Guild Wars 2

Due to the number of questions I’ve been fielding lately regarding this build, I’ve decided to make a guide for it.

What this build does best is win any 1v1 duel. It is the most overpowered dueling build in the game. There is no way to counter it. There is no way to beat it. If you use this build and play effectively, you will win every single 1v1 you have, with absolutely no exceptions other than fighting a mirror build.

Here is the build

In sPvP, simply use the normal bersker’s amulet and runes of divinity.

This build uses scepter/sword and sword/pistol, with the traits of 10/30/0/30/0. The playstyle is extremely simple: summon phantasms, run in circles, and your target dies.

This build focuses on 2 things: Phantasms and defense. Optimally, you don’t use any skills offensively other than your 2 phantasms. I generally even turn off my autoattacks, especially on the scepter. Your offense consists completely of the phantasms, and that is more than enough. The swordsmen will hit for upwards of 4.5k per hit on bunkers, and the duelists will do similar damage, but also stack bleeds. Since all your offense is taken care of by the phantasms, all you have to worry about is defense.

Your defense consists of a decent hp pool and toughness to absorb the odd hit from a bouncing attack or aoe. Your active defense is blurred frenzy on an 8 second cooldown, and 2 blocks, each on ~11 second cooldowns. You use all 3 of these skills purely defensively. Don’t be afraid to overwrite your phantasms with a clone from the block, or with a clone from illusionary leap (which is only used for the cripple, or maybe an immobilize followed by immediate running away), as the phantasms are on low enough cooldowns that it won’t matter. You use decoy and blink to gain and keep distance, as well as break out of dangerous situations.

The phantasms hit like trucks. They also have a significant amount of health, especially once they get the signet buff, and so are difficult to kill in any timely fashion, as well as having permanent retaliation. If your target tries to ignore the phantasms, they will be dead very quickly, and if they try to kill the phantasms, you can resummon them faster than they can be killed.

If they focus on you, you just run away, in circles preferably. Blurred frenzy is a great initial defense if they jump on top of you, followed by the blocks if absolutely necessary. Using decoy will instantly drop any heat on you, and you can summon more phantasms from stealth without getting revealed, while gaining more distance.

Burst build are completely countered by the active defense. A build that tries for sustained dps will be quickly killed by your phantasms, and your defenses allow you to stay alive, as well as getting large range and using your phantasms to LoS block. Traditional weaknesses of mesmers, condition builds, lack the ability to stack conditions. You can remove them quickly with mender’s purity, as well as block and invuln the stacking, all while your phantasms hit them hard. A necromancer busy stacking bleeds on you will quickly be worried about other things when the swordsman and duelist you spawned at the start of the fight instantly take out 10k hp, and repeat that 4 seconds later.

I have yet to find a counter to this build. If anyone manages to find one, please tell me, because this build is a massive pita to encounter when I’m not the one running it.

Update

I’ve updated this build with the current setup I use to run it in WvW. I take centaur runes for mobility, and I use a mix of cavalier trinkets to give me some more survivability. I wouldn’t use this in a zerg fight, since the phantasms will die too quickly, but it’s a fantastic roamer, and very good in smaller havok groups.

I’ve been using this exact build for a while now with only a few changes. Looks like the cat’s out of the bag now. :\

Only difference is I use a GS + Sword/Pistol with two sigils of fire and a sigil of accuracy.

Other than that. Exactly the same one I’ve been using for weeks.

If you’re looking for some random hotjoin footage of how to play it: http://www.twitch.tv/dohliath/b/380767723 (reminder: I use greatsword and in this video two sigils of energy). At 44:20 I duel another mesmer a few times.

If you want to see damage potential in WvW: http://www.twitch.tv/dohliath/b/383993243 (Skip to 1:28:40 – decent battle between a few friends on some enemies who enter the camp — watch the crits).

There are a few reasons I opted for scepter/sword instead of greatsword. First, the sword phantasm is vastly superior to the greatsword phantasm, both in damage and reliability. Additionally, the greatsword has almost nothing in the way of defensive/evasive utility. It is all offense, which is fine, but doesn’t fit this build. You don’t do offense yourself, you let the phantasms take care of that, and your focus is on defense.

