Guild Wars 2

THE BUILD
Traits & Skills

Sword* / Focus* – Staff
Mantra of Recovery / Feedback* / Veil* / Signet of Inspiration / Mass Invisibility*
0/10/30/30/0*
or 0/20/20/30/0 (WvW – Deceptive Evasion & Shattered Conditions)

• Heal numbers assume you are using Cleric’s or Magi’s armor & trinkets.
  Superior Runes of Altruism
  Superior Sigil of Life* – 2x Superior Sigil of Battle*
  Chocolate Omnomberry Cream.
  (THERE IS NO SPECIFIC ARMOR, and only 20 Chaos / 15 Inspiration is mandatory, allowing for creative flexibility * =Can be altered based on personal taste)

10\DUELING II, VI
Your damage mostly comes from crits off iWarden. With the proper gear:

/Phantasmal Fury will give your Phantasms 46% crit chance which is crucial if you don’t want your friends to laugh at your pitiful damage behind your back. Having a base crit chance of 25% is important to proc Critical Infusion which is essentially your own personal perma-vigor.
/Protected Mantras adds a significant amount of Toughness to you AND your phantasms everytime you charge a mantra. Great if you’re adding heals to your support.

30\CHAOS V*, X*,VIII
While Boon Duration and Toughness are important to this build, you’d be just fine with at least 20 points in Chaos specifically for Bountiful Interruption. Other good traits:
/Debilitating Dissipation is great for the AoE Weakness (-50% damage chance) it can apply.
/Illusionary Defense Improves your passive tanking ability.
/ Master of Manipulation since any of the Manipulation Skills benefit the build.
/Prismatic Understanding is our best way to gain protection.
/Chaotic Dampening makes staff more comfortable to use.

This tree will allow you to passively gain 10 seconds of regeneration(atleast 3000HP) when your health hits 75% as well as gain 3 seconds of protection every 15 seconds. Technically it procs every time you regenerate, but you’ll always be regenerating. Not only does that help your survivability, but its good to keep in mind when you’re about to drop your Boon Storm.

30*\INSPIRATION III,VIII*
The Inspiration tree holds the most important traits for this build, and lordy there are a lot of fine selections here. Yet again, while 30 points are recommended, no more than 20 points are required. Medic’s Feedback/ Glamour Mastery/Mender’s Purity/Vigorous Revelation/ Restorative Mantras , /Warden’s Feedback are all very strong choices in a support build. Vigorous Revelation is arguably the most crucial trait to take, followed by Warden’s Feedback. The minor traits vastly improve Phantasm performance, with Phantasmal Healing being providing your main source of Regeneration.

•Restorative Mantras adds a reliable healing element to your playstyle. In general, your Restorative Mantras healing is most effective on yourself and other classes who have around 15k-20k Vitality.
• Learn to cast Mantra of Pain > Mantra of Recovery > Mantra of Pain in that order. In less than 10 secs, you’ll have healed your team for 8400HP, (And Regeneration would heal at least 3000HP in 10 seconds). It is NOT recommended to sit back and spam mantra heals in a desperate attempt to save lives. You’ll fall behind and give everyone an excuse to blame their incompetence on you.

• Since you only require 20 in Chaos/Inspiration to maintain this build, there are 30 flexible points to add wherever you’d like. (Recommended: 25 Illusions / 5 Dueling)

• Runes of Altruism allow you to proc 3 stacks of Might for 15 seconds, and Fury for 8 seconds whenever you heal. With the recommended boon duration (45%), you can keep reapplying this effect every time Might fades. Mantra of Recovery is best for this.

RUNE VARIANTS
- 2xSuperior Rune of Water 2xSuperior Runes of the Monk 2xMajor Rune of Sanctuary
(+25% boon duration at the cost of Might & Fury on heal. The most boon duration you can obtain from runes)
- 6x Runes of Dwayna
( AoE Regeneration on Healing. I’d prefer this if it didn’t also exchange 15% boon duration for 20% regeneration duration. )
-6x Runes of Lyssa
(Boon Storm + Mass Invis[All Boons] + Prismatic Understanding = OMFG)

BUILD VARIANTS

HYBRID >> PRISMATIC MAESTRO “You think I’m running away? Pfft. I weave light and shadow into health and armor.”

20/20/30/0/0 Domination: IV, IX Dueling: V, X Chaos: III, X, XII

Scepter or Sword/Torch – Staff ( Superior Runes of Lyssa / Rampagers, Rabid, or Berzerker Armor)

Feedback / Decoy / Signet of Inspiration /Mass Invisibility

One of the few exceptions to my usual preference of traiting into Inspiration. This build grants superior team defense using Prismatic Understanding for Protection/Aegis/Regeneration off Torch, Decoy and Mass Invisibility. IMO, this build lends itself to condition damage quite well, but can also be specced for more power or support depending on your rune setup.

SHATTER >> PURIFIER MAESTRO “I should start charging for all this stripping I’m doing! Oh yeah, and for the condition stripping too…”

20/20/0/30/0 Domination: I or IV, VII – Dueling: V, X – Inspiration: II, IX or VIII, XI

Sword-Focus/Staff (Superior sigil of Purity)

Null Field / Phantasmal Disenchanter / Feedback

With less focus on boon sharing, this build’s team utility comes in the removal of ally conditions and enemy boons; decoy and Mirror Images are also good choices here. The reduced focus on boon sharing eliminates some of the gear/rune restrictions of the other support setups. Though you may ask “What kind of Shatter build doesn’t go 30 into Illusions?” Shattered Conditions and Shattered Concentration both work per clone shattered so you don’t need to shatter often & Deceptive Evasion tends to be enough clone generation. The traits in those trees (and selected skills) are very flexible for your own flavor while still maintaining its supportive abilities.

