Guild Wars 2

I tried to create a condi mesmer WvW roaming build a couple of times without having deceptive evasion. With the Chronomancer traits posted today, I think you can now make something pretty cool.

http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=mesmer&traits=“Chronomancer”,1,4,9-“Chaos”,3,6,8-“Illusions”,3,6,9

In case the link doesn’t come through, this comes out as:
Chronomancer
-Time catches up
-Illusionary reversion
-Seize the moment

Chaos
- Master of manipulation
- Chaotic dampening
- Prismatic understanding

Illusions
- The pledge
- Malicious sorcery
- Maim the disillusioned

Staff, scepter, torch
All dire gear
Runes of tormenting

Probably take Mirror as the heal (12 second cooldown, plus 2 seconds extra of block)
Utilities
- Decoy
- Blink
- Arcane Thievery (with all the new condis being added, I think torch is not enough)
(Maybe swap Blink with Mirror Images)

Feels like with the extra 50% damage on torment, this could be effective.

I believe Duelling > Chaos because of sharper images and confusing combatants plus all the other good duelling traits. Something like this:
http://dulfy.net/2015/05/02/gw2-specialization-calculator-that_shaman/#profession=mesmer&traits=%22Dueling%22,1,5,9-%22Illusions%22,3,6,9-%22Chronomancer%22,1,4,9

I don’t believe PU is necessary at all, and the staff trait can be sacrificed for the much better Duelling line. The only issue is full rabid would be necessary for the on crit condition traits – so I can certainly appreciate the benefit of the chaos line allowing use of full Dire with insane survivability.

Weapon choice can be flexible – Scepter/Torch, Scepter/Shield, Scepter/Pistol, Sword/Torch, Sword/Shield, Sword/Pistol, Staff…

Yeah, part of this is just my love of stealth

But it feels to me like the whole game is going to get a lot more dangerous when HoT comes out. So far, basically all the builds that I’ve looked at are significantly stronger than older builds. So it feels like the bar is going to get raised on defense as well – particularly if you expect to fight 1v2 fights while roaming.

Perhaps this is much more defense than needed. In that case, I could imagine doing something like dropping Arcane Thievery and putting in Mirror Images. That definitely lets you get the battle going faster…

Still lots to see, but I think some of the new builds are going to have very powerful combinations of skills

eldenbri.1059:

Yeah, part of this is just my love of stealth

But it feels to me like the whole game is going to get a lot more dangerous when HoT comes out. So far, basically all the builds that I’ve looked at are significantly stronger than older builds. So it feels like the bar is going to get raised on defense as well – particularly if you expect to fight 1v2 fights while roaming.

Perhaps this is much more defense than needed. In that case, I could imagine doing something like dropping Arcane Thievery and putting in Mirror Images. That definitely lets you get the battle going faster…

Still lots to see, but I think some of the new builds are going to have very powerful combinations of skills

Agreed – there’s no way to know how much defence we’ll need until it drops. Every class is looking to hurt a lot more, so maybe what is considered overkill now will be mandatory for outnumbered survival.

The thing with the MtD PU build is either:
1) You take Duelling/Chaos/Illusions and forced into travler runes and losing out on tormenting runes.
2) You take Chaos/Illusions/Chronomancy and while you can take tormenting runes you lose out on all the nice benefits in Duelling.

Dropping Chaos allows interesting combos like:
Duelling/Inspiration/Illusions – for ridiculous condition removal through frequent shatters also proccing MtD
Duelling/Illusions/Chronomancy – which I feel is more offensive but of course lacks on the condition removal aspect.

No idea what might work best yet but it is exciting.

I’m between Dueling/inspirations/illusions and Dueling/illusions/chronomancer.

