Guild Wars 2

The goal I’m trying to accomplish with this build is to make a Mesmer that is capable of holding its own or long enough to manage an escape in WvW. What I’ve come up with so far is;

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNAW8dlwzKq3UzhGbNJhJF9G5nZE9ljWApCqG

I’m uncertain if picking up “Warden’s Feedback” was a smart move given that only one ability (Temporal Curtain) actually gains any benefit from it as, to the best of my knowledge, cooldown reductions don’t stack and “Phantasmal Warden” already benefits from “Illusionist’s Celerity”. Though that said, it should be considered that “Temporal Curtain” is one of the most vital abilities in your arsenal while scouting; both for covering ground and for making quick getaways.

As for the last 10 points; I’ve been considering “Phantasmal Fury” from Dueling, “Blade Training” from Dueling, “Crippling Dissipation” from Domination (just for sake of having more Power as well) or a combination of “Restorative Illusions” from Inspiration and “Compounding Power” from Illusions as they both require only 5 points to reach.

Edit: Also would it have been a better idea to avoid putting points in Domination and instead just maximize on survivability by going 30 into Chaos and Inspiration for the additional Toughness and Vitality?

Advice, thoughts and criticisms all welcome, encouraged and appreciated.

I am a pure WvW Skirmisher, I only run solo or in small groups and try and find fights 1 vs many. This is what I currently run:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNAR8dlwzqqHTzgGbNJhZBnUw8mT6hqTNqLfA3A

I focus my gear on Crit – Power – Condition, I find that I don’t have to stack vital + toughness that much as I am quite difficult to pin down and have quite a bit of mobility from Blink, Temperal Curtain. GS is very good for skirmishing lot’s of insta-casts, knockback and cripple from Phantasmal Berserker.

I think 15 points in duelling is a must, Phantasmal Fury + Sharper Images gives you nice crits + bleeds on your target, I use my berserker as a “fire and forget” missile. There is no point in investing points + signets into increasing Phantasms health in WvW, they don’t last very long with all that AoE flying around, so I think of my phantasms as abilities as opposed to something I need to worry about keeping alive.

The 5 points in chaos are purely for the 10 seconds regen and the 20 points in inspiration are for buffing feedback.

Blink is required as a stun breaker and for mobility, Signet of Domination is for stopping runners and a bit of extra condition damage. I use Mass Invisibility as my elite, as it is on a fairly short cooldown and is good for getting yourself out of a sticky situation or giving yourself some extra time to recover if your taking a lot of damage.

Feedback is integral to my build, I take Glamour Mastery and Temporal Enchanter. If someone moves out of my Feedback bubble they then get some confusion to deal with, if they don’t…well they blow there own face up

The only thing I don’t like about this build is using the sword, purely because illusionary leap is very buggy and blurred frenzy sometimes does not hit targets even if your right on top of them. Blurred frenzy is awesome for defence though, if a warrior attempts the stun + hundred blades combo, blurred frenzy is useful for the evasion to avoid big hits. I hardly every use Phantasmal Warden it is too easy to avoid since it’s static, the only time I do use the warden is for a cleansing combo field from Temporal Curtain.

One more thing, I sometimes use Medic’s Feedback from the Inspiration tree, but I use it offensively, so if someone is downed and there are a few enemies pew pewing away at you, this gives a nice feedback bubble to reflect damage back, then dump another feedback on them and watch them cry

PS I hope this makes sense, I do not normally post builds or advice on forums, I think this is probably my first post like this.

Would you consider having the utility slots be Decoy/Blink/Null Field instead?

Decoy for obvious reasons, Blink to break stun and Null Field to wipe buffs on them (to keep them from killing you faster or catching up to you) and debuffs on you (so you can get away easier).

You should be considering what your traits give you primarily when looking at the traits, IMO. The stat boosts on traits are just gravy.

the biggest mistake immediately noticeable in this build is the immense reliability on illusions.

don’t do that in WvW, i’ve tried it before, it doesn’t work well, your phantasmal warden will die to melee and AOE, so reflecting projectiles won’t be very useful with it.

I suggest you dump all of these illusion summoning utility skills.

Second thing, staff is quite bad with an illusion build in WvW, the staff is a condition based weapon, and it relies on the enemy attacking you while your chaos armor is up which is a bad idea, since you’ll be harming yourself more than the enemy, and chaos storm (albeit very very good) won’t be very useful since it’s quite easy to escape from.

i wanted to have a reflective build with lots of condition damage, power, and crit, but i also wanted to make an illusion based build, without relying on illusions to do my dirty work, and here’s what i came up with:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNAraRl0zqq3UTrGb9IxJFKn5oe09r/9SKwduB;TkAqiMFJKyWkrIZRrKGVMJA

i use mirror images for only 2 situations and only 2, the first is when i switch to my greatsword, i immediatly use the phantasm followed by mirror images, the enemy will be crippled while my clones apply bleeds, the second situation is when i’m under heavy fire, i use mirror images and any other clone skill then immediately use Distortion, this will allow me to escape to safety while also reflecting projectiles.

the heal is self explanatory, you reflect projectiles while healing, very useful when you’re escaping, defending, or attacking and outpost.

i use scepter/pistol when fighting on open grounds, i open with the phantasm, followed by the stun, and confusing images right after.

p.s: the illusion and weapon cooldown traits stack, but the tooltips don’t update properly.

Thanks for all the feedback. Your post was very informative Loco, it did make sense and was easy enough to understand so thanks. Since both you and RapidSausage seem to agree that illusions are lacking in WvW then I’ll take Somna’s advice and swap in Blink in place of the signet. @Somna I actually was actually considering blink for the reason you mentioned as well as for covering ground. I’ll keep in mind your pointer about looking at the perks rather than the stat bonuses.

I think for a scout my illusions still would be of some use as while scouting you tend to be out of the way of the zergs so AoE isn’t quite as rampant. I imagine there’s a chance I’ll end up having to swap out my Illusion traits as you recommended RS but for the moment they’ve been helpful for making quick getaways when I do inevitably end up under fire which is all I need them for really. Though that was a very interesting point about the cooldowns stacking. A pleasant surprise and a factor I’m going to take into consideration.

I’m going to rethink this build with a bit less focus on illusions in favour of Dueling since that seems to be the consensus here. I’ll post an update when I settle on a new build, thanks again to all of you.

Edit: @RapidSausage I saw on your build you took the Illusionary Persona perk. I’m assuming that perk makes it so that for example mind wrack casts its AoE of the player character as well but what does it do in the case of distortion? Does it give you 1 additional second for yourself as well?