Guild Wars 2

I think the only argument I can think of for it not being OP would be killing the phants before they shatter. But even then you could just F4 instead and have them pop back up.

As for deserving to die when 3 phants are up, its true in a long fight but I can imagine using signet of the ether opening for a phant build with

iDuelist > Signet > iDuelist > swap to GS > iZerk > F4 > watch all 3 unload again

chances are the first 2nd or 3rd phant will make them use dodges to avoid the initial burst so ur respawn will likely hit someone who isn’t planning to have those 3 phants come back and blast them.

on the other hand, this is a longish CD (F4) for the guaranteed combo, but if you use any stun and to setup a mind wrack instead the potential is pretty insane even with 1/2 phants and our other traits.

the uhhh build linked doesnt have Prismatic Understanding

Ario.8964:

I’d rather just see it moved back to master tier that way you don’t have to fully invest into 1 trait line to get the glue for your shatter clone production and then phantasms still have nothing to worry about. I understand why they made it grandmaster but I still disagree with their decision to do so.

Once again as has been said above. GM traits are no longer special at lvl 80. With the new system you will have 3 adept, 3 master, 3 grandmaster traits no matter what. The only difference is what they are competing with. Honestly, I’m pretty happy that DE isn’t is the same trait as blinding dissipation or evasive mirror which both seem interesting — only downside is a loss of harmonious mantras in shatter builds (RIP)

Unlike my usual posts. I’ll make this fast.

http://i.imgur.com/h7a0WHQ.jpg
link is from http://www.reddit.com/r/Guildwars2/comments/33qrg0/specialization_ama_livestream_notes/ if you haven’t seen the post.

Blinding Befuddlement “Confusion: 99 damage on skill use, 208 damage”.

If confusion is now ticking damage and we’re clearly getting a large amount of confusion application…..

I agree that it could be baseline with the current state of mesmer. The current mesmer relies heavily on clones and shatters since phantasms die easily and we need to have our defensive shatters ready.

By making IP baseline, they’ve given us shatters on command (namely distortion). And as people have also mentioned, DE baseline would technically do the same thing but would limit the number of phantasms you can have out to 2 if you ever want to dodge.

Therefore it makes perfect sense that we don’t need to have both DE and IP to keep the utility of our shatters at all time. If Anet wants to make phantasm builds more prevalent then it makes perfect sense to choose IP instead of DE.

If your build revolves around clone creation (shatter or clone death) then yes, you will probably want to go into the dueling tree. But now that we have IP as a baseline it is not as backbreakingly necessary as it used to be since we will hopefully see a resurgence of phantasm builds, confusion builds, interrupt builds etc.

Also — look at Hot Boy’s idea. This would also be a solid solution which would buff mesmer play.

Levetty.1279:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Levetty.1279:

Chaos Archangel.5071:

You don’t want to see any good news here. The changes to traits are excellent for Mesmer.

For example?

Edit: Nevermind, I have seen your thread and its just your obsession with a lockdown build that is always going to be niche and outclassed by hammer warriors.

Owch, getting a bit abrasive there dude. What build do you currently run, and tell me how it’s not getting buffed?

Currently toying around with a 4/4/0/0/6 Maim build still trying to customize it to my liking.

At the expense of some power, crit damage and condition duration I get two filler Grandmasters.

You are also assuming the GM traits stay the same. Note how they changed parts of ele water traitline. I agree with Fay, don’t condemn it yet. Esp. when mesmer traits are actually pretty solid, we are just limited right now with them all being so spread out in multiple master and GM trait positions —we have at least something to hope for with this change.

always happy to help people with shatter and interrupt if theres room for more!

Bowen.8096:

hey guys im thinking of making a hybrid mesmer, but as far as i looked around there isn’t an up to date build (at least as far as i can find)

Does anyone know a good build / or which build the OP is using?

Thanks in advance

PS: ALSO what is IP and MAIM? (total mesmer noob here)

Look at my post above, it will tell you the outline of the hybrid traits. OP was using scepter/torch and GS for the hybrid build.

Ross Biddle.2367:

It depends on what fight. He uses both IP and MAIM.

OH, and the vid doesnt start till 2:50. There’s a whole lot of advertising or some shyte at the start to skip past.

yea i started around 7:30 or so (that necro fight) for the actual hybrid fights since IP builds don’t really fit into our meta hybrid atm.

