Guild Wars 2

UPDATE Regen from Phantasms is now affected by Boon Duration! This is a big boost to regeneration upkeep.

MightyMe.1356:

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

Much appreciated! Just so you know, the Boon Storm works with any build, especially Berserkers. I recommended healing gear for a strong Regeneration and Mantra heals.

Bearlin.7238:

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

Soon! Before this month ends for sure!

One thing I’ve noticed, swapping Feedback with iDefender and Signet of Inspiration with Signet of Illusions (and Vigor on Shatter with 20% Illusion HP) sacrifices a few boons to allies (Lose 3x might, much less retal, vigor, and protection) but adds a surprising bit of durability to teams with a hefty healing iDefender.. Especially if you manage to summon more than one. Wondering if I should pen that somewhere into the build as an alternate .. er.. build setup.

How would you suggest leveling your character if they haven’t reached level 80? I’m interested in this build but my mesmer is nowhere near level 80 and this looks to interesting to pass up.

I’ve been playing a mantra healing variation on boon tank/support. It definitely plays a useful role in pve, and seems good in wvw too. I can see why some would be frustrated with the build, due to the lack of big damage, but the combination of tanking, boons and healing allows for really enhancing party survivability and damage. Also, II notice that the mantra heals are decent even without clerics gear…which makes pvt gear make more sense for a more versatile build. It’s all down to style.

bobross.5034:

I’ve been playing a mantra healing variation on boon tank/support. It definitely plays a useful role in pve, and seems good in wvw too. I can see why some would be frustrated with the build, due to the lack of big damage, but the combination of tanking, boons and healing allows for really enhancing party survivability and damage. Also, II notice that the mantra heals are decent even without clerics gear…which makes pvt gear make more sense for a more versatile build. It’s all down to style.

Exactly. I listed the optimal gear/traits for pure support, but in the end it’s all about what you’re willing to sacrifice. I chose to sacrifice damage for healing power, but I could’ve just as easily taken all Berserker’s gear and still provided decent heals and long lasting boons at the expense of Regeneration and strong 3k burst heals.

phoebus.5027:

How would you suggest leveling your character if they haven’t reached level 80? I’m interested in this build but my mesmer is nowhere near level 80 and this looks to interesting to pass up.

Well, what level are ya? The build only technically requires 20 Chaos /15 Inspiration at its core, and everything else is up to you.

The staff alone can supply 6 (Might/Fury/Retaliation/Aegis/Swiftness/Protection) of the 9 boons in the game on its own in small doses. If you level up your Chaos Tree and take Major Runes of Water/Monk/Sanctuary, you can get a decent uptime of boons. Staff/Greatsword would be good for both tagging mobs and dishing respectable damage.

I’ve noticed that at lower levels, Regeneration actually seems more effective than the Mantra burst heal. Not sure why, mathematically, and my healing power was still rather high.

If damage isn’t a concern for you, the Focus is always a very handy tool. The reflection it provides can be just as devastating (albeit much more situational), and often much more stylish especially when compared to the sword. The focus can cleanse conditions (Temporal curtain beneath iWarden), apply swiftness, and give retaliation (Sword 3 or Staff 1 ontop of curtain) in addition to reflecting projectiles when traited. With a bit of practice you can have your Warden doing a surprising amount of damage.

Whatever you do, make sure to have a decent amount of power & precision. At lower levels I’d recommend a boon/phantasm hybrid (again, Greatsword would do wonders). You’ll probably be playing with people who don’t know your powers well, so make sure to let them know to touch any purple Mesmer magic for boons. If you want to focus on healing, try and summon phantasms near allies to apply their regeneration to them. iDefender with Signet of Illusions is also very good at mitigating damage for the entire party, and benefits from your staff buffs and regeneration from other phantasms. You could even be a sort of minion master with your ability to heal/regenerate your powerful phantasms.

Other examples of support builds are listed here..

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/INSPIRATION-Mesmer-Spotlight

Check out Pyroathiest’s Supporting Phantasm Mesmer Build for an idea of what I’m talking about. Enjoy!

Chaos, what are you actively running with this build? The guide gives so many variants I’d like to know what you generally run with. I can assume it’s what you have in the build link but want to verify.

