Guild Wars 2

I know what you are thinking, a utility support spec, so we are running portals and viels?
Absolutely not. We are a new kind of support build used in massive zerg fights (I am currently in Tier 1 on blackgate, this is where I created the build and it works amazingly well here,). I am asuming it will be usefull in most tiers on busy nights. The idea is to have 4-5 mesmers running this same build or the different variations of it that I have made. Today I am posting the Zerg Soldier, I will link more variations on later dates, but I have 4 versions ready to go as of right now.

What this build does: it mitigates damage from your zerg, it reflects damage back to the enemy zerg, it has insane survival, not only from high hp and high armor, but from immunity, block, reflect projectiles, staying out of melee, retaliation, protection and regeneration and chaos armor. Aside from all of the great stuff you are doing for your zerg, and all of the damage you are doing to the enemy here is the bonus, high wxp, loot bags and kills. In less then a week I already have 1,500 kills, just from testing this spec, that includes all of the goodies associated with the kills, ranks, lootbags, badges, etc.

The First Edition Zerg Soldier
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNArdWl0zqqHVznGaNJiJFDHydSBztcoK0dlUobXIA-jEyAorhISMgIHg0HgGeR0Y1LY6SioaPeR0qBA-w

I will go through the list of skills I use, and the traits I depend on, to help you understand how this spec works.

What you need to know about your build before continuing:
Phantasms grant you and allies protection and regeneration, they also have retaliation (key to damage more enemies, #3 staff and #5 focus)
Mimic skill blocks incomming ranged attacks for 4 seconds.
You get 3s of retaliation every time you block (Mimic skill)
– Mimic is your get out of jail card during zerg fights, if you have to reposition, get your barings, or just to get out, that is 4s of blocks.
Shattering Distortion (your immunity) also reflects projectiles, this is usefull for getting through an enemy zerg and damaging any person using projectile skills either on you, or aoe that you run through. Or for just getting away or trolling them.

Reflecting Projectiles in this build:
Your focus skills reflect projectiles, the positioning of the Curtain #4 focus is very important in zerg fights, and you will quickly learn how to use it and how to troll people with it. I am often found at zerg stand off’s, running out towards an enemy zerg and putting curtain down and just standing behind it while poping feedback, and #5 staff onto them (for the daze).
But the big use of the curtain is when two zergs are about to crash into eachother. I place it between the two zergs and it has multiple uses, their front line heavies run over it and get crippled, and it reflects all projectiles flying over it back to the person shooting, and that shot will be effected if it travels over a combo field of any kind.
This is a bread and butter of the build, it will damage and tag so many enemies for you throughout a zerg fight.
Your heal: Mirror reflects projectiles for 2seconds, that is just a little longer then it’s cast time, this can be used in combination with Mimic for the block, and shatterting distortion for immunity and more reflect projectiles.
I know your eyes are starting to open to what kind of build this is, so let me keep explaning through examples.

