Guild Wars 2

Build: http://tinyurl.com/k6sebvk

Hear me out.

I’ve wanted to play a Greatsword Condition based build for a long time. First because I really like Condition builds, and second because I happen to have Sunrise. I’ve been putting together ways it might work, and the build above is one I think actually has some great potential. I play mostly WvW in medium/large groups, so ignore tPvP and most PvE.

The GSword auto attack hits 3 times, giving you 3 chances for Might on Crit (1 second CD) and 3 chances to proc your high damage Fire AOE Rune(5 second CD). Mirror Blade bounces multiple targets, not only giving you more Might possibly anyways (boosting Condition Damage), but also giving you multiple chances to proc the Fire AOE, or just more Might from rune too. The Staff weapon swap gives AOE poison, again a good Condition.

This is where it gets real fun. It also plays like a Suicide Clone build. You want to have 3 clones up to maximize your passive heal. But you also want to overwrite your clones quickly and have them die so they apply massive damaging bleeds + confusion in an AOE as well.

You’ve got a TON of Toughness for survivability (and thus more Condition Damage), a passive Heal, condition removal with Resolve, amazing Might stacking opportunity, still 2 stealths if it gets nasty for PU, and a whole lot of ways to spam clones on short Cooldowns.

I think it would be a really effective AoE survival build for roaming in groups, with the ability to apply some nasty conditions to a lot of people…

Am I delusional, or could I make this actually work?

Nasty conditions being… bleed?

Sure staff offers a variety of conditions but many of them are on short durations, and require your clones to stay alive to really start hurting the enemy target (burns,bleeds)

Bleeding when brought to a team means often you’ll be overwritten or limited by others.

Clone death is a solid play style but Confusion isnt what it used to be, and keeping clones up amongst AoE for your passive heal is going to be extremely difficult when facing more than 2/3 foes max.

A few notes.

Firstly, the sigil of fire is an aoe direct damage attack. It’s not aoe burning.

Secondly, taking the heal signet is a horrid choice in this build, just as it is in any pvp build, even phantasm builds which have the best chance of using it properly.

Overall, you’ll have a bit of trouble really applying any hard pressure. Yeah, clone explosions hurt a bit, but that’s not what really kills people. Generally what kills people in mesmer condition builds is the scepter torment, and you don’t have that here.

=/ Looks like I’ll stick to my GS/Sw-Sw Shatter for now then… Boo.

OP – the build isn’t terrible, the traits are actually pretty good but understand that your condition output is not very strong overall using GS. All you got there is bleeds. What’s left is staff and while it is a strong condition damage weapon, alone it just doesn’t cut it. You’re still going to kill things – by all means run it with your Sunrise but understand it’s not nearly as strong as some of the other condition damage builds out there.

Hmm… Could you link me to some of the top Condition spec builds in the current meta, even if they don’t use Greatsword?

The problem I’ve found with Condi spec is that Scepter is super boring, and Staff’s auto is pretty slow/unreliable to hit things and it just feels like less damage than a Shatter Power build. So in WvW situations, I never get tags on anything. Plus they’re pretty bad in general for PvE yeah?

Yeah in PvE condition builds pale considerably to power builds. Doesn’t mean you can’t run them, but just keep it in open world and if you’re thinking dungeons, only join casual runs (not speed clears/zerker only).

As for good condition roaming specs, blackwater, clone spammer and for larger fights, pyro’s zergmower might suit you well. All of those (and many more) can be found in the build sticky at the top of this forum. Most of the builds in the list still work fine even though the list hasn’t been updated for some time.

Eucalyptus.9784:

The problem I’ve found with Condi spec is that Scepter is super boring

Scepter is in general pretty boring. The amazing skill on it is the torment block. Land that and watch people melt.

Eucalyptus.9784:

and Staff’s auto is pretty slow/unreliable to hit things

Staff is a close range weapon. Fight and around your target, use your mobility to keep them disoriented. This way the auto hits easily.

Eucalyptus.9784:

and it just feels like less damage than a Shatter Power build.

Sure, most things are less burst damage than a power shatter build. However, power shatter isn’t always the best thing to play, or necessarily the most fun thing to play, and damage isn’t everything.

Eucalyptus.9784:

So in WvW situations, I never get tags on anything. Plus they’re pretty bad in general for PvE yeah?

Yeah, condition builds are abysmal in PvE. In WvW, you’re going to need more specialized builds to get tags. Normal builds just won’t do it, whether power or condie.

Pyroathiest.4168:

Secondly, taking the heal signet is a horrid choice in this build, just as it is in any pvp build, even phantasm builds which have the best chance of using it properly.

