Guild Wars 2

I created this build as a variant of the normal glamour build with a strong emphasis on support. Mesmers are fantastic at aoe support, but unfortunately, support doesn’t get you bags, exp, WxP, or really any reward at all. Therefor, I had the idea of combining a support build with enough elements of a glamour build to still retain the zerg tagging/damaging abilities of a glamour build.

http://tinyurl.com/GlamSupport

The traits for this build are 20/0/20/30/0.
Domination

• Crippling Dissipation (V)
  • This is really an optional trait. I chose it just because it gives a bit more utility, but you can really pick any adept major trait here
• Confusing Enchantments (VIII)
  • The bread and butter of the glamour build

Chaos

• Debilitating Dissipation (V)
  • Again, a personal choice. I take it for the aoe condition potential it provides, but other adept major traits could be chosen.
• Chaotic Dampening (X)
  • This is used for the utility of the staff. Lower cooldowns means more chaos armor, more chaos storms, and more phase retreats.

Inspiration

• Glamour Mastery (II)
  • This is super important to keep your damage potential high with lowering the cooldowns on your glamours
• Warden’s Feedback (VIII)
  • Extremely important to provide the reflection utility with the warden and temporal curtain, as well as lowering the cooldowns on both skills
• Restorative Mantras (X)
  • This is key to the supportive aspect of this build. By spamming Mantra of Restoration and Mantra of Pain, you provide a very high aoe heals per second for your team

Gearing
The gear used for this build is normal glamour gear; rabid and carrion. However, the runes used are 6 runes of altruism. This boosts your boon duration, and allows you to spread aoe fury and might continually to your team.

Heal and Utilities
The heal taken is Mantra of Restoration, to proc the altruism runes as much as possible, and provide the additional mantra heals to your team. The utilities taken are Feedback, Mantra of Pain, and Null Field. I’ll swap out null field with portal or other utilities depending on the necessity.

Playstyle
Playing this build is very simple. You use the glamours as normal in a glamour build, focusing on the point of enemy concentration and movement to tag as many as possible with confusion. However, once you drop your glamours, you go into full support mode. You continually spam mantra of pain for 2600 aoe heals every few seconds. Additionally, you occasionally use (or as needed) your mantra heal to keep proccing the aoe might and fury, as well as additional aoe heals from that as well. This results in a build that has strong aoe healing and boon sharing support, while retaining the ability to collect bags and Wxp by tagging enemy zergs with glamours.

bad build useless traits you cant do anything with it honestly. One of the worst builds I have ever seen

Hebril Amolebin.9817:

bad build useless traits you cant do anything with it honestly. One of the worst builds I have ever seen

Easy boy. Try again in a more constructive manner, please.

Ah, and before doing that, check Pyro’s history.

EDIT: Pyro, my main concern with this build is the small AoE radius of the healings and the limitation to 5 guys. Is that enough in a zerg vs zerg fight to make the difference? My impression is that will be good to stay alive and to tag, but it won’t be good enough to help your zerg. Somehow, like a shelfish supportive build.

I tried this build and I feel that you are trying to cover 1 to many area’s of expertise. I believe that even you have said multiple times on your podcast that mesmers are a specialized profession that excel in one specific role. I by no means trying to say this is a jack of all trades build. I just feel that for me, there is a little too much going on in this one build for it to be at maximum effectiveness for a AoE Support.

I was also wondering what build for you has produced the best results for 3 – 6 man skirmishes?

Covering too many areas? Not really, it works as a Glamour Build with aoe support heals, with those traits you can still aoe heal 2.8k in a zerker build, so I think it will work quite nicely. I will play around with it later, probably using rampagers gear with cleric accessories.

Arcadiak.2980:

I tried this build and I feel that you are trying to cover 1 to many area’s of expertise. I believe that even you have said multiple times on your podcast that mesmers are a specialized profession that excel in one specific role. I by no means trying to say this is a jack of all trades build. I just feel that for me, there is a little too much going on in this one build for it to be at maximum effectiveness for a AoE Support.

I was also wondering what build for you has produced the best results for 3 – 6 man skirmishes?