On very large scale fights, like we have in our tier:
Running in with your commander (yes you are on the front lines pushing through enemy zergs) lay down curtain in front of their zerg to let their ranged eat damage, target somebody ranged in a differenet section of their zerg drop feedback on their group. do the same for null field, never drop them on top of eachother, you can also save nullfield, drop nullfield on the enemy front line to try and strip boons (hoping for stability to come off), or on your front line to help strip conditions, throw out #3 staff phantasm for protection, regeneration and it’s retaliation will dmg more people, switch to staff #5 on a group of them to daze, yes daze is a beauty in zerg fights, chasos armor yourself, now pop heal, anything hitting you gets reflected, hit #2 staff, dodge roll dodge roll and shatter distrotion (of course you will dodge roll acordingly to the fights, but this is pretty avarage timing here, and it all happens quite quickly) now you are immune and reflecting more projectiles passing through you, that works on warrior pierced shots, people targeting you, etc. switch back to focus and I always #5 focus somebody on the enemy team who has been downed to help finish them off to rally my guys. That little phantasm doesn’t just give you more protection, regen, have retaliation to hurt more bad guys, but he also dishes out a ton of damage to a downed enemy, let your phantasm work on the downed guy while you focus on staying on your commander, keep move, don’t get melee’d, we like having HP, while people die and our focus is out, we get 670 health per kill from sigil of restoration, while we get kills and our staff is out, we get our endurance refilled for more dodge clones to shatter (and yes, I personally dodge roll a lot when my staff is out, i take full advantage of this). You notice I haven’t popped my Mimic yet, that’s because I pop this bad boy when I have to get out, if we are losing, or regrouping and I don’t want to bother being damaged, I will pop mimic, which will pop retaliation, I will #2 scepter to block after it’s done for another 2 seconds of block, which will grant more retaliation, i will then probably have my heal back up, my curtain will be back up, my chaos armor will be back up on my staff and so will my feedback, nullfield, and Chaos storm. Pretty much at this point in the fight, I am alive, full health, just got a ton of kills and my build has reset. If we are regrouping because it’s a giant SoR zerg we are fighting, by this point I’m ready to go, I got out ok, I’m back on the commander if I lost him for whatever reason (hey I blame Staff #2 leap, but whatever. reason you come up with, please let me know, I’m starting to run out of them, haha. But the point is, You will survive, there is absolutely so much utility In this version of the Zerg Soldier, once you practice and get good at popping your skills at the right time, you will dish out a ton of damage without actually using your weapon’s to damage people as often as you where used to on other builds. This build works completely of your ability to synergize with your group and the enemy, even though the enemy doesn’t know it, but they are helping you out here. And I am all about making friends with the enemy, I want them to shoot me with an 18k volley, no really, please, I dare you, because popping my Mirror heal to stick it right back in your full zerker, might stacked, raging, fury elite popping warrior face. You just made my day and I want to give you a big hug right after, but oh wait no that was a spike and you’re not moving anymore… For a tiny asuran that didn’t even touch you, I really pack a wholloping invisible punch.

In this build I gave it “Glamour recharge reduced by 20%” and “Decent into madness”.
The reasons for this are obvious on the glamours, we want more nullfield, and the not so obvious, I do switch out my Mimic for Portal some times, because as a mesmer it is required, and that is also part of the reason for decent into madness. Want to jump off SM 3rd floor without that trait? no… But again they work in conjunction with wanting these traits in fights. You will get pulled or knocked off bridges in EBG, and you will live, when other people don’t. Your glamour and nullfield pop faster, and after making a portal the cooldown is a shorter time, so if it is for golems or something, you can switch back to Mimic quicker, or drop another portal faster then other mesmers, who are slower, and die falling down from high places. I mean you are built to survive like a bloody tank, do you really want people laughing at you when you die from falling? NO, you absolutely don’t. I won’t let you, that’s why I put it in for you.

But you guys and ladies get the idea, and I hope you all have fun with it, I do have different spec’d version of this build and I will post a few more below during the next week. Please link your feedback, and video’s if you like. I personally hate video editing, or else I would have made a video showing you how amazing this is, but give it some time, get some practice with it, and I asure you’ll fall in love with this new style of mesmer game play.

Also saved for more versions.

saved for more stuff later. thanks

New? Been running something similar for months lol. Yes its very good against zergs and got the survivability to run with the commander, or be a commander for that matter. I have outlived even guardians in my guild. Though I dont understand why you got the scepter rather than the sword.

mainly because it is ranged. but the 2second block on #2 scepter pops 3s of retaliation each time it blocks something (same as your mimic does), and I didn’t want to use a melee weapon, the mobility of the class to avoid a zerker melee enemy is important, even though you will have 2.9k armor and up to 28k health, that is no reason to pretend you are superman, all it would take is 1 smart player to daze, immobilize you as you finish your #2 sword animation inside of their zerg and you’re going to have a hall of a tough time recovering from that in these tier 1 zergs. I prefer to stay inside of my group and to continue moving with my commander in a tight knight ball, instead of stopping to wack stuff with a sword. This build is used to help kill 30+ people at once, by the end of most fights, having less then 20-30 kills and less then 15 bags is a strange thing. Don’t concern yourself with a tiny bit of extra damage from a sword, or it’s ability to give you an extra chaos armor with it’s leap. that leap puts you on the wrong side of your curtain. lets draw a diagram.. If you are X and the enemy is O and your curtain is I.
X I O
This reflects projectiles back to the ranged.
I X O
This doesn’t.

