Guild Wars 2

@Wintel

Wow, very sexy! Love the colour scheme! Not sure about the gloves though. 8/10

Here’s mine:

Oh and one more!

Sigils

• Sigil of Energy: because who doesn’t like being able to dodge on command? Even without deceptive evasion, dodging is essential in being able to stay alive. This should serve as a base sigil for both weapon sets.

• Sigil of Battle: With the change to sigils (and now allowing 2 on swap sigils to proc at the same time), Sigil of Battle has been awesome for the extra might. It’s purely offensive, (and almost passive) so if you find that you find it difficult to stay alive, you might want to try something else.

• Sigil of Bloodlust/Perception: What I used to use in place of Sigil of Battle. I’m not a big fan of stacking sigils (due to having to build them up and having the extra pressure of losing all your stacks if you get downed), but these would be a better passive-offensive option than Sigil of Battle. With over 50% crit chance, I believe Sigil of Perception should start out-dps’ing Sigil of Bloodlust, but don’t hold me to it.

• Sigil of Hydromancy: Interrupt, chill, knockback (interrupt again)? Yes please! Fun option to use, though it requires melee range (works great while on point). Be careful when swapping weapons while in stealth; Sigils of Hydromancy damage opponents hit, which will knock you out of stealth and you will be revealed.

• Sigil of Doom: After swapping to the Celestial Amulet, I’ve been trying out different condition-applying sigils to serve as minuscule cover conditions. Doom is great as you don’t have to worry about it knocking you out of stealth, but as it’s on hit after swap, you may not hit your intended target.

• Sigil of Leeching / Sigil of Renewal: Both add survivability. Sigil of Renewal seems to scale very poorly with Healing Power, and heals for a minute amount, but may be worth taking if you feel like the added survivability would be beneficial.

• Why no on crit/hit sigils? Well, this build revolves around relying on your phantasms for dps, activating your mantras for utility, and charging your mantras for sustainability. None of these require you to actually hit your target. While yes, a Sigil of Air or Fire would be added dps for when you actually do hit your target, a lot of their potential is essentially wasted when you’re charging your mantras or summoning your phantasms in stealth.

Disclaimers! (Because everyone should cover their kittens)

• This build was made for fun and I’m not saying that it’s more optimal than other builds. It gets the job done for me, and I have a lot of fun doing it.

• Of course, this build, like its creator, is far from perfect, so any constructive criticism would be very much appreciated. Unless you’re mean. Then you won’t be appreciated. No, really.

Cheers, guys.

Runes
With the complete overhaul of how runes work post April 15 2014, I’ve experimented with a spread of runes that suddenly became available/awesome.

• Runes of Lyssa
  I originally used Runes of Lyssa pre-April 15, and I must admit that I’m still using them post. The complete condition cleansing/boon gaining effect was nerfed to simply converting up to 5 conditions into 5 boons, but the change seems of little significance to me. I never used Mass Invisibility to simply gain all the boons for a few seconds anyway, and removing 5 conditions practically means removing all your remaining conditions anyway. (Unless you get hit by signet of spite JUST as you cast it). Extra precision means extra crits, so that’s always nice. This runeset has become especially useful after my swap to the Celestial Amulet. Extra crits means extra bleeding from Sharper Images.

• Rune of the Traveler
  A great addition to sPvP. Seeing as how this build has horrible mobility (akin to most Mesmer builds), this would alleviate it. However, it’s an all-rounder rune set, with celestial stats (not much in total either), and some condition/boon duration. The only real reason to take these runes are the 25% movement speed it gives, which is great to move from point to point, but doesn’t benefit you that much once you’re actually on point. Still an extremely viable option, though.

• Runes of Strength
  With the change to dual swapping sigils, I’ve started running Sigil of Battle, so Runes of Strength naturally crossed my mind as an option. However, this build only has Sigil of Battle as a means of gaining might, and with the amount of corrupting/stripping of boons going around, it might not be as useful as the Runes of Lyssa. Also, this build relies on phantasms for dps, so personal dps is my lowest priority.

Amulet

• Berserker’s Amulet: Pre-April 15 patch, I used to run a Soldier’s Amulet with a Berserker’s Jewel, for the added defense. As they’ve removed jewels altogether, I’ve swapped over to the Berserker’s Amulet to turn my phantasms into trucks. Protected Mantras gives you a ton of added survivability (added 70% of base toughness – giving you slightly more toughness than you would have wearing a Soldier’s Amulet), and having 5 points into the Inspiration traitline means you should be sitting at almost 21k hp even with the Berserker amulet on.

• Celestial Amulet: I’ve recently started running the Celestial Amulet with this build. Now I know that there have been countless debates on how Celestial Amulets don’t work on Mesmers due to the fact that unlike Elementalists, Mesmers don’t have constant access to high stacks of might. After a fair amount of tests (still on-going), I’ve decided that with this build, you don’t need high stacks of might to still be able to dish out tons of damage. This is due to the fact that your damage output comes from your phantasms instead of your actual Mesmer. While Might does affect your phantasms somewhat, the effect if severely diminished, especially when compared to how any other class benefits from it.
  Furthermore, neither phantasm builds nor mantra builds are played as burst builds. Combining the two creates a more sustained dps output build. The Celestial Stat spread therefore benefits this build in all aspects; the defensive stats are pretty self explanatory – for more survivability and sustain. While the power is reduced, your phantasms will still hit like trucks due to all the phantasm boosting traits we’ve selected. Condition damage comes into play due to the fact that we’re using the iDuelist and iZerker; both of which are multi-hit phantasms. With permanent fury and Lyssa runes, they will be critting quite a bit, applying high stacks of bleed due to Sharper Images. Try it out, you’ll be surprised.

Weapons

• Greatsword: Probably our strongest power based ranged weapon (though that doesn’t really say much). Minor boon stripping with Mind Stab, a nice interrupt/knockback with illusionary wave, and decent AoE dps with iZerker with a cripple to boot.

