(edited by jarthur.3649)
would this build be viable for wvw and pve
Phantasm builds don’t work too well for WvW in general because they tend to die too fast, and lot of your potential is wasted that way. It’s not completely impossible and the smaller the fight the better I would assume, but once you hit a certain number of people, Illusions mostly turn into shatter fodder, distrations, defensive shatters or condition bombs.
The advantage of this is that you can pretty much always rely on somone triggering clone death traits.
agreed phantasm die overly quickly in large fights, probably should have said build was mainly for roaming and small fights
Well overall I think you are spreading yourself a bit thin, trying to do too much at once. Hybrid damage builds are not hopeless, but they require a lot more planning and your traits seems to be a bit all over the place.
You have a clone death trait, a shatter trait, an interrupt trait and some phantasm traits, but you only have 2 phantasms: iZerker and Warden. When they go down, a lot of your damage and support goes away until you can cast them again and they have long-ish cooldowns.
hmm i have to agree that the interrupt trait is a bit random, i mainly took it for some increased defense and the fact that my weapon choices could actually use it somewhat.
the shatter and clone death i use together for when the phantasm are down to give character some extra sustainability with a little healing and a daze or distortion, if you have an idea for what i could switch the traits to i would appreciate the advice.
Well the obvious answer is start from the top and focus either on direct damage or condition damage. That will make it easier to choose the right weapons and they do have synergy in that way even if some are bit random.
If you want to play shatter, you go full shatter (30 Illusions) for Illusionary Persona (You shatter too, causing the same effect as clones) and focus on direct damage because offensive shatters mostly means Mind Wrack. You use GS and Sword or maybe Swords with different offhands.
If you want to use conditions, you focus more on staff or scepter and probably the Chaos trait line, go 15-20 Dueling to get sharper images and maybe some Domination for torch trait, or condition duration or Inspiration for some defensive trait.
This is not to say you can’t do things differently, but it will make it easier to build something that works and then you can adjust it to your style after that.
it may come to that but for now i’m going to see how it does for a couple days before i scrap it. if i do scrap it do you know of any condition builds that i could make use of the focus in I’ve found that i really like how the weapon plays and would like to use i in a build.
it may come to that but for now i’m going to see how it does for a couple days before i scrap it. if i do scrap it do you know of any condition builds that i could make use of the focus in I’ve found that i really like how the weapon plays and would like to use i in a build.
Check out Ross Biddle’s Holy Hell builds. I’ve also run a build with Staff/Sc-F in WvW roaming for a couple months now that works well and will be posting it with video in the coming days.
Kortham Raysplitter (Yak’s Bend)
checked Ross Biddle’s Holy Hell build out didn’t like any of them however i did like his poisoned apple build higher up on the list switched the 10 in inspiration to chaos for pu and switched great sword to scepter/torch will take some practice but it is probably a better build for it. switched link to show change.
(edited by jarthur.3649)
Ok, so here’s the deal.
PvE: What works well in PvE is incredibly limited. It sucks, but it’s simply how the game goes currently until Anet figures out how to change it. What works well in PvE is a full zerker (can swap out pieces for cavaliers/knights if you want more defense) full phantasm build using mostly sword/focus + sword/sword. That’s really it. Anything else is less optimal, and hybrid builds like those using rampagers are really bad.
Now, a build like that can also work in WvW, it’s just less effective since you need more defense. It’s generally a much better idea to simply run the normal PvE build, and then play with your build to match your playstyle with regards to WvW.
Now, looking at the build you’ve got there, it’s going to be a bit weak. Rampagers is somewhat of a problematic stat distribution. You have the high crit and a bit of power, but the problem is that without high critical damage, your power attacks won’t hit very hard. Then you’ve got the bit of condition damage, but the problem is you don’t have the defense typical of condition specs in order to win an attrition fight, and you don’t have the full condition offense either. I’d recommend staying away from rampagers. If you really have your heart set on a hybrid, I’d recommend doing a mix and match of rabid and berserker gear.
Now for traits and weapons and theme. You mentioned in your post that you want a sort of phantasmy build, but the problem is that the iWarden is a really poor phantasm for actually doing damage in PvP due to its very slow attack. Then on your other set you have the torch phantasm….which does nothing at all. In your traits though, you’ve got phantasmal fury, and so that trait is being completely wasted because you don’t have any phantasms capable of good offense.
The rest of the traits are fairly standard for a defensive (PU) phantasm build other than that one random interrupt trait, but overall I just don’t think the builds going to do what you want it to.
Not too much to add, PyroAtheist covered it all, but…
Don’t use the racial elites. Time Warp for PvE, or Mass Invis for WvW, are much better options.
For heals, the signet is mostly useful for its active, which allows you to get more phantasms out quickly (but is pretty bad at healing). Use the standard Ether Feast as you get started, as it’s by far the easiest heal to use.
