Guild Wars 2

Hi guys, ive been looking around and saw a lot of good interrupt of builds like Chillruption. But i researched about the Halting strike dmg and ive tested it and the damage seems funky. it ranges between 900 – 2.5k at times. So does halting strike really scale with power? or is the trait still buggy?

At the same time, i wanna know what gear to use for a 20/20/30 interrupt build. is it better to have power or condition damage? or maintain power as close to 3k and 1k condition dmg to go hybrid? ive been saving up laurels for the gear and i dont wanna mess up. I have Chaotic Interruption/Bountiful Interruption/Halting Strike as my main interrupt traits. I am now using Staff/Sword+Pistol as my weapons.

Thank you So Much.

Halting strike does technically scale with power, but it scales very oddly. Suffice to say, the damage on it stinks, and it’s a trait that is absolutely never worth taking.

Hmmm. so in short.. an interrupt mesmer isnt viable at this point of time? I played almost all of the blackout/interrupt builds in spvp, its a lot of fun because its not the conventional phantasm/shatter playstyle. So the dmg of halting strike as of now is RNG?

StickerHappy.8052:

Hmmm. so in short.. an interrupt mesmer isnt viable at this point of time? I played almost all of the blackout/interrupt builds in spvp, its a lot of fun because its not the conventional phantasm/shatter playstyle. So the dmg of halting strike as of now is RNG?

Interrupt mesmer can be viable, but halting strike is not a viable method of doing damage.

So which damage should you rely on? Having shatters as your main source of damage, it wouldnt make any difference for a shatter mesmer? Yes it would use interrupts on the side but the main playstyle would still revolve around shattering then? I mean no offense sir.

StickerHappy.8052:

So which damage should you rely on? Having shatters as your main source of damage, it wouldnt make any difference for a shatter mesmer? Yes it would use interrupts on the side but the main playstyle would still revolve around shattering then? I mean no offense sir.

Phantasm. You can easily build around that with immobilize on interrupt. Best thing to get the max dmg out of your phantasm.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Interrupt mesmer can be viable, but halting strike is not a viable method of doing damage.

It certainly isn’t viable as only damage source. However, it is a very nice addition especially if it crits for 2.5k. and is backed up by a flame burst. People usually do not expect this when fighting a Mesmer and it makes bursting down people a lot easier. Of course, this could also be done with a good shatter.

StickerHappy.8052:

Hi guys, ive been looking around and saw a lot of good interrupt of builds like Chillruption. But i researched about the Halting strike dmg and ive tested it and the damage seems funky. it ranges between 900 – 2.5k at times. So does halting strike really scale with power? or is the trait still buggy?

At the same time, i wanna know what gear to use for a 20/20/30 interrupt build. is it better to have power or condition damage? or maintain power as close to 3k and 1k condition dmg to go hybrid? ive been saving up laurels for the gear and i dont wanna mess up. I have Chaotic Interruption/Bountiful Interruption/Halting Strike as my main interrupt traits. I am now using Staff/Sword+Pistol as my weapons.

Thank you So Much.

900-2.5k damage is about right for PvP when running a berserker amulet. You should be able to get better results in WvW because you can get more critical damage. You better not intend to zerg with that set up, though. Too squishy.

Don’t go for power AND condition damage when running your build with Staff/Sword+Pistol. Staff might be an condition weapon at heart but it is a very defensive weapon. The condition damage coming from a Staff is not that strong and neither Sword nor Pistol would benefit. Focus on power, precision (crit chance) and critical damage while maintaining a level of vitality and toughness you feel comfortable with.

Really hard to tell where your damage comes from since you don’t mention the traits. Good damage will come from a iDuelist+Interrupt+Leap+BF combo, though. I personally rarely shatter for damage (Mind Wrack) in PvP.

you can take a look at my thread (link in signature), its a lockdown clonespam build with some explanations

Xaylin.1860:

Don’t go for power AND condition damage when running your build with Staff/Sword+Pistol. Staff might be an condition weapon at heart but it is a very defensive weapon. The condition damage coming from a Staff is not that strong and neither Sword nor Pistol would benefit. Focus on power, precision (crit chance) and critical damage while maintaining a level of vitality and toughness you feel comfortable with.

this simply isn’t true, hybrid works perfect, maybe not for every phantasm build but in general it works.
Especially if you take a look at the weapon skills, most of them favor hybrid dmg (Scepter, Staff, Torch). The Pistol to, magic bullet applies conditions and the channel of the phantasm stacks some nice bleeds if your critchance is good. On top of that can you combo chaosstorm – duelist. Even with fix its strong.

you don’t really get much out of Interrupt skills with a phantasm build imho.