I actually am in the process of running a few more experiments with traits. Right now I’m running:

0/10/25/30/5

Dueling VI, / Chaos VI, X / Inspiration III, VIII, X

Will be updating the guide soon with results. The 250 toughness on mantra channels seems to be making a difference and I haven’t needed Deceptive Evasion because of Sword 3 and Staff 2. I swap the first Inspiration trait depending on situation and have been experimenting with iDefender in place of Feedback (Feedback still seems superior though)

Interesting. That’s almost exactly the same build I’m putting together, which is somewhat like a close sibling to yours, just more regen focused instead of a team boon-giver. I love the 250 extra toughness; it’s huge especially when you’re in the middle of a zerg. I’ve always wondered why you had clone on dodge with this build. I like the change.

You have Mirror in the build link but sounds like you’re using MoR. Even with using 1 mantra I do find Dueling VI helpful, but at the same time I also find it a waste since you’re probably not healing often due to the other healing sources.

Which brings me to my next question. I was surprised to see the amount of healing power you have in the build but you don’t focus as much on the healing capabilities in the guide – just a small blurb on regen (versus the general boon support). But so much of your gear is spent into that spec, do you find having that much is worth it? I get it for the regen – it’s really the strongest reason to go with high healing power in my opinion (and since you’re using MoR vs Ether Feast). Especially with the sigil of life charges, seems like you could shave off a good 200-300 healing power in favor of maybe more toughness to keep your phantasms alive longer or maybe even add some boon duration gear which is more the focus of the build.

Overall I love the build and the ideas. As I am working on (essentially a variant) build of my own, I may give you a shout out in-game or send you a PM for more theory crafting support build geek chat.

Yeah, the clone on dodge was actually a bit of peer pressure. When I initially displayed the build, there was a lot of crying( I hate to use that word to describe it… but yeah) “waahhh theres no deceptive evasion! waahh mantras are soo bad!” so I caved and produced a ‘More Fun for General Audiences’ version.

…Which is, of course, exactly why you shouldn’t give in to the wants of others.

And yeah, I’m definitely using MoR. Ima edit that link very soon. The mantra burst heals, combined with the strong regen, allow me to AoE heal over 11000HP every 10 seconds. That, combined with all the buffs is what makes the build such a strong support build and makes +Healing Power gear so important.

I’m thinking of getting an alternate set of gear (perhaps Power/Precision/Toughness or Berzerkers.. or something with +Toughness as the main stat) with full Boon Duration to compare the effectiveness. It’ll be a sacrifice on regen and wouldn’t use Mantras, but that may not be such a bad thing (Thinking signet of illusions & iDefender in its place)

And feel free to PM or hit me up in game anytime! (My Mesmer’s name is Aeoldyn).

just played my variation of this last night, using runes of altruism, staff, sword-focus-retaliation and signet of inspiration….as the op noted, almost any build can achieve similar results. aside from a very smooth fractal run. I got comments like ‘wow’ and ‘keep that fury coming please.’ I forgot to pop time warp in a boss fight and people were still noticing how fast the fight went.

i run mostly pvt and rabid gear (just what I have), which makes me very tanky, damage is also respectable partly due to might stacking. i still do mantra healing (which gives a strong heal even without full clerics gear), but I alternate between that and focus-reflects. as is, I see my party nearly at full health most of the time. For me, I dont think adding healing power would help much as downs come from burst damage, and the one thing this build cant do well is reaction healing on allies(since mantras are slow)

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I’m thinking of getting an alternate set of gear (perhaps Power/Precision/Toughness or Berzerkers.. or something with +Toughness as the main stat) with full Boon Duration to compare the effectiveness. It’ll be a sacrifice on regen and wouldn’t use Mantras, but that may not be such a bad thing (Thinking signet of illusions & iDefender in its place)

Yeah I think that’s a perfect choice. I’m also rolling with some Knight’s weapons and was why I suggested a dip in HP to get some of your damage/toughness stats up a bit higher. Maybe you could try Giver’s armor with Knight weapons. Giver’s “gives”, (ha) toughness as a main stat along with healing power and 1% boon duration per piece, but you do sacrifice power for it (in your case). You’ll have to see if it’s worth it for the extra boon duration; may or may not. Maybe go five pieces of armor for 5% boon duration and keep cleric’s on the coat.

Also the iDefender is a great choice as well as Sig of Ill. Anything that will help keep your phantasms up is good. I’m doing the same, though really fretting sacrificing blink for Sig of Ill (I already use Sig of Insp).

