Guild Wars 2

I assume Mesmer is the best way to go about this(if not point me in the direction i should look). I’m thinking about using the Shattercat build listed in this forum for PvE, since I imagine confusion builds aren’t good in PvE(then again, maybe they are since they can attack the illusions).

I’m not really sure how to approach it. I am very new to this class, but a full blast Confusion build seems very fun to me. Can this be viable in WvW?

I’m looking for help with the gear as well as the traits/utilities/etc. So any thoughts, comments, discussions, or whatever else would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcmMmc0zMMwrCmMwTCmx9MaxmsRMVsa

This is probably way too focused and easily shut down against smart players, so any suggestions on better builds is great.

What kind of gear should I be looking for this guy? Should it be more tanky Toughness/Vitality/Precision and focus crits or should it be more Toughness/Vitality/Power to pump out better raw damage?

I’m not familiar with which is better for condition builds. . .or if I should even be focusing so much in Toughness/Vitality. I assume so since it’s a confusion build(I should be able to take some hits right?). . .and I’m sure I could get by without as much vitality as long as I have uber twitch skills. But I am new to the game.

I’ve been playing a confusion build in wvw lately and love it. I’ll send you some links and info when I get home from work, hard to do anything on a phone lol

that would work. I would drop Phant Haste and pick up IP

Best confusion burst is a is a CoF / MW shatter with 3 clones + IP

Glamor confusion builds work well in standoffs + seige. 30 points in Dom opens a lot of possibilities.

Most people are not going to like this without Deceptive evasion but it is not required IMO

Carrion gear + condition duration food would help get confusion to 5 sec on this build.

Kazhiel.8194:

I’ve been playing a confusion build in wvw lately and love it. I’ll send you some links and info when I get home from work, hard to do anything on a phone lol

If you wouldn’t mind posting the links here, that would be great. I am in the process of slowly building my confusion gear set. Currently have three Khilbron’s (Rabid) pieces and a Rampager’s ring.

Yeah I’ll be posting them here

Oh, you don’t need all khilbron. You can get some of the pieces with same stats from karma merchant in cursed shore. That should save you some monies.

Yeah was hoping to hit 1m Karma in case I want to make a legendary.

Oh Hai, you’re on Yak’s Bend as well!

:)

quercus.9261:

that would work. I would drop Phant Haste and pick up IP

Best confusion burst is a is a CoF / MW shatter with 3 clones + IP

Glamor confusion builds work well in standoffs + seige. 30 points in Dom opens a lot of possibilities.

Most people are not going to like this without Deceptive evasion but it is not required IMO

Carrion gear + condition duration food would help get confusion to 5 sec on this build.

you need deceptive evasion for a good confusion build. considering each illusion shattered applies 1 confusion stack, the more clone generation you have, the higher you can stack your confusions.

Hi! I’ve seen you around wvw
I’m not particularly worried about making a legendary, I’m ok with not having shiny stuff when I can have other stuff with same stats. It’s a lot of effort just for some graphics effects IMO. Also karma is easy to get lol

Wads there are other ways to create confusion besides shatters. Deceptive evasion is great but not at all needed for this build. It was hard for me to get used to not having it, it’s a different play style, but I’m cool with it now.

yeah there are other ways, but none of them are as efficient kittenters. with IP, you get 4 stacks of confusion every 10 seconds just by itself with minimal setup. or 8 stacks every 30 seconds. what other mechanic in the game lets you have such consistent confusion?

scepter comes close, but you’re kicking yourself if you don’t use both if you’re looking for a full on confusion build.

Check out this guy’s build: http://youtube.com/user/kyliad

@Fourtwenty, I experementing with a “shatter cat” condition build, this is the build im trying out atm. I added wvwvw and pve jewels to reflect the stats Im looking after. As you see its more defensive than the burst builds still have high clone regeneration and will be able to get shatters ongoing most of the time.

Also wery high crit chanse to maximice bleeds from sword and clones/phantasms.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAW8alwzaqHTTrGbNJipC9GqHYH49dkKAblUwbXIA;T8AAzyqEUJpSVliKqiMFJKyWkrIZRrKGfsLA

Its still a experement thu

/Osicat

Just a couple things I did in mine.

