Guild Wars 2

I was hoping to get some feedback on [this hybrid] (condi/direct damage) build idea based on what I am seeing for the December patch.

On paper it looks like a good mix of shatter/blackwater. I am hoping that faster Decoy will make up for the loss of the 1 second stealth duration increase, but I will miss the boons and the constant protection/aegis I got out of them.

I normally do solo/duo roaming WvW and have been using [this build] the last couple of months.

Taldren, i have ran the same weapons setup. Listen, this weapons setup is only good for 2 things.

1 vs 1 and small group roaming. It has 0 ability to take on more than 1 person, and dies under Ranged Pressure. If the enemy gets an immobilize off of you, your good as dead. Why do I even say this? because I have played it for 3 months.

Then again, you can still play with it.

I assume you are speaking of the build for next patch?

I should point out that I mostly solo or duo roam … so I normally don’t take on whole groups

I found the changes to MoR from last patch have helped with the immobilize a lot. Between all the stealth to refresh MoR and the fact that Torch removes conditions I really don’t have an issue with it. With my current build I only go with AT because I can use it in stealth without breaking stealth … which can be hilarious.

As for the changes next patch … I will wait and see what they do with scepter 1. I was stuck between that and Sword. I like sword because it forces your clones to close on the enemy to spread the wealth of conditions when they die, but the Torment on scepter is also pretty sexy.

With Illusionists Celerity moving to 15 in Illusion I figured I could generate enough clones to be able to shatter and still have enough to make the clone death blossom work.

Yeah, was talking about both of them. However, I, too am interested in their choice of how to change Scepter. If they make it so that it’s more durable in 1 vs X fights, then I shall keep it. I mean, the weapon focuses on just 1 vs 1, and crumbles when hit by AoE pressure.

Hybrids are actually quite nice, you just gotta find the right balance to make every stat, skill and trait be useful.
I run this condi/damage build atm
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-jEDB4MCyk0w0HBKBqIaslRFRjVvATdKpqUwqXA6YQWdA+ELrWKgnmDA-w

It has a lot of flexibility in weapon choices due to the 0/20/30/20/0 layout.
And being able to apply decent condi damage on top of decent direct damage can put a lot of pressure on the enemy.

This is what i am aiming for in the next few weeks
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-j0BBYMCyk0wUIBK5rIaslhFRjVVjIqWlETKgnmDA-w

Even in this build there are a lot of things that are optional, like the weapons, runes, food, sigils, most of the traits, can all be filled in to what flavour you want.

And about Aoe, i think all mesmers are quite vulnerable to aoe pressure since so much of our offense and defense is in clones and phantasms which die in aoe very fast. It’s not just a problem for the scepter.

As for the OP.
I do seem to like your current build more than the one you want to get in the future.
The planned one seems quite fragile to me, but that may be just my own preference since i like to run sturdy builds that can survive a storm when a zerg passes by

Ironvos.9014:

Hybrids are actually quite nice, you just gotta find the right balance to make every stat, skill and trait be useful.
I run this condi/damage build atm
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-jEDB4MCyk0w0HBKBqIaslRFRjVvATdKpqUwqXA6YQWdA+ELrWKgnmDA-w

I tried that very build for a few weeks and found it not to be practical. The loss of faster torch hurts a lot and the faster refresh of scepter doesn’t do much for us. Plus the two condition removals every 24 seconds beats the single condition removal every 20 seconds. I would even make the argument that +20% condition duration is better than +200 condition damage.

Taldren.7523:

Ironvos.9014:

Hybrids are actually quite nice, you just gotta find the right balance to make every stat, skill and trait be useful.
I run this condi/damage build atm
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-jEDB4MCyk0w0HBKBqIaslRFRjVvATdKpqUwqXA6YQWdA+ELrWKgnmDA-w

I tried that very build for a few weeks and found it not to be practical. The loss of faster torch hurts a lot and the faster refresh of scepter doesn’t do much for us. Plus the two condition removals every 24 seconds beats the single condition removal every 20 seconds. I would even make the argument that +20% condition duration is better than +200 condition damage.

