Guild Wars 2

How well does this work for PuGs?

I run a very similar build (25 in inspiration and the remaining 5 in illusions). I like it a lot, but I am curoius how you use your shatters. Since the phantasms represent a major part of you damage, in what situations do you tend to shatter?

I’ve been using almost the same exact build for fractals for a while(was trying out full mantra DPS 30/30/0/0/10 before).
It is good, EXCEPT for the fact that you didn’t pick at least 5 in illusions. Why would you NOT pick at least 5 in Illusions? Drop 10 Domination and put it into 10 Illusions instead, then i’ll fully approve of this.

You lose: 100 power(neglible, not much), -20% GS skill cooldowns

You gain: -20% cooldown on ALL clone/phantasm summoning skills(that includes Mirror Blade+Berserker+Warden etc.) and whatever you pick as the Minor Illusions trait(i pick +3% damage per summoned phantasm/clone usually).
i.e. i-Warden will have a 15 second cooldown with both -20% traits.

I also run full berserker gear just like OP here, with Omnomberry Pie(66% chance to heal on crit food)+Precision Oil. Good DPS, good group support, lots and lots of reflects. I also put Inspiration I as a trait sometimes when i know people go down a lot(like high level Legendary Grawl Shaman). Sometimes i also put in Temporal Enchanter, which makes the revive-Feedback last like 5 seconds(1-2 seconds more than normal) and the normal Feedback around 8 seconds. So if you have a dead corpse near you, that alone makes up for almost 50% uptime of reflect and you also have Temporal Curtain, Warden and your normal Feedback.

Thanks for making this thread, because i was too lazy to make one.

Consider the stuff i posted, OP.

This build is pretty much quintessential. I have pretty much run a Phantasm Build since Day 1 in the game for all things WvW, PvE and Dungeons even after the nerf where you could miss with Phantasms. I have tried shatter builds and condition builds and every other kind of build imaginable and none of them compare to just how perfectly this build fits. It has good sustain and amazing burst all while providing amazing utility and defenses.

Here’s a few other thoughts:

1. 5 extra points in Inspiration are better spent in Illusions to reduce the cast time of Phantasms by 20%. This vastly gives you an edge for summoning Warden and Berserker but especially Berserker with Greatsword Training. The loss of a third trait in Inspiration can somewhat suck, but I’ve found it’s not that big of a deal because you still get the primary trait from this line (Warden’s Feedback) with the others being rather situational.

2. I often times will swap around my traits and skills suiting the encounter. For example taking Feedback into AC Explorable is largely useless because Gravelings don’t use projectiles (which make up the bulk of the dungeon). Conversely the utility build is perfect for CM Explorable. This means I tend to use Glamours entirely based on the encounter and adjust my traits accordingly.

3. Many times I use stun breakers instead like Decoy to help in melee. Melee does tremendous more amount of damage than GS at range so being able to hang in there as melee helps all around both on damage and not.

4. I love Inspiration Signet and it’s great to double the stacks of Might of your group. A lot of the time I’m in melee with the warriors and it’s great to just double up the boons in the melee ball for others.

5. General mesmer tip, but dodge rolling backwards will create a Greatsword clone in front of you. This will eat the next projectile sent your way. You can kinda create an infinite clone wall with dodges this way to eat attacks that would have hit you.

Otherwise, huge thumbs up. I also have a set of Knight Armor for extra Toughness which pretty much plays into this build perfectly and is it’s only weakness. That gives me huge power, precision, hitpoints, crit damage and a bit of toughness. Try as I might, I just can’t switch specs cause this one is just so perfect.

Does the clone-on-dodge skill conflict with your illusions, due to hitting the 3-cap?

Very nice build,
I will try it tonight. But I just don’t like (it’s personal) the sword part of it. I just don’t like being close to mobs on mesmer
Will probably try it with scepter to see how it works.
and nice combination of armors too

thanks for sharing

This is an excellent build. I myself am running a build with a very same trait distribution, but phantasms being my major source of damage, I picked slightly different traits. Also, I prefer a staff as a secondary weapon (warlock can deal really, really high critical damage )

I pretty much like the flexibility of this trait distribution: by changing one utility skill and some traits you can easily convert this build into a shatter one. Just drop the staff for a sword/pistol and you are done.