@denis
based on watching vid;
Hybrid Gear w/
2- (prob Mental Torment)
4- (prob Far-Reaching)/DE
2- DD
0-
6-Masterful Reflection/(couple options here – prob IE)/MtD

First of all, this is definitely a survival based phant build, its dps may not be as high kittenter if thats what you’re hoping for, but the phant DPS with phant fury will be solid.

To boost your personal dps I would say use GS or scepter/sword instead of staff.

Our staff phant has a habit of missing stationary targets let alone moving ones. I have a bias towards GS since it has such raw dps and range, but sc/sw could give you extra blocks and a higher DPS phant since you aren’t shattering much. Esp since you have 2900 toughness and condi cleanse you may not need the extra defence of the staff?

@trooper
No problem! The idea is for more builds like this to come out for ppl to test.

Looking at your build it seems like a combo between this build and Ross’ Asskicker. As for the damage, I’d argue that we can do more than a pure shatter if iWarden lands. This is of course a pretty big ‘if’ with stunbreaks, so while the usual burst will fall below shatter, we can survive longer to set up more bursts (and more consistent halting dmg).

If you haven’t tested and rejected it, I’d recommend using Shattered Concentration over Empowered Illusions. The extra 15% dmg adds up to around 450 dmg if every warden attack hits (roughly 900-1000 if every one crits). Comparatively, removing one stack of regen, protection or stability from an enemy effectively does more damage because they can’t mitigate the damage you are already doing. If you didn’t use deceptive evasion (like Ross’ build) then the extra illusion damage becomes more valuable again.

Thanks Ross!

Maybe try MoD instead of signet of dom to get more use out of Harmonious Mantras if the trait seems less useful to you? That or switch into ether feast, and run another trait (blade training?)

I’ve used no condi clear in past builds, and the main issue I’ve had with it is immob (ex. Ranger’s Entangle). The heal mantra lets you quickly cleanse it & other nuisance condis without blowing a big CD.

As for it being weak, having 3 uses of a 2700 heal makes for 8100 hp total while a 3 illusion ether feast nets you 7740, add in the on command cleanse and short CD and its actually pretty respectable! Only downside is the cast time, which can be covered for easily with all of the reflects/invis/invuln. (ofc this only happens due to MoR being traited so heavily – take away the traits and Ether Feast is the obv choice again).

Hey All,

As of late, we have had a lack of builds being thrown around the forums. I know some say that we’ve tested them all, but even so, I would like to think that we can keep discussion going and improving!

As such, I would like to share a build that I haven’t seen around. It’s served me well for the past couple months in both PvP and WvW. I’ll also mention I am not low tier nor high tier in PvP (seem to be in the same ranked PvP as CountLess, Blu & a few others), so no excuses of ’you’re a great player and could make anything work’ or ’you’re just in trash tier, so anything could work’.

This has been called “Warden’s Mindgames” after the reflect, interrupt, pull and boonstrip shenanigans that make this build fun and entertaining. I hope you all enjoy it

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsdRl0npBtlpxRNcrNipxcyqWikB0QpLZ8FA-TpBFwACOCANeAA12fYxJAoaZAAHCAA

Weaponset: gs+sw/f
The focus is by far my favorite weapon, and can excel once you practice it! It is by no means an easy weapon to pick up, but has some of the most versatile utility (and highest dmg phant if you can land it) for our offhands. GS sigils are air+fire to increase burst while sw/f uses leeching+energy to help sustain/setup burst.

Traits — 4/6/0/4/0
--
Domination
-Halting Strike: Amazing trait to have, it adds versatility to the build’s damage and you have enough interrupts to make this worth it. Some may prefer empowered illusions or mental torment, but I find it indispensable.

-Shattered Concentration: Boon strip is one of our best mechanics and is very useful. (esp. against pesky cele builds). This trait is necessary for the build to remove stab for us to pull, stun, launch, and daze our enemies.
—
Dueling
-Phantasmal Fury: Extra crit on iWarden (and some benefit to iZerk). You can take Blade Training (IV) instead if preferred, but Phant Fury will give more damage once you get used to setting up iWarden.

-Deceptive Evasion: This isn’t a phantasm build, it needs shatter fodder.

