Guild Wars 2

This is the build I use for tPvP and sometimes hot join. This is my first major guide right up so I am sorry if I am wordy. Suggestions are always welcome.

This is a tanky version of a phantasm build: http://tinyurl.com/TankyPhantasm

Traits Breakdown:
Domination 20:
Major Traits:
III- Empowered Illusions: Illusions inflict 15% more damage.
- This is a pretty obvious choice for any phantasm build.
X- Greatsword Training: +50 power while wielding a GS. Reduces CDs by 20%.
- This is drastically important to this build. Even though iZerker has sporadic damage when fighting a single target the cripple he causes is very important. Also, the range on the GS is of great help when chasing an enemy of running into combat. The other advantage is the decreased CD of “Illusionary Wave”. This is simple a great ability and will be discussed more below.
Minor Traits:
-Illusion of Vulnerability: Inflict 5s of vulnerability when you interrupt a foe. This build has three forms of interrupts in the forms of GS’s “Illusionary Wave” which has a reduced CD, the f3 shatter and the second ability of the off-hand sword’s “Illusionary Riposte”. This trait just makes those three better by adding vulnerability.
-Dazzling: Inflicting daze also causes 5 stacks of vulnerability for 8s. You have two dazes with this build, f3 shatter and the off-hand sword’s “Counter Blade” (this is currently bugged and the counter blade skill doesn’t trigger Dazzling BUT Anet did say this coming patch would be focused on bug fixes so here is hoping this is included.

Dueling 10:
Major Trait:
IV- Blade Training: +50 precision while wielding a sword or spear. This isn’t really all that important for this build as I don’t use critical damage at all. This is for the CD of 20% on the sword and spear. This is simply an amazing trait since it covers two weapons. Mesmers are ridiculously strong in underwater combat and this just helps even more.
Minor Trait:
Critical Infusion: You won’t be critical hitting much so this is useless but is nice when you do get the eventual crit.

Chaos 10:
Major Trait:
IV- Illusionary Defense: 3% reduced damage for each illusion you have in the world. This build is about survival with sustainable damage with phantasms so you will always have three out nearly all the time so this is an amazing trait.
Minor Trait:
-Metaphysical Rejuvenation: Gain 10seconds of regen when your health reaches 75% (30cd) Pretty much regen is never something to shake a hat at.

Inspiration 25:
Major Traits:
V- Persisting Images: Phantasms have 20% more health.
-Your main source of damage is from phantasms that have horrible low natural HP pools so this is very important for keeping them around long enough to do their thing.
VI- Compounding Celerity: Move faster for each active illusion.
- Many may find this not the greatest of traits since it doesn’t increase your backwards or strafing speeds but it does affect your forward speed which is important enough. You can summon phantasms without actually looking at the enemy if they are behind you as long as a “line of sight” would exist if you turned around. This means that if you need to run that you can summon phantasms on the pursuing enemy and thus run away faster. Because, this build also focuses on survival this helps in running behind obstacles to wait while your phantasms chip away at the enemy. I personally love this trait and wouldn’t change it for anything. Also, it helps immensely when chasing people down. Because of the range you have on your GS, you can be chasing someone and summon your iZerker and use Mirror Blade to get a clone out and now the enemy is crippled and you are moving 10% faster.
Minor Traits: (Only minor traits but are probably the core of any phantasm build)
-Vengeful Images: Grants retaliation to Phantasms.
- This is a constant retaliation. Because you are stacking power and your phantasms receive your power their retaliation damage will be top notch. And because you have two different ways to drop target and many auto attacks are AoE on top of outright AoE skills this will really give you a nice boost in damage.
-Phantasmal Healing: Phantasms grant regeneration to nearby allies:
- This includes other phantasms. Even though I am not stacking up the healing power like I said before regen is never something you would ever say “No, I am good.” to.
-Phantasmal Strength: Phantasms do 15% more damage.
- This stacks with Empowered Illusions to equal 30% damage increase. WOOT!!!!

Illusions 5:
Minor Trait: (Again minor trait but acts as a major factor)
-Illusionist Celerity: Illusion-summoning skills recharge 20% faster.
- This stacks with the weapon cool downs giving your iZerker and iSwordsmen a 40% CD reduction. Cannot express how important this is. This also gives your iDefender and Decoy a 20% CD reduction which is again AMAZING!!!!! Your phantasms will die but you will also want to be able to use them kittenters once in a while so being able to summon them out as fast as possible is a major strong point of this build.

