Guild Wars 2

Lockdown Mesmers are still one of the more less-understood build types for a number of reasons. While I admit I don’t play nearly as often as I used to, I still have some time here and there to write up my perspective and experiences as a lockdown Mes and wanted to hopefully help out people who don’t quite understand how lockdown builds & mechanics work. This is the second part of another thread of the same name, which is linked below, so any information that isn’t explained here could be found there.

MAKING PEOPLE HATE YOU ... PART DEUX

1) CC. Soft or Hard? That’s wut she said.
2) Weapons from a Lockdown Perspective
3) The Chain-Daze Method
4) The Interrupt Method

CC. SOFT OR HARD?
If you snickered at the title, you’re officially twelve years old again. CC stands for “Crowd Control” and is a staple component of most MMOs. CC is meant to hinder the opponent’s abilities and make it a challenge for them to function normally, granting an advantage to you and your team and comes in two forms: Hard CC such as pushes (Greatsword 5), Pulls (Focus 4), Reflects (Feedback), and Dazes/Stuns (Pistol 5) as well as Soft CC which comes in the form of conditions such as Blind, Cripple, Chill, Poison, Confusion, Torment, Weakness, Vulnerability … pretty much everything but Bleed and Burn.

Both forms of CC go hand-in-hand for a lockdown Mesmer, and knowing when to use which is very important. Sometimes letting Temporal Curtain linger for a while to inflict cripple or reflect projectiles is more important than activating it’s pull effect. “Clone Death” abilities (Domination V / Chaos V) inflict invaluable Weakness and Cripple in an AoE which could be more meaningful than Daze [F3] shattering them at the time. Some of the best ways to add soft CC into your repertoire is with:

Cripple – Crippling Dissipation (Domination V)
Weakness – Debilitating Dissipation (Chaos V)
Vulnerability – Dazzling (Domination 15)
Chill – Sigils of Hydromancy / Runes of Grenth
Poison – Sigils of Doom

(Note: Sophisticated words like “repertoire” also tend to confound and confuse people. Mesmers should talk with big words. )

WEAPONS FROM A LOCKDOWN PERSPECTIVE

Every Mesmer weapon, even the torch, can work in a lockdown build. While some are more effective than others, knowing the uses for each goes a long way in forming the lockdown Mesmer that fits you. It’s important to look at weapons from a “lockdown” perspective to help form new strategies that you wouldn’t otherwise consider, such as mixing Scepter + Torch with CI and Signet of Midnight for massive blind application. (Following writeup inspired by Jurica )
Sword is pretty important for a lockdown build, not only is iLeap an AoE immobilize but sword allows you a variety of offhands to chose from. Scepter offers a ranged piercing blind and it’s confusion beam works pretty well in both power/condition builds as well as often forcing a dodge. Offhand Sword, Focus, and Pistol all make for good choices, but Greatsword and Staff also provide a hefty amount of control.

• Offhand Sword: Offhand sword works reeallyyy well in a 6/4/4/ lockdown build because it has the shortest cooldown interrupt (that also happens to be a daze that pierces multiple targets, good for stopping stomps/rezzes) and provides excellent damage. iSwordsman demands enemy attention with it’s rapid heavy hits and even when you’re not using the sword daze, the counter hits like a truck. Out of all the offhands, this is my personal favorite both for the aesthetic of wielding two swords like a total and complete boss, and for the high damaging in-your-face fighting style.

• Offhand Pistol: The pistol… I never use it.
  Not because it’s bad or sub-par in any kind of way, but it simply isn’t my preference. The phantasm, iDuelist, may not deal as much damage as the Swordsman due to being much easier to evade but it has the advantage of sitting safely out of range while it unloads shots on an enemy, forcing them to either spend a dodge, reposition, or suffer the consequences. The pistol’s ranged 2s stun is niiice, especially combined with Signet of Domination and/or Sigil of Paralyzation. I’d rate this stun above the offhand sword’s daze because of how it cuts enemy movement and reliably bounces to daze a second target, and blind a third, giving a diminishing form of lockdown for each bounce.

• Offhand Focus: This is what I currently use. The Focus is the best lockdown-focused weapon in my opinion because of Temporal Curtain’s multi-purpose field and Warden’s projectile nullifying. Though it’s currently bugged, it’s still the best aoe-oriented lockdown offhand of the bunch.

