Guild Wars 2

Hi Mesmers,

I would like your input on the following builds. Keep in mind that both of these builds are focused on WvWvW siege-warfare and in no way shape or form am I concerned with having an effective PvE (although it turns out this build is effective in PvE, especially for support/dungeons) or sPvP build.

The build I am currently using is 10/0/10/20/30, seen here: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgQQBgkwUhgfSBzXOqHX36VnUhSD

I’m currently wearing Carrion-gear (Condition, Power, Vitality), though that is likely to change. The logic behind the build is as follows:

• 10 Domination: Allows for Crippling Dissipation, which provides an AE cripple useful for skirmishing.

• 10 Chaos: Allows for Debilitating Dissipation, which provides the ability to provide AE conditions, taking advantage of my condition-focused damage output. It also allows me to slow in Decent into Madness when needed for gimmicks/tricks. 10 points for two useful slot abilities.

• 20 Inspiration: Allows me to slot three useful slot abilities, as follows. First, you can slot Glamour Mastery, to take advantage of some of our most useful abilities (Glamour skills, including Feedback and Null Field). Second, I can slot Mender’s Purity when needed (e,g. If Null Field is not used). Third, Compounding Celerity has its place and can also be slotted. The Master slot brings us to the reason 20 Inspiration is taken: Warden’s Feedback. This trait allows us to really put our useful Focus offhand to purpose, as the warden can serve as both protector and healer (Phantasmal Healing) for our melee during door-sieges, but also let’s us use Temporal Curtain for defensive and offensive purposes. The Focus is already an incredible siege-weapon, and now it’s even more useful due to this trait.

• 30 Illusions: Allows me to slot Master of Misdirection to extend the duration of Confusion, further taking advantage of my condition-focused build. I can also slot Dazzling Glamours and Blinding Befuddlement in tandem to make Feedback and Null Field even more potent. Swap possibilities include Illusionary Elasticity when using the staff to increase condition stacking, and Phantasmal Haste to make the Warden an even more potent force when sieging.

The build has been pretty effective so far, but the weakness is a near total lack of synergy with one of our best weapons: The Great Sword. Without Sharper Images, the Great Sword fails to take advantage of condition-builds almost utterly. With Sharper Images, it becomes pretty solid in a condition build thanks to the triple-damage tick (and each tick can crit) of the first skill (which is also used by the clones). The Phantasmal Berserker is also incredibly effective in skirmishes/ground-battles due to its cripple, ability to trigger linear-combos, and high-crit rate to apply bleed (empowered by high condition-damage) to a swath of people.

Therefore, to address these issues, here’s a second build: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgQQBgkwUhgfSBzXOaGX36lPgbA (0/15/10/20/25)

This build allows the Great Sword to have synergy with condition-damage. You lose Crippling Dissipation / Mental Torment (the loss of minor trait Illusion of Vulnerability is negligible). You also lose the Grandmaster Trait in the Illusion line, which breaks the potent combo of Dazzling Glamours and Blinding Befuddlement, which may be a tougher sacrifice to make.

What do you guys think of either build as a WvWvW siege/skirmish build? Do you think the 2nd build is superior since it addresses the lack of synergy with Great Sword? How would you refine the 2nd build? For example, maybe losing Shattered Strength (25 Illusions) is worth it if it means gaining Illusionary Membrane (33% damage reduction across the board!) as that has synergy with Metaphysical Rejuvenation and Phantasmal Healing. Losing Shattered Strength and other shatter-centric traits/abilities in WvWvW isn’t a big deal to me as I’ve come to understand that Mind Wrack blows in zerg vs. zerg battles. The illusions almost never reach their targets alive due to the rain of carnage taking place on the battlefield. Thoughts on that trade-off?

I’d love to hear any and all opinions regarding anything I’ve written above.

For WvW, I find this build more effective for all aspects:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgQQBYk4kCAscUPAAA+OJFAI1A

GS + Sword[Scepter]/Focus.

The blank traits have options. For heavy sieging, use phantasm enhancers to abuse iBerserker. For skirmish, use Elasticity and Mental Torment for superior burst. For heavy zerg play, you can swap a half dozen traits around for pure Glamour + Confusion spam.

The first two configurations are very much “power” builds though. The Glamour setup would use Carrion.

Edit:

To clarify, I think the challenge you’re facing with your builds is that you’ve identified certain key WvW capabilities (iBerserker), but you’re pairing it with some strange requirements that have no basis (e.g. conditions, Sharper Images, clone dissipation).

Sidenote: One of the things that may help your decision making process is the following:

1. Half of your bleed damage is level-based.
2. Sharper Images relies on precision more than it relies on condition damage.
3. How effective are clones for dissipation in zerg or siege warfare? Can clones actually get into melee range of the target? Especially when you’re talking GS clones as half your weapon set?

