Guild Wars 2

With kitten-envy of the tankiness that Guardians, Warriors, and several other classes are able to achieve, I set out to create a high survivability Mesmer build that would still pack enough punch to enjoy 1v1s and have good sustain in 1v2s or more, especially (of course) against lower skilled opponents.

I used to enjoy Pyro’s Immortal build immensely, and this build turned out to become -essentially- an updated version, at least as far as the basic idea goes.

sigh
“Why yet another PU build?”

I tried this same build without it, in many variants and some had good synergies, but in order to make the high amount of regen that this build is focused around really work well vs. multiple attackers, requires a good amount of Protection. (and the stealth-breaks don’t hurt either!) Once I decided to work this concept into a PU build, it turned out to be a monster for survivability.

That’s just the state of the Mesmer class currently. It’s hard to ignore PU and not feel disadvantaged when facing numerous popular class/build combos out there.

Here is the build:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vgAQNAsdRnsISRaWsGOqB3aGRM9I48Ng7kCqb5KpA3uQA-TsAgzCnIKSVkrITRyisFNiYJyUEA

The main focus is on getting “Warrior-like” health regen through near permanent Regeneration coupled with the Signet of Ether, both enhanced by a Cleric Amulet. Together these will give you over 600 HPs healed per second with 3 illusions up. (combined with 1785 Toughness, 17.5k HPs, and the benefits of stealth/PU)

Your damage output from Phantasms and yourself is moderate; not terribly good, but not terribly bad either. This is what led me to remember Pyro’s Immortal build! And thus the icing on top comes from Retaliation, which you can keep up almost permanently thanks to 2x Light Fields that each provide 18s of Retaliation with an iLeap combo! (And traited Temporal Curtain is on a 20s RuT.)

Another big plus for this build is Control. Lots of it, and mostly AE! Sword brings the AE Immobilize, Focus the AE Pull, GSword #5 the AE Knockback, and the iZerker the AE Cripple. Fun stuff.

Cons:

The biggest downside of the build is Condition-focused enemies whom also often have high sustain. You have Lyssa and a condie-removal utility of your choice, but it’s not enough vs. the most extreme Condie classes. (Especially those with access to lots of Poison to hinder your regens!)

Although you have low Power to start with, as the fight drags on you get more Might from Interrupts & the Battle Sigils so overall your damage output is not bad.

It should be noted that, much like the original Immortal Mesmer build, this is a quite unusual way to play a Mesmer. With Protection and Regen up, you can take a lot of damage and dish out some nice Retaliation damage in return. (And with stealth/PU you can reset fights and come back with a vengeance!)

Feel free to give me some constructive criticism on improving this! (Preferably based on experience playing this or a similar build.) It is different and not everyone’s cup of tea. It does not play like a typical PU build either!

This is pretty decent looking. I have a couple suggestions.

First, ditch the ether signet. It’s not optimal for PvP in the best of cases…and you’re stacking a significant amount of healing power. The more healing power you have, the larger the advantage that ether feast gains over the signet. With your 1000 healing power, even if your signet ticks at 3 illusions every single time, ether feast will heal for roughly 1.5k higher than it every 20 seconds.

The other note is that there’s not really a huge reason to use Lyssa runes. They’re getting nerfed on the 15th, and your crit chance is still abysmal with them. I’d recommend going for melandru or hoelbrak to help deal with conditions.

Very good feedback, thanks!

On Signet of Ether vs. Ether Feast, I understand your math and have seen you make that point in the past, but I don’t think this purely mathematical comparison is fair to the Signet.

First of all, the passive nature of the healing is a sizable advantage, being uninterruptible and less “win or lose” then Ether Feast in regards to being Poisoned. If you EF while poisoned, you cut your healing in half. Period. You’d have to be permanently poisoned for the Signets passive heal to be cut in half. You also continue to heal during stuns, dazes, and KDs…all of which are a bane of our existence since we don’t have much access to Stability.

Secondly, there is the active effect to consider. Although mathematically speaking it would be foolish to use it, especially with the un-traited CD as in this build, reality will dictate that in some situations you will use it, and it’s essentially equal to an EF w/o Illusions up. (Not too uncommon in a dire situation!) If you manage to survive or make a clean getaway by using the Active, the much longer CD timer becomes mostly irrelevant.

Last but not least, there is the utility of the Active to consider. In some situations it’s well worth the long CD on the passive heal, in order to summon a second iBezerker to get that kill-shot in and end a fight that otherwise might have drug on because your opponent managed to get a burst heal off.

Your second point on Lyssa runes makes a lot of sense, although the nerf doesn’t really look that bad to me on paper. I will definitely try out Hoelbrak, that would be a nice trade off for more Power, and the Might Duration would jive well with the Might stacking philosophy of the build.