Off-topic I know but what makes you say this… purely the longer cooldown? I’ve found the heal signet to be a mostly-straight upgrade over Ether Feast in my phantasm build. Interested to know if I’m missing something foolish!

Hyung.6140:

Pyroathiest.4168:

Secondly, taking the heal signet is a horrid choice in this build, just as it is in any pvp build, even phantasm builds which have the best chance of using it properly.

Off-topic I know but what makes you say this… purely the longer cooldown? I’ve found the heal signet to be a mostly-straight upgrade over Ether Feast in my phantasm build. Interested to know if I’m missing something foolish!

A couple reasons. Firstly, the healing is far lower. Assuming you just leave it ticking, you’re going to get less healing than ether feast even in a best case scenario of 3 illusions every single tick. That won’t happen ever, whereas it’s easy to put up 3 illusions real fast for an ether feast cast.

The type of healing is also worse. Phantasm builds are generally fairly glassy. If a thief jumps on you and bursts you down to 20% hp, you don’t want to be hobbling around waiting for some ticks to heal you up, you want health now. Ether feast can provide that, the signet not so much.

Lastly, the cooldown is simply too long to be workable. Casting the signet is an enormous risk, and for what gain? If you’re casting it because your opponent just ripped your phantasms apart, they can just do it again. If you’re casting it to burst someone down faster, you can probably manage it pretty well without that cast. In either situation, you’ve either already got a fight pretty much under control…or it’s absolutely not under control. In neither situation is using the signet a deciding factor in the fight, which means it’s not worth using.

Ultimately, there’s incredibly few situations where using the active will really change the outcome of a fight. This means that using the active is rarely a good choice, and simply ends up robbing you of any healing it can provide. However, if you’re looking at it purely from a healing perspective, then ether feast is the clear better choice. This ends up making the signet just a poor choice overall.

Ether Signet can alter an open of a fight by allowing the Phantasm unload, but thats the open where you have brought it only for its active. If your build carries no other source for large heals, you have a 35s wait to regain passive heals and a chunky heal. If the fight lasts too long, or you don’t have enough alternate sustain this can turn a good start into a bad middle and then untimely end.

If you’re mostly using it for a passive, then its not too shabby if you can always keep 2/3 illusions out. However the heal isnt going to stop a large burst from seriously limiting your chances of lasting in a fight, nor will the active change very much in the middle of a fight or at the end.

The issue at the core for me is that the heal just doesn’t have synergy within itself or the classes mechanic (shatters).

Ether Feast tends to be the classes “go to” heal as its much easier to generate 2 or 3 clones and keep them up for the 1 or 2 Seconds it takes to use your heal and gain a lot of ground back, its also on a lower cool down which means you can stay in very hard and long fights for a greater period of time (specifically team fights, where your illusions may not stay up for too long).

I disagree with others regarding the choice of the signet heal for this build; I believe it is a viable choice over ether feast. Your illusion uptime is greater than most builds, you’re running rabid gear (toughness), 6 points in chaos (more toughness and regen), Staff (great defensive wep), and PU. I don’t think you’ll be pressured enough to need the burst heal of ether feast if you play correctly.

However, as others have said, you won’t be killing anyone decent with this build; they will just run away from you because you have very little pressure if they’re not killing your clones. When it comes to group play, you will be very survivable and dish out a lot of bleeds/confusion. However, you will lack that single-target condi bomb capability that can force a down.

I think sigil of earth suits the build better than fire sigil. At least you can stack lots of bleed with gs auto attack to improve your condition pressure.

well this might work for a condition great sword build. it is slightly gimmicky because it relies somewhat on stacking might (~4-6 seconds to get 20-25). took ~16 seconds to kill the chieftain in HOTM forgot to use scepter block tho. so guys would this version work.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR7alknpUt1qxRNcrNCuxY6JaICU+TTlMgfB-T1RGABAcRAUS5XCPBgEV/Bk9HYT3QVKBJFAELrA-w

I don’t use the healing signet but I can see reasons to run it, I usually run healing signet on my warrior even if the heal isn’t as strong its saving me cast times for the heals giving me more time to use other abilities.

My main reason to not use the signet on mesmer is I like the reflect heal and I also use it to clear condis and it has low CD.
And yeh scepter definitely the best weapon if your planning to play condi with dying clones since all it skills help.

If I were to maximise condi I would go staff + scepter/ torch

I like using the signet, go figure, lol.

As of now, I’m not sure why you take the confusion duration trait, since your only sources of confusion are clone death and shatters (which you won’t be doing very much).

Consider taking scepter/pistol or scepter/torch instead of staff. Since you’re running rabid and PU, you should be able to survive without staff.