Guild Wars 2

(This build has WON the December Mesmer Build of the Month contest! Official reviews can be found here.)

Huh? Your “Mind Crush” is evolving…

…

..

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Wow! Congradulations, your MindCrush just evolved into …

—SHATTERLOCK—
“Difficult to pick up, but extremely rewarding to master.”

A 30/10/0/0/30 Shatter/Lockdown Build

Shatterlock takes the powerful burst damage and versatility of Shatter Builds and combines it with the chain-dazing and vuln-stacking potential of lockdown builds. Shatterlock was created for PvP play, but can also be used in PvE and WvW with only the slightest tweaks of gear without altering the playstyle. This build can be taken anywhere you would run a shatter build.

- So .. Isn’t this essentially just a less-optimal shatter build?
It’s very important to stress that this is NOT a straightforward shatter playstyle. Though the traits may look similar to your standard 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build, there are quite a few key differences that dramatically alter the playstyle. The utilities, for one, are more geared towards lockdown in the form of dazes and boon removal. The lack of Deceptive Evasion means that every clone/phantasm produced is an important resource. There is a much higher emphasis on lockdown in this build than standard shatter build: Confounding Suggestions, Runes of the Mesmer, Sigil of Hydromancy, and Mantra of Distraction add an extra layer of sophistication that standard shatter builds just dont have.

• Similar Shatter Damage.
  With iPersona and Mental Torment, you’re still doing very similar damage as a shatter build.

• Chain-Dazes.
  Just like in Mind Crush, you can easily lock an opponent out of a fight for over 5 seconds via chain dazing. It’s good to call target (ctrl+T) on these dazed opponents as they’ll also be without boons and burdened with 25x Vulnerability.

• Phantasm Switch-Ups.
  Sometimes Shattering just doesn’t cut it on some opponents. Shatterlock is also adept at quickly producing Phantasms (Sword Phantasms on very low cooldown) to hound opponents that like to dance in-and-out of stealth and rely on passive heals. You can still stunlock while maintaining phantasms.

The build is flexibile enough for you to be able to take on all manner of opponents and play comfortably in either a shatter or phantasmal playstyle. In my experience, Phantasms excel vs ranged opponents wherekittenter dominates melee. Either way you want to chain daze for vuln stacking either beforehand or after the enemy has less than 40% HP to eliminate their heal chance.

THE BUILD
Gear, Traits, and Skills

Sword / Sword – Staff (Pistol & Greatsword acceptable replacements)
Ether Feast / Decoy or Blink / Phantasmal Disenchanter /Mantra of Distraction

30/10/0/0/30
Domination: I, II, XII Dueling: IV Illusions: IV, VII, XI

• Its highly recommended that Shattered Concentration be taken into consideration as it’s also an incredibly strong trait and can replace Mental Torment.

Berserker Gear – Runes of the Mesmer
Superior Sigil Accuracy/Fire/Paralysis (Sword) – Superior Sigil of Hydromancy/Energy/Doom (Staff)

DOMINATION
Living up to it’s name, the Domination line has some of the most crucial lockdown traits for the build while providing the majority of our damage. Both Confounding Suggestions and Harmonious Mantras are worth the 30 point investment but the rewards of 8xVulnerability for every interrupt in addition to the 2k+ burst from Halting Strike should not be overlooked. Other alternatives include…

/Empowered Illusions – Phantasms are of high importance in this build. If you’re usually more comfortable with a Phantasmal playstyle then this alternative works just fine.

/Shattered Concentration – adds a strong layer of enemy boon shutdown which is invaluable in tournaments and general group battles. This trait is incredibly good and should definitely be considered in place of Mental Torment or Halting Strike.

/Rending Shatter– Adds a significant boost to our Vulnerability uptime. If you take this along with Crippling Dissipation you’ll always have your enemies more vulnerable to damage.

DUELING
The Dueling line seems expendible for this build, but the 5 point minor essentually cuts our dodge rate in half and is CRUCIAL for most builds. Blade Training is also highly important if running Sword/Sword but also consider.

/Phantasmal Fury – Can compete with Blade Training for the minor slot as it makes our phantasms crit almost constantly. If you take up a Greatsword, this trait becomes even more important.

