Guild Wars 2

Hi, I’m a new Mesmer, but not new at this game, and I finally decided to make it my main because it’s the one I enjoy playing the most.

I have a few questions regarding dungeon builds, if you can help me:

1 – What is currently the most efficient dungeon build (post-patch of course)?

2 – What is the best beginner build for dungeons, while still being effective? (I’m asking this because I’m not very experienced at dungeons And Mesmer)

3 – I understand that atm there is Full dps build (6.6.0.0.2) and Reflect build (6.4.0.4.0) am I right?

4 – Which of the above builds is best overall, if I don’t want to keep switching between specs to start with?

5 – Should I work to get full Assassins or Berserker build? What is the best option and why?

6 – If I want also to roam in WvW with another power build suited for that purpose, will I be better off with theBerserker or Assassin gear? (I’m asking this because I only want to invest in one set, I can’t afford 2)

Thanks a lot for your time, hope you can clear things up for me!

Edit: grammar

1 – There isn’t a most efficient dungeon build anymore. You are able to swap traits, so you have to swap and adapt to the situation if you allways want to have “the most efficient” build.

2 – For beginner a phantasm build with reflection is the way to go. You should go for a 5/4/0/5/0 or 6/4/0/4/0. It depends on you and the enemy quite a lot!
If you do not want to retrait all the time, 4 points in inspiration are a must have for reflection on warden (focus phantasm). Now you either use 6 points in dominion and use the master trait “empowered mantras” wich gives you a huge dmg boost if you are using 2+ mantras at the same time (charged) and you should use the sword in that case since it has the highes personal dps. Otherwise go 5/4/0/5/0 so you gain another 15% phantasm damage at inspiration 5 and you don’t have to use mantras. So you can use skills like portal, nullfield, feedback, blink, signet of inspiration, illusionary defender etc. Also supports a more phantasm oriented playstyle, like using the greatsword and less melee dangerzone wich is pretty hard for beginners. You’re no help if you are downed all the time.

3 – 6/6/0/0/2 is full dps yes. 6/4/0/4/0 is max personal reflection damage. 2/4/0/4/4 is max reflection uptime (warden cdr on atk speed and resummoning)

4 – From the above it’s 6/4/0/4/0. But I recommend 5/4/0/5/0 for you. Best overall build imo.

5 – Berserker. You get up to 55-60% crit chance with that. Keep in mind that there is also bufffood and other players like warrior and ranger aswell the buff “fury” wich will increase together your crit chance by ~40%. Never go above 60% in general. More power > more precision btw.

6 – Again Berserker.

Here to help, keep asking if you want to

I know is not minmax, but I am very casual with my mesmer nowadays, so I run 2-3-0-5-4 s/p-s/f

Xyonon’s post is very helpful, good stuff there.

Personally I’ve spent 99% of my time in the game in WvW up to this point and I’m also just starting to get into PvE. So coming from the other side of things, the one recommendation I would make is to not roam in WvW with full Zerker gear.

Survivability is very important in WvW, as you’ll often find yourself outnumbered. I recommend getting some toughness/vit of some sort if you plan on solo roaming. Other than that, good stuff!

EDIT: I just reread the WvW part and noticed you mentioned you can’t afford 2 sets. If that’s the case, playing in Zerker is fine – although you’ll likely die a lot – but I’d recommend saving up the badges you acquire to use for gear that has better defensive stats.

Listen to Zumi rather than to me if it’s about WvW I’m a nub there :x

2/4/0/5/3 or 2/4/0/4/4 are my suggestions for starter builds. 5 points in Dom, without going for Empowering mantras, is a waste— the Dom line is not good for phantasm builds.

because…

Xyonon.3987:

because…

Because none of the traits, except III and XI, increase your damage or cooldowns, and those are the things you need on phant builds. You get a little bit of extra damage because of all the power you’re stacking, but that’s a lot of points to burn for 150 power (which is about a 4% damage buff for both you and your phants). Things like 15% phant damage or 20% faster phant attack are substantially better (ends up being an overall 7-8% buff to your DPS, since it only affects phants). On top of this you get the cooldown reduction to spam more phants.

