Guild Wars 2

Hi Osi,

What are your thoughts on the upcoming changes to crit damage, and how it might affect this build?

@lucky. As hidden cat already is based on high critchance and power the build is well prepared for lower value of crit dmg.

/osicat

Hey Osicat,

What is the meaning of “PU”?

Valenberg.2450:

Hey Osicat,

What is the meaning of “PU”?

Prismatic Understanding. 30 Chaos trait.

Hehe Latest Vid ;D

/Osicat

Hey Osicat!

Been using your build and i’m loving it, easily my new main build.

I just wanted to ask you something. You use Mantra of Resolve for cond removal, what are your thoughts on using Arcane Thievery instead for WvW? which do you consider more effective overall?

Cheers

Nice vids

Tho a quick question.
Have you found a way to make it work in Spvp/tpvp ? I kinda lack damage output or survivability if i try any kind of power/crit Pu build.
Ending up relying heavily on the teamm8’s. Where a condition PU build does not have that problem .

cheerz Tripp

Void.4239:

Nice vids

Tho a quick question.
Have you found a way to make it work in Spvp/tpvp ? I kinda lack damage output or survivability if i try any kind of power/crit Pu build.
Ending up relying heavily on the teamm8’s. Where a condition PU build does not have that problem .

cheerz Tripp

Dont use PU in spvp. You can’t cap points while invis

@Bloodwine, The ArcaneThivery lack 1 huge aspect to be usefull, it have to land. If I have several conditions who is killing me I need em cleared NOW and if my enemy line of sight, immune or whatever me I ned up seriously screwed. The mantra clear the condis on me instantly without risk of cast be interupted or not land. The mantra also clear condis on team mates.

@Void, Ty mate. For Tpvp/spvp I usualy run Soldier amulett with 125 preci jewel in. I also run “retaliation on block”. If i plan to hold a point I run sword/t + Septer/sword and spec 10-20-30-10 for massive retaliation apply and strong condition managment.

For sPvP hotjoin I feel soldier + s/t – GS let me kill qute well if I just time my abilitys.

/Osicat

Thank you for the contribution.

Only thing I would ask….if you are not wearing ascended gear, what stats would you prioritize for the trinkets/rings etc?

This build is great… however it feels lacking in defense against 1v1 with good thieves. Especially when you come across them on a plain where you cant blink to different levels in terrain. What are your strategies for dealing with thieves with the GS?

@EnderzShadow, I would prio power and toughness folowed by crit chance and vitality. Soldier on armour, knight and zerker on trinkets and zerker weaps is how I would set it up without accended.

@Atiar, The benefit it has on the side of the big dmg and survival is the mobility and ability to chose its abattles. With the full setup I still not died in a situation after i chosed to bail.

Thiefs is a danger yes, but this is still one of the best builds to handle them in wvwvw. To make it easier I line up how I deal with them.

1st, 90% of al thiefs and in general players you meat in wvwvw is no bigg threat to you, 10% is players just like you who dedicate their full game time (for me almost every game hour) to wvwvw roaming and solo or smal team fighting. This are the players your need to identify and tbh after a few years of roaming the realy good romaers almost instantly recognice another good roamer. I often endup /wave and bow and jump around when I find somone who I had hard fights vs in the past or face somone who suprice me by kick my kitten whne i expected a easy win. Alos this ppl often dont die alot, i can spend a full evening soem times with maxed stacks without die, if the thief have 25 , 5 , 5 instacks hes probobly to be feared

Thiefs in wvwvw as a roaming mesmer.

Bigger group fights:

In bigger fights or group combat they are less of a threat thu as you easier can hide among numbers and use frindly defenses and aoe to avoid them. Play tight to team, make sure to never be with less than 50% hp and acctive defenses up, this is what they seek.