/Far-Reaching Manipulations – Ups your trolling to over 9000 by making Blink an instant “Get-Out-of-Jail-Free” card and boosting how far away you can steal boons with Arcane Thievery.

ILLUSIONS
The only crucial trait here is iPersona, everything else is more a matter of personal preference. I’ll explain some of my choices here and some alternate options

/Phantasmal Haste May raise some eyebrows considering that iSwordsman isn’t affected by it, but pHaste is meant more for iDisenchanter, who becomes a boon/condition removing turret of greatness. It’s also very easy to summon more than one Disenchanter, and having the both attack at an increased rate can shut down boons/conditions of entire groups.
/Compounding Power Since it’s very easy to summon and maintain 3 clones/phantasms Compounding Power is a natural choice. It also boosts the damage of our shatters.
/Precise Wrack is pretty self explainatory. I personally almost never use this trait though it’s not bad at all.
/Illusionary Elasticity adds some extra DPS to staff. I’d like to use this trait but I don’t find many occasions to auto-attack frequently, though when playing a more Phantasmal-based defensive style this trait is effective.
/Imbued Diversion I really want to take this trait… It would work very well, but requires a ridiculous amount of skill and attention to detail.

PROS & CONS vs Shatter
Shatter builds, while powerful, can get unfortunately predictable. Many shatter Mesmer rely on the iLeap -> Swap immobilize to nail their shatters and many competent opponents can predict this and react accordingly. With Blurred Frenzy and MindWrack blown, the Shatter Mesmer has 10 seconds of vulnerability before being able to engage again. Shatterlock mitigates this problem in a number of ways. Rather than focusing on [F1] Mind Wrack, the [F3] Diversion shatter is the star of this build. Stacking vulnerability is important because it allows you two options for damage: Phantasms or Shatters.

That’s not to imply that this build is simply superior to shatter builds, but it does have a bit more versatility in damage options and allows for even more ways to improvise a victory. In WvW, this comes at a pretty significant cost: Damage or Survivability. Since Mantra of Distraction is a prime component of the build, and we need a defense either in Blink or Decoy, that leaves only one flexibile slot which usually goes to the iDisenchanter. The disenchanter is crucial for removing enemy boons and conditions on you, but in some situations can be replaced and you can trait Shattered Concentration (Domination VII) to still remove boons.

• PROS: Multiple sources of damage/able to switch from shattering to maintaining phantasms || Stunlocks || Superior Vulnerability stacking || Similar shatter damage.

• CONS: Less room for erroneous shatters || Less clone production || Lacks either Decoy or Blink.

LIFE WITHOUT DECEPTIVE EVASION
Many people are of the belief that you have to take Deceptive Evasion (DE) for a shatter build, especially if you’re already grabbing Illusionary Persona. While yes, DE is an exceptionally good trait to have for a shatter heavy build, Shatterlock is NOT a pure shatter build, and Illusionary Persona is an excellent trait with or without Deceptive Evasion. Deceptive Evasion is a clone production tool but it isn’t the main reason shatter builds do so much damage; Mental Torment and Illusionary Persona are. Don’t worry about not having enough clones to shatter, as DE actually provides an overabundance of clones. Having Illusionist Celerity (Illusions 15) and Blade Training (Dueling IV) means that running Sword/Sword -Staff will usually provide just enough illusions for reliable shatter bursts.
There are two major things things that lacking DE does to this build:

- You have more dodges to spare. DE encourages dodging for the sake of clone production, usually for some shatter offense. Without it, you’ll find you will have more endurance for dodging enemy attacks.

- Every illusion counts. Not having DE means that you have to be smarter with your shatters. No sloppy shattering allowed here.

SO.. WHAT HAPPENS TO MIND CRUSH?
That’s what I’ve been asking myself. I had been working very kitten Mind Crush this week in preparation for the December buffs, but while I was studying, running all kinds of alternate traits and tweaking Mind Crush kind of morphed into this new build. It feels almost entirely superior to Mind Crush, taking the majority of what made the previous build worked and combining it with the monstrous spike damage of shatter builds. While Mind Crush is a more technical and sophisticated build that still has a higher level of control and better rewards for interrupts, this build is more tournament viable. Simply put, it seems that the damage this build puts out makes the extra control from Mind Crush unnecessary.

