Guild Wars 2

What might the meta mesmer roaming builds be? And would they necessarily change with the upcoming mesmer changes?

Thank you!

How crowded is your server’s WvW and will you be with friends or solo? As a roamer you will spend a lot of time harassing camps, reinforcements to large battles, evading angry mobs that try to hunt you down and if you are very lucky fighting similarly sized roaming groups from opposing servers. If you are on a crowded server and have to evade guild groups of 5+ that are hunting you for sport you will probably need to sacrifice some damage to pick up some combination of staff (for Phase Retreat), traited Blink, Prismatic Understanding, and Focus/Centaur Runes/Traveler’s runes. It would be silly to bring all of those, but you can figure out how much mobility you need.

There is not really a meta build right now but most of the popular roaming builds revolve around some variant of 4-4-0-0-6 (Shatter), 4-4-6-0-0 (Condition PU with Torch), 0-6-6-2-0 (Power/Hybrid PU). Each of these will have a unique play style and advantages and disadvantages and you should experiment and figure out what works for you. There are also a few other trait combos that work quite well. You should also read Chaos’s and Osicat’s threads in the stickies at the top of the forum to get an idea of why certain trait lay outs work and what they do.

No one can actually know how the patch will impact the meta, but there is theory crafting around a non PU scepter/staff condition build. 4-4-6 PU Condi will get stronger and with the GS buff and Illusory Elasticity change Shatter Mesmers will get a nice buff. Mantra and interrupt builds may also start to become more popular on the roaming scene due to AOE changes on offensive mantras. All in all the patch will probably benefit condition/hybrid builds more than straight power builds due to the scepter change and the extra conditions from the staff auto attack if you take the new IE.

Meta is condition PU, look at the sticky Osicat thread for Napalm build.
It will become even stronger after the changes with torment on scepter AA/clones.
If you want to be super kitten pick up some runes that give fear.

Now if you prefer more active style, try shatter or lockdown builds. Both will be boosted by the fix to IE. Lockdown builds will become more viable in zerg as well thanks to the MoD AoE change.

Screw Veil …

Thank you both so much! Would you say traveler’s runes are worth the DPS drop? I am not sure about the lack of swiftness

Yes, Traveler runes are important. Especially for roaming. You need good escape and chasing abilities.

See this: http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki for builds.

I’ve never been a fan of condi builds but I love the PU power build, it just feels right. I run a variation of osicats hidden cat setup and have had good success with it. Also another +1 for Traveler’s Runes.

Sylvari.6083:

See this: http://metabattle.com/wiki/MetaBattle_Wiki for builds.

You might want to look at the answers everybody is giving versus what your website says as meta… before everyone realizes that the website sucks.

TBH: the best roaming build involve power shatter builds, don’t fall for the easy condi/easy payoff builds. Test yourself, learn the build and you will destroy anyone you face.

PU is probably the best solo roaming build. It’s slow, calculate combat and engagements usually last quite a while. The only class I can’t regularly kill with a PU build is Necro, as they can easily consume your conditions. Other than that, everyone dies, even Shatter Mesmers.
PU builds area getting a seriously buff with the torment on scepter attacks. I’d wait until after the patch to buy up stuff for your build.

Pure PU condi build is also hard countered by bunker Diamond Skin Ele. You simply do not do enough non-condi damage to get them below 90% and if you do they heal quickly.

Korusef.3714:

Pure PU condi build is also hard countered by bunker Diamond Skin Ele. You simply do not do enough non-condi damage to get them below 90% and if you do they heal quickly.

Nah, you just have to be intelligent with how you attack. The iWarlock, confusing images, and chaos storm all do quite decent power damage. Once you have the ele below 90%, you can apply conditions rapidly.

Remember that an ele will have maybe 20k health as an absolute maximum. More normal amounts are 13k-15k. This means to hit 90% only takes 1.3k-2k damage. That’s really not a lot. Also note that taking diamond skin means that they lose a significant amount of condition removal as well, so they’ll drop quickly once you start loading condies.

I don’t want to derail the thread too much but since we are talking about it, traditional X-6-6 d/d ele’s usually bring Signet of Renewal as a heal because Water Magic and Cantrip synergies take care of most condition removal needs. Any smart ele who is 6 deep in Earth is going to pick up Rock Solid (grants stability on swap to Earth) as a master trait and use that to cover Ether Renewal (clears 8 conditions every 18.5s). Focus is also gaining momentum as an off hand weapon for small fights and dueling, the Earth 4 skill, Magnetic Wave, clears 3 conditions on a 25s CD. So an ele running Diamond skin is not lacking in condition removal options.

Well…a lot changes for mesmers with the upcoming changes, directly and indirectly.

i-leap actually being a reliable gap closer and imob setup / snare (fingers crossed) changes a lot directly. Now you can reliably dps with blurred frenzy and / or setup imobs for phantasm strikes, and the clone should summon correctly for immediate mind wracks. This is potentially a massive change in how you setup combinations for big burst damage.

Indirectly, thieves and warriors getting nerfed will also change roaming mesmers quite a lot. My perspective is playing glass builds, and the only (power) builds I fear right now are trickery thieves, and somewhat tanky evis or hammer warriors that still do considerable burst damage, while being nearly impossible to burst or even pressure when you don’t have poison and heal sig + adrenal health tick full most of the time.

Burst sword thief is getting a bit of a nerf, offhand pistol is getting a nerf, HB and whirlwind are getting a nerf, and burst misses are being nerfed (which also means adrenal health will tick less while they kite around). Only time will tell if this will lead to more diversity with power builds (like more power mesmers), or even more condi roamers.