Guild Wars 2

Hi folks!

So I’ve usually been running a 20/20/0/0/30 berserker build for pve… but I notice when I go to WvW, I’m squishy, shatters can be tricky, and I feel like a glamour or chaos-based build would be better.

But when I run a 0/20/20/0/30 build, or something in Inspiration, in exploration modes… I feel weak.

Are there any builds that are a bit more general and won’t require lots of swapping back-and-forth from wvw to pvp to pve?

To start off with, shatter builds are highly effective in PvP providing possibly the highest spike damage, but you have to get it right. People learn how to counter shatter builds so it requires that have to adapt to nail the shatters. If you want a build that is good in PvP try a confusion build, however for the jack of all trades look at a seven mirors shatter build or pyroatheists immortal/pve both of which are great! have fun

@Kelthien, I run a 0-20-20-0-30 build that I feel wery strong in, enought dmg to take down full accended geared staff guardians in 1 vs 1 and survival to not be squishy. The mobility are extreme.

Have a look at one of the vids form Shatter Cat Mist

/Osicat

I agree that 0/20/20/0/30 is very flexible. I personally don’t run it anymore, but it gives you pretty much everything you need for almost any job.

How did you not find Inspiration versatile? It forms such a strong foundation for phantasm and support builds and provides some really neat tools for mantra, tank, and glamour builds. Just about the only thing it doesn’t do are shatter builds and straight condition builds.

Take a look at the Lone Wolf build linked in my sig. I consider it the epitome of mesmer versatility, and you can find some tips to make yourself more versatile with a few minor tweaks.

If you really want to stay shatter, check out Osi’s mist build. A few of Seven’s builds are great anywhere, too, and the Immortal build is fantastic for just about anything in wvw, but the damage suffers in pve.

EDIT: D’oh! Ninja’d by Osi, that sly cat.

OMG! Yay replies!

Ok, so I’ve definitely tried the 0/20/20/0/30 build and LOVED it for WvW, though I found my damage a bit low in dungeons/pve. I suppose that’s the sacrifice in the offense vs defense game.

Osicat: (LOVE YOUR GUIDES!) have you run this much in pve? Fractals, events, etc, and do you find it holds up well enough there?

Gaiawolf: I’ll definitely check your build out! I haven’t run with a phantasm-centric build in a while. I had some crappy experiences with phantasm survivability that soured the spec for me, but I’m definitely willing to try it again. I love the Immortal build for WvW but I find it inefficient in mid-level PvE content. Any fractals above 20 and I felt like the weak link on my team since, like confusion, running a build centered on Retaliation can be a risk. Do you have many problems keeping phantasms alive?

Keeping phantasms alive is all about placement. Make sure you put them in protected areas/corners. For the few melee-ish phants (swordsman, defender, and zerker), you can cover them with fields and they generally have some survival from moving, too.

Besides, if they take the hit, you usually don’t. The swordsman, duelist, and warlock are usually the easiest to keep up due to short CDs when traited, and the leap for the swordsman helps offset his melee attack. Warden, too, but he doesn’t move so he’s often shatter fodder or a safe zone after the first attack except against certain bosses.

I find clones useless in WvW, effective in pvp only due to how easily they die in WvW from all the AOE. Standard Glamour build (20-0-0-20-30) for AOE, or a power based GS for single target are best in WvW in my opinion.

For pve dps, especially dungeons, phantasms are generally better. They will do higher damage over time with smart placement, and you also don’t have to stick out your neck to do damage.

For anything that isn’t a 1v1 in pvp though, phantasms aren’t very good because they die too fast. Shatter builds are very strong in pvp. My immortal build does pretty much everything in wvw well. Glamour builds are optimized and extremely overpowered in zerg fights, but much weaker comparitively in small fights.

You can certainly run a build that works in pve and pvp, but it won’t be as good as a better build for pvp and a better build for pve. You generally won’t have to change much, if any, gear. The main change is just a quick retrait, and I certainly hope you aren’t quite that lazy to avoid retraiting.

Drakh.3128:

I find clones useless in WvW, effective in pvp only due to how easily they die in WvW from all the AOE. Standard Glamour build (20-0-0-20-30) for AOE, or a power based GS for single target are best in WvW in my opinion.

That’s kind of my problem with clone builds. Phantasm builds as well. Their performance is quite different from one part of the game to the next. Here’s how I mentally break down some of the common builds.

PvE:
Shatter, Inspiration, and Phantasm builds shine.

WvW:
Glamour, confusion, and tanky builds (immortal mesmer, shattercat heavy).

Pyroatheist.9031:

For pve dps, especially dungeons, phantasms are generally better. They will do higher damage over time with smart placement, and you also don’t have to stick out your neck to do damage.

For anything that isn’t a 1v1 in pvp though, phantasms aren’t very good because they die too fast. Shatter builds are very strong in pvp. My immortal build does pretty much everything in wvw well. Glamour builds are optimized and extremely overpowered in zerg fights, but much weaker comparitively in small fights.

You can certainly run a build that works in pve and pvp, but it won’t be as good as a better build for pvp and a better build for pve. You generally won’t have to change much, if any, gear. The main change is just a quick retrait, and I certainly hope you aren’t quite that lazy to avoid retraiting.

I don’t mind swapping individual traits around. For example, the 20/20/0/0/30 build is pretty good at this as it opens up a shatter build AND a glamour build without a respec. I do mind re-speccing (visiting a class trainer, paying to wipe my traits, and redistributing).

