Guild Wars 2

(Note: This is from a PvP/WvW perspective)

While Mesmer is capable of running a wide range of builds, and many classes can fill many roles, there is no doubt that Mesmer excels at lockdown above all others. For a long time, interrupt and lockdown builds were relatively niche, with Confounding Suggestions vs Chaotic Interruption being the only real distinction between builds. Heart of Thorns changes all of this. The Chronomancer elite specialization is heavily geared towards cc and lockdown, and gives us an insane number of new tools at our disposal. Now that we’re coming up on the third beta weekend event and have had every elite specialization revaled, I feel we have a fairly good idea of how things will look at launch. That said, now would be a good time to take an in-depth look at what all we have available to us.

Traits

Domination
If you’re playing lockdown, you’re running Domination, period. This line revolves around cc and interrupts, and therefore is the one constant in lockdown build. The only real decision to make here is whether you want to run Furious Interruption or Shattered Concentration.

• Illusion of Vulnerability: Mesmers can inflict a ton of nasty conditions with interrupts, starting with vulnerability. As a baseline, this will be universal across all builds. The vulnerability plus the stun from Confounding Suggestions and possibly Chaotic Interruption combo well into a shatter.

• Confounding Suggestions: Once a build-defining trait, Confounding Suggestions is (rather controversially) taken by interrupt and even non-interrupt Mesmers nearly without exception. This takes away some of Chaotic Interruption’s thunder, as you have a way to briefly immobilize targets for shatters even without it. Granted, Chaotic Interruption still makes it easier.

• Dazzling: The majority of our interrupts involve dazes. Expect 8 stacks of vulnerability when you interrupt with anything that doesn’t involve a knockback or stun.

• Furious Interruptions: Alongside Shattered Concentration, this represents the main decision you have to make in the Domination line. Furious Interruptions is the more offensive choice, as you’ll be able to capitalize on the various crippling effects after an interrupt easier, but you’ll have little to no boon stripping without it depending on utility choices.

• Shattered Concentration: If you want to play it safe, take Shattered Concentration. You have limited utility space for boon stripping, and you will need a way to deal with stability.

• Power Block: Good god this trait is cruel. The damage is secondary here, 15 second cooldown on successful interrupts is beyond insane. If you manage to interrupt a heal or another key skill, your opponent is as good as dead.

• Mental Anguish: Power Block is extremely appealing for lockdown builds, but Mental Anguish is worth considering if you’re more interested in raw DPS. We’re good at keeping people from using skills, and you get 30% more damage from shatters when they aren’t using skills.

Dueling
Dueling is a mixed bag. Condition Interrupt is considered a cheese build by some, but if you’re serious about it, you’re doing to need Dueling. The other main draw here is Deceptive Evasion, which serves as one of our main ways to generate illusions. Other than that, there’s not a great deal here for more power-based lockdown Mesmers.

• Duelist’s Dicipline: This is a very powerful trait if you decide to run pistol. 25% cd reduction per interrupt is nothing to sneeze at. With quick reflexes and good timing, you can churn out iDuelists like no tomorrow.

• Deceptive Evasion: The main reason people take this specialization, although all three grandmaster traits are viable for different builds. Even if you plan on playing a cc role, you’re going to need to do some damage, and as Mesmers you do that by shattering. This used to be essential across almost all builds, but the advent of Chronophantasma has made Deceptive Evasion much more optional.

• Harmonious Mantras: A great option for more defense or support oriented lockdown Mesmers. Three reliable dazes and heal rune procs make this a viable option.

• Mistrust: The core of condition interrupt builds. Otherwise, you won’t get a great deal out of this.

Chaos
Although more defensive in nature, Chaos has plenty of goodies for the lockdown Mesmer. Chaotic Interruption remains popular even with Confounding Suggestions and Power Block no longer being mutually exclusive. If you’re using a staff, taking this specialization is highly recommended.

• Master of Manipulation: Mirror is a manipulation, and reduced CDs on heals are always nice.

• Chaotic Dampening: It may not be as potent as it was when the specialization update came out, but reduced cooldown on your staff skills is always useful.