Two words: Force. Multiplier.

Bodies take points, and not the dead kind. This is lawls and luls above the build i have been using in wvw.

Mimic for most underrated util slot ever.
If you have shelved your mesmer for whatever reason, dust it off and go find your zerg.
Thank you sir.

Hmmmhmmm; looks nice and interesting.

What I wonder is… does it also work outside of zergs? Like, in smaller groups or even solo? Or is it zerg-only?

Saturn.6591:

Hmmmhmmm; looks nice and interesting.

What I wonder is… does it also work outside of zergs? Like, in smaller groups or even solo? Or is it zerg-only?

Sure it does. With my similar build I solo camps easy enough. Main threat comes from very tanky condition specs. Otherwise, most balanced builds and glass cannons will have a hard time with you, as will tanky warriors and guardians because you can usually outlast them.

Also, you can just swap some skills around. If you face one person (that isnt a silly ranger), pick something like blink instead of feedback.

I really like it. Though I thought gsword was better than staff for zerg.

Basically – reflect ALL the things!

I didn’t know retalliation tagged enemies for you. That makes phantasms pretty good for zerg tagging actually.

Seems a shame to pick up 20 duelist for the prec/crit dmg and not wear any zerkers gear though. I’d be tempted to stick with my knight/zerker mix.

I put the 20 duelist for the block retaliation and dodge clones. The dodge clones help in all situations big fights or small. And the block retaliation works off #2 scepter and Mimic. This spec works in all sized fights, I mitigate damage for my group while we burn people down. And 1v1 I have not found a class that can beat me. Melee classes I work them down slowly by staying out of melee range (One reason why I went with the staff) .

Fadeaway I originally started this build In full zerker, then went full knights, and now I ended up in full PTV. After playing with it for enough time I realized I don’t kill people just from my weapon skills damage, I burn them down in different ways and found it was best to be a full tank while doing it, especially when running through enemy zergs or fighting 1v1, it fills in the gaps of the build’s survivability.

looks great, will test and repost

Hello dragon.8625 I retrait my Mesmer and I try your build for my runs in WvW yesterday and it works very well. In 3 hours of game play I manage to do 200+ kills!
I ’ve to be more comfortable with mimic since I forgot it all the time and when I was alone I believe the sword is more useful in 1v1 situations than scepter.
Thank you.

So does retaliation from your phantasms tag enemies for you in wvw?

pagkon.4615:

I believe the sword is more useful in 1v1 situations than scepter.

Well yeah, but that is why it is called a zerg build. Built for zerg battles, but can be used for smaller battles as well, it just won’t be AS effective. Scepter is obviously the better choice for zerging.

This looks cool – been looking for a way to get my mesmer back into WvW. Like the OP, I’m on T1 (JQ) and since nerf had gone back to my guardian.

Will give this a shot – thanks!

[edit – just noticed no condi removal in the build – could swap Masterful Reflection for Mender’s Purity? ie 20 10 for 30 0 – also adds Vit to the build for added survivability. Just a thought – not sure how much it adds vs removes]

Pagkon – That’s awesome, that’s exactly what it’s for

Fadeaway – I believe it does.

MidnightJade – The condition removal comes from nullfield with a 36 second cooldown, and your high HP (with fortified guildbuff and food I sit at 28/29k hp) so I can take a lot of condition damage before it becomes a problem. I also forgot to mention I eat Lemongrass poultry food, it reduces the condition duration by -40%. This greatly helps your survival out there. And remember you are in a zerg, your allies are throwing out condition removals all the time. Guardians popping save yourselves, d/d ele’s switching to water atunement. You are not out there by yourself.