• Sword/Pistol: iDuelist for the high single target DPS and Magic Bullet (another interrupt). Sword for the low cooldown invulnerability which can double up as “burst”. iLeap is of course buggy as all hell but when it does work it’s great.

Utilities

• Mantra of Recovery: It’s a low cooldown heal, with extra effects from your runes and traits. You heal after charging, and heal while activating, removing 2 conditions each activation to boot. Don’t forget the random boon from your runes!

• Mantra of Resolve: Our lowest cooldown condition removal skill. It removes 2 conditions per cast – much like Mantra of Recovery with Mender’s Purity, just without the heal. So be sure to note when to use it and when to use Mantra of Recovery instead! Conditionmancers ain’t got nothing on you between these two mantras. Signet of Spite? No problem.

• Blink: To add some in-combat (and out) mobility. It repositions you when you need it the most, and is a stunbreaker to boot. Pretty standard in Mesmer PvP builds.

• Decoy: Say you’re all out of mantra charges, your phantasms are on cooldown and a Thief appears out of nowhere and starts doing the signature 2222222222 with a dagger mainhand. Always helps to have an escape skill for when poop really does hit the fan. You can then choose to use it offensively (summon phantasms from stealth) or defensively (run away or start charging mantras in stealth).

• Elite: Mass Invisibility: I use MI over the Moa as it has a lower cooldown to proc the runes (converting up to 5 conditions into boons). Moa requires teamwork to focus either the moa or the other player(s) but seeing as how people tend not to know how to use the T button (in sPvP at least), I’ve given up on it. MI helps with rezzing as well.

Possible utilities:

• Mantra of Distraction: I actually did run this for a while over Decoy, and boy was it fun interrupting necros in deathshroud siphoning life, or other Mesmers trying to use Mass Invisibility etc – but I was also using different traits back then and was almost playing a lockdown build – but now I can’t see taking any utility away to replace this with. Perhaps if you enter a duel and know that your opponent doesn’t use much cc or conditions, you could take one of the other mantras away and slot this in.

• Mantra of Pain: I also used to run Mantra of Pain, since it practically has zero cooldown, but the damage is rather underwhelming (maybe 1.5k – 2k crits with zerk amulet?) and had the same charge up time as the other Mantras. If you want to use it, I would suggest taking Harmonious Mantras (Dom XI) to maximize it before having to recharge immediately.

• Mantra of Concentration: 2 seconds of stability? Warriors would laugh in your face. But that’s really all you need with the stunbreak. Hammer Warriors would stop laughing when they realize that they just can’t keep you cc’ed between being immediately broken out of the stun or having stability on. Great for summoning your phantasms, recharging your mantras safely or stomping. I used to run this instead of blink, but the repositioning capabilities of blink just made more sense, on top of the fact that three Mantras are rather hard to juggle.

• Portal: Great for team utility (if you’re playing with friends) and to look cool as you portal stomp people, but it requires quite a bit of either team co-ordination (and this build is based around sPvP) or careful planning. It also has an immense cooldown so you’ll have to deal with that.

Now for the fun part: justification!

Why phantasms? Why mantras?

• Mantras, as you probably already know, are rather underwhelming/underestimated and therefore underused. I was trying to find a way to explore the mechanic and incorporate it into active battle. All I ask is to keep an open mind.

• Phantasms deal constant dps (as long as they’re alive) even if we don’t attack – a perfect match for charging Mantras. Watch out for blinds!

Traits

Trait spread: 2/4/0/5/3

• Domination:
  III – Empowered Illusions: Phantasm dps.

• Dueling:
  II – Phantasmal Fury: Phantasm dps.
  VII – Protected Mantras: Now this is a very controversial choice, as I’ve not seen anyone running it – even so, keep an open mind. My reasoning is that you don’t want to be completely defenseless while charging your Mantras. Mantra Mastery (VI) for the cooldown was also an option, but Mantra of Concentration and Mantra of Resolve both have relatively lengthy cooldowns anyway, so chances are you’ll already be done with the fight if you get a chance to charge them. Mantra of Recovery has a 10 second cooldown untraited, so 20% off of that would bring it down to 8. I suppose this is a personal choice, but so far I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the extra 600 toughness I get when channeling a mantra. If you’re running a zerk amulet, it effectively gives you almost 70% extra toughness. This gives you slightly more toughness than you would have while wearing a Soldier’s Amulet, all while having Berserker stat Phantasms. Not to mention this syncs well with Restorative Mantras – explained in the Inspiration line. I just wish they’d buff this trait to give you stability while channeling your mantras as an added effect. This would completely solve the big target you place above your head as you channel your mantras.

• Inspiration:
  IV – Mender’s Purity: This was an easy choice with Mantra of Recovery and the condition meta everyone seems so fond of using.
  X – Restorative Mantras: As aforementioned, Restorative Mantras syncs well with Protected Mantras. It gives you just that much more survivability in a pinch, and it provides a cushion for when your opponents try to burst you down while your phantasms wail away on them. Charging mantras suddenly becomes a defensive, restorative skill, rather than making you just a sitting duck mumbling weird things to yourself while wiping the imaginary window.

We went 5 points deep into Inspiration for the grandmaster minor trait that gives your phantasms another 15% extra damage. (Sweet!)

Why no Persisting Images (V)? It would have been ideal, but I couldn’t give up the other two traits for a 20% increase in health for the phantasms. I prefer the 20% cooldown reduction from Illusionists’ Celerity, but it’s a personal preference. I honestly don’t notice much of a difference with or without the trait. If people want to kill your phantasms, they will kill it just as quick with or without that 20%.

• Illusions
  III – Compounding Power: Just for a little extra dps for yourself.

We went 3 points into Illusions for Illusionists’ Celerity – so that you can not only summon your phantasms faster, but also iLeap and Mirror Blade sooner as well.

