Guild Wars 2

Obviously one big issue (other than the plethora of bugs) with Mesmer is the lack of speed, specifically out of combat. I originally went with runes of centaur and could maintain perma swiftness between heals and temporal curtain. I didn’t like this as it locked me into rather useless rune set and would put my heal on CD half the time.

My guild followed a new strategy along boon duration for WvW. I noticed that I now can maintain swiftness with almost 90% uptime just from temporal curtain. Combine this with food and it’s easily 100% solo uptime and definitely 100% in a zerg.

It uses 2 superior monk runes, 2 superior water runes, and 2 major water runes. I like this set up better as it will apply to ALL boons and will allow my heal to be ready when needed.

What do you guys think?

I’ve considered trying this, but I must say, is it REALLY, any different to rune’s of the centaur?

Mice.8921:

I’ve considered trying this, but I must say, is it REALLY, any different to rune’s of the centaur?

Did you even read my post? =) jk jk

It keeps my heal off cd and it applies to ALL of the boons I get. If you’re in a zerg that’s a huge increase over, what, +165 power and 15% bleed duration?

I don’t know, I guess I’m just wondering what other people think? That trade off seems worth it to me, what about you?

Also, in no way am I saying that this fixes all of our problems, just saying this might be a better alternative

I run both and both are good options just depends what weapon set and build you are using.

Actually, Boon duration only applies to boons you give (either to yourself or to others) not Boons you receive.

So if someone gives you 5s of swiftness and you have 100% boon duration, you don’t get 10s of swiftness, you get 5s. If you, however, give an AoE 5s of swiftness, it becomes 10s swiftness on everyone that receives it. (Note: Boon Duration IS applied in tooltips.)

It’s really a matter of preference. The boon duration stacking is a nice build, but that’s also a really focused build. The centaur runes are easier to toss on to any build to get high swiftness uptime without requiring that the entire build be geared towards boon duration.

It sounds like right now your using, a set off hand, a set food buff and a set, set of runes. With Centaur you can get by without the off hand, and without the food buff depending on your spec.

Ethics.4519:

Mice.8921:

I’ve considered trying this, but I must say, is it REALLY, any different to rune’s of the centaur?

Did you even read my post? =) jk jk

It keeps my heal off cd and it applies to ALL of the boons I get. If you’re in a zerg that’s a huge increase over, what, +165 power and 15% bleed duration?

I don’t know, I guess I’m just wondering what other people think? That trade off seems worth it to me, what about you?

Also, in no way am I saying that this fixes all of our problems, just saying this might be a better alternative

Yes, I did read your post, and I’m tempted to test it, but if you actually stop to compare the two, they’re in fact shockingly similar:

1. You’re forcing focus rather than a use of a heal, but forcing a skill usage regardless – E.G. I will often burn my heal shortly before entering a fight to get swiftness, and instead save my curtain to interupt their initial burst – centaur provides that option, duration does not
2. Still a specific rune set required, though, I will say that it does provide an alternative
3. In terms of other effects the rune set offers, since it only affects outgoing or self boons, you can only compare what you give yourself… Unless you’re running staff, you’ll not be providing a HUGE number of boons so you’re sort of looking at healing power (I believe(?)) vs power….

tl;dr Its a nice alternative, but not an improvement you’re simply forcing the offhand rather than the heal, and one set of runes over another….

P.S. I’m definitely considering trying it, looks like it has great potential, especially since I use focus and staff anyway… Not trying to be critical, merely explaining my previous comment =D

I’ve fallen in love with Runes of the Air, personally. Still requires you to use your heal and the focus, but the crit damage it gives is just… well, it’s the bees knees.

I guess I overlooked the fact that it only applies to boons you provide. I also wouldn’t say it forces the off-hand focus. I mean, it does, but so does 100% uptime with centaur. So that’s not really a difference. The difference is 50% uptime with centaur vs no swiftness with boon duration if you choose to not go focus.

Also, I’m not forcing myself into food. Without boon duration food, I’m getting about 95% uptime swiftness, maybe 90%. And boon duration benefits anybuild, as long as you can supply yourself with those boons.

Let me know what you think Mice. Also, my “did you even read my post” was a light hearted joke =)

Ethics.4519:

The difference is 50% uptime with centaur vs no swiftness with boon duration if you choose to not go focus.

Base centaur uptime is 80% with Mirror heal. My build has 20 in Chaos which gives me 93% uptime. Also, centaur swiftness stacks while focus does not. Take Mender’s Purity and you are constantly rolling heal, reflection, cleanse, and aoe swiftness. How is that not godly?

I’ve been running boon duration runes forever. Only instead of major runes I used 2x runes of pirate/strength. 20 points in chaos with food that’s 70% boon and 90% might. You could swap your major waters for runes of speed instead for more swiftness.

I should add that, without staff, boon duration is a waste. Also I use sigils of battle on both weapons for weapon swap stacking. Finally, You get the benefit of great group support with signit of inspiration should that sort of thing excite you (good for fracs etc).

Oh, also, 100% uptime of retaliation (also great for sharing), which centaur runes cannot provide.

Helios.3598:

Base centaur uptime is 80% with Mirror heal. My build has 20 in Chaos which gives me 93% uptime. Also, centaur swiftness stacks while focus does not. Take Mender’s Purity and you are constantly rolling heal, reflection, cleanse, and aoe swiftness. How is that not godly?

^ So godly. This is my approach too, though I only have 10 points in Chaos. Centaur + Mirror Heal makes it so that I can at least use a different off-hand weapon if I want to and not feel like I’m a turtle.

Nikked.7365:

Helios.3598:

Base centaur uptime is 80% with Mirror heal. My build has 20 in Chaos which gives me 93% uptime. Also, centaur swiftness stacks while focus does not. Take Mender’s Purity and you are constantly rolling heal, reflection, cleanse, and aoe swiftness. How is that not godly?

^ So godly. This is my approach too, though I only have 10 points in Chaos. Centaur + Mirror Heal makes it so that I can at least use a different off-hand weapon if I want to and not feel like I’m a turtle.

I might look into this more when I get home. I took ether fest just because the mirror heal is so bad I couldn’t stand to use it. As I might transition to more of a reflection mesmer this could be a strong possibility. I would rather have my temporal curtain on cooldown instead of my heal.