Guild Wars 2

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQJAcWncfC1ohNqBupBEgilTjyMH2mbgMA2ggqOav2uF-T5AFABCcIAEvMAAPBAA
Idk offhand. Debate between shield and pistol. Idk runes, not sure what to use.

Idea is to disable someone while dishing out decent to high damage. So far it has fantastic sustain (been using pistol) and burst from shatters, while keeping people at a snail or stalled pace of playing.

Things I don’t know:
Why do aoe abilities not seem to proc lost time?
Do illusions proc lost time?
Is there anything in my build I can use to enforce the disable/empower theme?
What precisely does Illusionary Avenger (shield 4) do?

Thanks in advance. Trying to find an alternate build on a fun class seeing as I have to shelf Thief for a bit. Mesmer and Necro are my secondaries, but Necro is super super slow.

1. Lost time has a 1/4 sec cd. It used to not have a cd, but “perma slow” builds were made so anet nerfed it. Imo, this changed should be reverted so we can have a viable slow build again. The perma slow build wasnt even that strong if you had constant condi removal (Like inspir tree).

2. No, only you.

3. Well, you have CI, so thats a pretty good disable/empower theme.

4. Skill 4 of shield blocks all blockable attacks for 2.25 second, If it blocks something, you can use the skill again and summons a iavenger. Iavenger will charge to the opponent you targeted while blocking and inflict 2 sec of slow aoe to enemies and 2 sec of alacrity to friendly people near the phantasm.

For your build, I would go for shield since you dont run dueling for the pistol trait, which is the only reason you should take pistol atm. As for runes, you can run strength because can they give free 25 stacks of might if you are good enough with interrupting. If you condi removal, you can run leadership(?) or lyssa if you want.

This is fairly similar to the build I suggested here:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/The-purple-crusader-Clockdown-PvP-build/first

except that I used danger time to gain crit chance and thus dropped marauder for crusader.

While you can keep your amulet and chrono trait, I would recommend dropping furious interruption for shattered concentration. The reason is simple: boon strip is always very potent and useful, but in particular in an interrupt build, you want to be able to strip stability which otherwise negate you very hard.

I am not quite sure why you choose descent into madness: is is a WvW build? I take master of manipulation for the cooldown reduction on blink. You do not use blink in your build, but I would recommend you to, this is really an amazing utility.

Finally, chaotic dampening is a good trait if you use staff for the protection uptime, but mirror of anguish is a reasonable choice.

My only comment is that maybe your putting a little too many eggs in one basket.

Between CS, PowerBlock, Furious Interruption, Chaotic Interruptions AND Delayed Reactions, I’d say you could maybe swap some of those out and pick some other stuff up to help you on other areas.

Like Silverkey said, dropping FI for Shattered Concentrations is a good idea.

You could also switch out CI for Bountiful Disillusionment. Or CS for Rending Shatter. Switch some out and see if you notice a difference.

Since your running staff, I’d also probably go Chaotic Dampening. Protection is nice to have and since your running wells, you’ll get some additional Chaos armor processes AND more protection.

You seem to go for a lockdown build, taking that into account (without repeating what others have said) I’d switch Descent into Madness for Idefense
And Danger time over Ireversion (which isn’t bad bud Danger Time has better synergy with Delayed Reactions)

As for your skills, I’m mixed about the Well, I haven’t tested much I admit, but I still prefer Ether Feast over it (Right now I’m playing in the illusion trait line with the Healing signet, which seems to work well)

Rest is good, I also vouch for shield over pistol since you don’t have the trait (and the block is just miam)
For rune, you could also run with traveler/Eagle
I need to test out Leadership and Revenant too (note to self right here)
with sigil of Blood and Energy on your sword and off hand and sigil of air and blood/Generosity with your staff

