Guild Wars 2

i ended up doing 10 in chaos. i get a little extra toughness and boon duration to counteract my squishiness, 10 sec of regen when i get to 75% health, and i chose illusionary defense for a little more anti-squishy.

also, now that i have points in chaos, i can change to fall damage protection for jumping puzzles

so, final build is 10/20/10/30/0. works pretty darn well for what i need it to.

different opinions on confusing enchantments. understandable, seeing as the debatable usefulness of confusion in PVE is the reason i switched from a confusion build to this phantasm build in the first place. the best thing to do unfortunately might just be to put these last 10 points in a line with stats that help balance the build and not really worry about the trait.

keenlam.4753:

Also, i strongly suggest you try Shattered Conditions as an alternative to Mender’s Purity. Because you run with Signet of Illusions, you basically can have 8 conditions cleansed on demand (4 shatters with reset = 8 shatters), for you and your allies..

i gotta say, im a big fan of mender’s purity. i use mirror so i can reflect, which has a shorter cool down than ether feast, in addition to the on-demand condition removal. it’s a nice smaller removal so i dont have to use null field every time i want to lose one stack of something.

plus, shattering in a phantasm build just to remove a condition seems counter-intuitive, even though it does it in an AoE. on top of that, the inspiration line already has too many good trait choices to use one of them on this. i wish just one of them was in dom or duel so these last 10 point weren’t such a bother.

Nretep.2564:

@build
do you really need the 10 pts in illusions ?

it was for the “distortion grants reflection” to go along with my reflection thing i had going. never used it though, so i changed it to higher % mind wrack crit chance.

dont really see any better options. thoughts?

thanks for the responses fellas. as of 5 minutes ago i’m currently wearing full zerker gear and weapons. saving up for accessories

the goal here is a hybrid phantasm damage/group support build for FotM and dungeons. let the pWarlocks and pWardens do the DPS while i reflet projectiles, cure conditions, etc…general party-loving shenanigans.

10/20/0/30/10.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQNAW8dl0zqqHVzhGaNJxpHMH6LHVhuTqgqLpA38G

full exotic carrion gear. this is where i’m having the most doubt. PWR/PREC/COND? not sure if that’s the best choice. it might’ve been at one point, but that was almost a year ago and there have been too many updates since then to not review the build. i read something about RABID gear earlier…?

personal note: i LOVE reflecting things. probably my favorite thing, hence all the traits and the use of the focus. retention of these abilities is very important to the entertaining nature of playing the character.

thoughts?

0-20-0-30-20
staff + sword/focus

phantasm dps/utility build. buff the phantasms (iWarden/pWarlocks) enough that you can redirect your attention to your team without feeling like youre not contributing enough dps. DEFINITELY want Focus as the OH for the amazing utility of iWarden and Temporal Curtain. traited correctly they both reflect projectiles (SE fire golem easy mode, anyone?) and drop one on the other and you have condition removal.

runes of the mesmer sound good to me but that requires either luck in dungeons or grinding out tokens, so something comparable thats not BoA would do almost as good.

rampager’s gear. don’t worry about not adding to survivability with stats, the mesmer has enough survivability on his own. use your skills to survive and your stats to make sure they don’t.

mesmers have a lot of survivability (if you know what youre doing). thats why I go with rampagers. use your skills to survive and your stats to make sure they don’t.

i just recently switched from a staff+scepter/torch confusion build to a staff+sword/focus phantasm DPS/dungeon support build, and i love it. so many technical tricks to pull off.

especially with iWarden. that little ball of fun seems to be able to do anything…except chase the target :P but all i do is PVE, so it’s less of a problem than against other human beings.

plus, yeah, Into the Void. magic.

try this on for size; iWarden with Temporal Curtain and Chaos Storm dropped right down on top of him. projectile reflection, condition removal, AEGIS, and whatever other goodies you get from CS.

people will want to stay inside that area so long you could charge RENT.

so there i was, in Lion’s Arch, smacking away at the practice dummies by the dungeon vendors. i have out a couple phantasms and an illusionary leap clone. the clone is gladly hacking away at a dummy, when i decide to summon another one. i pick a different target than he is already attacking, and hit 3.

this is where it gets weird.

the currently spawned clone leaves his target, leaps at the new one, assumably cripples it (no condition monitoring in LA) and then runs back to his original target. no new clone is summoned.

working as intended?