I hope I won’t meet this build anytime soon

Getting my kitten kick in 1 vs 1 make me reset my build each time! :P

this works even after signet illusions was nerfed? Now 50% of life

Pyroatheist.9031:

There are a few reasons I opted for scepter/sword instead of greatsword. First, the sword phantasm is vastly superior to the greatsword phantasm, both in damage and reliability. Additionally, the greatsword has almost nothing in the way of defensive/evasive utility. It is all offense, which is fine, but doesn’t fit this build. You don’t do offense yourself, you let the phantasms take care of that, and your focus is on defense.

I play mine pretty offensively, but yours seems a bit more defensive. It’s too easy to sit there and just let phantasms do the work for me — that’s just boring. :P Plus, the greatsword #5 is great for knocking thieves out of refuge – I can’t tell you how many times I’ve done it. Scepter isn’t bad, but I’d prefer it in a condition build more than a phantasm one. You’d be better suited with a sword/pistol + sword/sword combo. Scepter really has no place in this build.

As for GS evasive/defensive utility, you don’t really need all that much in this build. Most players freak out at the phantasms bursting their health down and those that do try to get close oftentimes find themselves eating a second round of phantasm burst before they get their’s off. This, on top of the fact that I sit around 21472hp in SPVP means I can eat a fair chunk of damage and still burst the enemy down. Decoy, blurred frenzy/distortion, and phantasmal defender have worked just fine for me in lots of 1v1s (and even 1vXs) for bursty builds. When facing condition builds, phantasmal disenchanter, arcane thievery and null field all have their special purposes and I swap through them frequently depending on the situation (arcane thievery works very well against confusion mesmers). Matter of preference really.

Your build have a major weakness vs Conditions, you got one condition removal on a 20 second cooldown (removing one single conditions)! If I met your build on my Condition build on my Engineer I would melt you away! Having acces to 10 seconds duration on 5 stacks of confusion, able to stack up to 30 seconds of burning and high uptimes of several different other conditions to soak up that single removal I can’t see you lasting long with less active defence skills then the Mistcat build (which I can manage to get past!)! I’m sure it’s an awesome 1vs1 duel build, and that you can kill most melee builds quite easy, but vs a good Condition Engineer or Necromancer, I can’t see your build as “unbeatable”! ^^

Amadeus.5687:

Your build have a major weakness vs Conditions, you got one condition removal on a 20 second cooldown (removing one single conditions)! If I met your build on my Condition build on my Engineer I would melt you away! Having acces to 10 seconds duration on 5 stacks of confusion, able to stack up to 30 seconds of burning and high uptimes of several different other conditions to soak up that single removal I can’t see you lasting long with less active defence skills then the Mistcat build (which I can manage to get past!)! I’m sure it’s an awesome 1vs1 duel build, and that you can kill most melee builds quite easy, but vs a good Condition Engineer or Necromancer, I can’t see your build as “unbeatable”! ^^

Vs a condition engineer all you need to slot is null field and arcane thievery. Enough for me to get any engineer down very fast.

All I need to do is not apply al my condition in a burst, and watch when you send back and just walk away when you hang out in a Null Field, Osicat tried that, and while it will complicate the fight, and help a lot out on the condition removal, it won’t be an automatic win!

Edit: I talk from a WvW perspective btw :P In sPvP Phantasm builds get’s a lot stronger in my little Experince there, mostly because I do less damage then WvW, and they appear to still have the same amount of life!

why dont you guys duke it out a couple times and see how it goes.

Amadeus.5687:

All I need to do is not apply al my condition in a burst, and watch when you send back and just walk away when you hang out in a Null Field, Osicat tried that, and while it will complicate the fight, and help a lot out on the condition removal, it won’t be an automatic win!

May not be an automatic win, but I can assure you you’ll be under a lot more pressure than me as a condition engineer.

and if you do video tape it

@Knight I’m sadly on the EU server’s, and they both play on NA server!

