Showing Posts For Westibone.3985:
In the past I did some extremely in-depth analysis of the difference between a sustained rotation on scepter with 100% uptime on alacrity and malicious sorcery, and autoattacking with sword. This was for a zerker build though, not hybrid, so that would change things somewhat. However, sword has since received a substantial damage buff on the autoattack, and it already had a significant lead over scepter, so I doubt that hybrid would allow it to catch up.
Having to cast wells / put out iAvengers will heavily skew towards scepter though.
The scepter ranged advantage shouldn’t be discounted as well.
I noticed this as well. When using scepter, it was a lot easier to survey the battlefield and keep the damage up while more accurately providing tides of time and wells to the group. Part of the reason for this is that I was pugging, and people are still figuring out how to control the boss, so melee was more erratic.
Nevertheless, I’m fairly confident that hybrid scepter outperforms power-sword with perma-alacrity, just looking at the 1-3 skills alone; confusing images, the highest dps for scepter already does more power damage than blurred frenzy, the highest dps (marginally) for sword. I would be excited to see some math prove otherwise that power sword 1-3 outperforms hybrid scepter 1-3 given optimal traits/stats/food for both.
In the past I did some extremely in-depth analysis of the difference between a sustained rotation on scepter with 100% uptime on alacrity and malicious sorcery, and autoattacking with sword. This was for a zerker build though, not hybrid, so that would change things somewhat. However, sword has since received a substantial damage buff on the autoattack, and it already had a significant lead over scepter, so I doubt that hybrid would allow it to catch up.
with spatial surge going up to 8k plus.
Do you mean confusing images?
Yeah sorry; Confusing Images. Definitely not using GS for this.
I’m very much not a big fan of anything condie for Mesmer in this fight though. Torment works decently…but since a lot of our torment is from shatters, we can’t stack it as high as we’d like to (need to leave avengers up for alacrity upkeep). The boss attacks really slowly, so confusion is awful. Burn/bleed works fine of course, but staff applies those, and staff is bad in a group due to bounce mechanics. Lastly, a lot of bleed/finishers is from duelists or wardens, but keeping avengers up is far more beneficial to party dps than a bit of bleeding/a few burns. Ultimately you’re just going to do much better damage with sword and power gear than trying to go hybrid.
So after tonight, I agree with you that focus is the right offhand to go along with the shield. I do think you are underestimating Viper gear, though. The alacrity uptime is still very respectable with Chronophantasma and liberal use of wells, without just leaving up shield phantasms. I was seeing 3k burning ticks in addition to warden still critting for 6k plus, with spatial surge going up to 8k plus. I saw some 4k confusion ticks even, and I wouldn’t be so quick to say that a strict power build is much better than what you get with 2100+ power and 1600+ condition damage unbuffed. This is coming from trying runs with full ascended sets of both. Whether or not tanking is the best role for us or not, I don’t know. I think we can all agree that the player is the biggest factor here, and if you play well and pay attention, you will likely succeed whether or not you use zerker/assassin or Viper/Sinister.
Either way, I felt like I was channeling Mozart with all the keys being pressed…haha;
Yeah I just compared the tool tip with Necro Shroud 4, which shows the same number of hits (12x). I have been playing around with Viper/Sinister Reaper and was shocked at the effectiveness of using RShroud 4 in a poison field or fire field. I also hadn’t thought about being able to pull the orbs away from the Raid with Focus #4. I am looking forward to trying this out!
On my next run I will try focus instead of pistol. I had actually forgotten about the whirl finisher, which is not to be overlooked. I am not sure how many “bolts” the iWarden’s whirl puts out (compared to, say, Necro Shroud 4, which is a LOT). Also, as others have said, the floating orbs can get in the way of the iDuelists volley as well. From my experience, traited focus is not necessary thanks to alacrity. The hardest part is trying to find the sweet spot when switching back and forth between weapon sets. Last night I camped in shield most of the time, which offers party quickness/alacrity (from the phantasm) as well as a lot more survivability with the block.
