For gear, go Assassin / Berserker + Scholar runes (Assassin on both weapon and armor), it’s better DPS if you don’t stack Perception. For Runes, you take Sigil of Force and Sigil of the Night for night dungeons, Sigil of Force + Undead Slaying for Arah.
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
Ruby Orbs still grant awesome stats for a low price and are better in organized groups than strength.
Battle grants best mesmer stats due phants affection.
Fire and Air is kitten in pve.
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
Are people going 20 in illusions for phantasmal haste? Is it actually working now and thus is it better then putting 15 in illusions and 25 in inspiration?
Ruby Orbs still grant awesome stats for a low price and are better in organized groups than strength.
Battle grants best mesmer stats due phants affection.
Fire and Air is kitten in pve.
Ruby orbs don’t even grant a single crit damage anymore. They’re bad. Go berserker with ranger runes if you want a budget alternative, just not rubies. You want slaying/night or whatever the relevant damage sigils are for the dungeon you are doing. Or even force accuracy.
Ruby Orbs are effective and cheap alternatives to runes, and also comparable if you’re not going to be above 90% HP most of the time with Scholar runes, of which the 10% damage bonus doesn’t affect phantasms and this is a phantasm build.
Battle, again, because might affects your phantasms and you’ll be switching between weapon sets constantly for your phantasm summons.
Fire and Air are simply for additional damage via procs.
TL;DR I listed them as viable. They are. Problem?
Ruby orbs are not an effective alternative. At least use ranger runes. Half of your dps comes from yourself too, so yeah, you kinda want damage modifiers especially since mesmers are so scarce on them. A damage modifier also does a lot more work than fire or air an is always on rather than a random proc with a cooldown. Soloing dungeons naked is viable too – doesn’t mean is suggest anyone to do it. If you aren’t going to give good advice, don’t give advice at all, the last thing this game needs is more people who ask for advice being deceived.
Are people going 20 in illusions for phantasmal haste? Is it actually working now and thus is it better then putting 15 in illusions and 25 in inspiration?
It is working now. It’s not stronger purely from a damage perspective than the 15% boost traits, but it provides higher reflect uptime combined with wardens.
I missed the part where anyone here claimed to be min-maxing
“They’re not min-maxing so let’s suggest bad gear”. No.
If I was giving min-maxing advice I would say take night/force for the respective dungeons, outlaw slaying/force for CM and undead slaying/force for Arah and have a perception stacking sword and underwater weapon. Then i would say that you should be retraiting for each encounter rather than just suggesting the 10/20/0/20/20 build which is what I’d consider a “catch-all” build rather than a min-maxed one.
But I didn’t. I gave a decent build and suggested what has literally been the meta standard for over a year now in terms of gear (berserker + scholar runes) and then offered a budget alternative.
ast I checked, the topic creator was requesting viable builds. Everything I listed in my post is viable.
Doing a dungeon naked is viable. However I am not going to suggest anyone does that.
Stop giving bad advice.
More elitist kitten stroking, please. Amuse me.
Ah yes, “the ‘E’ word”. Do you even know what it means? Or are you just throwing it around because you don’t actually have an argument? That sounds about right, I’m so used to it now.
2/2/1/5/4 dps phantasm build, with the most necessary traits to survive. But for PvE and survivability I’d recommend a condi build instead. Especially when you solo.
1pt in chaos to get regeneration on a 30s CD… in a phantasm build where phantasms provide you with more or less perma regeneration. Lol?
Drop that 1pt into inspiration and grab Restorative Mantras and spam mantra of pain. You’ll get MUCH more hp/sec that way. I would still drop that 1pt into dueling for Sharper Images because in PvE DPS > all.
6 inspiration is a good place to start I think. You get all the important minor phantasm traits, and there is a ton of good major traits here for support.
