Guild Wars 2

At the very end of the video he gives only :

10/0/30/30/0
3000 Attack
3300 Armor
46% Crit
45% Crit Dmg
14k – 16k HP

What traits did he use and which gear?
I see him stacking g Might so I assume he is using that Major Trait and not the healing from Symbol?

Also his Shouts have shorter CD so I know he has that Trait.

Mobility between Sword port and lower CD shouts you should have little issue!

Thanks for the input, greatly appreciated and I have one more question:

The build above was inspired by a WvW video I saw -below, after watching that video I leveled about 20 levels and did a few hours of PvP and was surprised at how well it did. Now I can’t get the same stats as the guy in the video as he is 80 doing WvW.

If any one could critique the clip and help me out build wise in light of what you watch:

Many thanks in advance.

Can we have such a build, as in one for all occasions?

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.12.3.0.18.4.4.0.34.54.65.64.61.77.2.2.13.152.0.0.0.0.0.186.185.191.197.204.205.0.0.0.10.0.30.30.0

Take a look at this WvW GS+Sword play:

Its probably a play style issue I keep going back to the below build and do so much better with it. Having said that I have gone through at least 10 different clips posted here some of which are insanely powerful -like the confusion build against people who keep moving and attacking with high confusion and melt!

any way here it is:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.12.7.0.0.4.4.0.0.180.186.192.196.203.2.2.17.528.535.0.542.0.0.0.0.0.575.0.0.588.595.0.20.15.0.15.20

need to post just to be able to see page 1 bug

alanis.6094:

Whole lot of glass-cannon sPvP Mesmers happening in here.

9xx Toughness for a Mesmer is not glass cannon…I know it dose not sound logical but I guess class mechanics allow the class to get away with much lower Toughness than others.

@ EsLafiel OK fair enough, lets talk non shatter specialization then:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.12.3.0.20.25.31.0.35.180.191.201.196.204.2.2.6.526.535.0.544.549.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.588.595.0.20.20.0.0.20

Also do share that 2.2 Toughness 22HP build, how exactly does one hit those 2 numbers? In WvW you could as you have more Trinkest.

@ NatashaK When you say Phantasm I assume you mean builds with +3% dmg for each Illusion?

Here is an old build, well old as in it started last beta and was used at the start of the game in sPvP. It focuses on stacking Might and it does it really well. You can hold nodes with it!

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fgQQJAWRlwzCoXQzoGb9IiJFBHyh6B2ldfXJFz2FC;TsAA1Cuo6y4lwLrOuuk6sEZIyWEA

Nero.8623:

A few things:

First off GS is great in a shatter build. Second- staff is not.

For certain situations sword/pistol and staff can be a great set up— but personally now that I have worked away from staff (was not easy at all) I use sword/pistol GS 100% of the time.

With a shatter build you are left without a lot of defense. Much of your survivability comes from avoiding damage rather than absorbing it. In parallel to this, in order to deal damage consistently excluding a few situations your target has to be standing still. Illusionary leap/blurred frenzy is a devastating combination for precisely that reason. I could never imagine sacrificing that for anything else in my shatter build.

Your GS can offer really good setup for your next shatter/additional CC, and sustained DPS in between your bursts with your sword/pistol combination.

The amount of CC you have between sword/pistol and GS is absolutely amazing.

When it comes to staff— you are essentially playing defensive when you have your staff out. Putting pressure is essentially non-existent. Yes the #2 is amazing, and chaos armor combos and chaos storm are all awesome for keeping you alive— but this goes back to the absorbing damage rather than avoiding it. Without a lot of toughness switching to staff will just result in your opponent having the ability to do whatever they want without you applying any real pressure. Sure waiting for your shatters to be up is great— but wouldn’t you rather keep the pressure up between shatters rather then just becoming a lame duck?

For the most part you get the general trait set up— but a few notes:

Domination:
If you’re running a shatter build one of its main strengths is that you strip boons while you’re doing damage. Sacrificing shattered concentration for greatsword training is not a good idea.

Dueling:
Phantams having fury is a style choice which is fine. Personally since I do run sword/pistol I use the 20% shorter CD since blurred frenzy every 8 seconds instead of every 10 can save your life vs really bursty specs.

Illusions:
Instead of an extra bounce I have cry of frustration grants retaliation. You can get a really hefty stack of retal up in addition to slapping a decent sized stack of confusion on your opponent. He is taking damage from using abilities and is also taking damage from dealing damage to you. A well timed cry of frustration can play a pivotal role in taking someone down.

