Guild Wars 2

so does anyone have a build good for fotm and dungeons in general i like using sword/focus and staff and shatter builds but if phant is the way to go ill switch to that i also wonna try solo stuff so if anyone as any tips hints tricks and stuff help would be nice

20/20/0/30/0
You can switch between every weapon have all the important traits and its glamour/mantra friendly. It’s very flexible to adapt your sitations.

thanks what major traits? also gear? should i use zerker with scholar runes? and sigils? (sorry im asking alot of questions)

Best build fo fotm is 0/20/0/25/25

Due to the fact the most important skill in fotm is reflection and thus traiting focus and illusionist celerity are a must.

i see any tips on learning how to solo stuff?

LordByron.8369:

Best build fo fotm is 0/20/0/25/25

It’s allways narrow-minded to say “it’s the best build”. It works the best for you doesn’t mean it works the best for everyone. Don’t “mutate” to colesy 2.0

LordByron.8369:

Due to the fact the most important skill in fotm is reflection

This. Reflection in fotm is godlike. You feel a huge difference if there is a reflecting mesmer around instead of a full mantra dude or a hybrid shatterer.

• fire fractale destroyer harpy boss – protection from agony and burn and also from the fire eles
• ice fractale – protection from the ice eles
• harpy fractale – protection from everything
• mole fractale – many projectiles here too – especially mole endboss bombs
• swamp fractale – mossman axe
• ascalon fractale – eles and rangers
  I guess you get it :P There are also many other dungeons that have many many projectiles to reflect.

LordByron.8369:

and thus traiting focus and illusionist celerity are a must.

Traiting focus is one of the most important skills you got. It’s simply awesome.
Illusionist Clerity a must? No. It’s simply one of those “really nice to have” skills, but in general it’s not helping at all in some playstyles.
For exmaple if you use GS only on a range and spam your zerkers it’s strong, however if you are a rota mesmer, going melee in general and playing with Sword/Focus and Sword/Sword, you’re gonna swap your weapons every 10 sec. So you got 20 sec cd on phantasms anyway. It helps you only for the opening to summon the phantasms faster. As for me – playing with sigill of battle (recommed it) – I swap as fast as I can and benefit much more from another inspiration passive and power trait. I’ve played with illusionist celerity too and I think it’s highly overrated (with MY playstyle).

Xyonon.3987:

Test new builds = knowledge = expirience = power.

~ <3

thanks you so much for the feed back, im thinking of going 0/20/0/30/20 so i can pick up phantasmal haste but if you have better traits in domination (not sure what traits in there that i should be taking)

(also if i have 2 swords in main hand dose that mean theres no cool down on bullerd frenzy?)

Glad to help.

No, the swords still will share their cd, but the sword is the highest dps weapon we got and it has an awesome cleave with an even better passive: vulnerability and removing boons <3 (both cleave too). I know I know, when I heared it furst I tought “WTF Y U NO TAKE 2ND WEAPON NUB” … But I was the nub It’s awesome.

I’m talking about future december patch now → illusion 25 and 15 will be swapped, you don’t need 25 points there anymore:

Inspiration gives you:

• +3%, +6%, +9% damage while having 1,2,3 illusions alive. This damage only affects YOU and NOT your phantasms.
• +25% attack speed for phantasms.
• -20% cooldowns for all skills that summon clones on first cast (so blocks aren’t affected)
• condition damage (bleeding from duelling 15, however 200 condition damage means 55 instead of 45 bleeding tics)

Dominon gives you:

• 15% damage for phantams (17.25% if you got inspiration 25).
• 3 stacks vulnerability if you interrupt an enemy (F3, sword 4, pistol 5, GS 5, staff 5, focus 4, mantra).
• 5 stacks vulnerability if you daze an enemy (F3, sword 4, pistol 5, staff 5, mantra)
• power +200
• condition duration (vulnerability 5/15 last 10 sec, bleeding from duelling 15 (+20% duration))
• traited GS if needed, or cribblemaster (clone death aoe cirbble → also affected again by condition duration)

Do not underestimate +200 power from dominion. Phantasms copy that too and untraited you got about 2150 power. +200 power means +9.3% damage in this case. 9.3% for you and your phantasms, unlike the illusion trait.

Also do not underestimate vulnerability. For example solo a champ: 10 sec of 5% vulnerability (it will stack much higher, just an example what 5% do). You deal about 5k DpS solo. Now 5k * 10 sec * 0.05 = 2500 damage. Thats pretty ok. Now image a full dungeon party with 5 man, everyone dealing ø7k DpS → 7k * 5 * 10 sec * 0.05 = 17’500. So – starting with a clone (sword 3) and shatter it with F3 causes 17’500 damage over 10 sec. Seems pretty ok I guess. Also – it’s just 5% we are talking about. You can give your party a good vulnerability burst up to they carry it themselves at 20~ stacks.

