Guild Wars 2

Awwh yeah, with these new trait changes, all sorts of NEW builds will come out. I wonder what FANTASTICALLY AMAZINGLY DIVERSE builds we can make as Phantasm.

Oh, there’s really only one now? I guess that’s cool…

New Phantasm Build:
0/15/0/25/25 with 5 points leftover!

What does this all mean?!

Well, you’re most likely going to grab…
Dueling:
Critical Infusion Gain 5 seconds of vigor on delivering a critical hit. This effect can only trigger once every 5 seconds
Sharper Images Illusions inflict bleeding on critical hits
Blade Training +50 precision while wielding a one-handed sword or a spear. Reduces the recharge of sword and spear skills by 20%.

Inspiration:
Vengeful Images Grants retaliation to Phantasms
Phantasmal Healing Phantasms grant regeneration to nearby allies
Phantasmal Strength Phantasms do 15% more damage
Compounding Celerity Move faster for each active illusion
Persisting Images Phantasms have 20% more health

Illusions:
Illusionists Celerity Illusion-summoning skills recharge 20% faster
Illusionary Retribution All shatter skills inflict confusion
Shattered Strength Shattering illusions grants you 1 stack of might per illusion (10 seconds)
Compounding Power 3% more damage for each of your active illusions
Phantasmal Haste Phantasms recharge 20% faster

So many diversities!

Notes on the last 5 trait points:

Place them in Dueling for traited Pistol or Phantasmal Fury.
Place them in Inspiration for Mender’s Purity or traited Focus.

Note on Inspiration:
You can replace Persisting Images with Mender’s Purity or traited Focus.

GEAR:
Whatever DIVERSE gear you were using before, YOU CAN STILL USE!

WEAPONS:
Keep using those DIVERSE Phantasm build weapons. (Cough Sword/X Cough)
I personally suggest using Sword/Sword + Staff/Greatsword/Scepter/Focus/Pistol/Torch!

UTILITIES:
Diversity has no place here. Run iDefender, Signet of Illusions and the third will be based on what you’re fighting/going up against! (Feedback, Arcane Thievery, Blink!)
Note: In WvW, iDefender can be replaced with Decoy.

Please keep in mind that this opening post, while satirical, is also a serious, viable build with the new update in mind.

Thank you, and have a nice day.

Hurray for Diversity!

You can now have two phantasm builds. One with at least 25 illusions, for more reliable casting of phantasms. Another with the old setup, except without the 5 points in illusions, for more damage but less reliability.

Sorry if I’m not being overly negative.

Hurray, look at all that diversity!! I don’t know what to pick.

OP is definitely a “cup half full” person.

DiogoSilva.7089:

You can now have two phantasm builds. One with at least 25 illusions, for more reliable casting of phantasms. Another with the old setup, except without the 5 points in illusions, for more damage but less reliability.

Sorry if I’m not being overly negative.

Since you seem to be maining an elem let me speak to you in an elemy way:
Basic attunement swapping cooldown increase to 25 seconds.

Wouldn’t be a big deal right?

That’s not comparable, but I’ll give you a better example: elementalists drastically depend on the attunement bonus of their arcana traitline. If the devs nerfed it, people would rage with reason, and at least demand that base attunement cooldowns were decreased to compensate for the nerf. Which is kind what is happening with the mesmer’s change.

It’s pretty comparable. I mean if you go 30 in arcana you’ll still be fine, but if not ur f’d up beyond repair.

XRay.1920:

It’s pretty comparable. I mean if you go 30 in arcana you’ll still be fine, but if not ur f’d up beyond repair.

It simply isn’t comparable. The Elementalist Arcane tree has traits that can support pretty much every build from D/D, S/D and Staff. So taking lots of points in it is never a bad thing. The Illusions tree however mainly focuses on shredding where as phantasms are something you want staying around for a while.

Some may say that because SOME phantasms build take 20 already in illusions to get Phantasmal Haste, my build doesn’t take it because at high level fractals there are very few instances where a phantasm will last much longer than their first attack round so being able to trait into all the various CD reductions is much more important. Having to put 25 into lllusions for this CD trait will mean we either have to trait for CD reduction OR damage increases as doing both (for both weapon sets) simply isn’t possible. The damage various being 25 in Inspiration and 10 in Domination. You can do it for one weapon set and that is Sword/Sword & Sword/Focus but who would run that?

Compounding Power 3% more damage for each of your active illusions

This doesn’t apply to your phantasms damage, only your self and shatter damage. Just like the 6 set effect from ogre runes doesn’t either. Seriously, how are people still not aware of this bug?

Regardless, it’d be stupid to spec ANYTHING other than a shatter spec for tournaments now, all these other builds will only be good for theory crafting/PVE/mediocre sPVP vs baddies

koolmutt.9827:

Compounding Power 3% more damage for each of your active illusions

This doesn’t apply to your phantasms damage, only your self and shatter damage. Just like the 6 set effect from ogre runes doesn’t either. Seriously, how are people still not aware of this bug?

Regardless, it’d be stupid to spec ANYTHING other than a shatter spec for tournaments now, all these other builds will only be good for theory crafting/PVE/mediocre sPVP vs baddies

And what other trait is useful for adept? You theoretically have 3 phantasms out at all times, so then your BF damage is increased. Oh no, our BF does more damage? That’s not good!

300-400 BF damage isn’t anything to sneeze at. I’m not knocking your build, as this might be the closest to a pre-patch phant mesmer, but ultimately the difference is big enough that people aren’t going to be spec’ing phants at all anymore.