SHATTER >> LOCKDOWN MAESTRO “You can’t attack.. but you can give me your boons.”

0/20/20/0/30 Dueling: IV, X – Chaos: III, X or VIII – Illusions: – VI,X XII

Sword-Focus/Staff (Runes of the Mesmer)

Feedback or Null Field / Arcane Thievery / Signet of Inspiration

Imbued Diversion is a surprisingly strong trait after the patch. Using iLeap(close) + Phase Retreat(Mid) + Deceptive Evasion(Far) to stagger your clones at different distances to keep multiple enemies locked down and smashing their keyboards. Phantasms are important here, so save them for AFTER you shatter your clones. If you’re feeling lucky, you can earn big rewards from Bountiful Interruption to share with your team. Alternatively, you can take the 20 from Chaos into Inspiration for mantra heals or other support.
(Protip: Keep an eye out for Necros, HGH engineers, or others you can steal massive boons from.)

PHANTASM >> WAR MAESTRO (I swear.. Naming these things is the best part) “The best defense is an obnoxious, gratutious, over-compensating offense.”

20/5/20/25/0 or 20/0/20/0/30 Domination: III, X or VI – Chaos: IV, VIII Inspiration: X or Illusions III, VII, X

Greatsword/Staff (Sigil of Battle on Both) – Superior Runes of Altruism or full Boon Duration / Berserkers or Knights gear

Signet of Inspiration / Signet of Illusions / Mantra of Pain* / Mantra of Recovery*

Even without Bountiful Interruption, you’re able to constantly supply 12+ stacks of Might (or 420+ power). This build has two variants: Traiting into Inspiration for mantra heals, this “minion-master” type setup allows you to summon Phantasms and focus on building might stacks while providing AoE Mantra heals.
*The healing and mantras are optional, alternatively you can slide those points into Illusions to add an extra bounce on greatsword(thus more might), faster attacking Phantasms, and overall cooldowns.

THE BOON STORM
What’s the Fuss About?

( A Chaos Maestro variant with 4 Altruism Runes & 2 Superior Water runes, thus the lack of Fury. Also, Omnomberry Creams (20% boon duration) are not in use here. HUGE thanks to Alissah who took the time to create, edit, and awesomeify the video!)

The Superior Runes of Lyssa grant the user all boons for 5 seconds every time you use an Elite Skill. The Chaotic build does the same, everytime you use Signet of Inspiration. For your entire team.

That means EVERY 45 SECONDS YOU’LL BE APPLYING ALL BOONS(Eff you, Stability) for AT LEAST 5 SECONDS. How? Call 1-800-005-86#1

• Start with Sword/Focus. Make sure you have atleast one Mantra of Recovery charge prepped. Run up and Blurred Frenzy.
• Cast iWarden, place Temporal Curtain at his feet. (Regeneration/Remove Condition)
• Shatter Warden. Run to curtain, cast iLeap/Swap ontop of curtain. (Swiftness/Retaliation/Vigor)
• Shatter clone. Swap to Staff, Phase Retreat ontop curtain. Shatter clone (Vigor/Retaliation)
• Cast Chaos Storm, Veil (AFTER Storm so you don’t accidentally Reveal), iWarlock, Mantra Charge, Chaos Armor (Everything else)
• Signet of Inspiration. /dance /laugh /cheer /dance
  (Sword 2 >> Focus 5 >> Focus 4&Shatter >> Sword 3&Shatter >> Staff 2&Shatter >> Staff 5 [Staff 3 – Heal – Staff 4 inside of storm ] >> Signet. )

All of the boons. Longer duration than Lyssa. No elites needed.
• A successful Boon Storm should apply
12+ seconds of 9x Might/Retaliation/Vigor/Swiftness/Fury/ Aegis
5+ seconds of Regeneration.
3 to 20 secs of Protection

Now I admit, that was pretty complicated. Not only that, but sometimes you just don’t have enough time or options for such a lengthy setup. Here’s a Diet Coke version:

BOON STORM LITE

• Run through your Temporal Curtain, Switch to Staff, Phase Retreat off your Curtain
• Shatter the clone
• Cast Phantasmal Warlock (or dodge if you have no target)
• Cast Chaos Storm, heal and cast Chaos Armor near end of storm
• Shatter the illusion
  *Signet of Inspiration.
  (Charge mantra beforehand. Focus 4, run through rupture >> Staff 2 atop light field >> Staff 5 [F1-Staff 4-Heal while inside storm] >> Signet )

The numbers are lower and less predictable, but you honestly only need a Staff, Vigorous Revelation, and Runes of Altruism to be able to apply every boon at once.
__________________________________________________________________

Communication is Key
“2.9k Burst heals on me. Boons on [Chaos Storm]”