-Harmonious Mantras: This trait is the reason we can survive condi builds. MoR with 3 charges now outheals Ether Feast, and removes a total of 6 condis with Mender’s Purity (spaced when you want it). Out of charges? Lay down a reflect/blurred frenzy/stun, hold out for a few seconds, decoy, then recharge! Traited MoR is pretty kitten nice.
—
Inspiration
-Mender’s Purity: See above. With MoR, amazing investment of 2 points.

-Warden’s Feedback: Amazing trait imho, one of my favorites since traited Temporal Curtain can neuter a weapon set or key skills from most classes (lich form, whirling wrath, rapid fire, etc) if you stand ON the field or place it directly on your target’s feet. Even if it isn’t reflecting, it typically baits out a dodge or two. This can be used to create a ‘safe’ zone from your enemy — projectiles will be reflected, and melee gap closers can be easily interrupted via pull (which doesn’t interrupt channeling)
--
Utilities
-Signet of Domination: This is personal preference. Alternatives include MoD, feedback, and portal. I prefer the 3s stun of the signet, since we have no CI, the stun is an additional setup for GS burst, guaranteed iWarden hits, or making time to charge MoR.

-Blink: Amazing utility, you aren’t a bunker or using blurred inscriptions. Don’t leave home without it.

-Decoy: Stunbreak that makes time to use MoR? Yessir! Don’t be afraid to burn a decoy to setup for Curtain>iWarden or GS burst either — all around a useful utility for this build.

Thanks for reading!

StickerHappy.8052:

AND If we had more people actually testing the builds that some people post instead of just blatantly shooting it down without extensive testing and tweaking, We will have more people inspired to post their own ideas,

This. We don’t have the luxury of having a truly “set” pro-level build (I don’t count shatter since we have so few high level mesmers running it in clear conscience — see supcutie’s comments on what shatter-mesmer uniquely brings to the table). imo that means there are potentially better builds out there. I’m not saying that we are fine and don’t need lots of fixes, but we should at least be continuing to build and try to find them.

We can sit and whine all we want, but once we’ve let the devs know whats wrong there isn’t kitten you can do. So get up and make a better build out of what you have.

Turbofan.4569:

I am currently running a hybrid shatter build exactly like what you are looking for.
…
I have been planning to do a proper writup and build thread for this type of “celestial” Mesmer build but havent got around to it. Trust me though it KICKS kitten . Thieves are no problem… in fact I never lose 1v1 against any class unless outside influences disrupt the fight.

I’ll help you out some then Turbo! I’ve been running a very similar build for a while I haven’t said anything since most of the forums tend to shoot down cele mesmer, but if it helps the OP get a build he/she likes, its worth it!

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsfWlknpTtlpxINcrNCrBh6sslfSyBEgSGirB-TpQSQAg9H2lBAA

Shatter timing is key. If you throw out all your shatters they will just get cleansed – instead bait out cleanses/dodges then set up your condi burst. (Don’t forget as a hybrid, your MW does some good burst damage).

—Decoy Option—
With staff and t4, you don’t need extra invis to kite and survive. But if you can’t live without decoy, you can remove your cleanse for it. I highly recommend that you don’t do this tbh. Decoy is not needed with staff+sw/t survival.
————

The build is pretty stable and can hold out for a long while. It obviously cannot do the insta-gib damage as a full burst build but you do add up a good bit of might through a fight and once you bait out your opponent’s cleanse…they melt. The complaint about healing power being less useful is still warranted but it does scale with Ether Feast pretty well.

I normally use this build when I want a change of pace from power-shatter/interrupt or want to punish teefs enjoy!

EDIT: for rune choice, I’d recommend a power rune, otherwise power damage feels pretty low to me. If you really want movespeed then I’d choose centaur. However, as Turbo mentioned, he likes traveler runes and does well, so play around and see what you like!

It would require a huge rework of shatters to not be OP.

Before we talk about shatter traits
-A 1 illusion shatter is actually our most efficient damage shatter for MW.
-Cry is less useful and wouldn’t be a bad option (until we include shatter traits)
-A daze would be ridiculous and would let us space out dazes to lock people down even better.
-Distortion is well….distortion… how much invuln can you get?

Now add in…..
-Shattered Concentration.
-Confounding suggestions / Imbued diversion
-Chaotic interruption.
-Shattered strength (might)
-Restorative Illusions/Shattered Conditions
-MtD
Hell, even Bountiful Disillusionent…. (shatter = boon)

well then I have learned something – thanks Fay

@Fay
Pretty sure when you diversion someone with stab right now you don’t strip boons (ofc I learned not to do that mistake in the first couple days of PvP but still). Now since there is an effect (lowering stab stacks by 1) you should get the boonstrip proc so you can diversion with impunity for strips.

