Guild Wars 2

Join us for some friendly PvP tonight!

I’ll take the challenge! Been a while since I fought Rylock anyway.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Actualy, utalizing stealth and PU, two mesmers could rotate to duel bunker a point. So long as one is always out of stealth and on point, it’ll hold.

The issue with this is that it puts you at a numbers disadvantage. You now have to dedicate 2 players to hold a point against enemies that may or may not appear to take a point. This means that on another point, if 4 or more players show up, the main group will be at a significant disadvantage.

With a bunker mesmer, it’s ideal that the mesmer does NOT use any stealth. At least, stealth usage should be minimal. If the enemy is capable of decapping the point from a bunker, it works against the team. Small amounts of stealth like decoy are OK because the duration is short enough that the point won’t be decapped. Also, you can buy more time with stealth by forcing opponents off point.

The issue with a 5 mesmer composition is the lack of a solid bunker. Mesmer has the potential to last long but a lot of the defenses available to mesmer work against holding a point (Stealth, distortion, phase retreat). I think, ideally, it would be best to have a team composition that favors ending fights quickly and allows high mobility. This would allow quicker rotation to support whoever is bunking a point.

I would run a bunker-like mesmer, 2 power shatter, a CI lockdown and either a boonshare or mantra heal/support.

Support and lockdown can run portal each, allowing back and forth rotation between 2 points. Lockdown would co-ordinate with shatter to quickly burst enemies. If the bunker is overwhelmed, the composition can split shatter/CI and shatter/support to hit the other 2 points.

Meditation guards are a tough matchup because they have a lot of blocks and blinds. Not to mention meditations are instant cast and their heal can’t be interrupted. Their elite skill is also safe to use. And to top it all off, they have good cleaving potential and can wipe out clones/phantasms easily.

For an elite mantra skill, I was thinking of something like an echo skill from gw1. So it would go along the lines of charging the mantra, giving you a mantra echo buff. Once you charge another mantra, your elite skill will become a copy of that mantra and remove the echo buff. There’s a bit more work in balancing that would need to be done but I thought it would be an interesting idea.

Another concept I thought of was having the elite mantra have blank charge effects and any mantra charges you use will use up the blank charges instead. Once again, a lot of balancing needs to be thought into it but I thought it would be pretty cool.

Heals are the most common thing to look out for. Although some heal skills are impossible to interrupt like the guardian block heal or thief’s roll heal.

Warrior: If you’re not in a position to avoid their attacks, I would interrupt any stuns they have and generally their adrenaline skills.

Guardian: If they’re using the healing book elite, I would lock that down. Staff might skill should be prevented in group fights. Between shouts and meditations, it might be difficult to interrupt any of their good utilities. If they’re using the signet heal, that should be your top priority.

Engi: Supply Crate would be on the top of my list of things to interrupt right away.

Ele: Anything with long casting times is generally bad news. Easy to interrupt though.

Thief: Interrupting a thief at any point is detrimental as they rely on their skills heavily. Key skills to interrupt would be the heartseeker after blackpowder (If d/p) or CnD if you can anticipate it. Preventing stealth is very painful for a lot of thieves. For thieves that rely on evasion attacks, it will be difficult to land an interrupt. It’s best to use dazes/stuns to prevent them from activating skills, not interrupting them.

Ranger: Rapid fire or maul. Their elite too, if you can.

Mesmer: Phantasm casts, mantra casts and especially their heal. Oh yeah, mass invisibility and moa morph should also be interrupted unless you can dodge moa morph.

Necro: Preventing them from doing anything in death shroud. If you can remove stability from their elite forms, preventing them from doing anything in those forms works too.

I still want a +25% speed boost sigil.

King Amadaeus.8619:

Quasi.8096:

Yeh I usually get that stuck state when I use flash while I’m stunned and immobilize, it’s like it perm keeps the immobilize, and I almost did a clean get away there too >:

Ahh I am glad you said that, because I knew Lightning Flash had something to do with it…You are right, it was Flash that caused me to get it before as well. Basically flashing with Immobilize on seems to worsen the occurrence.

I remembered all that after I watched the video again and read what you wrote.

