Guild Wars 2

I’d actually go with a shatter that changed based on the number of clones. Something like:
1 clone – pull enemies to the clone and swap places (with the clone).
2 clones – knockback + blast finisher.
3 clones – waterfield(or any field, tbh) + root around the clones (or maybe in the area between them, were they not too far apart).
4 clones (ip) – 30-50% reduced damage F1 or F2 (reduced confusion stacks instead, though this would be a pretty big giveaway) + stealth – trying to make it as if the mesmer himself was a clone.

I’d recommend going with S/S+GS, as opposed to focus. iSwordsman deals a great amount of damage, while dodging on the leaps, so it has a chance of ignoring shadowfalls (I didn’t manage to pull this off, although I beat her already). Plus, iGuard is buggy and stationary.

If you can withstand the first phase with mirror heal + feedback, and can manage through the second without swiftness, I’d say you should give it a try.

I wouldn’t go with mantras here, instead I used mender’s purity, since mirror is on a low CD and MP cleanses 2 conditions. If you are going to take +15% phantasm damage on the inspiration line, take either +10% running speed per illusion or +20% phant hp.

Also, head over to the mesmer subforum, there was a nice build there, though I guess you might have checked it/be using it already.

Carighan.6758:

Hrm, that’s an interesting idea, make Confusion much stronger, but make it not affect Autoattacks.

Torment works on non-moving targets, but doubles its damage against moving ones, so I’d rather go with something like “every X #1 skill uses, Y damage” or Y being a fraction of the upgraded confusion damage and affecting every single autoattack.

While making AAs unafected by confusion seems like a good idea, it would actually make the condition a bit meaningles unless you increase its duration (so that the player is forced to use other skills, but this could end up pretty hard to balance) since they could simply spam AAs mindlessly, which is, imo, the kind of behaviour/response confusion is supposed to prevent.

Hello everyone. First, let me clarify that I do realise this has been discussed before, but if you please, I’d like to bring it up one more time.

I have been tinkering with an interrupt-supported phantasm build, mainly for fun and for the sake of it. The build is mainly based on passive regeneration (SoE, phantasms grant regen, Prot on regen) and letting the phantasms do the damage while I focus on interrupting, CCing, and whatnot.

So the main problem is here:
I’m picking BI, as I myself find it harder to escape a root than a stun/daze (as dazed foes can still dodge, and stunbreaks don’t remove roots), an offensive approach, so to speak.
I do know PU synergises better with the regenerative nature of this kind of build, and it is a great way to add significant defense to some builds but, would it outweigh the offensive possibilities of CI?

Don’t mind the build per se, as it is not a competitive one, but if anyone is wondering, the build is as follows:
3/2/6/3/0 with +15% illusion damage, 1h-sword CDR, reduced damage per illusion, BI, CI, and +20% health on phantasms.
SoE, Blink, IDisenchanter and MoDistraction.
Zerker+Runes of the Ranger.

But see, you didn’t really answer them.
They are asking for a build, so saying you went “power+valkyre” is no answer.
Also regarding the “build” cons, SoE only heals you while you have clones/phantasms up, which is not always doable due to AoEs and the like. That is a heavy downside when you compare it to other healing signets, which is the reason SoE ticks for the amount it does.

Also, using that signet forces you to drop mender’s purity (you can pick it, but it won’t be nearly as good as with the other heals), making our lack of cleanses a bigger issue.

Just how many hours did you spend in sPvP? It really doesn’t seem like you went against people who knew what they where doing. I have never, in the 2y I have been playing this game, seen myself trapped by the enemy team in my respawn, nor trapped the enemy team.

Well, color me surprised!
Yesterday I thought trying PU phant build could be fun, and since I didn’t like how it was turning out, I ended up with a lockdown-phantasm build.

I’m going for 3/2/6/3/0 for the sake of testing right now, so I have not much to report, since I have not given the build proper testing (exams are taking away what little free time I have) and it is full of holes, but, I still wanted to post my two cents.

Have you tried using rune of the ranger? Unless they have fixed it already, phantasms were counting as “active companions”, thus granting the 7% dmg increase.
Although it feels like a poor-man’s strength rune, it eases the burden of getting your might stolen. I’m using them for the increased precision/ferocity over strength’s power, so that I can avoid investing in Dueling, however.

