Guild Wars 2

Build Guide Video:

Build Stats:

http://www.guildhead.com/skill-calc#mcmz0MmzMMbTLMMbTLMax9MxzMVaVaq

Changes you might want to consider:
10 Point Dueling (Phantasmal Fury) is changeable

10 Point Illusion (Master of Misdirection) can be changed out with (Precise Wrack).

Caveats
Try to Pick good targets between Cry of Frustraion vs Mind Wrack.

Against slow hitting classes like a Rifle Warrior, or a backstab thief, confusion is not that useful due to the fact that those classes have low skill chains .

Cry of frustration is great against builds that require multiple skills to function i.e D/D eles.

Thoughts? Comments?

Phantasmal Haste is a worthless skill. It doesn’t decrease your phantasm skill CD but their attack speed. All in all they may attack every 5sec instead of 6sec, useless. I also suggest you to run sigil of energy if you shatter heavy especially when pretty much all sigils in this game are so kitten weak(er) than food buff but sigil of energy is 1sec if ‘invulnerability’ and 1 clone which then could be shattered for an additional damage or 1 more sec from distortion. I personally don’t like this build but that’s because i prefer running a full confusion/toughness build or power precision one, not some of it all together.

the issue with confusion/toughness is that it is a passive build, i.e if the target is a low-attacking target such as a back-stab thief, then you are not doing that much damage. and chances are, often times will die before you do significant damage

I run a condition, optional shatter confusion build in WvW and have found it very strong. I do 0/20/25/0/25 usually and have mostly precision/toughness/condition damage gear. I don’t find it passive by any means as my clones and I can deal 800 dps burns and massive bleeds. With about 1300-1400 in power from gear, you can get nice DD bursts with the sword #2 ability as it does decent damage even with lower power, and your mind wrack can do decent damage with crits + the added bonus of 3 stacks of confusion, causing 1200 dmg per skill use (1800 condition damage w/ stacks.) Cry of frustration is the kicker and if you can get six stacks on and enemy, it’ll do 2400 dmg per skill use. In 1v1 situations, I haven’t lost to any profession in I don’t know how long. In group settings, you’re confusion not only melts enemies through the shatter AOE effect, but it also controls the smart ones, who notice the confusion and either must clear it or wait 3-5 seconds to do anything. While they do that, put out 3 more staff clones to keep those burns/bleeds up and continually give boons to allies. When appropriate, you can sword #3 in + sword #2 for a finisher or good burst and decoy/blink out if you need to create distance. If the enemy plays through your confusion, they will die almost instantly. Traited correctly, you can pretty much keep confusion constantly on the target.

Slow casting classes haven’t been a problem for me, because the damage from my staff clones and confusion is so great. Having high toughness (around 1800) makes you very survivable and allows you to survive unforeseen attacks. The staff also allows you to put up chaos armor in several ways and phase retreat away in such situations. If a thief keeps on you, they get lots of conditions and give you boons with each hit on your chaos armor.

The only class, I repeat – only class – I have trouble with is well-played DPS heavy mesmers. This mostly stems from the fact that currently, you’re clones often get distracted by the closest enemy (or clone) and do not focus on the original target. This disrupts a focused shatter and condition damage that your staff clones could be doing to the original target.

I’ve done every mesmer build and IMHO, this is the strongest and most forgivable one to play. There is no other condition or skill that I think can deal as much damage in such a short time period as confusion. Elementalists and thieves are the most fun, as they’ll often spam so many skills in such a short time period that they are dead before your confusion bubbles can even pop up on the screen.

Playing the same build like the OP, but i suggest compounding power & Confusion cry in the Illusions line…
Scepter/Torch is also not the ideal weapon choice for a shatter-burst-build. Strongly sugest sword/pistol or sword/focus for mobility

@Astus: sounds interesting, can you link the build,pls? I’m working towards p/t/cd gear but have not much playtime this days snief

Sure, I’ll start a new post/guide because people have been asking recently…

blutstein.2468:

Playing the same build like the OP, but i suggest compounding power & Confusion cry in the Illusions line…
Scepter/Torch is also not the ideal weapon choice for a shatter-burst-build. Strongly sugest sword/pistol or sword/focus for mobility

@Astus: sounds interesting, can you link the build,pls? I’m working towards p/t/cd gear but have not much playtime this days snief

the reason i chose scepter/torch was for the confusion clone (torch 5) + stealth (torch 4).

as well as the scepter 3.

i will try out your combos and see

Khalif.2076:

blutstein.2468:

Playing the same build like the OP, but i suggest compounding power & Confusion cry in the Illusions line…
Scepter/Torch is also not the ideal weapon choice for a shatter-burst-build. Strongly sugest sword/pistol or sword/focus for mobility

@Astus: sounds interesting, can you link the build,pls? I’m working towards p/t/cd gear but have not much playtime this days snief

the reason i chose scepter/torch was for the confusion clone (torch 5) + stealth (torch 4).

as well as the scepter 3.

i will try out your combos and see

Yeah, I explain why I personally don’t use the scepter in my condition/confusion shatter build here: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-WvW-and-PvE-Condition-Build/first#post1353422

I instead go for the sword/focus as blutstein suggested.