Guild Wars 2

I never played a Mesmer, but now I like to try and I would like to level my character in PvP.
Now I need a build and my idea is to create a build based on Maim the Disillusioned.
Is a torment-build good for PvP?
Which talents should I take and what rune and amulet?

I had dozens of run with this but found out torment won’t be your primary damager. Its a nice addition that can be a bit slow compare to standard shatter but interesting to have torment around.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAW7al0npRtlpxTNcrNyqBdqlg6ssmgW6NktAA-T1RHABXobwE1f0d/BjU+BwFBQgnAgTKBJFAETjA-w

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArfWlknpRttpxMNcrNitBZyL0BUPkfsySGghB-TJRHwAC3fIZZABnCAAPBAA

this is what i use for spvp, might adjust some stuff depending on the map. I use thievery for a condi clear which if your new to mesmer you may want to grab mender purity or mantra cleanse. Thievery tends to be a little buggy, tons of fun though.

I’ll just post a reply I’ve made in the past regarding the torment shatter.

The torment shatter is actually a very weak trait. Any build with that trait could be done better as a standard clone-death build without shatters. The issue is that shatters are fairly easy to avoid. Dodgeable, blockable, blindable, etc. None of those apply with clone deaths. On top of that, 3 stacks of torment is just…eh. It honestly doesn’t do that much damage, and the confusion lasts 4 seconds at best. Your opponent will either straight cleanse all of it…or just stand still a few seconds using no skills and that whole shatter will do about 1500 damage.

Note that this isn’t something particular about your build itself. It’s inherent to the trait, it’s simply too weak to be a shatter trait. It doesn’t reward the sacrifice of so many resources well enough. Your big shatter is Cry in this build. It does 1500 damage if your opponent stands still and takes no actions. Compare this to a glassy shatter build where each clone (+ IP) will do 2000-4000 damage. So a single clone hitting is doing more damage than your entire big shatter, and it’s on a lower cooldown too.

Suffice to say, the torment shatter is not viable. It’s fun to play with, but I’d highly recommend that you avoid using it.

Honestly this trait will be better with 2 or 3 stacks, compensated by lower duration. Afterall shatter skills are there to deliver spikes anyway.

NICENIKESHOE.7128:

Honestly this trait will be better with 2 or 3 stacks, compensated by lower duration. Afterall shatter skills are there to deliver spikes anyway.

My fix is 4 stacks per clone, 2s duration.

Think it sounds overpowered? Run the numbers ,it’s not. 3 clone shatter = 12 stacks of torment for 2 seconds. That adds up to a grand total of 4200 damage over 2 seconds if your opponent moves, 2100 damage if they don’t. Not overpowered in the slightest, particularly when you consider that glassy shatter does 2k-4k per clone.

Probably have to adjust for confusion a bit since it strikes harder in condition build than glassy shatter. But yeah 4 stacks with 2s duration is pretty good.

I think one of the fun part of this trait is dealing damage with diversion and distortion, which isn’t something you can do with glassy shatters (unless you trait for reflect or interruption damage). Opens up several ways to damage opponent though still a bit undermined by 1 stack only.

Just a fun factor trait atm, would never use it for team play. Might not be the best for folks new to mesmer. Instead of starting with maim maybe try using an IP build so you can work into different shatter builds.

I have to agree with Pyroaethiest.

I’ll be up front. It is borderline suck-age.

I’ve tried anything and everything to make a viable shatter torment build.

if they keep it at 1 illusion =1 torment, it’s incredibly under powered.

I would prefer it to add Cripple or a small Chill duration.

tbh im going to disagree, with my build here:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArfWlsnpBtFpxRNcrNitBdyakDUPkqsySGghB-TJRFwAd2fAwTAIaZAEnCAA

i used to have the 30 points in chaos but found that ive played the mesmer long enough to realise i dont need that extra survavabilty, by going 30 into illusions ive given my self a counter on a 6 second cooldown (extremely useful against thieves/wars) and also my shatters recharge at 50% hp , better for guarenteeing more stomps.