Also, could this 2 playstyles combined make SoE viable in pvp? Due to the phant. recharge on activation, and the fact that you should be able to control the flow of the fight while it recharges (part of its recharge at least). So far it has yielded good results to me, but I still kind of missed Ether Feast every now and then.

Also, yeah, I tried it in hot-join, so there are no tournament experiences here.

I think they switched IC for phantasm builds’ shake, specially in pve, where the most renowned builds picked either 20Dom or 25Illusions, “wasting” the might on shatter minor if you went for the IC build (because, although I love shattering and spicing adistortion up sounds good enough, you shouldn’t be shattering all that much).

(Though that was 1~2 months ago, dunno what happened after I stopped playing in late october)

I’d rather dual wield fans than have a whip, but I must say it would be quite interesting

Aaaah kitten , I’m not fond of fractals, I have barely played one or two, so I didn’t know

Still, even if the rifle is just a medium armor class, the one holding the hammer could be a light armor class, since the headpiece seems fairly similar to the cabalist’s set one (http://www.gw2armorgallery.com/human-light.htm#standard).

Sadly, I don’t recognize the rest of the set the character is wearing, so I’m not quite sure if it could actually be a light-armor class holding a hammer.

Ps. This is just me running my mouth, but a hammer mesmer could be fun, maybe more dazes and a 2h melee weapon.

I always felt betterflies where tied with deceit, so they used it as the mesmer distinctive effect for that reason. Can’t find anything related to it, so maybe I just made it up?

But them interrupts… You’ll need godly LoS skills or stealth/stab to pull that out vs a good player.

If only protected mantras made them 1sec cast or granted you stab… 400 toughness doesn’t protect kitten, tbh

Didn’t they solve clone’s offhand a couple patches ago?

Also, I’m more concerned about the fact that hunters pets never attack your downed state’s clones, they always wait untill yo appear and go for the real mesmer (at least, so far that has been my case). Also, the fact that you reappear after the clone is a bigger drawback than the de-stealthing mist that surrounds the real mesmer (and only the real), since the clone is generated after going invis, and doesn’t work like decoy, meaning you disappear, the clone randomly appers, and then you become visible.

That seems like it was meant to be like that, but it seems like a poor design, I mean, both of us could reappear at the same time, with no destealth-mist, or simply make it work like decoy, so that they continue stomping the clone. I find those 2 aproches more logical than our current downed #2 mechanics, but well, I guess people would complain.

Have you considered adding a chaos field to the build? Like staff #5, nullfield or feedback. Since you are traiting for pistol and torch, even if you take out Mender’s purity and get the %CDR glamour trait, you won’t miss the 1condition on heal a lot (if you are taking Nullfield, that is).

I’m telling you this because traited iDuelist works wonders with the projectile finisher, stacking confusion on the enemy. Then again, I don’t know which uttility I would take out in order to get a chaos field, and torch is a must in you build, so I don’t think staff really fits.

Dietzen.6127:

Celerity and duelist should stack though, from what I’ve seen the CD does go down to about 12 or w/e it is. It’s a bug in the skill tooltip CD. If you have the two none of the phantasm tooltips show double reduced CD’s. But you should indeed see the reduced CD when casting.

Yeah, you are right, I just checked it and it’s only the tooltip!

Thanks for this, I actually thought the tooltip was right

Helios.3598:

I dueled a mesmer who focused pretty much his whole build on the duelist, glam combo. He dumped 25 in illusions, grabbed glam mastery, phantasmal fury, sharper images, duelist’s disicpline, and phantasmal haste. His weapons were Scepter/Pistol + Staff. This allowed him to setup two or more hasted duelists constantly with three fields to play in which resulted in a crazy amount of conditions. My build had duelists out as well… it sounded like a machine gun battle. The end result, he was able to more consistently push single target conditions which worked well for dueling.