So I tried this last night, albeit under non-optimal conditions since JQ WvW is a mess right now and many commanders are new. The build seems decent although I didn’t like it as much as the old pre-nerf glamour builds for use in a crowd, and it seems pretty fragile if you get caught 2v1 with no time to prepare. No blink or decoy, for example.

For zerg vs zerg it may be the best we got right now but given the choice I’d still probably go to WvW on my guardian. Before the nerf I used to go 50:50 on guard vs mesmer – they seemed equally useful. Now not so much.

It takes some practice with the spec and learning when to use the skills at the appropriate time. I know anybody who puts the time to learn it like I did will notice the benefit of the skill combinations and utilize how powerful they are. And I’ve heard from a few so far that they have. I know this build won’t be a perfect fit for everybody, it is almost like playing a different class the way this build is used. You will find me in zerg fights shattering distortion and running straight through the enemy zerg, then mimic and mirror heal to get back into my group, just to eat up more ranged projectile attacks to damage people. No other mesmer prior to this build did stuff like that, at least not that I have seen in video’s or read on the forums. It’s things you would see a full ptv retaliation guardian do, now mesmers can do it.

Tried something like this a couple weeks ago…took Reaper of Grenth as Elite Skill…just to fool them all and snare at the same time^^

Dragon very interesting build, I think I will try it tonight. I have a couple of questions and see what you think. 1)I understand why you take Glamour Mastery, have you considered taking Persisting Images instead to have more phantasmal uptime. 2)Have you tried taking Phantasmal Defender and Disenchanter rather than your 2 glam utilities? Just a thought to get 2 more phantasms out there for extra retaliation and regen. I know null field is better than Disenchanter to remove conditions plus it is a ethereal combo field. Just wanted to pick your brain and see what you thought. Finally, would my rabid gear work well with this build or is it completely useless?

Khrall I did testing with Phantasmal Defender, and as a skill with the traits chosen in this build I really liked it. If you where looking to try something different then the glamor stuff I originally chose, I would recommend Phantasmal Defender, Arcane Thievery, Mimic for skill choice. And then I would swap out the glamor recharge 20% for the pop feedback bubble when you rez somebody. I have been testing the feedback rez trait and I have to admit I like the concept of the trait so in big zerg fights I never stop to fully rez (there just isn’t time and you’ll die trying), but I will tap ‘f’ over a downed player to pop a feedback bubble, then I will cancel and keep moving. you can do this every 10 seconds to keep popping feedbacks all over the field and this is a good substitute for your missing feedback skill on your bar. Even though you can’t aim this into a group, it is still a ton of fun, and it can yield some good damage. I use the WvW timer at the top of my screen to know when I can pop another one, the same timer we all use for Portals anyway.

As for the rabid gear, I would say go ahead and test it and post your results with it. I think the build really doesn’t matter what gear you wear because the skills don’t depend on what gear you wear, what you do outside of using those skills is what the gear is there for. I personally run into enemy zergs and stand in their AOE, so I went with PTV gear for a reason, playing on EBG in tier 1 can get crazy, and that is where my guild play most of the time. Shout out to my guild btw, Just Leave [JL] on Black Gate.

Please guys let me know if you test different gear out with this build, feel free to whisper me in game or link your results here in the forums, thanks to everybody who has used the build and msg’d me in game so far, I really appreciate the feedback.

so for several nights i have been using this build and slight variations for hours in wvw. loving it. For the previous question, yes, Rabid gear will work, but honestly in true zerg v zerg you aren’t going to notice the extra condi damage. You ARE going to notice the lower survival stats.

Swapped to a hard stack of PVT. Sentinel everything. trinkets, even dropping runes/sigils for PVT rare gems. Suddenly stopped dieing. I could stay stacked on the commander tag no matter how hard we pushed and still come out of the blob dodging or cycling blocks.