I’m currently running a similar build (or more defensive to be exact) with 0/20/10/25/15 using staff + sword/focus. I wasn’t sure if “Empowered Illusions” and “Phantasmal Strength” stack, but now I do and I’ll be moving those 10 Chaos to Domination. Thanks very much for sharing and inspiring others!

Skoteinos.4213:

Just found out that Dulfy (from dulfy.net) is a Mesmer!
http://dulfy.net/2013/01/07/gw2-fractal-of-the-mists-fotm-guide/#comment-759460664
and the build he uses is almost the same with this one I present here!
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Ng-Fc;0VPV1107BVV71;9;4JJ-O429-19;247Z

::)

I thought Dulfy was a woman?

Nice builds though, I don’t really run fractals myself as I got bored with how slow progression is. I like hard content from the get go and not repeat the same easier version over and over to get to the fun stuff. For dungeons though power builds or support builds are both great.

Skoteinos, thank you so much.

I had tried all the weapons at level 40 and after settling on sword and pistol I didn’t give another thought about it until I read your thread.

Had no idea the cooldown and the illusion damage stacked as the tooltips didn’t show! Thanks Anet.

I bought a rubbish focus for around 40 silver to try it out and iWarden got over 10k damage in some instances but averaged around 8k. I don’t have full exotics or ascended gear so that damage can only go up!

This is definitely my new build!

+1 from me

Skoteinos.4213:

Just found out that Dulfy (from dulfy.net) is a Mesmer!
http://dulfy.net/2013/01/07/gw2-fractal-of-the-mists-fotm-guide/#comment-759460664
and the build he uses is almost the same with this one I present here!
http://intothemists.com/calc/?build=-Ng-Fc;0VPV1107BVV71;9;4JJ-O429-19;247Z

::)

Dulfy is female.

Hey Skoteinos, this is a very interesting build, but I do have some questions about it.

Currently I run a 20/20/0/30 Shatter build in dungeons (I only just started doing Fractals, so let me know if this does not apply to FotM), but in my experience clones and illusions die really fast, especially in boss fights (such as in HotW or the ever popular CoF and AC). How are you (Skoteinos and the posters in general) able to keep the phantasms alive? For certain bosses (I.E. Aldus Stormbringer from HotW P1), I’m lucky if I can get a two or three clone/phantasm in. Sometimes they die in mid attack too.

Now, onto the matter of the item build – it looks like you’re pretty tanky with the Soldier’s (Chest) and Valkyrie’s (Mask and Leggings), but is that enough for the higher difficulties of FotM? I understand that having the additional health is worth it in the normal dungeons, but from what I understand the higher levels of FotM, especially due to Agony, all characters, no matter how tanky, die equally as fast (unless you dodge at the right time or have Agony Resistance), so isn’t it better to go all out damage (Berserker’s) to deal more damage and speed up the entire run?

I look forward to your reply!

Personally, I find that relying on Phantasms for all or a majority of your damage output to be abit optimistic. There are too many situations in dungeons where your illusions will quickly become destroyed by random AOE from a boss, especially Phantasms which have lower health.

Personally, I don’t believe the 25 points in Inspiration are worth taking just to get the extra damage from things that might not have enough uptime to deal their damage.

For most dungeon setups (that don’t benefit from a reflection-heavy Mesmer), I run 20/20/0/0/30. This allows me to convert between shatter and phantasm damage on the fly between fights, or even during fights.

HOWEVER, if you do decide to run a phantasm build, I would recommend Rampager’s gear instead of Berserker’s. Why? Because phantasms don’t benefit from +crit dmg%, but the bleed from Sharper Images is affected by Condition Damage. Since most of your damage is coming from your phantasms in this build, I’d recommend switching to Rampager’s gear.

creating my mesmer now.. thanks for this

Personally, I carry a offhand pistol with me so I can have long ranged illusions.
Zerker and warden can be smacked down pretty quick in most dungeons.

Jackums.3496:

Maestro.5376:

Why? Because phantasms don’t benefit from +crit dmg%,

Since when?

I too would like to know. Never had a 6k crit iSwordsman until my mesmer switched over from Rampagers’s gear to Berserker’s.