Clones don’t appear to get into melee/shatter-range very often as they seldom survive the gauntlet of AE-death-spam. I usually cast iBerserker into a horde, have him wreck havoc, then shatter to apply Cry of Frustration or Mind Wrack, both of which apply Confusion.

Why are you a fan of Illusionary Persona? I’ve found that skill to be pretty disappointing due to its mechanics (i.e. it’s essentially an AE around your character). It seems as though it’s only truly good against melee or for clutch Distortion life-saving usage.

Do you think Carrion/Rampager’s and some combination thereof is an ideal outfit for WvWvW?

Also, for traits like Crippling/Debilitating Dissipation, is that exclusively a property of clones, or do Phantasms apply the effect on death as well? If the latter, iBerserker/iWarden will die once they do their thing, making them more potent.

1. Yes, clones don’t really effectively get into melee in WvW in most cases, so on-death stuff gets dubious. You can get some in (like Mirror Blade), but overall not enough to build around, so I wouldn’t try to build around it for general purpose WvW.

2. If it says “on clone death” then only clones. IIRC the low-tier ones were all “clone death”, and the 25 point Dueling one was “illusion death”.

3. I’m a fan of IP because it’s pimp. It’s effective for skirmish activity — both for the <3 4x MW crits and for stomp distortion. For your builds, it’s a viable trait line investment to swap it for Glamour traits when you are Glamouring. For raw sieging, 30 Illusion doesn’t have much place though.

4. For the first two configurations of my build, Berserker’s. Rampager is not effective unless you are supporting Sharper Images. In fact, I would almost never use Rampagers on a Mesmer in WvW, because almost no useful WvW build ends up as “SHARPER IMAGES” stacking. I’d almost always rather burst with Berserker’s, or go more interesting builds with Carrion. Carrion is pretty solid … if you have a lot of condition damage. in the build I posted, only the third configuration (Glamour spam) would have a relevant amount of condition damage. The first two configs (siege and skirmish) would use Berserker’s. So, I would use Carrion for the third configuration if I could afford two gear sets.

Thanks for the informative reply. I have a lot to think about.

Regarding your build: https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/external?l=http%3A%2F%2Fgw2skills.net%2Feditor%2Fen%2F%3FfgQQBYk4kCAscUPAAA%2BOJFAI1A

I’m not sure I value Greatsword Training is highly as you do. The 20% cooldown is nice, but I consider the Power to be negligible. Given that the 15 trait is also unimpressive, I was thinking I’d put those ten points elsewhere.

Template: http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgQQBYkw8BAcSBAWOqHAAAfH

Logic:

• Losing 20% Mind Wrack in WvWvW isn’t a huge loss, as we both seem to agree that Shatter isn’t very good in WvWvW, I think.

• On the other-hand, increased survivability is definitely useful and regeneration is plentiful in organized WvWvW. You don’t sow discord and chaos when you’re a corpse.

• It also leaves 5 points, which I haven’t yet determined the placement for. Having Vigor-on-crit could be useful for clutch evades, but that depends on Precision-gear and luck. Going 25 in Inspiration to squeeze more out of the Warden and Berserk is another option. Going 20 in Chaos gives you Mirror of Anguish, which may be potent in WvWvW skirmishing as well.

Thoughts on this build (others feel free to chime-in as well please)? Thoughts on my undervaluation of 20 Domination? Sell me, please Thoughts on where to invest the remaining 5 points?

I don’t even use Domination, honestly. This is my build, as close to my current PvE stats as possible (I’m wearing the Sorrow’s Embrace light armour set).

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgAQNAsdRlwzKoHTzqGbNJipCD3JFK3yhSx15dlUYbXIA;T4Ag1yvkepeS5EFYGwEgZBzBmEs1ADCmcA

20 Dueling: Blink is your go-to “Get the frell out of Dodge” spell, Far-Reaching Manipulations makes it even better. Deceptive Evasion in general is a necessity for open-world 1v1 skirmishes given that one of your phantasms is immobile.

10 Chaos: 50% falling damage reduction makes traveling in WvW so much easier. You can freely jump down from walls, wail on any gate attackers while being buffed by Chaos Storm, blink to the portal, repeat ad nauseum. Can be easily swapped out for other stuff, though.

20 Inspiration: The ultimate in ‘no man left behind’ traits. Reflections dominate in WvW, and if you aren’t using them, you are really missing out on general team contribution.

20 Illusions: Most for phantasmal haste, but you could probably drop this line entirely without much worry.

There is little I can’t do with this build. Utterly relentless pursuer (except for shortbow thieves), solid dueler, A+ combat medic, decent wall-clearer/defender-puller. I can dive pretty deep into a zerg without dying.