Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Blood Lord.5687

Blood Lord.5687

Hi there, my name is Majestic, I play on the Black Gate server. Up until late I have been experimenting with the new Mesmer traits that deal with shattering ( Since shatter specs are a higher skill cap than phantasm specs and in my opinion is far more rewarding to play) were patched through on the 15th. Took me a minute to find a solid spec that involves the new shatter. I tried the chaos boon shatter but found myself at a loss to keep shattering. So I looked towards the beloved illusions traitline and began testing the new torment shatter in spvp and tpvp. Let me be the first to say I am amazed by the effect of shatter alone, then buffing it the way I have in the link below brings a new meaning to shattering.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpMtNqxWNcrNSpBh64cnmSyA8gSeiyB-TZhFwAAeAAMOCAJuEATLDwb/BA

With this build, every one of your 4 shatter skills are buffed. All shatters cause Boonstrips 1 boon removed on hit, give about ~345 dmg with torment if your enemy so happens to want to move, adds stacks of confusion which is 88 damage on skill use and grants you might per clone shatter.
- Mindwrack should deal around 1.8k dmg with 3 illusions( That is without the berserker amulet crits )
-Cry of Frustration causes more confusion
-Diversion Dazes your enemy for 1 second per clone and adds 5 stacks of vulnerability on hit. With the Mesmer runes built in, each daze should last 1.5 seconds for a total of ~5 seconds of daze. Also if you dazed correctly you interrupted your enemy for more vulnerability stacks allowing you to Mindwrack for huge burst.
-Distortion allows you to evade all attacks per clone shatter and when traited with masterful reflection for example you can reflect projectiles such as warrior long bow snare abilities.

Majestic Royales ~ Champion Illusionist (R80)
Apex Prime [ApeX] , BlackGate

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Blood Lord.5687

Blood Lord.5687

This build focuses on dominating your enemies in every possible way a Mesmer can. While maintaining good survivability, map presence with portal and huge bursts. The build is done berserker amulet. So your looking to burst your enemies via boonstrip shatters, phantasms and dominating them via cripples and torment. This build teaches your enemies not to break your clones while keeping them in place from the torment on shatter, this means if they choose not to move because they are tormented that allows your allies to capitalize on them as well as yourself.

Some basic tactics I use for this spec
1. Is running to far point(or home depending on situations and team composition) throwing down a portal so you can backcap and/or escape if necessary. All the Mind Games at your disposal.
2. Coming into a team fight you should want to mass invisibility yourself into the fight for hysteria(sometimes you may need to hard rez an ally or the fight has just begun and getting that pesky target off your ally might save them in the long run).
3.Throwing down a chaos storm into the thick of the fight into several Daze/Mindwrack shatters note [Do not throw out random shatters thinking that will kill your enemies, your looking to shatter their boons into big burst while maintaining torment on your enemies.] If your enemy target so happens to have stability then shatter mindwrack or cry of frustration to strip those boons.

Advanced tactics for combos with the all powerful Greatsword/Staff shatter.
-Greatsword combo should be – GS mirror blade into enemy. You should let it bounce a bit for might into GS 3 skill. Dodge roll for a clone and Mindwrack or daze depending on the situation into a beautiful Phantasm berserker (Don’t forget to hop when casting it. Now your berserker is traited for fury so it will hit like a truck regardless, but since you patiently waited to use your berserker after you gained some sexy might stacks and your enemy has been boonstripped affected with torment, cripple and vulnerability stacks. Chances are they wont be able to dodge that phantasm. At this point your berserker will hit them so hard you will laugh at the damage. Sometimes I get crits up 5k on the berserker when I shattered right. But that’s just the phantasm, they are still dealing with the fact they should have little to no boons, torment punishing their movement and the mindwrack damage itself. haha
-Staff shatter combo should be staff autos for some bleeds and burns and gaining self vigor, then dodge roll for atleast 1 clone, leap back with staff 2 into a decoy daze chaos storm then cry of frustration, for confusion stacks(along with torment stacks). At this point your enemy should be stacked with torment, confusion, vulnerability and boonstripped. With 25 stacks of vulnerability and chaos storm condis you want to throw out your Warlock at the right moment when you see your enemy suffering from several condis. The warlock will gain increased damage per condi, if it lands. But when it does it should hit someone for up to 8k! Yes that’s 8k. Again that’s not including the torment ticking away, staff bleeds burns and confusion itself.
At this point swap to GS get off a mirror blade for more might stacks into a dodge roll mindwrack combo, since your enemy should have many vulnerability stacks. The bursties! Then throw off your berserker. That should just about do it.

Majestic Royales ~ Champion Illusionist (R80)
Apex Prime [ApeX] , BlackGate

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Blood Lord.5687

Blood Lord.5687

Now this may seem like a lot todo just to burst someone, but this is the art of shatter. And if you were ever in trouble during your fights just portal out of the whole scene itself, viola your in a new fight able to 2v1 with an ally.

This build lacks condi clear, as a way to try something way different I am using Mesmer runes in place of the nerfed lyssa runes. I myself am able to play without condi clear as I am good about distorting and dazing incoming condis coming my way, and when pressured too hard just portal out. But when your enemy is bringing the pain with many condis, it may be time to grab null field in place of decoy, which combos very will with chaos storm. Another fine option is Mantra of Resolve.