Afterwards i changed things up a bit as during the actual clashes i found myself on the front lines or deep in the blob and not switching to the staff as much, so i decided to try dropping the 10 for reflect and going deeper into chaos for moar toughness and the boons from stealth ( since commanders often want veils after stack, and i was happy to provide )

So i would be running Veil, Mimic (4 seconds of block and retal tagging- yeshhhhh yesssssshhhh), and feedback + mass invis unless pushing a gate. Swapping portals out when called/etc ofc, but i digress:

http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.0|b.0.h1j.d.0.0|6.0.h1j|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|0.k3a.u2ac.k28.0|0.0|33.3b.3f.38.0|e

Sentinel everything. Grenth karma accessories, exotics from molten fac. PVT gems all round.

So its 0/20/30/20/0, mostly using the dodge clones to fuel distortion during stomps.

between blocks, focus reflect/feedback and sheer stats survival has been beyond impressive. I mean hours without dieing. Even if we get wiped i’m shoving my way out with people all over still managing to drop combat and waypoint to regroup.

Using vit/tough food that build hovers at 30k health, 3000 armor, 30% boon duration. Its a tossup between that and lemon for the -condi duration. Personally i prefer the pure stats.

However i have to admit that i do NOT have a top end PC and during 50+ vs 50+ things get .. not quite choppy, but its not smooth, so i’m not weapon swapping quite as much as i could be to get the most out of staff, admittedly. I’ll drop chaos field, put on armor, swap back to scepter and just stick on that icon.

Either way, its the reflect everything, support the zerg, and come out swinging mentality of this build- it’s great fun.

Edit: Just to add, at the end of the night my stack of badges is right there with the guardians, so even though you may not ‘feel’ like you’re wtfpwning everything in your path, this build CERTAINLY pulls its weigh more than anything shatter/phantom based that i have played or seen from other mesmers running with us with more offensively stacked builds. You don’t even realize how much damage you are mitigating from the reflects, feedbacks, and well timed mass invis.

Hope some of this helps dragon!

Just one thought. Retaliatory Shield (and all other “trigger on Block” effects) does not trigger off Reflection, so it doesn’t trigger off Mimic when it reflects a projectile. Mimic does however block all non-projectile attacks, and that triggers Retaliatory Shield.

Reflection builds are hardly new however, I’m quite sure most Glamour Mesmers of old also heavily ran Reflection.

Thanks for the clarification Embolism.
So many attacks going off I honestly hadn’t noticed exactly when the retal was proccing. I just know it is alot.

It may not be a new build, but i would almost bet ‘the farm’ that if you were to ask 20 mesmers what build they ran, more than half would mention or reference a shattercat variant.

Anything to bring more light to the support options mesmer’s toolbox brings to zerg v zerg is a good thing these days imo. Or perhaps i have just ran 100 too many 5 or 6 man instanced PVE runs in various MMOs and have become a wee bit bitter to the damage > all mentality XD

I’m not so keen on vitality stacking in wvw, since there are so many heals going off that toughness is the best survivability stat. Tough/pwr/prec or tough/pwr/crit is my preferred gear (knight/cavalier/zerker mix) due to that.

I can see why dealing less damage isn’t as severe in a zerg setting though, because i imagine the majority of your damage comes from phantasm retalliation procs and reflects.Offensive abilities scale well vs one player, force multipliers like reflection/retal/aoe absorbs from phants work just as well either way.

dragon.8625:

No other mesmer prior to this build did stuff like that, at least not that I have seen in video’s or read on the forums. It’s things you would see a full ptv retaliation guardian do, now mesmers can do it.

Yes, I think you might be right – that’s certainly how I play my guardian, in fact was doing just that on guardian last night.

I’ll give this build another shot and see if I can get the hang of it.