There is definitely an opportunity right now for Condition builds, since most people don’t have an ascended set of Condition-oriented gear. As a Chronomancer, we also have the advantage of being able to provide something that no-one else can: Alacrity.
The advantage of playing a power Chrono in the raid is that you would be able to take Domination for boon strip on shatter, which offer better boon stripping that any other class by far. There are some important mechanics that require you to strip boons.
It was a safe bet to make a set of Viper, since I had 4 armor chests lying around, and I have a Necro and Ele as well, each of which can achieve insane DPS with the same setup. I have always mained a Mesmer, though, so I am partial to the playstyle.
I raided last night (with a pug, so we were only got the Vale Guardian down to 50%) using a very similar setup, except that I used Dueling instead of Inspiration, and Pistol instead of focus. Full ascended Viper armor w/ rune of Berserker and Ascended sinister trinkets.
I found that I was not using the pistol much, since your cooldowns reset so fast that you can spam shield skills for quickness and alacrity for the whole group. I used all wells plus Time Warp. Despite being super glass, I was not going down very often at all. It’s crazy how fast Scepter #3 recharges with the scepter trait and alacrity. You almost always have 3 illusions, and you can shatter as fast as you can press the buttons pretty much.
It’s hard for me to get a sense of how good the DPS was since it’s very hectic, but Scepter #3 was hitting for 6-8k a pop, and I was seeing bleeding, torment, and confusion ticks reach around 2k each when everything was going well. The boss is constantly swinging, so the Scepter #2 goes off all the time (though the red orbs get in the way) and the cooldown on it is ridiculously lowPlus, you have the dmg from shatters and wells, so it all adds up.
I am sure it’s not nearly what you can achieve with some other classes, but you also have to take into account how much DPS you are adding to the other members of the Raid with quickness and alacrity.
All in all, it was a fun and different playstyle
Too strong for what? What are you worried about? Seriously?
I think it would be cool if the trait extended the range of all sword skills (call it Energy Blade or whatever), INCLUDING AUTO ATTACK (sort of like the Necro Axe). The sword would still cleave, though, of course. Being able to auto attack from further away would be awesome. You could land many more hits, and with all the quickness around now, it would be even more awesome.
If you watch the video again, starting at 37:30, you can see that he uses the block skill twice in a row against the rapid-fire monster. Now, you can see that no new phantasms are produced, BUT you can also see the word “Obstructed” appear twice, suggesting that the skill activated twice but for some reason LoS prevented the phantasms from appearing
(edited by Westibone.3985)
I have two Rabid sets: one with Perplexity and one with Traveler’s. I prefer the Traveler’s. Since you are already going full points in illusions, the loss of Condition damage is not as big a deal as it would be in, say, a PU build. The quality of life is just so much better with the speed in my opinion. I use both 2/4/2/0/6 and 0/4/4/0/6
My guess is that they have tested it and feel that it would be too strong. I can’t see another good reason, considering the iMage gets an extra bounce. Why they can’t/won’t just admit that is another issue, though. I know we would all rather not have the uncertainty.
Step 1) Buy 2 rare AOE friendly weapons for the class of your choice
Step 2) Put a Superior Sigil in each one
Step 3) Find Cyotes
Step 4) Profit
Which borderland will it be held in?
Go 0/20/30/0/20 and use full rabid gear (undead runes) with Staff and Scepter/Torch. Take decoy, blink, X, Mass Invis. You are unbelievably survivable with all the stealth + prismatic understanding, and your Torment will hurt like hell on the scepter block. This spec is not amazing in groups, since your dmg is mostly single target, but for solo roaming it’s extremely hard to beat. Make sure you take Illusionary Elasticity to greatly improve the effectiveness of your staff. Also, turn off the auto attack on scepter, as the scepter clones are far inferior to staff clones.
