Guild Wars 2

Or maybe a legendary troll.

fedecane.6259:

Curunen.8729:

F3 and F4 are always useful in any build, I don’t know how you can play successfully without using these two.

But I agree that F1 and F2 are kind of useless in non-shatter condition builds.

F2 is a little useless in non-IP power builds unless taking something like shattered concentration and the other three shatters happen to be on cooldown in which case it is useful for boon strip.

Personally I see it as we don’t have to use all the shatters – they are just there so we’re given a choice. Otherwise pick and choose which ones you want to use based on the build/situation.

Actually F3-F4 are pretty useless in WvW without IP because you most likely won’t have a clone/phantasm up when you need them —> you end up not using them because of being unreliable.
F2 in a power build is completely useless (unless you trait for boon stripping)
F1 is the only one I actually use both in PvE and in WvW, mostly because with GS #2 you are nearly guaranteed to have a clone in the right place to shatter, when you are attacking. you can’t really use that defensively (F4) tho..

So as I see it, at the moment, without IP, the shatter are useful just in PvP environment, where your clone/illusions aren’t usually immediately destroyed and you kind of can control them and decide wether to shatter them and for what purpose.

Someone here said that without IP the class seems incomplete and I absolutely agree, that’s the whole point of the thread.

For example also Guardians have F1-F3 skills that they can activate at will.. and they haven’t any cumbersome mechanics like the one Mesmer’s have.. and they are at least equally as good.

Yeah, good point – I never really play in large scale wvw so it didn’t come to mind.

In small scale fights or pvp they’re useful.

To be honest I’m ambivalent to having IP as standard.

jihm.2315:

Fay.2357:

jihm.2315:

Lachanche.6859:

mesmers are awesome !
they make the plays and are high risk high reward (talking about 4 4 0 0 6 shatter don’t get strange ideas), master mesmers mechanics and you will really play gw2 pvp to the fullest.

where is the risk when you never die?

Ooh ooh! It’s the guy from the profession balance forums that got torn into small pieces by Rylock and now complains nonstop about mesmers! We’ve been visited by a celebrity.

yeah besides thief who else can kill you?

Ele, Engi, Warrior, Guardian, Ranger, Necro…

F3 and F4 are always useful in any build, I don’t know how you can play successfully without using these two.

But I agree that F1 and F2 are kind of useless in non-shatter condition builds.

F2 is a little useless in non-IP power builds unless taking something like shattered concentration and the other three shatters happen to be on cooldown in which case it is useful for boon strip.

Personally I see it as we don’t have to use all the shatters – they are just there so we’re given a choice. Otherwise pick and choose which ones you want to use based on the build/situation.

lessthanjake.6049:

<snip>

Mesmer:
- I really do not know Mesmer, but my sense is that torches are essentially never used.

Haha!

Sorry, I couldn’t help it. I know iMage is still kittened, but nevertheless…

Maybe >18 months ago, yes, but in the last 12 months since the PU buff and focus nerf (well at least now it’s useable)… – most mesmers you run into have either been using x/T (condition and shatter builds) or Staff/GS.

Ok PU has been kind of diluted, but still many have got used to the torch and don’t let it go.

I believe we as players should have the choice to customise each weapon as we see fit – with obvious limitations.

Take iCounter for example
- a player who wants more condition focus can have the reduced direct damage with torment stacks.
- a player who wants more power focus can have the increased direct damage it used to have in the past but no torment stacks.

That’s a very simple two choice customisation for one weapons skill – ideally I would like to see that kind of thing extend to all weapon skills, with necessary limitations in place to minimise risks of making overpowered specs.

Of course this would be a huge undertaking and based on the last two years of feature and balance patches, I would not expect anything like this to happen within the next 5 years, if ever.

MailMail.6534:

More over, if you’re a big tea drinker like myself, you’ll appreciate the hatred of other players soon enough! I brew mine in a special way!

Tears are fine and easy to deal with.

Arrogance/obnoxiousness of players who are better than you is way more annoying.

Hmm, best of luck for future endeavours, sorry to see you go.

Ok, I’ve realised one thing from fighting some good thieves and guardians among others – energy sigils are a kitten lifesaver and enable survival where you shouldn’t be able to survive.

So I’m going to go energy/doom on sc/f and energy/torment on staff (energy/doom in pvp).

pve = power
pvp/wvw = whatever you like

Swish.2463:

I’m really only asking because sometimes i just don’t feel like i have the right answers myself.