UPDATED for April 15 2014 feature patch
UPDATED for December 2014 feature patch

Hey everyone,

So this is my first time posting a build on here (please be gentle!).

The build I’m about to post is mainly for sPvP.

I’m not a super pro Mesmer or anything like that, and I just play for fun. I usually run a conventional power shatter build when I do tPvP.

Well, here’s the build.

Description time!

• This build is based around Phantasms for dps output and Mantras for utility/survivability.

• It does well in on-point fights.

• Tons of fun to use (to me, anyway).

Pros/Cons

• Pros:
  -Different, and therefore far from cheese.
  -Very satisfying when played right.
  -High constant dps through phantasms (as long as they’re alive).
  -High condition cleansing.
  -Much higher survivability than your run of the mill glass cannon build. (Even with glass cannon gear)
  -Excels at both ranged poking, or sustained, on point fighting.
  -2 stun breaking skills from utilities alone.
  -Relatively fast casting interrupt weapon skills.

• Cons:
  -Cleaving classes (and even bow condition warriors) seem to wreck phantasms.
  -Being blinded at the right time could completely negate your main source of damage (phantasms).
  -Easily interrupted while channeling Mantras.
  -Mediocre personal damage output with Compounding Power as the only source of a personal dps boost.
  -Low mobility (as every other Mesmer build).

gesho.9468:

@DeathReign.7821 can you post your build? i feel once being so much invested in mantras through skills slots, i’d rather max on my money and get traits aligned to mantra (and well – phantasm) benefits. one alternative was to go for more phantasm traits instead (health, fury), but i believe numbers line up behind mantra traits better.

Here is what I’ve been using. Soldier necklaces aren’t usually allowed in duel servers so if I choose to go to one of those I’ll swap it out for a Berserker necklace.

I was thinking of making a thread on my build but, meh, it’ll just be classified as not optimal since it’s not shatter so why bother, right?

Edit: Nevermind. I was bored and made a build thread with my build anyway. Here’s the link if you’re interested.

How coincidental. I actually made an (I assume) “original” build a week or two ago centralizing around phantasms and mantras (though quite different from the one listed), and have been spending all my play time in sPvP getting better at my build and tweaking it.

I’m at the point where I win most duels (minus non-braindead warriors or well played blind/stealth/shadow step spamming thieves) and about 1/2 of the 1v2s. Anymore and I might be able to down one of them but usually end up on the ground myself.

Though what has been said about phantasms just dying in larger scale fights, or mantra recharging taking you out of fights is somewhat true, I’ve not had as much fun in sPvP for a while. I used to play a full shatter Mesmer, and while it probably is more optimal, it truly is a one trick pony. Easily negated by warriors or guardians using just one of their kitten nal of invulnerability skills at the right time.

I’ve beaten other shatter mesmers (though I’ve had my share of my bum being handed to me by the very same shatter mesmers), and have found that the high condition removal makes fighting conditionmancers a whole lot easier than I was used to. Instant stun break/stability makes cc-train warriors easier to deal with too.

I don’t know, maybe I’m just so thrilled that I came up with something that I thought was “original”, or maybe because it’s a new build/play style to me, I see it as better than it really is. I hardly play tPvP though (when I do I play shatter), so most of this is from an sPvP point of view.

Either way, so far, I’ve been having a lot of fun with it.

For dungeons, if you want to play with optimized groups, the current meta is full zerk melee. Meaning sword/sword and sword/pistol or sword/focus.

Torch is generally useless for PvE, the only use for it would be The Prestige to skip mobs easier. iMage is probably the most useless phantasm we have PvE.

Focus is great for utility, especially when traited, as the iWarden would then reflect projectiles (when he isn’t bugged out). Temporal curtain would reflect projectiles when traited too, but it has a really low reach and so most projectiles generally fly right over it.

If you MUST have a ranged weapon, some people use scepter/pistol due to the access to a good phantasm. Greatswords are generally scoffed at by elitists. Staves are decent enough, as although the auto attack won’t really hit very hard, with enough conditions on the target, iWarlock can hit like a truck. The bad thing about using a scepter/pistol setup is if you have 3 iDuelists out, you’ll have to cancel your auto attacks as your third auto attack of the chain would spawn a clone, killing an iDuelist.

In terms of WvW, unless you want to be a veil/time warp bot, I wouldn’t follow a zerg as a Mesmer. Mesmer was my first class in both GW1 and 2, and I love it to death, but I absolutely loathe zerging as a Mesmer. To each his own, I suppose. Roaming on a Mesmer can be really fun though.

Now in terms of wanting to use a scepter for WvW, scepter is generally seen as a condition weapon. A current popular condition build would be Natsu Dragneel’s Blackwater build. (Basically PU condition). It uses a Staff and Scepter/Torch.

Ninja edit: In open world PvE, anything goes. If you like how scepter plays (not many do), go for it. I generally use sword/focus and greatsword in open world PvE.

Bump. Because a-net breaks mesmers every single patch without fail.

Qaelyn.7612:

Kratos.6293:

I don’t see see how running around in circles while phantasms do all the work needs any skill ?

1. You have to figure out when to summon the phantasms.
2. You have to place them. They are susceptible to AoE and not very smart.
3. You have only a few and they have cooldowns.
4. Phantasms aren’t clones, they have unique identifiers so the mesmer is much more easily found than in a clone build.
5. The build is glassy and relies on active defenses. That means you have to use blocks and blurred frenzy, and again, know which to use, when and how.
6. The build is designed for dueling and isn’t great in 1vX, so you also have to know when and how to disengage.

Etc.

Thank you.

Relying on active defenses (which this build is based around – well, most Mesmer builds in general) will always require more skill than relying on passive defenses.

Gods Knight.4936:

First mesmer to beat me on that grats, I wont make excuses but most mesmers don’t. Just goes to show that it is still extremely OP yet they nerf warriors lol.

Claiming you are all that by playing an OP fotm though is hardly classy.

