Guild Wars 2

Star Lancer.2901:

I’ve been trying this build out in SPvP and TPvP! I’ve never had so much fun with this as much as ever! I’m actually addicted to PvP on my mesmer almost as much as my guardian. xD

I should try Scepter/Pistol as well, but I’ve been rockin’ with both Staff and GS. I love the utility on Staff skills!

Anyway, I’m using the same runes, but I am using Sigil of Leeching for the 2-handed weapons and the same sigils you used for Sword/Torch. Since PvP is quite different than WvW/PvE, I’m using a Berserker amulet with Rampager’s jewel in it.

It did take me a few matches to get used to the playstyle, but it is reminiscent of being an assassin hidden in plain sight to get a burst out. I’m still trying to get Sword 2 to work to my favor, because I always miss with it.

Anyway, thanks so much for the fun build!

So delighted you are enjoying it!!! Your post made my day. That’s the main reason I love this build, it’s incredibly fun to play and it confuses the hell out of opponents. That have literally no idea what you’re up to. I’m gonna try that Sigil of Leeching out. In terms of pulling off the sword 2 skill with the combo successfully, here are a few suggestions:

1. When stealthed, choose clusters of foes to burst on. Run (blink or ileap) past the front lines to get to players that think they are safely spamming abilities from a distance. Thus may seem scary at first but your invulnerability will waste a lot of enemy cool downs when you pop into sight and they start attacking, thus making it easier to escape. You can stealth again and get out of there fast with decoy anyway. Also use shatter 4 a lot. More invulnerability.

2. Use a stun! Most players move constantly and blurred frenzy roots us, so we gotta root them. Pop Signet of Domination on your target while in stealth on prestige JUST before you hit them. Run up and trigger blurred frenzy. They’ll be stuck in your attack and catch burning. Sigil of Paralyzation helps here too. Magic bullet too.

3. Try to anticipate where they are running to and position yourself there to catch them so they run into your attack.

4. Make them come to you. Position yourself in view as a target, role to create a clone. When they rush you, hit prestige to blind, then immediately hit blurred frenzy. You will cut the stealth short and there might be a delay on the burning effect, but it’ll happen. Meantime that confidant thief continues to attack, missing hits cuz of blindnes,, hitting invulnerable you, taking damage, and staying in your target combo area.

5. Work with your allies. Just before you drop your main attack, get another class to chill or glue shot a bunch of players or pull them into you.

Enjoy!!

I’ve been trying out a similar build in pvp, although more power instead of condition damage.

The Prestige is amazing – I hadn’t used it since they changed the way it worked, and it’s great now with prismatic understanding. I’m officially a torch convert.

Running:
- 0/25(IV, X)/30(III, X, XII)/10(IV)/5
- Sw/T + staff, with sigils of purity (and battle on torch)
- berserker amulet and valkyrie jewel
- ether feast/blink/decoy/veil/mass invis (sig of insp underwater and whatever else I’m in the mood for).
- melandru runes in pvp for the extra toughness as the amulets provide pitiful toughness, and a little protection against conditions

Yeah I give up cleansing conflagration, but I can’t justify sinking 20 points in domination. If it were 10 points then I’d drop confusing combatants or 10 from inspiration.

Still in process of deciding wvw/pve gear – will be using hoelbrak runes instead of melandru, because plenty of toughness already and lacking power, and mostly knights/cavalier gear, with sigils of battle on both weapons – 30s of might duration on weapon swap with the hoelbrak runes!

It’s great fun in pvp so far – I feel so much safer with the number of escapes compared to my previous build. The only difficulty is rationing your usage of stealth (I say difficulty, so nobody moans about how powerful it is :p)

@Curunen – Awesome! Cool build! Yes, juggling the stealth is very important. If you blow all your stealth too soon you’ll be trapped out in the open. Personally that’s why I like cleansing conflagration. The cool down reduction on the prestige is really worth it and has saved me numerous times when all my other stealth options were blown. And yes, this type of build makes you feel much safer in WvW. A lot of people are attracted to builds that are pure damage with no defensive options because they like to see those big crit numbers. Those kinds of builds may seem initially powerful, but you wind up dying constantly. What good is maxed burst if you can’t last long enough to take anyone out or are blown to bits by a group? What I love about this kind if build is that it has very decent burst / condition dam but also amazing survivability. It’s a beast for roaming. Other players are used to fights being decided in a few seconds. When they realize you are not going down easy they panic and either die in bewilderment at the point of your sword or turn tail and run like crazy. You can also use it to def a tower by stealthing, walking out the door, hitting everything in sight with the combo then popping back inside.