Stuckstate happens a lot with teleport moves. I’ve had it happen frequently on my staff mesmer. To get out you can just do an emote.

K U T M.4539:

losieight.4807:

DI is better than BS in a lot of things. Organizing is a big one. We only do so well in GvG because we run builds that are meant to take enough dps and be able to run away from it, most zerg guilds that run the meta can’t counter that.

Please don’t talk down because i will personally merk you with my ragtag team of QQ friends, then you really will be crying.

QQ is bad.

Really bad.

themenaceofseventhdimension.2075:

I would go with sword, because Pistol has a lot of cons over the pros in my opinion

Pistol Pros:

2 second stun
Awesome bleeds
ranged phantasm

Pistol Cons
At least 4 bullets out of 8 bullets by the phantasm can be canceled out with 1 dodge
Stun pistol number 5 can also be canceled out with stun break and a dodge or aegis.

Sword has similar cons so I don’t completely understand this comparison. iSwordsman attack can be canceled out with a single dodge. The daze on the sword block can also be dodged or aegis’d. Pistol’s stun has the advantage of putting out a daze and blind on bounce where sword has a block.

I was on autopilot and not paying attention. My bad.

Assassin X.8573:

because i was out of omegas

I’ll throw omegas just for you <3

Mantras work fine for me. If you want to get them buffed, I guess I’ll just sit back and get even more stronger. The traited mantra heal is easily the best heal in our kitten nal. I’m hard pressed to think of an even better heal that any other class has. With restorative mantras, it becomes a big spike heal. When you trait it with mantra mastery, it becomes even more spammable. With mender’s purity, you get 4 conditions removed. I could never use ether feast again.

I’ve been a phantasm Mesmer for the longest time ever. I’ve had many duels, fights and encounters. Many have said I’m very good. Others have called me cheesy and no skill. I will admit phantasm is a very easy playstyle. It is passive and very tough to beat 1v1. However, I’ve found many of the good players know how to counter phantasm mesmers and that eventually you hit a point where you need good skills to really thrive as a phantasm Mesmer.

The key differences between a good and bad phantasm Mesmer is their placement skills and defensive ability.

skcamow.3527:

Heal mantra makes a lot of sense when traiting MP. You have quicker access to cleanses, but you have to blow your CD’s to do it. Slotting RM would make it not as worrisome to blow those CD’s to cleanse.

Still not sold on persisting images. Keep in mind that by taking RM, you are AoE healing which means your phantasms in the area get that same nice heal you do. Also about the regen on phantasms, you’d still have that via phantasmal healing in any version of the build we’ve discussed.

I understand the hesitancy on the heal signet – honestly if you’re going with heal mantra you probably want to keep it that way for MP if anything else. If you took mantra of pain that’s a different story, but you’re pretty full on your utilities.

I look forward to hearing how your further experimentation goes.

Okay. So, I’ve had time to tinker with Restorative Mantras and Mantra Mastery. They definitely change the dynamics of this build. Also, I can say I’ve traited for lockdown a little bit because I traited for more dazes :V

I played with IC a little but I didn’t really like it too much. I might try again though.

Restorative Mantras boosts the healing ability way up. I can’t go back to not having it. My phantasms and clones still die extremely quickly (Radius is small so the heal doesn’t affect them) but it appears it’s not so much an issue at all. I’ve found the best solution is good placement and setup. Oh, it also adds a tiny bit of group utility (Mostly negligible, I think).

Mantra Mastery lets you pop out the heal and daze more often. I pop MoR a lot and so it just blends really nicely.

I’ve also found some of the particularly bad matchups for this build. I’ve been having trouble with s/p thieves. They have a lot of interrupts with pistol whip and headshot (They can back to back spam it too, making charging mantras a pain). The timing to interrupt them is also harder as their main DPS attack has evade frames built in. It’s not an impossible fight to win but it’s a struggle (You have to time your stuns extremely well). I haven’t had a particular issue against other classes with interrupts (Hammer Warrior, Mesmer) as they don’t have a sustainable way to back to back interrupt that isn’t easy to dodge out of.

