Guild Wars 2

I wanted to make a condition mesmer, but the staff didn’t quite cut it for me as it was very “chaotic” in terms of reliability of applying specific conditions, some benefitted more from condition damage, others from duration, plus the attack speed was too low for me, so i gave it some thought for a few days and came out with a DPS/Condition/Shatter hybrid build.

Keep in mind this is mainly designed for WvW conditions, but it also works very well for Dungeon bosses and overall small group PvE.

so here it is:
http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mmmz0MMM0mnLCmmnLCm0G0GxVazcVmq8kiT7070m7kGW70V

I won’t give much detail on how i use the build, but i will give you some of the hidden features and techniques in there.

a) to start off you will need full rampager set, including jewelry and weapons.

b)I know many people will think “Condition damage with GS??, that’s ridiculous”, well it isn’t, the greatsword is by far the best Bleed applying weapon that i know of.

if you checked the link out, you’ll see the GS has Sigil of superior earth on it, and with a full rampager set you will have around 60% critical chance, so with every tick (3 ticks) of your already fast attack #1 GS skill you will at least apply 1 stack of bleed; Now imagine that you used mirror images and dodged once, now you have 3 clones and yourself using the GS #1 skill, you have a chance to apply bleed with your Sigil, and since the clones inherit your crit chance, they will also have the same chance of applying bleeds via the minor trait Sharper Images (Include Time Warp for maximum stackage)

The above scenario can very easily apply and maintain 12~14 stacks of bleed on any given target with 2 clones without Time Warp, with time warp you will almost constantly have 23~24 stacks of bleed on your target.

So far all the damage i’m talking about was from the bleeds with #1 GS skill, imagine the damage the skill itself does, and the phantasm which keeps the enemy in range for you.

c) Now that we’re done with the GS, we’ll move to Shattering; In this build, shattering is used mainly for 2 things, survivability and applying confusion

Use Distortion if you’re getting focused, you will be hitting 2 birds with one stone, the invincibility to escape, and the reflection for ranged enemies who want to finish you.

Use Cry of frustration to apply confusion, and i strongly recommend using it exclusively with scepter or when you’re about to switch to scepter because you want to save your clone skills for GS bleeds.

Use diversion ONLY when you have 1 or less clones, depends if the enemy is ranged or melee (remember you have illusionary persona).

Use Mind Wrack in small fights where bursting down a small group of enemies is the better option.

d) Now for the hidden trick of the traits; Many people read Illusionary Persona and feel confused as to what it actually does, well i’m here to explain, This trait only works for skills F1~F4, and the way it does it is it counts yourself as an illusion when executing the algorithms for the shatter skills, so even when you actually have no clones, you will still gain benefit from shatter skills as if you had 1 clone.

The usefulness of this is huge, this means that you can use Diversion as an emergency interrupt without having to have a clone, but more importantly this means, free 5 second vigor.

You see, this trait doesn’t only apply to the shatter skills, but it also triggers Vigorous Revelation (5 second vigor to nearby allies when you shatter a clone around that clone), and considering the amount of shattering you’ll be doing along with all the critical hit from GS skill #1 that will also trigger Critical Infusion (1 sec vigor on crits) you will be swimming in vigor, more vigor means more dodging, more dodging means more clones, more clones mean better shatter effects, more shatter effects means more confusion because of Illusionary Retribution (all shatter skills cause confusion).

e) Now the reason i picked Feedback is quite obvious, but you might ask why i didn’t pick the trait that increases it’s duration and reduces it’s cooldown?, because this is WvW, many people will be downed, and as a result, being able to get a feedback bubble that lasts 6 seconds every 10 seconds alongside the skill Feedback itself is much better than 1 Feedback bubble every 32 seconds that lasts only 7~8 seconds.

f) As for portal i mainly use it for defending outposts or setting up an escape point if i’m entering a fight that i’m not entirely sure of winning, so you will not be using it very much, therefore reducing the CD isn’t that big of an issue.

Highlights:
-Always dodge when you have full endurance when you’re in battle.
-In this build, your Cry of frustration applies 2 confusion per illusion, for a total of 8 stacks including yourself
-First thing to do when opening with GS is summon 2 clones and cripples with #4.
-Don’t spam shatter skills, only use them under the outlined circumstances.
-You have lots of reflection, use it to your advantage and coordinate your timing to maximize reflection durations.
-All your AOE skills are Ethereal combo fields, use this to your advantage.

This is the end of my explanation, the above tips and techniques are subject to minor changes depending on playstyle and personaly preference, but when doing so please keep in mind the synergy between traits and skills.

I cannot stress enough on dancing between weapon sets, it is quite vital to maximize the effectiveness of a Hybrid build.

Some sigils are left on purpose, because i’m yet to find out the most suitable ones for these spots.

I hope you enjoyed my build, and please feel free to ask question or criticize

RapidSausage.4620:

if you checked the link out, you’ll see the GS has Sigil of superior earth on it, and with a full rampager set you will have around 60% critical chance, so with every tick (3 ticks) of your already fast attack #1 GS skill you will at least apply 1 stack of bleed; Now imagine that you used mirror images and dodged once, now you have 3 clones and yourself using the GS #1 skill, you have a chance to apply bleed with your Sigil, and since the clones inherit your crit chance, they will also have the same chance of applying bleeds via the minor trait Sharper Images (Include Time Warp for maximum stackage)

The Question is, do clones, in fact every Illusion, benefit of this Sigil? I mean, do they really apply bleeding if they crit? I remember that i read they would not?

Expect from this, it seems like it could be worthwhile to try… if the clones can do it

Macha.9160:

RapidSausage.4620:

if you checked the link out, you’ll see the GS has Sigil of superior earth on it, and with a full rampager set you will have around 60% critical chance, so with every tick (3 ticks) of your already fast attack #1 GS skill you will at least apply 1 stack of bleed; Now imagine that you used mirror images and dodged once, now you have 3 clones and yourself using the GS #1 skill, you have a chance to apply bleed with your Sigil, and since the clones inherit your crit chance, they will also have the same chance of applying bleeds via the minor trait Sharper Images (Include Time Warp for maximum stackage)

The Question is, do clones, in fact every Illusion, benefit of this Sigil? I mean, do they really apply bleeding if they crit? I remember that i read they would not?

Expect from this, it seems like it could be worthwhile to try… if the clones can do it

i said that clones would apply bleeding via the dueling minor master trait but not the sigil, the sigil is for yourself.

and as far as clones surviving, you need to position them right, for example, if you’re on the edge of a wall being AOEed they will die fast, if you drop them in a crowd they will die, also keep in mind that clones don’t have the same attack rate as you, and due to the huge amount of clones you’ll be putting up, you only really need a specific clone to use the attack once before disposing of it.

Okay Sorry english is not my nativ language and i simple overread it thanks for clearing it up..

Macha.9160:

Okay Sorry english is not my nativ language and i simple overread it thanks for clearing it up..

no probs
let me know how it goes if you chose to try it.