For those of you doing southsun cove with the Zerg Soldier build, as you run up to a karka pop #5 focus on it and watch it basically kill itself. have fun

Very interesting build. Have you considered dropping 10 points in Illusions and go 30 points into Inspiration to pick up Restorative Mantras? Then swap out Null Field for Mantra of Pain and put it on auto-attack. Restorative Mantras gives out a nice 2k aoe heal periodically. Having 3+ mesmers putting out 2k aoe heals every 5 seconds or so seems like it could have a significant impact.

It’s a shame focus sucks for roaming, solo and small groups unless you’re using a shatter build. The phantasm just doesn’t do enough damage otherwise due to it being stationary.

I end up feeling naked without the reflect temporal curtain in big fights, and naked without a better offhand when I run into a group of 2-3 I might otherwise be able to handle if I had my staff+sw/sw setup.

fadeaway.2807:

It’s a shame focus sucks for roaming, solo and small groups unless you’re using a shatter build. The phantasm just doesn’t do enough damage otherwise due to it being stationary.

Well, I think with a bit of practice it should be possible to immobilize people next to your phantasm by properly timing sword 3. Not easy; but should be possible I guess.

fadeaway.2807:

It’s a shame focus sucks for roaming, solo and small groups unless you’re using a shatter build. The phantasm just doesn’t do enough damage otherwise due to it being stationary.

I end up feeling naked without the reflect temporal curtain in big fights, and naked without a better offhand when I run into a group of 2-3 I might otherwise be able to handle if I had my staff+sw/sw setup.

If you are Sylvari, you can use Grasping Vines.

fadeaway.2807:

It’s a shame focus sucks for roaming, solo and small groups unless you’re using a shatter build. The phantasm just doesn’t do enough damage otherwise due to it being stationary.

I end up feeling naked without the reflect temporal curtain in big fights, and naked without a better offhand when I run into a group of 2-3 I might otherwise be able to handle if I had my staff+sw/sw setup.

There is a youtube video on how to immobolize with warden but I can’t find it at the moment. Maybe someone else can link it.

But basically it is:

Cast Temporal Curtain
Cast Warden and quickly cast Into the Void before Warden spawns
Use Sword 3 then Sword 3 again to Leap

(Bonus) Be standing where your Temporal Curtain was before using Sword 3 twice for double retaliation

Your opponent will be knocked down, pulled and immobilized while warden spawns on him and you do major damage.

It does take practice. Try it on PvE mobs.

I know it’s possible, and I know people try to do it in pvp. It’s fairly easy to pull off really, just cast sw#3, focus #5 and then immediately leap/immob.

Most people stunbreak/blink/dodge etc out of it, and if they don’t they usually only take a few ticks of the warden’s damage before they dodge or run away. It’s only effective against bad players, and even then it does questionable damage before they move away.

If you’re in a 1v1 or a 1vX with a non-shatter spec, you’re far better off with pistol or sword in your offhand.

When I was making this build and I was solo roaming I tried scepter/focus and sword/pistol for a while. I felt it lacked too much for zerg fights, and survivability which is really important, somewhere the staff really shines for our class. But for small fights like 1v1’s it was a lot of fun and gave the class a different characteristic. Nobody I fought knew how to approach the fight, the combinations of phantasms, and all of the other skills I was dishing out with this build, it’s as if they where expecting a GS or Staff to come out but it didn’t. If you want some luls and you are used to using those weapons from a shatter cat build, give it a try for smaller group fights. The pistol / sword is hands down one of my favorite combos for 1v1’s, and the scepter / focus helps greatly vs ranged until you close the gap and switch. But that being said the staff offers so much survivability in fights and boons/conditions that I just couldn’t pass it up for the final build.