Edit: and yes warrior does take much more skill, it requires you actually be good. Not have a fotm crutch card. You should learn to read better, perhaps you can then try harder classes instead of bragging about abusing OP ones.

gf

I just about spat out my tea.

You challenged Pyro, claiming to have an OP build that stomps everyone and you got stomped. Don’t come back here crying because you lost. You are the definition of a sore loser, and it doesn’t surprise me at all that you play a warrior (and think that it requires more skill than a Mesmer).

Thanks for the good laugh, though.

If you’re going full zerker, stick with full zerker IMO. I’d go (or rather I went) with the Magister’s Field Journal.

mahariel.4981:

I was in a group that set world records for Arah p2 and p3, and I can tell you now, stability and cond-cleanse mantras were extremely useful. Heal mantra is just extra DPS and can be popped for the mesmer to keep up scholar runes, mantra of resolve got us out of combat quicker and dealt with things like poison quickly. Stability dealt with belka’s troll knockback. So…. yeah. A mesmer can still ooze utility with mantras.

…Utility with which you don’t have to be constricted/forced to take.

I’m not going to claim any large titles or boasts like a Norn (even if I am one) to back up my claim. I’ll let the numbers and logic in my points do that for me.

Bottom line, with Empowering Mantras, you are constrained to the Mantras. With a Phantasm build (or a number of other builds), you can use Mantra of Concentration when you need it, swap it as per needed, and not worry about taking a hit to your dps. You said yourself that a good player should be flexible to the situation. Empowering Mantras is anything but flexible without directly affecting your dps.

mahariel.4981:

Taking into account that % bonuses don’t apply to Phantasms, and Phantasm builds arguably provide the highest dps in PvE, I really think that you’re being a little skewed here.

The builds I listed all hit a phantasm damage modifier and hit both personal damage modifiers in the form of empowering mantras and compounding power. Phantasms are less reliable DPS than a player, so giving yourself modifiers is always a plus, especially since mesmers are sorely lacking in them (compare it to a warrior with 10%+ while wielding greatsword, 15%+ at full adrenaline, 10%+ to a bleeding foe, 3%+ while not at full endurance and then you have DPS boosts like deep strikes, rending strikes and fast hands which allow you to maintain a greatsword/axe+mace rotation quite solidly which is a DPS boost of ~10%+ in itself over pure axe.

Now what you have to remember, is these are reliable damage modifiers, a mesmer only has two conditional ones, empowering mantras and compounding power, so you’re not even going to be getting the full benefit of them most of the time. Nevertheless, you need to take what you can get.

Phantasms are an extension of yourself (as cheesy as that sounds), and boosting the damage they deal definitely matches up (if not out-performs) an Empowering Mantra build.

I kind of doubt a potential 25%+ in personal damage modifiers is beaten by 15%+ phantasm damage considering builds taking empowering mantras already one of the phantasm damage modifiers.

Which is exactly the point I’m trying to bring around. You make it sound like Empowering Mantras is the best thing since sliced bread. It isn’t. It’s good, yes, but not a necessity.

If empowering mantras wasn’t such a big deal, it wouldn’t be run in every single dungeon meta build.

Multi quoting is getting a little too messy for my phone, so I’ll list it out here.

Take that 25% down to 16%, as compounding power is taken a lot, even in phantasm builds. So it’s 16% of your personal damage (with a full bar of mantras [read: no feedback]) vs 15% phantasm damage (with any utility you want/need.)

Since we’re on the subject of reliable damage modifiers, let’s elaborate on that.

To maintain the 16% modifier, you would have to, as aforementioned, take a full bar of mantras. Mantras are in a bad state (even with the depressing AoE buff) which in turn leaves you with next to no utility (A mesmer’s “job”). Seeing as the OP wants to use sword/sword and sword/pistol, this leaves him with zero reflects and/or projectile nullifies. Taking feedback would deflate your damage boost to 12%, and even looking at it without number crunching, wouldn’t out perform the constant 15% to phantasms. That’s also assuming you never touch your mantras.

Now the 15% increase to phantasm damage is constant. As long as your phantasm is hitting the target, it has that 15% damage buff. You can take any utility skill you want, and not worry about affecting that 15%. I don’t think it gets any more reliable than that.

I would also like to beg to differ on Empowering Mantras being in “every PvE meta build”. Last I checked the meta was phantasms – but then again, now thinking about it, I don’t really pay much attention so you might be right.

mahariel.4981:

If you want to actually be able to do decent damage yourself then yes, empowering mantras is a necessity. Mesmers are already quite narrow in their uses, might as well try to compensate for their lower practical DPS by getting some damage modifiers in there via mantras.

Taking into account that % bonuses don’t apply to Phantasms, and Phantasm builds arguably provide the highest dps in PvE, I really think that you’re being a little skewed here. Empowering Mantras, while a totally viable and efficient route, is in no way a necessity to dealing decent damage. Phantasms are an extension of yourself (as cheesy as that sounds), and boosting the damage they deal definitely matches up (if not out-performs) an Empowering Mantra build.

mahariel.4981:

And you don’t just roll mantras, you roll utility skills and fill all of the blanks with mantras, and adjust to a situation accordingly. For example against Lupicus you can go mantra heal, feedback, mantra, mantra, whereas Archdiviner you might go mantra, feedback, null field, mantra to deal with the projectile attack and if someone doesn’t get out of a well quick enough

If you don’t need mantras at all, you can swap out the trait for that dungeon/section/area for like duelist’s discipline or something. A good player is someone who uses a strong build and swaps utilities, and sometimes even traits around.

Which is exactly the point I’m trying to bring around. You make it sound like Empowering Mantras is the best thing since sliced bread. It isn’t. It’s good, yes, but not a necessity.

I’m going to assume that you plan on playing a Phantasm build, in which case ignore what mahariel said about x/20/x/x/x builds being questionable. You don’t need empowering mantras to play a melee Mesmer.

