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Can you speak more about the Lone Marauder build? It looks interesting and I want to try it out.
Hey man – The Phantasm build is just awesome. I actually arrived at the same build myself after the recent changes—of course, my initial build was completely based off your original Phantasm build you posted months ago, so credit goes to you.
Anyway, awesome builds awesome theory crafting. Keep up the good work.
Thanks for posting these! I enjoy using the staff and I was interested in builds using Focus. Some nice tips in that video. I’m definitely going to try the Lone Marauder build now that I hit 80 with my mesmer.
I can see how it’s the person playstyle that is most critical, but I think it would be helpful if you could post some comments on your reasoning for your choices of utility skills/traits etc. That helps to get people thinking about whether it fits with their playstyle or not and lets them think about what they might do different.
(edited by DoctorOverlord.8620)
I’m really confused.. THe valkyrie Mask says it gives Power, prec, crit.. But in game, valkyrie armor gives Power, Vit, Crit.. How does the screenshot how those stats? :O
its trasmuted from valkirie skin into zerker stat
A PvE player is supposed to avoid a 1-2 second 1 shotting aoe.
A WWW player is considered uncapable of avoiding a 5,75 second aoe for half his health.
I’m extremely curious how your WvW build actually works out in a zerg given it is almost entirely glass cannon. I’ve shelved my mesmer (who was 0/20/20/0/30 in Rampagers/Berserkers) because I was rally fodder in big group fights and have been looking (half heartedly admittedly) for a replacement build. How on earth do you survive the melee train that is the current meta?
No Mesmer can survive a “melee train” … You just try to avoid it.
Over 2000 Armor is not bad for a Mesmer.
Blink and Stealth combination ..and a Hard attack is the best defence.
Thanks, that was kind of my original thought when creating the build I did as it worked a treat in PvE with all the blinks etc, but clearly I’m not up to scratch in terms of play style for Grownups Gw2 yet I was just curious if there was something else I was missing.
Personally I think I’ll take the hit and re-gear to Soldier’s/Knight’s and keep my existing ascended zerker trinks, that’ll give me something like 19.5k health and 2.5k armour which might give me more chance of overcoming my “technical difficulties”. Trouble is I’m having too much fun on my recently OP Necro main right now :p
im coming back from a very long break. are these builds still good to use? were they any changes made afterwards to the class that would make this not work as well? i like the idea of the first one(phantasm build) and want to try it out as i try to get back into the game
question about the runes of the eagle you say to use. wouldnt that put you too far past the soft cap on crit to be worthwhile once you have full exotics, plus ascended? like it wouldnt it almost be wasted stats since you would gain so little from it
Where can i get all of those accessories from? Are they all from laurel? I’m still fairly new to the game. IF its laurel.. Goodness this will take forever haha
Where can i get all of those accessories from? Are they all from laurel? I’m still fairly new to the game. IF its laurel.. Goodness this will take forever haha
Ascended Jewelry is from Laurels. The ascended rings also drop in level 10 and up Fractals. You can also get Ascended Accessories from Guild Commendations. Finally, ascended jewelry can also be purchased in WvW for gold+badges+reduced laurels costs.
Angry Intent [AI] | Yak’s Bend |
I’m a new player, and just recently got my first character (mesmer) to lvl80. Your Lone Marauder build has been working extremely well to me so far, thank you . By the way, I’m quite interested with the power zerg build. Are you planning to make a video out of it by chance?
im trying your tough shatter build… im in desperate need of mesmer skill. Im horrible apparently, I dont know…
Ive been using your phantasm build for a while now and its working great. But Ive been using ruby orb on my armors. Do you think rune of the eagle is better? Considering you lose 120 power and 7% crit damage ?
Is the 5% damage below 50 health a significant boost in dps?
For your new phantasm build is any DPS lost from dropping GS and 1H training, along with the bleeds? Or is this build just all about maxing burst now?
(edited by Kamahil.3271)
With your build #1, it doesn’t offer the most dps possible.
First off, your runes grant you +5% damage to enemies under 50% health. This doesn’t affect Phantasms and, since you’re a Phantasm build, it doesn’t add that much dps. (I would also say that the III in Illusions is bad, but there’s not much else to pick for a Phantasm build.)
Secondly, your traits don’t include the Sharper Images in Dueling, which adds an extraordinary amount of dps.
If you’re just going for pure DPS a better build would be:
20/20/5/25/0 or 20/20/0/30/0
The reason is that you grab Sharper Images, can pick up Sword or Pistol mastery (along with Phantasmal Fury) and, in Domination, you can also trait into +Illusion damage and your choice of Halting Strikes, Crippling Dissipation, Signet Mastery (lowest stunbreaker utility a Mesmer has access to) or Greatsword Training.
