Guild Wars 2

In the past few months I have been using many variations of so called lockdown builds and so far I enjoied them all. Really fun play style and probably the one with more longevity. I went from Chaos’s Mindcrush 30/10/0/0/30 to my 30/10/30/0/0. Recently I keep switching from 20/20/30/0/0 (arguably the best talents spread) to a 20/30/20/0/0 which I find similar. It could even be better than the most common 20/20/30 if the FI internal CD was less than 15sec.

So, instead of keep swapping between the two builds I though… why not merging them together? But I’d like to hearing from you, Lockdown lovers, how you would finish the build.

The core of this build I have in mind is 30 in dueling with FI and 30 in chaos for CI. Imagine how you would feel by interruptin somone, nailing him down and having 3 sec of quickness. I can’t wait to try it :P.
10 Points to spare. Would you put them in domination for halting strike? (I just love it but the build will be somehow a bit short on power, so the trait would end up hitting like a wet noodle).
Or do you see a better talent for the spot?

Alternatively I am thinking of 10pt in Inspiration for Mender’s purity.

Weapons. High crit rate means sharper images and a lot of bleeds. Sword+pistol would be my first choice. However, izerker and iwarden are solid choices for bleeds. Initially I thought to go with GS and sw+p or sw+f. However these aggressive weapons sets will force me to pick at least 2 disengage utilities like blink and decoy. But this leads me to the Utilities:

MoD is a must which means no slot for a condition removal (I do not think mender’s purity will be enough). Consequently, given (MoD)(Blink or Decoy)(MoR or Disenchanter) mandatory, I feel GS+sword/pistol or focus to be too aggressive if not backed up by at least 2 disengage utilities (not counting MI here). Therefore I am thinking of using a softer 2h, like Staff instead of GS. Second set sw+p or focus.

Gear. I am debated between pumping on crit chance/crit damage, power, a mixture of the two, or prioritize condi duration since lack of points in domination will make bleeds suffer. Also, I do like chill and wouldn’t mind adding a sigil.

I’d appreciate your imput on sigils, runes and the gear generally speaking.

Thanks!

Can you post the link to the build? I will feedback on it later as soon as i get home.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsaWlwzCpnRTmGb9IipHBnvJcnKAdlewbXItB

Here it is. All gear is missing.

Ty

Something to think about – you could go with the disenchanter (vs MoR) along with mender’s purity. This gets you some much desired boon removal (dat stability) when running an interrupt focused build.

For awhile I’ve run MoR with mender’s in hot join/yoloq with chillruption, but am going to force myself to switch to the disenchanter for tPvP as it brings much more to the table, albeit a little less controlled condition removal.

I agree. In fact I was thinking either 10 pt in dom. + MoR or 10 pt in ins. + Disenchanter.
Any idea what gear would be best?

I think I would try something like this for a 0-30-30-10-0 build:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscRl4zipXUTjGb9IipHBnvJcnKAdlewbXItB-jEDBYLCiUEAEIRMBSQMRSZtMsIasqFYKXBWFTR1ceIyW0o+EYSBAzyI-w
Mantra heal+Mender´s Purity should be enough to survive fights vs condition heavy classes and it´s more reliable then iDisenchanter (I dont like being chased around without on-demand condition remove).
The weapons are quite different to your choice but GS gives you a more controllable interrupt (compared with Chaos Storm) and ranged dmg to chase running enemies. OH sword vs pistol seems to be personel preference, i like sword more because the interrupt is on a shorter cooldown and I always use Blade Training for additional reduction.
As you said, it´s a rather aggressive weapon set, but with Decoy, Blink (use cooldown reduction if you like, I´m swapping Master of Manipulation and Debilitating Dissipation all the time) and some toughness you should be able to survive most fights you encounter. I have not tested this yet, but 10-30-30-0-0 worked well for me (FI helps with recharging mantras, so 2 of them in one build shouldn´t be a large problem).

While Domination is a good choice, I’d throw my vote in with 10 in Inspiration but here’s my take on both.