I personally play 10/20/0/25/15 taking all the illusion boosting traits while using (primarily) sword/focus and sword/sword. Not taking Warden’s feedback while going 25 points deep in inspiration for the 15% boost in phantasm damage is slightly wasted, but it’s perfectly fine. You’ll be able to fill your bar with skills with more utility (aka feedback, null field, blink etc) instead of cluttering it with mantras for the 16% damage from going 30 in dueling.

Empowering Mantras isn’t a bad build (it’s actually pretty efficient), but it isn’t the only one you should consider.

Eleina.5390:

Fay.2735:

I just use Centaur runes. You still get the power stat from the runes it’s just that the bleed stat isn’t very useful with the build I run. Its the unfortunate sacrifice mesmers have to make in order to keep up (Literally and figuratively speaking) until Anet decides to give mesmers better swiftness or better rune options with similar swiftness application. Traveler’s runes don’t appeal to me as I feel they aren’t as good for the builds I use.

I’ve heard that Prec build is better than Power, that’s why I don’t really like the idea of centaur runes, as I use GS/SS build and it’s working very well in combat. Focus gives swiftness, but I’d rather have the movement speed increased all the time

I’ve heard that Assassin’s gear slightly outperforms Zerker gear (we’re talking something like 2% dps increase iirc) but I’m not really sure if prec runes actually outperform power runes, and if they do, by a substantial amount. If you’re using a GS in dungeons anyway, I wouldn’t worry about a 2% dps difference.

Furthermore, what build are you playing? The utility a traited focus brings to the group is amazing (of course when your warden actually decides not to bug), and I see the swiftness as a bonus. Also, no harm in bringing a focus in your inventory regardless. Granted, investing the minimum 20 points into inspiration for the traited focus would probably make you lean more towards a phantasm build which might not be what you want to play.

Honestly, I’ve done every dungeon (Fractals included) without speed runes and haven’t found it an issue. I do use a focus though, so even alone I have more than 50% swiftness uptime. Between Temporal Curtain, Into The Void, Decoy, Blink and Mass Invisibility, I’ve found that I’ve been able to rush past most mobs (alone or not – sometimes even easier alone) without an issue. I’m not a pro Mesmer or anything like that, so it really isn’t necessary to swap to speed bonus runes for PvE.

WvW would be a separate issue entirely. (I -still- am too stubborn to swap to speed runes but I can completely understand why people do.)

Hey!

It looks pretty decent!

Here’s what I would do:
-Swap out either blade training or duelist’s discipline for Phantasmal fury. (I would swap out duelist’s discipline as blade training = lower invulnerability cool down. (Blurred frenzy). )
-Don’t run deceptive evasion. (Many a time you will have 3 phantasms up, especially now with the new signet heal, so you don’t want to overwrite them with clones when you dodge.)
-Look into empowering illusions (Adept major trait in Domination) for an extra +15% damage on illusions!
-Take away shattered conditions, simply because if you’re playing a phantasm build, you generally don’t want to shatter them.
-Use Berserker weapons (the little bit of vitality and toughness from soldier weapons won’t really make that big a difference since you’re full zerk armor anyway.)
-Change one of your sigils on each of your weapon sets. (On crit sigils share an internal cool down and do not stack.)

I myself run 10/20/0/25/15 for PvE, with all the illusion-boost-centric traits.

Hey there!

You could try out a Phantasm build for PvE. It’s easy to use, arguably the highest dps and since you rely on your phantasms for damage, you won’t have to shatter or really worry about timing (except the basics like dodging and damage mitigation of course).

In terms of PvE, conditions are in a pretty bad place at the moment, so go for power. The power phantasms are the Swordsman, Duelist, Warlock, Warden and Berserker. Swordsman, Duelist and Warlock deal high single target dps, and Warden and Berserker deal mediocre AoE dps. Warden, when traited, also reflects projectiles (and nullifies them when not traited), which is invaluable in most dungeons, especially fractals.

The current meta is full zerker gear for dungeons. This means no survivability on your gear at all. It might seem a little risky, but it’s not difficult at all once you’re used to it. For weapons, I personally have every single weapon in my inventory (mostly using sword/focus and sword/sword) to swap to as needed. Elitists hate Mesmers who use Greatswords in dungeons (due to it having low dps), but if you’re playing with a casual group of friends, it’s not much of an issue.

PU stands for Prismatic Understanding (Chaos XII). It increases the duration of our stealth skills by 1 second and gives us a random boon (regeneration, aegis or protection) for every second we are in stealth.

Hi there,

Sorry if a similar thread has already been made – I tried google but the threads that I found regarding this were really old and I still couldn’t get it after trying the “solutions” in those threads.

I’m almost done with the Hint Achievements and am only missing the Necro achievement for Deathshroud (f1). I’ve made and deleted 5 necros now, trying to get it. I’ve entered Deathshroud at 5 hp (5hp, not 5% hp) and killed the 3 mobs that I gathered up while in Deathshroud and still can’t seem to get the achievement. I’ve got 4 level 80 characters and want to start a 5th one, but I’ve been putting it off all this time because it kills me that I just need this one hint to complete the achievement and be done with it. Anyone know what exactly it is that I’m missing to get the hint completed?

Thanks in advance.

nightzirch.3126:

Heya!

WoodenPotatoes got a pretty decent guide for a build. Watch it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sVqU9-Rrack

Alot is still relevant, but I would change the traits a bit. I usually go for 0 30 0 10 30 with fresh air and evasive arcana. The rest is pretty standard. Spec for alot of dps and you’re golden. I would however go S/D as I feel it is a bit better in terms of survivability and dps, but might be subjective. You can experiment yourself.

For staff builds I would go 30 0 0 10 30 (because I love evasive arcana), but you could also go 30 30 0 10 0 if you want to go heavier on the dps. The lightning trait line is kinda useless for staff imo, but I know some good eles that hug to this setup for some reason. Id go with bloodlust sigil and might when you use a fire skill.