(Reserved for vids n stuff)

(Reserved for hints & tips)

(Reserved cuz I tend to write alot and regret not reserving enough. kitten this flood control.)

Hey, so I understand this a rework and considering past updates was looking for some advice. Recently Ive been running something similar with imbued diversion. Anyway, you bring up the point of too many clones.

Do you have any advice for phantasm/clone production rotation? And any advice for AoE intense fights?

I’ll love to test this tomorrow^^ I’ll also try to create a build for botm with lockdown character^^ Let’s see what they’ll give us tomorrow.

This is a fun and rewarding build to play. I did try it in tpvp (took out mental torment for shattered concentration) and this build is really nasty against the fotm warriors right now (if the team is condi heavy there is an alternate with disenchant and phant haste which actually removes quite a bit of condis, thanks Pyro for this tip!). I will say this build has a reallyyyyy high skill cap, you have to be good at interrupting as well with shattering. It took a couple matches, but playing without Deceptive evasion IS possible, and I felt that my skill increased without DE. I did the body block of the clones though. I will have to see how gs/staff does with this spec soon. Oh yea chaos, just to let you know, if you do as x shatter(without space or x) it gets censored (silly filter) , found that out when writing this x. x

Cool build, glad that u guys decide to join the BotM contest.
The choice of iDischanter and Phantasmal Haste in a shatter buid is most intriguing. I’d love to see how it plays out.

keenlam.4753:

The choice of iDischanter and Phantasmal Haste in a shatter buid is most intriguing. I’d love to see how it plays out.

Well, with IC, the iDisenchanter is on a 16 second cooldown, so it can get summoned very rapidly.

Additionally, with pHaste, the iDisenchanter attacks once every 3.8 seconds, which is rather rapid.

@Dekk: Those are good questions, when Im off my phone Ill write up a detailed response

@Me Games Ma: Thanks! Looking forward to seeing what ya submit.

@Warlord: Idk, I havent found the build that particularly difficult to use but thats compared to my other builds. X.x I think its only slightly more difficult go pick up than a standard shatter build but has a lot of tricks and techniques to learn.

Very interesting. Am a massive fan of Mindcrush so definitely will try this one out.

Somewhat concerned about losing Shatter Concentration as it’s awesome for stripping off stability before you disrupt, but iDisenchanter should make up for that. If only this build could allow Bountiful Interruption, I’d be in heaven.

Coincidentally, been running a version of Mindcrush recently without DE but with BI and CI. It’s a monster. :-)

@Marsares: Nice! Yeah, Disenchanter attacks every 4 seconds, so having two of them up is pretty much removing 1 boon/condition per second.

Dekk.3459:

Hey, so I understand this a rework and considering past updates was looking for some advice. Recently Ive been running something similar with imbued diversion. Anyway, you bring up the point of too many clones.

Do you have any advice for phantasm/clone production rotation? And any advice for AoE intense fights?

What are the traits in your build? For me, having Staff with iCelerity and sword double-traited Blade Training is just enough illusion production for me to be able to shatter frequently.

In my experience with Imbued Diversion (skcamow has used it more often than I have) the two ways I’ve been able to make it work is with staff and either Deceptive Evasion (0/20/20/0/30) for 3-clone shatters or without it for 2-clone shatters. In either case I find myself often shattering the iWarden after it’s first attack. I’ll place a staff clone at max range, warden in middle range and use the i-leap sword clone for close range. Before I even swap I’m sending the clones to shatter.

Imbued works fine with a two-clone shatter since it is a pretty large AoE and will almost always proc interrupts (glorious for bountiful or chaotic interruption). With AoE-intensive fights you’re likely at best going to only get the 1-clone shatter if you’re in the thick of the fight, but with Imbued I tend to play more like a Staff elementalist: skirting the edges of the battle and strategically taking out key targets, every 30 secs I’ll send 2 or 3 clones in at someone for the diversion shatter.

It’s one of the most difficult traits to use effectively though, but can really pay off especially with properly juggling Signet of Illusions (the active refreshes phantasms) & Illusionary Invigoration.

