Showing Posts For ppaladin.4608:
GS/Staff plays as a ranged caster. Both have max range GS for damage staff for survival. I run a hybrid between shatter and phantasm . Works pretty good.
This is true. However, our best DPS option is the sword (I hate this!) and pretty much every PVE build puts it in somewhere. This also opens up a hand for the focus, which is our “must have” utility item (I hate this too): projectile block/reflect, high dps phantasm, only reliable source of swiftness.
If they’d just fix the scepter so it wasn’t an odd duck that didn’t fit well into any PVE build (auto-attack gums up phantasm builds and is too slow at clone generation for shatter builds; doesn’t really synergize with power/precision or boon-sharing and so forth) we’d have an easier time building without having to fall back on the blasted sword!
Oh and give us a signet with swiftness and you’ll see a lot more pistol use at the very least.
They sent mixed messages: it is a limited time dungeon that levels everyone up to 80 upon entering. That suggests they want everyone to experience it and that it will be similar to the winterfest instance. Then they stacked it full of stun-locking, lethal AoE-generating mobs and bosses that require coordination and practice.
This dungeon would be excellent permanent end-game content to run with your guild and practice dozens of times (if it had rewards worth striving for).
As a temporary dungeon meant to be accessible to anyone regardless of level, it is a failure.
When you come upon Mai she mentions someone…a female name (I can’t remember which) and notes that she will be very angry with her.
Do we have any clues about this person?
She is in the cage now. She doesn’t tell you anything at all. I was hoping for information on the woman she mentions at the beginning of the final boss fight in AR.
Same. They just stand there.
Please provide ranged-only builds and advice on condition cleansing!
I am running 20/20/0/30/0 with GS and staff secondary…I can switch out the staff for sword/focus and the focus cooldown trait when the party need a lot of reflection. I am finding it pretty effective and fun. The iWarlock hits pretty hard if you have enough conditions up.
With the exception of the torch 20% reduced recharge trait in the domination line (which makes no sense since it is a condition weapon and this is the power line), the condition removal stuff is all in Chaos or Inspiration. I’d really like to see it spread out a bit so all build types have more options.
Shatter mesmer: burst dps
Phantasm: sustained dps and support (because of the placement of all the good support traits in the line phantasm mesmers all take).
I think it would be cool if the color of the butterfly explosion just matched the color of your armor.
If you are a shatter mesmer, yep, mantra of resolve is your best best. Phantasm mesmers have shattered conditions, mender’s purity, idisenchanter and a quicker null field to consider.
How does the scepter work in a phantasm build? It seems like you’d always be in danger of overwriting a phantasm with a scepter clone unless you disable the auto-attack.
This is not a critique…I am genuinely curious how you typically run these builds.
" Please name another class with so many removal skills.
And no, iDisenchanter and CleanseningMantra have reasonable cooldowns."
The mantra and idisenchanter do have reasonable cooldown skills. However the latter requires a targeted enemy (not useful when bleeding to death after a fight) and is fairly random when it comes to condition removal given the bouncing. Oh and it is useless to a shatter build.
Arcane thievery has the same targeting problem and 45 second cool down (and it fails if you are too far or aren’t facing the enemy and other times for unknown reasons). Nullfield is awesome but again, 45 second cooldown.
So for shatter builds, again, mantra of resolve is your only quick and reliable option.
And in personal experiences guardian, elementalist, necromancer and engineer all have plenty of ways to remove conditions quickly spread out across different build options.
Mesmer has a bunch of high cooldown, low reliability options in general and a great option (nullfield) if you have a specific build.
(edited by ppaladin.4608)
The cooldown on condition cleansing utilities is the largest problem. If you don’t put points in inspiration or chaos (e.g. you run a 20/20/0/0/30 shatter build) you are basically stuck with mantra of resolve…yuck.
I’d love it if they moved some traits around. Shattered conditions should probably be available in shatter builds for example.
Theoretically a phantasm build like 10/15/20/25/0 with Staff primary, could work BUT practically will give you way less damage output making you too slow in combat..
I wouldn’t use Staff on a Phantasm DPS Build. Staff is Ideal weapon for Shatter/Condition or Support Builds.
What I really want is a ranged only build for PVE. I recognize that sword is powerful but I have a melee guardian and a melee/ranged ranger already so I want to try an all ranged build for a change.
Obviously scepter doesn’t work in phantasm builds because of the clone generation on the auto-attack (you can turn off the auto-attack but you are still effectively down on damage). I can’t find a way to work a staff into a shatter build since you really want the cool down trait if you are going to be generating clones as quickly as possible. So I basically end up with sword and greatsword in every build….frustrating.
Well currently shatter builds AND phantasm builds use sword/* with greatsword as a back-up.
For shatter builds people generally go 20/20/0/0/30:
Dom: mind wrack 20% damage bonus, greatsword 20% recharge trait
Duel: sword recharge trait, deceptive evasion (make clones on dodge)
Illusions: 10% higher mind wrack critical, open, illusionary person (shatter happens on you too! Good for melee)
For phantasm its 20/20/0/30/0 or 10/30/0/30/0
You want the 15% bonus damage in the domination line. Greatsword training if you go 20 in this line
dueling: phantasms have fury, sword training, whatever
inspiration: glamour recharge faster, focus recharge (and reflects projecticles), open (some ideas: shattered conditions, more phantasm health, heal on shatter, longer glamour skills)
because of the utility of the focus (and the projectile reflection in the phantasm build) it is usually the off-hand weapon used with the sword. However pistol also work (especially if you take 30 in dueling and get the pistol recharge skill)
Personally, I really prefer the staff to the greatsword so I am looking for a way to add it into a shatter or phantasm. The above are the standards though!
Any suggestions for a phantasm build with staff primary? How is 10/15/20/25/0 compared to the 20/20/0/30/0 standard? You lose 150 power/50 precision but gain in toughness and boon duration. I think you might actually be able to make up for the loss of the iberserker and the extra power/precision given the open-ended bonus damage on the iwarlock for unique conditions but that might be wishful thinking.
It is sad to lose dazzling from the domination line. I really enjoy laying down 20 stacks of vulnerability with diversion. Oh, and the 20% mind wrack damage bonus.
Then again, that would mean losing out on a lot of utility in the glamor cool-down and the focus reflect (and cool down).
They really need to give shatter mesmers better options for condition removal.
(edited by ppaladin.4608)
I love the staff and was also wondering about this exact build! I am bumping this with the hope that we get some feedback