I am currently running a wvw build that is much like that mentioned, and if you are going to get 25 points in illusion, do it only after reading this:
http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/Illusionists_Celerity

You might want the extra Cdmg, or shatter cdr (you shouldn’t want it, though, but shorter distortions are always good), but unless this has been fixed, those 5 extra points could go elsewhere

Yeah, you are right. However, when it comes down to personal taste, as much as I like the idea behind torch, you only get a chance to get retaliation or conditions removed. I mean it gives ret/cleanses a condition if it hits you, meaning, if you are close enough.
This shouldn’t be a problem with a sword, since you should be sticking to your target anyway, but scepter is a ranged weapon AND spawns clones besides target.

Unkitten unces prioritize the real mesmer (giving him away instantly), a lot of boucnes are going to be “lost”. Also, I feel like phantasms don’t last long enough in pvp (when talking long-CD phantasms, and summoning 2 or more of the same kind).

Same here, 0/20/0/25/25 S/P, S/F. Full zerker with some Rabid ascended items mixed in (necklace, ring), due to the fact that I have nothing to switch them with and I’m still getting gear (I run condi mesmer on wvw, so I have a lot of rabid gear). Also working on sigils, but will probably get Night on sword and battle on OH (already have one on the focus), possibly getting bloodlust in the future.

I also get OH sword when there are few proyectiles and there is no need for AoE damage.

I do switch utils, weapons and traits, depending how well my group is doing and what we lack. A few days ago I was fored to get some heals going in through mantras in CoE, for example. My dps dropped, but so did the boss’ hp, so I always switch when needed.

For the record, traits I usually rotate between are mostly in the inspiration line (%glamour, longer glamour, condi on heal, restor. mantras, %focus…).

Baruch Bay (EU) beat Tequaggan just now. 2~minutes left.

http://imgur.com/wes6fWK

(names off for higher fps, and forgot to put them back on)

How would you guys feel if the mantra procced half of the effect when charging up, and then you could use them as normal?

For example: I just ran out of charges of MoRes, then, when charging it up again, 1 condition is removed (upon succesful charge up), without using up charges.

Although it doesn’t address the main charge-up problem, I feel that if I’m charging up MoResolve, it’s because I need to cleanse conditions, not an aoe heal (thoguh I guess this trait should stay, since it would be a nerf to the supportive side of the mantras, being able to only heal with MoRec).

Of course this could also proc a different effect, like each mantra granting a different specific boon upon charge up, or something like that. Would it be more rewarding/worth the pain it is charging them up?

Mmmm A lot of suggestions here make sense, but don’t you feel like ascended weapons might be a deliberate gold sink to make things more like last halloween (mats and gold-wise) or christmas events?

And yeah, leveling all three disciplines is a real pain, so I think I won’t do so for the being. And since I don’t play fractals, I hope some alternative comes at some point… Maybe when they add Givers like Ross pointed out?

Still, it’s good to hear that not many people consider them to be a must. Eases my mind a bit.

So, yeah, basically, can’t make up my mind. So far I’m going for the staff, since it’s a rather versatile two handed, but I’m currently not using it (running with Sc/P and Sw/Focus). But! I’m a sucker for scepter, I plan to get Meteorlogicus if i ever get a legendary (though having a stat-changing-always-up-yo-date sword is probably best, I don’t really fancy Bolt). However, scepter is not as flexible build-wise as staff is.

Therefore I wanted to hear some opinions, what are you working towards, if you are planning to get any ascended weapon at all, and why?

Ps. I’m also secretly hoping for an ascended version of The Crossing this halloween. Or even better: An ascended Scepter! Oh crap, it just goes on and on…

Well, although the build I’m referring to revolves around PU, it doesn’t get torch, and cleanses condis through mantras. Therefore it falls a bit in between the two uses you mentioned: It’s good to have them ready and use them, since you don’t get +%damage out of them, but it is also good to charge them, since they provide a small AoE heal.

Basic idea is mender’s purity removing 2 conditions through MoRec, but having MoRes for cleansing when needed. The runes of Lyssa combo was only so that you would heal at ~70% health and keep the boons and condi removal (although the trait doesn’t proc on charge up) coming.

But yeah, forgot about that, you can’t really utilize that method to share boons.

Actually, if I were to use mantras outside of a support build, I’d go for a PU build or one with decoy, at least. Not like you can charge all mantras while stealthed, but I’ve been playing with MoRecovery and MoResolve and have not had much problems charging them up.