@Wookie, You would have to give up three of the following things: Blink, Stealth or Clone life (I assume it would be Blink and stealth), and while I do agree that I will be put on pressure at the start, I still sit in with 2x low CD easy to land burning Skills, with acces to a thid and a chance to get it on crits, I got 2 different skills to get 5 stacks of confusion on you with, which in WvW means total lockdown unless you got a removal for 10 seconds (one being on a 12 sec CD, the other 18)! Still not counting all the other crap I got! :P The point is, I I will be put on pressure, put if I just paly defensive at the start and don’t double stack my CD’s, then the match will turn easy for me when your two removal is gone! At least in WvW, sPvP have showed to be quite harder for me vs that kind of builds :P

Amadeus.5687:

@Knight I’m sadly on the EU server’s, and they both play on NA server!

@Wookie, You would have to give up three of the following things: Blink, Stealth or Clone life (I assume it would be Blink and stealth), and while I do agree that I will be put on pressure at the start, I still sit in with 2x low CD easy to land burning Skills, with acces to a thid and a chance to get it on crits, I got 2 different skills to get 5 stacks of confusion on you with, which in WvW means total lockdown unless you got a removal for 10 seconds (one being on a 12 sec CD, the other 18)! Still not counting all the other crap I got! :P The point is, I I will be put on pressure, put if I just paly defensive at the start and don’t double stack my CD’s, then the match will turn easy for me when your two removal is gone! At least in WvW, sPvP have showed to be quite harder for me vs that kind of builds :P

I doubt it will be easy for you, but we can forum warrior all day bro. Both my phantasms sitting at 16s cooldowns deal out 10k+ damage in a single burst. You fail to kill them, you die. You kill them, I make more, you die. The choice is yours.

Hehe we can indeed forum fight all day hehe I just wanted to post my point of view on such a build, because I simply don’t see it as unkillable in WvW (also a single auto attack crit that proc’s my 4sec burning will finish a phantasm off, for not talking about the wonder Stastic Shot and it’s bounce do on them!) hehe

So yeah for sure one of the good 1vs1 duel builds, but unbeatable? no :P

Amadeus.5687:

Hehe we can indeed forum fight all day hehe I just wanted to post my point of view on such a build, because I simply don’t see it as unkillable in WvW (also a single auto attack crit that proc’s my 4sec burning will finish a phantasm off, for not talking about the wonder Stastic Shot and it’s bounce do on them!) hehe

So yeah for sure one of the good 1vs1 duel builds, but unbeatable? no :P

It’s not unbeatable and I never said it was. Is it a very hard build to beat? Yes.

oh that part wasn’t meant at you sorry! Was just why I posted in the topic :P Cause OP claim it is! ^^

Testing the build out, however the only person I found was a ranger. 3 fights with the ranger and I got him down but his pet pulled me down and killed me forcing him to rally. No pet and I won each time, pet I lost hahah

EDIT: 4th fight I won. 5th Fight he burst me down in two seconds. Dunno how to combat the ranger 1v1 with a dog. Other classes seem fine though…

EDIT2: So, every fight against a ranger I get him to the downstate and can’t stomp him and die. :/

EDIT3: On the plus side, our fights lasted 7 seconds to get us both downed. thats insane damage

Pyro gave me this build a few days ago. I just want to simply compliment on the design.

And testify. I’m not better then your average player, but I haven’t lost a SINGLE 1v1 with it…

The downsides are obvious. Mostly mobility, but also other then 1v2 this build becomes weaker quickly. Still, hands down the best dueling build I have ever played.

I will add that I’ve been using my build in wvw with great success. Greatest counter to this build is, in my opinion, blinds. If you can blind the mesmer, the phantasms can’t be spawned while they’re blinded.

wookie.8934:

I will add that I’ve been using my build in wvw with great success. Greatest counter to this build is, in my opinion, blinds. If you can blind the mesmer, the phantasms can’t be spawned while they’re blinded.

Explains the ruddy ranger heheh

@People talking about scepter: Scepter is there for the block. That’s it. Sometimes I’ll cast confusing images just cause I’m bored. The block is a potent defensive tool, and on a separate cooldown from blurred frenzy. Generally, after blurred frenzy I will swap immediately to have the blocks available, and swap back as soon as I can so that blurred frenzy will be up again.

@Benjamin: Rangers are really easy. This is gonna be just an issue of getting used to how the build plays, and figuring out more of the specifics.