Now, if you’re talking about 200 power + 12% personal damage… the equation shifts. 6 dom is quite nice for this reason, even if there’s no great Master level major trait to take still.

maxinion.8396:

Xyonon.3987:

because…

Because none of the traits, except III and XI, increase your damage or cooldowns, and those are the things you need on phant builds. You get a little bit of extra damage because of all the power you’re stacking, but that’s a lot of points to burn for 150 power (which is about a 4% damage buff for both you and your phants). Things like 15% phant damage or 20% faster phant attack are substantially better (ends up being an overall 7-8% buff to your DPS, since it only affects phants). On top of this you get the cooldown reduction to spam more phants.

Now, if you’re talking about 200 power + 12% personal damage… the equation shifts. 6 dom is quite nice for this reason, even if there’s no great Master level major trait to take still.

With 5/4/0/5/0 you too have serval phants support, even more tbh:

• +15% phant dmg
• +15% illusion dmg
• +150 power (buffed pt has ~3000 power = 5% for you AND phants)
• +5% dmg to idle enemies for YOU
• signet trait -> faster healskill, compensation for lack of Illusionists Celerity.

Your phantasms deal even greater damage like that than with 2/4/0/5/3 or 2/4/0/4/4:

• +15% phant dmg
• +15% illusion dmg OR -20% cd on their attacks
• faster resummoning (the only thing I really miss tbh)
• +3-9% damage for YOU

Except for the argument “you have to contrantly resummon your illusions” wich is pretty much the opposite of the reason to trait for phantasmal haste, I cannot see ANY reason why I should trait into illusions just because I won’t trait for empowered mantras.

Also having fun with pistol, offhand sword or F3 to stack vuln at the beginning of a fight

I think it’s easier to estimate with the totals:

With 5 in dom you gain: 1. 150 power (more like 4% DPS, but ok, call it 5%). 2. 5% on idle for personal— call it 2% (half because it’s just personal, and then a little lower because bosses are not always idle). This is a total of 7%. Signet heal 20% faster (IMO irrelevant, fights don’t last long enough for it to come out of the cooldown anyway).

So that’s 7% damage overall (5% + 2%).

With 4 in illusions, you gain: 1. 3% damage per illusion. On average you’ll have 2 out, so that’s 6% personal DPS (3% DPS gain). 2. Faster cooldowns— which can be out faster than the end of the fight, which makes it better than Signet Mastery imo. 3. Phantasmal Haste, which is a ~15% buff to phantasms (so 7% damage increase, since phants are half your damage— I’m also assuming this is about equivalent to 5 in Inspiration instead).

So that’s 10% overall, plus the faster cooldowns in case your phants die (which signet mastery doesn’t help with— it just helps get a third one out quickly, but in case they die, your DPS plummets while you wait for the cooldowns).

So it’s a net difference of 3% towards the Illusions, by my estimates, plus you get the cooldowns which are better than signet mastery. The 5 in dom has more personal DPS gain, but relies on bosses being idle. The 4 in Illusions is assuming decent illusion uptime, but can be even better if your phants/clones have longer uptime.

I think it’s fairly clear than that 2/4 is superior to 5/4, but these are all estimates anyway. It’s obviously not a huge difference.

You … just forgot my last point. You spend 4 in illusions, compared it to 3 in dominon. My last point goes into inspiration for another 15% dmg for phants, call it 7% wich is 14% total = 4% more than traiting into illusions according to your calculations. So you confirmed me that 5/4/0/5/0 has more damage than 2/4/0/4.5/4.5?

The signet thing has it’s ups and downs. You say “signet 20% cdr is irrelevant, fights don’t last long enough”. That’s exactly the point. In some situations (hate me for the following sentence if you want to but it’s true >.<) the GS became a superior weapon for me again:

• In many parts of the game you face multiple enemies, also in dungeons, where you stack etc. I start with GS 2, 4 signet 4, swap, boonshare, warden, aa. Before I can swap again the encounter is over, no attack, nor any iDuellist / iSwordsmen would have dealt more damage in that case. I never use the downside of the GS (1) and it grants me tons of might wich is with signet of battle ~12 stacks wich i share and increase party dps from the beginning. The signet trait now doesn’t help me to use the signets again in the same battle, no, but they are ready again in the next! And this makes the trait so worth.
• If it’s a longer fight it extremly depends on the enemies abilies to destroy your illusions. I think phantasmal haste is superior for no-kill-potential bosses, the cdr on summoning them is good if the enemy has that feared kill-potential. The signet simply grants every 28 sec another phantasm, wich also allows a 100% reflection uptime right at the beginning (warden, warden, curtain, feedback, warden → triple warden 100%) if required. I wouldn’t say the signet is stronger than PH / IC. They are both pretty situational and also pretty even. But if I had to choose between signet or PH and IC, I’d take the second one. But since they don’t come alone with that tradeoff, I think 5/4/0/5/0 is better.

