Guild Wars 2

I’ve been running this just a few days but I’m having a blast! but I think it could be even better. If you have the time please read through and provide your feedback / suggested improvements

This is a mesmer build intended to single-handedly push a large battle into your team’s favor. The goal is to have the biggest impact in a large fight that one single mesmer can have.

ARMOR

Full dire armor (jatoro’s on TP) with undead runes. Dire trinkets with option to switch out for a couple shamans if you need more healing.

WEAPONS

Staff with sigil of corruption and scepter/torch with sigils of purity/energy

TRAITS

0
0
20 (IV, X)
30 (I, II, IX)
20 (V, VIII)

The traits are providing:

-Regen at 75% health and protection whenever you gain regen
-Increased toughness with staff and 20% reduced staff CD
-Glamour skills last 15% longer and recharge 20% faster and cause blind at their location
-When summoning a phantasm it has retaliation, gives AoE regen (prot also for you), and they do 15% more damage
-Confusion lasts 33% longer
-Shattering gives you might and always causes confusion
-Create feedback bubble when reviving

Glamours and condi dmg are the focus here.

UTILITIES
Null Field
Feedback
Veil
Time Warp

So when you’re about to engage a zerg, spam the front line with Null field, then feedback, then time warp on your backline DPS’ers, then chaos storm, then phantasms (staff 3, torch 5). What you just did in ~5 seconds is:

-2 AoE blinds to their front line
-AoE boon removal to their front line
-AoE cond removal to your front line
-FOUR ethereal fields to your front line (AoE chaos armor for every blast)
-AoE quickness to your backline DPS classes (eles, necros, rangers, mesmers)
-Protected your front from projectiles by reflecting them back for lots of damage
-Chaos storm hitting for 2-5k per pulse plus conditions (~1700 cond dmg with no weapon stacks or might).
-2 AoE regenerations from phantasms

If anyone goes down, revive!! This will create another feedback bubble due to medic’s feedback trait.

You are sitting at ~2.8k armor and ~22k health so you can stand up some damage pretty well. If you find your health dropping quickly you can staff 2, pull out a phantasm for regen and protection, swap weapons (getting 50% endurance from sigil) and dodge, and if you still need to buy time til heal use torch 4 to slink away. when torch 4 is up torch 5 is another phantasm to provide more regen / protection, and of course there is scepter 2 block and veil available with null field for more condi clearing. And every mesmer build has the “oh kitten!” button of F4. Also if you’re near water I suggest having DIFFERENT underwater skills equipped such as decoy, mass invis, phantasmal defender (defensive skills). So if you need to mass invis or decoy you can jump into water and use those skills without having to reset your utilities out of combat.

And the damage?

I wouldn’t consider any zerg build that isn’t able to do, at least, continuosly +1000 numbers/player.

Ansau.7326:

And the damage?

I wouldn’t consider any build that isn’t able to do, at least, continuosly +1000 numbers/player.

The glamours are for support, the weapon skills do strong cond dmg. Chaos storm hits for up to 5k per pulse, per player. Plus whatever burning, confusion, torment, and random conditions from CS or chaos armor. That does not include the damage from feedback which has insane potential in a zerg fight.

I actually found myself in a 1v2 against a necro and a thief yesterday and fared surprisingly well. I got the necro down twice but the thief rezzed in SR and unfortunately my CS was on CD, but my condis got up to 600-700 per tick damage. With weapon stacks on and some might this build is easily over 2k condi damage.

Idk if that’s enough damage for your taste but that’s what I am seeing so far. I will say I have never got so many bags on any previous mesmer build. I am tagging everyone and their mother.

Just read today’s patch notes. Freed up 10 trait points! Only 10 points in Illusions required to get dazzling glamours now, so the other 10 points go 5 into dueling for vigor on crit and 5 more into chaos for a big boost to condition damage and some more toughness!!

Solstice.1097:

Chaos storm hits for up to 5k per pulse, per player.

Wat?

In full zerker gear, chaos storm does somewhere between 1 and 2k per pulse per player. Maybe around 3k if upleveled and exremely lucky (never saw that happen, though). Now YOU claim to be wearing full dire gear and getting 5k per pulse and player? Show me your secret please! I want to do more direct dmg with full condi-tank than with full glass cannon too!

This game is designed in a way you can be supportive while doing good amount of damage. As I said, a good zerg builds not only is able to tag people.