2 pieces Lyssa 10% Cond Duartion, 4 pieces Nightmare 10% Cond Duration, the rare pizza 40% Cond Duration, and I think power gives Duration as well. I went 20 there to get the glamour causes Confusion. In Illusions line you can get 33% Confusion duration and I think I went with confusion on blind. I used the scepter/torch and sword/focus or pistol to maximize this. (scepter 2). All in all iirc it was 20/0/15/15/20. Now with the loss of Illusory membrane, I don’t think my way would work.

My personal preference was to go as tanky as possible with the confusion build. As I see it you want to keep applying and survive while your opponent kills themself/selves. It used to be portal was considered a glamour field and as such could trigger all the benefits. And again your results will depend on your opponent. My best fight using this was at a supply camp 1v7, at a Sentry guard 1v5, and in open field 1v3. However being surprised by a thief I was dead in 2 hits.

Is Cond. Duration required for a Condition build or can one go just raw Cond. Damage (Runes of the Undead)?

Confusion stacks on intensity, I don’t think duration is as useful as damage, you only need enough duration to keep it up majority of the time.

In other words, if they kill them self really fast you don’t have to keep it up very long lol

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzaqHTzoGb9IiJFBHyh6x1ldfXJF22FC;TwAAzCpoay0koJbTumkNtWYsw+j5HA
(copy paste, otherwise bad link)

build intention: high survivability, high sustained cond damage, high burst condition damage
sustained damage with staff bleeds/burns,
burst damage with confusion (scepter, torch, shatters)

have used this for the last weeks and I’m feeling a little bit overpowered in small skirmishes from 1vs3 to 5vs15. especially with the recent “shattered strentgh” buff.

stats with exotic gear (excluding rings and accessories) is about 2800 armor, 45%crit, 2000 cond damage (with 25 stack sigil, without might stacks), 16k hp.

-you are very hard to take down (high armor, 1200 blink, low cd phase retreat, chaos armor, storm, 3 stealths………)
-deal very good sustained cond damage and insane confusion burst damage (3k-8k confusion ticks).
-you can take fortified camps solo, can roam behind enemy line (a lot of stealth)

I don’t want to sound conceited but I can’t remember being stomped or downed in a 1vs1. And you can bring pain in group fights. People tend to ignore conditions when they feel safe, for example in a 2vs6 situation. And suddenly half their team is gone because they hit themselves with 5k confusions :P

hf

grimmson.9154:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzaqHTzoGb9IiJFBHyh6x1ldfXJF22FC;TwAAzCpoay0koJbTumkNtWYsw+j5HA
(copy paste, otherwise bad link)

build intention: high survivability, high sustained cond damage, high burst condition damage
sustained damage with staff bleeds/burns,
burst damage with confusion (scepter, torch, shatters)

have used this for the last weeks and I’m feeling a little bit overpowered in small skirmishes from 1vs3 to 5vs15. especially with the recent “shattered strentgh” buff.

stats with exotic gear (excluding rings and accessories) is about 2800 armor, 45%crit, 2000 cond damage (with 25 stack sigil, without might stacks), 16k hp.

-you are very hard to take down (high armor, 1200 blink, low cd phase retreat, chaos armor, storm, 3 stealths………)
-deal very good sustained cond damage and insane confusion burst damage (3k-8k confusion ticks).
-you can take fortified camps solo, can roam behind enemy line (a lot of stealth)

I don’t want to sound conceited but I can’t remember being stomped or downed in a 1vs1. And you can bring pain in group fights. People tend to ignore conditions when they feel safe, for example in a 2vs6 situation. And suddenly half their team is gone because they hit themselves with 5k confusions :P

hf

Nice! What gear/weapons/jewelery did you choose?

Xavi.6591:

Nice! What gear/weapons/jewelery did you choose?

