Guild Wars 2

@wyrden what I like about the build Is that it’s super adaptable. I usually go sword when roaming on my own, pistol is great because of the immobile and the phantasm. Sometimes if I have staff I’ll change Ci for staff reduction and pick CS instead of the mantra trait. Staff is awesome as well because it benefits from the Condi duration. This set up is good for fighting big groups. There’s a whole lot of things you can do/change around with these trait lines, so power to you

Another thing I like doing is switching the mantra trait for shattered concentration.

Chaos Archangel.5071:

Giving one bump for great justice.

@Lentil: If we get no takers, I’ll gladly try the build out myself.

Thanks Chaos! I tried shatterlock but I actually haven’t tried the pre evolution, so would use yours too

@Wyrden you should try the build I posted then. It’s really fun roaming and in 10~ 20 fights. You can modify the traits and take it to zerg fights, but it wouldn’t be as effective, still fun though. It’s hybrid because conditions are a big part of it, but only the control ones (immo, chill, cripple, blind) I don’t think I ever make someone bleed or burn them, so no Condi damage. The duration is great, for both Condi and boons, I personally love the 4sec immo and 6 sec chills as well as the 10 sec cripple and 15 sec might.

Congrats to Chaos, the participants and everyone who voted! It was fun trying all of these builds and seeing their pros/cons. I love this contest because each build, regardless of winning or loosing introduces a new concept or popularizes an existing one, giving mesmers of every skill level a greater pool to choose/think about when creating their build. I definitely learned a lot about the class from trying them. This contest feels like it needs a party (at least a gathering on a server’s LA with a box of fun :P)

Great idea! I’ve been using a build that I really like based on interrupts for WvW. I’ll just post the link to the build. I don’t have a thread for it since it’s very similar to existing builds, though I did modify it to my liking, so I might actually make a thread about it.

Name: Zoran
Build: You Shall not Move! (<— Just came up with name)
Preference Area: 1-WvW (roaming, team, zerging), 2-PvE (Dungeons, Fractals), 3-PvP
Preference style: Lockdown, Power, Conditions
Not really looking for: Lots of stealth, high Glamour use

Key= numbers on Preference Area denote liking priority

PS: The main parts of the build are the traits, high power and the 100% condi duration, everything else can be modified. If you can’t afford/don’t have travelers, go with 2 Lyssa, 2 mad king and 2 boon duration, you can then drop the givers weapons, or the toxic stones for normal sharpening stones.

So far my favorite thing to do is to immobilize someone for a really, really long time. Once while roaming I used G5 on someone, then MoD and then Iswap. With 100% condi duration, that was a total of 12 seconds. I felt bad for them. It’s also really fun to use AoE interrupts like Illusionary wave, Temporal Curtain, sword 4, Staff 5, etc on a zerg and see them pause for 4 seconds.

Ok, I see your points. You’re right about the Spvp vs WvW differences regarding the mantras, and taking BI and reduced Staff is a treat, since it’s really hard to get both. I really like CI more for the immobilize and greatsword 5. You could potentially keep someone outside the capping area for a really long time. But yeah, I mentioned you could have an interrupt heavy build without the 2 traits because of BI the vulns and halting strike, so you definitely don’t need the 2. I would take CI if you’re not taking staff though, but you prolly do that already.

Np, sent you the build

Also double tap is a kitten when doing jumping puzzles. That was the original reason for changing it.

I agree with trooper on this one. You don’t need the two traits to have an interrupt heavy build, but it’s the best option to take at least one since your going so deep in those trees. Also it’s a shame that you only have one mantra with harmonious mantras. I would suggest using the healing one as well since it procs centaur when you charge and when you use a charge, and if you don’t want to take more than 1 mantra, then perhaps taking a different trait that would help more would be best.

I was quite torn on chaos’s and sticker’s, but my vote goes to phantasmic interruptions. I’m a sucker for conditions, so a 4 second immobilized is glorious and it seems slightly more adaptable to many vs many due to the effect on interrupt rather than daze.

