Guild Wars 2

Pyroathiest.4168:

Um.

Honestly, the only thing you need to deal with p/d condie thieves is either a pDisenchanter and a bit of smart play or a traited focus.

I’m specifically talking about those perplexity rune condi thieves with 5 stack of torment on steal. Holy kitten are they annoying, stealth to shoot you with ALL conditions except fear and runs back to stealth. Not just common condi thieves that comes dime a dozen and apply a bunch of bleeds .

pDisenchanter doesn’t work well cause they can just kill it, plus it removes only 2 stacks while the thief applys much more, bleed, torment, confusion, cripple, poison, etc.,

Traited focus for reflect is nice but it’s such a gimmick that has little damage input compared to the defense, since the time it takes for the phantasm to walk to the enemy and spin up, the thief is already back in stealth. The reflect is only one direction, the thief steals to you while you’re standing stationary behind the curtain, leaves room for more conditions via poison AOE via SB 4 or trap on dodge.

Alright, you kittening perplexity condition thieves. Valar morghulis.

Check it out: kitten Condi Thieves

Generally speaking, it’s melandru runes, -36% condi food. Combined together with a condi applying phantasm (pistol 4) and scepter torch for confusion damage. Along with a little bit of interrupt(stun: pistol 5, domination signet) to catch them before a Heart Seeker through smoke fields.

And of course, the key utility that makes this build work is mimic, it reflects projectiles for 4 seconds, throwing it back isn’t really useful, but those 4 seconds where you know they will try to throw stacks on you, that’s the time for mimic.

And finally the stat breakdown:

PWR: 1470
TUH: 1535
HP: 17932
CRIT: 56%
CONDI: 1359

This build isn’t fool proof, only works if you out play the thief, via interrupting heals. It is vulnerable to hybrid and backstab thieves.

If anyone has a better, less squishy build and more roam friendly one, please feel free to let me know.

Also, dual energy sigils are probably better than malice.

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I’m on IOJ, mesmer O P Thrice, if you want to use your condi thief as a test either via Edge of the mist or the current matchup, give me a whisper/mail.

Yeah if you have a thief chasing you, an ele, GS/LB Ranger, or a troll warrior. You’re going to get caught if you just run one direction. However you have the means to juke.

Example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?&v=_S1cKi6yzGg#t=473

Use it to your advantage. Phase retreat is the best option when kiting, decoy, mass invis and the F4 invulnerable are other utilities, apart from torch 4.

TLDR: Stealth and Stunbreaks.

Also Traveller/Speed runes help immensely.

killahmayne.9518:

I am not too experienced on a mesmer but as a shatter build …

I tend to run the torch with the torch cooldown and condition removal trait. You pretty much remove 2 conditions every 24 seconds.

Also I run the condition removal mantra, preset it before a fight and you can remove 4 conditions really easy if you get condi bombed.

Part of it is also timing stealth and what not and blurred frenzy/diversion.

Killah, sup!

That torch with traited removes 1 condition every 24 seconds. I thought it was a tooltip bug when you mentioned it, but I just went in WvW and gave it a spin. Still worse than ether feast’s traited in 10.

Section 2/2

Utilities:

• Ether Feast: This is the reason I didn’t go 20 into Domination for the Torch condition removal, Ether Feast is now a 2-stack condition removing heal for every 20 seconds, while traited Torch removes one stack every 24 seconds.

• Mirror Images: Use this for your condition shatter burst! See rotation below for detail. Plus you can pop this real quick then hit F4, mass invis and get away clean.

• Decoy: You’re PU build! Use your stealths, especially a stun-break insta cast.

• Blink: Another great escape skill, chain it with phase retreat, and you’ll be able to catch a breath for a couple more seconds.

• Mass Invisibility: To save you and/or your allies from a zerg. Or use it to defeat an enemy’s stomp on a downed player. Save this stealth for the last option though.

Food Buffs:

• Tuning Crystals: Condition damage conversion from high toughness and vitality.
• Koi Cakes: Condition Duration and Damage! The cheap 20 minute version of Veggie Pizzas.
• Lemongrass/ Poultry and Leek Soup: For 1 vs X unless they’re non-condition based builds. Helps a ton when those bleed stacks disappear oh so quicker.

Rotation:

• Bursting: Staff Auto, hits up to 10 bleed stacks for a single target and half RNG procs burning. Burning ticks about 800, while bleed for 1.2k. Should pop as much illusions as you can in this phase.

Shattering should be reserved when your opponent is low, or about to burst you. Use this with Torch 5, then 2, and 3, and hit F2 while you have atleast two clones up while channelling scepter in melee range.. Hit Mirror Images, immediately F1. But if you’re bursting a low single target, mirror images with decoy for that extra 3 clone shatter for F1. If they’re still attacking, hit your 2 for a 5 stack torment.

No need to stealth afterwards, you want them to hit you at this phase, watch their confusion, if it disappears, go back to stealth, switch to staff, heal, rinse and repeat.

