Guild Wars 2

For a very long time now, I have been playing shatter builds in WvW because I enjoy the damage and mobility. When I tried out phantasms for a bit, I was impressed by the damage but very underwhelmed by the mobility and frequency of death.

Recently, I have become interested in condition builds, mainly Osicat’s. After reading the discussion about confusion in this thread, I have become more interested in the stacking of confusion and other condi’s on enemies.

I would like to know what types of builds and tactics other mesmers employ in WvW. Should I try conditions? Is shattering the way to go? Do I die when I play phantasms because I’m doing it wrong?

EDIT: sorry forgot to add: for solo and small group roaming

Roaming? Small man? Zerg?

I am a relatively new mesmer, and the condition build is the only one I have used. As such, I cannot speak to how it compares to other builds – but I can describe my experience with the condition build. It is, in a word, incredible. There really isn’t a single class that I’m afraid of. The survivability is excellent, with a great deal of passive effects, as well as the a large amount of stealth. This stealth also allows you to troll/flee from zergs (as your preference lies), snagging the occasional kill while they dance in frustration, or to actively engage groups of 3 fairly easily. The damage -well, to quote the Osicat, “it melts faces.” The only main problem is a joyfully frequent one, and that is when your enemies flee before you. Your only chase abilities are 1(blink) + 2(phase retreat [staff]) or 2(ileap [sw/pistol]).
So, in conclusion, I would recommend trying it out. You could either test it in PvP (in which case, you substitute S. Runes of the Undead for the S. Runes of Perplexity), or could buy a cheap version with masterworks.
Happy hunting.

K U T M.4539:

Roaming? Small man? Zerg?

Sorry, should have specified. Solo and small group roaming.

For such situations, I would say Shatter, Phantasm and Interrupt are the premier builds.
Especially for Phantasm and Interrupt, zerg-potential is comparatively low though.

(One common argument for Shatter builds is how adaptable they are in WvW)

For roaming alone all three can be good. Phantasm is the easiest one and the best if you’re starting with mesmers. Shatters requires more ability, but they can bee a good pain in the kitten due to their amazing burst, see Osicat’s video for that xd And Conditions can also be good and you are the maximum trolling, but it’s a slower build and you will miss the shatter burst or the easiness from phantasms.

For small groups, shatters shines the most, since you have a lot of AoE damage, and your enemies are not too much to kill your clones/phantasms. A phantasm build can also be good if you go more support (See Pyro or Chaos Maestro guides).

I’ve played shatter builds extensively and have recently begun to use the Blackwater Mesmer (what Osi is using) and hands down it’s by far the best build there is. I’m actually in the guild of Osi and we’ve talked about it. This might just be the strongest mesmer build ever created, for WvW that is.

- You are in stealth 60-80% of the time, thus very tanky. Stealth also gives you boons like aegis, protection and regen, which helps your defense ever more.
- People literally will go for your clones if you dance in stealth like you should. They’re putting bleeds and other conditions in aoe around them. A nice aoe on 3 clones staggered can put a LOT of bleeding on 5 targets.
- The new runes of perplexity are amazing. You can have 5-8 stacks of confusion aoe due to interrupt and 10-15 on a single target on your own. You miss direct damage burst but have this confusion burst. It is still very strong if it’s stacked high.
- Good team support possible. Your utilities aren’t that set in stone so you can always swap out for Null Field if your team likes that.
- High armor due to rabid armor.
- It is simply amazing and you can easily go 1v3. Maybe not win but definitely kill one and get away. No one can get you.

Im using this Build atm.

http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4VPVz0P7cV-71;9;5TT-9;119846B;14;0UNm6a;1bUytbUytp-kxcANYJ0;13V7WD1IYN3T_0FWFc1m;9;9;9;9;9;9;0V6s5T

In my point of view u can compare it to the blackwater Build.

I have tried them all. I have gone back to Condition as i just love it. I think all 3 can be VERY effective. It depends on how you play though as to which would be “better” personally i dont go for the “better” ones i go for the ones that i have the most fun in and in my opinion that is:

Condition > Shatter > Phantasm

I was using Shatter Cat 3.0 before by Osicat and it was ALOT of fun and worked REALLY well i changed it up a bit for my own flavor of gameplay but even then it still worked really well.

In WvW, I usually clean camps alone with my Condition Phantasm build called “Illusionary Bomberman”.

If I’m in a zerg or a small group, I usually swap the staff for GS. For swiftness, I hardswap from inventory the focus (that is always my first element in my inventory).