Medic’s Feedback makes you the hero of pugs, Warden’s Feedback gives you projectile reflects, two glamour traits if you want to go that route, Restorative Mantras…
I’m running dungeons with 2/6/0/6/0 right now with mantras. 3x AoE condi cleanse, 3x AoE stability, 3x mantra heal for yourself. Restorative mantras for some extra heals. It’s not the highest DPS or the best build for organized groups (in other words, bundle up speed clearing only 9000+ AP allowed groups), but toss Medic’s Feedback in there and you can really turn a bad pug around. And most importantly, it’s fun to play.
hendo. ranger runes don’t work with illusions. this has already been tested. ergo bad advice.
“Kentigem”-chief. Born cycle of Dusk. Wyld Hunt:
Learn as much mending and medical info as possible so that it can be added to the Dream.
Become the first Chief of Mending and guide the newly awaken as well as those who want to learn.
hendo. ranger runes don’t work with illusions. this has already been tested. ergo bad advice.
Do you honestly think I’m that dense?
2/2/1/5/4 dps phantasm build, with the most necessary traits to survive. But for PvE and survivability I’d recommend a condi build instead. Especially when you solo.
No, you do not ever want a condi build for PvE, and no way do you want it when you solo. I can link you a bunch of solos in power builds if you want.
6 inspiration is a good place to start I think. You get all the important minor phantasm traits, and there is a ton of good major traits here for support.
No, it’s not. A good place to start is whether you want to be using a build that is okay at everything or if you are willing to specialise yourself dependent on the instance or even the encounter. This is why 30/20/0/20/0 and 30/20/0/0/20 are the main builds to use.
Medic’s Feedback makes you the hero of pugs,
Medic’s Feedback is terrible. It’s a waste of a trait when you can maintain full reflect uptime without it. If I didn’t enjoy seeing pugs playing badly so much I’d kick mesmers with medic’s feedback on sight.
I’m running dungeons with 2/6/0/6/0 right now with mantras. 3x AoE condi cleanse, 3x AoE stability, 3x mantra heal for yourself. Restorative mantras for some extra heals. It’s not the highest DPS or the best build for organized groups (in other words, bundle up speed clearing only 9000+ AP allowed groups), but toss Medic’s Feedback in there and you can really turn a bad pug around. And most importantly, it’s fun to play.
If you want to go so heavy in mantras just roll 30/30/x/x/x. Ideally you’ll be switching utilities in between fights, but if you’re not and you want to go so intensely in to mantras you should at least get damage modifiers for it.
Seriously hendo… go take your OCD medicine and come back when you’re feeling better. I don’t understand why you have to tear into every build that is not 100% optimized for fractals elitists. I carried 3 separate bad pugs with the traits I posted yesterday. Most of them ended up staying and having fun instead of ragequitting.
Medic’s feedback gets better the worse your group is, that’s the entire point of using it – I don’t slot it when I’m running with people who know what they’re doing and don’t die all the time.
Every time a pugling goes down, that’s a free feedback field for the rest of them to hide in and make some chaos armor if they’re smart enough.
Seriously hendo… go take your OCD medicine and come back when you’re feeling better. I don’t understand why you have to tear into every build that is not 100% optimized for fractals elitists. I carried 3 separate bad pugs with the traits I posted yesterday. Most of them ended up staying and having fun instead of ragequitting.
And I have 57 screenshots of pugs I’ve carried while using meta-builds that don’t have bad traits. I am trying to teach the OP what is good from all of these bad ideas like fire and air sigils that other people are suggesting which are not worth using in PvE. All fire sigils do is terrible damage and give the whole zerg a seizure after someone’s sigil proc’d on the scarlet hologram.
This is actually hilarious, I’m being moaned at for trying to give the OP good advice.
Medic’s feedback gets better the worse your group is, that’s the entire point of using it – I don’t slot it when I’m running with people who know what they’re doing and don’t die all the time.
Every time a pugling goes down, that’s a free feedback field for the rest of them to hide in and make some chaos armor if they’re smart enough.
Or you just maintain reflects yourself without using a bad trait. Trait your glamours and focus, use signet of the ether if you have to. You do not need medic’s feedback, don’t use it. If pugs are bad enough that they’re falling all over the floor you might as well just finish the fight off solo.