One of the reasons support builds tend to fall behind in effectiveness is because your teammates really don’t know what you have to offer or how to adapt their playstyle to match yours. Never be afraid to take a second to inform your group of what you bring to the table.
(Protip. Hold the shift key and leftclick your skills to display them in the chatbox. This will help you quickly explain the benefits of Chaos Storm to your party). Team synergy may not happen instantly, but you’ll be able to synchronize better with your group now that they know what to look out for. This makes everyone’s job worlds easier AND has the added bonus of recognition for all the support you put in. For specific numbers..
—————
Swiftness - 17 secs. Applied every 20 secs.
Might - 15 secs. 3 stacks at least. Applied every 15 secs.
Vigor – 7 secs (Note: it does not matter how many clones you shatter at once, you’ll always get 7 seconds per shatter used. 28 seconds with every shatter blown)
Regeneration – 4.5 seconds per tick from Phantasm. Constantly reapplied.
Protection Potential 4.5 secs from Chaos armor. Reapplies for 4.5 seconds every 15 secs.
Fury – 8 seconds. Applied every 15 secs
Retaliation – 20+ seconds from leap combo off Temporal Curtain. Recharges 20 secs.
Aegis- 5 seconds atleast. Signet of Inspiration and Chaos Storm procs this often.

SUPPORT – MESMER STYLE
Eating dinner? Watching TV? Sending awkward break-up text messages? Shame on you. If your teammates could see you right now, they’d scoff at your lack of effort and make rude gestures at you. Conveniently, they can’t see you. So how do you keep up the illusion of trying hard without putting in that much effort?

-Roll a Warrior.

No, I jest. Roll a condition Necro.
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BOONS

• If you remember nothing else: Temporal Curtain >>Chaos Storm>>RecoveryMantra Charge>>Chaos Armor >> Signet of Inspiration is the core of your awesomeness.

• Keep an eye on the status bar of your team. Try and keep Regeneration and cast Mantra heals on on Medium/Light armor allies. Give swiftness on melee characters. Might/Fury to DPS allies.
• Try to always have two Phantasms and a Staff clone up at all times. You want to make sure you have as many Phantasms up as possible, and as near to eachother/yourself as they could be. Not only does this give you constant Regeneration, but procs Protection every 15 seconds.

• Learn to Shatter. Sword clones are entirely dispensable, Staff Clones if you must, Phantasms if you have no choice. Most of the time, maintaining Vigor is more important than anything a clone can give you. Try to get into a habit of shattering clones without shattering phantasms. (Shatter before the cast time is complete for the Phantasm summon)

• Keep Swiftness on yourself constantly to keep up with all allies. Make sure allies know to cluster inside of Chaos Storm.
__________________________________________________________________
HEALING

• Learn to cast Mantra of Pain > Mantra of Recovery > Mantra of Pain in that order. In less than 10 secs, you’ll have healed your team for 8400HP, (And Regeneration would heal at least 3000HP in 10 seconds)

• Your heals and regeneration are much more effective on squishy allies with lower Vitality. Running around with your hands out screaming “Agony! Torment!! Pain!!!” behind a tanky Necro or Warrior will do little more than annoy them.

High HP: Necro – Warrior

Medium HP: Engineer – Ranger – Mesmer

Low HP: Guardian – Thief – Elementalist

It is NEVER recommended to sit back and spam mantra heals in a desperate attempt to save lives of anyone other than the squishiest characters. You’ll fall behind and give everyone an excuse to blame their incompetence on you.

• Do not be afraid to start channeling Mantras in the middle of a fight, but make sure you have a method of defense. As a general rule, use a Staff when channeling Mantras in the middle of battle.(Increased Toughness/Chaos Storm/Phase Retreat/Chaos Armor)
__________________________________________________________________
CONTROL

• A successful Maestro needs to have good Crowd Control. Temporal Curtain Cripples/Pulls enemies away from allies. Swap from iLeap is an AoE immobilize. Chaos Storm Chills/Weakens/Dazes

• Dont forget your defenses; Blurred Frenzy, Illusionary Leap, Temporal Curtain, Distraction, Distortion, Feedback, Chaos Armor, and Chaos Storm should always be constantly in use.

•Fight INSIDE your Combo Fields.

• Do not underestimate the power of reflection. Projectiles are one of the most common forms of attack, and this build allows you to send that damage back akittens source. Great for bosses, and many dungeons (such as Caudecus Manor).
__________________________________________________________________
SOLO

• When fighting solo, two staff clones can maintain perma Fury on you.

• Always swap weapons as soon as possible, and time your mantra heals for every 15 seconds. You’ll need the 10+ might stacks to kill anything before bedtime.

• Adding Greatsword in place of either Staff or Sword/Focus makes for a faster solo. Greatsword/Sword-Focus has the best AoE/tagging potential.

THE BOONS

Why They Matter
An unfortunately high number of people overlook the usefulness of boons. Regeneration is largely ignored, Protection doesn’t last long enough to notice, Might means nothing if it isn’t at least 5 stacks, Swiftness only seems useful out of combat, Retaliation doesn’t do enough noticeable damage, who cares about Aegis if it only blocks a single hit? Misconceptions like these, in addition to how poorly Healing Power scales, have shied many people away from support-oriented builds in favor of DPS or Tanking. Try to apply the following buffs at the same time.

• Swiftness/Vigor/Regeneration- (Temporal Curtain/Clone Shatters/Living Phantasms)
Regeneration “Resist Bleeds/Burns. Grow back life.” is more effective with the less damage we take. Having a high Healing Power allows Regen to mitigate effects of Bleeding/Burning. At 1300 healing power classes with lower vitality (15k) can benefit so much from Regeneration that it feels reminiscent of a First-Person Shooter when they find cover in combat. Since our regeneration gives atleast1500HP every 5 seconds, it is good to have iWarlock Phantasms set in farther behind a group to allow allies to heal up while they lose agro.

