Guild Wars 2

After all the nerfs to the Mesmer what builds are viable anymore?

The shatter builds took a hit with the nerf to Blurred Frenzy but they are still viable.
The hidden fire build took some nerfs but also gained some buffs.

Almost all of them. People are exaggerating left and right, Mesmer is more difficult but most builds are still intact.

Maybe, but I’m not sure, it’s a lot of accumulated nerfs. I only listed the two I knew were fine.

There’s a huge difference between viable and optimal. Not too long ago we had quite a few specs considered optimal, now we have 1.

Might stacking with Bountiful Interruption could be interesting. It doesn’t mention any internal CD so staff #5 and GS #5 could potentially grant a ton of might if thrown on a group.

Phantasms are still strong… debatable stronger imo. Base HP buffed, SoI even though nerfed applies immediately. iZerker fixed, so phantasm speccs can now do reliable AoE damage.

I don’t think we’re pigeonholed into a x/x/x/x/25 specc. It will be a little rougher without the reduced time on skills, but not game breaking. We got some decent buffs and bug fixes that we’ve been waiting forever on. Some things were nerfed, some buffed. This patch I don’t think is good or bad overall. I’m excited to pick up a GS again!

I’m wondering what is the impact of the changes on the glamour condition (blind / confusion) build for www.
already took a serious blow in the last patch.

Ciuffo.6384:

I’m wondering what is the impact of the changes on the glamour condition (blind / confusion) build for www.
already took a serious blow in the last patch.

They’re already neutered, nothing’s changed this patch.

For PvE, as long as the clones stay alive longer then IC isn’t needed. I believe a lot of builds relied on it because clones went down so quickly. The only ones that really need constant clone generation were shatter builds.

The patch has only been out for a couple hours. Try it out for a reasonable amount of time before automatically assuming things are horrible. Tweak your builds as well.

Ayrilana.1396:

For PvE, as long as the clones stay alive longer then IC isn’t needed.

+28% base HP increased by 50% isn’t anywhere close to the pre-patch value increased by 200%.

Their HP was buffed 270%.

Ayrilana.1396:

Their HP was buffed 270%.

That is phantasms, not clones.

Ayrilana.1396:

For PvE, as long as the clones stay alive longer then IC isn’t needed. I believe a lot of builds relied on it because clones went down so quickly. The only ones that really need constant clone generation were shatter builds.

The patch has only been out for a couple hours. Try it out for a reasonable amount of time before automatically assuming things are horrible. Tweak your builds as well.

You miss a point. It works with skills like phase retreat, decoy and mirror blade (just to name some of them). It means overall less mobility, less survivability and less might stacking ability.

On topic, id like to answer some days after the patch. I dont see a lot of possible new builds and i think the main problem for now is to change the current ones if its needed.

A build being intact does not mean it is optimized. Nothing is optimized anymore. The little synergy we had is gone. We never get buffs. We get nerfs accompanied by bug fixes that occurred months ago.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Ayrilana.1396:

Their HP was buffed 270%.

That is phantasms, not clones.

My mistake as I was referring to everything in general than being specific like I should have.

Clones barely did any damage as phantasms did most of this. Clones were just a side effect of using certain skills and we hardly have any difficulty creating clones. With phantasms staying alive longer that means we do not have to keep spamming the weapons skills to generate more of them. Before the patch I often had to shatter them in my rotation since they were usually still up and it seemed a waste not to.

Levitas.1953:

Ayrilana.1396:

For PvE, as long as the clones stay alive longer then IC isn’t needed. I believe a lot of builds relied on it because clones went down so quickly. The only ones that really need constant clone generation were shatter builds.

The patch has only been out for a couple hours. Try it out for a reasonable amount of time before automatically assuming things are horrible. Tweak your builds as well.

You miss a point. It works with skills like phase retreat, decoy and mirror blade (just to name some of them). It means overall less mobility, less survivability and less might stacking ability.

No i didn’t miss it. I commented about this in this thread or one of the dozen others. How often do you need to use them the instant they are available? If you’re someone that likes to mash/spam weapon skills then yes you may be disappointed.

I think 10/0/30/30/0 as a dps interrupt build, or 0/10/30/30/0 as a bunker build would be pretty good.

With protected mantras/mantra of restoration, buffed PU and the amount of boons you can rack up stacked with bountiful interruptions you will have an insane amount of boons, 8’)

Ayrilana.1396:

Levitas.1953:

Ayrilana.1396:

For PvE, as long as the clones stay alive longer then IC isn’t needed. I believe a lot of builds relied on it because clones went down so quickly. The only ones that really need constant clone generation were shatter builds.

The patch has only been out for a couple hours. Try it out for a reasonable amount of time before automatically assuming things are horrible. Tweak your builds as well.

You miss a point. It works with skills like phase retreat, decoy and mirror blade (just to name some of them). It means overall less mobility, less survivability and less might stacking ability.

No i didn’t miss it. I commented about this in this thread or one of the dozen others. How often do you need to use them the instant they are available? If you’re someone that likes to mash/spam weapon skills then yes you may be disappointed.

