Guild Wars 2

I’ve gotten a lot of pm’s about my build in pvp, so I thought I’d throw the build up here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW8dl0npStNqxVNcrNyqxYqWO9SBdUp3I7AA-TJRHwAA3fAwFBQwTA4YZAA

The easiest way for me to describe the build is a reflect build with cele stats. I use reflects in place of might stacks in a traditional cele build for the extra damage.

I find it to be a great 1v1 build with good group support. I’m very tanky and do enough damage, even without reflects, to deplete my opponents health eventually. Well timed reflects can end fights in seconds. I may not always win fast like every other mesmer build but I win in the end. I made the build for wvw but I really enjoy playing it in pvp as well. Although it’s not the most competitive build out there, I have had a lot of success with it and a lot of rage thrown at me. I’ll take any questions, suggestions and/or critiques you guys have

(edit) Heres some gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cs3vP3Mqmmk

I don’t know what to say about this build. Ok, yeah, awesome. You’ve pretty much said what it does, and it does that, and that’s all good. Well done I suppose. The one thing I would want to do is get another mantra on my bar. But there’s really no room for it, sadly

If you could get some game play footage that’d be amazing. If you aren’t currently into recording vids, check out the link in my sig!

I will say this – the trait allocation here is almost the exact build icy has been running for a few months now and what I believe is one of the strongest mesmer PvP builds I’ve seen in a long time. Some notable differences are that icy runs the iduelist, duelist’s discipline, illusionary defense and persisting images, treating it like more of a phantasm build. That means DE goes away but I would suggest to at least try it. The build has been extensively tested and I knew it was just a matter of time before it would see the light of day on the forums. One other thing. The build has so much built in sustain that I’ve wondered if going 2 in domination would be better for empowered illusions. Could be something to experiment with.

The flexibility of the traits allows for maximum reflect mitigation or more ranged offense as stated with the iDuelist. The utilities are equally flexible to take whatever is needed for the comp you’re facing. The same can be said of the runes. I can’t recall what icy runs for those but I think they were more offensive in nature. I’m sure water works fine, again just depends on the role you want to play in the match.

Overall, well done on the build. It’s my opinion that you definitely have a winner.

How well is Restorative Mantras working for you? I’ve been considering taking 1 point out of Inspiration to go into Chaos. So not only do you now have permanent regen so long as you keep phantasms up, but you also have about 33% protection uptime in addition to your phantasmal defender. Unsure if the survivability is that needed, but it sure is satisfying to have an incoming 8k dmg reduced to less than 3k.

Thank you for the replies. Wall of text inc.

I find it interesting icy runs a similar build. I love focus too much to give it up for a pistol despite how strong pistol is in 1v1’s. I could fill the rest of my post with how much I love the focus but if I’m in a 1v1 and there’s nothing my opponent has that’s worth reflecting pistol would be better. I would hate giving up DE though o.o

Illusionary Defense is really strong, I actually haven’t tried it much in my build though tbh. I have so much sustain that I really focused on increasing my damage with the 2 points in chaos. I’ve swapped those 2 points around a lot and I couldn’t decide if I wanted them in domination for the extra illusion damage or not. In the end I found that condi on clone deaths puts much more pressure on my opponent than 15% illusion damage and gives more survival with the regen in chaos than I would get in domination.

As for Restorative Mantras, I pondered over that as well. Originally I had persisting images in it’s place for the extra phant health. I really liked persisting images in my phantasm builds and it was hard for me to transition out of it. In testing there were many times my phants would get an extra attack off with a sliver of health thanks to 20% extra health and I would always keep note of that. I decided the situations where my phants survived my opponents attacks I probably could’ve won anyway without the extra health on my phants.

Through testing restorative mantras, 2.7k healing is nothing to scoff at especially when it’s aoe. This heals phants and teammates as well and although it’s kind of clutch and I almost never use it to heal allies, it wins fights for me. 2.75s cast for the mantra is grueling and in situations where I need a heal as fast as I can get it, restorative mantras provides just enough health to get the job done. The thing I regret is not having more mantras on my bar to really capitalize on the trait but there really isn’t a need for another one…

I’ll see if I can get some footage of the build by the end of the week.