Arius.7031:

I gave the example of a 3v3 against BS which won in AR bl just a couple days back. Another example would be numerous roaming fights we’ve had over the last few days with a particular human warrior, who runs EVERY TIME he starts to die. He’s out, no matter what. That occurred earlier today, though he didn’t escape.

Another point to bring up is that “fair” doesn’t directly equate to = in number. We may outnumber you, but that only means it’s unfair numerically. Tell me, is a guild zerg of 30 outmatched by a pug zerg of 40? Is that an unfair fight? Numerically, yes, but overall, no (the opposite, it’s unfair to pugs).

I don’t think there’s a single BS warrior that would lose in a fair fight. Fight night kinda showed that. Nice try though. Perhaps you might be mixing things up as you have in the past?

I’m flattered you think that our skill balances out the numerical factor of being outnumbered 2-3x our size, though.

losieight.4807:

^ Or people can come early, been getting bored of roaming lately.

Man, why are you so early?

Assassin X.8573:

Avatar of Belle.9623:

AR = runs set builds = difficult to kill on my necro (because of lack of stability)
DH = runs random builds = easy to kill = has a lot of numbers.

My personal experience.

Uh.. last time I checked, necro had 2 elites that provide 30seconds of stability…

Also anbu mostly run builds that each one of us have perfected. Our newer anbu may run random builds but our core of WvW players are extremely difficult to beat.

The cd on those elites is ridiculous and one of them turns you into a big fat green target. Necros, compared to a lot of other classes, don’t have the same options for stability without sacrificing a lot of utility.

StickerHappy.8052:

I agree that this is not a lockdown build per se..

Dazes and Interrupts are part of a mesmer mechanic meaning any build can utilize them.

If you want a lockdown build.. You can build around the traits and utilizing other factors as a form of control (i.e. conditions, chill on sigils or runes, the on death traits, etc.)

Lockdown can be boiled down to as preventing your opponent from doing anything. The most powerful form of this is obviously stuns (No movement, no skills). Dazes are strong too (No skills). Illusionary Leap can also stop movement if needed. While I can’t boonstrip efficiently (I only have sword auto) like other lockdown builds, I’m a hybrid. I can’t do everything. My phantasms are extremely glassy compared to a standard phantasm build (No sig of illusions).

By themselves, dazes and stuns are extremely powerful. Why do you think people cried over the hammer warrior meta? Traiting for lockdown is like putting sprinkles on your ice cream, it makes it better but it’s not needed.

I’ll even explain why I chose not to take any lockdown traits.

Dom III: It was a tough decision on this trait. However, it’s competing with +15% phantasm damage. I find phantasm damage more consistent than interrupts so I opted for this.

Dom XII (Confounding Suggestions): Turns dazes into stuns and increases daze duration. Okay, lovely. I have two stuns already, one on a decent cooldown and one that is pretty long duration. Turning my dazes into stuns is a bit excessive with these available to me. Plus it’s pretty far down the traitline, meaning I’d have to give up significant DPS to trait for it. Do I lose much as a lockdown without this? No. I can still stun and daze.

Dom minor grandmaster (Wastrel’s Punishment): Okay, +5% damage to enemies not using a skill. Will this benefit allies? It probably won’t benefit me much seeing as these kinds of boosts don’t typically affect phantasms, the primary form of damage. In traditional lockdown, this might increase the DPS depending on how they deal damage. But no, I won’t gain much as a lockdown/phantasm build with this.

Dueling XII (Furious Interruption): I get quickness. It’s great on the idea that I charge my mantras more quickly. With how I play, I’ve never had issues charging mantras so I skipped this trait as it’s a minor quality of life boost. All the other traits I picked were just more important.

Chaos VIII (Bountiful Interruption): This build is played defensively where the player focuses on total defense while the phantasms deal damage. If the might stacks (Fury too!) went to the phantasms on interrupt, it might be worth taking. They don’t (Meaning I’d have to interrupt them first THEN cast a phantasm which is very situational). Regen has a good uptime already because I’m traited into Inspiration. A good portion of these buffs don’t do much for my build and along with the RNG nature of the trait, I opted not to trait it.