In both setups I would use the 10 in water for condi cleanse, but that’s also subjective. You could go for 10 in earth instead and spec more damage when you’re closer to the target, but that wouldnt work well with the staff spec.

That’s at least how I build my ele

Hey!

Thank you for your response!

Yeah, I was thinking of S/D myself as when I used it the other day, it was pretty fun. Probably will bring an exotic set of both in my inventory just in case.

So the gear looks alright? Zerker armor with ruby orbs and soldier trinkets with exquisite ruby orbs? Too much survivability? Too little?

That sounds great! I definitely will try that staff build out. Thank you!

Thanks again for your advice, it’s very much appreciated.

Hi everyone!

My ele’s quickly approaching 80, and I was wondering what the best route to take would be for him gear and trait wise.

What I’ve got in mind: http://tinyurl.com/n6wemqp

Full zerk armor with ruby orbs, and soldier trinkets with exquisite ruby orbs. Does this make sense? This build is mainly for PvE. Does the trait line make sense either? I was thinking of adding 10 to water for piercing shards but Lingering Elements isn’t working as it’s supposed to, is it?

I’m also thinking that I might want to zerg with him in WvW as well (with staff), as my main’s a Mesmer and the build I use for WvW is pretty kittenty for zerging. What would be a good staff zerg traitline?

Thank you guys for your time!

Cassiel.8762:

DeathReign.7821:

Cassiel.8762:

DeathReign.7821:

I don’t understand how people think that a moving warden (if it were to work properly) wouldn’t out perform a static one, especially in WvW.

A static warden placed on a ranged player is easily dodged and ignored putting your “shield” on instant 20s cd. I myself have done this everyday, and honestly have extremely little trouble with mesmers using a focus in WvW. Even the focus pull is mostly easily predicted and dodged.

If the warden were to work properly, the ranged target you place it on would constantly have to reposition, making the warden infinitely more useful.

I believe the others are saying that when the warden is static, they only have to stack on top of it to negate all projectiles. But when your “shield” is constantly chasing the ranged player, you constantly have to run after your shield in order to stack on him. With a static warden, I can just stand within his whirls and no matter how the ranged target repositions, he wouldn’t be able to hit me.

PS: though I have to admit I like the new warden better. Now when bosses wander around my warden is actually useful for more than 1 attack cycle instead of whirling like a kitten on the other side of the room…

To the best of my knowledge, having the iWarden spin in between you and the ranged player would reflect any projectiles they fire at you. You don’t have to be in the bubble to have it reflect.

That’s true, but with a warden between you and the ranged player, the ranged player just has to adjust his angle and he can hit you with projectiles. With you IN the warden, you have 360 degrees projectile reflection.

Yes. Hexxen brought up a similar argument. Your movement becomes limited, and you will have to range camp, essentially becoming a sitting duck.
Ninja edit: also, as I said, outside of 1v1 situations, melee players would decimate the warden with their cleaves if you were to camp inside it.

Also, don’t forget that regardless of old or new, the warden spawns on the target, so if you’re already at range and want to camp in your warden, you’d have to make your way to it.

draconx.3102:

The biggest problem right now is the warden is bugged to all hell. The new and improved warden will never ever spin if the target is moving. It also doesn’t spin at all against some stationary targets. For example, if you summon warden on an orrian guard turret in arah, it will no longer reflect any projectiles — it just stands there and dies in about 2 seconds. Pre-patch, the warden would kill 1, maybe 2 turrets easy.

Also if the warden ends up in the middle of Giganticus Lupicus (either because it appeared there or because GL moved slightly), the warden will stay still but still won’t attack, so no reflects for you.

Yeah that’s the whole thing. It’s just really kittenty that it’s bugged.

Hopefully they’ll come up with a hot fix.

BlackDevil.9268:

Tbh I would rather see the iwarden getting 150% hp buff and having it reverted back. Atm it just dies almost instant after he launched his attack, or well, if he’s even able to pull of the full attack…

150% hp buff would be beneficial regardless of moving or not. It dies to some bosses/mobs in one hit even if it is static.

Hexxen.7216:

The board really seems about 50/50 on if you like this or not. Simply put it has given me yet another reason to just not play anymore. I was so looking forward to the various updates to give me a reason to play again too. O well. ^^

This might sound abrasive and I apologize if it does, but I don’t think that your being bored with the game has much to do with the effectiveness of whether the warden moves or not.

It sounds like a personal problem, and not one that you should really pin on the iWarden.

Hexxen.7216:

Reason I don’t like it and very much appreciated the old version is that ranged fighters kite you. Before you could place your Wardens and just stay in those locations thus you didn’t have to follow the ranger fighter and they could not kite you unless they wanted to just run away. Now we have to chase our wardens for the reflects thus the kiters can now kite us more easily.

Another issue with the moving to attack is iWarden was our BEST attack against innaniment objects like gates or turrets or sorts. Ever since they changed out illusions to switch to the nearist target (PC) if the original target goes stealth or something that drops target instead of just standing and waiting for them they will attack something else. It would seem that gates and such are not high enough priority even if they are the original targets and the wardens run after something else. Even without all the bugs the warden NOW has (it worked fine before, you know don’t fix what ain’t broke) they would have to rewrite the AI for the illusions AGAIN to make this not suck for taking out turrets and stuff and even if they attempt to do this you kitten well know they will f something else up in the process.

Again, maybe it’s my play style, but when rangers and the sort try to kite me, I just run the other direction. I usually have other people to focus on anyway. Standing in your warden won’t solve anything; you can range them till they decide to kite again (eventually out of your warden’s bubble) or sit there like a sitting duck and give them the freedom of movement and position. Your position will be static, it will not change, and it’ll be easily read. You can’t chase nor can you run.

As for your second point, that isn’t a problem with the warden moving, it’s more a problem with how illusions determine their targets in general. If it worked properly, I don’t see how wardens walking would affect it killing inanimate objects. It doesn’t have to move if it’s in range if its target.

