Guild Wars 2

Hey!
For a PvE (dungeon) phantasm build would you choose Illusionist’s Celerity or Phantasmal Strength?
I know you have have both but lets say you have to choose one of the lines, which one would be the best to choose? 1 plus for Illusionist’s Celerity is that you can also pick up Phantasmal Haste, which also feels nice for a phantasm build.

Inspiration also has Menders Purity and Wardens Feedback in the same line, both of which are amazing.
I run a 10/30/0/30 Mantra/Phantasm supporty hybrid, but can swap over to glamour at the drop of a hat in dungeons if the group reaaaaaally needs the extra reflection.
Going down Illusions is probably better damagewise, but Id sooner take the utility and versatility Inspiration brings.

Thanks for your input clipnotdone, much appreciated.

I personally prefer the 10/30/0/20/10 build. I run Arah and fractals alot, so I’ll prefer the extra reflect and personal damage, especially in situations where I find my phantasms not lasting long.

That said, I have messed around with the 0/20/0/25/25 and 10/10/0/25/25 phantasm builds. With no party buffs and using 1 duelist and 1 swordsman against heavy golems in heart of the mists, I found average kill times to be identical (4 swordsman attacks 3 duelists), due to the added damage of sharper images.

Anyway, that said. Phantasmal Strength is the stronger choice if your only getting one, if only for the ability to pick up glamour CDs and reflecting focus. Any mob that uses projectiles you’ll get far more damage off a feedback/traited curtain/warden than actual damage phantasms do. Also with that and 20 in dueling you can trait all of the relevant phantasms CDs anyway (sword/pistol/focus). Of those three, phantasmal haste doesn’t effect the swordsman, just the duelist (1 second) and warden(1.5 seconds)

0/20/0/25/25 is also great for everything except Arah where a 10/30/0/20/10 variant is better for reflects.

Thanks alot Dirend and Xavi for your suggestions. What trait in illusions is it you use? is it compunding power?

10(III)/30(changes – II, IV, IX, X, XI by situation)/0/20(II, VIII)/10(III)

0/20(II, IV)/0/25(II, VIII)/25(III, X)

I’ll nearly always trait my sword over pistol if It’s one or the other for the extra precision, though there are times the quicker magic bullet can help. Compounding power doesn’t help your clones damage, but it does help your personal/reflect damage. There really isn’t anything else attractive at that slot since you’re not planning on shattering much.

in the 0/20 build you take it as your forced to go through it to get to phantasmal haste and IC.

For the 10/30 build you grab it for extra reflect damage. Other variants not taking illusions are 15/30/0/25/0 (less reflect damage, higher phantasm damage, turns the daze mantra into 5 stacks of vuln on demand) and 10/30/0/30/0 (longer feedback or extra phantasm life and more phantasm damage in exchange for lesser reflect damage)

Xhean.3452:

Thanks alot Dirend and Xavi for your suggestions. What trait in illusions is it you use? is it compunding power?

Yeah, Compounding Power.

Here is my Dungeon/Fractals build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQRAsc8dlwzKqHVzqGa9IxZGMf5oZgdvXSBu5NA-jAyAYrBRTQAIRQUhQn8KiGbxtIas6aMlLRUtUAjqMC-e

You should have 3 swords with Bloodlust, Force and Battle sigils. Use Bloodlust mainhand and Force offhand until you get your 25 stacks then switch out Bloodlust mainhand for Battle mainhand sword.

Utilities can change depending on the encounter. I often change out Decoy for Blink, Stability Mantra, Disenchanter, etc.

You can also switch to Pistol when you want more range and just change the sword to pistol trait in dueling.

Also if you cannot afford Scholar Runes, Ruby Orbs are a decent and much cheaper option.

PS: I am debating if Sigil of Perception might be better than Bloodlust but unsure yet.

Thanks again you both. oooh, so many nice builds to choose from, having a hard time to make up my mind
My thoughts are: I’m not sure if I want 30 in dueling, I really like playing sw/sw and if I’m not gonna take the pistol trait there’s nothing except fury and sword cd I really need there. So that frees up 10 extra points Thinking of maybe trying 10/20/0/30/10 to get the extra phantasm dmg from inspiration or maybe try out the build Xavi is playing with 0/20/0/25/25.

I would think Bloodlust is better than Perception, but not sure either

To invest into the illusion trait is in general a bad thing in PvE anyway. Except for shatter builds ofc. However going for phantasms and waste so many points on good traits without any useful stats is highly overrated. For example to go to 10 just for the 3-9% additional mesmer damage is bad compared to 100 power or 4% crit chance + 10% crit damage and the traits there.

Check this thread if you want: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Need-help-with-personal-best-build-PvE/first#post3106097

Good point Xyonon, thanks.
Will wait for Illusionist’s Celerity to move to 15 points and make it 10/20/0/25/15 I think. Don’t feel as wasted then

I heared about that changes. But I really guess it’s just a hype for an overrated trait. I really use the 30 in inspiration and would not give the 3 best traits we have away for a bit more damage. Also 15 in domination deals tons of passive damage. My option, but gonna test it too after the changes.

Test new builds = knowledge = expirience = power.

Xyonon.3987:

Test new builds = knowledge = expirience = power.

This.

Also with the current 0/20/0/25/25 build you’re only grabbing IC because it’s only 5 points out of reach of phantasmal haste.

After the update 0/20/0/30/20 would probably be a better option or 0/25/0/25/20 if you want better stats and less utility.

As for what sigil to use I’ll post the math below if your want to learn how to do it yourself, but otherwise, feel free to give me your power/crit chance/crit damage as well as if there’s any food you typically use and I can run the numbers for you.

Math section for Average damage:
power * (1 + crit chance * (crit damage + .5)) [* damage mods]

• People have tested with builds over 100% crit chance and still reported non crits, so the crit chance number should never exceed 99% -> .99

Sigil of perception adds about 12% crit chance, bloodlust 250 power. Since you’re only testing which sigil is better, you don’t need to factor in damage mods (the higher value before mods will stay the same after)

Putting this into practice: I have 2250 power, 55% crit chance, 108% crit damage.

I also run a sigil of battle which can keep 6 stacks of might up (1 stack of might = 35 power) so effectively 2460 power

Also I typically use life steal food in casual/pug runs, 21 extra percision = 1% bonus to crit chance, 3.3% gain putting me at 58%

2460 * (1 + .58 * ( 1.08 + .5) [* modifiers] = 4714 average damage (no sigil)

bloodlust version
(2460 + 250) * (1 + .58 * ( 1.08 + .5) [* modifiers] = 5193

perception version
2460 * (1 + (.58 + .12) * (1.08 + .5)) [* modifiers] = 5180

So for me, it is slightly better to run bloodlust.

That said, your power stat does not effect reflect damage; however crit chance does. If your going to be running something like Arah/Fractals where there is potentially a lot of damage you can do with reflects, perception will always be the stronger choice (unless it would put you over 99% crit chance).

Thanks for the info durend, very helpfull!

Bloodlust is also much stronger against objects and many dungeon and world bosses, whereas Perception is stronger if you have to make much use of reflection, since reflected projectiles aren’t affected by your own power but still crit with your crit ratio. However I recommend bloodlust too to be honest

durend.6237:

After the update 0/20/0/30/20 would probably be a better option or 0/25/0/25/20 if you want better stats and less utility.

I would not sacrifice 5 points in inspiration and with it an awesome passive for a crappy passive and a few “better” stats. We are talking about 5% crit damage and 2% crit chance :P