@Amadeus: The problem is that you cant condition burst what you can’t hit. The fight will start with a duelist and a swordsman chunking you for a lot of hp, and that is tough to ignore. It is very easy to simply invuln through the nastier parts of your burst, blink away if you hit me with magnet, and use decoy if things get really hot. Remember, the entire time you are trying to kill me, I’m doing everything I can to be evasive and dodge your burst. I’m not trying to attack you in even the slightest way, I’m 100% focused on avoidance. At the same time, my phantasms will be tearing you apart.

A well played condition engineer certainly could hurt, but it would be very difficult to really kill the build before the phantasms ripped you to pieces.

@ Pyroatheist, While I don’t disagree that you do have a lot of avoidance, it’s still less then the Mistcat build (which I still can manage to get trough and hit, and it got reflection as well)! Phatasms retaltion won’t hurt me, since I’m killing them off with conditions, and your opening combo is countered by one Stastic Shot boucing them 2x = 4 confusion stacks and double blind, with chance to give bleeding and burning aswell, that will finish them off most of the time (In WvW), If I really wanna close the deal I pop a blow torch and I won’t have to think about them the next 14-16 seconds? ^^

And yeah, you can blink away from my Magnet (but that means you run with less condition removal in utlity), but in between my easy acces to cripple and perma swiftness, I won’t have trouble catching up to you, nor kiting the Swordsman/Clones!! And while I’m sure I’m in for hell of a fight when you run such a build, I still see the Condition Engineer is the one with the best odds if you run the exact build as you showcase, because you do have avoidance, but I got several low CD condition skills, so I will end up hitting with some of them (Ask Osicat :P)!

With all that said, it still looks like an amazing build, and I really would love to duel you! But you do play on the NA servers right? Which means, at least to my knowledge, I can’t duel you in sPvP (where your builds get’s even more scary :O)! But I won’t call it unbeatable, because it does have a weakness for conditions!

Just to tip the enemy (stupid I know), I would have an extra weapon with Superior sigil of generosity at hand for when you duel Condition builds, been a great help for Osicat, and a big pain in the kitten for me, because when I get to hit you in between all the avoidance, nothing is more annoying then have it right back

Pyroatheist.9031:

@People talking about scepter: Scepter is there for the block. That’s it. Sometimes I’ll cast confusing images just cause I’m bored. The block is a potent defensive tool, and on a separate cooldown from blurred frenzy. Generally, after blurred frenzy I will swap immediately to have the blocks available, and swap back as soon as I can so that blurred frenzy will be up again.

I still don’t think equipping scepter for one block is worth it. You’re missing out on a lot of DPS. Offhand sword, blurred frenzy, and distortion should be more than enough for a decent mesmer. Again, just my two cents.

@wookie: I’m not missing out on any dps. I don’t attack with this build. I run around in circles and let my phantasms attack. Every single skill on my bars other than the 2 phantasms are for defense.

@Amadeus: I’m actually going to start experimenting with the heal mantra, as I’ll get doubletap on the condition removal with mender’s purity, and it’ll be up every 10 seconds. If I were to fight a condition damage engie, I might even take the condition removal mantra as well, in place of signet of illusions. Those 2 combined would probably be very very tough for you to keep conditions up, combined with blurred frenzy and well timed blocks.

Edit: I could also always toss on a focus instead of the pistol probably, and trait it for the reflects on everything. That would absolutely seal the deal, as hiding behind reflects permanently is the easiest way to deal with a CD engie.

Double Edit: I’d also probably toss on the -40% condition duration food. There’s actually a lot of modifications that you can make to this build to really make life hell for a projectile based condition build.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@wookie: I’m not missing out on any dps. I don’t attack with this build. I run around in circles and let my phantasms attack. Every single skill on my bars other than the 2 phantasms are for defense.

If you run around in circles letting your phantasms do the work, then yes. You’re missing out on a LOT of DPS. It’s a good build, just built with the wrong goals in mind — this is not a bunker build that should heavily rely on defense (and your traits clearly contradict that sentiment). You’d be much better off playing it offensively… not defensively.

What I’m trying to say is the traits are right. Everything else could be reworked for more effectiveness.

