Guild Wars 2

Er.. dat forum bug. I’ll just plop the link to the BoTM here:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/OMFG-Build-of-the-Month-Contest-December/first

any and all +1s welcome.

I tested this build today (spvp), and coming from PU condition build, at first this Shatterlock felt really bad, no defense, no condi removal (disenchanter is a bit unreliable, but it does give shatter food), and I kept dying for the first couple matches. But then when I got a good rotation to my skills, this build became really fun. Keeping someone locked for quite a long time while dishing out damage feels great :P. This build also reminds me of the gw1 Mesmer, lockdown, punishment, hexes (illusions in gw2), that kind of stuff.

This build has a really different playstyle than what I’m used to. This is a shatter build, but not quite, with limited illusion generating, so you got to pay attention to those. Only problems I have are condi removal and stealth spammers (PU Mesmer and some Thieves).

Overall fun and effective build!

Intried nvidia shadowplay today… Its not compatible with my laptop :’(.

Apparrently theres a difference between laptop and desktop graphc cards, and even hough mine is better than the minimum needed, it doesnt work because its desktop :P. It also gives you a message wether your card is good enough or not… Unlike some other video capture programs which basically melt your computer if its incompatible.

I also am not really ready to dive into the world of shattering without deceptive evasion… But I’m willing to give it a try, eventually.

My worst (and only) complaint about Mind Crush is that it didn’t have enough burst damage… Maybe this build solved that :P. I hope so. And I hope I still have time to play in the holidays, with all the family stuff, and stuff.

I guess this post added absolutely nothing to the thread, except that you dont Have to be afraid of computer meltage when you try shadowplay :P

@My Sweet Lily: Glad ya enjoyed it. I could imagine it must’ve been pretty jarring switching from the hyper-defensive PU style to something like this, and I respect that you pushed through the initial trouble with the build in the beginning (that’s actually fairly common, even without coming from PU). Staff has a very important role in this build for that very reason: It’s both defense and offense depending on how you manipulate Chaos Storm (Have you tried Phase Retreat -> Warlock -> Chaos Storm -> iLeap/Swap -> Blurred Frenzy ->MindWrack[F1] -> Diversion[F3]? It can instantly wipe certain specs and bursts down most others pretty hard)

If you’re running Disenchanter, conditions won’t be a problem after a while. Let it live to attack at least twice and you’ll be cleansing 4 conditions every 10 seconds

@Alissah: I don’t have a Nvidia so I can’t use it either. =/ But dude ya gotta try it! I remember how you said you preferred a more shatter-heavy style cuz of the burst, and everyone doubts life without DE but it’s really not so bad.

I’ve been mainly using Chaos Storm → iWarlock → iSwordsman → iLeap/Swap → Blurred Frenzy → F1 → F2 → F3 for bursting people. If they don’t die to that then it usually just takes a few sword swings to kill them.

Does this build suit/work in soloQ/teamQ? Swapping Blink for Portal maybe.

I used to use something similar to that, but I don’t like committing all my phantasms into one shatter-y basket. I try to never initiate with Chaos Storm since I’d rather use it when my opponent has spent their dodges, it’s too important to miss (unless dropping that bad boy on an unsuspecting group).

And it most definitely works in tournament play; better than in hotjoin and does quite well from my experience. I mostly roam between home and midpoint, supporting mid with heavy boonstripping/condition removal (disenchanter survives longer than people give it credit for) and of course dat AoE shatter burst. I chain-daze any mark targets (and if there isn’t one, then mark whoever you’re about to daze) both to keep em locked and to vuln stack and I often save my shatter burst for either clustered groups or when they’re going for a rezz. I wouldn’t recommend portal unless running with an organized team, and yeah dropping Blink would be the smartest (but most dangerous) move.

I had the fortune of doing some tPvP with Gasmic, so we ran up against a nice mix of teams, from top players (kitten you Caed & team Disney!) to unorganized tpvpers and I was almost always effective, though. Almost, cuz Miley Cyrus (Currently 17th place on team leaderboards) outplayed me twice. -_-

… and my frickin’ rank just dripped from 443 to 515 wtf!