Seriously hendo… go take your OCD medicine and come back when you’re feeling better. I don’t understand why you have to tear into every build that is not 100% optimized for fractals elitists. I carried 3 separate bad pugs with the traits I posted yesterday. Most of them ended up staying and having fun instead of ragequitting.
Medic’s feedback gets better the worse your group is, that’s the entire point of using it – I don’t slot it when I’m running with people who know what they’re doing and don’t die all the time.
Every time a pugling goes down, that’s a free feedback field for the rest of them to hide in and make some chaos armor if they’re smart enough.
Really. Really. Okay so I come back to read comments. Find out I was wrong about rangers (in my defense it was not in the patch notes). And I find this crap. If you want to behave this way on forums. Then go ahead. But too many people in this thread are creating a hostile environment to new players. If you all aren’t so obsessed with being right, then we can reduce one of the many things stopping new players from running mesmer.
“Kentigem”-chief. Born cycle of Dusk. Wyld Hunt:
Learn as much mending and medical info as possible so that it can be added to the Dream.
Become the first Chief of Mending and guide the newly awaken as well as those who want to learn.
Good teacher will give good advice without sounding hostile. Good student will learn from a good advice regardless of how it’s delivered. I don’t see either.
Really. Really. Okay so I come back to read comments. Find out I was wrong about rangers (in my defense it was not in the patch notes). And I find this crap. If you want to behave this way on forums. Then go ahead. But too many people in this thread are creating a hostile environment to new players. If you all aren’t so obsessed with being right, then we can reduce one of the many things stopping new players from running mesmer.
Oh no, it’s the forum police. Everybody run!
….
If you want to create a friendly environment, starting off by getting on a moral high horse is not the way to go. Hendo is obviously not a new player, nor am I. What’s the problem?
Ignoring the flamings etc around here, gonna ask you guys some real questions:
Lately I’m kinda confused what traits to take for what situation. I really dislike the mantra dmg in the dominion trait line. And I’m also confused what makes more sense for the team aswell for me.
6/4/0/4/0 seems a good build, IF I use at least 2 (?) mantras. But what Skills am I using? If I use a mantra instead of the nullfield, I’m ok with that. One slot almost all the time will be feedback ofc. Then I’ve got a last utility slot wich normally is signet of inspiration since I’m playing rarely in organized groups and got runes of strength + battle sigil for might share. Even if I only am able to share ~3-6 stacks for 30 sec I guess it’s more groups damage than +4% dmg for me, isn’kitten So the last option would be the mantra heal but I would definitly deal more damage with the signet so I’m stuck with only ONE mantra in my utility bar. That’s why I tought about 5/4/0/5/0 for +15% phant damage instead of mantra damage.
I’ve also played 2/4/0/4/4 but the +3-9% dmg from the illusion trait is less worth than the power missed from dominion, aswell the cdr on illusion attacks could be outdamaged with inspiration 5 and power from dominon. The only reason to go for inspiration seems to be the summoning CDR.
So you think it’s the best to switch between 6/4/0/4/0 and 5/4/0/5/0? Also, what are you traiting in dominon 4? I normally use the signet but all other traits seem to be totally bad there Vulnerbility or boon rippng on shatter for some F3 opening?
Gnah … help me
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
6/4/0/4/0 seems a good build, IF I use at least 2 (?) mantras. But what Skills am I using?
You slot in whichever utilities are relevant. If there’s nothing you just load up on mantras for damage modifiers.
Then I’ve got a last utility slot wich normally is signet of inspiration since I’m playing rarely in organized groups and got runes of strength + battle sigil for might share.
The only thing you’re going to be generating might off is a sigil of battle, you’re better off just taking a mantra for a damage modifier – the miniscule amount of might isn’t going to make much of a difference to the pugs’ DPS, you’re just compromising your own.
So the last option would be the mantra heal but I would definitly deal more damage with the signet so I’m stuck with only ONE mantra in my utility bar. That’s why I tought about 5/4/0/5/0 for +15% phant damage instead of mantra damage.
Then you lose compounding power. If you want to drop empowering mantras, I’d say 10/20/0/x/10 should be your base and then just stick in relevant traits from there.