It actually makes shattered concentration better since diversion against a stab target used to be immune now itll proc in removing. The pulse thing is a bit annoying but that just means you have to be conscious of the buff bar.

The thing is, if they want Mesmer to be a competitive and diverse class they should realize we need a mainhand & if other classes getting 5 skills, I would hope that we get a mainhand ranged power wep like we’ve needed for ages with that shield.

BUT ofc the world isn’t fair and with how poorly mesmer balance has been managed I don’t have high hopes…still I’ll keep playin the Mes hoping since we’re clearly the coolest class! Now we just need something besides portal to make us unique.

edit: For Zenith — idc if its pistol, single target etc. Just make it ranged, some AoE wouldn’t hurt us either but i can sacrifice that to get the kitten thing in the first place. The idea is that we can use a second of our 4 offhands rather than being stuck with GS all the time.

First of all, props to you for not cutting out each fight before you get downed etc. So many prefer the highlight reel which doesn’t give a real feel for how you always fight.

I would probably switch traited torch to boonstrip, esp with resistance coming up itll be more useful later and you already have good condi cleanse.

Mogar.9216:

Turret engis you can
1. use range to kill them
2. kill their turret first (this is a pain as the turrets does not get crited)
3. Lure them out, I sometime let them take me down real low and start backing away, they get greedy and follow for a kill then I blow all my CD and kill them
4. Moa
That been said it’s still a pain more often than not I just walk away from them.

Cele DD ele , kite kite kite. I use torch, mass invis and decoy + blink I can fight a equal skill level guy to a draw. The best part is I will never lose as long as I time my stealth right the bad ones will die to my burst and the really good ones just have too much regen for me to kill so it ends at a draw.

^ This. Only thing I would add is against turret engis; sometimes a landed burst combo can scare them enough to finish them off, or use it after you range pressure them. A good engi won’t let you get away with it, but imo traiting for turret engi feels like a compromise for less good engis.

This post is essentially useless if you are trying to prove anything other than our good burst. Mesmer burst is great, sustained dps is not. We’ve known this since ever…

For dodging our burst setting us back… why shouldn’kitten We have a low CD burst combo with pretty nice defensive options. With a bit of timing and practice, hitting your combo isn’t too hard with immob even against good opponents. Make your own opening.

The main problem I’d worry about it our lack of diversity in ‘successful’ builds. We have arguably 3 or 4. But most of them do the same thing – burst dps. We don’t have a great sustain/bunker build and rely on AI some. Not to mention our limits in weapon selection in those builds (most of the time).

First thought when looking at your build – ofc the staff has solid damage as a condi weapon over GS or sword in a condi build… that is its main source of dps. In power builds it clearly falls behind.

If this is for dungeon PvE, the problem with condi damage is that it caps, while power damage doesn’t. At 25 stacks of bleeding, you stop gaining damage, same with vuln (and others but those are specific to staff). For burning, any added burning simply stacks duration making it spread over more time. Imho, having one condi on a PvE group is not completely awful – any more than that you will probably lose dps.

As for mesmer condi….you seem to be forgetting that in PvE we use phantasms for the majority of our damage (iWarden and iSwordsman). What does iWarlock bring to your damage to make it equal the dps iWarden and iSword have in power builds? Sword has the highest power dps for a 1h weapon, and iWarden/iSword are our best phants, therefore s/f and s/s are used.

If this is for general PvE, do what you want…its not hurting anyone.

My advice is to go into unranked and playtest variants of teamplay builds shatter/interrupt. Find out what you like to do within a build and create your own.

Personally, I love reflects, shatters, iWarden, and boon strips (oh and hate condis but who doesn’t). My build addresses all of these and puts out good damage – even more so because it fits my playstyle.

Maybe meta shatter isn’t your style? Switch to sw/torch? (if you love pull/interrupts maybe switch to sw/f). Don’t give up, mesmers have moderate freedom in builds and IP is not a requirement to do great damage.

You mean PU 2.0? Nah, I’m good. Lets first worry about getting a sustainable spec, more reliable mechanic (AI can be meh), and getting rid of DE requirements for so many builds.

