Guild Wars 2

To start things off, I’ll be brief and note that this is intended to be a Lock-down oriented build. For those of you new to the idea or Mesmers, the general idea is to Shut down your foes and prevent them from: Moving, Attacking, Fleeing, Smashing in someones face, etc…

What does “Flex-Build” mean? Short hand, it stands (to me anyway) for Flexible Build, meaning there is room for change and stats among players, as well as a fair amount of wiggle room to play style.

Tease The Basics ~

Domination: II / VII / XII
Dueling: IV / X /
Chaos: III / X /
{30/20/20}

Keystones ~
Staff
Confounding Suggestions

Tease The Wall-o-Txt~

Play Notes

Intro:
As noted above this is a Lock-down styled build, Your goal is to dominate the field in fights both short and long. You have also just graduated to a Master of Crowd Control which means crippling your foe at crucial points so that your team can stomp out an easy victory or recover and rejoin the fray. The current build, as shown above, also denotes you as the parties most celebrated hater of all boons and buffs. In PvP this means you become a key to dislodging that bunker(s) since the majority of them rely heavily on boon upkeep.

What to Bring:
Bring a Staff for the love of Lyssa! Chaos storm is your new best friend and everyone else’s nightmare. The staff also offers high mobility and support (also through chaos storm and some luck) to allies. With some practice, a well timed and well placed CS can destroy a group or save yours. It is also relatively easy to gain the end result of a chain-stun/daze (no moving, no attacking/healing) and snag a few interrupts to further punish foes for attempting to use a skill.

Runes of the Mesmer (or other condition duration oriented runes) Also bring some punch to the build, but this is where the build is far more flexible and lax to Player preference.

Other Weapons to bring to bat include: Swords, the Pistol, the Great Sword, the Focus, and, arguably, the Scepter. Traits can be moved or pushed around to accommodate some of these weapons. For instance, the GS itself brings a small amount of Boon removal and the trait can be swapped in the Domination line. For those confident enough to forgo Deceptive Evasion, increase the range and reduce the recharge on your pistol. Each brings something to the field with this set up so attempt some Experimentation!

Clones are no longer going to be your source for a lot of things, such as regen or in some cases, damage (besides shatters) since they won’t be up for too long. Get used to the idea of having to play aggressively and make moves before your opponent can. The best defense for this build is a strong offense.

Technical Gibberish

How it all comes together:

For those still unclear as to how the build builds momentum, Let’s take a look at what exactly comes into play in almost any battle.

Stun/Daze – Your opponent cannot move/use a skill for a brief moment. Your opponent can be interrupted by either condition.

Interruption – Skill is put on a brief Cool Down and cannot be instantly reused, Damage generated from Halting Strike.

5% increased Damage to Inactive targets. Typically the same amount as 4-6 stacks of Might, Applies to any target that is not currently Using a Skill (running does not count as doing something).

Boon Removal – Shatters are typically the main source of this which can mean up to Six boons on 5 targets, or 12 Boons on a single target.

Vulnerability – x% increase in damage taken, Stacks each time you Daze a Foe (even if they are not dazed)

50% Chance that a Daze becomes a Stun – Pretty self explanatory but, ProTip: Each time your Daze becomes a Stun, in PvE, it removes 2 stacks of Defiant, making it possible to gain more use of CC on a Boss. That’s 1 CC applied through a trait equating to 2CC attacks.

Condition Masking – I call it “Causing Panic” in my head, but this is the task of either forcing your opponent to waste a condition removal by covering up another condition with your short duration ones, or scaring them badly enough to force a use. Either way, you just won, as this build is not very conducive to condition damage as a whole.

Tease Final Break Down~

Strengths:

Crowd Control
Boon Hate
Reasonably High Damage
Multitude of ways to generate damage.
Flexibility to change on the fly for each situation.
Situational Support.

Weaknesses:

Condition Removal
Higher Learning Curve to Newer Players.
Poor Tanking ability
Fairs less well against constant and consistent Invisibility.
Poor Condition Damage.

But wait, I forgot the Gear specs… or Did I? The answer is, No, This build is forgiving enough to work with almost any gear set you currently have. Pure Zerk wearers will have a blast as will far more tanker specs like Knights. Mix it up, Find the weapons that work the best for how you want to make the build work!

I currently, Do not recommend condition Damage for this type of build but there may be someone enterprising enough to come up with a great way to do it.

That’s all for now~
<3

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQFAGGRMpg4QOSPMNW70Kpg3uQA-w i would love to see what you normally run with this build.

This is probably where I’d take it.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8clwzyoHTzmGb9IiJFEnvR6hpxanWJF82FC-jkCBYfCyUEw0yQECA5mFRjtkqIas6aYKXRWDDQFLpSBwkwI-w

I’d probably also argue switching out Chaos III for chaos V, but in the end it comes down to personal preference.
I’d also bring a second offhand sword for when I’ve maxed your stacks. Battle, Fire or Generosity would be my first choices depending on what I feel I’m lacking.
Could very easily drop Thievery for Mantra of Resolve. Again, depends on how well I think I could handle condi pressure. Against condi Necros, Mantra wins because thievery would just feed them.

Given my gear, I’d also feel comfortable enough to drop Chaos X and take VIII, just because BI is glorious and perfect for a build with high interrupt capability.
(pretty much all credit for how I’d set up this would have to go to ChaosArchangel and the Mind Crush build)

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8alwzipnSzqGZ9IiJFEHyR6hpxanWJF82FC-jEDBYfKyofAIhYpmYJPKsZPQJQAlUFRjVXDT9SRW/CVDDAA-w

Roughly the set up i currently use with this build. Utlities change often based on the situation and what i need to cover, tho blink is almost a constant. I tend to aim for a more balanced stat combo and often swap runes to Lyssa but Mesmer is what I always bring for PvP.

As stated above, Sword Sword also works very well for this build as it brings the offhand potential to daze or block. I choose pistol for the projectile finishers from the Phantasm as well as a guaranteed stun and Daze/second stun if there are multiple targets in range. Pistols 5th is also considerably faster than swords 4(4) and as far as i can tell, isn’t as easy for people to evade. The trade off here being that its on a much longer CD meaning It’s generally only useable 1 or rarely 2 times in a short battle but the Phantasm synergizes a bit better with my own combo fields (Fear of death by confusion for the enemy) as well as with other combo fields. Its my personal preference.

Deceptive evasion rather than the Pistol trait allows for easier and sudden shatters to rip stability or regen and push a fight back in a direction I want it to go.

I also personally recommend Chaos X for the reduction on all staff skills, this means more retreats and chaos storms in less time. If you feel comfortable enough to drop this then Bountiful Interruption is a good idea for the Might stacks. Its a trade off between defensive play and Russian Roulette in a sense. The Mind crush build is Solid but It’s just not quite my style of doing things.