Thats another reason why I go 20/20/0/30/0.

Xyonon.3987:

LordByron.8369:

Best build fo fotm is 0/20/0/25/25

It’s allways narrow-minded to say “it’s the best build”. It works the best for you doesn’t mean it works the best for everyone. Don’t “mutate” to colesy 2.0

Don t take it as “you have to do this otherwyse you are noob”

Look at the content.

Fotm are mostly about reflect.

Mesmer has the most reflect uptime among the game (even if less reliable comparing to guardian).

So fotm requires the ability in wich mesmer excels in.
That is why for fractals i would definitely go that build.

While in dungeon there are better builds.

If you choose another build you are not “bad or anything”….Simply you are not covering a party role that is very requested. (see fotm party LF mesmer…they expect a reflect build)

I’m not talking about inspiration, I’m more talking about illusion But yes, if you say it like this – I have to agree with this sentence anyway:
“If you don’t use reflection in fotm as a mesmer – YOU ARE A kitten ” xD

Usual fotm party:
1 REFLECT guardian (well full dps anyway since its about utilities)
1 REFLECT mesmer
1 DPS/SUPPORT (banner) warrior
X
X

As you see you still have 2 spots.
That means you will probably have another mesmer with reflect in the party.

so? what do you want to tell me? :o

btw mesmer is one of the less popular classes. 40% are warriors and rangers :s

The difference between looking for groups or being asked to join….

P.S. IC is really really strong in fotm phantasm AND reflect builds…for many reasons.
Remember the difference between dungeons where your build could be better and fotms where a reflect build may be more efficient.

I tend to run 10/30/0/30/0 and have reflect downtime covered by a guardian, but having pHaste and IC is definitely useful. Assuming they move celerity down in December, 10/20/0/25/15 will become the new standard, I think. Gets you all the damage and all the cooldown traits except pHaste – which is of varying usefulness anyway, depending on which phantasms you run.

In most dungeons I run 20/20/0/30/0.

However, in fractals I run 10/10/0/25/25. Illusionists Celerity and Phantasmal Haste together allow you to hit 100% uptime on reflects without any buildup, and that can be incredibly important in a lot of fractals.

this is my build, armor is a mix of knight and rampager with soldier orbs, trinkets full rampager, food buff was rare veggie pizza at that moment but is not actually part of the build

I play only PvE and this build gives me perfect results, I’m not sure if it actually is better, but i decided to go rampager instead of zerker to squeeze some extra damage from phantasm bleeds

thanks for the advice guys what heal should i run?

Cake.6498:

thanks for the advice guys what heal should i run?

ether feast, unless you are running a mantra build, i think in that case mantra heal wins

Cake.6498:

thanks for the advice guys what heal should i run?

switch between ether feast and mirror (reflect) when needed.

Or instead of going for quantity you can just go for quality, 15/30/0/25/0 is what I usually run in fractals, it makes your reflects actually do damage, so you dont need as many and you’re also useful in other situations instead of just a reflect/tw bot.

Either take mantras with XI in dueling, or take VIII and pick blurred inscriptions with Signet of midnight, the only place where you really need constant reflections is the harpy fractal, and even pugs skip those 90% of the time now. At the final boss normal reflections without 25 in inspiration can do well if you just time it, and maybe use mirror/SoM while standing in front of the boss to save partymembers when out of area reflects.

reliable damage is more consistent and thus higher than playing without IC.
In fractals.

You are far from being a reflect/TW bot, on the opposite 90% of times with illusionist celerity you deals more damage than putting 15 points in domination.

That is the Whole point of the build….
And the reason why 0/20/0/25/25 dps is higher in fotms and lower in dungeon.

Not to mention how almost in any fractal the reflect damage is so high you really do more dps just with it.

Dredge to say one……

Dredge to say one, and thats practically everything, wardens get easily destroyed there because of the large amount of the mace dredges/strazars that keep hitting all over the place, plus, if you cant kill a group of non silver dredge within one warden/temporal/feedback time, there is something wrong with your dps.

with mantras and more precision/critical damage, your reflections do damage, you’re putting 25 in a trait line which supplies practically nothing reliable aside from haste which doesnt affect swordsmen, and 20% faster illusion spawning, while losing an enormous amount of stats which are transferred to those illusions.

