Guild Wars 2

TakaEagle.9486:

@Kaaji

Just spec’d your build for sPVP. So awesome. Thanks alot :P

Can i ask whether i should be using the staff or sword/pistol as my weapon?

i.e the majority of the time.

Heh, don’t want to take credit since someone else made it but thanks! He was kind enough to pass it on to me so I figured I’d pass it on as well.

I always start out with S/P and do the basic phantasm + dodge + 3 illusion and either root them or even better stun them with 5 pistol, then shatter. I immediately switch to staff, normally drop Chaos Field and blink out of it giving me Chaos Armor. It’s key here to always keep Chaos Armor up with a staff as it provides a huge advantage… I have Null Field + Blink, Chaos Field + Blink, and 4 Staff to give me Chaos Armor (note: my passives are Null Field, Blink, and either Decoy or Portal depending on the situation; portal is ridiculously good for keeping points). If I have 3 phantasms up at this point I’ll use F2 to apply confusion, otherwise I’ll wait for F1 again.

I literally switch weapons every 10-12 seconds. No point in just running around auto-attacking while the previous weapon has cooldowns to use! As far as F3-F4, I’ll only use those when I have 0 or 1 illusion up, or if I’m REALLY in a bind.

As far as armor runes go, I use Divinity, but that’s just because the person I got the spec from uses Divinity. I haven’t tested with other armor runes. Anyone tried other stuff vs. Divinity to see how it fares?

Have you tried using Fire though? The damage is insanely high. I’ve never really had an issue getting clones out personally. I’ll probably switch out Air for Energy though, especially since I tend to need to dodge more when using S/P rather than Staff.

I just assumed that’s what he is now; I was in his sPVP group when he got 40 about a month ago I believe.

He uses Fire on staff and pistol, Air on Sword. Are you sure that if Air procs on Sword then Fire will be on cooldown on pistol…? I’ve never heard that, but if that’s the case then I’ll pass that info along.

Oh and Temariah, I wasn’t too sure how to paste it so that clicking it worked; sorry!

This is it: http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAsaGGRQ9Q7AvvjkiWj1KpY2uQA;TsAg0CnoqxUjoGbNuak1ssYQx0CA

Note that I got this from a rank 50+ Mesmer who from, as far as I can tell, basically does 100% Tournaments and sPVP (at least every time I’m on). He swears by Divinity and Fire/Air and after testing it quite a bit I’d have to agree.

Note that a lot of people tend to forget just how powerful Illusionary Persona is in that F2-F4 work even without any illusions up, so if you need a daze or an invulnerability you can use F2-F4 without any illusions up. This makes Illusionary Invigoration all that much more powerful.

With all the shatters at your disposal and with S/P + Staff, you have basically max offensive with a large amount of defensive. I’ve tried S/P + GS but it just doesn’t compare for sPVP.

What? You’re not forced into anything.

Map your “hero” key so that it’s close to your WASD keys (mine is “R”), and set it so that your focus is the first weapon that shows up in the top left corner of the “hero” pane. After that, you can quickly R → double click Focus → R → 4 → R → double click previous weapon.

I’ll admit it is a pain, but it doesn’t force you into anything.

Nice video, thanks!

Few questions/critiques:

- I run a 20-20-0-0-30 build; why do you go 30 into dueling? I personally use the “Shatter removes a boon on hit” trait in 20 Domination; plus vulnerability when dazing is nice with using pistol and having the daze shatter.

- Always have a focus with you so that, if you have your “hero” key set to a close hot-key, you can quickly hit your hero key, switch to focus, use increased run speed, and switch back to whatever weapon you were using.

- Have you tried null field? I find it useful with having an extra chaos armor, and of course dispelling. Do you find mirror images > null field?

- Is there a reason you start with staff over S/P?

- Personally what do you find to be the best way to use your shatters? Do you hit F1 and F2 together whenever you’re going in for the attack? (Side question: if you have 3 illusions up and you hit both F1 and F2, do both trigger with having 3 illusions up, or will F1 trigger with 3 illusions up and F2 trigger with just you?) I guess I’m still pretty new b/c I haven’t been taking advantage of F2-F4 (I forgot that Illusionary Persona counts you as an illusion!).

Obviously I’m nowhere near a pro (only rank 10) but I talk a lot with a rank 40 mesmer who is 20-20-0-0-30 build and I basically follow his strategy a lot, so that’s where most of my questions/comments come from. Thanks!

Why wouldn’t you go 25 in chaos and get “5% of your toughness is given as condition damage” for your PVE build? It seems that that’s much better than going 30 in Illusions…