I play a shatter build, but instead of +20% Dmg for Mind Wrack, I use Halting Strike.

Of course, I lose a lot damage on MW, but with Halting Strike, I is possible, to almost devastate Caster-Classes.
I lost 20% dmg on MW, therefore now 3 of my Shatter Skills are able to inflict damage.

How I already mentioned, it felt strongest, used against e.g. GS Mesmers, ELes and it also works surprisingly well against Engeneers.
This doesn’t mean, it is not good against other classes, but versus those 3 I listed up, it somtimes rly did miracles.

Additionaly, it is great in those situation, when it is rly important to excert pressure.
Like when you interrupt a heal, the enemy gets also good damage and when you interrupt people rezzing their mate, those also get good damage.

blutstein.2468:

you can take a look at my thread (link in signature), its a lockdown clonespam build with some explanations

Xaylin.1860:

Don’t go for power AND condition damage when running your build with Staff/Sword+Pistol. Staff might be an condition weapon at heart but it is a very defensive weapon. The condition damage coming from a Staff is not that strong and neither Sword nor Pistol would benefit. Focus on power, precision (crit chance) and critical damage while maintaining a level of vitality and toughness you feel comfortable with.

this simply isn’t true, hybrid works perfect, maybe not for every phantasm build but in general it works.
Especially if you take a look at the weapon skills, most of them favor hybrid dmg (Scepter, Staff, Torch). The Pistol to, magic bullet applies conditions and the channel of the phantasm stacks some nice bleeds if your critchance is good. On top of that can you combo chaosstorm – duelist. Even with fix its strong.

you don’t really get much out of Interrupt skills with a phantasm build imho.

Err… I’m afraid you misread some stuff.

Only BlackDevil mentioned Phantasms. Besides that, we were talking about interrupt builds. We also were discussing a very specific weapon set (Staff / Sword + Pistol). Therefore, you unfortunately took my post out of its context.

Although, going hybrid (power + condition damage) might work for some builds it certainly isn’t favourable for the build above. Staff is improved by adding condition damage, yes. You don’t take the Staff for damage, though. Sword is not improved at all. And neither is Pistol. The conditions on Pistol (Magic Bullet) don’t really deal any damage. The only thing you could go for is condition duration (blind) which doesn’t make a lot of sense. The daze and the stun can’t be improved by a lot since Anet nerfed the sigil of paralyzation.

The iDuellist indeed is a source of conditions (bleeds and conditions when using combos). Since they fixed the combo chance the iDuellist by no means is sufficient as sole condition damage source. You will want perplexity runes and possibly switch out the Sword for a Scepter just like you do in your own build. In the set up above, conditions are more a supplement rather than a main damage source. Therefore, power and precision are way more important.

This discussion actually leads to a core flaw of the Mesmer class. Their conditions. Staff does not scale that well with condition damage. I guess that is okay because it is a defensive weapon. But neither does Torch (Prestige). You will gain the most damage by increasing the condition duration for your burn instead. Test it yourself. Prestige with an additional second burn in a power build will deal the same damage as in a condition build without the additional second. That is one of the main reasons why Mesmers are pretty bad at running condition builds. Their conditions are too short and the applied stacks are very small.

Not saying Mesmers can’t successfully run condition builds. The Scepter actually has been improved a lot and conditions are nice when combined with PU. But in general our conditions are inferior when compared to those of the other classes besides maybe the Guardian.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Halting strike does technically scale with power, but it scales very oddly. Suffice to say, the damage on it stinks, and it’s a trait that is absolutely never worth taking.

I thought this was sarcasm until I looked at your build and saw you had all soldier’s gear.