not only that but youre all looking at the trait way to hard, i play like normal and my counter is more often, once running the fight into the second stage where you go for the final burst the shatter really helps for giving the extra damge as you can shatter then roll/produce another clone with stafff and shatter with cry of frustration

the extra 5 stacks of torment for 4secs and the extra 7 stacks of confusion for 4 secs makes a hell of a difference for finishing someone off

RedCobra.7693:

by going 30 into illusions ive given my self a counter on a 6 second cooldown

Keep in mind malicious sorcery is bugged when it comes to reducing the recharge of illusionary counter (has been for months). IC is the only thing decreasing the recharge and even that is bugged as you get an 8.5 or 9s recharge though the tool-tip states 8s.

boon-rip ive been doing hotjoin with. Again fun but not where it needs to be imo.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArfWlknpQttpxMNcrNiqBh6t0mhSyAUgSmhtB-TJRHwAC3fIZZAAnCABPBAA

skcamow.3527:

RedCobra.7693:

by going 30 into illusions ive given my self a counter on a 6 second cooldown

Keep in mind malicious sorcery is bugged when it comes to reducing the recharge of illusionary counter (has been for months). IC is the only thing decreasing the recharge and even that is bugged as you get an 8.5 or 9s recharge though the tool-tip states 8s.

no its not, dont try and debunk peoples builds with misinformation

for everyone reading:
the tooltip is incorrect you can stack two reductions and get 40% off, the counter IS on a 6 sec cooldown, i used to run a phantasm counter build with scepter/sword before they ruined it by adding torment xD

RedCobra.7693:

skcamow.3527:

RedCobra.7693:

by going 30 into illusions ive given my self a counter on a 6 second cooldown

Keep in mind malicious sorcery is bugged when it comes to reducing the recharge of illusionary counter (has been for months). IC is the only thing decreasing the recharge and even that is bugged as you get an 8.5 or 9s recharge though the tool-tip states 8s.

no its not, dont try and debunk peoples builds with misinformation

for everyone reading:
the tooltip is incorrect you can stack two reductions and get 40% off, the counter IS on a 6 sec cooldown, i used to run a phantasm counter build with scepter/sword before they ruined it by adding torment xD

So 4 points in inspiration for a 2sec block reductions….. Think those points could be better spent? I would also like to add that we tested this in OMFG months ago and it wasnt working (not talking about the tooltip) I would say skcamow is 100% correct. Have a great day, see you in the mists!!

Nazer.7301:

RedCobra.7693:

skcamow.3527:

RedCobra.7693:

by going 30 into illusions ive given my self a counter on a 6 second cooldown

Keep in mind malicious sorcery is bugged when it comes to reducing the recharge of illusionary counter (has been for months). IC is the only thing decreasing the recharge and even that is bugged as you get an 8.5 or 9s recharge though the tool-tip states 8s.

no its not, dont try and debunk peoples builds with misinformation

for everyone reading:
the tooltip is incorrect you can stack two reductions and get 40% off, the counter IS on a 6 sec cooldown, i used to run a phantasm counter build with scepter/sword before they ruined it by adding torment xD

So 4 points in inspiration for a 2sec block reductions….. Think those points could be better spent? I would also like to add that we tested this in OMFG months ago and it wasnt working (not talking about the tooltip) I would say skcamow is 100% correct. Have a great day, see you in the mists!!

then im afraid your guild has an incredibly bad set of testers or FYI NEWSFLASH there has been plenty of updates/patches since “months ago” xD what kind of person says we tested this “months ago” lmao id get fired if i told my boss that at work, and another point, who said i took that trait for the double CD reduction, it gives a reduction on your confusion and 200 more condi dmg.

EDIT: ive said it before and ill say it again, stop spreading misinformation, i theory craft a lot and the one thing that winds me up more than anything is people throwing around statements such as “im 100% sure” and “that is wrong” when they are clearly just using theory themselves, i tested it last night and it starts the cool down with 5 seconds, meaning its hitting a 6 sec CD which as long as the laws of mathematics haven’t changed (which they Haven’t, i should know i checked it months ago ) is 40% off the original 10secs

I suppose we should clarify things a bit, and I’m not at all trying to debunk your build. Like you, I’m trying to spread accurate information.

The following is the behavior as it’s been for months, and still is. I test after every patch and did following the feature patch in April. I also re-tested yesterday for a sanity check.