Do you visit a class trainer each time you swap from WvW to PvE or do you have a version of the immortal build that swaps some of the WvW focus for PvE without a respec?

Kelthien.8593:

Pyroatheist.9031:

For pve dps, especially dungeons, phantasms are generally better. They will do higher damage over time with smart placement, and you also don’t have to stick out your neck to do damage.

For anything that isn’t a 1v1 in pvp though, phantasms aren’t very good because they die too fast. Shatter builds are very strong in pvp. My immortal build does pretty much everything in wvw well. Glamour builds are optimized and extremely overpowered in zerg fights, but much weaker comparitively in small fights.

You can certainly run a build that works in pve and pvp, but it won’t be as good as a better build for pvp and a better build for pve. You generally won’t have to change much, if any, gear. The main change is just a quick retrait, and I certainly hope you aren’t quite that lazy to avoid retraiting.

I don’t mind swapping individual traits around. For example, the 20/20/0/0/30 build is pretty good at this as it opens up a shatter build AND a glamour build without a respec. I do mind re-speccing (visiting a class trainer, paying to wipe my traits, and redistributing).

Do you visit a class trainer each time you swap from WvW to PvE or do you have a version of the immortal build that swaps some of the WvW focus for PvE without a respec?

I go through lions arch and completely retrait when I change builds. I don’t run shatter builds anymore really. There are 3 builds that I run: tank, glamour, and pve phantasm. Each one has a drastically different trait setup and drastically different gear. I will carry 2 complete level 80 exotic/ascended sets with me at any given time, with some overlap on weapons.

I don’t use the immortal build in pve ever really. I used to, but it doesn’t bring as much damage and utility as my phantasm build does.

Pyroatheist.9031:

I go through lions arch and completely retrait when I change builds. I don’t run shatter builds anymore really. There are 3 builds that I run: tank, glamour, and pve phantasm. Each one has a drastically different trait setup and drastically different gear. I will carry 2 complete level 80 exotic/ascended sets with me at any given time, with some overlap on weapons.

I don’t use the immortal build in pve ever really. I used to, but it doesn’t bring as much damage and utility as my phantasm build does.

Aww. Yea I think that’s what I’m trying to avoid. I swap what I’m doing a few times a day and often on a whim, pulled from WvW to a guild dungeon run and back again. Needing to respec is a sink on not only my limited money (5g to my name!) but also my time. I’m hoping to find a trait allocation that falls in the “Capable everywhere, master nowhere” realm.

@Kelthien, for pve/dungeons/events i run my 0-20-20-0-30 build normaly but I change most in for berzerker, 1560 toughness is lovely in wvwvw but for instance some extra dmg is better. I feel I hold up dmg well, I have no problem tagg stuff in general and the survival etc is wery good, If you run a mist type of shatter build and get hit by aoe/res stuff on ground you most likely failed hit aimmuniy in time.

Also I change my utilitys after battle, often use feedback in instances and portal + timewarp.

What so good with the 0-20-20-0-30 build is that ids wery adaptable and I feel I can do whatever I like with it, wvwvw, pve dungeons etc. I just swap gear and utilitys.

For wvwvw I want to bump the value of a frontline fast moving build for roaming. I sometimes run in a 4-5 man team on low populated hours, can move from target to target like the windand hit alot bigger teams/stop em from capping.

For mid sice teams (10-15) a heavy toughnes crid dmg based shatter build is invaluable for the frontline abttle, place portals without die and stomp/down easy targets.

Latley I had quite fun look for commanders in bigger teams, wait untill they 60% hp blink in burst em down and portal stomp them Its pure love

I do alot of dueling aswell to practice versus different builds, so far I have not found a player specced like pyro, wery interested in how Shatter Cat Mist would work versus The Immortal build
/Osicat

Osicat.4139:

@Kelthien, for pve/dungeons/events i run my 0-20-20-0-30 build normaly but I change most in for berzerker, 1560 toughness is lovely in wvwvw but for instance some extra dmg is better. I feel I hold up dmg well, I have no problem tagg stuff in general and the survival etc is wery good, If you run a mist type of shatter build and get hit by aoe/res stuff on ground you most likely failed hit aimmuniy in time.

Also I change my utilitys after battle, often use feedback in instances and portal + timewarp.

For wvwvw I want to bump the value of a frontline fast moving build for roaming. I sometimes run in a 4-5 man team on low populated hours, can move from target to target like the windand hit alot bigger teams/stop em from capping.

For mid sice teams (10-15) a heavy toughnes crid dmg based shatter build is invaluable for the frontline abttle, place portals without die and stomp/down easy targets.

Latley I had quite fun look for commanders in bigger teams, wait untill they 60% hp blink in burst em down and portal stomp them Its pure love

I do alot of dueling aswell to practice versus different builds, so far I have not found a player specced like pyro, wery interested in how Shatter Cat Mist would work versus The Immortal build
/Osicat

That’s great to hear! Do you stick with Staff in PvE or swap to GS?

I think I’ll poke around with a variant on the shattercat builds. Full berserker is definitely too squishy for a front/mid-line combatant, which I think you need to be for shatters to land. It could definitely be a gear issue. I’ll try running with a nice split of DPS and Tanky gear to see if that helps out. I’m sure your guide has all the info I need!

Have you ever tried a 10/20/10/0/30 shatter build? It loses out on 100 power and some vulnerability but potentially picks up 100 toughness, regen on low health, and 9% dmg reduction from Chaos while keeping the 20% more Mind Wrack damage. If Mind Wrack is a big enough chunk of our damage, I may try that variant out tonight.