Xaylin.1860:

blutstein.2468:

you can take a look at my thread (link in signature), its a lockdown clonespam build with some explanations

Xaylin.1860:

Don’t go for power AND condition damage when running your build with Staff/Sword+Pistol. Staff might be an condition weapon at heart but it is a very defensive weapon. The condition damage coming from a Staff is not that strong and neither Sword nor Pistol would benefit. Focus on power, precision (crit chance) and critical damage while maintaining a level of vitality and toughness you feel comfortable with.

this simply isn’t true, hybrid works perfect, maybe not for every phantasm build but in general it works.
Especially if you take a look at the weapon skills, most of them favor hybrid dmg (Scepter, Staff, Torch). The Pistol to, magic bullet applies conditions and the channel of the phantasm stacks some nice bleeds if your critchance is good. On top of that can you combo chaosstorm – duelist. Even with fix its strong.

you don’t really get much out of Interrupt skills with a phantasm build imho.

Err… I’m afraid you misread some stuff.

Only BlackDevil mentioned Phantasms. Besides that, we were talking about interrupt builds. We also were discussing a very specific weapon set (Staff / Sword + Pistol). Therefore, you unfortunately took my post out of its context.

Although, going hybrid (power + condition damage) might work for some builds it certainly isn’t favourable for the build above. Staff is improved by adding condition damage, yes. You don’t take the Staff for damage, though. Sword is not improved at all. And neither is Pistol. The conditions on Pistol (Magic Bullet) don’t really deal any damage. The only thing you could go for is condition duration (blind) which doesn’t make a lot of sense. The daze and the stun can’t be improved by a lot since Anet nerfed the sigil of paralyzation.

The iDuellist indeed is a source of conditions (bleeds and conditions when using combos). Since they fixed the combo chance the iDuellist by no means is sufficient as sole condition damage source. You will want perplexity runes and possibly switch out the Sword for a Scepter just like you do in your own build. In the set up above, conditions are more a supplement rather than a main damage source. Therefore, power and precision are way more important.

This discussion actually leads to a core flaw of the Mesmer class. Their conditions. Staff does not scale that well with condition damage. I guess that is okay because it is a defensive weapon. But neither does Torch (Prestige). You will gain the most damage by increasing the condition duration for your burn instead. Test it yourself. Prestige with an additional second burn in a power build will deal the same damage as in a condition build without the additional second. That is one of the main reasons why Mesmers are pretty bad at running condition builds. Their conditions are too short and the applied stacks are very small.

Not saying Mesmers can’t successfully run condition builds. The Scepter actually has been improved a lot and conditions are nice when combined with PU. But in general our conditions are inferior when compared to those of the other classes besides maybe the Guardian.

So the best rune to use for an interrupt setup is perplexity? Most of its stats give condition damage too. I was wondering should i go for all zerker set for an interrupt build or condition damage and condition duration would be better because i am using chaotic interruption?

Nilgoow.1037:

Pyroatheist.9031:

Halting strike does technically scale with power, but it scales very oddly. Suffice to say, the damage on it stinks, and it’s a trait that is absolutely never worth taking.

I thought this was sarcasm until I looked at your build and saw you had all soldier’s gear.

That build is outdated, it’s source of damage was nerfed into the ground. (it’s still tanky, though)

Also, I really like Halting Strike for interupt builds. On berserkers in Spvp it can crit for about 3k, and on people with toughness still maybe still 2k.

Imo, a much better choice than Mental Torment, because I like keeping phantasms up when playing interupt. I’d definitely take empowered illusions over halting strike, but I go 20 domination so I can take both

The main issue with halting strike is its location. It happens to be in the same trait slot as mental torment and empowered illusions, both of which will provide far more damage than halting strike ever could. If you go 20 into domination, then greatsword training for a phantasm build or shattered concentration for a shatter build are both far better choices.

StickerHappy.8052:

So the best rune to use for an interrupt setup is perplexity? Most of its stats give condition damage too. I was wondering should i go for all zerker set for an interrupt build or condition damage and condition duration would be better because i am using chaotic interruption?

Nope. If you want to use interrupts and condition damage, then perplexity runes are the way to go damagewise because there is no cooldown on the bonus (yet) which applies confusion on interrupt. You could also use perplexity runes in a power build but the additional damage won’t be that great.