I wonder if it was the bugs that pushed us to fill out the “Base build” quota more quickly than the other classes seemed to have done. Or if it was something else.

So if it was not the Bugs then what was it really?

Class Mechanic or lack of .. well there’s no really kind way to put it.. terrible traits?

I’m trying hard not to pin it down onto our classes mechanic but it’s hard not to.. it may be a combination of traits utilities weapons and mechanics yet one of them has to be the bigger “offender” than the others.

It would be nice if the new GM traits were more pivotal.

I know this is likely never going to happen but ideally I would like to see weapon and utility skill evolutions – so we as the players can customise each skill a little bit to work for us.

Nothing too complicated – maybe one or two branching choices – for example take iCounter – select between more condition damage or more direct damage. Then select between, I dunno, lower cooldown with normal counter bolt or higher cooldown with pbaoe damage/blind – not really the best example but hopefully that illustrates the point.

If we could customise weapon and utility skills and all of the “useless” traits were made more useful, then I think there would be a lot more variety.

Ross Biddle.2367:

Don’t let it get to you. The other day I ran into a player who felt the need to contact me to try and make things personal and be rude. So I channeled the event into a movie

It’s titled “Confusing Build and Ability (And Being an kitten About It)”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6tUq3vXW20

Anyway Mesmer isn’t hated, you’ve just encountered one player who got angry. This guy was actually angry because I escaped (via teleporting to an out of the way safe location) which sparked his verbal assault. You can’t be held accountable for the constructs people come up with in their own heads.

lol, well played – a shame he managed to get inside the keep.

Swish.2463:

<snip>

Newest are the Glass LB rangers standing 1800 range off point feeling like a bad kitten as they spam 1, a quick and hard spike and they go down… most of these players seem to be immigrant EZMode Warriors from pre patch.. they get mad a lot.

I’m having a lot of fun with traited focus and mirror with these rangers – most of them seem to do half the work for me by demolishing their own hp.

kyubi.3620:

now that was a funny post but seriously hes that good?

You’d better believe it.

Oh I wouldn’t worry – I’m sure everyone here has received unpleasant whispers at some point or other – just the nature of pvp.

It’s worse when you run into very good players who are also incredibly obnoxious/arrogant – because sadly you can’t shut them up through gameplay alone.

One of the reasons I decided to drop shatter recently in favour of a condition build is because I ran into one such engineer when I was way too tired to think straight or play even half decently – and it goes without saying, with shatter vs a good engineer in conquest, if you’re not bang on perfect with skill use and timing things generally don’t end well. I was just failing completely and naturally very touchy being tired and the sheer arrogance of this kitten seriously kittened me off.

Play whatever you like, try and tolerate the idiots because sometimes you will run into great friendly players (whether allies or enemies) and will have a great time.

It’s like teaching in school – there will always be one or two really great pupils who are a joy to work with, and which make the daily grind less painful.

keenlam.4753:

Hi Curunen, may i suggest sigil of cleansing as a cheap alternative to generosity as in this build, you swap weapon quite often.

Very nice suggestion, I’ll try it out next time I play.

Sube Dai.8496:

Did we ever figure out what a frand is?

Some part of a fern, right?

;)

Fay.2357:

Curunen.8729:

Fay.2357:

Curunen.8729:

I’m of the opinion that this whole “build ownership” thing is a bit silly when you think of the number of different players out there – just pick your traits/skills/gear and adapt where you need to.

I’m not sure why you brought this up. Build ownership doesn’t actually have any relation to whether or not a build has a new and unique idea/functionality to it.

I brought it up because it was relevant with the “rehashing” comment – to me that implies ownership, or at least that’s how I interpreted it. Maybe that wasn’t intended by the OP.

The concept of build ownership is a non-issue with regards to that. Whether or not someone ‘owns’ a build has no bearing on it having been done before and no longer being a new idea.

The concept of new ideas is a pretty broad one. You could say ‘oh, 0/4/6/0/4 is a new build, the trait fix allowed that to become something new’. Well, I’d disagree. There’s no truly fundamental difference between than and the standard PU condie build that everyone’s been running for so long now. Sure, it’s a slight tweak, but the idea behind the build is absolutely identical. Owned or not, it’s not a new idea, it’s a small modification on an existing build.

Ok I was quick to jump on the build ownership argument so my mistake – let’s end that one here.