I would pick Mesmer going into HoT. First of all, we are definitely one of the less powerful classes atm but once you figure out the playstyle its still very rewarding and you can dominate people. Not to mention we are in a great position to get some long needed buffs/updates come HoT with our minimal use in professional PvP (those few that are out there are).

As far as having fun, mesmer is great to do burst and play mind games imo, and I will never ditch the mesmer. In PvE dungeons your Ele will be more efficient are desired outside of reflects. I still use mesmer though for the good ability to tag via greatsword in open world and semi-engaging melee only play on s/s + s/f in dungeons

I leveled my mesmer last september. For PvE i found that GS/Staff was best for me. GS brings raw DPS and staff lets you kill multiple mobs without getting punished for dying. If you’re insistent on lvling in PvE though, i would recommend you grab a minor sigil of bloodlust for your weapon (until 60 then get a major sigil). It costs almost nothing and makes it faster. When you get bored of PvE switch to PvP for tome farming.

Once you make it to 80 though, the world finally opens up as mesmer. Enjoy!

First of all, great play and an interesting/fun combo between some of osi’s old heal mantra love and meta shatter!

As for PvP, I had some good success after modifying it slightly.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAR8cl0npVtNqxMNcrNyqxcqlQdZrlWpHJ7AA-TVCEAB2t/ABPAgEV/ZLlgMpMygLAQTKdaTXAAHBgAAIA38mZzAWuyVuyVuyZn7cn7cn7sUAPtMC-w

I can’t agree more about feedback being useful in most situations; with an organized team maybe switch it to portal as needed.

Since decoy is back in as your oh-kitten button, offhand pistol or sword give pressure phantasms (with traited sword iSword has a 12s cd), and some cc/block. Sadly focus doesn’t seem to fit here too well since you want a phantasm to guarantee pressure.

As for runes, I use centaur for the on command swiftness and good power — just my 2 cents

jenzie.4083:

From playing PVP in a lot of MMOS I’ve come to the conclusion that rooting/immobilize is a very powerfull tool to induce stress

This about sums up the purpose of interrupt builds imo. Mind games from interrupts and immobs added to your shatter game works wonders. Personally, I find this best with sword/focus. It can take a while to learn all the intricacies but a successful curtain(interrupt) >>iWarden>>iLeap will make people panic (and in a IP shatter build it sets up a huge MW burst). The links posted will help you get a start. Don’t feel like you have to go full CI or CS interrupt either. Play around to find a balance that fits you!

theCOREYCOLAK.5698:

Depends on what you’re doing, and whom you’re with. If we’re talking about PvE, then you could get away with it no problem, if you’re running in a big group, say WvW, sure, you could also be fine. However, when it comes to 1v1 roaming situations, small scale skirmishes and sPvP where you’re more than likely to be targeted, than no.

We’ll keep this on WvW and PvP. Decoy in PvE is useless unless you’re stealth skipping.

In many mesmers builds we usually take very similar utilities; blink, decoy, and something else of our choice. If we want to take two other utilities we must remove blink or decoy, both of which seem to be almost mandatory. Blink for positioning and decoy to re-position and disengage. I’d like to think we can live without decoy (and maybe blink?) which leads me to these questions.

Can mesmers still survive well with a high dps build and no stealth?
Do you use decoy in your build?
If so, why?
If not, why not?

Illusionary Counter and Portal!

Must admit this thread could make for some interest builds otherwise unused

@ Chaos I’ve seen the argument and I have to admit I love the boon strip but I always come back to blink/decoy. Blink is amazing for everything, and decoy is great for mind games and setups…not to mention it seems that in mesmer duels that the mesmer with more stealth tends to have an advantage in setting up :/ I’ll run it for a bit though, I do love the extra boon strip and field…

@MailMail I tried it out some and while its good, the loss in dps and more reliance on interrupts makes me learn back towards the ol’ 4/4/6 CI from Chaos’ vids.

@Curunen Yea sorry you’re in the minority on that Mirror is nice but tends to fall short for me. If I was in a 4/4/6 build and still wanted my reflects up that would sound like a good option though.
——
As for a follow up on the condi version, I can’t deny it was good although it felt as if iDuelist could be used instead to get more consistent bleed stacks? I also wished for more burst out of it, maybe when Sinister Ammy comes out (though loss of ferocity will hurt)?