If you do not use perplexity runes I personally feel that going for power and precision (berserker supplemented by soldier or knight items) is much better for most – not all – interrupt builds especially when using Halting Strike. You got different rune options for power based interrupt builds. If you got a lot of money, try Traveler Runes. If not, Centaur Runes are cheaper. Lyssa or Hoelbrak Runes are great, too. It comes down to your personal needs.

Chaotic Interruption is nice for either a condition or a power based interrupt build because the applied conditions do not deal any damage. If you want to increase condition duration you will want to aim for 35% (1s more for blinds and cripples) or 50% (1s more for immobilize and chill as well). You already got 20% through going 20 into Domination which unfortunately won’t be enough. You most likely will have to use condition duration food which then adds up to 60%.

In the chillruption build, it’s power focused and I found a nice balance of 30% condition/50% chill duration. Originally I tried much higher condition duration to keep that immobilize/chill/blind/cripple on as long as possible, but found it was sucking the power out of it so I ended up with that which works well. A 20/20/30 spec would be quite different but could net you that much more condition duration from the domination line.

Note there is a fairly new spec I posted in chillruption build thread, 20/0/30/20/0 with Sw/F-GS. With that one, you can simply use 40% condition duration food and get a nice boost while still maintaining decent power:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-ChillRuption/first#post2374546

Pyroatheist.9031:

The main issue with halting strike is its location. It happens to be in the same trait slot as mental torment and empowered illusions, both of which will provide far more damage than halting strike ever could. If you go 20 into domination, then greatsword training for a phantasm build or shattered concentration for a shatter build are both far better choices.

Mental Torment and Empowered Illusions are both good traits, but saying that Halting Strike is never worth taking is a bit over the top. Being able to tack on 4k+ damage to multiple interrupts may or may not be more damage than what you’d get from buffing Mind Wrack, but in some situations it’s far more useful. If you’re running a phantasm build, then yeah it’s a no-brainer, but the trait itself is hardly bad.

Very nice suggestions sirs.. I think Imma go power build. You know what? the confounding suggestions trait seems really tempting if we only had 10 more skill points

Halting Strike is bad. It can crit for 4k + vs Glass, 3k+ vs Hybrid and 2,5k ++ vs Tank. It will make ur enemy become bad for every interrupt u make. When they’re reviving their teammates then u use halting strike with GS#5 it will make them look bad coz instant 4k damage. More bad if they all are downed coz of ur halting Strike.

Just kidding. It’s good trait but need Pilot Skill to master it.

I often take halting strike instead of MW damage when running 20/20/0/0/30 shatter. It scales kinda oddly, I think it depends on what skill you interrupt. Sometimes it hits for under 1k when you interrupt autoattack, and sometimes upwards 2-3k when interrupting a heal.
I usually set up my burst with F3 to strip boons, stack up vulnerability and Halting Strike adds a bit of extra pressure. When fighting against many, chaos storm does pretty nasty damage too.

IMO it’s a solid trait and I definitely disagree with Pyro’s “it’s never worth taking”.

Noss.4105:

I often take halting strike instead of MW damage when running 20/20/0/0/30 shatter. It scales kinda oddly, I think it depends on what skill you interrupt. Sometimes it hits for under 1k when you interrupt autoattack, and sometimes upwards 2-3k when interrupting a heal.
I usually set up my burst with F3 to strip boons, stack up vulnerability and Halting Strike adds a bit of extra pressure. When fighting against many, chaos storm does pretty nasty damage too.

IMO it’s a solid trait and I definitely disagree with Pyro’s “it’s never worth taking”.

Mhm. IMO not taking Mental Torment just… doesn’t make sense for a shatter build with domination :/

The only real interupts you have are Diversion (30 cooldown) and Chaos Storm (35 cooldown), and maybe a pistol or sword. Mental Torment just seems like an obvious choice to me :P.

I also definitely disagree with the “its never worth taking” statement, but maybe it was just a poorly worded oppinion/statement in the wrong context.

The problem with Halting Strike isn’t the scaling. I found it to be 1.25x power scaling, which isn’t great for something that pops this erratically, but sits firmly in the “okay” camp. The problem is that if your interrupt isn’t being caused by a weapon (ie: chaos storm or counter blade) then the weapon portion of the damage comes from an internally generated number, which comes out to be much weaker than your equipped weapon.