Cassiel.8762:

DeathReign.7821:

I don’t understand how people think that a moving warden (if it were to work properly) wouldn’t out perform a static one, especially in WvW.

A static warden placed on a ranged player is easily dodged and ignored putting your “shield” on instant 20s cd. I myself have done this everyday, and honestly have extremely little trouble with mesmers using a focus in WvW. Even the focus pull is mostly easily predicted and dodged.

If the warden were to work properly, the ranged target you place it on would constantly have to reposition, making the warden infinitely more useful.

I believe the others are saying that when the warden is static, they only have to stack on top of it to negate all projectiles. But when your “shield” is constantly chasing the ranged player, you constantly have to run after your shield in order to stack on him. With a static warden, I can just stand within his whirls and no matter how the ranged target repositions, he wouldn’t be able to hit me.

PS: though I have to admit I like the new warden better. Now when bosses wander around my warden is actually useful for more than 1 attack cycle instead of whirling like a kitten on the other side of the room…

To the best of my knowledge, having the iWarden spin in between you and the ranged player would reflect any projectiles they fire at you. You don’t have to be in the bubble to have it reflect. Maybe I’m thinking more 1vX since 1v1s are so kittening rare in WvW, but putting a chasing warden on a ranged character means ranged character has to constantly reposition, giving you more breathing space and time to deal with melee aggressors. Standing in a static warden is cleave fodder for melee players, and limits your movement in combat against ranged.

Maybe I play differently from everyone else, but I just can’t see how having to limit my movement by camping next to my warden would outperform having it follow its target.

I don’t understand how people think that a moving warden (if it were to work properly) wouldn’t out perform a static one, especially in WvW.

A static warden placed on a ranged player is easily dodged and ignored putting your “shield” on instant 20s cd. I myself have done this everyday, and honestly have extremely little trouble with mesmers using a focus in WvW. Even the focus pull is mostly easily predicted and dodged.

If the warden were to work properly, the ranged target you place it on would constantly have to reposition, making the warden infinitely more useful.

PvE, the warden being static is next to useless once its target takes more than 2 steps away from it unless you plan on range camping inside it. While stacking, you are inside the warden’s bubble anyway, and if you were to instead choose to spawn it on the ranged mobs, the same logic as WvW applies. If the mob were to move, the warden would follow increasing its reflect chance/uptime.

In games like gw2 where combat is so dynamic, dynamic skills will always outshine static ones.

I’m very happy that at least this initiative has been set in motion, granted disappointed that it isn’t working properly, but strongly believe that if it were to work properly, it’d be a drastic improvement.

And what themenaceoftheseventhdimension is suggesting is basically a “kill everything around me” button. No thank you.

KrotaVoida.8243:

DeathReign.7821:

Yeah, that’s about the size of it. When I first posted on the forums I was trying to make a staff + sword/focus hybrid build as well for PvE. Pyro advised against it and of course, rightly so.

Conditions are in a bad place ATM in PvE, even for condition heavy classes like necros.

I mean, you could use condition damage in PvE and still kill things with ease, just a lot slower than a zerker build. In that first aforementioned visit to the forums, I was trying out rampager’s gear as well. Pyro worded it along these lines: with rampager’s gear, you are as squishy as a zerker, just with less dps output.

I’ve read some past topics regarding conditions/zerker but never figured it was so bad. It seemed to me that the full impact of he conditions sitution was limited to “dungeoneering” with condi heavy classes.

Just a couple of questions:
Do you still use Staff or changed for sword/greatsword?
How do you cope with situations needing AoE if you go zeker (ex: pulling 4+ enemies in solo PvE exploration/mining runs)?

Thanks!

I use my sword/focus set for general purposes, but swap to a Greatsword when I desperately need range. (I usually do fractals with my Mesmer). I swap the focus to sword or pistol depending on what boss I’m up against (last boss in svanir fractal etc) and if there are no threats of projectiles. I also usually initiate with an iZerker and swap to sword/x for the rest of the fight. I do have one of each weapon in my inventory though, just in case.

For AoE, the warden is amazing. Use focus 4 to clump them together and then put a warden on them for AoE damage. Throw in a leap and blurred frenzy and they should mostly be dead. iZerker deals AoE damage as well, so for open map exploration it’s pretty nice.

KrotaVoida.8243:

Pyroatheist.9031

Too tired to type up a full response right now, but just to let you know, elasticity doesn’t work on staff clones.

Yeah, already discovered.
But is still nice to kill things alone with 2x hits for every 1 press…
Hit enemy, give condition – Hit me, give boon – Hit enemy again, 2nd condition.

From your previous posts I will try to “conjure” up an educated guess: go the power way, as Staff is a power weapon and in PvE conditions aren’t really good.
Is it right?

But when you’ve got the time I will gladly read your full response. Before reading your other posts I was pretty sure on going condition… now I’m in doubt.

Yeah, that’s about the size of it. When I first posted on the forums I was trying to make a staff + sword/focus hybrid build as well for PvE. Pyro advised against it and of course, rightly so.

Conditions are in a bad place ATM in PvE, even for condition heavy classes like necros.

I mean, you could use condition damage in PvE and still kill things with ease, just a lot slower than a zerker build. In that first aforementioned visit to the forums, I was trying out rampager’s gear as well. Pyro worded it along these lines: with rampager’s gear, you are as squishy as a zerker, just with less dps output.

I was in this exact situation. To the letter. My advice: get zerker trinkets for now. Eventually you will end up getting an ascended set of condition trinkets (or not) even if at this moment it doesn’t seem practical. You’ll never end up having to worry about your efficiency in PvE (aka fractals).

I got a full set of ascended rabid trinkets first, and regretted it horribly. You could also just get exotic condition trinkets for WvW and save the big funds.

I usually don’t have any problems taking down Guardians, Warriors (assuming they don’t up and run), Eles and Rangers.

Condition heavy Necros and Engis are pretty hit and miss, though more hit than miss.