/pyroatheist i agree that the rampager probably needs switched for zerk and rabid, as for the iwarden (doesn’t glitch that often on me) i find if i use him as part of a ileap-warden-switch-blurred frenzy chain he works for the most part and i just ignore the image completely, for the random interrupt trait that is a left from when i was using great sword and i’m not sure what to change it for.
/masinion I find that the take root skill actually works better for small group fight mainly because people have a habit of ignoring them, and i just don’t like time warp, mass invis is a pretty good skill so i will probably switch between it and take root depending on what i face
and thank you both for the input, so far the build isn’t bad for what i’ve run up against but it definitely needs work
Low power, low+ crit DMG. High crit chance wasted. Cond build for PVE just stupid. It is slow for solo. Cond caped and other classes do it better. Basically your cond dmg even in medium cond group is wasted. I am not asura but use a quote from one in the game. Your build is stupid and it won’t work in PVE and WVW. SIghnet as heal works in PVE but very bad in WVW. Last but not list. WTF with sigils? Check what stack together what not. Your sigils do not stack. Elite racial skills are for total noobs. If you are trying to have PU build use all invis you can.
Read Osicat posts and watch his vids. He explains a lot of things in details.
(edited by Ptolemy.5086)
/ptolemy I have updated the build somewhat less condition more crit damage and precision, and i find that i have to agree with alot of your post and ya i have no clue what stacks for illusion health. the one thing that I don’t agree with is your opinion of racial skill, in a 1v1 and somewhat in 1v2 situation take root works better than mass invis,
mass invis traited gives 6 seconds of invisibility during which you can still be damaged
take root gives 3 seconds of invulnerability and then has semi reliably damage afterword
in my opinion that is better in 1v1 and 1v2 situation you may disagree with me.
Jar you need to read skill tooltip. Reason behind PU not +1 additional sec of invis. Reason is boons. You get aegis, protection regen. It is random but you always get aegis. Aegis=block any attack and then get regen or protection -33% dmg. Problem with any ground thingys like mortars anyone with half a brain just step few steps back and avoid all your attack or destroy all pretty flowers with AOE attack. That is same reason i dislike Iwarden. Unless you pull enemy within warden reach it is useless.
Second reason to use Massinvis is escape. I newer run from 1v1 fights. See no reason coz usually running means you end up using WP dead or alive:). But i hate being kitten d by zergs or groups and i run from them. Mass invis makes it easy.
Currently all armor is cheap. Get 2-3 sets and try it. I recomend full zerk with zerk trinkets for PVE. Change skills according to the task you do. I usually change my skills during dungeon runs at list 2-3 times. Some like blink decoy massinvis good for Arah COF TA running but worthless during fights. Feedback is our best skill in dungeons. With pistol on longer boss fights you can become highest dmg dealler in the group. 2-3 pistol phats traited do crazy DMG. Try to use different weapons see what feels more comfortable.
(edited by Ptolemy.5086)
/ptolemy ya forgot to mention the boons also forgot to mention flowers cause bleeding, and I agree that mass invis is better when your dealing with a group of people, only seen one group in wvw since i got back on everyone is in edge of mist now, as for an AOE attack killing them all in one go it would have to be an attack that does around 4500 damage and covers a pretty large area which i’m more than happy to let them waste on my flowers. and i agree for pve just use full zerk armor which is the reason I have a set sitting in my bank along with a great sword and pistol. as for iwarden mine doesn’t glitch that often and actually follows the enemy and attacks them which ya a smart person will move out of range when the attack start which is why i treat iwarden same as blurred frenzy and immobilize or stun so they get hit for the entire attack plus whatever else i hit them with
/ptolemy ya forgot to mention the boons also forgot to mention flowers cause bleeding, and I agree that mass invis is better when your dealing with a group of people, only seen one group in wvw since i got back on everyone is in edge of mist now, as for an AOE attack killing them all in one go it would have to be an attack that does around 4500 damage and covers a pretty large area which i’m more than happy to let them waste on my flowers. and i agree for pve just use full zerk armor which is the reason I have a set sitting in my bank along with a great sword and pistol. as for iwarden mine doesn’t glitch that often and actually follows the enemy and attacks them which ya a smart person will move out of range when the attack start which is why i treat iwarden same as blurred frenzy and immobilize or stun so they get hit for the entire attack plus whatever else i hit them with
Take root is pretty useless against both 1 person and many. Mass invisibility is very useful against both 1 person and many.
If I see someone take root and I’m in a condition build, I just walk away…or ignore the flowers because they barely tickle. If I’m in a power build, I autoattack them a couple times and they die…or just walk away. It’s got a huge animation, you can’t catch anyone off-guard using it, it’s basically just wasting your elite slot.
/pyroatheist not sure i agree with the 1v1 part otherwise your right and it probably isn’t worth having sloted for the most part I don’t run into many 1v1 situations.
and this thread has gone way off topic so please don’t reply to it anymore