Guild Wars 2

So my plea is to the A-nets devs to take a serious look at the amount of viable builds us mesmer’s have at this moment. The main problem (and where a great deal of the rage comes from) is that the majority of mesmer’s have been pushed towards one of the only viable builds at the this moment in time, which is the Shatter build with Sword/ off hand and GS.

I don’t use this build cause at the moment I prefer phantasm builds and trying to make that work with Sword/Focus and Staff. The main problem i see for mesmer’s though at this moment that there really only viable builds which are majority power based. I would love a more viable option with a decent condition build/toughness, which I have tested out already, however the weapons required for a decent condition build are close to worthless at this point in time.

Scepter and torch require some looking at, because at this moment in time they are just not viable weapons for any build. confusion stacks don’t last long enough (even when traited). A good example was when I was at the NPC dummies in the mists:
-I used i-mage then got 3 clones
-used scepter 3 and shattered all at the same time.
-Great 12 stacks of confusion the NPC uses one skill 2.1k that’s great! how long does that last? 2 seconds
-what can i do now to damage the enemy? the answer is not much wait around for your skill 3 to come off CD and try again.

I think with making a change and offering a lot more viability to our weapon choices and builds will help people get away from the whole glass cannon mesmer with shatters that people are hating on 24/7 at the moment, people wouldn’t dislike it that much if you don’t come across it every game it’s the same with thieves there are just not enough viable builds. Because what’s the points of being the special snowflake with your unique build if it’s just not viable in the current meta? the answer there is no point

Please leave your idea’s here for idea for more viable builds for memsers and hopefully a dev to notice this !

many thanks

-Infi-

Really? I see us as pretty varied.

Just changing my weapon changes my focus.
That’s why I use a one hander so that I can switch out to whatever off-hand suits a situation which happens to be a scepter. I keep my backup of a staff to pull me through most anything.

Just around the forums I see people building to do support with healing or utility skills they favor – some ppl are adamant about loving time warp or moa or me liking group stealth. Then there are the fans of portals and blink alongside the mantra users. Every build can use decoy.

We are seeing much different things in this profession. I could change my traits daily and be content. I have 3 different builds just for mantras. That doesn’t account for anything related to condition builds, shatter builds, phantasm builds, sneaky snake builds that rely on deception and movement. We have so many paths, how am I seeing something you don’t. I don’t feel stuck to any of the weapons you mentioned.

You really can’t come up with more than one flavor of a condition build – I guess I wonder why you even want a condition build – it’s so easy to remove conditions. Why would you let someone have that much control over what you can do to them? Does this have something to do with structured pvp? I only do W3.

My post was directed at Spvp where yes alot of the builds that you have mentioned are fun and viable in a Pve and WvWvW situation, however in Spvp it’s a different matter.

But thank you for your feedback I love playing mesmer and I also love messing arounds with traits and weapons to find something that work’s, however alot of weapon sets are just outmatched in a spvp situation cause at the moment the majority of people (this isn’t just mesmer) are favoring full burst and damage, over anything else.

Like I said I play phantasm builds with a sword and focus with staff and i love the build that I’ve made, however with condition builds in spvp at this moment in time they’re just not worth it in my opinion anyway

I run a condition build (20/0/25/0/25) and use staff/GS. I use the staff for the knockback and the berzerker for some dmg/slow. Mostly i rock the staff and i do pretty well and rarely die in pvp. I have power/prec/cond gear and have vit/tough/power on my weap and jewelry. I usually end up running in circles, try to keep people at a medium range and keep chaos armor is up most of the time. I dont wtf blow people up as I try to outlast and sacrafice my clones at the right times. If i get the drop on someone they are screwed.

Infinitus.3712:

…
-I used i-mage then got 3 clones
-used scepter 3 and shattered all at the same time.
-Great 12 stacks of confusion the NPC uses one skill 2.1k that’s great! how long does that last? 2 seconds
-what can i do now
…
-Infi-

im using a condition mesmer in tpvp all the time and IMO I quoted your mistake. Try not to shatter all the time. the sustained damage comes from bleeds/burns. and perhaps try not to use scepter, it is very underwhelming right now. Use sword and torch to have more survivability.
Furthermore try to do damage with staff and staff clones. All those bleeds/burns are killing everyone nice but slowly while you are quite hard to kill. I only use confusion (via shatters) to burst someone down. A good target to be confused is a roamer entering the fight, just an example. Or a guardian with ~40-50% hp. Or confuse when your clone generating abilities are up.
can’t explain when to use high confusion stacks but after a while you normally notice the right moment when the target is going to use a lot of skills. Sometimes it is very obvious (frenzy, etc)
Meanwhile get them low with bleeds and burns with double wind of chaos and 3 clones.

Thank you very much for the constructive posts and for the tips on condition builds that you’ve felt work. I ’m going to have a look at your builds cause they look really good!. keep them coming !

I also find myself more drawn towards GS Phantasm builds and was curious what are the must-have traits?

Domination: Empowered Illusions (15% Illusions dmg) / GS Training
Dueling: Phantasm Fury
Inspiration: Persisting Images (Phantasm 20% HP) Is this mandatory or not?
Illusions: Phantasm Haste (20% faster recharge on Phantas)

Thoughts?

I’m not entirely sure what the dev’s can even do about condition damage spec’s in Tpvp.

mesmer condition damage specs are strong and you can win with them a lot. Its not that we are weak when spec’d for condition damage, its just that condition damage is inherently a slower kill than burst. That’s just the way of it. So in a tpvp setting where you not only have people dedicated to roaming but the team is also coordinating with voip the condition spec can end up in a situation where they can’t kill before help arrives.

I’m not sure what Anet can do about that. We are already capable of dealing condition damage with a pretty darn high amout of survivability. You have to find a way to do your condition damage and remain alive for an extended period of time against 2 people.

We can do that with certain specs and loadouts, but results are varied as (again) your opponent is coordinated.

just not sure what they can do about that.