If you go 30 points into Inspiration, you can also grab Mender’s Purity, which is AMAZING.
If you are going to switch to grab Sharper Images, it might also be good to note that you can mix and match your gear to get a little bit more out of your damage by mixing in some Rampager’s with your Berserker. I’ll have to do some math to figure out the exact balance to allow maximum dps, but that’s for another day.
I’ll stop before I start ranting. And please don’t name builds “Best this” or “Best that” because there is no best build.
Im going to start trying a 0/20/0/25/25 posted in gw2guru by GK.
ic nerf hit hard this kind of builds pve wise.
Esplen it would be very nice if you manage to do those maths.
Esplen it would be very nice if you manage to do those maths.
Preface
Did a quick mock-up of stats and theoretics using only iDuelist and effective dps through bleeds.
Setup
Pure: Using Berserker Weapons, Armor and Trinkets with the traits 20/20/0/30/0, you have an effective power of ~3667 and your iDuelist will, theoretically, deal 827 damage through bleeds.
Hybrid: Using Berserker Weapons and Trinkets with Rampager Helm/Chest/Pants and Berserker Shoulders/Gloves/Shoes and the traits 20/20/0/30/0, you have an effective power of ~3541 and your iDuelist will, theoretically, deal 1033 damage through bleeds.
Differences Part 1
The direct damage difference is as follows:
Pure: 3.55% more direct damage.
Hybrid: 3.43% less direct damage.
The condition damage difference is as follows:
Pure: 19.95% less condition damage.
Hybrid: 24.92% more condition damage.
Notes
The actual numbers for the condition damage difference is 42.5 bleed damage vs 50.1 bleed damage per stack per second. Additionally, there is a critical chance difference of 2.9% with the Hybrid having the higher number. This higher critical chance affects the damage dealt through iDuelist bleeds (from Sharper Images).
Differences Part 2
The effective Bleed damage for both builds is as follows: (Rounded to the second decimal place)
Pure: 827.33
Hybrid:1033.49
This is full bleed damage over the full duration of the bleed stacks.
Notes
In both tests, no sigils or runes were and ascended was used, when possible. No infusions were placed in the ascended trinkets. Blade Training was not taken into consideration for these tests. No foods or nourishment were used, either.
Postface
The reason why I chose only to replace the Chest/Helm/Pants for this test was because I knew that they would yield higher damage results. The Chest/Helm/Pants offer the least amount of stats per critical damage given (all 3 of them, together, grant 10% critical damage at the cost of 152 stat points whereas all other items will grant more stats per critical damage, except maybe weapons [haven’t checked and I need to sleep]).
Additionally, Rampagers gives you a higher critical chance which allows you to utilize Sharper Images.
There could possibly be other high damage setups as well, but keep in mind this math does not consider condition duration (addition or subtration) or removal.
I also selected Rampagers because you don’t lose any defensiveness swapping (since you’re full squishy with full zerk gear!)
@OP please change the name of your phantasm build.
Okay, sleep time.
EDIT:
Notes again
Each iDuelist shot adds an additional…
Pure: 103.41
Hybrid: 129.18
Damage through bleed. This is theoretical damage that is added overall, meaning each shot won’t actually add this much damage (if you check the bleed damage, it doesn’t make sense). This damage is also over the course of 5 seconds after the hit connects. The reason why it’s smaller than the bleed damage * 5 is because you also have to apply critical chance to it.
If you would like the non-condensed math, please ask and I will try my best to explain each step with the applied mathetmatics instead of just listing the final numbers.
(edited by Esplen.3940)
Much appreciated. No, on vacations right now with crappy connexion on a crappy cell phone. is more than enough to try when i get back. maybe then i will ask for mor details ( if is ok for u).
It is kind of wierd, when i asked this elsewhere i got a “never ever ever use rampager on a mesmer”.
By the way have you ever tried 0/20/0/25/25?
Edit: i also have to test if autoatacking does more damage thsn blur frenzy as i got diffetent answers
(edited by Ryn.6459)
If you’re just going for pure DPS a better build would be:
20/20/5/25/0 or 20/20/0/30/0
The reason is that you grab Sharper Images, can pick up Sword or Pistol mastery (along with Phantasmal Fury) and, in Domination, you can also trait into +Illusion damage and your choice of Halting Strikes, Crippling Dissipation, Signet Mastery (lowest stunbreaker utility a Mesmer has access to) or Greatsword Training.
