Guild Wars 2

Hello. I apologize for an additional post about builds but I will really appreciate the help.

I was thinking of using 6/0/6/2/0 when facing a boss. I would use Power Block to inflict weakness, decreasing the boss’s damage output, and slowing the boss down when it tries to use skills. I would use restorative mantras occasionally when allies need healing.

The build (without equipment):
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAsaRl0nhG0YRawVNQtGLqGk5JqWMOTCkBYE7E

Also, when we’re facing many melee mobs, I would use 0/0/6/2/6. Master of Fragmentation would allow me to daze and interrupt multiple mobs, thus inflicting conditions, that would help us kite them.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAsaRl0nhG0YRawVNQtGL9GkZAe1COHBo3YIzG

The great sword can be taken out and sword/focus can be added (focus can also pull and interrupt) in certain situations. With this build, there are 6 times when I could interrupt someone per cooldown. Using the sword, I could also have an additional immobilize. What do you think?

I know I am sacrificing some damage, but I would use other more damaging builds and would trait the focus for reflection when necessary. Also, I left out the equipment because I don’t know about the types of equipment that would help me just yet.

Thanks for all the input! I really appreciate it.

Under the new trait system, you can go a full six points into three trait lines (18 total traits vs 14 in the previous system).

Using an interrupt build in PvE isn’t a good idea, especially vs world bosses and in dungeons. I believe the interrupt traits proc but don’t actually interrupt anything unless defiant is gone. That said, there have been prior reports of experiences with the new defiant bar that haven’t been promising, but I’m unsure the current status of that.

For a “meta speedrun” setting this is probably useless, as you’ll want to merely strip Defiant and then cast Deep Freeze as CC. Traiting CI is next to useless as you’ll have ele/phalanx for 25might anyway and the conditions don’t help much (iLeap for immob if you need it)
Power Block, if it even works on bosses, probably also won’t help against their skills as their rotations are slow anyway. Maybe there are a few oversights you can exploit…

For PuG runs, if you’re good at interrupting, it might be better. IF you’re lacking a might stacker CI+boonshare can help against trash, interrupting saves people who can’t dodge, and in zerker gear iDuelist will still hurt. Note the "if"s.

Also, some nasty bosses are completely immune to CC, so playing interrupt is a complete waste.

Now, if you’re skilled at interrupt, keep in mind you’ll have 3+ skills (F3, 2 offhands) to do so in a “meta dps” build too, so make the most of them. You can add daze mantra or the signet if you notice your team keeps getting killed by a specific interruptable attack.

18 points? That’s awesome! Then I can work on multiple mobs and on bosses. That’s cool.

Does the defiance prevent interrupts of skill actions? Defiance would usually be one per person. But if everyone attempts to stun the opponent just once. And we have 6 occasions where we can interrupt, we’d break past the defiance. Or if we could have just 3-5 people in an instance, we can overpower the defiance, temporarily.

Also, we could try to interrupt just for the procs of conditions and boons. Also, to lower the cool down of the bosses’ mobs’ skills.

I appreciate the comments, Skcamow. Please feel free to add more thoughts. Does procing these conditions enough to make a chill-ruption viable?

Edit: I apologize. I am now reading Photoloss’s post.

Current defiant prevents interrupt of a skill unless defiance is depleted. This is being completely overhauled in HoT though, into a new “breakbar”. That is actually what I was referring to regarding the issues I’ve heard.

I wouldn’t focus too much at this point on trying to make a PvE interrupt build work with the current state of things. Who knows, when HoT is released maybe the breakbar will introduce more of a viable interrupt play style against world bosses and the like.

I understand. Thanks for the posts, Skcamow and Photoloss. Skcamow, while you were writing that message, I was thinking of making a full damage and chill-rupt build. (since we have 18 points). It would be 5/3/6/0/4. Unfortunately the points are all over the place. Here, there is no focus on maximizing effects of interrupts—-just damage and chill-ruption. However it may be viable in some cases, I suppose. And Photoloss did mention that the CI would most likely not be useful. I will wait for the expansion and the new break bar.

Martial.4916:

(since we have 18 points). It would be 5/3/6/0/4. Unfortunately the points are all over the place.

I think you missed a very important fact – you are limited into traiting to 3 lines, no more. In fact, you can’t even trait partially in a line and you always have to pick traits for all 3 tiers for those 3 lines.

Something else to note, and not trying to sound negative about it, is that all interrupt focus builds are situational.

It’s not a bad thing to specialize for them but when it comes to pve and dungeons most encounters are very straight forward and don’t require you to specialize in much more than doing damage.

Can you be helpful by interrupting a big attack or something? Yes
Can you be just as helpful by making sure the enemy dies before it attacks? Certainly.

This is less applicable to PvP where situations will vary widely and your interrupts can stop a heal or elite and drastically alter the enemies play style or moral. Npcs just don’t panic like people do.

Thanks for the comment, Frifox, I will keep that in mind.

Thanks for the comment as well, Swish. But along Swish’s comment, do you think a greater variety of builds would be more welcome if Dungeons and Fractals are a little more challenging? Maybe enemies could have more complex AI? I’ve never been in a Dungeon or Fractal yet, but how is the challenge?

The divide between the the best and worst runs is massive. With a bunch of first-timers in a mix of rare and exotic gear (hopefully…), running semi-viable builds either from their open world experience or copy-pasted off metabattle, expect to die around every corner. Trash groups can kill glasscannon characters if they don’t dodge, or the ally they’re relying on for protection messes up. Some bosses really don’t explain their mechanics very well, and the cheap one-shots will make short work of you before you have a decent chance of figuring them out (though usually those cheapshots are their only “mechanic”)

With well-equipped veterans, the kind you expect to get when you post “zerker fullrun” on lfg, you’ll go down once or twice, maybe die once if you like playing a melee ele. Trash groups will be stacked into corners and melt, bosses get danced around and everyone can look after themselves for the most part.

The truly organised speedrun groups, meanwhile, just laugh at the rest. These are the people who truly should care about the “max dps” calculations often discussed in the forums. They optimise around the specific dungeon they’re running, use consumables, know all the borderline-exploit tricks. Expect most bosses to die before they finish their first attack animation if you’re being a viable player in such a group.

Fractals highly depend on the internal level you choose to do, lvl1 is easier than some dungeons once you know the “gimmick” of each fractal, at lvl10 they get a bit harder, then above 30 you’ll probably want trustworthy allies, ideally with voicechat, at least for your first few runs. Higher levels are also gated by your ability to slot Agony Resist, which means a massive gold/material investment into ascended gear.

As for how to improve PvE content, let’s not bother talking about that in the mesmer forum, we have more pressing concerns for Anet to ignore (like those non-functional traits, or the kneejerk nerfs, or the inability to /dance with our clones)