• Chaotic Interruption: The star of the show in this specialization. Two seconds of immobilization is more than enough time to land a shatter. The random boons and conditions are nice, but immobilization is what people want when they take this. With our new options, this trait isn’t as mandatory as it used to be although it remains very potent.

Inspiration
There’s not a great deal here that lockdown Mesmers would want. The main attractions here are the traits that benefit your phantasms, which synergies well with Chronophantasma.

• Mender’s Purity: Condition cleansing is one of the Mesmer’s weaker areas, so every little bit helps.

• Persisting Images: Not a game changer, but beefier phantasms means more DPS. Pretty much the only trait worth considering in this tier.

• Protected Phantasms: When resummoned via Chronophantasma, phantasms are dazed for 1.5 seconds. This trait keeps them safe for 2/3 of that.

Illusions
This line may not look appealing at first glance, but there are some pretty sweet combos you can pull off with other traits and weapons if you’re willing to make the investment, especially the shield and Chronophantasma.

• Persistence of Memory: Echo of Memory allows you to summon two phantasms in quick succession, and Chronophantasma allows you to summon them again after shattering them. That’s 8 seconds of cooldown reduction alone, 12 if you throw in a third phantasm from your other weapon. Add alacrity, and Echo of Memory, a skill that blocks all damage for 3-6 seconds, suddenly has an absurdly low cooldown.

• Illusionist’s Celerity: Continuing off the combo above, Echo of Memory qualifies as an illusion-summoning skill. Let that sink in for a moment.

• Phantasmal Haste: The choice between this and Shattered Strength depends on whether you’re more concerned about damage or control. This is the control option, since it’ll make your iDefenders apply slow more often

• Shattered strength: DPS isn’t everything to us, but we still do a lot of shattering and might is always in demand.

• Ineptitude: Condition interrupt Mesmers will want to pick this up.

• Master of Fragmentation: All of the improved shatters are very beneficial from a lockdown perspective. 10% higher critical chance on F1 means that you can sacrifice some berserker trinkets for valkyrie ones. F2 goes from being borderline useless to a great source of cripple and boon stripping. AoE daze from F3 and reflect from F4 can help you out of a lot of sticky situations

Chronomancer
The newest set of tools in our kit, and among the most potent. Slow looks like it’s replacing torment and somewhat confusion as the Mesmer’s “thing,” and the Chronomancer specialization is where you get it.

• Delayed Reactions: No surprises here, this is the trait of choice for lockdown Mesmers in this tier. The slow on interrupt makes follow-up interrupts much easier to land, keeping your opponent locked down longer.

• Flow of Time: You may as well shave off a hefty chunk of all your cooldowns when you’re planning out your strategies, because you’ll have more alacrity than you’ll know what to do with.

• Danger Time: This could make shatters after interrupts hurt a lot more, although it may be overkill depending on what you’re running.

• Illusionary Reversion: Shatter two illusions, get one free! With Chronophantasma, all you have to do is shatter two phantasms, and you’ll get a free clone when they reappear.

• Time Marches On: About time we got this (no pun intended). Roaming lockdown Mesmers actually get to choose runes now!

• Chronophantasma: This trait is a game changer, especially with how it interacts with Illusionary Reversion. Chronophantasma liberates us from the semi-hard requirement that was Deceptive Evasion. Now, we can keep a healthy supply of illusions and not have to take Dueling.

• Lost Time: It may be tempting to combo this with Danger Time, but the only skill that hits fast enough to maintain a steady supply of slowness is Spatial Surge on the greatsword, and to the point where you hardly use anything else.

Weapons

Main Hand
This choice is pretty black and white. Sword if you’re power-based, scepter if you’re condition-based. Going into detail would be stating the obvious, so I won’t waste your time.

Off-hand
On the other hand, we have a ton of options here, (almost) all of which are viable in some form.

• Pistol: The offhand of choice for a condition interrupt, although it can work on power builds too. Magic Bullet synergies very nicely with Duelist’s Discipline, and iDuelist delivers some of the best DPS out of any phantasm.

• Sword: For a while, sword was a pretty appealing lockdown weapon. However, with competition from the shield, the offhand sword just doesn’t cut it (pun fully intended). The block is rather mediocre compared to Echo of Memory. The phantasm deals some nice damage, but so does iDuelist, which comes with a much more reliable daze. If sword continues to see use, it’ll be in PvE.