Do you still use runes of dwayna (you mentioned variants)?

yup, i’m a fan of iDefender too…especially with high power/retaliation…when i swap out mantra healing, i like putting in idefender and sig of illusions for damage mitigation. you’re right though, taking out blink hurts.

In terms of healing power, its the combination of Regeneration AND Mantra heals that makes healing as a Mesmer viable. My phantasms heal for at least 900HP each pulse (3 secs of Regen, 300 HP per sec), and in that time a mantra heal would be around 3k (depending on Sigil of Life).

So Regeneration + MoPain > MoRecovery > MoPain = 11,300+ HP healed in around 8 seconds. (Mantras for 9k + Regen for 2400)

And that is JUST BARELY enough to be a viable healer. But combined with buffs like Protection / Aegis / Swiftness / Vigor, not only are you being healed but you’re taking much less damage as well.

It also depends on WHO you’re healing. Guardians, Thieves, and Elementalists have the lowest base HP, so they tend to benefit the most from our heals.

Guardians, Thieves, Elementalists – Big boost
Mesmer, Engineer, Ranger – Moderate boost
Necros, Warriors – Barely noticeable boost.

Hell, a good regen alone can be pretty effective when you have Protection, Vigor, and Swiftness to avoid damage. But also the build doesnt have much condition removal besides a Light field under iWarden, so Regen helps mitigate Bleeds and Burns pretty effectively.

That’s the draw of healing power for me, but it’s been tenative. Dropping healing power and Mantra heals opens a LOT of tempting doors.

I used to use Dwayna, and it still has a special place in my heart for the AoE regen… but Pyro steered me towards Altruism. The 15% boon duration combined with AoE Might/Fury feels more beneficial.

My problem with Givers gear is thakittens an underpowered set even with the Boon Duration. The healing power and boon duration are good, but a combination of healing power, 1% boon duration, and magic find is nearly useless. It actually puts you at more of a disadvantage than any other set IMO.

I’m currently really torn between Feedback and Blink in this build. Blink is my favorite skill in the game hands down, and the added mobility makes it worlds easier to heal/boon allies.. But the reflect from Feedback and Ethereal Combo field is so kitten glorious..

But at the same time.. I really wanna work iDefender & Signet of Illusions into here. Ugh. I think it has to be either defender or mantra heals.. Choices..

As an important point: your Phantasms will add considerably more than three seconds of Regeneration now that boon duration is passed to them. I have very few problems keeping regeneration up at all times – I can even stack upwards of 30 seconds in long fights by keeping three Phantasms up – with 35% boon duration, and you run significantly more with food.

Ah, good point! That definitely slipped my mind, and I gotta run a couple tests on the improved phantasms.

Is it ALL phantasms that benefit from boon duration and not just the Phantasmal Healing trait? Could the retaliation from iMage possibly have a slight chance of being worthwhile?

It’s cake for me to stack up 30-40 seconds of regeneration in a fight that lasts more than 15-20 seconds with the build I’m testing. Definitely not a point to be overlooked, and further the other boons I believe come into play, most importantly to me for the phantasms, protection. Retaliation is pretty easy to keep up, especially if using sword/focus but protection is not as easy. I’m testing out 3 dwayna runes and 3 earth runes so I can keep regen and protection uptime as high as possible (this on top of 30% boon duration). I’ve not fully tested the protection/other boons duration, planning to do so today unless someone else reports back.

On the Giver’s gear, I hear you but I was only suggesting armor and I believe the stat line is major: toughness, minor: healing power, minor: boon duration. Agreed anything with MF you don’t want. I think the trinkets may be what you’re thinking on that – the snowflake stuff. Even then, may not be worth an extra 5% boon duration to give up quite a bit of power from the cleric’s gear.

Also, since you’re not probably shattering as much due to ditching deceptive evasion, what about doing away with Insp III and go with mender’s purity or persisting images? Is that AoE vigor that important versus the other boons you are consistently stacking (Vigor likely being one of them) with your boon storm?

Ah! Was thinking of snowflake. Yeah, if I took Giver’s, it’d destroy any semblance of damage I could do. Right now the damage comes from iWarlock and Retaliation unless I try unnecessarily hard for an average damage output. That defense is really tempting though. Giver’s may be the set I go to when I work on this second defensive build (assuming I don’t choose a more power/prec-oriented gear)

The shatter game is funny with this build. I usually use staff 2, 3, and sword 3 to shatter F1-F3 for a nice 21 secs of vigor ontop of the vigor-crits. It varies from incredibly helpful to not so great depending on the situation.. But there’s also an interesting placebo-effect with the skill. Proccing Vigor, Swiftness, Regen, Might, and Fury constantly on allies makes them (and me too, admittedly) feel really empowered, even if the Regen, Swiftness, and Vigor aren’t necessary in the least.