It’s clearly not the best mechanism out there, and could get another CT reduction/be reworked, but their downsides are lessened on a PU+Condition build.

Also, just in case someone doesn’t know, MoRecovery can proc Lyssa’s random boon while casting and while spending the charges, which can be “useful” when combined with a boon spreading build.

Also, great idea ^^

I like how torch is themed around not knowing what exactly is going on (blind, stealth, confusion), but it having iRogue would make it a more useful OH in many circumstances. We’d lose it’s retaliation, but I rarely get it on me at all, so I wouldn’t miss it.

I really wish I could run around with a Torch outside wvw/spvp and not feel dumb.

I have made some build changes in order to try some of your suggestions, and while iElasticity+iDisenchanter have proven to be a very effective combo, I feel that the need of a target for iDisenchanter takes a bit of freedom away from the build (like LoS cleansing). They seem really fun though, gotta play around with iElasticity some more.

As for the null field changes, I’m currently trying to go Ether Feast+Null field (instead of the 2 mantras) with -20% CD on glamours and Malicious sorcery.

As for retaliatory shield, I’d lose either 20% crit on phantasms (less bleeds) or -%CD on pistol. It fits rather well on a PU build, and is extremely fun, but I need to check if the loss of some bleed is worth it (thought Retaliation scaled with power?).

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone, they are rather fun to mess with ^^

Edit, I forgot: I really like how Torch works (really think the phantasm could use some quality of life changes or buffs, though), but I can’t see it fitting into the build, since I’m using the pistol for comboing and bleed application. I feel I use confusion better when coupled with bleed (protecting the stacks and punishing cleanses).

Thank you very much for your imput! ^^

@WhiteRose: Yup, I have given some thought to Ether Feast, since I have some problems every now and then with heavy burst damage. I’ll probably switch both mantras for Ether Feast and Null Field (I love the boon stealing AT provides, but I think Null Field fits the iDuelist better, as you said) and try it out a bit, together with the scepter trait.

The build itself was thought to be somehow a tanky (and condition clean) “I slowly heal up will you slowly go down”, with the exception of confusion spikes and such. So I went for bleed/confusion stack spam, and then more continued damage through Staff. So yeah, basically a solid DPS, in terms of constant damage with little spikes.

The reasoning behind Restorative Mantras and both mantras was the low CD condi removal they provided, and by recharging it, I healed both myself and allies around me (I know I’m not gearing for Healing Power, but I read the ratio was 0.2 for RM, though I’m not sure if that info was outdated) on a constant basis, as if I was using a heal per second system instead of a burst heal.

@jportell: I’m very sorry if it is too similar, though I have ben reading tips all around the forum I have only checked Osicat’s and Natsu Dragneel’s build, so I’m very sorry about that (I checked it after I read you post, and you are right, the traits are very similar, but I didn’t know about you build, so I can only apologize at this point u.u)

I thought of going 10-20 into Illusions, but lost interest because I don’t really shatter, so the minors are a little less usefull. However, those two traits in particular seem very unrestrictive (they don’t require shattering), so I’ll probably look into them, specially for the wvw version, since I can afford losing some traited crit chance there.

Once again, let me apologize for the build, although this things are bound to happen (too many mesmers to come up with a 100% new build), I still feel like my supposedly original idea wasn’t so original, and on top of that someone else posted it before so it gets all the more embarrasing and may bring a bit of hate upon myself. And… ARGH Well, I guess you understand. Thanks for not jumping on me, though

So, all that said, it is a bit late here and I’m in need of some sleep, so I’m off to bed before I fall asleep on the keyboard.

Thanks everyone for going out of your way to help me and goodnight!

A Self Introduction

Hello everyone, I’m Gizuko, a fellow mesmer. First, I’ll say I’m not new to the class but I am to the forums, please be merciful Also, I don’t play that much, so please do expect nooby mistakes and worse.

I have been messing around some builds since a long time ago, since launch, to be precise, and this is what I have come to create: a build that I find challenging to play, and still effective (against the less-skilled half of the game, at least).

Why such a build

Although I like torch a lot, there are a lot of torch build out there and as heartbreaking as it is, it didn’t fit in my build. A PU build, at that. So I picked pistol, for the bleeds and confusion stacking, and staff, for the awesomeness.