Woo support builds ftw!

Oh man. This is one of like..,3 really good builds I’d recommend for people who wanna play support, are trying to learn the class, or just wanna try something different.

I’d definitely consider this a support build, and a really fun one at that since you have loads of team utility at the cost of some damage and likely are far more devastating with a companion then on your own. There’s quite a bit of trait flexibility in inspiration as well, and I’m reminded of why I love that traitline.

I’m able to play again in a few weeks, this is the build I’m forward to trying out the most, will be able to give more feedback then, but have you tried Pack Runes?

skcamow.3527:

I will say this – the trait allocation here is almost the exact build icy has been running for a few months now and what I believe is one of the strongest mesmer PvP builds I’ve seen in a long time.

What’s this build, do you have a link?

Wile.5024:

skcamow.3527:

I will say this – the trait allocation here is almost the exact build icy has been running for a few months now and what I believe is one of the strongest mesmer PvP builds I’ve seen in a long time.

What’s this build, do you have a link?

I was referring to the OP’s trait spread, at least from the allocation into the various lines (dueling, chaos and inspiration).

I’ll try to get icy’s exact build if that’s what you were after, but I think the take away is this trait spread provides extremely flexible and effective play with various weapons, traits, and utilities.

yeah I’m curious about the whole build… traits do look promising. OP’s build seemed too tanky to my liking.

Wile.5024:

yeah I’m curious about the whole build… traits do look promising. OP’s build seemed too tanky to my liking.

Use pack runes, swap out staff for Gs, swap out iDefender and yer good to go!

Ohhh... Tanky ... Lovely, at least I’m not the only one going rogue. kind of . On traits! I shall create more builds... (For fun and maybe luck... Never know when you’ll make an ’OP’ build.) Btw, I do love everything there.

Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been putting some pvp clips together. I updated the OP with the video, thanks for the video guides Ross Biddle. Nothing too impressive, I’m a bit disappointed I didn’t get better fights but you can see how the build handles itself.

As for lack of damage, I haven’t messed around with runes too much but the build doesn’t require any specific rune to work. Play around with w/e rune you want, I played with runes of the ranger for a bit (before they nerffed it I guess) and the damage increase was noticeable but so was the loss in survivability from water runes. Pack runes are really strong and I’m sure they would do just fine in this build.

In wvw I plan on using runes of the defender for the aegis, I think it’ll be really fun to play around with but water runes are cheap and get the job done. I also use a mix of cele and zerker stats in wvw and often swap out staff for gs in zerg fights. Feel free to make changes to the build how you see fit, it’s very flexible as it isn’t reliant on any one stat or rune configuration.

I was able to get icy’s exact build for those interested. He opens with chaos storm > phase retreat > iWarlock then switch to sw/p and get a duelist out. Skirmish from there.

The signet coupled with persisting images keeps illusions up most of the time. That extra few hits to bring them down can be troublesome especially in 1v1’s. If you leave them up though, they can overtake you pretty quickly as they hit very hard for a celestial build due to the almost 200% crit dmg. Sustain is excellent with 3x power cleanse, restorative mantras and perma regen, making good use of celestial’s healing power boost.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaWl0npEtdoxRNcrNyqxYqSO9SNdUp3I7AA-TJRHwAAOFACeCAHLDoe/BA

:o seems interesting especially with the mantra of pain, got to try it out sometime

thanks for the link!