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Almost, cuz Miley Cyrus (Currently 17th place on team leaderboards) outplayed me twice. -_-

… and my frickin’ rank just dripped from 443 to 515 wtf!

She came in like a wrecking ball.

I started trying out this build a couple days ago, and I’m still trying to get the hang of it. Generally in WvW, I tend to run with the zerg instead of doing solo/small group roaming. What do you think about taking Imbued Diversion, and Shattered Concentration along with a greatsword instead of staff?

My thinking is that since I’m running with a zerg (and have super squishy zerk armor), I would try to stay around the perimeter of the fight and use my GS for ranged attack. I can use GS4 to summon a phantasm into the middle of the fight for AoE cripple, possibly summon another clone, then use Diversion for an AoE daze/stun/boon removal, and possibly some bonus interrupt effect.

I know this kind of gets away from the “lockdown” spirit of your build, but I was wondering if you think it’s viable.

Also, some context about me: Been playing mesmer as my main for quite some time, but I’ve never really delved very deep into making builds, or studying underlying mechanics, so I’m still kind of n00by. I’m coming from Osicat’s original shatter build, then switched to Osicat’s condition PU build, and now I’m trying this out.

Wrecking ball joke made me lol. I walked right into that.

Shattered concentration is an excellent choice, you actually reminded me that I need to update the build link (I thought I did that!). Imbued Diversion can work, but in order to really get the most out of it you’d be better off with Deceptive Evasion. 20/20/0/0/30 would work here, though you lose out on Confounding.. which is kind of the core of this build. x_X At the same time, going 30 points for Imbued Diversion is pretty much going for a lockdown build, especially with Shattered Concentration. (And null field over disenchanter)

I’ll do some experimenting and see for sure, but I’m thinking in such a build Greatsword/Staff likely may also be a stronger option, especially if you stick with 30/10/0/0/30, since Confounding works REALLY well with staff (even if the slight bug gets patched) and with Staff/GS you can better position clones for a nice Imbued Diversion shatter.

I see a lot of interesting options, but not sure which would work, now ya got me curious..

Why is Confounding so good with staff? Is because of Chaos Storm’s chance for daze?

I feel like if I lose Confounding Suggestions, I’ll lose most of my reason to explode dazes into the middle of a zerg. 1-2 seconds of daze into a chaotic zerg doesn’t seem like all that big a deal compared to a possible 1-2 seconds of stun.

I’m liking the greatsword/staff option. I can utilize both weapons at range, and null field also gives me another Ethereal field my allies can burst finish.

I’m gonna try it out. Thanks for your expertise! =)

bladeofky.3067:

Why is Confounding so good with staff? Is because of Chaos Storm’s chance for daze?

I feel like if I lose Confounding Suggestions, I’ll lose most of my reason to explode dazes into the middle of a zerg. 1-2 seconds of daze into a chaotic zerg doesn’t seem like all that big a deal compared to a possible 1-2 seconds of stun.

I’m liking the greatsword/staff option. I can utilize both weapons at range, and null field also gives me another Ethereal field my allies can burst finish.

I’m gonna try it out. Thanks for your expertise! =)

Just dying to throw in chillruption to this mix (see my sig). Sounds like something that might be up your alley (or close). 0/0/30/0/30 required, with other 10 optional. GS/Staff and basically you use chaotic interruption instead of confounding suggestions. This way you can get traited staff or bountiful interruption for insane might stacking.

Apologies in advance for hijacking the thread …

EDIT: There is good discussion on confounding suggestions vs chaotic interruption being used with imbued diversion in this thread

Thanks skcamow! That sounds awesome. I guess it’s really a question of chill vs. daze/stun. The chill duration is longer, but still allows them the use of any ability not on cd. Anyways, I’ll def have to try it out some time.

