Guild Wars 2

I’m fairly certain the iWarden is our hardest hitting phantasm if all of the 12 hits connect, but does anyone know how it stacks up to other phantasms if, say, only 6 or 7 of the hits connect?

Also, how do YOU utilize the warden’s damage potential? I see a lot of people speak of how it can’t hit reliably, but I feel this isn’t entirely true with a bit of creativity? I personally have found a decent amount of success simply measuring temporal curtain’s pull and timing ileap.

Since the temporal curtain’s effect lingers a bit after you activate Into the Void, it’s not a bad option to summon the clone, place the curtain at his feet so that he’s DIRECTLY in the middle of the curtain, and then activate the pull. Also, I’ve always viewed Warden as a defensive phantasm, so instead of trying to summon it on the opponent and hope it works, I try to fight near it so that the enemies are kited into the whirl.

..How does iWarden work for you?

Warden, for me in all cases, is utility first, and damage second. As it turns out, in the cases where its utility is valuable, it also provides extremely high damage due to reflecting the projectiles. However, if I’m in a situation where there really are no projectiles, I’ll replace the focus with something else. It’s not worth using without the need for that utility.

Edit: Another reason for this is the warden tends to die very quickly in most situations. The situations that it won’t die are the ones where it’s providing defense for itself by reflecting the attacks.

Yeah I think it’s good to use iWarden as defense. It’s good for controlling where people stand. Many people recognized it and know that it brings a lot of pain if they stand within range of it. It’s even better if you’re in a tight area with a crowd of people. Love watching the numbers fly on that hing. So you can fight on top of it, and also lay down your temporal curtain on top for condition removal or Staff 5 to add some more confusion.

BTW it only reflects projectiles if you spec into inspiration right?

3 weapon skills that when used together provide an immense amount of utility + damage:

• Sword Illusionary Leap + Swap (#3 skill)
• Focus Temporal Curtain + Into the Void (#4 Skill)
• Focus Phantasmal Warden (#5 Skill)

(1) Cast Warden on enemy, it will land some hits but enemy will move … you can move to it to be protected from projectiles
(2) Cast Temporal Curtain on Warden, it will whirl finisher a condition cleanse for you and allies
(3) Use Illusionary Leap + Swap while standing on the curtain in order to gain quite a bit of retaliation
(4) Into the Void to pull your foe back to the Warden

You can also change up the order of 3 and 4, pulling to the Warden first before swapping so that they are pulled to the warden and then immobilized next to the warden (this hurts!) via Swap. This will result in less retaliation for you, but your warden will deliver more of his “pain train” to your foe(s).

@Mek: Yeah, if it isn’t traited it only blocks projectiles rather than reflecting them.

@Pyro: Do you know if the damage is still worthwhile if only, say, half the hits connect?

@Sebrent: I try to stay in melee range before summoning the warden anyways. Summon Warden(pop daze during the channel if you have iPersona) >> ileap-swap >> Chaos Storm to protect warden. Pistol and Staff seem to compliment the Warden pretty well.

Whenever iWarden sprays the Light-bolts, he seems to do noticeably more damage.

Does anyone know if the light bolts have their own damage, or if attacks augmented by combo fields have a damage boost?

Warden’s awesome, but if you’re putting time into CCing your enemy to prevent them from moving, then you’re losing up time on your own personal dps.

That being said, popping up a warden on the turrets in Arah and watching them solo them always makes me smile.

A good thing to do especially in PvP is cast warden then temp curtain and pull under the wardens feet… anyone that dodged away from the warden is pulled back into it. Then bust a iLeap swap Blurred and shazam… most hits connect.

I usually cast warden when running into a fight then sword 3 and dodge for my initial 3 illusion shatter, it will hit a few times but anyone who’s close to decent will move.

I’ve never had any problems with my iWarden. I started the game with a mesmer using sword/focus and I’ve never changed weapons since. I can’t explain it really, but once you’ve gotten used to the focus skills, it’s rather easy to set up a good combo to maximize the damage of your warden that I feel like a good focus mesmer is much much better than a pistol mesmer, damage and control-wise.. Just my opinion.

My Warden combo is this:

1. Cast Temporal Curtain
2. Begin Casting Warden
3. Trigger Into the Void (instant cast does not interrupt Warden summon)
4. Target(s) are gathered and knocked down
5. Warden spawns next to knocked down target(s)
6. Illusionary Leap + Dodge for 3rd illusion + Swap to immobilize target(s)
7. Blurred Frenzy
8. Shatter after Warden’s attack

I’ve found this to have the highest damage potential. Good players will occasionally Dodge after the pull and evade my Swap.