Hi guys,
First of all, I trust that most folks here are already familiar with the clone-spam condition type of build, made popular by Natsu’s Blackwater PU build months ago and also my recent favorite Osicat’s Napalm Cat.
However, for those who crave for something different, a non-PU flavor and would enjoy a more offensive/ less defensive approach to clone-spam condi build, I implore you to discuss my take on shattering, or in particular, the new gm trait Bountiful Disillusionment (BD) in a such a build.
A classic clone-spam build uses scepter and staff with a preferred OH weapon. While this is the optimized weapon set, it does come with a drawback: clones occasionally too far away from foes when they “blow up”, thus wasting all the condition damage. Some addressed this issue by switching to sword MH so clones always hug enemies, however, this means giving up a huge potential condition output that scepter skills provide.
As you know, clone-spam builds prove to be most effective at melee and mid-range. Against skilled long ranged foes, not only you want to get close to them, but you might also want the clones to get close and blow up on their faces as well. And this is where shattering, or pseudo-shattering (as I’d like to call it, or more simply Fake Shattering) comes in handy.
Pseudo-shattering is the act of using shatter to command your illusions to go to target but hoping they will die (thus blow up in clone-spam builds) near target before they can actually shatter. It sounds funny on paper, and true, sometimes its a gamble, but sometimes, u look at the situation and u know full well they’re not gonna make it with all those AoE/Cleave flying around.
So what does all of this have anything to do with BD gm trait in Chaos?
Well, the way BD works is that as long u can activate the shatter, you gain the boons instantly, so basically with DE, dodge 1 clone and F2 Shatter (Cry of Frustration -CoF), and u get 3 might stacks for ~20s on a 30s CD, regardless what happens to the clone.
Its even better pairing up with Illusionary Persona (IP), just press the button but we’re not talking about shatter- builds here so that’s not the case.
As you can see, by design, BD is the total opposite of PU where u gain offensive boons with the prerequisite being shattering (PU gives defensive boons requiring u to enter stealth).
For condition builds, F1 shatter with Retaliation is not very significant, F3 and F4 shatters are situational, so that leaves only F2 shatter CoF on our discussion table.
Let me just say from experience that: by traiting for BD in a clone-spam condi build, CoF becomes very interesting: it’s spammable and should be used whenever its off cooldown, and when u use it as pseudo-shattering 1 or more clones, you put a huge pressure on your opponent. For example: lets suppose you CoF 1 clone
- Best scenario: the clone dies near target before it can shatter —> you get 3 stacks of might, target gets Cripple, Confusion, and Bleeding.
- Worst scenario: the clone dies far target or target dodges the shatter --> you get 3 stacks of might.
So always you get the minimum benefit of 3 stacks of might (in this case, CoF is like a selfish weaker version of warrior’s For Great Justice) and most likely force your opponent to use a defensive maneuver (like dodging).
I’ve been tinkering with this idea of incorporating BD in clone-spam condi build and I come up with my version that capitalizes on might stacking.
Heres the link: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAraGl0ntMNOqhbtRWNIT3iT0zTtkSfhsFAA-TFiIABBp8AgTBAgq/km+gx2fQIlY8+EAYSJoAgaA-w
The build can maintain 100% uptime of at least 10 stacks of might, which means even F1 shatter can hurt.
Anyway, what do you guys think? Discuss and also please be constructive.
(edited by keenlam.4753)