@Pyro
uhh now it’s getting intrestring! But you need to keep in mind, while reflection is super annoying, I only have 3 (4 if you count my Throw Wrench Skill) projectile skills in my build (and one of them is my sucky auto attack I try to avoid using), my Blowtorch is a cone attack, my Tool kit is pure melee Evil and my bomb Kit is AoE melee! and focus reflection compared to the healing skill with reflection and the shatter reflection (if traited) is quite obivous, and can be countered by superior mobility and placement (which I do have with my perma Swiftness)

Also I run my Rocket Boots for the 300 range “Melee” Rocket Kick that gives burning! so reflects won’t help there, so for focus to work you would need to change around in the traits, and give up a fair deal of damage from the Pistol (since the Phatasm from focus very rare will be able to deal the same amount of damage)

I do think that the Mantra Heal might work quite well yeah, but you will loose out on healing power, which can turn out to be a bigger hindrance then a edge if you can’t seal the deal fast!!
The Condition removal Mantra on the other hand is awesome, and would for sure be a great addition to the build, and would make your condition removal a lot better right there!

The -40% condition duration food is a pain indeed, but that will mean you loose out on damage food, and as I’m running a 100% duration build, I will still have 60% duraiton on my skills, which will be fine take into account that with your added condition removal they probaly will be gone there anyway!! (Also, does that food effect work on your phantasms as well? I have no idea about it, and could be quite intrestring to know)!

I really mean no offence, I just like to see where the disucssion will take the build! The stuff you add will indeed make it better suited against a Engineer Burst condition build, but you do so at the price of your damage, and in a prolonged fight I still believe the Engineer will win! So for me it would be a matter of playing defensive until I have soaked out your removal, and keep your phatams down with AoE conditions!

So yeah, in WvW I still think I could seal the deal with Hit and run tactics and slowy taking you down! In sPvP I’m not so sure tho

Getting late here in EU, so will have to take a look at your reply 2morrow! Still, it appear like a solid build, that can be easy customised to take on different types of enemies = For sure a solid duel build in my eyes

@wookie: I think you misunderstand how I designed this build to be played, and additionally why I take the scepter and sword over the greatsword, for example. This build relies purely on the phantasms for damage, and on everything else for defense. Using skills like blurred frenzy for offense reduces your defense. The point of the trait setup and gear is that you don’t need to augment the damage from your phantasms. They are enough to tear apart any build in the game in short order.

Due to the fact that your phantasms are enough dps to handle any build, you have the luxury of utilizing all of your other skills for defense.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@wookie: I think you misunderstand how I designed this build to be played, and additionally why I take the scepter and sword over the greatsword, for example. This build relies purely on the phantasms for damage, and on everything else for defense. Using skills like blurred frenzy for offense reduces your defense. The point of the trait setup and gear is that you don’t need to augment the damage from your phantasms. They are enough to tear apart any build in the game in short order.

Due to the fact that your phantasms are enough dps to handle any build, you have the luxury of utilizing all of your other skills for defense.

Any half-decent player can avoid getting bursted down relatively easy if they keep the heat on the real mesmer. If you’re solely relying on phantasms to kill your opponent (who is equally as good), you’re going to have a bad time.

In any event, my build is very similar, but it’s clear we have different opinions on weapon choices and playstyle. To each their own. It’s an interesting build, but I prefer a more offensive one that is capable of taking down half-way decent players (not ones who sit there and eat the burst).

Again, just my two cents.

@Amadeus: You won’t actually have +60% duration, due to how it’s calculated. Say you have a burn lasting 10 seconds. With 100% duration, it now lasts 20 seconds. However, since condition duration is calculated after addition, against a target with the -40% food, the burn will last 12 seconds, or a total of only +20% duration. Might not make a huge difference in overall dps, but an important distinction to make nonetheless.

Seeing as you have so much melee, I would be interested in seeing how easily you maintain melee range. With proper use of blocks of blurred frenzy to dodge the magnet pull, it could be difficult for you to close range, when I can use blink to gain distance, decoy for distance, and actually illusionary leap/swap can be used to gain a lot of distance if you are careful with how you use it.