Thanks for the link skcamow. Very similar builds indeed, I like that. My usual rotation is sw/f 5>3>3>2 to engage then swap to staff 5>2>3 to disengage. It’s fun looking at the differences in the builds though, it’s as if I swapped out mantra of pain for debilitating dissipation (for damage) and illusionary defense for phantasmal defender (for defense) practically making it the same build with the main difference being more damage from pistol and pirate runes on icy’s build and more defense with focus and water runes on mine ^.^

Interesting build.
I’ve tried to use Pdefender few times because it looks so good on paper, but I just can’t stand that guy for some reason.
Have you thought of trying that build with Confusing Cry instead of Debilitating Dissipation? I’ve used it on my hybrid shatter and it’s actually a really good trait in tankier builds, I’m sure it would fit well in that.

Definately go focus. Better reflects and better teamfight since it is aoe. Also, do not give up DE. Debilitating dissipation is also the better choice compared to something like illusionary defence, like muuuch better. Something i would like to see is this build without pDefender. Null field, portal, something else, all good contenders. Also, try to get keybinds for utilities and heal and elite! Otherwise good job.

Exciting video to watch! Good job on the build! Looks impressive even without the might stacking while on cele.

Nice to see someone else using rune of water. Keep on trucking!

Thanks for the feedback!

I use phantasmal defender in this build mainly because I didn’t have anything else I really needed in that slot, the build works just fine without him. I love null field but I don’t need more condi cleanse in the build, I don’t really need anything from the other mantras and charging another mantra would be annoying and open me up for more damage but it would probably work fine especially with restorative mantras. Signet of illusions is nice but I find phantasmal defender defends me AND my other phants plenty.

I understand the distaste toward the defender but it’s not that bad at all. The amount of damage he can mitigate is astounding. As for his survival, a well placed chaos storm on my phants for some aegis can keep phantasmal defender on his feet and if I get a water rune proc on one of my heals it also heals phants near me, giving phantasmal defender quite a bit of survivability not to mention all the projectiles my reflects keep off him.

Phantasmal defender is very strong 1v1. Outside of 1v1’s he loses effectiveness and I usually swap him out for other needed utilities like portal or veil for w/e group I’m running with. Blink is actually a good alternative to Pdefender imo if you wanted to try it out.

In regard to Confusing Cry, the build has enough retaliation with Vengeful Images that Confusing Cry isn’t needed and wouldn’t be worth giving anything up for it. However, Illusionary Retribution that comes with Confusing Cry actually isn’t that bad in this build if you go that direction, I still don’t think it’s worth trading anything for in the builds current state but worth considering maybe.

Played some games with this and here’s my feedback:

PROS

• Fantastic reflects. Even after enemies figured out my strategy, it was hard for them to counter, because I had reflects ready for half of their weapon set. I felt great being able to bring a Mesmer mechanic from PvE (reflects) and make it work in PvP as well.
• Focus is so underrated! The sword/focus+Staff weapon set is my FAVORITE weapon set, and one of the reasons why I love playing CI lockdown. It’s entirely melee oriented and can definitely fight on point with the best of them. Very great at interrupting rezzes/stomps.
• Surprisingly not disappointed in pDefender. It ensured that I would survive in all my 1v1s until help came on its way.
• Great sustain due to the ample condition clear, extra heal on mantra and Restorative Mantras.

CONS

• I’m instantly reminded why Feedback outside of Medic’s Feedback sucks. It’s my personal opinion that it should be ground targeted. There’s many times where if you’re not paying attention, you’ll target someone with Feedback and they’ll simply walk outside of its AOE. This happened once, and I remembered to not play like a noob and target melee fighters or turrets depending on where I wanted the glamour. This is frustrating, yet manageable. The CD is also pretty long. I always thought this should be lower than Null Field considering how easy it is to counter.
• If my enemy isn’t heavily projectile focused, I will not be able to kill them. It suffers from not having much might like I guessed it would due to the cele stats. Therefore, you probs shouldn’t roam alone with this too often unless you can win the matchup.

Note: I typically use blink over Decoy. Decoy is great for channeling mantras or summoning phantasms, but blink outshines it in every other regard, and if given a choice between one or the other 80% of the time, I go with Blink.

