Guild Wars 2

I’ve always liked the idea of locking down your opponents, not letting them use skills, and just kitten ing their day. Nothing is more frustrating than not being able to use any skills whatsoever, either to run or fight back. I’ve tried a stealth heavy S/D thief, and a hammer Ma/Ma warrior. (Fun, but not “tricky” enough). I stumbled upon Chaos lockdown build, the mind crush. I took a lot of the aspects of his and tried to make my own.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscRl0zKoXTTjGb9IiJFBnvRShp5alewbXItB-j0xAYfBRyCIRIQJvioxWSLiGr2GTFTEVLDg+CA-w

Now my main problem with chaos’s build was that you had so many interrupts, but not bountiful interruption! You get so many boons from that! Now another question i have, is will GS be good in place of staff? I know chaos storm can potentially daze a lot, but other than that youll hardly be able to damage anyone. Another question i have is why offhand Sw over pistol?

Im new to mesmering, so sorry if these are stupid question. I also dont feel comfortable yet with just blurred frenzy as my only defense, so i opted for some toughness in my gear.

Staff primary deals condition damage, but its amazing as a defensive weapon aswell, which is why power-based builds like Mind Crush can also consider using it. That, and Chaos is secretly a Sylvari Stripper, known for how he utilizes the staff.

As for pistol vs sword:

• sword has a very low cooldown daze and potential interupt. It can double as a high damage block, too.
• sword has a very hard hitting phantasm. Its better dps than pistol, and has a higher chance to hit 100%, or if your opponent pays attention, 0%.
• the phantSmal duelist can stack alot of bleeds, and is better if you want to go condition instead of power. It usually triggers a dodge, so its great for letting someone ‘waste’ their dodge on purpose (50% of the damage will miss, though). The bullets can also be blocked by AI and stuff. It also isnt as suspectible as the swordsman to getting destroyed in melee cleavage.
• magic bullet is a stun on a higher cooldown than counterblade. Thats all there really is to say about it.

GS is great for chasing down runners, or generally doing damage at up to 1200 range. It doesnt offer much flexibility or survivability, though.

• make sure youre close enough to your target when you use mirror blade, you want the might stacks :O
• you occassionally have to turn around while summoning your berserker to gain maximum distance/safeness. Its kinda difficult to do right, but will pay off later when you start turning your screen more.
• Illusionary wave is about your only defense, use it wisely ;o.

If youre having trouble survivng, feel free to give the staff another try.

Incase youre wondering how pathetic damage with a staff is, here is a video where I duel with Mind Crush and a staff (spoiler: damage isnt pathetic!):http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p5EymK0fz8Q

Just a heads up Alissah, phantasm summons don’t check facing, so you can have your character facing however you want and summon them.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Just a heads up Alissah, phantasm summons don’t check facing, so you can have your character facing however you want and summon them.

I meant you turn around and run away from your target.

Speaking from experience, i tend to get in alot of sticky melee situations where I want to make some distance… Only to realise im not using a staff :’(. So thats why I just run away + summon the zerker :P. The cripple is especially awesome.

Thanks for the heads up nonetheless ;D

Alissah.9281:

Staff primary deals condition damage, but its amazing as a defensive weapon aswell, which is why power-based builds like Mind Crush can also consider using it. That, and Chaos is secretly a Sylvari Stripper, known for how he utilizes the staff.

As for pistol vs sword:

• sword has a very low cooldown daze and potential interupt. It can double as a high damage block, too.
• sword has a very hard hitting phantasm. Its better dps than pistol, and has a higher chance to hit 100%, or if your opponent pays attention, 0%.
• the phantSmal duelist can stack alot of bleeds, and is better if you want to go condition instead of power. It usually triggers a dodge, so its great for letting someone ‘waste’ their dodge on purpose (50% of the damage will miss, though). The bullets can also be blocked by AI and stuff. It also isnt as suspectible as the swordsman to getting destroyed in melee cleavage.
• magic bullet is a stun on a higher cooldown than counterblade. Thats all there really is to say about it.

GS is great for chasing down runners, or generally doing damage at up to 1200 range. It doesnt offer much flexibility or survivability, though.

• make sure youre close enough to your target when you use mirror blade, you want the might stacks :O
• you occassionally have to turn around while summoning your berserker to gain maximum distance/safeness. Its kinda difficult to do right, but will pay off later when you start turning your screen more.
• Illusionary wave is about your only defense, use it wisely ;o.

If youre having trouble survivng, feel free to give the staff another try.

Incase youre wondering how pathetic damage with a staff is, here is a video where I duel with Mind Crush and a staff (spoiler: damage isnt pathetic!):http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=p5EymK0fz8Q

Nice duels man i had no idea staff was capable of that damage. I saw a couple 5ks from it, was that iwarlock? And i saw very consistent 3k dazes. Is that how much halting strike hits for? Also, is not going 30 in domination bad? Would i be better off 30 20 20?