Base recharge of Illusionary Counter is 10s.

No recharge traits taken

• Illusionary Counter untriggered: 10s
• Illusionary Counter triggered: 10s
• Counterspell: 10s
• Tootip: 10s

Only Malicious Sorcery taken

• Illusionary Counter untriggered: 8s
• Illusionary Counter triggered: 10s (BUG)
• Counterspell: 8s
• Tooltip: 8s

The part I am saying is bugged – and the part I believe you’re referring to is the illusionary counter block trigger which generates the clone. If you block with scepter #2 and only have malicious sorcery traited, you do not have a reduced recharge like you should. It’s the base 10s instead of what it should be, 8s. If you have Illusionist’s Celerity traited, you get an 8s recharge on this.

So, malicious sorcery works fine for all the functions of the illusionary counter skill except for the block recharge reduction.

my tests are as follows

i used both malicious sorceryand illusions celerity and recieved a 6 sec CD on a succsesful block and torment proc,

working as intended, double reduced and is a shorter cooldown than eviscerate (extremely useful against decent warriors)

RedCobra.7693:

my tests are as follows

i used both malicious sorceryand illusions celerity and recieved a 6 sec CD on a succsesful block and torment proc,

working as intended, double reduced and is a shorter cooldown than eviscerate (extremely useful against decent warriors)

If that’s true, that’s amazing. Personally I have been waiting on Anet to fix this so I can try a few different builds. I have the same traited and only get 8s on the torment block. Any chance you can post a screenshot?

this is my testing from within a custom server in spvp yesterday, ill post as soon as i get home, tbh i never checked to see if this happens when not procing torment or letting the cast channel run its course

edit: this is going to sound very patronising but are you definitely sure you have illusions celerity traited?

RedCobra.7693:

this is my testing from within a custom server in spvp yesterday, ill post as soon as i get home, tbh i never checked to see if this happens when not procing torment or letting the cast channel run its course

edit: this is going to sound very patronising but are you definitely sure you have illusions celerity traited?

Yes, malicious sorcery and illusionist’s celerity are both traited.
For more information and other people’s corroboration of this, see this thread:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/support/bugs/Mesmer-Illusionary-Counter-recharge/first

Granted that thread is 3 months old and IC was in a different place at the time but the underlying issues still exist. They did fix some issues along the way as you can see, but the last couple posts in that thread reflect what I believe the current issues still to be, in my experience.

My testing has been in the mists and PvE. Not sure why the functionality would be different in a match, but I hadn’t tried that yet. I just did a test in a match and recharges are still 8s on the scepter block with both recharge traits taken.

how about i stop the entire insults whispers with a video, im shocked that people are sending me PM’s and they havnt tested it xD that is truly the definition of idiocy, ive created a video for people to watch as evidence, however on examination it doesnt stack to 40% we’re both technically wrong in a sense, it seems that they go to around 35% reduction.

thanks for reading ^^

Just a note, you didn’t test the triggered block in the video and that’s the part I’m trying to point out. The triggered block is the part that’s broken with malicious sorcery. As I said before, everything else about it works mostly correct, as shown in your video.

skcamow.3527:

Just a note, you didn’t test the triggered block in the video and that’s the part I’m trying to point out. The triggered block is the part that’s broken with malicious sorcery. As I said before, everything else about it works mostly correct, as shown in your video.

brace yourself, another videos coming

I found it to be more of a cover condition. Cripple/Torment/Confusion, the real dmg will come from confusion, which means you have to trait/rune/food till you get 100% duration increase. And since you’re AoE shattering, it’s also wise to get boon-removing trait by shattering.

Conclusion, it’s a support team build. 3 conditions are enough to force enemies to use hard condi cleanse, that or eat confusion and die while fighting your friends or stand still and get killed.

Gonna disagree strongly with some people saying it isn’t a viable trait. Basing your build off the trait is a bad idea, but taking with a ranged shatter gs/staff build is a great addition. Ranged shatter forces your opponent to move on you, and to actively use there skills to pressure you, constant torment and confusion stacks is a nasty extra when there already dealing with your power burst.

Results of my 3 minute test in HotM: scepter reactive block is bugged and still 8 seconds with both cd reduction traits, the active use isn’t though and goes down to 6.