• Focus: A rather niche choice, but it works well as a support environment. Everybody appreciates swiftness, and the Temporal Curtain can be shattered for a nice AoE interrupt and some cripple. The iWarden on the other hand will end up being shatter fodder 99% of the time.

• Torch: The one offhand that doesn’t have any sort of daze. Literally the only wrong choice when it comes to offhands.

• Shield: Everything a lockdown Mesmer could want. A wall that destroys projectiles and interrupts, blocks, and phantasms that inflict slow. Unless you want the raw damage from pistol or the support options from the focus, you should most definitely use this.

Two-hand
With our mainhand situation, odds are you’ll be taking one of these. Both offer plenty of options for lockdown.

• Staff: The more defensive option. The autoattack may be a bit soft and the phantasm a bit useless, but Phase Retreat can get you out of danger very quickly and chaos armor/storm can lock down multiple people. Very good for group situations.

• Greatsword: The offense option. Much more single-target oriented than the staff, but the skills hit like a truck. The autoattack is very powerful and incredibly useful when chasing people down. Mind Spike is one of our few boon stripping options. The phantasm hits hard and cripple is great for lockdown.

Slot Skills

Heals

• Ether Feast: If you aren’t running Harmonious Mantras or Chaos, this will likely be your default heal. It doesn’t benefit from any of our traits, but you should be able to generate more than enough illusions to get the most out of it.

• Mantra of Recovery: The worst heal if you aren’t running Harmonious Mantras, the best heal if you are. The cool thing about this skill is that it lets you exploit on-heal runes with 2-3 procs in relatively quick procession.

• Mirror: It may not heal as much as the other skills, but you can get this on very low cooldown with Master of Manipulation

• Signet of the Ether: Not the best healing skill. The passive healing and instant recharge on phantasms is nice, but they’ll be on ridiculously low cooldown already with alacrity and other traits.

Utilities

• Decoy: The illusion is good shatter fodder, and a little stealth is always nice. CD is reduced by Illusionist’s Celerity.

• Mirror Image: If you aren’t running Deceptive Evasion or Chronophantasma, you may want to consider taking this. Breaks stun too, which is always nice.

• Glamours: Grouping all these together since I have the same opinion on all of them: take at least one or two if you’re in PvP or a zerg. If you’re roaming or solo, manipulations generally function better.

• Blink: Excellent for both escaping danger and chasing. A great choice on any build.

• Arcane Thievery: This skill is quite evil. Gives both boon stripping and condition cleansing. Shame it bugs out half the time.

• Mantra of Distraction: A staple skill on any lockdown build. Power Lock is easily your most reliable interrupt. I can’t think of a single lockdown build that doesn’t run this.

• Well of Action: The DPS isn’t be best, but some slow always helps. Generally better in group situations in my opinion.

• Well of Calamity: Our most viable well by far. This works great even in 1 vs 1 situations. Cripple and burst in one makes this very deadly.

• Well of Recall: Another good support well. Gives you a hefty chunk of alacrity and inflicts a pretty long chill when it ends.

Elites

• Mass Invisibility: This was once the go-to elite, but it faces stiff competition from the other elites post-specialization update.

• Signet of Humility: Fully locking down an opponent for 10 seconds may sound tempting, but the massive cooldown detracts greatly from the skill’s viability.

• Time Warp: One of the two real choices for a lockdown elite. The cooldown may be long, but 10 seconds of AoE slow can make all the difference in a clash.

• Well of Gravity: Pulsing interrupts on a 90 second cooldown? Hell yes.

I feel kinda bad about it, but I’m more excited about lockdown/interrupt Daredevil than Mesmer/Chrono in HoT.
Just imagine a Daredevil with S/P, Acro/Trickery/DD. Each interrupt will do about backstabs worth of damage, and they have loads of them.

You look at Domination, you mention power block, but not mental anguish? In terms of raw damage under Lockdown you can pump out an insane shatter burst, and without the need for an interrupt.

If you’re talking pure interrupt, well, you used the wrong term.