Hey dude.

I’m honored that my spec helped inspire a lockdown build of your own and I’d be happy to answer any questions ya have, though Alissah already gave some excellent hints (and blew up my night job. Just tell the whole world huh!?)

A couple things about Mind Crush… There’s two variants, a 30/30/10/0/0 version and a 30/20/20/0/0 version. With 20 in Chaos I usually grab Bountiful Interruption.

- Pistol is a fine alternative to offhand sword, the Phantasms are both damaging and reliable (though the Swordsman attacks more frequently, the Duelist stacks bleeds and confusion if you’re using the staff)
- The sword’s #4 daze is on a much lower cooldown than Magic Bullet and the counter itself hits as hard as the iSwordsman, but Magic Bullet locks down 3 opponents with a Stun, Daze, and Blind.
- Greatsword works as a damage-oriented alternative to staff, but if you go that route I’d advise grabbing Decoy and Blink or Veil to make up for the loss of defense.

As for your build, it looks like you traded your defenses for more damage. Your setup looks like it’d completely WREAK people in a 1v1 or even 2v1 situation, but if you’re caught offguard I don’t know if the toughness is enough to keep you safe enough to bail out. You lack condition removal and any type of disengage (Blink/Decoy) so once you go into a fight, everyone else pretty much needs to die or else you’re not coming back out.

I considered Mirror for a while, but it didn’t give me enough HP back to justify the reflects (I may reconsider that though, never particularly liked Mirror so I’m a little biased) and while Signet of Domination is great offensively, for setting up shatters or heavy phantasm hits, I’d bet you already have more than enough offense and would get better use out of Decoy (Plus stealth always gives you the advantage in a fight, you can summon both phantasms in stealth). Oh.. and if I were you I’d trait your Greatsword. As good as the signet is both Shattered Concentration and Greatsword Training outshine it.

Still, it looks like you’re off to a good start with this build and I think you should definitely stick with it. It’ll take some practice for sure, as lockdown builds tend to be more difficult to master than Shatter/Phantasm/Condition builds, but it looks like it could be really devastating if you master this spec.. You’re gonna need to learn when to shatter, when to maintain phantasms, AND how to get the most out of your clone deaths but with time it’ll all come together.

Thats exactly what i tried to do, make a more offensive version of it. I find offensive builds tend to work out better for me for roaming in WvW and i feel fairly comfortable on when i need to retreat and how to stay alive through timing and skills other than toughness. Not quite there yet with Mesmer though.

The reason i grabbed the signet with the GS is because with staff im potentially getting a lot more interrupts. I wanted to somewhat minimize that with the signet. But what if i used crippling dissipation over the GS trait? Keeping the enemy far away is important with the GS. Im just trying to decide if CD reduction or crippling is more important. I may swap the signet for blink or decoy, ill have to test out all 3. If i choose blink ill possibly trait manipulations in dueling as well.

My other question is what does more for me, the quickness on interrupts or dazes into stuns? I feel like giving up bountiful interruption is just not worth it.

Edit: i looked at the balance changes for Mesmer. Confounding suggestions is being changed to 25% daze duration. How does that play into this?

Anyone have more advice? Why not go 30 in chaos for chaotic interruption?

CI would be incredibly strong in that build due to your 2 AoE and other single target interrupt sources. It would likely get you more bang for your buck than either Furious Interruption or Signet Mastery. Personally I would drop 10 from dueling and switch signet mastery for GS CD’s (quicker Illusionary Wave).

Actually relatively close to a build i use now that can wreck 90% of the field in both spvp and general PvE (WvW included)

After months of trying and failing and a few tears at attempts to get some sibilance of the old mesmers lock-down and interrupts from Gw1.. I’ve found its just not gonna happen with the way anet has our class designed currently.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQJAWRlwzipnRzmGb9IipHEnvhckUYapWJF22FC-jkDBYfQofAUgQEJA5cYJPCsZPQJQIVRFRjVXDT5CV9Ky6XIaYAA-w

Armor and trinkets arent exact.. blah blah.. Tons of arguments about what weapons are best but for me and my play style here’s whats what.

Traits: Throw out sig recharge.. the trait is garbage across all professions, throw out your sigs as well.. the recharge is awful and the passive’s arent worth it.

Bring Weapon recharge traits! a faster Chaos storm is always a good thing. Drop 30 from Prec, throw it into chaos to grab Chaotic dampening for your staff and also grab bountiful. Throw in the GS trait. Bring in the manipulation traits for increased Range and lower CD.

