Guild Wars 2

I’m aiming for a Phantasm-based build with staff and sword/pistol.
Traits set at 10/25/0/25/10 slotted with Empowered Illusions, Phantasmal Fury, Duelist’s Discipline, Mender’s Purity, Persisting Images, Compounding Power. Running Signet of Illusions in utility bar.
I settled on Knight’s armor stats to give me a bit more defence, and to boost the phantasms survivability.
This is the first class I’ve taken to 80, and the array of runes and sigils is a little overwhelming. I honestly have no idea what would benefit me as they all sound useful in different ways. Also advice on accessories would be welcome. Should I go with more of similar stats (like emerald), or go a different way to balance and round it out?

This build is for openworld PvE, possibly some dungeon running with my guild. I’ve not done any dungeons before and my guild know they will be showing me the ropes as we go. So I was aiming for something not “glass cannon” so that I’m not so fragile.

p.s. I totally love mesmer, my little sylvari is beautiful.

When picking runes in particular you have to look at two things:

1. The primary stats you want out of it (for example toughness or strength)
2. What you get when you put all 6 of the same together (is it something you can benefit from? IE runes of lyssa give you all the buffs for 5 seconds and remove all conditions on use on elite skill)

To answer those, it comes down to play style and what you want most out of it. For example, in WvW mesmers are always trying to catch up to others and are the slowest running class in the game. So what I did was traited my focus to recharge faster and using 6 different rune combinations I increased boon duration by 50% so now whenever i use my temporal curtain to gain a speed buff I get that buff for 50% longer – which means by the time it cools down my speed will just run out in time and i can drop it again. For me it was the sake of mobility and that’s why I took that route. It also helps maintain might and fury for a little while longer.

In regard to sigils, that’s mainly based on build. There are sigils that proc effects when you crit – so if you have a high crit chance it’s great to add extra bleeds or aoe attacks etc. you have to research the runes and sigils (goto wiki.guildwars2.com) and see what fits your style of play most. Also, the extra toughness/strength/vit you get through runes are not particularly significant (where as precision, condition dmg and duration, along with boon stats have a fair impact on gameplay) and I personally don’t believe they contribute meaningfully to any build.

So you wanna basically pick the rune(s) that best fit the overall benefit you want from them. Glass cannons come purely off armor/jewels and traits and very little impact comes from the runes themselves. So don’t expect to have zerker gear with 30/30/0/0/10 (or any variation of that without contributing to toughness/vit) and expect that runes of the dolyak will make up for the loss in toughness lol

I suggest doing the dungeons first for a few days until you see what it is you’re really lacking and then decide.

Let us know how it goes =)

Alchemist.3692:

I suggest doing the dungeons first for a few days until you see what it is you’re really lacking and then decide.

Let us know how it goes =)

^ This. Until you decide what will benefit you more, I’d suggest using orbs till then. They’re cheep and can add a various grouping of base stats. I ran all ruby orbs until was satisfied from trial and error in the HoTM.

I’d suggest Superior Runes of the Centaur until you have a better plan. They’re pretty cheap, and the swiftness on heal is awesome for getting around. Since you say you’re interested in open world PvE, swiftness is worth its weight in gold. Combine that with a Focus and you can have Swiftness on permanently.

As for sigils, choice of sigil depends on your build and what exactly you want to do. If you’re going with a high crit chance build with GS or Sword, Air and Fire are good. Just get the Major versions of them – they do the same damage as the Superior versions, but cost 10 times less. They just have less proc chance.