When I don’t use it, I take Feedback-on-Rezz (and cackle insanely whenever I find a downed NPC), 20% Glamour recharge, or 20% stronger phantasms. Even Compounding Celerity allows me to get to allies quicker. Mender’s Purity surprisingly hasn’t been needed very often in PvE.. Though Poison is the build’s weak point.

But Vigor as a buff is very strong. Its essentially a 1-sec invuln every 5 seconds. Being able to proc it reliably whenever we need can sometimes make the difference between life & death.

Hows the Dwana/Earth combo been working for you? I never even considered earth. I assumed Staff 4 and the “3-sec protection on regen”-trait weren’t affected by Boon Duration.

You’re right, I did some testing and the 3 sec protection on regen trait, chaos armor and boons from the signet of inspiration only affect you. Phantasms don’t receive those boons at all. But they do receive all boons from a chaos storm, for example, and boon duration appears to affect them.

Somehow they would randomly get regeneration too, but I couldn’t tell if it corresponded to something that happened to me since I have perma-regen. I wonder if they are getting it from the 10 secs when you reach 75% health?

For some reason I was under the impression that phantasms share your boons in a general sense which obviously isn’t the case.

I can confirm that all Illusions are affected by boon duration.

Or, at the very least, that Staff clones’ Might/Fury, Retaliation from iMage, and Regeneration from Phantasmal Healing are all effected. Not sure what else could be.

iMage still isn’t super useful, but the Retaliation certainly isn’t terrible now, and its targeting for bounces makes it better for giving out Retaliation than stacking Confusion.

The Prestige IS super good for giving you a way to charge Mantras in non-PvE situations, so Torch could be a reasonable alternative for Focus, but I personally wouldn’t take it unless you were running a Condition Damage version of this build a la this one that I’m still taking through the paces: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Doctor-Mesmer/first#post2039022.

EDIT: Also, Phantasms do not share boons with you. Might/Fury, however, will filter down because of statistic changes that are updated automatically. Or, at least, that’s how it worked last time I did actual checking, i.e. Phantasmal Fury combined with your own Fury will give iDuelist/iWarden +40% critical chance.

skcamow.3527:

Somehow they would randomly get regeneration too, but I couldn’t tell if it corresponded to something that happened to me since I have perma-regen. I wonder if they are getting it from the 10 secs when you reach 75% health?

Could that just be them giving each other regeneration?

Also, this thread just gave me the best argument ever for getting my mesmer over this horrible Lv40 hump. It sucks down here and this build sounds fun as hell

Haette.2701:

Could that just be them giving each other regeneration?

Also, this thread just gave me the best argument ever for getting my mesmer over this horrible Lv40 hump. It sucks down here and this build sounds fun as hell

Can confirm they gain Regeneration from one another. Forgot to mention that when explaining how your boons can impact your Illusions, so that should clear up all the questions in the post above my last one.

And, yeah, this is a very good build that is also a lot of fun. You don’t necessarily pump out damage – although yours certainly doesn’t suck if you know ho to use Focus well – but you can give permanent Fury and fairly high Might stacks to large groups as well as feeding them pretty much every boon every once in a while.

When it comes to grouped PvE content, this is the build I use, and I use a variant for WvW roaming that also works very well, albeit in a more selfish manner.

Very informative discussion, thanks all. I’m newly 80 on my Mesmer and love staff/sword/focus, and would love to try this build for my dungeon/fractals group…but not sure what the “current” traits/skills/gear would need to be since discussion seems to be presently evolving…can anyone point me to a quick build setup with recommended stats/runes/sigils just so I can get a start and then tweak later? Thanks!

Straight Cleric’s everything with Runes of Altruism is a solid starting point build-wise, and I personally only slightly deviate from it as a result of the Ascended gear I have. Sigils of Battle are great for the extra Might stacks with Signet of Inspiration, but aren’t strictly necessary, and you can certainly get by without shelling out for the superior ones.