Just did a little digging in the wiki.

Damage done = (Weapon Strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Weapon Strength: a uniformly distributed random number taken from the range of weapon strength of the equipped weapon. The weapon strength used for a skill will typically be that of the weapon associated with that skill; utility and elite skills are typically not affected by weapon strength and use a range based on the player’s level.

So when calculating Halting Strike damage. If the interrupt was from a Diversion or from a utility skill(i.e. MoD ), then the “Weapon Strength” portion of that calculation is based on player level? Is that correct? Is that why its damage varies so much?

So I do more damge if I get lucky with a GS, Focus, Pistol, OH Sword or Staff, than if I “skillfully timed” a Power Lock? If that’s the case, that sucks.

Alissah.9281:

Noss.4105:

I often take halting strike instead of MW damage when running 20/20/0/0/30 shatter. It scales kinda oddly, I think it depends on what skill you interrupt. Sometimes it hits for under 1k when you interrupt autoattack, and sometimes upwards 2-3k when interrupting a heal.
I usually set up my burst with F3 to strip boons, stack up vulnerability and Halting Strike adds a bit of extra pressure. When fighting against many, chaos storm does pretty nasty damage too.

IMO it’s a solid trait and I definitely disagree with Pyro’s “it’s never worth taking”.

Mhm. IMO not taking Mental Torment just… doesn’t make sense for a shatter build with domination :/

The only real interupts you have are Diversion (30 cooldown) and Chaos Storm (35 cooldown), and maybe a pistol or sword. Mental Torment just seems like an obvious choice to me :P.

I also definitely disagree with the “its never worth taking” statement, but maybe it was just a poorly worded oppinion/statement in the wrong context.

Mental Torment is “safer” choice in many cases. There are fights where you will do more damage with Halting Strike, and some where with Mental Torment.
I don’t take HS because it’s necessarily better overall, but it spices up things a bit. Also nowdays it’s a lot harder to land full Mind Wracks against good players because lots of people know how to avoid it.
But that’s just my opinion and my playstyle probably differs a lot from others.

And don’t forget OH sword has a daze with 12 sec cooldown.

Alissah.9281:

Mhm. IMO not taking Mental Torment just… doesn’t make sense for a shatter build with domination :/

The only real interupts you have are Diversion (30 cooldown) and Chaos Storm (35 cooldown), and maybe a pistol or sword. Mental Torment just seems like an obvious choice to me :P.

Hmmm… I didn’t crunch the numbers but wouldn’t it depend on wether you take Illusionary Persona or Imbued Diversion? I could imagine Halting Strike making sense for a shatter interrupt build (e.g. also using additional dazes from Staff or Sword etc.) which uses Imbued Diversion.

SlimChance.6593:

Just did a little digging in the wiki.

Damage done = (Weapon Strength) * Power * (skill-specific coefficient) / (target’s Armor)

Weapon Strength: a uniformly distributed random number taken from the range of weapon strength of the equipped weapon. The weapon strength used for a skill will typically be that of the weapon associated with that skill; utility and elite skills are typically not affected by weapon strength and use a range based on the player’s level.

…snip…

So I do more damge if I get lucky with a GS, Focus, Pistol, OH Sword or Staff, than if I “skillfully timed” a Power Lock? If that’s the case, that sucks.

That indeed would be aweful. But it could be true. Just think about Engineers’ kits…

Just a side note on the interrupts: Successfully landing an interrupt with Counter Blade (OH Sword) actually is one of the hardest ways for a Mesmer to interrupt while utilizing Power Lock followed by Magic Bullet are the easiest to land.

Clockwork Bard.3105:

The problem is that if your interrupt isn’t being caused by a weapon (ie: chaos storm or counter blade) then the weapon portion of the damage comes from an internally generated number, which comes out to be much weaker than your equipped weapon.

Whoaa this is new stuff for me. Thx for sharing. No wonder i rarely see above 3k Halting Strike Crit damage with my F3.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Halting strike does technically scale with power, but it scales very oddly. Suffice to say, the damage on it stinks, and it’s a trait that is absolutely never worth taking.