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgQQNAW8dlwzKonUzqGa9IxpHMP6LHlCs79SKwNvB;TkAqmMNJay2krJZTLRGBsXA

(EDITED THE BUILD)

here is the build i’m running with currently, considering everyones feedback. full rampager’s gear (Pow/Prec/Cond)

Rhyno.7084:

To echofoxtrot, now you’re really confusing me, iMage is the Torch phantasm.

ugh, im sorry…i meant pWarlock. the staff phantasm…so sorry for the confusion

Furienify.5738:

• Mirrored Feedback irreplaceable, as you already figured out, but I’d recommend slotting Signet of Illusions and Phantasmal Defender almost full-time.
  • Why? Little-known secret: the 50% damage transfer on the pDefender applies to all allies in a 600-unit radius around the Defender. When I add the bonus health from Signet of Illusions, I measure my own Defender’s health at around 10,000hp. If you summon it on the right mobs (non-aoe, focusing on other players) and account for innate Phantasmal Regeneration (and other party-sourced healing), it can almost double your potential health pool.

AWESOME point about pDefender and Signet of Illusions. i’m all over that. is it worth further traiting for phantasm health? or is the signet enough?

Furienify.5738:

• I disagree with the stacking of condition damage. I’ve found that Mesmers cannot into conditions as a whole in a PvE setting, save for a few specific instances involving super-fast attacks and confusion. Staff is just too slow and unpredictable – any attack you or your clones make risks being diluted by vulnerability, which can be applied much more efficiently by most other classes.
  • With this in mind, just about any other class will out-condition you. They can simply stack on the DoTs better than do, especially considering the investment you have to make with phantasms. The only time this doesn’t hold true is when the enemy is stuck between three of your iWardens, which is a disgusting meatgrinder of death and agony so potent you can safely go walk your dog until the mob dies. All in all – while you benefit from condition damage, it should not be your focus.
• The build site you linked doesn’t account for the different stats used for PvP/PvE prefixes, so I can’t really link what I use. I can tell you that my gear is usually Rampager (Power/Prec/Condi), Berserker (Power/Prec/CritDmg) and Valkyrie (Power/Vit/CritDmg).

i see what you’re saying about condition damage…in boss fights, there will be enough conditions on the enemy already, mine might not make that much of a difference. and the pWarlocks benefit no matter who put the condition on the target. in that case , why did you recommend Rampager gear? (sounds a lot like the Carrion gear i’m currently sporting). sounds like Berserker or Valkyrie might be better.

this being the case then, the next question is what should my main auto attack be? if i’m not using the staff for filler damage, what AM i doing while waiting for some support work to be required?

Furienify.5738:

Assuming I linked it right, the finished product looks like this:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgQQNAW8dlwzKonUzqGa9IyZGK3yhSx15dlZgbXIA;TMALRGCsXA

yeah, it worked. you had Signet of Domination in there though, i assume you intended Signet of Illusions…?

thanks everyone for the comments, much appreciated. keep em comin.

Furienify.5738:

• TRAITS
  • Trim Illusions down to 20, remove the +bounce trait, swap compounding power for the +confusion duration trait (you’ll see why soon), and keep haste. Staff autoattack is just generally bad and should only be used as filler – I’ll elaborate on this later.
  • Cull the points in Domination. I’m fairly sure that trait only impacts clones, making it useless.
  • With these extra 20 points, bring Dueling up to 25. This makes your Wardens apply bleed at a much faster rate than five Staff mesmers put together courtesy of Sharper Images. The 25th point makes all your stuff cause confusion on death, adding further to your damage output (in addition to the Warden comboing off your own ethereal fields).

first of all, as stated in my above post, i meant 3 pWarlocks instead of 3 iWardens. that’s why i dig the staff and condition damage so much, those warlocks feed on it. sorry for any confusion my typo may have caused.