I use a mix of Khilbron armor and karma armor from orr. All exotic with Condition damage as priority and precision+toughness as secondary.
fang of colossos amulet, rare rabid rings and accessories. (exotic rings are like 50 gold and accessory ~12 )
weapons exotic cond damage, precision, toughness

rune of the undead*6, sigil of corruption*2, sigil of energy, trinkets=crest of the rabid

ah don’t forget pizza food and tuning crystals, greatly improving your condition damage

grimmson.9154:

ah don’t forget pizza food and tuning crystals, greatly improving your condition damage

Can you elaborate a bit on the pizza food and the tuning crystals? Running a shatter build at the moment, but want to try my hand a bit at confusion builds and just seeking to maximise the condition damage. :-)

Also, exactly which weapons are you using?

can’t you use google? =)

pizza: http://www.gw2db.com/recipes/9174-rare-veggie-pizza-s

tuning crystal: http://www.gw2db.com/items/20212-master-tuning-crystal-s

as I said, both increase your damage.

No need for condition removal?

grimmson.9154:

can’t you use google? =)

pizza: http://www.gw2db.com/recipes/9174-rare-veggie-pizza-s

tuning crystal: http://www.gw2db.com/items/20212-master-tuning-crystal-s

as I said, both increase your damage.

Thanks! Been a great help!

stealth helps against conditions. it helps preventig to be hit by conditions
and if I have stacks of conditions I pop some clones, use a stealth ability and wait till conditions are over/heal is ready.

@grimmson:
Very nice. I run a very similar build but use a sword (w/ trait) instead of a scepter and go 20/20/0/0/30 for more invis time and a bit harder hitting MW/BF combo. Less condition burst but more direct burst.

I was seriously considering a spread closer to yours but with dwayna runes to test whether I get more survival out of the extra toughness, protection, and staff CD versus the invis, cond removal, and BF. Too bad membrane got nerfed otherwise it would have been a lock, but I’m trying to find a way to work PU into it now with the recent buff. Maybe 0/10/30/0/30? No DE though; not sure I can live without that.

@gaiawolf
PU is quite a nice trait and perhaps there is a very good build complimenting it but I can’t live without Illusionary Persona and Deceptive Evasion.
IP because a daze and invulnerability on demand is just too good. The whole illusion line is very awesome with condition builds so I think 30 points there is the way to go.
And DE is the best shatter fuel mechanic the mesmer has, and clones are awesome for defence, offence everthing. So more clones = good. and bleed on clone crit? very good
that leaves me with 20 points.
inspiration? I like toughness more then vit and the traits don’t fit well.
domination? some really good traits like boon removal on shatter. and 20% longer condition duration is great, too. but…
chaos? more toughness yeah! more boon duration! very nice minor traits and perfect fitting major traits. a low cd phase retreat is almost as important to me than IP or DE :\

going for PU means less clones and less bleeding; so less damage and less defence.
5% toughness into cond damage and longer stealth/defence boon does not make up for it imo.

ahww enough theory for today. cu ingame^^

Yeah, I think I’m with you on PU. It’s sooo tempting, but I don’t think I can give up DE or IP either. Losing crit bleeds are a major DPS loss, too.

I’ll just try 20 chaos vs 20 dom to see what works best. Currently I run Centaur runes, so the cripple in dom also helps me control position to stay alive. Giving swiftness to clones for shatters is nice too. I also like the ability to switch into a glamour build on the fly when I run into a zerg, but that 20% redux for staff is very tempting. I’ll let you know how it works out.

This guy is working on a build with PU: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/New-Prismatic-Understanding-great/first#post1026856

When I first dropped DE out of my build I couldn’t hardly stand it but I got used to it and worked around having less clone generating possibilities.

I just wanted to pop in and thank everyone who has contributed to the discussion. I’m soaking up all the information and reviewing the listed builds and seeing which one I want to try to build and and test first.

This is the type of theory-crafting/discussion about builds that keeps me playing MMOs.

Thanks again everyone!

which karma merchant in cursed shore gives the exotic? I’m only aware of the greens and blues

The ones at grenth, arah, and uh that other place in the north part of the map

Great thread and good tips here.

+1 to FourTwenty to for making this thread

This is my hybrid build i use.
It is still a work in progress though, still havent got exotics and the right stats to make my build complete.

