so for several nights i have been using this build and slight variations for hours in wvw. loving it. For the previous question, yes, Rabid gear will work, but honestly in true zerg v zerg you aren’t going to notice the extra condi damage. You ARE going to notice the lower survival stats.
Swapped to a hard stack of PVT. Sentinel everything. trinkets, even dropping runes/sigils for PVT rare gems. Suddenly stopped dieing. I could stay stacked on the commander tag no matter how hard we pushed and still come out of the blob dodging or cycling blocks.
Afterwards i changed things up a bit as during the actual clashes i found myself on the front lines or deep in the blob and not switching to the staff as much, so i decided to try dropping the 10 for reflect and going deeper into chaos for moar toughness and the boons from stealth ( since commanders often want veils after stack, and i was happy to provide )
So i would be running Veil, Mimic (4 seconds of block and retal tagging- yeshhhhh yesssssshhhh), and feedback + mass invis unless pushing a gate. Swapping portals out when called/etc ofc, but i digress:
http://gw2buildcraft.com/calculator/mesmer/?4.0|b.0.h1j.d.0.0|6.0.h1j|0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|1c.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.0|0.k3a.u2ac.k28.0|0.0|33.3b.3f.38.0|e
Sentinel everything. Grenth karma accessories, exotics from molten fac. PVT gems all round.
So its 0/20/30/20/0, mostly using the dodge clones to fuel distortion during stomps.
between blocks, focus reflect/feedback and sheer stats survival has been beyond impressive. I mean hours without dieing. Even if we get wiped i’m shoving my way out with people all over still managing to drop combat and waypoint to regroup.
Using vit/tough food that build hovers at 30k health, 3000 armor, 30% boon duration. Its a tossup between that and lemon for the -condi duration. Personally i prefer the pure stats.
However i have to admit that i do NOT have a top end PC and during 50+ vs 50+ things get .. not quite choppy, but its not smooth, so i’m not weapon swapping quite as much as i could be to get the most out of staff, admittedly. I’ll drop chaos field, put on armor, swap back to scepter and just stick on that icon.
Either way, its the reflect everything, support the zerg, and come out swinging mentality of this build- it’s great fun.
Edit: Just to add, at the end of the night my stack of badges is right there with the guardians, so even though you may not ‘feel’ like you’re wtfpwning everything in your path, this build CERTAINLY pulls its weigh more than anything shatter/phantom based that i have played or seen from other mesmers running with us with more offensively stacked builds. You don’t even realize how much damage you are mitigating from the reflects, feedbacks, and well timed mass invis.
Hope some of this helps dragon!
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