Chaos XI (Chaotic Interruption): It’s similar to confounding suggestion (What’s the difference between stun and a daze + immobilize?). I like it more than Confounding Suggestions because the immobilize is longer than the converted stun and the chill it can apply. Also, it can’t be escaped completely with just a stun breaker (Yay immobilize). However, the effect is a bit redundant when you interrupt with a stun and it competes with a lot of other trait choices. It’s not worth dropping phantasm DPS in my opinion.

StickerHappy.8052:

PS: You might want to change the sigils of paralyzation, you can maximize it if you have Dom XII, 15% in reality, you wont notice the difference with or w/o it. SO you have an extra option for sigils.

Actually, it affects stuns too. It’s significantly noticeable on Signet of Domination. Also, a lot of sigils don’t really mix with phantasms (On crit, +5% damage increase).

Whoops, I got mixed up with trait lines. I thought phant regen came from chaos (Writing when I wake up, bleh)

The thing about MoR is that the cd is actually really low (10s). If it’s traited with Mantra Mastery, it’s 8 seconds. Blowing it on cd isn’t as much an issue if it were, say, ether feast. The extra healing from RM is definitely tempting and I will look more into it as I WvW today (Going to run Mantra Mastery and Restorative Mantras this week).

Dat character limit.

Heinel.6548:

Personally I prefer Shattered Concentration for lockdown builds.

Shattered Concentration would be great if phantasm wasn’t in the core of this build. The amount of shattering done is minimal. Diversion, if your phantasms are off cd, is probably the only shatter that will be used and can take advantage of Shattered Concentration. Unfortunately, this does leave this build with an inefficient boon removal (Sword Auto).

However, even without lockdown, this build is strong on its own. So it is quite possible to outlast someone’s stability and wreck face afterwards.

blutstein.2468:

this is NOT a lockdown build. 2 Weaponsets that daze doesn’t make a lockdown build. you didn’t choose any of the ld-traits, so you neither punish your opponent nor you get benefits for an interrupt/daze.

But looks like a viable phantasm variant.

If I daze/interrupt the opponent, that still dazes/interrupts the opponent and I still punish/benefit from it. I might not immobilize them with CI or put out more vulnerability than a typical lockdown build but it still prevents skill usage and can punish an opponent. And let’s not forget that I’m also using lockdown utilities.

skcamow.3527:

@recursive, interesting trait choices combined with utilities for a pretty unique build.

Thank you! I appreciate you taking the time to look at my build!

skcamow.3527:

Have you thought about gearing for more precision in order to free up dueling adept for either blade training or mantra mastery (since we can take that in adept now)?

The mantra mastery has been something I’ve been playing around with. I use it in PvP since I can’t min/max my precision there and I have too much. I really like it which is why I wrote it out as being a good alternative. It works well with mender’s purity (More MoR, more conditions removed!). The extra Daze and HP/S is nice as well.

As for Blade Training… I don’t think it’s really needed. I mainly use the sword defensively so I don’t need it off cd right away with all the defenses available to this build (Phase Retreat, Chaos Storm, Daze/Stun, Distortion, Decoy). Illusionary Leap is something I use defensively as a 2nd teleport. Though I do use iLeap sometimes to attempt to strip boons (clone, yay) if I can. There’s a lot of active defenses through daze/stun that having sword on cd longer isn’t bothersome.

skcamow.3527:

How much is persisting images getting you? I’m wondering if restorative mantras would be a better choice, making you more survivable due to your use of two mantras in the build.

I did look at that briefly. My original impression was that it wasn’t a significant change but I honestly haven’t done anything extensive with it. I thought of using it under the idea that it can keep my phantasms alive through healing to make up for the lack of persisting images. Although, against some of the better opponents I’ve faced, the extra HP can be the difference between a 1 or 2 hit kill. It might not seem like a big deal but you can save phantasms within that time frame. If a guardian does an illusion wipe through GS pull and GS whirl, persisting images can buy you the time to interrupt the whirl before it does significant damage.

I will take a look at it some more when I slot in Mantra Mastery.

skcamow.3527:

I’m curious why you chose mantra of recovery vs. the standard ether feast. You might even get some good use out of the new signet with this build

I have to say that Signet of the Ether isn’t going to work too well with this build. Good opponents always try to destroy your phantasms. Without Deceptive Evasion or a way to easily and constantly upkeep as many clones/phantasms possible, you’re not going to get the most out of the heal. The 35 second cd is painful to be without a heal and, while it provides a nice burst, it impacts survivability a lot.