Also to add, with scepter/focus and sword/pistol you can immobilize somebody in your #5 focus phantasm for a while, right after popping #5 focus (before the phantasm gets to your target) switch to pistol and #5 pistol them to stun, then #3 sword and leap then #2 sword, that will keep the grounded for some time in that damage, and also dish the #2 sword damage on them also.
I read about the stunbreak stuff, and yea it’s true, but you can catch good players off guard when their waiting on a cooldown you just have to bait them to use that skill. Or even your timing could screw with them, like they might stunbreak your #5 pistol, and then you re-immobilize them with #3 sword leap, now their stunbreaker is gone and they are still standing in the same spot immobilized. Of course if you fight the same person enough times and keep baiting them with the same tactics, they will eventually expect it (not everyone is a genius), but chances are you’ll be fighting different people that you can catch off guard.

Hey there, great build I’ve been running this for a while, but I find myself much more at ease using a Greatsword.

With this build the only things you get from Staff are #3 and #5, #1 suffers from lack of +Condition Damage and the DPS even Chaos Storm does is really poor.
With Greatsword you can actually spam #1 for tagging, as you get a lot of enemies in the beam in a zerg situation, and the iZerker fixed or not is just great used in combination with iWarden. I also find #5 quite useful

How would you change the traits for a Greatsword use? This is what I’ve come up with so far: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNArdWl0zqqHVznGaNJipCD3JFM3yhSR35dlUgbXIA-jEyAorhISMgIHg0HgGeR0Y1LY6SioaPeR0qBA-w

I picked Dueling II Phantasmal Fury instead of Retaliatory Shield since I don’t find myself using Scepter #2 that much, I really use it more for the ranged autoattack it has which is quite good for tagging. Chaos Chaotic Dampening became really useless as I wasn’t using a Staff anymore so I spent those 10 points in Illusions X Phantasmal Haste so I can spam more Phantasms.

Let me know what do you think, cheers ^^

The one downside to that switch is you lose protection from your phantasm (33% dmg reduction) and it’s swapped out for more phantasm’s, which the izerker used to be a great skill. But it’s not just that, you also lose the survivability from the staff skills, which I personally like to have. In zerg fights attacking an interior wall or gate of a keep being rained on by arrow carts and having to fight a big mob of angry enemies, I’d prefer to have a staff in my hand so I can avoid more damage. It’s all too often I see a bunch of dead allies on the ground thinking they could have survived had they planned their build better for these situations, which are situations we face hourly in WvW.

If you like the GS, just know that you are giving up some survivability, and the #5 staff chaos storm does aoe daze where you drop it, and shutting down the skillbars of ele’s is useful in zerg fights so they can’t drop water fields right away, it helps if your group is pushing through their zerg, just have to time it right.

dragon.8625:

The one downside to that switch is you lose protection from your phantasm (33% dmg reduction)

If you’re talking about Illusionary Membrane with Phantasmal Healing, that’s on a 15s CD; so it’s hardly something you can rely on.

dragon.8625:

It takes some practice with the spec and learning when to use the skills at the appropriate time. I know anybody who puts the time to learn it like I did will notice the benefit of the skill combinations and utilize how powerful they are. And I’ve heard from a few so far that they have. I know this build won’t be a perfect fit for everybody, it is almost like playing a different class the way this build is used. You will find me in zerg fights shattering distortion and running straight through the enemy zerg, then mimic and mirror heal to get back into my group, just to eat up more ranged projectile attacks to damage people. No other mesmer prior to this build did stuff like that, at least not that I have seen in video’s or read on the forums. It’s things you would see a full ptv retaliation guardian do, now mesmers can do it.

I did that with my confusion shatter build.

I still charge through the enemy zerg, and hassle their back lines on my own now, but with slightly different effects.

I like it. If you can do without clone on dodge, you could add confusing cry instead. At which point you could dump the entire dueling line (no need for retal from the block), which is another 10 points to go further into Illusions. Then you can get might on shatter, and IP. Which means more distortion, which means more reflection. If you need more vigor you can take Vigerous Revelation in place of Glamour Mastery, which will mean more group support too. Finally, if you change out the gems on your armor and use full boon duration runes, you can have 100% uptime on retaliation from a 3 clone shatter and cry of frustration alone (along with every other boon).