Thiefs in smal group combat / gank squads:

If your 5 man team run inot another 5 man team they will do dg to everyone whos not a guardian or a warrior, necros, rangers and in some cases mesmers will be the first “pro” targets. Nake sure you not let them se you take dmg, if you take a big hit you will be focused. Get a enemy down in other team and start aoe the group around it, here is your bets shoot at kill a thief. When he go in to res, and especialy if he in low hp (less than 70%) call a nuke on him or the “shadow house”

Solo roaming run into solo thief:

Prepare for fun, this will be a ahrd fight if hes good. tip here is a: stealth and bail if hes good and you have a GS up, make sure to drop out of combat, swap GS for septer+pistol alternative septer + oh sword. Also change food to preci+toughness food so you reach 1800+ toughness. Then seek combat again and do your best

/Osicat

PS, al. My best PU mesmermovie so far imao:

Maxed burst:

Here we go, some group combat and not only solo roaming in the build.

/Osicat

hi Osicat,

thanks for this build, is sword / pistol the more offensive weapon combo in terms of play style using this build vs the sword / torch? Or you strictly see sword / pistol as more situational weapon set and prefer to have S/T as the main set?

Combo of both GS and Pistol ( GS+ s/p) can be used in party if you feel immortal and want to max your dmg, its not a reccomended setup thu as you wont use the PU enough. Your condition mangment will also be close to zero as you to be able to stealth effective need 2 use decoy, veil and massinvis (blink is a must).

The setups I reccomed is:

Sword/Torch – GS = core, group, solo and zerg

Weakness = Thiefs, d/d eles

Sword / Torch – Septer / Pistol = single target dmg, some duels, work vs some d/d ele setups.

Weakness = group combat

Sword/Torch – Septer /Sword = 1 vs 1 Thiefs and some warriors.

Weakness = bad at chasing or ranged combat

Sword/Torch / Staff = maximice trolling, with trait close to impossible to catch, can be used as a hybrid dmg setup.

Weakness = Low burst dmg.

Important, dont missuse the torch “the presitge”. A perfect used Prestige is a extremly effective attack and should land like =

Blind opponent – use stealth uptime for charge a heal, phantasm or mantra + get al boons – exit thru a sword leap into immobelice into blurred frency – Land presitge dmg (crit for 2,5k~normaly) ontop blurred dmg, a mindwrack and ~1,5-2k burn dmg.

Only backside with torch is its phantasm dela low dmg and is underpowered sens the retaliation and confusion nerfs.

Also, this build would be EXTREMLY strong if we got mainhand pistol. My dream setup=

Sword/Torch + Pistol/Pistol, traited for 1200 range and 20% cd.

/Osicat

alanis.6094:

Andytheffboy.7403:

What do you think of signet of ether? Do you prefer ether feast over it? Also, is staff viable in this build?

Staff is more viable in the Maximized Hybrid Phantasm build. Though, if I were to take staff (and I do, often in that build), I’d greatly suggest Pistol offhand instead of Torch.

Staff isn’t reliable in WvW roaming. Too much defensive kitten over offensive. Better to compensate lack of mobility with runes and blink.

Osicat.4139:

Also, this build would be EXTREMLY strong if we got mainhand pistol. My dream setup=

Sword/Torch + Pistol/Pistol, traited for 1200 range and 20% cd.

/Osicat

I see I’m not the only one salivating over a Sw/T + P/P setup, as long as MH pistol has one evasive/defensive move.

@Curunen, would like a staff like move, port/phase/blink back, clone summoned beside you both shoot and enemy gets immobilized like from sword swap.

1 : auto attack 1 2 3 when 3 do effect and hit harder

2: phase attack, se above cd same as staff 2

3: Sniper attack, longer cd, hits about as hard as blade flurry but in a single shot

/Osicat

Any kind of blink/swap style move would be amazing for sure.

Could you be so kind and put togeather a build with non-ascended armor+trinkets? I want to try this one out and are abit unsure what stats i should take and where.