• Kiting/Running: Staff 5 infront, hit 3 targeting the closest target behind you, while mid cast, hit 2 in chaos storm. Hit your 4, blink infront, hit decoy, turn a sharp 90 degrees angle to left/right, count to 4, switch to torch, hit torch 4, mass invis during stealth ONLY if the burning AOE doesn’t reveal you. If in anywhere you feel they might CC you, hit your F4 with 2 illusions up, then hit Mass Invis for an invulnerable escape.

Videos (O P in action):
Disclaimer: Hip Hop Music involved, explicit lyrics, random song choices and video game shenanigans, mute if needed. Some videos may be blocked in USA/Germany due to copyright laws.

Listing some highlights, descending ranked on ease of fight.

• 1 vs X, Intro against guardian, thief, upscaled mesmer, then necro, and some GS mesmer. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S1cKi6yzGg

• 1 vs 2 (Rangers), Intro, then running away from 5, and having a 10-minute team fight (5v5).
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP2EfQw6QzY

• 1 v 2’s (Guard & PU Phantasm), 1 vs 3, some Bow Warrior, Necro, and another PU mesmer, then 1 vs 3 (PVE mesmer, Tanky Warrior and Ranger). And finally a 1v2 against that mesmer and warrior. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGj_x-1GGYs

Hello! You need not read further than the Detailed Build Information below, the wall-of-text serves as a guide to new mesmer players! (if there is any). And the videos for proof of this build. If you have questions/concerns please feel free to ask (check the FAQ below though)!

Purpose:
To fight 1 vs X, more than one person, to run away and have the utilities to out juke any sized zerg. Realistically when played well, you can stomp up to 3 players, however the limitations are to more than one terrormancer or more than one thief running shadow refuge. But since you have the ability to get away, save your stacks!

Detailed build information:
This website lists stats, utilities, traits, gear and food buffs
All Exotic: http://tinyurl.com/plsdontexpire0
With Ascended Trinkets*: http://tinyurl.com/plsdontexpire
*Note See “Ascended Trinkets Upgrade” for more information.

FAQ (will update depends on questions you ask):

Traits:
Chaos: 30 (V/X/XII)
Inspiration: 10 (IV)
Illusions: 30 (V, VII, XI)

Gear:
All Dire Everything, traveller/speed runes x6
Superior Energy Sigil on Staff, Corruption and Bursting for Scepter/Torch.

• Cheap Exotic Gear
  Jatoro’s x6 with superior runes of speed for that +25% run speed.

• Travellers Runes Upgrade (from speed)
  After you’ve got comfortable with your capabilities, try investing in travellers.
  It gives you 10% more condition duration, makes your boon duration go up 15% more, making it 45% total boon duration. Plus an extra 30 condition damage! However you lose about 100 points in vitality.

Ascended Trinkets Upgrade (from exotic Dire)

• Dire/Rabid Amulet and Rings
  (jade wind orb, Passiflora Karkinata and Ancient Karka Carapace to be specific.)
• Rabid Backpiece
• Apothecary Accessories
  (Relena’s and Vassar’s)

Your condition damage increases by 3 points! Losing 100 points in vitality.
You gain >200 points in healing power to compensate, and gain roughly 100 more points in toughness. Apart from that, not much is changed.

I found no Dire stat ascended gear and had to compensate between healing power and toughness for the lack of vitality, because rabid gives too much precision, apothecary is mixed in there.

Weapons:

• Staff with Superior Sigil of Energy, helps dodging while getting chased to avoid crippling conditions, but this is a wildcard sigil, useful for me, may vary with your playstyle.

• Scepter/Torch with Superior Sigils of Bursting and Corruption, the Corruption is good for boosting your ego, showing off how long you’ve survived while helping condition damage. While the Bursting is generally a better choice for a well timed burst, chosen over condition duration. You already have about 43% confusion duration.

Traits in detail:
Apart from the obvious stat benefits, these are the reasons why the traits work with the build.

• 30 In Chaos
  V (5) in Adept is for those cleave classes that want to end your reign by killing your clones. Instead it annoy them with more conditions!
  X (10) in Master is for 5 second phase retreat, very useful in comparison to the old 8, although range is not increased, this gives you an optional free clone and gain you some distance when running away.
  XII in Grandmaster, Pee Eww, that’s the bread and butter of your survivability, Aegis, Protection, Regen along with 45% more boon duration and total of 358 healing power after the ascended trinket upgrade.

• 10 In Inspiration
  IV (4) in Adept is for your main condition removal, of two stacks of anything, use this wisely. See food and utilities section below for further condition decreasing options.

• 30 in Illusions
  V (5) in Adept is for the extra condition duration for confusion, it lasts just enough with the extra 10% condition duration you get from Traveller runes.
  VII (7) in Master is for the boon upkeep and condition stacking if you’re fighting a single target, you can keep up to 10 bleed stacks via staff auto, and RNG proc burning half the time. Plus it helps track stealth-heavy targets, just keep autoing!
  XI (11) in Grandmaster is for the most important survival trait in your kitten nal. The ability to self-Distort, although it’s very short, it prevents a CC if a zerg comes in to burst you. It also helps bursting in melee range for extra confusion stacks, and that clutch melee ranged interrupt for an enemy’s heal.

Part 2 In Follow-up Post, 5001 Char Reached.