Thanks!
Condition damage is supplementary on that build, and I can still get decent burst with BF and shatter.

If, and I mean IF the trait redesign at the end of the month moves Cleansing Conflagration down from IX to I-VI (similar to what happened to the sword trait in duelling?), then I would shift 10 points to get it.
But duelling 20 is a must for me, and I like to have one on-death trait for the visual effect (works great with stealth) so spec 25 in that. And inspiration 5 for retaliation on phantasms, plus insp 10 gives me three choices I switch between – IV in pvp for condition removal, VI solo for speed, and I for the feedback bubble in large groups.

So it’s tough for me to move 20 trait points unfortunately, although 24s cooldown prestige (20s if you sit in stealth) would be amazing..

Been doing a slight variation to this build the past hour or so. Its the same trait spread, minus GS trait swapped with III. I’m using Sw/T and Sc/Sw as my weapons which is the main difference. Runes of the undead, but with a carrion amulet+rampager’s jewel. Decoy, Signet of Dom and Blink are my utilities. I guess the main difference with the build I’m using is instead of swapping to a staff as a defensive weapon, I continue dealing condition damage with the sc/sw combo (I also love the illusionary swordsman). I was going to swap some traits around, but I’ve been using it in sPvP and this build is working pretty well for me. I’ve been trying for some time to create a viable sPvP build using the scepter and mainly condition damage, I may combine this build with the one I’m working on now which you can find here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/SPvP-build-help/first#post2206049

Tell me what you think!

This build looks pretty awesome, I’m not usually a fan of the Greatsword(and maayyy swap to staff or Scepter/Pistol) but I’ma definitely try and give this a whirl in sPvP tonight. I’ve been meaning to get around to looking for a build that mixes both direct and condition damage.

Edit: Do you mind if I exhibit it in the Mesmer guide I’m workin on?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

This build looks pretty awesome, I’m not usually a fan of the Greatsword(and maayyy swap to staff or Scepter/Pistol) but I’ma definitely try and give this a whirl in sPvP tonight. I’ve been meaning to get around to looking for a build that mixes both direct and condition damage.

Edit: Do you mind if I exhibit it in the Mesmer guide I’m workin on?

Thanks Chaos! I love your “Chaos Maestro” build too, as you know. Sure! Feel free to exhibit “Hidden Fire” in your guide.

its a wonderful build, i’m loving it.

Did a few adjustments:

- weaponsets: S/T & Sc/P
- since clonegeneration is really high with deceptive evasion and the scepter i prefer shattering or Dom V Crippling over illusion dmg (daze shatter comes in handy due the minor trait ‘dazzling’.
I also like the block on Sc, it hits like a truck and adds a bunch of vulnerability on top of the dmg.

my armor is zerker with 6x Air, my trinkets are cavaliers with rubys, so everything is very p/pre/crit/tough. my only cd comes from signet of domination, a master tuning crystal and food, but adds up to 600 CD without any effort in gear.

i think about switching one or two zerker pieces to rampagers, but i’m very pleased with the results.

its by far the most entertaining build on my mesmer.

here my adjusted build

blutstein.2468:

its a wonderful build, i’m loving it.

Did a few adjustments:

- weaponsets: S/T & Sc/P
- since clonegeneration is really high with deceptive evasion and the scepter i prefer shattering or Dom V Crippling over illusion dmg (daze shatter comes in handy due the minor trait ‘dazzling’.
I also like the block on Sc, it hits like a truck and adds a bunch of vulnerability on top of the dmg.

my armor is zerker with 6x Air, my trinkets are cavaliers with rubys, so everything is very p/pre/crit/tough. my only cd comes from signet of domination, a master tuning crystal and food, but adds up to 600 CD without any effort in gear.

i think about switching one or two zerker pieces to rampagers, but i’m very pleased with the results.

its by far the most entertaining build on my mesmer.

here my adjusted build

Huzzah! Super glad you’re enjoying the build! I really like your adjustments and am gonna try it out today. It’s very similar to what I’ve been running as well. I HAVE been thinking about upping my zerker stats a bit too. Gonna play with that as well.