As far as the mantra heal goes, if I recall correctly, it actually has very comparable hps to ether feast if you are able to continuously spam it, which would be very possible with this build. Some hps would definitely be lost, but being able to remove bleed AND burning, or a non-damaging condition along with a damaging one would quite possibly overrule that hps loss.

@wookie: The thing about the phantasms is that they aren’t burst. They are sustained dps. They are difficult to kill, difficult to dodge, and can be resummoned faster than they can be killed. They do massive damage, and keep that massive damage sustained at a high rate. You summon them, forget about them, and they act as your own personal chainsaws, eating at your opponent. You then use the rest of your skills to avoid any heat that your opponent tries to apply on you. Normally using all of your time to avoid things will mean you do no damage, but with your phantasms eating them, your opponent will die quickly.

I really need to get up some video of this build in action.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@wookie: The thing about the phantasms is that they aren’t burst. They are sustained dps. They are difficult to kill, difficult to dodge, and can be resummoned faster than they can be killed. They do massive damage, and keep that massive damage sustained at a high rate. You summon them, forget about them, and they act as your own personal chainsaws, eating at your opponent. You then use the rest of your skills to avoid any heat that your opponent tries to apply on you. Normally using all of your time to avoid things will mean you do no damage, but with your phantasms eating them, your opponent will die quickly.

I really need to get up some video of this build in action.

A 3 second rapid fire from pistol, an almost instant hit from an illusionary swordsman, a whirlwind burst from a phantasmal berserker have segmented BURST attacks. Sure they can attack more than once, but if you avoid the initial BURST attack, you can start chipping away at the real mesmer with what little time you have (especially with your build). I don’t need a video of you to prove it because I’ve been using a modified version of this build for weeks now with great success offensively (see first reply). Phantasms can be killed, believe it or not, and there is enough of a window to kill the mesmer before they can spawn more. If you can’t see that, then I can’t help you unfortunately.

Like I said, I play mine more offensively, but don’t expect more than average players to simply keel over to this build. It’s not unbeatable. Enemies just need to avoid the segmented attacks from the phantasms and go after the real mesmer. Keeping pressure on the real mesmer is paramount to defeating this build, be it AoE, direct damage or conditions.

@wookie: The swordsmen attack every 3 seconds or so. That’s not a whole lot of time. Duelists are on a slightly longer recharge, at around 6.5ish seconds. Still not very much time. Trying to attack a mesmer inbetween those phantasm attacks when the mesmer is actively running away and has blocks and a 2s invuln to pop whenever is a very difficult task.

Pyroatheist.9031:

@wookie: The swordsmen attack every 3 seconds or so. That’s not a whole lot of time. Duelists are on a slightly longer recharge, at around 6.5ish seconds. Still not very much time. Trying to attack a mesmer inbetween those phantasm attacks when the mesmer is actively running away and has blocks and a 2s invuln to pop whenever is a very difficult task.

Difficult, but not impossible.

will the Immortal Mesmer go down fast against this phantasm build?

Mr Fancypants.1270:

will the Immortal Mesmer go down fast against this phantasm build?

If I try to stay and fight, yes. I could easily run away…but that of course defeats the purpose of having a tank build.

An experience like that was actually how I created this build in the first place. The guy I fought was actually using sword/pistol and sword, but I decided to toss on the scepter for the additional defense.

Blind/Block/Dodge/Invuln timing = no phantasm even appears… this means EVERY class can actually counter this build xD

This isn’t really that known though… and most people don’t know the proper timing.

Being Asura would help limit the visibility of the animations for those who do know.

This build was even stronger before the prot/regen/phant “attack” rules were changed… ahhh the good old days of rotfl I don’t even care if you hit me phant mesmer builds.

this serves to build WVW? I believe that not
WVW for which good build?

I ran a similar build to wookie’s when I first started playing with a great sword and sword/pistol. Don’t lose 1v1s very often, but to me the play got boring pretty fast. I prefer a more active build. No doubt a strong dueling build though.

This is the same build everyone was running in tourneys in the first month.