I love pu in spvp. I also run pu its really stonk if uk how to play it i have some build/ playin tips

Build: take out phantasmal fury and put in retalitory shield. Fury is not needed with suffecient percision. Since i suggest taking tetalitory shield, id use scepter torch instead of gs.
Pros of switching, more retaliation more stealth

Next id change bonitful interuption to the trai that takes 3% less dmg with illusions up. The name escapes me.
Reason being this build is not set up for interupts ik you have termporal and woth gs u have iwave but both have massive cd and when pulling multiple enemies you are banking on luck that all of them will b interupted. Also yhis would help swtich to sceptorch

Conclusion:
taking the changes i suggested gives even more survivability while only losing bontiful which is very situational with ur current build and fury to phantasmas which if u are around 30_40% youdont need.

Idk how experimced you are but im jst throwing sum tips out there for spvp.
Dont sit in stealth long eap with lyssa runes.if you have clones up stand on the point andstand still the enemy will most likely painc and attack clones while u are still holding the pt.
if ur doing solo q check out the enemy teM and change up the mantra because woth ur survivability, if they cont have a decap engi or a heavy condi u will not need ghe mantra.

Sry for typos on my phone!

Some thoughts -

You make some good points about the ether signet. While the net heal is definitely larger with ether feast, there’s more to consider than just that. I play the same way with a spec built around sustain, the utility wizard. The obvious requirement is the need to keep 3 illusions up at all times. I’m sure you do that well with your build, using DE. I don’t use DE but don’t seem to have too much trouble with phase retreat on a 6s recharge.

Is this supposed to be a bunker? Doesn’t really seem like it with PU in the build. If not a bunker, I have to wonder about your damage. I don’t see the build doing that much aside from a 45% chance your phantasms crit. You mention the retaliation – is that a big portion of it? Sure the might you gain from interrupts is going to help a lot, but even still, do you have enough damage mitigation and avoidance to last longer fights using GS/Sw-F?

Losing lyssa runes puts your already low precision in the toilet and hampers damage even more. Pack runes might be another option which will give you more power (ala hoelbrak) while also boosting your precision close to the 25% you had with lyssa. On top of that, the #4 procs quite often (dat fury!), which would help your personal damage that much more, and is on a short 10s recharge. The swiftness and might also have good synergy with what you have going with the build.

How r they nerfing lyssa runes

Another thing – why are you taking compounding celerity when you already have ample access to swiftness? I think I might at least trait glamours for that extra 18s reduced veil recharge.

Mystogan.4157:

How r they nerfing lyssa runes

Instead of removing all your conditions, it will convert up to 5 of your conditions into 5 boons.

Thanks for the feedback Kortham. I guess you could say it’s “bunkerish” but in the end you can’t defend a point quite as well as the best bunker class/build combos.

Damage output is not as bad as one might expect from a bunker-like Mesmer build, and yes much like Immortal Mesmer, a significant portion can come from Retal damage. With 45% Crit chance and 25% Crit Damage, the iZerker hits pretty hard.

Also, although this is a PU build, you have significantly more staying power without being forced to Stealth then the usual PU Mesmer builds. It’s just when you finally do stealth, you end up coming out of it with 3-4K more health then you had before you stealthed (plus the PU boons). It’s very frustrating in 1v1s and many 1v2s, depending on profession & skill level of course. Thieves are just kinda funny, they get some of their own medicine back.

Compounding Celerity is actually just left from before I used Focus with the Retaliation concept, I usually use Mender Purity there, but it makes little sense with the Signet of Ether naturally. I will try the Glamours one, that could be a nice little change!

It’s so reliant on stealth that I cannot see this as a good side-bunker build. For mid fights, it lacks group utility. It’s definitely not a roaming build.

If Illusionary Membrane had an 8 second cooldown instead of 15, I’d see this build being a decent side-bunker with staff, rabid amulet, Null Field and forge/undead runes.

Thedenofsin.7340:

It’s so reliant on stealth that I cannot see this as a good side-bunker build. For mid fights, it lacks group utility. It’s definitely not a roaming build.

If Illusionary Membrane had an 8 second cooldown instead of 15, I’d see this build being a decent side-bunker with staff, rabid amulet, Null Field and forge/undead runes.

Question have you played alot of PU build? Im jw becuase i see alot of ppl say that PU is heavily stealth reliant. Im not trying to insult you or anything, but PU is really good in pvp.

Theres two diff playstyles of PU.
First is the stealth PU:
which almost everyone is aware of. this relies on stealth obviously while either leaving up clones for condi or using phantasms to deal damage. THIS playstyle is terrible for pvp because stealth on point does nothing.