Can you run a GS focused -as in main weapon- build just as effectively? We know the Shatter one, what are the others?

Osicat.4139:

Its “the devil is in the details” by chemical brothers for the film Hanna, Asterisk, try what work best for you, GS might work better for some, I just find it hard to be effective in the juking burst gameplay i tent to play sometimes vs sevral opponents. Staff especialy with the skill nr 2 change is extremly viable for this as you can hit a roll and shatter while immune to dmg due to dodge, and while still in the roll hit staff 2 for a juke out and leav a clone.

Sorry I meant the second song -seemed like one song :/

Osicat.4139:

Its “the devil is in the details” by chemical brothers for the film Hanna, Asterisk, try what work best for you, GS might work better for some, I just find it hard to be effective in the juking burst gameplay i tent to play sometimes vs sevral opponents. Staff especialy with the skill nr 2 change is extremly viable for this as you can hit a roll and shatter while immune to dmg due to dodge, and while still in the roll hit staff 2 for a juke out and leav a clone.

Lots of people play like you do and also find it hard to maintain fluid game play with GS, it is a niche weapon play style wise, for my self I am extremely proficient with it yet feel like a fish out of water with a sword Oo Moreover; I have no issues whatsoever strafing any melee with my GS -though I’ll be the first to admit Sword is a fantastic weapon and I really need to get better with it.

Test them out, you need to play them in WvW and gain actual first hand experience!

Zerg Vs Zerg is me at max distance stacking Vulnerability on whomever decides to stick his head up and use my GS laser.

In Zerg V Zerg the other guy will get within your 1200 range briefly, either he is blown up or he runs back…keep that in mind.

Have Staff with you all the time in solo PvE its a great weapon. Learn how to play Sword and figure out if GS is something you enjoy or not.

This exactly what this build set out to achieve being a jack of all trades a master of none.

How I evaluate is in kill time -thats one of my KPI’s- which is pretty easy for any one to do, use the build on the same kind of normal and veteran mobs and do it over and over until you get a good feel of kill time, down time -not doing DPS- and effort.

While Portal and other utilities have great uses the linked set up seems to do well when applied to all aspects of the game. (Portal+Mirror Images)

As for defense, all of the top mesmer builds have less than 1k Toughness and less than 19k HP -this build is above on both. What this build also adds is 1200 range on Manipulation skills -up from 900- which include Blink..That’s lots of ground for an instant.

As for Staff I’ll agree with you that having another weapon set in bag is useful and I actually do have all the weapons.

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.12.7.0.0.35.31.0.0.180.191.192.196.203.2.2.17.530.535.0.541.0.0.559.0.0.576.0.0.0.0.0.20.15.15.15.5

While we are all aware of ‘Shatter’ builds, here is a build I have used as a fit-all-situations PvE, sPvP and WvW and looking for input.

Thanks

Its amazing how Mesmer can ignore Toughness completely, just love that mechanic. In PvE as a player if you are ‘aware’ of what is going on, Toughness is not a big deal and in PvP class mechanics make it so you really don’t gain much from stacking it unless you want to play Staff support so you need to be up close and personal all the time.

As for sPvP I play GS main with focus on Regen+Protection from Phantasms and then use S/P from the root+flurry+pistol phanta and right back ts GS.

WvW I tend to not roam alone, instead focus on objectives so its GS and iBerserk in the middle of zergs!

Though I will add a pure toughness+vitality Staff/S+S Mesmer can be a royal pain.

Osicat what is the first song?

Nero is talking about this build below which is one of -if not THE- strongest Mesmer PvP build in the game today and some might argue pound for pound the undisputed PvP build of GW2:

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.8.7.3.0.20.31.36.0.37.180.198.201.196.204.2.2.24.526.532.0.544.550.0.0.0.0.0.0.0.591.587.596.20.20.0.0.30

Thing is you really need to be on top of your game to play it!

Though I should add Nero was talking about GS+S/P, the above is S/P+Staff. Staff or GS is completely up to you his point is the power of S/P which he is 100% right on.

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgAQJARWlwzaqnVzoGa9ICqHgX29dkU0apWJF42FC;TsAg0CnoQygkAJLSOkkIt+YAxsCA

Thoughts?