Thanks for the link too. Very enlightening =D

Ooh yeah, that’s a good point actually. I always forget about Chaotic Interruption, which also works very well with Imbued since it gives you even more options for lockdown (such as greatsword’s push). I’d definitely vouch for Chillruption for what you’re looking for.

And it’s moreso a question of Immobilize+Blind/Cripple/Chill vs Daze/Stun and how frequently you can proc interrupts… which in a Zerg should be pretty often. And CS is so good with staff because Chaos Storm procs a daze almost every time you cast it (and that was BEFORE the bug with CS that makes Chaos Storm proc dazes more often )

Any updates on vids or tips/tricks? I’m still trying to learn the build and would love any advice on how to play it more effectively. Mostly I’ve taken it into PvE and WvW (cause that’s what my friends play) and have been practicing chain-dazing on dungeon mobs. I’ve tried taking it into PvP once so far and got pretty much demolished, although I attribute that more to my inexperience and the rank 39 enemy shatter mesmer I kept running into, more than anything else.

@Chaos Archangel.5071

Hurry up with the next Mesmer podcast already! Been waiting for a post-December 10 update that discusses specific builds and how the changes affect WvW play.

@bladeofky: Trying really hard to get vids out, but you may wanna check out Helseth’s stream.

http://www.twitch.tv/helsethgw2/b/492955872

That’s one of the vids where he’s using the lockdown build in team queue and while I haven’t gotten to scan through the vid yet I’m sure theres a lot of good stuff in there.

@Ghanto: We did do that podcast! The changes didn’t much of a big impact on us so much as the overall changes to the game and other classes helped us out. I’ll edit in a link shortly, been running around all day.

Suprisingly fun to play, Tested the build for 2 days now between my normal testing.

My opinion after testing:

Spvp:

Strong in smaler fights, harder thu to fight outnumbered.
Better in 2-3 vs 2-3 than in 1 vs 2.
In Spvp i prefere staff/GS over s&s / staff.
Staff chaos field get extremt strong pointcontroller.
GS puchback can give some nice dmg effects.
Daze mantra more effective the smaler the fight is, like pistol its more of a 1vs1 tool
Hard handle multiple conditions applyed fast (4-5) condition applyed in short time cant be cleared.

Wvwvw

Daze shatters traited for aoe daze is almost Op in a fight where enemy team lack stability.
A bit slow, especialy in combat.
Staff is strong in big fights.
As roamer it cant handle good PU mesmers or BS thiefs, if I would roam in the build I would bring a friend.
Daze mantra not realy usefull in wvwvw as the fights often grow fast.
Hard handle multiple conditions applyed fast.
Not any good tools to dissengage from a fight.

Of the build in this month contest I give this one a big + for new thinking and funfactor.

/Osicat

Hey Osi, would you have any tips for people looking to make a roaming lockdown build? You’re WvW experience far exceeds mine, and I’m really curious about how using Imbued Diversion worked out for you in WvW. For the past few days I had been considering a 20/20/0/0/30 build using Imbued Diversion, Mesmer Runes, ect. for a more AoE-oriented lockdown/shatter build.

Also, as far as disengaging, do you think Blink + Mass Invis isn’t enough? Do you feel Blink + Decoy HAS to be taken? In my experience (I play on Anvil Rock so our WvWing isn’t quite the same level) I’ve been able to disengage pretty successfully with Mass Invis + Blink + Phase Retreat

Also, I will admit that it took me a while to figure out how to handle 2v1s. (finally will be able to record this weekend. Since my comp is crap, I’m borrowing a friends. =P) This is a build that feels really 1v1 oriented, especially without any stealth (though Decoy is a perfectly fine substitute for Blink), and so it takes quite a bit of daze management and positioning to by effective while outnumbered and I usually go by a few rules before committing myself:

• Have a plan: Obvious, of course, but still extremely important and worth mentioning. Builds like PU and standard shatter can often improvise a victory, but lockdown builds generally should go into a fight with specific objectives and escape plans. I try to keep an eye out for spots to Blink-escape before engaging and I try to determine who’ll go down the fastest, and who I can fight while dazing a secondary opponent.