Overall, I am very happy with this. I’m going to play on it a bit more. I might swap out restorative mantras for bountiful interruption. Your AOE interrupts have the potential to really rack up the might/boons. I also love pDisenchanter and might swap that in place of pDefender, though that gives up a lot of survivability.

Thanks for providing us with a great build.

Sabwa.7358:

Thanks for the feedback!

I use phantasmal defender in this build mainly because I didn’t have anything else I really needed in that slot, the build works just fine without him. I love null field but I don’t need more condi cleanse in the build, I don’t really need anything from the other mantras and charging another mantra would be annoying and open me up for more damage but it would probably work fine especially with restorative mantras. Signet of illusions is nice but I find phantasmal defender defends me AND my other phants plenty.

I’m not a very good mesmer so I hesitate to comment, but if one is looking for an alternative to pdefender, how about mantra of distraction since you have harmonious mantras? This build is not traited for interrupts, but having three instant cast dazes in one’s pocket could occasionally be handy, like for interrupting a heal. Or what about even just mantra of pain for some extra damage against players who use no projectiles? The extra mantra would give more healing as well.

I ran a 0/6/2/6/0 variant of this in 49 Fractal yesterday with Sword+Focus / Scepter+Sword and it worked quite well.

Scepter + Sword for single-target damage.
Sword + Focus for cleave damage … and counter-projectiles.

I love freeing up a utility slot since my with MoR I have both my heal and condition cleanse covered (and better cooldown than the util).

The heal from Restorative Mantras was also nice in helping my group with fights where you can get whittled down a bit. Between that and our one friend that usually runs with his Guardian in Cleric’s, we had some good sustain without really sacrificing my own damage (I was still in full zerk).

I tried your build in pvp. Felt like I was lacking damage would be my main complaint. Not a bad build but I think I might like it better with a few tweaks

Kazhiel.8194:

I tried your build in pvp. Felt like I was lacking damage would be my main complaint. Not a bad build but I think I might like it better with a few tweaks

I would try icy’s variant with the pirate runes. It does very respectable damage while still keeping decent sustain. He goes pistol but you could go focus instead if you want to keep the reflects.

Yeah, I am experimenting with some differences now

Kazhiel.8194:

Yeah, I am experimenting with some differences now

Or just take BI instead of Restorative Mantras. It’s working out quite nicely with the AOE interrupts.

Using BI instead of RM now and really liking it. Depending on the other team’s makeup I’m switching between pistol or focus and feedback or blink. Then if I’m using pistol I just drop the focus trait for phantasm hp or whatever. Still using defender, that guy works surprisingly well

I’m happy you guys are enjoying the build

BI is lots of fun especially with chaos storm and I definitely looked at it for might stacks but I really wanted 5 points in inspiration for 15% phant damage and I can’t get both so I went with the full 2 points in Inspiration instead of Chaos. I think BI really shines in bigger fights when you can easily get 15+ might stacks. In pvp and other small scale fights I like 15% phant damage with the extra mantra heal that comes with it better.

@William Bradley Knight: Don’t hesitate one bit, I’ll take any bit of advice and/or questions I can get, idc about skill level. It’s kind of personal preference but I don’t like having to constantly charge mantras I don’t mind 2 mantras on the bar but I don’t think they have an ability worth a 2.75s charge imo.

I’ve actually experimented with mantra of distraction a bit with the build. It was fun and I could really lock someone down if played correctly but with [f3], focus pull, and chaos storm on staff I feel I have enough interrupts that unless I wanted to run an interrupt build (which might not be a bad idea with BI) I have all I need. I actually had someone curse me out in pvp because I locked him down (without MoD) with well timed interrupts. He called me out in chat for using an interrupt build. I replied with a smiley face and moved on.

Mantra of pain would probably be my best bet if I were to put another mantra on my bar but I’m still not sure the damage it puts out is worth the charging time. The extra healing would most likely make up for any inconveniences from the charge of the mantra and MoP has the shortest cd for that, so I don’t think it’s a bad option at all. If it fits your play-style better than Pdefender go for it!