Guild Wars 2

The Carefree Nobility

I. Build Link

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaWnsIShaWpGeoB3aGR1gM9JSRPOdTeSQJVAA-TJhIAByeKAKqMAAPBgd2fAA

II. Origin

Simply want to share a build I’ve been using for a long while and haven’t seen many other fellow mesmers using the same build as I am; probably because it’s a phantasm build that “does not require high skill and reaction”. Well, it’s partially true due to the focus of this build being “*allow you to play as leisurely as possible*”. The build is made to suit the characteristic of my character, a leisurely sylvari Mesmer who believes himself to be a graceful nobility. A highborn nobility do not engage the lowlife opponent directly; instead, that’s his loyal servants’ job; hence the name, The Carefree Nobility.

Imagine a scenario that three purple faceless servants suddenly pop up and start bashing shield, shooting bullets and throwing bolts at you. Just ignore those purple puppets and kill that real idiots just standing there doing nothing, you think. Yet soon you find that no matter how hard you hit, that leisurely noble simply doesn’t die. Damage done but mitigate by the one of his servant, than their health both soon recover like there’s never any damage done before. Condition applied but soon neutralize by powerful regeneration and another servant, than their health recover again. Stealth and burst that moron to hell, you think. You stealth, you burst, yet that noble still stands there, wrapping you in a purple storm, shooting you with magic bullets, constantly dazing and stunning you while he recover from the damage. And with the growing strength of all his purple servants, when you finally been worn down by them, the nobility gracefully step in and give the final glorifying blow, ending your life with a finishing stick while you cursing that unbelievable survivability.

Sorry for the flattering drama, but it helps better understanding the fighting style of this build.

III. Concept

1. High Passive Healing and Defense

• Permanant Regeneration (Phantasmal Healing) + Signet of Ether (with all 3 phantasms on the field) = 2069 every 3 seconds

• Sigil of Renewal (903 health every 9 second).

• Illusionary Membrane: gain 4.5 seconds of protection every 15 seconds.

• Illusionary Defense: take 3% less damage per illusion on the field.

2. Powerful, durable and healable phantasms

• Damage: Might Stacking + Phantasmal Strength and Empowered Illusions (30% more standard damage) + Vengeful Image (Retaliation)

• Health: Signet of Illusions + Persisting Images (70% more Health)

• Healing: Permanent Regeneration (304 per second) by other phantasms + Sigil of Renewal area healing (903 every 9 second)

3. Might Stacking

• Sigil of Battle: with extended boon duration, 3 stacks of might last 30 seconds, enough for permanent 9 stacks of might with constant swapping. (Under PVE)

• Bountiful Interruption: gain another 5 stacks of might for 15 seconds per interruption.

4. Interruption

• Bountiful Interruption: gain 5 stacks of might for 15 seconds per interruption.
• Disruptor’s Sustainment: gain 1000 healing power for 5 seconds per interruption.
• Illusion of Vulnerability: apply 3 stacks of vulnerability for 5.5 seconds per interruption.

IV. Weapons

Although the choice of weapon is purely based on the taste and liking of my character (such as he prefer rapier than greatsword), I have made this build to coordinate with that taste quite well. The Carefree Nobility uses Sword/Pistol and Staff for aggressive and defensive uses.

• Damage: Blurred Frenzy, Illusionary Duelist, Illusionary Warlock

• Interrupt and Control: Illusionary Leap, Magic Bullet, Chaos Storm

• Defense and Escape: Phase Retreat, Swap, Chaotic Armor, Chaos Storm, Blurred Frenzy

V. Combat

1. Phantasms: Basic formation is Defender + Warlock + Duelist. If opponent is using conditions for damage method, switch to Defender + Disenchanter + Duelist. Keep them on the field as long as possible, they are your primary healing and damage source.

2. Clones: Pop them up for escape and immobilizing purposes, or when phantasm is on cool down and you need someone to fill in the empty slot for signet of ether to keep up the healing effect.