What does all this mean..? You now have a Staff for defensive play and for, rng willing + a few enemies, a fat stack of might. The staff is also better for cramped places and Close combat.

A GS for burning down targets from a distance, this weapon also spawns your clones ontop of your foe making for a quick return on a well timed Diversion (thats more might if you interrupt). Wave can also interrupt and give you some much needed space.

Blink – with a range of 1200. this means an easy port behind a foe or a mob and off their screens and thusly also out of an auto target lock. or a fast get away from an aoe bomb or out of reach of a presuer.
Arcane – also with a massive range means boon stripping from fleeing foes or condition return on a pesky ranger.

Ultimately this is a build that means you can rely less on your ditsy. clones and phants and dish out direct damage on your own.

Runes- I run with lyssa for the condition removal and boon durations.

This is the best maximization I could squeeze out of this type of build :\ Armor and runes and sigils can all be up to you, I run something more balanced to keep me up with the D/D Thieves show up. Chaotic Interruption can also be useful as a GM trait for the imob but without an extra 5 points into Dom for the minor trait for damage increase to inactive foes, it cant be fully capitalized upon..

Ok so i thought up a condi build for lockdown.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAraWlwzKoHTTjGb9IipHBnvJcnUAdSXJF42FC-jkCBYhgINBiWAikGkKBIHqIasl1FRjVJbR1KlY6YASBAxyK-w

With 25 stacks of might and sigil stacks, not hard with chaotic interruption, in scepter youre hitting 3200 condi dmg!!! Perplexity runes synergies insanely well with this. ( i wish they weren’t considered OP). And on top of that every interrupt immobilizes for 3 sec with a chance to chill, cripple or blind. Seriously this looks hilariously fun and i think at least needs a little testing.

Yeah looks fun – I have been messing with a spec very similar for awhile, still trying to refine it:
https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Build-Chaotic-Conditions-Help-Me-Refine/first#post3157799

I watched through these builds and couple other recent ones in this forum.. haven’t been updated about mesmer for a loooong time, so I wonder now.. how come almost none of these recent builds go into Illusion trait line? I remember how it pretty much was standard for any build..

The Illusion trait line is generally more for shatter builds(?) and since the current meta is condition based builds we won’t dabble too much into the Illusion trait line when building CD builds

So i had one more idea, at least for human mesmers. You can use reaper of grenth as your elite, providing poison which we have very limited access to, and chill, which synergies well with the whole lockdown concept.

mhm..Wouldn’t the Reaper of Grenth put you in some danger? Fine,you spread chill and poison but you almost have to be up in the opponents face at the same time. 240 radius. I don’t think I would sacrifice the survivability that MI gives you :S

you can take a look at my lookdown build in my signature, 10/30/30/0/0 with Sw/Sw & Sc/P or Sw/Sw & Staff.

Carpboy.7145:

Thats exactly what i tried to do, make a more offensive version of it. I find offensive builds tend to work out better for me for roaming in WvW and i feel fairly comfortable on when i need to retreat and how to stay alive through timing and skills other than toughness. Not quite there yet with Mesmer though.

The reason i grabbed the signet with the GS is because with staff im potentially getting a lot more interrupts. I wanted to somewhat minimize that with the signet. But what if i used crippling dissipation over the GS trait? Keeping the enemy far away is important with the GS. Im just trying to decide if CD reduction or crippling is more important. I may swap the signet for blink or decoy, ill have to test out all 3. If i choose blink ill possibly trait manipulations in dueling as well.

My other question is what does more for me, the quickness on interrupts or dazes into stuns? I feel like giving up bountiful interruption is just not worth it.

Edit: i looked at the balance changes for Mesmer. Confounding suggestions is being changed to 25% daze duration. How does that play into this?

The Confounding Suggestion change is significant if you have Daze Mantra and offhand sword (Hell, maybe even just with Daze Mantra. ) along with Runes of the Mesmer.
On it’s own, the added 25% daze duration is rather forgettable and not much of a big help but combined with those runes (+33% daze duration) we’re looking at an over 50% daze duration which can lead to some impressive lockdown. Right now, it’s looking like the change will improve my build, and theCOREYCOLAK’s StunWay.
vs Furious Interruption I’d say to take Confounding. Furious can be great when it works, but it takes a lot of time and effort to learn how to use (granted, it’s much better for Greatsword than staff). But the 30 points in dueling can go to a lot of other traits that would still outshine Furious and make you reconsider Confounding.

You’re right Crippling Dissipation is a very good trait to have with Greatsword since it both makes it more difficult for enemies to approach you and makes you more effective in group fights, but GS training allows you faster Phantasm summons, more damage/Might stacks from Mirror Blade, and more frequent interrupts; making you more effective all around. I wouldn’t say either one is entirely superior to the other, so it more comes down to your personal choice.