I’ve also played 2/4/0/4/4 but the +3-9% dmg from the illusion trait is less worth than the power missed from dominion, aswell the cdr on illusion attacks could be outdamaged with inspiration 5 and power from dominon. The only reason to go for inspiration seems to be the summoning CDR.
IIRC it’s fights which begin to reach 60s+ which is where phantasmal haste becomes relevant – so if you’re in bursty situations don’t even bother with it – that opens you up 5 points you can move around to another trait line.
So you think it’s the best to switch between 6/4/0/4/0 and 5/4/0/5/0? Also, what are you traiting in dominon 4? I normally use the signet but all other traits seem to be totally bad there Vulnerbility or boon rippng on shatter for some F3 opening?
The traits are pretty junk, signet mastery seems to be the only decent choice really.
So the last option would be the mantra heal but I would definitly deal more damage with the signet so I’m stuck with only ONE mantra in my utility bar. That’s why I tought about 5/4/0/5/0 for +15% phant damage instead of mantra damage.
Then you lose compounding power. If you want to drop empowering mantras, I’d say 10/20/0/x/10 should be your base and then just stick in relevant traits from there.
Hm… 2/4/0/4/2 would be my base with 2 points left. Now tell me where to put them.
+100 power (4% dmg) and signet trait
cdr for illus and atkspd for phants
+15% phant dmg and only cdr for illus
or drop crappy stats and +3-9% personal damage for 150 power (6% personal and phantasmal dmg~), signet trat AND +15% phant dmg aswell 5% personal dmg against idle enemies (pve). Are you serious with telling me to go for compounding power?! o.O
Ziggs Ironeye – Engineer | Madame Le Blanc – Mesmer | Mentor (PvE) | EU
“Mentoring engineers / mesmers and showing you what you can do with your fantastic class!
Just pm me for my advice! Always eager to help!”
Just go 5/3 in inspiration/illusions, or 4/4. 3 in illusions is really nice for cooldown, and the last point can go in either. In pugs, bosses last longer so phantasmal haste is better, but if you don’t pug a lot, go the other way.
6/4/0/4/0 seems a good build, IF I use at least 2 (?) mantras. But what Skills am I using?
You slot in whichever utilities are relevant. If there’s nothing you just load up on mantras for damage modifiers.
Then I’ve got a last utility slot wich normally is signet of inspiration since I’m playing rarely in organized groups and got runes of strength + battle sigil for might share.
There’s no “breakpoint” where PH suddenly becomes relevant. Either your phantasms attack faster or they don’t. The only time PH will NOT be relevant to your DPS is if the fight ends before the phantasm has a chance to attack a second time, i.e. within 2-3 seconds of summoning it. Most fights aren’t that short even for a speedclear group.
The only thing you’re going to be generating might off is a sigil of battle, you’re better off just taking a mantra for a damage modifier – the miniscule amount of might isn’t going to make much of a difference to the pugs’ DPS, you’re just compromising your own.
So the last option would be the mantra heal but I would definitly deal more damage with the signet so I’m stuck with only ONE mantra in my utility bar. That’s why I tought about 5/4/0/5/0 for +15% phant damage instead of mantra damage.
Then you lose compounding power. If you want to drop empowering mantras, I’d say 10/20/0/x/10 should be your base and then just stick in relevant traits from there.
I’ve also played 2/4/0/4/4 but the +3-9% dmg from the illusion trait is less worth than the power missed from dominion, aswell the cdr on illusion attacks could be outdamaged with inspiration 5 and power from dominon. The only reason to go for inspiration seems to be the summoning CDR.
IIRC it’s fights which begin to reach 60s+ which is where phantasmal haste becomes relevant – so if you’re in bursty situations don’t even bother with it – that opens you up 5 points you can move around to another trait line.
So you think it’s the best to switch between 6/4/0/4/0 and 5/4/0/5/0? Also, what are you traiting in dominon 4? I normally use the signet but all other traits seem to be totally bad there Vulnerbility or boon rippng on shatter for some F3 opening?
The traits are pretty junk, signet mastery seems to be the only decent choice really.
Vulnerbility or boon rippng on shatter for some F3 opening?