Guild Wars 2

I’m new to the game and struggled to find any builds that were suitable for levelling and running through the story online, or just pre-elite unlock builds in general, so I decided to make my own:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAscRnsIClohFqBmpBMrhlVD6sJJJ6ob5MXvcDjIAA-TJBBABAcKAo4JAUWZAB3fAA

The idea was to try and get as much aoe damage as possible for clearing trash mobs. The swords are for survivability/melee damage, greatsword is for if additional aoes are needed or for attacking from range.

Gear is full berserkers with runes of the traveller for the movement speed buff (because signet of inspiration is annoying). Traits should provide enough surviability for solo play, as well as being smart with riposte and blurred frenzy; shattering illusions will also grant health if needed. Signet of blood is there because it was cheap and I didn;t have a clue what else to put there; same excuse for signets of precision.

The third utility slot is for whatever you want really – I like to have blink on there.

What do you guys think? Am I on the right track?

Most builds will get you through PvE, but that doesn’t mean they are optimal.

You use Signet of Humility as your elite, which is great for breaking a defiance bar but in core Tyria you really don’t see those a whole lot except for group events, and with its 3 minute cooldown I don’t think its useful in a PvE setting at all. I would take either mass invisibility or time warp instead. Mass invincibility will help you run past trash mobs instead of wasting your time fighting them. Time warp, while still on a 3 minute CD, can significantly increase your DPS for 11 seconds (13 when traited) due to its pulsing quickness. IMO time warp is much more useful

For your gear, switching just your trinkets to Assassins gear only lowers your power by a little over 200, but increases your crit chance to 70%, which should yield a net gain of significant DPS. Rune of the traveler is fine if you want to increase your movement speed, otherwise there are better runes out there.

You’re running harmonious mantras trait with only 1 mantra on your bar, which kind of makes it a waste, especially since MoP isn’t that great imo (and last I heard its damage was still bugged, not sure if they patched that or not). Either switch your heal to Mantra of Recovery or drop harmonious mantras in favor of Mistrust.

Personally I would drop harmonious mantras and switch your heal to Ether Feast anyway. Its my favorite heal skill that mesmers have access to, incredibly powerful and on short cooldown. You are already traiting yourself for lots of regeneration anyway, so using Signet of the Ether just for its regeneration capabilities is a bit redundant. Yes, Signet of the Ether does recharge your phantasms, but all on them have less than half the cooldown that the signet does so you won’t even notice that effect. Its just redundancies and a 15 second longer cooldown on your healing skill.

Other than that I would switch Illusionary Inspiration out for Temporal Enchanter trait assuming you are going to be taking Time Warp. Gives you resistance and superspeed (not really important in PvE), but most importantly it extends your glamours by 2 seconds.

For your 3 utility slots, blink is always useful. Phantasmal Disenchanter is pretty much useless in PvE, most mobs don’t give any conditions in central tyria, and of the few that do its a stack or two. Plus you are running Restorative Illusions which gives you 1 condi cleanse with each shatter (1 condi cleansed every 10.25 seconds with MW). That is plenty of condi cleanse for PvE, overkill actually for central tyria. Mirror Images is much better to take, its a stunbreak, and instantly summons 2 clones to set you up for a MW burst to clear out trash mobs. The April patch also reduced its CD to 30 seconds (24 traited. GW2skills hasn’t updated the description yet). For your last utility you can use whatever you want. Keep MoP if you like it (I don’t like it myself), I would suggest using mimic (for double blinks), feedback, or portal though (mostly for JQ and dungeons).

OriOri.8724:

Snip

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAscRl0nhS0YjawMNwsGLrGU5GGRAQ3yZu+ZTSS0B-TJBBABAcKAKrMAFPBAB3fAA

Took Mantra of Recovery. Mantra of Pain is working fine as far as I can tell, does what it says on the tooltip it’s nice to use in between other skills for extra aoe damage.

I’ll definitely use time warp in group stuff, just don’t like abilities with long cooldowns when soloing as I rarely use them. The signet elite is fun to use and the passive is, well, there and not on a cooldown.

Think I’ll switch out the clones depending on where I am, decoy looks like it might be useful if I need to retreat and heal myself. Living world 2 and HoT story has a lot of conditions and that’s what Phantasmal Disenchanter is mainly for.

You can change editor to PvE gamemode so that it includes individual pieces of equipment insted of amulet. Where 2 crossed swords, tower and sword and shield simbols are on right.

The second version looks better. Decoy is a very solid choice for PvE, though you can also consider Feedback when you’re in a zone with lots of projectile-using enemies.

In the traits, you might want to consider Persistence of Memory over Compounding Power. Open world combat is about moving from one brief fight to the next, so you won’t be fighting with three illusions up for very long. PoM gets your phantasms back up for the next fight more quickly. Also, Persisting Images won’t really do anything for you. PvE enemies do 95% reduced damage to illusions these days, so the bonus health is pointless. Retaliation will also be a very negligible source of damage. Might as well get Restorative Mantras for a little bonus healing while you’re spamming Mantra of Pain. Good way to get credit in world events, too.

My guide has been around for four years. It is still up-to-date as far as I remember.

Might help…