Guild Wars 2

I recently got my tag, and I’m going to be following around some good commanders to learn as much as I can. In the meantime, I’m working on the build I’m going to use with the goal to:

1) Stay alive
2) Provide as much utility as I can

What do you guys think of this:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsdWl0npKtFrxMNcrNytRY6sxpTvO/WqAA-T1xHABKfKAeQfwJ7P4h6P/o8rJlgA8EAIFwSKtA-w

Full soldiers, and mantras that heal/remove condis, as well as condi clear on weapon swap. I also often get Protection and other boons when I stealth, and also give an extra second of stealth with my Veil.

I’m not sure if torch would be better for the stealth or if I should use focus for the pull/swiftness to stay out front.

What do you guys think?

If you want to be a commander, you’re going to have to amend your goals a little bit.

1. Stay alive
2. Be followable
3. Stay alive
4. Did I mention staying alive?
5. Provide utility

Basically, you absolutely need to stay alive. This is really important for obvious reasons. The 2nd point is really important too though. You have to be followable. If you go blinking back and forth around through a zerg, nobody in your hammer train is going to be able to keep up, and you’ll find yourself all alone and very dead very quickly. This means no blink.

Overall, your build is very solid. Runes are good, gear is good, weapons are good, and sigils are good. Just a couple small changes:

Firstly, no blink as I mentioned before. This gives you some options. Pre-nerf mimic would be the best choice there…but you obviously can’t take that. You could take null field for that utility, portal because it’s useful, feedback because why not, or even the condition clear mantra. I’d probably lean towards either the condie clear mantra or null field.

Now, I’d also actually recommend getting rid of restorative mantras in favor of warden’s feedback. The reason for this is that you really are not going to be charging up those mantras during a fight. You’ll be chugging through charges as you engage, and then charging up between engagements. You’ll get more mileage out of warden’s feedback with the reflects from dropping it in chokes or in the middle of the enemy zerg, not to mention the lower cooldowns.

If you do choose to go with torch (which is definitely an option) I’d actually probably drop 2 points out of inspiration and put them into dueling for sword cooldowns, since lower cd blurred frenzy is very nice.

All great points. For the mantras, I was under the impression that the healing came into effect when I used the charges as well, so that’s disappointing.

I’ll probably play around a bit more, but your point about blinking is a good one, and leads me to think I shouldn’t be using Staff either in that case, since the 2 skill blinks me back. Plus, Chaos Storm, while totally awesome, breaks stealth rather easily.

Zumi.6384:

All great points. For the mantras, I was under the impression that the healing came into effect when I used the charges as well, so that’s disappointing.

I’ll probably play around a bit more, but your point about blinking is a good one, and leads me to think I shouldn’t be using Staff either in that case, since the 2 skill blinks me back. Plus, Chaos Storm, while totally awesome, breaks stealth rather easily.

While you won’t be using staff 2 in its regular fashion, chaos storm is at least going to get you a lot of tags and provide some utility to the fight. Those dazes arent nothing if they proc, and tags = rallies on dead enemies which can be the decider between victory and defeat. That said, what’s your alternative? sword/focus/torch? sword/focus GS? The truth is when it comes to front lining, Mesmers have rubbish weapons. Don’t feel bad when choosing between cat poo and dog poo :p

Unless you’re using Warden’s Feedback, the focus offhand won’t do you much good for survivability. Try a torch for the extra stealth (with a relatively low cooldown).

Chaos Storm on the spike is great: ethereal field for Chaos Armor on blasts, aegis for allies, daze/chill/poison on the enemy! And with the staff trait you’ll probably have it ready on every push.

About phase retreat, you can consider learning (if you don’t know) how to forward-phase-retreat. It works nicely to stay in front of your group and won’t be very confusing for who’s following since you keep moving forward…

I disagree with Pyro because I love how Restorative Mantras works nicely on regroups, providing some heals if you lack blasts on water fields and/or empowers.

One thing I would change, unless you jump a lot from cliffs, is switching out Descent into Madness in favor of Debilitating Dissipation: since your clones will die pretty much instantly, they might as well drop some conditions (possibly weakness, if the RNG gods smile upon you) on your enemies…

Edit: if you have the guard stacks, you can consider switching some PVT to a Toughness based set (Knights/Cavalier/Nomad) because it’ll make your already large health pool more efficient.

I have dolyak runes because they are cheaper. I second the suggestion to maximize toughness: armor, trinkets, weapons, staff trait, runes. With toughness as main stat, knight is more power alternative – there is also condi alternative (see wiki for full list).

I suggest to use the same weapon in both sets. I have not done so because I don’t switch the weapon – too long cooldown. Your sigils are good, and that is why I could try e.g. staff + staff. No cooldown problem but sigils works, right?

AnniMira.2506:

I suggest to use the same weapon in both sets. I have not done so because I don’t switch the weapon – too long cooldown. Your sigils are good, and that is why I could try e.g. staff + staff. No cooldown problem but sigils works, right?

I’m curious, why on earth would you do that? You want the utility/options that both weaponsets can provide.

Well I just tried this build for my first time ever commanding anything in EotM and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out overall. Although the Decent into Madness trait was helpful in EotM I agree that it might not be needed in other maps.

The problem is EotM didn’t really give me a good sampling of what it would be like running a semi-organized zerg who stacks/pushes together, since EotM players tend to be more PvE oriented.

That said it was pretty easy to stay alive, and between focus and my group swiftness I was able to stay ahead of the group fairly easily.

Now my actual commanding? That’s another story

You don’t need a special build in EotM! And, in EotM, no swiftness is better. I have not used focus 4 in EotM for the purpose – because shorter snake is better.

Two same weapons sets: I want the utility/options that both weapon sets can provide, but due the switching cooldown, I may not have access to utility I need. Happened too many times in zerg vs zerg fights. So, using the same weapon in both sets with these sigils is like a good idea.

AnniMira.2506:

You don’t need a special build in EotM! And, in EotM, no swiftness is better. I have not used focus 4 in EotM for the purpose – because shorter snake is better.

Two same weapons sets: I want the utility/options that both weapon sets can provide, but due the switching cooldown, I may not have access to utility I need. Happened too many times in zerg vs zerg fights. So, using the same weapon in both sets with these sigils is like a good idea.

The only utility on staff is 4 5 with such long cooldowns why not take another set to cycle through then come back. Seems better than spamming aa and using 2/3 over and over.