Guild Wars 2

would this be any good for us condi mesmers?

vitality toughness and condition damage pretty much like dire (which we like alot) and it also adds expertise (condition duration) i’m planning to swap one of my ascended sets to trailblazer if the opinions of the more experienced mesmers sound good

on a side note i have a viper, zerker, assassin and a commander set allready. what i want to do is switch dire for it.

mostly just for pve, staying alive without too much effort (not that staying alive in zerk is hard, got enough blur and block) but i feel that after some thousand of hours on power mesmer i’m up for something new ^^

I would be interested to see calculations of the difference between lower condi damage but longer duration of Trailblazer and higher condi damage but lower duration of Dire, and to find out where the sweet spot is.

But also it is difficult to take into account how many skill activations for confusion ticks or how much running around for torment ticks.

I personally prefer frontloaded condi damage for the reason that most competent players would cleanse and not spam skills/run around like crazy when under torment/confusion. But for PvE I have no idea which would yield the higher overall damage.

I too would be interested in the answer to this.

well this is what u currently run right now http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vhAQRArd8encfCFohlfC+fCUrhlejqeUb1XF916oVwMAOtMC-TxRTABFeCAM8BAckSwhV/ZalfzqfAg9H6GMAMEAYmZmpRkRGSB41aA-e

it might not be the best, or even the most effective build (i’m pretty sure it can be improved alot) but i’m having alot of fun with it!!

full trailblazer gives 606 expertise, every 15 points in expertise is 1% condition duration. those 606 points alone equals 40,4% condition duration. add to that the permanent +10% from sigil of malice that’s 50,4%
but wait, there is more!
the reason why i chose chaos is for chaotic persistence. on average i have around 7 to even 9 boons on me (more if i have aegis and resistance, but those are near impossible to upkeep, or kept on me by other classes) so in worst scenario with “only” 7 boons, that’s another 21% condition duration. add that to the 50,4% and we are at 71,4% condition duration. confusion alone is an additional +33% from illusion minor trait master of misdirection. it all adds up and makes stacking much easier.

it also offers boonsupport/boon share
again with chaotic persistence(21% atleast) and our food (20%) the increased boon duration is not that bad aswell. with boons on shatter because of bountiful disillusionement (stability is great to have, as are the other boons)

signet of inspiration is self explaining
the wells are aswell(pun intended) , more alacrity quickness for everyone

what i was unsure about was a: the runes (i opted for rune of the undead to boost my condition damage since i have a very high toughness, and boost it even more with master tuning crystal and chaos line trait chaotic transference) i think there might be better runes out there but i did not feel the need to add +condition duration runes since i allready have a nice number imo

and b, the sigils. on scepter and sword i have superior sigil of malice for the permanent +10% condition duration, on focus i have superior sigil of bursting for more condition damage. and on the shield i have superior sigil of concentration (to help spread all the boons)

alot of the damage comes from scepter. 3 is a good confusion stack on a relative small cd, can be kept at 8+ stacks with ease with shattering. scepter autoattack is also quite nice to stack torment, or to fuel shatters so i see it as a win win. either i have 3 clones/phantasms up and i get 2 stacks of torment instead (making a full auto attack 4 stacks of torment, with a long duration) or i get a clone, to shatter inflicting torment, confusion and reducing my cooldowns.
both weapon sets have a block, and sword/shield has even 2 + evade i use that as my defensive set.

this is a fun build, not meant to be taken hardcore serious. as i said before it is not meant to be the best. it is not claimed to be the best. it’s fun, and a bit jack of all trades
it offers support, it offers condi dps. and it allows crazy shattering.
i, personally, find that there are way worse builds out there

i happily await some feedback.

edit: i am aware that (to my regret) there are no ascended trailblazer trinkets, just picked them in the editor since the difference with exotics+Exquisite Lily Blossom jewels isn’t “that” great anyway..i think you lose maybe 2 or 3% duration at most

That is a really fun build. I just tried it out and haven’t played much with it but I really enjoyed it. You’re tough and hard to kill with the trailblazer toughness and vitality stats and you pop up clones very easily. Takes longer to kill than a zerk build of course but not that much longer and much more survivable. Clone and phantasm generation is very fast. Its a good balance of offense and defense. I only went with exotic gear to try it out. Its and expensive build with all the maguuma lillies you need to craft the armor
Thanks for putting on the forum.