Furienify.5738:

Finally, Deceptive Evasion just ups your survivability in general, as well as providing shatter fodder in the rare instances you’ll want to actually use your class mechanic.

i don’t like the “dodge to make a clone” minor trait. when i have 3 phantasms up and i need to dodge a bosses attack, that loses me DPS. it’s unfortunate i can’t skip it (it’s a minor trait, right?) to get the rest of the dueling tree. this almost breaks the tree for me. i know that may seem unreasonable, but in order for me to be ok with my damage while im supporting (remember, hybrid build here) i need 3 phantasms up…either 2 pWarlocks and an iWarden or 3 pWarlocks.

i guess i could just re-summon whatever phantasm gets popped. might waste the work i might have done positioning my iWarden between my party and the boss though…

Furienify.5738:

• Swap out the Glamour recharge trait for Medic’s Feedback. Immunity to projectiles during revival can make or break a fight.

i see what you’re saying about Warden’s Feedback, but being able to put Feedback out faster for the entirety of the fight, protecting the entire team (instead of just over my teammate and i when he dies) seems more efficient. plus, i can just throw it on the boss and then start reviving, right? with the lower CDR, there’s a good chance it’ll be up for use anyway.

Furienify.5738:

• I find that Mirror’s reflect and shorter cooldown still don’t manage to outweigh the bonus heals on Ether Feast, but your mileage may vary.

you’re right about Mirror being situational. SE Fire Golem, or CM explorable, i’ll have Mirror out. Less ranged-heavy dungeons, Ether Feast.

Rhyno.7084:

Ehh, what dungeons are you doing where you can drop 3 iWardens? It stands still and pops like a balloon.

…

Retaliation does very low damage by the way, and we are one of the 4 classes to have Crit Chance and Crit Damage coupled in a trait tree (precision.) That’s really too valuable to pass up if you’re looking at damage at all.

my bad, i meant to write pWarlock instead :/ sorry for the confusion. anyone who responded based on the use of “warden” versus “warlock,” if this changes your opinion please let me know. i’m looking for as much information here as i can get.

makes sense, about the crit. didn’t know the combo of crit damage and crit % was almost unique to use. yeah, makes it hard to pass up.

i’m not cool on the pistol though, sorry loves me some iWarden and Curtain too much.

SilentDaunt.4289:

echofoxtrot.4239:

I had an epiphany. the third minor trait in inspiration is +15% phantasm damage. so, I dropped the 10 points in domination and added them to inspiration choosing menders purity: cure a condition when you heal. this coupled with phantasmal regeneration means unlimited condition removal…doesnt it?

Why trade the 15% illusion damage? I thought that applies to both phantasm and clones? I would trade away the last 10 points in illusions for phantasmal strength and sharper images. Switching out illusionary elasticity for phantasmal haste.

because this build uses nothing but phantasms. i keep iMages and iWardens up while supporting the team.

I see what youre saying about sharper images, I’m going to try it. but I wasn’t sure when I made the build. whats better, higher chance to crit or bleeding on crits? seems a bit of a toss up.

I like illusionary elasticity because it gives more teammates the chance of getting bounced to and getting a boon. plus it’s good for general open world PVE, keeps me from having to trade out too many traits depending on what im doing.

did you mean to write phantasmal strength for the 10 point illusion tradeoff? because thats the minor in inspiration. are you saying I should keep the 15% illusion damage in the domination line? empowered illusions I think it’s called.

I had an epiphany. the third minor trait in inspiration is +15% phantasm damage. so, I dropped the 10 points in domination and added them to inspiration choosing menders purity: cure a condition when you heal. this coupled with phantasmal regeneration means unlimited condition removal…doesnt it?

does menders purity (remove a condition when you heal) + phantasmal healing (phantasms grant regeneration) = infinite condition removal, as long as youre standing next to a phantasm?

I did fine with a confusion/shatter build. pump em out, shatter them with cry of frustration, then stack confusion any other way you can and watch mobs kill themselves. I switched to a phantasm dps/support build recently, so no more shattering but not because it doesnt work…

in a straight shattering-condition/confusion build, blinding befuddlement works wonders. the prestige now AoE confuses, and the scepter block second ability confuses all targets in a line. if your trying to stack as much confusion as possible, these two are godsends.

can’t wait to try this…i miss my fanged dread mask

Carighan.6758:

Considering this is supposed to be a dungeon support build, why the final choice in Illusions instead of AoE Diversion?

because it’s a bit of a hybrid build. I want to support, but I want to be able to do respectable damage as well. so phantasmal haste lets the iMages hit more often (damage) but more importantly gives the iWarden almost constant uptime for reflecting projectiles (support). also, the AoE diversion requires me to be shattering, which I try not to do.

this build even works alright out in regular world PVE. tried it out this morning. id love to see what everyone else thinks of it.