• Staff Staff is my favorite weapon for many reasons, but it works well in a lockdown build because of Chaos Storm/Armor. Chaos Storm’s lockdown works defensively and offensively. It punishes anyone standing in the field with debilitating conditions, making it very difficult to do damage but also it dissuades people from ever standing within it’s relatively large AoE, which allows you 6 seconds of area denial. Chaos Armor is worth mention here too because of it’s ability to inflict blind/cripple. Blind in particular is the most important here, and is the reason why BLASTing an Ethereal field for AoE Chaos Armor is so valuable as it really hurts enemy AoEs.

• Greatsword Greatsword offers excellent offensive pressure and a fair bit of control. The offensive pressure is worth noting because that in itself is a form of control; used on an enemy that’s not targetting you, they’re forced to either disengage from their target or soak up a huge amount of damage. Mind Spike, iZerker, and iWave all work as control abilities, spike is an AoE boonstrip while zerker AoE cripples and wave is a push/interrupt. While I personally don’t use Greatsword very often it makes for one of the best ranged options in a lockdown build besides Scepter/Pistol.

THE CHAIN-DAZE METHOD

Mesmer have some of the best chain-dazing potential in the game, capable of leaving a target unable to fight back for over 10 seconds without using Moa Morph. While it’s not hard to learn how to chain dazes one after another, knowing how to effectively daze while still dealing damage can take time and practice.

• Chain dazing is mostly used for incapacitating a single target.
• Never blow all your CC trying to lock down just one person.
• It’s better to begin chain-dazing after you have a phantasm on a target.
• [F3] Diversion can chain daze into itself with proper clone spacing, but should be done only if you have no Phantasms or can summon a Phantasms while the clones run to shatter.
• Superior Runes of the Mesmer work quite well with Confounding Suggestions.

One of the more difficult aspects of chain-dazing is knowing how to do damage while we keep the opponent locked down. A brute warrior with a hammer can mash away on their skills and do considerable damage while keeping an opponent stunlocked, conversely most Mesmer stunlocks do little to no damage at all, which is why auto-attacks, phantasms, and proper shattering all come in to play. Take the following rotations for example (special thanks to Veruah for inspiring me to write these)

(Confounding Suggestions)
Summon Phant > WeaponDaze > Mantra Daze > (Swap/Dodge) > Daze Shatter > Summon Phant + Mantra Daze > Mind Wrack after lulz

This rotation, performed with CS (Domination XII), keeps the opponent incapacitated while you hit them with heavy damage.

Most Lockdown builds that go into CI builds have superior defense, but CS lockdown have better damage and somewhat more reliable control. The CS chain displayed will likely kill or put near death almost any opponent that isn’t a bunker when executed properly. Confounding Suggestions kind of trips over itself by turning stuns into dazes, but a 2s daze in my opinion isn’t as strong as a 1s stun so both effects are welcome. Confounding is considerably more forgiving than Chaotic since it doesn’t rely on interrupts but an opponent can still kite you if they’re lucky. What I like about confounding is how well it synergizes with weapons like Offhand Sword and Pistol. Too many times have I been able to iLeap(2s Immob) >Pistol Phant > MantraDaze(Stun) > Pistol 3s Stun > Sigil of Dom 5s Stun to keep someone locked down for 11 freakin seconds!

So you know, of course.. once in a while I’ll Moa Morph that same person afterwards.

THE INTERRUPT METHOD

Interrupting an opponent can be difficult for a number of reasons: quick cast times, screen clutter in group fights, worrying about survival, cast times on interrupt skills, ect. Luckily you can receive substantial rewards for nailing a single interrupt, and you don’t actually have to aim to interrupt everything your opponent does. While it can be very daunting to learn to use interrupt traits at first, the experienced gained from learning to play an interrupt mesmer will often stick with a player and prove useful for nearly every class and any build. Some things to keep in mind:

• Interrupted skills go on kitten cooldown, which can be affected by Chill or Power Block (Dom XIII). Channeled skills (such as Scepter 3) go on full cooldown when interrupted.
• Halting Strike (Dom II) does damage per interrupt. It can crit and proc sigils like Fire/Air.
• Traiting into Domination grants 3x Vulnerability per interrupt, this stacks with Dazzling (Dom 15) which gives 5x vuln per daze. If I’m not mistaken, the 8x Vuln for interrupting with a daze (and 5x Might gained from Bountiful Interruption) will boost the damage from Halting Strike.
• Each intentional interrupt feels good. So kitten good!