Anyway – that’s exactly the point I made about there being a few broad templates and anything else is just minor personal preference – and also why I prefer not to go as far as putting builds into nice neat classified boxes because to me it doesn’t work like that.

Fay.2357:

Curunen.8729:

I’m of the opinion that this whole “build ownership” thing is a bit silly when you think of the number of different players out there – just pick your traits/skills/gear and adapt where you need to.

I’m not sure why you brought this up. Build ownership doesn’t actually have any relation to whether or not a build has a new and unique idea/functionality to it.

I brought it up because it was relevant with the “rehashing” comment – to me that implies ownership, or at least that’s how I interpreted it. Maybe that wasn’t intended by the OP.

There’s not an infinite number of skill/trait/gear combinations, and out of that an even smaller number of broad templates that can be considered useable in the different game modes.

In that way it’s only natural that there will be many “rehashes” of previous builds.

But it depends how you define a build – I prefer to see builds as fluid templates, with the important thing to think about being:
1. how do you deal damage (direct/condition/mixture)
2. how do you stay alive (too many methods to mention, including class specific features)
3. how do you support your allies
4. how do you control your enemies

Otherwise it’s best to be flexible – I would only separate things into two broad mesmer specific categories when it comes to dealing damage (direct and condition):
- shattering illusions for damage
- illusions dealing damage passively (phantasms, clones, clone death)
- a mixture of both

Things like PU, IP, CI, CS, MtD and so on are just flavouring – important flavouring but only one feature of a build which is created around the four points listed above.

I’m of the opinion that this whole “build ownership” thing is a bit silly when you think of the number of different players out there – just pick your traits/skills/gear and adapt where you need to.

skcamow.3527:

Curunen.8729:

One thing I am having great difficulty with while testing in hotjoin is fighting shatter mesmers – even though I know what they’re going to do, I just cannot seem to best them if it comes down to a 1v1.

Yeah they can be difficult, especially those with GS since mirror blade is unblockable. Just dodge the shatters as much as you can and use the focus pull to mess with them. You’re quite tanky, so you should be able to eat a bit of damage. GS is easy to get illusionary counter off on them so ensure you do that early.

Other than that, the build works pretty well against most classes 1v1 and you’ll always have a counter build here or there that’s a bit tougher to handle. I’ve personally found good lockdown mesmers and good dps guards to be troublesome. The average ones are typically no problem.

Well I finally managed to 1v1 a decent shatter mesmer I ran into, but it’s not easy. Funnily enough thieves are much much easier thanks to low cooldown on staff and focus – and even if they manage to get at you, the most I’ve been bursted is around 50% health.

skcamow.3527:

Curunen.8729:

Another thing – any thoughts on using Antitoxin runes with -condition duration food for more defensive play, then taking signet of dominaiton instead of a mantra?

Certainly could, again accepting the trade off of shorter torment duration and having only one source of condition removal in MP. The #6 rune bonus is decent, because poison is quite prevalent in most encounters (even versus power builds who run doom sigils in case they run into warriors or regen rangers). I know your idea is to ditch the mantra, but in this case mantra of distraction would be a much better choice than the signet and would let CI work for you even more.

Haha, yeah I guess I’m just not a mantra fan – I like MoResolve for the simple reason that the words are badkitten (unbroken, unshaken, resolved!)!

I like that the signet of domination would make up for some lost condition damage through duration if taking antitoxin runes, and then depending on the encounter I could swap between koi cakes and leek soup where necessary.

In fact, I just ran this a few times in hotjoin – yeah I just felt the urge to try runes of resistance for no reason! Not really optimal but it wasn’t bad.
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlsnpMtNoxRNcrNitxY6LKJjTWzKlMghB-TZRHABJVGgsnAww7PIwhAAgTAAA

Edit: Now tried melandru runes and generosity sigils in pvp with signet of domination – seems to work ok, although I would definitely prefer antitoxin if it was available. Quite liking the generosity sigils for this – hopefully in a few months the price should drop again and I can buy some because at the current price it’s a joke.

kyubi.3620:

just saying some class indeed cannot use have easy access to stability

Mesmers being one of them. (unless you take mantra of concentration)

No problem, whenever you get time.

One thing I am having great difficulty with while testing in hotjoin is fighting shatter mesmers – even though I know what they’re going to do, I just cannot seem to best them if it comes down to a 1v1.