RapidSausage.4620:

that trait reduces his skill usage by 50%.
the whirl lasts 5 seconds, and the iWarden uses the skill every 6.8 seconds, so the actual delay between spins is 1.8 seconds, which is more than enough for a ranger to burst him

i mainly do PVE, so it’s less about someone taking the time to figure out when to burst and more about reflecting a bosses projectiles away from my party

does the iWarden only reflect when he’s spinning those axes of his, or all the time?

does he only reflect projectiles aimed at you, or any projectile that comes close, regardless of intended target?

90 + views and no replies on my previous post about this build. I assume it’s the wall-o-text thats throwing you off.

so let me shorten it for you.

this build focuses on buffing iMage to the point where 3 of them do enough DPS for you to run around supporting your team with projectile reflection, condition removal, boon dispersal, and a tiny bit of healing without worrying about not contributing any worthwhile damage.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/en/?fgQQNAW8dl0zqqHVToGaNJxJFMf5oeg9s7dSFUdpC4G;T4AZXCukcp6SxF1XmvEfZ/y9l8rlIDB2LA
(COPY AND PASTE INTO BROWSER WINDOW)

LOTS of projectile reflection possibilities in this build (a surprising amount, in fact) that any ranged dungeon boss will be a cake walk, but not specific enough that it can be used in any dungeon with a few tweaks. Everything from your heal (Mirror) to skills (Feedback, Mimic) to weapons (both traited Focus skills) will reflect, and with Masterful Reflection your own body can even serve as a reflective surface in a pinch.

Besides the insane amount of reflection, your phantasms are not only doing sick damage but granting regeneration to allies. You can remove conditions with Null Field, as well as the iWarden + Temporal Curtain combo.

any/all comments/suggestions/critiques welcome, especially when it comes to the traits and the stats i should be stacking on equipment.

I’ve started working on a build that would be specifically for running dungeons. it would focus on getting iMages out for dps while you support the team with projectile reflection, boons, condition removal, and even a tiny bit of healing.

I don’t have access to a build generator at the moment (writing this entire post on my phone) so I will generally describe the build and hope for suggestions from the community.

sorry for the enormous length (never thought i’d say THAT) but I tried to be thorough in my explanations.

weapons are staff + sword/focus. desired item stats would be power and condition damage.
traits would possibly go as such. 10-10-0-20-30.

the 10s in domination and dueling are to help the iMages do decent dps. Dom trait is 15% illusion damage and dueling is fury for phantasms. plus, the point boosts to power, crits, and condition duration aren’t to be frowned upon.

no points in chaos, unfortunately. ill miss the staff buff

20 points in inspiration. first, glamour mastery. increases usefulness of null field and feedback. second, wardens feedback. lowers focus CDR while giving reflection to both skills. the only minor that matters here is the one that has phantasms give regeneration to allies — like I said, just a tiny bit of healing.

30 points in illusions. first trait is kind of up in the air. either 10% mind wrack crit or masterful reflection (gain reflection with distortion, aka shatter #4). both require you to shatter, which goes against the entire idea of this build, but there are honestly no better options. I might air on the side of masterful reflection just to maybe go along with this builds ever more apparent motif of reflecting projectiles.

second trait though is very important. illusionary elasticity. extra bounce for winds of chaos = more boons for party members, but also more conditions on the enemy. third trait is phantasmal haste, again to increase phantasmal dps (as well as giving iWarden almost constant up time) allowing you to focus on support and not worrying about not contributing any worthwhile damage.

skills would obviously be situation specific. this build would absolutely wreck ranged bosses with the right preparation; mirror for self healing and reflection, feedback, and mimic as well as the two focus skills now reflecting (speaking of which, does the warden only reflect when he’s spinning those axes of his, or all the time? does he only reflect projectiles aimed at you, or any projectile that comes close regardless of intended target?)