INSPIRATION
Inspiration works for more than just Mender’s; there’s actually a lot of awesome traits you can grab. You could run Glamour cooldowns and grab Null Field for both AoE condition removal AND boonstrip since you cant get shattered concentration. In fact, I think Null Field or Arcane Thievery should be somewhere on your radar so you’re not screwed over by Stability. Or, if you’re feeling like a hero (and want some reflects in your swag) Medic’s Feedback is excellent and often overlooked.

DOMINATION
You get quite a lot for those 10 points, and everything is useful. 100 powe, 3x Vuln on interrupt, and a choice of Crippling Dissipation, Halting Strike, or Empowered Illusions. You’re guaranteed a boost to your damage if you go this route, even if you take crippling (extra power and vuln on interrupt).

@ schattenlied

Yours is a valid build too and one I have munched on for a while. Only lacking in boons removal.
Weapons. I would run with Gs only if I decide to have both decoy and blink. If not, staff feels safer.
Sword vs pistol. Sword lets you have more dazes. Pistol more bleeds. I guess it’s down to personal choice and armor. I like your WvW setup. What would you use in pvp?

Oh forgot to mention.. Sigils and such, if not Energy, then fire or hydromancy.

And I’d vote Lyssa Runes as my top (you already get a bunch of random boons, may as well add more on your heal as well as a bit of condi mitigation) , Grenth runes second (AoE chill ftw, especially if you slot a hydromancy rune on staff).

Good point Chaos. But failing to remove boons with null field when ppl dodge over it it’s kind of meh. And cd it’s pretty long; not really sure about it.
I think that spending those 10 pts will depend on chosen utilities:

1. MoD + blink + decoy —> inspiration for mender’s
2. MoD + blink/decoy + boons removal —> domination or inspiration for extra boon removal

And chosen trait lines will dictate weapon:

1. Inspiration —> Gs. More aggressive but blink & decoy will help
2. Domination —> Staff. Only one disengage tool feels a bit risky. Staff can help a bit

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Oh forgot to mention.. Sigils and such, if not Energy, then fire or hydromancy.

And I’d vote Lyssa Runes as my top (you already get a bunch of random boons, may as well add more on your heal as well as a bit of condi mitigation) , Grenth runes second (AoE chill ftw, especially if you slot a hydromancy rune on staff).

I like Lyssa. It would boost crit even more. Why not chill on crit then?

trooper.2650 what do you plan to use quickness for? sword auto? does it increase phantasm’s attack frequency?

trooper.2650:

@ schattenlied

Yours is a valid build too and one I have munched on for a while. Only lacking in boons removal.
Weapons. I would run with Gs only if I decide to have both decoy and blink. If not, staff feels safer.
Sword vs pistol. Sword lets you have more dazes. Pistol more bleeds. I guess it’s down to personal choice and armor. I like your WvW setup. What would you use in pvp?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAscRlwzipXUTkGb9IipHBnvJckKYalewbXItB-TsAg0CnIYSxkjJDTSmsMNIZByEEA

I´m not playing much pvp, only to test some of my build ideas before I buy new equipment for wvw, so this is rather untested. There´s not nearly as much room to kite as it is in wvw, so I always use 2 stunbreakers in this stun-heavy meta. Mobility is important to me as well, so i use Runes of Speed instead of Traveler – their life boost would open some equipment slots for more offensive pieces in wvw, but for pvp I already use Berserker as the most offensive amulet so this is not an option. To remove boons I have to rely on sword autoattack and Sigil of Nullification. Mantra of Resolve should be sufficient to cleanse condition and it helps your team-mates as well (which is less important for a solo-roamer in wvw).
I would definitly prefer more equipment options for pvp though, the build doesn´t feel well balanced to me, too much life, not enough toughness… but that´s what I would use in pvp.

Edit:

trooper.2650 what do you plan to use quickness for? sword auto? does it increase phantasm’s attack frequency?

You could recharge your mantras, cast your healing skill much faster, dish out a full GS burst (Mirror Blade+iBerserker+Mind Stab) or create some panic with a realy fast Blurred Frenzy+Shatter on an already immobilized target. It´s absolutly awesome to revive teammates if you combine it with iWave – interrupting the finisher+target is immobilized out of range for the stomp+quickness to get your ally up as fast as possible – be creative.

