Guild Wars 2

I’ve been looking for a WvW build that combines ranged combat with mobility, flexibility and condition removal. Since my server is in T1 WvW, group size can get very large, however mesmers are also very useful in smaller groups for suppression of enemy rallies and general harassment.

This is what I have so far:

WvW GS/Staff build

The build uses GS (offense) and Staff (defense+offense), and allows for generation of up to 9 clones very quickly (including 2 on dodge from Deceptive Evasion). This facilitates Shatter, which is additionally supported by Mental Torment and Illusionary Persona.

Swiftness and condition removal are both activated by Mirror (or Ether Feast if preferred) with 6x Runes of the Centaur and Mender’s Purity. Stealth comes from Decoy (and see below). An extra bounce for both weapons is included (Illusionary Elasticity).

Finally, Utility #9 and Elite #10 are both left flexible. They can be Null Field and Timewarp for group support in the zerg, or Veil and Mass Invisibility for stealth, or Blink and Moa Morph for roaming.

Armor and trinkets are a mix of Zerker, Knight’s and Soldier’s – still messing with the balance. Sigils of Accuracy (ditto!).

I just started using this but like it a lot – in fact more so than my old glamour build. Comments welcome – how can I improve it further? Thanks!

Thanks for this, I was looking for a GS/Staff WvW build after the Confusion nerf. (THANK YOU ANET).

I will be testing this too, I will post some feedback soon

(I think the [ link ] [ /link ] without the spaces should do for hotlinking)

You can use TinyURL.com to make it clickable.

It’s interesting but I don’t like Mirror as a healing especially if you are producing clones like crazy. I do like the GS/Staff combo though and might also play around with this while I figure out where to go from the nerf.

RoChan.1926:

You can use TinyURL.com to make it clickable.

It’s interesting but I don’t like Mirror as a healing especially if you are producing clones like crazy. I do like the GS/Staff combo though and might also play around with this while I figure out where to go from the nerf.

Fixed! Thanks for the TinyURL tip. Glad you both like it.

And yes, for Healing you can use Ether Feast as an alternative which will still activate Swiftness and Condition Removal. It’s just that Mirror has a faster cooldown, giving greater Swiftness uptime and more frequent CR. Using EF leaves you a sitting duck for 5 seconds (I think) which is long enough for a good Thief to take full advantage.

Mostly glass cannon? Ick! I have absolutely nothing good to say in small group WvW when it comes to that. They are always the ones that melt first and are a liability to the entire group (if one goes down, that’s pretty much a disaster if you’re only 5). Not even carrying the focus, a critical tool for small group WvW, is an even bolder move.

But I guess I cant really add anything to the discussion other than that :p

Dawdler.8521:

Mostly glass cannon? Ick! I have absolutely nothing good to say in small group WvW when it comes to that. They are always the ones that melt first and are a liability to the entire group (if one goes down, that’s pretty much a disaster if you’re only 5). Not even carrying the focus, a critical tool for small group WvW, is an even bolder move.

But I guess I cant really add anything to the discussion other than that :p

Yes, the armor/trinkets are still being looked at – can easily add V and T to the build. If it proves too fragile, that is easily fixed. There’s a lot of flexibility.

But the point about focus is at the heart of this build. I don’t like focus in T1 WvW because group size is very, very large and the battlefields are extremely crowded. Scepter is broken, just leaving you with sword MH, which is best used up close. Going toe-to-toe in a big zerg can get you killed very easily in T1 – it is not really a viable option in a pitched battle with 50 per side. GS can be used at range which is preferable.

Interested to see what dawdler runs instead.
I found running phants in wvw to be counter productive because the best phant weapons are not three best escape weapons such as staff and focus, additionally they are the worst aoe weapons.
For reference I believe the best phant weapons to be sw/sw and sw/pistol in small combat where nuking an individual is important.

Because of that I believe shatter specs are better in wvw since you can run mobile weapons like staff and focus without crying about the loss of powerful phants, because you rely less on phants kittenter.

Nice build – for more Staff/GS build ideas take a look at this thread which is included in the stickied mesmer build list:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Ultimate-flex-build-gs-staff

Your build is very similar to this. I have a build linked in that thread as well for more ideas. The best thing about this build the elasticity trait and potential high might stacking/perma-might via GS, shatters and using the Orrian Truffle/Meat Stew food.

skcamow.3527:

Nice build – for more Staff/GS build ideas take a look at this thread which is included in the stickied mesmer build list:

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Ultimate-flex-build-gs-staff

Your build is very similar to this. I have a build linked in that thread as well for more ideas. The best thing about this build the elasticity trait and potential high might stacking/perma-might via GS, shatters and using the Orrian Truffle/Meat Stew food.

Thanks, I’ll take a look at that thread, and try the food.

I’m going to tinker with the armor/trinkets, switching to more conservative knight’s/soldier’s. Then I’ll test it out some more and post the results.

fadeaway.2807:

Interested to see what dawdler runs instead.

I believe its something like this: http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-N;4VPk0107BV-71;9;5JJT;239-19-37A;1W;04U;16TsW6TsWF0F61-w2L0;0V0-5WC1FYMZQ_8LV4s0NV8aN1-aF1;28;9;9;9;9;94k3b

For PvE (Orr, Fractals, CoF, whatever), I use the same build but a secondary armor set with Dwayna runes instead. Yes, I sacrifice crit chance and crit damage to get that high base numbers. I’ve been able to literally run through a zerg on the SM walls with this.. And yes they nuked the wall good when the zergs met. Unfortunetly that time, the zerg I was in backed away instead. It is slightly disheartening to see 30 red name tags between you and your friends :S

But it all depends on what aim you got. Mobility is there (and you can swap veil for anything that help it if you want, like blink), flexibility… Well its a tough build. But it cant nuke a single target. That’s not the purpose. Its aimed at running into considerably larger forces and outlasting them. Still decent if you want to solo camps and take on just about any other class, though the arch-nemesis is really good glass cannon theives that stun well. I always forget to swap skills before anticipating such encounters, sigh…