Is too early to decide which will be the best way, we don’t know how pretty much all traits work in the practice, less we know how all other professions will perform at roaming. Inspirations could be a must to counter the condi builds we have seen so far; or worthless…

I think I may prefer Duelling/Illusions/Chronomancer because don’t forget with frequent shatters alacrity will reduce weapon cooldowns so you can still run staff with that benefit – only losing out on protection with chaos armour and further cooldown reduction but tbh I don’t think it will be necessary compared to all the good chronomancer traits.

The biggest problem as with anything not taking inspiration is conditon removal – torch traited will help but I think either MoR or AT will.be necessary utilities.

All it needs is maybe some quince paste and some sliced melon?

Is it cheesy because it’s like the blackwater build or is it cheesy just because it use PU or uses condis? There are a likely to be a lot more condi builds after HoT is released.

In any case, I’m not sure Dueling is so much better than Chaos for a condi shatter. With the extra defense from PU, maybe it’s possible to slot Mirror Images. If you can fit in Mirror Images, you get a possible scenario like this (assuming I understand the traits correctly).

Get three clones out
F5 shatter – all clones are still available because of Illusionary Reversion
F2 shatter
Mirror images + Decoy
F3 shatter (since these are new clones, they should be still be available unless there is internal cooldown on Illusionary Reversion)
F1 shatter
F5 reactivate (Mirror Images and Decoy should be off cooldown)

That seems like a 9-clone shatter in a couple seconds and it seems like at least six of them should have super speed. Plus that seems like 12 seconds of alacrity and quickness.

Maybe that is cheesy, but it seems like it would be fun and it’s not as passive as the on-death traits of the blackwater build

I’m more excited for the condi traits thief get and the interrupt trait s on Zerker mesmer but the on crit bleeds+confusion might be enough to warrant condos especially when solo roaming!

Chaos also has the chaotic persistence minor trait. That looks like it will probably increase condition duration by around 10% in a lot of cases. So that’s kind of like getting a 10% damage boost. You can also take chaotic transference to boost condi damage in this line.

Basically, it seems like Deceptive Evasion isn’t needed since you can use up all your shatter skills faster than you run out of ways to create illusions.

But only time will tell if it actually works like this

eldenbri.1059:

Get three clones out
F5 shatter – all clones are still available because of Illusionary Reversion

This trait create one clone when U use a shatter, not bring back all clones U shatter.

It will not work that way.

eldenbri.1059:

Chaos also has the chaotic persistence minor trait. That looks like it will probably increase condition duration by around 10% in a lot of cases. So that’s kind of like getting a 10% damage boost. You can also take chaotic transference to boost condi damage in this line.

Basically, it seems like Deceptive Evasion isn’t needed since you can use up all your shatter skills faster than you run out of ways to create illusions.

But only time will tell if it actually works like this

The thing about duelling is not really DE because as you said you’ve got the chronomancer traits, baseline IP and the ability to slot mirror images among other things.

Rather it is about the minors – Sharpened Images and Confusing Combatants. I seriously believe these two traits will be huge in any condition build and the main reason for a condition build to take duelling.

Take MH sword for instance – suddenly with confusing combatants and possibly sum of all fears – and then with all the confusion on shatter and especially cry of frustration it allows a non-native condition weapon to be used in a condition build, so we can have more variety instead of scepter all the time.

I would even imagine you will be able to use Greatsword in a condition build thanks to these two traits.

Milamberr.1705:

All it needs is maybe some quince paste and some sliced melon?

Surely the new “tactical nuke” power shatter/interrupt variants will be equally as powerful – especially if bursting from stealth/surprise openings and the opponent has no chance to save themselves.

I belive PU might be more of a hindrance with 6s decoys, prestiges and 10s MI – as it may mess up the flow of skill usage that would otherwise reveal you. I’m not too keen on using it as it looks at the moment.
In fact, BD might be better with that stability.

But MtD with built in IP will be wonderful – so taking Illusions and Duelling, either paired with Chronomancer or Inpiration (shattered conditions and restorative illusions :o) will be great.