On a side note, before anyone gets the wrong idea, I hate the staff. It’s useful, mobile, adds condition damage, makes you tanky and get’s people boons for free. On a RNG basis. Can’t count how many times I have stacked vuln on an enemy. Gives a stun breaker, defense and conditions, though.

I’ll cover the rest later, for now, please do take a look at the sPVP version of the build

Cons (Yeah, I’m listing cons first, close the tab while you can)

-Not a power based build (so far, I’m running with 0 power. Will correct it when I find a way around it)
-No blink
-Might lack damage mitigation (through BF and such)
-Not an efficient might stacking build.
-Conditions don’t last long enough.
-Boon stealing hurts.
-Therefore, necros hurt.
-Can be hard to finish someone off.
-Lacks testing, specially on wvw, where I would need to modify the build (can’t get all the gear and sigils I need right now, need a bit of time, but I have some ideas). Will work on it, though.

Pros

-Regen spam.
-Thus, lots of protection.
-Stacks confusion and bleeds.
-Decent condition removal.
-Invisibility.
-Combo management.
-Fanstafftick (nothing too good about it, just the pun. You can hate me now).

My playstyle (Still getting used to it)

As I said, I picked iDuelist for the condi stacking, but as you see in my utilities, no glamour was picked. I stack confusion through Staff #5 on the iDuelist so that confusion still applies even if the enemy gets away from it. I also try to add Scepter #3, but sometimes the pace of the fight makes it impossible. To avoid rushing things over, I usually begin to cast scepter#3 then switch to staff and field before the iDuelist attacks. Need some more skill before I do it right every time, though.

So that’s one combo. Then there is the other high risk combo, which involves certain 90sec CD light field (veil can be replaced by focus#4, but that might fight better in a power build), and provides up to 8x (was it 8?) conditions cleansed. And since this is a PU build, well, you benefit from the stealth too.

I use staff for the field, but it is my main source of damage (I only spike confusion, through the combo or scepter#3, but the staff helps keeping better track of all the CDs, but switching back to S/P 10 seconds before executing the field combo), mobility and defense. The scepter/pistol is for the last spike, to avoid healing through Pistol#5, to apply torment and block and for the condition cleansing. Runes of Lyssa are there for the condi duration increase, the condition cleansing and the higher chance of causing bleed. Runes and sigils are not final and are quite likely to change if I see something better.

As for the utilities, I use invis for obvious reasons, and mantra of resolve + healing for the condi removal and health management. MoR also procs runes’ random boon when charging the mantra (as opposed to Mender’s Purity+Restorative Mantras).

Things I’m testing/considering

I’m quite happy with how phantasmal healing works together with illusionary membrane, but I’m dissatisfied with condition duration (not that bad in WvW), and defense against burst.
I’m thinking of changing some things, like getting 33% conf duration or Chaos V, but that’s enough for now.

Last words (You have stayed so far, or haven’t, but do read this, please)

I think that pretty much covers everything, whether the build needs reworking or a complete trashing and restarting is something I’m not good enough to know. I enjoy it, but that doesn’t mean anything is set on stone yet. I plan on moving it to WvW in due time, but I can’t do so right now due to gold shortage (but I do have most rabid gear andsome weapons, need sigils, a good staff and the like), so I would appreciate some insight on whether it would do well in WvW as well (not just sPvP).

Thanks a lot for reading me, and for any criticism you might toss, since learning and improving only takes place after you realize what your own mistakes are.

[TL;DR] This is the build

First message! I have been lurking around for some time, but could never bring myself to join in on the fun with you guys.

So, I thought this was a brilliant idea, and decided I could give it a shot.

IGN: Gizuko
Server: Baruch Bay (EU)
Enjoyments: sPVP (not tPVP, though), WvW and PvE.
Role: Scholar, but don’t mind trying out new builds and giving feedback, though I’m not a great player, so I will refrain from it for now.
Playtime: Whenever I find some free time. However, since I’m a university student (one that worries over nothing and builds up stress, at that), I usually can’t play more than 1-1:30h a day (mostly late afternoon), so I ended up being a noob in a game I have been playing since launch (preordered it), so I will apologize in advance, just in case I cause you any headaches because of this: I’m truly sorry.