Guild Wars 2

A little weird build I thought up during my hiatus at college.

The Stroke, AKA Half-n-Half

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQNAseRncfClphVoBufCUrhlUj6MKiuqjcAOgAouZj2sF-TZxAABzXGIgHAAAHBgg2fgjTBAA

This build is meant to support allies by halving your enemies’ abilities in half with conditions, slicing their movement with cripple and their attacks with slow, while at the same time dealing a good chunk of damage with constant crits. It is essentially a pseudo-lockdown which focuses on soft CC.

Weapons:
-Sword/Shield: The sword simply works well with good control and defensive options while the shield’s aggressive defense and double phantasm with slow is what puts the build together. Sigils are flexible.
-Greatsword: Imagined Burden changes the GS’s purpose to a very strong control weapon, its push and phantasm becoming even more impressive at keeping foes at bay while keeping up a steady stream of slow and might from a distance. Used a Hobbling Sigil to maximize cripple duration.

Traits
Domination: The Domination line was necessary for Imagined Burden to provide the cripple required. The other choices are flexible, but I went with boon-stripping and illusion-damage.

Inspiration: Thought some tankiness would be useful for a phantasm build and also wanted my phantasms to survive, so this was the obvious choice. Extra health and distortion is all fine and good, but I enjoy the Regen of Illusionary Inspiration being able to heal up fellow phantasms.

Chrono: All slow choices, meaning slow-on-rupt, 30% crit against slowed, and slow-on-fifth-crit.

Runes: Anything can really do, though I like Lich runes for the condition duration here.

Stats: Marauder, because precision and survivability.

I haven’t tested this because I’m away from my gaming computer at the moment and would love if someone could give it a go and give some feedback during the next beta weekend event~

At any rate, thoughts on the concept of this Soft-Lockdown Mesmer?

Dondagora.9645:

I haven’t tested this because I’m away from my gaming computer at the moment and would love if someone could give it a go and give some feedback.

Chrono isn’t available because the Beta Weekend ended on Monday…

AlphatheWhite.9351:

Dondagora.9645:

I haven’t tested this because I’m away from my gaming computer at the moment and would love if someone could give it a go and give some feedback.

Chrono isn’t available because the Beta Weekend ended on Monday…

Right, right, should probably add a little “in the next beta” there, thanks~

The name. No seriously, that name.

The stroke?

Soft… ’lock?

Stroking is an accepted method of curing softness to be sure -_-u

This build looks insanely interesting. Good theory crafting here me thinks!

Ross Biddle.2367:

The name. No seriously, that name.

The stroke?

Soft… ’lock?

Stroking is an accepted method of curing softness to be sure -_-u

Oh, well, that wasn’t my intention, but I guess that’s a fine interpretation as well.

Dondagora.9645:

Ross Biddle.2367:

The name. No seriously, that name.

The stroke?

Soft… ’lock?

Stroking is an accepted method of curing softness to be sure -_-u

Oh, well, that wasn’t my intention, but I guess that’s a fine interpretation as well.

So what you’re saying is, it’s so deep rooted in your psyche that it leaks out of your pours and into all your creative procee’.

I approve, and would like to subscribe to your magazine.

Your build may not work as intended

Marauder Amulett + Persisting Image is a waste. They will still die very quickly.
But true you get some damage bonus. from Retaliation. what may be good as well.

Protect phantasm hmmm, if you play pvp ( since teh build is placed on pvp) you should better take restorative illusions. If not, you may be a martyr for condi.

Last thing, you will be very sad since at this time most of the strong people will clear this slow and cripple very fast. and you can not sustain it.
May be you should look for Power duration’s rune; and ignore the condi you afflict

I’ve had very similar build in mind for chrono, but dueling instead of inspiration.

Been running Imagined Burden lately in Dom/Duel/Illu and Dom/Duel/Insp, and it’s pretty kitten amazing trait in WvW. Probably not as good in sPvP though.

The greatsword looks like a lot of fun in this build, stacking slows and cripple like that could be pretty brutal.

One thing I noticed is that you’ve got no condition removal. With that in mind, I don’t think Protected Phantasms gives enough benefit compared to what Restorative Illusions could do for you. Also, Illusionary Inspiration may not be the best grandmaster option since this build doesn’t generate many boons. Mental Defense gives you a phantasm that may one day save your life or at the very least more illusions to shatter for Restorative Illusions or Distortion.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

The greatsword looks like a lot of fun in this build, stacking slows and cripple like that could be pretty brutal.

One thing I noticed is that you’ve got no condition removal. With that in mind, I don’t think Protected Phantasms gives enough benefit compared to what Restorative Illusions could do for you. Also, Illusionary Inspiration may not be the best grandmaster option since this build doesn’t generate many boons. Mental Defense gives you a phantasm that may one day save your life or at the very least more illusions to shatter for Restorative Illusions or Distortion.

Hm, I was using Illusionary Inspiration more for the regen, though MD would be fine and would be cool to have 3 shield phantasms up at the same time (plus that shared retal), and I can see how Restorative Illusions would be better for the cleanse and heal.

The Inspiration line here is really flexible and you can change it however you want. There was nothing I wanted from the other lines, though the defense from Chaos wouldn’t be bad either.