Looks like a nice build, I think I’m gonna give it a go myself.

Decent video with the maw trash. You know, looking past the heavy backpeddling and clicking :O

Tankzilla.7052:

Decent video with the maw trash. You know, looking past the heavy backpeddling and clicking :O

That video actually displayed what utter trash Signet of Inspiration is if you’re not going to use it’s active ability, which I didn’t see once in that video.

Why do people insist on using this skill? One random boon is not a great reason in my book. If his party was build to buff him up so he could share them back, then there might be a case, but that’s not what was happening.

I get the impression in this thread that the OP has changed the original build in line with advice so all I’m gonna say on that is that it’s a standard DPS Mesmer build, the like of which I’ve used since leveling to 80, until recently. The bonuses with the build is you can easily change some of the major traits to turn it into a slightly different build without having to completely refund trait points. Handy to be able to do this mid-dungeon, but it’s nothing new or special.

Jackums.3496:

Maestro.5376:

Why? Because phantasms don’t benefit from +crit dmg%,

Since when?

There’s an entire thread on GW2Guru dedicated to the research of this, and I believe their conclusion was that crit dmg% didn’t affect phantasms. Unless this was changed recently, that is still the case.

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/Crit-Damage-and-Phantasms

Here’s the thread. Seems some things have changed though.

Sarcasmic.6741:

Jackums.3496:

Maestro.5376:

Why? Because phantasms don’t benefit from +crit dmg%,

Since when?

I too would like to know. Never had a 6k crit iSwordsman until my mesmer switched over from Rampagers’s gear to Berserker’s.

There were some ninja buffs to the iSwordsman and other phantasms.

If things have changed, then Berserker’s is definitely the way to go.

Love it, great combo of Dps and a few elements of survival!

Sorry for the noob question but I just made my mesmer and want to make sure I’m using this build correctly!
In what scenarios would you use greatsword over the sword/focus?

This is the build i run.

Here are things i noticed.

If you are only able to fight at ranged(from a wall/too heavy to stay in meele) its best to change your skills up to combo/kill someone.

from a wall i use the stun signet/ mantra of pain/ feedback.

combo: start with sword focus.. use warden and put feedback(confusion whirl finisher)/stun them so they cant run from warden

….. put down temporal curtain… when they start to run away from warden use vortex to pull them back towards warden and knock them down

.. switch quick to sword and izerker and #2 and shatter once they complete thier damage.

use mantra of pain as filler durring any free second in the combo.

For ground/smaller fights i use normal skills blink/clone.

start with g sword. use izerker, #2

switch to sword focus. put down curtain( if you can do your leap standing on the curtain its good to proc retaliation) if not pull them first towards you and use your leap as they are downed.. mind wrack and switch back to gsword.

Those are the basic combos i use for this build. if anyone has anythign special or fancy i could be using also.. please let me know.

Been running this build for a week now and I love it, but there are 3 things I want to bring up.

1. I find I have a problem with conditions at times and the CD on null field is too long, I’m thinking sigils of generosity would be the way forward.

2. No break stun in the arsenal, maybe signet of midnight would be a better fit, 3.5s +20% duration = 4.2 seconds of blindness and 10% duration of boons is always nice

3. I think runes of divinity would be best but they are super expensive for 7 runes, currently at 8 gold on the market so 56 gold

Would love to hear your opinions.

This is the build my Mesmer has been running since the day she hit 80, although I guess I’m an oddball in my major traits. I run increased manipulation range instead of deceptive dodging, and remove condition on heal instead of decreased glamour cooldown. Not a setup for everyone, but blink never leaves my #7 slot and I make the most of that extra range.

The other two slots I change constantly. Feedback is often there, but I rarely need it to cooldown faster (maybe for 10+ harpies and grawl shaman, but both of those cases benefit from condition heal). I use every skill except for maybe the mantra of pain and signet of midnight, and I’ve found that every time I’d like to use mimic, the attack I’m concerned with blows right through it. Mirror images is great for shattering during quick fights or when targets go down fast (phantasms disappear when their target is gone and are still cooling down).

I also seem to be one of the only people who run Mirror as their heal. This way my heal is on 15 sec CD, reflects projectiles, heals one condition, and grants swiftness because I use runes of the centaur. This helps greatly with mobility.