The reflects are completely useless and my condition pressure is <<<< their direct damage burst. Any advice?

I’m wondering whether to go tanky phantasm with traited focus instead of condition.

Edit: Another thing – any thoughts on using Antitoxin runes with -condition duration food for more defensive play, then taking signet of dominaiton instead of a mantra? Swap out food for either + or – condition duration depending on what you’re fighting?

denis.9487:

First off this is a fun build. IMO I have tried to use both torment and traveler runes for wvw. The lack of swiftness was really felt. Also with traveler runes the boon duration increase lets the swiftness from curtain last 17 seconds, creating near perma swiftness. The stat loss is really minor for condition damage in my build 120 loss using traveler. The swiftness boon and condition duration make traveler a better option for wvw use. Again a very refreshing play style other than shatter for wvw.

Hmm, thank you for that – if the damage loss is not very noticeable then I would prefer traveler. The more important thing is the torment duration – do you notice the loss of this without torment runes?

Would you mind linking your build for reference?

jihm.2315:

Carighan.6758:

jihm.2315:

easy was to escape, stun locks and cc, aplyind debuffs so easy and so fast and a tone of damage, impossible to run from since clones chase you everywhere, its totally op at the right hands.
was the idea of mesmers to explode people?
and can you catch them if they want to escape ? no.
whats worst is 2-3 mesmers filling the screen with clones and shatters
its a l2p issue when you cannot react to absolutely anything?

It’s a l2p issue when you apparently stand around doing nothing.
Also, this is the english forum.

i can be sarcastic behind a pc screen too carighan, but i choose to never speak to you again .

The fact that you do not want to take the time/effort to learn mesmer mechanics – either through playing one or watching gameplay videos means there is no point trying to explain anything to you.

Lockdown/interrupt mesmers require well above average skill to be successful, and if they mis-time their skills they pretty much fall flat on their face, especially in a group fight. Try playing one if you don’t believe that.

I will accept one point – when there are 2, 3 or more mesmers at once in pvp it is annoying to fight against because of targeting and stealth. But at the end of the day it’s no more annoying than 2 or 3 minionmancers, rangers, or heaven forbid 2-3 engis which are far worse – in which case you might as well just call it a day and not bother fighting them.

May as well just /thread this.

Easier to bash one’s head against a brick wall repeatedly.

You’ll be back, frand.

Anet – give me MH pistol and I will be running this all day every day:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQRArd8alsnpMt1oxRNcrNitRY6tosTWvWygDA-TFSHABmo+jRK/0d/BBeAAopfAgTCQUKBD+IAEAABYmlZZWmB+uQn5Qn5QLFAMzBA-w

(pistol in place of sword, add battle sigils where necessary. Or maybe P/F, Sc/P)

:D

Calypso.2578:

Hello! I didn’t really know which forum area to put this…. Do you really need to have Move Left, Move Right, Move Forward bound to the standard WAD keys?

I have only Strafe Left (A), Strafe Right (D), Move Backwards (S), and Auto Run®.

I like the way it works for me, even if I do miss doing the cute asura waddle-spin (holding down the Move Right or Move Left key). I’m wondering if I am missing out by not having the Move Left, Move Right, Move forward keys.

What keybinds do you all use for moving around while fighting? Thanks!

Wait, you use only auto run and not move forward?! :o

LOL, just had an engineer calling this build cheese (or rather “gay”) in hotjoin… xD

Rich, coming from one of the ultimate cheese builds and classes in conquest.

skcamow.3527:

Yep, it’s fun from a play style perspective, but also a potential weakness. You have decoy and MI, but this build puts you out there with less room for error vs a PU build. I tried to make up for that by including as much defensive utility as possible, hence the traited focus (more focus pulls!), reflects, chaotic dampening, etc.

Yes, I’ve found I need to think and place skills carefully to stay alive, and of course there are situations where a PU build with 3 or more stealths will easily survive/escape and I doubt this build will be able to. But in any case, I’ve been pleasantly surprised with the survivability and escape potential.

skcamow.3527:

I wouldn’t be too concerned. Assuming food for you/them, they’re shaving 23% into the default. Sure this hurts a bit, but still enough for them to make a decision on cleansing. 1) again consider the interrupts as a spice and 2) we’re talking about special traits taken by classes specifically to counter other common builds, of which I’d say this isn’t one of them (at the moment xD) So, I’d say it’s not a complete waste.