Ross Biddle.2367:

You look at Domination, you mention power block, but not mental anguish? In terms of raw damage under Lockdown you can pump out an insane shatter burst, and without the need for an interrupt.

If you’re talking pure interrupt, well, you used the wrong term.

I still think Power Block is the superior trait for lockdown builds, but I’ll mention MA as a DPS-oriented alternative

I’m going to assume this whole post is from a PvP perspective. Unless something is changed about the defiance system in HoT, our many ‘on interrupt’ traits are worthless for the vast majority of the new PvE content.

Mikkel.8427:

I’m going to assume this whole post is from a PvP perspective. Unless something is changed about the defiance system in HoT, our many ‘on interrupt’ traits are worthless for the vast majority of the new PvE content.

PvP and WvW, yes. Lockdown and interrupt are generally mediocre in PvE.

Noss.4105:

I feel kinda bad about it, but I’m more excited about lockdown/interrupt Daredevil than Mesmer/Chrono in HoT.
Just imagine a Daredevil with S/P, Acro/Trickery/DD. Each interrupt will do about backstabs worth of damage, and they have loads of them.

Eh, Chronomancer and Daredevil lockdown are two very different beasts. Chronomancer is all about limiting options and subduing your opponent, while thief focuses more on raw interrupt DPS.

Stormbolt.7293:

Ross Biddle.2367:

You look at Domination, you mention power block, but not mental anguish? In terms of raw damage under Lockdown you can pump out an insane shatter burst, and without the need for an interrupt.

If you’re talking pure interrupt, well, you used the wrong term.

I still think Power Block is the superior trait for lockdown builds, but I’ll mention MA as a DPS-oriented alternative

Maybe I should make the distinction for you.

• Interrupt: Gameplay that involves punishing the enemy by patiently waiting and interrupting core actions (or any actions in sub-optimal play -_-u) to achieve victory.

• Lockdown: Gameplay that involves locking an enemy out of his skills, dodges, actions, and, generally speaking, applying high burst damage to said target. This is achieved by chaining together a series of heavy CC’s, stuns, and imobs while damage is unloaded.

The two are not necessarily mutually exclusive in either build. But of course if you’re currently locking someone down/out of their skills, you can’t also be interrupting them.

You can lock someone down by interrupting them. Like if we had a trait that increased the cooldown on a skill that got interrupted, maybe call it something rhyming with “Mower Mock”.

tobascodagama.2961:

You can lock someone down by interrupting them. Like if we had a trait that increased the cooldown on a skill that got interrupted, maybe call it something rhyming with “Mower Mock”.

Technically you’re locking someone out of a skill, but not locking them down in that instance. Unless you’re broadening the definition of the term, but by doing that you’re making the distinction meaningless.

However, if you’d used CI as an example then yes, you can interrupt someone to impose an imob which is locking someone down, especially if you apply a daze or stronger.

Ross Biddle.2367:

tobascodagama.2961:

You can lock someone down by interrupting them. Like if we had a trait that increased the cooldown on a skill that got interrupted, maybe call it something rhyming with “Mower Mock”.

Technically you’re locking someone out of a skill, but not locking them down in that instance. Unless you’re broadening the definition of the term, but by doing that you’re making the distinction meaningless.

However, if you’d used CI as an example then yes, you can interrupt someone to impose an imob which is locking someone down, especially if you apply a daze or stronger.

I’d say blocking a key skill for 15 seconds can pretty heavily limit their options. Imagine having your Mantra of Distraction locked for 15 seconds. Hell, imagine having a heal locked for 15 seconds when you need it most. Burst and Power Block are hardly mutually exclusive. I’m planning on running this build which includes Illusions for plenty of burst. Mental Anguish is a very potent DPS trait, but you’re sacrificing a pretty nasty interrupt for it. In my case, I’m taking illusions over chaos for the sole purpose of raw DPS, absurdly low cooldown on Echo of Memory and the cripple on F2 shatters/AoE daze on F3 shatters.

Stormbolt.7293:

Ross Biddle.2367:

tobascodagama.2961:

You can lock someone down by interrupting them. Like if we had a trait that increased the cooldown on a skill that got interrupted, maybe call it something rhyming with “Mower Mock”.