You are correct in a way, this build has a few compromises in it. It sacrifices glamour power for support, and sacrifices support potency for glamour utility. Unfortunately, since support isn’t rewarded at all, I really had no choice in it. Even with the sacrifices though, it’s still a very strong support build. The healing output is absolutely massive. One of my best things to do is simply stand next to people on rams tha are targets of arrow carts or people and just keep them alive with mantra spam.

In small skirmish groups, I run my immortal build. I can easily hold the attention of 3-6 people solo without dying. The rest of my team can put all their effort into dismantling the enemy while they’re worrying about me.

I’m going to keep running your build to discover it’s full potential. I will admit the healing is something else. Perhaps I haven’t given it enough time. I’ll get back to you once I have given it a day or 2 of play.

Also, I’m loving the mesmerized podcasts. I think you’re doing a really good job and I especially liked the interview with Grimm.

The theory behind it seems very sound. Going to give it a whirl right now, but based on your previous work, I’m sure it will be good. Makes me glad I didn’t get rid of my rabid armor now.

[edit] Have used it for a few hours and it’s great at support. I’m not seeing the 2800 aoe heal though (unless it’s cumulative) but other than that seems to be very strong. It’s hard learning how to micro mantras after not using them, but after that, seems quite solid. Decent in small groups, but much prefer shatter or immortal for that[/edit]

Ryn.6459:

Hebril Amolebin.9817:

bad build useless traits you cant do anything with it honestly. One of the worst builds I have ever seen

Easy boy. Try again in a more constructive manner, please.

Ah, and before doing that, check Pyro’s history.

EDIT: Pyro, my main concern with this build is the small AoE radius of the healings and the limitation to 5 guys. Is that enough in a zerg vs zerg fight to make the difference? My impression is that will be good to stay alive and to tag, but it won’t be good enough to help your zerg. Somehow, like a shelfish supportive build.

All support is limited to 5 people, and mantra heals/altruism boon sharing is no exception. Additionally, almost all support skills have a very small radius, with the one exception being healing rain. However, in the current zerg meta of stacking, the radius really isn’t an issue. You will hit 5 people with your heals every time you cast them.

The question of making a difference is an interesting one. In a 50vs50 zerg fight, what can any single person do to make a difference? The only convincing argument for solo responsibility is a well placed portal bomb, and this build has plenty of durability to perform that function. Other than that, this build offers far and away the highest aoe healing per second that any class or build in this game can do (excepting the same build, but with full healing power from apothecary or something), while still having the strong zerg utilities of the glamours. In terms of making a difference, you can’t really ask for more than that.

Zen.4678:

The theory behind it seems very sound. Going to give it a whirl right now, but based on your previous work, I’m sure it will be good. Makes me glad I didn’t get rid of my rabid armor now.

[edit] Have used it for a few hours and it’s great at support. I’m not seeing the 2800 aoe heal though (unless it’s cumulative) but other than that seems to be very strong. It’s hard learning how to micro mantras after not using them, but after that, seems quite solid. Decent in small groups, but much prefer shatter or immortal for that[/edit]

I apologize, the 2800 was actually a typo. The base heal on the mantras is 2600, with .2 scaling for healing power. If you want, this build can be modified to run with apothecary gear. I decided that it wasn’t worth it, because the mantra heals only scale .2 with healing power…and I already had a full set of rabid.

Pyro, I take back what I said about trying to cover to many areas then it can handle this is such a solid support build. What can I say? I was to quick to judge. Good job.

Pyroatheist.9031:

I apologize, the 2800 was actually a typo. The base heal on the mantras is 2600, with .2 scaling for healing power. If you want, this build can be modified to run with apothecary gear. I decided that it wasn’t worth it, because the mantra heals only scale .2 with healing power…and I already had a full set of rabid.

Apothecary gear is too expensive for too little gain in that case. If I’m quite honest, this is the build I wanted to make, but had no idea how to build. I had been testing something along the lines of a cleric’s 30/0/20/20/0 build, with Water runes, but this is by far and away better. Thought they stopped double stacking so have to ask why double sigil of corruption? Been looking at stamina, hydromancy, and restoration for my focus as all 3 have options that are fairly appealing.