… Hm, I just might try to build around that.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

It’s one of the most difficult traits to use effectively though, but can really pay off especially with properly juggling Signet of Illusions (the active refreshes phantasms) & Illusionary Invigoration.

… Hm, I just might try to build around that.

The 90s CD’s are so sickening though it’s tough to waste a slot on the bar for the signet (you should try it though). Traiting signet mastery helps. Good that today at least illusionary invigoration gets a 30s decrease in CD, but bad it’s being moved to master.

Ugh I forgot about that.

My Phantasmal Haste! Nooo! My relationship with that trait just started and now its likely getting dropped. =[

Phantasmal Haste is wonderful to use with the disenchanter – I have in some of my builds to great effect.

Regarding your build here, I admit at first glace it’s a bit of a head scratcher, but after dueling it last night for a few rounds I can see the potential. The MW’s really hit hard if you can’t cleanse the immob in time to dodge.

Couple of comments.

Due to illusionary invigoration moving to master, I’d change adept to precise wrack.
You’re gonna love the confounding suggestions buff today.

I’ve found (through dueling you), confounding suggestions can be really nasty. There was a lot of conversation about this trait when the 12/10 announcement first broke – is it worth it, should this just be a longer daze (like they initially were going to do), how is this different than CI, etc.

My experience is, that daze is actually fine if you don’t use a skill to blow the CD. Honestly I don’t notice the daze too much. But if those endless dazes you have in that build turn into stuns, suddenly I have to blow stun breaks or I’m likely going to eat a ton of damage. So I think that’s the key thing with that trait, as long as you have enough of a daze flow to really make things difficult.

I will even go so far to say the duels I won, I didn’t feel as locked down (trait didn’t proc). But the ones I lost I was totally debilitated. So there’s the RnG … but it’s quite effective I must say.

Mesmers are actually one of the hardest classes to lock down, which is pretty appropriate. You caught me with some glorious interrupts though, I gained mucb respect for Chaotic Conditions in those matches. I raged when your focus pull interrupted my heal and immobilized me inside your Warden, that was glorious. Also, those dazes were stacking vuln on you constantly

This build (and Mind Crush) had actually gotten nerfed a couple patchss back with the Sigil of Paralyze fix, before then the chain dazing was nuts even though it was just a fraction of a second increase. The CS buff will restore that glory and make linking dazes so much smoother.

Have just played 7 sPvP matches as hotjoin and although the first few matches didn’t go very smooth as I wasn’t quite sure how to make the build work, after a while it started to come naturally. Chain dazing/stunning whilst whacking in amazing shatter burst or whilst having some hard-hitting phantasms running around will not get old quickly.

Having played shatter most of my GW2 life and MindCrush the last six weeks certainly has helped though as it’s certainly not an easy build to master.

I do really miss the boons on interrupt, but it does significantly address two issues I had with MindCrush:

- Condi cleansing: getting two iDisenchanter up is glorious and may actually try solo roaming without the -40% condi duration food
- Burst: sometimes it felt MindCrush lacked a bit of burst to take down tough opponents, with this build I feel back in my Shatter days again.

In short, I love the build and thanks for it!

Much appreciated!

Yeah, the interrupt rewards are really what separates this build from Mind Crush, but in my opinion this ends up being an overall more efficient build. Between this and Mind Crush, which do you prefer?

Patch Updates

- Illusions: Since Illusionary Invigoration has been moved to master tier and buffed, Phantasmal Haste is now dropped out of the build. Still figuring which Adept trait to take for Illusions, considering Masterful Reflection, ’cuz screw Rangers & Engineers, or Compounding Power or Precise Wrack.

- Enhanced Chain-dazing: The 25% daze duration buff to Confounding Suggestions makes chain dazing both easier and more effective.

- Mender’s Purity: Is now a very enticing alternative to the 10 points in Dueling if taking Mantra of Recovery. This partially eliminates the need for iDisenchanter and alters the build a bit. Harmonious Mantras would be the better pick over CS if you go that route and Shattered Concentration would replace Mental Torment.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

- Mender’s Purity: Is now a very enticing alternative to the 10 points in Dueling if taking Mantra of Recovery. This partially eliminates the need for iDisenchanter and alters the build a bit. Harmonious Mantras would be the better pick over CS if you go that route and Shattered Concentration would replace Mental Torment.