Maybe Im just stupid, but Im pretty sure that losing 150 power, 10% critical damage/4-5critical chance on your illusions as well as yourself, combined with losing a possible 12-16% damage from feedback/temporal reflections and direct damage, which you should be doing in melee at all times, next to sword block, just to get 20% faster illusions, which you apparently expect to die pretty kitten quickly, is not worth it.

EDIT: oh, and I forgot about the 15% illusion damage which, btw, also affects warden reflects.

ADDITION:
fire fractale destroyer harpy boss – protection from agony and burn and also from the fire eles tell me how wardens help your ranging party survive agony, and how your wardens are surviving firestorm after you didn’t do enough dps to kill the eles in time

ice fractale – protection from the ice eles take a pistol in second offhand instead, if you have 2-3 eles(which you should), stun then when you’re out of reflections, which should honestly only take a second or two, there is nothing wrong with dodging once in a while

harpy fractale – protection from everything harpies are skipped, wardens are pretty useless at the champs, old tom says hi, sure, you can use an untraited warden, but half the mesmers don’t know this or forget to turn off focus reflection, as for the final boss, yup, pretty good there.

mole fractale – many projectiles here too – especially mole endboss bombs endbossbombs dont damage anymore, and arent reflected by the warden, thats just feedback, rest is pretty valid, but I commented on that above

swamp fractale – mossman axe mossman moves away from wardens, attacks too quickly for the warden to be spawned, and honestly, how many of you actually know when he is going to use it?

ascalon fractale – eles and rangers rangers are a good point, but do so much damage to themselves that one warden+ feedback kills, eles on the other hand spam their firefields and autoattacks all over the place making wardens utterly useless.

underwater fractal says hi
cliffside fractal says hi
Jade maw fractal says hi

And in general, if you are afraid of your reflection uptime being 80% instead of 100%, maybe its a good time to start questioning why we’re expecting to run with 4 necros

I could lose hours to reply to your post but i have a better answer.

Check the same discussion from the day after nerf (see months ago) all was discussed back there.

You ll see me testing 20/20/0/30/0 and see how it answers all your questions….
I obviously was unhappy thus i accepted the nerf and went to 0/20/0/25/25

The point you made makes me think you never tested a build with IC in fractal because your own points are those who made me choose the opposite you are running.
And at least i can admit how your is better in dungeons…..but not for sure in fractals.

Sanderinoa.8065:

one warden+ feedback kills, eles

Try some higher level maybe…..

Your list of points is completely wrong ….Illusionist Celerity doesn t read “get 20% more reflect uptime” but reduce CD by 20% on skills summoning illusions.
Its nice to have 20% more phantasm dps but not if your phantasms are DEAD and on CD.

LordByron.8369:

I could lose hours to reply to your post but i have a better answer.

Check the same discussion from the day after nerf (see months ago) all was discussed back there.

You ll see me testing 20/20/0/30/0 and see how it answers all your questions….
I obviously was unhappy thus i accepted the nerf and went to 0/20/0/25/25

The point you made makes me think you never tested a build with IC in fractal because your own points are those who made me choose the opposite you are running.
And at least i can admit how your is better in dungeons…..but not for sure in fractals.

Sanderinoa.8065:

one warden+ feedback kills, eles

Try some higher level maybe…..

Your list of points is completely wrong ….Illusionist Celerity doesn t read “get 20% more reflect uptime” but reduce CD by 20% on skills summoning illusions.
Its nice to have 20% more phantasm dps but not if your phantasms are DEAD and on CD.

I am sorry, but I am not going to look for an unspecified thread from months back, that aside, I am aware of what the traits say, but the thread looked to be pointing at the increased warden uptime being the reason for the use of the trait.

you’re starting the build idea with the plan of losing all your illusions consistently, so you’re making them over and over again, I have used IC before, at the archdiviner solo it was really useful because he was, indeed, constantly destroying the phantasms, in a teamsetting however, your illusions just shouldnt be getting destroyed as often, apart from specific situations.

We appear to be looking at this situation in a different way, your plan is to weaken the illusions, but compensating for their deaths by recreating them, my plan is to make them hit harder while they’re alive, while boosting my own damage, so my damage stays decent when they are, indeed, on cooldown. I just feel like the increased damage that Im putting out, and my illusions are, while alive, which they usually are when well placed and you interrupt foes from time to time, is better than decreasing their cooldown by up to 5 seconds, while decreasing their damage while alive.

And the archer high level thing, really? maybe Ive been running with too many dps oriented people, but on pretty much any level below 70 you should be able to handle a ranger group with a groupup->warden->feedback->sworddaze-> second warden strike, as long as your party isnt absent. But ya know, maybe thats just because of the increased damage output.

