I’ve been watching perplexity engineer WvW roaming videos lately. I’ve noticed that even post A15, a large amount of confusion stacks can tick up to 5k damage which is insane to me. Imagine putting like 15 stacks of confusion on a d/d ele that just came out of water attu. Cracks me up.
The idea of a lockdown build is to punish the enemy for doing things as well as make him unable to do anything.
Lockdown builds so far have been mostly power damage, utilizing Halting Strike as well as some other forms of damage (shatters and phantasms) to do that.
I feel like that isn’t enough lockdown.
It does include 4 interrupts /dazes that you can use, possibly more via Chaos Storm and clever clone positioning but the rest isn’t really full of interrupts. The rest is basically a shatter or a phantasm build.
I feel like the best way to make a lockdown build as much about negation and punishment is to make it a condition build. You guessed it – Confusion!
The idea of the build is to apply as much confusion as possible, as well as some other control conditions (chill, weakness, torment ect.) which will help you control your enemy while at the same time making it harder for your enemy to cleanse the confusion.
After like five minutes in a build editor I came up with this
There are some things that I’m not completely sure on.
I will now explain my though process while making the build and hopefully you guys can help me furnish it to make it better.
Weapons
I think need no explanation.
Scepter gives us torment which punishes movement as well as confusion which punishes skill use.
Focus gives us mobility, a interrupt and reflection
Staff is by far one of the best mesmer weapons. Excellent control of the fight, mobility via phase retreat, chaos storm for interrupts as well as conditions, chaos armor for blinds ect.
Utility skills
This will depend on traits and you have some freedom here.
I went for mantra heal to give us more condition removal, justify taking the 3 charge mantra trait which will give us 1 extra daze from mantra of distraction as well.
Mantra of distraction doesn’t need explanation
Decoy could be replaced by phantasmal disenchanter for further condition removal as well as boon removal (I will probably do that, it’s amazing) and blink for escapes/mobility.
Elite you can take pretty much whatever you want, all are good. Moa is more lockdown, time warp would be great for team roaming, as well as mass invis. Mass invis is also excellent for solo roaming.
Traits
I’m trying to see which traits would be better. There are two options here.
The one I posted (4/6/2/2/0) and the standard lockdown one where we would go for CI (4/4/6/0/0)
If you go for the standard lockdown one you will get more condition damage/control (via immo + random condition) as well as staff cooldowns. The one that I posted has more condition removal and one extra interrupt. Pick your poison. In the case you go for standard CI lockdown trait spread, you need to take phantasmal disenchanter as well as replace the heal mantra with ether feast.
Domination – 4
Crippling Dissipation instead of Halting strike since it’s a condition build. You can make it a hybrid by going Carrion instead of Rabid and go the standard lockdown spread + bountiful interruption, I prefer Crippling dissipation which is an amazing trait for controlling the enemy. You can kite people around so easily.
Dueling- 4/6
Far Reaching Manipulations for 1,2k blink range (which is amazing), Deceptive Evasion is a must in all mesmer build, no explanation needed.
If you decide to go with my trait spread, you take Harmonious Mantras as well for the extra charge.
Chaos – 2/6
Depending on which trait spread you choose, you take Debilitating Dissipation, then if you decide to go further Chaotic Dampening (You can go carrion and take Halting Strike in Domination + Bountiful Interruption here) and CI
Inspiration – If you decide to go for my trait spread, you take Menders Purity here for extra condition removal.
Both trait spreads should be good. I haven’t tested them. I think the standard lockdown one may be better.
Gear is Rabid. Condi damage, toughness and precision. The precision will get us up to 36-40% crit chance which should proc every so often giving us an extra bleed. You can go full dire to make yourself a confusion spreading tank.
Perplexity runes for the confusion on interrupt, confusion duration, condition damage.
What do you guys think should/could be improved here? I’m also interested in trait spread ideas. 4/6/2/2/0 vs. 4/4/6/0/0 ?
Have a wonderful rest of the day, happy mesmerizing!
Much love,
Monns