Put it together for an easy look.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNArdWl0zqqHVznGa9IhJFEH5nUk8lj6R33+3B-j0CBoLDRkYAicAk+AI7pIas1hht6KalXBRvATXiIq2jrIa1A-w

Deceptive Evasion is good, don’t get me wrong, and for a lot of hard and fast shatters its a must. But I’ve come to think that it’s also a crutch for many mesmers. It is the new mesmers first target trait, after all.

Edit: I see as I read further that you already altered your build to take 30 in chaos for 30% boon duration. This would up your total general boon duration to 60%, and might to 80%. You can also change the runes of pirate to protection, or relation etc for an 80% boon duration. I just like might (makes the conditions and retal proc harder).

Ross I’d suggest sup rune of strength or fire rather than pirate.

I am thinking about something like this

http://www.intothemists.com/calc/index.php?build=-NZ-Fc;0kUk-167JV-71;9;5JJO4;119-19-17a
0 Domination
20 Dueling (II, X)
20 Chaos (II, X)
25 Inspiration (II, VII)
5 Illusions

? should I move 5 from inspiration and put it elsewhere?

Sword+ Focus/ Staff
mirror, null field, veil, portal, mass invis/TW
boon duration runes
not sure about sigils
knights gear (its what I have now)

Reasoning: I command with this mesmer, so portal, veil, mass invis or TW are musts. Pick null field as it grants condition removal and boon stripping. I suppose for smaller group stuff I could flip veil and port for mimic and feedback.

Reflection comes from mirror, temporal curtain, phantasmal warden
I have given up GS for staff over the usual greatsword build, and intend to gain more by reflection. Looks like Distortion is still a panic move. Had toyed with the idea of 5 from phantasmal strength to masterful reflection such that sword 2 would not only evade but also reflect, and distortion would give me 3s of evade + reflection

Kazhiel.8194:

Ross I’d suggest sup rune of strength or fire rather than pirate.

Which I’d expect most people to take. But 90 power vs lurvly magic find… ill just take the magic find :p

I guess loot isn’t one of the things I worry about in wvw…

a wee bump for the wvw support mesmer build of choice.

after a few weeks now of maining scepter/focus/staff
0/20/20/20/10, opting for 50% hp shatter recharge rather than the reflect on distortion, and deciding on runes of altruism

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Rune_of_Altruism

for the front line offensive buffs for all my zergmates running PVT (the 20% crit bonus using mirror seems to help them significantly)

have settled on veil, feedback, and 3rd slot changes too much betwen mimic/portal/stability, and ofc mass invis/time warp

Still grabbing within 5 or so badges of any player in our groups for a session, still coming out alive from silly scenarios, the room for error/etc .. nothing but props to the OP for trying to bring more light to this role.

Personal favorite still has to be yanking people off walls with the focus, only to rofl over voice chat, and daze them so half a dozen people make them have a quick hop back to the waypoint.

“Hug the commander for your might stacks and fury” seems to be the extra bit of motivation for otherwise zergitis players to stay stacked.

shrug .. its fun XD

Just for giggles, ran this build tonight in WvW… Definitely a convert. My guild group is melee heavy, so when we come across a group heavy with ranged, it used to be problematic. Not so much anymore. Great build, love it!

Thanks.

Ok so im a new 80 mesmer been wvw alot from 0-80 and now that I found this build i find it perfect for the way i wvw but i dont have enough stuff to afford full soliders style gear yet so what set should i be using till i get there using zerkers right now but pretty sure that wont work for this build.

If you leveled from 1-80 in WvW, I’m thinking you probably have a nice stack of badges. Even the rare PVT stuff will make you pretty tough with this build. Plus, there are three PVT exotic armor pieces you can get from the temple karma merchants (don’t remember which off the top of my head, will edit this tonight when I can get in game).

I didnt level exclusivly in wvw but i do have like 3-400 badges cant remember is that enough for good stuff?

That’ll get you a few pieces of the rare Invader stuff iirc. I’ll do some research when I get home – surfing the net on my phone isn’t the best. LOL