Guild Wars 2

So, I’m struggling to make a condition damage build. Staff is used to apply conditions, but the staff traits are on Chaos, which adds no Condition Damage or duration. Condition Damage is on Domination line but no traits assist in condition damage there. If you want to bounce the staff projectile you need a trait on the Illusions trait line adds the bounce, but that actually works because Illusions has condition duration. If you want to be able to stack bleed you need 15 pts in Dueling for Sharper Images.

I just don’t get how this is supposed to work. Condition damage on Domination, bleed damage on Dueling, Staff weapon on Chaos, and then further staff enhancement and condition duration on Illusions? How is a condition damage build supposed to work for a Mesmer?

Traits give more power to the weapons, and give you the template of how everything fits together. If you want a condition damage build, your traits will empower the staff and whatever other weapon choice you make – essentially giving you more conditions for what you do with your skills.

Armor, sigils, and runes will fill in the rest. That is where most of your condition damage will come from as a mesmer. You also have to decide what stats other than condition damage you will want – ie toughness for durability, power for buffing your direct damage components, etc.

Many condition damage builds focus on staff, and usually have either gs due to range, or sword/pistol or scepter/pistol for the duelist and either a bit of burst or additional conditions from confusion. But I recommend trying a few different options and find the combinations that work best for you.

Okay so I should just go for traits instead of trait line bonuses? That helps a lot, as I wouldn’t need to take much Domination, assuming the armor is the better way to go. That means I could take more illusion or Chaos instead to get the minor/major traits, with a splash of Dueling for the Bleeds. Thanks

Domination gives +CondDuration which isn’t actually that useful because it doesn’t affect Illusions.

There are two traits that are pretty much essential for a condition Mesmer: Deceptive Evasion and Illusionary Elasticity. Chaotic Dampening is almost always taken, though not essential. That leaves you with 10 points to do as you will.

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My build. Probably sucks, and definitely not one I’d recommend, but coupled with the other comments, it should give you a basic idea of at least which traitlines are to be focused on, for a Condition Build.

Embolism.8106:

Domination gives +CondDuration which isn’t actually that useful because it doesn’t affect Illusions.

There are two traits that are pretty much essential for a condition Mesmer: Deceptive Evasion and Illusionary Elasticity. Chaotic Dampening is almost always taken, though not essential. That leaves you with 10 points to do as you will.

Yes, just what Embolism said. 0/20/20/0/20 is a common and reliable base template for a condition mesmer. To elaborate on the potential uses of the last ten points though, there are lots of decent options, all of which depend on your play style.

Illusionary Persona (and Shattered Strength by extension) – both in Illusions, are extremely useful if you find yourself shattering regularly, plus you have a stun available on demand in melee range from F3. Also, in its current form, the might from Shattered Strength provides a fairly significant amount of condition damage.

Crippling Dissipation (Domination) – if your clones die a lot and you feel you need a little boost to your kiting abilities, you might want to take this. Don’t underestimate the advantage this can give you against melee opponents.

Prismatic Understanding (and chaotic transference – both in Chaos) – If you use stealth skills a lot this can give you a fairly decent defensive boost, and Chaotic Transference is a nice damage boost at the same time.

Mender’s Purity (Inspiration) – this is what I use on my condition build. In many scenarios, when you are taking damage you’re also going to have conditions on you. I like this because it can function as an emergency immobilize or cripple removal which can save your life if your anti-condition utility skill is on cooldown. Plus, you get some extra vitality from this line, which is always good in my opinion. This is a purely defensive option, but I think it’s a good one. o

Finally, you could get Confusing Combatants in Dueling and put the last five points in Chaos or Illusions if you find that your clones die enough to make the on-death traits worth it. This would be a purely offensive choice.

Indeed, those last 10 points can be very useful and can greatly affect your playstyle. My personal favourite is Prismatic Understanding, but Illusionary Persona is also very enticing; especially in WvW where Confusion is absurdly overpowered.

