Guild Wars 2

Hello again Mesmers

So i keep switching specs, in WvW. I know what i like but i can’t seem to fit everything into one spec and be satisfied. I’ll explain the things i try to get in every spec, then i’ll post specs i’m switching around.

Trait’ed torch- I love the torch so much i got the legendary. I have tried running without it, but i love the condition removal and the stealth.
Glamours that cause confusion- I love glamours in wvw. Null Feild and Feedback stay on my bar. I’m very aware that it’s not what it used to be. But i still love the skills and really like the confusion attached.

Here are some of my specs i run.

This is my phnatasm heavy build but it lacks confusion on glamour
http://tinyurl.com/mebsls8

This is a slight variant, has confusion glamours, but no illusionary elasticity which i think really helps staff damage and pressure. I also lose 15% phantasm damage.
http://tinyurl.com/ll9z9tp

This one has elasticity but no celerity, and without staff trait’ed, the lack of celerity is super noticeable.
http://tinyurl.com/lqbt8t8

This might be my favorite, so far. My glamours are untrait’ed and i love my condition on heal. But i do get everything else. Plus i get illusions bleeding on crit which i think is a nice addition, and something I’ve been trying to squeeze in.

http://tinyurl.com/kflb2la

To sum up
Things i must have
Illusion on glamour
Trait’ed Torch

Things i really want
Illusionary Elasticity
Illusionary Celerity (almost a must have)
Illusions bleed on crit

I’m willing to take any advice, (except don’t run confusion on glamour) especially when it comes to sigils.

Thank you to anyone who helps me with my build. Also please no menace posting here. Since it tends to derail threads.

Bumping in hopes that someone more knowledgeable with hybrids/conditions could lend assistance.

Keeping in mind that the confusion doesn’t stack from Confusing Enchantments and the two traits in Illusions, I’d say to go with the 20/0/0/20/30 for what you’re looking to do; you get everything you want except Elasticity which, IMO, is the least significant of your requirements.

Edit: Er.. and Bleed on crit which is a bit more important. x_x

What do you typically do in WvW? I ask because I used to used to run a very similar glam build in WvW before the confusion and staff nerfs.

If you’re doing small group roaming then I can see your build working okay mainly in a support role. If you’re running solo or with a zerg then I think you’d be better off not going into the Illusions tree unless you’re trying for a shatter build. That’s not to say that running with those weapons and utility skills won’t work. I just think your trait points could serve you better elsewhere for your gameplay style.

If… you’re looking for an aoe condi wvw zerg build then go with iZerker bleeds. Trait IC and GS to get 12s iZerkers. This also gives you 5s Mirror Blade that allows you to shatter more often in the middle of their zerg. Maaaybe go 20/20/0/0/30 with GS, Scepter/Torch, and DE. This would still allow you to trait your glams if you really wanted to or you could push those traits over to shatter traits.

Kylia’s Triforce build modded to suit your needs perhaps would work, which is a 20/0/0/20/30 setup, but you’ll lose Illusion bleed on crit, not Elasticity as Chaos said.

Wow i thought my post died, but someone necro’d it for me! In WvW i run by myself maybe 30% of the time. Maybe 20% with a small group, and 50% of the time in a zerg, with a small group.

I’ve been running a hybrid spec for a long time. And i really enjoy it for Pve and WvW. I don’t clear arah paths in 30 minutes or less, or your money back or anything. But i have a lot of fun doing what i do.

I finally settled on
http://tinyurl.com/kewsrlm

I read somewhere that the illusionary haste is comparable to 15% phatasm damage. This number may be WAY off but it made me feel better enough about the build to take it.

I’ve also messed around with a 30/0/30/10/0 version of a PU build with Confusing enhancements. I’m not sure which one i like better, there very similar.

Watching 7 mirros videos (he was imo the best mesmer I’ve ever watched,and i miss him) he said once that he switched builds sometimes daily, so maybe it isn’t such a bad thing that i’m constantly changing. But i feel like i’ll never get quite as good as i could if i don’t stick to one thing.

Why Rampager armor? The toughness of the build seems a bit low for 50% zerging.

The mesmers defense, imo, is not in the armor he wears. I ran full zerkers for a long time. But i enjoy a bit of a hybrid attack. So i went rampagers. Allowing my staff and scepter to hit decently hard, and my conditions to have some sting.

Played a bit with by messing with the armor- why not put a celestial head, chest and leggings, coupled with maintenance oil and fancy potato and leek soup? Bit more toughness, vit, and crit damage for a little loss in power.

Here’s my take on the build, note that I went more for the “spirit of the build” than the “letter of the build”. Fair warning, you will not have confusion on glamours, but I think my alternative is a lot better at keeping pressure up on your target.

The build: http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNArfWlwzKoHTzqGb9ICKFXn3RShq9alZgbXIA-jUBBIgCi5QFRjtMqIasabYqYER1A-w

The specifics:
Armor
I really am not a fan of mesmer’s condition removal options in WvW. traited torch hits one condi every 24 seconds. Mender’s is also a one condi (good with mantras, but else wise it’s 17 seconds for mirror – channel + CD – or 20 for ether). Null field is a great hit all, but it restricts your location and can cause AoE’s to start focusing you.

Hence I like Melandru runes. Condis and stuns start melting off you. With those in mind Cavalier trinkets (makes up the crit damage loss from traveler runes), rabid armor (making up condi and precision) and rampager weapons(rounding out the offensive stats).

