Guild Wars 2

Since the well of precognition discussion seemed to get very heated on the question and since I am very fond of the mesmer bunker playstyle, here is a thread for that.

My current bunker mesmer build is:
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-R3SZ;1ZUF61I7-WV71;9;4TUV;0236156147;4UBo620;0Uwl6Uwl69K

the idea is to buff allies with boons + healing as well as good rezz abilities and debuff the enemies with the interrupt. Its main weakness is as expected the mantra loading. In my (casual PvP-er) experience, it performs very well and I definitely carry my team in team fights. I believe it offers a support which is nearly as good as a bunker guardian and mostly falls shorter in terms of survivability (“altruistic healing” is immense!), but compensates by better debuffing.

It is also clear than chronomancer will offer excellent support and good survivability with wells and shield.

So will bunker mesmer be a thing? Is it already a thing?

Zeromis had made a bunker build in the past with pretty good results. But that wasn’t even with all the upcoming changes. So yeah, Bunker Mesmer is a thing, and it can work but it’s overshadowed by other bunkers.

However..

With Well of Precog (x2 with Continuum Shift / x4 with Mimic & Continuum) and Mantra of Pain/Recovery and Mental Defense in a Chaos/Inspiration/Chrono build we’re on to something.

Especially if you go Bountiful Disillusionment and Chaotic Dampening with staff, now you’ve got an ~75% uptime of Protection along with Blur on precog along with Alacrity shrivelling our cooldowns.. AND considering the changes made to the shield?

Yeah, I’m seeing some major potential here. Lets see…

PERSONAL

• Shield blocks
• Heavy Protection Uptime
• Mantra Heals
• Alacrity

TEAM

• Alacrity
• Slows
• Mantra heals

I’m not seeing Signet of Inspiration being worthwhile here, so I’d likely go

- Well of Renewal / Blink /Well of Precog / Mantra of Pain

- Cleric Amulet

- Runes of Mercy / Altruism / Hoelbrak / Dwayna / Water (idk)

- Inspiration (Persisting Images, Restorative Mantras, Mental Defense) Chaos (Illusionary Defense, Chaotic Dampening, Bountiful Disillusionment) Chrono (Alls Well, Improved Alacrity, Chronophantasma)

;D I think we may have a thing here…

An obvious problem is to see how much we can stuff in there. We have quite a lot of worthy support utilities now… I feel like the utilities you suggest lack condition removal (only 5 conditions removed by the heal on a “burst” every 30s minus alacrity, with a big gap in between). So I think null field is a must, especially since it also offers a potent boon removal. Well of action is also a must (for rez). But then of course we start to be short on utility space… In the last BWE, I just decided to give up on the mantra heal. That means our only outgoing heal is the healing well, and thus I was wondering if going cleric was really worth it (celestial? soldier? or maybe just go offensive?).

So yes, I think there is a strong potential, but not sure yet the best way to achieve it.

I played Chronobunker in the past two BWEs, and it seemed pretty legit.

It was hard to force off point, though I did find myself needing to use Distortion every once in a while (and thus temporarily starting the decap timer). But, more importantly, it could totally shut down enemies who came at you. Between ToT and Chaos Storm, you can easily interrupt stomps and rezzes, on top of easily securing them for yourself via Distortion — or now via Well of Precog.

My personal build went for more of the Boonshare route. Chrono/Chaos/Insp with Illusionary Inspiration and Restorative Illusions. I tried it with both Chronophantasma and Sieze the Moment, but I didn’t think there was a clear winner between the two. But I never really felt that I needed the iDefender, so I definitely prefer Boonsharing via II.

@Chaos Archangel
I realize Mental Defense has good defensive value (the virtues of which I just extolled in the BWE3 thread), but with alacrity you’ve still got Signet of Inspiration procs on at least a 20s cooldown via Illusionary Inspiration. Since you’re running BD anyway, wouldn’t that still be a lot of boonsharing?
I mean, classic boonshare is only doing a share once every 15s on average anyway…

AlphatheWhite.9351:

@Chaos Archangel
I realize Mental Defense has good defensive value (the virtues of which I just extolled in the BWE3 thread), but with alacrity you’ve still got Signet of Inspiration procs on at least a 20s cooldown via Illusionary Inspiration. Since you’re running BD anyway, wouldn’t that still be a lot of boonsharing?
I mean, classic boonshare is only doing a share once every 15s on average anyway…

But using the signet is of much higher value than the automatic proc (except the first one that you can control by just casting the first phantasm at the right moment: I usually start with staff 5, 4, 2 , 3, this way, I share immediately a lot of protection + possible chaos storm interrupt boon-procs since I play an interrupt build). I do think the automatic trait is still valuable, but not half of our usual boon output in a boonshare build.

That’s kind of the beauty of the upcoming Chronomwncer tweaks. We now have enough meaningful support abilities that you can ask the question:

“Are we going for defensive support or offensive support?”

I’m focusing specifically on bunkering here, which is why mantra heals are so crucial. The build I have in mind is pure defensive sustain, and so there’s no real need for boonsharing if it comes at the cost of our defense.