You’re only there to support your team. An offensive mesmer can do 80% of your support, while doing way more damage your build is able to do. You have no Confusing Enchantments, no damage from crits, you pretend to shatter without DE or IP… You use Prestige only for defensive matters, both chaos armor and chaos storm apply mostly cc conditions (they’re not affected by condition damage)… Sorry, but without any of these things the DPS is a joke.

You need nearly nothing to tag people, so any build that can deal aoe damage will be able to tag a lot, even its damage is crap. The key is to find a way you’re doing something else than dropping some support skills any mesmer can drop and be satisfied with just tagging people.

Then, please explain how Chaos storm can hit for 5k per pulse and player. I’ve just tested and my chaos storm hits for 3k per pulse, COUNTING 4 TARGETS (Condition damage apart). So per player it’s like 750. I had 2100 power, 48% precision and 98% critical damage.

And finally, why you add a 1vs2 argument on a zerg build? Normally zerg builds are bad in very small scale fights, as they are designed to interact with a lot of people. So there’s no relation with the “quality” and saying you have had good results in a 1vs2 doesn’t prove the damage is good in zergs.

Unfortunately, far too low mobility. Relying on swiftness from others is simply not enough. I would always be too far behind the front line to effectively cast veils, and it would be a great pain to make it back to my group.

Unfortunately there are only 2 real options for us for this situation. Focus #4 with some boon uptime and/or reduced CD, and Superior Runes of the Traveller.

I have traveller’s set on my mes, but it by itself I still need my swiftness. Traveller’s runes are not bad for group fights because they give you + to all stats, including condi, precision and a little bit of healing for your regen, as well as +boon duration for your swiftness, might, etc.

I am currently messing around with mesmer builds and did a funny thing, went with a hybrid build, a complete hybrid, we’ll see how it goes after I had some time to mess around with them.

Saturn.6591:

Solstice.1097:

Chaos storm hits for up to 5k per pulse, per player.

Wat?

In full zerker gear, chaos storm does somewhere between 1 and 2k per pulse per player. Maybe around 3k if upleveled and exremely lucky (never saw that happen, though). Now YOU claim to be wearing full dire gear and getting 5k per pulse and player? Show me your secret please! I want to do more direct dmg with full condi-tank than with full glass cannon too!

I have 3300 power, and with just the 6% crit damage from traveller runes, my chaos storm hits for maybe 500/600. Other numbers show up, but that’s because I trait into doing damage on interrupts, which chaos storm is great at.

I run the traditional glamour build, but I use my third utility slot for either Radiation Field(great AoE. Poison + Weakness that can affect a lot of people who run through it), Viel, or Blink. I don’t try to “do damage”. That’s not a condition mesmer’s role in large fights. You don’t provide damaging conditions, mostly. Therefore, I usually run a sigil of torment on my staff or a sigil of fire on my staff and sceptor. When all my glamors and chaos storm are on cooldown, I spam autos and use the AoE on that to put out pressure.

Don’t trait into things that make your phantasms or illusions stronger. They don’t survive in ZvZ at all. They’re just shatter bait. If anything, the only trait you want is the one that applies conditions when they are killed. It works well with the dodge clone trait, but it’s likely you cannot afford either of those if you’re running full glamor confusion/blind/cdr set up.

Solstice.1097:

Ansau.7326:

And the damage?

I wouldn’t consider any build that isn’t able to do, at least, continuosly +1000 numbers/player.

The glamours are for support, the weapon skills do strong cond dmg. Chaos storm hits for up to 5k per pulse, per player. Plus whatever burning, confusion, torment, and random conditions from CS or chaos armor. That does not include the damage from feedback which has insane potential in a zerg fight.

I actually found myself in a 1v2 against a necro and a thief yesterday and fared surprisingly well. I got the necro down twice but the thief rezzed in SR and unfortunately my CS was on CD, but my condis got up to 600-700 per tick damage. With weapon stacks on and some might this build is easily over 2k condi damage.

i think u got your numbers wrong. 5k?never ever ever ever ever ever ever and ever again with dire! i wear a full dire set…not gonna happen!also where exactly is your condi dmg going? u got glam traits, but the glam fields u are have are not inflicting confusion as u have 0 in domination/confusing enchantments. yeah u got torch that gives burning…and chaos storm. u get around 1k power o.0…and without food u are running on 1300 condi dmg…..

i put your build into an editor….