Another question though after testing, to balance the dps of GS and the survivability of staff could a sc/x + sw/f set work well instead?

^ Pretty much covers it. Reflects are good, and we can survive pretty well and dps in dungeons. Otherwise dps is meh since mobs die pretty fast, and mobility is worse.

Mesmers have a nice niche for dungeons and PvP though! <— sales pitch

@Skcamow

…As for your version here, I like the more interrupt focused spice. Have you tried playing it with Staff?

Not yet, I had thought about it but it seemed like GS may be needed for some extra dps? Now that you mention it though I like the idea of trapping in chaos storm :P I’ll give it a test tonight!

I’ll also give the condi setup a run it looks interesting. Esp with sc/f not giving you a forgiving iLeap if you miss your interrupt > iWarden. It’ll definitely accentuate that survivability though with fair dps. (and who could forget perplexity runes in WvW)

@ Snakebyte As mentioned I’ll have to give it a run. I’ll never complain about more builds to test

@MailMail Thanks! When you use staff does it seem like dps drops noticeably vs gs?

@ Tealots I’ll have to check out the vids. I completely agree on GS needing finesse, but when it works its insanely fun. And I don’t know if anyone can claim to have fully mastered all the intricacies of focus…the skill to just make it effective can be pretty ridiculous! It definitely keeps me interested though to master this weapon set.

Short Answer: Yes
Long Answer: Yes if you’re running a power build.

Okay. So, we clearly need some extra stuff to talk about on the forums atm. So………

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsdRlknpGtlpxRNcrNCvxY6FKohTmyHlMgbB-TJBFwA12fYxRAoaZAAPCAA

Its a 0/4/6/4 build; obvious variant of the classic 4/4/6 CI build. Essentially switching some damage and boon removal for survivability and reflects. I won’t go into utilities or weapons in detail since its the classic GS + sw/f, with Feast, MoD, Blink, Decoy, *elite

Dueling:
Blade Training: Shorter CD on your blurred frenzy, and iLeap? Can’t say no to that! Especially when your warden is insane damage, a good iLeap never hurts.

Deceptive Evasion: Sadly the build relies on shatters for some damage. The key is to realize when to shatter and when to keep your phants/clones. Only Diversion/Distort when you know you can interrupt or need to survive, otherwise MW is the go to of course, and better clone death traits kick in than CoF most of the time.

Chaos:
Debilitating dissipation: Good trait. Nuff said.

Boutiful Interruption: Again, good trait. Note that without halting strike that temptation to throw a random daze for damage is gone (at least I’ve always had the temptation). Interrupts = might+iWarden = kills.

Chaotic Interruption: Gotta love it.

Inspiration:
Mender’s Purity: Condi cleanse instead of boon removal. Tradeoff some damage for some survivability. Combined w/ reflects, interrupts, and positioning, condis should almost never stay on you.

Warden’s Feedback: Key point of this build — otherwise you go into 4/4/6 again. Reflects are by far one of my favorite mechanics; Guards can’t spin to win, Rangers can no longer press 2, Power Necros (nuff said), etc. If you thought temporal curtain was good before (though few of us I think?), reflects make the world go round.
--——-
Before you (yes you) dismiss the build for lack of halting strike and shattered concentration for a couple of utilities here are a few reasons why I’ve tried this and enjoyed it

1) Condi cleanse: Yes, we can dodge a lot of condis, but against condi builds those two extra cleanses and an iWarden on a temporal curtain (light) field can help out a bunch. (Not to mention many condi builds use projectiles)

2) No Halting Strike: Admittedly, during my initial trials I was annoyed at no halting damage, but after a while its nice. Relying on halting damage seemed to cause me to be less patient in my interrupts to get burst to finish off an enemy. Yes, the 700ish damage is nice (and crits even better), but I don’t run interrupts to burst, but to stop others from getting theirs or healing and set up my burst. 5 extra stacks of might and an immob are more than enough for me to kill an enemy, and I save my charges better to boot!

3) Reflects: This build started oddly enough because I wanted to use the focus for reflects and land iWarden consistently. Reflects in PvP are not just for reflecting, but add a mental game as well. (What goes through ur mind when projectiles bounce back to you?) Most of the time I can set up a curtain and watch my enemy get hit back or, if they know its a reflect, try to engage which sets up for a nice Pull>iWarden>iLeap combo. If they want to back away, then the GS can punish them.