Things to consider when putting together a bunker mesmer are essentially 1) personal sustain/defense and 2) party support.

First and foremost you have to be sustainable, building in defenses to keep yourself alive. Hopefully this can be done in large part as a result of what you choose to do for party support, but it won’t always be the case.

Ok so party support – support in this case is defined as active, meaning something you are doing is going to directly affect an ally. We have many passive support options and those aren’t in scope here (though can be included as incidentals in some builds).

You can actively support via three major categories:

• Traits
  Provide options like medic’s feedback, restorative mantras, bountiful disillusionment, illusionary inspiration, temporal enchanter, alls well, etc.

• Weapons/Utilities
  Weapons: Staff, shield, focus (to a lesser degree – swiftness), torch (iMage bounce, ugh).
  Utilities: disenchanter, defender, null field, feedback, illusion of life, stab mantra, cleanse mantra, well of eternity/action/precog/recall.

• Boonshare
  Take all traits and utilities that support sharing boons. Much has been discussed on that subject in other threads.

There are distinct roles there. You can certainly specialize in one, might be able to squeeze in two but it’s impossible to try to accomplish all three at once.

If you break it down like this, I find it’s easier to try and craft a bunker build that suits the needs of your team and define a more clear role for the build.

So skcamow, what would you consider highest priority for a bunker Mes? I’m thinking…

- mantra heals (restorative mantras, MoPain or Recovery)
- Protection boon (chaotic dampening)
- Blur/Block (sword/shield well of precog)
- condition removal (uh..)

Chaos Archangel.5071:

So skcamow, what would you consider highest priority for a bunker Mes? I’m thinking…

- mantra heals (restorative mantras, MoPain or Recovery)
- Protection boon (chaotic dampening)
- Blur/Block (sword/shield well of precog)
- condition removal (uh..)

Condition removal from self at least is mandatory. You can get it to self thanks to shatters (Restorative Illusions), and AOE thanks to heal (wells + inspiration) and thanks to a dedicated skill (mantra, null field, etc…). In my experience, you need at least 2 of those sources to pretend bunkering, the only thing which works decently on its own is traited mantra of recovery (harmonious + mender’s purity), and yet I still prefer it with the added Restorative Illusions.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

So skcamow, what would you consider highest priority for a bunker Mes? I’m thinking…

- mantra heals (restorative mantras, MoPain or Recovery)
- Protection boon (chaotic dampening)
- Blur/Block (sword/shield well of precog)
- condition removal (uh..)

That’s the trick, choosing the highest priority which will define which direction you build. That question is answered in asking the question of what your team needs.

First priority is your sustainability. For support, if you want to go with utilities, you have the freedom to choose traits which will help sustain you. If you want to go with trait support, you choose utilities which will help sustain you, etc.

Taking the team aspect out for a seconnd – most of the time builds on the forums are intended for more of a soloq audience. In that light, you then have a tall task to try to strike a balance between our various bunker support options, which is what the OP was finding difficult.

I just find it easier to try and focus on one distinct role. For example, you have the boonshare part covered in other threads (not sure you ever went bunker with it, but absolutely could). I think these other two roles (utility and trait support) could be more explored.

IMO, for Mesmer bunker raw healing output and damage soak is not as important as enabling allies to stand on point with you via defensive buffs. Our best healing build is outshined by a Celery Elery anyway, and you’ll probably have one on your team, so we need to hit a different niche.

The reason to bring a Chronobunker to a teamfight, as I see it, is to bring along, in order of importance:

• Alacrity (All’s Well, Well of Recall, iCap)
• Hard control (Gravity Well, ToT, Diversion)
• Boons (Illusionary Inspiration, Bountiful Disillusionment)
• Soft control (Well of Action, Well of Recall, Well of Calamity, iCap, Cry of Frustration)
• Rez/Stomp support (Distortion, Inspiring Distortion, Well of Precognition, Bountiful Disillusionment, Sieze the Moment, Medic’s Feedback)
• Condi Cleanse (Mender’s Purity, Well of Eternity)
• Healing (Well of Eternity, Healing Prism (lol), Illusionary Inspiration, Restorative Mantras?)

On top of which, I really have to say that Restorative Mantras is a totally garbage trait if you’re not using Mantra of Pain. I would never take RM in a bunker build, because there’s no room for Mantra of Pain in a bunker build. I just don’t see the point in a single group heal on a 2.75s channel that you can’t even start until 13s after the last time you needed a self-heal. I’d much rather take Medic’s Feedback, to be totally honest.

One thing worth mentioning.. With alacrity, healing well, and mantra of pain (not even considering quickness) heal spams.. We far outshine nearly every other class in burst heals. F5+ Healing well+ precog+ mantra + F5&repeat is a beefy 10k burst heal every 30 or so seconds, compounded with more mantra heals and well heals inbetween bursts.

Each healing well + mantra heal is 5k, and the healing well recharges every 20s or so while the mantra is constant.

I wouldn’t count restorative mantras out just yet, it adds insane survivability for yourself and a team that doesn’t believe in personal space.