End result, a much higher effective health pool since condis will start rolling off you and the much higher toughness will increase the potency of your heals and your resistance to the physical damage. Overall it is a much improved survivability with a slight loss to your damage. Another option would be keep the traveler runes and use Lemongrass and poultry soup (even more potent with melandru runes of course).

Traits
25 in dueling “your clones cause 3 seconds of confusion when they are killed” very misleading and does not help fully understand how it works. The confusion is AoE around where the clone died. Player A, B, and C are near the clone, A kills it, all three of them get confusion. It doesn’t matter if B and C never attacked the clone, they still get the confusion. Here’s the best part: this activates even if the clones death isn’t caused by damage

When you make a new clone, and you already have 3 out, one of your old clones is automatically “killed” thus procing this trait. With the confusion when entering/leaving glamours you get 5 second of confusion, but opponents are unlikely to enter the area if they can’t help it. Best bet is it’s 1 stack of confusion that’ll last 5 seconds. With this trait, ever auto chain on scepter and every dodge roll is a potential confusion stack (25 points deep in dueling, no reason not to get deceptive evasion).

You do get sharper images, but your attack frequency’s are 6.5 second and 5.7 seconds with torch and staff clones. I wanted to get more from this trait. Enter the duelist: 8 hits, attacks every 6.5 seconds (4.4 seconds of not hitting) AND can combo with feedback for more confusion, slap on phantasmal fury to ensure those bleed procs and empowered illusions for the damage mod and you have a monster at your disposal.

Moving on, I’m traiting the torch. I’m not the biggest fan of the phantasm, but the prestige is truly a godly skill. Effectively we’ve rolled decoy and signet of midnight together and gave it burst damage. It is this reason I don’t slot decoy on the skill bar, despite leaving 5 points open to grab IC.

Illusions line. Taking out the staff, you no longer need Illusionary Elasticity. I’m also perfectly happy without compounding power since I’m 25 deep in the precision/crit damage tree. What I do want is longer confusion durations. add on quicker phantasm attacks and I’m all set here (do look this trait up when making builds, it effects each phantasm differently).

5 points open, your options:

• IC: quicker CDs on a block, the duelist, an immobilize, and opens up decoy as a possibility.
• Duelist Discipline: foe tries to run, duelist can track them down longer. foe tries to run, you have a longer range and quicker CD stun skill.
• Wastrels Punishment: between magic bullet and signet of domination you have 5 seconds of stun duration. this could really increase the potency of your finisher (likely sword 2)
• Vengeful Images: A very distant 4th IMO. but it does buy you some extra damage (beyond the confusion on death) should they realize the treat of your phantasms and move to take them out.

A just as viable option on trading some offense for defense would be -10 in illusions and 15 into chaos for the regen + protection effects as well as manipulation CDs or illusionary defense (or 15 into inspiration and picking up extra phantasm health/quicker movement speed with clones).

Skill bar
I kept the scepter and torch together. Both are rather defensive weapons (through stealth and with the block/fact that it is range). I figure you’re going to want to stay back and use this combo til you notice an opening which is where you’ll want to swap.

sword/pistol: I’ve already explained why I wanted the pistol. I like incorporating sword as you get the immobilize to help aid in a finisher but you can also use blurred frenzy defensively should the need arise (or it may just be the finisher skill I was talking about). sword is also going to be the weapon you’re going to want to attack with once you get them stunned for higher physical damage since they’ll will not be taking confusion damage at this point.

Healing: I fully understand why you took mirror (prevalence of projectiles), but keep in mind that the skill doesn’t go into cooldown until after the channel. effectively you have much weaker heal that is only 3 seconds less CD than ether feast. This just isn’t going to keep you alive in solo/small group, which you said you spend 50% of your WvW time split between.

Signet of Domination: My armor/build lacks the condition damage of yours, this makes up the difference. Put it’s active next to magic bullet and you have plenty of time to kill off a weakened opponent. Make sure to use bullet before signet, so if they use a stun breaker, not only will any confusion stacks hit harder, but you also get the longer duration stun as the one that sticks on them.

Blink: lacking the staff, this is your disengage of choice.

Feedback: With my preference for melandru runes, I don’t see a need for null field, Feedback however is everything you want it to be. Ethereal field for your projectile, leap and blast finishers as well as massive damage to anything that ranges you.

Mass Invis: When situations go south.

When your in a zerg you could probably swap blink for null for better team support, and you may want to swap out the sword main to just have scepter on both sides (assuming the front line is too packed to get any damage with the sword). I wouldn’t swap out the signet as it really helps your damage and really lets you punish anyone that overextends.

Sigils
I’m curious if sigil of paralysation stacks. If so putting them on both the sword and pistol for 6.5 total stun duration would be hilarious. Sigil of Impact would also be nice on this set for 10% damage bonus once you stun them.

Energy sigils on either set help for staying alive, give you extra clones, which proceed to kill the old clone and stack confusion. I’m rather partial to this option giving some more thought since you can’t pick up the 15 in chaos +15 in inspiration combo for easy protection.

for a stacking sigil, you’ll probably want perception. doing so puts you at a respectable 47% chance to crit (53% with quality maintenance oil, 55% if you put the last 5 points in dueling, one more percent if you take master oil). swapping to a sigil of accuracy after your done stacking and your up to near 60%.