Apothecary accessories (or semi apothecary) are dead cheap now because of the southsun event.
Like Zen, I have tried the water runes but with apothecary/shaman in order to keep the condition damage. Even with 1000 healing it gives 1500 heals, which is a bit low. This does look infinitely more interesting.
I wonder if they would stack if you used rune of water.

@Zen: Having 2 sigils means you get 2 stacks per kill. It helps to stack up faster after being downed.

@Silver: Using runes of water, when you charged your heal mantra, you would get the aoe proc from both restorative mantras and runes of water, but I just didn’t think it was worth it for a low intensity aoe heal every 15 seconds.

@Pyro: Thought they removed that. Might have to give it a go then. I do weapon swaps on full stack, so maybe a Sigil of Energy and Sigil of Restoration on full stack would be a good compromise.

Does mantra of pain proc altruism runes? I didn’t think it did but I’m asking anyway.

Pyroatheist.9031:

In a 50vs50 zerg fight, what can any single person do to make a difference?

Some random notes here, not especially aimed at you because you know what you’re doing

Reflects scale well. Feedback, medic’s feedback, temporal curtain.
Retaliation scales with the size of the enemy.
Illusions stop aoes damaging friendlies.
Phantasms with inspiration line provide incredible retaliation damage.
Don’t die – any massive dps you do as a glass cannon is completely offset when you die easily and give a free rally to multiple enemies (survivability ftw).
Veil!
Chaos storm scales great!
Imbued diversion is an oddly good trait for shatter mesmers in zergs.

aka force multipliers… which mesmers have loads of!

@fadeaway: Any runes that have an ‘on-heal’ characteristic to them will only work with the main healing skill for a class, with no exceptions.

I really like this build.
Mesmer aoe heal is much stronger than most people think it is. You basically just need the mantra of recovery trait and mantra of pain skill and then go for it.
And while we are at it, one of the most underrated skills in this game is mimic. Mimic is a 4 sec reflection bubble with just 25 sec cooldown but even most mesmers have never tried it.

My 2 cents: http://tinyurl.com/my2centsGlam
You will have lot of boons with that build, why don’t you use the Signet of Inspiration?

Profano.9514:

My 2 cents: http://tinyurl.com/my2centsGlam
You will have lot of boons with that build, why don’t you use the Signet of Inspiration?

I don’t use the signet because there is no room for it on my bar. I will either have null field or portal as my last utility, not SoI.

My first run of this build was actually using that exact setup. However, I quickly realized that I would be benefiting my team far more by taking the additional utility of portal/veil/null field rather than the signet.

Wow I did not know that two “On Kill” Sigils double-stacked, thats pretty sweet.

Also, if it helps, fully speccing for healing will get your mantra heals into the 2900 range and regen into the 300+ range. I tried, so hard to push this further, but its impossible without Sigil of Life.

How effective are the reflects from the Focus in zerg fights? And do you notice much of a difference for your team with the AoE Fury from Altruism procs?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Wow I did not know that two “On Kill” Sigils double-stacked, thats pretty sweet.

Also, if it helps, fully speccing for healing will get your mantra heals into the 2900 range and regen into the 300+ range. I tried, so hard to push this further, but its impossible without Sigil of Life.

How effective are the reflects from the Focus in zerg fights? And do you notice much of a difference for your team with the AoE Fury from Altruism procs?

The healing power with regen is awesome and undeniable. Unfortunately, as you well know, mesmers main access to group regen is through phantasms, and you’re just not going to be able to utilize that effectively in a zerg situation.

The focus is great in zerg fights. The warden usually dies quickly, but you can see reflect numbers just from that if you drop it carefully. Temporal curtain is great to place across chokes or on top of walls that people are shooting off of. Additionally, while I’ve mentioned before that the light field of temporal curtain remains after detonation, the reflection utility of it also remains after detonation, meaning you can use it to pull enemies around like normal without losing that reflective utility.

Since I pretty much only use this build in zerg fights, it’s difficult to notice a substantial difference in my teammate’s performance with the fury/might as opposed to without. Whatever the effect ends up as, you certainly know that you’re providing somthing close to 45% uptime on fury, and about 100% uptime on 3 stacks of might, and that does make a difference.