I do use full berserker gear and run Gs/sword focus. I’ve run this build through fractals to level 20+, also love it for dungeons, and it didn’t perform poorly in my short jaunt into pvp (plus it’s funny the level of panic illusionary berserker inspires if you get it up on a wall in wvw).

As far as concerns about phantasms being too squishy to provide reliable damage- I find that in this build the Regen they supply each other with is enough to keep them alive through a few attacks in almost every case, especially if I use wardens on projectile heavy bosses and berserkers spin themselves out if melee range. Plus, they recharge fast enough that it’s not too bad if they die, and when they’re down I can easily mass produce clones to shatter.

Running the exact same build 20/20/0/25/5 but with staff instead of sword/focus.

Centaur runes for my 6/6. Using clone on dodge trait and glamour skills last longer trait.

Full knights armour w/ zerker weapon and jewls.

Working heaps well!!!

Jackums.3496:

the clones override the Phantasms

Can we check on this please? I did some tests today, and clones override clones, and phantasms override phantasms or clones, but clones do not override phantasms. Thanx

An Illusion is queued to be formed. (Note Illusion refers to either Clone or Phantasm)
If there is a free spot in the limit of three? It fills one of the spots. (1)
If there is not a free spot and there is at least one Clone? It replaces the oldest Clone. (2)
If there is not a free spot and nor is there a Clone? It replaces the oldest Phantasm. (3)

—Example:
Having three I.Duelists out and using Mirror Images results in the oldest I.Duelist dispersing (3), a Clone forming and dispersing (2), and another Clone forming all nearly instantly.
Having two I.Duelists and one Clone out, followed by using Mirror Images results in the Clone dispersing (2), a Clone forming and dispersing (2), and a Clone forming.
Having two I.Duelists out and no Clones, followed by using Mirror Images results in a Clone Forming (1) and then Dispersing (2), then another Clone forming.

So yes, a Clone can override a Phantasm if there are three Phantasms out upon generation.

Got you, thanks for the reply

I’ve been using this build pretty much since I started running dungeons. Its worked very well for me so far. Thanks for sharing it with us.

Now that you are dropping the points from Domination, have you given any thought to swapping GS for scepter/pistol? You could even take the pistol trait at Grandmaster to get 12 sec iDuelists instead of clone on dodge and keep 8 sec frenzy w/ sword trait.

I think that iDuelist > iZerker, but I haven’t figured out if there is a net loss in damage yet in the other skills. It looks close to me, but the attack speed of spatial surge vs ether bolt is hard to guesstimate.

What gear? Berserker?

It’s posted on the first page.

So my old go to Phantasm build was 10/20/0/20/20, going for Phantasm haste, and the utilities were blink, iDefender, and null field. I can see how having a defensinve phantasm is a liability given how fast they will still die. But really the Signet feels best used with a staff that can keep up chaos armor, which I just realized is a great way to get boons to share. I was thinking Phantasmal Disenchanter would work, but don’t think that one works too great yet.

nicee skoteinos, just figured out that theres someone doing almost the same as me^^.
im chaning here and tehre for testing purposes + my gear is still subpar, but based on that traits i can recommend this build for evryone and evry stament skoteinos did here about this build i can affirm with my experience.

in my case i use gs+sw/foc and still testing sw/foc + sw/pistol or scepter/pistol under some circumstances. combofield mechanics are important too with this weapon switch combinations
the range of this build either if its statswise ( more bunker/support or more power/crit etc) OR buildwise + weaponswitching + utilities tops evry other build i tried so far.

even if u use staff from time to time for some situations its not useless.

its like building up a different houses on the same stable and rocksolid foundation.
for me its the essence of playing mesmer.

My build is almost the same but instead 5 in illusions i put 5 more in dueling for the crit. 5 more in inspiration is also a good alternative.
Indeed, 5 in illusions to reduce illusion cd is not cumulative with 20% gs sword or focus reduction so it works only for 7 8 & 9 if you have illusion skills.