Updated Hidden Cat to 4.0, exotic version incomming.

/Osicat

Exotic version added.

/Osicat

Osicat.4139:

Exotic version added.

/Osicat

Cheers, thx.

Hi Osi,

I’m coming back to the game after a 8 month break. I’ve not kept up on the state of mesmers, so I’m looking for information on what’s changed, and some optimal builds to get me going again. I have mostly zerker and carrion exotics, but would be fine with farming for whatever is necessary (I play by myself most of the time, and sporadically as I have a baby who monopolizes my time)

Any ideas for a returning player would be greatly appreciated. Where’s a decent place to farm money or crafting materials? Can I do better than exotics gear wise playing alone? Either crafting or whatever?

Thanks in advance to everyone.

Osi, can you explain the changes in 4.0, specifically the decreased crit damage and increase in toughness.

Why so much toughness? It seems a bit overkill given the survivability from stealth this build provides.

@Limey, personally I would start work on my accended weapons by do instances daily (cof x3 + 1 fractal), and 3-5 world events. This give ~ 7 base gold + drops for ~ 3-5 g at the same time as you get mats for your accended weapon. It’s also rather fast and not hardcore grinding as several h of champion train / week.

Check “guild wars stuff” homepage, good guide to find world events.

Beside that, get into the saddle again, start duelling and solo roam some.

@Lord Chesworld III, the build gained toughness, vit while it’s preci remain high and power extremely high. This seve several purposes. First the PU power synergies superb with toughness, it’s traiting give a condi pressure based on might and % toughness! the high crit give good bleed apply. The sharpening stones give power on toughness so it’s a sweet stat.

Also lately I spent more and more time fight in 5 man team with experienced roamers, Zerg diving and fighting extremely outnumbered and still not gone down. A higher toughness give better ability to res, it also only cost % crit dmg.

Crit dmg in its own is a rather expensive stat for PU power. This as it have a high number of attacks and dmg who not rely on the stat. Retaliation, condi dmg on clone crits. It’s high dmg also make it deal good dmg with less need of crit or crit dmg.

This change also prepare the build a bit for the changes to crit dmg, power will get a even more valuable stat when crit dmg gets nerfed.

/Osicat

hi Osicat,

thanks for the update, I think the toughest part is swap out the weapons (assume people who have legendary/ascended), I believe in the previous version of your build, theweapons were berserkers, now they are knights. I t

rchu.8945:

hi Osicat,

thanks for the update, I think the toughest part is swap out the weapons (assume people who have legendary/ascended), I believe in the previous version of your build, theweapons were berserkers, now they are knights. I t

Ultimately, don’t focus on individual pieces – I generally look at the overall stats and try to reach a similar stat load-out.

For example, I had near-all berserker’s accessories, so I played on the builder and came up with this
With this I have ~200 less toughness, but slightly over 200 effective power just sitting around…. With buffs, my effective power is about 300 eff power higher.

It’s all in what you want… of course if you have all ascended already it’ll hurt regardless.

Hey Osci,

For some reason I’m not able to open the links to your build. Would you mind copying the build into a post? Just trait points, traits and the armor/weapons/sigils/runes would do. Thanks.

Personally I find this build lacking somewhat in burst.

I’ve got similar stats to yours and don’t have a problem taking down most things, but the moment you run into something a bit bunker-ish it’s just rather lacklustre. The moment they take your iBerserker down (which any clever player will do), you’re a bit like a dead duck in the water as your DPS drops so significantly that you can’t dent them enough.

It has amazing survivability, but for me it just misses that “oomph”. This doesn’t become a problem when you roam with one or more people so you can focus your DPS, but when you’re solo against a defensive class, it just doesn’t seem to cut the mustard.

… maybe it’s just me doing something wrong, or me just running into the same enemy specs all the time. :P

I think this build is plenty bursty, you just have to know when to time it (ie prestige, i-leap, BF, MW).