In the current build I’m running I go with mantra of resolve with mender’s purity and it’s honestly as good or even better in some cases than the disenchanter for condition removal for the sole reason that it’s controllable by you and on demand. What’s even better today is that I get an extra condition cleansed with the mender’s purity buff. This is from the perspective of a solo roamer/dueler, etc.

I was going to suggest this for your build but after some thought, the disenchanter at it’s default attack rate is still very strong and fits the shatter focus of your build given the short 16s CD.

Also, while harmonious mantras would be ever so tempting, if you took that I believe the build would lose some what makes it unique and effective, especially in light of today’s confounding suggestions buff.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Dekk.3459:

Hey, so I understand this a rework and considering past updates was looking for some advice. Recently Ive been running something similar with imbued diversion. Anyway, you bring up the point of too many clones.

Do you have any advice for phantasm/clone production rotation? And any advice for AoE intense fights?

What are the traits in your build? For me, having Staff with iCelerity and sword double-traited Blade Training is just enough illusion production for me to be able to shatter frequently.

In my experience with Imbued Diversion (skcamow has used it more often than I have) the two ways I’ve been able to make it work is with staff and either Deceptive Evasion (0/20/20/0/30) for 3-clone shatters or without it for 2-clone shatters. In either case I find myself often shattering the iWarden after it’s first attack. I’ll place a staff clone at max range, warden in middle range and use the i-leap sword clone for close range. Before I even swap I’m sending the clones to shatter.

…

Well usually I run with Illusions I instead of X and swap iDisenchanter for Arcane Theivery. This is basically to fight guardians because iDE is getting killed to quickly. So between trying to keep distance and/or removing boons it is a fight… For some reason guardian aoe is kicking my butt.

Since I play WvW… Imbued Diversion has been quite useful for group/zerg fights. Also switch out the mantra for Null Field…

skcamow.3527:

In the current build I’m running I go with mantra of resolve with mender’s purity and it’s honestly as good or even better in some cases than the disenchanter for condition removal for the sole reason that it’s controllable by you and on demand. What’s even better today is that I get an extra condition cleansed with the mender’s purity buff. This is from the perspective of a solo roamer/dueler, etc.

I was going to suggest this for your build but after some thought, the disenchanter at it’s default attack rate is still very strong and fits the shatter focus of your build given the short 16s CD.

Also, while harmonious mantras would be ever so tempting, if you took that I believe the build would lose some what makes it unique and effective, especially in light of today’s confounding suggestions buff.

The reason I’d still prefer Disenchanter over Menders/Mantra is that Disenchanter is also ripping boons off of multiple enemies on the battlefield. Sometimes it can be more beneficial with this build to take a minute maintain two Disenchanters and focus on lockdown for a few seconds rather than shatter every 11 seconds once Mindwrack comes off cooldown.

And you’re right, Confounding Suggestions is the signature trait to this build, definitely not gonna swap it out.

Dekk.3459:

Well usually I run with Illusions I instead of X and swap iDisenchanter for Arcane Theivery. This is basically to fight guardians because iDE is getting killed to quickly. So between trying to keep distance and/or removing boons it is a fight… For some reason guardian aoe is kicking my butt.

Since I play WvW… Imbued Diversion has been quite useful for group/zerg fights. Also switch out the mantra for Null Field…

The thing I’ve grown to like about Disenchanter is that even if it gets to shoot just one attack before dying that’s still a bolt that will remove two conditions from me, allies, and two boons from enemies (and does some slight damage) for up to five bounces. That alone is enough of a payoff for smallscale fights, but in bigger battles I’d consider doubling up. I dunno your exact trait spread, but if you’ve got points in Domination, then grabbing Shattered Concentration, combined with Null Field, may be enough boon removal for you to push through with your lockdown.