Now for Mantra of Recovery or Ether Feast, I went with Mantra of Recovery because it has two casts as opposed to Ether Feast’s single cast and having a lower cd. It’s a strong condition cleanser and the hp/s is, I think, comparable. The main drawback is the long casting time of mantras. However, this build’s default style is very passive (Mantras won’t be affecting the rotation a lot) and it has ways of covering mantra casts (Phase Retreat and Mantra of Distraction can be used while casting mantra of recovery, Decoy and Chaos Storm can be used to cover a mantra cast).

skcamow.3527:

I get why you went 15 into Chaos, but what if you could replace that passive defense with restorative mantras, take 5 from Chaos and go 30 into inspiration which would enable you to take persisting images and RM? Another option would be to take the 15 you put into chaos and throw them into illusions for IC. Quicker CD’s on phase retreat and iLeap makes you that much more slippery.

IC has been tempting. I’ve just never got around to retraiting. My main concern with switching is that it indirectly reduces phantasm survival, as they can no longer give each other regen. But I will look into this as well.

skcamow.3527:

Finally, have you played with halting strike vs empowered illusions? I have to imagine you’re interrupting often, half the time AoE (Chaos Storm/MB), and that trait could help with 1vMany scenarios.

I have thought about it. The drop in consistent DPS through phantasms is a bit scary though.

Build Name: Phants Lock
Originator: Recursive Illusion
The Build

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8al4zKqXQTjGbNJh5D9+MDoHdSFUdJF4O3A-jEDBYfIYLCyEEI0HQECBO9hIjNBCqMsIasabYKXoaYIqYCySBExyI-w

This is my WvW roaming and dueling build. It’s a phantasm build with lockdown utilities mixed in.

This build was designed under several concepts that I thought would work nicely. The first concept is that the phantasm playstyle is very relaxed and can easily mix in another playstyle. The second is that lockdown easily compliments the phantasm playstyle (Dazes and stuns can act as active defenses for phantasms as well as leave the enemy open for phantasm attacks). And the third is that lockdown doesn’t need to be traited to be taken advantage of.

TRAITS

Domination

Empowered Illusions (III): I chose this trait because it would boost phantasm damage. Although it can be switched for Dom II (Halting Strike).

Dueling

Phantasmal Fury (II): For extra DPS. Good alternatives are Mantra Mastery (VI) and Blade Training (IV). Mantra Mastery means more healing over time and more dazes. Blade Training for more Blurred Frenzy.

Duelist’s Discipline (IX): Lets you cast iDuelist and Magic Bullet more frequently. I wouldn’t switch this out.

Chaos

Illusionary Defense (IV): More survivable and really the only trait worth taking for this build.

Inspiration

Mender’s Purity (IV): This got buffed so we remove 4 conditions with Mantra of Resolve. It’s the primary condition cleanse for the build. MoR also has a fairly short cd for a heal.

Persisting Images (V): Phantasms live longer. If phantasms live longer, there’s a higher chance of them pouring out more DPS.

WEAPONS

Sword/Pistol: Sword mainhand is just such a useful weapon. With a power focused stat set, it also deals good damage. Blurred Frenzy can be used both defensively and offensively. Illusionary Leap is a great mixup tool as well. Pistol has a strong phantasm and a very good CC.

Staff: This is just an amazing weapon overall. Chaos Storm has saved me so many times. It provides an RNG aoe daze and can output some conditions (Most useful might be poison as it can slowly tip the balance against certain bunker builds). Phase Retreat is a great defensive tool allowing you to teleport even while dazed or stunned. The phantasm can deal a lot of damage too! The defensive utility of this weapon makes up for the loss of blink.

EQUIPMENT

Mixture of Cavalier/Knight/Valkyrie/Berserker: The damage output of this mixture is good while not being complete glass.

Sigils: Paralyzation for extra stun/daze duration. Energy for more dodges. I usually keep another weapon with a sigil of bloodlust on it.