With that said, you are always going to run into those kinds of builds where you just can’t kill them. Odds are they can’t kill you either since they invested so much into being tanks. So who cares? I don’t know any build that consistently slices through all types of builds.

Purely anecdotal, but I dropped a warrior insanely fast today with izerk, mirror blade, prestige, i leap combo plus a few whacks with my sword auto attack.

@Marsares- This build has plenty of burst. I started out not really knowing the right rotations and cool downs and osi gave me some pointers on burst combos (see page 1 of thread). After about a month of roaming, I’ve gained a sense of when to use what skills, when to burst, and roughly when skills will be back from cool down. When you get the hang of that, you’ll find opportunites to burst your opponents down. But like Lord Cheswold III says, there will always be those that will not die. Don’t waste 10 minutes of your life trying to fight these kind of people… -_-’

@osi- Overall, is sigil of perception or bloodlust better? I’ve been stacking precision since that’s what you had in your previous build (if I’m not mistaken). In your current build link, it’s now sigil of bloodlust.

@ANdytheffboy: Bloodlust is likely to be hands-down better than Perception once all the crit dmg nerfs are out… Hard to say until we know the exact numbers, but I’d be surprised if it wasn’t the case.

Right now Perception is technically better unless you have Fury, in which case they are close to equal. (Phantasmal Fury makes Bloodlust very attractive)

If you can wait on a purchase, I’d advise it until we have actual numbers.

@Dorkopotamis, Copy pastle this: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAR8flwzKqHTTkGb9IhpH923AnkCV/6SKwttB-jEDBYgCyEEwkIBK1MiZnDZtMsIasabYKXS1aXAaYI2cDRzaO1SBMqyI-w

The other dont work cause you use a protetcion on your webb reader who prevent tiny url etc to rederect you.

@Marsares, Burst is there, just need to use al abilitys, shatters aswerll. But ofc, a try zerker build do betetr pure dmg. The best side of the hidden cat is that it can chose its battles.

On the other side, you notice how amazingly strong the build is first when you teamed up wityh 1-3 other good roamers, use your phantasm burst + sword + and stack might, shatter with daze for 15-20 vuln and burts down a target together. Same as you so tanky that the other team cant down you.

@Andytheffboy, Bloodlust 3 reasons.

1- Crit with fury for phantasm already high, more dmg of interest.
2- Retaliation more viable due to high toughness, even traiting for Retaliation on block some times. Retaliation scale with power.
3- lower crit dmg in latest build = less value of crit, and in next balance patch will crit dmg be even less of value due to crit dmg nerf. This inc value of power over preci in terms of dmg.

/Osicat

hello Osicat,

with the April 15 changes to sigils, what would u change on your build? Stacking sigils will lose stacks (not sure if switching or swap out), and what 2 sigils would u put on GS?

Hi, just like to know how much did the april update affected this build as well. Been working on my mesmer and I have no clue what to do with it.

Powerbuilds still strong, especialy those who use power and mightstacking. I use dubble mightsingils on this build now, battle x 2 and strength X2 but firat I stack 250 power. Toying some with 40% duration Ford aswell.

/Osicat

I really hate mantras. I’ve only tried this out in sPvP, but I use generosity and energy runes on both weapons and use the torch trait and I’ve found that to give me pretty decent condition removal. I replaced the mantra with signet of inspiration and use Holebrak runes and have pretty good boon uptime and pretty good condi removal.

Osicat.4139:

Powerbuilds still strong, especialy those who use power and mightstacking. I use dubble mightsingils on this build now, battle x 2 and strength X2 but firat I stack 250 power. Toying some with 40% duration Ford aswell.

/Osicat

Hello Osi, would you ever recommend (for WVW) using a superior sigil of doom to combat healing and regen on particularly tanky opponents?