Your build sounds like it’s more geared to being the team Disenchanter, which is rather cool. Having two utilities and shattered concentration invested in boon removal should leave you enough room to gear the focus the rest of the build on shatters but if the clones can’t get to the target in time to shatter then.. either yer gonna have to get a bit closer or consider if grabbing the Illusions Signet to ensure a payoff from your shatters (and Shattered Concentration) is worth sacrificing another form in of boon removal in either Null Field or Thievery.

How often do you run into this problem? and are you completely unable to keep up with guardian aoe or is it just somewhat difficult?

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Dekk.3459:

Well usually I run with Illusions I instead of X and swap iDisenchanter for Arcane Theivery. This is basically to fight guardians because iDE is getting killed to quickly. So between trying to keep distance and/or removing boons it is a fight… For some reason guardian aoe is kicking my butt.

Since I play WvW… Imbued Diversion has been quite useful for group/zerg fights. Also switch out the mantra for Null Field…

The thing I’ve grown to like about Disenchanter is that even if it gets to shoot just one attack before dying that’s still a bolt that will remove two conditions from me, allies, and two boons from enemies (and does some slight damage) for up to five bounces. That alone is enough of a payoff for smallscale fights, but in bigger battles I’d consider doubling up. I dunno your exact trait spread, but if you’ve got points in Domination, then grabbing Shattered Concentration, combined with Null Field, may be enough boon removal for you to push through with your lockdown.

Your build sounds like it’s more geared to being the team Disenchanter, which is rather cool. Having two utilities and shattered concentration invested in boon removal should leave you enough room to gear the focus the rest of the build on shatters but if the clones can’t get to the target in time to shatter then.. either yer gonna have to get a bit closer or consider if grabbing the Illusions Signet to ensure a payoff from your shatters (and Shattered Concentration) is worth sacrificing another form in of boon removal in either Null Field or Thievery.

How often do you run into this problem? and are you completely unable to keep up with guardian aoe or is it just somewhat difficult?

Oh I was trying something really close to this last weekend oddly enough, and then saw this thread. It is probably my inexperience, and im an average, possibly poor pvp mesmer been playing pve support until a month ago… With this build while roaming I do use MoD and IP for roaming. The timing is definitely different as I have always run with deceptive evasion and haven’t really used iDE. So I definitely think your build has potential. I’ll be quite now and let the Mesmer veterans discuss.

I have to say this build is awesome if u can find the right timing to engage. without decoy+blink, If eel I am too vulnerable when get focus, I just tried few in hotjoin, when facing a fellow conventional shatter Mesmer you will really feel the pressure, especially when mantra of distraction is on cool down. theif when poping elite skill combined with lyssa rune is another example.
I personally believe this build might have a bit trouble in more organized pvp, solo que for instance, where things are more strategic and stability is more readily available for everyone.
since the only stealth we have in this build is mass invis, I fear it will be really hard to us to get away when getting focused in a grp fight ~it is after all a semi melee, mid range build.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Much appreciated!

Yeah, the interrupt rewards are really what separates this build from Mind Crush, but in my opinion this ends up being an overall more efficient build. Between this and Mind Crush, which do you prefer?

I’ve been playing both extensively now the last two days and each has their pros and cons as you would expect.

Personally, Mindcrush suits my playstyle better. The endless stream of boons that you get with it just massively helps with my survivability, not to mention that I can run with Blink and Decoy at the same time. I tend to either hotjoin or solo roam, so survivability is more important to me than raw damage.

That’s not to say that your new build isn’t good. Far from. It’s very very good, but probably shines a bit better when you’ve got some organised people around you, rather than purely having to rely on yourself.

Thanks, Chaos for your new build-I will try it out as soon as I will be at home.
Meanwhile, I sneakily have rebuild my mesmer while at work. What I noticed was, that with confounding suggestions the dazes in the tooltips turned blue and went up from “1s” to “1 1/4s”.
But after equipping the mesmer rune, the tooltip didnt reflect the +33% gain in daze duration, it stayed at “1 1/4s”.
Can anyone check if this is a tooltip error, or a dysfunction of the mesmer rune? I cant test time differences (although they are important in pvp) that are so small.

Hi,
can you make a vid of how it works?
tried this build in solo arena, faced one warrior and ele and they killed me in 0.2sec XD
Something is not clear, how can you survive without clones and stealth?
What do you do when fight against enemy with stability?