Swiftness “Maneuver Quickly Without Dodging” allows you to avoid melee, projectile and AoE attacks without having to waste a dodge, as well as keep within buffing proximity of your allies much more easily. Swiftness makes you the kiting king.

Vigor “Dodge Twice As Often” allows you to dodge twice as often. ‘Nuff said. It is one of the best boons you can apply, but remember that when you shatter Vigorous Revelation radiates from you, and not your clones. You must be standing near allies to grant them vigor.

• Aegis/Protection/Retaliation (Chaos Storm, Chaos Armor)
Aegis“Block The Next Attack” is much more useful than it seems at first glance. Aegis is great for blocking obnoxiously telegraphed “This-Is-Probably-Gonna-OneShot-You” attacks, it also gives you further combat advantage against Blinded enemies.

Protection “Take Less Damage” reduces incoming damage by 33%. That’s a lot. Protection is one of the highest priority boons in the game, and combined with Retaliation, makes up a huge part of your melee tanking.

Retaliation“Hurt You For Hurting Me” scales off Power, which works well with Cleric’s armor. The damage on it’s own isn’t good, but combined with Confusion or other damaging conditions, it can become devastating. You can maintain permanent Retaliation by successfully comboing iLeap and Phase Retreat over your Temporal Curtain.
It is also good to drop Chaos Storm on your clones and Phantasms so that Aegis and Retaliation improve their effectiveness.
-(If you take iDefender, his Retaliation procs with yours for double retaliation damage each time you get hit.- Thanks EsLafiel.4517)

• Might/Fury-(Winds of Chaos/6x Runes of Altruism)
Might “Do More Damage.” Increases both direct damage and condition damage. It takes about 7 stacks of Might for the damage to become noticeable(At level 80, 35 per stack. A ridiculous 875 at 25 stacks. Make friends with an ele and a shortbow thief who know about fire fields and blast finishers.) While it isn’t anything to scream about, you’ll be constantly applying 3 Might stacks in any given battle. This makes your Phantasms/Allies a bit more damaging.

Fury“Crit More Often”(20% crit chance increase; Suddenly your lousy 22% crit chances now crits nearly half the time.) is the real reason you want to keep close to your team & strategically place staff clones to bounce their Winds of Chaos off certain allies.

SUPPORT SKILLS
Always have one flexible utility slot. Creative thinking and quick improvisation will make you shine on the battlefield and have you smiling stupidly at your own cleverness.

WEAPON
- Temporal Curtain – 12+ seconds of swiftness, 5 second cripple, a LIGHT combo field, an interrupt, a (traited)reflective wall, AND a pull!? On a (traited)20 second cooldown!? Tell anyone who claims the Focus is bad to go kick kittens. Here is another ability that benefits highly from the creativity of it’s wielder. The LIGHT combo field it provides is your main source of Retaliation, and Whirl/Projectile finishers that pass through it cure conditions.

- Illusionary Warden- Your best buddy, iWarden deserves a facebook friend request. In addition to being one of the strongest Phantasms in the Mesmer arsenal, the iWarden also happens to be a stationary projectile absorbing/reflecting, regeneration granting, condition removing machine. Cast it, and stand inside it’s bubble attack when you fight. Always cast this right before you cast Temporal Curtain. Make sure to aim at it’s feet when you cast to ensure it’s combo effect.

- Winds of Chaos- Don’t even look at the offensive nature of this move. For both you, and your clones, all you should be concerned about is that it provides nonstop Might and Fury to your allies. When soloing and tanking, its always ideal to have atleast one clone casting this on your target.

- Illusionary Warlock- The second most damaging attack in our arsenal, the Warlock also benefits from being a stationary ranged phantasm. Strategically place these guys around the battlefield near allies to give them regeneration, or stack two close together to form your own little “regeneration station.” Whatever you do, try not to shatter them.

- Chaos Armor- You’ll have Chaos Armor up at least once every 10 seconds if you have Feedback/Null Field. This buff grants protection, regeneration, or swiftness whenever you are struck while simultaneously blinding/crippling/confusing the attacker. Having Chaos Armor while sitting inside Chaos Storm makes you ridiculously damage resistant.

- Chaos Storm- Don’t be shy. Go ahead and /dance inside of your Chaos Storm. You deserve it, because you just applied Retaliation/Swiftness/Aegis to your allies while horribly impeding the enemy. You DID cast it on your allies, right? In both PvP and PvE, Chaos Storm is a lifesaver. Its defensive benefits far outweigh its considerable CC abilities and is the most important move in this build.

UTILITY
- Phantasmal Defender - When you look past the obnoxious cast time, the Defender is a very good damage mitigation tool. Though it has to run into melee range like a moron, once it attacks it grants an AoE buff to 5 allies in 600 range that allows it to absorb half of all incoming damage. Making Guardians, Eles, and Thieves weep with a beefy 19,943HP at level 80 (8,354 in PvP/WvW) it’s especially glorious if you can keep it alive via Regeneration and Mantra heals.

-Phantasmal Disenchanter - Shoots a bouncing projectile that removes 2 conditions and two enemy boons. Bounces twice and has a preference to allies, its one of our best condition removers… and yet it gets so little love.