Have you tried taking both traits in a 20/20/0/0/30 build? Or do you think Rending Shatter/Shattered Concentration are superior? Sounds like you enjoy the vulnerability of Rending Shatter
Something I have been doing with success is going 20/20/0/0/30 with GS/Staff and taking phantasm damage and fury for phantasms, along with Illusionary Elasticity. Everything hits very hard, and you get quite a bit of might from the GS bouncing + shattering, but the new thing I have been doing is this:
I use my power/crit gear (Zerker, Knight, Cavalier mix), but change all my consumables to condition based stuff (veggie pizza/tuning crystals). Also, I build up 25 stacks of corruption before I go out. this gets me about 800 condition damage before any might stacks, and bleeds are in the 80’s, burns in the 500’s. this allows you to hang back with the staff if you want and apply pressure to high toughness targets. Also, the iZerker will hit unbelievabll hard, apply bleeds, and any GS clones you have out will be hitting 3x times each providing additional bleeds. It’s like having the best of both worlds, and you don’t have to piece together some weird Rampager armor mix to get it done.
(edited by Westibone.3985)
Great video. I played Mesmer as my main for most of my GW2 play time so far, and it just feels so much more satisfying when/if you can win while roaming with a warrior. I’ve been using hammer/greatsword, but I really like the look of sword/shield along with it. Would love to know your build. I currently gear with zerker armor and mostly Cavalier trinkets, which works alright. I’ve been kind of all over the map with my build, though, messing with boon hate, trying various things, etc.
Great video, I look forward to more.
I took my own advice and tried this out last night. It actually worked great for WvW. I took 10 pts from Discipline to get Stronger Bowstrings.
I think people are so used to 100b Frenzy Warriors, that they don’t quite know what to expect from someone packing a Longbow. I recommend it. I run full zerker with ruby orbs, and mostly exotic Cavalier trinkets.
I know this post is a little old and I apologize for the bump (I’m not on the forums much.), just wanted to ask if you stuck to using Beryl Orbs in your accessories?
Yes, with 30 points in Arms, you have plenty of precision, so the extra HP will help buffer a little against conditions. I believe that is the best choice.
Very nice to see some non-D/D footage. Well done.
I took my own advice and tried this out last night. It actually worked great for WvW. I took 10 pts from Discipline to get Stronger Bowstrings.
I think people are so used to 100b Frenzy Warriors, that they don’t quite know what to expect from someone packing a Longbow. I recommend it. I run full zerker with ruby orbs, and mostly exotic Cavalier trinkets.
You can compromise by using full Berserker armor and Cavalier trinkets (Toughness/Power/Crit Dmg). Use whatever runes you like in your armor (or orbs), I would probably put Beryl jewels in the trinkets. This will give you some extra toughness while still keeping your offense high (through crit dmg). Use a defensive oriented food if you like.
Also, you can take 10 points from either Arms or Discipline and use them to get the longbow range trait. The 25 point minor trait in Arms is pretty good (your enemy will likely be bleeding most of the time) so maybe taking from Discipline would be best.
Just my 2 cents.
I find superior air to be the best choice for a power shatter build. With the newly buffed Mirror heal, you have swiftness on a fairly low CD. Crit dmg is one of the best stats for this build, which the Air runes also have. Finally, the lighting proc is an amazing defense against thieves, and when it crits, you can see upwards of 5k hits from it. It’s just all around an amazing choice.
When running confusion bomb, I like Undead, just because I enjoy the extra toughness and condition dmg you gain from it. Solid choice there.
I did not create this build, but I have tested it over the weekend and found it to actually be very effective indeed. It’s petty funky and people just don’t expect it coming. For the first time, I feel comfortable roaming around solo on my warrior.
You can open with either set, they are both good for engaging. You have many ways to cause interrupt for confusion, and the superior sigils of Doom synergize well with the build. The condition duration food is key, as you can stack bleeds for ridiculous lengths of time with it. If you make sure to cripple, that’s another cover condition. You lack ranged options, but with the short cooldown on sword leap, and bull’s rush, plus cripple, I have not found sticking on the target to be too hard. It’s amazing when you block guardian who is spinning on you, or a thief using their steal on you…Mass burning. for zerg engagements, a longbow in place of mace/sword works.
I really like it a lot, and I only bought rare gear to test it out. With full exotics, it would only be better.
Another great video Osi. Great music again. I am trying to use portal more, but I am just so used to having mirror images for on demand burst….hard to give up.