The traits and skills are in the link.
The stats would end up at about
1500 power
1900 prec
1600 toughness
1050 vit
950 cond damage
+60% condition duration
50% critical change

using shaperning stones and veggie pizza as consumable buffs.
It is a very versatile build, i’m doing great in wvw even with the weaker version of this build atm, been using it for about 3 weeks now.
some traits i do switch around a lot.

like the first trait on domination, clones cripple, or +15% illusion damage, or +20% mind wack damage, its only 10 points spent for a lot of versatility.
Switch some traits around and you got a great pve kite/condition/shatter build.

Defending a tower or keep in wvw? get descent into madness, and the 2 traits in the illusion line to buff your glamour fields, throw down glamour fields as aoe attack.
And jump down infront of the gate, instant chaos storm, do blurred frenzy mirror image shatter and dodge or blink back to safety to the door.

And at meta events to face champions or bosses, select the traits that boost your phantasms, 15% illision damage, fury, 20% recharge, 3%damage/illusion (dont know if this also boosts the phantasm damage).

Anyway, id love to see how a good pvp/wvw player would do with this build.
Im just an average joe that doesnt even use hotkeys for skills and i still cause a lot of mayhem wherever i walk :p

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAW8alwzipXVzpGbNJipCBHqHXX29dkKUalUYbXIA;TYAqiMFJKyWkrIZRA

Has anyone found a good torch with Condition Damage, Toughness and – ideally – Precision on it? Should have an upgrade slot obviously. Struggling to find one anywhere.

you can search the tp with filters………. you should be able to find an exotic torch with cond damage, prec, toughness, I’m sure.

I have been having good results with this build in WvW:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAW8alwzaqXUTsGb9IhpH9G5AH1jrn9vTqAsB

I have been running full power/tough/vit gear and weapons, fire runes for might duration, might sigils on weapon swap, carrion jewelry. Typically I will have 12-15 stacks of might for most of the fight. 1000 cond damage pre-might, 1600 with might stacks up, 2000 power pre-might.

Veggie pizza, tuning crystals (tough → cond damage) are a must. First burst puts 10 stacks of confusion on the other guy and 12 stacks of might on me. It has been working well against just about everyone EXCEPT GC/GS burst mesmers (lol). For them I just stealth away.

This might be the most survivable mesmer build I have played with. Problems are condition removal and this build has no speed.

grimmson.9154:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzaqHTzoGb9IiJFBHyh6x1ldfXJF22FC;TwAAzCpoay0koJbTumkNtWYsw+j5HA
(copy paste, otherwise bad link)

build intention: high survivability, high sustained cond damage, high burst condition damage
sustained damage with staff bleeds/burns,
burst damage with confusion (scepter, torch, shatters)

have used this for the last weeks and I’m feeling a little bit overpowered in small skirmishes from 1vs3 to 5vs15. especially with the recent “shattered strentgh” buff.

stats with exotic gear (excluding rings and accessories) is about 2800 armor, 45%crit, 2000 cond damage (with 25 stack sigil, without might stacks), 16k hp.

-you are very hard to take down (high armor, 1200 blink, low cd phase retreat, chaos armor, storm, 3 stealths………)
-deal very good sustained cond damage and insane confusion burst damage (3k-8k confusion ticks).
-you can take fortified camps solo, can roam behind enemy line (a lot of stealth)

I don’t want to sound conceited but I can’t remember being stomped or downed in a 1vs1. And you can bring pain in group fights. People tend to ignore conditions when they feel safe, for example in a 2vs6 situation. And suddenly half their team is gone because they hit themselves with 5k confusions :P

hf

I just wanted to follow up on this post. I tried the build as I’ve been doin a lot of solo roaming and I like it a lot better than the shattercat.

Things I like
-With shattercat I haven’t won any 2v1 but with this I’ve been able to do 2v1 (even a couple 3v1 against some under level’ed folk).
-Hundred blades warriors just sort of go “poof”.
-I generally have felt favoured against other mesmers, even shatter ones.
-Yay toughness, I find I end the fight with more hit points than usual