Greatsword is bad in dungeons so I’d say 10/30/0/30/0 would be better unless there’s an adept trait worth using in domination that isn’t greatsword training.
Morrï (Mesmer) | Serah Mahariel (Guardian) | Morrï Mahariel (Warrior)
“colesy’s on rampage today. Slaying casuals left, right and centre” – spoj
Much appreciated. No, on vacations right now with crappy connexion on a crappy cell phone. is more than enough to try when i get back. maybe then i will ask for mor details ( if is ok for u).
It is kind of wierd, when i asked this elsewhere i got a “never ever ever use rampager on a mesmer”.
By the way have you ever tried 0/20/0/25/25?
Edit: i also have to test if autoatacking does more damage thsn blur frenzy as i got diffetent answers
Rampagers is bad, but Sharper Images is overlooked as a trait. When you start considering Sharper Images, Rampager doesn’t become as bad as it once was. Of course, you shouldn’t stack pure Rampagers (unless you want to hit 100% crit chance, in which case, stack Rampagers because that’s the only way you’ll hit it with a Mesmer).
I used to run 10/10/0/25/25 which was a variation of the 0/20/0/25/25 minus Sharper Images. It was for pure direct damage from Phantasms but the lack of Sharper Images made most Phantasms useless (the best Phantasms in a 10/10/0/25/25 are Greatsword and Staff for their high single hit damage, followed by Sword). But you couldn’t trait into any of them, including the sword (you wanted Phantasmal Fury) so I can see a 0/20/0/25/25 working with Sword/Sword but your offhand will most likely want to be defensive so you could plop in a Staff for the stunbreak/mitigation.
If you’re just going for pure DPS a better build would be:
20/20/5/25/0 or 20/20/0/30/0
The reason is that you grab Sharper Images, can pick up Sword or Pistol mastery (along with Phantasmal Fury) and, in Domination, you can also trait into +Illusion damage and your choice of Halting Strikes, Crippling Dissipation, Signet Mastery (lowest stunbreaker utility a Mesmer has access to) or Greatsword Training.
Greatsword is bad in dungeons so I’d say 10/30/0/30/0 would be better unless there’s an adept trait worth using in domination that isn’t greatsword training.
I respectfully disagree. Greatsword Phantasm adds one of the highest amount of damage and hits in an AoE. Additionally, it has a ranged auto attack which allows you to sit back and hit safely. It also removes boons and has an AoE on-demand knockback.
While it isn’t my favorite weapon, it’s not a bad weapon.
Lastly, you can use a trait such as Halting Strikes in Domination even as a Phantasm Build (remember, the OP is using Sword/Pistol + Greatsword in his build).
I’m not trying to re-write his build, I’m just trying to improve what’s already there.
Personally, I would move the 10 points into Dueling, as you stated, or I would run something like… 10/20/15/25/0
My most successful (pug) build is 0/20/30/20/0. It offers no outstanding DPS, nor does it provide excessive amounts of defense. What it does provide is a substantial amount of pug-friendliness. I won’t go too much into the details, since it is a terrible build (again, it’s only used for pug-friendliness, not for it’s actual utility), but it has it’s uses for my playstyle.
Greatsword Phantasm adds one of the highest amount of damage and hits in an AoE
While the phantasm is strong, it’s on a weapon with four other poor abilities (yes, I’m including the auto). AOE doesn’t matter either when you can just use warden for cleaving, plus most damage in a dungeon is single-target so AOE tends to be irrelevant.
Additionally, it has a ranged auto attack which allows you to sit back and hit safely
The ranged auto means you’re out of range of your groups’ boons, and full melee is perfectly safe as long as you actually pay attention to the boss’s attacks and dodge them, or even blurred frenzy. You should only ever range out of necessity, and I mean mechanical necessity, not “I can’t dodge” or if meleeing the enemy is extremely disadvantageous (grawl fractal final boss at higher levels where you’re dodging too much for melee to be worthwhile).
It also removes boons and has an AoE on-demand knockback.
Sword auto, phantasmal disenchante, arcane thievery and null field also remove boons and they aren’t awkward abilities to use unlike the greatsword 3. AOE knockback is awful too since bosses have defiant, and if you’re fighting mobs you want to group them together, not push them away (which will just irritate everyone in your party.) Greatsword is basically four trash abilities and a great phantasm, but that still doesn’t make it worth taking in a dungeon.
Lastly, you can use a trait such as Halting Strikes in Domination even as a Phantasm Build (remember, the OP is using Sword/Pistol + Greatsword in his build).