Trait-wise, you’ll need at least 0/0/0/15/5, and usually I go up to 0/0/20/25/5 in every variation From there it’s more what you want to be doing than anything else. I personally don’t find anything in Dueling outside of the first minor to be particularly useful, as you can give your Phantasms Fury with your Runes and DE, while very strong, isn’t particularly great with the build. If I’m on my own I’m usually 10/10/20/25/5 for as much Phantasm damage as I can get, but exactly what I take when I’m in a group varies a lot.

Hopefully that helps out a bit. Build’s still more or less the same as earlier, it just so happens that boon duration filtering down makes everything a little better.

Greetings, I have a few questions about gear. Is there any exotic magi’s gear or only rares? Also where can I get superior runes of the monk and runes of the sanctuary? I can’t find those on the trading post either.

Monk and Sanctuary are bound on acquire because they’re dungeon rewards.

Magi gear is also acquirable as an exotic from dungeon rewards and, I’m sure, a handful of other things. Might also be some available a la exotic Rabid gear, in which case the prices will be incredibly high.

You can do the dungeon Honor of the Waves to get Magi’s exotic gear, the HotW credits can also be used to buy Superior Runes of Sanctuary . Part 1 is about as quick and easy as Citadel of Flame.

Superior Rune of the Monk – 120 Ascalon Tear

UPDATED 6 -25 -13

• Altered recommended skills, traits, trait points, & build URL.

I’ll be making a lot of edits to the guide this coming weekend, but I wanted to throw up something to reflect the added potential that came with the patch.. Particularly Bountiful Interruption, Shattered Conditions, and Prismatic Understanding.
Will be adding alternate build setups for different weapons/gear.

Looking forward to it. I’m looking at 0/20/20/30 and get the healing mantra or good shatters.

I’m actually in the process of theorycrafting a Support/Shatter build to see how much advantage I can take of Shattered Conditions and Vigorous Revelation..

So far its looking like: 0/0/10/30/30. Sword-X /Staff.

Since Shattered Conditions is so expensive though, want to shy away from Illusionary Persona and let Deceptive Evasion (thankfully it wasn’t nerfed) be my clone generation source.

Ideally, something like: 0/20/20/30/0 But that hurts the shatter recharges pretty considerably.

I’m also building ideas for…

• Interrupt Support
• Might Stacking High Damage Support (Looking at the GS for this)

I’m actually using 0 20 30 20 0 with Staff and Sc/Focus. Looks to be really hard to kill but the single damage is meh. Although really good in zerg situation. Drop Chaos storm in the middle of the fight and PU does a good job with Decoy and Mass Stealth. I’m just actually questionning about Veil. Always useful to open a fight with my guild but left over on my bar in any other situation.

Yeah, Veil is the most situational aspect of the build and gets tagged out by Feedback.. But traited and timed properly, it can actually be surprisingly useful. Even with Prismatic Understanding, you can jump through the rupture twice for a nice 6 seconds of stealth. (and of course, 6 boons)

Using this build this afternoon I feel more tanky than some warriors… Here’s my actual build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7dlwzqqXUTsGb9IipH9GyBcnUwcLXJFz2FC-j0CBYLERzUgQEEAkFJjIAOBqIasVNFRjVXDT5iIq2gTQ2mTZVIABjBA-w

Ah, a lot of defense and a hell of a lot of ways to proc defensive buffs, reminds me ab it of jportell’s Protection Master. A couple things though..

1) Why Divinity Runes? IMO, they don’t give enough stat bonus to justify taking up valuable rune space. I’d think you’d be better off choosing a specialized rune set (Runes of the Ogre or Scholar could add a nice boost to your damage). Speaking of damage…

2) The Scepter actually took a power damage nerf(Scepter 2 dmg cut by 50%), what makes ya stick with it for a power build like this? (Also, the Sword + focus allows you to have permanent Retaliation)

3) Since you have Focus, Staff, Decoy and Mass Invis you may want to consider swapping Veil for Signet of Inspiration. You could be passing Aegis, Protection, Regeneration, Swiftness & Retaliation to your guildies pretty constantly. Portal is another good option… I know I JUST started advertising Veil like 20 mins ago, but I see the build is slightly lacking team support beyond the invis and Chaos Storm. (That totally wasn’t a question.)

4) How do you like the setup overall? How does it feel in combat? I see a LOT of defense there, so I’d imagine you must be a pain in the kitten to attempt to kill.. but hows your killing ability?

