Guild Wars 2

Hello after many guides read and considering my playstyle, I Have a few questions regarding input for a build that I am trying to maximize damage while bringing utility as well as support (boons) to my party.
My guildies and I usually run Guardian/warrior/warrior/mesmer and 5th open(guard/mesmer/elementalist) depending on dungeon.

We are currently working on 36+ FOTM also.I have a build in the theory end and trying to get the most out of the last 10 points.

DMG Boon

I currently have the 10 points in illusions as to be able to shatter when needed,and base damage increase for having illusions up.I would not consider this build phant/nor shatter just trying to use shatters wisely and keep a steady dmg output by stacking LOS pulls sw/f and using staff as a buffer to my utility/survivabilty.
My party melee a lot and I love the GS for solo nuking but enjoy staff more for multiple targets while waiting on blurred frenzy and mindwrack to come off cool down..

My goal overall is to help compliment the guardians support w/o giving up to much damage overall , so i chose the traits based on playstyle-weapons sword/focus and staff.I mainly swap utility depending on reflects needed etc.

I tried to compensate everything i lost from my last build type with food and sigils for might stacking to boost dmg from using boon duration.I usually survive well in full zerker because the mesmer class has so many abilities to avoid dmg.

So thanks to all who take the time to write guides and answer questions much appreciated

Give it a look and leave some tips,haven’t used the forums much so forgive any errors….

The +3% damage per clone trait only applies to your own personal attacks (Not phantasms), and if you’re using a staff for a large portion of your rotation that will be quite low.

Since any kind’ve support mesmer will be investing quite deeply into inspiration, it makes sense to take at least 25 for the +15% phantasm damage (Which is quite a large portion of your total DPS), with the option of taking 10 in domination for another 15% (and 100 power) if desired.

I’m a little unsure why you’ve built for runes of hoelbrak since might is a rather rare proc on your staff clones/winds of chaos (Oh I see, you’re using sigils, interesting idea) – but overall you’ve nailed that there’s no reason not to run full zerker. With full zerker exotics and +30% phanty damage on a good day you’ll see your warden hitting 10k AoE (Of course taking 30% will mean eschewing the staff cooldowns, but iWarlock has the potential to really hit like a truck during long boss fights)

I personally prefer to not spec into either GS or Staff, which leaves it open for me to switch between them depending on whether my team will need the extra protection this fight, or if we just need ranged DPS – sword/focus is your bread and butter source of DPS (Exceeding even greatsword), and should be your primary choice when helping DPS, switching to staff only to pop it’s boons or when sitting in melee is not an option.

Thanks for the feedback it seems a tedious task to try to hybrid any build w/o gimping dps I am going to try to test this and adjust
I was hoping to get the guardian to use blast finishers during chaos storm,feedback or null field,and time warp since he uses the juggernaut i was just hoping to give us more survivability while in melee range.

It seems that a 0/20/20/0/30 build may be able to pull this off better tbh gonna try that a bit….lose some reflection uptime but still have shatter spam while staff is out to max aoe dmg while sharing boons.

Blitzelbub.6853:

It seems that a 0/20/20/0/30 build may be able to pull this off better tbh gonna try that a bit….lose some reflection uptime but still have shatter spam while staff is out to max aoe dmg while sharing boons.

You’re losing more than just reflects. You’re losing permanent regeneration uptime, access to restorative mantras, as well as the very flexible inspiration 10 slot (feedback on res, glamour CD reduction, condition removal, vigor on shatters) if you dump inspiration.

Indeed… if you dump inspiration you’re not really a support build anymore

If your only concern support-wise is to share boons, you can definitely get by with 0/20/20/0/30 to make a sort of boonshare/shatter build. The question comes down to whats more important: dealing damage or sharing boons?

If its boons, then you’re mostly giving Swiftness/Retaliation/Aegis (Focus/Chaos Storm) to allies with your current setup, which makes you more defensive support. If you wanna go for the “fan-favorite” boons of Protection/Might/Fury/Vigor then you’re going to need to either..

- Pick up Superior Runes of altruism &/or Sigil of Battle (3-9x Might + Fury)
- Go 10 into Inspiration (Vigor on shatter)
- 30 into Chaos for Prismatic Understanding and two forms of stealth (Protection)

Kinda in a rush right now but I’ll elaborate more shortly.

I have been theory crafting myself for the same reason.
For max raw damage in a group I am considering 10/10/0/25/25 full zerker setup.
Baseline phantasm damage traits are: 3/2/2,8/3,10
Weapons: GS/SW+FC
Utilities: Ether Feast/Feedback/Null Field/iDisenchanter/Time Warp

This build should give you max. damage without overriding condition damage from other teammates.
The traits and utilities are just raw template and you should adjust them based on the content you are going into.
For most fights you should not need to boost the health of your phantasms as anything will die before they will get killed.
Also because of the recent change phantasm retaliation trait it makes more sense to pop up new phantasm and let it die quickly than prolong their “suffering”.

If you go into healing gear (Mage/Cleric) instead of Zerker you can switch the traits to as @Chaos Archangel suggested. Your boons won’t last that long but the mantra heal should be effective enough.
In that case I would go with GS/Staff and also slot in the Illusion 8.