I think you already commented on this, but I have found another buddy mesmer to run around with, him being something along the lines of shattercat heavy, me being ultra confusion bomb. This combo works unbelievable well together, it’s almost unfair. 2x mass invis, blinking everywhere, and it looks like some kind of shiny disco apocalypse when we go to battle. I load them up with confusion to pressure them, he explodes the ones that get low. No one survives…
I have been using sword/focus as my offset to staff with full rabid gear…I am now addicted to pulling thieves out of their shadow refuge with the focus #4 haha.
Interesting…I was using a phantasm build in fractals, and I noticed the Jade mobs in the last fractal receiving 440-something dmg from retaliation from the iWarden. I remembered this because I thought it was strange that it wasn’t in the 300’s like everything else.
I think they should adjust Unsuspecting Foe to also trigger on knockdowns (Backbreaker, Bull’s Rush, Ground Stomp (blowout)). It would really shine, then.
Asura has the best racials by far…I am Jelly.
I just got to 80 yesterday on my warrior, and I am going to proof it by grabbing some lvl 80 rare gear and giving it a shot. I am trying to figure out what the best armor/trinket combos are.
On paper this really does look genius, though.
Maybe something like this:
(edited by Westibone.3985)
I incorrectly had the signet trait, when I intended for the +50% crit chance vs stunned enemies (Unsuspecting Foe). I edited my link.
Also, both stuns and knockdowns count as disables, right? So shouldn’t both Back Breaker and Earthshaker trigger that trait?
Crit damage Hammer / Greatsword is really satisfying to play.
At the moment I have 0/10/25/10/25 and am standing in 81% crit damage which makes hammer damage go all nuts. I have bull’s charge in my utility bar, but I don’t use it unless I get to come from behind.
The CC and mobility of Hammer / GS is just amazing and fun to utilize. I have had a lot of good duels with this build also. Ofcourse there are stuff that break me like constant confusion and so, but you can’t always have everything.
What I am most satisfied is the fact that this build actually works in 1vX, small scale and even medium to large size battles. 5 unaware invaders caught under my Hammer burst get down pretty fast because of the 100% crit chance while they are stunned.
I like the looks of this, and I think I have seen a video of this in action. I got my War to 80 yesterday, so I am going to give this a shot. My setup will look something like this (including consumables):
(edited by Westibone.3985)
Thanks for the response! I agree that there is way too much bandwagoning and people making blanket statements about the capabilities of each class. I have much respect for innovators and those who find a way to make it work. I will continue my research into this subject
This looks like quite an interesting build. I like to participate in organized duels out in the borderlands during blowout weeks, but I never see any warriors who are able to achieve an even modest degree of success. Have you used this for dueling purposes? what trouble do you run into?
Also, what gear do you find best suited for this setup?
I primarily participate WvW, and during weeks when it’s a complete blowout, I find it fun to head to Blue borderlands behind the windmill and participate in organized dueling with people from other servers. My main class is a mesmer, which most would consider to be in the upper echelon of classes for dueling purposes. I have seen very successful duelists from most other professions, including: Thief, Guardian, Engineer, Elementalist, and Ranger.
I have yet to see a warrior achieve consistent success in this arena, however. Most people out in the field tend to agree that the Warrior is at a distinct disadvantage when it comes to one on one combat. This definitely appears to be true on the surface, but I have become interested in building a warrior that is capable of taking on others in single combat without defeat being a forgone conclusion.
I understand that the game is not balanced around 1v1 combat, or even WvWvW…nevertheless dueling can be fun and also an opportunity for display of showmanship and skill.
Has anyone had any consistent success with warrior 1v1? Is extreme CC the answer? Hammer, Mace/Mace with all movement skills? I think this would be an interesting project, and I am just looking for input from anyone who is interested in this kind of thing. Thanks in advance.
The point of confusion is not to put pressure on a target. The point of it is to take a target that is already pressured, and force them to shut down or take massive damage. Using it in this way is exceptionally effective, and is (in my opinion) what the devs really designed confusion to be used as.