Technically you’re locking someone out of a skill, but not locking them down in that instance. Unless you’re broadening the definition of the term, but by doing that you’re making the distinction meaningless.

However, if you’d used CI as an example then yes, you can interrupt someone to impose an imob which is locking someone down, especially if you apply a daze or stronger.

I’d say blocking a key skill for 15 seconds can pretty heavily limit their options. Imagine having your Mantra of Distraction locked for 15 seconds. Hell, imagine having a heal locked for 15 seconds when you need it most. Burst and Power Block are hardly mutually exclusive. I’m planning on running this build which includes Illusions for plenty of burst. Mental Anguish is a very potent DPS trait, but you’re sacrificing a pretty nasty interrupt for it. In my case, I’m taking illusions over chaos for the sole purpose of raw DPS, absurdly low cooldown on Echo of Memory and the cripple on F2 shatters/AoE daze on F3 shatters.

Does it stop them from dodging? No? They’re not locked down.

Mantra of Distraction can’t be interrupted/disabled, except when channeling the recharge. Good luck interrupting any mesmer who knows when to recharge, or how to cover his MoD recharge :p

The application of Mental Anguish’s key feature is easier to apply, since no interrupt is necessary- You just need to land a stun/daze (or idle). Where’as any interrupt traits effect cannot occur without action on the part of the opponent.

It’s often said by pro interrupt mesmers: the best counter to a rupt mes is to not act :)

Can mistrust actually become the core of condirupt build? I mean I’m willing to try it again but from my experience the 2x confusion reward simply isn’t enough compare to DE. That’s why I went with DE in the end (HM for WvW) even when I’m trying condition interrupt build. Multiple interrupt is achieve-able in WvW/PvP situation but the only reliable way to ramp that confusion to significant amount is gravity well against WvW mobs (which will be cleansed by decent group anyway). PvP is less likely to get pass 4 stacks per skill……

Stormbolt.7293:

Noss.4105:

I feel kinda bad about it, but I’m more excited about lockdown/interrupt Daredevil than Mesmer/Chrono in HoT.
Just imagine a Daredevil with S/P, Acro/Trickery/DD. Each interrupt will do about backstabs worth of damage, and they have loads of them.

Eh, Chronomancer and Daredevil lockdown are two very different beasts. Chronomancer is all about limiting options and subduing your opponent, while thief focuses more on raw interrupt DPS.

Dunno why you quoted me, I didn’t claim Chrono and Daredevil are alike.
I’m more interested in Daredevil because it brings so much new to lockdown/interrupt playstyle. It’s a whole different class afterall.
I can’t wait to play Chronomancer, but when it comes to lockdown it doesn’t bring as much new stuff.

Noss.4105:

Stormbolt.7293:

Noss.4105:

I feel kinda bad about it, but I’m more excited about lockdown/interrupt Daredevil than Mesmer/Chrono in HoT.
Just imagine a Daredevil with S/P, Acro/Trickery/DD. Each interrupt will do about backstabs worth of damage, and they have loads of them.

Eh, Chronomancer and Daredevil lockdown are two very different beasts. Chronomancer is all about limiting options and subduing your opponent, while thief focuses more on raw interrupt DPS.

Dunno why you quoted me, I didn’t claim Chrono and Daredevil are alike.
I’m more interested in Daredevil because it brings so much new to lockdown/interrupt playstyle. It’s a whole different class afterall.
I can’t wait to play Chronomancer, but when it comes to lockdown it doesn’t bring as much new stuff.

daredevil can be unique interupt class with almost perma cc a key target. about the dmg i cant satet if its higher like mesmer or lower. i will test it in the next beta

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Can mistrust actually become the core of condirupt build? I mean I’m willing to try it again but from my experience the 2x confusion reward simply isn’t enough compare to DE. That’s why I went with DE in the end (HM for WvW) even when I’m trying condition interrupt build. Multiple interrupt is achieve-able in WvW/PvP situation but the only reliable way to ramp that confusion to significant amount is gravity well against WvW mobs (which will be cleansed by decent group anyway). PvP is less likely to get pass 4 stacks per skill……

Pretty sure this is gonna rock, we’ll see:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Theorycraft-Confusion-Chronomancer