The second is the PU dancer:
This playstyle includes ONLY using PU for either aegis/ boons, confusing the enemy on position and escaping( mainly wvw) This build is extremely good for pvp because it does not rely on stealth. it relies on confusing your enemy and gaining boons while dancing out of stealth. At most I will be in stealth for two seconds just to get aegis and extra boon, then move a little to confuse on positioning while either holding a point or capping it.

I think most of the gw2 community thinks PU is heavily stealth relient because thats how 90% of the players use it. but theres the 10% that know how well it works as a stealth dancer instead of staying ins tealth all the time. Also all the new players/ noobs that join pick up PU and play it stealth heavy because stealth is the ultimate defense, esp agaisnt newer players.

I suggest that ppl go try playing PU and ONLY go in stealth when they want aegis or some positional advantage or when they want to escape. The problem is, most new players do not know when they are going to need aegis or what big hits to dodge so instead they will stay in stealth more then needed.

Thedenofsin.7340:

It’s so reliant on stealth that I cannot see this as a good side-bunker build. For mid fights, it lacks group utility. It’s definitely not a roaming build.

If Illusionary Membrane had an 8 second cooldown instead of 15, I’d see this build being a decent side-bunker with staff, rabid amulet, Null Field and forge/undead runes.

It’s not reliant on Stealth to stay in the fight, especially not in 1v1. Stealth just provides a nice “reset” when things aren’t going your way or you’re facing too many people at once. With 600+ HPs per second healed, lots of control/CC, and Debil Disp + Dodge Clones, you’re able to stay on a point for a long time with even the strong classes. I just defended a point from a Hambow Warrior for about a minute in a total stale-mate, barely ever dropping below 75% health, and not using stealth at all. (Until a thief joined him, and I still fought them for ~30s more 2v1, but using stealth to re-position & heal/boon up in between.)

It’s just that it gets really really sick with Protection up, and the best source of that is sadly PU.

For this fight I changed Wardens Feedback for Restorative Mantras + MoP, which works very nicely to stay topped up, as long as you’re not facing heavy Conditions. (2800 heals on charging the mantra) Yeah I wasn’t killing the Warrior either, but I was holding the point and giving him a very frustrating experience. ;-)

Same goes for decap Engies, who you can give at least a bit of a taste of their own medicine. (And Engies really hate Retaliation.)

It’s a fun build for sPvP and will remind you of the old Immortal Mesmer build.

Mystogan.4157:

At most I will be in stealth for two seconds just to get aegis and extra boon, then move a little to confuse on positioning while either holding a point or capping it.

Two seconds is plenty of time. That could easily be the difference between holding the node and having it decap’d.

Mystogan.4157:

I suggest that ppl go try playing PU and ONLY go in stealth when they want aegis or some positional advantage or when they want to escape. The problem is, most new players do not know when they are going to need aegis or what big hits to dodge so instead they will stay in stealth more then needed.

You talk up aegis a lot, but it’s still a 1/3 chance of gaining aegis. That’s not reliable enough, especially if you want to bunker on a node. Sure, you could keep stealthing until you get it, but then you lose the node.

Moreover, why would anyone take a PU bunker mesmer over a guardian? Guards can stay on point longer, have more reliable access to stability/aegis, and bring more group utility to team fights.

I guess I’m not sure where this build would fit in for a PvP environment. It doesn’t look like you’ll be able to bunker as well as tanky guardians/warriors, you don’t do as much damage as /shatter mesmers (you also don’t strip boons), and your utilities suggest you aren’t trying to play any support role.

because i play mesmer not guard

and its not plenty of time for 1 person to decap or cap apoint uve been standing on. and not everyone plays pvp competitively. some ppl play for fun with their friends so not everyone has to play the meta

You make a great case to why the signet is helpful in pvp. I use it in some of my builds. I love the way you articulated its effectiveness vs Ether Feast.

Thanks for the feedback and I have to second Mystogan. I’d venture to say that the vast majority of builds on this board are not “meta” builds, not designed to be a replacement for the very best builds, but rather a refreshment from them.

I play a lot of shatter and sometimes PU builds, but they both bore or frustrate me at times. I often envy the sheer survivability that other professions have, and I was pretty impressed with how this build worked out.

I’m still playing it and having a blast, because I’m different and I can tell my opponents are “taken out of book” by a build like this. I often see Thieves especially drop their current target to focus on me, because they seem to think “Mesmer is squishy!” and then they bite their teeth out wondering where all my healing is coming from. :-)

I’m thinking Debilitating Dissipation should be swapped out for Illusionary Defense. No point in putting condi’s on if your CD is only 179

^.^

Otherwise GG. Trying the build out tonight for myself.

Well 2 of the 3 condie’s from Deb Dis. don’t care about condition damage, and I figured that AE weakness might often be more beneficial to survival then Ill Def, but the latter is certainly more reliable.

Hope you enjoy it.