery against bunkers/necros.

• Keep in mind that: Clone’s random explosions are the ONLY WAY for a mesmer to apply Weakness.

I hope that you enjoyed my build, suggestions and comments are appreciated

if you trait into pistol you can use the combo fields as well to land 8 stacks of confusion. Might be something to look at. The trait makes his bullets 100% combo finisher.

btw buddy this is a cool idea, really enjoyed thinking about a guardian, shatter mes and this, doing a greatsword pull combo. xD

Tek.4083:

if you trait into pistol you can use the combo fields as well to land 8 stacks of confusion. Might be something to look at. The trait makes his bullets 100% combo finisher.

Yeah mate, as you can see reading near the end of my previous post, my alternative utility set is Feedback instead of Arcane Thievery if i’m not particularly worried about conditions on me.

Also, if you like to perform combinations and you’re fast enough you can:

1. iWarlock + Chaos Armor (while casting iWarlock) + Chaos Storm + swap weapon + iDuelist + Magic Bullet + Illusionary Leap X2 + Blurred Frenzy + dodge twice + Cry of Frustration

Btw, if you want to try it in WvW or PvE this is the build: http://tinyurl.com/d8zmwld

As usual, the core of the build is:

1. 9% more damage when you have 3 illusions up (it doesn’t work on conditions)
2. the 60% critical chance , phantasms have fury and bleeding on critical hits
3. create a clone on dodge paired with normal clone/phantasm creation triggers the “on death effects”, so be sure that at least 2 clones are created from sword or near your target

Some tips:

• Against melee targets REPLACING CLONES is the way to go, DON’T SHATTER OFTEN, do it only WHEN you need to interrupt or burst down you target

• Against ranged targets try to stack iDuelists (at least 2) , be sure to place them far from each other, then interrupt/manipulate them to death.

• Try to interrupt Finishers on Downed teammates, you’ve got 3-4 way to perform this.

Take a look at losing 5 points from chaos into inspiration. The 15 point minor in chaos is decent, but the internal cooldown means that it’s really not something you should put 15 points in to get. Instead, get the major trait in inspiration, which has a lot of interesting options, between extra vigor, condition removal, or traiting glamours for cooldowns.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Take a look at losing 5 points from chaos into inspiration. […] Get the major trait in inspiration, which has a lot of interesting options, between extra vigor, condition removal, or traiting glamours for cooldowns.

Thank you for your precious suggestions!

The 5 more points into chaos is there only to protect me from initial bursts from thiefs or GS mesmers, but I’m really considering your advice.

• While +5s extra vigor AoE sounds interesting to me, it “forces” in a certain way to shatter my illusions, but I don’t want to do this often.

• Purge on Heals seems very good. I’m only worried about Poison that triggers anyway.

• Glamour +20% CD reduction is awesome for the iDuelist – Feedback combo, since Feedback doesn’t need to target ground and this allows me to perform this combo more than before.

So I’m really thinking to pick it instead of the Signet of Domination

For the Sigils I’ve seen that Chill offers a good burst but compaired to Battle it lacks of sustained damage. I don’t have decided yet.

For the Rune , I really want to use Orrian for the Poison on hit but I don’t quite like the 6th ability, so I would like to put a combination of 4xOrrian + ?? or 5x Orrian + Infiltration (so i should reach 11% more damage IF I have 3 illusions and my target is under 50%).

So now, my build should be something like this:
PvE / WvW version
PvP version

Some updates after testing:

WvW / PvE version
PvP version

What’s changed:

• Glamour +20% CD reduction → Purge on Heals

• Sigil of Ice → Sigil of Battle

• Feedback → Signet of Domination

Why?

1. I don’t like to die from a long lasting condition (like Poison & Burning) while I’m desperately trying to get “Out of Combat”
2. The Sigil of Battle on both weapons gives about 6 stacks of might (210 Power & 210 Cond. Dmg)
3. I really like the idea to burst down a target then interrupt the heal. Also this Interrupt boost my Cond. Dmg. The more the merrier.

I would love to see a pvp vid of how it all comes together

Since you’re going slightly towards a bunker\condi spammer and since i’ve discovered and been running that build i can tell you that, OP, you’re correct on some points but wrong on others.
Try to go up atleast 15 into Illusions, having perma-regen and and 3s of Protection every 15s is invaluable.

Samoleth.5012:

Since you’re going slightly towards a bunker\condi spammer and since i’ve discovered and been running that build i can tell you that, OP, you’re correct on some points but wrong on others.
Try to go up atleast 15 into Illusions, having perma-regen and and 3s of Protection every 15s is invaluable.

Sorry for this late reply, but I was very busy in the last month.

First of all, I would like to say that my build is NOT a bunker build, and that my survival chances are only due to very high mobility and to constantly stay out of enemy line of sight. For this reason I also made some more tweaks to my personal build in order to burst even more, in fact the Inspirations points are completely gone. All of them.