- Feedback - One of our best skills for any build; hell, its one of the best skills in the game. Feedback can be a big source of damage and provides awesome crowd control in addition to being an Ethereal Field (Chaos Armor with Leap/Blast Finishers). At one point or another, you’ll be needing this skill.

- Null Field - Though it pulses condition and boon removal in an AoE, and provides another ethereal combo field and is rather useful for groups.. I, personally, am not a fan. Does rock for WvW or sPvP though.

- Portal - It seems rather situational at first glance, the more practice and creative you get with this skill, the more it pays off. Don’t let the high cooldown deter you; its completely worth the wait.

- Veil - I used to hate Veil. I used to say “90 sec cooldown? Nobody got time fo’dat” .. Turns out I was wrong. Veil is great for charging mantras, can grant 6 seconds of stealth, is one of our only 2 LIGHT fields, and on its own can grant up to 20 secs of protection with Prismatic Understanding. 90 sec cooldown? Sorta kinda worth it.

- Illusion of Life - You’ll rarely need to use this outside of sPvP and dungeon runs with people who aren’t as good as you had originally hoped. Make sure people understand the skill before you cast it, else it ends up being a waste.

- Arcane Thievary - Learn to pay attention to the boons enemies grant themselves, then steal them shamelessly and grant them to your team(w/Signet).

Wow, you put a lot of posts out. This is a really fantastic support build, probably one of the best possible to make in the game, and I appreciate the effort you put into forming this. Just don’t forget about my previous post. You really need to take 5 (10) points out of chaos and put 5 into illusions, because 20% cooldown reduction on ~50% of your total skills is simply not an optional trait.

Edit: Much appreciated man! (though that June nerf of iCelerity still stings) Since I hadn’t reserved enough room, I’ll throw the last bit here.. not that anyone reads this far down. x.x
——-
And that’s that. This build takes a lot of practice to be effective, but it effectively fills a playstyle gap and shows off more of the versatility of the Mesmer class. It is not for everyone, of course, and likely will never become as popular as many easier, more damaging builds. But for those who want a little extra challenge, an alternate way to be effective in a group, and love being super supportive, then this build just might work for you.

-Will be putting videos up soon.
-Always open to constructive advice/criticism.
-Working on a PvP variant.

-Chaos
[Special Thanks to Kasama, Pyroathiest, and Easymode X for helping forge this build, as well as all the others who posted in this thread.

Very nicely written man. Hats off. I used a quite similar build for a few months. Ditched it cause I got sick of people blaming the support guy for their failings. The build is really incredible though. Quite a thorough guide and explanations. I’d advise this build for anyone getting bored with the general builds that are out there. It’s a breath of fresh air.

Thanks man, much appreciated. I’ll try and keep the build up to date and get Videos up within the month

Uh, can you put a link to the skills/traits? It’s a lot easier to see than reading through your text, all of which I know (the traits are hard to read and understand without directly seeing what it is/does).

That, and I’m at the point where I already know your combos, I just want to see your traits mixed with utilities.

Gotcha. Added it right under THE BUILD. I often swap Feedback with Blink when soloing or in smaller partys.

Do you use a similar build?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Gotcha. Added it right under THE BUILD. I often swap Feedback with Blink when soloing or in smaller partys.

Do you use a similar build?

I’ve been playing around with the Boon Dispencer build posted earlier. I can’t seem to get the timing down on Signet of Inspiration for long fights, so I end up wasting a Chaos Storm and then have to wait the duration on the SoI. I mostly want to look at your trait setup since I have no intention of running Mantras… yet. If I agree with your trait setup more than my current one, I’d probably swap.

EDIT: My current setup is http://tinyurl.com/b36mhbl for more boons, less guardian/tank. I also have a Sword/Focus combo of… 543 roll sideways staying on the line 342 shatter2 or shatter1

The Chaotic Build can be run perfectly fine without Mantras.

Since only 20 points are needed in either Inspiration or Chaos, you’ve got 20 points to trait wherever you’d like. If you don’t want to add the element of Mantra Healing, you can replace those traits with:
-Enhanced glamours (Null Field/Feedback) and other types of support in Inspiration
-Switch the damage reduction trait in Chaos for 20% Manipulation cooldowns (Blink)
- Add more points to dueling.

As for the Signet timing, after you cast Chaos Storm (your allies should know to try and get inside) pop
Heal first (Mantra of Recovery’s charge is instant, so it gives you time to cast other stuff) >> Summon iWarlock for Regen >> Staff Four for protection >> Signet as the storm ends. Swiftness’ll keep you near any scrambling allies.

Edit:
-Saw the build, your boon duration is longer but can you apply Vigor to allies?
-Wouldn’t retaliatory shield be a bit of a waste since only Aegis from Chaos Storm blocks attacks?
-Signet of Midnight isn’t bad, I used to hold on to it for the added boon duration, but you’d be doing your team more justice with more versatile abilities such as iDefender, Null Field, iDisenchanter.
- Depending on how offensive versus supportive you wanna be. I think you should invest more into the Inspiration tree, bro. Builds like these thrive off that trait line.
- Are you direct damage or conditions? What kind of runes do you use?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

near any scrambling allies.
-Saw the build, your boon duration is longer but can you apply Vigor to allies?
-Wouldn’t retaliatory shield be a bit of a waste since only Aegis from Chaos Storm blocks attacks?
-Signet of Midnight isn’t bad, I used to hold on to it for the added boon duration, but you’d be doing your team more justice with more versatile abilities such as iDefender, Null Field, iDisenchanter.
- Depending on how offensive versus supportive you wanna be. I think you should invest more into the Inspiration tree, bro. Builds like these thrive off that trait line.
- Are you direct damage or conditions? What kind of runes do you use?