Why greatsword? I would take staff for chaos storm (put it around them for conditions or on your clones for protection/aegis). You can also phase retreat out of it for chaos armor, plus the chaos armor on the staff, plus the phantasm that does damage off conditions, plus the 5sec (if traited) phase retreat, plus the clones spamming projectlis applying conditions.

@ethics: Its one of the advantages of this build, that you can adapt your preferred weaponset. The build works with nearly everything.
Staff works fine, but very defensive…

@entropy: yesterday evening I give Sc/Sw a try and its great too. the phantasm hits like a truck and has more advantage of the zerker-stats + the 20% CD Reduction trait works fine for the OH. The 2 blocks are really devastating if timed right on top of 2 iSwordsman hitting a 25 Stack vulnerability target (that stacks in a matter of seconds) .

How would this build do in a Fractal out of curiosity? With the constant stealthing and conditions it could be…interesting? Right?

blutstein.2468:

@ethics: Its one of the advantages of this build, that you can adapt your preferred weaponset. The build works with nearly everything.
Staff works fine, but very defensive…

@entropy: yesterday evening I give Sc/Sw a try and its great too. the phantasm hits like a truck and has more advantage of the zerker-stats + the 20% CD Reduction trait works fine for the OH. The 2 blocks are really devastating if timed right on top of 2 iSwordsman hitting a 25 Stack vulnerability target (that stacks in a matter of seconds) .

Just took your suggestion and tried it out with OH sword. Works great! I love how quick and nimble the iSwordsmen is. And the 2 blocks really come in handy. Nice job!

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

How would this build do in a Fractal out of curiosity? With the constant stealthing and conditions it could be…interesting? Right?

Hey! I’m not a big fractal player, but I imagine it would do well. Works great in PVE with staff.

Entropy.4732:

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

How would this build do in a Fractal out of curiosity? With the constant stealthing and conditions it could be…interesting? Right?

Hey! I’m not a big fractal player, but I imagine it would do well. Works great in PVE with staff.

Looks like with the latest build PU makes this build a loooot better! Say, what armour should I be using? Cause i’ll be doing PvE too. =o

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

Entropy.4732:

LiebnirGWAccount.5698:

How would this build do in a Fractal out of curiosity? With the constant stealthing and conditions it could be…interesting? Right?

Hey! I’m not a big fractal player, but I imagine it would do well. Works great in PVE with staff.

Looks like with the latest build PU makes this build a loooot better! Say, what armour should I be using? Cause i’ll be doing PvE too. =o

Any advice would be loved! In theory a bit more protection would be useful, correct?

Here’s my thoughts on how this patch affects the “Hidden Fire” build.

The best part of the patch is of course the buff to Prismatic Understanding. This trait will now pulse every second and the added boons, especially protection is lovely. I think builds involving PU are going to increase in popularity this month in general.

If you are running Sc/P – Sw/T as I have been of late, the addition of torment in the block doesn’t hurt, although I can’t say it really is a game changer as timing block properly in WvW can be difficult. Scepter does indeed now produce two clones on attack 1 instead of one. I’m not sure if this is a ninja buff or a bug. Time will tell, but the added clones are welcome!

We are unaffected by the illusionists Celerity nerf, although my heart goes out to those who are.

The bad news is of course the massive nerf to Blurred Frenzy which is a staple of our build’s main combo attack. Blurred Frenzy + The Prestige is what inspired this build. I still need to do more testing, but the increased CD and the downgrade of invulnerability to evade does weaken us. I have hope though that a proper use of Shatter 4, and perhaps an investment in Blade Training may take some of the sting off.

All in all, there is much to try out and adjust to. Post if you notice any interesting changes or combinations.

Entropy.4732:

Here’s my thoughts on how this patch affects the “Hidden Fire” build.

The best part of the patch is of course the buff to Prismatic Understanding. This trait will now pulse every second and the added boons, especially protection is lovely. I think builds involving PU are going to increase in popularity this month in general.

If you are running Sc/P – Sw/T as I have been of late, the addition of torment in the block doesn’t hurt, although I can’t say it really is a game changer as timing block properly in WvW can be difficult. Scepter does indeed now produce two clones on attack 1 instead of one. I’m not sure if this is a ninja buff or a bug. Time will tell, but the added clones are welcome!

We are unaffected by the illusionists Celerity nerf, although my heart goes out to those who are.