Pyroatheist, I have been using your immortal mesmer since the day you put it on forum, and I have to say, its my current favorite build. But I do have problem with other mesmer casting those phantasm pew pew pew pewing all the time. So I decided to run something like you have just posted, but for some reason, I still roll back to immortal mesmer, its just so good in many ways… (p.s. I only play sPvP)

Thank you for posting this Pyro. I enjoyed reading it, and will not offer any arguments. To the rest of you, go make your own guides instead of nitpicking his.

Many similarities with my build, however when you run into a skilled ele (and I mean real skilled, not rank 30 ish) you’ll just lose. Their aoe’s just destroy your phantasms even with signet of illusions

Amadeus.5687:

@Knight I’m sadly on the EU server’s, and they both play on NA server!

@Wookie, You would have to give up three of the following things: Blink, Stealth or Clone life (I assume it would be Blink and stealth), and while I do agree that I will be put on pressure at the start, I still sit in with 2x low CD easy to land burning Skills, with acces to a thid and a chance to get it on crits, I got 2 different skills to get 5 stacks of confusion on you with, which in WvW means total lockdown unless you got a removal for 10 seconds (one being on a 12 sec CD, the other 18)! Still not counting all the other crap I got! :P The point is, I I will be put on pressure, put if I just paly defensive at the start and don’t double stack my CD’s, then the match will turn easy for me when your two removal is gone! At least in WvW, sPvP have showed to be quite harder for me vs that kind of builds :P

Are you talking about Engineers Prybar? There are two problems I see vs this kind of phantasm build, and mesmers in general. With two blocks, engineers are super easy to counter as a mesmer. Hell, with the single block on the sceptre I’ve been able to easily counter Engineers. That aside, all your confusion dumps on this phantasm build are worthless, because he’s never in need to use his skills. Even if he HAS to, with all those HP’s it hardly matters to burn a few to some skills.

All that aside, something could be swapped out for arcane thievery which throws all those yummy stacks of confusion back onto the engineer. If that’s not enough, ether fest can be changed for mantra of recovery. Since there’s no need for the caster to attack, they can just spam mantra heals and recharges while the phantasms do their thing. Hell, put THAT aside, all the mesmer has to do is buddy up with his phantasms for regeneration. Better yet, add iDefender, and not only will he tank any damage the mesmer takes, but the iSwordsman will grant iDefender regeneration, creating a hell of a regenerative lockdown for the opponent to overcome.

It’s a hell of a build. Anyone competent in it knows how to make the most of it. Hell, I don’t even use it, encountered it once while doing duels, and figured it all out.

Aberrant.6749:

Blind/Block/Dodge/Invuln timing = no phantasm even appears… this means EVERY class can actually counter this build xD

This isn’t really that known though… and most people don’t know the proper timing.

Being Asura would help limit the visibility of the animations for those who do know.

This build was even stronger before the prot/regen/phant “attack” rules were changed… ahhh the good old days of rotfl I don’t even care if you hit me phant mesmer builds.

This is true. The sceptre 3 helps on openeing here as you can use it to burn target dodges, blocks, invulns, etc.

@Pyro: Fun way the -% Condition duration work indeed, but I never really found it that big of a deal when I dueled Osicat in WvW for me! I will still have a bit more then my normal duration on everything, and enough to pull off some of the extra burning ticks, which duration stacking is all about!:

You won’t both have Decoy and Blink, while having added condition removal utility, keep that in mind, when that’s said: I got Perma Swiftness, Perma Vigor and ranged cripple attacks, and AoE cripple pools (Which most of the time make Iswordsman useless, because I simply outkite him and drop bombs and box of nail (Cripple+bleed) behind me) I fear Izereker a lot more then the Iswordsman, because of it’s spin animation moving it a lot more! So I have yet to run into something that can kite me around (ofc. people can flee xD)

I wouldn’t waste Blurred Frenzy to dodge the magnet, it’s actually quite easy if you just watch the animation, wait for about 1 second when you see it go up, and then dodge (So I use the magnet when I can see your using a skill you would have to interreupt!