Yeah, runes of divinity and my trinkets are the ones I had previously. I don’t have new ones yet. I will try with sword (got 2 different ones in my bag actually), I just gve a try to scepter and even with a power build the damage is “OK”. The bad thing is the low attack rate…. /sleep. Good thing for SoI, i tried it yesterday but the active looks to be unconsistent. Sometimes I just don’t share any boon even I’m fully stacked with Might or Regen (yes I’m aware of the range before you think I don’t ^^).
Finally using this setup I’m rock in the middle of a place, standing there in godmode. I pop some 3,5k-4k with staff sometimes and Chaos Storm is wonderful. I was a shatter mesmer before patch so I feel really slow now.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I’m actually in the process of theorycrafting a Support/Shatter build to see how much advantage I can take of Shattered Conditions and Vigorous Revelation..

So far its looking like: 0/0/10/30/30. Sword-X /Staff.

Since Shattered Conditions is so expensive though, want to shy away from Illusionary Persona and let Deceptive Evasion (thankfully it wasn’t nerfed) be my clone generation source.

Ideally, something like: 0/20/20/30/0 But that hurts the shatter recharges pretty considerably.

I’m also building ideas for…

• Interrupt Support
• Might Stacking High Damage Support (Looking at the GS for this)

I put a shatter support build together a couple weeks ago – changed things around for the 6/25 patch. It’s more offensive focused around extreme might/retaliation/vigor stacking/sharing. Being more offensive means not needing as much healing power, though the 400 I have here will be nice for regen from phantasms. I’m not sure if this would be viable as I haven’t tested it yet but the damage is much higher than a standard support build: http://tinyurl.com/k9cugnq.

You could argue going 20 in inspiration and 30 in illusions, just depending if you want shattered conditions/mantra heals or that extra shatter for more might/retaliation/vigor from IP. If clone generation is high enough with DE, I’m thinking I’d swap mirror images for blink or maybe arcane thievery, which works well with the SoI cooldown and should give some extra boons to share at the tail end of the boon chain.

On the interrupt support, yeah I’m liking that with my Paladin build – works really well. Will be interesting to see what you come up with.

EDIT: the shatter support build became the Paladin 2.0 build (edited link accordingly).

@Skcamow: Typing from phone, but I’ll definitely check the link when I get home. Hows the updated Bountiful Interruption trait been working out for you?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

@Skcamow: Typing from phone, but I’ll definitely check the link when I get home. Hows the updated Bountiful Interruption trait been working out for you?

Been working great so far. I’ve updated my build to reflect a couple minor changes, but overall – the IC nerf aside, the build got a nice buff.

This is a very unique and interesting build. It obviously looks great for dungeons and such, but how would you stack it up for regular PvE solo play or WvWvW? I’m curious…

Ty. I haven’t gotten around to much WvW testing besides being a heal/buff/reflection zerg bot(But a kitten ed awesome one) but PvE the build works rather well.

Cleric’s gear, as the name implies, works much better in groups, but Knight’s or Berserker’s make the build very solo-able. It takes a little more creativity than usual though and there’s a LOT of tricks and techniques to learn, but I’ve always enjoyed unconventional playstyles. Its not difficult to use in PvE, but does require a little more thinking than a conventional Shatter/Phantasm build.

@skcamow: Just saw the build.. And I’m not sure the Mantra heals are a good idea in an offensive support build. Haven’t tested yet, but I’m thinking it takes too much from your DPS to sit back and channel mantras for the heal, and it eliminates your chance of getting Shattered Conditions which would really shine in a shatter build.

I’m leaning towards Zerker gear / GS + Staff 0/20/20/30/0. If I can get Deceptive Evasion, I doubt I’ll need iPersona. Stacking lots of might with Greatsword 2, Bountiful Interruption, Sigils of Battle, Runes of Altruism (or full boon duration set.. Would make Chaos Storm and BI a lot more potent but would lose some reliable Might and Fury. Not sure)

Looking at Arcane Thievery, Signet of Inspiration, and iDisenchanter right now. Lots of might, lots of damage, and lots of condition removal.

Yeah the mantra heals would be there in inspiration if you wanted to choose it, but I’d personally favor a more offensive focus with this build. Since shattered might also isn’t affected by IP, more reason not to go 30 there. Fury definitely isn’t very reliable but really never was with a mesmer support build (just via runes mainly). The bouncing fix does help that, I found though. I’m getting more of the staff boons that I remember getting before that broke. Kinda wish furious interruption was still around as I had a fun idea potentially crafting a support build including it.