1. can you apply Vigor to allies?
   Ans: Yes, and you can even run the Vigorous Revelations (10 points Inspiration Trait3), but if you run that trait, you don’t need to have Signet of Inspiration since it alone can give 100% uptime on Vigor without any boon duration.
2. Wouldn’t retaliatory shield be a bit of a waste
   Ans: No, you can also get blocks from weapons and from using Mimic (currently the mesmer botm [bug of the month]). It’s not a huge amount, but it is more. If you have anything else you want to run, feel free to use anything else you deem worthy, such as Phantasmal Rage, but I find that not worth it as I shatter too fast/often. It’s just a personal choice.
3. Signet of Midnight isn’t bad, I used to hold on to it for the added boon duration, but you’d be doing your team more justice with more versatile abilities such as iDefender, Null Field, iDisenchanter.
   Ans: This isn’t a question, so this won’t really be an answer. Honestly, I don’t find that many opportunities to run iDefender or iDisenchanter. With iDisenchanter being buggy, you may as well run Null Field. iDefender has a low cooldown, but as stated previously, I shatter too often (especially since my F2 gives Retaliation). Null Field, if needed, replaces Feedback. No problems here.
4. Depending on how offensive versus supportive you wanna be. I think you should invest more into the Inspiration tree, bro. Builds like these thrive off that trait line.
   Ans: Literally no trait in that tree other than the Vigor on Shatters and Mender’s Purity (useful for everyone) would benefit someone using this build. The Focus cooldown would be nice, but there’s too much to drop for it, personally.
5. Are you direct damage or conditions? What kind of runes do you use?
   Ans: I don’t even focus on damage in any regard. If I were to wear Berserker’s, one hit (non-crit) with a GS does more than a full GS1 charge with my build on this. My main goal with this build is to buff my allies. My runes are 2 Superior Water, 2 Superior Monk, 2 Major Monk. I was actually going to run 2 Major Sanctuary just for diversity, but I got lazy and did an extra AC run that day, anyways. 100% Boon Duration is so nice, now just need them to fix Giver’s gear so I can get 112%. Then they need Boon Duration weaps so I can get 132%.

1) Signet of Inspiration and Vigorous Revelations go hand-in-hand in this build. Any AoE buff you provide (Vigorous Revelation, AoE Fury/Might off heals, Swiftness) you stack on twice when you pop Signet of Inspiration. And each time you pop Signet, your team should have everything except stability on them.

2) Since you run sword-focus/staff, you already have perma-retaliation by combing off temporal curtain (iLeap-Swap-Blink off the light field). Having Retaliatory Shield and Confusing Cry ends up being a bit redundant. For dueling I’d look at Blade Training (More iLeap for combos) or Phantasmal Fury (Beefs up-Warden), and I’d take the extra 5 points from illusions and place elsewhere.

-Which leads me to the question: Why are you shattering so much? If your shatters aren’t for damage, and you’re not really using Vigorous Revelation (in the link, atleast) then it is a waste if you’re only shattering for retaliation Cry of Frustration.

3) That being said, I think that you have 1 skill(Signet of Midnight) and atleast 25 points (10 Chaos, 10 Dueling, 5 Inspiration) to move around that would make your build more effective. I know the boon duration loss would sting, but you’d actually be more effective in helping your team.

-If you have atleast 20 precision, Phantasms could do more 30% damage and crit often. (Inspir 25, Dueling II, Dom III) Just because you’re support doesn’t mean you can’t do noticeable damage.

- Also, if you do wanna shatter and are defensive, then no need for the trait Debilitating Dissipation, which is much better for PvP anyway. There are a lot of good Manipulations (Illusion of Life, Blink) you could take, I think Master of Manipulation would do you more justice.

4) Nearly all of the traits in Inspiration offer huge bonuses to support builds. Without it, you have no way to give Regeneration to allies (save for Runes of Dwayna)

- If you have good armor and respectable power, the iDefender will do you justice with atleast 5 points in Inspiration for Retaliation on Phantasms(ideally 15 for the Phantasm regeneration). Both you AND the phantasm will proc retaliation whenever hit, doubling your retaliation damage.

Medic’s Feedback (Feedback whenever you rezz) means that all you have to do is tap a downed ally/npc to proc a Feedback bubble every 10 seconds. Great for dungeons.
Vigorous Revelations Is our only way of giving the team perma-vigor. Everything else works only for us and doesn’t last long enough to be worth it to transfer with Signet of Inspiration.
Warden’s Feedback is almost crucial for the focus, it can be a lifesaver in dungeons.
Glamour Mastery & Temporal Enchanter would do you good if you wanna add another Glamour to your list over Signet of Midnight. Since all Glamours save for Portal are combo fields, you have the added bonus of having chaos armor nearly all the time.
Mender’s Purity works amazingly with Mantra of Recovery. 2 conditions cleansed every 13 seconds.

5) Even though damage isn’t your focus, you do have some wiggle room to add more damage if you wanted. (If you can kill more in addition to your support, the victory faster.) Or utility, or crowd control, or support, or even more buffs. Is there anything in your build you find lacking, and what buffs can you maintain on allies on a regular basis?