Since you have MP, you might want to consider Mantra of Recovery. It would give you the same amount of condition cleanse (more, actually) with a much shorter CD as well as free up a utility slot. Less direct healing though.

I like Mender’s Purity with mantra heal but the only problem with that is that in 1v1s against condition heavy classes they usually cast then reapply those conditions as quickly as you remove them. Then you’re left with a decent cd on a subpar heal. But it is the best choice for Mender’s imo. I would probably run dual sword/staff just because it gives you kiting capabilities and the best dueling setup, to me anyways (other OHs are good but I find pistol to be too redundant for CI). Runes probably Lyssa since it makes MI an even better escape tool if things go bad. For sigils I like to use force more since I really hate when fire messes up my on-swaps, so I would go force/energy with hydromancy on staff.

I’ve really tried to like Furious Interruptions but I think the ICD is too long. It would be so much better to use if the cooldown was 7-9 seconds. 15 seconds just seems so inconsistent to me.

@shattenlied
I am pretty much using the same build except the other night I was using focus instead of sword, MoD instead of blink and different sigils. Read on for more details.
Defenitely a great build. So far I am satisfied. Haven’t tried in wvw yet. Will let you know.

@gesho
like shattenlied says, it can be used for anything. Because of its long cd, I tend to loose track of when quickness procs if the fight last for a while, thus I just take the nice boost for whatever I am doing at the moment be dps, healing, ressing, stomping. But it can also go wasted for 3 secs isn’t very long and you could be just running away in that moment. Good trait, but defenitely it needs a little boost. I take it because I like having 300 in crit and 30% crit damage and the boost it’s handy to have.

@calavel
tried it. I dunno… having MP with MoR as the only condi removal feels enough for certain fights and defenitely not enough for others. Went back to Mantra of Resolve which is by far the best condi removal we’ve got imho.

@raunchy
I agree with what you say on MP and MoR. In fact I decided to drop inspiration line and went 10pts in domination for halting strike, which I love. Ether my heal now.
For sigils I still like battle on swap for both weapons. First because 10pts in dom. feels not enough and I want more power and second because it boosts bleeds too. Runes, I tried lyssa and air. Both solid options. But I went back to speed. The boost provided almost feels like I am on a different profession, such is the greatness of speed in this game. I seem to down performing when not using a speed buff while I do amazing thing when using it. Top it off with a larger hp pool and I feel god.

Last. I went for focus rather than pistol. iWarden seems less buggy now… at least in pvp it works fine. And I have to say that I prefer a mobile iwarden over a static one (given it works) because chances the fight will stay in the same spot are not many. If it does the phantasm will likely not last long at all. It was a glorious night yesterday

I play exclusively lockdown in tPvP, and I run MP with MoR with great effectiveness. However, I run a 30/0/30/10/0 with 3 mantra charges. It’s going to be a little ineffective with only 2 removal charges, and the heal itself is inferior to ether renewal without the 3rd charge.

With 30 dom a 3 charge MP/MoR is better than the condi removal mantra and a heal on par with our others, but without that extra charge I don’t think it’s worth it. I would pass on it specifically for your build.

I prefer pistol over focus or sword for interrupt heavy builds. The pistol interrupt is more reliable and instantly on demand than the other two options, with the sword taking 2 button presses and the focus taking 1s-2s of set up time before the pull. You aren’t going to be purposefully interrupting many heals or important skills with a set up time. A guaranteed stun is also more effective than a daze or a pull (for interrupting… a pull is more effective as a positioning mechanic).

Hey nettle, I replied to you on the other 3d.
I love pistol, don’t get me wrong but it overwrites CI that’s why not everyone likes it in a lockdown CI based build. I’d probably use pistol with FI though.
The nice thing about focus is that you can cast curtain and let it stay there for few secs, take the buff, cripple the enemies and aoe pull at the right moment either for escaping, chasing or controlling the field. I also think that focus is better vs thieves but it could be just a personal preference