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.12.2.0.18.4.4.0.4.54.65.64.61.77.0.0.0.152.0.0.0.0.0.186.0.0.197.0.0.0.0.0.10.0.10.10.5

GS / Scepter+Focus

Utilities: Signet of Resolve / “Save Yourself!” / “Retreat!” / Signet of Judgment / Renewed Focus

• With the reduced Shout Trait I can keep up Swiftness as needed.
• SoJ 10% less damage I can see and feel it is an amazing Signet and the 20 sec CD is really short on a powerful AE blind+weakness.

Build wise I got the reduced Shout CD then its up to you -you can even forget the 5 points into Virtues as thing die so fast any way.

I keep my GS up to date which is cheap and you really don’t need more. Scepter is if you ever want to kite anything as Staff is not needed at all! Use your shouts often.

Has any one else further tested this?

chtiyonki.6284:

This build don’t die:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gIZjwVP0Fc

(starting @ 2m15)

You wanna link your build?

Tier 3 minor trait that adds 5% damage to ‘inactive’ foe’s. Does any actually know what that means?

Not currently casting or channeling?

What is the actual % dmg increase?

Superior is selling for over 4 gold each, as far as I can tell it needs to be salvaged. As far as I can tell people have figured that out and are buying any and all armor that can be used to get it from!

Seems sad to me that this is one of the pay-day methods that are better than crafting stuff and selling it :/

@ Electro: Open with GS #1 and let it channel a full channel then cast berserk and start running in and then cast clone. All of the group will be crippled and heading to you, strafe in circles while refreshing your Illusions and use the knock back.

Don’t open with any Illusion!

Testing this minor trait and found:

1) x3 Phantasm lead to 100% up time
2) Must be almost withing melee range of the Phantasm

What that means is as a GS user this trait is pretty wasted.

Looking at our traits I can come up with a healer / support build with scepter and mantras. Looks to me that is one way of using it if you want to heal and remove conditions!

I may have not been clear in my post, I maintain no operational link between ‘Shatter’ and Cripple or kiting, they are two different and unconnected mechanics that I employee.

Cripple:

Following on what Ribos said, I have realized that Crippling in PvE “seems to carry the side-effect of lessening agro.”

The actual mechanic I use is auti attack to grab the attention of the mob then spawn Berserk Phantasm which Cripples and whirls some distant away while I get closer for the bounce and then spawn my clone. At this point the Phantasm and I are furthest away and the mob will go for the clone which snares when killed.

I attribute the trait with transforming my solo PvE experience from horrendous to hero!

Shatter:

As soon as my Phantasm is up again I shatter especially if I have 3 Illusions up. If I have 2 or less I tend to just cast another Phantasm.

My Mesmer has been parked since the game went live because I struggled in solo PvE and personal story. While playing one of my alts a few days ago and out of the blue it dawned on me how and when to Shatter and which Trait to take that would help me solo level.

Domination 10 : V Crippling Dissipation (Clones Cripple when killed)

I got the above trait and went out into the world with the idea to shatter as soon as my next Phantasm was ready -as in off CD. The results were fantastic, I turned into a solo powerhouse taking on mobs higher and harder with extreme ease, 5 levels higher no problems, 4 Ettins, again no issues, 2 Vets with a complements of adds…walk in the park. All of this was made possible by figuring out how to keep multi adds Crippled and realizing how important it is to Shatter when my nect complement if Illusions were ready to be cast.

While I recognize some players just can not function in any fluid manner as ranged I also can not function in any fluid manner as melee that is why my choice and very successful at it is GS+Staff works just as well as others choice of Sword+X. Staff is my Chaos machine for AE moments, its my safety net that has yet to fail me.

Crippling Dissipation only works with Clones so not Phantasm, keep that in mind.

If you are a ranged player like myself and excel at kiting and enjoy that play style then GS is a great weapon keeping in mind the low CD on GS Might/Vulnerability stacking Clone and GS Phantasm Whirl that Cripples and then moves away its a guaranteed thing mobs will always focus your Clones and enjoy a perma Cripple!

I have discovered that GS even at close range is a powerful weapon as long as you can maintain your Might stacks and Vulnerability stacks, keep that in mind.

One last note: I tried to slack off to see what happens to my kill time, so I’d not cast my Phantasm when it was ready because the mob was about to die and I wanted to insta pull the next..BAD IDEA. This class needs you to be pumping out Illusions or you DPS will plummet and that last few % a mob has will take forever to go. So, you need to maintain your best DPS priority list up all the time.

Looking forward to hearing from others if they share, want to add to this?

He most likely makes money and needs you to join his stream.