I suppose at the end is a matter of choosing a trait or a slot for Condi cleanse, and what gets you the most bang for your buck/preferred playstyle. I like cleanse on heal because, with the extra charge you heal for much more than any other heal, and the idea of cleansing and healing makes me feel safer against Condi heavy and hybrid builds. I do love the reduced cd on sword as well, specially if using OH sword, but I try to use focus to make me feel better about not using it. Also the focus is great with the immobilize, that tasty 4 second immobilize (awesome down time for charging). One mooh thing, the mantra of heal has a shorter CD than the Condi cleanse one, which is great.

I have a Logitech G 600 (or is it 500?) And the mouse’s wheel has 3 buttons, pressing it down, left or right. I have dodges on pushing the wheel to the right, and it’s super intuitive.

That’s really cool, don’t you get a bunch of stacks from BI as well? You must have a bunch of might! Specially with the boon duration. I’m thinking the second food is better since it affects all your boons and since you went 10 on dueling you have vigor on crit and quicker dodges. I went with mender’s because it saves me a utility by letting MoH cleanse conditions. I switch the middle slot pretty often. I take arcane thievery to deal with stability, or decoy for better disengagement, or signet of inspiration for team fights. I’ve thought of doing the same as you with sword, but having three mantras to charge seems like a lot. I just don’t like it when conditions get the best of me, and AT is not enough to manage them.

sirsquishy.8531:

That is what my guild is all about [DAZE] – Isle of Janthir Mesmers

and it takes 19~ Mesmers to make your Zerg Perm Invs, FYI.

:D

What Pyro said. The mesmer main mechanic revolves around shattering and illusions, and then there are secondary things (manipulations, mantras, signets even) but these are mechanics. I believe a build is more of the purpose with which one uses these mechanics, not the mechanic itself.

Hey Slim, lately there have been a bunch of interrupt/lockdown builds, so I made this one and then realized that you were way ahead :P So I decided to post the build here as a variation of yours for WvW since it’s very similar. This one is mainly for roaming, though anyone can have fun making it more zerg oriented by changing armor, switching to a focus and a few traits without having to retrait.

Hey Sticker, I really like your build. I like that interrupt is up and coming now, so it inspired me to mess around with it and make one myself. While I like the build, it is something I sort of just theory crafted using elements from a bunch of lockdown builds around here, and something I really liked about your build was the condition duration, so I sort of made a power/condition hybrid consisting on condition duration rather than condi damage. It’s a 30/0/30/10/0, I won’t post it here cause that would totally be hijacking, but I wanted to let you know and thank you.

I noticed that builds are already being reserved for the next contest. I was thinking of posting my build for when it actually happens, but I’m going to put it here now just in case.

Build Name: Ominous Reflections
Originator: GreenLentil.3927/Zoran Fern
Testing Partner: N/A
Build Thread: Ominous Reflections

@ Bearlin
That makes sense, but I think the great (or cheese) thing about PU is the immense amount of survival…ness it offers, which allows you to juggle a couple people and escape if things get really bad, whereas 30/20/0/0/20 seems more 1V1 oriented and has less chances of escaping.

I agree with sticker about the cripple. If the immobilize was a stun instead, then it would be a bit better since someone can stunbreak but still have cripple, but even then it’s better to have another condition.

@Pyro I would add Harmonious Mantras to that GM list as well

1. Them traits that activate on down/rally (does anyone use them?)
2. Lack of Blast finishers (maybe I’m biased because I recently made an Engie and I do a lot of that)

I’m totally making a zombie out of this thread :P (Recycling FTW!)

It’s almost been a year so, what are your thoughts on Mirror now? Some of the comments up there are really interesting which is why I decided to use this thread rather than make a new one, also it was the first one that popped up in Google so I assume is the one people look at when they search the skill.

Since Mimic is probably going to get some changes, do you guys think Mirror should too? I feel like it’s a little lack luster compared to the other healing skills, even with a 15 second CD, or is it? Do you guys think that suggesting a little extra healing would make the skill OP? Is it too niche? Also I think the skill should be treated as a Manipulations skill since it feels like one, and will have at least some trait synergy, even if it is just one.

What Chaos said. I was thinking of submitting my build too, but there seems to be a whole bunch here already. I just want some advice/help on tweaking it to see how far it can go, then maybe I can submit for the next round.

Hold on there, you can’t make builds like this, you will get the class derfed!