I don’t take the scepter trait for the lower cooldowns but for the 200 cond damage.
With so much cond removal going on in wvw i find that cond damage is more useful than extra duration since it gives it’s damage faster before it gets cleansed.
The 200 extra cond damage has good synergy with the torch skills.
When i switch the torch for focus however i take the focus trait instead of scepter.
The torch trait really isn’t as good as it seems, and going 20 in domination seems like a waste since its minor traits are really useless.

Ironvos.9014:

Hybrids are actually quite nice, you just gotta find the right balance to make every stat, skill and trait be useful.
I run this condi/damage build atm
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-jEDB4MCyk0w0HBKBqIaslRFRjVvATdKpqUwqXA6YQWdA+ELrWKgnmDA-w

It has a lot of flexibility in weapon choices due to the 0/20/30/20/0 layout.
And being able to apply decent condi damage on top of decent direct damage can put a lot of pressure on the enemy.

This is what i am aiming for in the next few weeks
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-j0BBYMCyk0wUIBK5rIaslhFRjVVjIqWlETKgnmDA-w

Even in this build there are a lot of things that are optional, like the weapons, runes, food, sigils, most of the traits, can all be filled in to what flavour you want.

And about Aoe, i think all mesmers are quite vulnerable to aoe pressure since so much of our offense and defense is in clones and phantasms which die in aoe very fast. It’s not just a problem for the scepter.

As for the OP.
I do seem to like your current build more than the one you want to get in the future.
The planned one seems quite fragile to me, but that may be just my own preference since i like to run sturdy builds that can survive a storm when a zerg passes by

Taldren and I play on SoR, no amount of tankyness survives teir 1 zergs.

Samhayn.2385:

Ironvos.9014:

Hybrids are actually quite nice, you just gotta find the right balance to make every stat, skill and trait be useful.
I run this condi/damage build atm
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-jEDB4MCyk0w0HBKBqIaslRFRjVvATdKpqUwqXA6YQWdA+ELrWKgnmDA-w

It has a lot of flexibility in weapon choices due to the 0/20/30/20/0 layout.
And being able to apply decent condi damage on top of decent direct damage can put a lot of pressure on the enemy.

This is what i am aiming for in the next few weeks
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAW7flwzipXUTkGb9IipHBHyBcnUAdSXJF62FC-j0BBYMCyk0wUIBK5rIaslhFRjVVjIqWlETKgnmDA-w

Even in this build there are a lot of things that are optional, like the weapons, runes, food, sigils, most of the traits, can all be filled in to what flavour you want.

And about Aoe, i think all mesmers are quite vulnerable to aoe pressure since so much of our offense and defense is in clones and phantasms which die in aoe very fast. It’s not just a problem for the scepter.

As for the OP.
I do seem to like your current build more than the one you want to get in the future.
The planned one seems quite fragile to me, but that may be just my own preference since i like to run sturdy builds that can survive a storm when a zerg passes by

Taldren and I play on SoR, no amount of tankyness survives teir 1 zergs.

No, but tankyness plus mobility will have you running around laughing at them all day long (Hell fellow Rallians!)

Weird, I have the exact same trait setup for Dec. 10 patch, not sure if I’m gonna stick to it though. Difference is that I use sword+sword/scepter+torch and celestial armor+amulet+rings on most of my hybrid builds.

I made the celestial armor few months ago and started experimenting with different builds. 10/25/10/15/0 was my “base template”, and 20/25/10/15/0 is probably my favourite.
I like interrupt builds a lot, and currently I’m testing hybrid 20/30/20/0/0 with Bountiful Interruption and daze mantra for might stacking. Seems to work well, although I miss Halting Strike from the more interrupt heavy builds.