Thieves and opposing Mesmers are probably the ones I hate to fight the most.

I’m probably late to the party, but I would only get amulets with laurels. You can get ascended rings from fractals, and ascended accessories with guild commendations. Laurels are hard to accumulate and are therefore far more valuable than guild commendations or pristine fractal relics, IMO.

Nretep.2564:

Nretep.2564:

General rule of “efficiency” of sigils:

• Do not use multiple “on crit” sigils in two hands
• Do not use multiple “on weaponswap” sigils in two hands
• Do not use different “kill stacking” sigils in any weapon
• Do not use “on crit” sigl in one weaponset and “on weaponswap” in the other

So, did you violate one of those rules ?

Could you clarify your last point please?

What I was using in sPvP was Superior Sigil of Air (on crit) + Superior Sigil or Energy/Hydromancy (on swap) for both weapon sets. Does this violate the last rule?

In any case, was this intentional? If it was, it’d be great if there were at tooltip explaining so in game so noobs like me won’t think that it’s a bug and have to come here to find out that it isn’t.

I can understand how 2 on swap sigils would affect each other, just as how two on crit sigils would affect each other, but I don’t see why one on swap Sigil should or would affect an on crit Sigil and vice versa.

Oh, and to elaborate one last point, I’m fairly certain the superior Sigil of Air was still proccing while the on swaps were not.

I understand that sigils share a cool down, and perhaps I didn’t explain well enough. What I meant was that I tried out Sigils of Hydromancy and Energy separately, and neither seemed to proc at all.

I initially tried this with Sigils of Energy, but noticed I wasn’t getting any endurance at all. I then swapped them out for Hydromancy, for a more obvious effect to ensure that I wasn’t just missing the proc, and not a single ice explosion happened.

I’m not sure if this is for all classes as I only play on my Mesmer, but I’ve tried Superior Sigils of Energy and Superior Sigils of Hydromancy in sPvP and neither seem to work, at all!

I’m also unsure if this is a long known bug, but I didn’t see anything of the sort posted so I decided to do so.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cheers.

YellowFrighten.1208:

Yeah the reason they have so much health and armor though is because for some reason all condition armor is all about defence. I do run a condtion build which I do run in Spvp so I know they are strong but, I just dont want to gear up for pve right now with a possible nerf on the ONE rune that makes the build lol. So is the only option to play condition or suck vs warriors and theif?

This might be misdirected, but if you’re talking about runes of perplexity in the Blackwater build, I’m not even using them. I’m using Superior Runes of Nightmare.

In a strictly 1v1 dueling situation, no. You should check out the “Overpowered Unbeatable” build presented by Pyroatheist. It’s power based and frankly really really strong in duels.

YellowFrighten.1208:

http://gw2skills.net/editor/?fgEQNAsdWl0zKqnVTmGb9IiJFEHyh6B2BefXJF82FC-jUEBYfChYhYYLQUEQkFAkIYEBgUBIJPCjpPoJQJqipIasKGYaXC1aYIqYQ+DYSBwkyI-w

This is my exact build with the food buffs I use. I think so far what it is from what you have been saying is I need to stay away from the warriors… Which I find hard sense they have enough gap closers’ I honestly feel they could catch me from 3k distance if they wanted to anyways lol.

Warriors are the easiest for me to fight personally. The only annoying thing about them is how they are able to just up and run when they see that they are losing, with no way for me to catch them. They’re straightforward and easy to predict, if they choose to fight. But I do play a tweaked version of the Blackwater build.

But you’re right in the regard that they will catch you if you try to run.

Omaris Mortuus Est.2738:

DeathReign.7821:

/: did you even try looking at the forums before creating a new thread?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/List-Find-your-Mesmer-Builds-Guides

^ list of a ton of guides.

Lol I was feeling lazy, did look at osicats page but not sure how up-to-date that is.

Then again have you tried using the search box on this site?! Worst thing ever! You can create a post with a unique word in it, then search for it and it will not even list it!
TRy it, try searching for “guides” in this thread, it’s in your post so it should show up, right?…..

Thanks for the replies so far though.

That thread I linked was a sticky…

Pyroatheist.9031:

Ew. This got moved here from the spvp forum. We don’t want this.

This.

skcamow.3527:

DeathReign.7821:

skcamow.3527:

• Tab target change does not affect mesmer illusions.

Am I the only one who noticed/cares about this?

This is horrible! It’s not like it was difficult for players with even a small amount of skill to identify the real Mesmer, now even dimwitted button mashers won’t have any troubles tabbing to the real Mesmer.

Mindkitten was an unlisted skill mesmers had, but that’s clearly being taken away. This patch doesn’t make me want to rejoice at all. ):

Could have wrote it clearer – the new tab target change will not skip mesmer illusions but on other classes it will skip NPC’s and go straight to the next real player. We’re good here.

Dang I was too slow in editing.

Yeah, I went straight to the patch notes you provided after posting that only to be surprised with the opposite of what I thought was going to happen.

I’m relieved! Rejoice time.

Ninja edit: misread something – nothing to see here, carry on rejoicing!

/: did you even try looking at the forums before creating a new thread?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/professions/mesmer/List-Find-your-Mesmer-Builds-Guides

^ list of a ton of guides.

Wow, I would have decided on that before actively working towards a legendary lol.

Eternity looks amazing, but everyone has it.

But if you use Greatswords the most, it wouldn’t make sense to make anything else.

Lots of people scoff at the “optimal” performance of the GS in dungeons, but if that’s what you like the most, screw em and get it.

Just realized that most of this thread is you talking to, well, yourself. ._.

Jackums.3496:

DeathReign.7821:

Can’t have it all!

The Warrior laughs at you.

Fair point.

Which is why everyone and their mothers are warriors.

We’re one of the best (if not the best) dueling classes.

We can also hold our own even when outnumbered.

But as everyone has said, we suffer in larger scaled fights.

Can’t have it all!