• Target the squishier/stunnable opponent first: Necromancer & Elementalists are always the ones I target first. Necros are very easy to lock down and Eles are usually soft as hell. Guardians, depending on the build and skill of player, can also be bursted down fairly quickly, but this isn’t something that should be counted on. Thieves & Engineers often depend on the skill of the player and who initiates the fight first.

• Avoid Warriors. 1v1, a Warrior isn’t much problem, but give him a buddy and his survivability/damage is often just too much to try and deal with while facing a second opponent. This rule goes with any tanky enemy that can harm you, such as spirit Rangers and certain Engineers.

• Disenchant, for the love of god disenchant! Boons like fury, protection, stability & aegis have to be removed, and so like Pyroathiest constantly drills into my head: Summon Disenchanter early and often. It makes such a huge difference when approaching any fight, 1v1 or outnumbered.

And after speaking with Helseth, I’ve been thinking about just how much shatter and lockdown need to fuse traits to be effective. The standard 20/20/0/0/30 trait setup is more versatile than people give it credit for, and though it’s usually thought of as the standard “Shatter DPS” spec, there is actually more than a bit of lockdown worked in as well; it depends on how you play it.

Domination would have the lockdown & damage: Halting Strike/Shattered Concentration
Dueling for clone production & damage: Deceptive Evasion,
Illusions for … Illusions. x.x (However Mind Crush’s playstyle has me thinking I’ve seriously overlooked how powerful Imbued Diversion could be.)

With the right runes and utilities, you can still craft an effective shatter-lockdown build that would play noticeably differently than a standard shatter-DPS and still be effective. I don’t think this has been explored as much as it could be, and look forward to doing so in the future.

I could talk for a long time about Imbued Diversion. Honestly it is underutilized, but I understand why. First, why to take it …

• The pure ability to AoE daze is awesome, even if you don’t get an interrupt. This is highly disruptive for an enemy team. I think this point right here is what many folks overlook with the trait. Traited with mesmer runes and confounding suggestions may make some sense to get that daze duration as high as possible.

• Ok, take interrupts into account now. Much luck is involved in being able to land these AoE. When you do, however, and have interrupt proc’ing traits, you have a very good situation. Gotta remember the type of game this is – people using skills left and right – you’re gonna proc AoE interrupts more often than not when you throw an imbued diversion bomb into a group. If stability is ripped AoE before the bomb, you get that much more benefit.

Imbued Diversion is powerful, powerful enough to be in a GM slot, but the main reason it’s underutilized is it’s perception of being inherently weak, and to a lesser extent, the lack of synergy with other traits. To me it’s probably not worth taking in it’s current form if you’re not getting something else besides just the AoE daze out of it. Meaning, you go halting strike/bountiful interruption/chaotic interruption, etc to feel like you’re getting your money’s worth.

To that end, I think it could use a little buff to warrant taking it over illusionary persona. That, plus the fact you only have one single skill that can proc it. I’ve long had an idea to change the behavior so that for every opponent you interrupt, the recharge on diversion decreases by a percentage, say 5%, capped ofc @ 25% due to the five opponent limit. Best case there is you get close to a 9s additional decreased recharge, taking the full recharge reduction from 30 spent into Illusions into account. This brings it to about 27s. Still not great, but certainly not OP and would be a decent buff.

This rewards the interrupt independent of having to take some of the other interrupt proc’ing traits and makes taking the trait that much more enticing in a 20/20/0/0/30 build. Granted also, it isn’t necessarily rewarding skillful play which is the only downside I see to it.

Yeah I was thinking similarly actually, that in addition to making diversion AoE, Imbued Diversion should lower the cooldown of Diversion upon successful interrupt..