-So far Shield is unanimous. =D Awesome. Runes are not =(.
-I was debating FI over SC, its just I was thinking of the times I might want to use Arcane Thievery and snag some of that myself >.>. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll do it if you really think it makes that big of a difference- my question would be, what do I put in AC’s spot?
-I took DiM for the simple bit that I know how to acquire fall damage in every single match, and I’d gladly grab a free Chaos Storm for 100-200 hp. On top of that, I don’t see much use in the other two minors. If I need less damage, I did not disable hard enough. If I use manipulation, I have to swap something to get a second Manipulation skill which is hard to do as I enjoy my current bar. But then again, the above point.
-I like Mirror because Mirror+Decoy+F3 is usually very potent in the stall and I can turn&burn whoever I slammed with that.
-Slim the idea is lockdown and I'm very very good at interrupting (I have a handy dandy stun lock pistol/pistol thief build. >.> I might be a bit too good at being trollsy...). Also, Dazes give vulnerability as well as Interrupts- Rending Shatter would give me very little as I hit the cap very quickly. -Pepsi are you sure? I will have very little clone uptime if I drop that. I don’t have duelist >.>. Is the crit worth the free clones? Also, the well is my only condi clear short of Arcane Thievery. Last bit, Air/fire proc Lost Time- do blood or generosity?

Not trying to argue with anyone I swear, honestly looking for help but I typed the original iteration in a haste as I had so much I had to do today irl. I am also not used to Mesmer so I don’t know how much actual defense I need as opposed to my Thief where I have to take all three trait lines of condi clear as well as two utilities and a rune set at this point. All help is appreciated.

Disclaimer: I don’t know all the acronyms, I’m just using the ones I’d use. D= I forgot how fun Mesmer was.

Tl;Dr- Should I really drop FI for SC when I have Arcane Thievery? If I can actively acquire the Descent trait for next to free, should I really swap traits? If so, how do I change my utility bar? How do I play without Mirror of Anguish if I were to swap it? Is the staff trait so potent that I really need to pick it up? If I swap Illusionary Reversion for Danger Time, how do I maintain my clones? Do I swap my air/fire sigils which apply Lost Time’s effect for other sigils? Are there any runes that give me effects for hitting people (Not sure, I normally take precision or ferocity)?

Thanks again guys, sorry for the wall. Hoping to enjoy my build again some now that I have a bit of free time.

Serious Thought.5394:

-So far Shield is unanimous. =D Awesome. Runes are not =(.
-I was debating FI over SC, its just I was thinking of the times I might want to use Arcane Thievery and snag some of that myself >.>. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll do it if you really think it makes that big of a difference- my question would be, what do I put in AC’s spot?

The reason very few people use Arcane Thievery is that it is very unreliable. On paper, it is a great utility for both condi clear and boon strip, but in practice, it fails more often than not. I tend to prefer the mantra if I want condi clear.

-@Pepsi are you sure? I will have very little clone uptime if I drop that. I don’t have duelist >.>. Is the crit worth the free clones?

I think this is debatable. Builds running without clone-generation traits tend to rely on a few well-timed shatters instead of a constant shatter pressure. In power builds, you mostly want to have a good Mind Wrack. With marauder you do have high crit chance and a good uptime of fury meaning you don’t really need the extra crit. I think Danger time is more useful when using amulets with low crit chance.

Tl;Dr- Should I really drop FI for SC when I have Arcane Thievery? If I can actively acquire the Descent trait for next to free, should I really swap traits? If so, how do I change my utility bar? How do I play without Mirror of Anguish if I were to swap it? Is the staff trait so potent that I really need to pick it up? If I swap Illusionary Reversion for Danger Time, how do I maintain my clones? Do I swap my air/fire sigils which apply Lost Time’s effect for other sigils? Are there any runes that give me effects for hitting people (Not sure, I normally take precision or ferocity)?

As I said, arcane thievery is unreliable and has a long CD compared to the boons trip you can do with shatters. If you like the descent trait, by all means use it, you don’t have high clone uptime so Illusionary Defense won’t help much while Master of Manipulation can be good for the CD (for arcane thievery if you decide to keep it, and/or blink if you decide to include it). Mirror of Anguish has a very long CD. So while it helps a lot when it procs, the uptime is low enough that the staff trait looks appealing. Protection is a very strong boon and you can generate chaos armor fairly easily with your staff or your sword (iLeap in a ethereal field).