Guild Wars 2

I noticed that hardly any of the popular Mesmer builds posted on these forums assign any trait points to Chaos. Why is that? Some of those traits look pretty nice to me. What am I missing?

Bistouri.6038:

I noticed that hardly any of the popular Mesmer builds posted on these forums assign any trait points to Chaos. Why is that? Some of those traits look pretty nice to me. What am I missing?

…you must have missed every PU build ever.

Wow, look at that… it’s one of those really helpful and informative posts.

Bistouri.6038:

Wow, look at that… it’s one of those really helpful and informative posts.

It’s not clear what you’re talking about, since PU builds are one of the most common WvW/PvP builds and they use 30 in Chaos.

Sure, you won’t see Chaos used in PvE because PvE is based on a minimal defense, maximum DPS strategy, and Chaos only offers defensive options.

You could almost argue that the Chaos line has more individually valuable traits than any other line. It’s just that they don’t always synergize with other builds (save for PU and lockdown). Also, most of the traits are much less valuable in PvE, though many shine in WvW.

Bunda.2691:

You could almost argue that the Chaos line has more individually valuable traits than any other line…

See, that’s what I thought… so I’m not crazy.

@ Maxinion: Yeah, I guess I should’ve made specific reference to this thread right in this forum as the starting point for my question. The builds that are discussed there kinda got me wondering.

Bistouri.6038:

Bunda.2691:

You could almost argue that the Chaos line has more individually valuable traits than any other line…

See, that’s what I thought… so I’m not crazy.

The other issue is that toughness and boon duration do a lot less for you in PvE than do power, precision, and crit; and that there aren’t too many DPS traits in chaos, except maybe for bountiful interruption. In PvE, DPS outweighs all else.

Bistouri.6038:

Bunda.2691:

You could almost argue that the Chaos line has more individually valuable traits than any other line…

See, that’s what I thought… so I’m not crazy.

@ Maxinion: Yeah, I guess I should’ve made specific reference to this thread right in this forum as the starting point for my question. The builds that are discussed there kinda got me wondering.

Those are all dungeon/fractal builds so of course there are 0 points in chaos

From what I can tell, Chaos line really shines in sPvP and WvW builds, where defense and interrupts are more desirable. The infamous “Prismatic Understanding” (PU) builds I’m sure you’ll eventually read a lot of whining about requires 30 points in Chaos.

Dungeons and Fractals tend to emphasize direct damage, (and reflection) rather than defense or condition damage. Builds that are more effective in that kind of play (mostly PvE) tend to use little or no Chaos line at all.

Why do so many ppl in this forum agressivly response to a simple question or just say useless stuff like “…you must have missed every PU build ever.” or “Those are all dungeon/fractal builds so of course there are 0 points in chaos”.

His question was WHY?!

The answer is that, since damage is the most important thing in PvE, chaos traits just help you survive and grant you more defense. There are simply many other boosts that help your dps much more than everything in Chaos. Chaos is very WvW or PvP oriented, especially for Prismatic Understanding (PU) wich grants you random strong boons + stealth duration while stealthed. If you want good PvE builds, you better start with a meta 0/30/0/25/15 build. If you dislike mantras go for a 10/20/0/25/15 build.

greez

Not going to lie, but reading that fist post by itself makes me think this is a troll post first… So I feel like Pyro’s response was warranted since there was no reference to PvE. I certainly would’ve said something similar had I been first response.

Simply put, be more specific in the OP =)

Because he wasn’t specific in the game mode he was referring to. He just said builds in general. If he actually looked at all builds in general, almost every WvW/PvP build has points in chaos.

He said builds in general. So there are 2 options:

• he is new to the game and does not know wvw / pvp builds wich deserves a normal, informativ answer
• he is not new to the game and know about wvw / pvp so he obviously talks about pve thinking that you will figure that out by yourself

I guess it was the 2nd one.

Xyonon.3987:

He said builds in general. So there are 2 options:

• he is new to the game and does not know wvw / pvp builds wich deserves a normal, informativ answer
• he is not new to the game and know about wvw / pvp so he obviously talks about pve thinking that you will figure that out by yourself

I guess it was the 2nd one.

Hmmm, OP was talking about “popular builds”. Last time I checked, popular builds in this forum were mostly wvw builds ( Osicat’s, Blackwater etc…) with 30 in chaos.

Xyonon, first off thanks for the useful answer (same to all you other guys, of course). As for your last post, the truth, as is so often the case, lies somewhere in the middle. I’m not new to the game but certainly have only a casual understanding of the various mesmer builds (just got back into the class recently). And if my post had been an attempt to troll… jeebus, what a boring troll that would have been.

And yes, I guess I could’ve done a little more research before posting here, I know, I know, mea culpa, but I’m addicted to the kind of helpful explanations one usually gets from the GW2 community, so I got I little lazy, ok? Can you blame me? I guess you can.

It would be nice if people specified the game modes they were talking about. Instead of “what are the best builds”, it should be something more like “what are the best builds for fractals/wvw-solo/tpvp/wvw-zerg”.
This vagueness and ambiguity seems to be a way too common problem.

Psylem.1529:

This vagueness and ambiguity seems to be a way too common problem.

I’m sure Mitch McConnell is hard at work trying to address this appalling situation. Or was it Tracy Flick?