I just used Phase Retreat and got stuck inside a wall :/

Scepter roots me while I wait for the other guy to hit me…It roots a Mesmer..Think about that for a second :/

Level 40 now:

GS / Staff

20 Cripple when killed / GS
0
0
5
5

Keeping Cripple up and GS Phanat is always at range I find mobs ignore me for the most part. whenever I got a group on me -say 3 or 4 Ettins- I go Staff and go to town on them!

Any found a low stress build to level with seeing how mobs now completely ignore illusions? Something that can take a hit or two and not need to out level and gear area/personal story :/

Has any one gone out and tested this?

OP Build:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fIAQNBkYDbk0p1N5R4hJOggUYFZx5BUsEBoShdUHA;ToAA1CnoAzAmAMLYOwkgtIYQA

or at least one of them though I wounder about the really low power.

Valor XII : Monk Focus (Meditation Skills Heal You)

Any one has insight here?

My issue with Spirit Weapons is cast time, its just long enough to reduce my gaming experience to a point I just do not use them keeping in mind had the cast time been lower I would gladly and enjoyably dedicated the full amount of traits required.

Wall is amazing and even better traited and Shouts with AH are equally if not more amazing!

chtiyonki.6284:

This build don’t die:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gIZjwVP0Fc

(starting @ 2m15)

http://www.gw2build.com/builds/simulator.php#1.3.12.3.0.18.4.4.0.4.54.65.64.61.77.4.4.41.152.0.0.0.0.0.186.185.191.197.205.204.0.0.0.10.0.30.30.0

By the way after seeing your video and putting together that build I like it! Though it is power starved so wounder how it will do against heavy Toughness builds.

No GS/Hammer builds?

@bob how much +healing?

The build you linked is a great support group focused build, have you tried other kind of builds?

Let me give you an example:

http://en.gw2skills.net/editor/?fUAQRApe7dlcgaDXGSNEm4EhVhBi9gjecjXPgYEbIA;TYAqdM7I2xujbH5OA

Very similar to your build.

I set out looking to answer one question:

With a GS what is my best chocie to go with Scepter for solo questing and defined best as shortest kill time with the least down time. It came down to Focus and Torch and when tested against single target, multi target and Vets Focus takes a noticeable lead. I could easily keep one in the bag, but that was not an option I cared for.

Simply put for solo game play questing with a GS and Scepter and on the aggregate Focus is a far better choice.

I also noticed you use Shaman neck for the extra +healing, did you find that important over say Rabid neck? How much more healing will that get you? Your condition damage is 11xx and could go up with Rabid?

You have Bleed duration of 93% so near cap of a 100% so gj.

Why did you leave staff?

It was fun, trying to figure out if so many points in Toughness are a good idea or not

This skill point is ridiculous, I don’t know what game designer deiced to add Condition damage plus insane direct damage from THREE mobs that pretty much guarantee 3 deaths to finish!

Some skill points are so out of whack you guys really need to go back and adjust them, this is one of them.

Great guide thanks! Can the Hammer really be used by a DPS ‘role’ Warrior? Not sure how that would look like?

It’s about that time in GW2 when people start to understand the build system and now we are seeing the description ‘selfish’ player creep into the meta game.

What that means is very little support in the build and focuses on self. A Guardian who spec for DPS is one example. As a Guardian you can spec into GS and trait for support OR you can trait into pure DPS. The same applies for every other profession.

What are your views, can a GW2 player be ‘selfish’ and should players always consider support?

What I did was split the weapons into two categorizes:

Defensive: Mace / Focus
Offensive: Scepter / Torch

I then assumed that they should go together and assumed that was by design.

My error: Never considered Mace+Torch.

My conclusion regarding Scepter+Torch Vs Scepter+Focus asks what do I gain and what do I lose? Calculate kill time and down time on same kind of mob and try both sets on range/melee/vets/single target and multiple targets.

I realized that the question of multiple targets was easy: Melee Weapon was far superior and my choice is GS.

Mace appears to increase in value during group play and especially against ‘bigger’ bosses and though the 1 condition removal might appeal I can not see it doing better than Focus even then. That is why I assumed it being a DPS weapon, and in that case it still does not add any thing a GS would or a Focus would in the aggregate.

The only way Torch would have some ground to stand on is if it counted as ‘setting the Guardian on Fire’ which would in that event proc: Radiance IV (when you are set on Fire, you gain Fury).

For solo leveling and for the player who is bent on using Mace then YES I see a place for Torch.