Guild Wars 2

I play mainly a pve/dungeons mesmer. Last night my warden failed to attack 3 separate casts in a row. I have had enough of this bug, and with temporal curtain’s spotty reflect ability. I would like to get away from focus, at least for now. Also, I think I might add a greatsword for a ranged option for world events/wvw zerg and dungeons like Sorrow’s Embrace where it adds some utility.

Here’s my old build, pretty standard mesmer phantasm build for dungeons: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQRAsc8dlwziqHTzqGaNJxZGMf5oPgdSFUdJF4m3A-jAyAYrBRTiCEVI0Jviox2GKiGruGT5SEVb3BAA-e

And the new build idea (under construction): http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQNAscRlwziqHTzqGaNJxpCMHlCsndSKUdqLpA38G-jACBYLCikIBiKAM5pIaslhFRjVXDT5iIq2uDAA-e

Here are the problems I saw from losing focus, and my thoughts to address them:

1. No swiftness -> Traveler’s Runes (I now have 6)
2. Focus pull -> GS#5 is not as good, but it’s something
3. No Ruby Orbs is less damage -> GS#2 might stack with bounce, 40% cd & 15% boon duration from Traveler’s Runes
4. No Phantasmal Strength -> 10 more points in Domination to get more power
5. Less reflects -> you got me here

Will you help me make it better, if possible?

Standard no warden build is 30/30/0/10/0. Use all dps increasing mods.

I wouldn’t recommend gs. Rely on your team for focus pull… Gs push isn’t very reliable. Use pistol offhand instead— lots of dps in Iduelist.

Don’t go with traveller’s either. Rely on the team for swiftness in dungeons, or get a set with centaur runes and use mantra of recovery for runs.

Less reflects is the killer. And the focus pull is really one of the best pulls in the game. But this build is used by many folks when going for maximum possible dps, so give it a try.

Thanks. So what kind of build is that ie traits… a mantra build? There doesn’t seem to be much else in the higher tiers of domination without doing shatter.

The point is mostly just the extra 200 power, which will maximize your DPS. You can afford this since you don’t need to dip into inspiration for wardens.

Also looks like 30/30/0/0/10 is a bit better, since you can take the DPS options in illusions.

Looks like most people take Harmonious Mantras, which makes your Empowering Mantras better (mantras stay up longer). Hard to say what to use with the 20 in Domination if you’re not using greatsword though. The minors are quite helpful though: apply vulnerability with daze means pistol 5 is better, Wastrel’s Punishment is a 5% DPS boost against most bosses, etc. It feels weird to have nothing useful there, so GS might be tempting, but I would keep it only for range situations still

I know OP doesn’t want the focus, but I’d still encourage it. Reflects (when they do work) are still a necessity even in the warden’s current state.

I run a somewhat meta friendly flex build in 20/10/0/25/15 using the common sw-sw/sw-f for dungeons and then for PvE open world I switch the sw-sw to GS.

In dungeons I trait signets (using ether and insp), allowing me to maximize phantasm uptime while also refreshing party boons more frequently. In PvE open world I trait GS instead of signets. Full zerker of course. It works really well.

Are you doing casual or fast dungeon runs? If you are just going for casual runs that build is ok, but I wouldn’t want to get you in my party if I was doing fast runs.

Mesmers are only dungeon-viable because of reflects and team utility. If you kitten yourself by not going for either of the two (you must have both), you are screwing your group over and would be better off taking pretty much any other class… Not to mention mesmers are already not that useful in several dungeon paths as it is.

Also traveler runes are both a huge waste of gold AND dps potential in dungeons…

You can always go “it doesn’t really matter what you bring to a dungeon”, but if you think about it, you need good vuln stacking, might stacking, reflects, utility, and for easy skipping stealth (not mandatory though). And you’ve already nigh-filled your average group of 5 people.