Well of course i cant check every single post in the forum.
To answer your question, i want to spam mirror blade (with traited gs and iElasticity) in order to gain huge might stacks, vulnerability, damage and a clone that also means more might with shatters. Decoy is also something you may want to use as soon as its ready with the new PU buff, its still a skill that you want to be ready asap.
A fully traited phase retreat is also really nice to escape if you are chased by mobs/players. Im sure there are a lot of other examples as a lot of skills are included, im now thinking about feigned surge even if i didnt test it. you want to use it asap if you are chased underwater.

Thinking about group PvE/dungeons 10/0/30/30/0 with BI for the mobs and swap to PU for boss fights.

I think Chaotic Dampening is now mandatory for a staff build if it wasn’t before so we do not really benefit from its move down.

That one might work better for 20+*/x/20+*/x/x going for GS now that iZerker is fixed.
I will have to experiment with it a bit.

Levitas.1953:

Ayrilana.1396:

Levitas.1953:

Ayrilana.1396:

For PvE, as long as the clones stay alive longer then IC isn’t needed. I believe a lot of builds relied on it because clones went down so quickly. The only ones that really need constant clone generation were shatter builds.

The patch has only been out for a couple hours. Try it out for a reasonable amount of time before automatically assuming things are horrible. Tweak your builds as well.

You miss a point. It works with skills like phase retreat, decoy and mirror blade (just to name some of them). It means overall less mobility, less survivability and less might stacking ability.

No i didn’t miss it. I commented about this in this thread or one of the dozen others. How often do you need to use them the instant they are available? If you’re someone that likes to mash/spam weapon skills then yes you may be disappointed.

Well of course i cant check every single post in the forum.
To answer your question, i want to spam mirror blade (with traited gs and iElasticity) in order to gain huge might stacks, vulnerability, damage and a clone that also means more might with shatters. Decoy is also something you may want to use as soon as its ready with the new PU buff, its still a skill that you want to be ready asap.
A fully traited phase retreat is also really nice to escape if you are chased by mobs/players. Im sure there are a lot of other examples as a lot of skills are included, im now thinking about feigned surge even if i didnt test it. you want to use it asap if you are chased underwater.

Sounds more like a shatter build than phantasm though.

Standard Phantasm builds are still viable in PvE, not so sure in PvP sadly.

The loss of Illusionist’s Celerity definitely does hurt. Of course, there is a silver lining, as Phantasmal Haste* has become available to those who want 25 in Illusions.

• Please note, that after reading a few posts in the mesmer forums, iBerserker is bugged with Phantasmal Haste

I would go as far as to say Phantasm builds have reached a huge buff with PvE. This makes it so iDefender can tank and support party members much more than previously.

iDefender along with the underused iDisenchanter can last a steady amount of time now, and both offer significant support. While iDefender can absorb many hits, iDisenchanter can act as a Null Field, removing enemy boons while also cleansing conditions (this is very important in the new Dungeon actually)

*edit: I would also like to add, that those Phantasm Mesmers going for Illusionist’s Celerity (and taking Phantasmal Haste) can significantly reduce PvE enemy boons and conditions. According to the wiki (which can be a little untrustworthy), Phantasmal Haste allows Phantasmal Disenchanter to attack every ~3.3 seconds (?). Along with an already short CD, Phantasmal Disenchanter can be effective in dungeons where boon removal and condition cleansing are supplemental.

There is a support build that I am trying, to get 25 stacks of might quickly and then pass the boon on with Signet of Inspiration, thus giving the whole team 25 stacks of might for a few seconds. I honestly have no idea if it would work well for anything more than farming though.

EDIT: I’m done, got a good build out of the new changes. Very high offense and defense, with great support.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQJARWl4zaqnUzhGa9IhJFBX4nUQdoj6B4zO3B-jQyAYrARiCUyrIasVugU6iWFMs6aMlLRUtBvIa1CBUfBA-e It hasn’t updated yet, so it still lists some old things. Also this build was only tested in the PvP lobby, how it works in PvE and WvWvW is unknown.

i played a bit with 2 builds looks like im gone stick with em for a while.
first is a shatter with a tweak the same 20/20/0/0/30 but halting strike and not rending shatter.
if you get lucky with diversion and interrupt it hits for somewhere of 2k not a bad boost for the shatter combo overall burst dmg.
and the second is a condi burst build
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNArfWlwzKo3UzoGb9IhpHBH5AHNjrn9yH0NA-TsAAzCpIaS1krJTTymsNNEZJykAA

torment&confusion&burn amazing burst i can spike to 2.1K condi dmg with might stack and melt anyone, ofc the survivability is strong in this build.
you have boons and condtions almost 100% uptime(burn,protection,regeneration) and good uptime on aegis/retaliation.
its sick what the did with prismatic understanding to pulses every second regeneration=protection, aegis=retaliation you can stack em for op long time as soon as the gates open in tpvp and start a fight with em by the time you will need them they are back up again.

My build is still working ^^

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Guide-Illusionary-Bomberman-PvX-build/first#post2278805