Guild Wars 2

Hello all!

I wanted to post a speculative WvW build based on the upcoming April 15 balance changes and new grandmaster traits. Let me know what you think!

Please note: This build is speculative. I have not been able to test it fully at this point because the primary mechanics do not yet exist in-game. Also, I do not take full credit for this build; many of the vital features are taken from existing builds founded by other theory-crafters.

Let’s get started:

Core Build:

4/6/0/0/0 or 0/6/0/0/4

The essence of this build lies in the new Dueling grandmaster trait Triumphant Distortion and the fact that it has no internal cooldown. Triumphant Distortion grants 3 seconds of distortion (invuln) every time you get a kill, which makes maintaining near-100% distortion uptime in large-scale fights possible due to the lack of internal cooldown.

This naturally couples well with the Mesmer’s greatest source of AoE damage: Confusion procs from Glamour skills. The more you tag, the more you kill, the more you stay alive. This comes from two possible sources: 1.) 4 points in Illusions for the combination of Dazzling Glamours and Blinding Befuddlement, 2.) 4 points in Domination for Confusing Enchantments

The Illusions line has the benefit of proccing Confusion from more sources than just the Glamours, but it is limited to affecting only 5 players at a time with the actual Glamours. The Domination line allows the Confusion proc on an unlimited number of enemies with only one major trait, but it does not benefit from the blind and limits your use of Confusion when your Glamours are on cooldown. Both lines are viable, but I find I have more valuable trait options left over if I choose the Domination line.

Sample Build – Triumphant Dissipation (link)

4(v,viii)/6(i,x,xiii)/2(v)/0/2(iv) Sw/F-Sc/T

or 4(v,viii)/6(i,x,xiii)/2(v)/2(ii)/0

Rabid/Dire mix, Rune of the Traveler or Perplexity

This variant utilizes a combination of Glamour Confusion for big groups as well as clone on-death traits to focus-fire single players and smaller groups. The Glamours will serve to assist in controlling your enemies’ movements and tag each member of the opposing team with at least one hit of Confusion, and each clone death will result in an AoE burst inflicting 3-4 seconds of Cripple, 3-4 seconds of Confusion, and randomly either Bleeding, Vulnerability, or Weakness.

This build suffers from a lack of reliable condi removal when Null Field is on cd, but it has otherwise been quite survivable in tests even without the keystone trait. Damage is not as great as a pure shatter build, but a well-timed spike of Scepter 2 or 3 followed by a dodge roll and a shatter can knock down a scout class from full. Shift around the gear to have higher damage or toughness until you find the right balance for yourself.

Points can be placed in either Inspiration or Illusions depending on group size. In a large group, you will likely be getting a large number of tag kills over the course of the fight and will benefit greatly from Masterful Reflection giving you near-permanent reflect uptime. In a small group, you will likely benefit more from the reduced cooldown on your Glamour skills that the Inspiration line can offer.

I will continue refining and try to post some video once the new traits are published. I am not claiming for this to be the optimal build for Mesmers in WvW, but I am hoping someone will benefit from this guide and maybe even have a little fun while they’re at it.

Thanks for reading, and please let me know what you think or if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions!

EDIT: Masterful Reflection has no synergy with Triumphant Distortion. Thanks to Xaylin for the correction!

Masterful Reflection only works with F4 and probably won’t work with the new trait.

Besides that, yeah, Glamours should be great to trigger the trait in WvW. The only issue is that you will rely on the damage of other people to actually kill people.

Also, I’m pretty sure Distortion doesn’t stack. Which means you can kill 5 people at once or 5 people in under 3 secs and you’ll still only get 3s Distortion. Which means you have to be judicious with your glamour spam and get a little lucky. As Xaylin mentioned, you’re mostly relying on others to kill. So tag, let ’em die, tag, let ’em die, repeat.

@Xaylin: Thanks for the tip on Masterful Reflections! I’ll edit that in later. And, yes, other people will add to your uptime, but I think of it less as other people being needed for your kills and more as listing those as kills you would normally never get credit for anyway. Your main sources of damage are from clones and weapon skills.

@Seras: I agree 100%. Distortion stacking would be terribly overpowered. I based this on my previous experiences with Glamours in zerg fights. Most of the time, I would be getting bags of loot at least every three seconds throughout any fight. Distortion does not stack, but I believe it overlaps or over-writes. Thanks for the response!

We’ll have to see how Triumphant Distortion plays out, but at the moment I’m a bit skeptical. As others much more knowledgeable than me have noted, it will really only be effective once you start getting lots of kills. But if your zerg is already killing a lot of the enemy zerg, than this is meaningless anyway. In big ZvZ encounters, there is generally a snowball effect, whereby neither side gets any/many kills at first, but once one side gets a few, the effect spirals and that side usually ends up winning.

That said, we’ll have to wait and see. But I still don’t see this trait giving sufficient survivability to stick on the heavies and still do damage. And while glamors are ok for tagging with confusion, they do almost no damage.

If you’re going to run mesmer in a zerg, my advice is either to go semi-glassy and provide ranged or dart-in/dart-out dps, or else go full tank and be a null filed, time warp, and veilbot.

I really see this as a kick-kitten GM trait for….open world PvE.

Thanks for the feedback! I will continue to refine and see what I can come up with.