Thanks

@ Dekk: Feel free to ask any further questions though, I’d be more than happy to help you refine your build either here or in PM. I just need to see the full spread.

@ Elfindale: If you like the build enough, keep running it. It takes a little while to get adjusted to and the problems you faced are rather common. Use staff for defense and position around strategic “blink spots”
I’ve used this build in several duels against standard shatter Mesmer and only ever lost because of a poor choice on my part rather than any shortcomming of the build, but it takes longer than a normal shatter build to commit to muscle memory because learning lockdown is a very different playstyle.

@ Marsares: You’re right. After I made this build I felt that Mind Crush was pretty much retired, but it definitely has its strengths and weaknesses relative to this one. I’ll continue to explore both builds rather than only focus on one.

@ derbaer: Oh crap that’s a very good point! I’ll run some tests tonight when I get home but last night it definitely seemed like they stacked. (I was drunk though. =P)

@ cyberwolf: I will definitely be trying my best to get videos of the build in action out immediately. And without clones .. I don’t survive! Without Deceptive Evasion, its all about being strategic where and when and why you use them. In that situation I would’ve focused down the Ele with a quick mind wrack/halting strike burst and finished him with interrupts as Elementalists are very easy to interrupt, all the while kiting the Warrior best as I could. Within the first 10 seconds you can usually tell if you can win the fight or not.

Against enemies with stability, I engage with the iDisenchanter and play defensively phantasm style for a bit to wear out their initial offense, then come in with the shatter burst and chain dazing.

You might wanna try Mind Crush first as it’s the precursor to Shatterlock and easier to use while still having the lockdown flow, then mmove on to this when you’re comfortable with the playstyle.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

@Me Games Ma: Thanks! Looking forward to seeing what ya submit.

Hey, I have to tell you that there is not enough time for me to try running with my new build idea and I don’t want to submit a WIP-Build ^^
Also i had to drop the lockdown-character of the build because it’s been too squishy in teamfights or 1v3.

Also what I’d like you to know: I’d like to PM you but you cannot recieve PMs because you’re full Just sayin

so for WvW what gear is recommended the link only displays armor for spvp.

Hm.. Im wondering if maybe I should submit Mind Crush into the BoTM instead of this one due to the difficulty level. I thought this build was the easier of the two.

@Me Games Ma: Cleared the inbox, should be good.

@mikeew: Ill update the guide fro WvW soon but any gear youd equip to roam as a shatter Mes should work.

@derbaer: Did some tests and the runes/trait definitely stack. It may seem like a very small duration increase but when it comes to dazes that extra fraction of a second can be the difference between life and death, and has made chain-dazing noticeably easier.

On a single daze it’s useful but not very noteworthy, but when you’re throwing daze after daze the duration increase pays off.

Great, thanks for testing! I tried your mind crush build and had great fun with it, definitly will give this one a try too.

I quess it’s cool for duels but it’s little clumsy for WvW roaming. The interrupt is almost useless if you play against 2. It’s shatter effect is also somewhat predictable as it can’t instantly pop 3 clones like the usual shatter build, but then again, you can lock them down for the burst.
I do like the build and it’s fun to play.

Hey Chaos,
your Shatterlock workes really great. While I was doing my testing on my own botm-build I often accidentally went into 30 10 0 0 30…
Bad for me that you already submitted sth like this.^^ I won’t submit it because I feel like a thief using the same trait arrangement like you but i’ll post my version here for you. I call it Stunspike (to find matching names isn’t my big strengh so… :P )

It’s just insane spike for all thoose who dare to run without enough stunbreaks

So.. it turns out my video program reverted back to a 5-day trial. X.x Does anyone know a good free program I can used to record? Or would anyone bebwilling to colkaborate with me on making a lockdown tutorial video?

@Timespace: Ty. In my experience 2v1s arent too big of an issue. It gets tricky at 3, admittedly in WvW I often end up going back to decoy+blink rather than disenchanter. Have you been using Chaos Storm in your shatter burst? Makes a huge difference.