I believe this to be mostly the case. I revisited the full rabid 0/20/20/0/30 build over the weekend for roaming and duels, and I had amazing success with it. For general roaming in a 2-5 person group (which I enjoy the most), giving someone a huge stack with the added pressure of dealing with other players/incoming damage often causes the opponent to spam some abilities and thus take massive dmg. Confusion thrives when the opponent’s attention is divided.
Even in duels against experienced opponents, with every shatter producing at least 4 stacks (assuming you are on top of them), they are going to eat some confusion damage. Against inexperienced players, going for the 4x Cry plus Mirror Images—>mind wrack right off the bat will instantly drop them. Against seasoned opponents, kiting around with 3 staff clones and 1600+ condition dmg will force them to increase their aggression (or die), and right about that time you feel they are getting frustrated (from you blinking around, stealthing, arcane thieving), you pop the big CoF.
I mostly use Sword/Focus as the off set, since Sword 2 is amazing for defense, and the focus is great for speed, pulling people (thieves out of shadow refuge), and using the leap/swap on top of curtain to get retaliation to add to your outgoing dmg.
Plus, you can carry around your power shatter gear and switch to it without having to change spec (see Shatter Cat Heavy).
The only thing I fear when running this is a condition necro.
As another note, if you are human, give the “Reaper of Grenth” Elite a try. I had never used it, and found it to be pretty awesome. Perma chill/poison for 15 sec to everyone within 240 units of you. Great for getting in close and mixing it up or ruining the day of downed people and those trying to rez them. With 2700 something toughness it’s no problem to get up close and personal.
I did some dueling with this spec out in the borderlands in an area where people get together to hang out and do that kind of thing. I was able to beat the super healing-bunker ranger spec due to the focus reflects, I stalemated with the extreme guardian bunker build, just too much healing, but I couldn’t be taken down either.
Sadly, the other mesmer there totally owned me most of the time. He used multiple stealths and just let his zerker and duelist whittle me down. There was really nothing I could do.
On another note, I have become more of a fan of the full rabid confusion bomb build. If you run sword focus as the off-set to staff, you can still do the retaliation combo, and at 3.7k ticks of confusion, no matter how good you are, you’re going to take a little punishment. Lately, I have had the best roaming results with that.
How does everyone feel about using mantra of pain for additional burst during the shatter combo? I have tried this out every now and then, and while recharging during a fight is not so cool, the potential for 2 additional instant 2k-something hits is pretty nice.
I know torch is generally not the best for shatter spec, but with the new prestige, you can channel the mantra during stealth if you want.
Now have Torch as a more attractive option. Condition buffed np. Don’t we all just love a good 7-8s burn, oh yes we do yes we do.
Not to mention you can hide your windup of Scepter #3 with the stealth from torch
By the way, Osi, the music in your vids is consistently awesome. Do you have a playlist? Where do you find all of it?
Really awesome video, man. Watching great skilled play like this makes me love being a mesmer. Watching as a 3rd party also makes me realize what a complete nightmare it is for other people to fight against a great mesmer, no matter what spec you are playing. It just looks like a bunch of constant butterflies and explosions, lol.
I played 100% Zerker gear shatter build 20/20/0/0/30 for a long time. I have finally gotten around to Fractals, and got a hold of the ascended backpiece (power, Tough, crit dmg), the Power, Tough, Crit dmg ascended ring, and another ascended ring with full zerker stats.
I replaced my chest and legs with knight’s gear, and I use a zerker staff, one zerker sword, and one P,T,V sword. I put 5% crit sigil in one of the swords to make up for some loss of crit%.
I run the Hybrid build, and I can absolutely tell a difference in the extra survivability. The extra toughness and HP help tremendously, and I finally feel like I have finished gearing for the shatter spec. Once I get the ascended amulet (I will probably go for Berserker w/ valkyrie secondary), I will be good to go.
A note for those who are either new to mesmer or are trying to increase their skills. I played sPvP (mostly hot join) for the first few hundred hours of my gw2 experience, and it really goes a long way towards getting yourself familiar with how to fight in groups and more importantly, stay alive in a zergy atmosphere. I would recommend spending a little time there if you want to get better at awareness/survival (not really great for 1v1, though).