for condition removal you have null field as well as the iWarden + temporal curtain combo…which, now that I think about it, probably takes the gold for being one of the safest places any profession can create on the battlefield. reflection from two different sources as well as condition removal? sign me up. drop a chaos storm right on top of that and you could probably charge rent, people would want to stay so long.

sorry for the wall-o-text, but I felt some of these choices required explanations. any/all comments/critiques/suggestions are welcome, especially in the areas of traits and what stats to stack on equipment.

thank you for your time.

you hit the nail on the head, scepter/torch + staff. best combo for a condition build. the randomness of the conditions doesnt matter, you want them all out there. it doesnt matter what order they get applied.

id rather use the central location of the city of lions arch and run a little to the TP than have to spend extra money always porting to the grove way down in the SW of the worlds map. DR might be comparable in regards to central location, but the grove is just too far out of the way from the high level zones I’m in.

Lokai.7850:

i was more disappointed that asura engineering stuff remained steam punky and didnt reflect the race at all. I suppose it was to much to hope for but…the asura are pretty specific technology wise…it feels odd to play an asura using something looks more charr inspired.

this is exactly the reason I didn’t continue from the BWEs to launch as an engineer. I wanted to play asura, but the rusty, creaky metal of the turrets and packs threw me off. which is weird, because I’m a huge steampunk fan, just not when it’s juxtaposed onto a technologically superior race like the asura.

I believe it is something along the lines of “i feel six feet tall!” theyre short, so when they succeed and “feel big,” it’s all the way up to 6, lol.

^ this. black lion salvage kits have a 100% chance of saving runes/sigils/jewels, but only have a 10% chance at rare crafting materials. mystic/masters salvage kits have a lower chance of of saving runes/sigils/jewels, but a higher chance of producing rare crafting materials.

I use the torch for my PVE confusion build >.>

iMage stacks confusion, prestige stealths you and AoE blinds (and AoE confuses with a trait) and both abilities remove conditions/CD faster with a trait, leaving me a free utility slot that would normally be filled with either null field or mantra of whatsitcalled that removes conditions (i put decoy in there, further increasing my clone production rate).

I will agree, however, that the channel on prestige gets annoying. so I only let it finish if I need the condition removal.

if I’m missing something about the torch being awful (for this specific build at least) please correct me.

wat

I’m confused…you say you prefer having phantasms up, but you want to not use your phantasm heavy build anymore.

if youre going for a condition build (aka shatter build that focuses on confusion, bleed, burning, etc.) then you want +condition damage. if youre going for a phantasm guild, then you want +crit.

as far as capping conditions, not sure if they do cap, but my build focuses on stacking confusion as much as possible and I’ve never seen that capped, even on bosses (probably because stacks of it are dropped when a skill is used). confusion does more damage in a condition build than burning or bleeding, so I wouldn’t worry about the cap affecting your dps. this build works best with scepter/torch + staff.

for a phantasm build, I hear pistol/sword + staff works the best, so if you don’t like the scepter and want mainly phantasms then it sounds thats what you should go for. and in that case, again you want +crit over +condition damage.

hope this answered your question.

I believe this is currently working as intended. clones well never overwrite phantasms UNLESS there are 3 phantasms out. then it will overwrite the oldest phantasm. might just not be possible to run a phantasm build with scepter main hand…

awesome guide. i have a shatter build that works well for me, but i learned a couple things from this. “trivialize traps” was like a light bulb going off. i did something similar in CM explorable, but learned the pattern and ran through the traps instead of blinking and put feedback on the riflemen shooting me before i dropped the portal exit. same end result, but yours is a lot cooler.

question; are you saying the runes/sigils (i use undead runes and 1 stack/kill +7 condition damage sigils) i have that add condition damage dont benefit confusion put on foes from shattering clones? or just condition DURATION?

i built an entire…build…around shattering. mainly confusion, so shatter #2 cry of frustration. but i have +20% mind wrack damage. i have the trait where all shatters apply confusion (which makes CoF do double stacks) and if i need to interrupt or dodge an attack i have shatter #3 and #4.

and no, these aren’t just numbers. i can handle 5-6 mobs of comparable level at once. churning out clones, popping them in the mobs’ face, cloaking, burning, confusing…and i do it all in light armor.

shatter doesn’t just bang, it works.