Thx for arguing btw, I really like to talk with you where others definitly would “fight” with the desire to be right instead to find the truth.

greez

Good point that I missed the second 5 in your proposed build. You’re right, that brings it up to 14% over the baseline, and the 2/4/0/4/4 (or 2/4/0/5/3) is only at 10% or so.

So the 5/4/0/5/0 also seems reasonable!

So many builds these days…

PS the differences between Signet Mastery and the cooldown on phantasms is mostly a matter of taste, so that one can go either way I feel.

@Xyonon:

That 54050 setup actually sounds viable for trash-clearing with really bad pugs.
You probably know it but I want to point out that in most situations it is still sub-optimal.

1. If you have a competent ele or a phalanx warrior your rotation becomes pretty useless. 64040/64004 with swords/focus and 3 mantras will be superior.

2. At bosses I would generally prefer a 64040/64004. If you are with an organized group it is simply more damage and if you are with bad pugs I can see a survivability problem. At least I couldn’t survive long on a difficult boss without heal (because you used the signet active) without weapon-swapping (Sigils of Energy) because you want to avoid the GS aa and with the only active defenses coming from BF and a few dodges (50% vigor uptime, no sigil boosts).

3. At bosses where reflects are a main source of damage 64040/66002 becomes stronger than 54050, even if you only use 1 or 2 mantras. Reason is of course that the damage modifiers from Empowering Mantras and Compounding Power affect reflects, the 5th point in Inspiration doesn’t.

4. 640xx with mantra heal allows you to stay above 90% HP most of the time which makes Runes of the Scholar better than Runes of Strength. I don’t know the exact numbers on this but it makes the margin you calculated above smaller.

5. If reflect is not a main source of damage at any boss in a dungeon it would be better to skip mesmer completely and come with an ele or war or thief.

@startpost:

I wouldn’t use a 6/6/0/0/2 most of the time. 6/4/0/4/0 or 6/4/0/0/4 or 2/4/0/4/4 (or 2/4/0/5/3 or 2/3/0/5/4) are the builds you should concentrate on and maybe use 6/6/0/0/2 occasionally if you want to min/max at a certain boss.

Dobie … you didn’t read the whole thread did you?

I did but it seems I got a bit off-topic… sorry about that.

lazycalm.5186:

Hi, I’m a new Mesmer, but not new at this game, and I finally decided to make it my main because it’s the one I enjoy playing the most.

I have a few questions regarding dungeon builds, if you can help me:

1 – What is currently the most efficient dungeon build (post-patch of course)?

As already mentioned, you have to swap traits to reach maximum efficiency.

lazycalm.5186:

2 – What is the best beginner build for dungeons, while still being effective? (I’m asking this because I’m not very experienced at dungeons And Mesmer)

I recommend 2/4/0/4/4, traits being Empowered Illusions, Phantasmal Fury, Blade Training, Glamour Mastery, Warden’s Feedback, Compounding Power, Phantasmal Haste, weapons are sword/sword + sword/focus.

lazycalm.5186:

3 – I understand that atm there is Full dps build (6.6.0.0.2) and Reflect build (6.4.0.4.0) am I right?

Partly. Those are 2 frequently used builds but there are more. 6/6/0/0/2 is mainly for organised teams at Lupi, 6/4/0/4/0 is a build with good dps and reflects, 6/4/0/0/4 for good dps when no reflects are needed, 2/4/0/4/4 for 100% reflect uptime and the “all-rounder”, sacrificing a bit of damage though, 2/4/0/5/3 and 2/3/0/5/4 are variants of the 2/4/0/4/4 build and viable too if you prefer them.

lazycalm.5186:

4 – Which of the above builds is best overall, if I don’t want to keep switching between specs to start with?

As already mentioned, I recommend 2/4/0/4/4 for this.