My problem with it is that I REALLY want to be able to grab Imbued AND Confounding, but I feel like Imbued Diversion needs Deceptive Evasion in order to be effective. Also, since the F3 is on a 36 second cooldown with Imbued, I’ve been really wondering how effective Sig of Illusions combined with Illusionary Invig could be with it. Its rare that people use Signet of Illusions for it’s active, but I think in a shatter/phantasm build (sorta like Mind crush) that signet could actually end up being useful for both its passive AND it’s active… But it suffers the same problem as Imbued diversion: stiff competition for the utility slot.

So many ideas! So many questions! Can confounding and Imbued work effectively in a build without DE? Is there a build that could be more effective with Imbued Diversion rather than iPersona? Is Shatterlock actually more effective as a 20/20/0/0/30 lockdown-focused shatter build?

Since I’m more focused on the video for this weekend, maybe next week I’ll explore it a bit and see what I could come up with.

The extra Daze duration that got added to Confounding Suggestions might actually be better off being attached to Imbued Diversion. That way it benefits a lot more than just our F3.

Then change Confounding Suggestions to proc the stun before the daze instead of replacing it, so that it’s still buffed relative to pre-Dec10th. And that way daze duration increases don’t feel semi-wasted when taking Confounding.

Just make diversion aoe. I don’t think it would be OP. you still need to go 30 in illusions to make it 36secs.

@chaos.

Have you ever had those fights that you run out of interrupts.? mantra needs to be charged and others are on cd.

If only MoD was just on a regular cd no charges needed.

Hi Chaos. Answered you in my thread but here is a copy.

Il answer you subject by subject.

1: My personal opinion is that Blink is combined with stealth the absolute strongest survival tool we have in WvWvW roaming. It is the only ability we have that let use combined with immunity and or stealth survive a focus fire/aoe target. Portal can serv that purpose in soem ways but only every 90 s and it cant climb where you not already been and droped a exit. Also Blink is the best counter when 2-3 warriors with hammers deccide to play “mesmer ball” with your kitten .

Decoy can be learned to live without, but its still one of our strongest counters to high burst enemy.

2: With staff you will have the tool to fight multipple oponents to change to sword and burst anyone who dropped low. It aso have the survival stats to survive soem heavy incomming fire, witch lead us to nr 3.

3: Always when I make a build I ask myself a number of questions, if its a NO on aly of them I eather drop the build or I change something. This as even If its possible to play with a NO on the question I personaly donf find it fun to have hardcounters. This is why I dont play alot of shatter atm, as it have hardcounters.

the questions is:

guestion 1

Can the build survive a focus from a “skilled and wellgeared BS thief”? : This is a EXTREMLY important question, this as that IS a hardcounter for many of our build, sure many BS thiefs can be killed in many builds, but there is some wery skilled gankers who play on roaming hours.

There is a few key abilitys to survive this skilled BS thiefs, eather you need to have blocks&immunitys so frequent that you never take the full BS+burst&CC combo they land from stealth. Or you have to have stealth long and frequent enought to match their. I prefere a combo, Pu with sword sword give agis and immunity long enought.

In my opinion (I write this as some ppl migt dissagree but this is what I beleve after endless testing in duels versus some in my oppinion extremly skilled thiefs) you also need reliable protection source, a toughness of around 1500-1800 and minimum two stunbrakers. You can survive with less toughness but then you NEED to play spotless and the thief will have bigger odds in winning. The stunbrakers I prefere is Blink, decoy and eather staff 2 or sword leap (both can be used when you are cc,d and work as a backup stunbraker. Note thu for sword to work you need to have the clone out before you get cc,d).

This is one of the reasons I chose the gear setup I have, it give the defensive stats to survive, but also enought OMPF to kill ppl. The celestial on chest is as alternative is Kight but then I drop low on crit dmg.

question 2

Can I handle conditions? If its a NO then I go to question 3 or fix the issue

question 3

If im starting to lose the fight or big incomming enemy team, can I escape any class? For this you NEED stealth and fast incombat mobility. Here blink,portal, travaler runes, staff, sword 3 and stealth al play a core role.

4:

Kinda sure the build not stadning or falling on this trait, its core traits is PU, Empowered illusions and fury on phantasms. This is where main part of your dmg&survival will come from, the halting strike and CS will give you the controll to force the fight in your own way.