Runes: Traveler runes for extra speed. The crit dmg and +all stats is very welcome too. Alternatives are speed runes, centaur runes and possibly mesmer runes.

UTILITIES

Decoy: Your stunbreaker, target breaker and stealth. This had more utility than blink in my eyes which is why it’s on my bar instead of Blink.

Signet of Domination: There isn’t a lot of constant conditions that are put out to benefit from Signet of Domination. The passive just boosts staff damage slightly. However, that 3 second stun is awesome! If there’s a utility that can be switched out, it would be this. Alternatives would be Arcane Thievery, Blink, or condition cleanse if needed.

Mantra of Distraction: I can’t play mesmer without this anymore. It’s just amazing. Interrupting heals whenever you see a blue aura or keeping enemies from wiping out your phantasms (I interrupt a guardian after he uses the GS pull).

HOW TO USE

Cast phantasms, kite the enemy, lockdown key skills. Depending on the class (Necro), you can be more aggressive with lockdown. Watch for stability.

STRENGTHS
- Strong in 1v1 scenarios
- Lots of lockdown to prevent KEY enemy actions
- Stuns make chasing enemies easier
- Strong at kiting players (Phase Retreat, Illusionary Leap, Speed Boost from runes)
- Can provide a little group utility with Chaos Storm and locking down key targets
- Even if Lockdown isn’t working, can fall back on Phantasm Playstyle

WEAKNESSES
- Weak in large scale fights (Phantasms die too fast)
- Stability prevents lockdown (Can be worked around with sword auto and arcane thievery, if slotted in)
- Blind can prevent phantasms from being cast. Need LOS and a target to cast phantasms. (You can waste a heal or a daze while casting a phantasm to get rid of blind)

bokunocarrie.7215:

as for costume brawls, i will take you on with my plush griffin tonic any day, my good man

Candy Corn tonic or you’re n00b.

Dear Santa (ANet), I want a mainhand pistol, a +speed sigil, a portal distance tracker, a mini Pyroatheist that I can… uhh… explore with?

Scepter Auto-Attack

The issue with scepter is that its auto attack chain is slow and the clone it produces has poor utility. Staff clones are able to put out conditions, sword clones chase and remove boons and greatsword clones work well with stacking bleed.

1. Ether Bolt/Blast

• Make it like necromancer scepter auto attack to reduce the dreadful casting time

• Aside from the cast time, the rest of the skill can remain the same.

2. Scepter Clone: The clone when destroyed or shattered will give conditions that can stack on top of on-clone death traits.

• Fear of triggering conditions will allow the mesmer to trickily defend themself

• Utilizing conditions will allow it to solidify its place as a condition oriented weapon

• Scepter auto attack, with the concept of fast clone generation, has strong synergy with on clone death conditions (Overwriting)

• Unlike putting a condition on the actual attacks, this promotes a bit more thought on fully utilizing the clones to full effect

JonPeters.5630:

Mimic
Last thought. This skill is for almost all intents and purposes just not working, but is causing some broken behavior with certain bosses. I would like to replace it with a complete redesign and am open to discussion on that as well.

I am assuming improving a broken skill is not in their best interests and fixing the skill is a lot more complicated than we think. So let’s just assume that the redesign is absolutely necessary.

As for a redesign, I’m all for the copying a utility/weapon skill. It might give mesmers that extra bit of help in WvW if we can manage to copy some AoE skills. The only issue I can think of might be copying a thief’s skills as they have no cd. Though, honestly, I kinda want to be able to spam cluster bomb. And the options that being able to copy one of our own skills is a bit terrifying (Double blink would be pretty much an instant escape or having a potential 6 dazes on our utility bar). On an aesthetic perspective, how would one look using Blurred Frenzy while using a staff?

From what I gather, in a team you will have support, Bunker, roamer, dps and control as possible roles. In terms of support and bunker, I think other classes really do outshine the Mesmer. For roaming, this is arguable, I think mesmers are on par with thieves. I think thieves might have the advantage in mobility but we have portal. In terms of providing DPS, mesmers are fairly good. And control? We’re definitely one of the best classes for that.

Signet of Domination doesn’t trigger revealed.