The bad news is of course the massive nerf to Blurred Frenzy which is a staple of our build’s main combo attack. Blurred Frenzy + The Prestige is what inspired this build. I still need to do more testing, but the increased CD and the downgrade of invulnerability to evade does weaken us. I have hope though that a proper use of Shatter 4, and perhaps an investment in Blade Training may take some of the sting off.

All in all, there is much to try out and adjust to. Post if you notice any interesting changes or combinations.

With Blade Training Blurred Frenzy has a CD of 9 seconds, and if you’re coming out of Stealth on a high from Protection from the boon or procced from the traitline, that’ll help out a bit.

First of all, thanks a ton for posting this- this build is great and I’ve had a ton of fun with it

Personally, I’ve tried mantra of restoration and it’s been pretty effective- stealth is a great time to meditate, and it only has a 10 second cool down. It’s only an idea, but I’ve had some good results from it

So glad to find this build. This is by far the best build for me because it aligns so well with what I’m currently using.
Thanks 100 times to OP.

I run a power-based build thus full zerker gear, but now I’m thinking to shift a bit of my DPS towards conditions since this build looks very interesting and I am a big fan of this burst/stealth heavy playstyle. It is fun and rewarding for skilled play.

@Entropy and other folks as well: can you please have a look at my build and give some tips tohelp me choosing gear to shift towards condition damage thanks.
Link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAsfWlwzKqHVTmGb9IipH9GyBckUYavWJF82FC-jgDBYLERjUggEFYkFQkIIEJAJPFRjtmpIasaHYqSRWZKpKXAeDSzuDJFA-e
Also, i try to incorporate the interrupt buff to my build as well. It should play well if timed right.

Thanks a lot.

purplepegasus.2791:

First of all, thanks a ton for posting this- this build is great and I’ve had a ton of fun with it

Personally, I’ve tried mantra of restoration and it’s been pretty effective- stealth is a great time to meditate, and it only has a 10 second cool down. It’s only an idea, but I’ve had some good results from it

Thanks! So glad you are enjoying the build! The mantra sounds interesting to work in there.

I’ve been trying an interesting hybrid. By swapping out “Empowered Illusions” with “Crippling Dissipation” and using Focus instead of pistol (Sw/T – Sc/F) You get an incredible amount of crowd control. It’s amazing for both zergs and solo. Try to produce as many clones as possible and almost never shatter so your foe kills as many of them as they can. Check it out.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsf7dlwzKqHTzpGb9IipH9WwBckUUavWJF42FC

Entropy.4732:

I’ve been trying an interesting hybrid. By swapping out “Empowered Illusions” with “Crippling Dissipation” and using Focus instead of pistol (Sw/T – Sc/F) You get an incredible amount of crowd control. It’s amazing for both zergs and solo. Try to produce as many clones as possible and almost never shatter so your foe kills as many of them as they can. Check it out.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsf7dlwzKqHTzpGb9IipH9WwBckUUavWJF42FC

So I’ve been trying to collect the info on gear/traits for this setup (which I find extremely interesting). Have I gotten it all right? See link below.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4VPVz097;171;9;4JJT;048-19-34B;4LoF4a;1ytbUytbUBBGvNJDY10;12V70B1GYNZQ_91V0c-7V8ak06Rq

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArfWlwzKqHWTmGb9IipH9WwBckUoavWJF42FC-ToAAzENpay1kpJZT2mGLsIZKC

I used this build to test out how Torment would work with a few well timed confusion bombs. Full rabid set with 2 few ascended solder rings. All weapon are rabid stats. Tuning crystals and rare pizza. I’m not looking at the stats as I’m at work right now but iirc it’s @ 18k hp, 2500ish armor, 2300ap, 40ish crit, 1300condition damage.
Just dance in and out of stealth using a skirmish range mindset. I was taking on up to 4 people at a time with no close calls in dieing. The build is astonishing for conditions.
Comin out of stealth with sceptor 3 then blocking with 2. Dodge dodge pop clones. Lots of condition and torment on the other guy. Swap to staff for a bit, chaos armor up. dance around while waiting for some cd’s on stealth. Reset combat positioning in stealth and then drag out the phantasms for the remainder of the fight. Staying close to the other player allows for clone death on dodge roll to hit the guy. I can’t get over how funny it is to screw with players who simply can’t find you or figure out how they’re melting so fast.
Thanks op for the build. It’s quite versatile.