4) Deceptive Evasion: I did some rough DPS calculations early on to decide whether to go 4/0/6/4/0, 2/2/6/4/0, or 0/4/6/4/0. The results showed that my traits didn’t matter largely for illusion damage (accounting for a few interrupts, crit dmg/% and bleeds). If around 50% of iWarden hits landed, then bleed damage was better, if not halting damage would win out. Also, it didn’t account for shatter damage and survivability, which DE adds a lot of. The missing boon removal is still sad, but the GS can remove stability when I see it pop up, this is probably the only real problem I find when playing the build.

As much as removing illusions could be interesting, specialization seems to be a sub-class format because they don’t want to remake and rebalance every weapon for every class. I agree a chronomancer theme seems to be the deal and ‘new mechanics’ brings us some interesting possibilities, but bet on illusions/phantasms staying around for any mesmer specialization, just the class mechanic shifting (maybe as small kittenter for quickness etc, to illusion boosting for those of us who don’t shatter.)

Knighthonor.4061:

StickerHappy.8052:

Knighthonor.4061:

I would like changes to torch honestly. This class is boring as crap!!!

Mesmer boring? Are we playing the same class?

Well I am leveling this class now. It’s my last character till expansion before I have a 80 of each class.

Teach me how to make this fun to play. Because right now only offhand pistol has any nice attacks other than great sword which is two hander.

Finish leveling up and it’ll become much more exciting. That or step into sPvP/tPvP. Leveling on mesmer is said to be notoriously boring/slow from what I hear (I wouldn’t know since it was my first 80)

Personally, I find the limiting factor on GS and sw/t is that GS doesn’t offer enough to balance out the loss in damage from using torch offhand (despite great stealth).

If you want to run sw/t and not be the stereotypical power shatter, I’d recommend testing hybrid build options. Torch phant does apply confusion (if it ever hits) and you can use sc/x as your second set. If you really want that GS power build tho, the lack of damage on torch abilities limits you a lot.

MailMail.6534:

Swish.2463:

MailMail.6534:

idk what a Chronomancer would really entail, but if it’s all based on manipulating time, then I see more abilities like Time Warp and Power Block.

One way unique ability it could give us that I immediately thought of was increasing enemy cast times. This would have fantastic synergy with interrupt builds, making skills easier to interrupt. It would be like a new condition perhaps? Maybe add a 1s cast time to all enemy skills for 5 seconds? idk

You mean a condition like chill?

I didn’t know chill effected cast times. I thought it was just recharge rates and movement. #noobstatus

It doesn’t #notnoobstatus

In duels or PvP, I love staff + s/s or s/f (with CI most often). But in WvW, I can’t seem to escape the necessity of a GS for roaming or zergs. It deals so much damage at range and has strong multi-target phantasm when needed, letting you tag, burst runners, etc.

Do you think the greatsword is necessary for WvW? What do you use/recommend for WvW roaming?

And, of course, on the topic of weapon sets….what is your favorite weapon combination for PvP/WvW?

My personal favorite is the staff and sword/sword. The staff has amazing defense and pressure, and chaos storm is almost always a finishing touch after getting a CI proc on my enemy! Sword/sword offers a great phantasm pressure, blur, and lockdown (both immob and daze/interrupt), and a block that can add burst to your target.

At least give one +25% Movespeed for us movement challenged using traveler runes.

@Ross: ‘Sustain’ here refers to being able to stay in a fight and contribute to your team (or to the duel without a reset) Ex. When against a condi build, instead of having to reset or die with our lack of continuous condi cleanse, you can shatter to remove them and apply pressure. Or if your heal is on CD you can find cover/decoy and charge your mantra to get a heal. If this heal becomes more useful than MoD, then you can swap it for MoP and still get out damage (see Mails comment)

As for roles, it mostly still fits the shatter playstyle of a burst dps roamer (much of it still in AoE/Cleave), but lets you lockdown a target’s key skills if you keep MoD. With shattered conditions and restorative mantras, you also provide utility with AoE cleanse and small heal for teammates. If necessary, holding points is more possible than traditional shatter, but still not easy since its not a bunker.

@trooper: Just tested assassin’s over berserker ammy, the dps boost definitely feels worth the hp loss. Thanks for the tip!

@Mail: Thanks! After some testing I agree on the assassin’s ammy. I haven’t really tested MoP yet for the build I’ll have to give that a shot! This would also let you replace halting strike if another dom trait sounds more useful.