Some criticism
-Being a condition build, it is terrible against siege weapons. Boo.
-I can’t seem to win against condition thieves (regular thieves are no problem) – the sort of pistol thief that pops in and out of stealth. While they’re stealthed, the confusion does nothing and with only 1 AoE and no melee attack, you can’t do anything against them while they’re stealthed. Also all your auto-attacks are incredibly slow. I’m 0-3 against these guys (even when one started the fight with 10% health) and can’t think of anything. Maybe arcane thievery but since I never need that against anyone else I never have it
-Confusion.. is an interesting condition. It requires them to do things, so if someone is backing off after they get a bunch of confusion, the confusion is wasted. It’s useless against dolyaks or people who are just running away.
-With no air/centaur runes, prepare to just let some folk get away and if someone is determined to catch you and there’s no where to hide with your invisibility then they’re going to catch you
-Scepter autoattack is pretty weak for damage, it’s very sad

styx.7294:

Things I like
-With shattercat I haven’t won any 2v1 but with this I’ve been able to do 2v1 (even a couple 3v1 against some under level’ed folk).
-Hundred blades warriors just sort of go “poof”.
-I generally have felt favoured against other mesmers, even shatter ones.
-Yay toughness, I find I end the fight with more hit points than usual

Some criticism
-Being a condition build, it is terrible against siege weapons. Boo.
-I can’t seem to win against condition thieves (regular thieves are no problem) – the sort of pistol thief that pops in and out of stealth. While they’re stealthed, the confusion does nothing and with only 1 AoE and no melee attack, you can’t do anything against them while they’re stealthed. Also all your auto-attacks are incredibly slow. I’m 0-3 against these guys (even when one started the fight with 10% health) and can’t think of anything. Maybe arcane thievery but since I never need that against anyone else I never have it
-Confusion.. is an interesting condition. It requires them to do things, so if someone is backing off after they get a bunch of confusion, the confusion is wasted. It’s useless against dolyaks or people who are just running away.
-With no air/centaur runes, prepare to just let some folk get away and if someone is determined to catch you and there’s no where to hide with your invisibility then they’re going to catch you
-Scepter autoattack is pretty weak for damage, it’s very sad

glad you have fun!

for the pros:
- yep, it is really good in small skirmishes up to 15 or 20 people. I have run this build for the last 2-3 months now and everything goes automatic^^. If I can keep my calm and IF I am not drunk 1vs6 is possible.
keep it going and the only real danger is overextending

for the cons:
- you can’t kill siege weapons on walls, but on the field you can kill the operator^^
- but to be honest, siegeing is not as funny as roaming! so who cares
if you want to siege, def your siege weapons or intercept reinforcements.
if you want to def, attack from the side and burn your cds, normally you can stir them up a bit or portal bomb their sieges. but as I said, sieging is not fun to me so you know best how to help your team

-condition thiefs (and good necros), yeah they are a pain. but not because they own condition mesmers but because the fight takes time. it is our ele vs ele. normally I don’t have much trouble against them. I don’t use cond removal. I use stealth as soon as I get 2-3 stacks of bleed. standing still and decoy and blink usually confuses the thief enough to waste one or more attacks on clones. then you have to move fast. do some damage, some confusion and stealth again (1-2 secs after thief stealthed) if your 3 stealths are gone use blink and phase retreat when neccessary after that disortion. after that the first stealth should be up again, rinse repeat. the thief should not be able to land many condition attacks on you, but you can get some confusion on him. but the fight will take some time as said :>

-moving speed:
hm sure I can’t keep up with an ele or thief but with focus swiftness (~14sec) + chaos storm + 1200 blink I can keep up quite good with my zerg.
chatching someone is a different story :\ I admit that this is the biggest drawback of this spec. but imo it is a small one. in a 1vs3 who cares about the last one running? the fight was good nonetheless
edit: oh and don’t forget to fight near water. mesmer is quite fast underwater
(and insanely strong too with condition spec)

-scepter: yeah it sucks. period. just using it for the lulz to get that rare ~20 confusion stack to see the 10k confusion cloud^^
imo if the scepter would apply a 5sec confusion on the second attack it would be fine.

sidenote: today I finally realized how important the best pizza is. with 40% cond duration bonus you get 7 sec bleeds (not 6 3/4 as with the cheap one)

Hurray \o/

Marsares.2053:

Has anyone found a good torch with Condition Damage, Toughness and – ideally – Precision on it? Should have an upgrade slot obviously. Struggling to find one anywhere.

Twilight Arbor gear.