Good to know – I’d hate for it to be a waste of a trait, but at least all that torment should as you say have good chance of killing runners if they don’t cleanse.

skcamow.3527:

I’ll try to answer all the questions -

Not really an issue, even with an interrupt build. Sure you’ll run into random stability. At the very least, be mindful, try to wait it out, don’t blow a temporal curtain cool down, etc. If really concerned about it, go with null field or iDisenchanter as keenlam suggested.

Being able to interrupt means you immediately have a decided advantage in this build, but interrupt is only a spice. The damage output inherent to the build is still going to work for you, especially now that we have scepter AA torment (more on that below).

After playing without boon removal for a while I can see now that it isn’t really necessary and taking something like MoR for personal survival is good.

skcamow.3527:

Well, CI is one of the fun parts of the build. You could switch a couple things around and go PU, but the fun would be gone (for me anyway). As for burst – the fight with the necro in the video illustrates the burst capabilities. This typically occurs if you interrupt. These should closely accompany an iWarden in their face and full confusing images attack. People simply can’t recover from the CC and damaging conditions in that state, especially if they’ve been blowing clears.

I’m trying to get used to the different kind of burst with the conditions compared to a full mirror blade dodge mind wrack in the face!

Oh I wasn’t meaning PU – that seems useless unless taking either torch or veil in addition to the other two stealths – I was thinking more along the lines of either 5/5/4 with confusing combatants, but I agree CI is a lot of fun.

skcamow.3527:

Indeed, many valid options. For runes, I wouldn’t stray far from tormenting, especially since the scepter buff. A few times I’ve had thieves die in the distance trying to run (you know, like they do when they start losing a fight), only to appear out of stealth downed due to the huge duration torment on them. With 95% torment duration, illusionary counter is 15s, on heal almost 19s, sigil is 9s, ether blast near 4s and ether bolt 6s. It’s a lot to keep up with. Also keep in mind torment on heal does not break stealth!

For sigils, I always have doom on one set. The other is optional. I like bursting because of the condition damage boost but it’s not necessary. Geomancy for melee bleeds or even ice would be really decent. A 3s chill on hit (this used to be on crit) would be very nice in this build. Torment sigil is appropriate for the build, but maybe isn’t as necessary now post scepter AA buff.

Well you’ve 100% sold me on dropping ~50 gold on tormenting runes! I would still prefer to use mirror heal, but can live with missing out on heal torment procs every now and then.

For sigils I think I will keep doom on each set, because I like the extra pressure from poison and also an extra condition to cover removals. Definitely taking torment on crit sigil on the staff, and I’m thinking of maybe taking energy on scepter? For the reason if swapping from staff back to scepter/focus in combat, there’s not a lot of immediate defensive options available apart from iCounter (which is best saved for offence tbh), so having a free dodge and clone could be a good thing?

skcamow.3527:

Honestly in my opinion, this build is one of the strongest we have for mesmer that can be run against them.

Yeah, you can completely shut down longbow rangers from strategic skill placement and timing. I would go as far as saying they shouldn’t be able to best you in a 1v1.
Swings and roundabouts though – while on gs+sw/t shatter I preferred fighting other glass cannons such as other shatter mesmers, thieves, zerker eles, while being very wary of condition bunkers such as the cheese engi builds – on this build it’s completely the opposite.
In fact, 1v1 with a greatsword shatter mesmer might just be the worst counter for this build – I still haven’t found a way to beat them if they have above average skill. Not being able to reflect GS auto is a pain.

http://wiki.guildwars2.com/wiki/List_of_ascended_trinkets

Two from the mystic forge, a handful from stat selectable items – for example Light of Dwayna, if you can be bothered to craft those.

Mystic forge is easiest – just need enough gold for all the ancient bones and ectos.

I have a question regarding CI and things like warriors with dogged march, soup etc, resistant to the controlling conditions – is CI a complete waste of a trait in such a fight?

It would be good to know before dropping the gold for all this gear and before I start trying it in wvw.

Do you ever swap CI for something else in such a situation?

I agree with Absconditus that phantasmal fury is not necessary – take 1200 blink instead.

Also not sure why you have an ascended soldier backpiece – if you can make a rabid one that would be better.

Otherwise there’s nothing wrong with it at all.

You can easily swap torch for pistol and then take CI instead of PU for a change of flavour whenever you like.