I’ve read everything exactly up to here and I’m one of those guys who test everything before saying “nono this is so wrong nub nub”

I’ve played 0/20/0/25/25 but only up to frac. lv38. My own build at the moment is 20/20/0/30/0 and I’m pretty happy with it right now. I made a long thread too here where I tried to figure out “my personal best build”.

Back to topic: So, I cannot really accept the point that you say with less phantasm cd you’re gonna have more reflection.
1. If you are switching weapons, and you should (sigil of battle), then you will allways have 20 sec CD on every phantasm, except the first one you create. Less CD is therefore a bit overrated.
2. If you really want more reflection uptime, why don’t you go then 30 in inspiration and trait glamour -20% CD and +25% uptime?
3. The trait “medics feedback” is highly underrated and saves butts since release. It has been buffed to the insane if you ask me, 6 sec reflection (traited with 10 sec CD. It requires a dead person, but I think this won’t be a problem in fractale Also IF there are SO MANY projectiles in fotm (and hell yea there are), then you should be happy to ress everyone without trouble. You also can use npcs.

Also don’t underestimate the damage of dominion 5 and especially 15. Equip a sword offhand, doublecast 4 and see the profit. 5% vulnerability on a boss mob equals to 15-20k damage.

Also: keep in mind to talk friendly and not agressive to each other!

Just one note. As far as vulnerability stacking goes, other classes do it far more easily and consistently than us. I would never ever count a few stacks of vuln on the boss as positive Mesmer dps for that reason.

Xyonon.3987:

I’ve read everything exactly up to here and I’m one of those guys who test everything before saying “nono this is so wrong nub nub”

I’ve played 0/20/0/25/25 but only up to frac. lv38. My own build at the moment is 20/20/0/30/0 and I’m pretty happy with it right now. I made a long thread too here where I tried to figure out “my personal best build”.

Back to topic: So, I cannot really accept the point that you say with less phantasm cd you’re gonna have more reflection.
1. If you are switching weapons, and you should (sigil of battle), then you will allways have 20 sec CD on every phantasm, except the first one you create. Less CD is therefore a bit overrated.
2. If you really want more reflection uptime, why don’t you go then 30 in inspiration and trait glamour -20% CD and +25% uptime?
3. The trait “medics feedback” is highly underrated and saves butts since release. It has been buffed to the insane if you ask me, 6 sec reflection (traited with 10 sec CD. It requires a dead person, but I think this won’t be a problem in fractale Also IF there are SO MANY projectiles in fotm (and hell yea there are), then you should be happy to ress everyone without trouble. You also can use npcs.

Also don’t underestimate the damage of dominion 5 and especially 15. Equip a sword offhand, doublecast 4 and see the profit. 5% vulnerability on a boss mob equals to 15-20k damage.

Also: keep in mind to talk friendly and not agressive to each other!

Agreed on most parts I guess, I dont really use greatsword anymore so I scrapped the 5 final points in domination, as halting strike isnt all that effective, and as I really am fine with my current reflection upkeep the same goes for the final 5 in inspiration, never really could find a good trait in there worth taking. those 10 I put in domination for mantras or blurred inscriptions. I feel like it puts out a lot more damage, and while the party survives, I aint even mad.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Just one note. As far as vulnerability stacking goes, other classes do it far more easily and consistently than us. I would never ever count a few stacks of vuln on the boss as positive Mesmer dps for that reason.

You’re not bending over backwards for it though, its 5 stack in a like with a daze, works great in places like ascalon once you’ve grouped mobs up, it rupts and gives your entire party a pretty decent damage boost, while the trait is still in a good line which gives you that lovely extra power.

Presuming you use a sword, I always like being prepared for every situation, so if I put up riposte and the mob misses, I dont want to have wasted my time, so instead I release it, still helping the fight progress. I’d get your problem fully if someone would be using Imbued diversions to become a vulnerability stacker.

Oh well when i read GS part i think that i ll just delete my post….
If you are interested just look at illusionist celerity traits (hints is not about reflect) and phantasmal haste (also look at bugs).

Or browse old thread about illusionist celerity nerfs..

After all IC is going soon to master minor

whats a reasonable challenge for a full time student (nearing end of year final) just something hard that will force me to get better at the game preferably something i can solo but not something way out of my range like lupi?

Cake.6498:

whats a reasonable challenge for a full time student (nearing end of year final) just something hard that will force me to get better at the game preferably something i can solo but not something way out of my range like lupi?

solo all the champs. like those in orr (except broodmother – op as kitten xD). pretty fun