Guild Wars 2

Posting this because i still see too many fellow mesmers using inferior phantasm heavy builds in dungeons. Before you start flaming, think about how much better shattering simply is at the moment, especially because of the added buffs.

As everyone knows, good DPS is the best “support” here in gw2, but as a mesmer you can also easily provide good support without having to invest a lot into other stuff.

I’ve been running a 0/20/0/20/30 build for over a month now, which was already amazing for dungeons, now with the buffed shattered strength, you can pull off some amazing damage while being supportive with boons.

(COPY THIS IN YOUR URL-BAR, OTHERWISE IT’LL SAY “Bad Link”)
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgUQNAsdWl4zioHSTgGa9IyJFJnzh6x2BefXJF82FC;TEBg0ynEOJdS9kyJKvMdJ6y2lzLZXLRGRcE5JyUEA

I prefer berserker gear. Runes are 2 superior Water, 2 sup. Monk, 2 major monk/water for 40% boon duration, since boons will be very important in this build. Chocolate omnomberry cream as food (20% boon duration and 40% magic find when having boons as a bonus!!) for +60% total boon duration. Every shatter will give you and nearby party members the Vigor buff for~8 seconds, so your whole party will pretty much have permanent vigor up.

Cry of frustration with 3 clones will give you about 20 seconds of retaliation(+ the vigor) plus every time you land a crit, you also get 5+ seconds of vigor(not sure if boon duration boosts apply here).
Every 3 clone shatter will give you 9 stacks of Might for 16(!) seconds and with those runes, changing your weapon will give you 3 stacks of might for 32 seconds, so switch your weapon as often as you can after using the clone/phantasm summoning skills. I usually let my phantasms attack once before shattering them.

Signet of Inspiration to spread/copy all boons you have on you right now to party members. (multiple mesmers can make amazing things happen)

A basic go-to combo in dungeons is:
Staff first: Chaos storm > Warlock > 1 basic attack to get into combat > Phase Retreat > dodge forward near mob (you should have 3 clones up by now and half endurance) > mind wrack/CoF. This shouldn’t take you more than 3-4 seconds to do.

Now you have 9 stacks of might for 16 seconds, probably well over 13 seconds of vigor(20+ sec of retaliation, chaos armor and possibly aegis from chaos storm aswell)

Switch to sword/(focus/pistol/sword, i prefer focus for the curtain buff+pull and the light combo field(warden on top makes it shoot condition cleaning bolts) which gains you an additional +3 stacks of might for 32 seconds from the sigil of battle.

Now you use #3 to create a clone (if possible, on top of your still existing chaos storm so you get chaos armor once again) , dodge twice(should have full endurance again by that point) and #3 again to teleport back to your enemy > Mind Wrack/CoF(+9 might, 13s vigor) > Blurred Frenzy

You should now have 22 stacks of might (first stack of 9 running for 8-10 more seconds, stack of 3 running for ~30 sec, stack of 9 running for ~14 sec), +25 sec vigor, +/- 20 sec retaliation and possibly more from chaos storm, chaos armor if you got hit and other teammembers.

Now, you use signet of inspiration and copy all those delicious boons to teammembers. Throw a Time Warp right after for extra fun(on hard pulls/bosses preferably).

Inspiration X allows for healbotting, Inspiration III gets you the endless group vigor.

It’s pretty much a shatter build with a focus on group support, but deals the same damage a power build does, probably even more at high might.

The part about mantra healing you can check elsewhere here.

Utilities/weapons are changeable at will depending on situation and dungeon.
The skills and rotation i noted are only an example. This may not be the “best/most efficient” rotation.

Feel free to add your feedback here. Contact “Rezardi” ingame for additional information.

Really nice idea! I might try this myself soon also, of course i might made a few touches to the build here and there but i love the basic idea!
The chaos trait line seems very interesting for this build, tho its hard to decide what to take out. Might try a 0/5/20/15/30 but i know ill miss Deceptive evasion a LOT. Well, since reskilling is so cheap i might try both
Thx a lot for the build, nice work

We’ve chatted a little ingame and I want to thank you for sharing the build and setups. I use the exact trait/utility build and swap them and weapons from time to time, but still use Signet of Inspiration. It is a fun, versatile build that gives good dps and support.

I am currently in knight armor with centaur runes but from what you told me ingame, I’m going to try getting berserker armor, water/monk runes, and the food.

Thank you again for sharing and perhaps we’ll see each other ingame!

~ Phloww

I wish this suportive mesmer doesn’t disappier with all the changes they are planning to do. Sounds really fun to play a suportive mesmer like that.

Something to add: By simply changing a few traits around, you can act as a “reflector” (or glamour user)

For example Inspiration III > II(Glamour Mastery), Inspiration X(Restorative Mantras) > VIII and maybe pick up Dazzling Glamours in the Illusions tree.

@Sabin: If they remove that much or change signet of inspiration to the worse, i don’t even see any incentive to play mesmer in PvE/WvW anymore.

Tried builds like this in tourney’s. As much as I enjoy using different builds I still find that the inability to put up protection when needed get’s me insta-killed by any class with a burst. The boon uptime is really nice, but if you’re not adding something to the team or you’re unable to carry your own weight in a 1v1 or 2v2 scenario then you shouldn’t be using builds like this.

I haven’t found a place for a support mesmer in pvp yet, pretty much the only role I feel mesmer is effective at is DPS, and there I think with the incoming nerfs “bug fixes” we’re going to go back to mediocre dps in pvp again.

Reflector idea sounds amusing, and I would love to find a Glamour build that actually works. Problem is that the traits are all over the place and you seem to give up so much dps and survivability that it’s just not viable in any real situation

Wise.8025:

Tried builds like this in tourney’s. As much as I enjoy using different builds I still find that the inability to put up protection when needed get’s me insta-killed by any class with a burst. The boon uptime is really nice, but if you’re not adding something to the team or you’re unable to carry your own weight in a 1v1 or 2v2 scenario then you shouldn’t be using builds like this.

I haven’t found a place for a support mesmer in pvp yet, pretty much the only role I feel mesmer is effective at is DPS, and there I think with the incoming nerfs “bug fixes” we’re going to go back to mediocre dps in pvp again.

Reflector idea sounds amusing, and I would love to find a Glamour build that actually works. Problem is that the traits are all over the place and you seem to give up so much dps and survivability that it’s just not viable in any real situation

Emanuel.9781:

Posting this because i still see too many fellow mesmers using inferior phantasm heavy builds in dungeons.

Dungeons. Forget being any kind of support in spvp. Our burst is sadly the most effective we have for Spvp and outshines any kind of support we can pull out there, ever since Illusionary Membrane got nerfed to hell(3s protection every 15 seconds when you get regeneration? Come on now, Anet, you can do better than that…).

An all out glamour/focus reflection+mantra heal+confusion (20/0/0/30/20) works better in large scale WvW/Fort attacking&defense than something like this.

I personally only use the boon heavy 0/20/0/20/30 build in Dungeons/Fractals. For spvp i use the cookie cutter 20/20/0/0/30 with 4x ogre 2x divinity runes which everybody likes to hate on. Nerf mesmer burst, leave thief burst(which kills bunker guardians in 2 seconds flat and doesn’t leave them open like a “failed” mesmer burst).