A funny variation could be done with Afflicted/Centaur/Krait for +45% bleeding duration. As traits:
0
30 – II – IX – X
10 – V
0
30 – III – VII – X

By the way I would really like to see your personal invention, so maybe post a reference link so I could take more “inspiration” :P

EnderzShadow.2506:

I would love to see a pvp vid of how it all comes together

I hope that this will satify your curiosity xD

Sylvari.6083:

How does this build do in PvE, dungeons/fractals/solo PvE?

Well, in these cases I always make some changes.

This is my current PvE build

But, if I know that in a particular encounter there will be long lasting conditions, (like the spider in AC) or it’s impossibile to stay melee at boss, I use to change the Sword with Scepter in order to use Sigil of Generosity on it.

Scepter & Generosity version

For normal situations, or solo PvE you are perfectly fine with the sword/staff with Battle sigil on both. (First build).

NOTE: If you’re running fractal daily, at Maw there will be some “problems” like reflect on projectiles. So you have to change weapons:
- sword with scepter,
- pistol with focus (I know that’s wasting one trait, but I can’t find any solution xD )
- staff with GS.
Sigils are the same

I consider these traits core to any build I’m going to seriously play. Whether it’s power, condi or tank. I hate wasting a clone.

Inspiration is a very lackluster trait line imo. I know pyro has a lot of success with his tank build, but for this if anything you’d want 20 in chaos. I used to put 5 in Inspiration for the ret on phants, but haven’t missed it lately. The regen from phants is nice, but you get plenty of regen and prot from Chaos/staff. The one condi removed on heal isn’t worth it. You already get vigor from crits… So yeah.

For clone spamming, right now I’m liking 10/25/10/0/25 or 0/30/10/0/30 or 0/25/20/0/25.

I’ll also say that my old build was totally perfect. Screw you Anet for moving illusionist celerity.

I used to run 10/30/20/5/5. Staff, sword/pistol. Soldier ammy. Incredibly tanky, hard hitting phants, AND clone spam. It was beautiful. My playstyle still works of course, but it’s driving me mad trying to optimize around the new illusions line :P

kodesh.2851:

I consider these traits core to any build I’m going to seriously play. Whether it’s power, condi or tank. I hate wasting a clone.

Please, let me clarify one thing:
“Sharper Images + Phantasmal Duelist” mechanic WORKS with Rampager Amulet. Using another set won’t even remotely produce the same result, especially a P/T/V set. ^^

Mei Mato.5478:

kodesh.2851:

I consider these traits core to any build I’m going to seriously play. Whether it’s power, condi or tank. I hate wasting a clone.

Please, let me clarify one thing:
“Sharper Images + Phantasmal Duelist” mechanic WORKS with Rampager Amulet. Using another set won’t even remotely produce the same result, especially a P/T/V set. ^^

I should clarify, when I said these traits I meant the condis on clone death traits. They’re worth picking up even with a power build imo. But yeah, for max bleeds you’ll want rampager ammy. However, even with P/V/T ammy, my phants will have 50-65% crit rate from fury, 25-30 in dueling, precision runes and sigil. I’m not basing my power build around any of these traits, but they all add up to help deliver the goods.

kodesh.2851:

I should clarify, when I said these traits I meant the condis on clone death traits. They’re worth picking up even with a power build imo.

Yeah that’s another build I would really like to try: A sort of power build with long lasting conditions and interrupts. But, in that case I’d go with something like 30 – 0 – X – X – X with lyssa/nightmare runes in order to gain +50% cond.duration for confusion/burning/blind/torment. Still testing this build, so I won’t reveal more xD

Target mark – Spike in 3… 2… 1…

Attempting to reproduce the old-good GW1 spikes, I’ve created the scepter version that is complementary to this build, like a “Synchronized Duo”. Of course a form voice communication is vital.

Scepter Version

The key factor is to have the maximum advantage with the minimum effort.

This basic spike usually STARTS at “1” while you’re both invisible with Mass Invisibility:

• Player 1 (MH-Sword): iDuelist – Magic Bullet
• Player 2 (MH-Scepter): iDuelist – FeedBack – Confusing Images

! IMPORTANT ! Feedback must be casted during the iDuelist summoning cast.

If you’re synchronized well, this combo applies 14-16 bleed stacks and 19-21 confusion stacks… on a single target… every 4.4 seconds. Other than this, you have Mass Invisibility every 45 seconds.

Let me know if you appreciate it :P

Love the build but I need help w conditions. I do fine against direct damage but other condition heavy classes do well against me. Any suggestions?

Janairo.4289:

Love the build but I need help w conditions. I do fine against direct damage but other condition heavy classes do well against me. Any suggestions?

Since the meta is still condition based, for utilities (for now) I wouldn’t pick anything besides Feedback + Nullfield + Blink.

But, if you still suppose that you could have some problem against condition builds, you can also try to use Nullfield + Arcane Thievery + Blink.