Osi I think the link is broken

@sticker I’m not sure if this would be helpful, but thought I’d put it here, hope it helps.

Hello all! I’ve been a Mesmer since launch, and it was the only character I had until very recently. I usually lurk this forum, but I want to be more active, and joining [OMFG] sounds great!

IGN: Zoran Fern
Server: Isle of Janthir
Role: Tester
Playstyle: Definitely WvW, I did a lot of PvP in the past but I’m rusty now, and I’m doing a lot more PvE recently
Time: I usually play from 9~10 pm to 1~2 am EST

Let me reserve this one too, for videos and stuff

I’ll reserve this one for the future

Drawbacks

The main drawback of the build is that it lacks direct condition removal, and Mimic does not protect against conditions. The only condimoval this build has is the Phantasmal Warden and Temporal Curtain light combo. You will mostly depend on your allies to remove conditions, however this build has passive ways to mitigate the damage. Since the best defenses to counter the armor-ignoring damage from conditions are condimoval, a high health pool, and/or healing, I decided to go with Omnomberry Ghost (hence the name of the build) as the food choice and Superior Sigil of Blood. Ghost grants you 325 health on crit with a 1 second cooldown, and blood grants around 490 every 2~5 seconds. Let’s say that in 10 seconds you land 6 attacks, and 5 of them crit, you’ll be healing for 2605 health, or 1790 if sigil of blood procs only once and one of the 5 crits doesn’t proc the ghost. However, due to all of the reflected projectiles and your own attacks, you will probably be healing more than this. These two healing elements also complement Mirror since it’s such a lackluster heal. Here’s a video I found of a downed guardian recovering a lot of health with these two things combined.

If you are struggling a lot with conditions you can switch Feedback for Arcane Thievery or some other condimoval since you’ll be procing it with Medic’s feedback. You could also switch out Blink or Mimic for AT, but I personally feel crippled without Blink.

Feedback (not the skill)

I want to first say that any feedback is greatly appreciated, and that I thank you for reading and contributing. Having said that, the most noticeable weakness I see in the build lie on the condition mitigation and in fighting a 1v 1/small group, so any advice/suggestions on those areas would be great.

Core Traits

Medic’s Feedback

After the duration of the trait was fixed, it has become a lot more viable, and this build takes great advantage of it. There will be a lot of downed/dead allies in the battlefield, and this build uses that to our advantage by constantly procing feedback, and we know how strong that skill is. Glamour Mastery does not affect this trait, but Temporal Enchanter does, allowing its Feedback to last 8 seconds, and with a 10 second cooldown, you are going to want to see allies get downed.

Cooldown Reducing Traits

All weapon and utility skills in this build have a 20% reduced CD and a relevant bonus for the build (reflection, precision, toughness). The exception is Feedback since it is better to have Temporal Enchanter for Medic’s Feedback, however if you rather have the 20% CD reduction you can easily switch to Glamour Mastery. You should definitely switch to GM when in need of other glamours (veil, portal).

The Case Against Masterful Reflections

Since this is a reflection build, it would make a lot of sense to include the Masterful Reflections trait, but after a long internal debate, I decided against it. For starters, distortion has a 60 second cooldown, and the only way to reduce that is by spending points on the illusions tree. With 20 points (the maximum I could spend without breaking the build) the cooldown would be 50 seconds, and that is still steep. I could add Illusionary invigoration to that, and have distortion more often, maybe statistically it would be like having it every 25 ~ 30 seconds. Even then though, I would need a decent amount of clones (2~3) to make the most of it, and we normally use distortion as an emergency aid for tough situations, so there may not be clones out when needed, unless we increase the odds by having Deceptive Evasion or Mirror Images, and DE would push out blade training or far-reaching manipulations, and MI would take out Mimic. This is not a shatter build, so using one trait and/or one utility for the sake of a reflective shatter that wouldn’t last long didn’t seem like a good idea to me. It would also be risky to use it offensively to get a few projectiles reflected since it is a crucial defensive skill that should generally be reserved for emergencies. 20 points in Chaos gives me reduced staff skills, reduced manipulations, toughness and much appreciated boon duration for Fury, so I went with that instead.