Hello Osicat,
first of all i want to say that i’m your big fan and I started to learn mesmer mechanics only thanks to your videos and builds! so thank you for all bro

lately i’m starting using this build (PU), especially for pvp, and i’d say I love this build.
I have only few question about traits and an utility, can you help me?

1) does “empowered illusions” work only on “phantasmal berserker” and “phantasmal mage” with this build? so, i was thinking, if i’m right, why not to use “mental torment”?

2) is “null field” a valid alternative to “mantra of resolve”? using mesmer for pvp I finded it really usefull for party support… but your opinion would be the most important xD

here is my variation of this great build (for spvp only). I would really appreciate any tip! thank you.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8flknpMtNqxUNcrNSrxY6QG5ESGQBl8iqB-TZRBwAdeCA02fYxBBgcZAAXAAA

Great builds as always Osicat.

I really need some help playing Mesmer, I replicate the build and combo’s Vs X class and my damage doesn’t even seem to get them below 80% if I’m lucky, even Vs zerker builds and it’s really god kitten frustrating.

It’s like I apply zero damage and my clones never seem t connect with the target, like they are way to slow.

Elementalists burst me down in less than 3 seconds.
Thief’s I can’t damage for some reason and they out DPS me.
Warrior’s are 50/50.
Ranger’s just run.
Engineers I don’t have a problem with so they usually run.
Guardians are too tanky.
Necro’s I can cook most of the time.
Mesmer’s 50/50 and usually ends in a kill or mutual retreat.

Would be great if a high level Mesmer from AG could help because this is getting beyond a god kitten joke and it’s depressing to say the least. I’m not going back to PvE because it’s boring.

I’d love to post this in my own thread but as per usual I’m not allowed to make posts…………

GROMIT.7829:

Great builds as always Osicat.

I really need some help playing Mesmer, I replicate the build and combo’s Vs X class and my damage doesn’t even seem to get them below 80% if I’m lucky, even Vs zerker builds and it’s really god kitten frustrating.

It’s like I apply zero damage and my clones never seem t connect with the target, like they are way to slow.

Elementalists burst me down in less than 3 seconds.
Thief’s I can’t damage for some reason and they out DPS me.
Warrior’s are 50/50.
Ranger’s just run.
Engineers I don’t have a problem with so they usually run.
Guardians are too tanky.
Necro’s I can cook most of the time.
Mesmer’s 50/50 and usually ends in a kill or mutual retreat.

Would be great if a high level Mesmer from AG could help because this is getting beyond a god kitten joke and it’s depressing to say the least. I’m not going back to PvE because it’s boring.

I’d love to post this in my own thread but as per usual I’m not allowed to make posts…………

man, maybe i can help… i’m learning too to use this class. There are few rotations i use to get a good advantage over enemies:

tip 1: always start with sword-torch set → 4# + swap GS for surprise attacks (4# and 2#)
rotation burst: (gs) 4# + 2# + 5# + 3# + swap + #3 + 2# + 4# (then you are stealthed and can do everything you want)
tip 2: never waste decoy only for stealth → it is above all a stun breaker! (teleport too if you have)
tip 3: try to don’t attack when stealthed, the most important thing to do so is to use not direct damage skills (like gs 4#, torch 5# and sword 3#) doing so you get maximum stealth and maximum boons from Prismatic Understanding
tip 4: use shatter skills too! (f1 damage, f2 when f1 is on cd for damage + condi , very good against skill spamming eles, f3 when someone is finishing a friend or to counter long charge skills, f4 to survive/finish someone)
rotation sword: 3# + 2# + 4# + 5# + dodge roll + f1
tip 5: use elite to save your friends from being stomped
tip 6: against condition spammer try to reveal yourselves less time as possible and get distances (also make your clones explode as soon as possible, because of aoe spamming)
simple gs rotation: 4# + 2# + dodge roll + f1 (with Osicat’s build is something like 10k burst in 2sec)

that’s all i can say :< i hope to be of help