Illusionary Bomberman? Did you by chance play an Arboreal Animist in DAoC?

i’ve played shatter builds (which i love) but as vince said above- the stealth/condi build is quite possibly the stronger mesmer build out there atm. I’d go for that one if i were you

gotem.5284:

Play the stealth/condi spec. Stealth in this game is beyond broken and it would be dumb not to abuse it.

Its broken on thieves, its balanced on Mesmers. As we cant go into stealth every 4 seconds, we cant burst from stealth as an opener either

you got any videos? Even traited and taking EVERY stealth it isnt that much. I dont think ours can be stacked either unlike the Thief(iirc) Its like >20seconds in total is decent the problem with using them after each other means that when its NEEDED you might not have it.

Ever since the buff to Prismatic Understanding, condition/stealth builds utilising torch have been quite popular for solo and small group roaming. Survivability, mobility and trickery levels are extremely high at the cost of some burst and yes most enemies can get away with ease (signet of domination helps if you’re not using sword or pistol). Played well, it’s almost impossible to lose to anything other than a decently played condition Necro or Engi (from my experience anyway). There’s also so many variants of the condition/stealth build going around using combinations of sword, torch, scepter, pistol and staff that are all very much viable.

gotem.5284:

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

gotem.5284:

Play the stealth/condi spec. Stealth in this game is beyond broken and it would be dumb not to abuse it.

Its broken on thieves, its balanced on Mesmers. As we cant go into stealth every 4 seconds, we cant burst from stealth as an opener either

As the fight continues on that can be true however the first 30-45 seconds of a fight mesmers are just as strong as thieves when it comes to stealthing. You can cycle through torch stealth, decoy, veil, mass invis and stealth just as many times as a thief can. Staff is a great weapon to stay alive while waiting for torch and decoy to cycle back in.

This amount of restealthing abilities is more than enough to survive for a long time. I’ve played this spec for 1.5 months now and when I group with my 2 thief friends the amount of zerg harass we can do without being touched is incredible.

While a mesmer does have pretty good stealth options using the Prismatic build, you cannot keep up with a thief for stealth.

ArmageddonAsh.6430:

gotem.5284:

Play the stealth/condi spec. Stealth in this game is beyond broken and it would be dumb not to abuse it.

Its broken on thieves, its balanced on Mesmers. As we cant go into stealth every 4 seconds, we cant burst from stealth as an opener either

I was about to say the same thing. Glad you did it for me.

I either solo or small group roam (no more than 5 players), I use either a full zerker shatter build with GS + Sword/Pistol or Prismatic Condition build which is basically Osi’s Condition Cat 2.0 build.

Condition Cat (I’ll refer to that as everyone knows that build by know) is a great defensive build, it’s basically an attrition build with some burst from Torment/Prestige Burning if you can land both. The survivability feels amazing, you have mobility from Blink/Phase Retreat and access to 4 stealth’s that provide boons. I echo other peoples sentiments, this build is literally unkillable to anything other than a really well played condition Necro, as you have limited condition cleansing available outside of The Prestige, good necros will wait for you to switch back to staff before dumping conditions on you. I honestly expect this build to be toned down in some way in the near future, I regularly go against groups of upto 5 with this build and have enough confidence in the build to know I can escape from all but most situations.

I personally prefer my Zerk shatter build, without offending the people that play the condition cat builds, I think the skill cap is a lot higher. You have hardly any defense through gear (I do use zerk/valk accessories to bring my vitality up), so you have to pay attention to you surroundings and constantly be ready to evade/dodge/blink/decoy if you get jumped as you will take a lot of damage. The trade off is decent burst (nowhere near as good as thief/war), enough to one-shot some players (if they are full zerk) or at least get them on the defensive if you take off over 50% of their health in your first rotation. I use Decoy, Blink and Arcane Thievery and Mass Invis as my utils, Arcane Thievery serves as a condition dump or a boon steal if someone pops swift/stability and tries to escape (not many do get away) I have CC from Sword 3,Magic Bullet, iZerker, not to mention an interrupt on demand and guaranteed stomps through shatter 4. I have decoy + mass invis if i need to try and get away. It really isn’t for the faint of heart though as you will take a LOT of damage, thieves especially can cause you problems as well as skull-cracker warriors if your defensive utils are both down. I actually do better against condition builds with this spec as my vital pool is higher (since toughness as no effect on condition damage) and I can dump conditions with Arcane Thievery. It can be a lot of fun and with great risk comes great reward, I took down a guild group of 6 (level 80) players with this build, I played like a beast though

Ultimately it’s down to you which playstyle you prefer, if you can’t afford to pay for the gear to test these builds in WvW, you can try them out in sPvP to at least get a feel for the playstyle, bear in mind that sPvP and WvW are very different, but try things out.