Guild Wars 2

I have no idea what to trait for using this setup. Halp

I have a staff as a secondary for the record.

Looks like you’re using the same weapon setup I’ve been using all game.
I’ve tried a lot of different builds, but this one has been my favorite for a long time now: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAW8dlwzipHVzqGaNJiJFDHFeSB0tcoFUSBudhA;ToAA2U3YuRcj9G3NybWEMAZTA

Now let me explain a bit, because I think a lot of this looks a bit… not normal. Between phase retreat and illusionary leap, you have two short CD leap finishers to go with your 4 Ethereal fields. You can basically keep Chaos Armor near constantly in combat. Chaos Armor gives you protection, which reduces damage by 33%. During the small periods of time when you may not have chaos armor for protection, your phantasms provide regeneration, which grants you protection due to traits. Also your rune grants you regeneration, which grants you protection. If you juggle your stuff properly, you will have 100% protection uptime. This is what you need as a short-ranged sword user to get in there and deal damage.

The traits that do not gear toward the constant protection I’ve described are all about damage. The dueling traits allow you to have great clone generation, and the trait that makes illusions bleed on crits is fabulous for warden. I’d argue it’s a must-have for any Focus build. You have a 40% reduced CD for focus skills, which is great cause Warden does so much damage.

Here’s my basic rotation for killing/farming. For PvE you’ll probably want to tag a few things with staff (grab as much as you can, you’ll be fine), lure them close, send your clone to leap at them (don’t swap yet!), summon a warden, then swap so they’re immobilized in your warden whirl. You now have chaos armor and your warden is doing confusion bolts, so even if they get a bit of distance the bolts will still hit them.

I usually group up about… 10 mobs, do this, and they all die within about 5 seconds. It’s great.

Gear is all about precision and power and vitality, since you want to crit so your warden can stack bleeds. Toughness isn’t really a priority since you have constant protection.

I currently do use this exact setup … its a versatile build imo and traiting is really up to you since it can be both aggresive (with using sword – warden for high aoe dps and leap – curtain for chasing) or defensive (with sword distortion, curtain interrupt and warden projectile reflection). If used aggresively a must have is 15 points in dueling in order to have the skill that deals bleed on illusion crit ( with a good crit % u will deal 3-5 bleeds aoe with warden), other than that feel free to distribute any way u want these remaining points. If played defensively 2 really important traits is the one that grants reflection with distortion (illusions trait line 10) and inspiration trait line 20 (Focus skills reflect projectiles. Reduces recharge of focus skills by 20%. ). This will really make u a beast against ranged enemies since u will practically have reflection up almost throughout an entire fight.

The utility skills i like most with this setup are :
blink (huge mobility combined with temporal curtain)
null field or phantasmal disenchanter (depends on using shatter or not)
mirror images
feedback (for extra projectile return if needed)
portal