Guild Wars 2

Howdy folks! I am still quite new to the game and I am trying to find a niche that I enjoy as a Mesmer. I tried going the healing route, but Guild Wars 2 does not have dedicated healing roles so I abandoned a full heal focus.

I believe I found a new build that suits me, again, but I am left asking the question of whether a focus on Vulnerability is a good thing. The build I have right now can splash heal with Mantras and Regeneration boons from Phantasms, do okay damage (Blurred Frenzy is awesome), while keeping a full 25 stacks of Vulnerability on my target (and I can get the stacks up to 20 in a matter of seconds at the start of a fight).

Does this build sound like it has a decent niche to fill? Is Vulnerability normally difficult to keep stacked at 25? I tried watching Vulnerability stacks on Event bosses and I have only seen an average of 10 or so stacks, but it would be naïve for me to believe that the best players and builds are trolling low level maps.

Thank you for your time.

A good question. Not all debuffs are equal in value. Weakness is very valuable, but is harder to pull off. Our vuln stacking is dependent on us interrupting with Daze typically, which is tough to do verse a boss and often inconsistent in pvp/wvw. They are still fun and sometimes very effective builds to run because we stack vuln and might well. Both help allies when we use Signet of Inspiration.

You could run a purely interrupt build with perhaps… GS + Sword/Sword? Perhaps go 20/10/20/20/0 to pick your daze traits, Sword and GS traits, Bountiful Interruption, and mantra heal trait. You could even go 15/15/20/20/0 to pickup Sharper Images and roll with Staff instead of GS and no Bountiful Interruption.

I find it relatively easy to interrupt bosses because they are longer alive and the interrupt traits etc all trigger even if you don’t really interrupt them. The interrupt message pops up and the interrupt triggers but they don’t really get interrupt although they have defiant stacks.

TIFour.1076:

Is Vulnerability normally difficult to keep stacked at 25? I tried watching Vulnerability stacks on Event bosses and I have only seen an average of 10 or so stacks, but it would be naïve for me to believe that the best players and builds are trolling low level maps.

Thank you for your time.

Vulnerability stacking on higher level bosses in open world PvE is so high, it’s not a good idea to spec that way. What I mean by that is don’t take Rending Shatter (assuming that’s what you’re doing). If you’re going 20 into domination, you’re going to get the minor traits (which also inflict vuln) and there isn’t anything you can do about that, but I would take a different adept trait, such as mental torment if you’re running a shatter build or empowered illusions if a phantasm build.

Every champion level boss seems to have 25 vuln and 25 bleed within seconds of starting the fight. I’m not sure how it is when leveling (been too long ago) – but the rule of thumb is the more people participating, the less vulnerability you’re able to inflict. In dungeons it can be helpful though, depending on your party composition.

For vuln stacking, first thing that comes to mind is engineers. Traited grenade kit can stack up 25 just by spamming #1.

If you could post the build you use to stack the vuln, I could give a better response. You won’t take a player simply because they can stack vuln, especially not a Mesmer. If you are able to do the vuln while still performing the normal utility of a dungeon Mesmer, then by all means run it.

I was actually stacking Vulnerability through Sword Clones, my own Sword attacks, and Dazes (Mantra of Distraction, Diversion, and Sword 4). My build was 30/20/0/20/0. Thank you for your informative posts though. I think that I just chose the wrong class to level to 80 first. I am still learning this game (just started in July) and I was under the impression that any profession could cover any role. However, it would seem that Mesmer is not what I am looking for as I cannot even find a reliable niche with the profession that I enjoy playing.

The only thing that mesmers are unbeatable at, IMO, is low cooldown, aoe, multiple boon strips. That is, if you don’t want to be a portal/veil bot.

Keeping 25 stacks of vulernability lets your team do 25% more damage. That’s pretty good in dungeons. Against world bosses… who cares. In pvp/wvw you won’t be able to sustain it but retraiting is dirt cheap. Sword 4/4 just got buffed so it’s even better for your build though.

Any class can cover any/all roles but it’s a matter of how optimally/what you define as a role. Example: Giving your team protection (33% less dmg taken) isn’t that different than keeping enemies weakened (average 25% less dmg done) but the first is the “guardian way” and the second is the “necro way.” Same thing with Aegis vs blind or might vs vulnerability. However, bosses are “defiant” and blind, weakness, vulnerability and other debuffs are not as effective vs bosses. Having both if great. If I had to pick one as optimal, I would go with the “guardian way” or in general, boons. That doesn’t make the alternative not viable though. If you want to do speed runs with the leet crowd, your build wouldn’t fly but I see no problem with it in pugs and you wouldn’t be negative DPS to your team.

I got at least 100h on each profession. If you want advice, I can help you pick an alt.