I’m not sure about the exact math on your healing skills, I do believe tho that the Ether Feast at least with 3 illusions out will outheal the Mantra? Might not be a big deal tho, your the expert here hehe

I simply don’t see me not being able to win a good 50% of the time, if the only real damage come from the Phatasms, because they both got obivous animations when being cast, so I can dodge/Blind ect) and the Iswordmand is so easy to kite for me that I just have to apply burning to it and kite it around (Which I can use my bomb for, he will run as a happy man over them! YAY for AI)! I do have perma vigor as I said, so I got plenty of dodge to use for when you won’t attack me much

@Ross, I don’t see Confusion as a damage spell in a good duel, it’s a skill lock down, I use to make my enemy stop attacking me, my main damage come from all the burning, bleeding and poison inbetween, and while I do agree that Prybar got quite the obivous animation, Two Blocks and Blurred Frenzy won’t protect you enough from all the stuff I can unleash when running with two attack kits, simply becuase I have acces to more skills then you have, all on short CD! That’s the great thing about Kit Engineer’s, we allways have something usefull to hit you with, and I don’t have a problem killing off a Phatasm with prybar (only 12 sec CD), when that’s the main damage skill!

Also, in sPvP you might be able to take a confusion hit, in WvW, my 5 stacks will slap you in the face for about 2500 damage each skill use, and most of the time my Stastic Shot will bounce 4 times cause of the Phatasms so the odds are good for you having 4 stacks there aswell! Also, burning burning burning will slowly ruin any Phantasm mesmer day, because his life pool ain’t that big, and mine is laying around the 700 each second!

Idefender is a jeark! Hate that fellow But again, if all the Mesmer is doing is playing defensive and spawning those Phantasm, I will simply ust use all my endurance and mobility on trying to dodge them while being cast, and kite/kill off with conditions!

So yeah, I keep rampling, it is for sure one hell of a duel build, that I’m sure works awesome, but in WvW I still see it as beatable for any comptent Condition player! Simply because Phatasm retalition won’t bother us much, and we only need one hit to get a good amount of damage rolling!

Also Arcane Theivery, appear to bug when the Mesmes is blinded? can any confirm? Double also, it’s your condition it will scale with, and only with what little duration left on the condition, so often it really dosn’t matter much that you send it back!

@Amadeus: I would still have decoy and blink. I would drop the signet for the mantra condition cleanse.

Neither phantasm will be kited through your aoes easily. Duelists tend to remain in one spot, and have either 900 or 1200 range on their attack. Swordsmen are interesting. They spawn, do their leaping attack, and leap back out of range. They will then stay still until the next attack unless something gets really close, then they’ll actually run back out of range. It’s a really nice mechanic.

As far as dodging/blinding the phantasm cast goes, I know that it’s supposed to be possible to dodge, but I’ve never seen it done. I’ve actually done tests where I tried to dodge a phantasm cast on me over and over, and I was never able to do it even a single time. Blocks also won’t work, those don’t trigger unless you actually get hit. Invuln skills do work, like blurred frenzy or that elixer, but mainly you’ll have to use blinds. Thing is, your only long range blind is static shot, so I can just stop the cast and do it again a moment later.

I really wish I could duel you, because I have my doubts about you staying in melee range. All of my skills and whatnot are just used defensively to avoid getting caught in melee range. The bomb kit in particular will be tough to hit me with because of the delay on it.

With ether feast and the mantra heal, ether feast definitely outheals it. The thing is, if you consider the additional condition removals the mantra gives (2x as many on half the cooldown) it probably will come out ahead, especially with poison involved.

Also remember always how bad the phantasms hurt =p. your build doesn’t sound extremely durable, so the swordsmen would probably hit for about 4-5k. The opening of the fight usually involves both phantasms and a stun, and they chunk you for usually around 7-10k when all is said and done. It’s painful to try to survive them.

Hehe since we can’t get to duel each other, I talked Osicat into try use the builds in some duels vs me, it’s gonna be inside sPvP, since I’m not vs gandara atm! So his gonna have the edge there! (Because they are just better in there), so we will see how it goes! I Know it ain’t the same as you playing it, but it’s the best testing I can get going with it, because I’m quite intrested in seeing just how strong it actually is now

I’m sure Osi will do great things with it. Make sure you guys tape that, I want to see how that goes.

Hehe i will do! Gonna be fun for sure! But will be in a day or two :-)