If I suggest any changes I would consider to get staff cd, 50 toughness trait instead of the might on interupt. This will give some amazing mobility. Also veil isntead of blink is a option if playing in a team.

/Osicat

PS, main issue Imbued Diversion have is that if im in a fight and want to land a daze and have 30 in illusions I would any day want to have IP. If I could AOE daze from myself with IP it would be awsome thu. As long IP and Imbued are in the same GM spot 90% of al players will go for IP, not sure how to survive with 30 p in illusions without IP. Move Imbued to 20 i in illusions imoa. reason this would not be op is that you would need 2 drop “shatters resett at 50% hp”, a big drop for a shatter spec but not a specc killing change like no IP would be.

@Osi: TY! Ya gave me a lot to think about.

And we have WON the BoTM! Awesome! Reviews for the build…

Shatterlock

Overall Impressions

An interesting and rather versatile build. It requires more care to play than standard shatter builds due to the limited illusion production, and will be getting nerfed significantly with the Chaos Storm fix. It has good damage though, and strong aoe lockdown potential. Basically has all the good stuff of a standard shatter build plus a bit on the side.

WvW Potential

This build simply isn’t optimized for either very large fights or the nasty 1v1s encountered while roaming. Chaos Storm is a very potent aoe lockdown skill, but it does suffer from a 5 target cap and long cooldown. The low illusion production also makes it difficult to do any real damage in a big fight. However, it does have a great place as a control/damage role in a small havok team or slightly larger group even.

6/10

PvE
It’s really not a good build for PvE. Shatters, interrupts/lockdowns, and lack of reflects all combine to make it very suboptimal. Thankfully, it’s not designed for PvE at all.

N.A./10

PvP
This build is a strong addition to an organized team. It suffers from the normal drawbacks of a shatter build, and draws from the same strengths, but has a unique aoe lockdown potential. It can be devastating in team-fights, but it won’t work nearly as well in an unorganized group due to the need for team effort to capitalize on that lockdown.

8/10

Overall: 7 points awarded. A strong build for what it is designed, but does come with some caveats.

Natsu Dragneel.1625:

Shatterlock
7/10
My impressions:

• Overall, a higher skill based take on a typical shatter build, combining in interrupts to lockdown/disable your opponents, however, when looking at it from a shatter point of view, I found that the clone generation was slightly lower than I would have liked, and a lot of the time, leaving me unable to keep up the pressure. However, once the shatters get going, combined with the interrupts the performance greatly improved.
• Lacking in PvE situations due to the nature of the build and the nature of PvE, somewhat effective in a WvW situation, in smaller groups/solo playing, and losing a lot of its effectiveness in larger scale fights. This build, however, when played properly will do quite well in the PvP area, being a solid edition to teams, and also doing reasonably well in hot-joining.

Does the Chaos Storm/Confounding Suggestions bug fix affect this build much?

My Sweet Lily.1952:

Does the Chaos Storm/Confounding Suggestions bug fix affect this build much?

Tried CS on Chaos Storm. Only proc’d 1-2 stuns now which also made the stun ALOT easier to dodge. So I’d say it does affect the build quite a bit

My Sweet Lily.1952:

Does the Chaos Storm/Confounding Suggestions bug fix affect this build much?

Yep. Stuns don’t stack anyway. Still a lot of fun for small group roaming…

ABOUT THE CHAOS STORM BUG FIX

If you were running this build strictly to abuse the Chaos Storm bug, then shame on you! This build wasn’t created to abuse the bug, and actually was published BEFORE the patch that broke CS was released. That being said, it is an undeniable fact that the bug did make the build more effective, but Shatterlock does not require a Staff to be effective.

• Greatsword is a perfectly fine alternative. Sword/Sword – Scepter/ Pistol works well.