Manipulations

I really like Mimic, but there seems to be better utilities to be used for most people, so I wanted to boost the skill as much as I could by choosing both manipulation traits. In case you’re not familiar with the skill, Mimic’s casting time lasts 4.5 seconds. During this time, if a projectile hits you it will get absorbed and for the duration of the cast time you will block all attacks and reflect all projectiles. Mimic will then become Echo and you will be able to shoot the absorbed projectile. This skill’s tanking capabilities excel when engaging a zerg, in the middle of a zerg, getting through choke points, regrouping with the commander and when running away. You can also combine it with Mirror to get up to six seconds of mobile reflection. Something to keep in mind about this skill is that the blocking and reflection won’t apply until a projectile is absorbed, so be careful when tanking with the skill since you don’t want to be taking a lot of damage from melee thinking the skill is blocking. A good trick is to absorb the staff’s auto attack to proc the abilities of the skill, though this can only be done in a handful of scenarios where staff’s 1 will bounce towards you. Something else about this skill is that once the projectile is absorbed, Mimic’s CD runs its course in the background while the projectile is stored. This means that if you happen to keep the projectile for 20+ seconds, Mimic will be off its CD after you use Echo.

Blink doesn’t really need much explanation since it’s generally a WvW thing for Mesmers. I will say this though, in most builds it tends to be the only manipulation skill used, so those builds probably choose 0~1 manipulation traits, whereas this build has both far-reaching and reduced CD traits, which I really like for Blink.

(See what I did there, Blink “blinked” from beginning to end, hehe)

While not explicitly a manipulation skill, I like to think that our heal Mirror is one of them. I recently made an Engineer as a secondary character, and I noticed that all of their healing skills have an associated, engineer specific typing (turret, kit, elixir and now gadget). If we were to associate Mirror with a mesmer skill type, manipulations seems the most appropriate, since it is definitely not a glamour, it doesn’t synergize with, nor creates illusions (Ether Feast perhaps?), and mantras and signets are already covered. So Anet, please type it as a manipulation so it synergizes with at least one of our traits, because at the moment this heal is kind of abandoned.

I’m a really big fan of reflection. It’s really fun and offers a different playstyle from what I’m used to with my Mesmer. The mechanic serves a defensive and offensive role by negating enemy damage and returning it to them. Mesmers are King/Queen when it comes to reflection, and even though it’s not a specified Mesmer style (such as glamours, illusions, mantras, etc), there’s enough around that suggests otherwise. This WvW build makes use of all (well, most) of the reflective tools on a Mesmer’s belt. With so many sources of reflection, I wanted to see if all of them could be combined to produce a useful and competitive build, after all, Mesmers are the class for reflection. I came up with this:

Ominous Reflections

Damage

Since this is a reflection build, our two most important stats for damage are Precision and Critical Damage. There is a really good build thread Ansau created about reflection damage and general reflection mechanics. It was extremely helpful in creating this build, and if you want to know more about the mechanic, I strongly recommend checking that out. Suffice is to say that reflected projectiles use the source’s power and scale with your Crit Damage on a successful critical hit. While wielding sword/focus and with nourishment buffs, the Precision of the build is 60% and 71% with 25 stacks from the perception sigil. With all this plus Fury, the max Crit Chance of the build sits at 91%. You should be having Fury for 65% ~ 75% of the time while fighting, since it lasts 45ish seconds with a 60 second CD and procs fairly quickly in a zerg fight. You will occasionally get it from teammates and the staff, though the latter won’t give too much of it, and there is always the risk of getting the boon stripped from you. Still, you’ll be getting plenty of tags, so reaching 71% crit chance will happen rather quickly.

Since a reflected projectile scales up with our Crit Damage, it’s important to have a decent amount of it. Crit Damage naturally increases the base damage by 150% on critical hits, and anything extra from your stats is added up to that. This means that with 66% you’ll be doing 216% extra damage from each critical hit, and even though the power in this build is lowish, it won’t matter on reflected projectiles. Here’s some relevant info on Crit Chance and Damage I thought I’d throw here from the wiki.