Edit: Oh I forgot – better to put torment sigil on staff instead of scepter – you’re already doing torment on scepter AA.

What I like in general with the gear is the option to easily respec to either:

- 0/4/0/4/6, MtD shatter condition build with Sc/F & Staff
- 0/4/4/0/6, MtD shatter condition with Staff & anything
- 4/4/0/0/6, MtD shatter condition with Sc/T & anything
- 0/4/6/4/0, CI condition with Sc/F & Staff

With torment runes and all rabid with torment on crit sigils, you can swap between a handful of different condition builds and weapon choices.

Can’t wait for build templates for 1-click build switching.

Simon.3794:

Lol, shatter mesmer top all classes in terms of mechanically intense.

thieves are easy mode, just because they have tons of auto pilot doesnt mean it’s intense.
engi really isnt that great either.
Only thing that come close to shatter mesmer is scepter zerker ele.

ignorant people should really check mesmer forum for once in their life time.

No.

Skill intensive – yes, mechanically intensive – not compared with mantra/interrupt mesmer, ele, and niche engi builds.

Been quite a few in the last week or so.

crochip.2389:

Sizer.2654:

1. Better youtube videos!!!!!! All the youtube videos is filled with noob players who dont make any major skillful plays or are involved in high action pact combat. These skilless videos are not entertaining enough

If i remember correctly, TCG promised loads of guides and videos to the community if we send you the gamescom. Perhaps lead by example before complaining?

QFT.

Following on from here - bump, and some questions!

I just tested this (http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlsnpMtFpxRNcrNitxY6LKJjTWzKlMghB-TJRHwADeCAi2fIZZAAnCAA) out in hotjoin and it’s pure troll mode – like some nasty glue in a group fight on point that kittens over everyone of the opposition.
On the flipside I wouldn’t want to be caught out in a 1v1 in the open by a competent thief, shatter mesmer or sc/f ele for example.

1. How do you feel with no boon removal? I was slotting iDisenchanter in hotjoin to deal with eles/guards for example. I haven’t had time to test extensively but it seems ok without anything – did you ever run into any problems vs boon heavy classes and builds?

2. Is CI really necessary in wvw if solo roaming (I haven’t yet sorted gear for this so zero experience other than in pvp), considering lack of burst damage to capitalise on the immobilise? Would -50% fall damage be relevant instead?

3. Runes and sigils seem to have a lot of choice – I’m now liking doom for the poison, especially with switching weapons regularly and never camping in one set for too long. Hydromancy is fantastic in conquest, but I’m wondering if it is not great in wvw – maybe the torment sigil, earth sigil, bursting or battle instead?

I was thinking something like this for wvw:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlsnpMtFpxRNcrNitxY6LKJjTWzKlMghB-TFSFABuo+DAPAAnU+hz+DwpPAhTBQWKBT+IAEAABYmlZZOzA+uQn5Qn5QLFAMzBA-w
Not sure with runes – tormenting has a 20s cooldown on the heal proc so can potentially miss out if using mirror. Grenth requires you to be in close quarters, and if not using hydromancy sigils it seems a waste of time. Perplexity – well not enough sources of confusion tbh. I like undead because it’s dirt cheap and simple, but not sure if it is the best choice.

Edit: I forgot to add – I just love fighting longbow rangers with this – it totally kittens them up.

Edit 2: I also forgot to add what the best part about this build is… you’re not hiding. Only decoy and MI when necessary so most of the time sitting in plain sight, toying with the opposition.

Edit 3: I’m thinking Krait runes might be a better choice than Tormenting, simply because there are more sources of bleed – DD, SI, staff auto, potentially earth sigil on scepter – so there’s always much more bleeding going on than torment. Also I won’t be worried about mirror heal and the small aoe torment on heal with 20s cooldown.

Edit 4: Nevermind – I realised that with moving targets, torment is going to hurt much more than bleed and would make more of a big difference when chasing enemies, so more important to increase it’s duration.

skcamow.3527:

I’ve played my chaotic perdition build in both pvp and wvw to good success, same 0/4/6/4/0 trait spread and weapons. It’s not the best 1v1 build I’ve found (in PvP moreso) but it’s good in team fights (similar to your experience). I use grenth runes for even more on point havoc and team support/CC, but I also use mirror which is pretty uncommon.

Oooh wow, thank you – that’s a treasure trove of information and exactly what I was looking for!