I prefer the staff because of the mobility, and defense it offers, also because I feel Chaos Storm is still one of the best AoE CC (crowd control) abilities we have. Dropping Weakness (50% damage)/Poison (33% heal)/Chill (Skills take 66% longer to recharge) / and Daze on a group is still a strong form of control, and Chaos Armor remains one of my favorite auras in PvP (dat blind! dat protection!) .

The build is still viable and effective, and I’m happy for the patch since I don’t enjoy playing OP-bugged traits.

Just a slight note: I’ve been mucking around with a 0/10/30/0/30 Chaotic Interruption variant of this build… I can’t say for sure yet but it seems to work pretty well.

Also, if anyone’s having trouble with the build and you’re on the NA side I have no problem meeting up in the Mists and demonstrating, either via duels or spectating. Feel free to hit me up!

Could you link the traits for that build. Also it looks similar to skcamow’s build, so whats different about it?

I’m guessing he’s using IP versus ID.

Pretty much. What I was doing is experimenting on how interchangeable CI and CS are. While CI works in this build, it really is a matter of if you prefer interrupts versus versus dazes.

Domination and Chaos both offer something for lockdown builds but Chaos is more of a gamble. The question is if Bountiful Interruption/CI/300 toughness/Prot on Regen is worth it over Shattered Concentration, Halting Strike & Dazzling.. So far I still prefer Dom but I was doing fairly well with Chaos.

So I’m wondering how you keep the disenchanter alive. Since I’ve been running this build most of my illusions die in the ensuing chaotic aoe so the disenchanter is alive for maybe 3 seconds lol. Then in 1v1’s it’s mostly hambows that aoe the hell out of everything so it disappears pretty quickly there too.

I tried a few Lockdown builds because it is something new. Have to say I like your Shatterlock the most. I ran MindCrush for a while and it was fun but lacked the burst necessary to defeat some oponents.

For now I use Shatterlock only in PvP (still lack some gear pieces for WvW) and I have to say it is very fun and effective. Personally, I like disenchanter+mental torment+decoy better than shattered concentration+blink+decoy.

I run with the Valkyrie Amulet for now, because it offers more defence, but once I get better I will try the Berserker one.

And I have to agree with some of the others that it really shines in 2vs2 or 3vs3. You call a target and over the next 10 seconds render him/her nearly completely unable to do anything. It is nearly impossible to survive such a scenario (the only ones who have were 2 hambow warriors + 1 bunker guardian).

@Raunchy: Its best to start an engagement with Disenchanter, especially against Warriors/Guards. Since Disenchanter is on such a low cooldown, it only needs to attack once or twice to be worth the summon. Other than that, sometimes I’ll summon it and drop Chaos Storm on it to give it a bit more survivability, but I try not to use it too much in an aoe-heavy situation unless there’s a player/pet/turret sitting on the edge of the battle that I can cast it on.
Disenchanter’s attack bounces 5 times, so you don’t actually have to summon it on a player. Whatever targettable thing is on the edge of the battle will suffice, especially since it attacks so rapidly.

@Wisler: Much appreciated! You may enjoy StickerHappy’s “Phantasmic Interruptions” too if you haven’t tried it yet. It’s a really fun/rewarding lockdown build.

Recently I’ve been running with this:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

So I’ve recently been playing with a build that’s essentially a fusion of Mind Crush and Phantasmic Interruptions…

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20/20/30/0/0
Dom: V, VII Duel: IV, X Chaos: V, VIII, XI
Sword-Sword (or Focus) – Staff
Runes of Grenth, Sigil of Hydromancy (staff) / Energy (sword) / Bloodlust (offhand)
Blink – iDisenchanter – Mantra of Distraction

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Taking the lessons I learned from Mind Crush (Vuln stacking, staff shenanigans, and chain dazes) and combining with the Dueling/Chaos trait-spread of Phantasmic Interruptions has made for whats possibly the best lockdown build I’ve played so far. Lots of AoE CC, a mix of both soft and hard lockdown and surprisingly good damage. I mourn for the loss of Halting Strike but I love the team utility of Crippling Dissipation. I still have more practice to do with the build (when I’m not playing a modified version of Arganthium’s LSD) but I’m really enjoying it. Again shoutouts to skcamow and StickerHappy for producing that awesome build.