I am happy to see someone post a build using Dire traits. I know defensive traits for pve are generally looked down on, but this was my first or second gear set I tried (with rampager being the other) and it was a lot of fun! Objects were the only thing that was a bit of a pain.

Edit: Well not Dire traits, but you know what I mean…

I’ve tried other defensive builds for pve but they tend to suffer so much on the damage end that it just doesn’t work. Reaper is probably the only other one that worked for me. I’m wondering if trailblazer’s armor would work on another class besides a Mesmer. The Mesmer with defensive build can really crank out some decent damage with all the clones and phantasm shatters. It works well for me. The only drawback is the cost.

chemist.8649:

I’ve tried other defensive builds for pve but they tend to suffer so much on the damage end that it just doesn’t work. Reaper is probably the only other one that worked for me. I’m wondering if trailblazer’s armor would work on another class besides a Mesmer. The Mesmer with defensive build can really crank out some decent damage with all the clones and phantasm shatters. It works well for me. The only drawback is the cost.

it’s price is well worth the results imo, and as far as other classes. not really sure about those, since i only play mesmer but probably necro has a viable condi build aswell for it

but personally i would use viper gear for necromancer since they can afford being more combat orientated (power and precision) as they have high health, and shroud if needed co:pared to mesmer) on top of condition damage and expertise that viper offers. probably looking at a build like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYWn0ICl3gd3Ae2As3gliBTqoFCOaRBgBQCIuHWETiA-TBSFQB+6BA0P1fAwJAod6DaoyPqdEAc3+DZRJYAgDgdrbd3NwzP/8zP/c195dfe3SBsoyK-e for soloplay

and a verry simmilar build for raids http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

the condi necro is probably even better then mesmer because of the bleeds that last longer, easier to stack(expertise + traits) and allways do full damage, they require no movement, or skill use of target

melandru.3876:

chemist.8649:

I’ve tried other defensive builds for pve but they tend to suffer so much on the damage end that it just doesn’t work. Reaper is probably the only other one that worked for me. I’m wondering if trailblazer’s armor would work on another class besides a Mesmer. The Mesmer with defensive build can really crank out some decent damage with all the clones and phantasm shatters. It works well for me. The only drawback is the cost.

it’s price is well worth the results imo, and as far as other classes. not really sure about those, since i only play mesmer but probably necro has a viable condi build aswell for it

but personally i would use viper gear for necromancer since they can afford being more combat orientated (power and precision) as they have high health, and shroud if needed co:pared to mesmer) on top of condition damage and expertise that viper offers. probably looking at a build like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQNArYWn0ICl3gd3Ae2As3gliBTqoFCOaRBgBQCIuHWETiA-TBSFQB+6BA0P1fAwJAod6DaoyPqdEAc3+DZRJYAgDgdrbd3NwzP/8zP/c195dfe3SBsoyK-e for soloplay

and a verry simmilar build for raids http://metabattle.com/wiki/Build:Reaper_-_Viper_Horror

the condi necro is probably even better then mesmer because of the bleeds that last longer, easier to stack(expertise + traits) and allways do full damage, they require no movement, or skill use of target

A power necro/reaper can also go more defensive with stats, specifically Valkyrie, thanks to the Death Perception and Decimate Defenses traits.

But yeah, Dire and Trailblazer (and Rabid for that matter) work well on classes that can really pump out a lot of conditions. staff/scepter/torch mes works, corruption necro/reaper works, a very specific build of ranger works, and possibly engi. Warrior I’m still working on, but I suspect it might have a good build for it too.