(edited by Westibone.3985)
i use this in wvw picture is without food (omno pies/master oil) with 25stack of power from scepter + might ( use sigil of strenght+ EM from Honor you can buff power to 3700-4000 very quick and when you leap to enemy group its do big dmg)
Mind sharing your gear/traits? Your combination of stats looks almost perfect. Thanks!
Helm/Chest/Legs (Knight) Shouder/Hands/Boots (Berserkers) 6x divinity rune
Beryl Ring/Ascended Berserkers(or exotic berserkers) ring
2x Berserkers accesorry
Soldier back (use exotic from Greth karma merchant in orr) with beryl jeweli use GS with berserkers stats and sigil of strenght (stack with EM and AH)
Scepter(bloodlust sigil)/torch (5dmg (can use sigil what you need)
Traits: 0/10(signet reduce)/30(condition remove/5% thought to crit/AH)/30(shout reduce/EM/ pure of voice)Food: master oil/omno pie(good hp steal 325hp with no cd good synergy with AH)
Thanks a lot! Much appreciated.
i use this in wvw picture is without food (omno pies/master oil) with 25stack of power from scepter + might ( use sigil of strenght+ EM from Honor you can buff power to 3700-4000 very quick and when you leap to enemy group its do big dmg)
Mind sharing your gear/traits? Your combination of stats looks almost perfect. Thanks!
I am a big fan of this build. I used something just like this in sPvP, but it was condition based (shaman’s amulet), and I took the double bounce trait. I also took Signet of Inspiration so I could share my super long retaliation and might/regen buffs with the entire team. If you use it when you are clustered up with everyone, it makes a huge difference. I like this power based version, though, as you can really maximize retaliation dmg.
One NOTE: If you are using condition dmg, and you take the confusion on blind trait, chaos armor has a 66% chance to give confusion when struck (33% confusion chance, 33% blind), which really puts the stacks on thieves and anyone else who is hitting you very rapidly. Grab null field, and you can have chaos armor up quite a bit of the time.
I’ve used the double bounce trait in my build, but mainly when I am in a team. The problem is that the staff clones are not affected by that trait, which makes it far less effective than it should be. Signet of inspiration I will also often take when I am in a team, but when roaming solo it is not a good choice by any stretch of the imagination.
In my opinion, confusion is a horrible condition to base a build around. I have tried it in wvw, using full rabid gear, but it just doesn’t work as well as other builds. My success with confusion comes when using it as an auxiliary condition to another attack. In most cases, I will stack up confusion either during a large burst combo (glass cannon shatter build) or when they are lower on hp (primarily tank build). This forces them to either eat a ton of damage from a shatter combo, or eat a ton of damage from 12 stacks of confusion. Similarly, it forces them to avoid simple things like dodge rolling, or facing the damage from 10-12 stacks, and this allows me to force the confusion damage onto them, as opposed to getting a ton of stacks and watching them drip off with no consequence.
I agree. I see some people owning with confusion bomb builds, but I also trialed full rabid and I felt it lacked punch. I was not using torch or mass invis at the time, which I think really changes up how the max condition build plays.
I have been toying around with that spreadsheet that’s been floating around, trying to see if there is a hybrid gear setup that would allow balanced stats with around 1k condition dmg, 1800-1900 power, and decent crit, crit dmg, hp, and toughness. I think it’s possible. I got the idea after watching a video on the hybrid necro. Mix of rampager, knight, zerker, valkyrie…something like that. Would be great to have decent burst while still being able to switch on the fly and hang back, wearing them down with conditions.
@Westibone: That is a great combo for PVE, and I used it often while leveling. Tagging/kiting mobs and setting up a zerker/TP/warden/Void/Leap/BF/shatter combo will take out several trash mobs in seconds if you line it up properly. Hint: use the zerker as bait to help you place your TP. TBH, I still use focus in most of my PVE builds.