What do you think about using Power Block instead of Confounding suggestions?

Well power block is kinda…bad after the “fix” to it (a nerf in disguise) so it honestly isn’t worth taking at all as a gm trait for a interrupt mes imo. I would much rather have CI or CS since it does nothing to thieves or autos anymore.

Is this still viable? Or has it been updated?

I dunno, actually. Power Block isnt terrible, but it doesnt seem to really compare/ compete with CI/CS.

And yeah.. if anything the build was buffed with the updates

So I’ve been running this build again after receiving some excellent advise:

second mango.1563:

You use your dodges far too liberally. Some of them might be defensible (maybe), but many of your dodges were inexcusable. Just because you run energy sigil or have deceptive evasion doesn’t mean you should be spamming dodges.

The most egregious example is 8:09 – 8:18 in the Forest vid. You guys won a team fight, and you were chasing a mesmer, blowing two dodges in the process. When he turned around to fight, you had to use your distortion because you had no dodges. No, the marginal speed boost isn’t a good excuse, especially when you’re pushing into far and see multiple enemies on the screen.

So best way to fix my bad dodging habits is to play a build that has no DE! Also, this build is probably the most difficult Mesmer spec I’ve ever played, yet monstrously effective when played properly. I consider it my training build, forcing me to be smart and resourceful in mixing both shatter and lockdown playstyles.

Ross was kind enough to help me train and practice, and I’ve got those vids here. Will be adding notations soon.

Duels vs Ross 1
Duels vs Ross 2
Duels vs Ross 3
Duels vs Ross 4
Duels vs Ross 5

Chaos Archangel.5071:

So I’ve been running this build again after receiving some excellent advise:

second mango.1563:

You use your dodges far too liberally. Some of them might be defensible (maybe), but many of your dodges were inexcusable. Just because you run energy sigil or have deceptive evasion doesn’t mean you should be spamming dodges.

The most egregious example is 8:09 – 8:18 in the Forest vid. You guys won a team fight, and you were chasing a mesmer, blowing two dodges in the process. When he turned around to fight, you had to use your distortion because you had no dodges. No, the marginal speed boost isn’t a good excuse, especially when you’re pushing into far and see multiple enemies on the screen.

So best way to fix my bad dodging habits is to play a build that has no DE! Also, this build is probably the most difficult Mesmer spec I’ve ever played, yet monstrously effective when played properly. I consider it my training build, forcing me to be smart and resourceful in mixing both shatter and lockdown playstyles.

Ross was kind enough to help me train and practice, and I’ve got those vids here. Will be adding notations soon.

Duels vs Ross 1
Duels vs Ross 2
Duels vs Ross 3
Duels vs Ross 4
Duels vs Ross 5

I don’t know where else to put this. Here’s the matches from the other side. It was 31 fights all up, I don’t know if Chaos uploaded every single one but I just decided to do the lot.

Wins (C = Chaos, B = Buton)

• Wins (Chaos 21, Buton 10)
  1 C
  2 C
  3 C
  4 C
  5 B
  6 C
  7 B
  8 C
  9 C
  10 B
  11 C
  12 B
  13 C
  14 C
  15 C
  16 B
  17 C
  18 B
  19 B
  20 C
  21 B
  22 C
  23 C
  24 C
  25 C
  26 C
  27 C
  28 C
  29 B
  30 C
  31 B

That 7 streak win before the last 3 matches didn’t help the final tally :/

Oh dude I did not see this before, thanks a lot! It’s one of the rare times I get to see myself from the opponent’s perspective. You got a few more matches there than I do, but I’ll try and merge the fragmented videos I took and set them up side-by-side.

Really like it, works nicely with smaller groups to be honest as it is lockdown but I really like the nuking capabilities of the build as well as the stun and the creative aspect that was put into its creation Big + from me!