I was put off by the lower heal of mirror, and considering nearly always having three illusions up I gravitated towards ether feast – but it does make much more sense for grenth/torment rune procs to use mirror.

Edit: I am surprised at the choice of phantasmal fury over 1200 blink, especially for the wvw version – I would prefer to drop vitality by ~1k and go full rabid for ~50% crit chance and take extra blink range – also with not having +movement speed runes.

Edit 2: Continuing discussion now in skcamow’s thread, considering it’s pretty much exactly the same thing and best to consolidate information in one thread.

MailMail.6534:

Traited focus is all you need to justify going into CI. The AOE interrupts are magical on focus/Staff.

It is pretty nice in a group fight.

Overall found it easier to fight against the cancerous engi builds, and a lot of fun trolling rangers with the focus!

But against burst builds like thieves, shatter mesmers, zerker eles, and so on, especially if I’m 1v2 I find it much more difficult – at which point I found it easier on one occasion to switch back to shatter myself and finish them quickly.

Now trying out sigil of bursting instead of hydromancy – even though I love the cqc aoe chill, sometimes I like the luxury of staying at range so the aoe chill doesn’t always pay off.

Not going to waste gold on gear until I’m at least 90% happy with it, although a problem with the terrible restricted gear choices in pvp.

I really mean this in the nicest possible way – please could you separate that into paragraphs, because at the moment it’s a chore to read.

kitten good point – I tried CI but not with this setup – was concerned about only having a few sources of interrupt – chaos storm, ITV and diversion, so wasn’t sure if I would get much mileage out of it.

Will give it a try.

Ok so a few days ago I stupidly decided to play some pvp after a long day and extremely tired – and then I realised it’s miserable to play zerker shatter unless you’re awake and relaxed!

So I’ve tried looking for a lazy kind of build – really want to use “non-lethal” weapons for a change – ie no swords or pistols, so more traditional magical weapons.
Also didn’t want to be labelled – “PU condi noob”, so I’ve purposefully avoided that and the torch.

Still struggling to refine playstyle and trait/skill choices, but here’s what I have so far:
http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fhAQNArdWlknpMtFqxRNcrNitxY2LK5k1sSZDYYA-TJBIwAAeCACOFAt2fwYZAA

Truth be told I really REALLY would like a mainhand crowd control weapon to go with the focus – like a mainhand focus.

I’m not fond of mantras or interrupts, but I do like pulls/pushes/knockbacks and that kind of physical ragdolling.

Weaknesses I’m finding are burst damage – big shock after running GS shatter, but on the flipside sustain and escape is easy.

So anything I could improve or change? Remember this is meant to be something I can switch to when tired and unable to think straight.

This is interesting – I’ve been trying to make a condition build using focus but wanting another offhand and ranged mainhand – never thought of using scepter twice and traiting it!

Will watch video when I’m at my machine.

Ross Biddle.2367:

IMO if you want an item as a source of swiftness, put a sigil of speed on one of your weapons and just stack some high swiftness off a few npc’s, or camp clear. Otherwise centaur runes + focus.

Been attracted to playing with traited focus recently so will give that a try, and centaur.

I keep forgetting speed sigils exist! Hmm…

Do the same with the glamour traits too.

Question is – would the manipulation trait be in duelling, or chaos….

As a dps guardian you should be either seriously harming mesmers or at least giving them one hell of a fight.

Fay.2357:

Conditioned.2467:

Fay.2357:

Matron.8013:

Be sure your opponent that you are leaping to is inside your field of vision. I used to think it was front conical but you just have to have them visible on your screen or the leap will/may fail.

No, this isn’t even remotely accurate.

Care to be less vague? Maybe you have some insight into this that you could share?

I could tell you that you’re just bad and using it wrong, because it never fails for me. However, that wouldn’t be productive would it? So instead I asked you to elaborate on how it’s failing for you so that I could more accurately give you advice on how to do it better.

Since you decided not to, I’ll take the first option. Sounds like a personal problem to me.

By no means have accurately observed anything, but I can recall several occasions where I must be well within range and ileap went on cooldown with no effect.

I have no idea why or how and, but I am certain it has happened – there must be a rational explanation from some in game effect, but I don’t pay particular attention to details anymore so testing is beyond my skill set.

Yeah the random failing on ileap, positioning of the clone, immediate death of the clone in any aoe field – still many annoyances to deal with.

At least they fixed one aspect but by no means is it in a good state yet.