So I can either choose between knocking four seconds off my phantasm cooldown and making its projectiles always proc on combo fields … or I can use halting strikes. I’ll take faster phantasm cooldown.
I’m not trying to re-write his build, I’m just trying to improve what’s already there.
Easy, cut the awful eagle runes for ruby orbs (damage %+ doesn’t work on phantasms so scholar runes are meh), get rid of the accuracy and fire sigils and replace them with either %+ damage sigils to boost the mesmer’s damage themselves, or I’ve been experimenting with sigil of battle to boost my own and my phantasm’s DPS. Then you stick more points in dueling for sharper images and at least a traited pistol. He raises the point of wanting enough precision so he always crits, but with your group stacking fury duration (I don’t know if phantasms take our precision + fury bonus and then get their own traited fury on top of that to give them stupid high crit chance or not) they always will, or at least I’ve never had trouble spamming crits.
I’ve thought about experimenting with 0/20/0/25/25 for IC and then traiting my focus and then either sword or pistol (or if phantasms do actually take our buffed precision stat with fury, we could even drop phantasmal fury) for the pre-IC nerf cooldowns on everything at the loss of empowered illusions (15%+ illusion damage), 100+ precision and 10%+ crit damage from dueling and 100+ power from domination but there’s so many variables – I could be doing a dungeon with extremely short fights where I want maximum power in that short time, but then I could be doing a dungeon with boss fights where I have to maintain the rotation for longer periods of time (note HOTW), or I could be doing a boss fight that requires a prolonged rotation but my phantasms stay up so there’s no point replacng them.
Morrï (Mesmer) | Serah Mahariel (Guardian) | Morrï Mahariel (Warrior)
“colesy’s on rampage today. Slaying casuals left, right and centre” – spoj
(edited by colesy.8490)
Greatsword Phantasm adds one of the highest amount of damage and hits in an AoE
While the phantasm is strong, it’s on a weapon with four other poor abilities (yes, I’m including the auto). AOE doesn’t matter either when you can just use warden for cleaving, plus most damage in a dungeon is single-target so AOE tends to be irrelevant.
After having gone through Staff/Greatsword and even Scepter/X, your secondary (or even primary) weaponsets should be your choice. If you follow peer pressure that states that this is bad or that is good, then you won’t be playing your build. Ironically, this entire discussion is peer pressure stating that his gear (and runes/sigils) are crap.
Additionally, it has a ranged auto attack which allows you to sit back and hit safely
The ranged auto means you’re out of range of your groups’ boons, and full melee is perfectly safe as long as you actually pay attention to the boss’s attacks and dodge them, or even blurred frenzy. You should only ever range out of necessity, and I mean mechanical necessity, not “I can’t dodge” or if meleeing the enemy is extremely disadvantageous (grawl fractal final boss at higher levels where you’re dodging too much for melee to be worthwhile).
It depends. You don’t have to sit that far back, I was just stating that as a generic statement. I’ve had success running Greatsword/Sword+Pistol in dungeons. I’ve also had success running Staff/Sword+Pistol in dungeons.
And I go melee on the Grawl Fractal Final Boss because Blurred Frenzy + Warden + Feedback + Smart Guardians and more. I’m not saying that Greatsword is amazing, I personally hate it. But I’m not saying that it’s terrible.
It also removes boons and has an AoE on-demand knockback.
Sword auto, phantasmal disenchante, arcane thievery and null field also remove boons and they aren’t awkward abilities to use unlike the greatsword 3. AOE knockback is awful too since bosses have defiant, and if you’re fighting mobs you want to group them together, not push them away (which will just irritate everyone in your party.) Greatsword is basically four trash abilities and a great phantasm, but that still doesn’t make it worth taking in a dungeon.
Every skill is situational. Sword auto isn’t easy to reach and on-demand. Phantasmal Disenchanter dies really fast since it always spawns ~450 away from the target. I can keep bashing these, but look at the final sentence in the response above.
Lastly, you can use a trait such as Halting Strikes in Domination even as a Phantasm Build (remember, the OP is using Sword/Pistol + Greatsword in his build).
So I can either choose between knocking four seconds off my phantasm cooldown and making its projectiles always proc on combo fields … or I can use halting strikes. I’ll take faster phantasm cooldown.
Who said you can’t take both?
I’m not trying to re-write his build, I’m just trying to improve what’s already there.
