Guild Wars 2

Poltergeist: The Confusion Mesmer Click Here for the build.

Here is a build I’ve reworked and revamped many times since release and I would like to present it to the community for feedback. In fact, it’s my first build being presented this way to the community, so play nice…..

It’s true that confusion has been nerfed on more than one occasion but I still find it viable if stacked 6+… which this build can do 13+ stack on confusion in 3 button presses.

You will mainly be using scepter/pistol with this build. Staff, as always, is a great defensive weapon and has one of our many Ethereal Fields.

How this works:
This build takes advantage of Ethereal Fields and Phantasmal Duelist. We have 4 Ethereal Fields: Null Field, Feedback, Time Warp, and Chaos Storm. Projectiles and Whirl Finishers will have a chance to add confusion to enemies when in/passing thru field, which is awesome in large group. Blast finishers and Leaps will apply Chaos Armor to the individuals in or going thru the field respectively (and who doesn’t like getting boons for being hit).
Anyhow… lay down an Ethereal Field and immediately cast Phantasmal Duelist, follow this up with Confusing Images. If slow to react, the enemy with have 10-13 stacks of confusion on them. With this build, that is roughly 1800 damage on skill use. Now you could always pop Mirror Images as well and when Phantasmal Duelist does its first barrage, shatter them using Cry of Frustration inflicting another 6 stacks of confusion. So you see, this build has no problem stacking many intensities on confusion on one enemy and at least 4-6 stacks on groups.

Don’t worry though, we are not a one trick pony with this build. We bring ethereal fields (as stated above), Blind, Daze, Stun, AoE Cond Removal, AoE enemy Boon Removal, Projectile Reflection, AoE Quickness, Boons with Chaos Storm/Winds of Chaos.

If you have any questions, please feel free to send me a message or post a reply. I would love to hear from you guys.

I used to run a similar build.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAraWlwziqXVzpGa9IhZGBH5oec9s/9yHwNA-j0xAINBRaBIVJQ5wioxWNLiGr6GTHTEVLFAErBA-w

I enjoyed my confusion build, it hits like a truck especially against fast attacking mobs and groups. The problem was with it being more staff focused since it was the fastest way of getting out illusions this was also before the sceptre buff. Even though both weapon sets are ranged I spent most of my time in melee in order to make use of illusionary persona. The pros of this build were the storms and buffs from the staff bounce to melee party members and excellent survivability, not to mention 3090 condition damage with 25 might and 25 sigil stacks.

Your build is put together well for what you’re after. I also used to run a very similar build with similar gear focused on inflicting confusion via ethereal fields and the duelist. You have your bleeds in there as well of course. One thing I loved to do was pop a Chaos Storm, immediately swap to Pistol and shoot through that field. However …

I dropped the idea for a few reasons. Confusion was nerfed, the damage is very single target focused, and no staff cooldowns, which became a bit cumbersome when trying to go defensive. There’s no AoE at all, so it makes it more difficult for crowd control and anything over a 1v1. Have you had a different experience?

When it comes to aoe, I leave it to classes that I feel do it better. It’s why I strive to have 4 ethereal fields that I can lay down combo with. The mesmer is the only class that has that much access to ethereal fields… I do believe the necromancer has one, but it’s a wall. You are right about 1v1… I have little trouble in that manner. I try to avoid running solo whenever possible with this build. Also, I forgot to mention that we now have Torment on the scepter… which I feel compliments confusion quite a bit.

Even though confusion was nerfed, I believe that people gave up on it to easily. Sure it doesn’t do the damage it used to, it just made stacking it more necessary. I like a challenge.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAraWlwziqXVzpGa9IxJFRn5oeAev/9SKwduB-jUCBINCi0CgUFBKHqIaslgDhtKKaaGYqUER1OEFRrWKAIWDA-w

Given the WvW meta at the moment your build makes me cry. That said, here’s some tweaks that’ll get you more bang for your buck. Lose a little bit of that condition damage, but gain 20% more condition duration, and 35% more bleed duration. That’s an extra second on your conditions across the board, and an extra 3 second bleed from winds of chaos. Those extra ticks will outshine the extra two hundred condition damage. Add to that, you can now keep the same confusion duration and drop Master of Misdirection, or take Master of Misdirection for an additional second of confusion.

Confusing combatants (25 in dueling) is worth less than 30 in Inspiration. With IP you can get an additional stack or two stacks from all your shatters (on top of all the other benefits). Given shatters would be the most consistent way of applying confusion under this build, it’s a shame you don’t have clone on dodge, thus the need for mirror images.

Imagine taking Signit of Domination instead of mirror images. Then you could drop your null field, duelist, confusing images, and lock them down to take it for a full 3 second stun under sig of domination, not to mention magic bullet. That said, a single condition cleanse and your burst is gone for a loooooooong time.

This build does stack confusion very effectively for sure. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all it does. If your target fails to spam buttons during the few seconds your confusion is on them, your damage potential really drops to almost nothing.

Pyroatheist.9031:

This build does stack confusion very effectively for sure. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all it does. If your target fails to spam buttons during the few seconds your confusion is on them, your damage potential really drops to almost nothing.

I wouldn’t say the build does nothing else. He has generic glamour utility. The p.duelist and staff clones can still get upwards of 12 stacks of bleeds. The torment is situational but nice. Sigil of Doom would help a lot with adding some poison in there.

I would not recommend using F2 at the start of a fight though. Try to keep 1 or 2 duelist up and time your fields with the 2nd volley.

I agree with most of Ross’s changes except signet of domination. If I’m stunned for 3 seconds, I would have a much easier time seeing that confusion stack and it would have probably worn off by the time I’m no longer stunned.

Pyroatheist.9031:

This build does stack confusion very effectively for sure. Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all it does. If your target fails to spam buttons during the few seconds your confusion is on them, your damage potential really drops to almost nothing.

As Pyro pointed out, your build is very specialist and group-oriented. Not to say it’s a bad thing but it surely needs a bit of versatility. Issues like against good players, when u successfully stack confusion on them, how to force them use skills that would allow the confusion hits hardest.

My take on Confusion is rather focus on stacking for burst dmg, I try to keep it up on enemies as long as possible during the course of fight so it’s more like attrition. That way, it chips away their health as most would ignore it since the dmg is small per tick, but it adds up.
Here’s the link to my build (which as almost similar trait setup): https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/condition-build-The-Clone-Spammer/first

wow guys, thanks for the replies… I love some of the ideas. It’s true that this build would not make for a good roamer. Usually I don’t have a problem with people not using skills when confusion is on them. With this build, the confusion last 5 secs and with confusing images 8 secs. Since I’m 90% of the time running with a group, if they don’t use a single skill within that time frame, they are as good as dead. Even traits that activate a skill on dodge will set off confusion damage.
@Keenlam I’m not sure how I didn’t find your build before, it’s awesome… I guess my build is going to need some more revamping.