Utility Skill Breakdown:
-Ether Feast: There are no other heals worth mentioning when running a phantasm build.
-Decoy: Reduced CD thanks to Illusionist Celerity. Can be used in a tight spot to give you heal time to CD, used to counter another stealth by stealthing a few seconds after they do, good way to break target and run behind something so the enemy is left with just your illusions.
-iDefender: Because this is a survivability build this is a no brainer. With the highest natural HP of any phantasm as well as taking half the damage dealt to surrounding allies including your other phantasms he is all around good. Thanks to a high toughness he lasts rather long as well and thanks to constant retaliation does nice damage to the enemy while allowing your more damaging phantasms to live longer.
-Signet of Illusions: even with the awkwardness of the 12s pulsing timer this is more good than it is bad. Because of a very high toughness that your phantasms have thanks to this build and the fact that the enemy will be targeted on you for the first few second of the fight your phantasms have more than enough time to get the pulse and receive their HP. I have never used this for the shatter recharge.
-Mass Invisibility: This is to break target but is also extremely useful in dealing with stealthing thieves. If your Illusionary Wave is on CD on your GS when the thief goes into shadow refuge you can use this to help with dealing with the incoming backstab. It is also a long enough invis to run a bit away and get behind something to make it harder for the enemy to find you.

Gear:
This build is outside the normal “stack crit for bleeds” phantasm build in that it is drastically more survivable. As such you will be taking Soldier’s Amulet with a Soldier’s Jewel. This will give you a good amount of T and V but also a very nice chunk of power to increase your phantasms steady but not burst damage.

Runes = 6x Rune of Melandru. This will give you an extra 165 more toughness as well as giving you -25% condition duration and -30% stun duration. This is vital when dealing with condition builds because even running away and hiding won’t save you from a massive tick bleed.

Sigils: GS – Sigil of Superior Battle
MH Sword – Sigil of Superior Battle
OH Sword – Sigil of Superior Bloodlust
Spear – Sigil of Superior Battle
Trident – Sigil of Superior Battle

* The reason for the Sigils of Bloodlust is that you are going to be switching weapon sets pretty much as soon as they are able to be swapped to replace dead phantasms as well as for other reasons but mainly for the phantasms. This will give you a constant 6 stacks of might for an extra 210 power which will increase your own damage as well as your phantasms damage AS WELL AS your retaliation damage that they phantasms are doing.
* The Sigil of Superior Bloodlust is there for the extra 250 power once you kill 5 people but even just getting 5 stacks for a single kill is still an extra 50 power and that is nothing to shack a stick at.

Pros:

• Good sustainable damage over time.
• Retaliation damage on all phantasms at all times. This is a large source of this builds damage. Which phantasms receving my power and toughness not only do they last a pretty good length especially if they get a SoI pulse but their retaliation hits for around 365. Because a lot of attacks are short range AoE they will be taking a lot of retal hits. Staff eles and long bow rangers are a joke for this build. And yes the phantasms do last plenty long enough for their CDs to be back up.
• Crazy amounts of toughness and vitality to survive even against burst classes.
• A few interrupts that when used right can make things an easy win.
• You can run away and hide while the phantasms do everything. Or just run to the max distance of your GS and sniper then off from a far while they deal with your phantasms.
• Several ways to break target and stealth away.
• Catching up to enemies is made easier but crippling from iZerker and the increased movement speed from Compounding Celerity

Cons:

• No form of on call condition removal. Not that bad with the Runes of Melandru but condition builds can be annoying.
• Absolutely NO self-applying form of swiftness. This isn’t that bad. What I usually do for my team is I take the “home” or closest point and pretty much bunker on it. Depending on the map I can do other things as well such as killing the PvE mobs in Nifhel Forest or taking the concentration points in the Temple. Specifics will be addressed later on.

Basic Battle Strategy:
- Run with your GS out. Your iZerker is your farthest ranged summoning you have so you can cast it as soon as you can and then move on.
- Next summon the iDefender. You want to summon him at a distance to give him enough time to hit a pulse of the SoI so that he gets his health boost.
- Hit Mirror Blade and give your enemy 3 stacks of vulnerability and yourself or the closest phantasm 3 stacks of might (even though it does nothing ).
- Swap to sword and summon iSwordsman.
- Survive and replace phantasms when needed.
- You will want to interrupt certain moves and for this you have the daze on Counter Blade, Illusionary Wave on GS and the f3 shatter. Because this build takes all possible CD reductions for phantasms you can shatter pretty frequently and not have to worry about your phantasms being on cool down. Do not be afraid to shatter with this build.
- If you are in an area where you can like at the Henge in the Forest of Niflhel you should try you’re your hardest to stay behind something. If you are defending a spot you want to stay in the circle as much as possible but when attack and taking a point killing and then taking the circle is going to be the easier way for you to do it till you get more used to using your survival abilities.

*I will add in specifics on fighting the various classes/builds of those classes if people seem to take a liking to this build as I have. *

Reserved for more in-depth guide.

Reserved for more guide/videos if I can ever figure out how to make them.