DoctorFaust.7103:

If you focus on 1v1 fights, then you’re missing the point of WvW entirely, which is not to fight other players but to capture and hold territory.

Uh, no. I believe the point of WvW is to be an open world player vs player environment. You can’t say that if someone plays a certain way that it’s wrong. The only wrong way to play a game is if the player is not having fun. I enjoy roaming solo in WvW looking for small fights. I might capture camps if I’m bored. I avoid zerg play entirely because it’s unappealing to me.

DoctorFaust.7103:

The game is bigger than you, and you are refusing to expand your mind to accommodate it.

Sorry but I guess I must be crazy for wanting to play a game in a manner that I enjoy. I did not realize that I would have to change what I enjoy to accommodate the game.

…

Now onto the topic! I play mesmer as my main. My playstyle is phantasm. I’ve faced countless thieves of varying degrees of skill level. I’ve won and lost plenty of times. D/P thieves are definitely annoying not because they are difficult but because they run away fairly easily. My current build has mixed in a lot of dazes and stuns. This, in conjuncture with hard hitting phantasms, has proven to be the bane of many thieves. If they attempt to stealth through the HS combo, I can daze or stun them mid-leap. It also helps that I have an instant cast daze (I can cast this if they use Basilisk Venom on me too). I don’t have a counter for Shadow Refuge (Most I can do is place a chaos storm over it) but that’s usually pulled out earlier in the fight and they aren’t using it to disengage.

I run a phantasm build and I seldom lose to thieves unless 2+v1. I have the nice advantage of running lockdown along with my phantasm spec. This messes up thieves so hard. If they use basilisk venom, I pop MoD and decoy and suddenly they can’t DPS spike me anymore with the addition of giving me enough time to pop phantasms. And any time they attack from stealth, unlike mesmers, they trigger revealed. This is more than enough time to CC them with stuns/dazes. A thief without skills is a dead thief. Also, I’m not total glass.

I wanted to build until I hit the ruins. Well played ANet, well played.

…

ALL HAIL THE FLAME RAM GOD!!!

To the AR engi whom I was fighting in ET BL, thanks for the fight! I had to leave halfway through due to some urgent errands but I really enjoyed myself. I just hope the next time we meet, you don’t run off as much.

RedCobra.7693:

Quality Maintenance oil (hey I’m not super rich I aint buying no master oil >:C )

For a commander, you’re awfully stingy. :V

Placement is usually a key factor. If the phantasms are getting OHKO’d, spread them apart. If not, you can usually place them together so they give each other regen and, generally, they should be able to recover enough health until the next AoE. Sometimes it’s unavoidable because of the boss mechanics so just tough out the fight.

colesy.8490:

If it weren’t for blurred frenzy I’m not really sure how worth taking sword would be in PvP/WvW.

iLeap has its uses in PvP/WvW. It makes for an excellent mix-up if you avoid using the teleport right away, as well as good at closing distances. Also, boon-ripping clone. I would take sword over scepter in a variety of situations any day.

The answer to OP is no. Mesmer playstyle is very versatile across all ranges.

IGN: Recursive Illusion
Server: Eredon Terrace [NA]
Playstyle: WvW/PvE/PvP
Role: Scholar/Instructor
Hours: 4-11 P.M. (EST) Monday, Wednesday, Thursday
All day, Tuesday, Friday, Weekends

I run a phantasm build that utilizes mantras on occasion. It’s not particularly too hard to charge 2 mantras with that playstyle. Unfortunately, I’m not really traited for mantras so my build doesn’t use them as effectively as it could. And, uh, I might recommend staff for a mantra build for the defensive capabilities. I think phase retreat doesn’t interrupt mantra channeling though I might be thinking of blink.

My lvl 80 mesmer

wyther.8372:

This fight is pointless, I’m done commanding. It’s not just the horribly uneven fight that is never going to end; some other commanders I have expressed my opinion to know the reason. I’d ask that none of them or my guild mates to bring it up on the boards. Best of luck all.

I guess it’s time for some of the newer commanders to step up their game! Sad to see you’re no longer going to command, Gilkin. I loved following you around everywhere~

Now if only Cedrick and Kawagima would teach me their ways…