Gear

Since reflection benefits from Precision and Crit Damage, and this is a WvW build, I chose Knight armor and a mix of Cavalier and Knight trinkets with a Celestial amulet. Originally, all weapons were Knight, but I decided to add Assassin’s sword and focus since that’s the build’s offensive set, and for defensive needs there’s the Knight’s staff with energy sigil, boosting armor to 2912.

For the Runes I chose 4 Rage Runes for Fury and 2 Traveler Runes for boon duration and extra stat boost. If you can’t get your hands on those, Water or Monk would be good.

Yay for all the G600 love, it really is a great mouse, and if it’s on sale you should totally get it.

Pyro this is a great build, and kudos to Ross as well. I’m loving the Mimic love! I’m currently testing a build I created that uses Mimic as well, but with the Guardian runes you most definitely get the most bang for your buck on your build. I’ll try this in the future since the reward for burning unsuspecting players seems too trolly to pass. BTW which sigils do you use? I’m assuming energy for staff, or of stamina since this build has enough tagging power, maybe corruption for the extra condi damage as well as the tagging, and the third…

I strongly recommend the Logitech G600. I’ve been using it for months now and it is amazing with Gw2. When I bought it, it was like 70 ish dollars, so you could imagine how happy/sad I am that they are selling it for 50 on ebay http://bit.ly/1jzeEYX You should definitely go for it.

Me likes this thread! I wonder when he’ll respond.

Pyroatheist.9031:

Lol. You guys do realize that the character in the picture is under the effect of confusion, not a mesmer?

Lmao, at first I was like “GASP!” and then I was like “oh…” I never noticed butterflies coming out when people are confused, just the aura, which just shows how much of a mesmer thing confusion is.

Nefejrangh.2584:

New video : http://youtu.be/AD0RjpYCHpU

No wonder, I just watched and commented on the video, and I was wondering why there were no comments, then I see that you posted it about 2 hours ago :P You guys do a really good job, Kudos!

Kitten, that probably means that Illusionary Riposte is still buggy and the CD’s don’t stack.

Colbey.4258:

Dear mesmers who fall,

First I laughed. 90k damage is boss. Then I thought probably only one or two unscrupulous individuals will do this because it is clearly an exploit.

But as it turns out every tower defense spawned a falling hero.

For shame I say. For shame.

You’re right, and everyone who complains about the exploit is right, because it is clearly exploit, and people shouldn’t use it. That been said, the idea of purple butterflies falling on top of people/golems is extremely hilarious. There shouldn’t be an exploit at all, but if there were to be one, I couldn’t think of a funnier one than Mesmers running to the walls of a keep/tower and just falling on things. BTW for those of you who don’t know, the name of the trait is “Descent into Madness” and I’m sure it has nothing to do with the Halloween patch and the Mad King <.< >.>

Me Games Ma.8426:

Hell yeah i think i just did the dmgrecord with 1hit over all time in gw2^^
Used chaosstrom and +4%^4 mantrabuff and hitted 7.515.169 dmg on a bird in southsun. :P

Edit: There’s still potential with sigil of the night +10% and 25 stacks might and bloodlust^^ but for the moment i think i’m the one that did most dmg with a mesmer :P

Maybe with this trait, people will actually have “madness descending” on them. I have a feeling someone at Anet thought it would be hilarious, specially considering this is the Halloween patch with the Mad king and all.

Hey Skcamow did you try using the skill and checking? I know that before the patch the tooltip would say it decreased it with IC, but actually didn’t, whereas with Malicious Sorcery it did. The same with Illusionary riposte, the tooltip decreases but IC doesn’t actually apply it.

Thank you for your response, and I apologize for over reacting a little, it just seemed that you were calling me out and being condescending. I am not suggesting a build here. While it might not be the best in every interrupt build, OH sword should at least be considered in every of those build, and I was just surprised to see that it wasn’t mentioned here. I also really like the skill, and wish the bug got fixed already to unlock a build’s full potential using it.

I agree about IC, it is a lot to spend for it, but I think it works well in interrupt builds, since you get to use illusionary persona for a quick diversion, or imbued diversion in situations like WvW, and lower diversion CD. Then again, as you said not every interrupt build needs it and OH sword is definitely still good without it.