The problem is that it doesn’t work so well in PVP. Because player movements are usually more unpredictable or spread out, you can’t really predict where the warden will spawn, and so it doesn’t reliably line up with the enemy and the TP. Getting just one player in the warden’s AOE can be tough, but several? And if you only get one, a magic bullet/duelist can do the job much easier and more reliably.
Don’t get me wrong, the focus is still a decent weapon for WVW due the utility, CC, and using it defensively (which is mostly TP, but warden can be used as a “safe zone” to set up combos), but using the warden offensively is just not reliable. Unless you are fighting bads that don’t move much, and then you really don’t need it anyway.
The iWarden spawns directly next to the target when it is summoned. If that target is on the ground from your Into the Void pull, that’s where it will show up. If they have stability or dodge the pull, that’s one thing, but if you pull in the middle of your warden cast and it’s successful, the warden will pop on their knocked down body, leaving you time to use iLeap/swap and further immobilize them.
IF you miss the combo, at least the warden will pop (unless blocked, etc), and you can run and camp out on him while he is spinning, forcing the opponent to either come attack you (thus taking dmg from him), shoot you from range (reflected due to Warden’s Feedback), or just wait you out (neutral, your cooldowns refresh)
There is a great Into The Void, Warden Combo that goes like this:
-Cast Temporal Curtain
- Start Casting iWarden
-Half-way through the iWarden cast, use Into the Void (it’s instant, which is why this is possible)
- The iWarden will spawn on your knocked down opponent
- Use iLeap
- Dodge Roll (if you are using Deceptive Evasion/Shatter build)
- Swap (immobilizing your enemy in the warden’s range)
-Blurred Frenzy
-wait patiently for the warden to finish his dmg
-Shatter
This can be tricky and takes practice, but if you can pull it off, it’s lights out for the enemy.
I am a big fan of this build. I used something just like this in sPvP, but it was condition based (shaman’s amulet), and I took the double bounce trait. I also took Signet of Inspiration so I could share my super long retaliation and might/regen buffs with the entire team. If you use it when you are clustered up with everyone, it makes a huge difference. I like this power based version, though, as you can really maximize retaliation dmg.
One NOTE: If you are using condition dmg, and you take the confusion on blind trait, chaos armor has a 66% chance to give confusion when struck (33% confusion chance, 33% blind), which really puts the stacks on thieves and anyone else who is hitting you very rapidly. Grab null field, and you can have chaos armor up quite a bit of the time.
Has anyone tried out a true Hybrid power/condition build? Something along the lines of
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQJAWRlwzKo3UTmGbNJiJF9GyhSB2ldkK0alUgbXIA;ToAgyCqo+y8l4LrMuvkftWYUB
I was thinking Staff/GS. I was messing around with that spreadsheet and was able to get the following stats (while holding zerker GS and Rabid Staff respectively):
With Berserker GS
Power: 1912
Crit Chance: 43%
Crit Dmg: 50
Cond Dmg: 818
Armor: 2036
HP: 17902
With Rabid Staff
Power: 1733
Crit Chance: 43%
Crit Dmg: 41
Cond Dmg: 991
Armor: 2164
HP: 17902
My thinking was that you could use GS to nuke/shatter, or get into staff, generate some clones, and hang back and wear them down. Not sure yet if this would be effective or just spreading yourself too thin. You could use Sigil of corruption or Bloodlust depending on whether you want to favor power or condition dmg, and your food choice could also be used in he same way.
Could someone go into more detail on using Staff #2 as the additional “blink” forward. Currently I hit about face > #2 > about face. But when I watch the videos it is no where near as fluid. I don’t know if it is my timing or using the wrong method entirely. I have noticed that about face does not work when you have your right mouse button held down which is unfortunate.
If someone could clarify I would appreciate it.
2 Patches ago, the way phase retreat works was changed. Previously, it would always teleport you backwards, regardless of where your target was located or your position in relation to him. Now, it will teleport you AWAY from your target, so if your target is behind you, you will teleport forward.
What Osi is doing is, while chasing someone, targeting a random mob inbetween him and the opponent, blinking past it, then using phase retreat to teleport forward again (since the mob was behind you, you move forward).