Crippling Dissipation is indeed deceptively powerful against melee opponents. Alternatives to Mender’s Purity include Glamour Mastery (if you want to be more about group support) and Medic’s Feedback (very useful trait in WvW). Personally I don’t like Confusing Combatants because it inflicts 3s Confusion that cannot be extended by +CondDuration, which is too short IMO to do much.

Why is Deceptive Evasion useful for condition builds? Is it for Cry of Frustration? Additionally, I mostly PvE and understand that confusion isn’t all that great there. Should I focus more on Condition Damage for PvE then and not on shattering for confusion?

Deceptive Evasion can also be used to get 3 clones out real fast together with Phase Retreat. Some condition builds that prefer not to shatter still take the trait for that, but, yes, it’s mostly for pooping clones to shatter or as a stellar defensive skill.

As for your other question, I use a condition build in PVE (and wvwvw) that shatters often and it works very well. Because of my happy shatter habits, I forgo Illusionary Elasticity for Illusionary Invigoration, Master of Misdirection, and IP. This allows me to slam 2 CoF back to back for a massive 16 stacks of AOE confusion with +33% duration so I can usually peg the mobs twice, then hit sword #2. Very little lives through that and I am invulnerable. If I have enough vigor and skills for more clones, I could even throw a half-powered Mind Wrack down for some extra pain, though I usually save them for defense unless all the mobs are just about dead. I also find Illusionary Invigoration invaluable as a defensive trait.

As an additional bonus for wvwvw, confusion is awesome there, so the extra recharge and duration are great for controlling smarter foes that will wait out confusion. The longer they don’t attack me, the more pressure I can put on them. The stupid ones just spam skills and die, so no need for extra DPS there.

Because a lot of your condition damage comes from Staff Clones, you want to be able to conjure three Staff Clones in an instant and be able to replace them immediately should they get destroyed. Deceptive Evasion is essential for that, especially since you have Critical Infusion and high CritChance fueling your Endurance bar.

Condition Mesmers still need to Shatter if they want to achieve their maximum DPS. You should only Shatter however if you can reconjure 3 Staff Clones immediately, i.e. Phase Retreat off CD and Endurance bar full, to avoid losing Clone DPS. In PvP Confusion is a potentially powerful condition and you should always look for a chance to use CoF.

Don’t forget that crit does not apply to condition damage. The Dueling Tree is purely crit so pushing that tree and then attempting to make it into a confusion build waters down both areas.

Crit does apply to your phantasms though… Sword/Pistol seems a good match for high burst damage if you go Duelist > Bullet > Leap > Frenzy. That should knock just about anything on their back except a guardian if you’ve high power and crit. Combo it up by leading with Chaos Storm on the target and then switching weapons.

On a separate note, and oddly enough, vit does not apply to illusions but toughness does. Hence, if you create a shatter build then the Chaos tree doesn’t seem as valuable. However, if you go with a persistent phantasm build, then you’ll want Chaos.

Crit allows your Illusions to proc Sharper Images, so in a way it does apply to Mesmer condition damage. You can also use Sigil of Earth so you too can proc Bleeding on Crit (albeit at a reduced chance).

Plus, Crit procs Critical Infusion; effectively powering your Deceptive Evasion allowing you to conjure even more Clones (which means you can replace lost Clones very frequently, and therefore can Shatter more often).

Make no mistake, CritChance is very important for Mesmer condition builds. Hence why Rabid (CondDmg-Precision-Toughness) is our best condition damage prefix.

While I’m not overly impressed with Sharper Image damage vs some extra power for direct attacks (somewhat due to stacks disappearing with illusion death/shatter), I will second the nod to Critical Infusion. With a high crit chance it’s a beast, both for offense and defense.

Conditions inflicted by Illusions no longer showing damage numbers when they die is only a visual bug, the damage is still ticking off the victim.