@Me Games: I was gonna say “The same traits dont mean the same playstyle, a 20/20/30/0/0 non-PU lockdown build just got published.” But I checked the link and.. yeah, thats pretty similar. How do you live without dazemantra!?

You can use MSI afterburner, nice program for free. Also I can record a vid for you or had a thought – I could spectate you in PvP while recording. We can mess with that first if you want to see what you think.

Ooh nice! That’d be awesome dude.

initiate with the utility dazes/interrupts then the shatter dazes/interrupts …boom…boom…boom intervals…the mates rushing in to finish a player that is totally on the defensive now with only a dodge key to use…so satisfying and so rewarding. takes a bit of finesse but i think it’s because of DE being in 99% of the current builds out there (kinda like the frog in the well philosophy and i’m still hooked on that shatter bursting with DE and just got off my IP addiction thanks to shattercat heavy). i highly recommend everyone to play with builds that does not include DE to develop on personal playstyles

Chaos Archangel.5071:

So.. it turns out my video program reverted back to a 5-day trial. X.x Does anyone know a good free program I can used to record? Or would anyone bebwilling to colkaborate with me on making a lockdown tutorial video?

Sure, I’d love to colkaborate with you. But I wont be able to meet you in game, so it may not be a good idea :P.

If one of you needs help editting, I heard sending big files is easy, so I could help.

I also heard a certain rumor about Nvidia Shadowplay, they say that it records high quality, low file size and doesnt affect performance for free, which I’d like to believe, but have to test first.

With the upcoming chrisass holiday, and all my real life projects finished, I’ll have alot of time :D

Edit: I use MsI afterburner, but it drops my fps from 60 to 30. It kinda bothers me… I seem to make alot more mistakes in game :P.

my guildies using nvidia shadowplay and say its awesome

@Shadowkiller: I agree. I was a bit unsure about using IP without DE at first, but the sacrifice ended up well worth it.

@mess/alissah: And shadowplay is free? I’ll definitely check it out. I’ll definitely be hitting you up about that editing Alissah!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

@Shadowkiller: I agree. I was a bit unsure about using IP without DE at first, but the sacrifice ended up well worth it.

@mess/alissah: And shadowplay is free? I’ll definitely check it out. I’ll definitely be hitting you up about that editing Alissah!

Shadowplay is free but 1) You have to have an nvidia graphics card and 2) It has to be model 600 or newer.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

So.. it turns out my video program reverted back to a 5-day trial. X.x Does anyone know a good free program I can used to record? Or would anyone bebwilling to colkaborate with me on making a lockdown tutorial video?

@Timespace: Ty. In my experience 2v1s arent too big of an issue. It gets tricky at 3, admittedly in WvW I often end up going back to decoy+blink rather than disenchanter. Have you been using Chaos Storm in your shatter burst? Makes a huge difference.

@Me Games: I was gonna say “The same traits dont mean the same playstyle, a 20/20/30/0/0 non-PU lockdown build just got published.” But I checked the link and.. yeah, thats pretty similar. How do you live without dazemantra!?

I tested my version of your build in WvW doing solo roaming. I think I was lucky with my enemys because I could actually suck out their stunbreaks/stability with staff-5 and diversion^^ so i could just stun with the pistol and got nearly up to 2k/3.5k(nocrit/crit) (x4) shatters against some glascanons…
All this build does is insane CC and heavy spikedamage (when the enemy is stunned and your hp are above 90%^^)
So most of the fights end in a few seconds… you’re like a thief that has less invis, more stuns and has not to attack from behind….^^ AND aoe^^

so for wvw roaming speed is nice, i’m used to centaur runes or traveler runes at this point. So my question…would either of those ruin this build since we dont get the daze duration? Maybe put the daze sigil on weapon to partly make up for it? what are your thoughts. I’d really love to make this build work as i’m tired of PU style :P

The sigil, combined with the CS daze increase should be enough. You can even go without the sigil if you’d rather something different, as the difference is only a fraction of a second and not as crucial as in sPvP.

I’d also advise taking Decoy/Blink/DazeMantra rather than Disenchanter so you can be epic like Osicat, Vash & friends.

Annndd a quick reminder: The BoTM has gone over to the crowd-voting phase. If ya like the build, can I get some support with votes!? =D