My post got lost in the void, but basically, all of those points are valid, it’s just that they all revolve around damage. If anything, I’d like to have Debilitating Invigoration (inverse of Dissipation) and then spec around constant clone creation so I can boon myself/others.

Chocolate Raspberry Cream says 14% boon duration, but in reality it’s only 10%. I’ve tested it a lot. Use Chocolate Omnomberry Cream instead, it’s 20%. It’s worth the munnay.

Made some edits and updates (including namechange) and.. damnation about the Chocolate Raspberry Cream. I’ll keep it referenced incase it gets patched

@Esplen: I’m gonna have to be really brutal with your build here. It is horrible, and here is why.

Your build can do one thing, and one thing only: Apply boons to yourself and your party. That isn’t enough to make a build viable.

Your build can’t do damage. You don’t have the traits or weapons to properly do damage. Your build can’t heal your party. Your phantasms don’t do aoe regen, and you don’t have the ability to trait into mantra heals. Your build can’t do any sort of reliable damage mitigation or condition removal, because it lacks the traits mender’s purity and warden’s feedback, both of which do both of those things.

You take 10 points into domination, an otherwise worthless trait line, to get a trait that is only useful for one of your 3 utilities. You waste a trait in dueling to get retaliatory shield, when you will only get 1 or 2 blocks once every 35 seconds from chaos storm. You take debilitating dissipation, yet you have very low condition damage and condition duration, and therefore the conditions applied from that trait will do almost nothing.

Quite honestly, your build is able to do almost nothing. The trait setup is schizophrenic, being unable to decide whether it wants to do condition application or boon application, and ends up being pretty bad at both. There are really almost no saving graces to your build.

Normally I’m not this blunt and brutal, but you’re comparing it to the build in the OP, which not only has the ability to actually apply boons faster and more effectively than your build, but also has the ability to provide massive party healing, massive aoe damage mitigation, and much more reliable aoe condition removal from the warden combo on a much lower cooldown timer.

There is really no comparison between these two builds.

I love boons. Will try this as soon as my mesmur hits 80

Worse build EVER,,,,, ten out of ten 10/10 for it… it so bad,, it more of a play style then a build and a 10/10 playstyle wow so freaking bad……

For real,, you did a lot of work and this is good,,, so congratz.

Thx Gall, and Lol EsLaf… and DAMmN pyro!

I changed the build name for the FINAL time. Will have videos soon explaining that this isn’t just a single build, but an alternate type of Mesmer playstyle

Ok so first off i love the build its amazing i personally play a support guardian so in the support builds i love them. my guild loves bringing me along, even speed runs lol. anyways my only comment would be an correct me if im wrong but healing power scales horribly with regen. wouldnt you do better in say knights gear or soldiers? im still learning memsers but i know with a warrior when i run banner builds for 100%regen i dont use healing power cause it just scales bad its better used in another area but when i run shout heals ill use a lot of healing power cause its not so bad for the burst.

Wobels.1679:

Ok so first off i love the build its amazing i personally play a support guardian so in the support builds i love them. my guild loves bringing me along, even speed runs lol. anyways my only comment would be an correct me if im wrong but healing power scales horribly with regen. wouldnt you do better in say knights gear or soldiers? im still learning memsers but i know with a warrior when i run banner builds for 100%regen i dont use healing power cause it just scales bad its better used in another area but when i run shout heals ill use a lot of healing power cause its not so bad for the burst.

Healing power actually scales very powerfully with regen. What you have to remember is that regen is a long duration heal over time. It scales with healing power at a rate of .125 per second. Over 20 seconds, you gain a total scaling of 2.5, which is far higher than any other heals. Each individual tick has low scaling, but all those ticks add up.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Wobels.1679:

Ok so first off i love the build its amazing i personally play a support guardian so in the support builds i love them. my guild loves bringing me along, even speed runs lol. anyways my only comment would be an correct me if im wrong but healing power scales horribly with regen. wouldnt you do better in say knights gear or soldiers? im still learning memsers but i know with a warrior when i run banner builds for 100%regen i dont use healing power cause it just scales bad its better used in another area but when i run shout heals ill use a lot of healing power cause its not so bad for the burst.

Healing power actually scales very powerfully with regen. What you have to remember is that regen is a long duration heal over time. It scales with healing power at a rate of .125 per second. Over 20 seconds, you gain a total scaling of 2.5, which is far higher than any other heals. Each individual tick has low scaling, but all those ticks add up.

Also, a fairly high healing power will allow Regeneration effectively mitigate Burn, enemy Retaliation and several stacks of Bleed. (I think about 5 stacks or so, I’ll check.)

Hmm interesting alright that makes sense. Guess ill have to craft me some clerics gear lol. thanks yall.

There are a couple gear types that main healing power.

Cleric’s for Power / Toughness
Magi’s for Precision / Vitality
Apothecary’s for Condition Damage / Toughness

-Made some edits. Added a simpler Boon Storm and Sigil of Battle (Which I can’t even afford right now, but I know it works.. -_- )

Looks good, just confused about one thing… you keep mentioning Mantra of Recovery but your build link has Ether Feast?

No, it doesn’t. That was an illusion.

(Ty. Forgot to update the link)

-EDIT. The name of the build is the same, but the category of Mesmer has been altered. Since Signet of Inspiration is crucial and the Inspiration tree has the best traits for a support mesmer, the INSPIRATION Mesmer is more apropos.