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArfWlwzKqHTzmGb9IhJF9G5neo8k3cUKuu1B-jEyAINBRaRgykFRjtaWENWdDmCFSxOkaHSR0qlCAipRA-w

see for your self and your support is also lacking a lot. if u wanted to support u might wanna check in with chaos.
feedback is only good vs projectiles if untraited. relying on chaos storm(RNG) and chaos armor( has been nerfed to the ground,also rng)for your condis is pretty bad. if a thief is squishy one scepter block will do the trick and he will die on torment. u get 5 stacks….i get with my glam hybrid 8 stacks,plus around 5-8 stacks confusion,plus what ever condi rolls my way with chaos armor with my rabid /torment gear.

5K Chaos Storm ticks would be awesome, lol.

Would only require 6000-8000 power or alternativly 500-600% crit damage.

I have 3300 power

That’s pretty amazing, considering the max power you can get from gear/trait stats is 1300, plus the 1000 base. Which equal 3300 attack and 2300 power. Well, you can add some might, rune stacks and food buffs there as well, but I dont quite see how that can reach a constant +1000 power over base stats. Where do you get the rest from?

The only time you’ll see chaos storm tick for greater than 5000 is if they screw up descent into madness again…

Pyroatheist.9031:

The only time you’ll see chaos storm tick for greater than 5000 is if they screw up descent into madness again…

Haha; that’s similar to what I’ve thought when I’ve read this statement. Too bad I’ve never gotten to actually see such a chaos storm, though. Would have been hilarious to watch.

Dawdler.8521:

5K Chaos Storm ticks would be awesome, lol.

Would only require 6000-8000 power or alternativly 500-600% crit damage.

I have 3300 power

That’s pretty amazing, considering the max power you can get from gear/trait stats is 1300, plus the 1000 base. Which equal 3300 attack and 2300 power. Well, you can add some might, rune stacks and food buffs there as well, but I dont quite see how that can reach a constant +1000 power over base stats. Where do you get the rest from?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscRE90jEmeQcfLcSPUdqBQpC6G-j0BBofBkgAI1sIas1WFRjVZDT9iIq2erIa1SBcxyI-w
Base power: 2789
Sigil of Bloodlust+250
Might+875
Final: 3914 Power.
Stack might with interrupts.
Stack relation with mimic then do 492 retaliation dmg.
And with that much power, you can still hit for a decent amount.
Useful? probably not but 3300 power is definitely doable.

The OP’s numbers are definitely off though.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

Dawdler.8521:

5K Chaos Storm ticks would be awesome, lol.

Would only require 6000-8000 power or alternativly 500-600% crit damage.

I have 3300 power

That’s pretty amazing, considering the max power you can get from gear/trait stats is 1300, plus the 1000 base. Which equal 3300 attack and 2300 power. Well, you can add some might, rune stacks and food buffs there as well, but I dont quite see how that can reach a constant +1000 power over base stats. Where do you get the rest from?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscRE90jEmeQcfLcSPUdqBQpC6G-j0BBofBkgAI1sIas1WFRjVZDT9iIq2erIa1SBcxyI-w
Base power: 2789
Sigil of Bloodlust+250
Might+875
Final: 3914 Power.
Stack might with interrupts.
Stack relation with mimic then do 492 retaliation dmg.
And with that much power, you can still hit for a decent amount.
Useful? probably not but 3300 power is definitely doable.

The OP’s numbers are definitely off though.

attack != power

I decided to theorycraft so https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/WvW-Frontline-Maximum-Retaliation/first#post3365230
Just as supporting evidence though. A picture of my warrior with only 8 stacks of might and zero bloodlust: 3300 power, 4400 attack. Not full pvt gear or max consumables either.

DuckDuckBOOM.4097:

I decided to theorycraft so https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/WvW-Frontline-Maximum-Retaliation/first#post3365230
Just as supporting evidence though. A picture of my warrior with only 8 stacks of might and zero bloodlust: 3300 power, 4400 attack. Not full pvt gear or max consumables either.

That’s buffed. Even my survival Mesmer with 2K toughness and 0 points in the power tree can reach 3000+ power when buffed. Of course a damage oriented build can easily go higher. A Warrior can do it ALOT easier than a Mesmer due to boosts (flags, traits, signet, etc).