You mention GS/Staff – but no GS training. I suppose you’ll find out in testing but I imagine you’ll be waiting awhile for that mirror blade cool down.

The build I had in mind mind was much more shatter focused though. I’ll have to see how it plays.

Oh and the iDisenchanter … he’s just about permanently replaced the iDefender on my paladin build due to the retaliation nerf. I’m still playing around with it but the extra utility he brings – and shorter cool down, is extremely beneficial.

EDITED 6/30/13

• Added build variants for different playstyles. If theres no runes/sigils mentioned then it’s because its open to your preference.
• Revised the FAQs at the bottom, had to move it further downwards to compensate for the new BUILD VARIANTS section.

So looking at this I feel like Prismatic understanding is good enough just for decoy and I don’t have to find myself a pretty torch to play with?

It’s usually good to have at least two forms of stealth, but even Decoy (I often have Mass Invis aswell) alone can give you a really nice amount of protection if you get lucky. That… And you can always just stick uncomfortably close to thieves.

Right, that’s thinking WvW at least. I’ve been mostly thinking PvE 5man sized stuff, so not a lot of thieves, and not a lot of stealth there either.

Does make interrupts more reliable though.

Well the amount of boon duration you have is also a big factor on whether Prismatic Understanding is worth it for Decoy alone. 50% and a little luck (30 Chaos + Chocolate Omnomberry Cream) can allow you to proc more protection than than any other way a Mesmer has access to, but even that is only going to be around 10 seconds.
The protection usually procs at first from Illusionary Membrane and then ticks once or twice within the four boons Decoy gives you. It makes Decoy a bit better as a defensive skill but it alone might not be worth traiting for depending on what you want to accomplish and how much boon duration you have.

Thank you for the update.
I have a few comments about the War Maestro, Illusion variant.

In that variant only GS skills 3,5 will be affected by the Dom X trait.
(After the patch the bonus from IC and weapon specific trait do not combine on clone generating skills.)

If you do not mind longer recharge on the wave skill you could use Dom VI for faster boom sharing.

If you want to go for more damage I would suggest to switch to Duel (II, VIII).

Dom III gives you 1.15 damage coefficient, if you look at the scaling table (http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Critical_hit).
With full Berserk gear the avg. damage will be the same and you will have additional damage from the bleeding.

Also in a more offensive setup I trade Chaos IV for Chaos V. It is more pain insurance than source of damage, but it fits the Mesmer way.
You killed my clone, you are punished.
I can spam new clone, eat some punishment.
I can either shatter or you will eat some punishment anyway.

EDIT: The bug is only in the description IC + weapon does combine.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

I’m actually in the process of theorycrafting a Support/Shatter build to see how much advantage I can take of Shattered Conditions and Vigorous Revelation..

So far its looking like: 0/0/10/30/30. Sword-X /Staff.

Since Shattered Conditions is so expensive though, want to shy away from Illusionary Persona and let Deceptive Evasion (thankfully it wasn’t nerfed) be my clone generation source.

Ideally, something like: 0/20/20/30/0 But that hurts the shatter recharges pretty considerably.

I’m also building ideas for…

• Interrupt Support
• Might Stacking High Damage Support (Looking at the GS for this)

I have never understood why this shatter traits (conditions/healing) are in the line that is all about keeping illusions up… I mean seriously. Has anet not figured out just exactly WHY mesmers don’t take this? Because if you are a shatter build sure you are worried about conditions but your shatter damage goes way way way way down when you take this freaking tree… Seriously it is beyond me why they thought this was okay.

Check out the latest Mesmerized podcast, where we interview none other than Chaos Archangel himself!

http://sittingonacouch.com/the-gw2-mesmer-podcast-mesmerized-chaosangel/

Ahh man. I realized I didn’t even take the time to explain my build or much about support mechanics! Nervousness really got the better of me, and I’m always hyper-critical of myself but I feel I coulda done a bit better. Sorry guys… =\

@Korusef: I see what you mean about the Chaos V and definitely see it working.. But I’m not so sure about trading Dom for Dueling. I miss Dueling II, but I like the extra 200 power and Dazzling. Dom VI is a good alternative, I thought I had added that.

Thanks for updating the build, Archangel. Have been interested in trying this and glad to see you’ve revised after 6/25 patch.