I run a very similar build. 20 20 0 25 5 with clone on dodge and 20% more mind wrack damage. Idea is to do full shatters after phantasm has done its damage. Its a phantasm shatter hybrid. Any opinions on this? I’ve done fractals to 40 withith succes so im happy with the build

phantasm builds are garbage in dungeons compared to shatter because 1. they die in seconds (SoL not working properly) 2. poor aoe. When doing easy crap like TA or CoF you can run the 10/25/0/25/10 for fun but if doing fractals 40+ you’re just wanting to be less useful.

But you cannot shatter the whole time because of the shatter cooldowns, that’s why i think hybrid is better

dewitjes.4309:

But you cannot shatter the whole time because of the shatter cooldowns, that’s why i think hybrid is better

well its not like you’re never spamming your fantasms when running a shatter spec. CD on shatter is quick enough with 30 in illusions anyway.

youb.4983:

My build is almost the same but instead 5 in illusions i put 5 more in dueling for the crit. 5 more in inspiration is also a good alternative.
Indeed, 5 in illusions to reduce illusion cd is not cumulative with 20% gs sword or focus reduction so it works only for 7 8 & 9 if you have illusion skills.

5 in Illusions > 5 more in Precision in my opinion.

And I run this build in Fractals and it works great. I do however swap out Focus for Pistol (and change a few traits) on the go for certain encounters.

This is what i run on Phantasm build for wvw or when bored of spamming shatter in dungeons.

10/25/0/25/10

Domination: Empowered Illusions
Dueling: Phantasmal Fury, Deceptive Evasion (to have three illusions permanently up)
Inspiration: Persisting Images (don’t like this one so run Glamour Mastery instead often), Temporal Enchanter (especially when running Glamour Mastery)
Illusions: Compounding Power in this one is a no brainer.

Nuka Cola.8520:

This is what i run on Phantasm build for wvw or when bored of spamming shatter in dungeons.

10/25/0/25/10

Domination: Empowered Illusions
Dueling: Phantasmal Fury, Deceptive Evasion (to have three illusions permanently up)
Inspiration: Persisting Images (don’t like this one so run Glamour Mastery instead often), Temporal Enchanter (especially when running Glamour Mastery)
Illusions: Compounding Power in this one is a no brainer.

I think 20/20/0/25/5 is stronger for dungeons. The extra 5 in dueling seems like a waste and the extra 10 in domination is more powerful than Compounding Illusions in my opinion.

Xavi.6591:

Nuka Cola.8520:

This is what i run on Phantasm build for wvw or when bored of spamming shatter in dungeons.

10/25/0/25/10

Domination: Empowered Illusions
Dueling: Phantasmal Fury, Deceptive Evasion (to have three illusions permanently up)
Inspiration: Persisting Images (don’t like this one so run Glamour Mastery instead often), Temporal Enchanter (especially when running Glamour Mastery)
Illusions: Compounding Power in this one is a no brainer.

I think 20/20/0/25/5 is stronger for dungeons. The extra 5 in dueling seems like a waste and the extra 10 in domination is more powerful than Compounding Illusions in my opinion.

The five points of Dueling were left overs, nothing really worth taking but higher crit hit damage and crit chance is never bad (my crit damage is over 80% on that build). What you spec 20 in dom for, greatsword mastery and additional 100 power? Don’t see any traits worth it and compouding power with high crit damage is much better.

Greatsword Master mostly. The reduction in CD’s on GS plus it’s not always easy on every boss fight to keep 3 illusions up which would reduce the benefit of compounding power.

Xavi.6591:

Greatsword Master mostly. The reduction in CD’s on GS plus it’s not always easy on every boss fight to keep 3 illusions up which would reduce the benefit of compounding power.

if u ever weapon swap its easy. and since izerker bug its even less worth taking gs mastery-.-

Uhh, I’m confused. This build is realy working (20/20/0/25/5 with zerker’s gear)! I tryied condition build, but i was lazy for me. Thanks for that Skoteinos!

With a few changes in gear, wouldn’t this build also work well in WvW? I have something similar on my Mesmer though her gear is all screwed up atm.

Just a quick question: does compounding power increase damage dealt by phantasms too or only by the mesmer? Ty

isendel.5049:

Just a quick question: does compounding power increase damage dealt by phantasms too or only by the mesmer? Ty

Only the Mesmer.