Hi pretty cool build i was thinking about something like this
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArdGl4zCoHRDtmkwkigj8TPSuzXOaBlPgbA;TYAqiMFJKyWkrIZRA
and taking more defencive stats with cond. dmg … last utility slot is for situational skill
lyssa runes and sigils of water on weeps … it seem that phantasm crit nad ur cirt proc it on separated cds …. focus is for combo field + finisher + reflection + swiftness + cripple + pull XD … instead of torch ( since its cond. build ) … expect that some1 in pt have blast finisher … and mb even aoe blind
what do u think about it ?

cheers Xixsa

That’s a nice trait setup, but Phantasms having fury, while definitely useful (Especially when keeping up 3 iWarlocks) isn’t as effective in a Condition Build. I’d replace that with VI (Armor casting Mantras).

There was an interesting conversation about a 0/15/20/15/20 condition damage variant of this build on Guru http://www.guildwars2guru.com/topic/80672-guide-the-chaosmancer-heavy-boon-support-tank/ that ya may wanna check out.

As for the Lyssa runes, I usually take Timewarp only for Dungeons. In WvW, Boon Storm + Mass Invis + Inspiration helps out a LOT in zerg fights, and there’s usually another Mesmer or two dropping time warps within the same group anyways.

yea i meaned it more for dungs .. i also prefer MI in wvw .. fury on phantasms is important for extra bleed ( dueling 15 ) and aoe heal proc ( sigil of water )

i like Lyssa runes cuz chaos storm/armor have some random effects + Signet of inspiration passive + random effect on heal .. can do sometimes miracles ..

and thx for link

Ah, I hadn’t thought about the fury/crit bleed.

And I was saying that since this build can already apply 5-12 secs of nearly all boons on its own…

( Focus 5 >> Focus 4&Shatter >> Sword 3&Shatter >> Staff 2&Shatter >> Staff 5 [Staff 3 – Staff 4 inside of storm ] >> Signet. )

• It helps to be in melee range when you summon iwarden to make it easier to place the Temporal Curtain beneath his feet. This way the warden sprays condition-curing bolts.

…Throwing Mass Invis with Lyssa runes before you pop the signet guarantees your miracles every 90 secs.

This is quite literally 5 points away from the build I use, I don’t bother with 5 in Illusions anymore (GASP!). The points going into Inspiration for either X or XII, depending on whether I’m solo or with a friend or two. My heal accordingly swaps between Mirror and Mantra.

Seriously, if you are running around in WvW though, XII in Inspiration will change your world.

Thanks for putting up almost consolidated source of great amazing information, it was entertaining to read and the build itself is fun in all different forms.

TY for the kind words!

Right now, I’m actually testing/running with 15/0/20/30/5 (really wanted the 15+ vulnerability on daze when I shatter, great for bosses) I like keeping my Phase Retreat as low as possible to compensate for the lack of Deceptive Evasion, so Celerity is crucial for me.

I’ve actually never had a chance to try Inspiration XII. III, VIII, and X always steal the spotlight, and Medics Feedback when I don’t need to give Vigor (such as a zerg)

I would love to see some footage when you play. To get the feeling on how it suppose to look.

i started to learn this build but in general i find mantras a very bad choice since i need to charge them and its quite long. in wvw i cannot imagine one singe occasion i can waste more that 3 seconds charging it.

• Learn to cast Mantra of Pain > Mantra of Recovery > Mantra of Pain in that order. In less than 10 secs, you’ll have healed your team for 8400HP, (And Regeneration would heal at least 3000HP in 10 seconds). It is NOT recommended to sit back and spam mantra heals in a desperate attempt to save lives. You’ll fall behind and give everyone an excuse to blame their incompetence on you.

Does Mantra of Pain heal? Am i missing something?

When traited properly, charging any Mantra will heal allies in an area around you. Base heal is 2600 and the scaling is .2 per Healing Power.

Spamming MoP, charging MoP, spamming MoP while charging MoR, and then charging MoP again will apply quite a lot of healing. Even with no Healing Power, you’re looking at 8400 in AOE healing, and the number should increase to a bit over 9000 as a result of gear and traits.

yes you are right i see it now.

bubblyball.7591:

i started to learn this build but in general i find mantras a very bad choice since i need to charge them and its quite long. in wvw i cannot imagine one singe occasion i can waste more that 3 seconds charging it.

While Mantras are a very helpful aspect of the build, they are by no means mandatory unless you’re looking to supply some of the strongest(albiet depressingly short-ranged) AOE heals in the game.
The main strength of the build is being able to supply any boon you want, whenever you want* for a reasonable duration. The main components of this are 20Chaos & 15Inspiration with a staff & focus along with Runes of Altruism and Signet of Inspiration. Everything else are suggestions based off my research. But a variety of utilities/traits are viable to customize thr playstyle your way.

(*=Cant apply stability. Retaliation can be awkward to apply without LIGHT-field combo & Signet. Protection needs signet to apply)

You’ve got sig of ill listed up there instead of sig of insp. Might want to edit that.

Aw hell! How long has that been sitting there!? Ty for the find

lol

I like it very much, great idea, great build, and nicely written
The Chaos Maestro, kitten has a nice ring to it.
Too bad I have berserker’s gear :s

I really like this build and I’ve been playing around with it in sPvP although it would help so much if you had a video showing some of the tactics you explained XD