Q:
(edited by Verone.1063)
Q:
Have any mesmers played around with a sword/torch or just torch in dungeons, the Domination skill removing conditions on torch skill use (which are all aoe, at least I think the retaliation is aoe and blind is aoe for sure) seems useful.
Build I’m trying to get to work is:
http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsfWlwzqq3QzgGaNJypCJHKFXX2RSRr9alUwbXIA
Basically I want Dueling X, Inspiration III, Domination I and Illusions VII. Then there are 10 points left for either Illusions or Dominations.
Gear is full carrion/rampager, need to find a good spot for dps vs vitality and how much condition/precision I need to take.
It seems good in theory, when in melee your mob is blinded or you have distortion from sword #2 or you’re in stealth. Damage I have to test.
Also, what does Domination III do? Condition dmg increase, shatter dmg increase?
Idea’s?
Edit: Domination III affecting clones and not phantasms (I know it affects both of them but does it do anything for clones only?)
(edited by Verone.1063)
A:
Domination 3 has effectively no effect on clones. It also does not affect condition damage, just direct damage.
Looking at your build, it seems that you are trying to do a shatter build. Unfortunately, the torch is a horrific weapon, full stop. The prestige is a decent skill, but the forced 3 seconds of stealth is a nasty dps drop, and you also don’t get the aoe burning if you are forced to dodge while in stealth, making a lot of the damage from it effectively useless.
Phantasmal mage is easily the worst phantasm in the game. The recharge on its skill is 6.9 seconds, not affected by phantasmal haste. That means that every 6.9 seconds, it might apply 3 seconds of retaliation to a maximum of 1 ally, and it applies 1 stack of confusion. It has almost no damage, almost no condition damage, as 1 stack of confusion is useless, and almost no party utility. Additionally, it is on a very long recharge, and since you are doing a shatter build, you will be shattering constantly.
Much better choices are sword or pistol offhand. Both of these weapons have very low cooldown times on the phantasms, meaning you can spam the phantasms to an extent, and not lose nearly as much damage from constant shattering. This also allows you to take out the torch trait, and put in either vulnerability on shatter, or removing boons on shatter, both of which are extremely strong in a shatter build.
Since you will have a high crit chance, your 10 points in inspiration are not needed. You will be getting very high vigor uptime for the crits you do. I highly recommend putting these 10 trait points into illusions instead, thereby giving you the illusionary persona trait. Being a shatter build with a close fighting sword style, the extra shatter is a massive amount of damage, as well as more stacks of confusion on your targets.
As far as whether to choose sword or pistol offhand, it depends on how you want to play. Pistol gives much better bleed stacking due to the 8 rapidfire hits it does and sharper images. However, the cooldown will be somewhat longer on it, since you wont have it traited. iSwordsman will only give 1 stack of bleed, at best. However, it will have a lower cooldown, and also is a leap combo finisher, giving yourself good auras and whatnot.
The Mage would be so awesome if he could apply Retaliation to a lot of people at once. Alas, nope.
Alright thanks a lot, going sword/pistol and freeing up points for illusionary persona.
Inspiration does seem good with 4s of vigor (don’t know range on “nearby”), that’s 16 sec of vigor every shatter. Tested mage, it’s as bad as you said, pistol/sword offhands have roughly the same dps so it’s close there.
All in all, our condition dmg builds are so confusing (no pun intended).
yeah im using a staff and scepter/pistol myself in dungeons, would love to have that blast finisher from torch/shame it is our own blast finisher, for aoe chaos armor, but the torch just seem so bad it, dont work
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