This looks like a very interesting build you have… got three questions about it:

does the Restorative Mantra Heal procs the altruism stacks of might and fury boon? (when using the mantra of pain)

thought before of replacing , Warden’s Feddback for Harmonious Mantras ?

does reflected projectile damage from feedback and warden’s feedback focus skills count for tagging wxp and bag drops?

Nor.2057:

This looks like a very interesting build you have… got three questions about it:

does the Restorative Mantra Heal procs the altruism stacks of might and fury boon? (when using the mantra of pain)

thought before of replacing , Warden’s Feddback for Harmonious Mantras ?

does reflected projectile damage from feedback and warden’s feedback focus skills count for tagging wxp and bag drops?

For runes with on-heal effects, in 100% of situations they will only proc when a character uses its main heal spell.

No. Harmonious mantras lowers your heal/second from restorative mantras.

Reflected projectiles work such that the attack itself is as if it were coming from you. The attack damage, scaling, and modifiers are based off of your stats, along with crit chance and power, and then it is sent back at the other person. Using reflects, you can get kills with a rifle, bow, etc on a mesmer.

Pyro -

Really loving this build as a “replacement” for the traditional zerg-breaker glam build.
Thanks for all the time you spend testing and providing these great posts.

Pyroatheist.9031:

No. Harmonious mantras lowers your heal/second from restorative mantras.

why would that happen specifically? i mean having 3 charges per cast wouldn’t give you more heals than 2 charges per cast?

Nor.2057:

Pyroatheist.9031:

No. Harmonious mantras lowers your heal/second from restorative mantras.

why would that happen specifically? i mean having 3 charges per cast wouldn’t give you more heals than 2 charges per cast?

Its the AoE healing that would be diminished. Consider Mantra of Pain; someone spamming MoPain with only 2 charges would be dishing out more healing than someone who has to blow through 3 charges before they can channel the mantra again.

The faster you can channel your mantras, the more effective Restorative Mantras is.

Nor.2057:

Pyroatheist.9031:

No. Harmonious mantras lowers your heal/second from restorative mantras.

why would that happen specifically? i mean having 3 charges per cast wouldn’t give you more heals than 2 charges per cast?

No, because the heal of restorative mantras is fired off every time you complete a mantra CHANNEL.
Supposing you’re spamming mantra of pain no stop (1 sec cd for istacast and for channeling again):

2.75 sec channel
get heal
use istantcast
1 sec CD
use istantcast
1 sec CD
can channel again -> heal

Rinse and repeat.

If you take Harmonious Mantra, you must fire the istantcast one additional time, which means the “cooldown” between the heals of restorative mantra related to mop have 1 additional sec of CD.

That’s why harmonious mantras and restorative mantras aren’t taken both at same time.
/edit: ninjia’ed :p

ok ty for the replies i get it now

I have been looking for a support build for a while now and this one looks promising but I have a few questions for you

-what is the radius on the mantra heal and the rune proc? ive looked around but no tool tips seem to show it.
-I know the regen will scale with healing power but does the restorative mantra trait scale with healing power?

that’s it for now, I might have some more once I get a chance to try it out a bit more

jadjay.8701:

I have been looking for a support build for a while now and this one looks promising but I have a few questions for you

-what is the radius on the mantra heal and the rune proc? ive looked around but no tool tips seem to show it.
-I know the regen will scale with healing power but does the restorative mantra trait scale with healing power?

that’s it for now, I might have some more once I get a chance to try it out a bit more

I believe the radius on the mantra heal and rune proc is in the range of 400-600.

All healing skills scale with healing power to some extent. Mantra heals only scale at .2, but they have a VERY high base value of 2600, making them inefficient to stacking healing power for while at the same time still very effective for healing.

I love this build, plain & simple.

It’s extremely useful, not to mention if you have a few mesmers in a raid running it. Yes, you yourself will only heal a maximum of five people at a time, but if you have four mesmers running this, then it’s twenty heals going off. Sounds tasty to me. Of course the tagging is glorious (more loot bags, yah?) and the reflects are always useful.

I also am a huge fan of this build due to the survivability of it. Yes, we all loved glamour (well not me) before the confusion nerf, but now that we aren’t rolling the numbers across the screen so much, it’s nice to be able to opt into a new role.

^-^ 10/10