As for the Centaur runes, I prefer to have swiftness when needed. In WvW it can become perma-swiftness to escape/roam, and in PvP you can give your team swiftness out the gate, on your way to take a node (don’t get caught), or to escape/reposition. If you don’t mind losing this, then Pack runes are a great option. Come to think of it, Air runes may also work well.

@Mail: Thanks! Hopefully it works for you, I’ll be interested to hear what you like/dislike.

@Fay: Agreed that this can’t be a cele ele. We need to do a lot more dodging/invis/blink moving in and out of the fight, but it seems to have enough to combat cele builds and sustain better than a lot of the builds I’ve tested. Also, thanks for the catch haha, thought I’d caught my typos on the first edit :P

Please feel free to comment, or correct any and everything!

That said, other classes have sustainable builds in cele builds with might stacking and constant heals/regen. While I tried and enjoyed those classes and builds, I just can’t forget about how much fun I have as a mesmer. So, I’ve been focused on making a similar build for mesmers.

The build I’m currently using and have had success with is…..

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNAsaRlknpGtlpxRNcrNipxc6qiaLSGQDlskxB-TZBFwACeAAf2fYxRAoaZAAnCAA

Weapons/Armor
-S/P with Fire and Air: When you iLeap>Shatter>Blurred Frenzy, you should proc those runes for amazing burst.

-GS with Air and Energy: GS is amazing for offense, but I find energy sigil is necessary to help me escape if I get jumped after swapping. It also produces shatter fodder.

-Berserker/Assassins with Centaur Runes: Typical for burst. I prefer centaur. Some prefer traveller. Pick your favorite.

Traits
-Halting Strike: With pistol, gs, and MoD, we have 4 interrupts that are all quickly executed for amazing damage and lockdown. (Shoutout to CI: great practice for this)

-Shattered Concentration: To sustain ourselves in a fight we either have to build up our might/regen/prot or strip others of theirs. Our might stacking ability is not exceptional without sacrificing some burst, so we strip others!

-Phantasmal Fury: Between pistol and gs we get more damage and extra bleed.

-Deceptive Evasion: Any shatter defense and burst need this trait at the moment :/

-Mender’s Purity: Conditions bad.

-Restorative Mantras: I know it may sound weird since were not using MoR, but it adds another source of healing for us while reloading MoD in decoy (scales with healing).

-Shattered Conditions: Make sure those pesky conditions don’t stick while you fight. You should be shattering often to keep burst up. (Keep CoF off CD for a quick cleanse)

Utilities
-Ether Feast: Now cleanses 2 conditions. I don’t recommend MoR as the heal since decoy/distortion/dazes can only cover 1 mantra cast. Thats not to say that MoR is bad, just suboptimal.

-MoD: I can’t live without this after playing CI. Halting strike damage is amazing, if a teef jumps you, just daze them during their combo and you can recover (set up iDuelist). See an enemy heal going off? Cancel it. They have no more dodges and you want a guaranteed iLeap? Daze em! The utility is limitless.

-Blink: I can’t praise this enough. Positioning is the most important part of survival. Why take damage, when you can get out of the way?

-Decoy: Similar to blink. The invis is amazing to reset, cover casts, or stunbreak.

I’ve been thinking same thing Kraljevo and tbh, I think the best solution I’ve heard was having a GM trait to give quickness when casting mantras, or just plain cut the cast time as a trait. It would probably be in inspiration, since it fits the traitline’s idea and other traits.

As for the rest of the post,

Signet mastery into Chaos is arbitrary to me, the only complaint I’ve had with it in domination is that so many other traits are better for literally every PvP build (mental torment, halting strike, and empowered illusions.

Blurred Inscriptions from 1s to 3s is a HUGE buff, even for a GM trait. Imagine 2 signets on your utility bar, thats 6 seconds of immunity…maybe 2s instead but that still would be pushing it. Also, you can chain distortion, it doesn’t stack but you can use your next signet during the distortion of the first, to make sure it goes off.

As for signet of midnight and signet of illusions, it would be nice to see it be 25% movement speed and an instant cast for them. The instant cast could be broken if that GM went through though since we already have signet of midnight as instant.

Overall I like the ideas and its always nice to see the community putting more out there to try to make the profession build variety increase! Keep it up.