3. Things for the noble to do:

• A. Constantly swapping weapons for might stacking and area healing

• B. Keep yourself alive:
• Cast Chaotic Storm right under your foot to force melee class stay away from you and gain boons, use Phase Retreat when the storm is about to end and get Chaotic Armor combo.
• Use Phase Retreat and Chaotic armor when you are stunned or immobilized(Blurred Frenzy as well if immobilized)
• Use Signet of Ether only when your health is below around 30~40%.
• Burst:
  When you have high stacks of might and opponent has few health left, time to finish off the opponent:
  Magic Bullet > Blurred Frenzy > Illusionary Leap > Swap > Chaos Storm
  Or
  Illusionary Leap > Swap > Blurred Frenzy > Magic Bullet > Chaos Storm
• Be patience and wear down your opponent by phantasms, change formation to more defensive or aggressive if needed. Keeping your health up is top priority rather than chasing down your opponent, watch your stacks of might and time your burst.

VI. Gears, Runes and Sigils

1. Gear:

• Full Cleric Armor:
  Healing Power, Power and Toughness, that’s all this build need.

2. Runes:

• Superior Runes of the Water:
  This is what I’m using right now. Choose this one for healing power boost and longest boon duration boost (20%, but 10% under PVP, so you can just ignore that). Another reason to choose this is that when struck, you’ll have 25% chance to remove a condition with 30 seconds cool down. But since you won’t be actively using your healing skill very much (This build relies on passive healing effect), this rune’s sixth effect is somewhat wasted. (Although you have to activate Signet of Ether in some rare situation that even strong passive healing can’t bring your health back)

• Superior Runes of the Monk:
  This is another option to put every effects of the rune into uses. The rune has the same amount of healing power boosts with Superior Runes of the Water. You also get the sixth effect of this rune, boosting your healing effect to allies, who in most cases are phantasms, by 10%; useful for regeneration boon and Sigil of Renewal. Yet you lose the condition removal on Superior Runes of the Water for a small amount of healing that is not affected by your healing power (always 645 at lv80) with 15 seconds cool down. You also get less boon duration boost than Superior Sigil of the Water (15%, but again, 10% under PVP, so you can ignore this one as well). Overall, I think it’s still inferior to Superior Runes of the Water. (Plus the only way to get this rune is to trade by Ascalonian Tears)

3. Sigils:

Both sets of weapons use the same combination of on weapon swap sigils, Battle and Renewal.

• Superior Sigil of Battle:
  Primary source of your Might stacking.

• Superior Sigil of Renewal:
  Area heals for you, your phantasms and your allies every 9 seconds.

VII. Strengths and Weaknesses

1. Strengths:

• Tired of getting interrupted by opponent when you want to use a heal skill to save yourself? Worry no more! With this build, no matter what you are doing, you are always healing yourself with the same or even better healing efficiency of mantra of Recovery, without casting time!

• Even when your opponent hides in the shadow, your Servants will auto-detect them as soon as they show up.

• You can now put your mind purely on how to survive, a more relaxing playstyle.

• With Phantasmal Healing and Sigil of Renewal, you got strong and constant AOE healing to support your allies.

• Feel like a boss when your health never drops below 80%. (This one is for self satisfying)

2. Weaknesses:

• Lack of Condition Removal. KEEP YOURSELF FROM GETTING POISONED!
  Although you got Phantasmal Disenchanter to clean conditions for you, when you face heavy condition-focus build, it’s probably not going to be enough. The strong passive healing can buy you some time, however, and decide whether you want to trust your Disenchanter and keep battling or retreat by using Mass Invisibility.

• Weak to controlling effect.
  Immobilize is problematic due to lack of condition Removal, while other controlling effects such as knockback prove to be even worse problems. The limited ways to counter controlling effect is to Dodge, to use the teleport effect of Phase Retreat and Swap, or to drop yourself a Chaos Storm and wish for Aegis to come in before getting controlled. Another option is to take that controlling effect and try to lower the following damage you take by using Chaotic Armor.

That’s pretty much about it. From my 1vs1 experience so far, I can take any burst damage done by thief and quickly recover from it. I lost to an elementalist, however, who seems to be focus on water element healing as well.

Anyway, any opinions and feedback are welcomed. Thanks for your reading.

“It may sounds like I’m cheating by sending mindless purple copies of myself to fight for me; but truly, I am just not suited for that kind of dirty work.”

?Blascath

Wow…I want to be a noble such as you are ^^
Ty for the build! Deff will try it out!