I’m all for saying Halting Strike sucks if it gets the damage buffed (or turned into a much-needed AoE) but I wouldn’t be able to honestly agree…

Like you said, Halting Strike’s only real drawback is that it has to compete versus Mental Torment and Empowered Illusions, but like those traits Halting is build-specific.
If you’re running a shatter heavy build or Phantasm-heavy build then Mental/Empowered are obviously the better choices, but there is some wiggle-room inbetween those two playstyles where Halting Strike can shine.

Now I’m not great at number crunching, but if you’re not running a shatter-heavy or phantasm-heavy spec and have Mantra of Distraction and/or offhand sword, I’ve found that the damage for Halting Strike can be comparable to the other two traits if you can land atleast 2 interrupts within around 15-20 seconds (about 4k damage in a full-zerk build.).

Alone, I wouldn’t be sure if this was enough damage, but consider the fact that you STILL have MindWrack/Cry of Frustration for additional damage and can still summon phantasms after your shatters are blown. The reason I like Halting Strike is because it gives another extra source of damage beyond shatters, weapon skills, and Phantasms.

Clockwork Bard.3105:

The problem with Halting Strike isn’t the scaling. I found it to be 1.25x power scaling, which isn’t great for something that pops this erratically, but sits firmly in the “okay” camp. The problem is that if your interrupt isn’t being caused by a weapon (ie: chaos storm or counter blade) then the weapon portion of the damage comes from an internally generated number, which comes out to be much weaker than your equipped weapon.

Holy smokes that’s good to know.

So there’s a good bit of misinformation floating around here regarding damage.

Halting strike has a set damage calculation. It ignores your weapon strength, and simply uses an internal modifier. This does not change ever. The method of getting the interrupt has no effect on the actual damage. This is true whether the interrupt was from chaos storm or from the mantra.

That mechanic is why the damage on it is so low, and so unrewarding in an offensive build.

Pyroatheist.9031:

So there’s a good bit of misinformation floating around here regarding damage.

Halting strike has a set damage calculation. It ignores your weapon strength, and simply uses an internal modifier. This does not change ever. The method of getting the interrupt has no effect on the actual damage. This is true whether the interrupt was from chaos storm or from the mantra.

That mechanic is why the damage on it is so low, and so unrewarding in an offensive build.

I tested this repeatedly in the mists back in August and posted my results. When using a steady sword, counter blade consistently produces steady damage, while F3 and utilities do not. It’s how I came to the 1.25x power scaling conclusion that I posted here before as well as the wiki talk page.

Pyroatheist.9031:

So there’s a good bit of misinformation floating around here regarding damage.

Halting strike has a set damage calculation. It ignores your weapon strength, and simply uses an internal modifier. This does not change ever. The method of getting the interrupt has no effect on the actual damage. This is true whether the interrupt was from chaos storm or from the mantra.

That mechanic is why the damage on it is so low, and so unrewarding in an offensive build.

Then it would make sense to use full condition gear? The halting strike damage will just be considered as an extra one tick condition because the damage is “low” (low = insert number here) instead of using it as an ideal considerable source of damage?

i wanted to pick halting strike because it would synergize better to a mainly (not pure) interrupt build. so just wanted to know some clarifications. Some skill scalings in game are too odd just to figure it out instinctively. hmmpf. Anet.

StickerHappy.8052:

Pyroatheist.9031:

So there’s a good bit of misinformation floating around here regarding damage.

Halting strike has a set damage calculation. It ignores your weapon strength, and simply uses an internal modifier. This does not change ever. The method of getting the interrupt has no effect on the actual damage. This is true whether the interrupt was from chaos storm or from the mantra.

That mechanic is why the damage on it is so low, and so unrewarding in an offensive build.

Then it would make sense to use full condition gear? The halting strike damage will just be considered as an extra one tick condition because the damage is “low” (low = insert number here) instead of using it as an ideal considerable source of damage?

i wanted to pick halting strike because it would synergize better to a mainly (not pure) interrupt build. so just wanted to know some clarifications. Some skill scalings in game are too odd just to figure it out instinctively. hmmpf. Anet.

Well, using full condition gear will be an entirely different sort of build. That’s a choice that you have to make, whether you want to go for condition based damage or power based damage, but in neither build is halting strike generally optimal.

In condition gear though, it will do extremely low damage, since it DOES scale off of power.