Easy, cut the awful eagle runes for ruby orbs (damage %+ doesn’t work on phantasms so scholar runes are meh), get rid of the accuracy and fire sigils and replace them with either %+ damage sigils to boost the mesmer’s damage themselves, or I’ve been experimenting with sigil of battle to boost my own and my phantasm’s DPS. Then you stick more points in dueling for sharper images and at least a traited pistol. He raises the point of wanting enough precision so he always crits, but with your group stacking fury duration (I don’t know if phantasms take our precision + fury bonus and then get their own traited fury on top of that to give them stupid high crit chance or not) they always will, or at least I’ve never had trouble spamming crits.
All of which I’ve already stated. Phantasms take our Precision but not our +Fury. Phantasms potentially take Critical Chance runes, but it’s hard to tell. Ruby Orbs aren’t necessarily the best choice, but in terms of raw damage, they are good enough.
After having gone through Staff/Greatsword and even Scepter/X, your secondary (or even primary) weaponsets should be your choice. If you follow peer pressure that states that this is bad or that is good, then you won’t be playing your build. Ironically, this entire discussion is peer pressure stating that his gear (and runes/sigils) are crap.
I have no idea where you’re going with this. I’m dealing in raw facts here in saying that X is better than Y, how did peer pressure come up?
It depends. You don’t have to sit that far back, I was just stating that as a generic statement. I’ve had success running Greatsword/Sword+Pistol in dungeons. I’ve also had success running Staff/Sword+Pistol in dungeons.
It doesn’t depend at all, range is a flat out bad thing to do in dungeons. And of course you had success with staff despite it being terrible in PvE, because everything works in PvE, just some things work better than others.
Every skill is situational
And those situations just happen to involve a different game mode. GS is fine in PvP, but its abilities are trash in PvE, same with how scepter sucks, staff sucks and torch sucks.
Sword auto isn’t easy to reach and on-demand
uh…what?
Phantasmal Disenchanter dies really fast since it always spawns ~450 away from the target.
Phantasms are made out of paper anyway. Though to be honest I haven’t had a problem with disenchanters dying so far.
Who said you can’t take both?
So I’m either giving up empowered illusions, or if using greatsword training I’m giving up that. Why would anyone use a terrible trait like halting strike?
All of which I’ve already stated. Phantasms take our Precision but not our +Fury. Phantasms potentially take Critical Chance runes, but it’s hard to tell. Ruby Orbs aren’t necessarily the best choice, but in terms of raw damage, they are good enough.
Well I can’t think of anything better than Ruby Orbs.
Morrï (Mesmer) | Serah Mahariel (Guardian) | Morrï Mahariel (Warrior)
“colesy’s on rampage today. Slaying casuals left, right and centre” – spoj
I have to thank you Skoteinos for your first build, it has made playing my mesmer immensely more fun then it ever was!
I previously ran 30/30/0/0/10 and found that SO boring, but now I am having fun again.
Thanks again!
Hmm lets try this build with assassin stats and rune of the traveler
any of these being updated with videos for the Dec 10 Update?
any of these being updated with videos for the Dec 10 Update?
Skoteinos has stopped playing GW2, well that’s what he replied to me on one of his youtube videos.
For a traited GS build… I would go 20/10/0/25/15.
Amazing. Do you also have a build for sPvP and WvWvW? I like your style!
Mender purity is not needed imo and traited sword if you are not using as an offhand neither. So in exhange, you gain IC and compounding power. That is more phantasm uptime and more damage for you and your reflects.
Personally I run 0/30/0/25/15 so whatever.
(edited by Ryn.6459)
Full zerker shatter without any real defense for Wv3 with questionable choices like Sword training (when you will die in one hit in melee range anyway) instead for phantasmal fury for zerker-dmg and not a single condition removal?
And that additional shatter every 60 sec will not outweight the damage of a constant 10% extra critical on shatter. You will spend most of the time dead with this build.
This is a PvE build with some mediocre choices on traits. Unless it is meant for pure zerg running, in that case it is a Wv3 build with poor choices.
The Leveling & Open World Compendium
(edited by Kaiyanwan.8521)
So in exhange, you gain IC and compounding power. That is more phantasm uptime and more damage for you and your reflects.
.Compounding Power is not affecting Phantasms damage, but it’s +3% more damage to Mesmer for each clone/phantasm exists.
You should note, and as Ryn said, that it does affect reflect damage. So on a boss such as bloomhunger, 9% more damage is roughly 10k more damage when you feedback his AoE. With compounding power and empowered mantras, I usually see 120k spikes on bloomhunger in FotM49, it’s pretty nice.
#readingLFGisOP #savethewarden
#wallsfixdungeons
This build seemed very outdated, no Signet of Ether, no Compounding Power and no IC
Wouldn’t recommend using this build at all