Guild Wars 2

So… Playing some mesmer at the moment (Again) and have a build set up along with gear etc… Just torn between rune and sigil setups.

20 I, X
20 IV, X
10 IV
0
20 I, IX

Full Soldier gear and gems.

Greatsword and Sword/Torch

Don’t know whether to go:

Battle + Battle/Bloodlust

2x Hoelbrak
2x Strength
2x Fire

For leveraging heavy weapon swapping and might from Mirror Blade (Can get decent stacks if 1v1 and tend to swap weapons a fair amount)

Or something else like:

Bloodlust + Leeching/Bloodlust (To ensure Power stacks no-matter which weapon I use for killing blows)

6x Fire

Or even something I haven’t thought of yet (To be fair, I’m not good at planning a build that doesn’t invest heavily in either Boon stacking or Crits)

Hard to help unless you say what you mainly play, dungeons, wvw, spvp or some other.
I for once play mainly dungeons and wvw and so I focus on traiting up and get equipment that give the biggest possibly bonus to the group I play with, not just pure damage/conditions.
I play with sup runs of strength and that sigil that gives 3 might on wep swap. That together with shattered strength and signet of inspiration.
When fighting I add up might through shattering and wep swap and then share all might (normally about 15 stacks) with my allies and use tw. My setup is completly different from yours tho trait wise.
0
20
0
20
30
I also add lots of blind, confusion and vigor.
No sure it helped but as I said, hard to help if you dont say what you mainly play.

Kira.2903:

No sure it helped but as I said, hard to help if you dont say what you mainly play.

Oh, I forgot that part…

I mainly do PvE (Solo + Dungeons) and WvW (I tend to do more roaming though since my computer doesn’t like the large scale zerg fests) though I may end up trying some sPvP (I may alter my build for that though)

So essentially, as an overall build (It would appear I do all aspects of the game on reflection):

Extreme Might stacking (3 stacks lasting ~30 seconds potentially every 10 seconds plus 6 lasting 16 seconds every ~7 seconds while using Greatsword)

Versus

Additional power (~140 from runes) and possibly another utility type sigil.

Hmm… Thinking about it, the Might stacking would probably be better as it would be more beneficial to conditions I might get (Burning from Prestige, Confusion from Cry of Frustration, Illusionary Retribution and Blinding Befuddlement (When I use it, probably will swap between it and Illusionary Elasticity depending on the situation) and Bleeding from Sharper Images)

It would also be nice to be able to do some extra support via stacking Might and using Signet of Inspiration to copy high amounts of long lasting Might to allies…

Oh crap… Just noticed the 25 trait from Illusions… I may try and re-jig my build to incorporate that (As I do shatter a fair amount) thanks for the info.

On a side note, does boon duration gains from runes affect any part of an Arcane Thievery > Signet of Inspiration combo? (Does the stealing of the boon cause it to be affected, the copying to allies or none of it?)

I think arcane thievery just take the remaining duration. Also if you do spvp you cant use your pve armor so no need to think of that until you do it. You can try out spvp setups for free as much as you like. I dont think this build work very good in spvp tho because as far as I know you normal don’t stick together much. If you play with sig of inspiration make sure to use tw also and have your party member close to you so they get the extra might and x2 attack speed.
I play with my own guild on ts, dont know how well it works if you pug it.

For wvw I play alone much also or in small groups. The confusion from shattering and scepter when I use it kill most things really fast. As long as no enemies show up I can take out sup camps solo.