Stupid how every other class is getting some sort of build diversity options (besides rangers), but we’re all being pigeonholed to ultimately be nothing except a shatter spec in high end tPVP.

Yeah pretty much. This build was my take on a serious phant build with the new changes, but it’s disgusting how little diversity you’re going to have as a Mesmer with the new patch.

Time to dust off the shatter build and start practicing again…

lol now its shatter all the way I guess…

But yeah…as koolmutt said…the only thing ranger and mesmer in common is they are the only 2 classes having less and less builds by the time more and more patches come out.

Hrm… you’re right though, they should remove the trait, freeing up your 25 points in Illusions.

-_-

Stop crying, will ya?

With Signet of Illusions fix we won’t need to pump out as much phantasms as before, to begin with.

Here is a diverse build for you: 20/20/0/30/0, take Restorative Mantras instead of IC, enjoy boosted healing and more condition removal with Mantra of Recovery across the board.

If anything, this + new Signet of Illusions will make Phantasm Mesmer even more OP 1v1 and a bit more viable in anything other than that.

Sorry Gaidax but your only partially right. In high level fractals where taking anything but zerker gear is pretty much pointless cause everything hits like a truck even with stacked toughness a lot of phantasm builds don’t even take the Signet or the trait because they still die after one attack and thus being able to pump them out as fast as possible is much more important.

Gaidax.7835:

-_-

Stop crying, will ya?

With Signet of Illusions fix we won’t need to pump out as much phantasms as before, to begin with.

Here is a diverse build for you: 20/20/0/30/0, take Restorative Mantras instead of IC, enjoy boosted healing and more condition removal with Mantra of Recovery across the board.

If anything, this + new Signet of Illusions will make Phantasm Mesmer even more OP 1v1 and a bit more viable in anything other than that.

Khm so here’s the deal:

Without iCelerity and with a fix to SoI phantasm mesmers will be resorting to SoI to try and keep their little glass figures up longer to compensate. However Shattered Conditions will remove conditions from the group on shatter, so you’ll want to shatter stuff for that reason. However without iCelerity, you might not always be able to, unless you absolutely always spec Deceptive Evasion, which if you were a Phantasm Mesmer you often would replace with Phantasmal fury which again is a dps loss. Then there’s also that you’ll have less phantasm uptime cause recasting them will be a pain in the butt and circlejerk this around a bit, might be you’ll see the problem…

All in all I don’t see the logic in shattered conditions change and moving iCelerity so far up… Unless they plan on making mesmer another ele with 0 10 0 30 30…..

XRay.1920:

All in all I don’t see the logic in shattered conditions change and moving iCelerity so far up… Unless they plan on making mesmer another ele with 0 10 0 30 30…..

Even then, you still don’t get Deceptive Evasion, nor do you get the super awesome new Bountiful Interruption, which makes 25 stacks of might super easy + Signet of Inspiration for skill-less teamplayer!

Hexxen.7216:

because they still die after one attack and thus being able to pump them out as fast as possible is much more important.

The fixed signet makes the Phantasmal Defender a free +16,5k HP buff to someone nearby. If you don’t want to use that, fine. But it’s too strong to not use for dungeons in all realistic cases.

Esplen.3940:

Even then, you still don’t get Deceptive Evasion, nor do you get the super awesome new Bountiful Interruption, which makes 25 stacks of might super easy + Signet of Inspiration for skill-less teamplayer!

The new trait notes says “gives Might” not “gives 5 stacks of Might”. Sorry, but it was highly unrealistic after all.

Carighan.6758:

The fixed signet makes the Phantasmal Defender a free +16,5k HP buff to someone nearby. If you don’t want to use that, fine. But it’s too strong to not use for dungeons in all realistic cases.

free ? it consumes 2/3 of your utility slots …

Carighan.6758:

The new trait notes says “gives Might” not “gives 5 stacks of Might”. Sorry, but it was highly unrealistic after all.

Yeah, they made interrupting a bit more attractive, but I don’t see it as niche build yet … The trait CDs and the lack of interrupt skills don’t make up.

Nretep.2564:

Yeah, they made interrupting a bit more attractive, but I don’t see it as niche build yet … The trait CDs and the lack of interrupt skills don’t make up.

True.
I mean it’s not terribly bad:

• LAE interrupt on Sword #4
• CAE interrupt on GS #5
• Single target interrupt from Mantra of Distraction
• Single target interrupt / AE interrupt from F3

That’s my setup at least.

But yeah, not overly good either. I guess it’s nice that interrupting is now worth more, but it’s not a class spec yet. Not sure whether that’d be smart either ,but we’d need at least one interrupt on every weapon then.

Hrm… interrupt as part of the Scepter auto-attack chain? With how slow it fires they might as well add it to both the first and the second shot. :P

Carighan.6758:

The fixed signet makes the Phantasmal Defender a free +16,5k HP buff to someone nearby. If you don’t want to use that, fine. But it’s too strong to not use for dungeons in all realistic cases.

Trust me I am super happy they fixing the Signet but sorry no high level fractals and actually a lot of cases using iDefender isn’t your best option because he takes 50% damage from everyone in range including other illusions so he may save you like 3k hp at most in a group situation and thus is a wasted slot. He will still die instantly(or very very close to instantly) in high level fracts, which is were I will see the biggest hit to my build from the reorganization of this trait.