But at the end of the day ladies and gents, you shouldn’t want to combo this all the time as everything is situational. Use your abilities and skills according the tide of the fight and swing it in you and your teammates favor! You are a Mesmer, give them hell!

as a last note, this spec can be done carrion amulet, you get added vitality for survivability, far more condi damage which synergizes well with staff abilities(burns and bleeds) while also buffing the torment damage along with confusion. Your mind wracks will still do decent damage. But! You wont be getting those crits and the crit damage for your Greatsword damage and staff damage as you would with berserker amulet. Being so, I can only suggest if you decide todo staff carrion torment shatter, I recommend agony sigils, nightmare runes, Staff/Sword pistol as your choices. That spec would do well as scepter torch/ Staff as well. But if you like to burst people, just go with berserker amulet.

Any Questions about this build feel free to leave comments below and or you can message me on Guild Wars 2! BloodLord.5687
Hope you have fun with this build as I know I am

Majestic Royales ~ Champion Illusionist (R80)
Apex Prime [ApeX] , BlackGate

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Neurophen.9738

Neurophen.9738

Why berserker amulet? Your torments could hit a lot harder if you had a different amulet.

I’m not convinced by mesmer runes – apart from F3 you don’t have any non RNG dazes, it seems something else would complement condi-shatter better.

I’d be tempted to run this as a power-condi hybrid like so: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpMtNqxWNcrNCrBh6skmfSyBEgSmhrB-TJxHwADeCAa2fwYZAAXCAA

(edited by Neurophen.9738)

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Blood Lord.5687

Blood Lord.5687

Why berserker amulet? Your torments could hit a lot harder if you had a different amulet.

I’m not convinced by mesmer runes – apart from F3 you don’t have any non RNG dazes, it seems something else would complement condi-shatter better.

I’d be tempted to run this as a power-condi hybrid like so: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQJARWlknpMtNqxWNcrNCrBh6skmfSyBEgSmhrB-TJxHwADeCAa2fwYZAAXCAA

Berserker amulet because you see way larger numbers overall as far as flat damage. Phantasms for 1 don’t hit as hard if you got carrion amulet equipt. Even with you buffing your Mindwrack with i trait in domination still doesn’t show numbers anywhere near berserker amulet and that’s even with the strength runes. All the strength runes are doing for a carrion spec is increasing your condi damage as the battle progresses, but still not getting damage numbers as you would with berserker amulet. With carrion your killing someone with some added power, but more so the condis are eating away at your enemy. Which really isn’t my personal playstyle. I prefer to just burst someone, which is why my spec involves berserker amulet. I’ve tried the carrion spec with strength runes already and Strength runes, unfortunately, is pretty meta atm. Most everyone has a pair of might duration runes. Which comboed with berserker really begins to hurt. I chose Mesmer runes, which is a lot of less damage than strength runes, so in the end this build would be stronger with some kind of might duration rune to really take advantage of the might from GS 2 skill and shattered strength. But I’m really enjoying rendering my enemy unable to use skills for 5+ seconds with dazes sooo
Carrion like I said before is a viable pick for the torment shatter, but is a way slower in terms of damage after playing the spec I’m noticing I cant just burst someone, its smaller spurts of damage followed by lingering condis. And with most condition specs its better to just run condi duration. Which is why i suggested nightmare runes. But you do have the right idea. It comes down to, do you want to burst someone? or do you want kill

Majestic Royales ~ Champion Illusionist (R80)
Apex Prime [ApeX] , BlackGate

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Blood Lord.5687

Blood Lord.5687

someone via conditions. if you chose the 2cd choice, then go carrion.

Majestic Royales ~ Champion Illusionist (R80)
Apex Prime [ApeX] , BlackGate

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Pyroathiest.4168

Pyroathiest.4168

Honestly, if you prefer to just burst someone as you’ve said, you’d be better off with a standard shatter build. The build you’ve posted here is basically just an inferior version of a standard shatter.

You’ve got the same gear, weapons, traits, utilities, etc with 2 single exceptions. You take Crippling Dissipation instead of Mental Torment, so all your mind wracks suddenly hit 20% lower damage. The other change is you take MD instead of IP. This means that all your shatters now apply a couple stacks of torment that does absolutely no damage because you have no condition damage in this build. You lose distortion on demand, daze on demand, and a massive boost to the strength of your mind wracks.

Not a good trade.

Majestic's guide to the Tormenting Shatter

in Mesmer

Posted by: Seras.5702

Seras.5702

Yea I’m personally a little confused here too. A torment shatterer should be condition-based imo. I fully expected to see that here, because Maim without condition stats is a strange choice when compared to IP.

What about something like this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArfWlknpUtNqxMNcrRSpBZqcg64MmmSqAUyTUOA-TZRFwAAeAARLDg4IAo4UAka/BA

Flixx Gatebuster, Orwynn Lightgrave, Seras Snapdragon
[TTBH] [HATE], Yak’s Bend(NA)

(edited by Seras.5702)