Guild Wars 2

I’ve been away for about 8 months. Before my hiatus, for some reason i re-spec’d my PvE Mesmer to go shatter. I don’t care for shatter, so I’m going back to phantasm where i belong. I looked up builds in case things had changed dramatically. Nothing surprising regarding traits, but i saw people recommending the signet heal. When it first came out, most people thought it was a joke. Have things changed? Is it now a better choice than Ether Feast?

People use the active in pve to set up three phantasms fast.

lujate.5432:

I’ve been away for about 8 months. Before my hiatus, for some reason i re-spec’d my PvE Mesmer to go shatter. I don’t care for shatter, so I’m going back to phantasm where i belong. I looked up builds in case things had changed dramatically. Nothing surprising regarding traits, but i saw people recommending the signet heal. When it first came out, most people thought it was a joke. Have things changed? Is it now a better choice than Ether Feast?

You have two general options for PVE Mesmer, Heal Mantra to synchronize with the GM Trait for an extra big of personal damage. OR you use the Signet to pop out your third phantasm more quickly.

In either case you’re not using Ether Feast.

I just bring Ether Feast to every game mode personally…

but yes Ether Signet is really only taken to recharge and throw out the third phantasm at the opening of a fight.

Well that makes sense.

Thx

Signet of ether mixed with lifesteal food can be a nice way of keeping the scholar bonus active whilst also have the option of popping that 3rd phantasm out nice and quick. Just don’t use it in the silverwastes.

And Empowering Mantras got switched to domination and many pve builds max out that line for the trait (and more power).
So there’s room for Signet Mastery… (not that many useful traits for a phantasm build here other than Empowered Illusions and Empowering Mantras^^)

Signet of the Ether passive heal with 3 clones equals to Warriors Healing signet, so for PVE it’s very good choice.

SilverWF.4789:

Signet of the Ether passive heal with 3 clones equals to Warriors Healing signet, so for PVE it’s very good choice.

Except they use heavy armor and they jsut need the skill equipped to ahve that rate, where we need to ahve 3 clones up (and in any PvE content where you really need a heal that is almost impossible to have full time, let alone if you play shatter build)

SilverWF.4789:

Signet of the Ether passive heal with 3 clones equals to Warriors Healing signet, so for PVE it’s very good choice.

It’s not. Warrior’s healing signet is substantially better even when you have 3 illusions out 100% of the tome(which isn’t possible)

Yes, it’s not as good as Healing Signet, but it’s not shabby at all, I’ve been in plenty of fights taking minor damage while I have all my phantasms out and this up and been able to heal up all the damage I take. It’s rare to be in that situation, but it is a nice perk. It’s not the reason to take it though, the reason is to get that third phantasm out quickly.

Generally I run a 64004 or 64040 build, in that I go by the idea that if my phantasms are able to survive a decent time I’ll run Ether so I can get them out on the quick, if they are dying early or it’s a very short fight I’ll run Mantra for the bonus personal damage.

The numbers will show that, regardless of the situation, you get more healing from Ether Feast. What the numbers don’t show is one common situation that makes Signet of Ether better. Ether Feast’s heal is an active one with a hefty cast time and very noticeable animation but Signet of Ether’s passive is strong and can’t be interrupted. You can use that to your advantage.

For example, there was one match where a thief in berzerker armor sucker punched me with a backstab. I was wearing full rabid armor so it only took half of my health. Not even 20 seconds later, that thief was downed and I was back at full health just from the signet’s passive. Personally I feel the real reason I won that battle is because no one expects a mesmer to cap bleeding and that thief clearly specialized in raw burst damage, which just doesn’t work on me.

That being said, the Signet of Ether is VERY powerful when combined with high toughness. All you have to do is avoid the big hits. It’s strong enough to power through the little ones while allowing you to focus on damage. That shouldn’t be underestimated.

I think the signet is very underrated in pvp. Due to its active effect, you have to take into account that it gives your build more dps than if you were to use Ether Feast. It’s not just a heal, in which case it shouldn’t heal more than EF. Also, if your stats take advantage of toughness, then this is also a good heal to use, as your passive healing will off-set a lot of dmg over time. It’s great if your role is to kite from far.

I always use signet in PvE.

Crossplay.2067:

That being said, the Signet of Ether is VERY powerful when combined with high toughness. All you have to do is avoid the big hits. It’s strong enough to power through the little ones while allowing you to focus on damage. That shouldn’t be underestimated.

Ok, sure. But Ether Fest is VERY VERY powerful when combined with high toughness. Ether Fest is also VERY VERY VERY powerful in contrast to ether signet in power builds.

You also don’t want to be using ether signet’s active without traiting CD, which costs you a minor trait. Sad times

Crossplay.2067:

The numbers will show that, regardless of the situation, you get more healing from Ether Feast. What the numbers don’t show is one common situation that makes Signet of Ether better. Ether Feast’s heal is an active one with a hefty cast time and very noticeable animation but Signet of Ether’s passive is strong and can’t be interrupted. You can use that to your advantage.

For example, there was one match where a thief in berzerker armor sucker punched me with a backstab. I was wearing full rabid armor so it only took half of my health. Not even 20 seconds later, that thief was downed and I was back at full health just from the signet’s passive. Personally I feel the real reason I won that battle is because no one expects a mesmer to cap bleeding and that thief clearly specialized in raw burst damage, which just doesn’t work on me.

That being said, the Signet of Ether is VERY powerful when combined with high toughness. All you have to do is avoid the big hits. It’s strong enough to power through the little ones while allowing you to focus on damage. That shouldn’t be underestimated.

Well i would say kinda the reason you stated for the healing part of the signet is actually what makes ether feast better in many situations, i dont belive in that specific situation either heal would have made much diff in that situation you described, but, say he had managed to get you to about 10-15% health instead (or they could have been 2 thieves doing the same as he did or something) then the signet wouldn’t have saved you at all as they would just outdps its healing, where as ether feast might because it is a burst of healing, as long as you could survive just about 1-2 second, you could have gotten 1/3-1/2 of your health back, and we all knows once backstab thiefs loaded all their burst they dont have much left they can do

I go Signet for PvE (allows for more dps output if you’re not being focused) and Ether feast for PvP when you need heals more frequently. I don’t use the signet for PvP, it’s a death sentence.

I still use good old Ether Feast in PvE, just because sometimes I’ve been in situations where I’m dying to crazily stacked conditions while out of combat, and I don’t have any more condi cleanse or enemies to spawn clones on so I’m dying bit by bit. Ether Feast’s heal on demand is a literal lifesaver in those situations.

Zaxares.5419:

I still use good old Ether Feast in PvE, just because sometimes I’ve been in situations where I’m dying to crazily stacked conditions while out of combat, and I don’t have any more condi cleanse or enemies to spawn clones on so I’m dying bit by bit. Ether Feast’s heal on demand is a literal lifesaver in those situations.

With no enemies near, you could still just pop the signet heal. Their base healing is very close in numbers.

edit: the only downside in this situation is the longer cool down.

Swish.2463:

I just bring Ether Feast to every game mode personally…

but yes Ether Signet is really only taken to recharge and throw out the third phantasm at the opening of a fight.

Ah I don’t know, the regen from that, the regen for <75%, and the regen offered by phantasms if you have that in inspiration 1, + protection from Chaos 3, might be nice.

But yeah, the pop out of another phantasm in phantasmal killer builds is by far the more superior option.