Nope, you don’t get to tell me I should have done research. I know the class really well as well as the forums and those who are active. I never said people don’t use sword OH, I said it’s really underused in interrupt builds and that it wasn’t mentioned in this thread, which are both true. The very fact that it has been discussed is why it is surprising it wasn’t mentioned here. Sensotix’s build is a great build, but that post was also made a month ago, and people have been tempering with interrupts much before that without really thinking about Counter Blade.
I’m well aware the mesmer forums are very organized, thank you for reminding, I’m sure some people lurking the mesmer forums don’t know that. What I said continues to be true. Hopefully Off hand sword will come up a lot more often in discussions, maybe then Anet will fix the bug thing.

Dirame.8521:

GreenLentil.3927:

Guys… This is an interrupt build discussion, and not a single person mentioned Counter Blade, no wonder it’s had a bug for a year and it hasn’t been fixed. Know your Mesmer!!

With Blade training the cooldown becomes 12 seconds, and with Illusionist celerity 9 (at least it’s supposed to, but it’s bugged). This means that you have an AoE piercing daze for 9 seconds, well 12 because of the bug. Still, with Illusionary riposte not only is it possible to have a 100% uptime of might, but also 25 stacks of it if the circumstances are favorable, not to mention ALL of the effects on interrupt, EVERY 9 (12) SECONDS!! That skill is the lowest CD daze Mesmers have, and it’s so underused in interrupt builds is ridiculous, specially considering most people use MH sword. Here’s a video using it.

I wouldn’t depend on that skill to interrupt personally. I feel like I have to activate to skills to get one effect. May not be as fast as I’d like.

It’s actually pretty fast, there is not internal wait time like Temporal Curtain and Into the void.

Sorry for the misunderstanding, but that’s not me on the video, I run a different build. I just found this person actually using interruption with Counter Blade. I would change a lot of their traits, actually, and I agree about the enemy players’ skill. That’s not the point I tried to make though, the point is that a lot of people don’t realize how good off-hand sword is for interrupt builds, and I was surprised to see so many known mesmers in this thread and no one mentioned it.

Guys… This is an interrupt build discussion, and not a single person mentioned Counter Blade, no wonder it’s had a bug for a year and it hasn’t been fixed. Know your Mesmer!!

With Blade training the cooldown becomes 12 seconds, and with Illusionist celerity 9 (at least it’s supposed to, but it’s bugged). This means that you have an AoE piercing daze for 9 seconds, well 12 because of the bug. Still, with Illusionary riposte not only is it possible to have a 100% uptime of might, but also 25 stacks of it if the circumstances are favorable, not to mention ALL of the effects on interrupt, EVERY 9 (12) SECONDS!! That skill is the lowest CD daze Mesmers have, and it’s so underused in interrupt builds is ridiculous, specially considering most people use MH sword. Here’s a video using it.

I do agree that the Runes need some IC, however, I’m worried about one thing, AoE interrupts. Let’s say, as a mesmer, I use Imbued Diversion, shatter one clone, and said clone hits 5 people. This was one interrupt source, but it hit 5 people. It should be perfectly fine for all of those people to get confusion if they got interrupted, because it was one source. If an IC is introduced haphazardly, this diversion example will only cause confusion to one person, because it might register only 1 interrupt and go immediately to cooldown, not counting the other 4, even though it was from the same source. I suggest there be a grace period of 1~3 seconds before the runes go on cooldown after the first interrupt. This will allow for all the interrupts from one source to be registered. The maximum way I see this could be exploited is by shattering 3 clones in a zerg and hitting 15 people. Assuming all those people get interrupted (pretty much impossible) they would all get 5 stacks of confusion, and then the runes would go on CD. This needs to be possible, regardless of whatever way they nerf the runes due to the fact that it is really hard to do, and requires a Grandmaster trait (or other long cooldown AoE interrupting skill) to achieve.

It is true that Anet has been pushing interrupts a lot, so taking that off of the Runes is a bad idea, but they should be cautious in the way they introduce the IC.

After doing further testing, I found that Illusionist Celerity does not decrease the cooldown on Illusionary Riposte and Illusionary Counter. However, the recharge tooltip does decrease when IC is equipped. This tells me that when the the tooltips were changed to accommodate the trait, these two skills were treated as illusion summoning skills, and their tooltip was decreased to reflect the change IC makes on them.