There are a couple ways to predict an interrupt, and a few techniques to help make interrupting easier but none of these techniques can replace tried-and-true experience. The road to mastering lockdown Mesmer can be painful, especially when relying on interrupts, and after a time you’ll simply learn to identify enemy weapons and common rotations and begin to predict their movements. These following strategies should help make the bumpy road a bit smoother.

Reflexive Interrupting
This is the good ol’ interrupting based off quick reflexes and a bit of intuition. Like all interrupts, it helps to be able to put yourself in the opponents’ shoes and “guide” them into playing your game. Stand at a certain distance to force a leap, watch when they get to 50% life to interrupt a heal. Reflexes will take you far, but smart play makes a big difference. As a general rule, ¾ cast time is easy to interrupt, ½ should be standard for a skilled interrupt Mesmer, and less than that would be difficult.

Blind Interrupting
This involves staggering your interrupts. Rather than chaining daze after daze, allow a split second between one interrupt in the next, something I call “Blind Interrupting”. This gives your opponent wiggle room to attempt to use a skill –which is usually what they’ll do after being dazed- only to have whatever they were about to do get stuffed. In my experience, this is one of the best ways to land constant interrupts but you have no way of knowing what exactly it is you’re going to interrupt.

Interrupting Heals
Interrupting heals can be difficult but is extremely important. Besides Poison, a well-timed interrupt of a heal can be life or death for an enemy. This mostly applies to fighting Mesmer, Necro, Elementalists, and Rangers as other classes generally have easier time healing or covering their heals. Always keep in mind when an enemy gets to about half life that they’re bound to heal soon, and always save an interrupt for that occasions (Mantra of Distraction is best). Remember that they’ll heal again after 5 seconds, so either prepare an interrupt or try to burst them down in that time.

Of all weapons, I personally feel the Focus and Offhand Sword offer the best interrupts. The sword’s projectile daze recharges quickly and is pretty reliable while the Focus’s terrain interrupt is instant and AoE.

(Chaotic Interruption)
Mantra Daze > iLeap > Swap+BlurredFrenzy+MindWrack > Dodge + Daze Shatter > Summon Phant > Mantra Daze

In the rotation I mentioned above, the CI chain starts from an interrupt and leave the opponent immobilized throughout the chain, but requires better timing. This chain works well with teamfights since most of the time you’ll be doing that combo on a marked target, keeping them from escaping the rest of your group. CI synergizes well with soft other soft CC abilities like Temporal Curtain, iLeap, Runes of Grenth/Sigils of Hydromancy, and offers more potential AoE control with skills like Temporal Curtain’s pull. I personally think CI to be more profittable for people who have better ability to predict/time interrupts, giving substantial rewards for being able to interrupt atleast once every ten seconds or so.

Also.. CI works really well with Phantasm builds because of it’s ability to immobilize. Stickerhappy’s Phantasmic Interruptions makes really good use of this concept. Staff and Focus phantasms, being so painfully inaccurate, are prime examples of this: A well-timed focus pull into Phantasmal Warden + iLeap/Blurred Frenzy can land almost all 12 of the Warden’s. CI adds atleast 2 conditions onto the opponent per interrupt, boosting iWarlock’s damage by 20% everytime it strikes an interrupted opponent. (Daze Mantra recommended)

I hope this article helps out a bit, the Part 3 will discuss lockdown strategies vs specific builds and classes. A big thanks to all you lockdown Mesmer in the lockdown Mesmer Thread for adding your support and ideas that helped forge this guide!

umm chaos, I am having a big debate on Pistol and Sword OH, As youve said the daze on sowrd 4 is on a lower cd so i can abuse it much more, but at the same time, sword phant only delivers 1 hit, making it easier to dodge.

BUT, If i take 6/2/6/0/0 I would not get sharper images making the Iduelist Xhits useless right? So.. whattya think. Im really torn atm.

iSwordman isn’t neccesary easy to dodge though. People I face usually respond to pistol barrage after taking 2-4 hits, rendering iDuelist less useful than it is expected to be.

I’d go with Swordsman, both because it’s actually more likely to do more damage (attacks more frequently and one big hit is harder to avoid than a flurry of smaller hits) and the sword counter would proc more often, allowing you to interrupt more frequently.

Also, in my experience 6/2/6 was realllyyy difficult and I couldn’t tell if Power Block was actually effective or not. In duels it seemed to be pretty promising, but losing out on DE means losing some shenanigans with [F3]Diversion and [F4]Distortion.. and I don’t like that tradeoff.

BUT! It did work, I just personally didn’t enjoy it much. However I felt the same way about 6/4/4 and 4/4/6 at first until it grew on me.